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At 47, Joe Kavaluskis lost his nine-year battle with multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer, on January 8, 2020, leaving behind a wife and two sons. But that didn’t stop him from fulfilling one of his son’s dreams a week later on his 13th birthday.

In the final days of his life, he told his wife, Melanie, to buy their son, Logan, a puppy after he passed. He thought the dog would brighten his spirits after such a loss and it was something he always wanted but couldn’t have. Joe was allergic to dogs so he couldn’t have one in the home.

“He said, ‘Just promise that when I do pass, that you get Logan a puppy as soon as you can, because I know that it will bring him a lot of comfort,'” Melanie Kavaluskis told Inside Edition.

Throughout his childhood, Logan had hermit crabs and lizards, but never the puppy he always wanted. When he was 3 years old he got a stuffed Boston terrier and named it Puppers and took it everywhere he went for years.

Joe thought it was the right time for him to have a real Boston terrier of his own.

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13-year-old cries as he’s surprised with dog from late dad.

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A week after Joe’s passing, Melanie told her son Logan they had to drive to Midland, Michigan to pick up a puppy, but he had no idea it was a gift for him. Halfway through the drive home, his cousin Jon broke the news.

“That’s from your dad. That’s your dog,” Jon told an astonished Logan. “Really? Logan replied.

The 13-year-old boy looked down at the dog and he still couldn’t believe it was his. “‘Dad wanted you to have a puppy,” his cousin said.

“Words can’t explain the shock,” Logan later told WZZM13. “I had to ask ‘really?’ again, just to make sure it was my dog and not a horrid prank.”

The family has named the dog Indy and Logan says he’s a great fit for the family.

“He fits to all of our needs. Cuddles with my mom and my brother and plays with me, unless I want him to relax,” Logan said.

Melanie thinks that her husband’s final gesture may have been his best.

“He got it right. This was amazing. This gift is just perfect. Perfect timing,” she said.

Kid gets surprise gift after dad’s death.

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Joe’s gesture may have done more than just cheer up his son. Research shows that pets can be a big help for kids who are grieving.

“Pets can help improve mood,” said Gina McDowell, a licensed professional clinical counselor and behavioral health clinical educator at the Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, in a Huffington Post article.

“Playing with pets often creates positive emotions that can last throughout the day and may even help manage symptoms of anxiety and depression,” she continued.

It has to be terribly frustrating to be suffering from a terminal disease knowing you’ll be unable to comfort your children when you’re gone. But Joe did one of the most beautiful things imaginable by fulfilling one of his son’s dreams while also giving him a way to cope in a time of need.

Marc Evan Jackson makes everything a delight. The comedy star from “The Good Place” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” is even providing top notch entertainment on social media, all while giving us a new appreciation for both bassoons and tree-trimming. What a legend.

In addition to acting, stand-up and improv, it seems that Jackson is also a gardener. He posted on Twitter today: “I was trimming the fig and bougainvillea, and uncovered this perfectly good bassoon. (Be kind. Double reeds are not my forte, and are harder than they look.)”

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Can we all just bask in the fact that this guy just said that he has “fig and bougainvillea”? His tweet has more class than I have in my entire body.

Snappy jazz starts to play in the video. And Jackson, holding a piece of tree that does look uncannily like a bassoon, starts to do an “air solo.” My favorite part is the calm, cool, seriousness with which he “plays.”

A few musicians gave their kudos, and some decided to chime in with a few tree bassoon pointers. One person wrote, “Pretty good! (Even though I think your embouchure probably isn’t correct.) But still…impressive!”

(By the way, in case you don’t know, an embouchure is “the way in which a player applies the mouth to the mouthpiece of a brass or wind instrument.” I had to look it up.)

Another person gave us a gem of wisdom, saying, “Fig jazz is all about the fig notes that you *don’t* play.” Can fig jazz please be a thing? I’m so ready for it.

I hope Jackson is a fan of puns, cause boy did he get them in the comments.

