Month: November 2020

Nate Robinson made his boxing debut on Saturday night in the final undercard bout on the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. exhibition pay-per-view. Robinson was going up against YouTuber Jake Paul, who has previously won a similar exhibition boxing fight in 2019 and, as such, had a significant experience advantage — along with a size edge on Robinson.

The fight played out as one might expect for such a differential in experience, as Robinson looked uncomfortable in the ring and was unable to land anything of substance, while Paul peppered the former dunk contest champion, sending him to the canvas three times. The third knockdown was the most violent, with a right uppercut and short hook combination from Paul sending Robinson to the mat face first and out cold.

The immediate reaction from just about everyone was of concern as he lay there, but happily Robinson was able to get up and leave the ring. Once that happened the jokes began flying, including from a number of Robinson’s former colleagues in the NBA, but he also received plenty of messages, publicly and privately, offering support after his loss. On Sunday, Robinson posted to Instagram offering appreciation to fans who supported him as well as another post specifically thanking a number of NBA players who sent him messages.

It’s good to see Robinson seemingly in good spirits after the loss, which certainly was a humbling experience — but one that he’s still grateful for. It’s also nice that he received plenty of support from NBA stars, even as they had some fun at his expense as everyone did after his very brief boxing debut.

As he’s done for the past few Sundays, Tobe Nwigwe makes his return with a brand new track for his growing fan base to enjoy as a part of his “Get Twisted Sundays” series. Back with “Father Figure,” the Houston native calls on a pair quality lyricists — Black Thought and Royce Da 5’9″ — to supply a pair of verses to the track.

Tobe’s latest track finds him declaring himself as a “father figure” to some of today’s rappers and his verse is one that definitely backs up that narrative. Supplied with a new music video, the three rappers resort to an empty house to deliver the excellent bars. Black Thought sits indoors in a long yellow coat as he gets his lines off while Royce picks the diving board of a pool as the backdrop for his rhymes.

The video is just the latest piece of content that proves Tobe Nwigwe is one of the best candidates for the “up next” title in the rap world. He first gained notoriety for his NPR Tiny Desk Concert from last summer. Additional highlights from the Houston native come from his most recent release, The Pandemic Project, which he shared this past summer.

The effort spawned some of his best tracks like “I Need You To (Breonna Taylor)” and “Try Jesus” which both gained traction on Instagram after it received support from Diddy, LeBron James, and more. On a more recent note, he shared “Wildings” with EarthGang and Duckwrth and “Bozos” with Big K.R.I.T. earlier this month, both of which will on his upcoming Cincoriginals album out next month.

You can watch the “Father Figure” video above.

Cincoriginals is out on 12/13 via Tobe Nwigwe. Pre-order it here.

Anything people see online should be met with a healthy dose of speculation these days, but apparently the mysterious tale of a monolith that appeared out of nowhere just got even weirder. The three-sided reflective metal object that popped up in the Utah desert last week has apparently disappeared, and people who were already fascinated with how and why the object appeared are just as interested in where it went.

Utah’s Bureau of Land Management shared the news about the monolith it discovered last week, along with some pictures of the giant metallic sculpture of unknown origin.

The Twitter account and its report on the monolith quickly went viral, and images of the monolith created quite a stir among art fans and those who are extremely interested in mysteries and aliens, all of which could be responsible for the structure. News of the monolith actually made the government body ask people not attempt to visit the monolith in person, instead enjoying all the images and videos of the tower that they provided to the world.

But that apparently is no longer a problem, as the Bureau of Land Management said on Saturday that the structure was now missing.

As the New York Times reported on Sunday, a now-deleted post on Instagram saw Utah’s Department of Public Safety share news that the monolith that delighted many earlier in the week as a curiosity had disappeared and jokingly blamed aliens.

The Utah Department of Public Safety said on Monday that it had found the object while surveying for bighorn sheep.

“IT’S GONE!” the Department of Public Safety said, reacting to the news in an Instagram post. “Almost as quickly as it appeared it has now disappeared,” the department said, adding, “I can only speculate” that aliens took it back, using the emoji for extraterrestrials.

“Maybe it will stop by and visit us in Canada!!” one person commented.

The paper of record had previously speculated that the mysterious, shiny tower may be the work of artist John McCracken, a sculptor who died in 2011 but had apparently told his son that he wanted to leave behind works in remote places to be found by others. That isn’t confirmed, though, nor does it explain where the object, which according to the Times had been embedded deep into rock, went.

It was a mystery how the monolith had been installed in the first place. Lt. Nick Street, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said this week that the monolith had been embedded into the rock.

