Month: March 2021

When it comes to aging scotch, barrels that formerly held bourbon and sherry are the two most popular options. American oak casks — which once held the likes of Woodford Reserve, Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, etc. — add extra charred, caramel, woody, and vanilla flavors to the whisky. Sherry casks, on the other hand, impart flavors like dried fruits, nuts, plums or prunes, and sweet sherry itself. Oftentimes, Scotch whisky is rested in both bourbon and sherry casks at the same time — with the two barrels marrying before proofing and bottling.

Of course, the ratios of these blends, the aging times, the size of the barrels, and more factor into how bourbon-y or sherry-ish a particular Scotch whisky tastes. Some expressions might dial back the sherry notes; others might turn them up to 11. Today, we’re highlighting ten of our favorite sherry-forward scotches. Check them out if you love the dried fruit, jammy flavor profiles that these bottles are defined by.

Kilchoman Loch Gorm

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $109

The Story:

When it comes to Islay whiskies, sometimes Kilchoman is overlooked by the likes of Bruichladdich, Lagavulin, and Ardbeg. But, if you’re a fan of both peat and sweet sherry, you should purchase a bottle of Kilchoman Loch Gorm. Named for the loch the distillery overlooks, this smoky whisky is matured in former oloroso sherry casks.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find aromas of orange peels, spicy cinnamon, dried fruits, and a nice kiss of peat smoke. On the palate, you’ll be greeted with smoked bacon, clover honey, dried cherries, and buttery caramel. The finish is long, warming, and ends with a nice mix of smoke and rich chocolate.

Bottom Line:

Take a break from your usual Islay malts and try this deeply enjoyable mix of peat smoke and sherry sweetness. You won’t be disappointed.

Glenmorangie Lasanta

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $54

The Story:

Glenmorangie Lasanta is a special whisky expression. This 12-year-old is first matured in ex-bourbon barrels before being finished in both Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez Sherry casks. The result is a complex, well-rounded whisky with strong notes of honey, chocolate, and dried cherries.

Tasting Notes:

Take a moment to breathe in the aromas of raisins, vanilla beans, and charred oak. The palate is loaded up with sweet sherry, orange peels, ripe berries, buttery caramel, and vanilla cream. The ending is mellow and warming, with hints of cinnamon and brown sugar.

Bottom Line:

Glenmorangie The Original is one of the best beginner scotches on the market. If you’re going to take a few steps up on the ladder, a great, sherry-filled option is Glenmorangie Lasanta.

The Macallan 12 Double Cask

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $60

The Story:

The Macallan is well known for its relationship with Jerez, Spain, and the sherries made there. The Macallan 12 Double Cask is one of the best examples of this partnership. Aged in both American oak and European oak sherry casks, it’s robust, rich, and filled with caramel and vanilla sweetness.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find notes of sherry, brown sugar, and sweet raisins. On the palate, you’ll taste creamy caramel, cloying honey, orange zest, and subtle, spicy cinnamon. The finish is defined by fruit flavor and rich, nutty sweetness.

Bottom Line:

If you’re a whisky fan, there’s a good chance you’ve tried The Macallan 12. Amp up the sherry-ness of it all with the brand’s double cask-ed cousin.

Bowmore 15

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $85

The Story:

Previously referred to as “The Darkest,” Bowmore 15 is aged in a combination of ex-bourbon barrels and Oloroso sherry casks. But unlike some of the other scotches on the market, it isn’t simply “rested” in sherry-seasoned barrels. After spending 12 years in bourbon casks, it spends its last three years in sherry butts.

Tasting Notes:

Take moment to give this a proper nosing and you’ll be met with aromas of prunes, espresso, raisins, and sweet sherry. Take a sip and you’ll find flavors of charred oak, sticky toffee, maple syrup, and a subtle hint of smoke. The finish is a nice mix of spice and dried fruitiness.

Bottom Line:

Bowmore is another name that seems to get lost in the Islay shuffle. But if you like dried fruit, you definitely shouldn’t overlook this sherry bomb.

Glenfarclas 105

ABV: 60%

Average Price: $100

The Story:

When you see that this cask strength whisky is 120 proof, but named 105, you might be confused. Paying homage to its history of being the first Scotch distillery to release a barrel-proof option, the 105 refers to the British proof for 60% alcohol. This no-age-statement whisky is assumed to be aged between 8-10 years in both ex-bourbon and former sherry butts.

Tasting Notes:

Nose this whisky and you’ll be met with scents of toasted walnuts, freshly brewed coffee, and dried cherries. The palate is filled with the flavors of clover honey, candied orange peels, almond cookies, creamy caramel, and a nice hint of pepper. It finishes with a nice mixture of pecans and cracked black pepper.

Bottom Line:

If you’re going to properly stock your liquor cabinet, you’re going to need a versatile cask-strength whisky. Glenfarclas 105 fits that bill completely.

The Dalmore 12 Sherry Cask Select

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $80

The Story:

This whisky’s back story is as complex as its flavor. It’s first matured for ten years in ex-bourbon American oak barrels. While it aged, the Dalmore team seasons European and American oak casks with a blend of Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherries. After ten years, the juice is transferred to these barrels for an additional three years.

Tasting Notes:

The aromas are that of ginger candy, orange zest, and caramelized sugar. The palate is swirling with pecans, sugar cookies, milk chocolate, buttery caramel, and a nice kick of spicy cinnamon. The finish is complex, warming, and ends with a very tasty combination of maple candy and just a touch of cinnamon sugar.

Bottom Line:

The Dalmore is well-known for its unique offerings. Cigar fans love its Cigar Malt expression. Sherry fans will love this sherry-filled expression as well.

Aberlour A’Bunadh

ABV: 61.5%

Average Price: $115

The Story:

Meaning “the original” in Gaelic, this whisky is made to pay tribute to the brand’s founder James Fleming. It’s matured completely in Spanish oloroso sherry butts. The result is an intensely sherry-flavored, cask-strength whisky you won’t soon forget.

