Category: Viral

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

A Love Song for Latasha (film on Netflix) — This dreamlike portrait of a documentary celebrates the life of the 15-year-old girl, Latasha Harlins, who became a flashpoint for the Los Angeles’ 1992 civil uprising. Three decades after her shooting death, Latasha’s friends and family finally see her life celebrated (through oral history and memories) in this archive of a promising life shattered.

Filthy Rich (FOX, 9:00pm EST) — Kim Cattrall returns to TV in a super-soapy turn. She stars as a mega-rich Southern widow who learns that her late husband fathered three illegitimate children and included them in his will. Uh-oh.

We Are Who We Are (HBO, 10:00pm EST) — This week, Caitlin, uh, starts her period, which leads to the acceleration of testing sexual boundaries. This probably won’t go over well with her boyfriend or her father, but oh well! This is Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino’s first stab at a TV series, and it’s an immersive experience with (of course) a sun-drenched, often picturesque Italian setting. This show should tide Euphoria fans who don’t mind more literally euphoric vibes and less nihilism than the Zendaya-starring series.

Manhunt: Deadly Games (CBS, 10:00pm EST) — Tonight sees the debut of a scripted true-crime anthology series that chronicles the manhunt involved with the Richard Jewell scandal. You’ve heard the story of the fallout from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, now witness the TV dramatization (as opposed to the sensationalized movie version) of one of the most complex manhunts on U.S. soil.

The Third Day (HBO, 9:00pm EST) — Jude Law and Naomie Harris star in this limited drama series about a mysterious island filled with unwelcoming natives. It’s a strange new world, and the leading duo must confront their own prejudices and fears… and hopefully survive.

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Julianne Moore, Chace Crawford, Polo G

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — H.R. McMaster, Laurence Fishburne

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brendan Hunt

COVID-19 has transformed smoking cannabis from a communal act where joints, blunts, and bongs are freely passed around, completely unsanitized, into a weird distant hang where you stand six feet away from your friends (outside) and shout stoned observations to them while smoking from your own individual devices, doing your best not to cough in their general direction. It’s taken some getting used to for sure, but we’re managing — thanks in small part to the abundance of pre-rolls hitting the market.

Among the deluge of brands since weed went legal, California-based High 90’s has gotten a lot of love in stoner circles for their flavored, wax-infused pre-rolls. Made with top-shelf flower blended with a potent 1,200 mg Cannabis wax, High 90’s joints feel tailor-made for the pandemic — packing a knock-your-off-your-ass 30%-40% THC level per joint that will give you an all-day high from a single session. After all, who wants to smoke all day when we’ve got a raging respiratory virus creating a constant state of anxiety in us? Preserve those lungs.

High 90s flavors — including Strawberry, Gelato, Peach, Watermelon, Pineapple, Pink Lemonade, Tropical Punch, and something called Double Cup — don’t necessarily provide a different experience. But we still have pretty strong feelings about which pre-roll tastes the best and compliments the natural terpenes and flavors of High 90’s indoor flower. We ranked each flavor from worst to best, but we’ll note that each pre-roll resulted in a pretty similar high, so go with your gut.

8. Pink Lemonade

THC: 31.94%
CBD: 1.75mg

Coming in last is High 90’s Pink Lemonade pre-roll. The flavors here just never really gel together, the pink lemonade flavor is way too subtle — it neither tastes “pink” nor much like lemonade — and don’t compliment the dank and dark flavors of the cannabis wax.

Bottom Line: Skip this one, it’s not as good as you want it to be.

7. Tropical Punch

THC: 29.70%
CBD: 1.63mg

The trend in my case seemed to be that my least favorite High 90’s pre-roll flavors were the joints based on drinks, but the Tropical Punch is a considerable jump up in quality from the Pink Lemonade, with pronounced notes of cherry, pineapple, citrus, and strawberry. The smell of this pre-roll when lit is tantalizingly refreshing and the flavor recalls cannabis-infused Popsicle Big Sticks.

