Category: Viral

If you’re last-minute holiday shopping for the fashion-obsessed sneakerhead in your life, we don’t want to say you’ve come to the wrong place… but you’ve certainly missed the mark a bit. Not only have we put together an awesome sneaker buying gift guide for 2020, but we also dropped a pretty substantial list of streetwear-focused gifts — from apparel to accessories — just this week. So definitely give those two articles a skim if you’re still in shopping mode.

That said, if the only person you’re shopping for is yourself, then you have come to the right place. Welcome to SNX DLX! Will this be the last SNX DLX of the year? Quite possibly, but while Christmas weekend is generally pretty quiet in terms of sneaker and apparel drops, New Year’s Eve, is anything but so watch this space closely for the most stylish kicks to rock as we enter 2021.

Here are all the best sneaker and apparel drops of the week.

Air Jordan 13 Black Royal

Easily the most hyped drop of the week, the Air Jordan 13 is finally getting the royal treatment with this retro Black Royal colorway that borrows one of the greatest Jordan color combinations of all time and slaps it across the last great numbered pair of AJs. Is that too harsh an assessment? We don’t think so. Featuring a black reflective texture upper with rich Hyper Royal accent and detailing work, the AJ 13 Black Royal sports a microfiber tongue, the silhouette’s signature holographic eye, and drops in vintage packaging.

The Air Jordan 13 Black Royal is set to drop on December 19th for a retail price of $190. Pick up a pair through the Nike SNKRS app or the aftermarket.

Blondey x Adidas Superstar Starlight Blue

Pro skater Blondey McCoy is easily Adidas’ best skate-focused collaborator. Not just because he’s incredibly stylish himself, but because McCoy consistently produces some of Adidas’ dopest looking skate shoes. To end the year with a bang, McCoy is dropping his greatest contribution yet in the semi-translucent Starlight Blue Superstars. This all-vegan Superstar trainer features oversized laces and a winter-appropriate colorway of pale blue and black, made from a semi-translucent material that is sure to morph the design depending on your sock game.

It’s a simple design, but this colorway ranks among the best Adidas has dropped all year.

The Blondey x Adidas Superstar in Starlight Blue is set to drop on December 18th for a retail price of $115. Pick up a pair through THAMES MMXX.

Pharrell x NIGO x Adidas Friendship Pack

Pharrell and longtime friend and collaborator NIGO are also feeling that end of the year spirit, dropping a four shoe collection dubbed the “Friendship” pack. The BAPE founder and Pharrell first collaborated with their Billionaire Boys Club label back in the early ‘00s and this collection consisting of two iterations of the PW BOOST Slide and Tokyo Solar Hu brings some of that playfully colorful aesthetic through Three Stripes.

The collection’s colorways consist of a palette that will appeal to Dragon Ball enthusiasts everywhere and is the perfect collection for people who like their sneakers like they like their anime: colorful, loud, and next level.

The collaborative Pharrell x NIGO Adidas Friendship Pack is set to drop on December 18th for a retail range of $100-$180. Shop the collection at the Adidas webstore.

Joe Freshgoods x Converse Collection

Chicago artist, designer, and fashion mastermind Joe Freshgoods has linked up with Converse for a funky ’70s inspired revamp of the Pro Leather and Chuck 70 high tops. Featuring disco-inspired luxe suede and velvet construction with glittering accents on the Pro Leather, and Jersey t-shirt construction on the Chuck ’70s, this double sneaker collection reflects the funky fresh vibe of Joe Freshgoods in a way that few of his collaborations this year have. Definitely a dope pick for that fashion-forward fit.

The Joe Freshgoods Converse Collection is set to drop on December 17th for a retail price of $110 for the Chuck 70s and $120 For the Pro Leather. Pick up a pair through Converse.

Sean Cliver Nike Dunk Low Holiday Special

If this year was dominated by Nike, no other silhouette captured the imagination of sneakerheads everywhere quite like the SB Dunk. This year brought us both the Chunky Dunky and the Grateful Dead Dunks and was littered with great colorways of the silhouette pretty consistently, to cap off the big year for Dunks Nike has teamed up with Sean Cliver, of Jackass fame, for a twinkly fresh Holiday Special iteration.

Featuring velvety suede and premium leather, this Dunk features all sorts of tinsel and snowflake related accents on a colorway so pretty they look like they belong in a display case rather than on your feet. We’re still going to wear the sh*t out of these though.

The Sean Cliver Nike Dunk Low Holiday Special is set to drop on December 19th for a retail price of $110. Pick up a pair through the Nike SNKRS app.

Supreme Winter T-Shirt Collection

Every year Supreme drops — in addition to their 1,000 other drops — a big t-shirt collection that sees a refresh of some of the brand’s most popular box logo t-shirts, as well as new limited editions that eventually go into the Supreme history books. This year the nine t-shirt collection features a crossed box logo that is sure to hit legendary status, a blur logo t-shirt, a script stamp logo t-shirt, a new bear logo, and the most coveted of all pieces, a t-shirt celebrating the release of Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas.

