Category: Trending

“Think about the honor of the opportunity,” B.A. Sheppard says in his viral video, which is the perfect way to think about things during this pandemic. His son is mowing the lawn and he seized the moment to remind us all of the importance of individuality and doing things not necessarily the “right way,” but the way that feels right for you.

“This young man coming toward me in this lawn mower, thats my son,” Sheppard says, smiling into the camera. “He’s cutting the grass and zig zagging all over the place. And you know what? Its perfectly fine. While I might have cut in a certain pattern, he’s doing his thing in the way that he wants to do it. And it’s totally okay. He is getting the grass cut. It may not be dad’s way, but he’s getting it done. And therein is the honor of the opportunity.”

Sheppard continues by saying that being able to give his son space where he can figure out how he wants to get things done is a great privilege. “As a young man, I don’t need him doing things exactly the way I did it,” he says. “Right now, it seems like he’s just cutting grass. But in my mind, because I know my son wants to be an engineer, I see his mind at work and I know that what he is producing now… it’s going to help him in the future.”

I walk to the beat of a different drummer, so Sheppard’s words are very personal to me. When I was fifteen, I started playing guitar and writing music. I knew I wanted to be a musician and there was no way anyone was going to talk me out of it. Learning that your son wants to make music for a living isn’t exactly what every parent wants to hear. But my parents always supported me. Always. The path I chose was not an easy one, but I knew it. I cannot imagine what it would have been like if my parents shamed me into working in an office or becoming a lawyer or doctor because that is what they wanted for me. I would have constantly been looking out the metaphorical window wondering what could have been. That is no way to live life.

My mother Ellie, 79, and my father Peter, who will be turning 81 years old this month, had the wisdom, patience and the compassion to stand behind me every step of the way. It’s the same way that this father sees his son. Sheppard concludes by giving us all a beautiful task. He challenges us to look for the honor in the opportunity of relationships that you have. I’m grateful to my parents for always supporting me and allowing me to march to that beat the way I wanted to. It allowed me to be the man I am today. For all the children out there, this video is an inspiration and reminder to find your path and not to live in the shadows of what others think you should do or be. Always, be yourself.

Major League Baseball’s opening night saw the Washington Nationals host the New York Yankees last Thursday, in what turned out to be a rain-shortened beginning to a pandemic-shortened season. To open the festivities in the otherwise empty Nationals Park, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institutes of Health, threw out the first pitch to a rather disastrous result, as the pitch scuttled well short and wide of the plate.

Ahead of that game, the president spoke on ESPN and claimed he would be throwing out the first pitch at a Yankees home game on August 15. However, according to the New York Times, neither the Yankees nor the White House had planned on him throwing out the first pitch on that date, as he was apparently incensed over Fauci getting the nod in Washington and decided to make that proclamation on his own.

There was one problem: Mr. Trump had not actually been invited on that day by the Yankees, according to one person with knowledge of Mr. Trump’s schedule. His announcement surprised both Yankees officials and the White House staff.

But Mr. Trump had been so annoyed by Dr. Fauci’s turn in the limelight, an official familiar with his reaction said, that he had directed his aides to call Yankees officials and make good on a longtime standing offer from Mr. Levine to throw out an opening pitch. But no date was ever finalized.

What resulted was a scramble drill from Yankees PR as well as the White House, with the result ultimately being Trump saying he had to cancel his appearance to throw out the first pitch due to needing to continue spending time on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has killed over 140,000 Americans. In the end, Giancarlo Stanton’s response when asked about it of “That’s in August. We don’t need to worry about that right now,” turned out to be prescient — both in the swift cancellation by Trump and also the fact that baseball’s season lasting that long now seems in serious jeopardy amid an outbreak on the Miami Marlins.

The Times piece outlines the contentious relationship between Trump’s administration and Fauci, which has led to the nation’s top expert on epidemiology being marginalized at a time when the country has failed to mitigate the virus’ spread in the way nearly every other country has through sweeping national protocols and lockdowns.

