Month: May 2021

Linguine with white clam sauce is a dish that unites the Italian-American and traditional Italian culinary scenes. The dish is meant to be bright, light, garlicky, and full of briny clams. It’s also a textural delight. The bright and lightly dressed pasta is topped with toasted bread crumbs cut with lemon zest, bringing another level of brightness and crunch.

I always make and order this with the clams inside their shells. I’m a purist, I guess. But really, this dish is all about the flavor you get from cooking those clams in the shell in all that wine, butter, and garlic. Without the shells, you lose a lot of the deep brininess and broth-making aspects of the liquid inside those shells.

As for dealing with the shells while you eat, I’ve seen two tactics used in Italy. Some folks tend to eat the pasta and fork clams out separately. It basically goes: A few twisted forks of pasta and then a few clams, repeat. Another tactic I’ve seen — and the one I tend to use — is folks will first de-shell all the clams into the pasta once it’s served. Then you basically just eat the pasta and the clams mix in as you eat.

It’s up to you how to eat your clam linguine. We’re your friend, not your mom.

One last note, you don’t need cream for this recipe. You only really see cream in Italian-American variations. Traditionally, butter is used to mount the sauce at the end of the cook. When you add butter to a reduced sauce (reduced from something like white wine), you get a creamy albeit much lighter and delicate sauce.

Okay, let’s get into it!

Linguine with White Clam Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1/2-lb. steamer clams
• 1 lemon
• 1 head of garlic
• 1 handful of parsley
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 bottle white wine
• 1-lb. fresh linguine pasta
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Olive oil
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup fried finely diced pancetta
• Optional: Freshly grated parmesan

I didn’t have time to make fresh pasta. So I bought one pound of fresh linguine. It’s perfectly fine for this dish. Though, I’d argue that dried linguine is also fine at the end of the day, though not preferred.

The rest is pretty straightforward. I’m using a Lugana white wine from Lombardy right next to Venice. It’s a light white wine that’s specifically crafted to work with seafood. You can grab the bottle by clicking on the name above. Or find a light white wine that works well with seafood from the wine region nearest you.

Other than that, you’re going to need fresh clams. I’m from the Seattle area, so fresh seafood like this was always a given for me. If you can’t find fresh clams, maybe skip this ish. Sure, you can use the jar of clams. But then you’ll want to get a proper seafood broth and put in half that and half the amount of white wine to balance out the flavor profile and… just wait until you have clam access.

What You’ll Need:

• Large saute pan
• Large stockpot
• Cutting board
• Kitchen knife
• Fine grater
• Tongs
• Large spoon
• Food processor or blender

Method:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil with a good punch of sea salt.
• Slice the garlic, mince the pancetta, and finely chop the parsley.
• Finely grate the lemon rind.
• Add the pancetta to a cold saute pan with about a tablespoon of olive oil and put on medium-high heat.
• Once the pancetta is browned, remove it to a waiting plate with paper towels to cool and drain excess fat.
• Add another tablespoon (or so) of olive oil to the saute pan and add the garlic. Cook for about a minute until very fragrant.
• Add a large glug of the wine to the pan to bring up the fond and soften the garlic.
• Add one layer of clams in the pan and cover with wine until the liquid is just over the shells.
• Bring to a low simmer and cook until liquid is reduced by half.
• In the meantime, add the bread crumbs, lemon zest, and pancetta to a blender or food processor and pulse until well mixed and the consistency of large sand.
• Once the clams have opened and the wine has reduced, add the butter to the liquid to mount the sauce. Use the tongs to emulsify the butter to the wine (it should get creamy). Taste the sauce and add salt to season to taste.
• Drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook until al dente (or a minute below the package’s instructions).
• Use the tongs to transfer the pasta from the pot to the pan, making sure to bring a little pasta water with the pasta. Move the pasta around in a circular motion to dress with the sauce.
• Remove the pan from the heat and hit with half a lemon of juice and mix in with the tongs.
• Sprinkle the pasta with the chopped parsley, cracked black pepper, and bread crumb mix and serve immediately.
• Optionally sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan.

Bottom Line:

This was the perfect lunch. The best part is that it’s light but full of flavor. The sauce is a buttery, lemony, briny, garlicky delight and works wonders on the thin-ish linguine delivery system.

The clams add a nice textual counterpoint and bring a chill seaside vibe to the dish. The lemon and pancetta in the breadcrumbs is a real highlight in both a textural crunch and bright yet savory layer.

I ended up hitting my pasta with a little freshly grated parmesan. But, it didn’t really need it. When I went back for seconds, I didn’t bother with the cheese again.

I shelled my clams first and then tucked in. I just prefer it that way. But I get eating some creamy lemony pasta and then popping in a clam every now and then as a change of pace. Either way works.

The best part is that this is pretty easy to make and doesn’t take a crazy amount of time. All told, this was about 30 minutes from start to finish. And as you can see — those 30 minutes were absolutely worth it!

J. Cole dropped his sixth studio album, and NBA players cannot get enough of it. Cole’s first release since 2018, The Off-Season became available to listeners on Friday at midnight, with fans taking to social media to heap praise on the record.

