Never one to pass up a chance to parrot right-wing talking points, former The View co-host Meghan McCain dedicated her latest Daily Mail column to championing Top Gun: Maverick as an anti-woke “wake up call” for Hollywood. Earlier in the week, far-right radio host Steve Gruber claimed the film is a “warning” that Democrats will lose the midterm elections because the sequel shows that “American pride” is at an all-time high. McCain echoed similar thoughts by staking Top Gun: Maverick‘s box office success on its unbridled patriotism and… the Taiwenese flag on Maverick’s flight jacket that everyone totally remembers from the first movie?
The movie isn’t overly political, it isn’t depressing, it isn’t focusing on the flaws of the United States of America and why we suck and why our flag and national anthem aren’t worth honoring. The filmmakers also took a stand against the sickening Hollywood trend of pandering to the demands of the totalitarian Chinese government.
In the 1986 original movie, there is a patch depicting the Taiwanese flag on Maverick’s flight jacket. But during 2019 previews, the patch had been removed to alleged appease Chinese censors. Movie-goers were happy to see the flag had been restored in the film — a signal that neither the filmmakers nor Cruise are content with being lapdogs to the Chinese regime.
As McCain wonders “why has it taken modern Hollywood so long to realize how to make a successful movie,” conveniently sidestepping massive blockbuster hauls from recent films like Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Batman, she claims that Top Gun: Maverick is definitive proof that “Hollywood must wake up to the reality that ‘go woke, go broke’ is real.”
Here’s the thing though, while Maverick’s opening weekend is obviously huge and a career best for Cruise, its domestic box office haul was only $124 million. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness beat that total by almost 50% with a box office take of $184 million. That film openly featured a lesbian superhero and her two mothers. But, yes, Meghan, it’s the lack of “wokeness” that made Top Gun: Maverick the only successful movie of the year. You really stuck it to Hollywood.
There are a few movie tropes that work well when it comes to a comedy/crime thriller: there’s the lone soldier who teams up with a comic relief sidekick, the case of mistaken identity which brings normal people into the crime world, or just the general intimidating group of beautiful people who commit crimes, but in a “they had it coming!” type of way. The Man From Toronto has all of these tropes, and more!
Woody Harrelson stars as the titular Man From Toronto, a violent assassin who is sent on a deadly mission. But, due to a string of mishaps, Kevin Hart is mistaken for the killer and has to pretend to be the killer after meeting the real man from Toronto. Chaos ensues!
As per the official description: “A case of mistaken identity arises after a screw-up sales consultant and the world’s deadliest assassin—known only as The Man from Toronto— run into each other at a holiday rental.” Oh boy, does this one sound like a doozy! But Harrelson isn’t one to phone in his performances, so it might actually be good.
The film also stars The Flight Attendant‘s Kaley Cuoco, Jasmine Matthews, Lela Loren, Pierson Fode, and Ellen Barkin. The Man From Toronto is the latest story from Jason Blumenthal (not to be confused with Jason Blum) directed by Patrick Hughes. It drops on June 22nd on Netflix. Check out the trailer above.
When it comes to Scottish single malt whisky, it’s easy to assume that it’s all for sipping given the generally higher price tag. That’s very much not true. There are plenty of kerosene-level rot-gut Scotch whiskies on the shelf at any given liquor store. Look at it this way, just because a scotch bottle has an elk on it doesn’t mean it’s going to be the good stuff.
Quality is something that’s found. It’s not a given — not in Scotch, bourbon, rum, tequila, or beer.
So what do I mean when I say “sipping” scotch? I’m talking about single malt whiskies that have balance to them that also take you a journey from the nose to the finish. There are clear notes that have specificity both on the nose and the palate — think “vanilla frosting” or “vanilla pudding” instead of just “vanilla.” But perhaps more importantly, a good sipping single malt leaves you with a warm and comforting feeling. Sure, the flavor notes are important, but how that sip leaves you is just as important.
Do you want another pour? Do you want to tell your friends about it? Do you stop caring about the price tag? These are all feelings that good sipping whisky leaves you with.