The Supreme Winter T-Shirt collection is set to drop on December 17th. Shop the full collection at the Supreme webstore.

Palace Winter Drop

Palace’s outerwear game has been strong this year and this week the brand is delivering some of their best jackets and sweaters to date… as well as a sweater with a portrait of William Shakespeare. No, we’re not including that sweater here, but you should definitely seek it out as it’s something to see. Not something to buy, mind you. Just to look at. Anyway, bard aside, this week’s Palace drop features all sorts of winter wear staples like sweats, beanies, and hats, but the true treasure lies in the brand’s jackets, hoodies, and crewnecks.

Whether you’re into minimalist label sweaters in vibrant colors or you’re into loud graphics and dig on Palace’s sense of humor, the British skatewear label has it all in this week’s latest drop. The latest Palace winter line is set to launch on December 18th. Shop the looks at the label’s webstore.

Earlier this year, Among Us, an online multiplayer whodunnit set in space, became something of a cultural phenomenon. Everyone was playing. Twitch stars, politicians, wrestlers, of-the-moment hip-hop artists, your grandparents (probably) … Even those who wouldn’t label themselves “gamers,” hardcore or otherwise, were logging into this virtual murder-mystery party game. Memes were made, merch was sold, fanfiction was feverishly typed, imagining “crewsonas” and potential romances between cartoonish-looking characters designed to kill each other.

In October, Among Us racked up over 74 million installs and surpassed 200 million downloads on mobile. The game that had fizzled upon its release in 2018 and nearly died more than a few deaths, was suddenly an unexpected mile-marker of gaming’s success in an already strange year. Plenty of insiders, hell, even the game’s own developers at InnerSloth were surprised.

They shouldn’t have been.

Among Us undeniably benefitted from two, let’s call them “environmental conditions.” The first, obviously, was COVID. The global pandemic was an unstoppable force to our immovable object and it easily answered that head-scratching paradox, pushing us to slow down, lockdown, and find virtual means of social interaction. But the equally influential, perhaps more predictable ingredient that made a game with pared-down graphics and a fairly straightforward premise the biggest riser in the multiplayer ranks this year has been cooking for a few years.

We’re talking about true-crime. Specifically, the true-crime boom that blew up the entertainment industry over five years ago.

Now sure, Among Us was clearly modeled after Mafia, an 80s party game that itself feels like a more intricate play on Clue. There are no candlesticks or billiard rooms (yet) but the gist, while sci-fi skewing, is the same. Your objective depends on which character card you’ve drawn. If you’re a crewmate, you must complete a lengthy set of tasks aboard your spaceship to keep it floating and to make it home safely. If you’re an imposter, congratulations! You get the more complicated assignment of quietly murdering your friends without getting caught.

Players live or die, quite literally, based on how skilled they are at deceiving others or picking up on situational clues. And that Agatha Christie-esque cat-and-mouse dynamic is where you’ll find the thread tying the hottest thing in the gaming world to the slow-burn invasion of the true-crime genre on our TV screens.

True crime is, for TV lovers, what theme parks and bungee-jumping have become for adrenaline junkies: a safe thrill.

It satisfies a morbid curiosity housed in our collective psyche, tapping into that dark corner of your brain that compels you to crane your neck when passing a car crash. It’s horrifying and exhilarating, a puzzle to be solved for some, a cautionary tale for others, and a comforting reminder that you’re snug on your couch, safe from the true terrors of the world. It’s that safety net that invites people to dig and dig until they embed themselves in a tragedy, sifting through the wreckage of other people’s lives from a distance and awarding themselves the role of investigator. How many docuseries have you watched that left you resolutely sure you knew who committed a crime, even though the case had gone cold? How many prestige limited series have you slogged through after predicting the killer before the first episode had wrapped, just to make sure your hunch was justified?

The true-crime cultural saturation has leeched into every inch of our societal landscape, for better or worse, boosted by new mediums and Hollywood’s interest in turning a profit. From the addictive first season of Serial to Netflix’s Making a Murderer saga to HBO’s The Undoing, crime has captivated us so thoroughly, even the once-obligatory “true” precursor can be tossed out at will.

And what is Among Us, if not a condensed true-crime series that caters to our self-aggrandizing desire to become a part of the mystery, to insert ourselves in the narrative and validate our intuition?

That sounds harsh as if we’re condemning people for liking true crime or trying to attach a Freudian qualifier to the game’s popularity. We’re not … and we are. Humans are weird, we’re socially-minded, and we’re often slaves to our own ego. Of course, a game that tempts you with the possibility that you alone can identify and defeat a murderer amongst your ranks, just by observing evidence and judging your peers is going to do massively well. And when extenuating circumstances – like a global pandemic that’s forced us to self-isolate and mercilessly eliminate friends and family from our own physical inner-circles – are thrown in, it’s no wonder that curiosity and need for validation and a strange fascination with playing voyeur to other people’s darkest moments takes the shape of Teletubby-outfitted crewmen in space trying to outsmart and outlast a parasitic alien with the ability to morph into anyone of its choosing.

