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Comedian Pardis Parker at the Global Ted COnference 2022.

In April 2022, comedian Pardis Parker performed a five-minute set at the global TED Conference in Vancouver, Canada, where he admitted he’s “terrified of wanting to be a billionaire.” The performance was a funny and bold, statement in a culture obsessed with the ultra-wealthy.

Parker’s fear of becoming a billionaire began after he left Canada for Los Angeles. “I think the biggest difference between Canada and L.A. is the extent to which people in L.A. fetishize wealth,” Parker said.

“I'm terrified, man. I'm terrified that L.A. is changing me that I'm becoming one of those people who chases money, who fetishizes wealth who wants to be a billionaire,” he continued. “When I say that people get angry they get defensive. They’re like, ‘What's wrong with being rich? What's wrong with being a billionaire? What's wrong with being financially savvy?’ It's just like yo man, if you own a billion of anything that doesn't make you savvy, that makes you a hoarder.


He then points out that billionaires are just as quickly forgotten as anyone else. “There's 2,668 billionaires on the planet right now. Name them. You can't, and that's while they're still alive,” Parker joked.

Parker finishes his chunk by sharing how almost everyone can leave a legacy long after they’re gone. For example, give kids a full-size candy bar on Halloween. “That's it, that's it. Legacy cemented. It's been 30 years since I went trick-or-treating and me and my brother still talk about 39 Grenon.”

Parker’s stand-up routine presents a fun way of rethinking what it means to be rich and leave a legacy and he’s right. In the end, people will probably forget those who impressed them with their wealth, but they’ll never forget someone who made them feel good.

Quentin Brunson proposed to his girlfriend Ashleigh Mann with the help of Adele and friends.

Last night, Adele's first live concert in four years aired on CBS, and it was a night to remember for more reasons than that.

Held at the beautiful Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, the concert was a star-studded event with gorgeous views of the city. Hearing and seeing Adele sing in a stunning black evening gown while the sun set behind her felt almost indulgent in its perfection, but the night was made even more special with a surprise proposal Adele helped orchestrate.

After Adele told the audience to be "really bloody quiet" and had the lights turned down, Quentin Brunson led his girlfriend, Ashleigh Mann, to the front of the stage. She was wearing noise-canceling headphones and a blindfold and had no idea where she was. When she took them off, she found Quentin down on one knee. She could see and hear the crowd, but it wasn't until after Quentin went through his tearful proposal that Ashleigh found out where she was and who she was with.

Watch:


Can you even imagine? "What is happening? Where am I? OMG, I'm getting engaged! Oh, Adele—HELLO! What? I'm on you're 'One Night Only' special that millions of people around the world are going to be watching on television? Take a seat in the front row, you say? Right here between Lizzo and Melissa McCarthy? UM, OKAY. Oh, you're singing to me now. Am I dreaming?"

How does one even take in such an experience? It was all so beautiful and clever and surprisingly real. Ashleigh's "Oh my god, I've been your girlfriend for so long" and her "In real life?" during the proposal and her simple, "Yeah" that sealed the deal were so dang cute. But her face when she saw Adele was absolutely priceless. And then Adele's cackle—AH HA!

The performance of "To Make You Feel My Love," just iced the cake. So, so sweet. We're all wiping our eyes with you, Melissa McCarthy.

Quentin and Ashleigh were interviewed by Gayle King on CBS This Morning and shared how the proposal came to be:

Ashleigh said she thought they were going to go on a hayride because they had been talking about going to a pumpkin patch. Ha.

Quentin himself didn't even know the surprise proposal opportunity was going to involve Adele herself until a couple of days before it happened. And the couple has had to keep the whole thing a secret since the filming—even from their friends and family—which had to have been torture.

What a fun and memorable night. Even people who aren't fans of public proposals gave props to the surprise. Any proposal that involves Adele singing directly to you in person is pretty much impossible to criticize and impossible to top.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Wayfarer Foundation/BC Serna

As an actor, Justin Baldoni is best known for playing heartthrob Rafael on Jane the Virgin. As a director, he's known for the CW series My Last Days and the feature film Five Feet Apart. But away from the screen, the 36-year-old husband and father of two is recognized for spending his time trying to make the world a better place.


Through his non-profit organization, The Wayfarer Foundation, Baldoni is trying to transform how individuals and communities see and respond to people experiencing homelessness. One way is through the annual Skid Row Carnival of Love, an idea that emerged out of Baldoni's annual tradition of bringing supplies to Skid Row on his birthday in lieu of a party.

"I had a dream six years ago," Baldoni told Upworthy at this year's event, "as weird as it sounds—to bring a carnival, which is really a day of joy, where people would come together to lift up this community and remind them of their worth."

Now every year at the end of January, Wayfarer blocks of 20,000 square feet of Skid Row in Los Angeles for a day to put on the Skid Row Carnival of Love. They invite the whole neighborhood as honored guests, literally roll out the red carpet for them, and bring in every kind of service someone experiencing homeless might need, including career services, housing services, domestic violence services, dental and medical exams, an eye clinic, haircuts, massages, and more.

Photo courtesy of Michelle Meyer

"When you live on the street and you don't have an address, it's very hard to actually get off the street," explains Baldoni, "to show up at the appointments on time, to make sure you're doing everything right to get into a house. And it's very hard to keep a job...so we're trying to bring everything to them in one place so they don't have to go through each of the individual missions to have their services offered."

But the carnival is about more than just providing needed services—it's really about forming bonds between human beings. "Our mission is, through friendship, to make a little dent in the homeless epidemic," says Baldoni.

"The way this carnival works is that all these volunteers—there's a line of our friends experiencing homelessness outside, and then there's a line of volunteers inside—and they all get paired one to one," Baldoni explains. "And they walk through the carnival together. Because at its core, it's about friendship."

