Category: Viral

Some good news and bad. The good: Disney+ is adding an ad-supported alternative for those who can’t afford to pay a steep monthly fee for regular access to Million Dollar Duck (and, for the records, lots of good movies). The bad: Those with regular subscriptions might have to think about downgrading. Oh, and there’s more bad news: The same goes for Hulu and ESPN+.

As per Variety, Disney, which owns all three aforementioned streamers, has unveiled that Disney+ Basic, the name for said ad-heavy version, will arrive on Dec. 8. This iteration will include a combined four minutes of ads spread throughout each hour. The price will be a low-low $7.99 — which happens to be the current price of the regular Disney+, which will soon be rechristened Disney+ Premium. That service will jump a whopping 38%, or $10.99 — a steep price so you can watch Mr. Boogedy in peace.

But there’s more! As of Oct. 10, the price of Hulu with ads will rise a relatively puny dollar, from $6.99 a month to $7.99. And then there’s ESPN+, which this month will leap from $6.99 a month to $9.99. Even one of the bundles is increasing. The Disney Bundle, aka Disney+ Premium, Hulu with ads, and ESPN+, will rise a buck, from $13.99 to $14.99. The version that features Hulu without ads will stay at $19.99.

Disney+ isn’t the only streamer making the leap to ad-supported versions to attract more customers. The foundering Netflix is doing the same, due in part to a combination of fleeing subscribers and movies they probably shouldn’t spent all the money in the world on.

(Via Variety)

Is Subway trash? I write about food pretty often, and in doing so many food rankings over the years, I’ve come to find that almost all fast food chains have die-hard stans who will rip me to shreds if I forget to include their favorite restaurant.

I’ve drawn the ire of Arby’s heads, angered Rally’s fiends, and don’t even get me started on whipping up the A&W goblins. Through it all, it stands out that I’ve never received a single comment, email, or random Twitter attack complaining about excluding Subway from a ranking.

These days it seems like Subway is known less for delicious sandwiches and more for things like bread that isn’t bread, tuna that isn’t tuna, and foot longs that aren’t a foot long. And that’s not even the worst press Subway has ever gotten (Jared Fogle, anyone?).

And yet, Subway remains one of the largest fast food chains in America, bringing in $16.1 billion in revenue in 2020. Until recently, it was second only to the mighty McDonald’s in number of locations (which may have had something to do with their allegedly predatory franchising practices).

If no one likes Subway enough to defend it, why is it so ubiquitous? All of which impels me to attempt to answer a fairly simple question: is Subway any good? Have we been sleeping on Subway? There are at least three Subway restaurants within walking distance of me, one of which is open 24 hours. Who is eating Subway in the middle of the night (don’t say drunk people and stoners, they go to Jack in the Box)? And more importantly, why?

Thanks to some reporting by John Oliver and others, we now know that part of Subway’s omnipresence across the fast food landscape can be explained by how easy they make it to open a franchise. Yet the pandemic has been especially unkind to Subway, who slipped from the second biggest fast food chain in America to the eighth. Of course, that’s still pretty good in the grand scheme of things, and there are signs that brand is finally trying to innovate and improve. Which brings us to the Subway Series.

Subway is a brand built on its endless customization options. Yet the Subway Series poses the question: what if Subway had a real menu? Now, in addition to your usual customization, Subway fans can order 12 different signature sandwiches, broken up into four different categories: Cheesesteaks, Italianos, Chicken, and Clubs. This is a potential game changer for Subway because now they’ll actually have things on their menu that people can recommend to friends, talk about, and most importantly (for us at least) rank! So we ordered all 12 sandwiches in the Subway Series and ranked them from worst to best. All in an attempt to finally answer the question: is Subway trash?

We also took pictures of each sandwich. I understand that fast food press photos always show food in the best presentation possible, but the way Subway sandwiches look in advertising vs. the way they look in reality is one of the most jarring differences I’ve ever seen in fast food. I’ve never felt so catfished by fast food.

For the record, I bought all my sandwiches for this ranking from two different Subway locations in Long Beach, California. I would’ve picked a single Subway location, but after being told the first location didn’t carry a specific type of bread, I bought the remaining sandwiches at a different Subway, just to stay consistent with the Subway Series’ recommended bread options. These just happened to be the closest Subways to me, and one of them was open 24 hours, which meant I could eat a sandwich at any hour of the day, even the middle of the night like some kind of lunatic.

