Eleven years ago, the first volume of Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows, saw artists like Justin Vernon, The Avett Brothers, and Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band honoring the legacy of the great John Prine when he was still with us. Now, Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, Vo. 2 has arrived and it honors Prine in the afterlife following his death in April 2020.
The album features covers by Brandi Carlile, Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, and Jason Isbell’s gorgeous cover of “Souvenirs.” Wherein Prine’s 1972 original was a hushed countryside yarn that highlighted Prine’s magnificent acoustic guitar, Isbell’s version feels like music tailor-made for a lonely renegade drive up the interstate. An organ is prominent and Isbell’s solo guitar musings shine bright, showing what drew Prine to Isbell’s music when he was alive. Check out the full tracklist for the tribute album below.
Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, Vol. 2 Track List
1. “I Remember Everything” performed by Brandi Carlile
2. “Pretty Good” performed by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
3. “Saddle in the Rain” performed by Amanda Shires
4. “Yes I Guess They Oughta Name A Drink After You” performed by Tyler Childers
5. “Sweet Revenge” performed by Margo Price
6. “Summer’s End” performed by Valerie June
7. “Souvenirs” performed by Jason Isbell
8. “Angel From Montgomery” performed by Bonnie Raitt
Heeyyyyy, everyone! It’s time to share our weekly collection of Hopeful Happy Things, which has frankly become a bit therapeutic for me to pull together. It’s far too easy to let the Terrible Trending Things suck up all of our attention, so purposefully focusing on joy and delight feels quite healing.
Check out these 10 things and see if you agree.
Bear cubs find a hammock and create delightful chaos.
FLIPPING OUT: These curious cubs are still trying to figure out how to use a hammock. https://t.co/Dy5LGjBIVF https://t.co/pD2fjcAj6F
How frigging cute are these cubs? Every kid who tries to get into a hammock for the first time understands. Hang in there, cubbies. Hammocks are hard, even for humans.
This beatbox champion’s stylings—the beatboxing AND the hair—are too epic.
Daniel is profoundly autistic and his parents said that he had never expressed a desire for friends before. They weren’t even sure if he fully grasped the idea of friendship. His dad shared his birthday wish on Twitter, and birthday greetings poured in from unexpected places. Read this beautiful story here.
We all need this reminder of how powerful and life-changing teachers can be.
“My teacher said I’m an artist!” and that’s all it took for this kid to proudly display his artwork. Teachers are superheroes with incredible powers.
Surprise veteran homecomings never get old. This one is just pure joy.
If that doesn’t make you smile (and then maybe cry a little), then I don’t even know. Splash some cold water on your face or something and make sure your heart is pumping.
Seriously cannot get enough of Abby, the donut thief superhero.
This isn’t new, but I’d never seen a compilation of this cutie’s verbal gems before. Too hilarious. I did a little digging and found out the family has a TikTok channel (@alongcameabby), so excuse me while I go bingewatch a precocious preschooler for hours.
Hope that lifted your spirit! Keep an eye out next Friday for another round-up of happiness. 🙂
Erin Porterfield and Kristin Williams are fighting to have themselves named as the legal parents of their two children after the state of Nebraska has repeatedly refused.
The couple broke up in 2013 after both gave birth to one child while they were together. Porterfield gave birth to their first son, Kadin, 19 years ago. Three years later, Williams gave birth to their second child, Cameron.
Same-sex couples couldn’t legally marry in Nebraska when the children were born so both of them only had their biological mothers listed on their birth certificates. After repeated attempts to add an additional parent to their certificates, the state has refused unless they get married.
Currently, each parent has been granted temporary in loco parentis (or “in place of parent”) rights over the other’s biological child, but they do not have full parental rights.
Williams and Porterfield filed a lawsuit against the state of Nebraska on Monday claiming that the state’s decision violated their constitutional rights by discriminating against them for being women.
Lesbian moms sue after state refuses to list them on their kids’ birth certificates. https://t.co/W2TWIDzOY9
The w… https://t.co/gPShePFjXW
“If you had a man and a woman in this exact same scenario, not together anymore, never married, do not want to get married, so we don’t have adoption available to them, all the man needs to do is go and sign an acknowledgment of paternity and he gets put onto the birth certificate and it is a legal order then that he is a parent,” Angela Dunne, a managing partner at the plaintiffs’ legal firm, told WOWT. “Erin and Kristin can’t do that because they’re women.”
