Val Kilmer did his second Reddit AMA of the year yesterday, and it seems like this guy loves being in touch with the people. In addition to giving long, thoughtful anecdotes about movies he’s worked on (like the time Tony Scott put his life on the line for a great shot in Top Gun, or how Kurt Russell basically took over directing duties on Tombstone) he also shared details on how he beat back cancer. (The initial disclosure that he had cancer came last month, in his first AMA.) According to Kilmer, who is a Christian Scientist, he was healed through the power of love and prayer. “Many many people have been healed by prayer throughout recorded history. And many many people have died by whatever was modern medicine,” he explained. “It didn’t matter in Jesus’ day whether the patient believed. It doesn’t matter today. Love doesn’t care about our tiny human thoughts. That’s how I understand it anyway. I’ve probably tried to convince people when I was younger. I try to mind my own business now that I’m older. I also hope I never turn down Love again.” The actor also said in his AMA that he’d love to do both a Doc Holliday prequel and a Top Gun sequel, so hopefully the unstoppable power of love will get those projects off the ground.
County singer Toby Keith may have made a name for himself with songs like "Beer For My Horses," "Whiskey Girl," "Red Solo Cup," and "I Love This Bar," but this weekend he will be performing in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, where alcohol is prohibited, in a concert that coincides with President Trump's visit.
The show, on Saturday, is free but open to men only. In addition to Keith, it will feature "an Arabian lute player," The Associated Press reports.
A Trump speech on Islam followed by Rabeh Saqer and freaking Toby Keith. Let's pray they televise this entire disaster. pic.twitter.com/vzwirGuVqA
A professed love of beer and whiskey aside, Keith is a curious choice of performer for the conservative Muslim country as he's also written tracks like "The Taliban Song," featuring lyrics such as "I ain't seen my wife's face since they came here/They make her wear a scarf over her head that covers her from ear to ear."
Keith's concert will likely follow President Trump's speech on the topic of Islam, which is "intended to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilization and to demonstrate America's commitment to our Muslim partners."
Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson would beat President Donald Trump in the 2020 election if the vote took place today, a new poll released on Tuesday has found.
While Public Policy Polling found that Trump would not fare well against many Democratic lawmakers in hypothetical matchups, voters polled seemed to indicate he would also lose Johnson, another celebrity with zero prior political experience.
The polling organization found that Johnson would beat trump 42 percent to 37 percent in a hypothetical presidential election. Public Policy Polling said Johnson would pull in 15 percent of people who supported Trump in November.
It appears Johnson, an actor and former professional wrestler, has broad support from both sides of the isle, Public Policy Polling found: Both Democrats and Republicans see him positively—a stark contrast to the latest approval numbers for Trump, which shows 54 percent of voters disapproving of his job so far as president.
There was no word on whether Johnson would use the slogan “Make America Furious Again.”
Johnson said recently that running for president in 2020 is “a real possibility.”
As for other possible 2020 opponents, Trump doesn’t fare well against them either, according to the poll.
Trump would lose to former Vice President Joe Biden (54 percent to 40 percent), independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (52 percent to 39 percent), Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (49 percent to 39 percent), Democrat Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota (46 percent to 38 percent) and New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (46 percent to 39 percent), Public Policy Polling found.
The organization also found that Republicans are facing backlash over the House’s recently passed bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and Democratic voters continue to be more excited than Republicans about voting in the 2018 midterm elections.
Public Policy Polling surveyed 692 voters between May 12 and May 14 over the phone and on the internet, they said. The margins of error for the polls are +/- 3.7 percent.
Of course, the internet had some feelings about the idea of a Johnson presidency.
President Dwayne @TheRock Johnson, ready for you to save the world in 2020
Okilly Dokilly, the world’s first and only “Nedal” band, stopped by The A.V. Club offices in the midst of their tour to treat us to a live performance. In the clip above, Okilly Dokilly performs “They Warned Me,” a track from their 2016 album, Howdilly Doodilly.
Okilly Dokilly is on tour now. Dates are listed here.
California’s largest lake, the Salton Sea, is an accident. It was created in 1905 when a levee broke on an irrigation canal, flooding a giant desert playa. Today it has become a sticking point in negotiations between three states over the future of the Colorado River.
The Salton Sea now is a major stopover for birds on the Pacific Flyway. A total of 424 bird species have been observed on the Salton Sea so far.
The three states – California, Arizona and Nevada – are in the midst of negotiating a drought contingency plan (DCP). It would commit each state to reducing diversions from the Colorado River in order to prevent Lake Mead from shrinking to disastrously low levels.
California is relying on Imperial Irrigation District to make a significant contribution, because it is the largest single diverter of Colorado River water. But if the district reduces its diversions, that will mean less farm runoff draining into the Salton Sea. This means the sea will shrink, causing a cascade of ecological problems for which the district is partly liable.
To help us understand all this, Water Deeply recently spoke with Michael Cohen, a senior research associate at the Pacific Institute, a water policy think-tank based in Oakland. Cohen specializes in Salton Sea and Colorado River issues.
