Name a better road trip snack than a bag of Cheez-Its. Go on, we’ll wait. Nothing right? Cheez-It’s are great, they scratch that itch for salty cheesy snacks as good as anything else, but have complexity and dimension to them that Cheetos and Takis don’t have. And now, for just one week, people in Southern California have a chance to visit the world’s “cheesiest roadside attraction,” the Cheez-It Stop.
Located on Twentynine Palms Highway in the Joshua Tree area, The Cheez-It Stop is equipped with the Cheez-It pump, a gas-pump style Cheez-It dispenser that no one asked for but now some weird rich Cheez-It obsessive will definitely want in their home, a merch store with all sorts of Cheez-It inspired t-shirts, shot glasses, and postcards, and best of all, a selection of some of the hardest to track down Cheez-It flavors, like hot and spicy, bacon, and Cheddar Douz.
Katie Gardner
Sure, it caters to Cheez-It fans and pretty much no one else, but it’s the sort of weird and fun stop that works to energize you after a long and grueling drive, whether you’re on your way to Los Angeles, San Diego, or Joshua Tree and Palm Springs, and will serve as the perfect backdrop for their strangest social media post you’ll ever make.
If you’re not in it for the photo and content-generation opportunities, do it for those salty smokey Bacon Cheez-Its.
The Cheez-It stop is open from today until Sunday, June 11th, between the hours of 10 AM – 6 PM and is located at 61943 Twentynine Palms Highway in Joshua Tree. Take some mushrooms, chill out in the desert, and go to the Cheez-It stop for snacks later, it’ll be the weirdest day of your life.
It’s June, which means we have six months remaining this year. Seriously though…don’t ask us where the time has gone because we don’t know either. Hopefully you’ve made use of the first half of the year with some exciting travel plans, maybe hitting up some chill spots in Cabo or hiking through some of the country’s most scenic national parks during the spring blooms. Or maybe you’ve opted to experience more of the nightlife and culinary scenes this year and made it to Coachella – or better yet, the exclusive Coachella after parties – or some of this year’s craft beer festivals to down a couple of pints or…
You get the idea. There are endless opportunities out there for intrepid travelers. But no matter what you decide to do, there’s nothing better than saving some money when you hit the road. While traveling is indeed a privilege, the idea that travel has to cost a lot of cash is slowly becoming a thing of the past. In fact, some of the most memorable adventures require the least amount of money.
As someone who’s already boarded more than two dozen flights this year for some awesome adventures and serious smoke sessions, I’m excited to share my budget travel secrets with you. If you’re thinking of booking something soon, just know that the universe is on your side this summer — even Joe Biden wants us all to succeed in our travel plans, making it easier than ever to book that flight and ensure passengers are protected from airline inconsistencies. Now, let Uproxx help you protect your wallet!
1) Pack Your Own Snacks
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We all gotta eat, so why not pack some snacks? This not only is a budget travel hack but also a time-saving hack. After begrudgingly getting through the pains of security (unless of course, you’re a step ahead of the rest with TSA Pre-Check or CLEAR), you’re always blasted with an array of food and drink options. Starbucks over the right, maybe a TGI Friday’s to the left, and all around you see little airport versions of convenience stores. But let’s be honest here — you’re definitely paying for the convenience. Even a pack of gum is priced double or triple the price you’d pay at a regular store.
Not only that, but you also have to factor in this time waiting in line to checkout or wait for your food.
If you know you’re one to always buy some snacks at the airport before your flight, hit your favorite store the day before, and bring a little bag in your carry-on or personal item. This goes for water as well. I never travel without my reusable water bottle. Empty it before you go through security, and then refill it at a free water refill station within the airport.
BOTTOM LINE:
No more $5 plastic water bottles? That’s a win for the environment and your wallet.
2) Exchange Local Currency With Your Bank
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Most of us know to never exchange currency at the airport. Okay, got it. But did you know that you’re still paying some amount of an exchange fee when exchanging currency abroad? If you’re able to plan two weeks before your trip, head to your local bank. You can directly exchange any amount of U.S. dollars for the local currency of your destination without any fees whatsoever.
Let’s say you want to spend $500 cash while on your trip to Costa Rica. Your bank can directly pull $500 out of your bank account and order the same amount in colones. This has always been an extremely seamless process for all my international travels when I know I want to spend a specific amount of money and stay within my budget, without any fees. Just make sure to do this at least 10 days in advance so your bank has enough time to order the currency and you can pick it up in time for your departure.
BOTTOM LINE:
Fees suck. Beat them with some planning.
3) Pack Light…Seriously
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I’m still trying my best at this one, but after my recent travels to Spain, I can see why this is a huge budget travel hack. First and foremost, packing light allows you to completely avoid any unexpected overweight or oversized baggage fees. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been nervously looking at the scale when hauling my big checked suitcase to the airline counter and then dreading when the scale says it’s over 50 lbs. Seriously, did I really need to pack five pairs of shoes?
