Month: November 2020

It’s been a busy day for intergalactic master/Padawan duo Future and Lil Uzi Vert. Earlier today, they released the deluxe version of their new album Pluto X Baby Pluto just days after the original dropped. Then, just in time for kids on the East Coast getting out of school, they shared the video for the album’s secondary lead single “Over Your Head.” Directed by Hype Williams, the video is a sharp contrast to their one for “That’s It,” which found them playing an indoor soccer game with teams of models.

This time around, they’ve packed up and headed to the coast, where they sport colorful clothes while cruising on a yacht and take over a picturesque modern villa to stunt by the pool in eye-popping ensembles. As usual, the pair is flanked by a bevy of beautiful women who lounge on the deck in swimwear that doesn’t seem all that wearable for the activity of, well, swimming.

After the album dropped, Lil Uzi declared “I’m out” after dropping two more albums. Future, meanwhile, has another pair of promised joint albums to complete, although he hasn’t announced any plans to retire anytime soon. They’ve become something of a specialty of his; in between releasing his own full-length solo albums, he dropped joint projects with Drake, Young Thug, and Juice WRLD — and he’s promised sequels to the former two are coming along at some point.

Watch the “Over Your Head” video above.

LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special (Disney+ special) — This animated special takes place following The Rise Of Skywalker‘s events and follows Rey and BB-8 as they dive deeper into the Force’s vast realms of knowledge. All of this is geared toward prepping for the Wookiee festival of Life Day, but not everything goes as planned, and Rey ends up hurtling through space and time to intersect with galactic-history figures.

We Are The Champions (Netflix series) — Rainn Wilson executive produces this exploration of odd, quirky, and charming challenges around the globe. Each episode promises to be truly unique while following obsessed and skilled would-be-champs who hope to be the greatest at these competitions: Cheese Rolling, Chili Eating, Fantasy Hair Styling, Yo-Yo, Dog Dancing, and Frog Jumping.

Swamp Thing (CW, 8:00pm EST) — Matt’s digging into the situation when Avery’s people unsuccessfully attempt to conquer Swamp Thing.

This Is Us (NBC, 8:00pm EST) — Malik’s at work with Randall, Kevin’s looking to impress a new director, and sleep training is driving Jack and Rebecca to their wits’ ends.

Tell Me a Story (CW, 9:00pm EST) — Beau attempts to protect Ashley while her survival instincts are going haywire, and an extravagant party is ground central for Jackson and Simone to confront Veronica.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Lewis Hamilton, Andrea Bocelli

Jimmy Kimmel Live — People’s Sexiest Man Alive, Alison Brie, G-Eazy ft. Blackbear

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Whoopi Goldberg, Emma Corrin, Dierks Bentley

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Melissa McCarthy, Bobby Cannavale, FITZ

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez often talks about the value of keeping a social media presence, and she lives by the practice by connecting with people on a daily basis. Not only can you find her pushing back at sexist barbs about her “controversial” Vanity Fair shoot, but she addresses important policy matters on the platform as well. So yes, she’s very present and caught wind of today’s newly announced Twitter feature: Fleets.

Essentially, this is a feature where tweets, videos, photos filed as a Fleet disappear after 24 hours. It’s much like the “stories” feature that one can witness on Instagram or Facebook, so it’s not as though there’s an unsatisfied market for posts that act like disappearing ink. And there’s the matter of “Fleet” being an enema brand, so… it’s like cleaning house in the grossest way. Whatever vibe Twitter meant to exude, it seems to elicit a “why?” AOC is also here to voice the people’s thoughts on the subject.

“Does the fleets thing stress anyone else out?” AOC tweeted. “Like I use Twitter to get away from IG stories, not have it follow me around on every platform reminding me that I don’t have makeup on.” She added a “bargaining” request about the feature’s design.

Mainly, people are confused about why this feature is rolling out with a big announcement when disappearing stories are so readily prevalent elsewhere.

And yes, there’s the enema comparison to consider.

