Category: News

Marjorie Taylor Greene is back to mangle the English language once again. While addressing Congress and railing against a new gun control bill being proposed in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting, Greene pulled from her “peach tree dish” of garbled sayings to claim that her rights are being “fragrantly violated.”

As an apparently odiferous supporter of the Second Amendment, the die-hard MAGA congresswoman is opposed to any and all gun control laws even if they could prevent another school shooting like the one in Uvalde. As Greene not-so-eloquently put it, her gun rights are what’s most important here.

Naturally, Twitter had a field day with Greene’s latest pronunciation faux-pas. Folks went to town on her stinky grasp of how words work. You can see some of the reactions below:

As for Greene’s stance on the recent slate of gun control laws, she proudly boasted on Twitter that she’ll be voting “No” on the proposed measures and shared a video of her remarks, which notably left out the “fragrantly violated” slip-up.

You can read her full thoughts below, which are fragrant, and not in a good way.

“Well, we don’t agree on much these days here in Congress, but I know there’s one thing we all agree on. We all agree that we really like guns,” Greene told Congress. “See, we’re the special privilege elites. We’re the ones in this chamber being protected by guns while the American people don’t have men and women outside their homes. Of course, not at any gun-free school zones they’re not protected nor at work. But here in Congress, the same Congress that’s voting to send just millions and millions of dollars worth of guns to Ukraines [sic] so they can defend themselves, is the same Congress that’s working as hard as possible to take away the Second Amendment rights from Americans. You see, our job here is to protect rights like due process and the Second Amendment rights of Americans, not strip them away. Red flag gun laws violate American’s due process rights, and this is the type of thing that we shouldn’t be passing in this Congress. Especially while we enjoy the very privileged, elite, special protection of guns.”

(Via Aaron Rupar on Twitter)

Questlove’s documentary, Summer Of Soul (…Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) was one of two music documentaries that received Peabody Awards this year. In Summer Of Soul, Questlove details the events of the 1969 Harlem Cultural festival, which has gone largely overlooked in history.

“It was an honor to do this film and it’s an honor to receive this accolade,” said Quest during his acceptance speech (per Billboard), “and not just for my ego or for my personal achievement, but it was an honor to serve history.”

The award was presented to Questlove by Alicia Keys. Melissa Haizlip, who directed the PBS documentary Mr. Soul — which recounts the life of her uncle, Ellis Haizlip — also won a Peabody Award for her music documentary, and was presented with her award by Morgan Freeman. Ellis Haizlip was the creator, producer and host of the 1968-73 TV series Soul, which was known for showcasing Black music, dance, and culture.

“Whether exposing injustice, detailing uncomfortable truths, or making us laugh uncontrollably, all of the winners demonstrated how to tell a compelling story,” said Jeffrey Jones, executive director of Peabody, in a statement. “With an ongoing pandemic, political obstructionism, and senseless wars continuing to take and disrupt lives, these programs pushed past many obstacles to tell important stories that will stand the test of time. Peabody is proud to honor their incredible work.”

After taking a slight break from Hollywood over the past few years (possibly due to the Cats debacle), Rebel Wilson eagerly returned earlier this spring with her “older adult goes back to high school” comedy Senior Year. Now, it seems like Wilson is debuting something else: a new girlfriend just in time for pride month.

In a cute and only slightly corny post on Instagram, the Pitch Perfect star showed off her girlfriend Ramona Arguma, with the caption: “I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess #loveislove.” The post is complete with emojis and a Disney reference, which is cute, even if Disney has had a weird year on that front. Still!

It seems like Wilson and Arguma, who owns a clothing shop in California, have been together for quite some time–the two even attended the Oscars together earlier this year. Wilson has never publically commented on her sexuality, but she did previously date the billionaire heir to the Anheuser-Busch fortune before stating she was single last February.

In addition to starring in Netflix’s Senior Year, Wilson is set to star in her first non-comedy role in The Almond And The Seahorse, based on the play of the same name. Hopefully, this isn’t a sign that she is done singing, because we could really use some more entries in the Pitch Perfect Cinematic Universe.

