Category: News

Back in May, America got the news that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was a Swiftie (!) While he and fiance Shailene Woodley were on vacation with actor Miles Teller and his wife Keleigh, Aaron and Keleigh were belting out lyrics to “The One” in one epic grid post. See below:

Excellent content there, thanks to Shailene for capturing. Anyway, Rodgers has been well-known as a masterful social media poster for some time now, and this weekend he wore a Folklore beanie before the game, which ended up landing on a Swiftie Reddit thread and getting the Packers’ official Instagram account itself involved. On Monday, he Packers account posted — to grid, no less! — a photo of Aaron in full folklore regalia (beanie included), for a black and white shot with a woodsy background. Note the Packers logo included in the corner, *chef’s kiss*.

Of course, this was also picked up by the loyal Redditors, and then made its way onto Rodgers’ own Instagram story as well.

This time, he once again quoted lyrics from folklore opener, “The One,” posting: “I’m doing good I’m on some new sh*t.” Well played, Mr. Rodgers. Well played. So we’ll see you at the re-scheduled Lover Fest with Shailene right?? Cool just text me when you guys get there and we can all meet up.

Alright folks, it’s time to pull up the ol’ gamer chair and flip on your RGB lights — we’ve got another episode of Recon ready for you to enjoy!

While we here at Uproxx Edge appreciate what every platform we game on has to offer (from the newest gen to throwbacks and even mobile), in today’s episode we’re shining a spotlight on one in particular: the PC.

So, what makes PC gaming so special? In this episode of Recon, AJ Lodge and I (making my first Recon appearance) are gonna walk you through it all as we talk about growing up alongside Oregon Trail, the fun of old school LAN parties, and one of the all-time great, Diablo, This before taking a deep dive into how communities are better fostered on PC through programs such as Discord.

We’re also talking about how PC gaming inspires creativity and inclusivity through the creation of game mods that affect how we see and play our favorite games. Watch the episode above to see all that and to watch us talk about everything from esports to hardware, Skyrim‘s notoriously funny Thomas the Tank Engine mod, Steam bundle deals (and how they promote exploration), and efforts to build the gaming community you want.

A few of the biggest pop moments in 2021 have come from Olivia Rodrigo, from her hit debut single “Drivers License” and her chart-topping debut album, Sour. But she’s also faced backlash. Many listeners felt some of the young singer’s songs sounded too similar to other artists. And when when artists like Taylor Swift and Paramore received songwriting credits, they accused her of ripping off their work. During a recent interview with Teen Vogue, Rodrigo responded to the criticism.

“I think it’s disappointing to see people take things out of context and discredit any young woman’s work,” Rodrigo told the publication. “But at the end of the day I’m just really proud and happy to say that my job is being a songwriter. … All music is inspired by each other.” Rodrigo added, “Obviously, I write all of my lyrics from my heart and my life first. I came up with the lyrics and the melody for ‘Good 4 U’ one morning in the shower.”

She continued, “What’s so beautiful about music is that it can be so inspired by music that’s come out in the past. Every single artist is inspired by artists who have come before them. It’s sort of a fun, beautiful sharing process. Nothing in music is ever new. There’s four chords in every song. That’s the fun part — trying to make that your own.”

After the release of Sour, Rodrigo credited Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Joshua Farro on “Good 4 U” due to its similarities to the band’s 2008 track, “Misery Business.” Taylor Swift received two credits on the album, first on “Deju Vu” and then on “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back” for their similarities to Swift’s “Cruel Summer” and “New Year’s Day” respectively.

You can read Rodrigo’s full interview with Teen Vogue here.

Don’t forget: Matt Gaetz, perhaps the Trumpiest member of the Senate, is under federal investigation for his ties to a sex trafficking ring that may include minors. The congressman recently lawyered up, prepping for a “scorched-Earth” trial with a team that includes someone whose client list includes Jeffrey Epstein, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and cult leader and convicted sex trafficker Keith Raniere. But now his worries seem to be getting even worse.

According to CNN, a lawyer for Joel Greenberg, the close Gaetz associate who pled guilty to six charges and who’s agreed to play ball with the feds, has asked to delay sentencing a second time. This time he’s asking for five more months. Why? Because he’s not done providing “substantial assistance” to the sprawling investigation that includes Gaetz, which was part of his plea bargain.