Michael Cohen of the Pacific Institute studies the Salton Sea and its implications for water management in the Colorado River system. (Michael Cohen)
Water Deeply: Why is the drought contingency plan (DCP) important?
Michael Cohen: The DCP is important because, essentially, the Colorado River is over-allocated. Particularly in the lower basin, they have what’s called a structural deficit: In normal years, 1.2 million acre-feet [1.5 billion cubic meters] more water flows out of Lake Mead than flows in. So Lake Mead drops by roughly 12ft [3.6m] per year.
Given that trajectory, it pretty quickly reaches dead pool, meaning there’s no water left in Mead, which then means no water for Southern California and the Central Arizona Project, and 90 percent of the Las Vegas metro area’s water supply dries up. So you’re talking about 30 million people who depend on Lake Mead. Not to mention 1 million acres [400,000 hectares] of irrigated land. And it’s a major hydropower producer.
Lake Mead is pretty critical to the Southwest generally. They’re trying with the DCP to avert this structural deficit and reduce the amount of water we’re taking out of Mead, to get it closer into balance with actual supply.
Water Deeply: How is the Salton Sea connected to these negotiations?
Cohen: The DCP is connected to the Salton Sea because the plan expects that Imperial Irrigation District (IID) would take less water from the Colorado River. When Lake Mead drops to elevation 1,045, California is expected to reduce its take from the Colorado River, for the first time, by 200,000 acre-feet [250 million cubic meters]. In the most recent DCP terms I saw, Imperial Irrigation District would provide 60 percent of that reduction, so IID would reduce its take of the river by 120,000 acre-feet [150 million cubic meters].
Water Deeply: Can the DCP proceed without Imperial Irrigation District?
Cohen: In theory it could, because the other California parties, the largest being Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, could say they’ll step up and meet California’s obligations. But in practice, Met is less likely to forego that amount of water.
IID has certainly stated they need some assurances on the Salton Sea before they move forward on the DCP. They’re a key player. Without IID, California can’t meet its DCP obligations. A 200,000–350,000 acre-foot [250–430 million cubic meters] reduction is counting on IID participation.
Water Deeply: What effect does this have on the Salton Sea?
A map shows the location of the Salton Sea and the Colorado River Basin. (Central Basin Water District)
Cohen: Somewhere in the order of 85 percent of the water flowing to the Salton Sea comes from the Imperial Valley. Essentially, it’s surface water and tile drainage from farm fields. As IID takes less water from the Colorado River, that means less water flows to the Salton Sea. Because the Salton Sea is a terminal lake, when less water flows in, the Salton Sea shrinks.
So the concern is that, because of the DCP, the Salton Sea would be smaller than it would be otherwise. As the sea shrinks, some of that land is exposed, and dust blows off that land.
Under existing regulations of the local air district, the landowner is responsible for dust that’s emitted off lands in the Imperial Valley. IID is a major landowner, particularly at the southern end of the Salton Sea, and IID is liable for a lot of the dust getting blown off the Salton Sea. So as the sea shrinks, it represents a direct cost to IID. That’s the crux of it.
Under the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) of 2003 (a water transfer from IID to San Diego), there was an agreement that said as the Salton Sea shrinks, essentially the state of California backstops liability or mitigation requirements.
The QSA parties – Imperial Irrigation District, San Diego County Water Authority and Coachella Valley Water District – have met their responsibility to pay into a mitigation fund. But they capped it because they didn’t know what the total cost would be, although they knew it would be huge. So the state of California said, “We will assume liability for costs that exceed the costs these parties agreed to.”
IID has put the state on notice that it hasn’t lived up to its part of the deal, which is to put together a mitigation plan to deal with the Salton Sea as it shrinks. And now there are negotiations over the DCP, which is essentially going to exacerbate the situation.
Water Deeply: Has there been any progress on that state’s mitigation plan?
Cohen: The state came out [in March] with what they’re calling a “draft 10-year plan for the Salton Sea.” The QSA allowed 15 years to come up with a plan, and it said in the interim we’re going to require IID to deliver mitigation water to offset the impacts of the transfer to San Diego.
But this is the 15th year. So at the end of this year, that requirement goes away. And next year, the Salton Sea is going to start dropping very rapidly because it will no longer get that mitigation water from IID. All of a sudden, it’s going to receive 10–15 percent less water. So, essentially, it’s going over a cliff. IID is seeing this and saying, “Hold on, we need to deal with this problem before we move on to the DCP.”
The state really needed to do this plan five-plus years ago so these projects were being implemented now.
Water Deeply: Why is it a problem if the Salton Sea shrinks?
Cohen: There are two main challenges. One is that it exposes lakebed, which creates dust, and that’s a major public health threat. The Imperial and Coachella valleys already fail to meet air-quality requirements, and asthma rates are already higher than the state average. So, your baseline is an already-bad air-quality situation, which is going to be exacerbated as the Salton Sea shrinks and more dust blows off that lakebed.
The next concern is that as the Salton Sea shrinks, it gets much saltier and other water-quality parameters also decline. Which means that, first, the fish die off. That’s already started to happen. Then a lot of the food sources for the birds die off.
