Month: September 2020

While we enjoy whisk(e)y all year long, there’s really no better season for the spirit than fall. When the leaves begin to turn and the temperatures start to dip, the bottles of rye, Scotch, bourbon, and Japanese whisky in our liquor cabinets seem to call to us. Tempting us to sit with a dram by the fire.

With so many different varieties of whisk(e)y on the market and countless brands to choose from, it’s tough to pick just one or two bottles to invest in this fall. So we asked some of our favorite bartenders tell us their “must try” whiskey picks for autumn 2020.

Shenk’s Homestead Sour Mash

Mitchell Cochran, bar manager at Shades Bar & Grill in South Walton, Florida

Shenk’s Homestead Sour Mash. From the Michter’s Legacy Series, this whiskey has a very rye forward profile with a unique finish. The French oak barrels used to distill give it a very rich taste.

Basil Hayden’s 10 Year Bourbon

Marla White, lead bartender at Lona Cocina & Tequilera in Fotrt Lauderdale, Florida

Basil Hayden’s 10-Year Bourbon. Has a nice spicy-sweet light body profile that tastes great served neat, over ice, or in an old fashioned.

Really enjoyable and easy to drink.

Johnnie Walker Blue Label

Frantjesko Laonora, lead bartender at Curaçao Marriott Beach Resort in Curaçao

Johnnie Walker Blue Label is a must-try whiskey you won’t regret, as its dry smokiness artfully mixes with the sweetness of raisins on the nose. This whiskey serves a velvet combination of vanilla, honey, and rose petals with notes of hazelnut, sherry, and dark chocolate, and boasts a luxuriously long and smooth finish.

Legent Bourbon

Hayden Miller, head bartender at Bodega Taqueria y Tequila in Miami

Legent Bourbon. The joining of Beam and Suntory is a true spectacle and does not leave you wishing for more. Japanese blending techniques and cask finishes create an excellent spirit.

Angel’s Envy Rye

Evgeny Anisimov, bartender at Park Hyatt Aviara Resort, Golf Club & Spa in San Diego

If I had to pick one whiskey to enjoy this fall, I would pick Angel’s Envy Rye. It is finished in Caribbean Rum Barrels and has distinct aromas of butterscotch and maple.

While you sipping on it, don’t forget to snap a picture and tag #ToastTheTrees to help plant some White Oak Trees.

Nikka Coffey Grain Whisky

Molly Safuto, bartender at Mila Rooftop Bar in Glendale, California

Nikka Coffey Grain Whisky. This sweet-smelling dram, with hints of toffee, is so smooth going down — I guess that’s why Masataka Taketsuru is the father of Japanese Whisky.

Sunday’s Whisky

Emmanuelle Massicot, assistant general manager of Kata Robata in Houston

Sunday’s Whisky. Made from the team behind Yardbird in Hong Kong, this Japanese whisky was specifically designed for highballs. It is citrus-forward, dilutes evenly over ice, and in cocktails, and is incredibly smooth and light.

Abasolo El Whisky de Mexico

Crystal Chasse, Beverage Director at Talk Story Rooftop in Brooklyn, New York

Abasolo El Whisky de Mexico needs to be in your mouth! It is new on the market and is distilled from 100% Mexican Cacahuazintle corn from local farmers. The corn shines and is supported with beautiful notes of black tea and vanilla.

Four Roses Small Batch Select

Andy Printy, beverage director at Chao Baan in St. Louis

The must-try if you haven’t already is Four Roses Small Batch Select. It’s only been on the market for a year or so, and as Four Roses’ first new expression in several years, it’s a banger. With just a touch of raspberry and dark fruit on the front, the finish is dank lumber and leather with a toffee back.

At its very reasonable price point, this bottle is perfect for any application.

Aberfeldy 16

Brendan Bartley, head bartender and beverage director at Bathtub Gin in New York City

Must try whisky for me this fall is Aberfeldy 16 Year. I picture this when I think of fall. It’s weighed with honey, stewed fruits, and baking spice. It’s finished in oloroso sherry casks, so it has all those rich nutty flavors as well. The Scotch whisky category is filled with great products, so picking something is always hard. I just find the Aberfeldy is an easy-drinking 16 Year with all the indicators of fall with every sip.

High West Campfire

Max Stampa-Brown, beverage director at Borrachito in New York City

If you haven’t had anything from High West I’d start with their Campfire. Tastes like it sounds. This is just a terrific blend of scotch, bourbon, and rye. There’s a real nice peatiness to it that evokes a devilish smoked cinnamon aroma.

Parker’s Heritage Bourbon

Gavin Humes, bartender, Scratch | Bar & Restaurant in Encino, California

I’ve got to go with Parker’s Heritage. Every year they release a beautifully complex and deep whiskey bourbon with a fantastic spice profile. It’s got the right balance between that spice, the burnt sugar caramel, and tons of round richness. It’s great every year, and I’m sure it’ll be great again this year.

