Category: Trending

Avert your eyes, Devin Booker. It’s been nearly one month since dating rumors were sparked between Bad Bunny and Kendall Jenner. TMZ relayed the recent Grammy winner and Jenner were spotted last month leaving the Beverly Hills restaurant Wally’s separately, but the belief was that they had been there together on “a double date” with Justin and Hailey Bieber.

And then Wednesday, March 8, more tangible evidence spread faster than a Bad Bunny track across the internet: Bunny and Jenner appeared to have been caught mid-kiss in West Hollywood, California.

Per Page Six, Bad Bunny and Jenner had been at dinner with Kylie Jenner and family friend Travis Bennett (aka former Odd Future member Taco).

However, there has been no concrete confirmation from Bad Bunny nor Jenner that they are dating. Both parties’ representation hadn’t responded to the outlet’s request for comment.

Jenner was previously in a long-term relationship with Booker, an All-NBA and All-Star point guard for the Phoenix Suns.

People reported last November that the couple had ended their relationship the month prior. An unnamed source told the publication, “Both have incredibly busy schedules right now with their careers and they’ve decided to make that a priority.”

People added, “An insider also revealed that the decision to end their romantic relationship was mutual and just came down to timing, though Jenner and Booker do plan to stay in touch.”

Also in November, E! News cited an unnamed insider relaying that Jenner was “not really open to dating right now.”

Enter: Bad Bunny?

Jeopardy! fans do not miss a trick, so you better believe they immediately noticed a major error during Wednesday night’s episode. As host Mayim Bialik introduced the contestants at the start of the game, their final scores were visible on the screen before the competition even began. Essentially, the show revealed the winner before anyone even started playing.

Of course, eagle-eyed Jeopardy! fans noticed the flub and a clip of the editing error went viral on Twitter as viewers couldn’t believe what they just saw.

“The score display areas should be blank, but there are numbers there. And those are the final scores! Major editing glitch,” Philip Young tweeted.

“Wow, given that this was taped months or weeks ago, you’d think they’d actually proof-view it first before putting on air,” one user said.

“I thought it was Thursday already and that I missed something when I noticed that,” another fan wrote. “But then I realized I didn’t sleep through the day and it was just an error.”

And things started getting ugly. “An inexcusable production error,” tweeted a disgruntled viewer.

Lilly then offered her own Jeopardy! experience to theorize what might have went wrong:

My guess is that they had to do a pickup on all/part of Mayim’s intro & recorded that at the end of the game but forgot to reset the screens. When I was in the audience for a taping last year, there was a late-game pickup where something like this could have happened. They had put up the [Final Jeopardy] dividers and cleared the contestant names from the screen for them to write their wagers, but then needed Ken to re-do something. So they had to clear the wagers, put the dividers back down, and have the contestants rewrite their names so they would appear correctly on the podiums in the shot. I assume it was just completely overlooked, but it’s also possible someone noticed the mistake but figured it didn’t matter as much since the “final” scores are only the first of a two-day total. Maybe they will address this on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast next week!

Lilly chimed in later with one other piece of info that could also explain the flub.

“They did mention on the podcast that the turnaround on these episodes was TIGHT, usually they tape about 2 months ahead but this tournament taped Jan 29/30/31, just 3 weeks before it started airing,” she wrote. “So the editing process may have been a bit more rushed than usual.”

(Via New York Post)

American single malt whiskey continues to be one of the most interesting spirits categories on earth right now. New brands and new expressions from classic brands are hitting shelves almost constantly these days. The most exciting part is that those new bottles of whiskey are coming with new ideas — things like unique malt mixes, higher proof points, and hyper-local terroir are all adding to the beauty of this whiskey genre.

With so much new stuff hitting shelves, I figured it was high time to pour some drams and blindly taste them to find a few that you should try too. Since it’s spring, I didn’t have to look too far back to find new and exciting American single malt whiskeys to taste. Most of the bottles I blindly tasted were just released in the past weeks (with a few coming in late last year).

