Singer Lisa Marie Presley will be laid to rest at Graceland, the Memphis mansion she inherited from her father Elvis Presley, the “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a representative for her daughter said on Friday.

Presley died on Thursday at the age of 54 after being rushed to a Los Angeles area hospital after reportedly suffering cardiac arrest at her home.

Two days earlier, she had appeared with her mother Priscilla Presley at the Golden Globe Awards, where actor Austin Butler won the best actor award for portraying her father in the film “Elvis” and paid tribute to the two women.

“Lisa Marie’s final resting place will be at Graceland, next to her beloved son Ben,” a representative for her daughter Riley Keough said.

Benjamin Keough died in 2020 at age 27, a death ruled a suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner. Lisa Marie Presley remembered her son in an essay for People magazine earlier this year that she posted on Instagram, calling herself “destroyed” by his death.

As the only daughter of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie became the owner of her father’s Graceland mansion, a popular tourist attraction in the city. She was nine years old when Elvis died there of heart failure at the age of 42.

Elvis Presley and other members of his family are buried at Graceland’s Meditation Garden.

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One of the key elements of any great house party is its guest list, which might explain why there’s no shortage of big name cameos in the new movie, House Party. The film, which releases in theaters on Friday, is a reimagining of the cult classic 1990 film of the same name, which starred rap duo Kid ‘n Play as high schoolers throwing a party while their parents are gone. While the original film and its multiple sequels always had its fair share of buzzy cameos, the 2023 remake—which stars Tosin Cole and Jacob Latimore as best friends Damon and Kevin, two aspiring party promoters who are throwing a blowout bash at LeBron James‘ Los Angeles mansion—has stacked the cast with a dizzying number of famous faces that range from rapper Snoop Dogg to James himself (probably inevitable, considering the basketball star also produced the film).

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Like any true L.A. soirée, there are plenty of A-listers that make the rounds at this house party, running the gamut from actor and screenwriter Lena Waithe to entrepreneur Mark Cuban. The most special cameo of the film, however, might be the brief appearance of the original franchise stars, Kid ‘n Play, who steal the show in a zany party scene that won’t soon be forgotten.

Here are all the cameos you might have missed in House Party.

Kid Cudi

Getty Images for Critics Choice—2022 Getty ImagesLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 05: Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi attends Critics Choice Association’s 5th Annual Celebration Of Black Cinema & Television at Fairmont Century Plaza on December 05, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association)

The rapper and actor Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi has a significant role in the film, playing a hyperbolic version of himself, alternately helping and hindering the party hosts throughout an action-packed night. While many people may associate him most with his music, Cudi has been flexing his acting chops for over a decade on both the big screen and television, appearing in projects like Luca Guadagnino’s drama series We Are Who We Are and even creating and starring in his own animated Netflix series, Entergalactic.

Walter Emanuel Jones

Getty Images—2023 Getty ImagesHOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 11: Walter Emanuel Jones attends the Special Red Carpet Screening for New Line Cinema’s “House Party” at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on January 11, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Walter Emanuel Jones rose to prominence playing Zach Taylor, the original Black Power Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a role that he cheekily references during his scene in House Party. During his appearance in the film, Jones, who plays himself, pokes fun at the role as partygoers recognize him.

Tinashe

Getty Images—2023 Getty ImagesHOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 11: Tinashe attends the Special Red Carpet Screening for New Line Cinema’s “House Party” at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on January 11, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Singer Tinashe has one of the most memorable cameos in the film. Playing herself, she instigates an epic dance-off in the middle of the party, which results in her recruiting Kevin’s love interest, Venus (played by Karen Obilom) to be a dancer for her upcoming tour.

Lena Waithe

PA Images via Getty Images—PA Wire/PA ImagesLena Waithe arrives for the gala screening of I Want To Dance With Somebody at the Ham Yard Hotel in London. Picture date: Monday December 19, 2022. (Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images)

In one of the wackier scenes during the party, Lena Waithe, playing herself, is spotted in the pool house of James’ mansion, where she brainstorms ideas for a new project while smoking weed with a koala bear. While the scene is understandably absurd, we’d welcome seeing her stoned pitch come to fruition.

