GoneTrending

Becoming a grandparent is a really big deal. It’s almost like a promotion of sorts, especially because grandparents get to spoil their grandkids silly and send them on their way. It’s just another way to expand on the love you have for your own child, and if the baby is lucky, they’ll get amazing grandparents that build a special bond with them.

Lila Chirico’s dad is one of those guys who was simply born to be a grandpa. So much so that his co-workers wanted to share in his excitement of preparing for his first grandchild. His daughter is pregnant with her very first baby and the grandpa-to-be couldn’t be happier.

Chirico was able to capture the adorable moment when her father’s co-workers surprised him with a “grandpa shower.” If you’ve never heard of a grandpa shower, no worries. It’s something his co-workers came up with to shower the soon to be grandfather with joy and more baby items than he could imagine. His reaction was priceless.

---

“The ladies at my dad’s work threw him a ‘grandpa shower.’ He’s worked in the same department for over 30 years,” Chirico shared via text overlay.

As he’s about to round the corner to his surprise grandpa shower, you see one of his co-workers behind him jumping up and down in excitement. The granddad-to-be’s face beams when he sees all of the bags and boxes of baby stuff, including a bib set that reads, “My grandpa loves me more than baseball.” Chirico concludes that grandpa showers should become a thing, and I couldn’t agree more.

See his reaction below:

Cats are underappreciated geniuses in so many ways…why not add singing into the mix?

Folks on Reddit were delighted by a video of a girl singing opera and getting unapologetically interrupted by her cat, who then ended up completely stealing the spotlight by belting out a few notes. Yep, a total diva move that only a cat could get away with.

The clip is so hilarious that we didn’t want you missing out.

---

Even the girl can’t stay mad as kitty starts to make those weird little chirps (you know, the alien noises cats make when they see a bird) set in perfect tempo to the accompaniment. Her mood quickly goes from “Excuse me?” to all out cackling.

Watch:

Singing girl is interrupted in the most adorable way.
by u/SnorkinOrkin in MadeMeSmile

Like, seriously…that cat is definitely singing, amirite?

Viewers on Reddit had a field day in the comments.

“I love cats. Such perfectly broken creatures,” one person wrote.

Another added, “It sounded like the cat was actually trying to meow along with the tune of the song! So cute! Clever cat!”

And of course, fellow cat owners couldn’t help but relate. One shared, “As a singer with cats, they love singing. I have an audience whenever I practice.”

Many were hellbent on figuring out how kitty was able to seemingly sing on beat. One person made a valid guess, writing, “I think she’s playing a YouTube karaoke track and there’s some kind of bouncing icon above the words that the cat is focusing on, that’s why the cat is so in sync 😂”

One helpful Reddit user noted that the singer has a TikTok channel (@maura.music) filled with even more opurra—or should we say meowpera?—duets with her cat, who we can now lovingly call Max.

Check out this one:

@maura.music Warming up those vocal chords😌#OperaCat #catsinger #catsoftiktok #musictok #operatok #catduet #catcomedy #OperaSinger ♬ original sound – maura music

Thanks, Max. You truly are a star. (And your human is pretty talented, too.)

Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi has declared April as Confederate Heritage Month in the Magnolia State, marking the 30th year of this ridiculous and wrong “tradition.”

If you’re wondering how the state’s leadership justifies something so backwards in 2023, here are the three reasons listed for recognizing Confederate Heritage Month in the official proclamation:

1) April is when the Civil War, “the costliest and deadliest” war ever fought on American soil, began. (Um, y’all know the Confederates were the ones who started this costly and deadly war, right?)

2) State law designates the last Monday in April as Confederate Memorial Day, “to honor those who served in the Confederacy.” (To honor those who did what, now? Served in the Confederacy? So you’re not merely memorializing those who tragically died fighting for a wrong-headed, racist cause, but you’re “honoring” anyone who “served” that cause? Interesting.)

---

3) The state wants to “honor all who lost their lives in this war” and “reflect on our nation’s past” and “gain insight from our mistakes and successes” and something about “lessons learned yesterday and today,” and striving to “understand and appreciate our heritage,” and no, none of this makes any sense whatsoever. (If reflection and insight lead you to still honor the Confederacy, you haven’t learned a daggone thing, folks.)

