Michael Stipe is changing the game this Friday (September 2) on both the music front and the environmental front. His new, double-sided single “Future If Future” (a song originally released in 2018) will be the world’s first commercially available bioplastic 12″ vinyl record, coupled with Beatie Wolfe’s “Oh My Heart.”
Michael Stipe
This release is part of a larger Bandcamp project in collaboration with “Future If Future” producer Brian Eno’s environmental charity EarthPercent that will include over 100 other songs. The bioplastic vinyl, designed by British music sustainability organization Evolution Music, is said to be “a genuinely revolutionary moment for both the music industry and record collectors, offering a non-fossil fuel future for vinyl recordings that globally amount to around 180 million LPs — or 30,000 tons of PVC — a year. The solution uses circular economy principles to replace the harmful production and use of single use plastics and minimize waste in the music industry.”
Beatie Wolfe
The goal is to replace polyvinyl chloride, a plastic labeled “the most environmentally damaging” according to Greenpeace, with a more viable alternative. The single will be limited to 500 copies pressed on fossil-fuel-free vinyl. Stipe says, “Simply showing that this type of solution-based project is possible opens pathways to a brighter future.”
Check out images of the vinyl and Wolfe holding a test pressing above.
Blending whiskey isn’t just for the experts. I know, that sounds insanely stupid — because expertise certainly does help here — but bear with me. There’s precisely no one stopping you from blending your whiskeys at home to slide the flavor profile in one direction or another. In fact, a ton of pros do it all the time.
Want to add a little smokiness to a cherry-bomb bourbon? Grab a bottle of Islay malt and see what happens. Looking for a spicy layer in a fruity Highland single malt? Layer in a little Indiana rye. Does that hazmat whiskey taste too much like burning? Add a little 80-proof juice and water to calm that f*cker down! Again, no one is stopping you from doing whatever you want with your whiskey.
We live in an era where every pro chants, “enjoy your whiskey the way you want!” as if the thought is revolutionary. Blending your own glass of whiskey is the best way to embrace that. Of course, I’m speaking in massively big brush strokes here but this is a real thing that whiskey drinkers do all the time. So I’m going to give you some tips on how to do it yourself with your favorite bottles of whiskey.
Ready to get weird? Let’s go!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This is the most important “rule.” You don’t want to overdo it. What you should be aiming for is augmenting the flavors that are already there with a single, bold flavor note that make sense. I know that’s a very broad thing to say, as we all have varying palates and desires, but it’s important to keep things simple when making your own blend.
A hard and fast rule is that more is not better. You really want to keep this to a two, three at most, whiskey venture. Too many flavors from too many whiskeys simply mutes everything and leaves you with a muddled-tasting waste of perfectly good juice. Also, you cannot make bad whiskey good by adding good whiskey to bad whiskey — don’t even bother.
Rule: Bad whiskey will always win on the flavor profile. Don’t try to improve it by tipping a shot of 15-year into the bottle.
Keeping it simple also means starting out small. You should always be aiming for a final pour that’s two ounces (which is pretty standard these days). My best advice is to start with a one-ounce pour of the whiskey you want to adjust and slowly build in increments toward two ounces.
Lastly, you should be looking to “add” something more than take away or cover up a flavor note. That said, flavor notes get lost when blending all the time which leads us to…
Trial and Error
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You’re going to need to be patient. I can tell you blends that work for me (more on that below). But that’s my palate and what I’m looking for. Blending whiskey at home is very much about you. Know what you’re aiming for and then tinker. Try different bottles, combos, and even spirits. For example: sometimes cutting down a higher proof whiskey isn’t about adding water or a lower proof whiskey, it’s about adding a super neutral 80-proof vodka. After all, that’s all blended American whiskey/bourbon is.
Again, we’re talking about an ounce or two of your whiskey at a time, not whole bottles. That means that you have a little wiggle room to play before you start really pouring cash down the drain.
Your Base and Additions
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This is where everything begins and ends. You generally want to be using a bigger base that you already like but want to add a little something to. I generally look at it this way, I want to add big and bold notes (smoke, peat, cherry, black pepper, ash, coal, corn husks, to name only a few) to a base that’s already subtle and dialed.
I tend to look for a creamy, fruit-forward base that has a little honey, vanilla, caramel, and maybe some spice to it. You don’t want to add sweetness to an already sweet base. That said, a mildly spicy base — maybe a little warm winter spice — can really pop with the addition of dried chili or earthy black peppercorn notes. I like to think of it less as “what is this whiskey missing?” and more as “what can I add to make this something new and exciting?” This is where the additions come in.
Can I get a chili-spiced honey note in a Speyside honey bomb with a little Texas bourbon? Can I build a lemon-pepper vibe with a crafty American single malt and an MGP of Indiana rye? “Building” is the takeaway here. You should always be thinking of what you’re building in the glass and then follow your senses on whether it’s working or not.
Water
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Another option is to add a little water. Water can lower proof, which makes a lot of whiskeys way easier to drink. Water also helps break down fatty acids in the actual juice, which releases more chemicals/flavor notes into the glass for you to pick up.
Okay, this is going to get deep for a moment. To calculate how to proof by adding water, you need to run an equation. It’s the volume you want (2 ounces in this case) times the proof you want (let’s say 40 percent) that’s then divided by the original proof (let’s say 65 percent). That will give you the volume of the base alcohol you’ll need which you minus from 2 ounces to get the volume of the water you’ll need to hit exactly 40 percent ABV in your blended two-ounce pour.
Zach Johnston
That means you’ll need approximately 1.23 ounces of base alcohol to 0.77 ounces of water to turn a 65 percent ABV pour into a 40 percent ABV pour. Naturally, you can round these numbers off to 1.25 ounces and 0.75 ounces of water to keep things simpler.
