Fatboy Slim, the UK DJ and producer behind ’90s hits like “The Rockafeller Skank” and “Praise You,” put on a 2002 concert that would live in infamy. The show was at Brighton, England’s Brighton Beach and was attended by 200,000 people, well more than the expected 60,000. At that gig, one person died at at least 100 more were injured.

At the time, the artist (whose real name is Norman Quentin Cook) was neighbors with Paul McCartney, and now Cook has spoken about the advice that McCartney gave him at the time.

In a recent interview with NME, Cook said, “He told me to leave the country — that’s what he’d do when things got on top of him.”

This advice came after, as NME notes, Cook became tabloid fodder following the tragic event.

He continued, “It’s always bizarre having Paul McCartney as a neighbor, especially if you’re as much of a Beatles fan as me. Whenever he’d walk through the back door saying, ‘Only me! Just popped in for a cuppa,’ I’d be singing ‘Hey Jude’ in my head the whole way through! He’s a lovely man and like the dad I always wanted.”

As for McCartney, he recently won a Creative Arts Emmy Award, putting him just one step away from the coveted EGOT.

Unlike House of the Dragon, which has been plagued with viewers complaining about the show’s lighting (or lack thereof), The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has been routinely praised for its visuals as it nears its season one finale. However, those visuals came at a price tag that seems to be steadily increasing with each new report on the fantasy series’ enormous budget.

While discussing Season 2 plans for The Rings of Power (the series is reportedly set to run for five seasons), Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke revealed that ultimately the first season cost nearly $700 million dollars. That’s $250 million just to secure the rights from the J.R.R. Tolkien estate plus $450 million in production. However, Salke told Variety that the price has been worth it after seeing viewer reactions:

We’re building infrastructure for five seasons. We’re building a small city. We were always going to spend what we needed to spend to get it right. I’m fortunate to be working at this company where we want to be financially disciplined, but nobody wanted to compromise on what this would be visually. I think it was all money really well spent. If you look at how people are reacting to the visual experience of the show, that’s been overwhelmingly positive.

In another stark contrast from House of the Dragon, Salke also revealed that Amazon set up a “war room” for The Rings of Power‘s premiere. There was a massive international operation put in place to make sure the streaming platform didn’t crash as users flooded in to see the fantasy series that had been years in the making. As the premiere went off without the hitch, the war room teams sent each other champagne popping photos.

“They were up all night long,” Salke said. “Pictures were being sent around to everybody. It was just a very culturally defining moment for the global company.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

(Via Variety)

It’s pretty brave for Jack in the Box to name its new milkshake the “Basic Witch Shake” all for a cheap joke, especially when it runs the risk of being more prophetic than funny. The Basic Witch Shake combines Jack in the Box’s deliciously thick Oreo cookie milkshake with everyone’s favorite fall flavor — pumpkin spice! People feel all sorts of ways about pumpkin spice, and the flavor combination runs the gamut from legitimately delicious to straight-up awful.

So where will the Basic Witch Shake land on that spectrum? We found out!

The Basic Witch Shake is available right now at Jack in the Box while supplies last, but with the spooky theme attached, we don’t expect to see this milkshake last past the month of October in most locations. This means if the idea of a pumpkin spice Oreo milkshake sounds delicious to you, you’re going to need to move fast.

Here’s what to expect.

The Basic Witch Shake

Tasting Notes:

The Basic Witch Shake goes HEAVY on the pumpkin spice. Each sip is an explosion of nutmeg, ginger, and sugar with the slightest hint of cinnamon on the back end. I’m not really getting much allspice or clove and the cinnamon isn’t strong enough for this drink to be considered spicy, so if you love the sweeter flavors of pumpkin spice, you’re going to find a lot to like here, but if you want something that tastes a bit more natural then this is going to massively miss the mark for you.

