Month: April 2024

It’s remarkable that canines have co-evolved with humans to the point where dogs not only serve as our beloved pets but also, sometimes, as our professional companions.

Dogs can be trained to guard, protect and sniff out everything from drugs to bombs to specific suspects. Many police departments have a K-9 unit for this purpose, using specially trained dogs—most often shepherds and retrievers, but other breeds as well—to aid in police work.

One of those dogs, a German shepherd named Indy, has spent the past nine years working alongside his handler, Sergeant Barry Sullivan, in Trophy Club, Texas. Indy retired on March 26, 2024, and a video of Sullivan’s reaction to his official end of service announcement has brought millions to tears.

It’s natural—necessary, even—for a handler to bond with a K-9 partner, and Sullivan and Indy have made a strong team.

“He has been the most amazing partner and I was blessed to have him with me,” Sullivan tells Upworthy. “Always had my back and there was always a strong sense of comfort knowing he was there.”

Hearing Indy’s long list of accomplishments during his K-9 tenure is impressive. Not only has he assisted in drug busts and apprehensions, but he’s also served as an ambassador to the community. It’s clear from the dispatcher’s voice and Sullivan holding back tears that Indy is a beloved member of his local community, both within law enforcement and without.

Watch the emotional announcement on Sullivan’s TikTok page:

@bgsully

After 9 amazing years with this handsome fella, he gets to enjoy retirement at home with me and my family! Thank you all for your love and support! #k9 #k9unit #policek9 #policek9unit #k9handler #policek9handler #k9softiktok #gsdoftiktok #k9retirement #k9retiredlife

Indy has become part of Sullivan’s family and will continue to live with them in his retirement. But going to work every day just won’t be the same for Sullivan.

“Indy has been my steadfast partner, a member of my family, and the heart of many of our community initiatives,” Sullivan shared before the retirement. “Every day with him has been an adventure, from his very first patrol to his spirited kitchen escapades.”

However, Sullivan knows it’s time for Indy to enjoy his leisure time after a long-for-a-dog career helping humans.

“I’m not just losing a colleague; I’m gaining more time with a friend whose bravery and companionship have been constant,” said Sullivan. “Indy is more than ready for his retirement, and I am honored to ensure that his golden years are as rewarding as his service years have been for us all.”

People were moved by Sullivan’s tender reaction and impressed to hear Indy’s stellar record of service, which includes the apprehension of numerous suspects and the seizure of over 4 tons of narcotics.

“This pup did more in his life than most people,” wrote one commenter, to which Sullivan replied, “You’re not wrong.”

“May he get to nap on the softest couch, eating the best treats and lots of belly rubs in his retirement!” wrote another.

“I couldn’t be that dispatcher I’m over here bawling my eyes out,” wrote another.

“This is crazy…..why am I crying at this? the dog didn’t die its just retiring from a long dedicated service, so what is it that’s breaking me so hard!?” shared another.

“I’m crying here in the UK,” shared another. “Thank you K9 Indy for your service. Hope you enjoy a rest now.”

We all love a good doggo, and Indy is clearly one of the good ones. You can follow Indy’s story on Sergeant Sullivan’s TikTok page.

A TikTok creator known as Hub posted a video that inspired an interesting discussion about living the 9-to-5 life. The video, set to some hypnotic, soothing music shows Hub, a confessed “normal guy doing normal things,” going through a typical workday.

The video shows his routine, which he seems to go through every day. The twist is that he enjoys it and finds it comfortable.

In the video, the 29-year-old from Dallas, Texas, who works for a Fortune 500 company, seems to really take pleasure in eating his morning donut and having lunch at Chiili’s, which isn’t exactly foodie fare. He also unwinds after a day at the office by taking his dog Benny to the park to get some exercise.

Celebrating the typical 9-to-5 work day on TikTok seems to go against the platform’s basic nature. Social media is usually where people brag about how exciting their lives are. It’s not the type of place where people share their genuine love for lunch at Chili’s.

This is basically selling your soul, itu2019s so pointless

— (@)

The video struck some as depressing, and many saw Hub as little more than a cog in a corporate system. Is a life that’s so regimented with virtually no spontaneity really worth living?

