Month: July 2022

Spoiler: This post contains spoilers for the 1995 movie Heat, which you really should see, it’s very, very good.

Earlier this year, Michael Mann announced he was returning to one of his biggest triumphs. The beloved filmmaker said he was working on a prequel/sequel to Heat, his 1995 crime epic which paired Robert De Niro and Al Pacino for the first time since The Godfather: Part II (in which they shared no scenes and played father-son, albeit in different sections). The catch was that it wouldn’t be a film. It would be a novel, which would make it easier for him to delve into both his characters’ backstories and what happened to them after (if they survived to the end of the film, that is).

That novel won’t be released for another month, but already Mann is changing course. As per Empire, he’s decided he wants the book, called simply Heat 2: A Novel, to be a film after all. “It’s totally planned to be a movie,” Mann told the publication , while admitting it would exactly be a small undertaking. “Is it a modest movie? No. Is it a very expensive series? No.” He adds, “It’s going to be one large movie.”

Of course, there would have to be some re-casting. Heat was filmed almost 30 years ago, when some of its cast were already well into middle age. While he could see Pacino returning to the role of hepped-up LAPD lieutenant Vincent Hanna, both De Niro and Val Kilmer would be out. De Niro’s character, ice cold thief Neil McCauley, perished in the film’s final scene. And while Kilmer’s character, fellow robber Chris Shiherlis, is in the “sequel” section of the novel, the actor has health issues, which Top Gun: Maverick was able to work around.

“I love those guys, but they’d have to be six years younger than they were in Heat,” Mann says.

It sounds like Mann is not into going the Irishman route and de-aging Pacino and De Niro with expensive CGI. Still, at least he could take Pacino’s possibly jokey response to who should play the younger him: Timothée Chalamet.

(Via Empire)

America sure does have its own problems right now. But don’t forget about our nation’s former overlords. The United Kingdom is in some ways doing worse, with controversial prime minister and Brexit cheerleader Boris Johnson having recently — and narrowly — avoided a no-confidence vote. He may still remain in power, but on Tuesday, it was reported that he’s losing so many cabinet members and other Conservative politicians that it’s not clear who’s in charge.

As per The New York Times, Johnson has lost two prominent members of his cabinet, Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid, who were quickly replaced. But they were just the beginning. They were followed by several other people in his party. One, Bim Afolami, a member of Parliament as well as the Conservative Party’s vice-chair, made his announcement on live television, saying, “I can’t serve under the prime minister.” Others indicated their moves reflected the anger of their constituents.

“The events in the past few months have undermined public trust in all of us,” wrote Saqib Bhatti, a member of Parliament, in his resignation letter. “My conscience will not allow me to continue to support this administration.”

Another, Parliament member Andrew Murrison, resigned as Johnson’s trade envoy to Morocco. He, too, posted his resignation letter to Twitter, in which he wrote, “Your position has become unrecoverable.”

The resignations come after a slew of scandals plaguing Johnson’s cabinet. The latest involved a member of his government, Chris Pincher, admitted to getting too drunk one night and groping two men. It was later revealed there had been similar allegations against him made before.

Pressure has been building on Johnson to resign. If he does, the Conservative Party would have to find a replacement, who would be voted upon by Parliament members and then members of the party. Johnson would be expected to stay in power until his replacement is found. Indeed, Johnson himself only became PM after his predecessor, Theresa May, resigned after receiving a no-confidence vote.

(Via NYT)

This week, People’s Party with Talib Kweli is joined by Reggie Noble aka Redman. Arguably one of the most versatile rappers in the history of the art form. Legend status.

Redman has been so consistently relevant in hip-hop, that it is easy to forget that he has been crushing mics and stages since before Whut? Thee Album dropped in 1992. While tons of MCs from the 1990s are MIA (or getting retrospective documentaries made about their careers) he is still making bangers that matter. Redman’s trademark blend of battle-hardened lyrics (sprinkled with cutting-edge humor) and funk-flavored boom-bap production remains unmatched.

