What started as a healing exercise for late singer Aaron Carter, his memoir has begun to cause harm to his surviving family and friends. After tributes poured in, including heartfelt messages from rapper The Game, former actress girlfriend Hilary Duff, and his brother Nick Carter, they are now battling it out with the book’s publisher to delay its release.
Despite not having many contributions from the late pop star, NBC Bay Area confirms the book (titled Aaron Carter: An Incomplete Story Of An Incomplete Life) will be released as early as next Tuesday, November 15. President and publisher of Ballast Books, Andy Symonds, who serves as the book’s co-author, stands by the decision to move forward with the project.
In a statement, Symonds said, “Aaron was an open book during the writing process. It’s a tragic irony that his autobiography will never include all his stories, thoughts, hopes, and dreams as he intended.”
Duff expressed her anger over the decision, stating, “There’s a publisher that seems to be recklessly pushing a book out to capitalize on this tragedy without taking [the] appropriate time or care to fact-check the validity of his work.”
She continued, “To water down Aaron’s life story to what seems to be unverified clickbait for profit is disgusting. In no way do I condone shedding any light on what is so obviously an uninformed, heartless money grab.”
Nick Carter hasn’t responded to the news of the book’s release yet. However, Aaron’s former manager Taylor Helgeson issued a comment on the matter, stating, “In the few short days following our dear friend’s passing, we have been trying to grieve and process while simultaneously having to deal with obscenely disrespectful and unauthorized releases including an album, a single, and now it seems a book.”
Fans of the former child star have expressed that they will not support the book.
If the #aaroncarter book is released next week, as is being reported, will you buy it?
Btw. Tragedy pimping is the current thing . Using Aaron Carter to get views and likes and to publish a book not even a week after he died is the lowest form of pond scum there is and you should be ashamed of yourself
Considering the two largest ice sheets on earth — the one on Antarctica and the one on Greenland — extend more than 6 million square miles combined … yeah, we’re talkin’ a lot of ice.
But what if it was all just … gone? Not like gone gone, but melted?
If all of earth’s land ice melted, it would be nothing short of disastrous.
And that’s putting it lightly.
This video by Business Insider Science (seen below) depicts exactly what our coastlines would look like if all the land ice melted. And spoiler alert: It isn’t great.
Lots of European cities like, Brussels and Venice, would be basically underwater.
In Africa and the Middle East? Dakar, Accra, Jeddah — gone.
Millions of people in Asia, in cities like Mumbai, Beijing, and Tokyo, would be uprooted and have to move inland.
South America would say goodbye to cities like Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires.
And in the U.S., we’d watch places like Houston, San Francisco, and New York City — not to mention the entire state of Florida — slowly disappear into the sea.
Business Insider based these visuals off National Geographic’s estimation that sea levels will rise 216 feet (!) if all of earth’s land ice melted into our oceans.
There’s even a tool where you can take a detailed look at how your community could be affected by rising seas, for better or worse.
Although … looking at these maps, it’s hard to imagine “for better” is a likely outcome for many of us.
Much of America’s most populated regions would be severely affected by rising sea levels, as you’ll notice exploring the map, created by Alex Tingle using data provided by NASA.
Take, for instance, the West Coast. (Goodbye, San Fran!)
Or the East Coast. (See ya, Philly!)
And the Gulf Coast. (RIP, Bourbon Street!)
I bring up the topic not just for funsies, of course, but because the maps above are real possibilities.
How? Climate change.
As we continue to burn fossil fuels for energy and emit carbon into our atmosphere, the planet gets warmer and warmer. And that, ladies and gentlemen, means melted ice.
A study published this past September by researchers in the U.S., U.K., and Germany found that if we don’t change our ways, there’s definitely enough fossil fuel resources available for us to completely melt the Antarctic ice sheet.
Basically, the self-inflicted disaster you see above is certainly within the realm of possibility.
“This would not happen overnight, but the mind-boggling point is that our actions today are changing the face of planet Earth as we know it and will continue to do so for tens of thousands of years to come,” said lead author of the study Ricarda Winkelmann, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
If we want to stop this from happening,” she says, “we need to keep coal, gas, and oil in the ground.”
The good news? Most of our coastlines are still intact! And they can stay that way, too — if we act now.
Earlier this week, Stephen Callaghan’s daughter Ruby came home from school. When he asked her how her day was, her answer made him raise an eyebrow.
Ruby, who’s in the sixth grade at her school in Australia, told her dad that the boys would soon be taken on a field trip to Bunnings (a hardware chain in the area) to learn about construction.
The girls, on the other hand? While the boys were out learning, they would be sent to the library to have their hair and makeup done.
Ruby’s reply made Callaghan do a double take. What year was it, again?