First of all, if there’s any question about what the Confederates in Mississippi were fighting for, they made it crystal clear in their own official declaration of reasons for secession. Right up top, the very first reason Mississippi listed:

“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world.”

Alrighty then.

And if that’s not clear enough, in that same document, Mississippi’s list of grievances with the United States government included that “it advocates negro equality, socially and politically,” and “it denies the right of property in slaves, and refuses protection to that right on the high seas, in the Territories, and wherever the government of the United States had jurisdiction.”

Kinda puts a kink in the whole “the Confederacy was about states’ rights, not slavery” argument, eh? Is this the Confederate heritage being honored this month? If not, what is it, exactly?

And let’s talk about this idea of “heritage.” Mississippi is 145 years old. The Confederacy lasted a whopping four years. Four years is the time between two World Cup finals and less than half the lifespan of “The Office”—hardly something that constitutes a “heritage.” Mississippi still talking about its “Confederate heritage” is like someone in their 50s still talking about their high school glory days, only infinitely more embarrassing.

The Confederates were losers, both literally and figuratively. They were on the objectively wrong side of a war, which they themselves initiated, and they lost. There was no glory in fighting a bloody, costly war in order to maintain the institution of slavery. There was no honor in officially documenting racist beliefs about Black people and enlisting troops to kill fellow Americans in defense of those beliefs.

The fact that the Confederates believed so deeply in their cause that tens of thousands of them were willing to die for it doesn’t make it right or OK or honorable. It actually makes it worse. Creating a mythology that there was some kind of righteousness in their fight might may make their descendants feel better, but it’s fundamentally dishonest. They were on the wrong side of a war that shouldn’t have been fought in the first place.

Any time Mississippi puts its racist history on display like this, people say, “Well, it’s Mississippi, what do you expect?” I get the impulse, but we should reject that knee-jerk response, wholeheartedly.

First of all, it’s not “Mississippi” doing this. Mississippi has the highest percentage of Black residents in the country. In the 1920s, Mississippi actually had a Black majority. Yet the state has elected an unbroken string of white governors—65 of them—since its founding. Does that seem a teensy bit…statistically unlikely, all things being equal?

Of course, things have never been equal in Mississippi, which is the whole point here. It’s not “Mississippi” clinging to the Confederacy like a security blanket, it’s the people in power in Mississippi. Specifically, it’s the white politicians who have maintained power through decades of voter suppression tactics, ranging from poll taxes and literacy tests to sneaky legislative structures to blatantly violent intimidation, that have disenfranchised the state’s Black voting population.

Does anyone seriously think “Confederate Heritage Month” represents the overall will of the Blackest state in the union? Let’s call it what it is—an exercise of Mississippi’s steeped-in-racism power structure and a not-so-subtle way of saying, “We’re still in charge here.”

As for what we should expect from Mississippi’s leadership? Better. We should expect better, more, sooner and faster. The state has shown, in the removal of the Confederate flag from its state flag and the willingness to change school names to stop honoring Confederates, that it is capable of letting go of heroic fantasies about the Confederacy. This is a conscious choice it is making, which shouldn’t go unchallenged.

If the state wants to demonstrate that it truly has “gained insight” and “learned lessons” from the past and “understands its heritage,” it should stop recognizing the Confederacy with words like “tradition” and “honor” and acknowledge the tragedy and horror that it caused. It’s way past time to be honest about that history and stop pretending “Confederate heritage” was ever something to celebrate or take pride in.

Trina did not come to mess around. The rapper — who recently collaborated with Latto and GloRilla — brought her songs to her NPR Tiny Desk Concert with a whole crew to give a gorgeous performance.

“This first song is dedicated to my mom,” she said, prefacing “Mama.” “Without her, there would be no me. And she’s the reason I’m standing here right now for you guys, so I want you to just enjoy.”

Harmonizing backing vocalists provided an enchanting backdrop for her flow about gratitude: “Mama, I wanna thank you / For sharing your blessings upon me / Taking time to understand the lady I wanna be,” she raps.