Tasting Notes:

Take a moment to nose this whisky and you’ll find aromas of maple candy, vanilla cake, and raisins. Take a sip and you’ll find flavors of sweet sherry, dried fruits, ginger candy, charred oak, and a nice hint of milk chocolate. The finish has a nice mix of pepper and butter cookies.

Bottom Line:

Where the Glenfarclas 105 is a little bolder and spicier, Aberlour is a much sweeter and more nuanced cask-strength whisky. If that’s what you’re looking for, this should be your top choice.

Arran Bodega Sherry Cask

ABV: 55.8%

Average Price: $85

The Story:

Another high-proof whisky, Arran Bodega Sherry Cask is matured for seven years in first-fill sherry butts (the first aging after they were used for sherry). The result is rich, complex single malt whisky with a nice mix of dried fruits, charred oak, and caramel sweetness.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find aromas of candied orange peels, cloves, cinnamon, and charred wood. The palate is full of hints of raisins, cherries, buttery caramel, and sweet treacle. The finish is long, warming, and ends with a nice kick of nutty sweetness.

Bottom Line:

Arran doesn’t have the name recognition of some of the whiskies on this list. Don’t let that stop you from grabbing a bottle of this sherry explosion.

Ardbeg An OA

ABV: 46.6%

Average Price: $65

The Story:

First released in 2017, Ardbeg An Oa gets its name from the Mull of Oa, which overlooks the southwest coast of Islay. It’s the kind of place where you’d go to relax and take in the beauty of the ocean meeting the land. It’s the perfect place to enjoy this subtly smoky single malt that’s aged in ex-bourbon, virgin oak, and Pedro Ximénez butts before being melded together pre-bottling.

Tasting Notes:

Take a moment to breathe in the fragrances of honey, brown sugar, and citrus zest, and flowing across a smoky backbone. The flavor on the palate is that of pipe tobacco, maple syrup, fruit cake, and buttery caramel. It all finishes with a nice mixture of toffee and peat smoke.

Bottom Line:

If you’re a fan of sherried whiskies and you’ve never tried a peat-smoked single malt, this is a great gateway whisky. Sip it slowly and enjoy all of the various, nuanced flavors.

GlenDronach 12

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $70

The Story:

GlenDronach fans are drawn to the brand because of its affinity for marrying the classic scotch flavors with sherry notes. This 12-year-old expression is matured in both Spanish Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry butts. The result is a truly memorable non-chill filtered single malt.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find scents of brown sugar, ginger candy, almonds, and vanilla beans. The sip will immerse you in a world of butter cookies, crème Brulee, candied orange peels, dried fruits, and subtle cooking spices. It all ends in a crescendo of caramelized sugar and rich, fruit-inflected cinnamon spice.

Bottom Line:

If you only purchase one bottle from this list, make it GlenDronach 12. It’s well-rounded, rich with sherry flavors, and well-suited for slow sipping on a cool, spring night.

Jason Concepcion, best known to those on NBA Twitter as @netw3rk, left The Ringer late last year to join Crooked Media. It was a move that some found curious, as the beloved host of the Emmy-winning NBA Desktop and Binge Mode was headed to an outlet best known for political content.

Concepcion is launching Crooked Media’s sports wing, starting with the Takeline podcast, which he co-hosts with the terrific Renee Montgomery, and All Caps, the spiritual successor of Desktop. The long-suffering Knicks fan’s turn from being your favorite Twitter follow’s favorite Twitter follow to one of the space’s biggest names in podcasting and online videos has been a joy to watch, and he hopes that moving from The Ringer to Crooked will only further open doors for him to explore other interests and take on bigger topics.

Concepcion spoke with Uproxx last week about the move, why he wanted to take this step, his new co-host, how fun it is to dump on the NCAA, and, of course, what it’s like enjoying a Knicks season for the first time in a long time.

When you first started talking with Crooked, what was it that interested you the most about joining this platform and being able to do these two shows?

So we did a pilot for All Caps recently in which we were able to bring in, like, Crooked Media’s political director to talk about like specific things that were happening with the stimulus bill that we were tying into a bit we were doing. The opportunity to do that, to call on and to have access to people with a lot of knowledge and a lot of different skill sets at activating groups and organizing and calls to action like that was just very, very appealing. It just seemed like something I wanted to do at this stage in my life, where if I have any kind of platform and if I can move the needle ever so slightly in the right direction, like, it seemed like here was the right place to try and do that.

Yeah and with Renee and Takeline, I mean she’s somebody that has dedicated her life now to doing that same thing. How did that partnership come about to bring her in and what excites you about working with her?

Well, we were in the production process and we were figuring out who the co-hosts would be, and there were a bunch of names out there and her name was one. Obviously, like we thought, “Oh man, if we get her, that would be really great.” Because she’s got her own stuff she’s doing for TMZ and on her own channels, and she’s obviously so incredibly talented. Whether we worked with her or not, like, she’s a star, she’ll be fine. She owns the f*cking Atlanta Dream, she’s gonna be good. She’s clearly talented and then we did some pilot recordings and it was just like, oh yeah, this works.

Your first two episodes you have Jeremy Lin come on to talk about the the violence against Asian Americans, and then you have the second episode you get to talk about something that Renee is well versed in, which is the very inequities between men’s and women’s sports. Just starting out with those two, it felt like it almost set the tone for how you’re going to go about it, where it’s going to be fun, there’s going to be the moments that people know you for, but also showed you are going to take on these topics head on and bring on people who know what they’re talking about and really address these things.