The Salton Sea now is a major stopover for birds on the Pacific Flyway. A total of 424 bird species have been observed on the Salton Sea so far. And of course, in California there are far fewer wetlands than there were historically. We’ve dried up 90–95 percent of the wetlands in California. So these migratory birds have far fewer places to rest and refuel. The Salton Sea has filled that niche. As water quality continues to degrade, it’s no longer going to be able to provide that function.
Water Deeply: Will the state’s 10-year plan satisfy IID?
Cohen: I think that remains to be seen. IID was not satisfied with the draft they saw last December. But my hope is that California takes those concerns into consideration and redrafts the plan to meet those concerns.
Water Deeply: What are the restoration costs at the Salton Sea?
Cohen: We don’t know what the total cost is because it depends how much is dedicated to water quality versus air quality and how they allocate those costs. Odds are, we’re looking at $1 billion-plus.
But one of the benefits of the Salton Sea is we don’t need to pay for everything at once. Those projects can be phased in over time so you can pay for them over time. You can just build them as the sea recedes and you get benefits as you go.
I’m hopeful that the pieces are starting to line up and we can start to see some progress. I think the governor is paying attention to this, the legislature is paying more attention. It’s a little late, but I think there’s still an opportunity to make a real difference.
In some respects, dramatic change is inevitable at the Salton Sea. Essentially, what we’re going to shift from is a Salton Sea people recognize now to a very different, very managed system. But this managed system can still provide a lot of benefits. It could still be a very functional ecosystem.
This article originally appeared on Water Deeply, and you can find it here. For important news about the California drought, you can sign up to the Water Deeply email list.
Who is Chuck Johnson? Consider yourself lucky not to know. Image via Youtube/Chuck Johson.
If you are lucky enough not to know who Charles C. Johnson, also known as Chuck Johnson is, here’s a quick primer: Johnson is a far right blogger who was permanently banned from Twitter in 2015 for a tweet that was perceived as a threat against civil rights activist DeRay McKesson. His site, GotNews, is known for stories that make wild, often provably false allegations. Johnson has claimed that both President Obama and Emmanuel Macron are gay, wrongly identified the woman he thought was “Jackie” of the UVA scandal, and has, overall, demonstrated what Forbes called a “disregard for facts.” Gawker once called him “the web’s worst journalist.” (Johnson sued Jezebel’s former parent company Gawker Media over two stories written about him; Univision deleted several posts, including one about Johnson, after it purchased Gawker Media.)
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He also appears to be in a position to influence the president of the United States, in one crucial way. A piece in Politico on Monday alleges that Donald Trump’s staff routinely pass him news articles—including the occasional fake one— to promote their own agendas or gain a competitive advantage over their enemies in the administration. Among the incidents Politico describes was one in which a clip from GotNews, blaming deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh for leaking to the press, set Trump to “asking staff about Walsh,” leading to internal investigations and counter-investigations. Walsh has since left the White House.
Who in the Trump White House is reading and promoting Johnson, and why? Politico characterizes the GotNews distribution to Trump as a “mischievous” act, but Johnson’s ability to reach the Oval Office is a troubling development. Johnson has long positioned himself in a grey zone of “ironic” alt-right racism, where his penchant for deliberately provoking liberal sensitivities serves as cover for some of his more explicitly bigoted pronouncements. Lately, however, off-color jokes have given way to unambiguous, explicit white supremacy: His company, for instance, is currently hosting an online fundraiser for the Daily Stormer, an old-fashioned neo-Nazi hate site.
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Johnson claims a close relationship with the White House, and he was an avid supporter of the Trump campaign. Forbes reported in January that he was working with the administration’s transition team, although the level of his involvement and influence has never been clear. Johnson has been vague on the subject, and he is, anyway, what we might call an unreliable narrator. He was, as Forbes noted, spotted standing in the VIP section at Trump’s election night party, and he has claimed on Facebook to know White House advisor Steve Bannon.
All of which makes Chuck Johnson’s ideas about race and his evident relationships with white supremacists a matter of public concern. Johnson’s language around race isn’t subtle: On GotNews, he’s referred to an alleged mob of Hispanic men protesting a Trump rally as “savages,” has repeatedly referred to Black Live Matter supporters as “thugs” and posted numerous stories alleging criminal acts by people he claims were affiliated with BLM. He’s also appeared on a podcast hosted by The Right Stuff, a proudly and profoundly anti-Semitic show hosted by white nationalist Mike Enoch.
On his personal Facebook page, Johnson recently shared a story speculating that black people have a “violence gene.”
Johnson does not, however, consider himself a white separatist, which we know because he’s made it clear that he is married to an Asian woman. He noted that when their daughter was born, he claimed that “white nationalist” friends were excited about it.
Besides GotNews, Johnson also runs a site called WeSearchr, which allows anyone to propose a question and crowd-fund a “bounty” to get it answered. (In WeSearchr’s early days, several proposed bounties had to do with Gawker: One offered money to expose alleged “criminal acts” by former CEO Nick Denton, while others wanted to expose plagiarism at Gawker sites or bring humiliating personal information about Gawker Media employees to light. Nothing ever came of those bounties, apparently, and no stories have been published based on them.)