Now, this may seem wildly inappropriate to do to a whiskey that so many people spent so much time perfecting. But here’s a little insider information for you: Every single distiller and blender proofs their whiskey down to around 20 percent ABV/40 proof to taste and blend their whiskey before deciding on what to blend/bottle. Basically, that’s the scientific sweet spot when all the chemicals and fats in the spirit find the perfect balance for the ultimate flavor profile that we can actually sense.
Start Blending
Zach Johnston
I like to get an idea and then start simply. If I’m going from sweet bourbon to smoky bourbon, I’ll start with 1.5 ounces of bourbon and add about 0.25 ounces of peaty whisky at a time. If that’s not quite enough, I’ll add in another 0.25 ounces of the peaty. You can always add more but you can never go back.
For this, you’ll need a jigger or some sort of measuring glass that marks ounces or milliliters. You’ll also need to swirl the glass for about 15 to 20 seconds and let the glass sit for maybe a minute (maybe two) to let it blend and settle. Don’t rush in.
Zach Johnston
One of my all-time favorite and can’t-miss blends is a base of Kentucky bourbon accented with Scottish Islands peated malt. For this, I’ve combined 1.5 ounces of Knob Creek 9-Year Small Batch Bourbon with 0.5 ounces of Talisker 10 (a peated single malt). The Knob Creek is a classic cherry-bomb bourbon with big notes of woody vanilla, cedar bark, caramel sauce, and even some apple skins with a dry grassy finish. The Talisker is a subtle peaty with hints of beach campfires, soft stone orchard fruits, old bales of straw, and a hint of sea brine.
When combined, you get a nose of bold orchard fruits (a cherry/plum/apricot mix) next to lightly spiced malts and a hint of a sourdough apple fritter with a hint of cream soda that leads toward Martinelli’s Apple Cider. The palate is a lush mix of bright orchard fruits next to a line of winter spice attached to malts with a hint of dark chocolate oranges sneaking in. The vanilla creates a silky foundation for a whisper of old campfire smoke in the distance with a hint of cherry to it. This finish is light but bold with a sense of thin whisps of smoked cherry next to a velvety plummy vanilla husk backed with a note of fresh cedar bark.
This is a tried and true blend of two very different whiskeys and it definitely works. Going deeper, you can figure out the ABV on that pour as well with another equation: base volume times ABV (1.5×0.5) plus added volume times ABV (0.5x.485) divided by total volume (2) that’s then timed by 100, which puts this pour at 49.625 percent ABV or 99.25 proof.
Zach Johnston
Now, it’s time for you to experiment. Flip the volume on this recipe! Add some water! Hell, try a peat monster like Laphroaig instead of Talisker to bring some serious ashy and medicinal notes (it’ll lean into a cherry cough syrup vibe with a fatty brisket to it). The point is, have fun blending and enjoy the fruits of your labor. This is a recreation, after all, not rocket science.
As The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power makes it debut after months of headlines touting it as the most expensive TV show ever produced, Amazon reportedly has another costly series waiting in the wings. However, this time it wasn’t by design. According to a new report, the Russo Brothers have been struggling to shepherd a new spy series, Citadel, which has gone way over budget due to expensive reshoots and creatives leaving the project.
Starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra, Citadel was meant to bring a team of international spies together (Yup, like The Avengers.) for a debut miniseries that would “generate local spinoffs” centered on each character. Reportedly, there was trouble right out of the gate, which led to creative conflicts behind-the-scenes. Via The Hollywood Reporter:
According to sources, Amazon had some reservations about early footage, with the Russos, who were less involved due to a focus on their own pricey action project, The Gray Man, parachuting in. This brought about creative differences and led to two competing cuts, one pushed by the Russos, the other by [writers] Appelbaum and Nemec. As weeks rolled on, other project commitments had whittled down the creative camps to two opposing forces, Joe Russo and Appelbaum, who was the series’ showrunner.
Amazon chose to bet on the Russos, and days before Christmas, Appelbaum was let go.
According to the report, Amazon dropped an extra $75 million on reshoots earlier this year, which now makes Citadel their second most expensive TV series behind The Power of the Rings. As for why the Russos have been able to extract huge budgets out of streamers (The Gray Man is reportedly the most expensive movie on Netflix), they deliver when it comes to views.
As THR notes, “Extraction stands as Netflix’s sixth-most viewed original film ever, while Gray Man is the fourth-most viewed original, according to Netflix.”
The Bay Area isn’t just the birthplace of R&B and soul vocalist Zyah Belle — it shaped her into the artist she is today. Raised in Vallejo, Belle’s childhood church became her makeshift performance space as she forged her path as a budding singer-songwriter. Growing to become a star in her own right, being in the church choir allowed Belle to discover her creative spirit.
“I didn’t sing solo in the choir until I got older, however, being in church and singing in the choir really influenced my writing today in the sense that I let things flow through me and come to me,” she says via phone. “A lot of times in the Black church, you might hear a church mother yell out the phrase ‘Let him use you.’ They encourage you to be a vessel and to allow whatever it is that you want to say or feel to flow through you. Although I’m not doing that from a choir stand or a pulpit anymore, I’m doing that in the booth, I still reference that same energy today.”
The “energy” for music that Belle acquired in church choir is the same ardor that has led her into releasing her debut album Yam Grier. Following consecutive projects including 2016’s New Levels, 2019’s IX and her 2021 EP Who’s Listening Anyway, Yam Grier is a testament to Belle’s tough-as-nails alter ego, an archetype that opposes the Bay Area’s history of pimp culture. One of the most notable pimp films of the 1970s was The Mack, which was filmed in Oakland, less than a 45-minute drive from Belle’s hometown of Vallejo. Giving a voice to women’s empowerment, Belle looked to female-led Blaxploitation films to find her innermost hero.