Callaghan decided to write a letter to the school sharing his disappointment — but his wasn’t your typical “outraged parent” letter.
“Dear Principal,” he began. “I must draw your attention to a serious incident which occurred yesterday at your school where my daughter is a Year 6 student.”
“When Ruby left for school yesterday it was 2017,” Callaghan continued. “But when she returned home in the afternoon she was from 1968.”
The letter goes on to suggest that perhaps the school is harboring secret time-travel technology or perhaps has fallen victim to a rift in the “space-time continuum,” keeping his daughter in an era where women were relegated to domestic life by default.
“I look forward to this being rectified and my daughter and other girls at the school being returned to this millennium where school activities are not sharply divided along gender lines,” he concluded.
Dear Principal
I must draw your attention to a serious incident which occurred yesterday at your school where my daughter Ruby is a Year 6 student.
When Ruby left for school yesterday it was 2017 but when she returned home in the afternoon she was from 1968.
I know this to be the case as Ruby informed me that the “girls” in Year 6 would be attending the school library to get their hair and make-up done on Monday afternoon while the “boys” are going to Bunnings.
Are you able to search the school buildings for a rip in the space-time continuum? Perhaps there is a faulty Flux Capacitor hidden away in the girls toilet block.
I look forward to this being rectified and my daughter and other girls at the school being returned to this millennium where school activities are not sharply divided along gender lines.
Yours respectfully Stephen Callaghan
When Callaghan posted the letter to Twitter, it quickly went viral and inspired hundreds of supportive responses.
Though most people who saw his response to the school’s egregiously outdated activities applauded him, not everyone was on board.
One commenter wrote, “Sometimes it is just ok for girls to do girl things.”
But Callaghan was ready for that. “Never said it wasn’t,” he replied. “But you’ve missed the point. Why ‘girl things’ or ‘boy things’… Why not just ‘things anyone can do?'”
He later commented that he didn’t think the school’s plan was malicious, but noted the incident was a powerful example of “everyday sexism” at work.
Callaghan says the school hasn’t responded to his letter. (Yes, he really sent it.) At least, not directly to him.
Some media outlets have reported that the school claims students are free to opt in and out of the different activities. But, as Callaghan says, gendering activities like this in the first place sends the completely wrong message.
In response to the outpouring of support, Callaghan again took to Twitter.
“At 12 years of age my daughter is starting to notice there are plenty of people prepared to tell her what she can and can’t do based solely on the fact she is female,” he wrote.
The 2023 Grammy Awards ceremony is on the imminent horizon and the 65th Grammy Awards will look different than ever before. That’s because when the awards for Album Of The Year and Best New Artist are announced during the awards show on Tuesday, February 5, 2023, it’ll also mark the first time that a number of new categories will be awarded. So what exactly is being added?
What Are The Grammy Awards’ New Categories For 2023?
There are five new Grammy Award categories and one additional Special Merit Award and these are long overdue additions. Here’s the scoop:
Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical – Finally an award for songwriters! This will recognize the best non-performing and non-producing songwriters.
Best Alternative Music Performance – An expansion of the already limited Alternative Music categories. This category will recognize the best track or single in Alternative Music genres.
Best Americana Performance – Much like the aforementioned Alternative Music Performance category, this award will honor a single or track from an Americana solo artist, collaborating artists, established duo, or established group.
Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games And Other Interactive Media – It’s about time we recognized the incredible music that accompanies highly addicting video games (it’s not just for nerds)! All jokes aside, this award recognizes original score soundtrack albums that are created specifically for video games and other interactive media.
Best Spoken Word Poetry Album – Probably the most straightforward of all of the new categories, this award will finally shine the light on spoken word poetry.
Best Song For Social Change – Now here is the new Special Merit Award. This Award gets determined by a “Blue Ribbon Committee” (see: not voted upon by academy members at large.) The criteria says that the song, “must contain lyrical content that addresses a timely social issue and promotes understanding, peace-building and empathy.”
Tune in to the 65th Grammy Awards ceremony live on CBS networks on Tuesday, 2/5/2023 and also streaming and on demand via Paramount+.
Danny Ocean released a second part of his album @DannOcean today (November 11). The Venezuelan singer’s updated LP features Mora, Beéle, and Elena Rose.
Ocean first released his @DannOcean back in February. He scored a massive hit from the LP with reggaeton track “Fuera Del Mercado” that went viral on TikTok. The song has amassed over 288 million streams on Spotify. Dominican star Tokischa, Argentine singer Tini, and Puerto Rican artist Justin Quiles featured on the original edition of the album.
In his new single “Si Es Amor,” Ocean blends salsa music with elements of R&B music. Colombian singer Beéle adds a sultry touch to the collaboration.
“This song is very personal,” Ocean said in a statement. “It’s about someone I love very much. It’s a love story in which alcohol isn’t necessary to know that you’re in love. When the universe connects two people and everything just flows.”
