Month: December 2023

In today’s fast-paced world, where our furry friends are more like family, ensuring their safety and happiness is paramount. Dog owners know the challenge: finding a playpen that’s not just a confined space but a haven of comfort and joy for their beloved pets. This is where FXW steps in.

FXW Playpens aren’t just any ordinary pet enclosures; they are a fusion of style, functionality, and safety, all wrapped up in designs that perfectly complement your home and lifestyle. With an eye for detail and a heart for pets, FXW offers solutions that resonate with the needs of modern dog owners – a blend of convenience, aesthetics, and the assurance of your pet’s well-being. As we explore why these playpens stand out, you’ll see how FXW has reimagined pet care, one playpen at a time. And right now, you can get 20 percent off storewide by using the “SAVE20” coupon code.

Space-Saving Designs: Perfect for Any Home

FXW Playpens are a testament to the saying, “Good things come in small packages.” Designed with the urban pet owner in mind, these playpens are a marvel of compact efficiency. Whether you’re living in a cozy apartment or a spacious suburban home, space is always a premium. FXW understands this.

Their playpens unfold into generous play areas for your pooch but fold back into surprisingly small footprints when not in use. It’s the perfect blend of space-saving ingenuity and pet comfort. No more bulky cages that stick out like a sore thumb in your living room. With FXW, your pet gets their own special nook, and you reclaim your space – a win-win in pet care and home aesthetics.

Eco-Friendly Materials: The Green Choice

In a world where sustainability is not just a choice but a necessity, FXW is leading the charge in eco-friendly pet care. Their playpens are a testament to this commitment, crafted from materials that love the earth as much as you love your dog. By choosing high-quality, sustainable resources, FXW ensures that each playpen is not just safe for your pet but also kind to the planet. This approach is a breath of fresh air in the pet industry, aligning perfectly with the values of environmentally conscious dog owners.

With FXW, you’re not just creating a safe play space for your furry friend; you’re also making a statement that says you care about the footprint you leave on the earth. It’s about making responsible choices; with FXW, that choice is simple and impactful.

Innovative Features for Pet Comfort and Safety

FXW Playpens aren’t just about keeping your pet contained; they’re about creating a sanctuary where comfort and safety are paramount. Each playpen boasts features like soft yet sturdy walls and secure locking mechanisms, ensuring your dog is always safe and snug. What’s more, the adjustable layout of these playpens means they can be tailored to suit your pet’s unique needs and your living space.

Stylish Design That Complements Your Home Décor

Gone are the days when pet accessories clashed with your home décor. FXW Playpens are a game-changer, marrying functionality with flair. These playpens come in a range of designs and colors, ensuring there’s one to suit every interior style – from minimalist modern to cozy rustic. They’re not just pet enclosures; they’re statement pieces that enhance the aesthetic of your living space.

Whether you prefer a classic black that blends seamlessly or a pop of color to add some zest, FXW has you covered. This attention to style and function makes FXW Playpens a favorite among style-conscious dog owners. Your pet’s corner can now be a reflection of your style, effortlessly fitting into the tapestry of your home.

Exceptional Value for Money

In a market flooded with overpriced pet products, FXW Playpens stands out for their exceptional value. These playpens are not just investments in your pet’s safety and happiness but also savvy financial choices.

When you compare the durability, versatility, and stylish designs of FXW Playpens with others on the market, it’s clear that FXW offers more bang for your buck. They deliver a suite of premium features – think sustainability, adaptability, and aesthetic appeal – all at a price point that doesn’t break the bank. This combination of quality and affordability makes FXW Playpens an intelligent choice for dog owners who want the best for their pets without compromising their budget.

Use Coupon Code “SAVE20” For 20% Off Storewide

FXW Playpens offer the ultimate blend of style, functionality, and value, redefining pet care for the modern dog owner. With their space-saving designs, eco-friendly materials, innovative features, and eye-catching aesthetics, these playpens are a smart investment for your pet’s well-being.

Ready to elevate your pet care game? Visit the FXW website today to explore their range and find the perfect playpen for your furry friend. And be sure to use coupon code “SAVE20” for 20 percent off storewide.

Your dog deserves the best, and with FXW, that’s exactly what you’ll give them.

Please note: We may receive a commission for purchases made through the links in this article.