“What’s so interesting about Blaxploitation films is how it is interwoven with the representation of women being empowered, women ‘saving the day’ in certain films,” she says. “One thing that is unfortunately linked to Bay Area culture is pimp culture and exploitation of women. Then you have Pam Grier come in and be kind of the opposite of that — [she] wasn’t being a woman that was exploited in these films and represented herself almost as every woman. She was the badass that you could rely on in the movies. For me, it is taking that idea that I’m to be exploited and deciding, ‘No, I do and say what I want. I can be whoever I want.’”
Pimp culture is interwoven in throwback cuts from local rap artists Too $hort, Keak Da Sneak, and San Quinn, but Belle embraced dominant female rhymesayers like Suga-T — also from Vallejo — and Brooklyn-bred Foxy Brown as a mirror of self-confidence. The animated, “hyperactive” rhythms of the Bay Area’s hyphy movement also inspired Belle, regardless of the hip-hop subgenre being puzzling to visitors.
“A lot of what hyphy is in the Bay has that drum pattern similar to what you might hear in Detroit and LA production. I would say that’s the heart of hyphy music,” she says. “If you’re not local and a Mac Dre song comes on, you might say, ‘Who is this guy? Why is everybody dancing so weird to this music?’ If you’re from the Bay or you’ve been to the Bay, you get it, it’s a feeling.”
While hyphy continues to be a cornerstone of Bay Area music since its early aughts in the ‘90s, Belle also credits native musicians across generations, including Con Funk Shun and Sly & The Family Stone, for being her introduction to Bay Area soul and funk. As the neo-soul movement arose in the mid-’90s and early-2000s, Belle leaned into two other hometown acts that have become widely-admired in Black music.
“The soul influence of Tony! Toni! Toné! and Goapele — Goapele really changed a lot in my perspective of music because we didn’t really have many artists at that time from the Bay that [were] doing neo-soul or alternative R&B,” she says.
The Bay Area’s current pop darling is Kehlani, who shouted out Belle during a visit on Sway’s Universe earlier this year. Creating a montage with the clip — along with appearances on SiR’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert and as a member of Kanye West’s Sunday Service Choir — Belle commends Kehlani as an influence and contemporary.
“That was really cool because I had encountered Kehlani, about 2013 or 2014 before they ended up releasing their first mixtape Cloud 19. Within their journey, it’s always been a thing about progressing, moving forward and lowkey becoming a pop star in a sense,” Belle says. “To have my name be mentioned and somebody that came to mind was definitely an honor. Although I feel affirmed in what I do, it feels like an extra affirmation to have your peers recognize you.”
Now residing in Portland, Belle still carries the authenticity of the Bay Area with her, whether opening for fellow R&B singer-songwriter Alex Isley on the Marigold Tour, or turning the City of Roses into her personal runway in the “DND” music video. Donning vintage threads in the Riley Brown-directed visual, Belle personifies the Bay Area self-expression as more than an aesthetic — it’s a lifestyle.
“Whether I want to wear an outfit that makes absolutely no sense in Portland, Oregon and be in my own world or wear a t-shirt and jeans, [the Bay Area] has always empowered me to be who I am, wherever I am, despite where I am,” she says. “I don’t have to align with today’s reality, I don’t have to look like people around me, I can be who I am and feel beautiful in that and have a good time. I pride myself on being from the Bay because we’re a group of people who don’t care so much, we just want to have a good time, connect with people and dance.”
With her music having an underlying message of free love, Belle pours her appreciation into the cultural melting pot of the Bay Area, and the gift of rediscovering her musical roots.
“Growing up in Vallejo and being in a smaller city, you really learn the power of community. It nurtures you, it never leaves you,” Belle says. “I’m in the Bay Area multiple times a year, I’ll always be there, especially as long as my family’s there. It will always be significant in my past, my present, my future and reminding me who I am and where I come from.”
Yam Grier is out 9/9 via Guin Records. Pre-order it here.
Taylor Swift, as usual, is busy — she just announced her new album Midnights during her award acceptance at the VMAs, but she’s still not done with promoting the rerecording of Red — which arrived in November of last year and featured the new version of “All Too Well” — because she’s giving All Too Well: A Short Film its first screening on 35mm alongside an In Conversation With… Taylor Swift event. It will take place in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, and the talk will be hosted by TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey.
All Too Well: The Short Film, directed, produced, written, and starring Swift, as well as Dylan O’Brien and Stanger Things’ Sadie Sink. The movie is an alleged fictional take on Swift’s relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal almost a decade ago. She premiered the 13-minute film last fall before projecting it during her performance on Saturday Night Live (a bold move). The song was released as a part of her re-recording of her past records in order to gain control of her masters. The ten-minute film was also given a screening earlier this year at the Tribecca Film Festival in New York.
More information about the event can be found here.
Did you know that baby owls’ heads are too heavy for their little bodies to hold up all the time, so they sleep on their stomachs and it’s the cutest thing ever?
Did you know that otters like to have their hands rubbed by humans?
Did you know that Kevin Bacon singing a Beyoncé song with his guitar while being surrounded by goats was a thing?
There’s so much to learn in this week’s list of things that made us smile!
From our adorable animal friends to our awesome fellow humans doing awesome things, here are 10 delightful finds from around the internet to lift your spirit and give you a feel-good boost.
Otter loves it when a human holds and rubs its little hands and the bliss is too much.
u201cPetting the hands of an otter..ud83eudda6ud83eudda6ud83eudd70u201d
Oh my gosh, why are their legs so long and why do they look like they’re picking up their trousers and sneaking around? Can’t handle it.
