Month: March 2023

Tucker Carlson has been on a tear lately trying, not very convincingly, to whitewash the Jan 6. riot as a peaceful gathering of “sightseers.” But on Tuesday, it appears the guy hated by some of his own colleagues had become the victim of fake news: As caught by The Daily Beast, the Twitter bio of Fox News rager suddenly bore some claims strange even for him.

“Non-binary climate change activist of color,” Tucker’s bio now read. “Visionary tech founder. CNBC market analyst. Informal Zelensky advisor.”

So was Tucker hacked? Soon before his Tuesday nightly show, @AnonOpsSE, the account belonging to members of the hactivist collective Annonymous, appeared to take credit for gaining access to his account, telling him, “you’ve been hacked.” That doesn’t explicitly lay claim to doing that deed. They could simply have caught the unusual new bio and made sure more people caught it.

Or was it some weird joke on Tucker’s part, furtively mocking all the progressives who’ve been trying to point out to his viewers how much he secretly hates Trump? The bio was still live as of this writing, on Tuesday night, and whoever was controlling it didn’t start tweeting or re-tweeting un-Tucker-y sentiments. In fact, the most recent tweet, posted towards the end of his latest episode, was a clip from him defending far-right troll Douglass Mackey.

There’s also theory number three: Tucker simply hasn’t noticed that his bio now tells people that he suddenly cares about climate change and Ukraine. If that’s true, maybe someone should tell him lest his fans believe he’s been coaxed to the right side of history. If that’s not true, then welcome to the resistance, Tucker Carlson.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Last year, Westside Boogie unveiled More Black Superheroes, a new record featuring guests like Soulja Boy, Snoop Dogg, and more. The rapper brought some of those songs to a special NPR Tiny Desk performance. On Tuesday, March 4, he was back with new music with the surprise three-track EP Live At The Novo.

The EP comes just days before Westside actually takes the stage at The Novo in Los Angeles, set for March 16. On Instagram, he described Live At The Novo as “[something] to hold y’all over because y’all my family,” he wrote. “2 more days til the ultimate turn up.”

The songs on the EP are “Cold As Love,” “Tell Me,” and “Mood.”

Hopefully the show doesn’t get too rowdy. In July of 2022, he shared why Eminem told him never to stage-dive at a gig. “Performance-wise, he told me stop stage-diving ’cause I can get sued,” he said. “That’s just a physical thing. He don’t like how I be jumping in the crowd ’cause he said I could get sued and how he got into fight for doing that. But I just like jumping into the crowd — it’s like my thing, you know what I’m saying? So I don’t know if that’s necessarily good advice, but that’s the advice he gave me.”

Stream the EP below.

A few months ago, Courtney Love made headlines for revealing on a podcast that she was fired from the film Fight Club for fighting with Brad Pitt about his role as Kurt Cobain. “I don’t know if I trust you and I don’t know that your movies are for profit,” she allegedly told the actor, “They’re really good social justice movies, but… if you don’t get me, you kind of don’t get Kurt, and I don’t feel like you do, Brad.”

Now Love is using her platform to call out a more widespread problem. First, music critic Jessica Hopper tweeted about the lack of female representation in The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, pointing out that out of 719 inductees, only 61 are women. “That’s 8.48%,” Hopper wrote. “C’mon @rockhall, it’s F*CKING GRIM BRO when yr doing worse than women-artists-on-country radio numbers (10%) and women headliners at major music festivals (13%).”

Love quote-tweeted it, praising her for doing the math. “37 years in existence & women make up 8.48% of inductees out of 719,” she wrote. “See txt to Grohl.” She added a screenshot of a message she sent Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl about the situation, and tagged The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to make sure they’re aware.

The rom-com, mostly dead at the multiplexes over the last several years, is allegedly on the rebound. Ticket to Paradise, with Julia Roberts and George Clooney, was a semi-surprise moneymaker last year, signaling that moviegoers want to go see non-blockbuster once again. On the heels of this news was word that one of the queens of the rom-com, Nancy Meyers, who hasn’t made a movie since 2015’s The Intern, was ready to make her splashy, star-studded, very expensive return for Netflix. Sadly, that project seems too pure for this world.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has pulled the plug on Paris Paramount, which was courting some big names: Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Owen Wilson, and Michael Fassbender. It wasn’t going to be cheap, either: Meyers reportedly wanted a budget of $150 million. Netflix wouldn’t go above $130 million. And that’s when negotiations broke down.

