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NPR is continuing to highlight Latin acts on the rise with the El Tiny spin-off of the Tiny Desk series. Dominican rapper Tokischa is the latest artist to perform re-imagined versions of her hits in a performance that was released (October 12).

NPR revived the El Tiny spin-off of Tiny Desk for Latinx Heritage Month. Omar Apollo was the first artist to kick off the series last month. Mexican singer Girl Ultra and Argentine rapper Trueno followed his lead and now Tokischa is up next.

This past year, Tokischa has helped globalize Dominican dembow music. Spanish pop star Rosalía enlisted her for last year’s “Linda” and then “La Combi Versace” from the Motomami album. Last month, Madonna tapped Tokischa for a dembow-infused remix of “Hung Up” that was retitled “Hung Up On Tokischa.”

For her El Tiny desk performance, Tokischa substituted the dembow sound of her hits with other genres of the Caribbean. She transformed “Hola” into a bachata track and infused “Somo Iguales” with a mambo rhythm. Tokischa also dabbled in other genres like bossa nova in “Perra,” her collaboration with J Balvin, and Mexican corridos with the brand new song “Kilos De Amor.” The most striking moment of her set is her soulful performance of “Estilazo,” her LGBTQ+ anthem with Marshmello.

“Kilos De Amor” was the only song from Tokischa’s set that hasn’t been released yet. It could be her upcoming collaboration with Mexican singer Natanael Cano. In May, Tokischa and Cano were spotted filming a music video together in Mexico City.

Scarlett Johansson is one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood at the moment, fronting Marvel franchises and Oscar-nominated dramas while achieving the kind of recognition and staying power most only dream of. But, that wasn’t always the case.

In fact, Johansson has revealed that her teenage acting years were filled with anxiety and fear over being pigeonholed into “hyper-sexualized” roles. The Black Widow star guested on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast earlier this week where she revisited some key moments in her career. Johansson has been acting professionally since she was seven years old, and she admitted that starting in the business so young meant she “definitely was in different situations that were not age-appropriate.”

“Luckily my mom was really good about protecting me from a lot of that stuff, but she can’t do that for everything,” Johansson told Shepard during the hour-long chat, via Deadline.

Once she became a teenager, the actress started booking roles that forced her to be seen as more mature than her age. Her breakout performance in Lost In Translation saw her playing a character five years older than her actual age, which was 17.

“I think everybody thought I was older,” she said.“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I think people think I’m, like, 40 years old.’ I got kind of pigeonholed into this weird, hypersexualized thing… It was like, that’s the kind of career you have, these are the roles you’ve played. And I was like, ‘This is it?’”

The actress started to view that perception of maturity — which had previously helped her book more interesting roles than other actresses her age — as something she need to push back on.

“It somehow stopped being something that was desirable and something that I was fighting against,” she said. “I wasn’t getting offers for work for things that I wanted to do. I felt like it was over, kind of. And so it was scary, at the time.”

Thankfully, Johansson was able to alter that trajectory and carve out a place for herself on film that felt worthy of her talents, something she hopes that the next generation of actresses like Zendaya and Florence Pugh can do with more ease.

“I’ve come to this realization that it’s important to understand progress and change when it’s really meaningful,” she said. “It takes two steps forward and two steps back, and then it gets better and then it gets worse. It’s not finite. I think if you don’t leave room for people to figure it out, then the actual progressive change doesn’t really happen. I see younger actors that are in their 20s, it feels like they’re allowed to be all these different things. It’s another time.”

(Via Deadline)

The 2022-23 NBA season tips off later this month and today, the league’s broadcast partner ESPN has announced another partnership, this one with Atlantic Records, to bring a new slate of thumping soundtrack singles to accompany its NBA schedule. The first round of promos (and a new theme song) has already begun airing featuring a remix of Ty Dolla Sign’s song “My Friends” with Mustard that name-checks such NBA stars as Ja Morant, Klay Thompson, Luka Dončić, and Steph Curry.

New tracks will premiere throughout the season including during ESPN’s Christmas Day slate, the Playoffs, Finals, play-in tournament, and Saturday primetime matchups. While the press release remains cagey, it promises “exclusive remixes and bespoke songs from some of Atlantic’s biggest stars.” Artists on the Atlantic Records roster include A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Bruno Mars, Burna Boy, Cardi B, Don Toliver, Cordae, Gucci Mane, Jack Harlow, Lil Uzi Vert, Lizzo, Meek Mill, Missy Elliott, Rico Nasty, Roddy Ricch, and Young Thug.