It only got better from there: “I wanna introduce you guys to the baddest b*tch,” she said before launching into the salacious “Da Baddest B*tch,” proving her range.

After those songs, she played “Single Again,” introducing it with a thoughtful speech: “Now, I wanna dedicate this song to all my single people, all my single ladies in the building. If you single, you came here today ain’t got no ring on your finger, just out here doing on your own, out here single, living your life to the fullest — I dedicate this song to you.”

“Here We Go” came afterwards, with the finale being “Nann N****.”

Watch her full performance above.

Three years after Pop Smoke’s (real name Bashar Barakah Jackson) tragic murder, the case is nearing a close. Revered as one of the driving forces behind New York’s drill music scene, the late rapper’s vocals continued to be used on tracks as recently as Tyga’s song “Sunshine,” released last summer. Initially, five people were investigated in connection to his death, but only four were formally charged.

Now, according to the Associated Press, one of those men has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. He previously pleaded guilty in Inglewood juvenile court to the charge of home invasion robbery. It is unclear if his four-year and two-month sentencing in a juvenile facility includes the voluntary manslaughter charge. But what is known at this time is that the judge preceding over the case “declined to apply the two years and eight months he has already spent in the juvenile hall toward his sentence.”

At the time of the slain, the defendant was just 17 years old (he’s 20 now), so his name was not released to the public. Neither was the identity of his co-defendant, who was 15 years old. The two other parties charged were Corey Walker (19 years of age at the time) and Keandre Rodgers (18 years old).

In the court testimony retrieved by the Los Angeles Times, a detective shared that Jackson was “in the shower when masked robbers confronted him. During a struggle, one attacker, who was 15, pistol-whipped the rapper and shot him three times in the back.” Before fleeing the scene, they stole the rapper’s diamond-studded Rolex watch, which they later sold for $2,000.

Elijah Wood had no idea what he was signing up for when he said yes to a guest starring role in season two of Showtime’s Yellowjackets. Literally.

Showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson reached out to the Lord of the Rings star to gauge his interest in playing opposite Christina Ricci’s neurotic, true-crime-loving misfit Misty Quigley once scripts were finished, but they couldn’t let Wood actually see anything in writing. (He wasn’t an official cast member and they’ve got Lindelofian plot secrets to protect.) They could only tease a name: Walter Tattersall. And a vague outline of who his character was before meeting Misty and getting swallowed whole by the central enigma fueling the survivalist drama.

But that was enough for Wood. The show had already checked the boxes needed to claim him as a fan.

“It’s very much my kind of show,” Wood tells Uproxx. “It dabbles in genre. It’s got potential supernatural elements to it. There’s a mystery at its core. The timeline between the past and the present, and how the past informs the present, is just so rad, and unique.”And then, there was the most important hook.

“But also, I love Melanie Lynskey, she’s a friend.”

For most of season two, Wood acts opposite another former co-star in Ricci with the two Citizen Detectives sizing up one another’s sleuthing skills in a quirky, slightly sinister will-they-won’t-they way. (By that, we mean will they kiss or kill each other.)

We chatted with Wood about his own love of true crime, being the comedic relief of season two, and his advice for dealing with genre fandoms.

How did the showrunners convince you to come on board this season?

Basically, it was a leap of faith, but it was an easy leap. They described Walter as this odd citizen detective [who] would team up with Misty, a favorite character of mine from the first season. And getting a chance to work with Christina was really exciting because we’d worked together when we were kids, in the nineties. It was an easy ‘Yes.’ I was really chuffed, genuinely, to even be asked to play in the sandbox, because it’s really a first for me. I’ve never watched a show, and then been asked to participate in a subsequent season of the show.

Did they clue you into any of the mystery driving season two?

I think I’m at liberty to say that the driver for Walter and Misty this season is just locating Natalie, trying to figure out where she’s gone, and ultimately, what has happened to her, which opens a whole Pandora’s box. And then, that there would be a potential coming together of a lot of the characters at the end of the season, which is really an exciting notion. My experience, for the most part, was just working with Christina. We were on our own little journey throughout the course of this season that ultimately comes to a head at the end.

