The Los Angeles Lakers’ season is mercifully coming to an end sometime soon, as the team needs a miracle at this point to get into the play-in tournament and have any shot at playing postseason basketball. With the writing on the wall, it’s hard not to look at what went wrong for them this season, and earlier this week, Anthony Davis posited that injuries were just too much for them to overcome.
“I think the biggest thing that I think about personally is what we could have been, had we stayed healthy all year,” Davis said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “What could we have been. … Guys feel like, ‘OK, what could we have been if I was healthy all year, [LeBron James] was healthy, [Kendrick] Nunn was healthy.’ You think about those things. We put this team together and it looked good on paper, but we haven’t had a chance to reach that potential with guys in and out of the lineup.
“So the most frustrating part of this season is not being sure of what we could have been.”
In the eyes of Stephen A. Smith, a whole heck of a lot more goes into this than just the injuries. Smith was asked about this Lakers season and explained that he thinks this entire year was a top-down failure, and if the team remained healthy, it would be around-.500 and “destined to go home in the first round.”
Stephen A GOES OFF on the Lakers organization
“The Lakers are a national basketball atrocity, let’s just call it what it is.” pic.twitter.com/IGpgKOW40O
“Let’s just get this out of the way, please: The Lakers are a national basketball atrocity,” Smith said. “Let’s just call it what it is. They’re an atrocity, and it starts from the top-down. It starts from Jeanie Buss allowing Linda Rambis to have power, it goes from there and disintegrates down to Rob Pelinka, who feels that as long as you’re wearing the purple and gold and you’re a Laker, you’ll be just fine. It sits further down to Frank Vogel, who lost the team because they stopped listening to him a long time ago.”
Smith then called out LeBron James, not for what he does on the basketball court, but for how he throws his weight around behind the scenes.
“You coulda had Ty Lue as your coach, but you caved into management when they wanted you to keep Jason Kidd,” Smith said. “You coulda had somebody else, like a Jason Kidd, but you didn’t, you wanted him on your bench, but you were afraid to let him be the head coach. You settles for Frank Vogel, let Jason Kidd go to Dallas, and now, he’s a coach of the year candidate. Everywhere you go shows ineptitude, shows inefficiency, shows an embarrassment of arrogance that is undeniable. They are a basketball atrocity, and Anthony Davis can point to all the injuries he wants to. It’s legit, but it doesn’t negate the fact you still wouldn’t have gone anywhere.”
The Lakers will try to keep their slim hopes of making the play-in alive on Tuesday night against the Suns. James will not play due to injury.
Doja Cat’s streak of successful moments continued over the weekend thanks to the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. It was here that she, along with SZA, won the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance award for their 2021 collaboration “Kiss Me More.” The track appeared on Doja’s third album Planet Her, which she released last year. The song did well on the charts as it peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also won Collaboration of the Year at the AMAs and Best Collaboration at the MTV VMAs. Doja was pushed to tears after learning she won her first Grammy, but that’s not all that happened at that moment.
During her acceptance speech, Doja revealed that she had to sprint from the bathroom in order to make it to the stage. Thanks to a video that was provided by someone in attendance at the Grammys, you can see Doja sprinting through a slightly crowded hallway to the stage after hearing her name. Granted, her sprint was more of a quick shuffle as a result of her dress and heels, but she still made it to the stage in time to give a raw, emotional, and truly-Doja speech.
“I like to downplay sh*t, but this?” Doja said while fighting back tears. “It’s a big deal. Thank you, everybody.” She also made sure to shower SZA with praise. “SZA, you are everything to me,” Doja said. “You are the epitome of talent. You’re a lyricist. You’re everything.”
One grandma in particular is taking TikTok by storm for her brutally honest, yet hilarious “funeral rules.” And though Grandma Lill adds the caveat that it won’t be anytime soon, you had better remember these rules when the day finally comes. Or there might be two funerals to plan.
