Category: Worldwide

Pride Month events were cancelled in Minot, North Dakota last June due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, the city decided to temporarily fly a Pride flag in support of the LGBTQ community at city hall earlier this month.

The flag ceremony was accompanied by the town’s mayor, Shaun Sipma, proclaiming June as Pride Month in the city. This gesture ruffled a lot of feathers in Minot, a city of around 41,000 residents.

Spima said his decision to support the flag-raising stemmed from seeing “a population within our community that does need to have that issue addressed – the issue of hate. When they came to me, they had stated that they wanted a call for kindness, not necessarily acceptance but a call for kindness. And that I can appreciate.”

Last Tuesday, angry residents spoke out against the flag at a city council meeting. This prompted councilwoman Carrie Evans to deliver a beautiful defense of the flag.

Evans began her defense by letting meeting attendees know that she is a lesbian.

“So Mr. Walker, if you’re not aware,” Evans told a resident who was against the flag, “and I think a lot of people in this room are not aware and have come here just because this is a gay issue, I am proudly the first openly elected lesbian in North Dakota. So that is why I am not paying any heed to your crap.”

Evans told Walker that the flag was a way to show LGBTQ people that they are just as valuable as anyone else to their community.

“We, the people. I’m the people. I live in Minot. I am a taxpayer. I am a person,” she said. “I get to see myself represented on that flagpole just as much as the people who got the Juneteenth flag last month, as much as the POW/MIA will get later this month.”

“Every single person is entitled to see themselves represented,” she continued. “We are not some group of people who live in San Francisco or Seattle.”

“We are here. We are your elected officials. We are your brothers. we are your sisters, and don’t tell me you’re not hatred or anger. That’s all I feel. I’ve had to listen to it for days now, as has the mayor and many of my colleagues. It is unacceptable,” Evans said.

The councilwoman made the compelling point that the flag does absolutely nothing to hurt Walker but has an incredibly positive effect on how the LGBT community is perceived and protected.

“This city is big enough for all of us. Me having a flag flying does not take away anything from your rights. But you know what it does for me? It shows me I live in a city that appreciates and embraces me, and my community,” Evans said.

“And I can live here and feel safe,” she continued. “That’s what it does. I’m sorry that it doesn’t make you feel comfortable, but we’re here, we’re queer, and we’re not going away!”

Over time, symbols like the Pride flag may become so ubiquitous that we forget their true meaning and why it’s important for them to be flown.

Evans’ defense of the Pride flag serves as a perfect explanation for why people choose to fly it in the first place and why they should continue to do so.

When I opened Twitter Saturday morning, I saw “Chris Evans” and “Captain America” trending. Evans is my favorite of the Marvel Chrises, so naturally I clicked to see what was happening with him—then quickly became confused. I saw people talking about “nude leaks,” some remarks about (ahem) “size,” and something about how he’d accidentally leaked naked photos of himself. But as I scrolled through the feed (not looking for the pics, just trying to figure out what happened) the only photos I saw were of him and his dog, occasionally sprinkled with handsome photos of him fully clothed.

Here’s what had happened. Evans apparently had shared a video in his Instagram stories that somehow ended with an image of his camera roll. Among the tiled photos was a picture of a penis. No idea if it was his and really don’t care. Clearly, it wasn’t intentional and it appears the IG story was quickly taken down.

Of course, people screenshotted it before it was taken down. Then Twitter blew up. And the internet being what it is, one might expect that the photo would have dominated the Twitter feed—but it didn’t. Fans are so protective of his Evans’ wholesome goodness and right to privacy that thousands flooded the feed with sweet public photos of him, largely with his rescue dog, Dodger. It was a clear, purposeful effort to drown out any shares of the private photos, and from what I saw—or rather, didn’t see—it worked.

Fans also pointed out that Evans has talked openly about having anxiety, so people were particularly sensitive to how the actor might feel about having such an embarrassing thing happen.

Post after post of Chris-being-his-awesome-self photos.

It was a heartwarming response, honestly. In a world where the more salacious something is the more people click, it was lovely to see masses of Twitter users immediately mobilize to protect someone’s privacy.