It’s even better if you can pack strategically and avoid paying for a checked bag altogether and zip through your travels with a small, carry-on suitcase. Many airlines – including Alaska, Hawaiian, Delta, American, and Frontier – allow passengers one free carry-on in addition to a personal item. More money and time saved.
BOTTOM LINE:
It’s the oldest hack on earth but also… maybe try it sometime?
4) Ditch The International Phone Plan For Free WiFi
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There are definitely pros and cons when it comes to getting an international phone plan or SIM card. Sure, you can stay connected while gawking with hundreds of others at the Mona Lisa or whilst partying until 7 am at a nightclub in Ibiza, but to me, that takes away from the present moment. As someone who admits they spend too much time on their phone, I use travel as an opportunity to drop more into the present moment and enjoy the scenes around me while also avoiding any international phone charges. With more international travelers jet-setting around the world and the need for equal access to the internet, many restaurants, bars, cafes, and museums usually offer free wifi to patrons. So yes, I’ll sip my mid-day cappuccino on the streets of Barcelona, connect to wifi to update friends and family, and (maybe) check my email, but once I’m out and about, I find that dropping into the present moment makes the trip that much more special.
For navigation, you can download the Google map of your destination beforehand. As for translating, you can also download languages on Google Translate to use when you’re out of service as well.
BOTTOM LINE:
Do you really need all the accessibility you like to think you need? Do you? DO YOU?
5) Travel Like A Local
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Uber and Lyft might automatically be the easiest and cheapest option to take on cities in the U.S., but that’s not the case in most international cities. Unlike the U.S., many cities – particularly in Europe – have fantastic public transportation systems that cost a mere couple of dollars. Ever wonder how people backpack Europe without breaking the bank? The Eurail stretches through 33 European countries allowing you to breeze through cities and international countries on a cheap budget. If you plan on staying in one city for a couple of days, there are amazing deals for weekly metro passes all across Europe, including in the cities of Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Paris, and more.
BOTTOM LINE:
Get to know the local way of life by using the local mode of transport. It’s easy.
6) Ditch The Hotel For A Hostel Or House
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Okay, if you’ve ever watched the movie Hostel, I could understand your concerns when it comes to staying in one. But don’t allow a fictional horror movie to prevent you from saving some big bucks on your travels. In my opinion, the whole point of travel is to meet and connect with new people. Hostels can cost a lot of money, especially if you’re someone who plans last minute. Many cities throughout the United States and the world boast incredible hostels that allow you to meet fellow travelers and source a community of like-minded people. Not up for bunking?
A lot of hostels offer private rooms that are still cheaper than many hotel rooms. Additionally, if you’re someone who likes to stay in one place for an extended period of time, sourcing housing on Airbnb can be an ultimate budget travel hack. Oftentimes, Airbnb hosts offer extended stay discounts, sometimes up to 50% if you stay a whole month.
BOTTOM LINE:
Hotels are great! But if you’re on a budget, consider treating them like a splurge.
7) Use A VPN When Booking Flights & Hotels
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Most of us have heard the budget travel hack of booking flights on a Tuesday or Wednesday to get the cheapest flight prices. The same is true for travel days, with Wednesdays and Thursdays boasting usually cheaper flight prices. But did you know that using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) when booking flights can further save you money? Believe it or not, flight prices vary depending on the country that you’re located in. Airlines and travel booking websites use dynamic pricing that changes depending on factors, including your IP address and location, purchase history, demand and supply, and more.
Yes, it is weird and basically makes no sense. But by using a VPN, you can change your IP address to a different zip code and location which can show different prices. Especially in the United States where companies love to scrape as many pennies out of you as possible, setting your location to cities in Turkey, Spain, and Indonesia could save you up to hundreds of dollars when booking international flights and hotels.
Don’t want to use or have access to a VPN? You can search for flights and hotels using an incognito window for similar results.
BOTTOM LINE:
This hack is up for debate, but we’ve had success with it and many travel writers report the same!
8) Use Your Student ID… Forever
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Maybe that $80K piece of paper hanging on your wall isn’t the only thing you took away from college. Do you have your student ID still laying around and you’re under the age of 35? You can save some money by using your old college student ID to get student discounts on dozens of various bookings and attractions, including museums, art galleries, train tickets, and more. If you’re worried about being too old to look like you’re still in college, don’t. Hurray for graduate school!
Don’t have your student ID? Over 60 million people across North America do have AAA and forget that it comes with many travel discounts on hotels, rental cars, and even flights.
BOTTOM LINE:
College is going to keep you in debt for decades. At least let it get you a few deals in the meantime.
