For all the negative things 2020 has brought us, it has also brought millions of new, interested eyeballs to our once little corner of video game culture.
Well, once they collectively finished Tiger King they came swarming over… but what I’m trying to say is that for both avid gamers and welcomed noobs alike, 2020 has been the year for gaming. And now that this year is coming to a close, what better time for a year-in-review episode with your favorite gaming news and culture show, Uproxx Recon?!
Certified Co-host of the Year, SushiBAE, and honorable mention, me, AJ Lodge, are twelve months wiser and ready to take you through some of 2020’s best moments in streaming, the most wholesome moments in our community, and some of our favorite video games this year. Plus, because we don’t believe that any one game can be the “best,” we’re offering our picks for games that are the “easiest to recommend” and including plenty of discussion about older games that are still thriving even now. There was something to play for everyone this year, whether you’re a fan of great gameplay, engaging stories, or just want to hang with your friends. (Okay, but if you really want to know if Cyberpunk 2077 is better than Among Us, first we have to talk about graphics…)
Check your inventory for chips and salsa because UPROXX Recon is throwing the greatest goodbye party for 2020 that we’ve seen all year!
Never one to skirt controversy, especially when it comes to criticizing her own party, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared her blunt opinion on the Democratic leadership of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer. During an interview for the Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill podcast, AOC made it clear that it’s time for Pelosi and Schumer to go and make room for younger, more progressive leadership. However, AOC acknowledges that no such candidates exist at the time, which she blames on the Democratic Party as a whole for failing to groom “the next generation.” Via The Intercept:
“A lot of this is not just about these two personalities, but also about the structural shifts that these two personalities have led in their time in leadership,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “The structural shifts of power in the House, both in process and rule, to concentrate power in party leadership of both parties, frankly, but in Democratic Party leadership to such a degree that an individual member has far less power than they did 30, 40, 50 years ago.”
While AOC is pragmatic about abruptly replacing Pelosi and Schumer without a plan, citing a vacuum that “nefarious forces” could fill with “something even worse,” she made it clear that this is not about making herself the Speaker of the House. “The House is extraordinarily complex and I’m not ready,” AOC told Scahill. “It can’t be me. I know that I couldn’t do that job.”
AOC also leveled criticism at President-Elect Biden for bringing in “hawkish” members from the Obama administration. While the former president is a beloved figure in Democratic circles, AOC hasn’t been shy about criticizing Obama. She recently pushed back at his criticisms of the controversial “Defund the Police” slogan by arguing that making people “uncomfortable” is what led to increased attention towards police reform.
The holiday season is upon us and musicians everywhere are celebrating in their own way. Dave Grohl and his cohort Greg Kurstin have been commemorating each night of Hanukkah with covers of popular songs by various Jewish musicians. Florence And The Machine vocalist Florence Welch is also ringing in the joyous season, but she took a more traditional route.
As part Nordoff-Robbins’ annual charity event The Stars Come Out To Sing For Christmas, many artists and musicians gathered to deliver carols, poems, and inspiring messages. Welch appeared during the event to give an operatic rendition of the classic song “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.” Welch tenderly delivered the lyrics from a box seat of an opera house, filling the opulent room with her moving vocals.
Along with Welch, there were an array of artists who joined in on the carols to raise money for the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy charity. The organization aims to bring a creative music therapy approach to children with psychological, physical, or developmental disabilities. Their annual fundraising event is usually hosted in-person but went virtual this year. It was hosted by Nile Rodgers and saw performances from the likes of The Who’s Roger Daltrey, OneRepublic, Robbie Williams, Tony Bennett, Neil Young, and more.
Watch Welch perform “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” above.
Is there a better gift than a great bottle of beer? Hell, it doesn’t even have to be a bottle. It can be a special six-pack or a growler from your favorite local craft brewery. Sharing beer this time of year just feels festive, even in 2020 when most of our gatherings will be virtual.
While we always have plenty of opinions on which beers you should drink, we thought we’d pull in a crew of seasoned industry experts this time around. We asked beer writers, brewers, photographers, judges, and all-around aficionados to help us create a list of the “best beers to gift someone this holiday season.” Some of their picks were on our radar, others surprised us — which is sort of the whole point.
