Taylor Swift has had the internet abuzz all summer long. Between her recording breaking Eras Tour and the release of her Speak Now re-recording, the “Karma” hitmaker has been keeping the Swifties fed.
1989 was a particularly special era for Swift, as the album marked her pivot from country to pop music, and fans have been waiting for to get their hands on Swift’s new version. Today (August 17), Swift announced that she’s releasing a version of the vinyl edition with an alternate cover. On 1989 (Taylor’s Version) Sunrise Boulevard Vinyl Edition, Swift is seen laying in the sand on the beach, wearing a colorful jumper.
This particular album cover is only available for a limited time, however, fans can purchase this special edition until Saturday (August 19) through Swift’s website.
All editions of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) will come with five previously unreleased songs, as well as never before seen photos.
As of now, this special edition is only available to fans with a U.S. address.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) is out 10/27 via Republic. Find more information here.
Super producer Mike Will Made-It has blessed a new track his Midas touch once again. This time, he has teamed up with Lil Uzi Vert for a flashy new single, “Blood Moon.”
On “Blood Moon,” Mike Will is at the helm of the beat, per usual, and is joined by J. Cole, who, despite not having any rap vocals on the track, contributed to the song’s production. Over the track, Uzi celebrates a life of excess, rapping raspy, bragaddocious bars.
“Stepped in this b*tch like a killer, stepped in this b*tch in all Margiela / Grip on my waist, got a damn caterpillar / Lil Uzi Vert higher then a damn pillar,” raps Uzi on the song’s opening verse.
While Uzi enjoys the opportunity to flex, they’ve admitted that they don’t think of themselves as a fashion icon. In an interview with GQ, they admitted that some of their biggest fashion moments have come from them just throwing random items of clothing together.
“I low-key just wear anything,” said Uzi. “Sometimes I troll and say shit like that, but I’m not the best-dressed rapper. I don’t even care about that. It’d be the worst-dressed people with all the girls, so it doesn’t even matter.”
You can listen to “Blood Moon” above.
Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
It’s official: Shannon Sharpe is headed to ESPN. According to Andrew Marchand and Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post, Stephen A. Smith’s well-documented interest in having Sharpe join the roster of personalities on the morning debate show will end up coming to fruition, as Sharpe is slated to appear on the show on Mondays and Tuesday. Their reporting indicates that this will happen during the football season, and it is unclear if this partnership will continue beyond February.
Sharpe recently left Fox Sports, where he and former First Take personality Skip Bayless went head-to-head on their own debate show, Undisputed. While his former show is apparently putting together a roster of names to debate Bayless when it comes back to the airwaves in the coming weeks, Smith was not shy about his interest in having Sharpe come on his show, although he made it a point to say he did not want him to become a permanent co-host.
“I welcome Shannon Sharpe to First Take, but it would be in the mix of being a part of the family,” Smith said on his podcast. “I like the potpourri of contributors. I like the action and the action and the fun on the show. Adding people into the mix is one thing, changing the complete makeup and formula of the show is entirely different, and that ain’t happening for anyone.”
There’s no word on when Sharpe will start to appear on First Take.
There’s a reason why we love movies like “Big” and “13 Going on 30.” We can all relate to that feeling of still being a kid despite walking around in an adult-shaped body. And while some of us are better about letting that inner child run the show every once in a while than others, we all find moments to allow the pure joy and wonder that come from youth.
And when we do allow for some of that kid magic in our lives, great things happen. It’s no secret that playing is not only good for the soul, there are psychological benefits to it, too—boosting our creativity, helping us cope better with stress and improving our overall sense of well-being.
One hotel’s outstanding gesture of hospitality only goes to prove this conventional wisdom. Even if the staff did it by complete accident.
In a hilarious now-viral TikTok clip, a man (read: man, as in, full-grown adult) named Cole shares the aftermath of a wholesome prank his dad pulled on the Kindersley Quality Inn and Suites after he booked a room for himself and his “kid.”
Cole’s dad must have been in on how the hotel makes little kids feel welcome, because he is all giggles when they both walk in and Cole’s bed has not only a tie-dye fort but a teddy bear.
