Category: News

Malini Patel is helping herald in a new era in bourbon whiskey. Patel, who has worked with some of the biggest alcohol brands in the world, is currently pushing to create a more inclusive and accessible environment in bourbon. She likes to call this work “democratizing bourbon culture.” And while a big part of that means demanding space in the boardrooms of spirit companies for women and people of color, it’s also about making certain products more accessible to all drinkers.

Patel has the advantage of persuing this endeavor from one of the highest posts in the entire spirits game. She’s the managing director for the world’s biggest bourbon brand, Jim Beam. That means Patel is blazing a path at the literal head of the pack when it comes to the whiskey business, in specific, and the spirits industry, in general.

Last week, I spoke with Patel about her work. Our discussion ranged from how Jim Beam is trying to reach a wider audience to how Patel sees a formerly very white and male American industry evolving to where she’s steering that image and culture right now, with real-world initiatives and tangible action.

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I think for the average consumer, they see Jim Beam and they think that’s a singular brand even though on the same shelf they’ll see Old Crow, Old Overholt, Old Grand-Dad, Knob Creek, Booker’s, Basil Hayden’s, etcetera — and not connect that they’re all coming from the same warehouses. How do you do to help people differentiate between these brands while creating a sort of path of breadcrumbs for people to sort of go, “Okay, I know I like Jim Beam, let’s give Old Grand-Dad or Basil Hayden’s a shot next!”?

When you talk about what you just talked about to the Beam family, it’s always been there. But I know consumers don’t see the brands that way. And so actually in my new role, this is the first time where we’ve actually put all of the brands together with oversight in a central way. It’s unlocked so much richness and storytelling. Hopefully, you’ll see more and more come from us in that way.

But what the family has been trying to do over the last 225 years is to invite people into bourbon, and we’ll say more broadly American whiskey now. To do so, we’re finding different paths for people to enjoy it. The idea has always been to share the bourbon with the world because the Noe family believes so much in what they’re making and how good the quality is. They want to just invite people in. And then if you fast forward to your Knob Creek, Basil Hayden’s, Booker’s, Baker’s, those brands were only introduced in the ’90s, right?

Right.

So that was a time when actually vodka was really popular. People weren’t drinking bourbon like they are today, and Booker Noe was looking at ways to help show people that there is more to bourbon. He wanted to create expressions that showed the breadth and depth of what bourbon could be.

And so that path of “breadcrumbs” is you take something as refined and subtle but yet complex as Basil Hayden’s — it’s only 80 proof — and you use it as a really good introduction. For most of my friends who don’t drink bourbon, I’ll start them there.

Then it goes to a small batch Knob Creek. 100 proof, aged nine years, it’s a quintessential bourbon. Next, is Baker’s which is taking on more, with a single barrel, seven-year-old vanilla core. Then I think it’s the right time to introduce Booker’s, which is uncut and unfiltered.

You’re able to express what bourbon could be and take it away from just being one thing. We want to tell the story of all of the brands. And, I don’t think people understand how they’re connected. So we think there’s an opportunity to share that more broadly. Whether you know any of that or not, I think you could probably still find something that you like in our array of offerings.

How is Jim Beam trying to stand out on the shelf as the shelf becomes oversaturated with everything from local craft to more scotch and Irish whiskey coming in every single day, and then, of course, everyone else is also putting out tons of different expressions as well? I mean… Buffalo Trace alone has something like 42 different bottles that they put out. As you’re looking ahead, how are you finding ways to highlight new things that are going to grab people’s attention?

When we think about Jim Beam, it’s an iconic American brand, right?

Oh, for sure.

It’s been around forever and there’s something about quality, at scale, that’s at the heart of that brand. So there’s something in the White Label that will always hold as our flagship. It is what embodies what that brand is about. But you’ve seen us come out with, more recently, Jim Beam Black and Double Oak. Then there are different expressions that will tap into what people might be looking for as they’re hearing, “Oh, rye whiskey is growing? Let me try something.” And I think with Jim Beam, it’s always about: “Can we make something approachable in a way that’s accessible to a wider audience?” After we consider that, we then look at what occasions are people drinking bourbon. One of the things that I think is most exciting about Jim Beam is that there’s an opportunity to democratize bourbon culture.

How so?

What I mean by that is as we look to the future, one of the things that we think about is how do we reduce the barriers that may be stopping people from coming in to explore the category. Those barriers could be, “I’m not sure I like the taste of it,” or “I may not be able to find it,” or simply “I don’t think about drinking bourbon, in general.”

And I think that’s where we start to explore and to keep it relevant. We think about how can we get people to think about drinking bourbon, specifically Jim Beam, on an occasion that they may not think about it.

How does that play out in real life?

A tangible example is with our newly launched RTD [Ready To Drink] line. It was a Classic Highball and a Ginger Highball. The Ginger Highball has a little bit sweeter and more approachable flavor. It’s really for someone who might not think to drink bourbon. But if you take the Classic Highball or Ginger Highball, and it’s a really good refreshing light drink and something that, if you’re new to the category, you could enjoy without being strongly put off by strong alcohol burn, then hopefully that’ll get you thinking about maybe trying more bourbon in different ways.

It’s an interesting space that allows us to go to places that you normally wouldn’t see bourbon show up. Now, you’re able to take Jim Beam to places that it couldn’t have gone and, therefore, get people who may not have considered trying it a chance to [try it].

