Category: News

You deserve to have some fun. We all do at this point, for a bunch of reasons that don’t especially require rehashing but also because it’s the time of the year when it starts getting dark at like 4:45 p.m. and you probably wouldn’t be all that jazzed about going outside even if you could. It’s a great time for a little diversion, something fizzy and bouncy to watch, a show whose guiding principle is to be entertaining above all else. Not one of those bleak bummer shows, the ones where everyone is miserable and it’s always gray outside and they try to trick you into thinking “relentlessly serious and/or sad” is interchangeable with “quality programming.” Again, something fun. That’s why you should check out The Flight Attendant. The Flight Attendant is so much freaking fun.

A quick summary: The Flight Attendant is a new HBO Max series that stars Kaley Cuoco as a kind of boozy party girl and, uh, flight attendant — no false advertising here, people — who hooks up with a mysterious passenger and then wakes up very hungover next to his blood-covered corpse and, whoops, now she’s eyeballs-deep in a twisty murder mystery. Everyone has secrets and may or may not be up to something. She has hallucinations where the dead guy talks her through the various sticky situations she finds herself in through circumstance and self-destructive behavior. Rosie Perez is on the show. Find me one thing not to like in any of that.

It’s not just the mystery that makes it fun, although I will come back to that shortly, because I really want to talk about it. The show is also very stylish, both in how the characters dress and behave and in how it’s shot. The camera angles are sometimes tilted to push someone off to one side of the screen as a means of throwing the viewer off balance. The colors are bright and saturated within an inch of their lives in some parts, and muted in a cold, blue-ish tint in others. Everyone is always going out to nightclubs or on secret fact-finding escapades to mysterious corporate headquarters or funerals and they are always wearing fancy outfits that are the opposite of the sweatpants and thermals you’ve probably been wearing since October. The combination gives it a kind of Mr. Robot meets Killing Eve visual vibe that is a real blast for the eyeballs.

It’s also a blast for the ears, too, thanks to a soundtrack filled with bouncy horns and dinky bonk piano music that can make walking down a sidewalk or sneaking a glance at a stranger feel frenetic or ominous or extremely cool, depending on the circumstances of the particular scene. I love it. I want to have the soundtrack playing while I’m, like, making coffee in the morning, or reheating leftovers in the microwave, possibly in slow motion, just to add a little intrigue to my day. My favorite part about the music might not even be the music itself. It might be the way the show describes the music in its subtitles.

I love dark investigative music.

But all of that means nothing without a solid plot and set of performances. Let’s quickly run through a few things we had going on in the first three episodes that HBO Max released this weekend:

• Kaley Cuoco’s character, Cassie, has a lawyer best friend who is played by Zosia Mamet and has a secret hacker boyfriend and has a bunch of burner phones and might be up to something
• Rosie Perez — whose character has a name, Megan, but my brain can’t be expected to handle that when Rosie Perez is on the screen looking and talking like Rosie Perez — is a fellow flight attendant who is stealing files off her husband’s laptop and selling them to mysterious Asian businessmen and paying off weird dudes with random bottles of pills
• The dead dude worked for a huge shady corporation and his family appears to be into some wild stuff
• There’s a lady named Miranda who is scary as heck and real slick with a butterfly knife and who everyone talks about in hushed tones like she’s Keyser Soze or something
• The FBI is involved and they sure do think Cassie knows more than she’s letting on, which she does
• Sometimes Cassie lies to people and says her name is “Alessandra Ricci,” which is a good reminder that everyone should have a fake name ready just in case you need to investigate a murder you’re suspected of committing or want to have some goofs while making a dinner reservation
• Mine is Mitch Casino and you can’t steal it

I’ll tell you what really makes this show hum so far, though: Kaley Cuoco’s performance. Man, is she ever good as Cassie, a character who flips between bubbly flirt and anxious wreck and bottoming-out drunk and someone who Has Demons In Her Past, as all protagonists do these days, with hers involving flashbacks and dead rabbits and substance abuse issues starting at a very young age. It’s a lot. It might be too much in the hands of a lesser performer. It might still end up being too much if things skid from fun-messy into gratuitous-messy as the show progresses, which is always a risk with this kind of multidirectional mystery layered with ever-growing conspiracies. But she really is so good. Between this show and her voice work on the animated Harley Quinn series (also extremely freaking fun), Kaley Cuoco is carving out a nice little post-Big Bang career arc all over HBO Max. This is a situation I will continue to monitor.

