Category: Culture

‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 trailer already produced a new Baby Yoda meme

Of course.

The Mandalorian has blessed us with so many good Baby Yoda memes — remember the pressing the buttons one? That was so good.

Season 2 hasn’t dropped yet — it will next month — but the trailer did … and we already have our first Baby Yoda meme of the season.

In the trailer, we see “the child” in its little floating pod, when the little one sees trouble is afoot, so it presses a button and WOOSH — he closes himself inside to keep safe (although, as we know, Baby Yoda has some extremely potent powers to defeat enemies).

Of course, this quickly became a meme.

Here’s the GIF:

And the memes!

There will definitely be more where this came from. This is the way.

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5 things we learned from the super-cool new ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 trailer

Mando and Baby Yoda are coming back!!!

WARNING: SPOILERS FROM SEASON 1 AHEAD! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FIRST SEASON!

We’re just over a month away until we get Season 2 of The Mandalorian, but on Tuesday, a trailer dropped that of course has fans of the show flipping out about the new adventures of the bounty hunter and Baby Yoda.

Like with other Star Wars properties, die-hards spent the morning dissecting the footage and figuring out just what this season will all be about. So, as usual, I’ve put together some of the screenshots and theories that are already everywhere on Twitter.

Here’s a rundown of what we all saw in the super-cool trailer that got us all extremely excited:

1. The plot involves bringing Baby Yoda to its own kind

This is the crux of the whole show. What was Mando going to do with “the child” after fighting to keep it alive and breaking all kinds of rules in Season 1? The answer comes from The Armorer: “You must reunite it with its own kind,” and it involves the Jedi.

2. Who’s that hooded figure lurking?

We know it’s WWE wrestler Sasha Banks. But who’s the character?

There’s some speculation that she could play a character named Sabine Wren, which is intriguing because she was a Mandalorian who once owned the Darksaber. And the Darksaber, as we learned in last year’s finale, belongs to Moff Gideon.

My guess: she’s a Jedi of some sort (we hear about “an order of sorcerers” from the narration when she’s shown) keeping tabs on Baby Yoda. Speaking of which!

3. Baby Yoda will be cute as usual

I mean, goodness this is the best:

And yeah, that’s fast becoming a meme.

4. X-WINGS WOOOOO

Yeah I geeked out hard when I saw them (and yeah, we saw X-Wings at the end of an episode last year, see below, still exciting!). That means the New Republic will be involved again.

5. What icy planet are they on?

I see a lot of snow and ice in this trailer. Does that mean a visit to Hoth, where the rebels once had a base attacked in The Empire Strikes Back? It wouldn’t be the first planet from the Star Wars canon visited in this series — remember that time Mando visited Tatooine and we all thought Boba Fett returned?

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Carole Baskin’s first ‘Dancing with the Stars’ dance is over-the-top tiger-themed

Not a great first dance for the star.

Tiger King star Carole Baskin is a part of this year’s Dancing with the Stars cast, and her first dance — a paso doble with partner Pasha Pashkov — might as well have had all the cool cats and kittens included in it.

It started with Pashkov in a cage wearing tiger print pants. He came out to a background with a giant tiger head on the stage and one projected on the floor, followed by the pair dancing to … Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. Moves included a tiger claw and roar. Think there’s a theme going on here? It’s a little much, but then again, so was Tiger King.

Baskin received just an 11 out of 30 from the judges.

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Here’s when Sony will likely reveal the PS5 price, release date

PlayStation fans shouldn’t have to wait too much longer for PS5 details.

Microsoft revealed its Xbox Series S and announced the price points ($299/$499) for its two next-generation consoles earlier this week, and PlayStation fans are starting to run out of patience with the expected release window only a couple of months away.

Fortunately, Sony has announced a PlayStation 5 showcase event set for Wednesday, September 16th. In its announcement, Sony did not confirm that the PS5 release date and price will be revealed during the event, expected to be 40 minutes long – but it seems exceedingly likely that all will be revealed, particularly after the Xbox announcements put pressure on Sony.

The PS5 digital showcase will air at 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Sept. 16th on Twitch and YouTube.

Via PlayStation.com:

“Before PlayStation 5 launches this holiday, we wanted to give you one more look at some of the great games coming to PS5 at launch (and beyond!).

Our next digital showcase will weigh in at around 40 minutes, and feature updates on the latest titles from Worldwide Studios and our world-class development partners.”

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The Man In The Red Bandana: Watch ESPN’s incredible feature on 9/11 hero Welles Crowther

An incredibly story.

On September 11th, 2001, former Boston College lacrosse player Welles Crowther went to work in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. A youth volunteer firefighter who had a dream to join the FDNY one day, Crowther called his mom to let her know he was safe after the second plane hit his building.

After the impact, Crowther led a group of people from the 78th floor down the stairs to safety – but instead of leaving the South Tower, Crowther went back up to help more survivors. He assisted another group down the stairs, saving as many as 18 lives in total, and went back up. To many of the injured he helped that day, he was known as “the man in the red bandana,” for the signature bandana he carried for most of his life.

ESPN’s touching feature on Crowther’s heroism, written by Tom Rinaldi, is a must watch.

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The stunning trailer for ‘Dune’ is out and it looks unbelievably good

The first look at the Denis Villeneuve film, starring Timothée Chalamet and Oscar Isaac, debuted this week.

