Paramore has officially kicked off their new era. Yesterday, the band premiered their new single — the title track to their upcoming sixth studio album, This Is Why. Ahead of the new album, Paramore will hit the road on a 12-date North American tour, kicking off in Bakersfield, CA this Sunday (October 2).
Who are the openers for Paramore’s 2022 tour?
Joining Paramore on select dates of their imminent tour are Claud, Ogi, Young The Giant, Japanese Breakfast, Faux Real, and Elke. Claud is a non-binary bedroom pop singer known for viral tracks like “Wish You Were Gay.”
Ogi is a smooth-vocalled R&B singer who has also opened for the likes of Mahalia and Snoh Aalegra.
Young The Giant has been active for nearly two decades, however, broke through in the early 2010s with their alt-rock single, “Cough Syrup.”
Japanese Breakfast is an indie-pop band fronted by Michelle Zauner. Their latest album, Jubilee, contains the song, “Be Sweet,” which has been featured on shows like The Sex Lives Of College Girls, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and Heartbreak High. Additionally, Zauner authored a memoir last year, titled Crying In H-Mart.
Faux Real is an indie-pop duo comprised of Franco-American brothers Virgile and Elliott Arndt, whose catalog boasts several synth-heavy, dance-ready bops.
Elke’s sound is more rock-inspired, consisting of drum-and-guitar-driven songs and vivid descriptions of the human condition.
You can see who will be joining Paramore on which dates below.
This Is Why is out 2/10/2023 via Atlantic. You can pre-save it here.
Paramore and Ogi are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
What would you do if your crappy father charged you with digging his grave in his will? Grab a shovel or tell the funeral home to fire up their own backhoe?
In Rodrigo Garcia’s Raymond & Ray, Ethan Hawke and Ewan McGregor decide to give it a go with the shovels, uncovering family secrets, reconnecting, and marinating in humane dramedy goodness. It turns out the real grave we dug was the friends we made along the way? Wait, that can’t be right.
The Apple+ release is Garcia’s debut as a feature director after cutting his teeth as a writer for the absolutely phenomenal In Treatment and other television series. The film also stars Maribel Verdu and Sophie Okonedo, as well as excellent character actors like Todd Luiso and Vondie Curtis-Hall.
In a way, Raymond & Raylooks like the kind of movie that would have gotten a massive reception back in the 1990s. It was also a surprise on a deeply personal level for Mike Ryan when he reviewed the film at TIFF. McGregor and Hawke look fantastic here, brimming with half-brotherly chemistry that should make everyone question why they’ve never starred in a movie together before. Even after this trailer, it’s fair to say that the public should petition for an extension of the McGregor/Hawke buddy team-up universe.
Raymond & Ray hits theaters October 14th and Apple+ October 21st.
The term “American whiskey” might sound generic but that’s definitely not the case. The category is full of all those whiskeys made in the U.S. that don’t fall into the guidelines set for American single malt, bourbon, or rye whiskeys. That means the whiskeys in this category are far-reaching and can include blended whiskeys, corn whiskeys, wheat whiskeys, multi-grain whiskeys, and even unaged whiskeys. To help you dive into the wide category, I decided it was high time for yet another blind taste test to see what’s both new and exciting in American whiskey right now.
For this lineup, I grabbed eight new bottles from my shelf — a mix of brand new releases and 2022 expressions of standards and classics. I went deep and included whiskeys that are blended from barrels from multiple states and grain sources (a couple even have a minor drop or two of Scotch or Canadian whisky in the mix) alongside corn whisky, some old-school sour mash, and even some white whiskey. It’s a broad spectrum, just like American whiskey, that I then ranked on taste alone.
Our lineup today is:
Five Trail Blended American Whiskey Small Batch Limited Release
The Beverly High Rye Fine American Whiskey
Bardstown Discovery Series #9 Blended Whiskey
Barrell Craft Spirits Dovetail Gray Label
High West Campfire
Shenk’s Homestead
Stillhouse America’s Finest Original Whiskey
Balcones Big Baby Bottled In Bond
Okay, let’s dive in and find a new bottle to stock on your bar cart this fall!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Blind Taste Test Posts Of The Last Six Months
The nose opens with a classic sense of burnt orange, cardamom pods, dried chili pepper (only a dash), and soft leather with a touch of ginger lurking in the background. The palate leans into Honey-Nut Cheerios with an almost floral honey vibe next to creamy vanilla sauce. The mid-palate leans back into the burnt orange with a hint of spicy apple pie filling and a hint of spiced cherry tobacco on the finish.