Read more: Lena Waithe: How Black Artists Are Redefining Hollywood

Karrueche Tran

Getty Images—2023 Getty ImagesHOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 11: Karrueche Tran attends the Special Red Carpet Screening for New Line Cinema’s “House Party” at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on January 11, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Claws star Karrueche Tran is a native Angeleno, so her cameo as herself at this house party, just makes sense. Tran appears in a scene where the party’s DJ, Vic (played by DC Young Fly), is so under the influence, he can no longer play music.

Mýa

Getty Images—2019 Noam GalaiNEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 11: Mya visits the SiriusXM Studios on July 11, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)

In the film, protagonist Damon harbors a longtime celebrity crush on the singer and dancer Mýa. He finally gets to shoot his shot after he invites her to his house party (with a little help from LeBron James’ address book), where she appears, as herself.

Read More: House Party Stars Kid ‘n Play on Reuniting in a Reboot of the ’90s Classic

Big Sean

Johnny Nunez—WireImage/Getty ImagesBig Sean attends Black Entrepreneurs Day hosted by Daymond John at The Apollo Theater in New York City on Oct. 22, 2022.

The rapper Big Sean appears as himself in the film and is instrumental in helping the protagonist Kevin find a new career. After hearing Kevin’s beats play at the party, Big Sean hires him to produce beats for his music, ensuring that Kevin can provide for himself and his daughter.

Hit-Boy

Getty Images—2023 Getty ImagesHOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 11: Hit-Boy attends the Special Red Carpet Screening for New Line Cinema’s “House Party” at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on January 11, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Producer Hit-Boy has made music with the likes of Beyoncé, Kanye West, and Drake, so it’s no wonder that Kevin, an aspiring music producer, is nervous to play his music in front of him at the party. While Hit-Boy, who appears as himself, is not initially impressed with Kevin’s beats, he later works with Kevin and Big Sean.

Odell Beckham Jr.

Getty Images—2022 Megan BriggsMIAMI, FLORIDA – DECEMBER 28: Odell Beckham Jr. looks on during a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat at FTX Arena on December 28, 2022 in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. appears as himself in a scene at the raucous party, where he’s cautioned against dancing lest he injure himself before the football season starts. It’s not the first time that Beckham has had an acting role as himself; he also made an appearance as himself for the television show, Ballers.

Juvenile

Getty Images—2021 Stephen J. CohenLOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – SEPTEMBER 25: Juvenile performs at Old Forester’s Paristown Hall on September 25, 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Images)

Early on in the film, Venus makes reference to an uncle who lives in New Orleans and makes music; it later turns out that her uncle is none other than the rapper, Juvenile, who makes a surprise appearance as himself at the party, where he performs “Back That Azz Up,” to an extremely enthusiastic crowd.

Read more: The Politics of Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne

Getty Images for Amazon Music—2022 Jerritt ClarkLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 17: Lil Wayne performs at the Amazon Music Live Concert Series on November 17, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for Amazon Music)

Lil Wayne makes the briefest of appearances in the film, playing himself; in the scene, he assesses the severity of a party foul that involves Odell Beckham Jr.

Tristan Thompson

WireImage—2022 Joseph OkpakoLONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 08: Tristan Thompson watches the Giveon concert from the side of the main stage during Wireless Festival at Finsbury Park on July 08, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage)

With the premise being a party being thrown at his former teammate’s mansion, perhaps it should come as no surprise that NBA player Tristan Thompson would make an appearance in the film. Thompson, who won an NBA championship with LeBron James in 2016 while playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, makes his cameo in a scene where a security guard mistakes his championship ring for LeBron’s ring, which has gone missing at the party.

Mark Cuban

Getty Images—2023 Getty ImagesHOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 11: Mark Cuban attends the Special Red Carpet Screening for New Line Cinema’s “House Party” at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on January 11, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban appears as himself in a scene that pokes fun at the myth of the Illuminati. In the film, Kid Cudi’s character takes Kevin and Damon to another party, this one thrown by the Illuminati, where Kevin attempts to pitch Cuban, Shark Tank-style, while mingling with other guests.

Kid ‘n Play

Getty Images—2023 Getty ImagesHOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 11: (L-R) Christopher Reid Christopher Martin of Kid ‘n Play attend the Special Red Carpet Screening for New Line Cinema’s “House Party” at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on January 11, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

The stars of the original House Party movie make a brief, but memorable cameo in the 2023 remake at the Illuminati party, where they are recognized by Kevin and Damon. In addition to the first House Party movie, the rap duo also starred in two of the franchise’s sequels and appeared on the television show, Martin.