9) Limit Your Alcohol
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I know, I know. You’re in a new city or country and you’re there to celebrate! However, as someone who already doesn’t drink a lot of alcohol, I’ve realized there’s more money left in my bank account than my travel companions who regularly order alcoholic beverages when eating out. Think about it: when going out to eat, even one or two alcoholic drinks can increase your bill significantly. Hydration is key when traveling, and alcohol dehydrates you. I always opt for a free glass of water for every meal and have made ordering a glass of wine or alcoholic drink before or after dinner a special occasion. You can even dazzle up your glass of water by putting it in a wine or champagne glass for a fancy aesthetic.
BOTTOM LINE:
Pick your party nights with your budget in mind and you might also miss a few hangovers!
10) Book Accommodations With Free Breakfast & Cook Meals
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When traveling, you have to account for three meals a day without your usual kitchen setup. Of course, booking a hostel, hotel, or Airbnb with a kitchen to cook your own meals can help save you loads of money to prevent you from eating out all day. What’s even better is booking accommodations that serve up free breakfast. Here’s where you can fill up for the day ahead and even pocket some packaged muffins to snack on later. Now you can lightly snack for lunch hour and focus on sourcing a delicious, local, and authentic meal for dinner.
BOTTOM LINE:
Eat baseline meals that you cook (cheaply) and then go try the local fare when you’re already half-full!
Fans have been wishing, hoping, waiting, and sometimes crying over the concept of aCommunitymovie, and now that things are finally happening…..they have suddenly stopped happening. At least for a little while. But we haven’t lost hope!
Joel McHale gave an update on the highly-anticipated movie, saying that showrunner Dan Harmon was “extremely close” to finishing up the script before the movie was supposed to go into production this month. Of course, with the ongoing WGA strike, the movie will be put on pause for now.
“We had a shooting date coming up, which was going to be in the summer,” McHale told Variety. “And I think they were extremely close to — I mean, Dan is somebody that tweaks things but, obviously, that’s all stopped. But I think it was pretty darn close. It was close, the shoot date was coming up and we were all excited to do it and then the writers strike happened, which obviously put everything on hold, and rightfully so,” he added.
Even though production is on hold, McHale supports the WGA strike, which began at the beginning of May. “The writers are asking for very reasonable things. Writers need to be paid properly,” he added.
The film might be closer than ever, and it also seems like they have locked down a director, though McHale is keeping it under wraps. “I know who wants to do it and we’re talking to and is interested and engaged,” he said. There is one particular director who has recently cleared up his schedule! Who knows!
The Community movie is expected to land on Peacock sometime in the next year…or two…but it is definitely happening, okay? We have already been through so much.
Bob Dylan sang that the times are a-changin’ back in the late 70s, and since then, they haven’t ever stopped a-changin’. And yes, change has been a constant for all of humanity’s existence, but things certainly seem to be progressing a whole heck of a lot faster, don’t they?
Before ya know it, those once fashion-forward pants you purchased are now retro, you don’t understand any of the slang the kids are spouting, and you’re doing your taxes, grocery planning and work meetings all from your phone. You know, that device that once only…gasp…called people.
It certainly feels like more than simply growing older, too. Technology is evolving at a rapid pace, to the point where human beings are finally having a hard time keeping up. Combine that with uncertain economic times, and it’s no wonder that some folks are left reminiscing about how, in some (not all or even most, but some) ways, the good old days really were good.
Oh yeah. Get ready for either some bittersweet nostalgia, or to shake your head at just how much you’re probably paying for something that was once bought for pennies. Have fun!
u/DaughterEarth added: “I lived in poverty housing and this was how they determined our rent. It was 30% of mom’s income, regardless of how much she was making. That was 20 years ago, not sure what starving kids do today.“
u/CathedralEngine added: “17 years ago I spent $30 to see an internationally touring band play a concert, and I thought that was way too high. Now I’m spending minimum $20 to see local bands. Just on admission.“
5. “Household products that don’t break within the first few years of use. My grandma had the same fridge from 1993 before deciding to switch to a newer, bigger one two years ago. My mom’s wedding cookware is still going strong 25 years later, but whenever she needs new pans, they start flaking Teflon into the food within a few months.“
8. “Farmer’s markets. You used to be able to go down and get fruit and vegetables cheaper than the grocery store. Now it seems like they charge 3x more than stores do.“
u/Mashy6012 read everyone’s mind by adding: “Buying a home in general”
10. “Good quality fabric in clothing. I have clothes from the 90s (and 80s from my mother) that still hold up today. These days, I’m lucky if my shirt isn’t saggy and misshapen within a year.”
14 . “Family vacations. I remember going on road trips regularly as a kid and even flying once or twice. Now that I have kids, I cannot afford a weeklong trip to the Badlands, Grand Canyon, Disney/Universal Studios, etc. The best I can do is a day trip to the Wisconsin Dells maybe once a year.”
When people decide to get married, the primary focus in the relationship often becomes the wedding. There are so many details to think about—the venue, the guest list, the food, the wedding party, the dress and tux…it’s practically a full-time job, especially if you’re going big.