NBA players decided to join in on the fun, shouting out just about everything from the lyrics, to the album’s production, to the mere fact that Cole — who is adding professional basketball player to his list of responsibilities by joining the Patriots Basketball Club of the Basketball Africa League — put together a new album.

One player, Eric Paschall of the Golden State Warriors, ran into some trouble trying to listen to it right at midnight, but eventually got to listen and really liked what he heard.

Plenty of dudes had something to say about the number of nods Cole gave to the basketball world. Ja Morant appreciated getting some love on “My Life,” Bradley Beal was glad to see Russell Westbrook’s name get dropped on “Amari,” and both C.J. McCollum and Donovan Mitchell were fans of Cole sampling Damian Lillard’s postgame comments after he dropped 61 points on the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA’s Orlando Bubble on “Punchin’ the Clock.”

And unsurprisingly, Dennis Smith Jr. had the highest possible praise for his friend from Fayetteville.

It has been a long but memorable sixth season of Fear the Walking Dead, which has seen the series creatively rebound from one of the worst seasons in The Walking Dead to one of — if not the — best season in the universe. We’ve seen the series take a more intimate approach to its stories; we’ve seen two major character deaths; we’ve seen two of the most devastating episodes ever, and we’ve seen the introduction of a new Big Bad.

It may be difficult to remember, then, that the season began with Morgan stealing a key from two random characters (that he subsequently killed), who we would learn later are a part of the new cult, The Mole People. The Mole People have subsequently been trying to retrieve the key, which they finally did in the most recent episode, which saw the upsetting stillbirth of Grace’s baby.

So what is the key for? It belongs to the nuclear submarine we saw in the sixth season premiere, which had “The end is the beginning” spray-painted on it by the Mole People cult.

Its importance, meanwhile, has come into sharper focus over the last couple of episodes, as we were introduced to Teddy and his people. They all live in an underground, self-sustaining bunker, where they grow their own food and believe that death gives rise to life. It’s not hard to see where this is going. They live underground because they plan to use the key to the submarine to set off a nuclear bomb. They will kill everything in the area, live underground for a few years, and then resurface after everything has been wiped out: “The end is the beginning.”

The descriptions for the final four episodes of the season bear that out. In episode 6×13, “J.D.,” June “splits off to gather information to help stop an oncoming threat” (that threat being nuclear annihilation). The “J.D.” is probably either a reference to her dead husband, John Dorie, or his father, who was connected to Teddy, the leader of the Mole People, before the zombie apocalypse. He was a serial killer.

In 6×14, “Mother,” Alicia “reunites with old friends and must confront her past.” That may be a reference to her mother, Madison. I don’t expect that Kim Dickens will actually return, but Alicia may have to confront feelings about her mother while trying to escape Teddy and The Mole People.

Episode 6×15 is called “USS Pennsylvania,” which is probably the name of the nuclear submarine. In that episode, “Motives are revealed and convictions are tested as our heroes rush to stop Teddy’s plan.” Teddy’s plan, obviously, is setting off a nuclear bomb. In 6×16, “The Beginning,” the synopsis states that “everyone desperately scrambles to live out the coming destruction on their own terms.”

The question is: Does Teddy’s plan to set off the nuclear bomb succeed? It won’t be the end of the series — and everyone won’t die — because Fear has been renewed for a seventh season. However, it is possible that the nuclear bomb goes off, and the survivors are forced to live in the underground bunker. This would actually give the series an opportunity for a big time-jump, which would allow it to catch up with the parent series, should the two need to intersect or engage with one another or the CRM storyline in The World Beyond. After all, there’s still a connection between Fear and the CRM in Fear’s present storyline, because Althea is still involved with Isabelle, the CRM helicopter lady, although Isabelle is not apparently the daughter of Elizabeth, the head of the CRM, because Huck is.

In any respect, there at least looks like there’s an opportunity here — with the nuclear bomb — for all three series to exist on the same timeline again. That may be crucial ahead of the eventual Rick Grimes movie.

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — Listen to me

I don’t know what exactly has gotten into the people in Hollywood lately, but they have been casting big-time projects like no one might get to make another big-time project ever again. Succession has wrangled every tall actor working in Hollywood, your Skarsgards and Brodys, in addition to Sanaa Lathan. The Righteous Gemstones just added Jason Schwartzman and Eric Andre, which is incredible, as well as Eric Roberts, which is incredible. Eric Roberts is so perfect for that show. Put him in a suit and sit him behind a big expensive desk and let him sneer at Danny McBride. That’s a whole show right there. I’m excited. I was already excited because The Righteous Gemstones is just about a perfect television show, but now I’m like, more excited.

But nothing can touch the casting work being done on the sequel to Knives Out. The impressive thing is that we still don’t even know who everyone is playing. All we know for sure is that Daniel Craig and his Southern accent are back to investigate a murder and that this time he’s doing it in Greece. This is… good. It’s already good. But then you look at the list of names that has been trickling out this week and it gets even better. I mean…

After playing a nosy neighbor with a secret in Marvel’s WandaVision, Kathryn Hahn looks to have found another fun role where the character may also be keeping some sort of secret. Sources tell Deadline, Hahn is set to join Daniel Craig in the next installment, which Netflix recently landed the rights too. Dave Bautista, Janelle Monae and Edward Norton were also recently added to the cast.

