Category: News

Although social media has been a huge boon in helping artists promote their work, it has also come with a huge drawback. In the era of the subtweet, any comment an artist makes in any medium will eventually make its way to Twitter, where overzealous fans will dissect it and reinterpret it for any trace of malice toward another artist (this is deranged behavior, by the way. Knock it off).

Savvy artists can do their best to get ahead of this phenomenon — or at least play defense a little — by making their own statements on Twitter to try and control the narrative. That’s what Kid Cudi did yesterday, perhaps sensing that one of his comments from a newly published Esquire cover story would be read the wrong way — or even seeing tweets already determining that he was being shady. In the story, he addresses his broken friendship with Kanye West, saying it’d take a “miracle” to mend fences and using another recently buried hatchet as an example.

“With all due respect, I’m not Drake, who’s about to take a picture with him next week and be friends again, and their beef is squashed,” he said. “That’s not me. What I say, I mean. I will be done with you. It’s gonna take a motherf*cking miracle for me and that man to be friends again. I don’t see it happening. He gon’ have to become a monk.” This, of course, is a reference to the two frenemies’ Free Larry Hoover Concert last year, which they held after years of trading passive-aggressive jabs in their music and social posts (to be fair, this also confused Kendrick Lamar).

But before fans could run with any speculation that Cudi has beef with Drake (which wouldn’t be entirely unfounded), Cudi himself made sure to clarify his meaning. “Just to be clear, I wasnt tryna throw a shot at Drake,” he wrote. “I got love 4 him. My point I was tryna make is that im not so forgiving. Meaning he might be a lil nicer than me in that situation w dude. Thats all. Maybe that came off wrong thru my words. So yea, all good w Drake.”

Although Kids See Ghosts fans were probably distressed by Cudi’s comments, there’s a bright side here. Despite his harsh words for Kanye, there was a time when it seemed Cudi would never reconcile with Drake. For that matter, plenty of seemingly insurmountable splits were repaired throughout the history of rap, including one of its most infamous ones between Jay-Z and Nas. So, nothing is impossible. And with Kanye becoming more and more of a recluse, he’s about halfway to being a monk as it is. We can only hope he actually, sincerely, makes amends.

We are currently living in a weird limbo-like state of HBO Max. The streamer still exists and is home to many hit shows, but will slowly begin merging with Discovery+ over the next 12 months. While that’s happening, projects are getting canceled or even yanked from the site and fans are hoping that their favorite shows are safe from cancellation. The good news? You can get yourself an HBO Max subscription for super cheap!

HBO is offering a 30% discount for all new and returning US customers from now until October 30th, 2022. According to the deal, you can sign up for a no-ads plan for just $104.99 for the first year, compared to the regular $149.99 price, or get HBO Max with ads for $69.99/year, compared to their standard $99.99 price point. The deal only works for prepaid yearly subscriptions, so you can’t snag a monthly sub for just $5, unfortunately.

The move is not surprising, and it’s likely that we will see more changes on HBO Max over the next several months as the company gears up to merge with Discovery+. The company said to expect some more changes, including content removal, while they prepare for the big move.

“As we work toward bringing our content catalogs together under one platform, we will be making changes to the content offering available on both HBO Max and Discovery+,” HBO said in a statement. “That will include the removal of some content from both platforms.” On the bright side? This means Shark Week could maybe see some big news!

(Via Variety)

I love soda. More than any other vice I cover (tequila, weed, fast food) nothing gets me psyched like a blind soda taste test. So I’ll admit I took great pleasure as I cruised through the aisles of multiple markets filling up my cart with cherry soda after cherry soda for this piece.

But while cola is my all-time favorite type of soda, cherry cola runs a close second. And yet I have meandered across this mortal coil without having a “go to” brand the way I do with cola (Coke, naturally). I have yet to find “the one.” So this test is poised to serve as quite the utility for you and me both.

Can anything top market leaders Cherry Coke and Wild Cherry Pepsi? Let’s find out!

Methodology

For this blind taste test, all sodas were tasted while I wore a blindfold, recording my impressions via voice memo. This way the colorless sodas wouldn’t be as easy to pick out.

The only thing we eliminated was low-sugar cherry seltzers — as they would stand out way too easily in this blind taste test. I made an exception for New York Seltzer Black Cherry which is so packed with sugar, that it’s essentially just a regular soda and not really a health-conscious seltzer drink.

