There are a lot of hard things about living with Crohn’s disease. Not being able to talk about it might be the worst one.
Imagine being constantly tired, but in a way that even 15 hours of sleep a day can’t cure. Imagine going to dinner, but every time you eat something as simple as a roll of warm bread, it feels like it might’ve had broken glass inside of it.
Then, it’s time to go to the bathroom. Again. Is that the fifth time this hour or the sixth? You’ve lost track. It’s a running joke now — your friends think it’s funny, but nobody really talks about what happens when you step away. Because, really, you look fine. Just tired.
Crohn’s, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is “a condition of chronic inflammation potentially involving any location of the gastrointestinal tract.” But as defined by myself, someone with Crohn’s, it’s like having food poisoning all the time. The symptoms and presentation are different for every patient, but one thing is the same for all: It’s an invisible illness, and it sucks.
And let’s face it. Talkin’ about your poop is taboo.
A little privacy, please?
Well, unless you’re Krystal Miller.
Stumble over to her Facebook page, Bag Lady Mama, and nearly every post has a reference to doing the doo.
Krystal, who lives in Perth, Australia, has Crohn’s. She was first diagnosed at 15 years old, and by 22, most of her intestinal tract had been badly damaged by the disease. At that point, doctors decided to remove large portions of her large and small intestines.
For the last decade, she’s been living with a permanent ileostomy, a surgically made opening in the abdominal wall that connects the lower intestine to an ostomy bag.
Now, at 32, she’s sharing her daily experiences through Facebook.
Her posts show raw insight into her world. They’re unapologetically blunt, they’re full of curse words, and they’re gaining traction — quickly.
In an interview with Upworthy, Krystal said she expected to have a few hundred Likes on her page within a month or two of launching it, mostly from close friends who knew about her life with Crohn’s. But since it launched Jan. 25, it’s reached more than 13,000 Likes.
“I did expect it to reach Europe and America because I have international friends,” she said. “But I never expected for it to be as expansive as it has been. It’s crazy — I actually got recognized at my local shops the other day!”
Her photos show off her day-to-day life with her two children, Lukas, 4, and Arabella, five months, and her husband, Shannon. Each is filled with her unabashed love for her body.
Scars, bag, and the ostomy itself are all on display in the hopes that she can help remove some of the stigma around Crohn’s and what life with the disease is like.
It’s not a comfortable thing to live with physically or socially. It took years before Krystal was willing to open up about it.
“When I was first diagnosed, I was very uncomfortable. I would be in-tears uncomfortable if someone had to go to the toilet after me. … And when you’re young, it’s embarrassing and it’s pretty f*cking horrific. It’s been slow progress , but I just kind of got sick of caring. Like, who gives a f*ck, it is what it is, I can’t do anything about it.“
She would go to extreme lengths to cover up the symptoms of the disease, especially when using public restrooms. But she credits the surgery that removed her rectum with alleviating a lot of that embarrassment as well. Once her permanent ostomy was in place, many of her symptoms were alleviated, and her experiences with “number 2” became more matter-of-fact than anything else.
“It’s been slow progress , but I just kind of got sick of caring. Like, who gives a f*ck, it is what it is, I can’t do anything about it.”
From there, it became about reclaiming her sexiness and self-confidence, which started with revisiting how she looked at herself.
“When we look at other women, we don’t see the same flaws that we see in ourself. And I’ve had to retrain myself to see myself the way others might see me, to not notice the finer intricacies that I see on myself. Other people don’t see the sh*t that we see.”
But she hasn’t stopped there. She also posts fashion tips for other women with Crohn’s and shares advice on how to dress the way you want while still being comfortable with a bag.
Krystal does have one thing she wants to say to other people who have Crohn’s and other IBDs: It’s not always going to be easy, and that’s OK.
“We have earned that right to f*cking hate the world,” she said. “We are entitled to f*cking be angry and to be sad and to have bad days. If you need to feel sorry for yourself, then feel sorry for yourself. But then pick yourself up and keep going.”
The last time Schoolboy Q went on tour was in 2019, for his then-new album Crash Talk. At the time, he hit 19 cities through the fall, concluding his tour on December 4 in his native Los Angeles. He announced his next album would come out sometime in 2020. Then, the pandemic hit and the possibility of touring went out the window for a number of artists.
Despite apparently completing that album as promised, Q decided to hold off on releasing it, as the landscape of the recording industry had changed so rapidly with the advent of TikTok, an explosion in music festivals, and a general uncertainty about how to proceed. Q himself settled into dad life, even releasing a standalone single about being a “Soccer Dad,” and worked on his golf game. However, he’s got a new album out, Blue Lips, so it’s fair to wonder: Will he go on tour again for his new album?
If his tweet about the subject is anything to go on, it looks like the answer is a resounding yes. Responding to a tweet about the speculation surrounding a desired tour announcement, Q wrote an all-caps endorsement, “BLUE LIPS TOUR,” complete with the widely acknowledged shouting emoji.
Russell Wilson’s time with the Denver Broncos is coming to an end. In a bit of news that had been expected for months, the team announced that they’ll release the veteran signal caller when the 2024 league year begins in nine days.