Bottom Line: Maybe it’s because it tastes so much like a Cherry Pineapple Big Stick, but we’re going to go ahead and suggest you pair this one alongside a popsicle.

6. Double Cup

THC: 30.60%
CBD: 1.63mg

Double Cup combines medicinal flavors with a zesty lemon-lime soda twist meant to recall a cup of lean. And while it’s not exactly an accurate approximation, the flavors still make an interesting pairing with the flavors of the flower.

Bottom Line: If you’re looking for a uniquely flavored pre-roll that is unlike what is typically found at your local dispensary, Double Cup is your joint!

5. Watermelon

THC: 36.61%
CBD: 1.64mg

Crispy and refreshing notes of Watermelon color each drag with this pre-roll, providing a light fruit flavor that doesn’t feel intrusive and lingers sweetly on the palate. I found myself enjoying High 90’s single flavor pre-rolls considerably more than the fruit cocktail drink-based flavors.

Bottom Line: A great light flavor for wake and baking, light up one of these joints at the beach while watching waves roll in for a cheap vacation.

4.Pineapple

THC: 33.37%
CBD: 1.76mg

High 90’s Pineapple pre-rolls are the brand’s sweetest flavor with bright tart notes and a slight sour bite that can cause some salivation. The pineapple flavor really coats your tongue, so if you’re not into intense flavors the Pineapple Pre-Roll probably isn’t for you. Personally, I was loving it.

Bottom Line: The Pineapple Pre-Roll pairs nicely with a citrus-forward cocktail or anything with pineapple, you’ll want something to wash the sticky sweet flavor down.

3. Peach

THC: 32.15%
CBD: 1.63mg

Lighting up a Peach High 90’s pre-roll is an incredibly calming experience as the subtle peach aroma joins the gassy dank smell of the cannabis. The flavor here isn’t overly candied like the Pineapple, adding a subtle flavor to the smoke that doesn’t stain the palate — providing a pretty clean experience that won’t feel like it needs to be washed down after the joint is killed.

Bottom Line: Peach offers a great option for those looking for a subtly flavored experience that will sell them on the opinion that flavored joints are superior to non-flavored joints.

2. Strawberry

THC: 30.78%
CBD: 1.61mg

Considering Strawberry is as prevalent a flavor as Grape when it comes to flavored pre-rolls, it feels a little basic to give High 90’s Strawberry flavored joint such high marks, but credit where credit is due — this is one of the finest strawberry pre-rolls we’ve ever had the pleasure of smoking.

Where typical Strawberry pre-rolls taste overly chemical, High 90’s tastes surprisingly natural, with a sweet and sticky flavor that cuts through the wax distillate, providing a smoke that’s heavily colored by the natural strawberry flavors.

Bottom Line: Don’t skip out on this flavor because it feels tired, lighting up this strawberry joint will make you feel like you’re getting high in a strawberry field, which is the closest thing to a vacation you’re going to experience this year.

1. Gelato

THC: 32.82%
CBD: 1.72mg

This is the flavor I find myself coming back to again and again, in fact, it’s probably my favorite flavored pre-roll of all time. The Gelato pre-roll smells amazing before you smoke it but lighting this joint really brings the flavors and aroma to life as the homely scent of fresh-baked cookies fills the space. The smell is so sweet it’ll instantly induce the munchies before your high has fully kicked in, making this a great wake and bake or just before bed strain to close out the night.

Bottom Line: If you’re going to try one pre-roll from High 90’s, make it Gelato. Period.

WHERE TO GET THEM: High 90’s flavored wax-infused pre-rolls are available across 22 dispensaries in California. To shop the flavors and figure out where to buy them, visit the High 90’s webpage or their Weedmaps page.

Due to our new COVID reality, the Emmys had a daunting task ahead of it when it decided to soldier forward and continue on with this years awards. While Jimmy Kimmel took the reins of the Primetime Emmy Awards show, which managed to scale down as rewards were presented virtually, the Creative Arts Emmy were an entirely different beast.

