Month: November 2020

Earlier this month, I was honored to join a tasting for a special Irish whiskey. A whiskey that sort of tied off an entire segment of my professional drinking life — the latest Midleton Very Rare release. For me, this wasn’t just any dram. It was the end of an era.

Over the summer, Irish Distillers announced that their damn-near legendary Master Distiller Brian Nation would be leaving Midleton and handing the reins to some of Ireland’s biggest and best whiskey brands (Jameson, Readbreast, Powers, etc.) over to Master of Maturation Kevin O’Gorman. The Midleton Very Rare 2020 would be Nation’s final release with the company.

For those who don’t know, Nation has long been a powerhouse in the whiskey world. On a personal note, he was also my first major interview for UPROXX Life. When I started working for the section back in 2016, I was still bartending at a high-end cocktail bar and deep in the Berlin booze scene. I was already going to brand launches and conventions. I knew the ambassadors, distributors, and so forth. Once it got out that I was also writing about alcohol, the next round of invites arrived with press passes. Synergy.

In March of 2017, I found myself on a flight to Dublin for a day-trip to celebrate the re-opening of Jameson’s Bow Street whiskey center. Once there, I was given a full tour by Nation himself. He led a tasting in this famed cathedral to Irish whiskey and talked me through their maturation process while surrounded by sherry and bourbon casks filled with the good stuff. Then we sat down for a long, one-to-one chat.

So it’s no wonder that tasting Nation’s final expression with Irish Distillers felt personal to me.

Before we get to the whiskey, let’s take a quick look at Brian Nation and his impact on Irish whiskey and whiskey in general. Nation arrived at Irish Distillers in 1997 and worked his way to becoming Master Distiller by 2013. To say that Irish whiskey was struggling when he started would be a massive understatement. The style was nearly destroyed in the 20th century. First, American Prohibition hammered the Irish whiskey industry in the US, which had been one of the largest sectors of the entire whiskey industry up to that point. Then there was a trade blockade inflicted by Britain, wrecking Ireland’s alcohol exports and leading to the rise of scotch.

By the time the ’90s arrived, Irish whiskey was at a low (as was much of the whiskey industry). But there was light at the end of the tunnel — the country’s spirits sector was officially open for business on the world stage.

It wasn’t until the early 2000s when things started turning around in full. Pop culture got nostalgic about whiskey. Young people began wondering about the brown liquor that their grandparents had enjoyed. Don Draper and Roger Sterling hit TV. A new generation of distillers arrived, keen to recapture the energy of pre-Prohibition and pre-Blockade while also moving the entire genre into the 21st century.

When it comes to Irish whiskey, Brian Nation was a big part of that revolution.

As their sector expanded and diversified, so did Irish Distillers’ offerings. In the 1990s, Jameson had a standard bottle, a 12 year, an 18 year, and… that was pretty much it (besides one-offs). Today, the brand has eleven regular expressions — everything from distiller’s picks to beer barreled expressions to bottles cut with cold brew coffee. Meanwhile, Redbreast has become one of the most awarded and sought after whiskey brands on the planet. Under Nation’s watch, Powers extended their pot still whiskey and maturation programs. Green Spot, Yellow Spot, and Red Spot have all thrived, as well.

For as seismic as Nation’s departure feels, he isn’t retiring. He’s moving to the U.S., to be the Master Distiller of O’Shaughnessy Distilling Company in Minneapolis. The shingle plans to capture the essence of the Irish-American experience through a line of whiskeys distilled within a stone’s throw of all the grains they could ever possibly need. Still, it’s a big shift in an industry where distilling jobs often last decades.

To my surprise, the tasting for Nation’s final expression with Irish Distillers wasn’t actually led by Nation himself. Master Distiller Kevin O’Gorman had already been handed the keys. But while Nation wasn’t in attendance, the Zoom tasting definitely felt like a farewell to a comrade. O’Gorman — Nation’s collaborator on this bottle — is bringing about a new era to Irish whiskey and, after tasting Midleton Very Rare 2020, I’m excited to see what the coming years bring.

Midleton Very Rare 2020

ABV: 40%
Average Price: $180

The Whiskey:

This the 37th edition of the highly coveted Midleton Very Rare. It was also crafted as a parting gift from Master Distiller Brian Nation to the Irish whiskey drinkers of the world.

