Month: September 2023

The Pittsburgh Steelers moved to 2-1 on the young season with a 23-18 win in Las Vegas over the Raiders on Sunday night in a game that featured one of the most baffling and, for Raiders fans, infuriating end of game coaching sequences we are likely to see all year.

After scoring a touchdown and getting a two-point conversion to cut the lead to 23-15, the Raiders forced a 3-and-out and got the ball back, once again marching into Steelers territory. With just over three minutes on the clock, they faced a 4th and 1, but a snap infraction backed them up to a 4th and 6. At that point, Josh McDaniels made the rather surprising move to try and kick a field goal to cut the lead to five and lean on his defense again to get a quick stop and allow for a game-winning TD, rather than a game-tying one.

It was a questionable at best choice that got bailed out when Pittsburgh got a personal foul penalty for leverage on the kick block attempt — which, why they were in a full kick block and not kick safe on a 4th and 6 up 8 is an entirely other question for the other coaching staff. From there, the Raiders would work the ball inside the 10 yard line with under three minutes to go, but after back-to-back incompletions, they faced a 4th-and-4 from the 8, but this time had just 2:22 on the clock and were much closer to the end zone but again trotted Daniel Carlson out for the field goal.

Carlson would make it, but even with all their timeouts and the two minute warning, the margins were razor thin for the Raiders, as a first down would effectively ice it. After two solid inside runs from Najee Harris, the Steelers went empty on 3rd and 2 and the Raiders, for some reason, went with an all out blitz, sending the slot corner and two linebackers, while also playing off coverage on the outside allowing Kenny Pickett to very calmly roll left and hit Allen Robinson wide open for the first down.

Going with an all-out blitz in that situation is truly insane, because they needed such short yardage that forcing a hot throw doesn’t help you at all. If this was 3rd and long, sure, but just conceding the short throw is the worst possible thing you can do in that situation, and not only was Robinson wide open on the left side, but had the play been run to the right, George Pickens was wide open on the slant because, again, the corner was 8 yards off the line at the snap for reasons passing understanding.

From there, the Steelers would run the ball three straight times and punt, with Pressley Harvin III sending a bomb to the 10 that got muffed and recovered by Vegas with 12 seconds left in the game, which Jimmy Garoppolo promptly followed up with a woeful interception up the sideline.

It was a truly dreadful coaching sequence, with the first field goal attempt being bad but borderline understandable given where they were on the field, time remaining, and how they’d stopped them twice in a row. The second one was flat out dreadful being on the 8-yard line and having let another minute run off the clock to get there. From there, they made a horrific defensive call on 3rd and short when they absolutely had to have a stop — Cris Collinsworth rightly said on the broadcast they couldn’t have called a worse defensive play if they tried — and gave up any hope of a miracle. McDaniels tried to explain the kicking decision in his postgame presser, but didn’t have anything approaching a decent answer.

As you’d expect, the comment section on the Raiders livestream of his presser was almost entirely people telling the team to fire him.

McDaniels now moves to 18-30 as a head coach and we have a pretty good sample size of him just not being very good at the job. Calling plays and making game management decisions are two very different skillsets and for all his success doing the former in New England, his efforts doing the latter in Vegas and Denver have been rather disastrous, with Sunday night being his magnum opus of head-scratching decisions.

The Dallas Cowboys looked dominant in the first two weeks of the season, destroying the two New York teams to start the year 2-0. Even after the brutal news that Trevon Diggs had torn his ACL in practice this week, the expectation was they’d cruise to 3-0 as they faced Joshua Dobbs and the Arizona Cardinals in Glendale on Sunday afternoon.

The Cardinals had been in both games they’ve played this year, but also gave up a huge lead to the otherwise hapless Giants in Week 2 and weren’t expected to be a match for Dallas’ stout defense. However, there’s a reason they play the games and the Cardinals pretty much dominated Dallas from start to finish, running the ball with ease and frustrating the Cowboys offense, particularly in the red zone, en route to a 28-16 win.

