Category: News

Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. Star Wars: Ahsoka ( Disney+ series)

Tales from a galaxy far, far away may have taken a turn upward after The Mandalorian‘s downswing. Perhaps that’s owing to Rosario Dawson being initially cast by the Internet as the title character, and the reviews have indicated that this was an idea that has lived up to its potential. The series co-stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Lars Mikkelson, and Eman Esfandi, and the story follows up on Ashoka’s The Mandalorian appearance as well as the character’s place at the end of Star Wars: Rebels.

TIE: 10. Red, White & Royal Blue (Amazon Prime movie)

Uma Thurman’s deep-fried Southern accent might be the best reason to watch this film if you aren’t already familiar with the source material of Casey McQuiston’s bestselling novel. The narrative follows as Uma’s portrayal of the first female U.S. president as her son, Alex Claremont-Diaz (Zakhar Perez), ends up entangled with Henry, a Harry-like British prince, Henry (Nicholas Galitzine). There’s annoyance followed by a change of heart, and then there could be a dilemma over duty to country. You know the drill, Bridgerton fans.

9. Invasion ( Apple TV+ series)

As the title suggests, we’ve got an alien invasion here. The story unfolds in real time over several continents, so get ready for an intense collision of crop circles with civilization’s impending collapse and humanity at its best and worst at the same time. There’s a pivotal sheriff, along with civilians attempting to find their way alongside soldiers and people supposedly in charge. The series hails from Simon Kinberg (of many X-Men films) and David Weil (Citadel, Hunters), and the story hovers right into the second season like no pause ever existed.

8. No Hard Feelings (Columbia Pictures film streaming on VOD and Amazon Prime)

Jennifer Lawrence did her part to try and bring R-rated movies back to theaters, although Apple TV+’s Platonic may have cemented that there’s an audience there, but it might simply be one that prefers streaming. So, here’s your chance to watch her as a fail-hard woman who answers a Craigslist ad that was placed by helicopter parents who are worried that their 19-year-old son will never get lucky. Although the assignment seems easy, that’s not the case, and there’s a fun supporting turn from The Bear‘s Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who makes everything better.

7. Billions (Showtime series streaming on Paramount+)

Axe is back, baby. He’s here for the final round of this seemingly never-ending series that will finally come to a close, thereby spawning several spinoffs, so this is kind-of like Showtime’s The Walking Dead only less revolting and with hedge funders. As stated already, Damian Lewis returns alongside Paul Giamatti, and Maggie Siff still deserves more roles and awards forever.

6. Elemental (Pixar movie streaming on Disney+)

Here’s another movie that found more life on streaming than in theaters. Pixar’s latest follows the occupants of Element City, where air, fire, and water-themed character co-exist but could probably stand to do so more together. Fiery Ember Lumen and Wade Ripple may come from two different worlds, but we’ll see if they can bring their worlds together at some point. Expect some melting-pot metaphors and difficulties along the way, here’s some more good news: this film runs a mere 102 minutes, although if you’re a parent, you know that this might mean it will play over and over again in your living room.

5. Justified: City Primeval (FX series streaming on Hulu)

Sure, this spinoff is fantastic and all that, but wouldn’t you also love to see Raylan Givens in several other shows, too? Our own Brian Grubb has dreamed up plenty of scenarios where this could conceivably work. Heck, he shouldn’t be limited to Miami now, if he manages to get out of Detroit alive. Just for kicks, we also asked Boyd Holbrook where he would like his character, Clement Mansell, to pop up, given the chance. He had an answer. I’m also hoping for him to appear in some future reunion video for The White Stripes

4. Heart of Stone (Netflix film)

Netflix movies starring Gal Gadot simply seem to get those clicks regardless of content. She formerly starred in Red Notice (alongside two dude powerhouses in what maybe was the only film that mattered during one specific moment in time). Here, she portrays someone actually named Rachel Stone, who happens to be an elite MI6 elite agent with secrets. Never been a movie like that before, nope. As well, Jamie Dornan plays Rachel’s agent boss, and it’s impossible to resist the glossy-fluffy action movies, so give ’em a shot.

