Category: Worldwide

This article originally appeared on 05.03.18

Remember your senior yearbook quote?

I remember mine. Like you (probably), I spent weeks wracking my very teenage brain about something special and clever to put down.

And then I had it: My school’s quote had to do with what students’ future plans were and, thinking myself particularly smart and charming, I’d written, “Mark plans to outwit cartoon animals.” Not that great, right?

But it got even worse. Because my handwriting was so bad, the person in charge couldn’t read what the heck I’d written. And so I spent the next two weeks trying to explain to anyone who’d listen that “Mark plans to go out with cartoon animals” was an embarrassing typo that did not at all speak to my social interests.

Sometimes yearbook moments don’t turn out right. But one student recently got her clever quote completely perfect. She nailed it.

I hesitate to use the word “internet icon” more than once or twice a month — they come and go so fast! — but if anyone deserves the title, it’s Krysta Montoya, an 18-year-old from New Mexico who went all in on her quote. I promise you, it is very good.

If you’re not familiar with “Grey’s Anatomy,” it’s that show about the hospital you probably shouldn’t go to because everyone’s too busy fighting and staring at each other sexily to actually save lives. (Sorry, but it’s true.)

And because it’s so rife with drama, this heavily coded message could be about any number of truly fantastic events that have happened in the show’s many seasons.

Does it refer to the time that Christina Ricci unexpectedly showed up as a guest star? Or the time there was a ghost haunting the hospital? Or the time — OK, I might be remembering this incorrectly — someone actually stole a heart so she could keep the man she loved alive?

This quote is about so much more than that. And it’s actually a beautiful message of self-love and acceptance.

No, you don’t need to go through the entire series for the answer (could be fun, though). After people started asking, Montoya revealed on Twitter what the line actually meant.

And here’s what I mean about it being iconic: It’s meaningful, but it’s also sassy AF, which is what the kids are saying these days, I think.

u201cJust because everyone keeps asking me what my quote is. Here ya go.u201d

— Krysta Annud83eudee0 (@Krysta Annud83eudee0)
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The scene is one in which character Erica Hahn realizes she’s a lesbian. But Montoya wasn’t using the quote to come out — or, as “Queer Eye” culture expert Karamo Brown would say, “let people in.” Montoya, who often posts tweets of herself and her girlfriend, has been open about her sexuality since her freshman year.

But an opportunity to reaffirm herself using her favorite show? She wasn’t going to let that pass by.

“I chose this as my quote because I feel some people do not accept who I am. I just wanted to basically make a bold statement,” she told Business Insider. “I’ve lost some friends over my sexuality, but my family has always supported me.”

The response to the quote has been overwhelming. And Montoya’s using the opportunity to spread the word about living your best life.

Overall, Montoya is surprised by the reaction she’s gotten. She says that she chose to code her message so school officials wouldn’t cut it from the yearbook, but she didn’t really expect anyone else to care. “A lot of friends I don’t talk to came out and told me how cool and awesome it was!” Montoya tells Upworthy.

As for her peers who may not be so accepting? Montoya isn’t bothered. Though she told BuzzFeed that her statement was bold in that it threw subtle shade at those who have never accepted her sexuality — some, she’d said, told her she’d be dating a guy by senior year — she believes that one can’t live and die by the acceptance of others.

“I don’t really need anyone’s acceptance, just my family’s,” she says. “I’m happy with who I am. If my peers don’t believe so, that’s their choice.”

And she’s got a message for others who might be struggling with their own identities or figuring out how to be themselves: “Live your life, be happy,” she says. “You are not living in this world to make anyone else happy but yourself. You deserve to be you, and you deserve to be the happy version of you.”

Man, that would make a great senior quote, too.

Taylor Swift currently sits atop the Billboard Hot 100 with “Anti-Hero” and the Billboard 200 chart with Midnights. The demand for her 2023 The Eras Tour was so overwhelming that the Justice Department reportedly launched an investigation into Ticketmaster’s handling of the presale, and a Congressional hearing was scheduled. So, Swift making The Hollywood Reporter‘s “2022 Women In Entertainment Power 100” is wildly unsurprising.

For the list, Swift was asked which fictional character with which she identifies, and she went with a Game Of Thrones legend who was definitely on her “Vigilante Sh*t.”

“Arya Stark,” Swift said. “I realize I don’t know how to use a sword, and I’ve never had to rise up from near death to go on an epic revenge mission — but I have been in the music industry for over 15 years, so…”

Stark was portrayed by Maisie Williams, who presented Swift with the Global Icon award at the 2021 BRITs.

