“I wrote it in a really different way,” she said. “The chorus was originally: ‘I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand, but I can’t love me better than you can.’ It used to be more, like, 1950s. The saddest song. Like: ‘Sure, I can be my own lover, but you’re so much better.’” She added, “The song is a little fake it till you make it, which I’m a big fan of.”
“Flowers” comes from her new album Endless Summer Vacation. About the record, she explained, “When it comes to the sequencing of ‘Endless Summer Vacation,’ I divided it by two parts, ‘AM’ and ‘PM,’ to kind of represent almost an act,” she said. “The ‘AM’ to me is representing the morning time, where there’s a buzz and an energy, and there’s a potential of new possibilities. It’s a new day.”
The Writers Guild of America labor union is currently on strike, marking the largest labor stoppage that we’ve seen from the organization since their three-plus month long strike back in 2007. You can read up on why they are striking right here, and ever since it began earlier this month, plenty of individuals and organizations have expressed their support for the WGA.
This includes Stephen A. Smith, who backed the writers during a recent episode of the Know Mercy podcast. Smith told the story about his contract dispute with ESPN that led to him leaving the network in 2009, which he called “devastating” but stressed was “the best thing to ever happen to me in my life” because “I became a master of my business, which means I ultimately found out exactly what I was worth.”
Smith turning this into a point about, say, James Harden hitting free agency or Lamar Jackson’s now-resolved contract dispute would have made sense. But instead, he used this as a jumping off point to express support for the WGA.
“I say all of that to say, to the Writers Guild Association of America, you have a supporter in me,” Smith said. “And I think that, sooner than later, this strike will come to an end and we’ll all be blessed with you putting your wonderful talents on display, to make sure this nation and this world is entertained due to your brilliance as writers.”
Collective Music Group rapper 42 Dugg was sentenced to a year in prison for failing to report for a previous sentence for carjacking and firearms possession. This situation isn’t working for CMG founder Yo Gotti. The Memphis rap mainstay was willing to pay big money to secure his artist’s release, posting a call to action on his Instagram Story. According to XXL, he wrote, “I got $2 million for any lawyer that can get Dugg out early.[That’s] what I want for my birthday #FreeDoggy”
Dugg appeared to be having a miserable time in prison as well, sharing an Instagram post of his own (perhaps through an intermediary) in which he claimed that he wasn’t being given hot water in the commissary to heat up food. “Man, I’m in this b*tch heating my food up with water from the nasty ass shower — they don’t even give us hot water to heat food up,” he asserted. “Ain’t no microwave, I can’t get no visits from my family, nothing. I’m sure they gone do some more illegal sh*t but what I ’pose to die in this b*tch for probation violation?”
Even before Dugg’s troubles, though, Gotti was working hard on prison reform. Last year, he allied with Jay-Z and Meek Mill to throw support behind a bill to prohibit the use of rap lyrics in criminal trials, and before that, he and Jay sued the Mississippi Department of Corrections over inmate rights violations, prompting the prisons’ healthcare provider to end its contract. Hopefully, their efforts will yield greater results in the future, because the prison system as it stands is pretty awful.
Have you ever been walking your dog around the neighborhood, noticed a pretty flower, and wondered what kind it is? Have you ever looked at your dog and wondered what breed they are? Well, a new feature on your iPhone called Visual Look Up provides you with information about plants, pets and landmarks while you’re on the go.
A lot of people don’t even know that this helpful feature exists. It became available with iOS 15, so if you’re running an older operating system, then you’ll have to update your iPhone or iPad to use the feature.
Open a photo in full screen; the Visual Look Up button (an “i” enclosed in a circle with a small star on the left side) indicates that Visual Look Up information is available for that photo.
Swipe up on the photo or tap the Visual Look Up button.
Tap the icon on the photo or at the top of the photo information results to view Siri Knowledge and more information about the object.