Planning a wedding can be so time-consuming that a lot of couples neglect to prepare for the more important thing—their actual marriage. Most people understand that marriage is a long-term commitment, but many people go into it without a solid understanding of what that commitment entails and without preparing their relationship for long-term success.
That’s the impetus behind Jimmy Knowles’ (aka “Jimmy on Relationships”) viral take on pre-marital counseling. Knowles’ video titled “The Premarital Counseling I Wish I Had YEARS Ago” has been viewed over a million times on Facebook, and judging by the comments, he nailed what every soon-to-be-married couple needs to hear.
In the video, a couple is visiting with a counselor for premarital counseling. All three characters are played by Knowles himself, which is quite entertaining, but his counseling advice is spot on.
After asking the couple if they’re excited about their wedding, the counselor says, “Yeah, it’s meaningless. Your wedding—it has nothing to do with the success of your relationship. I’m not going to say it’s a waste of $20,000, unless of course you get divorced a few years later, which 50% of people do. So your marriage is practically a coin flip.”
That may sound cynical and pessimistic, but Jimmy the Counselor is anything but. His point is that people spent all this time and energy planning their wedding and almost no time preparing their relationship to last long-term. Then he goes into all kinds of reasons why relationships fail, from people not having healthy relationship models to toxic and problematic behaviors that they themselves might not even be aware of.
As he lays all of this out for the couple, they appear to be taken aback. And when he asks them what they’re going to do that’s different from people who end up divorced or in unfulfilling, unhealthy marriages, they respond that what’s different about them is that they’re “in love.”
“Wrong,” Jimmy responds. “Everyone’s in love on their wedding day. Do you know why 50% of those marriages fail? Because they didn’t know what love required of them—service, selflessness, sacrifice. Not one-sided. Mutual.”
“They didn’t have a plan to get things right,” he adds. “And they didn’t have a plan for what to do when things got hard and stressful, which they always do eventually.”
Counselor Jimmy (who is not a real counselor, for the record) pulls no punches, but he delivers the reality of marriage in a way that both highlights what it requires and also what’s really beautiful about it.
In less than 10 minutes, he manages to entertain while also dropping a crapton of solid truth and advice that would help anyone who is planning on getting married—or even people who are already married—strengthen their relationship.
Watch:
People in the comments expressed their appreciation for the free marital counseling.
“As a child of divorce and someone who just celebrated our 20th anniversary, I wholeheartedly agree with every single word,” shared one commenter. “Fantastic wisdom here. I can’t say we’ve never hurt each other in conflict, but we have the commitment and care to put in the work and grow through what we’re going through.”
“This is really good advice,” shared another. “We got married at 17, pregnant, no money with broken childhoods. I thought it was love that got us through all our traumas. But listening to this guy, I realize because we love each other, the talking, the intimacy, the respect and care we gave came naturally. Even now, after over 40 years together, we try not to take it for granted, we still show affection and support.”
“This is how my marriage survived and thrived for 25 years, 1 week, and 6 days,” shared another. “The day my husband passed away at age 49. A marriage really does take work, but it’s so worth it and knowing it’s a shared experience of love…”
Kenny Albert’s familiar voice welcomed TNT viewers into T-Mobile Arena for Game 1 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final between the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers this weekend. Albert’s been a mainstay of hockey (and basketball, baseball, and football) broadcasts for 30 years, but it’s only the second time he has been on the national TV call for the Stanley Cup Final, having taken over the booth following Doc Emrick’s retirement for NBC’s final broadcast of the series in 2021.
This year feels different for Albert, though, as it’s the first time he’s called a Cup Final with full arenas — the Lightning-Canadiens series that featured hm on the call was played with COVID-19 restrictions in place. It’s the culmination of a lifelong aspiration to get to this point, as he’s grown up dreaming of being a play-by-play broadcaster and reaching this stage. The son of legendary broadcaster Marv Albert — his uncles, Steve and Al, are also play-by-play men — Kenny never imagined a path to anywhere other than the booth. Albert jokes the dinner table at family get-togethers growing up was the nation’s first all-sports radio station, where his passion for all sports grew. There was never any external pressure on him to go into the family business, it’s just what he always wanted to do — he asked for a tape recorder at age six so he could practice calling games into it.
While Albert calls games for the four major men’s professional sports leagues in the United States, hockey holds a particularly special place to him, which makes his place in the Stanley Cup Final broadcast booth “surreal to think about.”
“I’ve been real fortunate throughout my career to have worked eight Olympics, six Winter Olympics,” Albert tells Uproxx Sports. “I called one Super Bowl on the International Feed. I’ve done playoff games in the NFL, baseball, basketball. I loved all sports, and when I sat with my tape recorder as a kid, I would announce all of them. So I’ve always loved the variety, but to me, hockey always was so special. I loved playing hockey as a kid. I played club hockey in both high school and college. I wasn’t very good, but I was on the team. And it’s what I’ve done the longest. I started in the minor leagues in Baltimore in 1990. I started doing NHL games in ’92.”
