This summer, HARD Summer Music Festival will take place at Inglewood’s Hollywood Park. Over the course of two days (August 3 and 4), the festival will bring some of the biggest names in electronic dance music to the West Coast.
On Sunday, August 4, fans can look forward to seeing Major Lazer, Dillon Francis, Troy Boi, Kenny Beats, and more. EDM veterans Chase & Status will appear as that night’s special guest.
Passes for HARD Summer Music Festival will go on sale Friday (March 8) at 10 a.m. PST. Two-day GA, GA+, and VIP festival passes will be available for purchase via the festival’s official website. Fans can also set up payment plans beginning at $9.95.
This year marks the festival’s first iteration at Hollywood Park.
“Spanning 300 acres, this mixed-use development promises a fresh experience for attendees,” reads a press release. “With its spacious layout, Hollywood Park offers ample room for dancing and exploration, interactive features, and innovative activations, ensuring a fully immersive music festival experience.”
You can see the full lineup below.
Hollywood Park
Some of the artists mentioned here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Since taking over Warner Bros. Discovery two years back, David Zaslav has gone from obscure media honcho to cartoon villain. And for good reason: Among his controversial antics is the fact that he keeps cancelling completed (or near-completed) movies. Batgirl? The Scoob! sequel. Coyote vs. Acme? All will unlikely ever see the light of day, all for tax purposes. But he’s apparently not the only tycoon doing that.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, on Tuesday Disney CEO Bob Iger spoke at a conference hosted by Morgan Stanley in San Francisco. At one point he addressed the very bad run Disney had at the movies last year, when they had one high-profile underperformer or bomb: Indiana Jones 5, Ant-Man 3, Wish, and, most notoriously, The Marvels. What was he doing to get their film wing back on track?
“You have to kill things you no longer believe in,” he said, “and that’s not easy in this business, because either you’ve gotten started, you have some sunk costs, or it’s a relationship with either your employees or with the creative community.”
He then admitted that among the “tough calls” he’s made has been ending films. “We’ve not been that public about it, but we’ve killed a few projects already that we just didn’t feel were strong enough.”
Granted, Iger didn’t explain if he was referring to films that were already in production, much less nearly completed, as the three Zaslav iced were. It’s probably fine to axe a film that was still in pre-production. If Iger has done the same to one that’s basically done, that’s been tested, that’s taken months, years of people’s lives to make, then he’s as hissable as David Zaslav.
Iger also pushed back at that whole “superhero fatigue” thing that’s resulted in even Marvel movies tanking.
“A lot of people think it’s audience fatigue, it’s not audience fatigue. They want great films,” he said. “And if you build it great, they will come and there are countless examples of that. Some are ours and some are others’. Oppenheimer is a perfect example of that. Just a fantastic film.
It’s worth noting that Oppenheimer is not a Disney film. It’s from Universal. It might have happened over at Warner Bros, but Warner Bros. alienated filmmaker Christopher Nolan with that whole “let’s release all our new movies on our new streamer the same day as they hit theaters” ploy they did throughout 2021. But then, had Nolan stayed during the Zaslav regime, there’s a chance Zaslav may have just deleted it to save a couple bucks.
Spring is less than a month away. And if Punxsutawney Phil has anything to say about it, the weather is going to start getting milder sooner than later. That means the time is right to start thinking about (if not already drinking) spring beers. This means bocks, Kolsch-style beers, pilsners, IPAs, helles-style lagers, and Gose-style beers are back in play.
Today, we’re most interested in the latter. If you don’t know what a Gose is, it’s a warm-fermented wheat beer that has its origins in Goslar, Germany. It’s known for its sour, tart, salty flavor and sessionable, low ABV. Originally, brewers didn’t need to add any salt because the flavor came from the natural salinity of its water source. Today, most brewers add sea salt. On top of that, many brewers add citrus or tropical fruit flavors to give the beer added depth.
Now that you’ve learned a little bit about this sweet, tart, sour, salty, fresh beer, it’s time to find some to drink. Luckily, we did the work, so you don’t have to. We found eight of the best examples of the style and ranked them based on overall seasonal flavor.
Some have added fruit flavors and some don’t. All are refreshing and thirst-quenching.
While we believe it tastes best during the early spring days, Urban South Lime Cucumber Gose is available all year long. This kettle-soured wheat beer gets its unique, memorable flavor from the addition of kosher salt, key lime juice, and fresh cucumber juice.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a mixture of lime, lemon zest, ripe cucumber, sweet wheat, cracked black pepper, and sea salt. The palate is more of the same with a nice kick of sea salt followed by tart, lightly sour, lactic lemon and lime flavors as well as cucumber, pepper, wheat, and yeast. It’s sweet, salty, and very memorable.
Bottom Line:
While some gose-style beers stick to citrus, Urban South cranks it up to eleven with the addition of cucumber juice.
California’s Anderson Valley Brewing is well-known for its gose-style beer prowess. While you can’t go wrong with any of its beers, our favorite is Anderson Valley Holy Gose. The first gose brewed by the iconic brewery, Holy Gose (full name The Kimmie, The Yink & The Holy Gose) is brewed with Pale 2-row malt, malted white wheat, and Bravo hops. Coriander and sea salt round out the flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll be treated to aromas of coriander, sweet wheat, cracked black pepper, orchard fruits, honey, sea salt, and a nice kick of citrus. The palate is loaded with flavors of pear, citrus peels, cracked black pepper, coriander, wheat, and bright sea salt. It has a gentle sweetness that pairs well with spice and salinity.
Bottom Line:
While you can drink Anderson Valley’s fruit-forward gose-style beers, this one is where they all began. It’s straightforward, balanced, and flavorful.
First brewed in 1824, Ritterguts is the oldest gose in the world. This award-winning classic 4.7% ABV German gose is brewed simply with barley, wheat malts, yeast, water, hops, salt, and coriander. The result is a crisp, refreshing, lightly salty beer you won’t soon forget.
Tasting Notes:
Before your first sip, you’ll be treated to aromas of lemon peels, orchard fruits, wheat, coriander, and a hint of sea salt. Drinking it reveals notes of lemon, lime peel, wheat, a gentle fruity flavor, coriander, and a gentle salinity running through. Refreshing, very crisp, and pleasantly salty.
Bottom Line:
If you want to try a classic gose made the way the style is traditionally supposed to taste, Ritterguts Original Gose is for you.
This 4.2% ABV German-style sour ale is brewed with pilsner and acidulated malt as well as wheat, and Perle hops. It gets its sour, tart flavor from the use of German ale yeast and Lactobacillus and its spice and salinity from the addition of salt and coriander.
Tasting Notes:
Complex aromas of sweet wheat, yeasty bread, lemon peels, lime, coriander, and sea salt greet you before your first sip. On the palate, you’ll find notes of yeast, wheat, lemongrass, lime zest, coriander, and sea salt. Tart citrus, sweet wheat, and salt. What’s not to love?
Bottom Line:
This is a classic, tart, salty, no-frills gose beer. It’s the kind of beer you’ll want to drink all spring and well into the summer.
This traditional German top-fermented wheat beer is brewed with wheat and barley malt as well as coriander and salt. The addition of lactic acid bacteria gives it the sour, tart flavor gose drinkers love. It’s unfiltered, unpasteurized, and bottle conditioned. The result is a sweet, spicy, tart, salty, complex beer.