Is Harrison, Arkansas truly America’s most racist town? It’s not like there are official statistics kept on such things, but the town of 13,000 in the Ozark Mountain region does have a reputation. According to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Harrison was the site of riots in the early 1900s that drove most of the Black population out. (Current demographics put the town at over 95% white, with less than 1% of the population being Black.) The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the white supremacist group Kingdom Identity Ministries are based in the area. The KKK uses a Harrison post office box for its mailing address, and its national director lives outside of town.

Though city leaders insist that the town’s reputation has been tarnished by a small group of people, there have been signs—literal signs—that white supremacist views aren’t that uncommon. One billboard in town in 2013 read “Anti-racist is a Code Word for Anti-White,” and another advertises “WhitePrideRadio.Com” and “AltRightTV.Com” with an image of a white family holding an American flag next to a cross and a message that says “For the Family.”

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Yeesh.

Rob Bliss recently tested the waters in Harrison by holding up a Black Lives Matter sign where townsfolk drove by. The responses were…not surprising, unfortunately. But a note from one young person helped dilute the ugliness that simply standing and holding Black Lives Matter sign revealed.

Please be aware that the video contains racist slurs and profanity. Watch with discretion.

Holding a Black Lives Matter Sign in America’s Most Racist Town

www.youtube.com

Unless you were living under the illusion that racism no longer exists, or still think that “All Lives Matter” is an okay response to Black Lives Matter, or somehow missed the memo that Black Lives Matter does not now and has not ever meant that Black Lives Matter more than others, the responses are appalling. As one commenter pointed out, it almost comes across like a South Park episode with exaggerated caricatures of real people. Only these are real people.

Thank goodness for that young person at the end—wearing a mask, no less—offering encouragement and praise for his statement. All it take sometimes is one person to offer a ray of hope to help keep a movement moving forward in the face of resistance.

Just think, if this is the kind of racist abuse a white man takes just for making the simple statement that Black Lives Matter, imagine what Black people have to deal with. This racist garbage is why BLM exists in the first place. Be like Rob and stand strong in the face of hate, America.

Ryan Reynolds may get into fake fights with the likes of Hugh Jackman, but only nice people get into imaginary beefs. For proof that our current Deadpool is an upstanding human being, witness this: He took to Twitter to not only help a total stranger out, but also to personally offer a cash reward.

That person is one Mara Soriano, whose backpack, according to CBC, was stolen in Vancouver’s West End, when she was busy moving. The bag contained her iPad and Nintendo Switch, but much, much more importantly it held an item that’s irreplaceable: a custom-made Build-a-Bear teddy which contained an audio recording of her mother’s final message before she died of cancer.

“It just makes me feel devastated,” Soriano told CBC. “I’m absolutely crushed.”

Soriano’s mother, Marilyn, had recorded the message for her before going into hospice

Soriano said her mother recorded a message for her and had the audio put it in the bear shortly before going into hospice. “At hospice her voice was different. Much softer. Not the mom I grew up with,” Soriano said. “That bear is the last memory I have of her speaking in her normal voice.”

The message, as per Soriano: “She said that she loved me and she was proud of me and that she’ll always be with me.”

Soriano’s message was picked up by, among others, CBC journalist Deborah Goble, whose tweet was re-tweeted by one of movies’ biggest actors. “Vancouver: $5,000 to anyone who returns this bear to Mara. Zero questions asked,” Reynolds wrote. “I think we all need this bear to come home.”

If you have any leads, please help out.

(Via CBC)

These days, Dwayne Johnson basically has his pick of movie roles, from the charismatic action hero successfully making the transition to mute wrestling superstar in The Scorpion King to the star of anything he’s in these days. But in another timeline, one of Johnson’s breakout roles would have been an unexpected one. With an Instagram video posted over the weekend, Johnson reflected upon how he was considered by director Tim Burton for the role of Willy Wonka in the film that went on to star Johnny Depp as the candy factory owner from Roald Dahl’s children’s book.

The video that Johnson posted on Instagram was not from the 2005 film he was in the running for but the original 1971 theatrical release where Gene Wilder stars in the Willy Wonka role. That movie was called Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, but despite focusing on slightly different aspects of the Dahl classic the plots are very similar. Depp’s Wonka, though, is significantly different from Wilder’s in a variety of ways, which is why it’s fascinating to consider that Johnson could have been Wonka if things had worked out differently.

