Category: Viral

After his breakout debut Worlds in 2014, Porter Robinson remained quiet. That is, until this January when the singer returned with his first new music in six years. Robinson ushered in a new era with the wistful track “Get Your Wish.” After dropping “Something Comforting” in March, Robinson returns once again with the airy single “Mirror.”

The new single boasts glitchy melodies and moves fluidly between lulling piano and a driving beat. Much like the rest of his catalog, Robinson distorts his vocal track, taking it to brand-new heights.

In a statement about the track, Robinson said it’s a reflection about being his own worst critic:

“‘Mirror’ is a song about the costs of being hard on yourself. We all have these avatars that we give to our critical inner voices – we might imagine a scornful parent telling us we’ll fail, or a critic telling us our work comes up short, or a society telling us that we aren’t good enough – it’s about recognizing that most of this criticism is self-inflicted. For years, I was imagining the worst thing a critic might say about my music and looking at my own work as negatively as possible as a way to protect myself from criticism, but it never once served me. My hope is that other people can overcome this same kind of shame – it can be really liberating to recognize that most of the time, we’re only letting our own thoughts get in the way, and we can do something about it.”

Listen to “Mirror” above.

There’s a lot of “Hemingway” foods and drinks out there. Papa was the original gourmand, blazing his own culinary path across the world. The Hemingway Sour and the Hemingway Daiquiri are probably the most popular. Then there’s the Hemingway Hamburger.

I was only tangentially aware of this recipe. I’d read about it here and there but really didn’t know more than it was a hamburger that Hemingway preferred to make while living in Cuba. I decided to rectify that situation and actually make the damned thing. But first, let’s get a little background.

This is a real recipe from Hemingway himself. It was part of the writer’s “papers” from his time in Cuba which were donated to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. The papers included correspondence with Hemingway’s editors, personal letters, and even shopping lists with handwritten notes and recipes, including the scribe’s famous hamburger recipe.

The recipe’s gist is two-fold. One, it’s meant to be a hamburger that’s full of flavor and texture inside the patty. Two, it’s meant to be super “juicy” and meaty. Hemingway’s recipe was also very exact. He gives tips on how long to let the meat rest, marinate, sear, and cook in precise minutes. I tried to follow these as exactly as they were written.

I wasn’t trailblazing any new paths here. This road has been walked before by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan for the Paris Review. Tan gives very helpful instructions and also helped with sourcing a couple of ingredients I couldn’t get my hands on. After I followed Hemingway’s instructions via Tan’s guidance, I decided to see what would happen if I add my own flair to the hamburger with some of the things I like on my burger.

Okay, that’s enough preamble. I love making recreation hamburgers. So, let’s get into the Hemingway Hamburger and see if it stands the test of time.

The Hemingway Hamburger

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground beef (85/15 lean/fat)
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 green onion finely chopped
• 1 heaping tsp. India relish*
• 2 tbsp. capers
• 1 heaping tsp. Spice Islands Sage
• 1/2 tsp. Spice Islands Beau Monde Seasoning**
• 1/2 tsp. Spice Islands Mei Yen Powder***
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1 tbsp. neutral cooking oil

*This is likely just the regular Heinz India Relish from the late 19th century. The recipe on the jar is identical to Heinz Sweet Relish. Sot that’s what I used since that’s what I could get.

**I cannot get Spice Islands Beau Monde Seasoning. So I looked it up and recreated it from scratch using Spruce Eats’ recipe. It’s a mix of one tablespoon each ground clove, onion powder, salt, ground bay leaf, allspice, black pepper, and one teaspoon each white pepper, nutmeg, mace, and ground celery seed. I combined everything into a small bowl and mixed it together

***Spice Islands Mei Yen Powder has been discontinued. So I used the instructions Tan gives in the Paris Review guide. It’s a mix of nine parts salt to nine parts sugar to two parts MSG. I combined 4 1/2 teaspoons salt, 4 1/2 teaspoons white sugar, and 1 teaspoon MSG in a small bowl and mixed it together.

Prep:

So, Papa described the first step of the burger-making process as such: “Break up the meat with a fork and scatter the garlic, onion, and dry seasonings over it, then mix them into the meat with a fork or your fingers.”

As you can see above, that’s what I did … in too small a bowl. So I transferred everything to a bigger bowl and used my fingers to mix the garlic, onion, and dry seasonings into the meat. Hemingway then says to let the meat rest for “ten or fifteen minutes.” So, I did.