Before we dive in we should note that one beer was called out three times. We dropped the third call out (mine) and kept the other two, both because we believe in the beer and to give you a rare second opinion on the flavor profile. For the most part, the beers featured are fairly accessible from delivery services (just click the prices). In the few cases where they aren’t, we recommend looking for a local craft beer that matches the tasting notes of the beer getting shouted out.
If I need to gift someone beer around the holidays, I’ll grab a six-pack of the classic Sierra Nevada Celebration Fresh Hop IPA. This seasonal IPA pours clear and is dark amber in color with an off white head. Definitely keeps you toasty in the winter at 6.8 percent ABV.
It’s always tasty, festive, and satisfying.
Tasting Notes:
It’s not your typical sweet winter beer with added spices or anything like that. It’s just a crisp, flavorful, and well-balanced IPA. It’s brewed with Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook hops and punches you in the face with citrus and pine aromas. The flavor is smooth, hoppy, and piney. It packs rich malty caramel notes with medium bitterness and a sweet finish.
A classy beer in a beautiful bottle, Coolship Cerise from Allagash also comes with an interesting story. Allagash uses the traditional, centuries-old Belgian technique of cooling the wort in a Coolship — a wide, shallow vat in a room with open windows — and allowing wild bacteria in the Maine night air to inoculate it. The beer is then aged on cherries for six months before being bottled. The addition of cherries produces a familiar and accessible flavor, making it perfect for those who are new to beer, while its spontaneously-fermented complexity will delight those with more advanced palates.
Tasting Notes:
There are notes of tart cherry, oak, barnyard funk, and wine mingling throughout the beer.
Boon Kriek Mariage Parfait — Cristal Peck, Brewmaster and Malt Specialist at Boortmalt Innovation Center, Antwerp
2020 is a pretty bleak time to traverse Europe in the pursuit of beer. Exploring breweries and sampling the goods in taprooms is not really a thing these days. So you can imagine my glee when a reconnaissance trip to the countryside region of Lembeek in Belgium unearthed something pretty special: A temporary gift shop within a trailer at a brewery that has been a pioneering force behind Belgium’s rare lambic gems, Brewery Boon.
The trailer was compact yet brimming with vast arrays of spontaneously fermented treats of different blends, different foeders, different fruits. It was endless possibilities with each shelf containing lambics more complex and layered than the other.
Their stylish branding also featured on a handful of merch. I felt like a kid in a candy store. So I went ahead and packed myself a mixed box with a bit of everything. And hey, maybe even a few bottles to gift to those tricky people to buy for, including their Kriek Mariage Parfait!
Tasting Notes:
Kriek Mariage Parfait is not “beer” as we know beer to be. It’s in a league of its own — utter brilliance from beginning to end and unlike anything else. Hectic fizz pulls out aromas of sour cherries augmented by tart wine and deep woody tannins. The distinct lambic funk is almost cheesy but difficult to pinpoint without sounding derogatory when it could not be further from that.
Deep ruby red with a solid and persevering pink foam, you taste the remnants of fresh wild cherries macerated through prolonged barrel-aging. It’s a feast for the microbes of the renowned Lembeek terroir.
Kriek Mariage Parfait drinks like a delicious cocktail of sour wine and sparkling bubbles, oaky cherries, and tart complexity against delicate vanilla. Like I said, utter brilliance from beginning to end. I feel thankful that this tradition is protected and celebrated and the next generation of Boon is ready to take the reins.
TIP: If the Kriek Mariage Parfait is not easy to find, Boon’s standard Kriek (their best-seller actually), or their glorious aged Kriek, their Oude Kriek, are very worthy substitutes.
Beer is daily bread, a basic commodity, and good beer is easy to find these days. If you’re going to give it as a gift, it can’t be something they can find at any supermarket. It doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive, but it does have to be special. It needs a bit of that rare ingredient called unobtainium.
It also helps, I think, if it’s strong. If it comes from a tiny batch from a tiny brewery, even better. It definitely can be local (especially if the recipient ain’t from around here).
Most importantly, though: It has to be really good.
