Whats New on Hulu in June 2021

Image: Willy’s Wonderland/Screen Media Films (Other)

Ho-hum, you think. Nothing big coming to Hulu in June. Love, Victor season two is out on the June 11; I should probably try to catch up with season one. Season two of Dave? I didn’t even know there was a season one. And then you spot it: A 2021 movie called Willy’s Wonderland. You google it and discover it stars Nicholas Cage (hmm) in a role in which he doesn’t speak (I’m interested…) in a movie in which he fights the animatronic band from a Chuck E. Cheese ripoff, come to life with murderous intent? (Sold.)

Just the kind of gonzo low-budget weirdness you’d expect from late-period Nicholas Cage, Willy’s Wonderland—from regular schlock director Kevin Lewis and former Shark Week writer G.O. Parsons—apparently lives up to its utterly ludicrous premise (which is admittedly reminiscent of Five Nights at Freddy’s and—thanks for pointing this out, commenters!—The Banana Splits Movie) if the respectable 62 percent on Rotten Tomatoes is anything to go by. But really, this is a movie built for stumbling across on streaming late at night, when you are tired, possibly inebriated, and all out of fucks. (Which is how I imagine Mr. Cage felt while filming it.)

There are some other new movies of note arriving on Hulu in June. Coming from the Independent Film Channels’ IFC Midnight boutique, Come True (June 11) is a high-concept sci-fi thriller about a sleep study gone wrong. Sam Neill stars in Rams (June 5), a lighthearted comedy about rival…sheep farmers. Night of the King (June 3) is a dramatic fantasy exploring the horrible conditions at a prison on the Ivory Coast, and was the country’s official entry for the 93rd Academy Awards. And A Glitch in the Matrix (June 3) is a documentary exploring the question of whether we’re all living in a computer simulation, which, if that proves to be the case, I request someone reboot.

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) the streamer this month.

What’s coming to (and leaving) Hulu in June 2021

Available June 1

• Changing The Game: Documentary Premiere (Hulu Original)
• American Ninja Warrior: Season 13 Premiere (NBC)
• Housebroken: Series Premiere (FOX)
• Small Fortune: Complete Season 1 (NBC)
• 50/50 (2011)
• A Most Wanted Man (2014)
• A Perfect Day (2006)
• A Prayer For The Dying (1987)
• The Adventures Of Tintin (2011)
• Across The Universe (2007)
• Alive (1993)
• Anacondas: The Hunt For The Blood Orchid (2004)
• Anaconda 3: Offspring (2008)
• Anacondas: Trail Of Blood (2009)
• Arachnophobia (1990)
• Batman Begins (2005)
• The Big Chill (1983)
• The Birdcage (1997)
• Black And White (2000)
• The Blair Witch Project (1999)
• The Blair Witch Project: Book Of Shadows (2000)
• Bloody Sunday (2002)
• Blue Streak (1999)
• The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009)
• Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star (2011)
• Charlotte’s Web (1973)
• The Company You Keep (2013)
• Conviction (2010)
• Convicts (1991)
• Convoy (1978)
• The Cookout (2004)
• The Dark Knight (2008)
• Desperate Measures (1998)
• Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005)
• Dragonfly (2002)
• Driven (2001)
• El Dorado (1967)
• Face/Off (1997)
• The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
• The Full Monty (1997)
• Fun In Acapulco (1963)
• Gamer (2009)
• Get Smart (2008)
• Hanging Up (2000)
• Hud (1963)
• The Hustler (1961)
• Jennifer 8 (1992)
• Jennifer’s Body (2009)
• Just Wright (2009)
• Kick-Ass (2010)
• Kung Pow: Enter The Fist (2000)
• Last Chance Harvey (2008)
• The Last House On The Left (2009)
• Little Women (1994)
• The Long Goodbye (1973)
• The Love Letter (1999)
• The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
• Once Upon A Crime… (1992)
• Ordinary People (1980)
• Places In The Heart (1984)
• Primary Colors (1998)
• Revolutionary Road (2008)
• Richie Rich (1994)
• Rules Of Engagement (2000)
• Sabrina (1995)
• Savage State (2021)
• Saving Silverman (2001)
• Scorpio (1973)
• Silence (2016)
• Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
• The Soloist (2009)
• Some Girls (1988)
• Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
• Soul Survivors (2001)
• Still Waiting (2009)
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007)
• Switchback (1997)
• The Time Machine (2002)
• To Die For (1995)
• The Upside (2017)
• Vanity Fair (2004)
• Waiting… (2005)
• Walking Tall (1973)
• Wayne’s World 2 (1993)
• Weekend At Bernie’s (1989)
• Wilde (1998)
• Wings Of Courage (1995)
• Witless Protection (2008)
• Young Adult (2011)

