33 Gifts You Should Just Go Ahead And Buy For Yourself
Bird Call — a goofy party game that'll have the whole house hooting, cawing, and croaking. Players call out bird sounds and trade cards when they find another player matching their call.
A pair of minimalist magazine holders to help you showcase your favorite magazine, photobook, or children's book. This would look very cute in a reading nook, just saying.
A Lucky Charms earring set so you can put together looks that would bring Lucky the Leprechaun to his knees. There are eight charms in all, so if you're only wearing two at a time, you can get 28 diff magically delicious combinations.
A handheld capybara that's sure to be your guiding light when it comes to taking it easy. After all, what animal is chiller than the capybara?
A disco ball diffuser so your next dance party can smell like, really good. Add your favorite fragrance, pick one of seven color settings, and watch as the diffuser spins and puts on a light show.
A canvas tote similar to the ever-popular Trader Joe's ones, but with a key twist — it comes with a beaded animal and gingham straps!
A copper charm, which works as a natural fungicide to keep flowers happy and water fresh for longer (goodbyyyye having to change the water every other day). Reviewers say they prefer it over plant food for extending the life of their bouquets. This is the gift that keeps on giving because now, every bouquet you get yourself will last a little longer.
A hardcover sticker book chock full of Victorian-era illustrations, ranging from ornate fashion to beautiful flora. With 1,000+ stickers to choose from, you're gonna have a great time scrapbooking.
A variety pack of hard candies spiced with traditional Mexican flavors that will delight the senses. Spicy, sweet, and tangy all come together to create flavor magic.
A mini messenger pigeon you can proudly display on your desk to pay homage to our feathery postal workers. The bird's mailbag comes with a slot so coworkers can leave you lil notes. Hopefully, positive feedback only!
Wax seal stickers considerably less messy than the real deal. Plus, you don't need to deal with buying a bunch of melting equipment or deciding what your crest should look like; these flowers work for all occasions, like wedding invitations, scrapbooks, and leaving cute notes for your roommates!
Hand-blown glass olive earrings with gold-plated chains perfect to wear to your next cocktail party. Best of all, each one is slightly unique, so you can feel extra special when you wear them.
A shark onesie for anyone who wishes every week was shark week. The wide fin sleeves and toothy hood make this the ultimate cozy hang 'fit.
A set of mushroom bookmarks because I know I'm not the only one who wants to live in a fairytale home.
A pack of checkered hand towels that are lusciously vibrant and fluffy. You'd be surprised what a new pack of towels could do for a kitchen or bathroom, especially when they're this cute.
A Lego flower bouquet because sometimes the best flowers are the ones you have to build yourself. Also, they don't die! The kit helps you build 15 stems with flower and leaf varieties like roses, snapdragons, poppies, asters, daisies, and grasses.
A polka-dot tie dress perfect for outdoor adventures where you want to be comfortable but polished enough to take pictures. Also, note the pockets, which are perfect for tucking your hands into when you're not sure how to pose. Surely I'm not the only one with this problem? 🧍
Or a cocoon-like pullover hoodie dress to wear on days when you want to dress up but long for the comfort of your favorite sweatshirt. This thing hits the knees, meaning you can roll into a ball and hide inside it when needed.
"Liquipens" — a cross between a pen and a lava lamp. These are fun to play with and likely mesmerizing enough to keep you entertained while taking notes in class.
A darling strawberry vase you can fill with flowers, pens, kitchen tools — or, if you wanna go for realism, a leafy houseplant.
A pack of curly-edged ankle socks that'll look soooo good peaking out from Mary Janes or loafers. As far as '90s trends coming back, I admit I have been feeling nostalgic about these socks!
A Slate electric flosser, which multitasks as a tongue scraper and gum stimulator, meaning your dental routine is about to enter the pros. I'm talking, just-walked-out-of-a-dental-appointment type of clean!
A coconut soy scented candle that smells like a freshly picked bouquet (think: lily of the valley, wood, dewy leaves, ylang-ylang). With a burn time of around 45 hours, it's likely to outlast those flowers too.
An alarm clock on wheels that works like an annoying assistant that forces you out of bed. It'll roll around, jump, shake, make robotic sounds, and generally cause mayhem until you muster the energy to make it stop.
Retro rectangle sunglasses for an easy way to elevate an otherwise blah outfit. 11,000+ people gave these sunnies 5 stars, so surely they're worth a try!
Soot sprite dryer balls that'll look sooo cute bouncing around in your dryer. Besides being adorable, they reduce drying time, prevent wrinkles, and soften clothes, all without coating your stuff in a waxy residue like dryer sheets do.
