Month: November 2022

The Washington Commanders may be up for sale. In a statement released on Wednesday, Dan and Tanya Snyder announced that they had retained BofA Securities in an effort to figure out “potential transactions,” and according to a Commanders spokesperson, every option that the team could pursue is on the table. Perhaps unsurprisingly, several hours after this was announced, it was revealed that the team’s finances are under investigation by the federal government.

Also unsurprising: The fact that some big names might be lining up to purchase the team. A report from TMZ indicated that Jay-Z and Jeff Bezos, both of whom have worked with the NFL, are interested in making a bid and may even want to join forces as part of an ownership group — TMZ reports that “a partnership between the men is on the table.”

As TMZ noted, back in 2019, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and the NFL entered a partnership that both pursued social justice efforts and gave Hov the opportunity to help select the performers during the Super Bowl halftime show. He has some experience as the owner of a team in one of the major American sports, as he previously served as a part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets and was an influential figure in the team’s move from New Jersey.

Bezos, meanwhile, owns Prime Video, which became the exclusive broadcaster of Thursday Night Football during the 2022 season. He additionally purchased The Washington Post back in 2013.

Back in the ’80s and some of the ’90s, influential radio DJ Deirdre O’Donoghue worked at KCRW and hosted SNAP (an abbreviation of “Saturday Night Avant Pop”). It was a late-night show that notably featured performances from a bunch of favorite indie acts of the era. Now, many of those recordings are being made available once again for the first time in decades.

This is coming straight from KCRW’s archives, which can be found here. Performances include visits from R.E.M. from 1991, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds from 1989, Tom Waits from 1987, Sarah McLachlan from 1989, The Meat Puppets from 1986, and multiple The Dream Syndicate performances. In total, there are 55 live performances from between 1984 and 1991, all of which have been restored from the original master reels. Those and others will be available starting on November 14 (although KCRW members can listen starting November 4), while others still are set to be made available further down the road.

Waits and wife Kathleen Brennan offered a statement about the endeavor, writing, “In a town filled with sounds borne of the marriage of music and commerce, Deirdre was a voice and venue for the undiscovered or marginalized and a refuge for artists who felt estranged from the prevailing currents. She opened so many ears and hearts, including ours, with her earthy and irreverent voice and wide ranging enthusiasm for all music. So great someone thought to do this.”

This follows the 2021 release of Bent By Nature, a 10-episode podcast series about O’Donoghue. The official synopsis of the show and of the new archives reads, “She was the most influential American DJ you’ve never heard of. Deirdre O’Donoghue was a vital force in the musical underground of the 1980s. Countless artists crammed into her studio to perform live on her late-night show, SNAP! on KCRW. And after 40 years, those legendary sessions will be heard again. Join Michael Stipe, Henry Rollins, Julian Cope, and more for a sound-packed series from the producers of Lost Notes and Unfictional transporting you to the heyday of ’80s independent music and the DJ who shaped it.”

With the calendar turning to November, we’re finally ready to admit that it’s officially warming beer season. This means the time is right for barrel-aged beers and imperial stouts and porters. A healthy diet of these higher alcohol content, bold, robust beers is sure to keep you feeling toasty and cozy until the spring thaw. And while we could write for days about all the various high-ABV warming beers available, today we’re going to stick to imperial stouts.

Which brings us to the obvious question: what exactly is an imperial stout? Technically, the term “imperial stout” refers to a stout that is more loaded with over-the-top roasted malts, chocolate, coffee, and other rich, robust flavors while also being higher in alcohol as compared to traditional stouts.

You’ve likely seen the term “imperial” added before other beers like porters and even IPAs. While its genesis is a little cloudy, it’s believed by many that the term comes from beers that were brewed for the Imperial Court of Catherine the Great in the 18th century. That’s why you sometimes see imperial stouts referred to as “Russian” imperial stouts.

Now that we know a little bit more about imperial stouts, it’s time to actually drink some. But I’ll do more than just drink them. Today I’m going to blindly nose, taste, and then rank eight imperial stouts. Keep reading to see how it all turned out. Maybe your favorite imperial stout won it all.

