GoneTrending

It’s coming up on 13 years since the last time James Cameron first took viewers to Pandora, the Yes album cover-esque planet first depicted in 2009’s Avatar. Given the giant elapse in time — and that its cultural footprint isn’t that huge, apart from some mega-fans seen in an episode of How to with John Wilson — you may doubt whether people still want to hang with the blue Na’vi. But judging from how many people watched the sequel’s first teaser trailer in its first 24 hours online, Cameron need not worry.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the teaser nabbed the second-highest amount of views for a trailer in a single day, shy of only the one for F9: The Fast Saga. Disney and 20th Century claim that, worldwide, the first look at Avatar: The Way of Water nabbed a whopping 148.6 milion views. Of those, 23 million were from China alone.

To put that in perspective, that’s more than Black Widow (116.8 million views), Incredibles 2 (113.1 million), and Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker (112.4 million). The only one with more than Avatar 2 is the aforementioned F9, which amassed 202.7 million online views in its first 24 hours on the information superhighway.

Mind you, this wasn’t the trailer’s proper debut. It actually first appeared before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness last weekend, meaning that all the people who saw it — and it made $180.5 million domestically plus nearly $450 million overseas — had already seen the Avatar first teaser. Perhaps people just really enjoy grooving on its serene surveys of Pandora, a realm unseen since the first Obama administration.

You can watch the new Avatar sequel teaser above.

(Via THR)

Denzel Curry is a little over a month removed from the release of his fifth album Melt My Eyez See Your Future. The project was his first release since 2021’s Unlocked 1.5 with Kenny Beats and his first solo effort since 2019’s Zuu. Through the 14 songs on Melt My Eyez See Your Future, Curry gets help from Robert Glasper, T-Pain, 6lack, Rico Nasty, JID, Slowthai, and more. Curry seems to be feeling very confident after his fifth album, and he made it quite clear during a recent interview with XXL.

“Just look out for me,” Curry said during the sit-down. “Look out for any of the next projects that’s ’bout to come out. I’m ’bout to shake the whole game up. I don’t care what anybody gotta say, bro. I’m the best rapper alive. Point blank, period.” While Curry is completely in his right to believe that, one of his frequent collaborators, DMV rapper IDK, isn’t about to let him claim the title without a fight. IDK responded to Curry’s comments on Twitter, writing, “Battle me @denzelcurry.”

Curry wouldn’t take long to issue a response to IDK, writing back, “You don’t want that homie.”

Curry and IDK’s back and forth comes after they collaborated on the Kaytranada-produced “Dog Food.”

You can view Curry and IDK’s interaction in the posts above.

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

The Miami Heat are on the verge of a berth in the Eastern Conference Finals. Miami played host to the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night, and in one of the most emphatic performances that we’ve seen this postseason, the Heat got up early and never looked back en route to a 120-85 win. As a result, Miami pulled ahead in the series, 3-2, and will look to wrap things up in Philadelphia a little later this week.

Things were back and forth early before the Heat were able to get the first bit of separation. Midway through the first quarter, Miami was able to go on a 12-0 run to give themselves an early 21-10 lead.

While the Sixers were able to keep things from getting too one-sided, the Heat found themselves up by 12 after one in large part due to the shooting that evaded them in the last two games. After connecting on 23.3 percent of their attempts from deep in Game 3 and 20 percent of their triples in Game 4 with the team hitting seven threes in each game, Miami went 5-for-11 (45.5 percent) in the first quarter on Tuesday night — Max Strus, in particular, was feeling it early, as his 11 points (tied with Jimmy Butler for the most in the game through one) came by way of three of his six shots from downtown connecting.

Philly’s offense, meanwhile, struggled to get much of anything going in the first, scoring only 19 points in the game’s opening 12 minutes. While things leveled out a bit in the second quarter, Miami led by as many as 18 points and was able to take a 56-44 lead into the locker room. Butler, in particular, continued to be spectacular, leading the team with 14 points, six rebounds, and three assists at the break.

The most notable moment of the half may have come halfway through the second, when Joel Embiid went down in a heap after securing a rebound. While that happened, Dewayne Dedmond tried to poke the ball away, but ended up pushing it into Embiid’s face, causing him to go down and hold his face — the big man, of course, missed the first two games of the series with a fractured orbital bone and is currently playing with a mask.