Read more: LeBron James Plans to Take Over Hollywood

LeBron James

Getty Images—2023 Lachlan CunninghamSACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 07: LeBron James #6 of the Los Angeles Lakers looks on in the second quarter against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center on January 07, 2023 in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)

The mythology surrounding King James looms large over this film, as not only a producer and co-star in the film, but especially because the movie’s premise revolves around a rowdy house party thrown in James’ L.A. mansion while he’s away on a meditation retreat. While James has shown off some serious comedic chops in movies like Trainwreck, in House Party, he plays a straight man version of himself, understandably peeved when he comes home to an unauthorized house party in his mansion, but not so annoyed that he can’t obliterate Damon’s ego in a game of one-on-one.

Snoop Dogg

Getty Images—2022 Sarah MorrisLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 10: Snoop Dogg performs at the 2022 LA3C Festival at Los Angeles State Historic Park on December 10, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Sarah Morris/Getty Images)

As everyone’s favorite party guest, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Snoop Dogg would make a cameo in House Party. The Doggfather appears in a scene where LeBron, after registering the surprise of a house party at his home during his absence, admonishes Snoop for smoking indoors.

Anthony Davis

Lachlan Cunningham—Getty ImagesAnthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers looks on after the game against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center on Jan. 7, 2023 in Sacramento, Calif.

Anthony Davis’ close friendship with LeBron is well-established; not only did James help the Los Angeles Lakers acquire Davis in 2019, but he was also featured prominently in James’ first SpringHill Company production, Space Jam: A New Legacy, where he was part of the Goon Squad.

Druski

Patrick McMullan via Getty Image—2022 Patrick McMullanNEWARK, NEW JERSEY – AUGUST 28: Druski attends the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards at Prudential Center on August 28, 2022 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Udo Salters/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

Comedian and internet personality Drew “Druski” Desbordes makes a small but significant cameo towards the end of the film. After LeBron shows up to his party-wrecked house, Desbordes is one of the revelers who greets him at his front door.

There are dozens of films about high school escapades at house parties, but the blueprint for them all is arguably the 1990 film House Party. Starring the hip hop duo Kid ‘n Play, the film was an audacious romp through the trials and triumphs of adolescence—strict parents, young love, fearsome bullies, valuable friendships, and of course, house parties. The film, which was inducted last year into the National Film Registry, was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful breakout hit for its writer and director, Reginald Hudlin and became a watershed moment in Hollywood for not only Black film, but the Black teen movie.

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The film also helped to launch the acting careers of Kid (Christopher Reid) ‘n Play (Christopher Martin), the pair whose earnest friendship forms the beating heart of the film. While Kid ‘n Play later appeared in other films, created their own Marvel comic book, and even launched a Saturday morning cartoon, they always returned to the House Party franchise, going on to star in three sequels. Now, ahead of a new reboot of the same name produced by LeBron James’ Springhill Company and releasing in theaters on Friday, TIME caught up with Kid ‘n Play to talk about their iconic franchise and their role in the new film.

Below, Kid ‘n Play look back on making House Party, decades of friendships, and the key elements for a truly great house party.

TIME: The original House Party made its debut over 30 years ago. What does it feel like to have seen the success of the original, a number of sequels, and now a remake?

Chris “Kid” Reid: It’s pretty amazing. We didn’t have that in mind when we did our thing years ago, but it’s exciting to see it come full circle and move on to a new galaxy of new fans. It’s great to be a part of a franchise like that.

Chris “Play” Martin: It’s humbling. To get a little deep, this morning I decided to take a walk and reflected on the aspirations and dreams and desires, Kid and I had well over 30 years ago. And then fast forward to today.

A good house party always has a good guest list and the House Party movies have always had great cameos like George Clinton. For this reboot, you two actually appear as cameos of yourselves—did it feel special to return in this way?

Kid: I think Kid ‘n Play is so linked with House Party that I think they thought we belonged in it in some kind of capacity, so it was cool to kind of pass the baton to them that way. Let’s see what they do with it and see what their take is.

