Year: 2024

The Minnesota Vikings’ roster saw some big changes this offseason, as they had two stars depart in free agency, with Kirk Cousins leaving for Atlanta and Danielle Hunter joining the Texans, and made some major signings themselves with a revamped defensive line led by Jonathan Greenard, and a new star running back in Aaron Jones joining from the rival Packers.

In the Draft, Minnesota moved up to take JJ McCarthy at No. 10 overall, as he’ll join a QB room with free agent signing Sam Darnold as they look to move on from the Cousins era. While the roster got shaken up considerably, the priority for the Vikings had to be locking down All-Pro wide receiver Justin Jefferson on a new contract extension to give their hopeful franchise QB in McCarthy a true top target.

Jefferson and the Vikings took their time in extension talks, with other star receivers getting paid around the league, resetting the market a few times. That deal finally got done on Monday, with Jefferson announcing the deal himself and Adam Schefter providing the details on a 4-year, $140 million deal with $110 million guaranteed that makes Jefferson the highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history.

Since arriving in Minnesota as a first round pick out of LSU, Jefferson has been one of the NFL’s top receivers. He has never finished a season with fewer than 1,000 yards, managing to pass that milestone last year even though he played just 10 games due to injury. Over his first four years in the NFL, Jefferson has amassed 5,899 receiving yards and 30 touchdowns, earning three All-Pro nods (one first team) and the AP Offensive Player of the Year in 2022. Now, he’s locked in long-term for the Vikings and will look to build chemistry with a new QB room to continue producing at an elite level.

Spock would never. Zachary Quinto (Heroes, NOS4A2, Star Trek franchise) has been told not to return to a trendy eatery after allegedly pulling a James Corden. Manita, a self-described “mediterranean-ish bistro” in Toronto, straight-up tagged Quinto following a Sunday encounter that apparently turned brunch into a tear-fest.

“Zachary Quinto — an amazing Spock, but a terrible customer,” the restaurant posted in an Instagram story. “Yelled at our staff like an entitled child after he didn’t reply to two texts to inform him that his table was ready and refused to believe the empty tables in the dining room weren’t available for him despite being politely informed they were spoken for.”

The incident reportedly grew tense and emotional: “Made our host cry and the rest of our brunch diners uncomfortable. Mr. Quinto, take your bad vibes somewhere else, we have many lovely celebrities join us at Manita but you are NOT one of them.”

On Monday morning, Manita’s social media team decided to immortalize the fleeting “story” moment in a full-on Instagram post, too.

Quinto hasn’t yet publicly commented on the accusations. He did, however, celebrate his 47th birthday on Sunday while allegedly being a total grump. And there’s no way that he did so while eating the below shakshuka. That’s the face of a god in a skillet right there. Grumping is simply not possible while enjoying this, but reportedly (and on a more serious note), Quinto will not be indulging in this heavenly Manita dish in the future.

(Via Manita on Instagram)

Gracie Abrams just announced her The Secret Of Us Tour, and god, I’m actually invested. The 2024 North American tour will be in support of Abrams’ The Secret Of Us album, due out on June 21, and Role Model will serve as Abrams’ opener.

“THE SECRET OF US TOUR (pt. 1…) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Abrams wrote on Instagram on Monday morning, June 3, and the parenthetical “Pt. 1” should absolutely be noted. “I wish I could properly express how excited I am for these shows. The whole time we were writing the album, all I could think about was being in the same room as you — playing these songs, collectively screaming and dancing and also maybe crying for fun.”

The 24-year-old Grammy nominee continued, “I’ve missed it all beyond words and I’ve missed your faces like crazy, and every day I don’t spend with the band and the crew feels like being far away from home, so THANK YOU for being the reason I get to reunite with them. Truly, thank you. And then the luckiest of all is that @rolemodel will be on the road with us. We’re playing venues I’ve only ever dreamed of playing, and it’s entirely because of you. I love you, and I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to tour this album.”

According to Abrams, tickets will be available through a general onsale beginning on Friday, June 7, but pre-sale tickets will begin going on sale on Tuesday, June 4, at 10 a.m. local time.

Find all ticketing information here, and check out all of Abrams’ upcoming tour dates, including resuming her duties as an opener for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour.

