Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda appeared on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon last night to promote his upcoming hosting duties on Saturday Night Live. As is his wont, Fallon made Miranda participate in one of those games designed to go viral in a stand-alone YouTube clip, but thankfully this one played to Miranda’s natural talents: rapping.
Miranda was paired up against the Roots’ Tariq Trotter in a round of Wheel of Freestyle and asked to create a rap about three random words/phrases on the spot. His first three phrases were robot, corn maze, and Harry Potter. His verse went as follows: “Once again, I’m in a very tricky spot/I’m going to win the Emmy like Mr. Robot/And I could go for days and days/and though I’m lost/there’s plenty to eat in this corn maze/I’m going above and beyond/I’m serious, black/I’ve got my magic wand/there’s nothing you can harm us/abracadabra yo, expelliarmus.” Not bad.
Trotter had to rhyme guacamole, lumberjack, and Super Bowl. His rap’s highlight—“set em up, chop em down like a lumberjack”—elicited a strong response from the crowd, but it was Miranda’s final line in the next round, which rhymed “election” with “erection,” that really brought the house down.
Watch the clip below.
And here’s the promo for this weekend’s Saturday Night Live, which reveals that Miranda does a decent Carrie from Sex in the City impersonation and that he’s never actually seen Hamilton.
Vice presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence had a lot to say last night at the veeps’ debate in Farmville, Virginia. (Not to be confused with FarmVille, the Zynga game.) And much of what they said included name-checking the debate’s moderator, CBS anchor Elaine Quijano.
In fact, as this clip reveals, at times the two highly caucasian gentlemen seemed to be participating in a secret game to see who could say “Elaine” more often. While this sounds like perhaps the most-boring drinking game of all time, it makes for some pretty sweet viewing!
Everyone loves Chance the Rapper. And if you don’t know or don’t love Chance, he’s doing just about everything he can to convince you otherwise.
The latest delightful treat from Chance comes in form of commercial for another delightful treat: Kit Kats. Dressed up for Halloween, Chance and his commercial family browse the candy aisle when a Kit Kat treat whispers out to him, though the label reads “Chance the Wrapper.”
https://youtu.be/8lN8OZqFuHs
It’s a clever enough pun. Chance breaks into a Chicago blues riff on the classic Kit Kat jingle, that’s actually quite good. Credit where credit is due.
The previous night, though, Chance performed a live rendition of his song “Blessings (Reprise)” on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The track serves as the stunning closer to his magnificent Coloring Book record. He also invited featured artists Ty Dolla $ign, Raury, D.R.A.M., and Anthony Hamilton to sing alongside him. This in addition to a church choir and frequent collaborator Donnie Trumpet.
Chance likes to make an event out of his performances, much like his mentor/idol/friend Kanye West, and this one didn’t disappoint. It helps you understand why so many love to love Chance: he makes you believe. Try not to feel some type of way after watching this performance. (As experts in feeling stuff, we feel very confident that you will feel something — and we look forward to hearing about that at some later date.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j8frgmdvgc
The rapper would later sit down with Fallon for a short interview, explaining why he doesn’t sell his music for the uninitiated. Fallon asked Chance about his recent success and the critical adoration of his Coloring Book albumas well.
Yesterday Motherboard editor Sarah Jeong pointed out the painfully obvious: Despite being notoriously active on the site, Elon Musk doesn’t follow any women on Twitter. At press time, he follows 55 people, brands and news outlets total, 21 of which are men. One of which is Ryan Reynolds. Can’t fault him on that.
In true Elon style, he wasted no time firing back on Twitter:
I use twitter for news orgs. My Insta has same women as men. What's up with the phoney PC police axe-grinding?
Shortly after, he followed his first-ever Twitter Woman: GQ Magazine’s Caity Weaver. “I’ve always considered myself one of the top women in the world, so I would say this shows excellent judgement on his part,” she said in a very important and revealing interview with the magazine.
