Autism is a disorder that is surrounded by stigma. Some families feel an unnecessary sense of shame for having an autistic child. People living with autism may feel socially ostracized because they relate to people in a different way. Children with autism are often bullied and have a difficult time making friends in school.
The stigma can also prevent people from being diagnosed with the disorder and getting the therapy they need.
Jen Coats of Long Beach, California, is well aware of the stigma surrounding autism, and that inspired her to make the world more accepting of children with the disorder. When her first son was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at age two, she was pregnant with her second child and dealing with strong, challenging emotions. She cried when she heard the news, but her tears didn’t last long.
“A family member was with me that day, and she said, ‘No one needs to know.’ Right then and there, I stopped crying, and my first experience with the ‘mama bear’ attitude kicked in,” she told Upworthy. “I knew from that moment that I would advocate for him and share our journey of autism.”
This immediate transformation inspired Coats to form an organization that cultivates an attitude of kindness surrounding autism and celebrates all children’s differences.
In 2016, Coats and a group of parents created the LBC Hero Squad to create the first-ever Autism Awareness Week program at her children’s school, Cubberely K-8. The Hero Squad’s successful event inspired other schools in the area to do the same to join the celebration of neurodiversity.
She named the group the Hero Squad because she believes that children with autism and their parents are heroic.
“My son is my hero. We named our nonprofit the LBC Hero Squad because his favorite Avenger is Captain America,” Coats told Upworthy. “We believe that people with autism are heroic because they are honest and true to themselves. They have gifts and talents that surpass any superhero. We also think the parents are superheroes. Being a parent is hard work, but being a parent with a neurodiverse child takes a lot of patience, understanding and fighting for the right services and care.”
Coats and the Squad have expanded their efforts over the past six years to raise funds for students in special day and general education classes in Long Beach to participate in extracurricular activities. The Squad has also had multiple giveaways and organized social events for families of children with autism.
The Squad’s regular Autism Night Out events allow families of children with autism to eat out in a stigma-free environment. The dinners also allow families on the same journey to get to know one another and for their children to make friends.
Coats is most proud of the community the Hero Squad has helped create.
“It’s all about feeling proud of who they are, and families that are new to the diagnosis no longer feel alone,” Coats told Upworthy. “These families have support and resources and their kids are meeting new friends for the first time. It’s a community that is inviting, accepting and welcoming. “
The LBC Hero Squad is also pushing for Long Beach to become an Autism Certified City (ACC). Long Beach is home to over 450,000 people and is the second-largest city in Los Angeles County.
It’s all part of the greater goal of creating acceptance and understanding.
“Our goal is to create and organize community events and help other schools implement their own neurodiverse or acceptance day and to continue to collaborate with other nonprofits by creating a more inclusive and welcoming community for all,” Coats said.
Coats has some heartfelt advice for other parents who want to create accepting community organizations like the LBC Hero Squad.
“Once you find your village, start planning meet-ups and sharing your journey,” she said. “Make it a welcoming and safe space for parents and children to meet. Share stories and support one another. My favorite quote of all time is by DJ Dusk, ‘We are better together than alone.’”
Stock photos of any job are usually delightful cringey. Sure, sometimes they sort of get the essence of a job, but a lot of the time the interpretation is downright cartoonish. One glance and it becomes abundantly clear that for some careers, we have no freakin’ clue what it is that people do.
Dr. Kit Chapman, an award-winning science journalist and academic at Falmouth University in the U.K., recently held an impromptu contest on Twitter where viewers could vote on which photos were the best of the worst when it came to jobs in scientific fields.
According to Chapman’s entries, a day in the life of a scientist includes poking syringes into chickens, wearing a lab coat (unless you’re a “sexy” scientist, then you wear lingerie) and holding vials of colored liquid. Lots and lots of vials.
Of course, where each image is 100% inaccurate, they are 100% giggle inducing. Take a look below at some of the contenders.
Chapman’s unofficial photo competition received nearly 500,000 votes cast throughout four rounds. The grand prize winner was a photo of a female scientist holding a soldering iron (very much not in the right way) as she is “working” on some kind of electrical board.
It’s titled, “Hold My Soldering Iron.”
Time to vote for the worst science stock photos ever!
“I mean there’s the obvious thing that she’ll burn her hand, but nobody ever talks about how she’s ‘soldering’ the wrong side of the board,” one person quipped.
