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Han Xu, the tallest player in the WNBA, hunched over the menu at a trendy Brooklyn pizza spot, trying to figure out what to order in a place that lists “bèchamel” as an ingredient. This would possibly be difficult even if she could read English, but the Chinese center does not. Decked head to toe in American basketball brands, her massive hands flew around the fine print as she shot rapid questions to a translator in Mandarin. Here, in the type of gentrified place that now charges for a pizza what a former occupant of the building used to ask for an oil change, the menu is particularly tricky to parse. After consulting on nearly every ingredient on every dish, Han picked a sausage and pepperoni pizza, and was pleased with her choice until it came out with pickled chiles on top. She doesn’t do chiles. Starving, she had to spend the first five minutes of the meal forking off the little green heat sources before she could begin putting away the entire 12-inch … [Read more...] about They Want Her To Be The Next Yao Ming, But What Does She Want?

Stranger Things’s third season is finally upon us, and it’s pretty dang great. Just itching to talk about everything that went down in our latest visit to Hawkins? Well, here’s your chance to do so, free from having to worry about spoiling other folks. Join us, why don’t you! Advertisement A lot of stuff goes down this season—from sneaky Russians, to surprising returns, to tragic deaths, big reveals, and more, as Eleven and friends dealt with the Mind Flayer’s return. By the end of the season, there’s been some big goodbyes and, if you stuck around for that post-credit scene, a major hint at what’s to come as Stranger Things’ world grows far and wide beyond just creepy goings on in Indiana. Suffice to say, it means there’s a lot to talk about. What does it all mean? What do the Russians have planned? Can we ever trust a kitsch ‘80s mall ever again? Pour one out and share your thoughts and speculation below. For … [Read more...] about Here’s Your Spoiler-Filled

It’s been 25 years since Exile In Guyville titillated audiences with its raw, stripped-down take, part confessional and part satire, on singer-songwriter Liz Phair’s experiences with fuckboys in all their various forms. It says something about how far we haven’t come that songs like “Fuck And Run” (“whatever happened to a boyfriend / The kind of guy who tries to win you over?”) are just as relevant now as they were in 1993, and today Matador Records announced that it’s giving a new generation the opportunity to get acquainted with Phair’s debut—and for longtime fans to scratch that collector itch. On May 4, Matador will release Girly-Sound To Guyville: The 25th Anniversary Box Set, a massive, 7-LP (or 3-CD) affair, which includes a remastered version of Exile To Guyville as well as the Girly-Sound Tapes, demos Phair recorded on cassette in 1991 and sent to a few friends in the Chicago music scene. Those were dubbed and passed … [Read more...] about Liz Phair announces massive

Brooke Holden had all but given up on breaking into the video game business. She had gone to university in the United Kingdom to study game development, but realized partway through her degree that she hated coding. Holden had also come across horror stories about labor conditions in the game industry, where employees regularly work 60- to 80-hour weeks, and thought to herself, no way, not me. But one year into a job as an office manager, Holden, 26, was still dreaming about getting into games, maybe applying for some sort of team management position. “Professionally inexperienced but passionate team manager looking for a hobby project to help support and manage,” she posted to a subreddit for assembling game dev teams. It was just a lark, yet a half dozen replies accumulated under the post. One in particular stood out, from an account with an active Reddit history on developer recruitment boards. The poster’s name was “Kova,” and he told Holden that his … [Read more...] about How Over 25 People Got Scammed Into Working At A Nonexistent Game Company

Josh Modell: So Sean, as I think I told you once or twice—maybe by saying “really?!”—I was surprised when you asked if you could be my date to one of the Pearl Jam shows at Wrigley Field. I feel like I know your current musical tastes fairly well, and that it consists of ambient instrumentals, not mega-’90s alt-rock gods who’ve gone on to become the nation’s youngest stadium-filling classic-rock band. I’ve told of my relationship to Pearl Jam’s music in these pages before, which boils down to: Didn’t like ’em, liked ’em, was a little indifferent (2000-2006), and now I guess I mostly love them, at least certain records and definitely seeing them live. So give me some background. You’ve surely had the chance to see Pearl Jam over the years. If you liked them as a teen, why didn’t you ever see them then? And what made you want to go this time around? Was it a crime of opportunity? And while we’re at … [Read more...] about Why go see Pearl Jam? A diehard and a lapsed fan find out