It was a dismal loss for the Cowboys that took an awful lot of shine off of their early hot start and certainly takes some steam out of the argument they are the league’s best team. While plenty of folks enjoy watching the Cowboys lose, no one has more fun at their expense than ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who posted his customary victory lap reaction video on Twitter shortly after the final whistle, thanking Dallas for being “the gift that keeps on giving” by always seeming to find embarrassing losses just when the hype around them takes off.

Smith has had to hear his ESPN colleagues fawn over the Cowboys over the last two weeks as they dominated on both sides of the ball, but after looking pedestrian against a mediocre at best Cardinals team, he will certainly enjoy this week as he gets to prod at Cowboys supporters Monday to Friday.

The Kansas City Chiefs did truly terrible things to the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon, rolling to a 41-10 win (after going up 41-0), and making matters worse for the Bears was that the game was under intense scrutiny from outside the football world.

That’s because Taylor Swift was in a luxury suite with Travis Kelce’s mom, Donna, taking in the game and seemingly confirming the rumors she and the Chiefs All-Pro tight end are dating. Despite scoring 34 in the first half, Travis was somehow not part of the Chiefs’ parade of touchdowns through two quarters, but that changed in the third when he and Mahomes (who had to navigate a late second quarter ankle tweak) linked up for their 48th career touchdown combination.

After the game, Erin Andrews, being the best in the business, made sure to ask Mahomes the question on everyone’s mind: “Could you feel the pressure from the Swifties to get Travis a touchdown?”

Mahomes had some fun with the whole thing and said he knew he had to get his guy in the end zone with Swift in the house, also noting that the touchdown came on a route that Kelce completely freestyled and that Travis seemingly wanted to get that TD badly himself. There weren’t a lot of things that went wrong for the Chiefs on Sunday, aside from Mahomes getting rolled up on late in the first half, and being the great wingman he is, he stayed in the game to get his guy a touchdown with Taylor watching — who was extremely fired up after he scored, chest bumping folks in the box.

The Kansas City Chiefs did truly terrible things to the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon, rolling to a 41-10 win (after going up 41-0), and making matters worse for the Bears was that the game was under intense scrutiny from outside the football world.

That’s because Taylor Swift was in a luxury suite with Travis Kelce’s mom, Donna, taking in the game and seemingly confirming the rumors she and the Chiefs All-Pro tight end are dating. Despite scoring 34 in the first half, Travis was somehow not part of the Chiefs’ parade of touchdowns through two quarters, but that changed in the third when he and Mahomes (who had to navigate a late second quarter ankle tweak) linked up for their 48th career touchdown combination.

After the game, Erin Andrews, being the best in the business, made sure to ask Mahomes the question on everyone’s mind: “Could you feel the pressure from the Swifties to get Travis a touchdown?”

Mahomes had some fun with the whole thing and said he knew he had to get his guy in the end zone with Swift in the house, also noting that the touchdown came on a route that Kelce completely freestyled and that Travis seemingly wanted to get that TD badly himself. There weren’t a lot of things that went wrong for the Chiefs on Sunday, aside from Mahomes getting rolled up on late in the first half, and being the great wingman he is, he stayed in the game to get his guy a touchdown with Taylor watching — who was extremely fired up after he scored, chest bumping folks in the box.

Wilco’s Cousin album has fans on the edge of their seats waiting for the Chicago-based band’s full-length return. Thanks to the release of their latest track, “Evicted,” produced by Cate Le Bon, supporters know that Wilco isn’t playing around with the forthcoming project. The group began touring around Europe, the US, and Mexico in August. But their 2023 fall tour, Tour To Infinity, is slated to be a completely different experience.

The tour will formally kick off on September 26 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Across the 21-show dates, Wilco has announced that a few special guests will join them on the road.

Learn more about Wilco’s 2023 fall tour, including the openers, tour dates, and more.

Who Is Opening Wilco’s Tour To Infinity?

My Brightest Diamond

Singer and multi-instrumentalist Shara Nova is best known for her work under the musical moniker My Brightest Diamond (MBD). Last month, she released her new single, “Black Sheep.” But MBD’s breakout moment in the industry was her 2014 album, This Is My Hand. The 10-track project features standout tracks “Lover Killer” and “Pressure.” Throughout My Brightest Diamond music, the Arkansas native looks to weave her classical music training with blends of rock, art pop, and electronic.