Of course, “Talk to Us, Dr. Chicken” was also popular.
Clearly using the scientific method to figure out why exactly Dr. Chicken crossed the road.
But not as popular as “Syringe Chicken,” where, for some reason, a scientist covered in a mask and safety goggles inspects a raw, syringe-filled chicken with his teeny tiny magnifying glass. For science!
While these are certainly not an accurate depiction of the vast and wondrous world of scientific research, it did cause many a scientist to share a giggle. So no harm, no foul. Not even to chickens.
I don’t know what it is about impersonations that are so fascinating to people but they’re often hilarious, and Jack Black impersonating The Rock does not disappoint. From the 2018 clip you can’t tell what prompted the impersonation but “Screen Junkies” interviewer looks to Black and asks him about his workout routine as if he’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
The comedian adjusts himself in his seat and doesn’t break character the entire time and somehow the interviewer is able to maintain a serious face throughout the process. Kevin Hart and the actual Dwayne Johnson cannot keep it together while Black does his impression of his co-star.
Black obviously knows the workout routine of the 6-foot, 5-inch muscular Black Samoan demigod and it starts out with 27,000 rip curls at 5 a.m. At least, that’s the “School of Rock” alum’s best guesstimate, and judging by Johnson’s size, that seems about right.
But his ribbing of his co-star didn’t stop there. As Johnson and Hart are practically wheezing with laughter, Black continues with his impersonation adding in Johnson’s philosophy on life. If you’re curious about that, it involves blood, sweat, tears and sucking life deep.
Yeah, I don’t know what that means either but you should check out the video below because it’s pretty impressive and might just brighten your day.
It seems everyone needs subtitles nowadays in order to “hear” the television. This is something that has become more common over the past decade and it’s caused people to question if their hearing is going bad or if perhaps actors have gotten lazy with enunciation.
So if you’ve been wondering if it’s just you who needs subtitles in order to watch the latest marathon-worthy show, worry no more. Vox video producer Edward Vega interviewed dialogue editor Austin Olivia Kendrick to get to the bottom of why we can’t seem to make out what the actors are saying anymore. It turns out it’s technology’s fault, and to get to how we got here, Vega and Kendrick took us back in time.
They first explained that way back when movies were first moving from silent film to spoken dialogue, actors had to enunciate and project loudly while speaking directly into a large microphone. If they spoke and moved like actors do today, it would sound almost as if someone were giving a drive-by soliloquy while circling the block. You’d only hear every other sentence or two.
But with today’s technology, microphones are so small they can be strapped just about anywhere on an actor. This allows the actor to move about the set freely and speak at a normal volume without worrying that their words won’t be picked up. So then why can’t we hear them? Turns out it’s super complicated…and also not.
“A lot of people will ask, ‘Why don’t you just turn the dialogue up?’ Like, ‘Just turn it up.’ And…if only it were that simple,” Kendrick said before explaining, “If you have your dialogue that’s going to be at the same volume as an explosion that immediately follows it, the explosion is not going to feel as big. You need that contrast in volume in order to give your ear a sense of scale.”
Sure, you may be thinking, well that kinda explains it, but why do the music and other cinematic noises sound like they’re beating on your eardrum while the dialogue sounds like the actors are whispering every line? That doesn’t seem very balanced. There’s more to it, and again, it falls back onto technology.
In the video, they explain how our televisions are too thin to hold large speakers facing in the correct direction, and until this video, it didn’t dawn on me that the speakers to my television are indeed in the back. No wonder we can’t hear. The actors are quite literally talking to our walls.
And there’s more. Check out the full explanation in the video:
In a surprise to absolutely no one, French big man Victor Wemanyama has officially declared for the 2023 NBA Draft. Wembanyama is projected to be the first overall selection in the draft after completing his season with Metropolitans 92.
The NBA recently flattened the lottery odds to discourage blatant tanking, but that did not stop a few NBA teams from load managing their way to the bottom of the standings. And while Adam Silver may frown up that, Wembanyama is absolutely worth it and everyone in the NBA knows it. Wembanyana’s games in France were routinely streamed on the NBA app, which is a first for a European prospect. He is the most highly-anticipated prospect to enter the draft since LeBron James, and following the NBA Draft Lottery on May 16, we’ll learn where he’s going to spend the start of his career.
Goldenvoice, the promotion company behind Coachella, reportedly lost millions as Frank Ocean pulled out of the festival’s second weekend, according to Billboard.