“Some cool history – back in the early 2000’s, iconic director, Tim Burton had considered me to play Willy Wonka is his remake, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Johnson wrote in the Instagram caption. “I remember thinking “HOLY SH*T, IM IN.”

The movie star noted that he had “no foundation of global box office strength or any real acting experience to even pull it off” at the time, and Depp was “the biggest star in the world at the time.” So it clearly wasn’t meant to be. It’s a reflection on the past more than a longing for Johnson, who noted that sharing the original with his children made him think back on what could have been but not as a way to regret the missed opportunity.

“The fact that Tim even considered me (albeit I’m sure he considered for all of 7 seconds:) sure meant a helluva lot to me as I was just breaking in to the business with no idea what the future had in store,” Johnson said. “I’ll always raise a glass to the dreams that don’t come true, because sometimes they’re the best thing that never happened.”

Johnson shared the posting using the #BigBrownBaldTattooedWonka, which is definitely also something that Depp could not have pulled off as Wonka. We’ll never know what a Tim Burton Wonka movie with Johnson in the main role would have looked like, but if they ever try to remake it again, we know at least one movie star who would love to take another crack at it with a bit more experience this time.

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm and blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B jams that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

This week, Trey Songz is kicking things off with the music video for his prolific track “2020 Riots: How Many Times,” Queen Naija arrived with the visual for “Pack Lite” and lastly, Jacquees tapped in with Chris Brown for the BPace-directed video “Put In Work.” Check out the rest of the best new R&B music below.

Trey Songz — “2020 Riots: How Many Times”

Trey Songz has been one of greatest social justice voices since protests sparked across America over the police killing of George Floyd. The Grammy Award-nominated R&B singer translated what’s going on using his powerful vocals and putting it into song with his latest release “2020 Riots: How Many Times.” The music video is a depiction of what Black Americans are currently facing in 2020.

Queen Naija — “Pack Lite”

As Queen Naija is gearing up to release her debut album, she shared her latest single “Pack Lite” this week. The Oak-produced song takes direction from Erykah Badu’s “Bag Lady.” On the track, Queen Naija uses her dynamic voice to sing out a stern warning directed at her lover who may be giving off bad vibes. It’s the follow-up to her Wale-assisted single “Butterflies Pt. 2.”

Jacquees — “Put In Work” Feat. Chris Brown

When Jacquees and Chris Brown get together it’s always magic. The pair synced up again for Jac’s thunderous R&B track “Put In Work” that is strip club-ready. The music video was directed by BPace and features the self-proclaimed King of R&B singing to the object of his affection. Expect “Put In Work” to live on his upcoming album P.T.O.F: Vol. 1.

Ambré — “Slip” Feat. Beam

Off Ambré’s upcoming project Pulp (Director’s Cut), the talented singer-songwriter offers the introspective “Slip” featuring Beam. Her soothing voice makes this track everything it is and her words add into its relatability when it comes to dating. Though Ambré has become known for her work on Chloe x Halle’s Ungodly Hour track “Forgive Me” and Kehlani’s “Water” off It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, fans can expect more solo work from the singer herself.

Maad — Eventually Pt. 1 EP

Bubbling singer and DJ Maad delivered her sweetly packed 6-song EP Eventually Pt. 1 this week as the follow-up to 2017’s Technicolor project. Maad’s lively voice paints all the emotions one may go through at various stages of a romantic relationships. From the EP’s sparkling self-titled opener to the soulfully energetic vibe “Get By” as the closer, Eventually is a danceable R&B dream.

Davy Boi — “Do Myself Better”

It’s been over a year since Davy Boi released some music and this week he’s coming through 2020 with a new vibe titled “Do Myself Better.” It’s a self-love anthem to a happy beat that perhaps everyone could use right now. “Tryna, tryna keep my sh*t together / Gotta, gotta do myself better,” he warmly croons on the healing track. “I know other people are experiencing feelings of not being the best versions of themselves, so I wanted to give a voice to that and say, ‘Hey, you’re not alone,” Davy Boi said of the song via email. “Same here.”