There’s been a shift in the narrative around whiskey over the last couple of years. We’re talking more about women working in whiskey. We’re talking more about people of color both historically working in whiskey and in the present. We have heritage brands like Uncle Nearest starting up with a clear focus on women of color running the whole show. Where do you see yourself highlighting those voices in such a huge industry, given that you’re at Beam, which is pretty much the most iconic bourbon on the planet?

I’ve always felt immense pressure to do things that matter. I’ve seen in my roles — no matter what the organization was — that representation matters. Giving diverse voices a seat at the table matters. In my current position, it affords me that opportunity and so I take that very seriously. And I think that reflects on the organization and the industry as we start to see ourselves in it and make the shifts towards being representative of the communities and the culture of the society that we serve.

I think it’s very important for a brand like Jim Beam to think about the idea of democratizing bourbon culture. I do think that a lot of people don’t see themselves in the historical pictures of white men on labels. But that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot that’s happening. We need to move into a world where anyone can enjoy bourbon — male, female, any color, anyone. And I don’t think it was always that way. People still don’t think women drink whiskey. All of that is changing.

As someone that has the perspective as a female and has a perspective as a minority, I need to make sure that my experiences and the experiences that I know are happening around are reflected in the work that we do and in the offerings that we create. This is why I think the strategy of democratizing bourbon culture feels so natural to Jim Beam. It’s always been about inviting people in.

I think there are big opportunities for us to just be more inclusive in the offerings we put out into the marketplace and the way in which we talk to and engage consumers.

Not to veer off-topic, but you also work with Inspire Girls Academy, which helps young girls get into STEM fields. Can you tell us how this all comes together?

Inspire Girls Academy was an idea that my sisters and I had. It started as an idea of building an all-girl school. The insight that we built everything off of was that girls’ self-esteem peaks at the age of nine. If you allow the norms of society and what we’re typically told is appropriate behavior for girls, we risk creating really low self-esteem in our young girls that they eventually carry with them into the future. Psychologists talk about low self-esteem as a thinking disorder — I’ll call the little bitty shitty committee — that’s kind of on your shoulder and it’s just chirping here that feeds self-doubt.

So through adaptable afterschool curriculum programs or summer camps, we use STEM-based learning — science, technology, engineering, arts, and math — to teach girls competence. It’s about exposure. STEM practices teach you the idea of trial and error, experimentation. We are trying to teach girls that failing is part of the process. If you don’t fail, you won’t learn. We observed in a lot of situations that failure usually meant that girls wouldn’t try it again or would suppress that ability. Unless you undo that way of thinking at a young age, it becomes this behavior that’s innate.

Then you layer on societal norms of what we expect of young girls and what we’ve always taught young girls. It’s changing rapidly now. But even in the times when I was growing up, you raise your hand, you wait your turn, you keep your head down. Those aren’t the messages that I think young girls should be hearing.

So we thought, why not start at the core of the problem? Let’s start with our youngest girls and give them the skills and ability to think about problem-solving and boundary-breaking in a really positive light and to see role models. They should be able to see themselves in people doing things that they weren’t used to seeing. The heart of it is really about how do you teach girls that taking risks and sometimes failing is part of the learning and growing process and allowing them the ability to do that in safe environments early enough in their life that they can take that with them.

Some of the best blenders and distillers out there are chemists and engineers by trade. They get into whiskey because they know the math and they know the science behind it. So you could be burgeoning a new generation of whiskey makers — it all ties together!

It is! It’s the blend of the art and the science, right? We talked about it at Beam all the time. There’s a scientific part of it, and there’s a lot of that. But there’s also an art to it as well as judgment, and it’s that comfort in the gray areas that create the magic. You need to be confident in order to play in that space. You have to be willing to accept that sometimes your experiment won’t work out the way you wanted it to. You have to know how to fail to make good bourbon.

Exactly.

It’s absolutely all of that. We do talk about it a lot at Beam because we think about the next generation of distillers that we’re bringing in, whether it’s partnerships with the University of Kentucky or just when we think about how we build our talent pipeline. That is absolutely the lens that we’re putting on it.

When you get home from work, what whiskey are you going to pour yourself tonight?

Ooh, this is actually an interesting one. My usual go-to, if I want something light and refreshing, like early evening, is Basil Hayden’s. I’ll make a buck or a mule with Basil. But tonight, I have an Old Overholt 11-year-old that I think I’m going to use for an old fashioned.

A lot of people were mad about the lack of clips during the 2021 Academy Awards, but not me. It made the choice to show the scene from Promising Young Woman where Bo Burnham’s character says that Carey Mulligan can spit in his coffee, an offer she takes up, all the more wild. You can show one 10-second scene to sum up your movie, and that’s the one you pick? As the New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan joked, “We are not going to show you ANYTHING from this movie except Bo Burnham being a tall sub.”

Speaking of that tall sub, he has a new (spit-free) special coming out soon!

“hi. i made a new special. it was filmed by me, alone, without a crew or an audience, over the course of the past year. it is almost finished. i hope you like it,” he tweeted, along with a video of himself playing the piano. He added, “For those asking how i filmed the first shot alone, i didn’t. that shot is from the end of my last special, five years ago.”

Burnham’s last two specials, 2013’s what. and 2016’s Make Happy, were both released on Netflix. Since then, the future-Larry Bird actor wrote and directed Eighth Grade, a truly special movie; starred in The Big Sick; and appeared in a Best Picture-nominated movie where someone spits in his coffee. It’s been a wild ride.

