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Matt James of Mashd N Kutcher
Music

Mashd N Kutcher Serves Up McHappy Day 2025 Anthem

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Mashd N Kutcher’s next tune is a banger for a good cause.

The APRA Award-winning electronic music act dishes up the official tune for 2025 McHappy Day this Saturday (Nov. 15), the biggest annual fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) in Australia.

The bouncing cut captures the voices of children and their families staying at Ronald McDonald House in South Brisbane, and works in the iconic “ba da ba ba ba” jingle over keys, drums, funky electric guitar and a soaring synth line.

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“This song means a lot to me. Visiting the team and families at Ronald McDonald House was truly inspiring – their positivity, resilience and the way they support each other is incredible,” comments Mashd N Kutcher lead Matt James.

“Seeing the kids light up while playing instruments, sharing laughs and even singing the Macca’s jingle was magic,” he adds. “It was a privilege to bring a little fun into their day, and I think that magic shines through in the track. I hope it makes people smile and inspires them to get involved and donate to McHappy Day this Saturday.”

The track is live on Mashd N Kutcher and McDonald’s Australia’s social channels and will play in the burger chain’s 1,000-plus restaurants nationwide on the big day. Stream it, and watch footage of MNK’s visit to Ronald McDonald House below.

James knows more than most about the healing powers of music. The classically-trained Brisbane artist was diagnosed in 2023 with cancer, Multiple Myeloma, which forms in blood cells inside the bone marrow. A year later, in 2024, James and MNK made a roaring musical return with the full-length album Legacy.

It’s not the first MNK tie-in with Maccas. The lads sizzled with 2022’s “Ultimate Mix,” the music treat to accompany McDonald’s McFlurry with Cadbury’s, celebrating what was the chocolate specialist’s 100th year as an Australian favorite.

Since launching in 1991, McHappy Day has raised over A$79 million ($51 million), helping more than 69,000 families every year through RMHC, by funding various programs.

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Cricket in L1
Lifestyle

Why Booktopia is the hottest travel trend right now

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Imagine waking to the scent of the ocean and quiet streets that have barely changed in centuries. Your only agenda? To read, write, or simply notice the small details. Welcome to the magic of the literary retreat.

Alekhya focuses on workshops, guided by editors and published authors.

These dedicated, serene getaways that are gaining popularity, are focused entirely on writing, reading and creative development.

According to Skyscanner’s Travel Trends 2026 report, nearly eight in ten Indians are already planning or considering a book-inspired getaway, solidifying this trend for the coming year.

Uninterrupted reading in the quiet of nature

The Himalayan Writing Retreat in Satkhol, Nainital, is hidden among hushed forested corners, ideal for anyone seeking to read or write without interruption.

Debdatta Dasgupta, who leads the retreat, emphasises the goal: “We want participants to disconnect, slow down, and just be by themselves. The only thing we ask is reading.” While there is a flexible schedule with workshops, walks, movie nights, and book discussions, nothing is compulsory. “If someone wants to just sit and read, that is perfectly fine,” Debdatta says. “Many participants report rediscovering the sheer joy of reading, a difficult feat in a fast-paced world,” he adds.

Another location, The Himalayan Orchard Book Retreat in Shimla, offers guests a stay for a minimum of three nights with no fixed schedule. The property offers guests a personal desk, library access, and optional guided hikes.

Ankita Chaudhuri, a participant in one such retreat, says, “It is the perfect getaway for those who used to read thousand-page books over a weekend as kids, but can’t seem to get through a 100-page novella now. It brought back the joy of reading for me with a lot of adventure.”

Also, the cost of a literary retreat is determined by the bespoke offerings, which include the stay, meals, experiences, and workshops. Prices can start from around ₹35,000 and go up to ₹85,000.

Read, write, and learn from experts

For those seeking a more structured experience, the Alekhya Writing Retreat near Kasol, combines inspiration with professional guidance. Hosted an hour and a half from the nearest major town, the retreat requires a 30-minute trek to reach its forest location, which offers home-cooked food and stunning views.