Available June 2

• America’s Got Talent: Season 16 Premiere (NBC)

Available June 3

• MasterChef: Season 11 Premiere (FOX)
• A Glitch In The Matrix (2020)
• Night Of The Kings (2021)

Available June 4

• The New York Times Presents: New Episode (FX On Hulu)
• Beat Shazam: Season 4 Premiere (FOX)

Available June 5

• Emergency Call: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)
• Rams (2021)

Available June 7

• Celebrity Family Feud: Season 7 Premiere (ABC)
• The Chase: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)
• To Tell The Truth: Season 7 Premiere (ABC)

Available June 8

• The Bachelorette: Season 17 Premiere (ABC)
• Legion Of Brothers (2017)

Available June 9

• The Croods: A New Age (2020)

Available June 10

• Trolls: TrollsTopia: Complete Season 3 (Hulu Original)
• Card Sharks: Season 3 Premiere (ABC)
• Trust (2021)
• Two Of Us (2019)

Available June 11

• Love, Victor: Season 2 Premiere (Hulu Original)
• Real Housewives Of Potomac: Complete Season 5 (Bravo)
• Come True (2021)

Available June 13

• Dragonheart (1996)
• Dragonheart: A New Beginning (2000)
• Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer’S Curse (2014)
• Dragonheart: Battle For The Heartfire (2017)
• Not Fade Away (2012)
• Willy’s Wonderland (2021)

Available June 14

• Rūrangi: Complete Season 1 (The Yellow Affair)

Available June 15

• Accused: Guilty Or Innocent? Complete Season 1 (A&E)
• Alone: Complete Season 7 (A&E)
• Alone: The Beast: Complete Season 1
• America Our Defining Hours: Complete Season 1 (A&E)
• The Celebrity Dating Game: Complete Season 1 (ABC)
• Dance Moms: Complete Season 8 (A&E)
• Duck Dynasty: Complete Season 3 (A&E)
• Forged In Fire: Complete Season 7 (A&E)
• Hoarders: Complete Season 11 (A&E)
• Married At First Sight: Complete Season 11 (A&E)
• Mountain Men: Complete Season 6 (A&E)
• Swamp People: Complete Season 11 (A&E)
• The UnXplained With William Shatner: Complete Season 1B (A&E)
• Born To Play (2020)
• Gone Girl (2014)
• Her Deadly Sugar Daddy (2020)
• Her Name Is Chef (2020)
• Michael Smerconish: Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Talking (2020)
• Nasrin (2020)
• The Obituary Of Tunde Johnson (2020)
• The Outside Story (2021)
• Secret Life Of A Celebrity Surrogate (2020) (Lifetime)

Available June 17

• DAVE: Season 2 Premiere (FX On Hulu)
• Phobias (2021)

Available June 18

• Holey Moley 3D In 2D: Season 3 Premiere (ABC)
• The Hustler: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)
• When Nature Calls: Series Premiere (ABC)

Available June 20

Available June 21

• Cutthroat Kitchen: Complete Seasons 2 & 3 (Food Network)
• Worst Cooks In America: Complete Season 4 (Food Network)
• Backyard Builds: Complete Seasons 1 – 4 (Corus)
• Big Bucket Food List: Complete Season 1 – 2 (Corus)
• Family Home Overhaul: Complete Season 1 (Corus)
• Farmhouse Facelift: Complete Season 1 (Corus)
• Home To Win: Complete Seasons 1 – 3 (Corus)
• Home To Win For The Holidays: Complete Season 1 (Corus)
• Jr. Chef Showdown: Complete Seasons 1 – 2 (Corus)
• Save My Reno: Complete Seasons 1 – 4 (Corus)
• Hot Market: Complete Season 1 (Corus)
• Wall Of Chefs: Complete Season 1 (Corus)
• Hostiles (2017)