“We were never able to marry because by the time the supreme court had awarded that right to gay people, we had split as a couple,” Williams said. “We continued to care for both of our children as any couple would with shared custody.”
The lawsuit also petitions the state to allow anyone, regardless of gender, to be able to provide voluntary acknowledgment of paternity rights.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services says that the parents’ request falls outside of the power granted to the state’s executive branch. The DHHS said in a letter that “at this time, the only routes to legal parentage under Nebraska law are through marital presumption, adoption, or biological relationship.”
The state’s governor, Republican Pete Ricketts agrees with the DHHS. However, he misstated the facts of the case in a statement to KETV.
“The couple had the opportunity to get married and chose not to,” Rickets incorrectly told KETV. “So, we looked at how Nebraska law reads and we applied Nebraska law.”
No, the couple didn’t have the chance to get married because they broke up two years before it was legal in Nebraska.
It’s ridiculous that the state’s governor is pushing back against the couple’s request because it’s legal for same-sex couples to get married and adopt in Nebraska. It’s also legal for a man to put his name on the birth certificate of a child, regardless of his relationship to the other parent.
All Williams and Porterfield want is the security of knowing their children are cared for in case of an emergency and that they have the rights of inheritance that any children of a straight couple would enjoy.
But unfortunately, they are forced to fight a battle that should have been settled long ago.
“Our sons are our entire world and we want to make sure we’re doing right by them,” Porterfield said in a statement released by the ACLU. “Our boys have a right to the security of having both parents on their birth certificates, a required document in so many life changes and decisions. That’s why this matters to us. It’s about looking out for our sons.”
The end is nigh for television’s most famous show all about, well, nigh endings. Earlier today, AMC released a new trailer teasing the return of The Walking Dead‘s eleventh and final season following the first of its two midseason finales on Sunday, October 10. Based on the grim trailer, it looks like we can expect to reunite with our heroes as they begin the fight for their lives against both the Reapers and the sickeningly sweet yet undoubtedly sinister Commonwealth on February 20, 2022. This second portion of the show’s 11th season will feature eight additional episodes, with the series’ final eight to come later next year.
While the show’s 11th season has gotten off to a fairly quiet start with fairly mixed reviews, it seems like the current uptick in drama will ultimately end in a cliffhanger of some variety with October 10’s midseason finale somewhat forbiddingly titled “For Blood.” It then seems the show will pivot to finally bringing all its (still living) major players together in what will surely make the whole series every bit as tense as each of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Maggie’s (Lauren Cohan) scenes with one another. So like, wildly tense.
While it’s still hard to believe everything is coming to an end, all you Walking Dead fans out there can rest assured knowing that while the main series might be at long last coming to a close there’s still plenty of Walking Dead spin-offs in the works. For one thing, we still have an entire movie following Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes’ adventures after he departed the series back in 2018 on the way. There’s also the show’s prequel series, Fear the Walking Dead, which is debuting its seventh season on October 17, and the teen series Walking Dead: World Beyond, which is currently airing its second season. Last but not least, we’ve got at least one additional spin-off coming in the shape of a series’ following fan favorites Daryl and Carol, and it definitely wouldn’t surprise us if even more are announced following the show’s finale.
The Walking Dead‘s eighth episode and midseason finale airs Sunday, October 10, and will then be followed by a lengthy break until the series’ returns on February 20, 2022.
The latest video from Meek Mill’s new album Expensive Pain is “Angels (RIP Lil Snupe),” a heartfelt ode to the Philadelphia rapper whose career Meek Mill was helping to shepherd when he was shot and killed in June of 2013. Over a moody beat produced by Dougie, Meek reminisces on his lost friend and expresses his regrets. “When Snupe died, I was high, sh*t, I ain’t get to feel it,” he admits. Later he feels the paranoia from losing friends to the streets: “I can’t trust nobody, I can’t even invite nobody over.”
Meek’s album, which he released last week, to a warm reception from fans including Drake. The album, which featured appearances from A$AP Ferg, Brent Faiyaz, Giggs, Kehlani, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Lil Uzi Vert, Moneybagg Yo, Vory, and Young Thug, was preceded by the videos for “Blue Notes 2” and “Sharing Locations” and accompanied by videos for the album’s “Intro” and “On My Soul.” Earlier this week, Meek also dropped the video for the title track.
Watch Meek Mill’s “Angels (RIP Lil Snupe)” video above.
Expensive Pain is out now via Atlantic Records and Maybach Music Group. You can stream it here.
Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
A new report from the Wall Street Journal could lead to Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden finding himself in hot water. Back in 2011, when the NFL was in the midst of a lockout, Gruden, then an analyst for ESPN, used a racist trope to describe NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, who is Black.
“Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin tires,” Gruden wrote in the email.
After saying he is “really sorry” the Journal, Gruden said that frustration with Smith over the direction he believed he was doing a poor job as the head of the players association amid the lockout.
Gruden said he had been angry at the time because of the lockout and didn’t trust the direction the players, led by Smith, were going in the negotiations. He said he has in the past referred to people he believes to be lying as “rubber lips” and that he took it “too far.”
“I was upset,” Gruden said. “I used a horrible way of explaining it.”
The NFL, which is reportedly weighing discipline for Gruden, condemned the email, calling it “appalling, abhorrent and wholly contrary to the NFL’s values.” Smith issued up a response, saying that it’s “not the first racist comment that I’ve heard and that it probably will not be the last,” before saying that working in corporate America as a Black man requires “thick skin.”
“Racism like this comes from the fact that I’m at the same table as they are and they don’t think someone who looks like me belongs,” Smith said. “I’m sorry my family has to see something like this but I would rather they know. I will not let it define me.”
Gruden’s email was sent to former NFL executive Bruce Allen, who at the time served as the general manager of Washington. Smith’s contract is currently up with the players association, and he could see his tenure come to an end as early as Friday based on the results of a vote by all 32 team player representatives.
When it comes to fall drinking, “darker,” “richer,” and more “robust” are the keywords we look for. This is true in whiskey, where we enjoy sipping higher proof Scotches, cask strength bourbons, and spicy ryes. But it’s equally true when it comes to our craft beer-drinking habits.
In most areas of the country, there’s a slight chill in the air as venture deeper into October, marking the time to set aside our summery IPAs, pale ales, pilsners, and wheat beers in place of darker beers. Specifically — for our purposes today — darker, malty lagers.
You’ll find eight of our favorite fall lagers listed below. Some are black lagers, some are Vienna lagers, and others just carry a strong malt backbone. All are well-suited for fall drinking. Click the price if you want to buy some for yourself.
This no-nonsense, straight forward fall seasonal lager is amber-colored and loaded with Vienna malts and Styrian Golding hops. It’s no-frills, slightly sweet, and known for its malty, caramel flavor well-suited for chilly fall nights.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find highlight aromas of caramel and bready malts and slightly floral hops. The palate is filled with toasty, caramel malts, freshly baked bread, wet grass, and a nice herbal, slightly spicy hit of hops to round everything out nicely.
Bottom Line:
This is an exceptional, simple Vienna lager. It’s loaded with caramel and bready flavors that pair perfectly with slightly bitter, floral hops.
This 4.8% ABV dark lager from Asheville’s Burial Brewing is the warming, in-your-face lager you’ve been waiting for. It’s almost as dark as a stout but loaded with toasted oak, caramel malt, and bready flavors that will remind you that it’s still autumn.
Tasting Notes:
Complex notes of toasty malts, fresh-baked bread, slightly bitter coffee, and floral hops greet you on the nose. Sipping it brings forth hints of floral hops, oatmeal, caramel malts, fresh brew coffee, sticky toffee, and a nice, dry, sweet finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a very complex, dark lager that bridges the gap between lager and stout well. It’s loaded with roasted malt flavor as well as slightly bitter hops. It just works.
Eliot Ness was a well-known prohibition agent who is widely regarded as the man who brought mobster Al Capone to justice. In his honor, Great Lakes brews this year-round amber lager. It’s 6.1% ABV, malty, rich, and an all-around great fall lager.
Tasting Notes:
Aromas of caramel malts, toasted wood, dried fruits, and a gentle, nutty sweetness are prevalent. On the palate, you’ll find hints of toffee, roasted malt, tree nuts, and just a hint of spicy, floral hops. The finish is dry and slightly sweet.
Bottom Line:
There’s a reason this is one of Great Lakes Brewing’s most highly regarded beers. It’s a great example of the Vienna lager style and one that you’ll want to drink all year long. Not just in the fall.
