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Texas Republicans’ Quotes About California’s Blackouts Are Now Coming Back To Bite Them In The Butt

Currently, large swaths of the country are experiencing power outages thanks to a winter storm sweeping the midwest. Texas is among those states hardest hit, with millions in cities like Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio without power as temperatures continue to drop and more snow is expected this week. And all of this is terrible, especially for the people suffering — and dying — because they don’t have enough heat, but it’s also prompted Twitter to remind Republicans from the state of their own hypocrisy.

Senator Ted Cruz is among those politicians whose tweets are now coming back to haunt them. Cruz, along with GOP members like Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Representative Dan Crenshaw, and Senator John Coryn, threw a fit late last year over California Governor Gavin Newsom’s energy conservation campaign. The state was experiencing a heatwave that plunged millions into rolling blackouts and Newsom’s directives — simple requests like turning off unnecessary lighting and avoiding using major appliances — drew the ire of Republicans who blamed everyone from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Joe Biden (who wasn’t even president at the time) for the “failed” energy policies of the state.

Now, with Texas suffering a similar fate — the cold weather has caused an increase in energy usage, and the state can’t keep up with the demand for more power — Cruz and his buddies’ words are coming back to bite them.

It’s a shame we’re still trying to convince some of these politicians that climate change is, in fact, real because all of that wasted energy could’ve already been spent keeping Texans warm during a freak snowstorm.

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Jayson Tatum Says He Still Deals With Breathing Issues From Having COVID-19

As the NBA presses on with the 2020-21 season, there are a number players that have returned to the court after having bouts with COVID-19. One of the things that has made the pandemic so difficult to deal with has been the variance in how different people are affected by the virus, and that has extended to the NBA.

Some players have remained asymptomatic and returned to play apparently no worse for wear, while others have battled more severe cases. Karl-Anthony Towns detailed the scary nights he had with the virus, as he battled a difficult case that kept him off the court for 13 games. Others, like Jayson Tatum, had more mild cases but are still dealing with lingering effects, as he explained on Tuesday in speaking with reporters ahead of Boston’s game with the Nuggets, via Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

“I think it messes with your breathing a little bit,” Tatum said after the team’s shootaround Tuesday afternoon ahead of hosting the Denver Nuggets. “I have experienced some games where, I don’t want to say [I was] struggling to breathe, but, you know, you get fatigued a lot quicker than normal. Just running up and down the court a few times, it’s easier to get out of breath or tired a lot faster. I’ve noticed that since I’ve had COVID. It’s just something I’m working on. It’s gotten better since the first game I played, but I still deal with it from time to time.”

Tatum says it’s not a constant issue, but it’s something he has to be in communication with the Celtics medical staff and coaches about during games whenever he feels that fatigue coming on. For a player that logs as many minutes as Tatum — 35.3 per game this year, the most of his career — that’s a significant concern. He’s seen a drop-off in efficiency since returning from his five game absence with the virus, shooting 42.7 percent from the field and 36.5 percent from three in the 11 games since he came back and it stands to reason that getting tired faster could play a part in that.

He also noted that he’s not alone in noticing that effect, and has talked with other guys in the league who have come back from COVID absences to deal with the same thing.

“I guess it’s just a long process,” Tatum said. “I’ve talked to other guys that have had it and they say they experienced the same thing and it kind of just gets better over time. But as much as we play, I guess it takes a little bit longer.”

The condensed season certainly doesn’t help matters, as he notes, because the downtime isn’t there for significant recovery. Hopefully Tatum can continue to see improvement in his conditioning and breathing, but it’s something the league and teams will have to make sure they are monitoring when it comes to players coming back from positive cases.

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Ice Cube Launched A Cannabis Brand Based On His Iconic 1995 Film ‘Friday’

It’s been nearly 26 years since Ice Cube starred in the iconic F. Gary Gray-directed film Friday. To this day, the cult classic still holds a number of memorable one liners, most notably Ice Cube’s now memeified quote, “Bye Felicia.” Now, Ice Cube is bringing the film into the modern era with a new brand of cannabis products inspired by Friday.

