Top Gun: Maverick came out in late May, but as of last weekend, the year’s highest-grossing movie is still playing in more than 650 theaters across the United States. Such is the power of Tom Cruise risking his life in increasingly elaborate stunts for our entertainment. Does he have to do it? No. Should he stop? Also no.
Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski spoke to Empire about what he calls the “most extreme thing we shot in the film,” the Star Wars-like trench run. The jet was flown by Navy pilot Frank “Walleye” Weisser, but Cruise was along for the ride. “It’s all in-camera, it’s Tom Cruise at 550 knots, going 30 feet above ground through the Toiyabe [Canyon] low-level training grounds. That’s a real Top Gun training thing.”
After the scene was finished and the plane landed, Walleye came over to Kosinski asked, “Did you get it?” He did. “Good,” Walleye replied, “because I’m never doing that again.” But Cruise “would have done it 100 more times!” Kosinski said. “In fact, I smile because when I watch that sequence, he’s wincing through the Gs, but I know under the mask he’s smiling for most of it, because he’s having the time of his life.”
It looks like the cast of Starz show BMF isn’t the only people blowing money fast. Rap superstar Lil Baby is on top of his game, showing no signs of slowing down after earning his third consecutive No. 1 Billboard 200 album, It’s Only Me. But, as the saying goes, when you work hard, you get to play hard and with friends like Drake that just might include gambling.
While promoting his new album, the Atlanta native stopped by Complex’s 360, hosted by Speedy Morman, to talk about his humbling start as a artist, hanging around billionaires, and of course gambling with Drake.
Back in July, we reported Drake won and lost $25 million playing roulette with French Montana, and it seems like his bad luck might have rubbed off onto Lil Baby. During the interview, Baby revealed he lost around $600,000 playing baccarat with Drake, Meek Mill, James Harden, and former 76ers owner Mike Rubin while on vacation.
He said, “Just one night everyone was in the Bahamas and we were all gambling together. Drake, Meek Mill, James Harden, and Mike Ruben.” He then sadly revealed, “I lost about $600,000.”
Later in the interview, Morman asks, “Is that the worst day you’ve ever had in gambling?”
“Nope,” Lil Baby answers.
Morman continues, “You’ve lost more than that?”
“Unfortunately,” Baby painfully replies.
I guess when you are racking in a minimum of $200,000 an occasion, taking a loss of $600,000 here and there won’t cause too much of a dent in your wallet.
Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Watching someone create a piece of art can be a fascinating experience even when using traditional methods, but when an artist utilizes unique tools and techniques, it’s all the more mesmerizing. (Have you seen the guy who creates huge, hyperrealistic drawings with just a basic Bic ballpoint pen? Absolutely amazing.)
Then, when you add an element of soothing sounds on top of it—such as Bob Ross’ calm voice and wholesome commentary, for example—watching art come to life becomes an almost meditative experience.
Enter Jay Lee, a painter who has grown a huge following on YouTube with his wordless painting tutorials. Lee’s techniques are unconventional from the get-go, as he often starts his paintings by applying streaks and globs of paint directly on the canvas. As he blends the paint with calming instrumental music in the background, you can start to see the beginnings of a background take shape.
He also pulls in various unconventional tools to create different effects, such as crumpled-up aluminum foil, batches of cotton swabs rubber-banded together, sprigs of pine, forks, hair combs and more. He does use traditional paintbrushes as well, but the combination of tools he uses creates interesting textures while saving tons of time.
In fact, people can follow his tutorials and create their own paintings surprisingly quickly. Watch this scene of a couple walking in the rain in the fall he created in just 10 minutes (with very little speeding up or skipping over steps):
It’s amazing to watch the painting emerge as he works.
Jay Lee’s impressionist style leaves a great deal of room for individuality, yet his tutorials are so simple to follow. My teen daughter has boosted her confidence in her artistic abilities by painting along with his videos, as they are quick and easy to do with impressive results.
Watch this painting of a man with his dog in a golden field to see how Jay Lee uses a hair comb to create blades of grass. So simple, yet so effective.
Doesn’t it make you want to paint? Doesn’t it make you believe you can paint?
Jay Lee’s channel has tutorials using acrylic paints, like these ones, and watercolor painting tutorials as well. With watercolor, too, he utilizes various tools to create cool effects. For instance, this simple fall tree is made using cooking paper (or parchment paper) and cling film (or plastic wrap). Again, so simple, but so effective.