Available June 22

Available June 23

• College Bowl: Series Premiere (NBC)
• Motherland: Fort Salem: Season 2 Premiere (Freeform)

Available June 24

• An American Haunting (2006)

Available June 25

• False Positive (2021) (Hulu Original)
• Making It: Season 3 Premiere (NBC)

Available June 26

• The Choe Show: Series Premiere (FX)

Available June 27

Available June 29

• Bratz : The Movie (2007)
• Harvie & The Magic Museum (2021)

Available June 30

• Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
• Jack Reacher (2012)
• The Sweet Life (2016)

What’s leaving Hulu in June 2021 

June 4

• Intrigo: Dear Agnes (2019)

June 5

June 11

• Intrigo: Samaria (2019)
• LA 92 (2020)

June 17

June 30

• 28 Days Later (2003)
• 50 First Dates (2004)
• A Low Down Dirty Shame (1994)
• A Night At The Roxbury (1998)
• A Prayer For The Dying (1987)
• A Simple Plan (1998)
• A Storks Journey (2017)
• The Birdcage (1997)
• Blue Streak (1999)
• Brooklyn’s Finest (2010)
• Bug (2007)
• Bulworth (1998)
• Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)
• Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)
• Changeling (2008)
• Cheech & Chong’s Still Smokin’ (1983)
• Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009)
• Convicts (1991)
• Convoy (1978)
• The Core (2003)
• The Devil’s Double (2011)
• Did You Hear About The Morgans? (2009)
• Die Hard (1988)
• Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995)
• Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000)
• Face/Off (1997)
• The Foot Fist Way (2008)
• Frankie & Alice (2014)
• The Full Monty (1997)
• Garden State (2004)
• Get Smart (2008)
• Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003)
• Guess Who (2005)
• Gunfight At The O.K. Corral (1957)
• How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)
• I Am Legend (2007)
• Into The Arms Of Strangers: Stories Of The Kindertransport (2000)
• Junior (1994)
• Knowing (2009)
• Little Women (1994)
• Live Free Or Die Hard (2007)
• The Long Goodbye (1973)
• The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)
• Monster’s Ball (2001)
• Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Movie (1996)
• Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
• New In Town (2009)
• Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian (2009)
• The Ninth Gate (1999)
• Once Upon A Crime… (1992)
• Pandorum (2009)
• Paycheck (2003)
• The Polar Express (2004)
• The Preacher’s Wife (1996)
• The Princess Bride (1987)
• Ramona And Beezus (2009)
• Revolutionary Road (2008)
• Rio (2011)
• Salt (2010)
• The Sandlot (1993)
• Saving Silverman (2001)
• Scary Movie 4 (2006)
• Scorpio (1973)
• Sex And The City (2008)
• Sex And The City 2 (2010)
• Shirley Valentine (1989)
• Sleeping With The Enemy (1991)
• Some Girls (1988)
• Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
• Soul Plane (2004)
• The Sum Of All Fears (2002)
• Thirst (2009)
• Vantage Point (2008)
• Vertical Limit (2000)
• Walking Tall (1973)
• War (2007)
• The Wedding Planner (2001)
• Where the Heart Is (2000)

The post Whats New on Hulu in June 2021 appeared first on RECIPES WELLNESS.

from RECIPES WELLNESS https://ift.tt/3cgsCB5
via IFTTT

Apples new, colorful iMacs are personality tests for your soul

Choosing a color for your new 24-inch iMac is no simple task. It requires a lot of thought and self reflection — these things need to match your home, your iPhone, your outfits, and your soul. 

If you’re feeling lost as to which one is more your forever mood (and how could you not with seven bold colors?), allow us to help. We’ve put together a short guide to all the different personality types that match each iMac color. Now, you can feel a lot better about your place in society and dropping over $1,300 on one of Apple’s vibrant machines. 

