Latest news with #Mr.T
Engadget
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
The Internet Archive modernizes its GeoCities GIF search engine
The Internet Archive made it easier to search for '90s-era GIFs. GifCities contains millions of animations from the decade of flannel shirts and Soup Nazis. The GIFs were pulled from old GeoCities webpages, which (mostly) bit the dust in 2009. The new version of GifCities is much easier to search. You can now search semantically, based on the animation's content. In other words, it's much more likely to bring up the topic or scene you're looking for by describing it. In GifCities' old version, you could only search by file name. (If you're feeling masochistic, you can still access that version under a "Special search" tab.) The updated GifCities also now uses pagination. That's a good thing, as the old version's infinite scrolling could make for slow browsing. You can also create and share "GifGrams." As the name suggests, these are custom e-greetings made from those ancient GIFs. The Internet Archive launched GifCities in 2016 to celebrate its 20th anniversary. If you're too young to know, GeoCities was the quintessential early internet web-hosting service. A precursor to social media, it was full of embarrassing fan pages, personal photo albums and "Under construction" GIFs. (You'll find plenty of the latter in this search engine.) Yahoo pulled the plug on most of GeoCities in 2009. (Disclosure: That's Engadget's parent company.) However, the Japanese version survived for another decade. If you're of a certain age, you'll likely enjoy browsing the archive. (Or, learn what passed for internet humor before you were born!) Just note that many results are NSFW. I made the mistake of searching for "Mr. T," and I will now leave you to douse my eyes with bleach.
Eater
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
A Celebrated French Restaurant Adapts to Tough Times in Hollywood
Mr. T opened in Hollywood in September 2022 to high anticipation thanks to its reputation as a chic Parisian bistro from restaurateur Guillaume Guedj (previously of the two-Michelin-starred Passage 53). Opening chef Alisha Vannah came from République, another celebrated Los Angeles French-inflected restaurant. Everything seemed set for Mr. T to succeed on the then-bustling Sycamore Avenue in Hollywood on the ground floor of a new office building until a series of setbacks in the past year-plus led Guedj to seriously evaluate its approach. The restaurant's opening menu featured Angeleno-oriented takes on classic bistro fare, like chicken pot pie with tare chicken jus, tuna crudo, roast lamb kebabs, and Koshihikari rice topped with sea urchin créme. Early on, Time Out LA awarded Mr. T with a solid four-star review, and praised its inventiveness, editor Patricia Kelly Yeo noting that 'every dish delivers with just the right amount of flair.' In mid-2024, Guedj brought on talented pastry chef Francois Daubinet to helm a daytime pastry program and the restaurant's evening desserts. Later that year, Mr. T was added to the Los Angeles Times' 101 Best Restaurants at number 87, where columnist Jenn Harris wrote, 'Vannah's cooking is a quiet luxury, demure but powerful in its intention and flavors.' Harris also commended Daubinet's desserts, especially the 'impossibly smooth' chocolate mousse. Though everything seemed fine on the outside, Guedj tells Eater that sales had slowed for the restaurant due to numerous issues. Its location demanded a steady flow of customers from offices, including Jay-Z's Roc Nation, which occupies space above Mr. T, but the reduction in mandatory office hours and the impact of the 2023 writers' and actors' strikes hampered business for the restaurant. Then, at the top of this year, the Palisades and Eaton fires happened. Eater spoke with Guedj about the effects of the 2023 strikes and the January 2025 wildfires, and discussed the changes he's made with Vannah to make the menu this year more approachable for an LA dining scene that still today remains in flux. On the word changes for the menu: After the fires and amid difficult economic times, we wanted to serve more of what people want and need, to go back to the basics that we love. Mr T. opened with a modern French menu, and the idea is still the same, but we adjusted the menu to lean more on warmer, classic recipes. We have poulet roti, roasted chicken, with a proper jus. You might want a good steak frites with a thick, flavorful peppercorn sauce, or our twist of the famous beef Bourguignon. You get a classic Caesar salad with perfect seasoning. Apple pie with roasted apples. We're still modern French, but as a French guy, I feel like this is what people need right now. We wanted to adjust to Angelenos with a more straightforward menu than what we do in Paris. When we opened, it was France meets U.S., but when the new French guy came to town, we adjusted and found the right balance. April was tough with Coachella, but May was a little better. It's still very mellow and slow. We were on so many lists, like Time Out and Eater. Until June 2023, we were really good, busy all the time. Then the strikes hit, and that's when things started to slow down. The strikes really affected the business because we're in Hollywood. Last summer, we were added to the Los Angeles Times 101 Best Restaurants, and we were super proud to be at the event showcasing our food with 40 other restaurants. That was a huge push and amazing exposure, so that December was great, but then the fires hit. We ended up only having that high for a month. 