There’s a ton of Christmas music out there, but since it’s the classics from the 1950s and ’60s that seem to get the most attention, it can be hard to know where to start if you want something more modern. If your tastes are more indie-leaning, Talking Heads’ David Byrne has you covered, as he just put together a Christmas playlist for NPR’s Fresh Air.

It’s not just indie here, as Byrne’s 19-song mix has some variety, featuring everything from 100 Gecs’ “Sympathy 4 The Grinch” to Prince’s “Another Lonely Christmas” to Sabrina Carpenter’s “Santa Doesn’t Know You Like I Do.” Other artists making the cut include Phoebe Bridgers, LCD Soundsystem, The Pogues, James Brown, Paul Simon, and Tierra Whack.

Byrne broke down some of his picks for NPR, including his own “Fat Man’s Comin’,” saying:

“I sometimes have a tendency to take things a little bit literally. So I looked at the whole Santa phenomena and said, ‘Well, what if I just described this exactly as what’s happening?’ Here’s a stranger who’s sneaking, breaking into your house, basically, leaving packages — and dressed in a rather strange outfit. I thought, ‘What if I just write that?’ The arrangement is by a guy named Jherek Bischoff that I’d worked with before, and his arrangement is pretty incredible, really kind of catches the flavor of what I’m getting [at], this sort of slightly ominous description of what Santa is up to.”

Stream it via Spotify below or listen on Apple Music here.

Ariana Grande has been on a bit of a musical hiatus, as she was filming in the Wicked movie. However, over the past few weeks, it seems her return is in the works. A few days ago, she posted to Instagram to share some photos of herself working in the studio, and even fellow musicians were thrilled for her to drop some new music.

Here’s what to know about if there will be a video to go along with it.

Is Ariana Grande Shooting A New Music Video?

Grande’s fans have questions about her recent social media activity, which seems to suggest that she might be working on a new music video. The pop star followed director Christian Breslauer on Instagram, whose past credits include SZA’s “Kill Bill” video and Doja Cat’s “Demons.” Grande was also spotted adding a bunch of dancers to her following list — raising speculation about if they are in the video.

However, the rumors haven’t stopped there. A photographer named Diggzy had captured some photos of Grande, and he added a video slate emoji in the caption. Fans were interested in what it could mean and went on to ask if there was a music video in the works. Although Diggzy didn’t directly respond to their questions, he did appear to confirm it by liking two of the fan comments.

Hopefully fans will find out what it might mean soon.

Marvel isn’t wasting any time dropping a new series in 2024. Starting in early January, Echo will start streaming on Disney+ and Hulu, bringing with it an ultra-violent world unlike anything seen before in the MCU.

Starring Alaqua Cox, the series will focus on the Marvel Comics character who was first introduced back in 1999. Just like Daredevil is blind, Echo is deaf, yet that doesn’t stop her from being a fierce fighter. Unfortunately, her ruthless fighting abilities have been used in service of the Kingpin, but all of that’s about to change in this new Marvel series.

Here’s everything we know about Echo:

Plot

Picking up from the events of Hawkeye, Echo follows Maya Lopez as she reconnects with her Native American family after learning that her father was not murdered by Clint Barton during his Ronin phase between Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Instead, the real killer was Echo’s longtime mentor and benefactor Wilson Fisk a.k.a. the Kingpin.

According to director Syndey Freeland, Echo will explore Maya’s extended family while delivering a more street-level and visceral experience in the first TV-MA rated series for Marvel.

“One of the big things when I first came on was talking to Marvel and saying, ‘Well, she’s a villain in Hawkeye, and to me that’s the most interesting thing about her,’ Freeland told Entertainment Weekly. “And their response was, ‘Let’s lean into that, let’s explore that. As we progressed through the production, I had the chance to say, ‘Okay so what if this guy gets his head smashed onto the table, and actually loses a couple of teeth?’ That’s the character and that’s the world: She’s a criminal and she’s a villain, she’s killing people. And the response was, ‘Yeah, let’s try it!’”

However, despite the connections to Hawkeye, Echo will be one of the first Marvel series that will kick off a new trend of not requiring homework to watch. It will be less connected to the MCU and not be required viewing, so audiences are no longer bogged down by continuity.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Streaming exclusively on Disney, the origin story of Echo revisits Maya Lopez, whose ruthless behavior in New York City catches up with her in her hometown. She must face her past, reconnect with her Native American roots and embrace the meaning of family and community if she ever hopes to move forward.