The pandemic might have fast-tracked the success of Among Us, propelling it into the discourse at such a rapid pace the game’s developers can barely keep up – but we’d like to think it would’ve eventually found life in the streaming space regardless, and that its popularity might, in some way, be built on the back of bigger movements within the entertainment space. We’d like to think that because there’s evidence – you can’t hop off a call with your parents without them recommending the latest My Favorite Murder episode or Zoom with friends without swapping conspiracy theories about Carol Baskin.

But we’d also like to think that because maybe it means the unacknowledged silos that have separated gaming from other types of art and entertainment – film, TV, music, etc. – are slowly toppling, making room for a more symbiotic relationship where rookie players can find something of interest in spaces that used to feel inaccessible and experienced gamers can enjoy the second life of their favorite titles in new and exciting ways. Maybe playing Among Us will give a gamer reason to binge a captivating new series, maybe that series will entice a TV fan into trying their hand at a simulation of their favorite genre.

It’s a win-win for everyone, and we need any win we can get in 2020.

Who had “System Of A Down record new music” on their 2020 bingo card? Probably not even System Of A Down.

The Armenian-American alt-metal band haven’t released an LP since the 2005 double-header Mesmerize/Hypnotize, and they’ve failed to see eye to eye on a follow up. The odds had never seemed slimmer: Leading up to the 2020 presidential election, music sites built an entire news beat from the chasm of American political ideology between singer Serj Tankian and drummer John Dolmayan.

The members have remained close as humans (Tankian and Dolmayan are brothers-in-law), though they’ve struggled to align musically as a full quartet. It took bloodshed in their ancestral homeland to help them rise above their differences.

In late September, war broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan (reportedly with Turkish support) in Nagorno-Karabakh (or Artsakh), continuing decades of tension and conflict in the region. “Armenia was attacked out of the blue during COVID, during a national election in the United States when people didn’t have their focus there,” Dolmayan says.

The grim news prompted discussions about how they could help — eventually spawning their two new songs, “Protect the Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz.”

The band quickly issued a statement, declaring, “The world turned a blind eye during … the Armenian Genocide in 1915, the mass killings and pogroms of the 1980s and ‘90s, Azerbaijan’s invasion of Armenia in 2016. Now the world is turning a blind eye to 150,000 landlocked civilians under attack by Azerbaijan and Turkey.”

But they wanted to further utilize their massive platform, raising awareness and funds to aid displaced people.

“When the war started, I was in New Zealand,” Tankian tells Uproxx. “I was already starting to do interviews on my own about what was going on in Artsakh and Armenia. [Guitarist] Daron [Malakian] reached out first: ‘Hey guys, we should post something from the band’s site because we have reach.’ A couple days or a week after, John sent a text, saying, ‘We haven’t put out music in 15 years. It would be great if we could do something for the cause.”

Dolmayan had been deeply frustrated by System’s lengthy studio drought, and he’d previously given up on the idea of new music.

“For a long time, I tried to get the band to make another album,” the drummer says. “At one point, Serj and the rest of the guys got together, and we walked out of that meeting not being able to make it work. Because I’d spent almost 12 years working on that, I didn’t have any more effort to put into it emotionally. I just kind of let it go and figured, ‘OK, it’s not meant to be. I have to focus on things that are meant to be and make those things happen in life.’”

The war in Artsakh renewed his motivation — despite their creative stalemate, it was the perfect chance to galvanize the group for a unified purpose. But the music was secondary.

“I was very angry and wanted to do something about it,” Dolmayan adds. “I felt like we had to put things aside because this was greater than System. The needs of Armenia and Artsakh are greater than our egos or our ability to work together. It was hard for me to send that [group] text because it’s been such a negative experience trying to [motivate] these guys to make a new album. Everybody responded fairly quickly, but it was the usual difficulties of working in System. I had to put my emotions aside and say, ‘I’m not doing this for any other reason except for my people.’”

Malakian already had two songs that felt like an ideal thematic fit: the operatic rocker “Protect The Land,” a tune he’d earmarked (and largely recorded) for his other project Scars On Broadway, and the brutally heavy “Genocidal Humanoidz,” which began life as a System idea.

“‘Genocidal Humanoidz’ is a song Daron, [bassist] Shavo [Odadjian] and I had worked on three, maybe four years ago specifically for a System album that never happened,” Dolmayan says. “We had 12 or 14 songs that we’d worked on, so that [track] was meant for System but never actually got recorded because we couldn’t make it work.”

This time, with extra momentum, they did. Once Tankian returned home to L.A., System entered the studio and knocked out the songs in three days — aiming to release them as quickly as possible.