Generation X, people born between 1965 and 1979, are America’s goofy middle children sandwiched between the much larger Baby Boomer and Millennial generations. Gen X prides itself on being individualistic, nonconformists committed to a D.I.Y. ethic whether that means writing a punk ‘zine or launching a tech start-up.

(If you just asked yourself “What’s a ‘zine?” you’re clearly not a member of Gen X.)

It’s a generation marked by an aloof cool where any personal slight can be written off with a “whatever” that’s deathly afraid of taking anything too seriously. It’s a generation that was so put off by the corporate, commercial culture of the ’80s it rebelled by wearing second-hand clothes and ironically embracing low-brow ’70s culture.

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It’s the generation of hip-hop, Tiger Woods, Quentin Tarrantino, the re-birth of punk rock, John Cusak movies, and Atari.

A big reason Gen X is so self-reliant is that it’s the generation hardest hit by divorce. According to a 2004 marketing study it “went through its all-important, formative years as one of the least parented, least nurtured generations in U.S. history.”

Gen X was the first generation that experienced both parents working outside the home. But, unfortunately, at the same time, childcare centers and afterschool programs had not yet emerged to a significant extent.

Now, the “Coolest Generation” finds itself somewhere between 42 and 56 and is hitting middle age. Unfortunately, that means it’s now the most stressed generation in America. Although, in true Gen X fashion, many refuse to let anyone see they’re stressed.

An extensive study by Penn State showed that stress began to hit Gen X sometime in the last decade. The 2012 study discovered that Gen X had an average stress level of 5.8 (out of ten) while Millennials (3.4) and Baby Boomers (4.4) were a lot calmer.

A study from earlier this month shows that the trend hasn’t changed. In 2021, 22% of Gen Xers admitted to daily struggles with stress followed by Millenials (17%), Gen Z (14%), and Baby Boomers (8%).

A big reason for the stress is having to take care of multiple generations. Many Gen Xers have to care for their aging parents as well as their children who are just starting to make their way in the world.

Gen X may have aged its way into the most stressful part of its life, but things could be a lot worse. There’s no group of people better equipped to deal with stress. When executives at Nike studied Gen X it found the generation’s hallmarks are “flexibility,” “innovation,” and “adaptability.” “They have developed strong survival skills and the ability to handle anything that comes their way,” the study says.

Gen Xers may think that’s just a bunch of corporate B.S. However, it’s true. Gen X grew up during the AIDS epidemic, the end of the Cold War, the Challenger disaster, the late ’80s and early ’90s crime wave, 9/11, the Great Recession, COVID-19, and managed to survive after “My So-Called Life” was canceled.

We’ve survived tough times and we’ll make it through these as well. Just got to follow the advice of Gen X’s poet laureate, Tupac Shakur: “And it’s crazy, it seems it’ll never let up, but please, you got to keep your head up.”

We can also look forward to grabbing a big box of popcorn and enjoying the massive Millennial meltdown that happens when they hit middle age. It’s not going to be pretty.

Most of the recent talk around Kanye West’s Yeezy brand is about how his shoes look like Crocs, or how the company fired an intern for violating their NDA contract. But this time, Yeezy’s new logo design is at the forefront of the conversation. Walmart has filed a copyright infringement complaint against the Yeezy brand, saying that the new logo is so similar to theirs that it might cause confusion among customers.

The new Yeezy logo features eight clusters of three dots which radiate from the center like a star. But because Walmart is concerned that the design is too similar to their own logo, they filed an official complaint with the US Patent And Trademark Office, according to Business Insider. They state that the design “is likely to cause confusion, mistake and deception” for their customers, and could lead to people mistakenly thinking the two brands are related. In their infringement complaint, Walmart states that the “false affiliation” between Yeezy and their company would potentially “damage” their brand and the “goodwill” they’ve worked to associate their name with.

News of the copyright infringement complain arrives on the heels of Yeezy’s charitable initiative. Kanye’s company announced that they would be releasing a DMX tribute shirt to honor the rapper’s legacy, with all proceeds from sales going directly to DMX’s family.

Check out a photo of the proposed Yeezy logo above and compare for yourself.

As soon as DJ Khaled announced that his new album, Khaled Khaled, was “100% done” via a huge billboard in downtown Miami, fans knew it would be a star-studded affair. Now, we know just which stars will appear on the project, and the quickest way to sum up it up is: “All of them.”

Hip-hop stars 21 Savage, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Big Sean, Bryson Tiller, DaBaby, Drake, Jay-Z, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Lil Wayne, Meek Mill, Megan Thee Stallion, Migos, Nas, Puff Daddy, Rick Ross, and Roddy Ricch fill out the features list, along with R&B standouts H.E.R., James Fauntleroy, and Jeremih, pop stars Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, and Post Malone, and reggae legends Barrington Levy, Bounty Killer, Buju Banton, and Capleton.

Of the features, Lil Baby has the most appearances, popping up on three tracks, while Drake appears twice (on previously released singles “Greece” and “Popstar“), as does frequent Khaled collaborator Justin Bieber, and Khaled’s “Wild Thoughts” partner Bryson Tiller. New collaborator H.E.R. pops up a couple of times as well, continuing her meteoric rise, while “Sorry Not Sorry” reunites erstwhile rivals, Jay-Z and Nas, for their fifth collaboration since their 2000s battle for the King of New York crown. Check out a snippet below.