At first, you might think it came easy to the ‘Brick City Mashin’ rapper. However, he tells Kweli that his abilities were cultivated directly by mentorship from the legendary Biz Markie who passed away July 16, 2021.

In the video above, Redman shares his history of learning from Biz in the early days of his career. He talks about what it meant to him to learn directly from the diabolical Biz.

“Before I went to EPMD to sign me, I went to Biz Markie,” Red tells Kweli and co-host Jasmin Leigh. “And I asked him to put me on, bro. He was with the Juice Crew at the time. He was like ‘Yo, I don’t got the time right now.” I was like ‘Aight, cool,’ and maintained doing what I had to do [to make it in the industry as an unsigned artist]. But he allowed me to go to his place — where he lived at — to go through records.”

Later, Red shares the remarkable experience of learning his trade at Biz’s house — “Biz Markie lived right in the center of the hood downtown. But he had the dopest, biggest fucking layout!” After EPMD signed Red, Biz invited him to do local tours and battle his way through MCs across all five boroughs in New York.

“He set it up where I was battling people,” Redman says. “It was all through New York Yo, I was air-ing motherfuckers out left and right!”

Once an opponent failed to show up for a battle in Queens, he and Biz decided to just rock the stage. A bootleg of the performance was recorded and the tape caught fire on the streets of NYC. Eventually, rhyme junkies Stretch and Bobbito got hold of the tape and put it in regular rotation on their radio show. With Biz’s mentoring not only was Redman getting paid (which kept him from returning to drug dealing) it gave him the recognition that set his career on a new trajectory to superstardom. my career.”

Listen to Redman, aka your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper on People’s Party with Talib Kweli and Jasmin Leigh.

The Eagle Scout Service Project is the culmination of a Scout’s leadership training and requires considerable effort. The project is to demonstrate the Scout’s leadership abilities while also creating something that benefits their local community.

Boyd Huppert’s “Land of 10,000 Stories” highlighted the incredible leadership skills of Eagle Scout Dominique Claseman of Olivia, Minnesota, who, at the age of 15, realized that his hometown needed a veteran’s memorial. So he decided his Eagle Project would be to build one.

“I wanted to show more appreciation in a bigger way,” Claseman, who comes from a long line of people who served their country, told Huppert.

Olivia’s mayor Jon Hawkinson was a little skeptical when the 15-year-old presented his plans for the memorial. “He had architect drawings, he had the space picked out,” the mayor told Huppert. “He knew there would be people in our community who would want to donate to something like this.”

KARE 11

Claseman got to work selling paving stones to veterans’ families and soliciting donations from local businesses and organizations. All his hard work paid off and he wound up raising a whopping $77,000 for the monument. “It was more than I could imagine,” Claseman told the West Central Tribune.

Claseman broke ground on the project at Kubesh Park on April 27 and the memorial was finally ready for the community for the dedication ceremony on Memorial Day.

“Dom, on behalf of the community of Olivia, thank you for your Americanism, dedication to decency and vision,” Hawkinson said at the ceremony.

“The memorial before you is a result of the generous support I and the veterans of our community have received,” Claseman said, according to the West Central Tribune

“Memorial Day is our nation’s solemn reminder that freedom is never free,” National Guard Major Andrew Lang said at the ceremony. “It is a moment of collective reflection of the noblest of sacrifices of those who gave their very last measure of devotion in service to our ideals and in defense of our great nation.”

The memorial marker reads:

“Dedicated to the courageous brothers and sisters from our community who served our country in times of peace and war. We thank them for their service, especially those who gave their lives in that service. May God grant them all eternal peace.”

u201cDominique Claseman built Olivia, Minnesota a veterans memorial for his Eagle Scout project. He finished it before his 17th birthday. https://t.co/OSeArAgfUmu201d

— KSDK News (@KSDK News)
1657047185

The memorial features a walk of honor with footprints from a soldier’s boots. On both sides are black and gray slabs that feature the names of 280 people from the Olivia area who served their country as well as those who donated to the project. The walkway ends at a 21-foot circle with the memorial stone surrounded by four benches where people can commemorate those who sacrificed for their country.