3. Suits (USA series streaming on Netflix)

This show ended years ago, and yet, people will not stop resurrecting it on streaming. This might tell us a lot, like that people seem to dig watching Meghan Markle in her professional life before she married that prince guy. The show is destined to sit on the Top 10 most-watched shows on Netflix of all time, so consider this the summer of Suits, even if Harry will probably never watch again after accidentally stumbling upon one of his wife’s sex scenes. Such an occupational hazard.

2. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu series)

Selena Gomez has new music out as well, so she’s ruling all the quadrants with her deadpan character alongside the more eccentric ones portrayed by Steve Martin and Martin Short. They’re not exactly “two wild and crazy guys” like a certain SNL skit starring one of them, but they’re certainly still entertaining. Although Bunny’s murder is no longer an obsession for this trio, there’s a new crime that needs solving. Also look forward to Meryl Streep and Ashley Park and some musical moments, alongside a collection of cameos that could rival those in this year’s season of The Bear.

1. You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah (Netflix film)

Another Adam Sandler movie has hit the Netflix airwaves, and this time, The Sandman reunites with Idina Menzel (also of Uncut Gems) and Sandler’s two daughters, Sunny and Sadie. Sunny’s Stacy is planning her Bat Mitzvah, but she runs into some betrayal (involving, yes, a boy) before the all-important event happens. Fortunately, there’s always Dua Lipa to make things better.

Anthony Edwards is spending this summer with USA Basketball at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, which means Edwards is spending this summer around some of the best coaches in basketball. Team USA has put together a stellar staff of coaches for this tournament, as Steve Kerr is flanked on the bench by Mark Few, Tyronn Lue, and Erik Spoelstra.

One coach, in particular, has spoken incredibly highly of Edwards based on their time together this summer. Earlier this week, Spoelstra was asked what player on the roster most reminds him of Dwyane Wade, and while he stressed that he doesn’t like to make comparisons, Spoelstra said of Edwards “the way he moves, the way he competes, the way he electrifies a crowd, yes, that reminds me of number 3.”

As it turns out, Edwards has some pretty high praise for Spoelstra, as well. While meeting with the media after the team’s win over New Zealand on Saturday, Edwards said that being around Spoelstra gave him a glimpse at what it means to be in the revered culture of the Miami Heat.

“He’s been dope, man,” Edwards said of Spoelstra. “Bringing a lot of energy, the Heat Culture. It’s exciting to see. His first day with the scout, I was like, ok, I see what they mean when they say Heat Culture. He came in with a lot of energy, getting right to the point. So precise with the details. So, it’s dope.”

It is very cool to see the way USA Basketball brings guys from different teams — whether they be players or coaches — together like this. Edwards finished the team’s 99-72 win over New Zealand with 14 points and seven rebounds.

Few teams generated more excitement heading into the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup than Slovenia, and it’s for a pretty obvious reason. The Slovenians finished in fourth place at the most recent Summer Olympics thanks to the singular brilliance of Luka Doncic, who is unquestionably one of the best basketball players on earth and always seems to have a little something extra when he gets the chance to represent his country on the hardwood.

With Goran Dragic deciding to retire from the national team, Doncic is the only active NBA player on the roster. As such, all eyes were on him heading into the team’s World Cup opener on Saturday against Venezuela, and unsurprisingly, the 2023 All-NBA First Team selection was nothing short of brilliant.

While Venezuela was able to keep things close in the first half, Doncic helped Slovenia pull away in the third quarter en route to a 100-85 win. He was, per usual, in total control of his surroundings, and by the time game to an end, the Dallas Mavericks star registered 37 points on 11-for-18 shooting with seven rebounds, six assists, two steals, and a block.

Next up for Slovenia is their most difficult game in group play, as the team will take on Georgia, which beat Cape Verde earlier in the day on Saturday. The game, which will take place on Aug. 28, is set to tip off in the United States at 7:30 a.m. EST on ESPN+.