The was a nice surprise as the first pour. It’s really nice and has some serious depth, and definitely feels like it was built for bourbon drinkers.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose is soft and full of rye bread crusts, a touch of pound cake, and a hint of marzipan with a mild “woodiness” below everything. The palate feels very Irish Whiskey with a spiced maltiness — cinnamon and nutmeg mostly — next to wet brown sugar, floral honey, and a hint of lemon pepper. The end really leans into the maltiness with a hint of nutshell woodiness and toffee sweetness next to mild raisin notes.
This really felt like an Irish whiskey to me. I mean that in a good way.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Hints of sour apple and savory melon draw you in on the nose with old leather, threads of saffron, wet cedar, ripe gooseberries, and plenty of burnt orange next to woody winter spices. The taste is lush and creamy with just the right amount of vanilla oils next to a moist cinnamon cake countered by dry reeds, bran muffin (a touch of Tennessee whiskey?), and cherry cordial. That sweetness drives the finish toward a mix of forest mushrooms and stewed plums with a hint of ice tea powder and old porch furniture.
This is a deep sip of whiskey. It feels complex but not complicated. There’s a sense of ease to the nose and palate that’s very welcoming. It’s going to be hard to beat.
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This is another deep nose full of fresh leather, fresh chili peppers, green tart apple skins, tart berries, Christmas cake, and maybe some peanut shells and cream soda. The palate has a mild tannic edge that’s more old charred oak than anything else next to strawberry rhubarb crumble, some fennel, a hint of vanilla protein powder (Tennessee sneaks in again!), and a mix of floral and black tea with a dollop of fresh honey. The end has a black licorice vibe with a bit of orange/chocolate tobacco dipped in miso.
This is really good but a wild one. There’s just a lot going on and it takes time to get through it all — it’s kind of like taking a machete to the jungle to find a path. It’s fun but takes a lot of effort.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose on this one is immediately peated with a sweet edge of toffee, buttered cinnamon toast, and plenty of dark red berries next to green tea, soft leather, and a hint of pine tobacco. The palate has a generally “peatiness” that remains sweet with plenty of vanilla and fresh honey next to more of those red berries and a good dose of matcha tea dusted with nutmeg and cinnamon. The end leans into the rye and bourbon with a hint of orange zest, salted caramel, and spiced tobacco next to that sweet smokiness.
I like this but there’s no real depth to the peatiness besides it being sweet and just there. The rest is well built though.
Taste 6
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Soft leather, burnt orange, spiced Christmas cake, fresh vanilla beans, sultanas, and a hint of fresh firewood round out the nose with a hint of almost sweet oak char. The palate has a nice sweet spiciness to it like a box of Hot Tamales next to allspice and orange with raisins, nutmeg, and a whisper of espresso bean sneaking in late. The end marries the orange oils to soft cedar notes with a woody spiciness next to soft notes of sweet cinnamon, stewed plums, minced meat pies, and brandied cherries layered into chewy tobacco leaves.
This is delicious, nuanced, and perfectly balanced. It warms you to your soul while feeling like you’re coming home after a long time away.
Taste 7
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
White whiskey! This clear pour has a nose that’s surprisingly deep and full of salted butter, butterscotch, vanilla-heavy cream soda, and almond crescent cookies (with the powdered sugar and all). The palate is a little watery at first but immediately pushes toward vanilla pound cake with yellow frosting and sprinkles. It’s sweet but tempered on the finish thanks to that vanilla cake vibe.
This was sweet but had a nice balance to it. There was a little water on the front of the palate but none of the finish really.
Taste 8
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with a hint of singed barrel char next to bright notes of Key lime pie, grapefruit pith, and orange-tobacco leaves next to a hint of freshly cracked red peppercorn, a twinge of five spice, and soft cedar kindling. The palate has a black tea vibe that’s cut with dry chili pepper flakes, a flake of kosher salt, and some honeydew melon skins. The mid-palate leans into raisins and Martinelli Apple Cider, pear candy, and a hint of vanilla wafer. The end hits on a Russian Wild Berry Schweppes soda next to cedar and vanilla/orange tobacco.
This has some serious shifts from savory to tart to sweet on the flavor profile. I like it but it felt a little taxing getting through the whole palate (which might just be because it’s the eighth pour).