On the flip side, there’s “No Es Amor” with Puerto Rican artist Mora. Ocean seamlessly mixes bachata music with reggaeton beats and electronica influences. He also uplifts fellow Venezuelan acts like Big Soto, who features on “Disfruta Tu Viernes,” and Rose, who sings on the dreamy “Las Estrellas/Si Tu Me Love Me.”
Early next year, Ocean will tour the US for the first time in support of the @DannOcean album. The Danny Ocean Tour 2023 kicks off February 2 in San Francisco.
@DannOcean is out now via Warner Music Latina. Listen to it here.
Some artists mentioned here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Awards season is upon us and the 2023 Grammy Awards — officially dubbed the 65th Grammy Awards — are on the horizon. The nominees will be announced by stars like Olivia Rodrigo, John Legend, Machine Gun Kelly and more, ahead of the 2023 Awards presentation broadcast. But when are the 2023 Grammy Awards actually happening?
When Are The 2023 Grammy Awards?
The 65th Grammy Awards show ceremony will take place on Saturday, February 5, 2023 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The Awards show will be broadcast live on CBS and will stream live and on demand via Paramount+ as well. The broadcast is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT and should last for about three and a half hours.
Once the nominations for the 2023 Grammys are announced on Tuesday, November 15th, we’ll have a better idea of who the favorites in each category are. The major category presentations will be televised. This includes the “big four” categories of Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best New Artist.
A pre-telecast happens every year as well, where other awards will presented. This year, will mark the first time that new awards categories like Best Alternative Music Performance and Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical will be presented.
There’s no word yet on who will be hosting the 65th Grammy Awards ceremony, but the host in 2022 was Trevor Noah.
(No Black Panther: Wakanda Forever plot spoilers will be found below.)
Following the death of Chadwick Boseman, Ryan Coogler had the unenviable task of striking the right tone while lining up the succession plan for King T’Challa. In the process, a silent introduction paid incredible (and emotional) tribute to Boseman, who will forever be missed in this franchise and the world at large. As well, Kevin Feige would like more Black Panther movies in the future, but the relatively somber occasion may have caused Marvel Studios to deviate a bit from the usual MCU routine.
With that said, is there a Black Panther end-credit scene? Well, sort of. Generally speaking, the MCU films feature a pair of such scenes, including both a mid-credits and a post-credits scene. These also usually drop hints towards the next installment(s) on the way for audiences, since everything is so linked up in the MCU. However, this particular sequel only contains a mid-credits scene without a followup. In other words, if your bladder can’t take any more waiting, feel free to head on out once that first scene rolls. Do stick around for the mid-credits scene, though, because it’s important one for the future.
Following Black Panther 2, we can look forward to Phase 5’s launch with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is scheduled to arrive on February 17, 2023. From there, we’ll see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels, and Captain America: New World Order, along with Thunderbolts, starring Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and god only knows who else that Countess Valentina rounded up on her ambiguously-intended team. The MCU, it simply will not stop.
We’re living in the middle of one of the greatest bourbon booms in all of history. We’re not quite back to the hay day of pre-Prohibition — when there was a still on damn near every other corner around the country — but… we’re getting there. And that means there’s a literal shit-ton — the official metric for measuring bottles on shelves — of bourbon in stores these days. Every price point is covered from under $10 for a plastic bottle of mostly neutral grain spirit blended with a drop of bourbon to the cheap but good stuff under $50 to the bottles behind the glass that’ll set you back a mortgage payment. Plus everything in between.
The middle is what I’m concerned with today. The cheap but good stuff under $50 is the prime slice of the bourbon pie. These are the bottles that are 1) affordable, 2) taste really f*cking good, and 3) you might actually be able to find at your local whiskey store.
For the ranking, I’m going on the depth of the flavor profile. The bottom 10 (numbers 20-11) are all very good-tasting whiskeys but lean a little more towards mixing up great cocktails. The top 10 (10-1) are all killers. You can sip them, pour them over some rocks, or mix up a rad cocktail with any of them and you’ll be set.
Sound good? Let’s dive in!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This is the entry point to Costco’s new lineup of Kentucky Bourbons (along with a Bottled-in-Bond and Single Barrel release). The whiskey in the bottle is from Sazerac’s Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown with a mash bill of 74 percent corn, 18 percent rye, and eight percent barley. That juice is left to age for four to five years before being blended, proofed, and bottled for Costco.
Tasting Notes:
Apple and pear open the nose up toward peach taffy with a hint of black licorice ropes, old leather, sweet winter spices, and a whisper of Nutella. The palate lets the vanilla linger while a sweet and mild Red Hot vibe mixes with classic cherry cola, dried sweetgrass, salted caramel candies, and apricot jam on a Southern biscuit with a drop of fresh honey and butter. The end stays pretty classic with a sense of spiced cherry tobacco, rich vanilla, and a few old oak staves.