Spread out over five nights of four one-hour online streams before concluding with a two-hour telecast that aired Saturday night on FXX, the Creative Arts Emmy managed to chug along without any major problems until the last stretch. During the award for Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series, Jason Bateman was accidentally named by an announcer as the winner for his work on The Outsider, but the title card actually said Ron Cephas Jones. Turns out Jones was the real winner for his spot on This Is Us, which forced the virtual show to quickly scramble to fix its mistake.

You can see a video of the mix-up below:

So for a brief moment, Bateman was an Emmy winner, and then he wasn’t. But we’re sure the actor took it in stride, especially with bigger things on his plate. Bateman made the decision to fire up production on the fourth season of Ozark, which will have difficulties of its own as the set adapts to new COVID safety protocols. The decision has already caused Bateman to make one personal sacrifice: No longer directing the first two episodes as he’s done for prior seasons.

“[A]s we were looking through the protocols, the guidelines, all the complications with COVID, [and] the producer side of me made me think it’s just not responsible to have one of the actors direct the first two,” he told IndieWire. “Given that we’re still going to be getting our perimeter safe. Because if one of the actors gets sick, we all have to go home for weeks.”

However, should a crew member get sick, Bateman can “[make] sure their salary is protected” as the show continues with, hopefully, just a minor shutdown.

(Via ABC News)

Few topics are as politically polarizing as the issue of abortion. Those of us who are middle aged and younger have always known the abortion debate divided between the political right and left, conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats.

But that has not always been the case.

In fact, it was mostly Republican-nominated Supreme Court Justices who made the case for choice in 1973.

Roe vs. Wade was decided with a 7-2 vote, and not along partisan lines. Those who ruled in favor were as follows, with the president who nominated them and the party of that president indicated in parentheses:

• Harry Blackmun (Nixon, R)
• Lewis Powell (Nixon, R)
• Warren Burger (Nixon, R)
• William Brennan (Eisenhower, R)
• Potter Stewart (Eisenhower, R)
• Thurgood Marshall (LBJ, D)
• William Douglas (FDR, D)

Those who dissented on Roe vs. Wade:

• Byron White (Kennedy, D)
• William Rehnquist (Nixon, R)

So five Republican-nominated justices and two Democrat-nominated justices ruled for choice, while one Republican and one Democrat-nominated justice ruled against.

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A lifelong Republican justice, Harry Blackmun, wrote the majority opinion in the case, which basically stated that state laws that unduly restrict abortion were unconstitutional—not specifically because a woman had a right to choose to have an abortion, but because of a the right to privacy under the 14th amendment.

When viewed as a private medical decision, the fact that the party-of-less-government-interference Republicans ruled that way makes perfect sense. It has always struck me as odd that the party who advocates for less government regulation and less government interference in our lives would be the one to push for the government to stick its nose into people’s personal medical decisions. It turns out, they’ve only pushed that argument during my adult lifetime.

There are, of course, debates to be had about when a person should be considered a person with full rights and protections under the law, and people are free to debate the moral questions that come with the personal and/or medical reasons people choose to abort a pregnancy. But there’s no question that abortion is a medical decision, which automatically makes it an issue of privacy. That has not changed since 1973. That has not changed since Republicans ruled in favor of choice.

It’s only since the religious right aligned itself with the Republican party in a direct way (and vice versa) that making abortion illegal became a Republican stance.

Interestingly, that relationship—and the corruption that inevitably results in when religious ideology slips into bed with politics—even played out in the life of “Jane Roe” herself. The woman in the landmark case who pushed for choice, whose real name was Norma McCorvey, ended up publicly changing her stance and pushing an anti-abortion message for decades.

Then, in her dying days, she confessed that it was all an act—that she had been paid by anti-abortion activists to put out that messaging.