Part 2: The Ranking
Zach Johnston
8. The Beverly High Rye Fine American Whiskey — Taste 2
This brand new whiskey is rendered from a marriage of Iowa’s famed Cedar Ridge and Indiana’s MGP whiskeys. The blend balances bourbon with a majority of rye in the mix to create a “high rye” American whiskey.
Bottom Line:
This was good. It didn’t last in my mind that long and didn’t really take me anywhere. It was a solid sip that I immediately wanted to build a cocktail with, which feels like the point of the marketing around this bottle.
7. Stillhouse America’s Finest Original Whiskey — Taste 7
This white whiskey is made from 100 percent corn grown in the fields around the distilleries the whiskey comes from in Kentucky and Virginia. After copper pot distillation, the hot juice is charcoal filtered before proofing and bottling (or canning in this case).
Bottom Line:
For something that could have easily been just a vodka made from corn mash, this feels like it’s on a whiskey path and not a vodka one. I liked it but would only likely use it for cocktails that need a good vanilla sweetness boost.
This blend from Utah’s beloved High West is a big mix. The majority is a blend of MGP’s famed 95 percent rye (with five percent malted barley) mixed with High West’s own 80 percent rye/20 percent malted rye and an MGP bourbon with 75 percent corn, 21 percent rye, and only four percent malted barley. Finally, a dash of blended pure malt Scotch whisky is added to the mix from an undisclosed distillery somewhere in Scotland. All of that is then proofed down and bottled.
Bottom Line:
I like this as a beginner’s peated whiskey. There’s no real depth to the peat or smoke beyond sweetness, and that’s fine. But if you’re already into hefty peat monsters like Laphroaig or Ardbeg, this will fall a little flat for you.
This Texas whiskey is one of the most interesting releases of 2022. The juice is made from 100 percent roasted blue corn from New Mexico. That mash is pot distilled before going into used tequila barrels for a five-year rest. After maturation, the barrels are vatted and proofed down to 100 proof per bottled-in-bond law and bottled as-is.
Bottom Line:
I really have to be in the mood for this one. It’s complex and nuanced. And there’s just so much going on that I need time to actually enjoy it. It’s really good, you need a good ten minutes to really get into it.
This evolution of the already beloved Dovetail from Barrell Craft Spirits is an instant classic. The juice is a blend of rare barrels from Indiana, Tennessee, and Canada with ages reaching above 20 years old. Those whiskeys are then finished in a combination of rum, port, and Dunn Vineyards cabernet barrels before batching and bottling in Louisville, Kentucky at cask strength and with zero tweaks.
Bottom Line:
This is so good but, again, it needs a lot of your time to find all that goodness. There’s a deep nose and flavor profile but you need to let it breathe, add water, go back and forth on the nose and taste, just to scratch the surface. But, folks, once you get there, this is pretty goddamn interesting and delicious.
3. Five Trail Blended American Whiskey Small Batch Limited Release — Taste 1
This is another big blend of whiskeys that leans into the new Coors Distilling out in Colorado (yes, that Coors). The whiskey is a blend of sourced whiskeys from Indiana (a four-year wheated bourbon), Kentucky (a four-year four-grain bourbon), Tennessee (a 17-year TN whiskey), and Colorado (an eight-year-old American single malt). Those whiskeys are vatted in a small batch and bottled proofed down a tad with that Coors Rocky Mountain water.
Bottom Line:
This was really good. It had depth and character, and I genuinely wanted to go back for another sip. It was a little light on the finish thanks to the proofing but that’s more of a nit-pick than anything else.
2. Bardstown Discovery Series #9 Blended Whiskey — Taste 3
The Bardstown Discovery Series has become one of the most beloved and sought-after blended whiskeys in the game. Their latest edition is a mix of 35 percent eight-year-old Georgia bourbon, 31 percent 12-year-old Kentucky bourbon, 19 percent 17-year-old Tennessee whiskey, and 15 percent 12-year-old corn whiskey from Ontario. Those barrels are shipped to Bardstown where they’re masterfully vatted and bottled as-is.
Bottom Line:
This is just delicious. It’s also complex and deep but you don’t need to spend so much time digging out those complexities, hence it’s higher on this ranking. Still, pour this over a rock or with a few drops of water to really enjoy the nuance of this sip.
Chinquapin oak is at the core of this release as well. The variable here is that this isn’t bourbon. This straight whisky leans heavily into rye but isn’t rye, not by law anyway. The juice is devised to highlight the best of both worlds with a unique barreling that really brings something unique to the table and palate.