New Belgium 1554 is truly a unique beer. It’s dark in color, but it doesn’t fall under any of the conventional styles. Instead, it’s a zwert. You can be forgiven if you’ve never heard of this style — it’s a mostly forgotten beer style that uses gruit (a mixture of herbs) for bittering. This dark lager is also brewed with Pale, Carapils, Black, Munich, and Chocolate malts as well as lager yeast and Nugget hops.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is filled with scents of biscuit-like malts, caramel corn, rye bread, and slightly spicy, floral hops. Taking a sip brings the drinker into a world of Noble hops, coffee beans, caramel malts, as well as toasty, fruity, slightly hoppy flavors.
Bottom Line:
This surprisingly well-balanced beer might be surprisingly dark in color, but it’s filled with bready, malty, sweet flavors that pair well with the slight hop presence.
During the early fall, many Jack’s Abby fans turn their attention to its Oktoberfest-style beer Copper Legend. But as the days grow colder and shorter, Smoke & Dagger is much more appropriate. This 5.6% black lager is known for its slightly smoky, rich, malty flavors.
Tasting Notes:
Scents of dark chocolate, freshly brewed coffee, caramel malts, and slight smoke greet your nose before the first sip. When you take a sip, you’ll be greeted with notes of roasted malts, more dark chocolate, espresso beans, and a nice, gentle kick of smoke at the finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a truly complex, well-balanced beer. If you enjoy a darker beer with hints of chocolate, coffee, caramel, and just a kiss of smoke, this is the fall beer for you.
pFriem is a big name in the craft beer world. While you can’t go wrong with any of this Oregon-based brewery’s offerings, we suggest its Export Lager for your fall drinking pleasure. This 5.7% lager is brewed with Pilsner and Weyermann CaraHell malts as well as Perle, Saaz, and Tettnanger hops and lager yeast.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a complex mix of grassy, herbal, floral hops and caramel, bready, biscuit-like malts. The palate is more of the same with some dry hay, floral hops, sweet toffee, bread-like malts that are all rounded together with a subtle, dry, sweet finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a great beer to slowly work your way into fall. Even if the temperatures haven’t dipped yet, the floral hop presence will refresh you. If it is a chillier day, the malt presence will warm you.
Novice beer drinkers probably believe Ballast Point begins and ends with its iconic Sculpin IPA. But the San Diego-based brewery has a lot more up its sleeve. Its Longfin Lager is a great, malty respite from its bitter, floral summery IPA.
Tasting Notes:
This sessionable lager begins with aromas of bready malts, Noble hops, and nice nutty, fruity scents. The palate dances with notes of caramel malts, freshly-based bread, toffee, and floral, slightly spicy hops. It’s light, refreshing, and malty.
Bottom Line:
The lightest beer on this list, Ballast Point Longfin Lager might be the perfect gateway beer between summer and fall. It’s still light and refreshing but has enough malt presence to hold up well on a crisp fall day.
This 5.3% Vienna Lager tastes like fall in a can (especially if you don’t like pumpkin spice). It’s surprisingly light with a ton of malt presence that makes it an ideal beer from the warmer early fall days to the chilly, often bitterly cold days to come.
Tasting Notes:
This amber-hued beer begins with a nose of toasted, caramel, bready malts as well as lightly bitter, herbal hops. Sipping it reveals more toffee, caramel, biscuity malts that ease into dry hay and herbal hops. It all ends in a malty, sweet, caramel finish.
Bottom Line:
This beer is crisp and filled with bread-like caramel malts and light hops. It’s well suited for early fall drinking on a back porch or deck.
As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.
Iron Maiden is one of the most recognizable and successful heavy metal bands of all time. Since 1975, they’ve sold over 100 million albums worldwide that are always presented with visuals that are straight out of an elaborate sci-fi novel cover. You’d think that by now, their role within pop culture would not be understood as the antiquated notion of some satanic cult, but rather of purveyors of upper-echelon heavy metal, rock and roll, and A LOT of headbanging.
But not to Debbi Lynn, a #concernedparent at Eden High School in St. Catharines, Ontario. Lynn started a petition on Change.org to remove Principal Sharon Burns from her post because she objected to photos on her Instagram page where Mrs. Burns (no relation) had donned full Iron Maiden swag. At press time, this petition had 343 signatures.
Students at the high school were quick to support a principal who is entitled to enjoy Iron Maiden as she pleases and filed a counter-petition (with over 5,500 signatures already) to keep Mrs. Burns around. The students’ petition makes it clear that not only is Eden not a religious school, but that Mrs. Burns has in fact been open-hearted to all denominations.
“She has made eden a safe space for so many people. She spreads nothing but love and kindness, and is probably one of the best and most enthusiastic principals the school has ever had.”