Grandma Lill is no stranger to the spotlight. Her social media bios all read “I’m a celebrity” and she’s not foolin’ around. She has her own clothing line, YouTube Channel and her name has been uttered by the likes of Jimmy Kimmel and Steve Harvey. She’s basically the internet’s favorite granny.
But this video takes the cake at a whopping 20 million views. She’s gone full-blown viral now. Probably because she inadvertently brings up some little gems of wisdom we could all apply to dealing with the passing of a loved one.
Or maybe it’s just cause she’s delightfully cantankerous. Either way, it makes for some wholesome entertainment.
Without further ado, here are those three important rules:
1. Cry. But not too much.
Or, as Grandma Lill puts it, “don’t make a fool of yourself.”
Funerals can be just as much about commemorating as they are expressing grief. We can also share the happy memories we have of those who have passed, not just shed tears.
I think this is what grandma Lill was getting at. Or maybe she just doesn’t like you stealing the attention.
2. Bertha ISN’T invited.
Whoever this Bertha chick is … she messed up. She messed up big time. Bertha, you have been CANCELED.
And hey, why shouldn’t we decide who’s on the invite list for our last big day? If, for example, there’s a family member who caused a lot of pain, or with whom we just didn’t share a kinship … perhaps there doesn’t have to be an obligation to invite them to these major life moments.
Basically, this is your permission slip to openly decline any and all Berthas in your life. That goes for weddings, birthday parties, baby showers … you name it. Don’t let her in!
3. Get drunk afterward.
As long as you take a shot for Grandma Lill.
After the ceremony honors what’s lost, take a moment to let go and move forward with the life that is still around you. Something tells me that letting it all go and celebrating life is something Grandma Lill’s a pro at.
Of course, funerals aren’t the only topic Grandma Lill can make you laugh about. Her TikTok channel is a carefully curated gallery of pure funny. Everything from bingo jokes to advice for getting back at your ex (yeah, she shows no mercy) can be found here
Every year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences try to fix the Oscars, and every year they somehow make it worse. They’ve tried removing hosts (if not of their own volition). They’ve tried making it more serious. They’ve tried making it less serious, only for it to result in violence. Who on earth can save the Oscars? Maybe they should look to one of the winners.
In a new interview with The Daily Beast, Richard Linklater — the beloved filmmaker who scored a trophy for Boyhood a handful of years back — opened up about the ceremony that no one seems to like anymore. And he had some ideas on how to fix it. Instead of not airing certain awards and generally exuding self-hatred, he thinks they should go the other way.
“I wish they’d get more hardcore,” Linklater said. “There were two ways to go, and instead of reaching out to a younger audience just get more rigorous. Don’t pander. Don’t cut categories and say, ‘Well, nobody cares who edits.’ Bullshit. The industry should! And they do.”
The filmmaker argued that the Oscars have been self-hating for a while now, pointing out they moved the lifetime achievement awards to a separate, non-televised ceremony. “You’d see Satyajit Ray or Robert Altman, and they’d be a part of it, and it was a highlight to see the aging filmmaker come up and get their honorary Oscar,” he recalled. “It was a beautiful moment and usually the person would die the next year, so it was almost a curse. But to me, that was one of my favorite moments, and they said, no, we’ll just kick that to the Governors Awards.”
Indeed, what could have been a big, actually heartwarming moment — Denzel Washington giving a lifetime achievement trophy to Samuel L. Jackson and getting a massive bearhug in the process — happened two days before the telecast, only getting love on social media. But clearly the minds behind the Oscars know what they’re doing.
For decades, New York Yankees fans would chant “1918” whenever the hated Red Sox came to town. That was before David Ortiz arrived. “Big Papi,” as he is affectionately known, in 2004 helped reverse the “Curse of the Bambino” famously plaguing Boston for the previous 86 years, and helping the team win two more World Serieses in 2007 and 2013. Thus cementing his place not just in Boston lore, but in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
Paying homage to his recent hall of fame induction, Vermont-based distillery WhistlePig teamed up with the slugger to create a truly unique rye whiskey. For WhistlePig’s new PiggyBack Legends Series: Big Papi Barrel, Ortiz worked directly with the whiskey makers to create this very baseball-centric whiskey (confused? more on that in a second).