Feels like time to go dust off the old watercolor paints that have been sitting unused in our basement to try this out. It’s a wonderful thing to watch an artist work and say to yourself, “Hey, that looks like something I could actually do,” when so often it’s the opposite.
If you enjoy the zen-like relaxation of watching Bob Ross videos or want to actually try creating some cool paintings yourself, check out the Jay Lee Painting channel on YouTube. Definitely worth your time, even just for a 10-minute meditation.
You really can combine any interests and make them into something truly unique. Such was the case with digital librarian Rosie Grant, who has somehow been able to blend cemeteries, social media and baking into a sweet way of sharing memories of those who have passed on.
Grant’s @ghostlyarchive TikTok is filled with video tours through gravesites, uncovering lesser known cemetery facts and stories from history. It was while she was traveling through the Greenwood cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, that she stumbled upon the grave of Naomi Odessa Miller-Dawson—along with a recipe for something called “spritz cookies” printed on her gravestone.
Grant had no idea what a spritz cookie was, other than it required seven basic ingredients. But she decided to follow the recipe as best she could to find out.
With the guidance of her followers, Grant was able to successfully bake what she describes as “if a sugar cookie and a shortbread cookie had a baby,” delightfully buttery treats that were “to die for.”
Grant soon discovered more gravestone recipes using various news reports, tweets and a graveyard archive site called Find a Grave. Grant told Today that she’s been able to recreate “12 or 13” recipes, including fudge found on a grave in Utah, blueberry pie in Washington and snickerdoodles from California.
It should be noted that savory dishes are certainly not excluded from Grant’s cemetery baking journey. She has also made delicious cheese dip and apparently the “best meatloaf.”
Occasionally Grant is able to bring back treats to the graves that provided the recipe, as she was able to with Miller-Dawson’s spritz cookies.
As a library science student at the University of Maryland in 2021, Grant was given the assignment to start a TikTok account from scratch to better understand how networks work. Coincidentally, Grant was also interning at the historical archives of the nearby Congressional Cemetery.
A professor wisely suggested that Grant combine the two. And thus, the @ghostlyarchive TikTok Channel was born. Grant quickly found that others shared her passion—within a year, Ghostly Archive racked up more than 100,000 followers and millions of collective views. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Grant credited a lot of the channel’s popularity to the “death positive community” of #GraveTok, a TikTok subculture that celebrates the stories of those who have died.
“[It’s] the idea that society is better if we understand our own mortality and change our mindsets so that [death is] like a celebration of our lives, rather than something to be feared or ignored,” she told BuzzFeed.
Folks have viewed the gravestone recipes in particular as an endearing way of connecting those who have passed to those in the land of the living. “When we’re in mourning, food is very comforting to us,” Grant told Today. “These recipes feel like a more tactile, all-senses-included way to remember someone rather than only using your memory. When you’re eating grandma’s special cake or cookie or whatever it is, you feel a little bit more connected to her.”
“People will comment what they would want to put on their gravestone if they had to pick a recipe, or some people say things like, ‘Oh, snickerdoodles, my mom made it this way.’ And so there’s just this whole nostalgic connection, which has been really cool,” she added.
Grant, who admits to having her own fears about mortality, has found that gravestone recipes can help make potentially hard conversations a little more lighthearted. “My family and I talk about it more regularly. What will our final resting place be? How do I want to be celebrated in life? How do I want to be celebrated in death? And it’s made me personally feel a lot more comfortable with this, like the absurd thing that we’ll all die someday,” she told NPR.
Death is not always an easy thing to embrace—whether it’s the grief of losing a loved one or coming to terms with our own impermanence. But as Grant’s recipes show, there are so many ways in which memories really do live on, especially through the things that made our time on Earth a touch sweeter.
Jon Stewart stepped out of the spotlight to work on a cause he felt passionately about, getting adequate funding for veterans who got sick from burn pits while in combat zones. But last year he took to the desk again for his new show on Apple TV+, “The Problem With Jon Stewart,” and this second season is shaping up to be doozy of musical chairs with a new politician in the hot seat every week.
Clips from the rapid-fire interviews are going viral, in part for his oxymoronic signature style of questioning but largely due to his excellent research and fact-checking. This episode with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is a prime example of his skill when inquiring about election fraud.
When Stewart asks a question, you should probably believe he already knows the answer, and this seems to catch some people off guard. The talk show host’s last clip to go viral was of him grilling Arkansa Attorney General Leslie Rutledge about her state’s laws that ban gender-affirming care for minors. There were moments that appeared to expose that the guest was not prepared for Stewart to ask such hard and pressing questions but the host persisted.