Cast

Echo stars Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez/Echo, Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin/Wilson Fizk, Zahn McClarnon as William Lopez, K. Devery Jacobs as Bonnie, and look for Charlie Cox to reprise his role of Daredevil/Matt Murdock.

Release Date

Echo will stream all five episodes on Disney+ and Hulu starting January 9 at 9 PM ET.

Trailer

You can watch the official trailer below:

Echo premieres January 9 on Disney+ and Hulu.

Drake’s got a fun habit of making videos that sort of don’t match the themes. For instance, the “Polar Opposites” video features Drake hanging out with a bunch of old guys, the “First Person Shooter” video has Michael Jackson dancing but not much in the way of gaming, and in “Another Late Night,” Drake and Lil Yachty seem to be celebrating Christmas two months early. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that his “You Broke My Heart” video, which dropped today after some light teasing last night, barely even features Drake — or his explicable co-star, Morgan Wallen.

Instead, two women take the spotlight after arranging an explosion that takes the two stars out of the equation, then perform Drake’s lyrics themselves as the world responds to the chaos in a stunning, “one-take” video. So, who are these two women, who are credited as the stars in the credits? As the credits begin, the two women are credited as Grace Matthews and Taylor Morris. Searches on Instgram, TikTok, Reddit, and Twitter (never calling it “X”) yield no reliable results for either woman’s name (they ARE pretty common names, after all) or how they are connected to Drake.

While their identities remain unclear at this time, starring in the video is sure to put both names on the map in short order. After all, Drake’s co-sign has helped draw attention to a number of artists, actors, and models who get attached to him (there’s even a pretty good SNL sketch about it). We’ll probably find out who these women are soon enough.

The first song Katy Kirby wrote for her new album Blue Raspberry (due January 26 via ANTI-) was its title track, and it began as a songwriting experiment. The idea? To try to write something in the style of all the heterosexual hopeless-romantic country songs she heard in her adopted hometown of Nashville; an ode to total admiration of a hypothetical woman. “I am under her heel like rock candy crushed to glitter,” begins the first verse.

You may be surprised to hear that Kirby still identified as straight when she wrote this song. She asked herself, as she describes it, “If I was in love with a woman, what would I love about her?” What stemmed from that question was a love song to the myriad, intricate ways that femininity can be constructed — particularly the ones often scoffed at as “artificial”. “I was thinking about the Dolly Parton quote, ‘It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,’ and the ways that she has always been defiantly appreciative of her fake tits and her big hair,” Kirby explains. “I really like that in people; I like that bravery about the aesthetic choices they’re making in their appearance and how they move through the world. I’ve always found that [it doesn’t] obscure someone’s self, but is actually pretty revealing of the way that they are as a spirit.” “I don’t care if whatever you are is found in nature / You hold the patent for that flavor,” Kirby sings on the track.

About a month after she wrote this song, Kirby realized that this exercise hadn’t been entirely hypothetical — she was in fact attracted to women, and not long after, she began her first queer relationship. Most of Blue Raspberry unfolds as a love story, telling the tale of that relationship from the fiery yearning of its beginning to its heartbreaking end. Having had no inkling that she was queer beforehand, Kirby was figuring these new feelings out as she went, often uncovering them through the act of writing. “It felt like this new part of myself that I had accidentally unlocked and stumbled into a new room and the room was dark and I wasn’t really sure what was in there,” she says. “It was just a feeling of, ‘Here fucking goes,’ without really knowing how to start.”

This is Kirby’s second full-length record; her first, 2021’s Cool Dry Place, quickly made her an indie favorite with its playful, offbeat alt-country. Blue Raspberry is more of a slow dance, full of lusher and dreamier arrangements. “I felt like I should honor the spirit of these songs, and let them be big, beautiful love songs, and not try to complicate that or to be squeamish about it,” Kirby says. “I think it would have been easier for me to make them a little smaller. But I was like, ah, they’re queer love songs; they deserve to sound like a big, romantic deal.”