Khaled Khaled is due 4/30 via Epic Records.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Here’s a bit of information sure to give pause to moviegoers of a certain age: Kate Winslet plays a grandmother in the new HBO series Mare of Easttown. True, she’s an unusually young grandmother, one just 25 years from her glory days as a high school athlete, but the math still works, however jarring it seems. Now 45, Kate Winslet first gained international attention as a teenager via her terrifyingly intense work in Peter Jackson’s 1994 film Heavenly Creatures. Born into a family of actors, she had already worked steadily on the stage and in British television for years by that point, which helps explain the confidence she exhibits in the role, and why it’s a bit confusing that she’s now reached middle age: as an actor, she did little growing up in public. She was always that good.

That said, Winslet leans into the midlife weariness for Mare of Easttown, which requires her to play a haunted, and frequently exhausted, small-town Pennsylvania detective (while attempting one of the most difficult accents known to actors). It’s also a case of an actor making their history work for them. Just as part of the effectiveness of Revolutionary Road comes from watching Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, who famously played starry-eyed lovers in Titanic, take on characters grappling with romantic disenchantment, Winslet’s Mare performance works as a contrast with the youthful (and, occasionally maniacal) exuberance of her early roles. It may be shocking to think of her playing a grandmother, but she has the skills and the history to suggest the weight of the world. Though it would be easy enough to keep going, below are ten of Winslet’s best performances (and where you can stream them).

10. Sense and Sensibility (1995)

The 1990s saw a flowering of Jane Austen adaptations that cracked the code of capturing the vibrancy, humor, and deep emotions of Austen’s novels largely by creating rich settings then letting actors give life to Austen’s characters in ways that didn’t make them feel as if they’d been cut and pasted from the pages of beloved books. This Ang Lee-directed film was among the first, a film filled with attention to local customs and generational conflicts Lee brought to early work like Eat Drink Man Woman. Winslet stars opposite Emma Thompson (who also scripted) and the two make a great pair, with Winslet playing the impulsive Marianne Dashwood against Thompson’s work as her more cautious sister Elinor. It’s the opposite of a stuffy costume drama for many reasons, Winslet’s full-blooded performance not least among them. Her work earned Winslet her first Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. It wouldn’t be her last.

9. Hamlet (1996)

Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy is an unrelenting spectacle with many high points but it’s also hampered by the decision to squeeze in as many big-name actors as possible whether they suited the piece or not. (Hey, look! It’s Jack Lemmon!) Winslet, however, makes for an inspired Ophelia. She’d played mad before (look for that entry a little higher on this list) and here she fuses her ability to play scary and fevered to one of Shakespeare’s most haunting depictions of a mind that’s teetered over the edge.

8. Hideous Kinky (1998)

The success of Titanic made Winslet a household name and could easily have allowed her to transition full-time into big-budget Hollywood movies. Instead, she seemingly decided to pick up what she’d been doing before appearing in what was then the most financially successful movie of all time: taking challenging roles in unconventional projects. Most immediately, that meant starring in this Gillies MacKinnon-directed adaptation of Esther Freud’s semi-autobiographical novel about Julia, a British woman looking for spiritual enlightenment in Morocco in the early ’70s while raising two children. Winslet lets Julia embody the era’s seeking qualities without losing sight of the cost paid for her search for enlightenment — both by herself and those around her.

7. Revolutionary Road (2008)

Sam Mendes’ adaptation of Richard Yates’ novel about suburban discontent in early-‘60s America sometimes wants for subtlety, but it’s worth watching to see Winslet and DiCaprio play opposite one another. The Titanic reunion could have felt like a stunt, but their on-screen history deepens the tragedy of love gone sour. Though the timeline doesn’t exactly match up, in some ways, it plays like a bit of alternate history. What if Jack and Rose had both survived, gotten married, and it had all worked out horribly?

6. Titanic (1997)

Speaking of Titanic, the list of actors who almost got the parts of Jack and Rose is long and fascinating. (Jared Leto and Reese Witherspoon?) But try to imagine the film working with different leads. It just doesn’t work (or, at the very least, it’s a much different movie). James Cameron fills the film’s final act with amazing set pieces, but none of that would have mattered if DiCaprio and Winslet didn’t spend the hours leading up to it making us care about the fates of their characters and believe their brief encounter had led to true love. Winslet beautifully plays the part of a rebellious spirit who’s starting to realize the world has put up some walls to keep women in their place that even her willfulness might not be able to kick down. It’s the story of a famous shipwreck, sure, but also of a woman trying to embrace the new possibilities of a young century.

5. Iris (2001)

Winslet picked up a second Oscar nomination, this one for Best Actress, for Titanic and her third for work in this biopic about the life of novelist Iris Murdoch. She plays Murdoch as another indomitable spirit rebelling against the conventions of her age in a film bookended by Judi Dench’s performance as the older Murdoch. The two complement each other beautifully, deepening the work of one another as they play Murdoch at opposite ends of her life.