One note in closing, about the great unknown in all of this. As I mentioned above, HBO Max only released the first three episodes of this show so far. The remaining episodes will go up weekly, every Thursday. This is something that streaming services have been tinkering with recently. The Mandalorian drops one episode per week, Ted Lasso also dropped a chunk upfront and then released the remainder of its season one at a time every Friday. People who are now conditioned to binge entire seasons in a weekend might get frustrated by this, the delayed gratification and forced waiting and not getting the answers to things nownowgimmenow. Personally, I like it, especially for a show like this. I like thinking about a mystery between episodes, and I like when a show has a chance to build and remain a part of the cultural conversation for entire weeks instead of fading out after a long weekend, and I do not have the self-control to not rip through the entire season in one sleepless night and ruin my productivity for the next four days. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that the two other shows I mentioned that tried this — The Mandalorian and Ted Lasso — are two of the buzziest shows of the last year or so. I suspect it is not.

But that’s a conversation for another day, probably between a bunch of television critics who think about that stuff a lot because our brains are ruined. You don’t have to worry about it right now. You can just focus on finding cool stuff to watch until we all can and/or want to go outside again. The Flight Attendant is a pretty good place to start.

The San Francisco 49ers picked up a big win on Sunday when they upset the Rams in Los Angeles to move to 5-6 and keep their slim hopes of a playoff berth alive. However, after the win the Niners had to return to a reality in which their immediate future was in limbo as Santa Clara County had announced a three-week lockdown amid spiking COVID-19 cases that would not allow any sporting events or practices, including Niners games and practices.

That meant the Niners, who have home games scheduled for this coming Sunday and the next against the Bills and the Football Team, needed to find a new place to play. On Monday, they announced they’d reached an agreement with the NFL and the Arizona Cardinals to play their games at State Farm Stadium in Glendale for the next two weeks.

The Cardinals are at home next week on Sunday, but the Niners-Bills game is the Monday Night game, so it’ll be a quick turnaround for stadium staff to re-paint the field. The week after, Arizona is headed to the Meadowlands to face the Giants, leaving their stadium open for the Niners to host the Football Team on Sunday.

It’s yet another example of teams having to be flexible amid the ever-changing landscape of the pandemic, as the league tries desperately to get every game played despite climbing case counts on teams and communities having to go back into lockdowns in an effort to mitigate the spread once again as we push into a 10th month of record high cases. The Ravens and Steelers remain unsure of whether their game, initially scheduled for Thanksgiving night, will be played on Tuesday as Baltimore has seen a number of positive tests on the roster, including to Lamar Jackson.

The Niners expressed frustration with the lack of communication from Santa Clara County on the lockdown decision, but if health officials have deemed it necessary to limit gatherings once again and by virtue of the number of people on the field a football game would be included, then there wasn’t significant discussion to be had. They will now go to Arizona where they will hopefully be able to get through the next two weeks.

It’s no secret that Black culture dictates what’s poppin’. While ideas are not always attributed to the creators who bore them, archivists and supporters across media and entertainment have made sure to cite Black influence and provide proper credit to the community. Black public figures have displayed their dominance across fields, particularly when it comes to style, and Black culture’s alignment with fashion brands adds a new mark to their innovation checklist.

To keep up with the mainstream, luxury fashion brands have worked with Black artists in order to appeal to consumer enthusiasm, tapping big names to bring in big bucks across several decades. In 2020, fast fashion brands — affordable apparel based on trends bought in stores and online — have not only utilized the same business model as major brands, but shifted the fashion industry’s power dynamics in the process. Influence no longer lies solely with lavish fashion houses, placing control in the hands of consumers more than ever before. However, fast fashion’s dominance comes with both positive and negative characteristics, especially when it comes to its relationship with Black community.

While fast fashion’s high-speed origins kicked off in the 1960s, the ’90s and early 2000s gave way to the takeover of retailers like Zara and H&M, providing consumers with near-replicas of high-end looks at a reasonable cost. In the internet age, social media makes it easier for fashion to be duplicated and sold in the blink of an eye, with online boutiques like Fashion Nova, PrettyLittleThing, and Boohoo providing affordable, trendy, and quickly-processed styles for men, women, and plus-sized consumers. Their prominence only seems to grow with time — currently, Zara has 41 million Instagram followers, H&M has 36 million, and Fashion Nova has more than 19 million.

How do fast fashion brands determine which public figures to work with? Especially in the social media era, online impact often translates to IRL-influence, and popularity is a quick and easy way to reach more consumers. In this day and age, that means garnering promotion by way of musicians, models, and influencers, and scavenging for intel into what is trending by way of social apps like Instagram and Twitter. Fast fashion brands tap in with Black superstars with universal appeal to cater to all potential buyers, but especially to pull in Black dollars. Per the Selig Center for Economic Growth, Black buying power could result in bringing in an estimated $1.46 trillion by 2021, and may see an increase of 5.4 percent by 2022.