12. The Great Garlic

What’s In It?

Rotisserie chicken, bacon, provolone, lettuce, tomatoes, and red onions with creamy roasted garlic aioli, toasted.

Tasting Notes:

The centerpiece of Subway’s The Great Garlic is a new roasted garlic aioli. They need to go back to the lab with that shit. This is one of the most off-putting sandwiches I’ve ever eaten in my life, and no I’m not one of those weird people that dislike garlic. I love garlic, but nobody loves garlic this much.

The flavor of this sandwich is entirely dominated by the taste of garlic with the slightest hint of smokey bacon on the aftertaste. That’s it. You can’t taste the cheese (ever at Subway apparently), the lettuce, the tomatoes, or the red onions. Do you realize how difficult it is to not taste red onions? That’s how powerful this garlic is.

What’s worse is the roasted garlic aioli is extremely bitter. Roasted garlic should not taste bitter. Roasted garlic has a wonderful mild sweetness and floral caramelized earthiness that packs a lot of depth of flavor. Garlic only tastes bitter when it’s burnt. Burnt is not roasted, Subway.

The Bottom Line:

The great garlic? More like the… not so great garlic. The Bad Garlic! It’s the only objectively bad sandwich in the Subway Series. Even if you love garlic, this sandwich is straight-up gross.

11. Subway Club

What’s In It?

Turkey, Black Forest ham, USDA Choice Roast Beef, provolone, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, and mayo, on toasted multigrain bread.

Tasting Notes:

This is the sandwich that Subway decided to put its own name on, so it’s got to be good right? Wrong. It’s not that this sandwich is bad, it’s just incredibly boring. Subway’s USDA Choice Roast Beef doesn’t taste all that much better than their regular steak, but it still provides a good medley of beefy flavor along with the roasted turkey and Black Forest ham. It’s the veggies that leave something to be desired.

The tomatoes are a bit watery, and the lettuce is the lowest quality iceberg and muddles the flavor of the meat, leaving the red onions as the only veggie to add flavor. Green peppers, banana peppers, cucumbers, spinach — anything else would make this sandwich better! The toasted multigrain bread is also not nearly as good as Subway’s Italian Artisan. It’s dry and tastes a little like cardboard.

The Bottom Line:

The worst sandwich in Subway’s collection of Clubs, which is pretty ironic considering they attached their name to this one.

10. The Champ

What’s In It?

Rotisserie chicken, double Monterey cheddar cheese, green peppers, red onions, peppercorn ranch, toasted.

Tasting Notes:

You’re going to notice a lot of redundancy in Subway’s new menu. The brand launched 12 sandwiches and about half of them aren’t ever worth ordering. Unfortunately, this sandwich is one of those. The issue with the Champ is that Subway also makes a sandwich that is essentially the same as this one, but with steak and bacon instead of Rotisserie chicken, and it’s so much better.

It’s hard to taste the rotisserie chicken through the heavy helping of peppercorn ranch. That creamy, slightly tangy, and earthy cracked black pepper sauce dominates the flavor here, totally drowning out the meat.

The Bottom Line:

The Champ? More like the Chump. If you like the build of this sandwich and you’re flexible about the meat, order “The Monster” instead. It’s the same sandwich with a meatier and more savory flavor.

9. All-American Club

What’s In It?

Roasted turkey, Black Forest Ham, bacon, American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, and mayo, toasted.

Tasting Notes:

A nice medley of meaty flavors. I’m tasting some thyme from the turkey, a nice savory sweet smokiness from the ham, and a bit of crunch and more smoke from the bacon. I think this is a solid sandwich, but Subway has all the ingredients on-hand to make this a significantly better experience and I don’t know why they don’t.

This sandwich is in desperate need of better lettuce and more veggies. Pickles, jalapeños, black olive — this sandwich needs something to elevate the meaty flavors with some fresh vegetal backing. Subway’s mayo isn’t flavorful enough to add the tang this sandwich needs.

The Bottom Line:

Its only sin is that it’s boring.

8. The Philly

What’s In It? Steak, provolone cheese, green peppers, red onions, mayo, on toasted bread.

