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Last month at the VMAs, Taylor Swift stole the night by surprise-announcing her forthcoming album Midnights, arriving in October. While accepting the final award of the night for Video Of The Year, she said, “I had sort of made up my mind that it might be a fun moment to tell you… my brand new album comes out October 21st. And I will tell you more at midnight.”

She’s telling us even more tonight through a funny TikTok. In a new series called Midnight Mayhems With Me, the pop star is slowly revealing the tracklist through a game of chance with a lottery ball machine. In the first episode, shared at midnight on September 21, she announced the title of the final track, which is… “Mastermind.”

After announcing Midnights, she shared a poetic statement detailing the concept of the record. “We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears,” she wrote. “We stare at walls and drink until they speak back. We twist in our self-made cages and pray that we aren’t — right this minute — about to make some fateful life-altering mistake.

She continued, “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching — hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve … We’ll meet ourselves.”

Nothing gets attention quite like controversy. Just ask filmmaker Vera Drew. A lot of people know all about her new film, The People’s Joker, but only because it’s inadvertently become the second most controversial film of the season, after Don’t Worry Darling. A parody of the DC Comics-verse, it was supposed to bow at the Toronto International Film Festival. It did, but only for one screening, after it was yanked from the lineup over “rights issues.” Those may eventually be cleared up; after all, parodies are protected by the good old First Amendment. But for now, after attempts to set up defiant screenings, Drew is erring on the side of caution.

Drew, who took to Twitter Tuesday to give an update on the film’s ails. “As The People’s Joker team and I work to resolve our previously reported “rights issues” and come up with a release plan, I have decided to pull our film from all future film festivals for the time being,” Drew wrote. She said she “didn’t come to this decision lightly” and that it “sucks and hurts more than you’ll ever know.” Indeed, her team had 10 festivals all over the world ready to show it.

But she did end on a note of hope. “I promise that everyone — everywhere — is going to be able to see this film soon, first in a theater and then in the comfort of their home. Stick with me,” she wrote. “I’ll keep you posted every step of the way that I can. And you know where you can all send your angry letters.”

The post ended with a rallying cry: “FREE THE PEOPLE’S JOKER.”

Drew’s film, which uses the likenesses of multiple DC characters, tells a version of the Joker story in which she’s trans. The plot goes as such, as per The Daily Beast:

The People’s Joker follows a clown whose chosen name is Joker the Harlequin. Raised in Smallville by a repressive mother and numbed by a drug called Smylex—which does less to alter one’s mood than one’s facial expression—Joker eventually strikes out on her own to figure out who she really is. Eventually, she finds comedy—which, in this interpretation of Gotham City, has been outlawed unless you’re a cast member on a powerful show called “UCB Live.”

So perhaps we’ll be hearing from The People’s Joker soon, and we don’t mean a postcard.

(Via The AV Club)

Viral rapper Erica Banks does not look good in this new leaked video from her Instagram Close Friends Story. The “Buss It” performer discussed going out to clubs, saying that her friends have to “look a certain way” or else they’re not accompanying her.

“If she don’t look how I want her to look, physically, I don’t want her to come because the look of everything is so important to me,” she said. “If she ain’t thick enough, no. Hair not did good enough? Nope. Can’t dress? Nope. Skinny? Nope!”

She continued, “It’s like, I don’t feel like I’m discriminating. I just want a certain type of look. She could be the sweetest girl I’ve ever met in my life, but if she don’t look the part, I don’t want her to come. It’s just not the vibe I’m on. She can come to the cookout, she can come to the listening party, but the club? I feel like b*tches gotta look a certain way to come.”

The internet has a lot to say about this controversial statement, whether that’s through ruthless digs fired at Banks, funny memes, or deeper conversations about the toxicity of this mindset.

Erica Banks is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

More than 20 years have passed since a Major League Baseball player reached or eclipsed 60 home runs in a single season … or at least that was the case until Tuesday evening. New York Yankees star outfielder Aaron Judge entered the evening of Sept. 20 with 59 home runs and, though it took him until the ninth inning of a matchup against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the 30-year-old delivered the majestic blast that many were hoping to see.

