Month: March 2024

Humans don’t often think about where their food comes from. Most people head to the grocery store with their biggest concern being, “does it really matter if I get organic and free-range?” Unfortunately meat doesn’t originate from the refrigerated aisle at your local grocery store. It comes from animals that are raised to eventually land on someone’s dinner plate.

A group of cows in St. Louis, Missouri had been prepped to meet their final destination at the slaughterhouse when Chico, the apparent ringleader had bigger dreams than being a cheeseburger. The determined cow busted through three fences to leave the slaughterhouse, freeing five other cows.

Once the cows were outside of the fenced in area, they decided to play a game of “try to catch the cows” with the humans. The small group of cows ran through traffic, determined not to get caught while simultaneously catching the attention of the community.

Imagine commuting to work and being stopped by runaway cows. Chico and his buddies even made it to the evening news with their unbelievably daring adventure. Unfortunately, the group eventually were rounded up and taken back to whence they came to be slaughtered and processed. But the community was having none of it. They fell in love with those thousand pound mooing puppies and decided to save them from becoming food.

A group of people started a GoFundMe to raise money for Chico and his band of merry mooers to be spared from. slaughter. After raising the money and convincing the owner to not kill the cows, it became a race against time to find them a cow sanctuary. Sadly, none came forward and they were all about to get back in line with the others when The Gentle Barn decided to step in.

The owners of The Gentle Barn live in California but were determined to save the cows, so they opened a Gentle Barn cow sanctuary in Missouri. After a brief stay at a foster home while they got things worked out, Chico and friends went to their forever home.

Ellie Laks, The Gentle Barn Founder explained to Almost 30 Podcast that she knew they needed to open the Missouri location after meeting Chico for the first time.

“I went to St. Louis. Went to the foster home, got out of the car, walked over to the pasture fence and about 150 feet away the cows were in a line looking at me. The leader, Chico, he crossed the 150 feet until he was standing in front of me and I dropped to my knees and I started weeping,” Laks says.

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That was the moment she knew that The Gentle Barn would be expanding, “they’ve come with a message that we have to share with the world and we have to help them.” Chico and his pals are now living their best lives playing at their sanctuary and giving “cow hug therapy.” That’s right, members of the public can take a ride to St. Louis to snuggle with the cows, which sounds a lot more uncomfortable than it is.

These gentle giant cows knew they had another purpose. When people come to see them, they come and lay their heads in the laps of humans and snuggle up like they’re going to start purring. So a cow loving person can come get all of the cow hugs and kisses they’d like.

Does time really heal all wounds? That’s the big question in a harrowing story posted to Reddit by a 53-year-old man who has had a very challenging life but now just wants to know love.

The story was shared by a user named Fancy-Anywhere-4733, who we’ll refer to in the story as FA for short.

FA’s mother died when he was 12 years old and 2 years later, his father married a woman named Ashley who had two kids, Mark (14) and Emily (12). “I got along with Ashley and Emily really well, but Mark, not so much so. He and I were always getting into arguments and fights,” FA recalls. This rivalry came to a head the next year when both boys fell for the same girl, Lisa, that FA began to date, much to Mark’s annoyance.

Then, there came the lie that would change his life forever.

“One day after my 16th birthday, my stepmom was putting away my laundry and started yelling,” FA recalled. “This was awkward because my girlfriend Lisa was there. We all ran, thinking the worst. When we got to my room, my stepmom was holding several pairs of my sister’s underwear and yelling at me why they were in my drawer.”

“I had no answer as I’d never seen them before,” he continued. “Of course, no one believed me. No matter how much protesting I did.”

Then Mark piped up, saying he always caught me staring at his sister, thought it was creepy and caught me once saying I wish I could marry her. Obviously lying, but that was all it took. Lisa slapped me and called me a perv and told me we were done and walked out.”

FA’s dad grabbed him by the arm and threw him out of the house, screaming that he wouldn’t “put his daughter at risk from a perv.” FA cried and screamed that it was all a lie, but no one believed him. “I told him I had nowhere to go and he said that wasn’t his problem, then closed the door,” FA wrote.

FA lived on the streets for two years doing “what I had to do” to survive. He admits that therapy later helped him get over the experiences he had to endure to get by. He eventually found a job at a boxing gym a few states away and began training in the sport, which helped him channel his rage.

Eventually, at 35, he met a 20-year-old girl, married her and became a master’s electrician. They have 4 kids and have been happily married for 15 years. With the help of a therapist, he was able to put his old life behind him and embrace his new family with all his heart.

But then, 37 years after being kicked out of the house, he received an email from Emily, his stepsister. Evidently, Mark got drunk one night at the bar and bragged about how he set FA up by planting the underwear in his drawer. Lisa, who is now married to Mark, heard the story and reached out to Emily so she could know the truth.