Bottom Line:
This is a great place to start. This small batch expression has some serious pedigree while also delivering a serious flavor profile. This is an exceptional deal especially if you’re looking for a great and cheap way to practice your cocktail mixing skills.
This is a celebrity-owned bourbon from UFC’s Bruce Buffer. The juice in the bottle is a blend of four to six-year-old bourbons from Kentucky that are touched with a little proofing water after blending.
Tasting Notes:
This has a slightly tannic nose (think old, red-wine-soaked oak) with woody vanilla, nutmeg, and a lush vibe. The palate mixes up the sweet vanilla with sweet yet sharp spice, some dark chocolate, and a hint of orange zest. The end combines everything into a lush finish that highlights old oak, soft nutmeg, and a soft orange-chocolate vibe with a hint of clove and anise.
Bottom Line:
This has grown on me over the past couple of months. It’s straightforward but also has real nuance. While I tend to keep this for mixing quality old fashioneds, it works on the rocks too or even in a nice and fizzy highball.
18. 1792 Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
This whiskey from Barton 1792 Distillery is a no-age-statement release made in “small batches.” The mash is unknown but Sazerac does mention that it’s a “high rye” mash bill, which could be exactly the same as Kirkland Signature Small Batch — or not. The juice is batched from select barrels and then proofed down and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
This opens a little woody with cherrywood next to a hint of sour apple that develops into sour mash grains (kind of like walking into a distillery) that are all cut by caramel and vanilla notes with a cherry vibe that goes from sweet to spicy enough to feel like Cherry Coke. Moving onto the palate, there’s a clear “classic” bourbon vibe with rich caramel and smooth vanilla that hits a spicy heat on the mid-palate.
Bottom Line:
This is a little step up from the Costco bottle above (both of which come from the same place). I’d argue that while this is primarily a bourbon for mixing cocktails, it’ll work in a punch as a quick sipper or really high-quality shooter.
This is a sourced bourbon from around Kentucky. The age, mash, and vital details are undisclosed. What we do know is that the team at Jefferson’s spends a lot of time tinkering with their barrels to create accessible and affordable bourbons.
Tasting Notes:
This opens pretty thin with hints of caramel, vanilla pods, and maybe a touch of leather and oak with a mild berry vibe. The palate is either subtle or thin … I can’t decide. There are notes of classic bourbon caramel and vanilla countered by a hint of stewed apple, buttery toffee, and maybe a hint of nutmeg. The end stays pretty mild but does build to a nice finish full of classic bourbon notes.
Bottom Line:
This is good and straightforward. That said, it’s a little on the lighter side, which makes it great for building a cocktail.
This is a quality whiskey from Heaven Hill’s expansive bourbon mash bill (78% corn, 12% malted barley, and 10% rye). That means this is the same base juice as Elijah Craig, Evan Williams, several Parker’s Heritages, and Henry McKenna. It’s a bottled-in-bond, meaning it’s from similar stock to their iconic Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond, amongst others on this very list.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a clear sense of cream soda cut with cherry syrup next to Hot Tamales cinnamon spiciness, dry leather gloves, caramel chews, and a hint of a Graham Cracker crust for a pie. The palate opens with a rush of classic cherry-vanilla creaminess next to plenty of nutmeg and cinnamon toast with a hint of woody pipe tobacco. The end has a note of creamy eggnog with a woody cinnamon stick dipped into cherry syrup and rolled up in an old tobacco leaf.
Bottom Line:
This is one of the best deals on this list. The price is so low (especially if you can get it in the Ohio Valley) while delivering a really solid profile. It’s also a workhorse. You can shoot it, mix it, or just sip it over some rocks.
This is Elijah Craig’s entry-point bottle. The mash is corn-focused, with more malted barley than rye (12% and 10% respectively). Originally, this was branded as a 12-year-old whiskey. The brand decided to move away from that labeling and started blending younger whiskeys to create this label.
Tasting Notes:
Classic bourbon notes greet you with a clear focus on vanilla, caramel, oak, orchard fruit, and a touch of fresh mint. The palate holds onto those flavors while adding in mild Christmas spices with a touch of oak and tobacco. The end is short, simple, and will leave you with a warm Kentucky hug.
Bottom Line:
This is a quintessential small batch bourbon. It’s pretty easy to get with a nice flavor profile that screams classic bourbon. You can’t beat this in an old fashioned or mixed into some creamy eggnog.
This is a standard “small batch” from Buffalo Trace’s budget brand, Benchmark. There’s not a whole lot of information on what this is exactly when it comes to the mash bill or aging. The “batch” could be 20 barrels or 200. The bourbon is cut down to 90-proof before bottling.
