Selena Gomez is pretty much good at everything she does. She’s a great actress, most recently on the brilliantOnly Murders In The Building which earned her a Critic’s Choice nomination for Best Actress, no easy feat when you’re working alongside powerhouses like Martin Short and Steve Martin. She has a successful makeup line, a cooking show, works behind the scenes in Hollywood as an executive producer, and she’s dropped a string of pop hits throughout her career.
One of those hits, 2020’s BlackPink collaboration “Ice Cream,” inspired an ice cream flavor by Serendipity brands, a label owned by famed Upper East Side dining staple, Serendipity 3, which Gomez was an early investor in. Oh, we forgot to mention — she’s an investor too!
Serendipity Brands make a variety of premium quality ice cream flavors available in a few East Coast states as well as nationwide online (we’ve spoken well of them before). The brand’s ice cream flavors are beloved for being rich, creamy, pop-culture hip (they have a Friends flavor), and special-ingredient packed, and Selena Gomez’s Cookies & Cream Remix follows that trend.
Gomez worked alongside the brand, tasting a variety of flavor combinations until she landed on a winner.
We dug our spoons into a pint to see if this flavor lives up to the infectiousness of the song that inspired it or if it’s a simple cash-grab using a beloved celebrity’s name.
Like Chance The Rapper’s easy-to-love Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, the strength of Selena Gomez’s Serendipity flavor is its obviousness. Gomez isn’t throwing us a curveball or trying to challenge our taste buds, she’s taking a simple classic — cookies & cream — and giving it a minor remix that keeps it interesting.
It’s like sampling Lauryn Hill or asking for an Andre 3000 feature — you sorta know it’s going to be a hit at the outset.
Cookies & Cream remix features pink vanilla ice cream with a generous Moose Tracks fudge swirl with bits of broken Oreo cookies, or in this case, “chocolate sandwich cookies,” peppered throughout the ice cream. I tried to sample each element of this ice cream but it’s so well blended and mixed in, it’s hard to get a spoonful that doesn’t feature the perfect cookie-to-ice-cream-to-fudge ratio. Note: that’s a good problem to have.
Dane Rivera
It’s not as soft and creamy as your typical cookies & cream ice cream or as simple in flavor, it’s much denser and relies heavily on the cookie-fudge combo to deliver a rich and filling experience. If you’re a fan of the simple flavor combination of cream and cookies, you might find this a bit overwhelming and decadent but if you’ve always viewed cookies & cream as a boring and safe flavor, you’ll appreciate how this takes its best elements and elevates them by doing just a little more.*
*If you’ll allow us to remix this sh*t even further, instead of a simple scoop, serve up a few scoops in a bowl, drizzle some warmed fudge over it, add some crushed peanuts, crushed graham cracker, a chopped banana, a sprinkling of cinnamon, whipped cream, and a bright red maraschino cherry for a next-level sundae experience.
The Bottom Line:
It’s not so mind-blowing that we’re going to tell you that you have to order a pint as soon as possible, but if you’re already a fan of Serendipity brands it’s a great addition to a great lineup of delicious flavors and an even better place to start if you’ve always been interested in giving the brand a try.
Talk about putting your money where your mouth is. It’s been well-known for a while that Marjorie Taylor Greene has been willingly fined for not wearing a mask while in the Capitol chamber. It’s also known that those fines aren’t cheap: $500 for the first offense, a whopping $2,500 every other time. But only now do we know how much of her salary she’s lost taking a deeply foolish and unscientific stand.
As per The Hill, documents Greene made public reveal that the Georgia lawmaker (who makes few laws because she’s been kicked off committees over her dangerous rhetoric) has been fined a whopping 36 times for not wearing a mask on Capitol Hill. Do a little math and that brings the total number of fines to a jaw-dropping $88,000.
But there’s more. A United States representative makes a lofty $174,000 a year. That means Greene has wasted about half her salary on opposing a rule that could protect her from a highly transmissible and ever-mutating virus.
