Month: June 2023

For nearly 50 years, the World’s Ugliest Dog contest has celebrated unique pups of all kinds in order to show that man’s best friend has far more value than pedigree. In this contest, endearing imperfections and charming personalities reign supreme over an ideal appearance and obedient temperament. And this year’s champion has all those attributes in spades.

Behold: Scooter, a 7-year-old Chinese Crested dog, mostly bald save for the scraggly tuft of white hair on his ears, with a bright pink tongue constantly dangling out of his mouth and backwards facing hind legs.

Dubbed “a hairy hippopotamus in the cutest way possible” by the New York Times, this peculiar canine might not be modeling in a calendar anytime soon, but he is adorable in his own way, and has a pretty epic underdog story.

According to his bio, Scooter was taken to animal control in Tucson for euthanasia by a Chinese Crested breeder when he was just a puppy because of his deformity. Luckily Linda Celeste Elmquist, a volunteer for the Saving Animals From Euthanasia (SAFE) rescue group stepped in to adopt Scooter and save the poor fellow’s life.

After being taken into a safe and loving home with Elmquist, Scooter is thriving. He might have to take frequent rest stops, but he is able to walk by balancing on his two front legs. “Swaying side to side he takes on obstacles – stones, curbs, steps – and then throwing his back end to the sky, in one final swoop – he conquers!”

Thanks to the support of friends and rescue groups, this doggo can also “scoot” to and fro using a mobility cart, which he loves to have when visiting the park to “welcome any outstretched hand.” All in all, he “has no idea that he is any different from any other dog.”

And now, Scooter has “contest winner” to add to his long list of accomplishments. Elmquist shared in a press release that the victory is made sweeter by challenges overcome. “Scooter has defied all odds and shown us the true meaning of resilience and determination. He has become an inspiration to countless people around the world.”

Scooter’s story perfectly embodies the purpose behind the World’s Ugliest Dog contest, which, despite its name, isn’t to make fun of ugly dogs. Rather, it’s to highlight the beauty of their “extraordinary resilience.” As Tawny Tesconi, CEO of the Sonoma-Marin Fair (where the contest is held) stated: “Each contestant has a remarkable story to tell, and they serve as a testament to the power of love, compassion, and the indomitable spirit of these incredible animals.”

The gifts that pets bring into our lives have so little to do with aesthetics. Sure, seeing a Border Collie with an impossibly shiny coat or an incredibly muscular Rottweiler is great, but it’s the unconditional love, loyalty, grade-A cuddles, and pure joy that will stick in our hearts far longer. Scooter, like every “ugly” dog, deserves all the accolades for showing what makes a dog truly beautiful.

The DCEU is in a bit of a pickle: Their movies keep tanking, or at least underperforming. The back-to-back-to-back failures of Black Adam, Shazam 2, and, now, The Flash probably aren’t making the already chaotic Warner Bros. Discovery head David Zaslav any happier. The brand needs a steroid injection and this might do it: As per Deadline, the DCEU finally has a new Superman and Lois Lane.

It’s long been tradition to cast a relative nobody as Krypton’s most famous son, and this time’s no different: Supes will be played by David Corenswet, a young actor whose diverse credits include Pearl, David Simon’s HBO limited series We Own This City, and the Ryan Murphy Netflix shows The Politician and Hollywood. Like Christopher Reeve, he’s even a Juilliard alum, which makes his casting all the more apropos.

For Lois Lane, they’re going with a rumored favorite in the casting process, Rachel Brosnahan. Brosnahan wrapped her final season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, freeing her up to play The Daily Planet’s most intrepid reporter. Brosnahan and Corenswet have one credit in common: They’ve both been on House of Cards, though unlike Brosnahan, who was a regular on the show in the early days, Corenswet only guested on a lone episode.

James Gunn, who’s directing the film, currently called Superman: Legacy, as well as leading the revised DCEU with Peter Safran, confirmed Deadline‘s reporting.

Brosnahan will replace Amy Adams, who played a very thirsty Lois opposite Henry Cavill, the actor who may have given up The Witcher to return as Superman… only for Gunn and Safran to announce they were rebooting the Man of Steel as a younger character. Cavill, though, will likely find a new character in the revamped cinematic universe.

Deadline reports that the casting was hurried along because of the SAG-AFTRA strike that may kick off on June 30, which may find actors like Corenswet and Brosnahan joining WGA writers on the picket line.