“Naa this dePRESSED me,” Maeve Nash wrote in the comments. “As someone who left corporate 13 years ago, this video validates that decision. I remember the sad leftover pizza lunches,” Hiram added.

“The life I want doesn’t include working till I’m 80 to enjoy the last 5 years,” Brigman Bell wrote.

However, many people found the video affirming because it showed a man who has found peace and comfort in adhering to his routine, which he genuinely enjoys. Some folks out there who detest their 9-to-5 routine may learn to appreciate it after seeing that others have found ways to make it enjoyable.

“Man, your TikTok’s slow me down and are such a great reminder to appreciate the small things,” Hayden Tindal wrote in the comments. “I seriously rate this content. It’s a good reminder to appreciate the little things in life!” Will Charter added.

“I think what he meant was just to find what works for you and stick to it. Life doesn’t have to be an endless cycle of looking for something,” Sushibae wrote.

The video is a great Rorschach test for people to project their own meaning onto. It either shows a man living a quiet life of desperation who is missing out on one of its greatest joys, variety, or it can be an example of a man who has found what works for him and has created a stress-free existence that he enjoys.

When asked whether he’d ever want to leave his 9-to-5 job in exchange for making a living as an influencer, Hub wasn’t interested. “I love my 9-5 as it provides health insurance, steady income, 401k, structure, career growth opportunities, etc. I enjoy the people I work with and genuinely like the work that I do,” he said in a follow-up video.

Amaarae’s second album Fountain Baby has taken on a life of its own. Nearly a year after its release, the 14-track project is still heavily in rotation by fans near and far. Additionally, it’s helped to take Amaarae to all corners of the world, most recently for a performance at Dreamville Festival earlier this month.

With every spin of Fountain Baby, there’s something new to love which explains the recent surge in popularity of “Angels In Tibet.” The track was recently crowned as the fourth single from the album, joining favorites “Reckless & Sweet,” “Co-Star,” and “Wasted Eyes.” It also received a mass remix treatment thanks to a new EP that delivered new takes of the song from the likes of Juls, Kaytranada, and Aliyah’s Interlude.

The magic of Fountain Baby also comes alive onstage where Amaarae has the opportunity to present the album in a new way. The in-person experience grants the singer a control panel with all the necessary levers, nooks, and crannies needed to reimagine her album is a multitude of ways. Creating Fountain Baby is one thing and crafting a live experience behind it is another tall task, but it’s one that Amaarae was excited to accomplish from the very beginning.

Following her performance at Dreamville Festival, we caught up with Amaarae for a conversation about live performances of Fountain Baby records and what her dream concert experience for the album would look like.

When making a project like Fountain Baby, how much thought goes into what performing these songs might sound like while also maintain the cohesiveness of the project?

I thought about it a lot. When I made this project, I really went into it thinking about the performance aspect and how to really translate the songs beautifully to live. My first album, when we would do it live, it just felt very soft, it wouldn’t knock on the stage. So every time I was with the guys, I’d be like, “Yo, the drums gotta knock,” cause when we take this to the stage, people need to be slapped in the face with it. That that was a big thing, making sure those drums are heavy and you feel them, and [that] those synths are really in your face and pulsate through your body. That was a big thing for me, thinking about how it would translate live.

What’s a song from the project that made you say, “Oh, I cannot wait to perform this!” once it was done?

Probably “Co-Star” or “Princess Going Digital.”

What are some things you try to emphasize in order to really bring this album to life when you perform it?

I think lights are really important. Every time I write a song or make an album, I think about color. That’s one of the first things that I think about. So, making sure that the lights feel as intentional and as powerful as the music, and it feels almost like a beating heart and a pulse that works through the music is really important for me. I [also] think about certain live elements that I like to bring to stage like drums — mixing live drums and programmed drums to make sure that they really knock — and synths. As I get bigger and bigger and as production gets bigger and bigger, I want to have huge synths where you can really feel the power of music. Also, recently: movement. I didn’t used to be much of a dancer, I’m not a crazy dancer, I’m not a crazy dancer at all, but I kind of seen the value in finding your own swag, what works for you movement-wise, and really using that to tell the story of the music as well. I’ve enjoyed finding my own swag as a dancer, I think I have my own brand now.