Since it’s a limited-edition expression, the bottles are only available for purchase at shop.whistlepigwhiskey.com for $49.99 (starting March 31st). If you want a bottle signed by Big Papi himself, you can purchase one for $340 (in honor of his number 34), with proceeds going to the David Ortiz Boston Heart Classic. It should be noted that while this is a baseball and Boston Red Sox-themed bottle, it’s only the first edition of the brand’s limited-edition single barrel series (“PiggyBack Legends”), with more expressions to come later this year, in partnership with Barstool Sports.
Whether its association with Big Papi and the Sawx makes it sound more or less attractive is something only you the individual consumer can answer. Here’s what we found inside the bottle.
WhistlePig PiggyBack Legends Series: Big Papi Barrel
WhistlePig
ABV: 48.28%
Average Price: $49.99 (MSRP)
The Whiskey:
This expression is a 100-percent rye whiskey from Canada that was aged for a minimum of six years in American oak barrels. Here’s where things get wild: it was finished in barrels containing David Ortiz’s signature toasted DO34 maple wood bats (if you thought you missed hearing the crack of the bat every spring, wait until you taste it). It’s then bottled at 96.56 proof.
Tasting Notes:
The nose starts with a sweet hint of crème brulee, candied orange peel, and goes into candied almonds before heading head-on into spicy, peppery rye. The nose is so complex and welcoming, my expectations were fairly high for the flavor. While not as flavorful as expected and a little muted, there are notes of toasted vanilla beans, almond butter, sticky toffee, butterscotch candy, and pleasing, warming, spicy cracked black pepper. The finish is a nice mix of pepper and sweetness.
Bottom Line:
You might assume that a gimmicky, limited-edition Whistle expression that was aged with the Red Sox legend’s bats would be more flash than substance. And while I can’t tell you what exactly the addition of the baseball bat wood actually did to the overall flavor, this is a decent sipping whiskey that’s worth the $49.99 price tag.
Ranking:
85/100. If you can get past the tie-in with baseball, or you’re not a Sawx fan, this is a flavorful, complex rye that has a nice mix of sweetness and spice. There are other, better whiskeys out there, but this one is overall pretty solid for the price.
The first weekend of Coachella is less than two weeks away and the festival might be scrambling to replace a headliner. This comes after yesterday’s report that Kanye West has pulled out of his headlining performance for the West Coast’s marquee two-weekend festival. But as they say in the business, the show must go on, and we can safely assume that Coachella will have this figured out in due time. If you’re holding a pass to the desert festival, there’s literally hundreds of other acts and experiences to look forward to. Furthermore, Coachella just launched a new free NFT for all pass-holders in partnership with the FTX platform and it’s actually a pretty cool new addition to the overall experience.
Dubbed the 2022 “In Bloom NFT,” the NFT design is a technicolor digital seed designed by Jonathan Zawada, that blooms Friday morning of each of the two festival weekends into one of seven desert flowers. It’s just a beautiful design to begin with, but the bloomed NFT flowers can be redeemed for on-site perks like dedicated entry-line access, merch, and food & beverage vouchers. If you’ve arrived late enough into the afternoon in the past, then you know how tedious the general admission entry line can be.
Jonathan Zawada/FTX
Also, a random batch for the In Bloom NFT blooms into one of six “rare” flowers that will yield premium upgrades at the fest. Things like VIP passes, passes to Coachella 2023, tickets to other Goldenvoice concerts, and even a ride on the giant ferris wheel. Say what you will about the proliferation of NFT culture on the internet, but this shows their practical functionality and undoubtedly a cool way to enhance the Coachella attendee experience.
Full info on the 2022 In Bloom NFT can be found here and Coachella pass-holders can already begin to claim their free NFT using their wristband code on the FTX app.
