Category: News

Ancient sage Obi-Wan Kenobi once remarked, “Your eyes can deceive you, don’t trust them.” Well, he’s right, kinda.

Our eyes bring in information and it’s our brain’s job to decipher the image and determine what we’re seeing. But our brains aren’t always correct. In fact, sometimes they can be so wrong we wonder if we are accurately interpreting reality at all.

After all, our brain can only label things if it knows that they are. If you lived on a deserted island your whole life and a cow showed up on the beach, you’d have no idea what to label it.

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The latest baffling image that’s making people across the internet doubt their senses is a picture tweeted out by Twitter user nayem. “If you can see a beach, ocean sky, rocks and stars then you are an artist,” the comment reads.

But some people who see it also think it looks like a car door. What do you see?

via nxyxm / Twitter

If your brain told you the picture is of a lovely evening laying on the beach then you’re definitely an optimist. But, according to the person who posted it, the photo is of the bottom of a rusted out car door. Not very romantic, is it?

via nxym /Twitter

The tweet has since gone viral, earning over 5,000 likes.

Here’s what Twitter users thought about the illusion.

This guy must be hungry.

via Twitter

This guy is having flashbacks to 2015.

Your perception determines your reality.

This guy explains it perfectly.

This guy has a great imagination.

This article originally appeared on 05.22.19

Everyone is entitled to a few nice words at their funeral, as the adage goes. Normally, this is a non-issue. Flaws can be ignored or overlooked for the sake of harmony and a peaceful, optimistic send-off.

But what if the flaws created too much damage and heartache to go without saying?

Sheila Smith made headlines last week with an obituary that was as honest in what can only be described as a brutal sense. Brutal for the departed, her father Leslie Ray Charping, and brutal for the family that had to endure his life and death.

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Here’s the obituary in its entirety, taken from the website of Carnes Funeral Home:

Leslie Ray “Popeye” Charping was born in Galveston, Texas on November 20, 1942 and passed away January 30, 2017, which was 29 years longer than expected and much longer than he deserved. Leslie battled with cancer in his latter years and lost his battle, ultimately due to being the horses ass he was known for. He leaves behind 2 relieved children; a son Leslie Roy Charping and daughter, Shiela Smith along with six grandchildren and countless other victims including an ex wife, relatives, friends, neighbors, doctors, nurses and random strangers.

At a young age, Leslie quickly became a model example of bad parenting combined with mental illness and a complete commitment to drinking, drugs, womanizing and being generally offensive. Leslie enlisted to serve in the Navy, but not so much in a brave & patriotic way but more as part of a plea deal to escape sentencing on criminal charges. While enlisted, Leslie was the Navy boxing champion and went on to sufficiently embarrass his family and country by spending the remainder of his service in the Balboa Mental Health Hospital receiving much needed mental healthcare services.

Leslie was surprisingly intelligent, however he lacked ambition and motivation to do anything more than being reckless, wasteful, squandering the family savings and fantasizing about get rich quick schemes. Leslie’s hobbies included being abusive to his family, expediting trips to heaven for the beloved family pets and fishing, which he was less skilled with than the previously mentioned. Leslie’s life served no other obvious purpose, he did not contribute to society or serve his community and he possessed no redeeming qualities besides quick whited sarcasm which was amusing during his sober days.

With Leslie’s passing he will be missed only for what he never did; being a loving husband, father and good friend. No services will be held, there will be no prayers for eternal peace and no apologizes to the family he tortured. Leslie’s remains will be cremated and kept in the barn until “Ray”, the family donkey’s wood shavings run out. Leslie’s passing proves that evil does in fact die and hopefully marks a time of healing and safety for all.

The obituary walks a fine line between uncloaked honesty and mean-spiritedness, repeatedly falling on either side. If this obituary is to be believed (no person or account has publicly questioned or denounced this characterization), his family has a right to be both angry for his life and happy for his death. However, the controversy surrounding this obituary isn’t the survivors’ feelings, but their expression of them.

Sheila, speaking to The Michael Berry Show, a radio program, stood by the obituary she wrote, claiming it was an effort to heal, forget, and minimize the residual impact his death would have on their lives. To realize this, and to fulfill her late father’s wishes, the obituary needed to be honest. She said to the show’s host, ” A week after he passed I sat down and began working on it. I was somewhat blocked and everything I was going to write was going to be a lie,” she said. “He hated a liar and he would appreciate this.”