Our lineup today features the following bottles of whiskey:

• Westward American Single Malt Whiskey Single Barrel Selection Grand Cru Sauternes Cask
• Yellowstone American Single Malt Whiskey 108 Proof
• Jack Daniel’s Twice Barreled Special Release American Single Malt
• Lost Lantern 2023 Single Cask #2 — Westland Distillery American Single Malt Finished in Red Wine Cask 8 Years Old
• Tattersall Interstate Whiskey American Single-Malt Aged 4 Years
• Broken Barrel Luciferous American Singel Malt Whiskey
• Lost Lantern Single Cask #1 — Westland Distillery American Single Malt 7 Years Old
• Rogue Dead Guy Whiskey American Single Malt Cabernet Wine Cask Finished

After I tasted these whiskeys blindly, I ranked them according to how tasty they were. It’s as easy as that, folks. No weight was given to price or availability. Sound intriguing? Let’s jump right in!

• We Blind Tested Fast Food French Fries — Here’s The Stone Cold Champ
• The Affordable Vs Expensive Blind Bourbon Bottle Battle
• The 20 Most Popular Hot Sauces In America, Blind Tasted And Ranked
• We Blind Tested Our Favorite Fast Food Double Cheeseburgers & Crowned A New Champ
• The 30 Best Bourbon Whiskeys For Fall, Blind Tasted & Ranked

Part 1: The Tasting

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

Nose: This has a deep nose that takes you on a journey through green chili, soft caramel, burnt orange peels, grilled peach, summer flowers, and danish filled with vanilla cream and red fruit compote.

Palate: There’s a sharp cherry soda on the palate with a hint of grapefruit, pineapple, and ripe peach next to bright ginger, soft coconut, and a hint of honeyed malt with a whisper of nuttiness.

Finish: That orange comes back on the finish with a soft fresh floral edge next to light cedar bark braided with chewy fresh tobacco dipped in honey and dusted with citrus zest.

Initial Thoughts:

This is pretty goddamn delicious. It’s deep yet bright and fun.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

Nose: A light sense of sweet Cream of Wheat opens the nose with a dollop of honey and peach next to stewed kiwi with nutmeg and a very fleeting sense of walking through a garden shop.

Palate: Spiced malts and stewed pears lead to more honey, dry dates, and a hint of fresh pear with a soft woody vanilla underbelly.

Finish: That woody vanilla drives the smooth finish with a hint of cinnamon bark, nut cake, and some pear cider.

Initial Thoughts:

This was pretty good overall. It didn’t blow me away but it was … nice.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Light chocolate powder malts greet you on the nose with soft leather, a hint of cedar, fresh gingerbread, oatmeal cookie dough, and some sweet ice tea powder.

Palate: The palate opens up with a sense of sour red fruit with a rich vanilla foundation that leads to woody spices and saddle soap with a vanilla white cake sweetness.

Finish: The mid-palate expands toward higher ABV buzziness with a note of almond and coconut and fresh leather on the finish with a fleeting sense of cream soda just kissed with orange-chocolate syrup.

Initial Thoughts:

This is really good whiskey. There’s a lot going on and it all pays off/comes together by the end.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Dried cherries and sultanas mingle with spiced red wine-soaked oak and a hint of old leatheriness on the nose.

Palate: Dark berries and leather lead to clove and allspice woody spice with a hint of pine dank and vanilla cookies.

Finish: Those woody spices and dark berries drive the finish toward soft vanilla and moist nuttiness with a hint of sweet vermouth.

Initial Thoughts:

This is a really tasty whiskey that really leans into the red wine vibes. It’s almost like a sweet dessert red wine.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Hefty crafty graininess presents on the nose with a sweet porridge vibe cut with honey, dried red fruit, and nuts.

Palate: Dried red chilis give way to dark chocolate-covered espresso beans on the palate with a light sense of dry grain husks and chocolate malts.

Finish: Those chocolate malts drive the finish with a hint of orchard fruit on a thinnish end.

Initial Thoughts:

This wasn’t terrible. But it wasn’t great either. It did have a nice balance between the very young grainy nose and the more mature palate.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose opens with a sense of fresh squash with a good dose of winter spices, light caramel, and wet malts rounding things out.

