Devin Booker went to war this week with The Raptor, the official mascot of the Toronto Raptors. After shooting a free throw in the otherwise empty ScotiaBank Arena, Booker complained about the mascot’s attempt to distract him, which led to The Raptor moving elsewhere out of Booker’s line of sight. Apparently, all is well between the two, as evidence by the fact that both of them changed their Twitter pictures recently.
It was all very, very silly, especially because a human in a big dinosaur mascot had to go off into a corner because they were yelled at by an NBA player. Anyway, Friday night is the Phoenix Suns’ first game since that incident, as they made their way to Indiana to play the Pacers.
Thankfully, some folks in Indianapolis have a good sense of humor, because someone decided to have a person dress up in a dinosaur costume and bust Booker’s chops. Before the game even started, Booker’s pregame warm-up was interrupted — well, kind of — by the person in the costume, with Booker seeing things and addressing whomever was in that thing.
The Pacers have brought out a dinosaur, presumably to defend The Raptor’s honor against Devin Booker. We will be monitoring this developing situation closely. pic.twitter.com/kF6rX9L3nE
During the Suns’ lineup introduction, the Pacers decided to play the theme song from noted thing about dinosaurs Jurassic Park.
After @the_raptor got sent to the corner after trying to distract Suns guard at the FT line earlier this week, Pacers had a blowup dinosaur just off the court looking at Devin Booker during warmups.
And then, during the game, the person in the costume decided to press their luck a la The Raptor by trying to distract Booker during free throws. They even had a sign!
The scarf, a simple accessory that some find an essential fashion piece. Both fashionable and function with the warmth they provide, scarves can be a valuable gift for any occasion or person. Here, we’ve selected our best selling scarves from our store. At Upworthy Market, when you purchase a product, you directly support the artisans who craft their own products, so with every purchase, you’re doing good. These scarves are not only unique, but they are hand-made by local artisans and all under $30.
Celinda Jaco selects a cozy blend of Andean alpaca for this handsome men’s scarf. Classic in style, it features fine stripes of white and black woven through the dark grey textile. Hand-tied fringe completes a distinguished design.
Woven by hand on a traditional loom, alpaca in shades of grey form a classic herringbone pattern. Raquel and Gregor weave this distinguished scarf by hand. The ends are not hemmed but are neatly trimmed for a smooth silhouette.
Vinita of Thailand presents this lovely striped scarf in burgundy and white. Thai artisans masterfully weave this cotton infinity scarf by hand, creating the perfect accessory for a chilly day.
Peruvian artisan Alfredo Falcon uses baby alpaca wool, which refers to the fine fleece from the season’s first shearing, to knit this sophisticated scarf.
Decorated with fantastic hues of pink, purple, and blue, this impressive wrap scarf from Thailand features an original design by Vinita. The skilled artisan hand-weaves the scarf of cotton, applying the colors with the traditional tie-dye technique. Dainty fringes complete the scarf at each end.
A palette of cotton strands in blue and beige evokes ocean freshness from the Guatemala coasts. Woven by hand on a backstrap loom, they are transformed into a stylish scarf by women from the Yama Aj Chixot Artisan Group.
Celinda Jaco selects a cozy blend of Andean alpaca for this handsome men’s scarf. Classic in style, it features fine stripes of ivory and camel woven through the chestnut brown textile. Hand-tied fringe completes a distinguished design.
Celinda Jaco selects a cozy blend of Andean alpaca for this handsome men’s scarf. Classic in style, it features fine stripes of white and gunmetal grey woven through the midnight-black textile. Hand-tied fringe completes a distinguished design.
Is there anything better than someone going out of their way to make a kid’s dream come true? Yes, there is. It’s an anonymous person going out of their way to make a kid’s dream come true.
Fallon is a kid who loves music. Metal music in particular. He’s also a kid who has Williams syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that comes with a host of developmental and physiological challenges. It also comes with the gift of extreme friendliness and abundant love for people, often leading them to interact with people over toys as children.