Naturally, people would also like a “edit” button. That probably won’t happen, so people can’t edit things that people have retweeted (that would present its own issues), but users can dream (and then tweet about it forever).

When you think about fall beers, you probably think about stouts, porters, and brown ales. But if you truly want to embrace the season, we’d argue that you should crack open some scotch ales too. If you’re unfamiliar with this style, here’s a little primer: First introduced in the 1800s in Edinburgh, Scotland (hence scotch ale), this dark, rich, caramelly beer is usually higher in alcohol than your typical session brew — making it the perfect autumnal warmer.

Also known as a “Wee Heavy,” the flavors of scotch ale all are driven by sweet maltiness — sort of like a barley wine — and are sometimes finished with a gentle kiss of smoke. To help get you acquainted with this style and assure that you have a scotch ale-filled fall (and winter), we came up with a list of our favorite bottles.

Check them out below!

Rohrbach’s Scotch Ale

ABV: 6.6%

Tasting Notes:

One of the finest examples of the style, Rohrbach’s has been perfecting its Scotch Ale since 1991. This Scottish-style ale is filled with hints of vanilla, caramel, and subtly bitter hops.

Bottom Line:

While many breweries have an IPA or lager as their flagship beer, Rohrbach’s flagship beer is its scotch ale. If you can find it, buy a few cans. If not, take a road trip to Western New York and grab some.

Oskar Blues Old Chub

ABV: 8%

Tasting Notes:

This Scottish strong ale is chocked full of malted barley, specialty grains, and just the right amount of beechwood smoked malt. The result is a rich, malty, dark beer with subtle hints of cocoa, sweet caramel, and just the right amount of smoky backbone.

Bottom Line:

This is a high ABV beer. It’s well-suited as a nice warmer on a cool, fall evening. Stock up now for the colder months to come.

Great Divide Claymore

ABV: 7.7%

Tasting Notes:

Colorado’s Great Divide is well known for its Yeti series of beers. But you’d be missing out if you didn’t try its Scotch ale, Claymore. It’s filled with warming, toasty malt flavors, caramelized sugar sweetness, and toasted vanilla flavors.

Bottom Line:

This is like a warm, winter coat in beer form. Spend the freezing winter months drinking this and you won’t even need hot cocoa.

Founders Backwoods Bastard

ABV: 11%

Tasting Notes:

Founders is a big name in the world of barrel aging, but its Kentucky Breakfast Stout usually gets top billing. Take a break from that offering and grab a bottle of Founders Backwoods Bastard, a bourbon-barrel-aged Scotch ale. Like all Scotch ales, it carries the distinct, warming caramel, and malt flavors we look forward to.

On top of that, the barrel aging lends it flavors of toasted oak, single malt Scotch, and dried fruits.

Bottom Line:

This is a special beer, and it should be given the respect it deserves. Sip it slowly with a blanket on your lap in front of a fireplace.

Alesmith Barrel Aged Wee Heavy

ABV: 10%

Tasting Notes:

If you’re not ready for the barrel-aged version, you can pick up Alesmith’s original Wee Heavy. But if you’re up for a flavor experience, this 10 percent ABV scotch ale is matured in ex-bourbon barrels. This imparts flavors of charred oak, brown sugar, vanilla, and sticky toffee.

Bottom Line:

This rich, complex brew is the perfect accompaniment to heavy wintry dinners and great conversation. Pour a glass and relax as you sip it slowly.

Four Peaks Kilt Lifter

ABV: 6%

Tasting Notes:

Cheeky name aside, this is a great fall sipper. As Scotch ales go, it’s on the lighter side in terms of alcohol. But just because it has less alcohol, doesn’t mean it has less flavor. Roasted barley, rich malts, and velvety caramel are prevalent with just a hint of smoke at the end.

Bottom Line:

This is a great beginner Scotch ale due to its low alcohol content. But it’s also good enough that you’ll come back again and again.