The only problem with that list of names is that it is impossible to read it and not immediately start dreamcasting other actors and actresses who would be a blast in a Knives Out movie, especially as a murderer. I’ve been doing it for like six days now and I can’t stop. It is too much fun. We deserve to have some fun. Let’s all do it forever.

That said, there are two things worth noting before we begin. The first is that these are not actual casting suggestions that I want Rian Johnson to read and take to heart. He’s doing fine on his own. And who am I, really? Just some doofus with a decent WiFi connection. I would be more mortified if he did read this and take my advice. It’s not that I’m wrong (I am great at this, wait and see), it’s just that he has better stuff to do and also is not paying me.

The second thing is that I had Kathryn Hahn on my list before he cast her and I’m leaving her on it because I HAD IT FIRST, OKAY?

Thank you.

Kathryn Hahn

Kathryn Hahn would be so good as the murderer in a Knives Out movie. This would have been a true statement before her turn in WandaVision but it is somehow even more true now. Kathryn Hahn is the best, just in general, but she is really the best at playing deranged goofballs. I think it’s the eyes. I am glad she is in Knives Out 2. I hope they let her kill one or possibly many people.

Anthony Carrigan

Knives Out characters have to toe that line between silly and menacing and I don’t know if anyone anywhere is as suited for that as the genius who brought NoHo Hank to life in Barry. I would be fine if he just played NoHo Hank in Knives Out, if I’m being honest. I imagine we would need to get lawyers involved on that one, though. Let’s call him… SoHo Frank? Everything else rolls over.

Yvette Nicole Brown

Something about the person who played dear sweet Shirley on Community showing up as the killer in a high-profile murder mystery brings me a lot of joy when I think about it, which seems to be the only requirement so far in the casting. It could work. Let the people have it.

Walton Goggins

This is so good for reasons I have elaborated on in each of the 300 posts I have written about how much Walton Goggins kicks ass, so, in lieu of rehashing all of it again, please just enjoy my favorite picture from his Getty archive. It’s fun to pretend he’s playing a villain and those are his henchmen.

Literally anyone from Always Sunny

Rob McElhenney? Yes, of course. Charlie Day? Absolutely. Kaitlin Olson? Would be tremendous. Glenn Howerton? Reasonable arguments can be made that he was born to do exactly this. Danny DeVito? I mean, you see where I’m headed with that one. Hell, just do a whole crossover. Send Benoit Blanc to Philadelphia to investigate a murder. See what I care.

Jason Mantzoukas

If they’re going to film the second movie in Greece and cast a bunch of comedy-adjacent maniacs, why not cast the Greek comedic maniac who pops up in every television show and promptly makes them all better? Some of the entries on this list are more about having fun, and I know I said in the intro that I was not making actual casting suggestions, but I have become extremely serious about this one just in the time since I started typing this paragraph. Put Jason Mantzoukas in Knives Out 2.

Jeremy Irons

Case closed.

Gonzo from The Muppets

I will accept this, or Gonzo and Rizzo narrating a Knives Out movie like they do in A Muppet Christmas Carol, or an all-Muppet version of Knives Out with Daniel Craig as the only human. I am serious about this one, too.

Lindsay Lohan

The time has come for the LiLo comeback. I am ready. Let her murder someone and almost get away with it. Film it in Ibiza. Have her push someone out of a hot air balloon. This is the whole fun of having the juice to make your decisions of things. You can go as big and weird as you want. I need to see it.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — June 25 is my birthday now

The ninth Fast & Furious movie, accurately titled F9, hits theaters on Friday, June 25. This is thrilling to me. I have been waiting to see it since I saw the first trailer something like 15 months ago. Do you understand? Do you really understand? This trailer dropped during a literal outdoor beach party hosted by the cast on Super Bowl weekend and it introduced John Cena as the evil secret brother Vin Diesel’s character is just finding out about now at like age 50 and then, at the end, featured Han, a character whose death has been depicted multiple times and whose body they went to Tokyo to allegedly collect, sauntering back in the franchise while munching on salty snacks. I think most people reading this column have a general sense of who I am and what I’m about. Can you imagine — really, truly imagine — the degree to which this has been killing me? At the time, I wasn’t even thrilled about the concept of waiting like three months for it to hit theaters. I am not built for things like “waiting” and “being patient.” The past year or so has been tough for a lot of reasons, most of them much more serious than this, but… this is on the list. For me. I know. Believe me, I know.

And it kind of has a greater significance than all that now, too, because it is shaping up to be the first big movie we all get to see in a theater after a year of staying inside too much. There’s a celebratory aspect to it, a victorious feeling, that is making it feel like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow made of vomit. (Do not picture this.) There are plenty of more significant signs that we’re finally coming through on the right side of things but this one is purely a celebration. I’m going to feel great charging into the theater that weekend. I’m going to shout and whoop and get rowdy around strangers when Ludacris and Tyrese launch themselves into the outer edges of the planet’s atmosphere. It’s going to be great, just to be doing it. Although, as I type this, I realize a lot of you are still picturing that vomit rainbow I said not to picture. In hindsight, this is on me. I ruined the moment. My apologies.