“It was easy,” Tankian says of this “one-two punch.” “We’re all friends. We see each other all the time. It’s not like estranged people seeing each other. My drummer is my brother-in-law. There was no emotional interplay on my part.”

Dolmayan admits he felt the band’s collective power “at a diminished level” because of the accelerated time frame.

“We also didn’t have the benefit of [previous producer] Rick Rubin being involved,” he notes. “And he’s instrumental in making those small suggestions that make those massive differences. It wasn’t the perfect situation. But I’m proud of what we did. I know the fans were happy to get some new material. And at the end of the day, it’s about the cause.”

Tankian concurs with that bottom line. “As someone who produces a lot of music, generally you spend a lot of time trying to perfect it,” he says. “In a lot of cases with music that’s very intuitive and intentional, doing it quickly is fine. As long as you’re fully presenting it, you don’t have to sit on it for months and think about it. Sometimes that has an adverse effect. The timeline was more important than nitpicking for another week or month. The music was a weapon for the cause.”

System of a Down have been fighting for their homeland since day one, referencing the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian Genocide of 1915 in songs like “P.L.U.C.K.” from their self-titled 1998 debut. (In 2015, they joined with Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff to push for formal recognition of the genocide, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during World War I. In October 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to formally recognize what Speaker Nancy Pelosi described as “barbarism.”)

The new songs are just the latest, most obvious chapter in that ongoing story. By mid-November, the band had raised over $600,000 — all focused, Tankian says, on helping “rebuild and revitalize” after the devastation. But it’s just the beginning: They’re already planning virtual fundraisers for the coming weeks and months.

“That [dollar amount] is peanuts,” Dolmayan says. “It’s going to take hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild what was destroyed. I think our goal was $2 million to $5 million. And we’re still working vigilantly trying to raise that money. Within the band, we’ve donated hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

It’s unclear if “Protect The Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz” will lead to more System songs — or, perhaps, that elusive sixth album. But right now, that question is the last thing on their minds.

“We didn’t get together for the band’s sake, for our sake,” Tankian says. “We got together for our people.”

Despite the challenges 2020 has given, DJ Khaled has been making moves this year. He donated an huge amount of PPE supplies to hospitals at the onset of the pandemic, he teamed up with Drake for two singles, and he announced his 12th studio album Khaled Khaled. Now, DJ Khaled has announced that he’s starting a new venture and launching his own CBD company.

The producer has yet to unveil the company’s name, but did mention that it was started in partnership with CBD manufacturer Endexx Corporation. It’s expected to launch some time in 2021 and will feature a series of “lifestyle and wellness products.”

Detailing his inspiration behind the new endeavor, Khaled to Rolling Stone that his “personal wellness journey” has led him to incorporate the products into his daily routine. “As a father, an entrepreneur, a music exec and visionary I am blessed with daily inspiration, a drive to work hard and a passion for success,” he said. “CBD has become a part of my daily routine and allows me to focus myself and my energies, while striving to better myself every day.”

Echoing Khaled’s statement, Endexx Corporation CEO Todd Davis said, “We are excited to announce our partnership with DJ Khaled. Khaled’s knowledge and passion for CBD is bountiful and we realized we are aligned in our approach towards product quality and business acumen. We understand and share the values that a brand goes beyond physical products; it needs to help people feel good about themselves and be part of a day-to-day lifestyle.”

Our communities are nothing without local restaurants. Our favorite hometown haunts serve as meeting places to chop it up with our family and friends, act as sources of pride we eagerly show out-of-town guests, and create smells and flavors that live forever rent-free in our sense memory. So it’s important we recognize that local restaurants have had it particularly hard during the pandemic.

COVID-19 has all but flattened the foodservice industry. And it’s affecting our communities in a big way.

For context, the restaurant industry is the second-largest private-sector employer in the entire country, proving jobs for more than 15 million people (pre-COVID). According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA), in 2019 alone the industry raked in $863 billion in revenue, that’s money that often stays in local economies. But restaurants rely on the patronage of their regulars. The reason the people behind your favorite taco joints, Chinese noodle houses, or mom and pop burger shops remember your face and favorite order is that they need us as much as we need them.

Especially now. And occasional takeout orders aren’t cutting it.

According to the NRA, COVID-19 is responsible for the permanent or long-term closure of 1 in every 6 restaurants. That accounts for nearly 100,000 restaurants, 3 million employees, and close to $240 billion in sales, and none of that takes into consideration the emotional loss that comes with a restaurant shuttering — from the employees to the owners to the patrons to the community at large. Undoing the damage done to communities by the loss of locally-owned eateries during COVID will be a years (if not decades) long project.

While the continued danger to the restaurant industry is undeniable, many chefs, restaurant owners, and ambitious employees have found ways to survive — pivoting their businesses in order to keep afloat while doing the very thing they’ve always done: tapping into the power of their local communities. The innovators featured below are just a few of the names (there are others) that caught our attention this year, defying the odds when it seemed like everything was working against them. They helped support their communities during the darkest days of the pandemic, and now we’re here to shed some light on their efforts (and delicious-looking food).

