Bask in the nostalgia. Embrace the ball busting. And remember: Never touch a black man’s radio. — We’ve all felt it. Our shoulders tighten, toes begin to tap, eyes darting a little more quickly with each passing thumbnail. It’s the “what to watch” scroll. Seconds turn into minutes turn into deep meditations on the transient nature of life as rows of content flit past — Popular on…

A Listener’s Companion to Vince Staples’ RAMONA PARK BROKE MY HEART — It doesn’t usually rain in Long Beach, California, but Vin could hear drops beginning to speckle the windows lining the front of the diner. Outside, the clouds covering the midnight sky were lit from below by LA’s endless sprawl. A neon Tecate sign in the diner window made its humble…

The lasting, polarizing legacy of smooth jazz’s foremost purveyor. — I. The Baker The James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker is reserved for the .01% of bakers. It recognizes the baker who has so comprehensively mastered the intricacies of baking that they operate not in the realm of recipe execution or recipe alteration, but in the realm of true creation, discovering baked dishes…

Stem Cells, Saffron, and Baby Lemons. — Russell Wilson is one of the great healers of all time. If you didn’t know this before Pete Carroll’s week 5 post-game press conference, you did afterword. “Russ is one of the great healers of all time,” Carroll said in his signature affable mutter. It was a moment so extremely-Pete-Carroll…

Fuck. Shit. That was dope. — The fear started when I was merging onto the freeway. It crept up my spine and tip toe’ed around my forehead. Soon my whole body felt like it was clamped into one of those heavy duty operating tables used to examine mutants and superheroes. My eyes darted around. I could…

Matthew McConaughey (at his most stoned) uncovers the abyss beneath movies’ illusory connections with the world — If you google “The Beach Bum” the first question on Google’s list of commonly asked questions is “What is the point of The Beach Bum?”, which is either proof positive that the movie succeeded or exhibit A for why it was a frivolous way to spend five million dollars, depending…

The former child actor gets personal in his screen writing debut. — There’s something about shitty coffee, you know, like the hotel kind that you make in your room. Or the giant tub of pre-ground that probably has some amount of cardboard in it. Or the kind that, if I’m feeling brave, I might pour myself a cup of at the Jiffy…

“If you ain’t get tatted by Cartoon, you ain’t got no tat! If you ain’t get shot by Estevan, you got a weak photographer!!!” — Snoop Dogg Every time I opened Netflix Snoop Dogg would yell at me about my lack of tats and my sub par photographer. I had…

Who came away with the crown? Who got put through the meat grinder? — How do you win in Tiger King? Some might argue that there are no winners. In the world of high-stakes exotic animal trafficking the stench of villainy soaks into everyone’s skin too deep to wash out. But like the great Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Everything’s relative.” …