Category: News

Most of us had one of those neighbors growing up—the one who gave us the stink eye if we so much as looked at their perfectly mowed lawn and shooed us away if even our shadows crept onto their flower beds. There’s a reason “Get off my lawn!” was a meme before memes were even a thing.

Then there are neighbors who rock. The ones who smile and wave through the window and share their fresh-baked cookies with the neighborhood kids. The folks who genuinely enjoy the vibrant energy that children bring to the block and embrace the idea of “it takes a village.”

When one of the guys behind Canyon Chasers, a motorcycle enthusiast website, shared a video of how he handled a kid who kept playing in his driveway when he wasn’t home, it wasn’t clear at first which kind of neighbor he was going to be. But then he explains how his security footage showed a preschooler riding his bike around his flat concrete driveway every evening, and how he decided to do something about it.

And what ensued was the best Anti-Get-Off-My-Lawn move that ended up pleasing more neighbors than he anticipated.

How I Deal With Kids Playing in My Driveway | The Saga of My Driveway Racetrack

www.youtube.com

How fun would that have been when you were a kid? And how great that he made a new one each time it rained? And how delightful is it that people of all ages showed up to enjoy it?

Imagine a world where all neighbors were this thoughtful and generous with their time and property. More of this, please.

UK grime MC Octavian is set to release his hotly-anticipated debut album this year, teeing up the project — which is executive produced by grime pioneer Skepta — with a new single dedicated to building cross-cultural connections across the pond. “Famous” ponders the counterintuitive aspects of the institutions — fake friends, untrustworthy relationships, and lost contacts — alongside Gunna and Saint JHN.

While the chorus tackles the above drawbacks of fame, the three performers’ verses focus on the positive aspects, creating an interesting contrast between the theme and their day-to-day existences. Each of them is also relatively new to the spotlight; Octavian first broke out in 2018 with his Spaceman mixtape, Gunna blew up as a mentor of Young Thug, breaking out in 2018 on the Drip Harder joint tape with Lil Baby, and Saint JHN likewise started to gain public acclaim after a 2018 co-sign from Solange.

Octavian’s upcoming album is rumored to be titled Love Evol and “Famous” was preceded by the Future-featuring “Rari.” It’s clear from the features so far that Octavian is aiming at stardom on both sides of the pond. With Gunna, Future, and Saint JHN fans checking him out, he’s halfway there.

Listen to “Famous” featuring Gunna and Saint Jhn above.

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

The synergy between music and whiskey is undeniable. How often do you pour a particular dram and the spin just the right tune to accompany it? It’s a real part of the music and whiskey experience and late distilling legend Dave Pickerell wanted to take it even deeper. Pickerell partnered with the legendary rock band Metallica to take this symbiotic relationship between booze and music into the juice of a whiskey, quite literally, with Blackened American Whiskey.

But, it wasn’t to be. Pickerell unexpectedly passed in 2018 before he could finish the project. In June of 2019, Rob Dietrich — the former head distiller of Colorado’s Stranahan’s — joined the Blackened Whiskey team as the new master distiller and blender. “It was really important for me to be an authentic brand and not just like a gimmick,” Dietrich told me. “This goes back to Dave Pickerell’s talent and years in the industry and literally tying in the music.”

When Metallica came up with the idea to create a whiskey, they wanted to craft something that independently stood on its own. Dietrich remembers that “they didn’t want to approach a whiskey that was already being made and say, ‘Hey, can you make a Metallica line of whiskey and we’ll share royalties?’” Dietrich then used terms like “a thousand percent,” “perfectionists,” and “fingers in the process” to describe what Metallica wanted their whiskey to be and that’s how they found Dave Pickerell. And Pickerell delivered with a new way to age whiskey in the barrel.

So what exactly makes this whiskey so special? It’s something called the “sonic enhancement process,” Dietrich says. This is a method in which Metallica’s music is played to the whiskey. It’s trademarked as Black Noise. They believe that this is where the magic happens. And yes, you’re allowed to roll your eyes. But you also have to read about how this works too.

So, Pickerell worked with Meyer Sound — the sound company that provides all of Metallica’s traveling sound gear and engineering — and they provided a device in which music is played at a low frequency. In fact, it’s played so low — between four and eleven hertz — that you can’t even hear the song. So what’s going on? “It vibrates the barrel so vigorously that the whiskey is moving in and out of the wood at a very rapid pace,” Dietrich explains. “So, the whiskey is actually interacting with the wood at a much more rapid pace than if it was just sitting there.”

In order to prove the science behind the sonic enhancement, Pickerell compared two barrels he’d been finishing in Spanish oak with one exposed to Black Noise and one not. He took samples from both barrels and sent them off to a lab to test the results about how the juice interaction with the wood. Dietrich says that “the barrel that had the sonic enhancement process to it, every single one of the flavor levels were elevated.” He adds, “I was completely blown away by that. We’re taking traditional methods and now we’re playing this innovation of sound literally using Metallica’s music to help make and change the whiskey.”