Wesley Avila — Guerilla Tacos, Los Angeles CA

California, and Los Angeles in particular, has been subjected to the strictest lockdown measures in the entire country. So when the state went deep into lockdown in April, local chefs needed to pivot fast. Guerrilla Tacos owner Wesley Avila did just that with his Mini Emergency Taco Kit. Avila dubbed the kit “a true Angeleno Survival pack during these crazy and uncertain times” — designing it with the purpose of keeping people indoors and fed, rather than risk ordering take out day after day.

The $85 kit consisted of 4 pounds of meat, two pints of two different salsas, tortillas, onions, cilantro, rice, and beans — enough to produce 30 Guerrilla-quality tacos. Avila did this all while not making a single dollar of profit, using the money instead to help support and provide the cooks, staff, and people who make Guerrilla Tacos possible with health insurance.

The strategy seems to have worked, as Guerrilla has since made Sweet Potato Kits fitting for Thanksgiving Dinner, and a Tamale Kit, bouquet, and basket for the coming holidays.

Help support Guerrilla Tacos here.

Sarah Stegner, George Bumbaris — Prarie Grass Cafe, Northbrook IL

When COVID lockdowns forced Stegner and Bumbaris to close the doors of the Prairie Grass Cafe to indoor diners, not only did the restaurant quickly shift to a curbside model with a rotating daily menu, but they offered meal kits for spring holidays, donated meals to front line workers at local Chicago hospitals, set up a Cooking Tips Hotline answered by Chef Stegner herself, and found a way to support the farmers they normally rely on by setting up a directory so that families would be able to buy directly from farms (which suddenly had a surplus of produce with nowhere to go).

Whether you needed meat, specialty vegetables, fruit, or even hot sauce, Prarie Grass did their part to help their supply chain and community, even sometimes acting as a delivery hub for good themselves.

Help support Prairie Grass Cafe here.

Jamie Malone — Grand Cafe, Minneapolis, MN

How do you continue to feed a community and make ends meet, while simultaneously trying to keep people safe? It’s a conundrum that every chef has had to battle with for the better part of this year. When COVID lockdowns forced Grand Cafe chef Jamie Malone to close her doors, she found a way to keep her kitchen staff afloat by turning her elegant French fare into a take-home experience designed to provide meals for a week at a time, helping to encourage folks to stay at home and thereby limiting their exposure to the outside community.

Sadly, the pivot wasn’t enough to keep the Grand Cafe alive, in November it was announced that the restaurant would not be reopening its doors at its original address. But that hasn’t stopped Malone from innovating.

“The pandemic has created opportunities to rethink and reimagine restaurants, take stock of what works and what doesn’t,” Malone told Eater Twin Cities, “Now is our chance to… create a better world for restaurant workers. I believe a smaller space with more dynamic revenue streams is the best way for our team to move forward.”

While the Grand Cafe may have closed its doors permanently, Malone and her team continue to provide Keep It Grand meal kits, keeping her restaurant alive in the kitchens throughout her community.

Help Support Keep It Grand here.

Deborah VanTrece — Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours, Atlanta, GA

Deborah VanTrece has always put the safety of her staff and customer base first, so she opted to close her soul food restaurant’s doors even before it was mandated by Georgia’s Governor, Brian Kemp. Georgia has had some of the laxest COVID safety measures in the country, but that doesn’t mean business has been easy. COVID has disproportionally affected BIPOC communities in devastating ways and as a black-owned business in a space predominately populated by white restaurant owners and chefs, Twisted Soul has the deck stacked against them.

VanTrece knows what she’s up against, but refuses to let it slow her down. Through Twisted Soul Cookhouse she’s offered meal kits, a pay-what-you-can concept to burn through an inventory of leftovers and support those struggling financially, Fish Fry Fridays, and even a pop-up concept she calls “A Different Kind of Chick,” a curated mini menu of chicken entrees and sandwiches designed specifically for take-away and delivery eating.

Despite all these shifts, VanTrece is still struggling. She told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that sales are down 50% compared to pre-COVID days and she’s waiting for action from Congress and keeping Twisted Soul afloat by any means necessary. The holiday season is traditionally the restaurant’s busiest season, and with the pandemic worse than ever Twisted Soul is still finding ways to feed families, offering up a massive holiday meal package that feeds a family of four.

Help support Twisted Soul here.

Neighborhood Provisions — Arlington, VA

This isn’t one chef or restaurant so much as it’s a collective of local chefs and beverage specialists put together by the DC-based Neighborhood Restaurant Group that offers deliverable pantry staples and prepared meals for families in the Virginia, DC, and Bethesda, Maryland areas. Whether you need fresh baked goods, local produce, prepared meals, fresh-cut meat, or even cocktails, Neighborhood Provisions has set up a vast directory to help you find everything you need, including a regularly rotating menu of restaurant-quality meals, while still working to support local chefs and restaurant owners struggling to get by.