Emily found Mark’s email address and reached out stating that the family wanted to meet up face to face, apologize to him and make up for the lost time. “I’m, however indifferent to the idea,” FA admitted. “Like, I have no ill feelings towards her. She obviously was young and had no real say in the matter. But with lots and lots of therapy, I learned to let go of that hate and anger and to let go of them. As well with all the love I receive from my wife, kids and in-laws, it’s all I really need.”

Even though FA wasn’t asking for advice, he got a lot of it in the comments and really appreciated the outside opinions.

A day after posting his story, FA has yet to respond to his family, but he found a suggestion he liked. DaughterofLilith wrote a response for him that reads:

“Thank you for finally believing in me, it only took 30 long years. Because of Mark’s and my Father’s despicable actions on that day, I lived on the streets for 2 years doing all sorts of desperate things to survive. But now I have a wonderful life, with an amazing family. My wife is my biggest supporter and friend. We have 4 beautiful daughters that no one from my family, especially my Father, will ever know. As a parent, I would never expose my precious children to such vile, hateful and terrible human beings like Mark or my Father. I have learned to move on with my life and heal the wounds that they caused me. I have forgiven them for their reprehensible actions that day but forgiveness does not require me to allow them back into my life. Thank you for informing me of Mark’s confession but do not ever reach out to me again. I no longer consider my family of origin as any kind of family at all. I created a new and better one.”

“Wow… you’ve nailed it right on the head,” FA responded. “Outside of indifference to them, this would make a great response. Thanks for taking the time to read and post this well-thought-out comment.”

In the end, posting about his experience on Reddit helped FA better understand a complicated situation. “Didn’t really come here for advice, but to share my story, but I think it was wise that you all have,” he wrote. “It has given me an outside perspective.” But, whether he reaches out to his former family or not, seems like a footnote in the story. The great part of FA’s journey is that he learned not only to forgive but to move on from his trauma with an open heart and create a new life with the family of his choice.

Welp, it looks like Jon Bon Jovi fans are the ones livin’ on a prayer. Despite TikTok users’ demented attempt to kill the “Legendary” singer off, Jon Bon Jovi is alive and well. In fact, the iconic musician is set to release a new album, Forever, this June. However, if you hoped to catch the fresh material live in concert, you could be out of luck.

During a chat with Mix 104.1 Boston, Jon Bon Jovi revealed that his time on the road could be over when asked about shows to support the forthcoming project. “I don’t know about a tour,” he said. “It is my desire to do a tour next year, but I’m just still recovering from a major surgery.”

In 2022, Jon Bon Jovi underwent vocal cord surgery to repair damage that had been done over time. The news came out while promoting hhis Hulu docuseries, Thank You, Good Night. Later in the conversation with the radio station, he went on to talk about his recovery journey thus far. “Although I’m well on the road to recovery and was able to take my time and do a song a day when I made the record,” he said. “My need, want, desire is to be able to do two-and-a-half hours a night, four nights a week for months on end. And so I’m working towards that goal.”

Watch the full interview above.

Forever is out 6/7 via EMI. Find more information here.

Kristen Stewart has a new movie out. It’s called Love Lies Bleeding and it’s a romantic thriller in which she plays a shy gym manager who gets involved with an ambitious bodybuilder (Katy O’Brian). The film is noted for its in-your-face scenes of intimacy; Stewart herself has called out “run-of-the-mill” movie sex scenes, which Bleeding does not have. Alas, one moviegoer has taken things a bit too far.

According to Variety, a man was arrested Thursday night after committing, shall we say, lewd behavior at a screening of the film at MJR Southgate Cinema in suburban Detroit. The story went viral, but what was he doing exactly? Per Variety:

A NSFW photo of a man asleep in a reclining movie theater chair with his penis exposed was posted by Twitter / X user @UglyXKorean, who captioned the image, “Went to go see ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ and this drunk guy jacked himself off to sleep.” On the table next to the chair were several items, including two small bottles of liquor, a pack of cigarettes and his ticket.

As of Friday the man had not yet been arraigned and no charges had been brought forth. An investigation into the matter is ongoing.

Stewart, who formally came out as gay in 2017 while hosting SNL (amidst slamming her most famous online stalker, then-president Donald Trump), recently caught some conservative flack over her Rolling Stone cover promoting the film. To those people, Stewart had a simple message: “F*ck you.”