And yeah, I can see the point of giving the spices and salts a chance to marry to the meat. Next, I added the rest of the ingredients. I was a little incredulous though. I’ve added an egg to a patty in the past (I lived through the early 2000s after all). But it often isn’t necessary. And I really couldn’t see an entire one-third cup of white wine not making this all a little sloppy. Anyway, I trudged on diligently, trusting in Papa’s gourmand ways.

So, I added in the beaten egg, minced capers, relish, and white wine. I worked in the wet ingredients with my hands. It was at first a little sloppy but did start to come together into a super-soft meatloaf after about a minute of kneading.

I then let that meat rest of ten minutes to “marinate.” Finally, I formed four, equal-sized patties very gingerly. The meat was very soft and needed a lot of coaxing to stay together. But, I was able to make four thickish patties that met Hemingway’s requirement of “an inch thick, and soft in texture but not runny.”

Cook:

I got my cast iron on a high flame and added some Canola oil — one tablespoon as per the recipe.

Once the skillet was hot but not smoking, again per the recipe, I added in two patties and turned the heat down. I let the patties fried for exactly four minutes.

Papa then says to “take the pan off the burner and turn the heat high again. Flip the burgers over, put the pan back on the hot fire, then after one minute, turn the heat down again, and cook another three minutes.” So, I did exactly that. Accept one thing — I added two slices of aged Irish Cheddar to one of the patties for my experimental update. It’s also important to note that I never pressed down on the patties.

In the meantime, I toasted off two potato buns with butter and garlic powder in another pan. Once, those were ready, the three minutes had passed on the second side of the patties and we were ready to plate up.

As you can see below, the patties shrunk a little bit but maintained their girth. I was hoping they also maintained their juices because there’s nothing worse than a thick patty that’s also dry.

Looking at this crosssection of the burger, it’s pretty clear Papa knew what he was doing when it came to thick and juicy burgers. The look of this burger was very enticing with the speckles of relish, capers, and onions adding a nice nuance. But how did it taste?

The damn thing was dripping with juices full of flavor too. It was slightly funky with all the capers and relish alongside a real meatiness. It was also an umami bomb of a burger. The relish and capers did add a little bit of a textural element that I’d say is a step back from a crunch but you know it’s there. It’s really all about the flavors and this burger was full of them.

I mean, look at all that juice that comes out of this burger when you squeeze it! And yes, it was delicious all on its own on that bun.

The Updated Version or: The Hemingway Deluxe

So, I had to try this with a few accouterments to modernize it a bit. Hemingway’s Hamburger is literally just a burger patty on a bun and I had to know if it needed anything else.

Additions:

So, I added two slices of aged Irish cheddar, a slice of in-season beefsteak tomato, some more pickle (I love pickles on burgers), and a couple of thin slices of yellow onion.

I decided to forgo any lettuce or sauce. There’s so much juice in the patty, that the sauce would have been washed away. As for the lettuce, I didn’t feel like a cold, bitter crunch would have added much more to all the flavors already in play.

And yeah, this was great. But about two bites in, I realized it was a great burger not because what I put on it but because that god damn patty was so god damn good. In fact, I’d argue the cheese smothered a little sharpness of the burger patty which I didn’t want happening at all.

Final Thoughts:

This hamburger was really better with the less it had on it. If I made this again, I’d go full Ron Swanson and simply serve you this patty on a well-toasted bun. I’d watch as your doubts turned to bliss as you took your first bite and realized you can have a perfect hamburger with simply a patty and a bun and nothing else. I know it sounds crazy. But alas, it’s as true as the sun rising again tomorrow.

Discogs is the unofficial home to all things music. The site is a crowd-sourced and comprehensive resource for information and discourse on artist discographies, from commercial to bootleg releases. With Record Store Day adjusting to life amid the pandemic, users are flocking to the site to decide which exclusive vinyls they should pick up. That’s where one Discogs user came in. Inspired by Okayplayer’s shortlist of Black-owned record stores, one Discogs user has begun rounding up an growing catalog of Black-owned record stores to support.

As the #ShowMustBePaused industry blackout took place in June, Discogs user Ben Kessler decided to lean on the community to form an encyclopedia of Black-owned record stores. Speaking to Discogs about the project, Kessler said as the national conversation focused on Black voices, he wanted people to be aware of these independent record stores: “I thought it made the most sense to stand in solidarity with Black record store owners in this small way. Nobody should expect something in return for his or her support of what is right, but if someone was going to buy a record anyway, wouldn’t it make the most sense to buy it from someone who is already competing on the wrong end of an uneven playing field?”