To that end, I’m calling out ten great sipping single malt Scotch whiskies below that I personally vouch for. Each one offers something a little different, so I’ve ranked them according to which I personally reach for the most. Hopefully, you can find one that speaks to you and go from there.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Scotch Whisky Posts of The Last Six Months
This Highland whisky is a stop between the brand’s entry-level 12-year and their bolder 18-year. In this case, the single malt spends 14 years mellowing in ex-bourbon casks before it’s transferred to French Limousin casks for a final touch of maturation.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a nice mix of fresh apple fritters with yeasty cinnamon rolls with a vanilla frosting trying them together as a quiet note of winter spice and old cedar planks mingle on the nose. The palate leans into the apple with a spiced apple cider with plenty of anise, clove, and cinnamon that’s countered by a svelte nougat, a touch of leather, and more of that old wood. The end is part of apple pie and part creamy nougat with a tiny whisper of fireplace smoke on the very end.
Bottom Line:
This is a great place to start. Loch Lomond 14 isn’t overly complicated but it still delivers clear and precise notes on the nose and tongue. Moreover, as someone from the Pacific Northwest, which is apple country. I always appreciate a good, apple-forward soft single malt like this.
The Balvenie is renowned for doing everything in-house from growing grains to making their own barrels while also being the distillery that spearheaded the whole “finishing whisky in a different cask” movement. In this case, the juice spends 14 years maturing in ex-bourbon barrels. The whisky is then batched and transferred to barrels that The Balvenie aged their own blend of West Indies rum in.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a welcoming rush of buttery toffee up top with hints of brown spices, bright red berries, and a touch of sweet malts. The palate brings around creamy vanilla dotted with those sweet and slightly tart red berries next to a very soft and sweet oakiness. The finish is medium-length and full of soft wood, vanilla cream, and a touch of that brown spice.
Bottom Line:
This is a good entry-point sipper in general. It’s easy drinking while having some serious depth. It’s also pretty goddamn smooth all things considered. The only reason it’s a little lower on the list for me is that it is a little… forgettable for me. There’s nothing that really grabs your attention.
That said, I’d never turn down a pour of this one.
This Campbeltown whisky is distilled at the iconic Springbank Distillery. The whisky is a no-age-statement release that leans into the peatier end of the Springbank offerings. The whisky is bottled with a little water added to cut the proof down but without filtration or added color.
Tasting Notes:
You get a big whiff of vanilla pudding on the nose that leads towards singed marshmallow and a backyard firepit vibe with fresh, savory herbs growing nearby and fruit trees (think pear and peach) hanging overhead, adding a light fruity woodiness. The palate lights those fruity wood on fire and lets the soft and sweet smoke drive the taste as the creamy vanilla is counterpointed by a slight Ace Bandage note and an earthy dry clay. The finish takes its time and lets the sweet smoke slowly fade away while a hint of sweet vanilla lingers underneath the pall.
Bottom Line:
This is like Springbank, Jr., and you can actually find it for a good price. That said, if you’re really into Springbank, this will feel a little one-note in contrast to that iconic sibling brand. If you don’t know Springbank, then this will be one hell of a nice pour.
High up on the Orkney Islands, Highland Park is making whisky for modern-day Vikings. Valknut (a knot of three triangles honoring those who fell in battle) uses locally grown “Tartan barley” that’s malted with a bit of local peat. That whisky spends an undisclosed amount of time aging in American oak that held sherry. The juice is vatted, proofed with Orkney’s soft water, and bottled in a bespoke Viking-inspired bottle.
Tasting Notes:
Imagine vanilla pods warming up in a pan and just starting to release their oils and smoke next to a hint of black pepper and cedar. The palate holds onto that vanilla while adding a touch of black licorice and clove next to more cedar and maybe some fennel-crusted rye bread. The finish holds onto the spice with a chewy tobacco vibe next to an almost fatty smoke from a backyard salmon smoker and a touch of orange oils.
Bottom Line:
This has an interesting bourbon/rye vibe that builds upon that pure Northern Scottish peated malt. It’s briny and full of smoked fish fat, which hits a hardcore nostalgia for me.