On Saturday, the world learned of the passing of Bob Barker, the longtime gameshow host who presided over The Price is Right for 35 years. He was 99, just shy of 100, as many of the show’s fans pointed out. Barker did more than the show where people guess the price of consumer items. He spent nearly two decades on Truth or Consequences. And he made a memorable appearance in the film Happy Gilmore, in which he duked it out with star Adam Sandler. Upon his passing, Sandler was sure to pay him a moving — and funny — tribute.

“The man. The myth. The best,” Sandler tweeted. “Such a sweet funny guy to hang out with. Loved talking to him. Loved laughing with him. Loved him kicking the crap out of me. He will be missed by everyone I know! Heartbreaking day. Love to Bob always and his family! Thanks for all you gave us!”

In Happy Gilmore, Sandler’s hockey fanatic-turned-loose cannon golfer is at one point paired with Barker, as himself, for a tournament that goes awry. The two eventually come to loggerheads, prompting a leftfield, knockout fight that’s one of the hallmarks of the Happy Madison oeuvre. In real life, though, they clearly got along gangbusters.

You can watch the duel below:

Barker’s passing prompted plenty of tributes, among them from his Price is Right successor, Drew Carey.

“Very sad day for the Price Is Right family, and animal lovers all over the world,” Carey wrote, alluding to Barker’s famous animal activism. “There hasn’t been a day on set that I didn’t think of Bob Barker and thank him. I will carry his memory in my heart forever.”

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

It’s back-to-school time (yaaassss!), but that means it’s also the time when you have to tackle those super-long, super-specific school supply lists (uggghhhh!).

You know what I’m talking about — the 15-plus-items-long list of things your kids need for school.

As a bonus, they’re often brand-name specific. Seriously. Because Elmer’s glue is apparently just that different from generic store brand glue.

Based on the venting ( “OMG, everyone is sold out of pre-sharpened Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencils!”) and cries for help I’m seeing from my fellow parents on social media (“Where did you find three wide-ruled draw-and-write composition books?” — OK, I admit that was my question), a lot of our public school kiddos are being given supply lists quite similar to this one:

Sample school supply list created from actual lists I’ve collected. Some items have been switched between lists to protect the innocent.

While many public schools send these lists to parents, in certain states they’re “requests” not “requirements” (even when not clearly presented that way) because some states cannot legally require students to provide their own school supplies.

Optional or required, however, these school supply lists are important.

I know, I know — lots of us parents have many feelings about them, like:

• We didn’t have to buy a specific list of supplies when we were kids (walking uphill both ways, two miles, in the snow).
• This is public school, not private school! Can’t the glue sticks come out of my taxes?
• This list is so name-brand specific. Are Elmer’s glue sticks reallllyyyy that superior to these cheaper, generic ones?
• Seriously?? So many glue sticks?! Just … what?

And we can all agree that it’s not right that public school budgets are regularly slashed and aren’t big enough to cover the basic necessities essential for our kids’ success. (You know, like pencils.) And in some cases, budgets are misused, and that’s not right, either.

But as much as parents dread shopping for school supplies, our children’s teachers probably dread having to ask.

Katie Sluiter, a mom of three and teacher of 13 years, shares in parents’ frustrations about supplies — just from a different perspective. “I struggle every single August with having to ask for [supply] donations. I hate it,” she says.

She’d love to stop asking parents to bring in a combined total of 800 pencils and 1,000 glue sticks and just buy them herself. But as a teacher, she simply cannot afford to do it.

“I hate that we have two full-time salaried workers in our house. … I have an advanced degree, and we are still living paycheck to paycheck. It feels shameful to have to ask every. single. year. for donations. Teachers don’t want to ask for handouts. We just want to teach.”