Tasting Notes:
A lot is going on with this beer’s nose. There’s fresh hay, lemon peels, wheat, coriander, grass, and sea salt. There’s more of the same on the palate in the best way possible. It’s lightly tart and sour with notes of wheat, lemon peel, peaches, berries, coriander, and sea salt salinity. It’s fruity, funky, tart, and pleasantly salty.
Bottom Line:
This authentic German gose is well-balanced. It’s tart and sour but has a ton of fruit flavor to help temper the salinity.
To say that Grimm Super Spruce is a unique beer is a bit of an understatement. This is a gose beer for fans of pine. It’s made with new growth spruce tips and gets its hop aroma and flavor from Chinook hops. The result is a resinous, tart, hoppy gose that needs to be imbibed to be believed.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find scents of spruce tips, lemon peels, wheat, grass, grapefruit, gentle spices, and sea salt. Sipping it brings forth notes of pine needles, lemon, lime, grass, hay, wheat, wintry spices, grapefruit, and sea salt. It’s a pine, citrus, and salt bomb that is sure to quench your biggest thirst.
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for an interesting take on the classic style and you enjoy pine needles, this is a great choice for you.
Westbrook is a big name in the American gose world. You can’t go wrong with its classic gose, but if you really want to get wild with it, you’ll grab some of its Westbrook Key Lime Gose. It’s brewed with acidulated and pale malt as well as wheat and CTZ hops. It gets added flavor from cinnamon, coriander, key lime, vanilla, and sea salt.
Tasting Notes:
This beer literally smells like a slice of key lime pie. There are scents of cracker-like malts, lime peels, coriander, cinnamon, and salt. On the palate, you’ll find notes of vanilla, pie crust, lemon peels, lime zest, wheat, cinnamon, coriander, and sea salt. It’s tart, lime-filled, and gently salty.
Bottom Line:
This beer is as close to a key lime pie in a pint glass as any brewer is likely to make. If that sounds good to you, pick up some of this beer as soon as possible.
This spring and summer seasonal beer is brewed with wheat, unmalted wheat, pilsner malt, and acidulated malt. It gets its hoppy aroma and flavor from the addition of Nugget hops. It gets added flavor from the use of Valencia oranges, Key lime, and Meyer lemon as well as a healthy dash of sea salt.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a lot of citrus on the nose. There are aromas of lime, lemon peel, and bright orange as well as coriander, wheat, and sea salt. The palate follows suit with notes of candied orange peel, lime zest, lemon juice, wheat, floral hops, and sea salt. It’s very tart but has a nice citrus sweetness to temper it perfectly.
Bottom Line:
This a puckering, tart, citrus-filled, sweet, lightly salty crusher of a beer. If you only try one beer on this list, make it this one.
The report, which comes amidst news that co-star Bobby Berk will be replaced by Jeremiah Brent, claims that they’re far less chummy than they appear onscreen.
“Essentially they were a group of people put together in their mid-thirties and told to be best friends,” one member of the production said. “But people don’t expect that Queer Eye could be that. That’s truly what it was: a manufactured boy band with big personalities that certain ones were favored and certain ones were not, and then eventually [things] turned really toxic.”
So there’s that, and then there’s this: According to several sources, Jonathan Van Ness, the biggest breakout star of the show, has “rage issues” and that they were known to “explode at least once a week.”
“[There’s] a real emotion of fear around them when they get angry. It’s almost like a cartoon where it oozes out of them,” one source said. “It’s intense and scary.”
Van Ness’ costars also didn’t appreciate the way they acted when they became the most famous one. “He didn’t want to ever share the spotlight with anyone,” a source said. “There were times when we couldn’t even shoot scenes with certain members of the Fab Five together because it got so bad.”
But it seems none of them get along that well. Though they’ve enjoyed a “cordial working relationship” (for the most part, that is), that’s as far as they go together. “None of them are friends,” said a source. “They play nice.”
Anyway, when Queer Eye returns for its ninth season, they’ll be doing up Las Vegas. The previous eight seasons can be streamed on Netflix.
For clarity, these whiskeys are not ranked — this is about what’s new (released either at the tail end of 2023 and hitting shelves now or released mere days ago). There is far too much distance in the styles to judge them against each other. What I can tell you is that these whiskeys are worth your time and money. Some are going to be easy to get while others will be a pricey hunt to expand your collection.
The key is that these whiskeys are all tasty and deserve a little love this spring. Let’s dive in!
Check Out The Best New Whiskeys Of The Last Six Months:
The third batch of Jack Daniel’s 10-Year has arrived. The whiskey is aged for at least 10 years in prime spots in Jack’s best warehouses. During that time, the barrels spend time in the “Buzzard’s Roost” at the top of the rickhouse. Once they hit the right flavor profile, those barrels are moved to the bottom floors of other warehouses to slow the aging down. Finally, the whiskey is batched, proofed, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a dark chili-infused tobacco vibe that leads to creamy AF vanilla, soft cherry hand pies, Granny Smith apple peels, salted toffee rolled in dark chocolate, and a touch of vanilla nougat wafers.
Palate: Those wafers lead to a creamy sense of soft dry grits with a dark sweetness that’s part molasses and part maple syrup next to old cedar planks, dried blackberry, dried pear chips (salted), and fresh chewing tobacco dipped in chili-cherry syrup.
Finish: This fleeting sense of a leafy forest in the spring blooms on the mid-palate and finish before that cherry spice kicks back in with a sense of smoldering braids of cedar, tobacco, and smudging sage counter the lush vanilla and dark fruit.
Bottom Line:
Batch 3 of Jack 10-year hit shelves late last month, putting it on shelves right now. The new version is an evolution of the dessert-forward and bourbon-y Batch 1 and the uber-oaked Batch 2. This batch finds the balance between the two (and frankly blows Batch 2 out of the water). You should still be able to get this at MSRP this month. If you wait any longer, expect prices to skyrocket toward $500 per bottle.
The new Bernheim just dropped and it’s a doozy. The whiskey is made with Heaven Hill’s winter wheat mash bill. That whiskey is aged for seven to nine years in Heaven Hill’s iconic open-air rickhouses until just right for batching and bottling 100% as-is at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Rich and molasses-laden oak staves draw you in on the nose with a sense of freshly baked buttermilk biscuits with a cut of salted butter, cinnamon, and clove over caramel sauce and whispers of floral honey.
Palate: That butteriness really amps up on the palate as the clove and honey marry with a sense of dry oak from the cellar, a touch of apricot tobacco, and soft sage and rosemary round the taste out.
Finish: The end is lush with a sense of spiced honey and salted caramel with the biscuit taking on a hint of sourdough bread crust with dry sweetgrass and old oak touching that fruity tobacco on the very end with a warming embrace.
Bottom Line:
This is one of those that’s just a nice pour of whiskey. It’s not overly sweet (this ain’t no bourbon clone) but still has a wonderful lushness that works with the higher ABVs. That proof does make itself known by the end but it never overwhelms. That said, this over a single big ice cube is the play for maximum enjoyment.
This is sourced Irish whiskey that’s made from a unique mash bill of 80% corn and 20% malted barley. That mix is triple distilled and then left to mellow for years in ex-bourbon casks. Before bottling, the whiskey is finished in new American oak for a spell before cask-strength bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Rich orange oils and clove drive the nose toward soft winter spiced and butterscotch candies with this slight sense of cellar floor dirt and old oak staves with a very faint whisper of a cheese cellar and earthy honey.