Kirby grew up in an evangelical Christian community in the small unincorporated town of Spicewood, Texas. Despite the conservative environment, Kirby says, she “escaped a lot of the really damaging parts of evangelical culture.” “My parents were very devout Christians in a way that I actually admire, and I think they were holding it pretty well and gently,” she says. “I never heard my parents say anything unkind about queer people growing up, and they’re perfectly thrilled and fine with me and my sibling also being queer.” She was a homeschooled kid who was quiet and bookish, with the sleepy small-town surroundings affording her time to read, put on plays, and teach herself Christmas carols on the family piano.

Notable is that Kirby’s parents listened to very little secular music — “my mom loves Chaka Khan, and that’s the only artist I can think of that she knows she likes” — and her own exposure to music as a child was limited. As a pre-teen, she was introduced to the likes of Sufjan Stevens, The Strokes, and Coldplay via a friend’s music-loving mom, which set off her journey of discovery. She started writing songs as a teenager, and after high school she went to Belmont University in Nashville with the intention of majoring in songwriting. When she got there, though, she found herself discouraged by the seemingly more serious and formally-trained students around her, and switched her major to English.

“I partially gave up, kind of. I was like, I don’t know if I want this as bad as it seems like I need to want this,” she says. Still, she kept writing her own music, putting out her first EP Juniper right after she graduated in 2018. Unexpectedly, it was picked up by venerable Texas indie label Keeled Scales, leading to the release of Cool Dry Place in 2021, tours with the likes of Waxahatchee and Illuminati Hotties, and her signing to ANTI- Records earlier this year.

Kirby worked on Blue Raspberry with co-producers Alberto Sewald and Logan Chung, longtime friends of hers who also worked on Cool Dry Place. “It was really crucial to record those songs with those people and not an outside producer, because the songs felt a lot more personal [than on the previous record] and they felt harder to sing sometimes,” she explains. “And all of the people [who worked on the record] were very close to me while the things that would become those songs were happening, so I think having that level of trust was so important.”

Kirby’s lyricism across the album is witty and eagle-eyed, yet sweet and sometimes breathtakingly intimate — “You think it’s ethically suspicious to bring someone into a world like this, but you’ve got the best smile anyone could ask to inherit,” is a standout line from “Party Of The Century”. The idea of “Cubic Zirconia” (that is, synthetic diamond) titles the gorgeous lead single as well as cropping up in two other songs, in a continuation of that idea of artificiality that she was interested in when writing “Blue Raspberry” the track. “I was thinking about how annoying it is that artificiality and authenticity are separated by this very thin line, and it never seems to benefit anyone when that line is being drawn or defended,” she says. “For some reason, it seems like women especially sometimes get beholden to or punished by this dichotomy, and it just seemed like a scam to me.” It makes for a fascinating, layered, and palpably queer take on attraction. Meanwhile, there’s an eroticism pulsing through all of the songs that can quickly veer from sensual to blunt (“I turned off my location, let her fuck me like you thought you did,” she sings on “Wait Listen”).

Altogether, the album is a celebratory and often euphoric encapsulation of falling in love with a woman for the first time, and it was important to Kirby to translate that joy. “The timeframe between realizing I was queer and then having some joyful queer experiences was pretty short; I was almost magically just able to accept that part of myself and then act on it, and to enjoy it,” she says. “And I know that that’s quite unusual, historically and even right now. I didn’t have to suffer very much, or at all, and that makes me feel weird and a little guilty. [But] I figured it’s probably worthwhile to have some stories about queerness or some representations of queerness that are breezy, and not heavy. I hope that’s nice for some people to hear.”

Drake has kept the surprises coming all year long. Back in October, he released his eighth studio album For All The Dogs in the middle of the buzzy It’s All A Blur Tour. A month later, he dropped the extended version of For All The Dogs, called the Scary Hours Edition, which featured the instant fan-favorite “You Broke My Heart.” Today (December 20), Drizzy has shared the video for “You Broke My Heart,” and boy, is it… interesting?

The video begins with Drake having dinner with, for some reason, Morgan Wallen, as the two rant about their exes. After their meal, the two enter a car, which explodes shortly after.

The two women responsible for the musicians’ fiery incident — seemingly their exes, played by Grace Matthews and Taylor Morris — then appear on screen walking through the scene amid the wreckage, rapping and lip-syncing to the song’s lyrics for the rest of the clip. It’s not clear what pushed the ladies to blow up the car, but we can assume Wallen and Drake’s actions were less than favorable.