Describe what would be the perfect Fountain Baby concert experience. Who would be the artists opening for and performing with you? Where would you have it? What other elements would you have? There are no limitations here.

Think about the biggest waterfall on Earth, and if I can build a stage in the waterfall where it’s seamless with the waterfall? That would be fire. I like my openers so far. I think I would stick with the openers that I have now. Talia Goddess is crazy, Amindi is crazy as well. I would have a fire DJ open for me because I think the a really great DJ can just set the tone and really prepare the audience for what’s about to come next. So I would have a really amazing DJ open up for me and yeah, I would love to do it in a waterfall, that would be spiritual to imagine.

What’s the message, feeling, or emotion that you hope people leave with after seeing you perform?

I think belief in self and the confidence to make choices that benefit them the most. I’m not a perfect person. and as I’ve been performing the album, I’ve really been listening to the lyrics and I’m like man, I was really going through something there and I was really in a shift and experiencing so much. Now, I’m realizing how much that album wasn’t even about love or lust, but it was about discovery of my own self through the good, the bad, [and] the evil, and here I am still standing. So here y’all should be still standing and we should all go forth and motherf*cking prosper.

Angels In Tibet (Remix Pack) is out now via Golden Angel LLC/Interscope Records. Find out more information here.

In a perfect world, The Nice Guys would be a franchise with as many movies as James Bond (Alan Ritchson, the American James Bond, can play Ryan Gosling‘s swole brother). But sadly, Shane Black’s extremely good comedic neo-noir starring Gosling and Russell Crowe underperformed at the box office. It debuted at #4 at the box office on its way to a $70 million worldwide gross on a $50 million budget. Sigh.

You know what film (“film”) finished #1 the weekend it came out? The Angry Birds Movie. The movie based on a mobile game that no one has played in years is one of the reasons why, to quote Ryan Gosling’s favorite artist, we can’t have nice things.

In an interview with Comic Book, Gosling was asked about the possibility of The Nice Guys 2. “So much of a sequel, I think, is decided by the opening weekend of a movie, and we opened up against Angry Birds,” he said. “So Angry Birds just, just destroyed us. Angry Birds got a sequel.”

This news make me as angry as some sort of winged animal!

Back in 2022, Black revealed that The Nice Guys was originally pitched as a television show. “We caught the characters, but the plot was totally different. It was set in present day, and no one wanted to buy it. We had to look elsewhere,” he told Slash Film. Can’t MTV spare just one hour of Ridiculousness every week and turn it into The Nice Guys: The TV Show instead? The people demand more handsome goofball Ryan Gosling.

(Via Comic Book)

Eddie Vedder has turned his Ohana Festival into an annual event to look forward to for folks in the Dana Point, California area. It was announced today that the 2024 installment is coming from September 27 to 29, and headlining across those three days, respectively, will be Pearl Jam, Neil Young And Crazy Horse, and then Pearl Jam again.

Aside from the headliners, the fest’s first day will feature Garbage, Maren Morris, Crowded House, Ryan Beatty, Dogstar, Flipturn, Gabriels, Jaime Wyatt, Linka Moja, and Pillow Queens. The second day will see Turnpike Troubadors, Black Pumas, Jenny Lewis, Glen Hansard, Cat Power (performing songs from her Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert album), The Moss, Ibibio Sound Machine, Joe Wong, Nite Creatures, Goldie Boutilier, and Very Nice Person. The final day includes Alanis Morissette, Idles, The Breeders, Peter Cat Recording Co., Kim Gordon, La Lom, La Santa Cecilia, Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers, Bad Nerves, and John Cruz.

As for tickets, there’s a pre-sale that starts on April 25 at 10 a.m. PT, and you can sign up for a pre-sale code now, here. Aside from 1-day and 3-day tickets, VIP tickets will also be available. If tickets remain after the pre-sale, a public on-sale will follow.

Megan Thee Stallion is the latest female star to be hit with a lawsuit for workplace harassment after a camera operator she employed filed a suit claiming she forced him to watch her have sex in a moving car. According to NBC News Emilio Garcia filed his lawsuit today in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claiming Thee Stallion bullied him into silence over the incident.