Bono made a sweet animatic honoring his 40-year marriage to his wife, Ali.
u201c40 years ago today, Bono married his soulmate, Ali. In a new animation featuring an excerpt from Bonou2019s upcoming memoir, SURRENDER: 40 Songs, One Story, he recounts a special dayu2026 their wedding. #SurrenderMemoiru201d
Bono and Ali started dating the same year that U2 formed and 40 years later he still refers to her as his “soulmate.” Four decades is an impressive run for any couple, but practically unheard of for a world-famous rockstar. (I see you, Jon Bon Jovi!) Read the full story here.
These brothers caring for their baby sister after she fell asleep in her high chair is so dang sweet.
No idea what the backstory is on these kiddos, but clearly they’ve been raised to take good care of their sister. The way the older one jumped into action and the smile on the younger one’s face before he snuggled her up are just precious.
Kevin Bacon sings Beyoncé surrounded by goats in the most unexpectedly delightful video.
u201cHot day, hot song. The goats and I are feeling Heated, @Beyonce. Loving this track. #GoatSongs #Renaissanceu201d
This is the cover no one asked for but everyone finds themselves bopping to. What a combo. Read the full story here.
This 3-year-old loves her “Creepy Chloe” doll and Disney embraced her in the best way.
Kids are quirky, and 3-year-old Briar Rose’s choice of doll makes that clear. Disney World cast members totally went above and beyond when she brought “Creepy Chloe” to the Magic Kingdom, giving her some spooky treats, taking some fun portraits and making her an Honorary Caretaker of the Haunted Mansion. So fun. Read the full story here.
This bird trying to land a lady with his wing-waving, headless peek-a-boo dance
u201cThis male Victoria rifle bird trying to impress a female with a mating dancennVideo from IG travelandwildlifephotography nhttps://t.co/8jcIOUDKzUu201d
September is one of the strangest months of the year. School and football are back and it feels like it should be fall already but the weather can often be jarringly warm. This means we have one flip-flopped foot still planted in summer and the other firmly planted in everything autumn (Oktoberfest, pumpkin spice, and light sweaters). This cognitive dissonance affects the beer world, too. You might feel like something super light but pumpkin ales, Vienna lagers, amber ales, wet hop IPAs, harvest ales, and darker beers are definitely entering the picture.
All in all, it’s a great month to be a beer drinker. Though, in 2022, most months are great months to be a beer drinker.
Being spoiled with options isn’t always easy, though. Do you want to drink every craft Oktoberfest-style beer available? Delve into the scary, sometimes overly sweet world of pumpkin beers? Or do you want to stick with summery IPAs, lagers, and pale ales for one more month?
Lucky for you, we’re here to help you on your September beer journey. We’ve compiled a list of ten of our favorite beers to track down this September. Keep reading to see them all.
This annual release is Firestone Walker’s spin on the classic Oktoberfest beer. The 2022 edition was lagered in oak barrels from one of the most popular wineries in California’s Napa Valley. Brewed with Weyermann Vienna malt, Weyermann pilsner malt, noble German hops, and Weihenstephan lager yeast. Definitely one to look forward to this month.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is simple, but inviting with aromas of oaky wood, fruit esters, and caramel malts. The palate follows suit with hints of herbal, earthy, floral hops paired with biscuit-like, caramel malts, and more woody oak. The finish has the expected sweetness of an Oktoberfest beer with very little bitterness.
Bottom Line:
If you’re a fan of fresh takes on Oktoberfest-style beers, and you have tried other iterations of this beer, now’s your chance. The lagering in oak gives it a unique, memorable flavor.
Sierra Nevada is known for its limited-edition, seasonal beers. This is especially true with its IPAs. That’s why we were so stoked to try its newest release, Liquid Hoppiness. This juicy, piney IPA is brewed with 2-row pale and Munich malts as well as oats and wheat. It gets its fruity, resinous flavor from the addition of Azacca, Cascade, Centennial, and Sultana hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is all tangerine, grapefruit, and pineapple, with a nice hint of caramel malts to tie everything together. The palate is juicy and ripe with notes of grapefruit, orange zest, lemon, coconut, fresh-cut grass, and herbal, spicy hops. The finish is slightly bitter and juicy.
Bottom Line:
This juicy IPA is bursting with tropical and citrus flavors. It’s a fruity, hoppy way to say goodbye to summer 2022.
Sometimes we’re a bit wary of trying new pumpkin-centric beers because there are a lot of overly sweet, generic tasting beers on the market. Exhibit ‘A’ CAKE! Is something different. Brewed with cinnamon, vanilla, coffee, and pumpkin spice coffee cake, this 6% ABV autumn ale is as close to fall in a can as you can get and it’s not too sweet — a huge plus.
Tasting Notes:
One whiff of this beer and you know it’s a fall pumpkin spiced beer. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. On top of pumpkin spice, there are aromas of yellow cake, coffee, vanilla, and maybe some cinnamon. The palate continues this trend with more vanilla, loads of pumpkin, and a healthy dose of freshly brewed coffee.
Bottom Line:
If the goal was to create a beer that emulated the taste of eating a piece of pumpkin cake with a cup of freshly brewed coffee, this beer definitely did that, An interesting, fresh take on the pumpkin beer style.
Every fall, Wild Leap releases a new Coast West. The 2022 version is a 10% ABV double IPA that’s brewed with frozen fresh Cryo hops. The result is a piney, resinous, slightly bitter homage to a West Coast classic you’ll drink now until the end of fall.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find classic West Coast IPA aromas like grapefruit, tangerine, lemon, grass, and resinous pine. Sipping it reveals even more. Balanced notes of caramel-like malts, ripe grapefruit, candied pineapple, and dank, floral, slightly spicy hops are prevalent. The finish is dry, slightly bitter, and leaves you wanting more.