“Teachers don’t want to ask for handouts. We just want to teach.” — Katie Sluiter

Nicole Johansen, a mom of two who was a teacher for 12 years, echoes Sluiter’s sentiments. She cites never ending budget cuts as well as the need to stretch other funds, like PTO-raised money, further and further as the reasons supply lists exist and adds, “It is frustrating knowing that schools should be appropriately allotted funds for supplies — this said from the parent AND teacher standpoint.”

So most of us are on the same page here. Class supply lists are the pits … for everyone!

The most significant thing to remember, though, is that if your budget allows, it’s important to purchase the items on the list.

If you’re not purchasing the supplies, it’s very likely your child’s teacher will have to — with his or her own money.

Image by Thinkstock.

And we’ve already established that teacher salaries aren’t cutting it when it comes to taking care of their families and their students.

And maybe it’s not so much that teachers have to spend their own paychecks on classroom supplies, but they want to because an overwhelming majority of teachers genuinely care about their students.

“I wish all parents knew how much teachers love and sacrifice for their students,” Johansen said. “Pretty much all teachers I know will be spending for their classroom despite having to cut back the grocery bill for their family.”

“I wish all parents knew how much teachers love and sacrifice for their students.” — Nicole Johansen

“No, we don’t have to spend all that time and money on our classrooms, but it makes it a quality experience when your children have things like science experiments, books, art supplies, and a comfortable, cozy classroom environment.”

OK, but seriously, what do they do with all of those glue sticks?!

I know I’m not the only one who opened up that list when my daughter was in first grade, choked on my coffee, and exclaimed, “THREE DOZEN GLUE STICKS?! What, are the kids eating them? [Probably. Little kids eat all kinds of gross stuff.] Are the teachers selling them for profit? [I wouldn’t blame them. See above about teachers’ salaries].”

Image by Thinkstock.

“We glue kids’ mouths shut,” Sluiter told me when I asked.

“Totally kidding. They last like 12 seconds … [and] no matter how vigilant we are in supervising the picking up and putting away of supplies, each time we get the tub of glue sticks out, there are about three to five dead soldiers and lone caps rolling in the bottom of the bin.”

(I love teachers with senses of humor!)

But back to the actual issue.

My friend Shannon summed up the class supply list conundrum perfectly, if bluntly:

She wants parents who can budget in school supplies without experiencing a financial burden to “quit complaining about some of the items being communal. Vote for politicians who will quit cutting money from schools. I don’t remember my parents having to buy 20 glue sticks, but I certainly don’t think any more should come out of teachers’ pockets.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

This story originally appeared on 08.11.15.

I’m pretty positive that Edgar Allan Poe had (has?) the power to travel through time. Hear me out on this one.

It’s not just the well-known circumstances of his life — orphaned at a young age, father of the mystery novel, master of cryptology, maestro of the macabre. Nor am I referring to the head-scratching details of the days leading up to his death: how he was found on the street near a voting poll wearing someone else’s clothes, and during his subsequent hospitalization, he was alleged to babble incoherently about an unidentified person named “Reynolds.”

And I won’t even get into the confounding reports of a nameless figure who, for seven decades, would show up to Poe’s gravesite in the early hours of his birthday with a glass of cognac and three roses.

Tragic and curious, yes, but hardly evidence that the acclaimed horror writer could transcend the limits of space and time. No, my time travel theory concerns the author’s creative output, which you’ll soon see is so flukishly prophetic as to make my outlandish claim seem plausible — nay, probable!

The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding is a loosely linked map of flesh-eating floaters, crunched skull survivors, and primordial particles. OK, here we go…

Exhibit A: “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket”

Published in 1838, Poe’s only completed novel details a mutiny on a whaling ship lost at sea. Out of supplies, the men revert to cannibalism, drawing straws to elect a sacrifice. A boy named Richard Parker draws the shortest straw and is subsequently eaten.

Now here’s where it gets weird(er): In 1884, 46 years after the novel’s publication, four men would be set adrift following the sinking of their yacht. Shipwrecked and without food, they too would go the survival cannibalism route, electing to kill and eat a 17-year-old cabin boy. The boy’s name: Richard Parker.

