With just two weeks until the 2019-20 NBA season is scheduled to resume in Orlando, teams are beginning to ramp up activities, with practices underway and scrimmages scheduled within the campus environment. As a result, anticipation is high for competitive basketball action but, in terms of importance, the on-court action feels secondary to many things happening in and around Orlando, with a reminder arriving on Thursday morning. The New Orleans Pelicans announced that star rookie and No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson left the bubble in order to attend an “urgent family medical matter.”
“We fully support Zion’s decision to leave the NBA campus to be with his family,” said Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin. “Out of respect for the Williamson family, we will have no further comment at this time.”
The Pelicans did indicate that Williamson plans to return to Orlando “at a later date,” although it is unclear when exactly he’ll return. With that said, Williamson will have to quarantine again upon re-entry and, with New Orleans scheduled to open its resumed season with a July 30 match-up against the Utah Jazz, it may be likely that the talented forward could miss at least a portion of his team’s schedule.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is set to make his debut in the NBA’s Disney bubble league on July 31, when the Milwaukee Bucks will take on the Boston Celtics in a matchup of two Eastern Conference juggernauts with NBA Finals aspirations. While Antetokounmpo will have his trusty Zoom Freak 1s on his feet, the reigning league MVP has something new in the pipeline, too.
The Bucks star became the latest Nike athlete to get a signature sneaker last year. His latest kick in that line debuted on Thursday, as Nike announced the Zoom Freak 2 in a collection of colorways.
Harris spoke to Ross Klein, the Senior Creative Director for Nike Basketball. Klein explained that Antetokounmpo’s three brothers — Alex, Kostas, and Thanasis — were all part of the process of creating and deciding on the various elements of the sneaker, which led to a number of nods to their family.
On the shoe you can find nods to their parents, Charles and Veronica. On the sockline you will find the words, “I am my father’s legacy”, and on the traction is a print of their roots and Giannis’ journey to the NBA.
“I am not gassing anything up at all. He is a joyful type of athlete to work with. So are his brothers,” says Klein. “What is so cool to me as a leader in basketball is that they are not following anything else. They are not seeing and saying we kind of want a little bit of this or that, they work within themselves to be creators and they are going off of this like there is nothing else in their life besides this and it is so refreshing. I think that makes the process of working with four people easier because they are all really at the same place. There is no differential components outside of them. The cool thing is for someone like Thanasis who we don’t talk about enough, but he is a crucial factor in all of this. Giannis and Thanasis go back and forth all the time but they are very authentic, and they don’t hide anything that they think and they are very nice people.”
According to Sole Collector, while Antetokounmpo will not wear these at the outset of the Bucks’ time in Orlando, the possibility exists that he will break them out at some point. As for when you can get your hands on the pair, the Zoom Freak 2s will drop in their green “Naija” colorway on July 25 for $120, with the black and white colorway coming on August 7.
Jeffrey Epstein died in jail last August, but the investigation (which was the subject of a recent Netflix docuseries, Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich), continues into those associated with the tycoon’s international sex trafficking ring. He was accused of abusing women and underage girls for decades, and his alleged accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, remains in jail and was denied bail after pleading not guilty. On CBS This Morning, accuser Virginia Roberts Guiffre told Gayle King that Maxwell was not simply an accomplice but “the mastermind” of the entire sex trafficking ring.
For the record, Guiffre does label Epstein as “a sick pedophile,” but she believes that Maxwell is “a monster… she’s worse than Epstein.” She continued to call Maxwell “vicious” and “evil” and reprehensible on another level as a woman who was actively participating in the sexual abuse of other women. As for Maxwell’s motives, Guiffre believes that “she did it to keep Jeffrey happy, for sure. She did it because she loves the control over people… Jeffrey was a sick pedophile. But she was the mastermind.”