Still, he was able to remain in the game, although he struggled in the first half with six points on 2-for-6 shooting and a pair of rebounds. Harden led the way for the Sixers with 10 points, five rebounds, and four assists.

By the end of the third, Miami led by 15. It was a lead that was as many as 20 during the period. And early on in the fourth, Doc Rivers emptied his bench with more than eight minutes remaining and saw the Heat get it up to as many as 37 points. All evening, they were just the team that looked to have that extra pep in their step — the ball moved a little faster, their rotations were a little more crisp, all the little things that happen when a team appears more locked in than the other — while Philadelphia just did not seem to have it from the time the game tipped off.

Butler was Miami’s main man with 23 points, nine rebounds, and six assists, while Strus had a double-double with 19 points and 10 boards. Five other players — Gabe Vincent, Victor Oladipo, Bam Adebayo, PJ Tucker, and Tyler Herro — all hit double-digits in scoring, while Adebayo battled with Embiid on defense all night. For Philly, Embiid had 17 points and five rebounds, Harden had 16 with six boards and four dimes, Tobias Harris had 12, and no one else hit double-digits in scoring.

Game 6 between the Heat and Sixers will take place in Philadelphia on Thursday night at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The Miami Heat played host to the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal series on Tuesday night. With things tied up in the series at 2-2, the game was of the upmost importance for both teams, as a win would put them on the verge of making the conference finals.

Because the game took place in Miami, the fans were raucous and clad in white shirts, something that has become commonplace when they host playoff games. One fan did not follow along with that, though: DJ Khaled, who had a seat right near Miami’s bench.

At one point in the third quarter, the ball went out of bounds behind Khaled, and he decided to spring into action. After making sure he gave the ball to Max Strus, Khaled started clapping, which got the crowd fired up. He then walked up the sideline towards the middle of the scorer’s table, but because he is not allowed to check in due to his not being a basketball player, Khaled turned around and went back to his seat. Before he could do that, though, he had to walk past Erik Spoelstra, to whom he gave a quick shoulder rub.

Between this and his airball during Heat-Hawks, it’s been quite the postseason for DJ Khaled.

Nearly four years after the incident occurred, YG can finally put a past legal situation in his rearview mirror. Back in 2018, YG was hit with felony robbery charges following an altercation that took place in June of that year at Las Vegas’ Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino. In this situation, a man accused YG of stealing his gold chain and diamond pendant during an altercation at the casino, and as a result, he filed a $250,000 lawsuit against the rapper. After charges were later filed and an arrest warrant was issued, YG turned himself on robbery charges and was later released after posting $20,000 bail.

Now, YG will avoid facing any time or criminal punishment for the robbery case as the case was dismissed after he and the alleged victim reached a settlement in the matter. It was confirmed by Billboard, who said that the rapper’s settlement with the victim was undisclosed at the moment. The publication also attained a statement from YG’s lawyer Joe Tacopina. “Whether by dismissal or by trial, the result was always going to be the same,” he said. “YG is not guilty. This decision is simply expedited justice.”

The settlement comes after YG teamed up with J. Cole and Moneybagg Yo for “Scared Money,” a track that YG also performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The Lindsey Graham in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a lot like the Lindsey Graham of early 2016: against Donald Trump. The night of the attack, the visibly frazzled South Carolina senator said he was “done” with the outgoing president. Graham flip-flopped, of course, but details keep emerging about his former attempts to throw Trump to the wolves (ditto his insurrectionist supporters). Now there’s even audio of him making a very poor prediction.

The recording comes from the authors of This Will Not Pass, the latest explosive Trump exposé, this one from New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns. Previously Martin and Burns produced audio directly contradicting Kevin McCarthy’s claim that he didn’t say bad things about Trump. (There was also a clip of him refusing to invoke the 25th amendment, but only because it would “take too long.”) The pair’s latest audio bombshell isn’t too damning. But it does show where one of the leading Republican’s head was at before he decided to run back into Trump’s arms.

“We’ll actually come out of this thing stronger. Moments like this reset. People will calm down. People will say, ‘I don’t want to be associated with that.’ This is a group within a group,” Graham told reporters not long after the Capitol attack. “What this does, there will be a rallying effect for a while, the country says, ‘we are better than this.’”