How does the relationship between Misty and Walter evolve over the course of the season?

Misty’s an eccentric that can’t function in the world. She tries to, but it doesn’t quite work. The description to me of Walter initially was that he had similar eccentricities but has figured out how to make it functional. In that way, they’re a really interesting pair. They complement each other. That was really exciting. Then, just the nuts and bolts of who that person is, and where we would be going, that was enough for me to be excited. This season feels darker, maybe more fucked up than the first season.

Walter and Misty are both internet sleuths who take things a little too far, especially this season. What’s behind their obsession with the Citizen Detective message boards?

I think the draw is our collective interest in true crime. Blend that with the internet, and it provides an armchair hobby for people. They can commiserate, can discuss a certain unsolved case, come up with a variety of ideas of what they think may or may not have happened, and collect evidence. Basically, it’s hobbyist, which I completely understand. I’ve been interested in true crime for a long time, and I’ve devoured documentaries over the years, and podcasts and documentary series. I get it, I understand the pull that has.

Again, you put that into the realm of a message board, or an online community, where information is shared, there’s a sense of excitement of following a trail, and figuring out what could have happened. Potentially, you could make a difference, and I think that’s where the appeal comes from. I think that’s certainly where Walter is. I would say Walter might take it a step further.

Right. Like in episode three. Which is all I’ll allude to.

There’s a great deal of researched knowledge, some of which may not have totally been field tested. When you jump into something with a great deal of enthusiasm, you think you have all the answers. I feel like all of us have experienced this on some level in our lives, where we feel like we know what we’re doing, and then we get into a situation, and we’re like, ‘Fuck, we actually don’t know what we’re doing,’ but you play it off. That’s a little bit Walter. He’s in over his head, but he actually knows his shit. I don’t think that he’s really been able to field test it in quite the way that he’s going to with this journey that they’re on.

The last time you worked with Christina was in the 90s on a movie called The Ice Storm where you had to make out at the bottom of a pool while your mom was present. You said that was one of the most awkward experiences of your career. Were things less awkward this time around?

[Laughs] It was less awkward than that, undoubtedly. Christina is incredible. Working with her has been the easiest, and the most fun and rewarding experience. She is a fucking pro, man. She’s a finely tuned instrument as an actress, and it is a joy to work with because she knows her character so well. For me, acting opposite her makes my job so easy because she’s so skilled.

There’s also a lot of humor in their back-and-forth relationship, especially early on in the season.

Which is also one of the fun aspects of being asked to come and play Walter — it’s this sideline comedy section of the show. There’s quite a lot of darkness and the stakes are really fucking high for a lot of the characters throughout the series, both in the past and in the present. What was lovely about what we got to do this particular season is play a lighter duo, a relationship journey that ultimately ends where everyone is headed, but it definitely felt like the comic relief of the show, which was really fun. We didn’t have to deal with a great deal of heaviness, or darkness. It was just relative silliness.

We’ve talked to Melanie Lynskey about giving advice to the younger actors on this show. You’ve defended some of The Rings of Power cast amidst backlash from LOTR fans. What’s your advice to younger actors having to deal with fame in the time of social media?

Social media wasn’t even a thing! There was no Twitter, there was no Facebook. It was pre-Friendster. This idea that you would have an online presence, and have a direct line to both positive and negative responses from fans, and just people in general, that was just not something that we had to face at all. Now we’re dealing with racism and shit online in response to casting choices. It really is ridiculous. They had to deal with that as they were just about to celebrate their experience making something on this scale, having had this really incredible experience working together in New Zealand. Many of them are part of something on this scale for the first time, and before it even comes out, there’s all this negative response.

What’s the advice? I was going to say to not give it much attention, but it’s hard if you’re the folks that are the target of that criticism. I don’t really look at comments. That’s just a personal rule. I don’t really give a shit what anyone has to say. I just think it’s a slippery slope because if you start paying attention to what everyone has to say about you, it gives it weight. It’s almost like conflating schoolyard behavior to a much larger, more hurtful scale, and it’s a bummer. I think taking yourself off social media is a good idea, I think not paying attention to it, and I think focusing on the work.