Tasting Notes:

The Philly is part of the Subway Series’ Cheesesteak family; probably the only sandwich in the Series that doesn’t need a description. This is Subway’s take on a classic Philly Cheesesteak. It’s fine, though I actually think it tastes a lot better if you don’t associate it with a Philly cheesesteak. With that as a point of comparison it comes up wildly short. If only Subway could carmelize onions, it would vastly improve the flavors of this sandwich. Sadly they can’t, so think of this more as a beef sandwich, not a classic Philly cheesesteak.

This sandwich helped reveal to me that Subway’s steak, as thin and pale in color as it is, is actually pretty good. It has a savory beefy flavor that tastes great with the toasted bread and green bell peppers. It’s hard to hate this simple sandwich, but it’s also hard to love it. As it stands. It’s just fine.

The Bottom Line:

A simple beef sandwich, add bacon and pepper and you’ve got a massively better sandwich.

7. Mexicali

What’s In It?

Rotisserie chicken, avocado, pepper jack, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, Baja Chipotle sauce, toasted.

Tasting Notes:

I really wanted this one to be good, as it’s very similar to the sort of sandwich I’d build myself at Subway, and uses Subway’s best sauce. In theory, it should be good, in practice it’s just okay. The issue is Subway’s chicken. It’s not horrible, but rotisserie chicken is known for being tender and juicy, and Subway’s chicken is dry and stringy. The chicken does a lot to weigh this sandwich down.

With this sandwich, Subway is attempting some kind of Mexicali Baja-inspired flavors, but this really misses the mark. It seems Subway thought that by putting a Baja Chipotle Sauce with some avocado and pepper jack they’d have some approximation of Mexican flavors, but once again they’ve merely taken an adequate product and damned it with unfortunate expectations. This sandwich is bland, a thing Mexican food never is. Subway needs to ditch the lettuce and start stocking cilantro, and there is absolutely no reason this sandwich doesn’t have jalapeños. Subway has jalapeños, but they’re pickled, another thing they need to remedy.

The Bottom Line:

It’s an okay sandwich but mostly just shines a light on ingredients Subway needs but still doesn’t have.

6. Turkey Cali Club

What’s In It?

Roasted turkey, bacon, BelGioioso Fresh Mozzarella, avocado, spinach, tomatoes, red onions, mayo, multigrain bread, toasted.

Tasting Notes:

Subway should just call this sandwich “The Subway Club,” because it’s easily the best sandwich from the Subway Series’ Club family. Subway’s roasted turkey is pretty good, it has a nice thyme-forward flavor with a subtle hint of smoke which gets accentuated by the bacon. The meat pairing here is nice — sweet, herbal, and smokey. No complaints there.

That smoked flavor is nicely complemented by spinach, tomatoes, red onions, and creamy chunks of avocado, while the mayo adds some of the savoriness missing from the turkey and bacon. I think adding green bell peppers would do a lot to elevate this sandwich even further.

The Bottom Line:

The best Club sandwich in The Subway Series. For the best experience add another veggie (we suggest green peppers) and get it on Artisan Italian instead of the too-dry Multigrain bread.

5. The Monster

What’s In It?

Steak, bacon, Monterey Cheddar, green peppers, red onions, creamy peppercorn ranch on toasted artisan bread.

Tasting Notes:

What did I tell you? Add bacon to The Philly and you’ve got a massively better sandwich. I also suggested adding pepper, and this peppercorn ranch sauce gets you there, offering an earthy, creamy, and slightly tangy top note to each beefy bite. This sandwich is meaty, smokey, and satisfyingly savory. It wants for nothing, making it easily more essential than The Philly, despite having a very similar build.

The Bottom Line:

A massive improvement over the similarly built Philly. Beefy and smokey.

4. Bella Mozza

What’s In It?

Black Forest Ham, capicola, BelGioioso Fresh Mozzarella, spinach, tomatoes, red onions, banana peppers, MVP Parmesan vinaigrette, toasted.

Tasting Notes:

The Bella Mozza is part of the Subway Series’ Italiano family, and despite being the weakest sandwich in that category, I still think it’s pretty damn good. It has a delicate smoked flavor to it, courtesy of the thinly sliced Black Forest ham and the meatier capicola, which the New Jerseyans among us may or may not prefer to pronounce “Gabba Gool.” The Capicola is a new addition to Subway’s roster of meats and it’s pretty tasty, offering a sweet and salty flavor with roasted top notes. Gabba gool at Subway? Fuggeddaboutit.