Graham even predicted Joe Biden would unite the country. “He’ll be maybe the person to have, right?” Graham said at the time. “I mean, how mad can you get at Joe Biden?”

He even theorized what Trump did wrong. “He’s misjudged the passion, he plays the TV game and he went too far here,” Graham said. “That rally didn’t help, talking about primarying Liz [Cheney]. He created a sense of revenge.”

In other words, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the GOP was privately very excited to be rid of Trump for good. Of course, Graham was wrong on two fronts. The country didn’t heal in the wake of Jan. 6; it somehow got worse. And Graham, who once finally remembered how dangerous Trump can be, has apparently realized he’s fine with “revenge.”

(Via Raw Story)

Have you seen this tiny, yet gorgeous creature washing up along shores and in TikTok feeds?

No, it’s not a Pokemon, as some people on the internet will try to convince you. But with its mystical appearance and hidden (yet dangerous) powers, it might as well be.

Blue Dragon, I choose you!
upload.wikimedia.org

This little guy is technically called a Glaucus atlanticus, which is already incredibly fun to say. But you can also call him a blue dragon.

Pretty cool right? But how does such a delicate looking creature earn such a powerful name?

---

According to One Earth, a blue dragon is—believe it or not—part of the nudibranch family, aka mollusks and slugs. Yes, we live in a world where slugs are also dragons. Dare to dream! It’s found on the surface of multiple oceans throughout the world, in both temperate and tropical waters. Which explains why they’ve been seen everywhere recently, even Texas.

See on Instagram

The way they float on the water is pretty cool too. What we see on the surface is actually the blue dragon’s brightly colored underbelly, which creates a little air bubble to keep it buoyant. Meanwhile, its backside is a grayish white. Both sides act as a camouflage, mimicking either the blue ocean waves or the light penetrating the sea’s surface, hiding the blue dragon from predators both above and below. There’s even a science-y term for this defense mechanism: countershading.

And here’s where things get gnarly…

Even though they’re teeny tiny (rarely larger than 3 centimeters long), blue dragons can produce a dangerous sting. Just one prick can result in nausea and vomiting, severe pain, allergic dermatitis and inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Ouch.

Needless to say, blue dragons are the very embodiment of “look don’t touch.”

Not that it stops Aussies on TikTok like Juliano Bayd. Bayd has no problem picking them up with his bare hands. Look below for anxiety.

@julianobayd failed rescuer mission 😭 #bluedragon #rescue #wildlife #wildliferescue #dangerous ♬ original sound – Country boyz

In Bayd’s defense, it seems that his main focus is rescuing blue dragons and helping them return to the ocean, sometimes hundreds at a time. And he’s always transparent about the risks involved.

How does a blue dragon get the venom, you ask? By eating Portuguese men-of-war. You know, those crazy not-quite jellyfish sea animals that wash up on shore and deliver an infamously powerful sting, even when dead? The ones whose tentacles can grow up to 165 feet? Yes, those. The blue dragon eats the man-of-war (among other things), then stores the stinging cells in its appendages for later use. Let me repeat: This tiny floating slug, barely more than an inch, can and will eat an incredibly venomous life form (like it’s nothing!) then steal its venom like some kind of aquatic vampire.

And here’s a video of it doing just that:

Mother Nature never fails to offer us both the strange and beautiful. If you are lucky enough to see a blue dragon on your next beach trip, it’s best to admire it from afar. But do admire it. Because these otherworldly stinging slugs are quite stunning … in every sense of the word.

Imagine retiring early and spending the rest of your life on a cruise ship visiting exotic locations, meeting interesting people and eating delectable food. It sounds fantastic, but surely it’s a billionaire’s fantasy, right?

Not according to Angelyn Burk, 53, and her husband Richard. They’re living their best life hopping from ship to ship for around $44 a night each. The Burks have called cruise ships their home since May 2021 and have no plans to go back to their lives as landlubbers. Angelyn took her first cruise in 1992 and it changed her goals in life forever.

“Our original plan was to stay in different countries for a month at a time and eventually retire to cruise ships as we got older,” Angelyn told 7 News. But a few years back, Angelyn crunched the numbers and realized they could start much sooner than expected.