Nation spent a long time in the storehouses tasting single pot still and single grain whiskeys for this expression. The barrels he chose to focus on were lightly-charred ex-bourbon barrels. They ranged in age from 13 to 35-years-old. This focus on single pot still whiskeys that were aged in refill barrels offers the chance to achieve more balance among flavors and a bit more svelte nature.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a sense of vanilla from that bourbon wood on the nose next to a peppery note with a little freshly ground nutmeg. With a little water, the nose veers into an orchard fruit sweetness and chocolate powder that’s dialed back and complimentary to bolder, oaky notes.

The taste really holds onto the fruit with a pear and orange nature while the oak carries on with a nice sense of the spice. The water turns that spice more toward a mild chili with an added edge of cedar. But it’s really a perfect balance of the light oak, semi-sweet fruit, and mild spice that keeps you sipping this dram.

The end is longish. The fruit fades out first, leaving you with the oak and spice giving you a warm embrace on the very end. I also noticed that once the dram is drained, there’s still a sense of the cedar in the glass.

Bottom Line:

This is a very nostalgic dram for me. So I’ll be savoring it without any additions. It really doesn’t need much more than a few drops of water to open it up. It’s soft and inviting enough to drink without a rock. A masterful goodbye to a whiskey legend.

One of the most telling offshoots of the New York Times‘ recent report about Trump’s stunning tax avoidance and hairstyling writeoffs turned out to be people thinking a lot about how Wesley Snipes did not get away with not paying taxes. In fact, Snipes spent three years in prison on misdemeanor charges (he was acquitted of the felony counts), but the Blade star would like to point out that definitely did not go to jail for other claims made against him regarding alleged behavior while making Blade: Trinity.

Yes, that’s a bizarre seque, but Snipes is pushing back at resurfaced claims about what Patton Oswalt said that he witnessed while making the 2004 threequel. During a 2014 discussion with comedian Pete Holmes, Oswalt cited a “wall of pot stench” coming out of Snipes’ trailer, along with the claim that “he would only answer to the name ‘Blade’” while largely communicating via Post-its. Oswalt remained amazed, years later, at Blade: Trinity surfacing in theaters — he joked that it was more accomplished than Citizen Kane simply for existing because, allegedly, Snipes was “going crazy” and acting like a diva on set. No refutation from Snipes’ camp arrived after that discussion, and everyone laughed along with Patton’s accounts, which yeah, people found very funny.

However, Snipes recently sat down with The Guardian, where a more serious claim resurfaced as read by journalist Simon Hattenstone. As Snipes reacted to what he heard (and it must be noted this next quote made a few waves when Oswalt spoke with the AV Club), things grew contentious:

I ask if I can read him a quote about his behaviour on the set of Blade: Trinity to see if he thinks it is fair. “Yes, yes, yes, which one is this?” It’s from the actor and comedian Patton Oswalt, I say. “A reliable authority on me,” he replies sarcastically.

I read the quote: “Wesley was just fucking crazy in a hilarious way… he tried to strangle [director] David Goyer.”

“Let me tell you one thing. If I had tried to strangle David Goyer, you probably wouldn’t be talking to me now. A black guy with muscles strangling the director of a movie is going to jail, I guarantee you.”

So that’s a no, then? “Did I go to jail for strangling him? Never happened.”

Hattenstone notes that Snipes then giggled at the Post-its claim but did not appear to be truly amused. Snipes then wondered aloud why everyone simply believed these claims against him without question:

“This is part of the challenges that we as African Americans face here in America – these microaggressions. The presumption that one white guy can make a statement and that statement stands as true! Why would people believe his version is true? Because they are predisposed to believing the black guy is always the problem. And all it takes is one person, Mr Oswalt, who I really don’t know. I can barely remember him on the set, but it’s fascinating that his statement alone was enough to make people go: ‘Yeah, you know Snipes has got a problem.’”

Snipes also pointed out that he was an executive producer on the threequel, which he says gave him “au-thor-i-ty to say, to dictate, to decide.” And back on our original subject, Snipes states that Trump got preferential treatment on his taxes because “This is not rocket science. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Officially, Snipes was on hand to promote his role alongside Eddie Murphy in Coming 2 America, which will stream on Amazon Prime beginning on December 18.

