Daisy Ridley hasn’t forgotten — she also hasn’t forgotten that the senator criticized her Star Wars character, Rey, while defending Gina Carano. After Cruz praised the fired The Mandalorian actress for not playing an “emotionally tortured Jedi,” Ridley responded, “I am very happy to be an emotionally tortured Jedi… who doesn’t leave their state when it’s having a terrible time.” The Chaos Walking star was asked about dunking on Cruz (it’s Seth Rogen approved!) during Wednesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
“What was weird was I had no idea,” Ridley told fellow Cruz-hater Jimmy Kimmel, “and I was doing interviews and somebody goes, ‘Oh, did you hear what Ted Cruz said?’ I was like, ‘Ted Cruz is talking about me? Like what?’ So they said it and I responded and I couldn’t remember what I said, because you know you have that heart-pounding thing of like, ‘Oh my god, why has he said something about me?’ And then we entered the interview and I was like, ‘I said something about American politics and people hate when actors talk about politics.’ I thought, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’” At least she is used to pissing off the worst people (no one teach Ted Cruz the term “Mary Sue”).
Ridley had nothing to worry about. Following her diss, she heard from J.J. Abrams, Josh Gad, and LucasFilm marketing head Lynne Hale, who called her a “badass.” Plus, as Kimmel noted, Democrats don’t like Ted Cruz, “but Republicans also don’t like Ted Cruz.” There is one bad thing about Ridley criticizing him, however. “Sadly, I will tell you, he’s going to be very excited that Rey mentioned his name tonight,” Kimmel said. “He’ll be tapping his feet together like a seal tonight.” You can watch the clip above.
Hobbies are a spectacular thing. They can prevent boredom, help you learn something new, pick up an instrument, or, in the event you’re a QAnon follower with too much time on your hands, they can even prevent you from looking like a dumba** who can’t read a map.
Unfortunately, a handful of QAnon members don’t have hobbies — or, arguably, enough brain cells — so they’ve sunk hours into a new conspiracy theory that posits our nation’s capital has “dissolved” because GPS services like Google Maps and Apple Maps have started leaving out the “D.C.” when offering directions for would-be insurrectionists.
Currently, the group is awaiting the return of their leader, Donald Trump. Before 1933, presidents were sworn in on March 4th, and many QAnon followers believe this is the day Trump will make his big comeback. But, in case that doesn’t happen, the group has another bizarre rabbit hole to dive into with this map business. A search of Washington D.C. only brings up the city’s name, not the district. Some QAnon members think there’s a hidden meaning in this omission. They claim that the missing initials are proof the capital has been “dissolved.”
According to Newsweek, a user on the encrypted messaging app Telegram posted a question asking whether the capital had always been referred to as just “Washington” on map services or whether a change had been made.
Another user replied: “I just searched Washington DC on my iPhone Apple Maps & it just shows Washington, no DC. This is the same for Google maps & mapquest. DC is dissolved.”
The theory even made the rounds on Twitter:
Google on left. Duck duck go on right. Try it yourself. Maps show Washington DC as Washington now. Just a weird coincidence. pic.twitter.com/VFQp4IxTel
The only problem? Residents in Alexandria and other D.C. neighborhoods quickly snuffed out theories that D.C. wasn’t a district anymore and that the nation’s capital had somehow been secretly dismantled. “I’ve lived in Alexandria [Virginia] for 4 years and it has always shown Washington on mapquest, Waze, Google maps, etc.. since it’s Washington, D.C. it just shows the immediate locality.. not the state,” another Telegram user wrote. Others posted photos of maps from as far back as the ’80s to prove this omission was actually commonplace.
“It always said Washington in the middle of the map and then Washington dc at the bottom,” one user confirmed. “This is normal because the name would cover too much of the map.”
At this point, QAnon might want to hit up that Zorp cult from Parks and Rec for pointers on how to pivot when your apocalyptic conspiracy theories don’t pan out. They couldn’t do any worse.
