Despite the sameness and stagnation of winter in a pandemic new days keep happening, and Friday brought news of a new collection of words tossed together in a kaleidoscope of weirdness and cancel culture backlash. That’s right: fired The Mandalorian star Gina Carano is apparently making a movie with far-right gadfly Ben Shapiro in an effort to battle “cancel culture,” presumably because Carano’s anti-Semitic, transphobic and coronavirus skepticism online wasn’t a proper justification for Disney not wanting her around.
News of this new entertainment venture hit social media on Friday, and though some conservatives celebrated the news there was a lot of jokes to be made at Carano’s expense. The fall from Disney mainstay to conservative martyr was abrupt, even for someone who had a long history of problematic posts on social media. But Friday was a swift change from topic of fan discussion to a full career pivot for Carano.
The idea that Shapiro could just start a movie company, and that be Carano’s next best move after getting fired by Disney for one of its most popular shows, was depressing for a lot of people.
Ben Shapiro grew up in Hollywood as the child of a television exec and film/tv composer. He had every advantage to thrive in that industry and still flopped. Gina Carano pushing in her chips on his expertise here is just… really, really sad.
Welp, if making a movie with (stifling laughter) Ben Shapiro counts as NOT being canceled to you, then I guess together, we’ve created a system where no one will ever be canceled again. Issue resolved! https://t.co/yaU0yGEFOO
Just a reminder that before he was a conservative grifter, Ben Shapiro was a failed screenwriter despite having two parents who worked in the industry. Nepotism couldn’t even help this motherfucker. https://t.co/iDw5z0RBkS
A lot of people referenced the reported difficulties Carano had in making Haywire, in which she had her lines apparently dubbed in after the fact by another actress.
“I have only just begun using my voice which is now freer than ever before…”
Ohhhhh, I guess they DID dub her entire performance in Haywire, then… https://t.co/GMC4qTIx7w
Some weren’t so sure there were not other “canceled” moviemakers interested in teaming up, though.
six months from now Ben Shapiro’s gonna have sole publishing rights on JK Rowling’s “Alistair Twinklecrumbs and The Haunted Third Bathroom” and we’ll just see who’s laughing then
“In a society constantly driven to distraction by our phones, email, Instagram, etcetera, there’s something deeply, almost sub-consciously alluring about hot sauce and the pain it causes,” says Denver Nicks. “Hot sauce — especially really spicy hot sauce — commands your full attention.”
Nicks sees all of this as a good thing, further evidence of America’s culinary melting pot.
“It’s not just the sheer number of immigrants we have in this country,” he says, “but how they have transformed and enriched American culture, transformed all of us, and made hot sauce fiends out of many more of us than there were before.”
He makes a great point, but it does make picking the two (or five) hot sauces that you decide to spend your money on a little tougher. What elements deem one particular hot sauce better than another? Is it just about heat? Is it the chilies used? Vinegar ratio? Hype?
Also, when does a hot sauce get played out? Did the world turn on Sriracha just because it went super mainstream or did better options just naturally usurp it? These are questions that vex even Nicks.
“A good hot sauce is whatever you prefer at that moment,” he says. “I use different hot sauce on my gumbo — Crystal — than my tacos — Yucateco. My favorite hot sauces are Caribbean style, usually with lots of fruitiness, perhaps lemongrass, scotch bonnets or habaneros or other members of the Capsicum chinense chili species, and lots of heat. But I’m also very partial to a traditional, vinegar-forward, simple Louisiana-style hot sauce.”
This year’s hot sauce list — sourced from our writers and editors — leans heavy into the habenero. The whole world seems to have collectively agreed that its bright, fruity notes can be easily counterbalanced, opening the door to plenty of nuance without losing the fire. We also saw a fair number of classics getting love. Perhaps quarantine has made us all a little nostalgic for the hot sauces of our misspent youth? Or maybe the big brands continue to thrive because they’re that freaking good.
Check our 2021 “best hot sauce” picks below and add your favorites in the comments.
— Steve Bramucci, Editor, Uproxx Life
Poirier’s Louisiana Style Hot Sauce
Poiriers
Followers of the UFC can tell you that interim champ Dustin Poirier, aka “The Diamond,” knows two things well: how to punch people out and hot sauce. Hailing from Louisiana, Poirier grew up around cajun cooking and the southern sauces that come with it.
The profile harkens to those family dinners, with a winning mix of aged peppers, sea salts, celery, and garlic. Its heat is present, but dialed down on purpose, to allow for easy enjoyment.
“It’s got a kick for sure,” says Poirier. “But the burn doesn’t linger.”
The goal was to create a flavor that was so savory that it wasn’t relegated to the condiment shelf, becoming a key ingredient during the cooking process as well. And much like Poirier’s most recent bout, this sauce is a win. Heads up: Since the fighter took down Conor McGregor this stuff has been flying off the shelves even faster than before — so you might struggle to find it if you wait too long.
On my first trip to Belize, I came home with a suitcase full of the hot sauce found in every Belizean restaurant. One taste and it’s clear why this carrot and habanero concoction is so ubiquitous: it’s freakin’ amazing. Even Hillary Clinton, famously a hot sauce aficionado, gave Marie Sharp’s a shoutout in her memoir, calling it her favorite.
She wasn’t wrong. Fiery Hot packs heat, but the burn is tamped down by the potent blend of carrot and habanero mixed with the uniquely Central American-Caribbean tang of onions, garlic, and lime juice. The velvety texture makes it easy to limit how much hot sauce you pour out, but even with only a few drops are needed per dish I still go through so much of this stuff that I’ve genuinely considered ordering their gallon option (hey, it comes with a free pump!).
Queen Majesty was reccomended to us by Sean Evans, star of Hot Ones, and… what can I say? Dude knows his sauces.