If your eyes are still rolling in disbelief and skepticism, you’re not alone. Despite knowing the brilliance of Pickerell and Dietrich, I too was a skeptic. Then I tried some.

Blackened American Whiskey

ABV: 45%
Distillery: Sweet Amber Distilling Company, Mineville, NY (Sourced)
Average Price: $149.99 (includes double vinyl box set)

The Whiskey:

Blackened is a blend of bourbon and rye whiskeys from Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Canada. It is aged in brand new white American oak barrels for an average of eight years and cask finished in Spanish brandy barrels. During that finishing process, the whiskey uses sonic enhancement called Black Noise. The low hertz vibrations of the music bash the blackened brandy casks, shaking the whiskey and allowing it to take in more flavor from the wood, or so they say.

Tasting Notes:

Possessing a warm amber hue with the aroma of oak and stone fruit (particularly apricot and cherry), this whiskey lures you in. Baking spices, such as cinnamon and clove, dance with honey and vanilla notes for a creamy mouthfeel. The lingering finish has subtle hints of honey and maple without being overwhelmingly sweet.

Bottom Line:

It doesn’t taste gimmicky after all (sigh of relief)! This stuff is quality. Scientifically, the low-hertz vibrations enhance the whiskey, but I say it’s the blend of North American whiskeys that create this flavorful palate. It’s worth every penny down to the very last drop, plus it comes with a double vinyl set. Batch 100 is as in-your-face as Metallica’s discography, and with the higher proof tastes exceptional in an old fashioned.

After NBA players decided to go on strike instead of play three scheduled playoff games on Wednesday, Knicks forward Moe Harkless took to Instagram to document his confrontation with Portland police during his time playing for the Trail Blazers.

Harkless explained that as he headed toward the Trail Blazers’ arena with his 12- and 14-year-old nephews, officers pulled him over before he could even pull onto the freeway and toward the Moda Center in downtown Portland, and would not explain why. The officers demanded his license and registration but would not answer questions regarding what he had done wrong.

It was only after they checked his records and realized he was a star for the local NBA team that he was allowed to leave and received an apology from the officer.

“See why we can’t ‘just play,’” Harkless said in his Instagram post. “Because even when we do, we’re still looked at as less when we step off that court, we’re still targeted by officers when we step foot off that court.”

Harkless is not in the Bubble, but his story is yet another from Black athletes — some of whom, like Sterling Brown of the Milwaukee Bucks and Thabo Sefolosha of the Houston Rockets, play in the NBA — who have been racially profiled and treated aggressively by law enforcement.

The NBA postponed games for the past two days and likely won’t resume the postseason until Saturday amid players protesting the latest incident of police shooting a Black man, when Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The Milwaukee Bucks chose to sit out their Game 5 in protest, leading to the rest of the league choosing to follow suit, as well as the WNBA, MLS, some MLB teams, the ATP and WTA (after Naomi Osaka announced she wouldn’t play Thursday) and even the NHL on Thursday. On Wednesday night, players met in a tense meeting in Orlando, which involved reports of the Lakers and Clippers pushing to not play the remainder of the season (although recent reports indicate LeBron James was maybe not as adamant about not playing as was initially reported) and players held another meeting on Thursday morning. In that meeting, it was decided to continue playing, but also to continue coming up with a plan of action and some demands they want to see from ownership in stepping up further alongside of them in the fight for social justice.

While the players were meeting on Thursday, the NBA’s Board of Governors did the same and, according to ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan, Michael Jordan served as something of an intermediary between the players and the owners. Per MacMullan, Jordan spoke with Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook about what players wanted, and pushed owners to listen to the players in this moment.

The owners held a virtual meeting on Thursday morning and, it has been confirmed by two participants, Jordan was a voice of reason, urging the other owners to allow the players to express their frustrations and concerns before offering any of their own solutions.

“Right now, listening is better than talking,” Jordan told the group, according to sources.

Players are trying to come together on what they want and it was never realistic to expect one (or even two) meetings in a short span to fully produce a plan of action, and it seems Jordan is urging his fellow team owners to give the players time to do that. Jordan is obviously the owner most connected to the players as the only former player (and only Black) majority team owner, so it makes sense that he would be this kind of voice of reason in the moment.

Now it’s on the players to articulate what they want from owners, and more importantly it’s on owners to heed Jordan’s advice and take to heart what players ask them to do.

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

Cobra Kai: Seasons 1 & 2 (Netflix, Friday) — Season 3 of this crowd-pleasing arrival will arrive in 2021, but you can catch up to your heart’s content because Ralph Macchio promised us that “[t]he best is yet to come” for this series. Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso faces off again with William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence and both of their respective dojo members, and the show’s still got the same energy as the original movies. May the franchise live on as long as possible.

Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness: (HBO Max, Thursday) The star of 2014’s Meet the Patel is back to mull over deep conversations in a four-part season. Maybe some of life’s more fundamental questions shall be solved, but the journey to several different continents will fuel enough escapism that answers might not matter.

The Republican National Convention 2020 (Everywhere on TV, 9:00 p.m.) — The RNC wraps up tonight while taking over networks and plenty of cable coverage as well. Tonight’s speakers include President Trump, Ben Carson, Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Ivanka Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Ja’Ron Smith, Kevin McCarthy, and Dana White.

HBO Max Summer Comedy Specials (HBO Max) — The hottest new premium streaming service is digging deeper into the stand-up comedy game with specials that began dropping last Thursday. The series will culminate with a multi-act special from the HA Comedy Festival hosted by Latinx comedian Anjelah Johnson, who welcomes special guests Danny Trejo, Eva Longoria, and Eugenio Derbez. Solo sets from Rose Matafeo, Beth Stelling, James Veitch are also dropping.

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Lil Rel Howery, Amber Riley

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Chris Christie, Gregory Porter

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Maren Morris

Going against most standard business advice, Bill Penzey has never hesitated to make his beliefs known to the people who buy his products. The outspoken CEO of Penzey’s Spices, America’s largest independent spice retailer, made headlines when he directly called out President Trump’s racism after his election, and this February he published a public statement decrying the “corruption and cruelty” he says have taken over the Republican party.

Penzey, whose business headquarters reside just outside of Milwaukee, has been openly supportive of the protests against racial injustice taking place all over the nation. But after protests in Kenosha became riotous, someone wrote him a letter suggesting that if it were his store being looted, he’d be singing a different tune.

Bill Penzey pondered this idea. Then he sent out a letter to subscribers and explained that no, he actually wouldn’t.

The letter reads:

“Someone wrote to say that you would be singing a different tune if it was your store being looted. I’m by no means perfect but seriously no, I wouldn’t. Human life means everything; stuff, not so much.

Hearing that the NBA Milwaukee Bucks, in response to yet another police shooting of a Black man, this time just south of Milwaukee in Kenosha, Wisconsin, chose in unison to walk away from yesterday’s playoff game and were willing to take the loss, for me brought such s asens of hope that the tide will no longer stay unturned.

I agree with them. To me today just feels a lot like April 4, 2018, the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination. That day we paid our people and kept things shut because that was not a day for commerce. After some early inquiries about doing the same today it became clear that we were able to do that because we planned ahead and because it was a time before the Coronavirus. To do that today would mean calling to reschedule all of today’s touchless pickup orders. As parents of young kids entering back to school phase with all the extra hoops the virus demands, I get that now is not the time to add extra burdens. So no shut down today.

But what to do? My mind went to that idea that we would feel differently if it was our store that was looted. When I asked around: “What if we looted our own store?” What if we took a snapshot of our Kenosha store’s inventory tonight and simply gave away exactly that amount of inventory in the coming weeks? Unlike the Minneapolis Uptown store that was in the center of things, our Kenosha location is out by the highway and does not have much chance of looting itself. What if we just gave our spices and seasonings to food pantries and gift boxes to organizations trying to raise money to fund change?

Everyone here was like yes, let’s do that. Even my mom at dinner last night cheered on the idea. And as much as we could just look online for worthy recipients, with so many customers in the Kenosha area I would like to start with asking for your suggestions of where things should go…

And please learn the difference between those who simply say law and order over and over again and those who do the hard work of actually achieving it. Until we have a president that respects the laws of this country we won’t have order; it’s that simple.

And once again, hats off to the Milwaukee Bucks. So much of America’s future comes down to voter turnout in the city of Milwaukee. That the members of the Bucks are time and again working to earn the moral authority to ask for that Vote is something big. That their voices reach out to our suburbs and beyond is honest cause for hope. Well done.

And please send your thoughts to those living through the horrors of Hurricane Laura right now. They will need our compassion.

Thanks for healing the world.

Bill”

And for the record, Penzey’s has actually already been affected directly by looting, which is what he’s referring to when he mentions the Minneapolis Uptown store. “If sweeping up some glass and replacing a couple windows is a piece of everybody realizing the costs of racism-fueled police violence towards minorities is no longer affordable, then so be it,” Bill Penzey wrote in an email to customers at the end of May, after the Minneapolis store suffered property damage and looting in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing.

This is what they did with their boarded up windows:

Way to use your platform and power as a business owner to advocate for change and support those on the ground doing the work, Bill.

The South’s Defenders monument in Downtown Lake Charles, Louisiana has been a bone of contention for locals. The statue was first erected in 1915 to recognize local residents and those throughout the south who fought for the Confederacy.