I photographed a cactus outside of my home to try the feature out. After taking the picture and opening it up on my iPhone, I noticed that the Visual Lookup Button appeared at the bottom of the photo. I clicked it and could learn more about the cactus by clicking on “Look Up — Plant >,” which appeared beneath the image. The same information is available by clicking on the leaf icon that appears on the photo.
The Visual Look Up told me that the succulent was a Bilberry cactus when I always thought it was a San Pedro. Who knew?
Next, I tried the feature on my dog, Archie. I’ve had him for over six months and still haven’t figured out his breed. I’ve been told he is probably a mixture of Labrador, Boxer, Pit Bull, and/or German Shepard.
I took a photo and used the Visual Look Up to see which breed came up. This time, after I clicked the Visual Look Up link, instead of a leaf appearing on the photo, I got a pawprint. Cute!
Lo and behold, according to Visual Look Up, Archie is a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog. I’ve never even heard of a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog. I definitely have to look into that.
Finally, I wanted to see how good the feature was at identifying landmarks, so I drove to the closest one near my home, the Walter Pyramid at Cal State University Long Beach. It’s a local icon, so I used the app to see if it could identify the structure.
In this case, the feature didn’t deliver as well as I had planned. The landmark’s name didn’t pop up in the results. Instead, it identified it as a landmark and shared a link to photos others have taken of the pyramid. After clicking on those, I could determine its name.
This feature is an easy way to identify things when it’s hard to find a reasonable way to search for them in Google. Let’s face it, you’re not going to get reliable results if you Google “tall green cactus” or “brown and white dog with droopy jowls.”
Debates around the societal differences between men and women are likely as old as humanity. There will always be a shift in expectations and personal needs, but some things never get old, like men discovering just how expensive it can be to be born with female reproductive organs. Or to simply exist as a woman in America, specifically.
So for everyone’s viewing pleasure, the folks at the React YouTube channel gathered up a handful of average guys and asked them to guess what certain traditionally female items were used for, how they are used and how much they cost. The results were a mix between impressive and amusing.
React started off fairly easy by giving the men a box of tampons and asking what they were for. We are going to hope that most guys who reach adulthood have some general idea of what a box of Tampax is for, and these guys were off to a strong start.
Of course, the host of the show didn’t stop there. She hit the guys (and likely the women watching) with invisible pearl-clutching math on how much money women spend on average over their lifetime. $18,000. Yes, people who use tampons as their feminine hygiene product of choice spend about $18,000 on something that’s just going to go in the trash…or going to make some plumber a lot of money. Can you claim tampons on your taxes? Totally asking for a friend.
The guys were shocked, and one pointed out they could use that money to buy a motorcycle. As the guys moved through different menstruation products, they became more confused about the proper way to use them. But to be fair, there are plenty of people who have periods who don’t know how to use every feminine hygiene product on the market.
True confusion and flabbergast came when the guys watched a video of a girl explaining how much she spent on a haircut and color. While some of the men guessed in the hundreds, some guessed as low as $35, so when the girl revealed her haircut costs upwards of $450, audible gasps were taken.
“That’s a year of haircuts for me,” one guy said.
“I wouldn’t be let back in the house if I went out and spent that much money on a haircut,” another participant declared.
The guys moved on to other items like bras, shapewear and skin care products with confusion and shock growing with each revelation. Watch the entire video below and tell us how you did in the comments.
An image that initially went viral eight years ago is having a second life as a fun personality quiz. The Minds Journal published a picture of a cat on a flight of stairs, and it claims that if your first impression of the photo was that the cat was walking up the stairs, you are an optimist. But if you think the cat is walking down the stairs, you are a pessimist.
According to The Minds Journal, you are an optimist who sees “potential and growth” wherever you look if you see the cat walking upstairs. “Your mind has been trained to look at ways of rising higher in life, so given a situation where you have the choice of rising higher than others or falling to their levels, you would inevitably be the better person.”
However, if you saw the cat going downstairs, you are a pessimist.