Bottom Line:
The was the best tasting overall. It went down easy. It was beautifully layered. And it was just a nice experience overall.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
There was a lot going on with this list of whiskeys, and I like it all for the most part. The biggest surprise was how un-vodka-like the white whiskey was. It had a serious flavor profile that stood out. You can’t beat that.
Overall, I really liked all of these but the top two were the real winners today. They’re just stellar pours of whiskey that stick with you. They take you somewhere on the palate. They don’t spend too much time over challenging your palate either. Sometimes the best whiskeys are the ones that let you breathe a sigh of relief without thinking too much about what’s happening in the glass.
In the video, directed by Marmo Films, Paige is seen navigating a spacecraft solo. As she walks about the ship, she reminisces on past friendships, however, she knows better than to rekindle them.
6lack is seen on a different planet, finding comfort in his solitude, before he is joined by Paige. Then, the two embrace, knowing that they can trust in each other. Paige and 6lack then hop in the spacecraft and set off to the next destination.
Paige’s second album, The Fall Off, arrives this fall via Def Jam. She detailed The Fall Off in a recent interview with Billboard, Paige detailed the album, noting that it will include pop records, as well as the type of music she’s been wanting to create.
‘The vibe is just kind of just like … when you haven’t dropped your own art in two years, you hear a lot of comments like, “She fell off” or “What’s she doing?” “When’s she dropping music?” And it’s just like… I didn’t fall off,” Paige said. “I just had to get myself ready for what God had prepared for me. I feel as if people don’t allow artists to take the time out to get to know themselves, to get to know the people around them, or to understand what they actually want to do and what kind of sound they want to make.”
For all of its faults, the most beautiful thing about the United States of America is how it’s made up of a tapestry of cultures and traditions from all around the world. That’s especially fun when we’re talking about the food. The US is still segregated in many ways and while various communities continue to have strife over cultural, political, and economic issues, the great equalizer is food. Whether you live in a red state or blue state, a rich community or a poor one, the country has a deep appreciation for food — even if it doesn’t always value it congruent to the labor it takes to produce it.
In the US, you can easily eat Ethiopian food for breakfast, Thai for lunch, and Italian food at dinner without having to venture too far from your neighborhood. The most “American” thing, breakfast, is an amalgamation of foodstuffs from all over the world — filtered down into a single menu that Americans are proud to claim as their own.
As a melting pot, the history of “American” food is deep and complicated, especially when you consider that before the United States was even a country the Indigenous peoples of what is now Mexico, the South Western United States, and deep into Central America and beyond were colliding with Spanish food traditions for hundreds of years, and had their own unique food traditions a millennia before that. While much of the cross-pollination in this land is a result of a dark past full of colonization and forced assimilation, it’s also a beautiful thing, and as the United States further integrates with the various peoples that call the country home, it continues to expand and absorb the foodstuffs of the many different countries and cultures.
Aside from white people, the United States Latino population is its largest and fastest growing demographic, and, as such, food from “south of the border” has a huge hold and influence on the country’s cuisine. While we’re all familiar with tacos, burritos, nachos, tortillas, salsa, and beans, there are still so many delicious dishes that have yet to make their way onto American menus. Every year it seems there is a new food trend making its way from the Americas (namely Mexico) into our ever-growing menu of foods — like birria which wasn’t invented recently but exploded in popularity with the rise of TikTok and Instagram foodie accounts in 2021.
Birria isn’t the only Mexican dish that deserves more love on menus in the United States, either. Mexico is full of great food that still hasn’t completely crossed over. So today we’re highlighting five dishes from Mexico that deserve more love on menus here in the states. Let’s dive in!
Mole Verde (Green Mole)
Getty Image
If you frequent Mexican restaurants you’re probably aware of mole, a thick and rich sauce made from chilis, fruit, seeds, and most notably Mexican chocolate, but what most menus don’t tell you is that this is actually what is known as Mole Poblano. Mole in Mexico comes in all sorts of different forms, many of which don’t involve chocolate at all, goes back to the time of the Aztec Empire, and gets its name from the Nahuatl language. The Nahuatl word, molli, means sauce, so as you might imagine, mole is a very broad term that covers a lot of different thick and savory sauces.
My favorite by far is Mole Verde, or green mole, which hails from Oaxaca and consists of a blend of green herbs like cilantro and parsley, green chilis, pumpkin seeds, and tomatillos. The resulting flavor is savory and mouthwatering blend of spicy, nutty, and fresh herbaceous notes that linger on the tongue like your favorite spicy salsa, but offer a heartier quality that works great smothered on tamales, tacos, or enchiladas.