Palate: The taste has a moment more of that fresh squash before hitting a note of harsh chili pepper spiciness that buzzes hard on the palate with a sense of coconut and banana next to woody spice.

Finish: There’s a fair amount of spice at the end but the ABVs push past a pleasant buzz toward a full burn which mutes the lingering fruit, vanilla, and spice.

Initial Thoughts:

This is just a bit too much on the ol’ ABVs and losses the plot a little. There’s good stuff in there, I would need an ice cube to find it though.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

Nose: This opens with a bright sense of dark citrus oils and tropical fruits next to wet brown sugar, subtly spiced malts, and a hint of woody oak spices cut with dark chocolate powder.

Palate: That dark chocolate powder welcomes you on the palate with white pepper, eggnog spices, and dark espresso beans counterpointed with bright tropical citrus and starfruit next to caramel and vanilla buttercream.

Finish: That caramel and buttercream drive the finish toward a hint of sweet oatmeal cookie dough cut with clove and sharp cinnamon and just kissed with nuttiness and chocolate chips.

Initial Thoughts:

This is good whiskey, folks! It’s complex yet welcoming. It’s not overly sweet or dry. It’s just right.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Diacetyl runs heavy on the nose kind of like plunging your nose into an unpopped microwave popcorn bag. It’s fundamentally faulty.

Palate: There is a nice spiced malt under the diacetyl on the palate with a light sense of grape soda and maybe some ginger rock candy.

Finish: The finish is sweet and artificially buttery with a thin end.

Initial Thoughts:

Nope.

Part 2: The Ranking

8. Rogue Dead Guy Whiskey American Single Malt Cabernet Wine Cask Finished — Taste 8

ABV: 47%

Average Price: $56

The Whiskey:

This Oregon malt is aged next to the ocean before going into Columbia valley Cabernet barrels for a nine-month finish. Those barrels are then batched and proofed with local water before bottling.

Bottom Line:

No amount of aging could hide the fault in this whiskey. Hard pass.

7. Tattersall Interstate Whiskey American Single-Malt Aged 4 Years — Taste 5

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $45

The Whiskey:

This Minnesota whiskey uses Wisconsin malted barley — one that’s smoked with cherrywood and another that’s dark roasted. The hot juice is filled into new oak barrels for a four-year rest before batching, proofing, and bottling.

Bottom Line:

This was fine. It had a super grainy/crafty/young nose but actually did balance out by the end. I wouldn’t reach for it ever again though.

6. Broken Barrel Luciferous American Singel Malt Whiskey — Taste 6

ABV: 61.3%

Average Price: $56

The Whiskey:

This whiskey is made from 100% Indiana single malt whiskey. Those barrels are then re-barreled into Amaro and French oak casks for final maturation. The final blend is a mix of 80% Amaro barrels and 20% French oak before and bottling at cask strength.

Bottom Line:

This has a lot going for it. There’s a complex flavor profile in this pour, it’s just hiding behind too many ABVs. You’ll need a rock to really enjoy this. So if you want an overly proofed single malt, I guess give this a try.

5. Yellowstone American Single Malt Whiskey 108 Proof — Taste 2

ABV: 54%

Average Price: $54

The Whiskey:

This whiskey from Limestone Branch Distillery is a sourced single malt from Indiana. Four-year-old barrels of the malt whiskey was sent down to Kentucky where Stephen Beam masterfully blended and bottled this whiskey.

Bottom Line:

This was pretty good overall. I can see pouring this on a lazy weekday when I don’t want to be challenged. It’s a very easygoing whiskey with a nice overall flavor profile.

4. Lost Lantern 2023 Single Cask #2 Westland Distillery American Single Malt Finished in Red Wine Cask 8 Years Old — Taste 4

ABV: 53.8%

Average Price: $139

The Whiskey:

This year’s Lost Lantern releases are here! Cask #2 is a Washington state single malt made from 70% Great Western “Pure WA” Pale malt, 13% Briess Extra Special malt, 9% GW Munich malt, 4% Thomas Fawcett & Sons Brown malt, and 4% TF&S Pale Chocolate malt. That mix of malts is fermented, distilled, and aged in lightly toasted/heavily charred ISC Cooper’s Select barrel. After five years, the whiskey was re-barreled in a first-fill Washington Cabernet Sauvignon cask for an additional three years of mellowing before bottling 100% as-is in only 185 bottles.

