While many of us are going back to concerts as if the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a factor, we’re still very much seeing the effects of the pandemic lingering on the live music industry and the artists who make their living going on tour. Animal Collective are the latest in a growing number of artists who are cancelling their tour dates, as the group shared a lengthy statement today citing “the economic reality” that they’re facing with embarking on a full slate of UK and EU tour stops and festival dates in November.
“It has been a wild year for us trying to push through a mountain of touring obstacles related to COVID and the economy,” the statement starts. The band had to cancel dates recently as well because three of the members contracted “bad” COVID infections. The statement continued:
“But preparing for this tour we were looking at an economic reality that simply does not work and is not sustainable. From inflation, to currency devaluation, to bloated shipping and transportation costs, and much much more, we simply could not make a budget for this tour that did not lose money even if everything went as well as it could. We have always been the kind of people to persevere through the difficult times and get on stage unless our health prevented it. We are choosing not to take the risk to our mental and physical health with the economic reality of what that tour would have been. We hope you understand and that you know we would not make a choice like this lightly. We truly want nothing more than to make it out there again.”
Apart from their tour stops in November in support of their latest album, Time Skiffs, Animal Collective also had a couple of notable music festival appearances scheduled. One at Pitchfork’s inaugural London festival, and another at Le Guess Who? festival in the Netherlands, where they were curating an entire showcase of acts. It’s alarming to think that even for a well-established act like Animal Collective, touring in the wake of the pandemic is still presents a number of challenges that wears on them deeply. So much so, that cancelling a number of lucrative paydays is the best option for their well-being. This is a reminder, that while live music is back, we’re not totally out of the woods just yet.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is a smart guy. He went to Harvard and Columbia, has won a bunch of awards (including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal), and he interviewed “Weird” Al Yankovic, which doesn’t prove anything about his intelligence but it does show that he has good taste. But man, he seems like a drip to watch movies with.
Last week, deGrasse Tyson made a poorly received “Blues Live Matter” joke about Avatar, while over the weekend, he finally watched Top Gun: Maverick and shared his thoughts. Namely, that Tom Cruise’s Maverick should be “very dead.”
“Late to the party here, but In this year’s @TopGunMovie, @TomCruise’s character Maverick ejects from a hypersonic plane at Mach 10.5, before it crashed. He survived with no injuries. At that air speed, his body would splatter like a chainmail glove swatting a worm. Just sayin’,” deGrasse Tyson tweeted. He added, “When Maverick ejected at Mach 10.5, he was going 7,000 mph, giving him 400 million joules of kinetic energy — the explosive power of 100 kg of TNT. A situation that human physiology is not designed to survive. So, no. Maverick does not walk away from this. He be dead. Very dead.”
Would you be shocked to learn that Elon Musk also weighed in?
Indeed, that kinetic energy scales with the square of velocity is not well-appreciated!
A sealed escape pod with a heat shield would probably work.
Wait until deGrasse Tyson, the “ACTUALLY” of people, gets around to fact-checking Minions: The Rise of Gru. Kevin, Stuart, and Bob won’t know what hit them.
Shakira has new music on the way. The Colombian superstar announced that her new single “Monotonía” featuring Ozuna will be released later this month.
“Monotonía” will be Shakira’s second single this year following “Te Felicito” with Rauw Alejandro, which was released in April. In the latter song, she sarcastically congratulated an ex on being a good actor in their relationship. “Te Felicito” seemingly touched on reports of her ex Gerard Piqué cheating on her. In an interview with Elle last month, Shakira admitted that her songs were inspired by her personal experiences.
“I can only say that either consciously or subconsciously, everything I feel, everything I go through is reflected in the lyrics I write, in the videos I make. When the glove fits, it fits. Like I said before, my music is that channel,” she said.
