Year: 2024

Parents whose children participate in elite travel ball leagues can spend up to $12,000 annually on fees, equipment, hotel rooms and gas. One mother, Casey Kelley, from Alabama, has spoken out, saying that if parents spend all of that money and time, their children should get to play in games. Kelley’s daughter plays on a club volleyball team.

The topic was inspired by a conversation she had with other volleyball parents who agreed that every kid should get a decent amount of playing time.

“I’ll tell you what I think. I think, if you’re paying to be there, so it’s not like high school sports, I think everyone should have the opportunity to play because this is a developmental league … and they’re there to develop and to learn,” she explained in a TikTok video.

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“Especially if these parents are paying thousands of dollars for them to be in the league and then traveling, spending money on hotels for their kid to sit there and maybe play a minute or two the whole weekend. I think it’s unfair,” she continued.

@caseyjkelley

What do you think? #travelball #clubsport #athlete #kids #mom #question

It’s reasonable for Kelley to believe that spending a lot of money and traveling all over the map only to watch your kid play for a few minutes feels pointless. However, a lot of parents disagreed with her in the comments.

“You pay for practice. Playing time is earned,” Nathan Sullins wrote.

“Absolutely not. If you want fair playing time you play rec ball. Travel ball playing time is performance based,” another user wrote.

But these parents haven’t changed Kelley’s mind.

“I’m not opposed to kids earning their spot or the best kids playing more, but I feel that every kid who makes the team should at least have some playing time,” she told Upworthy. “I know it’s not a popular opinion, but it’s how I currently see it.”

Kelley further explained the story in a follow-up video.

@caseyjkelley

Clarification post and the last one on this topic #travelball #athlete #travelballparents #clubsport #parenting

What do you think?

If you thought the Masters Of The Air cast was stacked, then you will also want to have a gander at Apple TV+’s next dive into U.S. history. Anthony Boyle also happens to be a part of both casts, and he has moved on from portraying an ace navigator (who also happened to get very airsick) to John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln.

That particular president is portrayed in this adaptation by the chronically underappreciated Hamish Linklater, who has moved on from being a vampiric priest to taking a more understated turn than in his usual fare. However, that’s only the beginning of Manhunt, so let’s discuss what to expect.

Plot

Manhunt takes a true-crime thriller approach in adapting James L. Swanson’ non-fiction book, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. Most of the seven-episode series will, as that title suggests, follow the intense aftermath of law enforcement doing their damndest to catch the murderous fugitive. Naturally, there’s a hefty slice of historical fiction at work, but overall, this is a gripping adventure that dives into the emotions surrounding that era in time.

As well, damn, Anthony Boyle really gets a chance to shine after being essentially lost in a massive ensemble during the most recent Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg WWII epic series. The series is being launched shortly after what would have been Abraham Lincoln’s 215th birthday, and the synopsis doesn’t give anything away that you haven’t already heard in history classes:

Based on The New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning non-fiction book from author James L. Swanson, “Manhunt” is a conspiracy thriller about one of the best known but least understood crimes in history, the astonishing story of the hunt for John Wilkes Booth in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

Cast

Hamish Linklater plays the ill-fated Abraham Lincoln. The cast includes Tobias Menzies, Anthony Boyle, Will Harrison, Lovie Simone, and Patton freaking Oswalt with not only muttonchops but a full-on beard.

Release Date

Manhunt debuts on March 15 with two episodes, and five more will arrive on Fridays until April 19.

Trailer

Here you go, and Anthony Boyle is on (terrifying) fire:

For some people, fast food is a treat — a rare indulgence. And when you don’t eat fast food regularly and instead consider it an exception to your dietary rules, you don’t want to be disappointed. Because let’s face it, a lot of times, fast food can be pretty disappointing.

This is why we’ve started an ongoing series where we highlight the five absolute best menu items at a specific restaurant. We’ve done Taco Bell, McDonald’s, KFC, and Jack in the Box and now it’s time to take on the Shack. We’re talking about Shake Shack (sorry to the Crack Shack fans out there whose heart rate started to skip).