'People don't want to be overwhelmed during these times.' — Guillaume guedj, owner, Mr. t On making the menu less French and more French American: We realized that we had to communicate that we were more approachable to our regulars. We have French dishes like roast chicken, steak frites, branzino with beurre blanc. It's more French American, and it's a good mix. French people come and they love it, and American people can understand it. People don't want to be overwhelmed during these times. They want to come eat, and have something simple; they want to know what they're going to get. I think that really helped us attract regular customers after the fire. On Vannah's development as a chef in the past two-and-a-half years: It was challenging to adapt to the concept of Mr. T from Republique. We were doing things like roasted cauliflower with hummus or fancy tacos. It's all very creative, and that's what made Mr. T famous in France, but it was a challenge for her. I think she took it and did great, incorporating her Thai background and adding Asian twists. I was challenging us to do better and be more creative. But I think there was a disconnect. When customers come here, they want French food. It was confusing for some people. We had to make things more approachable, still with a nice presentation and good cooking technique. So now the fusion is more French American, with a burger, macaroni and cheese. It's more what people want, and Alisa had to adjust. There's more focus on the sauce, cooking, and finding products — and less on creativity, if I can say that. On getting creative even within the context of bistro classics: When you want to do a steak, typically you'll put seasonal root vegetables on the side or put a sauce with a little twist. Now we're thinking, let's just do a good old-school French peppercorn sauce. We have really good French fries and a good New York steak. It's just a tasty plate of steak frites, and it's one of our most popular dishes on the menu. We worked hard on the jus for the roast chicken to make it clearer and lighter. It's also one of our main dishes. Caesar salad is everywhere in France now, so we used endive to make it more Frenchy. We stack the endives for a beautiful and modern presentation. It's a taste that we all know, but we elevated it. On dealing with the daytime business in Hollywood: With Francois, we had a strong start; people were coming from Santa Monica and Silver Lake to try the pastries. But we don't have a lot of people in the neighborhood who want to enjoy a good croissant on a daily basis. We're actually selling more coffee and breakfast burritos, so we had this problem on weekdays of throwing stuff away. We stopped the pastries and just kept them for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. People are waiting now and coming for coffee and pastries. It's funny because people are choosing cookies over croissants — they seem to have almost the same calories. On changing from a destination to a neighborhood favorite: I'm hoping that the area and the overall economy will get better. The whole world is suffering, Los Angeles is suffering, and Hollywood even more. I believe if you keep building it and keep it consistent, and make adjustments, you can make it through the storm. We need to stay alive during difficult times, and hopefully, it gets better. The thing that saves Mr. T is the regulars. They love this place and the team. The food is good quality — it's not Michelin star, but we use farm-to-table products and it's tasty for what you get. With music and ambience, you can have a good dinner. Initially, we were getting people coming from Santa Monica and the Westside to have an experience, but we didn't have that many regulars. Now with the new menu, we have items that get people coming every weekend or every two weeks. I feel like if we keep building with our fans, we should be fine.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
WrestleMania 41: The greatest celebrity matches in WrestleMania history, from Lawrence Taylor to Bad Bunny
From the very beginning, WrestleMania has been a balance of in-ring wrestling and Hollywood glitz and glamour. The excitement around the first WrestleMania was built on pop star Cyndi Lauper, who was managing women's champion Wendi Richter and television/movie star Mr. T, who was in the main event tag match. Celebrities have donned the tights many times, and while the results have been sort of hit and miss (no one is going to be looking to rediscover the greatness of Maria Menounos's WrestleMania 28 tag match), there have been some truly excellent celebrity WrestleMania matches. From WrestleMania 1 all the way to last year's Philadelphia showcase, here is a list of the best: Bunny is a huge music star and has to be given a lot of credit for how he clearly prepared for this match. He broke out a bunch of high spots, a satellite head scissors, plancha and Canadian destroyer. The match never really felt like a fight, though, a feeling significantly less polished celebrities were able to pull off. Miz and Morrison are experienced hands