Andre 3000 is somebody who lives his life to the fullest, whether he’s making some of the most memorable music of his era or serenading strangers with his flute. There was one incident during his childhood, though, that Andre has described as being potentially fatal.
He was interviewed for journalist Mike Ayers’ upcoming book One Last Song, and he told a story of a car accident he was involved in as a kid and how a stranger may have helped save his life:
“When I was younger, me and my friend were in a car accident. We were riding with my friend’s mom, but we were so young, we didn’t know what happened until we woke up in the hospital. I didn’t know, I was a kid. We were on this street in Atlanta and it was a non-busy street, and fortunately, this guy who had money passed by, and he had one of the first working cell phones. It was like a suitcase. And he was able to call an ambulance. If we didn’t have that cell phone, we would have been out there for a minute and might have died. Who knows. I don’t know if that’s a near-death experience, but I was definitely lucky.”
The story came up as Andre was explaining the personal significance of the Prince song “Sometimes It Snows In April,” which he associates with the car accidents and the deaths of his mother and stepfather. He said, “When I was younger, I heard ‘Sometimes It Snows in April’ by Prince. That was always a song that summed up what it is. Usually, when someone dies, unless they die of old age or sickness — it happens in a strange way. Both of my parents are gone and they both died early. Just out of the blue, when I least expected it.”
Multiple reports have confirmed that Bucks owner Marc Lasry met with reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo last weekend after the Bucks’ five-game series loss to Miami in the playoffs, but additional details of their conversation continue to flow out. The latest is from Eric Nehm and Sam Amick at The Athletic, who threw water on hopes of a Bucks pursuit of All-Star Chris Paul.
The connection between Milwaukee and Paul was expected once both parties’ seasons ended and it was revealed that Eric Bledsoe could be made available. With a potential hole at point guard and the salaries to make it work, Milwaukee would certainly improve its team by pursuing Paul, but reportedly will not go after him.
From Nehm and Amick:
As for the reported prospect of the Bucks pursuing Oklahoma City point guard Chris Paul as a possible solution to the roster deficiencies, sources with knowledge of ownership’s thinking said it is highly unlikely. The cost of bringing him aboard — Paul is owed $41.3 million next season and has a player option worth $44.2 million in the 2021-22 campaign — and the potential difficulty of bringing Paul onto a roster already led by a strong personality in Antetokounmpo seems to limit the chances of the Bucks moving to pair the two All-Stars. All indications are that the Bucks would rather look elsewhere.
Reporting has also indicated that head coach Mike Budenholzer’s job is safe, so it appears the Bucks could head into 2021 with mostly the same group surrounding Antetokounmpo. At the very least, it seems that they are out of the running for the offseason’s biggest available name. Still, Milwaukee has to look into making some roster upgrades, even if not going for someone like Paul, and all eyes will be on whether the Bucks can do enough to appease Giannis by building a championship squad and keep him around long term.
In 2019, Atlanta musician Faye Webster dropped her third album (and first on Secretly Canadian), Atlanta Millionaires Club. She has shared a pair of new singles since then, both earlier this year: “In A Good Way” and “Both All The Time.” Neither are attached to an announced album, and neither is her latest, “Better Distractions.”
The song is a dose of mellow psychedelia, in a Kurt Vile sort of way but more folk than rock. As for the video, it’s a simple clip of Webster and her cohorts doing things like jumping on a trampoline, playing with a yo-yo, and otherwise tooling around at home.
Webster says of the song, “I wrote this song kinda without knowing I was writing it. It’s a kind of free association, just thoughts running straight from my head onto paper untouched. I also think it’s best my band has ever sounded on record.”
The musician has also announced a one-off ticketed livestream performance, “Live From Chase Park Transduction.” The performance will be live and Webster will be joined by her full band (for the first time in 2020) in the Athens, Georgia studio where she has recorded her music in recent years. The show goes down on October 6 at 9 p.m. ET.
Watch the “Better Distractions” video above, and get tickets for the livestream here.
Twenty-six years after leaving In Living Color to become one of the biggest movie stars in the world, Jim Carrey is returning to his sketch-comedy roots. He will appear on SNL next season, the show’s 46th, to play Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
“Jim Carrey is going to do Biden,” creator Lorne Michaels told Vulture. “There was some interest on his part. And then we responded, obviously, positively. But it came down to discussions about what the take was. He and Colin Jost had a bunch of talks. He and I as well. He will give the part energy and strength, and… Hopefully it’s funny.” Hopefully! Carrey previously hosted in 1996, 2011, and 2014 after auditioning for the show in 1980; he was not selected (Charlie Rocket was), but his rubber-faced audition tape is online.