I’ve only had green mole once in the States at a restaurant in Whittier California called Bizarra Capital on a dish that consisted of green mole over French fries, melted cheese, sweet onion aioli, and seed salsa. That’s in no way traditionally Mexican, but it serves as a great entry point to the wider world of mole for US palettes.
Nopales
iStock
Nopales, or Prickly Pear Cactus pads aren’t that hard to find at Mexican restaurants in America. Nopales tacos are usually found at higher-end Mexican restaurants or more authentic taquerias (which is sort of ironic considering nopales are dirt cheap and should be everywhere), but the ingredient is totally underutilized on American menus. Nopales are so versatile and feature a bright almost citrus-like flavor that isn’t unlike asparagus yet generally costs a fraction of the price.
You can cook nopales con huevos (nopales, eggs, and some chilis), eat the large pads grilled on a fire, pickle them, throw them into a plate of chorizo to add some vegetal brightness with nopales con chorizo, toss them into a salad… truly, you can let your imagination run wild with this flexible and healthy ingredient.
For beginners, I suggest a nopales salsa which consists of cooked nopales tossed with lime, salt, Serrano peppers, onions, cilantro, and tomato. Sound familiar? It should, because it’s essentially pico de Gallo, but with the added cactus it contains an extra dimension of earthy vegetal flavors that’ll make you wonder why you ever bothered with regular old Pico De Gallo in the first place when this has always existed.
Calabacitas
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Every time I go to a Mexican food spot in the States and see “vegan” or “vegetarian” tacos made with plant-based meats or jackfruit a little piece of me dies inside. Not because plant-based tacos are bad per se (though, I’ve never had a good one) but because there are plenty of Mexican dishes that are vegetarian-friendly and don’t require the use of weird lab meat or expensive jackfruit. One such dish is calabacitas, a medley of sautéed Mexican heirloom squash, corn, tomatoes, and chili peppers, resulting in a stew-like meal that works perfectly as a side or a main course once thrown into a corn tortilla-based taco.
This veggie blend is downright meaty, and it’s so substantial and satisfying that you won’t even miss the absence of animal protein, and the best part is it doesn’t taste like it’s trying to mimic meat. It stands completely on its own!
The Mexican heirloom squash, sometimes just called “calabacitas” is very similar to zucchini, only it’s much sweeter, which helps this dish stand out, and smaller and lighter in color. You can easily find calabacitas at your local Mexican market alongside all the other vegetables, or you can just make it with whatever squash you have on hand.
If you’re not trying to cut out meat from your diet, consider trying calabacitas con puerco, which is a slow-simmered stew made from pork rubs, tomatoes, and calabacitas.
Chiles Toreados Tacos
Dane Rivera
US foodies have this weird obsession with approaching spicy food as some sort of dare. Take Hot Ones for example, an entire interview show revolving around eating increasingly spicy wings that people can’t seem to get enough of even though for much of the rest of the world, the spicy sensation isn’t in any way novel — it’s simply our bread and butter.
Chilies Toreados, or blistered peppers, are a mix of pressed, pan-fried chili peppers usually cooked in a comal that combine some of the hottest peppers found in Mexico into a single spicy dish that’ll make your eyes water, your heart beat harder, and make your tongue want to fall out. It’s the sort of spicy dish that makes you feel straight up high after you’ve eaten it. I’ve seen all sorts of alterations on this dish, sometimes it’s a simple mix of serrano and jalapeño peppers tossed with lime and soy sauce, and sometimes it leans on the spicier side with serrano, habanero.
At LA taco spot Guisados, the Chiles Toreados taco mixes habanero, serrano, jalapeño, and Thai chilies over black beans with a spicy habanero salsa on top. It is legitimately the spiciest taco I’ve ever eaten in my life, and I have a very high spice tolerance. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find more restaurants that serve this beloved Mexican dish.
Elotes
Unsplash
If you live in California you’re probably rolling your eyes at our inclusion of elotes, but this popular Mexican street food hasn’t completely crossed over to the rest of the states, so we’re closing out our list with this one. This popular side dish is Mexico’s version of corn on the cob, and features grilled corn slathered in mayonnaise, cotija cheese, spices like chile powder, ancho chiles, crushed guajillo or tajín, and finished with a squeeze of fresh lime. It’s sweet, tangy, spicy, savory, salty, an explosion of different flavors and sensations in your mouth that’ll leave you with teeth full of corn, a face dusted with spices and mayo, and not a single care in the world.