(Via Variety)

Last week’s Oscars weren’t that boring. John Cena got (mostly) naked. John Mulaney talked at length about Field of Dreams. There was a dog (and then subsequent dog conspiracy theories). And at the end of the evening, the Best Picture trophy went to the most popular film to win it since The Return of the King. (The ratings were still so-so.) Even those fancy post-ceremony parties generated some over-the-top news.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Bill Maher reportedly got so pissed that he wasn’t invited to a certain Oscars party that he fired his longtime talent agency. That agency is CAA, whose clients include such newly-minted Oscar-winners as Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Cillian Murphy, plus nominees Margot Robbiem Ryan Gosling, Jeffrey Wright, Annette Bening, Carey Mulligan, Emily Blunt, Danielle Brooks, and Jodie Foster.

They used to have the Real Time guy, too, but sources say that he was not on the list for CAA CEO Bryan Lourd’s private Oscar party, which was held at his home last Saturday, the night before the big show. That, apparently, was the last straw.

CAA have repped Maher for more than two decades. The news comes after Real Time was renewed on HBO for not one but two seasons.

Speaking of Oscars, on last week’s Real Time Maher chatted with Killers of the Flower Moon nominee Robert De Niro, who once again tore Donald Trump a new one. Did Trump let his comments slide? Need one ask?

(Via THR)

It’s been almost a year since Tucker Carlson was fired by Fox News, and he’s clearly been living his best life. Or maybe not. Since taking his toys over to Twitter/X, the far right rabble rouser has hit some sad lows, including interviewing such shady figures as a guy who claimed to have sex with Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin. Now he’s been utterly duped by a couple of well-known pranksters who claimed to have dirt on the Kate Middleton mishegoss.

Per Deadline, Josh Pieters — cofounder of Goon Squad Productions — recently dropped a video in which he and his partner Archie Manners laid out how the two of them fooled Carlson’s team. Fooled them into thinking what? That Manners was a former Kensington Palace staffer who claimed to be responsible for the infamous/mysterious doctored photo of the Princess of Wales.

How easy was it to dupe Tucker and gang? Pretty darn easy! It mostly involved faking some Royal-looking documents, featuring a definitely legit-sounding clause that should Manners fail his probationary period he would have to amputate one of his limbs. But it worked and suddenly Manners was sitting in a London studio chatting with Carlson virtually.

“We’ve done our best to verify that your identity is what you say it is,” Carlson assured Manners in his introduction. “You’re not a fake [Alexei] Navalny or doing a prank.”

Manners then went on to boast that he’d been “fired for negligence” for the botched fake photo. He said the photo was actually snapped over the holidays and that he had to edit out a Christmas tree in the background. By way of defense, Manners claimed it wasn’t really his fault, that the job of making a fake family photo involving Middleton was ”almost too big to do.”

Carlson bought it hook, line, and sinker, calling Manners’ made-up tale an “amazing story.” Afterwards Tucker told him that their chat was “great.”

The episode, Carlson said, would air sometime next week, but in an interview with Deadline, Manners said he and Pieters decided to drop theirs first because they didn’t want Carlson to spew nonsense to his 12.6 million Twitter/X followers. Manners also opened up about how he was able to school Carlson, saying he stoked his ego with the “bullsh*t” claim that they were giving him an exclusive.

The Middleton fake photo business has been one of last week’s more enigmatic news stories. The princess has been largely AWOL since a “planned abdominal surgery” in mid-January, which has driven Royal obsessees who track their every movement crazy. After the Family, hoping to allay fears that something bad had befallen Middleton, released what looked like a family photo featuring her and her kids, that backfired after it was quickly found to be doctored. This has led much of social media turned into Oliver Stone, and it’s caused John Oliver to fume that he’s been sucked back into British nonsense all over again.

(Via Deadline)

The streaming services, particularly Netflix (with The Night Agent) and Amazon (with Mr. And Mrs. Smith), have clearly been attempting to outdo each other with addictive espionage shows. Apple TV+, however, has scored the same audience (and Dad TV addicts) with a subversive option with Slow Horses.

The bingeable show stars Gary Oldman as a failed and cantankerous spymaster, Jackson Lamb, who also happens to fart. A lot. Lamb leads a group of British intelligence f*ck-ups who have been relegated to Slough House, which is where inept agents go to serve out career purgatory. The show is a refreshing change-up from polished, suit-wearing spies who are impeccably groomed and sip martinis (shaken, not stirred, obviously) in between daring mission phases while looking impossibly sexy. The series is such a hit that it’s already been renewed for a fifth season (a remarkable feat on a still-fledgling streaming service, which launched in fall 2019), but we’re only here to talk about the fourth installment, so let’s get down to bumbling business.