Bottom Line:

This is pretty freaking good whiskey. It does lean really hard into that red wine finish, which is why it’s slightly lower on this ranking. But if you’re looking for a bold red wine finish on a soft and well-made single malt, then this is definitely the bottle for you.

3. Jack Daniel’s Twice Barreled Special Release American Single Malt — Taste 3

ABV: 52.85%

Average Price: $69

The Whiskey:

This new whiskey from Jack Daniel’s is made with a 100% malted barley mash bill. Those grains are milled and mashed with Jack’s famed cave spring water. That mash is then fermented with Jack’s own yeast and then distilled. The hot juice is slowly dripped through ten feet of sugar maple charcoal and is then filled into new American white oak barrels for a several-year rest. Finally, those barrels were batched and re-barreled in Olorosso sherry casks for a final maturation before bottling as-is at cask strength.

Bottom Line:

This has a wonderful nuance that beckons you back for more. It does lean more toward a bourbon than a single malt, but that’s not a knock. That’s why this is so enticing. If you’re looking for something completely new from Jack Daniel’s, then this is a must-buy.

2. Lost Lantern Single Cask #1 Westland Distillery American Single Malt 7 Years Old — Taste 7

ABV: 52.8%

Average Price: $129

The Whiskey:

This whiskey is all about Washington state terroir. The mash is a local five-malt recipe that Westland is known for. This whiskey then spent seven years resting in one barrel from ISC Cooper’s Select line before Lost Lantern bottled the whole barrel 100% as-is.

Bottom Line:

This is just good. It’s soft and approachable while delivering a deep flavor profile that hits just right. If you’re looking for a great standard definition of American single malt and how good it is getting, this is it.

1. Westward American Single Malt Whiskey Single Barrel Selection Grand Cru Sauternes Cask — Taste 1

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $99

The Whiskey:

This is Portland’s classic American single malt taken up a level. After years of resting, a single barrel was re-barreled in a sauternes cask from France’s Grand Cru Classé estate. 14 months later, Westward bottled that whiskey with a kiss of local water.

Bottom Line:

This was far and away the best taste on the panel. This is great American single malt and the bottle you should buy to convert any whiskey drinker into the wonderful world of ASM.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

You can skip the bottom three bottles outright. I’d recommend getting the Lost Lantern bottles the most. You’re never going to see those single-barrel expressions again. This is your only chance to taste those and it’s 100% worth the price of entry.

Beyond Lost Lantern, that Westward Single Barrel is a must-have. It’s a great whiskey from top to bottom with a wonderful flavor profile that takes you on a journey. You cannot beat it as a whiskey, American single malt or not.

Every once in a while a movie so absurd and critically panned comes along and gains traction for some reason, which is exactly what happened with Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 indie film The Room.

The cult classic found popularity in perpetually online teens and overly caffeinated college students at some point in the mid-2000s when it became a bizarrely beloved feature film, and thus cemented itself as one of the best worst movies of all time, and even spawned a James Franco biopic. Knowing that, it seems like the perfect time to reshoot the movie with American treasure Bob Odenkirk, right?

While it may sound like a joke or a side bit in Mr. Show with Bob and David, Odenkirk is actually starring in a DIY remake of the original film as Wiseau’s character Johnny, who is stuck in a love triangle with his best friend and fiance. And Odenkirk is very excited about it.

“This is real. This is true,” Odenkirk tweeted in response to the news that many didn’t believe. “And let me tell you, I tried my best to SELL every line, as honestly as I could…and I had a BLAST.” I do believe him.

The remake (which was mostly shot on greenscreen, making it even campier) is produced by Acting For A Cause and will be available to purchase online in the future, with proceeds going directly to The Foundation for AIDS research. According to Variety, Wiseau and his team were unaware that the film was being made. Had he known, he might have been a distraction.