Body horror, unsettling extras abruptly cut to mid-scene, hints at an alternate timeline unfolding — ‘Game 3’ of The NBA Finals did away with any semblance of the story arc continuity and character development we’ve seen thus far in the series.

A bold choice by showrunner Adam Silver, executed daringly by joint director Ime Udoka, was to entirely upend and change the setting of the action in this episode. The last two episodes took place on a relatively demure, almost bland wood piazza, encircled by a live audience that did not interfere with the action of each scene. That went out the window last night when the characters were thrust onto what appeared a gigantic approximation of a living room floor amidst a loud, crowded and overtly hostile audience.

There were many, many middle aged men loosely holding to plastic cups of half finished beer barely six minutes into the episode, how glazed their eyes were not dulling at all the ferocity sparking in them. Indeed, this was the first episode where it was revealed that the live audience is in fact a feature of the show’s setting, as vital to the energy and outcome of each scene as each Finals character. It was some of the most high-definition camera work we’ve seen so far in the show, offering up exacting, at times distressing details of the crowd — green wigs, layers and layers of lacquered green beads roped around reddening necks, so much screaming — why would Silver spend such a huge chunk of the show’s production budget on this if it were not to further the visceral experience Finals is going for?

Much like the growth of setting as a major storyline component in ‘Game 3,’ this episode brought with it continued beats on the theme of transition. We saw shifts from one end of the floor to the other, repeated so many times that the rhythm of each character running, fumbling, colliding, and running back to do it all again at the other end of the floor became hypnotic. Like previous productions in Silver’s past Finals has focused on power and control — who has it, who wants it, and all the way it changes hands over the course of a series.

Something Finals delights in is communicating the energy of a scene without any dialogue. Robert Williams III (Robert Williams III) is excellent at this, with arms that are able to hyper-extend on cue in homage to the more surrealist styles of David Lynch or even early Ridley Scott. Silver is adept at finding actors most skilled at this controlled physicality, able to blend an array of physical theater, stunts and occasional physical comedy to drive the story forward through movement instead of relying on writers. Ironically, Silver has been criticized in the past on claims that his past series’ have been too scripted, that the outcomes seem obvious and easy to determine. While that doesn’t appear to be the case with Finals, it feels even less likely given the work that Draymond Green (Draymond Green) has been doing on the show.

There were hints of the chaos Draymond Green was weaving in ‘Game 2’ but ‘Game 3’ saw even more blatant examples of a character with motivations actively running against (and sometimes physically running the wrong way) those of his organization, the Warriors.

Even when the objective of the Warriors aren’t clear, this is a group that tends to perform best when clustered together. There were times in ‘Game 3’ when Draymond Green hung well behind his co-stars, or seemed to lose all awareness of where he was within a scene. It’s unclear whether this lackadaisical shift in motivation is supposed to signal someone at the end of their rope, perhaps worn down by being the “fixer” so far in the series. We got no conclusion to this theory in ‘Game 3’ because Draymond Green vanished before the end of the episode.

Another deceptive character is Derrick White (Derrick White), who pairs his cherubic face and patently innocent expressions with the focus and intent of a demon, and Al Horford (Al Horford), who introduced body horror to the show when he unexpectedly dove and appeared to recline on Silver’s recurring series star Steph Curry’s (Steph Curry) leg. Is Al Horford turning into a late antagonist solely based on environmental circumstance, or is this going to be the slow realization of a villain awakening? Moreover, do we believe it?

Contrary to public discussions around the show that have run rampant since ‘Game 1’ debuted that the Warriors group appears too casual, hardly reacting defensively to what the Celtics group has accused them of, Andrew Wiggins (Andrew Wiggins) to many major sleights this episode. He was seen smacking the ball out of the hands of his co-stars again and again.