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a clear sense of old boot leather, wet wicker with a hint of mold, floral honey, and dried chili-infused cherry crumble with a scoop of malted vanilla ice cream with just a speck of dark chocolate and salt. The palate is classic bourbon with sweet cinnamon, dark cherry, eggnog creaminess, and a hint of toffee mocha lattes. The end has a hint of butter cornbread next to rum-raisin, vanilla white cake, and cherry-bark tobacco stems in an old cedar box.
Bottom Line:
This is where things start taking a notch up. This is a very affordable whiskey that has a great and deep flavor profile that has true balance. On the rocks or in a cocktail, you cannot go wrong with this one.
Buffalo Trace doesn’t publish any of their mash bills. Educated guesses put the wheat percentage of these mash bills at around 16 to 18%, which is pretty average. The age of the barrels on this blend is also unknown as well. Overall, we know this is a classic wheated bourbon, and … that’s about it.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a tannic sense of old oak next to sweet cherries, vanilla cookies, and that Buffalo Trace leathery vibe with a hint of spiced tobacco lurking underneath. The palate has a creamy texture kind of like malted vanilla ice cream over a hot apple pie cut with brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and walnuts next to Frosted Raisin Bran with a hint of candied cherry root beer. The end takes that sweet cherry and apple and layers it into a light tobacco leaf with a mild sense of old musty barrel warehouses.
Bottom Line:
Yes, this will be harder to find if you’re not in a region with a big allocation. But this is a great entry-point expression into both Weller and wheated bourbons in general. Plus, you can make a hell of a cocktail with this whiskey.
Pronounced “be-voo-ak,” this whiskey celebrates the take-it-easy and travel-light ideal of many travelers in Northern California and the wider Pacific Northwest. The actual juice is sourced from Bardstown, Kentucky, and blended from two bourbons. 95% of the blend is a pretty standard 74% corn, 18% rye, and 8% malted barley whiskey. The other 5% of the blend is a high-malt bourbon that’s aged for eight years.
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a sense of sweet vanilla next to apricot jam cut with nutmeg and allspice, a hint of apple pie, and some dry straw baled up with thick twine. The palate opens with sweet creamed honey inside dark chocolate bonbons with a dash of salt and sweet cinnamon next to a scone covered in that apricoty jam with a dollop of brandy butter. The end warms slightly with the cinnamon and allspice toward peach tobacco rolled with old cedar bark and loaded into an old leather pouch for safekeeping.
Bottom Line:
This is a nice, classic bourbon with a few extra bells and whistles. It is a very easy sipper that also creates a great base for cocktails.
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:
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. The palate mixes almond, orange, and vanilla into a cinnamon sticky bun with a hint of sour cherry soda that leads to a nice Kentucky hug on the mid-palate. 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 another stone-cold classic bourbon. The flavor profile on this one is probably what you dream of when you think “bourbon” with all that cherry, vanilla, spice, and woodiness. This is another one that bridges the world of easy sipper and great cocktail base as well.
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 juice is then blended by whisky-blending legend Shinji Fukuyo.
Tasting Notes:
Sticky toffee pudding with a hint of sour grapes, sweet red berries, old oak staves, vanilla husks, and salted toffee all mingle on the nose. The palate has an almost bitter cinnamon and cherry bark vibe that smooths out toward creamy nutmeg-heavy eggnog with a hint of clove next to dried cedar bark and raisins. The end mixes wild berry jam with a sense of buttermilk biscuits, brown butter, sultanas, dates, and winter cake spices as old wine-soaked oak staves add a gentle woodiness to the finish.
Bottom Line:
Now, we’re getting into the unique stuff. This whiskey has a subtlety to it that helps elevate it beyond classic bourbon to something a little more special. This also makes one hell of a Manhattan … if you get tired of slow sipping it on a rock that is.
9. George Dickel Tennessee Bottled in Bond Whisky Fall 2008 Aged 13 Years
Nicole Austin has been killing it with these bottled-in-bond releases from George Dickel. This release is a whiskey that was warehoused in the fall of 2008. 13 years later, this juice was bottled at 100 proof (as per the bottled-in-bond law) and left to rest. This fall, new releases of that Tennessee juice were sent out to much acclaim.
Tasting Notes:
Another classic nose! Maple syrup on buttery pecan waffles leads toward apple chips, old leather, and a mix of winter spices and sour cherry vanilla wafers. The palate leans into an apple pie with plenty of nuts, spices, and raisins next to malted vanilla milkshakes, blueberry cotton candy, and a hint of dark chocolate milk powder. The end has a hint of dry anise mixed with cherry and brown sugar with a slight nuttiness leading toward a cherry-cinnamon tobacco finish.