Greene’s not the only one pouring a large chunk of his salary down the drain while putting their own life at risk. Andrew Clyde, another Georgia representative, has been fined 25 times, totaling $60,500. (Clyde’s the guy who infamously refused to shake the hand of an officer who helped protect him on Jan. 6, 2021.) Between the two of them, that’s almost $150,000 that could have easily been burned. But perhaps those fines are going to something more lofty, like giving raises to the Capitol police who’ve had to put up with Greene’s violent supporters.
Cordae has plenty to celebrate. He just released his first album in almost three years, From A Birds Eye View, which featured 14 songs and guest appearances from Lil Durk, Gunna, Roddy Ricch, Eminem, and more. It marks yet another strong output from the DMV rapper, who has also shown improvement in other areas of his life. During a recent appearance on Big Boy’s Neighborhood on Los Angeles’ Real 92.3, Cordae spoke about the recent health changes he’s made.
Cordae began by explaining that he was inspired to lose 35 pounds due to a magazine shoot from last February. “I had to do a GQ cover,” he explained on the show. “I’m speaking my truth. I had to do a GQ cover and was like, ‘Man, if I don’t get in shape to do a GQ cover, what ever in life is gonna motivate you to get in shape?’” He noted that he began his journey in November 2020 and said that it led to creating a healthier lifestyle for himself, which he maintains today.
The rapper also revealed that he lost the “majority of the weight” during the first six to eight months of his journey, which sparked a boost in his confidence. “Like I said, I’m a little shallow,” he explained. “When you look good, you feel good; when you feel good, you do good; and when you do good, they pay good. That’s why it’s important to feel good.”
Cordae’s comments come after he held an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, where he performed songs from From A Birds Eye View and his debut album, The Lost Boy.
You can watch Cordae speak about his health journey in full in the video above.
From A Birds Eye View is out now via Atlantic. Stream it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Republican candidates have a habit of recording bizarre campaign videos. Think of the one for Rudy Giuliani’s son, which looked like it cost five bucks. Or think of the one for Mark McCloskey, one half of the wealthy Missouri couple who pointed guns at BLM protesters. But one Democratic senatorial candidate released one that’s bizarre in a good way: It shows him smoking pot while calling attention to harsh marijuana laws.
That person is Gary Chambers, a social justice advocate and organizer who’s running in Louisiana, hoping to unseat Senator John Neely Kennedy (no relation). Kennedy is an NRA-approved Republican who, among other things, opposes the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. Chambers, meanwhile, is angry at marijuana laws that punish Black people four times more than they do white.
The ad finds Chambers relaxing in a chair in a field in New Orleans. In one hand is a blunt, which he repeatedly smokes. In voiceover, he points out every 37 seconds in Louisiana, someone is arrested for possession of marijuana. It accounts for half of all arrests in the state. “Black people are four times more likely to be arrested,” he says. “Most of the people police are arresting aren’t dealers, but rather people with small amounts of pot. Just like me.”
Among Chambers positions is that marijuana be legalized in Louisiana, joining the 18 states, two territories, and the District of Columbia, where it’s already legal. He also believes state and local governments should expunge the records of those who’ve been arrested for the crime.
“For too long, candidates have used the legalization of marijuana as an empty talking point in order to appeal to progressive voters,” Chambers said in a statement, as per The Washington Post. “I hope this ad works to not only destigmatize the use of marijuana, but also forces a new conversation that creates the pathway to legalize this beneficial drug, and forgive those who were arrested due to outdated ideology.”
A stranger knocked on the door of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas on Saturday morning shortly before Shabbat service. It was 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside, so Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, 46, made him a cup of tea. The rabbi and Malik Faisal Akram, 44, a British national, spoke for a few moments and then the rabbi went on to perform his regular 10 a.m. Shabbat prayers for his congregation.
When the rabbi turned his back to face Jerusalem, he heard a click come from the stranger. “And it turned out, that it was his gun,” Cytron-Walker told CBS News.
Akram began screaming and a congregant, Jeffrey Cohen, the vice president of the synagogue’s board of trustees, quickly pulled out his phone and dialed 911. A livestream broadcasting the prayer ceremony to congregants participating from home caught some of what Akram was shouting. “I’m gunned up. I’m ammo-ed up,” he told someone he called nephew. “Guess what, I will die.”