Behind the memorial are three flags, the American flag, a POW flag and the flag of the state of Minnesota.

The memorial is a beautiful tribute to those who served their country but Claseman says it isn’t finished yet. He hopes that his two younger brothers will one day expand the memorial for their Eagle Scout projects.

The fourth of July is supposed to be a patriotic holiday celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence before the founding fathers sent it off to King George (their timing was terrible; the first fighting of the American Revolution started days before it reached its destination). But for many Americans — let’s just say “most” of us — it’s really a day off work in which we get to eat unconscionable amounts of barbecue, get exceedingly day drunk, and/or blow some stuff up. Namely: fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks.

And despite the fact that fireworks are illegal in many municipalities for obvious reasons, that hasn’t stopped people from “celebrating” July 4th with impromptu displays in driveways, backyards, parking lots, and/or in the middle of the street. It certainly didn’t stop Chief Keef, who set off an impressive display in his own driveway on Monday, surrounded by his friends and fleet of muscle cars. Unfortunately, there was just one problem: Chief Keef is by no means a pyrotechnics expert and things almost immediately went wrong, spraying fireworks all over the driveway and sending people ducking for cover behind the cars.

Look: it’s not completely funny. After all, 11,500 Americans were hospitalized with fireworks-related injuries in 2021 alone and that was a drop from the year before. There’s a reason private fireworks are illegal. But on the other hand, if you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes, and there is little as amusing as watching instant karma, provided nobody actually gets hurt. Maybe Keef and co. have learned their lesson and will invest in a specialist next year. Still, we’d rather see our favorite rappers playing with fireworks than with guns, so viva la revolution until next year.

Watch the video above.

In the two weeks before what proved to be a very grim July 4 weekend, the Supreme Court went on a tear. The right-leaning bench dropped one radical ruling after another, wiping out Miranda rights and Roe v. Wade, making guns easier to carry in public, crippling the EPA and more. But people haven’t only been angry with the Court. They’ve been angry with Democratic leaders, who’ve seemed ill-prepared — even disinterested — in doing, well, anything. The lack of urgency has even shocked Republicans.

One of them is Brian Fallon, a longtime party insider, who’s worked for the likes of Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and Eric Holder. Now he’s an activist, running the advocacy group Demand Justice, and in an interview with Vanity Fair, he was not kind to the party’s leaders, including some of his former employers.

For instance, when asked if he was “surprised” by the Supreme Court’s radical new rulings, he said, “No,” then turned on Democratic leaders. “The thing that surprised me,” he said, “is how little evidence there is that anybody on our side took advantage of the two months lead time, since the leaked Roe draft, to get our response coordinated and aligned behind a vision of what we’re going to do about it next.”

Fallon speculates that the Biden administration may have been distracted by the host of other problems plaguing the country, including a baby formula shortage, inflation, rising gas prices, and more. But their lack of urgency, he says, may be more holistic:

Biden is a politician of a particular vintage. He was a Senate judiciary committee member for many years. He wants to defend the institution and always see the legitimacy in it, even when it’s behaving illegitimately. The other thing is, I think Democrats of that age have only known the courts issue to be one that mobilizes Republican voters. So the idea that the pendulum is now swinging and Democratic voters are now motivated by the court more than Republican voters, which polls are showing is the case, that’s a new phenomenon that I don’t think is factoring into the thinking of these people, that it’s actually a winning issue now to wield a cudgel against the court and call it out.

Fallon concludes that Democratic leaders are not meeting the GOP on equal terms. Citing Biden’s recent kowtowing to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell by appointing an anti-abortion judge, he says, “It just goes to how we always bring a butter knife to a gunfight. I mean, Mitch McConnell would never throw somebody a bone in this way.”