A fruit-shaped bed your cat will go absolutely bananas for! Just think of the photo shoot you could have with this.
A bead-filled weighted eye mask that'll make you feel like your head is getting a really nice bear hug. Thanks to its light-blocking abilities, it's helped over 4,000 happy reviewers get decent shut-eye.
Promising review: "I bought this for my partner and he felt that it was too heavy. I, ON THE OTHER HAND, fell in LOVE with this product. It's definitely more on the expensive side but it's so worth it. Especially if you have migraines, because it feels like someone is hugging your eyes/face. It feels so amazing. In the mornings, my room gets so bright and always wakes me up, so I use this and instantly fall back asleep. And I LOVE that you can put it in the freezer; it feels so amazing. Also, I like to sleep on my side with my head elevated and this thing does not slide down. It feels so comfortable. If you've been contemplating, definitely get it — it's worth the splurge!" —MichaelGet it from Amazon for $34 (available in six colors).
A birdfeeder with a built-in camera so you can spy on your feathered friends and make notes on the avian goings-on. The camera has an AI system that can identify over 6,000 bird species, so you'll never have to argue with your partner whether the bird that visited was a goldfinch or an Eastern meadowlark.
A miniature clay pottery wheel that lets kids and adults make cute clay vases and sculptures in a mess-free environment. This gadget comes with template guides and enough clay for up to 10 projects.
A giant pretzel for anyone looking for something more interesting than a pool noodle to sit on while lounging in the water. Hopefully, the other swimmers won't be too salty when you show them up!
A retro CD mirror conjuring up memories of burning playlists for friends and crushes. I personally used to cover mine in Sharpie doodles, but your reflection works well for mixtape art, too!
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Time Magazine
7 hours ago
- Time Magazine
The Science of Why Humans are Obsessed with Stadium Concerts
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Through the '80s and '90s artists like U2, Madonna, and Michael Jackson drew increasingly global, multi-generational crowds. Today, truly global music acts like BLACKPINK and Bad Bunny play to stadium audiences worldwide, reflecting the increasing multicultural appeal of contemporary music. And touring artists like Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Cyndi Lauper, and The Rolling Stones now draw in new followers aside lifelong fans, with three generations of family members often attending together. Fandom itself has transformed. Where fans once relied on the vagaries of radio play and magazine spreads to engage with their favorite artists, today's fans form tightknit communities on social media platforms like TikTok and Discord. Through these digital spaces, enthusiasts exchange theories, share memes, decode Easter eggs, and coordinate elaborate travel plans and ticket-buying strategies months in advance. The shift from passive consumption to active participation has transformed how fans engage with pop music, turning concerts into global events that have expanded well beyond geography and generations. Yet this evolution has created new challenges, chief among them, the skyrocketing cost of being part of the experience. We've gone from $5.10 to see the Beatles at Shea Stadium to Eras Tour tickets with face values ranging from $49 to $449 reselling for up to $20,000 on StubHub and SeatGeek. When my mother wanted to surprise me with tickets to Bryan Adams' Waking Up The Neighbours Tour in 1992, she lined up at the physical box office hours before opening with other eager fans. She forked over $42.50 for two, side-view seats in the lower bowl. Compare that to last year when I battled bots and refreshed my browser every few milliseconds in the hope of scoring four tickets to Olivia Rodrigo's GUTS World Tour before they soared to mortgage-level proportions. By some miracle, I was able to take my three teenage daughters to their first arena show for a relatively low $600. They're now saving their babysitting money and diligently tracking price trends for Benson Boone's American Heart Tour while I'm (half) considering dipping into their college fund to see Bryan Adams again this fall. At what point does the price of admission outweigh the joy of participation? When it came to the Eras Tour, like many other disappointed Swifties, we had to settle for movie screenings and grainy live feeds. Swift didn't stop in our hometown of Montreal. We considered travelling to Toronto, Boston, New York, or Philadelphia. When calculating the costs—tickets, travel, accommodations, meals—our cheapest option turned out to be Lisbon, Portugal. That three-day excursion would have set us back about $6,000 CAD. While that was substantially less than the resale tickets in any nearby city, the financial cost and complicated logistics of participation were too great. Economists often argue that high ticket prices are simply a reflection of market forces—artists, and resellers, can charge more because demand far outstrips supply. Sociologists counter that this trend deepens cultural divides, turning concerts into exclusive experiences for the financially privileged. Despite the costs, stadiums continue to sell out at record speed, raising the question: what is it about live music that makes us willing to pay such a premium? Is it the music itself, the sense of community, or something even more basic? For 30 years, our lab has been exploring why music moves us—literally and figuratively. 