Bottom Line:
If you’re anything like us, you continue drinking piney IPAs all year long, especially in September. At 10% ABV, this one is filled with flavor and has enough alcohol content to give you a nice warming feeling on an unseasonably cool September night.
No September beer list is complete without a few annual release Oktoberfest beers. One of our favorites is this Märzen lager from the folks at Left Hand Brewing. It’s malty and loaded with biscuit-like malts but gets a vibrant kick from the use of Noble hops.
Tasting Notes:
Classic aromas of freshly baked bread, sweet grains, and fresh, floral, spicy hops greet your nose before your first sip. This is followed by even more cereal grains, caramel malts, and floral, herbal hops on the palate. When it comes to craft Oktoberfest-style beers, this one is difficult to beat.
Bottom Line:
This Oktoberfest-style beer is a perfect balance of floral Noble hops, grains, and sweet, caramel-like malts. It’s complex, yet easy to drink and perfect for the last days of summer.
You might think hazy IPAs are only for the middle of summer. But every fall, Troegs drops Hop Cyclone, a hazy, juicy, can’t-miss seasonal beer brewed with Pilsner malt, Vienna malt, and wheat. It gets its hoppy flavor from Citra, Sabro, Simcoe, and Sultana hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a combination of pineapple, grapefruit, and other tropical fruit flavors paired with dank, resinous, piney, slightly spicy hops. Drinking it reveals more ripe pineapple, tangerine, citrus zest, peach, and dank pine. The finish is resinous and slightly bitter.
Bottom Line:
This is a nice summer send-off for hopheads. It’s loaded with floral, spicy, dank hop flavor but there’s enough tropical fruit flavor to appeal to those who are less obsessed with hops.
Sycamore Brewing released its Peak Farm IPA to celebrate National IPA Day in August. But, since the weather is still summery, it’s still an appropriate beer to bridge the gap between summer and fall. This 7.2% ABV IPA is known for its mix of bright citrus and spicy, floral, earthy hops.
Tasting Notes:
Floral hops, citrus rind, and bready, caramel malts are dominant on the nose. The palate is loaded with flavors of biscuit-like malts, sweet caramel, earthy, herbal, slightly bitter, piney hops, and citrus zest. There’s a nice balance between malts and hops that feels like a good fit for September.
Bottom Line:
If there ever was an IPA to bridge the gap between summer and fall, this would be it. It has the floral, earthy, spicy hops summer drinkers crave, but it’s paired well with the richer, caramel malts of fall drinking.
Every late summer, we eagerly await the return of Copper Legend. This aptly named Oktoberfest-style beer is known for its sweet, malty, refreshing flavor. Noble hops give it an added zing that leaves you craving more.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of toasted malts, freshly baked bread, and gentle, nutty sweetness greet your nose. The palate is filled with more bready malts, butterscotch, sweet grains, and lightly spicy, floral hops. The finish is sweet and dry with very little bitterness.
Bottom Line:
If there ever was a crushable fall Oktoberfest-style beer, this would be it. It’s caramel malt forward, with just a hint of piney hops. Sweet, easy to drink, and well-suited for September.
Call To Arms Peach Aggro Crag IPA
Call To Arms
ABV: 8.2%
Average Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
If you think it’s too late in the summer to enjoy something peach flavored, you’re completely wrong. With the last gasp of summer, we want nothing more than to enjoy this peach-filled, 8.2% ABV double IPA. It’s fruity, juicy, piney, and perfect for the end of the summer.
Tasting Notes:
Just like the fake Nickelodeon mountain it’s named for, this beer packs massive energy. First, you’re met with bold, ripe peaches, other tropical fruit flavors, and bold, piney, slightly spicy hops. The palate continues this trend with hints of grapefruit, citrus zest, and more pine. But it’s the ripe peach flavor that really dominates and shines throughout.
Bottom Line:
Peaches are often thought of as a summer fruit. Why not wind down the summer by enjoying a beer that not only features the summery fruit but makes it the centerpiece?
Evil Genius Is Butter A Carb?
Evil Genius
ABV: 5.5%
Average Price: Limited Availability
The Beer:
This beer might seem like a gimmick, but it’s surprisingly good. This collaboration between Evil Genius and Auntie Anne’s pretzels brings beer and pretzels together in one delicious can. That’s right, this Oktoberfest-style beer with brewed with hops, malts, and a healthy dose of soft pretzels.
Tasting Notes:
Classic bready malts, caramel, and noble hops are the first aromas you notice. This is followed by buttery toffee and slight fall spices. Sipping it reveals an even more exciting flavor profile featuring freshly baked bread, salted caramel, and floral, spicy hops. It’s like a classic Oktoberfest-style beer slightly turned on its head.
Bottom Line:
Gimmicks aside, this is a surprisingly good Marzen-style beer. It’s malty, sweet, and memorable and it appears the addition of pretzels only positively adds to the flavor.
The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.
ITEM NUMBER ONE – It’s a good show!
Are you watching the third season of Harley Quinn on HBO Max right now? I hope you are. I hope you are mostly because it is almost unreasonably good and fun but also because I’ve told everyone to watch it a bunch of times and I like when people listen to me. It’s an absolute blast, an interesting twist on stories we’ve heard and seen 100 times, with Commissioner Gordon as a grizzled mess who plays with the Bat Signal to have someone to talk to about his marriage and Bane as a hapless sadsack who has spent most of this season fretting about his missing pasta maker. I adore it.