On a related note, Maxwell has reportedly been discovered to have a secret husband, whose name she will not reveal. And on CBS This Morning, Guiffre also declares that Britain’s Prince Andrew needs to be held accountable for his alleged involvement in the sex trafficking ring because “we need to show the world that the rich and the mighty can fall too.”
50 Cent doesn’t exactly need extra reasons to troll people with whom he has issues, but given he was already at odds with the disgraced television and radio host Nick Cannon, it was a certainty he’d find a way to kick the man while he’s down. That’s just what he did, with new posts teasing Cannon for losing his deal with ViacomCBS, one of which has since been deleted.
The deleted one, according to HotNewHipHop, read, “Damn, Nikki, what the f*ck was you on that stupid ass podcast talking about? No More Wilding Out Hun! (Don’t worry Be Happy).” It’s since been removed from his page for unknown reasons.
However, his other posts remain intact. Both are parodic references to Wild’N Out, the long-running improv comedy show Cannon led along with a rotating cast of comedian friends and musical guest stars that dominated MTV’s late-night schedule for the better part of the last decade. 50’s posts advertise his own (fake) show, “Out Wild,” starring Instagram comedian Michael Blackson. 50 jokes that “it’s kinda like a show that got canceled,” and in a second post, urges Black to “sign TF contract. Let’s go, I ain’t got all day — and sh*t better be funny.”
Cannon was ousted from his production deal with ViacomCBS after discussing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on his Cannon’s Class podcast. He’s since issued an apology and been offered an opportunity to start over at Diddy’s Revolt TV.
In this week’s SNX DLX, we see a top-five that is representative of what this year has looked like across this series overall –with an even split falling between Nike and Adidas and an offering from New Balance to round it all out. Those three brands have been our favorites of the year and if they continue the consistent output they’ve produced so far, we’re sure they’ll come out on top by the year’s end. We’ve been really hoping for New Balance to overtake Nike this year, but not for any reason other than loving an underdog story.
On the apparel end, we’ve got Palace’s final summer t-shirt drop, some hiking fashion from Chinatown Market, and some nostalgia invoking hoodies from Teddy Fresh. Let’s dive into this week’s best!
Nike Space Hippie Volt Collection
Nike
Nike has a surprise hit on its hand this summer thanks to its new Space Hippie series of sneakers. Made from recycled materials, the debut Space Hippie collection dropped a couple of weeks back and now Nike is taking a victory lap by releasing Space Hippie 1-4 in the beloved Volt iteration. If you liked the 1, 2, 3, or 4 from the last collection, the Volt series doesn’t change up much from the originals but sports a brighter color palette and of course, the Volt-colored swoosh.
All of the sustainable features of the original collection are still in evidence here — the recycled polyester, the re-used yarn, the recycled foam midsole, even the box the sneakers come in are printed with plant-based ink. We’re looking at the future of sneakers ladies and gentlemen, and it’s trash! But like… in a good way.
The Nike Space Hippie Volt Collection is set to drop on July 16th for a retail range of $130-$180, depending on the pair you buy. Pick up your favorite through the Nike SNKRS app.
NikeNikeNike
New Balance 1300 Made in Japan
HBX
If you really love New Balances, and we mean really love, this 600+ pair of the 1300s, made from a mix of mesh, suede, and leather from Japan’s highest quality suppliers is about to make you weigh some serious financial decisions in your mind. On one hand, paying over $600 dollars for a pair of New Balance 1300 seems insane, on the other hand… look at these babies!
This sneaker is so premium that the pair comes with wooden shoe trees to keep its shape. Definitely not a pair for everyone, but if you’re serious about New Balances, this is probably the nicest pair you can ever hope to own.
The New Balance 1300 Made in Japan is set to drop on July 17th for a shocking retail price of $630. Pick up a pair exclusively through HBX.
