Country Star Zach Bryan Burns Flag 9 Months After Dramatic Breakup

Country Star Zach Bryan Burns Flag 9 Months After Dramatic Breakup

Country Star Zach Bryan Burns Flag 9 Months After Dramatic Breakuporiginally appeared onParade. Nine months afterhis tumultuous breakupfrom Barstool Sports personalityBrianna "Chickenfry" LaPaglia,Zach Bryanis done talking. Instead, he's flag-burning. The 29-year-old "Something in the Orange Singer" took to his Instagram Story on Monday, August 9, to share a video of himself lighting a Barstool Sports flag — one emblazoned with the brand's famous "Saturdays Are for the Boys" tagline — on fire. A few seconds after it ignites, Bryan takes his golf club and hit half of the already-incinerated flag across his property. In the next video, he hops on board his tractor, apparently to go retrieve it. Bryan set the whole flag-burning process to the tune ofTyler Childers' "Bitin' List" — specifically the lines: "To put it plain, I just don't like you / not a thing about the way you is / And if there ever come a time I got rabies / you're high on my bitin' list." In addition to the telling lyrics, the country crooner's use of a Childers song could also be reference to the scathing diss track Barstool Sports'Dave PortnoyandJosh Richardsdropped about Bryan in the wake of his split from LaPaglia. In October 2024,Bryan and LaPaglia broke upafter months of dating, with the musician announcing their breakup in a lengthy post on social media. LaPaglia, for her part, soon went on her BarstoolBFFspodcast, whom she hosts withRichardsand, at the time, big bossPortnoy, who founded the sports brand. On the pod, LaPaglia accused Bryan of emotional abuse and further alleged that offered her $12 million to not discuss their split, which she turned down. Portnoy and Richards, for their part, came up with a wildly NSFW diss track about Bryan in defense of LaPaglia. Among the many lyrics aimed at the "Oklahoma Smokeshow" crooner, one line they rap in particular, is: "Your whole style'sMorgan Wallen, Tyler Childers, Copy Paste." Though October 2025 will mark a year since Bryan and LaPaglia's split, it looks like the drama is far from over — especially as Bryan's new fire-filled social media stunt comes on the heels of a jab he reportedly made at LaPaglia just last month. After a fan speculated that a new lyric on his song "River Washed Hair" could be about LaPaglia — "And I think I might pack a bag in the night / Find me some small town out West / Start over, find closure and just say 'I'm sorry' / To that sweet girl who tore off that dress," Bryan sings on the track — he took a shot at LaPaglia when shooting down the speculation. "Lmfao I said 'sweet,'" Bryan wrote in a comment that has since been deleted, perTaste of Country. "This is not about whatever she has going on hahahahahaah." Country Star Zach Bryan Burns Flag 9 Months After Dramatic Breakupfirst appeared on Parade on Aug 5, 2025 This story was originally reported byParadeon Aug 5, 2025, where it first appeared.

byAlpha World

in

August 05, 2025

Country Star Zach Bryan Burns Flag 9 Months After Dramatic Breakup

Country Star Zach Bryan Burns Flag 9 Months After Dramatic Breakup Country Star Zach Bryan Burns Flag 9 Months After Dramatic Breakuporigina...

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50 Years Ago Today, These Pioneering ‘Queens of Rock and Noise’ Formed the First All-Female Punk Rock Band

