Following the Cleveland Indians’ exciting ride to a 22-game winning streak, let’s take a look at 8 other improbable win streaks in sports history. The Cleveland Indians were one strike away from settling for a mere tie of the longest winning streak in MLB history. Francisco Lindor had other ideas, knocking a laser shot off the left field wall of Progressive Field to send in the tying run. In the 10th inning, Jay Bruce roped one down the right field line to finish off the comeback victory in walk-off fashion. Twenty-two wins in a row. A miraculous feat that puts the Indians in a category truly occupied by only themselves. I say truly because the 1916 New York Giants achieved a 26-game unbeaten streak. However, their streak included a nine-inning tie at the midway point that was replayed the following day. Due to that asterisk, the Indians’ streak of 22        …read more

From ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ to ‘How to Get Away with Murder’ to a new production deal with Netflix, Shonda Rhimes continues to navigate her own path. In August Shonda Rhimes surprised friend and foe when she announced her departure from ABC and signed a multiyear production deal with Netflix. Earlier this year Rhimes was added to the Television Academy’s executive committee, which will help set its policy. It’s one of the many signs that Rhimes has become one of the most powerful women in television. She has fervently pursued and mastered her craft. Rhimes created and wrote successful screenplays for Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, and she’s the director of ShondaLand, the production company that produced the popular crime drama How to Get Away with Murder. Time named her one of the most influential people in the world. Bill Clinton is a fan, Michelle Obama a friend. Rhimes’ career trajectory and power are unprecedented for a Black creative in the entertainment industry. Yet one        …read more

Think you’ve got daddy issues? At least your dad isn’t an evil warlord. I was five years old when the original LEGO ninja series was launched. It was Christmas of 1998, and I’d been given a set called the Ninja Fire Fortress. I remember it well because somehow in my excitement I managed to eat one of the pieces. Well, “ate” is the wrong word — better to say I stored it for a day. And it was only one of the LEGO men’s heads, not the whole thing. But for a few tragic hours my LEGO ninja was headless, roaming around his tiny kingdom, bumping into doors. [caption id="attachment_15365" align="alignnone" width="865"] LEGO[/caption] Some 20-odd years on, LEGO still boasts mass appeal. There’s a healthy roster of TV shows, games, apps and movies. The bricks are still being stacked, as it were. And even as adults, we’re still enthralled. I        …read more

From the floppy disk to the smartphone, Apple is a serial killer of tech standards. Apple has long been seen as a forward-thinking tech company that values minimalism over superfluous functionality, unafraid of taking risks to clear a path for technology to speed ahead. Historically, they’ve often opted to do away with existing tech standards to allow that momentum to build. Sometimes these standards were showing their ripe old age and were obvious candidates for tech assassination. Other times, their demise felt more like premature deaths: casualties of Apple’s penchant for slaughtering dated technology. In either case, it’s hard to deny that this murderous trait is part of what defines the monstrous tech company and sets the stage for their meteoric rise as the most valuable company on the planet. Last week as they introduced the hotly anticipated iPhone X, they erased the phone’s home button, an iconic feature that        …read more

The Netflix Original animated show returns valiantly with BoJack Horseman season 4. We seem to be at an absolute high point for animation. And while those handing out awards don’t always take notice, critics, consumers and creators seem to be putting their eggs in the animation basket. Fall TV has officially kicked off, and on September 8 animated knockout BoJack Horseman season four hit Netflix. The series premiered in 2014 to decent reviews, showing promise but not to its fullest extent. But BoJack didn’t disappoint in the next few seasons, building steam and distinguishing itself as a truly singular show with a dark twist and a bleeding heart. The show was created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg and stars Will Arnett as the world’s most beloved and be-hated sitcom horse. For those unfamiliar with the premise of the show, it’s rather simple: in a world similar to our own, save for the        …read more

