Okay, it’s come down to this. After weeks in home confinement, you’ve polished off your collection of rare whiskeys, aged rums, smoky mezcals, and you’ve even burnt through those random, dusty bottles of Italian bitter liqueur. Suddenly you find yourself staring at a spirit that you’ve never once attempted to drink straight. That’s right, all you have left is vodka.

“Vodka isn’t most people’s first choice to drink straight,” says Jake Larowe, bar manager at Birds and Bees in Los Angeles. “But there are some vodkas that have enough flavor and texture to make it an enjoyable experience.”

See how thrilled he sounds? Since we’d rather you didn’t pour yourself a glass of vodka that tastes like it was designed to power your lawnmower, we decided to ask some of our favorite bartenders to tell us the bottles of vodka they actually enjoy drinking straight. Hopefully, you have one of these on hand — if not, you can always order them. But if you’re doing that, might as well grab some mixers, too.

Tito’s

Cody Dillon, general manager at Florblanca in Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica

Although I don’t drink vodka frequently, many of our clients do. A favorite among our clients is Tito’s. It’s smooth, sweet, and highly drinkable. We like to infuse this with cucumber and mint.

Purity Vodka

Courtney Everett, bartender at O-Ku Sushi in Atlanta

Purity Vodka is my pick for a vodka to drink without a mixer. It is crisp and clean and lighter-bodied, so it’s easy to drink straight or in a martini.

Crystal Head

Cody Goldstein, founder of Muddling Memories in New York City

Let’s “face” it, Crystal Head just looks cool. Did you know it also tastes delicious and is a premium vodka? Want to know why it is so easy to drink? Probably something to do with the water that’s been distilled from Canada and then filtered seven times to give it that distinct smoothness. If that weren’t enough to convince you, it also gets filtered through layers of semi-precious crystals, aka diamonds.

Unlike some other vodkas, Crystal Head contains no additives, sugars, glycerol or other enhancements. Why should you care? All of those things lead to potential hangovers which means you can sip this vodka and know you should be in good spirits afterward.

Grey Goose

Kevin Moran, general manager at Seagar’s Prime Steaks & Seafood in South Walton, Florida

Grey Goose is certainly one of the most popular vodkas, but I feel it is also the best because it is one of the cleanest vodkas in terms of its flavor profile. Grey Goose is served best extra chilled with just a lemon twist or enjoyed “down and dirty” with a good dose of olive juice and garnished with our signature two blue cheese stuffed olives. Enjoying vodka “straight” is not such a thing in the spirits world. It’s often what you do to it that can make it really special.

Zubrowka

Josh Saphier, bartender at Eighteen36 in Houston

My favorite vodka is one not often found. I like Zubrowka. A Polish bison grass flavored vodka. Vodka is defined as flavorless, odorless, and colorless. This particular vodka has a single blade of bison grass in the bottle. Leaving subtle notes of citrus, cut grass, vanilla, and coconut.

Belvedere Black

Josh Streetman, bartender at Motor Supply Co. in Columbia, South Carolina

Here cleaner is better, but I like a little bite on the finish, so a rye base works well for me. Belvedere Black. Smooth, slightly spicy, and perfectly suited for sipping neat.

Steel Tie Vodka

Bryan Long, assistant director of food & beverages at Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in Palm Beach, Florida

The best vodka would be Steel Tie Vodka. The best thing about this vodka is it’s distilled in our back yard using American grains and only distilling twice which allows you to taste the natural flavors.

Wodka

Nate Simmons, bartender at Garden & Grain in Pensacola, Florida

Wodka Vodka is a Polish vodka using Polish Rye and charcoal filtered. Clean and bright. Perfect with a cube of ice.

St. Roch Vodka

Mazzarie Parker, Bar Manager of Maypop Restaurant in New Orleans

I am not one to drink vodka straight. I much prefer gin in my martinis. If I am going to drink vodka it doesn’t need to be expensive to please. As long as it is smooth and chilled. Seven Threes Distillery Co. is a local distillery in New Orleans that did a great job with their five-times distilled St. Roch Vodka. St. Roch is a New Orleans neighborhood named for the Patron Saint of Good Health. Just as New Orleanians did in the late 1800’s when Yellow Fever hit the city, we should say a prayer to St. Roch as we sip our martinis in isolation.