This Scotch Bonnet & Ginger expression is more like a fruit puree than a thin, traditional “sauce.” The flavor captures the sweet notes of the peppers but balances them with the bright tang of ginger (rather than a lot of vinegar). What you end up with is a sauce that fits well with a variety of dishes.
As a longtime proponent of Jamaican beef patties, I’ll go out of my way to note that this is a great play for that dish. Also, it does great in a range of curries.
This is a new love of mine. Zatarain’s is a big Louisiana brand that makes everything from rice to gumbo mix. Recently, I was wandering around the grocery store (maks on, not actually wandering, etc.) looking for hot sauces and came across this one. The label promised aged chili and garlic in one bottle. I was intrigued. I brought it home and placed the sauce on my shelf next to my Valentina’s Extra Hot and made some chicken breasts in the ol’ sous vide.
I doused the sauce onto the chicken and it was a revelation. Zatarain’s Cajun isn’t overly hot but packs a nice little punch. The garlic is 100 percent present. There’s a light vinegar tang going on that’s sweeter than tart and way less egregious than standard Tabasco tang. Overall, this is a great sauce to have on hand when you want a subtle spicy bump with a garlic base.
Frank’s RedHot is simple — cayenne peppers, distilled vinegar, water, salt, garlic powder — cheap and readily available everywhere (your favorite fast food joint keeps it behind the counter, just ask) and yet when it comes to hot sauce it’s nearly unparalleled.
Rare and interesting peppers, a beautiful label, and a fancy bottle design?
Frank’s RedHot has none of them. But pass me a bottle and I hold in my hands the perfect accompaniment to wings, chicken sandwiches, French fries, eggs, stir-fries, and whatever the hell else you put hot sauce on.
Frank’s RedHot is made using aged cayenne peppers, giving it a nice spicy kick but unlike some of the other entries, you don’t spend too much time thinking about what makes Frank’s RedHot good. Instead, it’s a hot sauce that forces you to shut up and focus on your meal. That’s why it’s the GOAT.
Six months go, amid a summer that was shorn from its most enjoyable aspects, Atlanta-born singer 6LACK announced he would return with a new project. The upcoming effort, which would eventually be his 6pc Hot EP, was his first release in almost two years. However, it wasn’t just music the singer delivered to his fans. With the extended play came his new hot sauce brand, 600 Degrees.
As a big fan of 6LACK, I took interest in the hot sauce. His Atlanta roots drove even more curiosity, since that city is responsible for some of the best wings I’ve ever had. So I made the purchase, and I have to say — good call on my part.
For all of you veteran hot sauce lovers, you can take pleasure in 6LACK’s 600 Degrees without a glass of water beside you. The sauce is a melodic blend of age red peppers, distilled vinegar, and salt — pretty standard. The latter elements coat the tongue with a sour lime-like presence similar before the red peppers step in to provide the flavor and spice.
600 Degrees finds a happy medium between nonexistent spice and an intolerable heat, bringing just enough to wake the taste buds from their slumber. This hot sauce is defnitely worthy of a spot at a future cookout, but for now, keep it handy for your socially distanced dinners.
Heat Level: Very managable.
Sambal Olek
Sambal Olek
For me, there’s hot one sauce that rises above them all — Sambal Olek.
What pushes this one to the top is its simplicity. It’s a blend of spicy chilis, salt, and vinegar. That’s it. It’s thick and often gooey. There’s always a jolt of joy when you sit down at a table and there’s a tub of sambal on it with one of those tiny spoons for scooping all that hot peppery goodness onto any dish.
Seriously, you can scoop it on each bite of your burrito or throw a nice big dollop in a bowl of noodle soup or fry some up to spice up fried rice. That’s versatility.
I already like regular Tabasco. You really can’t make an old-school Bloody Mary without one. But, I get that’s it mild and very vinegar forward. This version, on the other hand, is not mild, still hits on those Tabasco notes, and packs some serious flavor.
The habanero really comes through with a clear earthiness and heat. That combines with the almost fruity vinegar for a really solid hot sauce worth using on multiple applications. I put this in my chicken soup, dose it on tacos, I’ve even put it on steak.
But, the best use remains a Bloody Mary. Nothing will both sober you up and prep you for another day of partying faster.
This is created by the team at Complex’s The Hot Ones and my god is it good. It’s just the right amount of sweet on the front end and then… BLAM the heat comes.
And what heat. Two hybrid, lab-created peppers — Pepper X and Chocolate Pepper X — add so much fire to this that a few drops will endanger your whole meal. If you can handle it, this is a sauce that has all the fire without sacrificing taste. Plus you’ll sympathize with the celebs who go on The Hot Ones in a whole new way.
Some items in the fridge or the cabinet just feel right. Whether they’re from childhood or simply regional standards (shouts to White Lily Flower, Duke’s Mayo, and Bertman’s Ballpark Mustard), there’s something to be said for sticking to the classics. For me, a hot sauce I’ll never do without is Texas Pete.
Sure, part of it is knowing its origins are every bit as intertwined with Winston-Salem as the college I went to, Wake Forest. But it’s also been on hand for some really important moments — from fish frys to backroads barbecue pilgrimages to dinners with friends — that helped crystalize my love for food and travel.
Pete’s is complex enough to stand on its own, beats the pants off most of the other major brands, and brings out the flavor of the food you’re eating rather than just masking or burying it. It’s just as adaptable in fried foods (a must on hush puppies) as it is in chilis or soups, and is killer with a BLT or a pimento cheese sandwich.
When I found it at Smart & Final in Long Beach, I audibly gasped. You never know when or where home will find you.
Apparently, the secret to dragon’s blood is apples, because this stuff has apple cider syrup, apple cider vinegar, and apple puree. You don’t necessarily taste the apples, but what you do get is a very fruit-forward flavor before the heat comes on. I love chilis for their taste, not just their spice, and Dragon’s Blood does an ace job highlighting the uniqueness of the habanero here.