The remake also stars Bella Heathcote and Brando Crawford. Now… wouldn’t it be great for Odenkirk to get some awards soon?

(Via Variety)

Among streaming services, Netflix has some of the best subtitles and closed captions. The font is pleasing and the text is mostly (but not always) accurate. And now there’s even more customization options for hard-of-hearing and visually-impaired subscribers, as well as everyone who needs to take a screenshot of something Tim Robinson said on I Think You Should Leave.

Netflix is giving subscribers the ability to pick from small, medium, and large sizes for its subtitles and closed captions, as well as “four styles/colors, which include the default white text option, drop shadow (white text with black background), light (black text with white background), and contrast (yellow text with black background),” according to Tech Crunch.

Netflix members were previously only able to access these subtitle and closed caption sizing and style options via the web. So it’s a welcome update for TV users, especially since streaming on large screens like connected TVs, smart TVs and gaming consoles represented 77 percent of globally streamed minutes in the first quarter of 2022.

Netflix provided an example of what the customization looks like:

Wow, it’s like Jenna Ortega is yelling right at you!

Now you have even fewer reasons to not watch with the captions on. You can find out how to your customize your profile here.

(Via Tech Crunch)

17-year-old songwriter GAYLE is having a good journey so far. Since her hit “Abcdefu” catapulted her into fame, she’s received support from Olivia Rodrigo, earned a Grammy nomination, and put out more songs to keep up the momentum. Today, she’s back with another.

“Everybody Hates Me” is a discordant, angsty anthem. It’s unfiltered and all over the place, diaristic in a Myspace-esque way: “Life’s a b*tch and I’m not surprised / If you read my mind you’d probably cry,” she drawls over pop-punk guitars. It doesn’t ask for pity, though: “Life’s a b*tch and she’s cool with me / I’ll let it be,” she concludes.

“There was a point in my life where I felt like I wasn’t getting respected and everything I was doing was being torn apart,” she said about the track. “I honestly felt like everybody hated me. Instead of drowning in it I felt empowered by it because I realized I didn’t have to do anything for anybody else. Because when everyone hates you, you may as well like yourself and do what you want.”

Listen to “Everybody Hates Me” above.

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

Despite our tumultuous history of conflict over our differences, there is far more that unites humanity than divides us. We are wholly unique individuals who share various group identities, but at the end of the day, we are all simply human.

Nothing makes that fact clearer than peeking into the daily lives of people all over the world—seeing how we all connect with our families and friends, how we enjoy the outdoors, how we take care of ourselves and others, how we create our livelihoods and more. But few people are able to travel extensively enough to see those things firsthand.

That’s where the YouTube Original “Life in a Day” comes in.

The original “Life in a Day” video project was crowdsourced from ordinary people around the world who filmed their lives on July 24, 2010. From the 80,000 clips sent in, a filmmaking team under the direction of Kevin Macdonald, Tegan Bukowski, and Loressa Clisby pieced together an award-winning documentary.

Then, when the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, MacDonald decided to revisit the idea to capture the experience we were sharing as a global community. Only this time, more than 300,000 people from 192 countries sent in their day-in-the-life films from July 25, 2020 to contribute to the project.

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The result was not just a time capsule from the early COVID-19 era, but a beautiful representation of how life doesn’t stop even when the world seems to.

The film opens with a woman in labor, and we soon see a bunch of babies being born the world over, all on the same day. We see people from various countries and cultures going through their morning routines, doing their work, caring for their families, making food, playing with pets—average daily life stuff. We see defining features of the time, including confusion over pandemic protocols and racial justice protests from around the world in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. We also see grief, some from the toll of COVID-19 and some from the expected and unexpected passing of loved ones that happens every day.

We see relationships beginning and ending. We see successes and failures. We see people having a blast and people going through hardship. It’s a home movie of humanity that illustrates our diversity, yet also shows how very much alike we are.