The film could find a new home elsewhere. Maybe they could try the film’s studio namesake, Paramount. The story would be old school rom-com (which is to say something that could have hit theaters only seven or eight years ago): It tells of an estranged filmmaking duo with many joint hits under their belt who reluctantly reunite for a new project with high profile but volatile stars.

The project sounds autobiographical: Before lighting off on her own, Meyers used to co-write movies with her then-husband Charles Shyer, who would often direct. Their credits include the Goldie Hawn vehicles Private Benjamin and Protocol, Baby Boom, the ‘90s Father of the Bride remakes, and I Love Trouble.

Meyer started directing with the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap, but by the following year she and Shyer had split. She moved into solo writer-director mode with Something’s Gotta Give, followed by The Holiday, It’s Complicated, and the aforementioned The Intern. These were tony rom-coms with decent-to-huge budgets, big name casts, and some of the prettiest kitchens ever put on screen.

While Meyer has been AWOL from the big screen for some eight years, her and Shyer’s daughter Hallie Meyers-Sheyer directed her own rom-com in 2017, the Reese Witherspoon-starring Home Again, and she has the Mila Kunis-Michael Keaton comedy Goodrich in the works. Hopefully her mom can get her own project off the ground.

(Via THR)

Daniel Caesar is set to unveil his highly anticipated new album Never Enough next month. So far, he’s shared the seductive single “Do You Like Me?” alongside an impassioned music video, as well as the pained track “Let Me Go,” which is now also getting its own visual accompaniment.

To go with the melancholy song, the video shows Caesar running through a beautiful, surreal field, continuing through the day and night. It’s at once a serene and cathartic sight, which goes perfectly with the subtly powerful ballad. It looks particularly captivating during the breathtaking sunset.

The Canadian artist also recently released a trailer for Never Enough, set in what looks like the same striking landscape where this music video takes place, emphasizing nature as an important element of this new LP. An unreleased song plays in the background of the trailer as he swings upside down from a tree: “In the nick of time, that’s when you appear / Girl I was lost until you found me here / My head was low,” he sings. The Youtube caption mysteriously reads: “Blue again… But not for long.”

Watch the video for “Let Me Go” above.

Never Enough is out 4/7 via Republic. Find more information here.

Jack Daniel’s is on a tear lately. Over the last two years, the brand has released some truly killer new bottles of Jack Daniel’s, covering everything from bottled-in-bond masterpieces to American single malt, hazmat bourbon, superb rye whiskeys, blended American whiskeys, and age stated expressions of their classic Old No. 7.

Let’s focus on the latter. Back in November of 2021, Jack Daniel’s shook the American whiskey world with the release of Jack Daniel’s 10-Year-Old, which was so good that it went on to top tons of “best of” lists. Today, Jack Daniel’s released the next volley in their Jack Daniel’s Aged Series: Jack Daniel’s 12-Year-Old (and batch 2 of Jack Daniel’s 10).

Below, I’m going to give you my detailed tasting notes and professional opinion on the brand new Jack Daniel’s 12-Year release (I’ll cover the 10-year batch 2 a bit later). I was lucky enough to taste this whiskey from the barrel in a Jack Daniel’s barrel house in Lynchburg, Tennessee, and from the new bottle at the distillery with Master Distiller Chris Fletcher and Assistant Distiller Lexie Phillips. So let’s cut this preamble short and dive into what’s in the bottle!

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Jack Daniel’s 12-Year-Old Tennessee Whiskey

ABV: 53.5%

Average Price: $80 (MSRP)

The Whiskey:

Jack Daniel’s doesn’t hide any of its processes. The mash at the base of this whiskey is a mix of 80% corn, 12% barley, and 8% rye. Those grains are milled in-house and mixed with cave water pulled from an on-site spring and Jack Daniel’s own yeast and lactobacillus that they also make/cultivate on-site. Once fermented, the mash is distilled twice in huge column stills. The hot spirit is then filtered through 10 feet of sugar maple charcoal that’s also made at the distillery. Finally, the filtered juice is loaded into charred new American oak barrels and left alone in the warehouse. After 12 years, a handful of barrels were ready; so they were batched, barely proofed, and bottled.