Here is our class:

• BAWLS — Cherry Soda
• Boylan — Black Cherry
• Cheerwine
• Coca-Cola — Cherry Coke
• Cock ’n Bull — Cherry Ginger Beer
• Hanks — Black Cherry Soda
• Henry Weinhard’s — Black Cherry Cream
• Original New York Seltzer — Black Cherry Soda
• Pepsi — Wild Cherry Pepsi
• Saranac — Shirley Temple
• Sprecher — Cherry Cola
• Virgil’s — Handcrafted Black Cherry

Part 1: The Tasting

Taste 1:

Very bright and cherry forward on the nose. This has a great appetizing smell to it, but that doesn’t really translate to the flavor. The carbonation is very weak, there isn’t enough fizz on the body, and the flavor is a bit too sweet to be enjoyable.

It’s fine for a sip, but I can’t imagine crushing a bottle of this stuff.

Taste 2:

Absolutely no cherry smell on the nose, but this one still has a pleasingly sweet smell. The cherry is very subtle here, I’m getting much more of the cinnamon and vanilla aspects of cola, and not a lot of cherry. It’s there, but you have to strain for it.

That’s not bothering me, though. I like this one a lot.

Taste 3:

Truly bad. The nose has a nice soft cherry smell to it but the flavor is blunt and flat with a gross bitter aftertaste.

Taste 4:

This is Wild Cherry Pepsi. I know that not because I’m a fan of Wild Cherry Pepsi, I’m not, but it has that fizzy smell and round flavor characteristics of Pepsi.

It’s an improvement over regular Pepsi definitely, but my taste buds are geared to Coca-Cola, so this just tastes like the enemy to me.

Taste 5:

Very sweet and bright on the nose with a soft almost bubble-gum-like flavor. It doesn’t really read as cherry to me, it just tastes light, sweet, and fruity.

From my notes: “Lack of cherry aside, it’s delicious.”

Taste 6:

A nice rich flavor, I’m getting vanilla, sweet dark cherry, orange peel, and some cinnamon dancing with the fruitier qualities. A bit too sweet on the after-taste, but overall this is a good one.

Taste 7:

This one has a great fizz to it that feels crisp on the tongue. The flavor has deep cherry notes with a nicely balanced aftertaste of sweet and bitter tones. Very complex!

Taste 8:

Creamy with a balance of cherry and vanilla flavors and a strangely soft mouthfeel. It almost tastes like some kind of soda float. I’m not the biggest fan of cream sodas, which this clearly is, but the cherry makes this sweet flavor a bit more palatable for me.

Taste 9:

I’m questioning if this is really a cherry-flavored soda or if we’ve made some kind of mistake. Where is the cherry? You get a slight fruity tinge when it first hits the tongue but the flavor is quickly dominated by spicy ginger notes and a throat-burning aftertaste.

This is very herbal and spicy — I can’t see myself drinking a whole bottle but I can see this mixed in a cocktail with some dry gin and a twist of lime and mint.

Taste 10:

This one hit me with an intoxicating cherry smell that came across as very natural. Just the smell got my salivary glands going, which I can’t say for any of the tastes proceeding this. This tastes like a number one — it has a strong fizzy bite with a balance of natural cherry notes, vanilla, a hint of citrus, and some cinnamon on the backend.

From my notes: “A real medley of flavors.”

Taste 11:

This smells like straight-up cran-raspberry juice. Seriously, I’m getting Ocean Spray vibes from this one. The flavor is a 1:1 match for a Cherry Tootsie Pop. I don’t know what this is, but it tastes like cheap cherry candy.

Taste 12:

Nicely balanced, I’m getting some darker cola tones with a sweet cherry lift on the backend. The cherry flavor is well represented here, but it never gets too overwhelming or candy sweet. It’s a toss-up between this one and Taste 10 for my number one pick.

Part 2: The Ranking

12. BAWLS — Cherry Soda (Taste 3)

Price: $2.69

BAWLS has got to be the worst name for a soda brand, and after two different soda taste tests in which BAWLS has performed poorly, this might be my least favorite brand of all time. BAWLS is a brand that infuses its soda with the Amazon basin’s guarana berry I guess the guarana berry tastes awful because this has no redeeming qualities. It’s off-puttingly bitter.

The Bottom Line:

A sweet bright cherry smell with a dirty blunt and bitter flavor. Steer clear of this one.