Gracie Abrams’ Headlining The Secret Of Us Tour Dates

09/05 — Portland, OR @ Alaska Airlines’ Theater of the Clouds*
09/06 — Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater*
09/08 — Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre*
09/11 — Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre*
09/15 — Denver, CO @ The Fillmore Auditorium*
09/19 — Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory*
09/20 — Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall*
09/22 — Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park*
09/24 — Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater*
09/25 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory*
09/27 — Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom*
09/29 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium*
09/30 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy*
10/02 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem*
10/04 — New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall*
10/08 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met*
10/09 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway*
10/10 — Portland, ME @ State Theatre*

Gracie Abrams’ The Eras Tour Dates

10/18 — Miami, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium^
10/19 — Miami, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium^
10/20 — Miami, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium^
10/25 — New Orleans, LA @ Caesars Superdome^
10/26 — New Orleans, LA @ Caesars Superdome^
10/27 — New Orleans, LA @ Caesars Superdome^
11/01 — Indianapolis, IN @ Lucas Oil Stadium^
11/02 — Indianapolis, IN @ Lucas Oil Stadium^
11/03 — Indianapolis, IN @ Lucas Oil Stadium^
11/14 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre^
11/15 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre^
11/16 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre^
11/21 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre^
11/22 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre^
11/23 — Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre^
12/06 — Vancouver, BC @ BC Place^
12/07 — Vancouver, BC @ BC Place^
12/08 — Vancouver, BC @ BC Place^

* with ROLE MODEL
^ supporting Taylor Swift

The Secret Of Us is out 6/21 via Interscope. Find more information here.

This week will be a big one for Tems in what’s already been an exciting 18 months for the Nigerian singer. On Friday, June 7, Tems will release her debut album Born In The Wild and ahead of its arrival, the singer stopped by NPR’s Tiny Desk to preview a couple of songs from the project and revisit highlights from her discography. She began with “Me & U,” the lead single off Born In The Wild, which was received a slightly stripped-back but equally enjoyable treatment thanks to support from her band and vocalists. Next came “Ice T,” the highlight from her 2020 breakout project For Broken Ears.

Afterward, Tems unveiled previously unheard songs, “Unfortunate” and “Forever,” from Born In The Wild. The former leans more into R&B and afrobeats as a reminder of Tems’ versatile while “Forever” strikes as a truly soaring record that highlights her growth. To close her set, Tems performed “Love Me Jeje,” the third single from Born In The Wild which interpolates Seyi Sodimu’s 1997 hit of the same name.

Tems’ Tiny Desk set comes days after she revealed the official tracklist for Born In The Wild. The album features 18 songs and guest appearances from Asake and J. Cole. She’s also set to embark on the Born In The Wild Tour with Naomi Sharon and Lekan.

You can watch Tems’ NPR Tiny Desk in the video above.

Born In The Wild is out 6/7 via RCA Records/Since ’93. Find out more information here.

If Miley Cyrus never acts again, her big-screen filmography will be bookended by movies directed by Tim Burton (Big Fish) and one of the Coen brothers (Drive-Away Dolls). Not many people can say that! But the former Hannah Montana star, who was living the best of both worlds (acting and singing) until she decided to focus on the latter, is interested in returning to Hollywood.

“I would like to act again,” Miley told W Magazine. “But the role would really need to be right, since it’s kind of hard for people to see past me and buy into a character. The character would either need to be an extension of myself, or someone — or something — with a personality that can conquer my own. I would need a character that is bigger than me.”

So… probably not a sequel to LOL (IJBOL?)

Cyrus also discussed a fax she received from her godmother Dolly Parton. “I literally have to access my lawyer’s office, because the lawyer is the only person who can still receive a fax,” she said. “Dolly wrote to me to say: ‘How much do I love you? As much as my heart can hold and as far as my arms can reach.’ It gets me choked up. I just love her so much. Last Christmas, she gave me a whole mannequin, done in her proportions and wearing her outfit. It’s so major.” A 9 to 5 remake starring Miley Cyrus isn’t the worst idea, actually.