With the home run, Judge ties Babe Ruth for the eighth-most home runs in a single season, and he has plenty of time to continue to rise on the all-time list. In fact, Judge needed only 147 games to reach 60 home runs, becoming the third-fastest player in MLB history to do so.

Though Barry Bonds’ all-time record of 73 home runs in 2001 appears to be safe, Judge is just one home run away from the American League record of 61 by Roger Maris. The four-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger recipient is also leading the league in myriad categories in addition to his jaw-dropping home run total. Judge is setting the league-wide pace in runs scored, runs batted in, walks, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, and total bases, and he almost singlehandedly carried the Yankees through a down period in the second half of the season for good measure.

Even with Shohei Ohtani’s unbelievable two-way performance, Judge is the heavy betting favorite to win MVP honors, and he is in the midst of one of the best individual seasons in recent memory. Judge now has more than a dozen games to potentially match or exceed Maris’ total, and if he does, the only names above him on the all-time list would be Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire.

Doja Cat is a pro at getting attention, whether that’s through genuinely perfect pop songs or a public beef with a Stranger Things kid. So it’s no surprise that she’s having fun promoting her highly anticipated album, which she has been doing through continuously confusing fans with contradictory messages.

In May, she told Elle in an interview that the LP would be “predominantly rap.” The other week, while talking with CR Fashion Book, she said it would have a “’90s German rave kind of vibe.” And today, she’s claiming on Twitter that those were all lies.

“im not doing a german rave culture album you guys i was pranking the outlet that interviewed me about it,” she wrote in the first tweet. In a separate follow-up tweet, she wrote: “I’m doing an R&B album.” To top it off, she sent out one last tweet to really drive the point home: “Straight R&B no rap at all.”

Pranking a journalist is definitely something Doja Cat would do. However, how do we know that this isn’t her way of pranking fans? How do we know that the LP will actually be R&B? Whatever it is, it’ll be a surprise, so she’s certainly doing a great job of building the anticipation.

When it comes to bourbon whiskey, you have a lot of choices out there. There are the classic low-proof bottles, barrel-proof releases, single barrels, limited editions, high-rye, low-rye … the list goes on and on. Another great section of the bourbon world is special barrel-finished bourbons or secondary cask finishes. Those are barrels that — no surprise here — go into a second barrel (vs. the standard new American oak) for finishing to add new flavor elements.

For this blind taste, I’m grabbing eight bourbons finished in everything from a second new oak barrel to various wine casks, brandy casks, and dessert wine casks. The throughline for all of this is the taste. I’m basically looking at whether or not I’d actually like to drink this in the real world (outside of tastings). I’m also looking at whether or not these live up to what’s promised on the label.

How can I do that in a blind tasting? Well, I’m going to guess which type of barrel these bourbons were finished in. It’s a test of my mettle and the clarity of the finish on these whiskeys. Our lineup today is:

• Cedar Ridge Iowa Bourbon Double Barrel
• Penelope Rose Cask Finish
• Woodford Reserve Honey Barrel Finished Bourbon
• Bardstown Bourbon Company Chateau de Laubade
• Daviess County Cabernet Sauvignon Cask Finish
• Barrell Vantage
• Woodinville Moscatel Finish
• I.W. Harper Cabernet Cask Finish

Okay, let’s find a great whiskey for you to try!

Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months

• We Blind Tasted A Whole Bunch Of $30-60 Bourbons To See If Any Could Beat Weller
• We Put A Whole Bunch Of Bourbons To A Giant Blind Test And Discovered Some Absolute Gems
• We Blind Tasted Classic Bourbons And Were Shocked By The Winner
• The Best-Known Basic Bottles Of Bourbon, Blind Tasted And Ranked
• All The Double Gold-Winning Straight Bourbons From This Year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition

Part 1: The Tasting

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a faint hint of toasted oak with a burnt sugar vibe next to Christmas spices, dusty dark chocolate powder, vanilla cake, and pecan shells. The palate leans into the woody spices with star anise, allspice berries, cardamon pods, and full sticks of cinnamon over butterscotch candies, more of that dark chocolate, and a hint of rum-raisin. The end has a light black tea vibe with dates and prunes dusted by all that woody spice and packed into a fresh pine box.