For years, however, Fallon has enjoyed interacting with one specific guitar at J.B. Hart Music Co., Inc. in Grand Junction, Colorado. Fallon would ask to play it every time he came into the shop, and another patron took notice.
The music store posted the delightful story on Facebook, sharing photos of Fallon with the guitar and writing:
“This is Fallon. Over the last couple of years, he would visit the store from Montrose. His request each time was to play the ‘Pantera’ guitar, meaning the Dean Dimebag Darrell ML Guitar. We were shocked he knew some Dimebag riffs. Fallon is impacted by Williams Syndrome and has an excellent knowledge and a love for music. His dream was to own this guitar.
Eight months ago, when he was in the store playing it, another customer took notice of Fallon. It moved this customer so much he returned to the store later, purchased the guitar, and asked us to give the guitar to Fallon anonymously the next time we saw him. However, we didn’t see Fallon until today. We tried finding him to no avail. Today, his family came in the store, and we learned they had moved to Texas and returned this week for a visit. It was a wonderful experience to gift Fallon his dream guitar as a gift from a kind stranger. His mom burst into tears, and Fallon beamed with excitement. It was a special moment. There are still good people in this world.”
Pantera themselves reshared the story:
So darn sweet.
It’s particularly sweet considering Pantera’s history with special guitars.
Dimebag Darrell, the “Pantera” guitar’s namesake, was the lead guitarist for Pantera before the band broke up. He was tragically shot and killed in 2004 by a deranged fan while performing on stage with a different band, sending shock waves through the heavy metal world.
As reported by Loudwire, Darrell had been a huge fan of Eddie Van Halen and had been delighted to meet him just weeks before his death. After he was murdered, Eddie Van Halen called Darrell’s family to ask if there was anything he could do for them. They wanted to bury him with a guitar, so they asked Van Halen to stripe one for Darrell like his iconic yellow striped guitar from the Van Halen II album cover.
Instead, Eddie Van Halen brought his original 1979 yellow striped guitar that Darrell loved so much to the viewing and memorial service so he could be buried with it, saying, “Dime was an original and only an original deserves an original.”
When Dimebag Darrell was killed in 2004, Eddie Van Halen insisted that he be buried with the original guitar from the cover of Van Halen II.nnHis partner Rita Haney explained what Eddie told her.pic.twitter.com/kIkFWXWQhU
How wonderful to see such care for one another carrying on, and the love of music being shared by people who don’t even know each other. Rock on, humanity.
Indie rock superstar and noted Curb Your Entusiasm fan, Annie Clark of St. Vincent will be up for another Grammy award this year (whenever the awards show decides to go down that is.) Following her 2019 win for Best Rock Song, Clark has endeared herself to Recording Academy voters and her star continues to shine following last year’s release of Daddy’s Home, her seventh album. She started 2022 playing “…At The Holiday Party” and being interviewed by James Corden on The Late Late Show, and come this Saturday January 15, she’ll appear on the latest episode of Austin City Limits on PBS.
A final preview of the episode just dropped in St. Vincent’s performance of album standout “Down.” It follows the already released clip of “Pay Your Way In Pain,” and is an excellent representation of the expansive and elaborate live show that St. Vincent put down for the Daddy’s Home tour. On the stage, a blonded, go-go boots-wearing Clark is at the helm on the guitar, backed by a band and three funky backing singers, as the ensemble puts down the track in memorable fashion.
This will mark the third time that St. Vincent has played an Austin City Limits episode and it will air on Saturday, January 15th on PBS, along with a performance by singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun. Following the broadcast, it will also be available to stream online at the ACL website here, where you can also find recent performances by Olivia Rodrigo, Phoebe Bridgers, and more.
Watch St. Vincent perform “Down” on Austin City Limits above.
Anyway, it seems like their hip-hop curation team, Rap Caviar, has decided to break down their own genre in a similar way, by organizing it into decades. That seems fine, except, they also decided to tap into the ongoing greatest-of-all-time conversation by actually painting a “Rap Mount Rushmore” mural in various cities. They also chose to break their Rushmore down into just the 2010s, selecting Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Nicki Minaj, and J. Cole. Which is exactly where things might get a little messier.