Early next year, Drake will embark on the It’s All A Blur: Big As The What? Tour with J. Cole at various North American venues.

You can see the video for “You Broke My Heart” above.

When the Lakers won the inaugural In-Season Tournament, there was a question of how the storied franchise would handle celebrating the accomplishment. After initial reports indicated they would not hang a banner, they reversed course (likely under pressure from Adam Silver and the NBA) and announced their plans to raise a banner that would have a different look from their championship banners — and noted they would hang just one, with space to add future years to it.

On Monday night, the banner officially went into the rafters in L.A. in a mild pregame celebration of the accomplishment, and unsurprisingly it drew mixed reviews. The Lakers have, rather famously, only hung banners for NBA championships, but the NBA Cup presented an interesting conundrum because it wasn’t just a conference or division title, it was an actual leaguewide title they won — just, not the big one. The black vertical banner was the compromise, but not everyone was thrilled with it.

Shaquille O’Neal is among those that isn’t a fan, as the former Laker great put three NBA championship banners in the rafters and refused to even acknowledge the IST banner’s existence, calling it an “ornament” and a “decoration” but not a banner. That had Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson in stitches, as they poked the bear further and further while Shaq tried to compare it to putting a ribbon on a coffee cup and calling it a Christmas tree. It’s no surprise Shaq is not in on raising banners for In-Season Tournament crowns, and he’ll defiantly refuse to even call it a banner because it’s not gold.

The Buffalo Trace Distillery produces some of the best and most beloved American whiskey in the whole damn game. Their brand names are almost instantly recognizable even if you’re only ~sorta~ into whiskey — Pappy Van Winkle, E.H. Taylor, Eagle Rare, and Blanton’s to name only a few.

When you get into the nitty-gritty of how BT whiskey is made, it’s a mix of science and following recipes to the letter blended with a little bit of magic from the exact spot a barrel rests and the abilities of the people putting juice in bottles. When talking about the “mash bill” (recipe) of whiskey, we’re talking about the former element — the science of it all. And with Buffalo Trace, that means a lot of different recipes to achieve a lot of different results.

Buffalo Trace Distillery uses four main mash bills for their whiskeys. But that’s only scratching the surface. Master Distiller Harlan Wheatley has been working for decades and experimenting with every type of whiskey mash bill that you can fathom … and some that you maybe can’t fathom. So technically, Buffalo Trace uses dozens and dozens of mash bills over time — but only four for the lion’s share of their brand’s expressions (with plenty of exceptions).

To sort it all out for you, I’m breaking down what I know after many distillery visits spanning the past decade. I’ve had the pleasure of tasting and touring with Harlan Wheatley and Kentucky whiskey legend Freddy Johnson several times (I’ve been to the distillery about 10 times this year alone). We’ve sampled pretty much everything together at one point or another over the years. However, both of those dudes are sphinxes when it comes to what the mash bills actually are. They’re very good at their jobs and part of that means playing coy with details.

Sazerac — Buffalo Trace Distillery’s parent company — keeps their cards very close to their chest when it comes to their exact mash bills. So while I’m going to break down what bottles from Buffalo Trace use which mash bill, Sazerac does not explicitly give exact percentages for each of their mash bills. Still, I’m going to give you the gist of what each mash bill is and what it goes into as an end product. At the very least, you should walk away from this article with a lot more information and context for some of the biggest names in all of American whiskey.

One last tidbit, I’m only talking about mash bills below. That is the grain, water, and yeast recipe used to make distiller’s beer (also called the “mash”) via fermentation. This is not about distilling (like which stills are used and which cuts are distilled again, etc.) or about the aging process, barrels, warehouses, or blending. The mash bill is only about the fermentation process.

Make sense? Let’s roll!

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Mash Bill #1

The Mash Bill:

Buffalo Trace Distillery releases three White Dog versions of three of their four mash bills, and this is the main one. That label tells us that Mash Bill #1 is a mix of locally grown corn (Kentucky distillers grade #1 and #2) with Minnesota rye and North Dakota malted barley. The ratios are not given, but it is stated that Mash Bill #1 is a “low-rye” mash bill with 10% or less of rye grain in the mix. We also know that this is a “sour mash” — all Buffalo Trace products tend to be. That means that a little bit of the previous mash is used to start the next batch. As opposed to a “sweet mash” where the tanks are cleaned out and 100% new ingredients are used to start a new mash.