Watch here:

It’s entirely possible to watch this film and only focus on how we are different. But what “Life in a Day” really shows is that we have the same basic needs and the same spectrum of emotions. We imagine, express, create and innovate. We form bonds with fellow humans. We appreciate delicious food, the beauty of nature, a well-timed joke. We cry in grief and laugh with joy. We build. We play. We love.

That’s not to say we don’t challenge one another or have difficulties connecting sometimes. That’s as true on the individual level as it is on the collective. But so much of how we experience life with our fellow humans is wrapped up in the perspective we choose. When we focus on otherness, that’s what we’ll see. When we focus on what we have in common, that’s what we’ll see more of. The difference between those two visions can mean war or peace, conflict or cooperation, the progress of the human race or its downfall, so instead of fixing our gaze on what divides us, let’s choose to continually look for what unites us as one people sharing one global home.

Log onto Twitter any given weekend and you’ll find a list of reasons why a certain festival or concert didn’t live up to expectations. Influencers flooded TikTok when they were turned away from a clothing brand’s event at last year’s Coachella, apparently ruining the entire weekend for many. More recently, of course, Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show was knocked for not being exciting enough. Post-pandemic festivals seem to have extremely lofty expectations to live up to, and many people think some are falling short. The conversation about live music over the past year-and-a-half has begged the question: Aren’t festivals supposed to be fun?

Enter M3F Fest, the Phoenix, Arizona two-day event nestled in a sunny, sizeable downtown Margaret T. Hance Park over the weekend of March 3, 2023. Surrounded by palm trees and cacti, the three-stage festival held its nineteenth iteration March 3rd and 4th with two goals in mind. The first, was to raise money for charity. The second? Bring good vibes. And they managed to deliver on both promises.

M3F Fest — short for McDowell Mountain Music Festival — sets itself apart from other music festivals. Not only does it take place in March, trading scorching summer temperatures in favor of temperate light jacket weather, but M3F Fest prides itself on having a good cause. M3F is a non-profit festival, meaning 100 percent of proceeds from the weekend are donated to charity. To date, organizers have been able to raise a whopping $4.4 million to benefit charities that operate in the arts, community, education, and environmental sectors. These charities operate both locally within Phoenix: donations from M3F Fest were used to purchase laptops and technology for underserved communities through the organization Elevate Phoenix, while funds from M3F Fest also supported national organizations like Backline, a charity that connects music industry professionals and their families with mental health and wellness resources.

Since its inception, M3F Fest has always been focused on doing the right thing. When asked about his reason helping to start the festival alongside M3F founder John Largay, Ron Colone described a certain feeling that live music lovers will know all too well. Nearly 20 years ago, he and Largay were walking back from a California music festival and riding the high of the collective joy and connection they had just experienced. They asked themselves: “How do we capture this feeling and help bring it to the masses?” So, M3F was born and their mission to spread good vibes and benefit their community was put into motion.

Now, M3F is a mostly electronic-focused festival that also brought in several indie pop staples. Toro Y Moi dug up a set consisting mostly of their older hits from albums like 2019’s Outer Peace and 2013’s Anything In Return to appease the dance music fans in the crowd. Peach Pit created perfect upbeat melodies to serenade the crowd into the sunset. Del Water Gap wow’d the early afternoon crowd by bringing headliner and previous bandmate Maggie Rogers to the stage — who he opened for on a recent tour run — to perform a new song together. Rogers herself was a highlight of the weekend. Though her music is on the softer side compared to acts like Polo & Pan or Jamie xx, she put on such a spectacular performance that even the bass heads were captivated by her.

Speaking of Jamie xx, the UK musician closed out the festival by giving the crowd a full-body experience with his bass-heavy music. An expert at live mixing, Jamie xx seamlessly transitioned from one song to the next, keeping the energy high as a proper send-off for an all-around great weekend. Other honorable mentions in the DJ realm were Purple Disco Machine, who made the crowd collectively lose their minds with dance-ready remixes. The Jungle Giants got the crowd moving by leaning into disco-inspired beats while duo Neil Frances launched into all their hits.