“It may have been based on your experiences in life or just because of the sort of people you may have met that tilted your view of life towards the negative side,” The Minds Journal’s article says. “But this means that you don’t trust easily now, you calculate before you commit and you are wary of people who seem too sweet,” the article continues.
So what’s the truth? Is the cat walking up or down the stairs?
Here’s the argument for the “down” folks or, as The Minds Journal would call them, pessimists.
I would argue that the cat is travelling down the stairs… Although this image has been made as an illusion with many questionable details, it’s safe to say that from the design of the stairs themselves. We are looking up from the bottom.
Here’s the argument from the “up” people or optimists.
The stairs make this an optical illusion. Look at the cats tail. Up. That’s a happy cat trotting upstairs… Or… it’s a photoshopped cat walking on a flat surface, superimposed over stairs, which would make it neither going up or down. 😉
They say that which direction you see determines if you’re a pessimist or an optimist. [I saw the kitteh going up, which means I’m an optimist. Which is true!]
The cat is coming up but we are looking down the stairs are as you can see the flat landing at the bottom of the stairs ..so it is a good optical illusion imo
Business Insider took a hard stance, saying it’s “obvious” that the cat is going downstairs. “First, look at the architecture of the stairwell. The nose of the stair treads is overhanging the riser, which has a pebbled texture,” Business Insider says.
“Plus, if you look closely, there’s even a slight shadow under the overhanging nose of the stair treads,” the argument continues. “These shadows would only be visible if the cat was going down the stairs towards the viewer who is looking upstairs. The light coming from the upstairs landing is causing the shadow of the tread to fall on the riser.”
Here’s a visual explainer:
These stairs have a nosing and shadows. The cat is coming down the stairs.
Obviously, a simple reaction to a photo of a cat is a far from perfect way to determine one’s personality. But research shows that optimists and pessimists have explicit biases when interpreting the world around them. It could also decide whether or not they thought the cat was walking up the stairs to greet its owner walking down the stairs to avoid a predator.
“To use the common expression, the optimist focuses his attention on the glass half full; that is, an optimist selects the positive/reinforcing cues from the environment, and tends to filter and ignore information that does not match his brighter outlook,” David Hecht writes in Experimental Biology.
“A pessimist tends to do the exact opposite. In general, a pessimist’s attention is focused on the glass half empty; i.e. the pessimist allocates a disproportionately greater attention to the negative cues, while tending to forget the positive aspects of a situation,” Hecht continues.
While the rest of the conservative world has turned its attention to being mad at Miller Lite for… having a girl in its latest ad (?), Ted Cruz has yet to move on from the Bud Light debacle. The Senate’s King of the Self Own has signed onto a new bill demanding a congressional investigation into both the beer maker and trans activist Dylan Mulvaney, whose singular sponsored social media post sent Republicans spiraling so hard that Kid Rock started shooting beer cans.
On Thursday morning, Cruz stopped by Fox & Friends to defend the bill, which he co-sponsored with Senator Marsha Blackburn of Kentucky. In a blatant attempt to continue to make political hay out of the controversy, Cruz accused Anheuser-Busch of using Mulvaney to target underage drinkers.
“A massive percentage of Dylan Mulvaney’s audience are kids. And Budweiser was trying, I believe, with this ill-fated marketing attempt to target teenagers,” Cruz, R-Texas, said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday.
In a joint effort with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the Texas senator sent a letter to the Beer Institute Chairman Brandon Whitworth who also serves as the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light. The letter called on the Beer Institute’s Code Compliance Review Board to investigate the beer brand’s controversial ad campaign with Dylan Mulvaney.
It didn’t take long for Cruz’s Fox News appearance to go viral on Twitter where the Texas senator was ruthlessly mocked for continuing to milk the Bud Light debacle.
You can see some of the reactions below:
Go back to your hole in the ground you fucking Dollar Store wolverine
Jorja Smith is back. The 25-year-old singer has collaborated with FKA Twigs, Brent Faiyaz, and Sonder. Today (May 18), she announced her new album Falling Or Flying arriving this fall. Her previous songs “Little Things” and “Try Me” will be on the record.