Here’s the lineup:

• Southern Tier Warlock
• North Coast Old Rasputin
• Bell’s Expedition Stout
• Alesmith Speedway Stout
• Great Divide Yeti
• Fremont Dark Star
• Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout
• Sierra Nevada Narwhal

Part 1: The Taste

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

A nose of dried fruit, dark chocolate, pie crust, and fall spices greets you before your first sip. It’s welcoming, but the palate is a little too pumpkin-centric for my liking. There are also roasted malts, more chocolate, ginger, allspice, and other spices. It’s just a bit too heavy-handed on the spice and pumpkin.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

This beer has a light nose of dark chocolate, raisins, and freshly brewed coffee. While it doesn’t have a ton of aromas, it’s very inviting. The palate continues this trend with more dried fruits, roasted malts, coffee, chocolate, and lightly bitter hops. It’s easy to drink, but lighter in flavor than I’d prefer.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

Complex notes of freshly brewed espresso, dark chocolate, roasted malts, caramel, and toasted coconut greet you before your first sip. This continues into the palate. Sipping it reveals more coffee beans, buttery caramel, milk chocolate, almond cookies, and lightly floral hops. Overall, it’s a very well balanced beer.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

Licorice, roasted malts, coffee, dark chocolate, and oats can be found on the nose. It definitely draws you in. The flavor lives up to the hype started by the nose. It’s filled with dark chocolate, coffee beans, dried fruits, roasted malts, oatmeal, and light caramel. The finishing is warming, robust, slightly bitter, and leaves you craving more.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

Aromas of molasses candy, caramel, roasted malts, coffee, and dark chocolate are prevalent on the nose. The palate begins with caramel candy and sweet chocolate, but gradually moves into bitter coffee and roasted malts and eventually slightly floral, grassy hops.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

This beer draws you in with aromas of freshly-brewed coffee, chocolate, roasted malts, and light, grassy hops. The palate is slightly less memorable than the nose. There are more notes of coffee, bitter, dark chocolate, and roasty malts. But that’s about it. Decent, but not overly exciting.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

Nosing this beer is like taking a dive into a world filled with aromas like freshly brewed coffee, dark chocolate, dried fruits, bready malts, and roasted malts. Drinking it brings forth notes of sweet caramel, cocoa powder, coffee beans, oats, molasses candy, and slightly smoky roasted malts. The finish is a creamy mix of bitterness and sweetness.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

There isn’t much going on with this beer’s nose. Faint chocolate and maybe some dried fruits, but really not much else. There’s more going on with the palate. There are notes of roasted malts, more bitter chocolate, raisins, and coffee. All in all, it’s a little generic and unexciting though.

Part 2: The Rankings

8) Bell’s Expedition Stout (Taste 8)

ABV: 10.5%

Average Price: $18 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This popular 10.5% ABV Russian imperial stout is known for its mix of rich, sweet malts, dark chocolate, and dried fruit flavors. Like many higher alcohol content stouts, it’s crafted to be cellared in order to open up even more bold, memorable flavors.

Bottom Line:

I’m not here to tell you that Bell’s Expedition Stout is a bad beer. It’s not. It’s just not all that exciting either.

7) Southern Tier Warlock (Taste 1)

ABV: 10%

Average Price: $14.99 for a four-pack

The Beer:

Not only is Southern Tier Warlock an imperial stout, but it’s also a pumpkin stout. Brewed with ale yeast, four different malts, CTZ hops, as well as pumpkin and spices, it’s known for its bold flavor profile of pumpkin, coffee, and chocolate.

Bottom Line:

If you enjoy both imperial stouts and pumpkin beers, this is the beer for you. Otherwise, stay far away from the pumpkin-spiced stout. It’s just a little too much.

6) Sierra Nevada Narwhal (Taste 6)

ABV: 10.5%

Average Price: $12.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This seasonal imperial stout is available from September to December. It’s brewed with a glut of malts, including Caramelized malts, Chocolate, Carafa III, Estate Pale, Honey, Roasted Barley, Smoked, and Two-row Pale. The recipe also consists of ale yeast and Cascade and Ekuanot hops. The result is a highly complex, flavorful stout.

Bottom Line:

If you’re looking for a fairly basic, straightforward imperial stout with coffee, chocolate, and malts, this is a great choice. If you’re looking for a little more than that, let the search continue.

5) Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout (Taste 2)

ABV: 7%

Average Price: $10.99 for a four-pack

The Beer:

There are few imperial stouts as traditional as Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout. Surprisingly low in alcohol for the style, this 7% ABV beer is brewed with simple ingredients like water, roasted malt, malted barley, cane sugar, yeast, and hops. That’s it. Simple, elegant, and rich.