“Somebody took the time to use some type of concrete-cutting tool or something to really dig down, almost in the exact shape of the object, and embed it really well,” he said. “It’s odd. There are roads close by, but to haul the materials to cut into the rock, and haul the metal, which is taller than 12 feet in sections — to do all that in that remote spot is definitely interesting.”

All that mystery, of course, has led to wild speculation online about aliens, vast art-based conspiracy theories and even just some jokes about the Utah desert.

We may never know who put the monolith there, or even who removed it. But the Utah BLM says it didn’t do either, it just found it while checking out some sheep. Maybe they are the key to unraveling this mystery, don’t you think? What do the sheep know? What are they hiding?

The Hornets will finally be moving on from Nicolas Batum, as he was officially waived by Charlotte on Sunday. It was a move that surprised no one after Charlotte signed Gordon Hayward, but signaled that they were unable to find a sign-and-trade opportunity for Batum in the deal.

Batum had fallen out of the rotation in Charlotte due to a mix of poor fit and the franchise heading in a new direction. That said, there’s still hope the soon to be 32-year-old wing can contribute to a winning team in a smaller role. So it’s also not a surprise to find out the Clippers are willing to take a flyer on him. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Batum plans to sign with the Clippers in hopes of reestablishing himself in the NBA.

When the Hornets signed Nicolas Batum to his giant 5-year contract in 2016 they knew it was risky. He had massively overperformed in his one year with the team, but his importance to them as an on ball creator and scorer off the dribble made him a valuable asset they couldn’t afford to lose. The Hornets took the risk, but unfortunately he never quite lived up to his expectations, in part due to injury issues. He was a quality player, but not the second star they were hoping to pair next to Kemba Walker. His final year with the team he was miserable shooting from the field and honestly he didn’t look like an NBA player.

It’s possible however that Batum’s fit in the new look Hornets was more the cause of his poor play than his actual ability. If he does end up signing with the Clippers we may see a resurgence from him on a winning team. His role will be smaller and he may be happier. It’s certainly worth the gamble. He’s a multi-tooled offensive player that should fit in well on the bench in Los Angeles. Even if we never see him play like he did in that one career year for Charlotte.

Jhene Aiko made her return to the music world this year with her third album, Chilombo, back in March. The 20-song effort was later boosted by an additional nine songs for a deluxe re-issue that was released in July. In the months since Chilombo dropped, the singer has shared several videos for songs from the project, and “Born Tired” is the latest track from the album to receive the visual treatment.

The video finds the singer in a relaxed state as she enjoys time outdoors, with family, and in the studio as she experiments with sound baths for songs. Just last week, Jhene received three Grammy nominations thanks to her Chilombo album. The singer landed a nomination for Album of the Year and Best Progressive R&B Album for the project as well as a Best R&B Performance nomination for “Lightning & Thunder” with John Legend. Prior to the “Bored Tired” video, Jhene joined Saweetie in an exotic fantasy world for a visual to their “Back To The Streets” collaboration.

Earlier this year, the “Triggered” singer joined Kehlani, Summer Walker, and Teyana Taylor to cover this month’s Billboard issue. The quartet spoke about the current state of R&B during a roundtable discussion and agreed that most pop is R&B. “There are different sounds within R&B that I’m seeing reflected in other genres,” Jhene said while Teyana explained, “We want to be honest without coming off feeling a type of way.” Summer Walker also said, “It seems the only songs from me that do super good on the radio are those that are more upbeat.”

You can watch the “Born Tired” video above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Is expensive scotch (often climbing into the hundreds and even thousands of dollars) really that much better than mid-shelf expressions?

That’s a tough question to answer. Scotch, by its nature as an import, is a little more expensive overall than, say, locally sourced bourbon. Transport costs and tariffs add up. Still, there are some genuinely tasty and absolutely affordable scotch whiskies on the market. There are also some delicious, palate-expanding scotch whiskies that will break the bank, but just might be worth the expense.

Ultimately it’s going to depend on what you can afford and how much joy a good dram brings you. If you’re a neophyte on a budget, spending big cash on scotch is silly. If you’re an aficionado with money to burn, have at it.

To test whether cheap scotch whiskies can stand up to some of the more expensive scotch whiskies on the market, I decided to run another blind taste test. After all, it’s all about the taste of the whisky at the end of the day, right? Labels, awards, prestige, and price tags mean nothing if the flavors don’t work in harmony.

My experiment doesn’t have too many variables. I was looking at six single malts and two blended malts (those are blends that are only blended with single malts from various distilleries, as opposed to “blended whisky” which is a blend of single malt and grain whiskies from various distilleries). Meaning we’re sticking squarely in the wheelhouse of Scottish malt whisky. The price range is pretty vast, though. The cheap whiskies range from $35 to $57 per bottle. The expensive whiskies range from $145 to $760. That last number isn’t a secondary mark up either. That’s MSRP.