Stolichnaya Elite

Zsolt Ducsai, food and beverage director at Serafina Beach Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Stolichnaya Elite. This Russian vodka was created from pure grain and very fine artesian water. They use special filtering through charcoal. And, as the Russian people say, it must be chilled. The best way is storing it in -18 degrees Celsius.

Beluga Transatlantic

Jake Larowe, bar manager at Birds and Bees in Los Angeles

My favorite brand that I would be happy to drink straight is Beluga. Specifically, their Transatlantic. It is subtle while still having flavor and a smooth viscous mouthfeel.

Carbonadi

Piero Procida, bartender at The London West Hollywood in Los Angeles

Carbonadi Italian Vodka. Yes, I said it, the Italians have surpassed the Russians here. Do not even think about mixing this is a drink with anything else. First of all, it’s expensive, but for a reason…to enjoy by itself. It’s pure heaven and you certainly do not want to alter any flavors here. Made from wheat and distilled five times using an ultra-rare filtration process that use Carbonados or “Black Diamonds,” which are incredibly absorbent and extract many impurities other processes cannot manage, making this a silky smooth and ultra-clean vodka. I think this vodka is probably the best out there right now.

Bolden

Alan Walter, spirit handler at Bar Loa in New Orleans

Bolden is my go-to sipping vodka. This vodka is distilled in New Orleans – European style. It is really the opposite of extreme filtering.

If you wondered why “Air Force 1,” “ASAP Rocky,” or “Nelly” spent the whole day trending on Twitter yesterday, the answer is simple. The same thing happened that seems to always happen: Someone unearthed an old, out-of-context quote, put it on the timeline, and sparked a controversy that caused nearly everyone with a working internet connection to weigh in on the debate. However, in this case, one voice was conspicuously absent — the person all the controversy was about.

However, The Breakfast Club — bless them — was already on the case, securing an interview with Nelly, the man of the hour, to finally settle the debate about who made Nike’s Air Force 1s more popular: Him or ASAP Rocky. He doesn’t hesitate to take credit for himself, although he does have one caveat. “At the end of the day, we have to look at the definition of famous,” he explains.

“Don’t get it twisted, we weren’t the first to start rocking Air Force 1s, we wasn’t the first ones that discovered Air Force 1s. But when you say ‘made em famous’ you gotta understand that Air Force 1s were more of a New York east coast thing. We didn’t rock Air Force 1s in the south or the midwest, they wasn’t rocking them on the west coast. Until we did what we did, Air Force 1s went from 59.99 to a hundred dollars in a year. The same year after we made our song, shot our video, and had our tour. I don’t know what A$AP is on, or whatever he’s talking about, but if he’s in any doubt all he gotta do is ask Nike. They sponsored our whole tour that year. We had a whole Air Force 1 that flew from the back of the stadium to the front of the stage during every show.”

When the hosts push back, saying that Rocky probably just meant he made them cool again — after all, about 10 years had passed between Nelly’s “Air Force Ones” single and Rocky’s rise to stardom — Nelly can’t see it. “He brought it back for the kids?” he challenges incredulously. “I don’t know, the price never changed my dude! We took em from $59.00 to $100.00! They never came back down my dude!”

At the end of the day, though, Nelly says, “I’m not doubting what A$AP feels, shout out to A$AP, to all them young bruthas, I fuck with all of them young bruthas.” However, he is adamant that credit is given where he feels it’s due. “We said who made them famous,” he reminds the hosts. “How we not make em’ famous, my dude?”

Watch Nelly’s interview with The Breakfast Club above.

In case you’ve been spending more time than usual in your fallout shelter, you may have missed one of ESPN’s most highly-anticipated television event in some time. We’re talking, of course, about the 10-part Michael Jordan documentary that premiered last Sunday, The Last Dance.

It follows the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls during their final championship run, and over the first two hours, we’ve learned so much about the team and the character involved that it’s difficult to keep track of all the moving parts. For instance, there’s already been a whole cycle in which we’ve worried about Scottie Pippen’s financial viability, learned that he’s doing just fine, then wondered again whether he might’ve been something of a villain.