(Via The Guardian & The AV Club)

As we quickly approach the next generation of video game consoles we are all anticipating what PlayStation and Xbox have in store for us, but one player in the video game market that has been going a little unmentioned in all of this is Nintendo.

As support for the Nintendo Switch only strengthens. there is no reason to believe that they will be releasing a new console anytime soon. At least not one that isn’t just an enhanced version of the current Switch. This in itself is fine, but it’s odd to see Nintendo actively take a step away from the console wars and focus on doing their own thing and strengthening their current fan base. It’s a move that most video game companies wouldn’t make. But then again, Nintendo doing the unusual feels pretty standard at this point.

Rarely has a video game company bucked tradition the way Nintendo seems to. As other consoles make beefier, more powerful consoles, try to deliver incredibly artistic stories, and fill their boxes full of Mature rated games, Nintendo continues to maintain that they want to make games for everyone. Whether you are 6 or 60, Nintendo wants you to be able to play video games and have fun doing it. Franchises like Mario, the Legend of Zelda, and Animal Crossing will always follow this belief system. All of their first-party titles will really. Fun matters above everything. This allows them opportunities for experimentation, but it also severely limits them. They also choose to limit themselves in extremely odd ways.

One of them is their refusal to adapt to the modern internet. When you buy a new console, it is going to have internet connectivity at this point and the Switch does have that. Games update with patches and you can purchase them digitally on the eShop. If you want to play these games with your friends, however, then buckle up. That is going to be a process of exchanging friend codes, hoping the game you are playing supports multiplayer, and then hoping that the game itself has a functional multiplayer mode.

Let’s use Animal Crossing as an example. The latest version on the Switch is the second-best selling Switch game to date. A huge aspect of the game is visiting your friend’s islands. This is what the process of visiting looks like.

And this is only a snippet. To reach this point I had to first have a friend on my Switch friend list so I can add them to my Animal Crossing friend list who then has to open up their Island gate so I can run over to the airport, and then tell this cute Dodo that I want to fly to an island. I have to go through this process every single time. This doesn’t even get into what it’s like if someone is visiting your town. When someone is visiting an animation plays, and then you get a little airport arrival loading screen. This plays every single time no matter how many people are visiting. So if you are inviting nine people over, then every time someone is visiting this animation will play out.

Getting together with a friend can take up to five minutes and it becomes exhausting after a little bit. You can say that this is part of the charm of Animal Crossing, and in a way it is, but it’s an example of how Nintendo just doesn’t embrace the ease of online multiplayer that other games do willingly. In most games, it’s a far more seamless operation to link up with your friends online. You send an invite, you get connected, and you’re on your way.

On top of the difficulty of getting to your friends online, sometimes you get a game where the online multiplayer function feels very half baked, such as the Mario Maker 2 multiplayer that was plagued with poor servers and major lagging. This has been an issue for some major online Nintendo games ever since the Wii, but on Switch, you are paying for these internet services, which makes it far less excusable.

So the internet on Nintendo games isn’t always great, but not many people buy the Switch for multiplayer gaming. If there is something we can expect from Nintendo, it’s a library of incredible titles that are unique to them, and that drives gamers to their systems. They almost always deliver on that and the Switch is no different. Titles like Super Mario Odyssey, Breath of the Wild, and most recently a collection pack of Mario’s greatest 3D hits with Mario 3D All-Stars give gamers characters they know and love, with a modern-day spin. Nintendo has a willingness to give players what they want, right up until they decide they don’t.

Nintendo has decided it wants to be the video game version of Disney and give their collection of old games a limited release before returning to the proverbial vault. It is only available until March 31, 2021, and that’s not just the physical version. Digital will only be available for that period of time as well. This is a truly befuddling decision for a video game company to make. It creates a false limited supply on games that existed on other consoles for over a decade. It makes no sense, it costs $60, and many people who have played the game say it’s not much of a port in terms of improving upon the previous games. It’s just a straight up collection pack of games and for some reason it is limited.

While odd, it tracks with Nintendo’s history of having sparse production in their products. During the peak of the pandemic, Ring Fit Adventure was insanely difficult to find — as were Switch consoles in general — and Amiibos on the Wii U were notoriously difficult to get at their peak due to limited production. There’s a business argument for making a set number of items to lower production costs and ensure you don’t have overstock to maximize profits and limit spending, but there are times where it seem Nintendo purposefully isn’t coming close to meeting the full demand of the market. Illustrating just how strange that is for a gaming company, Microsoft is intentionally taking a loss on the Xbox Series S to try and ensure they get it in living rooms and reach as many people as possible.