You’ll want a solid few dollops to make it work, but there is heat there. It comes on late and doesn’t linger long, allowing the other flavors to shine and not disrupting your meal.
When Sol Food hit the scene in Marin County, the Puerto Rican restaurant brought some much-needed flavor and color to the region. This was, in part, thanks to painting their building a vibrant lime green, sticking out in a sea of beige. But mostly it was the delicious flavors of Puerto Rico, exemplified by their in-house hot sauce, Pique.
My husband always orders their choripan sandwich – chorizo, ham, and Swiss cheese baked between French bread — and it’s incomplete without a side of the bright orange hot sauce to dunk the whole mean into. This medium-spicy, vinegar-based hot sauce was so beloved by diners that Sol Food had no choice but to sell it online. It’s packed full of a variety of peppers — from spicy, fresh jalapeños and serranos to nutty, dried chile de arbols. The branding makes no effort to elevate itself, but trust me, you’ll want this on hand next time anything even remotely tropical lands on your plate.
Mago, made in Laguna Beach, has been on my radar for awhile now, but this isn’t an expression I’d tried until recently. I had a pretty horrible experience with ghost peppers a few years back and the name was scaring me off. I’m glad I circled back for this one.
Don’t get me wrong, Mago Ghost Pepper is spicy, but it’s also fragrant with carrots and bell peppers and features a nice note of smoke (not chipotle pepper intensity). The sweetness of the carrots has the same effect here that it has in some of the habanero-based sauces on this list: calming your mouth and activating a different part of your palate.
Since Mago isn’t very vinegar forward, I use it in a wider variety of dishes — from fried rice to garlic shrimp to stewed mushrooms. Even with big-flavor foods like those, this isn’t a sauce that lets you forget it’s there.
Put simply, Secret Aardvark is a spicy, liquid version of your taco seasoning packet. If you like that sort of thing, as I do, you’ll love it. The peppers here are fire-roasted and you taste that smoke. There’s also a nice texture that comes from finely blended but not fully liquid tomatoes. Most of all, it’s the sweet/spicy balance and the nice fruitiness that makes this Portland-based sauce liven up dishes so well.
This one has been popular for a good long while, but it lives up to the enduring hype. Just as good (and similarly fruit-forward) is their drunken Jerk Sauce. It literally brings me back to Jamaica, and the jerk chicken shacks that line the road there, every time.
I’ve been stanning for ketchup around these parts for a long time. When someone talks smack about it, I fight back.
Why? Because flavor-profile-wise the tang of ketchup is a fantastic counterbalance to many an umami-rich, carb-heavy meal (eg burgers and fries). You know what could make ketchup even better though? The most unsung of the chilies — jalepeño.
The flavor of a fresh jalepeño is bright and fruity and the heat comes in late, like a slow-rolling wave. It’s a joy and pairs really well with ketchup. Trust me, your hot dog will never be the same.
I love hot sauce. I put it on everything from mac and cheese to pizza to eggs. But I don’t need it to be so hot that it drowns out what I’m eating. That’s why I love El Yucateco Chipotle. In their line of sauces, it’s probably one of the mildest, but it has a smoky, sweet flavor with enough heat to make it worthwhile.
This sauce is made from chipotle peppers and clocks in at 3,400 Scoville units. Is that a lot? I actually have no idea. What I do know is that El Yucateco is fantastic.
Remember the band Offspring? This is part of the line of sauces created by the band’s frontman, Dexter Holland. While that turn of events might sound strange, even stranger (and more interesting) is the fact that Holland, a Ph.D. in molecular biology, takes the sauce game very seriously and produces one hell of a product. (I’m not in love with the label or name, though.)
The Spicy Yellow is the best of the Gringo Bandito line. It utilizes scotch bonnets and habaneros and carries the fruity flavors of those two chilies throughout. There are also some nice garlic, onion, and black pepper notes. It’s an excellent pick for eggs and tacos and a step up from the brand’s own, more popular, traditional red sauce.
The first thing you should know about Salsa Valentina is that you can put both of your hands around the jar. This is no dainty, bottleneck hot sauce bottle. It doesn’t have an artisanal wooden cap like Cholula. Hell no. It’s a chubby, thick barrel-shaped glass container with a wide mouth plastic spout that lets you throw down thick streams of hot sauce all over your hash browns.
If I see it in someone’s cupboard, my respect for them goes up tenfold. If I had a one night stand and was offered this with eggs the next morning, I’d probably try to marry the guy. Valentina’s two distribution companies are in California and Texas, so expect to see it primarily in the Southwest. In New York, I found it in the regional food aisles of grocery stores, and very good diners, but it was scarce elsewhere — a shame because this is a well balanced, flavor-forward sauce that’s as cheap as they come.
Look, I don’t know what to say. This stuff is hyped as hell (what hot sauce has 125K followers on Instagram?), Oprah chose it as one of her “favorite things” (twice!), and truffle oil is plaaaaayed out, but still… It’s freaking good. Like really good.
The heat and umami richness of the truffles are, quite literally, the perfect match. You get a hot sauce that hits those high, bright chili pepper notes and manages to have an “of the earth” mushroom quality. The fact that the sauce uses white truffle oil means it’s got a silkiness to it that most sauces lack and the heat, though it has a nice punch, doesn’t linger too long. In fact, I could use it turned up a quarter-notch.
Be warned: This sauce is pricey ($35). But if you’re having a dinner party post-pandemic and want a special bottle on the table that will elevate food rather than just making it spicier, this is a winner. The flavors are potent and the bottle is elegant.
THE FINAL ENTRY — Two-Shack “Como El Otro” Hot Sauce
This hot sauce was included in the book Cooking With Spices by Mark Stevens (who writes for Uproxx). In the ultimate small world moment, it comes courtesy of John “Two-Shack” Nicks, father of Denver Nicks, interviewed above. As Two-Shack notes, there’s a lot going on. You can make it hot as you want by adding additional cayenne.
