Month: August 2023

Jason Momoa was at a Metallica show this weekend. A likely place for him to be, considering his fondness for throwing up the devil horns. John Travolta, Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee, and reality show enemy Tom Sandoval also saw the metal legends play at SoFi Stadium, but unlike Momoa, they weren’t in the pit.

Entertainment Weekly reports that the “Aquaman and Fast X star was spotted thoroughly enjoying himself at Metallica’s concerts in Los Angeles on Friday and Sunday.” He caught Pantera while they were in town as well. In a video shared by TMZ, which you can watch above, you can see Momoa bouncing around a circle pit; he doesn’t stand out as much as Shaq, but it’s close.

Momoa himself shared memories from the concerts in a sweet Instagram post Sunday. Along with a series of photos and videos, he explained that he was supposed to attend with his close friend Travis Snyder, who has leukemia, but due to an emergency surgery he couldn’t attend.

Momoa arranged a FaceTime call between Snyder and members of Metallica. “We had it all set up. I’m so thankful for everyone who made it possible for @thetravissnyder to see @metallica and @panteraofficial with @tommorello,” he wrote. “This was a dream for travis and Unfortunately we had some emergency for him last night but he’s good and healing. Still needs your aloha and mana. But im so thankful for @metallica for connecting with him. You guys are the soundtrack to our lives. And mahalo for donating to Maui.”

What’s Momoa’s favorite Metallica song? I know the answer for his Game of Thrones co-star: “Jump in the Fire.”

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Donald Trump has been called a lot of things: “a very stable genius,” “handsome,” “a smart person.” Oh wait. Those are just the compliments he’s given himself over the years. But I’m fairly confident he’s never been called an “axe murderer” before, until now.

CNN contributor and former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan ripped Trump during an appearance on CNN‘s The Source on Monday. “As a Republican, the dashboard is going off with lights and bells and whistles telling us all the warning things we need to know,” he said, according to Newsweek. “Ninety-one indictments, fake Republican, $8 trillion worth of debt. Everything we need to see to not choose him as our nominee, including the fact he’s got the moral compass of more like an axe murderer than a president.”

Duncan also had some harash words for Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who took the stand in Georgia earlier that day.

CNN host Kaitlan Collins noted that in his memoirs, Meadows said his job was to inform the “most powerful man in the world” when he was in the wrong, and suggested he “didn’t do that when it probably mattered the most.” Duncan agreed, commenting: “Well, he must’ve whispered it in his ear and not said it out loud, because I certainly have never seen examples of him standing up to Donald Trump.

You can watch Duncan on CNN below.

(Via Newsweek)

After months of doubt about whether The Weeknd’s controversial HBO series The Idol would return for a second season, it was made official yesterday (August 28): No, the show is not continuing. Grimes, a fan of The Idol, was bummed about the cancellation news, as she revealed on X (formerly Twitter).

In a series of tweets, Grimes discussed what she liked about the show, what she wanted to see from it next, and some other things she noticed. She wrote:

“Call me crazy but I rly loved the idol. I feel like they didn’t have time to finish it but it reminded me of perfect blue meets basic instinct kinda? I wish they could have another season to rly get into the Machiavellian femme fatale arc w Depp.

When I saw perfect blue my main thought was it would have been better if she was the villain. I feel like the idol was gonna go there but it felt like they didn’t have enough time to get there. The music is also p good in it honestly – I wasn’t expecting that.

I liked the over the top dialogue – it felt like an homage to a lot of things I miss, it also reminded me of anime the way Brit Marling’s the OA feels like irk anime. If u imagine it animated it rly works – tho depp is totally magnetic on screen I wouldn’t trade the casting

Nina mcneelys choreo is also just astoundingly good especially depps solo near the end of the season. Jennie did suchhh a good job w those dance sequences too- it was mimicking something more basic but actually rly elevated and gorgeous.

I wanted so much more of the red hair journalist arc. Idk, it had it flaws but I am so tired of everything being perfect. I loved the messiness and the humanity and the self indulgence. U could tell everyone was loving filming it. I ride for the idol haha idk.”