It also gave us a chance to wonder aloud about Steve Kerr, a central figure of that second three-peat, who had one of the most notorious encounters with His Airness. But not only has Kerr not held a grudge toward MJ for punching him in the face one time in practice, he believes that exchange actually strengthened their relationship in the long run.

“I feel like I passed the test and he trusted me more afterwards.”@SteveKerr discusses how a practice altercation with MJ helped grow their relationship on #NBATogether pic.twitter.com/yUwghEt513

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 23, 2020

We’re not sure what type of test requires being okay with getting punched in the face, so we’ll just have to take Steve’s word on this one. He seems to be okay with it, and the results speak for themselves. Anyway, Sunday can’t get here fast enough as we eagerly await what we’ll learn next about one of the most iconic sports teams of all-time.

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit are just about ready to unveil their upcoming record Reunions. The album’s release is just around the corner, but the group is keeping fans at bay by sharing a handful of singles. Following the most recent track “Only Children,” the group has shared the nostalgic track “Dreamsicle.”

Opening with intricate guitar picking, “Dreamsicle” arrives as both a triumphant and nostalgic effort. With his textured vocals, Isbell narrates the story of a boy coming-of-age and having a difficult time realizing he has to leave the town he grew up in. “Broken glass and broken vows / I’ll be 18 four years from now / With different friends in a different town / I’ll finally be free,” he sings. The story reflects Isbell’s journey, who left home at just 14 to join his first touring band.

Just ahead of the “Dreamsicle” release, Isbell announced that they are offering a way for fans to get ahold of Reunions early while also supporting local businesses. The band is releasing physical copies of the album to independent record stores across the country a week ahead of its scheduled release. This way, fans will be able to get their hands on the vinyl while keeping their favorite local record stores in business.

Listen to “Dreamsicle” above.

Reunions is out 5/15 via Southeastern Records. Pre-order it here

The Kansas City Chiefs, by nature of winning the Super Bowl, had the final pick in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. The Chiefs don’t have a ton of glaring holes, but one spot where they could have used a little help was running back. As such, they opted to draft former LSU ace Clyde Edwards-Helaire.

While Edwards-Helaire was not as high on the big boards of many prognosticators as guys like J.K. Dobbins, D’Andre Swift, and Jonathan Taylor, his ability as a pass catcher and as someone who can make defenders miss should be stunning in Kansas City’s relentless offense. It is a perfect mix of team and player, and as an added bonus, the move is popular in the eyes of the Chiefs’ franchise player.

According to Kansas City coach Andy Reid, the team phoned starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes and asked who he wanted with the pick. Mahomes responded with Edwards-Helaire, and soon after, the pick was made.

With how much firepower the Chiefs’ offense already possesses, giving them a player like Edwards-Helaire is almost unfair. Comparisons are oftentimes made between himself and guys like Brian Westbrook or Darren Sproles, while his performance in LSU’s win over Alabama last season showed that he’s capable of doing a little bit of everything. It makes a whole lot of sense that Mahomes would want him a player like him, and now, Edwards-Helaire is headed to the champs.

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A lot of artists are taking to platforms like Instagram Live and YouTube to put on livestream concerts for their fans, but other artists are approaching livestreaming in different ways. For example, Lizzo and SZA recently decided to team up to host a meditation session.

Lizzo guested on SZA’s live broadcast, and once the two got settled, SZA tried her hand at playing a Tibetan singing bowl, and of course, Lizzo brought out her trusty woodwind to complete the fully zen atmosphere. When the pair wasn’t setting the mood, they also chatted about how their lives have been during the pandemic.

This wasn’t Lizzo’s first rodeo with meditations: She hosted one by herself in March, for which she also had her instrument on hand, as well as crystals and incense.

Musicians are all about relaxation these days. Earlier this week, Diddy and Nick Jonas teamed up with Audible to release some stress-reducing program: Diddy offers a guided meditation, while the Jonas Brother helps you drift off to sleep by reading a bedtime story.