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WeSearchr is also currently hosting three legal defense funds: one for Kyle Chapman, accused of assaulting people with a stick at a protest in Berkeley, one for John Rivello, accused of purposely giving journalist Kurt Eichenwald a seizure with a GIF on Twitter, and one for the Daily Stormer, a neo Nazi website currently being sued by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Daily Stormer is run by Andrew Anglin, a self-described neo Nazi and internet troll from Ohio who launched a “troll storm” this winter against Tanya Gersh, a Montana real estate agent who is Jewish. Anglin claimed that Gersh was trying to make the mother of white nationalist Richard Spencer sell her property in Whitefish, Montana and encouraged his followers to contact her, her husband, their young son, and a local human rights group. The lawsuit accuses Anglin of unleashing a “terror campaign” against the Gershes. From the L.A. Times:
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Gersh, her husband and 12-year-old son received a barrage of more than 700 “threatening” anti-Semitic and homophobic emails, phone calls, texts, social media comments, letters, postcards and Christmas cards, the lawsuit alleges.
“I once answered the phone and all I heard were gunshots,” Gersh told reporters Tuesday in a telephone news conference.
“Thanks for demonstrating why your race needs to be collectively ovened,” one email read.
The WeSearchr legal defense fund for Anglin wasn’t launched by Johnson, but it is hosted on his site. And the Daily Stormer has linked to GotNews articles for years.
We don’t know who at the White House is promoting all this, but we do know that “news” written by a man with demonstrably racist ideas and ties to white supremacists is making its way to the president.
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When contacted for comment, Johnson responded via email:
There are no reporters at Gizmodo Media Group, only serial harassers who fabricate stories for attention.
I’m currently in a lawsuit with what remains of Gawker. The case looks promising and I’m looking forward to rolling some of the funds over to finish the job.
Please direct all future correspondence to my attorneys.
We also contacted Anglin and WeSearcher CTO Pax Dickinson for comment, and will update if we hear back. If you know more about the Trump administration’s relationship to Johnson or GotNews, please get in touch.
Theo Martins debuts Cereal and Such behind streetwear store Virgil Normal
Musician Theo Martins has opened Cereal and Such,a tiny cereal bar in a nine by seven foot revamped shed in the back patio area of a streetwear store called Virgil Normal. The nook debuted on May 5 in Virgil Village, down the street from breakfast mecca SQIRL.
Hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, Martins, a first generation Nigerian, moved to Los Angeles five years ago to be closer to the art world. While he dabbles in many creative pursuits, he says the common thread is good taste at an accessible price (just $4 a bowl). Cereal and Such is his latest project.
“Cereal and Such is very much an homage to Japan...focus on one thing and do it extremely well”
While choosing a streetwear shop to house a cereal bar sounds totally off the wall, it made sense for Theo and Charlie Staunton, who co-owns Virgil Normal alongside stylist Shirley Kurata.
Staunton explains: “Theo was here for our opening night [two years ago] and he stood out…we like having personal relationships with the people we promote and sell. It makes it more of a community, and community is a big part of what we’re doing here. We like Theo. He’s our friend. Why not have fun and have an adventure with him?”
Virgil Normal, located in the old Choke moped shop at the intersection of Virgil and Normal Avenues, houses not only Cereal and Such, but also an eclectic mix of streetwear and home goods made by creatives they call friends, regularly hosting pop up shops.
Theo Martins has previously used the back patio space for his clothing pop ups, and artists have used the shed to assist in other creative endeavors. This past fall, a musician named Alexander Spit turned the shed into a studio and produced, wrote, and recorded a ten track EP called Alive At Virgil Normal, which he created in only ten consecutive hours. Theo was featured on the project and knew that come spring, the space would transform into his simple yet eclectic cereal bar.
“Cereal and Such is very much an homage to Japan. We want to focus on one thing and do it extremely well,” explained Theo when asked about the bar’s simple menu.
The cereal selection currently includes: Cocoa Puffs, Frosted Flakes, Apple Jacks, Honey Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Cap’n Crunch Berries, but the options will always be changing. Milk selections include 2% standard cows milk and non-dairy options including almond and coconut. They’re also testing macadamia nut and flaxseed milks. The food menu will expand come summer, and rumor has it they may add ice cream.
The “Such” portion of the menu is comprised of coffee, tea, and non-food items like T-shirts and tote bags designed by Theo, and mugs and bowls created in collaboration with Kenesha Sneed of Tactile Matter, a Los Angeles based stoneware ceramics company.
Cereal and Such also has a monthly podcast comprised of creatives talking about culture, music, and their passions over a bowl of cereal…and such. The first episode featured Martins, writer Micah Peters, music executive Modi Oyewole, and designer Anwar Carrots and was mixed by DJ Free.