Support Neighborhood Provisions here.

For the first time since a prolonged absence from the Houston Rockets that included a trade demand and several photos and videos showing him partying across the country without a mask, James Harden spoke with the media on Wednesday after making his preseason debut on Tuesday night.

Naturally, his absence from Rockets training camp came up, and Harden explained that he was in Atlanta and Las Vegas rather than Houston not to party or make a show of his dismay with the organization, but to work out.

When Harden was asked to clarify why he couldn’t just work out in Houston, he merely said “my personal trainers.”

The superstar’s conditioning became a trending topic on Tuesday when jokes were flying about a pregame pic of Harden from an unflattering angle, but, then again, that seems to be an annual tradition and has never seemed to stop him from producing some of the best regular season stats in recent memory.

As for his request, Harden also told reporters that he has not yet had a conversation with Rockets general manager Rafael Stone since returning to camp. Despite expanding his list of desired landing spots, Houston has yet to give in and execute a Harden trade until they get back what they want.

Nevertheless, despite all the chaos and folks talking out of the side of their mouths, Harden reiterated that playing in Houston’s preseason game on Tuesday against San Antonio felt good and that he is focused on the task at hand with the Rockets.

It remains to be seen whether Harden will get what he wants and be traded out of Houston by the time the regular season starts or if this will drag into the regular season like the Jimmy Butler fiasco did in Minnesota two years ago, but Harden at the very least is now suiting up for the Rockets and seems like he’ll play there until he’s moved — it just might produce a number of awkward moments until his wish is granted.

For many days this year, Bandcamp held Bandcamp Fridays, during which they waived their usual cut of sales on their platform to help support artists during the pandemic. Now the site in an update post has revealed how much money artists have earned through this initiative and that the event will continue into 2021.

The post notes that over the course of the first Friday of each month since March (so nine days), “fans paid artists and labels $40 million dollars” thanks to Bandcamp waiving their cut of revenues for the day. They also note that “nearly 800,000 fans” participated.
The post also reveals that Bandcamp currently has a handful more Bandcamp Fridays scheduled for 2021, on February 5, March 5, April 2, and May 7, since “it will likely be several months before live performance revenue starts to return.”

Furthermore, Bandcamp points out that artists get a significant cut of their sales even when it’s not Bandcamp Friday: “If you’ve started to feel guilty about buying music on any day other than Bandcamp Friday, here’s something to keep in mind: on Bandcamp Fridays, an average of 93% of your money reaches the artist/label (after payment processor fees). When you make a purchase on any other day of the month (as 2.5 million of you have since March, buying an additional $145 million worth of music and merch) an average of 82% reaches the artist/label. Every day is a good day to directly support artists on Bandcamp!”

Read the full post here.

There are nearly 6,000 movies and TV shows on Netflix but it often feels like I keep scrolling through the same titles over and over again. I find myself constantly asking, “Where are they hiding the rest of their content?”

TikTok user @caseyyisfetchh is going viral because she learned a hack that allows you to search for super-specific movies and TV shows, unlocking thousands of titles that you never would have found before.

“I was today years old when I learned that Netflix has secret codes that bring you into sub-genres that don’t’ show up in your search feed,” the TikTokker says.

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The insane thing is that every Netflix user should know about these codes. But in the ten years that I’ve had the service, I’ve never heard about them. Why was the world keeping this a secret? Why was Netflix hiding all this great content?

How many nights have I given up searching for a show on Netflix and went to bed when I could have stayed up late binging on foreign horror films?

Take a deep dive into the codes you’ll see they get really specific. On a full moon, instead of searching for horror movies and praying to find a good Wolfman flick, you can now put 75930 to see a list of werewolf horror movies.

Do you have a deep love for Turkish cinema? No problem. Just enter 1133133. Like sports movies, but only if they’re about soccer? Enter 12549 into the search bar. It’s also great for people with children because you can search by age-range — 5455 shows you films that are for kids ages five to seven.

The codes are also great for folks who love watching seasonal fare. Netflix has codes for 13 different types of Christmas movies.

The codes also reveal that Netflix has a much broader selection of classic films than they normally show during search. They’re also a great way for you to expand your film palette and try out new movie genres that you never would have seen otherwise.

The codes work whether you’re searching for something to watch on your desktop computer or using the search bar on your smart TV.

You can find a full list of the codes here.

So now, instead of asking your significant other “In the mood for a comedy tonight?” You can ask, “In the mood for a mockumentary?”

Once I finish typing up this article I’m going to do a deep dive into some of my favorite sub-genres and add a ton of movies to My List. From the looks of it, I’ll be able to find enough fun stuff to keep me entertained until we reach herd immunity.