That medley of meats gets a nice mix of veggies to help elevate it, the combination of spinach and mozzarella adds a refreshing quality to each bite while banana peppers add more dimension to the overall flavor, adding some spicy tang to the sandwich.

I’m torn on the inclusion of BelGioioso Fresh Mozzarella. On one hand, it’s easily the most flavorful cheese Subway has. It actually tastes like, you know, cheese, instead of the weird shit Subway usually puts on their sandwich. But on the other hand, that fresh mozzarella comes with a lot of moisture, and that moisture will absorb into your sandwich, turning it a little soggy. That ultimately holds it back.

The Bottom Line:

Delicious, but the fresh mozzarella makes it wetter than we want it. Consider eating this one in a Subway booth instead of letting it sit in a bag for too long.

3. The Outlaw

What’s In It?

Steak, double pepper jack cheese, green peppers, red onions, and Baja Chipotle sauce, toasted.

Tasting Notes:

By now you’ve probably come to the realization that the Subway Series would function better as a four sandwich menu. Case in point, The Outlaw, the best sandwich in the Series’ Cheesesteaks Family, and probably the only one that deserves that signature spot. It combines the best of the Cheesesteaks family: layers of thinly-sliced beef, the undeniable combination of red onions and green peppers, and elevates it by adding some pepper jack cheese and a spicy and sweet Baja Chipotle sauce.

The pepper jack cheese doesn’t differ a whole lot in flavor from the provolone and Monterey cheddar, but it does add a subtle kick to the creamy salty flavor. The real star of the show is that Baja Chipotle sauce. It’s bright and sweet forward with a slight peppery burn that plays well with the savory beef notes.

The Bottom Line:

The best sandwich in the Cheesesteaks family. The only way this sandwich could get any better is by adding bacon, so definitely do that. Subway could’ve just done that for us, but they decided to f*ck around.

2. The Boss

What’s In It?

Meatballs, marinara sauce, pepperoni, BelGioioso Fresh Mozzarella, and parmesan, on a toasted Italian herb and cheese bread.

Tasting Notes:

I’m fully aware this sandwich looks less like food and more like a murder scene, but I promise you, this was the best way to take a picture of it. This sandwich is supposed to be built on Subway’s Toasted Italian Herb and Cheese Bread. Mine wasn’t, because apparently at Subway it’s not entirely out of the norm for a franchise location to have limited bread options. When I was told by the Subway employee that they “don’t carry toasted Italian herb and cheese bread” I said, “never?” To which they replied, “ever.” Despite the bread mishap, this sandwich still kind of blew me away.

Yes, I’m using the words “blew me away” to describe something I ate at Subway. I fully expected this sandwich to be bad. Despite how much I liked it, Subway’s meatballs are weirdly flavorless and very dry. But it kind of doesn’t matter, because this marinara sauce is so good and laid on so thick that you hardly notice how the balls come up short. Plus we’ve got pepperoni and it gets the job done.

The texture of this marinara is like velvet, with a nice balance of garlic and onions and an herbaceous earthy oregano flavor to boot, with a slightly spicy aftertaste that lingers on the tongue in the best way. It’s hands down the best part of the sandwich.

The Bottom Line:

The best sandwich in the Italiano line, but it’s a few steps away from being perfect. Some sort of combination between this sandwich and the Supreme Meats would be ideal but I haven’t figured out the build yet. But I won’t stop trying, that is my promise to you.

1. Supreme Meats

What’s In It?

Black Forest Ham, Genoa salami, pepperoni, capicola, provolone, lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, banana peppers, MVP parmesan vinaigrette, toasted.

Tasting Notes:

Supreme Meats combines all of Subway’s best meat and throws it into a single sandwich, and you know what? It pays off. The thin slices of meat combine to produce a bouquet of smokey, peppery, savory, salty, and sweet flavors, with veggies that provide tangy umami notes, all ensconced in a bright parmesan vinaigrette.

Delicious flavor aside, this sandwich also has a mouthwatering and intoxicating smell. The ingredients are in harmony here, coming together to produce something greater than the sum of its parts.

The Bottom Line:

A sandwich for meat lovers, this is about as meaty a sandwich you can get at Subway without getting meatballs.