Falling Or Flying comes on September 29. It follows her 2021 EP Be Right Back. “It’s called Be Right Back because it’s just something I want my fans to have right now, this isn’t an album and these songs wouldn’t have made it,” she said at the time. If I needed to make these songs, then someone needs to hear them too.”
About Falling Or Flying, she said in a statement, “It touches on breakups, relationships with my friends, relationships with old friends, relationships with myself. It’s definitely about a lot of relationships, but every song I write I can sing it to myself.”
Meanwhile, her collaborator Twigs actually ended up being her cousin. “I’d never met her before, and I jumped in her car with her,” Twigs shared, “and I remember thinking to myself, ‘Gosh, that’s really strange: we’ve got exactly the same kind of skin.’ […] A few months later, I was on the road to go to LA and [Smith] left me a voice note saying, ‘You’re never going to believe this, but I’ve just spoken to my dad and he’s spoken to his sister and we’re related.’”
Falling Or Flying is out 9/29 on FAMM. Find more information here.
Nicki Minaj has been much more active on social media lately, promoting collaborations with Ice Spice and Kim Petras, sharing the video for “Red Ruby Da Sleeze,” and telling fans that her new album will be the best of 2023. But with increased access to the star, her fans are also learning her tolerance for foolishness.
When one fan shared a less-than-attractive pencil illustration of her on Twitter, Nicki was apparently offended enough to block the user, who shared a screenshot of their blocked status and requested Nicki unblock them, insisting that “it was a joke.”
You know what they say about playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes.
Nicki Minaj fans, collectively known as Barbz, have been known to pull some pretty wild stunts over the years for her attention. Such is their devotion that last year, when she shoved a fan during a public appearance in London, fans on Twitter were actually jealous. Of course, they’ve also earned a reputation for taking things too far; they’ve been accused of harassing individuals who’ve been critical of Nicki in the past, with one YouTuber even plotting a lawsuit against the fanbase for an ongoing campaign of bullying behavior lasting years. But at least we know the one thing that they can do to get into her bad graces: Make her look bad, literally.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
You know how sometimes you’ll be sitting around the house and thinking “Man, I sure wish there was a television show about Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem band from the Muppets, maybe one where they try to record a new album and go platinum in the world of modern-day music”? Well, good news: That exact show now exists on Disney Plus! So, if you, like everyone, could use a little more Muppets in your life, here you go. Another success for all of us.
There’s a glut of good TV at the moment so even a modern remake of a bit of classic David Cronenberg-ian body horror needs some buzzwords to cut through the noise. Luckily, Dead Ringers has that. And we’ll list them out for you now: Rachel Weisz. Evil twins. Surrealist sci-fi. Fertility clinic. Power struggles. A shocking finale. And Rachel Weisz (again). Helmed by Alice Birch (Normal People) with a few episodes directed by horror maestro Karyn Kusama, this show takes Cronenberg’s central idea and gender-flips it, giving us twin obstetricians Beverly and Elliot Mantle whose day job sees them playing god at a cutting-edge fertility clinic. But, when their toxic relationship dynamics are threatened by both their professional success and personal entanglements, their bond reaches disturbing new depths.
GLOW standout Betty Gilpin is teaming up with TV king Damon Lindelof in this seriously terrific show about a nun who fights an almighty algorithm. What’s not to enjoy about that, especially since it delivers upon a truly nutso premise? Gilpin plays Simone, not to be confused with the title character of the AI, and Margo Martindale co-stars as a booze-loving nun. If there’s anything that Damon Lindelof has taught us in his post-Lost days, you never know precisely what to expect from his projects. Never forget Lube Man.
This series did some cutting to the source material of Garth Risk Hallberg’s same-named book, and the result is a more straightforward focus on the central mystery. This works both for and against the limited series, which is still intriguing enough — a shooting victim spends much of the series in a coma while other characters scramble to solve said mystery. Major takeaway here: Jemima Kirke should be in more things.