Food is a big part of Tacko Fall’s life. Even beyond the fact that he inherently needs to consume more of it than most folks as a professional athlete and, well, his first name, the Boston Celtics’ second-year big man views the things we eat as ways to build bridges between folks from different cultures.

“Every culture has different food, different flavors, different spices, whatever,” Fall told Dime over the phone. “I feel like being able to share it amongst us really can bridge some of the gap that exists between us.”

Fall’s love of food was front and center recently when he participated in an Airbnb Online Experience in which the big man showed off his culinary skills. With the emphasis on food top of mind, proceeds from the event went towards the organization Action Against Hunger.

Dime caught up with Fall ahead of the event to talk food, cooking, and whether anyone on the Celtics’ roster has skills in the kitchen.

Where does this love of cooking that you have come from?

A love of food, so that helps. For example, my mom was here recently, she came and she was here for a couple of months and she basically cooked like every day, and I was like, “Mom, you have to sit down.” She would be in the kitchen, I would wake up and she was just spoiling us, my brother and I. She would wake up in the morning, make us breakfast. Sometimes I wouldn’t even eat because I was like, “I got to go to practice.” Then I would come back, the breakfast would be there. Then she would make lunch and right after then, she would make dinner. I’m like, “Mom.” But she just loves doing it. I guess some of that probably came from her.

So is it one of those things where you grew up cooking or was it something that once you get to college, once you start getting to the NBA, you have to learn how to start fending for yourself, and you started cooking because of that?

Yeah, I mean, I didn’t start cooking … When I was home in Senegal, I didn’t cook. My mom did all the cooking. When I came here in high school, I didn’t as well. But when I got to college, that’s really when I started to figure out a few things. I started with just mostly simple things.

Actually, yeah, I do remember. When I was in high school, I first went to Texas, and I came with a friend and there was two kids from Macedonia, if I recall, and we’re all in the same apartment. The guy I was staying with would make us go get groceries. Sometimes we would have to cook our own food. So there, I did learn how to make, like, one of my favorites, a nacho cheese dish where we added ground beef and tomatoes and all that kind of stuff. It was pretty good.

Sometimes we would buy a whole turkey and make the turkey. We used to make some chicken and rice and all of that. I was just watching them do it and pretty much learning how to do that from there. When I got to Florida, I didn’t do much cooking, but then when I got to college, I started doing a little bit of it. Obviously we have the meals from the cafeteria and all of that, but we also had … I know they would give us some stipend and allow us to go to Publix and give us gift card where you can go and get some groceries from Publix. So here and there, we’d just get a few, some meat or just make simple things.

What are some things that you like cooking, whether it’s Senegalese food or whether it’s other sorts of food that you like to make?

Senegalese food is a whole process. It takes hours to make. I would be lying if I said I could make some Senegalese food. I never really asked my mom to teach me how to make it because I don’t think I would, like, I wouldn’t have the patience to do that. It’s really good, but it’s a whole process. And we like to do things from scratch. We like to get fresh things. One of my favorite meals back home is called Thieboudienne, it’s a rice and fish dish. Rice and fish sounds simple, but it’s not. You have to get the fresh caught fish, fresh vegetables, and you have to cook the rice a certain way. Before you cook the rice, you got to mix it all. It’s like a whole process. It takes hours. For example, when I was home, even when my mom was here, for them to be able to make the meal, they would have to wake up early to start the process. It wouldn’t be done probably until like noon or one o’clock.

Yeah. One of those things where you have to like let all the flavors kind of get to know each other over the course of like six, seven, eight hours.

Yeah.

I know you mentioned your mom was here recently. When was the last time you were able to head back home to visit?

Actually, when I left my country, I was 16 and I didn’t see my mom until I was a senior in college of this year.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. That was the first time where I saw her since I left, she came to my Senior Night. After that, she left and that’s when I was going through the NCAA Tournament and the pre-Draft process and all that. After I got to Boston, a few months, I think around December last year, she came over. She stayed in New York for a little bit, then she came to Boston and stayed with me. But the crazy part is she came to Boston, her and my little brother came to Boston, and then I had to go to the Bubble.

I want to know, how does food, whenever you’re able to get Senegalese food, serve as a way that you’re able to stay connected to home from thousands of miles away?

Food from home, obviously it’s a cultural thing, but it just brings a lot of memories from when I was a kid. I mean, everybody grows up with different struggles and just kind of reminds me of my upbringing and saw the struggles I went through, and it just makes you become more and more grateful. For me, I just have that type of connection and I do miss it. There’s not a lot of Senegalese restaurants — there’s a few in New York. In Boston, I don’t know if there is one. I tried looking for it, but I didn’t find. But I heard someone say there was one, but I just have yet to find it. I don’t get to eat it often. When my mom was here, I ate it every day.

Made sure she got your fill for whenever you’re able to get it the next time, I’m guessing.

Yeah. I don’t know how she got all the ingredients, but she made it happen.