Palate: That orange really pops on the palate as the clove sharpens with moments of allspice, nutmeg, and cardamom next to more cellar and honeycomb with a twinge of waxiness.
Finish: The honey gets creamy on the end with with a touch of smoldering campfire-roasted marshmallows, soft oak, and mild baking spices in nutty sugar cookies.
Bottom Line:
We need more cask-strength Irish whiskey over here in the U.S. This is a nice sipper that never feels hot for a single second. There’s a nice sharpness to the spice but that’s about it. The rest is a citrus-forward and honeyed sipping experience. That all said, this will make a killer old fashioned or whiskey sour thanks to that citrus.
This brand-new release from Austin’s Still Austin is all about Texas grains. The whiskey is made with 100% Texas-grown rye that’s distilled in Austin and left to rest for four years. During that time, water is added to the barrels so that water evaporates before the alcohol, leaving a rich whiskey for bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is a cherry bomb on the nose with plenty of sharp and fresh ginger, Meyer lemon peels, and apricot jam with a hint of pound cake iced with buttery powdered sugar icing.
Palate: The apricot amps up on the palate as soft and rich marzipan mingles with freshly fried apple fritters, gingerbread, and more of those lemon peels next to a dollop of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Finish: The end sharpens a tad with clove, cinnamon, and allspice as the cherries make a big comeback with fresh mint tobacco and more of that buttery vibe from the nose.
Bottom Line:
This is another winner from Still Austin. It’s deep and vibrant with a clear sense of uniqueness — this isn’t just a “spicy” rye. There’s nuance here that’s worth your time and effort to find as you sip it slowly and go back in and find more depth. That mint also makes this feel very “springy” and I’m looking forward to trying this one in a mint julep soon.
High N’ Wicked Single Grain Irish Whiskey Foursquare “Mark X 2007” Finish
This sourced Irish whiskey from County Cork is very unique pour. The whiskey is made with 95% French-grown corn and 5% malted Irish barley. That whiskey rested in ex-bourbon barrels for years before it was transferred to an Exceptional Rum Cask from Barbados’ Foursquare. After six more months of resting, the whiskey was batched, proofed, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Nutella and marzipan pop on the nose with a sense of bourbon vanilla, lemon peel, and a whisper of toasted coconut next to a twinge of mango and pineapple with caramelized sugars.
Palate: Those caramelized tropical fruits blend with clove, anise, and cardamom on the palate as a sense of cinnamon bark tobacco and vanilla pods drive the taste toward a rich creamy caramel sauce cut with salt and more Nutella.
Finish: The caramel and hazelnut amp up at the finish as the oak softly arrives with a lush vanilla creaminess with hints of fig and marzipan lurking in the background.
Bottom Line:
This is a caramel-y, fruity, and nutty Irish whiskey that’s just the right amount of rummy. Try this one in a good cocktail with big flavor notes and you’ll be in for a treat. Or just pour it over some rocks with a dash of Angostura Bitters — it’ll work wonders that way too.
The 2024 Woodford Reserve Barrel Proof just dropped. The whiskey was made by batching just over 100 Woodford barrels from various dates of production, warehouses, and floors to create a barrel-proof masterpiece.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a pecan waffle vibe with tons of real vanilla bean, soft cinnamon brown butter, and maple syrup cut with clove next to a creamy sense of eggnog spices and richness that’s cut with an acidic tropical fruit note (in a good way).
Palate: The tropical fruit note narrows to caramelized pineapple on the palate with a touch of huckleberry jam and strawberries dipped in dark salted chocolate next to toasted oakiness and soft honeyed tobacco.
Finish: Those strawberries drive the finish toward more fresh oakiness with caramelized sugars and carbon mingling with fresh honeycomb, wild berry tobacco, and more lush eggnog spiciness.
Bottom Line:
This is a really nice spicy bourbon. The warmth from the ABVs never overwhelms the varied profile. This delivers depth and fruitiness in a nice balance that goes well beyond the ordinary. Pour it over a big rock and let it wash you away.
Casey Jones Total Eclipse Kentucky Straight Bourbon
This new bourbon is here to celebrate the total solar eclipses of 2017 and 2024. The whiskey in the bottle is a four-grain bourbon that aged for two years before small batching and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a sense of classic baking spices and caramel with a nice layer of vanilla cream, pecan sandies, and whiffs of orange zest.
Palate: The orange and spice meld on the palate with a clear sense of fresh orange oils and clove next to soft oak, more pecan, and a hint of spiced tobacco leaf.
Finish: The finish is a trio of tobacco, oak, and winter spice with a soft vanilla vibe that leads to a sweet caramel finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a young and fresh bourbon with a classic vibe. Look, this isn’t going to blow any minds but it’s a nice example of something new in the scene from an upstart distillery doing things right. This is a brand worth keeping an eye on.
This new blend from Isle of Skye is a masterful blend of very old whiskies. The blend is made from 20-plus-year-old malts from Skye (Islands region) a Speyside. Once vatted, the whisky was proofed all the way down and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Salted dried banana chips and fatty walnuts drive the nose toward soft brown sugar cookies with plenty of butter and powdered sugar icing next to a hint of smoked mango and papaya.
Palate: The walnuts take on a dry nutshell vibe on the palate as the butteriness layers into honey with a sense of lightly smoked pineapple, mango, and orange with a dash of salt and oak.
Finish: The end is lush and hints at vanilla husks as the smoked tropical fruits take on a moment of smoky caramelization and spiced tobacco.
Bottom Line:
This is a classic single malt with an aged vibe that never feels “old”. The whisky is soft and supple with a nice nuttiness that’s accented by just the right amount of smoked soft fruits and savoriness. Enjoy this one as a slow sipper and it’ll be just right.
Old Bones Rye Whiskey 15-Year Reserve Straight Rye Whiskey
This new release from Old Bones is an old Canadian whisky. The juice was made just outside of Montreal from a mash of 53% rye, 39% corn, and 8% malted barley. That whisky rested for 15 years before it was re-barreled in fresh oak for another 15 months of mellowing, making this an 18.5-year-old rye.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a nostalgic sense of caramel corn balls on the nose with red, green, and orange dye (it’s wild) next to soft white pepper and dried red peppercorns over a sense of soft vanilla and apple stems.
Palate: That white pepper sharpens on the palate as the taste slips towards soft caramel sauce, vanilla cream, and wet brown sugar with a note of winter spice barks and chewy pipe tobacco.
Finish: The end dried out with cellar oak, drier tobacco, and fruit stones next to vanilla husks and green pepper pods over a light sense of dried chili pepper flakes and cellar funk.
Bottom Line:
This is a funky and peppery whiskey that is sort of all over the place but somehow pulls it all together by the end. It also feels like a throwback rye to the old days of WhistlePig about 10 years ago when it was getting a lot of positive attention. Use that as your guide when considering this one.
Puncher’s Chance The Unified Belt Triple Cask Irish & American Blend
This new release from Puncher’s Chance — UFC legend Bruce Buffer’s brand — is a marrying of Irish and Tennessee whiskeys. The three-cask blend is made with a four-year-old Irish single malt mixed with a four-year-old high-rye bourbon and a 14-year-old bourbon finished in sherry casks.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a sense of dark fruits — plum, date, and fig — on the nose with dark salted chocolate, soft spiced oak, and winter nut bread smeared with spiced brown butter and vanilla oils.