Kessler continued that he sees vinyl-heads as a largely white group, but recognizes many of those buying vinyls focus on music from Black artists:

“I don’t think one has to be collecting records for particularly long to realize we are a largely homogeneous group. I’m 35 and have been buying records since I was around 12 or 13. White men are the vast majority of folks in record stores on both sides of the counter. This is despite the fact that we are often buying recordings created by Black artists or by people who owe, to say the last, a debt of gratitude to Black creators. All parts of the music supply chain should be representative of the people who make the music.”

At the time of publication, Kessler’s list boasts 29 entries, but he hopes the list will continue to grow with the help of the music community.

Check out and contribute to the list here.

Winning the Madden NFL 20 Celebrity Tournament wasn’t enough for Derwin James, it seems, as the Chargers safety is doubling down on his competitiveness in the game by spearheading the NFL’s Madden offerings this upcoming season. James will take on a new challenger each Tuesday in “Derwin James vs The World,” which will feature a different celebrity, musical artist or athlete taking on James each week of the NFL season.

The tournament is the keynote event of the Madden NFL 21 Championship Series, which will pair Madden competition with real gridiron competition among NFL players throughout the fall and winter. Also on Tuesdays, different NFL athletes will compete against competitive Madden gamers in a King of the Hill tournament, with gamers competing for a $1.4 million prize pool.

“Fans got a taste of my skills when I won the Madden NFL 20 Celebrity Tournament back in April, and this time, I’m back to quiet any doubters that I’m the best Madden player in the League,” James said in a statement. “I’m a huge Madden fan and I look forward to showing up every Tuesday to take on new challengers and ultimately test my skills against the season’s best Madden player.”

James’ games and the King of the Hill competition will be broadcast each week on the Madden Twitch page and the game’s YouTube channel. The game itself will be available on Friday, Aug. 28, while those who purchased the MVP Edition of the game have access starting Wednesday.

It’s hard to believe that almost two months have passed since Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds fired new shots in their years-long “feud,” but it just came roaring back to life on Tuesday. While appearing on The Jess Cagle Show, Jackman was asked what he’d get Reynolds for his upcoming birthday in October, and you can definitely say the gift idea is pretty crappy. Literally. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“The first thing that came to mind was a game we used to play as kids, did you ever play that game, we used to call it Ring and Run?” Jackman began. “Where you go knock on someone’s door and run away. So of course my older brother took it to the next level and when you came to open the door there was a package that was on fire. The package was filled with various amounts of dog poo from the neighborhood. So you would stamp it out. That’s the first thing that came to mind.”

Jackman was also asked about a recent fan request that he and Reynolds star in a reboot of Face/Off, the ’90s action film from director John Wo that saw Nicolas Cage and John Travolta swap faces and do battle. Surprisingly, Jackman seemed into it, but he had one very specific condition. “Is it possible to shoot it where we are actually never together? Is that possible?”

The last time the two adversaries “met,” Reynolds crashed an X-Men virtual reunion in June prompting everyone to leave after the actor mocked the film franchise’s convoluted timelines. “It’s like a recap of Knot’s Landing,” the Deadpool star quipped as Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, James McAvoy, and Sophie Turner filed out one-by-one until only Reynolds and Jackman were left alone together.

(Via The Jess Cagle Show)

Moroccan-Canadian singer-songwriter Faouzia turned 20 years old recently, and she has already made waves in her young career. She has collaborations with David Guetta and Kelly Clarkson under her belt, and she has dropped some material unaccompanied in 2020. She shared “How It All Works” in July, and now she returns with another new one, the brief but blood-pumping “Born Without A Heart.”

Faouzia explained her musical background in a recent interview, saying, “I started performing at a really young age, and when people would come up to me after talent shows and such, they would always say the kindest and most supportive things! It made me think, ‘Hey!, Maybe I can start performing more often!’ Eventually, I decided that I wanted to start putting covers on YouTube and I released my first song when I was fifteen years old. It was a gradual process, but it has always been a passion of mine and I’m so happy that I get to do what I love.”

She also hinted at her plans for 2020, saying, “This year has been very unpredictable but one thing I know for sure is that there is a lot of music coming and I am so excited for everyone to hear it!”

Watch the “Born Without A Heart” video above.

The Empire Strikes Back is inarguably the greatest Star Wars film in the eleven movie franchise. A large part of that is because the movie took on a darker tone than its predecessor, introduced some twists, and featured moments that would become iconic not just in the history of the franchise, but in the history of film itself. However, a small part of the movie’s popularity owes a debt to the introduction of Boba Fett, a fan-favorite character that would become mythologized amongst Star Wars fans from the moment he appeared on the silver screen until now. Disney+’s The Mandalorian is pretty much just a show where Jon Favreau plays with his Boba Fett Star Wars toys.

That’s right Fett fans, your dude is about as wack as Captain Phasma.

