hating cats is rooted in misogyny. ironic how dogs are “man’s best friend” but women who love cats are “crazy cat ladies.” Cats teach consent, boundaries, autonomy and love that is earned not entitled.
What a privilege it is to afford a gym, buy healthy food, pay bills, have legs that walk, eyes that see, a brain that functions, work every day, and take our bodies to their full potential.
A 13-year-old Canadian kid uploaded R&B covers to YouTube in 2008 from his bedroom. A talent manager named Scooter Braun stumbled on the videos and signed him.
For the next 15 years, Braun controlled everything. Tours, branding, business deals, public image. The kid became the biggest pop star on the planet, sold 150 million records, racked up 32 billion Spotify streams, and had three Diamond-certified singles before turning 25.
Then in 2022, he got hit with Ramsay Hunt syndrome. Partial facial paralysis. Cancelled the world tour. Disappeared from public life entirely.
Here's where it gets interesting.
In January 2023, he sold his entire 290-song catalog to Hipgnosis for $200 million. Every song he'd ever released. "Baby." "Sorry." "Love Yourself." All of it. Gone. At 28 years old, he cashed out his past.
Then he dropped Scooter Braun. After 15 years. No manager. No agent. For the first time in his career, nobody was making decisions for him.
Fast forward to this weekend. Coachella calls. He picks up the phone himself. Rolling Stone confirmed he negotiated his own headlining deal directly with Goldenvoice. No agent commission. No manager cut. $10 million for two weekends, and he kept all of it.
Then he walked onto the biggest stage in music, sat down behind a MacBook, and pulled up YouTube.
He played "Baby" from 2010. He played his bedroom covers from 2008. He harmonized with his 13-year-old self in front of 100,000 people. Katy Perry joked about whether he had YouTube Premium.
Half the internet called it lazy. The other half called it genius.
They're both wrong. It was a receipt.
He sold his catalog for $200 million. He fired the man who discovered him. He negotiated his own deal. And then he went back to the exact platform where it all started and said: I built this from a laptop. I'm headlining Coachella from a laptop. And for the first time in my life, every dollar is mine.
The kid from YouTube just closed the loop.
I found out none of my photos won wildlife photo of the year, but it was fun to participate! The 3rd photo of the Brown Bear Cubs riding their moms back did receive an honorable mention in the “water as an element” category of the Pangolin photo challenge though 😃
Ms Rachel: “You can’t bomb a child’s home, kill their family members, bomb their schools, bomb their hospitals, and then say they’re just gonna live in tents now that are cold and leaking… You can’t just kill 20,000 children.”
This is why they attack her.
Mark Ruffalo on Donald Trump: “The guy is a convicted felon, a convicted rapist, he’s a pedophile. He’s the worst human being in the world. If we’re relying on this guy’s morality then we’re all in a lot of trouble. I love this country and what I’m seeing here is not America”