AKA Jane Roe | Deathbed Confession Highlight | FX

www.youtube.com

Despite how passionate some people’s anti-abortion stances are today—and how politicians use that passion to garner support—abortion has not always been a big, controversial political issue. For much of Western history, abortion was viewed as a private matter between a woman and a doctor, and history also shows that making abortion illegal doesn’t make abortions not happen.

Since the only things proven to reduce abortion rates are comprehensive sex education, easy and affordable access to birth control, and access to healthcare in general; since choice was originally a Republican-led stance as evidenced by the Roe vs. Wade ruling; and since abortion rates have fallen consistently for the past four decades—more drastically under Democrat administrations than Republican, oddly enough—and are currently at record lows, overturning Roe vs. Wade in an attempt to end abortion seems like a strange goal to pin one’s partisan hat on.

In 2019, the Washoe County School District in Reno, Nevada instituted a policy that forbids teachers from participating in “partisan political activities” during school hours. The policy states that “any signage that is displayed on District property that is, or becomes, political in nature must be removed or covered.”

The new policy is based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus decision that limits public employees’ First Amendment protections for speech while performing their official duties.

This new policy caused a bit of confusion with Jennifer Leja, a 7th and 8th-grade teacher in the district. She wondered if, as a bisexual woman, the new policy forbids her from discussing her sexuality.

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Same-sex marriage is legal now in the U.S., so is expressing support for the LGBT community still a political issue?

The issue was even more important for Leja because of her students. As the only openly LGBT teacher in the school, students often come to her to discuss issues they’re having with their sexuality.

via msleja / TikTok

“I usually have a flock of 7th and 8th graders who are trying to learn who they are and how they identify, and they come towards me,” she told Buzzfeed.

Leja reached out to Trustee Andrew Caudill to see if the new policy included LGBT issues. Specifically, could she display rainbow decorations or mention that she has a girlfriend in the classroom?

“The courts have held LGBTQ+ issues to be political speech and thus, the rainbow flag [is considered] to be political speech, so it cannot be expressed through clothing and other means, such as displaying a flag in your class,” Caudill told her in an email released to Buzzfeed News.

He also said that she is able to talk about her relationship.

“I want to be abundantly clear, the policy does not require staff to hide their own sexuality,” Caudill told Buzzfeed News.

“Teachers can let students know their sexuality, or mention their significant others, if they wish, regardless of sexuality,” he continued. “The policy does not impact who a teacher is, it only impacts the advocacy for a specific political position.”

via msleja / TikTok

Leja pushed back against the ruling because, as a member of the LGBT community, the flag represents her identity.

“The issue that I have with it is, I don’t think my existence and my identity is a political issue,” she said. “I think that being able to have a rainbow flag is as much a part of my identity as anything else.”

“It’s important for me because I feel like there are students who spend their lives in the closet and especially in middle school; that is when students are starting to figure out where they are,” she said. “They go through that time period where they don’t know who they are or what they like.”

She has also received numerous rainbow-colored and Pride-themed gifts from her students that she displays in her classroom.

“It started off in my first year of teaching with just a rainbow flag; pretty much all of the rainbows added since then have been students giving me rainbow gifts,” she said.

So, Leja has found her own way around the new district policy. Instead of displaying rainbow-themed decorations in her class room as support for the LGBT community, she’ll continue to do so because she just “really likes rainbows.”

“No politics in Ms. Leja’s classroom, she just really likes rainbows,” she said in a tongue-in-cheek TikTok video. “Rainbows aren’t political, not it all, rainbows are just colorful and fun.”

Let’s be honest, rainbows can’t be political. If they are, then so are depictions of the sun, rain, and any other natural phenomena.

To go a step further, if natural phenomena aren’t inherently political, then why are expressions of support for the LGBT community? As science clearly shows, being gay is one of the most natural things that can be.