HBX
Nike ISPA Road Warrior Volt
Nike
We said we believe the future of sneakers looks like the Space Hippie collection, but if repurposed trash as sneakers kind of bums you out, you’re going to love this high-concept sneaker out of Nike that feels much more like an art piece than a traditional pair of kicks. The ISPA Road Warrior Volt looks unlike any shoe you’ve ever seen, it has a unique floating heel, double stacked zoom pods, and a Japanese-style split-toe cage to help center your stance throughout a long day spent on foot.
Even the sole on this thing looks nuts, taking on a drastically different appearance depending on which angle you’re looking at it from. The ISPA Road Warrior is definitely not for everyone (especially with that split-toe), but if you love sneakers as art, you’ll find a lot to buzz over here.
The Nike ISPA Road Warrior Volt is set to drop on July 17th for a retail price of $500. Pick up a pair through the Nike SNKRS app.
NikeNike
Adidas YEEZY BOOST 350 V2 Zyon
YEEZY Supply
It has been a minute since Ye dropped a new iteration of the 350 V2 — aka YEEZY Brand’s best selling sneaker — but this week sees the return of the silhouette in a new “Zyon” colorway that harkens back to one of the original 350s debut pairs. The Zyon is in every way an upgrade to the 350 Turtle Doves (though YEEZYheads will probably never admit that), with details like the semi-translucent BOOST midsole and the black monofilament side stripe putting the pair over the top in our hearts.
The Adidas YEEZY BOOST 350 V2 Zyon is set to drop on July 18th for a retail price of $220. Pick up a pair exclusively through YEEZY Supply.
Adidas x Jonah Hill Superstar
Adidas
Jonah Hill’s ascent from lovable comedy sidekick to fashion icon surprised just about everyone who was introduced to the actor for the first time in Knocked Up or SuperBad. But Jonah is more than just another celebrity getting their own signature sneaker, his take on one of Adidas’ best silhouettes comes from a place of love, and it shows. Long a fan of the three stripes, Jonah set out to make the ultimate pair of Superstars based on a fantasy version of what a young Jonah Hill would’ve wanted. That personal connection is the recipe for a good sneaker — just look at the countless number of nostalgic Nike SB Dunks made by skaters.
Featuring a clean white leather upper, oversizes laces, a molded toe cap, and stitch and turn construction, the Jonah Hill Superstars are a love letter to one of Adidas’ greatest designs. Our only gripe is the typeface Jonah went with for the embroidered stitching. We don’t love it, but it harkens back to the mid-90s in a way we’ve come to expect from the director of… Mid 90s.
The Adidas x Jonah Hill Superstar is out now for a retail price of $140. Pick up a pair through the Adidas online store.
AdidasAdidas
Palace Tri-Tex T-Shirts
We’ve finally come to the end of Palace’s summer season drops and to close out the collection, the brand is releasing a new Tri-Tex t-shirt design in your choice of black, grey, orange, green, navy, white or yellow. The shirt features a wavy Triferg logo over the left side, with a matching design on the back. It’s definitely one of the simpler pieces out of Palace this year, but it reaches back into the brand’s roots and is a cool way to close out a strong season.
The Palace Tri-Tex t-shirt is set to drop on July 17th at the Palace webstore.
Chinatown Market Corduroy Vest
Chinatown Market has taken two things that are inarguably lame — vests and corduroy — and have managed to make a cool piece that’ll complete your summer wardrobe. Featuring high visibility reflecting 3M detailing, Chinatown Market’s Corduroy Vest will turn you into the most fly hiker on the trail.
H3H3 and SpongeBob SquarePants fans have one last chance to grab this final restock of the official Teddy Fresh x SpongeBob collection. The final restock is dropping in limited edition colors and features hoodies and t-shirts that feature dual SpongeBob and Teddy Fresh branding. It’s cute and colorful, everything you’ve come to expect from Teddy Fresh, but this link up with Nickelodeon feels like a big step for the brand.