My Barrel Guess:

Toasted oak? Burnt sugars? Fresh Pine? This has to be a double oaked. You feel that fresh barrel come through and really lean into the woodiness of the spices.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

Soft orange blossoms and white flowers on a summer day pop on the light nose with a hint of candied cherry soaked dipped in dark chocolate with a hint of vanilla underneath it all. The palate holds onto the lightness with a strawberry and cream vibe next to tart raspberry and lush vanilla with a hint of dusty cinnamon that’s more sweet than sharp. The end has a hint of fresh herbs with more tart red berries and brand new porch wicker.

My Barrel Guess:

Light florals and tart berries … this feels like a light wine finish.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

Hello, honey cask! The nose has a lovely floral honey note with a hint of orange peels studded with cloves next to Almond Joy and a touch of Graham Cracker dipped in honey and dusted with cinnamon. The palate has a touch of fresh ginger next to more fresh honey with a hint of sticky toffee pudding underneath it all. The end has a touch of old cedar with a whisper of coconut tobacco next to creamy honey cut with vanilla.

My Barrel Guess:

Yeah, this is a honey cask through and through.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

This hits on complex notes on the nose from old leather, dried sage, cellared oak, roasted almonds rolled in toffee, sultanas, and then deep winter spice: freshly ground nutmeg, mace, cardamom, sharp cinnamon. The palate has a silky vanilla foundation with more sultanas over top, fresh and meaty dates, ginger snaps, and prunes mingle. The end has a gingerbread vibe next to cherry bark and grape must with more of those spices pouring into an old cedar humidor that used to hold tobacco.

My Barrel Guess:

This is a fancy brandy finish for sure. Those dried fruits and old wood give it away. It’s a refined one.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

Sour red wine with mulled wine spices comes through on the nose with tart apples, fresh honey, and plenty of vanilla. The taste holds onto that spicy and sour mulled red wine vibe as a hint of tannic oak and vanilla butter creep in. The end kind of washes out but holds onto the red wine with plenty of oakiness and vanilla and spice.

My Barrel Guess:

Red wine finish. 100 percent sure. A little too proofed down though.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

Dark chocolate tobacco leaves infused with dried chili peppers mingle on the nose with toasted coconut, fresh ginger, cherry root beer, and pineapple cores with a hint of espresso. The palate mixes orchard wood with espresso cream next to creamy eggnog, green tea, and savory green herbs. The end leans into spiced sticky toffee pudding with black-tea-soaked dates, plenty of cinnamon, and rich vanilla cream next to pink peppercorns, coconut cake, and smoked plum tobacco packed into a cedar box.

My Barrel Guess:

This is delicious! It’s really all over the place, so I’m not really zeroing in on a single cask. That likely means it’s a whiskey finished in a lot of casks and blended.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

This opens with a mix of dark chocolate powder, smoked apricot, and burnt orange with a good dose of wet wicker and five spice. The palate leans into toffee and almonds (Almond Roca!) with peach pits, plums, and a touch of vanilla yellow cake. The end leans into the plums with a brown sugar vibe next to light Christmas spices, dry wicker, choco-spiced tobacco, and Almond Roca.
My Barrel Guess:

That Almond Roca gives this away as a Woodinville. That sweetness also leans into a dessert wine finish too.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

Sweet cherry and caramel mix on the nose with sour red wine, vanilla, and dry porch wicker. The palate marries the tartness of the cherries with winter spices, creating a mulled wine spiked with a whiskey vibe next to a hint of cedar and black tea. The end leans into eggnog with plenty of nutmeg and creaminess with a hint of dark chocolate and a last blast of the cherry before the proofing water kicks in.