So I’m going with Wellspent Mister Maraschino, out of St. Louis. This big, viscous, bourbon-barrel-aged stout, matured on cacao nibs and Luxardo cherries, ticks all those boxes and more. The red-wax capping even gives it a gifty vibe. Notably, our blind tasting panel over at Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine gave this beer top marks of 99/100 earlier this year.
Tasting Notes:
Nose like dark-chocolate cake batter, studded with cherries drowning in glistening chocolate goo. On the palate: weighty, thick, with dark chocolate coming on strong and getting darker pushes from roasted edges and moderate bitterness. Relatively restrained sweetness, all things considered—it’s warming, balanced, and doesn’t cloy. Bourbon is subtle and brown-sugary. A monster of a beer that works because all those big performers strum in harmony.
It’s one of the best beers I had all year. Good luck finding a bottle. I had one and gifted it to myself.
Burning Sky Cuvée — Matthew Curtis, co-founder/editor in chief of Pellicle Magazine
Burning Sky Brewing
Style: Farmhouse Ale/Saison Brewery:Burning Sky Brewery, Firle, UK ABV: 6.5% Average Price:$17.50, 750ml bottle (UK only)
The Beer:
In our house, we have a saying: “Cuvée all-day”
We’re referring to the eponymously named beer from the stupendous Burning Sky Brewery, one of the U.K.’s best-kept secrets. As a producer — for me at least — they rank alongside luminaries such as Hill Farmstead, Casey, Tilquin, and The Rare Barrel. Their beers are often without parallel in England, so when I gift you a bottle, you know it means I genuinely like you.
Cuvée is a special beer among the sours and saisons that makes up this brewery’s range, poured in 750ml bottles. 70 percent of the blend is its house saison, barrel-matured in former Chardonnay barriques. The other 30 percent is a portion of lambic taken from their friends, Brouwerij Girardin in Belgium, also aged in oak at Burning Sky.
Tasting Notes:
This blend (hence the beer’s name) shares a lively, spritzy acidity with a popular sparkling white wine from the north-east of France. This mingles with layered flavors of lemon zest, lime, and gooseberry, all leading to a delectably-dry finish. It’s the kind of beer that’s perfect to open on Christmas morning, and, trust me on this, makes a magical pairing with seafood.
Aecht Schlenkerla Urbock and Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche — Andreas Krennmair, award-winning home brewer and author of Vienna Lager
Schlenkerla
Style: Rauchbier, Bock and Doppelbock Brewery:Brauerei Heller-Trum Schlenkerla, Bamberg, Germany ABV: 6.5% and 8% Average Price:$10, .5l bottle
The Beer:
Schlenkerla is an odd one. This traditional brewery from Bamberg is one of only two to still brew traditional smoked beers. Their flagship beer, Märzen, presents itself very differently. When served straight from a wooden cask in the brewery taproom/restaurant, the beech smoke is soft and subtle, almost undetectable if you’re used to it. From the bottle, the smokey character is more dominant, often described as liquid bacon.
Of course, the conventional way of aging this beer takes time, some planning ahead, and restraint not to sample the beer too early. Fortunately, Schlenkerla itself uses their beer cellars in one of the hills of Bamberg to age the bottled beers under controlled conditions and sells them by vintage at ages of at least 4 years. The fact that Schlenkerla Urbock and Eiche are truly rare specialties and exceptionally unusual beers makes them the perfect gifts even for seasoned beer nerds.
Tasting Notes:
Two particular seasonal winter specialties from this brewery are Urbock, a Bockbier with 6.5 percent ABV, and Eiche, a Doppelbock, with 8 percent ABV, which is brewed from oak-smoked malt. While they’re great beers on their own, they improve even more with age. When enjoyed fresh, they’re both quite smoke-forward, with Urbock being on the sweeter side, while Eiche is a bit drier and accentuated by oak smoke.
At a year’s age, they can take on a metallic taste. But, after a few more years, this fades away, leaving behind an even meatier-tasting strong beer than before. It’s probably the best smoked beer you’ll ever have.
Avec Les Bons Vœux — Breandán Kearney, founder & Editor-in-Chief of Belgian Smaak
Falling somewhere between a Belgian Tripel and a Belgian Saison, Avec Les Bons Vœux is often overlooked for its smaller sibling Saison Dupont.