Not all is lost. Fallon offers a couple solutions, including “taking on the court rhetorically as a political villain and as an institution that is out of touch with a majority of the American public.” (Though some, like Schumer and Elizabeth Warren, have already been doing that.) He also suggests being more open to bold moves, like opening abortion clinics on federal lands, which has already been poo-pooed by Biden’s team. “It’s very dispiriting when lawmakers and outside experts propose things and the Biden administration rules them out within 48 hours,” Fallon says.

In any case, reading poems and singing songs ain’t cutting it.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Summer League has begun in the two warmup cities of Salt Lake and San Francisco, but the league as a whole will descend on Las Vegas later this week.

The headliners, of course, are the young stars from the last two Drafts who are scheduled to play, rom this year’s highly coveted prospects like Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith, and Jaden Ivey, to top rookies from last year like Cade Cunningham and Josh Giddey. Some rosters are stacked with potential rotation players next year, and my colleague Jackson Frank so kindly laid out what teams you should be setting your schedule around for Summer League viewing.

However, I’m here to talk about the individuals who are guaranteed to become fan favorites at Summer League. As a veteran of 10 of these, I feel qualified to predict what players fit the most cherished Summer League archetypes, which my friend Steve Jones correctly pointed out on Twitter today.

The main addition on my end to this list is the short big man who can either get buckets and/or is stronger than everyone, and that will be reflected below. Here, I’d like to point out the guys that I expect to become the fan favorites at the great Cox Pavilion and Thomas & Mack Arena this week, most of whom are somewhat lesser-known names — although I had to point out one top pick who is going to maybe steal the entire show.

Kenneth Lofton Jr. and David Roddy (Memphis)

Memphis always loads up on talented players that Draft Twitter loves but don’t quite fit NBA archetypes, and they’ve got two of the most fun ones on their Summer League roster. Roddy, the No. 23 overall pick, put up monster numbers at Colorado State and can absolutely shoot that thing at 6’6, 260. He’s a bucket-getter, and in Vegas, that’s the skill that always stands out above all else.

Joining Roddy is my personal favorite player of anyone going to Summer League, Kenneth Lofton Jr., the man who carried Team USA to the U19 World Cup title in 2021 and is just an absolute force on the block. He’s undersized in height at 6’7 but uses all 280 pounds to get wherever he wants on the basketball court, carving out space to get his shot off and absolutely dominating the glass despite being four or five inches shorter than most centers. I cannot wait for NBA fans to put their eyes on Lofton — he already carries the stamp of approval from Stephen Jackson, who called him “Baby Z-Bo,” which might be the highest compliment a player on the Grizzlies roster can get.

Ron Harper Jr. and Christian Koloko (Toronto)

The Raptors have two strong candidates for fan favorite on their roster. The first is former Rutgers star (and yes, the son of that Ron Harper), who is a bucket. He’s a big fella (measured in at 6’4, 240 at the combine), which only adds to the joy in watching him stop and pop on folks. He can light it up from deep (39.8 percent from three at Rutgers last year) and isn’t afraid of taking over a game late. On a team like Toronto without a ton of guys prepping to be in the NBA rotation at Summer League, I expect Harper Jr. to assert himself out in Vegas.

Koloko, meanwhile, fits the shot-blocker and rim-runner archetype that is always fun at Summer League. He’s gonna catch lobs and send shots into the second row, and while the Raptors will be more concerned with how he looks as a defender in space and all that, we can all enjoy the more eye-popping parts of his game that will be on display.

Jaden Hardy (Dallas)

If you’re trying to find the young guard with a pull-up jumper who isn’t afraid to use it, as Steve noted, Hardy might be your man. He will get shots up, and while he’s not the most efficient, he can pile up points and Dallas has plenty of reason to let him cook in the Summer League setting. We love a Summer League gunner, and Hardy is high on my list of guys I expect to get ’em up and have fans chattering.

Bennedict Mathurin (Indiana)

I know I said I wasn’t going to touch on top picks too much, but I cannot emphasize enough how cool Mathurin is as a player and how much everyone is going to love him in this format. The first time I saw Mathurin in person was at the 2020 NBA Academy Global Camp in Chicago where he tried to dunk on every single big man at the camp — I thought he had injured himself on multiple occasions crashing to the floor, only to pop up and try again minutes later. He plays the game with a mean streak that stands out in a more laid back atmosphere like Summer League, and those guys are always the most fun. Also, please click on this link for his thoughts on LeBron James.