(Via Deadline)

On Sunday, rap fans tuning into the BET Awards were treated to a heartwarming surprise as feuding Migos members Quavo and Offset put aside their differences — at least for one night — to honor their fallen comrade Takeoff. Performing the group’s No. 1 single “Bad N Boujee,” the two Atlanta rappers looked as though not a day had passed since they last shared a stage, even though in reality, it has been over a year.

However, don’t expect the good vibes to continue. According to TMZ, although the duo had privately reconciled months ago, they currently have no plans to continue recording music together. As TMZ notes, neither side has expressed any intentions of continuing to perform or record under the group name Migos in the future — a fact was suggested nearly a year ago during the rollout for Quavo and Takeoff’s separate duo album Only Built For Infinity Links. After all, “Migos” explicitly refers to a trio, as they have insisted in the past, and TMZ’s sources said they would never try to replace Takeoff.

The trio had been more or less defunct for some time, though, as Offset prepped a solo album (still in the works) and Quavo and Takeoff did their own thing. From some of the comments the group made throughout the year, it seemed a rift had formed that the group was quite ready to reconcile. As recently as February, it was reported that Quavo and Offset had gotten into a scuffle at the Grammy Awards when Offset was blocked from joining Quavo’s tribute to Takeoff. While they denied the rumors, a video of Cardi B yelling at someone backstage seemed to insinuate that there was at least some truth to them.

Hopefully, the bad blood is in the rearview, and although we might not get any new Migos tunes in the immediate future, it’s probably more important that the two rappers mend their broken bonds of brotherhood. After all, like Jay-Z said: Nobody wins when the family feuds.

Donald Trump doesn’t really understand all of the various things his MAGA followers are mad about at any given time (the former president is reportedly tired of hearing the term “woke“), but he does understand that people will cheer if he mentions those things in some sort of context.

Such was the case at the New Hampshire Republican Federation of Women luncheon on Tuesday where Trump figured everyone in the audience cooks because, c’mon, they’re ladies, right?

“Does anybody like gas stoves? Because you cook a lot more than I do,” Trump said. “‘Cause I have a lot of friends who are really into the cooking thing, and they say gas is better. But they want to take it away.”

While gas stoves are a hot-button issue amongst Republicans, who are convinced there’s some sort of ban coming (there is not), Trump took things to a whole new level by claiming that Democrats are now coming for washers and dryers. Clearly, that must shock the crowd of women, who probably do a lot of laundry. The former president is very smart about these things.

“They want to take away your washing machines and your dryers,” Trump declared before wowing the crowd with his complex and nuanced understanding of water.

“They don’t want to give you any water for the washing machine,” Trump ranted. “Even though you have so much water, you don’t know what the hell to do with it up here. It flows out into the ocean.”

Hmm.

(Via Acyn on Twitter)

NORE’s Drink Champs podcast has heard its fair share of wild stories, but Ice-T is sure that he’s got the best one yet. In a preview clip from the upcoming episode, Ice-T recounts what he calls “the greatest Drink Champs story ever,” detailing the first time doing drugs with his wife, Coco. As the delighted hosts crack up, the LA gangsta rap pioneer remembers looking for an ecstasy dealer in a nightclub. When he finally finds one, though, not only does the salesman blow up his spot, but he also recruits Ice, giving him the entire stash and declaring, “Now, you’re the man!”

Ice-T’s storytelling gifts are certainly being put to use on Drink Champs, but usually, all he needs is his Twitter account and some free time to provide hilarious commentary on pop culture and sage advice on staying out of trouble in LA. His response to a promo for Law & Order: SVU gave a succinct explanation for why he can’t talk his way out of tickets as easily as his costars, while his educational day learning about television fans’ habit of “shipping” characters tickled plenty of funny bones online.

The new episode of Drink Champs will be available on Thursday, June 29, on Revolt TV.

In an unusual maneuver for a band finding their footing, Manchester quartet Mandy, Indiana ventured into a cave to record part of their now critically-lauded debut album, I’ve Seen A Way. The idea was to capture reflections and expansive sonic moments that would elevate their furious clash of experimental noise rock, industrial electronica, and breakneck dance beats. But producer and multi-instrumentalist Scott Fair said it was the hardest day of recording he’s ever experienced in his life.

The band spent five to six of their eight-hour recording block at the Wookey Hole Caves in the UK’s West Country merely loading in and out of the complex network of tunnels before they settled into their uniquely acoustic recording cave. As they hauled everything from a Tascam mixing desk and drum kit to outboard gear and heavy cables 200 feet underground, there was a distinctly foul odor in the air, seemingly soaked with the stench of death that stuck with Fair.