Ice Cube took to social media to announce the availability of his cannabis line, aptly named Fryday Kush. Made in partnership with Caviar Gold cannabis company, the Fryday Kush products are for sale in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Oklahoma only. According to Ice Cube, his strain is 46.2 percent THC and 10.78 percent CBD.

The rapper’s bud comes in glossy packaging printed with his face on the front. Caviar Gold describes Fryday Kush products on their website as incredibly potent: “From the man that needs no introduction, these infused cones and high potency buds are the strongest nugs on the market, personally developed by Ice Cube.”

Ice Cube isn’t the only mid-90s film star who has broken into the cannabis industry with Caviar Gold. Kevin Smith, filmmaker and star of the 1994 Clerks, welcomed Ice Cube to the Caviar Gold family in a post on social media.

Check out Ice Cube’s new endeavor above.

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Dave Grohl Hopes To Reunite Them Crooked Vultures And Make New Music

Dave Grohl has found himself involved with a lot of musical endeavors outside of Foo Fighters over the decades. One of the most beloved was Them Crooked Vultures, a supergroup he formed with Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones that released a self-titled album in 2009. Now, Grohl has taken some time to reflect on the band and he revealed that he hopes the group is able to get together again.

On a recent episode of Apple Music’s Medicine At Midnight Radio, Grohl spoke about what it was like being a part of that trio, saying:

“Them Crooked Vultures is a dream band for any drummer because I got to be a part of this three-piece rhythm section because Josh isn’t just a soloist. Josh plays the drums. He plays the guitar like a drummer and John Paul Jones is the greatest rock’n’roll bass player in the history of music. When we sat down to start playing, it was about 30 seconds to a minute and we realized this is a real band. This is the real deal. We would walk into the studio every day with no ideas. We would sit down, we’d have tea, we’d have coffee, we’d start jamming. By the end of that night, we’d have an eight-minute-long opus. Just a rock masterpiece. It was incredibly inspiring. It was a really incredible time. I hope that someday we do it again.”

Describing the band as “a dream come true for me,” he also discussed how it came to be:

“For years Josh and I had talked about doing some side-project. Something that wasn’t Queens Of The Stone Age, something that wasn’t Foo Fighters. Maybe it was just Josh and I. Maybe he plays drums, I play guitar. Maybe he plays guitar, I play drums. Just something that was just an experimental project. I was invited to go to London to give an award to the members of Led Zeppelin. I had met John Paul Jones before because he had performed on a Foo Fighters record and he had performed with us on the Grammys once. John Paul Jones is one of the most wonderful, generous, kind people you’ve ever met. He’s just a great guy. He’s obviously brilliant, but he’s just cool. He’s fun to hang out with. I said to Josh, I’m like, ​’Hey, I’m about to go give the Zeppelin guys this award. Do you want me to ask John Paul Jones if he’ll play bass?’ Josh was like, ​’You know John Paul Jones?’ I’m like, ​’Well, not really, kind of. I’ve jammed with them before.’ Josh said, ​’Yeah, let me know how it goes.’”

The good news for Vultures fans is that Homme is on board with a reunion, as he indicated in 2019 that he’s basically just waiting for Grohl to get the ball rolling, telling Rolling Stone, “The ironic thing is that we all want to do another Vultures record and I think everyone has certain roles they play in the Vultures, and in all honesty, I feel like part of Dave’s role — since he got it together the first time by saying, ‘Hey, do you wanna try this?’ — I feel like that’s part of in his job description in Vultures. I have my various things that I’m supposed to do I think, but that isn’t one of them. But I’m always ready to be in Them Crooked Vultures again.”

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Meghan McCain Pushes Back After A Co-Host Labels The GOP As ‘The Party Of QAnon’: ‘I Automatically Get Very Tribal’

While the ladies of The View attempted to discuss the fallout of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, Meghan McCain bristled at her co-host’s thoughts on the current state of the Republican Party and derailed the conversation into a proclamation of her pro-life beliefs. The contentious moment arrived after Sunny Hostin labeled the GOP the party of MAGA, QAnon, and the Confederate flag while blasting Mitch McConnell for his “shameful” use of his Senate powers to push the impeachment trial to after Trump left office only to turn around and say Trump can’t be convicted because he’s no longer president. While McCain had no interest in discussing McConnell’s efforts to protect Trump, she did have a whole lot to say about the insinuation that the whole party is a bunch of QAnon nuts and “Nazis”:

“I think it’s easy to say that the Republican party is only the party of QAnon and all these things. If that’s the truth, then the Democratic party is the party of socialism, and late-term abortion, and cancel culture, and no responsibility or ramifications for any of your actions, and you can burn down cities like Kenosha and it’s fine.”