In response, Lynn added a note to her petition indicating that she doesn’t want Burns transferred because she loves Iron Maiden, but because there’s a “SATANIC SYMBOL” (caps are hers, not mine) in one of her photos, in the forms of a “666” inside of a heart with an arrow through it. It seems as though the parents who have called for Mrs. Burns’ transfer are unaware that the “666” is a reference to the Iron Maiden song, “The Number Of The Beast”; one of the band’s most recognizable tracks and arguably singer Bruce Dickinson’s finest moment with the band. Perhaps if Lynn had heard Dickinson’s damn near impossible yowl at the song’s onset, then maybe she too would understand why Mrs. Burns is such a fan?
If there’s one thing the whole food world both adores and adores arguing over, it’s pizza. Let’s face it, we all grew up with our local joints, pizza houses that hold a special place in our souls. So special, in fact that we’ll easily get heated when arguing about what makes the “best” pizza and which toppings “belong” on your pie.
George Kalivas — a music marketer from Windsor, Ontario — has plenty of strong pizza takes of his own. So much so, in fact, that he made a whole dang documentary film about how his hometown pies are, indeed, the freakin’ best. Sure, he’s 100% aware of how nostalgia and “delusions,” as he calls them, frame the way we talk about our favorite slices of pizza. But he still wants to make a strong case that Windsor’s pies have every right to step into the limelight.
The nostalgia-vs-legit-culinary-cred dichotomy is one that Kalivas and director Tristan Laughton — Toronto-based digital artist and director — hit on with endearing charm in their film, The Pizza City You’ve Never Heard Of. That title itself is very apt. I consider myself a pizza aficionado. I’ve eaten the stuff from the jungles of the Congo to the streets of Sao Paolo to the rooftops of Rome. And it’s true, I’ve never heard of Windsor-style pizza — even though it’s a mere stone’s throw from Detroit. So I was stoked to jump on a call with Kalivas to talk about his hometown pies and what makes them special. We also took turns breaking down some of our favorite spots to eat pizza around the world.
Let’s dive right in. I’ve never heard of Windsor pizza even though I love Detroit pizza, which is from right north of Windsor, Canada. Tell me: what is Windsor Pizza?
So Windsor-style pizza is something that’s been around for 70-plus years. It all started with a place called Volcano Pizzeria. They’re the originators of our unique flavor profile and style.
First and foremost, you mentioned Detroit. If you’re from Windsor, you have a lot of friends and family in Detroit. A lot of people feel like they live in both places sometimes. So when my friends from Detroit come over, the first thing they say is our dough is right in the middle between thick and thin. It’s not as thin as a Chicago tavern-style pizza or as thin as a New York slice, but it’s not as thick as a Sicilian or grandma slice. It’s right in the middle.
The one thing that we love to do in Windsor is we use heavy cornmeal when making the crust. So you can find cornmeal in places like Chicago with the tavern-style, we go a little bit extra with the cornmeal and flour mix. And it just has this consistency that’s unique to our city. The thickness is like, I don’t even know how to explain it, man. It’s like nowhere else I’ve seen.
Gotcha.
The next thing that people always bring up when it comes to Windsor-style pizza is the sauce. Our sauce is sweet and spicy. We don’t have that middle-of-the-road, mild taste. It’s pretty distinct. It’s pretty sweet, but it also has a little bit of bite to it. In Windsor, every place follows that same recipe that started at Volcano. They might have tinkered with it over the past 70-plus years, but for the most part, they’re using that same sauce.
The third thing is the high-fat mozzarella we use. We use a local cheese from Galati Cheese Company, it can only be found in Windsor and around Southwestern Ontario. When I say high fat, man, I’m talking high fat. And that cheese is something that… if they don’t use that cheese at a pizza place in Windsor, Windsorites can pick it out right away and they won’t be back.
Over the past years, pizzerias have tried to use other cheese for maybe some cost-saving issues or whatever it may be. That’s probably lasted three to four weeks until they got complaints and had to go back to Galati. It’s just the taste that we’re fucking crazy for, man. People think I’m a representative of that company like it’s my uncle or something. I don’t know them. I met them when we did the doc. It’s just that they make a product that we absolutely love.
Crust, sauce, cheese… All crucial. What else makes this pizza so “Windsor”?