We’ve notified QB Russell Wilson that he will be released after the league year begins March 13.
Wilson responded to this by posting a letter on social media that thanked the fans, the city, and a whole lot of people within the Broncos organization. But perhaps unsurprisingly, there is no mention of head coach Sean Payton or anyone in the front office.
The move comes a little more than two months after Denver decided to bench Wilson for the final two games of the year, which preceded reports that Wilson believed the team would cut him this offseason. And then, a few days later, the bombshell came, as Wilson revealed that there were conversations earlier in the year where the team allegedly threatened to bench him if he did not remove an injury guarantee in his contract.
Wilson came to Denver via a trade with the Seattle Seahawks in which the Broncos gave up a whole lot to acquire the former Pro Bowl quarterback. Shortly before his first season with the team, Wilson signed a $245 million contract with $165 million of that money guaranteed. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Wilson was hardly at his best during his first year, as the team went 4-11 and he only completed 60.5 percent of his passes for 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in head coach Nathaniel Hackett’s system. While Wilson put up better numbers in his second year — 66.4 percent, 26 touchdowns, eight interceptions — Denver still struggled to win games in Payton’s first season in charge, going 7-8 and missing the postseason for the eighth year in a row.
Now, Wilson will hit free agency, where he should be an appealing option for teams that want a veteran QB in their room. As for the Broncos, the team is slated to pick 12th in the 2024 NFL Draft, although it’s very possible that four quarterbacks (Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels, J.J. McCarthy) are all off the board by the time they’re on the clock.
This was Zach Johnston’s first article on Uproxx. Seeing as to how he’s become something of an institution around these parts, we decided to re-run it to celebrate his work anniversary.
David Bowie’s death never really hit home until I attended the Tilda Swinton-hosted memorial at this year’s Berlinale [the year was 2015] and watched Nicolas Roeg’s bizarrely brilliant The Man Who Fell to Earth unspool in all its 35mm glory. Bowie and Roeg premiered The Man Who Fell to Earth at the 1976 Berlinale, and shortly afterward Bowie moved to Berlin. As the last reel of film flickered into darkness, I sat alone for a few minutes, letting the theater empty, then decided to go for a walk in the wintry German capital I call home. It was cold, but I had a coat and I felt like seeing a few of Bowie’s old hangouts.
First, I headed to Hauptstrasse 155 — where Bowie and Iggy Pop lived. As I walked down the Hauptstrasse, I passed a construction site. The smell of burning aluminum studs took me back to my dad’s workshop in Port Townsend, Washington. This is where I first heard Bowie, back in the ’80s. You know, the nineteenhundreds.
One day on a trip to the library, I’d checked out a cassette tape of Peter and the Wolf as narrated by that dude in that funny pose on one of my old man’s vinyls. As my dad sharpened a chainsaw — the smell of oil and steel wafting towards me with every swish of the file against the chain — we listened to David Bowie talk about a kid capturing a wolf. That voice. So British. So entrancing.
I was spellbound. From there we’d listen to Heroes, Aladdin Sane, Man Who Sold the World, and so on. That first cassette tape in the workshop started something… me and my dad listening to David Bowie together.
As I grew up, I didn’t really think about Bowie too much. He was just another powerful musician my dad introduced me to (along with Freddie Mercury, Robert Plant, Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy Kilmister, and so, so many others), that is until I moved to Berlin. In Berlin, Bowie and I were fellow expatriates and I felt connected in some odd way.
With the construction site behind me, I arrived at Hauptstrasse 155. There were a dozen or so people gathered: some standing in silence, some crying, most taking photos with their phones. Mounds of flowers, candles, and hastily processed fan art littered the sidewalk.
Lou Reed had been in Berlin for a while by the time Bowie co-produced Reed’s amazingly dark and poignant Berlin album, and Reed sold Berlin to Bowie as a place to reset without the gaze of the media. He promised Bowie that you could ride down the street on a bike to the shop, or go to a disco without being mobbed. Bowie was sold.
Bowie moved to a crumbling and still bullet-riddled Berlin in 1976. He’d just finished Station to Station and had officially hung up the neon leotards of Ziggy. He wanted to get off the cocaine and put his life back together and West Berlin seemed like the perfect place to do so. In what was probably the most badass roommate situation of all time, Bowie moved in with Iggy Pop in the West Berlin district of Schoenberg. Let that sink in a moment — the same time Bowie was making his Berlin Trilogy, Iggy Pop was making The Idiot and Lust for Life. That’s five iconic albums made by a couple of guys living together in one rundown flat in Berlin. If you believe in magic, then there is some serious magic in that building.
The same year Bowie decided to call West Berlin home, he started painting and drawing. He opened up a new side to his artistry that would carry him throughout his career. But it was the music that would become the true calling card of his time in Berlin. It was during these years that Bowie, Brian Eno, and Tony Visconti would create the mystical and profound Berlin Trilogy. Berlin also allowed Bowie the sort of anonymity that he needed after the whirlwind of mass stardom he achieved with Ziggy Stardust.