Mahima Sood, who hosts the retreat, says it focuses on workshops, guided by editors and published authors. This five-day course, costing around ₹50,000 all-inclusive, helps writers gain clarity on their work and even offers scholarships.

One attendee, Akshay Gajria, writing coach, fondly recalled the community and focused writing time, “It’s been a month since I left. I miss the place and the people I met there. The conversations… standing before the library and thinking which book to read, sitting under the sun, I had written a lot.”

Destinations that move inspiration

The location of a retreat is paramount, chosen specifically for its history, culture, and atmosphere. For instance, the Bound Writers’ Retreat found its perfect starting point in a 200-year-old Portuguese villa on Goa’s Divar Island. Tara Khandelwal, the founder, explains that every activity —from food tastings to island walks — is designed to spark story ideas and help participants notice the small details around them. They even offer workshops with renowned authors like Samit Basu and Prayaag Akbar.

A major focus of these gatherings is building a sense of community. “Writing is a solitary job, so having a community is very powerful,” Khandelwal notes. Participants often form lasting bonds, starting writing groups, sharing work, and becoming each other’s first readers.

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Dancing With the Stars' Len Goodman Tribute in 20th Anniversary Episode
Celebrity News

Dancing With the Stars’ Len Goodman Tribute in 20th Anniversary Episode

by jummy84
written by jummy84

How Much Do the Celebrities Get Paid to Be on Dancing With the Stars?

Citing multiple sources, Variety reported in 2019 that Dancing With the Stars contestants make $125,000 for the rehearsal period and first two weeks of the show. If they progress beyond that point, the outlet continued, they earn more money each week. At the time, sources told the publication stars could earn a maximum of $295,000.

However, Bobby Bones said he made more than this when he won season 27 with Sharna Burgess in 2018.

“That show pays OK,” the radio personality said on a Sept. 2025 episode of Jason Tartick‘s podcast Trading Secrets. “Like, first episode, no money. Second episode, $10,000. I think it’s like, $10,000, $10,000, $20,000, $20,000. It ends up being $50,000 an episode if you last.”

Also receiving a base salary of around $110,000, Bones continued, “I ended up making close to $400,000 from that show.” 

ABC has not publicly confirmed any of these figures.

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NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 16: Gwyneth Paltrow and Timothee Chalamet on the set of "Marty Supreme" on October 16, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by XNY/Star Max/GC Images)
Hollywood

Release, Plot & Updates on Timothee Chalamet Movie – Hollywood Life

by jummy84
written by jummy84

Image Credit: GC Images

Gwyneth Paltrow and Timothée Chalamet are leading the upcoming sports-comedy movie Marty Supreme. Amid production, the co-stars made headlines after Paltrow admitted that she was unfamiliar with the role of an intimacy coordinator. Her revelation came shortly after the two were spotted filming PDA-filled scenes.

According to Vanity Fair, she remarked, “There’s now something called an intimacy coordinator, which I did not know existed.” She continued, “Girl, I’m from the era where you get naked, you get in bed, the camera’s on.”

While Paltrow has been in Hollywood longer than Chalamet, Marty Supreme director Josh Safdie praised her star power and presence on screen. He told Vanity Fair, “She’s a movie star. I say that in the cosmic sense. She’s got a gravitational pull that only a camera can depict.” He added, “I think her absence from acting has lent a vulnerability to her abilities.”

With growing anticipation for the film, fans are eager to learn more details about it. Below, find everything there is to know about its release date, the rest of the cast, how to watch it and more. 

What Is Marty Supreme About?

According to Paltrow, the film follows “This woman who is married to someone who is in the ping-pong mafia, as it were.” She explained,”They meet and she’s had a pretty tough life, and I think he breathes life back into her, but it’s kind of transactional for them both.” The titular character, Marty (Chalamet), is the ping-pong player.

Marty Supreme Release Date

The film is expected to premiere on Christmas Day, December 25, 2025, according to IMDb.