What do you have going on with Airbnb?

So pretty much I’m going to be cooking live. There’s going to be a few guests. Probably going to make some tacos. It’s almost like a fundraiser. I guess for me, coming from my country, I’ve always wanted to find ways to give back. When the idea came, I was like, this is a great opportunity for me to do it. Action Against Hunger, it’s going to go to fighting against hunger in Senegal. That’s something that I’m really excited to do.

Whether it’s through something like this, whether it’s through cooking for teammates, whether it’s just having a meal somewhere, what do you think it is about food that makes it such a good way to build bridges between people?

Well, so my country Senegal is called the pays de la Téranga. That means anybody’s welcome in my country. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Senegal, if you haven’t, I highly encourage it. It’s like there is just a sense of community that you won’t find in a lot of places. You will go there and fit in like you’ve lived there your entire life. People are so nice. People are so welcoming. A lot of that is done through food. So if you haven’t, I would encourage you to go experience that yourself, because that doesn’t do it justice. We just have that kind of culture back home where it’s a pretty big deal. And every culture has different food, different flavors, different spices, whatever. I feel like being able to share it amongst us really can bridge some of the gap that exists between us pretty much.

So just have a few quick hitters here at the very end. One, what’s your favorite place to eat in Boston?

I got a couple. When I first got here, it was Redbones, which was a barbecue place. Really good, I love barbecue — when I was in Florida, one of my favorite one was 4 Rivers, but there is no 4 Rivers in Boston. Then, there’s a restaurant that I first went to that restaurant in New York and I found out they had one in Boston called Mastro’s. The only reason why I go to Mastro’s is because of their butter cake. It’s the best butter cake in the continent.

Then do you have a favorite place to eat in any of the other 29 NBA cities? Or is there so much stuff out there that it’s hard to pick just one.

In the other cities, like I said, obviously Florida because I lived in Florida for so long. It’s probably 4 Rivers. But the other cities, I can’t really say there’s one specific restaurant.

Whenever I talk to someone about gaming, I always ask who’s the best and worst gamer on a team. Who is the best and worst cook on the Celtics?

I could not tell you because I don’t think most of us cook. Even me,I have someone drop off some food for me as well. A lot of us probably have chefs and that kind of stuff. I know Grant maybe does a little bit, but because his mom is here every now and then, his dad as well. We live in the same building. I could say some of my teammates from last year, but I’m not sure. Enes definitely didn’t cook. There’s no way I could see Enes cooking anything. He likes to post stuff and look like he was cooking, but I’m like, “Enes, I know very well there is no way you cooked that” — I just like to tease Enes, he’s with the Blazers now.

You can only eat one thing everyday for the rest of your life. What are you eating?

Wow, I might starve to death. I don’t know. I can’t tell you there’s one food that I would pick over anything. I just like a variety of things.

I know that we’ve seen some other NBA players who have explored cooking a bit on the internet — Serge is the big one, he has his YouTube channel where he cooks for people. I’ve seen DeAndre Jordan do some cooking on the internet, that kind of thing. Have you ever considered doing something where you use YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, whatever, to show off what you like to make and use it as a way to feed your teammates or something?

Never crossed my mind, actually. Never did. I did used to watch Serge’s show, because he’s from Congo, I think. His culture and my culture, it’s a little different but not so, so much. We’re both Africans, were French colonies. A lot of the things that he would make … he would make some crazy things, where you’re like, “Yeah, I know.” So, I’ve seen his show. That’s pretty dope. That would definitely be a good idea, for sure.

In a bold move to combat the increasing amount of COVID infections that have showed no signs of slowing down, Maine Senator Angus King has written a letter to all six of the largest streaming services asking them to make their platforms free over the holidays. King believes that if people have complimentary access to Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV Plus, they’ll be encouraged to stay home and binge TV shows and movies. Via News Center Maine:

“At this time, we must find ways to incentivize people to follow guidance from the CDC, their employer, local public health officials, or school leaders. Unfortunately, some Americans are likely to choose to ignore public health advice and carry on their typical holiday traditions instead of remaining safely at home. While your platforms would likely experience greater traffic as a consequence of extending service, we encourage you to provide temporary service at no cost to non-subscribers as a way to encourage people to make responsible choices and safely navigate this holiday season.”

As of this writing, King has yet to receive a response. He also might be facing a hard sell with at least one of the streaming platforms. HBO Max is currently set to stream Wonder Woman 1984 on Christmas Day and has stopped offering free trials ahead of its release. Its parent company, WarnerMediam is also hoping to help ease lost revenue from the pandemic by shifting its entire 2021 film slate to HBO Max. In short, the studio is gambling big on Wonder Woman drumming up paying subscribers that will stick around for the upcoming Warner Bros. movies.

Then again, as 2020 has repeatedly shown us, anything can happen, so it’ll be interesting to see which streaming platforms, if any, will heed King’s call.

(Via News Center Maine)