I paid my respects to Bowie at his and Iggy’s door and carried on up the Hauptstrasse towards Potsdamer Platz. I wanted to go to Hansa Ton Studios where Bowie recorded. Every morning, he would ride his bike along the same route I was traveling. Without a bike, it took 20 minutes before I got close, but zeroing in on the studio wasn’t easy. I walked beneath the glass towers that loom over Potsdamer Platz and got lost on the backstreets. Hansa Ton is about as innocuous a building as you can imagine — just a single shingle hanging above the door.
Bowie had written a lot of music for The Man Who Fell to Earth that, in the end, was left unused. A lot of that music would become Low. It’s a very somber album. The A-side is lyrical. The B-side is mostly instrumental and conceptual. Though recorded in Bowie’s home in France, it was mixed at the famous Hansa Ton Studios in West Berlin, which at the time was set against the Berlin Wall. Bowie and Visconti recount how East German soldiers would watch them work through high-powered binoculars, day and night, and write down what they were doing. Low set Bowie on a new path musically and visually. Just look at that cover (Bowie as The Man Who Fell to Earth no less).
During those early days in Berlin, Bowie discovered that his art could be pop, personal, political, and innovative all at the same time. Sometimes the act didn’t have to just be an act. Sometimes the act could be you, your surroundings, and life as it happens. Low was a success and the following album, Heroes, was even bigger. The record was conceived, recorded, and mixed in West Berlin — it was the sum total of his new life, his new views, his new career.
It was also a hit machine that managed to touch on what Bowie was witnessing in Berlin. In 1977, while Bowie, Visconti, and Eno were being spied on in Hansa Ton Studios, two people were killed trying to cross the wall. One of them was shot dead. The other drowned trying to swim the River Spree. With that context, Bowie’s lyrics seem even more potent.
“I, I can remember Standing by the wall And the guns, shot above our heads And we kissed, as though nothing could fall And the shame was on the other side Oh we can beat them, forever and ever Then we could be heroes, just for one day”
With Heroes, Bowie had fully reinvented himself and added to the growing list of great albums influenced by life in Berlin: from Lou Reed’s druggy epic Berlin to Iggy’s Lust for Life, and even later in the ’80s to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ The Firstborn Is Dead and U2’s Zoo Station.
After standing outside the studio, I wandered toward the Paris Bar where Bowie got so drunk during a Rolling Stone interview that he ended it by rolling around in the ice outside in an absinthe fit. These days, the restaurant bar feels too trendy for my taste. I opted to carry on back to Kreuzberg where I ended up drinking at Luzia — where Iggy, Reed, and Bowie drank too.
Of course, Bowie’s records were spinning while I sipped my Sazerac. The crowd was pretty small and quiet for a Friday night. And then Lodger started to play. I sat and listened to the album from start to finish for the first time in my life. It felt like we were all sitting there, sipping our drinks, and just listening. It was eerie and comforting at the same time and I decided it was time for a dram of absinthe.
Lodger would signal the end of this iteration of Bowie’s rebirth, and his collaborations with Eno (for a time). Lodger was mostly written and recorded while on the road during the Isolar II World Tour. Though it wasn’t made in Berlin, it was inspired by the events having led up to that point because of Berlin. Lodger failed commercially and critically. Though it has received a resurgence and reassessment, it will forever be considered the weakest of Bowie’s Berlin triptych. But it’s evident in Lodger that a new era of Bowie was emerging. His music and style would become political and inclusive and lead to a whole new era of Bowie that we got in the ’80s. When Bowie left Berlin, he left a new man and a wholly changed artist.
In 1987, Bowie gathered his band for a concert at the Berlin Wall in front of the still-burned and bombed-out Reichstag. He turned as many speakers towards the east as the west. On the East side of the Wall, hundreds gathered to try and catch a few notes of the concert. Hundreds turned into thousands. As Bowie launched into Heroes, riots broke out as the thousands of East Berliners gathered and started to chant, “Tear down the Wall!” Police brutalized and arrested them. East Berliners raged back. Many think it was Rocky Balboa that ended the Cold War. But I like to think Bowie had a hand in it, too, pointing his speakers at the disenfranchised and isolated East Berliners and giving them something to fight for.
In the days since Bowie’s death, vinyls of his immense discography spin in every corner of Berlin. Memorials and street art continue to pop up. Even the Mayor has chimed in, calling Bowie “one of us.” There’s a petition to change one block of Hauptstrasse to David-Bowie-Strasse. Berliners love their freaks.
The city weeps for their adopted son. I didn’t go to the places Lou Reed lived and worked in Berlin when he died. But I did with Bowie. As I was walking the streets, with Heroes echoing in my ears, I realized that Bowie represented what I had moved to Berlin to chase — reinvention — whereas Reed represented a place I didn’t want to go back to — the darkness of drugs, failed relationships, and generational anger. Bowie had some of that edge too, but he was weird enough and bold enough to infuse it with a bright future.
As I shuffled home, the absinthe provided a nice buffer between me and the biting Berlin cold. My mind drifted back to a hot summer in Berlin a few years ago. The streets were muggy and smelled of tobacco smoke, car exhaust, and dust. The neo-classic apartment with high ceilings I loved when I moved to the city was seeming less and less like a good idea and more like a blast furnace. I remembered sitting in my apartment, sweating, and trying to get a one-year-old baby boy to sleep in the unbearable heat. My heart raced as the cries got louder and more shrill. Like any desperate parent, I clamored to find something to soothe him, scanning playlist after playlist.