Baldoni's own friendship with a man named Willie began on Skid Row four years ago. Willie told Upworthy that the sounds of the carnival being set up that year woke him up, and at first he was annoyed by it. "But when I really woke up and saw what was really going on, it brought me to tears," he said. "The resources he had out here, I needed it at that time. It did something for me."

Justin and Willie met at the Skid Row Carnival of Love in 2016.Photo courtesy of The Wayfarer Foundation

Willie approached Baldoni after his introduction speech that year. "Thank you for seeing us," Willie told him, "and thank you for seeing me." Baldoni embraced Willie in a warm hug and their bond was formed. Willie has become a friend of the foundation as well, helping to provide valuable insight into how the carnival can best serve the needs of unhoused individuals.

Baldoni says that the biggest problem is that we forget that people living on the street are still people. "There's this idea that they're all drug addicts. Or they're all alcoholics, or they're all whatever," he says. "The biggest misconception is that there's a reason they're down here, and they're being punished for it, and they deserve it."

Willie agrees. "Nobody really wants to be down here," he says.

"We're missing the empathy and the compassion," says Baldoni. "This is the problem. That is what is missing. We're trying to solve this problem with policy and politics, and the Democrats and the Republicans are all fighting with each other about this and this. But at the end of the day, this is a human problem."

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Baldoni says there's more we can all do, starting with just striking up a conversation with a person experiencing homelessness. Ask them their name, where they are from, what they like, what their dreams are, what they need right now.

He also acknowledges that there are larger issues at play. "There are systemic issues," he adds. "Deep, deeply rooted systemic issues of oppression, of racism, of a broken criminal justice system—all of the various things that would lock Willie up far before they would lock me up for the exact same offense, and that punish people who are down here for being down here."

As far as our own actions as individuals, Baldoni says there are a couple of ways we can help:

"The first thing is very easy. It is to make an effort to make eye contact and start a conversation with somebody who appears to be homeless, and just get to know them. If there's somebody on your block, if there's somebody that you pass by on the way to work every day, if there's somebody you drive by on the way to work every day—throw extra stuff in your car, roll down your window, ask them what they need, and come and see them the next day and learn their name.

The second thing you can do if you want to support us and the work of The Wayfarer Foundation—my dream is to build the one-to-one program out and show that through love and peer mentoring we can actually make a difference in the homeless epidemic—and for that we just need volunteers, we need donations, and we need support. And it's that simple. And I hope that one day I won't have to ask anybody for that because there won't be any people on the street. But that's not where we are today."

Baldoni points out that the ultimate goal of his foundation is to be so successful in its work that it's no longer needed. "The goal is to not be here," he says. "I shouldn't have to have a foundation, and I shouldn't have to throw a carnival. None of these places should exist. And if you're a non-profit that really, really cares, you should want to be out of business."

Learn more about the work of the Wayfarer Foundation here.

LAPD

Emily Zamourka's life has changed drastically since she was first discovered singing opera in a subway station in Los Angeles.

The 52-year-old, who'd been living on the streets, found overnight fame after an LAPD officer recorded her performance of Giacomo Puccini's "O mio babbino caro" on the platform Sept. 26.

Struck by her incredible voice, the officer captured the moment at the Wilshire and Normandie Purple Line station, according to Good News Network, and uploaded it to Twitter where it quickly became a viral sensation.

"4 million people call LA home. 4 million stories. 4 million voices...sometimes you just have to stop and listen to one, to hear something beautiful," the LAPD wrote.

Zamourka's new-found popularity opened the door to her first on-stage singing debut after Los Angeles Councilmember Joe Buscaino invited her to perform at a celebration of Los Angeles' new Little Italy on Saturday, CNN reports.

"I didn't have much time to practice, so I'm just gonna sing the same song I sang on the subway...That ok with you?" Zamourka asked the audience.

She's also been offered a record deal by Grammy-nominated music producer Joel Diamond. "Emily's story is what dreams are made of," Diamond told CNN. "And I never turn my back on a dream."

"I don't even know what's happening," Zamourka told reporters after her debut performance. "It's so much, so fast."

Surprisingly, she's had no formal vocal training, but is a classically trained pianist and violinist, ABC 7 reports.

RELATED: A tragically beautiful video captures Parisians singing hymns as they watch Notre Dame burn

"You know why I do it in the subway is because it sounds so great," she said.

Zamourka used to play her violin around the city to make money until someone stole the $10,000 instrument three years ago. After a serious health challenge and the financial setback, she ended up on the street.

"That's when I became homeless when I could not actually pay any of my bills and could not pay any more of my rent." At the time, she told reporters she was sleeping on cardboard in a parking lot.

When she found out the subway video of her had become so popular, she said she just wanted to return to playing her music so she can get back on her feet.

"I will be so grateful to anyone who is trying to help me get off the streets and to have my own place and my instrument," Zamourka said.

Many locals commented on the video, sharing their own stories of interactions with Zamourka.

RELATED: When someone on the street asks you for money, what's your answer? This app can help.

"I've seen her for years on the Metro. I heard her once singing 'Ave Maria' and thought it was a radio at first. Everyone has a story...this woman does too. I don't know why she's been homeless all these years, but she's a human being...that's all that matters," one person wrote.

"She's from Glendale. She loves animals and sings Like a Bird. She is multi-talented and very friendly and kind. Her name is Emily," another person wrote.

Others, however, took the video as a chance to call out the homelessness crisis in Southern California.

Currently, there are more than 58,900 Angeleños experiencing homelessness, according to CNN. The situation is so bad, some officials are calling for it to be declared a state of emergency.

But with things looking up for Zamourka, hopefully there will soon be one less person having to live on the street.

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