50 Years Ago Today, These Pioneering 'Queens of Rock and Noise' Formed the First All-Female Punk Rock Band

50 Years Ago Today, These Pioneering 'Queens of Rock and Noise' Formed the First All-Female Punk Rock Bandoriginally appeared onParade. Sometimes the most revolutionary ideas are born from the simplest observations. Fifty-three years ago today, on August 5, 1975, producerKim Fowleyhad a vision that would shatter every barrier in rock music: What if teenage girls could rock just as hard as the boys? That question led to the formation ofThe Runaways, the groundbreaking all-female band that proved women belonged on every stage in rock and roll. The band's origin story reads like rock mythology. Fowley discovered drummerSandy Westin the parking lot of the Rainbow Bar and Grill, where she convinced him of her talent on the spot. Meanwhile, guitaristJoan Jetthad auditioned for Fowley by playing ukulele to aSweetalbum before switching to guitar and becoming the band's driving force. What made The Runaways truly revolutionary wasn't just their gender – it was their age and attitude. These weren't seasoned musicians breaking into a male-dominated industry; they were teenagers creating their own space in rock history. Lead vocalistCherie Curriewas discovered at a teen nightclub, while bassistJackie Foxwas literally found in a parking lot by Fowley's associate. The band's impact was immediate and lasting. Their signature song "Cherry Bomb" became an anthem of teenage rebellion, while "Queens of Noise" – which inspired our headline – showcased their fierce energy and unapologetic attitude. They toured with established acts likeVan HalenandTalking Heads, proving they could hold their own with any rock band. Beyond their musical contributions, The Runaways opened doors that had never existed before. Their existence alone inspired countless young women to pick up instruments and start their own bands. Related: Legendary Rock Goddess, 66, Ageless Beauty and Timeless Performance Has Fans Stunned She's 'Still a Baddie' Though The Runaways disbanded in 1979 after releasing four studio albums, their influence rippled through generations. Joan Jett became a rock icon with herBlackhearts, whileLita Fordcarved out her own successful solo career. Their story proved that rock and roll belonged to anyone brave enough to claim it. Tragically, drummer Sandy West died in 2006 at just 47, but her legacy lives on in every female drummer who followed. The Runaways didn't just form a band – they created a blueprint for rebellion, showing that teenage girls could be just as loud, proud, and powerful as anyone else in rock music. 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 Today, as we celebrate their formation anniversary, The Runaways' message remains as relevant as ever: rock and roll has no gender, and music belongs to anyone bold enough to make some noise. 50 Years Ago Today, These Pioneering 'Queens of Rock and Noise' Formed the First All-Female Punk Rock Bandfirst appeared on Parade on Aug 5, 2025 This story was originally reported byParadeon Aug 5, 2025, where it first appeared.

byAlpha World

in

August 05, 2025

50 Years Ago Today, These Pioneering ‘Queens of Rock and Noise’ Formed the First All-Female Punk Rock Band

50 Years Ago Today, These Pioneering 'Queens of Rock and Noise' Formed the First All-Female Punk Rock Band 50 Years Ago Today, These...

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Is an AI backlash brewing? What 'clanker' says about growing frustrations with emerging tech

Is an AI backlash brewing? What 'clanker' says about growing frustrations with emerging tech