Late in the afternoon on a Saturday, just before Cereal and Such closed for the evening, a group of friends showed up and introduced themselves to Theo, who warmly welcomed them. “We came because we heard the Cereal and Such podcast,” explained one of them. “Yeah, I don’t even like cereal, but I had to come and check it out for the culture” declared a stylish woman, right before she helped herself to another spoonful of her crunch berries doused in almond milk.
Guests of the bar are encouraged to eat cereal, sip from their warm drinks, and enjoy the laid back atmosphere at Virgil Normal. Bring a book, choose from one of their board games to play with other cereal aficionados, sit alone and stare at the intricate murals outside, or bring your laptop and set up shop. They’ll have WiFi starting in June.
Free, Theo’s creative counterpart, will be running the cereal bar on weekdays and Theo will be working weekends. The duo are both DJs, so you can expect some great new music to be flowing through the aux cord into the patio.
Follow Cereal and Such on Instagram. They’re open Tuesday through Sunday from 11am to 6pm, perfect for a late breakfast or afternoon snack.
Cereal and Such at Virgil Normal 4157 Normal Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029
The documentary about GLOW on Netflix is pretty great.
Alison Brie and Marc Maron star in this show about a group of struggling actresses who band together for a wild, all-female wrestling league. [ more › ]
When you have a show that’s run nearly 30 seasons, especially one that’s as imaginative as The Simpsons, you’re going to end up “predicting” a few things about the future. Everything from Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl appearance to a Donald Trump presidency appeared as gags on the show before becoming a reality. Even a spooky three-eyed fish appeared in Brooklyn, New York, 25 years after Bart hooked one near the Springfield nuclear power plant.
Now there’s an entire Twitter account devoted to movies and TV shows predicted by The Simpsons. Sure it might be stretching things a bit—or, well, a lot—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to look at.
8 cats and dogs that totally got in on the Kentucky Derby hat game
Are you ready for your daily dose of cuteness?! Turns out humans aren’t the only ones into the Kentucky Derby fashion. From the looks of it, cats and dogs are just as interested in the Derby hat game as their human counterparts. And lucky for us, there is photographic proof on the internet.
Usually, pets don’t get to really dress up unless it is Halloween. And when that holiday rolls around, pet owners go completely bonkers! Prime example being this incredibly cute bee costume one cat-owner documented online.
Though some have a great time with adorable outfits for their furry friends throughout the year – no excuse needed.
But if you are looking for an excuse to let your four-legged friend get fancy, the Kentucky Derby is the perfect chance. And these pet owners certainly knew how to their their animal’s hat game to the next level.
Looks like the singer is being impersonated by a very good looking kitty. And the flower crown is exactly the type of thing that will get her into Coachella next year.
The aesthetics of the cauliflower-crusted pizzas are very, very on point already
In this age of lightsaber churros and ice cream museums, it seems you can never have enough color in your food. Perhaps that’s why unknown newcomer Skinny B*tch Pizza is heartily embracing the hot pink aesthetic with their new delivery-only shop on Washington Boulevard, south of Koreatown. The greater Harvard Heights neighborhood doesn’t first come to mind as a destination for healthy-eating, cauliflower-crust pizzas, but there it is.
Skinny B*tch seems to have only just opened yesterday, keeping quiet evening delivery hours so far. Their website lists timing from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday, but considering they’re brand new expect some flexibility. Your options for trying the place during business hours is with delivery, whether it’s UberEats, Doordash, Postmates, or GrubHub.
As for the menu, Skinny B*tch plays into its name pretty heavy by only offering $24 - $27 gluten-free cauliflower crust pies. The pepperoni is also made out of turkey, and each option comes with names like The Jessica or The Emily. Fiji Water, kombucha, and Diet Coke are extra, of course, but the bright pink box with the kiss of red lipstick is free.
Eater reached out for more information on the team behind Skinny B*tch, but so far hasn’t heard back. Regardless, it looks like you can place your very own order tonight for some gluten-free cauliflower $27 pizzas — just make sure you’re in the colorful company’s delivery zone.
Basically every guy at the Kentucky Derby wore this flashy suit, and here’s where to get it
Yay yay yay, the Kentucky Derby is here! And you know what THAT means. Right, horses and mint juleps, but also FASHION! Normally we’re here freaking out about hats. (And it’s like our once a year chance to celebrate outrageous headwear without people side-eyeing us, so just GIVE US THIS, okay?) But today we are all about the Derby SUITS.
Specifically, the powder blue tulip suits that were on glorious display at the Kentucky Derby.
This suit is a pastel blue vision, which is why were are REALLY nervous about this tulip-suited guy carrying a beer AND a chocolate ice cream cone. Be careful, you oh-so-fashionable man!
We haven’t even talked about the matching tie, yet. You guys, THE MATCHING TIE!!!
So where does one get ones hands on this suit of such great beauty? It must be, like, a fancy pants designer who makes this and the suit must set you back like a bajillion and a half dollars, right? RIGHT?
FYI the Kohl’s Men’s OppoSuits Slim-Fit Novelty Pattern Suit and Tie Collection also comes in a poker chips and playing cards pattern, camouflage, dollar bills, red white and blue stars and stripes, and a palm trees and ocean view pattern.