Part of my goal in tasting these blind was to see if I could tell which ones were expensive. Embarrassingly enough, I didn’t get them all correct. Read on to find out which.

Part I — The Blind Taste Test

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

There’s a nice mix of honey and spice on the nose and in the taste. It’s warm, young-ish, malty, and full of vanilla. There’s a sherry edge with… a touch of smoke on the end?

Botton Line:

Honey means Aberfeldy. There’s no way this is the woody Exceptional Cask, so it’s gotta be their 12-year expression, which is both affordably-priced and very enjoyable.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

Peppery, mildly smoky, and sea-brine forward. Christmas cake meets caramel malts meets sea spray. There’s a note of raw chili pepper in the backend that’s a nice counterpoint to all the other flavors.

Botton Line:

Smoke + Sea = Talisker. Affordable. Tasty. I want to put it in a highball or cocktail, not drink it straight. There are way better Taliskers out there for sipping, folks.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

I’m getting bitter orange marmalade, creamy vanilla leaning towards cream soda, a few Christmas spices, and a rush of ripe, red berries. This is nice but the body is fairly thin in a good way — it’s quaffable with no heat. The end is short and sweet with another hint of that spice.

Botton Line:

The thinness of the body means it’s gotta be a young malt or a young blend. It’s nice, but I’m going with something cheap for mixing. Which means there’s only one more cheap bottle in the tasting unless I’ve already screwed up.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

This is lush vanilla ice cream covered in cinnamon-laced stewed apples and dotted with raisins and berries with a malty underbelly and leathery chew. It’s inviting, sweet/spicy, old, and velvety smooth.

Botton Line:

Wooow, this was tasty. It’s like the best ice cream sundae you ever had melded with a well-crafted, supple old whisky. I wouldn’t even cut this with water. It has to be expensive to be this good.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

This is familiar. The Christmas cake and chocolate-chili feel are really enjoyable on the tongue. Those notes last a while and orange oils arrive with subtle fruit sweetness.

Botton Line:

This is Mortlach and very expensive. I’ve tasted this dram a lot over the past few months. It’s really growing on me. The first time I tasted it, I was sort of shrugging it off. Now, I think I want to drink it every day.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

There’s a clear sense of soft cedar with a nice mix of fruit, pepper, and vanilla. The fruit carries on towards a nice hint of dried flowers. The end is very smooth and has a medium length.

Botton Line:

Scotch generally gets cedar-y when it’s old, so I have to go with this being a very tasty but expensive bottle of booze.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

This is more like a toasted wood than a cedar, though the wood is more dialed back and with notes of honey, Christmas cakes full of spice and fruit, and some orange oils. Caramel malts meet dried flowers and a hint of dark, sweet chocolate. That wood lasts right through to the very light end.

Botton Line:

Hum. I’m not sure what this is. The toasted wood and lightness on the end kind of throws me off. I’m wagering that this is a cheap bottle.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

Salted caramel dances with malts and roasted nuts. The body is bold yet light with a bit of dark chocolate leading towards coconut, more nuts, and more sea spray. This is bright, minerally, earthy, sweet, salty, and tasty AF.

Botton Line:

Hello, old friend. This is Oban. Expensive. Delicious. Needs nothing in the glass.

Part II — The Answers

1. Aberfeldy 12 (Affordable/Correct)

ABV: 40%
Average Price: $44

The Whisky:

Aberfeldy is one of the main malts that go into the iconic Dewar’s Blended Scotch. The classic Highland single malt is all about those honeyed notes, Highland wildflowers, and easy drinkability.

2. Talisker Game of Thrones House Greyjoy Select Reserve (Affordable/Correct)

ABV: 45.8%
Average Price: $57

The Whisky:

Launched in 2018, this expression celebrates the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones. The juice is aged in extra-deeply charred ex-bourbon casks to add an edge to the already edgy whisky.

3. Monkey Shoulder Blended Malt (Affordable/Correct)

ABV: 40%
Average Price: $35

The Whisky:

This malt blend is quickly becoming a whisky-fan favorite for its extremely easy drinkability and very accessible price point. The malts involved are drawn from Kininvie, Glenfiddich, and The Balvenie. The whiskies are married and then spend six to 12 months resting in a tun (batching container) before proofing and bottling.

4. Aberlour 18 (Expensive/Correct)

ABV: 43%
Average Price: $145

The Whisky:

Speyside’s Aberlour is an iconic albeit not-well-known distillery. Their 18-year expression rests in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks for 18 long years before they’re combined, proofed, and bottled, creating this masterful dram.