Yeah, I mean, that’s the goal. That’s what we’re trying to do. Our philosophy is, these kind of conversations are integral to the way we talk about sports and the way sports works in our society and it always has been that way. Sports has been the driving force for integration, for lack of a better word, into mainstream society of people who formerly were outside of it. And so, these kind of cultural conversations and conversations about social justice and gender equality and labor equality, are all part of sports, which is why we’re interested in it and what makes it so fascinating. I think that, you know, we had Chantel Jennings from The Athletic, talk about the inequities in women’s sports and the recent controversy over the disparity between the women’s workout facility and the men’s workout facility, and it was a substantive conversation and it was fun in the sense that it got us, you know, it’s a great opportunity to really just take a poop on the NCAA.

Who doesn’t love to?

Who doesn’t love to? What’s good about it?

Literally nothing.

Here’s my thing, Bobby, it would’ve been better, and I said this on the pod, the better move for the NCAA would have been to not deliver any weights or mats or anything. They had one, like, stand of dumbbells. None heavier than 20 pounds. That’s it. So if you have nothing, if you bring nothing there, then you can say, “Oh, the delivery got mixed up, COVID something, it got sent to this other place, we’re working on it.” If you have one stand of dumbbells in a f*cking aircraft hangar or whatever, then that means somebody had to come there, go “Hey where do you want the one stand of dumbbells,” put the dumbbells down, look around and go, “This is fine. This is 100 percent good,” and then leave.

Yeah. Like, this will work. Also, here’s 10 yoga mats for a team of 15 people.

[Laughs] Yeah, not even a full team. Like, some of y’all are gonna have to get on those dumbbells. Just wait until the mats open up.

Just grind out some standing stuff for a bit guys.

[Laughs] But yeah, I mean that conversation opens up a whole other line of of discourse that you know you often hear whenever this kind of stuff comes up, or anybody tweets about it. People will say, “Oh yeah but the men make more money, so you have to cut somewhere and that’s just what it is, you get what you earn because sports meritocracy, etc etc etc.” And I think Chantel really pretty masterfully disassembled that argument. So, yeah, those are the kind of conversations that we want to have where it’s fun, but it’s also like substantive.

You mentioned that Renee is a star and somebody that we’ve see over the last couple years take these steps into becoming a really prominent and important voice. What are the things that you’ve learned about Renee in working with her that’s just particularly impressed you since you’ve gotten to really know her?

Just, like, the grind that she is on. It’s like we got done with recording and then she immediately went to call the NCAA Women’s Tournament games. Then she’ll go to do her TMZ Sports hit, and then she’ll have like her own streams and stuff that she’s doing. And this is all while also being like, again, a co-owner of the Atlanta Dream. She just is like on her grind. She’s an incredibly talented and hard working person who’s just like doing sh*t all the time.

Obviously you’re in the early stages of this, but are you already thinking about the things that y’all can do with this podcast and things you want to be able to do with this in the future?

Oh for sure. We have this segment called like Take Survivor, which is like our fun kind of take on, like, an Around The Horn-type of game, but with the Survivor mechanism where the people that are competing vote out the person who has the worst take. And just doing fun stuff like that I think is really exciting. We’ve talked a lot about the different voices that we want to have on at different times. We’re constantly iterating the show, obviously you know at this early stage, we want to just get reps. We want to get reps so we know what’s working and how we can get better and we’re thinking about how we can get better all the time.

And then you have All Caps which is the obvious lineage from Desktop, and you brought you brought your son Jason [Gallagher] with you. Our baby boy.

Our baby boy! He is thriving in life. He’s got a lot of stuff that he’s doing and he’s such a talented guy. We have such a great shorthand, and it just made it easier because we both have the same lens in terms of what we think is funny and what we think is funny about a situation, and he’s just so good at putting all this stuff together.

I know that’s something that people have come to know and love from you, your irreverent takes on the basketball world. Was that something that when you came to Crooked that you wanted to make sure you were still able to do?

Oh, for sure. I mean, they hired me to do the things that I was doing that people were familiar with me doing. And certainly I wanted to keep doing that stuff. I think that examining the NBA through the lens of the internet is just like a device that is uncovering like gems all the time. It’s just like a rich field for that kind of approach, and they’ve been really great at supporting us and helping us with graphics and art and promo. I’m glad that I get to keep doing it.

I got to ask, this year you finally get to not be the angry Knicks fan, you get to be an excited Knicks fan. How fun is that for you, like when you get called onto like a podcast or something to talk about the Knicks, it’s no longer, “We want Jason to come yell at James Dolan” — I mean we do, but we also want him to be excited about Julius Randle. Does it warm your heart for that to be the case now?

It does but we got screwed the other night. The call at the end of the Sixers game, there are only two refs on the court because of COVID protocols and then Courtney Kirkland, I think it was, called an absolutely BS foul under the basket on Julius that was like, ridiculous. And I’ll just say this, I had a feeling in my body that I hadn’t felt in a while which was, I can’t believe I’m mad at the refs. I can’t believe I’m invested like this. I wanted us to win this game, it would’ve meant so much. It would’ve kept us at .500, kept us in the playoff hunt — we’re still in the playoff I think we’re like six or seven now, but like we’re there. And it was just like a big game against an Eastern Conference titan, and I really want us to win. And my body’s just like not used to that feeling where I’m just like, locked in. I’m locked in and I want this to happen. It’s been great. We’re a .500 team. It’s fantastic!

I feel that very powerfully as a Browns fan, because that was my entire year the Browns. I’ve like, loathed the Browns for two decades of my life. I’ve been like, conditioned to have my first reaction be, “Oh it’s the f*ckin’ Browns.” Like, everything’s their fault, and then like you get to this point where they’re good, and now you can start blaming others. It’s great.

Yeah, it’s wonderful to be like, they f*cked us, look at what happened. They don’t want us to win.

This wasn’t dysfunction!