“Anyone who knows me at all knows that Game Of Thrones is my life, so the fact that Maisie was here to present this, I wanna grab you. I can’t. We’re social-distancing. Thank you so much for coming here to do this,” Swift said in her acceptance speech.

Swift was also asked by THR who in Hollywood she’d like to trade places with, and the 11-time Grammy winner chose the acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro. “Imagine having that imagination, that visual vocabulary and that astonishing body of work,” she said. “To have such a diverse storytelling range but to somehow put your distinctive artistic fingerprint on every film. And yet, it feels like he’s still so curious and enthusiastic about his work. I can only imagine that a day in his mind would be fascinating.”

Swift’s sentiment about del Toro extends to herself. She wrote and directed her acclaimed All Too Well: The Short Film starring Dylan O’Brien and Sadie Sink. She continued to flex her directorial chops in her Midnights era with videos for “Anti-Hero” and “Bejeweled.”

The Warriors and Jazz met on Wednesday night with both teams playing without key contributors, as Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Lauri Markkanen, and Mike Conley Jr. were all sitting out, which only proved to even things out in what became a closely contested game.

The two teams traded leads in the first half before Utah took control in the third quarter, with the Warriors fighting back to take a two-point lead in the final minute of the fourth. With 30 seconds to play, the Jazz had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead, but saw Jordan Clarkson get shutdown by Jonathan Kuminga, who blocked a midrange jumper attempt and then corralled the loose ball. Clarkson, seemingly frustrated with not getting a call on the play, wrapped up Kuminga and hacked at him, leading to a bit of a skirmish with teammates on both sides pulling the two away from each other.

The referees concluded Clarkson’s swipe down on Kuminga constituted a Flagrant 2 foul and the Utah star guard was ejected, with Kuminga and Malik Beasley each earning offsetting technical fouls. That seemed like it would be the decisive moment of the fourth quarter, but the Jazz did not allow that to happen, as they pulled back within one with just under seven seconds to go and then forced a steal on a wild play (that seemed like there was maybe a foul in there) leading to a Simon Fontecchio bucket to put Utah on top in a stunning win.

That takes some sting out of the Flagrant 2 call, which had Jazz fans quite upset, and now the no-call on the inbounds pass will become the new controversial officiating decision at the end of this game.

Donald Trump’s been dealt a lot of bad cards lately, and not without good cause. But Tuesday’s one-two punch had to hurt. A grand jury found two companies part of the Trump Business guilty on 17 counts of tax fraud and other crimes. Mere hours later, Herschel Walker because the latest Trump-backed candidate to flame out. With the former he had to worry about a financial apocalypse. With the latter, he’s worried that the GOP will finally kick him to the curb.

On Wednesday’s edition CNN’s OutFront, reporter Kristen Holmes reported that Trump is down at Mar-a-Lago just “stewing” about his fate with the party he once dramatically bended to his will:

“The aides, advisers and allies that I’ve talked to are deeply concerned … They had hoped for a Walker win, obviously. But Walker wasn’t just endorsed by Trump. He was heavily recruited by Trump. Trump is the one who actually pushed him forward. And they had hoped that if he won, this would stop these calls for new Republican leadership, particularly after so many of Trump’s picks failed in the midterms. And they also hoped that it would breathe some sort of new life and energy into what has really been a lackluster launch of a 2024 campaign. And now they are fearful that it’s going to do just the opposite because of this loss, that it’s actually going to boost the demand for people to challenge Trump in 2024.”

Holmes then revealed that one person close to Trump has decided to support someone else based on his “losing scorecard.” Indeed, this person told Holmes, “Donald’s got his problems right now, and they are so numerous that I don’t think he can win, and I want to back a winner.” Some have told Holmes that he’s gone from the King Midas of the party to a “killer” with whom no one wants to be associated.

“Now, this is all coming on the heels of what has been a really bad three weeks for the former president,” Holmes explained. “And we’re told it’s not lost on him. He has been at Mar-a-Lago, he is stewing. He is calling allies, he is calling advisers. He is talking about those verdicts in New York.”

Of course, when has Trump ever had to really pay for the consequences of his actions? Even though more and more Fox News hosts are turning on him, many are still lying low, afraid to mention him but also afraid to sever ties lest his fortunes miraculously improve. In other words, don’t write him off just yet, even if the hits keep coming.

You can watch Holmes’ segment in the video below.

(Via Raw Story)

Lots of great festivals are slated for 2023 — from Coachella and Rolling Loud to When We Were Young Fest and The Hangout Festival. Like Coachella, New York’s Governors Ball is still yet to announce their lineup. They also haven’t revealed information about tickets yet, but it looks like these details should arrive soon.