Stewart has a unique talent for remaining kind, humorous and likable while he steadily applies pressure to whatever adversarial guest sits across from him. The clip of his interview with Brnovich shows Stewart’s determination to get to the truth about whether the Attorney General actually believes that the 2020 election was fraudulently given to President Biden. It’s like watching a verbal sparring match if words could throw punches or bob and weave.
Stewart repeatedly tries to get Brnovich to answer the question of if he personally believes that there was election fraud in Arizona. Brnovich argues that there are “almost 20 criminal cases related to the 2020 election” to which Stewart quickly counters, “out of 4 million votes.” The Republican Attorney General was not deterred and explained that there are “millions of people” throughout the country who think the election was stolen.
Stewart, with his notes in hand, continues to challenge Brnovich, even at one point putting his glasses on to read directly from the paper, pointing out that the former president once said, “74,000 mail-in ballots received that were never mailed, magically appearing ballots. 168,000 fraudulent ballots printed on illegal paper, 36,000 ballots illegally cast by non-citizens.” Stewart removes his glasses and continues, “Now, the truth is, none of that was real.”
Brnovich explains his reasoning for investigating the claims but when pushed on if he would come out and say the election was won fairly should his investigation not show evidence of fraud, Brnovich wouldn’t commit. Pushing for the attorney general to agree to reveal the facts of his investigation once complete proves to be difficult. At one point during the exchange when Brnovich continues to give long-winded answers to a yes or no question, Stewart says, “This is blowing my mind.”
When it comes to information on the 2020 election and recent policies and laws, having facts helps you draw your own conclusions. Jon Stewart is coming in with well-researched facts and asking hard questions to those in charge. The full interview will air on the streaming network Apple TV+.
Summer is officially over, which means we’re looking for any excuse to get together and watch a game or grill outside in the cooling temperatures.
The thing about hosting though is figuring out what to feed your guests—especially with rising prices all around. And frankly, everyone is sick of pizza.
Albertsons has you covered with fresh, organic ingredients to create delicious meals that cost under $5 per serving to create. The philosophy of their O Organics® product line is “NON GMO. AND YES GTF (Great Tasting Food).”
All photos courtesy of Albertsons
Eating organic is good for your body and the planet, but it doesn’t have to break the bank. By following a few suggestions, you’re almost guaranteed to impress whatever crowd you’re serving: friends, family, colleagues, even a romantic interest.
You’ve got this in the bag, friend—so create a party playlist and get your cutting board ready.
Starting with appetizers, Roasted Tomato Salsa is a crowd favorite. It’s versatile and easy to customize and can be served with eggs for a festive brunch or with tortilla chips as a cure for the munchies while everyone waits for the main course. There is some prep work involved, so we recommend making the salsa ahead of time and storing it in the fridge. While the recipe doesn’t specifically call for organic tomatoes, organic Roma tomatoes can be swapped in or out, depending on your mood.
Another option is to pick up a few bags of O Organics® baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, celery and cucumbers to make a crudite tray. For a main course that is sure to please a crowd, Killer Beef Chili costs less than $3/serving to make, and can easily be morphed into taco salad if desired.
Main Ingredients
1 lb. lean (93/7) O Organics® ground beef
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (divided into 1/2 tsp. and 1/4 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 garlic cloves (minced)
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 (6 ounce) can O Organics® Tomato Paste
2 (15 ounce) cans O Organics® Pinto Beans
2 cups fresh pico de gallo (from produce section)
2 cups water
Cooking Instructions
Step 1
Spray a 5-quart pot with nonstick cooking spray. Over medium high heat, brown ground beef, seasoning with 1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper, about 4-5 minutes.
Step 2
Add garlic into beef and cook for about 30 seconds. Push all ingredients to one side of the pan and add chili powder to the cleared side. Stir to toast the seasoning, about 30 seconds. Add tomato paste to chili powder and toast, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes.
Step 3
Add remaining ingredients, stirring thoroughly to combine. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and let simmer for 10-12 minutes.
Step 4
Remove from heat and add remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Serve.
Don’t like beef or beans? No problem! Try our Spinach & Artichoke Quinoa Stuffed Peppers. These stuffed peppers make a great vegetarian main dish (to make it vegan, remove the cheese), and add cheery pops of color to any table. Pair with a simple salad and crusty bread, and it’s a whole meal.