Indiana Jones may not be an official part of the Star Wars universe, but he might as well be. Both worlds were, after all, created by George Lucas and feature Harrison Ford in universally beloved grumpy hero roles. Which might explain why the latest tease of the newest Indy feature, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, was shared today during London’s Star Wars Celebration.

As The Hollywood Reporter writes, a brand-new trailer for the long-awaited fifth film in the Indiana Jones series made its debut to an eager crowd on Friday at the London event. In addition to the all-new trailer, audiences were treated to six minutes of footage from the movie.

In the trailer, we see Indy’s goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) — who may or may not be a villain — pull the septuagenarian archaeologist out of retirement for one last adventure. Giant rolling boulder included.

Helena is the daughter of Indy frenemy Basil (played by Toby Jones), who we learn once shot our hero. The film is set in 1969, and also features Mads Mikkelsen as Jürgen Voller, a one-time Nazi commander who — like Indy and Helena — is attempting to find the Dial of Destiny, an ancient device he believes could make the world a better place. (Though his definition of “better” is unknown.) “Hitler made mistakes and with this I will correct them all,” says Mikkelsen, as Voller, of the dial.

“Littered in classic Indy moments, the trailer and footage featured tuk-tuk races around dusty Moroccan streets, Jones riding a horse through a New York street parade and jumping out of a burning plane with Waller-Bridge (who describes him in the film as an “aging grave robber”), and a scene with a giant rolling boulder,” writes The Hollywood Reporter.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny arrives in theaters on June 30.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Rae Sremmurd‘s new album Sremm 4 Life is out now. Though it’s not as laden with collaborations as their records usually are, the LP does feature two exciting artists: Future and Young Thug.

Young Thug’s feature is on the petty anthem “Royal Flush.” It immediately starts off with fiery resentment: “Leave me on read, you must be out of yo’ head / Leave me for dead, you must be out of yo’ head,” Swae Lee deadpans.

Last year, the duo teased this new record in interviews. “We’ve got to give them something new, man. As an artist, it’s hard to be yourself, and I feel like with this album, it was like we’re not following a trend,” Slim Jxmmi told GQ. “We want set the tone.”

In January, they kicked off the year by unveiling the song “Sucka Or Sum,” getting fans excited for their comeback. They announced Sremm 4 Life shortly after. They shared the single “Tanisha (Pump That)” just last month, which was produced by Mike Will Made-It as well as Pharrell Williams.

Listen to “Royal Flush” above.

Sremm 4 Life is out now via EarDruma Records and Interscope. Find more information here.

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

At this point, social media spats between celebrities happen as often as the blink of an eye. However, in the wake of several pieces of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation passing across the country, including states like Florida and Tennessee, these feuds have, at times, made platforms like Twitter a cesspool of bigotry, homophobia, and transphobia. While some musicians, including Madonna and Yo La Tengo, have used their shows to protest these laws, not all musicians feel the same. Gun-loving, confederate flag-wearing, and MAGA-representing musician Kid Rock and Travis Tritt are on the opposite side of the aisle.

At one point, Rock and Tritt were trending on social media for blasting beer company Anheuser-Busch. That led users to wonder why are Rock and Tritt mad at Bud Light and its parent company? Well, the musicians didn’t take too kindly to Bud Light featuring trans activist and TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney in their latest advertisement campaign.

Kid Rock took to social media to upload a video of himself shooting cases of beer with a semi-automatic weapon. Travis Tritt declared he would be dropping the brand from his tour hospitality rider. Users are calling out the musicians for the views, but Rock has been receiving the bulk of the blowback because of his use of the semi-automatic weapon.

Jason Isbell chimed in to voice his disgust with Rock. Also, a Parkland shooting parent took to Twitter to call out Rock for ignoring the facts that children trans or cishet alike have unfortunately been victims of mass shootings at the hand of semi-automatic owners.

Watching Showtime’s Yellowjackets is like trying to solve a f*cked up puzzle where half of the pieces are missing and what’s left, when assembled, looks like an Edvard Munch monstrosity that will haunt both your dreams and your waking hours.