Let Lizzo and SZA guide you through a meditation in the video above.

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

The improv comedy world simultaneously celebrated and mourned this week, as Middleditch And Schwartz brought the first-ever longform improv specials to Netflix on the same day that the New York iteration of the Upright Citizens Brigade theater announced they would be shuttering their flagship Hell’s Kitchen performance space as well as their training center. The announcement came after a string of well-documented financial struggles that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the move uptown from Chelsea to Hell’s Kitchen in December of 2017, UCB took a stab at coming out of the underground and trying to integrate its nightly shenanigans into the real New York City Theater-with-a-capital-T community.

“Hell’s Kitchen was an amazing opportunity to perform in a legit theatre on 42nd Street,” remembers Connor Ratliff, a longtime UCB alum who criss-crosses through The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as a guest star. “Whenever I was doing a show there and it was going really well, I would sometimes think, ‘wow, this is like a $12 show and I bet right now there are people down the street who paid hundreds of dollars to see something that isn’t quite as good as this.’”

But for an organization founded on the principles of DIY ethics and punk rock comedy, the attempts to “legitimize” the space exposed vulnerabilities in the governing structures, most notably the fact that the theater’s performers were not paid and expected to perform — and earn revenue for the theater — for not much more than “the love of the craft.” The move to Hell’s Kitchen also signaled the organization officially biting off more than they could chew, subsequently launching UCB into a state of disarray and financial struggles that resulted in mass layoffs and the ultimate shuttering of the New York venture as a whole.

Much has been said about UCB as a breeding ground for comedy legends, and as one of the last semblances of the counter culture in New York City. With its first theater in the city located underneath a supermarket in a (slightly) remodeled strip club, going to UCB Chelsea really felt like you were part of something special and truly underground, in a city where it feels increasingly difficult to find such a thing. But as the organization continued to expand throughout the city, from Chelsea to the East Village, and ultimately to its own training center in a Midtown Manhattan office building and flagship theater in Hell’s Kitchen, UCB became more than just a hot spot for silly goofs and future celebrities.

It created a community that made New York City a bit smaller, where most everyone that walked through the doors of the theater or training center was in search of something similar. At the training center, you could see people walking through the halls that you recognized from shows like Broad City, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, or even Stranger Things, and know that the playing field was, in a way, leveled. After all, you were both in the same place, at the same time, for a couple of hours of adult playtime.

“I learned more in my Improv 101 at UCB than I had learned in 5 years of acting training,” notes Ratliff, whose recent projects include the incredible Dead Eyes podcast, which follows Ratliff’s quest to figure out why Tom Hanks fired him from a guest role in 2001’s Band Of Brothers. “There is an image of an improv class being a bunch of people jumping around like idiots, but I learned how to be a more thoughtful performer and a more thoughtful person, generally. One of the best classes I ever had at UCB happened because an improv set went so horrifically off the rails that the teacher talked to us for 45 minutes about why it is important to think about why you’re even on stage as a performer, that you can’t just put pure nihilism onstage just because it’s shocking.”

Perhaps most importantly, however, UCB popularized a form of cognitive behavioral therapy delivered under the guise of comedy training. Students are forced out of their comfort zones and to conquer their social insecurities — if you can make a fool of yourself and make a room of strangers laugh, why not go ahead and voice your opinion in a work meeting, or stop thinking about the stain on your shirt at a party? The comedy in an improv scene doesn’t come from making jokes, but rather from just being a fucking weirdo. Rather than suppress your quirks in an attempt to fit in, UCB encouraged you to embrace your weird and exploit it, and that’s something that can never be forsaken, especially in light of the organizational struggles.

“No matter how you feel about UCB, you can agree that there was a strong community there,” notes Ian Abramson, creator, host, and full multi-character cast of Saturday Night Quarantine, which streams weekly on Twitch. Now, with Saturday Night Live starting to make a remote comeback, Abramson has elected to move his show to Sunday night, as to not compete. “I think that the most positive thing about comedy institutions is the community that they can help organize. [But] an institution owes it to its community to support the people in that community, in whatever way it can. I think the only way that you could ignore the community that you fostered in its time of need is with the philosophy of ‘don’t think.’”