It’s fantastic, and you know the Knicks, have been, you know, beyond what’s going on in the court which is great, they’ve been competent. Like, the trade deadline is going on right now. We’ve been linked with Victor Oladipo, among others. I think I saw some Evan Fournier chatter in there, but it also seems as if a lot of that chatter is the Knicks are holding off, which I think is smart. They’ve been really responsible. Leon Rose has managed to strike a balance between building the team, developing and giving these young guys a ton of minutes, and letting them get experienced on the court — Mitchell Robinson, RJ Barrett, even Frank Ntilikina is playing now with because of injuries. Well, Obi Toppin’s not playing so much, but that’s okay. But allowing those players to get experienced, to get better, while protecting our future flexibility, and also like competing at a pretty good clip. Again, we’re in the playoff hunt, we’re right in the mix. And that’s great because it shows the rest of the league that we’re not just like a trash fire. We’re an okay team. We’re competent.

Right. You exist in the morass of the Eastern Conference, not like the chaff at the bottom.

Yes.

The East is…

The East is insane.

I saw the Raptors are two and a half games out of the play-in, and they’re two and a half games out of like the highest lottery odds.

I mean, the Rockets had lost 20 straight coming into the game against the Raptors. Like, it has been really tough, and I needed that Raptors loss. I needed it. It was huge, let me just quickly look at the standings because it’s, yeah, I mean like, just looking at this, we’re at 21-22. We’re just in this logjam, there is a game and a half basically separating the eight from the four. If you lose two games at the wrong time you could drop from home court advantage is fucking out of it. Out of it! Completely out of it.

I mean, so it’s been wild. My ultimate dream is the Celtics miss the playoffs, we get in. That’s what I’m hoping happens.

Yeah, also, Thibs is good. That’s the other thing, I think we all forgot — like the jokes about Thibs, it went too far.

Yeah, I think, here’s like the knocks on him are correct, in that, listen, Julius is leading league in minutes per game.

He’s playing like 40 a night.

He’s leading the league in minutes, RJ Barrett is right there with them. Okay. So, table the talk of how sustainable that is for now. Obviously, there’s some conversations later about whether we want to extend Julius or not. RJ meanwhile is is young and spry and has a lot of cartilage left in those springy knees, we’re okay there. But Thibs, listen, he moved the needle everywhere he’s ever been right. He’s made career bench guys at different places into solid rotation level NBA players. DJ Augustin, Nate Robinson, like he’s doing this everywhere, and teams got better on offensive and defense with him as the coach.

Now, the issues with him are, one he plays players way too many minutes. It’s fine, he does do that. If that’s an issue that we don’t have to deal with right now, but it is an issue. And then two, he’s had trouble communicating with his players and with the front office, and I feel like that seems to be less of an issue now. Specifically in Minnesota where he was doing everything, now here in New York, Leon Rose and Worldwide Wes and Kenny Payne — and hopefully he doesn’t leave the franchise — are doing the important, reach out to players and finding that kind of like membrane through which the communication can flow in that allows Thibs to just concentrate on, you know, coaching, good habits, and getting guys to play hard. Which they’re playing incredibly hard because they know they’re gonna play a lot.

Yeah. You know it’s funny you mentioned that because like it’s wild to think that at some point, Minnesota was like yeah we’ll make him, all of it. Knowing his flaws, knowing that like, he’s a coach and they’re like no, no you do it all.

You know, what an experiment that was at the time and Doc Rivers had that same role.

Bud had it in Atlanta and he hated it.

And it was, it’s just too big a job, I think we have all the evidence we need right now to look at it everywhere it’s been tried in the NBA. And, you know, they’ve tried that in world soccer too, it’s been tried different places. It’s just too big a job. Coaches coach, let the GM deal with all the moves and stuff they as long as they have a good relationship, we can make it work. But it’s just too much for one person to do both jobs, it just can’t happen. I mean it’s like Doc Rivers was legitimately just like signing people that he knew [laughs].

All of them did! Like they don’t have time to scout.

They don’t have time! It’s like, I know this guy.

He’s already in my cell phone. Hey Joakim, you still got some juice?

You still springy? You keepin’ in shape? Come on down. Yeah, it just doesn’t work.

Now that the Snyder Cut of Justice League is out and doing big numbers for HBO Max, could the Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad be next? Uh, no. WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff has already put the kibosh on that speculation with a definitive, “We won’t be developing David Ayer’s cut.” But the director still hasn’t given up hope.

“I think the studios see now that there can be canon, there can be non-canon… [The fans] love the characters, they just want to spend more time with it. And people are way more sophisticated about how movies are made and want to be participants in the journey. There’s room for different things, different versions, different assets being shared with the audience,” Ayer told Entertainment Weekly. “I think it just helps strengthen the community. But absolute credit to Warner Bros. for supporting Zack and having the courage to explore that.”

The Training Day writer contends that his Suicide Squad was “a really heartfelt drama and it got ripped to pieces and they tried to turn it into Deadpool, which it just wasn’t supposed to be.” He added that even though the theatrical version “didn’t represent what I actually made, I would take all the bullets and be a good soldier. I made an amazing movie. It’s an amazing movie, it just scared the sh*t out of the executives.”

Speaking of scary:

The Ayer Cut may never come to fruition, but some of the characters from Suicide Squad, including Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang, will appear in The Suicide Squad (out August 6).

(Via EW)

I watched Godzilla Vs. Kong last night, trying to stay awake and finish the whole thing before my seven-hour screener window ran out at midnight, and now I’m struggling to remember it well enough to articulate a coherent take in time to meet my review deadline. It was a movie about monsters fighting, and the monsters definitely fought. The story was preposterous but the action mostly enjoyable, and it was reasonably entertaining throughout. But I can’t shake the feeling that this movie was meant to be watched four or five beers deep on a massive theater screen with a group of like-minded hooting morons, not alone in my bedroom with my email address superimposed over the left side of the screen and a thumb poised over the volume bar to keep from waking my family. Context, folks. It matters.