A quick glance around the website turned up no results for Ladies’ Novelty Suits. Kohl’s! DUDES! Get on it! Tulip suits for everyone!
This Pikachu deflated while dancing to “Hairspray,” and it’s as entertaining as it sounds
If what your weekend needs right now is a video of a bunch of Pikachus dancing in perfectly Pikachu form, we’ve got you. It’s as entertaining as it sounds, and gets hilariously more entertaining when one Pikachu in the front starts deflating in the middle of a Hairspray song… and we cannot stop laughing.
The other Pikachus seemingly watch in horror before attempting to continue their dance routine while their pal is rushed off the stage… by no shortage of four panicked staff members. He was quickly grabbed and removed from the stage, and the other Pikas carried on.
Ever so resilient, though, the deflated Pikachu did attempt to make a triumphant comeback, but was quickly ushered off the stage again, just at the end of the song. A truly sad ending to an adorable fail, indeed.
Of course, Twitter understandably went wild upon seeing this video, because nothing brings people together more than a deflating Pokémon.
1. The fact that it's the lead Pikachu 2. THE FACT THAT PIKACHUS ARE STEPPING 3. The removal 4. The way they keep going https://t.co/D3CtMZ3zxo
Steven Seagal can now add Ukraine to the list of places he’s been banned from, right next to “That Blockbuster where the clerk wouldn’t stop calling Executive Decision ‘a Kurt Russell flick.’” Per The Guardian, the country issued a five-year ban on entry to the actor this week, accusing him of committing “socially dangerous” actions that might damage the country’s security.
Those actions presumably have less to do with breaking boards and setting new standards for bad efforts in film-making, though, and more to do with Seagal’s friendship with Vladimir Putin and the Russian government. Russia and Ukraine have a long, complicated, and largely ugly history, one exacerbated in recent years by Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, and support of rebels revolting against the Ukrainian government. (Bizarrely, Seagal was involved there, too, bringing his blues-rock band to play for pro-Russian separatists.)
The members of Metallica tribute act Blistered Earth have a new reason to love their heavy-metal heroes. After the Washington-based cover band played a gig in Portland, Oregon, last month, their van was broken into and $20,000 worth of gear — their guitars, amps, and drums — was stolen. Blistered Earth wrote about the theft on Facebook and were stunned when Metallica's management got in touch to say that the metal legends wanted to pay for all the missing gear to be replaced. "It's pretty awesome that they would do that," says Blistered Earth drummer Shawn Murphy.
At this point the income does not exceed the expenses for this reality couple with multiple shows. Yes, even if you include her return to an old one. At their current rate of spend, they will be out of money within two years. They literally save nothing and have no backup plan if reality life ends. This will be a huge crash and burn.
This California-based director and father just created Mad Max: Fury Road vehicles for his kids and they look totally insane.
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Inspired by Mad Max, obviously, father Ian Pfaff started off with the classic Little Tykes Cozy Coupes. He then used anything he could find, from old computer junk to an espresso machine, and used them to spice up the basic kid cars. The result? Two completely badass-looking Mad Max: Fury Road vehicles that look like they’re straight from the movie! And we must say, Ian’s kids look pretty hardcore behind the wheel.
Technically it’s known as chroma key compositing, and without it, the action movies we love couldn’t come to life. Check out this before and after video to see what we’re talking about.
The same basic technology is available in your home for a reasonable cost, and anyone can figure out how to use it. There’s even a bunch of YouTube tutorials full of helpful tips for getting started. But if you’re going to pick just one, and you speak Russian, this woman’s videos come with the highest possible recommendation.
Her name is Tatiana Subbotina and people in Russia are loving her. Several of her videos have over 100,000 views. This underwater episode is especially popular.
In fact, she gained so much notoriety she landed herself a spot on a late night Russian talk show called Vecherniy Urgant.
She told BuzzFeed that she even sewed together her own green screen suit.
“I decided that I too could talk about this [editing videos],” she said. “So I started making stories on my YouTube channel about how I work with it. I didn’t invent anything there, but I try to explain it as simply as possible. It’s very exciting and I like it.”
Here’s 3-ingredient pineapple soft serve, so you can have Disney level Dole Whip anytime
If you’re a fan of Dole Whip (the creamy pineapple soft serve that has amassed a cult-following amongst Disney World-goers), you’ll quickly fall in love with this creamy treat. It tastes just like soft-serve, but it’s delightfully dairy-free: all you need is frozen pineapple, a frozen banana, and coconut milk. You can whip it up in either a food processor or a blender—just be sure to help it along by scraping down the sides of the machine as you go. With its incredibly smooth texture and refreshing fruity flavor, it’s sure to become your go-to summer dessert.
Combine pineapple, banana, and coconut milk in a food processor or blender and pulse, scraping down sides with a rubber spatula, until smooth. Scoop into cups; garnish with a pineapple wedge.