Joshua Primo (San Antonio)

Primo is one of the frontrunners for the “Oh, he definitely is too good to be here” roster spots, but unlike other second year guys (ex: Cade Cunningham), the Spurs have some reason to give him continued minutes in the desert. With Dejounte Murray gone, Primo’s role is getting a big increase this season, and the more reps he can get having a team that is his, the better for his development and for the Spurs next season. I expect him to put up some eye-popping numbers, especially since the Spurs top pick, Jeremy Sochan, is at his best as a team defender. That isn’t exactly a great Summer League skill to have, so Primo should have all the opportunity he wants to pile up points.

Scotty Pippen Jr. and Shareef O’Neal (Los Angeles)

Listen, it’s Summer League, which means no matter what, the Lakers are going to draw crazy crowds. This year’s Lakers squad doesn’t live up to those Lonzo Ball/Brandon Ingram/D’Angelo Russell teams of years past when Thomas & Mack would damn near sellout every game, but rest assured, the two sons of NBA legends are going to draw plenty of attention. Pippen Jr. seems most likely to have real success in Summer League, as he is not shy about shooting the ball, averaging north of 20 points per game last year for Vanderbilt. Shareef O’Neal, meanwhile, is just looking to stick on a training camp roster, but you can rest assured the big man out of LSU will have lots of support any time he’s on the floor.

I don’t think I’ve ever been as surprised by a food test as I was by this week’s test of hot dog-cooking methods. Granted, we started with Olympia Provisions uncured frankfurters, which are basically the Rolls Royce of hot dogs. Even so, I never imagined a plain ol’ hot dog (I ate these without a bun or toppings of any kind) could taste so good.

I was never a major hot dog head. I think I unwittingly absorbed much of the 1990s pseudo-health babble that basically convinced us that hot dogs were made out of pig’s buttholes dunked in bleach and that you’d get a heart attack if you even looked at one (I also avoided egg yolks for a time back then, which you couldn’t pay me to do now). A lot of the 90s anti-fat crusade turned out to be flawed, and these days it’s hard to get a straight answer about which part of a hot dog is actually bad for you. I think the common sense approach probably applies: don’t eat one every day, but an occasional hot dog is probably fine.

These days I have probably two a month, usually on the golf course, always with a bun and slathered with as many condiments as I can find (I’m talking mustard, ketchup, relish, onions, and mayonnaise, and absolutely kraut and jalapeños if they’re available). I always enjoy them in limited circumstances but for a family cookout I probably would’ve told you I preferred hamburgers. After this week’s test, though… I may be a changed man.

A great hot dog can compete with a burger.

Whether you eat hot dogs a lot or a little, the same question still applies: what’s the best way to cook a wiener? Before this, I probably would’ve told you a steamed or boiled dog, ballpark style, was best. I think that was based more on looks than anything else. Nothing beats the look of a steam-plumped frank. Yet this week’s winner turned out to be a method I’d never even tried before. You learn something new every day, I guess.

The Methods:

I fully expect to have 10 weird, bespoke methods of hot dog cooking shouted at me in the comments, but these seemed like the basics:

• Boiled
• Grilled
• Fried
• Beer-braised
• Pan-grilled
• Baked
• Microwaved
• Sous vide.

I suppose I could’ve wrapped one in bacon, Sonora-style, but we all know those are amazing so we wouldn’t be discovering much, and it might cheapen the magic of buying them outside a bar at two in the morning.

THE RANKINGS

8. Microwaved

The Method:

Listen, I knew microwaved wasn’t going to win this contest, but a lot of people tell me they actually do eat them this way so I felt duty-bound to include it. I didn’t know how long to cook it for (hot dogs are pre-cooked, so really you’re just heating them up), and I thought 30 seconds seemed like a reasonable amount of time to start with.