Godzilla Vs. Kong combines the irresistible kitsch of giant monsters fighting with the benumbing effect of massive budget IP maintenance. It’s about a giant ape who came from the center of the hollow Earth and knows sign language, which is great, but also about a movie studio frantically trying to name check every famous monster and monster movie from the golden age of monster movies it owns the rights to before the time runs out — which is grating, needy, and above all, neither my problem nor concern as a moviegoer. There are parts of the script that feel like they were written by the lawyers. Also, couldn’t you just have a mecha Godzilla in the movie without a character saying “that’s mecha Godzilla?” And yet, what do we even expect at this point? Surely Godzilla Vs. Kong falls on the higher end of our beaten down expectations for movies like this.

The original Gojira, from 1954, was a pointed, anti-nuclear testing allegory starring a monster awakened by testing who breathes irradiated fire, directly referencing then-current nuclear accidents. By the time the American version came out in 1956, that theme was already softened and de-fanged, and now Godzilla mostly just plays on the public’s desire to see big monsters smash shit. Godzilla Vs. Kong is now part of, and in some ways the culmination of, Legendary’s “Monsterverse,” a collection of intellectual properties (IP) Legendary (now a subsidiary of China’s Wanda Group) acquired and produces in conjunction with Warner Bros. To make a long story short, it’s a lot of things that don’t have much to do with movies for a movie to have to be.

Obviously, we’re not going to judge Godzilla Vs. Kong on whether it honors Godzilla’s legacy as an anti-nuclear parable. Instead, there’s a vaguely antiwar theme and a plot that turns on the hubris of man (as personified by the chief of Apex Cybernetics played by Demian Bichir). It’s all generic enough not to offend a multi-national collection of financiers. And again, what else could we expect?

The film, directed by Adam Wingard of indie-horror fame (The Guest, V/H/S/, You’re Next) kicks off when Godzilla breaks his legendary silence long enough to lay waste to an Apex Cybernetics facility. The great Brian Tyree Henry from Atlanta plays Bernie, a conspiracy podcaster who suspects Apex provoked this attack somehow, while Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger Things plays Bernie’s young acolyte, Madison, who’s also the daughter of some high-up military functionary played by Kyle Chandler. Together, along with Madison’s friend played by Julian Dennison (Ricky Baker from Hunt For The Wilderpeople), they go off in search of dirt on Apex and the root cause of the Godzilla attack. Arguably the most impressive thing about Godzilla Vs. Kong is this wide-ranging and inspired cast.

MEANWHILE, Kong is being contained in a Truman Show-style augmented reality environment maintained by a company called Monarch, where he is cared for and studied by the Jane Goodall of giant apes, Ilene Andrews, played by Rebecca Hall. She converses in sign language with her adopted deaf daughter, Jia, the last of the tribe where Kong originally lived. Jia has a special connection with Kong, because, as we all know, gorillas love sign language.

MEANWHILE-MEANWHILE, there’s Nathan Lind, played by Alexander Skarsgård (Skarsgårdzilla!), a crackpot scientist advocating a Hollow Earth theory explaining where these “Titans” come from. When Godzilla strikes, Lind hooks up with Andrews and some other rich defense contractor lady not worth mentioning to try to take Kong to a hollow Earth tunnel in the hopes that his natural titan instincts will guide him, and in the process lead Lind’s team, to the hollow Earth’s energy source — THUS GIVING THEM A WEAPON POWERFUL ENOUGH TO STOP THE RAGING GODZILLA!

Phew, I’m already tired of explaining and I’m not even a third of the way through the premise. But you get the picture. The monsters fight, the defense contractors do evil things, and the crackpots turn out to be right. One thing Legendary and Warner Bros have been great at is hiring directors who at least can visualize entertaining monster fights, and even when Godzilla Vs. Kong gets bogged down in the soul-sucking enterprise of IP name-checking, there’s always the antidote of an underwater lizard-gorilla fight just around the corner. Could they have gone for it even more? Sure, I would’ve loved to watch Kong do rear-naked chokes on Godzilla while his indigenous best friend corner woman gave him advice from a helicopter. But a movie with this many financiers to satisfy is inevitably going to have its goofiest, most enjoyable edges sanded off. Still, even if it’s not quite gloriously dumb, it’s dumb enough.

Godzilla Vs. Kong is entertainingly preposterous, but also overstuffed with plots that seem designed to involve an entire sub-universe of past and future monsters. Ah yes, the expanded fucking universe, what would blockbusters be without it these days? They’d probably just be movies. All the left-field name checks are enervating, seemingly designed to satisfy legal requirements more than narrative ones. Yet “Godzilla Vs.” is a concept built on excess, and as long as it doesn’t bore you too much, you can forgive it.

‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ hits theaters and HBO Max on March 31st. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

It’s been over a year since the last in-person music festival took place in the US. However, with the roll-out of vaccines taking place across the country, festival organizers are confident that large-scale live music events will be able to return in the coming months. Hard Summer Music Festival is especially optimistic, as they’ve unveiled their lineup for this summer’s event.

The hip-hop focused festival has invited big-names to perform at their event. Headliners include Future, 2 Chainz, Lil Durk, Don Toliver, and Iann Dior. Other musicians have also been tapped to take the stage like Mario Judah, Snot, Rubi Rose, Dillon Francis, and Jauz.

The festival is usually held in Fontana, California, but this year, Hard Summer is headed to NOS Event Center in the city of San Bernardino the weekend of July 31 to August 1. The new location makes it possible to have a more spread-out event, taking place across five different stages. Organizers are making efforts to have COVID precautions in place for the event as well. In press materials, the festival claims, “Hard will be working closely with local officials to implement necessary safety precautions and will follow state and local health guidelines in place at the time of the event.”