Bottom Line:
This is just good whiskey. It wins huge award after huge award and stays a low, low price under $50. That’s commendable alone. The fact that you also get a unique buttery flavor profile with true depth is a great bonus.
This whiskey was sourced for Costco’s Kirkland Signature brand from the famed Barton 1792 warehouses by Sazerac. The juice is made from a base of 74% corn, 18% rye, and 8% barley. The barrels were aged for at least four years per “bottled in bond” regulations before they were blended and proofed down for this special release.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a clear sense of old leather gloves next to brandy-soaked cherries covered in dark chocolate, creamy honey, and eggnog spices with a hint of sour mulled wine next to pecan waffles, brown butter, and maple syrup. The palate has a big cherry moment that fades into fresh pears and winter spices — cinnamon, allspice, star anise, black licorice — before hitting a soft woody wicker note with a hint of wild sage. The end lets the cherry and pear shine as old musty cellar beams and old red bricks with a hint of pear tobacco rolled with cedar bark.
Bottom Line:
This is another excellent whiskey from Costco. This also squarely falls in the easy sipper/great cocktail base category. It rises into the top 10 thanks to having great balance and nuance as a classic bourbon.
This is Heaven Hill’s hand-selected single barrel Evan Williams expression. The juice is from a single barrel, labeled with its distillation year, proofed just above 86, and bottled as is.
Tasting Notes:
This has a really nice nose full of woody cherry, salted caramel with a tart apple edge, and a soft leatheriness. The palate feels and tastes “classic” with notes of wintry spices (eggnog especially) with a lush creaminess supported by soft vanilla, a hint of orange zest, and plenty of spicy cherry tobacco. The end is supple with a hint of tart apple tobacco with a light caramel candy finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a great single barrel whiskey. It’s also very affordable for something that’s truly special from Heaven Hill. I like this over a few rocks at the end of the day. It’s not taxing while still delivering great flavor.
This whiskey is from Jack’s bonded warehouse. The mash of 80% corn, 12% barley, and 8% rye is twice distilled before it’s run through Jack’s very long Lincoln County process of sugar maple charcoal filtration. The spirit then goes into the barrel for at least four years — per bonded law — before it’s batched, cut down with that Jack Daniel’s limestone cave water, and bottled as-is.
Tasting Notes:
Yellow sheet cake with vanilla frosting leads the way on the nose with dry cherry candy, new leather jackets, sweet fir bark, and a hint of orange tobacco. The palate is full of still-warm apple fritters with plenty of winter spice and a sugar glaze that hits a moment of nutmeg-rich creamy eggnog. The mid-palate veers away from all of that with a sweet white grits vibe with brown sugar and butter that’s topped with stewed cinnamon apples and a raisin or two. The finish mellows toward a Cherry Hostess Pie stored in a cedar box with a leaf or two of sticky pipe tobacco.
Bottom Line:
This is a winner from Jack Daniel’s. The higher proof really helps amp up the subtler flavors in a good ol’ Jack whiskey. I like this over a couple of rocks with a dash of bitters to brighten it up a bit. Or just in an old fashioned.
This might be one of the most beloved (and still accessible) bottles from Buffalo Trace. This juice is made from their very low rye mash bill. The whiskey is then matured for at least ten years in various parts of the warehouse. The final mix comes down to barrels that hit just the right notes to make them “Eagle Rare.” Finally, this one is proofed down to a fairly low 90 proof.
Tasting Notes:
Old leather boots, burnt orange rinds, oily sage, old oak staves, and buttery toffee round out the nose. Marzipan covered in dark chocolate opens the palate as floral honey and ripe cherry lead to a winter cake vibe full of raisins, dark spices, and toffee sauce. The end has a balance of all things winter treats as the marzipan returns and the winter spice amp up alongside a hint of spicy cherry tobacco and old cedar.
Bottom Line:
This is the perfect, classic bourbon to have over one huge rock in a glass. It’s subtle, flavorful, and delivers pure bourbon flavors.
This is the mountaintop of what Wild Turkey can achieve. This is a blend of the best barrels that are married and bottled untouched. That means no filtering and no cutting with water. This is a classic bourbon with nowhere to hide.
Tasting Notes:
This opens like a dessert table during the holidays with crème brûlée next to a big sticky toffee pudding with orange zest sprinkled over the top next to a bushel of fresh mint. The palate hits an early note of pine resin as the orange kicks up towards a bold wintry spice, soft vanilla cream, and a hint of honeyed cherry tobacco. The end keeps the winter spices front and center as a lush pound cake feeling leads to soft notes of cherry-spiced tobacco leaves folded into an old cedar box with a whisper of old vanilla pods lurking in the background.