Glenmorangie has finally made this a regular drop on the North American market. The juice is made from Highland barley grown exclusively on the 440-acre Cadboll Estate, which surrounds the distillery. The juice is then filled into French casks which held Muscat and Sémillon wines. It’s then left alone for 15 years to mature. Finally, those barrels are batched and brought down to a low 86 proof with local highland spring water.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a sense of buttered scones with lemon curd next to a good dose of vanilla and a touch of savory herbs on the nose. The palate really holds onto that biscuity nature while adding in a caramel candy note next to a bit of butter with a white sugar cube vibe. That lemon comes back on the short finish with hints of old straw and strawberry jam.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those sippers that’s just nice. You take a sip and you’re immediately put at ease. You exhale and your worries melt away for a moment. That’s a quintessential sipper. The only reason I have it a little lower is that it’s a little thin on the palate for me. I’d like it closer to 50% ABV to get a little more oomph. But that’s just me.
“Oog-a-dal!” This dram from Islay is a blend of old and young single malts aged in ex-sherry casks and ex-bourbon casks. The final product is a single malt that’s deeply flavored yet still approachable.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a definite peat smoke on the nose but it’s kissed with sea brine and counterpointed by notes of holiday cake stuffed with candied orange, fatty nuts, dried fruit, and plenty of dark spice. Those spices marry to the smoke as the palate sweetens with toffee and becomes almost like silk with a rich choco-tobacco chew arriving late, bringing a buzz to the tongue. The end really embraces that chew as notes of toffee, dried fruit, and spice lurk behind the billows of briny smoke.
Bottom Line:
This is a true classic peated Islay malt. It’s complex, fresh, fun, and truly takes you on a journey from the craggy and long sandy beaches of the Inner Hebrides to your grandma’s kitchen during the holidays.
And honestly, from this point on in this ranking, it comes down to mood and flavor notes more than anything else because all of these bottles slap…
This Highland malt has made a roaring comeback (the expression went on hiatus from 2015 to 2018). Revival 15 takes its sherried nature very seriously. The juice is aged in a combination of Pedro Ximénez and Oloroso sherry casks for 15 long years. Those casks are married and this whisky is brought down to a very easy-drinking 92 proof with that soft Highland water.
Tasting Notes:
Dark berry brambles with tart and sweet fruit, stems, thorns, and even a little black dirt draw you in on the nose with a hint of walnut shell and cherry pie. The palate is a creamy-yet-bitter dark chocolate orange that leads toward a semi-savory fig countered by ripe apricot. The chocolate comes back with cinnamon spice and more dark berries and walnut on the end.
Bottom Line:
I’m going to contradict myself and say that the lower ABV is perfect for this expression. It never feels light or thin, even though it’s a very standard 46 percent. Instead, you’re met with a rich and complex whisky that delivers from top to bottom with comfort and ease.
A’bunadh (ah-boon-arh) means “the original” in Gaelic and the juice in this Highland bottle represents that for Aberlour. The whisky is matured in old Oloroso sherry casks exclusively. The juice then goes into the bottle at cask strength, unfussed with.
Tasting Notes:
That sherry plumminess is evident right up top, with hints of bright orange oils, clumps of dark chocolate, honey, and nuts, and a hint of oak. The taste shines with notes of dark, ripe cherries, prunes, more bright orange zest, dark chocolate, and a good measure of svelte vanilla. The slow finish leaves you with a creamy mouthfeel next to bitter chocolate next to sweet cherries and plums, all of which lead towards a warming spice on the tongue at the end.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those whiskies that immediately elicits a reaction of “Oh, yeah, that’s f*cking good, isn’t it?!” when sipped neat. If that’s not a great sipper, I don’t know what is.
The 2021 Distillers Edition is a classic Talisker, aged by the sea, that’s finished for six months in Amoroso sherry casks. The whisky was distilled in 2011 and bottled at 10 years old. It was then finished in another Amoroso sherry cask, making it “double” matured.
Tasting Notes:
The nose runs deep on this whisky with mild hints of beachside campfire smoke whispering in the background as hints of red fruit, wet driftwood, and green peppercorns draw you in. The palate embraces the red berries with a slight tartness next to the sweetness as the peat remains dry and distant and tied to the brine of the sea with an almost oyster liquor softness. The finish lingers for just the right amount of time as sweet berries and dry peat lead towards soft dark cacao powder with a tiny note of vanilla and one last spray from the sea.