We’re in a golden era of Hollywood satire, specifically when it comes to HBO’s offerings with Hacks and Barry (in and around all the murder and Chechen drug wars). Even Succession dips a toe into the mix from time to time (gotta get that franchise pump-pumpin!). But while The Other Two doesn’t have the same level of prestige or attention, nothing bites harder than this Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider created show that returns for its third season with the entire Dubek family thriving while also searching for meaning and connection.
Dystopian sci-fi has never been done quite like this before. In Apple TV+’s newest drama, a ruined and toxic future that forces humanity to dwell in underground silos hundreds of stories deep isn’t the antagonist of the story, it’s merely the setting. The real problem lies in a murderous cover-up whose unraveling threads reveal a bigger conspiracy when a scrappy mechanic (Rebecca Ferguson) and a disillusioned sheriff (David Oyelowo) start tugging in earnest. What is truth and who decides it are the questions this show is asking but even if the answers don’t come readily, the insane worldbuilding and thrilling action will leave you happy to keep guessing.
Authorized celebrity documentaries often lack bite and feel like an extension of a PR campaign, but Still goes deeper than most, telling the story of Michael J. Fox’s life from his origins to his ’80s pop culture takeover, the courtship of his wife Tracy Pollan, his Parkinson’s diagnosis/decision to tell the word, and the aftershocks of that. It’s not just a linear unfolding of an icon’s life and the depth and care that’s used to paint a portrait of him now as he takes stock and counts his blessings while being challenged by the progressive and debilitating disease, it’s the way in which Guggenheim chooses to highlight key moments. As we see with Fox himself, there’s a lot of light and joy running through this as it weaves together re-enactments, voiceovers, archival footage, Fox interviews, and needle drops to give new life to familiar stories and creates montages so exhilarating you’ll think you’re watching the ’80s pop culture version of The Last Dance. Pair all that with Fox’s charm and candor, and Still feels special.
The Veep guys bring us the Watergate story that you never knew that you’d enjoy watching. Justin Theroux delivers a knockout performance in this David Mandel-directed adaptation of Egil Krogh and Matthew Krogh’s book, Integrity. In doing so, the team puts a satiric spin upon the experiences of Egil (played by Rich Sommer) during and after his time leading the Special Investigations Unit that was tasked with plugging information leaks. Yep, that’s where the “plumbers” comes from, and this show is fun and tragic but, fortunately, mostly fun.
It’s time to go back to the wilderness, where this season doubles down on the darkness and refuses to apologize for it. The show still puts forth one of the most solid examples of dual timelines in TV history. Not only that, but all four sets of leads are firing on all cylinders this year. Sure, Juliette Lewis can pull off this type of role in her sleep, but we love to see her do it. Christina Ricci chews everything up, and Melanie Lynskey is finally getting her due. Oh, and don’t forget about those earworms. Get ready for the return of the Antler Queen, gang. Spooky.
Break out your biscuits and put on your custom-bedazzled Diamond Dogs silk bomber jackets because the best mustache on TV is back, baby. This might be the last season of Ted Lasso which is a bittersweet pill to swallow but it’s best not to dwell on all of the loose ends still in need of tying. Ted wouldn’t. Instead, let’s just enjoy these characters as long as we have them. And hope something awful (but not irreversible) and humiliating (but appropriately so) and devastating (but ultimately life-changing in a positive way) happens to Nate “not so great” Shelley.
What we have here is a Bridgerton prequel, a good one, that focuses on the real-life marriage of Charlotte to King George II, with the usual Bridgerton twist of Olde England being a racially integrated society. Shonda Rhimes serves as showrunner and gives it all the classic Rhimes-y snap and pizzazz, which works well with the show’s subject matter. If you like Bridgerton or history or a sexy/fizzy series about rich people who are kind of miserable, this might be your new favorite show… or at least a way to kill a rainy weekend.