The losses come mainly in the form of the cost of the giant ice pad that was to be employed during Frank’s performance and went unused due to his last-minute ankle fracture and in tickets for the second weekend that could go unsold due to the news of Frank’s cancelation.
Billboard‘s sources say Goldenvoice is looking for another use for the ice pad; although it cannot be used as a public skating rink, there may be a use for it in another artist’s set.
Frank was to be paid $8 million for the two weekends and despite Frank dropping half of that fee with his cancelation, replacement headliners Blink-182 will need to be paid, as well as the recently booked combo of Four Tet, Fred Again…, and Skrillex.
Goldenvoice still stands to make a profit from the festival, though, despite Frank’s set accruing additional costs including fines from Indio for going over curfew (about $133,000 over the weekend) and the energy needed to keep the rink cool (and melt it down). According to Billboard, the promoter averages $115 million in ticket sales across both weekends and another eight figures on concessions.
There should be a line of succession when it comes to selecting the next James Bond. The current James Bond gets the first pick, but if that’s too much pressure (and because he’s busy being silly), he can decline and the responsibility goes to the most recent movie’s Bond Girl. The closest thing No Time to Die had to a Bond Girl was Ana de Armas, who a) was great, and b) has a solid nomination for who should replace Daniel Craig as 007.
“Do you have someone you’d want to be the next Bond?” an interviewer for Wired asked de Armas and her Ghosted co-star Chris Evans in a recent video. “I’ll do it,” Captain America answered. When de Armas wondered if he was serious, he replied, “I thought you were going to say the next Bond girl. The joke would’ve been funnier then. Then you just said Bond.” Then de Armas offered her choice: “I think Paul Mescal should be the one.” Evans is “a big Aaron Taylor-Johnson guy,” but conceded Mescal is “great.”
If Mescal is named the next James Bond (although he might be too young and too famous), maybe he can also do the theme song. That’ll save some money.
I write about a lot of bourbons for UPROXX. One aspect that always sort of bugs me in the back of my head is that while there’s a metric shit-ton of bourbon these days, much of it is not widely available. Like at all. In some cases, some of the best bourbons are not available outside of very small markets/circumstances. That can be frustrating. I get it. So, I’m lifting the veil and calling out great bourbon that you should actually be able to find at your local store (grocer or liquor store, depending).
There is some method to my madness here. I’m going to call out bourbons that are all under $50 but I’m avoiding some of the basic stuff like Wild Turkey 101 or Jim Beam Black Label. They’re budget bourbons that are fine but not great. I’m also avoiding releases like Buffalo Trace Bourbon and Evan Williams Single Barrel. Both are great for sure but Buffalo Trace Bourbon is very hit-and-miss due to strict allocation and Evan Williams Single Barrel is a Kentucky-only release now.
This is about great bourbon that you, dear reader, can actually find at Costco or Ralph’s or Total Wine or whatever… That said, some of these might not be on every single shelf nationwide (looking at you, Utah). But they will be on most shelves.
I’ve also ranked these great bourbons. Look, some just slap a bit harder than others with the top-ranking half of this list truly hits high marks. Let’s dive in!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
The whisky in the bottle is the same Dickel Tennessee whiskey but pulled from barrels that leaned more into classic bourbon flavor notes instead of Dickel’s iconic Tennessee whisky notes. The barrels are a minimum of eight years old before they’re batched. The whiskey is then cut down to a manageable 90-proof and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This nose is classic, with rich vanilla next to dry spicy tobacco leaves next to apple hand pies with sugar icing made with plenty of dark spices and butter.
Palate: The palate has a bran vibe that hints at a white Necco Wafer with a ripe white peach fresh off the tree with a hint of ginger bite to it.
Finish: The end circles back around to a vanilla wafer with nutmeg, orange zest, and a twinge of dark chocolate sauce leading to a dry and slightly molded wicker chair sitting in the sun.
Bottom Line:
This is a really solid workhorse bourbon. It’s a great, easy backyard sipper, cocktail base, or on-the-rocks pour — basically, this is a quintessential table whiskey.