And there it was, Bowie narrating Peter and the Wolf. I put it on and heard Bowie’s voice, so refined, so British, explaining all the instruments. It was the cool breeze my son needed. The cries stopped almost immediately (almost magically). Ten minutes later, he was asleep, and I was back in the shop with my dad.
As I keyed into my door, memory and walk complete, I smiled — thinking of that day and the day in my dad’s workshop decades earlier. I thought of how Berlin changed Bowie and Bowie changed me and how, even in death, that cycle can continue as long as there is art to poke holes into the darkness.
If you are in Berlin, and interested in Bowie, you can take an organized tour or follow the links in this article and do it for free!
Schoolboy Q’s new album, Blue Lips, dropped Friday and the South Central rapper is taking the opportunity to look back on his career as a whole. While he’s been more active on Twitter lately as he promotes his new album, he asked fans if he could “be a nerd” and spend some time talking about his past albums. Like Jay-Z before him, he did so in the form of a ranking. Here’s Schoolboy Q’s ranking of his albums, along with the reasoning for each one.
Can I be a nerd real quick and rank my own albums??
Q ranks his 2011 debut the lowest out of his discography because “I barely started rapping & u can tell.” However, he does credit TDE President Punch for being “smart” for signing him.
6. SETBACKS I barely started rapping & u can tell.. finding myself but was pretty good for only rapping about 4-5 years.. puncH was smart for signing me
2019’s Crash Talk was Q’s most recent release but it’s far from his favorite. Although he thinks the album has “sum of my best rappin even tHo it wasn’t to my standards,” he gives it a demerit for “cHasing tHe first week number.”
5. CRASH TALK Was cHasing tHe first week number album Has HigHs tHo to be Honest sum of my best rappin even tHo it wasn’t to my standards personally.. still good tHo
Q’s third album lands in the middle of both his discography and his ranking. While it marked the beginning of his commercial dominance, receiving a Platinum certification and spawning fan-favorite singles like “Collard Greens”, “Man Of The Year,” and “Yay Yay,” Quincy didn’t much enjoy having to make multiple versions for different outlets like Target, Best Buy, and Apple (which probably explains why Blue Lipsisn’t getting a deluxe edition).
4. OXYMORON SHOCKING I know a lot of pop records “ it was my cHoice” I love OutKast and said wHy not I mean tHis album is extremely good and I’m still living off tHis album literally da tHing dat killed me wit tHis album was Having to make a (target version, Best Buy…
By indie standards, 2012’s Habits & Contradictions was an impressive success, announcing Q’s arrival on the mainstream level despite its humble resources. While he says he’d “take away maybe 3 songs” (without saying which three), he gives it an “8/10.”
3. HABITS & CONTRADICTIONS BRAH I figured it out… made a Hit indie Hands on tHe wHeel blessed omg THere He go bro so many HigHs… nigHtmare on figg sacrilegious Raymond 1968 portis Head samples.. I don’t know How I pulled tHis off on god… but 8 outta 10 for me… take…
The TDE rapper’s fourth studio album and second on a major, 2016’s Blank Face was his departure from expectations, what he calls “one of the most creative GANGSTA RAP albums ever.” While the creative risks may have hindered it as a high-profile follow-up to his hit mainstream debut, Q considers it a “classic.”
2. BLANK FACE LP After dropping pop records I didn’t wanna get boxed in.. was told tHis album wasn’t ready yet yea fucked my Head up almost ruined me. Was told THat part flopped fucked my Head up.. I stayed down Had a so called bad first week for 2016 standards sum…
Naturally, Q feels like his newest is his best, but he might not be too off-base. Q got vulnerable discussing the direction of the new album, admitting “album been done for years,” but confessing that he wasn’t sure about releasing it in the modern climate. “I just didn’t know wHere I would fit in tHis circus of just bullsHit & algoritHm,” he said. However, it certainly looks like his courage is paying off.
1. BLUE LIPS it’s early but it’s How I feel today could cHange.. I mean braH yall neva Heard me rap like tHis.. album been done for years to be real.. I just didn’t know wHere I would fit in tHis circus of just bullsHit & algoritHm so I made my bed and cHose art… I’m 2 good…
The best bourbon under $100 is a wide category. There are easily 100 bottles that could slot into that wide-ranging parameter. But when you narrow it all down to the best bourbons between $90 and $100, you get a glimpse at some of the best bourbons on the shelf right now.
Below, I’m calling out 15 bottles of bourbon that you should know, taste, and enjoy — all between $90 and $100. These bourbons are all prime cuts. There are no losers listed below. That’s not always true of whiskey at this price point, there are some very mid bottles that don’t wow. Iron Smoke, I.W. Harper, Gentleman’s Cut, and Good Times are all very skippable at this price point.
But we’re not here for those. We’re here for the good stuff.
