Refreshment is the name of the game when it comes to summer cocktails. The season of tan lines (you can still get tan in your back yard!) and fresh limes leaves no room for anything heavy. That’s why lighter spirits like vodka, gin, rum, and tequila reign supreme from June to September (although we never really put away the whiskey).

Another key to mixing up the right, fresh, seasonal cocktails is simplicity.

“Keep summer simple,” says Piero Procida, bartender at The London West Hollywood in Los Angeles. “It is hot outside, so naturally you want something refreshing but also light and easy to make where simple ingredients can speak for themselves. Do not overwhelm your drinks with heavy ingredients or too much sugar.”

Vance Henderson, ambassador at Hendrick’s Gin enjoys a fresh take on the classic gin rickey this time of year.

“My current go-to refreshing summer cocktail is actually a modern classic I created,” he says. “It brings together the iconic gin rickey and my affinity for rosé wine. It’s called the ‘Rickey Rosé’ — easy-to-make, light, crisp and refreshing.”

In an effort to keep things light and simple, we’ve enlisted the help of some of our favorite bartenders. They were kind enough to give us their picks for the most refreshing cocktails to drink in summer 2020. Did a few still go to the whiskey well? You’d better believe it.

Mint Julep

Hay Culham, beverage manager at Bonsai at Hilton Pensacola Beach in Pensacola, Florida

I love a good mojito or mint julep in the summer. They are refreshing and help cool you down. The mint julep does better closer to sunset as it is much stronger. This is also the time of day I’m more likely to enjoy a cocktail anyway. Who says you can’t drink bourbon in the summer?

Whisky Highball

Anna Mains, brand ambassador at Monkey Shoulder

During the summer months, I enjoy whisky highballs. For a classic whisky highball, I suggest using Monkey Shoulder. The bubbles from the soda really make the orange, vanilla, and ginger notes in Monkey Shoulder sing. Highballs are low calorie, and keep you hydrated, which helps prevent hangovers. Now that’s refreshing.

Piña Colada

Gravy Thomas, global advocacy and ambassador community manager at William Grant & Sons

There’s nothing quite like a piña colada during the hot days in summer. Pineapple and rum are always a good mix. I like adding some coconut cream in there too to add in a bit of complexity. Our piña colada recipe has the power to transport you right to the beaches of the Caribbean.

Gin Rickey

Jessie Smyth, bar director at Genever in Los Angeles

I like to take the formula for a rickey — 2 oz base spirit, 1/2 oz citrus, (maybe a splash of a sweetener) lots of ice and a top off with bubbles — and then have some fun with it. Use whatever citrus you have on hand (Meyer lemons, key limes, grapefruit, kumquat, mandarins) and your favorite bubbles (whether it be Topo Chico, Q Elderflower Tonic, or Prosecco) and maybe add some fresh herbs and… voila!

Refreshing, hydrating, cooling- the perfect combination for poolside sipping.

Paper Plane

Samara Rivers, founder of the Black Bourbon Society

My favorite summer classic cocktail is a Paper Plane. It’s a touch of sweet and sour, perfectly balanced, and has an amazing color. It’s absolutely perfect for summer.

Mojito

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

Mojitos are my choice when it comes to summer drinks. Too simple you say? Well, it’s all about simplicity in summer and believe it or not people consistently mess up such an easy drink to make by not following the exact recipe or by using incorrect measurements. It can be such a delicious drink if made with patience. There are just a few rules to follow: Do not free-pour. Do not muddle the mint leaves to oblivion so they get stuck in your straw. Just 4 – 5 leaves lightly muddled will do just fine. No need for the whole mint tree. Use just a dash of soda water and do not use ice that is going to melt quickly and water down the drink. Traditionally a white rum is the best to use if you want to be as authentic as possible and make sure you only use freshly squeezed lime juice.

Margarita

Lenny Eckstein, co-founder and head distiller of Deerhammer Distilling Company in Buena Vista, Colorado

It’s hard to go wrong with a margarita. Scratch that… it’s super easy to go wrong with a margarita but made well with fresh ingredients and infused with some creativity there are some amazing variations that play perfectly in the summer. I’m a fan of swapping out the tequila for whiskey and mixing in some muddled mint. We make such a variation in our distillery tasting room called the “Margarito” and it has been our best-selling cocktail for years.