Palate: The buttery spice and nuttiness mingle with the dark fruits on the palate as deep and luscious vanilla arrives and sends the taste toward fresh Granny Smith apples and yellow pears.
Finish: The pears stew in brandy and winter spice barks on the finish as the wood sneaks in some dryness next to softly spice apple tobacco wrapped up with smudging sage and vanilla husks with a whisper of wintergreen and honey on the very end.
Bottom Line:
This is another whiskey that’s just good. Its “Irishness” is dialed back but offers a nice lightness on the end with that honey vibe. The boldness of the sherried bourbon is what drives this one though, and it’s deep, delicious, and lush.
Aberfeldy Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky Limited Edition Aged 21 Years Argentinian Malbec Wine Cask Finish
The latest Aberfeldy 21 release was distilled all the way back in November of 2001. The whisky then rested for 21 years in refill casks in the Highlands. That whisky was then transferred to Malbec French Oak wine casks from Finca Ambrosia Single Estate winery in Argentina for an additional eight months of aging before vatting, proofing, and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is amazingly fresh and vibrant with a sense of dark and tart blackcurrants, strawberries still on the vine, and clumps of fresh honeycomb next to fields of summer florals and a hint of cinnamon bark.
Palate: Those floral notes meld with the honey on the palate with a rich and fresh vibe that leads to more cinnamon woodiness, a freshly squeezed sense of those blackcurrants, and those strawberries floating in cream with a touch of raw sugar and mint.
Finish: The end adds rose water and fresh lavender to the strawberries, cream, and mint while the honey gets super creamy on the finish with a nice moment of woody huckleberry and spice oak.
Bottom Line:
This is an amazingly vibrant whisky. This is what 20-year-old Scotch whisky should be like — full of surprises and succinct flavor notes that transport you to somewhere deep in your memories. This is a hell of a pour of whisky.
2024’s Hedonism is here and it’s as bold as ever. The whisky is a blend of grain whiskies from all over Scotland. The lion’s share of the juice comes from the famed Cameronbridge Distillery (renowned for its grain whiskies) with support from Girvan and Port Dundas distilleries.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose feels like arriving at a bakery just as the pain au chocolat comes out of the oven with all that brown butteriness and salted chocolate goodness filling the air next to creamy caramel, rich fresh vanilla pods, and clove buds.
Palate: The caramel and vanilla get super creamy on the palate as touches of clove and cinnamon drive the taste toward soft floral honey and tiramisu.
Finish: A whisper of orange oil arrives late with more clove and cinnamon before the butteriness from the nose comes back with plenty of honey, a dash of coffee powder, and soft cacao.
Bottom Line:
This is tasty AF. Pour this over a rock to let the creaminess go wild — the tiramisu vibe will lean into the mascarpone with a fresh and almost sour vibe that works wonders.
Watershed Distillery Straight Rye Whiskey Barrel Strength Aged 6 Years
This is a super limited release from Watershed of only 100 bottles of hazmat rye whiskey (hazmat whiskeys are over 70% ABV). The whiskey is a 57% rye mash bill that was left alone until it was just right and then bottled 100% as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is rich with dark notes of caramel and maybe even some molasses with a deep and spiced tobacco warmth next to raisins soaked in brandy and a touch of dry oats.
Palate: Those raisins and oats combine on the palate to create a rummy and vanilla-soaked oatmeal raisin cookie next to warming winter spices, a lot of oak, and heavy-duty ABV warmth.
Finish: The warmth builds on the finish but then fades out as the caramel and molasses soften toward brown sugar and vanilla cream with a deep chili-cherry-spiced tobacco finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a crazy strong rye whiskey (hazmat!) that works as a sipper. You’ll probably want to pour this over an ice cube it will deliver a great profile of unique and delicious rye whiskey.
Bulleit Single Malt Frontier Whiskey American Single Malt Whiskey
This is a 100% malted barley whiskey created by bourbon and rye legends Bulleit. The malt was aged in new American oak for a spell before batching, proofing, and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is a candy bomb on the nose with sweet Jolly Rancher candies, fruit leather syrup, and tons of cherry and apple syrups with a hint of vanilla and oak backing it up.
Palate: Those sweet fruits vibe on the palate with a thick red berry syrup leading to pear candy and apple juice with a hint of sweetgrass countered by woody warming spice.
Finish: The end mellows dramatically toward soft mocha lattes, a touch of salted caramel, and faint whispers of a garden supply store.
Bottom Line:
This is a huge win for American single malt whiskey. Bulleit is a massive brand and its seal of approval of the style (like Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam last year) is another important step in the style going mainstream.
While this feels more like a cocktail whiskey, it still has merit as something completely new on the shelf that’s worth at least trying at a bar and in your favorite cocktail.
This whiskey starts with a fully matured four-year-old MGP of Indiana bourbon (74% corn, 21% rye, and 5% malted barley). Then the whiskey is re-barreled into freshly toasted new oak barrels for a final rest. Finally, this whiskey is batched, proofed, and bottled to highlight that finish.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Crafty grain notes with a sweet and buttery edge draw you in on the nose with a sense of salted caramel, burnt vanilla pods, and old firewood.
Palate: Sweet grits with a good dose of vanilla work well with toasted marshmallows just kissed with campfire licks from a flame as prunes and figs add a dark and fruity depth.
Finish: Salted caramel and salted cherries drive the finish toward deep vanilla creaminess with a hint of cedar kindling and tobacco leaf on the very end.
Bottom Line:
The year’s Penelope Toasted Barrel is a very unique and tasty whiskey. There are classic notes on the surface but the whiskey goes so far beyond that … if you give it time. Pour it neat, add water, go back and forth, and find all that wonderful depth.
Chattanooga Whiskey Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in White Port Casks
This whiskey starts off very special before getting even more so with the finishing barrel. The base whiskey is a blend of six high-malt mash bill Tennessee bourbons that were chosen and batched for their fruity and wine-like flavors. That whiskey was then filled into seven white Port casks for a final rest before batching, proofing, and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This smells like an old-world cask on the nose — prunes, dates, spiced yet sweet mulled wine, rum-soaked raisins, panettone, and old oak.
Palate: Dried blackberries soaked in brandy and dipped in chocolate drive the palate toward sweet and fruity dessert wine cut with woody winter spices, soft vanilla, and a touch of fresh figs off the vine.
Finish: That fig drives the finish toward soft brandy-soaked tobacco layered with mulled wine spices and ancient oak staves next to a fleeting sense of thick and spicy dessert wine cut with bourbon.
Bottom Line:
This white port cask finish is just excellent, like pretty much everything coming out of Chattanooga right now. If you find one, buy two.
Bardstown Bourbon Company Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This brand-new release from Bardstown Bourbon Company is part of their Origins Series in single-barrel form. The whiskey is their 36% high-rye bourbon mash bill and is selected from prime single barrels from their vast rickhouses. The whiskey is bottled as-is at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Expect a nose full of stewed stone fruits — peach cobbler comes to mind — on the nose with a good sense of baking spices with brown butter, soft brown sugars, and creamy vanilla that leads to salted caramel, touches of dark chocolate, and hints of black licorice with a whisper of fatty roasting herbs.
Palate: The fruit gets brighter on the palate as apricot preserves and blueberry pies drive the taste toward a sense of old rickhouses full of barrels, soft orchard trees on a summer day, and a deep sense of real vanilla pods baking in the sun with a hint of almond nuttiness.