Marty Supreme Trailer

Marty Supreme Cast

Per IMDb, alongside Chalamet and Paltrow, the film stars Sandra Bernhard, Fran Drescher, Abel Ferrara, and others. Speaking about Chalamet, Paltrow told Vanity Fair, “He’s just a very polite, properly raised, I was going to say kid. He’s a man who takes his work really seriously and is a fun partner.”

Alongside Chalamet and Paltrow, the ensemble includes Sandra Bernhard, Fran Drescher, Abel Ferrara, Tyler, The Creator, Adam Sandler, and Rachel Sennott in supporting roles.

Where to Watch Marty Supreme

The movie will be released in theaters on December 25. A streaming release has not been announced yet. 

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10 David Gray Songs You Need to Hear (That Aren't "Babylon") » PopMatters
Music

10 David Gray Songs You Need to Hear (That Aren’t “Babylon”) » PopMatters

by jummy84
written by jummy84

David Gray made his musical name at the turn of the 21st century, but it would not be until halfway through its first decade that he released his true masterpiece. 1999’s White Ladder put Gray on the global map, fueled by the success of lead single “Babylon”. On that album and its successor, A New Day at Midnight, Gray pursues an electronic-inflected style of folk – “folktronica”, as one neologism has it – that lends him aesthetic uniqueness, bridging the old-fashioned guy-with-a-guitar setup and the new kinds of production and instrumentation available in a changing technological landscape.

After breaking into the international mainstream, however, Gray would not stick to folktronica. As 2005’s Life in Slow Motion attests, his music blossomed with organic instrumentation and fuller arrangements, in contrast to the intimate bedroom sound that makes White Ladder endearing still. Life in Slow Motion, now re-released in deluxe digital and vinyl editions that include demos and B-sides, testifies that for whatever Gray was able to get out of a spare recording setup, he knew how to take advantage of a full studio setup and a whole series of accoutrements, including brass string sections on the likes of “Alibi” and the haunting title track. The sonic canvas is as expansive as the arctic environs on the cover art.

Six albums have followed Life in Slow Motion, bringing the tally to 13 for Gray’s career. With the new edition of that LP as exigence, PopMatters looks back on Gray’s artistic output, delving deep into his catalogue to highlight ten songs that, in various ways, illustrate the many facets of his songwriting that culminate on Life in Slow Motion.

No songs from the much-lauded White Ladder appear here, intentionally. “Babylon” and its siblings, like “Sail Away” and “This Year’s Love”, still feature at any concert of Gray’s, and more ink, physical and digital, has been spilled about them than anything else in his discography. This article prefers the deep cut over the smash single, and Gray is one of those artists who shine most brightly on the songs that were never meant for radio’s circulation. The singles featured below dropped after the days when radio charts reigned supreme, but in a different musical reality, they still deserved to shoot to number one.

“Falling Free” (from Flesh, 1994)

This hushed piece from David Gray’s early and pre-fame years sounds in every aspect like an artist coming into his voice. Consisting of nothing more than Gray and a piano, “Falling Free” signaled his aptitude for writing love songs. “We’re standing face-to-face / With the angel of grace / Don’t it just taste so pure?” he cries at the song’s climax, a rupture of emotion in a gentle ballad.

The juxtaposition of stark piano chords and Gray’s poignant lyrics marks an essential passing of a test for a young songwriter: how well can you paint a musical picture with the barest of ingredients? “Falling Free” gives us a protean version of the Gray that would blossom in the years to come: earnest without being cloying, emotionally direct, and lyrically rich.

“Late Night Radio” (from Sell, Sell, Sell, 1996)

Despite its title, Sell, Sell, Sell ended up being the record that preceded the one that sold copies in the millions. Still, “Late Night Radio” should have been as big a hit as “Babylon” was, perhaps even more so. The song tells a story familiar to the annals of rock ‘n’ roll – a small-town woman having her world expanded with a move to a big city – but does so with a catchy chord progression and an intriguing chorus metaphor (“She don’t mind the late-night radio”).