Here’s more, via Raw Story:

“Part of the problem is, for someone like me, when I hear that I automatically get tribal, and I’m like, well, I don’t want the left. I’m the most intensely pro-life person that I know of, particularly on mainstream TV. I believe that abortion is murder, I believe that life begins at conception. I know that the opposite party says there are some people that don’t agree with me, that think that abortion should happen up to late term. I think the idea that the Republican Party is just one swath is just — it’s just not nuanced, and the problem I have is the only way to become a good Republican is to become a Democrat, according to the media. I don’t know what to do anymore because I can’t keep going on TV and saying we’re [not] all Nazis.”

Apparently, McCain’s digression into arguing over abortion rights was the last straw for Whoopi Goldberg, who fired back at McCain with the line, “Let me just say something for poops and giggles,” before launching into an impassioned defense of reproductive choice. She also didn’t let McCain get away with claiming that QAnon and the insurrection doesn’t represent the GOP.

“But for me, the Republicans, you showed your faces,” Goldberg said. “You said you were okay with everything that happened. You said it’s okay and you opened the door for these people to continue to act poorly.”

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Drizly’s Best-Selling Wines Of The Pandemic, Ranked

The last 12 months have seen people shopping online more than ever before. From boatloads of toilet paper and household supplies to electronics, clothes, and toys to food delivery services — it’s like suddenly Americans realized they could have everything they needed shipped straight to their doors with the click of a mouse. And in the name of social distancing, they went HAM.

Mixed in with all those essential items orders was plenty of wine.

The first few weeks of the pandemic saw online wine sales skyrocket, resulting in overall U.S. online wine sales increasing to three percent in 2020, compared to the 1 percent stake online wine sales had in 2019. That’s a 200% increase, for thise not into math. Among the many online wine shops to reap the benefits of this was Drizly, where the wine deliveries have been booming over the last 12 months.

This week, we asked the company for their top 10 best-selling wines over the past 12 months. To add a little nuance to the list, we’ve ranked them all and provided tasting notes for each. Because sometimes the masses are on point but sometimes (as we discovered) they’re a little too charmed by cool labels or what they’ve seen in stores.

10. Matua Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

Drizly

ABV: 13%
Average Price: $15
Drizly Sales Rank: 10

The Wine:

The good folks at Matua like to create sauvignon blancs that showcase a complete expression of the many sub-regions within Marlborough, New Zealand, so this wine is comprised of grapes from over 60 vineyards across the area. The grapes are fermented in stainless steel with the winery’s “house-style yeasts,” then spend some time sitting on the lees (a process in which the wine sits with leftover yeast particles to aid in a wine’s texture and flavor) before the juice is blended and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

This wine smells like guava and pear drizzled in honey, but brace yourself — there’s nothing delicate about this sauvignon blanc. The sip is loaded with tongue-piercing acidity, so-crispy-its-almost-crunchy notes of fresh-cut grass, tart Granny Smith apples, sour lemon, and the faintest hint of honeydew. It’s definitely on the lighter side in terms of weight but features a finish that will coat your mouth with flavors of green and yellow everything long after you’re done.

Bottom Line:

This pale white wine’s sour-yet-mouthwatering pucker-factor will quench your thirst on those incredibly hot summer days but do yourself a favor a pair it with a rich, soft goat’s milk cheese to cool down all that acidity.

9. Apothic Red

Drizly

ABV: 13.5%
Average Price: $12
Drizly Sales Rank: 7

The Wine:

This California red wine that you’ve likely seen time and time again on the shelves of wine shops, liquor stores, and grocery chains all across America is made with zinfandel, syrah, merlot, and cabernet sauvignon. It’s no wonder it ranked on Drizly’s top-selling wines list — this stuff is as easy to find as it is to drink.