If only that were the way such leaks always went down.

Some people praised the move while simultaneously pointing out that women who have nudes leaked are not usually given the same courtesy. When Jennifer Lawrence’s phone was hacked and nude photos were leaked on the internet, much of the buzz over it included people shaming her for having the photos on her phone in the first place.

Lawrence responded with a solid defense, in which she laid out the fact that she didn’t need to defend herself for what she did privately in her own relationship. But people still acted as if she had no right to that privacy as a celebrity, which is, of course, dead wrong.

There’s also the fact that Lawrence’s photos were illegally stolen and leaked, which adds an extra layer of offense that should enrage any decent person. Evans leaked his photos himself, which is super unfortunate, but for some reason kicked in a more compassionate response than Lawrence received. Maybe we’ve matured since 2014, maybe we’ve just become more accustomed to seeing such leaks, or maybe women are held to different standards of decency and respect.

Chris Evans has yet to comment on the leak and the protective response of his fans, as far as I’m aware. But his brother Scott did manage to pull off a bit of humor from the incident.

Ah, brothers.

Let’s all make a pact that when leaked nude photos of anyone start circulating, we flood the space with images they’ve given the public permission to see. Chris Evans got this treatment because he is beloved, well respected, and a genuinely good guy. But everyone has a basic right to privacy no matter who they are—male or female, famous or not.

Ahead of Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S fighting for our precious dollars later this year comes a new documentary about the most famous rivalry in video game history: Sonic vs. Mario.

Based on author Blake J. Harris’ book of the same name, Console Wars looks at the ’90s feud between Nintendo and Sega, when Mario, Luigi, and Peach faced competition from Sega, Tails, and Knuckles. It’s Marvel (Nintendo) vs. DC (Sega). Or better yet, Coke vs. Pepsi, because Coke is superior to Pepsi and Nintendo rules and Sega drools.

I’m sorry, but it’s true. Here’s more.

In 1990, Sega, a fledgling arcade company assembled a team of misfits to take on the greatest video game company in the world, Nintendo. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, no-holds-barred conflict that pit brother against brother, kids against grownups, Sonic against Mario, and uniquely American capitalism against centuries-old Japanese tradition. For the first time ever, the men and women who fought on the front lines for Sega and Nintendo discuss this battle that defined a generation.

Directed by Harris and Jonah Tulis and produced by Seth Rogen (a Sega kid if there ever was one) and Evan Goldberg, Console Wars is set to premiere on CBS All Access on September 23.

Drew Barrymore has a talk show now, and she’s playing the hits to get things started. The Drew Barrymore Show started with a bang this week, as the movie star reunited with her Charlie’s Angels crew and had Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz on the show for an interview.

But for fans of her work with Adam Sandler, the bigger news coming from talk show land was a scripted segment where Barrymore and Sandler did an updated version their 2004 romantic comedy 50 First Dates, one of a few rom-coms Barrymore and Sandler made together, in which he and Barrymore fall in love again and again due to a brain condition that causes her to start each day with a freshly wiped memory. At the end of the movie (SPOILER ALERT, I GUESS) Sandler’s character creates a series of videotapes her character can watch each morning to get caught up on all the relevant events in her life. She’s married, she has a child, etc. It’s sweet.

The world is a very different place in 2020, though, and so the tapes from the movie now play out a very different story for Barrymore as she wakes up, sees the “good morning Lucy” tape, and puts it into the television.

“Hi Lucy, good morning. It’s me, Henry,” Sandler says, holding a ukulele. “We are on, I think, about our 5,000th date together. And it’s been great. I’m gonna catch you up.”

He then reminds her she has amnesia, they’re now married, and that they have a daughter.

“She’s about 40 now, something like that,” Sandler says to a clearly confused Barrymore, as Lucy. But then Sandler gets to the bad stuff.

“It’s 2020, and we’re also in the middle of a pandemic, which is a terrible thing,” he says. “Baseball games are now being played in front of cardboard people.”