Bottom Line:
If you know my whisk(e)y writing, you’d know there was no way a Talisker wasn’t showing up. That aside, this is one of the subtlest yet most unique sips on the list. If you’re looking for a kiss from a mermaid that leads to a slow walk on a rainy beach toward a campfire with a brief stop at the berry patch, this is the whisky for you.
This is the most recognizable Lagavulin out there. The malts are smoked just down the road from the distillery at Port Ellen in Islay and the juice is crafted expertly by the sea at Lagavulin. Then the whisky spends 16 long years mellowing in old American and Spanish oak.
Tasting Notes:
Imagine a beach fire that’s using dried seaweed as fuel next to mugs of honeyed black tea and a clump of wet moss on the nose. The taste of this dram meanders through dried pipe tobacco smoke laced with hints of vanilla and tart apple while notes of briny caramel lead towards an oyster shell minerality. The finish is pure silk as the seaweed grows wetter and the smoke sweetens towards that caramel, vanilla, and apple.
Bottom Line:
This feels like the whisky you drink when you’ve graduated from the entry-level pours to the “good stuff.” This narrowly beats out Talisker on this list for having a little more going on that might feel familiar to an American bourbon drinker. And as I mentioned above, these top five are pretty much interchangeable in my mind and on my shelf, so I’d recommend finding the flavor profile that speaks to you the most and going from there.
Another standout single from Future’s new album, I Never Liked You, has received the video treatment. Unlike the video for “Wait For You,” which imagines Future and Drake as medieval knights, or the more abstract “Keep It Burning” video with Kanye West, the new video for “Puffin On Zootiez” takes a more literal approach, visually recreating the feeling of being extremely stoned with warped, smoky visuals. Future mainly appears in blurry, out-of-focus close-ups and performance shots seen through kaleidoscopic lenses.
I Never Liked You, Future’s ninth studio album, was also one of his most successful, landing at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 222,000 equivalent units sold — the biggest release of 2022 at the time. While that number was eventually blown away by Kendrick Lamar and his new album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, those 222,000 units are reflective of Future’s continued popularity after over a decade in the rap spotlight. In addition to being a big moment for Future, though, it also gave collaborators like Drake and Tems big accomplishments. “Wait For You” gave Drake his tenth No. 1 single on the Hot 100, making him the first rapper with that achievement. Tems’ appearance on the single also made her the first African artist to ever debut at No. 1 on the Hot 100.
The 2022 NBA Finals offers up a chance for Steph Curry to win his first Finals MVP award. It’s the lone trophy missing from his otherwise jam packed trophy case, and there’s been a whole lot of chatter in the lead-up to the Finals about what winning that would mean for Curry’s legacy, because apparently, winning that will confirm for some people that Steph Curry is, indeed, good at basketball.
Anyway, Wednesday’s episode of First Take included some Curry legacy chat, and at one point, Stephen A. Smith went on a rant about how Michael Jordan changed the game of basketball for the worse. His argument was more or less that Jordan made the game less team-centric and more based on the individual. You can watch it here.
It took a bit for one of Smith’s oldest foils, Kevin Durant, to see the clip and respond to it. In Durant’s eyes, players of Curry and Jordan’s caliber are not capable of changing the game for the worse, and the folks who do that are takesmen like Smith, Skip Bayless, and Shannon Sharpe.
My theory is that guys like steve, skip and Shannon have changed the game for the worse. Playas like Stephen and Michael can only push the game forward. https://t.co/0Oc9J2HqxS
Durant went on to say that, beyond it being damaging to the game, Smith’s take is just not accurate and “beyond insane.”
This take is absurd. Jordan started winning chips precisely bc he made a concerted effort to involve everyone. He could’ve easily averaged 35+ and chose not to for the sake of winning.
Listen, I’m writing a blog about this instead of something about the NBA Finals so I fully concede that I am part of the problem here. Having said that, this is the latest in a long line of times we’ve seen Durant call Smith out for stuff he says on ESPN, and if history is any precedent, we fully anticipate that Smith is going to say something in response.
You’ve probably seen Jax on TikTok, given that her videos routinely rack up millions of views apiece and have earned over 143 million likes in total. Much like Petey, she also his a discography of killer music to complement her social media stardom. Her biggest hit, last year’s emotive and soul-bearing ballad “Like My Father,” has nearly 40 million streams on Spotify. Now, she finds herself separated from the rest of the world for a remote performance of some of her other highlights.