and certainly did their best to install some credibility, but this ended up feeling more like a handful of cool twitter gifs than a complete match. (Still some admittedly cool twitter gifs.) Taylor was one of the greatest pure athletes in football history, and that athleticism jumped off the screen in this match. You get the sense that Taylor spent less time preparing for this match than any other celebrity on this list. If he tried to do anything complicated, it didn't look good — but the match still completely worked. Most of Taylor's offense were these leaping forearm smashes where he just sprung himself through the air and landed with the kind of explosive force that terrorized quarterbacks throughout the '80s and '90s. Bigelow was a pro's pro, and you could see him moving "LT" around into positions and feeding him openings and gamely taking the potatoes that Taylor was delivering. Bam Bam was always a bit of a what-if — for whatever reason he never really reached the heights that his talent and look should have taken him to. But in his most high-profile moment, he totally delivered. An incredibly 1980s moment: Muhammed Ali as the special referee, Libarace as the time-keeper and Billy Martin sitting at ringside. A sea change in the way professional wrestling was presented. A great Piper performance — just an all-time s***-stirrer, getting in Mr. T's face, cheap-shotting, stooging for Hogan, injecting the entire match with an unhinged energy, a little grit in the gloss. Mr. T did a nice job with his role as well, hitting some nice takedowns, being a good hot tag and coming off like a tough guy. Hogan in 1985 was a master of this kind of spectacle, playing to the cheap seats with big expressive selling and moves, delivering what the crowd paid to see. While Ronda Rousey would go on to have a pair of runs as a full-time wrestler, she was fully a celebrity attraction at this point, coming into the WWE after being one of the biggest sports stars in the world as a UFC champion. This was one a great example of the excellence of structure, a classic southern tag where the catharsis is deferred and deferred to make the moment when it hits mean so much. The rules of the match only allowed men to wrestle men and women to wrestle women, so the beginning of the match was Triple H trying to keep Angle from tagging in Rousey and forcing his wife into the threshing machine. McMahon could certainly outstay her welcome as an on-air character, but this was her masterpiece, a cheap-shotting obnoxious heel, who the crowd is begging to see get her comeuppance. They actually use a lot of bells and whistles to have a competitive finish run, with Steph in full hair-pull, eye-rake mode, keeping the audience from the moment where Ronda catches her, to the point where the crowd comes unglued when Ronda finally snaps her arm with the armbar. Logan Paul has become a staple of the WWE in the past three years, but came into this match as a social media star without previous in-ring experience — and he demonstrated here what would make him such a successful wrestler. Paul just seemed to intrinsically understand the way to dig under the skin of fans. There is a moment where Paul does Eddie Guerrero's signature combos to taunt Mysterio. It's a spot that has been done hundreds of times since Eddie's death, but just watch how Paul pauses after each suplex to maximize the boos — and his absolutely contemptible little shimmy on the top rope before the frog splash. A lot of wrestling heels these days exist in a sort of meta world where fans cheer them for 'being a good bad guy.' Paul in this match channels the kind of hate which would make old ladies try to stab Tully Blanchard. Basically a live action Tom and Jerry cartoon. Knoxville did a tremendous job translating what made "Jackass" so special over the years into a wrestling match — and Sami Zayn took the kind of insane bumps necessary to pull it off. Giant hands, tables full of mousetraps, bowling balls to the privates, crazy amounts of punishment. It was like if Kevin versus the Wet Bandits happened live with no special effects or cutting. Most celebrity matches are built around how the celebrity can integrate himself into the world of wrestling. This was basically Sami Zayn dropped in an episode of "Jackass," and he fit in perfectly. One of the great pro-wrestling spectacles of all time, the ultimate glitz and glamour celebrity fight. Mayweather was the biggest boxing star since Mike Tyson and someone who was facing off with a behemoth who was 250-pound heavier and a foot and a half taller. Somehow Floyd's natural brand of hateable charisma made the crowd root for Goliath to take his revenge against David. Mayweather came equipped with an entourage to run interference and take bumps, but when he got his chances, he showed off his blinding hand speed and power, throwing maybe the nastiest body shots ever in a pro-wrestling ring. Big Show got his licks in too, stepping on Mayweather's chest and arms and chucking him around the ring — huge bumps for an active champion boxer (although Mayweather was technically in the middle of one of his many retirements.) The finish was incredible, with Floyd using distractions to wallop Big Show with a chair and then crush him with a brass-knuckle assisted right hand, which he didn't appear to pull even a little bit.