Once the shake begins to melt in your mouth a bit, the mouthfeel is very similar to a forkful of extra sweet pumpkin pie, especially when you mix the whipped cream into the drink with your straw. The Oreos are a nice feature, but the flavors don’t really meld together that well. I’d like them to combine to form some new flavor greater than the sum of its parts, but the Basic Witch Shake doesn’t really do that. Instead you just occasionally get some bits of Oreo coming up through your straw, which adds a nice rich element, but there isn’t nearly enough Oreo to truly be satisfying.

Overall, I found myself enjoying the Oreo more than the flavors of the pumpkin shake, so while it’s fun to have a seasonal snack to liven up your fast food routine, I think at the end of the day the better move is to just order a regular Oreo shake over the pumpkin.

My other gripe is with the cherry. I get it, Jack in the Box milkshakes are all topped with a single maraschino cherry but I don’t think the bright sweet flavor compliments this shake very much, had JiB gone with a small graham cracker, or better yet, blended graham crackers into the shake itself, I think it would’ve done a lot to balance out the sugary sweetness.

At least JiB is trying something new though, we just wish they weren’t going for something so… well, basic.

The Bottom Line:

If you love the flavors of pumpkin pie, this is worth satisfying your curiosity. It tastes like you’re drinking a slice of pumpkin pie. But if you’re looking for something that’ll make you fall in love with the pumpkin spice flavor profile, this isn’t going to sell you on it.

Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.

Kicking off a month full of K-pop comebacks, AB6IX is one of the groups to make a return with their sixth EP Take A Chance alongside its lead single “Sugarcoat.”

Released earlier today at 6 p.m. KST – 5 a.m. ET/2 a.m. PT — the Brand New Music boy group expresses how whipped they are, enough to not sugarcoat how they feel about someone. First, singing about realizing how foolishly in love they are in the first half of the song, the rest of the track becomes a serenade to the listeners of the group confessing their feelings. (Woojin’s rap says it all: “I need someone to be with me, I pick you/I want to see the ending, so skip the process/I need a Picasso to paint my heart/I am now Peter Pan, you are my Tinkerbell/I’ll keep it forever in the film rolling in my head/Pray to the sky every day…”)

In addition, the music video to “Sugarcoat” only amplifies the lovey-dovey theme with colorful visuals, where the members are seen working a candy shop, creating their own concoctions and love spells in the form of sweet morsels.

“Sugarcoat” was co-written and composed by member Lee Daehwi. Take A Chance features seven new tracks including a Korean version of their first English single, “Chance.”

Find the tracklist to Take A Chance below.

1. “Paranoia”
2. “Sugarcoat”
3. “Weightless”
4. “Complicated”
5. “Resonance (공명 (共鳴))”
6. “Crow”
7. “Chance (Korean Version)”

Kim Petras couldn’t ask for a better start to October. The budding German pop star is riding her recent “Unholy” momentum by announcing her aptly titled next single, “If Jesus Was A Rockstar” on Tuesday (October 4). It comes one day after Petras made her Billboard Hot 100 debut alongside Sam Smith for “Unholy,” coming in at No. 3 behind only Steve Lacy and Harry Styles.

Petras previously released Slut Pop, her fourth EP, just in time for Valentine’s Day. “If Jesus Was A Rockstar” appears to be joining 2021 releases “Coconuts,” her major-label debut after signing with Republic Records, and “Future Starts Now” on the tracklist of her highly anticipated debut LP.

“Unholy,” the Petras-featuring lead single to Sam Smith’s forthcoming fourth studio album, arrived in late September with an expectedly provocative music video. It debuted at No. 1 in the UK’s Official Charts before opening at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Global 200 and No. 3 on the Hot 100. “Unholy” has surged to over 87.5 million Spotify streams alone.

“This little German idiot got her first top 5 on the Hot 100 and number 1 on the Global 200,” Petras tweeted. “Thank you to everyone who believed in me all these years, you know who you are ! I can never thank you enough @samsmith . Bunheads ur the realest ilysm.”