Bottom Line:
We’re into splitting hairs territory with this ranking. This isn’t that much better than Eagle Rare above, just a little spicier and sharper. Great when you’re looking for a pick-me-up on the palate.
3. 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:
The nose opens with a hint of ripe peach next to maple syrup, vanilla pancakes, and a hint of cotton candy. The palate leans into the vanilla cakes as the stonefruit takes on a grilled vibe next to peppery spice, fatty cream, and a touch of singed marshmallow. The finish leans into wintry spices as the stonefruit almost becomes smoked while toffee and vanilla cake counterpoint everything. The end has a nice layer of old cedar next to maple/vanilla tobacco leaves.
Bottom Line:
This is another quintessential bourbon. The flavor profile is classic. It works as well as a sipper as it does as a cocktail bourbon. And you cannot beat that price for a quality bourbon like this.
Jim Beam’s single-barrel bottlings are 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 juice is pulled from less than 1% of all barrels in Beam’s warehouses, making this an exceptional bottle at a bafflingly affordable price.
Tasting Notes:
You’re greeted with vanilla pound cake drizzled with salted caramel, mulled wine spices, and a cherry hand pie with powdered sugar icing that’s just touched with dark chocolate and maybe some broom bristles and corn husks. The taste leans into floral honey cut with orange oils next to sticky toffee pudding and cherry tobacco packed into an old leather pouch. There’s a hint of coconut cream pie next to woody winter spices on the finish with a touch more of that cherry tobacco married to salted dark chocolate all layered with dry sweetgrass and cedar bark.
Bottom Line:
This has no business being as good as it is at this price point. This works really well as an easy, everyday sipper. Plus, you should be able to find it on every shelf.
1. Kirkland Signature Single Barrel by Barton 1792 Master Distillers
This Costco release is sourced from Sazerac’s other Kentucky distillery, Barton 1792 Distillery down in Bardstown, Kentucky. The whiskey in the bottle is very likely the same distillate/barrels as 1792 Full Proof. However, this is proofed down a tiny bit below that at 120 proof instead of 125 proof, adding some nuance to this release.
Tasting Notes:
This is a classic nose full of salted caramel next to dried red chili, Mounds bars, mulled wine spices, and creamy vanilla malt milkshakes with a cherry on top. The palate really leans into the sour mulled wine focusing on star anise, cardamom, allspice, cinnamon, and maybe even some cumin next o brown sugar clumps, creamy eggnog, and a cherry-dark chocolate tobacco vibe with a slightly woody edge. The end into the spiciness and wood with a hint of black potting soil, firewood bark, and warm cinnamon in a cherry-apple hot buttered rum cider.
Bottom Line:
This is one of the best bourbons at this price point but also a great single barrel overall. It’s versatile and deep while still being approachable and kind of light-hearted. Overall, you can use this as a neat sipper or a great cocktail base or however you want to.
It’s good no matter what and the absolute best value in all of the bourbon-verse.
We still have a few months to wait for the The 65th Annual Grammy Awards, as the ceremony is scheduled for February 5, 2023. As for who’s going to be nominated come the big night, the full list of nominees is getting announced soon: on Tuesday, November 15 starting at noon ET.
As for how to watch the nomination announcements live, fortunately, that’s pretty easy. The Recording Academy makes the broadcast available in a number of ways, like on the live.grammy.com site and YouTube. It will also be viewable via the Academy’s social media platforms: Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
In regards to who you’ll see during the show, it was recently announced that artists set to participate in the nomination announcement broadcast are Olivia Rodrigo, Machine Gun Kelly, John Legend, Luis Fonsi, Smokey Robinson, Jimmie Allen, and Ledisi, along with Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. and CBS Mornings co-anchors Gayle King and Nate Burleson.
In terms of the works you can expect to see up for consideration, works released between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022 are eligible for nomination this year. Nominees were then voted on by Academy members between October 13 and October 23, 2022. New categories this year include Songwriter Of The Year, Best Alternative Music Performance, and Best Americana Performance.
“Sometimes kids say bad words about the black kids,” Armageddon Time‘s protagonist, Paul Graff, tells his grandfather, played by Anthony Hopkins, during an outing to the park.
“And, what do you say when they do?” Grandpa Aaron Rabinowitz asks in response.
“Well nothing, of course,” shrugs Paul.
“And do you think that’s smart? …Because I think it’s f*cking bullshit,” grandpa says, suddenly turning foul-mouthed.
He goes on, but the gist of wise old grandpa’s speech is that in order to “be a real mensch,” you should always tell racists to stick it up their ass. Not once does Armageddon Time actually explore what it looks like to tell the racist kids to stick it up their ass, or grapple with their reactions, or with how any black character might be helped by this. This is a movie that seems to come from the Beto O’Rourke school of politics, where the best way to deal with injustice is to use cusswords on it to show how much you care. The mere calling out of injustice is an end unto itself.