Hard Summer tickets go on sale 4/2 at 10 am PST. Get them here.

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

As NBA Top Shot continues to blow up, funding, unsurprisingly, is coming in. The latest infusion of cash for its parent company Dapper Labs comes via a round of private funding, according to the Associated Press. Among those putting their money behind the project, which has exploded in popularity in recent months since public beta testing started up in October, is Michael Jordan.

“We want to bring the same magic to other sports leagues as well as help other entertainment studios and independent creators find their own approaches in exploring open platforms,” Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou told the AP after the company raised $305 million.

Dapper Labs, per the AP, has received funding from NBA players like Spencer Dinwiddie, Kevin Durant, Kyle Lowry, and Klay Thompson, although it is unclear if they were among those who contributed to the recent $305 million that came in. What makes Jordan so interesting is that Top Shot releases have largely been related to more recent moments, and in a piece by Brian Windhorst of ESPN, it was made clear that the company would like to get more historical Top Shots in the mix.

The company has also already started talks with retired NBA players to secure rights to historic highlights. There has already been one series of these created, called Run It Back, released. The idea of classic Michael Jordan Moments, like “The Shot,” for example, being released in limited supply could set records.

Jordan is famously reserved about giving up his name, image, and likeness for things — the footage that made The Last Dance sat in a vault for nearly two decades before he signed off on things in 2016 — and it’s worth mentioning that even though he invested in Dapper Labs, this does not necessarily mean we’re getting Jordan Top Shots any time soon.

Warner Music Group is a partner in Dapper Labs. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Jordan IIIs will forever hold a special place in the hearts of Jordan heads. In part because the design still ranks highly amongst the 35 silhouettes that make up the full Air Jordan lineage. But more significantly, the iconic sneaker represents the start of the Tinker Hatfield era of the Jordan brand.

Hatfield’s name is almost as big as MJ’s (okay, not really… but kinda) in the sneakerhead community. He’s the designer behind many of Nike’s most beloved kicks and his fingerprint is seen everywhere in the sneaker world. Without a doubt, the III was his coming-out party.

The story of the Air Jordan III is a fascinating one, well worth a deep dive. For the sake of brevity: they’ve been credited as the shoe that saved Nike after Hatfield’s then-unconventional design won Jordan over just as he was contemplating leaving the company. Where was his-Airness headed? Off to partner with Peter Moore, the designer of the Jordan I and II, who was launching a new sneaker company, Van Grack. According to Mental Floss Magazine, Moore had essentially sealed the deal to poach Jordan but the superstar was convinced to say after a final meeting during which Hatfield’s design for the Jordan III was revealed.

Hatfield’s Jordan III implemented design specifics that Jordan himself had voiced in the past and introduced the Jumpman logo (originally sketched by Moore) on the tongue of the sneaker. This proved to Jordan that the brand was as invested in him as a cultural icon as he was, willing to make his personal branding more central than their own famous Swoosh.
The whole thing proved a masterstroke by Hatfield — Moore was offering a 1/3 partnership stake, Nike topped that simply by repositioning a logo and adding Jordan’s recommended cement texture.

Over the decades, Hatfield has ascended to god-status in the design world, but his beginnings are humble. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in architecture and was hired at Nike to help design marketing material. It wasn’t until entering a company-wide contest that Hatfield was “discovered” for his sneaker designing talents. An impressed Moore put the upstart to work, where Hatfield’s very first produced design became the Nike Air Max, which pulled the revolutionary move of exposing the sneaker’s air-unit — redefining the look of Nike shoes forever.

Hatfield’s second sneaker? The Jordan III. Seriously, dude is that good.

Unlike the Air Jordan I and II, which were high-top sneakers, the III featured a less restrictive mid-rise cuff at Jordan’s request — then unheard of for a basketball shoe and a highly controversial move for an athlete coming off a broken ankle. It also featured a soft, tumbled leather upper, which helped Jordan break in the shoes instantly, an exposed Air bubble, and the sneaker’s two most defining features — a gray cracked print around the toe and heel (called “cement” by Nike), and an oversized tongue baring an iconic image of Jordan dunking, used without Nike’s direct permission and based on a throwaway sketch by Moore that caught Hatfield’s eye.

Jordan rocked the IIIs at the 1988 Slam Dunk Contest, where he dunked from the free-throw line — solidifying this silhouette’s must-have status amongst basketball fans. If that legendary moment wasn’t enough to convince people that the IIIs were the future of shoes, the genius ad-campaign directed by and starring Spike Lee as She’s Gotta Have It’s Mars Blackmon would.

Today, in celebration of what many consider the Jordan Brand’s GOAT, we’re running through the twenty best designs in the sneaker’s 33-year history — from its debut in 1988 to the best colorways of 2021.

Air Jordan III White Cement, 1988

We can’t say for certain what Tinker Hatfield’s original AJIII prototype looked like, but we imagine it must’ve been similar to the White Cement. Jordan laced these up in 1987 and they’re the colorway he rocked when he crushed the Slam Dunk Contest, creating a moment that lives rent-free in the minds of all basketball fans, forever.

Released to the public as one of the debut colorways, the White Cement is very much the icon of the AJIIIs and you’ll find that most of the colorways on this list are merely subtle alterations of this original design.

Hatfield really knocked it out of the park with this first one.

Air Jordan III Black Cement, 1988

Worn by Jordan in 1988 at the NBA All-Star Game, the Black Cement is still the AJIII’s hottest silhouette — fetching the highest prices on the aftermarket and topping several Jordan III rankings floating around on sneakerhead message boards. It’s identical to the White Cement, only it features a black leather paneling with grey accents instead of a clean white upper, which meshes nicely with the cracked cement panels.

The university red eyelets and Jumpman logo also pop in a radically different way than the red on white. We could argue in the comments all day about which is the more iconic release, but we won’t.