But here’s where I make it up to you. Or at least make it up to myself for making you think about a rainbow made of vomit. (STOP.) Because just this week, just yesterday, news broke that F9 won’t be the only significant piece of entertainment I adore that will be dropping on June 25. Not even the only one about a loose cannon who plays by his own rules but, dammit, gets results. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. I got a feeling…

BOSCH.

BOSCH COMES BACK FOR ITS FINAL SEASON ON JUNE 25, TOO.

HERE, LOOK:

Slated to bow on Friday, June 25, the series is based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling novel, The Burning Room, (2014) and the real arson case that inspired it. When a ten-year-old girl dies in an arson fire, Bosch risks everything to bring her killer to justice despite opposition from powerful forces. The highly charged, politically sensitive case forces Bosch to face a grueling dilemma of how far he is willing to go to achieve justice.

How far he’s willing to go to achieve justice? Oh, man. Oh, man. He’s gonna be willing to go so far. It’s gonna make all the authority figures so mad. Like, at least this mad.

Maybe even madder than that. Probably madder, now that I think about it. I don’t know exactly how mad but let’s pencil it in somewhere around This Mad.

Effective immediately, June 25 is my birthday. I wasn’t born that day if we want to be technical about everything, but still. I don’t see how I can take this news any other way. But if Han can come back from the dead and Jason Statham’s character can become a good guy after being the one who supposedly murdered him and Bosch can be a grown man who eats pancakes like this…

… then I can change my birthday. Fair is fair.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — There is nothing more pure than Henry Winkler posting fish pictures on Twitter and none of you can ruin this for me

https://twitter.com/hwinkler4real/status/1391528374930083840

Henry Winkler is a wonderful man. He’s had a long career in Hollywood and everyone who has met him or worked with him only has wonderful things to say about him. He started his career playing the coolest dude alive on Happy Days and now plays a slew of nervous dorks who are diametrically opposed to everything the Fonz stood for. It’s a fascinating turn of events, really, kind of the opposite of the “dork becomes cool” plot you see in about 85 percent of teen movies. But this is not the point.

The point is that Henry Winkler likes to post fish pictures on Twitter. Pictures of fish he caught on vacation. It is the most pure thing I’ve ever seen. Twitter is a piranha tank. People get chewed up on there constantly. Just ravaged. There is usually no room for earnest sentiment because everything is cloaked in three layers of performative rage and irony. And then Henry Winkler just pops in there with the most cheery Facebook-ass pictures you’ve ever seen, holding a big fish, smiling as wide as the ocean. It is, again, so pure.

He hasn’t been able to post a fish picture on Twitter for over a year for obvious reasons. He’s been stuck inside like all of us. But then I saw the tweet up there a few days ago. And I knew something was happening. And I waited for it. I checked repeatedly. And then, finally, at long last, it happened.

Remember the thing I said in the previous section about how seeing F9 in the theater would feel like a win on a much larger level than it would in normal circumstances? Well, this is that, too, just on a smaller level. It’s progress. It’s a good thing. Look how happy Henry Winkler is. Look at his face.

Do not, however, look into any of this any further. Please. Because if you do, you will discover that this pure and nice image of this pure and nice television icon was temporarily hijacked by a 24-hour news network — you know the one — that found like three harsh tweets in the replies and manufactured a whole segment out of them about whether Cancel Culture had come for The Fonz. You do not have to engage with this. You should not engage with this. Just take the nice story about the sweet man sharing a nice experience. Things have been hard enough. You do not have to make them harder.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Oh hell yes, it is Lupin time

Did you watch Lupin back when I first told you to watch Lupin? I hope so, a little bit because LISTEN TO ME but mostly because Lupin is a blast. It is a French show about a fancy jewel thief stealing jewels. He wears disguises and has reasons he steals things and there is a guy on the show who, at one point, wore an outfit that was like 75 percent denim, which I guess you already figured out back when I said it was a French show. It was seriously so fun and so good and if any of you try to say “Ehhhhh I couldn’t follow it because everyone speaks French and I don’t like reading subtitles” I will scream at you until someone calls the police. For the love of God. I just wrote like 1000 words about the Fast & Furious movies and someone posting fish pictures online. If I can handle a foreign show with subtitles, anyone can. Get some culture for once in your life, you bozo.