Find Grimes’ tweets below.

Adele has seemingly been having a ball at her Weekends With Adele concert residency in Las Vegas, but she appears to have hit a bit of a snag at a recent concert.

People reports that Adele collapsed backstage at a show due to a flare-up of her sciatica. She reportedly later told the audience, “They picked my whole body up off the floor. I am going to sit down and rest my sciatica.”

She spoke about having sciatica, a spinal condition that can cause pain and discomfort in the legs and back, at a January concert, saying, “I have to waddle these days as I have really bad sciatica.” In February, she elaborated, “Is anyone else kind of my age starting getting bad knees? I have got really bad sciatica in my left leg and my L5 disc is not f*cking there anymore. It’s worn away.”

In a 2021 interview, she explained that she’s long had back issues, but that recent improvements to her general health have made them less impactful, saying, “I’m more agile because I can now move more, because of my back. I got my core strong. I slipped my first disc when I was 15 from sneezing. I was in bed and I sneezed and my fifth one flew out. In January, I slipped my sixth one, my L6. And then where I had a C‑section, my core was useless. I’ve been in pain with my back for, like, half of my life, really. It flares up, normally due to stress or from a stupid bit of posture. But where I got my tummy strong, down at the bottom, which I never had before, my back don’t play up as much. It means I can do more, I can run around with my kid a little bit more.”

First off of the release of his new self-titled album, featuring the breakout track, “I Remember Everything,” Zach Bryan is gearing up to be an extremely busy man in 2024. Despite currently being on the road, Bryan has announced that in 2024, he will kick off another lengthy tour with several friends. But his focus is now his Burn, Burn, Burn Tour. With only a few dates remaining, who were the tour’s openers?

The featured acts that embarked on the nationwide journey included Charles Wesley Godwin, Trampled By Turtles, Jonathan Peyton, and JR Carroll. Each of the entertainers shares a close relationship with Bryan. When he first revealed the tour dates on Instagram, Bryan referred to the musicians as: “My favorite bands in the world.”

The Burn, Burn, Burn Tour has sold out across the country, and thanks to Bryan’s determination, he found a way to do it without wrangling Ticketmaster into submission to ensure fans were not faced with headaches at the time of purchase. In a note posted to his Instagram page, he discussed the reasoning behind his decision, which was captioned, “I didn’t care about selling out the tour in thirty seconds, I cared about people getting reasonably priced tickets. We sold all the tickets in 3 waves to actual fans, we hired teams to limit bots, and we sacrificed a lot of personal things to give real people, real seats.”

View the remaining tour below dates for Zach Bryan’s Burn, Burn, Burn Tour.

08/29 — Lincoln, NE @ Pinnacle Bank Arena
08/30 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center

Ronald Acuña Jr. is the favorite to win NL MVP honors this season, as he has the Braves in first place and is putting forth an incredible season with a .330 batting average, 28 home runs, 74 RBI, and 59 stolen bases.

On Monday night, Acuña and the Braves were in Colorado and a pair of fans decided to get much too close to the right fielder, running out onto the field between innings and knocking Acuña over in the process before getting hauled off by security.

The outfield angle from the stands shows the first fan seemingly running in with a phone to get a hug and a selfie from Acuña, with the second fan charging in after security began prying the first fan away from the Braves star, knocking Acuña to the ground and then getting physically picked up and hauled off like a mid-tantrum toddler.

We have no idea what the second guy could possibly have been doing, if he was a friend of the first guy, or what, but it was good that Acuña was smiling and laughing after what was a bizarre and potentially scary situation. It’s not a great display from the Coors Field security team that not one but two fans were able to get all the way to the star, but they did redeem themselves with the effort to carry the guys away — particularly the second guy who was going crazy.

For his part, Acuña bounced back quickly as he drove in three runs with a bases clearing double in the top of the 9th inning to put a cherry on top of a 14-4 win for the Braves, padding his robust stat line and continuing to make his MVP case.

Acuña’s resume this season is fairly unimpeachable, but he certainly added some style points on Monday night as he continues raking at the plate, finishing this game with four hits, one walk, one home run, five RBI, and two idiots shaken off.