Just as Justin Bieber’s Justice World Tourwas kicking off in February, the pop star announced the “Justice In Action” initiative. The effort connects fans on tour with local and national social justice organizations, to get them to interact, donate, and just flat out engage with these causes. It shows real recognition from the “Love Yourself” singer of the influence he has on close to 100 tour stops in 20 countries worldwide. Now, Bieber is adding to his altruistic effort with his latest initiative to offer free therapy sessions to Beliebers and his tour crew.
Bieber has partnered with online therapy platform BetterHelp, the world’s largest therapy platform, to offer free online therapy sessions to his fans and his touring crew of more than 250 people. The partnership offers a free month of online therapy to fans, which they can also choose to share with a friend or loved one in need. Meanwhile, the touring crew has unlimited access to licensed therapists for 18 months. This is a more than $3 million effort from BetterHelp, whose website states that Bieber “is not being compensated for this initiative.”
“The one thing I’ve learned over the years is that we all go through our ups and downs, and we all need help sometimes,” Bieber said in a statement. “Being able to offer access to free therapy to my fans and tour family is a real blessing, and I’m humbled to be able to do it.”
This is an incredible undertaking from both Bieber and BetterHelp. For tour crew especially, who deal with the physical and mental stress of day-today set-up of this complex tour. Not to mention what the touring industry has had to deal with following the pandemic, which ravaged many people’s livelihoods.
Seventeen security officers at Baltimore Museum of Art now have the added title of “guest curators” for an inclusive (rather than exclusive) new exhibit called “Guarding The Art.”
It was a full-scale hands-on project: The security team worked with professional art historian and curator Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims to not only research and select pieces, but to weigh in on nearly every aspect of the exhibit, from installation details to scheduling tours. And each participant received compensation for their time in addition to the creative opportunity.
The collection was intentionally designed to be eclectic and personal. No genre, style or medium was off limits (works range from a sixth century pre-Columbian sculpture to a protest collage made in 2021) and the officers all brought other unique aspects of their lives into the mix, such as being a published poet, bartender, dog walker, chef, philosophy major and, yes, even a painter, to name a few wonderful examples. We aren’t just our day jobs, after all.
The guards’ more personal approach helped breathe new life into art appreciation. Dr. Sims told NPR, “I was so energized and enthused to hear these extraordinary reactions to art. It was so beyond the art-speak that I’m used to. It was fresh, immediate, and perceptive.”
When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Museum security guards spend upwards of eight hours a day, multiple days a week, next to the pieces we tend to walk by after about 20 seconds. Who better to curate the art than those who spend the most time with it?
And yet, these workers are often treated as unapproachable, invisible fixtures of the museum itself. Certainly not fellow humans.
“I think some visitors just don’t even know we exist, to be honest,” security team member Chris Koo told CBS News. “A lot of us hope that more visitors will ask us and have conversations with us about the art, rather than asking us where the bathroom is. We are kinda shadows of the museum.”
Asma Naeem, the museum’s head curator, told CNN/CBS, “It’s a simple idea, but it’s asking some very profound questions about who is art for? Who are museums for? Who gets to talk about the arts? Who holds the knowledge? Are there other kinds of people who have knowledge about art that we want to be hearing from? And the answer is: yes, absolutely. This show overall is telegraphing to the public, art is for everyone.”
This unspoken separation is what gave Naeem and board of trustees member Amy Elias the idea in the first place. “Guarding the Art” was a chance to bring more diversity into the art conversation and be more representative of the community the museum serves.
Now museum-goers will have all the more reason to invite some friendly chat with the guards standing next to the pieces. BMA hopes that other museums will follow suit in an effort to encourage that ever-powerful ingredient found in so many great works of art: a bid for human connection.
Even amidst a larger boom in whiskeys, rye stands out as a category in the midst of a renaissance. It seems like there’s a great new rye dropping every week. Which is great for rye enthusiasts, but damn near impossible to keep up with (even when you’re in the industry). We thought we could help — at least a little — by calling out the partcular ryes we think you should absolutely be drinking right now.