One mom wrote, “My kid, the bassoonist who’s watching b99 for the first time and helping every time he sees you, is going to lose it for this. Thank you.” I would love to see this kid’s reaction.

I really hope that Jackson delivers a follow-up that this was all research for a new role he’ll be playing. But until then, I’ll be playing this on repeat.

When Eve said “Money, power, respect, you’ll be eatin’ right” on the hook of the iconic Lox track “Money, Power Respect,” do you think she knew what Styles P would be scheming more than 20 years leader? Turns out he founded a juice company called “Juices For Life” in the Bronx. Facts only.

The Yonkers native has two stores already, a third one coming in Brooklyn and now a pop-up juice bar coming to Rolling Loud NY this weekend. So in between seeing Travis Scott, 50 Cent, and J.Cole at the Oct. 28-30th Citi Field festival, you’ll get an opportunity to nourish your body at a full-on “Juices For Life” stand.

Clearly, the still prolific P has been on to something. “Styles P is living proof that taking care of your body from the inside out will keep your skills sharp, as evidenced by his effortless breath control and dominance of the microphone,” Rolling Loud co-founder Tariq Cherif said in a statement.

But the collaboration runs deeper than that, with a new merch line inspired by Styles P’s holistic ways, and A$AP Ferg’s new single, “Green Juice” out tomorrow, entitled “Green Juice.” The “Juices For Life” location in the Bronx will serve as a pop-up shop for the merch throughout the weekend. Rolling Loud also announced a merch collab with the Billionaire Boys Club BBC Ice Cream line that’ll be available at the fest as well as as the BBC Ice Cream store in SoHo.

Check out one of the Rolling Loud x Juices For Life tees below.

You can’t deny the wonder of a free taco, even if it’s from Taco Bell. To celebrate the World Series, Taco Bell has brought back its “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” promotion for Taco Bell Rewards Program members and the average American Taco Bell stan.

The giveaway is pretty simple. If someone steals a base during any game of the World Series, Taco Bell will give you a free Doritos Locos Taco. Sure, we’re only talking about a single taco per base stolen. And sure, it’s only a $1.89 value. But, it’s still a free taco for doing pretty much nothing. Hell, you don’t even have to watch the World Series to get your free taco. Taco Bell will inform the world every time a base is stolen via their social media, so that you know when to head to the Bell and Live Mas with a free taco in your hand.

You need to be a Taco Bell Rewards Program member if you want to get your taco before everyone else. If you weren’t already by mid-day yesterday Pacific time, then you’re going to have to wait until next year’s World Series to get your free and early Doritos Locos Taco. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for the date Taco Bell announces (via social media) for their free taco giveaway day. You’re also limited to one taco per person or per account until supplies last during each stolen base giveaway.

And hey, there’s already a stolen base on the books! So if you’re already a member, it’s yours. Check out the pickup time below.

Megan Thee Stallion is gearing up to release some new music in just a couple of days. The Houston native announced her new mixtape Something For Thee Hotties last week, her first release in over a year. She said it will consist of “freestyles thee hotties have been asking for and a few unreleased songs from THEE ARCHIVES.” Now, just two days before the project arrives, Megan unveils its tracklist.

Something For Thee Hotties clocks in at 16 songs with no features, and as promised, it includes some previously heard tracks that include “Tuned In,” “Out Of Town,” and “Southside Forever,” as well as her single from earlier this year, “Thot Sh*t.”

The tracklist reveal comes after the rapper showed off her graduation cap, bedazzled with her signature catchphrase “Real hot girl sh*t”, for her degree in health administration.

You can view the tracklist below.