Turns out I was wrong. 30 seconds made this bad boy look like a victim of Robocop. I could’ve grabbed another frank and tried this one over again, but I just didn’t feel like wasting another perfectly good frank in order to learn that, duh, microwaving isn’t the best way to make a hot dog. I think we all knew that.

Tasting Notes:

Obviously, it exploded and thus looks like absolute hell. Major point deductions for the look alone. To make matters worse, all that yummy fat that should be inside of the dog when you bite into is now mostly all over the plate and the inside of my microwave. The meat squeaks when I bite into it. It has a rubbery texture and a saltier taste than the others — presumably because a lot of the liquid that would normally dilute that salt has leeched out. Not great, Bob. I’m sure I could’ve put it in the micro for less time or covered it with a wet paper towel or stuck it inside a water-filled Tupperware first (editor Steve’s suggestion) to make a better version of this, but I feel fairly confident that none of those steps would’ve saved microwaved from the bottom spot.

Bottom Line:

You don’t microwave a hot dog because you think it’s going to taste great, you do it because you’re Milhouse’s sad divorced dad. 4/10

7. Baked

The Method

Once again, I did what seemed pretty reasonable to me in theory. I cook bacon in an oven, why not hot dogs? So I stuck a dog on a sheet pan and baked it at 350 for less than 10 minutes. That relatively low temp and short time wasn’t enough to keep it from bursting a little, and here, again, I felt like experimenting to find the ideal time and temp to bake a hot dog seemed contrary to the ease of preparing that makes hot dogs hot dogs.

Not to mention a waste of perfectly good dogs.

Tasting Notes:

This one also exploded, and consequently, it looks fucked. Wrinkly skin and with the interior partly dried out. Taste-wise, it’s less salty and not nearly as rubbery as the microwaved but the skin is kind of tough more than it’s snappy. and

Bottom Line:

There isn’t much about this method to recommend it above any of the others. 5/10

6. Sous-Vide/Water Bath

The Method:

Is a sous vide (or more properly a water circulator or water bath, since sous vide means “under vacuum” in French, and you don’t really need, nor did I use, a vacuum sealer for this) a hopelessly fussy method for cooking hot dogs? Absolutely. That being said, if I needed to make 150 hot dogs all cooked to the same exact temperature for some reason, I could do it this way pretty easily, so it’s not without its potential usefulness.

For the purposes of this test, I cooked a dog at 140 degrees for an hour — as per the instructions on Anova’s website, the company that makes my circulator.

Tasting Notes:

The sous vide dog comes out with nice, taut skin, with no bursting or blistering, but also less plump than a boiled dog. The appearance is pretty close to the uncooked version, which is good and bad — it looks nice and uniform, but also not a ton of plumping, and no char on the skin, if you’re into that. Biting into it, there’s a light snap to the skin, and the inside is juicy and nice. This method probably leads to the least liquid loss, so the inside stays pretty moist. Still, if you’re going with a water-based cooking method, it seems like the plump is what makes it. This one looks a little sad compared to a nice, plump steamed or boiled dog.

Bottom Line:

I think you could sous vide a dog and then finish it in a hot pan for just a few seconds, but that’s a lot of work and time for a dog, and it takes away the sous vide method’s only real upside — that you can do a lot more of them at once and have them all be finished at the same time. 7/10.

5. Boiled

The Method:

I just threw this sucker into simmering water and left it there for about 15 minutes. I didn’t do a separate steamed dog because I can’t imagine it would taste too different. Plus, this way you get the satisfaction of producing half of a Limp Bizkit album.

Tasting Notes:

This looks like a classic ballpark/golf course frank, so it’s very appealing to me. Looks-wise, undoubtedly the best of the bunch. I love the way it plumps up and curls just a little. “Tumescent” is really the only way I can describe it.

Biting into it, there’s a nice snap to the exterior, and it’s very plump and juicy on the inside (not surprisingly). Taste-wise it’s difficult to judge against the sous vide, but I give it the slight edge based on the obvious plumpness difference.