Patricia Arquette finally gets wacky again as an ex-drug dealer who decides, what the heck, to be a private investigator. She is no Jessica Jones, but that’s alright because she’s much more chaotic with barely restrained energy. It’s an extremely weird show that co-stars other actors also very good at playing weird. That includes Matt Dillon and Bernadette Peters and Brad Garrett, along with Rupert Friend playing a guru. Underneath it all, the show explores the complex nature of grief, but fortunately, nothing gets too heavy.
Primo has three big things going for it. One, it is loosely based on the life of bestselling author Shea Serrano, who is cool and funny. Two, it comes from Michael Schur, creator of Parks and Recreation and The Good Place, who is also cool and funny in addition to being good at making shows. Three, it’s, well, free, as it’s airing on Amazon’s FreeVee channel instead of on Prime. Tough to beat all of that on paper, you know?
What we have here is a timeline-hopping thriller starring Kate Mara and Brian Tyree Henry that follows a class of new FBI agents — you guessed it, the class of 2009 — as they deal with various changes to the justice system and the rise of articulate intelligence and, well, a lot of other stuff, too. Which shouldn’t be a surprise. You saw the thing about multiple timelines. There is ambition here. That’s not always a great thing, but it does make for an interesting hook.
Well, guess what: We have Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and Viola Davis in a movie about Nike landing Michael Jordan as a client back in the early 1980s. It’s a fun watch. Davis is a powerhouse as Jordan’s mother. Chris Tucker pops up every now and then and just steals whatever scene he’s in by giving it the full Chris Tucker. It’s one of those movies that, in another era, you’d get sucked into on basic cable at noon on a Saturday. Which works out well, because you can still just watch it on a Saturday. This Saturday, if you want. Look at that. Another problem solved.
God only knows how Elle Fanning’s Catherine the Great and Nicholas Hoult’s Emperor Peter III somehow haven’t killed each other yet, but there’s still time for that to happen. Their arranged marriage has slid deeper into misery, but they must get their sh*t together to stay in power. History tells us that Catherine was Russia’s longest-reigning female empress and that she overthrew her husband, but god only knows where this show will actually go. Conventional history went out the door a long time ago.
Former President Barack Obama — remember that guy? — narrates this Netflix show about work, both what it is and what it means, as well as just the nature of, like, having a job. It’s kind of cool, really, to see a politician out there celebrating regular people a little bit instead of shouting into a microphone about whatever cultural issue is currently dividing everyone. If this comes back for another season, he should do an episode about people who, to choose an example at random, make lists of shows and monies people can watch on the weekend. You know, the real heroes.
First comment under the trailer for the new White Men Can’t Jump is about what it can’t be, which is a direct sequel that came out 30 years ago with Woody and Wesley blowing us all away with their A+ chemistry.
From the trailer, this new version looks like a layered story about ball and living and dying by the hustle with plenty of room for jokes and for this new duo (Sinqua Walls and Jack Harlow) to show off their own impressive chemistry. The question is, can people let the classic be the classic and give this one some space to be its own thing?
Everyone’s favorite hitman-turned-actor-but-still-sometimes-hitman is back for a final season. Things get… bleak. Still funny, borderline silly in parts, but also just very, very bleak. As it probably should be given… you know… the murders that Barry has committed. A lot of them. Thank God we have NoHo Hank and Henry Winkler in there to break it all up for us. This is our last season with all of these maniacs. Let’s enjoy it while we can.
Good news and bad news, ladies and gentlemen. The good: The cretins and weasels of Succession are back for a fourth season full of drama and dark comedy and more than a little delightful flailing by Cousin Greg. The bad: This is also the final season. So… you’re going to have to come to terms with that as things play out. It’s a lot to deal with, especially with the frenetic pace things have been and are shaking down. This is one of our best shows. It’s going to sting to say goodbye. But let’s all agree to enjoy the ride while we can.
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