The fort even came with a list of “rules.” Really they were all for laughs, such as the “defend the fort at all costs” rule…However, there was a “no passing gas in the fort” rule. That sounds like solid regulation, honestly.
Mornings can be a challenge for a lot of folks. Our beds feel incredibly cozy, and after the alarm sounds, the allure of “just five more minutes” seems irresistible. The snooze button promises a brief escape to the warmth of dreams, a little respite before facing the day. It’s a small comfort, a momentary delay from the bustle ahead.
But five minutes becomes 10 minutes and then 15 minutes, until we find ourselves racing against the clock to get to work on time. The snooze button can create a terrible cycle that feels like an addiction.
If you’re a snoozeaholic, a one-minute video by Melanie Robbins may break your dependence. Robbins is a podcast host, author, motivational speaker and former lawyer. She is known for her TEDx talk, “How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over,” and her books, “The 5 Second Rule” and “The High 5 Habit,” as well as for hosting The Mel Robbins Podcast.
In a TikTok video taken from her podcast, Robbins explains the neuroscience behind why hitting the snooze button is a terrible idea.
Stop hitting the snooze button on your life and TAKE CONTROL! 🚀 Sign up for my new, FREE 3-part training, Take Control with Mel Robbins. It’s designed specifically to to help you step back into excellence, take ACTION, and create the life you deserve! 🔗 in bio #melrobbins #dailyinspiration #mindsetmotivation #tapintopotential #takecontrol #reinventyourlife #snoozebutton #wakeup #wakeupcall
“Let me hit you with some neuroscience here. Two words: sleep inertia,” Robbins begins the clip. “When you hit the snooze button, you’re awake, and as the alarm turns off, your brain then drifts back into sleep.”
“Here’s the thing that researchers have figured out—when you drift back to sleep after you’ve woken up, your brain starts a sleep cycle. Sleep cycles take 75 to 90 minutes to complete,” she continued. “So, when that alarm goes off again in nine minutes and you’re like ‘oh my God’—have you ever noticed you’re in deep sleep when you drift back to sleep?”
Robbins reasons that because you’ve entered a new sleep cycle, you will feel even more exhausted than if you woke up when the alarm first went off, and the feeling can last for a good part of the day.
“That’s because you’re nine minutes into a 75-minute sleep cycle.” That groggy, exhausted feeling that you have, that’s not a function of how well you slept. “It takes your brain about four hours to get through that groggy-a** feeling,” Robbins says.
If you’re looking for a scientific take on the same issue, Steven Bender, a clinical assistant professor at Texas A&M University, agrees with Robbins. “Delaying getting out of bed for nine minutes by hitting the snooze is simply not going to give us any more restorative sleep. In fact, it may serve to confuse the brain into starting the process of secreting more neurochemicals that cause sleep to occur, according to some hypotheses,” Bender wrote in an article published by Popular Science.
Ultimately, it’s all about feeling our best in the morning to have a productive day. Most people snooze because they want a few extra minutes of sleep to feel even more energized. But, unfortunately, the truth is that it makes you feel worse. So, hopefully, all those snoozers out there will break their habits and get up when the alarm sounds so they can feel their best.
One person summed up the effect Rue’s song had quite nicely: “POV: you heard this jingle for an anxious dog and now need to play it on repeat before doing anything even remotely social.” Relatable.
Basically, if there’s an obstacle you have yet to overcome, no matter how big or small, this tune acts as an invocation to bring out your most unafraid self. It’s amazing how just one little song has the power to do that for so many beings.
Depression and anxiety rates are on the rise, especially among the youth. One way people can overcome this debilitating disorder is through cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps to recognize and reshape negative thoughts to bring joy back into depressed people’s lives.
However, CBT might not always address patients’ need for social connections, which are essential for mental health and can also alleviate anxiety and depression.
To determine the best way that people with depression and anxiety can benefit from social connections, a group of researchers at The Ohio State University randomly assigned participants 1 of 3 tasks.
The first group was asked to perform three random acts of kindness for a stranger, such as buying them a coffee or offering to shovel snow off their driveway. The second group of participants was asked to plan a social activity on two days of the week. These were defined as “big or small activities you intentionally plan with other people for the purpose of enjoyment.”
The third was asked to fill out a workbook twice a week to identify distressing thoughts to make them less of a problem.