Those grains are ground in-house at Buffalo Trace. The milled grain is then combined with Kentucky limestone water — sourced on-site at the distillery — and cooked to extract the sugars from the grains. That mash is then transferred to open tanks wherein the yeast is added and starts eating the sugars to create a boozy distiller’s beer. Viola!

That distiller’s beer is now the base for some great bourbons.

The Brands That Use Mash Bill #1:

• Buffalo Trace White Dog Mash Bill #1
• Eagle Rare (all expressions)
• George T. Stagg (all expressions)
• Old Charter (all expressions)
• Benchmark (all expressions)
• Buffalo Trace Bourbon
• Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Bourbon (main bourbon expressions only)

Mash Bill #2

The Mash Bill:

Mash Bill #2 is a bit of a mystery. The first thing that’s a tad confusing is that Buffalo Trace doesn’t release a White Dog version. That’s weird. Beyond that, this is mainly the “single barrel” bourbon mash bill.

The actual mash bill is considered a “higher-rye” mash bill with anywhere from 10 to 15% of that Minnesota rye (maybe less) in the recipe alongside the Kentucky corn and North Dakota malted barley. That’s still pretty far from a high-rye bourbon mash bill as it’s known in the industry — that would usually have 20 to 35% rye in the mash. The rest is the same with that local limestone water, a unique yeast strain, and open tank fermentation.

It’s worth noting that a lot of classic Kentucky bourbon mash bills have a rye component at this level.

The Brands That Use Mash Bill #2

• Ancient Age (all expressions)
• Blanton’s (all expressions)
• Rock Hill Farms
• Hancocks Reserve
• Elmer T. Lee
• O.F.C. Vintages

Wheated Mash

The Mash Bill:

This is the big one. Buffalo Trace Distillery’s wheated mash bill makes two of the biggest whiskeys in the world — the Pappy Van Winkle line and Weller.

This mash bill replaces the rye with North Dakota wheat in the corn-fueled bourbon recipe but the percentage of that wheat is not known to the public. Beyond replacing rye grains with wheat, the mash still has Kentucky corn and North Dakota malted barley with a unique yeast strain and local water.

The Brands That Use The Wheated Mash Bill:

• Buffalo Trace White Dog Wheated Mash
• Van Winkle (all of the bourbon expressions)
• Weller (all expressions)
• Single Oak Project
• Buffalo Trace Kosher Wheat Recipe

Rye Mash

The Mash Bill:

Buffalo Trace goes their own way with their rye whiskey mash bill. It’s generally understood that their rye mash is a 51% rye mash bill, which just qualifies the recipe legally as a rye whiskey (51% is the minimum rye requirement for a rye whiskey to legally be called one). That said, this could be 52% too — we simply don’t know exactly.

That Minnesota rye is then mixed with a huge portion of North Dakota malted barley and a small component of Kentucky corn (distiller’s grade #1 and #2).

The Brands That Use The Rye Mash:

• Buffalo Trace White Dog Rye Mash
• Thomas H. Handy
• Sazerac Rye (all expressions)
• Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye
• Buffalo Trace Kosher Straight Rye

The Rest

The Mash Bills:

And this is where it goes stratospheric with the mash bills. Buffalo Trace Distillery has 22,000 experimental barrels aging right now. So there are a lot of outliers in the Buffalo Trace lineup with one-off mashbills. Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr.’s line has one-of-a-kind Buffalo Trace mash bills and I’ll list those below.

Then there’s the Experimental Collection which includes completely one-off mash bills that range from things like Peated bourbon mashes to brandy to freaking baiju (a Chinese rice liquor). I’m not going to list them all because there are just too many but you can get a partial list of bottles here.

Lastly, there’s Wheatley Vodka which uses a high-wheat recipe with “other grains” in its mash bill. So yeah, there’s a lot that slots into this category.