Nintendo may operate with a completely different mindset than their gaming counterparts, but it’s a system they’ve found to be very successful and likely won’t change anytime soon. They are the richest company in Japan and that financial stability means they won’t be making any sweeping changes to their approach. Fans of Nintendo love them and will defend every single decision they make no matter how infuriating. Switches are still flying off shelves and that brand loyalty means the gaming giant has little incentive to join the console wars that consume Xbox and PlayStation.

It’s going to be interesting to watch the next console generation, because as the two major titans fight it out we’re probably going to continue to watch Nintendo do their own odd thing. Are they ever going to embrace modern gaming, or will they continue to be the black sheep of the industry? As long as they’re pocketing cash it’s hard to see them ever changing how they operate. They seem to actively oppose the way modern gaming works and so far that hasn’t done a thing to dent their standing in the market. Maybe one day that’ll change, but for the foreseeable future, Nintendo will continue to zig when everyone else zags.

“Gucci Gang” rapper Lil Pump recently drew a lot of attention — and anger — from hip-hop fans after co-signing Donald Trump on his Instagram with a post complaining about his taxes. While it would have been easy to write the post off as a troll, like 50 Cent’s similar post a couple of weeks ago, it looks like Pump really is going all-in on his support for the incumbent. Over the weekend, Pump attended a Trump rally in Florida, posting live from close to the front of the stage.

It’s probably worth noting that the last time Lil Pump’s Instagram Story drew this much attention, it was because the “Be Like Me” rapper had posted cryptic slides that prompted concerned fans to worry about his mental health. “Not feeling good right now,” he wrote at the time. “Idk if I wanna keep doing any of dis. I feel like Ima die soon & all dis will be over.” Earlier this year, he appeared to be bouncing back after announcing his retirement, then returning days later with a new sound.

His erratic behavior has been mirrored in that of other rappers who previously showed support for Trump. In 2016, Kanye West met with Trump at the Trump Tower after having a breakdown on his The Life Of Pablo tour, leading to nearly four years of concerning behavior culminating in West seemingly denouncing Trump to run for office himself. Meanwhile, Lil Wayne was also recently berated by the rap community for endorsing Trump’s so-called “Platinum Plan.”

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Ariana Grande offer up her sixth career album, Burna Boy speaking to the conflict in Nigeria, and Freddie Gibbs teaming with Big Sean. Yeah, it was a great week for the best new music. Check out the highlights below.

Ariana Grande — Positions

Ariana Grande fans have been spoiled over the past few years, as Positions is her third album since 2018. It’s a headline-making album, too, from collaborations with The Weeknd and Doja Cat to some impressively high vocal notes to perhaps a dig at a certain famous ex of hers.

Trippie Redd — Pegasus

Trippie has given his fans at least one full-length project a year since 2017, and the rapper wasn’t about to let 2020 slip by without continuing that streak. His third studio album, Pegasus, has a strong roster of guests that includes Partynextdoor, Rich The Kid, Young Thug, Future, Quavo, Busta Rhymes, Lil Wayne, Swae Lee, and others.

Oneohtrix Point Never — Magic Oneohtrix Point Never

Daniel Lopatin rolled out his latest Oneohtrix Point Never endeavor by gradually releasing multi-song chunks of it at a time. Now the whole thing has arrived, and it features contributions from familiar faces like The Weeknd and Caroline Polachek.

Guapdad 4000 — “Alpha”

Guapdad put himself in the running for the best video of the week with his “Alpha” visual, which is packed with anime inspiration. On top of that, he also made an appearance on Uproxx’s new show, React Like You Know.

Freddie Gibbs — “4 Thangs” Feat. Big Sean

Gibbs and Sean have both had big 2020’s, and the pair linked up with somebody else who has also had a prosperous year, producer Hit-Boy, for “4 Thangs.” In the visual for the braggadocios track, the rappers do their best LeBron James and celebrate yet another victory.

Dua Lipa — “Fever” Feat. Angèle

Dua Lipa has been all over the place pushing Future Nostalgia over the past year, but now she’s back with new material. She has linked up with a lot of big-name guests as of late, and on “Fever,” she expanded her horizons by working with French-language star Angèle.