Finish: The end leans into the nuttiness and vanilla husks with a deep oakiness that’s countered by sharp winter spice, grassy smudging sage, and cedar-infused tobacco layered into an old humidor.
Bottom Line:
These brand-new Bardstown single-barrel releases are dominating whiskeys. They run deep and deliver essential Kentucky bourbon profiles. If you’re looking for some of the best Kentucky bourbons right now, look no further.
This rare Michter’s expression is pulled from single barrels that were just too good to batch or cut. Once the barrels hit the exact right flavor profile, each one is filtered with Michter’s bespoke system and then bottled as-is at the strength it came out of the barrel.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Dark cherry and butterscotch candies pop on the nose next to sour red wine mixed with mulled wine spices — lots of cinnamon, clove, and star anise — next to tart apple skins, apple bark, and a hint of singed marshmallow between lightly burnt Graham Crackers.
Palate: The palate subtly leans into spices with a nutmeg/eggnog vibe next to rich vanilla ice cream and smoked cherries with a minor note of fresh pipe tobacco and singed cedar bark.
Finish: The end adds some dried red chili and sharp cinnamon to the tobacco with a pinch of freshly cracked black pepper and a supple sense of a fresh fruit bowl with a lot of red berries.
Bottom Line:
Michter’s just dropped this gem for the first time in two years, making early 2024 pretty freaking exciting. And since this just dropped, it’ll be hitting shelves soon and you might be able to snag one at MSRP. Otherwise, look for this to cost a few hundred per bottle by late spring/early summer.
Jack Daniel’s 12 Years Old Tennessee Whiskey Batch 2
Jack Daniel’s 12-year Batch 2 is here! 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 whiskey 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.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose bursts forth with soft and bright fruits — kind of like a package of Starbursts — before leaning into a luscious sense of stewed prunes and figs next to mulled wine spices and brandy-soaked vanilla cookies dipped in salted caramel chewing tobacco.
Palate: That Starburst vibe explodes on the palate with all the colors of the fruity sweet rainbow before a thick and creamy vanilla creaminess drives the palate toward burnt orange and vanilla wafers just kissed with Nutella and tobacco stems.
Finish: That tobacco takes on the creamy vanilla with nice layers of dark chocolate, an old barrel house, and soft and smoldering fall leaves wrapped in apple-smoked tobacco leaves bunched into an old cedar box.
Bottom Line:
This is one of the best Jack Daniel’s releases of the modern era. It hit shelves at the very end of February, so you might be able to snag one this month if you search and put in the elbow grease to find one. Trust me, it’s worth that effort. This is a great whiskey.
Clonakilty Atlantic Distillery 32-Year-Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey
This is a massive whiskey. The Irish malt was distilled way back in 1991. It was left in old Oloroso hogshead casks next to the Atlantic Ocean to age all those years. Finally, those barrels were pulled for a cask-strength bottling (one cask at a time) for only 500 bottles.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Sticky toffee pudding and panettone drive the nose toward soft floral honey with a slight sense of fresh figs swimming in clotted brandy cream and fresh mint with a whisper of walnut.
Palate: The Christmas cake vibes amp up on the palate as soft and leathery prunes mingle with those fresh figs, more walnut, soft cream, and a hint of olive oil with a flake of sea salt.
Finish: The walnuts take on a toasted and salted feel on the finish as a moment of tobacco arrives with a soft winter spice and a touch of candied citrus and dark fruit over salty driftwood.
Bottom Line:
This is a singular pour of whiskey. There’s nothing quite like it. It’s also delicious. But that price … wow. You really have to be into Irish whiskey or St. Patrick’s Day to pay that piper.
If you aren’t feeling hyped for the chaos kicking off down in Austin this week, well… you’ve clearly never been to one of Just Blaze and Paul Smith’s famous takeovers. Simply put, Blaze and Smith are the uncrowned kings of this busy, bustling, wild melee of a month in Texas. And they’re coming back with a vengeance in 2024.
“It’s a family affair,” Smith tells me via Zoom, “it’s all about bringing people together — people who are talented and, ultimately, good people.”
What consistently makes Blaze and Smith’s takeovers work is that they capture the independent, improvisational spirit of what made heading to Austin in March such a vital experience for creative-minded folks in the first place. Their first takeover was held in Smith’s backyard on a make-shift stage built out of two-by-fours. Last year, with Uproxx joining the squad as a media sponsor, they hosted not only an iconic episode of Fresh Pair but one of the most viral and vital nights in all of rap history.
Just, we’ve had a long history with you at Uproxx. It’s been a super fruitful collaboration with Fresh Pair and beyond, but I’m interested in your collaboration with Paul. How did you two link up?
Just Blaze: Aside from being an amazing event partner, Paul is a real estate genius and has done very well for himself there. And that’s initially how we met. Our agent linked us because Paul was handling some accommodations for a bunch of artists at South By Southwest. And Paul — correct me if I’m wrong — I think stayed at one of your properties at one point?
Paul Smith: Yeah, so basically in 2012 my wife and I had just moved downtown into a high-rise condo, and this was when Doritos was coming in and doing huge things, like all of a sudden they’ve got Lady Gaga booked to play in a parking lot for 500 people — it was just on its way to getting crazy.
I was helping people find places to stay for South By, and linking artists with people within the industry to homies of mine to be like, “Look, this is a good person. Don’t try to rake them over the coals for money.” And so being the plug as far as that goes is what started that. And so Sonny [Skrillex] had reserved four units at a condo that I was at, and then he pulled out and at that same time they connected me with Just.
Blaze: So Skrillex had booked a bunch of properties with Paul, and at the time we had the same agent. So I needed a place, that was my first South By getting booked for multiple things. Before that, I’d play one thing here, one thing there, but I had just put out the Higher record and it took off.
So I went from getting booked for one show to three shows a night. So I had to stay for an entire South By run. My agent connected me with Paul and what started as just a transaction ended up becoming a genuine friendship and brotherhood. So we stayed in touch over time and whenever I went down to Austin, he and his crew became my crew and my family. One year he had an idea to do a thing in his backyard and it went over very well — we continued to do that and it just grew.
I love how organic that sounds.
Blaze: It’s very much an organic growth story that started literally in a backyard and got so big that it couldn’t be held there anymore. We started going to actual venues and it’s grown every year since. We went from playing in a backyard with a few friends to Dave Chappelle rushing the stage requesting Redman records. You can’t get much better than that, especially organically.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s always strategy involved — you hope that it ends up here — but you could never plan or anticipate certain moments.
I think it was good planning, good vibes, but most importantly just good energy and good people. Just about everybody that you’ve seen that has taken the stage at any of our collaborative events has always been family in one sense or another. And when you keep it all in the family, when you keep that kind of energy going and everybody’s there for a good cause and just to have fun and support each other, that’s when things fall together the way they have been over the past decade-plus.
I think if I could say anything or stress anything, it would be that everybody is there to support each other in one way or another.
The Takeover
Paul, obviously you’re a master organizer and you care very deeply about Austin — the Uproxx team raves about you. I’m just curious, where does that passion come from, this deep love of music you have, and for organizing and getting talented people together to celebrate the city?