The 10 rye whiskeys below are either new drops from this year, late last year, or reissues/yearly releases that we think are still worth drinking too. I’ve pulled tasting notes from my books and ranked these based on taste alone. Look at it this way: the bottom few selections are perfectly good ryes that fit more as mixers than sippers. The top five or so are all bangers that work as unique sippers, each with different attributes that help them pop. My advice is to read through the tasting notes and find something that speaks to your palate, then dive in.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This whiskey is a bit of a throwback with a West Coast vibe. The juice is 100 percent rye whiskey made at Anchor Brewing in Portero Hill, one of San Francisco’s most iconic spots for booze. As of this year, the spirit is being distilled on the waterfront in San Francisco but still carries that Anchor Brewing heritage. With that move, the bottle also got a brand new design that leans into San Francisco’s sea-faring history.
Tasting Notes:
Rich is the adjective that comes to mind on the nose, as oily vanilla pods mingle with dense and moist sticky toffee pudding with a rich and buttery caramel sauce, plenty of mulled wine spices, and a light kick of sweet oak. The palate has a ginger snaps/pecan sandie feel with a fair amount of dried ginger and cinnamon sticks dipped in cherry syrup. That sweet and spicy mid-palate leads toward a finish that’s slightly dry with a sense of wicker next to spiced tobacco leaves.
Bottom Line:
This runs a little spicy, making it perfect as a mixer. The boldness of this rye means that it’ll really stand up in a Sazerac or boulevardier. It also makes for a bold and spicy highball with some nice fizzy water and plenty of ice. Maybe add an orange peel to help it pop.
This affordable rye is a sourced whiskey from MGP and has become a yearly standard or must-have, especially for mixing cocktails. It’s the famed 95-percent rye, aged for just under three years, that’s dominated the market for the last decade or so. The juice is blended by master blender Dave Carpenter and is brought down to a very reasonable 92 proof with soft Kentucky limestone water.
Tasting Notes:
This opens with rushes of cedar, green grass, nasturtiums, and soft leather. The palate feels like common black pepper next to more cedar with a touch of wet chili pepper flesh. The end combines mint, chocolate, and tobacco and packs all three into an old cigar box, and then dusts the whole thing with white pepper.
Bottom Line:
I swear this gets better every year I try it. The latest drop is the same recipe but feels that little more refined thanks to Carpenter’s continual growth as a master blender. All of that aside, this is a quintessential mixing rye. It works wonders in any cocktail or highball.
This rye is Texas in a bottle. This expression is made of 100-percent rye from a mix of Elbon Rye sourced from Northwest Texas, as well as crystal, chocolate, and roasted rye. The juice is then aged for just under two years in a hot Texas rickhouse and cut with Hill Country spring water and nothing else.
Tasting Notes:
Cherries dipped in chocolate support black tea bitterness, light oak char, and a rush of cracked black pepper. The pepper leads the way as the bitter chocolate leans into an oolong green tea vibe as the sip gains a creamy and buttery toffee taste. The sip then barrels towards its end with a flourish of roasted peanuts and more of that tea bitterness and a final hint of salted dark chocolate-covered raspberry.
Bottom Line:
While we haven’t reached the ryes I’d line up for every year when they drop, this one is close. This is unique rye that remains an outlier batch after batch. Now the question is this: Is this getting better every year? Or is my palate getting more accustomed to it every year? Either way, it’s great rye that shines as both an on-the-rocks sipper and a killer cocktail base. I’m always looking forward to the next batch.
7. Pursuit United Blended Straight Rye Whiskey (December 2021)
This release is a blend of whiskeys from Kentucky and Maryland (which is the source of America’s rye whiskey heritage). The Kentucky rye is from Bardstown Bourbon Company (a 95-percent rye), which is contract distilling and aging whiskey for Pursuit United. The other rye is from Maryland’s famed and beloved Sagamore Spirits (a 52-percent rye), which makes some of the best ryes in the country. Kenny Coleman and Ryan Cecil took barrels from each warehouse and masterfully married them to create this expression with a touch of water to bring the proof down a notch.