Joel — “Well Done”

Toronto’s own Joel added his latest track “Well Done” as a bonus song to his previously released project Grunge Gospel. He wrote the track in remembrance of his grandmother Loretta who passed away because of COVID-19 earlier this year. The song lives as a tribute to her legacy.

Check out this week’s R&B picks, plus more on Uproxx’s Spotify playlist below.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken hundreds of thousands of lives and devastated the global economically. However, there have been a few positive unintended environmental consequences created by the virus.

Reports show there has been a significant reduction in climate-change creating greenhouse gasses in the first half of 2020. A newly-released report has found that human-generated noise pollution is down by up to 50% as well.

The research published in the journal Science was led by Dr. Thomas Lecocq and Dr Koen Van Noten of the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels and involved 76 authors from 66 institutions in 27 countries.

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Seismologists believe this period may be the quietest since humans have been able to measure noise pollution and have dubbed it the “anthropause.”

These scientists measure seismic waves to detect earthquakes and volcanic activity, but have to consider in the rumble of human activity caused by traffic, construction, and even sporting events, to get accurate information.

via Science

To assess the reduction in human-generated noise pollution, the researchers looked at 268 seismic stations around the world and found that 69% of them showed “showed significant reductions in human-caused noise.”

The researchers also noticed a wave of sound reduction that began in China, then moved towards Western Europe, mirroring the progress of COVID-19 earlier this year.

“We were able to clearly link reductions in activity with lower seismic noise readings,” Professor Martha Savage, a geology academic from New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington who was involved in the study, said according to Vice.

The change in the global audio-environment revealed that human-generated noise pollution travels much further into the Earth than previously thought. A a seismometer placed 380 meters underground near Auckland, New Zealand showed that activity had been reduced by 50% during lock down.

via Science

The changes in global noise pollution due to COVID-19 highlight a growing global problem. Studies show that humans who live or work in loud environments are more susceptible to high blood pressure, heart disease and low birth weight.

“What we’re doing to our soundscape is littering it. It’s aural litter—acoustical litter—and, if you could see what you hear, it would look like piles and piles of McDonald’s wrappers, just thrown out the window as we go driving down the road,” Les Blomberg, the founder and executive director of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, told the New Yorker.

A study by the WHO found that noise pollution in western Europe leads to the annual loss of “at least one million healthy years of life.”

Research on the effect of noise pollution on the animal kingdom is in its infancy stages but preliminary work shows it to be a threat to the survival of countless species. For example, fish larvae are able to find their homes through the sounds of coral reefs, this can be disrupted by noise pollution.

Owls and bats use acoustic signals to locate prey which can be disrupted by noise generated by human activity. The ubiquity of noise pollution has caused some species to relocate to live in quieter environments, effecting the biological richness that is vital to the ecological health of the planet.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been unquestionably devastating for humanity. But if there is a silver lining to be found in the crisis, it’s that it’s given us a vision of the world that is healthier for the entire animal kingdom.

Hopefully, this vision can will be taken into consideration by those in power as we rebuild the world when the virus subsides.

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

I May Destroy You (HBO, 9:00 p.m.) — Kwame decides to explore his sexuality in the wake of his sexual assault while Arabella, reeling from a devastating turn in her own case, convinces Terry to bankroll a risky plan she has to “spark joy” in their lives.

The Titan Games (NBC, 8:00 p.m.) — Competitors face obstacles such as LaunchPad, Over the Edge, Nuts and Bolts, and Lunar Impact before they confront two professional athletes waiting on Mt. Olympus.

Shameless: Season 10 (Netflix) — Season 10 of this Showtime dramedy lands on Netflix this week, and since the world is a sh*tstorm anyway, why not enjoy the adventures of this chaotic, well-meaning, trailer-park trash family? Emmy Rossum’s no longer leading the brood, which means Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) is free to cause even more trouble while the rest of the brood faces jail time, break-ups, and a host of other hilarious problems.

Room 104: Season 4 (HBO Max) — The final season of the wild, genre-bending experiment from HBO kicked off this weekend, so now’s a good time to get caught up. The latest season — which follows the same premise revolving around a hotel room and the strange happenings inside it — stars some big names (think Dave Bautista, Melissa Fumero, and Jillian Bell). It’s one of the weirdest shows on TV. We should appreciate it while it lasts.