Smith: Well, the crazy thing for me when it comes to music is it’s like my passion project. So everything I do typically in the music world will have some level of a charity component, and that’s everything from the first Open House that Just and I did, where literally, we made this stage out of two-by-fours and plywood and it was definitely rickety and just took a piece of vinyl across the front with the lamest graphics.
You know what though? It was dope.
And all the proceeds went to a nonprofit locally. Typically everything that I do within the music world has some sort of a philanthropic charge to it. A lot of times, one thing that music does is bring people together and it doesn’t matter where you are in life, we can all vibe at the same time. Dave [Chappelle] is doing the same shoulder rocking thing as people in the crowd, and at that point, music brings everybody on the same level regardless of who you are.
And I think one of the dope things that South By has done is have all these people that are coming in from different walks of life within the music community, and there are a few people that I’ve seen that bring people together really well.
I think Just is one of those people, I think Jazzy Jeff’s one of those people, I think Dave Chappelle is one of those people, where if you’re in the room vetted by them, then all of a sudden the guard comes down and now you’re just somebody that Just approved of, Jeff or Dave. And at that point there, that’s when a lot of real connection could happen because it’s no longer “What can you do for me? Who’s paying you to be here?” It’s like, “I want to be here. Let’s vibe.”
In the time you two have worked together, what are your highlights? Just, I know you mentioned Dave rushing the stage last year. That’s a super big moment, but what stands out to you individually?
Blaze: To be honest, it’s very cliche to say, but it’s true — It’s more about the journey than the destination. We’ve had so many highlights. The great thing I think about every year is the anticipation of who’s going to come out because we never really advertise the full lineup. So the look on people’s faces when a surprise artist graces the stage and it’s somebody that they didn’t expect is really cool.
I know the year that we did it with TI was awesome because nobody expected it. Don’t get me wrong, everybody who graces that stage is a legend. I just think we have our set group that people might expect or might not expect. Like Redman, okay, that makes sense. Wu-Tang, all right, that makes sense. Mannie Fresh, all right. That’s dope. It makes sense. A-Trak, Jazzy Jeff, this all makes sense.
But then you just have Tip come out of nowhere and the way we set it up was great because initially, we had his son come out.
Smith: By the way, shout out to Domani — dude, he’s blowing up right now.
Blaze: Yup. We had his son come out and the crowd gave him a great response. He put on a great performance, so they gave him a great response, but nobody in the crowd knew that he was Tip’s son. So when he says something about, “Let me bring out my dad,” and the crowd’s like, “Huh, you’re going to bring out your… dad?”
They’re expecting some old dude or whatever, then here comes Tip. And the crowd’s like, “Oh my God!” That was an awesome moment. And I think it was because of the setup beforehand because we had that extra layer of surprise.
Going back to what Paul was saying, it’s not so much about how much you paid to be here or how much you got to perform. These are guys that can easily command hundreds of thousands of dollars to even walk into a building. While we do well individually and as a collective, we don’t have that kind of money to put on a nearly free show. You know what I mean? Everybody that’s come out, we always take care of them because they’re extended family, but nobody’s come out for the big paycheck — which is just a testament to the kind of vibe and energy that we’ve built around this party to the point where we can say, “Oh, you know what it is, you’ve seen it, this person has done it, that person has done it.” And they’re like, “All right, cool, count me in.”
Good vibe and good energy are so key and so important as well as just relationships and the fact that, as Paul said, we always try to tie it into a charity. Nobody’s kicking off here.
The artists will walk away with a few dollars in their pocket and have had a good time and contributed to a good cause but nobody’s getting rich here. We’re just here to culturally leave our mark on Austin every year because, like Paul said, South By Southwest was this organic thing. And then next thing you know, we had people performing inside of 500-foot Dorito bags and events where you had to have an American Express card to get in or you had to be a member of this or a member of that. And it was taken away a bit from a lot of that organic experience, which is why we’ve always positioned the event the way we did — come one come all and just have a good time because we felt like some of that was missing on a larger scale.
Most of the big events were super hard to get into. You had to be a badge holder, you had to have this requirement or that requirement, and we were just like, “Yo, just come hang out man.” And that’s what it’s all been about.
Nice. The same question, Paul, a moment that stands out to you as one of your favorites?
Smith: Man, there’s a bunch, right?
So South By is about creating moments. There are the moments that are happening where you’re hosting an event and you’re creating moments for those that are on the other side of the stage. And then there are also moments in which you’re creating for those on stage. And so then it’s like as we go through life, for me part of success is being able to put my friends on. And so it’s to say, “Oh man, two of my friends are doing something dope in the studio. Hey Just, what are your thoughts on this?” And maybe they do a collab or Questlove starts Questlove Supreme.
We’re out for breakfast one day and then all of a sudden Just is on there as a guest. Or sponsorships from last year — specifically with Hardin and then Trill Burgers — Bun doing a Trill Burgers out at Hardin during F1. Just the different kinds of spider webs of connections that happen. And not to say that they happen because of what we’re doing, but I think it certainly helps to bring people together and then nurture the relationships from that point forward. And again, I think it’s one of those things where if you’re not in it saying, “What can you do for me,” but “How can we build together?” then it doesn’t work.
What would you say it takes to galvanize your community? This is a group of people who are coming with high expectations and you guys mentioned the element of surprise a lot, so I just want to get taken into the headspace of what you guys are thinking as event planners and how you’re going to make it stand out year after year after year.
Blaze: That’s part of the challenge. At least on my end, there’s no grand formula. I think the part that makes it tough is March is a busy time of the year for everyone. You have festivals starting to pop back up around the country. You have the larger South By things that people do get paid a good amount of money for. So it’s always that balance of who will make an impact and who’s available. And that’s the challenging part, balancing cultural impact.
And it’s South By week, so things are constantly moving and evolving. The great thing about South By though is that a lot of times, even speaking from personal experience, I don’t like doing a ton of things anymore, but I’ll go down there booked to do one or two things and next thing you know people find out you’re in town and “Why don’t you come play my show,” or “I’ll come play your show if you come play my show.”
I remember one year, I got into town on Monday and I had something at Empire Garage. Somebody tapped me on the shoulder like “Yo, Rae and Ghost are behind you.” I’m like, “What? Are they performing?” They’re like, “No, they just came to see your show.” So next thing you know, I start playing some of their records. They jump out on stage. Next thing we know I go with them to one of their shows. They brought me out as a guest DJ, and I guest DJ the second half of the set.
So it’s very organic like that, which contributes sometimes to the surprise factor because you never know who else might be in town that might just be down to jump up on stage. So we almost have to bank on the fact that something magic will happen at the last minute that we didn’t plan. It’s been like that almost every year. So that’s something we have to factor in addition to what we do plan for. But yeah, there’s no one formula to keep it fresh. It’s just really us brainstorming and figuring out what makes sense every year.
I wanted to ask Paul specifically, as someone who spends so much time in Austin and is very connected to the city, can you speak to the importance of South By Southwest as a cultural event?
Smith: I think South By is something that put Austin on the map for creatives. South By was birthed by creatives, right? Same thing with C3, with ACL, you had all these creatives that were in Austin because at the time the rental rate was only 18% of the median income versus now it’s like 50%.