The next thing is the way we do our toppings. So first and foremost, the most beloved way to eat a Windsor-style pizza is called the “Large Super.” The Super is shredded pepperoni, canned mushrooms, green peppers, and bacon. So we’re the only place on the globe — as far as I know — that shreds their pepperoni. We do not serve grease cups on our pizza. You don’t have to take a paper towel and dab it before you eat it.
Man, canned mushrooms?
We love canned mushrooms. We don’t eat fresh mushrooms. Everybody is obsessed with canned mushrooms, man. And why do we do this? It all started with Volcano in 1958. These guys did it that way and it’s just what we’ve become accustomed to, you know what I mean?
So one thing that’s crazy about Windsor that a lot of people don’t know, we’re a small city of fewer than 300,000 people. We border Detroit. We have a very unique relationship with Detroit. We have Detroit radio, Detroit TV. A lot of us don’t have Canadian accents. We don’t really say “eh” at the end of everything. We’re a unique type of Canadian. Yet, we have the most pizzerias per capita in all of Canada, a city of less than 300,000.
Some of these places have over a dozen 12 locations in the same city. Some may have only five, but I assure you that they all are booming. They’re all thriving and they’re all in the exact same city. Windsorites won’t eat anything else.
The doc is about us having incredible pizza. I’m truly confident that we have some of the best pizza in the world, but at the same time, we really wanted to highlight the culture around it. There’s a real culture. There’s a real family tree that stems over 70 years. When you ask a Windsorite what’s the best pizza place and if there’s another Windsorite standing next to them, you’re going to get two answers, and then you’re going to get a 30 minute back and forth that gets heated.
There’s a lot of fun to it, but that’s basically what we are.
So let’s dive into that nuance a bit. I grew up in a small town with two pizzerias and I felt like half the town went to one, the other half of the town went to the other joint. Looking back, they’re not that different. What makes Volcano’s different than say the next big chain and what do people nitpick from each?
If you were to visit Windsor and go to all these places, I bet you that you would say they’re all alike, they’re all the same.
LRG Super
Or at least very similar, right?
Right. And they’re all similar because they’re truly following the recipe that Volcano started back in the day. So the one thing is for someone who knows pizza as well as you do, you do realize that we actually do have our style. Just for some reason, those four or five things that I mentioned make this unique flavor profile that we’ve had for years.
The second thing is I brought up a little bit of delusion. It all has to do with where you were born and raised. Where did your mom and dad order pizza from? And before we started this documentary, we polled over 400 people in Windsor to give us their top three. That process was a lot more difficult to narrow down who we were going to feature than we anticipated. The reason why we asked for three from every single person was that you grow up in a certain neighborhood, you live and die by your neighborhood pizza place. But then you grow up and you move, you might move to the other side of town. You get a job, you do whatever, and then you get your second place. But there are people that won’t even admit to their fathers that they order from the next place, you know what I mean?
I model it kind of like sports. If you’re from a sports town, it’s that type of vibe, and it has a lot to do with nostalgia, where you were raised, and who raised you. It becomes something that you’re proud of.
That makes total sense. You see the same thing everywhere, especially around food. I dig that you’re showing people who are actually making this pizza while also showing people who are making ingredients for the pizza.
Let’s look at the bigger picture here. When you see Detroit-style pizza blowing up. There’s Detroit-style in Berlin, London, Tokyo, Austin, Pizza Hut. It’s f*cking everywhere. Is there a little bit of you that’s jealous because, where’s the love for Windsor-style pizza? And did that drive you to make this doc?
I’ll tell you exactly why I did this man. So when I was 18, I moved to New York City for school. I was quickly introduced to Di Fara, John’s of Bleeker, things like that and I became not only obsessed with their pizza but obsessed with the culture. My friends who I made when I was there introduced me to this mom-and-pop way of living. We were eating at TGI Fridays and places like that when I was 18. When I got there, they told me, “We don’t eat that shit here. What do you want? You want ribs? You want a burger? You want pizza? I’ll show you where to go.” That’s when we did this neighborhood-style thing. And that basically changed my life for the better.
Up until now, 35 years old, I’ve gone all over and I’ve always been super curious to find out about different regional things. What are they popular for? What’s the thing you need to try when you go into that city? And I’ve seen a lot of places. Originally, I always thought nothing’s going to be on TV unless it’s a big market from Chicago, LA, New York, places like that. You’re probably not going to see it. But over the past five or so years, I’ve seen a lot of smaller market cities get a lot of love in Bon Appétit or Eater or someplace like that. Not to mention that we have a real food culture and there’s a history behind it.