Know this: protests in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement calling for an end to police violence haven’t stopped. Even as media coverage has waned (or shifted) and trending hashtags have decreased since mass protests first broke out across all 50 states in May, the movement isn’t on pause. The work is ongoing.

Reggie Watkins is fighting to make these facts known. As the co-founder of the Valley of Change — a community outreach non-profit based in the Los Angeles Valley — Watkins has been in the streets daily. He has no intention of letting up, either. And he’s pressing white allies for the same commitment.

“My main goal in getting out here was to get my son involved in activism,” he explains. “But my second goal is to keep white people involved in this movement. I want to let them know and let them see that racism is their fight. They’re the ones that have to stand up and say ‘enough is enough,’ they are the majority of this country. I’ll be there with them to say ‘Yo, I’ll fight this with you if you continue to stand up and say something for me.’”

Watkins started Valley of Change with co-founder Latora Green and a small team of activists who met on the corner of Sepulveda and Ventura in the city of Sherman Oaks, California. Inspired by his 16-year-old son’s growing interest in the Black Lives Matter movement, Watkins just wanted to find a safe place where his son could protest without fear of the police. But the sense of community he found inspired him to stay involved and start building a more formal organization.

“My son basically plays basketball and Call of Duty in his room all day,” he says. “He never talks about these things. So it was amazing to hear him ask questions about racism and how to change people’s minds, and why people feel certain ways. I met Latora Green, and a young high school girl named Shilah, and it grew from there.”

When Watkins came upon the cluster of protestors, there was little organization among them. Most of the people standing with signs seemed to be quietly doing their own thing. Watkins quickly started engaging with people, introducing himself and learning everyone’s story. Starting an organization was a direct response to the needs he identified through these encounters.

“The next day I showed up, somebody gave me a bullhorn,” he says. “Then the next day a friend suggested I start an Instagram and came up with the name ‘Valley of Change.’ By the third day, we met our social media manager, Kyla Garcia, after she showed up from some other protest and just started chanting with us, and really leading the charge. We formed an organization, started getting donations, and now we’re buying tents, and tables and food and meeting up with other organizations based in the Valley.”

Watkins is set to host and moderate a virtual town hall with his city council this month. His story is a reminder that community action often begins with chance meetings on street corners and can be quickly and efficiently built into something bigger. It’s a matter of seeing what the local community needs, where the gaps are, and responding with a plan. In the early going, that plan can be as simple as a mission statement.

“Our mantra is ‘Do something every day,’” he says of the fledgling organization. “We are out there with our protest signs every day. It doesn’t matter if there is one, two, three, four, or five people, we will be there because we care. Standing up and holding a sign, inspiring uncomfortable conversations.”

Renowned festival photographer Eric Allen was on-site at one of Valley of Change’s recent actions. His photos offer a visual reminder that people are still in the streets — masks on — standing up for change.

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Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey (and soon, The Suicide Squad) star Margot Robbie loves playing Harley Quinn for her “unpredictable nature that means she could react in any way to any situation, which as an actor is just a gift.” She’s also protective of the character, which is why before DC Universe’s Harley Quinn premiered, she met with co-creators Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker to “make sure [Birds of Prey] was different than [our show],” they said. “And I think at some point someone pitched out the part in episode two where Harley breaks down a 13-year-old boy by making him admit he’d lied about fingerbanging someone. And Margot was like, ‘Uh yeah, yours seems different than ours.’” That also-great Harley is voiced by Kaley Cuoco, who responded to a made-up article about her supposed feud with the two-time Oscar nominee.

“The A-listers are refusing to do an event together at [San Diego Comic-Con]. An unnamed source told the tabloid that Kaley Cuoco and Robbie can’t stand each other,” the bullsh*t report reads. “However, no concrete pieces of evidence can confirm that these hearsays are correct as of this writing.” No kidding.

Cuoco responded to the fabricated rumor on her Instagram. All it took was one word.

Save the DC character feuds for Jared Leto vs. Joaquin Phoenix.

(Via Metro)