Category Archives: Blog

The number one rule in comedy states that the best way to kill a joke is to explain it. But that doesn’t account for Lyric Genius, which has mastered the art of comedy in over-explaining music. 

And the internet is extremely here for it.

Spotify users are probably familiar with the Behind the Lyrics service provided by the crowd-sourced music annotation website Lyric Genius. But you might have missed the full scope of its brilliance, which brings the scholarly rigors of footnoting to the nonsense lyrics of modern pop music.

Amateur music scholars on Twitter shared their appreciation, and a Twitter moment gathered the most illuminating pieces of information gleaned from the Spotify and Lyric Genius partnership. They are nothing short of wiiiiiiild (and you can fact check us on that). Read more…

More about Watercooler, Music, Spotify, Justin Bieber, and 50 Cent

You don’t always need hundreds of pages to tell a moving story. Or at least that’s the case with “The Paper Menagerie,” the titular story of Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories.

“Paper Menagerie” is a short story about a bi-racial boy named Jack, who has a white dad and a Chinese mom, who immigrated to America. When he is a kid, Jack’s mom creates an origami menagerie for him, and when Jack’s mom breathes into the origami, the menagerie comes to life, jumping and playing with him. 

After a fight with schoolmate who teases Jack about his Chinese heritage, Jack discards the menagerie, and rejects his mom, who grows increasingly silent. As Jack grows up, he distances himself from his mom until their relationship is uncomfortable and strained. But when his mom dies, Jack discovers that she has been writing letters in the paper of his menagerie, and she has her own story that she has been struggling to tell. Read more…

More about Books, Mashreads, Mashreads Podcast, Culture, and Books

Another day, another twist in the Cambridge Analytica saga. And like any political scandal of the past year, now Russia is involved.

Facebook already upped the number of its users whose data was unknowingly used for a political data firm from 50 million to 87 million users, but the whistleblower who exposed the data scandal said this weekend that number could be even higher.

On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Cambridge Analytica cofounder Christopher Wylie told Chuck Todd that, “I think that it could be higher, absolutely,” when asked about even more people affected by the Trump campaign-connected data firm.  Read more…

More about Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Data Privacy, Cambridge Analytica, and Tech

Taco ’bout a tasty offer: a month traveling the country giving away free tacos and eating a few yourself.

That’s the job description for this sweet job title, Chief Taco Officer at Moe’s Southwest Grill.

All those hungry Chief Technology Officers can move aside, this is for true taco lovers of the Atlanta-based taco chain. Though to apply you do need some social media savvy and know how to download an app. 

Applications are already piling in, a company spokeswoman said in an email Sunday. Some standout entries include this woman’s reasoning for why tacos are life. She says tacos are “good with any mood; happy, sad, excited; tacos are always there for you.” Read more…

More about Watercooler, Jobs, Food, Contest, and Tacos

Most Broadway fans are guilty of having put on a private performance or two of Les Miserables. But I bet it didn’t sound nearly as professional as the LeBaron family’s near-perfect rendition of “One Day More.”

The Utah family from Fruit Heights took on the classic musical’s climactic number on Easter Sunday, and their performance sparked the fire of the French revolution in millions on the internet.

“Anyone looking to do Les Miserables for their next show? Better yet…anyone looking for an entire cast?” wrote Jordon LeBaron in the Facebook post.

For fans of the musical, his brother Landon’s killer performance as Javert is almost enough to help us forget the brutal massacre that was Russell Crowe’s attempt at the role in the 2012 movie. Read more…

More about Watercooler, Entertainment, Russell Crowe, Musicals, and Les Miserables

Binge-watching old episodes of Law & Order is a serious athletic endeavor. One that requires the proper gear — breathable gear, stretchy gear, gear you can wipe Doritos powder on. That athletic gear is leggings. 

Saturday Night Live has the product for you: Nike’s “Pro-Chiller Leggings.” Read more…

More about Snl, Culture, and Movies Tv Shows

Life coach Tony Robbins dug himself into a hole last month when his comments suggesting that some women use the #MeToo movement to make themselves “feel good” made the rounds online. Now, the backlash is picking up steam.

On Saturday, #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke weighed in on Robbins after a video from Now This News brought his comments back into the spotlight.

More about Culture, Me Too, Culture, and Web Culture

The last time Drake dropped a new music video, we cried. (He bought strangers groceries! So nice!) Now, thanks to his new celebrity-packed video for “Nice For What,” we’re screaming. 

The 4-and-a-half minute video from 22-year-old director Karena Evans features cameos from 16 super famous women, including Tracee Ellis Ross, Issa Rae, and Misty Copeland. 

Drake’s there too, serving as filler between shots of Olivia Wilde writhing on a table and Tiffany Haddish smoking cigarettes. But forget Drake for a second: This video’s all about the women.  Read more…

More about Music, Culture, Culture, Music, and Web Culture

When I was a teenager growing up in West LA, a friend of mine from a different part of the city derisively called my neighborhood “Scooter-Ville” because it was so “wholesome.” He’d look out of my big bedroom window to see the neighborhood kids riding their Razor scooters up my empty block, around the cul-de-sacs, over and down the circular driveways.

Now, a different sort of scooter has come to town: “Bird” electric scooters.

Bird is a new transportation company that places un-docked electric scooters around a city. Users can unlock them with the touch of an app and use them to travel short distances at 15 mph. It’s one of a host of new dockless transportation companies — along with LimeBike, Jump, and others — bringing easy-to-use, non-car transit options to cities across the country. It’s also one of the more recent technology companies to call Santa Monica its home base and effectively its beta testing ground.  Read more…

More about Uber, Bird, Lyft, Santa Monica, and Birds

YouTube might have finally figured out a way to keep creepy, exploitative videos away from children using the YouTube Kids app: Human curators.

An upcoming, technically-not-yet-confirmed new version of the app eliminates the algorithm that selects which videos show up for viewing. Instead, a team of actual humans will review content and handpick channels that are kid-friendly.

The existence of this “whitelisted” YouTube Kids app is noted in a new BuzzFeed report, citing “a source familiar with YouTube’s plans.” The older, algorithm-powered version of the app will continue to exist as well; the human-curated release will complement it, offering parents an alternative. Read more…

More about Tech, Youtube, Cybersecurity, Algorithm, and Youtube Kids