11. Evan Williams Bottled-In-Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Look, Heaven Hill makes great whiskey, especially inexpensive bottled in bonds. This “b-i-b” is tailored for the Evan Williams flavor profile. Still, this is Heaven Hill, so we’re talking about the same mash bill, same warehouses, and same blending team as beloved bourbons like Elijah Craig and Heaven Hill releases. This is simply built to match a higher-end Evan Williams vibe.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a lovely nose at play with soft taco mix spice next to creamy vanilla, caramel-dipped cherries, a hint of pear skins, and plenty of nutmeg.
Palate: The palate has a minor note of cornbread muffins next to cherry-vanilla tobacco with a dash of leather and toffee.
Finish: The end leans into some fresh gingerbread with a vanilla frosting next to hints of pear candy cut with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Bottom Line:
This is classic, cheap bourbon. You’re not going to have your socks blown off by this one, but it will be very satisfying. This is a bourbon lover’s bourbon at an amazing price point.
This is classic (sourced) Bulleit Bourbon that’s aged up to 10 years before it’s blended and bottled. The barrels are hand-selected to really amplify those classic “Bulleit” flavors that make this brand so damn accessible (and beloved) in the first place.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a lot going on with butter and spicy stewed apples, maple syrup, Christmas cakes full of nuts and dried fruit, and a hint of savory herbs all pinging through your nose.
Palate: The palate brings about smooth and creamy vanilla with plenty of butter toffee, sourdough crust, more X-mas spice, cedar bark, and a hint of dried roses.
Finish: The finish is long, warming, and really embraces the toffee and spice.
Bottom Line:
This is just good. I like it as an easy, everyday sipper over some rocks or a go-to Manhattan base.
A few years back, Wild Turkey brought on Matthew McConaughey to be the brand’s Creative Director and create his own whiskey (though they’ve since parted ways). The product of that partnership was launched in 2018. The whiskey is a wholly unique whiskey for Wild Turkey, thanks to the Texas Mesquite charcoal filtration the hot juice goes through. The whiskey then goes into oak for eight long years before it’s proofed and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Christmas spices meet oily vanilla, subtle caramel, and a whisper of singed cedar bark up top.
Palate: The palate adds orange oils and buttery toffee to the mix, as the edge of the spices upwards on the palate, next to a creamy vanilla pudding body.
Finish: That velvet texture builds throughout, with toasted oak and cedar notes as a hint of sweet firepit smoke arrives on the long and satisfying finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a bold whiskey that hits just right. It’s great in a cocktail but can easily be used as an everyday sipper over some rocks.
8. Jim Beam Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Each of these Jim Beam bottlings is pulled from single barrels that hit just the right spot of taste, texture, and drinkability, according to the master distillers at Beam. That means this whiskey is pulled from less than 1% of all barrels in Beam’s warehouses, making this a very special bottle at a bafflingly affordable price.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Vanilla pound cake and salted caramel are countered by spicy cherry tobacco, mulled wine vibes, and dark chocolate cut with orange zest and a hint of corn husk.
Palate: The palate brings in some floral honey sweetness and more orange oils with a sticky toffee pudding feel next to more spicy cherry tobacco and a hint of coconut cream pie.
Finish: The end amps up the cherry with a little more sweetness than spice before salted dark chocolate tobacco folds into dry sweetgrass and cedar bark before a hint of fountain Cherry Coke pops on the very back end with a sense of sitting in an old wicker rocking chair.
Bottom Line:
This was just good. It’s clearly built whiskey with a profile that goes deep. It was also one of the easiest sipping whiskeys on the shelf. You can easily sip this neat, on the rocks, or in your favorite cocktail.
This expression takes standard Woodford Bourbon and gives it a finishing touch. The bourbon is blended and moved into new barrels that have been double-toasted but only lightly charred. The whiskey spends a final nine months resting in those barrels before proofing and bottling.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a welcoming aroma of marzipan, blackberry, toffee, and fresh honey next to a real sense of pitchy, dry firewood.
Palate: The taste drills down on those notes as the sweet marzipan becomes more choco-hazelnut, the berries become increasingly dried and apple-y, the toffee becomes almost burnt, and the wood softens to a cedar bark.
Finish: A rich spicy and chewy tobacco arrives late as the vanilla gets super creamy and the fruit and honey combine on the slow fade.
Bottom Line:
This is another bourbon that’s just good. Pour it over some rocks or mix it into your favorite cocktail. Either way, you’ll be all set.