Shake Shack is a tough restaurant to break down into five undeniable classics because everything the restaurant does it does pretty well. Except for the fries. Shake Shack also tends to have a few limited-time-only items on its menu, like last summer’s Spicy Burgermeister (or this month’s Korean BBQ Burger), which we named the best cheeseburger of 2023.

For this review, we decided to leave off all limited options and only focus on food on the permanent menu. That means we’re going to leave some interesting stuff on the cutting room floor but… it is what it is. Let’s dive in!

Shackburger

Why We Love It:

If there was a Mount Rushmore of cheeseburgers, the Shackburger would be on it. It’s an all-time great, one of the best, if not the best double cheeseburgers in the vast fast food universe.

What sets this burger apart from the competition is the meat patty. It’s beefy, juicy, and has that wonderful carmelized crust across the surface and those lacy edges, that help lock in the savory flavor. The beef patty melts in your mouth. It’s delicate, sumptuous, and puts all other burgers to shame.

And that’s just the beef! Joining that is some great produce as well. Thick green leaf lettuce that has a subtle hint of bitterness, ripe juicy tomatoes that add an umami burst of flavor with every bite, and Shake Shack’s Shake sauce, which offers a nice savory tang to the finish.

We couldn’t improve this one if we tried!

The Bottom Line:

The Shackburger just might be the best cheeseburger in all of fast food.

Roadside Double

Why We Love It:

We love the classic Shake Burger, but at the end of the day it’s just a cheeseburger, and if fast food is a rare treat for you, you might want something a bit more elevated. Enter the Roadside Double, a decadent spin on the original that combines Shake Shack’s amazing melt-in-your-mouth beef patty with a double dose of nutty Swiss cheese, dijon mustard, and beer-simmered caramelized onions.

Biting into this burger is an explosion of bold, sweet, and savory flavors with a sharp tang finish. There is something satisfyingly luxurious about this burger, it has the richness of a BBQ burger without the smokey and overly sweetened notes.

The Bottom Line:

Rich, decadent, and subtly sweet. There is a lot of depth of flavor here that makes this burger addicting.

Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich

Why We Love It:

The chicken sandwich is one of the most competitive dishes in fast food right now. And there are a lot of good ones out there (Popeyes and Chick-fil-A immediately come to mind) but as good as those sandwiches are, none of them taste as elevated as Shake Shack’s.

The chicken breast filet here is tender and juicy, breaded in a light and crispy breading which, when paired with the bacon, results in an exceptional audible crunch with every bite. The avocado does a lot of work here to deepen the flavors, offering a buttery savoriness that makes this sandwich as satisfying as a juicy cheeseburger.

The pickles are thick and have a nice amount of snap, and the herb-infused mayo wraps all the flavors together. That mayo is the weakest element here, so if you don’t like mayo on your sandwiches feel free to ditch it — the avocado elevates the flavor enough.

The Bottom Line:

Hands down Shake Shack’s best chicken sandwich.

SmokeShack

Why We Love It:

No fast food burger menu is complete without a great bacon burger, and Shake Shack has one in the SmokeShack. But because this is Shake Shack, whose whole concept is roadside dishes meet premium ingredients, this isn’t your average bacon burger.

The build consists of bacon and beef, joined with chopped cherry peppers, and Shake Sauce. Those chopped cherry peppers add brightness to the smokey and beefy character of the burger, with a mild heat and vegetal sweetness that serves as a nice counterbalance. Wrapping the flavors together is a thick layer of Shake Sauce.

It’s not quite as decadent as a bacon burger tends to be (compare this to the Wendy’s Baconator or the Carl’s Jr Western Bacon Cheeseburger), but it’s refreshingly unique.

The Bottom Line:

A subtle and interesting bacon cheeseburger that tastes unlike the competition.

Malted Chocolate Shake

Why We Love It:

This is Shake Shack so we couldn’t create a list of the five best menu items without shouting out one of the shakes. And when it comes to shakes, the Shack has a lot of them including a Cookies and Cream shake, Maple Snicker Doodle Shake, Coffee and Donuts Shake, and even root bear floats. So why are we going with the standard chocolate shake instead?

Because nothing, and I repeat, nothing tastes more satisfying and rich than a good malted milkshake. To be clear, Shake Shack doesn’t default to a malted milkshake, it’s something you’re going to have to ask for, or you know, select on the app, and adding malted milk powder to your shake adds so much to the end result that it’s almost criminal that all fast food shakes aren’t malted.