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Years ago, our lab showed in brain scans that listening to the same piece of music caused people's brain waves to synchronize. Recent studies conducted in real-time, in concert halls, demonstrate that people enjoy music more when the performance is live and experienced as part of a group. Live music triggers stronger emotional responses than recorded music due to the dynamic relationship between the audience and the performers. The visual cues, collective energy, and real-time responsiveness of live music engage more sensory and emotional systems than listening alone, deepening our visceral connection to the experience. Attending a concert is associated with increases in oxytocin, a bonding hormone, enhancing our sense of social connection. When we move together to music—clapping, swaying, or singing in sync—we engage neural circuits involved in motor coordination, empathy, and social prediction, reinforcing our sense of being part of a group. We're literally on the same brainwave! What ties all this together is the simple but profound idea that music is more than just entertainment. From the joy of discovering a new banger to the comfort of an old, familiar tune, music may well be a biological necessity, a fundamental part of being human, wired into our brains and bodies in ways that shape how we think, feel, and connect with one another. Our innate desire for connection might also, in part, explain why a friendship bracelet exchange (inspired by Swift's You're On Your Own Kid) is trending at modern stadium shows: the simple act of swapping beaded bracelets cultivates a microcosm of human connection within a macro-scale experience. It's a ritual that transforms a crowd of thousands into an intimate community, where strangers become momentary friends, bound by shared enthusiasm and a tangible token of group membership. It's a small, tactile gesture that taps into our deep-seated need to bond, to feel seen, and to belong. In a world where digital interactions often replace physical ones, these trinkets are a reminder of the power of touch, of giving, and of creating memories that extend beyond the concert itself. Music has always been a social glue, a way for humans to synchronize their emotions and movements, whether around a Neanderthal campfire or in a packed stadium. And in an era of increasing isolation, these moments of connection feel more vital than ever. Making friendship bracelets to share with your fellow Swifties may be part of the solution. But today's stadium shows aren't just about emotional connection or even entirely about the music—it's also a masterclass in sensory stimulation. The Beatles may have pioneered the stadium format, but their setup was quaint by today's standards. Early stadium shows featured little more than musicians standing in front of a static backdrop, struggling to project their sound through subpar sound systems designed for sports announcers, not music. 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Los Angeles Times
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Snow Tha Product blasts Latino Trump voters in new video for ‘Sabado'
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Yahoo
12 hours ago
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Meet the Producers Making Regional Mexican Music Explode
For decades, a traditional (and, at times, formulaic) sound defined and powered regional Mexican music, the umbrella term that includes subgenres like banda, norteño and mariachi. But today, música mexicana, as it is also known, is booming (according to Luminate's midyear music report, it fueled Latin music's growth in the first six months of the year) in large part thanks to the limitless creative visions of its most prominent producers. This school of hit-makers — who range widely in both style, from Jersey corridos to synth-powered regional ballads, and age — is crafting bold sounds and genre-spanning hybrids, setting the tone for an ever-evolving genre as it adapts to its new global appeal and reach. More from Billboard Taylor Swift's Debut on Travis Kelce's 'New Heights' Podcast Instantly Smashes Ratings Records 'The City Loves Him': Inside MGK's Emotional Homecoming, As Cleveland Celebrates MGK Day and His 'Lost Americana' Album All the Surprise Guests at Bad Bunny's Puerto Rico Residency (Updating) Ernesto 'Neto' Fernández The Texas-born veteran has long defined regional Mexican movements, like the quebradita explosion of the 1990s. But when he tried to be 'experimental' in the past, 'it wasn't accepted — our hands were tied,' says Fernández, 51. 'Now everyone is open-minded and that helped me branch out.' Among his biggest recent successes: Peso Pluma, whose swaggering lyrics and high-energy sound helped usher in a new era for regional Mexican music and whose signature style was heavily informed by working with the producer. 'Very early on in the process, I start hearing and imagining where instruments will go,' explains Fernández, who incorporated charchetas (alto horns) and trombones into corridos tumbados, a subgenre that started with just guitars. 'My part is to make sure that instruments don't compete but to have them each have their own place. I like to hear things a certain way and how I want it to sound.' It's safe to say Fernández — who won producer of the year at the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards thanks to tracks he worked on for Peso and Xavi — knows a thing or two about what works and what doesn't. Today, he's one of regional Mexican music's most trusted producers, also working with artists like Tito Double P. Danny Felix Felix's production career got off to an unorthodox start. 