11. Virgil’s — Handcrafted Black Cherry (Taste 11)

Price: $7.99 (4 pack)

Virgil’s isn’t a brand that you’d assume would be bad considering it’s one of the most visible “hipster” soda brands out there. Trader Joe’s has it, Whole Foods has it, BevMo, Total Wine, Wal-Mart, this shit is everywhere! Should it be? Because Virgil’s isn’t good, in fact, I’ve never had any Virgil’s product that hasn’t tasted like overly-sweetened garbage.

The Bottom Line:

Don’t let the fancy branding fool you, Virgil’s is garbage and the Black Cherry is one of the brand’s worst.

10. Cock ’n Bull — Cherry Ginger Beer (Taste 9)

Price: $6.99 (4 pack)

If BAWLS is the worst name for a soda brand, Cock n’ Bull takes the spot for the second worst soda brand name. This was a hard one for me to rank because on one hand, I think it doesn’t taste anything like cherry. This is a cherry-infused ginger beer and it tastes more like a ginger beer than anything else, so as a cherry soda I think this leaves a lot to be desired.

Having said that, I think it’s delicious.

As I alluded to in the blind portion, I think this soda would make a great base for a cocktail, it has this complex shifting character that I think would add a lot to a mixed drink. In a ginger beer blind, I think this will hold up well, but in this cherry soda taste test, we have to rank this one near the bottom of the list.

The Bottom Line:

Worth a pick-up if you like ginger beer. As. a cherry soda, it doesn’t come across as cherry-forward enough.

9. Henry Weinhard’s — Black Cherry Cream (Taste 8)

Price: $6.79 (6 pack)

Take my ranking of this one with a grain of salt because I’m not a fan of cream soda. In fact, I straight up don’t like it, but this one has a complexity to it that I can respect and appreciate. Henry Weinhard’s makes its Black Cherry Cream soda with bing and black cherries from Oregon, black raspberry, and bourbon vanilla, and you can taste that craft, the flavor is very rich and complex, but overall I don’t really like the cream element. It’s too sweet and distracting for me to enjoy.

But that’s my issue, if you like cream soda, you’re going to love this.

The Bottom Line:

One of the best cream sodas I’ve ever had, but I don’t like cream soda so I can’t give this a higher ranking than this. If you do, you’re going to find a lot to like her.

8. Pepsi — Wild Cherry Pepsi

Price: $6.49 (12 pack)

Although I’m not a Pepsi fan I will say that Wild Cherry Pepsi is a clear improvement over the OG. The flavor leans a bit more on cola flavors than I’d expect a cherry soda to, but the cherry flavor is definitely present and does add some excitement to it that makes it admittedly appetizing.

The Bottom Line:

A slight improvement over Pepsi.

7. Boylan — Black Cherry (Taste 1)

Price: $8.79 (4 pack)

I like Boylan a lot, the flavor has a nice bright and refreshing cherry-forward taste to it, but the carbonation is just too weak for me to give this a higher spot. When soda doesn’t have a strong fizz, it tends to stick to the teeth in this really unappetizing way I can’t help but be turned off by.

Maybe my bottle was a fluke but other Boylan flavors have failed to grab me either, so I think it’s the brand. Fizz this shit up a little, team Boylan!

The Bottom Line:

Good flavor but it has no fizz. If you like your soda to have strong bubbles and a biting flavor, this comes across too flat.

6. Saranac — Shirley Temple (Taste 5)

Price: $7.99 (6 pack)

I had a feeling there was something different about this tasting, it had a tart brightness that all the other sips lacked, and that’s because it’s Saranac, which isn’t so much a cherry soda as it is a Shirley Temple.

Yes, I’m well aware that a Shirley Temple is essentially cherry sprite or 7-Up, but Shirley Temple is made with grenadine, and even though grenadine is sometimes cherry flavored (sometimes pomegranate!) it doesn’t really taste all that much like cherry, it kind of sort of just tastes like, well … grenadine. It has its own special unique flavor

The Bottom Line:

If you love the light, bright, and tart bite of Shirley Temples, this bottle by Saranac is a great one.

5. Original New York Seltzer — Black Cherry Soda (Taste 7)

Price: $1.29

I am truly shocked to find a seltzer ranked so highly! I don’t know what it is about clear colorless soda, there is just something unappetizing to me about it. And apparently, that’s all in my head because when I couldn’t see the sodas, this one didn’t taste any different from the experience the other sodas provided.