Shakira’s next single “Monotonía” is seemingly touching on heartbreak. In June, she announced her separation from Piqué. Over the weekend, Shakira was posting teasers on her social media accounts about the upcoming song with Ozuna. In one video, a human heart is shown getting stepped on as she attempts to pick it up off the ground. The cover art for “Monotonía” shows a heart getting pierced by a dagger.
Shakira also revealed a few lyrics from “Monotonía.” The lyrics seem to be the most telling that she has a breakup anthem on the way. In English, the lyrics translate to: “It wasn’t your fault nor was it mine / It was the fault of the monotony.”
Shakira’s “Monotonía” single will be released on October 19. Last month, her court case over claims of tax evasion in Spain was approved to go forward. No court date has been set yet. Shakira has maintained her innocence, calling the allegations against her “false accusations.”
The Seattle Mariners are in the playoffs for the first time in 20-plus years, snapping one of the longest droughts in professional sports, and they punched their ticket, officially, on Saturday in an unbelievable comeback in Toronto to complete a 2-0 sweep of the Blue Jays in the Wild Card series.
After trailing 8-1 entering the sixth inning, the Mariners steadily reeled in Toronto with four runs in the sixth, four runs in the eighth, and the go-ahead (and ultimately game-winning) run in the ninth inning. It was a wild comeback that left the home crowd in Toronto stunned and in disbelief, while the celebration began back on the west coast in Seattle. The celebration scenes from the watch party at T Mobile Park made their way around the internet over the weekend, but on Monday we got our best fan celebration video of them all from a Seattle Toyota dealership service center.
The video starts with three employees — one dressed for the occasion in an Ichiro jersey — are watching on a TV in the office and lose their minds when the Mariners complete the comeback, as the guy in the Ichiro jersey launches his hat in the air while jumping around. They start hi-fiving and huddle together for an adorable dance, which is when this gets really good, as another guy comes skipping out of the back and seamlessly joins the dance celebration.
My dad drives for Toyota of Seattle and works with these guys in the service center. This was caught on camera Saturday when the M’s finished off that comeback. (Wait for the guy at the end ) pic.twitter.com/0vsQxHMQQg
I have never seen a purer distillation of Dudes Rock than this video. I also want to know if this is a celebration dance they do regularly, or if this was off the cuff and everyone was just vibing on the same frequency with the little kicks. Either way, I’m very happy for these guys and am also very happy for this security cam footage hitting the internet for our enjoyment.
(House of the Dragon spoilers will be found below.)
Although House of the Dragon viewers were sad to see Milly Alcock depart as the younger Princess Rhaenyra, Emma D’Arcy picked up the role without missing a beat. They’ll guide us through the Targaryen heir’s more challenging years that follow King Viserys I’s confirmation of his daughter as heir to the Iron Throne and the subsequent misunderstanding that will likely usher in the Targaryen civil war.
Aside from all of that conflict and drama (including Prince Daemon letting Vaemond know what it’s like to f*ck around and find out), however, people have been enjoying Emma’s interviews, including a TikTok-ed moment where they rave over their favorite drink, a broken Negroni. To be more specific, Emma refers to this the Italian drink as “a Negroni sbagliato… with Proscetto in it.”
Stanley Tucci, a famed lover of Negronis, would be proud, but more than that, people can’t get over Emma’s utterance of this (some would say dubious) concoction. Fans are positively swooning over the way that the drink rolls off their tongue, and it’s quite charming to see them excitedly add that finishing splash. Heck, even people who find Negronis to be “vile” are enjoying this clip. Let the drooling begin.