The Brands That Use Other Mash Bills:

• Buffalo Trace Kosher Rye Recipe Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (a special high-rye bourbon mash bill)
• Wheatley Vodka
• Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Straight Rye (rye and malted barely only mash bill)
• Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Amaranth
• Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Four Grain (corn, rye, wheat, and malted barley mash bill)
• W.L. Weller Emmer Wheat (experimental)
• Experimental Collection (varies)
• Prohibition Collection (parts of this collection but exactly which are unknown)

Sarah Silverman‘s latest special, Someone You Love, has the comic at the top of her game, mixing thoughts on everything from religion to life coaches, dried fruit, abortion, language, and obscure porn genres in an hour that’s fun, often silly, meticulously crafted, and quite organic in how it all came together.

Originally airing on HBO at the end of May and freshly released on vinyl this week, the special isn’t so much an act of career strategy or one with an overarching theme. It’s a check in on where Silverman’s head and material was at the time, enhanced by some quick road work and put out into world after HBO tapped her on the shoulder asking for the work.

In the following conversation, recorded a couple of months ago, we discuss the themeless theme, why “segues are for suckers,” Silverman’s evolving process and thoughts on building a comedy special at a point in her career where audiences can be a little too ready to laugh, and her want to be more funny than earnest. In essence, it’s an origin story for one of 2023’s best comedy albums.

Every comedian seems to work on different tracks. Some are like, “I’m going to do a special every other year.” Do you have something like that or is it just that this is when it fits into your schedule, this is when the material worked for you?

I never plan. I never think about the future. This is only my fourth special. I never think of it until some entity goes, “Hey, you want to do a special?” And I actually owed HBO a special and then the pandemic happened and everything and then they were like, “It’s time.” So I went on the road and I had what I had. I had about 37 minutes and then I went on the road for two months and then I had the special and I honed it and shot it at the end of that tour. So it all came together on the road. But I’m glad because unless someone kicks me in the ass, I just never do it.

I’m sure there are specials between the specials I’ve shot, bits and jokes that came and went. I don’t have goals. (Laughs) I don’t think about the future. I’m just always doing standup and working on it, so that’s just a constant in my life.

Having goals is a little overrated sometimes, to be completely honest. I’ve been trying it out for the last couple of years, not a fan. A lot of anxiety comes with goals, so I think you might’ve cracked it.

Thank you. I mean, I’m not against goals. I’m pretty disciplined, so I work. I’m always working on something, but I don’t necessarily have some end in sight or some vision of how it will go. (Laughs)

Once you know, “Okay, I’ve got to drop this special, I’ve got to work on this for a couple of months,” do you start by thinking, “Okay, what’s the theme that I want to talk about?” Or is it just finding your way through wherever your mind is at that point?

The latter. I guess I could go like, “Well, I want to talk about this or I want to talk about this.” But I never really do it that way. I mean, of course, I would say, “I want to talk about abortion rights,” but I didn’t go, “I want to talk about abortion rights” and then write those bits. Those bits were swirling in my head because of our dwindling rights. So I don’t know, it’s a little chicken and egg-ish, but I don’t sit down with a pencil or the laptop or whatever and go, “I want to write a joke about this topic,” because it’s not fruitful for me. It’s just not the way my brain works. And then the trajectory of the special, of course, I’m messing with the order or how things might go together.

You might think that things within a similar category go together, but that isn’t always the case. Sometimes you want to go to other places and then have your mind remember back to something from earlier. The placement gives the material all different kinds of opportunities to connect. Because I realized years ago, many years ago now probably, that segues are for suckers. (Laughs) We don’t talk in segues as humans. We don’t go, “Speaking of that, I, da, da, da.” You know what I mean? Your brain just kind of goes to different places and you suddenly start talking about something else because one thing led the other to the other in your head, and now you’re saying it. It’s like we can connect anything organically. And so once I realized that, I realized stuff can be in any order and that gives you more opportunities.

To me, it’s a way of catching people by surprise.

Yeah, I mean it’s just like if we let ourselves work the way a human brain works, it’s just like everything is connected somehow, even the most different things. And there’s a way in, even if it’s just a pause while your mind goes, “Oh, this!”

Like you said, you wanted to say something about abortion in the last special. There was a great bit about legislating male masturbatory behavior. The one with the GoPro cameras and the kids. It’s a great joke. When you’re crafting material that is talking about a heavy issue, what’s the hierarchy of importance? That you’re saying something [on an issue] or the thrill of saying it in a way that it’s funny, and it gets there? Because that’s a hard line to cross. There’s so many people that try to do political humor and they do it badly.

