If you’re a die hard Pumpkin Spice Latte fan, you probably already know that there’s a way to get the Starbucks drink— now in its 13th year — early. The official release date is September 6, but if you go to the PSL Fan Pass website and enter your cell number, you’ll get a “pass” that allows you to drink a PSL today. (ed note: it took about 45 min. for me to receive mine via text).
If you’re not a PSL fan, you should be following the drink’s Twitter account anyway, because it’s adorable. Drinks wearing sunglasses, amiright?
You my recognize this artist, but probably never knew his name. His lastest release is changing his place in music lover’s hearts. Blood on me by Sampha, your next favorite UK artist is a hit. Consider Sampha the UK’s more obscure Frank Ocean: A soulful, sensitive crooner who released a captivating, we-need-more project, then subsequently disappeared from the spotlight save a few recent guest spots.
He’s appeared on Drake’s “Too Much,” Kanye West’s “Saint Pablo,” and had a feature on Ocean’s “Alabama” from the visual album Endless. If you’re an electronica fan and listened to a SBTRKT album, it’s Sampha’s voice you’ll hear throughout.
But now, like Ocean, Sampha has officially returned. He announced his much-anticipated debut LP Process Wednesday, a follow-up to his whimsical and confessional EP Dual. To mark his new album, Sampha released the album’s first single “Blood on Me” and it’s out via Young Turks. Though Sampha also dropped the single “Timmy’s Prayer” earlier this year, no word if it will be on the record or not.
Check out Sampha’s latest below. It doesn’t disappoint.
Sampha Lahai Sisay (born in 1988) is a British singer, songwriter, musician and record producer from Morden, South London. Sampha has collaborated with Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Frank Ocean, SBTRKT, Jessie Ware, Travis Scott, Solange and others. Sampha has released two solo EPs: Sundanza (2010) and Dual (2013). Sampha’s debut album, Process, was released on 3 February 2017 by Young and won the 2017 Mercury Prize.
You’ve gotta hand it to this guy in Minnesota. He placed a thoughtful Craigslist ad offering to hop on his bicycle and deliver State Fair food to anyone who wants to skip the concession lines and enjoy deep-fried foods the proper way: on a couch in front of the TV.
‘Tis the season of deep fried glory
Are you craving cheese curds, but just don’t want to deal with the hassle of going to the fair?
Deep fried Oreos are calling your name,
but you don’t want to rub elbows with everyone and their great uncles.
Well lucky for you, I have a solution.
I’ll be at the MN State Fair, you text me ANYTHING you want to eat from the great MN get together
and I will deliver it to you (within 5 miles) of the fair on my bicycle.
Placing orders in advance is recommended, 20% gratuity added to total.
Admission to the State Fair is $13. So, really, this is a solid deal.
Two days after the death of Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks paid tribute to his late friend and collaborator on The Tonight Show. “I expected that he would go but when it happened, it’s still tremendous,” Brooks said. “It’s a big shock. I’m still reeling from…no more Gene. I can’t call him. He was such a wonderful part of my life.”
Brooks also described his first meeting with Wilder. “I met him when my late wife Anne Bancroft was doing Mother Courage, a Bertolt Brecht play, and Gene was in it,” he said. “He was the chaplain. He came backstage, and I got to know him a little bit. The chaplain is a great part—it’s sad and funny. It’s touching, and it can be amusing. So he said, ‘Why are they always laughing at me?’ I said, ‘Look in the mirror – blame it on God.’”
Wilder and Brooks would eventually work together on three classic films, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and The Producers. “We became very good friends, and I told him about Leo Bloom in the thing I was writing called The Producers,” Brooks said. “And I said, ‘Look, I’m promising you: When we get the money, you are gonna be Leo Bloom.’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, when you get the money. You’re doing a play about two Jews who are producing a flop instead of a hit, knowing they can make more money with a flop. And the big number in it is ‘Springtime for Hitler.’ Yeah, you’re gonna get the money!”
Later, Brooks visited Wilder backstage at another play after securing funding for the film. “He was taking off his make-up in his dressing room,” he said. “I took the script, and I said, ‘Gene, we got the money. We’re gonna make the movie. You are Leo Bloom.’ And I threw it on his make-up table. And he burst into tears and held his face and cried. And then I hugged him. It was a wonderful moment.”
If that’s not enough Brooks for you, here’s a second clip in which he talks about a time he peed out of a window in Brooklyn.
Pop star and bad person Chris Brown was arrested Tuesday evening at his Los Angeles home following a surreal, hours-long standoff with police. Earlier in the day, a woman reportedly called 911 to accuse Brown of threatening her with a handgun.
Baylee Curran told the Los Angeles Times that Brown had pointed a gun at her face in his home early Tuesday. She said Brown and another man at his home became angry with her when she admired the man’s diamond necklace.
Curran said she and her friend ran outside as one of Brown’s associates gave chase and hid under a neighbor’s SUV.
Police responded to that call at 3 am. Fourteen hours later, after police executed a search warrant on the property and Brown—or someone else from his house—reportedly dropped a bag containing guns and drugs out the window, the singer finally surrendered to the LAPD.
In the hours in between the call and his arrest, Brown posted several videos to Instagram proclaiming his innocence.
“I don’t care. Y’all gonna stop playing with me like I’m the villain out here, like I’m going crazy,” he said in a since-deleted video, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “When you get the warrant or whatever you need to do, you’re going to walk right up in here and you’re going to see nothing. You idiots.”