From the man himself:
“Many hot sauces are comprised of a mixture of vinegar, pepper of one or more varieties and salt. I like to make a more complex hot sauce. I liked the ‘Two Dick Billy Goat’ sauce at the Thunderbird Restaurant in Marfa, Texas. I tried to duplicate it and came up with this. It will not be too hot for most people.”
Ingredients:
1 cups apple cider vinegar
½ small can tomato paste
1 small tomatillo or green tomato, chopped
4 dried cayenne peppers, chopped
3 Pasilla Bajio chilies, seeded (or keep seeds if you want more heat)
Since the death of Kurt Cobain, Nirvana has been pretty much a closed book. There haven’t been any real efforts to continue the band without Cobain, but it turns out that Dave Grohl and his former Nirvana bandmates still jam together sometimes. Furthermore, they even recorded some music recently.
Foo Fighters chatted with Howard Stern recently, and Pat Smear, who was a touring member of Nirvana in 1993 and ’94, said, “Every once in a while, me and Krist [Novoselic] and Dave get together and we do play as if we’re Nirvana, so I don’t have to miss it — we do it. Last time, we did it at the house where we recorded the [new Foo Fighters] album.” Grohl added, “We actually recorded some stuff.”
Elsewhere during that chat, Grohl explained why he wants Stewart Copeland of The Police to induct Foo Fighters into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame if they get in, saying, “To be honest, this band started with this demo tape I did. I called it Foo Fighters because I didn’t want anyone to know it was me. […] Coming out of Nirvana, I didn’t want to say I had a solo project. One of the reasons I did that was because when I was young, someone gave me a record from someone named Klark Kent. It sounded a lot like The Police, because it was actually Stewart Copeland, the drummer of The Police. He made this record under the name ‘Klark Kent.’ That’s really the thing that inspired me to start the band and call it Foo Fighters. I think Stu would be a great guy to induct the band.”
Kyle Busch has done just about everything there is to do in NASCAR. He’s won at every level, holding the most wins in history in both the Gander Truck Series and Xfinity Series. He’s won two Cup Series Championships, the Brickyard 400, Southern 500, All-Star Race, and Coke 600. He was the first driver to win all three races — Truck, Xfinity, Cup — in the same weekend, and is the first Cup driver to win at every track on the schedule.
But there is one race that has eluded him: The crown jewel of the NASCAR season, the Daytona 500, which will take place this year on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on Fox. Busch has been close before. A year ago he led late before his car blew up and he’s finished second, third, and fourth once each in his career. He’s won at Daytona in the summer race (and even this year’s Busch Clash on the road course), just not the 500. And so, he enters this weekend not only looking to bounce back from a rare down season with just one win in 2020, but to pick up the final big one that his trophy case at home is waiting for.
We got a chance to talk with Busch, who will start in 10th after his finish in Thursday night’s Duels, about what makes the 500 so difficult, coming into the year with a new crew chief, how JGR will look to bounce back from a tough 2020, and what he’s learned as the owner of his own race team in the truck series.
How are you feeling coming into Daytona week and getting this season started?
Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. I’m ready to go. We’ve certainly had our fair share of downtime here, and it’s been quite hectic and busy, but at the same time, it’s nice to have the season back here again, for us to get going again, and get back out on the racetrack.
Last season obviously didn’t go as you wanted to, but does that give you a little extra motivation to come out and try to say, like, “Okay, we’re back, we’re gonna be in that contender status again this year,” and get off to a strong start?
I mean, sure. I’ve had one win seasons before, and fortunately, I’ve been able to come back out and, and have four, five, seven, eight win seasons after those. So, you know, there is a way in being able to turn that around and get yourself to the next level or back into contention, I guess, if you will. So certainly, I’d like to think that we can do that and we’re ready for that. I’ve got a whole new group of guys, though. So, you know, that’s going to take a little bit of getting used to and building some chemistry and stuff like that for these first few weeks, and hopefully being able to go out there and have that success sooner rather than later.
Yeah, I was gonna ask, you’re working with a new crew chief in Ben Beshore. What are the conversations that y’all have had coming into the season to try and get on the same page and understand what both of y’all are gonna be trying to do, especially in these early weeks, as you’re still kind of learning each other as a crew chief and a driver?
I think the biggest thing was just kind of learning and talking and understanding, like, what wasn’t successful last year, and what we need to turn around and remake successful this year. So there was some things that we did that were, mmm, call it not so great, and some other things that we did last year that were pretty good. So learning from all of those and continuing to evolve and make yourself better is what this sport’s all about. I feel like we kind of had a few ideas and concepts late last year that we kind of had to change around with our entire organization. And now we’ve got to put that into this year and put it into good use in order to have that success come back. Cause we were — you know, they look at me as, “Well, you didn’t win a lot. You only won once last year.” Well, Martin Truex Jr. only won once as well, too, right. And then, you know, Erik Jones didn’t win at all. So Denny was kind of the one that was carrying the banner for JGR. And so we’ve got to make sure that we can all do that this year, and get us back to a good winning season.
Is there anything specifically you can point to that you say like, okay, we really need to turn this around and say, this was kind of where we fell short. Like, is there anything specifically you can point to or is that stuff that you keep in the shop?
Yeah, no, it’s definitely stuff you keep in the shop. But in layman’s terms, I guess you just say we need to be faster [laughs]. You know, there were times that we were at the racetrack, and the cars drove good, and we were just slow. So having faster cars that can go around the racetrack much faster than what we were doing is certainly going to be important.
That usually helps.
Yeah [laughs].
With regards to Daytona, the 500 is the one big one that you haven’t haven’t been able to reel in and what is your approach going into it and kind of what are the things that you’ve learned over your years at this track — and I know some of that’s just luck with avoiding the big one — but what have you learned about this track to help you try to be up there where you have a shot at the end?