5. Mortlach 21 (Expensive/Correct)

ABV: 56.9%
Average Price: $760

The Whisky:

This is the 2020 release from Diageo’s Rare By Nature Collection. The Dufftown whisky is very eclectic and really only known to hardcore scotch fans. The juice is a small-batch whisky drawn from juice aged for over 20 years and then finished in Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry seasoned casks.

6. Johnnie Walker Green Label Pure Malt (Expensive/Incorrect)

ABV: 43%
Average Price: $45

The Whisky:

Johnnie Walker Green is a “pure malt” blended whisky. That means it’s made from single malts only. In this case, that’s juice from Speyside, Highland, Lowland, and Island whisky regions with a focus on a minimum of 15-year-old Talisker, Caol Ila, Cragganmore, and Linkwood.

7. Aberfeldy 20 Exceptional Cask (Expensive/Incorrect)

ABV: 43%
Average Price: $235

The Whisky:

These very limited yearly releases from Aberfeldy are aged in two oak programs — in this case, the juice was moved into Sauterne casks (a French dessert wine) for its finishing run. The best barrels are then hand-selected by Aberfeldy’s Master Blender for their unique nature and bottled.

8. Oban 21 (Expensive/Correct)

ABV: 58.5%
Average Price: $599

The Whisky:

Oban is a very straightforward whisky done right. The juice is put to bed in a re-fill European oak barrel and left alone for 21 years in the tiny Oban warehouses right on the sea. That’s it. The best barrels are selected and bottled as is. The result is one of the finest examples of single malt you’ll ever find.

Part III — Final Thoughts

I can’t believe I got the Aberfeldy 20 wrong. I just tried that dram two weeks ago. Then again, maybe it’s a testament to how well-done that Johnnie Walker Green bottle is that I thought it was so pricey?

I don’t know. My palate might just be tired. I’ve tasted a lot of whiskeys this month.

All of that being said, if I had to rank these by which ones I want to drink again right now, it’d go like this:

8. Monkey Shoulder
7. Aberfeldy 20
6. Talisker House of Greyjoy
5. Aberfeldy 12
4. Johnie Walker Green Label
3. Mortlach 21
2. Aberlour 18
1. Oban 21 (this is the mountaintop of great single malts for me)

I should start saving money now for those top three since those bottles would set me back $1,194. That’s a bummer. I guess I’ll just stick with the Johnnie Walker Green Label until I can afford the others.

Black Panther is slowly finding new direction in the wake of Chadwick Boseman’s death earlier this year, but the first movie in the Marvel franchise got a slight tweak to pay tribute to the movie’s star. Word spread on Sunday that Disney+ had updated the opening sequence of the film with a special credits scene featuring Boseman, who died in August after a battle with cancer.

The movie shocked both Hollywood and the millions of Marvel fans who loved Boseman as T’Challa and were hoping he would anchor Black Panther 2. That movie will film next summer without him, but Disney apparently honored the late actor with a purple version of the montage that creates the Marvel logo before MCU films.

And, indeed, a trip to Disney+ shows that the credits scene after the movie’s cold open in the past includes a new purple animation showing Boseman, both as T’Challa and behind the scenes, appearing amid a montage of script images and other pieces paying tribute to the late Marvel star.

The move apparently is a posthumous birthday gift to Boseman, who would have turned 44 on Sunday. It’s a nice tribute to the late star, and may be one of the last times Boseman is edited into an MCU film. Marvel has already said it won’t use a CGI version of Boseman in its new movies, meaning the Black Panther franchise will eventually have to move on without Boseman at the lead.

[via Comic Book.com]

Donald Trump’s bloated and beleaguered effort to somehow undo the election he lost earlier this month will likely spill into December, and it remains the focus of his attention despite a coronavirus pandemic spiraling out of control and America facing an extremely uncertain winter.

Biden winning the presidential election is one of the few things certain at this point, though that’s not the case for millions of Trump supporters who believe his baseless accusations of voter fraud that have caused him to mount and lose dozens of court cases in various states. That misinformation campaign continued on Sunday, as Trump continued to rant and rave baselessly about all the ways the election was taken away from him and he would try to somehow return the favor.

There was a lot of outright lying and misinformation from Trump, as host Marisa Bartiromo was clearly uninterested in fact checking any claims about the dozens of lawsuits from the Trump team that have been thrown out in the days following the election and several states certifying their results against his wishes.

But the biggest thing to come out of the interview was the “massive dumps” Trump couldn’t stop talking about.