I’m going to have to ask Emma D’Arcy about the Negroni Sbagliato with Prosecco in it aren’t I
if i was a bartender and Emma D’Arcy walked into my bar i wouldnt even need to be asked i would just make them a negroni sbagliato with prosecco in it and then we would kiss
— no its beccy (taylor’s version) (@chaicookies13) October 10, 2022
I could listen to Emma D’Arcy talking about negroni on a loop for hours honestly
people who aren’t emma d’arcy need to stop saying negroni sbagliato with prosecco in it you guys aren’t capable of saying it in the same smooth suave sexy way
There was an unusual moment involving a fan at a recent Megan Thee Stallion performance: Videos circulating on social media show the concert attendee crashing Megan’s set mid-performance, which ultimately led to security officials intervening and removing the fan from the stage. Before they did, though, the fan confidently strode to Megan, grabbed her hand, raised it, and initiated a spin, which Meg didn’t seem to mind.
To date, Megan has not acknowledged the incident. The moment was caught amid coverage of TwitchCon 2022, where Megan warmly welcomed a different guest, the Master Chief character from the Halo franchise, to the stage.
Aside from this, Meg has been quite busy — from being slated for a run of international dates before closing out her 2022 schedule in Los Angeles to appearing on Saturday Night Live later this week (October 15) and doubling as the show’s musical guest for the night. This marks her second appearance on the popular show since 2020, where she performed and Chris Rock hosted.
The Texas native encouraged all her “hotties” to tune into her upcoming performance after announcing it in a tweet last month, writing, “OCT 15 THEE HOT GIRL COACH IS HOSTING AND PERFORMING ON SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE TUNE IN ALL HOTTIES.”
There was an unusual moment involving a fan at a recent Megan Thee Stallion performance: Videos circulating on social media show the concert attendee crashing Megan’s set mid-performance, which ultimately led to security officials intervening and removing the fan from the stage. Before they did, though, the fan confidently strode to Megan, grabbed her hand, raised it, and initiated a spin, which Meg didn’t seem to mind.
To date, Megan has not acknowledged the incident. The moment was caught amid coverage of TwitchCon 2022, where Megan warmly welcomed a different guest, the Master Chief character from the Halo franchise, to the stage.
Aside from this, Meg has been quite busy — from being slated for a run of international dates before closing out her 2022 schedule in Los Angeles to appearing on Saturday Night Live later this week (October 15) and doubling as the show’s musical guest for the night. This marks her second appearance on the popular show since 2020, where she performed and Chris Rock hosted.
The Texas native encouraged all her “hotties” to tune into her upcoming performance after announcing it in a tweet last month, writing, “OCT 15 THEE HOT GIRL COACH IS HOSTING AND PERFORMING ON SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE TUNE IN ALL HOTTIES.”
Rudy Giuliani has zero f**ks to give. At least that’s the way it looks, based on the lack of respect he has shown to the law — a profession that gave him his start (before it was all yanked away when he decided, in an allegedly drunken stupor, that Donald Trump should just declare victory when he lost the 2020 presidential election).
While Giuliani spent months playing hard-to-get with Georgia lawmakers, who ultimately compelled him to testify before them about his meddling in the 2020 presidential election, another legal drama has been playing out for the former New York City mayor: he has been ordered to pay $262,000 to his ex-wife (one of the two who isn’t his cousin) and warned that he could be spending time in the slammer if he didn’t pay up. Which didn’t seem to faze Rudy much.
On Friday, Rudy finally showed up in court to face the charges of this missing alimony — a month late. As the New York Post reported, Giuliani, who was originally ordered to appear before the court a month ago, got an earful from Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Katz. As usual, Rudy was full of excuses — most of them pretty pathetic.
“Let me apologize for not appearing,” Giuliani said about the missed appearance. “It was very stupid,” he admitted. “I made a mistake.”
As far as exactly what that mistake was, well, the scofflaw proffered up a litany of dumb defenses. Including that he simply wrote down the incorrect date, which didn’t exactly fly with the judge.
Katz not-so-gently reminded the man formerly known as America’s Mayor that he had “repeated the date [back] to me” at a previous hearing. “I said everyone needed to be here on the 23rd and you repeated it to me,” Katz said. “I don’t understand your excuse.”
“I put it down the wrong way when I left the courthouse,” Rudy replied, making his response even more confusing.