Yellow iMac

You’re the type who wakes up and manages to check off going for a one-mile run, folding laundry, and clearing your inbox to zero all before sunrise. You think being a “morning person” is something to brag about and you definitely mention it in your Bumble bio. On weekends, you enjoy finding inspirational quotes on Pinterest boards like “Dream Big, Work Hard” to print out using your label maker. (Yes, there are labels in your cupboards.)

Yellow isn’t for the night owls.

Image: Mashable composite; Apple

In the evenings, you can regularly be found sipping Barefoot Pinot Grigio out of a wine glass emblazoned with the words “Live, Laugh, Love” as you lazily browse Zillow on your phone and imagine yourself starring in one of those HGTV shows. Oh, and you’ve probably got Taylor Swift’s Fearless album blasting in the background (yes, we know, she’s gonna re-record everything and stick it to Scooter Braun).

Orange iMac

There are two types of orange fans out there:

There are the real Elle Woods stans who know this orange iMac is only acceptable because it’s the closest they’ll get to her iconic iBook in Legally Blonde. 

When asked how you managed to choose this color out of so many options, your natural response is: “What? Like it’s hard?” 

Bend and snap, baby!

Will the real Elle Woods stans please stand up?

Image: Mashable composite; Apple

If, for some ungodly reason, you’re the other kind of orange lover who just…likes orange, then it’s clear you have no taste. Orange is obnoxious but maybe you’re okay with that? (We don’t judge.) It matches absolutely nothing in your living space and is only ever appropriate in the fall (and even then it’s questionable). 

As Elle Woods put it best:
“Whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed.”

Green iMac

Green — the “daring” color option for bros who are comfortable in their own skin and like to remind you of it.

If you could, you’d use the green iMac in the middle of the woods even though you’d have zero electricity or WiFi access because…vibes, man. 

Is that a Nalgene bottle I see in your hand?

Image: Mashable composite; Apple

You can’t go a full 15 minutes without mentioning either veganism, cold brew coffee, or Elon Musk, and you love to scarf down Impossible Burgers because you feel like you’re saving the planet with every bite. 

Oh, and though you have a tendency to rant about Amazon taking over everything, you still shop exclusively at Whole Foods for the Prime member discounts.

Pink iMac

If the pink iMac were a human, it would have very strong opinions about James Charles, Jeffree Star, and the rest of the beauty YouTuber gang. It would also most definitely make a very public showing of leaving (and then rejoining) Twitter to get away from the haters. 

We all know you love to keep track of your like-to-minute ratio.

Image: Mashable composite; Apple

Those who opt for this bubbly-looking machine are the ones who know all the words to Addison Rae’s Obsessed, binge Trisha Paytas’ mukbang vlogs, and get real-time updates on the David Dobrik saga. Their IG grid also consists strictly of thirst traps captioned with sayings like:
“Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

Purple iMac

Okay, kween. Tell me you think you’re royalty without telling me you think you’re royalty. 

We get it, you’re zen.

Image: mashable composite; apple

When you choose the purple iMac, here’s what we know for sure: 

You obsessively use the Headspace app and have somehow made meditation into a competitive sport. You’re always carrying that rose quartz healing crystal you bought from Etsy in your “Rose Apothecary” bag and talking about “staying grounded” in these “trying times.” You unironically enjoy the scent of GOOP’s “This Smells Like My Vagina” candle and you also think this iMac matches your aura perfectly. 

Blue iMac

You’re not a regular mom, you’re a “cool” mom. 

You love to brag about all those DMB shows you attended in college.

Image: Mashable composite; Apple

You carpool your kids and all their friends to soccer in a Toyota Highlander (because it’s the new minivan), proudly attend school bake sales with cupcakes from Trader Joe’s in hand, and watch Bravo with a glass or three of Skinnygirl Margarita. And instead of paying attention during those dreaded Zoom PTA meetings, you’re scrolling through Chrissy Teigen’s Twitter and liking all her tweets because you thrive on safe social media drama. 

Is that a Dave Matthews Band album we hear in the background?

Silver iMac

This iMac sits on your very neat, very clean desk right next to the HomePod mini (that reads off your Apple calendar every morning) and the latest iPad Pro (that’s only used to display the stock market ticker in real time). You’re confident Jony Ive would approve of your minimalist setup because you find comfort in the term “Basic AF.” You probably own a plain grey sweatshirt that says as much.