And it started to fucking bother me, man. The name Windsor has never been seen anywhere in any of these places, large or small. And if you’re not from the Midwest, you probably have never even heard of the city, because as you see from the doc, we don’t really have like these blazing superstars that we’re exporting out of our city in different fields. We’re very low-key. We don’t really self-promote. We’re not that good at that. And I just felt like my hometown deserved to get a little bit of shine because I feel like we’re doing something at a level that would surprise most.
LRG Super
The passion comes through in the film, but also I kind of feel like the reason we know about these places is that they have champions that tell the world about it. And it’s obviously a good pizza and it’s very Midwest inspired in its heartiness.
We’re confident. We’re so confident about the product and trust me, man, I’ve met a lot of reluctant people during the making of this. I’ve been arguing about this for years. This just didn’t start last year for me. Since I was 18, I’ve been having conversations with a lot of people. Doesn’t matter the city I’m in, you get a fucking earful from me when you talk about pizza. And I’ve made a point to, whether it’s musicians that are performing in Detroit or Cleveland or whatever, that I have a relationship just to prove it to them. I brought a lot of people to my hometown. Everybody’s surprised. They’re like, “How is this possible?” They never would’ve thought that they would like our pizza as much as they did.
And it’s true, man. It takes a champion. It takes somebody to force gatekeepers to look in that direction. I know about Old Forge, Pennsylvania’s pizza. How the hell do I know about that?!? I don’t know anybody from there, but I’ve seen it. In two, three years, I’ve seen people cover that area.
Hell, I’ve covered it thanks to having spent so many years in the Maryland/Virginia area.
I think you kind of understand what I’m saying. I’m just trying to do whatever I can and to turn this into further coverage of the region. If I end up seeing it on a bigger documentary or a bigger TV show or whatever after this, then it’s a job well done.
Let’s say I’m in Detroit for work and I’m going to pop over the bridge. Which three spots should I be hitting from breakfast, lunch, and dinner pizza?
A lot of people have asked me this question and I’m scared. I’m scared to say it because I have such beautiful community support as of today. The city is rallying behind me.
Okay, let me say this. First and foremost, I grew up in a neighborhood called Fontainebleau. Sounds a lot nicer than it probably is. There’s a place there called Windsor Pizza, not the most unique name. I grew up on that pizza. So some might call me biased in Windsor. That’s my absolute favorite place because it’s what I know.
I’m going to say the director of the film — who was introduced to Windsor Pizza for the first time over those seven weekends that we were there — is probably going to say Amloze. That joint has only been around for ten years and ten years in Windsor is nothing in the pizza game. This guy came out of nowhere and reached back to the people of the neighborhood to find out exactly what they wanted. They guide him and he’s making some of the most incredible pizza Windsor’s ever seen. So I’ll say Amloze.
A third one I’ll throw out there is, let me say Antonino’s. But, man, they’re all great. Every place is f*cking awesome. We’re going to have people in this city who’s going to argue with the six places that we profiled in doc, you know what I mean? But I’ll throw Antonino’s as a third. Go see my guy, Gill.
LRG Super
So let’s make it a little bit lighter here. One place. What’s your favorite place to eat pizza in the U.S.?
Honestly, man, doesn’t matter if it’s the regular slice or the square. I love both. I don’t think I’ve been back to New York since I graduated from school and have not gone there. I make time every time.
Let’s expand it out a bit. Where do you hit in Europe?
If I’m going to bring up Europe, I’m just going to say Naples right off the bat. So where I live right now in Toronto, there’s a diehard obsession with Neapolitan style here. 90 percent of the places, that’s what they’re making. Woodfire, all that. And I don’t want to say I’m sick of it because I could fold a margherita and eat it like a taco. I love it as much as everybody else, but I feel like that’s all we eat here.
So what place are you hitting in Naples?
It’s L’antica da Michele. I thought the pizza was unbelievable. It was as good as everybody said it was, but standing outside of that spot and eating that pizza was like … I almost started crying. This is the vibe I’m looking for, you know what I mean? I was there with my wife. It was unreal. I don’t know. You can’t recreate that. You can try your best and design something to make it look like the outside of that and stuff like that. But that was truthfully an incredible experience eating outside of there just posted up on a little circular table.
There’s nothing quite like it. There’s this little spot in Palmero, Sicily that I love too. It’s called Pizzeria Frida and they do a quadri pizza there where they fold over the edges to make it a square. So the crust becomes like a stuffed crust. And, man, it’s just perfection. Plus, it’s Sicily so you know it’s the most ridiculous, bright, fresh ingredients on top.