How SpongeBob iconography remains cool in the streetwear scene, I will never understand. But it’s The Teddy Fresh and SpongeBob Square Pants Collection is set to drop — to much fanfare — on July 15th at the Teddy Fresh webstore.
One sticking point for a number of basketball players has been using the league’s restart in Orlando as an opportunity to keep the fight against police brutality and systemic inequality in the spotlight. For a number of players, this means doing things like putting a word or phrase across the backs of their uniforms that is related to the current moment in America.
For Denver Nuggets forward Jerami Grant, he sees this as a chance to keep one issue in particular in the spotlight. Grant spoke to the media on Wednesday, and instead of diving into the minutiae of what life is like in the bubble, decided to focus on the fact that the police officers that killed Breonna Taylor have not been brought to justice.
“I think it’s great to be here with my teammates,” Grant told the Denver Post. “It’s great to be back playing basketball. For me personally, and I think a lot of the players, I think it’s imperative that we focus on what’s really important in the world. One thing, for me, is Breonna Taylor’s killers still are roaming around free. I think I just want to focus on that with these interviews.”
Grant echoed this sentiment when asked about Nikola Jokic joining the Nuggets in the bubble. Jokic tested positive for COVID-19 in Serbia, delaying his arrival in Orlando, but he has since made it down to Disney. When asked about this, Grant said, “Like I said, it’s great to have my teammates here, it’s great to be here playing basketball, but at the same time, I want to keep the focus on what’s really important. Breonna Taylor’s murderers still are roaming around free.”
Grant joined the Nuggets last offseason as has been a productive member of the team’s frontcourt, averaging 11.6 points and 3.5 rebounds in 26.2 minutes per game, largely in a role off the bench. On March 13, 2020, Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT who lived in Louisville, was shot by three plainclothes police officers who were executing a no-knock warrant as she was asleep with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, in an apartment that was incorrectly targeted in a potential drug bust. While all three officers were placed on administrative leave — one has since been fired — and laws have been introduced and passed in some places to outlaw no-knock warrants, none of the officers involved have been arrested for the killing.
It was reported yesterday that Kanye filed a form declaring that the Kanye 2020 committee serves as the “Principal Campaign Committee” and backs Kanye as their candidate. That was just the first set of documents Kanye needed to file to legitimize his candidacy. TMZ reports, though, that Kanye has filed even more paperwork. The publication notes that Kanye has filed a Statement Of Candidacy, which documents that he has raised or spent more than $5,000 in campaign-related expenses. This gives Kanye official candidacy status under federal campaign law.
Yesterday, Kanye also qualified to appear on the Oklahoma presidential ballot. Yesterday (July 15) was the state’s deadline to appear on the ballot.
Kanye has not offered a public statement about his presidential campaign, or even discussed politics, since sharing a video teaching his followers how to register to vote on July 9. Most recently, he fired off a series of tweets about a chair he likes.
Kanye, along with a host of other celebrities and people with verified accounts, was also recently a victim of Twitter hackers perpetrating a Bitcoin scam.
Chuck Klosterman once observed that every straight American man “has at least one transitionary period in his life when he believes Led Zeppelin is the only good band that ever existed.” Typically, this “Zeppelin phase” occurs in one’s teens, when a band that sings lasciviously about squeezing lemons while contemplating hobbits aligns with the surging hormones of the listener. But what about when you hit your early 30s? Is there a band that corresponds with graying beards and an encroaching sense of mortality?
I believe, based on anecdotal evidence, that this band is the Grateful Dead.
Before we talk about the “Mid-Life Dead Phase,” however, let’s recognize that people of all ages are embracing the Dead now more than ever before. In the late 20th century, back when Jerry Garcia was still alive, the Grateful Dead was discussed in the mainstream primarily as a phenomenon that was popular among a small segment of fanatical Deadheads who famously followed the band from gig to gig, dispensing grilled cheese sandwiches and cheap acid in parking lots from Jersey City to Eugene, Oregon. But in recent years, the Dead have emerged as one of the most broadly popular American rock bands right now, even as the 25th anniversary of Garcia’s death in August looms.