The FBI got word of the 911 call and quickly set up a perimeter around the synagogue. Akram took four people hostage, including the rabbi.
u201cIt was terrifying. It was overwhelming. Weu2019re still processingu201d: Rabbi Charlie Cytron Walker shares what he experienced inside the Texas synagogue where four hostages were held at gunpoint over the weekend.pic.twitter.com/ZX8DrQkjJj
During the ordeal, Akram repeatedly demanded the release of a convicted terrorist, Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year sentence at a Texas federal prison for an assault on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Five hours into the ordeal, one hostage—a man—was released by Akram. Four hours later, Akram became increasingly enraged and the hostages knew that they had to take action to avoid being killed.
“In the last hour of our hostage crisis, the gunman became increasingly belligerent and threatening,” Cytron-Walker said in a statement to CNN.
In first TV interview since crisis, Rabbi Charlie Cytron Walker says he and other 2 hostages were terrified in last hour of standoff as Akram u201cwasn’t getting what he wanted” After making sure others were ready, he told them to go, threw chair at Akram and they fledpic.twitter.com/rj9FuOTXf1
“When I saw an opportunity where he wasn’t in a good position, I asked (and) made sure that the gentlemen who were still with me, that they were ready to go. The exit wasn’t too far away,” Cytron-Walker told CBS.
“I told them to go,” Cytron-Walker said. “I threw a chair at the gunman and I headed for the door. And all three of us were able to get out without even a shot being fired.”
The rabbi attributes his ability to keep calm to his rabbinical training.
“As a part of training as clergy, we talk a lot about the idea of being a calm, non-anxious presence,” he told CBS. “We do that in hospital rooms. We do that during the most difficult of individual moments. And I did the best I could to do that throughout the standoff.”
Moments after the hostages were safely out of the synagogue, a group of armed law enforcement made their way into the building. The authorities confronted Akram, who was fatally shot by the FBI Hostage Rescue Team.
Joel Schwitzer of the American Jewish Committee was impressed by the heroic actions taken by the rabbi. “He is the most unassuming, egoless person you could ever meet. He is the personification of nice guy,” Schwitzer told Today. “He’s an average-sized person. When I heard he’d thrown a chair at the guy, I was so impressed. He’s a hero. There’s no other way to describe him.”
Cytron-Walker says he learned to think quickly from various trainings, including from the FBI.
“Over the years, my congregation and I have participated in multiple security courses from the Colleyville Police Department, the FBI, the Anti-Defamation League, and Secure Community Network,” Cytron-Walker told CNN. “We are alive today because of that education.”
On Sunday night, the rabbi gave a moving speech to his congregation assuring them “We will heal.”
In an emotional speech last night, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker tells his congregants “We will Heal” after he was taken hostage during a Shabbat service. nnRead more here: https://www.thejc.com/news/news/family-of-british-captor-in-texas-synagogue-attack-condemn-his-actions-5R9xywQWvYre81CmUaoeCzu00a0u2026pic.twitter.com/bsaiCPjTYq
— The Jewish Chronicle (@The Jewish Chronicle) 1642521611
A recently proposed New York state bill to prohibit rap lyrics from being used in criminal trials has support from some of the biggest names in the music business, including Jay-Z, Big Sean, Fat Joe, Killer Mike, Meek Mill, Yo Gotti, and more. Proposed in November, Bill S.7527/A.8681 — “Rap Music on Trial” — passed through a Senate Codes committee today, according to Rolling Stone, clearing the way for a vote in the bicameral state legislature. Should it pass Senate and Assembly votes, it’ll go to Governor Kathy Hochul, who Jay and his fellow signatories urged to sign the bill into law in a letter from Jay-Z’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, who co-wrote the letter along with University of Richmond Professor Erik Nielson.
Professor Nielson is the author of Rap On Trial, which examines and criticizes the use of rap lyrics to paint rappers as violent individuals, biasing juries against them in trials that often have little to do with the contents of their music.