For Uproxx and T-Mobile’s “Way Way Out Live” series, Jax headed to California’s Split Mountain (more specifically, 33°02’19.0″N 116°05’47.5″W) for renditions of “U Love U,” “Ring Pop,” and “Boys Who Like Boys.” The setup was kept minimal, with just a keyboard, speakers, and an accompanying guitarist. While Jax’ public life necessitates her to be very much on the grid, she sounds just fine off of it, too, as her voice had room to breathe out in the California desert.
Elsewhere in the video, she notes of her relationship with technology, “Over the course of the last few years, I’ve started to look at my phone like it was a stage. Every time I have a thought, I’m like, ‘Whatever. Let’s just put it out in the world and not let it go to waste.’ I think the coolest part about the era that we live in now is that people are craving authenticity, so I really, really want to be 100 percent authentic.”
Check out Jax’s performances in the video above.
Jax is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Haai, also known as Teneil Throssell, unveiled her debut full-length Baby, We’re Ascending just last month, and now she’s back with a music video for the title track.
“I’ve worked with Tom [Furse] across my entire album, including the video for ‘Purple Jelly Disc,’ the AI clouds on the digital album cover, my Mixmag cover and now for this,” Throssell told FACT. “He’s also creating some bespoke visuals for my bigger shows this year which I’m really excited about. I met Akira [Uchida] virtually as he had choreographed a dance piece to an older track of mine called ‘Feels’, which blew me away. His interpretation of my music and translating it into movement was really emotional to watch. It was a no-brainer for me to work with both Tom and Akira on the video.”
Uchida added, “The first thing that impacted me upon listening to the track was this feeling of it being heavenly and ethereal. The peak in the song gave me a very specific feeling of falling upwards into the sky and beyond (not to be confused with flying) which inspired some of the visuals at the end of the video. There is also an immensity in the sound which I felt was important to capture as well as a powerful feminine energy I wanted to channel in movement.”
One of the hardest parts of every vacation is figuring out the best place to stay. There are various factors to consider before booking accommodations — proximity to tourist attractions, spacious rooms, a balcony with a view, included amenities, good sheets — and the list goes on. Of course, the number one thing that keeps us from booking that hotel we really want is the hefty price tag. Luxury doesn’t come cheap…but it might come discounted thanks to Tripscout‘s latest product launch.
Tripscout, a social media travel empire that’s amassed more than 30 million followers across its many Instagram profiles, has introduced quite possibly the best travel hack to come along in a long time. Now, you can get insanely discounted hotel rates through just a simple DM. All you need to do is send the Instagram account @hotel a direct message saying “hotel.” Within seconds you’ll receive a personalized link serving up hotel discounts around the world for as much as 75% off.
To learn more about how Tripscout’s new hotel booking platform actually works and how it can save travelers money, we spoke with Tripscout’s founder, Konrad Waliszewski. Read on for everything you need to know before booking your next hotel.
Can you start by explaining exactly what the new Tripscout hotel booking platform is?
We’re building the first hotel booking platform for Instagram, and there are two really interesting components to this. One is the fact that we realized a long time ago that people search on Instagram for their travel inspiration and travel planning, long before anywhere else. We wanted to update the whole experience of how people plan and book travel, which is a more social media experience. The second thing is that there’s something really interesting in the industry. The interesting thing about the travel industry is every online travel agent and booking website and hotel website are all bound by these price parity agreements where everyone has to publicly advertise the same hotel rooms for the exact same rate.
That’s why everyone has the same room at the same price. But the key nuance that we tapped into is that you have to ‘publicly’ advertise that rate. Privately, as long as you’re an OTA, you can charge whatever you want for that room. What we realized is that we could become an OTA and have a direct message channel with 30 million followers across our accounts that are growing at 2 million followers a month. So we realized we could give people really compelling hotel deals by giving them a private booking link. So it’s a booking link that takes them to a booking website that’s exactly what they’re familiar with.