It’s disappointing that Michaels don’t trust any of the show’s actual cast members to play Donald Trump or Biden (he confirmed Alec Baldwin will be back as Trump, along with Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris), but Jim Carrey is in the funniest scene in movie history, so I’m not too upset.
SNL also announced that Andrew Dismukes, Lauren Holt, and Punkie Johnson have joined the cast. You can view some of their work below.
I think Lauren Holt is a UCB alum. She’s been in a few shorts and such – The Filth (2019), Parent Teacher Conference (2018) and Keep Calm and Tampon etc. WELCOME YA’LL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NBA Awards are steadily rolling out as the playoffs now enter their final month, with the Conference Finals set with the Heat-Celtics and Lakers-Nuggets, and on Wednesday the league announced one of the most important honors in the All-NBA teams.
LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo were unanimous selections to the first team, being joined by James Harden, Anthony Davis, and Luka Doncic — who edged out Kawhi Leonard for the final spot on the first-team by 44 points.
All-NBA First Team
LeBron James
James Harden
Luka Doncic
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Anthony Davis
All-NBA Second Team
Chris Paul
Damian Lillard
Kawhi Leonard
Pascal Siakam
Nikola Jokic
All-NBA Third Team
Ben Simmons
Russell Westbrook
Jimmy Butler
Jayson Tatum
Rudy Gobert
The closest vote race for the second and third team was between Pascal Siakam and Jayson Tatum, with Siakam edging Tatum by 15 points.
Those that just missed out on All-NBA honors were forward Khris Middleton (82 points), center Joel Embiid (79 points), and guards Bradley Beal (32 points) and Kyle Lowry (26 points). The biggest shockers among the voting was Andre Drummond getting a second team vote and Zach LaVine getting a third team vote. The biggest gripe might be Beal being behind Westbrook, but overall there are 15 very, very good basketball players that earned spots on this year’s All-NBA squads.
Do you want Samuel L. Jackson to swear at you? Sure, we all do. And that’s exactly what Alexa users are getting more of in a new upgrade to the app that swaps out Alexa’s voice for the legendary Pulp Fiction actor.
After releasing the feature a year ago, Amazon quickly learned that when people downloaded Jackson to their device, they wanted to be cussed out by the actor on the regular. While the app offered the ability to turn off explicit phrases, over 74% of users not only left the profanity on, but overwhelmingly demanded more cussing from Marvel’s Nick Fury. On top of already responding, “What the hell do you even want me to say?” when users ask Jackson to speak them, the upgrade will reportedly add over 30,000 new phrases and five times the profanity. There’ll be no survivors. Via Variety:
As part of Jackson’s new repertoire on Alexa, if you ask “Hey Samuel, roast me” you will get responses including “Why the f— do you want to be roasted? You really think you can handle that?” and “I’m just gonna ignore that request, because if I really roast you, your sorry ass will be destroyed on impact.”
Damn, Samuel L. Jackson the App.
As for how Jackson has time to record so many phrases, this next part is either extremely interesting from a technological standpoint or absolutely terrifying if you think about the implications of teaching robots how to talk like Samuel L. Jackson:
Note that Jackson didn’t need to sit in recording studio to speak the thousands of new phrases for Alexa. His virtual voice is synthesized using Amazon’s Neural Text-to-Speech technology, which replicates speech patterns after being “trained” by a set of a person’s voice recordings.
Wonderful news on the chain food and beverage front this week. First, Taco Bell announced that they’ll be selling their own wine. “Jalapeño Noir” is a Pinot Noir (that’s red wine, grandma) with “notes of wild strawberry, cherry, and beetroot,” which will be “released in Canada to help promote Taco Bell’s new Toasted Cheesy Chalupa.”
Wait, Canada only?! Damn, first universal healthcare and now this. We need a presidential candidate who promises to close the chalupa gap. The chalupa, by the way, “features six-month aged cheddar cheese toasted right onto the chalupa shell,” as well as all the regular Taco Bell stuff inside, like Space Beef and the Colonel’s magic blend of Mex-I-can spices (yes, I made that last part up).
Elsewhere, Mountain Dew has teamed up with Red Lobster for a specially-branded “Dew ‘Garita,” which sounds like a nickname Doogie Howser got during med school hazing but is actually a branded margarita-adjacent cocktail made with Mountain Dew. It’s meant to pair with Red Lobster’s famous Cheddar Bay Biscuits. Seems like a weird pairing — considering one allegedly comes from the mountains and the other from the bay. Hillbillies and lobstermen dining together? Am I the only one who gives a shit about geographical consistency? Still, better than a Duggar-ita.