Tasting Notes:

You’ll smell those dark fruit notes, rhubarb, and faint baking spices right away, and you’ll certainly notice them on the palate. This wine is a crescendo of blackberry, black cherry, blueberry, and plum that only intensifies with notes of mocha and vanilla that last throughout the finish.

Bottom Line:

This is an entry-level wine that has some depth and weight that you’ll feel in the sip, but overall it’s pretty juicy.

8. Meiomi Pinot Noir

Best Buy Liquors

ABV: 13.7%
Average Price: $20
Drizly Sales Rank: 8

The Wine:

You remember how Warrant was all: “Cool drink of water, such sweet surprise. Taste so good make a grown man cry. Sweet cherry pieeeeeeeee!”?

Well, that 1990s jam is what this wine is. Aged in French oak for six months, this pinot noir comes from grapes harvested in Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Sonoma, California.

Tasting Notes:

This wine smells like a bounty of cherries and strawberries, pie crust hot out the oven, and vanilla. Silky texture and bright, the juice stains the lips with sweet flavors of strawberry and coats the mouth with notes of cherry, raspberry, and blueberry preserves. There’s a hint of oak and a dash more vanilla in the lengthy and smooth finish.

Bottom Line:

If you enjoy sweeter, fruit-forward wine, this is the one for you. If you’re new to red wines and your palate is not yet prepared to fully appreciate the full-bodied, robust reds, this is a great starting point. After a few rounds of this one, you’ll be ready for something with a little more complexity.

7. Oyster Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

Drizly

ABV: 13%
Average Price: $14
Drizly Sales Rank: 4

The Wine:

Drizly drinkers sure love their sauvignon blanc. But no one could blame them for their favoritism of Oyster Bay’s delectably light and dry, nearly clear white wine that is booming with zest and finesse.

Tasting Notes:

This wine smells of salty seashores and passionfruit. It’s brimming with notes of citrus, stone fruits, and lime zest but displays a tangy, crispy acidity that balances out all the fruit. The zippy finish is super refreshing and leaves the mouth feeling bright, wet, and in need of another glass.

Bottom Line:

This wine is the epitome of light and bright, and its balanced acidity and fruit ratio make it a good one for solo sipping or seafood pairing. With a name like Oyster Bay, it’s no big surprise that this wine works incredibly well with a plate of oysters dressed with lemon juice, horseradish, and a drop of tabasco!

6. La Marca Prosecco

Drizly

ABV: 11%
Average Price: $15
Drizly Sales Rank: 1

The Wine:

Now here’s a lively little bubbly from Italy’s Prosecco capital, Treviso. It’s made with glera, a grape that is indigenous to Italy.

Tasting Notes:

This golden-straw-colored wine is racing with aromas of honeysuckle flowers and citrus fruits. The palate is crisp and clean featuring notes of green apple and lemon while a squeeze of fresh peach rounds out the wine’s mineral backbone. The bubbly is light from sip to finish with just the slightest touch of sweetness in the end.

Bottom Line:

Take your brunch from zero to 100 with this prosecco. It’s a bubbly that’s good enough to drink as a standalone but it’s definitely capable of delivering some splashy and tasty mimosas, blinis, and Aperol spritzers if you’re ‘bout dat brunch cocktail life.

5. Whispering Angel Rosé

Chateau d

ABV: 13.5%
Average Price: $21
Drizly Sales Rank: 5

The Wine:

When winemaker Sacha Lichine set out to establish his winery Château d’Esclans in 2006, he just wanted to bring some esteem to Provence with a refreshing and tasty, dry rosé. He created something significantly bigger with Whispering Angel, the rosé that has essentially put the wine variety and Provence on the winemaking map. It’s been credited with starting the international rosé trend with Linchine now producing on average 3.2 million bottles of the pink juice annually.

Tasting Notes:

This pale pink wine smells like a relaxing vacation in a bottle. The palm trees, sandy beaches, endless pampering from resort staff waiting on you hand and foot — it’s all there in the aromas of rose water, pink grapefruit, and faint strawberries and cream. On the palate, the wine is bone dry and invigorating with freshness and minerality.