Gray peppers in imagery that adds vivacity to the familiar picture he conjures, as when he describes New York as “dark, dirty and stark / Burning with yellow wings.” When in the final verse he describes his protagonist as “alive with the sound”, the same feels true of him. 

“Flame Turns Blue” (from Lost Songs 95-98, 2000)

Of the songs written by David Gray that should make the mythical songwriter’s canon, the kind of song that anyone with a voice and a guitar would do well to know, “Flame Turns Blue” stands out as the best candidate. Gray regularly introduces the song onstage by explaining its backstory, which was written after a stolen tour bus incident during a US tour. However, “Flame Turns Blue” might be the most timeless thing he’s written; the particularity of his experience in writing the song translates into an expression of universality.

The final verse contains some of Gray’s finest lyrical poetry: “Through the lemon trees the diamonds of light / Break in splinters on the pages where I write.” Lost Songs is an interstitial moment in Gray’s career, compiling tracks written in the years leading up to White Ladder. “Flame Turns Blue” confirmed a year after that record’s release that the brilliance had been in the works for some time.

“Knowhere” (from A New Day at Midnight, 2002)

The deepest of deep cuts, “Knowhere” might not be on the radar of even the most enthusiastic Gray devotees. No live versions of the song exist on YouTube, and the archival website Setlist only logs three performances, all in 2002, the year of A New Day at Midnight’s release. This brooding electronic number captures the outer edge of Gray’s “folktronica” experimentation.

Unlike “Flame Turns Blue”, “Knowhere” doesn’t sound like the kind of song one could effectively capture with only a guitar or piano as an aid. The brooding opening image (“Slow voices speaking through a hurricane”) and skeptical chorus refrain (“I don’t know where I / I don’t know what I’m / Supposed to do now”) provoke a curious disquiet. One could call it a mood piece, albeit one with which it is easy to sing along.  

“Ain’t No Love” (from Life in Slow Motion, 2005)

Nestled in the midsection of Life in Slow Motion, an album that begins with orchestral bombast (“Alibi”) and concludes in a squall of distortion (“Disappearing World”), “Ain’t No Love” does not assert itself the way one might expect of a great song. The simple C-major chord progression and brief structure – which, unusually, concludes after just a single chorus, right as the music achieves liftoff – is downright spartan in contrast to the string-soaked lushness of “Alibi” or the gradual build of “Now and Always”.

Simplicity works to Gray’s advantage in this case. The delicate piano chords that augment the closing verse’s glistening imagery (“On winter trees the fruit of rain / Is hanging trembling on the branches / Like a thousand diamond buds”) are a respite amidst the dynamic volleys of Life in Slow Motion, a reminder that resting for a breather affords its own kind of power.

“Full Steam” (from Draw the Line, 2009)

Gray would do well to indulge in a duets record, considering the collaborations he’s put to tape over the years. “Full Steam” is the boldest of that small group, a rousing tune featuring Annie Lennox that, given its context of the Great Recession, feels like a renunciation of neoliberalism. “Forlorn, adrift, on seas of beige / In this, our golden age,” Gray and Lennox harmonize together, before admitting in the chorus: “Now you saw it coming / And I saw it coming / We all saw it coming / And we still bought it.”

Gray, of course, is hardly a polemicist, and “Full Steam” is no fiery manifesto. The reluctance in the lyrics to name specific political targets ultimately proves to be an asset. In many situations, Gray and Lennox remind us, the first step toward change often involves recognizing our own complicity. Barring that, we are “running full steam ahead” into destruction.

“Birds of the High Arctic” (from Mutineers, 2014)

Arriving after the more organically instrumented Draw the Line and the stripped-bare Foundling (2010), Mutineers hearkened back to the electronic textures of Gray’s years most centrally in the public spotlight. Yet there is a maturity there built from the more robust arrangements on Life in Slow Motion and Draw the Line, making Mutineers a unique point of synthesis. “Birds of the High Arctic” recalls the dramatic piano balladry of “Alibi” while washing it in layers of reverb.