Still, Giuliani did manage to hand over copies of two checks that he claims clear him of any monies owed to his ex-wife, who says he is $260,000 in arrears for monies owed for their agreed upon alimony, condo payments, and the ever-important country club fees. But Katz was still confused.
“I don’t understand why it takes two months to get checks from Citibank,” the judge said. “I can get my bank records by entering a passcode on the computer. I don’t understand why there is such a delay.”
While Katz had initially warned Giuliani that there was a sheriff ready to “come at a moment’s notice today” to arrest him, he eventually called off the dogs and set a new court date in order to allow both sides time to review the new evidence.
“The judge lifted the mistaken [contempt] order which was based on false statements by her,” Rudy said, claiming “it’s not true that I owed $200,000 or $300,000. At the very most, it’s probably closer to $20,000 — if it is that.”
“It’s possible I’ve overpaid her,” he finally decided.
If you’ve used TikTok recently, you’ve seen one of Rodger Cleye‘s videos. Although you might not know him by name, Cleye has become virtually recognizable. He’s a middle-aged man singing to a range of songs and green-screen POV meme posts — for everything from lip-syncing Lana Del Rey to various renditions of what a girlie’s room looks like when you walk in at 3 am. And he has 2.5 million followers on the app.
For casual users, it felt like Cleye came out of nowhere but has recorded a gigantic trove of TikTok videos. Who is this man? How does he have the time? I’ve wondered these exact things myself. As it turns out, Cleye is just a 56-year-old man in California who loves music.
According to his bio on Songtradr, Cleye began writing his own songs nearly half a lifetime ago, when he was 28. “I put them to music and produced it on an 80’s synthesizer and a guitar my mom gave me at age 27 (I had never played any instrument before that),” he wrote. “I proceeded to lay down tracks on an 8-channel cassette multi-track recorder and had a couple of effects boxes too. It was therapy for me.”
“Now at age 56, music consumes me more than ever,” Cleye’s bio continues. “I am going through an ‘Emotional Renaissance’ all over again as I enter my senior years.”
Even with Cleye’s popularity on TikTok and his passion for music, there is still a sense of mystery surrounding him. Not only has Cleye somehow landed on the app, but he created and edited his videos in such a way that has stacked him as a top creator. Was he self-taught? When and where does he find time to record? Only time.. or more TikToks will tell.
Continue scrolling to watch a few of Rodger Cleye’s videos.
Finding the best Scotch whisky to drink can be an expensive endeavor. The juice from the other side of the pond isn’t cheap and comes with a lot of variation. If you’re going in blind, you could easily get stuck with a spendy bottle that you simply don’t like. That’s where our blind taste tests come in — we’re here to help you find the right bottle for the season.
To do that, I grabbed eight bottles of newer Scotch whiskies — both single malts and blended whiskies — from my shelf. These are all good to great bottles and have higher visibility in the U.S. market than some smaller and more niche brands. That means that you should be able to actually find most of these bottles, depending on your regional availability.
Our lineup today is:
The Classic Laddie
Dewar’s French Smooth
Old Parr 18
Bowmore 18
GlenDronach Grandeur Batch 11 Aged 28 Years
BenRiach Malting Season Second Edition
Mortlach 20
Buchanan’s Red Seal
As for the blind tasting and ranking, I’m going solely on taste. There are some killer blended whiskies and single malts at play here. So, separating them doesn’t really matter. I also grabbed a new edition of a very lightly peated whisky, Bowmore, to see how it stands up against all the non-peated variations on this list. Let’s dive in!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Scotch Whisky Posts of The Last Six Months
There’s a clear sense of wild honey with a floral vibe next to oatmeal cookies, salted caramel, and orange oils with a dash of potpourri on the nose. The palate has a light sense of salted apple chips next to dark treacle and mild dried citrus peels. The end adds that salt to the floral honey with a note of sweet malts.