Jim-E Stack — Ephemera

Stack recently told Uproxx about how making his new album differed from making a song for somebody else, saying, “When I’m working on my own music, it’s completely self-indulgent and I’m just making stuff I want to listen to. Whether I’m just listening to it off of my phone or it’s out on Apple Music and Spotify for everyone to hear, it’s just for me.”

French Montana — “Double G” Feat. Pop Smoke and Jay Gwuapo — “Black Mask” Feat. Pop Smoke

It’s been a big year in terms of musical success for the late Pop Smoke following his death in February. His prosperous run continued last week with a pair of features, as he appeared on new tracks with French Montana and Jay Gwuapo.

Salem — Fires In Heaven

After ten years away, influential witch house group Salem made their return in September with a storm-chasing video for “Starfall.” About a month later, they came back with an album, Fires In Heaven, which was discussed in depth on a recent Indiecast episode.

Burna Boy — “20:10:20”

It’s a tumultuous time in many parts of the world right now, and Burna Boy offered a perspective on the unrest in Nigeria on “20:10:20.” The track title is a reference to the date on which the Nigerian Armed Forces shot at unarmed protestors, and naturally, the rapper is incensed about it.

Tierra Whack — “Dora”

Two years after her debut project Whack World, the gears appear to be turning in the Tierra Whack camp. She popped up last week to drop of “Dora,” which was accompanied by a colorful and typically wacky video.

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

The 2020 Presidential Election is this week, which will bring to an end the strangest and most stressful campaign season I hope any of us ever see. It’s been a lot. It’s been too much, some of us have been saying, out loud, to the empty rooms we’ve been confined to since March. You are perfectly within your rights to be fried crispy right now. And this is where I think I can help. You see, I realized something this weekend: it helps to think of the 2020 Presidential election through the lens of the straight-to-VOD 2019 Nicolas Cage film Primal, because once you start doing that, a lot of scattered puzzle pieces in your brain start locking together and a clearer picture emerges. Look at Donald Tr-…

Hmm. It’s dawning on me that you might not have seen the movie Primal. Okay. Okay. We can salvage this. I’ll just show you a quick summary from a Google search, which should tell you just about everything you need to know.

Hunter and collector Frank Walsh expects a big payday after bagging a priceless white jaguar for a zoo. But the ship bearing Frank’s precious cargo has another predator — a political assassin facing extradition to America. When the prisoner manages to break free, Walsh must utilize his expert skills to capture the dangerous killer — not dead, but alive.

I mean, hell yeah, right? Look how many things are going on there. You’ve got Nicolas Cage on a boat with a rogue assassin and a priceless white jaguar. How did it take us until 2019 to make this movie? It’s incredible. At one point Nicolas Cage finds himself trapped in a pit with the priceless white jaguar, and he has only a knife and his guile to protect him, and that point is less than four minutes into the movie. I am not lying about any of this. And that’s what brings us back to the point I was going to make: this particular election, this entire year, when you think about the Democrats and the Republicans, especially, has…

You probably want to know how the assassin escaped. Okay. Real quick. See, he has this brain condition, right? Changes in altitude can throw him into a deadly seizure and the government needs him alive. That’s why they had to travel by boat instead of by plane, and why they had to bring along a Navy doctor played by Famke Janssen, who is also in this movie. The assassin throws himself into a fake seizure and kills the guards who come in to assist him and he takes their weapons and releases all of Nicolas Cage’s animals — Nicolas Cage is also transporting poisonous snakes and birds and monkeys; it’s quite literally a zoo in there — and gets to the business of creating chaos. It’s great. The boat’s chef gets murdered by the monkeys because he tried to harm one of their babies while they were all locked in the kitchen together. At some point, it all basically becomes Die Hard on a barge with wild beasts of the jungle running amok, too, walkie talkies and all. Again, just incredible.

Anyway, when you look at what the Biden campaign has done, or tried to do, you…

Okay. There’s one other thing you need to know about Primal before I tie this all together and there’s no way around it: Michael Imperioli is in the movie. Christopher Moltisanti from The Sopranos himself. He is all the way in the movie, as a gray-haired U.S. Attorney who is later revealed to be a crooked NSA agent during a standoff in which he is holding a gun on Nicolas Cage, who is holding a bow and arrow on the rogue assassin, who is holding a gun on Famke Janssen, who is also an animal lover who does not approve of Nicolas Cage’s plan to sell the priceless white jaguar to the highest bidder. He is killed moments later. Rest in peace, crooked NSA agent played by Michael Imperioli.