In a statement, Atlantic Records’ West Coast President Kevin Weaver said, “We couldn’t be more excited about this new partnership with ESPN for our artists and the upcoming NBA season. ESPN has proven itself as a first-in-class network for the way they use music across all of its programming. This is a fantastic way for our world-class roster of superstars to reach fans where they live every day.”

The season starts Wednesday, October 19, with the Knicks vs. the Grizzlies in Memphis.

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

Of course, as K-pop continues to dominate the globe, it’s worth recognizing this generation’s pioneering artists on the forefront of it all.

With that being said, the MTV European Music Awards (EMAs) announced this year’s nominations including some of the biggest and brightest names in the K-pop industry.

After the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards successfully debuted Blackpink‘s first ever live performance of “Pink Venom” and awarding Lisa for Best K-Pop over the summer, the quartet takes the lead with the most nominations for a K-pop act this year. The female powerhouses are the first K-pop act to ever be nominated for Best Video with “Pink Venom.” The music video goes up against Harry Styles’ “As It Was,” Doja Cat’s “Woman,” Kendrick Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5,” Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl,” and Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).” Other categories the group is nominated for are Biggest Fans, Best Metaverse Performance, and Best K-Pop.

HYBE’s leading boy groups, BTS and SEVENTEEN, each received three nominations. BTS for Best Fans, Best K-Pop and Best Metaverse Performance. While SEVENTEEN also received a Best K-Pop nomination under their belt as well as Best New, and Best Push. TXT, on the other hand, becomes the Korean representative for Best Asia Act.

The full list of nominations for Best K-pop are: Blackpink, Blackpink’s Lisa, BTS, ITZY, SEVENTEEN and TWICE.

Voting is open until November 9 at 11:59 p.m. CET, and the 2022 MTV Europe Music Awards will broadcast live from Germany on November 13.

The idea of luxury streetwear in 2022 isn’t a novel concept. It’s what many sneakerheads have come to expect. Even demand. We’re far from the days when sneakers were just simple canvas or leather trainers with paper-thin midsoles. These days, it’s not totally out of the ordinary to rock kicks made from finely sourced materials, featuring expert detailing, and the sort of craft usually reserved for high-end luxury labels, totally alien to the practical function-focused world of sneakers.

Big sneaker brands like Nike and Adidas regularly team up with luxury labels like Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Balenciaga to produce sneakers that fetch jaw-dropping prices. Outside of those direct brand collaborations, sneakers like the Jordan XI Concord, Nike Air Fear of God, and the Yeezy 750 have luxury built right into their designs. But it wasn’t always like this, it was the Air Jordan II that paved the way for the luxury-sneaker era. And now, 36 years after its release, the underrated silhouette is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

With a string of releases that began with last year’s Off-White Air Jordan II, designed by the late great Virgil Abloh (though Don C gets some credit here for his beautiful 2016 collection of quilted leather Jordan IIs, which we don’t doubt caught Virgil’s eye), the Air Jordan II has been getting noteworthy collaboration after collaboration, resulting in the best run of designs the silhouette has ever enjoyed. But how did it take this long for the II to finally resonate?

For that, let’s turn back the pages of history.

PART I — A Brief History

German designer Jil Sander is largely credited with being the first person to combine the world of high-end fashion and sportswear with her 1998 PUMA collaboration, the PUMA King Football Cleat — opening the door for other designers from the luxury realm to quickly follow suit. Since then, the worlds of luxury fashion and streetwear have continued to merge year after year, probably best exemplified by Virgil Abloh, a designer who solidified his name as a streetwear icon when he reimagined 10 classic Nike silhouettes, capturing the imagination of the entire fashion industry in the process and later taking on the role of creative director of men’s fashion at Louis Vuitton.

While the Jil Sander’s PUMA collaboration is the first big successful team-up between a luxury brand and a sportswear icon, it wasn’t the first time someone thought to merge the two worlds together. Over a decade before Sander’s partnership with PUMA, Nike designers Peter Moore and Bruce Kilgore, along with Michael Jordan came together to give us the Air Jordan II, a first-of-its-kind luxury sneaker that was so ahead of its time that it never really caught on and ended up being buried under the popularity of the classic designs that predated and proceeded it. Moore would leave Nike in 1987 to establish his own brand in partnership with DC shoe retailer Mark Van Grack dubbed VanGrack, and almost stole Jordan from Nike in the process.