There is one big elephant in the room at this price point too. Some bottles are priced for retail (MSRP) at $99 or near that that you’ll never see at that price point unless you win the lottery (sometimes literally). I did not list those bottles here because we’re dealing with the real-world prices of things and not mythical MSRPs that no one gets access to. So E.H. Taylor’s, BTACs, etc. are not on this list (but will be on later installments with their real-world retail prices).
Let’s dive in!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This Colorado whiskey has a base of 51% corn, 34% malted barley, and 15% rye. That whiskey rests for five years before it’s batched and re-barrelled into 59-gallon port casks from Portugal. After 10 months to a year, those barrels are batched and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is crafty bourbon turned up to 11 with a sweet porridge nose, raw leather, cold apple cider, and a hint of fresh oak on the nose.
Palate: There’s a honey-apple crisp sweetness on the opening of the palate that leads right back into that slurry of sweet porridge — now with a white grits edge — before a nice ABV buzz (not burn) leads to orchard barks, winter spice mixes, and a soft sense of cherry bark.
Finish: The finish holds onto the buzziness as the fruit wood and spice settle into a soft and sweet grit ending.
Bottom Line:
This is just good bourbon. The port is perfectly balanced with a deep crafty graininess that works wonders. It’s kind of like a nourishing bowl of grits cut with stewed and spiced dark fruits and syrups on a cold morning.
The warmth of the ABVs is also very well balanced, creating a lovely, warming sipping experience.
14. Lost Lantern Single Distillery Series New Riff Distilling Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This single cask bottling from Lost Lantern is a one-of-a-kind Kentucky barrel from New Riff Distilling (across the river from Cincinnati). The whiskey in the barrel was a low-corn bourbon (65% corn, 30% rye, and 5% malted barley) aged for four years. The barrel was bottled at cask strength and yielded around 196 bottles.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with a deep burnt caramel sweetness that gives way to five-spice powder over fatty smoked pork next to dark cherry cola and rich and clear tobacco.
Palate: That tobacco is fresh and vibrant on the palate as the fatty smoked pork drives the taste toward rich dark chocolate sauce, winter spice medleys, and campfire toasted marshmallows.
Finish: Mulled wine and apple cider spices drive the finish to some wet brown sugar, more dark cherry cola, and a hint of a buttermilk biscuit with marmalade just kissed with that five-spice powder before the heat really kicks in a mutes everything with a loud numbing mouthfeel.
Bottom Line:
This is a fun and fresh sipper that makes for a great food pairing whiskey, especially if you’re leaning into East Asian flavors. The warmth of the ABVs balances beautifully with the sharp spices and soft sweetness to create a wonderful slow sipper.
13. Kings County Distillery Bottled-In-Bond Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This crafty whiskey from New York is a grain-to-glass bourbon experience. The mash bill on this one eschews rye and wheat for 80% locally grown corn supported by 20% malted barley from England. The juice is then aged for four years in small 15-gallon barrels treated according to the law and bottled in Kings County’s signature hip flask bottles.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This draws you in with a strawberry shortcake with a cornmeal base, topped with fresh berries, buttery vanilla whipped cream, and then dipped in a caramel sauce.
Palate: The palate veers away from all of that and touches on bitter black coffee syrup with brown sugar and butter notes next to oatcakes and vanilla sauce with a hint of spice lingering in the background.
Finish: The end is long and full of chocolate malts, leather, and more of that creamy and buttery vanilla whipped cream.
Bottom Line:
This is another crafty bourbon that has a great balance of grains and deep spice with the perfect hint of bitterness, creating a well-rounded sipper. This is the sort of pour you reach for when you want to try what’s new in bourbon.
12. Pinhook Straight Bourbon Whiskey 2023 Vertical Series Bourbon “Bourbon War” Aged 8 Years
This is an instant classic from Kentucky’s Pinhook. The whiskey is hewn from a mash bill of 75% corn, 20.5% rye, and 4.5% malted barley distilled at MGP of Indiana and aged at Castle & Key (in Kentucky). The whiskey was left alone for eight years before batching and bottling as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with toasted raisin bread, cinnamon butter, dates, prunes, and figs with a nice layer of leathery dark berries cut with bright orange zest.
Palate: Soft caramel opens the palate before sharp winter spice barks stewing dark plums, sticky toffee pudding, and vanilla buttercream lead to fresh gingerbread.
Finish: The end leans into the rich buttercream and woody spices with a soft sense of pipe tobacco and Christmas cakes.
Bottom Line:
This is a bright and, well, just gorgeous pour of bourbon. It’s nostalgic while still feeling vibrant and fresh. It also makes one hell of an old-fashioned.
11. Fox & Oden Double Oaked Straight Bourbon Whiskey
The whiskey in this small batch bourbon is rendered from MGP’s 21% and 36% rye bourbon mash bills. The barrels are between eight and 15 years old when they’re married. Once vatted, the whiskey is just touched with water before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: A rich buttery note comes through on the nose with a hint of salted corn next to savory figs with a hint of honey and freshly ground nutmeg mixed with some vanilla cream.
Palate: The palate turns that butteriness into salted caramel with a hint of sticky toffee pudding with plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg next to a thin line of charred oak underneath it all.