You’ve probably seen the words “straight whiskey” on plenty of whiskey bottles over the years, but you might not know what the designation means. It’s pretty simple actually — a whiskey (in the U.S.) can have the title of “straight” if it’s fermented from a cereal grain mash bill and distilled to no more than 80 percent ABV (160 proof). Also, according to US regulations, it has to be aged in new, charred oak barrels for a minimum of two years and at no more than 62.5 percent ABV when the maturation process begins.
If the juice meets these criteria, it can be labeled as a “straight” whiskey. Since a large portion of whiskeys on your local liquor store shelves do hit these marks, it’s not a particularly unusual designation.
To help you pick a straight whiskey ideal for fighting off the last chill of winter 2021, we reached out to a handful of bartenders and asked them to tell us their picks for closing the season strong. Check their picks below!
Kings County Empire Rye Whiskey
Kings County
Cory Coose, bartender at Tak Room in New York City
This is a tough choice given all other whiskeys, but this one has just a fantastic profile, beginning on the nose with winter spices and rounded out flavors from the good bit of malted barley. It finishes off with some warm bread on the palate. It’s a simple and elegant way of doing Rye.
Ben Potts, owner and bartender at The Sylvester in Miami
Rittenhouse is a great straight rye whiskey with a great price tag and a lot of flavor. It’s spicy, rich, and full of caramel and vanilla sweetness. Perfect for mixing and sipping neat.
Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey is my favorite not only because of its charcoal mellowing, but also because of its true rock-n-roll heritage in ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine. I think of Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin backstage chugging from the bottle, Keith Richards of the Stones stepping from the limo with a bottle in tow, and Michael Anthony of Van Halen pounding on his JD bottle-shaped bass while swigging on stage. It might not seem underrated, but it definitely is.
Andy Printy, beverage director at Chao Baan in St. Louis
Daviess County Straight Bourbon from Lux Row distilling has recently resurfaced as a label, but has roots on the Kentucky/Indiana border dating back to the late 1800’s. To me, it’s exactly what you want out of something so straightforward. The “mixed” mash bill of both high rye and wheated bourbons starts with a touch of oak and stone fruit on the nose, while the palate imparts strong amounts of corn, dank lumber and honey without ever losing the sharp peppery tones of the rye. Ideal for cocktails and pouring over a large cube of ice.
Blake Jakes, director of beverage for The Kennedy Bar in Pensacola, Florida
Wild Turkey is consistently amazing. The Russell family can do no wrong when it comes to making whiskey. I love the bite it has and still retains such a smooth end note. It’s hard to match.
Old Forester 86 has been a staple bourbon whiskey that won’t break the bank but will suit your glass nicely. With notes of charred oak, vanilla, and leather, it’s the mellow sipper you need for the end of winter.
I am going to have to go extremely local here and go with New Riff Kentucky Straight Rye. They are doing a killer job for a relatively young distillery. Their limited ryes, such as the Balboa, are stupid good. But their straight rye, with its cinnamon, caramel, and subtle spice, is perfect for an old fashioned or on its own.
Marta De La Cruz Marrero, food and beverage supervisor at Burlock Coast in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Bulleit Bourbon is unique because it has a bold, spicy character with a finish that’s distinctively clean and smooth. Medium amber in color, with gentle spiciness and sweet oak aromas, the mid-palate is smooth with tones of maple, oak, and nutmeg. The finish is long, dry, and satiny with a light-tasting toffee flavor that lingers long after the final sip. Simply combine our bourbon whiskey with cloves, lemon juice, brown sugar and hot water.
My favorite straight whisky is Jefferson’s Ocean Bourbon. It is uniquely aged at sea and the barrels feel the love from all of the elements, heat, ocean water, the movement of the ship. These things greatly affect the outcome of the final product. You taste much more of the barrel on the delightful small batch bourbon as the temperatures are warmer and the movement of the barrel allows the full integration of the flavors from the wood and elements. Salinity, caramel, and warm baking spices combine for this perfect sipping bourbon.