This was pretty nice overall. It didn’t wow but was pleasant.
Taste 2
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a thin sense of apple pie filling with a touch of lemon oil and cinnamon next to mild maltiness and a hint of raisin. The palate remains pretty thin/watery with a touch of orange oils, cinnamon bark, and toffee sweetness. The end is pretty blank overall but touches on orange toffee candy.
This was super watery and light.
Taste 3
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s a clear sense of dates and figs on the nose with a touch of blackberry jam and scones with clotted cream next to a hint of woody winter spices and roasted root vegetables with a hint of sage. The palate hints at classic soft malts with a touch of caramel next to spiced plum cake with a dab of vanilla. The end has a woodiness to it but is ultimately pretty light-footed.
This was deep and nicely made but didn’t quite land the finish for me.
Taste 4
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There are creamy toffees on the nose with a mix of dried cherry and plums with maybe a touch of black currant next to bourbon vanilla and apricot jam. The taste has an Almond Joy vibe next to oatmeal raisins cookies by way of maltiness and a sweet sense of peaty smoke. The end has a hint of smoked plum and dried roses next to old porch wicker with a hint of black mold next to singed orchard bark.
This was very good with a very mild peatiness (hello, Bowmore). I liked this.
Taste 5
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with a sense of black-tea-soaked dates blended with Saigon cinnamon and freshly ground nutmeg next to blackstrap molasses, walnut cake, old oak staves soaked in floral honey, moist marzipan laced with orange oils and dipped in salted dark chocolate, and a little twinge of bourbon vanilla cherries. The palate pops with dark cherry cordial on the palate next to stewed plums with anise and clove, old leather tobacco pouches, and a touch of creamy espresso. The end is a mix of dark chocolate and brandy-soaked cherries next to spent oolong tea leaves, walnut shells, and salted black licorice with a whisper of spiced caramel malts.
This is a phenomenal whisky.
Taste 6
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
There’s a nice sense of rich caramel malts on the nose with a sense of distiller’s beer from the washback next to fresh tangerine skins, almond shells, and a touch of macadamia nut cookies. The palate leans into fresh and lightly piney honey with a sense of apple bark and orange oils next to creamy caramel malts and vanilla malts. The end leans into marzipan laced with lemon oils next to plums and apricots dipped in that fresh honey and spun with thin lines of apple tobacco.
This is also freakin’ delicious.
Taste 7
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
Freshly baked apple pie with cinnamon bark and nutmeg leads to black raisins, fatty walnuts, grilled pineapple, and sea-salt-infused dark cacao sauce with a hint of vanilla and pear on the nose. The palate leans into the lard pie crust under that apple pie with a hint of powdered sugar icing next to mint chocolate chip, old vanilla pods, and banana’s foster with a smidge of clove and allspice thrown in. There’s a light sense of caramel malts on the end that leads to a walnut cake full of raisins and cinnamon with a buttery vibe next to a savory note that’s part green herbs and part extra virgin olive oil.
Yet another delight. The back half of this tasting is crushing the first half.
Taste 8
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with a lovely sense of a malting house with warm and sugar malts next to an almost sour distiller’s beer cut with warm and spicy apple cider next, rum-raisin, and a light note of fresh orange skins. The palate dried out the apple toward salted chips, candied ginger, and lime leaves next to caramel malts and quark doughnuts dusted with cinnamon sugar. The end has a hint of burnt orange that leads to mild sweet oak and apple tobacco cut with a thin line of dark chocolate.
This was very nice but didn’t quite hit the heights of the last three pours.
This is part of Dewar’s “Smooth” line. The juice takes classic Dewar’s and finishes it in Calvados casks from Normandy, France. Those barrels are then batched and proofed way down for bottling.
Bottom Line:
This is 100 percent meant to be a highball whisky and it tastes it. I can see this shining with Martinelli’s Apple Cider, a dash of bitters, and a slice of Granny Smith.