Earlier this year, they unveiled their roster of artists on January 25 alongside a pre-sale. The general sale was then two days later on January 27. Hopefully this means that next year’s will be announced around the same time, and it’s likely that the lineup and pre-sale will arrive at the same moment. Come the end of January, be prepared. Maybe even have their website bookmarked, and keep their Twitter handy.

The festival is taking place at Citi Field stadium from June 9 to 11. It was canceled in 2020 after announcing performers like Tame Impala, Missy Elliott, Vampire Weekend, and Miley Cyrus. But it returned strong in 2021 with headliners like Billie Eilish, ASAP Rocky, J Balvin, and Post Malone. This year’s was also a success, featuring headliners such as Kid Cudi, Halsey, and J. Cole. Halsey pleased the audience with a passionate cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” which experienced a resurgence in the spring after it played a crucial role in the plot of Stranger Things.

Missy Elliott is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

There are a lot of ways to get fouled playing basketball, but typically, you are not expected to get kicked in the face while on the court. It takes someone messing up pretty tremendously to end up with a foot to the face but, unfortunately for Jordan McLaughlin, that’s exactly what happened on Wednesday night against the Pacers.

McLaughlin caught a ball in the corner and pump-faked a shot, getting Isaiah Jackson to fly by on a late closeout. However, as McLaughlin took a dribble to reset for an actual three-point attempt, Jackson’s right heel caught him square on the jaw for one of the oddest (and more painful) fouls we’ll likely see all season.

The good news is McLaughlin was alright, more stunned than shaken up after having his jaw clipped by Jackson’s foot, and it maybe only made him stronger as he would hit a buzzer-beater to end the third quarter that tied the game at 90 going to the final period.

Adam Levine had a September to forget. The Maroon 5 vocalist was at the center of a very bizarre cheating scandal after a model named Sumner Stroh took to TikTok to allege that she and Levine had an affair. Screenshots showed Levine asking if he could name his forthcoming child, his third with wife Behati Prinsloo, after Stroh. Other women followed in Stroh’s footsteps, sharing flirty DMs allegedly from Levine, which prompted a memefest.

Levine addressed the allegations with TMZ, admitting that he “used poor judgment in speaking with anyone other than my wife in ANY kind of flirtatious manner” but denied engaging in an affair. That could have been the end of it, and it more or less was, but the internet never totally forgets.

According to Google’s “Year In Search 2022” report, Levine was the most-searched musician or band this year. The top five is rounded out by Mary J. Blige, Lil Tjay, Kendrick Lamar, and Migos. The top-five most-searched people overall were Johnny Depp, Will Smith, Amber Heard, Antonio Brown, and Kari Lake.

Blige took part in the Emmy-winning Super Bowl LVI halftime performance at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium alongside Lamar, 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Snoop Dogg. Lil Tjay was shot seven times in Edgewater, New Jersey this June, resulting in emergency surgery and one week spent unconscious. The Bronx rapper made a full recovery. Lamar returned with Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, his first album since 2017’s Pulitzer Prize-winning DAMN.

Migos were in the news cycle heavily — first because Offset departed the Atlanta trio, and then because Takeoff was tragically shot and killed on November 1. His alleged killer was arrested last week and is being held on $2 million bond.

See the full Google report here.

Aaron Carter died on November 5 at his California home. TMZ first reported that the 34-year-old former child pop star was found unconscious in his bathtub, and The Los Angeles Times reported days later that an initial autopsy could not determine his official cause of death. Public tributes have been pouring out since, including from Carter’s teenage girlfriend Hilary Duff. Nick Carter and Angel Conrad, two of his siblings, expressed their grief. Nick also honored Aaron while performing with the Backstreet Boys in London.

Today, December 7, would have been Carter’s 35th birthday. Conrad, his twin sister, didn’t let the day go by without recognizing her unfathomable loss and announcing the Songs For Tomorrow benefit concert.

Conrad’s vulnerable caption reads as follows:

“I want to start by sharing how much I appreciate all the birthday wishes. While today is incredibly tough, I am overwhelmed by your love and support… thank you from the bottom of my heart. Almost 11 years ago, I lost my sister, Leslie. I remember feeling broken, confused, and I questioned how I was going to continue on without her in my life… And now, over a decade later, I am forced to once again deal with the extreme grief of the death of a sibling. This time, it’s my beloved twin, Aaron. We had an indescribable bond… and now… he is gone.