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a big Kentucky rye vibe of cherry syrup spiked with loads of cinnamon and nutmeg next to an almost buttery note that’s part brown sugar streusel and part caramel candy beside a slight hint of leather. There’s also a touch of vanilla extract lurking in the background of the nose. The palate is so soft and builds from that cherry spiced syrup towards a hint of wet wicker to an apple tree that ends on the stems and core of an overripe Granny Smith. The finish takes its time and has a light touch of dark spice that’s more on the sweeter side than “hot,” while the apple gets woodier and hints at the brown sugar and vanilla very late.
Bottom Line:
This late drop from last year is still a must-try in 2022. This is also the last rye on the list that I’d lean more towards recommending as a mixer than a classic sipper. I think this is perfectly fine on the rocks, but really makes for a better Manhattan base.
6. Four Gate Whiskey Company Batch 7 “River Kelvin Rye” (December 2021)
Four Gate is one of those brands that whiskey nerds will rave about while the rest of the whiskey-drinking world remains in the dark. This expression is a seven-year-old MGP 95 that’s bottled as-is from the barrels. This is on purpose, as Kelvin’s team plans to release this rye again with two different finishings throughout the rest of 2022, making this expression a launching pad.
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a hint of lemon custard and orange oils that leads towards dried mint leaves and a bit of dill on the backend of the nose. The palate lets that orange shine as soft notes of vanilla smooth everything out and makes way for freshly cracked black pepper and candied lemon rinds with a hint of a cigar humidor. The pepper and vanilla work in tandem to bring about a finish that’s very bright with more lemon candy bespeckled with black pepper and a spicy tobacco vibe.
Bottom Line:
If you can get your hands on this one, you’ll be in for a treat. It’s complex yet classic. It’s spicy yet soft and sweet. There are real layers to this whiskey that are worth taking your time to dig into with a little water or a rock. Still, that “classic” vibe holds this one back ever-so-slightly from the bangers on the rest of this list.
5. George Dickel x Leopold Bros Collaboration Blend (October 2021)
The blend is built from four-year-old rye made in Denver at Leopold’s distillery. The rye is their Three Chamber Rye, with a mash bill of 80 percent Abruzzi Rye and 20 percent Leopold Floor Malt. That’s blended with George Dickel’s un-released new column still rye, which is a 95 percent rye cut with five percent malted barley.
Tasting Notes:
The nose on this rings like crafty rye with clear notes of bright florals (think lavender and orange blossom) next to an almost woody touch of maple syrup straight from the treetap with a very mild dusting of dark cacao powder and soft leather that really draws you in. The palate delivers on the promise of the nose, with touches of holiday-spiced orange oils and rosewater leading towards light marzipan next to a prickly bramble of berry bushes hanging heavy with dark, sweet, and slightly tart fruit. The florals come in again with lavender leading the way this time. That note is tied to salted caramel-covered dates. The mid-palate holds onto the sweet and meaty date while bitter yet floral Earl Grey tea with a healthy dollop of fresh honey leads towards a finish full of more of that powdery dark cacao just touched by dry chili flakes, adding a slight embrace of warmth to the very backend.
Bottom Line:
This is where things get great. This is a wildly unique and delicious whiskey. It’s also kind of fun to drink as you go back and forth on the nose and the palate, finding new notes and flavors, adding a little more water, and really taking your time to dig in. While all of that sounds a tad pretentious, this whiskey is anything but. It’s easy-going while still offering all that depth.