H&M worked with Beyoncé for a beachwear collaboration in 2013, while online boutique Asos is one of the homes for her latest Adidas line, Ivy Park. R&B/hip-hop performer Teyana Taylor teamed up with PrettyLittleThing for brand campaigns and ambassador gigs in 2018 and 2019, while rapper Saweetie worked with the brand for two clothing collections. Cardi B famously released two Fashion Nova clothing collections in 2018 and 2019 — both of which sold out in minutes — and Megan Thee Stallion is reportedly working with the clothing company on a collection of jeans catered to tall women. These artists’ followings, personas, and style have contributed to their rises outside of their work, making them obvious collaborators.

“When something is hot and makes money, people want to… figure out how to do business and get down with it,” designer and stylist Misa Hylton told XXL in 2019. Her influential “hip hop glamorous” style was made famous during her time working with Lil Kim and Mary J. Blige in the 1990s, and the aesthetic appears to have made a comeback in the late 2010s.

Not only are fast fashion collections typically budget-friendly, but many of these stores also take all size ranges into consideration, something that luxury brands don’t always do. For instance, Forever 21, PrettyLittleThing, and Shein often have online sales ranging anywhere between 10 to 90 percent off for their products. Additionally, F21 and PLT carry styles for sizes up to 3X, while Shein accommodates 5XL individuals. Given these credentials, these companies are, far and by, more relatable to the average consumer.

This factor is certainly ironic considering hip-hop in particular runs on braggadocio, often featuring lyrics doting on the fabulous accoutrements of a wealthy lifestyle. From a music standpoint, that respect is shifting as well.

Per Genius, Fashion Nova has been shouted out on songs from spokesperson Cardi B, as well as Meek Mill, French Montana, and Young M.A., while Zara has been mentioned by 21 Savage, Roddy Ricch, and Lil Durk. However, many of the references to fast fashion brands in songs are tongue-in-cheek, often punctuated by bars about the clothing being more cost-efficient than designer duds like Gucci and Chanel, thus making it low class (and even embarrassing) to wear by rapper standards. (“This that Hermes money, this ain’t no Fashion Nova,” Meek raps in “Dangerous” from 2018.)

Cost-effective clothing certainly gives way to cheaper material. Even if rappers believe that fast-fashion is a low-status symbol, it also serves an environmental disservice. Per a 2019 report from the House of Common Environmental Audit Committee, a goal of fast fashion brands is to lower production costs by any means necessary. Although popular, fast fashion’s trendy styles are frequently produced quickly without taking sustainability into consideration.

Per Good On You, which provides expert insight on fashion brands’ sustainability rating, Fashion Nova, Boohoo, and Forever 21 have received “very poor” ratings when it comes to their environmental impact, labor conditions, and animal welfare. However, the site notes that some fast fashion companies are working to become more environmentally conscious; H&M in particular is praised for their clothing recycling program, which allows customers to return clothing in-store in order to reduce the amount of textiles in landfills. However, the brand is chastised by Good On You for adhering to the unsustainable fast fashion business production model, which results in thousands of pieces of fabric being discarded.

On a deeper level, fast fashion brands have come under fire for utilizing and profiting off of aspects of Black culture, but not showing up to support causes important to the Black community.

Collin Karter, known as a stylist to Cardi B, spoke out on his client’s collaborator Fashion Nova for their radio silence regarding the heightened Black Lives Matter movement and calls for change after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in spring 2020.

“For you to be in my email begging for placements but have nothing to say when it comes to this matter is disgusting,” he wrote on Instagram. “You take from the culture and us brown men and [women] for your traffic and profit.” Similarly, beauty YouTuber Jackie Aina called out Fashion Nova and Revolve with her concerns, urging them to “do more” for the amplification of Black issues, especially with the amount of influence fast fashion brands have with consumers and the culture.

With this glaring discrepancy in mind, some brands have attempted to right their wrongs with the community that they owe a great chunk of their popularity and overall aesthetic to. Profits from Saweetie’s 2020 collaboration with PrettyLittleThing went directly to Black Lives Matter. H&M pledged to donate an allotment of $500,000 towards the NAACP, ACLU, and Color of Change. Nevertheless, their allyship can be seen as performative. Despite their vows to support Black and brown bodies, brands continue to be criticized for less-than-savory working conditions and business practices.

While it appears that fast fashion brands are doling out one-sided support of Black lives, there are a few solutions to make fast fashion more acceptable from a moral standpoint. This means pushing for more authentic representation on their websites. A gripe with fast fashion websites that many people carry is that the models appear to be racially-ambiguous or ethnically “exotic,” and that their features, deemed as desirable on light and fair-skinned women, are seen as “ugly” on women of color.