It’s like everyone else, except this booking link is personal and it can’t be shared and can’t be indexed by a search engine. So it’s your own link and has basically every hotel in the world, but with thousands of them being 25% to 75% off. We’ve decided we can pass pretty much all the savings back to the traveler. By DMing the account @hotel and sending the word “hotel,” you’ll get that personal link. It basically allows you to book hotels with a massive discount compared to what you’d find anywhere else, including the hotel website.
Chloe Caldwell
What else makes the new Tripscout platform stand out among other booking sites?
The social media angle for sure. But the main thing is just the fact of how much people can save because we’re able to deliver you these over DM, as opposed to just an open website. Especially right now, hotel prices are just skyrocketing. When we like really dug into our customers and our followers, we found that everyone wants to travel more. But the number one barrier to doing that is it’s just expensive. We wanted to find a way to help people travel better and travel more and spend less and do it at scale. That kind of put us on this long journey, which was the product that we ended up building.
We want people to be able to spend less and be able to travel more. How do you save some money on the hotel you’re going to book, but how do you then book those hotels that you find on Instagram that you really dream about that you just never thought you could afford? Because of our huge social reach, we were able to work with thousands of hotels and suppliers in order to give those crazy deals because they wanted access to our audience
We work with a bunch of different suppliers, so we pull in the best discounts on our website. That is compared to the best available rate publicly — what you would expect if you went to a hotel website or you went to any of those other really famous booking sites that everyone goes to. We are comparing it constantly to them. For some rooms, we have the same price. But for many of them, we’ll offer 50% off. Wow. And then we’ll have a couple of dozen that will be 25% to 50% off. You can almost always just end up finding a better rate and we’ll tell you what the market rate is compared to our price.
Chloe Caldwell
Do you have any specific tips for first-time users of the platform and how they can make the most of it?
The biggest tip is just flexibility. Just go to @hotel, DM the word ‘hotel,’ and explore whatever destination and dates are on your mind. Right now people have more flexibility than ever. The problem that most people have when booking travel is they pick a specific place and then they pick a specific date and then they try to find a flight and a hotel that match that exact time and place. What I’d actually say is just like play around with it, look at the places that you have on your list, and ask yourself, ‘where do I want to go?’ Because right now people have like so much more flexibility.
There’s a chance that you could go somewhere for longer, and you don’t even have to take a vacation. You could just go work remotely from that place. I would say play around and look at what’s available. Then I’d also look at flights. You can find those places that you’re like, ‘oh man, I’ve always wanted to go here.’ And then you just happen to find that there was this crazy 60% off deal for this really incredible place on the beach with this great view, and back into it that way. I would recommend that people just not pigeonhole themselves into a specific place and specific time. Browse around and see what’s possible.
Chloe Caldwell
I’ve been testing it and it really is a great travel hack. Why should people be excited to use this in the future?
When we were running our tests, people were blown away. They’re like, ‘I’m going here for a few days and I just saved $300 or $500.’ I think it’s the best travel hack that has come around in a long time. It’s probably the best way to save money on travel. There is this nuanced legacy in the travel industry, which is all dominated by a few companies that have been doing the exact same thing since the invention of the internet. And they haven’t really changed that model. The reason that becomes really expensive is that not a lot of people do it.
And then two, they have to spend a lot of money on advertising. Booking.com and Expedia together spend 12 billion a year. Wow. So a lot of their profit margin goes to just paying for advertising. We don’t pay for advertising because of social media. We have 30 million followers growing at a rate of over 2 million followers per month. We’re not gonna spend that money. We’re just gonna keep growing organically and pass all that savings to the customer. It’s a pretty new way of doing things. I’m hoping that people end up traveling a lot more and traveling a lot better while spend spending a lot less.
What inspired you to start Tripscout in the first place? And what has the journey of growing it so immensely over the past few years been like?
I’m a repeat entrepreneur, but travel was always my passion and obsession. I’ve traveled to 100 countries. I had a travel blog in the very early days of blogging and I don’t do it anymore, but I got deeply plugged into the travel industry and the travel community and I became friends with a lot of really big, early creators. I just saw a real fundamental shift happening with our society’s relationship to travel — why we travel, how we travel, what we hope to get out of the experience, and how we share those experiences with our friends. All that looks radically different over the last 10 to 15 years. But if you look at every single travel product and service you use, nothing has changed in over 20 years. Maybe with the exception of taking an Uber from the airport or booking an Airbnb.