4. Holy Smoke! (1999)

More Oscar nominations would follow, if not always for the best films in which Winslet appeared. She won a Best Actress trophy for The Reader (she’s quite good, but the movie is skippable and a little queasy in its tasteful insistence on emphasizing the humanity of a Nazi war criminal) and picked up another Best Actress nomination Little Children (a fine, if relentlessly morose, study of contemporary suburban rot) and Best Supporting nominations for Steve Jobs and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (more on the latter below). Occasionally her most daring work went without nomination, like her performance in Jane Campion’s unclassifiable drama Holy Smoke! Winslet plays Ruth, an Australian woman whose family hires a cult deprogrammer named P.J. (Harvey Keitel) in an attempt to remove her from the influence of a spiritual guru. A scary, sexually graphic battle of wills follows, one in which P.J. never really has the upper hand. It’s an uncomfortable-by-design film that finds Winslet, Keitel, and Campion all happily pushing the material as far as it will go.

3. Mildred Pierce (2011)

Winslet did a lot of television work early in her career then largely ignored the medium in favor of films until teaming up with director Todd Haynes for this five-part adaptation of James M. Cain’s novel. Mildred Pierce had famously been filmed once before by Michael Curtiz in a film that gave Joan Crawford one of her most famous roles. Here, Haynes and Winslet seem determined to zig wherever that film zagged, favoring depth and detail over the original’s heightened emotions. That’s in no way a knock on the original Mildred Pierce or Crawford’s performance, a perfect match of heightened emotions and noir atmosphere. It’s just that this version succeeds on different terms. Winslet matches Haynes’ decision to dig into the Depression-era atmosphere with a careful study of a woman struggling to stay afloat against long odds while dealing with a… let’s say complicated relationship with her daughter (Evan Rachel Wood).

2. Heavenly Creatures (1994)

There’s a reason this movie, inspired by a true story, put Winslet on the map. She’s unnervingly convincing as Juliet, an English-born New Zealand teenager who slips into a fantasy land with her best friend Pauline (Melanie Lynskey, who went onto her own memorable career after debuting here). Jackson’s inventive visuals capture the world they create together while the performances suggest the dark side of that creation — and a mounting danger that ultimately leads to murder.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

In many respects, Winslet’s Heavenly Creatures work served as preparation for her turn in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Directed by Michel Gondry from a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman, the film similarly uses inventive visuals and a twisty structure but wouldn’t work without a cast grounding it in real, sometimes raw, human emotion. Drawing on alternately romantic and uncomfortable emotions — sometimes in rapid succession as the narrative leaps about in time — Winslet plays Clementine, a woman who chooses to erase the memories of her boyfriend Joel (Jim Carrey) to break the cycle of their tumultuous romance. The bittersweet yearning of Carrey and Winslet’s performances is what gives the film its power. In the midst of the film’s mad swirl, she’s a beacon of fragile, flawed humanity. It’s what she does best.

It has not been a banner season for MLB umpires, as there have been a few truly awful decisions that have had significant consequences on game outcomes. None have been bigger than when the Mets got a walkoff win on a hit-by-pitch where Michael Conforto leaned into the strike zone to get plunked with the bases loaded against the Marlins and the umpire bit on it — even though he was in mid strike call before changing course. The umpire apologized after and said he made the wrong call, but that didn’t change the fact that Miami had lost the game.

On Wednesday, it was the Marlins turn to get gifted some help from the boys in blue, as one of the most inexplicable decisions you will ever see resulted in a runner being safe at first, helping to extend the inning to let Miami score another run in Milwaukee. With runners on first and third and one out, Isan Diaz rolled one over down the first base line as Brewers pitcher Zack Godley fielded it and lobbed it to first for the second out, with the runner from third scoring. However, the first base umpire ran in and emphatically called Diaz safe, claiming Godley interfered with him in the basepaths despite never touching the dirt in a sequence so bizarre, no one knew what was happening.

The Marlins would tack on another run after being gifted the extra out after a couple wild pitches from Godley, with the second coming after a strikeout that should’ve ended the inning. Understandably, the Brewers were furious at the call and while it may not be the deciding factor in the game — Miami opened up a 5-2 lead in the fourth inning — if this game does come down to a run that call will certainly be an even bigger deal.

Girl In Red, real name Marie Ulven, is on the rise after making a name for herself with singles like “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend” and “We Fell in Love in October.” The 22-year-old Norwegian’s debut album If I Could Make It Go Quiet is set for release in just a couple days, then she’s scheduled to perform on The Tonight Show on May 3. Before those major life events, though, Ulven has shared a new video for “Serotonin,” in which she joyously carries a bouquet of red balloons around Oslo.

Ulven says of the song (which was co-produced by Finneas):

“There are things on this album that I haven’t been able to talk about in my songwriting previously. ‘Serotonin’ is brutally honest, lyrically, especially about having these intrusive thoughts — thoughts of never going to be okay, and thinking my therapist hates me. I stopped going to my therapist because I felt like I was such a big burden for her that she didn’t like me. I’m pretty sure a lot of people have felt that, whether it’s a friend or a family member or a therapist. I’m addressing a lot of things I haven’t been comfortable talking about, or admitting to myself, or even things to tell my closest friends and family.”

She also said of the album more broadly, “I feel like I’m exploring a little bit more of the hate side of love with this album. I also feel like I’m exploring a little bit more of being vulnerable and letting someone in. I haven’t talked about that before… [The album] is a big, boiling pot of thoughts and things I haven’t said. […] I really poured my heart into a lot of these lyrics, fully. I just feel like I emptied myself in this album.”

Watch the “Serotonin” video above.

If I Could Make It Go Quiet is out 4/30 via World In Red/AWAL. Pre-order it here.