The New York Zeltzer brand was everywhere in the 80s and 90s at convenience stores but for whatever reason, this one disappeared and now I can only find it in markets in the cold bottle section.

The Bottom Line:

Don’t be fooled by the word seltzer in the name, this isn’t some low-calorie health soda — it’s just as sugar packed and delicious as the best of them!

4. Coca-Cola — Cherry Coke (Taste 6)

Price: $6.49 (12 pack)

I’m not surprised to see Cherry Coke in the top five, I’m a Coke head, and that characteristic Coca-Cola bite is just something I look for in a soda, regardless of flavor. Overall, I don’t like this nearly as much as Classic Coca-Cola which has a stronger bite and a less sweetened flavor, but it’s hard to be disappointed with this cherry cola.

It has a great balanced flavor.

The Bottom Line:

Not quite as good as Coca-Cola Classic but this is an excellent cherry cola. Easily Coke’s second-best flavor.

3. Cheerwine (Taste 2)

Price: $4.99 (4 pack)

Cheerwine has been around since 1917 and one sip of this stuff was enough to convince me of why. I really like this soda, it’s not as cherry-forward as any of the other brands on this ranking, but I really love the equal balance of cherry and cola notes. On the Cheerwine website, the brand proudly proclaims that it is “the south’s unique cherry soft drink” and we co-sign that.

This is definitely unique, and that is its strength.

The Bottom Line:

A great soda. It leans a little more on citrus and vanilla cola notes than cherry flavors, but that’s its strength, not its weakness.

2. Hank’s — Wishniak Black Cherry Soda (Taste 12)

Price: $5.99 (4 pack)

It was hard to pick a top spot in this ranking but after a few re-tastings of the top two, I have to give this second place spot to Hank’s. This soda might’ve landed in second place but it’s absolutely worth picking up and might even be your favorite over our top choice, depending on what you’re looking for in a cherry cola.

If you want a subtle gentler expression of cherry with a rich and creamy body, this is the brand for you. If want you want is bite, you’re going to want to reach for our number 1 choice.

The Bottom Line:

Sweet, creamy, well-balanced, complex, and rich in flavor.

1. Sprecher — Cherry Cola (Taste 10)

Price: $5.99 (4 pack)

The top spot in our blind cherry cola taste test goes to Sprecher, a brand out of Milwaukee Wisconsin that holds the title of the oldest craft brewery in the city. For this cherry cola, Sprecher infuses a cola base with Door County cherry juice and blends the brew with real Wisconsin honey, resulting in a complex bouquet of flavors that taste natural, fruity, and floral, but still delivers that characteristic cola bite.

You can really smell and taste that natural cherry juice in this, it cuts through the flavor in a way that none of the other bottles could, and for that alone I think it deserves the top spot.

The Bottom Line:

Truly the best marriage of cherry and cola flavors. It has a bite, a zesty zing, and a juicy sweet floral sweetness that comes across as natural, while still delivering the sweetness.

I’ve never had a cherry cola more perfect than this. If you’re hooked on a different brand you should definitely make the effort to give it a try.

Disclaimer: While all of the products recommended here were chosen independently by our editorial staff, Uproxx may receive payment to direct readers to certain retail vendors who are offering these products for purchase.

Welcome to SNX DLX, your weekly roundup of all the sneakers to hit the internet that matter. Summer is ending and we’re officially in the back-to-school season, and as students gear up to return to college campuses across America the big sneaker brands are responding with a whole host of new silhouettes and colorways. It’s looking like Nike is trying to change directions for the year’s end, pulling out some double-digit Jordans and the Air Adjust Force, silhouettes that haven’t seen new colorways in a minute.

Outside of Nike things are looking pretty quiet, New Balance and Adidas have some new colorways but we aren’t getting much this week in terms of big internet-breaking collaborations. We still have a few of those left before the year’s end — J Balvin AJ II, we’re looking at you — but this week we’ve only got one major collaboration in our roundup, it’s another new colorway of Salehe Bembury’s Pollex Clog, which will either have you super hyped, or a little bummed.

Let’s dive in to this week’s best sneaker drops and be sure to hit our bi-weekly apparel round up Style Watch to complete the fit.