Anyway, this is the trailer for the back half of the first season, which premieres June 11 on Netflix. It has galas and tuxedos and car chases and one of those scenes from the Bourne movies where he calls the person investigating him on the phone and then says something that reveals he’s watching them. In short, it has everything you need in a good summer show. Watch Lupin. Lupin is the best.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — Well well well…

I should start with a confession: I am just now getting caught up on Mare of Easttown. I hear you out there, clicking your tongues at me dismissively, saying things like, “Jesus Christ, Brian, your job is to watch television and here’s a big fancy HBO series set near where you live in which Kate Winslet — KATE WINSLET — adopts a borderline incredible Philly/Delco accept, speaking her o’s through her nose to make them eau’s and mashing consonants together like they’re Iggles lineman. How are you not caught up on this series?” Well, first of all, obviously, Go Birds. But also, I just didn’t have a murder show in me last month. Sometimes that happens. But I’m back now. I’m involved. She pronounced the word overdoses like “eauverdeausiz” in the opening match moments and I was hooked. I’m not a complicated man.

But really, honestly, if anyone should be angry about all of this, it’s me. At you. Because, if you’ve been watching the show, that means you saw the first episode, and specifically the first 10 minutes of the first episode, and specifically the thing I have screencapped above where a victim lives on a street whose name is also my last name, and you didn’t say anything to me about it. What are we doing here? How could you drop the ball like this? I mean, come on. There it is, right there on the screen. And yet, nothing. Just a weak effort on your part, all around.

I expect better going forward. I’m not mad. I’m sorry for implying that I was. I’m just… disappointed.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Brian (not me):

Have you ever noticed that sometimes a fictional company will be referenced or shown in two or more completely unrelated movies or TV shows? The main two I can think of are Oceanic Airways, which I mostly remember from the criminally underrated Kurt Russell movie Executive Decision, but I gather it was also the airline that went down in Lost although I myself never really watched that show. The other one, which is a little more subtle, is Cobol Engineering. That’s the firm that’s trying to kill Leo in Inception after he botches that first job, but it’s also the name of the outfit, or whatever, that Jason Statham ostensibly works for in The Mechanic, which is a sneaky decent flick if you don’t take it too seriously.

I’m guessing there are others but stuff like this just kinda sticks in my brain and I thought if anyone you might think similarly from time to time.

This is a terrific email for a handful of reasons. It’s got a fun premise, it creates ties between otherwise unrelated films, and it correctly assumes that my brain is mangled enough to also be riddled with examples of these. Unfortunately, it also references a Jason Statham movie — The Mechanic, a blast of a film, although not as fun as the sequel, Mechanic: Resurrection, which co-stars Jessica Alba and, for some reason, Tommy Lee Jones in very tiny sunglasses — and was sent in the same week that I rewatched Collateral, so I’m going to talk about that. Again. I’m going to talk about this part of that again.

This is Jason Statham’s uncredited cameo in the opening moments of Collateral, a very good movie. And that would be enough for me, just an unexplained Statham cameo in a very good Michael Mann movie. But then there’s also this, from the IMDb trivia page.

Although Max refers to himself as “collateral” in the scene where he briefly stands up to Vincent after the hitman kills the jazz club owner, that’s not where the movie got its title. The original script had Vincent’s professional name as “Vincent Collateral”, and there is a deleted scene that confirms this. The title was considered for a change after the unsuccessful release of the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Collateral Damage (2002), but everyone agreed that they shouldn’t avoid a title everyone liked, just because it echoed a movie that no one cared about.

Ah, whoops. It appears that I have once again pasted the paragraph about Tom Cruise’s character in Collateral, Vincent the mysterious assassin, being named “Vincent Collateral.” I wonder how that happened. Well, nothing that can be done about it now. Let’s just move on and post the correct one.

Statham’s cameo is often regarded as being his character Frank Martin from The Transporter (2002) and its sequels. He delivers a bag to Vincent at the airport and then disappears, no questions asked.

I have known this piece of information for a period of time exceeding 15 years now and it has infuriated me every time I think about it because it means no one has gone back and made a prequel about these two at an orientation for the new jobs at whatever organization this is. Come on. Do it already. They aged a ton of people down in The Irishman. We can age Cruise and Statham down for this one. Put them in The Irishman machine. Give them whole new faces. For me.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Pennsylvania! Again!

Secured in a sealed wooded crate, the 192-year-old secret recipe for Yuengling beer was placed in an armored vehicle Friday afternoon to begin a three-day journey to Texas.

I have seen too many movies. This is something I can say without qualification, without any real reason, just because it is objectively true. But it is something I say here because I read that sentence and shouted “SECRET BEER RECIPE HEIST” out loud in my empty living room. I don’t think I’m out of line, though. Tell me you didn’t read that and picture, like, Gerard Butler holding up the armored truck on some rural stretch of highway. Do not lie to me.

The recipe will be delivered next week to Molson Coors’ Fort Worth brewing facilities, where it will start being manufactured later this year.

In addition to the recipe book, proprietary yeast of D.G. Yuengling & Son. Inc. made the trip, which officially marked the start of the company’s westward expansion.

I am straight-up picturing this entire movie right now. Butler’s character was wronged by the family that owns the brewery — maybe it was his grandfather’s recipe and they stole it — so he’s out to get revenge. There’s like four other people in his crew. One would have been Gina Carson before, you know, everything. One is definitely a rapper, maybe Common or T.I. And let’s say Chalamet is the last one, just because I’m ready for action-star Chalamet. Cover him with tattoos and give him an AK-47.