The 2021 NFL Draft has no shortage of dudes who have what it takes to become franchise quarterbacks over the course of their careers. Unlike past years, when teams find themselves desperate for anyone and overeager to trade up and get, like, Tim Tebow or something, there are legitimately five signal callers worthy of going sometime in the first round. Heck, it’s possible all of them are gone by the time we get out of the top-10.

As for what order they should go in, that’s an entirely different conversation. Trevor Lawrence is going No. 1, Zach Wilson is kiiiiiiiind of controversially penciled in at No. 2, and then, lord knows what will happen. Fortunately, we’re here to help out by breaking down why teams should and should not draft any of the guys available.

Trevor Lawrence

You should draft him because: You’re the Jacksonville Jaguars.

You should not draft him because: You’re not the Jacksonville Jaguars. They’re drafting him. OK! Let’s move on. I hope the rest are this easy.

Zach Wilson

You should draft him because: He is what NFL teams want in a quarterback in 2021. Look at the various traits the best signal callers tend to have (arm strength, accuracy, ability to improvise, ability to throw off-platform and with different release points with accuracy) and Wilson wraps up all of them. In terms of arm talent, the only person in this Draft on his level is Trey Lance, and Wilson does not need the amount of work that Lance probably will at the next level.

Going through Wilson’s game tape from his junior year at BYU is like watching someone play a video game. All the numbers are wild — 247-for-336 (73.5 percent), 3,692 yards, 33 touchdowns, three interceptions, 196.4 passer rating — but the film does not quite sum up just how crazy some of the throws Wilson made look easy actually were. An example, this rip against Texas State where he flicks his wrist and throws from one hash to the opposite pylon for a touchdown. It goes down as a 45-yard touchdown throw but it’s way, way longer than that.

Some of my favorite throws of his aren’t the crazy, on the run ones, but rather, I love watching Wilson do a normal drop from one hash and throw it perfectly on the numbers to the opposite sideline. He’s a really well-coached prospect, something that I think comes through in stuff like how well he can sell play fakes. Watch him here, he sells the play action, gets his feet set, and launches.

Wilson is coming into the league with a pretty good base, a testament to the work he put in at BYU and how his coaches in Provo. Mix that with the stuff he does that you cannot teach, whether it’s with his arm or with his legs (he’s a good runner, albeit not Lamar Jackson or anything), and it’s not hard to see why he’s going to generate excitement wherever he ends up.

You should not draft him because: I am interested in the Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers comparisons with him because both of them were given time to sit behind a veteran QB and get some stuff ironed out, namely getting a better understanding of when to be more cavalier and when to rein that in. Wilson, should he go to the Jets at No. 2 (which is probably happening), would not get such a luxury. Wilson has supreme faith in his arm, which is a wonderful trait but is also one that can get him into some trouble once he’s going up against NFL-caliber defenses. And then just as a general thing, this is getting you sent to the injury tent in the league, Zach. Don’t do it on a third-and-30.

On that last thing, it’s fair to ask some questions about how Wilson will do going from his situation last year to his situation next year. BYU had a Power 5-caliber offensive line and playmakers all over the place against a schedule that was 69th in the sport in strength of schedule. He was sacked 11 times in 12 games as a junior and did not exactly run for his life all that frequently, although he was able to do stuff like this on the move with a defender bearing down on him (even if this was by design).

How does he adjust to life behind a Jets offensive line that isn’t the best when he’s asked to be the franchise savior from day one and is going to get hell from the media if he’s not able to be that? How does he, at 209 pounds, respond to NFL defenses teeing off on him? Again, he has all the stuff you cannot teach, which helps him a ton as he tries to navigate this stuff, but it’s an interesting question that will be worth monitoring during his first season.

Justin Fields

You should draft him because: He’s extremely good. Like, incredibly good. It is wild how a narrative has popped up around Fields that makes it sound like he isn’t one of the best quarterback prospects in recent memory, because this dude has damn near everything you want in a signal caller.

Fields’ arm talent is special. It says more about Wilson and Lance that Fields is not quite on their level, but he can still make essentially every single throw and make them look easy. The one that sticks out for me will always be this one against Clemson in the national title game, when he was very clearly injured and completely took the top off of the Tigers’ defense.

Like Lawrence and Wilson, Fields is a very polished prospect, having played for an Ohio State team that surrounded him with talent and usually put him and that talent in positions to succeed. His footwork, his ability to make everything look easy, and his accuracy all stand out when you watch him, plus he’s someone who was in an offense that actively looked to attack defenses down the field — the Buckeyes let him rip it to great success and rarely asked him to throw screens. An NFL team would be wise to have similar faith in his ability to attack a secondary, although giving him an offensive line to let him do this is paramount.

And of course, the numbers back all of this up: In three years, which includes his season at Georgia when Kirby Smart was hell-bent on making everyone mad at how he was used, Fields went 423-for-618 (68.4 percent) with 5,701 yards, 67 touchdowns, and nine picks. He’s also really good with his legs, going for 1,133 yards and 19 scores on 260 career carries, although he’s very much a passer who can run instead of a runner who can throw.

The Buckeyes had him do plenty of stuff pre-snap (ex: here, please laugh at the sarcasm in the tweet), which coaching staffs don’t do unless a dude has an inherent football know-how between the ears. The nonsense out there about his inability to go through progressions or whatever is, as Benjamin Solak of The Draft Network so perfectly put it, codswallop.