Main Ingredients
3 bell peppers (any color)
1/2 cup O Organics® cooked quinoa
1 cup O Organics® baby spinach (chopped)
1/2 cup O Organics® cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)
1/2 avocado (diced)
1 clove garlic (grated)
1/2 cup quartered artichoke hearts (roughly chopped)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (plus more for topping)
Cooking Instructions
Step 1
Preheat oven to 450º. Cut bell peppers in half and remove seeds. Spray both sides lightly with olive oil spray. Place cut-side-down in a 9×13 baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes.
Step 2
In a medium bowl, combine all other ingredients with 1/2 cup of the cheese. Remove peppers from oven and scoop quinoa mixture into bell peppers. Top each with a tablespoon of shredded cheese.
Step 3
Turn oven down to 350º. Cover dish with foil and place back into oven for 15 minutes, until cheese is melted and quinoa mixture is hot.
If you’re looking for a few easy (or complicated!) side dishes, or maybe you’re thinking about hosting a lunch rather than a dinner, all you have to do is use the search bar in the Albertsons recipe database where you’ll find not only shopping lists, preparation instructions, and more, but you can also create a profile to order groceries for a fast and easy pickup.
From desserts to breakfast to lunchbox, O Organics® products are more than organic, it’s flavorful food that you can’t get enough of. Always grown without synthetic pesticides, O Organics produce is farmed to conserve biodiversity, USDA certified organic, and always non-GMO. Get to your nearest Albertsons today and load up! No Albertsons in your area? You can also find O Organics® products exclusively at Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, ACME, Shaw’s, Star Market, Tom Thumb, Randalls, and Pavilions.
Pop punk is having a bit of a moment lately. Not only has the buzzy When We Were Young festival sparked a resurgence of early aughts pop punk nostalgia, but popular bands like My Chemical Romance, Paramore, and even Blink-182 are reuniting and hitting the road to remind emo millennials of the good ‘ol days. But established pop punk bands aren’t the only ones contributing to the genre.
Enter Pinkshift, the Baltimore-based band — composed of vocalist Ashrita Kumar, guitarist Paul Vallejo, and drummer Myron Houngbedji — who grew up listening to classics like MCR and Pierce The Veil are now putting their own spin on the oftentimes white and male-dominated pop-punk sound. Not only is their newly released debut album Love Me Forever brimming with killer hooks and thrashing guitar solos, but their songs also carry an impactful message. Tracks like “Nothing (In My Head)” take aim at politics and social media addiction, while others like “Trust Fall” get real about the impacts of being an abusive relationship.
To celebrate their newly released album Love Me Forever, Pinkshift drummer Myron Houngbedji sits down with Uproxx to talk Pokémon, My Chemical Romance, and the magic of castor oil in our latest Q&A.
What are four words you would use to describe your music?
Angry, cathartic, relatable, relevant.
It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
I want people to remember it as the music that let them feel what they needed to feel. I want people to be hit with waves of nostalgia as they remember the catharsis that we helped provide during some of the most confusing and hopeless years of our lifetimes.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?
It might be a tie between Baltimore and Philly.
Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?
Josh Dun made me want to play drums in the first place. He made it look really fun. Tyler Joseph and Gerard Way made me want to be on stage and share the world that I’ve created with my bandmates. I love how dramatic and intentional both of them are.
Where did you eat the best meal of your life?
In my own house.
What album do you know every word to?
I don’t know about every word but I do know a solid 85 percent of I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love by My Chemical Romance.
What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?
Maybe my first concert ever, Twenty One Pilots in 2016.
What is the best outfit for performing and why?
I get super sweaty during every show but I do like wearing sweatshirts or hoodies while playing. Something about the irony and doing physical activity in warm clothing is appealing to me.
Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?
Not sure if I have a true favorite, but I love seeing skate clips from the @berrics Instagram page. I also love seeing @hate5six content.
What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?
Depends on the tour, but probably “Father Time” by Kendrick Lamar. Or “Prince” by Deftones.
What’s the last thing you Googled?
Entergalactic (that new animated movie made by Kid Cudi on Netflix).
What album makes for the perfect gift?
Thriller by Michael Jackson.
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?
We’ve only gone on like two proper tours so we haven’t crashed in too many crazy places yet. I will say that in the UK we stayed in this cute little house and it was only weird because we got there early in the morning after driving all night so everyone was a bit delirious and our tour manager wasn’t sure whether or not we’d be able to actually get into the house beforehand. I don’t know if it was an AirBnB or not. It was just someone’s house but they weren’t there. It was nice.
What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?
When we went to the UK for the first time, we stayed in London and our tour manager said that his girlfriend is a tattoo artist and was willing to come to the hotel room to give us tattoos. That’s where Ashrita and I got our first tattoos.