Washington Post
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
WWE's WrestleMania continues to bulk up, providing a dayslong extravaganza for fans
As wrestling fans prepare to descend upon Las Vegas for WWE's WrestleMania 41, demand has steadily grown so much over the years that it's now bulked up into a dayslong event. While WrestleMania matches will be held on April 19 and 20, a flurry of activities will take place in the days before and after, including meet and greets with wrestlers, a WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, matches for weekly television shows including 'Smackdown,' 'Raw,' and 'NXT' and a Roast of WrestleMania hosted by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. The build-out of activities is similar to what the NFL does for the Super Bowl, which hosts meet and greets with current and former football players, flag football clinics, food experiences and other events. WrestleMania has come a long way since its start in March 1985. Back then it was a one-night event that focused primarily on the wrestling matches, with celebrities like Mr. T, Liberace and Muhammad Ali sprinkled in. By 2016 there were more than 100,000 fans in attendance for WrestleMania 32 in Arlington, Texas. The annual event was expanded in 2020 to two days of wrestling matches with WrestleMania 36. WrestleMania 41 is being held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the same location where the Super Bowl was held last year. Similarly, WrestleMania 42 will be held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans in 2026. That's where this year's Super Bowl was held. Jason Cieslak, global president of global brand consultancy Siegel+Gale, said that WWE has managed to find a way to continue to have WrestleMania successfully pay dividends for the company over time. 'There is a considerable benefit to treating WrestleMania like the Super Bowl or the World Cup,' he said. 'WWE has been masterful at looping in celebrities for participation and leveraging social channels to build excitement for the event.' WrestleMania's expansion to several days worth of activities and events is a benefit to the brand. 'From a brand perspective, it makes what once was a narrow social event into something more mainstream and entertaining,' Cieslak said. 'This is a major accomplishment when you consider the brand's origins.' Sports entertainment company WWE , which is part of TKO Group Holdings , has previously said that WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Royal Rumble have a combined economic impact of more than $300 million. Live events are a significant component of TKO's business. The New York company, which also owns UFC , hosted more than 300 live events worldwide last year. Jefferies' Randal Konik said in a recent client note that he anticipates the momentum that TKO's live events have to continue throughout this year. 'We believe TKO will continue to have multiple levers to drive live event expansion from increased ticket pricing to greater implementation of site fees,' he wrote.
The Independent
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
WWE's WrestleMania continues to bulk up, providing a dayslong extravaganza for fans
As wrestling fans prepare to descend upon Las Vegas for WWE 's WrestleMania 41, demand has steadily grown so much over the years that it's now bulked up into a dayslong event. While WrestleMania matches will be held on April 19 and 20, a flurry of activities will take place in the days before and after, including meet and greets with wrestlers, a WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, matches for weekly television shows including 'Smackdown,' 'Raw,' and 'NXT' and a Roast of WrestleMania hosted by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. The build-out of activities is similar to what the NFL does for the Super Bowl, which hosts meet and greets with current and former football players, flag football clinics, food experiences and other events. WrestleMania has come a long way since its start in March 1985. Back then it was a one-night event that focused primarily on the wrestling matches, with celebrities like Mr. T, Liberace and Muhammad Ali sprinkled in. By 2016 there were more than 100,000 fans in attendance for WrestleMania 32 in Arlington, Texas. The annual event was expanded in 2020 to two days of wrestling matches with WrestleMania 36. WrestleMania 41 is being held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the same location where the Super Bowl was held last year. Similarly, WrestleMania 42 will be held at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans in 2026. That's where this year's Super Bowl was held. Jason Cieslak, global president of global brand consultancy Siegel+Gale, said that WWE has managed to find a way to continue to have WrestleMania successfully pay dividends for the company over time. 'There is a considerable benefit to treating WrestleMania like the Super Bowl or the World Cup,' he said. 'WWE has been masterful at looping in celebrities for participation and leveraging social channels to build excitement for the event.' WrestleMania's expansion to several days worth of activities and events is a benefit to the brand. 'From a brand perspective, it makes what once was a narrow social event into something more mainstream and entertaining,' Cieslak said. 'This is a major accomplishment when you consider the brand's origins.' Sports entertainment company WWE, which is part of TKO Group Holdings, has previously said that WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Royal Rumble have a combined economic impact of more than $300 million. Live events are a significant component of TKO's business. The New York company, which also owns UFC, hosted more than 300 live events worldwide last year. Jefferies' Randal Konik said in a recent client note that he anticipates the momentum that TKO's live events have to continue throughout this year. 'We believe TKO will continue to have multiple levers to drive live event expansion from increased ticket pricing to greater implementation of site fees,' he wrote.