But anyway, this gets us to the point I’m making, which is that some truly incredible things have played out in the last few weeks on this show and someone needs to document it somewhere. And that someone is me. Other people have documented it, too. But I’m doing it here. There is so much going on that we are just going to brush right past the thing where the Joker is now a suburban dad who has moved in with a nurse named Bethany and her adorable children and recently ran for mayor of Gotham on a platform somewhere slightly to the left of Bernie Sanders. Look at this freaking guy.
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But more importantly, all of this is going on, too:
Harley and Poison Ivy, who are a couple now, are planning to terraform Gotham, just blanketing it in plant life
Ivy’s talking plant friend Frank (voiced by JB Smoove, which is great) has both developed powers to bring dead plant life back into lush green existence and has been kidnapped by Bruce Wayne
Bruce Wayne is trying to genetically alter Frank to bring back the dead parents he lost as a child in Crime Alley after that play
The formula goes wrong as they come back as disgusting hellzombies
So there’s that. But there’s also this: Harley and Ivy kidnap Bruce and use various mind control powers — it’s a thing, watch the show — to get into his head to locate Frank, and while they’re in there, they see Bruce has a loop of his parent’s murder playing over and over in his head, non-stop, forever, which is not helped by the fact that — in the show — James Gunn is making a movie about it all. Vulture has a cool breakdown of the episode but here’s the gist.
Harley Quinn thrives in the “fucked up” zone, and in breaking this season the writers slowly started to develop their Batman into a main antagonist. It started with the idea that a Thomas Wayne biopic — directed in the world of Gotham by actual The Suicide Squad director James Gunn — would be in production, and spiraled from there. The question for the writers then became this: What would it be like to be Bruce Wayne and see trailers for a movie about your parents being shot? How much would that mess you up?
But you’re probably reading this and thinking, like, “Hey, if Harley Quinn is banging around inside Bruce Wayne’s brain, wouldn’t she stumble across other important information in there? Like, for example, the thing where he is secretly Batman?” Well, ladies and gentlemen…
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Incredible, all of it, up to and including the thing where her tour guide through Bruce’s brain is the child version of Bruce who saw his parents die and tries to do the little gravelly Batman voice when he delivers that line. I gasped a little when it happened. And that wasn’t even the biggest reveal from the episode. I’ll let you discover that on your own. Just a wonderful piece of television.
I am glad this show just got picked up for a fourth season. Very few things out there are this weird and delightful and happy to revel in being both. Please get in there if you haven’t already. You deserve this. Listen to me.
The internet is loaded with stories about Keanu Reeves being cool as hell. You can find them anywhere. Google “Keanu Reeves stories” right now — not, like, right now, please finish reading my precious words — and click around. You can find dozens of them, I bet. You probably don’t even need to work that hard. There might even be one in the comments under this post by the time you get around to reading it. He’s a famously good dude, is my point. The ice cream cone story is my favorite. Definitely look that one up if you don’t know it. Later, though. We have another Keanu story to get to first.
This one goes something like this: A couple is at a hotel for their wedding reception. The husband goes to the hotel bar to get a drink beforehand, because this is what husbands do on their wedding days. He bumps into Keanu Reeves down there, because sometimes Keanu Reeves is at the bar in your hotel. He shoots his shot, as his wife told Newsweek and anyone else who would listen, one assumes.
“My husband saw him in the bar area and told him he’d just got married and invited Keanu to come over to say hello and have a drink with us if he wanted to.
“He was very friendly and said he would later on. We didn’t know if he would or not but it was cool that my husband had spoken to him!”
Well, guess what…
Guess if Keanu showed up at the wedding reception.
Guess if he posed for pictures and schmoozed with the guests and pretty much just charmed everyone for an hour or so.
Imagine how funny it would be if I set it all up like this and the answer was “no, he blew them off and went to bed.”
It’s not, but still.
Of course he showed up.
“It was all very exciting and I went to say hi and introduce myself, and I offered him a drink but he declined that and said he’d just had a long flight so wouldn’t stay long but he was so kind and friendly and congratulated us on our wedding,” she said. “He was kind enough to do some pictures and our wedding photographer was able to capture some too! Then he took the time to speak to some of our guests and have more photos done!”
There are a few takeaways here, which we will cover quickly via bullet points:
Keanu Reeves is the coolest
Always poke your head into the bar when you are staying at a hotel just in case Keanu Reeves or another cool celebrity is in there chilling
Weddings are a blast
I am a lot of fun at weddings
I get out on the dance floor in my wheelchair and start spinning around and giving rides to children and bridesmaids and reasonably spry nanas
You should invite me to your wedding
And Keanu
Invite us both
It will be fun
This was a good chat about weddings. Also, coincidentally, today is Keanu’s 58th birthday. Look how happy Patti Smith is to be with Keanu. The man is a delight. Happy birthday, Keanu!
ITEM NUMBER THREE – Important sequel news
There are a ton of sequels worth watching for right now. There’s the tenth Fast & Furious movie, Fast X, which is kind of a wild collection of words if you think about them a little. There’s the second Knives Out movie, which sounds awesome even if it does not feature a single Muppet, as far as we know. There’s the fourth John Wick movie, which we can ask Keanu about when you invite both of us to your wedding. It’s all very exciting.
But most exciting of all, maybe, if you’re a sicko like me and a bunch of other goofs on the internet, is this: AMC is making a second movie theater commercial with Nicole Kidman. You know the one. The one that plays before every movie at an AMC theater. The one where she says “somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this,” like a maniac. The one I posted at the top of this very section.
Vanity Fair broke the news along with an interview with the writer of the ad, Hollywood screenwriter Billy Ray. Here’s a taste.