This beer started life as a gift! Avec Les Bons Vœux — translating as “With Good Wishes” — was originally created in 1970 as a one-off gift to Brasserie Dupont’s most loyal customers. Its reception was so successful that it was moved into regular rotation and this strong copper blond ale has become a complex staple of the brewery’s portfolio ever since.
Tasting Notes:
The famous open flame kettle at Dupont equips the Bon Vœux with hints of caramel and honey. But the characteristic yeast profile found in all of Dupont’s beers is the dominant element in its flavor make-up. With its highly attenuating fermentation capabilities, its tolerance to high temperatures, and the squat flat-bottomed fermenters in which it does its work, the Dupont yeast delivers stone fruit and citrus notes with some background pepper and clove.
It’s a rich and balanced beer, perfect as a gift for beer beginners or long-time geeks.
I’m consistently flabbergasted at how many beer lovers still haven’t tried Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. Perhaps they’ve mistaken it for a holiday spice bomb and passed it by. The label, with its snowed-in cabin, certainly looks the part of a gingerbread ale, but what lies inside the bottle is a hop lover’s delight.
Celebration Ale makes a great holiday gift because it’s available just about everywhere. It’s reasonably priced. And it’s a true seasonal beer that’s released every year around Thanksgiving. Because it’s built on that year’s hop harvest, every vintage is a little different, making it a fleeting experience to be savored and remembered.
Tasting Notes:
This is classic American IPA — the kind you can see through — is built on old-school Pacific Northwest hops (Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook) to the tune of more than 60 IBUs. Celebration’s flavor more than delivers on the aroma’s assertive promises of pine needles, grapefruit zest, and resin. The bracing bitterness and hop bouquet are supported by a malt foundation that suggests English toffee and biscuits. There’s enough sweetness to even out the bitterness, but Celebration manages to avoid an overly chewy malt character that would reduce drinkability.
So many American IPAs aspire to the deft balance of malt heft and hop brightness of Celebration Ale, but very few do it as well as Sierra Nevada. Give this one to the hop lover on your list. Veterans and newcomers alike are guaranteed to thank you.
This was an “ah-ha” beer for me. I liked sours and lambic perfectly well before this beer. I loved them after. The beer is a blend of well-aged lambics that are married and then bottled and cellared for additional fermentation and aging. It’s kind of a masterclass in what great beer can be when you take your time making it, making it a great gift for anyone looking to expand their beer knowledge and palate.
Tasting Notes:
The beer greets you with a slight, earthy funk next to mild grassiness, orchard ripe apples, and a hint of citrus tartness. The palate leans into the dry grass and tart fruits with a real sour underbelly next to a slight funk. The sourness, tartness, sweet fruits, and grass balance each other out while a dry nature takes you towards a Champagne-esque final note.
After a rough year, Google’s usual “Year In Search” retrospective could have been extremely depressing. The imagery and the searches themselves are enough to induce anxious flashbacks in anyone who was even passably aware of the seemingly hundreds of disasters that took place on a global scale in 2020. Fortunately, this year’s video arrives accompanied by a message of hope, courtesy of Chicago producer Peter CottonTale, who soundtracks the video with his new song “Together” featuring Chance the Rapper, the Chicago Children’s Choir, Cynthia Erivo, and Re-Collective Orchestra’s Matt Jones.
It’s the second collaboration between Chance and Peter this year after the duo linked up in April for the gospel-themed “Pray For Real.” Their chemistry, which was previously displayed on tracks like “Forever Always,” remains intact. CottonTale also appeared this year on Vic Mensa’s V Tape, which saw Chance and Vic reunite on a record for the first time since Vic’s 2013 Innanetape.
Meanwhile, Chance recently re-released his Christmas album, Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama, with Jeremih and also started collaborating with R&B living legend Dionne Warwick after she shouted him on Twitter. The moment gave Chance an opportunity to close out his 2020 on a high note after being sued by his former manager Pat Corcoran. Chance also has one last year-ending moment planned: A virtual concert which will celebrate the reissue of Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama.