My Barrel Guess:

This had a clear red wine finish vibe. It was a little short-winded though.

Part 2: The Ranking

8. I.W. Harper Cabernet Cask Finish — Taste 8

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $70

The Whiskey:

This Diageo whiskey is a sourced Kentucky bourbon that’s aged at the famed Stitzel-Weller distillery for four years. The whiskey is then finished in red wine barrels from California before blending, proofing, and bottling.

Bottom Line:

This had a nice enough palate but kind of washed out at the end, that’s the only reason it’s last here. This is a fine whiskey otherwise. The red wine is clear on the palate as well, which is another nice touch.

7. Daviess County Cabernet Savignon Cask Finish — Taste 5

ABV: 48%

Average Price: $54

The Whiskey:

This whiskey combines two mash bill programs. Rye-heavy and wheat-heavy bourbon barrels are aged for five years before they’re vatted and then re-filled into Cab casks from Napa. That juice then rests for a final spell before batching, proofing, and bottling as-is.

Bottom Line:

This was a clearly nice whiskey with a fine palate. It wasn’t arresting like some of the other pours on the list today, but it was clearly red wine finished. I’d say maybe use this for solid cocktails regularly and an on-the-rocks sipper in a pinch.

6. Cedar Ridge Iowa Bourbon Double Barrel — Taste 1

ABV: 52.5%

Average Price: $50

The Whiskey:

This whiskey from craft distillery favorite Cedar Ridge combines their beloved whiskey with new oak one more time. The juice has a classic base of 74 percent corn, 14 percent rye, and 12 percent malted barely. After about four or five years, that whiskey is reloaded into brand new charred American oak barrels for a final finish.

Bottom Line:

This was a nice change of pace from the sweeter wine and brandy finishes. Still, this was light and very woody, though that’s the point. The only reason it’s a little lower on this ranking is that it didn’t pop as much as the rest. Otherwise, this is a good grab if you’re in the Midwest.

5. Penelope Rose Cask Finish — Taste 2

ABV: 47%

Average Price: $52

The Whiskey:

This whiskey takes Penelope’s beloved and multi-award-winning four-grain bourbon blend — 76 percent corn, 14 percent wheat, seven percent rye, and three percent malted barley — and re-barrels it in hand-selected French Grenache Rosé Wine Casks from the Southern Rhône of France. Once those barrels hit just the right flavor notes, they’re vatted, proofed, and bottled as-is.

Bottom Line:

This had a nice lightness to it thanks to that rose barrel, which really came through on the palate. Overall, this is a lighter whiskey with a nice palate that’s perfect for easy sipping on a slow day.

4. Barrell Vantage — Taste 6

ABV: 57.22%

Average Price: $80

The Whiskey:

This brand new release from Barrell Craft Spirits really leans into unique and rare finishings. The blend is a mix of Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky bourbons that were finished in three different oaks separately before blending. In this case, that’s Japanese Mizunara casks, French, and American oak. Different toast and char levels were used for the barrels to achieve a unique palate that builds on the heritage of Barrell’s other triple cask-finished whiskeys (Dovetail, Seagrass, and Armida).

Bottom Line:

Ah, that makes sense as the palate didn’t land on one distinct barrel vibe. Still, this was delicious. Buy this whiskey, especially if you like something new and fresh with a deep flavor profile.

This is also where I’m splitting hairs with the ranking. This could be number one on another day. Today, it’s a little lower since the next three are a little clearer cut on the palate.

3. Woodinville Moscatel Finish — Taste 7

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $70

The Whiskey:

This whiskey starts as Woodinville’s award-winning five-year-old bourbon. That juice is then re-barreled into Moscatel wine casks for a finish maturation period. After nearly a year, the whiskey goes into the bottle having just been touched by water but otherwise as-is.

Bottom Line:

This is just delicious. It’s also now available nationwide, so you might be able to try it even if you don’t live in Washington state this year.