Speaking earlier to KTRK, Sheila said that those who are bothered by this or the notion of speaking ill of the dead, are fortunate to not understand. “I am happy for those that simply do not understand, this means you had good parent(s) — please treasure what you have.”She continued to say that whitewashing transgressions that are so endemic and undiscussed in the world, such as her father’s issues with domestic violence and alcoholism, serves no greater good.

She concluded, “I apologize to anyone that my father hurt and I felt it would have been offensive to portray him as anything other than who he was,” she also said. “This obituary was intended to help bring closure because not talking about domestic violence doesn’t make it go away!”

Lorde got all eyes on Solar Power with both its butt-bearing album art and the breezy title track, which performed well on the charts and has peaked at No. 2 in the US so far. The album is set to drop this week, so Lorde’s new single, “Mood Ring,” is presumably the final pre-album single. She shared the song today, which arrived accompanied by a video.

The new track was preceded by “Solar Power” and “Stoned At The Nail Salon,” which have achieved Hot 100 peaks at Nos. 2 and 33, respectively. It remains to be seen if “Mood Ring” will be a hit, but Lorde doesn’t seem to be trying for those these days. That’s not a knock on her: She said so herself. In a recent interview, she said of her new album, “There’s definitely not a smash. It makes sense that there wouldn’t be a smash, because I don’t even know really what the smashes are now.” She also said she’d never try to have a hit like her own “Royals” again, noting, “What a lost cause. Can you imagine? I’m under no illusion. That was a moonshot.”

Watch the “Mood Ring” video above.

Solar Power is out 8/20 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

UK rapper Little Simz has been steadily releasing mixtapes and EPs since 2014. She received much critical acclaim for her latest 2019 album Grey Area, and she’s currently gearing up for her next LP. To celebrate, Little Simz took over late-night TV for a performance of her single “Woman” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Illuminated by elegant chandeliers, Little Simz took the stage sporting a fitted suit for her US TV debut. Accompanied by a full band and a trio of backup singers, Little Simz rhythmically delivered her “Woman” lyrics, which describe the qualities of beautiful women across the world. The Cleo Sol-featuring song originally debuted back in May as the second single off her upcoming album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. The rapper has also previewed the effort with the tracks “Introvert,” “I Love You, I Hate You,” and “Rollin Stone.”

Days ahead of her performance, the rapper took to Twitter to thank her fans for all the support they’ve shown her over the years. “Appreciate you riding w me,” she wrote. “some from grey area , some from stillness , some from a curious tale , some from the early early EPs & mixtapes. September we go again.”

Watch Little Simz perform “Woman” on The Tonight Show above.

Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is out 9/3 via Age 101. Pre-order it here.

When Engineered Tax Services CEO Julio Gonzalez set out to write an op-ed for Business Insider on how landlords are “suffering” under Biden’s eviction moratorium, he probably should’ve sent a long a different photo. Specifically one that doesn’t include him posing in front of his own private jet. The egregiously tone-deaf photo, which is credited to Gonzalez, did not go over well on Twitter where people couldn’t resist dunking on the audacity of the obviously wealthy CEO asking for sympathy for landlords.

Twitter users also latched onto Gonzalez’s own admission that out of his 24 properties, only four of his tenants are using the moratorium to help with rent. Via Business Insider:

Twenty of my properties are residential, and I currently have four tenants taking advantage of the federally mandated eviction moratorium. The moratoriums have led to a significant and negative impact in profitability — for me, it’s been a 15% loss in profit. Residents not paying rent essentially leads to free living, while landlords still have to pay for taxes, utilities, and more.

Even further into the piece, Gonzalez openly confirms that “we’ve been fortunate to be in a position where we can sustain no income,” but he argues that other landlords might not be. Granted, that could be a compelling argument, but not coming from the millionaire CEO of a tax company who’s smiling in front of his own personal airplane.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via Business Insider on Twitter)

Stephen King’s a man of many words on the printed page. He’s aware of this reputation, too, and has explained precisely why The Stand received an extra 400 or so pages for a Complete and Uncut Edition that weighed in at 1,152 pages. As he previously explained, those words weren’t merely an “indulgence” but, rather, an effort to make the novel greater than the sum of its parts with shading and flavor and that infamous King humor, and that’s one of many reasons why The Stand will always be regarded as one of the best apocalyptic fiction works of all time.

