Month: July 2024

If you go in the comments section of a post about a popular artist, there’s a solid chance that lurking in there will be fans of a different popular artist, either dissing the post subject or lauding their favorite performer. The stans are everywhere, and Paramore’s Hayley Williams is tired of it.

In a video shared on her Instagram Story yesterday (July 23), Williams said (as Stereogum notes):

Something I’ve been thinking about a lot, and why I don’t really love it… Especially in the music world, whether it’s the pop girls or any scene, really, people only give a f*ck about numbers now, and stats. And that is so lame. It’s very fun, don’t get me wrong. It’s sick. We’ve had a No. 1 album and top this and that albums, yes. That sh*t is great…

But I just remember a time when that was not so important, and that also wasn’t a gotcha for a stan-war-type of situation. Anyway, I just think it’s really f*cking annoying. My side of the internet, which is basically not really the internet, I just get to support all the pop girls. Maybe that’s privilege because I’m not a pop girl, but I just think everyone should cool it and let people make really great music and sh*t… I’m over it.

In a follow-up text post, she also noted, “witnessing stan wars makes me so happy pmore is not really in the pop world. i just get to enjoy the good sh*t thats come out this year and im sorry some of yall cant thats gotta be tough damn.”

Check out the video below.

Somehow it feels to always be an abundance of Khalid music. However, if we actually kept count (as fans have), the “Not Alone” singer’s last body of work, Scenic Drive (The Tape), hit streaming platforms in 2021. But, the wait is nearly over.

Next month, Khalid long-awaited third full-length album, Sincere, is set to official drop. Here is everything you need to know about the Khalid’s album, Sincere, including its release date, tracklist, and more.

Release Date

Sincere is out 8/2 via Right Hand Music Group/RCA Records. Find more information here.

Tracklist

01. “Adore U”
02. “Everything We See”
03. “Altitude”
04. “It’s All Good”
05. “Broken”
06. “Dose”
07. “Please Don’t Fall In Love With Me”
08. “Breathe” Feat. Arlo Parks
09. “Ground”
10. “Who’s There To Pick Me Up”
11. “Tainted”
12. “Long Way Home”
13. “Heatstroke”
14. “Sincere”
15. “Owe It To You”
16. “Decline”

Features

According to the tracklist shared above, Khalid’s album Sincere only features one guest appearance. Arlo Parks is listed as a featured act on song, “Breathe.”

Singles

So far, Khalid has released three singles off of Sincere, which include “Adore U,” “Please Don’t Fall In Love With Me,” and “Ground.”

Artwork

View Khalid’s official artwork for Sincere, photographed by Mathieu Rainaud, below.

Tour

As of yesterday (July 23), Khalid has not announced an official tour to support Sincere. Last year, Khalid joined Ed Sheeran on the road as part of the Mathematics Tour, although his stint was briefly halted due to a car accident.

The Olympics are about highlighting the world’s greatest athletes. But, as the globe prepares for the 2024 Summer Olympics, organizers haven’t forgotten about other entertainers.

The recent promotional segments (Cardi B and Sha’Carri Richardson, SZA and Simone Biles, Snoop Dogg, etc.) have been a bridge to usher in musicians. According to whispers online, organizers aren’t done yet.

In an exclusive report by Variety, Celine Dion is preparing to perform at the as part of the opening ceremony. Back in December 2022, the “” singer was diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome. Sadly, due to the relevation she was forced to cancel her tour plans.

Since then, Celine and her family have kept the public updated on her medical progress. She even made several public appearances, including at this year’s Grammy Award ceremony. Yesterday (July 22), Celine was spotted in Paris ahead of the Olympics, leading to the performance rumor.

None of the parties potentially involved have addressed the speculations. However, Variety pointed out that Celine could have subtly teased the performance as far back as April. In an interview with Vogue France, Celine expressed her wish to return to the country.

“I’ve chosen to work with all my body and soul,” she said. “From head to toe, with a medical team. I want to be the best I can be. My goal is to see the Eiffel Tower again!”

Could this have been an Easter for the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony?

According to Nick Cave, “writing songs is an f*cking nightmare.” But, that haven’t in any way impacted the quality of his work.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ latest Wild God offering, “,” is all the evidence you’ll ever need. The gloomy track is musical purgatory in the best sense. Despair, anguish, and are all too common emotions to experience given today’s global circumstances. However, the track doesn’t guilt you for succumbing to those heavy feelings. Instead, “Long Dark Night” gives you the language to process that anxiety.

“I was long inside a dream, I could not get loose / I will tell you of it, although there is little use / To tell a dream, when dreaming is all you ever do / But things were not so good, I can’t make light of it / My poor soul, it was having a dark night of it / It was a long night, a week, maybe a year,” sings Nick.