“It feels unfair… I feel too young to carry the weight of losing two of my siblings. When we lost Leslie, I was blindsided and shocked. With Aaron, however, we had tried everything. In fact, I spoke with him two days before he passed, and I begged, once again, for him to let us help. I did not know that would be the last time that I would ever hear his voice. And now, I sit here on our birthday, trying to navigate this unimaginable loss because of untreated mental illness and the addiction that it led to.

“Aaron dying was the worst day of my life. I have loved him since we were born… it feels like a piece of my soul is gone. And yet, despite all this pain, his passing has lit a fire within me. I feel a calling and responsibility to help other families and continue the conversation to further break the stigmas that surround mental illness. And so, with the support of family and friends, we are planning a benefit concert to raise awareness for mental health, with 100% of proceeds being donated to @onoursleevesofficial. To learn more, please click the link in my bio to see how you can support the critical work of On Our Sleeves by attending ‘Songs For Tomorrow’ January 18, 2023, in West Hollywood, CA. I have learned the pain never goes away and keep telling myself that it is one step at a time. I am hoping you can join me for this crucial next step… in memory of Aaron.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lance Bass will co-host the event.

In mid-November, Nick Carter shared that a donation fund had been created in Aaron’s memory for On Our Sleeves (as noted by THR), an organization aimed at supporting children’s mental health.

Before his tragic passing, Carter had publicly dealt with a string of mental health issues. He appeared on The Doctors several times between 2017-19 to address his addiction to prescription pills and huffing. During a 2019 appearance, he said that he had been diagnosed with acute anxiety, manic depression, multiple personality disorder, and schizophrenia.

Taylor Helgeson, Carter’s manager, told Page Six last month that Carter “looked thin” and “like he needed to be taking care of him” in the days before his death. “He didn’t seem okay physically … [but] mentally, he was the most excited I’ve seen him in months,” Helgeson added.

Carter had entered an outpatient recovery program in September in an effort to regain custody of his son, Prince, whom he shared with his on-and-off fiancée, Melanie Martin.

More information about Songs For Tomorrow, including ticket availability, can be found here.

White Reaper are always making noise with their brand of unrestrained punk. In October, they shared “Pages” along with the announcement of their forthcoming album Asking for a Ride, arriving in January and following up 2019’s You Deserve Love. Today they’re back with “Fog Machine,” a new single with a video.

“Fog Machine” is as relentless as it is catchy, pushing forward with energetic riffs and a fast pace. “We had it in our back pocket for a while,” explained vocalist and guitarist Tony Esposito. “We knew we loved playing it together, but it was a little tricky to nail the arrangement at first. We got it together at the last minute before we went into the studio and now it’s our favorite song to play live.”

About the album, Esposito added, “We ask ourselves: ‘Does it sound good when we play it in the room together?’ And if it does, those are the songs we want to pursue.” Guitarist Hunter Thompson said, “We started to recognize how we operate best as a band.” It makes sense — this track captures the vigor and exhilaration of being at a show in the middle of a mosh pit.

Watch the video for “Fog Machine” above.

Asking for a Ride is out 1/27 via Elektra Entertainment.

Donald Trump’s got a lot to worry about these days. There’s the backlash over his choice of dinner guests, his call to terminate the Constitution, not to mention the epic guilty verdicts bestowed upon his business. It’s easy to forget about one of the biggest albatrosses around his neck: the Justice Department investigation over his absconding with tons of classified government documents. And guess what? They’ve somehow found more.

As per The Washington Post, lawyers for the former president found at least two more documents stashed in a Florida storage unit. They were immediately turned over to the feds.

The documents were discovered amidst a search by an outside team, who’d been hired by Trump to comb over some of his other properties, to ensure that all materials requested by a federal judge back in May had been turned in.

The storage unit in which the documents were found is located in West Palm Beach, not far from Mar-a-Lago. It was rented out in the summer of 2021, half a year after Trump’s presidency ended, so as to store items from an office he held in West Virginia. A person familiar with the unit told reporters that the unit held a strange mix: boxes, gifts, clothes, as well as “suits and swords and wrestling belts and all sorts of things.” None of it had been catalogued, not even the swords. He claimed Trump had not even visited the unit.

After FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago and emerged with boxes of documents, Trump initially tried to play the victim. He threw out one excuse after another. He’s thrown legal hurdles in investigators’ way. He’s even demanded some of the documents be returned. At one point, he inadvertently admitted he stole them.

That he’s hired teams to make sure all documents requested by a federal judge suggests he may be taking it seriously. Reportedly one lawyer has advised him to take a combative approach with law enforcement than he has. Luckily there’s one thing Trump has and that’s self-control.

(Via The Washington Post)