I thought that we could create something for the modern traveler built for a modern time. We started building products and I ended up giving my personal cell phone number to the first 250,000 customers. I was like, “Hey, anytime you’re traveling, text me, call me, email me anytime. If you’re traveling, there’s a chance I’ve been, I’m happy to be helpful.” Through that, I learned so much about how people were planning trips and what their pain points were. That was one of the reasons we saw people search on Instagram before they did anything else. When it came to planning a trip, they went and typed in a destination into Instagram to get visual inspiration.
We basically pioneered the science of SEO for Instagram and built a hundred different brands. We’ve built a community around that. We’ve partnered with a bunch of creators and ended up building this 30 million follower community. Once we did that and we helped people have all these experiences and planned trips, we realized there’s so much value in traveling. Travel has changed peoples’ lives and opened their minds and made them better people, and given them really cool, fun experiences. Then we asked, why don’t you travel more?
So we knew that finding a way to make it more affordable would be the next big step. To double-tap into the affordability, people were seeing these really cool spots on Instagram, but so many people just couldn’t actually book those places. We wanted to find a better way. We had a really smart team working on it for a while until we came up with this approach.
Jordan Poole’s inaugural playoff campaign qualifies as a gigantic success. Through 16 games, the 22-year-old is averaging 18.4 points, 4.5 assists, and 3.2 rebounds on a scorching hot 67.3 percent true shooting. He’s buried 65 percent of his twos and 39.3 percent of his threes. He owns a pair of 30-point outbursts and has scored 20 or more seven times.
Many bright-eyed scorers can struggle when shrewd, savvy defenses hone in on their tendencies to expose shortcomings in the playoffs. Against a pair of top-7 defenses, the Golden State Warriors’ youngster has resembled a brilliant offensive star for long stretches this spring. Regardless of result or individual performance, these NBA Finals will not diminish his first three rounds of offensive excellence and the forward-thinking optimism they rightfully elicit.
Increasingly, though, Poole’s limitations as an on-ball defender have magnified throughout the playoffs. That stands to continue as the NBA Finals approach. How Poole navigates his newest test is absolutely a relevant storyline in the pursuit of a title; blowouts factor in, but he’s seen his minutes per game dwindle each series. At 6’4, 194, he hasn’t yet established the core strength, slippery screen navigation, or center of gravity to relent in isolation scenarios.
The Denver Nuggets’ dearth of perimeter juice failed to tax him much at all. Ja Morant found profits in the conference semifinals, but he didn’t play the final three games and the Memphis Grizzlies’ offense isn’t built on standstill creation beyond him.
The Dallas Mavericks’ trio of initiators, Luka Doncic, Jalen Brunson, and Spencer Dinwiddie, burned him for portions of each contest. In three of the five games, Poole committed at least four fouls — one of those, Game 4, saw him foul out. However, Dallas’ inability to stymie Golden State’s free-flowing ethos shrunk the magnitude of their mismatch-hunting offense; Poole still rocked to the tune of 16.5 points per game on 79 percent true shooting.
Despite each round further thrusting his defensive concerns into light, the opposition has yet to neutralize Poole and Golden State’s offense, which to this point has registered a playoff-best 116.1 offensive rating. As they both prepare for the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics, there are reasons to believe that dynamic could change. The Celtics boast the NBA’s top-ranked defense. Both defensively and collectively, Boston is in a tier of its own compared to who the Warriors have dispatched (which makes sense, this is the Finals!).
Switching is the Celtics’ base coverage. But they’re malleable, fueled by communication, active hands, and complementary skill-sets packaged into a seven-man rotation — or eight, including Payton Pritchard—- lacking many soft spots. The crispness of their switches, timeliness on peel switches, and physicality are all traits that give them a chance to frustrate Golden State’s screen-heavy offense, particularly on Pindowns, Flares and Floppy actions.
The Warriors have thrived in these playoffs by fashioning mismatches off the ball via quick-hitting, early offense sets and attacking said mismatches from there. Boston, though, excels at blotting out disadvantageous matchups, utilizing scram switches or pre-switches (switching a defender out of a screen before it’s set) to insulate players from being involved in suboptimal situations. Its defensive personnel is also just much better than any of Denver, Memphis, or Dallas’. Far fewer gaps to target exist.