Finish: The end dries out with a sense of old leather wrapped around an old and dry tobacco leaf with a twinge of raisin.
Bottom Line:
This is another one that’s just a delight to sip. It’s essential American whiskey with a deep yet very concise profile that shines. Sip it slowly and enjoy the ride.
10. Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey Private Select Single Barrel
This craft distillery out in Washington is starting to create a big footprint nationwide. This release is a single barrel pick of five-year-old local grain-to-glass Washington bourbon. The barrel spent exactly five years and four months aging in Central Washington during deeply cold winters and very hot high-desert summers, accelerating the aging process significantly. It was then barreled 100% as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: A dark and almost dried cherry greets you on the nose with a sense of toasted Graham Crackers, maple syrup, and huckleberry pie next to hints of spiced winter cakes and salty dark chocolate.
Palate: Those spicy winter cakes follow on the palate as salted caramel and vanilla cake lead back to a lush cherry ice cream with a hint of dark chocolate and almond.
Finish: That dark chocolate gets creamy and sweet on the finish with a hint of floral honey and nasturtium spice next to a mild sense of old yet sweet oak.
Bottom Line:
This is a distinct whiskey that feels of a place. The wild berries and soft graininess speak to Washington craft spirits with a sense of floral spice and soft mountain honey that all work wonderfully in unison to deliver a great slow-sipping whiskey.
9. Southern Star Paragon Single Barrel Cask Strength Wheated Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This North Carolina bourbon is starting to make some serious waves. This very limited batch of single-barrel bourbon is made from wheated bourbon mash bill with 70% corn, 16% wheat, and 14% malted barley. The hot juice was left for around four years before the barrel was hand-pocked and bottled as-is at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a sense of orange blossoms and an apple orchard with a hint of pear and plum next to walnut shells, old honey bottles, and rich vanilla sauce with a hint of poppy seed.
Palate: The palate has a touch of dark chocolate powder sweetness that melds with walnuts and honey to make a cluster before the brown spice kicks in with sharp cinnamon and a touch of root beer.
Finish: The end leaves the spice and warmth behind for smooth vanilla walnut cake with a hint of apple-honey tobacco wrapped up with old cedar bark.
Bottom Line:
This whiskey keeps winning big awards. It’s easy to see why once you get your hands on a bottle. It’s deep and keeps delivering more and more nuance and beauty with each successive sip. This is one to take your time with and really dig into. You’ll be rewarded with a very enjoyable sipper.
8. Old Forester Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Single Barrel Barrel Strength
This is classic Old Forester from a single barrel that’s not cut with water for bottling. When you find these, they’ll generally be a pick from a retailer or bar program. That means they’ll vary slightly, depending on what the person picking the barrel was looking for. Still, there’s a consistency of “Old Forester” running through them all.
Tasting Note:
Nose: There’s a clear sense of dark fruit, especially cherry, that becomes stewed with dark winter spices on the nose with a good dose of dry tobacco in an old cedar box that’s wrapped up in old leather.
Palate: A hint of old dry roses sneaks in on the palate as those spices and syrupy cherry and berries intensify and attach to the chewy tobacco.
Finish: The mid-palate sweetens with an almost rose-water marzipan vibe as the cherry tobacco dried out pretty significantly, leaving you with a sense of pitchy pine sap and your grandparent’s old tobacco pipe that’s still hot to touch.
Bottom Line:
These tend to start off as a cherry bomb, but they go so much further. There’s a massive depth of flavor notes in these single barrel releases from Old Forester that makes them beloved (and also sell out quickly).
This first Booker’s Small Batch of 2023 was the one to get. This release is an hommage to Charlie Hutchens — the woodworker who makes Booker’s boxes the whiskey comes in and a long-time family friend to the Noe family who makes Beam whiskeys. The whiskey is a blend of mid to high-floor barrels from five warehouses. Those whiskeys were batched and bottled 100% as-is at cask strength after just north of seven years of aging.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Toasted almonds and walnuts lead the way on the nose with a deep and rich vanilla cake lightly dusted with cacao, dry cherry, and cinnamon with a touch of old oak cellars and black-mold-encrusted old deck furniture.
Palate: The soft caramel and vanilla open the palate before a rush of woody and sharp spices — clove, anise, allspice, red chili pepper — arrive with a sense of old wood chips on a workshop floor leads to salted toffee dipped in roasted almonds and dark salted chocolate with a whisper of cherry cordial backing it all up.
Finish: That soft sweetness counters the hot spices on the slow finish as the spices take on an orange/cherry/vanilla Christmas cake vibe with plenty of nuts and ABV heat.
Bottom Line:
Booker’s is always going to be a good play at this price point. This bottle is a stellar example of the cask-strength whiskey coming out of Beam right now. You really cannot go wrong with these bold sippers.
6. Old Ezra Aged 7 Years Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This brand from Luxco is still sourced whiskey though they did start distilling their own in 2018. This bottle is a seven-year-old blend of barrels with a bourbon mash bill of 78% corn, 12% malted barley, and 10% rye, which just so happens to be Heaven Hill’s bourbon mash bill. These barrels are blended down and left as-is at cask strength for bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This is a pretty classic bourbon from nose to finish with a strong sense of rich caramel, pancakes with plenty of vanilla, sweet oak, wet brown sugar, and a whiff of cherry tobacco.