It's a slur for the AI age. "Clanker," a word that traces back toa Star Wars video game, has emerged in recent weeks as the internet's favorite epithet for any kind of technology looking to replace humans. On TikTok, people harass robotsin storesandon sidewalkswith it. Search interest for the termhas spiked. On X, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., used the term last week to tout a new piece of legislation. "Sick of yelling "REPRESENTATIVE" into the phone 10 times just to talk to a human being?," heposted on X. "My new bill makes sure you don't have to talk to a clanker if you don't want to." In one video, which hasmore than 6 million views on TikTok, a small, four-wheeled delivery robot gets berated with the word. "It makes me sick just seeing a..." Nic, a 19-year-old student and aspiring content creator in Miami Beach who posted the video, says as it approached, adding: "Clanker!" A slur is generally defined as a word or phrase meant to denigrate a person based on their membership to a particular group such as a race, gender or religion — one that goes beyond rudeness intoovert bigotry. They are almost always directed at people. "Clanker" appears to have peeked into the internet's lexicon starting in early June, with Google Trends data showing a sudden uptick in search interest. An entry onKnowYourMeme.com, a website dedicated to documenting the varied weirdness of the internet, traced the term back to the 2010s, when Star Wars communities adopted it from its use in various Star Wars shows to refer to battle robots. Other pieces of science fiction also predicted the rise of slurs for machines, most notably "Blade Runner," with "skinjob" to refer to highly advanced, humanlike robots. But there's a catch. By using a slur in a way that would typically apply to a human, people are also elevating the technology, offering some sense that people both want to put down the machines and recognize their ascension in society. Adam Aleksic, a linguist who is also a content creatorfocused on how the internet is shaping language, said he first noticed the emergence of "clanker" a couple of weeks ago. Its use mirrored classic slurs related to racial tropes and appeared to emerge out of a growing "cultural need" related to growing unease with where advanced technology is heading. In one video — somewhat ironicallyappearing to have been created by AI— a man berates his daughter during a family dinner for dating "a goddamned clanker," before his wife steps in and apologizes to the robot. "What we're doing is we're anthropomorphizing and personifying and simplifying the concept of an AI, reducing it into an analogy of a human and kind of playing into the same tropes," Aleksic said. "Naturally, when we trend in that direction, it does play into those tropes of how people have treated marginalized communities before." The use of "clanker" is rising as people are more often encountering AI and robots in their daily lives, something that is only expected to continue in the coming years. The steady expansion of Waymo's driverless cars across U.S. cities has also come with some human-inflictedbumps and bruises for the vehicles along the way. Food delivery bots arean increasingly common sight on sidewalks. In the virtual world, cybersecurity firmscontinue to warnabout the proliferation of bots on the web that comprise a growing share of all web traffic — includingas many as one in five social media accounts. The anti-machine backlash has long been simmering but is now seemingly breaking to the surface. A global report by Gartner research groupfoundthat 64% of customers would prefer that companies didn't use AI for customer service — with another 53% stating they would consider switching to a competitor if they found out a company was doing so. People are becomingmore worried about AI taking their jobs, even though evidence of actual AI-related job losses isrelatively scant. "Clanker" is also not the first pejorative term for something related to AI to have spread across the internet. "Slop" as a catchall term for AI-generated content that is of low quality or obviously created by AI — such as "shrimp Jesus" — entered internet parlance last year and has since become widely used. Other anti-AI terms that have emerged include "tin skin" and "toaster," a term that traces back to the science fiction show Battlestar Galactica. And there's even some pushback — joking and serious — about whether such slurs should be used. In a Reddit community for Black women,a post about "clanker"offered some sense of the tension: "And I know it's probably a joke in all from social media, but I can't help but feel like it's incredibly tasteless." Others have noted that some of the enthusiastic embrace of "clanker" feels more about being able to throw around a slur rather than any deeper issue with technology. Nic, whose TikTok video helped spark the "clanker" phenomenon, said he sees both why people have taken to the phrase as well as why some find it problematic. Nic, who asked to withhold his last name out of privacy concerns, said he did sense some people were using the word as a stand-in for a racial epithet. Still, Nic, who is Black, said he saw the term more broadly as a lighthearted way to express a growing anxiety with where technology is headed, particularly as it pertains to the future of employment. "I see it as being a push back against AI," he said. "A lot of lives are being changed because of robots ... and me personally I see it as a stupid way of fighting, but there's a little truth to it, as well."

byAlpha World

in

August 05, 2025

Is an AI backlash brewing? What 'clanker' says about growing frustrations with emerging tech

Is an AI backlash brewing? What 'clanker' says about growing frustrations with emerging tech It's a slur for the AI age. "C...