The Bottle:

The bottle design is a throwback to the early 1900s when Jack Daniel’s last released age-statement whiskeys. It has a nice heft to it and feels like something you would see behind a bar back in 1910.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: The nose is creamy with deep notes of old boot leather, dark and woody winter spices, black-tea-soaked dates, plum jam with clove, and an underbelly of chewy toffee-laced tobacco.

Palate: That creaminess presents on the palate with a soft sticky toffee pudding drizzled in salted caramel and vanilla sauce next to flakes of salt and a pinch of orange zest over dry Earl Grey tea leaves with a whisper of singed wild sage.

Finish: The end leans into the creamy toffee chewy tobacco with a hint of pear, cherry, and bananas foster over winter spice barks and a deep embracing warmth.

Bottom Line:

This is a great sipping whiskey. It’s deep, creamy, and full of iconic bourbon notes with a nice fruit-forward vibe and a hint of something a little extra (that floral Earl Grey note is very nice). It’s complex and rewarding on every nose and sip. I would easily buy this as a sipper for the weekend or to make one hell of a Manhattan.

How To Buy:

This whiskey is highly allocated (like Batch 1 of Jack Daniel’s 10 in 2021). You’ll find it at high-end liquor stores that do a lot of business with Jack Daniel’s — a good sign that your local liquor might get some is if they have Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel barrel picks behind the glass already. Otherwise, you’re going to see this at high-end whiskey bars and restaurants that get an allocation. State-run liquor stores will have their share and likely have big lines on whichever day they decide to drop this one.

The secondary on Jack Daniel’s 10-year from 2021 is about $500 a bottle, so let that be your guide on this one.

Ranking:

91/100 — This is really good $80 whiskey. There are no faults and it’s truly delicious. You won’t be disappointed.

Boygenius — the supergroup comprised of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker — don’t do things conventionally. The group reformed only a week after Bridgers shared her LP Punisher in 2020. While announcing that their debut full-length The Record was arriving later this month, they also unveiled three lead singles.

So why not pick an odd place to put on a performance? The trio took the stage at baggage claim at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas on Tuesday, March 14. As music lovers piled off planes to get ready for SXSW, they were surprised by the three singers with acoustic guitars. This might be the only scenario in which airport baggage claim is not terrible.

Since the unleashing of “$20,” “Emily I’m Sorry,” and “True Blue,” the trio has also unveiled the single and video “Not Strong Enough,” as well as debuted “Cool About It” in a live performance in New York City.

In a Rolling Stone interview, they discussed weird ways in which they’re going to make the tour for the album fun, specifically one idea about Bridgers and Dacus making out during a Baker guitar solo. Bridgers also touched on the subject of how she would like to “normalize talking sh*t about fans.”

The Record is out 3/31 via Interscope. Pre-order it here.

As if being a new parent isn’t hard enough, parents of identical twins have to live with the fear of mixing them up. It’s hard to tell identical twins apart no matter their age, but it can be downright impossible to notice the difference as babies when their features are smaller and less distinguished.

To add to the confusion, parents of newborns are often sleep deprived and stressed because of their new arrivals. So they have to be extra careful not to overfeed one or give the other a double dose of medication.

The stress was so intense for a mother of identical twins that she got law enforcement involved.

Today.com reports that Sofia Rodríguez, 25, of Córdoba, Argentina, recently went viral on Twitter after tweeting in Spanish that she had to take her newborn babies to the police department to fingerprint them so she could tell them apart.

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“Tomorrow I have to go to the police to have my twins fingerprinted so they can tell me which one is which,” Rodríguez tweeted while joking that she “won the ‘Mother of the Year’ award.” Since she posted the tweet on March 1, it’s received over 15 million views.

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She previously had tied a ribbon around one of the baby’s wrists but cut it off and then lost track of their identities after one got sick. At the time, the babies were just 45 days old. “I never thought I would get them confused—Valentin always (wore) a blue ribbon, but when I realized that it was too small for him, I decided to cut it (off),” Rodríguez told Today.

In another tweet, Rodríguez explained that although the babies may look slightly different in the photos she shared, it’s the lighting. “In the photos, they look different, but it is because they come from different angles or the light…sets them apart,” The Daily Mail translated. “In person, they are the same.”

Foto de los gemelos , tienen 45 días pic.twitter.com/wGYVRzGlLR

— Sofi Rodriguez (@sofiar388) March 2, 2023

A few days after having the children fingerprinted, Argentina’s National Registry of Persons helped the mother distinguish the babies from one another.