Plot

Slow Horses adapts Mick Herronthe’s Slough Horses, which makes pun-filled reference to Slough House, where days are intended to be drudge-filled, dull, and overall miserable. These agents, as already mentioned, have sh*t the bed on previous important missions, so they are intended to perform rote administrative tasks that won’t screw up anything important while enduring Lamb as a boss. However, that’s not how the stories go down in this series, in which these agents somehow get pulled into vital missions of the utmost importance to Britain.

In the third season finale, Lamb fabulously boobytrapped a hostage house during an especially chaotic episode that ends with River having acquired the “Footprint” file, which is seemingly destroyed near the end of the episode by River’s grandfather. However, River possessed the foresight to make copies of the secret classified file, and we are left to wonder what he will do with information that could severely damage MI5, so that will be a fine mess that will surely continue unfurling in the fourth season.

Those episodes will be (conveniently) based upon Herron’s fourth book, Spook Street, in the series. This novel picks up with River wrestling over his ex-Cold War-era spy grandfather’s descent into dementia, but there’s not much opportunity to dwell upon the situation because the dysfunctional Slough House agents must work to protect the British public (yep, oh boy) after a terror attack upon a busy shopping center.

Cast

In addition to Oldman, the show’s cast includes Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Olivia Cooke, Rosalind Eleazar, Saskia Reeves, Steven Waddington, Paul Higgins, and Jonathan Pryce.

Release Date

Apple TV+ has been fairly rapid fire on production with Season 1 arriving in April 2022, Season 2 in December 2022, and Season 4 in November 2023. With that said, Season 4 should be with us before year’s end.

Trailer

No trailer yet, man, but if you’d like to see Gary Oldman talk about James Bond’s lack of farting prowess, then you’re in luck:

Willie Nelson appeared to perform at the Luck Reunion festival in Texas on Thursday night (March 14), where he brought a surprise guest that fans have been waiting forever to see join him: none other than Kermit The Frog. The two treated the crowd to a duet of “Rainbow Connection,” as people watching sung along and appreciated the historical moment.

While Kermit’s song first appeared in The Muppets Movie all the way back in 1979, it wasn’t until 2001 that Nelson made it his own. The country legend both covered the song and titled his album after it that year — proving that he has loved the friendly frog for a very long time.

As Rolling Stone points out, Nelson and Kermit have both performed the song with other people, including the former with Kacey Musgraves and the latter with Debbie Harry, Barbra Streisand, and more. However, the two never formally crossed paths, making it a special and fun performance to have the tiny green Muppet on stage.

“Last night’s performance by @WillieNelson and @KermitTheFrog epitomized what Luck Reunion is meant to be – a true Reunion and celebration of pure collaboration,” Luck Reunion posted on social media. “Thank you, @KermitTheFrog for joining us. Safe to say that all of us are under your spell.”

Check out Willie Nelson and Kermit performing “Rainbow Connection” together here.

WWE went to Memphis on Friday night for SmackDown. This week, The Rock opened the show by cutting one of his favorite types of promos: The ones where he sits there and puts on a concert. While he didn’t have a guitar this time, Rock still had plenty of fun with the whole thing as he repeatedly made fun of Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins ahead of their match in the main event of WrestleMania XL’s first night.

Because SmackDown took place in Memphis, Rock decided to have an anecdotal line in his song by bringing up Ja Morant. The twist: It wasn’t exactly a positive one, as he mentioned Morant’s multiple firearm-related suspensions when he addressed Rollins and said “you’re simply an embarrassment son / just like Ja Morant when he’s waving a gun.”

While Rock made it a point to say that he loves Ja, this is still quite a line to drop when you’re in Memphis. Well, word eventually got back to Morant about the whole thing, so he took to Twitter and posted a GIF in response.

Morant, of course, is unable to take the floor for the Memphis Grizzlies right now due to a shoulder injury he suffered in practice earlier this season.

Joba (formerly of Brockhampton) is stepping out on his own by releasing new solo music. His first song “American Fever” recently dropped, which finds him playing it live in a studio. He was inspired to make the video after Miles Davis’ “So What” performance.

“Act like a boy / Dress like a girl at the matinee / Get down both ways / The American dream,” he sings, backed by a psychedelic and jazzy live instrumental. “I mean American fever like / Psychos / Out on the floor let the merry go / Bring it home / The American dream / I mean American fever like.”

“Fight for whatever it takes / Don’t let ‘em beat you down / Dare to believe / Might get what you need / The American dream,” Joba adds, encouraging listeners to stand up for themselves and radiating positive energy.

Throughout Joba’s time in Brockhampton, before the band came to a close in 2022, he revealed that he struggled with his father’s death — but used music as a way to continue honoring him.

Next week, Joba is also set to play a concert at Zebulon in Los Angeles, which will likely find him playing the new song for fans. For more information about his upcoming show and how to attend, visit here.

Check out Joba’s “American Fever” above.