Yeah, I mean, I don’t — it’s just the the nature of the race, if you will. I don’t necessarily think it’s the track or anything like that. It’s the nature of the race. Restrictor plate racing is obviously a chess game throughout, and you’ve got to have a fast car, but you’ve also got to be smart and do a good job with it. I feel like Denny has been one of the best guys, he’s my teammate, obviously, that that’s been able to do that more regularly. And he’s just really found knack of that with this current car and this current car, we’ve been in since 2015 I think it was or something like that has, has really lended itself to his style and whatever for restrictor plate racing.
But this is the last year with this car, we move on in the next year with a new car, so it’d be nice to still be able to score victory no matter what car it is and get a win in that race. But when it comes down to the end, man, you’re never safe until the checkered flag flies. Cause I’ve seen guys on the last lap be leading the race and just get turned by the guy behind them and crashed out you know. So you’ve always got to be on your toes.
Yeah, when you get all bunched up and you have that that bunch style and it, like you said with each car, it’s kind of changed. Sometimes you have the the the two car thing and then sometimes it’s just a lane and a lane. What are the things that you have to change about your mentality when you come to these restrictor plate tracks?
Um, I don’t know. I mean, I think that you’ve got to be aggressive, but you’ve got to be smart in how aggressive you are and what time of the race that you are. So obviously, everybody wants to lead. If you get out front and you get the lead, you want to protect that lead. So there’s just a lot of different variables that kind of come into play. And last year, we were in the catbird seat, you know, we were leading the thing coming down towards the end, I think it was 16 or 15 laps ago or something. And we ended up blowing up, you know. So I feel like we we did the right things. And we were in the right position. It just obviously wasn’t meant to be.
You mentioned the the downtime you’ve had. How have you been been spending this offseason and kind of kind of just resetting away from the track and kind of how has the offseason gone? Is there anything you’ve been able to do just to unwind before you gear up for the season?
Uh, yeah, there hasn’t been an unwind [laughs]. It’s been hectic, it’s been crazy. We’ve gone through a whole bunch of stuff with Kyle Busch Motorsports, with a lot of people leavin’ and tryin’ to fill holes and find new people and get everything kind of back organized and straightened up over there. I feel like we’ve we’ve gotten somewhere in a better place, and hopefully we’re heading in the right direction to have success with our truck series teams. That was a big, big part of the offseason. Another part also was just trying to continue to build the brand Rowdy Energy and and get an energy drink to continue to have success and get out into some more stores and some more places for consumers to be able to buy and to be on more shelves. And so it’s been an ongoing process here for the last year with that, but it’s growing and we’re moving. It’s, I don’t know, it’s just there’s a lot going on every single day. It’s hard to say how easy or how difficult some days are. It’s just whatever comes at you next you go with.
With Kyle Busch Motorsports, what have you learned over your time as an owner of a team that maybe has given you a different perspective as a driver on the track? Like, do you just have to have two different mindsets? Or are there things you found that overlap in learning different perspectives on the sport from that ownership box.
No, there’s definitely a lot of different perspectives that you learn. You have to know and learn and understand the people and the personalities of people and putting people in the right places to succeed. And sometimes you don’t always have the right people in the right places, but also you’ve got to be able to balance payroll and stuff like that. It’s like an NFL team, you know, you kind of have a salary cap because you know how much money you’re bringing in and how much money you have available to spend. So you can’t just keep giving everybody raises all the time and max out or go overboard on your payroll and then have to cut out some of your other resources for building good trucks and having fast equipment and nice equipment, and stuff like that. So it’s always a balancing act, you know, you’re never out of the trenches.
This morning, Joe and Jill Biden went out for a walk with their dogs, Champ and Major, to check out the surprise the first lady had installed overnight for Valentine’s Day weekend. The White House lawn has been decorated with oversized hearts that have positive words like LOVE, GRATITUDE, COMPASSION, and FAMILY on them. The one that says HEALING is signed “Love, Jill.”
As they walked along with coffee cups in hand, the first couple was met by a few members of the press. The conversation that they had has gone viral—not so much because of how extraordinary it was, but rather the opposite. It was delightfully ordinary, filled with normalcy, decency, and even a random act of kindness for good measure. And the simple goodness of it all is moving people to tears.
President Biden: “#ValentinesDay is a big. Jill’s favorite day. For real.”
Q: “What inspired you to do this?”… https://t.co/UrmcEwWgzQ
First, a reporter asked Dr. Biden what inspired her to have the display made, and she said, “I just wanted some joy. With the pandemic, just, everybody’s feeling a little down. So it’s just a little joy. A little hope. That’s all.”
President Biden told reporters that Valentine’s Day is Jill’s favorite holiday and shared how she painted “Joe loves Jill” on his White House office windows when he was vice president. Then he talked about an interview he’d done with journalist Juju Chang in which she asked about Jill and Joe’s “great love affair,” and how he said that he loved Jill more than she loved him.
Asked how he would extend that love story to the American people who are feeling so down, Biden replied, “Tell them there is hope,” he said. “There’s hope. They just have to stay strong. A lot of people have gone through unbearable suffering. They’ve lost their families—lost their children, lost their husbands, wives, moms, dads—and it’s almost unbearable. The one thing I can say to them is they’re still in your heart…they really are.”
The president speaks from personal experience, having lost his first wife and baby daughter in a car accident shortly after he was first elected to the Senate, and then losing his oldest son to brain cancer in 2015.
Following that serious moment, the first couple and the reporter chatted a bit more, with the reporter joking about bringing coffee for everyone. After talking about the couple’s German Shepherds—Champ, who is 14 years old, and Major, who is a young rescue dog—President Biden walked over and handed his cup of coffee to the reporter, promising that he hadn’t drunk out of it yet.