Bottom Line:

It is impossible to not daydream about sailing the Côte d’Azur on a luxury yacht while drinking this rosé. Enjoy a bottle when the fabulosity of France is calling your name while travel is not quite yet feasible.

4. Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc

Gordon

ABV: 12.5%
Average Price: $17
Drizly Sales Rank: 3

The Wine:

The people of the Kim Crawford winery started out in a small cottage in Auckland, New Zealand in 1996 and have since expanded to produce wines from vineyards across Marlborough and Hawks Bay. This 2020 vintage sauvignon blanc from the winery is made in Marlborough, the northeastern corner of New Zealand’s South Island, where the sunny climate and dry soils produce some of the freshest sauvignon blanc on the planet.

Tasting Notes:

This wine smells a lot louder than it actually is. Aromas of citrus fruits like lemon and grapefruit, hints of sea salt, and an underlining of melon and fresh green herbs jump out the glass. On the palate, there are notes of Lemonhead candies, green apples, and tangerine while the wine’s bright acidity and fine minerality pings and zaps the tastebuds during the lengthy finish.

Bottom Line:

This wine great intro for those unfamiliar with sauvignon blanc from Marlborough and a dependable one for those who know and love the grape. Basically, it’s the quintessential sauvignon blanc with such racy acidity and fresh tropical fruit flavors that capture the best of what New Zealand has to offer.

3. Veuve Clicquot Brut Yellow Label Champagne

Wine.com

ABV: 12%
Average Price: $60
Drizly Sales Rank: 6

The Wine:

This wine is the champagne house’s signature blend of pinot noir, Meunier, and chardonnay. It’s comprised of a blend of grapes selected from 50 to 60 different Crus — aka vineyards recognized as higher quality — which gives the bubbly a refined freshness that can only come from truly prestigious grapes.

Tasting Notes:

Golden-yellow in color, this champagne has an initially fruity nose that ends with whiffs of French bread slathered in butter. Those brioche-like notes are prevalent on the palate too along with explosive little bubbles that soften in the sip.

Bottom Line:

This champagne tastes and feels like a celebration. Drink it when you’re feeling festive. Or pair it with KFC, like Dave Grohl.

2. Alamos Malbec

Drizly

ABV: 13.5%
Average Price: $12
Drizly Sales Rank: 9

The Wine:

Set against the backdrop of the magnificent Andes Mountains, this wine is produced in Mendoza, Argentina, where the high altitudes, intense sunlight, and extreme fluctuating weather conditions (like sizzling days that turn into frosty nights) help Malbec grapes develop the uniquely bold flavor their namesake wine is beloved for.

Tasting Notes:

This nearly purple wine has a fragrance of wet earth and garden flowers after the rain, leather drying in the sun, and a wafting of smoke. Deep dark fruits like black cherry and blackberry are heavy on the front end of the palate while the back has a subtle vegetal note complemented by velvety tannins—naturally occurring polyphenol found in fruit seeds, skins, and leaves that aid in a wine’s astringency. The finish is soft and lingering.

Bottom Line:

Not too heavy, not too light. Not too fruity, not too earthy. This red wine is just right. Drink this with meats, vegetables, bread and butter, a cheese plater or enjoy it completely by itself.

1. Josh Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon

We Speak Wine

ABV: 13.9%
Average Price: $17
Drizly Sales Rank: 2

The Wine:

Produced in Napa, California, this wine is comprised of 100 percent cabernet sauvignon. Though it is big, bold and dry like most cab sauvs, there is rounded juiciness that makes this varietal particularly pleasing to the senses.

Tasting Notes:

With black fruit and baking spice aromas, notes of blackberry, black currant and plum lean into a melody of cinnamon and toasted hazelnut on the palate. The wine has a minor expression of vanilla and toasted oak in the finish, which is long and accentuated with a spritz of astringency from the big, round tannins.

Bottom Line:

Here is your dinner wine. This goes hand-in-hand with hearty, meat-filled meals. And seeing that it was the #2 bestseller for Drizly during the pandemic, we have to give the masses their due on this one — it’s a gem.