Spotify’s RapCaviar unveils murals of ‘Mt. Rushmore of 2010s Rap’ featuring Drake, Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole. pic.twitter.com/LR4GwrLVj6
First of all, I have great respect for Nicki Minaj and believe she’s an incredibly important MC, but her greatest sphere of influence was definitely waning around 2015. By the time Queen hit, she wasn’t very influential at all. So putting her on the mountain when other massive names like Future, Young Thug, Tyler The Creator, Travis Scott and even Kanye himself are all let off is pretty alarming for even a casual rap listener. She might be there due to the fact that she called out a similar Rushmore on Twitter for not including her, but hey, desire isn’t achievement.
The fact that there’s no southern rap (no, J. Cole doesn’t count) is another issue some might find contentious! Anyway, at least they got Kendrick right.
A chance encounter in the strip club leads to matrimony in the self-directed video for Mariah The Scientist’s new single “Walked In” featuring Young Thug. As the song describes the lusty attraction between two strangers at a social gathering, the video plays out the duo’s unexpected trajectory, as they go from tossing dollars on the stage from opposite sides of the room to staging an intimate wedding (complete with Gunna, Young Thug’s newly inseparable sidekick, as a groomsman). Thug’s verse echoes Mariah’s as he brags, “I spent $400 on the tux just to go f*ck her in it.”
Mariah’s apparently got an affinity for Atlanta trap rappers, previously inviting Lil Baby to contribute a verse to her 2020 single “Always N Forever.” Since then, she released her 2021 sophomore album, Ry Ry World garnering praise for its blunt reflections on life and love, and raising her profile among fans of the sort of raw, reactive R&B being made by singers like Summer Walker and SZA, which often has sort of a trapped-out Mariah Carey vibe.
Meanwhile, Young Thug has already made a strong impression in 2022 thanks to Gunna’s DS4EVER single “Pushin P,” on which he appears alongside Future. I told you they were inseparable.
Watch the video for Mariah The Scientist’s “Walked In” above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
“I started to get a headache and heart palpitations,” she remembered. “My hands started to shake. I thought I was gonna throw up, I really did. I told my manager, ‘I need to get out of here,’ and I practically ran out. I remember Taylor Swift talking to me, but I don’t remember what I said back to her. I remember her saying, ‘Well.’ And then leaving. I’m not the kind of person who gets starstruck, you know.”
It probably didn’t help that other celebrities like Lana Del Rey, St. Vincent and Blake Lively were also all present. Check out Mitski’s full interview here.
It’s the second week of 2022, and my inner 15-year-old rap geek feels like a kid in a candy store. As a child of backpack rap’s early-2000s heyday, it has delighted me — and many other members of my generation — to no end to see so many lyrics-focused adherents of the boom-bap, “real rap” school of hip-hop dropping projects and singles at the same time. While there’s still plenty of room for other styles — Memphis rappers NLE Choppa and Moneybagg Yo showed incredible chemistry on “Too Hot,” Murda Beatz created the perfection production pocket for Blxst and Wale on “One Shot,” and Gunna and Drake’s “P Power” was worth the wait — the true winners were the longsuffering fans of oft-maligned, underrated, but apparently still quite popular rappin’-ass rappers.
Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending January 14, 2022.
Albums/EPs/Mixtapes
Cordae — From A Bird’s Eye View
Cordae
The heavily anticipated follow-up to Cordae’s Grammy-nominated debut is absolutely stuffed with high-profile guest stars, yet it’s Cordae himself who stands center stage and demands your attention. His growth is evident — both lyrical and personal — and with the lush, soothing instrumentation unbroken by the sort of radio grabs that threatened to derail The Lost Boy, the smooth ride feels a lot more representative of a Cordae in total control.
Earl Sweatshirt — Sick!