In 2015, a poll found that the Dead was loved across all demographics, regardless of age or political persuasion. In fact, the groups you might expect to like the Dead less actually liked them more — in the poll, they had a higher favorability rating among people ages 18 to 44 than it did with the baby boomers who grew up in the band’s prime. And Republicans dug them slightly more than Democrats and independents.
There are other, less statistically driven signs of the Dead’s widespread acceptance. This year, there have been new Grateful Dead sneakers and new Grateful Dead edible deodorant. (Who ever thought people would want to smell like the Dead?) One of the summer’s most popular new music podcasts, Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast, is officially sanctioned by the band and details the making of their classic album, Workingman’s Dead, which turns 50 this year. (There are dozens of other Dead podcasts as well, including a medium-popular one co-hosted by yours truly.) There’s also a massive new Vinyl Me, Please box set repackaging several of the Dead’s best albums that includes liner notes written by a wide cross-section of young musicians, ranging from country singer Margo Price to indie rockers liker Jim James of My Morning Jacket and MC Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger.
If there were a normal year, the post-Jerry incarnation of the Dead, Dead & Company, would be in the midst of a stadium tour this month. Even tribute bands to the Dead, like the well-regarded Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, have graduated to headlining large outdoor venues like Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.
This “Dead bump” can be traced back to 2015, when the “core four” surviving members reunited that summer for the Fare Thee Well concerts in California and Illinois. Soon after, guitarist Bob Weir and drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart connected with John Mayer in Dead & Company, which quickly became the most successful version of the Dead since Garcia’s passing. (As of 2019, they have grossed more than $200 million on the road, and sold two million tickets.) Two years later, the excellent four-hour documentary Long Strange Trip helped to introduce the band to a newer, younger audience, contextualizing the band’s story right down to the minutia of their epic “Wall Of Sound” P.A.. (No other rock band doc has ever featured as much input from roadies.) That same year, Pitchfork ran an in-depth feature positing the best live versions of various Dead songs, a delightfully nerdy endeavor that would’ve been inconceivable on the taste-making indie site back in its early days. (Consider that in 2004, when Pitchfork ranked the 100 best albums of ’70s, they didn’t include a single Grateful Dead LP, even though the decade coincides with the band’s best studio work, including American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead, as well as the iconic live triple album, Europe ’72.)
Of course — as many Deadheads, no doubt annoyed by an abundance of recent “why are the Dead so popular?” articles, will point out — this band has always been bigger than they appeared to outsiders. In an evocative 2012 New Yorker story, journalist and Deadhead Nick Paumgarten recalled how the band “was something of a cult” at the boarding school he attended in the early ’80s, a period when the Grateful Dead were as far removed from the trendy rock vanguard — which at the time was enraptured with new wave bands and synthesizers — as they are from pop and hip-hop music in 2020. Back then, the gospel of the Dead was spread strictly via word of mouth, as fans shared cassette tapes of the band’s live concerts, “copies of copies of copies, usually many generations removed from the original source,” Baumgarten writes. No music critic would have called the Grateful Dead “relevant” in 1983, and yet the Dead ultimately transcended such transitory thinkpiece fare thanks to deathless grassroots support.
For years, the Dead’s approach to their career appeared counterintuitive to the point of wanton self-destructiveness: Largely eschew radio singles, make albums with bored indifference, commit to improvising at every concert and throw consistency to the wind, and adopt a laissez-faire attitude toward bootleggers. But they were playing the long game — kids like Baumgarten (and many generations after him) were plugged into a kind of social media before social media, relying on each other to “report” on their favorite band, which (as the internet does) fed their interest in the Dead to the point of mania. The Dead somehow stumbled upon a career path that bonded their audience tightly to them, while also avoiding the inevitable burnout that comes from having a ubiquitous hit song or album that people grow tired of. Years later, when the power of radio diminished and people stopped buying music, the Dead were uniquely positioned to keep on truckin.’