Nina Nastasia

Los Angeles native Nina Nastasia is a music veteran. The folk singer and songwriter found early fame in the early 2000s following the release of her debut album, Dogs. Since then, Nastasia has maintained a spirited support base that led to her dropping 2002’s The Blackened Air, 2003’s Run to Ruin, 2006’s On Leaving, 2007’s You Follow Me with Jim White, and 2010’s Outlaster before going on hiatus. Last year, she returned with the release of Riderless Horse and has continued to share new music.

Tour To Infinity Dates

Here are the dates for the Tour To Infinity:

09/25 — Wichita, KS @ Wave *
09/26 — Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom *
09/28 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom *
09/29 — Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater @ Waterloo Park *
10/01 — Albuquerque, NM @ Kiva Auditorium *
10/03 — Scottsdale, AZ @ Scottsdale Civic Center East Bowl Stage *
10/04 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Theatre at Ace Hotel *
10/05 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Theatre at Ace Hotel *
10/06 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Theatre at Ace Hotel *
10/08 — Monterey, CA @ Rebels & Renegades Festival
10/11 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether *
10/13 — Santa Barbara, CA @ Arlington Theatre *
10/14 — Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre*
10/16 — Portland, OR @ Keller Auditorium *
10/17 — Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre ^
10/18 — Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre ^
10/20 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Eccles Theater ^
10/22 — Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom ^
10/23 — Omaha, NE @ The Astro Theater ^
10/25 — Kansas City, MO @ Midland Theatre ^
10/26 — St. Louis, MO @ Stifel Theatre ^
10/27 — Bentonville, AR @ The Momentary ^
12/02 — Wed. Dec. 6 – Riviera Maya, MX @ Sky Blue Sky (Hard Rock Hotel)

+ w/ Anna Miekie
* w/ My Brightest Diamond
^ w/ Nina Nastasia

Cousin is out 9/29 via dBpm Records. Find more information here.

The Kansas City Chiefs spent Sunday afternoon dogwalking the Chicago Bears up and down the field, as they led 34-0 at halftime. However, the Chiefs enjoying a get-right game against the hapless Bears was a secondary story to many, as the rumored romance between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce reached a fever pitch when Swift showed up to the game in a luxury box alongside Kelce’s mom.

The superstar tight end was, rather surprisingly, not a huge part of the offensive explosion in the first half, but he eventually got in on the fun in the third quarter as the Bears somehow lost track of him in the back of the end zone to let the Chiefs go up 41-0 on them. Naturally, the FOX cameras cut quickly to Taylor Swift in the suite and captured her extremely fired up, chest bumping the guy next to her and then very clearly yelling “LET’S F**KING GO!” as she celebrated Kelce getting a touchdown catch.

The slow-mo of the chest bump is great stuff.

Afterwards, the folks in the production truck decided to continue the new tradition of broadcasts dropping Swift references for Kelce touchdowns by posting a “The Story Of Us” graphic after Kelce and Patrick Mahomes set a new Chiefs franchise record for touchdown combinations.

Aside from having to watch Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears attempt to play offense, it was a pretty great day for Taylor at the Chiefs game as she got to watch Kansas City’s offense in full force and see Travis do what he does best in the red zone.

Adele isn’t the only British act looking to dominate the US performance market. The “Skin In The Game” musicians Slowdive’s massive world tour kicked off yesterday (September 23). In celebration of their new album, Everything Is Alive, for the next few weeks, Slowdive will travel nationwide for their 2023 US Tour wing.

So, who are the opening acts for the tour? Continue below for more information.

Who Is Opening Slowdive’s 2023 US Tour?

Drab Majesty

Drab Majesty is a Los Angeles-based music collective. Founded by Andrew Clinco (of Marriages) in 2011, the group blends dream pop and gothic rock for an irresistible darkwave offering. Under the character Deb Demure, alongside Keyboardist and vocalist Mona D, the duo released their second album, The Demonstration, in 2017, which earned them spots on tour with Cold Cave and King Dude. Fast forward to June of this year, the members joined forces with Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell on their track “Vanity” from their 4-track EP An Object in Motion, released on Friday, September 22.