The extraordinary parallel went unnoticed for nearly a century, until a widely-circulated letter from a descendant of the real Parker outlined the similarities between the novel’s scene and the actual event. The letter was selected for publication in The Sunday Times after journalist Arthur Koestler put out a call for tales of “striking coincidence.” Striking indeed.

Exhibit B: “The Businessman”

In 1848, a railroad worker named Phineas Gage suffered a traumatic brain injury after taking an iron spike through the skull. Somehow he survived, though his personality would change drastically. These behavioral changes were closely studied, allowing the medical community to develop the first understanding of the role played by the frontal lobe on social cognition.

Except for Poe, who’d inexplicably understood the profound personality changes caused by frontal lobe syndrome nearly a decade earlier. In 1840, he penned a characteristically gruesome story called “The Businessman” about an unnamed narrator who suffers a traumatic head injury as a young boy, leading to a life of obsessive regularity and violent, sociopathic outbursts.

Poe’s grasp of frontal lobe syndrome is so precise that neurologist Eric Altshuler wrote, “There’s a dozen symptoms and he knows every single one… There’s everything in that story, we’ve hardly learned anything more.” Altshuler, who, to reiterate, is a medically-licensed neurologist and not at all a crackpot, went on to say, “It’s so exact that it’s just weird, it’s like he had a time machine.”

Exhibit C: “Eureka”

Still unconvinced? What if I told you that Poe predicted the origins of the universe 80 years before modern science would begin to formulate the Big Bang theory? Surely, an amateur stargazer with no formal training in cosmology could not accurately describe the machinery of the universe, rejecting widely-held inaccuracies while solving a theoretical paradox that had bewildered astronomers since Kepler. Except that’s exactly what happened.

The prophetic vision came in the form of “Eureka,” a 150-page prose poem critically panned for its complexity and regarded by many as the work of a madman. Written in the final year of Poe’s life, “Eureka” describes an expanding universe that began in “one instantaneous flash” derived from a single “primordial particle.”

Poe goes on to put forth the first legitimate solution to Olbers’ paradox — the question of why, given the vast number of stars in the universe, the night sky is dark — by explaining that light from the expanding universe had not yet reached our solar system. When Edward Robert Harrison published “Darkness at Night” in 1987, he credited “Eureka” as having anticipated his findings.

In an interview with Nautilus, Italian astronomer Alberto Cappi speaks of Poe’s prescience, admitting, “It’s surprising that Poe arrived at his dynamically evolving universe because there was no observational or theoretical evidence suggesting such a possibility. No astronomer in Poe’s day could imagine a non-static universe.”

But what if Poe wasn’t of a day at all, but of all the days?

What if his written prophecies — on the cannibalistic demise of Richard Parker, the symptoms of frontal lobe syndrome, and the Big Bang theory — were merely reportage from his journey through the extratemporal continuum?

Surely I sound like a tinfoil-capped loon, but maybe, maybe, there are many more prophecies scattered throughout the author’s work, a possibility made all the more likely by the fact that, as The New York Times notes, “Poe was so undervalued for so long, there is not a lot of Poe-related material around.”

I’ll leave you with this quote, taken from a letter that Poe wrote to James Russell Lowell in 1844, in which he apologizes for his absence and slothfulness:

“I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass… You speak of “an estimate of my life” — and, from what I have already said, you will see that I have none to give. I have been too deeply conscious of the mutability and evanescence of temporal things, to give any continuous effort to anything — to be consistent in anything. My life has been whim — impulse — passion — a longing for solitude — a scorn of all things present, in an earnest desire for the future.”

This story was originally published on HistoryBuff and first appeared on 8.16.16

Earlier in the week, Stephen Callaghan’s daughter Ruby came home from school. When he asked her how her day was, her answer made him raise an eyebrow.

Ruby, who’s in the sixth grade at her school in Australia, told her dad that the boys would soon be taken on a field trip to Bunnings (a hardware chain in the area) to learn about construction.