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The Most Iconic Video Game Songs Ever

What makes video game music iconic? It could be simply a list of the best video game songs ever made and leave it at that, but that’s not only subjective, it doesn’t really fit the exact feeling of what “iconic” video game music actually is. Iconic music is something that everyone knows. Even people that aren’t deep in the gaming space can hear a few notes and immediately start humming along. You see it in medleys and in many cases, it’s the music that is used to define a franchise.

Everyone has a different list when it comes to the best music or the best soundtrack, but iconic is iconic and you know it when you hear it. These are the most iconic songs in video games.

Final Fantasy: Prologue

One could fill half of this list with nothing but songs from the Final Fantasy franchise if they chose, but few themes have quite the same feeling as the Prologue theme from Final Fantasy 1. This theme started a tradition that has existed in all but a small handful of mainline Final Fantasy titles and that is, at some point, you will hear this original theme played. It may be remixed, but you are going to hear it.

Alongside that theme comes an overwhelming feeling of adventure and triumph. Any fan of Final Fantasy hears this theme and they are immediately filled with the sense that they can overcome anything. It’s time to grab a weapon and head off because the world needs to be saved, and you’re going to be the one to do it.

Super Mario Bros. World 1-1

World 1-1’s theme has become such an iconic piece of music for Mario that it has become synonymous with Mario himself. When you hear that jingle start to play there’s a sense of joy and nostalgia that fills your heart; it’s time to go on another fun adventure to rescue the princess from Bowser. There are endless remixes, musical renditions, and homages to Mario and they all use this theme to represent him. Mario is the most iconic figure in video games and unsurprisingly his music has that same level of fame.

Tetris Theme

Tetris is arguably the greatest piece of media ever created. Despite the simplicity of the game, it has been re-created, ported, and played on every device ever made. From flip phones to virtual reality, you can find a way to play Tetris.

With Tetris being available everywhere you would be remiss to not mention the perfect little jingle that has accompanied it along the way. It’s simple, short, memorable, and extremely hummable. Listen to this theme once and it will be impossible to not hum along for the rest of the day. In this simplicity comes endless remix potential. The main theme of Tetris has been possibly remixed more than any other theme in video games and the results are almost always great.

Halo’s Main Theme

When Xbox Live was at its peak during the Xbox 360 era there was probably one song you were hearing more than any other. The main theme of Halo. As everyone poured endless hours into online matchmaking or hosted LAN parties with their friends, the soft choir-like tones of Halo‘s main theme were playing. It was perfect background music as you waited to find a new match or for your friends to get online so you could play through Halo 3‘s campaign on co-op for the 100th time.

Escape From The City

Imagine for a second being a Sonic fan towards the end of the ’90s. The Dreamcast you bought is on the verge of death and your favorite blue hedgehog is quickly approaching homelessness. You know the Dreamcast needs a big hit and you’re hoping that Sonic Adventure 2 is going to be the game to save the console. You pop in the disc, play the opening level, and play “City Escape” for the first time. Just for a moment, you think that all is well and Sega is going to take the crown back from Nintendo and Sony.

Unfortunately for those fans that didn’t happen, but the music that accompanied that moment was “Escape From The City” a song that just perfectly captured the attitude of Sonic. This iconic piece of music would set the tone of what kind of music we’d hear in Sonic for years to come.

At Doom’s Gate

Doom was a revolutionary first-person shooter thanks to not only its innovative gameplay but extreme violence that at the time had not been seen before. You mowed through waves of demons and at one point battled your way through Hell itself with each level growing more demonic. Of course, a hardcore game like this needed a hardcore soundtrack to accompany it. “At Doom’s Gate” became the iconic piece of music from Doom that everyone thinks of when they think of the franchise.

Hyrule Field

There’s just something about Zelda and overworld themes. Take your pick of one and you’re going to find an incredible song to accompany you on your journey, but few had quite the impact that Hyrule Field from Ocarina of Time did. Maybe it’s the generation that grew up with it, but this became the theme that every other Zelda overworld theme was held to afterward. When the revolutionary Breath of the Wild came out, on Wii U/Switch, one of the largest complaints about the game was that it lacked an iconic theme like Hyrule Field. This is the gold standard that every Zelda game is going to be held to and that’s what makes it so iconic.