Of course, it’s not a requirement to follow any particular demographic on social media, but being exposed to a wide variety of voices from all backgrounds and experiences benefits everyone. Especially when you’re running three companies shaping how our future will look: SpaceX, Solar City and Tesla. And especially when your industry has such a diversity problem.
As a friendly reminder to diversify your feeds — for Elon and all of us — here are a few suggestions for people to follow on Twitter:
“Senior Editor & Planetary Evangelist, The Planetary Society. Planetary scientist, writer, public speaker. Writing a book on Curiosity mission. Asteroid 274860.”
“First woman of color in space, Physician, Scientist, Engineer, Explorer & Futurist. Leader 100 Year Starship. Someone who proves that daring makes a difference!”
“Samantha Cristoforetti. European of Italian nationality. Lived on ISS Nov’14-Jun’15. Now adjusting back to being an Earthling on our beautiful spaceship Earth.”
Public Sector Innovator & Aerospace Engineer. Passionate abt partnerships & engagement. Current & former tribes:@NASA@whitehouseostp@MIT@UF.
Interesting perspective on the difference: "Scientists study the world as it is, engineers create the world that never has been." https://t.co/b1TClMsUrn
Congrats must go out to Netflix for coming up with an ingenious way to promote their Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life premier on November 25.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTnU5MG5Edw
No need to keep dreaming of moving to Stars Hollow (it’s time to come to grips that it’s a fake town). Now, you can get a taste of the real fake thing, including free coffee at Luke’s while supplies last. Here’s the deal.
It just so happens that Wednesday is the 16th anniversary of the show, which follows the relationship between Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter Rory for seven seasons. And while the plot lines may have changed, one thing always stayed the same: coffee at Luke’s. It was the heartbeat of the series and Netflix is transforming 200 coffee shops across the country into Luke’s Diners for the show’s Sweet 16.
USA Today reports that each “Luke’s” will include décor from the show: Luke’s signs, Luke’s aprons, Luke’s backwards caps and Luke’s coffee cups covered in Gilmore Girl quotes. And maybe even the famous “no cellphones” sign. Oh, that Luke!
UPDATE: People are going insane for these pop-ups. #LukesDiner is now trending on Twitter.
The line in Chicago is about 4 blocks long. This is about the time that Kirk would open up the competition across the street. #LukesDinerpic.twitter.com/9SP7vBx7O2
Stars Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake are currently out promoting their upcoming Dreamworks Animation film Trolls. Kendrick, America’s sweetheart, sure seems to believe in this movie. She’s really doing everything she can to market the film.
Speaking of which, Kendrick and Timberlake traveled all across Cannes to promote the movie. They even traveled on a boat! Thankfully, they eventually landed and made it safely ashore via the docks.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFU9fTqKdVm/
And while Cannes has a reputation as a serious affair, focusing on high-class celebrities and important films, Kendrick helped pave crucial in-roads for a creature so often ignored on the internet: trolls! Those colorful creatures really pop in the background of this photo.
On the outside, it always seem like red carpets might bore celebrities after a while. Walk a few steps, pose, endure stilted interviews. But Kendrick doesn’t show any signs of fatigue. Look at how she dazzles on the red carpet of Cannes’ Opening Night Gala. All to promote her movie Trolls!
Photo by Tristan Fewings / Stringer / Getty Images
But Anna Kendrick didn’t stop there. This is why we love her. She’s such a team player, doing anything she can to promote a film. While at Cannes, she sat down for an interview, delving into her Trolls character. The actress even compared her character to Timberlake’s in the film.
If you aren’t excited for this movie yet, don’t worry: Anna Kendrick kept on promoting. She then traveled to San Diego Comic Con to market the film. The #professional she is, she somehow suffered posing for photos with JT!
https://instagram.com/p/BIJOorBDl1R/
Listen up, Hollywood. You tired of these apathetic stars just aiming to cash another check? Well, Kendrick’s your woman, then. Not only did she do some more traveling for further promotion, this time to London, she’s also using her own platform to highlight the film!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BK_X0xwApI3/
Headlines crossed internet streams when Kendrick (ed. note: Timberlake was there, too) failed to light up the famous London Eye. The button didn’t work. But Kendrick didn’t fret. She didn’t cause a scene. She just laughed it off!