1. “Tuned In Freestyle”
2. “Megan Monday Freestyle”
3. “South Side Forever Freestyle”
4. “Outta Town Freestyle”
5. “Megans Piano”
6. “Eat It”
7. “All Of It”
8. “Tina Snow Interlude”
9. “Let Me See It”
10. “Opposite Day”
11. “Freakend”
12. “Bae Goals”
13. “Pipe Up”
14. “Bless”
15. “The Booth Freestyle”
16. “Thot Sh*t”

Something For Thee Hotties is out 10/29 via 1501 Certified Entertainment / 300 Entertainment. Pre-order it here.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Last Thursday, an accidental prop gun discharge on the set of the low budget Western Rust left its director, Joel Souza, wounded and its cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, dead. It’s already been made public that the weapon in question had been handed to star Alec Baldwin, who fired it thinking it was “cold,” by assistant director Dave Halls. But now Halls has admitted that he didn’t thoroughly check the gun before doing so.

According to The New York Times, Halls told an investigator that while the set’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, had opened the gun for him to inspect, he may not have taken as close a look as he should have. According to the affidavit, Halls “advised he should have checked all of them, but didn’t, and couldn’t recall if she spun the drum.”

The incident took place during a rehearsal. As per NYT:

After the shooting, Mr. Halls said he picked up the gun from a pew inside the church and took it to Ms. Reed. When she opened it, he said, according to the affidavit, he could see “at least four dummy casings with the holes on the side, and one without the hole. He advised this did not have the cap on it and was just the casing.” Dummy rounds are sometimes identified by a pierced hole on the side.

Describing the safety protocols on the set, Mr. Halls said Ms. Gutierrez typically opened guns for him to inspect. “I check the barrel for obstructions, most of the time there is no live fire, she (Hannah) opens the hatch and spins the drum, and I say cold gun on set,” he said in an interview with the investigator, according to the affidavit. It was not clear what he meant by the term “live fire.”

Part of the job of an assistant director is to ensure the safety on a set. In the frenzy after the shooting, a script supervisor who called 911 told the operator that Hall is “supposed to check the guns.”

More details about Halls’ career have emerged in the last couple days. An industry veteran whose credits include The Matrix Reloaded and Fargo, he was fired from the set of a movie called Freedom’s Path in 2019 after another gun discharge. Prior to the deadly incident, there had already been at least two accidental gun discharges, while crew members have complained about deplorable working conditions.

(Via NYT)

Earlier this year, Yaeji did a “visual episode” of her “Kraeji w/ Yaeji” radio show. In the YouTube clip, the NY-based, Korean-American electronic producer was sitting in a cloud-covered daylight-lit living room floor with scattered equipment, and her friend OHHYUK, the singer and driving force behind Seoul-based indie rock group HYUOKH. That session foreshadowed collaborations between the pair and what first started as a transoceanic beat exchange of ideas, soon saw the pair get into the studio together in Seoul for two new songs.

Out today on XL recordings with accompanying videos, “29” and “Year To Year” contain elements of what has made both artists stand out. Yaeji’s entrancing vocal hum, OHHYUK’s guitar, and diverse joint electronic production from both. The tropicalia-soaked rhyhtm of “29” is a step outside of the box for Yaeji, while the cinescapes of “Year To Year” represent new textures and vocal explorations for OHHYUK. Funny enough, both expressed that they were hitting a wall when it came to crafting new music, until they helped each other out. Yaeji shared her thoughts in a statement:

“When I was feeling a bit stuck and stagnant with music, Hyuk helped me find the joys of creating again, and this was my first time collaborating with someone so closely on music. We spent many days together in the studio in Seoul, sometimes not even making music but just chatting about how we grew up and sharing meals together, and our musical collaboration blossomed as our friendship grew.”

And OHHYUK offered his contrasting, but similarlu-spirited take:

“Yaeji and I first started to jam when Yaeji visited Seoul last summer. At that time, I was experiencing a kind of “musician’s block” and the jams with Yaeji acted as a catalyst for me and brought back the joy of working on music again. Through the jams we made many tracks, Yaeji soon began to plan the framework for “Year to Year” and I did the same for “29.” For the videos, we worked with Directors DQM and Nam Eunuk, who are both close friends of ours. It was the love and support of many friends that made the music videos come to life. I would like to send my undivided appreciation to them.”