Omar Rodríguez-López has remained busy over the past decade, but his most famous project, The Mars Volta, has not. The group broke up in 2013, and between then and now, there have been occasional rumors of a reunion. Now, the most promising sign of new material from the band since the break-up has arrived, as the band is teasing… something.
Through his Clouds Hill company, Rodríguez-López has shared a brief teaser video captioned, “COMING SOON #THEMARSVOLTA.” In the video, in brief flashes, the text “The Mars Volta” and “La Realidad De Los Sueños” (which translates to “the reality of dreams”) can be seen. So far, that’s all the info available about whatever this is.
Back in 2019, the band’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala said a “new chapter” of the band is “happening” and also added, “What it’s NOT going to be is your ‘fav member lineup’ playing their ‘classic records’ in full etc. Maybe we’ll play old sh*t, who knows how we feel. Just remember our past campaigns never relied on playing requests or going fully backwards …it’s new sh*t, new people, left turns , tangent inconsistencies, mazapan dreams and churro wishes. I will say this though, when [Rodríguez-López] played me a grip of new sh*t I f*cking cried. Like Claire Daines in Romeo & Juliet cried. Yeah it was f*cking weird. It’s in its infancy right now. No deadlines, no ball tripping, no drama, just 2 grown ass men using essential oils and bold new perfumes shooting ideas and scooting their ass across the f*cking lawn trying to get rid of these worms.”
This is the most tantalizing sign of new music from the group in a long time, so stay tuned.
The Mars Volta is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Details are emerging about the plot and production of Space Jam: A New Legacy, the sequel to the legendary Michael Jordan-starring Looney Tunes film from the late-1990s. The star of the new film, of course, is LeBron James, who through his production company and star power got the film off the ground and made it one of the most anticipated releases of 2021. But James admitted in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he was nervous that fans would see him as purely imitating Jordan rather than forging his own path, which is why he initially said no to the role.
“In my younger days, part of my thinking was ‘Space Jam was so good, how can I top this?’ ” James told EW’s Derek Lawrence. “There’s always going to be conversations about LeBron trying to do everything Michael [did]. But I’ve gotten older, and you know who you are. You know what you stand for.”
James was offered the opportunity for a Space Jam sequel all the way back in 2005, when he had hardly achieved much in the NBA at all, but said no in order to focus on his playing career. But as he built up his media empire and accomplished many of his on-court goals, he softened to the idea. Once the braintrust of producer Ryan Coogler, director Malcolm D. Lee (Spike’s brother) and co-star Don Cheadle were brought on-board and began to craft a story around James as a father, James was sold.
Take a deep breath before you try to digest what the story will be: Cheadle basically plays a fussy Artificial Intelligence who is jealous of James’ Instagram following and uses James’ son’s computer to try to steal James’ followers by challenging the King to a basketball game. Effectively, James is literally doing all of it for the ‘Gram (and his son).
Space Jam 2 will have the challenge of being one of the first movies released in theaters since last spring, though it will also go straight to HBO Max like all of Warner Bros.’ 2021 films. That’s something even Jordan never had to deal with.
As HBO Max approaches the one year anniversary of its launch, the burgeoning WarnerMedia streaming service is already prepping a move to boost its subscriber base by offering a lower price tier that it hopes will bring in users who initially balked at HBO Max’s cost of $15 a month. Naturally, this new tier would be supported by advertising, which HBO Max is trying to employ in a less obtrusive way than its competitors. However, it’s interesting to note that while streaming services like Hulu and Peacock started out with ads then later offered an ad-free experience, HBO Max is going in reverse after realizing that its current price was perhaps a bit too high, especially in the current economic climate. Via Deadline:
“It turns out that most people on this planet are not wealthy,” [WarnerMedia CEO Jason] Kilar said during a virtual appearance at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom conference. “If we can wake up and use price and be able to kind of invent and do things elegantly through advertising to reduce the price of the service, I think that’s a fantastic thing for fans.”