As such, Poole’s offensive exploits could assume grander importance. He’s been dynamite puncturing titled defenses, but he can also operate from a standstill. His footwork, acceleration, and change of direction empower him to commandeer the offense. The playmaking has also shined.
According to Cleaning The Glass, in the 379 possessions the Warriors have played with Poole and without Stephen Curry this postseason, they’re generating a 115.3 offensive rating. He’s an elastic scorer, one who applies himself where required. That could frequently be on the ball against the Celtics, who seem designed to at least combat some of Golden State’s movement-rich approach that’s flourished through three rounds. Outside of Curry, no Warrior is knifing through an organized defense like Poole. Everyone else typically warrants a significant shift to best strike as a scorer.
Poole might be too crafty for Jaylen Brown and too shifty for Derrick White or Jayson Tatum. That’s not to imply he’s going to leave them in the dust every trip down, of course. I anticipate him causing some problems, given his athletic tools and three-level scoring chops, and potentially ease the fallout of the Warriors’ free-flowing spirit being countered.
While Boston’s offense is less daunting, it still should present issues. Tatum, Brown, and Marcus Smart can all create in different manners, while White is capable on a whim as well. The Celtics’ offense has fizzled out for periods the last couple rounds, though I would argue Milwaukee and Miami’s defense are a little better equipped to slow Boston than Golden State’s.
Does this mean Boston’s offense will feast going up against Golden State’s defense? Not necessarily — it’s still an excellent, cohesive, lively defense. But it’s possible there are a few more exploitable areas, especially if Poole’s offense takes on a larger scope for the Warriors.
For a stretch of the postseason, the Warriors would switch Poole’s screens, but he simply couldn’t hang and the adjustment was to hedge-and-recover. They employ a similar tactic with Curry, yet Curry’s hedge-and-recovers are much more effective. He’s stronger, quicker back to his assignment, and elevates his arms on the recovery to complicate passing windows.
If Boston is going to mismatch-hunt — something it has done throughout the playoffs — Poole could be the Seth Curry, Grayson Allen, or Max Strus of this round. He’s a phenomenal offensive talent, but the on-ball defense presents challenges during his minutes. Brown has feasted against mismatches and Smart’s also flashed a propensity to outmuscle dudes downhill. It is not hard to foresee both of those trends continuing against Poole.
The bevy of angles prevalent in this series have run through my head basically since Sunday’s Game 7 concluded. Many can be filed under the push-pull category. Whichever way the currently ambiguous pendulum swings could prove vital to the outcome of the Finals.
Poole’s versatile offensive could inject life into potentially stagnant possessions against Boston’s ironclad defense and expand his series-wide standing. His tenuous defense could just as easily catalyze a mildly rocky Celtics’ offense — featuring multifaceted ball-handlers — and diminish his series-wide standing. The latter leaves Golden State’s offense with worrisome doubts. The former is a potentially series-shifting boon to it.
This isn’t the headlining piece of what should be a fascinating battle. But it’s one that could carry considerable implications and ultimately prove a differentiator in whether the 201-22 Larry O’Brien trophy will call Beantown or the Bay its home moving forward.
Known for her philanthropy and outspokenness on social justice matters, Brandi Carlile is an ardent opponent of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which was passed in Florida last month. She even delayed the release of her Proud Sparkling Rosé, as part of her XOBC wine collection, following the passing of the bill.
She spoke about her wine in an interview with Billboard, as well as how the “Don’t Say Gay” bill has affected her and her family. When her seven-year-old daughter, Evangeline, was named student of the month at her Florida school, she was excited to talk about her moms, until Carlile had realized Evangeline couldn’t disclose Carlile’s marriage to her wife, Catherine Shepherd.
“I suddenly realized that whole thing was against the rules in Florida,” Carlile said. “I don’t want that to be the reality for my child — but I don’t think there’s a difference between my child and anybody else’s.”
Since the passing of “Don’t Say Gay,” 100% of profits from the XOBC wine collection go toward LGBTQ+ organizations fighting discriminatory bills.
“We’re blinded by this insatiable need to do the right thing,” said Shepherd. “[Carlile’s fans] expect a certain level of thought that goes into everything Brandi lends her name to.”
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