“This election was over,” Trump said. “And then they did dumps. They call them dumps. Big, massive dumps. In Michigan, in Pennsylvania, and all over.”

Trump is talking, of course, about the mail-in votes that were counted late in many states where he initially looked to be leading. Those decisions to count mail-in ballots after the in-person votes, and in some cases well after the election was over, was made by largely Republican state legislatures and indeed made it appear that Trump was ahead by large margins before millions of votes were properly counted. None of those attempts to recount or throw out those mail-in votes have worked, which is why Biden will be president in January despite the endless lawsuits and claims of fraud without any proof that votes were either cast or counted improperly on a scale wide enough to make Biden’s win invalid.

Still, Trump said he would use “125 percent” of his energy on overturning the election, making it clear that he will not get over the fact that he lost the election to Joe Biden despite his administration slowly allowing Biden to initiate a transfer of power.

There are other things he could spend the last months of his presidency doing, such as helping a battered nation through a difficult, disease-filled period of the coronavirus pandemic that will test the will of its people and the healthcare system tasked with preventing mass death in America. But at least Trump said something very funny on Fox News, even if he continues to damage the nation’s faith in elections and the systems meant to keep its citizens safe while he says it.

The Netflix series The Crown is a series very much based in reality, but the government the show follows would very much like to remind you that it’s mostly fiction. The Netflix drama, which recently saw its fourth season hit the streaming service, has seen some pressure from the UK government to add a disclaimer on its episodes that makes clear the show is a fictionalization of real events and not an historical reenactment of sorts.

UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden has apparently put pressure on Netflix to make it more clear to viewers that The Crown, which is written by Peter Morgan, is based on actual events in the British monarchy but is dramatized for the sake of, well, a TV show. According to Deadline, Dowden has told other outlets that Netflix needs to make it more clear to viewers that significant parts of the show are fabricated for the screen.

Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, Dowden said: “It’s a beautifully produced work of fiction, so as with other TV productions, Netflix should be very clear at the beginning it is just that.”

The minister, who plans to write to Netflix this week outlining his concerns, added: “Without this, I fear a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact.”

It’s a delicate situation for the UK government, of course, as The Crown is quite literally about the more dramatic and scandalous moments of the British monarchy. And Season 4 in particular is growing closer to the present and involves more people who are still alive to deal with those moments being portrayed to millions of people on a streaming drama. Much of the latest season, for example, deals with the relationship between Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

Deadline also laid out some instances where portions of the show’s content have been fictionalized, or at least emphasized to heighten the drama on screen that historians say doesn’t match reality.

Morgan heightened a real-life interview Hawke did with current affairs show 4 Corners, emphasizing the ex-PM’s skepticism for the royal family by having him refer to the Queen as a “pig.” In reality, he never uttered such words.

Elsewhere, Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, has been among those to voice concern about the show after Emma Corrin portrayed his late sister.

“Americans tell me they have watched The Crown as if they have taken a history lesson. Well, they haven’t,” he told ITV last weekend. “It is very hard, there is a lot of conjecture and a lot of invention, isn’t there? You can hang it on fact but the bits in between are not fact.”

It’s unclear if Netflix will honor the UK government’s wishes, but it’s important to note the show isn’t immune to disclaimers. Several Season 4 episodes come with a warning that they depict an eating disorder and offer resources to those struggling with the same things that Dianna is shown battling on the show.

In an unrelated story, Netflix will also now pay tax on revenues made in the UK rather than channel it through the Netherlands.

Fans recently flocked to Twitter to slam the new reboot of Saved By The Bell after a recent episode from the show made light of Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant, which she first spoke about back in 2017. The episode mentioned the transplant in two separate scenes, one that showed the question “Does Selena Gomez even have a kidney?” written on the wall of the school’s hallway, and another that found the characters speculating who the donor behind her new kidney was.

In this discussion, names like Justin Bieber’s mom and her “best friend” and Demi Lovato were brought up. After fans shared their frustrations with the platform, Peacock issued a statement and apologized for making “light of Selena’s health.”

“We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health,” Peacock, NBC Universal, and the show’s executive producer’s said in a statement given to The Hollywood Reporter. “We have been in touch with her team and will be making a donation to her charity, The Selena Gomez Fund for Lupus Research at USC.”

The response from fans to the scene, which occurred in the sixth episode of the show’s reboot, found them labeling it as “disgusting,” “disrespectful,” “unnecessary,” and more. As a result of their comments on Twitter, fans made the phrase “Respect Selena Gomez” trend on the social media site. The incident also occurred a few months after the singer first shared an image of her kidney transplant scar on Twitter to “feel confident.”

(via The Hollywood Reporter)