Gray sounds like he set up microphones in the frigid landscape on the cover of Life in Slow Motion. The song ascends to a pained moment of revelation: “Baby say that it isn’t true / You were never there and it wasn’t you.” Lyrically, he indulges one of his beloved topics, avian life, equating a now-departed presence to a speck with wings on a whiteout sky. 

“Hall of Mirrors” (from Gold in a Brass Age, 2019)

Gold in a Brass Age is, in many ways, the logical aesthetic follow-up to White Ladder and A New Day at Midnight, in its embrace of electronic textures. Still, it could only have been written by a songwriter who expanded his horizons in the way Gray did after the early 2000s. The jittery “Hall of Mirrors” proves illustrative in this regard: chiming guitars intertwine with spastic programmed drums and layered vocals, coming to glorious fruition with a hymnal of an outro: “Baby when that oh-too-solid ground / Comes a-risin’ up, hey don’t look down now,” Gray chants, his voice a choir in miniature. New-school in sound but old-school in feeling, “Hall of Mirrors” is, as its name suggests, a showcase of Gray’s artistry. (Read the author’s interview with Gray about this album for PopMatters here.)

“Accumulates” (from Skellig, 2021)

A simple hammered-on guitar lick defines David Gray’s biggest hit in “Babylon”, so it’s unsurprising that a reprisal of that technique works brilliantly on “Accumulates”. Like the rest of the tunes on Skellig, “Accumulates” captures Gray at his most elemental, with voice and guitar doing the heavy lifting, adornments minimal at most. The origin of the album’s name, taken from remote islands off the coast of Ireland, informs the meditative isolation that characterizes “Accumulates”, whose post-2020 release felt all the more apt, given the containment experienced by Gray’s listeners worldwide.

He dances around the subject of the song; “Well it grips / And it grins / It cavorts / and it gyrates,” he sings, never giving the “it” a proper noun. The repetitive hammered guitar note and lyrically hypnotic quality of “Accumulates” suggest the image of someone trying their best, on their own, to think their way to identifying a force they sense but cannot name. Who among us hasn’t been there?

“Plus and Minus” (from Dear Life, 2025)

Now over 30 years into a musical life, David Gray continues to add gems to his songwriting trove. “Plus and Minus”, the first single from his latest LP Dear Life, ranks with the likes of “Sail Away” and “Please Forgive Me.” A mercurial duet with a young UK singer named Talia Ray, “Plus and Minus” deploys a perfectly placed modulation in the prechorus that includes a poetic phrase that could be describing the trials of creativity, or of the pursuit of love: “For the fire that gets lit / And the flame that regrets it.”

The electronic drum track and repetitive Euro dance-style piano chords that anchor the song evoke Gray’s 1990s roots. However, the cumulative effect is contemporary, a testament to an artist who can adapt to the times while still sounding like himself. “This whole routine is getting old,” Gray sings in unison with Rae, an ironic statement for an artist like himself.

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The Running Man review: Glen Powell proves a charismatic hero in Edgar Wright's patchy remake
TV & Streaming

The Running Man review: Glen Powell proves a charismatic hero

by jummy84
written by jummy84

A star rating of 3 out of 5.

On-the-rise action man Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Twisters) takes on a role originally played on screen by his Expendables 3 co-star Arnold Schwarzenegger in this explosive, big-budget remake of the 1987 thriller.

Set in a dystopian, totalitarian United States where violent television programmes have become the opium of the people, the original film was based on a 1982 novel by Stephen King (under his Richard Bachman pseudonym), but co-writer/director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Last Night in Soho) has opted to stay even closer to the source material for his adaptation.

So, instead of Arnie’s Ben Richards being a cop coerced to participate in the game, Powell’s Richards is a working-class Everyman living in an overcrowded slum, whose frustration with his inability to hold down a job and look after his waitress wife and their ailing toddler forces him to volunteer for the financially lucrative if lethal Running Man TV show.