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Handsome coming-of-age tale period pieces set during the director’s formative years are all the rage right now, and to go along with Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans and Sam Mendes’ Empire Of Light, this fall also brings us Armageddon Time — named for a line in a Ronald Reagan speech and also a Clash reggae cover, not the actual apocalypse — from director James Gray (Ad Astra, Lost City Of Z).
Normally this kind of movie is right in my wheelhouse, and between the sumptuous production design, superlative acting, and Clash songs (pandering directly to my sensibilities now), I can understand Armageddon Time‘s glowing reviews. The movie glows. And yet, something about this coming-of-age tale feels transparently self-preserving, trapped in an adolescent’s point of view. It offers a story about race where everyone gets off too easily, where it seems the most important thing a white person can do is to acknowledge that racism exists while carrying on.
Banks Repeta plays Paul Graff, a Jewish kid from Queens who dreams of being an artist and whose lax attitude towards school and smart mouth put him on an inevitable collision course with fellow detention-getter Johnny Davis (Jaylin Webb), a black kid from a broken home repeating the sixth grade for the second time. Their teacher hates them both but Johnny seems to get the lion’s share of the blame.
Paul and Johnny become friends and get into mischief together, though Johnny has a flair for the nihilistic where Paul is merely naughty. Paul, unlike his older brother, goes to public school, where any trouble he gets into naturally incites a conversation between his working-class parents, played by Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong, and his mom’s rich parents, who want to pay to send Paul to private school with Ted (Ryan Sell), away from all the “bad influences” in their neighborhood (aka, the black kids being bused into his local public school)
In Private Parts, young Howard Stern depicts himself as having to be his parents’ progressivist guinea pig, suffering bullying and penis envy at black majority schools, thanks to his liberal-minded parents, who refuse to join in the white flight going on all around them. Paul’s family is moving in the opposite direction, and the movie catches them at a transitional point — as Paul’s dad says, “you have to take every advantage you can get.”
This puts a strain on Paul’s relationship with Johnny, who clearly needs help, which Paul doesn’t know how to provide without giving his parents even more reason to try to separate them. When they inevitably get into some big trouble together, it’s even more inevitable, and clear to all involved, that Paul is going to skate and Johnny isn’t. Johnny is fatalistic about it, in a very movie way, offering a variation on that classic movie trope where the wounded buddy urges the hero to go on without him. “Just go, it wouldn’t have mattered what you do anyway,” Johnny tells Paul, or something to that effect.
This, again, strikes me as not only something that rings slightly false for the Johnny character, but as a kind of self-preserving revisionist history from Paul. “It wouldn’t have mattered anyway” feels more like something Paul would tell himself later, to absolve himself of responsibility. So that it could just be a tragic inevitable story about racism and the time you had a black friend who introduced you to Sugar Hill Gang before you went off to private school.
It’s not that I’m advocating for false happy endings or phony heroics here, but what does Paul learn and what does he actually stand for? It seems like the movie is saying that the most important thing is to always feel bad when your black friend takes the blame for your crimes. Grandpa’s words ring in Paul’s ears: when you go off to private school, tell those racists to stick it up their ass! Okay, then what?
At least in the much-derided Amsterdam (which even I must admit was pretty uneven for the first 95% of its run time) there was an acknowledgment that the hero’s big speech at the end warning against the perils of fascism didn’t actually do much to stop fascism. It acknowledged both that hearing stirring words feels good and that they have their limitations. Sometimes a nice little speech is all you get.
Armageddon Time, by contrast, really does depict Grandpa Hopkins as this font of saintly wisdom, like the key to life actually is just distinguishing yourself from those racists at private school. Racists who in this case include, and maybe you’ve already done the “early 80s + Queens” math here, the actual Trump family. The Trumps are the big donors at the Graffs’ private school, and Fred Trump (John Diehl) shows up occasionally, with Maryanne Trump, played by Jessica Chastain, even making a speech.
By not offering any insight or exploration into what standing up to injustice actually looks like, it feels a lot like what Armageddon Time is saying is that the key to being a mensch is just not being the Trumps. It’s the perfect feel-good, origin story for the Clintonian liberal, to depict simply not being the Trumps as a heroic act.
Armageddon Time is specifically Jewish, but carries a sentiment familiar to a lot of non-Jews. “Respect your heritage by not doing racism, because when you say racist things, you sound just like the people who persecuted us.” My grandparents tried to convey similar things when I was a kid. It’s a nice thing for a kid Paul’s age to hear, but by the time you grow up you should start to notice a whiff of the self-exonerating about it.
‘Armageddon Time’ is available in theaters everywhere November 4th.Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can read more of his reviews here.
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(@ForeverRebel) November 11, 2022