I’ve had a lot of American variations on the elote and it never quite hits like the real thing from a street vendor in LA. Mayo-slathered corn doesn’t sound like it would be everyone’s thing, but just try it the next time you find yourself at a park in Los Angeles, you’ll never look back.
Nothing compares to opening up your preferred streaming service, listening to a rap song, and attempting to decipher lyrics and bars spit by your favorite rapper. From onomatopoeias to alliterations and cryptic messages, an artist’s chosen lyrical content can tell us more about them than an intrusive Reddit thread ever will. Today we’re digging into Skillibeng’s “Whap Whap.” The dancehall record blew up this year and since the onset of its widespread popularity, fans have been left wondering what the catchy chorus really means.
Sit back and watch the rapper decipher the meaning of his 2022 viral hit with help from Uproxx’s Cherise Johnson. Hailing from Lyssons, Jamaica, Skillibeng tells us “whap whap,” is his home country’s term for corporal punishment. That’s right, the phrase represents the sound you’d hear while unfortunately getting whipped. The rapper didn’t stop there though, he’s turned the phrase on its head using it to express a montage of gunshots instead. His intention was to forego gruesome lyrics and add Jamacaain humor to the record which proved to be a successful effort. Skillibeng’s spanking-inspired record earned him features from Fivio Foreign and French Montana. Outside the record’s success, the infamous Nicki Minaj remixed his 2021, “Crocodile Teeth.”
You can watch Skillibeng’s Bar Stories explanation for “Whap Whap” above.
If you like stories of amazing women, buckle up, because this one is a wild ride.
During WWII, the Soviet Air Force’s 588th Night Bomber Regiment flew incredibly harrowing missions, bombing Germans with rudimentary biplanes in the dead of night. The Germans called them Nachthexen—”Night Witches”—because the only warning they had before the bombs hit was an ominous whooshing sound akin to a witch’s broom.
The “whoosh” sound was due to the fact that the women would cut the planes’ engines as they approached, gliding in stealthily before dropping their bombs. And the Night Witches moniker was fitting, considering the fact that the 588th was an all-female regiment.
Their missions were incredibly dangerous, especially considering how the women were equipped. Most of the recruits were in their late teens to mid-20s, and crew members had to learn how to pilot, navigate and maintain the aircraft so they could serve the regiment in any capacity. They underwent an intensive year of training to learn what usually took several years to master.
The planes they flew were rickety biplanes made of plywood and canvas, which were usually used for crop dusting and training. According to the Wright Museum, a tracer bullet could easily cause the plane to burst into flames, causing some of the women to refer to their aircraft as “a coffin with wings.” The planes’ top speed was just 90 mph, and the weight of the two bombs and crew they carried meant they had to fly low. That made the planes easily visible targets, so the women only flew their missions under the cover of darkness.
The open design of the aircraft and the fact that they flew at night also meant that the women were fully exposed to frigid temperatures during Soviet winters. According to The History Channel, the planes would get so cold, touching them would tear off bare skin.
Since there had been no women in combat in the Air Force before, they were given hand-me-down men’s uniforms and had to tear up bedding to stuff into the end of their boots to make them fit properly. Due to the limited capacity of their aircraft and limited funds, they also were deprived of the modern equipment their male counterparts had access to—radar, radios, machine guns and even parachutes. Instead, they had to use maps, rulers, compasses, stopwatches and pencils to perform their missions. And if they needed to bail out, they just hoped they were close enough to the ground to survive.
Up to 40 two-person crews would be sent out each night to complete between eight and 18 missions each. They would go out in groups of three, with two planes acting as decoys to draw the German searchlights and flack gun attacks away from the third. The one advantage the small, slow biplanes had was maneuverability, so they relied on fancy flying to create a diversion. When the navigator of the third plane tapped the pilot on the shoulder, she would kill the engine and silently swoop in for the bomb drop. The three planes would each take turns in this manner until all three planes had dropped their payloads.
The term “Night Witches” was coined by the Germans, but the women took on the nickname with pride. They had every reason to be proud. They were so feared that any German who downed one of their planes was automatically awarded the prestigious Iron Cross medal.
From June 1942 to October 1943, they flew more than 23,000 combat sorties, collectively logging over 28,000 flight hours and dropping more than 3,000 tons of bombs and 26,000 incendiary shells on Nazi targets. Their bombing raids wreaked havoc on river crossings, railways, warehouses, fuel depots, armored cars, firing positions and other valuable logistical targets. They also made 155 food and ammunition supply drops to other Soviet armed forces.