It has to be funny or you’re just preaching. I mean, there are some moments in this last album where I wish I had more time with it, and it ends up being a little, not preachy, but more observational where I go, “Ooh, it would be great if there was something hardcore right here that I never found.” And so I left it a little bit earnest. What I’m thinking of is “my friends who are in a relationship,” and I see it’s not hard enough for me, like hardcore [in] the comedy. But I really liked what I was saying and people were laughing because they connected with it, which isn’t normally where I like to leave things. (Laughs) I want it to be harder, but I did leave some things there.

But yeah, like the abortion stuff and everything, it’s got to be, if you can make everyone laugh, then anything they retain or think about after that is frosting on the cake. But that’s not necessarily my job, that’s just my personal thoughts. But obviously where I used to say it has to be funnier than it is mean for things I did, now I feel like — and I still feel that way obviously — but it also has to be funnier than it is earnest, which is kind of the way I’ve been going. So I am trying to find that balance because my power is comedy and it is crazy during times like this to try to talk about what matters to you and have enough of a distance to make it funny is hard. But I think about emergency room doctors, they have to have some kind of distance in order to be good at their job.

Yeah, of course.

I feel the same. I don’t compare myself to an emergency room doctor, but to me, I think about how someone can’t come in with a knife in their eye and the emergency room doctor goes, “Oh my God! You have a knife in your eye! Oh my God, that must hurt.” They have to have a certain distance in order to be useful. And I feel the same way with comedians. It’s wonderful to talk about what you’re passionate about, but you need to have some kind of distance in order to be useful because you’ve got to make it funny.

This question’s got a few different pieces, but I’m curious about… I say curious all the time. Sorry.

Curious is great. I like it better than mine. I always say interesting.

I’ll go through the transcripts and see the word curious 9, 10, 11 times. But anyway, you’ve been doing this for a while. Obviously, I’m curious… (drops head in shame). But I am! Is it easier to come up with material now? Is it more fulfilling and is there part of what it felt like when you started that’s still a part of the process now?

It’s a great question. I don’t find it any easier. I mean, I don’t find it easier in terms of writing. I find it the same because the more I know and the more I’ve been doing it, and the more it’s muscle memory and the more all those things, the world around me is changing and comedy is changing. So the challenge is always new and different or else you just become a caricature. And so though imitations of me are very good, I try to not always be like that same caricature. Not that I’m trying to be different for different’s sake, but because I’m just, how can you not be different as years go by?

Oh yeah, I’ll be different tomorrow.

Yeah. But I find it the same amount of challenging. I may have more credibility with an audience where they’re kind of ready to laugh, but in that way, it’s a little harder to be willing to disappoint them, which I am doing every day right now because I’m starting over. Lately I’ve just been going, “Listen, I just did a special, I have nothing, and I have to be able to come out here and try new things and be willing to disappoint you, which makes me brave.” (Laughs)

It’s obnoxious, which I like. And then just to keep their expectations down. But I learned from Chris Rock, he will do a special, he’ll start over. He’ll walk into the Comedy Cellar, the audience will go bananas for four minutes, and then they calm down to listen, and he will disappoint them. He will try 20 new things and see if one hits, or maybe there’s a couple where he realizes, “Okay, this is an area.” But you have to do that work and you have to do it in front of an audience, and there’s just no way around it. There are going to be people going home going, “That wasn’t so great.” But there’s no other way around it. You got to do it

With an audience that’s ready to laugh and the looking, loving gaze… There’s no way around it, but is it more of a challenge for you then to know where the level is, to know what’s funny and what’s not? How do you tell the difference between what’s a Sarah Silverman laugh versus this is just funny and anybody could say it kind of laugh?

Well, I think you get as a comic, and I think comics tend to be pretty hard on themselves, but I think as a comic, you learn when a crowd is laughers and when you feel like you earned good stuff there. I could have a great set where the audience is laughing and come off and be like, “But yeah, no, they were laughing at anything there.” Or I could work out my set at Largo with the best crowd and then go to the Comedy Store and realize, “Oh no, I need to work on a bunch of this stuff to make it actually as strong as it feels when I’m at Largo and the audience just wants to love you.” They love comedy so much that you have to go someplace tougher to really see where you’re at.

‘Someone You Love’ is available to buy on vinyl now and can be streamed on Spotify and MAX.