Earl Sweatshirt
Another anticipated comeback, Earl’s Sick! finds him also reflecting back on his personal growth over the last several years with a wicked pen and a wiser mind. However, where Cordae found his groove, Earl gets out of his comfort zone — which, ironically, results in his most accessible project in years, as his comfort zone for the past two albums has been unsettling listeners with off-kilter, jarring beats.
Kota The Friend — Lyrics To Go, Vol. 3
Kota The Friend
Kota, whose 2021 got rough when a bad breakup threatened to put him on the “canceled” list, is taking full advantage of his second lease on indie rap stardom, returning to his beloved series of stream-of-consciousness, one verse, no-hook mixtapes. Here, though, he addresses the drama and describes every painful step on the way to his healing.
Lady London — Lady Like: The Boss Tape
Lady London
After impressing Twitter users with feisty freestyles for the past couple of years, Lady London at last launches her campaign for consideration in the “best rappers” dialogue. This tape compiles 13 of her freestyles so prospective fans can get a feel for the lyricism that buoyed her social buzz and day-ones have something to tide them over for her eventual debut. Due to the nature of the instrumentals involved, check this one out on Audiomack.
Nick Grant — Welcome To Loveland
Nick Grant
Fresh off his participation in TDE President Punch’s collective experiment, A Room Full Of Mirrors, the South Carolinian rapper returns to his solo grind, dropping a wittily compiled collection of funk-washed, Southern-fried head nods contemplating women, love, and other drugs.
Singles/Videos
AZ — “Motorola Era” feat. 2 Chainz
Speaking of going full-on, old-school rap, 2 Chainz has been on a bit of a tear lately. He seems to have been edging in that direction for years, even suggesting his upcoming album will be his last trap release, and now, here he is, hanging out with one of the avatars of mid-90s cool, AZ.
Babyface Ray — “Dancing With The Devil” feat. Landstrip Chip & Pusha T
Ray is one of the fast-rising newcomers from the Detroit scene, Chip is one of Atlanta’s go-to songwriters, and you already know Pusha T. This one just works.
Earthgang — “All Eyes On Me”
Despite its title, Earthgang’s latest Ghetto Gods single doesn’t so much channel Tupac as it does advance the more revolutionary aspects of his artistic agenda. Going beyond simply declaring “Black lives matter,” the Atlanta duo works to expand the idea that all Black lives should be included, even the ones such slogans sometimes overlook.
Fredo Bang — “Rada Rada”
Fredo Bang continues to be ridiculously consistent with solid trap bangers that speak to both the streets they describe and the clubs they’ll inevitably take over once he manages to find that viral hit of the sort that’s become even more vital in the digital world.
JID — “Surround Sound” feat. 21 Savage & Baby Tate
True story: I once unfriended a guy who wanted to argue with me that 21 Savage isn’t one of the better rappers from Atlanta today. That was three years ago, and somehow, Savage continues to improve — even to the point he actually keeps up (to some degree) with the supreme tongue-twisting wordplay of one of the other best Atlanta rappers, JID. If Baby Tate’s the cherry on top, then that recognizable Aretha sample is the fudge. IYKYK.
Joey Badass — “THE REV3NGE”
After years of waiting for a follow-up to Joey’s modern classic All-Amerikkkan Badass, it appears one is imminent, as the slick-talking Brooklyn boom-bap revivalist returns with one helluva triumphant, defiant blowout of a comeback single.
Ryan Trey– “Slide”
If Ryan Trey has his way, 2022 will be the year St. Louis once again rejoins Midwestern cousin Louisville at the forefront of the pop-rap world, becoming for his hometown what Jack Harlow was for the Derby City. “Slide” is a pretty strong argument that he deserves to be.
Saba — “Come My Way” feat. Krayzie Bone
Speaking of the Midwest, Chicago rapper Saba connects with one of the region’s pioneer heroes in Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s Krayzie Bone for a fittingly nostalgic, reflective single to pave the way for his new album, Few Good Things.