Morally-sound fast fashion business practices should also entail hiring more people of color behind-the-scenes, in order to facilitate stronger and more well-informed design, marketing, and labor decisions. These decisions would not only create sustainable change when it comes to how these companies are perceived socially, but environmentally and ethically. (Offshore manufacturing often relies on female workers in foreign countries, who are forced to accept terrible wages and labor laws in order to survive and provide for their families.)

While it’s easy to disavow luxury brands for tone-deaf fashion mistakes, let’s face it: some people just want to look cute for “the ‘gram,” and fast fashion provides quick and easy opportunities to do just that. However, It’s important for both consumers and artists — regardless of their race — to think about their priorities when buying from and working with not only fast fashion brands, but any business. It’s up to them to weigh all the negatives and positives, and decide whether they are compromising their principals with what they wear and support.

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

‘Tis the season and Amazon is helping ring in the holidays with its Holiday Plays concert series streaming on Amazon Music and Prime Video. The series will include performances from Kiana Lede, Lil Nas X, Miley Cyrus, and more. The latter gets some advice from Lil Nas in a hype video promoting her performance on Tuesday, December 1, but it turns out their ideas of a holiday concert are very different.

Nas, who appears in the silver Santa costume from his “Holiday” video, encourages Miley to put a little more effort into her presentation. “I was thinking, you gotta Christmas up your performance,” he suggests. “Maybe some tinsel.” Cyrus isn’t into the idea, shooting it down because “It doesn’t go with my look.” Her look, by the way, is an all-black semi-punk ensemble including a cheetah print faux fur jacket and a black leather Santa cap. She similarly shoots down Nas’s suggestions for making a Christmas tree into a headpiece (“It doesn’t work with my mullet”), riding a disco ball (“Been there, done that“), and adding empty Amazon boxes as “presents” (“that sounds really disappointing”).

However, rather than calling Miley “difficult” or a diva for rejecting his suggestions, Nas decides that she’s “an icon” before a title card plugs the performance, which is tomorrow at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT. We’ll have to tune in to see if any of Nas’s ideas make it in.

Watch the promo video above.

America’s relationship with fast food is complicated. On the one hand, we know that the food quality is questionable. It’s also generally unhealthy, bad for the environment, and overall more expensive than picking up the same ingredients at the market. But god damn if it’s not tasty, convenient, and cheap.

The temptation is real. Especially during tough times when we’re all looking for any port in a storm.

For all of its bad, fast food has also given us taco shells made out of Doritos, chicken sandwiches worth lining up around the block for, tricked-out secret items, and, most delicious of all, breakfast menus. If there is one thing we can all agree on in this broken and divided country, it’s that fast-food breakfast menus are, for lack of a better phrase, f*cking awesome. We aren’t living in a world where the fast-food breakfast game is dominated by just one drive-thru (McDonald’s) anymore, either.

While fast-food sales, in general, are on the decline as American’s opt for healthier dining choices, breakfast options are exploding. To help you sort the gluttonous wheat from the chaff, we’ve ranked all the best breakfast items across the fast-food universe. Let us be clear, this isn’t a ranking of every fast food breakfast item ever… we (and hopefully you) don’t have the time for that. Instead, what you’ll find here is only the best of the best, ensuring that no matter what you order from this list, it’ll be well worth the detour on your way to work.

Strap in and let’s blast off, or you know, wait patiently in a 10-minute drive thru-line with all the other breakfast fanatics!

10. Burger King — Double Sausage, Egg, And Cheese Croissanwich

Burger King was the first fast-food chain to offer a Croissanwich and the second fast-food chain to offer a breakfast menu. And while the BK breakfast menu doesn’t compare to its biggest competition, McDonald’s, their Double Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Croissanwich is still pretty damn good.

This item is heavy and decadent with two sausage patties topped with American cheese and a thick patty of egg sandwiched between two extra buttery croissant buns. It just might be the best item on BK’s entire menu.

9. Carl’s Jr — The Breakfast Burger

With the exception of our number 1 pick (spoilers) we tried to keep this list to one breakfast item per chain. So when it came down to choosing between Carl’s Jr’s Breakfast Burger and their Monster Biscuit, things got tough. Carl’s Jr fresh bakes their breakfast biscuits, so their biscuit sandwiches are some of the best, but the Breakfast Burger is one of the most unique breakfast items in the entire fast-food universe.

Today, we’re giving uniqueness the edge.

Featuring a charbroiled beef patty, crispy bacon, egg, melted American cheese, and mini hash browns, the Breakfast Burger is an absolute flavor bomb. It’s got superb texture thanks to the bacon and hash browns, a mouthwatering melange of savory ingredients, and it’s one of the only fast-food burgers you can get with an egg on it.