And so you have a large creative class, your Stevie Ray Vaughans, Janis Joplins, that can create that Sixth Street vibe that was the live music capital of the world. And that’s exactly how South By was birthed. It was a small festival, basically a group of shows that was on Sixth Street, and then you could come in and you’d see these different bands and over time they turned into what they are now, taking the convention center, putting panels together, bringing like-minded people together. And then you bring in music, you bring in tech and whatnot, and it becomes bigger. And so I think South By and its effect on Austin is hugely cultural, and obviously, they had their moment of starting in a backyard on some two-by-fours and some plywood too.
You guys have become known for the special guests and Just mentioned how sometimes this is about who’s available at that time which is always shifting. When it comes to those special guests, how up to the last minute is that? Is this something that you guys have any ability to project or is it always this final text like, “Guess who’s coming through!”?
Smith: I think it’s one of those things where you got to build out your mainstay. For example, Just and I went to the Grammys last year basically to go hang out with Pee .Wee [DJ Pee .Wee is Anderson .Paak’s DJ moniker] and just talked to him a little bit. And I know Just was doing some other stuff out there, but that was somebody that we had been talking to for a while and then all of a sudden we’d find ourselves doing karaoke at 04:30 in the morning and it’s like, “Okay, this is going to be a thing now” or with Tip, that was something where it was like, “Hey, he’s available.” A lot of times I feel like it starts out where people hit Just to be like, “Hey, let’s work together.” And it’s like, well, how do we use The Takeover as a way to maybe bring that collab together as some sort of a jumping point so people can see us on stage together or stuff like that?
And then there’s other stuff where it’s like, this person just flew in or they’re willing to fly in early, if we take care of their hotel and do something for them financially, which might not be what it normally would be, but they’ll come on for a couple of tracks. Again, I think the idea is you don’t know who’s going to come out and if all of a sudden you got hypothetically, Mannie Fresh and Juvenile and Juvenile comes out and drops “Back That Azz Up,” people are going to go nuts… Not saying that’s going to happen!
On that note, what can you guys tell us about this year’s Takeover? I know that there’s going to be some stuff that you’re not going to be able to share. From the sounds of it, there might be some stuff you guys aren’t even fully sure is going to happen yet, so what can people expect?
Blaze: Good music.
Smith: It’ll be dope.
Blaze: Good energy. That’s the answer. Good music, good vibes, good energy. Be there. That’s it.
Smith: I’m excited. We’re getting ready to drop to the save the date. It’s one of those things where it’s like South By comes together in the last three weeks. It’s like the amount of people that are calling me saying, “Hey, we’ve got sponsorship dollars, or we’re going to be in town, or there’s going to be that.” It’s nuts.
Blaze: The key is you build out your core night, you build out your core experience, and then you just let the South By magic happen. Like Paul said, getting that phone call that somebody just landed or getting that call that somebody just finished a show and has some free time to kill and wants to come to check out your party. I would say it’s like 60/40. 60% planned and then you just let the chaos take over.
Smith: And I think the crazy thing is that run of the show — without the special guest — would probably still be the dopest thing happening that night.
Blaze: Exactly.
I just have one more question for you, and you guys touched on this a little bit briefly when we first started talking, but I think that the things that make these types of collaborations work, the things that make them resonate with people is passion and this is a point of passion for you.
So how do you define the Takeover in your own terms?
Smith: I would say it’s about collaboration. I think it’s one of those things where it’s similar to when Jazzy Jeff did PLAYLIST Retreat. He brings people together and they end up doing dope creations. They’re creating music, but typically at that point, it’s like everybody that’s in the room has either known each other or they’re one degree of separation from knowing each other.
So to me, it’s nice because you’ve got the core group of folks that we’re always hanging out with, but then there’s going to be somebody like a Zeelie or somebody or Buck Rogers pre-pandemic, he performed at one of our shows, and then he gets invited to PLAYLIST Retreat. And so stuff like that. It’s a family affair, and it’s just bringing people together and people who are talented and ultimately good people.
We know some talented people who aren’t great… typically we don’t want to work with them.
At the end of the day, my goal isn’t to pull every dollar out of it, so to speak. I’m certainly not a corporate sponsor in any way. So for me, it’s trying to create the dopest thing I can for Austin, and that in itself is the reason to do it.
Kirsten Dunst hasn’t really done action before. She’s got the Tobey Maguire-era Spider-Man films, but for the most part she sticks to serious, non-gun-heavy cinema. She’s used to movies like her last one, The Power of the Dog, a revisionist Western that nabbed her her first Oscar nomination (ditto her husband). So when she signed up for the forthcoming Civil War, she was really not prepared for spending her workdays surrounded by loud (fake) gun shots.
In a new cover story for Marie Claire (in a bit teased out by Entertainment Weekly), the actress said she was initially pumped to do the film, about a dystopian future in which the nation is being torn asunder by dueling forces, which isn’t at all relevant to what’s going on now. “When I read the script, I thought, I’ve never done anything like this,” she remembered thinking.
Shooting it was a different story. Some of the more hectic business, such as combat scenes and a car chase, she said, “shook me to my core.”
“I remember hearing them practice an explosion. We were in the hair and makeup trailer, which was very far away from set, and the whole trailer shook,” she recalled. “There’s so much gunfire, and then you look at the news and it’s a school shooting again.”
Dunst said she “had PTSD for a good two weeks after.” She added, “I remember coming home and eating lunch and I felt really empty.” But perhaps that was what helped her performance, as a journalist caught in the middle of warfare. Alex Garland, the film’s writer-director (also of Ex Machina and Annihilation), wanted her to “let herself live inside the film, and feel the reality of the moments.”
On the other hand doing a big, violent, overly topical movie with lots of guns was a relief from the kinds of scripts she’d been getting. Since she’s a woman actress in her early 40s, she lamented that “every role I was being offered was the sad mom.”
For the past 18 months, Bronx rapper Ice Spice has been a fixture of popular culture. Breaking out with her single “Munch (Feelin’ U)” in the summer of 2022 on wave of social media goodwill, the 24-year-old artist has parlayed her TikTok popularity into a flourishing career. She’s collaborated with some of the biggest artists in music, including Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, and Taylor Swift, starred in Super Bowl ads, and grown in both skill and stature, all while driving discourse about her supposed lack of talent — which only makes her bigger.
She’s done all this without putting an album out, by the way.
So, naturally, the question on a lot of interested parties’ minds is: when will Ice Spice put out her debut album? While she did feed fans a project last year — the EP Like..? — both her fans and detractors are waiting impatiently for her to release a full-length project. Both may soon get their wish, as she announced the title for her debut, Y2K, and her intention to release it this year. After months of teasing, she shared some good news on social media today: she’s finished recording Y2K.
I guess that depends on what you mean by “done.” If you mean “in a state that is fit for public consumption” the answer is most likely “no.” After all, while Ice might be finished performing her raps into a microphone in a studio booth, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the songs themselves won’t go through multiple revisions, from beat changes to adding guests and live instrumentation, depending on Ice’s vision. From there, the recorded tracks will have to be mixed and mastered — meaning that the sound levels of everything from ad-libs to hi-hats will have to be adjusted and matched from song-to-song across the project.
Then there’s marketing and rollout to consider. Which songs will be singles? Are the music videos and single packaging shot and edited yet? Will there be any corporate tie-ins with the release? Almost certainly in today’s climate, when brand partnerships are an integral part of the business. So, while Y2K is probably in the pipeline, it could be months until we actually hear it. But hey, a slow-roasted meal nearly always tastes better than one from the microwave. A little patience goes a long way, and hopefully, in the case of Ice Spice’s album, it’ll pay off.