“If Jesus Was A Rockstar” does not yet have a release date, but you can pre-save it here.

A breastfeeding mother’s experience at Vienna’s Schoenbrunn Zoo is touching people’s hearts—but not without a fair amount of controversy.

Gemma Copeland shared her story on Facebook, which was then picked up by the Facebook page Boobie Babies. Photos show the mom breastfeeding her baby next to the window of the zoo’s orangutan habitat, with a female orangutan sitting close to the glass, gazing at them.

“Today I got feeding support from the most unlikely of places, the most surreal moment of my life that had me in tears,” Copeland wrote.

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“I visited Schoenbrunn zoo in Vienna whilst on a mini-break with my partner and son. We nipped in to see the orangutans at the end of our day who were happily playing in the enclosure, so I went to the window for a closer look and sat down by the window so my lb could see the orangutan who was roughly 5/6ft away. She then got up, carried a piece of cloth to the window and sat down with me. She looked directly into my eyes then placed her hand up as if to touch my son. I was in awe of this beautiful creature already.“

“My son wanted feeding and as it was quiet I fed him whilst I sat there. The way the orangutan reacted took my breath away she kept looking at me, then my son then back again,” she continued. “She sat with me for approximately half an hour, kept stroking the glass and lay down next to me as if to support and protect me.

I had to share this because my mind was blown. We may be a species apart but breastfeeding connected us today in a once in a lifetime moment that will stay with me forever. I’m also incredibly lucky that my partner caught all of this on video 💕”

The Facebook page added a story about a gorilla being taught to breastfeed by women from La Leche League, an organization dedicated to supporting breastfeeders:

“Did you know that women from La Leche League once taught a mother gorilla to breastfeed? The Mamma gorilla had been born and raised in captivity and didn’t know what to do with her firstborn, and her baby sadly died. When she next became pregnant, breastfeeding women volunteered to sit beside the gorilla’s enclosure and breastfeed their babies, showing the gorilla what to do. When the gorilla gave birth, a volunteer came over and breastfed her baby, showing Mamma gorilla what to do, step by step. Mamma gorilla watched, and then copied, and went on to successfully feed her baby “

The story has been shared more than 37,000 times, with many commenters stating how beautiful and moving it was. Others, while appreciating the beauty of the animal encounter, expressed sadness at seeing such a creature in captivity. As with practically every post about animals in zoos, debate broke out over whether or not zoos are helpful or harmful to the animals they house.

And like most debates, people’s opinions fall along a broad spectrum. Some feel that zoos are the best way for people to learn about animals first-hand, which leads them to care more about protecting them in the wild. Some acknowledge that captivity isn’t ideal, but that many animals die individually or go extinct as species without the work they do. Some feel that it’s always wrong to keep an animal in captivity, no matter what. Even animal experts don’t agree on this front.

And not all zoos are created equal. Many zoos have moved more toward a rehabilitation and conservation model, and there’s no question that many animals who have been raised in captivity would not survive if they were suddenly released into the wild. There’s also the issue of whether trying to limit natural breeding in captivity falls under the ethical treatment of animals, as breeding is a natural animal instinct. And what about the animals that have gone extinct in the wild and can only be found in zoos? There are a million questions with a million unclear answers when it comes to zoos.

However there is one thing most can agree on. Whether or not you think zoos are helpful or harmful, necessary or not, they largely exist today because of human activity mucking with nature. The same nature that compels this creature to connect with a human mother, despite her unnatural surroundings. The same nature that humans are destroying to get palm oil for our cookies and soaps, leading orangutans to the brink of extinction. The same nature that we are all responsible for protecting.

Whether we find this story sweet or sad or something in between, the reality for orangutans in the wild is worth our attention. Visit www.theorangutanproject.org/ to learn more about how to help.