Avoid capture for 30 days and $1 billion is the ultimate reward. However, contestants are also hunted across the United States by an elite team of assassins led by a merciless masked mystery man. The action is televised to an audience happy to dob them in to the authorities for a slice of the financial pie, all under the auspices of ever-smirking network CEO and smug puppet-master Dan Killian (Josh Brolin).

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Killian and motor-mouthed MC Bobby T (Colman Domingo) consider Richards a ratings winner, especially when he continues to evade his murderous pursuers and their ever-present drone cameras, and then survives by the skin of his teeth when they do get close, as in one fiery encounter at a down-at-heel Boston hotel. However, could Richards’s resilience and apoplectic defiance inspire something other than bloodlust from viewers and threaten their best-laid corporate plans?

No stranger to delivering breakneck action (Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver), Wright produces plenty of nerve-jangling, kinetic set-pieces, whether it is a deadly game of chicken on a bridge or the climactic airborne stand-off. The fact the deadly contest takes place across the US (rather than a murky underground labyrinth as seen in the 1987 movie) also expands the scope of the story, revealing an America riven by economic inequality and manipulated by a self-satisfied few who have no qualms about using fake news to control the narrative.

A similar theme fuels The Long Walk – released earlier this year, and also based on an early King story – in which televised survival of the fittest is used to distract ordinary folk from their impoverished plight. It’s the type of allegory that Wright’s director idol George A Romero (of Night of the Living Dead fame) would have applauded.

However, the episodic nature of the plot, with Richards having to don a variety of disguises to lay low and avoid recognition, occasionally leads to a lull in the pace and a lessening of tension.

Nevertheless, Powell proves to be a charismatic hero, bristling with anger but also able to stay alive thanks to his own ingenuity and much-needed assistance from those he meets on his travels, such as cameoing William H Macy, Emilia Jones (CODA) and Michael Cera (star of Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs the World), whose mercurial rebel lives in an elaborately booby-trapped bolt-hole worthy of Rambo.

Oh, and regarding cameos, keep your eyes peeled for a left-field appearance from Schwarzenegger himself.

The Running Man is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday 12th November 2025.

Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.

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15 Ulta Deals on Shark Beauty, MAC, and More Ending Tonight
Fashion

15 Ulta Deals on Shark Beauty, MAC, and More Ending Tonight

by jummy84
written by jummy84

I don’t know about you, but it feels like this time of year flies by in the blink of an eye. Between the glitzy holiday parties, busy days at work, and final hangouts with friends before departing for family time, it’s easy to neglect gift shopping. To avoid the unnecessary rush-ship fees and last-minute panic purchases, I’ve learned that it’s best to start gathering holiday gifts now, especially because the best deals often surface ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Case in point: Ulta’s Hello Holidays Sale—offering up to 50% off some of our favorite beauty brands like MAC Cosmetics, Shark Beauty, Clinique, and more—which ends tonight.

Short and sweet, this three-day sale started on November 8 and concludes tonight, November 11. But that doesn’t mean that there’s not still time to clinch jaw-dropping deals before the Black Friday rush begins. For the next few hours, you can save on holiday wish-list items like Billie Eilish’s No.2 Eau de Parfum, snag the editor-loved Shark FlexStyle for $100 less, and stock up on party-ready makeup essentials from as little as $3. If you’re an Ulta rewards program member (it’s free to join!), you can unlock even more savings when you shop this sale—Diamond- and Platinum-tier members earn up to 40% off premium brands like MAC, Clinique, Pureology, and more. Plus, you can take up to $20 off your purchase when you enter the code GIFTS at checkout, which counts toward prestige beauty and fragrances too.

Think this deal can’t get any sweeter? Think again. Below, shop the best deals I’ve found at Ulta’s Black Friday–rivaling sale, starting at $5.

(Image credit: Vault Stock)

The Best Deals at Ulta’s Early Holiday Sale