The Boston Celtics spent Sunday afternoon bludgeoning the Golden State Warriors, turning what ABC hoped would be an exciting national TV showcase game into a Summer League exhibition by the third quarter. Both teams emptied the benches early in the second half, as the Celtics led 82-38 at halftime and ultimately cruised to a 140-88 win, providing yet another result to point to their dominance this season.
While there’s a tight race at the top of the West standings between two young, up-and-coming contenders in Minnesota and Oklahoma City, the defending champs in Denver, and a team finally hoping to fulfill its promise in the Clippers, there is no such race at the top of the East. Boston has an 8-game lead on the Milwaukee Bucks for the top seed in the conference, and should have the 1-seed locked up in a couple of weeks.
There aren’t many teams that are good enough to say anything less than a championship is a failure. The Celtics are, unquestionably, on that list. Those are the stakes for a team that’s made the Eastern Conference Finals its perennial home, but have only gotten to the Finals one time in five attempts. That consistency in being on the verge of a title but never reaching the summit also makes Boston far more interesting going into the postseason than most teams with their kind of regular season resume.
The West figures to be decided by teams that are either so new to this that they don’t have a ton of playoff scar tissue, or teams that have a championship pedigree. That should create some incredible matchups and tremendous storylines as new contenders look to take down past champions, but in the East, the dominant storyline will be the Celtics battling themselves.
Teams like the Warriors and Heat laid the blueprint for dealing with the Boston teams of the past, finding ways to frustrate and bait them into taking bad shots, settling for hero ball rather than playing with the flow that got them there. They spent this offseason trying to address those issues. Gone is Marcus Smart, the longtime emotional and vocal leader of the team, supplanted by Derrick White and Jrue Holiday in the point guard role. Smart was moved to bring in Kristaps Porzingis, the hopeful answer to the late-game offensive stagnation of the past. The results, to this point, have been emphatic. The Celtics have the best offense in the NBA. They have the second-best defense in the NBA. They have not lost back-to-back games at any point this season.
However, while it’s certainly not fair to completely wave away this level of regular season excellence, the truth is Boston has to make sure all of this translates to the postseason, and that’s what makes the next couple months such a delicate dance. They will likely have the 1-seed in the East sewn up with two or more weeks left in the regular season, meaning they will play more “meaningless” basketball than anyone. That requires them to toe the line between rest and rust, finding the happy medium between getting as healthy as possible for the postseason while maintaining the form that’s gotten them this far.
Once there, for all the talented teams in the East, Boston appears to be in a class of their own and will be the heavy favorites to make the Finals. There are good teams in the East — Milwaukee is starting to figure things out under Doc Rivers, Philly should have Joel Embiid back, Miami has proven that seeding matters very little to them once they reach the playoffs. But even though all three of those teams could make up the road to the Finals, the Celtics’ biggest test will be internal.
We often talk about playoff experience and how important it is in the process of building a champion, but for every example of a title team molded by prior postseason failures, there’s even more that could never rid themselves of that scar tissue to get over the hump. Boston looks like a team built to do just that, but as Chris Berman always says, that’s why they play the games. The Celtics will inevitably find themselves in positions they’ve faced before, but the double-edged sword of experience is that there are things they’ve seen but not been able to overcome. They are battle-tested but equally battle-scarred, and moving beyond that will require them to find something deep within themselves to not let the past haunt their promising present.
This season has been about preparing themselves for those moments. Joe Mazzulla was practically glowing after the Celtics beat the Sixers while shooting 5-for-22 from three, thrilled to have a game he can point to where his team still dominated despite shots not falling. Porzingis provides a level of floor balance they’ve lacked, blending the rim protection they need on the defensive end with a dynamism on offense that no team really has an answer to when he’s playing well (you have, assuredly, consumed some piece of NBA content over the last few weeks that deemed him the most important Celtic). Holiday and White have kept their point of attack defense elite while raising their offensive profile from the guard position. As a whole, the roster has given Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum everything they could need in a supporting cast. As Tatum explained to me at All-Star Weekend, they don’t present opposing defenses any real weak points to attack.
“It’s tough. I mean, I feel like guarding us, you got to give up something. You can’t stop everything,” Tatum said. “And I think that’s what we were trying to build. Get the right guys in place in our system that you might have to give up something and you have to give it up to a really good player.”
And yet, despite 60 games of proving it in the regular season, everyone is just waiting to see if they can do it in the biggest moments in late May and early June — which, it must be said, is partly due to them steamrolling the East and making it so people can turn their attention to the playoffs. For the ascendent teams in the West, namely the Thunder and Timberwolves, there will be plenty of discussion about how they’re hurt by the lack of playoff experience, but there’s also a freedom that comes from that which, when harnessed, can be a propellant.
On the flip side, the Celtics have seen firsthand how thin the margins are once you reach the NBA’s final four, and they will have to dig deep to find that same freedom and play without the fear that can come when you’re trying to outrun ghosts of the past. Their effort to do so will be fascinating to watch unfold, but if they succeed, it’ll make that first time hoisting the Larry O’Brien even sweeter.
You might think that butt-dialing is a thing of the past due to all of these fancy phones and updated technology, but you have to remember that there are people over the age of 60 who still think that you need to yell over the phone to hear someone, so that should be taken into consideration. Plus, we can’t really trust these things anymore.
Ed O’Neill, a legendary sitcom actor who also happens to be 77 years old, is smart enough to not join the mob, but it doesn’t mean he is immune to technological difficulties.
O’Neill’s Modern Family costar Jesse Tyler Ferguson had Sofia Vergara on his podcast this week when the topic of O’Neill’s sporadic calls came up.
While discussing the final season of Modern Family, Ferguson mentioned that O’Neill spent most of his post-Modern Family life in Hawaii, adding, “Although he sort of got bored, I think, cause, I don’t know about you, but he would call me randomly.” Vergara confirmed that this is his motive: “Oh yeah, believe me, he would call me randomly,” she said. The duo then swapped stories.
Ferguson said, “Sometimes it would be by accident. He’d FaceTime me, and I would just see, like, the side of his house. Like he would be holding his phone, accidentally like FaceTiming me, so I’d just be like seeing his wall,” he explained. “I’d be like Ed, Ed, Ed, it’s me. And he would be like, ‘Jesse, what are you doing on my phone?’” It didn’t stop there!
It seems that Ed also did the same thing to his former on-screen wife, but that’s because of her name. “You know what he does to me a lot? He leaves me messages, I think, because my name is Sofia and his daughter is Sophia. He leaves messages all the time, but it’s to the daughter,” Vergara explained. “He always starts ‘Sophia, it’s dad.’ I’m like, at the beginning, it was like, ‘Why is he calling? Why is he calling himself that to me?’ You know? And then I was like, ‘Oh, it’s Sophia, the daughter.’” she concluded.
The cast recently reunited on stage at the SAG Awards, mostly just to prove that they are all alive. “Honestly, on that night, we were all busy,” Ferguson explained. “Sofia Vergara was supposed to be doing press, I was supposed to be here in New York, Julie Bowen was shooting a show, Ed O’Neill had a glass of wine to drink. And so we all canceled those very important things, and we figured out a way to come together because the last time we had a reunion, Ty Burrell wasn’t able to come, and so we posed with a photo of Ty… and then the internet thought he was dead.”
Turns out he’s not dead, he just has a pretty significant mustache now.
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