Olivia de Havilland, the only major movie star featured in FX’s Feudwho is still alive, does not watch the TV show, nor does she intend to watch it, nor is she interested in talking much about it. The 100-year-old actress, who is played by Catherine Zeta-Jones in the show, respondedto The Hollywood Reporter’s attempts to get her to comment on the series, the larger feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, and the 1963 Oscars ceremony at the heart of the series with an email that can only be described as gorgeously dismissive:
“I have received your email with its two questions,” De Havilland replied. “I would like to reply first to the second of these, which inquires of me the accuracy of a current television series entitled Feud, which concerns Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and their supposed animosity toward each other. Having not seen the show, I cannot make a valid comment about it. However, in principle, I am opposed to any representation of personages who are no longer alive to judge the accuracy of any incident depicted as involving themselves.”
De Havilland added, “As to the 1963 Oscar ceremony, which took place over half a century ago, I regret to say that I have no memory of it whatsoever and therefore cannot vouch for its accuracy.”
The term “inspiration porn” was coined by disability activist Stella Young. Aimed at able-bodied viewers, inspiration porn features people with disabilities who appear happy or are doing things, alongside an encouraging message. She explains:
Inspiration porn is an image of a person with a disability, often a kid, doing something completely ordinary — like playing, or talking, or running, or drawing a picture, or hitting a tennis ball — carrying a caption like “your excuse is invalid” or “before you quit, try.”
Or, the famous one: “The only disability is a bad attitude.”
She called it porn quite deliberately, arguing that inspiration porn is like sexual porn in that the images “objectify one group of people for the benefit of another group of people.”
And, as with sexual porn, it sometimes involves animals.
At Disability Intersections, Anna Hamilton suggests that inspiration porn involving animals is another step removed from recognizing the full humanity of people with disabilities. These “inspiring” stories, she argues, “provide a way for nondisabled people to talk about and engage with disability in a facile way.”
Disability isn’t just othered; it’s cute, adorable, fuzzy.
Hamilton continues:
If one is constantly gawking and aww-ing over pictures and stories about animals with disabilities, then they don’t have to spend time thinking about actual disabled people, or the ableism against disabled humans that still exists.
When featuring animals, accommodation is no longer the least a society can do: a basic acknowledgement that human beings in all forms deserve access to their societies. Instead, it’s over-the-top, idiosyncratic and rare, even excessive in its generosity. To find inspiration in a turtle who has been fitted with a tiny skateboard, for example, is to frame accommodation as something one does out of the goodness of one’s heart, not a human and civil right.
Inspiration porn others and objectifies people with disabilities. When featuring animals, it dehumanizes them, too.
Still can't believe she's married to this guy who tried to convince me it didn't count as cheating if he just shotgunned weed into my mouth.
I always expect Super Bowl Sunday to be an unofficial family holiday – not because my family loves football, but because we all work in advertising. This started with my dad, who was the art director behind Apple’s 1984 spot, the footnote to all Super Bowl commercial references. Our teams are our production companies, jockeying to get an ad on game day. I’ve never been so lucky, but my Aunt Tina, an art director, had one this year (Honda), and I think my cousin Rachel did too. So, if you can imagine, it’s the time between plays that matters most to my family, rather than the touchdowns (we sort of care about those too).
But beyond that, Super Bowl food is my family’s favorite food. We’re a second generation LA family, so tacos and nachos run deep with us. But this year the menu got a little update.
I’ll get to the rest of the menu in a minute, but I’m going to skip ahead to that last item. That’s right! Craig and my baby’s gender reveal fell on Super Bowl Sunday.
This was not the original plan.
A few weeks before I went into my doctor’s office to get all of my screening tests done. I wasn’t too nervous, since I’m pretty young and come from super strong Euro-mutt DNA, but getting blood drawn is always a chore. I’m not very squeamish (my family jokes I should’ve been a combat nurse or aestetician), but my arms immediately reveal exaggerated track marks. Bruises, red lines, the works. No tank tops for me this week! Not that that was an option anyway, as I still haven’t popped and just feel generally chubby. This isn’t some moment of vanity either. I stepped on the scale and found out I gained twice what I was supposed to in the first trimester.
Twice.
Apparently using my pregnancy as a smoke screen for my love of carbs was not the best idea. My doctor generously offers that I might plateau in my second trimester like she did. I’m incredulous.
My mom and I had planned on having a dinner with the soon-to-be grandparents the next week, when the results come in. I started out hoping for a boy, but then figured I jinxed myself and I was having a girl, but then I started fantasizing about having a little girl, and I basically twisted my psyche into a gordian knot of mom stress. My dad consistently whispered in my ear, “It’s a boy. I know it.”
But then I get a call from my doctor’s office – the lab shattered my blood test. Not only did I have to come back in for another blood drawing, but the results would be pushed back a week. Travel plans for my in laws had to be changed, and I started to stress that we wouldn’t have a gender reveal at all, since my parents were leaving for Australia, my mum’s homeland, on Superbowl Sunday eve.
I have a way of being annoyingly persistent, so I channeled every drop of Type A energy I had in my pudgy body and went to get my blood drawn. After badgering the nurse and waiting for a bit, I spoke to my doctor and begged her to have a word with the lab. I didn’t need the test expedited, it just couldn’t be delayed. She promised to talk to them and I breathed a little easier.