Gin & Soda

Ryan Negley, whiskey fellow at Boulder Spirits in Boulder, Colorado

I like to think of myself as a year-round whiskey drinker, which I am, but gin certainly has my heart when it’s shorts weather. Honestly, I don’t much care for tonic, so gin & soda is my go-to. Toss in an herb from the garden to add a little freshness and then get back to lounging.

Paloma

Hayden Miller, head bartender at Bodega Taqueria y Tequila in Miami

You can’t go wrong with a classic paloma. The grapefruit, soda, and lime are really refreshing but the tartness keeps you revisiting for another sip.

Writer’s Pick:

Negroni

In our opinion, there is no more refreshing cocktail than the classic negroni. Made with Campari, vermouth, and gin (with an orange twist), this iconic Italian staple is perfectly suited for sunny, hot summer days spent on a deck or patio overlooking a large body of water (a lake will do just fine).

In February of this year — which seems like a decade ago now — A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie released his third studio album, Artist 2.0, continuing his reign of streaming dominance. At the time, he was noted as saying that making hits came so easily to him, that he even viewed his own hit songs as “mediocre.” However, that hasn’t stopped him from returning to the well for a deluxe version of the album, jumping on the wave that has fans expecting a slate of new songs as quickly as new albums are released.

While details on the expanded project were scant, A Boogie did reveal that he was aiming for a June 19 release date and that his new release would be accompanied by an act of goodwill: A $100,000 donation to his old elementary school, PS 126 in the Bronx, New York. He explained the contribution in his announcement posted to Instagram, writing:

To the best fans in the world: Thanks for being patient and always supporting everything I do. It took a while to bring you this Deluxe because I wanted to make sure it dropped at a time that felt right. But it’s finally here! 6/19 it’s up! As part of this release, I am donating $100k worth of tablets/laptops to my old elementary school, PS 126, in the Bronx, so that they can do their remote learning in the safest way. With everything going on in the world, I believe it’s important to invest in the youth because by doing so, we are investing in a better future. I can’t wait to see y’all soon but until then, stay safe and take care of each other!

Artist 2.0 deluxe edition is due 6/19 on Atlantic Records.

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

As Coachella and Stagecoach have become the latest festivals to announce their official cancelation due to the pandemic, artists are finding ways to bring people together virtually. Musicians like 2 Chainz, T-Pain, Brittany Howard, and more will join together for Small Business Live, a virtual music festival benefitting Black-owned businesses.

Small Business Live unveiled its first way of talent Thursday. Along with T-Pain, 2 Chainz, and Brittany Howard, artists like Brandi Carlile, Leon Bridges, and Moon Taxi are joining the lineup. The livestream takes place June 6, but the virtual festival, organized by Superfly, intends to announce more artists on the bill in the near future.

All proceeds from Small Business Live will be donated to Accion Opportunity Fund, an organization that provides loans to small businesses founded by people of color and also supports immigrant-owned and women-owned businesses. In a statement, Accion Opportunity Fund’s CEO Luz Urrutia said business owners of color are oftentimes denied credit or charged higher interest rates:

“Entrepreneurs of color are denied credit more often and charged higher rates for money they borrow to fund their businesses. We need to accelerate support to underserved businesses in order to reach our full potential,” Urrutia said. “We have to decide what we want our Main Streets to look like when this is over, and we must act decisively to keep small businesses alive and ready to rebuild. This is a fun way to do something really important. Everyone’s support will make a huge difference to small business owners, their families and employees who have been devastated by this pandemic, the recession, and centuries of racism, xenophobia, and oppression.”

Superfly co-founder Rich Goodstone echoed Urrutia’s statement: “Three-and-a-half million small businesses are currently at risk of permanent closure due to COVID-19, with a disproportionate number of them being minority-owned,” Goodstone said. “We look forward to raising the profile of this issue by showcasing amazing music performances and the stories of small businesses across America that urgently need our support.”

Small Business Live kicks off 6/6 at 4 p.m. ET. Watch it here.

Kris Statlander appeared on the latest episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast to talk to Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone about her journey from stunt person to standout indie wrestler to the All Elite Wrestling women’s division. She also explained how she ended up in AEW rather than WWE, and it’s a story of timing and flagged tweets.

Statlander explains that she caught WWE’s attention at last year’s WrestleMania weekend with her match against Allysin Kay in Shimmer. She started emailing back and forth with the company and “They were kind of talking about bringing me in for a tryout, but it was more like a formality type thing.” When she couldn’t make a tryout in the U.S., they offered to fly her to the tryout in London, and when she wasn’t sure if she could make that, “It kind of led to just, ‘You know, we kind of just want to hire you, so why don’t we just send you a contract?’ So I didn’t even have to do a tryout.”