Bruichladdich’s philosophy on whisky making is pretty unique. Each batch highlights local, unpeated Scottish barley that’s fermented and distilled on Islay. That juice then goes into some combination of ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and ex-wine casks for a varied amount of time. That means each batch is unique. Bruichladdich then provides a code on their bottles so that you can go to their website and find out what makes the bottle in your hand special.
Bottom Line:
This is really nice as a mixing scotch. It’s a little thin on the palate to be a go-to sipper. I prefer it in a cocktail to build more flavors on what’s already there.
This old-school brand just expanded into 18-year territory this year for the U.S. market. The juice is made from malts and grain whiskies mostly pulled from the famed Cragganmore distillery. Those whiskies are vatted/batched, proofed, and bottled in this old-school stubby bottle.
Bottom Line:
This was the last of the “fine” pours in this lineup. There was nothing wrong with this, it simply felt more like a cocktail base than a sipper.
Islay’s Bowmore has one of the lowest peated levels of any whisky from the famed island. This whisky spends 18 long years maturing in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks before those barrels are blended, proofed down with Islay’s soft groundwater, and bottled.
Bottom Line:
This was pretty delicious. The peat was barely there and only via sweeter notes, which makes this a great bottle to try if you’re interested in getting into Islay but afraid of the peat monsters out there.
This blended whisky is an amalgamation of 21-year-old barrels of whisky from Diageo’s stable of distilleries. The recipe for this one goes back to the British Royal Family’s preferred recipe from the Victorian era. Basically, Diageo pulls the best “out of series” barrels (those barrels that don’t fit the brand’s primary flavor profiles) from their unpeated whiskies around the country for this expression.
Bottom Line:
This was great. It felt like the quintessential whisky on the rocks pour. The only reason it’s a tad lower is that it wasn’t as great as the next three.
3. BenRiach Malting Season Second Edition — Taste 6
The second edition of BenRiach’s Malting Season series is also made with barley malted fully in-house at the distillery in Speyside. The barley in this case is Concerto barley grown for this release. Once distilled, the hot juice went into 30 first-fill bourbon barrels and was rested for around nine years before batching and bottling as-is.
Bottom Line:
This was lush and light while delivering a great flavor profile. It was gorgeous neat and I could see this really blooming with a little water or a single rock.
Dufftown’s Mortlach is one of those distilleries that may just make you fall in love with scotch. The mash is distilled 2.81 times, according to Mortlach’s unique distilling methods. That juice is then loaded in sherry casks and left to do its thing for 20 long years. The results are vatted, brought down to proof with that soft Speyside water, and bottled.
Bottom Line:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this whisky is perfect.
1. The GlenDronach Grandeur Batch 11 Aged 28 Years — Taste 5
The GlenDronach Grandeur Batch 11 was created by Dr. Rachel Barrie (who also created the BenRiach above). Dr. Barrie hand-selected a tiny number of rare Pedro Ximénez and oloroso Sherry casks that were filled with The GlenDronach malt almost 30 years ago. Those barrels were vatted and bottled with a touch of water into just over 3,000 bottles.
Bottom Line:
This was next-level. Yes, it was a perfect pour of whisky. But it transcended. It transported. It was divine.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
I know it’s cliche, but if you get only one bottle of Scotch whisky this year, make it The GlenDronach Grandeur Batch 11. That pour might be my favorite of the year (as of now) and I’ve had over 1,000 whiskies so far this year. That’s how well it stands out (and how good it is). Wait for it. But it’s going to be really hard to find.
It’s super rare and not cheap by any stretch of the imagination.
As for the rest, you really cannot go wrong grabbing any bottle between seven and two on this list, especially if you’re looking for a good gift bottle. I will die on the hill that Mortlach 20 is the perfect whisky. Plus, you might be able to actually find that one pretty easily right now.
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(taylor’s version) (@chaicookies13) 
(@DeetheAngel) 