So if the Dead has always been popular, what’s different now? For starters, it’s easier than ever to become an obsessive Dead fan. Collecting live tapes in the ’80s and ’90s required a lot of patience, a lot of Maxell cassettes, and a connection to a nationwide (or even worldwide) network that distributed the music via the mail, in the parking lot outside of a Dead gig, or the sort of dorm-room networks that Paumgarten describes. (This was Spotify before Spotify.) Now, you can simply download the Relisten app on your phone and voila, instant access to good (and frequently great) sounding recordings of virtually every concert (more than 2,000 of them) that the Dead ever played over the course of 30 years.
And then there’s the most troublesome baggage affixed to the Grateful Dead — the obnoxious Deadhead stereotypes that defined the band’s media coverage in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when they rode the wave from their sole Top 10 hit, “Touch Of Grey,” to stadium-headliner status. Paumgarten sums up these stereotypes in his New Yorker piece: “Airheads and druggies, smelling of patchouli and pot, hairy, hypocritical, pious, ingenuous, and uncritical in the extreme.” I was a teenager around that time who was equally enamored with alt-rock and classic rock, and yet the Dead didn’t interest me largely because the fan culture both repulsed and intimidated me. Even if you could get past the baggage of Dead fans, would Dead fans actually accept you? Looking back, these worries and prejudices seem quaint. Anybody can be a Deadhead now, whether you’re an old-school hippie like Bill Walton or a modern right-wing ghoul like Ann Coulter. If we believe national polls, the world absorbed Dead culture. Or, maybe, Dead culture absorbed the world.
But what explains the “Mid-Life Dead Phase”? After dabbling a bit in the Dead in my 20s, I turned the corner and became a devotee in my early 30s, which coincided with so many Dead shows being available for download on Live Archive. So technology certainly had a lot to with it. But I had also grown disillusioned with the persistent taste politics endemic to conversations about contemporary pop and indie music. So much of the talk then centered on whether you were a “hipster” for liking certain artists, or hopelessly lame and passé for favoring others. It was all about turning what you like into what you’re like, and it was frankly exhausting. I might have also been a little insecure. As a music critic in a youth-obsessed industry, I was no longer young. But in the Dead world, that didn’t seem to matter, either.
From the outside, getting into the Dead seemed like a vacation from all of that fashion-obsessed stuff I loathed about mainstream music. After all, who likes the Dead to be cool? Becoming a Deadhead, therefore, felt like a way to liberate myself. As much as I’m inclined to reflexively make fun of anyone who claims to “only care about the music, man,” I wanted to be around people who, ahem, only cared about the music, man.
Now, obviously, this was all a naive fantasy. The Dead scene, like any scene, is rife with extremely judgmental people. For Deadheads, the taste police might for instance bust you for caring too much about Cornell ’77, the single most famous Dead live recording that, naturally, makes some of the band’s “obscure for obscure’s sake” self-appointed custodians bristle. (For the record, I love Cornell ’77 and implore you to put it on now if you’ve never heard it.) But I wasn’t completely off. And I suspect this “vacation from fashion” aspect has brought other pilgrims to the Dead after they turned 30.
When I interviewed Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, an enthusiastic Dead convert who often talks about the band on his Apple Music radio show “Time Crisis,” earlier this year, his experience reminded me of my own. “This is a broad-stroke, reductive view, but there is something about the jam-band ethos that feels pleasantly removed from the hard-core branding-and-marketing side of almost every other genre of music,” he said. “You could poke holes in that argument so easily — I recognize that. But to some extent it does stand apart.”