“Because Mr. Greenberg’s ongoing cooperation involves sensitive matters concerning ongoing investigations,” Greenberg’s attorney, Fritz Scheller, wrote, “he requests that the parties be allowed to provide additional information regarding Mr. Greenberg’s cooperation to the Court under seal, if deemed necessary.”

Scheller added the government does not oppose the delay.

Gaetz, who has denied all allegations, is being investigated over whether or not he broke numerous laws, including ones pertaining to sex trafficking and prostitution, and whether he had sex with a minor. He and his associates may have also engaged in obstruction of justice.

When news of Greenberg’s request broke, people on social media didn’t think it boded well for one of former president Trump’s biggest cheerleaders.

There were also jokes.

In the meantime, surely Gaetz will try to distract from his mounting problems by, say, yelling at some military leaders.

(Via CNN)

One of the best big men of his generation called it a career on Tuesday. Paul Gasol, who suited up for five teams over the course of his NBA career and also played professionally in Spain, announced his retirement during a press conference in Barcelona, the city and club where he started and ended his professional career.

In the tweet where Gasol confirmed the end of his career, the former All-Star big man included a nod to the short film Dear Basketball, which was written and narrated by his friend and former teammate, the late Kobe Bryant.

Gasol’s NBA career included tenures with the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs, and Milwaukee Bucks. It was in Los Angeles where he ascended to the sport’s mountaintop, as the team won NBA championships in 2009 and 2010 with Gasol playing alongside Bryant. A six-time All-Star and a four-time All-NBA selection — twice on the second-team, twice on the third-team — Gasol will be immortalized sometime in the future by the Lakers, as team owner Jeanie Buss announced that the franchise will retire his number at some point.

During his NBA career, Gasol averaged 17 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game. In addition to his success for his various club teams, Gasol was arguably the face of the greatest generation of Spanish basketball, as he led his national team to back-to-back silver medals at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics, along with a gold medal at the 2006 World Cup.

You can’t always trust subtitles. What you’re reading when watching a movie or TV show in another language has usually been simplified. As a result, something can be lost in translation. But the American subtitles for Squid Game — the surprise South Korean hit show, which is currently out-streaming even the newly arrived Seinfeld on Netflix — may have gone too far.

According to Esquire, some viewers of the show — which presents an alternate world in which those in debt compete in deadly games — have noticed that the show’s Korean-to-English subtitles are..off. One of the first people to spread awareness of the issue was New York-based comedian Youngmi Mayer.

“I watched Squid Game with English subtitles, and if you don’t understand Korean you didn’t really watch the same show,” Mayer tweeted. “Translation was so bad. The dialogue was written so well and zero of it was preserved.”

Mayer then directed readers to TikTok, where she broke down the matter in greater detail. As per Esquire:

She focuses specifically on the character of Mi-nyeo, whose brash behavior and irreverence toward the guards in Squid Game comes off as, honestly, a bit bonkers considering that if you don’t win this game, you die. But with additional context from Mayer, Mi-nyeo’s character makes a lot more sense.

As explained by Mayer, certain pieces of dialogue are slightly mistranslated, which makes a huge difference when meaning is considered. In one clip, the character says (as told via subtitle), “I’m not a genius, but I still got it work out. Huh.” Translation is close-ish, but upon review from Mayer, she says the line is more like, “I am very smart. I just never got a chance to study,” which, as Mayer explains, is a huge trope in Korean media. It’s not just a mistranslation; it’s a lack of understanding of Korean pop culture.

Others noticed the same thing.

https://twitter.com/YasminLG18/status/1443794793537155073

Some people, though, didn’t agree 100% with Mayer’s police work, saying she was going off the English closed captioning, not the English subtitles. (Yes, those are two different options, though you’d have to manually choose the closed captioning.)

Others were happy that so many Americans were watching something with subtitles, even citing Parasite director Bong Joon-ho’s passionate pitch for reading while watching.

Netflix has not addressed the issue, but possibly because they’re already dealing with people upset that they’re showing Seinfeld in the wrong aspect ratio.