In addition to Jennifer and Wendy Yuengling, their sisters — Debbie Yuengling, employee engagement and culture manager, and Sheryl Yuengling, order services and IT administration — were on hand to bring the recipe from inside the Mahantongo Street headquarters to the armored vehicle.

Once security guard and driver Travis Laukhuf sealed the rear doors and, with an escort by Pottsville police, he drove down Mahantongo Street to begin the approximately 1,475-mile trip to Texas.

BEER HEIST

COMING SUMMER 2022

REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED…

[shotgun pump, sound of fizzy can opening]

…FROSTY.

Lil Nas X made headlines when he released his recent single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” The song’s attention was mainly focused on it’s video, which saw the rapper sliding down a stripper pole into hell and twerking on Satan. Seeing as Lil Nas X went all-out for his last track, fans are expecting an equally eye-catching rollout for his next single.

Lil Nas X took to social media Thursday night to reveal the release date of his next track, “Sun Goes Down.” The rapper made the announcement with a highly-stylized photo which sees him controlling water with his fingertips against an ethereal backdrop. He noted the track will debut May 21, just one day ahead of his anticipated Saturday Night Live performance.

The rapper was announced as the SNL musical guest earlier this month. Alongside the host Anya Taylor-Joy, Lil Nas X’s performance will officially close out the show’s 46th season. The timing of the release of “Sun Goes Down” is no coincidence, as it seems he plans to share the new track on the SNL stage. He initially responded to SNL announcing his involvement by saying he plans to perform “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” along with an unnamed new song.

Check out Lil Nas X’s “Sun Goes Down” announcement above.

In honor of Juice WRLD‘s well-documented struggles with addiction, anxiety, and depression, Live Free 999 Fund, the non-profit started by his mother in his name, is partnering with Crisis Text Line to provide free counseling to fans in need. The Crisis Text Line provides mental health and crisis intervention texting services, with live counselors who talk texters from a “hot moment to a cool calm” and refer them to needed help.

The Live Free 999 Fund, meanwhile, helps provide easy access to education, prevention, and treatment options for people suffering from opioid and other forms of drug abuse. Carmela Wallace, Juice WRLD’s mother, explained why the partnership is so important, especially during May, which is Mental Health Awareness Month. “There’s not a day that I don’t think of Jarad,” she said. “Many of my memories of him are happy ones and they make me laugh, but some days are very sad. During Mental Health Awareness Month, I want to encourage people to focus on their mental health and to warn them of the dangers of self-medicating, and for them to seek support if they need it. I want young people to take this time to do a mental health self-check, to be honest with themselves, and reach out to Crisis Text Line if they need someone to talk to. That’s why we’ve formed this alliance, to provide a starting point for young people to get the help they need.” She also echoed the sentiment in an Instagram post earlier this week.

Live Free 999 is also hosting an art contest with the winner to be featured on a future merchandise collaboration. See below for more information.

Currently, nearly 40% of the U.S. has been fully vaccinated, a fairly impressive feat considering where we were just a few months ago. And though he’s had absolutely nothing to do with the robust vaccination distribution plan that’s inching our country closer to some semblance of normalcy, former President Donald Trump would really like some credit for it.

No really, he’s begging for it.

Trump, who’s been banned from Twitter and pretty much every other social media platform, sent his latest missive to his followers via a press release — an art form he’s doing his damndest to bring back. The statement, which read like a long and rambling tweet, mostly consisted of Trump complaining that the Biden administration is getting credit for his hard work:

“Isn’t it incredible that because of the vaccines, which I and my Administration came up with years ahead of schedule (despite the fact that everybody, including Fauci, said would never happen), that we no longer need masks, and yet our names are not even mentioned in what everybody is calling the modern-day miracle of the vaccines?”

There’s so much wrong with this claim it’s hard to know where to begin but just to quickly recap, Trump’s Operation Warp Speed didn’t actually “create” vaccines, it just allocated funding to speed up the process of trials and approval. It did greatly contribute to Moderna’s two-dose vaccine, but Pfizer’s shot was entirely funded by the company itself. And research into the technology of these new mRNA targeting vaccines has been a decades-long process.

Still, Trump is pretty put out that Biden and his team haven’t even acknowledged his work in bringing these vaccines to the public, saying later in his statement: “Just a mention, please! The Biden Administration had zero to do with it.”

There are some definite factual inaccuracies with his claim. Trump’s Operation Warp Speed certainly sped up the vaccine approval process but as has been widely reported, when Biden took office, there was zero infrastructure to support a nationwide vaccine roll-out. The Biden administration basically had to start from scratch, and it’s only in recent weeks that they’ve been able to make meaningful progress, despite these vaccines being approved late last year.

So really, Trump is every guy you’ve had to do a group project with at school who comes up with the initial idea but then checks out for weeks and is angry when his name isn’t on the final term paper.

Continuing to ride the success of her smash-hit 2019 track “Dance Monkey,” Australian singer Tones And I has returned to share her first song of the year. Known for her buoyant hooks and playful lyrics, Tones And I brings her signature style to her eerie new track “Won’t Sleep.”