Palate: The palate leans into the woody brown spices as a dark cherry vibe sweetens the mid-palate before this deep sense of nutty Christman cake arrives with a sense of candied citrus, stewed red fruit, and sharp yet sweet winter mulled wine spices.
Finish: The end circles back to that sweet oak and spicy cherry tobacco with a whisper of smudging sage, old boot leather, and brandy-soaked spiced winter cake cut with a fluttering of salt and orange.
Bottom Line:
This is the biggest “hidden gem” at the price point. This is a very good bourbon that never gets the love it deserves. Buy one, dig into that profile, and then make a killer Manhattan with it.
Joseph A. Magnus has been the insider’s bourbon for a while now. This version is made from old barrels of bourbon that were finished in cognac and sherry casks before batching, proofing, and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This opens with sticky toffee pudding that amps up the cinnamon and nutmeg next to black-tea-soaked dates next to some stewed prunes wrapped in chili-chocolate-laced tobacco leaves and dripped in honey and then walnuts.
Palate: A savory fruitiness opens the palate with figs and pumpkin that leads towards an apricot jam with a hint of clove and cinnamon next to light touches of old library leather and funk.
Finish: A faint hint of dark berries arrives on the mid-palate before the finish luxuriates in burnt toffee, almond shells, more of that leather, and dried-out apricots.
Bottom Line:
This is an excellent bourbon with the perfect proof point. It’s so sippable neat that you don’t really need a rock or water unless you want to dig deeper into that seemingly bottomless profile. You can also make a great whiskey-forward cocktail with this one.
4. Starlight Distillery Carl T. Huber’s Limited Release Double Oaked Bourbon Whiskey Finished in a Second Oak Barrel French Oak
This is a four-year-old Starlight bourbon that was aged in French oak casks from the jump. Then that same whiskey was refilled into new French oak casks for a final maturation before batching and bottling to help with prostrate cancer research via bottle sales this year.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Your grandma’s caramel candies draw you in on the nose with a light sense of vanilla malts topped with whipped cream and cherry before the oak arrives with a sense of sweetness and light mocha espresso vibes.
Palate: The dark cherry takes on a mild cola feel before it drives toward rich vanilla buttercream cut with poppyseeds and nutmeg next to a hint of that sweet oak dipped in salted caramel.
Finish: Rich tobacco leaves wrap themselves around that caramel oak before a whisper of apple blossom and maybe some brandy-soaked pear round out the finish.
Bottom Line:
This French-on-French bourbon is a vanilla dessert lover’s dream pour. It’s so rich and creamy with a lovely counterbalance of stewed and spiced orchard fruits. Pair this with a dessert course or just make this the dessert — either way, you’ll be in for a real treat.
3. 15 STARS Fine Aged Bourbon Kentucky Stars A Select Blend of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskeys
15 STARS did it again with this special release. The whiskey in the bottle is a blend of Kentucky straight bourbon that is at least eight years old, with several much older barrels in the mix. The final blend was just kissed with limestone water and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose draws you in with a deep sense of brandied cherries dipped in rich and creamy salted dark chocolate that almost leans into baker’s chocolate with a hint of oily espresso before a soft burnt sugar vibe arrives with a whisper of old sweet oak and worn boot leather.
Palate: The palate leans into a soft sense of cherry tobacco with a chewiness that’s wrapped in that old boot leather, wet cedar bark, and smudging sage with a touch of marmalade and apricot preserve over a buttermilk biscuit just kissed with brown butter cut with cinnamon and molasses.
Finish: The end dries out toward spiced oak staves in an old brick warehouse with plenty of dirt and mold from a fallow orchard, soft brittle dry tobacco leaves, and a medley of nutshells all twinged with orange, cherry, and pear oils.
Bottom Line:
This is a wonderful sipper. It’s so deep and nourishing. You’re transported to an old barrel house in Kentucky where you feel the wood and whiskey in your bones as you sip.
2. 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 single-barrel picks are going to dominate the conversation in 2024. They’re excellent. This is what you want from a sipping whiskey — depth, unique vibes, and deliciousness. These also feel like they’ll make killer whiskey-forward cocktails.
1. Fortuna Rare Character Barrel Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Last year’s Fortuna release was an instant classic. In 2023, the Rare Character team has upped the ante with a cask-strength version and, ho boy, they hit it out of the park. The whiskey in the bottle is a small batch of minimum seven-year-old barrels that were expertly batched and bottled 100% as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with a sense of deeply roasted walnuts, almonds, and chestnuts dipped in salted toffee with a sense of darkly charred old oak staves countered by a lush vanilla cream cut with winter spices.
Palate: The nuttiness drives the palate toward vanilla buttercream next to winter spice cakes filled with rum raisin, candied orange rind, and brandy-soaked cherries before a hint of sticky toffee pudding arrives with a whisper of roasting herbs and sweetgrass.