The ad-based price tier will reportedly launch later this year after HBO Max “works out the kinks.” However, despite the blatant appeal to reel in more users, the streaming service still maintains that it is two years ahead of schedule thanks to releasing Wonder Woman 1984 on the platform on Christmas Day 2020. As reported back in January, the film’s simultaneous HBO Max and theatrical release nearly doubled subscribers, and the streaming service is hoping to see that trend continue as more brand new blockbusters hit the platform like Godzilla Vs. Kong later this month.
Lady Gaga recently had to endure a pet owner’s worst nightmare: Her dog walker was shot and two of her beloved dogs were kidnapped. Fortunately, in a matter of days, the dogs were recovered and everything was in its right place. Gaga offered a $500,000 reward for whoever brought the dogs back, which just goes to show how much some people care about their pets. That got us thinking about other famous artists and their four-legged friends who we see pop up from time to time on social media and whatnot.
We’ve rounded up a handful of my favorites below, but this is by no means a comprehensive list of celebrity pets, so our sincerest apologies if your preferred artist’s furry/scaly/otherwise textured friend isn’t included. Now, if you’re recently found yourself asking, ‘Who’s a good boy,’ you can find some answers to that question below.
Coco, Toulouse, Cinnamon, Strauss, Lafayette, Pignoli, Myron, Snape, Lily, and Piggy Smallz (owned by Ariana Grande)
Grande’s dogs make social media appearances pretty often, but fans may not realize just how many puppers she actually has: According to Ariana Grande Wiki (which is surely the authoritative source on such matters), she currently owns nine dogs. That’s enough for 5-on-5 basketball if they let Grande’s pig Piggy Smallz play. As if that wasn’t enough, Grande is also working on an animal rescue center in Los Angeles, which indicates that she is perhaps the best friend to animals in the biz.
Lavender (owned by Dylan Baldi of Cloud Nothings and Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13)
Towards the end of last year, indie-rock power couple Baldi and Dupuis decided to adopt Lavender, a pitbull with atypical facial features. In a recent interview with MTV News, Baldi said of Lavender, “She’s a one-of-a-kind dog. People will just stop and be like, ‘Look at this dog,’ and want to be with this dog in a way like no other dog I’ve seen. It’s like having a rare Pokémon.” He doubled down on his admiration of the unique pet with a Twitter follow-up: “if we did a tour, charged $50 for tickets, and all that happened was this dog came out onstage and walked around for a bit? you would still feel like you spent $50 correctly. incredible dog.”
Trappy S. Goyard (owned by 2 Chainz)
Like other famous pets, Trappy S. Goyard (which is easily the best name on this list) has his own Instagram account. Goyard probably also has a SAG card by now based on all the appearances they’d made. In addition to popping up on 2 Chainz’s Most Expensivest, Goyard also co-starred in the “Grey Area” video from earlier this year, in which Goyard and their human swapped heads.
Calippo and Dorito (owned by Ed Sheeran)
Sheeran stayed mostly out of the public eye during 2020 as he decided to take a break. What he didn’t stop doing, though, was posting about his cats on their dedicated Instagram page, which boasts over 300,000 followers. Calippo and Dorito are doing well, although Dorito could apparently stand to lose a bit of weight: In October, Sheeran shared a photo of the cats accompanied by a note that reads, “Don’t feed the cats!!! Even if Dorito gives you ‘the eyes’… She has a bad tum… naughty puss…”
Shark (owned by Billie Eilish)
About a month ago, Eilish celebrated the first birthday of Shark, the rescue dog she adopted in April. She wrote in a now-unavailable Instagram post, “My sweet rescue baby boy was born a year ago today. You have made my life 1000x better happy birfday little shark.” While the two share a special bond, the journey to today wasn’t without (expensive) complications: In August, Eilish shared that Shark left some unwanted presents in and around some pricey sneakers.