The dark pop single arrived with an equally-spooky visual. It opens with two young children wandering their local woods in search of a mansion, which appears to be throwing a massive party. Tones And I, fully transformed into a monster, beckons the children to join her soirée. The singer and a group of her fellow ghouls then break into a dance routine reminiscent of the iconic “Thriller” choreography.

Describing her inspiration behind the track, Tones And I said:

“I loved writing this song and playing around with the production, the bass, and the drums. It’s a song about me and my friends staying home and partying through lockdown. […] When coming up with the creative for this film clip, I thought to myself, ‘Picture the most crazy thing ever’… and that’s what I wanted it to be. As with most of my videos, there are lots of prosthetics and different characters, and I had so much fun shooting it!”

Watch Tones And I’s “Won’t Sleep” video above.

Tones And I is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s not lost on Zack Snyder that he’s, most likely, the most interviewed person in the world right now, as I joked with him that the headline to this interview should be “Zack Snyder finally breaks his silence.” This is because of two reasons. One is, as you may have heard, his version of Justice League was unleashed, finally, to the masses a couple of months ago. And just as that whole entity (it feels wrong to just call that a “movie” since there’s so much else that goes with that whole project) started winding down, boom, here comes Zack Snyder again with a brand new Zombie heist movie, Army of the Dead. (Which will be in theaters this weekend and Netflix the next.)

Army of the Dead is a kind of back to basics for Zack Snyder, who says it was much needed because he is still, let’s say, obviously still pretty unhappy with his old bosses at Warner Bros. – launching, unprompted, into a list of grievances and describing the whole relationship as “torture.” I asked if he worried about any professional backlash from any of this and, well, I came away pretty convinced that, no, he very much is not.

Snyder still hasn’t seen the HBO version of Watchmen, though he plans to watch it. (He does seem like a very busy person.) Though I was curious if his position has changed about not using the squid in his 2009 adaptation of the comic, since the series did use the squid to great effect. Kind of surprisingly, his answer does sound like a “maybe,” with a few caveats.

Also, Snyder has already spelled out the plot of what his next two Justice League movies would have entailed. And he was clear he wanted to use the John Stewart version of Green Lantern in the movie we saw – going as far as to shoot a scene with the character, played by Wayne T. Carr (Warner Bros. wasn’t into the idea so he used Martian Manhunter instead) – and in the future movies. But what would John Stewart’s role have been in these future movies? Ahead, he walks us through that.

I think, right now, you are the most interviewed person in the world.

It might be true. I swear to God. If you go by my last three weeks and if you were with me, you’d say that is true. I don’t know how I could be interviewed more than I am right now.

I know more about what you have going on than I do close friends.

I’m sorry about that. I apologize. That’s not right. It is what it is, but yeah.

My joke headline for this piece would be “Zack Snyder finally breaks his silence.”

[Laughs] Oh, that’s cool. That’s good. “Zack Snyder comes clean.”

“He’s finally ready to talk.”

Yeah. I’m all warmed up. I’m ready to go!

Here’s my analogy. With Army of the Dead, it feels like a famous comedian who’s been in movies or the biggest series and decides, you know what? I want to do stand up again. Get back to my roots.

It is a little bit. I’d say it’s a good analogy because I shot the movie and I wrote the movie. Clearly, it comes from the well, if you will, in a pretty significant way. And so, yeah, I think that’s a pretty good analogy. I buy that.

Did you need that?

Oh god yeah. God yeah. It was cool to do the Snyder Cut of Justice League and that was fun and everything. But Warner Bros. still tortured me the whole time for whatever reason, they can’t help it. I don’t know why I’m such a fucking pain in their ass because I’m not trying to be, honestly.

Now what you just said right there – and I’ve seen your other recent quotes where you’ve said Warner Bros. isn’t being receptive to the SnyderVerse. Because look, every experience I’ve had with you is you are a nice guy and a really passionate filmmaker. But do you worry when you say things like that, not Warner Bros., but another studio might be like, “Well, if things go south, we don’t want to be on the receiving end of that”?

Well, I just don’t know who would ever end up on the other end? If you analyze what’s happened with Warner Bros., it’s not a normal situation. It’s a once-in-a-generation bizarro situation! I just had an amazing experience with Netflix and it was awesome and we had a great partnership and an incredibly great experience. So the only thing I would say is that it’s an unusual situation.

That’s true. And I just say that from a selfish standpoint because I want to keep seeing your movies and I don’t want you to get in too much trouble.

No, I agree. I don’t want to get in trouble either, but I’m not going to sit here and let them act like that and not… Look, they’re the ones that have been aggressive, not me. I haven’t done anything. Every day they’d turn around and do some weird passive-aggressive thing. So, I don’t know. It’s weird. But look, like I say, I had a great time making Justice League. I’m super glad I got to finish it.

And it’s not lost on me that you’ve been very supportive of Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot. And I am curious, with Army of the Dead, and it’s not the same thing, but when you replaced Chris D’Elia with Tig Notaro, when was the moment you realized, “Oh, we have a problem here?”