Albert is the son of New York broadcasting royalty and has spent most of his career there, but he’s particularly grateful for starting his career outside the city. It allowed him to work on his craft outside the shadow of his famous family, find his own voice, and “establish my own identity,” something that he’s learned is critical as he’s stepped into bigger assignments and filled the seats of legends, like Emrick.
“I never really think of it as stepping in to replace somebody or filling in for somebody,” Albert says. “I just try to do the job to the best of my abilities. And Doc Emrick’s a guy that I’ve had so much respect for — I refer to him as the Vin Scully of hockey, he was among the greatest of all time in the sport. I’ve known Doc for about 40 years. I actually did some statistical work for him when I was in high school and college, when he was filling in on some [New York] Rangers radio games, ironically, which has been one of my jobs over the last 28 years, doing the Rangers on the radio.”
Talk to Albert long enough and you’ll come to realize he has a story like that about everybody. Having worked NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB broadcasts for decades across a number of networks, he’s been in every stadium and seemingly interacted with every person in the sports world. When I tell him his Wikipedia page notes he’s worked with nearly 75 broadcast partners, he laughs and says that’s well short of the actual total of 250, which he recently listed out as part of his upcoming book A Mic For All Seasons.
Some of those have been one-offs and others have been years-long partnerships, but each has a unique story and taught him how to make quick chemistry in the booth. That was easier to create with his current broadcast partners on TNT, Eddie Olczyk and Keith Jones, because while they’ve only been together for two years, he has a connection to both that extends well beyond three decades.
“In 1984, I was 16 years old and a big hockey fan. Eddie was 17 and made the US Olympic team. It was the Olympics after The Miracle in ’80. So, back then I collected some autographs of athletes, like a lot of kids did back in the day. And for some reason I wrote a letter to Eddie Olczyk,” Albert laughs. “Somehow it found its way to Eddie, and he sent me back, in 1984, a team photo of the U.S. Olympic hockey team with his autograph. I still have the actual photo at home. So, over three decades before we started working together, Eddie sent me an autographed picture, personalized.
“And then with Keith Jones, my first job in Baltimore, I did the radio play-by-play for a minor league hockey team called the Baltimore Skipjacks,” he continues. “I was hired in 1990. And I was there for two years, ’90 through ’92. We were the Washington Capitals affiliate. And Keith was drafted by Washington in the late 80s. So he played four years at Western Michigan collegiately. And towards the end of the ’91-92 season, he joined our team in Baltimore when his collegiate career was over. I actually called his first goal that he ever scored professionally on the radio. And I distinctly remember he was sitting behind me on a couple of the bus trips when he joined the team. So, we first met in ’92, and then I did the Washington Capitals games for three years after that.”
That chemistry is important, particularly given the unique setup of a national hockey broadcast, with Jones between the benches on the ice while Albert and Olczyk sit in the press box high above. Even before he called NHL games nationally for NBC, Albert could lean on another past experience to aid in directing traffic with an analyst who wasn’t in the booth, as he spent eight years doing NFL games with Daryl Johnston alongside and Tony Siragusa calling action from the field with Fox. While Albert notes the rhythm of football is far different, the lesson from that experience that translated was that it was incumbent on him to know his analysts well enough to know what they’d want to discuss and leave room for them to jump in when those topics came up.
“A lot of it is getting to know the analyst, sort of studying their tendencies throughout the games that you work with them,” Albert says. “A lot of it’s by feel, if I feel like he wants to say something, and if not, then you know to jump back in about two seconds later. If I take a breather, and Eddie doesn’t say anything and Keith doesn’t say anything, okay, I’ll pick it back up. It’s not an exact science, but amazingly, whether it was Moose [Daryl Johnston] and Goose [Tony Siragusa] on the football side, Eddie and Pierre McGuire at NBC, Eddie and Keith Jones here, Brian Boucher at NBC with Eddie and I at times, they just all had a great feel for one another and very rarely stepped on each other.”
TNT producer Kevin Brown highlighted that ability as well, noting that he thinks a lot of it comes from the camaraderie built off camera — dinners after games with the crew and post-morning skate walks with Jones — as those conversations can inform what goes into the broadcast. It’s all part of Albert’s preparation for games, which Brown notes is invaluable to the broadcast because, inevitably, he has something in his notes on teams that even the packets from the league and teams won’t have.
“I would say as far as like, stats go, I tend to do pretty thorough research, and the league and teams put out great packets, we have a research group that puts out packets,” Brown says. “And then Kenny will, on game day, usually around like two o’clock in the afternoon, he’ll email me a note sheet. It’s usually two or three sheets of notes that he has on each team. And I look it over, I give it to our graphics folks, and there’s always one or two things like, how the heck did you find that?