Yet King knows when to hold ’em — meaning to hold back on words in favor of economy when the venue is appropriate (as it is on Twitter). Look at his very simple tweet that declared his entry into the “Save Manifest” club. Or his (accurate) prediction of the Mare of Easttown killer. Or his approval of Black Summer, which he (tellingly enough) favors for its “stripped to the bone,” economical, and “very fluid” storytelling approach.

King’s latest tweet, though, is characteristically short, but there’s still a lot there: “I just ‘liked’ my own tweet to see what would happen. Now I feel skeevy.”

Hey, it happens! And what an experiment. So for the curious, what Stephen King tweet did Stephen King decide to “like”? He did not attempt to hide the evidence regarding his wish for a “SHARKNADO EXORCISM” movie.

He also “likes” tweets about cute puppies (that of his son, Joe Hill) and bunnies (one helped by author/editor Heidi Pitlor), too. What I’d really like to know is whether he’s tucking into English muffins while surfing Twitter, and now this whole thing is becoming far too circular. With that said, let’s all wish for Sharknado Exorcism, too.

On this week’s People’s Party, Chattanooga rapper Isaiah Rashad chopped it up with Talib Kweli and Jasmin Leigh in an interview that was less of a traditional question and answer session than it was just two of rap’s most curious and well-studied students geeking out about all things hip-hop. The back and forth between Rashad and Kweli feels like the kind of conversations you’d have with your friends late night — while sharing a joint and listening to The House Is Burning.

The questions being explored are both fascinating and fun to debate. Questions like: “Who is the most entertaining rapper?”

According to Rashad, that crown goes to Lil Wayne, even though he wouldn’t go as far as to call him the best MC.

“He really was to me, the most entertaining rapper ever, if not the best,” Rashad tells Kweli and Leigh. “I still think Jay-Z, if I go word for word and the way he flips shit — the best. Wayne, couldn’t be the best, I guess, because you can’t be better than Jay-Z, but he’s definitely the most entertaining rapper ever.”

Then, almost immediately, Rashad makes a case for Young Thug inheriting that crown before both MCs dive into the merits of Ludacris… the conversation is all over the place but in the best possible way. It’s like you’re a fly on the wall witnessing two hip-hop greats shoot the shit.

Watch the video above to listen to the full conversation and let us know who you think deserves the crown for the most entertaining MC.

Before Jake, before Mila and Ashton, before Kristen and Dax, there was Matthew McConaughey refusing to follow traditional grooming habits.

“The women in my life, including my mother, have all said, ‘Hey, your natural smell smells, one, like a man, and, two, smells like you,’” he once explained about why he doesn’t wear deodorant. Kate Hudson was not a fan of the actor’s natural musk (“She always brings a salt rock, which is some natural deodorant, and says, ‘Would you please put this on?’ I just never wore it”), but another one of his co-stars didn’t mind it.

Yvette Nicole Brown, the Community actress who appeared in Tropic Thunder with McConaughey, was a guest on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, where she waded into the celebrity hygiene discourse. “I remember that Matthew McConaughey said that he did not use deodorant and that he didn’t have an odor. So my first thought is, I’m going to get as close as I can to him to see if he’s right,” she said. “He did not have an odor.” Nicole Brown described McConaughey as smelling like “granola and good living,” and that he “has a sweet, sweet scent that is just him and it’s not musty or crazy.”

Brown added that while McConaughey may not use deodorant, it doesn’t mean he’s not clean. “I believe he bathes because he smells delicious. He just didn’t have deodorant on,” she explained. “Those that don’t bathe, I don’t understand.”

For a week in middle school, I was the stinky kid. It was before I was told I had to wear deodorant, so after class one day, the teacher directed me to the nurse’s office, where I was handed a bar of Speed Stick. I guess another student complained about my body odor, which they were absolutely right to do. But it was still an embarrassing moment. No one said I smelled like “granola and good living.” Celebs get all the breaks.