Wiz Khalifa — “TK” feat. Sledgren & Larry June
When Wiz and Sledgren team up, the result is a surefire home run, but adding Bay Area favorite Larry June to the mix just enhances the high, turning that home run into a walk-off, World-Series-winning grand slam.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Human beings have sculpted artwork out of all kinds of materials throughout history, from clay to concrete to bronze. Some sculpt with water in the form of ice, but what if you could create sculptures with small drops of liquid?
Norwegian artist Ronny Tertnes does just that. His “liquid sculptures” look like something from another planet or another dimension, while at the same time are entirely recognizable as water droplets.
I mean, check this out:
According to SLR Lounge, Tertnes uses ultra high-speed photography, flash rigs, smoke and different types of liquids to create and capture his colorful split-second sculptures. He mixes water with various substances to create texture, color and movement in his photos, and the effect is otherworldly. He does some editing in Photoshop as well. The form in his photographs comes from the unique movement of a single droplet, which can end up looking like a human, a flower, an alien or an abstract glass sculpture. Sometimes they look like people dancing. Just incredible.
Tertnes has shared many of his photos on Facebook and on his website, where you can purchase prints, calendars and more featuring these beauties:
It’s fun to ask what other people see when they look at these images.
Amazingly enough, Tertnes has described himself as a “hobby photographer.”
Sometimes he creates mirror images that end up looking like animals or alien creatures.
If you’re into (or have a marginal understanding of and interest in) NFTs, Tertnes has a Liquid Sculptures NFT store as well.
And finally, here’s a slideshow where you can hear him play the guitar and look at his beautiful liquid sculptures. Enjoy.
Hey everyone! Hope you’re staying safe and healthy, and if you’re not, at least you know you’re not alone. I mean, omicron? Phew. Pandemics certainly know how to keep us on our toes.
If you need a respite or distraction from all that, we’ve got you covered. If immersing yourself in cute animal videos and feel-good stories of human awesomeness is wrong, who wants to be right? Nobody, that’s who.
We all need a break from the less pleasant parts of life, and cheering ourselves up with simple, happy things is a tried and true way to push those endorphins and lift our mood for a bit.
So here you go. Our weekly roundup of 10 things that made us smile. Hope it makes you smile, too.
All you need is a dog, a toddler and a flashlight.
When these two find a flashlight 🙄 #toddlersoftiktok #bellylaughs #dogsofttiktok #giggles #babygiggle #dogandbaby #bestfriends #babylaugh
It’s like watching a cat chase a laser, only 500 times cuter.
An equally odd but impressive cover of “Sweet Child o’ Mine.”
This is so good! nnVia @davmirandapic.twitter.com/D3pJT4YM4j
— Ann is still European ud83cudf0dI know where I live (@Ann is still European ud83cudf0dI know where I live) 1641997370
Researchers find at least 65 species that laugh, and fox giggles are like medicine.
These foxes sound like we took the toddler in the first video and put them on helium. Did you know at least 65 species laugh in some way? Read the full story here.
From animals laughing to animals noshing on corn.
We don’t know why but we can’t get enough of hearing Rico the porcupine snacking!pic.twitter.com/AabtDpR2JJ
Now accepting donations for babysitters & or take out! Venmo: @Kayla-Sullivan-96 🤣 #NewsVoice #ToddlerMom #EveryKiss #newsvoice #YerAWizard #2022
Kayla Sullivan really did work as a reporter, which is clear from her perfect reporter voice. But the toddler imitation of “Chech-up! CHECH-UUUP!!” takes the cake. Read the full story here.
Sheep-herding puppy in training seems to get some love from the sheep.
Anatolian shepherd dog puppy in training..pic.twitter.com/hqxaPmCcEd
Ever since the Jean and Jorts cats-at-work saga went viral, people have been all about the orange tabbies, and Buster getting his own ID card is just too much.
Strangers plucked at random improvise at a lindy hop dance contest.
The dancing would be impressive even if they knew each other, but these West Coast Swing dancers and the song were chosen on the spot, so they had to improvise. They’re so smooth together.
Hope that brought some light to your day! Come back next week for another roundup of internet sunshine.
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