Barrymore says it sounds like he’s making this up, and there’s a bit of fart humor and a brief fourth-wall-breaking ad for Netflix. And then things get very earnest from Sandler, who addresses Drew the newly-minted TV host rather than her character, Lucy.

“I could honestly not be more excited for you. You have your own show now,” Sandler said, though he was interrupted by Allen Covert showing up as Ten Second Tom from the movie, who would have an even worse time with this whole pandemic thing if he really existed in 2020.

“You are going to make people so happy every day, every time they see you. You are magic,” Sandler said. “The whole world feels it and I’m lucky that I know you so well. I love you.”

Barrymore seemed genuinely touched by his words, and it was a really nice sendoff for her on the show’s first week.

On the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated August 22, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” knocked Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar” from the top spot. The song remained on top the next week, but the week after that, BTS’ “Dynamite” took over the No. 1 position. Now, the K-pop group has enjoyed a couple weeks on top, but their reign comes to an end today: On the Hot 100 chart dated September 19, Cardi and Meg are once again on top, as “WAP” has reclaimed its No. 1 spot for a third total week.

The return of “WAP” has the song tied for Cardi’s longest reign on top of the Hot 100, as “Bodak Yellow” was previously No. 1 for three weeks in 2017. As a featured artist, Maroon 5’s Cardi-featuring “Girls Like You” was No. 1 for seven weeks in 2018.

It was also revealed earlier today that “WAP” is the first No. 1 song on the new Billboard Global 200 chart.

Meanwhile, The Weeknd is closing in on an impressive Hot 100 record. “Blinding Lights” sits at No. 5 on this week’s chart, and it’s been in the top 5 for 27 total weeks so far. That’s tied for the biggest total of all time, alongside Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” and The Chainsmokers’ Halsey-featuring “Closer.” So, If “Blinding Lights” remains at No. 5 or climbs higher next week, it will be the new record-holder in that category.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

My birthday was low key this year. We’re still in a pandemic, so there would be no partying, but also I’d just been upstaged by the arrival of my daughter. She came the day before and was still swaddled in the limelight. There was a great Zoom surprise party, but there weren’t any gifts. Or cake.

Until a box landed on my doorstep full of ice, oysters, mignonettes, gloves, and a shucking knife. An oyster kit. No frills. No pricey engraved tray or shooter cups. Just 20 Kaiparas, 20 raspberry points, and the essentials I’d need to enjoy them.

I started shucking immediately. Any avid viewer of Top Chef is sure to perceive oyster shucking as an impossibly onerous task destined to leave any non-chef with a severed artery. Not true. I watched zero YouTube tutorials and was able to muddle through just fine. You slide the knife in, swing it over to the joint, then just sort of leverage the shell open. On the “how cool it makes you feel vs. actually being difficult” scale of tasks, this ranks high.

With a quartine cluster full of people who don’t like shellfish, I was left to my own devices as the sun set on a very weird year in my life. I shucked and slurped down legitimately 30 oysters — each cold, firm, and briny — before I tapped out and passed the whole operation over the fence to our neighbors. They’re not the “self shucking” sort and were delighted. They also now basically perceive me as a survivalist, because after 30 oysters I was able to pretend to have some level of expertise with popping them open.

All in all, it was a memorable meal in an era when most of what I eat seems routinized. The charm of quarantine life is long gone. I’m over homemade sourdough. We all need little stuff like this to keep life surprising and to keep us on track. And with the “months that end in R” just beginning, oysters may be the perfect fit.

“Do not, under any circumstances, send me raw shellfish,” my editor wrote on Slack when I floated the idea of sending him his own batch of oysters to say thanks for covering me after the baby. “The last time I had a bad oyster, I legit thought I was going to die.”

His concern isn’t unfounded. Bad oysters tear up your insides in a way that no food can rival — to the point where they’re sort of the poor man’s version of blowfish sushi, which can kill you if prepared incorrectly. Now take that risk, which already feels noteworthy at oyster bars and seafood houses, and add shipping into the mix. Sounds precarious at best, right?

Not according to Rob Knecht, co-founder of Real Oyster Cult, which farms, sells, and ships oysters direct to consumers.