This article originally appeared on 02.21.20

It’s incredible to imagine that Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime. “The Red Vineyard” sold in Brussels a few months before his death for just 400 Francs.

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Now, he’s celebrated as one of the greatest artists who ever lived.

In this incredible clip from “Dr. Who” we get to see what his reaction may have been if he saw his art today.

www.youtube.com

Boston-born Coi Leray is trending upwards thanks to the success of her hit “No More Parties,” a feature from the one and only Nicki Minaj, and her ability to consistently go viral on platforms like TikTok with tracks like “TWINNEM.” Most recently, the rapper dropped “Fly Sh*t,” after several videos of her rapping the intro and dancing to the single circled the internet.
UPROXX’s, How I Blew Up narrated by Cherise Johnson, gives the internet star a chance to tell the story of her rise to fame in her own words — from dropping out of high school to using music to express her emotions instead of responding to gossip on social media. After her single “Huddy” dropped on SoundCloud in 2018, Coi started to make her mark on the internet, but it was her pandemic-made single “No More Parties” and the song’s remix with Lil Durk that propelled Coi to a new level of stardom. “No More Parties,” was inspired by Coi’s own experience with depression and grappling with being an artist, her newfound fame, and vitality

In just a few months, “No More Parties” went platinum, and just over a year later has seen hundreds of thousands of TikToks made to the sound. Coi was also featured on the XXL 2021 Freshman Class, became an UPROXX cover star, and has also taken the fashion scene by storm.

Watch Coi Leray break down how she blew up above.

At a recent performance, Lil Nas X had an interesting request for his fans. While on his Long Live Montero Tour, he pleaded with fans to stop using poppers during his concerts, tweeting on September 28, “stop doing poppers at my concert! u do not need ur asshole relaxed to see me perform industry baby!”

Fans immediately responded to the tweet with some cheeky comments of their own.

“But then I cannot sh*t my pants!!?” one person asked, while another wrote, “What if you see me in the crowd, call me on stage and declare your love for me like a classic Wattpad fanfic? Gotta be ready!!”

In response to an article about his request, Nas came through with a hilarious clarification today (October 4), tweeting, “aht aht- i said stop doing poppers. cuz ya asshole don’t need to be open while i sing my depression album cuts. if yall wanna do weed, molly, shrooms, paint, gasoline ect. knock yourselves tf out.”

This isn’t the first time the “Old Town Road” singer has gotten candid with fans during a show. While performing in Atlanta, he had to pause his concert due to a bathroom emergency: A video began circulating online where Lil Nas X could be heard telling concertgoers over the venue speakers that he was backstage “taking a mean sh*t.”

The star confirmed the story and retweeted the viral video, explaining he was 100-percent serious about the mid-gig bathroom emergency. He wrote, “Lmao, people really thought I was joking. I was literally back there dropping demons into that toilet.”

Velma Dinkley is currently getting people talking about HBO Max’s Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo movie that arrived on October 4. There’s plenty of fodder for discussion too, given that everyone’s favorite brain of the gang has finally been canonized as gay after James Gunn confirmed that he wrote the character (in his Scooby-Doo movies of the aughts) as “explicitly gay,” but “the studio just kept watering it down” before introducing her boyfriend in the second movie. The current HBO Max project, however, stands separate from the new TV series that will eventually arrive.

The second, more Velma-focused project hails from executive producer Mindy Kaling, who will also voice the lead character in the adult animated series. Simply titled, Velma, the lead character also takes a different approach to the character than we’ve seen in the past. Kaling has warned that the show will cause some people to “freak out” because the lead character is South Asian. And back in May of this year, Kaling insisted, “I don’t care!”

As of now, however, no firm release date has been set for this series, but fingers are crossed for late 2022. In addition, the show will be featured at the upcoming New York Comic-Con event where Warner Bros. Discovery will show off some fresh goods. While we wait for more news, though, there’s always plenty of Velma in Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo, which is currently streaming on HBO Max.