Evoking the general DIY vibe of the grime scene as a whole, Skepta adoptss a decidely low-fi aesthetic for his new video “No Stress.” Featuring Essie Gang rappers L3 and Michael Phanthom, the whole video looks like it was shot on a VHS camcorder with various color filters over the lens (or the settings fiddled with to produce the deep red, blue, and green hues that sometimes popped up on the technology back in the day).

From a lyrical standpoint, the three rappers tread familiar tough-guy territory, threatening foes with various forms of extermination. As Skepta boasts on the chorus, “We gon’ catch you slipping, get the drop like oh, yes / Pull up, blow this smoke until there ain’t no smoke left.”

“No Stress” arrives during a relatively slow year for the UK grime star. While contemporaries like Stormzy, have dropped new solo projects in the past 12 months, Skepta was content to constitute one third of the Insomnia joint project with Chip and Young Adz. He did, however, make an appearance with frequent collaborators Gorillaz on their Song Machine single “How Far” with late drummer Tony Allen. With his headlining act at Wireless Festival 2020 getting 86ed along with the rest of live entertainment as a whole, it seems he’s been taking time to enjoy being a father and plot out his follow-up to 2019’s Ignorance Is Bliss while he produces Octavian’s debut.

Watch Skepta’s “No Stress” video above.

One of HBO’s newest programs is the recently premiered (and Kid Cudi-featuring) We Are Who We Are. If the music from the show has stood out, that’s because Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes is the artist behind it. Now that the show has its legs, Hynes is gearing up to release an album of his score, which comes out on October 2. In addition to 12 original songs from Hynes, the tracklist is rounded out by compositions from Julius Eastman and John Adams.

Press materials describe the “coming-of-age drama series” as “a story about two American kids who live on a US military base in Italy, the series explores friendship, first-love, identity, and immerses the audience in all the messy exhilaration and anguish of being a teenager — a story which could happen anywhere in the world, but in this case, happens in this little slice of America in Italy.”

Aside from Cudi, the Luca Gudagnino show also features Chloë Sevigny, Jack Dylan Grazer, Alice Braga, Spence Moore II, and a bunch of newcomers: Jordan Kristine Seamón, Faith Alabi, Francesca Scorsese, Ben Taylor, Corey Knight, Tom Mercier, and Sebastiano Pigazzi.

Find the We Are Who We Are art and tracklist below, as well as the show’s trailer.

1. Devonté Hynes – “The Long Ride II”
2. Devonté Hynes – “Let Yourself Go I”
3. Devonté Hynes – “Let Yourself Go II”
4. Devonté Hynes – “The Last Day”
5. Devonté Hynes – “Fraser’s Bedroom”
6. Devonté Hynes – “He Just Left”
7. Devonté Hynes – “Notte Transigurata I”
8. Devonté Hynes – “The Long Ride I”
9. Devonté Hynes – “Good Job, Soldier”
10. Devonté Hynes – “Body Of Me”
11. Devonté Hynes – “Amorous Love”
12. Devonté Hynes – “Notte Transigurata II”
13. Julius Eastman – “Stay On It”
14. Julius Eastman – “Gay Guerrilla”
15. John Adams – “Century Rolls: II. Manny’s Gym”
16. John Adams – “Two Fanfares For Orchestra: Short Ride In A Fast Machine”

We Are Who We Are: Original Series Score is out 10/2 via Milan Records. Pre-order it here.

Schitt’s Creek was the big winner at the all-remote Emmy’s on Sunday night, with the cast taking home big awards and the show’s final season winning big to boot. But one of the show’s stars, who didn’t get a chance to celebrate with the rest of the cast at their respective watch parties, had an incredible reaction to all the winning.

Sarah Levy, who played loveable waitress and family friend Twyla, is actually the daughter of Eugene Levy and sister of Dan Levy, who both created the show. She was shocked by all the winning, and celebrated on Twitter on Monday.

But her brother Daniel later shared how she really reacted which is basically to scream and jump around a whole lot in an increasingly excited manner. Levy posted a video that was taken of her throughout the night, and it’s a really adorable reaction to a lot of joy happening in the Levy extended family.