Air Jordan III Fire Red, 1988

During the 1988 NBA Playoffs, Jordan switched up his White Cement kicks for this Fire Red iteration. While the Fire Red seems to be the least popular of the original four colorways, it birthed an iconic Nike colorway that would find fame on several other Jordan silhouettes in the future.

The Fire Red is sleek, the elephant skin print (we’re sticking to calling it that, which feels more accurate) has been blacked out here, which allows the angles of the sneaker’s panels to really shine. Overall, the Fire Red makes it easier to appreciate how revolutionary Hatfield’s design was amongst all the other basketball sneakers out there.

Air Jordan III True Blue, 1988

The Black and White Cement colorways may be the most iconic of the original four AJ III colorways, but the True Blue is the sleeper hit. With its mix of university blue, and red, the same bright white upper as the White Cement, and an extra hit of elephant print at the eyestay, the True Blue is still one of the best colorways the silhouette would ever be dressed in.

MJ rocked these in an exhibition game between the 1988 NBA All-Stars and Team USA and wore them again in 2001, when he briefly played for the Washington Wizards.

Air Jordan III Mocha, 2001

Jordans always look great in Mocha colorways and this 2001 release of the AJ III is no different. The first colorway to step away from the OG makeups, the Mocha features a double all-white upper with brown-toned elephant print panels and a matching outsole and Jumpman logo.

Not much to say here, this one still looks like a must-have twenty years later. Luckily, the colorway gets refreshed often.

Air Jordan III Black Cat, 2007

Check out that gap in years between the Mocha and the Black Cat! AJ III colorways hit a bit of a lull in the early ’00s but ’07 would bring about a sort of renaissance for the silhouette due, in part, to the release of the Black Cat. Inspired by Jordan’s “Black Cat” nickname — earned for the way he attacked the opposing team and dominated the court — this colorway began Nike’s obsession with the Triple Black colorway.

A detail that’s hard to catch unless you’ve owned a pair, the Black Cat’s feature elephant print shoelaces, which Nike needs to bring back immediately.

Air Jordan III Pure Money, 2007

Following the template of the White Cement/Black Cement, the Pure Money is the all-white answer to the AJ III Black Cat. The Pure Money features an all-white upper with grey eyelets and a platinum Jumpman logo. They very much look like a rich person’s pair of sneakers. We gotta go with the Black Cat as the superior pair though.

Air Jordan III Flip, 2007

The Flip has always seemed like a weed-influenced design to me. I imagine Nike designers sitting around and getting high until someone blurted out, “But like… what if we flipped the upper with the elephant print mudguard and put the elephant print as the sneakers upper…man” And then that’s what they did.

It’s kind of cool to see the elephant print get a bigger canvas to breathe, but we wouldn’t trade these in for any regular non-flipped colorway, so this is more of a curiosity than an essential.

Air Jordan III Do The Right Thing, 2007

The AJ III “Do The Right Thing” should’ve been an AJ IV (that’s what Buggin’ Out was wearing in the film that shares this sneaker’s name) but for whatever reason, it’s a III. We’ll take it. Named after and inspired by Spike Lee’s superb film Do The Right Thing, the DTRT features a blue and mustard yellow colorway with radiant green threading that borrows its colorway from Do The Right Thing’s movie poster.

Air Jordan III Cool Grey, 2007

The Cool Grey looks like a cityscape, this colorway features an all-grey upper with Nike’s Sport Red on the Jumpman logo and Orange Peel at the eyelets which really pop against the more drab and understated upper. A reissue of this colorway dropped this year and it, as you might’ve guessed, sold out instantly.

Air Jordan III Doernbecher, 2010

Made as part of Nike partnership with Portland’s OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, the Doernbecher was designed by Cole Johanson — who covered the upper in a metallic diamond-patterned varsity red colorway and listed the two comforts that he credits with helping him beat his lymphoma on the sneaker’s insole: spaghetti and chocolate.

The drop was so popular at the time — probably because it represented a radical shift in the look of the AJ III — that Nike re-released it again three years later. Proceeds benefit OHSU and Doernchecher’s.

Air Jordan III Oregon Ducks Pit Crew, 2011

Released in both a White and Black iteration (this is the White, obviously) the AJ III Oregon Ducks Pit Crew was made in honor of the University of Oregon’s student cheer section, known for their insane team spirit at home games. The Pit Crew was the name given to the fans who would routinely show up at U of O games no matter where the team traveled. The design of the sneaker featured duck prints in place of the Nike logo.

Air Jordan III Black Flip, 2011

We considered just including the Black Flip on this list and skipping over the OG, because in every way this design is just better. But it also felt wrong to talk about the Black Flip without mentioning what came before. The Black Flip is superior because the all-black take on the elephant print pattern is a lot more subtle, so the sneaker looks less like a confusing mess and more like a curious alteration on a classic design.

Air Jordan III Legends of Summer, 2013

We were THIS close to not including the AJ III Legends of Summer all-red colorway. This. Close. But just… look at it? Clearly inspired by the Yeezy Red Octobers, this design dropped as part of the merch on Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z’s world tour of the same name. Since the first day they were teased by JT, Nike fans have been feverishly waiting for another drop.

What are you waiting for Nike? The tenth anniversary? Cool, hopefully, a refresh is just two years away from now.

Air Jordan III Solefly Lotto, 2014

No, you’re not seeing things, the Solely Lotto AJ III’s look very similar to both the Fire Red and White Cement colorways, except for a splash of yellow under the tongue, and a flamingo logo in place of the Jumpman. Inspired by the appearance of Florida lottery tickets, the shades used are slightly different than the OGs. We have a mix of white, laser crimson, nightshade, and laser orange, so it’s a bit more vibrant than the White Cement and Fire Red, which utilize the moodier University Red.