At the center of the opioid addiction epidemic are real people facing real challenges. And we’re looking for solutions. Serious, chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, represent just a few of the staple diagnoses in developed countries, but few are as stigmatized as addiction. The opioid epidemic is at the forefront of public health issues capturing national attention in the United States, affecting communities from Hollywood to small town USA. Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote, “Above all, we can never forget that the faces of substance use disorders are real people. They are a beloved family member, a friend, a colleague, and ourselves.” With nearly 100 people dying every day from an opioid overdose, broken families, medical professionals, law enforcement and politicians have rallied together to make public calls to action. Understanding the Appeal of Opioids [caption id="attachment_16199" align="alignnone" width="865"] Mike, 22, a heroin addict        …read more

Kissing tells us more about human evolution and relationships than you may have realized. To kiss is human. Nearly 90% of the world’s population accepts kissing as part of their cultural practice. And it’s not just intimacy we’re swapping. We also trade secrets about our genetic makeup that’s only available through close proximity to another face. Kissing is access to information we could not obtain from one another any other way. But what are the origins of this practice of kissing that many people have come to know as second nature, a rite of passage, an essential element of the majority of romantic relationships? It’s about time to lean in... From the Mouths of Bonobos [caption id="attachment_15081" align="alignnone" width="865"] Getty Images[/caption] The most commonly discussed creature who shares the human practice of kissing is the bonobo (who shares 98% of human DNA). In bonobo society, ladies rule and large groups        …read more

From setting a plan to setting an empire: we talked with Head Routesetter Steve Gaspar about how he’s bringing art into indoor rock climbing. Clipped into the wall near the top of the arch in Los Angeles rock climbing gym Rockreation, head routesetter Steve Gaspar catches a drill tossed up to him from a setter below. He uses it to rotate a pinch hand hold to the left — a small tweak to a route he set hours earlier — and looks down to his team with a smirk: the route is perfect, and he knows it. The man who’s been calling himself the rock star of routesetting for the past decade also knows he’s having the year of his life — the one that could cement his place among the greats of a discipline at the intersection of art and physical fitness. In February he competed in his first        …read more

Syfy’s grindhouse masterpiece stuns, shocks and goes out with a bang. Blood Drive, or Midnight Grindhouse Presents: Blood Drive, premiered on Syfy in early June and recently finished its 13-episode arc in a glorious, explosive finale on September 6. But most unfortunately, the very next morning, creator James Roland announced that Blood Drive was not, in fact, picked up by Syfy for a second season. Like most great cult epics, Blood Drive will for now remain a one-season series. It may sound presumptive to refer to the series not long after its ending as a “cult hit.” Generally the metaphorical tea needs to steep long enough for a cult classic to be born. But one look at the exaggerated, colorful art style and over-the-top satirical writing would immediately peg Blood Drive as a dark hit. To sum up Roland’s work, one would have to first take a look at what        …read more

Celebrate Bilbo Baggins’ birthday (September 22) with this list of 6 unlikely heroes. From Oprah to the passengers of United 93, they inspired the world. One of the greatest joys of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy are that the true heroes are not the expected ones. Hobbits, diminutive creatures who would rather eat two breakfasts and smoke pipe weed than have adventures, end up not only carrying the One Ring into the depths of Mordor but literally carrying each other when the ring grows too heavy to bear. They are the most unlikely heroes. There’s always been something about unlikely heroes that resonates with us all. Sure, the all-star sports hero with all the muscles who stops a bank robbery is great, but what’s even greater is when the grandmother in the corner of the room hits the robber over the head with her        …read more

An estimated 10,000 people are wrongly convicted each year in the United States. The Innocence Project helped free Deskovic, who served 16 years for a horrific crime he didn’t commit. Now it’s his mission to liberate innocent people serving time. This is his story. We’ve all seen them — those episodes of 20/20, Dateline or other true crime documentaries. You, the audience, are presented with “unbiased” evidence. Are you sympathetic toward the defendant? The bailiff takes the envelope from the jury foreman and hands it to the judge. A crushing silence consumes the courtroom. Driven by the evidence, you’ve perhaps already made up your mind. Innocent? Guilty? As an outsider looking in, you feel your instincts warning you that you could be wrong. As an empathetic soul, you might place yourself in the shoes of the defendant who teeters on the brink of a fate they may or may not have        …read more