“We had a game earlier this year where he has on his sheet every time we did a game with Tristan Jarry of the Penguins, he has written on a sheet ‘scored a goal in the AHL,’” Brown continues. “I saw that one game and I said, oh, that’s kind of a neat nugget, maybe next time we have the Penguins, I put in a footage request for that goal from the AHL, whatever it was, six years ago. And then we had a game this year where it was the Penguins and the net was empty at the other end and Tristan Jarry shot the puck down the ice twice trying to score and we had we had that flashback ready. And it was pretty much because Kenny had the note ready in an earlier game.”
The notes are the product of Albert’s first job in the business, which gave him a glimpse into all the preparation necessary to putting on a seamless broadcast for the viewer or listener.
“I would do the stats for my father at Knicks games, Rangers games, NFL games, so I just felt like I had such a head start just by absorbing everything and watching how he worked and the preparation,” Albert recalls. “That’s the number one thing I learned is the preparation that goes into each and every broadcast, and that’s something that I share with young broadcasters when I speak to them, is that the preparation is the most important thing.”
Now, Albert is at the pinnacle of hockey broadcasting, but he’s still as eager as he was as a kid with his tape recorder, running stats, or calling games for the Baltimore Skipjacks. The lessons from his family, mentors, and the many jobs he’s held along the way built the foundation that got him to his dream gig, and he will not taking for granted the opportunity to deliver the call when either the Knights or Panthers lift the Stanley Cup.
Apple officially unveiled its new virtual reality headset at the Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, and the overwhelming reaction right out of the gate is, “Wait, that thing costs how much?!” Dubbed the Apple Vision Pro, the VR headset arrives with a whopping $3,500 price tag and looks a whole lot like scuba diving goggles.
“It’s the first Apple product you look through, and not at,” Tim Cook said while introducing the, again, $3500 headset that’s controlled by your hands, voice, and eyes.
You can see the launch video below:
Welcome to the era of spatial computing with Apple Vision Pro. You’ve never seen anything like this before! pic.twitter.com/PEIxKNpXBs
And here are some spiffy technical specs via The Verge:
The device is controller-free, and you browse rows of app icons in an operating system called visionOS by looking at them. You can tap to select and flick to scroll, and you can also give voice commands. On top of that, the headset supports Bluetooth accessories, including Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad, and lets you connect your Mac to use inside the headset. Downward-facing cameras can capture your hands even if they’re resting low on your body.
The Vision Pro will reportedly have Disney+ support, which will allow you to feel like you’re right next to Mando and/or Baby Yoda during episodes of The Mandalorian. While that sounds pretty neat, the price sticker is still an eye-watering amount, and Twitter users quickly to work dunking on Apple for its wildly expensive new toy.
You can see some of the reactions below:
Apple pricing that headset at $3500 is so funny. Yeah man people can’t wait to throw down a couple month’s rent so that emails can chase them through their house like The Shining
every apple announcement looks like act 1 of a sci-fi movie where the big company announces a technology that will inadvertently cause the collapse of civilisation pic.twitter.com/5MsDDAGvLA
With a cumbersome form and a $3500 price tag, Apple’s headset seeks to take VR back to its 1990s roots: A thing you try out at the mall and say “wow this is cool I bet in 30 years they’ll have a comfortable version I can afford” pic.twitter.com/PTe0JODRrx
It’s also one of the year’s biggest hits: the animated film, from directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson and writers Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham, made $120.5 million at the box office this weekend and another $88.1 million worldwide. It’s going to be awhile before Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hits streaming, to the point where there’s not a VOD premiere date yet. Maybe sometime in the fall?
Netflix and Sony Pictures do have a deal in place, which means Across the Spider-Verse will premiere on Netflix before the end of the year. But an exact date is hard to pin down. At the very earliest, it probably won’t happen before September or October.
The only advantage to watching Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse at home instead of in a theater: you can pause every three seconds to catch the 42,847 easter eggs packed into the frame. I know Spider-Pig (not to be confused with Spider-Ham) is in there somewhere.
There have been numerous high-profile controversies surrounding LGBTQ rights recently that make it appear as though there has been a considerable backlash in acceptance of the LGBTQ community among Americans.
There’s the Bud Light backlash after the popular beer brand used trans activist Dylan Mulvaney as a spokesperson. There was an uproar after the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence on LGBTQ Pride Night. There has also been an ongoing controversy surrounding Target selling LGBTQ-friendly merchandise.
Clearly, if people are getting riled up over the normalization of LGBTQ culture throughout America, we must be amid a considerable backlash, right? In reality, the truth is the exact opposite.
A new poll by GLAAD has found that non-LGBTQ Americans are more accepting of the LGBTQ community than ever and want them to be treated like everyone else. So, even though there is a loud contingent of political activists pushing back against LGBTQ progress, they don’t seem to significantly impact the growing movement toward acceptance.