Along with fundraising efforts like Mike Birbiglia’s ‘Tip Your Waitstaff’ livestream series, Saturday Night Quarantine is one of many ways that the community is taking matters into their own hands with these institutions closed or indefinitely on pause. “Creativity will take the shape of whatever it’s inside of,” Abramson explains.

In the case of Saturday Night Quarantine, the sketch show started out as a bit on Twitter, before evolving into a weekly sketch show written and performed, in full, by one person. As it turns out, this type of insanity is what people are flocking to in an attempt to shut out the true insanity awaiting them outside their home. Each week, a few hundred people tune in to watch Abramson perform for an hour. “We’re having a really great time trying to make this happen and I would love to keep doing it in some form or another, until it doesn’t make sense to.”

Despite the closures of all official UCB locations, the organization’s founders Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh (known as the UCB4) have declared in a lengthy letter to their staff that “UCB is not leaving New York City. The school and the theater will continue on in a pared-down form, which will be very similar to how we operated when we first started in NYC over 20 years ago.” As such, UCB-branded shows will still continue at venues such as SubCulture in Greenwich Village, while classes will be taught “at various locations across the city that we will rent on a per-class basis,” similar to upstart comedy ventures like the Brooklyn Comedy Collective.

Even so, the shuttering of UCB’s New York City theater and training center are a massive blow to the community, one that leaves a gaping hole begging to be filled. But instead of wallowing, let’s raise a glass to Two Trenchcoats In A Kid.

For five seasons of Better Call Saul, we have all been so focused on the moment that Jimmy McGill transforms into Saul Goodman that we didn’t seem to notice that Kim Wexler may have been transforming into Kim Goodman until the moment that she turned around and gave us the finger guns. We shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose. This is what the Breaking Bad universe is about: What makes a good person turn bad? We’ve seen that question explored with Walter White, with Jesse Pinkman, with Skyler White, with Mike Ehrmantraut and with Jimmy McGill. It probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise to see Kim Wexler’s moral compass fall out of whack, as well.

There are a number of theories we have had to explain Kim Wexler’s absence in Breaking Bad over the years. Maybe she dies. Maybe she leaves Jimmy (for Howard Hamlin, even). Maybe Jimmy dumps Kim for her own good. Maybe Kim’s career becomes collateral damage to one of Jimmy’s schemes. Maybe she and Jimmy remain together, but she isn’t privy to Saul Goodman’s shenanigans on Breaking Bad.

What few people could have predicted, however, is that Better Call Saul may also be a breaking-bad journey for Kim Wexler, too. She is just as capable of acting amorally in pursuit of just ends. Some may say that this journey is different for Kim Wexler because she’s doing it for the right reasons — she wants to open up a pro bono practice and help the downtrodden. Yes, but Walter White’s motivations were also initially pure, to make enough money to support his family after his death. So were Mike Ehrmantraut’s, to support his son’s family. And so were Jimmy’s motivations: all he ever wanted was to impress his brother, Chuck. And then to impress his girlfriend-turned-wife, Kim Wexler. In the end, in fact, it is Jimmy who gets pulled into this life, partially against his will by Nacho, who gives him no choice but to defend Lalo, who gives Jimmy no choice but to fetch the $7 million bond money. It was Jimmy’s choice to associate with unscrupulous people, but he did not necessarily choose to be a lawyer for the cartel.

Kim Wexler, on the other hand, appears to be taking this path voluntarily and with eyes wide open. She is so convinced of her own righteousness that she is willing to destroy Howard Hamlin’s life and career in pursuit of it. There is hubris in that; the same kind of hubris that destroyed Walter White. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn next season, in fact, that Kim pushed Saul deeper into his line of work so that he could support her public interest career. She may have convinced both herself and Jimmy that his work with Gus and Mike and Walter White was all in pursuit of “the greater good.”