So I stayed a couple of nights in Palermo. There’s a little beach town in the northwest of Sicily and the pizza was incredible there. I mean, obviously, the pistachio and the pasta and stuff like that was next level. The seafood was next level, but they had better pizza than I thought they were going to have.
It’s also crazy how small some of those shops in Italy are. They’re often hole-in-the-walls with two siblings working the dough, oven, and service. It’s…
It’s magic.
If you have a fridge for dough, a marble counter, and a good oven. You don’t need much space. Then after that, it’s, I hate this because it’s cliche, it’s just love. Love for the game.
Love and experience man, you know what I mean? These pizzaiolos, they were watching other people do it for their whole lives and that’s how they learned. It’s a different touch, man. It’s a different touch than learning from, like, a YouTube tutorial. And that’s why I fucking love it all, man.
When Janae was a young child, her grandparents gifted her a snow globe. She was mesmerized by it, which caught her family’s attention as it was one of the first “toys” she had ever really played with.
Janae has a rare genetic disorder called Williams Syndrome, which causes a host of developmental and physiological challenges, including learning delays and issues with various organs. At 15 years old, Janae has already been through two open-heart surgeries and countless other medical procedures.
Many kids with Williams Syndrome don’t play with toys, preferring to engage with people rather than things. In fact, extreme friendliness and abundant love for everyone they meet are unique features of people with Williams, which is part of why Janae’s aunt, Stefanny Avera, describes her as having “a heart of gold.”
“It is by far her ‘special ability,’ although medically it is classified as a disability,” says Avera.
When Janae showed a keen interest in snow globes, her family started collecting them in their travels to give to her. She kept the collection on a special shelf in her bedroom.
But one night in January, Janae awoke to a terrible crashing sound. Her snow globe shelf had fallen off the wall, shattering her collection and devastating Janae.
“I was on the phone at the time with her mom and I heard her just bawling,” says Avera. “She was so worried that everyone would be upset that they broke and that she’d never get new ones.”
Avera wanted to do something to help, so she turned to the local community. She posted a photo of Janae on the Nextdoor app to reach her Thornton, Colorado neighbors and explained what had happened. She thought maybe she could buy some used snow globes from people in the community to help Janae rebuild her collection.
“I expected to get maybe a dozen for her to start,” says Avera. “It blew up.”
The snow globes started pouring in—and so did people’s stories.
One woman donated a Disney snow globe that was given to her years ago during her first job at Disney World.
A traveling nurse who collected snow globes all over the U.S. gifted Janae her entire collection.
Another woman donated three globes that had belonged to her sister who died of cancer 12 years ago. She said this felt like “the perfect opportunity to move forward and let her love for them move on.”
A couple who had received two snow globes when they lost a child gave one of them to Janae.
“People dropped them off crying happy tears, watching Janae cry happy tears,” says Avera.
Janae’s reaction to receiving the influx of snow globes could not be more precious.
People were happy to help and eager to share what their snow globes meant to them.
“We were told many times it was therapeutic to be a part of it all,” says Avera. “There were people who told us entire stories about lost loved ones who also collected, people whose children collected them too and heard her story and gifted her some from their collection, people who had loved ones with special needs and love being a part of gifting Janae one.”
Nearly ten months later, Janae still gets snow globes dropped off once in a while. “We even get them in the mail from people who heard about it on Nextdoor through friends and they mailed them,” says Avera.
Janae has gotten 86 snow globes so far as a result of Avera’s Nextdoor post, including globes that have been sent from six different states. When she gets duplicates, Jane gifts them to other kids, keeping the generosity flowing.
When asked how she feels about her snow globes, Janae said, “I’m just happy and blessed to have been given them.”
It’s incredible how people will step up to help out when asked. Janae’s shelf falling may have felt tragic at the time, but her aunt reaching out to her neighbors resulted in a wave of support and heartfelt human connection, which is what being part of a community is all about.
“To see not only our community but people across the country share and reach out, to see so many people cry and share in this moment of happiness has been an amazing and humbling experience,” says Avera.
In honor of Neighbor Month, Nextdoor is celebrating the people and places nearby that make our neighborhoods wonderful. Share a story about why you #LoveYourNeighborhood on your @Nextdoor newsfeed for a chance to be featured for Neighbor Month.
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