Beyond the Draymond Green theory, Finals has introduced easter eggs and open-ended speculation with none of it actually paying off yet. There were references in ‘Game 3’ of the Warriors reverting to a zone that’s become distorted, were those hints at an alternate reality timeline unfolding in the show? There’s also been a lot of emphasis placed on what the narrators of the show colloquially refer to as the “third quarter,” a period of time that sees the Warriors group reviving, no matter how badly things have gone for them. There’s no obvious reason for it that director Steve Kerr has made clear, but like a lot of what we’re learning in NBA Finals, explanations and rationale are not often tied to the in-scene action.

Perhaps the most bizarre example of this came when a man who appeared important to the lore of the story, sitting front row way off to the side of the action, was left hanging when he asked for a high-five from a fellow “studio audience” extra.

Overall, while the drama and stakes of ‘Game 3’ have ratcheted up, with the panicky narrators panicking even more than usual and pleading to no one in particular with disjointed lines like, “They cannot give them life by turning the basketball over” and, “They are just pounding them, with very little resistant, at the rim,” things do not seem as dire as they’ve been framed. Fundamental questions — like who is this series true villain and is existing in two realities what’s making Klay Thompson (Klay Thompson) so tired? — remain, but Silver still has at least two episodes to deliver us the answers in.

(Spoilers for Season 3 of The Boys will be found below.)

Amazon’s The Boys finished up Season 2 by seemingly putting Homelander in his place — that place being the top of a skyscraper, where he (after being told by Queen Maeve that he deserved to be abandoned by everyone) proceeded to unleash his Little Homelanders upon those who were unfortunate enough to be at ground level. Don’t expect, however, that he’s feeling downtrodden and unable to come back from that. Rather, Season 3 presents Homelander in even worse form than we’ve ever seen. His sadistic tendencies explode, prompting him to (in the season premiere) make a girl commit suicide on his birthday, and then things grow more visceral.

A few weeks into this season, Homelander unleashes his contempt upon The Deep. It’s not only pure evil in a nutshell but also passive aggressive and truly revolting and made me (as I previously related in an inarticulate manner) wish I hadn’t eaten dinner before hitting “play.” I’m referring to the scene where Homelander decides to make The Deep eat one of his still-alive ocean friends, Timothy the Octopus.

Given how horribly The Deep began this show (he forced Starlight to perform oral sex on him), it’s rather remarkable that Antony Starr’s character could make anyone feel sorry for the tan-line-sporting Aquaman parody. Chace Crawford has actually done a fantastic job of showing The Deep receive payback already (those gill scenes, for one thing), and so it’s almost heartbreaking (amid all of the revolt) to see what Homelander forced him to do. To recap, here’s how I reacted:

– The Deep… oh my god
– And Homelander, no, what a f*cking sadist
– Eeeek, don’t do that to The Deep
– I can’t keep watching this
– Holy sh*t
– You should stop watching this
– Breathe, lady, breathe
– Why did I eat dinner before this episode?
– Ew, Homelander
– EW EW EW, no no no noooo
– [Stares into space for a few minutes]
– God, I love this show

As I suspected, reactions from the audience took a similar turn.

And yes, it’s not really a surprise to see Homelander being completely reprehensible (as seen below, when he shoved his own kid off a roof), but the writers impressively continue to one-up his evil, making us all wonder what’s in store for the world next.

The Boys is currently releasing weekly Season 3 episodes on Amazon.

Spending a few hundred dollars on a bottle of rye whiskey feels a tad absurd. Yet, it’s not out of the ordinary for rye lovers with cash to burn. Expensive and rare whiskeys have been around for ages. Today, you pay a hefty price for one-of-a-kind rarities that you may never see again. And that’s exactly what Chicken Cock Cotton Club Rye Whiskey Aged 20 Years is.

Chicken Cock — which, let’s face it, is a hilarious name for anything, let alone a whiskey — has dug deep into select stocks of a Canadian distillery and found a few barrels of 20-year-old rye whiskey to build a bespoke and very rare expression around. That’s pretty much Chicken Cock’s whole vibe. They have standard releases of both rye and bourbon in their throwback 1920s apothecary bottles and then a long list of very limited and rare releases of barrels that we will never see again.