“This reform is urgently needed,” reads the letter. “Rather than acknowledge rap music as a form of artistic expression, police and prosecutors argue that the lyrics should be interpreted literally – in the words of one prosecutor, as ‘autobiographical journals’ – even though the genre is rooted in a long tradition of storytelling that privileges figurative language, is steeped in hyperbole, and employs all of the same poetic devices we find in more traditional works of poetry.”
The timing of the bill is especially poignant in light of the recent death of Drakeo The Ruler, who spent two years in jail in Los Angeles as the city’s District Attorney prosecuted a case against him built largely around the lyrics of his music rather than hard evidence. Drakeo was later released after a new District Attorney was voted in, but had lost two valuable years of freedom, a case made all the more tragic by his death in December.
In a statement, Senator Jamaal Bailey of the Bronx, who co-authored the bill alongside Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, said, “Presuming a defendant’s guilt based solely on musical genre or creative expression is antithetical to our foundational rights and perpetuates the systemic racism that is embedded into the criminal justice system through discriminatory conflations of hip-hop and rap with criminality.” In short, don’t believe the hype; all rappers aren’t “thugs” and none should be considered guilty just because they rap about their conditions.
For the travel-obsessed citizens of the world, the new year means all-new adventures. While 2021 served up a platter of incredible travel experiences, we’re looking forward to what 2022 has in store for our bucket lists. Unfortunately, with the threat of new COVID variants, we may need to postpone or virtually experience some of these once-in-a-lifetime trips… for now. (If you do decide to travel, it’s essential to consider vaccination rates, safety protocols, and travel restrictions in your home city and at your destination.)
With all of this in mind — and it is a lot to juggle — we asked 19 prominent travel influencers and writers for their 2022 travel trend predictions. From a rise in solo trips and spontaneous adventures to long-term living abroad and transportation by train, the travel trends shouted out below might surprise you. More importantly, they may just inspire you to plan (however far out in the future) your next trip!
NICOLETTA DARITA DE LA BROWN (@vida.magica.love) — MICRO TRIPS & WELLNESS
Nicoletta Daríta de la Brown
I just got back from a trip to The Bahamas. It was a quick trip. It was all sea, except I had to fly to Florida to get on a cruise. And for me, what I think is going to be coming up are these micro trips or micro vacations where everything is smaller. The number of places I was going, the amount of time I was going there, and what I was doing — it was really deliberate, really thoughtful, and curated. It was very intentional. I wanted to be as close to local life and culture as I could be. I wanted to be ethical. I wanted to leave places better than I found them. And I also wanted to make sure that I was leaving better than I arrived, from a health standpoint.
I think that travel is going be about wellness and wellbeing in 2022. I also think it’s going to be about being deeply connected to where you are in a way that is both ethical and really thoughtful, kind, and deliberate. I spent my entire trip on catamarans, in glass-bottom boats with local Bahamians telling me about the local plants and connecting me to the water. That, for me, was amazing. I was basically making deep connections with people that I would’ve never met before — since it was such a small group of people. Since I wasn’t in a big gathering space and just basically on this catamaran with the captain and his crew and a few other people, I could really listen and pay attention to learn.
I also spent a lot of time meditating on the beach and dancing on the sand and being in bikinis from the day I got there ’til the moment I had to put on my clothes to get back on and head home. I was just thinking about how I could squeeze out as much time with nature and with people who are from where I’m visiting, listening to their stories and learning. So I think for me, the prediction for 2022 is going be travel that’s focused on healing, health, wellbeing, both mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health, and also micro trips in every sense of the word.
I expect to see a lot more car camping in 2022! Gaining popularity during the beginning of the pandemic, people started getting outside—in droves—by any means necessary. For those who wanted to get outdoors but didn’t want to throw themselves into a full-on camping situation where they’re essentially sleeping outside, car camping provided a safe and cost-effective solution.
As long as you have a hatchback, SUV, or crossover vehicle, you just throw down your back seats, lay out a sleeping pad or air mattress, and let the adventure begin.