Brown was released late Tuesday on $250,000 bond. His attorney later tweeted that the allegations were “demonstrably false.”
This, of course, isn’t the first time Brown has been accused of violent behavior. In 2009, he pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna before that year’s Grammys, and in 2014, he confessed to assaulting a man outside of a Washington D.C. hotel room.
At the age of 25, Timothy Tyler knew where he was supposed to die. He’d never been to prison, but after selling LSD and cannabis to a police informant, he was sentenced to life in prison in 1992. He was a Grateful Dead fan who participated in the same recreational activity as many other Deadheads: He smoked weed and used a lot of acid.
But Tuesday, President Barack Obama granted sentence commutations to 111 federal prisoners. This was in addition to the 214 federal inmates Obama granted commutations to earlier this month. As the White House describes them, these are “individuals who received unduly harsh sentences under outdated laws for committing largely nonviolent drug crimes.”
One of those individuals was Tyler. His family had previously petitioned the President to reconsider Tyler’s sentence, stating he had “made mistakes when he was young, but after 22 years in prison, he has more than paid his debt to society.”
A Business Insider feature profiles Tyler as young man with a troubled past, suffering from mental illness and an abusive relationship with his stepfather. But he felt “at home at the Dead shows” and followed the band all around.
The judge sentenced Tyler to life in prison because of two previous felony drug convictions, even though both had resulted in probation; the third conviction meant Tyler had violated the controversial “three-strikes law,” which required mandatory minimum sentences for repeat drug offenders. Congress passed the laws in response to the crack epidemic in the 80s, though, as the White House stated above, they are largely considered outdated and harmful today.
With his clemency, Tyler’s sentence is set to end August 30, 2018, after which he will enroll in residential drug treatment. It’s a Deadhead Redemption.
If you love the 1980s and watching nerd children bicker, here’s some fantastic news: Netflix just announced that Stranger Thingshas been renewed for a second season. The company also released a teaser clip, which previews the season’s nine episode titles in the show’s now memed-out font. Naturally, we have some questions about the second season: What will Dustin, Will, Mike, and Lucas argue about this time? Will Barb come back from the dead? Will I finally understand what’s happening? We’ll find out sometime in 2017.
Nobody said personal interaction was a strong suit of Millennials. They’re having less sex, fewer babies, and getting hitched later in life.
Nobody said personal interaction was a strong suit of Millennials. They’re having less sex, fewer babies, and getting hitched later in life. And now, it turns out, they’re avoiding face-to-face contact with restaurant employees whenever possible.
According to a recent survey (by way of Salon), this trend signals a potential shift from human employees to automated kiosks.
In the survey, nearly 31 percent of millennials said that the reason they use the drive-thru isn’t speed or convenience, but because doing so requires the least amount of actual human interaction.
That’s good news if you’re in the robot business, bad news if you’re a fast-food employee.
Says Andy Puzder, CEO of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.:
I’ve been inside restaurants where we’ve installed ordering kiosks … and I’ve actually seen young people waiting in line to use the kiosk where there’s a person standing behind the counter, waiting on nobody.
If that sobering comment leaves you feeling a little disappointed with the human race, there are still some people who like a personal touch. The same survey found that 59 percent of those polled appreciated the attendant asking about their day. You know, if that attendant isn’t a Millennial.
What doesn’t Pharrell Williams have his hand in these days? From being a judge on NBC’s The Voice, his Beats One OTHERtone Radio Show, producing films like Dope, and his main gig, creating music, Pharrell is the premiere example of today’s multi-hyphenate stars. And that’s not even mentioning his shoe and fashion lines!
Now, Pharrell is adding chef to that already epic list, with a grocery product line called “Williams Family Kitchen” in a partnership with upscale grocer Dean & DeLuca. The line will feature authentic recipes from the Williams family, notably Pharrell’s father. However, the recipes were tweaked by Pharrell, who substituted healthier ingredients from the original.
“Our father son agreement was that he would make food with healthier ingredients that were a better choice for his lifestyle and would essentially help add years to his life,” Pharrell said in a press release. “The kitchen is where everyone hangs out to talk and eat, hence the name.”
The collaboration was unveiled Monday at Dean & DeLuca’s Bangkok location. Pharrell and his father Pharaoh were also in attendance.
The woman who horrified New Yorkers — and freaked out just about everyone else — last Wednesday when she dumped 600 crickets and worms into a crowded subway car and then peed all over the floor has been arrested.
Just hours after the incident went viral Friday, the woman, Zaida Pugh, 21, admitted it’d all been an act to raise awareness about homelessness and mental health. NYPD officials later said she might be arrested for the stunt, which delayed the D train for about 30 minutes.
On Monday afternoon, police arrested Pugh and reportedly charged her with reckless endangerment, obstructing governmental administration, false reporting an incident, and disorderly conduct
“Zaida Pugh will be arrested for reckless endangerment for what she did on the train,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said at a press conference, according to DNA Info. “She put people at risk. [They] could have had heart attacks, people could have had all kinds of issues. [They could be] emotionally scarred from that.”
Earlier Monday, Pugh released an impassioned Facebook Live video in which she apologized and said she’s received death threats.
“There are people that really hate me…probably want me dead. I don’t want that. That’s not the type of attention I wanted,” she said. “I just really had a dream and I wanted it to go far. I wanted to spread messages out there, and I didn’t want it to happen like this.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen to me,” she added.