“I was honest with him to a fault,” Moore said to Uproxx about Jordan shortly before his death. “I told him, you can get richer owning your own company but we’re not going to beat your [Nike] endorsement overnight. It’s going to take some time. In the end, he got ownership and the upfront cash.”

Ultimately, Jordan stayed with the Swoosh when he saw the design of the Jordan III with its futuristic aesthetic and embroidered Jumpman logo. The logo, one of Jordan’s favorite aspects of the III, was designed by Peter Moore.

The design team for the AJ II, besides being attached to one of the greatest players in the game, was made up of sneaker legends. The trio of Moore, Kilgore, and Jordan was truly an All-Star trio. Moore was the designer behind the Air Jordan 1, as well as the iconic Wings logo and the Nike Dunk, and Kilgore gave the world the Air Force 1 — so it’s kind of astounding how little of a thing people make about this sneaker. It’s like ignoring a post-Beatles McCartney/Lennon team-up, it combines the genius of two masters of their craft to create something that was, at the time, genre-defying.

PART II — The Design

The concept of the Air Jordan II was simple, Jordan wanted a sneaker flexible enough to work both on the court and when he was luxuriating at the golf club, a combination of sports functionality and luxury Italian dress shoes, and the II is just that. At certain angles, the way the design lines split the midsole, it almost looks like this sneaker is rocking a heel!

Released in 1987, the Air Jordan II was originally marketed as the Air Jordan Imagination, according to Sole Savy, and featured a premium leather upper, faux iguana skin detailing, and a full-length air unit underfoot for increased comfort.

But that luxury take on the sneaker came with a price, $100 to be exact according to High Snobiety, which was $35 dollars more than the Air Jordan I (what a time to be alive) and was at the time a very high amount of money for a basketball shoe. In addition to the high price tag, the sneakers weren’t very easy to get a hold of. The initial run was crafted in Italy and limited to just 30 stores spread across 19 metropolitan areas — adding a level of exclusivity to the sneaker that at the time was unheard of and has now, for better or worse, become the norm.

Ultimately, that lack of easy accessibility may be the reason the Air Jordan I continued to be so popular amongst the earliest sneakerheads and young Jordan fans passed over its more premium successor, the Air Jordan II. Fitting with their broader theme, Kilgore and Moore made the decision to ditch the iconic Swoosh branding, making Jordan himself the centerpiece of the brand. In 1986 the Jumpman Logo wasn’t a thing yet, but you can see how some of Moore’s influence and ideas eventually made it to Tinker Hatfield’s Jordan III design. This distinction between Jordan and Nike, and seeing Jordan as a brand in and of itself, made an impact on young sneakerheads.

“I remember watching clips of Jordan playing as a kid and he was wearing Jordan 2s… I always thought Jordan Is was just Nike, but the Jordan II was the signature shoe that defined the Jordan brand, in my opinion,” artist and sneaker influencer Lee Brown tells Uproxx. “It gave the message that it wasn’t just Nike. It paved the way for athletes to have signature shoes.”

The Jordan II was far from the first signature shoe but it was the first time a brand viewed the attached athlete as bigger than the brand itself. Aside from the luxury design and experimental branding, the Jordan II also brought innovation to the court. Responding to an on-court injury suffered by Jordan, Kilgore and Moore wanted the II to provide better cushioning and support so they revamped the sole with a full-length air unit.

This started a trend of each subsequent Jordan responding to the needs of the player and it helped the design to hold up past its prime.

“For me, the Jordan II is special because it was the first signature Jordan that I ever owned,” says sneaker photographer Andy Dutton. “I grew up in a semi-rural place so all of the exposure I had to Jordan models and other cool shoes was TV… I saw a few pairs of Jordan XIs and Jordan Vs playing basketball in high school, but didn’t know how to get them. Then one day I walked into my small local mall and sitting on the shelf at the Footlocker were two pairs of Jordan 2s, an all-white low and black and silver high. I played my senior year basketball season in those shoes. Ever since then, I’ve had a special love for the Jordan II.”

When asked how the shoe performed, Dutton says:

“I felt they performed incredibly well for how old the model was. It was ahead of its time with the full-length air unit, which definitely helped with cushioning. Would I play in them today? Probably not.”

