Month: January 2024

The one thing that all Americans and folks worldwide can agree on is that the United States is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. When tourists trek across the states, they are always blown away by how vast the country is and the number of different climates and bioregions encompassing all 50 states.

There are the deserts of the southwest, the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii, the tundra of Alaska and the grasslands of the midwest. Not to mention the beautiful coasts of California and the picturesque bays of New England.

America has many wonders, but which place is the most beautiful? A Redditor named DriedKitten posed the question to the AskReddit subforum and received over 1,100 replies.

To rank the responses on the Reddit post, we looked at the number of upvotes each suggestion received and then ranked them. It’s not the most scientific way of doing things, but it gives us a pretty good idea about the places in America that people think are most beautiful.

Here are the top 15 most beautiful places in America ranked.

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1. Glacier National Park (523)

“That whole place is surreal. Going to the Sun Road is a national treasure.” — Andrunlc.

“The vistas of this road, on a motorcycle, were beyond breathtaking to experience. Would 100% do it again. Being on a bike allowed for stops at the waterfalls where there was no room for vehicles to pull over, and the views from the tunnels under the road were supernatural.” — Tastygrrrl

2. Grand Tetons (Wyoming)

“My vote would be for the Tetons. Holy sh**. The way they just rise up right in front of you when you exit the airport even.” — Bqzs

“Also early in the morning during the winter when the sun is reflecting off the snow along the side of the mountains. I think it’s called alpenglow.” — Fred Foreskin

3. Crater Lake (Oregon)

“On a clear, sunny day, there is no more beautiful place on earth than Crater Lake. Stunning blue water. Mountains all around.” — Commercial-Lawyer1629

“It’s a shade of blue I haven’t seen before or since. Can’t be captured in photographs. Something about it being incredibly clear and deep.” — Cutely Aware

4. Na Pali Coast (Kauai)

“Ludicrous I had to scroll this far to find Na Pali coast. I’ve been to around forty states – there is a LOT of incredibly scenic stuff in the US, but Na Pali is next level.” — BD401

“THIS. Kauai is absolutely beautiful. Taking a helicopter ride over the island is also an amazing sight. You see all the beautiful waterfalls that are a days hike away.” — PamelaThornton13

5. Redwoods (California)

“Drive up 101, and then detour towards Petrolia. There is absolutely nothing like it. Roll down your windows and drive 35mph. Smell the old growth. Stop at the pull out. Take a small hike. It’s worth it.” — Altril2010

6. Big Sur (California)

“Heaven on Earth, in my opinion.” — DriedKitten

“I felt like I was in some computer generated fantasy when I was there. It was just so beautiful and perfect.” — [Deleted]

7. Sequoia National Park (California)

“Paradise Valley in Sequoia NP is a favorite place of mine.” — Driedkitten

8. Mount Rainier (Washington)

“It is so odd and elusive. You come around a corner and BAM, there it is. But from a block away, you wouldn’t know it was there. It takes my breath away. Sitting on the Canyon Road East overpass on 512, you get a great view. I never want the light to change.” — Botryoid2000

​9. Yosemite National Park (California)

“Did a hike in Yosemite on January 1 last year. A spectacular way to start the year. I had seen photos of it, seen it in movies, and watched countless videos on YouTube about it, but -nothing- prepares you for the sight of El Cap as you turn that corner. I was very nearly moved to tears.” — ThrustersToFull

“It’s surreal in person, isn’t it? Just majestic.” — SocalRDB

​10. New England

“I think it depends on what you like. In my opinion, I like the New England states because I’ve seen pictures of the autumn that they have there. It’s the perfect place for Halloween. I love everything related to horror. And Maine is the state where lots of horror stories from Stephen King books take place.” — Midnight_Wolf89

​11. Glacier Bay (Alaska)

“Took a week-long camping trip there one year for the Perseids meteor shower. It’s unreal.” — badatboujie

12. Pictured Rocks (Michigan)

“Unexpectedly incredibly breathtakingly beautiful.” — Immoveablebeast

“Yes! Highly recommend renting a pontoon boat for the day!” — idekmanijustworkhere

13. Badlands (South Dakota)

“There’s never anyone there, and you can hike pretty much the whole place. It’s so peaceful.” — Mayo_Man

14. Lake Tahoe (Nevada)

“Gorgeous.” — Driedkitten

15. Utah’s National Parks

“Zion would be my pick for OP’s question.” — ljg1986

“Utah is so beautiful that they even have the most beautiful license plates. And I say this sitting in coastal California.” — Adin-CA

Rapper Lil Pump is continuing to demonstrate his support for former US president Donald Trump. And it looks like it’s permanent. Today (January 30), the “Gucci Gang” rapper took to Instagram to share a photo featuring a new tattoo.