One more Fields throw for ya, one that I think shows off his touch quite well. You know a throw is good when it happens against your team and you aren’t even mad. That’s what happened here against Penn State: Joey Porter Jr. (yup, there’s a junior and he’s pretty good!) is in coverage against Chris Olave, and Fields busts out his wedge and drops this bad boy in perfectly.

He’s a dude. Take him.

You should not draft him because: While I’m a huge fan of his game, Fields did struggle a bit against Indiana and Northwestern — combined across the two games, Fields went 30-for-57 (52.6 percent) for 414 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions. He did well with his feet against the Hoosiers (15-78-1), while the Wildcats bottled him up admirably (12-35-0). Now, the pick number is a touch misleading — one was an insane one-handed INT on a pass that was a bit underthrown, one was this (which, to be clear, should have been taking a sack and living to fight another day) — but these games were a bit instructive.

Both Indiana and Northwestern were elite on defense last year, with FPI having them as a pair of top-6 units. They flew around, did a ton of stuff pre-snap, and understood that the best defenses approach things like an illusion: you see what they want you to. Fields is very much someone who has no interest in ever giving up on plays, and his third pick against the Hoosiers is a sensational example of this.

Yes, he has one of his receivers (Julian Fleming, No. 4) wide open. No, that does not mean it is a good idea to throw that ball in that moment — the one thing I think he can stand to improve on is having a better sense of when to stay patient in the pocket, when to speed things up a bit, and when to tuck it and use his 4.5 speed. He can do all of these things really well, but I think this play against Alabama is a decent idea of what I’m talking about. His processing speed, as a general thing, is not slow by any stretch of the imagination, I think he just had so much faith in his tight end (Jeremy Ruckert, No. 88) getting open that he made himself a sitting duck against a delayed blitz and missed a chance to dump it off to his running back (Master Teague, No. 33), who probably wouldn’t have gotten a first but might have picked up enough yardage to justify going for it on fourth down.

In my opinion, being this year’s Justin Herbert — sit for a few weeks behind a veteran, get used to life in the NFL, then make his debut once he’s starting to really get a grasp on things — would not be the worst thing in the world for Fields. If he’s lucky, it’d serve as a springboard to being this year’s Justin Herbert in that he’d win Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Mac Jones

You should draft him because: You think you’re a quarterback away from making some noise. McCorkle does not have the upside of any other quarterback we’re gonna talk about here — he’s the oldest QB of this group and by far the worst athlete, but the stuff Jones is good at is all stuff that should translate to the league right away.

Jones is really, really good at throwing accurately and in a rhythm. Watch him play in Alabama’s offense, where he was excellent at seeing windows — even as they were still developing — and throwing the ball into them. Jones is a guy who is going to put his playmakers in positions to make plays with how accurate he is, particularly on intermediate routes, something the fine folks from Columbus, Ohio learned the hard way in the national title game. Yes, DeVonta Smith demolished them, and a major reason why was Jones consistently putting the ball in places where the Heisman Trophy winner could get to it with a head of steam.

One I enjoyed against Georgia: Jones throws this ball when his receiver, John Metchie, is about half a step behind Georgia’s safety. Alabama was totally ready for the corner blitz to come by way of the defensive back lined up at the line of scrimmage against Metchie, and Jones did a terrific job waiting until he was 100 percent certain no one was there to help the safety out to look back over to Metchie and drop it in a bucket for six. Ball and man get to the spot at the same time, exactly what you want.

Jones doesn’t have a cannon like the other four dudes in this post, but his arm is strong enough to make sure he’s taking advantage of dudes getting open down the field. He’s also really comfortable navigating the pocket — you do not ever want to be in a situation where his running the football will win or lose you a game, but he’s comfortable moving to give himself an extra half second to let a window to throw into open up.

My favorite thing about Jones is the amount of trust he has in his playmakers and his knowledge of his limitations. An example came in the title game against Ohio State, when he probably could have picked up a third-and-four with his legs (or at least gotten in a fourth-and-super short situation), but he knew it would be much smarter to let Jaylen Waddle cook. Jones knew where the line of scrimmage was, so he ran just before then to freeze the linebackers, then dumped the ball off to Waddle and let arguably the best wide receiver in the Draft take off.

It’s really not hard to see how a team like the Niners — which boasts a ton of speed and will give him window after window to throw into — would be interested in him. He’s a sure thing insofar as he should be a solid, safe quarterback at the next level. This is appealing to some teams, and if an NFL team wants this, Jones is a nice option.

You should not draft him because: How much trust do you want to put in an athletically limited, slightly older dude with one year of college experience under his belt in an environment where he was rarely pressured and he had more skill position talent than any other quarterback in the country? It’s the tough thing with him specifically — Jones is the kind of guy who needs the things around him to be great in order for him to be great, which is totally fine. It is not a knock against a guy to say he needs a specific situation to succeed, it’s more on teams to determine whether or not they could provide him with said situation.

Can he work elsewhere? Sure, the accuracy is real, and that’s something that should translate pretty smoothly. But of all these dudes, Jones is going to be most dependent on the 10 players around him. On top of that, he has the opposite issue of Fields, where he is sometimes too safe with the football. He will look off an open receiver for a wide open checkdown and in the NFL, where windows are even smaller, there is a concern he might get a bit gun shy putting the ball where it needs to go down the field. It can be lazy to compare QBs solely because they went to the same school, but we saw this with Tua Tagovailoa during his first year in the NFL, and it’ll be interesting to see if Jones can get the default Alabama setting of “rule number one: don’t mess up” out of his brain during his rookie campaign.