Garcia claims that while in Ibiza, Spain with Megan in June 2022, he accompanied the Houston rapper in an SUV with three other women. He said that she had sex with one of them in the moving vehicle, and that later, Megan questioned him about it, ordering, “Don’t ever discuss what you saw.” Garcia also asserts that during the trip, the rapper fat-shamed him, calling him a “fat bitch” and telling him to “spit your food out.”

He says after the trip, his compensation structure was changed from a monthly flat rate to work-for-hire, requiring him to submit an invoice after each job; the change was followed by a reduction in assignments. Garcia wants more than six figures for “unpaid wages, unpaid overtime wages and other employee benefits,” as he quit his job in 2019 to work for Meg full-time, but was classified as an independent contractor.

In August 2023, singer Lizzo was also sued for workplace harassment by former dancers who claimed she forced them into a team-building night at a strip club. She has since requested to have the case dismissed.

Indie funk-rocker Brittany Howard and British soul star Michael Kiwanuka have announced a co-headlining joint tour running for 14 dates this fall. They’ll be supported by guitarist-composer Yasmin Williams.

Howard is currently on her own solo tour through the end of April, with a slate of festival dates around the world throughout the summer that includes Bonnaroo, Glastonbury, and Pitchfork.

Tickets will go on sale on Friday, April 26 at 10AM local time, with a pre-sale going up on Wednesday, April 24. You can get tickets and more info here.

04/23 Tulsa, OK / Cain’s Ballroom ^
04/24 Kanas City, MO / The Truman ^
04/26 St. Louis, MO / The Pageant ^
04/27 Oxford, MS / Double Decker Arts Festival
04/28 Austin, TX / Austin Blues Festival
06/15 Manchester, TN / Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
06/20 Milwaukee, WI / Summerfest
06/22 Vienna, VA / Wolf Trap’s Out & About Festival
06/26-30 Somerset, England @ Glastonbury Festival
07/02 London, England @ Koko
07/03 Lytham St Annes, England @ Lytham Festival
07/05 Dublin, Ireland @ Marlay Park #
07/06 Manchester, England @ Albert Hall
07/07 London, England @ London Finsbury Park #
07/09 Chepstow, Wales @ Chepstow Summer Sessions #
07/10 Glasgow, Scotland @ Glasgow Green #
07/12 Rotterdam, Netherlands @ North Sea Jazz Festival
07/13 Bruges, Belgium @ Cactus Festival
07/14 Montreux, Switzerland @ Montreux Jazz Festival
07/21 Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
08/02 Newport, RI @ Newport Jazz Festival
08/03 Montreal, Quebec @ Osheaga Festival
08/11 Lyons, CO @ Rocky Mountain Folks Festival
09/29 Philadelphia, PA @ The Met +*
09/30 Boston, MA @ Roadrunner +*
10/02 Port Chester, NY @ The Capitol Theatre +*
10/03 New York, NY @ SummerStage +*
10/06 Saint Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre +*
10/08 Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom +*
10/10 Boise, ID @ Outlaw Field at Idaho Botanical Garden +*
10/11 Troutdale, OR @ McMenamins Edgefield Concerts +*
10/12 Vancouver, British Columbia @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre +*
10/14 Jacksonville, OR @ Britt Festival Pavilion +*
10/15 Seattle, WA @ The Paramount +*
10/17 Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre +*
10/18 Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre +*
10/19 Paso Robles, CA @ Vina Robles Amphitheatre +*

Everybody wants to see themselves in a positive light. That’s the key to understanding Jonah Berger’s simple tactic that makes people 30% more likely to do what you ask. Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the bestselling author of “Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way.”

Berger explained the technique using a Stanford University study involving preschoolers. The researchers messed up a classroom and made two similar requests to groups of 5-year-olds to help clean up.

One group was asked, “Can you help clean?” The other was asked, “Can you be a helper and clean up?” The kids who were asked if they wanted to be a “helper” were 30% more likely to want to clean the classroom. The children weren’t interested in cleaning but wanted to be known as “helpers.”

Berger calls the reframing of the question as turning actions into identities.