Simply put, the opposition to LGBTQ people may be loud, but it’s only getting smaller.
u201cGLAAD Report Finds 75% of Non-LGBTQ Adults Are Comfortable Seeing Queer People in Ads @PinkMediaWorld – A new @GLAAD study found that less than a third of non-LGBT adults personally know a transgender person.nhttps://t.co/8zCzzKuvuBu201d
The survey of over 25,000 non-LGBTQ Americans found three encouraging facts:
A 96% supermajority of non-LGBTQ Americans agree that school should be a safe and accepting place for all youth.
A 91% supermajority of non-LGBTQ Americans agree that LGBTQ people should have the freedom to live their lives and not be discriminated against.
An 84% supermajority of non-LGBTQ Americans support equal rights for the LGBTQ community.
The study also found that despite outrage over Dylan Mulvaney appearing in a Bud Light promotion, the vast majority of Americans are okay with seeing LGBTQ people and families represented in the media.
u201c”They want to make Pride toxic”: GLAAD’s Sarah Kate Ellis on how attacks against stores that carry Pride merchandise contradict a study that found the majority of Americans are comfortable seeing LGBTQ people in ads. https://t.co/KXSDBNb9nku201d
This corresponds with the fact that on the 2021 to 2022 TV season nearly 12% of all regular characters on prime-time television were LGBTQ. That’s a sea change over the 2005 to 2006 report that found only 2% of all characters were LGBTQ.
75% of non-LGBTQ adults feel comfortable seeing LGBTQ people in advertisements.
73% of non-LGBTQ adults report feeling comfortable seeing LGBTQ characters included in TV shows or movies.
68% of non-LGBTQ adults feel comfortable seeing an LGBTQ family with children included in an advertisement.
The strange state of affairs in America is that even though an increasing number of Americans want LGBTQ people to have equal rights, there has been a staggering number of new laws aimed at disenfranchising them that have been proposed over the past three years.
GLAAD estimates that over 500-plus anti-LGBTQ laws have been proposed in 2023 alone.
“Support for LGBTQ equality has reached an all-time high, but allyship must turn into action,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “Media, content creators, and corporate leaders need to lead and respond to hate with undeterred support for the LGBTQ community, including LGBTQ employees, shareholders and consumers. Allyship is not easy, but when values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are tested, we must defend them unequivocally.”
During a recent Paramore concert at Madison Square Garden, Hayley Williams kicked some seemingly rowdy fans out of the show, declaring, “Holy sh*t. F*ck you! What is happening? Guys, yes, I will embarrass both of you. Both of you need to find somewhere else to take care of that sh*t because that’s not happening here.”
Since that moment, though, Williams has taken some time to reflect and now she has some regret over how she handled the situation.
In a lengthy message posted on the Paramore Discord (as shared on Reddit), she noted in part, “I embarrassed the hell out of these two people, without truly knowing what the situation was. Then, as a group – all 25,000 of us or so – exiled these people from the show in record time. It was a moment that I would not fully process for a couple of days, when a friend showed me a video from the inside of the crowd, up close to the action. What I saw on my friend’s phone screen didn’t look like the fight I thought I was stopping. It didn’t look particularly kind either. But I have not been able to shake the feeling that I abused my responsibility and my platform in that moment… that I hurt those two in a way that will outlast the momentary discomfort of their poor concert etiquette.”
She later continued, “So, if you are those two people… I am sorry for whatever shame or embarrassment I may have caused you. I’m not telling you that it’s perfectly fine to act entitled or ignorant at a show. I also grew up going to hardcore shows and was a scene kid who crawled and squirmed my way to the front to see bands I loved. But these days the value of being at any show with anyone is just a different thing than it used to be. We are all trying to escape the brute force of staying alive and well in the modern world. I’m really not even saying I think there is a ‘right’ or a ‘wrong’ way here. I’m just saying that I’m sorry that I handled the whole situation like the arbiter of the same type of cancel culture that doesn’t often teach or lead in any productive way.”
Read the full post below.
“We made a lot of good memories this week in New York. Two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden, time with close friends and family from all over, a launch party for Good Dye Young in Ulta stores across the country… there is a lot to feel grateful for.
Yet my mind continues to trail back to a particular moment from the first night at MSG that I am really not proud of. I’ll get to that in a second.
Like plenty of elementary school kids, the biggest motivating factor in my social life was belonging. I often felt like an outcast, even when there were friends around. I didn’t belong to a specific group of friends and sort of found my social standing by not having any one group to settle into. I got along with the the other teachers’ kids, the nerdy kids, the ‘bad’ kids, the little sporty soccer players… I went to a gymnastics class with the pretty, popular girls… I most often sat with a couple black girlfriends at the lunch table and we’d laugh and laugh not realizing that the town we lived in didn’t want our cultures to overlap. I knew I could hang around with just about anyone and get along fine but I didn’t ever feel like anyone really knew me.
So that – coupled with the all too common reality of having divorced and super young parents – kind of seeded this idea that I was always searching for a real sense of belonging. And a shared purpose.
It makes a lot of sense now why I found my way into a type of music that was all about community. ‘The Scene’, we called it when I was younger. Joining a band was the best thing to ever happened to little me. I suppose the same is true for current me.