Foe Thee Frenchie (owned by Megan Thee Stallion)
Not many pets win awards, but Megan Thee Stallion’s has: Foe Thee Frenchie (who has nearly half a million Instagram followers and is coming after Trappy S. Goyard’s best-name-of-this-feature crown) was Paper‘s Celebrity Pet Of The Year for 2019. Meg recently shared a progress pic showing off how much Foe has grown over the course of five months, and understandably, in the more recent photo, Meg has a hard time carrying her increasingly large pet.
Alf (owned by Hayley Williams)
Hayley Williams’ dog Alf has been an important figure in her life and has helped her through some difficult times. She told EW, “I got Alf when he was, like, 11 weeks old. I raised him, but I feel like he raised me. I was 23 or 24 when I got him. He keeps me present because he’s present all the time: He’s so happy and very in tune with me when I’ve gone through life-altering changes or moments.”
On “Cinnamon,” from the 2020 album Petals For Armor, Williams sings, “On the walls of my home / There are signs that I’m alone / I keep on every light / Talk to my dog, he don’t mind.” She explained that lyric to Pitchfork, saying, “He was my first therapist. And he’s still my favorite therapist.” Around this time last year, she also told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, “My dog is the reason I’m alive, because he would’ve been waiting on me to get home, no matter what. You know how little sweet little puppies sit and they wait? I couldn’t think about it.”
Dogs dominated Tegan And Sara’s “100x” video from 2016, and recently, Tegan got a pup of her own, named Georgia. Since then, she has documented the joys and struggles of raising a dog and there have been plenty of both. In November 2020, she tweeted, “Is there an umbrella for people who have a new puppy and have to take it out to pee 700 times a day and need both hands to pick up poo? *must cover human and dog.” While a lot of her Georgia tweets are scatological, there’s clearly a ton of love there and Georgia has essentially become Tegan’s everything. She tweeted in December, “All I dream about is my dog. She’s literally taken over every inch of my life including all dream real estate. It will make ZERO sense that she is in a dream situation, but inevitably she appears regardless. Is this normal?”
Kane Songz (owned by Trey Songz)
Trey Songz goes full method while running his dog’s Instagram account, which is presented entirely from the Frenchton’s perspective. On Father’s Day in 2018, for example, “Kane” posted a photo of him and his father playing basketball and “wrote,” “Happy Father’s day Pops!! Thanks for showing me how to break canine ankles out here in these streets!!” He even did what many others have failed to do when he saw John Cena one time.
Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson, and Benjamin Button (owned by Taylor Swift)
Yes, of course Taylor Swift is on this list. After all, Swift has proven to be perhaps the biggest cat person out there (heck, she portrayed a literal cat person in Cats). Thousands of words could be written about Swift’s cats and her love for them, so for this space, let’s just focus on Benjamin Button, the latest addition to the Swift family. Swift actually decided to adopt the cat on the set of her “Me!” video and described how that came to be, saying on Instagram Live in 2019, “[A cat handler handed me this tiny cat and he just starts purring and […] he looks at me like, ‘You’re my mom, and we’re going to live together.’ I fell in love. I looked at Brendon [Urie] and he’s like, ‘You’re going to get the cat aren’t you?’”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Caris LeVert has yet to take the floor for the Indiana Pacers following his trade from the Brooklyn Nets that featured a layover in Houston. During his physical with the franchise, it was discovered that LeVert had a small mass on his left kidney that was eventually determined to be renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer.
The team ended up announcing that LeVert had a procedure done to remove his kidney and that the expectation was that he will make a full recovery. Now, a new report by Shams Charania of The Athletic indicates that his recovery is going so well that LeVert should be able to make his Pacers debut sometime during the second half of the season.