“They age their own cheese in the cave as well. So there’s this corridor we passed through that had all this decaying cheese,” Fair says on a Zoom call. “I’m not a big cheese guy anyway, but this smelled pretty disturbing. And when you’re carrying heavy gear through these narrow tunnels and you pass through this cheese tunnel, it was like…’What the f*ck?’ Some of it looked like dead, decaying bodies. It was fuzzy and like Beetlejuice or something.”

The harshness of aged cheese, molding on the outside as enzymes and bacteria work their magic to create a flavorful and innovatively aged cheddar on the inside, seems an apt metaphor for the music of Mandy, Indiana. This harnessing of uncomfortable, off-kilter sounds, finding harmony in what’s harsh on the outside, but gratifying within, is the lane in which they operate.

I’ve Seen A Way (out now on Fire Talk records) is unapologetically aggressive and propulsive. Vocalist Valentine Caulfield sings in her native French without sparing any pointed decry at misogynists, racists, corrupt politicians, and others of the same heinous ilk who continue to pollute society. Whether you can understand her lyrics or not, the potency of the message is palpable.

With its eerie hiss and sinister synths, “2 Stripe” especially feels like being in that cave. Caulfield’s vocals ricochet off the contoured ceilings, while Alex MacDougall’s bass drum pounds in the background. Meanwhile, “Drag [Crashed]” is perhaps the best example of the full breadth of the band’s unique process. Tracked both in the cave and also in a crypt, Fair says they pooled the tracking from “a collage” of different locales and assessed how each version came across. In the end, “Drag,” felt like it belonged in two distinct spaces.

“The crypt had harder and quicker reflections,” Fair says. “A low ceiling and pillars that were throwing up different delay times. It was much more confined and immediate. Whereas the cave was very expansive, reflections were much longer. More bass resonance. So we’d say, ‘this space lends itself acoustically to this track really well, or this section.’ A track like “Drag” changes a few times so there was an opportunity to be like, “this part is crypt and this part is cave” and then switch between them, changing a preset of a space. We had those options and used no plug-ins, just trying to use the natural sound of the space.”

The more you listen to Mandy, Indiana, the more the lacquer of its initial contentiousness fades away and the journey becomes clearer. The vision of dancing to pulsing beats and flashing lights in a warehouse club comes to fruition on the album’s winding way. And while perhaps lacking in approachability at the onset, Fair explains that the band is a vessel for them to vent their frustrations at the ills of the world around them.

“We don’t want to live our lives being angry all the time,” he says. “So we channel our anger into something productive and meaningful, because you need to have somewhere for it to go. It’s better if it’s an external exercise instead of just trying to be bitter. Certainly there’s ways you can exorcise demons that can be entertaining that are not just bleak or nihilistic. That’s why these sort of rhythmic and danceable elements of our music come to the fore. It’s a way of bringing people together and channeling this energy into something positive.”

In conversation, Fair is affable and grateful for the ride that Mandy, Indiana is embarking upon. When we speak, he’s beaming at their first US tour that will be announced the next day, with the band making their first-ever stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Brooklyn this coming December. This will follow a range of European summer dates as well.

He says the short initial tour into America is a first dip into the water to gauge where the band is at. And it’s another space for Mandy, Indiana’s music to move through, just like each track on I’ve Seen A Way manages to feel like distinctly different physical environments. Disorienting at first, but centering the more you listen to it; finding catharsis in the chaos of the world around it despite the uneasy feeling that things are falling apart before our eyes.

“To put it quite frankly, it doesn’t look like things are gonna get any better in the imminent future,” Fair says. “So there’s gonna be a lot of need for the shoutings of Mandy, Indiana.”

It’s generally considered bad form to run over your co-worker. Especially when your co-worker is star of stage and screen and Capital One commercials, Samuel L. Jackson.

“I nearly ran him over,” Emilia Clarke told Yahoo! Entertainment about her Secret Invasion co-star. “They put me in a Lada, which is like a very old Russian car. And I got in and I was like, ‘Hey, what’s with the six [shift knobs] up in here? Which one am I using? Why does it have 10 pedals?’ It’s [like] a tractor.” The Game of Thrones actress knows how to drive stick, but there’s a difference between motoring around the English countryside and having an entire Marvel production telling you, “We’ve gotta go. We’re shooting. Come on, honey. Just go.” One is slightly more stressful than the other.

Clarke continued, “So I’m like, ‘OK, I can do this. It’s just one stop.’ Get in there. We get up to it. The camera is right there. Sam is right there. And I pressed the wrong thing, I pressed the accelerator rather than the brake.” Thankfully, she stopped before slamming into Jackson, who was “very gentlemanly and lovely and nice” about the incident. How did Clarke feel? “I cried a little bit and someone else drove it for me.”