Some of the holes you could poke in that view are the aforementioned Grateful Dead shoes and deodorant, among hundreds of other band-related merchandise. But if the Dead scene isn’t exactly a post-taste and corporate-free utopia, it does offer a tremendous opportunity for seemingly endless discovery. This, more than anything, explains why I and perhaps others have been drawn into this world relatively late in life. Getting into the Dead replicates the feeling I had as a kid learning about music for the first time, when all artists were new and classic albums I had never heard were blowing my mind every day. Once you reach a certain age, it’s impossible to feel that way again, which is why so many people drift away from discovery in middle age and stick with the music they know. With the Grateful Dead, however, there’s always a new tape that includes an amazing “China>Rider” you’ve never heard. Your mind never stops being blown. You put a Dead tape on, and time stops. Jerry is alive again, and the world seems exciting and fresh once more.
The Grateful Dead is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, who made his stage IV pancreatic cancer diagnosis public last year, offered an encouraging update on his health. “I’m doing well. I’ve been continuing my treatment and it is paying off, although it does fatigue me a great deal. My numbers are good. I’m feeling great,” he said in a video message before revealing that even he wrote a book, due out July 21. Trebek is also sporting some impressive facial hair, as he’s had time to grow a beard due to a break in Jeopardy! taping schedule.
About that: it’s still not safe for Jeopardy! to resume production, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but Trebek is busy at home “recording show openings for some very special Jeopardy! episodes that will be coming out in July,” he said. “For the first time ever, we are going to open the Jeopardy! vault and take another look at some of our favorite episodes, including the very first Jeopardy! show I ever hosted.” He’s so smiley!
Here’s the schedule:
July 20-24: The Best of JEOPARDY!‘s First Decade
This week features five of the best and most exciting shows from the 1980s, including the series premiere, the first “super-champion,” the first record-setting contestant, and more.
July 27-31: The Best of Celebrity JEOPARDY!
Throughout the years, JEOPARDY! has invited celebrities to play for their favorite charities, and more than $9 million has been won for great causes. This week features five of the most entertaining celebrity games ever.
August 3-7 & August 10-14: Million Dollar Masters (2002) Encore Presentation
For its first-ever million-dollar competition, 15 of the best contestants from the first 18 seasons of the show competed in a two-week contest taped at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
Christopher Osburn has spent the last fifteen years in search of the best — or at least his very favorite — sip of whiskey on earth. In the process, he’s enjoyed more whiskey drams than his doctor would dare feel comfortable with, traveled to over 20 countries testing local spirits, and visited more than fifty whiskey distilleries.
There are few spirits more American than bourbon (although apple jack enthusiasts would beg to differ). Distilled the United States since the 1800s, for a whiskey to be called a ‘bourbon’ it must fit certain criteria. Among the specific parameters it has to follow, it’s got to be made from at least 51 percent corn in the mash bill and barrelled in first-use American oak (it doesn’t, however, need to be made in Kentucky). The corn is where the spirit gets that mellow, corn-honeyed sweetness that every bourbon lover expects when they crack open a new bottle. The oak gives it the mellow, toasty spice.
In the hierarchy of bourbon, there are a handful of names that dominate in both name recognition and production. They include Jim Beam, Wild Turkey, Buffalo Trace, and — on the elite end — Pappy Van Winkle. But while these brands and their various subsidiaries continue to craft whiskey at high levels, there are a handful of other brands perhaps equally if not more deserving of accolades.
With literally thousands of expressions on the market, every serious drinks writer is going to develop a few favorites. Check out my list of underrated bourbons below.
George Remus Repeal Reserve
Story:
From MGP, this high rye bourbon is in its third year of availability. Made from a blend of 11-12-year-old bourbons and two different mash bills, Remus Repeal is named for a bootlegger and crafted to pay homage to the repealing of prohibition in the United States on December 5, 1933. The new Remus Repeal is released on King George’s birthday on November 13 every year.