A tour with heavy metal legends Iron Maiden pushes newcomers Ghost BC into the forefront of the rock ’n’ roll world. Heavy metal institution Iron Maiden has been sweeping the nation once again with their 2017 Book of Souls World Tour, which has of course added yet more clout to the already decorated rock gods. Iron Maiden has been on the forefront of the not-quite-mainstream metal and hard-rock scene for well over 30 years now, though they’ve been continually snubbed from what most call a rightful place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While Iron Maiden’s heavy metal chops won’t exactly be questioned, there’s been no shortage of controversy about the band selected as their special guests for the Book of Souls: Swedish imports Ghost BC. Ghost BC, now generally referred to as just Ghost, entered the heavy metal scene only a few years back and very quickly        …read more

Artist Ashley Bryan found the bills of sale for 11 enslaved people and imagined their lives and dreams. Painter and poet Ashley Bryan tries to make sense of life through art. He once said in an interview, “It’s part of an aesthetic drive to understand who I am. That is our effort, always. The essence of being human is being understood by others. We paint, we write poetry and we express ourselves out of desire to bring people together in a way that goes beyond who we are as an individual.” So it is no surprise that when Bryan purchased a collection of slavery-related documents, he would set out to develop a story for each of these enslaved people who were not given one. Among the trove of documents was a bill of sale from an estate, including 11 people for sale. These 11 enslaved people were listed alongside farm        …read more

From controversial canned pineapple on pizza to ‘basic’ pumpkin spice lattes, there’ve been a lot food wars online lately. I’d been doing a pretty good job of ignoring the food fights on the internet, but I knew we’d reached new heights last autumn when it suddenly involved apple cider. Apple cider seemed to me like the least controversial food or beverage on the planet, but maybe I’d been naive. Suddenly my social media feeds included people who were really mad at the “pumpkin spice people” and proudly declared themselves “apple cider people.” There were memes. There were claims that apple cider was the real beverage of autumn and all other beverages were merely wannabes. I squinted hard at my screen. I knew I had to try to wrap my head around the food wars going on all around me. The phenomena of people loathing other people’s food choices is not a        …read more

It can be difficult to remain open-minded when a beloved artist is accused of terrible things. There’s a saying: Don’t ask how the sausage is made. You may enjoy the end product. Maybe you’re even able to suspend judgment about its dubious origins. Sometimes even when there’s no denying the truth of a thing, some will still choose to look away. Because the love of the thing is just that great. When it comes to scandals swirling around our favorite (or once-favorite) celebrity artists, it’s tough, no doubt about it. I’ve written a fair amount about art — movies, video games, music — and of those subjects I’ve covered, I always tackle them with levity in mind. Top-10 lists to give you something to read on your lunch break or during a trip to the bathroom. And when it’s not a top-10 list, when there is a precise point to        …read more

The world observes Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, 2017, inspiring us to take a minute, change a life. Conrad Roy III. Chester Bennington. Mallory Grossman. Their names and their stories continue to fill our news feeds. Three people who never met, now inextricably linked with countless others who have died by suicide. Every 13 minutes, someone in the United States dies by suicide. That’s 121 people daily and nearly 45,000 people annually. Globally that number increases to over 800,000 deaths annually, with millions more attempts. Now one of the leading causes of death in both the U.S. and abroad, suicide is a major public health concern. A Week of Hope for Those in Pain [caption id="attachment_16166" align="alignnone" width="865"] iStock[/caption] From grassroots nonprofits to international organizations, groups across the globe are working tirelessly to combat this epidemic, and they’re planning to unite millions with an international event held annually to raise awareness        …read more