One sip of this will introduce your tastebuds to a world of rich cocoa and brown sugar flavors with a hint of nuttiness with a rich finish that is enough to make you say “goddamn!” after drinking it. What other fast food milkshake can deliver the same experience?

The Bottom Line:

Fast food’s greatest chocolate milkshake. Get it malted (always get it malted) and thank us later.

The Golden State Warriors saw Steph Curry leave Thursday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls with ankle injury. With just under four minutes to go and the Warriors attempting to pull off a comeback against their Eastern Conference foes, Curry got into the paint, planted his right foot, and rolled it awkwardly. He was immediately in pain, made his way into the locker room, and was unable to return to the game.

With Curry’s lengthy history of ankle injuries, any roll of the ankle immediately has the potential for a crisis to break out. On Friday, the two-time NBA MVP went to get imaging done on his ankle to learn the extent of his injury, and Shams Charania of The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that Curry won’t be sidelined for too terribly long.

The good news for the Warriors is that Chris Paul has returned from his own injury issues, and if he slides into the starting lineup in Curry’s absence, that means the team will have an experienced, veteran point guard who can run the show for a bit. Regardless, there is only one Curry, something that Klay Thompson expressed after the game.

“I know we’re going to miss him if he does need time off,” Thompson said, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. “We’ve been in this position before where he has had time off, and we just got to do it collectively. I know he’ll be ready to go when he does come back, whenever that is. We just wish him a speedy recovery.”

The Warriors are currently in ninth place in the Western Conference with a 33-29 record. While they should be able to earn at least a berth in the Play-In Tournament — they have a 5.5-game lead on the Utah Jazz with 20 games left on the schedule — any Curry absence could hurt their chances of earning both an automatic bid to the postseason (currently, the team is 3.5 games back of the Phoenix Suns for the 6-seed) or getting into the 7-8 Play-In game (the Dallas Mavericks have a 1.5 game edge for the 8-seed).

The biggest concern with any Curry absence is that Golden State is battling with the Los Angeles Lakers for the 9-seed — they’re ahead due to the fact that they have one fewer loss. While no one wants to play in the 9/10 game, where a loss means you are eliminated from the playoffs, getting to host that game is a major edge, particularly due to the fact that the Lakers are 22-11 at home and 12-19 on the road this season.

Jhené Aiko moves at her own pace. In today’s frantic climate of near-constant content churn, the LA singer keeps to herself, quietly creating until she feels ready to release her latest work to the world. She’s like a volcano in that way, patiently bubbling under the surface until she’s ready to erupt with a new creative vision.

Maybe that’s why she presents herself as a fiery volcano goddess in the video for “Surrender,” which she shared this week in honor of the fourth anniversary of her most recent album, Chilombo. On Instagram, she revealed she’d be sharing the unreleased videos from the album, including clips for “Define Me (interlude),” “Love,” and of course, “Surrender.” All three videos were shot by frequent collaborator Glassface and find Jhené soaking up nature, whether that’s on the volcanic island from the “Surrender” video or taking in the savannah of Africa in “Love.” You can check out the “Surrender” video above and the “Love” and “Define Me” videos below.

In accordance with Aiko’s laid-back release schedule, she dropped her most recent songs early this year. “Sun/Son” was a dedication to her and Big Sean’s son Noah, and followed “Calm & Patient,” which came out nearly a year before. She may be feeling calm and patient, but her fans have been neither lately, as demands for a joint release with Sean as Twenty88 have become more and more persistent on social media with her increased activity. They said the album is “coming along,” but that was two years ago, so their insistence is understandable.

Heading into last year’s Oscars ceremony, Angela Bassett was feeling confident about her chances of finally winning an Academy Award. The actress had just cleaned up at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards for her her performance as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. However, Bassett did not take home the gold for Best Supporting Actress. The award went to Jamie Lee Curtis for Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Naturally, Bassett handled the loss with poise and grace, and in a viral moment, was a rock of comfort for Austin Butler when he lost to Branden Fraser for Best Actor. Only recently has Bassett opened up to Oprah about the disappointment of seeing another Oscar slip through her fingers. (Bassett was nominated once before in 1994 for her iconic performance as Tina Turner. Unfortunately, she lost to Holly Hunter for her performance in The Piano.)