The results showed that after five weeks, all three groups were less depressed and anxious. But the group that had the greatest reduction in depression and anxiety were those who practiced random acts of kindness, and the benefits lasted up to five weeks.
“We did think that, if there was going to be an advantage of one group over another, it might be the thoughts record group, since that’s such a tried-and-true way of addressing depressive [and anxiety] symptoms,” Jennifer Cheavens of The Ohio State University told Greater Good. “But the kindness group did as well or better, and that group also had increases in social connection that didn’t happen in the other two groups.”
28-year-old Ashley Goette was just days away from the birth of her first child.
She was at that stage of her pregnancy where everything can seem like a headache. So, when she heard what she thought was her husband Andrew snoring in the early morning hours, it all made sense.
Instead, she realized Andrew wasn’t snoring but was actually gasping for breath and wouldn’t wake up. In a panic, Goette called 911 and told them what was happening. Time was of the essence and to help give her husband a fighting chance at surviving, the operator talked Goette through performing CPR on her husband while she waited for an ambulance to arrive.
“When (the paramedics) were standing in the house and doing CPR, I was thinking, ‘I cannot have this baby and not have Andrew be here,”’ Goette said in an interview.
After Andrew was taken to a hospital, it was discovered he has Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a condition which results in an extra electrical pathway in the heart and rapid heart rate.
Doctors were forced to place Goette’s husband in a medically-induced coma while she and her family prepared for the worst on the eve of what was supposed to be the happiest day in their lives.
Thankfully, doctors were able to successfully revive Andrew, who awoke in the hospital confused and scared. But after being brought up to speed, he realized he was also back in the mix in time for one more miracle.
It’s nothing short of a miracle,” he said. “I went from the brink of death to being able to watch the birth of my son. It will be one heck of a story to tell him when he’s older.”
Doctors praised Goette for her quick thinking that literally helped save her husband’s life until medical professionals arrived.
“Within a four-day span, she saved a life and she brought a new life into the world. That’s amazing,” said Dr. Alex Teeters, who treated Andrew Goette in the hospital.
However, the couple faced a steep financial climb with Andrew’s medical bills and the birth of their baby Lenny all happening in the same week. They set up a GoFundMe campaign for anyone that wanted to help cover their steep medical costs, which raised more than $12,000.
You can watch more about it in the video from the show “Inside Edition” just below:
A study of nursing home patients found that residents who sang show tunes — specifically from “Oklahoma!” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “The Sound of Music” — demonstrated increased mental performance, according to a report in the New York Daily News:
“Researchers working with elderly residents at an East Coast care home found in a four-month long study … that people who sang their favorite songs showed a marked improvement compared to those who just listened.”
Even better? There are tons of classic show tunes specifically about remembering.
Here are 23 tunes every Broadway fan needs to memorize for the day when it’s not so easy to remember. It’ll help to start brushing up now.
1. The one about remembering the good old days.
“Those Were the Good Old Days,” “Damn Yankees”
If you’re the devil in “Damn Yankees,” that means the Great Depression, the Black Plague years, and when Jack the Ripper was running around. Good times!
2. The one about remembering a parade that probably never happened.
Any playlist of show tunes about memory has to include this standard from “The Music Man,” in which Professor Harold Hill remembers the best day of his life, when “Gilmore, Liberati, Pat Conway, The Great Creatore, W.C. Handy, and John Phillip Sousa all came to town.”
Whether or not any of it actually happened is … up for debate, to put it mildly.
3. The one about remembering a really fun trip you took to a medium-sized Midwestern city.
“Kansas City,” “Oklahoma”
“Oklahoma’s” Will Parker is so psyched about his Kansas City vacation he can’t help bragging about it to all the other cowboys. And why not? It’s a neat city! Have you been to Joe’s Kansas City Barbecue? Neither has Will Parker, since he was there in 1906, but you should totally go.
4. The one about remembering how fun it was to murder that guy that one time…
5. The one about remembering the questionable choices it’s too late to go back in time and not make.
“Where Did We Go Right?” from “The Producers”
Looking back doesn’t always go well for characters in musicals. It definitely doesn’t for “The Producers'” Bialystock and Bloom, as they tear around their office wondering how their incompetently directed, poorly acted, aggressively pro-Hitler musical wound up becoming a massive hit despite their every attempt to make it fail.