The girls, on the other hand? While the boys were out learning, they would be sent to the library to have their hair and makeup done.

Ruby’s reply made Callaghan do a double take. What year was it, again?

Callaghan decided to write a letter to the school sharing his disappointment — but his wasn’t your typical “outraged parent” letter.

“Dear Principal,” he began. “I must draw your attention to a serious incident which occurred yesterday at your school where my daughter is a Year 6 student.”

“When Ruby left for school yesterday it was 2017,” Callaghan continued. “But when she returned home in the afternoon she was from 1968.”

The letter goes on to suggest that perhaps the school is harboring secret time-travel technology or perhaps has fallen victim to a rift in the “space-time continuum,” keeping his daughter in an era where women were relegated to domestic life by default.

“I look forward to this being rectified and my daughter and other girls at the school being returned to this millennium where school activities are not sharply divided along gender lines,” he concluded.

Dear Principal

I must draw your attention to a serious incident which occurred yesterday at your school where my daughter Ruby is a Year 6 student.

When Ruby left for school yesterday it was 2017 but when she returned home in the afternoon she was from 1968.

I know this to be the case as Ruby informed me that the “girls” in Year 6 would be attending the school library to get their hair and make-up done on Monday afternoon while the “boys” are going to Bunnings.

Are you able to search the school buildings for a rip in the space-time continuum? Perhaps there is a faulty Flux Capacitor hidden away in the girls toilet block.

I look forward to this being rectified and my daughter and other girls at the school being returned to this millennium where school activities are not sharply divided along gender lines.

Yours respectfully
Stephen Callaghan

When Callaghan posted the letter to Twitter, it quickly went viral and inspired hundreds of supportive responses.

Though most people who saw his response to the school’s egregiously outdated activities applauded him, not everyone was on board.

One commenter wrote, “Sometimes it is just ok for girls to do girl things.”

But Callaghan was ready for that. “Never said it wasn’t,” he replied. “But you’ve missed the point. Why ‘girl things’ or ‘boy things’… Why not just ‘things anyone can do?'”

He later commented that he didn’t think the school’s plan was malicious, but noted the incident was a powerful example of “everyday sexism” at work.

Callaghan says the school hasn’t responded to his letter. (Yes, he really sent it.) At least, not directly to him.

Some media outlets have reported that the school claims students are free to opt in and out of the different activities. But, as Callaghan says, gendering activities like this in the first place sends the completely wrong message.

In response to the outpouring of support, Callaghan again took to Twitter.

“At 12 years of age my daughter is starting to notice there are plenty of people prepared to tell her what she can and can’t do based solely on the fact she is female,” he wrote.

“She would like this to change. So would I.”

This article originally appeared on 12.08.17.

Have you ever wondered why people don’t seem to say “you’re welcome” anymore?

Back in 2015, author and professor Tom Nichols tweeted out an angry response after receiving what he thought was poor customer service:

“Dear Every Cashier in America: the proper response to ‘thank you’ is ‘you’re welcome,’ not ‘no problem.’ And *you’re* supposed to thank *me*”The angry tweet elicited a number of mocking responses from people on social media.

But eventually one person chimed in with a detailed and thoughtful response that just might give you pause the next time you or someone you know says, “no problem.”

— (@)

u201cDear Every Cashier in America: the proper response to “thank you” is “you’re welcome,” not “no problem.” And *you’re* supposed to thank *me*u201d

— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols)
1442104313

It’s not about being polite. Our views on gratitude are evolving.

In a response that is going viral on Reddit, on person writing under the name “lucasnoahs” laid it all out:

Actually the “you’re welcome/no problem” issue is simply a linguistics misunderstanding. Older ppl tend to say “you’re welcome,” younger ppl tend to say “no problem.” This is because for older people the act of helping or assisting someone is seen as a task that is not expected of them, but is them doing extra, so it’s them saying, “I accept your thanks because I know I deserve it.”