The release I’m reviewing below dropped at the very end of last year and kind of flew under the radar. Part of that is that Chicken Cock is fairly new, even though it’s a revival brand. Another part is that Canadian whiskey hasn’t caught on in the U.S. quite as much as it should have… yet. For now, it’s mostly being built into American brands — Barrell, WhistlePig, Cotton Club — and not finding its own footing outside of those labels really. That’s a shame but, hey, at least we still get to drink the tipple from Canada even if it is under a U.S. company’s branding.

Okay, enough preamble, let’s jump into what’s in this bottle.

Also Read: The Top Five Rye Whiskey from the Last Six Months on UPROXX

• All 19 Brands From The Buffalo Trace Distillery, Ranked
• The Single Best Bottle Of Whiskey From Each Of The 50 States
• The 50 Best Rye Whiskeys Of 2021, Ranked
• We Tasted Rye Whiskeys Blind To See If Any Of Them Could Beat Willett
• The 100 Best Whiskeys Our Head Drinks Writer Tasted In 2021

Chicken Cock Cotton Club Rye Whiskey Aged 20 Years

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $616

The Whiskey:

The juice in this bottle is made with a 90 percent rye and ten percent malted barley mash bill, which is a standard you see with other big-name Canadian brands (cough, cough, Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye, cough, cough). In this case, that hot juice was left to mellow in ex-bourbon barrels for 20 long years somewhere in Canada (cough, cough, Manitoba, cough, cough). The barrels are then vatted and proofed down to 100 proof before bottling.

Tasting Notes:

Green and wet grass mingle with a stack of pine firewood on the nose as a pink bubble gum sweetness leads to a vanilla-heavy cream soda with a whiff of Orange Julius. The palate leans into the orange with a zesty vibe as a lemon meringue pie tartness and creaminess kicks in next to dried ginger, floral honey, and a sweet pine resin. The mid-palate really leans into the honey while adding in candied orange peels with a hint of allspice and anise leading toward a dry white pepper and old cinnamon sticks soaked in tart apple cider before a final rush of old cellar beams and dry black soil round out the end.

The Bottle:

Chicken Cock chose a throwback bottle design with a slightly lifted glass ridging in a large flask, reminiscent of an old medicine bottle. The bottle comes in a tin box, which is a nod to the old Cotton Club in Harlem in the 1920s where Chicken Cock whiskey was widely drunk savored out of tin cans (due to smuggling practices during Prohibition).

Then there’s the label which is pretty minimalist all things considered. The most important information is listed and there’s an old-school “cock” crowing away. That’s it. It’s simple but distinct.

Is It Worth The Price?

This is a very even-keeled sip of whiskey. It’s deeply layered, takes you on a journey (from bright sweetness and fresh grass to moldy cellars), and has a good balance of sweet, sharp, and lush.

But $500 to $600 (depending on where you find the bottle) is a big ask. I’m going to drink mine on special occasions because I had to open it. Otherwise, this might be more of an investment bottle than a sipping one.

That said, this is worth tasting at a high-end whiskey bar or tasting if you do come across it. It’s a totally different rye than the standard 95/5 American ryes that have dominated the conversation over the last decade with their “spicy” nature. This feels subtler than those and leaves you with a bit of a warming yet familiar feeling of comfort. It’s a nice feeling.

PlayStation unveiled a number of interesting games at its most recent State of Play. Not among those games has been a long-rumored remake of The Last of Us. Considering The Last of Us is one of PlayStation’s biggest IPs, we’d expect that to be the kind of game that begins or ends a showcase like State of Play.

Whatever plans they had to unveil the remake were spoiled by PlayStation when the PlayStation Direct website leaked the trailer for the game. The trailer showcases a gorgeous looking world on PlayStation 5 hardware, a release date, and tells players that a PC port is also in development. All of this would have been really exciting during a State of Play like event, but that doesn’t make any of this less cool to know about.