Play: I looked at it as a reason to just have some fun and not take myself too seriously. perfectly happy to do that. We’re pretty much synonymous with House Party and not just the movie, but all parties. The other day, my daughter went to a New Year’s Eve party in New York and the club flyers had us on them.

For each of you, what makes a good house party?

Play: Great DJ, great guest list, and good food maybe—depends on where you have the party. And nothing wrong with having a good looking crowd. But the music’s got to be bangin’ though.

Kid: Hold up—you didn’t have no food at your house party! Your party was bereft of snacks.

Play: [Laughs] Yeah, well, that wasn’t in the budget. We were high school—when you’re in high school, you got no money!

Kid: I would agree—you gotta have good music and just good vibes. You always want to have a party that’s so great that the knuckleheads want to get in, but can’t get in. You have to have good people and keep the haters out.

This remake of House Party is a little darker than the original film you both starred in. The problems are definitely more grown than the ones that high schoolers are facing; for example, Kevin is throwing a party to make rent and pay for his daughter’s school tuition. How do you feel about these changes?

Play: We’re dealing with a different era. Your life might be on the line, whereas our bullies were harmless. Reggie [Reginald Hudlin, the writer and director of the 1990 House Party] was brilliant, especially at introducing what we went through with the cops and police situations in the ‘90s and how it still plays kind of prophetically today, unfortunately. I hope it’s successful for all the right reasons, but at the same time, accurately dealing with what takes place today, if that makes any sense.

Play: I agree with that—it’s not 30 years ago. The people that put this together, they faced different kind of challenges.

The original house party was selected by the National Film Registry last year. Why do you think the film and its legacy has been so beloved by so many people?

Play: For me, Kid and I are so blessed and fortunate to be a part of something that so many people can relate to and desire to come back. I’ve never been on social media as much as I have over the last couple of days and just seeing people reminiscing and talking about watching those movies. I’m so proud to be a part of something like this. Never thought in a million years we would be a part of this, along with a lot of other stuff in our careers.

Kid: We are celebrating the fact that we will always be associated with a fine piece of cinematic art and if people choose to stick with it, they can keep enjoying it in whatever form or fashion that is. That’s great.

Why do you think this film is something people relate to and return to after three decades?

Kid: The movie had a heart to it. You got high school, you got friends, you got doing some clandestine stuff behind your parents’ back. You also got the threat of danger, you got police brutality or the inference of that—I think, unfortunately, a lot of those elements are still in play today, although maybe in more extreme forms.

Play: Our relationship also relates to so many friendships. We’re almost the poster boys for friendships because we literally grew up together as best friends living around the corner from each other in real life, for years. We didn’t have to convince anybody we’re friends because it was there from the jump and I think that resonates with people.

Kid: Reggie [Hudlin], being the brilliant writer he is, baked that into the film. That’s a major component of what it is. “Kid ‘n Play” has almost become synonymous with a strong friendship or a bond.

Adaptations of books serve an obvious purpose: They make substantial something you’d previously only imagined. The joy of watching Game of Thrones as a reader was seeing the dragons rendered, or hearing the “The Rains of Castamere” for the first time—even if you knew the song was heralding the atrocities of the Red Wedding.

A video-game adaptation doesn’t have the same raison d’être. Arguably very few have improved upon their source material. Visuals from the medium’s leading studios, like Naughty Dog, rival the best visual effects in television and film. Many critics would argue not only that Naughty Dog’s Indiana Jones–esque Uncharted adventure games looked far better than last year’s film adaptation starring Tom Holland, but also that the emotional resonance of the story was lost in translation.

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Neil Druckmann, the co-president of Naughty Dog, offered faint praise for that particular movie, over which he had little creative control. He has been much more invested in the new HBO series based on the game closest to his heart, The Last of Us, which debuts Jan. 15. The premise may sound familiar: A fungal infection transforms most of earth’s population into zombies. Twenty years later, a smuggler named Joel, who lost his daughter early in the pandemic, begrudgingly agrees to play bodyguard to 14-year-old Ellie, who may hold the key to a cure. He ushers her across a post-apocalyptic landscape inhabited by tribes of hungry humans and the eerily gorgeous, mushroom-headed undead.