Yaeji has quickly become one of the most visible Korean-American artists in Western indie music, and this collab is ultimately a welcome introduction to the sound of Korean indie from OHHYUK. Watch the video for “29” above and check out the “Year To Year” clip below.

Birthdays. Sports games. Holidays. Sharing a bowl of cereal on a Sunday afternoon … these are just some of the moments, big and small, that are missed when a parent is incarcerated. And sadly, they can’t be replaced.

But sometimes, second chances do come around. For father and daughter Bill Lorance and Justine Tuckett, that second chance came in the form of a TikTok dance. They didn’t take it for granted, and now they’re making up for lost time. It’s not only a win for the father-daughter duo, it shows how rehabilitation is possible and that people don’t have to be defined by their mistakes.

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On the day she picked her father up from prison, Tuckett posted to Instagram:

“Words can not express the emotions and feelings I’ve had this week. Picking up my Father from prison after 22 years was amazing.
When I was younger every time I blew out my birthday candles 🎂 I would wish that he would get out of prison…until I was old enough to realize that he wasn’t going to be wished back to me.

My Dad put in the work everyday, he is unrecognizable from the person he used to be before prison. Some resilient people CAN be reformed. Some people DESERVE to re-enter society again. Some WILL embrace their children, grandchildren, and family one again. Someone like my Dad. 💕”

Bill Lorance had been convicted for the murder of his stepfather, and served 22 years in a California state penitentiary. He didn’t make it to his daughter Justine’s wedding, in addition to many other milestones.

According to BuzzFeed News, Lorance and Tuckett both shared a love of dance. Before incarceration, Lorance had a passion for dancing in clubs and making home videos; Tuckett teaches a fitness dance class called Dirtylicious. It seems almost destined that after Lorance’s release, their TikTok debut would happen.

The video, which now has more than 45 million views, starts with the words, “My Dad has been in prison for 22 years. I got to pick him up this week,” as Tuckett gives some fun, funky shuffle steps.

Then dad leaps into frame and the two deliver some awkward yet undoubtedly onbeat moves that many fathers and daughters have been able to share. Tuckett might be a grown woman, but in that moment it seemed like her 12-year-old self got to come out and play with dad.

Creating this video had been a dream for Lorance, to do something really special with his kids to celebrate their reunion. Though he never dared risk the additional time to sneak a smartphone in prison, he wasn’t completely unsavvy to social media, having seen trends like Drake’s “In My Feelings” car dance and the Ice Bucket Challenge. Still, it was a new world for him. Tuckett noted that for her father, “how much phones can do was shocking and mesmerizing and wild.”

In favor of simple movements and a slow tempo, Lorance’s daughter-slash-dance instructor chose the song “Forget Me Nots” by Patrice Rushen (though “WAP” and “Fancy Like” were also music contenders). Lorance admitted flossing was a tad too difficult.

So much more than a few likes and followers came from their viral video (though jumping from 200 to 40,000 followers is pretty impressive). Tuckett and Lorance teamed up to create more content that helps others understand not only how to maintain a relationship with an incarcerated loved one, but to remind everyone that people really can change.

In an emotional series of Instagram Live videos, Tuckett and Lorance discuss a multitude of topics brought in from Tuckett’s followers: how Lorance got incarcerated, how they maintained their relationship, anger and addiction, and the role outside families play in accountability. Through teary, heartfelt conversations, their core message provides an insightful takeaway: treat these crimes as bad decisions, rather than mistakes.

As for what’s become of Lorance now, BuzzFeed reported that he’s opened a bank account, is working toward securing a car and has quickly acclimated himself to the digital world of social media, posting sunrise beach jog and morning omelette photos to Instagram. Suddenly these simple things we often take for granted become symbols of a fresh new start.