Air Jordan 14 Light Ginger

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a new Jordan 14 colorway drop — all of the double-digit Jordans are on the back burner at Nike it seems — but this week we’re getting a refresh of an iconic colorway that first dropped in 1999. The Light Ginger features a premium leather upper in an earthy yellow tone with a black outsole and accents, and a bright white midsole. The sneaker sits atop a Zoom Air unit in the forefoot and heel.

The Air Jordan 14 Light Ginger is out now for a retail price of $210. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Nike Air Max 97 Muslin and Pink Foam

It’s only August but the big brands are already starting to roll out their autumnal colorways. This Air Max 97 combines Muslin and Pink Foam over a suede, leather, and hemp canvas upper over a gum outsole and a full-length Nike Air cushion. The pink used on this sneaker is very subtle, it appears on the swoosh and some of the outsole detailing, but the sneaker seems to exude a sort of pink aura to it despite its combination of brown and earthy tones. A great optical illusion of a design!

The Nike Air Max 97 Muslin and Pink Foam is set to drop on August 19th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $185. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Air Jordan 13 French Blue

Are we experiencing the process of a shift at Nike? For the last few years, Nike has been obsessed with reiterating upon the classic single-digit Jordans, but this week brings not one, but two dope double-digits. So if you’re a fan of the bulkier more luxury-leaning Jordans, get it while it lasts! This France-inspired take on the Air Jordan 13 combines French Blue with a premium white tumbled leather upper with synthetic suede midsole wrap and heels, and that classic dimpled design.

The Air Jordan 13 French Blue is set to drop on August 19th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $200. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or aftermarket sites like GOAT and Flight Club.

Nike Air Adjust Force x AMBUSH Summit White and Black/Black and Psychic Purple

Japanese luxury label AMBUSH has teamed up with Nike once again but this time the two brands aren’t giving us a radical reconstruction of a high-top Dunk and we gotta say, that’s shocking to us! We’ve just come to expect Dunks from AMBUSH so this is a pretty refreshing surprise that sees the brand grabbing one of Nike’s less visible silhouettes, the forgotten ‘90s icon, the Air Adjust Force.

The Adjust Force features a full-grain leather upper with a chunky mid-foot strap, and dual branding. If you’re not feeling the strap, it’s totally removable but we’d argue that the crazy strap is what makes the Air Adjust Force, you know, the Air Adjust Force. So we’d move to keep it! The sneaker drops in two striking colorways: a classic black and white and a moodier black and Psychic Purple.

The Nike Air Adjust Force x AMBUSH Summit White and Black/ Black and Psychic Purple are set to drop on August 19th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $210. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Adidas Yeezy BOOST 700 V2 Vanta

Of the three version of the Yeezy BOOST 700, the V2 is by far the least loved. I don’t know if its the understated design, or the lack of truly great colorways, but for whatever reason people have been sleeping on this shoe in favor of the V1 and V3. Maybe that’s all about to change because Adidas is finally giving this sneaker an undeniably dope colorway, a sort of faded triple black dubbed the “Vanta.”

The Build of the Vanta (which my computer keeps trying to autocorrect to ‘Santa’) is along the lines of what we’ve come to expect from the V2, a combination of suede, leather, and primeknit, offering a stylish and lightweight take on the dad-shoe aesthetic.

The Adidas Yeezy BOOST 700 V2 Santa is set to drop on August 19th for a retail price of $260. Pick up a pair via the Adidas CONFIRMED app or at Yeezy Supply.

New Balance ThisNeverThat 2002R

Teddy Santis and Joe Freshgoods have been holding things down by redefining the look and feel of New Balance with the MADE in USA line but a lot of the credit for revitalizing the brand in streetwear circles belongs to South Korea, whose streets of Seoul helped to usher in a new era for the brand. One of the brands that deserve a lot of that credit is the South Korean streetwear label thisneverthat who is once again linking up with New Balance for a new take on the 2002R.

Featuring a dual suede and mesh upper, this 2002R sports an N-ergy shock absorbing outsole, ABzoRB midsole, and swirling cutouts that change up the look of the design. Cracked leather accents and a neutral grey and white colorway with blue accents and a bright teal insole round out the design.

The thisneverthat x New Balance 2002R is set to drop on August 19th at 7:00 AM PST for a retail price of $149.99. Pick up a pair exclusively at the New Balance webstore.