“No offense to restaurants, because I love restaurants, but they can keep product in their walk-in fridges for a week,” he says. “This is like you’re visiting our family farm — they’re harvested and shipped the same day.”

Knecht has obviously built his business around this concept, so you wouldn’t expect him to say any different, but the logic does hold. Restaurants get their oysters fresh from farms and keep them chilled. But then they have to wait for you to come in and order them. Overnight shipping (paired with same-day eating) should be able to cut down the “farm to table” time, not increase it.

Fisher’s Island, Hama Hama, Island Creek, Hog Island, Taylor Shellfish… Oysters by mail are definitely a thing. I run this by my editor and he balks — “I live near the water, mine are same day and that’s all I’m gonna trust.”

Knecht and his partner/ wife Sims McCormick are very aware of the “bad oyster” stigma. They’ve got three layers of quality control in place, just to combat it. Even their selection is influenced by people’s fears about slimy, loose, spoiled oysters sloshing onto the doorstep.

“It’s a huge barrier to entry for many people,” McCormick says, “that’s part of why we focus on tighter, smaller oysters with a deep cup and firm flesh — which are an easier entry point for anyone who’s nervous.”

Whether it’s your speed or not, the oysters-by-mail model falls into the new era of provisioning that has been sparked by the pandemic. This past weekend, I bought sashimi-grade salmon, yellowtail, and albacore from a fishmonger who used to supply to restaurants. I picked up my fish — along with two delicious, very-hipstery loaves of bread — straight from his front yard.

This ex-rugby playing Kiwi (who asked to remain anonymous because of food retailing laws) has been running his little operation for months. He sends out an email Wednesday and you have three hours to order. Then on Friday, there’s a three-hour pickup window. Fail to show, and you’re banned from the listserve. No fish for you.

This time, even I was skeptical. But the thick, uneven cuts of sashimi I made with the fish I bought from him are some of the best pieces of sushi I’ve ever had. Better still, I was able to gorge myself three nights in a row for the cost of a single restaurant experience (one sure to be dominated mostly by rice with razor-thin slices of potentially fraudulent fish).

Plus buying everything from someone who only lives a few miles away, chatting about life in the pandemic, my favorite spots in New Zealand, and how this modern-day provisioner sources his product was a very cool throwback to an era I never lived in. It references the days of the milkman and the corner fruit stand. That might sound both inconvenient and expensive, but the oysters I received on my birthday and the sashimi I bought a week later were both far cheaper than a restaurant would have been (the artisan bread, on the other hand, is more pricey than it would be from a bakery working at scale).

Speaking personally, I’ve had a lot of fun with this new sort of food shopping — much more reminiscent of Italy, where you go to the cheese guy, then the butcher, then the bakery, etc. Like Knecht, I’ll always love restaurants, but I have a feeling how we love them after coronavirus will change. With the level of at-home experience that you can affordably create improving drastically throughout this era, what we want from our restaurants is sure to shift. In a world where we can get a5 wagyu shipped to our doors, the community, creativity, and convenience chefs provide will be their strongest assets. Not just the product.

“We’re bringing a fine-dining experience to people’s homes,” McCormick says. “It makes us happy to offer that in a time when we’re all craving newness wherever we can find it.”

And while even this idea gets a “nope” from my editor, my birthday experience sold me. Anyone wanting to send me oysters by mail should know I’m all for it.

Steve Bramucci is on Twitter and Instagram.

Now Power, Starz’s engrossing crime drama executive-produced by 50 Cent, is over, it’s story has been picked up by a sequel series titled Book II: Ghost. Now, that show about to have some company on the network according to The Hollywood Reporter. 50 Cent and Starz have come together once again for a duo of new series currently under development which will have the rap media mogul’s shows all over the network.

One of the two shows is inspired by sports agent Nicole Lynn and will follow a female sports agent as she navigates the boys’ club of professional sports business, while the other would be a hip-hop anthology series whose first season would be devoted to 50’s long feud with former G-Unit rapper The Game. These two shows would join Power Book II and 50’s forthcoming show about the Black Mafia Family as part of 50’s overall deal with Lionsgate Entertainment, Starz’s parent company.