6. The one about remembering the little things.
“I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It,” “Phantom of the Opera”
Perhaps the greatest testament to how emotionally transporting “Phantom of the Opera” is: Christine, removing the phantom’s mask for the first time, can just straight-up claim to remember mist— like, one mist in particular — and no one calls her on it ever.
7. The one about remembering the worst day of your life.
“The Barber and his Wife,” “Sweeney Todd”
No character in musical theater is more nostalgic than Sweeney Todd, who, just moments after we meet him, croons this delightful ditty reminiscing about the time he was framed for a crime he didn’t commit and banished from England so that an evil judge could rape his wife who subsequently poisoned herself.
A tune you can hum!
8. The one about remembering things differently than everyone else around you.
“Satisfied,” “Hamilton”
Not sure if you’ve heard, but “Hamilton” is good, you guys.
After Alex and Eliza Schuyler meet and fall in love in “Helpless,” Angelica Schuyler basically goes “Wicked” on her sister’s song, recalling how agonizing it was watching her sister and the man who she herself is super into get together. But she sucks it up and buries it! Older siblings are the best.
9. The one about remembering that cute girl you just met like five seconds ago.
“Maria,” “West Side Story”
A classic from “West Side Story.” Sure, it’s about remembering a meet-cute that literally just happened — Tony and Maria’s orchestral-swell-assisted gaze across a crowded gym — but Tony is super jazzed about it, so it makes the list.
Gosh, I sure hope those crazy kids work out!
10. The one about remembering all the worst things from when you were a kid, and one kind-of-OK thing.
“At the Ballet,” “A Chorus Line”
The ballet isn’t that great, but it’s better than devastating childhood trauma. Score one for the ballet! Thanks, “A Chorus Line!”
11. The one about remembering old hobbies.
“Dentist!” from “Little Shop of Horrors”
“Little Shop of Horrors'” Orin Scrivello, DDS, is just misunderstood. I mean, who among us didn’t “shoot puppies,” “poison guppies,” or “take a pussycat and bash in its head” now and again as a kid? The ’50s were a simpler time!
12. The one about remembering watching a dude die on the battlefield and feeling feelings about it.
“Momma Look Sharp,” “1776”
47 years before “Hamilton” brought us the swaggery, ass-kicking side of the Revolutionary War, “1776” tore our guts out with this song, in which a courier to the Continental Congress recalls watching a mother comfort a young soldier as he dies at the battles of Lexington and Concord.
Hercules Mulligan does the guest rap. (Just kidding. There is no guest rap. It’s just gorgeously somber for a while and then over.)
13. The one about remembering the best four years of your life.
“I Wish I Could Go Back to College,” “Avenue Q”
Of course the sad-sack puppet man- and woman-children of “Avenue Q” want to go back to college! Who among us doesn’t long for the days of term papers, humiliating romantic encounters, and crushing, debilitating debt? And meal-plan ice cream, too!
14. The one about remembering some A-plus advice from your best friend.
“Cabaret,” “Cabaret”
Ladies and gentlemen, Sally Bowles from “Cabaret” is no fool! No matter how many lovers leave, or how much her career nosedives, or how nutty local politics get, she always remembers this important life lesson she learned from her good friend Elsie.
If only you had such a great, wise friend, maybe your outlook would be as good as Sally’s. You could be so lucky!
15. The one about remembering last Christmas.
“Halloween,” “Rent”
When it comes to the science of memory and cognition, “Rent” asks the big questions:
“Why are entire years strewn on the cutting room floor of memories? When single frames from one magic night forever flicker in close-up on the 3-D Imax of my mind?”
Poetic? Pathetic? We report, you decide.
16. The one about remembering everything and realizing how terrible it all was.
“Rose’s Turn,” “Gypsy”
Ah, yes. “Rose’s Turn.” The 11 o’clock number to end all 11 o’clock numbers in “Gypsy,” the most musical of all musicals. Truly, there aren’t many things more enjoyable than listening to Mama Rose replay the events of the last decade and change inside her own brain in a slow-motion nervous breakdown as the notion that her entire life has been completely worthless gradually dawns on her with ever-increasing dread.