Bottom Line:

Samuel Smith’s manages to have a ton of aroma and flavor even with its 7% ABV. It could just use a little kick of extra aroma and flavor to really put it over the top.

4) Great Divide Yeti (Taste 5)

ABV: 9.5%

Average Price: $13.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Great Divide’s most well known beer is likely its 9.5% imperial stout called Yeti. It’s well known for its balanced flavor profile of bold, roasted malts, chocolate, floral, and lightly bitter hops. It’s a truly unique imperial stout.

Bottom Line:

This is a truly complex beer. The mix of sweetness, dark chocolate and coffee, and lightly bitter hops makes this one of the most memorable imperial stouts on the market.

3) Alesmith Speedway Stout (Taste 3)

ABV: 12%

Average Price: $14.99 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

Alesmith’s flagship beer is its iconic 12% ABV imperial stout. This award winner is known for its bold flavor profile of dried fruits, roasted malts, and robust coffee from locally sourced, real roasted coffee.

Bottom Line:

There’s a reason Alesmith Speedway Stout is so popular. It’s loaded with chocolate, roasted malts, and real coffee beans. It’s a can’t miss imperial stout.

2) Fremont Dark Star (Taste 4)

ABV: 8%

Average Price: $12.50 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This robust, rich, award-winning imperial stout is adorned with a massive dragon. It lets you in on the fact that you’re about to crack open a behemoth of a beer featuring roasted barley, 2-row Pale, C-60, Carafa 2, and Chocolate malts as well as flaked oats and Magnum and Willamette hops.

Bottom Line:

This offering from Fremont is available year-round, but really hits the spot during the colder months. Coffee, chocolate, roasted malts, and light hops, this beer has it all.

1) North Coast Old Rasputin (Taste 7)

ABV: 9%

Average Price: $9.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Grigori Rasputin was a mystic and an extremely divisive character in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Russia. North Coast named this Russian imperial stout for this odd historical character. It’s 9% ABV, pitch black in color, and known for its rich, robust, roasted malt, dark chocolate-centered flavor profile.

Bottom Line:

When it comes to well balanced, complex Imperial stouts, it’s difficult to beat North Coast’s Old Rasputin. It’s a perfect mix of roasty bitterness and sweetness.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

After partaking in this blind taste test, I discovered one important thing about my palate when it comes to imperial stouts: while I love the indulgent flavors of sweet chocolate and caramel, I need a little mix of coffee and roasted malt bitterness as well, and a light hint of floral hops for me to truly enjoy the beer. It’s all about how the various flavors combine to make one well balanced flavor experience.

Norway is officially on Putin’s sh*t list. On Wednesday, according to The Daily Beast, Russia made it clear that it views Norway’s friendliness with NATO countries and steps to strengthen its military forces as an explicit threat. And that there could be repercussions.

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, issued a statement in which she declared that, “Oslo is now among the most active supporters of NATO’s involvement in the Arctic. We consider such developments near Russian borders as Oslo’s deliberate pursuit of a destructive course toward escalation of tensions in the Euro-Arctic region and the final destruction of Russian-Norwegian relations.” She also warned the Scandinavian country that any additional “unfriendly actions will be followed by a timely and adequate response.”

On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that Norway, which shares 120 miles of its border with Russia, had raised its military alert level following suspicious drone activity. As Shannon Vavra wrote for The Daily Beast:

Norway has arrested several Russians, including one son of an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s, and accused them of illegally flying drones in Norwegian airspace or taking photos in restricted areas as concerns abound about potential Russian attacks on critical infrastructure. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre warned Russia to cut it out, according to Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

“Today, we have no reason to believe that Russia will want to involve Norway or any other country directly in the war,” Støre said in response to the drone activity. “But the war in Ukraine makes it necessary for all NATO countries to be more vigilant.” Støre also stated that Russia’s war with Ukraine and tenuous relationship with several other European nations is “the most serious security policy situation we have experienced in several decades.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

Netflix really, really wants subscribers to its brand new Basic with Ads plan. On Thursday, November 3, the same day its first ads subscription option launched on the streaming service, Netflix announced that David Letterman interviewed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a special episode of his Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman. Zelenskyy has been leading his country’s fight against Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The fifth season of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction has not been confirmed yet despite this announcement.

The episode will air later this year. It already is later this year, isn’t it? So it’s probably coming very soon. According to The Wrap, Letterman traveled to Ukraine’s capital Kyiv to conduct the interview. Earlier this year, both Ben Stiller and Sean Penn visited Ukraine and were subsequently banned from Russia, meaning Letterman could be next on the list.