This rye was made back in 2003 from Minnesota Rye, Kentucky corn, and North Dakota barley. The juice spent 18-and-a-half years in warehouses K and P on the second and fourth floors. Finally, it was vatted, proofed with that iconic Kentucky limestone water, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
The nose draws you in with this medley of fresh and earthy honeycombs next to bushels of freshly picked Granny Smith apples sitting in straw baskets with a hint of oily herbs like rosemary and thyme. There’s a heft to the body of this sip that touches on clove and allspice while the sweetness edges towards fresh maple syrup with a touch of butter. The mid-palate veers swiftly away from that sweetness towards an espresso bean bitterness, meaty dates soaked in Earl Grey tea, and milky yet dark chocolate bars sprinkled with smoked salt flakes.
Bottom Line:
Last fall’s Buffalo Trace Antique Collection release is still pretty present in whiskey conversations, even in the spring of 2022. This whiskey is straight fire. It’s classic but bold in all the right ways. This is a big whiskey that feels personally built to bring you comfort. While it’s wildly overpriced on the secondary market, it’s worth at least trying to get a sense of just how amazing rye whiskey can be.
This whiskey dropped at the very end of December 2021. The juice in the barrel is rye whiskey that spent 13 years chilling in the cool Cascade Hollow warehouses in Tennessee. The barrels were then hand selected by Cascade Hollow’s general manager and distiller Nicole Austin for their perfection. They were then proofed down only just to 100 proof and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is incredibly fresh with bursts of green apple, freshly cut sweet grass, citrus oils, roses, and fresh cinnamon sticks. The palate leans into the green apple with a tart edge as the spices kick up with a wintry vibe before a savory note arrives with a hint of dill, anise, and maybe some rosemary. On the mid-palate, the citrus comes back with a bright orange and grapefruit touch that turns into wet black peppercorns, white moss, and an echo of dried green tea leaves. The finish lets that green tea vibe settles into the earthiness and savory herbs as the sip slowly fades out, leaving you with a whisper of dried wicker deck furniture.
Bottom Line:
This and the next two entries could’ve all been number one. This is a fantastic rye in every respect. It’s nuanced, feels new, and delivers serious flavors. This really feels like Nicole Austin dropping the mic on a second great rye in just a few months’ time (the Leopold Bros. collab above being the other mic drop).
Like Michter’s beloved bourbon, this too is pulled from single barrels that were just too good to vat or cut with water. The juice — released in early March of 2022 — is bottled as-is at a slightly higher proof than when it went in the barrel.
Tasting Notes:
That dark cherry note is still there on the nose but this it’s supported by a butterscotch candy and a mulled wine spice mix that’s heavy on the cinnamon. The palate evens out with this creamy vanilla foundation that’s touched with eggnog spices next to a slight note of smoke — as if someone lit the vanilla husks on fire and let them smolder — while the cherry leans into a spicy tobacco warmth. That spicy tobacco drives towards a Tellicherry black peppercorn, adding to the woody depth of the dry and warm finish, bringing about a true Kentucky hug.
Bottom Line:
This is the rye I pour for people who aren’t sure if they like rye. This feels classic in a way that’s not basic. It’s elevated and refined. And it’s just plain delicious. That’s hard to beat.
Last year’s Barrell Seagrass Rye was beloved across the whiskey world. This year, Barrell upped the ante by releasing a special edition that’s a 16-year-old version of that same whiskey. This whiskey is made from a 100 percent Canadian rye that’s finished in Martinique rhum, Madeira, and apricot brandy casks. Those casks are vatted at Barrell’s warehouse and bottled as-is at a very high ABV.
Tasting Notes:
You’d never guess this was a high-ABV whiskey on the nose, which is a wild one. There are hints of mustard seed, fresh dill, flat-leaf parsley, rosemary sticks, and fennel that lead to crusty rye bread with a slab of salted butter, chewy tobacco leaves, espresso cream bitterness, and a black potting soil vibe. There’s also a hint of spicy cornbread in there somewhere too. The palate opens with crunchy peanut butter cookies with dark chocolate drops next to black olive brine, oat milk lattes, fancy Almond Joys, grapefruit pith, and a touch of cucumber. The mid-palate leans into the sweet spice and citrus as the finish mellows and dries towards lemongrass, peanut oil, and dried black tea leaves layered into a stack of fresh tobacco leaves.