The video first shows her reaction to Catherine O’Hara winning Best Actress in a Comedy, where you immediately get acquainted with Levy screaming, the first of many times. Next up was her dad winning Best Actor in a Comedy, then Daniel for writing.

Each time, the screaming gets more excitable, as that’s somehow possible. Some “OH MY GOD”s were added in for the Comedy Writing Emmy, which was a nice touch for her brother. By the time the show won Best Comedy, even she had realized she was only saying “oh my god” again and again, as fitting a response to the triumph as it was.

Meanwhile, Annie Murphy, who also won an Emmy for her work as Alexis Rose on the show, also had an extremely relatable reaction to winning her award on Sunday, according to E News:

After taking home the trophy in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category at the 2020 Emmys, Annie Murphy spoke to E! News and revealed what her very first thought was upon hearing her name called.

“Mine was, ‘Where’s the bathroom?’” the Schitt’s Creek star said.

In other words, it was a truly great night all around. And on Monday, Netflix had great news for streaming customers who haven’t seen the last season that netted everyone those awards in the first place.

It doesn’t bring the crew back for any more episodes, but it is great to finally have it all in one place.

The Boston Celtics were able to gain their first foothold in the Eastern Conference Finals with a win on Saturday against the Heat to cut Miami’s series lead to 2-1. Game 4 won’t take place until Wednesday due to Monday Night Football, which means there’s plenty of time for both parties to look back on Game 3 — and continue reviewing what happened in the first two games that saw Miami take a 2-0 advantage.

In both of those games, the Celtics took a lead in the first half but failed to get to the finish line, with the Heat simply executing better down the stretch. Game 2 was especially painful for Boston, who saw a 13-point halftime lead erased in the third quarter when Miami outscored them by 20 and the Celtics simply couldn’t find an answer. After the game, frustrations were high in the Boston locker room as Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, and others reportedly had it out, with Smart leaving angrily while yelling back at the locker room, ‘y’all on that bullsh*t.‘

It was the type of moment that surely happens more often than we know of, but the Bubble’s locker room setup allows for reporters to be much closer to the locker room and hear the goings on. The Celtics all shrugged it off and they channeled their frustration in past performances into a Game 3 win in which they fought off a Heat charge in the fourth quarter in a way they were unable to the past two games. Smart did not speak with the media after either game, but met with the assembled media on Monday and discussed the postgame outburst, calling it “electrifying” and noting that it’s what happens in a family.

It’s clear that what happened after Game 2 was far from the locker room “crumbling” as some positioned it, but more the release of frustration after two difficult losses that, as Smart said, saw them let two possible wins slip away. The response in Game 3 is why Smart called it “electrifying,” because it helped wake the team up and refocus them on putting that energy and frustration into their game. We’ll see if that can continue in Game 4 on Wednesday as they look to even the series with Miami.

Bad Bunny had a lot going on this past weekend.

Yesterday, he dropped a new video for “Una Vez,” his bouncy collaboration with Puerto Rican singer Mora. The video for the song sees an astronaut, in full space-faring gear, exploring various picturesque landscapes without leaving Earth’s atmosphere (or even the ground).

Also over the weekend, he took the livestream concert game to a new level. Instead of performing from his bedroom or backyard, he took to the streets. Stationed atop a moving flatbed track in New York, he traversed the city as he sang.

During the livestream, which was simulcast on the Uforia Music app and his YouTube channel, Bunny said, “It was difficult for me to do a concert without an audience. I didn’t want to. But I’m accepting the new reality and I hope people enjoy this. We need it.”

At the end of his set, he also noted, “Respect and thanks to those people who have sacrificed their lives in this city. With a lot of faith in God, I sense that good things are coming. I know we are going through very difficult times. I have made thousands of mistakes, but my only mission is to try to be a better person every day.”

Watch the “Una Vez” video above.