With the live music industry still largely on pause due to the pandemic, artists have been forced to get creative about live performances celebrating recent releases. Phoebe Bridgers, for example, graced late night television with a performance recorded from her bathtub. Aminé, who continues to promote his sophomore record Limbo, also had an unconventional ideas for his live sets. Rather than tour behind his release, the rapper hosted a live performance of his album’s entirety on YouTube and for his Jimmy Kimmel Live! appearance, the rapper took his music to new heights.

Instead of giving renditions of his music from his home, like many musicians have done in the past few months, Aminé filmed himself in a hot air balloon. Kicking off his Jimmy Kimmel Live! set with his track “Woodlawn,” the rapper gently floated over clear California skies from a patchwork hot air balloon. The balloon itself was an integral part of his set, stitched together from an array of flags from several countries.

After finishing off his “Woodlawn” rendition, Aminé once again arrived on solid ground to perform another Limbo track, “Burden.” This time, the rapper appeared inside the hot air balloon’s deflated interior and elected to cut the song short by several verses.

Watch Aminé perform from a hot air ballon on Jimmy Kimmel Live! above. Limbo is out now via Republic. Order it here.

Florida just keeps gambling when it comes to the coronavirus. One of the earliest states to reopen since the start of the pandemic — and then roll back that reopening after a predictable surge in cases — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Friday, September 25th that, effective immediately, the state would be entering Phase 3 of its reopening plan which would lift all capacity restrictions on restaurants and businesses, allowing hotels and bars across the state to open at full capacity.

Gov DeSantis notes that while all restrictions have been lifted, bars and businesses may operate between 50% and 100% capacity if they can provide justification for why they need to do so as well as identify the costs involved with not opening to full capacity. Since September 10th, bars in the state have been operating at 50% capacity. Phase 3 also works to suspend localities from collecting the fines and fees related to COVID-19 restrictions according to Politico, which essentially ends any penalties Florida residents might face for not complying with local mask ordinances, meaning Florida is going back to a way of living not seen since before March 2020.

Alarmingly, when you look at the COVID-19 data coming out of the state, this looks like action taken way too soon. NBC News reports that as of Friday, September 25th, 2020 the state had a count of nearly 700,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, making it the third hardest-hit state in the country with the fifth-highest death rate with a total of 13,914 deaths.

Florida activist Emma González tweeted what many were thinking when she wrote:

Sir David Attenborough has one of the most recognized and beloved voices in the world. The British broadcaster and nature historian has spent most of his 94 years on Earth educating humanity about the wonders of the natural world, inspiring multiple generations to care about the planet we all call home.

And now, Attenborough has made a new name for himself. Not only has he joined the cool kids on Instagram, he’s broken the record for reaching a million followers in the shortest period. It only took four hours and 44 minutes, which is less time than it took Jennifer Aniston, who held the title before him at 5 hours and 16 minutes.

A day later, Attenborough is sitting at a whopping 3.4 million followers. And he only has two Instagram posts so far, both of them videos. But just watch his first one and you’ll see why he’s attracted so many fans.

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Am I the only one who wants David Attenborough to read me a bedtime story every night?

His soothing voice is one thing, but his genuine passion for our planet and for educating his fellow humans on how we can help Earth recover from the problems we’ve foisted upon her is infectious.

Attenborough fans will be happy to know that he has a new film coming out on Netflix called “A Life on Our Planet.” His second Instagram post introduces the film:

As the world feels like it’s devolving more and more into chaos, confusion, and conspiracy theory kookiness, Attenborough’s calm demeanor and caring perspective is like a breath of fresh air. And his experience living through nearly a century of history offers a much-needed perspective on where we are and where we’re going. Attenborough is a global treasure, and the fact that he’s still making films and helping us learn more about our world at 93 should serve as an inspiration for us all.

His new film comes out on Netflix October 4th. He calls it “my witness statement, and my vision for the future.” Can’t wait, Mr. Attenborough.

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet | Official Trailer | Netflix

www.youtube.com

Eddie Murphy may be known to most young people as the star of The Adventures Of Pluto Nash guy whose parents get excited about when he’s hosting Saturday Night Live, but the actor has a lot of surprises in store for the youths of America. Including, it turns out, that the donkey from Shrek once recorded a jam.

Murphy, who most recently wowed critics in Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name, has a long career that many teens growing up in the streaming era may not be aware of. But on Friday, Murphy became the latest in a trend online where young people discover that music made before Spotify was created was sometimes, occasionally, pretty good.