In the picture, Pump is seen in the mirror, revealing a tattoo of Trump on his thigh. Specifically, the likeness of Trump was recreated from his mugshot photo, which was taken last year after he was indicted on racketeering charges.

This new mirror selfie doesn’t appear to be a troll from the controversial rapper. Another photo on Pump’s page, shared six weeks ago, but pinned to Pump’s profile, features Pump standing next to Trump. In the post’s caption, Pump refers to Trump as the “Greatest president of all time.”

Pump first vocalized his support for Trump back in October of 2020, when he shared a video to social media slamming Biden’s tax policy. He verbalized his stance, saying “Trump 2020, b*tch.”

Shortly after the 2020 presidential election, Pump released a pro-Trump track called “Lil Pimp Big MAGA Steppin.”

But despite his outspokenness in his support for Trump, Pump actually reportedly hadn’t registered to vote in the 2020 election.

You can see Pump’s new tattoo above.

It was 1999 when the world first saw Larry David — not the guy who co-created Seinfeld, but “Larry David,” the fictional character who’s basically the same guy as the real Larry David. It began with a one-off special, that followed his doppelgänger around in his needlessly chaotic life. By the following year it was a full-blown HBO series. Twenty-four years later Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s coming to an end (probably). But when — to borrow a clumsy phrase from the Fast X promotional campaign — does the end of the road begin?

The answer: Curb Your Enthusiasm’s 12th and final season kicks off on February 4 at 10pm on HBO.

So what kind of antics is Larry up to for his final roundelay? Well, for one thing, he has new, weird glasses, at least in some scenes. Judging from the trailer, at various points he insults: some exec played by Sharlto Copley; a gay couple, one half of whom is played by Dan Levy; a bunch of women who chase his car; Susie Essman’s Susie Green (of course); and his ex-wife Cheryl, played by Cheryl Hines.

Speaking of, hopefully (or not?) the show finished principal photography by the time Hines’ husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., kickstarted his presidential campaign. The real-life David is not thrilled about that guy, who he introduced to his current wife and David’s onscreen ex, and surely things have been awkward between he and Hines ever since. Maybe “Larry David” should come back for one more round, in which he’s appalled “Cheryl” got hitched to a conspiracy theorist so out-there he makes most conspiracy theorists seem sane.

Again, Curb returns on February 4 on HBO at 10pm. You can watch the trailer below.

Last week, Ice Spice ended her brief musical hiatus with her new single, “Think U The Sh*t (Fart).” The song came just over a year after the New York City rapper‘s debut EP, Like…?. With a new single out, Ice’s fans, known as the munchkins, are anticipating her full-length debut album.

Today (January 30), during an interview on Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager’s hour of Today, Ice shared a few details of her upcoming album.

When asked if she had an album on the way, Ice responded “Yes, there’s gonna be an album.” She continued, revealing that the album would arrive “this year.”

“I’m so excited,” Ice said. “It’s called Y2K.”

The album’s title seemingly alludes to her birthday — January 1, 2000, which was also the New Year’s Day that coincided with the theory of a Y2K virus crashing all computers and electronic devices at the time.

Though Ice didn’t reveal an exact release date for Y2K, she shared that the album is “almost finished.” She also held back details of the album’s collaborators, but teased one that she is very happy about.

“I have a crazy collaboration that just got locked in, like two days ago,” Ice said.

You can watch a clip from the interview above.

It’s festival season. Which means some of your favorite bands are gearing up for epic reunions. Fans of No Doubt can look forward to a special reunion of the band’s classic line-up at Coachella 2024 in April. While this season is a magical time for music, not even the magic of money could get a certain band back together. Today (January 30), Billboard reported that Talking Heads were reportedly in talks to reunite at Coachella, and several other festivals this year.