A couple of weeks ago, a longtime friend of mine sent me a text message asking, “Wait, do you like horror movies now?” This was, I assumed, in response to my Letterboxd account diary being filled with horror movies over the last four weeks. Now, this friend has known me since college and I have never liked horror movies. I don’t enjoy being scared. It is not an emotion I enjoy experiencing. But, at the same time, it was hard to deny that, yes, I have been watching a lot of horror movies. Do I like them now? The answer didn’t feel like an easy yes or no. So I’ve really been giving this some thought and I think something is going on here, at least with those of us who, in the past, identified as people who do not like horror movies. I think, for people like us, and because of the pandemic, there’s been a bit of a reset with a lot of people and how they feel about horror movies, especially older horror movies.

The overwhelming majority of the horror movies I’ve been watching came out between 1968’s Night of the Living Dead and up to around 1990, around the time of Child’s Play 2. Some I had seen before. Or at least tried to watch as a kid before bailing out. I remember the first time I tried to watch the first Halloween when I was maybe around 10. That scene when Michael Myers is wearing the ghost sheet when he comes into the room with P.J. Soles? I honestly used to think that was the scariest thing I had ever seen in my entire life. I remember trying to watch the opening scene of the original When a Stranger Calls. Same thing. Just pure, real terror. Because growing up as an only child, this means there were many times I found myself alone in the house. And being alone and scared really stinks. I wanted no part of any of this. Also, I didn’t have a particularly religious upbringing, at least in respects of “going to church on a regular basis.” But I was born into Catholicism and the specter of a lot of the religious imagery in these movies being “real” freaked me out to no end. Again … no thank you. (The two exceptions to any of this was, first, Poltergeist. I always loved Poltergeist even though it very much frightened me. The second was, a few years later, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. I think I figured any movie that featured a Dokken song couldn’t be a bad thing.)

Then I pretty much avoided horror the rest of my life. At least until I started doing what I do now for a living and I’d be forced to go to new horror movies as part of my job. And I had a weird reaction: I still did not like them, but the format seemed to be less focused on the eerie and more focused on jump scares. Now, look, I know a lot of people complain about jump scares. Or defend jump scares. I find jump scares effective, which is why I don’t like them. As a kid, what scared me was the idea that Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees was hiding upstairs in our empty house and was going to “get me.” Not just something popping out at me and a manufactured loud noise. Anyway, regardless of the changes, I still found horror movies unpleasant.

Something changed around the start of the pandemic. And it wasn’t just me. There sure seemed to be a lot of people who were not horror fans dipping their toes into the horror waters. Like a lot of people early on I watched The Thing, a movie that was on cable a lot when I was a kid and could never make it though because it was way too scary. I promised myself I would make it through, no matter how unpleasant I found the experience, just in a, “well, I’ve finally finished that,” kind of way. What I did not at all expect was how much I enjoyed the movie. There were moments I found myself applauding. It’s scary, but it’s also fun. And it’s not a movie where things are jumping out at you, it’s just a really well done story about isolation and a secret killer who may or may not be literally everyone around you. The same thing happened with The Exorcist, a movie I could NEVER make it through as a kid. Watching it now, it just felt like a great movie. At no point did I feel like I did not want to be watching it. And, now, if I find The Exorcist to be a good movie and not particularly scary or unpleasant, what else am I missing out on?

Last October, I watched a few more horror movies to see if I felt the same way. (It was October of 2020 when I first watched Halloween III: Season of the Witch and met Dr, Dan Challis. I remember a kid in elementary school trying to tell me about it. After hearing this description about masks that melt kids’ faces and turn them into bugs, there was no way I was going to be watching Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Smash cut to today and it’s one of my favorite movies for about 1000 reasons.) Anyway, I enjoyed the horror movie experience so much last October I wish I had watched more, so this October I’d cram in as many as I could. (As I type this, I’ve watched 33 in the last month. Yes, I am now someone who has seen Killer Klowns from Outer Space.)