6. Knob Creek Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 9 Years
This is Jim Beam’s small batch entry point into the wider world of Knob Creek. The juice is the low-rye mash aged for nine years in new oak in Beam’s vast warehouses. The right barrels are then mingled and cut down to 100 proof before being bottled in new, wavy bottles.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on this feels classic with a bold sense of rich vanilla pods, cinnamon sharpness, buttered and salted popcorn, and a good dose of cherry syrup with a hint of cotton candy.
Palate: The palate mixes almond, orange, and vanilla into cinnamon sticky buns with a hint of sour cherry soda that leads to a nice Kentucky hug on the mid-palate.
Finish: That warm hug fades toward black cherry root beer, old leather boots, porch wicker, and a sense of dried cherry/cinnamon tobacco packed into an old pine box.
Bottom Line:
This is big and bold and very spiced-cherry forward. If you’re looking for something to mix a killer Manhattan or old fashioned with, this is it.
5. Four Roses Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon is a blend of four whiskeys. The blend is split evenly between the high and mid-ryes with a focus on “slight spice” and “rich fruit” yeasts. The whiskey is then blended, cut with soft Kentucky water, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Soft and sweet apple and cherry woods greet with a good dose of sour red berries dusted with brown winter spices, especially clove and nutmeg.
Palate: The palate leans into soft and salted caramel with a hint of those berries underneath while the spices get woodier and a thin line of green sweetgrass sneaks in.
Finish: The finish is silky and boils down to blackberry jam with a good dose of winter spice, old wood, and a hint of vanilla tobacco.
Bottom Line:
This leans into unique flavor notes that go beyond basic Kentucky bourbon cherry and spice. There are botanicals, herbs, orchard fruits, and florals. It’s complex but didn’t lose any of its basic characteristics to be unique. Get this if you’re looking for something a little different on the palate amidst your regular bourbon routine.
This bottle from Beam Suntory marries Kentucky bourbon, California wine, and Japanese whisky blending in one bottle. Legent is classic Kentucky bourbon made by bourbon legend Fred Noe at Beam that’s finished in both French oak that held red wine and Spanish sherry casks. The whiskey is then blended by whisky-blending legend Shinji Fukuyo at Suntory.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Plummy puddings with hints of nuts mingle with vinous berries, oaky spice, and a good dose of vanilla and toffee on the nose.
Palate: The palate expands on the spice with more barky cinnamon and dusting of nutmeg while the oak becomes sweeter and the fruit becomes dried and sweet.
Finish: The finish is jammy yet light with plenty of fruit, spice, and oak lingering on the senses.
Bottom Line:
This sherry-finished bourbon is spot on. The whiskey has a great texture and depth, making it a great sipper or cocktail base. If you want to make a great Manhattan or just have an everyday easy sipper around, get this bottle.
3. Maker’s Mark Cask Strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky
This special release from Maker’s Mark is their classic wheated bourbon turned up a few notches. The batch is made from no more than 19 barrels of whiskey. Once batched, that whiskey goes into the barrel at cask strength with no filtering, just pure whiskey-from-the-barrel vibes.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Burnt caramel candies and lush vanilla lead the way on the nose with hints of dry straw, sour cherry pie, and spiced apple cider with a touch of eggnog lushness.
Palate: The palate has a sense of spicy caramel with a vanilla base that leads to apricot jam, southern biscuits, and a flake of salt with a soft mocha creaminess.
Finish: The end is all about the buzzy tobacco spiciness with a soft vanilla underbelly and a hint of cherry syrup.
Bottom Line:
This is delicious whiskey. It’s so clearly a good and lush bourbon, even the newcomer can taste the excellence (and the flavors are dialed, which makes analyzing it a little more clear-cut). Get some!
This whiskey is made from Jack’s classic mash of 80% corn, 12% barley, and 8% rye before it’s twice distilled and run through Jack’s long Lincoln County sugar maple charcoal filtration process. The spirit then goes into the barrel for at least four years — per bonded law — before it’s batched, cut down with a little water, and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose draws you in with Cherry Jolly Ranchers next to sweet cedar bark braided with old strands of leather and orange-laced tobacco leaves while a hint of vanilla wafer and general “health food store” vibes underneath it all.
Palate: The palate feels like warm apple pie on a sunny day with the best vanilla ice cream on top as layers of eggnog nutmeg and creaminess move toward a Cream of Wheat vibe.
Finish: Some apple wood chips for a smoker and a hint of almond shells pop on the finish.
Bottom Line:
This has no business tasting this good at this price point. The lesson here is that higher proof Jack is better Jack, especially if you’re looking for a killer cocktail base or easy sipper.