She chalks the reason she isn’t in WWE today up to her background check, saying “there’s a lot of things you don’t expect to get flagged.” Some of those things were related to her stunt work, and “There was one time I made a tweet about how my old school got put on lockdown because police thought that a suspicious person was carrying a gun or a weapon at a gas station near my school, so my college went on lockdown, but it was just a guy holding an umbrella. Because I mentioned police in the tweet, it got flagged and stuff like that. It’s very strict.”

Statlander responded to WWE explaining that the flagged things were out of context (“It just highlights words”) and had been deleted just after she submitted her background check anyway. “They were like ‘Okay, we’ll get back to you. It could be a while though,’” Statlander says. “During that ‘while’ period, AEW snuck their way in and were like ‘We want to book you for a Dark match’ and I was like ‘Oh, okay.’”

She was offered a contract with AEW after her Dark match, though like the WWE tryout offers, it was a formality; Edwards told her she was “pretty much hired” when she showed up. After choosing to sign with AEW, Statlander sent an email to WWE saying “‘Unfortunately, I have another offer that works with my overall life schedule a little bit better’ because I’m also a massage therapist and I would still be able to do that, and I had just gotten my license that year, so I was like, ‘I kind of still want to, I don’t want to waste that [license] that I just went to school for two years for.’”

So wrestling fans have massage therapy and a weird background check algorithm to thank for Statlander being in AEW – or blame for her not being in NXT.

The NBA’s hiatus has led to plenty of stories about how players are (or are not) staying in shape for the upcoming restarted season. There are rumblings that some like Luka Doncic “aren’t in the best shape,” while others like James Harden have publicly been documenting their workouts and appear to have dropped significant weight.

There have been rumors that Nikola Jokic, whose weight has often been a topic of conversation in his career, was actually in the camp with Harden of those that have slimmed down pretty tremendously during quarantine, as he headed back to Serbia to be at home. Given Jokic’s tendency to show up for the start of seasons in questionable shape, those rumors — with him apparently showing the Nuggets staff his abs via video calls — caused some serious skepticism among the NBA community.

However, confirmation came on Thursday in the form of videos from Serbia that indeed show a slimmed down Joker strolling around a gym and, truly, looking to be in the best shape of his life.

Conditioning has long been a talking point when it comes to Jokic, even though last postseason he proved he can play big minutes in playoff series while sustaining a high level of play. Now it appears he’ll be coming into the NBA’s restart needing, if anything, to put on a few pounds and strength, which is the opposite discussion we’ve ever had of the uber-talented All-Star center. A more agile Jokic is a terrifying proposition, given his already elite footwork and skill, and it will be fascinating to see how a slimmer Jokic performs when the Nuggets restart their season in Orlando.

Michael Stipe guested on The Late Show in April, and the R.E.M. leader performed “No Time For Love Like Now,” a song he wrote with Aaron Dessner for Dessner and Justin Vernon’s joint project, Big Red Machine. Now, two months after its late-night debut, Big Red Machine have shared the studio version of their Stipe collaboration. The contemplative track arrives alongside a video, which features stylized footage of Stipe and Dessner separately performing the song, with the clips superimposed on top of each other.

Dessner told Rolling Stone of working with Stipe:

“On a whim, I shared a folder of in-progress BRM sketches with Michael last year, and it was exciting when he really gravitated to a few of them. Michael wrote the lyrics to ‘No Time For Love Like Now’ last fall, but when the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic and social-distancing and self-isolation descended, they felt like they were written about this time all along and perhaps the message resonates especially now.

I’ve looked up to Michael and R.E.M. for so long; they were really such a huge influence on us and we became friends on tour, but I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to make a song with him. Working together to arrange this song in person and ultimately finish it from our respective isolation at home was definitely one of the more surreal experiences I’ve had as a musician. He has an incredible vision and focus for the art that he makes.”

Watch the “No Time For Love Like Now” video above.

After BlacKkKlansman became both a box-office and critical success, even going so far to having a strong presence at the Oscars, you’d just assume Spike Lee would have no trouble getting his next film made. Guess again.