For the past four seasons of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, the former Late Show host does in-depth interviews with global figures. Past guests include Will Smith, Billie Eilish, Ryan Reynolds, Kim Kardashian. Cardi B, Malala Yousafzai, and Barack Obama. In the episodes, Letterman conducts interviews both in and outside of a traditional television interview setting.

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction premiered on Netflix in January 2018. The series has been nominated for four Creative Arts Emmys for Outstanding Informational Series or Special.

(Via The Wrap)

If The Muppet Christmas Carol isn’t the best Christmas movie, it’s second behind Gremlins. But unless you owned the VHS, you haven’t seen the 1992 film in full.

“When Love is Gone,” the lovely tune sung by Mr. Humbug himself Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Michael Caine in an Oscar-worthy performance) and Belle (Meredith Braun), was cut from the theatrical version as “Disney felt it wouldn’t appeal to young viewers,” according to the BBC. The Paul Williams-written song is on the VHS version (and the soundtrack), but it was left off the DVD and Disney+ — until now.

Gizmodo reports that “starting December 9, you’ll be able to watch the movie in its entirety, as director Brian Henson originally envisioned, in time for its 30th anniversary… The reel that featured the song was recently unearthed and utilized to prepare a 4K remaster of the classic film.” Henson told Radio 2 his reaction when the reel was found:

“They actually hid it… So, I went down and they said, ‘But before we show it to you, we’ve got something else we want to show you’. And they put up reel four of Christmas Carol with ‘When Love Is Gone.’ I was like, ‘No, you did not!’ and they said, ‘Yes we did! We found it!’ I was so happy, I was so happy.”

It’s a bot-free Muppet Christmas miracle.

The complete The Muppet Christmas Carol comes to Disney+ on December 9.

(Via Gizmodo and BBC)

GloRilla and her gritty Memphis sound are hot right now; everyone seems to want a piece, including Ciara: Ciara announced on Wednesday via Instagram that the “FNF” rapper would be hopping on the remix to her recently released collaboration with Summer Walker, “Better Thangs.”

In the short clip, Ciara looks very dreamy while a snippet of the new track plays in the background.

“Anything I tell myself is possible, is possible!” she wrote. “That Glo flow!! wow!” @glorillapimp @SummerWalker #BetterThangsRemix 11/4″

GloRilla confirmed the information by tweeting, “Better thangs remix 11/4,” and tagging Ciara and Walker in the post, complete with fire and trophy emojis.

The remix, along with the original track and her latest song, “Jump,” will presumably be part of Ciara’s highly anticipated upcoming album. The singer recently said she was returning to her dance roots for the upcoming project.

“There’s so much energy in this album because I want to make the world dance — that’s always been my thing,” Ciara told Ebony. “It’s the tempo and beat I’ve been moving to in my music and the key sentiments I’ve poured into this album. There is an R&B core in these records. To be honest, this album feels nostalgic. It takes me back to my first album in a way that no project I’ve done to this point has before.”

So far, Ciara has not released an album title or release date.

Meet Pap Chanel, the rapper from Milledgeville, Georgia, who has racked up an impressive fanbase since her 2015 debut. On her rise to the top, Pap has worked with T.I., Trina, Lil Baby, and more, also amassing millions of listeners on Spotify. But her impact doesn’t stop there. You can listen to some of Pap’s catalog on Starz’s P-Valley, Hulu’s Woke, BET’s College Hill, and Madden NFL 23.

Today she performs her viral hit, “Apple Jacks,” a freestyle sampling from C-Murder’s classic “Down For My N****s.” She doesn’t waste time or energy with today’s Sessions performance. Not only does she start her performance on a high as soon as the track plays, dollar signs populate her entire outfit, living up to her name and group she started in middle school, Pap, which stands for pretty and paid.

Watch Pap Chanel perform “Apple Jacks” for UPROXX Sessions above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

I didn’t think I’d want to watch a fake biopic, especially not one about a real guy in whom I’m actually interested — which is what Weird: The Al Yankovic Story basically is, a parody biopic about a parody musician. And yet, in throwing out almost everything real, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, strangely cuts right to the quick of the entire musical biopic genre. This is a better movie, a more honest reflection of its subject than Bohemian Rhapsody, parody or not.