The Big Takeaway: Is Subway Trash?

Absolutely not. It’s far from the best sandwich chain in fast food (I think we’d have to give that crown to Jersey Mike’s) but Subway has more than enough signature sandwiches to warrant a visit the next time you’re hungry. With a few simple hacks and alterations, you can easily take the sandwiches from good to great and the new Subway Series makes that easier than ever.

As a car-centric country, many people in America end up affectionately naming their vehicle (names like Betty and Pearl are apparently the most popular). But Brijean Murphy, one-half of the chill wave Bay Area duo Brijean, took things one step further. Not only did she name her 1981 Toyota, but she also named their latest EP, Angelo, after her car.

Naming the EP after a car was intentional. Murphy and fellow Brijean member Doug Stuart ended up spending an unexpected amount of time in their cars in the months following the release of their sunny 2021 album Feelings. Stuart tragically lost both of his parents and Murphy also mourned the untimely passing of her father. They spend the next year trekking across the country in their cars and relocating in four cities to be near family. Processing the grief and torment the best way they knew how, they crafted groovy rhythms and ethereal soundscapes to translate the profound loss into movement the nine-track EP Angelo.

The feelings grief are not immediately apparent on Angelo, though Murphy said the project was meant to “get us out of our grief and into our bodies.” On bass-forward tracks like “Ooo La La” and the resonating “Caldwell’s Way,” groovy, all-encompassing synths blend with washed-out vocals and a touch of tropicália, transporting listeners to an introspective, magical place. Just ahead of the release of their Angelo EP, Brijean sat down with Uproxx to talk Missy Elliott, the importance of family, and being great at Double Dutch in our latest Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Dancy, Chill, Vibey, Introspective.

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

A good companion.

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

Mexico City.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

My family (as a unit) encouraged me to play and step out as a songwriter. Almost everybody on my dad’s side was a musician, roadie, artists, dancers… They deeply inspired me to find my own expression.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Ya’ll are asking some tough questions here. One that comes to mind was a burger joint in a woman’s house on Lake Champlain in a small town in Vermont. She lived upstairs and converted the living room into a diner with a long counter and a couple small booths. The burgers were insane. It was like stepping into your surreal long-lost grandma’s restaurant and it hit a whole new level of comfort food for me.

What album do you know every word to?

Missy Elliott’s Under Construction.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

Pedrito Martinez at the Echo in LA.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

I like utility jumpsuits because it’s a one-and-done look. They look cute to me and accommodate heavy lifting before and after the show.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

@Press_sf on Instagram. They sell “Books with Pictures” and post amazing images from niche books on poetry, nature photography, sexuality, design.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

“My Autumn’s Done Come” by Lee Hazlewood.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

“Blade Runner 1982 Cast”

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Bill Evans Trio’s Waltz For Debbie.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

When I was touring with my college band most nights we would ask on the microphone if anybody had a place we could crash for the night. One night we went home with a sweet person our age and stayed at their parents’ place. I got the “girls room” that night, a substantial victory at the time when touring with 12 dudes. When I opened the door I was stunned, in this 1980s suburban home, there was an immersive floor to ceiling magical fairy meadow. There were garden arches covered in vines, LED stars that lit up the ceiling, a 360-degree mural, and the bed was centered amongst dozens of plants, flowers and trees. It was rad.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

My first tattoos are two little stick and pokes on my fingers. I got them at a sleepover from Madeline Kenney with Hannah Van Loon “Tanukichan” in Oakland.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

Automatic.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Pretty much anything my mom does for me (or anybody she knows). But when my dad passed away — I was having a really hard time — and lost most of his possessions along with him. She asked me what I wanted when she passes… I thought of a lamp that she kept in her home in the hallway. It’s a desk lamp made of bronze and stained glass. Two women kneel in symmetry at the base holding a bowl — they’re covered by twisted stained glass tulips that hold the soft orange 30-watt bulbs. When I got home from my father’s send off she came over that night with the lamp and plugged it in.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Invest in bitcoin early. Also continue to be kind to yourself; Don’t wait for permission to live in what inspires you.

What’s the last show you went to?

Luke Temple (aka the Cascading Moms) at a house show in LA.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

Practical Magic, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and Erin Brockovich.