Illustration by Peter Strain for TIME

Yet critics agree that The Last of Us is high art, perhaps the greatest video game ever created, in large part because of the moral conundrums into which it regularly thrusts players. The 2013 game sold more than 1 million copies in its first week and went on to win bundles of accolades. Its high standing and complex moral universe loomed large over an adaptation, a process set in motion nearly a decade ago that ultimately found Druckmann teaming up with Chernobyl showrunner Craig Mazin. Mazin, whose Emmy-winning HBO series shares considerable DNA with the story, says the game “was literature to me.” The duo, aided by a $100 million budget courtesy of HBO, enhance the visuals of city ruins devoured by nature and coax wrenching performances from their leads, Pedro Pascal as the gruff yet tender Joel and his Game of Thrones co-star Bella Ramsey as the foul-mouthed but vulnerable Ellie.

But justifying its existence, and that hefty price tag, will come down to more than offering up a love letter that faithfully reproduces a story that revolutionized the medium. The power of the video game is that it implicates the player in the morally compromising decisions Joel and Ellie must make to survive. Can that power be replicated when a controller is replaced by a remote?

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In a game, you’re compelled to stick with even the most harrowing stories. There’s a next goal to meet or a checkpoint to reach. That ask may be more challenging for a television audience. The 81-minute premiere sets the tone with a series of rather gruesome deaths. Mazin hopes that with the move to television, audiences can at least process this darkness collectively. “We play video games on our own,” he says. But if most viewers tune into new episodes of The Last of Us every Sunday night and discuss it the next morning, “they are sharing a communal experience.”

What they will watch together is Joel’s heart slowly cracking open. The reluctant guardian turned father figure is a familiar trope; in fact, Pascal plays one opposite an adorable baby Yoda in another series, the Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian. But the emotional arc of such stories tends to consist of a child helping their adopted parent grow into a better person. That isn’t necessarily the case here. While Ellie might look like the perfect fit for Joel’s emotional wound—a surrogate daughter for a lost one—his fear of losing another child could overwhelm his capacity for reason. And a parent figure brings out something feral in the orphaned Ellie. “They don’t make each other better per se,” says Mazin. “Joel had such an enormous love for his daughter, and this other kid comes along that’s so different in almost every way. And he ends up loving her a little bit more because she’s more like him. And that’s a problem.”

Review: HBO’s The Last of Us Adaptation Is Astonishingly Well Made—But Something’s Missing

Mazin hopes the audience will feel protective of the duo, but also question that devotion. “This isn’t meant to be perfectly beautiful,” he says. “This is a study of potentially extraordinarily dangerous codependency.”

In a midseason episode, Joel and Ellie accidentally drive into a trap set by a rebel group that’s recently overthrown the fascistic military regime in their city. The old government turned neighbors against one another and conscripted children into battle. In any other story, these revolutionaries would be heroes. But they’ve pinned our protagonists down. Joel begins to shoot their way out, but he’s middle-aged with achy knees. He’s lost a step. A man barges into the room behind Joel, and Ellie reaches for a gun and must decide what to do. She’s never shot an uninfected human before. If Mazin and Druckmann have done what they set out to do, a shot of Ramsey’s finger on the trigger will feel as visceral as having your own finger on the button of your controller. It may be an impossible feeling to replicate exactly, but we wouldn’t have more than a century of rich cinematic history if there weren’t power to be found in watching angst cast a shadow across an actor’s face.

Kaeli Mae built up more than 13 million followers on TikTok with soothing videos of her organized life—from restocking her diabetes medication to filling out her ice drawer. The 22-year-old, real name Kaeli McEwen, is one of the stars of “aesthetic” TikTok—which prizes a clean, neat and very neutrally colored lifestyle.

But her latest viral video has left some people wondering if the trend is an example of TikTokers increasingly straying from TikTok’s roots of featuring “authentic” content. On January 7, she posted a video of “aesthetic taxes.” That’s right. The video, which has more than 1 million likes, features her romanticizing tax season for her viewers—juxtaposing her heap of receipts with the satisfying view of her beige iced coffee and planner placed symmetrically on her also conveniently beige desk.

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Podcaster Gabby Sanchez, who saw Kaeli Mae’s viral taxes video on Twitter, says she was slightly dismayed by the video. “I’m not against the whole aesthetic thing if it’s getting people through their day, but the taxes video felt a little too far,” she says. “It was nicely done, but why are you romanticizing the government taking your money?”