Sun Brewery Wee Mac

ABV: 5.3%

Tasting Notes:

While many wee heavy beers and scotch ales are high in alcohol, Wee Mac isn’t. It’s the closest thing to a session scotch ale than you’re likely to find. It’s low in alcohol, but full of rich chocolate, salted caramel, and nutty sweetness.

Bottom Line:

Normally, you wouldn’t want to “throw back” a few Scotch ales. But with Wee Mac, you can. This is a great tailgate beer or backyard sipper while you rake leaves.

McEwan’s Scotch Ale

ABV: 8%

Tasting Notes:

No scotch ales list is complete without a beer made in Scotland. This Wee Heavy is as classic as they come. It’s rich, dark, and malty — with hints of roasted coffee, caramelized sugar, and subtle hops.

Bottom Line:

If you’re going to try one scotch ale, make it a Scottish original. Grab a sixer of McEwan’s before you try any of the American versions and then compare the two.

On Oct. 29, 1978, Dela Stewart left Jamaica on a contract to cut sugar cane in Florida. He spent about two months doing that — “it was hard work, man,” he tells me — before traversing the United States doing farm work with a myriad of fruits and vegetables.

He eventually settled down in Rochester, N.Y. in 1996, where he was a construction worker in a labor union. He would man the jackhammer, and Dela’s had surgeries on both shoulders, his knee, and a toe because of it, but he relished the hard work.

All of this is important context for when you see his son, Isaiah, play basketball. Because when you have an understanding of the man that raised the former University of Washington standout, things start falling into place on why no member of the 2020 Draft class can touch Isaiah Stewart’s motor.

“I knew what it was to work hard, have a chip on your shoulder,” Isaiah told Dime. “My dad displayed that my whole life.

“Having that Jamaican blood in me, something I take pride in,” he continues. “Jamaican people are very prideful. Not only that, I’m not saying that as a bad way, but they just take pride in where they’re from, how hard they work, and just getting it out the mud. That’s something me and my pops always talk about.”

Isaiah admits that Dela raised him and his brother, Martin, strict. In walking me through one of their days as kids, Dela didn’t give them a ton of flexibility: “You come from school, you eat your dinner, you take your shower, you go upstairs and you do your homework, you go to bed and sleep and get up in the morning and catch that bus again while daddy’s gone to work,” he says.

There was room in this strict upbringing for sports. Isaiah tried his hands at boxing and soccer (well, he tried his feet at this one, I suppose) while he was growing up. Dela told him that boxing wasn’t for him. Soccer wasn’t really his thing, either. So he played basketball, as he was always the biggest kid in his class, but it took Isaiah some time to get into it.

He remembers a switch flipping in “fourth or fifth grade.” The kids in his class would always want to know who was best hooper. They’d head to gym class, play, and the more Isaiah competed against everyone else, the more driven he became to be the king of the court.

“It was always the basketball players in the class, we split up and have teams,” Isaiah says. “We always kept records, every gym class. Then we kept one-on-one records, who’s the best. And then it was basically squads and posses, like, this is the captain of this crew and people will be like, ‘Yeah, he’s the best in the class.’ I just beat them all, one by one, just knocked them off the list. Kept checking it off until nobody could say they beat me or they’re better than me.”

He idolized Patrick Ewing, to the point that he wears his fellow Jamaican’s No. 33 whenever he steps on the floor. While guys like Bam Adebayo and Montrezl Harrell — other undersized centers (he’s 6’9) who can find ways to make an impact — get his close attention now, Ewing’s game, particularly his ability to face up and hit jumpers from the midrange, has always stood out.

“Everybody talks about LeBron and all those guys,” Isaiah says of his upbringing. “Those are guys I was watching, guys that all the kids root for. But I only think I really cared at that point, I was always focused on Patrick Ewing, watching his highlights and stuff.”

Winning was second-nature for Isaiah as a kid — Dela recalls Rochester’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School No. 9 team winning every game they played with Isaiah on the floor, same for the church league for which he suited up. As he got into high school, the success kept rolling in for Isaiah, earning his conference’s player of the year award as a freshman.