(Via ET Online)

LAS VEGAS — There’s a calming kindness that radiates off of Xavier Tillman, his voice is soft, direct, with a bit of a smile lilting it up and open-ended, his eyes are warm, and all of that absolutely vanishes the second he steps on court.

For the Grizzlies Summer League team, Tillman and Desmond Bane are like two storms converging. Bane, in his pushing of team pace and tempo like a gradually rising wind, and Tillman more brooding, slow-building and waiting for his moments to rumble over an opposing team’s best defensive efforts or crack back with a shot from deep, thunder and lightning both. Part of their well-paired, storming cadence comes from being the two designated veterans on the roster and what one full and occasionally discordant NBA season has taught them, but another part comes from their natural tendency to push.

In college, what Bane lacked in size he made up for in effort as an energy sparking guard who went careening for loose balls and any possible possession, ultimately adding an intuitive knack to his game for all the places he could see it heading, because he was chasing it there. Tillman on the other hand had the size, so much of it that it made all his plays look unhurried, quick cuts looked like strolls, drives appeared neatly practical. He balanced his size and strength easily, leaning into defensive playmaking with hustle rebounds and clinging screens. Both Bane and Tillman were initially drafted to other teams before they ended up together in Memphis and watching them play and ultimately make the most of such a shaky season — Bane recording the highest 3-point field goal percentage since Steph Curry and Tillman turning into a needed anchor for the Grizzlies’ bench — it’s hard not to think of their circuitous routes to winding up such complimentary teammates as fated.

But it was Summer League that they both missed out on, last year’s event cancelled because of the pandemic, and its been coming back, full-circle, to the 10-day tournament that typically works like a springboard for a rookie’s NBA career that’s given the pair a stage to reconcile the takeaways of their first season with what they want to next few to look like. Especially for Tillman, who looked markedly more comfortable shooting and became, next to Bane, a vocal leader on the floor, essential to Memphis’s fast chemistry.

“It’s been great, especially because this part is a little bit different than it probably would have been, coming at the beginning of my rookie year,” Tillman says, when asked what it’s meant to integrate his first season with his first Summer League. “Where this time, I’m trying to be more of a leader and use my voice and keep myself accountable and keep my teammates accountable. Whereas, if I were to probably come the last time,” he laughs, “I would just be trying not to look crazy out there.”

The Grizzlies Summer League coach, Darko Rajakovic, sees this time as the same developmental opportunity for Tillman and Bane on the floor as much as off of it.

“It means so much. It means so much to the team. It means so much to those two guys,” Rajakovic said after the Grizzlies wrenchingly close and well-played double OT and one-point sudden death loss to the Heat. “They can be leaders of this group. They’re very vocal, they own it and they’ve been doing great jobs so far. They did not have Summer League last year, but this is their opportunity to make a next jump in their careers.“

For some, the double rookie cohort of this year’s Summer League might feel crowded, but it’s a testament to Tillman’s growth as a leader that he’s treating it as another part of his development, noting that “helping guys just with the little day-to-day things has been great.”

For Tillman, Rajakovic specifically mentioned getting the ball into his hands more as his role expands, noting how impressed he’s been seeing Tillman turn into a confident shooter and facilitator.

“Obviously in Summer League, you’re going to have good decisions, bad decisions,” Rajakovic added, “but I think this is going to be very valuable experience.”

One of the most valuable experiences of Summer League for young players is the environment it primes to make decisions, whether they end up being right or wrong. While many of last season’s rookies, like Tillman, looked decidedly better at it, likely owing to more substantial in-game minutes in an NBA season where a next man up mentality became prerequisite due to injuries and Covid protocols, the experience of these games can be an accelerator for next season’s training.

In his role as backup center for the Grizzlies this past season Tillman didn’t wind up taking a ton of shots, preferring instead to wait for clean looks from the corner, executing them with that same unhurried precision. In Vegas, his 3-point production was up along with his confidence, often throwing up outside shots on the fly that stuck, rather than waiting for the right conditions.

“The three ball is definitely all development,” Tillman laughs. “I was not doing that in high school. I started doing it in college towards the end of my career, my sophomore and junior year, but definitely the development, just working day in and day out, and then having the staff, from our coaching staff to the video guys, just always in my ear, ‘Be confident, take those shots. You want to take the shots, we see you’re working on them day in and day out, so just be confident.’ And when I got in the game, I was just playing. So, I see a guy giving me space then I just raise up and do what I do.”