Mannequin Pussy, Philadelphia’s boldest punk band, has just given fans what they’ve desperately wanted: new music. Since 2021, supporters have jammed out to the group’s EP Perfect, patiently waiting for their next release. Now that Mannequin has some downtime after a few billed shows, including one opening for Bikini Kill, they’ve decided to drop a single, namely “I Got Heaven.”

The track, which was produced by John Congleton, marked Mannequin’s glorious return. But the record isn’t the only thing the band had to offer. To support the track, Mannequin teamed up with directed Mason Mercer and Anthony Miralles for its new video. As in their past videos, including their last EP’s title track, “I Got Heaven,” shows off members Colins “Bear” Regisford, Kaleen Reading, Maxine Steen, and Marisa Dabice’s bold creative choices.

In the NSFW video, Mannequin, along with Mercer and Miralles, reimagine how simple a stripped-down life living on a farm could be. They sport overalls, distressed jeans, and, for some scenes, even nothing at all.

Frontwoman Dabice shared a note about the inspiration behind the track, saying, “‘I Got Heaven’ is a song intended to merge the sacred and the profane and to serve as a reminder that we are all perfect exactly as we have been made and that no one gets to decide how a life should or should not be lived.”

She added, “Heaven is here on a planet that gave us everything we needed to survive. Heaven is in the plants and in the water and in the animals who we share this world with. Heaven is inside of me and inside of you. The weaponization of Christianity for political means, for individual profit and power, as a tool to intentionally divide us is one of the greatest threats to our modern world and a threat to our ability to find solidarity through love. To allow the hatred and the violence and the noise to rise is to reject our sacred purpose as individuals, which is simply to love.”

Watch Mannequin Pussy’s “I Got Heaven” video above.

Donald Trump may have had a bad end to his 2022, but he’s been crushing the GOP primary polls for months now. This is despite all those indictments, despite doing things like burying his late wife on a golf course, and despite not being able to spell simple words like “rumor.” (Or “hamburger.”) But a new Emerson College poll shows a rare dip in his polling, which may be due to skipping the polls or getting arrested.

As noted by Newsweek, the new poll shows Trump with 50 percent backing among GOP voters. That may sound like a lot, and it’s still head and shoulders over his second place rival, Ron DeSantis, who’s at 12 — a big descent from hit peak at 29 back in January.

But Trump himself has fallen, too. His polling peaked April, when he rose all the way up to 62, when DeSantis was a mere 16. The former president’s polling has been in a steady, if not steep, decline ever since, hitting 59 in June and at 56 on August 19, just a week-and-a-half ago. Now he’s at 50, the lowest he’s had since Emerson started this polling last June, when Trump entered at a robust 55.

This is just one poll, but it suggests that, despite Trump’s beliefs that racking up criminal charges only makes him stronger, that maybe he’s not as Teflon as he once was. What could account for him shedding six points in less than 10 days? In that time, Trump famously skipped the first GOP debate, instead sitting down for a very dull chit-chat with Tucker Carlson. He also turned himself into a jail in Fulton County, Georgia, where he made dubious history.

Maybe GOP voters are finally considering moving on from the guy who helped foment a failed coup. Perhaps they’re eyeing a move to Vivek Ramaswamy, who’s polling at 9, just behind DeSantis, and who cemented his status in the Grand Old Party by pulling a Ted Cruz and making one of his favorite artists hates his guts.

(Via Newsweek)

For being such a whimsical brand, Disney sure knows how to throw a gut punch. From Bambi’s mom, to Ellie in “Up,” Disney has delivered some truly heart-wrenching death scenes that send everyone straight to tears.

But perhaps the most painful of all comes from a mid-90s Disney classic called “The Lion King.” You know where we’re going with this.

Yep, it’s Mufasa’s death. This one just hurts on so many levels, from seeing a father desperately try to save his son, to the agonizing betrayal, to Simba pitifully attempting to wake his father up, to laying under his paw one last time…sorry, does anyone have a tissue?

Turns out, that scene has an effect on more than just humans.