Ultimately, at the time of its release, the Air Jordan II was a commercial failure and according to Nice Kicks, wasn’t well-loved by Jordan himself — despite a strong season where Jordan won his first Slam Dunk Championship while rocking the IIs, and made the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career. Jordan’s preference for the design of the original Air Jordan I explains the creation of the Air Jordan 1.5, a rare sneaker that combines the look of the I with the feel of the II.

PART III — The Comeback & Future

For years Nike and the brands and designers they frequently collaborate with had been ignoring the Air Jordan II until Virgil Abloh dropped his Off-White rendition in 2021 which combined Abloh’s deconstructionist aesthetic with the luxury design of the original and served as a celebration of the history of the sneaker. Abloh’s concept was to play on Jordan’s practice of signing pairs of sneakers and giving them away to young fans after games, so he pulled an actual pair of Jordan IIs from the Nike archives, lifted Jordan’s signature as well as the detail of the cracked and aged midsole and recreated it on a two colorway set.

Like Jil Sanders opened the door for luxury brands to combine with streetwear staples, Abloh’s Off-White Jordan II opened the door for other artists and brands to take a stab at the underappreciated design.

Abloh’s influence has culminated in a flood of new designs this year, marking 2022 as easily the silhouette’s best year.

In 2022 we have seen new Jordan IIs from American artist Nina Chanel Abney, beloved streetwear label Union LA, the Paris fashion label Maison Château Rouge, and perhaps one of the best brands to consistently drop amazing Jordan collaborations, Atlanta-based A Ma Maniére.

In 2021 GQ wrote an article titled, “Can Virgil Abloh Make the Air Jordan 2 Cool?” This year alone proves that the answer is a definitive “yes!” And now even Nike itself is putting some respect on the Jordan II name with the recent decision to retro the original Jordan II colorway for the first time in 12 years.

Even celebrity sneakerheads are starting to take notice, J Balvin’s next sneaker with Nike will be a cloud-adorned Air Jordan II, which will likely prove to be one of the best sneaker collaborations of the year. Period.

Sneaker influencer, writer, and creative, Anna Bediones, speaking on the renewed popularity of the silhouette and why it failed to initially connect with audiences the way other early Jordans did says:

“I love the idea of combining luxury with sportswear. While it’s definitely more prominent now it’s not a new concept… but I imagine it was just before its time. I think the ’90s and 2000s were more accessible in fashion and sneakers, whereas today fashion is a lot more aspirational which adds to its popularity within the mainstream but also alienates a lot of people, including sneaker enthusiasts.”

In the late ’80s, before people were willing to drop some serious money on sneakers, that heftier price tag might’ve proven too great a hurdle to pass for early sneakerheads who were, unlike Jordan, just looking for sneakers to ball in, not fancy expensive Italian dress shoes. But like Bediones points out, fashion is a lot more aspirational these days — sneakerheads seek out luxury and no other Jordan combines luxury with the look and feel of classic basketball sneakers quite like the Air Jordan II.

The Air Jordan II might not have the on-court advantage it once had, but the sneaker will forever stand as a design that not only pushed the Jordan brand forward but elevated the entire look and feel of sneakers. Even if it took a few years decades for people to fully see the vision.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

ILYSM — one of the most profound statements in the English language, condensed into a quick and easy acronym. Maybe because you’re short on time; maybe because it feels a little less heavy, a little less to commit to; or maybe because you share enough of a history and trust with this person you love to not need to elaborate any further. It’s also the title of New York-born indie rock band Wild Pink’s fourth album.

Their last record, 2021’s A Billion Little Lights, was a real statement; a slab of polished, almost arena-ready heartland rock, on which vocalist and songwriter John Ross explores a beautiful yet sad world. Their already devoted fanbase swelled, turning them into a bona fide cult band. Ross was ready to start working on a follow-up soon after. Then, halfway through writing, he was diagnosed with cancer.

ILYSM isn’t an album about having cancer, but there are nods throughout it to what happens when your world gets turned upside down. Love and beauty and connection become more important than ever, yet the doubts and the fears are louder and more existential than ever. There are lyrics that feel borne from the edge of anesthetic, blurry and dreamlike, while also ones that are deeply lucid and reflective. Musically, the album is less populist, more inward and altogether weirder than its predecessor — and in a sign of Wild Pink’s growing heft in the indie rock world, there are small contributions from the likes of J Mascis and Julien Baker among many others.