With swirling uncertainty in the air as we enter the New Year, I think everybody’s going to need to figure out what they’re comfortable with in terms of travel. Some will be happy to hop a plane, others may want to wait. No matter what, though, the National Parks have seen huge increases in visitors, which is a clear indicator that Americans are doing more domestic travel than ever.
And I guarantee car camping is going to continue to be an integral part of that!
The destination at the TOP of my 2022 travel bucket list is for sure, Seychelles. It’s a beautiful, archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of East Africa. It’s quickly gaining popularity, yet isn’t over-saturated and many travelers have yet to visit the island.
It boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in the world (that are free of charge to visit), lots of different adventures to choose from, and is full of culture. Travel is predicted to be up 300% in 2022, so it sounds like we’ll ALL be busy traveling (and quite frankly making up for missed travels due to the pandemic). I predict that the Seychelles will see a nice chunk of the spike.
Another place that I think will be trending in 2022 is Belize. So many people have reached out to me to inquire about Belize and I’ve also noticed that many new hotels are being built there, which are solid indicators that Belize is going to pull at travel heartstrings tough next year!
Belize is known for having the second largest barrier reef, hence it’s an amazing destination for scuba diving adventures. It’s also home to a slew of Mayan Ruins for travelers who enjoy educational travels. If just relaxing at a beautiful beach is more your vibe, it’s absolutely great for that too! There’s literally something for everyone. Hello, perfection.
CHLOE CALDWELL (@chloeicaldwell) — A GENERAL SENSE OF SPONTANEITY
I’ve always said that the most spontaneous of adventures make for the best memories. I think now more than ever, people are more willing to pack up their bags and head out the door with little notice or planning. With the ongoing option to work remotely for many of us into the new year, it’s easier to leave at the spur of the moment when last-minute travel opportunities present themselves. For me personally, I’ve recently been on several spontaneous trips, which have turned out to be some of my favorite excursions. I see myself and others saying yes to more spontaneous adventures as they come up this year (so long as travel restrictions and safety protocols allow it).
It might sound stressful to hop on a plane or in the car for a trip without planning ahead. But, honestly, I find it to make the experience all the more exciting and unique. You’re able to curate your itinerary as you go and gain authentic memories you may not have made if the whole trip was pre-planned. Every time I go on a last-minute trip, I find myself more willing to talk to locals for inside tips on where to eat, drink, and explore. It’s a great way to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Embracing spontaneity while traveling also takes the pressure off of creating a “perfect” vacation. Rather than forcing a plethora of activities and excursions into one day, you’re able to take one step at a time. It’s always so fun being surprised by the people, places, and meals I end up experiencing on these unexpected trips.
This may seem a little obvious, and maybe it should have been the move all throughout this nightmare of a pandemic, but as we head into 2022 it’s looking more and more like local solo travel is the way to go. Our day-to-day explorations come with more responsibility than ever as we learn to live in the midst of a pandemic, protecting ourselves and the people around us. So instead of gathering up all your friends and hitting a strange town for a weekend, hop in the car, queue up your favorite tunes, and hit the road solo.
Solo travel might sound lonely at first, but once you’re on your own you’ll see that there is nothing better than living by your own schedule. Plus you never have to compromise on where to eat again, and that’s always a good thing.
Today, we are worried about Omicron. Before that, it was Delta. It seems likely that 2022 will see the rise of new virus variants that will continue to present new challenges to travelers.
Already, we are seeing airline partnerships with privatized healthcare turning into a de-facto travel tax for people who want to go abroad. This isn’t to say travelers shouldn’t be tested. In my opinion, that’s an important step in wrestling this pandemic. However, the result is that travel has become more expensive and more difficult in a time where many people are already struggling to make ends meet.
With increased travel costs and restrictions, I expect more travelers to look at long-form vacations. A family or couple might choose to spend most of their visit in a single country rather than hopping around a region. That could push travelers to more rural areas of a country and move tourism dollars away from tried-and-true cities into towns with lesser-known attractions and fewer resources for foreigners.
Fortunately, those are exactly the kind of places that often hold memorable experiences for people adventurous enough to go off the beaten path.