Is it funny that PlayStation accidentally leaked its own announcement? Yes. Does that make the announcement of a remake for The Last of Us any less exciting? Absolutely not. It was one of the best games on PlayStation 3, had a really awesome HD remake on the PlayStation 5, and the opportunity to play it on current generation hardware is intriguing. Personally, I’m excited to see how they can make an already beautiful looking game look even better. A few comparison screenshots have been making the rounds on Twitter and it reminds us how great the first game looked.

We’ll get a chance to experience the entire remake once it releases in September.

They Might Be Giants had just began the long-awaited 30th anniversary tour of their classic album Flood last night at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom. The Brooklyn geek rock band already had to postpone most of the tour that had began in early 2020, but, well… you know this pandemic story by now. At any rate, following last night’s show, lead singer/guitarist John Flansbaugh was involved in a “serious” car accident on his way home and the band is postponing their shows through June and more.

“The initial report is that he has seven broken ribs, several of which have multiple fractures,” read a statement from John Linnell, who co-founded the band with Flansbaugh, sings and plays accordion in TMBG. “The good news is that no vital organs were involved and the long-time prognosis is positive. Of course, there will be a lengthy recovery process.”

It’s a tragic roadblock for They Might be Giants, who were looking forward to finally touring the country playing their breakthrough 1990 album. But it’s going to have to wait a while once again as Flansbaugh recovers.

“Sadly, we are going to have to postpone the rest of June dates once more,” Linnell’s statement continued. “For now, we are hopeful that the late summer dates beginning August 30th will be able to continue as planned.”

LeBron James is still playing basketball at a remarkably high level for someone who is 37 years old. While the Los Angeles Lakers missed the playoffs this past season, James averaged 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game, and when he hasn’t dealt with injuries or illness in recent years has still looked like one of the best players in the world.

Still, Father Time is undefeated and James is getting closer and closer to losing that battle. He doesn’t have to start thinking about what he’ll do after his NBA career — in large part because he is already involved in numerous off-court things that should make his transition into his post-playing days more natural — but on an upcoming episode of The Shop, James once again went into a particular thing he wants to pursue: owning an NBA team.

“I wanna own a team,” James said. “Yeah, I wanna buy a team for sure.”

This isn’t a big surprise, because James is already involved in sports ownership through his stake in Fenway Sports Group and has said a few times in the past that this is one of his goals. But this clip is unique because James brought up the city where he wants to become an owner.

“I want a team in Vegas,” James said. “I want the team in Vegas.”

Las Vegas — which the league heads to every year for its Summer League — has been mentioned as a potential landing spot for an NBA team in the past, and in recent years, teams in the NHL, NFL, and WNBA have started to call the city home.

Soccer Mommy’s singles from her forthcoming album Sometimes, Forever have been spectral. “Shotgun” was brooding with a catchy melody; “Unholy Affliction” was similarly detached but even more experimental; “Bones” felt like a return to her vulnerable, sparse sound from Clean.

“Newdemo,” the newest single, is out today. Like “Bones,” it sticks to the basics for the most part, with Sophie Allison playing an acoustic guitar and singing softly and earnestly, her words resembling poetry: “Sometimes I dream there’s a gate to a garden / That only the earth could break through / But what is a dream but a light in the darkness / A lie that you wish would come true.”

There’s some distortion and synths that lift the song into a different dimension, imbuing it with an ethereal atmosphere. It’s not necessarily dark or eerie like “Shotgun” or “Unholy Affliction”; it’s just supernatural.

“I didn’t want to make something super depressing without any sense of magic,” Allison said in a statement. “We played around with the space to make the song feel vast, so ‘Newdemo’ had a huge transformation in the studio. It’s one of my favorites off of the record.”

Listen to “Newdemo” above.

Sometimes, Forever is out 6/24 via Loma Vista. Pre-save it here.