That counts for something!

8. Jack in the Box — Bacon, Egg and Cheese Biscuit

Jack in the Box’s Bacon, Egg, and Cheese biscuit is built as basic as a breakfast item can be. Hell, it’s such a boring combination that you’ll probably need two just to feel satisfied. Luckily eating two is easy because these things are delicious!

They begin with a freshly cracked egg, top it with a simple slice of American cheese — which melts quickly thanks to the heat of the egg — throw on a few slices of bacon (never enough), and sandwich the elements between a buttermilk biscuit. That’s it, no sausage patty, no chicken, nothing!

But that’s what makes it work.

Without a thicker portion of meat, the egg to cheese to bread ratio is altered, resulting in each bite being crispy buttery perfection that melts in your mouth the way a good breakfast should.

7. Wendy’s Breakfast Baconator

The Baconator is one of the greatest fast-food cheeseburgers ever, so why shouldn’t it work as a breakfast burger? It definitely does, but if you’re looking for something quite as good as the OG Baconator you might be left disappointed.

Don’t get us wrong, the Breakfast Baconator is delicious, you’ve got Wendy’s soft and spongey brioche buns, tasty applewood smoked bacon, freshly cracked egg (always an improvement over more instant options) a double portion of American cheese, and a delectable Swiss cheese sauce to pull it all together.

It’s tasty, it’s just not quite as good as a stock Baconator. And since Wendy’s serves their entire menu all day long, why wouldn’t you just opt for the original?

6. Dunkin — Sausage, Egg & Cheese Croissant

I have a real problem with Dunkin’. Personally, I hate that a large donut corporation is single-handedly killing mom and pop donut shops across America, especially considering Dunkin’ makes pretty shitty donuts. Having said that though, just about everything else Dunkin’ does is delicious.

Their coffee, their bagels, and especially their sandwiches.

Dunkin’s best sandwich hands down is the sausage, egg, and cheese croissant. Each element on its own is decent-to-good at best, but when this smoked sausage patty, fluffy egg, and American cheese come together between a croissant bun, it veers toward breakfast perfection.

Question: How is it that Dunkin’ makes a delicious croissandwich but can’t for the life of them make a solid donut?

5. Taco Bell — Breakfast Crunch Wrap

The Breakfast Crunch Wrap, sometimes referred to as the AM Crunch Wrap, is the type of dish that makes your stomach hurt just by looking at it. The look, the smell, each sodium-rich bite — it’s a recipe for a storm in your stomach. But goddam are these things good.

Trust us, the AM Crunch Wrap is worth the pain.

The winning combination of bacon, cheese, egg, hash browns, and creamy Jalapeño sauce is wrapped up in a giant warm tortilla. That’s Mexican-inspired breakfast bliss, right there. Eat it when it’s still piping hot.

4. Chick-fil-A — Chick-n-Minis

Chick-fil-A has a pretty robust breakfast menu, including both a bacon and sausage egg and cheese biscuit, but at the end of the day, it’s chicken that the brand does best. We hate that these are ranked so high because they seem so basic, they’re just Chick-fil-A’s nuggets between lightly buttered yeast rolls, but if you’ve ever had an order of Chick-n-Minis you know that these are almost bafflingly delicious.

Choose your favorite Chick-fil-A sauce and get to dipping! You might even find yourself ordering these off-hours.

3. McDonald’s — Sausage McMuffin with Egg

We named McDonald’s Sausage McMuffin with Egg the chain’s best breakfast sandwich in our McDonald’s Breakfast Sandwich ranking, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone to find it on this list. This thing is built perfectly, the egg, sausage and cheese meld together in perfect harmony with each bite, and the toasted English muffin produces the right type of contrasting texture to pull it all together.

Serve a Sausage McMuffin with Egg on any other bread — a buttery biscuit, a crispy piece of toast, etc — and it just doesn’t work the same way.

2. Del Taco — Huevos Rancheros Epic Burrito

The fast-food universe has a serious lack of breakfast burritos. We get it, breakfast sandwiches rule, but have you ever had a breakfast burrito? They’re fucking amazing! The only reason breakfast burritos aren’t more popular in fast food is because the good ones actually require time and effort to make, and, let’s face it, time and effort are the enemies of the business model.

But Del Taco’s Huevos Rancheros Epic Burrito is pretty solid. Not “corner taco shop”-level, but very tasty.

Del Taco slow cooks their beans, blowing Taco Bell’s beans out of the water. The scrambled eggs here taste freshly made, you’ve got grated cheddar cheese, no powdery corn starch from the pre-shredded stuff, a mix of salsa, sour cream, and avocado, and mouthwatering chorizo sausage to pull it all together.