A few additional things you should know about Nicolas Cage’s character:

• He flamed out of 8 zoos in 10 years because he has what Famke Janssen’s Navy doctor correctly diagnosed as “a problem with authority”
• The rogue assassin captures him around the midpoint of the movie and locks him up in the cage that was holding the priceless white jaguar, at which point I said, out loud, with a little too much excitement, “Cage in a cage!”
• He makes his own tranquilizer darts, which is how he survived the pit with the priceless white jaguar earlier in the movie

Also, right before he runs off to track down the rogue assassin for the final battle, he and Famke Janssen have this conversation, which is maybe the greatest piece of dialogue I’ve ever seen.

The big final showdown features an armed-to-the-teeth rogue assassin and a blowgun-spitting Nicolas Cage engaged in guerilla warfare on a rusty barge in international waters. Cage pops him twice with the tranq darts and then strings him up by his feet with some sort of heavy machinery and chain combination and leaves him there to be dinner for the very hungry priceless white jaguar. When the doctors on the shore report back at the end of the movie, they say they had to identify the rogue assassin using dental records because the priceless white jaguar had stripped the rest of him clean. This happens just before Famke Janssen lies for him to keep him out of hot water for the animal smuggling and he reveals that he’s donating the priceless white jaguar to a wildlife sanctuary. It’s sweet. Everyone seems to have forgotten that a little boy’s father got bit by one of the escaped illegal snakes and was — at this very moment — barely clinging to life because Nicolas Cage had neglected to bring any anti-venom.

And really, when you think about how the political climate we’re dealing with these days, you c-…

Wait! I forgot to tell you about the parrot! There’s a wisecracking parrot on the boat! He’s been following Nicolas Cage because Nicolas Cage fed him at a bar once, and Nicolas Cage hates him, and he likes to pipe himself into the action every now and then with one of the four things he knows how to say: “Meow,” “uh oh,” “time to go,” and “take him out,” the last of which he says whenever he sees a gun, which plays an important part in keeping Nicolas Cage alive during an ambush. When the movie ends they are best friends and Nicolas Cage has named him Einstein. The two of them are thinking about giving up the animal smuggling game and going back to work at a zoo near where Famke Janssen lives, which gives us a nice little happy ending that, again, takes place maybe five minutes after the terrified little boy’s father got rushed off the rusty barge because a maniac animal smuggler packed two of the world’s most dangerous snakes but not the antidote to save anyone. Really, truly, just a remarkable movie. I might watch it again on Tuesday night.

And this is where I confess, as you’ve probably figured out, that I am not ever going to get around to discussing what any of this has to do with the election. If I’m being completely honest here, I watched just Primal on Saturday night in an effort to unplug from the world for 96 minutes, and it was so nutso and beautiful that I felt compelled to write about it, but I figured “A Breathless Explanation of the Plot of the Straight-to-VOD 2019 Nicolas Cage Film ‘Primal’” would be a much harder sell to both you and my editors the day before the election than “How The Straight-To-VOD Nicolas Cage Movie ‘Primal’ Explains The 2020 Election,” so here we are, I guess. I’m sorry for tricking you. Kind of. I am kind of sorry for tricking you.

I think you understand why I did it, though.

Last year for Halloween, Tomi Lahren dressed as “the thing that scares me most,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Fox pundit was trying to troll the congresswoman, I guess (?), but it ended up spectacularly backfiring on her. Instead of taking the L and going low-key for Halloween 2020, Lahren gathered her squad for a confusing costume.

“A Mostly Peaceful Halloween #teamTomi #Halloween #peaceful #happyhalloween,” Lahren wrote on Instagram, along with two photos and one video of herself and two fellow liberal-tear drinkers dressed up as… Antifa? Basic-cable Billie Eilish? The cybergoths from the viral dance party? It’s unclear who Lahren thinks she’s making fun of, although my favorite guess came from the Blast: “Fox Nation Host Tomi Lahren Goes As Group Of Sexy Rioters For Halloween?!” It’s always good when the explanation for your Halloween costume involves a question mark.

