🎶 MilliGrammys and KiloGrammys 🎶
Mōrena lil shits!!
How the hell are ya?? Last night my flatmates made me sit through ‘Jackass Forever’ which was all at once gross and nostalgic as hell. Jackass, while (in my opinion) is a super innovative format (yes, there were pranks pre-youtube) has never been entirely my cup of tea - I get grossed out easily and hate seeing people hurt themselves. BUT do you know what was my cup of tea?? Nitro Circus - my brothers and I were obsessed with that show for a while. Also The Dudesons?? With Jukka, Jarppi and Jarno??? Damn, for a while these pranksters just owned MTV (and my attention.)
Anyway, my aforementioned attention has now moved away from memory lane and towards the future - which we NEED YOU TO HELP US BUILD!
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HERE
In today’s edish:
A debrief of the Grammys
Something is happening in Pakistan
Is it spelt Zelensky or Zelenskyy?
Elon Musk is now Twitter's largest shareholder
WTF is a feijoa?
✨ PS!! I’ve had a few people reaching out wanting to advertise in the newsy - if you or the organisation you work for is interested in renting some space to chat to over 50k of the coolest humans on the planet, hit us up (or just reply to this email!) ✨
A debrief of the Grammys
BTS did a fucking killer performance (after V and Olivia Rodrigo shared a steamy as hell moment); The Weeknd (who’s boycotting the Grammys) won one - so did Louis C.K; Billie Eilish wore a T-shirt honouring Taylor Hawkins while she and FINNEAS performed Happier Than Ever; President Zelenskyy made quite a jarring appearance, and… no one got slapped. A successful awards show I’d say! (PS can someone teach me how to use a semicolon?? I’ve been googling it for like 5mins and I still can’t figure out if I should’ve used them in this scenario :P)
Here are some of the winners for ya:
Album of the Year
We Are, Jon Batiste
Love For Sale, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga
Justice (Triple Chucks Deluxe), Justin Bieber
Planet Her (Deluxe), Doja Cat
Happier Than Ever, Billie Eilish
Back of My Mind, H.E.R.
Montero, Lil Nas X
Sour, Olivia Rodrigo
evermore, Taylor Swift
Donda, Kanye West
Record of the Year
“I Still Have Faith in You,” ABBA
“Freedom,” Jon Batiste
“I Get a Kick Out of You,” Tony Bennett, and Lady Gaga
“Peaches,” Justin Bieber feat. Daniel Ceasar, and Giveon
“Right On Time,” Brandi Carlile
“Kiss Me More,” Doja Cat feat. SZA
“Happier Than Ever,” Billie Eilish
“Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” Lil Nas X
“drivers license,” Olivia Rodrigo
“Leave the Door Open,” Silk Sonic
Song of the Year
Bad Habits (HOWWWWWWWW?)
A Beautiful Noise
drivers license
fight for you
Happier Than Ever
Kiss Me More
Leave the Door Open
MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)
Peaches
Right On Time
Best New Artist
Arooj Aftab
Jimmie Allen
Baby Keem
Finneas
Glass Animals
Japanese Breakfast
The Kid Laroi
Arlo Parks
Olivia Rodrigo
Saweetie
Some other notable wins
Our gals Emily and Abigail (who I watched write the ‘Unofficial Bridgerton Musical’ from conception to completion on TikTok) WON A DAMN GRAMMY FOR IT!! Idk why I feel so proud of them. Maybe it’s because I was there right from the beginning (thank u parasocial relationships), or because one time we spoke about them on Culture Vulture and they posted a vid of them on Instagram listening to our actual voices?? Or maybe it’s because it’s showing people that TikTok is a platform where cool and creative shit can actually happen and it should be taken seriously?? Idk but I’m stoked for them!!
Jack Anotonoff also won ‘Producer of the Year (non-classical)’ and our boy Bo Burnham won ‘Best Song Written For Visual Media’ with ‘All Eyes On Me’!!’
Here are the rest of the results!
The Fucked Up History of The Grammys - Culture Vulture — open.spotify.com
Luce and Liv dive into everything we know (and everything they don't want us to know) about the Grammys. Who runs them? Who can vote? Why doesn't the academy like women? Or people of colour? All will be revealed in this episode of Culture Vulture!