Weird, from director Eric Appel, co-written by Yankovic, seems to know intuitively that it’s not actually insight into the subject that biopic audiences are after (assuming biopics sanctioned by the subject’s estate could ever even offer that, most don’t), or to see the subject as a metaphor for the American dream, or whatever. It’s simpler than that. We want to hear them play the hits. And maybe that’s less reductive and more pure than trying to dissect Johnny Cash or whoever in order to find the genius button.

The trailer was cute, of course, but I honestly didn’t know how long I’d be able to watch a series of (deliberately) dopey sketches about a series of dopey songs. And yet Weird ended up being not just cute or funny, but strangely thrilling, in the way earnest biopics are supposed to be. Even with loads of bullshit in between, fake origin stories for songs that consist entirely of Weird Al changing the lyrics of a hit pop song so that it’s about breakfast now, I still got the same weird goosebumps as when Eazy E nails the first line of “Boyz N Tha Hood” in Straight Outta Compton. I’m serious, actual goosebumps, at the sight of Daniel Radcliffe as a mall Santa version of Weird Al (as in, bearing all the identifiable totems of the persona but not really going for verisimilitude) leading a biker bar in “I Love Rocky Road.”

Why does this happen? Sure, partly it’s the same thrill of recognition Marvel piggies get when their favorite Millennium Kid makes a cameo in the new Galaxy Fox movie, but I also think there’s something about watching someone carve order from chaos. That there’s something weirdly gratifying about knowing exactly how a song is going to turn out and then having to wait for the characters themselves to discover it. It’s like watching a baby learn to walk. There’s an ineffable brilliance to a song, that, on some level, trying to explain only cheapens. It’s very reptilian brained to like music in the first place. Music is math, but it’s also magic. We’re all kind of snake charming each other. People quote musicians as fonts of sage wisdom, as if in our inherent superstitiousness we’re constantly tricking ourselves into believing that the vibrations wizard must know the universe’s secrets. It’s preposterous, but universally human.

Tonally, Weird matches the appeal of Weird Al’s music perfectly. Starring Rainn Wilson as a ClipArt version of parody song impresario Dr. Demento, who always wears his trademark tux and tophat, and who in this world is as culturally important as Wolfman Jack (played by Jack Black), Alfred Yankovic (Radcliffe, who I used to hate reflexively but has finally won me over) spends his life trying to please his dour factory worker father (Toby Huss), encouraged by his mother (the always fantastic Julianne Nicholson), while hiding his true passion — to become “not the technically best, but the most famous accordion player in a very specific genre.”

Evan Rachel Wood plays Madonna, and in a movie where most of the celebrity impressions succeed by not trying very hard, Wood is spooky-accurate in a way that feels almost accidental.

Above all, Weird is constantly riding that line between too-stupid-to-be-funny and so-stupid-it’s-hilarious. It doesn’t even try to make you believe that it’s actually Daniel Radcliffe singing, which, rather than taking you out of the action, only focuses the attention more on the extraordinary adroitness of Weird Al’s rubber-band voice (always his secret weapon).

There’s a conceptual purity to Weird Al, in his refusal to ever be serious or earnest for even a single second. It’s hard to maintain that kind of thing, and yet he has, which has allowed him to become a myth, the class clown instinct personified. To delve beyond the facade would ruin the show. Weird is perfect because it never does. We get a few snapshots of the real Weird Al over the credits, just like we would with any straight biopic, only here they quickly descend into a series of silly photoshops. Just as it should be.

‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’ premieres exclusively on the Roku Channel November 4th. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can read more of his reviews here.

Megan Thee Stallion, who released her new album Traumazine earlier this year, deals with a lot of BS whether it’s because of the violence she experienced from Tory Lanez when he shot her in the foot or from her ongoing feud with her record label 1501 Certified Entertainment.

Today, the “Sweetest Pie” singer took to social media to clear up some apparent misconceptions about the case with her label. “No judge has ruled anything abt this 1501 case, this information is not accurate,” she wrote in a tweet. “the court date for this isn’t even until DECEMBER 12TH … we HAVE NOT went to court and got a summary judgment. Please stop spreading misinformation thanks.”

In August, after filing her lawsuit against 1501 Certified Entertainment, she also declared that she demanded $1 million in damages from the label. This was after the label countersued her, asserting that Something For Thee Hotties did not count as an album on her contract because it was not made up of all original material. This countersuit blames Roc Nation, Megan’s management company, for “trying to persuade its management clients to leave their record labels.”

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.