Rodríguez’s viral tweet received countless responses from those who have dealt with the same problems as a child or parent.

“I painted the toenail of one of mine to differentiate them,” Conz Preti told Rodríguez, according to Google Translate. “Mine are identical, but they are completely different for me.”

Yo le pinte la uña del pie a una de las mias para diferenciarlas. Las mias son idénticas idénticas pero para mi son absolutamente distintas pic.twitter.com/63hY2uyCme

— Conz Preti (@conz) March 2, 2023

“With my twin brother, we used a bracelet, one on the left and one on the right. The myth says that once we both dropped them and they were reversed,” Manuel Rubina wrote according to Google Translate. “We’re almost 30, and maybe I’m him, and he’s me.”

Con mi hermano mellizo usábamos pulsera, uno la izquierda y otro la derecha. El mito dice que una vez se nos cayó a ambos y nos las pusieron invertidas. Tenemos casi 30 años y puede que yo sea él y él sea yo 🤯 pic.twitter.com/xlmNCK8C7g

— Manuel Rubina (@manuelrubina) March 2, 2023

“With this technique, nothing like this would ever happen,” Julian Guarin added, sharing a photo of babies with different shapes shaved in their hair.

Con esta técnica jamás pasaría algo así. pic.twitter.com/LgYyFu8EDN

— Julian Guarin. (@guaroworld) March 2, 2023

As a parent, especially in the early days, you’ve got to do whatever you can to get by. Rodríguez may have jokingly called herself “Mother of the Year” for having to go to the police for help, but that’s just what great parents do. The Instagram-perfect version of parenting is far from reality, and the great ones aren’t those who get by without any spittle on their shoulders or bags under their eyes from sleep deprivation. The best parents are those who do everything they can to do what’s right for their kids, no matter how it looks.

Lana Del Rey is getting ready for the release of her new album Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Ocean Blvd, which has been previewed by the sprawling title track and the seductive single “A&W.” Now she’s back with the opening song, “The Grants.”

“The Grants” is as cinematic as you’d expect from the legendary artist. Featuring a stunning assemblage of gospel singers, the piano-driven ballad has a spiritual texture to it as Del Rey sings: “Do you think about heaven? / Do you think about me?”

Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Ocean Blvd follows Del Rey’s 2021 album Blue Banisters, which she recently said was her way to explain herself after accusations of cultural appropriation and glorifying domestic abuse for the previous LP, Chemtrails Over The Country Club.

“I was just like, ‘Let me try and write an album that maybe could explain why, if that was true, let’s say, I could potentially identify with certain modes of operating,’” she said. “So, Blue Banisters was more of an explanatory album, more of a defensive album, which is why I didn’t promote it, period, at all. I didn’t want anyone to listen to it. I just wanted it to be there in case anyone was ever curious for any information.”

Listen to “The Grants” above.

Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Ocean Blvd is out 3/24 via Interscope and Polydor. You can pre-save it here.

As you might recall, Donald Trump didn’t have a great end to 2022. He’s not having a great 2023 either, what with a possible indictment on the horizon. But at least some of the time he’s back doing what he loves the most: rambling in public about his self-professed greatness and railing against his many enemies. (And sometimes handing out his long-ago-discontinued water.) In fact, if you were to believe one of Fox News’ stars, he should be lauded for clearing one of the lowest bars imaginable.

On Tuesday, Brian Kilmeade took time during that day’s Fox & Friends to praise him for no longer doing one of the things that earned him widespread scorn last November: having dinner with open bigots.

“He also is on a bit of a roll since he went and visited East Palestine, stopped having lunch with White supremacists, and he has gotten a very disciplined message,” Kilmeade gushed. He also bragged that he has a 73% approval rating among those without a college education.

“This is the most disciplined I’ve ever seen him – even compared to 2016,” he went on. “If you see his team, you get text messages every day about policy, not, ‘Such and such is a jerk’ or, ‘This person’s nickname.’ There are policy things coming out. So, it seems very organized.”

Of course, Trump has often received the “new tone” claim before, in which reporters and pundits, even those on the left, praise him for no longer being a schoolyard bully…at least for a brief spell. But being praised for not chowing down with a Hitler-praising white supremacist is a new low. Perhaps the GOP could aim at least slightly higher? Surely there’s plenty of other viable candidates who haven’t dined with a little twerp who thinks “dating women is gay.”

(Via Mediaite)