As a director, Robert Rodriguez never fails to deliver.
From the hits of the”Spy Kids” franchise to “Machete”, the seasoned Mexican-American filmmaker has built a career on high-action movies that always deliver colorful punches. It’s why, when it was recently revealed that he added Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s latest music video collaboration to his lineup of films we were pretty surprised. And awestruck.
“Rain on Me,” is the latest Gaga X Ariana Grande collab to go viral and the first music video to be directed by Rodriguez.
Celebrating “Rain On Me” with my little buddy KOJI. Miss my gurl Ari. 💕☔️ @ArianaGrande I have a bottle of rosé with our name on it, when it’s ok to hug u again 😭💕💕 #Chromatica is coming!!!!! pic.twitter.com/V3BKRpVi7p
Over the weekend, the second single from Gaga’s upcoming sixth studio album Chromatica dropped much to the delight of fans. The song, which visits the genres of dance-pop, disco, house, and electropop has been described by Gaga as a “celebration of tears” and has already received quite a bit of praise from users online. According to Rolling Stone, “In addition to Grande, the 16-song Chromatica will also feature contributions from Elton John and South Korean group Blackpink.”
Of course, over the weekend, fans could not get enough of the video.
rain on me won’t stream itself. stop everything you’re doing and stream right the fuck now. i mean you’re a twitter stan, nothing could possibly be more important than this in your pathetic meaningless garbage ass life. nobody likes a lazy gay bitch. keep streaming love u xoxo pic.twitter.com/PZsqvmzLao
— Monster Reactions (@LMonsterReacts) May 26, 2020
Photo Illustration by Thiago Prudêncio / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
Parler, the alt-right social media platform, is back in business. Of course, the app is not supported by American companies. The app is now running all of its information through Russian servers.
Parler is running again thanks to the help of Russian servers.
Parler is back online now by routing 100% of its user traffic through servers located within the Russian Federation.
Raise your hand if you understand the very significant impact this has on the ability to surveil and target insurrectionists who organize on Parler.
Parler faced quick discipline after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. The social media platform was one of the key tools organizers of the riot used to organize and mobilize. Amazon, Apple, and Google all stopped carrying Parler, essentially ending the social media platform’s ability to keep running. Parler tried to sue Amazon Web Services to pick up the app again to allow it to continue but a judge ruled against the platform.
“The court rejects any suggestion that the public interest favors requiring AWS to host the incendiary speech that the record shows some of Parler’s users have engaged in,” U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein wrote in the order. “At this stage, on the showing made thus far, neither the public interest nor the balance of equities favors granting an injunction in this case.”
The Russian-backed servers are only providing partial support but it’s a slippery slope.
Parler website is back up.
With a DDos-Guard IP, exactly as I predicted the day it went offline. DDoS Guard is the Russian equivalent of CloudFlare, and runs many shady sites.
Parler has hired DDoS-Guard, is a Russian digital infrastructure company that threw the platform a lifeline. While the server is only providing a defense against denial-of-service, critics are concerned that it still poses a significant risk. All of the traffic on Parler is going through those servers leaving the users vulnerable to Russian surveillance.
“Now seems like the right time to remind you all—both lovers and haters—why we started this platform,” reads Parler’s current homepage. “We believe privacy is paramount and free speech essential … We will resolve any challenge before us and plan to welcome all of you back soon.”
DDoS-Guard has a history of working with racist and far-right groups.
Holy shit.
"Parler is back online now by routing 100% of its user traffic through servers located within the Russian Federation." https://t.co/RlZwu2Ha5J
CEO John Matze is confident that the app will be fully restored by the end of January. The social media app has been banned and dropped from major American tech companies after the insurrection. Amazon will not restore the app but the app has said that they retrieved their info from Amazon.
It’s official: the United States has a new president! Yesterday was Inauguration Day in the U.S. and we welcomed Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States and Kamala Harris as the 49th Vice President.
It was an historic day full of major milestones for the country and the world – and that was made obvious by the sheer amount of attention paid to the day’s events. One has to look no further than the amount of memes that were produced in the wake of the inauguration, from Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga to Bernie Sanders and the adiós to Donald and Melania Trump.
As usual, Latino Twitter showed up with the memes and left many of us on the floor laughing our a** off. These are some of the honorable mentions from a day full of historical moments and incredible memes.
Tío Bernie may have stolen the spotlight from President Biden with his very practical inauguration attire.
The long-serving Vermont senator was there to watch proceedings, bracing the D.C. cold to witness Biden being sworn in as president. To withstand the cold climes, Sanders came prepared in a big old reliable coat and mittens – with his inaugural look and general demeanour waiting for the event to begin capturing the creativity of the internet through a series of ‘Cold Bernie’ memes.
The former presidential candidate was popping up in all sorts of places as the Internet memed him into a frenzy.
And he was all of us…
The former aspiring presidential candidate later addressed the attention his outfit was getting in an interview with Gayle King, noting: ‘You know in Vermont we know something about the cold and are not so concerned about good fashion, we want to keep warm and that’s what I did today.’
The Internet has even created a website where you can insert Tío Bernie into any scene you want with Google Maps.
Michelle Obama told us all how she felt without telling us all how she felt.
Michelle Obama with the “how is started and how it’s going”. Stanning the laid hair 🔥 pic.twitter.com/gHlQMUGRCP
— MelanatedEducated&lilBoujee (@educatedbupetty) January 20, 2021
When Michelle and Barack Obama departed the White House in 2017 to make way for Donald and Melania Trump to take over the reigns, Michelle did not hide how difficult and upsetting she found the moment. So a lot of people were thrilled to see the Michelle we know and love, happy, thrilled and generally paving the way at the 2021 inauguration ceremony.
Lady Gaga giving the world Hunger Games vibes…
When you gotta sing the national anthem at 4 but announce the hunger games at 5. pic.twitter.com/a4SNsOtYEv
Lady Gaga had the honour of performing the American national anthem, ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ and, of course, she ‘killed’ it. The dramatic and rousing performance was made even better by her custom-made Schiaparelli gown, adorned in the US colours and complete with patriotic hidden meanings. However some thought they’d seen it – particularly the brooch – before…
Then there were the adiós Trump memes that left Mexican Twitter on fire!