How can this possibly get better? With some chunks of freshly cut avocado of course! But if you really want to take it to the next level, have them add hash browns or Del Taco’s crinkle-cut fries into the burrito. Then you’ve got yourself a near-perfect breakfast.

1. McDonald’s — Hash Browns

Is it a little bit basic to give the number one spot to a hash brown, which isn’t so much a meal as it is a side dish?

Yes. Yes, it is.

But ask yourself this: if you’ve ever been upset about missing McDonald’s breakfast, what were you the maddest about missing, that McMuffin or the hash browns that come alongside it? We’re willing to bet it was the hash browns. These things are just too good, they’re perfectly crispy on the outside with hot molten potato on the inside, and they’re every bit as greasy as they are delicious.

They’re the type of food you order two of, even though you only ever need one.

After you’ve had one McDonald’s hash brown, you’ll find yourself forever comparing every hash brown patty you ever eat to it. Spoiler: you’ll always come up disappointed. Diners can’t match this. Even home cooks struggle to beat it.

So, is it basic? Sure. But it’s also a testament to the fact that deliciousness wins over complexity every time.

Evan Turner’s career never quite materialized as expected when he was the second overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft out of Ohio State, but he established himself as a solid role player, particularly in his years with the Celtics and Blazers, carving out a 10-year career that has apparently come to an end after a half a season in Atlanta before being dealt to Minnesota where he did not play.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Turner has reached an agreement to return to Boston, not as a player, but as an assistant coach where he’ll focus on player development.

Turner has some coaching experience in The Basketball Tournament with the Ohio State alumni team, Carmen’s Crew, and clearly that experience plus his final years in the NBA as he shifted more into the “veteran leadership” role has made him realize coaching was where he wanted his career to go once his playing days were done. That decision apparently came this offseason to make that transition from playing to coaching and he’ll join a strong staff in Boston that will surely help him grow as a coach and learn a lot about that side of the game as he looks to launch his career on the bench.

Despite coming hard out of the gate with violence-fueled street anthems, 18-year-old Memphis rapper NLE Choppa recently turned over a new leaf and seems to be pursuing wellness over profit or cultivating a tough-guy image. He’s promoted plant-based diets and meditation, started rapping about socially conscious subjects and made it a point to provide a more positive role model for his fans to imitate. To that end, Choppa is trying to expand his list of collaborators to include other rappers who share this outlook.

Posting a snippet of one of his new, positive-minded songs to Instagram, Choppa reached out to J. Cole, writing, “Protect the mind and soul, protect the body too. Ain’t dropping new music til y’all wake up,” and adding, “Want @realcoleworld on this.” It certainly wouldn’t be unprecedented for Cole to work with artists outside of his label and trademark content. In 2019, he went on a tear, dropping guest verses with the likes of 21 Savage, Jay Rock, Moneybagg Yo, and Young Thug — all artists you might not have expected to see him collaborate with under normal circumstances.

Unfortunately for Choppa, Cole also vowed that his verse for Gang Starr’s “Family And Loyalty” — a return to form, to be sure — was his last for a while. And while rappers change their minds about this sort of thing all the time, Cole seems like he’ll be busy churning out sneakers and (apparently) trying out for the NBA. Maybe Choppa, who was a high school basketball star himself, can play him for it.

NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

As the expression goes, a Baby Yoda by any other name… is still Baby Yoda. In the latest episode of The Mandalorian, “Chapter 13: The Jedi,” Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano reveals that the Child / Baby Yoda’s real name is Grogu. Dave Filoni, who wrote and directed the episode, told Vanity Fair that “the name has been around for a while. [Shworunner Jon Favreau] told me early on in season one what it would be, which made me start to think about how people could learn the name. This gave me the idea that Ahsoka, who is very compassionate, would be able to connect with the Child, and that without words they could probably communicate through memories and experiences. Through that connection, she learns the name and then tells Mando and the audience.”

It’s nice that Baby Yoda has an official (and American Dad-indebted?) name, and his cooing reaction to Mando saying “Grogu” was adorable. But, c’mon. If Disney expects anyone to call him anything other than Baby Yoda, they are sadly mistaken, as evidenced by reactions to the name reveal (hopefully it didn’t cause any wildfires) online.

There’s about a one percent chance that I will call Baby Yoda “Grogu” at any point in the future, which is still one percent higher than calling Mando “Din Djarin.”

(Via Vanity Fair)

Kevin Sorbo’s taking his obsession with “owning libs” to the silver screen, but perhaps he should have done his homework a bit more before he got everything in the can.