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lee opens up about his struggles finding a home for his latest movie, Da 5 Bloods. Pitched as Lee’s take on his favorite films The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (“We flipped it,” Lee says. “Put our flavor on it, some barbecue sauce, some funk, some Marvin Gaye. And there you have it”), the story about five Vietnam vets searching for their squad leader’s remains was turned down by every studio. Fortunately — or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it — Lee is used to rejection, and he kept moving down the line before finding a willing partner in Netflix.

“We barely got this film made,” Lee says. “We had gone to every studio, and they all turned it down. I’ve had many, many projects turned down, and in my history, they don’t say they hate it, they just say, ‘No, it’s just not for us.’ I’m in this game a long time. So when someone doesn’t want to do it, I’m not going to say, ‘But why? Why don’t you want to make this film?’ I just say, ‘Thank you.’ And keep stepping. Like Jay-Z. On to the next one. And that is why I’ve been able to amass a body of work. I’m not going to sit around and cry. Keep it moving.” Though Lee is frank, “There was nowhere to go after Netflix.”

Part of the Netflix deal included a theatrical release, which has naturally been scuttled due to the pandemic, and Lee is definitely not pushing for to release Da 5 Bloods in cinemas any time soon. “I hope only when it’s safe. There are theaters open now, but I would not go see a movie now. But I do hope that somewhere down the line, people could see this film on a big screen.”

Da 5 Bloods premieres June 12 on Netflix.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

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The Portland Trail Blazers were the only organization not to vote to approve the NBA’s plan to return to the court, and start point guard Damian Lillard has been one of the most outspoken about the league’s plans. Now, it’s Lillard’s new teammate, Carmelo Anthony, who is voicing his uncertainty about the Orlando bubble.

In an interview with Ernie Johnson as part of the #NBATogether series on the league’s social channels, Anthony said he was still “up in the air” because of a lack of details from the NBA on the plan.

“As far as actually playing and going back down into Orlando, I’m still up in the air a little bit because I really don’t, we don’t have all the details.” Anthony told Johnson. “We don’t know a lot of information, so until we have that, it’s hard to just commit to that 100 percent.”

It’s a bit of a change of tune for the 10-time All-Star. Previously, he had told CBS Sports that he would be excited for the chance to compete with his teammates, especially a fully healthy Portland frontcourt with Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins back in the fray.

“I feel like if we have a healthy team then, yes, we want to go in,” Anthony told Colin Ward-Henninger of CBS Sports.

Yet Anthony is not the only skeptical NBA star. As Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported this week, at least 40-50 NBA players, predominantly from non-title contending teams, are voicing hesitancy about the plan based on a range of issues. The stringency of the bubble, health risks, and distractions from the ongoing uprisings over the death of George Floyd are just a few of the reasons NBA players are hesitant to depart for Orlando in a matter of weeks.

For the message to come from Anthony’s mouth is for it to have more power, however. Despite his slide on the court recently, he is one of the most famous players in the league. His words matter. While both the league’s board of governors and representatives from the Players’ Association both voted overwhelmingly in support of a return, it does appear that there’s plenty of wrinkles that need to be ironed out between now and whenever games tip off in Orlando.

Philadelphia-based boundary-breaking indie rocker Shamir has followed up his recent 2020 album Cataclysm with even more music. With “On My Own,” Shamir turns the page and sets his sights on yet another record that’s due out later this summer.

“On My Own” boasts a fuzzy, grunge-inspired guitar riff that’s juxtaposed by Shamir’s lilting vocals. “I used to think that love was fleeting / You’ll just end up hurt / But it’s a cosmic game of meetings / That may never work and I think / Maybe I deserve a little more / And life will get easier / But I don’t believe in love anymore / Don’t bargain with my worth cause,” Shamir sings at the hook, reflecting on a breakup.

The single’s accompanying video was directed and produced by Shamir himself while in quarantine. For the visual, Shamir makes use of his space, playing with different backdrops and outfits composed of second-hand clothing to reflect that track’s cathartic nature.

Speaking to Rolling Stone about the single, Shamir said he originally penned the track about finding solace in being an introvert after a particularly tough breakup. But, as many songs have in the past few months, “On My Own” eventually morphed into an “accidental” quarantine anthem, “especially for the people who live alone like me,” he said.

While Shamir has yet to unveil a firm album release date, the singer plans on debuting his upcoming project some time this summer. According to Shamir, the record is his most “accessible” since his 2015 breakout Ratchet and the singer has heavily leaned on post-hardcore ’90s for sonic inspiration.

Watch Shamir’s “On My Own” video above.