In other Tomi news, writer and comedian Ali-Asghar Abedi described pranking Lahren into calling Trump an “ullu” (or “dumbass”) for the Daily Beast. “Maybe if she’d ever had a poppadom in her life, Tomi would know this too,” he wrote. “But because she hasn’t, ‘ullu’ became a trending topic in India and millions of Indians watching cable TV news got to know Tomi as the dope who was tricked into insulting her political hero because checking facts seemed like too much hard work.”

She was too busy trying (and failing) to emasculate people wearing masks.

The main story in the Taylor Swift universe this year has been the release of her new album, Folklore. One of the prevailing story lines of 2019, though, was her falling out with former label Big Machine. Through all the nastiness, the situation did give fans something to look forward to: It was revealed that starting in November 2020 (aka now), Swift would be allowed to re-record the albums she released on the label. While she wouldn’t have ownership over her previous master recordings, she would own the new ones, which would be the point of re-recording the songs.

So, over the weekend, Swift fans got excited when the calendar flipped over to November, and ET notes that #TaylorIsFree was trending online. There was much jubilation:

Swift re-recording her albums isn’t just some sort of lofty, unrealistic hope, as she has previously expressed a desire to do it. In August of 2019, she talked about it with Robin Roberts on Good Morning America, saying, “It’s something that I’m very excited about doing, because my contract says that starting November 2020, so next year, I can record albums 1 through 5 all over again. I’m very excited about it. Because I think that artists deserve to own their work. I just feel very passionately about that. […] It’s next year. It’s right around the corner. I’m gonna be busy. I’m really excited.”

With Election Day less than 24 hours away, the Republican Party has been ramping up its favorite attack on Democrats like clockwork. That attack? They’re socialists! Viewers got a taste of this approach during the first presidential debate when Donald Trump tried to label his opponent, Joe Biden, as a “radical leftist.” However, this tangent backfired as Trump seemingly forgot he was debating Biden and not Bernie Sanders, who lost the Democratic primary largely because voters preferred Biden’s more moderate policies. But that didn’t stop the president from attempting the same smear during the final debate.

On Sunday, Senator Marco Rubio picked up the torch and fired off a tweet that read, “Not every democrat is a socialist. But every socialist is a democrat.” Unfortunately for Rubio, this put him in the crosshairs of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who has been roasting everyone from Trump to the entire GOP with incredible ease. Ocasio-Cortez quickly dismantled Rubio’s argument by pointing out the hypocrisy of the Republican Party for relying heavily on government services when it suits them, but crying foul when those same services help other Americans. She also included a reference to President Trump’s taxpayer-funded stay at Walter Reed Medical Center where he received an experimental drug cocktail on the government’s dime after testing positive for COVID-19.

“Curious what you call GOP giving away billions in public funds to Wall St & fossil fuel companies?” AOC fired back. “Or what you call YOUR ability to go to Walter Reed hospital & receive socialized healthcare for free? Funny how it’s only ‘socialism’ when others get what y’all give yourselves.”

You can see AOC’s full exchange with Marco Rubio below:

(Via Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter)

It looks like winning his own in-house basketball tournament may have cost Drake a little more than the price of a trophy. The Toronto rapper looks to have re-injured his bad knee, posting a photo to Instagram of his leg in a brace and propped up on pillows as he watched Netflix over the weekend. The caption reads: “I actually want to use this post to send love and motivation to anybody else that 2020 let loose… start writing the best bounce back story NOW.”

Drake had surgery on his ACL in 2009 after aggravating an old injury during a performance in Camden, New Jersey. During the show, a trotting Drake suddenly collapsed and had to be carried off the stage, prompting one of the first spates of social media jokes at his expense. Even Lil Wayne kidded that Drake bore a resemblance to his Degrassi: The Next Generation character Jimmy. “Word of advice…don’t tear your ACL,” Drake tweeted at the time.

Now, it looks like he won’t be doing the “Toosie Slide” around the crib again anytime soon, but that may just give him enough time to perfect his upcoming album Certified Lover Boy, which he announced would arrive sometime in 2021. In the meantime, Drake’s been celebrating his birthday (complete with meme-worthy menu typos), setting up playdates for his and Nicki Minaj’s sons, and getting back on his feature game alongside Bryson Tiller, 21 Savage, and DJ Khaled.