It’s funny, I’m not big on fuss for myself – Craig and I didn’t have an engagement party, we don’t have wedding photos on our walls, I tend to be drawn to low key, intimate events with family rather than boisterous parties with a bunch of friends. So the gender reveal, even though it was initially going to be a small dinner, was unexpected for me. But my mom and I got chatting, and I’ll show up for practically anything with cake, so it sounded like it could be fun.
Once the date moved to Super Bowl Sunday, it seemed like a better fit for a casual family afternoon. So we invited the whole gang and went to our local farmer’s market in the morning to buy out “the salsa ladies” as we call them.
The salsa ladies have the best homemade salsa and chips I’ve ever had, and I’m truly obsessed with them. This time we got their spicy avocado salsa verde, roasted chili tomatillo salsa, a tomato and onion salsa (more of a puree than a pico de gallo), a mild mango pineapple salsa, and, my favorite, their creamy chipotle crab salsa. I had big nacho plans for that crab salsa.
The rest of the menu came together pretty easily. Craig loves making chili (it’s a DePriester family tradition) and added plenty of the mole we brought back from our last trip to Mexico City. Tina’s rice is probably the best rice ever, and Henry whipped up our family’s recipe for guac, which we eat by the truckload.
When it came time to slice into the cake, I poured out a few glasses of Finke’s Widow from Winc, a lovely off dry sparkler that was a huge hit.
I was so nervous cutting into it. But then we saw blue, and everyone let out a scream. I cried a lot, just from the emotion of it all, and Craig was beaming. We announced his name to my family, James Brenton DePriester. James after my mom’s dad, Brenton after my dad, and DePriester for the surname.
Knowing that my baby is a boy, and having his name picked out, is helping me feel more connected to my pregnancy. My first trimester was a non-event. I had no nausea, and the only sign of pregnancy was passing out by 9 pm (unheard of for me) and a bit of weight gain (which apparently I can’t blame on the baby anyway). I just didn’t feel pregnant. The ultrasounds were always a relief. See? I didn’t just eat something weird! I am in fact pregnant.
At the last ultrasound, James waved at us. I think he’s going to be just like his dad.
This insane feather brows beauty look started off as a joke, and it’s quickly becoming an Instagram trend
Sometimes the meta nature of the makeup world ends up trolling itself in the most beautiful way possible. At least, this is exactly what happened with the feather brows trend on Instagram — a look originally posted as a joke by the makeup artist and Instagram star from Finland known as Stella Sironen — that soon took fire as a real beauty trend. It caught on for some brave people ready to pioneer a new frontier of brows.
The mildly terrifying eyebrow look fully lives up to its feather name, and requires committed beauty hounds to glue the bottom half of their eyebrows down to achieve the full feather glory.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that two people in Florida have reported eating salad from a container that was later found to have contained a dead bat.
The bat was sent to the CDC's rabies lab for further testing, but the CDC said the animal's "deteriorated condition" did not allow for them to "definitively rule out whether this bat had rabies." To be on the safe side, Fresh Express has issued a recall of a small number of cases of its Organic Marketside Spring Mix, which the CDC says may have been distributed to Walmart stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
The affected salad is sold in a clear container with the production code G089B19 and best-if-used-by date of APR 14, 2017 on the top label. On the bottom of the container, UPC Code 6 8113132897 is printed by the bar code.
“First they came for the men dressed as giant furry rabbits, and I did nothing.” This is a sentence you may yet see when the future history of the rise of the “alt-right” (read: fascist neo-Nazis) in our contemporary era is written. A recent online conflagration that led to the cancelation of a furry convention in Colorado has shown that even the world of people who enjoy walking around as giant plush animals isn’t safe from incursion by assholes. The Daily Beast reports that Rocky Mountain Fur Con, an annual summit held in Denver for furries, has been shut down due to the activities of a group known as “Furry Raiders,” a name that actually pairs quite well with “Sad Puppies” and other like-minded groups that appear to have a real problem with minorities.
However, Furry Raiders has done its best to distance itself from these reprehensible ideologies. Or ...
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Alison Brie and Marc Maron star in this show about a group of struggling actresses who band together for a wild, all-female wrestling league. [ 
(@datvegasgyrl_com)
masquerading as a rose 
suit sighting, 
He cited 'La La Land' as a source of motivation. [ 
skin: @maccosmetics strobe cream, face&body foundation c1, pro longwear concealer in NC15, fix+ highlight: @maccosmetics Double Gleam brows: glue stick + @anastasiabeverlyhills dipbrow pomade in Dark Brown eyeshadows: @maccosmetics Texture & Coppering lashes: @ardell_lashes Wispies lips: @lipsicosmetics Leros + clear lip gloss
♀️ Who knew everyone took brows so seriously? _____ #featherbrow inspired by the talented @stella.s.makeup
__ #browsbykristy #benebabeuniversity #motd #mua #makeupartistsworldwide #undiscovered_muas #featherbrows #katvondbeauty #nikkitutorials #lotd #makeupartist #slave2beauty #fiercesociety #westchester #nycmua #myartistcommunity