Specifically, this time it was Murphy’s hit “Party All The Time,” which was released in 1985 and produced by Rick James. The song is a surprisingly good example of a mainstream actor releasing a song. But it was enough to see Murphy’s name trend on social media as younger folks reacted to the revelation that the song not only exists, but is pretty good.

As some pointed out, the clues to Murphy’s musical skills have been elsewhere, too.

This was a very educational moment for a lot of us.

A lot of people, though, struggled with the news that this is, you know, news to people much younger than they are.

The lesson here is that time passes inexorably, and we’re all doomed to both a beginning and an end. Sometimes, though, people record bangers along the way.

Over a month after Megan Thee Stallion accused him of shooting her in the foot, Tory Lanez broke his silence about his side of the story — and people weren’t happy with him. In a song released about the incident, Tory denied Meg’s accusations by claiming he “held it down” for her as a friend and complained about her “trying to ruin” his career. Now, Meg’s lawyers are getting involved.

According to a report from TMZ, Meg’s laywer Alex Spiro is accusing Tory of a “smear campaign” following his recent claims and says the singer sent falsified documents to media outlets in order to make himself seem innocent: “We have been made aware of manipulated text messages and invented email accounts that have been disseminated to the media in a calculated attempt to peddle a false narrative about the events that occurred on July the 12th.”

The report includes an email from a forged address which was sent to several media outlets claiming to be a promoter at Miami’s LIV nightclub. The email alleges Roc Nation, Meg’s management company, influenced the rapper to make incriminating statements about Tory in a lawsuit but Roc Nation denies any involvement in the case. Another email from a fake address reportedly circulated a YouTube video to media outlets from a man who claimed to be Tory’s ex-bodyguard. The man said he’d never witnessed Tory “get violent with women,” though he wasn’t actually present when the shooting occurred.

Tory’s team denied Spiro’s claims, saying his recent music is the only statement from the singer. A representative told TMZ they “strongly deny sending emails or otherwise creating a false narrative. The only commentary which has been made on this topic was the creative output on the album. We are investigating who could be sending these false emails and intend to take action against them.”

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Damian Lillard’s latest signature sneaker from adidas, the Dame 7, will feature a special colorway inspired by the wrestling world’s premier stylin’ and profilin’, limousine ridin’, jet flyin’, kiss-stealin’, wheelin’-and-dealin’ son of a gun. In a bit of news announced by the Nature Boy himself, Ric Flair revealed that the Dame 7 is going to have a special white and gold kick to honor the 16-time World Heavyweight Champion.

It a bit of news that you can probably assume based on the fact that, well, this is his sneaker, Lillard seems quite happy over the endorsement the sneaker got from Flair.

Lillard has, in the past, expressed that he’s a big Flair fan, putting him on his Mt. Rushmore of wrestlers on a few different occasions. Beyond Flair, Lillard has let his love of wrestling come through in his sneakers in the past, most notably by putting out a Stone Cold Steve Austin colorway on the Dame 6s last year.

Still, the Nature Boy colorways on the Dame 7s are something else, showing off a white base with numerous gold accents that, as the image indicates, pays tribute to his famous robes. We’ve reached out to adidas in search of more info on pricing/a release date, and we’ll let you know if we hear back.

The second episode of NXT UK since their return from pandemic hiatus stepped up things a lot from last week. For one thing, NXT UK Champion WALTER was back in action, even if it was just a short non-title match against Saxon Huxley that served mainly to remind everyone what WALTER’s like and how easily he can dominate someone like Huxley, who is himself not a small or unintimidating man.

They also had Pete Dunne show up as a special guest to help with the drawing to determine the first round matchups in the UK Heritage Cup tournament. It was a little weird to hear Pete talk about the legacy of British wrestling and then say “and you’re the future” to a bunch of his peers, several of whom are older than him. But the important thing is that he bent back Noam Dar’s fingers when the Scottish Supernova’s behavior got out of hand, and next week, he’s going to be the special guest referee in Dar’s match against Alexander Wolfe, which should be pretty violent. As for the match-ups, Joseph Conners will face Bomber Dave Mastiff, Flash Morgan Webster will go up against A-Kid, and Trent Seven faces the “Wildcard” entrant, who I believe will be decided in a triple threat match next week.

Pretty Deadly, who seem like they might be taking on Eddie Dennis as a coach or manager, defeated the Hunt. There was talk about the Hunt’s tendency to lose, which sounds like they’re hinting a heel turn. Considering Wild Boar and Primate are barely verbal semi-human monsters already, it would kind of make sense for them to go that way.

By a wide margin, the highlight of the show — and he first time I felt compelled to say “Oh damn, NXT UK is BACK!” — was the main event, in which Kay Lee Ray defended the NXT UK Women’s Championship against Piper Niven. After months of KLR keeping that belt at home with nary a mention of its existence on WWE TV, this match was a good reminder that for the women of this division, it’s everything.