What’s one of your hidden talents?

I can Double Dutch pretty well.

Angelo is out now via Ghostly International. Get it here.

Where does the band that has toured everywhere have left to go? For Wilco, a touring machine who not only dropped their 12th studio album, Cruel Country, this past May, but also has a 20th Anniversary Deluxe edition of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on deck for September, that answer is Iceland.

The band has announced their first-ever appearances in the Scandinavian country with a three-night residency from April 6 – 8, 2023 at Reykjavik’s Eldborg Hall at Harpa. “We’re extremely excited to finally be playing Iceland for the very first time,” drummer Glenn Kotche said in a statement. “We can’t wait to experience the culture and people of Iceland – who’ve been the source of so much great music and art. We’re looking forward to making some incredible memories with our fans from around the world.”

Along with the Iceland announcement, Wilco has also shared another track from the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Deluxe album in “Ashes of American Flags (Live In The Studio).” The recording was taken from a 2001 performance at WXRT Radio’s Sound Opinions. Of course, it’s sublime.

Listen to “Ashes of American Flags (Live In The Studio)” above.

3-Day passes for Wilco’s Iceland shows go on sale Tuesday, August 30 at noon CST, with single-day tickets on sale Wednesday, August 31 at noon CST. Both are available at wilcoiniceland.com. You can register for the pre-sale now through August 16.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Deluxe comes out on 09/30 via Nonesuch. Pre-order it here.

Show endings are always a tricky prospect. Sometimes you get a Mad Men. Other times you get a Game of Thrones. What will the last of Better Call Saul be? Will it mirror the capper for its parent show, Breaking Bad, which satisfied just about everyone? If you had to go by how confident creator Vince Gilligan is about it — or how much of a gut-punch its penultimate episode was — it might even be better than that.

Gilligan was present for a virtual panel at this year’s Television’s Critics Association to-do, where he seemed barely able to conceal how stoked he was for everyone to see what he and his team cooked up. “It is awesome, I can’t wait for people to see it,” he gushed. As Consequence reporter Liz Shannon Miller pointed out, that’s a very different tack than you see with, say, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who announced they were going to spend the finale on a tropical island that doesn’t have internet.

It better be good, because this is it for the world of Breaking Bad. “You can’t keep putting all your money on Red 21,” Gilligan said. “I feel like we probably pushed it doing a spinoff to Breaking Bad [but] I could not be more happy with the results. Then I did El Camino and I’m very proud of that too. But I think I’m starting to sense you’ve got to know when to leave the party, you don’t want to be the guy with a lampshade on your head.”

In other words, that’s all, folks. “I don’t have any plans right now to do anything more in this universe,” he added. “I know I probably gave the same answer at the end of Breaking Bad. I gotta prove to myself that I got something else in me. I’m not a one trick pony, that’s what I’m hoping.”

Indeed, Gilligan’s already out there shopping some mystery show that evidently has nothing to do with Walt or Jesse or Jimmy/Saul or Gus or Mike or Kim or whoever. In the meantime, Better Call Saul’s final episode airs on Monday, August 15.

(Via Deadline)

After disabling her Twitter account earlier this year, Cardi B returned to social media a few weeks later with a more restrained approach, seemingly only interacting with fan accounts’ positive posts and only posting the occasional promo or cute baby pic. Now, it seems she’s taken to sharing affirmations, tweeting out a relatively straightforward photo in casual clothes with the caption, “Took a picture in this house I want to buy ….to remind myself to go harder …watch me get it.”

Her husband Offset, who has traditionally been way less online than she has over the years, even dusted off his account to help her manifest her goal. “Damn you really want this house,” he replied with a quote tweet. “Don’t worry we gone get it !!”

It certainly seems the couple is in a better place than they were earlier in their marriage. While the first year or so after their nuptials were fraught with fights, accusations of infidelity, and multiple(!) divorce threats, these days, they’ve been putting on pretty public displays of affection, from Offset cracking fond jokes about Cardi’s cooking to Cardi giving a seductive pole dance to Offset while on vacation. They even have plans to record an album together. They might not be the next Bey-Z (yet), but if ‘Set’s been spending his days in marital bliss, it’s probably no wonder Quavo and Takeoff are out being single (and recording singles) without him.