Yes, Jony Ive approves of your decision.

Image: Mashable composite; Apple

When you’re not answering boring emails with gems like “Will circle back,” you’re bike riding through the Canadian Mountains or French Countryside on your Peloton to warm up for a cycling class with Cody Rigsby. At the end of each night, you wind down by watching DVR’d episodes of The Masked Singer, even though it always becomes background noise to your continuing Candy Crush addiction. 

WATCH: Apple’s 4/20 event in 10 minutes

The post Apples new, colorful iMacs are personality tests for your soul appeared first on RECIPES WELLNESS.

from RECIPES WELLNESS https://ift.tt/3ppOoHV
via IFTTT

Save on blenders, succulents, and more at Amazons Spring into Summer event

All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers.If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.

Host’s insulated wine glasses are a clutch gift for any bottomless brunch aficionados.

Image: host

By Leah StodartMashable Shopping2021-05-13 14:27:33 UTC

Save up to 26%: Amazon’s Spring into Summer event has a deals section and it’s loaded. As of May 13, find discounts on Margaritaville and Vitamix blenders, plants, and more.

---

As if we needed another reason to force summer vibes after the year we’ve had, Amazon’s curated Spring into Summer section just got loaded with a ton of deals.

Turn your outdoor space into a makeshift rooftop bar with fancy margarita blenders, hammocks, succulents, and self-cooling glasses on sale — or get your Father’s Day or grad gift shopping done. There are three pages of deals in total, but here are our favorite picks:

Sure, it’s technically 5 o’clock somewhere — but in 2021, our excuse for a marg is simply that it’s not 2020 anymore. Two of Margaritaville’s fancy official blenders are up for grabs for less than $300. The Tahiti has three independent blending stations for three flavors at once, while the Bali can self-dispense margaritas, daiquiris, coladas or smoothies.

Select Vitamix blenders are also up to 15% off.

Speaking of happy hour, Host’s Cooling Cups appear on multiple Mashable gift guides every year. Anyone who counts the minutes to their post-work glass will appreciate an insulated glass that’ll keep their beer or wine chilled (or red wine at cellar temp) on a hot day. Just pop the whole tumbler in the freezer, wait for the gel to freeze, and use the insulted grip to keep fingers off the ice.

Wine glasses, 16-ounce beer glasses, and whiskey glasses are all on sale.

Aspiring plant parents can usher themselves into parenthood with a laidback succulent (or five). These packs from Altman Plants are handpicked straight from the nursery and come potted separately. Use the money you save to score a larger planter to keep these roots happy — and make sure it has a drainage hole.

Live snake plants are also easy care and also on sale.

Explore related content:

The post Save on blenders, succulents, and more at Amazons Spring into Summer event appeared first on RECIPES WELLNESS.

from RECIPES WELLNESS https://ift.tt/3vPQP9b
via IFTTT

Is Bottled Water Just Tap Water?

Photo: PATRICK HERTZOG / Staff (Getty Images)

Forget seeing a glass as half-full or half-empty. The best drinking-water-based test of your outlook on life is whether you’re shocked to find out that some bottle water is just tap water, or if you’re so cynical you’d be shocked to find out that any of it isn’t. The truth is, in fact, somewhere in the middle.

Back before the explosion in bottled water that happened somewhere around the ’90s, the only reason to put water in a bottle was if something was special about that water. Some of those special kinds of water included:

• Spring water, derived from a specific place on this earth where water flows from underground to an accessible spot on the surface
• Mineral water, which is generally spring water from a place with a lot of dissolved minerals in the water
• Sparkling water, which has bubbles (and which in some cases is also a type of mineral water)
• Distilled water, which can come from anywhere but the important thing is that it has had its minerals removed 

Somewhere along the lines, though, the companies that bottle soda and other drinks thought: Hey, why not just bottle some tap water as well?

And so they did, and it sold just fine. Because they were correct to notice that most of the time, when somebody drinks a bottle of spring water, it’s not because they care to taste that particular spring. They’re just thirsty and want some water.