I do think train travel is going to be even more of a trend. I know it definitely came up more in 2021, but I definitely foresee that being something people seek out more often as an alternative in ways I don’t think they would have pre-pandemic. I know it got a great response on my Instagram and TikTok, so I anticipate train travel to continue to be of interest.
I’m also thinking that not only responsible travel continuing to be an emerging trend out of the pandemic, but more of the sabbatical type of travel. I know a lot of people with the whole great resignation are really looking for those extended, extensive slow travel experiences, which I think go hand-in-hand with more responsible travel experiences as well.
I think travel is going to be really unpredictable in 2022 just because we still don’t know what’s happening with COVID and things are rapidly changing. Travel policies are changing. Vaccination policies are changing. With that being said, I think people have been spending a lot of their time in 2021 being cooped up inside planning what their next big trip is going to be. I feel like we’re gonna see a lot of people taking really long extended trips because we’ve been cooped up for so long.
We are all excited to get back on the road, and I feel like people aren’t just going to be taking week-long or weekend-long trips anymore. They’re really gonna plan out to be in a region and explore for at least a month or so. I already know a few people who’ve planned out trips either in Europe or in Asia for next year, and I’m hoping to be one of those people as well.
My predictions for 2022 travel would be that conscious travelers are going to continue to seek out countries that have strict COVID regulations. Someone who’s being conscious right now is vaccinated, and they’re only going to go to countries that have high vaccine rates and require vaccinations for foreigners to enter, such as Uraguay where vaccines are required, or Rwanda where a negative COVID test is required to enter national parks.
At least for me, that’s something that I’m going to be looking towards. I think that’s how we can be responsible for the places we choose to visit in 2022. If we choose to visit places that do not have vaccine requirements, we will still get tested before we enter because it’s the right thing to do. So my 2022 travel prediction would be supporting countries that are supporting their people by having strict travel regulations.
I think 2022 is going to see a lot of the same emphasis on outdoor travel and adventure as 2021. People seem to be realizing the outdoors are pretty dang great, not to mention safe from a pandemic perspective. I’m also seeing a rise in sustainable travel. Folks are realizing travel has the potential to do good instead of just harm, so I think the year will see more accommodations putting an emphasis on sustainable practices, more travelers opting to purchase carbon offsets, and people choosing responsible attractions that benefit the local economy and culture. Huzzah to that!
I think a big trend for 2022, because of COVID and because of all the unknowns, I think that long vacations are gonna be the norm. I think most people are still going to be working remotely, and the people who are still just not ready to give up their lives are going to be more ready to do month-long trips with family. I see people moving somewhere for a month or six weeks and making that their vacation. That way even with restrictions and testing requirements and all of that, they can still enjoy their time, but they’ll get a different experience than staying in a hotel. They’ll be staying in houses. They’ll be cooking for themselves, trying to be safe but also enjoying another part of the world. I think that’s what we’re going to see in 2022.
While I believe that international travel will begin to make a comeback, I predict that outdoor adventures and road trips will continue to be the big trends of 2022. As the pandemic continues to cause uncertainty regarding travel, it’s much easier to hop in the car and embark on an epic road trip to explore amazing natural spaces. As travelers begin to venture internationally, it’s possible that they’ll be avoiding the bigger cities and opting for road trips to smaller towns, and discovering natural wonders outside.
I think a lot of us thought international travel would be in the cards for 2022, and I still have hope! Small group tours, meaningful experiences, longer trips, sustainability, and traveling with purpose will guide everyone’s travel bucket lists going forward — including more domestic travel again and international destinations that will allow travelers in. Of course, I think the COVID vaccination “passport” or whatever you want to call it will be the determining factor for which destinations we can visit!