Air Jordan III Seoul, 2018

The AJ III Seoul resembles the True Blue makeup in a lot of ways, but the design is much cleaner here — using a combination of an all-white upper with colors borrowed from the South Korean flag on the collar. Made in collaboration between Tinker Hatfield and Dan Sunwoo at Nike’s Innovation Kitchen, Seoul is easily one of the best AJ III colorways to drop over the last five years.

Other details include the use of the taeguk symbol from the Korean Flag in place of the left sneaker’s Jumpman logo.

Air Jordan III Tinker Oregon Ducks, 2018

Borrowing the colors of Tinker Hatfield’s alma mater, the Tinker Oregon Ducks feature a green apple nubuck upper with yellow cement and grey accents. In a radical departure from the original design, the Tinker Ducks sport a blunted Nike Swoosh, which gives the sneaker a radically different look.

Air Jordan III Laser Orange, 2020

A future classic, the AJ III Laser Orange was released as a woman’s exclusive and was clearly made as a gesture to Nike’s growing customer base. Though you have to wonder, if Nike would’ve just offered all those classic AJ III colorways in women’s sizes to begin with, maybe they could’ve made a whole lot more money, since small-footed sneakerheads have been up-sizing kid’s sizes for years before Nike bothered to take notice.

The Laser Orange is clean, if Nike would drop a full-size run people would certainly be clamoring for them.

Air Jordan III UNC, 2021

Is it wrong to say that one of the top five AJ III colorways to ever release didn’t drop until 2021? Because we’re saying it. The UNC deserves a spot amongst the OGs, this design is just too clean. Made in homage to Michael Jordan’s alma mater, the UNC features University Blue accents over a dual-textured leather upper with an embroidered Jumpman logo and those iconic elephant print panels.

Hell, I’ll say it, I think the UNC is the BEST Jordan III colorway.

Air Jordan III Georgetown, 2021

The AJ III Georgetown dropped in March 2021, the same month as this article! That means if we would’ve written this earlier, some other sneaker would’ve made the list. That’s wild. Borrowing the colors of Georgetown University, the Georgetown or Midnight Navy, as it’s also known, features a mix of Midnight navy, cement grey, and white and is being released in celebration of March Madness.

2021 has been a great year for Jordan IIIs and it feels like the design is in the midst of another renaissance. To which fans of the show say: Bring it.

Last week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed into a law a highly controversial voting bill that has already spurred lawsuits and threats of boycotts over what critics call a “Christmas tree of goodies for voter suppression.” By design, The Election Integrity Act of 2021 disproportionally affects Black voters, which is why President Joe Biden dubbed it “Jim Crow in the 21st Century” and has vowed to have the Justice Department look into the situation. But while the controversial bill works it way through the courts, director James Mangold, whose next project is the fifth film in the Indiana Jones series, has vowed to not direct a film in Georgia in protest.

After catching word of Mangold’s protest, Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill has also committed to not filming in the state until the voting bill is repealed. Hamill tweeted his support for Mangold over the weekend, which you can see below:

However, the boycott is having trouble gaining supporters, and for a complicated reason. While Black activist groups denounce the controversial voting bill, they have been vocal in making it clear that a filming industry boycott would only hurt Black workers in the state. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Georgia-based actor Steve Coulter, who has appeared in shows like P Valley and Yellowstone, asked Mangold to think twice before boycotting: “James … we here in GA fought like hell the last 4 years to turn it blue. We gave you two Dem Senators. Your boycott only hurts us, the thousands of rank & film actors & crew. Think before you cancel. Please. We’ve worked too hard.”

Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter Bernice King has also voiced her concerns that a Georgia boycott “would hurt middle-class workers and people grappling with poverty.”

(Via Mark Hamill on Twitter)

Last week, fans of the Quavo and Saweetie couple were devastated to learn that the pair had broken up. Although both artists shared claims that the other was at fault, many fans speculated that Quavo’s infidelity was the reason behind the split. However, today, TMZ surfaced a new video that shows the two had a lot more problems than it appeared on the surface.

In the video, Quavo and Saweetie have an altercation in an elevator, caught by the elevator’s security camera. Saweetie takes a swing at Quavo, and the two scuffle over an orange suitcase with Quavo ultimately grabbing Saweetie and flinging her to the floor of the elevator. There is no sound, so we can’t hear what the two say to each other, but there’s some discussion before Saweetie gets up and walks past Quavo, who stays behind after propping open the door with the suitcase.

The former couple was a fan favorite before their breakup, with the story of Quavo’s DM icebreaker becoming a meme and sweet, behind-the-scenes stories filtering into their interviews. Fans fawned over the couple’s luxurious gifts to each other, but in her tweet confirming their breakup, Saweetie admitted that gifts weren’t enough to “band aid scars.” While those scars were initially thought to be emotional, this new revelation prompts the question of whether some were physical as well.

You can watch the video on TMZ.

Saweetie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Over the past few days, Lil Nas X has proven yet again that he knows how to get all sorts of reactions out of all sorts of people. With his “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video and his controversial sneakers (both of which are Satan-themed), he has delighted some onlookers while making others irate. Now, he is hoping that his story will inspire an episode from a show that gets similar reactions out of its fans and haters: South Park.

This afternoon, Nas seemingly tried to will an episode of the show into existence by tweeting, “this gone be a good ass south park episode lmao.”

A South Park episode about Nas’ new controversy certainly isn’t outside of the realm of possibility. The show is made quickly, which allows Trey Parker and Matt Stone to tackle specific contemporary topics: Just this month, they released a special episode about the coronavirus vaccine. Meanwhile, Satan is actually a recurring character on South Park, so it’s not like an appearance from the devil would be out of the ordinary.

There’s certainly a lot of source material to work with: The maker of the “Satan shoes” is reportedly being sued by Nike and the Church Of Satan is on board with what Nas has been up to.