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A woman named Zoe Ansary recently filmed her rescue dog, Bosco, watching the tragic moment, and it’s honestly so beautiful seeing how emotionally invested the sweet pup is.

“He cries at the same part I cried at when I was 4 😭,” Ansary’s onscreen text reads as poor Bosco wails while seeing Simba say, “….Dad?”

Grab a tissue and watch:

@bosco.and.the.fam

Finally watched lion king together and this is what happened 😭😭😭 #lionking #doglionking #rescuedog #intuitivedog #sensitivedog #dogwatchingtv #tvdog #goodboy #dogsoftiktok #tiktokdogs #humandog #dog #fyp #foryoupage #wholesome #wholesomecontent

Ugh, shoots right to the heart, doesn’t it?

The video quickly racked up 15.9 million views on TikTok, with thousands sharing their awe at how perceptive Bosco was.

“Bro is conscious,” one person commented.

Another added, “He’s so sweet and smart.”

One person noted how this scene clearly has an effect on pretty much everyone, writing, “We ALL cry at the same part no matter what age or species 😭😭😭😭😭.”

Ansary ended up showing Bosco the live action remake, which premiered in 2019, to see if he would have a similar reaction.

Below is a video of him watching Scar double-cross Mufasa. You be the judge.

@bosco.and.the.fam

Someone said show him the live action and show his reaction to Scar. He is defintley can sense scar is bad 😭 #rescuedog #intuitivedog #lionking #tvdog #dogwatchingtv #goodboy #lionkingdog #wholesome #wholesomecontent #fyp #foryoupage #dogsoftiktok

OMG—the way he whimpers and runs to Mom when the big bad shows up.

One person summed it up perfectly with their comment: “Dogs can really sense who is a villain.”

Humans might have a habit of projecting their own emotions onto animals, but with moments like these, it’s hard to deny that sentient beings do in fact have a shared sense of empathy and understanding for certain things.

There are so many good things people love about social media. It can keep you connected to family members that you no longer live near. You can find community in hobbies and special interests that other people share with you. It can even be used as a source of income if you’re savvy enough to figure that out.

But with as much good as there is on social media, it can also be the source of emotional and mental distress. Between online bullying and internet trolls who just set out to harass unsuspecting people, social media can feel like a double-edged sword. In one instance, it’s making you feel less alone in the world, then in another, it’s making you feel unimportant. It can be difficult to navigate, especially as a child.

Kevin Gabor, a little boy with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), better known as brittle bone disease, found himself the target of internet trolls on TikTok.

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Kevin has been using TikTok to build an online community because it’s too dangerous for him to play outside. But for some reason, he was the target of mass reporting in an effort to get his account banned. Mass reporting is when a group of people report your videos or profile page repeatedly in order to get a creator permanently banned, forcing them to start their platform all over again from zero followers. Instead of giving up after the trolls tried to take his account down, Kevin decided to try to appeal to them, and in return, he found a whole community.

“You know I can’t play, I can’t run. I can’t hang out with friends outside. I can’t do a bunch of stuff,” Kevin pleads. “Because I could break something and I have an online community so that I can share and have friends with and you’re trying to take that away from me.”

@k3vingabor

😢😢

His tearful video didn’t go unnoticed. It was viewed over 10.5 million times and the TikTok community rallied behind the boy and his family, sending followers and even Legos his way. Creators from all over made videos showing their support for Kevin, including Rosie O’Donnell. His account quickly grew to a million followers

Mandy, a creator who answered Kevin’s call, compiled a video of multiple creators wishing him well and encouraging others to follow him and do the same. Heartwarming doesn’t seem like a strong enough description. You might need to grab a tissue for the video below.

@pottymouthpollyanna

This is INCREDIBLE! I kept tearing up making this.❤️ #fyp #foryou @K3VIN_G @Rosie ODonnell @Aaron9toes13.0 @Scott D Henry @John Colbert @SusanmorrisChapter2 @Thomas Bishop @Kelly Musler @Overopinionatedbrit3 @Valhalla Viking @21 pineapple @Dr. Rubin, MD @the.liberal.trucker @LittleBricksCharityGuy