What is ‘aesthetic’ TikTok?

Kaeli Mae, who lives in Seattle, Washington, includes the hashtag #aesthetic in all her videos, a TikTok category with over 190 billion views on the platform. The platform’s site even encourages users to create their own “aesthetic” videos.

The word “aesthetic” was long used on the internet to describe the style and “essence” of a person—or anything, really—as in the “antique grunge aesthetic” or Tumblr’s popular “cottagecore aesthetic.” Now the internet more commonly uses it as a stand-alone word. The most common sentence construction, ala Gen-Zers: “That’s so aesthetic.” Translation: That’s so “cool” or “attractive,” or in the case of the TikTok platform being taken over by Kaeli Mae-like content, so “satisfyingly without color.”

Kaeli Mae, who quit her Starbucks barista gig last year to pursue TikTok full-time, is a pro at making her everyday wearabouts around her home a soothing internet hit. She describes her category of “aesthetic” as one of TikTok’s most popular: The “that girl aesthetic,” which promotes a put-together lifestyle of workout routines, “clean” eating, and a tidy home. “My content inspires and motivates a lot of people that are especially trying to be ‘that girl.’ I think they keep coming back to my videos to find inspiration to be the best version of themselves,” she says.

A major component to this aesthetic is the presence of neutral tones like beige. (Even the highlighters Kaeli Mae featured in her taxes video are dull colors). The neutral element of this internet niche mimics the likes of Kim Kardashian’s popular Hidden Hills mansion known for its neutrally colored, minimalist interior design choices.

To many, like the hashtag Kaeli Mae uses in all her captions, the muted tones are satisfying to watch. “Most people aren’t going to sit and watch your video if it’s not appealing to the eye,” she says. They’re appealing to the ears too–in her recent video you can clearly hear the clack of her pens and shuffle of her paper receipts, a nod to an internet trend known as ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response).

The mixed reaction to ‘aesthetic’ TikTok

While the content performs well, its numbers come with critics.

Not everyone is happy with this new use of the word, with tweets like “The usage of ‘aesthetic’ as an adjective has got to stop in 2023” and “Why does everything have to be labeled as an aesthetic now?”

Many of the creators have faced backlash from viewers that believe the portrayal of a romanticized, neutral-toned life is a rejection of expression, individuality and to its extreme, real life. Some say the beige aesthetic can go too far, calling out “sad beige babies” whose parents have removed color from their children’s rooms, wardrobes, and toys.

For Gabrielle Perry, founder of nonprofit The Thurman Perry Foundation, the neutrals in videos like Kaeli Mae’s are comforting. “There’s nothing wrong with having a place of neutrality,” she says. “I decorate my house similarly because it helps with my anxiety.”

Beige and neutral tones performing well on social media are potentially connected to audiences finding an emotional escape from a life saturated in color and noise, says Karen Haller, color psychology specialist and author of The Little Book of Colour. “We live in a world that’s full of noise, chaos and clutter. Finding softly colored, minimalistic clips like this on social media can serve as a micro moment of joy and safety,” she says.

The effects of ‘aesthetic’ TikTok

Kaeli Mae’s content doesn’t only resonate with viewers, but has also encouraged other creators like Camryn Shows, a 23-year-old based out of Austin, Texas, to get on the aesthetic bandwagon. Since last May, Shows has gained over 15,000 followers on her TikTok page from uploading videos showcasing the neutral elements of her home–from her bedroom decor awash in white, to her beige new puppy.

Shows credits TikTok’s algorithm— dubbed the “secret sauce” for the explosive growth of the Chinese-owned social media app—for the strength of her content’s performance. “It brings people together that like similar things and have similar interests,” Shows says. Ninety percent of her audience is female between the ages of 20 to 40 years old, she adds.

Shows often gets comments on her posts from naysayers questioning her decision to maintain a neutrally toned presence online. Her neutral choices go beyond her content creation, and are more-so a personal lifestyle decision to help with her obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety, she says.

She wants to showcase the home she’s proud of, but reckons with the idea that many of her viewers could be internalizing an unrealistic expectation of everyday life. “It’s so important to keep in mind that social media is just a highlight reel,” says Shows. “I’m giving glimpses into a portion of my life, but it’s not always so picture-perfect and organized.”