You might remember Dune as the extremely long book that some of your friends in high school were into, or perhaps as the utterly bizarre 1984 David Lynch film starring Kyle MacLachlan.

The epic Frank Hebert novel is getting another adaptation, and this time it’s in the hands of Denis Villeneuve, the utterly fantastic director who’s given us Sicario, Arrival, and Blade Runner: 2049 in the span of a few years.

This version of Dune will feature flavor of the month Timothée Chalamet alongside Oscar Isaac, and if the first trailer is any indication, it will also feature Villeneuve’s stunning command of the sublime when it comes to creating a shot.

Whenever movies return, I look forward to seeing it.

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Rick Moranis appears in a commercial and everyone rightfully celebrated it

So good to see the actor on screen again!

With a long list of credits that include SCTV, Ghostbusters, Spaceballs, and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, it is absolutely safe to say that Rick Moranis is a comedy legend.

And since the late 1990s, he hasn’t appeared much in acting roles, taking a hiatus to raise his kids as a single father after his wife died of cancer, although he will star in the latest edition of the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids franchise with Shrunk.

He also took a new role that has Twitter going nuts on Wednesday: a 30-second commercial with Ryan Reynolds for Mint’s paid plan. Even if he’s hawking a product, it is SO good to see him back on a screen:

Twitter agreed:

Welcome back, Rick!!!!

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What is the Xbox Series S?

After the Xbox Series S price leaked, Microsoft confirmed the budget version of its next-gen console will cost $299.

It’s been a rough summer for Microsoft’s gaming division as the launch of the new generation of consoles draws near. After an unimpressive and meme-worthy gameplay reveal of Halo: Infinite – Microsoft’s flagship title for the fall – the game was delayed to 2021, leaving Microsoft without a highly anticipated killer app for the upcoming Xbox Series X.

On Monday, an image of the Xbox Series S – Microsoft’s yet unannounced budget version of a next-gen console – was leaked online. According to the leak, the Series S will sell for $299. Microsoft acknowledged the leak on Tuesday morning, and confirmed that the Series S will launch with an estimated retail price of $299.

So, what is the Series S?

Microsoft is advertising its new flagship console, the Xbox Series X, as the most powerful console ever. The Series S, much like the Xbox One S before it, is a more affordable version of the console for people who aren’t obsessive over resolution and framerate. All next-gen Xbox games will run on both the Series S and Series X, so you’ll be able to play the new Halo on the S – you just might not get quite the same performance, especially on a 4K TV.

So far, we only have an image of the S and the pricepoint, and Microsoft is yet to reveal the full specs of the machine along with the launch date (which is expected to be in November). More leaked promotional footage for the Series S notes that the machine can get 120 frames per second at a resolution of 1440p, is DirectX Raytracing ready, and packs a 512 GB SSD.

That last point could prove to be an issue, as it does not seem like the Series S has a disc drive. If you are indeed going all-digital with the Series S, it won’t be long until that 512 GB hard drive is full. Just ask Call of Duty: Warzone players, who regularly have to install colossal patches. In the modern age, it’s possible you may only be able to fit 4 triple-A games on that SSD.

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Super Mario has a new Puma shoe and it looks as ridiculous as you’d think

Word? Word.

Puma is collecting video game characters on their sneaker roster like Thanos collected the Infinity Stones.

First, they landed Sonic right before the Sonic The Hedgehog movie dropped a few years ago. Now, apparently, they’ve bagged Super Mario.

In celebrating the virtual plumber’s 35th anniversary as Nintendo’s premier flagship, Puma is dropping a new RS-Dreamer J Cole sneaker in a Super Mario Nintendo colorway.

And, yes, if you’re keeping tabs on how many collaborations that it’s, it’s J Cole x Super Mario x Puma. Wait a sec. Isn’t this supposed to be a basketball sneaker?

Anyway, it looks absolutely ridiculous. Would I still wear it? Absolutely. This is incredible.

This feels like a collaboration for the sake of collaborating, but it’s still fun! Even if it is a weird mashup. Maybe there’s some Super Mario DLC for the Super Mario 3D All-Stars game coming up where he gets to wear these? Probably wishful thinking.

Either way, this is dope. My only question is who is up next for Puma? I’m putting my money on Donkey Kong or Mega Man.

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Tony Reali shared a powerfully honest message about the anxiety attacks he’s been having

What an honest and powerful conversation.

ESPN’s Tony Reali has never shied away from talking honestly and openly about mental health, which is powerful because it’s a topic that affects a lot of people and the more it is discussed out in the open the more it will help people who need it.

Reali did that again before Thursday’s “Around the Horn” episode as he talked about how last week he suffered a number of intense anxiety attacks that left him unable to work one day, had him sweating through every sheet in his house, and had put him in a “full health meltdown.”

If you suffer from anxiety then you know how hard these attacks can be. If you don’t suffer from anxiety then consider yourself lucky. But you should also watch Reali’s discussion below, as it could help you understand what some people in your life might be going through.

Right now there is a lot going on in the world that can trigger these attacks and its important that we all know we aren’t alone when going through these things.

Take 6:50 and watch this:

He then later expanded on this thoughts in this Twitter thread that is a great read.

Thank you for sharing that, Tony.