(Via W Magazine)

Though the official start of summer is still a few weeks away, Megan The Stallion got a jump start on it last month with the launch of her Hot Girl Summer Tour with GloRilla. Thankfully the tour, which wraps up at the end of July, is just the beginning of Megan’s summer plans as the Houston rapper officially announced her third album over the weekend. The project, titled Megan, will arrive on June 28. According to People, Megan announced the album during the Atlanta stop of her Hot Girl Summer Tour where she revealed a QR code for fans to pre-save the album.

Megan also unveiled what appeared to be the cover art for Megan. A large “M” is depicted on the cover as well as a large cocoon with Megan emerging from it upside-down. So far, Megan has been supported by three singles — “Cobra,” “Hiss,” and “Boa” — and a freestyle series that saw the rapper lay bars over Gucci Mane’s “I Think I Love Her” and Far East Movement’s “Like A G6.”

The Atlanta stop for Megan’s Hot Girl Summer Tour delivered more than just news about her album. After a massive water main break in Atlanta forced her to reschedule a tour stop, Megan kicked off her pair of shows in the city by bringing out Latto to perform. The two previewed a new remix of the latter’s “Sunday Service” remix and performed “Budget” from Megan’s Traumazine album.

Megan is out 6/28 via Hot Girl Productions LLC. Find out more information here.

Godzilla Minus One, one of the best movies of 2023 (and maybe the best Godzilla movie since the 1954 original), is now streaming on Netflix.

The streaming release came with no advance notice on Saturday which IndieWire notes is “very unusual” for Netflix: “That suggests the contractual agreement between Toho and Legendary Pictures (the producers of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire), which called for delayed availability for the Japanese title, specifically set June 1 as the earliest for home release.”

We’re living in a golden age of ‘Zilla.

Godzilla Minus One, which is directed Takashi Yamazaki and stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, and Kuranosuke Sasaki, was a surprise box office sensation, earning over $115 million worldwide on a reported $15 million budget. It’s also the first Godzilla film to win an Oscar, taking home Best Visual Effects at the 96th Academy Awards. He even wore a little bowtie.

“We looked at a lot of different Godzillas throughout the years and as a team we wanted to get the essence of what we thought most actually represented what Godzilla is about,” Yamazaki said at the ceremony. “Godzilla, if you trace back to its origins, is a symbol of terror, war and nuclear power. I wanted to make sure that when audiences saw Godzilla, that fear would be instilled on them.”

Godzilla Minus One is streaming on Netflix now.

First responders often have a much different view of safety than people who don’t handle dangerous situations every day. Police officers, doctors, nurses, firefighters and military personnel see what happens when people put themselves in danger and are often a little more cautious than the average civilian.

Situations that seem safe to some can seem like the beginnings of a horror story to someone who works in the emergency room and regularly sees people being admitted for the same types of injuries.

That’s why a video by pediatric operating room nurse Josie Rose Mueller should be seen by parents everywhere. As a mother of 3 young boys, who has been working in the operating room since 2018, she shares the 5 things she’d never let her kids do because, as Mueller puts it bluntly: She’s “seen some sh*t.”

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Although the activities she mentions seem relatively harmless, she’s seen what can happen when things go wrong.

Warning: Video contains strong language.

@josierosemueller

1. Sit atop a ride-on lawnmower

“Without a doubt, I see one person on my Facebook feed doing this every single summer and yes, the photo is adorable, but it is less adorable when I see kids getting their legs cut off from it.”

2. Play with fireworks

“I will never ever ever let my kids play with explosive fireworks during the 4th of July. I have seen kids lose fingers, entire hands, teeth, portions of their jaw. I’ve seen them blow up basically just about anything,”

3. Go to a swim party alone

“Number 3, I will never let my younger children, who are not very, very confident in water, go to a swim party without me. It is actually true that the more people in a pool, even the more people surrounding a pool, the higher chance there is for your child to drown. There’s way too much room for error. There’s way too much room for someone to get lost.”

4. Ride in a car without a harness or seatbelt

“I have seen situations where one kid is buckled in and walks away with very minor injuries and the other kid either passes or walks away with very severe injuries because they were not buckled in from the same exact car crash.”

5. Attend a sleepover

“I will never let my kids be babysat by or go to somebody’s house or spend the night and do a sleepover at a house where I do not know every single person that’s going to be there, every single person in the house. I’ve known them a long time and I can verify that they’re good people. I can’t even get into the abuse situations that I’ve seen, but it was enough to really … and I still question whether I’ll ever let my kids have sleepovers at all.”