ZACH JOHNSTON (@ztpwhiskey) — PEOPLE FLAT OUT MOVING ABROAD
Having lived through 9/11, the 2008 Recession, and now a global pandemic that’s still raging around the world, I know one thing: Travel restrictions and PCR aren’t going away any time soon. Paying up to $250 to get in and out of the U.S. (for a PCR test) is going to be the norm for a while as we deal with Omicron, then Pi, Psi, Tau, Omega, and more COVID mutations over the next (likely several) years. Some years will be easier, some will be harder. Moreover, the world is being rebuilt in a way that I’ve lived for nearly 20 years — abroad and without the menace of a mortgage, car payment, or creditors that so many folks get stuck in by “staying home.” Working easy-to-find jobs from English language schools to over-heated kitchens to behind bars to behind documentary cameras made my life on the road tenable back in the day. Today, a lot of people can work remotely — I do. So why leave “home” for just six weeks or a few months. It’s time to say, “f*ck, it!” and just move the hell out permanently.
Home is where you make it and that can be anywhere. You can Zoom with old friends and family whenever you need. You can find work that you can do remotely more easily now than ever before. And if you move to a place, you’ll be able to travel around that country without having to pay to get in and out with PCR tests over and over again (I’ve lived in Berlin for 13 years and traveled Germany extensively and there are still a ton of places I haven’t been in this country). Plus, you can have an experience outside of the U.S. corporate media indoctrination and political circus and hopefully see the world a little more clearly by actually living in it.
It’s time to just move somewhere different, cooler, and new (to you). Plus, the amount you learn from figuring out how to rent an apartment in a language you don’t speak is education in its purest form.
EDITOR’S PICK: STEVE BRAMUCCI (@steve_bramucci) — SAUNAS, ONSEN, HOT SPRINGS, & MORE
Photo by Logan Fisher on Unsplash
Hot springs have been huge on Instagram for some time now. Which is a perfectly absurd sentence to write (hot springs bubble up from the earth’s mantle and are, therefore, ancient in nature and they’ve been used by humans for thousands of years — so acting like IG “made them” sounds totally bizarre); and also a perfectly reasonable one (the confluence of the IG travel aesthetic and the healing allure of these waters has combined to make a force so seismic that when I reserved a spot at a certain Pacific Northwest hot spring this winter, they must’ve googled me, recognized that I was a travel writer, and literally called me begging me not to write about them — “we are inudated and cannot handle any more popularity” the voice message said). In recent years, saunas, onsens, bathouses, wooden hot tubs, and other stylish-looking ways to relax have seen a similar IG boom.
With wellness being democratized and less stigmatized/ gendered than ever, I look for that to continue. Dramatically so. But I think there is a social aspect that will be layered on. Like the Russian bathhouse or Swedish sauna experience with a more 2022 energy. And… probably DJs.
Why? In part because, as Nicoletta Darita De La Brown wrote so eloquently in our 2021 Fall Experiences Guide, we all need some healing right now. And in part because Instagram’s specialty is convincing us that we can be as stylish and cool while relaxing as the models and pro photographers it sends us so many steady streams of. In 2022, I think we’ll see hotels — particularly boutique properties — take the aesthetics of their spas very seriously. How could you not in this age when IG powers so much of the hotel industry?
As I hinted before, I think we see these experiences grow much more social. The gay bathhouses of Chicago have long had a DJ and party vibe while the pools of Las Vegas take a similar maximalist approach. Will some travel brand open a series of plunge pools focused on wellness that also has a little party energy? Yes, abolutely. In fact, it’s already happening — the cult beloved Thermëa spa in Ontario certainly has a very social vibe and forthcoming hotel spas often feature shared plunge pools and public spaces (the brand new Montage property in Big Sky, Montana is much more social than its older retreats, for example).
Similarly, I think the fact that you can buy a sauna for 12K on Instagram or learn how to build a cedar hot tub on YouTube means that we’ll be getting a lot more Airbnbs with those sorts of features and it will prove to be a high priority for guests.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks are the reigning NBA champions, and currently sit at 27-19, fifth in the East but just two games back of the Bulls and Heat, tied atop the standings.
Like so many teams, it has been a year filled with sudden absences and makeshift rotations, but coming off of their title run, there is an air of calm around Milwaukee despite some ups and downs. It’s a far cry from where they were a year ago at this time after yet another early exit from the Orlando Bubble, getting thumped in five games by the Miami Heat, which raised further questions about whether this Bucks team and their star were built for postseason play.