Sun Colony

Also based out of Los Angeles, California, Sun Colony has been actively working in the indie rock scene since the release of their self-titled EP in 2017. The four-piece band (vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist Tommy Graf, guitarist and vocalist Derek Mabra, bassist Brandon Sciarra, and drummer Sam Ribejro) is best known for their tracks “These Minds,” “Satellite,” and “I Think I Remember.” The band describes their sounds as “a blend of Los Angeles sparkle and London gloom,” which is tailor-fit to their Echo & The Bunnymen, Wire, and Primal Scream expressed musical influences.

Slowdive’s 2023 US Tour Dates

Here are the dates for their 2023 US Tour:

09/25 — Boston, MA @ Citizens House of Blues Boston %
09/27 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall %
09/28 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall %
09/29 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer %
09/30 — Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club %
10/02 — Cleveland, OH @ The Roxy @ Mahall’s %
10/03 — Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre %
10/04 — St. Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre %
10/06 — Denver, CO @ Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom %
10/07 — Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union %
10/09 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom %
10/10 — Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo %
10/12 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield %
10/14 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether %
10/15 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether %*
10/16 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield %

% with Drab Majesty, * with Sun Colony

Everything Is Alive is out now via Dead Oceans. Find more information here.

Is Taxi Driver Martin Scorsese’s best picture? Uproxx’s Steven Hyden recently made a strong argument that it is. As it happens, the gritty 1976 drama is back in the news: Uber has tapped Robert De Niro to reprise his role as Travis Bickle, the film’s troubled cabbie-turned-vigilante anti-hero, for an Uber commercial that’s about to start filming this week in London. But the commercial has already found one sharp critic: the movie’s author.

As per Deadline, Paul Schrader — who, on top of being a top shelf screenwriter and director, is a prolific poster of sometimes surprising hot takes on Facebook, though he’s no stranger to offering fulsome praise — dropped a brief comment about the forthcoming ad.

“Ouch,” he wrote after finding out about it. “Why Bob would do this is beyond my reckoning. But I haven’t seen it. If I’m lucky I never will.”

Schrader hasn’t shied from commenting on adaptations of his own work. Over the summer he torched Showtime’s take on his 1980 classic American Gigolo, which wound up being cancelled after one season.

Taxi Driver was Schrader’s second-produced screenplay and his first of four collaborations with director Martin Scorsese (the others being Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Bringing Out the Dead). He went on to become a mighty director in his own right, and he’s had a good recent run with First Reformed, The Card Counter, and this year’s Master Gardener. Oh, Canada, starring Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi, is currently filming with a SAG-AFTRA strike exemption.

Scorsese, meanwhile, has done pretty well for himself, too. He even has a new picture due soon.

The controversial Taxi Driver Uber ad will reportedly feature De Niro’s aging Travis Bickle repeating some of his more famous lines. It’s a curious move, even for an actor who’s done fare like the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie, but surely it can’t be worse than 2020’s Die Hard battery commercial.

(Via Deadline)

Reading is a fundamental tool of learning for most people, which is why it’s one of the first things kids learn in school and why nations set literacy goals.

But even those of us who are able to read fluently might sometimes struggle with the act of reading itself. Perhaps we don’t read as quickly as we wish we could or maybe our minds wander as our eyes move across the words. Sometimes we get to the end of a paragraph and realize we didn’t retain anything we just read.

People with focus or attention issues can struggle with reading, despite having no actual reading disabilities. It can be extremely frustrating to want to read something and have no issues with understanding the material, yet be unable to keep your mind engaged with the text long enough to get “into” what you’re reading.

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But what if there were a font that could help you stay focused? That could help you not only read faster but better retain what you’ve just read?

That’s what the creators of Bionic Reading claim is possible with their font tool.”Bionic Reading revises texts so that the most concise parts of words are highlighted,” the Swiss company’s website reads. “This guides the eye over the text and the brain remembers previously learned words more quickly.”