Uproxx spoke to John Ross over Zoom about love songs, experimentalism, ghosts and aliens, and more.

Can you tell me about the writing and recording of ILYSM?

I started writing it soon after A Billion Little Lights came out. I’d taken a little hiatus before that from writing, during the start of Covid, probably six plus months. [But] it started pretty quickly, the writing process. The writing process took almost a year or so before recording it. Then we recorded most of it in November of last year in Western Mass with [producer] Justin Pizzoferrato. I had never played with David Moore, the piano player, before, and it seemed like his ideas really helped take the [songs] from what I had envisioned in the demo process to where they are now. That shape-shifting kinda happened in the studio as a four-piece.

You were diagnosed with cancer during the writing process. Can you tell me about that experience?

Yeah, I was diagnosed in the summer last year, probably like halfway through writing the record. By the time it came to record the record, I was debating whether I should or not, how important it really was to be doing that. But I think that making the record was a very fun and cathartic thing during a really crazy time, and I’m glad I did it.

How did that emotional journey show up on the record?

I think at the time it probably felt a little bit heavier than it does now. But I feel like when I listen to the record now, it doesn’t feel super heavy to me. I really didn’t wanna make anything too heavy-handed, too serious about it. I write pretty emotional music I guess, so it kinda already starts in that place, but to me the record feels bigger [than that]. It’s not just about cancer, and I didn’t want it to be strictly about that.

But it was definitely crazy that that was happening behind the scenes, during the recording process itself. Like I knew that I had a surgery to remove a bunch of lymph nodes within a week after I finished. So that was definitely on my mind, but I don’t think it really felt too heavy at the time.

The lyrics on this album seem to have the same overarching themes as previous Wild Pink albums, like the beauty of the world, and feelings of love and connection. What makes you inclined to write about those things?

I think in the case of ILYSM specifically, just feeling a lot of support from my wife and family and friends definitely informed those feelings. [Cancer] is definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through in my life, so I feel appreciative of family and friends more than ever. It would have been exponentially harder without them.

But even from the first record, I think that the lyrics have always dealt with coming from a place of being in nature, or appreciating that. I think that’s just where I draw inspiration from. And I think it’s a little aspirational, too. I think that the lack of it, having lived in New York City for 13 years or so, made me appreciate it. And I’ve left New York [City] since, and I live in a more natural environment in Upstate New York.

That phrase, “I love you so much,” comes up in several songs and is the title of the album. What did that phrase come to mean to you?

It started from text messages between my wife and I. At first, it felt kind of funny and earnest at the same time. But then in light of what was happening at the time, it got a heavier meaning, and I kinda leaned into it. But it started kind of halfway joking, kind of serious, and I like that it works both ways.

Across the album, you deal simultaneously with realism and the natural world, but also with the supernatural. Where did that dichotomy come from?

I’ve always been into ghosts. I’ve always wanted to have a paranormal experience, but never have. When I started writing this record [I was watching] this Netflix show called Surviving Death, about the afterlife, and I was also watching that movie Signs quite a bit. [So] this record definitely deals with ghosts more than any previous Wild Pink records.

I think that there’s some metaphors on the record for love and obsession that have to do with ghosts and hauntings. Like in the song “ILYSM” for example, the character is visited by a ghost, and maybe confused about their feelings for the ghost. Which in my mind was kind of like how obsession can be confused with love. Or “Abducted At The Grief Retreat” is about an alien abduction, and again, the person’s kinda confused about their feelings for their alien captor. I guess I was just thinking about that at the time.

Why were you thinking about that idea of obsession?

I think the record started with looking at love through different lenses. I guess I’ve never written many conventional love songs. Which, this record has a few — well, maybe not conventional. But I wanted to write about love in a way that I haven’t on previous records.

Where do you think you did that?

Probably “See You Better Now.” I wrote that song for my wife. Just talking about the little idiosyncrasies that I appreciate about her that have deepened our connection. And I feel like the song itself has got more of a classic rock vibe than any of the other tunes do. Like I love Tom Petty and The Travelling Wilburys and stuff, so it’s kinda coming from my appreciation for those bands.

Were you consciously trying to push yourself as a songwriter?

Definitely. I wanted to get away from some of the more polished qualities of the last record. So with this record, I tried to experiment a little more. With the previous record I knew ahead of time exactly what I wanted to do, but with this record, I wanted to just not have it all so pre-ordained for myself. I [wanted] to go into the studio and figure it out in that week or two. Just to get away from some of the obvious choices that I made on the previous record.