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Weather Words: Sundowner Winds

Weather Words: Sundowner Winds

Sundowner winds are a type of warm, dry, and often powerful wind that occurs along the southern and central coast of California, particularly around Santa Barbara. These winds typically blow downslope from the Santa Ynez Mountains toward the coast, usually in the late afternoon or evening, hence the name "sundowner." They are similar in nature to Santa Ana winds but are more localized and strongly influenced by the region's unique topography. Sundowner winds occur when high pressure builds inland and forces air to descend rapidly over the mountains. As the air rushes downhill, it compresses and heats up, creating dry, gusty conditions. These winds often arrive suddenly and can be quite intense, sometimes exceeding 40 to 60 miles per hour. Because they tend to coincide with the driest and hottest part of the day, sundowner winds can significantly raise fire danger, drying out vegetation and spreading flames quickly. Their unpredictability and strength make sundowners especially hazardous during wildfire season. Several major fires in the Santa Barbara area, including the destructive Cave Fire in 2019, were driven in part by sundowner winds. Meteorologists closely monitor weather patterns in the region to provide early warnings when sundowners are likely to develop. Jennifer Grayis a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.

byAlpha World

in

August 05, 2025

Weather Words: Sundowner Winds

Weather Words: Sundowner Winds Sundowner winds are a type of warm, dry, and often powerful wind that occurs along the southern and central c...

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On This Day 53 Years Ago, Legendary Rock Band Aerosmith Got Their First Record Deal in the Most Iconic Way

On This Day 53 Years Ago, Legendary Rock Band Aerosmith Got Their First Record Deal in the Most Iconic Way

On This Day 53 Years Ago, Legendary Rock Band Aerosmith Got Their First Record Deal in the Most Iconic Wayoriginally appeared onParade. Sometimes the biggest dreams require the boldest risks, and 53 years ago today, five Boston musicians proved that betting everything on one night can change your life forever. On August 5, 1972,Aerosmithsecured their legendary $125,000 record deal with Columbia Records in a way that perfectly embodies rock and roll hustle. The unbelievable part? The band literally paid their own way to perform atMax's Kansas City, a small New York venue, knowing that music industry powerhouseClive Daviswould be in attendance. This wasn't a lucky break or accidental discovery – it was a calculated gamble that required incredible confidence and financial sacrifice from five young musicians who believed in their destiny. Davis, the legendary executive who also signedBruce Springsteen,Billy Joel, andPink Floyd, witnessed something special that night. Aerosmith's performance was so compelling that he offered them a deal on the spot, launching one of rock's most enduring careers. The band had strategically included "Mama Kin" in their setlist – a song so meaningful to Steven Tyler that he later tattooed "MA KIN" inside a heart on his bicep. What makes this story truly remarkable is how it demonstrates the power of creating your own opportunities. Rather than waiting to be discovered, Aerosmith invested their own money to put themselves in front of the right person at the right time. Their belief in their music was so strong that they were willing to risk everything for one performance. The strategy paid off spectacularly. Just five months later, in January 1973, their self-titled debut album was released, featuring future classics like "Dream On" and "Mama Kin." Eight days after the album release, "Mama Kin" became their first single – the very song that helped seal their record deal that fateful night at Max's Kansas City. Related: '80s Band Legend, 73, Nails Famous Power Ballad at Recent Concert: 'Sings Like an Angel' The band even immortalized this pivotal moment in their 1979 song "No Surprize" with the lyrics about how "at Max's Kansas City we won" and how "old Clive Davis said he's surely gonna make us a star." It became part of their rock and roll mythology, proving that sometimes the best stories are the true ones. 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 This origin story perfectly captures the essence of what made Aerosmith special from the beginning – they weren't just talented musicians, they were strategic dreamers who understood that success requires both incredible music and incredible courage. Fifty-three years later, that one night of calculated risk-taking launched a career that would influence countless artists and cement their place in rock history. On This Day 53 Years Ago, Legendary Rock Band Aerosmith Got Their First Record Deal in the Most Iconic Wayfirst appeared on Parade on Aug 5, 2025 This story was originally reported byParadeon Aug 5, 2025, where it first appeared.

byAlpha World

in

August 05, 2025

On This Day 53 Years Ago, Legendary Rock Band Aerosmith Got Their First Record Deal in the Most Iconic Way

On This Day 53 Years Ago, Legendary Rock Band Aerosmith Got Their First Record Deal in the Most Iconic Way On This Day 53 Years Ago, Legenda...

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