Did I mention how fun musicals are?
Trivia time! You know that thing in music where trumpets go, “Ya da da da daaaa DA. Da DA da DA!” You know that thing? This is the song that thing comes from.
17. The one about remembering the first time you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up.
“Ring of Keys,” “Fun Home”
There’s nothing better than a song that makes you want to shout: “I am so glad I’m watching a musical instead of a basketball game right now.” This moment in “Fun Home,” where Alison recalls seeing a delivery woman — the first person who looked like the woman she felt like — is really, really one of them.
“This is a song of identification that is a turning moment, when you think you’re an alien and you hear someone else say, ‘Oh, me too,'” composer Jeanine Tesori told Variety. “It’s a gamechanger for Alison. And that’s just Musical Theater 101.”
…And the entire audience bursts into happy tears forever.
18. The one about remembering a nice dream you dreamed.
“I Dreamed a Dream,” “Les Misérables”
When your life isn’t going so great, it’s good to remember the positive! Things didn’t exactly go super well for Fantine in “Les Mis.” But, hey, she had a pretty good dream once!
19. The one about remembering your single greatest regret and vowing to never remember it again.
“Turn It Off,” “The Book of Mormon”
What’s the ticket to living as fun-loving and guilelessly as the Mormon elders in “The Book of Mormon?” Don’t just bury those traumatic, scary, impure memories — CRUSH THEM, OK?!
20. The one about remembering a really successful first date.
“Sarah Brown Eyes,” “Ragtime”
Ah, young love. Even in “Ragtime,” a musical that features racism, state violence, attempted child murder, and terrorism, at least we have this song, in which Coalhouse Walker Jr. recalls how he got his beloved Sarah to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with him with his peerless piano skills? So romantic.
Gosh, I sure hope those crazy kids work out!
21. The one about remembering a scary dream.
“Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” “Guys and Dolls”
With, perhaps, only a smidge more credibility than grifter-from-another-mother Professor Harold Hill, “Guys and Dolls'” third-most-degenerate gambler Nicely-Nicely Johnson recalls a terrifying dream where he had to convince a group of skeptical evangelical crusaders that he’s decided to give up the dice once and for all.
Side note: People in musicals are unbelievably good at remembering dreams. This is, like, full detail. I’d be like, “Um, I was at the Statue of Liberty, and you were there? I think? It wasn’t really you, it was like a combination of you and my dad. And we were in prison. But at the Statue of Liberty.”
22. The one about remembering how it used to be when you were young and full of hope instead of old and bitter and jaded.
“Our Time,” “Merrily We Roll Along”
The closing number of “Merrily We Roll Along” is actually the first chronologically, since the musical goes backward. It’s the play’s happiest moment — Frank, Charley, and Mary on a roof watching Sputnik go by, giddily talking about how thrilling, perfect, and successful their futures are going to be. It’s so hopeful! But so sad, ’cause you already know all the achingly bittersweet stuff that’s going to happen.
Hijack turned out to be quite a ride for Idris Elba on Apple TV+. He portrayed a negotiator-by-day and light-traveling passenger who needed use his skills to humanity’s advantage in the not-so-friendly skies.
The first season was like a seven-episode panic attack, and it’s well-suited for audiences who liked The Bear for the stressed-out-but-loving-it aspect. Granted, this show is much less grounded, both literally and figuratively, because much suspension of belief is required regarding how these hijackers took over the cockpit.
Yet does logic truly matter when it comes to a show this addictive to watch? Elba never hesitates to throw himself into “action” mode, even if movement is severely hampered here due to close confines. As well, the season ended with Elba’s Sam possibly having the tables turned and somehow having to take care of the lingering baddie on the plane, but everything came to a rather just conclusion. This leaves things wide open for more, and the streaming audience would certainly enjoy that news.
As Elba previously told Variety, he’s prepared for another flight, just maybe not on a plane. “I’d like that, but I just don’t want to put him on another hijack,” the Luther leading man explained. “I’m open to that character coming back. I think if people were compelled to like the character, then I’m in.”
So far, there’s been no second-season green light, but perhaps that’s only a matter of time.
Hijack‘s first season is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
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