The agent show is executive produced by Lynn and written by Snowfall writer Tash Grey, recounting the events that led to Lynn becoming the first woman to represent a top three NFL draft pick. Meanwhile, the anthology series, Moment In Time: The Massacre will depict the behind-the-scenes events behind 50 and Game’s beef that spilled onto the street and eventually sent producer Jimmy Henchman to prison for conspiracy to commit murder. Abdul Williams, who wrote The New Edition Story, is billed as writer and executive producer.

2018 saw the release of Return To Mount Kennedy, a documentary about Robert F. Kennedy climbing a mountain named after his brother, the late president JFK. Pearl Jam leader Eddie Vedder recorded the soundtrack for the film, but it has yet to be released. Now, though, he has shared one song from it, “Cartography,” as part of Sub Pop’s singles club series.

The instrumental acoustic guitar and piano track runs shy of three minutes and is closer to American primitivism and Vedder’s solo material than it is to Pearl Jam’s typical rocking sound. The B-side of the release is a remix of the song by Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner, which plays up the song’s ambient qualities and samples Robert Kennedy dialogue.

Vedder said in a statement, “Listening to the speech delivered by Bobby Kennedy in regards to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years ago, you are reminded that once again we are at a moment in time when our society can and must do better. Voting is our most powerful form of nonviolent protest. And those whom we vote for must be made deeply aware that the issues of equality and justice in America are of the utmost importance and need to be not only restored but taken to the next level. NOW.”

Listen to “Cartography” above.

One day, there will be a 4-LP boxed set of Bartees Strange’s debut album Live Forever. First recorded in the early months of 2019, the album has gone through many iterations, with songs added here and removed there, and the entire album being remixed and remastered more than once. The open-ended process of crafting Live Forever gave Bartees Cox the space he needed to imbue each song with its own meaning, and ultimately give 100% of his attention to every piece that went into creating the album.

Refusing to conform to any genre lines, Cox incorporates into Live Forever elements of punk, alternative, indie, hip-hop, R&B, and everything in between. It’s a record about resilience and power of the individual, with the main mission stemming from a desire to make sure that every person feels valued in life and that they are empowered to work toward their aspirations and live their fullest live.

Ahead of the new album, I chatted with Cox on Instagram Live to talk about the long road to Live Forever, his undying love for Adrianne Lenker, and the inspirational force that is Tyler The Creator, as part of our Fall Music Preview. Check out the full interview below

Live Forever is out October 2 on Memory Music. Pre-order the album here.

Kawhi Leonard isn’t associated with bright colors and cartoony imagery, as the Clippers superstar forward is best known for his stoic nature. Up to this point, New Balance has steered into that demeanor with its sneakers and apparel designed for his collection with the brand, such as their “Fun Guy.” campaign, with black and white shirts in Times New Roman font.

Most of his sneakers have likewise featured pretty straightforward colorways, but the next Kawhi collection from New Balance is going to be much more bold and colorful than anything we’ve seen from him. Leonard debuted the first of two Jolly Rancher colorways in Game 6 of the Clippers second round series with Denver, showing off a bit more of his personality. Jolly Ranchers are Kawhi’s longtime favorite candy, and as such New Balance partnered with the fruit candy to come up with something a bit more bold, but still very much Kawhi.

In late October (a firm release date is still TBD), New Balance will release a Jolly Rancher x Kawhi Leonard collection, featuring two colorways of Leonard’s KAWHI signature sneaker — the white and multi-color one he wore on Sunday and a blue raspberry colorway — along with slides and two pairs of lifestyle sneakers (the 327 and 480 Low).

The pops of bright colors are certainly a bit different for the Kawhi line, but I really like how New Balance still finds a balance between something bright and still being true to Kawhi’s personality. The Kawhi Leonard logo on the tongue of the sneakers features his name written in Jolly Rancher font with a collection of fruit cartoons, but they all feature a non-expressive look — a signature of Leonard.

It’s a cool collab and I’m particularly fond of the blue raspberry colorway. The KAWHI sneakers will run $160, with the slides going for $35.