Salehe Bembury Crocs Pollex Clog Cobbler

Salehe Bembury is back with yet another new colorway of his Crocs collaboration, the Pollex Clog. Dubbed the ‘Cobbler,’ Bembury is getting dangerously close to his 10th iteration on this design and we’ve got to wonder — will we ever get another New Balance from Salehe Bembury? At this point, we’ll even take another Vans collaboration. It’s not that we don’t like the Pollex Clog, we do, we like it so much we want to see how else Bembury plans to change the game!

The Cobbler features the same design as every other Pollex Clog, but this time it’s getting a special earth-toned colorway to match the season.

The Salehe Bembury Crocs Pollex Clog Cobbler is set to drop on August 18th at 9 AM PST at Beaspunge.com for a retail price of $85 or at aftermarket sites like GOAT. Subscribe the Spunge mailing list for pricing and other release info, and hit the Crocs website to enter a drawing to purchase the shoe.

Saucony TOMBOGO Butterfly

TOMBOGO’s foray into footwear, The TOMBOGO Butterfly, made in collaboration with Saucony and first unveiled during February’s New York Fashion Week, has finally received a release date! The Butterfly combines Saucony’s emphasis on functionality and combines it with Tommy Bogo’s love of minimalist design and his envelope-pushing tendencies.

The sneaker takes on a modular approach and features a removable bootie with a foam clog shell and is equipped with Saucony’s PWRRUN performance cushioning. Bogo has managed to do the impossible: make a modular running sneaker look cool and functional as intended in the process. We have to give it to him!

The TOMBOGO Butterfly is set to drop on August 19th for a retail price of $120 exclusively at Tombogo’s website. A global release from Saucony is set to happen on September 2nd.

Millie Bobby Brown was 10 years old when she was told by a casting director that she was “too mature” to make it as an actress. Since then, she’s become the face of one of the biggest TV shows of the decade; set a record for the largest upfront salary paid to an under-20 actor; and most notably, worked with Godzilla and Kong. Every actor’s dream.

Bobby Brown will next appear in Enola Holmes 2, the sequel to 2020’s better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be Enola Holmes, which she surprisingly called “maybe the most important moment in my career so far because it’s something that I developed.” She’s listed as a producer for both projects, meaning “she had input into everything from story beats to production design,” according to Entertainment Weekly. “For the sequel, she took a particular interest in the film’s costuming, helping to create not just Enola’s outfits but some of the other characters’, too.”

“It’s rewarding. Obviously, it can be tiring, and when you look back on it, you’re like, ‘Gosh, I can’t believe I didn’t fall asleep.’ But there were so many things that I got to be a part of, and I was really grateful for that,” Bobby Brown said. “My age and gender has never defined [my job], so everyone on set really respected me and heard me.”

The one case Sherlock Holmes’ sister couldn’t solve: why the “too mature” casting director had that job in the first place. Enola Holmes 2 premieres on November 4.

(Via EW)

Heading into the premiere of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law there were concerns about the show’s CGI after Marvel fans got a look at the first trailer. Let’s just say there were a whole lot of Avatar jokes, and it was becoming the elephant in the room. Things got to the point where star Tatiana Maslany had to defend the VFX artists who have been working under less than optimal conditions on not just She-Hulk, but the industry as a whole.

“I feel incredibly, like, deferential to how talented these artists are and how quickly they have to work, obviously, like much quicker than probably should be given to them, in terms of like churning these things out,” Maslany told Variety earlier in the month. Her concerns were echoed by head writer Jessica Gao.

“It’s terrible that a lot of artists feel rushed and feel that the the workload is too massive,” Gao said. “I mean, I think everybody on this panel stands in solidarity with all workers and is very pro-good working conditions.”

In a nutshell, the whole situation was less than ideal, and it appears that the culprit is that Marvel might have rushed the trailer because the CGI in the first episode is actually fine. (We can confirm that the visual effects are significantly better than the trailer.) Following She-Hulk‘s premiere, fans have been flocking to Twitter to voice their surprise that the CGI looks pretty darn good.

You can see some of the reactions below:

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law streams new episodes Thursdays on Disney+.

The 2022 MTV VMAs have been rolling out the announcements for nominees, performers, and Video Vanguard honorees all month. Today, we learn who will be hosting the show on August 28: Jack Harlow, LL Cool J, and Nicki Minaj. The press release makes it a point to say that they’ll emcee the event, “taking a more innovative and unique approach to the traditional ‘host’ gig.” That’s some intriguing wording and could mean that the show’s producers have thrown in a few surprises.