What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?
Doja Cat.
What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?
When I was 10, my friend took my Pokémon Diamond game and used his action replay and cloned a bunch of hacked Darkrai’s and Mew’s into my game because they were my favorite Pokémon at the time.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
Stop wearing those cotton beanies and stop picking your hair out while it’s dry. Also moisturize your hair. Additionally, stop shampooing your hair every day. Also buy castor oil.
What’s the last show you went to?
At the time I’m writing this, it was Pierce The Veil opening for I Prevail. (And I’m seeing Turnstile/Jpegmafia/Snail Mail tomorrow!)
What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?
The Incredibles for sure.
What’s one of your hidden talents?
I draw on occasion!
Love Me Forever is out now via Hopeless Records. Get it here.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Amazon’s Audible app is launching a new original audio series, Origins, with a star-studded cast of musicians sharing stories of how they got started. Episodes featuring Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Mickey Guyton, and King Princess will drop on the platform simultaneously. Additional musicians making appearances on episodes include Camilo, Koffee, and Tobe Nwigwe.
After the success of Audible’s Words + Music series, Origins aims to capture “the moments that shaped some of today’s most notable artists through a mix of spoken narrative, immersive sound design, and original music performance,” according to a press release.
“It was so weird to me when I was first coming up and, and the thing everybody said was, like, ‘Billie Eilish’s music is so depressing and it’s so sad and it’s too dark,’ and I was like, ‘What are you talking about? Have you listened to The Beatles and ‘As My Guitar Gently Weeps,’ and ‘Yesterday’ and Lana Del Rey? Like, what the hell?’” Eilish shared in a statement via Billboard. “It was so surprising to me that people thought anything I was creating was dark. I mean, it’s real.”
“I’ve always tried to bring my fans into my world,” Doja Cat added. “I am more interested in being myself than what others want me to be. I want people to get a real understanding of who I am, and I think Origins will help them do that.”
Matthew Perry seems to be revealing every and all secret he has ever kept over the last 20 years in his new memoir, Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing.
One of the stranger stories in Perry’s memoir includes Cameron Diaz, a wholesome party game, and an alleged hit in the face. 2007 was a strange ride! Fresh from her split from pop star Justin Timberlake in 2007 (the same year they starred together in Shrek 2, ouch) Diaz was set up with the Friends star, but it wasn’t a match made in heaven, unfortunately.
In his book (via Page Six), Perry explains that as soon as he met up with Diaz, she got “immediately stoned” and “wasn’t interested in [him] at all” while they were at a dinner party. At one point, Perry said “something witty” (according to himself) to Diaz during a game of Pictionary, when he claims she “accidentally” hit his face while aiming for his shoulder. Chandler Bing did not like that. Perry replied, “Are you f**king kidding me?” The duo’s whirlwind romance seems to have ended much differently than a Shrek-inspired happily ever after.
This is not the only time Perry mentions “violent” occurrences in his life: the actor also mentions that he beat up Justin Trudeau when they were kids, and also punched Chevy Chase in the balls. A Charlie’s Angel put him in his place!
As part of his never-ending pursuit of big ratings, Donald Trump has reportedly floated the idea of giving “live” testimony to the January 6 committee following the unanimous vote to subpoena the former president. At the time, Maggie Haberman said that Trump’s legal team has to be concerned about the disastrous idea, and that appears to be the case.
According to a new report, Trump’s team has been adamant about not letting him go in front of the committee under any circumstances. “Absolutely f*cking not,” a Trump advisor told Rolling Stone along with others who addressed the elephant in the room: Trump will almost certainly perjure himself.
Several of Trump’s attorneys and political counselors have directly told the ex-president this month that any testimony under oath before that panel would be an awful idea for him, according to this source and two other people with knowledge of the matter. The advisers cautioned Trump that committee members would mine his testimony for potential perjury charges, particularly given Trump’s penchant for lying.
Former White House attorney Ty Cobb took things even further by not only going on the record, but also citing Trump’s 14-page rant about the January 6 committee after they voted to issue a subpoena.
“It is clear that testifying would be a bad idea, as highlighted by the fact that his initial reaction to the subpoena included a multi-page screed where he repeated the completely discredited theories of the Big Lie,” Cobb toldRolling Stone. “I would like to believe his lawyers did not see that before it went out, but whether they did or didn’t, each scenario is scary.”
He also agreed with the perjury trap concerns. “Trump is uniquely susceptible to that because he is so easily provoked,” Cobb said.
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