The match started conventionally, with Piper being big and big-hearted and strong, and KLR being bendy, devious, and psychological. But then they were on the outside, and Kay Lee tried to knee Piper’s head against the steps, but Piper dodged and it was Kay Lee’s knee that was smashed against the steel. She crumpled and was immediately attended to by officials, who insisted they could end the match and do it again later. Kay Lee seemed barely able to stand on her own, and Piper was extremely upset but accepted that today wasn’t going to be the day.

Then the challenger made the mistake of being nice to the champion. She approached as KLR was being helped to the back, and said it was fine and they could fight for that title another day. Kay Lee seemed incensed about the idea of giving Piper another chance to take her title later, and she broke away from the officials who were helping her to the back and struck Niven in the face.

Piper wasted no time then, grabbing the injured champ and throwing her back into the ring. From there, the match continued, with KLR selling her messed up knee the entire time. Once her offer to call off the match was rejected, Piper didn’t hesitate to wrench that injured knee in every direction. I’ve even seen people online saying this might be a double turn, but I don’t think it’s that (at least not yet). It’s just Kay Lee Ray being an unusual sort of heel who refuses to give up, and Piper having to find a more brutal side of herself in response.

At one point Kay Lee, seemingly by accident, pulled one of the bottom turnbuckle pads off, so when Piper went for a cannonball KLR was able to dodge, Piper’s back hit bare metal, and Kay Lee Ray got the pin to retain. It was a hell of a match in more ways than one. As it ended, Jinny showed up to eye Kay Lee and the Championship, making it clear that there’s no time for rest or recovery when you’re the Women’s Champion.

And now that I think about it, Jinny is a notorious heel, so maybe we are going to see a less villainous Kay Lee Ray going forward. In any case, a heel who refuses to quit is much easier to root for than the usual WWE cowardly heel, which Jinny embodies. We’ll just have to see what the future holds.

Both of Fox’s Sunday night staples, The Simpsons and Family Guy, have announced new voice actors for long-time characters.

On The Simpsons, Alex Désert has replaced Hank Azaria as the voice of Carl Carlson, Homer Simpson’s Springfield Nuclear Power Plant co-worker and Lenny Leonard’s life partner, beginning with the season 32 premiere after producers confirmed over the summer that the show would “no longer have white actors voice non-white characters.” Désert also voices Swarm on Disney XD’s Spider-Man: Maximum Venom and has appeared in episodes of Better Things and Better Call Saul. “It’s unclear whether Désert is Carl’s permanent voice, and if he’ll be voicing other characters as well,” Variety notes. “Among other recurring characters the edict might impact include Dr. Julius Hibbert,” previously voiced by Harry Shearer (who has puzzling thoughts on all this).

Meanwhile, the new voice of Cleveland Brown on Family Guy will be Arif Zahir.

“Firstly, I’m eternally grateful to have received this once in a lifetime opportunity,” Zahir said in a statement. “When I heard that Mike Henry was stepping down from the role of Cleveland Brown — my favorite cartoon character of all time — I was shocked and saddened, assuming we’d never see him again. When I learned I would get to take over the role? Overabundant gratitude. To Mike, you created something truly special and I promise I will do my absolute best to honor your legacy. To Rich Appel, Alec Sulkin, and Seth MacFarlane, thank you for this incredible gift. And to the millions of fans who love this show, I promise not to let you down.” Henry will continue to voice other characters.

Zahir, who has a popular YouTube account with over six million followers, uploaded a video of himself voicing Cleveland as he plays Call of Duty earlier this year… and now I have The Cleveland Show theme song stuck in my head. And now so do you.

(Via Variety and the Hollywood Reporter)

With the release of the new video for “The Ring” featuring Young Thug, T.I. begins the rollout for his upcoming album, The Libra. The Atlanta rapper announced his new project today, his 40th birthday, along with the new video, which sees the two rappers exchanging bars in a “research facility” that looks a lot like the reserve Batcave from The Dark Knight. The video also features a preview of another new T.I. song, finishing with the title of the upcoming album and warning that it’s “coming soon.”

T.I.’s return to music comes two years after his most recent full-length release, Dime Trap, brought the world the singles “Jefe,” “Wraith,” and “The Weekend.” Incidentally, “The Weekend” also featured Young Thug, who’s become a frequent collaborator of the trap rap pioneer after beginning their musical partnership in 2014 with “About the Money.” Young Thug has since taken on his own mentor role for younger artists coming up under him the same way, including Gunna, Lil Gotit, and Lil Keed, all of whom are signed to his YSL Records label.

Watch T.I.’s “The Ring video featuring Young Thug above.

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.