If you’re able to find a bottle, you’ll be treated to the velvety smooth mouthfeel of the 2019 limited edition bottling. This blended bourbon is created to have a full range of flavors including toffee, baking spices, candied orange peel, rich caramel, and just a hint of pleasing rye spice that builds throughout.
Old Grand-Dad Bonded
Story:
You might not know it, but the “Old Grand-Dad” on the bottle is none other than Basil Hayden (yes, that Basil Hayden). That’s because his grandson Raymond Hayden created the brand in the 1800s. Currently, the brand is owned by Beam Suntory (who also own Basil Hayden’s) but that hasn’t changed the overall Old Grand-Dad experience.
The core Old Grand-Dad line comes in three different proofs: 80, 100, and 114.
Old Grand-Dad Bond is inexpensive, 100 proof, and surprisingly easy to drink. Sure, it works well as a mixer for your favorite whiskey-based drinks. But if you sip it neat or on the rocks, you’ll be met with an initial spicy hit of cinnamon followed by dried fruits before gently gliding into sweet caramel and subtle oak.
Four Roses Yellow Label
Story:
This high corn (75 percent) whiskey is aged between 4 and 12 years. That range guarantees a fairly high-quality bourbon at a value price. Sure, you can pay a little more to get a bottle of small-batch, single-barrel or small-batch select, but you honestly don’t even need to.
Even at a low sticker price, this bottle if well-suited for sipping neat or mixing into an old fashioned or mint julep.
We hate to keep harping on the low price of this offering, but it should be noted that even though you don’t have to pay a week’s rent to get a bottle, it’s perfectly balanced, soft in mouthfeel, and full of fresh sweet corn, dried fruits, vanilla, and just a hint of pleasing peppery spice at the very end of each sip.
Very Old Barton
Story:
Very Old Barton actually isn’t very old at all. The juice inside is somewhere in the 6-year range. But at less than $15 dollars at most retailers, we’ll let someone else worry about the age semantics. For the price, this is a can’t miss bourbon. Made by the Sazerac company, Very Old Barton is bottled in multiple proofs including 80, 86, 90, and 100 and was once given a very surprising score of 90.5 in Jim Murray’s Whiskey Bible.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a better bottom shelf bourbon on the planet. With a mash bill of 75 percent corn, 15 percent rye, and 10 percent barley, this is a very well-rounded whiskey. Due to the overwhelming amount of corn, this bourbon is sweeter than most, if you dig that sort of thing. It’s full of sticky toffee, honey, and stone fruit flavors as well as just a hint of peppery spice at the end thanks to the rye.
Bib & Tucker
Story:
There’s a reason bartenders enjoy this Tennessee-based bourbon. It’s only been available since 2014 but has already gained a cult following for its high quality that starts with 70 percent corn-based mash bill and 6 years of maturation. While the distillery listed for producing it is 35 Maple Street Spirits, it’s rumored that it’s actually produced by George Dickel. This would surprise no one, as it’s the same high level as the beloved Tennessee whiskey brand.
While this 90 proof offering is made up of 70 percent corn, it’s also comprised of 26 percent rye. The result is a highly complex, well-balanced whiskey with smoky cinnamon on the first sip followed by hints of anise, cloves, and dried fruits, all brought together by sweet cream and light peppery spice from the rye.
Baker’s
Story:
Baker’s is the sometimes-forgotten member of Jim Beam’s Small Batch Bourbon Collection. Basil Hayden’s, Knob Creek, and Booker’s seem to get all the press. Named for Baker Beam, the grand-nephew of Jim Beam, Baker’s is aged for 7 years and sits at a highly potent 107 proof. This doesn’t stop it from being extremely sippable and bold.
Even though this whiskey is 107 proof, it’s surprisingly mellow — with subtle Christmas spices prevalent on your first sip. This is quickly followed by vanilla, caramelized sugar, and rich dried leather. The heat is long-lasting, but not harsh as it seems to warm you all the way through by the end of your first glass.
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