“Pacers swingman Caris LeVert is on track to return to the lineup in the second half of the season, sources said, which is a miraculous development given he underwent surgery for kidney cancer in late January,” Charania wrote. “Indiana remains without a definite timetable on LeVert’s return given the unique hurdle he is overcoming, and the franchise will be patient with his return.”
Indiana’s second half schedule begins on March 12 with a trip to Los Angeles to take on the Lakers, which will be part of a three-game west coast road trip. As Charania mentions, there’s no real way to put a timetable on something like this, and it’ll be great to see LeVert whenever he’s able to complete his road to recovery and take the floor. Prior to his trade, LeVert averaged 18.5 points, six assists, and 4.3 rebounds a night for the Nets.
LeBron James and Renee Montgomery continue to show mutual respect for one another as they look to change pro basketball from the inside, and that continued Wednesday when James tweeted an article praising Montgomery for ousting former minority partner Kelly Loeffler from the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
In a press conference announcing her part ownership of the Dream last week, Montgomery credited James for being a driving force in her work toward becoming involved with the WNBA franchise. What began with a tweet from James expressing his desire to become involved led to James’ More Than A Vote campaign helping Montgomery get connected with a prospective Dream bidder, and ultimately Montgomery’s involvement in the group.
The whole thing came full circle when James — who in recent days has been in a tiff with soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has been adamant that athletes should avoid politics altogether — then tweeted the story, from Dave Zirin at The Nation, on how Montgomery moved in silence to take a stake in the franchise she came to love as a player. Montgomery famously requested a meeting with Loeffler last summer when the then-Georgia Senator began attacking the players’ social justice efforts as part of her Senate campaign.
The request was never answered by Loeffler, and Montgomery instead got to work in her own space, filling out a busy media career in addition to organizing work across many platforms, including More Than A Vote.
It’s been a little over ten years since Sharon Van Etten released her second album Epic in late 2010. Now she is getting ready to commemorate the release with Epic Ten, an anniversary reissue that drops on April 16 and features covers of the entire album.
For the covers set, Van Etten enlisted Big Red Machine (Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner), Idles, Lucinda Williams, Shamir, Courtney Barnett and Vagabon, St. Panther, and Fiona Apple. Big Red Machine’s album-opening cover of “A Crime” has been shared today while the rest of the songs will be unveiled every Thursday in the lead-up to the album.
Van Etten says of the anniversary release:
“Epic represents a crossroads for me as an artist — going from intern to artist at Ba Da Bing, from solo folk singer to playing with a band for the first time and beginning to play shows on tour where people showed up. I am in awe of the artists who wanted to participate in celebrating my anniversary and reissue, from young inspiring musicians, to artists who took me under their wing, who I met on tour, and to artists I’ve looked up to since I was a teenager. Each one of these artists continue to influence my writing and provide a sense of camaraderie during this new era of sharing music.”
Dessner also offered a statement, saying:
“Sharon is one of my favorite songwriters and I’ve been very lucky to get to collaborate with her many times over the years. Recording ‘A Crime’ with Justin, more than 10 years after we covered ‘Love More’ at Music Now with my brother Bryce — and thinking about all our shared memories — it felt like coming full circle. It’s an honor to be able to pay tribute to Sharon and her incredible songs. We felt like the door should be about to fall off the hinges of this version and I think it sounds like that.”
Listen to Big Red Machine’s “A Crime” cover above and check out the Epic Ten art and tracklist below.
Ba Da Bing
1. Big Red Machine — “A Crime”
2. Idles — “Peace Signs”
3. Lucinda Williams — “Save Yourself”
4. Shamir — “DsharpG”
5. Courtney Barnett “Don’t Do It”
6. St. Panther — “One Day”
7. Fiona Apple — “Love More”
Epic Ten is out 4/16 via Ba Da Bing. Pre-order it here.
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