Political drama in Pakistan
So, after accusing the United States of planning a coup, Pakistan’s Prime Minister dissolved the country's parliament, which naturally led to political chaos. A bit of context: Pakistan has the 5th biggest population in the world, is one of only nine with nuclear weapons, and no prime minister has ever completed a full 5-year term.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister is Imran Khan - a cricket star turned politician - and last week, his opposition was ready to remove him from office through a vote of no-confidence. The deputy speaker of parliament, a member of Khan's party, blocked this no-confidence motion (which Khan had widely been expected to lose) ruling it was part of a foreign conspiracy and unconstitutional (Khan claims the US is leading a conspiracy to remove him because of his criticism of US policy and other foreign policy decisions he has taken.)
Now the Supreme Court is going to rule on whether the move to block the vote was constitutional. Stay tuned to see where things go from there!
Is it spelt Zelensky or Zelenskyy?
I’ve always wondered why I keep seeing President Zelenskyy’s name sometimes spelt with two Y’s and sometimes spelt with one - today is the day I get to the bottom of it.
First, look at this from a CNN article:
CNN uses the single "y" spelling for "Zelensky," while Fox and MSNBC go with a double "y" for "Zelenskyy." The New York Times and The Washington Post are both single "y" organizations. The Associated Press is a double "y" outlet. Reuters goes in a completely different direction, spelling his last name "Zelenskiy."
But why so many different spellings???
“The issue is primarily one of transliteration -- from the Cyrillic alphabet used in Ukraine to the Latin alphabet we use in America. There simply isn't a clear and definitive way to render the Ukrainian President's last name through our alphabet, which leads to the variety of spellings you see.”
What one should you use?
Well, Zelenskyy himself has it spelt "Zelenskyy" on his passport, and in May of 2019 his administration said he “preferred that spelling when his name was transliterated from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet.”
There is also some debate as to whether using the double "y" is an act of defiance against the Russians by Zelenskyy (like how we use Kyiv, rather than Kiev.)
I’m gonna use the double y from now on, because that’s how Zelenskyy spells it (and after all, it’s his name!!)
Listen to Harry ˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖
Please become a SYSCA SUPPORTER so I can keep doing this for you 🥺 — shityoushouldcareabout.memberful.com
Elon Musk is now Twitter’s largest shareholder :P
Yep, Elon now owns 9.2% of Twitter, which means he is now Twitter's largest shareholder (by comparison, Jack Dorsey owns 2.9%.)
According to the documents, he bought these shares on March 14th, and since then has been taking his new role as shareholder very seriously, polling his audience on Twitter’s free speech standards:
Followed by:
Obviously, Twitter is the place for the self-appointed internet cops to hang out and even if they had the free-est speech in the world they wouldn’t be satisfied, so we can hardly call this a fair test, but go off Elon.
A brief word on Feijoas
Yesterday I did a poll about how you pronounce ‘Feijoa’ (77% of you say feeeeejoa and 23% say fi-joa) BUT MOST OF YOU - EVEN MORE THAN THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE WHO VOTED - DON’T KNOW WHAT A FEIJOA IS!?
I kinda expected it, which is why I added the third option ‘wtf is a feijoa’ but omg it’s literally one of - if not my fave fruit - so let me do some digging.
So feijoas are native to some parts of South America (so the ‘j’ must actually be pronounced as an ‘h’) like Brazil and Colombia. In other places in the world, feijoas are called ‘pineapple guavas’ or ‘guavasteens’ but they’re not guavas so wtf??
Someone asked me to describe the taste, and I can’t. But Wikipedia can:
“It has a sweet, aromatic flavour, which tastes like pineapple, apple, and mint. The flesh is juicy and is divided into a clear, gelatinous seed pulp and a firmer, slightly granular, opaque flesh nearer the skin. The fruit pulp resembles the closely related guava, having a gritty texture.”
Another interesting thing to note, from feijoaadiction.com is that NZ is the ‘leader in feijoas:’
“Today New Zealand is by far the leader in Feijoas. Since the early 20th century New Zealand has been developing new and improved varieties of Feijoas, many that are now grown commercially worldwide. New Zealand is also the largest producer of Feijoas which is estimated to be more than 800 tonnes per year.”
The more you know!
Russia's 'eased' attacks, and Will Smith's slaps (The Shit Show)
That Girl vs Goblin Mode (Culture Vulture)
After Losing My Father, One Direction Helped Me Find Joy During Grief (Catapult)
‘TELETUBBIES’ WAS A FEVER DREAM, BUT THE WEIRDEST PARTS HAPPENED OFF-SET (Mel)
Why People Are Acting So Weird (The Atlantic)
Reddit’s r/Place art experiment has already devolved into beautiful chaos (Input)
The Millennial Aesthetic Comes for Your Vacuum Cleaner (The New Yorker)
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