In the meantime, America, like much of the world, continues to have Squid Game fever. The show is so popular that Netflix is even getting sued for the massive surge in internet traffic. Meanwhile, people are not happy about one of its fans: Amazon creator — and noted union hater — Jeff Bezos.

(Via Esquire)

LeBron James has been vaccinated against COVID-19. But despite this, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar made clear that he does not believe it is his place to tell people what they should or should not put in their bodies when he met with the press at the team’s media day last week.

James and Golden State Warriors standout Draymond Green, who expressed similar sentiments regarding then-unvaccinated teammate Andrew Wiggins, were the subjects of a recent piece written on Substack by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. An outspoken advocate for Americans to get one of the COVID vaccines, Abdul-Jabbar wrote that James was “just plain wrong” for his comments, and said that Green’s belief that people needed to “honor” Wiggins’ decision to remain unvaccinated “couldn’t have been said worse.”

After mentioning the cost of inaction on things designed to make people safe — something that he took as a literal with the pandemic, saying “Harvard economists say it’s cost us $16 trillion so far” — Abdul-Jabbar addressed Green’s comment that there is “something to be said for people’s concerns about something that’s being pressed so hard.”

The only support for Draymond’s statement is his belief that when people “press hard” there’s something inherently wrong with their opinion. There is no logic to that statement. If I press hard against institutional racism, if I press hard against police brutality, if I press hard against recent laws making it harder for minorities to vote, if I press hard against child porn, if I press hard in support of MeToo am I automatically wrong? On the contrary, the passion of those urging vaccines might suggest there’s some urgency to their opinion. That the situation is serious and we need to take immediate action to protect people. That thousands are dying every day, mostly among the unvaccinated. That the Black community, where vaccine hesitancy is high, are dying at a disproportionately higher rate than whites. That publicly talking about honoring opinions that contribute to their deaths is irresponsible.

In Abdul-Jabbar’s eyes, the pair are making arguments that stem from a support for freedom, but that saying it here comes at the expense of the health and well-being of others. He also called on athletes like James and Green to use their platforms for good, encouraging others to get vaccinated and play roles in ending the pandemic that come from being as famous as LeBron James or Draymond Green are. Whether or not they heed his advice, though, remains to be seen.

Eleven-year-old best friends Stevie and Owen hadn’t seen each other since 2019, after Owen’s family moved from Chicago to Missouri. Despite several phone calls and FaceTime video game sessions, COVID-19 had made keeping in touch difficult.

But their luck was destined to change last Friday. Stevie Stroud had no idea that after being picked up early from a bad day at school, his friend Owen would be waiting in the car to pay him a special visit.

A heartwarming video of their reunion has been spreading smiles, and a few tears, across the internet. If you’re in need of an extra dose of sweetness today, you’re in luck.

In the video, Stevie approaches the car, backpack and basketball in hand. On seeing his friend in the back seat, he is filled with excitement.

3 yrs ago, best friends Stevie & Owen where separated when Owen moved to Missouri

Recently, Stevie had a bad day a… https://t.co/hp3axnIbml

— GoodNewsCorrespondent (@GoodNewsCorres1)
1633261470.0

“What are you doing?” he asks. The basketball drops and tears fall. Stevie lets out a wail as his head falls into Owen’s arms.

“What are you doing here?” Stevie asks again, sniffling. “I don’t know, what am I doing here? I’m visiting you in Chicago, that’s what I’m doing here,” Owen replies. Clearly, Owen is the jokester of the two.

As Owen pats his shoulder, Stevie says, “You just made my day. I’ve had the worst day ever.”

The cries turn into laughter as Stevie hops in the car next to his pal. And the clip ends with Stevie saying “I think I’m dreaming.”

Seeing these two young boys express their love for one another so purely and freely is definitely worth a view, so it’s no wonder the video has now gone viral.

Gracing our phone screens since April, the “that girl” TikTok trend shows us an archetypal, if not stereotypical, wellness formula usually consisting of an early morning wake up + healthy breakfast (plant-based, preferably) + wellness activity + goal setting. Have this done before 7 a.m., then go boldly forth into your new day with full confidence that you have earned your happiness. Document it all for the world to see, and voila, you have now become “that girl.”