In a statement, the band revealed that the track pulled inspiration from 16th-century Spanish poet St. John of the Cross piece, “Dark Night of the Soul.”

“One of the greatest and most powerful poems of conversion ever written,” said Cave. “Ultimately, though, it’s a beautiful country tune. It feels like a sweet companion to the song ‘Wild God.’”

Listen to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ new song “Long Dark Night” above.

Wild God is out 8/30 via Play It Again Sam. Find more information here.

Having twins means double the fun, and double the pressure. It’s a fairly known rule to name twins in a way that honors their unique bond, but that can lead to overly cutesy pairings that feel more appropriate for nursery rhyme characters than actual people. Plus, it’s equally important for the names to acknowledge each twin’s individuality. Again, these are people—not a matching set of dolls. Finding the twin baby name balance is easier said than done, for sure.

Luckily, there are several ways to do this. Names can be linked by style, sound or meaning, according to the baby name website Nameberry. For example, two names that share a classic style would be Elizabeth and Edward, whereas Ione and Lionel share a similar rhythm. And Frederica and Milo seem to share nothing in common, but both mean “peaceful.”

Over on the /NameNerds subreddit, one person asked folks to share their favorite twin name pairings, and the answers did not disappoint.

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One person wrote “Honestly, for me it’s hard to beat the Rugrats combo of Phillip and Lillian (Phil and Lil) 💕”

A few parents who gave their twin’s names that didn’t inherently rhyme until nicknames got involved:

“It’s the perfect way! Christmas cards can be signed cutely with matching names, but when they act out you can still use their full name without getting tripped up.😂”

“The parents of a good friend of mine did this: her name is Allison and her sister is Callie. Their names don’t match on the surface, but they were Alli and Callie at home.”

“Alice and Celia, because they’re anagrams! Sound super different but have a not-so-obvious implicit connection.”

This incited an avalanche of other anagram ideas: Aidan and Nadia, Lucas and Claus, Liam and Mila, Noel and Leon, Ira and Ria, Amy and May, Ira and Ari, Cole and Cleo…even Alice, Celia, and Lacie for triplets.

Others remembered name pairs that managed to sound lovely together without going into cutesy territory.

These matching bunny ears though. Photo credit: Canva

“I know twin toddler boys named Charlie and Archie and they go so well together,” one person commented.

Another wrote, “Tamia and Aziza. I love how they follow the same sound pattern with the syllable endings (-uh, -ee, -uh) without being obnoxiously matchy matchy.”

Still another said, “Lucy and Logan, fraternal girl/boy twins. I think the names sound so nice together, and definitely have the same ‘vibe’ and even though they have the same first letter they aren’t too matchy-matchy.”

Other honorable mentions included: Colton and Calista, Caitlin and Carson, Amaya and Ameera, Alora and Luella, River and Rosie, and Eleanor and Elias.

One person cast a vote for shared style names, saying, “If I had twins, I would honestly just pick two different names that I like separately. I tend to like classic names, so I’d probably pick Daniel and Benjamin for boys. For girls my two favorites right now are Valerie and Tessa. I think Val and Tess would be cute together!”

Overall though, it seems that most folks were fans of names that focused on shared meaning over shared sound. Even better if there’s a literary or movie reference thrown in there.

Many adult twins regret that their names are so closely linked together. Photo credit: Canva

“My mom works in insurance, so I asked her. She’s seen a lot of unique ones, but the only twins she remembers are Gwenivere [sic] and Lancelot… bonus points… little brother was Merlin,” one person recalled.

Another shared, “If I had twin girls, I would name them Ada and Hedy for Ada Lovelace and Hedy Lamarr, both very early computer/tech pioneers. Not that I’m that into tech, I just thought it was a brilliant combination.”

Other great ones: Susan and Sharon (think the original “Parent Trap”), Clementine and Cara (types of oranges), Esme and Etienne (French descent), Luna and Stella (moon and stars), Dawn and Eve, plus various plant pairings like Lily and Fern, Heather and Holly, and Juniper and Laurel.

Perhaps the cleverest name pairing goes to “Aubrey and Zoe,” since…wait for it… “they’re A to Z.”

It’s easy to see how naming twins really is a cool opportunity for parents to get creative and intentional with their baby naming. It might be a challenge, sure, but the potential reward is having the most iconic set of twins ever. Totally worth it!