Bottom Line:
This might be my favorite whiskey of the year (overall) at this point. It’s just f*cking incredible, fresh, and new. It feels like it’s respecting the variation rye can have while pushing the style in a new direction. It’s worth every penny of that $250 price tag.
If you were one of the major stars cast in the 1978 film version of Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie’s beloved Hercule Poirot romp, you got a vacation out of it, too. The entire production was filmed on location, in Egypt. If you were cast in the new, plagued version starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh, you weren’t as lucky. Despite taking place in North Africa, the entire film was shot on a studio lot in Surrey, England, far from the pyramids of Giza.
Of course, you’d never know that to look at it! Or would you? The long-delayed murder mystery, which didn’t performed as well as the last Branagh-Poirot outing, recently hit Hulu, and now people are noticing that its movie magic isn’t always so magical.
I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances. I don’t know if it’s laziness or cost cutting but so many shots look so much worse now than in the nineties. Look at these shots from DEATH ON THE NILE. It looks like it was shot at a local tv station’s weather map set. pic.twitter.com/eDt10FieyM
A clip recently went viral showing some of the CGI backgrounds an army of techies whipped up to create the illusion that it was filmed in Egypt, all while the cast, among them Branagh and Annette Bening, was stranded in less sunny England. And, well, it’s not terribly convincing.
“I believe CGI is getting worse even as the tech advances,” one person wrote. “I don’t know if it’s laziness or cost cutting but so many shots look so much worse now than in the nineties. Look at these shots from DEATH ON THE NILE. It looks like it was shot at a local tv station’s weather map set.”
The filmmakers can’t even blame the pandemic on the lack of real location shooting. Nile was filmed back in 2019, before COVID turned film shoots into social distancing land mines, and long before one of its stars, Armie Hammer, was outed as an alleged sex freak and was subsequently no long all that present in the advertising.
As the clip made its way across social media, there were tons of jokes at its expense.
Back in the day, 50 percent of the point of making a movie called DEATH ON THE NILE was the promise that they’re going to take actors and movie cameras and a cinematographer to a cool-looking place that you’ve probably never been to and show you what it looks like https://t.co/T3488KkOs7
I think some of us are vastly misremembering how bad cgi was in the 90s. I was there. I remember Xena and Buffy. Not saying it’s great, but we would have seen this in the 90s and our minds would’ve been blown. https://t.co/dFsNv6mC2k
I noted this in my review, but it’s worth reiterating how *incredibly cheap* this movie (that I actually liked!) looks. The Emma Mackey entrance highlighted in the next tweet should’ve cost someone somewhere their job. https://t.co/5YD6a0LRtl
in all honestly I don’t get why you film an adaptation of Death on the Nile and not have it be on location. that novel exists to give British actors an excuse to film in Egypt https://t.co/VzwT8IyD0D
Some pointed out the real problem is with the lighting of the real-life actors not matching the CGI.
It isn’t CGI making it look terrible.
It’s bad lighting.
This is on a chroma key stage. The effect doesn’t work because the stage is lit wrong. It looks like indoor lighting, rather than sunlight. Like they’re doing the weather report in front of pyramids. https://t.co/9eR45NyOVr
— ｢Dᴀɴ｣ c0mms open! info in pinned (@lustycomic_) April 5, 2022
There were also other examples of bad CGI backgrounds from the movie.
Look at this entrance shot of Emma Mackey. Looks like a 90’s blue screen shot. pic.twitter.com/xQP1wwviLc
The images look even worse when compared with the ’78 version of Nile with Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, Mia Farrow, and more, which, again, was actually shot in Egypt.
It’s especially galling when you compare it to Jack Cardiff’s stunning location work for the 1978 film: pic.twitter.com/DvP94nZEm9
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
c0mms open! info in pinned (@lustycomic_)