Via Variety:

“I was gobsmacked! I was,” Bassett responded. “I thought I handled it very well. That was my intention, to handle it very well. It was, of course, a supreme disappointment, and disappointment is human. So I thought, yes, I was disappointed and I handled it like a human being.”

Bassett said handling the Oscar loss with grace was of the utmost importance “for myself and for my children who were there with me.”

Bassett then delivered some sage advice.

“There are going to be these moments of disappointment that you’ll experience, but how do you handle yourself in the midst of them?” she said. “We’re going to smile, we’re going to be gracious, we’re going to be kind, we’re going to party anyway.”

(Via Variety)

It’s not uncommon to change your mind about things once you receive more information. For instance, Dakota Johnson seemed really hyped to be in a Marvel movie but then changed her tune once she realized it was not going to be anything like those MCU sequels, and subsequently dragged her own film. It happens! Similarly, in 2022, when Pierce Brosnan was asked who should be the next James Bond, he bluntly replied, “I don’t care.” And who would we be to argue with that?

But now that Brosnan, like the rest of the world, has been under Cillian Murphy‘s enchanting and somewhat haunting spell, he has changed his mind. “Cillian would do a magnificent job as James Bond on His Majesty’s Secret Service,” Brosnan told The BBC at the Oscar Wilde Awards. Not to be confused with The Oscars. That’s different.

Murphy was also in attendance, and while his name might be at the top of the list, he doesn’t seem that invested. People reports that Murphy claimed he is “a bit old” for a Bond role, as he is about to turn 48. The Bond Bosses are hoping to find a “thirty-something” for the role to ensure at least another decade of Bond films. Meanwhile, Daniel Craig could care less.

On the other hand, there is already one soft-spoken 30-something who has been eager to throw his name into the mix, the people just need to start paying attention!

(Via EW)

Just a month after sharing his first new singles of 2024, breakout singer-songwriter d4vd (pronounced “David”) returns with a regretful, eerie video for his new song, “My House Is Not A Home.” The lyrics lament the fracturing of a dysfunctional relationship, tying it in with d4vd’s regret at burning bridges with his family in the pursuit of his dreams of stardom. “You didn’t wanna fall in lovе,” he observes. “You’re looking out for yourself now.”

In the video, d4vd eats alone at a table set for four, roaming the halls of a seemingly empty family home before its revealed that something disturbing has happened here and the evidence needs to be burned away. The video ends with the house at the center of a conflagration as d4vd makes a dramatic getaway, but he does seem more maudlin than elated at the outcome. In a press release, he said the song is “an introspective track about how I viewed my life after moving to Los Angeles – the themes of falling in love with the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time are explored throughout the song, and how I navigate those situations are in the lyrics.”

d4vd’s breakout in 2023 started with songs like “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me,” establishing his penchant for melodramatic songwriting that resonates with his fellow teenagers. It looks like he’ll continue to ride that wave as he prepares to follow-up his standout 2023 with a raft of high-profile festival appearances this summer including Boston Calling, Governors Ball, and Bonnaroo.

Watch the video for “My House Is Not A Home” above.

Lauren Mayberry is always a rebel with a cause. Whether in her own solo work or as a member of Chvrches, when she picks up a microphone, you need to listen. Mayberry’s latest single, “Change Shapes,” is no different. On the agenda for this record is inequitable gendered labor in romantic relationships.

Yes, that’s a mouthful, but it is nowhere near as exhausting as walking the emotional tightrope that is the male ego. “It’s exhausting trying so hard all the time / Performative hypocrisy took over my mind / I’m a doll inside a box / With a ball and a chain / I bend over backwards, tiptoe along every wire / Guess I’m quite the actress, no one knows I’m a liar / I’m preaching to the choir / I’m a body for hire / And I think you should know / I change shapes ’til I get what I want from you / It’s your game, now you’re mad that I learned the rules,” sings Mayberry.