Finally, rounding out the rule of three, PepsiCo has announced plans to launch a new drink to aid sleep. Driftwell “is meant to help consumers relax and unwind before bed,” and is being described as an “enhanced water drink.” It contains “200 milligrams of L-theanine and 10% of the daily value of magnesium.” Which, I’m being told, are “what plants crave.”
Driftwell will be available nationwide starting in December. It contains no booze, which seems pointless, but L-theanine is an amino acid found in certain teas and mushrooms, which “a few studies have suggested can improve sleep quality and can help reduce the physical symptoms of stress.”
Ah, but what if my main symptom of stress is drinking Pepsi?
As astute readers may note, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and Taco Bell are all part of PepsiCo and/or Yum Brands, which has a lifetime contract with its original parent company, PepsiCo, so it may be that this is all part of some coordinated stunt-marketing effort. Probably spearheaded by some guy named Chad Presswick, the world’s raddest product consultant.
All of which brings us to… a ranking of drinks I have not tried yet.
Here’s how I stack them:
1) Jalapeño Noir
It’s red wine. I don’t care if you pair it with a Chalupa or a chicken salad, it’s fine by me. Plus I like the name “Jalapeño Noir.” It sounds like a movie genre Robert Rodriguez invented.
2) Dew ‘Garita
Being that I wasn’t born in Appalachia and have never worked as a systems engineer, I consider Mountain Dew one of the fouler liquids on the planet. That being said, it can’t be that much worse than Triple Sec. The Mountain Dew Cheddar Bay Margarita sounds like a Kamikaze shot in a glass. And as long as I’m at a Red Lobster already, what the hell, might as well give it a whirl.
3) Sleepytime Pepsi
Sorry, Driftwell, Pepsi is just not something I traditionally associate with stress relief. Though I do appreciate the thought process behind trying to apply “the choice of a new generation” toward the generation of Xanax rappers with face tattoos. “Hey… you kids like… relaxing… right?”
Vince Mancini is onTwitter. You can access his archive of reviewshere.
Four Roses/Blanton’s/Garrison Brothers/Getty/Uproxx
If you’ve ever perused the whiskey aisles at your local liquor store, you’ve probably run across the words “single barrel.” If you’re a whiskey novice, you might not understand what that means. Or maybe you assume it’s marketing gibberish. In short, “single barrel” (also called single cask) whiskeys come from one specific aging barrel. It also often comes with a label touting the barrel number and various other pieces of bottling and production information. Non-single barrel whiskeys, on the other hand, are made by blending multiple barrels, potentially from different years and mash bills.
It’s really that simple. One barrel as opposed to various barrels.
This form of whiskey has grown exceedingly popular in recent years, with many notable brands releasing their own offerings. This includes the likes of The Balvenie, Eagle Rare, and Michter’s. Since we’re all about getting tips from the professionals, we decided to ask our favorite bartenders to tell us the best single barrel whiskeys to drink this fall.
Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Select. Approachable upgrade that carries a smooth caramel note. Even non- experienced drinkers would be able to appreciate and recognize the difference between the normal Jack Daniel’s and the Single Barrel Select.
Knob Creek Single Barrel Bourbon has a rich, sweet, and woody full body, with hints of fruity tastes. It’s great neat or on the rocks, or even in an old fashioned.
Garrison Brothers Single Barrel. Because they focus on the corn harvest including varietal and year, every single barrel is very different from the next. Corn whiskey has always interested me but the story and process of this distillery are worth a gander.
Russell’s Reserve is an original single barrel whiskey and happens to be one of my all-time favorites. It is a spectacular whiskey and for that reason, it became a victim of its own fame. So, if you are able to find it in the store, make sure you grab a bottle before someone else does.
1792 Single Barrel Bourbon
Crystal Chasse, beverage director at Talk Story Rooftop in Brooklyn, New York
1792 Single Barrel always has a place in my bar. It’s 98.6 proof, so it packs a punch, but the pear/plum and maple notes make this whiskey perfect to enjoy neat with a drop of water or over a large cube, which will really get the aromatics going.
Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon
Andy Printy, beverage director at Chao Baan in St. Louis
Four Roses Single Barrel is my all-time favorite. Comes in at 100 pf and doesn’t disappoint or go overboard in the heat department. The front is a bit acidic but opens up into vanilla and black pepper before finishing with lots of barrel and a touch of dark fruit.