Music aside, M3F had a lot to offer in terms of on-site amenities, though the art installations were few and far between. Two separate food courts were serving up inspired eats, outshining (still very delicious) basics like pizza and burgers with stands serving shaved ice, adorable animal-shaped bao buns, Indonesian barbeque, and Nutella waffles with NSFW-shaped candy. Local vendors flocked to the festival grounds to sell their wares, some of which included (very on-brand) hemp hats, jewelry, stickers printed with every anime character imaginable. There was even an animal rescue tent that brought a very special guest: an adorable pit bull begging for pets and attention by eagerly obliging festival attendees. It’s difficult to find ways the festival could have improved without getting too removed from its essence, though little things like interactive art and lifestyle activities could have gone far in fostering a greater sense of community among festival goers.

Throughout the weekend, it was clear that everyone from friendly festival workers to excited attendees showed up with a chilled mindset. During the day, laid-back festival goers basked in the Southwest sun and spotted the grass with colorful picnic blankets and inflatable couches. Friendly strangers respectfully danced with each other during groovy DJ sets. Even during the most packed and popular sets people in the crowd made sure to be considerate of everyone else’s personal space. Overall, organizers achieved their goal of creating an environment for music fans to let loose and have a good time, all while giving back to their community.

Find more information about M3F Fest here.

Uproxx was hosted for this story by M3F Fest. They did not review or approve this story. You can learn more about the Uproxx Press Trip policy here.

Paul Mescal’s paternal instincts extended beyond the confines of his role in Aftersun. Mescal is nominated for Best Actor at the 2023 Oscars this Sunday, March 12. But he probably already won the distinction of Best Co-Star Ever in the eyes of Frankie Corio, his on-screen Aftersun daughter, with Olivia Rodrigo’s help.

Leona Corio, Frankie’s mother, tweeted a video today, March 9, showing Mescal surprising Frankie with a video from Rodrigo while they were filming Aftersun in Turkey. (Aftersun was released last fall.)

In the 58-second clip, Mescal tells Frankie he has “a surprise” for her and pulls out his phone. We can’t see his phone screen at first, but Frankie’s face says it all. She immediately starts beaming with her mouth agape in disbelief.

“Hey, Frankie, it’s Olivia,” Rodrigo can be heard saying from Mescal’s phone. “I heard it was your birthday.” It’s a little muffled before we more clearly hear Rodrigo again and can see the video on Mescal’s phone. “I hope you have the best day ever,” she continued. “I hope you eat lots of cake and open lots of presents, and I hope I get to meet you real soon.”

Afterward, Frankie is left literally speechless, and Mescal needlessly apologizes to her that the video arrived after her birthday.

Watch the heartwarming moment below.

Anitta was reportedly spotted filming a music video with Chlöe in her native Brazil in January, and her acting stock just went up.

Thursday morning, March 9, Anitta and the official Instagram account for Elite confirmed that she’s joining the cast for the upcoming seventh season of the beloved Netflix series that premiered in October 2018. The caption roughly translates to, “A ‘girl from Rio’ you already know is about to arrive in Las Encinas… @anitta is joining the #Elite7 cast.”

Anitta also shared a smiley set of photos with actress Carmen Arrufat, who joined Elite last season, and Elite‘s executive producer Rubén Goldfarb to her Instagram Story. Atop the photo with Goldfarb, she wrote, “@rubengol Gracias por tratarme con tanto cuidado, cariño y respecto.” (In English, “@rubengol Thank you for treating me with so much care, affection, and respect.”)

For the uninitiated, Elite‘s official synopsis is, “When three working-class teenagers begin attending an exclusive private school in Spain, the clash between them and the wealthy students leads to murder” (as written on IMDb). Elite can count on people wanting to get more Anitta anywhere they can, as evidenced by her 2022 Versions Of Me album (named among Uproxx’s Best Latin Albums Of 2022), her Guinness World Record-breaking Lay’s commercial, and her nomination at the 2023 Grammys for Best New Artist.

To start this year, Anitta teased a new album during an interview with Billboard. “I feel more freedom to show my real culture and show myself, so now I’m working on an album, full funk, full my culture, so people will know, ‘OK, so that’s her!’” she said.

Anitta is a Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.