Mueller’s video has nearly 2 million views and she disagrees with those who think she’s being too cautious.

“It’s my job as my child’s parent to keep them safe,” she told Upworthy. “I want my children to take calculated risks, and I want them to fall, scrape their knees and make mistakes. I believe that builds character and helps them recognize and deal with adversity. However, when it comes to their life or their limbs being in danger, it’s a parent’s job to keep their child away from said dangers.”

She believes parents should be short and to the point when explaining potential dangers to their young children.

“Kids don’t process long, drawn-out explanations. For example, if my husband is mowing the lawn, the rule is the boys stay inside,” she told Upworthy. “If they request to go outside, I will say, ‘The rule is we stay inside until daddy is done mowing the lawn. This keeps your brothers and you safe. We can go play outside when the lawnmower stops.’ We can make a fun game out of it like counting how many times Daddy passes the window. And the reward would be if they stay inside like I’ve asked, we play outside with Dad when he’s all finished up.”

Here’s an article to send to every jerk in your life who denied you the right to complain about your period cramps: A medical expert says that some women experience menstruation pains that are “almost as bad as having a heart attack.” John Guillebaud, who is a professor of reproductive health at University College London, spoke to Quartz on the subject, and said that the medical community has long ignored what can be a debilitating affliction, because it’s a problem that mostly inconveniences women.

“I think it happens with both genders of doctor,” Guillebaud told Quartz. “On the one hand, men don’t suffer the pain and underestimate how much it is or can be in some women. But I think some women doctors can be a bit unsympathetic because either they don’t get it themselves or if they do get it they think, ‘Well I can live with it, so can my patient.'”

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And it’s a problem that can’t just be treated with common painkillers. Some people who experience dysmenorrhea, the medical term for painful menstruation, also suffer from endometriosis, a condition that can cause infertility if it’s not treated properly. But research on the subject is scant, so doctors often misdiagnose it, or dismiss the pain entirely. It’s estimated, however, that one out of 10 women has the condition.

Earlier this month, Girls creator Lena Dunham was forced to take a rest from show promotion and other work duties because she suffers from endometriosis. In a recent edition of her newsletter, Lenny Letter, Dunham wrote a frank essay about her struggle with the condition, and particularly with a medical institution that didn’t know how to diagnose her. She didn’t know how to put a name to her pain until she turned 24 and underwent laparoscopic surgery, “which is the only way to definitively diagnose endometriosis,” according to Dunham.

Quartz reporter Olivia Goldhill had the same problem. She suffered from frequent period pains that were as distressing as a slipped disk, she says. But doctors had no answer for her. “Before I had my MRI scans, I told my primary care doctor that the pain seemed to be triggered by my period,” she said. “He didn’t think this was relevant and ignored the comment.”

For now, the medical community has been dragging its feet to do research on the subject. Goldhill says the only thing people can do right now is talk about it, to heighten awareness. “Tell your doctor, your friends, your colleagues,” she wrote. “We need to talk about period pain long and loudly enough for doctors to finally do something about it.”

This article originally appeared on 09.14.17

As part of an experiment, a man asks for help translating a Facebook message he has received.

There’s a man in Lithuania who speaks only English. The message is in Lithuanian. He can’t read it, so he asks some locals to translate it for him.

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As he asks one person after another to translate the message for him, two things become obvious.

1. He’s received a message full of hate speech.

2. Translating it for him is breaking people’s hearts.

It’s nearly more than these people can bear.

There’s a sudden, powerful connection between the translators and the man they’re translating for. They want to protect him, telling him not to bother with the message.

They apologize for the message.

They look like they want to cry.

Words hurt.

Most of us would never think of saying such horrible things. This video shows people realizing in their gut what it must feel like when those words are pointed at them — it’s all right on their faces. And so is their compassion.

The Facebook message is horrible, but their empathy is beautiful. The video’s emotional power is what makes it unique, and so worth watching and passing around.

Here it is.

The video’s in English, subtitled in Lithuanian. Just watch the faces.

This article originally appeared on 04.10.15