Preschoolers can be absolutely hilarious when they aren’t even trying. They’re old enough to be able to have very strong opinions about things but young enough for most of their strong opinions to be about things that make little sense to adults. Like when a 3-year-old asks for a peanut butter sandwich only to get mad because you put the two pieces of bread together and they didn’t want a sandwich like that. They wanted the kind that wasn’t a sandwich at all.

While these things can be frustrating in the moment, once you’ve had a little space from it you can laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. Kristen Cook took to social media to list all of her daughter’s complaints for the week and they’re pretty hysterical. One of the very first things the girl was upset about is the fact that Cook refused to pull over so the girl could pet a coyote. The list got increasingly more interesting.

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“I also have two chins. She said it’s not really fair that I have two chins and she has one. Her ice cream was too cold. I wore sunglasses the other day—and I don’t often wear them but I did—and she said that she felt like that was me lying about being her mom,” Cook rattles off before detailing more random grievances.

The mom’s confessional style video made for a great starting point for other parents to list their children’s nonsensical complaints and they’re just as amusing.

“Mine demands I turn off the Sun while we drive,” someone says.

“Mine flipped out because I couldn’t give her a cloud…..FROM THE SKY!!!!!” another commenter reveals.

“When my daughter was four she got so mad when I showed her a picture of me when I was about six years old …… she can’t believe I was a child and I didn’t wait for her so we could grow together as best friends,” one person shares.

“My husband is an amputee and our 3 year old daughter randomly gets pissed that I’m mean and took daddy’s leg, he hasn’t had a leg since he was 12 and I met him when he was 17 I had nothing to do with the missing leg,” someone else laughs.

“My 4 year old is mad at me because my husband told him he can’t marry me. He’s also mad that I’m pregnant and I won’t let him be pregnant,” another person says.

If nothing else, these kids are consistently upset about things outside of their parents’ control and it will never get old. But while everyone else was sharing their similar stories to help the mom feel less alone, one person had a message for the mom. Think of it as a small nugget of encouragement: “Well, maybe this week you can do better.”

Yes, maybe this week this mom and all the ones facing similar dilemmas can simply do better so their children don’t continue to have these very logical (insert sarcasm) complaints.

Joe Burrow and a number of Cincinnati Bengals players showed up for the start of training camp on Tuesday, and while it’s always nice to see familiar faces at the unofficial start of football season, Burrow looked a little different. That’s because the former No. 1 overall pick made his way to camp with a new bleached buzz cut that looks … well, I certainly did a double-take to make sure that was Burrow.

There were a ton of jokes that came in the aftermath. Burrow got compared to Eminem when he had this look back in the day, along with a number of different boy band members. But one really stuck out, as Burrow kept getting compared to Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes.

Honestly, you put the two side-by-side and it’s a pretty good comparison. It’s so good that even Rhodes caught wind of it and had someone cook up an edit of Burrow that he could throw onto his Twitter account with the phrase that came to define his pursuit of the promotion’s top title.

If Burrow has nothing going on, perhaps he can link up with Rhodes by making his way from southwest Ohio to northeast Ohio next weekend for SummerSlam in Cleveland.

Four score and well over seven years ago, Rihanna dropped her critically revered album, Anti. Since then, the “Lift Me Up” singer has slowly but surely ventured into other creative plains. But mainly, her entrepreneurial pursuits via the Fenty empire.

Despite promising on multiple occasions she would drop new music, the Navy (her super fans) are still waiting. But what supporters don’t have to question is Rihanna finding a way to cross promote one of her many companies. Today (July 23), while enjoying a nice summer walk, Rihanna decided to playful moon her friends, which quickly turned into a spontaneous Savage X Fenty photo shoot.

“Since I clearly won’t be achieving my six-pack til next summer, I switched my summer goal to matching my shoes to my panties! ,” she wrote.

As she revealed her delicates Rihanna made it clear that Savage X Fenty was on her lower half.

Users online couldn’t contain their thirst for the superstar.

“Thick Rih>>,” wrote one user.

“That booootyyy thoooo,” penned another.

“I watched this way too many times already,” chimed another.

Others joined in on the body goals joke.

“Same sista. I fumbled the abs,” added one user.

While the overwhelming majority, attempted to pressure Rihanna to focus her efforts on R9.

“Switch your summer goal to releasing an album,” demanded one user.

“Can you switch your summer goal into making an album instead,” asked another.

Native English speakers often find German grammar rules pretty baffling. So, imagine if English speakers used German grammar and syntax while speaking their native tongue. Overlearner, a YouTuber who speaks multiple languages, created a video to show what a typical conversation would sound like.

Overlearner’s page discusses the optimal ways to learn languages, music, martial arts, and many other skills.

What’s interesting about the video is German’s unique syntax.

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For example:

Person 1: Must you today also to work?