After George Floyd was murdered in March, there were renewed calls to remove the statue. His death inspired many to reconsider Confederate monuments and at least 59 have been removed in recent months.

“The people of Lake Charles and Calcasieu Parish once again voice their desire to destroy the statue and remove the memory of slavery from its literal and figurative pedestal within the community,” a Change.org campaign calling for its removal read.

A special city council meeting was called in July to decide the statue’s fate. Before the meeting, parish administrator Bryan Beam said he’d received 945 written responses from the community and 878 were against its removal and just 67 were in favor.

John Guidroz / Twitter

It’s hard to understand why anyone would want a statue honoring a pro-slavery movement that attempted to destroy the United States of America. But the council sided with them, voting 10 to 5 to keep the statue up.

The decision didn’t stop local residents’ calls to tear it down.

“We’re beginning a series of events predicated on making sure the monument comes down or making sure that we create as much noise until it comes down,” Darius Clayton told the AP. “If they think we are done, they are sorely mistaken.”

After the decision, protesters launched a boycott of businesses with ties to the council’s board members.

On Thursday morning, it appears as though an act of God made the final decision on the statue. Hurricane Laura touched down at 1 am, bringing 130-mile-per hour gusts of wind – some of the strongest the region has ever seen.

The hurricane knocked down the monument at the soldier’s ankles, toppling it to the ground.

The soldier now lies atop the monuments granite steps, motionless, much like his fallen brethren during the war the claimed so many American lives.

via The Advocate / Twitter

“Lake Charles and Calcasieu Parish has been filled with controversy and tension after our parish government by a vote of 10-5 refused to take down the Confederate South’s Defenders Monument,” Davante Lewis, director of public affairs at The Louisiana Budget Project, said on Twitter.

“Hurricane Laura had other plans and brought it down herself.”

“My dad sent me some pics of the South’s Defenders monument in Downtown Lake Charles post-Laura and… I think some people may be happy about this,” Twitter user Andrew Beam said.

There’s no word on whether the statue will be fixed and put back on its pedestal. But let’s hope the residents and city council of Lake Charles and Calcasieu Parish see the significance of the statue’s toppling and leave it, as well as the rest of what the Confederacy stood for, in the past.

Plus, in the aftermath of a hurricane, the town should focus on efforts to rebuild the entire community instead of ripping it apart.

Gus Dapperton continues to hone his wistful pop sound through his recent singles “Post Humorous” and “First Aid.” The singer is gearing up for the release of his sophomore record, Orca, and has appeased fans with a long-awaited video for “Post Humorous.”

Directed by Matthew Dillon Cohen, the video depicts the singer as a rising stand-up comic. The singer takes the stage to a reserved crowd, eventually winning them over with his quips. Dapperton and Cohen had originally planned on linking up to film the visual several months ago, but production was halted due to the coronavirus lockdown. After four months, the two safely linked up to finish the filming process.

Dapperton opened up about the single’s meaning ahead of the visual’s release, saying it was a reflection on dealing with death as a young child. The singer’s album Orca deals with darker themes compared to his breezy debut LP Where Polly People Go To Read.

Dapperton struggled with mental health and addiction while touring behind the record, coping with his difficult experiences through songwriting and using his struggle to serve as inspiration on Orca: “I was unbalanced. My lifestyle and habits had gotten extreme. I wasn’t getting eight hours of sleep a night, I was drinking and doing drugs often. Wasn’t eating healthy. And on top of it, I was performing. A show can be the most inspirational, emotional high; but if something goes wrong it can be devastating.” Dapperton added that he’s an “advocate” for being vulnerable in songwriting and that it was “cathartic to put these emotions into music.”

Watch Dapperton’s “Post Humorous” video above.

Orca is out 9/18 via AWAL. Pre-order it here.

A few weeks ago, “All Star” purveyors Smash Mouth decided to perform at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota. Footage taken during their set at the ten-day festival showed thousands of people in the audience, packed closely together with very few masks in sight. Given the times we’re in, that concert and the rally overall were a recipe for disaster. Indeed, disaster is what’s been made, as recent reports regarding new coronavirus cases indicate: Over 100 cases of COVID-19 have been connected to the event.

As Brooklyn Vegan notes, The North Dakota Department of Health identified seventeen in-state coronavirus cases that are related to the rally, while a South Dakota Health Department spokesperson found an additional 40 cases. The Associated Press also reports that at least 103 connected cases have also spread to Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Smash Mouth singer Steve Harwell, by the way, was dismissive of the pandemic, as he said on stage, “We’re all here together tonight! F*ck that COVID sh*t!” Subsequently, the band’s inbox has not been a warm place for them. Earlier this week, the group shared some fan mail they received recently, which contained an expletive-laden letter and a broken Smash Mouth CD.