When you look back at A Billion Little Lights, do you like those choices or do you wish you’d done it differently?

No, I like that record. I like the songs on that record. I wish we recorded certain things differently at times. But I always feel like I’m kind of correcting course. Figuring out what works and doesn’t work with a record, and steering back the other direction. I’m always kind of ping-ponging. I feel like that’s been happening since the first record. I just wanna make something I can listen to in a year or two and still feel very fired up about.

What did that more experimental feel do for the record?

It turned out better than I had planned. I wrote the songs and demoed them alone, and by the time I got with the band in Massachusetts, I was pretty ready to turn some of the songs on their head, to just kinda get away from what I had been living with for months. So when we actually played as a four-piece, things really transformed, and became more organic-sounding. There was some immediate chemistry when we started playing these songs that there was no way to plan for.

I feel like [with A Billion Little Lights] I was starting to experiment and play with a lot of collaborators and different instrumentalists, and I was really excited about how the unknown of playing with new players can really make the track better than I could have on my own. So I just really wanted to lean into that on this record. I remember when we recorded [2018 sophomore album] Yolk In The Fur, that was the first time I’d really used keyboards and synths. And I think on A Billion Little Lights, there was quite a bit of sound design elements and stuff that was very tucked in. But I wanted to just go further with it, and fool around with weird drum filters, and even mess with the arrangements, like ending songs abruptly like on “Hell Is Cold.” Just kinda get away from, again, the obvious choices that I think I made on the previous record. So yeah, I just really enjoyed experimenting, and not being too precious about anything.

My favorite line on the record is “I was a dead elm but I don’t know now / I wanna live here,” from “The Grass Widow In The Glass Window”. Can you tell me about what that meant to you?

There’s this dead hardwood tree that comes up three times in that song. You know, the tree’s dead and has mushrooms growing on it. But then by the end there’s some acceptance going on, or some moving on happening. And I really like the way that song flows. Because when the acceptance happens, [collaborator] Yasmin Williams comes in with her guitar part. It’s one of my favorite parts on the record. So yeah, I think that that song is about accepting and moving on from things. As far as some depression being in there or heavy themes, that song for sure has that the most.

I also love the record’s penultimate line, “Everything I thought was important but isn’t anymore after the year I went through.” Why did you choose to put that line at the end of the album?

It’s definitely the most literal line. That’s definitely about going through illness. I knew I wanted that song to end the record. I don’t know, addressing it head-on just felt right.

ILYSM is out 10/14 via Royal Mountain. Pre-order it here.

Brendan Fraser opened up about the Batgirl cancellation, and once again, he didn’t pull his punches. While promoting his new Darren Aronofsky movie, The Whale, Fraser expressed his frustration over seeing the film get shelved for a tax write-off after the production spent months in Glasgow crafting a Gothic film that didn’t heavily rely on CGI. Fraser was cast as the Batman villain, Firefly, and DC Comics fans were especially miffed when they learned his performance would never see the light of day.

“It’s tragic,” Fraser told Variety before putting Warner Bros. Discovery on notice that the cancellation will make creatives wary to work with the newly-merged conglomerate. He also praised Leslie Grace’s performance as Batgirl:

“It doesn’t engender trust among filmmakers and the studio. Leslie Grace was fantastic. She’s a dynamo, just a spot-on performer. Everything that we shot was real and exciting and just the antithesis of doing a straightforward digital all green screen thing. They ran firetrucks around downtown Glasgow at 3 in the morning and they had flamethrowers. It was a big-budget movie, but one that was just stripped down to the essentials.”

Fraser’s words make the second time he’s criticized Warner Bros. Discovery over the Batgirl fiasco. In mid-September, Fraser called out CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels by name after he essentially accused the media of blowing the cancellation out of proportion. Fraser then called the situation “disappointing,” but it taught him to only work with “trusted filmmakers” from now on.

(Via Variety)

TMZ reports that R&B star Brandy has been hospitalized after apparently having a seizure on Tuesday afternoon (October 11). The singer was rushed to the emergency room but appears to be recovering.

According to TMZ, emergency medical services were called to Brandy’s home at noon, with sources with direct knowledge relaying the belief that she suffering a seizure. Her parents are reported with her at the hospital but no other information regarding a possible cause for the seizure or any underlying medical issues has yet been released.