Bottom Line:

Very solid experience overall, but the biggest and most obvious drawback is that does miss some of those Maillard flavors. 7.5/10

4. Grilled

The Method:

If you’re making dogs for the family for a holiday like the 4th of July, chances are they’re going to be grilled, and there’s a lot to recommend this method. The flame produces a nice Maillard reaction, adding a depth of flavor you don’t get with a water-based method and a different texture on the skin. You also get nice aroma waft from the combination of fire hitting skin and fat hitting the grill (I’ve just invented the term “aroma waft,” you have to pay me five dollars every time you use it) which is an important part of the hot dog ritual. “Hey, whatcha cookin’ over there?” your neighbors will ask, to which you can respond enthusiastically, “Mind your own goddamned business, Dave.”

I have a crappy propane grill, so admittedly I’m not getting the flavors you’d get with a charcoal or wood-fired grill, but in any case, I just tried to get a reasonably even char without letting the franks burst too much and lose moisture (which wasn’t that easy on my crappy grill).

Tasting Notes:

The skin is slightly blackened in places and the dog has shrunk inside its skin slightly, which I don’t love. I like when a hot dog is supple and taut against its skin. Biting into though, it definitely makes up for what it loses in the looks department with taste. The skin has a nice snap to it, a tiny little crunch when you bite into it that the water-based ones don’t have.

Bottom Line:

That caramelization on the outside is so nice, and you’re getting so many flavors you just don’t without a char. 8/10.

3. Pan Grilled

The Method:

You don’t need to own a barbecue or go outside for a grilled dog, a cast iron (or really any) pan works just fine as well. You don’t get quite the same taste or texture as a flame-kissed dog, but the upside is a slightly more even char.

Tasting Notes:

It’s a little wrinkly, like the grilled version, though with more even char. Biting in, the skin has a nice snap, with a tasty interior… The skin seems slightly more tender than the flame-grilled version.

Bottom Line:

This gets the very, very slight edge over the flame-grilled version — though maybe they’d be flip-flopped if I used a charcoal grill that imparts some flavor. For now, I don’t get enough flavor difference for the flame-grilled to overcome the pan-grilled method’s slightly improved texture. 8.5/10

2. Beer Braised

The Method:

This is basically the cooking method seen in The Irishman, which Zach already attempted to recreate in full here. Basically, I seared the dog a bit on all sides in the hot cast iron (which doesn’t take much longer than a minute or two) then poured in about a half bottle worth of Modelo. Modelo just seemed summery (as most Mexican beers do to me), and honestly, there aren’t too many mass-market light lagers better than Modelo.

Then I cooked it until all the beer burned off.

Tasting Notes:

I’m honestly shocked at how god damn beautiful a dog this method produced. It looks similar to the pan-grilled, but with this gorgeous sugary glaze coating the skin, almost like maple bacon or honey-baked ham. My mouth is watering long before the first bite.

Biting into it, there’s definitely a brightness it gets from the beer, both sweetness and acidity in a sticky glaze. It has a depth of flavors that the others don’t. The skin not only snaps, it crackles a little. It doesn’t quite melt in your mouth like the day’s big winner. It’s very close though. The texture is glazed and sticky, which none of the others have.

Bottom Line:

The effect of the beer is downright magical. Highly recommend. 8.75/10.

1. Pan Fried

The Method:

This seemed fairly obvious, but I’d never tried them this way. Zach, who lives in Berlin, says it’s standard practice for Berlin’s famous “currywurst.” I just put a little vegetable oil in the bottom of my hot cast iron fry pan and rolled the frank around in the oil. It took less than five minutes, and I was, in all honesty, blown away by how good it was.

Tasting Notes:

The skin is a little dark on the outside, and it burst a little (once again I underestimated how little heat it takes to burst these things), so there’s a little light wrinkling on the exterior. Biting in… Ooh, that caramelization on the skin (plus a little of the interior) is actually really, really nice. The exterior has crackly, snappy skin, but it melts in your mouth. I had to call my wife over to taste my favorite two cooking methods and she actually closed her eyes and went “Mmm” while she chewed. It was that good. (I’d actually done the same thing so it was nice when she confirmed that it wasn’t just me being impressed with myself.)