So far, the performers who have been announced include Anitta, BLACKPINK, J Balvin, Jack Harlow, Lizzo, Marshmello & Khalid, Nicki Minaj, and Panic! At The Disco. The nominations are led by Jack Harlow, Kendrick Lamar, and Lil Nas X with seven apiece, while Doja Cat and Harry Styles have six each. Other artists nominated for awards include Billie Eilish, Drake, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd, who are all nominated for five awards each.

In addition to her emceeing and performing duties, Nicki Minaj is set to be awarded the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award for her decade-plus of innovation at the forefront of the music video format.

The 2022 MTV Video Music Awards will air live from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey at 8 pm ET on 8/28.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Angel Olsen’s new album Big Time was a refreshing, powerful pivot to country that grappled with grief and gratitude. The singer has been promoting the album with an awesome tour and late-night television performances. She’s back with more of the latter; last night she brought “All the Good Times” to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The performance is bewitching as Olsen sways on stage and hypnotizes the audience with her silky voice. She ends the song by thanking Fallon and Demi Lovato in her theatrical voice, as well as wishing Lovato a happy birthday.

She announced in May that she will be releasing an accompanying film for the album, writing, “At the time of my mothers passing I kept having these super visual dreams about time travel. Later on I decided I’d name the record Big Time, not only because of the song but also as a kind of wink to time expansion and change. When I approached Kimberly Stuckwisch about making these videos, I thought it would be cool to include the storyline of one of the dreams I’d had, and really use it as a way to tell the story of the songs.”

Watch her performance of “All the Good Times” above.

Nicki Minaj fans haven’t heard from her Roman Zolanski alter ego in a while, but every so often the character pops back up. Most recently Nicki dusts off the Roman flow for an extended “Roman Remix” of her new single, “Super Freaky Girl.” While the Rick James-sampling beat remains the same and she uses the same pre-chorus, she restructures the song to add a third rapid-fire verse that sees her continue the spelling exercise from the hook and boast about her career longevity. “Don’t nobody wanna hear that weak sh*t, ho,” she crows. “In the game, fifteen, ain’t peak yet, ho.”

It’s an especially timely assertion, considering she’s soon to be honored with a Video Vanguard Award at the upcoming 2022 MTV VMAs. Her Barbie-pink colorful aesthetic and imaginative videos have proven to be inescapably influential on the modern generation of rap girls, so it’s fitting that she should receive the award, which was most recently awarded to Missy Elliott. However, that iconic pink look has also caused trouble for one of her brand partners; Mattel is suing Rap Snacks over its Nicki-themed “Barbie-Cue” flavor.

She’s also putting together a performance of fan-favorite hits — likely to also include “Super Freaky Girl” — and presumably has a new album on the way. Even without the album, she’s got plenty of irons in the fire; a docuseries about her life and career, Nicki, has a yet-to-be-announced release month pinned down, and she’s once again recording her Queen Radio podcast.

One of Uma Thurman’s inspirations for playing The Bride in Kill Bill: Vol 1. and Vol. 2 was Michelle Yeoh‘s performance in Supercop, the third film in Jackie Chan’s Police Story series. So, why didn’t Quentin Tarantino cast the Everything Everywhere All at Once great in either of the movies? Because no one would believe that she could lose a fight.

“I asked Quentin the same question,” she told Town and Country about not being in Kill Bill. “He’s very smart.” Tarantino’s answer: “Who would believe that Uma Thurman could kick your ass?” Fair enough!

Yeoh (who went by Michelle Khan at the time) credits Tarantino with inspiring her to continue acting after she fractured her vertebrae while filming 1996’s The Stunt Woman. “I must say, Quentin, he’s persistent. He is who he is today because he’s full of passion and love, so he wore me down,” she said. “Suddenly we became animated. So then I thought, Maybe I’m not ready to give up on this.”

Tarantino’s admiration encouraged Yeoh to once again get back to work… She signed on to her first English language lead, in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, and in 1997, the world was officially introduced to Michelle Yeoh, her actual last name.

Three years later, she starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the first foreign-language film to make over $100 million in the United States. Yeoh wasn’t nominated for an Oscar, but hopefully the Academy doesn’t make the same mistake with Everything Everywhere All at Once.

(Via Town and Country)