“It comes down to the difference between actions and identities. We all want to see ourselves as smart and competent and intelligent in a variety of different things,” Berger told Big Think. “But rather than describing someone as hardworking, describing them as a hard worker will make that trait seem more persistent and more likely to last. Rather than asking people to lead more, tell them, ‘Can you be a leader?’ Rather than asking them to innovate, can you ask them to ‘Be an innovator’? By turning actions into identities, you can make people a lot more likely to engage in those desired actions.”

Berger says that learning to reframe requests to appeal to people’s identities will make you more persuasive.

“Framing actions as opportunities to claim desired identities will make people more likely to do them,” Berger tells CNBC Make It. “If voting becomes an opportunity to show myself and others that I am a voter, I’m more likely to do it.”

This technique doesn’t just work because people want to see themselves in a positive light. It also works for the opposite. People also want to avoid seeing themselves being portrayed negatively.

“Cheating is bad, but being a cheater is worse. Losing is bad, being a loser is worse,” Berger says.

The same tactic can also be used to persuade ourselves to change our self-concept. Saying you like to cook is one thing, but calling yourself a chef is an identity. “I’m a runner. I’m a straight-A student. We tell little kids, ‘You don’t just read, you’re a reader,’” Berger says. “You do these things because that’s the identity you hold.”

Berger’s work shows how important it is to hone our communication skills. By simply changing one word, we can get people to comply with our requests more effectively. But, as Berger says, words are magic and we have to use thgem skillfully. “We think individual words don’t really matter that much. That’s a mistake,” says Berger. “You could have excellent ideas, but excellent ideas aren’t necessarily going to get people to listen to you.”

This article originally appeared on 2.11.24

Kurt Sutter has been surreptitiously filming The Abandons, a Western series, for Netflix, and with that progress has come further news on the cast. Not only will we see female powerhouses portrayed by Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey but also a Sons Of Anarchy favorite, Ryan Hurst (who portrayed the doomed Opie), as well as Mayans M.C. survivor Clayton Cardenas.

Speaking of that biker saga (and the presence of at least two of its actors), it sure seems like there’s a buried secret within the vast collection of characters. This could turn out to be something like a mere Easter egg, or there might be some built-in lore that Sutter fans will dig. As it turns out, two characters happen to brandish a recognizable last name: Teller.

Nick Robinson (Maid; Love, Victor) will fill the shoes of Elias Teller, and Diana Silvers (Ma; Booksmart) steps in as Dahlia Teller. Could these characters be related to Jax and John Teller of Sons Of Anarchy fame? It’s entirely possible that Sutter is linking up his most notorious work, which could be a way to keep adding little nuggets to a world where he got the boot from FX. Or Sutter might simply be f*cking with us. Either scenario seems plausible, but seeing Hurst in the Elias Teller role would make it even weirder.

From The Abandons synopsis:

“As a group of diverse, outlier families pursue their Manifest Destiny in 1850s Oregon, a corrupt force of wealth and power, coveting their land, tries to force them out. These abandoned souls, the kind of lost souls living on the fringe of society, unite their tribes to form a family and fight back. In this bloody process, ‘justice’ is stretched beyond the boundaries of the law. The Abandons will explore that fine line between survival and law, the consequences of violence, and the corrosive power of secrets, as this family fights to keep their land.”

Fingers crossed for a 2025 release.

Robot Dreams was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2024 Oscars, but it hasn’t come out yet. What gives? Well, the animated film, about a dog and his robot buddy living in New York City in the 1980s that premiered to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival, received an awards-qualifying run in limited theaters last year. Very limited. Thankfully, Robot Dreams is coming out soon, and Neon released a new trailer to get you excited.

You can watch it above.

Robot Dreams was directed by Pablo Berger, who talked to Deadline about making a dialogue-free (but not noise-free) film. “I lived in New York for years and something that can identify New York is that it’s extremely noisy and full of all kind of alarms, sirens and also the sound of the cars of the time,” he said. “It was very, very important that the audience, when they come to see Robot Dreams in the cinema, not only have a visual experience, but also sensorial.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Dog lives in Manhattan and he’s tired of being alone. One day he decides to build himself a robot, a companion. Their friendship blossoms, until they become inseparable, to the rhythm of 80’s NYC. One summer night, DOG, with great sadness, is forced to abandon ROBOT at the beach.

Robot Dreams, which is based on Sara Varon’s graphic novel, opens in theaters on May 31.