Part of me wants to give this a name. Like “The Great Horror Reset,” or something else dumb like that. Because there for sure something going on, especially with people like me who have never really watched horror movies before. But what I’m finding is the movies from this era (again, roughly 1968 until 1990) range from legitimately great movies (Night of the Living Dead) to fun, creepy and hilarious (the aforementioned Halloween III: Season of the Witch) and fun and stupid (pretty much every Friday the 13th movie). But the one thing they really aren’t are … scary.

When I interviewed John Carpenter recently I asked him about this. When horror movies got into the Hostel era, that’s when Carpenter basically checked out. The movies had lost their sense of fun. I presented him what I think is happening now, with all these non-horror fans watching older horror and enjoying it, and Carpenter responded, “That’s interesting. I hadn’t really paid much attention to that, but it’s much more fun than the torture movies. The only one of those that was any good, the only one of those that was fun, was the Saw movies, which were fun. But no, horror: there’s an edge. You don’t want to step over that edge. That’s not something that you should do.”

And that’s the thing: maybe I’d grown so accustomed to modern horror that uses jump scares (again, they are effective) that I kind of got reprogrammed to like older horror. I swear, when I watch a modern horror movie in a theater I can’t even look at the screen. I don’t want to jump out of my seat when the thing jumps out at me and the loud noise happens. (Keep in mind I am generalizing a bit here. But most mass-marketed studio horror movies do this.) But when I went back to watch these older movies, I couldn’t (and still can’t) get over how much fun they are. Some are downright hilarious. (Honestly, I think this is why I enjoyed Halloween Kills. It plays like a movie from 1982 and all the characters seem in on this idea. And I think my brain is currently wired for movies exactly like this. But, also, admittedly, I am in the minority on this opinion. But I have little doubt if Halloween III: Season of the Witch came out today in theaters, most people would hate it.)

There’s a kind of hilarious clip of Roger Ebert having a meltdown about Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter. Basically, Ebert hates this movie so much he thinks it will cause the downfall of civilization. So much so that Gene Siskel had to chime in and basically tell Ebert, look, I don’t like it either, but maybe let’s take it down a notch. And it’s funny because, now, that’s “the good one.”

I do love that before I watched Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter I was told, “oh, that’s the good one.” I finally kind of get how non-Star Wars fans feel when I try to explain how some of them are good and some are bad. Because most of these movies just feel like, “stab, stab. stab.” Then I’ll be told the next one subverts the formula and I’ll watch it and it’s still, “stab, stab. stab.” But I’m finding the whole, “stab, stab. stab,” of it all just kind of fun and stupid and, again, not at all scary. To the point I was at a bar over the weekend and got into an in-depth conversation about the history and mythos of Jason Voorhees and was saying things like, “Actually, of the first five movies, Jason himself only has his mask the whole movie in Part IV,” and dropping names like Shelly Finkelstein from Part III. To the point I had to stop a second and think, “Wait, who am I now?”

(Also, I’m looking forward to inevitably getting some sort of, “Um, you don’t understand horror at all,” response on Twitter. Which, yes, I suppose it’s fair to say I’m not an expert on something I’ve spent most my life avoiding. But that’s also the point.)

The truth is I haven’t quite figured this one out, but also something is happening because I’ve been talking to way too many people who feel the same way. But, with actual Halloween fast approaching, that’s a pretty hard deadline for this piece. (I do wonder if April Fool’s Day was at the end of April, would people spend the whole month watching comedies? I kind of wish that were the case.) But where I’m sort of leaning is, people like me are so accustomed to more modern horror, which went through its someone recent “torture porn” phase, and with a healthy dose of jump scares, and decided this is not for me. Then almost out of necessity for something to do, went back to the older horror movies and realized that, yeah, these might have been scary as a kid, but compared to modern horror, they are just a whole lot of fun. Oh, and I now casually drop references to Shelly Finkelstein.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.