G/O Media may get a commission

Save 30%

The Battery Organizer

Say goodbye to loose lithiums!
Holds 93 batteries, including 45 AA, 25 AAA, four 9-volt, eight C, six D, and five flat batteries for good measure.

How to tell where bottle water comes from

There’s an easy way to find out which bottled water comes from where: Reading the small print the label. Somewhere, usually on the back in fine print, the water will say where it comes from. If it came from a special fancy spring, you can be sure that it will give the name of the spring.

Water that starts as tap water will say that it comes from a “municipal water source” or “community water source,” and may give the name of the water company. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the water is just tap water, just that tap water was the starting ingredient. Many brands, like Dasani and Aquafina, are careful to note that they purify their water and they may add minerals for flavor. The exact process will vary from brand to brand.

Water, after all, is more than just water. Tap water, spring water, well water, and any of the other drinkable waters in this world have minerals dissolved in them, and sometimes a variety of other chemicals as well: Some are unintentional contaminants (like lead), some are added on purpose (like fluoride and chlorine), and some are naturally occurring and mostly harmless (like magnesium and calcium).

Tap water and bottled water are regulated differently; both are required to be safe to drink, but laws differ on the details of how they’re tested, and for what. The Food and Drug Administration regulates bottled water safety and labeling, while the Environmental Protection Agency sets safety standards for tap water. Both are fine to drink, so to be honest, I’d choose a water based on its price, taste, and environmental impact (bottles are trash, after all) rather than on any concerns about what’s in the water.

 

The post Is Bottled Water Just Tap Water? appeared first on RECIPES WELLNESS.

from RECIPES WELLNESS https://ift.tt/3DWbOdR
via IFTTT

Try Things You Dont Think You Like

Photo: Silvia Elena Castañeda Puchetta / EyeEm (Getty Images)

When our parenting editor Meghan Walbert wrote a few weeks ago that she was determined to learn to like running, several of the comments on that piece (and its sequel) argued against the very idea of trying to like something you hate. I would like to propose an alternative viewpoint: that trying things you expect to hate is a fantastic way to find things you’ll actually love.

In fact, it’s how I’ve found many of the things I now love. Here’s one: I used to hate coffee, even avoiding coffee-flavored desserts. But one day I said, okay, let me try some mild-flavored coffee, and if I can finish a whole cup maybe I’ll be less of a baby about the bitterness. My intuition was right: After a week or two, coffee was a thing I could tolerate, and soon after, it became a thing I enjoy. I love it now. I drink it black.

I asked the Lifehacker staff if they could relate, and got a resounding yes. Here’s personal finance writer Mike Winters:

Cooking! In my twenties I couldn’t fry an egg properly (the heat was too high for over a decade), but I also knew that I had no idea what I was doing, which fed into a negative feedback loop of discouragement which made cooking seem like a chore.

In my thirties I got more serious and used a handful of remedial-level recipes for things like chilli or salmon cooked with leeks, but it wasn’t until I got into subscription food boxes that cooking became less intimidating. I’m still no cordon bleu, but at least I can improvise a proper meal if I had to.

As Mike’s story illustrates, sometimes we don’t like a thing because we aren’t good at it yet. Get better at the thing, and it suddenly becomes more enjoyable.

Here’s more, from editor-in-chief Jordan Calhoun, for whom three things came to mind when I asked:

I hated working out in the mornings; it was really hard for me at first. And it would’ve been easy to quit and just work out later in the day, but I’m glad I stuck it out for a little while longer. Now I enjoy it, which basically opens up my busy schedule for a lot more flexibility: Depending on crammed my week is, I can move my workout around to whatever schedule works for me and still have the motivation to go.

Also, reading. There’s a remarkable decline in reading that happens in kids—particularly young boys—when reading becomes less interesting compared to other passtimes, and I definitely fell victim to that. I hated reading. Fiction felt too slow compared to the cartoons I could watch, and non-fiction felt like school. Obviously, though, reading can be a great pastime once you learn to sit quietly with a book, and I’m glad I did.