On the one hand, “that girl” encourages us all to bring our A-game every day. By offering a small snapshot of what our lives could look and feel like if we really committed to morning routines, we can find motivation to follow through on our goals. And hey, if multiple studies show that faking it till you make it actually works, then maybe posting that yoga routine will genuinely boost confidence and help it stick. Nothing wrong with that.

And “that girl” inspires us to find joy in the small things, even our daily habits. Much like the #maincharacter trend, which encourages everyone to see themselves as the hero of their own story, “that girl” is all about romanticizing life. Sometimes, that can be good medicine.

However, things that at first glance appear empowering can often have more insidious effects on mental health.

For example, when it presents a narrow view of wellness. Though you’d think that we could move beyond picturing healthy eating as avocado toast and celery juice, trends like “that girl” allow that narrow view to permeate. The biggest danger of this message being that good health is only a result of a privileged lifestyle. Not everyone can easily have access to fermented coconut yogurt and goji berries; only a certain few, therefore, can trully become “that girl,” even though everyone should, apparently, be striving to become “that girl.” Yikes, even writing out this logic is exhausting.

In this instance, wellness takes on an all-or-nothing attitude. Where instead of one person jogging at the crack of dawn in their Lululemons, everyone is, and therefore you should be too. It seems harmless enough, but when women, especially young girls, are being bombarded with images of extremely low calorie diets, and only one aspirational body type, it’s a recipe for disappointment. If not worse.

all that the that girl trend did to me is give me an eating disorder and made me hate my life 🙁

— ꧁MilkyOnce꧂ (@Dahyuni16548508)
1624827292.0

Of course, we can’t put all the blame on “that girl.” This idolizing of a certain aesthetic of health and success is no new trend. “That girl” goes by many names: girlboss, bossbabe, bosslady. Whatever moniker she takes on, “that girl” is here to tell us to wake up earlier, eat cleaner, get the reps in, and you can be everything you want to be. And before TikTok and Instagram, “that girl” showed up in magazines, showing us all exactly what to do to have the perfect life.

The real question here is: Why won’t this trend die? Why does it continue to reinvent itself even in a digital space? What is so intoxicating about the idea of perfection that generations of women have become addicted? In a word, it’s control. The dizzying high of knowing deep in your bones that Z always follows X and Y. That if you control your body, you control your life, and if you control your life, you control destiny. You will be worthy. And at the heart of many women, there is a fear of UNworthiness. If that uncomfortable, unattainable, downright rigid routine keeps you at arm’s length from the dreaded UNworthiness? Then sobeit.

Though this is not the first time TikTok has inadvertently promoted body image issues, in an interview with Refinery29, a company spokesperson stated “Being true to yourself is celebrated and encouraged on TikTok. As a platform, we’re focused on safeguarding our community from harmful content and behaviours while supporting an inclusive – and body-positive – environment.” Because the platform has had several trends that actually advocate body positivity, in addition to viral success stories of self-love, there’s reason to believe the platform can help break the social media mold on beauty standards.

After all, nothing is inherently wrong with the desire for self-improvement, but there’s no need for women to be “that girl,” if they don’t want to, or can’t. They’re perfectly fine being themselves.

It’s been a while since experimental R&B duo Majid Jordan — that’s Majid Al Maskati and Jordan Ullman — have released a full-length body of work. The Canadian duo’s last album, The Space Between, dropped October 27, 2017, climbing to No. 30 on their home country’s Billboard albums chart and No. 74 stateside. However, in all that time, they’ve never been forgotten or overlooked by fans, who have patiently awaited news of a follow-up.

They rewarded that patience today with the announcement of their upcoming third album, Wildest Dreams. Building on the momentum of singles “Been Through That,” “Waves Of Blue,” and “Summer Rain,” the duo is set to release their latest album on October 22 through Warner Records and, as always, Drake’s OVO Sound. In addition, they’re planning a short, celebratory tour to commemorate the project’s release, hitting four US cities including Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco ahead of a triumphant homecoming to Toronto to complete the run.

The singles that they’ve released so far promise a return to the New Wave-inflected, dance-pop-grooving R&B we’ve come to enjoy from them — and look forward to hearing again, very soon.

Wildest Dreams is due 10/22 via OVO and Warner Records.

Majid Jordan is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.