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Noname Explains Why People Shouldn’t Rely On Celebrities As Changemakers

Throughout much of her music, Noname takes on topics like racial justice and what it means to be a revolutionary. But along with making music, Noname actually practices what she preaches. She recently turned down the opportunity to write a song for HBO’s Judas And The Black Messiah film because she didn’t think it emphasized Fred Hampton’s revolutionary theories enough. Now, Noname is taking aim at the problem of idolizing celebrities in American culture.

Following the murder of George Floyd last summer, many people looked to celebrities and musicians to lead the fight for racial justice. But Noname disagrees with relying on celebrities to make structural and societal change. Why? Noname argues that celebrities fundamentally don’t have the interests of the working class in their minds. Sharing her thought to her Instagram Stories, Noname wrote:

“Every celebrity, entertainer, athlete, and public figure should be looked at as an enemy to the revolutionary potential of the people. Folks who hold these public positions rarely have class solidarity with working class people. They are always going to be ideologically and materially invested in U.S. capitalism because it keeps them rich. If you are inspired by the sh*t some of us say, cool. But don’t even think radical change is in our hands. Revolution comes from organized people. Join a radical organization. Preferably one that empowers all members to be leaders instead of orgs that highlight a few people as ‘leader.’ F*ck a celebrity.”

Continuing to explain her thought process, Noname said: “It is not totally impossible for a person with fame to align themselves with working class oppressed people (I like to believe I am walking in that tradition). But it is important to remember that those are a few individuals that exist in the petite bourgeoisie class. The masses of rich people in that class reproduce a liberal status quo. We might see them promote a democratic party of fascists but that’s about it.”

Read Noname’s opinion the the intersection of celebrity and revolution above.

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Ariana Grande Revealed The Four Bonus Tracks That Will Appear On Her ‘Positions’ Deluxe Album

With her recent No. 1 album Positions and her Netflix documentary Excuse Me, I Love You, Ariana Grande fans have been well-fed lately. On top of that, Grande returned last week to share a video to her “34+35 (Remix)” track with Megan Thee Stallion and Doja Cat, which saw the three musicians having a lavish and relaxing day together. It turns out fans can expect even more music coming from the pop star very soon.

Grande had previously teased her Positions (Deluxe) album by sharing a tracklist with four of the song titles scratched out. But now, Grande has returned to make an exciting announcement. Her deluxe album is arriving this week, and she’s finally shared the titles to the previously-undisclosed songs.

Posting the official tracklist to social media, Grande asked fans: “which of the new additions are u claiming?” The news confirms that, along with her Megan and Doja Cat collaboration, the tracks titled “Someone Like U (Interlude),” “Test Drive,” “Worst Behavior,” and “Main Thing” will appear as bonus songs on the LP.

While the prospect of getting to hear four new Grande songs is exciting to some fans, others are disappointed that their collaboration speculations didn’t pan out. Many thought Grande was going to have a song with SZA on the deluxe release, a rumor that the singer promptly shut down. “Lol I wish but nah,” SZA said.

Positions (Deluxe) is out 2/19 via Republic. Pre-order it here

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

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Rick Ross Delivers A Regal NPR Tiny Desk Concert Performance Of His Greatest Hits

One of the very few positives of the move to virtual concerts from live ones is that NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series has been able to enjoy guests that might have ordinarily passed on an appearance or simply been too busy to carve out time for a DC trip to visit the titular Tiny Desk at NPR’s physical offices.

One such artist is Rick Ross, the Carol City, Florida rapper who just got his own Rap Snacks flavor and has a big enough hits catalog to make up three or four Tiny Desk Concerts. In his Tiny Desk debut, Ross notably performs with a live band for just the second time in his career (a real travesty, considering how lush his production has always been) and makes the most of it, performing a mini-medley of some of his greatest hits, including “Aston Martin Music,” “B.M.F. (Blowin’ Money Fast),” and “I’m Not A Star.” He’s joined by Elijah Blake, who sings the hooks normally handled by Ne-Yo and Chrisette Michele.

Rick Ross was recently the subject of a viral backlash after a clip from an old Vh1 show resurfaced, exposing him to accusations of colorism. In typical Ross fashion, he let the buzz pass him by, instead opting to share a classic Jay-Z story with DJ Khaled.

Watch Rick Ross’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert above.