Also, learning to appreciate alternative sports—”alternative” for me being anything other than the two sports I was raised to watch, which were basketball and football. Other sports felt boring because I didn’t know how to watch them…I didn’t know when to get excited, or how the game was paced, or whether a particular feat was spectacular or commonplace. Learning to appreciate a new game meant feeling pretty bored and stupid in the beginning, but I’m glad I stuck it out because eventually sports like soccer and volleyball became ones that I understood better and learned to enjoy watching. Even games like poker or chess (especially games like poker and chess) felt absolutely boring when I didn’t know what I was looking at, but getting over that hurdle turned them into some good entertainment with skillsets that I admire. I’m glad I stuck them out and endured the learning curve instead of writing them off as too “boring” to endure.

G/O Media may get a commission

Sometimes it’s not until you try something that you understand what it’s even like. Is it fair to say you dislike chess if you’ve never learned how the game works? Can you really say you don’t like working out in the mornings if you’ve never given it a chance?

I asked on Twitter as well, and the trend continued. Sushi, roller coasters, hot yoga, ice swimming, zip lines, reality TV, opera, brussels sprouts, mezcal, and more. Here’s a story from a diehard fan of K-pop icons BTS:

I always had a certain snobbishness about pop music and thought BTS would be a novelty to mock. But I was immediately hit by their sincerity and work ethic which reminded me more of opera singers and ballerinas than “pop acts.” After a few music videos and interviews, I was in.

Reflecting on my own experiences, it turns out I’ve found almost everything I love by taking a chance on something I didn’t expect to like. It’s why I’m so open to new experiences: so many of them have worked out well for me. I hated sports and gym class growing up; now I work out every day and compete in multiple strength sports. My mission to train myself to like coffee was so successful I did it for other bitter flavors as well, and I’m now a huge fan of beer, seltzer, and even black licorice, all of which I absolutely could not stand at first.

Sometimes hate takes time to turn to love; other times, it happens in an instant. The first time I bent a nail (one of those old-timey strongman stunts), I did it purely out of spite. It seemed like such a pointless thing to do, but I’d met several people who were addicted to bending nails. I remember the exact moment a switch flipped in my brain: I had wrapped a thin steel bar in cloth and was pushing into it with all my might. It wasn’t bending, and I had the thought “Oh great, this isn’t just stupid, it’s stupid and impossible.” Suddenly the steel gave way, which was immensely gratifying, and my very next thought was: “What else can I bend?”

The truth is, you can’t know if you like something until you find out why people like it, and give yourself the chance to experience that. Sometimes the fun part isn’t available to beginners—as in Lindy hop, a dance where the fundamental move is also the hardest one to learn—so you have to invest time and energy before figuring out whether or not it’s for you.

This is easier to understand in some contexts than others. We all know that you need to taste a food to find out whether you like it, and that if you had a bad experience with, say, spinach, that you might still like a spinach dish if it’s prepared differently. We’ve all seen those memes about the dad who doesn’t want a dog, and then ends up ordering a custom t-shirt with the dog’s face on it.

So do yourself a favor and try something you always thought you would hate. Seek out the part of the experience that people like, and give yourself a chance to like it too. You just might find yourself falling in love.

The post Try Things You Dont Think You Like appeared first on RECIPES WELLNESS.

from RECIPES WELLNESS https://ift.tt/3in9ftM
via IFTTT

How to Avoid Being Triggered by Fake Viral Recipe Videos

Screenshot: Claire Lower

Last night, as I was trying to wind down, I saw a tweet that read “what a normal and ultimate spaghetti hack!” There was a video attached. In this video—which is a rip-off of an older TikTok video—a white woman in a “Plant Lady” shirt pours cold two cold, Costco-sized jars of Prego onto a granite (or maybe it’s marble) slab, while a different white woman coos in the background. She then adds meatballs of an indeterminate temperature, far too much powdered parmesan, and a whole lot of steaming, clumpy spaghetti before mixing it all together. Everyone who sees it hates it, and that is the point (I think).

It’s also fake as hell. The food is real—the white Plant Lady really is wasting all of that pasta—but the video is not genuine. As Eater reported just today (as I was writing this, conveniently enough!), all of these videos with blandly attractive, thin, white women can be traced back to a magician who has the audacity to be named “Rick Lax.” Lax described the production of the videos as “both friendship and business,” and told Eater he would “object” to anyone calling the recipes “gross.”