That’s the nice thing about dragons: they drive themselves.

(Via Yahoo! Entertainment)

Given R.E.M.‘s music is featured throughout a lot of the new second season of FX’s hit show, The Bear, the band partnered with them to drop a music video for the “Strange Currencies (Remix).” The remix comes from a deluxe 25th-anniversary box set of Monster they released in 2019.

The video combines footage from R.E.M.’s Road Movie (about their 1995 tour) and clips from the series. As for the new season of the show, it centers around a chef in Chicago who is working to open a new restaurant with his team — while all being under the pressures of the industry.

“The Bear is hands down my favorite show of last year – I cannot wait to dive into episodes for Season 2,” vocalist Michael Stipe shared in a statement. “Having incorporated R.E.M. songs into their universe makes it even sweeter. The best people at any party are always in the kitchen!”

The band’s bassist, Mike Mills, added, “I’m so glad The Bear exists. It has become one of my favorite TV shows, and I can’t wait to watch more of it.”

According to the press release, three different versions of “Strange Currencies” appear throughout the season, including the 1994 original, the 2019 remix, and an unearthed demo.

Check out R.E.M.’s video for “Strange Currencies (Remix)” through their partnership with FX’s The Bear above.

R.E.M. is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

GloRilla raps are tailored for the ladies. From “Lick Or Sum” to her biggest single “Tomorrow 2,” the Memphis native is take pride in lyrically empowering her women supporters regardless of the topic. However, that hasn’t stopped men from gravitating toward the Grammy Award nominated entertainer.

During a sit down with Rolling Stone, GloRilla revealed why men like her music and it has everything to do with one distinctive feature — her voice. The “Internet Trolls” rapper’s deep vocal octave has been a topic of conversation across social media. however, according to GloRilla regardless of the naysayers post online it has worked out to her benefit.

“I know a lot of dudes, they won’t ride around listening to no girl that sounds like a girl because they are going to be like, ‘Oh, I’m being p*ssy. But they hear me, and now [they say], ‘She slick sound like one of us,’” said GloRilla.

Her voice isn’t the only thing that has peaked men’s interest in her catalog. The recording artist continued by adding that her cocky attitude is also attractive to them, saying, “I say sh*t that’s for females, but it’s stuff that n****s can say in reverse. I actually like going through shit sometimes because it makes me perfect my craft.”

When you adopt a cat or more likely, a cat adopts you, something strange happens. You develop this tiny little voice that tells you things only cat owners understand. “You need another cat.” Does this voice actually exist? Well, you can’t rule anything out because cats have a funny way of worming into your heart and dictating things without ever actually speaking.

They tell you when its time for dinner, when you need to open the door and even when you forgot to scoop their litter boxes. Cats are stealthy little bosses that have highly underpaid human assistants. But for some reason people love cats and listen to the little voice that tells them that one just isn’t enough.

One guy with the username Kylokilalayuumi documented his journey to four cats in an adorably cute 20 second video uploaded to TikTok that currently has more than 4 million views.

The video starts with a tiny stripped kitten looking out the car window as the man drives it home before immediately heading into the next clip of a back cat playing. To be completely fair, the tabby cat probably talked him into it using the most effective method available to kittens, excessive playing with the inability to control their claws. Having one kitten is usually just the bridge to adopting another to keep it occupied and from clawing its way to the top of your head.

“Ok, I’m just going to get one, alright, it’s just one alright, how bad could one be? It’s not that expensive, it’s not…well, I have to get it a friend, right? I mean who’s he going to talk to? He’s going to get bored,” The man says in the voice over. “And you know what if they get sick of each other, you know, they need a third guy and honestly, I have three. I might as well get the whole set.”

Other cat lovers knew the cat system very well and commented on the video letting the man know.

“You can’t have an odd number of cats, it’s the law,” one person said.

“It’s like chips, you can’t have just one,” another wrote.

“Yeahhhh this is how I ended up with 7 cats in a 2 month span,” someone else revealed.

Clearly, owning one cat makes you extremely susceptible to owning a glaring of them, which the name is fitting because if you’ve ever met a cat you know they have the glare down to a science.

Watch the quick escalation below:

@kylokilalayuumi

the story of how i ended up with 4 cats #fyp #fypシ #foryou #catsoftiktok #cutecat #cats #catvideos #kittensoftiktok #ragdollkitten #ragdoll #voidcat #scottishfold #scottishfoldcat #kitten