The assurance is working, with Tillman averaging the 2nd most points per game, behind Bane and tied up with two-way Killian Tillie, at 14.5 over the two games he played in Vegas. He notes that he’s trying not to overthink it, opting to correct any mistakes in film the next day.

And for his dominating size, he’s fleet-footed, toggling easily between the two to shake defenders. At one point late in the Heat game, Tillman planted his feet one second, full weight of his body behind him and daring someone to try and bully him off, only to launch into a nimble spin and slip around the defender that took the bait, lane to the basket his to float through. In the team’s first game of the week against the Nets, with under three minutes left in the fourth quarter, Bane and Tillman were the last two catches on a tidy whip-around that hit all but one of the lineup’s hands that had the Nets defense lurching. Bane drives it to the right of the paint, lifting the ball to pass across his shoulders to Tillman, waiting at the free throw line, who lifts high and lightly, toes almost delicately pointed down en pointe, one-handing a floater.

Tillman’s defensive prowess is also beginning to influence his offensive capabilities, most notably (and audibly) in his communication on the floor. More than just bringing the ball up or calling plays, his knack for communication has led him to the team’s highest assist percentage (39.2) and assist to turnover ratio. Between him and Bane there’s a steady hum of chatter, making for an intuitive in-game chemistry that flows through the entire team. Asked if he’s always been a big communicator and he nods, voice emphatic.

“Yeah, that’s something that I definitely take pride in, is using my voice. I said a long time ago, in high school, try to control the controllable. So being a vocal leader, hustling, bringing a great attitude to the game are just things that I try to do on a day in and day out basis because I know those are the things that I can control.”

Before he got to Vegas, Tillman was already accustomed to doing a little bit of everything. Memphis saw Jonas Valanciunas, Brandon Clarke and Jaren Jackson Jr. all out for stretches this past season, and Tillman became the bench’s steady ballast, providing valuable and needed defense in the gaps on the floor when stretched starters Dillon Brooks and Kyle Anderson were absent from it. In Vegas, Memphis outplayed Brooklyn and got to double OT with the Heat largely because of Tillman’s inherent defensive capabilities — yanking boards, sticking like a long shadow to his guys, cleaning up around the rim — but where the team looked best was when he would lift, assured, for three pointers, drive sanguine to the basket, or use his voice to draw up the lines not only for the team to play within, but to keep them connected. That Tillman had to wait a year to close the loop on the first season of his NBA career only means that the shape of what’s to come for him is all the more boundless.

If anyone shouldn’t have to worry about imposter syndrome, it’s Brandi Carlile, who is readying a new album, In These Silent Days, and has won a total of six Grammys. Still, the country performer is a human and therefore plenty capable of feeling a universal emotion like imposter syndrome, which tends to be followed by burnout.

“The term impostor syndrome makes sense to me,” Carlile told the Wall Street Journal in a new interview, adding, “and just feeling like if I didn’t say yes to everything, eventually everyone was going to find out how unqualified I am to be in the position I’m in. I’m going to stop getting invited, and I’m going back to the bars if I don’t show up for everybody’s thing. I was getting really tired and empty.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Carlile also went deep on how faith plays into being part of the LGBTQIA community. “The concept of being rejected, being queer but still needing my faith — so many gay people came to me and admitted that, and I don’t know that we LGBTQIA people have been allowed to be honest about how much of that we still want to hold on to,” she said. “Faith is so much more sacred to the people that have had to fight for it, not just have it awarded based on some birthright.”

There are some other great quotes, too, especially around Carlile’s forging a friendship with folk icon Joni Mitchell. “Joni often recounts a dream that she had where she’s in a room with an audience, and her skin is made of clear cellophane and all of her organs are exposed,” Carlile said. “You can see everything inside of her body–she’s more than naked, she’s utterly translucent. That basically says everything that needs to be said about Blue. But it sets a standard, too, for at least once in an artist’s career they really have to fully lay it out there.”

Read the rest of the interview here.

In These Silent Days is out 10/1 via Low Country Sound/Elektra Records. Pre-order it here.

Brandi Carlile is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.