Finish: Nutshells and dried pipe tobacco round out the finish with a deep winter spice bark vibe before the luscious vanilla creates a creamy landing for the pour that’s part eggnog and part malted vanilla shake cut with peppermint, clove, and sasparilla.
Bottom Line:
This is a mic-drop whiskey. It has everything plus so much more that you could want from a Kentucky bourbon at cask strength. It’s bold, gentle, nuanced, brash, warming, delicate … divine. Pour this into a simple whiskey-forward cocktail and it’ll blow minds. Then show it off as a sipper and tell them where you heard about it!
Shōgun, which streams on Hulu, is the latest home run from FX, which has fired off several must-see beloved series in recent years, including Reservation Dogs and The Bear. The cable network can now claim a next-big-thing trophy for their adaptation of James Clavell’s best-selling 1975 novel, which counts as the first chronological part of the author’s Asian Saga.
The series gathers an ensemble acclaimed cast to tell the novel’s epic wartime story of 1600s feudal Japan, but there’s one actor in particular who looks awfully familiar to American audiences. That would be Cosmo Jarvis, the British actor who portrays English navigator John Blackthorne (based upon historical figure William Adams, who became a British samurai warrior), so where have you seen this actor before now?
Jarvis has numerous credits to his name, including 2016’s Lady Macbeth (starring Florence Pugh) 2022’s Persuasion (the version with Dakota Johnson). He’s a singer as well with his “Gay Pirates” single gaining more notoriety amid Shōgun’s release:
Additionally, Jarvis recently told The Guardian about a major source of inspiration for his character: “My old man’s a merchant seaman and I borrowed a lot from him. The confidence in his style of speech suited Blackthorne.” He also portrayed a tragic Peaky Blinders character, Barney (a PTSD-afflicted ex-Royal Marines sniper and WWII buddy of Tommy Shelby), and here’s a brief refresher clip:
With the arrival of Shōgun, Jarvis’ profile is seeing a significant boost. According to Samba TV’s figures, over 1 million viewers are catching the FX show within five days of release, and the debut scored 1.8 million viewers during that timetable.
Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign may have been spending the past week insisting there’s a conspiracy against them in the recording industry (despite still receiving enough streams for their album, Vultures 1, and its singles that they debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s albums chart even challenged Beyoncé for the top Hot 100 spot two weeks in a row), but that may not stop them from continuing to release new projects under the Vultures moniker. Early last week, Timbaland tweeted, “Vulture Vol 2 OTW,” prompting fans to speculate when a second installment of Vultures would be released.
So, take the March 8 release date with a grain of salt, as it’s entirely possible the album could get deleted, canceled, or otherwise delayed at the last minute, without warning. Of course, for anyone still waiting for Kanye West albums in 2024, that possibility probably won’t deter them.
On February 23, K-pop favorites TWICE released With YOU-th, their 13th mini album. While 13 is often considered to be an unlucky number, it’s actually now a big one for TWICE: With YOU-th has debuted at No. 1 on the new Billboard 200 chart (dated March 9), the first chart-topper for the group.
As Billboard notes, the project earned 95,000 equivalent album units in the US the week ending February 29 “largely from traditional album sales,” so the fact that the mini album has only six tracks (much shorter than most albums these days) didn’t significantly get in the way of its chart success. (Albums units typically come primarily from streaming, so the more songs an album has, the better.)
The album, which is sung mostly in Korean, is the 24th primarily non-English language album to ever hit No. 1, and the first to do so in 2024. As a press release also notes, this is TWICE’s fifth top-10 album, which is the most for a female K-pop act. With YOU-th also gives TWICE the most pure album sales out of all K-pop girl groups.
Meanwhile, LE SSERAFIM debuts at No. 8 this week with Easy. With the group joining TWICE on the chart, this is the first time two all-female Korean pop groups have been in the top 10 simultaneously.
If any movie released in 2024 so far needs to be seen in a theater, it’s Dune: Part Two (no offense, Madame Web). Even better if you can find an IMAX screening that isn’t sold out. But the sequel to 2021’s Dune, which is a massive box office hit, will eventually hit streaming, too. But when?
Warner Bros. Discovery head (and villain of ‘toons) David Zaslav said during a recent earnings calls that one Timothée Chalamet movie (Wonka) will “join” Max on March 8th, followed by another (Dune: Part Two) “in the spring.” You know what other movie comes out in the spring? Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Make it a sand-filled double feature of rad action movies.
Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve spoke to Uproxx about potentially turning Dune into a trilogy. “For now, I’ve had my share of sand and I would love to take a little break from Arrakis before going back, if ever I go back,” he said. “I will go back if there’s a strong screenplay on the table. It’s a work in progress right now. So, I have nothing to say about Dune Messiah, other than it could be interesting to finish. Totally finalize the poetry, this arc. But I will say that, for me, I tried to complete the story in the two first movies. And to see that, if it stopped there, there was a part of me that I knew I will have spent enough time in Arrakis.”
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BLUE LIPS TOUR 
– #3 
album Has HigHs tHo 
a lot of pop records “ it was my cHoice” I love OutKast and said wHy not 
I mean tHis album is extremely good and I’m still living off tHis album literally 
sum…