It didn’t take long for Isaiah to believe he needed something different. He made his way onto USA Basketball’s radar and was viewed as a five-star prospect, and wanted a level of competition greater than what he experienced in Rochester. This desire for battles with the top players and high school programs in America drove him to La Lumiere, a prestigious high school program in Indiana.

For a kid who grew up in a home so close-knit that sleepovers weren’t allowed, there was a transition period that came with packing up his things and moving to Indiana, although Isaiah admits that it was less weird and more a new thing that he needed to get used to. Dela stressed that getting away from home could help him achieve what he wanted to as a basketball player, and getting into this new environment let Isaiah laser focus on ball — he’d work out twice a day in the summer between his junior and senior year and didn’t return home to Rochester.

It all paid off in the form of five stars from every recruiting service, a 30-1 record as a senior, invites to just about every All-Star Game you can make as a high schooler, the Naismith Prep Player of the Year award, and the Mr. Basketball USA award. Scholarship offers were plentiful, too — 247Sports lists out nearly 40 formal offers from powerhouses like Duke, Kentucky, and Michigan State.

When it came time to pick a college, Isaiah decided to rely on a relationship he built up at home. When he was 14, playing ball in the summer before he made his way to high school, he got close with then-Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins. If you’re a good player in Upstate New York, it stands to reason that Jim Boeheim’s program is going to want you to come play at the Carrier Dome, which was very much the case with the star big man who grew up an hour or so away.

Hopkins was something of an institution at Syracuse — he went there in 1989 to play, and after a short professional career, returned in 1995 as an assistant. But in March of 2017, the California native decided to return to the west coast, taking a job as the head coach at the University of Washington. Nearly two years later, some of the seeds he began to plant during his time at Syracuse blossomed when Isaiah became the highest-rated recruit in Huskies history.

“Hop, I had that relationship with, so that played a part in the recruitment process,” Isaiah says. “I have relationships with every school, but me and Hop relationship was just different. We built that when I was 14 years old, when I was so young. So that was definitely the deal-breaker right there.”

As was the case with every player in college basketball last season, Isaiah’s season in Seattle was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Huskies had a tough campaign, going 15-17, but Stewart put up big numbers, averaging 17 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks in 32.2 minutes per game.

In his eyes, Washington afforded him the opportunity to do something that was crucial in his development: He never had to worry about the coaching staff having too quick of a hook if something went wrong.

“Everything can’t go perfect,” Isaiah says. “Mistakes happen, and just learning from them. That’s what I loved about Coach Hop and the coaching staff. I was the guy who got double, triple[-teamed] every single game, and I made mistakes, but they allowed me to play through them. We just sat down the next day, looked at them and learned from it.”

The one thing he’s never had to learn is how to get up for a game. For Isaiah, there is only one way to “play the game the right way,” and that’s as “someone who plays with a lot of energy, someone who loves to get his nose in the dirt, and just a guy who has an excellent motor.”

You’ll be stunned to learn that Dela appreciates how hard his son plays. He raised him to not fear anyone, and to never back down from a challenge that might come his way when he goes up against another big man. He’s an especially big fan of when Isaiah gets the ball near the rim — “I like when he dunks the ball, boy,” he says with the kind of pride that can only come from a father watching his son succeed.

An NBA team is going to bring all those dunks to their organization this week when they opt to take Isaiah in the Draft. Dela wants three things to happen to his son on Wednesday night: “I hope God blesses him, and keeps him healthy and strong, and he gets drafted and goes to the right team,” he says

Isaiah has plenty of interests off the court. Real estate is one, he’s a big reader (he recommends To Kill a Mockingbird and Gym Candy, and recently enjoyed Chopped Wood Carry Water), and during his time in Washington, he connected with folks like Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy, the latter of whom is a “mentor.” He’s curious about how he can become a better leader, or what he can take from the worlds of football or technology and apply them to his own life, both on and off the basketball court.