By the end of the war, the Soviets has lost 32 Night Witches in service. The 588th Regiment was highly decorated; of the 89 Soviet women who received the Hero of the Soviet Union award—the country’s highest honor in WWII—22 were Night Witches.
However, when the Soviet Union held a massive victory parade after the war, the Night Witches weren’t included in it. Their planes, which these badass women had painted flowers on to add a feminine touch, were deemed too slow.
Learn more about the Night Witches with NBC News Learn:
A half-century after Congress outlawed importing enslaved people, Timothy Meaher hired a ship captain to bring over a hundred kidnapped Africans to Alabama. Then he burned the ship. The two-masted schooner called the Clotilda remained sunken and hidden from 1860 to 2018, when it was discovered by Ben Raines, a journalist who had doggedly tracked it down. Raines wrote a book about the ship and its discovery called The Last Slave Ship.
But, as the trailer for Descendant warns us, don’t get too focused on the ship. It’s a real-life McGuffin buried in the Alabama muck, but the real story is about the lives of those who came on the ship and families they created.
The documentary from filmmaker Margaret Brown “follows descendants of the survivors from the Clotilda, the last ship that carried enslaved Africans to the United States, as they reclaim their story.” At least one part of that story is the creation of Africatown, a thriving community that has over decades been surrounded completely by heavy industrial zones, marring a profoundly historical land with chemical pollution and inhuman conditions. The film also features conversations with historians while it weaves the past into the present. Plus, since the last living survivors of the Clotilda died in the 1930s, some of the descendants in the film are only one or two generations removed from the men and women Meaher kidnapped. It’s a potent reminder that the past isn’t so far away.
Descendant hits Netflix October 21st and promises to be one of the best historical documentaries of the year.
There isn’t a single fashion accessory quite like a fresh pair of kicks. The right pair of sneakers telegraphs to the world who you are and what you’re all about. But in a buying market full of bots and greedy re-sellers, it’s never been harder to stand out. Nothing burns like rolling up to the function in a dope pair of limited edition hard-to-cop Jordans only to see a room full of people who also paid a hefty re-sale price for that same exclusive drop.
This is why as streetwear continues to evolve and the most stylish amongst us find new avenues for self-expression, custom sneakers feel like the next big streetwear trend and an art form that is pushing the whole industry forward. The art of independent creatives, now poised for the mainstream.
If you’re a hardcore brand loyalist or a collaboration-obsessed sneakerhead, the words “custom sneakers” might send shivers down your spine. But we’re not talking about sneakers sporting portraits of Goku or colorways that resemble something straight out of a Marvel movie (though if that’s your thing, do you!). Those are fine, but there are a handful of sneaker artists out there that are elevating the form and creating bespoke designs that rival the shoes coming straight out of Nike or Supreme.
People like Dominic Ciambrone, aka The Shoe Surgeon, and Nicolle Knight, aka Katty Customs, the co-host of Uproxx’s Fresh Pair, create the sort of designs that can make even the snobbiest sneakerheads froth at the mouth and turn green with envy. Ciambrone and Knight aren’t simply repainting materials, they’re completely deconstructing sneakers, swapping out soles, messing with fabrics, making leathers, and doing complicated embroidery work and detailing that transform sneakers from simple fashion to straight-up wearable art.
“Creating customs and owning a one-of-a-kind bespoke sneaker is more than just a product,” says Ciambrone, “It’s an experience and an art form to own. People are looking for pieces that are of quality and exclusive to them, and I think we’ll continue to see it grow as more creators and artists emerge.”
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Ciambrone is one of the most visible customizers currently operating in streetwear, his skills are so widely respected that he even runs a workshop called the SRGN Academy that provides hopeful creators in Los Angeles and New York with the skills, tools, and know-how to create their own bespoke kicks. His attention to detail and craft has caught the eye of everyone from Drake to Justin Bieber, Michael B. Jordan, DJ Khaled, Odell Beckham Jr., and many more.
“I feel people are always finding new ways to express themselves,” he says. “I’ve always believed that fashion is an extension of yourself, a way you can communicate and connect with others without saying anything. That’s how I started and how The Shoe Surgeon was born.”