1. Michter’s US *1 Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Michter’s really means the phrase “small batch” here. The tank they use to marry their hand-selected eight-year-old bourbons can only hold 20 barrels, so that’s how many go into each small-batch bottling. The blended juice is then proofed with Kentucky’s famously soft limestone water and bottled.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on this is very fruity with a mix of bruised peach, red berries (almost like in a cream soda), and apple wood next to a plate of waffles with brown butter and a good pour of maple syrup that leads to a hint of cotton candy.
Palate: The sweetness ebbs on the palate as vanilla frosting leads to grilled peaches with a crack of black pepper next to singed marshmallows.
Finish: The end is plummy and full of rich toffee next to a dash of cedar bark and vanilla tobacco.
Bottom Line:
This is an essential bourbon whiskey. It’s also the best mixing bourbon on the list for simple, whiskey-forward cocktails. That said, it works just as well over some ice in a rocks glass. You really can’t beat the depth of this beautiful whiskey from top to bottom.
“Ugh, I missed Miami Music Week, Ultra, and Envision Festival for this?” I thought to myself. I was… upset. Understandably so, because I’d just been informed that Costa Rica’s inaugural Jungle Dreaming Festival — which I’d hyped up and was hyped on — was canceled. Not only that, I was slated to board my flight from the United States to Costa Rica in just a few hours.
“Should I still go?” I texted a few friends.
With the flights booked, the Airbnb ready to go, and my bags packed, it was sort of a no-brainer. Rather than let the whole adventure fizzle, I decided that I still would head to the airport, hop aboard my flight, and hope for the best. People always say spontaneous travel is the way to go, this was a chance to really live it.
Still, I couldn’t help being a tad resentful. “How ironic that Jungle Dreaming Festival ended up being just a dream,” I said to my roommates on my way out the door.
While the promise of this sustainable festival in Costa Rica offered up visions of community, local jobs, and cultural integration, it ended up being empty promises. Good intentions, sadly, don’t equal logistics or infrastructure. In other words, the hippie energy morphed into Fyre Fest vibes.
Though I was angry, I did have to remind myself that throwing a music festival is hard and throwing a music festival in a foreign country poses its own complex set of issues. That’s not to excuse Jungle Dreaming from not properly crossing their T’s and dotting their I’s when it came to the logistical planning and legalities of throwing such an event — they unarguably failed to get the job done. But it also made me wonder if foreign governments make it feasible for new events to pop up and manage the legalities that come with it. (Or even if they should — it’s not like they “owe us” a festival and there is a part of me that sees “American throwing a festival in Costa Rica” as a new era of techno-fueled colonialism.)
Costa Rica is known for being particularly difficult to work with on projects of this size. Envision Festival — widely beloved and known as one of the world’s best and biggest jungle parties — has still had its fair share of logistical problems over the years. After just skirting by and being able to throw its 10th annual event in February 2020 before the world shut down, it would take festival organizers three years to finally be able to produce the event again. After selling early bird tickets throughout the spring and summer of 2020 for its 2021 edition – that inevitably did not happen – the festival ended up postponing not one but two times due to logistical problems working with Costa Rican authorities and the health department.
That was three years of thousands of upset attendees, a slightly tarnished reputation, and endless hours, time, and promotional resources wasted. This makes it seem both impressive and fascinating that the festival scraped its way back in 2023.
Mikala Lugen
While my earlier Fyre Fest reference might seem a tad aggressive, considering the obstacles Jungle Dreaming faced, it’s an obvious reference point. Fyre is a prime example of an international event gone wrong, one that put hundreds of inexperienced, wealthy influencers and gullible people easily influenced by inexperienced influencers stranded on an island in the Bahamas in 2017. Attendees who were promised and promoted a luxury resort destination filled with music instead found themselves on a garbage-strewn island and were left to sleep in tents after being served a “gourmet meal” of a single cheese sandwich in a styrofoam container.
But the Jungle Dreaming cancellation wasn’t as catastrophic as the Fyre Festival. While plenty of journalists, musical artists and DJs, and performing artists ended up flying out to be a part of what would’ve been the inaugural event, we weren’t left twiddling our thumbs, wondering about what to do. We were happy to still be in the beautiful country of Costa Rica, not necessarily constrained by the limitations of a heavily scheduled festival. Instead, we were met with a clean slate — days stretching ahead of us with no place to be.