But at the end of the day, he’s gotten to where he is now as a basketball player. He can see plenty of places where he needs to improve — “We went into this process by looking back at this past season, watching my film, seeing areas I need to get better in,” he says. “The main areas were being able to knock down shots, passing. I’m still working on IQ, being better at that. And being able to play in a short roll scenario.” — but he’s willing to bet on his ability to outwork anyone.

“You could be gifted with some things other people are not, but I have no problem getting it the hard way and going to the gym, working on my craft,” Isaiah says. “It may take some time to get it, but I’m going to get it.”

As for where he ends up going, Isaiah wants to be in a place that lets him, one day, look at his career and hold his head high.

“I want to win the championship,” Isaiah says when asked about where he sees himself 15 years down the line. “That’s a long career, and I want to be considered at that time as going into, hopefully, being a Hall of Famer, and just looking back at my career and saying, ‘I proved the doubters wrong. I gave it my all and I had a dominant career.’”

One of the most accomplished fighters in MMA history, Fabricio Werdum has officially joined the Professional Fighters League, the organization announced on Tuesday.

“Adding a fighter at the world champion caliber of Fabricio Werdum is next level for the Professional Fighters League,” said Ray Sefo, President of PFL Fighter Operations. “I know the rest of the league’s heavyweight fighters are as excited as I am with Fabricio joining the PFL for the 2021 season starting in April.”

At 43 years old, Werdum holds wins over Fedor Emelianenko, Cain Velasquez and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. A former UFC champion, Werdum entered free agency fresh off a submission victory against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC Fight Night in July and now he’ll take his talents to the unique PFL regular season format.

“I am excited to announce Fabricio Werdum, the Tom Brady of MMA, has signed with the Professional Fighters League,” said Peter Murray, CEO of the PFL. “Fabricio is one of the greatest heavyweights of all time and knows when he steps into the PFL cage this coming season, it is more than a fight. The PFL sport season format provides an opportunity to control his destiny, like all PFL fighters, with a transparent shot to earn another major global title and the PFL million dollar champions belt.”

Stepping into the PFL’s heavyweight division, Werdum joins up-and-comers Mohammed Usman and Justin Willis alongside 2019 champion Ali Isaev and 2019 semi-finalist Denis Goltsov. The season will begin on April 23 on ESPN2.

You could be forgiven if Jamal Murray had maybe slipped under your radar prior to the NBA restart in Orlando. But over the past couple of seasons, he’s become one of the most lethal combo guards in the league and has helped propel the Nuggets to deep postseason runs.

His performances inside the Bubble were a big coming out party, especially in the opening round when he went toe-to-toe with Donovan Mitchell and the Jazz, exploding for multiple 50-point games and gutting out a grueling seven-game series to advance and meet the Clippers in the conference semifinals.

Murray was playing like he something to prove, but beyond the primary goal of adding legendary playoff performances to his resume, it appears he found his motivation from other areas, as well, from things that had little or nothing to do with what was happening on the court.

In a recent appearance on the Knuckleheads podcast, Murray admitted that he was at least partially motivated by not wanting to have to pack up his room and leave the Bubble.

After battling back and forth with @spidadmitchell, @BeMore27 did everything he could to stay in the bubble.

The @nuggets star joins @QRich and @21Blackking for Episode 1 of a new Knuckleheads season: https://t.co/ZyWXxhSVbO

In partnership with @ATT 5G. pic.twitter.com/rMTIVtWdut

— The Players’ Tribune (@PlayersTribune) November 17, 2020

Murray, of course, went on to stage a huge upset in the second round against the Clippers, who many pundits had pegged as the favorites to win the title. Murray was electric in that series as well and continued his outstanding play all the way into the conference finals, where Denver fell to the eventual champion Lakers.