With this method, the skin burst a little, but the hot oil basically cauterized the wound, and created this additional layer of crunchy caramelization. It was incredible. Obviously, this isn’t the healthiest method for cooking a hot dog, but if you’re already calorie splurging and you’re just cooking a hot dog, I can’t imagine what little oil it soaks up is that much worse for you than the other dog-cooking methods. Of course, that’s really a question for your nutritionist. All I know is that it tasted fantastic.

Bottom Line:

Far better than I realized any hot dog could ever taste. 9/10

Vince Mancini is on Twitter.

Fans of turnt-up, unapologetically Southern crunk rap are undoubtedly tuned in to the monstrous hit that is Hitkidd and GloRilla’s “FNF (Let’s Go).” Released in May, the song has already accumulated well over 30 million streams across all platforms and has been tabbed as the song of the summer in many circles. That’s before Bay Area favorite Saweetie teased an impending remix, adding her star power to what has already become an unstoppable juggernaut of a hit. And now, the icing on the cake: The song has officially resulted in a label deal for the burgeoning Memphis hitmaker GloRilla, courtesy of one of her hometown’s heroes.

Yo Gotti, head of CMG Records and the rapper behind huge viral smashes such as “Down In The DM” and “Rake It Up,” announced he has signed GloRilla to his imprint via a video Tweet showing GloRilla and her friends mobbing their way onto a private plane, where she puts ink to paper to solidify their artistic partnership.

In a report about the signing, Yo Gotti told Billboard, “GloRilla is a natural born star – she has a different sound and approach that’s needed in hip-hop right now. It’s one of the quickest rises that I’ve seen in my career because she only dropped in late-April and now she has the hottest cultural records in music. Glo is hungry for success and determined to win. We look forward to watching her grow as an artist and reach her full potential.”

Meanwhile, GloRilla herself said of the move, “I’ve put in years of hard work to get this point and I’m blessed to sign with the hottest label in music with CMG. manifested this moment and trusted my talent even when others didn’t. I’m grateful for Gotti for believing in me and I’m not gonna let up. Trust that I have more new heat on the way.”

She’s not exaggerating; CMG is also home to several of rap’s fastest rising stars, including Moneybagg Yo, 42 Dugg, and EST Gee, all of whom have seen tremendous success in the last two years with either their debuts, follow-ups to their debuts, or joint projects masterminded by Yo Gotti himself. If the pattern holds, expect to see a lot more of GloRilla on the charts in the coming months.

Not that anyone was expecting anything different, but the final two episodes of Stranger Things 4 have been watched by many people, many times, which is very impressive considering how this season was quite a time commitment.

According to The Wrap, the nostalgia-filled series racked up another 301.28 million hours viewed from June 27 to July 3. The last two episodes of the season dropped on July 1st, just in time for the long weekend, and were a combined four hours (!!), which brings the nine-episode season to a total runtime of about 13 hours.

Adding to the already massive streaming numbers, this brings the combined total of volumes one and two to 1.15 billion hours viewed since May. For some perspective: that comes out to about 1141 centuries. Basically, it’s so many hours that most people’s brains simply cannot comprehend just how much time that truly is. Stranger Things has quickly become Netflix’s most-watched English language series ever, and has become the fastest a TV show has reached that milestone.

But there is some good news for people who cannot sit still for that long: season five will likely not be several hundred years long. The Duffer brothers have confirmed that they would be slowing it down a bit as the series comes to a close. In a recent interview, Matt Duffer admitted, “We don’t want it to be 13 hours. We’re aiming for more like 10 hours or something. I think it’s going to be longer than season one because we just have so much to wrap up, but I don’t think it’s going to be as long as season four.” How many times can one person be expected to run up that hill and make a deal with God, anyway?

(Via The Wrap)