Perry is doubtful that this current trend on TikTok will be the end-all be-all. “Home decor and aesthetics work in shifts,” she says. “This isn’t the first time neutrals were in trend and it won’t be the last.” Kaeli Mae is confident that this type of content is here to stay and is hopeful her online career will continue to grow because of it. “Even with all the different trends, I’m able to adjust and make content that has those soothing, aesthetic, ASMR qualities.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech on December 26, 2022 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Getty Images

• A former NATO commander said Putin is “scrambling” for manpower in Ukraine.
• “Putin will take anything. It’s a sign of how difficult this fight has become for him,” he said.
• Russia has relied on mercenaries and prisoners to bolster its ranks amid heavy losses in Ukraine.

Nearly 11 months after ordering an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is “scrambling” for manpower to continue the fight, Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Admiral James Stavridis told MSNBC on Friday.

“Putin is really scrambling to gain the manpower,” Stavridis said, adding that the Russian leader is looking everywhere from prisons to homeless shelters for more personnel and even recruiting men in their 50s and 60s. 

“Putin will take anything. It’s a sign of how difficult this fight has become for him,” the former NATO commander said.

It’s estimated that Russia has suffered around 100,000 casualties in Ukraine, a bewildering figure in less than a year of fighting.

Putin in September declared a partial military mobilization as part of an effort to address Russia’s manpower problems, calling up roughly 300,000 reservists. The mobilization faced public backlash and saw tens of thousands of Russian men flee the country. Russians called up as a result of the mobilization have been sent to the front poorly equipped and with little training.

Meanwhile, Russia has also sought to bolster its ranks via the help of mercenaries from the notorious Wagner Group, which has also recruited prisoners to fight on the frontline. Fighters from the Wagner Group now comprise roughly 10% of Russia’s ground forces in Ukraine, according to UK officials, per BBC News. 

A US official earlier this week told reporters that Russia was using prisoners to absorb heavy Ukrainian fire and pave the way for “better trained forces.” The official said Russia was “trading individuals for bullets.”

Russia on Friday claimed its forces had seized Soledar, a town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which would mark the first Russian victory in months. Ukraine pushed back on that assertion though, saying fighting was ongoing. 

Stavridis said that taking Soledar will give Russian forces a small morale boost but tactically is not a “terribly significant” development in the war. Soledar is not far from Bakhmut, a city of approximately 70,000 that Russia has vied to conquer for months. 

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington DC-based think tank that’s closely tracked the war in Ukraine, in an assessment on Thursday said that the likely capture of Soledar was “not an operationally significant development” and would be unlikely to lead to “an imminent Russian encirclement of Bakhmut.”

“Russian information operations have overexaggerated the importance of Soledar, which is at best a Russian Pyrrhic tactical victory,” ISW said. 

This week, Russia announced that Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, was taking over as commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine – just three months after his predecessor got the job. Analysts said that the move was likely a sign that serious offensives are on the horizon but also likely politically motivated and designed to silence critics amid Russia’s mounting military failures in Ukraine. 

Goldman Sach’s gives its list of high Sharpe ratio stocks.

Andrew Kelly/Reuters

• US stocks rose on Friday and finished off their best week since November.
• All three indexes gained despite warnings from major banks of tough times ahead.
• JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America have forecast a mild recession to hit the economy in 2023.

US stocks gained on Friday amid warnings from major banks of tough economic times ahead.

All three indexes fell Friday morning, but posted steady gains through the day to end in the green. In particular, S&P 500 rose to finish its best week since November, when investors bet inflation would decline into the new year.

Executives from JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America said they expect a mild recession to hit the economy this year. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon pointed to several headwinds that could rattle the economy, such as the ongoing war in Ukraine, high interest rates, and inflation, which is still well-above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. 

Still, consumers have grown more optimistic, with the US Michigan consumer sentiment survey clocking in at a nine-month high of 64.6 in January, up from 59.7 in December.

The 10-year Treasury yield ticked higher by six basis points to 3.51%. 