Person 2: No, I must today not to work I have today a day free but I work morning and over morning.

When people speak English but with German grammar

youtu.be

Or there was a crazy situation that went down at Person 2’s job. He’s a tooth doctor, or was we would call him, a dental assistant.

Person 2: Yesterday is a female patient in the clinic come that such fear before tooth doctors had that she during the examination to scream begun has then upstood and out the building run is.

Person 1: Wow, what for a crazy situation, yes.

The video’s mixed-up syntax reminded many people in the comments of a “Star Wars” character. “This sounds like AI Shakespearean Yoda having a stroke,” one commenter wrote. “So… to Germans, Yoda was the only normal one?” another added.

The video is a great way for English speakers to better understand what German sounds like to native speakers. It’s also a wonderful reminder that we should give any English speakers learning German or German speakers learning English a lot of credit because figuring out how to switch syntax like that must be maddening.

Few entertainers have enjoyed as much broad appeal and admiration as comedian Robin Williams, but people’s love for him is not just for his performances. Williams was a talented comedian and an actor with a surprisingly wide range, but by all accounts he was also a delightful and caring human being.

Williams would have been 73 years old on July 21, 2024. His son Zak shared a touching tribute to his father on social media, which prompted everyday people to share their personal anecdotes of their encounters with him.

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“Dad, on what would be your 73rd birthday, I remember you for all the hope and joy you brought to the world,” Zak Williams wrote. “There’s not a week that goes by without someone sharing with me how you helped them through a dark time or a rough patch. I’m so grateful to be your son. Love you forever.”

— (@)

As the stories poured in, it became clearer and clearer how much the world lost with Robin Williams’ passing in 2014. Here are some highlights:

“I passed your dad carrying you one day on a sidewalk in SF – you looked to be around 2. You were both talking to each other in made-up language and you were really holding your own. Your dad caught me watching and as you passed me by, he tipped his head towards you and beamed the most incredible loving smile – he thought you were something else.” – malloryvk

“Jumanji was filmed in my hometown (Keene, NH) when my mom was working at a local restaurant – Robin Williams stopped in and my mother was his waitress. She took his order as she was trained to – ‘hello my name is Robin, what can I get for you today?’ – he ordered a burger and tipped $100, ‘from one Robin to another.'” – emmatshibambi

“Every Christmas, your Dad would visit the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at UCSF. He would visit every child who was able to have a visitor and all of the exhausted and terrified parents. Your dad’s goodness and love were felt by everyone there.” – kennandlisa

“Many, many years ago, I worked at Harrods in Knightsbridge. I was working the Caralina Herrera sunglasses counter one day and Robin Williams came up and asked directions to the Sports department. I tried to play it cool as I took in the laughter lines of his face, the twinkle in his eyes, the kindness of his soul. I needed to remember this moment forever. And I do! (And I often wonder if he found the sports department straight away, as I’m pretty sure I told him in my true awkwardness to turn right instead of left at the top of the escalator. Sorry Robin) A forever memory and much love and appreciation for the human that you were. ❤️” – ilovekerry.2

“In the early 2000’s, my mom spotted Mr. Williams by himself sight-seeing in downtown Toronto. She was so excited as she was a huge fan, and approached him. She later told me how he radiated warmth, his blue eyes sparkling, and was even kind enough to sign an autograph. Though my mom is now in Heaven too, I still cherish this memory (and the autograph + pen he used!) 🙌” – foxy_the_squirrel

“I watched your dad since Mork & Mindy & had a casual conversation with him at the Apple Store in NYC but I did not tell him I knew it was him. I wanted him to enjoy his shopping without getting hit by millions of people. He had a thick beard but I saw his BRIGHT CLEAR BLUE EYES. Absolutely unmistakable & one of a kind, not just his eyes but his heart.” – InventorBLADES

“I can’t even tell you the impact he had on my life… I went through a horrible violent crime as a teen and spent years hiding it, that decision created great mental anguish and Robin saved my life. I can’t explain the details, but he was an angel on earth and he had a way to speak to hearts with his one of kind spontaneous comedy and I am forever thankful for the gift of him in my journey.” – wenbernacky

“I mean this in a very literal sense—no other famous persons passing has ever hit me, but his… it’s almost as if I had personally known him and he had been there to comfort me during hard times. Those types of souls are magic in human form.” – iamchief_chris

Some may not know that Robin Williams also advocated for homeless people in Congress, with his signature compassion and even some comedy thrown in. Watch:

— (@)

And for more of Robin Williams in real life, check out his “Inside the Actor’s Studio” interview with James Lipton, which apparently gave one of the audience members a hernia from laughing so hard.