This tidbit of information reportedly came from festival curator and Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett, who had traveled to the Toronto International Film Festival last year for the 40th anniversary of the band’s concert film, Stop Making Sense. Tollett told Billboard that while he was interested in booking Talking Heads for Coachella, he “sensed there were no shows happening, so [he] didn’t make an offer.” Though, sources familiar with the festival say the band could’ve earned $10 million from a headlining appearance.

According to the publication, Live Nation also reportedly “told the Talking Heads it was willing to pay the band $80 million to headline six to eight festival gigs and headlining slots, sources close to the group say. The Talking Heads ultimately rejected that offer as well.”

At the time of writing, neither Live Nation nor Talking Heads have commented on the matter.

Tyrese Haliburton has had a tremendous season for the Indiana Pacers this far, averaging 23.6 points and 12.6 assists per game this season. However, a hamstring injury cost him nearly a few weeks of action, and as the All-Star break approaches, the Eastern Conference starter is dangerously close to being eliminated from awards contention already. Haliburton has missed 13 games this year and if he misses 18, he will fall short of the new 65-game threshold to be under consideration for awards and this year’s All-NBA teams.

That’s a particularly big deal for Haliburton, who would see his contract extension signed last summer currently worth $207 million be worth more than $40 million more if he made an All-NBA team this year. If he continues on the pace he’s played at through the first half of the season, especially if he continues leading the league in assists by a wide margin, he’d be a near-lock to land on one of the three All-NBA squads (even in a crowded guard race).

As Haliburton said to The Athletic’s James Boyd when asked about it, he and many other players view it as a “stupid rule,” noting it’s what the owners want and, a bit tongue in cheek, said the most important thing is that “the owners are happy.”

“I think it’s a stupid rule, like plenty of the guys in the league, but this is what the owners want, so as players, we gotta do our job and play in 65 games if we’re able to,” Haliburton said after practice Monday. “So, that’s what I gotta do, take care of my body to be able to play in those games, and I think you’re seeing other players in the league kind of face the same thing. As long as the owners are happy.”

It’s hard to blame Haliburton for his frustration here. The idea with the rule was to provide another performative attempt at limiting load management by the NBA to please TV networks in the midst of broadcast rights negotiations — hence the “as long as the owners are happy” bit from Haliburton. The problem this would cause was easy to see, because it was a lock that someone would get legitimately hurt and miss somewhere between 18-21 games while putting together one of the league’s best seasons.

In this case, Haliburton is now one more minor injury away from being that player, and his annoyance with being caught in this position this season when he needs All-NBA to maximize his contract (and is playing at that level) is more than understandable. Some, like Joel Embiid, have made clear that they won’t worry about the 65-game threshold when it comes to the awards debate, even though he’d be an MVP frontrunner. However, that’s not messing with his earning potential nearly as much as it is Haliburton’s, and the truth is, voters have always factored in games played when voting on awards.

The MVP of the league has almost always played more games than this threshold, because voters factor it into their calculus unless it’s a year where every top player misses chunks of time. The same goes for the other awards, but All-NBA is, in particular, a unique set of circumstances because you might be able to argue for a few guys having put together more complete seasons than someone, but if someone leads the league in assists and plays in 60 games like Haliburton might, that guy has earned a third-team selection probably more than someone that played 66 games with a considerably lesser resume. The league won’t care because they look like they are being hard on load management and the players did agree to it in negotiations, but the potential issues that were always obvious certainly seem like they are going to come to fruition this season.

The ongoing feud between Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Though Meg herself hasn’t directly commented on the matter, nor called Minaj out by name, Minaj and her fans believed certain parts of Meg’s latest single, “Hiss” were aimed at her. Over the weekend, Minaj responded to “Hiss” with a Megan-aimed diss track called “Big Foot.” All the while, the Barbz have reportedly been trolling Twitter users decrying Minaj, and have been said to be doxxing fans and collaborators of Meg.

As a result, the Houston police department and local authorities have reportedly gotten involved in the matter. Over the weekend, the address of the gravesite of Megan’s mother, Holly Thomas — who died of brain cancer in 2019 — was shared online. TMZ reported that Houston authorities have amped up security after Barbz had reportedly threatened to deface the gravesite.