No, it was pretty instantaneous. As soon as it got brought to me and they were like, “This is the thing,” I was like, “Well, that’s problematic. We’re going to have to do something.” And I think it also became kind of a technical thing, right?

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really even know about it until after I saw the movie. It looked seamless.

Maybe I’ll get some kind of technical award as a DP for putting her in that movie, because that part was hard. It was funny because I shot the movie in a really super organic way, and I was like, oh, this is going to be cool, available light, and it’s going to be minimal and all this. And then cut to me on the stage, I have to recreate that in the most sterile circumstance possible with the most lights and the most everything. And so it was interesting. You have to really understand where the light is all the time to make it match, and you light the green screens correctly, it’s really problematic, but it was good. It was fun. It was an awesome exercise. And Tig is awesome.

She is great. Will this influence how you cast in the future? Because from her quotes she even seems surprised about being in this movie.

I don’t see it. It felt normal. It feels natural to me. I was like, this is amazing. I was shocked that she said yes, frankly. So that was the goodness for me, that she wanted to do it. So it’s worked out great for me. But yeah, my casting decisions, choices have been always slightly problematic for the studio. They’ve all come around, everyone is convinced. Not so much on Army, but on all my D.C. movies.

Right, people weren’t into Jason Mamoa at first, now everyone loves him.

Yeah. And Gal has always been slightly controversial, but once you see her in the role, you’re like, okay, she’s amazing.

I’ve been wanting to ask you this, and maybe you’ve been asked this already because, again, you’ve been interviewed so many times…

I’m breaking my silence.

I do love your Watchmen movie and I’m curious if you saw the HBO series.

I have not seen it yet. I do plan on seeing it at some point, but I have not watched it yet.

The reason I ask is, in flashbacks, they used the squid to great effect. And I’m curious if now, with the technology we have, if you now think you could have pulled off the squid, because back then you said it wouldn’t work because it would look weird, or whatever.

And by the way, I love Watchmen. I have no regrets. I love that movie 100 percent. It’s exactly what I wanted. And in some ways, I think there’s a great college class that someone could teach on the difference between Dr. Manhattan and the squid. And why we would have chosen Dr. Manhattan and how thematically that works as it relates to the climax of that book. But I would also say, that based on doing the movie that I just did, Justice League, I might consider it. Only because I feel like it would have required a slightly longer movie to do the squid, than say, Dr. Manhattan.

Well, that makes sense. And they had a whole miniseries to do it.

Yeah, exactly. And I think that to have the squid in the movie that I made, the movie would be a little bit longer. We had Manhattan already, so we didn’t have to set him up or anything.

Says the man who just released a four-hour movie a couple of months ago.

Exactly my point.

I was rereading the piece about where the next Justice League movies would have gone. You mentioned how you really wanted to use John Stewart’s Green Lantern but you had to use Martian Manhunter instead. I’m curious how John Stewart would have fit in in the whole story and what his role would be.

Well, you know I shot it, right? I shot John Stewart. So, yes, I wanted to use him. So basically what was going to happen is he had two roles. One, we would have seen him in the post-apocalyptic world. He was kind of like their scout and kind of like their, you know, “join the team.” And then in the final battle against Darkseid, he would have gotten the Green Lantern Corps and organized them to fight against Darkseid. Those would have been his jobs.

I like Martian Manhunter, but John Stewart’s the best.

I do, too. I like Martian Manhunter. By the way, Martian Manhunter was going to be in there anyway. So you would have both.

‘Army Of The Dead’ opens in theaters this weekend and hits Netflix the following weekend. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Seth Rogen previously proved that he wasn’t afraid to go in hard (and like no other) on the much maligned Ted Cruz. Back in January he began to launch attacks on the “fascist” senator and showed no mercy during the Texas ice storm, which saw Rogen dunk emphatically on the lawmaker who abandoned his freezing constituents for the sunny shores of Cancun. Naturally, Ted couldn’t hold his own while attempting to engage, and Rogen gamely told the MAGA insurrection enabler to “f*ck off.”

Well, Rogen visited with Stephen Colbert to discuss many things, including his weed company, Houseplant, and his unmistakable flair for spinning a pottery wheel. Then around the 4:30 minute mark in the above video, Colbert inquired about the Cruz rivalry. Rogen was game to discuss (and call Cruz a “fascist” again), but he wanted to make clear that this isn’t really a feud:

“Feud implies equal ground. If someone’s trying to murder someone with a baseball bat and someone is yelling that person to stop, is that a feud between the baseball bat-wielder and the person yelling at the baseball bat-wielder? I don’t know if that’s a feud. I think feud implies two people hitting each other with baseball bats.”

Before this statement, Rogen explained that he felt that Cruz was in effect, the person with the baseball bat. “His words cause people to die, and I’m making jokes about it. Is that a feud?” Rogen continued, “I don’t know. To me, it doesn’t seem like a feud. To me, it seems like I’m pointing out the fact that he is a terrible man whose words have resulted in death.” Fair enough, but if this was a feud (just saying!), Rogen would definitely be the winner. Especially since he refuses to ever smoke weed with the guy: “It would be beneficial to him because it would be humanizing in some way.”