Anna Kendrick is very good at Twitter, but she doesn’t tweet much anymore (lucky). And she definitely wasn’t tweeting over the weekend when her account was hacked.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, “Starting around 5:26 p.m. [on Saturday], a series of tweets were sent out to Kendrick’s 7.2 million followers that used offensive language. Sentences such as ‘shoutout my n*gga james bro’ and ‘funky in this bih n*gga’ were among the approximately thirty tweets.” The link in her bio was changed, too, from the website to her book, Scrappy Little Nobody, to Thugs.org (the hack was effective in the sense that I just went to Thugs.org; unfortunately (?), it “can’t be reached”).
Once the Academy Award nominee regained control of her account, she found the one silver living about getting hacked. “Well, the fun thing about getting my Twitter briefly hacked is that people I hadn’t heard from in years reached out to let me know. So, I guess thank you to my hacker for a little anxiety, and for getting me back in touch with my high school friend James. Cheers,” she tweeted. Good looking out, James.
Well, the fun thing about getting my Twitter briefly hacked is that people I hadn’t heard from in years reached out to let me know. So, I guess thank you to my hacker for a little anxiety, and for getting me back in touch with my high school friend James. Cheers.
Kendrick also gave a shout out to “to the FIRST person to get me in touch with someone from Twitter before anyone else managed to do anything helpful @THEKIDMERO What a fucking legend.” That would be Desus & Mero co-host The Kid Mero, who had Kendrick on his Showtime series last year. They, along with Desus Nice, toured the Bronx, including a daytime visit to a local strip club. It’s delightful. You should watch.
Could there possibly be a year to look more forward to than 2021? Fortunately, Netflix planned this one out. The streaming service knew that we’d need the momentum to push forth (and away from our current global situation) and into brighter days. There’s so much more to anticipate in January than one could have ever expected, and you will definitely have no shortage of bingewatching opportunities while riding out the beginning of the end of the pandemic.
Plenty of original offerings are on the way, including a new Cobra Kai season to clean up all the damage done by warring senseis last year. Nic Cage will tell you the history of “F*ck” and many other swear words, and Headspace is here with the first of their crop of meditation aids. Also, there’s an Afterparty-themed show that will play weekly, a new season of Disenchantment, and several documentaries to discover in the full list of new content. Happy New Year!
Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix in January.
Cobra Kai: Season 3 (Netflix series streaming 1/8)
Cobra Kai‘s gearing up for Season 3 on Netflix soon, and this new trailer makes good on Ralph Macchio’s previous promise to us: “The best is yet to come in this series! And I believe in that.” The emotional stakes are certainly high. After Johnny and Daniel’s combined bad moves contributed heavily to Miguel landing in a hospital bed, Johnny’s looking for redemption. While he does the hard work in the hospital — and Kreese re-takes the dubious reigns of the Cobra Kai dojo, which makes me worried about him instructing Hawk to be even more of an anger-bear monster — Daniel-san heads to Okinawa, where an old rival is ready for him. The soul and fate of every sensei (and their students) are up for grabs. Hopefully, they’ll all make the right moves.
History of Swear Words (Netflix series streaming 1/5)
A Nic Cage series? Yes please. A Nic Cage series where he teaches us lessons about expletives? Give it to me now. Cage hosts here with an array of guests — including Jim Jefferies, Zainab Johnson, Nick Offerman, Sarah Silverman, Baron Vaughn, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Joel Kim Booster, DeRay Davis, Open Mike Eagle, Nikki Glaser, Patti Harrison, London Hughes — to dive deep into his proudly profane stance. Over the course of six episodes, you’ll learn about the origins of “F*ck,” “Sh*t,” “B*tch,” “D*ck,” “Pu**y,” and “Damn.” Alright!
Headspace Guide to Meditation (Netflix series streaming 1/1)
Need a little meditation (in)action? This series will be one of three Headspace projects in 2021, and this one will lead with eight episodes that will teach viewers different mindfulness techniques to learn the surprisingly difficult practices — including stress, sleep, and letting go — of how to meditate. It’s damn hard to do, especially in our current age where information never stops coming our way, but this series might help convince everyone that meditation can be both accessible and… easy? Not to mention interactive.