The publication notes that security “will continue to monitor the situation as they take all matters regarding safety and security seriously.”

At the time of writing, no incidents have been reported at the gravesite, however, the cemetery reportedly remains on “high alert.”

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Hasn’t Bob Odenkirk been through enough without discovering he has ties to the Royal Family? Apparently not. Per Rolling Stone, the beloved actor appeared on an upcoming episode of Finding Your Roots, where host Henry Louis Gates Jr. had an unusually unexpected surprise for him: King Charles III is his 11th cousin.

What was the erstwhile Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman/Gene Takavic’s reaction? Laughter, at first, and saying, “That is crazy.”

He then elaborated. “I’m an American. I’m not a monarchist. I don’t believe in, uh, that,” Odenkirk said. “You know, I feel like it’s a little twisted. I understand why society built itself around monarchs and leaders, and they passed them down through generations.”

He added, “I understand that goes through every society, every civilization. But I think that we’ve gotten to a better place with democracy and we should keep going down that road.”

The news was especially a shock because the relation comes from his father’s side. Odenkirk didn’t know much about his dad, who left the family when he was 15. Gates explained that the connection was pretty distant, that it was his father’s fifth great-grandfather who was born out of wedlock to Maria Catharina Bein and the Duke of Plön. Therein lies the mystery of how the current King of England is related to one-half of Mr. Show with Bob and David.

So congrats? Although it appears the news wasn’t all that welcome, as Odenkirk sounds like he agrees with the late Anthony Bourdain about the monarchy.

The Finding Your Roots episode where Odenkirk has his mind blown airs on PBS on Tuesday, January 30.

(Via Rolling Stone)

Over the years, Paramore and SZA have shown each other much love. Back in 2018, Paramore covered SZA’s “20 Something,” a song from her debut album CTRL during their After Laughter tour. SZA praised the cover, and continued to maintain a friendship with the band.

Today (January 30), SZA played a game of rapid fire, answering quick questions from fans for Apple Music on TikTok. She answered a question from a fan, who asked if she’d collaborate with Paramore.

She then confirmed that fans can indeed look forward to a collaboration between the two of them.

“Yeah. Soon, soon,” SZA said in response to the question. “It’s in the works.”

SZA did not indicate if the collab would appear on her upcoming album, Lana, however, she did share that “the era” of her sophomore album SOS is “over.”

“The era, for me, is before the album comes out,” says SZA. “That era of my life is over. This version — I don’t know. That story is still writing itself.”

As fans know, SZA’s pen game never disappoints. So what ever other stories she has in the works, we can’t wait to hear.

You can see a clip of the Q&A above.

Few watching the maiden episode of Westworld could have seen the show’s final twist: It was cancelled. A year and change later, there’s still no word on whether there will be some belated finale. (What’s more, HBO poured salt on the wound by removing it from its streamer.) As is, though, there is no proper ending for the show, and it still haunts at least one of its stars to this day.

The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Evan Rachel Wood, who played Dolores Abernathy, the titular park’s oldest host. The actress said that after they shot the Season 4 finale, she asked creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan where the show was headed next. They wouldn’t tell her then. And they never did.

“I asked the creators after we got canceled, ‘Can you please just tell me how you’re going to end?’ And they wouldn’t tell me,” Wood recalled, laughing. “I think because, I don’t know, maybe somehow, someway, in some iteration we’ll get to finish it, but I still don’t know. It does still keep me up at night.”

Wood said the way Joy and Nolan always kept everyone was maddening:

“It was devastating in a lot of ways because, first of all, they don’t tell us where the show is going. We were just always told, ‘We know how the show ends,’ when we started,” Wood explains. “They weren’t writing it as we went along. They had an idea, and we were all just on a bed of nails waiting to see and hear what the conclusion of this was. What it all meant.

“We didn’t get to have that and so after building an arc and a character for almost 10 years and not getting the payoff at the end to see where it was all going — I think for us and the audience, it was awful in a lot of ways,” Wood adds.

So that stinks. But who knows? Maybe there’ll be a belated movie à la another prematurely ended HBO program, Deadwood.

(Via THR)