How freakin’ adorable! Timberlake’s sure been busy, too. He pulled double duty in London, performing as part of Capital FM Up Close series. But guess who was there to show her support? That’s right! Kendrick. You just gotta be impressed with this pro.
For whatever reason, pickles are having a moment. What gives?
Much like candy corn, it’s a divisive food. One either appreciates its fermented tangy goodness, or they want to throw it in the trash. Either way, pickles are once again a thing people are talking about. Perhaps to balance out the political bitterness?
Buzzfeed thinks they’re “fucking disgusting.” Are they really? The writer goes so far as to say they ruin hamburgers. Tell that to Mic, which did their due diligence by combing through the history books and schooling us all on how pickles have basically made society better. Oh, and how they served as a gauge for the political health of one of our presidential candidates.
And then there’s The Daily Mealcalling out pickles for spiking blood pressure and, even worse, labeling them a “hipster food trend.” Trend? Pickles have been around before Christ, for Christ’s sake. That’s as much of a trend as bread.
Detroit Lions receiver Marvin Jones apparently drinks pickle juice to avoid cramps.
Basically, good or bad, pickles are here to stay so get used to them. And remember, they’re afraid of you more than you’re afraid of them.
Pickles are created by immersing fresh fruits or vegetables in an acidic liquid or saltwater brine until they are no longer considered raw or vulnerable to spoilage. When we think of pickles, cucumbers commonly come to mind. Pickled cucumbers are often lacto-fermented in saltwater brine
Brady is the patronus for anyone who’s ever just needed to give up on a long day and run a long hot bath. This self-bathing dog is a 4-month-old Golden Retriever puppy who refuses to wait for a human to run his bath for him. He’s an independent dog who don’t need no man.
Brady regularly ditches dinner parties to take a bath alone. Been there, felt like doing that. Watch him jump in the tub, check that the water’s running, splash around and then cozy up in a fluffy pink blanket before collapsing in bed. Because baths are hard.
His Instagram is full of bath time photos and videos: Woefully scratching the drain in a dry tub, playing in sprinklers late at night or during the day:
Wait… Is Brady actually trying to tell us something? Is Brady actually an environmentalist protesting his owner’s wasteful water use habits? “Why are you running a sprinkler at midnight?” Brady likely thought to himself before running outside to alert them to this wanton squandering of water during California’s never ending severe drought. “This is Los Angeles, for crying out loud!”
Damian Marley, youngest son of Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley, is getting into the marijuana business in an unusual way: By going to prison.
The younger Marley, a reggae artist of his own right, who is also known as Jr. Gong and Gongzilla, is planning to convert a former 77,000-square-foot California State prison into a grow operation.
Marley, 38, recognizes the irony of the plan. In an interview with Billboard magazine, he said:
“Many people sacrificed so much for the herb over the years who got locked up. If this (venture) helps people and it’s used for medicinal purposes and inspires people, it’s a success.”
According to the Billboard report, Marley is partnering with Ocean Grown Extracts to buy the Claremont Custody Center in Coalinga, Calif., for $4.1 million. The business plans on bringing 100 jobs and an estimated $1 million in annual tax revenues to Coalinga, a cash-strapped Central Valley town about 200 miles south of San Francisco and 200 miles north of Los Angeles.
California voters will be voting this November on Proposition 64, a measure that would legalize marijuana for adult recreational use. Polling suggests that the measure will easily pass.
For Marley, this is a dream come true.
“I didn’t know it would happen this way. This was definitely something we were working towards for a long time, before I was even born. There was Peter Tosh’s ‘Legalize It’ and songs like that — this is something our culture has been working towards. I was optimistic that it would one day be legal — and now it is here.”
This is not the first time someone has attempted to convert a prison into a marijuana business. In 2014, Nicholas Erker proposed turning a medium-security prison in Brush, Colo., into a grow operation. But the Brush City Council voted 4-3 against a proposal to drop a recreational marijuana moratorium.