Don’t you dare put on a ’90s alt-rock-focused without Everclear and Candlebox in the mix! How can fans feel true nostalgic apathy if they don’t hear songs like “Santa Monica” and “Far Behind”? Apparently, this is the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back for a Southern California music festival warmly titled “Flannel Nation.”

In an Instagram post, Everclear indicated that Flannel Nation organizers, “…Do not have the adequate means to provide the level of experience our fans expect and deserve while attending an Everclear show.” Adding that, “With this in consideration, we have decided to pull out of the festival.”

Flannel Nation was supposed to take place on Saturday, August 13th at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, CA, but now as Rolling Stone reports, there will be no more swimming past the breakers to watch the world die for fans of Everclear, Candlebox, or other acts that were slated to appear like Sugar Ray, Soul Asylum, Filter, Cracker, Fastball, Sponge, Star Zero and others. Although Everclear, fronted by singer Art Alexakis, said that they’re working on a contingency plan: “Please stay tuned in the coming weeks as we will be announcing a proper Los Angeles performance where we plan to deliver the type of performance that exceeds our fans’ expectations.”

In a Facebook post, Flannel Nation organizers issued an apology along with the news of the cancellation. “We regret to announce that due to ongoing problems and logistical setbacks, putting on Flannel Nation as intended has become infeasible, therefore we are forced to make the tough decision to cancel this weekend’s event,” the post said.

And if you were planning to go and were hyped to see StarZero, the band commented on Flannel Nation’s post, saying that: “We will catch you next time. Positive vibes to everyone affected by the cancellation. We will be trying to find a show somewhere Saturday night for anyone who’s in the area of orange county. Stay posted to our feed if interested.”

Rock on guys. Rock on.

What a time to be alive. We have cars that drive themselves, stunning art created by artificial intelligence and my personal favorite—air fryers! It’s a reality worthy of George Jetson, who may or may not have been born this very year, according to some Twitter theorists.

Giphy

But still, even with these modern marvels, there are some experiences that need no improvement … even if they do take twice as long.

A Reddit user recently asked the online forum to share one thing they “still preferred to do the old-fashioned way, regardless of technology.”

Unsurprisingly, a main theme in people’s answers had to do with “old-fashioned” activities having a tangible quality to them. Activities that require touch, taste, smell … those things that make us feel human. Sure, efficiency and convenience are great, but feeling alive is pretty great too.

Here are 17 of the best answers that might have you going back to Team Analog:

---

1. Physical board games

“Most of the app versions of the games I like aren’t that great. Plus, it’s more fun to play with someone.” – @Junkolm

2. Photos

“There’s something satisfying and nostalgic about seeing the physical photos. I have my favorites displayed in frames, so I can see them every day. Makes me happy.” – macaronsforeveryone

3. Reading a book

“Love to have a book where I can turn the pages.” – @Jonsmile

4. Drawing

“I never really got the hang of digital art. It’s much easier and more satisfying for me to have all of the tactile input from my work.” – @WitheredFlowers

5. Buttons for cars

“I refuse to buy a car that only uses a touch screen for everything. Much safer to not have to fiddle with a touch screen while driving.” – @Ghertomp

6. Physical menus at restaurants

“I’m with the boomers on this one.” – @cptfuzzybeard95

7. Arts and crafts

“In particular, sewing. Hand sewing is peaceful, quiet, portable, and just overall more satisfying. Plus I get better bragging rights on the finished product.” – @carinavet

8. CDs

“I hate streaming music…I like having ownership of what I listen to.” – @jbnagis

9. Notes

“I will typically use index cards because they are not as easy to ‘fly away’ or get crumpled or lost. But hey…. that’s just me!” – @NoBSforGma

10. Planners

“I am 100% team paper planner. It’s so much easier to flip to a monthly spread and see all my meetings, etc. at once than having to open every damn day on my phone to see what’s there. I collect fountain pens, so any excuse to hand write is a good excuse.” – @eventualguide0

11. Driving a manual car

“No matter how advanced and on point automatic cars are, controlling a manual stick is just so much fun.” – @CoolMaster52

12. Cookbooks

“My grandma always had a library of them and I enjoy the nostalgia of going through them. I still buy them partly because I like the photographs of ingredients and finished meals. It also bugs me that most online recipes have a really long story with a bunch of nonsense that I don’t need. Plus I like to dog ear the pages.” – @GlassAndPaint