So we did exactly that.
Mikala Lugen
Because so many of the festival’s staff and music artists were already in the area, several of the local businesses put their heads together to ensure that the show – at least to some degree – would go on. The little Pacific coast town of Jacó that was supposed to host Jungle Dreaming also happened to be celebrating the grand opening of a new nightclub, Fuse. It literally wasn’t even on Google Maps yet but with plenty of publicists and music industry know-it-alls in the area the word spread. In a nice twist of luck, Fuse was on-point and worth the would-be festival attendees descending on — boasting freshly painted murals of landscapes and rock music icons, while faux-fancy chandeliers lined the ceiling around a disco ball.
My first night in Jacó, I went to the nightclub with no expectations and left with a little pep in my step — thanks to a pretty decent dancing session with my new industry friends to a live set by one of the members from Stanton Warriors. It was certainly something better to do on a Friday night than just sit in the Airbnb sulking about a canceled festival (watch any Fyre Fest doc and you’ll be amazed at how willing the attendees were to sulk). I found out later that it was festival organizers who tried to rally some of the DJs to play at the nightclub’s grand opening weekend, which ended up still lacking luster due to literally no promotion.
I remember asking myself, “Why isn’t the festival promoting this as a sure-in solution to the abandoned attendees?” My question was never answered.
It would actually be Hotel La Sirena, around a 40-minute drive south of Jacó, that finally upgraded the weekend out of “bust” territory. While Jungle Dreaming Festival left its attendees in the dark all weekend, Hotel La Sirena ended up putting its own last-minute funds together to create a three-night beachside event. Although it was kind of hard to get to, the property invited locals and displaced tourists alike to dance to some wonky jungle bass music on the sand. An-Ten-Nae, Mystic Grizzly, and around a dozen other local and global producers performed hour-long sets on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights while fire dancers dazzled the lucky attendees who caught wind of the pop-up event.
Art vendors also set up shop around the space, mimicking the artsy “downtown” space that most festivals offer. It wasn’t quite the same but it was pretty great nonetheless.
On Sunday night, I found myself watching two massive piles of wood get set on fire on the star-lit beach while bass music played in the distance. It was then that I realized the power of the music, travel, and Costa Rican communities. Even though we went to Costa Rica for a festival that was canceled at the last minute, these three communities came together and made sure that the show would go on. Mixed in with all the partying, I found out that the locals were just as excited as all the privileged tourists that flocked to the country for the festival to happen — so they found a solution for not only us outsiders but for themselves to have some fun. From the outside, a music festival might just look like a bunch of drugged-up hippies dancing around for three days straight, but in reality, it does create a lot of revenue, jobs, and tourist money for the area that hosts it.
And as one of those drugged-up hippies I was glad to be reminded that although things don’t always work out as planned, they do work out exactly as they should.
Mass Appeal’s Hip-Hop 50 celebration continues with a new EP, this one produced and curated by Swizz Beatz. The Hip Hop 50: The Soundtrack series kicked off last year with DJ Premier‘s Hip-Hop 50 Vol. 1 featuring the “Beat Breaks” with Nas and “Remy Rap” with Remy Ma and Rapsody. Now, Swizz Beatz presents six new tracks showing off the span of talent hip-hop offers, from old-schoolers like Jadakiss to current stars like Benny The Butcher, Fivio Foreign, and Jay Electronica, as well as future ones like Bandmanrill and Scar Lip.
Swizz has been working hard to celebrate hip-hop history even before teaming up with Mass Appeal for Hip-Hop 50. His and Timbaland’s Verzuz hits battles were a way to highlight the legends of yesteryear and bring their contributions to the hip-hop canon to the fore for younger generations who might not remember the era. However, their efforts were nearly derailed after partnering with Triller, prompting them to sue the streaming platform’s parent company for $28 million. A settlement was reached last September in which Swizz and Tim will receive a greater ownership stake, giving it to the artists who appear on the platform. However, there haven’t been any Verzuz events announced since then.
Meanwhile, the Hip-Hop 50 celebrations continue, with the Grammys producing a massive tribute performance and outlets like BET joining the fun with the help of rappers like Black Thought. Uproxx’s own coverage so far includes interviews with DJ Premier and Just Blaze.
Hip-Hop 50: Vol. 2 is out now via Mass Appeal. Check it out below.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