Brandy’s popularity surged earlier this year thanks to an unexpected convergence of events that led to the R&B star performing with Jack Harlow at the 2022 BET Awards. After the Kentucky rapper flunked a radio pop culture quiz, Brandy jokingly issued a rap battle challenge, taking the first shot with a fiery freestyle over Harlow’s “First Class” instrumental. The playful feud culminated in Brandy performing the freestyle as part of Jack’s performance, delighting fans and showing off both stars’ savvy.

Even before that, Brandy’s bars were getting some attention thanks to her role on the network musical drama Queens in which she, Eve, and Naturi Naughton play a ‘90s rap trio reuniting to revive their flagging careers. She previously impressed with her verse for the 2020 BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher, portending her unlikely second act as a rapper. Hopefully, she can recover and keep it up.

At the top of October, Paramore kicked off a North American tour. They’ve only played a handful of shows so far, but trends are already starting to emerge when it comes to setlists. So, now we can ask the question: What songs is Paramore playing on the road?

Setlist.fm, the most comprehensive resource for concert setlists available online, has the answer: Per their data (as of October 12), the setlist has stayed pretty consistent. They tend to open with “This Is Why,” close the main set with “Told You So,” then come back for an encore of “Hard Times” and “Still Into You.”

As for album-by-album representation, they’ve mostly been playing songs from After Laughter, followed by Brand New Eyes, Riot!, and Paramore. Their sets have also included performances of Hayley Williams’ solo song “Simmer” and Zac Farro’s solo HalfNoise song “Boogie Juice.”

Find Paramore’s average setlist for their current tour below. Also find the group’s upcoming tour dates here.

1. “This Is Why”
2. “Brick By Boring Brick”
3. “Decode”
4. “Caught In The Middle”
5. “That’s What You Get”
6. “Ignorance”
7. “I Caught Myself”
8. “Misguided Ghosts”
9. “Ain’t It Fun”
10. “Simmer” (Hayley Williams song)
11. “Rose-Colored Boy”
12. “Boogie Juice” (HalfNoise cover)”
13. “Misery Business”
14. “Told You So”
15. “Hard Times” (encore)
16. “Still Into You “ (encore)

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

Math is weird.

On the one hand, it’s consistent—the solutions to basic math problems are the same in every country in the world. On the other hand, there are multiple strategies to get to those solutions, and it seems like people are still coming up with new ones (much to the chagrin of parents whose kids need help with homework using methods they’ve never learned).

Math professor Howie Hua shares math strategies that make math easier on social media, and his videos are fascinating. Hua, who teaches math to future elementary school teachers at Fresno State, demonstrates all kinds of mental math tricks that feel like magic when you try them.

For instance, Hua has two videos showing how easy and quick it is to add multidigit numbers left to right instead of right to left, and it’s genuinely mind-blowing.

Check out how he explains why adding left to right is “underrated.”

u201cNew TikTok video: Adding left to right is underratedu201d

— Howie Hua (@Howie Hua)
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OK, seriously. That is way easier to do in your head. It’s basically putting the numbers into expanded form and adding them, which makes it easier to visualize.

Adding this way makes sense, but subtracting is a bit more complicated, right?

Wrong, apparently. Watch Hua work his math sorcery subtracting two and three-digit numbers.

@howie_hua

Did you know you can subtract left to right? #math #mathematics #mathtok #maths #teachersoftiktok #teacher #mathtricks #mathtrick

Holy moly. That’s faster than the right-to-left, borrow-from-the-next-column method, isn’t it? And again, so much easier to visualize what’s actually happening, though I don’t know if I could fully do this in my head like I could with the left-to-right addition.

Hua recently shared another cool subtraction trick for problems with minuends that have a lot of zeroes. (The minuend is the first number in a subtraction problem. Don’t be too impressed. I had to look it up.)

Check this out:

@howie_hua

An underrated subtraction strategy #math #mathematics #mathtok #maths #teachersoftiktok #teacher #mathtricks #mathtrick

So simple, so time-saving and so something I would never have figured out on my own.

These tips and tricks might come in handy for anyone, but they’re especially useful for kids who are having to do these kinds of math problems at school all the time. Even if they’re supposed to solve the problem with a different strategy, these methods can be a quick way to check their answers.

Anything that makes math easier, I say. You can watch Hua’s videos on TikTok, YouTube and Twitter.