Luckily, there’s now another one in the works. “I’m very, very excited about it,” Ray says. When asked what the new ad might look like, though, the screenwriter was relatively tight-lipped. “All I can tell you about it is we are not dumb enough to fly in the face of the one we’ve already done and try to top it,” he says. “So it’s a very, very different approach that is a little bit of a wink to the one we’ve already done.”
Here’s the thing, and I need to stress here that I am being serious: This is thrilling to me. I am legitimately excited about this. I can’t wait to see where they go with this. Part of me hopes it picks up right where the last one left off and continues her story. Part of me hopes it picks up just after the movie she’s watching in the first one ends and she gushes about how great it all was. A big part of me hopes it’s just like her at the grocery store and she doesn’t even mention the magic of the cinema, like all we’re doing is extending the universe of the character she’s playing here, who I choose to believe is not “Nicole Kidman” and is instead a cinema-loving woman named Denise Roulette who attends movies alone because her husband died in a freak pizza-related accident. No, YOU have an overactive imagination.
Leave me alone.
ITEM NUMBER FOUR – Oh look, a movie for me
This is the trailer for the upcoming Weird Al biopic. “Biopic” might be a strong word. It is to an autobiographical movie what a Weird Al song is to the original, which is to say a little deranged and maybe better. It looks kind of like if Walk Hard starred Daniel Radcliffe as Weird Al, which I mean very much as a compliment. Here’s the official synopsis.
Daniel Radcliffe is “Weird” Al Yankovic in the unexaggerated true story about the greatest musician of our time. From a conventional upbringing where playing the accordion was a sin, Al rebelled and made his dream of changing the words to world-renowned songs come true. An instant success and sex symbol, Al lives an excessive lifestyle and pursues an infamous romance that nearly destroys him. With Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson, and an A-list cast of thousands their agents won’t let us reveal.
Good. Great. I love it. I love everything about it. I love that it looks nutty as hell. I love that Daniel Radcliffe banked all his Harry Potter money and is out here doing the weirdest and coolest stuff he can think of, kind of like how Jon Hamm finished Mad Men and started doing goofball guest appearances on all your favorite comedies. I love that Evan Rachel Wood is channeling Madonna in a way I find deeply intriguing. Like I said, all of it.
We are watching this movie. All of us.
ITEM NUMBER FIVE – I would have paid $100 to see Regis Philbin at McDonald’s
“The cashier would stare at it, confused…Why is Regis Philbin in this random McDonalds demanding free $3 hamburgers?” – @KenTremendous told us a wonderful story about the legend Regis Philbin once trying to use a ‘Free McDonalds For Life’ card
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) August 31, 2022
What we have here is a clip from The Dan Lebatard Show in which Michael Schur — creator of Parks and Recreation and The Good Place, co-founder of FireJoeMorgan, and, most importantly for our purposes here, husband of JJ Philbin, the daughter of Regis — tells a story about longtime morning show host and television icon Regis Philbin trying and failing to use a “free McDonalds for life” card. It’s a good story, as one might expect from a story that begins with the premise of “Regis Philbin had a card that guaranteed him free Mcdonald’s food for life,” which is apparently a thing that exists.
This was written up this week at The Big Lead. Here’s the relevant chunk of text.
“The cashier would just stare at it confused, because it was like ‘what is this, why is Regis Philbin in this random McDonald’s demanding free $3 hamburgers?’” Schur said. “They would go ‘I’ve never seen this before, I need to call someone and it’d be this confusing thing.”
So confusing, in fact, that Philbin would inevitably pay out of his own pocket despite the unusual deal and the somewhat official-looking card.
Two things are true here and both are worth noting:
I would have given almost anything to be in a Mcdonald’s when Regis Philbin tried to get like a quarter pounder with a Free McDonald’s For Life card and sent every employee in the store into a state of panic over this situation that was almost assuredly not covered during orientation
Now that I know these exist, I must have one, even though I have not eaten at a Mcdonald’s in… I’m going to say three years?
Give it to me. I’ve been very good.
READER MAIL
If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at brian.grubb@uproxx.com (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.
From Erik:
I flew to Europe two weeks ago. I had an aisle seat and was looking at what the man one row ahead of me to my right was watching, as you do. With 30 minutes left in the flight (i looked at the time to the destination just to make sure) he put on the movie Michael. I immediately had so many questions. Is Michael a movie he loves and has seen many times so he wanted something comforting, as to not have to be worried about missing the ending? Had he never seen Michael? If so, why put it on then? If so, did he go to his hotel and immediately watch the rest of it?
So. Many. Questions.
Erik hit the most pressing questions here, but one I would like to add is… what in the world?! Michael! Of all the movies in the history of film to put on. I kind of wish Erik had sent this email to me right after he landed so I could have asked him to go on a little recon mission for me. I need to know more about this guy. I need to know more about the other choices he makes in his life. Like, what kind of car does he drive? What does he order for dinner at a restaurant? Is he married? What is his wife like? I know I said I only had one more question and then I immediately asked three more, but still. This is one of those things that makes everything else a little mystery.
I need to stop so this doesn’t consume me and ruin my whole Labor Day weekend. But I will be thinking about it every time I see the movie Michael on my cable guide. Or John Travolta. Or an airplane. What a maniac. To be clear, the maniac I’m talking about is the dude who started watching Michael in the last 30 minutes of a flight, not about myself. I can see how there could be confusion there. But there’s not. I’m normal.
Sometimes in Solano County, Calif., where more than half the land is used for agriculture, residents can smell the earthy odor of tomatoes as big-rig trucks carry the product south to the Bay Area. Those trucks typically hold about 50,000 pounds of tomatoes in a hulking pile of red. A few are occasionally lost over the side thanks to sharp turns or bumps on the road.