Our shows are, in a way, a manifestation of my young longing. The childlike hope that if we can just band together for any amount of time, shelter ourselves with strength in numbers, that we can override the horrors of life. A Never Never Land sort of thing.
At present, the world we are navigating is fearsome and polarizing. Music is not often the escape that it once was. Riding the line between using a platform responsibly and fostering the opportunity for respite takes what feels like an unattainable wisdom. There’s also the sense that it’s my job to protect the familial spaces we are co-creating with audiences around the world. It feels like my duty to help people feel a sense of safety and belonging enough to let go and be completely present at a Paramore show.
On Night 1, while we were midway through a song called ‘Figure 8’ , a number of people in the GA floor caught our attention, asking us to stop for what appeared to be a fight. A small sea of raised hands all pointing inward and down toward 2 people. What I could see from the stage looked like a bigger guy and a smaller girl, standing there in the middle of the action. My insides were triggered from numerous personal experiences not fit for a blog post or a microphone on stage at an arena. My outsides were trying to maintain control of a situation I felt that myself and my bandmates were responsible for. Without the opportunity for a proper back and forth (and with a looming, strict show-curfew in the back of my mind), I bared my teeth like a mother wolf.
I embarrassed the hell out of these two people, without truly knowing what the situation was. Then, as a group – all 25,000 of us or so – exiled these people from the show in record time. It was a moment that I would not fully process for a couple of days, when a friend showed me a video from the inside of the crowd, up close to the action. What I saw on my friend’s phone screen didn’t look like the fight I thought I was stopping. It didn’t look particularly kind either. But I have not been able to shake the feeling that I abused my responsibility and my platform in that moment… that I hurt those two in a way that will outlast the momentary discomfort of their poor concert etiquette.
Maybe I’m completely off. I saw some folks in the comment section cheering me on and expressing their appreciation for my reaction. Yes, I do think it’s a worthy cause to set firm boundaries for how we want the environment at our shows to feel.
I don’t feel proud though. I feel the same tension in this moment that I wrote about all over the new album. Maybe everyone is a bad guy… When given the opportunity, we’ll all throw our weight around, blissfully unaware of how it’s affecting anyone around us. I love to say we make a safe space at our shows each night… but I’m also the one who may throw someone out without really even knowing what exactly is going on.
Sure, maybe those two weren’t gonna get it any other way. But we should all try to imagine getting ridiculed and kicked out of a show in front of 10’s of thousands of people. When I saw their faces in the video, I didn’t see the smug smiles that some commenters criticized them for.
I saw embarrassment and I cried for them. I’m telling you, I haven’t stopped thinking about it.
So, if you are those two people… I am sorry for whatever shame or embarrassment I may have caused you. I’m not telling you that it’s perfectly fine to act entitled or ignorant at a show. I also grew up going to hardcore shows and was a scene kid who crawled and squirmed my way to the front to see bands I loved. But these days the value of being at any show with anyone is just a different thing than it used to be. We are all trying to escape the brute force of staying alive and well in the modern world. I’m really not even saying I think there is a ‘right’ or a ‘wrong’ way here. I’m just saying that I’m sorry that I handled the whole situation like the arbiter of the same type of cancel culture that doesn’t often teach or lead in any productive way.
I hate that there isn’t always a simple answer to even the world’s silliest problems. A ‘good’ or ‘bad’ bin to use for clean up.
I hate that the only thing I really know to say to people I deem racist or bigoted in any way is ‘you’re dead to me’ when I know that message isn’t the kind that’s going to change a hateful heart. How can I feel soft and tragic about it in one moment and ragey and rigid the next? Because that’s human.
The ‘both/and’ of all things is my own life’s boss-level adversary.
Does anyone really learn from the kind of public shaming I gave the 2 I had kicked out from the show that night? I don’t know but I don’t think so. And that really gives me a lot to think about in terms of our culture at large.
If you’re coming to a show on this tour I am practically on my knees typing, begging you to be open to the idea that every person at your show needs it as much as you do. Everyone’s story has lead them, for one reason or another, to a Paramore song that brought them to the same show that you’re attending. Everyone’s life is so complex and there is an infinite backstory to why they care about this music. It is not lost on us as a band, when we show up to your city and perform not only for you but alongside you. We ALL need the release and the joy and the sweat and the connection.
So do your best to give people their own moment and still be present in yours.
I know there is adrenaline and I know some of us started going to shows when pushing and shoving was not considered threatening. For a Paramore show in 2023 (read: NOT a hardcore show or even a post-hardcore show in 2005), pushing and shoving is unnecessary. When someone falls, it should be from dancing and losing their footing — and someone should pick them up. I don’t want us to have to stop a show for physical aggression ever again.
Rest assured, I will still have a person removed if necessary. I’ll just try with all my heart not to make it seem like some biblical era public execution next time.
Thanks for reading.
H.”
Paramore is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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