The steadily growing popularity of custom sneakers amongst fashion trendsetters and celebrities plays on the always-trendy pursuit of “exclusivity” and elevates it to a whole new level. A custom sneaker that was designed for you and in some cases, conceived from your own imagination, is a form of self-expression that even the dopest brand collaboration can’t recreate.
“Customization is the ultimate form of streetwear self-expression to me because it’s about being different,” says Knight, who has also designed sneakers for the stars, including Saweetie, Jadakiss, will.i.am, El-P, and many more. “Being able to rock a sneaker that no one else has is gold! When you’re at an outing and someone says ‘I like your shoes, where’d you get them from?’ And knowing they can’t just go into a store and buy the same exact shoes is dope… Self-expression is so valuable when it comes to one’s personal fashion because you’re able to be you, rocking your own style the way you want to. It is self-knowledge and self-confidence expressed through what you choose to wear — a life-affirming expression of who you are.”
Uproxx
It’s clear that the big brands are recognizing the sort of work artists like Ciambrone and Knight are doing, and you can see traces of the customizer’s spirit in designs by artists like Sean Wotherspoon, creator of 2018’s legendary Nike Air Max 1/97, and in Nike and Adidas current customization tools, which are limited, but show that the hunger for customization is strong.
Before making a name for himself as a sneaker designer, Wotherspoon was the founder of a Virginia-based sneaker store called Round Two (Round Two now has stores in New York and Los Angeles, two streetwear meccas) and was invited by Nike in 2017 along with 11 other creatives to create new original iterations of the Air Max silhouette. The designs would eventually be presented to the public and Nike fans voted on which got an official release during 2018’s Air Max Day.
Wotherspoon won that contest by combining the upper of a Nike Air Max 97 with the midsole and outsole of an Air Max 1 and giving it an eye-catching rainbow corduroy upper. That’s the sort of extensive deconstructionist work that serves as Ciambrone and Knight’s bread and butter. Wotherspoon has since gone on to collaborate with Guess, Adidas, ASICS, and produce even more shoes with Nike, solidifying himself as one of the most innovative modern designers in the sneaker space.
For Knight, recognition from the big brands is something she hopes other sneaker artists will get to experience as the customization movement continues to grow.
“Big Brands know that sneaker customization and the desire to be different is a new wave in fashion,” she says. “I definitely feel like the big brands should acknowledge and support customizers more. We’re taking their sneakers and making it into wearable art that can’t be bought in stores. The ultimate form of appreciation for me would be to see the brands collaborate with more sneaker artists, giving us a chance to showcase our talents for the world to see.”
It’s too soon to truly know how the rise of sneaker customization will change streetwear, but we’re excited to see it happen and even more psyched for the ways the big brands like Nike and Adidas respond. When you’re creating the sort of radical transformations of famous silhouettes that Ciambrone and Knight routinely churn out, it pushes the big brands to go further than they have before. The days of simple and safe retro colorway refreshes are over — bring out the bespoke designs!
Hopefully, brands like Nike and Adidas can expand their current customization options — which need a lot more design options if they hope to compare with what Ciambrone and Knight are doing — to allow people to better express themselves in their fashion choices.
“The thing I love most about customizing sneakers for other people is the ability to bring their vision to life,” says Knight. “Everyone is not an artist like myself, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a vision or style. Being able to give them something they can’t create for themselves while bringing a great smile to their faces warms my heart.”
The best team in the NFL through the first three weeks of the season very well might be the Philadelphia Eagles. The team came into the 2022 campaign with hopes of competing in the NFC and has positioned themselves to be considered the favorites, as the team has gone 3-0 with wins over Detroit, Minnesota, and Washington, the latter two coming in ultra-convincing fashion.
At the center of it all is signal caller Jalen Hurts, who is firmly in the NFL MVP conversation at this early juncture. Hurts has managed to take a step forward as a passer this season and continues to be a dangerous runner, and as a result, there are hopes that the Eagles can go places they have not gone since they lifted the Lombardi Trophy in 2018.
There have been questions dating back to Hurts’ college days, both at Alabama and Oklahoma, about his ability to consistently win games with his arm. What has never been in doubt is his ability to lead and keep a calm, focused demeanor when it’s time to play. This was put in the spotlight recently when Michael Irvin learned of a quote Hurts gave to his teammates, which caused The Playmaker to lose his mind.
It is, admittedly, a very good quote, one that is even better because of Irvin’s reaction. He normally saves getting this fired up for when he and Stephen A. Smith are going at it over the Dallas Cowboys, so we must tip our caps to for getting this excited over someone else in the NFC East.
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