You probably know where this is headed. But still. I appreciate that we have a Chekhov’s Tomatoes situation brewing here.
But about 5 a.m. on Monday, more than 150,000 tomatoes were scattered across the heavily trafficked Interstate 80 in Vacaville, Calif., after a big rig that had been transporting them collided with a vehicle and swerved, striking another vehicle before driving into the center median, Officer Jason Tyhurst of the California Highway Patrol said.
TOMATO SPILL
TOMATOES EVERYWHERE
RED SAUCE AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE
“Those tomato skins, man,” Officer Tyhurst said. “Once they hit the asphalt, it’s like walking on ice.”
One car became stuck on the slippery roadway and then was struck by another vehicle, Officer Tyhurst said. The tomatoes quickly caused a chain reaction of crashes, he added: Another car struck the two vehicles, and then another was sideswiped by yet another swerving car.
I understand that this is serious and that crashing your car can be a health and financial disaster, especially if either or both are already issues for you, but with that stipulated, I very much want to see cars slipping and sliding around a tomato-covered highway. You should be able to buy tickets to it. Make it part of a demolition derby. Everyone would love it.
But hey, at least we can be sure this was the only large-scale sauce-based food spill that happened this w-…
Mile 11 of Interstate 55, in Memphis, was sauced up. Concerned local newscasters, summoning all of their training, dispatched their reports on Tuesday after a tractor-trailer carrying jars of Alfredo sauce struck a median shortly before 5 p.m.
Yes.
YES.
The white sauce on the road did not continue to smell great as the TV people waited along the highway to go live at 10:30 p.m. It took about an hour before it smelled “really bad,” she said.
“Unfortunately, this is Memphis, and we had some pretty intense sun beating down on that Alfredo sauce, and also humidity,” she said. “It was just not a great recipe for a highway full of Alfredo sauce.”
Three things here:
I know this was jars of sauce in boxes in a truck but it is much funnier to picture like an oil tanker filled with loose Alfredo sauce sloshing around, so let’s just go ahead and pretend that’s what we had here, just as a treat for ourselves
I got a little nauseous just now thinking about the smell of Alfredo sauce on a Memphis highway in August
Things often happen in threes, so if you are driving a truck filled with, like, pesto sauce this week, please be careful
In conclusion, please picture every single character on The Sopranos reacting to these news stories.
Tom Cruise, who is known for soaring to new heights, is now breaking new records! Last week, Top Gun: Maverick arrived on digital platforms after singlehandedly bringing back movie theaters from the dead and sitting comfortably in theaters and breaking records all summer. Now, the high-flying sequel has become the bestselling week-one digital release of all time in the U.S.
The sequel racked up over $1 billion at the box office after being released on Memorial Day weekend after several year-long COVID delays. Cruise fought for the movie to get a theater release, though he probably would have been fine if it went straight to streaming, clearly. The movie became the top-selling item on Amazon in the U.S. the day it was released.
Cruise has been openly ecstatic about the response to the movie, both from old and new fans, but in particular, men who went to the theater for a healthy dose of nostalgia and action. When asked about how he feels being dubbed the Dad Cinema Savior, Cruise says he is proud to resume that role. “Being a dad with three kids, I take that as a compliment,” Cruise told The New York Times. “I made a movie about firefighters, which is also known to bring grown men to tears. I’ll wear that badge with pride. To see young kids have a great experience, but also to have an experience with their dad and their grandpa or grandma, that, to me, is the most gratifying thing.”
Next, Cruise will likely smash even more records when the upcoming Mission Impossible installment ultimately brings motorcycle chases back into the mainstream.
If you stand with Ukraine and happen to be in Russia, you might want to steer clear of any large windows. Or medium-sized windows. Or, really, any windows that might be large enough to accommodate the bulk of your body, as window-falling has become a bizarrely common cause of death within circles of individuals with political ties to Vladimir Putin. As The Daily Beast reports, Ravil Maganov—Lukoil’s chairman of the board in Russia—is the latest victim. On Thursday, the 67-year old seems to somehow have fatally fallen from the sixth floor of a hospital in Moscow, like something you might only see in a Looney Tunes cartoon.
While Interfax, an independent Russian news agency, reported the details of Maganov’s death, writing that he “fell out the window of his room at [the hospital] this morning. He died of his injuries,” a press release issued by his employer left out the suspicious circumstances and instead explained:
“We are deeply saddened to inform you that Ravil Maganov … passed away after a serious illness. Ravil Ulfatovich made an invaluable contribution not only to the development of the company, but to the entire Russian oil and gas industry.”
Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil company, took the rare step of very publicly condemning the war in Ukraine, which has many people wondering if Maganov’s death might not be so accidental after all — and well they should be. As Newsweek reports, Maganov is one of more than half-a-dozen prominent figures with ties to Russia to die under bizarre circumstances this year alone.
In May, Maganov’s colleague Alexander Subbotin, another part of Lukoil’s top brass, was found dead in a shaman’s home where so-called “voodoo rituals” were being performed. Just two months later, in July, Latvian-American banker Dan Rapoport—who had been openly critical of Putin—died after falling from an apartment building in Washington, DC. Rapoport’s death came approximately five years after his former business partner Sergei Tkachenko fell to his own death from a Moscow apartment building.
In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, three Russian doctors fell out of hospital windows over a two-week period, though only two of them — both of whom had been railing against the challenging working conditions they were being faced to endure — died. The third doctor, who was being blamed for giving COVID to her colleagues, was seriously injured but survived.
In April, financier Bill Browder, who conducted lots of work in Russia, warned Newsweek that “any time you see a wealthy Russian dying in suspicious circumstances,” you should assume the worst.
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