13. Plain ol’ watches

“It’s so easy just to glance at your wrist instead of fiddling around with your phone to get the time.” – @biggirliespants

14. Growing food 

“I try to raise, grow, hunt, and forage as much as my own food as possible. It’s expensive and time consuming but the result for my mental health is priceless. I know my scale isn’t possible for everyone but I highly recommend at least growing something from seed to plate, the sense of pride and accomplishment you’ll feel is hard to describe.” – @ElJamoNator

15. Making popcorn

“I still make it in a pot on the stove. And it’s 100% better that way.” – @leaky_eddie

16. Camping 

“A tent and a fire is so much more peaceful to me than having most of life’s conveniences in your trailer.” – @Ginger-Beefcake

17. Non-online dating

When young R&B star Halle Bailey was announced as the star of Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of the beloved animated 1989 classic The Little Mermaid, not everyone was as enthused about the update to the Disney Renaissance favorite as her co-stars. To put it plainly, the subset of genre fans who always complain loudly whenever a minor change is made to a character’s skin color or gender really came for Halle, denouncing her casting as a case of “race-swapping” gone overboard — despite the fact that the main character Ariel’s race is in no way important to the story of her trading her voice for legs.

And unfortunately, due to the ever-pervasive nature of social media, those complaints made their way back to the actress herself. However, she was undeterred by the criticism, as she told Variety in a long-form feature published today. This was thanks mainly to her grandparents, who encouraged her in the face of the racist #NotMyAriel movement.

“It was an inspiring and beautiful thing to hear their words of encouragement,” she said, “telling me, ‘You don’t understand what this is doing for us, for our community, for all the little Black and brown girls who are going to see themselves in you.’” Their words helped put things into perspective for her: “What that would have done for me, how that would have changed my confidence, my belief in myself, everything,” she explained. “Things that seem so small to everyone else, it’s so big to us.”

Elsewhere in the feature, Halle recounted how the time spent away from her sister Chloe while filming during 2020, the height of COVID lockdowns, affected her. “She couldn’t visit me; everything was on lockdown,” she said. “It was that agony, that pain of being pulled away from something that’s like your arm, so I was pulling from that.”

The Little Mermaid is set for release on May 23, 2023.

Even though Disney+ keeps hitting subscriber highs while Netflix feels the struggle, there’s no reason why the streaming home of the MCU and Star Wars can’t benefit from using ad dollars to keep cranking out original TV shows. That’s especially the case because Baby Yoda’s a diva and it ain’t cheap to keep that kid in macarons, and someone needs to be paid to write the inevitable Grogu/Frank Castle crossover.

In all seriousness, though, Disney+ is fast approaching the three-year mark, and they’re switching things up, so they can keep staying fresh. Rather than outright raise prices, though, they’re giving people the option to stay at the same $7.99 current monthly price and watch ads in the middle of The Empire Strikes Back (under the new Disney+ Basic plan), or pay a few dollars more to stay ad-free at $10.99 per month (a plan that will be known as Disney+ Premium). The new structure shall begin on December 8, and Variety has more on how many ads, exactly, that one should plan to see:

Disney+ Basic will launch with about four minutes of ads per hour. It will start with 15- and 30-second spots but will expand to a “full suite of ad products” over time…The strategy appears aimed at mitigating Disney+ subscriber irritation over the price hike on the no-ads plan — and the inevitable cancelations.

Notably, the ads will stay family friendly, which won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but is better kiddos inadvertently seeing inappropriate stuff when parents walk out of the room. And let’s get real, there’s no way to tell who’s watching what based upon title, so we can all deal with child-appropriate ads, even while watching Alien. If you’re a bundler, here’s some more confusion to sort through:

[A]s of Oct. 10, Disney will increase the price of Hulu with ads, from $6.99 to $7.99 per month, while the ad-free tier will go from $12.99 to $14.99 per month. The Disney Bundle in the U.S. (Hulu with ads, Disney+ no ads, ESPN+) will go from $13.99 to $14.99 per month; the premium version of the bundle (Hulu no ads, Disney+ no ads, ESPN+) will remain at $19.99 per month.

Good luck keeping it all straight, but it’s still better than ending up with an overpriced cable plan where you can’t pick and choose your poisons.

(Via Variety)