The Netflix Afterparty: The Best Shows Of The Worst Year (Netflix series streaming in January)
No can argue that 2020 has been a hellish year for humanity, but it’s still been a pretty great year for TV. We’ve ranked our favorites, and Netflix is now celebrating the most crowd-pleasing shows that the streaming service had to offer. Expect appearances from Anya Taylor-Joy of The Queen’s Gambit, Lily Collins of Emily in Paris, Emma Corrin and Josh O’Connor of The Crown, and more. On tap as hosts? David Spade, Fortune Feimster, and London Hughes. And next year, this shall become a full-fledged weekly comedy panel show with the Cobra Kai cast and Bill Burr hosting the first 2021 episode.
Here’s the full list of titles coming to Netflix in January:
Avail. 1/1 Dream Home Makeover: Season 2 Headspace Guide to Meditation
The Minimalists: Less Is Now
Monarca: Season 2 What Happened to Mr. Cha?
17 Again
30 Minutes or Less
Abby Hatcher: Season 1 Blue Streak
Bonnie and Clyde
Can’t Hardly Wait
Catch Me If You Can
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Cool Hand Luke
The Creative Brain
The Departed
Enter the Dragon
Gimme Shelter
Good Hair
Goodfellas
Gothika
The Haunted Hathaways: Seasons 1-2 Into the Wild Julie & Julia
Mud
Mystic Pizza
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
Eddie Murphy: Raw
Sex and the City: The Movie
Sex and the City 2
Sherlock Holmes
Striptease
Superbad
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Avail. 1/2 Asphalt Burning
Avail. 1/5 Gabby’s Dollhouse
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
History of Swear Words
LA’s Finest: Season 1 ¡Nailed It! México: Season 3
Avail. 1/6 Ratones Paranoicos: The Band that Rocked Argentina
Surviving Death
Tony Parker: The Final Shot
Avail. 1/7 Pieces of a Woman
Avail. 1/8 Charming
The Idhun Chronicles: Part 2 Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons: Season 5 Lupin
Mighty Little Bheem: Kite Festival
Pretend It’s a City
Stuck Apart
Avail. 1/10 Spring Breakers
Avail. 1/11 CRACK: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy
The Intouchables
Avail. 1/12 Last Tango in Halifax: Season 4
Avail. 1/13 An Imperfect Murder
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer
Avail. 1/15 Bling Empire
Carmen Sandiego: Season 4 Disenchantment: Part 3 Double Dad (Pai Em Dobro)
Henry Danger: Seasons 1-3 Hook
Kuroko’s Basketball: Season 1 The Magicians: Season 5 Outside the Wire
Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie
Pinkfong & Baby Shark’s Space Adventure
Avail. 1/16 A Monster Calls
Radium Girls
Avail. 1/18 Homefront
Avail. 1/19 Hello Ninja: Season 4
Avail. 1/20 Daughter From Another Mother (Madre solo hay dos)
Sightless
Spycraft
Avail. 1/21 Call My Agent!: Season 4
Avail. 1/22 Blown Away: Season 2 Busted!: Season 3 Fate: The Winx Saga Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: Season 2 So My Grandma’s a Lesbian! (Salir del ropero)
The White Tiger
Avail. 1/23 Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce)
Avail. 1/26 Go Dog Go
Avail. 1/27 Accomplice
Penguin Bloom
Avail. 1/29 Below Zero (Bajocero)
The Dig
Finding ‘Ohana
We Are: The Brooklyn Saints
Avail. 1/31 Fatima
Here’s the full list of titles leaving Netflix in January:
Leaving 1/1 Bloodsport
Leaving 1/3 QB1: Beyond the Lights: Season 2
Leaving 1/4 Mara
Leaving 1/5 The Monster
Leaving 1/7 The Tudors: Seasons 1-4
Leaving 1/8 Mary Poppins Returns
Leaving 1/14 Haven: Seasons 1-5 The Master
Leaving 1/15 A Serious Man Dallas Buyers Club Waco: Limited Series
Leaving 1/16 Friday Night Tykes: Seasons 1-4
Leaving 1/20 Fireplace 4K: Classic Crackling Fireplace from Fireplace for Your Home
Fireplace 4K: Crackling Birchwood from Fireplace for Your Home
Fireplace for Your Home: Season
Leaving 1/24 When Calls the Heart: Seasons 1-5
Leaving 1/26 We Are Your Friends
Leaving 1/29 Swiss Army Man
Leaving 1/30 The Hundred-Foot Journey
Leaving 1/31 A Thin Line Between Love & Hate Braxton Family Values: Seasons 1-2 Death at a Funeral
Employee of the Month
For Colored Girls
Malicious
Mr. Deeds
Pineapple Express
Earlier this year, Kanye West followed in the footsteps of Jay-Z to become hip-hop’s second-ever billionaire. Forbes tallied the rapper’s earnings at $1.3 billion in April, although Kanye claimed it’s actually somewhere in the ballpark of $3.3 billion. Now, Kanye’s nearing the top of yet another one of Forbes‘ lists. The site unveiled the top-paid celebrities of 2020 and Kanye landed in second place. His name follows his sister-in-law Kylie Jenner on this list — but she more than doubled his earnings this year.