Jump into this super-detailed mini art by Ryan Thomas Monahan, and get a taco while you're there! Believe it or not, lots and lots of people like things small. Meet Ryan Thomas Monahan, who goes by @what_thehell on Instagram, an outstanding creator of mini art working in Chicagoland, where Crixeo is based. A local boy. Ryan originally began creating his highly detailed mini art scenes — grimy back alleyways and bodegas — because he wanted them on his own walls. Now he’s surprised to have so many fans and customers who enjoy the pieces as well. [caption id="attachment_16572" align="alignnone" width="865"] ‘The Newsstand’ Subway Piece by Ryan Thomas Monahan[/caption] We dropped by his studio and asked Ryan about his inspirations, creative process, hidden references in his work and more. In a video interview, Ryan tells us about how he begins every mini art piece. He says he always starts with a box and asks        …read more

African art tells a broader story of African heritage than we often see in media. When I was growing up, I wished I could pinpoint where my history started. If I go solely by the education I received in my early years, my story began when my ancestors were shipped to the Americas to cultivate a country in which the Constitution called each of them three-fifths of a person. In her master’s program my mother learned our history beyond slavery, so she made sure I was well educated on my history, even if I couldn’t specifically place where it began. My mother not only spent time teaching me African history through books and lesson plans, but she also filled our home with African art. So when I visited the expansion of the Fred and Rita Richman Gallery for African Art at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, I felt right at home.        …read more

Robert Redford, Jane Fonda and Alexander Payne kick off Venice Film Festival 2017, running August 30 through September 9. Here are 5 must-watch films from around the world. Venice Film Festival is back, and it’s looking good. Regular staples and festival familiars return for the 74th installment of one of Europe’s greatest cultural calendar dates, part of the wider mantle of the Venice Biennale. Spanning the whole summer and covering everything from movies to sculpture and dance, the Italian city’s international arts festival is one of the world’s most renowned and respected celebrations of all things creative. This year boasts an all-star lineup of actors, directors and producers from around the globe, continuing the festival’s tradition of excellence. In advance of the actual competition, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda have been confirmed as prospective recipients of the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award. This accompanies the premiere at the Venice Film        …read more

These promising films were spectacular box office failures. A brilliant script. A known director. A star-studded cast. A budget that could sustain a small town for a century. It’s a project that, by all logic, should hit every major demographic and be a surefire success. Sometimes the equation is even sweetened by the fact that the project is based on an existing recognizable property that alone will do half the marketing. All the makings of a Hollywood winner, right? Not always. At times all this chemistry adds up to explosive box office failures. In order to break even with a film, studios look to make about three times the production budget worldwide. That’s because, due to various distribution deals, of course the studio doesn’t get to keep every penny. While filmmakers can put together all the familiar elements of a box office hit, film production is ultimately always a gamble.        …read more

Get your children into tech with these excellent coding apps for kids. (Even better: Many of these are free!) With our increasing dependence on technology, coding has moved from a niche pursuit to a much-needed skill. Since computer programming is essentially learning (a) foreign language(s), it requires a vast amount of learning and practice. While a great many universities offer computer science degree tracks, too often the students who enroll in these programs are experiencing coding for the first time — at the collegiate level. This means that, in all likelihood, students who would’ve otherwise excelled in the field may be too wary to take the plunge during the ever-important college years. Or they may flounder from a lack of a foundation. The sad truth is only approximately 25% of middle schools and high schools offer computer science courses. While that percentage will surely continue to grow, as of now a        …read more

Just in time for the new adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘It,’ watch these 5 terrifying movies to test your resilience to scary clowns. Sufferers of coulrophobia have a specific fear of clowns. And after the scary clown panic of 2016, the number of people affected by it may have risen. Clowns are meant to evoke amusement and laughter with their actions, but the painted face of a clown can do just the opposite — a smile can be maniacal, after all. My fear of clowns began during childhood. Once, I ran across a busy street to avoid a clown on stilts that was walking toward me — I’m not proud. At some point, though, you realize it’s time to get over a phobia, even if it means revisiting the trauma that caused it. In my case, movies with scary clowns. I’ve narrowed down the top-five movies featuring scary clowns that        …read more