Here’s where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. closing bell on Friday: 

•  S&P 500: 3,999.08, up 0.4%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 34,302.61, up 0.33% (112.64 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 11,079.16, up 0.71% 

Here’s what else is happening today:

• Tesla’s price cuts show that Elon Musk isn’t going to “play nice” and the EV-maker is going on offense to spur demand, Wedbush said.
• “Dr. Doom” Nouriel Roubini said the Fed will wimp out on its inflation fight—and gold could be the best protection for investors.
• Stocks will suffer this year as a recession hits, but it could be the time to load up on bonds, PIMCO said.
• More than half of the CPI components are in deflation mode, and that could mean good news for the market, according to Fundstrat.
• China’s trade with Russia just hit a record $190 billion in 2022, a sign the two nations are strengthening their trade ties amid western sanctions.
• The Chinese government is buying Alibaba and Tencent shares that give the Communist Party special rights over some business decisions, a report said.

In commodities, bonds, and crypto:

• West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.8% to $79.87 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 0.2% to $85.30.  
• Gold tacked on 1.1% to trade at $1,919.57 per ounce. 
• The 10-year Treasury yield ticked higher six basis points to 3.51%.
• Bitcoin gained 2.6% to $19,363.67.

Even if you think your Facebook messages are gone, there are a few tricks you may be able to use to recover them.

Thiago Prudêncio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

• You can recover deleted messages from Facebook Messenger by downloading them or checking old email notifications.
• You can also recover them by looking in the cache of the Messenger app, if you use Android.
• You can also check your archived messages or ask the person you were messaging with for a copy.

It happens to everyone: You’ve scoured your message history, but the one message you’re looking for just isn’t there. For one reason or another, you deleted it. But now you want it back.

Once you delete a Facebook message, it’s gone for good — at least, from a strict Facebook Messenger perspective. But there are things you can do to get those messages back from other sources, like your app cache, archives, or previous Facebook messenger downloads.

Here are a few methods you can use to recover deleted Facebook messages, as well as back up your messages so you don’t lose them in the future:

How to recover deleted Facebook messages

Here are five methods that could help you retrieve those messages:

Check your archived conversations

If you archived the messages instead of deleting them, you can easily recover them, as Facebook always keeps your archived chats.

1. Open the Messenger desktop, web, or mobile app.

2. From the chats section of the app, type the name of the person you were talking to in the search bar. 

3. Then simply click or tap their name to open the conversation and view everything.

Tap on the name of the recipient in the search results.

Devon Delfino

Quick tip: If you don’t want to see certain chats in your inbox on Messenger, but you’re not sure if you should delete them, consider archiving the messages instead of deleting them.

Ask the recipient for a copy, or screenshot, of the message or conversation

When you delete a message, it only happens on your end. The person you’re talking to will still be able to see it, so they can help you fill in the gap if they didn’t delete them on their end as well.

Check if your Facebook messages were sent to your email

This only works if you have all email notifications enabled for your account. But if it’s enabled, you should be able to search for the conversation or message within your email account. 

Use Android file manager

If you’re using an Android device and you have Messenger installed, your device could have those deleted messages in the app’s cache. You can access it using any Android file manager, and if you don’t have one installed, you can find plenty of them on the App Store.

1. Open the file manager app on your Android device.

2. Navigate to the Internal Storage > com.facebook.katana > fb_temp

3. Here you’ll find messages from your recent history, and with any luck, your deleted ones will be among them.

Quick tip: If you’re using an iOS device, you can’t recover your deleted Facebook messages using any file app — however, you can download your messages by backing them up beforehand.

Download your Facebook information

Backing up your Facebook information, including your messages, is a good idea if you don’t ever want to lose any of it. 

1. Using the desktop app or browser version, go to your Facebook settings.You can also access these settings in the Messenger app on iOS.

2. Within the Your Facebook Information tab on the left sidebar, click Download your information.

You can download your information from the “Facebook Information” settings page.

Stefan Ionescu

3. Under the Select file options heading, make sure you’ve selected a date range in the last dropdown.

Don’t forget to select a date range, as this is required.

Stefan Ionescu

4. To only get your messages, click Deselect All under the Select information to download heading and recheck the box next to Messages.

You have to deselect everything and then reselect Messages.

Stefan Ionescu

5. Scroll all the way down to the Start your download heading and click Request a download. Facebook will email you the file once it’s ready for viewing.

Click on the “Request a download.”

Stefan Ionescu