'I was taking English songs and making them regional,' he says. '[Artificial intelligence] didn't exist back then, so I remember one day, I found Beyoncé's vocals on YouTube and followed along with a guitar. I was like, 'This sounds cool.' ' It sparked his passion for elevating songs with prickly acoustic guitars and led to him pioneering corridos tumbados and producing the subgenre's first big star, Natanael Cano. While guitar-driven subgenres like sierreño already existed, corridos tumbados' guitars make heads bob like a hip-hop beat — even Bad Bunny couldn't resist joining Cano on 2019's Felix-produced 'Soy el Diablo – Remix.' 'Guitars are my thing,' adds the Arizona native, who's in his early 30s. 'People try to do what I do and I love that, but I have a unique way of hitting the strings that you can tell it's me right away.' The sound Felix developed has evolved over the years, with artists like Peso Pluma adding different instruments, and he has also adapted his guitars to singers he is producing for today, like Xavi, who pioneered tumbados románticos. 'His range of singing is completely different,' Felix says, 'so you have to play [the guitar] a certain way to complement his vocals.' Armenta Penning and producing hits for Fuerza Regida like 'Harley Quinn' and 'Bebe Dame,' Armenta, 24, went from thinking a producer was mainly a beat-maker to understanding that there's much more to the craft. 'As a producer, you give it your soul, your essence, and when that goes hand in hand with songwriting, it becomes magic,' says Armenta, who has deviated from tradition by incorporating electronic music, loops and pads (or synthesizers) into his productions. 'Everything used to be very rigid; the beats and rhythms were the same. Now it's a genre for young people, and we achieved this through influences such as rap, hip-hop and other urban genres where it's no longer just about making regional music but about making music, period.' 'Harley Quinn,' a 2023 collaboration with dance producer Marshmello, turned heads with its EDM-leaning sound. 'We called it 'Jersey corrido,' ' Armenta says proudly. 'In our search for the perfect harmony between house and EDM, we found this rhythm where we can play it with a tololoche [a Mexican folk instrument that is a variant of the double bass] and finish it off with charchetas. All the folklore that this song carries is very beautiful, and it really opened our eyes to the fact that the sky is the limit.' Frank Rio A fan of the stripped-down melodic approach to regional Mexican music, Rio was eager to experiment with the style, but 'I didn't want to force it on anyone,' he says, having previously worked mainly with non-regional Mexican acts like and Jhayco. Then he met Ivan Cornejo and they instantly connected. 'We're emo boys,' Rio says with a laugh. Cornejo's stirring vocal delivery meshed perfectly with Rio's equally emotional production style. 'When I'm part of a record from start to finish, there's definitely a lot of emotion,' says Rio, 32. 'Whether sad, happy or in between, I always try to make it a journey.' Cornejo's brooding regional ballads with an alternative edge — like 'La Última Vez,' one of the first songs he and Rio did together — defy música mexicana standards. 'I don't want to say I'm responsible for this new sound because I'm sure it wasn't the first time someone had added synths to Mexican music, but for me, it was a big eye-opener about what you can do in Mexican music, and now it's tough to identify what we do just as that,' Rio says. 'It has never crossed my mind that I could have a limit, especially with Ivan. Focusing on [creative] freedom means constant experimentation in the studio with him. I'll do four or five versions of a song, from alternative to sierreño, to find the version that works.' Moises López López never imagined getting into producing. But when he joined Fuerza Regida four years ago and got in the studio with the band, he saw producers create a song from start to finish and thought: 'I can do that and I want my credit, too.' While his career as a producer is only just starting — the 22-year-old was initially brought on as the band's tololoche player and officially became one of its producers two years ago — López is already leaving a mark on regional Mexican thanks to his work on Fuerza Regida's 2025 album, 111XPANTIA, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, becoming the highest-charting Spanish-language album by a duo or group ever. 'Building a song from scratch is like a puzzle,' says López, who gets animated talking about his work in the studio. 'The goal for me is always to experiment and find what the next big sound or wave will be but also keeping our corridos roots.' Fuerza's producing crew — which also includes frontman Jesús Ortiz Paz — took it a bit further this time around, incorporating synths behind instruments for a punchier sound. It also did something the band had never done before: 'We added samples from other genres,' López says. 'In 'Tu Sancho,' you'll hear Ellie Goulding's 'Don't Say a Word.' We realized it was time to add samples to our music, which will mark a major shift in our genre.' This story appears in the Aug. 16, 2025, issue of Billboard. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart Solve the daily Crossword