Looking through comments on the video, that act of kindness moved many people to tears. In fact, the whole video had people way up in their feelings, with some people saying that the decency and normalcy were “overwhelming” after the past four years.
@NinaBina4Peace @cspan @FLOTUS Overwhelmed.. perfect word.
It shouldn’t be overwhelming to see a loving first couple out for a walk with their dogs, sharing coffee and chatting with people, but it is. Some people commented that they feel like they’ve just gotten out of an abusive relationship (and indeed, there are many analyses that point out the similarities between what America experienced the past four years with the dynamics of an abusive relationship), so this normalcy and decency is refreshing, if perhaps a bit jarring. It’s going to take time to adjust to not feeling traumatized every time the president talks to a reporter.
The word HEALING on the heart behind Biden as he chats with a reporter feels rather fitting, considering the reactions to this clip. Who knew how truly healing a pair of jeans, a pair of dogs, and a simple gift of a cup of coffee could feel?
Since the pandemic started, sure, yes, we all want things to go back to normal, which would include watching movies in theaters. But a few months ago there was a definitive push by some filmmakers to just put movies in theaters and see what happens. They’d talk about the sanctity of the movie theater experience, and that’s all fine and good, but this goes against most logic right now. (There seems to be a trend that, whatever a person wants to do at any given moment, that’s somehow the one safe thing that can still be done.) In an interview with The Atlantic, Shaka King – whose excellent Judas and the Black Messiah is on HBO MAX right now as you read this – was asked about this and, finally, a filmmaker gave the perfect answer:
“I think this is actually quite an easy change to embrace. I don’t want anybody to go to the movie theater and die to watch my movie. I have no desire for that. And as a person who’s been home: Last year was a tough, tough year. I needed shit to watch to distract me. I had TV, but there weren’t a lot of movies. Everybody was holding all the good stuff until this shit went away. It was rough.”
This is a remarkable answer because it’s a filmmaker leaving his ego at the door. Look, if you’re a director, of course you want your movie in a theater. And especially someone in King’s position, who has made his breakthrough film and, as you’ll read ahead, worked so hard to get this story about Fred Hampton made – with so many ups and downs along the way before Warner Bros. gave him the green light. King really should be commended.
Judas and the Black Messiah (again, you can watch it right now on HBO Max) is the story of Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya, who is gobbling up acting nominations every week), but it’s also the story of William O’Neal (who is played by the excellent LaKeith Stanfield who should be getting nominations), the man who infiltrated the Black Panthers on behalf of the FBI and betrayed Fred Hampton. It’s a story that draws some comparisons to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which King sees, but, as he explains, it’s more influenced by The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Are you in New York?
I live in New York.
Okay, me too. I read the interview you did with David Sims at The Atlantic and I thought the answer you gave him about movie theaters was perfect and I’ve been waiting for a filmmaker to say that. And it read like someone who was in New York City last March and April.
Yes. I mean, that’s exactly how I feel. You remember.
I do.
I need something every night. I need something. And we’re still there. I think it’s not just New York — we, fortunately, are in a far more stable place than a lot of other places. Granted, we have winter to contend with, so we can’t really hang out outside. But I was doing this sort of like, hey, let’s have breakfast outside thing like a month ago. And it just got to a place, I was like, I’m freezing. I’d rather have been alone. So I think with it being cold, folks are staying inside more and just looking for something to take their mind away from everything else going on in the world. That’s what this movie’s going to do. It’s going to make you not think about anything that’s going on in the world.
There were certain directors who demanded their movies be seen in theaters only. Directors who are in positions where they have their own movie theaters. Anyway, I’m just glad you said what you said because I’ve been waiting for that answer for a long time.
I’m surprised. I assumed a lot more people felt that way.
Reading about how this movie got made, it sounds like you assumed it would go to a smaller outlet, which didn’t materialize. Then all of a sudden it’s Warner Bros. Was that surprising?
I didn’t anticipate that. To be honest, I had limited experience in terms of navigating studios. It wasn’t so much that I thought one place would appreciate it more. I didn’t know really the difference between the cultures of the studios until going through this process.
Ah, right.
But I expected, quite frankly, all of the studios to jump at the opportunity to make it just because of the stacked team we were bringing to them. With Ryan Coogler right on the heels of Black Panther. Charles King putting up half the budget. Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield attached in leading roles. And, not to mention, and this was the biggest one for me: understanding and knowing, I didn’t know about individual studio cultures. But I was aware of how much they now rely on algorithms in terms of the movies that they green light. Especially coming off the heels of the success of Black Panther, which, I remember going to the theater and seeing people show up in berets and black leather jackets because it’s a Marvel movie, so the people were making that connection. And the fact that we have the director of that movie in the producer role on this film? I felt like that was going to begin the bidding war essentially.
Right, because that adds could be like what Spielberg always did when he produced, “From the mind that brought you E.T. presents…”
Exactly! I was literally thinking the same thing! “That was the true story of the true Black Panther.” You can Moviefone the commercial!
Right. “You saw the superhero version, now hear the real story from the mind who brought you the Marvel movie.” Yeah, it works. By the way, I have a terrible movie trailer voice. They would never hire me to do that.
I don’t have the greatest. We have other talents.
Well, that’s frustrating, it was set up on a tee.
Yeah. I mean, it surprised me somewhat, but only briefly, and then it was just like, okay! We got one! Yes! And not only did we get one, but we got it from Warner Bros.
Exactly.
You want to talk about name recognition, you want to talk about legacy, you want to talk about the right place to make a historical epic? This is where you want to do it. So I wasn’t disappointed as much as I was surprised. I was over the moon because we were making this movie with Warner Bros.
Were you surprises there weren’t a lot of other movies about Fred Hampton? It’s like you’re making the movie of record.
Do you feel like you knew a lot of people who knew him or knew about him?
Do I?
Yeah, do you?
I think people know the name. But I don’t think people knew a lot about him. I think they know generally what he did and they know how his life ended. But as far as everything else, I would probably say no.