Take a peek behind the scenes, where four incredibly imaginative photographers bring superhero toys to life. Let’s talk about superhero toys. First, they’re not just for kids. Second, keeping them wrapped up in their original packaging makes sense if you’re a collector, but it’s not much fun. Third, there’s a not-so-underground global group of photographers who are unwrapping their toys in order to capture stunning images. They don’t need real people for subjects — they’re happily geeking out with superhero toys. Here are four photographers that bring superhero toys to life, with fantastic results. Overcast in the UK UK-based Darylle Lacey told Crixeo that toy photography is “about keeping an eye out, looking under those hedgerows and not being afraid to get down on your belly and play with toys.” He used to keep his toys on a shelf, but by discovering toy photography he’s learned to “play again in        …read more

Could we really be looking at a President Dwayne Johnson in 2020? In May, The Rock was on the cover of GQ to promote his two blockbuster films of the summer — the record-shattering The Fate of the Furious and the, er, less-than-record-shattering Baywatch adaptation. But whatever he had to say about the two films was overshadowed by the news he made in the story: that he was seriously considering the idea of running for president of the United States. Immediately speculation blew up. National political polling firm Public Policy Polling ran the numbers, and the result was surprising to anybody who hasn’t paid attention to how much Americans love electing celebrities to high office — The Rock outperformed Donald Trump in a head-to-head poll by five points, including 15% of voters who supported Trump in 2016. All of which made a proposition that had seemed ridiculous on its face        …read more

A look at 15 top albums celebrating 20+ years in 2017. Some of the best albums from the late ’80s and the full memorable decade of the ’90s are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year. Whether hip-hop or heavy metal, here are 15 nostalgia-inducing top albums worth revisiting. 1. Rage Against the Machine, Self-Titled (25th anniversary) Release date: November 3, 1992 With this 1992 self-titled debut album, Rage Against the Machine pushed through the charts thanks to tracks “Bombtrack,” “Know Your Enemy” and “Killing in the Name.” The album became number one on the Heatseekers chart and number 45 on the Billboard 200.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWXazVhlyxQ 2. Deftones, Around the Fur (20th anniversary) Release date: October 27, 1997 The Deftones’ second album brought with it a fury of angry skateboarders, BMXers and extreme-sports junkies. Its approach to alternative metal included smooth bass lines, chaotic guitar riffs, solid drumming and vocals that alternate between hypnotic        …read more

Jungian analysts offer insight about dream work and what our unconscious minds can tell us about ourselves. Everybody dreams, whether we remember our nighttime visions or not. Some dreams are so clear we’re shocked to wake and realize they weren’t real; others are so foggy we can barely make sense of them. Some dreams are quickly forgotten; others linger for years. Some dreams come up at the breakfast table in casual discussion; others feel too strange to repeat. Dreams have fascinated humans for ages, and the questions continue. Why do we dream? What do our dreams mean? And do our dreams really carry messages that can help us? According to the dream work of Carl Jung, yes, they do. Before we dig into Jung’s perspective on dreams, here’s a bit of background on the acclaimed Swiss psychiatrist. Carl Gustav Jung (1825-1961), the founder of analytical psychology, expanded on the work        …read more

Flame Con, presented annually by Geeks OUT, is growing every year and illuminating the diversity of nerd culture. Brooklyn, New York, is home to many fun and strange events throughout the year, particularly in the summer. For the last three years, Brooklyn summers have been graced by an eye-catching event that’s grown in size annually: Flame Con, an LGBTQ+ inclusive geek convention presented by local nonprofit organization Geeks OUT. Founded in 2010, Geeks OUT has been promoting various events to empower and bring together the queer geek community in New York, the largest among them being Flame Con. New York City is also home to the largest convention on the East Coast (and now growing in size to fight for the largest in the United States), New York Comic Con. With recent changes to NYCC, many New Yorkers are looking for other conventions to scratch that geeky itch. New York,        …read more