They answered that emphatically in the 2021 postseason, particularly in a first round sweep of those same Heat, as Milwaukee seemed to take great pleasure in exorcising some demons against the team that sent them packing a year prior. Funny enough, it’s now Miami that has to answer questions about its legitimacy, as there are plenty that have discredited their run to the Finals in 2020 as a result of the strange circumstances of the bubble, particularly for Miami’s three-point shooters who all very much enjoyed the empty Orlando gym.
One of those critics is Giannis himself, who told The Athletic’s Eric Nehm that he believed that 2020 series would’ve gone very differently under normal circumstances, and took a dig at the Heat for being “built to be a bubble team.”
“Year 7. Ended with Miami,” Giannis said. “I don’t make excuses as an athlete, but it wasn’t a satisfying year for me because I felt like if it was a normal situation, it wouldn’t end up like that. But at the end of the day, I felt like Miami was built to be an NBA bubble team, you know?”
It’s a spicy quote from Giannis, but it’s not hard to understand why he feels confident speaking like this after his performance last playoffs and that of his team. Still, there’s a very good chance we get to see the two teams meet again this postseason, this time with the Heat taking a turn as the team trying to rewrite its narrative. Giannis’ comments will surely make their way to Miami, where the Heat may shrug them off for now but they will certainly linger in the minds of those who were on that 2020 team if the two sides find themselves clashing in a series later this year.
No surprise here, Spider-Man No Way Home has secured its new home as number four on the all-time box office list, reports the Hollywood Reporter. The latest Spider-Man movie just crossed the $700 million mark at the domestic box office. The flick hit theaters just a month ago on December 17th, 2021.
Though No Way Home was beat out by Scream this past weekend, the film just surpassed Black Panther ($700.4 million) to reach the fourth slot on the all-time box office list. Now, No Way Home trails behind Avatar ($760.5 million), Avengers Endgame ($858.4 million) and the top spot, which belongs to Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936.7 million), not adjusting for inflation.
In addition to the domestic success, the movie, starring Tom Holland as Spider-Man (in addition to Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire), has done well globally, coming in at number eight worldwide with a total of $1.63 billion as of Monday. This makes No Way Home the highest-grossing Spider-man film of all time, in addition to the highest-grossing Sony film.
This marks the first post-COVID movie to make a substantial amount of money at the box office. Despite its big numbers, No Way Home is still unreleased in certain countries such as China, as COVID spikes across the globe. Sony has also yet to release information about if or when No Way Home will be available on streaming for those who aren’t able to make it out to a theater.
Over its four-and-a-half decades, Saturday Night Live has had plenty of Mad Libs-y host-musical guest(s) pairings. Al Gore and Phish. Tony Danza and Laurie Anderson. Old school entertainer Milton Berle and free jazz legend Ornette Coleman. Business magazine founder Steve Forbes and anti-capitalist rockers Rage Against the Machine. Some even become memes. There’s even an entire Twitter account dedicated to hosts improbably introducing musicians. So here’s another.
As per Deadline, for the episode of Jan. 29, the live sketch show has recruited beloved character actor Willem Dafoe and — why not! — pop goddess Katy Perry. For Perry, who is in the midst of her first Las Vegas residency, it’s her fourth time on the show. For Dafoe, it’s his first. Dafoe isn’t exactly a comedic actor, preferring serious art cinema and cutting up the occasional blockbuster, but he can be very funny. Witness The Lighthouse, in which he out-there enough to inspire an SNL sketch, well before they finally invited him on.
Besides, who doesn’t look Willem Dafoe? He can currently be seen in two big movies: dusting off his old Green Goblin duds in Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is making all the money, and Guillermo del Toro’s star-studded remake of Nightmare Alley, which is not. He had a busy 2021, appearing in yet another Wes Anderson movie (The French Dispatch), yet another Paul Schrader (The Card Counter), and yet another with perhaps his most frequent collaborator, eccentric weirdo Abel Ferrara (Siberia).
Before this hot mess begins, feel free to visit the aforementioned SNL host/musical guest(s) Twitter account, where you see such inventive sights as this.
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