Sorbo has made a new movie about Bernie Sanders called Free Lunch Express, in which he plays the ghost of George Washington. The movie frames Sanders as a Stalinist hypocrite and beleaguers the concept of socialism. Sorbo called it “Airplane! meets Jojo Rabbit,” which would imply that it’s actually somehow funny.

But based on an interview with the Daily Beast, it doesn’t seem like he actually knows much about Bernie Sanders. The journalist giving the interview, Marlow Stern, points out some inaccuracies in the film during the interview. Pretty basic things, like when Sanders first moved to Vermont. But very basic facts about his life and his political beliefs are clearly drowned in misinformation and right-wing gossip:

How do you feel about Bernie Sanders? Because the film does paint him as a Stalinist.

He did have his honeymoon in Russia. And from what I know about the guy, he certainly is a believer in the communist and socialist system.

He visited the Soviet Union after he married Jane in the late ’80s, but that was as part of his duties as mayor to promote a sister-city program. It wasn’t a honeymoon.

Oh, it wasn’t a honeymoon?

Nah, it wasn’t. And you know, a lot is made in the film of his lake house. But it’s a home that Sanders purchased for half a million dollars in Vermont, yet in the film it’s this giant palatial mansion.

Oh, really? OK. I don’t know. I only read what I can read about the guy. I mean, he admits to being a socialist. I don’t know where socialism has ever worked, to be honest with you.

Sorbo appears to blow off the critiques, saying “I only read what I can read about the guy,” but it’s clear that Sorbo is getting bad information. He deferred to the filmmakers when it came to any problems or falsehoods in a movie that reportedly seems to struggle with understanding the difference between socialism and the German Nazi party.

It’s a pretty wild interview all around: Sorbo addresses some sexual inappropriateness that was alleged against him, revealed that apparently his son is running his lib-owning Twitter account, and talked a lot about baseless allegations of voter fraud. As the headline rightfully framed, it was extremely weird to see the guy who used to be Hercules peddling in baseless right-wing internet falsehoods. But in a year like this, well, it’s best not to be surprised by anything anymore.

[via Daily Beast]

The holiday season is officially upon us. 2020 is nearly (finally!) over. The weather is getting crisper by the day and the halls are being decked. It’s time to drink some delicious and heavy-hitting craft beer as the year winds down.

This month’s list of craft beer releases leans wholly into winter warmers, Christmas and holiday beers, and fresh brews that suit quaffing right now. That translates to lots of spices and orange oils, with hefty ABVs and even heftier flavor notes. Next month, everyone will be bandying on about “sober January” and trying to start 2021 off with a bang, so now’s the time to sit back next to a fire and savor something decadent and local.

Hopefully, the eight beers we’re giving love to this month will pique your interest and inspire you to explore exciting brews made near you or sold at your closest bottle shop. These picks represent regional craft beer releases from breweries that we vouch for, along with seasonal bottles we’ve been looking forward to tasting again.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST DROP: Alaskan Limited Edition 2020 Smoked Porter

Style: Smoked Porter
ABV: 6.5%

The Beer:

While this beer is a “limited edition,” it is produced every year and dropped for the winter season. This classic beer from up in Juneau, Alaska, embraces the iconic “rauchbier” from Germany’s premier beer-brewing city, Bamberg. The alder smoked malts used in the initial fermentation are what give this beer its distinct smokiness. The rest is pure Alaskan water and Pacific Northwest hops.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a subtle campfire smoke up top with a nod to a fatty smoked salmon or bacon (depending on the age of the brew). The bitterness is mild with an echo of hops lingering far in the background. There’s a hint of molasses sweetness in the smoky malts that has touches of a smoked gouda with an ashen edge.

Bottom Line:

This beer is always wonderful when it’s released. But it really shines if you lay it down in a cellar for a few years. All those flavor notes will dial-in and smooth out into something truly special.

SOUTHWEST DROP: Anchor Christmas Ale

Style: Winter Warmer
ABV: 7%

The Beer:

Every year for the last 45 years, San Francisco’s Anchor Steam has released a special winter warmer, Christmas Ale. This year’s release is the first from the new Brewmaster, Tom Riley. The beer is a little different every year. This has holiday spices folded into the brew and holds the highest yet ABV for any Anchor Christmas release.

Tasting Notes:

The beer leans into fresh espresso laced with dark chocolate bitterness. Those notes lead towards a creamy nature closer to a choco-eggnog latte with plenty of that brown ale spice and depth. There’s a bit of a graham cracker maltiness underneath it all with a subtle sweetness to counterpoint that coffee/chocolate bitter bite.