Him??

Photo: Claire Lower

But they are gross. And—worse—they aren’t even funny. The women in the spaghetti video can’t even fully commit to the bit by using their actual countertop. (If you look closely, you will see this coward is actually assembling her pile of garbage on a slab set atop her actual counter.) There is a vague attempt at humor at the end where both women instruct you to “fold it in” with an ever so slight Moira Rose affectation—a reference loved by white women everywhere—but the video is not entertaining. There is no joke. There is no payoff. There is no resting place. (Blackhead extraction videos are more satisfying—and less grotesque!)

After falling for exactly two of these types of videos (one of which came from Rick Lax productions), I’m over it, and I invite you to be over it with me. There are so many real things to be angry about; there’s no reason to let a woman in a “Plant Lady” shirt take up valuable space in the rage portion of your brain. The impotent anger you feel after watching someone smear food on a countertop (or slab set on top of a countertop) in an otherwise pristine and quite spacious and probably expensive kitchen is what gives Rick Lax power, and he and his army of white women will not go away until we stop looking at them.

G/O Media may get a commission

How do we do this? There are two steps here: identify and ignore. Once you know you’re dealing with this particular type of troll, simply pretend you do not see it. Do not comment. Do not share. Do not send it to anyone. (Then refresh your brain by gargling your mind throat with a good food video—like Sohla’s on Food52, Lucas Sin’s or George Lee’s Instagram content, or Kevin Ashton’s TikTok, to name a few.)

Identifying can be the (kind of) tricky part, but once you know what to look for, spotting this kind of troll is easy. Here are some questions you can ask yourself if you think you’ve stumbled upon such a video in the wild, whether produced by a magician or not.

The impotent anger you feel is what gives Rick Lax power, and he and his army of white women will not go away until we stop looking at them.

Does the food look good?

Look at the food on screen with your eyes and ask yourself if you would want to eat it. If the presentation is slovenly, cartoonishly unappealing, or if a real human guest would be insulted by it, the food is probably not meant for actual human consumption.

Does anyone eat it on camera? 

If they won’t eat it, you shouldn’t either.

Does the reasoning make sense?

A “hack” is only a hack if it solves a problem, or makes a recipe easier, faster, or better. Let’s take one of my absurd blogs as an example. Smartfood popcorn grits could easily be interpreted as a straight-up troll, but if you read the article, you’ll see that popcorn grits have been around for thousands of years, and all I did was used cheese-flavored, pre-popped popcorn rather than popping it myself. It’s a small, kind of silly “hack,” but it makes the recipe take less time, and it tastes pretty darn good (if you like the flavor of white cheddar popcorn).

Is there any sense self-awareness?

Popcorn salad is another example of a recent piece of food content that made people very mad. But if you watch the original video, you see a cheerful, but self-aware Molly Yeh explain that she knows that the concept seems flawed, but promises you that “you taste it, and it’s really good.” (Molly was, as it turns out, correct about this.) Lax’s are completely devoid of hubris, or any real human emotion. With the glaring exception of whatever “recipe” is being featured, these clips are cold and sterile; would be mocking if they were just a little cleverer. Be aware of the tone, is what I’m saying.

Was it produced by Rick Lax?

As Eater points out in their absolutely engrossing and very well-reported piece, you can, “[s]earch the phrase ‘Rick Lax Productions,’” and, “be greeted with the source code to pure Facebook virality.” You can then search Rick’s videos with the subject matter of the video your questioning—which is how I found out that the Flaming Hot Cheeto sludge recipe was, somewhat unsurprisingly, one of his gross babies.

We must not let this magician continue to dominate the conversation with boring, ugly food videos for the sake of garnering rage views. It may seem impossible—Lax has pretty much dominated the Facebook Watch algorithm—but magicians are kind of like Tinkerbell. Quit clapping, and they disappear.

The post How to Avoid Being Triggered by Fake Viral Recipe Videos appeared first on RECIPES WELLNESS.

from RECIPES WELLNESS https://ift.tt/3uIFnLa
via IFTTT