“Tthe greater good,” however, is a dangerously slippery slope. What if Kim Wexler destroys Hamlin’s life in pursuit of her own moral agenda? What if Hamlin dies? What if the guilt of that combined with Jimmy’s obvious PTSD breaks Jimmy mentally? What is Saul Goodman is a manifestation of Jimmy’s deep-seated guilt and other mental problems? What if Saul Goodman ends up being the Jesse Pinkman to Kim Wexler’s Heisenberg? What if …

No one knows exactly what will happen in the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul, not even the writers, who have just sat down to start work on the final season. I think, however, that we can make one assumption: that Kim Wexler probably does not die. That would not square with Vince Gilligan’s own prediction that Saul will have a better ending than Breaking Bad. Rhea Seehorn — who plays Kim Wexler — also believes that killing her off to get rid of her would be “way too simple.”

Viewers want to see Kim and Gene Taković reunite after the events of Breaking Bad. Viewers want to know what Kim Wexler was doing while Saul Goodman was advising Walter White to put a hit out on Jesse Pinkman. We don’t know what Kim Wexler’s role will be during that time frame, but we have for too long underestimated Kim Wexler’s capacity for bending the rules to get what she wants. She did everything right in her career, and she still ended up in a miserable job working with the likes of Kevin Wachtell and Howard Hamlin and Richard Schweikart to advance the interests of… banks. Now Kim Wexler wants to pursue more noble ends, but she understands that she may have to commit a light felony or three in that pursuit. We should not underestimate her ability to do so, because all we have done for five seasons is underestimate Kim Wexler. We underestimated her attachment to Jimmy. We underestimated her disdain for people like Howard Hamlin. And we have underestimated her eagerness to get her hands dirty for the right cause.

We know the danger that Saul Goodman poses. He wears his morally dubious personality on his sleeve. What’s so remarkable about Kim Wexler is that she might just be another form of Saul Goodman, disguised by a ponytail and a conservative suits, who wraps herself in moral pursuits. It’ll be very interesting to see how that plays out in the final season.

When the coronavirus pandemic first became serious, the city of Seattle was hit hard. In order to raise money and awareness for important organizations across the city, Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard began hosting nightly livestream sessions (which have since become weekly affairs) as part of his Live From Home series. In Thursday’s live set, Gibbard debuted a brand-new song and performed a cover of Nirvana’s “All Apologies.”

During the lengthy set, Gibbard debuted the song “Proxima B.” Ahead of performing it on piano, the singer explained that it is written in response to the discovery of a new planet in our solar system:

“This one I wrote a while ago. I’m planning on putting it out as a single. I was going to have it out as a single for this solo tour I was doing, a more ramped-up guitar version. But, obviously, the show’s not happening so we’re going to push that to the fall. This is a song I wrote about a planet that was discovered deep, deep in the cosmos, way out there, called Proxima B. The three things you need to know about Proxima B to understand the song is: One, there was a planet called Proxima B that they think has water on it. It’s somewhat Earth-like. Secondly, it orbits the star called Centauri. And three, there’s been a lot of talk of ‘Ooh, maybe we can get there at some point.’ So I wrote this song in response to that.”

After debuting the new track, Gibbard moved into a cover of Nirvana’s “All Apologies.” Gibbard said that Nirvana is one of his “favorite bands” and he’s lately been feeling nostalgic for an earlier era.

Earlier in the set, Gibbard explained the meaning behind his Narrow Stairs track “Ice Is Getting Thinner.” The singer said he had originally been tapped to write and “uplifting” song about polar bears for a movie, but it fell short of the mark:

“This is going back to about 2006, 2007. And I got asked to write a song about a movie. It was a documentary about polar bears. They needed a theme song for the movie, or an end credit or something. I think it was for the end credits. They thought, ‘Who better to write an uplifting song about polar bears then the guy who writes all those sad bastard songs?’ I turned in what became this song. A lot of lyrics are fairly similar. And I think you’ll agree it’s not a shocker that they didn’t choose it. This has been a trend in my career. People have asked me to do things not really knowing that I’m probably not the best person for certain things. If you want a sad-ass song about polar bears, I’m your guy. But not if you want something uplifting.”

Watch Gibbard’s Live From Home set above. See him debut a new song at the 33:57 minute mark, and hear him cover Nirvana’s “All Apologies” at 39:03.

Death Cab For Cutie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.