What started off as a stress-induced rant, thanks to Mayberry’s spunky vocals and Matthew Koma’s charismatic production, “Change Shapes,” is the ultimate “no thanks” to traditional heteronormative expectations of women. Given that today is International Women’s Day, it could not have been timed better.

Listen to “Change Shapes” above.

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is a lot of things. It’s a colorful, slightly subversive comedy. It’s a fun introduction to Feminism 101. It’s a two-hour toy commercial. But more than all of these things, it’s an incredible display of top-notch production design. Though portions of the movie take place in “the real world,” it’s purely a fantasy with large swathes of time spent in a beautifully crafted Barbie Land. There are also big musical numbers with their own unique spaces and a surreal kitchen out of time where Barbie (Margot Robbie) meets the original creator of the doll, played by Rhea Perlman, along with the bizarre brutalist cubicles and hot pink heart-shaped head table of Mattel’s corporate offices. There is a great amount of love and attention paid to every detail, right down to the exact shades of pink in Barbie’s house.

In a behind-the-scenes tour of the Barbie Land set for Architectural Digest, Gerwig said that she and the creative team sat with “all of these different kinds of pinks” to try and find the right shades for Barbie Land. It was important that the pinks had the same gaudy quality as their toy counterparts. Gerwig said, “When I was a little girl, I liked the pinkest, brightest things,” and that sensibility permeates all of the colors in the fantastical elements of Barbie. Barbie Land rides the line between being gorgeous and garish, making it perfect for younger audiences without totally alienating adults. The kitchen in the past where Barbie meets her creator is suitably sepia-toned and faded, like an old photo, while the cubicles in the Mattel building are all varying shades of gray. That level of attention is extended to every aspect of the production design, from the incredible matte paintings that serve as backgrounds to the giant sticker on the inside of Barbie’s refrigerator. Barbie doesn’t eat, drink, or need to bathe, plus she ascends and descends from the different levels of her house as if a magical, invisible child’s hand is moving her, and her house reflects that.

The Barbie houses are pretty perfect re-creations of their pint-sized counterparts. They’re just slightly too small for their inhabitants, with showers that don’t actually have running water and a fireplace that’s just a flame-shaped light. In fact, according to an interview in Vogue, production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer established a rule that there was no fire or water in Barbie Land. They also wanted to make everything look tactile, because toys are meant to be played with, which led to another rule about limiting computer-generated imagery (CGI) as much as possible. Spencer told Vogue: “To my mind, we were creating a toy. A toy is tactile, A toy is real. Everybody knows what’s CGI. Your sixth sense will tell you—even children will know. So with the painted backdrops, it just gave everybody the belief that you are in the toy box, you are in there, you are a toy.”

The relative lack of CGI also works well with the movie’s biggest influences: classic movie musicals. After all, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen didn’t have computer-generated visual magic when they made Singin’ in the Rain and it’s a gorgeous Technicolor dream. Barbie draws on that same visual language, as Gerwig was inspired by its “dream within a dream” sequence, which viewers can see traces of in the “I’m Just Ken” musical number. Other influences include Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Gerwig spoofs in the opening sequence, and Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, which she credits as having an “artificial authenticity” that she strove for on Barbie.

The faux water of Barbie Land is one of the more fascinating fakeries of Barbie. Barbie’s pool was painted and then covered in resin to give it a watery look a bit more convincing than the basic shiny stickers of real-world Dream Houses, but it’s still just the right level of artificial. Likewise, the ocean where Ken (Ryan Gosling) does his job (which is “beach”) is blue and plastic, which makes surfing on it a rather tricky proposition. Background waves are giant colored cardboard pieces, harkening back to some of the earliest films and giving yet another layer of cinematic and toy-like fakery. Even the sand on the beach is pale pink because nothing in Barbie Land escapes the color, not even the palm trees, which have big chunks of pink in their bark.

All of this dedication to details big and small makes Barbie feel like something truly grand, elevating it beyond its witty script and great performances to make it feel more like a timeless classic than just another bubblegum blockbuster. There’s a good reason that Barbie has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Production Design, and it stands a decent chance at winning. The 90s band Aqua might have told us “life in plastic, it’s fantastic,” but the production design team behind the Barbie movie finally helped us all understand exactly what they meant.