Bottom Line:

A six-pack of this should be in your fridge this time of year. It makes for a great pre or post-meal sipper.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN DROP: Upslope Wild Christmas Ale With Citrus and Cinnamon

Style: Aged Sour Ale
ABV: 9.4%

The Beer:

Upslope’s yearly Lee Hill Series Christmas releases have become must-haves amongst beer-connoisseurs. This year’s release is a blend of American and French oak-aged sour ales that have been spiked with bergamot orange juice, orange zest, and Saigon cinnamon in the brew. The results are a uniquely delicious winter ale that won’t be seen again.

Tasting Notes:

The orange really shines through with a candied edge. There’s a tartness that’s more fruity than funky that reminds you of cranberry sauce spiked with plenty of cinnamon. The finish is mildly dry, fruity-tart, and full of Christmas spices.

Bottom Line:

If you can get your hands on this, buy a couple. They’re tasty AF and suit this time of year to a tee.

SOUTHERN DROP: Saint Arnold Christmas Ale

Style: Old Ale
ABV: 7.7%

The Beer:

Texas’ Saint Arnold puts out quality seasonal brews that peaks with their Christmas Ale. The malts bring about a great depth in the brew but the nuance here is in the Pacific Northwest hops used to spice up the beer.

Tasting Notes:

This really hits those “winter ale” notes on the head. There’s an alcohol-driven sweet caramel maltiness that provides a solid foundation for mildly floral and bitter hop notes. Those hops have a little bit of a bite as a subtle spice kicks around in the background.

Bottom Line:

This is a really sippable pour. It’s refreshing yet filling. It’s nuanced yet full of flavor.

MIDWEST DROP: Revolution Brewing Fistmas

Style: American Amber
ABV: 6.5%

The Beer:

This Chicago beer isn’t the lightest ABV beer on the list, but it’s the lightest drinking one. The red ale is spiked with fresh ginger and orange peels to add that “holiday” edge to the suds. The end results are a crushable beer with no rough edges.

Tasting Notes:

Sweet caramel malts with an almost sourdough bread-energy mingle with that sharp orange on the greeting. The bready malts, fresh and spicy ginger, and orange oils combine with the malty sweetness to create a velvet sipper.

Bottom Line:

These go down very easily but they are not session beers … no matter how easy they are to smash.

NORTHEAST DROP: Samuel Adams Holiday Porter

Style: American Porter
ABV: 5.8%

The Beer:

This limited-edition beer from Samuel Adams hits the perfect wintry spot right now. The beer is a classic brew that utilizes English malts and German hops to create a well-crafted wintry treat in beer form.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a decent depth to the beer, with plenty of bitter chocolate leading towards a nutty toffee malty sweetness. The bitterness zeroes in on an espresso bean sharpness as a very distant echo of bitter hops pop in the background. The end is a little spicy and, dare we say, comes with a hint of smoke.

Bottom Line:

The real shame of this beer is that it’s only sold in the Samuel Adams Winter Classics collection and not individually. Still, it’s worth grabbing for this and the Winter Lager this time of year (and it’s available nationwide).

WILD CARD DROP: Sierra Nevada Celebration Fresh Hop IPA

Style: American IPA
ABV: 6.8%

The Beer:

This is both a classic winter craft brew and a classic IPA. The beer is brewed with fresh hops from the beginning of the harvest to really amp up the West Coast dankness of the body while leaning into the wintry aspects of a winter ale. It’s a bit of magic in a bottle.

Tasting Notes:

Toasted malts and dank pine-resin hops beckon you in. The malts become sweeter as the sip progresses and the hops bloom with citrus. The end is a matrix of dankness, citrus, and caramel malts with hints of spice that just works.

Bottom Line:

You don’t have to love IPAs to love this beer. It’s just so damn easy to drink, so bright, and so full of wintry vibes.

INT’L PICK OF THE MONTH: Dupont Avec Les Bons Voeux

Style: Saison/Farmhouse Ale
ABV: 9.5%

The Beer:

Brasserie Dupont is one of the most heralded Belgian breweries, full stop. Their Saison Dupont is beloved by beer aficionados the world over. This expression is a special holiday release that used to only go to family and friends of the brewery. It leaked out to the public and became so popular that it got a wide release and is now considered one of the best holiday beers there is.

Tasting Notes:

The beer is richly aromatic from the moment it nears your nose with hints of clove, green banana, black pepper, and lemon curd. The malts are bold, sweet, and creamy as the grassy tart nature of the lemon mingles with a distant spiciness and fruitiness. The sip ends dry while still feeling full-bodied and very silky.

Bottom Line:

This is one of our all-time favorite beer of any season. It’s also available in the U.S. in most well-stocked bottle shops or online for as little as $8 for a 12-oz., corked bottle.