I think you’d be surprised about how few people even know the name.
Ah, okay.
I think in the circles you move in, perhaps, and in the circles I move in, certainly, but I think when you’re talking about going out to LA and Hollywood specifically, the name recognition wouldn’t be there. And it won’t be there until this movie comes out.
When I talked to LaKeith he said he had a tough time playing William O’Neal and often came to you for advice. That he felt what he did was “reprehensible,” but yet he’s giving this guy some humanity and he really struggled with that. What was that dynamic like between you and LaKeith? Because that seems like an extremely difficult character to portray.
I mean, it was really hard for him and it was very obviously hard for him in the moment. But it wasn’t until after the fact that he and I had some conversations and some personal memories that he was unearthing and processing while tapping into some of the darker aspects of William’s personality, that I understood the depth to which he was sacrificing as much as he was. But even in the moment, I just used to come to him and just say, look, you have the hardest job out of all of us. Because Daniel’s here, he’s playing an icon, that’s a challenge. Dominique’s here, she’s playing a living icon, arguably more difficult. But you have the thankless job of playing this person that everyone hates. And actually not portraying him sympathetically, but giving context to some of his decisions. And it’s a thankless job and you’re doing it because we want to get a movie about Fred Hampton out to the universe. And this is the way to do that. So, it’s a tremendous sacrifice that you’re making and I thank you for that. And in those dark moments, I would just remind him of the fact, even though you’re playing a coward, what you’re doing is actually quite heroic.
Something just popped into my head when you said “coward.” I was trying to think who he kind of reminds me of, but he kind of reminded me of Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. This guy who starts looking up to Fred Hampton and then betrays him and has to live with that. Obviously, these are different movies, but just that character…
It’s an analogy that a lot of people have made, and the thing that’s funny is that I actually didn’t see that movie until after I made this film. But when I watched the movie, I was like, oh yeah, I can totally see how people would make that connection. There’s definitely something happening there. Even though I also think there are many differences.
Oh, yes.
But I do think that movie, which is what’s interesting, it’s about a guy who gets close to greatness and he loves this guy. He actually loves this guy. And to me, that movie is almost more like The Talented Mr. Ripley in terms of the characters.
Oh, that’s interesting.
And what’s funny is that that was a reference for this cast, was Ripley. Yeah, there’s something there. There’s something there.
‘Jesus And The Black Messiah’ is currently streaming via HBO Max. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.
With Donald Trump banned from Twitter permanently, it’s really starting to feel like Ted Cruz is filling the void of the must dunked on politician ever. Following a full week of getting roasted for bad takes on Gina Carano, Shakespeare, and… breast milk(?), Cruz decided to head into the weekend by criticizing the NBA for its Black History Month tributes. Apparently Cruz was not a fan of seeing Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, and Barack Obama being honored by the league, so in a very Trumpian move, he fired off his thoughts on Twitter:
Am watching the Rockets play tonight. For the second night in a row, here’s how NBA/TNT honors Black History Month: picturing three Dem politicians. Tim Scott doesn’t exist? (unlike Abrams, he’s been elected statewide) Condi Rice? Clarence Thomas? Colin Powell? Obvious bias.
Considering both Obama and Harris made history as the first Black president and vice-president, respectively, and Abrams’ massive organization of Black voters in Georgia led to two major victories in the 2020 presidential election and subsequent runoff in the Senate, which also garnered her the recognition of the Nobel Prize Committee, obviously, those three are worthy of being recognized during Black History Month. More importantly, as numerous people on Twitter continue to point out, Ted Cruz is the last person who should be dictating which Black people should be celebrated, and he’s being absolutely roasted for it.
This is the whitest GOP thing ever.. Leave it to @tedcruz to trash Black History month because they dared to talk about the first Black President (Obama), Rep Abrams & our newly elected VP Kamala Harris! He wanted Clarence Thomas! & FYI Colin Powell is no longer part of the GOP pic.twitter.com/LGcdok4ifd
According to Ted, they didn’t pick the “right” black people to honor during black history month? The FIRST black POTUS, the FIRST black/asian female VP and the woman that singlehandedly turned GA blue aren’t worthy of distinction?
1. Colin Powell left the Republican Party 2. Pretty sure he hates your sniveling guts 3. You didn’t seem to give a damn about Black people when you were voting to throw away their votes 4. STFU, Traitor Ted
Are you high? Obama was the first Black POTUS. Harris is the first Black and female VP. Stacey Abrams was just nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Do you expect points for being able to name four Black people, one of whom you work with? Your politics are still racist af.
Amazingly, Cruz set himself for this self-own just a few hours after being dragged by Twitter earlier in the day for taking a swing at Princess Leia in an odd defense of Gina Carano. It’s almost like Cruz wants to be shamed in front of millions of people, but we’re gonna stop pulling on that thread before it leads to some awkward places.
The M. Night Shyamalan television series Servant premiered along with Apple TV+ back in November 2019. I admit that I did not initially check in on the series because of a few middling reviews and the fact that there were other Apple TV+ series I prioritized upon its launch (like the heavily hyped The Morning ShowandFor All Mankind).
However, ahead of the second season of the series and with a sudden dearth of TV thanks to the pandemic, I finally caught up on Servant a few weeks ago, and I found that I really liked the series. I’m willing to give almost any show with half-hour episodes a shot, and I happened to also really like the cast of Servant, which features Lauren Ambrose, Toby Kebbell, Nell Tiger Free, and Rupert Grint as the irresponsible, cocaine-snorting brother. The tone, however, is a little funky. It’s horror, but the performances are sometimes so over the top that Servant can feel like a dark horror-comedy.
That is, until, “Jericho,” the ninth episode of the first season. Any suggestion that there might be an intentional layer of comedy beneath the premise of Servant is completely erased by that episode, which may be the most disturbing episode of horror I’ve seen on TV since “The Home” episode of The X-Files.