According to Forbes, Kanye West earned about $170 million this year. The main bulk of his earnings came from his shoe deal with Adidas as well as his Yeezy brand, which helped solidify his billionaire status. His GOOD Music label imprint and his discography also make up a large portion of his total wealth as they are valued at around $90 million.
Kylie Jenner, on the other hand, far surpassed Kanye’s earnings. At just 23 years old, Jenner raked in $590 million, well over double Kanye’s 2020 earnings. Much of her millions comes from selling a majority stake in her Kylie Cosmetics firm, which saw one of the biggest celebrity buy-outs of all time.
While Kanye and Jenner took home earned a lot this year, Forbes noted that the pandemic greatly impacted overall cash flow. This year’s top ten paid celebrities collectively earned $200 million less than in 2019.
Big Sean and Jhene Aiko channel the classic Black romantic films of the ’90s in the full video for their collaboration “Body Language” from Sean’s album Detroit 2. The couple revisited the song after releasing a teaser earlier in the year as part of the promotion for Detroit 2. Where the original video didn’t include hook singer Ty Dolla Sign and simply followed Jhene and Sean on a romantic getaway, the new version goes full-on conceptual as the two reimagine fan-favorite scenes from Love Jones, Poetic Justice, and Waiting To Exhale.
Opening with a reference to Love Jones‘s spoken-word poetry readings with Sean taking the Darius role, the video sees them reproducing the workplace flirtation between Justice and Lucky from Poetic Justice, as well as the postal truck road trip. A reference to Waiting To Exhale‘s famed car-burning sequence appears as a flashback/fantasy of Jhene’s, while a mid-video interlude brings back Love Jones for a cab exchange between Jhene and her friend that praises Sean’s D-game. Ty appears in his own scenes, which reproduce the ill-fated bachelor party from The Best Man.
Meanwhile, Sean confirmed during a Reddit AMA that more new music is coming from him and his girlfriend Jhene, as they are working on another Twenty88 release.
The final episode of The Mandalorian Season 2 hits this Friday, but the show isn’t going away for awhile just yet. Disney+ has confirmed the rumors that a Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian special will air on Christmas Day. The behind-the-scenes series is a huge hit for fans, who are going to love only having to wait a week to watch the making of the second season. However, unlike Season 1, which had eight behind-the-scenes episodes, Season 2 will only have a one hour special as of now. But it will offer insights into the life-action debut of Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano ahead of her just-announced Disney+ series. Via StarWars.com:
From the triumphant return of legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett to the live-action debut of fan-favorite Ahsoka Tano, the second season of The Mandalorian is a fun, surprising, emotional thrill-ride, which has kept fans excited to see how each new weekly chapter will unfold. This Christmas, Disney+ takes viewers behind the scenes of the groundbreaking season in a new hour-long Making of Season Two special.
If you haven’t seen the first batch of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian episodes, it’s well worth the watch for fans of the bounty hunting series. The making-of series showcases the groundbreaking technology used to film each episode from only a tiny studio in Manhattan Beach, California. The state-of-the-art tech can instantly transports Mando to new locations at the press of a button. More importantly, there’s an entire episode dedicated to the creation of Baby Yoda, who’s a technical marvel in and of himself. The little guy requires a team of at least six animatronic and puppet experts who individually work different parts of his body to create the life-like cuteness that’s been absolutely dominating the pop culture landscape from the moment he raised his tiny finger.
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This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