While I’m no Fett fanatic, I can’t deny that Boba Fett’s armor is probably one of the dopest looks in Star Wars and now Adidas is celebrating the bounty hunter’s iconic metalwork with a new Top Ten Hi sneaker inspired by first Mandalorian. Featuring a rich olive green upper, this Top Ten Hi features all sorts of small details that call back to the bounty hunter’s armor that fans will no doubt fall head over heels for — like the slightly worn battle markings across the upper or the light blue tongue that resembles Fett’s undergarment, as well as red accents and Fett’s mythosaur skull signet at the heel. But easily the most recognizable feature is the utility-focused pouch affixed to the sneaker’s collar.

The shoe is being released in celebration of the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, and follows a Luke Skywalker Stan Smith, a Lando Calrissian NMD R1 V2, and a Stormtrooper NMD R1. Now, all we need is a Yoda shoe and I think Adidas will have paid fair tribute to the film!

The sneaker is set to drop exclusively through the Adidas UK webstore on September 24th for a retail price of $111. Before all you Star Wars stans come at me, yes, I’m well aware that Boba Fett’s first appearance was actually in an animated portion of The Star Wars Holiday Special, which dropped on September 24th, 1978. So don’t come at me in the comments with that noise.

Get a full look at the sneaker below.

Princess Nokia continues her prolific 2020 by adding to her viral hit “I Like Him” with a captivating video. The track originally appeared on Everything Sucks, one of her two recently-released LPs. After months of pressure from fans, Princess Nokia has unveiled the song’s visual.

Directed by Sebastian Sdaigui, the video slates Princess Nokia as a cyborg femme fatale. The singer hooks herself up to a machine and out comes a lineup of her ideal men. “I like him / Like him too / He my man / He my boo / He my type / He so cute / I want him / And I want him too,” she raps.

Ahead of the “I Like Him” visual, Princess Nokia dropped two records simultaneously, Everything Sucks and Everything Is Beautiful. The two concept LPs show both sides of the rapper, one dark, mysterious and sensual, and the other positive, motivated, and whimsical. To celebrate the albums’ releases, Princess Nokia stopped by A Colors Show to give a bright rendition of her single “Gemini” and treated her songs “Balenciaga,” “Sugar Honey Ice Tea,” and “Green Eggs & Ham,” and “Gross” with cinematic visuals.

Watch Princess Nokia’s “I Like Him” video above.

Everything Sucks is out now via Rough Trade. Get it here.

NLE Choppa‘s new video for “Daydream” surrounds the teen star with a wealth of eye-popping images directed by Ethan Lader. With nods to the Black Lives Matter movement and the violence that follows rappers, the burgeoning star knows how to get attention and keep it, with the help of some green screen, CGI, and his own magnetic charisma.

Lyrically, the song is right in line with most of the rest of his debut album, Top Shotta, with Big L-esque shock value punchlines (“Why did you kill ’em? I did it for Satan”) and tough-guy threats (“Bag on his hat, he gone in a day / We know where he at, and we know where he stay”), but the video adds in some surreal imagery to keep things visually fresh, including having Choppa rap in a room full of chalk outlines, while standing on shark-infested waters, and while riding a speeding bullet. The most striking scene involves a bit of teenage wish fulfillment, as Choppa is confronted by police officers in riot gear and activates Superman-style heat vision to blast them away.

Watch NLE Choppa’s ‘Daydream’ video above. Top Shotta is out now via Warner Records. Get it here.

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

October is a big month for Netflix (then again, I’m not sure Netflix has ever taken a month “off”). There’s Aaron Sorkin’s probable-Best Picture contender The Trial of The Chicago 7; a remake of a film that actually won Best Picture, Rebecca; and the second volume of Unsolved Mysteries. Be sure to add The Forty-Year-Old Version to the list, too. Directed and written by Radha Blank, the black-and-white comedy is about a former-“30 Under 30” award-winning playwright (also Blank) who’s still struggling for her big break as she’s pushing 40, so she takes up rapping.

The Forty-Year-Old Version was a hit at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where Blank won the U.S. Dramatic Competition Directing Award, with the Hollywood Reporter‘s Beandrea July calling it “a love letter to the people of pre-gentrified Harlem (she’s a New York native), to old-school hip-hop, to struggling artists, to young people with big dreams and to black women who dare to live life out of the box.”

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Radha is a down-on-her-luck NY playwright, who is desperate for a breakthrough before 40. Reinventing herself as rapper RadhaMUSPrime, she vacillates between the worlds of Hip Hop and theater in order to find her true voice.

The Forty-Year-Old Version, produced by Lena Waithe, debuts on Netflix on October 9.