Spoilers for the first season of Servant
Without spoiling too much about how it unfolds, Servant is about a couple who lose their baby under mysterious circumstances. In order to deal with the debilitating grief, Sean (Kebbell) substitutes their dead child with a doll, and Dorothy (Ambrose) treats the doll as though it is her actual baby. For the purposes of discussing episode 9, it’s not important to explain how the story unfolds, except to say that in the ninth episode, we finally find out how their baby died.
It is messed up, and for parents, it is quite possibly the worst nightmare imaginable.
In the episode, Sean has to travel out of state for the weekend, leaving Dorothy alone with the baby. The weather is brutally hot. Dorothy is exhausted because the baby has been crying all night. After a couple of days without any sleep and no help from her husband, Dorothy loses it. Her mind is shot by the lack of sleep, and she finds that she’s just going through the motions of taking care of her baby.
After a trip in the car, she returns home but forgets to remove her baby from the car. Once inside, she mistakenly believes she’s put the baby into its crib, and that the baby has fallen asleep. In fact, so comforted by the rare moment of quietness, Dorothy falls asleep herself.
Around 2 a.m., however, Dorothy wakes up and goes to the crib to check on the baby. The baby is not there, and she briefly realizes what she’s done. Because of the shock that washes over her, however, Dorothy’s mind won’t allow her to acknowledge that the baby has died. She returns to the car, pulls the dead infant out of its car seat, and proceeds to act as though nothing has happened. She continues to care for the dead child for several days — kissing it, holding it, rocking it — until her husband finally returns home.
Meanwhile, a giant leg of meat so huge it cannot be refrigerated is delivered several days early to her husband, who is a chef. Dorothy is so preoccupied with caring for her dead baby that all she can do is to leave the leg of meat on her table. As it rots, decomposes, and draws flies in the suffocatingly hot apartment, Dorothy continues to carry around her dead baby, as her child also continues to decompose in her arms. The smell of death and rot is unbearable.
In her shock, Dorothy remains oblivious to what has happened, to what she has done, and to the state of her child. That remains the case even when Sean returns. That is ultimately why they have to substitute a doll for their child. It’s because if Dorothy ever comes to terms with what she did — that she let her baby die a slow, painful death inside of a hot car — it would break her.
It’s one of the most excruciating, dread-filled episodes of TV I’ve ever seen, and while that may sound like a reason not to watch Servant, that shouldn’t be the case. Servant should appeal to horror fans, while it also works exceptionally well as a mediation on grief. The cooking component of the show is also surprisingly enjoyable, and aside from that one episode, it’s not a particularly difficult show to watch. It is, however, a compelling but slow burn that is blossoming into something else entirely new, interesting, and culty in its second season.
Check it out. It’s currently in the middle of its second season on Apple TV+ (and if you decide to subscribe and have not seen it yet, do watch last year’s best show, Ted Lasso, while you’re at it).
Mila Kunis isn’t the original voice of Meg on Family Guy, but she’s voiced her the longest. The then-15-year-old actress replaced Lacey Chabert beginning with season two’s “Da Boom,” which aired on December 26, 1999. That was 17 seasons ago.
The reason behind the recasting was “a contractual thing. Lacey Chabert, I think there was a mistake in her contract, and I guess she had not intended to be involved for, like, the full run of the show,” creator Seth MacFarlane explained. “It was nothing – there was no tension or anything. She wanted to go, and she was very cool about it.” Kunis has also made a lot of money for voicing the oft-tortured Meg (a reported $250,000 per episode, as of 2013), so it’s no wonder she calls it the “greatest job ever.”
In an interview with Collider to promote her new movie, Breaking News in Yuba County, Kunis was asked about how much longer Family Guy can go. “Let me tell you something, I hope this never ends,” she replied. “I don’t know what to say. I’m so grateful for this job. I can’t believe still people care.” Kunis, who’s been able to record her lines during the pandemic in the “makeshift little, tiny studio” in her closet, being on Family Guy “the greatest job ever. Ever, hands down. I dare anyone to tell me that they have a better, more amazing job than that.” Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa on The Simpsons (32 seasons compared to Family Guy‘s 19), might have a case. Otherwise, she might be right.
Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is ongoing, and there’s more of a hip-hop presence there than probably anybody expected. During recent proceedings, some rappers were quoted, including Run The Jewels. Naturally, El-P, who isn’t exactly a Trump supporter, was pretty proud of himself.
US House of Representatives delegate Stacey Plaskett spoke during the trial and at one point recited part of a line from Run The Jewels’ “Early”: “And yes there’s a they, any time a man say there’s not / Then you know that he lost the plot, what can I say? / Truth’s truth when denied or not.” Plaskett made a couple minor alterations — she actually said, “Truth is truth whether denied or not” — but it was enough for El-P to get excited about it.
Sharing a clip on Twitter yesterday, El-P wrote, “welp apparently i was quoted during the impeachment trial today and i can’t say i didn’t see it coming. ok i didn’t see it coming.” He also wrote on Instagram, “uh…apparently my verse from “early” was just quoted during the impeachment, making it part of the permanent historical record of senate testimony. i’ll just let that sit here for a minute.” Today, in response to an article about the quote, he added, “i’d like to thank high school for kicking me out, fear for inspiring my writing, weed for everything weed does and Nostradamus for predicting this moment probably.”
welp apparently i was quoted during the impeachment trial today and i can’t say i didn’t see it coming. ok i didn’t see it coming. pic.twitter.com/4xcd297pcs
i’d like to thank high school for kicking me out, fear for inspiring my writing, weed for everything weed does and Nostradamus for predicting this moment probably. https://t.co/cjtu94FOrp
Meanwhile, Plaskett also quoted GZA during the trial, and he too was pretty happy about it.
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(@cmclymer) February 12, 2021
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