WhistlePig 15 Year Single Barrel Rye
Brendan Bartley, head bartender and beverage director at Bathtub Gin in New York City
Best single barrel whiskey for fall for me is Whistlepig 15 Year Single Barrel Rye Whiskey. It’s barreled in Vermont oak, it’s a real small batch, and released at cask strength. There isn’t much about that sentence I don’t like. For me, this is a fall whiskey — because most whiskey that have that deep barrel finishing notes usually have baking spice at the forefront. Here, there’s a more savory note to it.
It also has those delicious chocolate and cinnamon notes, but the salty, savory flavor really adds something for me.
Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon
Max Stampa-Brown, beverage director at Borrachito in New York City
Blanton’s Single Barrel. It might be predictable, but this is the first whiskey I ever had that really made me fall in love with the stuff. Huge toffee flavors, almost like a salted pretzel covered in caramel.
The first time my dad poured this up for me he looked me dead in the eyes while we raised a glass and slowly said, “Take. Your. Time”.
This might not be a sexy pick, and certainly, there are some cool high-end single barrel whiskeys that are special, but for me, Jim Beam Single Barrel is still a go-to. It’s perfect for cocktails, it’s great for sipping. The dark caramel and slightly spicy rye-like qualities are really delicious.
Writer’s Pick:
Evan Williams Single Barrel
Part of the appeal of Evan Williams Single Barrel is its price. At around $30 it’s hard to find a better value single barrel bourbon. It’s full of sweet cream, vanilla, and toasted caramel flavors and it’s perfectly suited for slow sipping over an ice cube.
Made in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back aka the only Star Wars movie any of us really need to see (The Mandalorian excluded, definitely watch all of that), the Adidas Star Wars collection has run the gamut from subtle to insane. But it doesn’t get any stranger than this pair of Rivalry Hi sneakers made-up to look like Chewbacca.
Adidas
Don’t get us wrong, we definitely think the ‘ol “walking carpet” deserves his own sneaker, and the Rivalry Hi, with its tall silhouette, was a perfect choice, but there had to be a better way to get “Chewbacca” across to people than by covering this sneaker in faux-fur and draping a belt over the laces. Featuring a mixed upper of leather, suede, and faux fur in a mix of raw desert, mesa, and chalk-white colorways, the Chewbacca Rivalry Hi looks more like a collector’s item than an actual functional piece of footwear. Maybe that’s the point.
Rounding out the design is the aforementioned utility belt, a portrait of Chewbacca on the tongue, and a full-body depiction of the Wookie along the insole. While we wouldn’t wear these out on the street, on the playa at next year’s Burning Man? Consider it a done deal.
The Adidas Rivalry Hi Chewbacca is set to drop at the Adidas UK webstore on October 21st for a retail price of $155.
Kanye West has driven a lot of traffic to Twitter over the past few days for a number of reasons, whether he’s been using the site to post his record contracts or share a video of himself urinating on a Grammy Award. It looks like one of his recent tweets went too far, though, as the rapper appears to be temporarily banned from Twitter.
This afternoon, Kanye shared a screenshot of his phone contact entry for Forbes chief content officer Randall Lane, which displayed his phone number. He wrote with the image, “If any of my fans want to call a white supremacist … this is the editor of Forbes.”
Kanye fired off a few tweets after that before going quiet. CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy noted that Kanye is actually temporarily banned from the platform, writing, “Twitter is requiring @kanyewest to remove a tweet sharing private info about @RandallLane (which Twitter has hidden from public view for now) to regain access to his account. Until then, he cannot tweet.” Darcy then clarified that this is standard procedure for this sort of situation: “Also, FWIW, this is how Twitter always enforces its rules. The company hides tweets that break its rules from public view, and locks the account until the owner logs on and removes the tweet.”
Twitter is requiring @kanyewest to remove a tweet sharing private info about @RandallLane (which Twitter has hidden from public view for now) to regain access to his account. Until then, he cannot tweet.
Also, FWIW, this is how Twitter always enforces its rules. The company hides tweets that break its rules from public view, and locks the account until the owner logs on and removes the tweet.
As of press time, Kanye’s most recent tweet was posted at 1:39 p.m. ET, and it reads, “90% of the record contracts on the planet are still on a royalty A standard record deal is a trap to NEVER have you recoup, and there’s all these hidden costs like the ‘distribution fees’ many labels put in their contracts to make even more money off our work without even trying.”
Also as of press time, the offending tweet has not been deleted, but Twitter has hidden it and lists it as “no longer available.”
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