Give it a try:

The gist is that our eyes don’t need to focus on the entire word because our brains can fill in the rest for us. By bolding the first part of the word, we’re more quickly able to move from word to word.

“Bionic Reading aims to play a supporting role in the absorption of volume text,” states the website. “We see technological progress as an opportunity for all those who want to increase the pleasure of reading in a noisy and hectic world in a focused way and without distraction.”

While there are no studies cited on this method of reading, there are plenty of anecdotes about it being helpful. The example shared by @WhattheADHD on Twitter got people’s attention and many people responded with enthusiasm at how much easier the bionic reading text was for them to read.

“This is amazing! I have ADHD and I didn’t even realize that I was having trouble fixating when I read,” wrote one person. “My eye latches right on to the bold face. Can’t wait to try reading a book again. It’s been all audiobooks for a while.”

“It’s incredible how reading this feels like finally unlocking 100% of your brain,” wrote another.

However, not everyone was impressed or thrilled with the sample. Some people said that they had a harder time reading the bionic text or that it distracted or slowed them down. Both positive and negative responses came from a diverse pool of people. Some who described themselves as neurodivergent said that they loved it and some said it was harder. The same went for people who said they were neurotypical, so it’s hard to say who this tool may specifically help the most. Everyone’s brains work differently, and different people will find different things helpful.

Bionic reading might be a game-changer for some, but it’s not the only tool of its kind. There are speed-reading programs that train you to stop reading each word and allow your brain to read visually instead of auditorily. There are also various methods of making reading easier by adjusting how your eyes move across the text.

For instance, check out this “space reading” technique:

Bionic Reading has a free text converter on its website that you can use to try out its font changes. A YouTube clip from the company also shows possibilities for how the font can be adjusted to individual preferences, making more or less of the initial letters bolded.

And again, if this doesn’t work for you, then it’s probably not made for you. For people who struggle with reading, something like Bionic Reading could make a huge difference.

Three cheers for technology being used to help people overcome difficulties and make learning easier and more efficient.

This article originally appeared on 5.30.22.

Ahhh, siblings. Sometimes they’re your best friends and other times your living room turns into an MMA octagon over the remote control. If you grew up with brothers and sisters, it’s hard to imagine what it would be like to be an only child. (That’s not to say you didn’t dream about it when your sister stole your favorite shirt for the 30th time.)

But not everyone has siblings, so it can be equally as hard for someone who grew up as an only child to picture what it would be like to have them. Only children also likely had moments where they dreamt of having a little brother or sister, not realizing the literal torment siblings can inflict on each other.

TikTok creator Lonnie IIV recently posted a video of himself with two other friends seemingly out to lunch, when the girl in the group asked what it was like to grow up with siblings. In less than a minute she realized she lucked out being an only child because her two guy friends gave her a crash course in sibling behavior.

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In the clip, Lonnie asked if she wanted her drink but then promptly told her she didn’t want it before swirling his fingers around in her cup. This prompted the other friend to throw his balled-up straw paper at her before repeatedly dipping chopsticks into her soup. The woman just laughed and looked seemingly confused at the nonsense her guy friends were displaying. Of course, no sibling experience would be complete without the classic “stop touching me” added for a little pizzazz.

“She got an entire childhood in less than a minute,” one user wrote.

A different user said, “This is so accurate.”

Other commenters started sharing the things they did to their siblings or vice versa. The comment thread was full of childhood sibling…nostalgia? Seems weird to look back on those memories with fondness, yet here we are.

Honestly, my brother used to ask if he could have a bite of my food, and when I said no, he would just lick it before asking again. In turn, when my brothers wouldn’t let me play video games with them, I would pinch my arm until it turned red and run out of the room crying to tell my mom they hit me.

Kids are weird sometimes and thankfully there are usually doses of love in between. But if you grew up with siblings, you’ll likely appreciate the video below. Or it’ll give you flashbacks. It’s a toss-up. If you don’t have siblings, you may feel the need to have us evaluated. We turned out alright…mostly.

@lonnieiiv

Don’t ask, just bring it

This article originally appeared on 2.17.23