---

“We love to travel and we were searching for a way to continuously travel in our retirement that made financial sense,” she said. They looked into deals they could find through loyalty memberships and then factored in the potential sale price of their home and realized their dream was totally affordable.

The rough math makes sense. If it costs the couple $88 per night to live on a cruise ship, that’s $32,120 a year. Currently, the average price of a home in Seattle, Washington—where the couple lived—is $958,027 which would come with a mortgage that costs around $50,000 a year.

Plus, on a cruise ship, the couple doesn’t have to pay for groceries.

The Burks are able to live their dream because they’ve spent a lifetime being responsible. “We have been frugal all our lives to save and invest in order to achieve our goal,” she says. “We are not into materialistic things but experiences.”

Angelyn says that cruising takes the stress out of travel. “It is leisurely travel without the complications of booking hotels, restaurants, and transportation while staying within our budget,” she told 7 News. The couple travels lightly with just two suitcases between them and if they need anything, they just buy it on the ship or in the next port.

One thing the carefree couple should be concerned about on their never-ending cruise is COVID-19. The coronavirus is easily spread in close quarters and a cruise ship that recently docked in Seattle had 100 people on board who tested positive for the virus. The CDC recommends that people get vaccinated before going on a cruise and that immunocompromised people should consult with their physicians before traveling.

Since leaving their jobs and the mainland behind, the Burks have been on a 50-day cruise around the Adriatic Sea, taking in the sights of Europe as well as a 51-day cruise from Seattle to Sydney, Australia.

The Burks really love cruising to Italy, Canada, Iceland and the Bahamas but their favorite is Singapore.

Looking to give it all up and go on a permanent vacation just like the Burks? Angelyn has some advice for those wanting to get started.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

When the Doctor Strange sequel landed last weekend, viewers nationwide could be heard flipping out over a bevy of Easter Eggy cameos. One sequence in particular had one treat after another. Our hero (Benedict Cumberbatch) winds up in an alternate dimension populated by not only Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, but also some alternate world versions of beloved superheroes. For example, John Krasinski stepped in as a (doomed) Reed Richards.

But had the film’s credited screenwriter had his druthers, the film would have featured a star markedly huger than the star of the eventually ending Jack Ryan. In an interview with Rolling Stone, scribe Michael Waldron said he wanted to a) include an alternate universe Iron Man, and b) he would be played by Tom Cruise.

The first was probably likely, though it might have been a bit too soon given Robert Downey Jr. only bid farewell to the role three years ago. As for getting Cruise, Waldron says he doesn’t think anyone bothered even reaching out to him, possibly because he was a little busy on one of the longest and most pandemic-delay-plagued shoots in Hollywood history: the next Mission: Impossible joint.

That said, it’s not like Cruise is above fun cameos or smaller, scene-stealing roles, especially if he gets to look nothing like himself. Speaking of the latter, had he been courted — and then accepted — it would have been a Tropic Thunder reunion, sort of, not quite.

(Via Rolling Stone)

In addition to making her solo debut with the bouncy “Have Mercy,” Chloe Bailey’s 2021 year was filled with impressive covers of songs by a wide array of artists. She took on Adele’s “Easy On Me,” Silk Sonic’s “Leave The Door Open,” Cardi B’s “Be Careful, Rihanna’s “Love On The Brain,” Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good,” and Drake’s “Marvin’s Room.” Fresh off releasing her second single as a solo artist, that being the provocative “Treat Me,” Chloe has found time to treat her fans to another cover. This time she takes on Capella Grey’s 2021 summer hit “Gyalis.”

Chloe’s rendition of “Gyalis” is a bit more than a cover and she remixes the song a bit so that it can be sung from a female’s point of view. While the original song’s lyrics read, “Fake like she asleep / Swear she tried to stay the whole week / I’m like “Oh, nah, she gotta go”, uh / Ask me her name, I swear I don’t even f*ckin’ know,” Chloe gives her side in the matter on the cover.

“He’s tryna fake like he asleep / Thought I didn’t hear him come in, please,” Chloe sings. “I’m like, ‘Oh nah, he gotta go’ / See you again? Oh no, baby that’s not what I want.”

Capella Grey showed love towards Chloe’s cover of “Gyalis” by reposting the video on his own Instagram page.

You can listen to Chloe’s cover-slash-remix of “Gyalis” in the video above.

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