But there will be no more Bubble in the coming season, as teams are set to return to some semblance of a normal schedule when the new season tips off on Dec. 22, although it remains unclear what the fan situation will be inside arenas as the nation awaits the ongoing development a vaccine that will hopefully help stem the tide of the pandemic that has once again been on the rise. Even though the Nuggets will be able to play at home this year, they might want to threaten Murray with needing to do household tasks if he doesn’t perform, because it’s apparently a very successful motivational tool for him.

After dropping consecutive bouts for the first time since 2013, Max Holloway (21-6) will look to get back to his winning ways when he returns to the Octagon on January 13 at UFC Fight Night against Calvin Kattar (22-4).

Holloway, the former featherweight champion, dropped the belt in December via unanimous decision to Alexander Volkanovski and lost in the return bout seven months later via split decision. The loss was the third in four fights, with his lone other defeat coming in a decision against Dustin Poirier, when he moved up to fight for the interim lightweight crown. Before losing to Volkanovski, Holloway was unbeaten at 145 pounds in six years, with wins over the legenday Jose Aldo and an epic brawl against Brian Ortega that ended with a doctor stoppage.

In Kattar, Holloway gets a heavy-handed opponent looking to make a statement. Kattar has lost just once in his last five fights, with three knockouts against the likes of Jeremy Stephens, Ricardo Lamas and Chris Fishgold. Kattar’s last trip to the Octagon saw him earn a unanimous decision victory against Dan Ige.

Still ranked No. 1 in the division, Holloway certainly has sights set on claiming the featherweight belt yet again. Ortega, however, appears to be in line next for a title shot regardless of the outcome.

On Tuesday, Twitter introduced a new function called “Fleets,” which are just Instagram stories for your Twitter account. It gathered mixed reviews, from some excited to bring the story concept to Twitter where they may have a much larger following than on IG to those confused as to what the point of them was.

We’ll have to see how well Fleets catch on — and they’ll surely become a bit of a thing — but no one will use them better than Stephen A. Smith did on the first day of the function. ESPN’s most famous talking head, who appears on seemingly every show the network has and has even become a ubiquitous presence in commercials for everything from Comcast to the new Spider-Man: Miles Morales game, also has a history of some legendary tweets. Many of them have become longtime favorites because you can hear the indignation of the tweets in his exact voice — i.e., him being appalled at a user with the handle @BiblesNBlowjobs — as you read them, while others were accidental errors that never got deleted, like this perfect tweet from 2015.

Five years later, Stephen A. has become very self-aware of his Twitter reputation and some of the tweets that people love, and as such, he debuted his first Fleet by poking fun at himself in an incredible way.

It’s perfect. I don’t know if someone at ESPN assists Smith with his social media at this point or if this was all on his own, but either way it’s sensational.

Shortly after dropping a new trailer for the Justice League director’s cut, Zack Snyder officially unveiled the new look for the movie’s main villain Steppenwolf. The DC Comics character was a constant source of criticism due to the lackluster CGI used in Joss Whedon’s theatrical version of the film, but the new image revealed by Snyder is prompting its own reactions.

As always, Snyder debuted Steppenwolf on Vero, and apparently the villain’s latest look is what the director originally had in mind before exiting the Justice League production. You can see the new Steppenwolf look below, and clearly, Snyder made some very, uh, interesting choices. With the new look out in the wild, folks are having a field day on Twitter where Steppenwolf is currently trending and for all of the wrong reasons. Namely that he looks less like an inter-dimensional badass and more like a shiny wicker basket.

In fairness, fans who have been eagerly awaiting the release of the Snyder Cut are absolutely loving the new Steppenwolf look. The consensus is that’s it’s a vast improvement over the original look and catapults Justice League into a “Lord of the Rings” level of visual effects.

But mostly the reactions were dunks. Just dunk after dunk.

And while all of the joke tweets are pretty great, a special hats off to Tormod’s Trick here who didn’t shy away from going for a pun that was staring everyone right in the face. Fortune favors the bold.

(Via Zack Snyder on Vero)