“No problem,” however, is used because younger people feel not only that helping or assisting someone is a given and expected but also that it should be stressed that you’re need for help was no burden to them (even if it was).

Basically, older people think help is a gift you give, younger people think help is an expectation required of them.

Nichols took a lot of flack for his comment. But the insightful response reveals something important about gratitude.

The thoughtful response from “lucasnoahs” doesn’t apply to everyone. After all, there are certainly a lot of people of any age group for whom acts of kindness and gestures of gratitude are “no problem.”

Still, his message conveys an important idea that doing well for others does not have to be a grand gesture. It can be a simple act — and the additional act of letting someone know that it’s really no problem helps relieve any potential sense of debt or guilt the person receiving the gesture might otherwise take on.

Most of the time, doing the right thing is indeed no problem. In fact, it might be the solution to a lot of the daily problems we grapple with.

This article originally appeared on 08.15.18.

Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody has been covered dozens of different ways. But you’ve never seen it performed like this.

As one of the most iconic songs in rock music, Bohemian Rhapsody is recognizable no matter how it’s done. As children, my brother and I used to belt out Galileos and Figaros in the backseat of our parents’ Volkswagon whenever the song came on (yes, just like in Wayne’s World). While other kids learned about Beelzebub in Sunday School, I learned about him from Queen’s perfect harmonies. If there were an anthem from my classic rock-filled childhood, it would be Bohemian Rhapsody.

It’s one of those songs that is hard to cover well, though it hasn’t stopped people from trying. I’ve enjoyed some renditions, but nothing has caught my attention or delight more than this kapa haka version from New Zealand.

A Māori choir in native garb sang the song live in the Māori language, and it is something to see.

The group Hātea Kapa Haka performed the song on February 21 at New Zealand’s national kapa haka festival, Te Matatini, in Wellington. The festival brings 46 kapa haka (Māori performing arts) groups together to compete against one another.

Newshub reports that Hātea Kapa Haka collaborated with musical artist William Waiirua to create a “Bohemian Rhapsody” cover in the Māori language, both as a tribute to Freddie Mercury and to celebrate the Oscar-nominated movie about his life.

The group had previously created a music video for their cover, but seeing it performed live is something else. The voices, the harmony, the presentation—everything—is wonderful.

This kind of cultural mashup reminds us how small our world has become.

The contrast between Queen’s 1970s British rock and the Māori people’s traditional kapa haka could not be more striking. And yet, the melding of the two totally works. Music has the power to bring people together, and this performance is a great example of how it can bridge cultures with beautiful results.

Watch the live performance here:

And if you want more, check out the music video too:

William Waiirua got more help from Hātea Kapa Haka than he bargained for when his car broke down… For more Queen, check out this playlist: https://umusicNZ…

This article originally appeared on 03.01.19

Ariana Grande is celebrating a big career milestone. Over the course of the past week, Grande has been honoring her debut album, Yours Truly on its 10th anniversary, with special live performances. Today, in the first of two Q&As she has planned as part of the anniversary celebration, she revealed a secret about the video for “The Way.”

“The Way” dropped in 2013, marked a breakthrough single for Grande, and served as the lead for Yours Truly. But no one could predict the success of the song or the impact of its accompanying visual.

A fan asked Grande which of the album’s videos was the most fun to film, to which she responded, “The Way.”

In the video, she and Mac Miller, who is featured on the song, are seen dancing in front of a projector, as images appear on a back wall and balloons descend from the ceiling.

“We had no budget,” said Grande, responding to the fan. “Didn’t even tell the label we were gonna do it. Made it ourselves, and we said, ‘Listen, we have a camera, we have a projector, we have music, we have balloons, we got dancers…[The label] brought it up to me, they were like, ‘We need to shoot a music video.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, we already did it.’”

Grande will hold a second Q&A for fans this coming Monday (August 28), and fans will also be able to purchase a special vinyl edition of Yours Truly. Grande’s live performances of Yours Truly cuts will continue until Wednesday (August 30).