All this to say, we love the goose chase wild goose chase this show leads us on each week.

In episode three’s “Digestif,” a central mystery that’s plagued fans ever since the early days of season one rears his ugly, eyeless head once more. The spine-chilling specter aptly named The Man with No Eyes is a blood-curdling apparition that’s tormented Taissa Turner (Jasmin Savoy-Brown / Tawny Cypress) for quite some time now. He popped up in her youth and has made some eerie, unwanted visits at the worst possible times in Tai’s life. But, thanks to the show’s latest episode — and some insight from showrunner Ashley Lyle — we’ve got a better read on who this creep is and what he represents for Tai (and her sleepwalking alter-ego).

Who Is The Man With No Eyes?

The Man with No Eyes has been with us since the beginning of the show. He was lurking in the background during the opening credits before the writers gave him a backstory worthy of his weird, frankly demonic, vibes. In season one, the character was played by Braham Taylor and though he had no lines, the actor did a terrific job of terrifying us with his menacing stare — and terrible taste in menswear. We first met him in the show’s third episode. (A coincidence given his part to play in season two, episode three’s “Digestif”? We think not.) He appeared in the room when Tai went to say goodbye to her ailing grandmother. The two were very close and on her deathbed, Tai’s grandma tries to soothe the little girl’s fears about death, referencing a higher power and the “calling back” of the soul.

Later though, Tai’s grandmother appears to see The Man with No Eyes in the mirror opposite her bed and his presence unsettles her. She becomes anxious, asking “Who are you?” before telling Tai the man wants to take her eyes. Tai also sees him and begins to scream. It’s certainly not the peaceful, idyllic passing her grandmother had promised her.

Where Have We Seen Him Before?

The traumatic event of watching her grandmother die might have been the first time The Man with No Eyes appeared to her, but Tai’s been seeing him more frequently — in the woods and on the campaign trail. The other time Tai sees the eyeless figure in season one is when she’s preparing to pull out of the Senate race. After changing her mind and giving an impassioned speech that makes clear her intentions to keep fighting to win the election, she glimpses The Man With No Eyes amongst the crowd of supporters. There are other moments that allude to the spirit’s presence in Tai’s life like the drawings her Son Sammy made depicting both eyes (of all shapes, colors, and kinds) and eyeless faces, but it isn’t until season two that his connection with the wilderness is explored.

The Man with No Eyes pops up in episode two, just in time to lead a sleepwalking Taissa over a cliff. Luckily, Van is there to stop her, but the incident calls into question the malevolent nature of the spirit and his intentions for Tai. In episode three’s “Digestif,” The Man with No Eyes makes another appearance while Tai is sleepwalking. This time, with Van with her, she reveals he’s leading her somewhere and she goes when (conscious) Tai lets her. Whether that’s to find more symbols or to find another cliff’s edge, we’re still not sure.

What Does He Represent?

Some fans have theorized that The Man with No Eyes is some kind of curse tied to Taissa’s family considering both she and her grandmother, and likely her son as well, have seen him while the rest of the team can’t. Others believe he might be a spirit attached to the wilderness in the same way the dead man in the cabin in season one was. While showrunner Ashley Lyle didn’t confirm or deny any of those possibilities, she did tell fans at PaleyFest that his connection to tie isn’t just a supernatural one, it’s also psychological:

Tai has lived as this person who’s based her life on pragmatism. I personally believe that she would define herself as an atheist, if not, an agnostic. And yet as a young child, she had this incredibly informative, traumatic experience when her grandmother, who she was very close to, was close to death and had this sort of terrifying moment where she was anticipating, you know, the transition to the next life and expecting sort of angels and trumpets and instead had a terrifying vision. I think that for Taissa, who’s very much not in touch with her spiritual self, and very much not in touch with her ability to believe, or, her faith, there’s this sort of symbolic character of, you know, you could look at him as death incarnate. I think what he [the man with no eyes] represents is ‘the unknown’ and the unknown is something that Taissa is very uncomfortable with as a character.

It’s likely we’ll see more of The Man with No Eyes as the season progresses and the situation — for the girls in the woods and the women back home — worsens.

(Via Insider)