Trey Lance

You should draft him because: Lance is the wild card in this Draft. His college experience is so hard to suss out — on one hand, he had exactly one full season and it was against FCS competition. On the other, he was absolutely incredible that one year, going 192-for-287 (66.9 percent) for 2,786 yards and 28 touchdowns with z e r o interceptions.

And some of his tape is just flat-out awesome. Lance lined up under center, in pistol, and in shotgun and looked comfortable in all of them. He mixes the physical profile of a high-major quarterback with someone who has the skills of a QB at that level, both in terms of what he can do with his arm (it’s ridiculous) and his legs (hold this thought). Even some of the subtleties of playing quarterback, like being able to use as little movement as possible when in the pocket to free up space to make a throw, Lance has in his bag. Check this out from the FCS title game against James Madison.

It’s subtle, but I love this. Instead of tucking and running, or trying to play the hero, Lance just does something quick and easy before resetting his base and firing a strike. You can see the arm strength in that throw, and his tape is just littered with him doing stuff. He can load up and fire a bomb with anyone in this class, or he can throw one on a rope that gets to his receiver in the blink of an eye.

Further, it just looks easy when Lance does this stuff. Watch this, when he flicks his wrist while on the run and throws it nearly 40 yards like it’s nothing.

When it’s time to run, dude brings the lumber. Lance is the best runner in this group, and I don’t think it’s particularly close. He didn’t run at his Pro Day, but he’s apparently in the 4.5s and has reached a top speed that would have made him the fastest QB in the NFL last year, and measures at 6’4 and 224. He uses all that speed and all that size to his advantage when he runs, not letting himself be afraid of contact and sometimes fighting through it.

The comparison for him has seemingly been Josh Allen, which I don’t quite agree with because I don’t think his arm is quite that otherworldly. But Lance is a special prospect who can just make stuff happen, and someone is going to end up being really happy about this if it all works out.

You should not draft him because: The question with Lance is how big of a project he will be. The body of work is really, really small — those 287 passing attempts in his one year as a starter came in 16 games, and the only time he appeared on the football field in 2020 was in an exhibition game where he did not look great (15-f0r-30, 149 yards, two touchdowns, one pick) against Central Arkansas (who, it must be said, he obliterated with his legs to the tune of 15-143-2). Everything looks great with Lance when it works, but how consistent can he be with this stuff?

A throw like these two against South Dakota State and good examples of Lance having touchdowns and just missing throws an NFL starter has to make. The first, his tight end has his man beat, and a little more touch lets him either stroll into the end zone or get very close. The second, the entire defense is fooled by the play fake, and instead of taking that extra breath to compose himself and throw this accurately, Lance floats it and throws a ball that risks getting picked against pros.

Another example: Lance has all the time in the world to throw here and his receiver throws his hand up (the universal sign for “throw me the ball I’m going to score”) at the 31-yard line. Lance should get set and convert the layup. Instead…

It’s probably not being mega worried about any of this, because Lance is a competitive guy who wants to be great and I venture will work hard to iron this stuff out. I’m not particularly worried about the one game he played last year — North Dakota State’s offense is based on being balanced and it seemed like they decided to sacrifice that to showcase him — but not playing a competitive game in this amount of time is concerning, especially when the competition is not exactly the SEC.

Teams that want a guy who will step in and play right away should consider steering clear of Lance, unless he’s going to a situation that is so good that he won’t have to do gobs of heavy lifting. But if he has the chance to sit, learn, and iron out wrinkles don’t be stunned if we look back in a few years and wonder how a guy as good as him fell a little.

With the rapid rise of NFTs in the music industry, it seems that everyone is hopping on the trend. Fans are able to purchase music and artwork from musicians like The Weeknd and Diplo as NFTs, but now, a handful of lucky (and loaded) Nirvana fans are able to become the owners of some valuable, never-before-seen photographs of Kurt Cobain.

According to Rolling Stone, photographer Jesse Frohman launched a website to auction off NFTs of over 100 pictures from Cobain’s final photo shoot, which Frohman aptly named “The Last Session.” The recognizable shoot features Cobain’s iconic white-rimmed sunglasses and leopard print jacket and took place just a few months prior to his death in 1994. Multiple contact sheets from the photo shoot were scanned for the first time prior to the NFT drop, meaning many of these images have never been made publicly available.

While most NFT drops make just one piece of artwork available for purchase, Frohman’s collection makes several images available with every NFT purchase. Explaining why he chose to bundle the photographs together, Frohman said: “Everyone was doing an individual picture here, an individual picture there, maybe a group of three here, but I wanted to do something that other people hadn’t done before. It’s something so special that won’t be offered again.”

Frohman continued that he thinks Cobain would be “very interested” in the world of NFTs. “I think of Kurt especially as an idol, and sort of a hero, for the crypto world. They love to buck the system,” he said. “To me, that’s what Kurt was. He was very anti-establishment — and he was outspoken about that. I think he would be very interested in the NFT art space.”

A portion of all proceeds will go to the JED Foundation, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention and the promotion of mental wellbeing among teens in America.

The auction kicks off May 3 at 12 p.m. ET and ends May 7 at 6 p.m. ET. Find more information about the auction here and watch Frohman further explain his NFT project below.