2. Woodford Reserve Honey Barrel Finished Bourbon — Taste 3

ABV: 45.2%

Average Price: $60

The Whiskey:

This brand-new whiskey from Woodford Reserve takes classic Woodford bourbon that’s aged at least four years and finishes it with some honeyed oak. The bourbon is filled into barrels that aged honey for a final maturation before blending, very light proofing, and bottling.

Bottom Line:

This hit the honey barrel finish out of the park. There was a clear sense of the finish with a nice bourbon edge still underpinning everything. It was also very easy drinking and delightful to sip.

1. Bardstown Bourbon Company Chateau de Laubade — Taste 4

ABV: 53.5%

Average Price: $160

The Whiskey:

This bourbon is a blend of 12-year-old, low-rye bourbon from Kentucky and 10-year-old, very-low-rye bourbon from Tennessee. The whiskeys were re-barreled into Armagnac casks from the famed Chateau de Laubade. One set spent two years mellowing on the bottom floor of the rickhouse while another set spent 16 months mellowing on the top floor. After that, the barrels were vatted and bottled as-is.

Bottom Line:

This is a beautiful sip of whiskey. If you can find it buy a couple — you won’t see it again until next year.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

Overall, this was a nice panel of whiskeys. Each one delivered on what was promised on the label. That’s not always true, I can assure you. I really liked all of these, though the bottom three are more in the cocktail base column for me.

The top five were all nice enough to recommend as sippers or for great cocktails. That said, the top three are the prime cuts. If you can find any of those at your local liquor store or high-end whiskey bar, you’ll be in for a real treat. Good luck out there!

Ted Lasso is one of the best shows on television right now. The Apple TV exclusive just won multiple Emmys and people are giddy about upcoming seasons. Someone else that may be excited for the future of the show is the devs over at EA who working on FIFA 23.

On Tuesday, the official Ted Lasso Twitter account tweeted out an image of Jason Sudeikis in what was unquestionably a scanner that is used to put people into video games. The official account for FIFA replied to that tweet with nothing more than the eyes emojis. Considering that Ted Lasso is a show about soccer, we feel like this might be a big hint about Lasso appearing in FIFA 23 in some way.

As far as collaborations go, this could potentially be a fun one if handled correctly. Lasso is a fun character who uses his positive attitude to coach his players on and off the pitch. It would be fun to get to experience that in some way in the game, even if it’s just a small cameo.

We do wonder where this cameo would appear, though. It feels like a safe bet that it will be part of the career mode in some way, but maybe they implement Lasso into some of the other modes, such as making him a card that can be unlocked in Ultimate Team. We’ll just have to wait and see what, exactly, EA has up its sleeve … if this is real, of course.

There have been a lot of great vinyl releases lately, and Guns N’ Roses are adding to that. Today, the hard rock band announced that they’re celebrating their classic 1991 albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II with a new box set coming November 11.

Out of the set’s whopping total of 97 tracks, 63 are previously unreleased and will surely be exciting for fans to hear for the first time. To give them a taste, they’ve shared “You Could Be Mine (Live In New York, Ritz Theatre – May 16, 1991).”

“You Could Be Mine” was one of the band’s hit singles and this brand new live version is a real treat. The box set will also include a Super Deluxe Seven-CD + Blu-ray, a Super Deluxe Twelve-LP + Blu-ray, Two-CD Deluxe Editions of Use Your Illusion I & II separately, as well as standard 1CD and 2LP versions of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II separately. It is the first time that both records are being remastered, so it’s long overdue. Along with those collectibles, it comes with an exclusive 100-page hardcover book with unreleased photos and memorabilia.

Listen to “You Could Be Mine (Live In New York, Ritz Theatre – May 16, 1991)” above. Pre-order or find out more about the box set here.

If you’ve filed a ticket to 2K Support recently then you might want to avoid opening up any emails you’ve gotten back. Unfortunately, it looks like their vendor for supporting players has been compromised in a hack, but instead of stealing information from 2K itself, the hacker is trying to steal information from customers.

In an announcement from 2K Support, customers were warned that they should not open up any suspicious links even if it was from the official 2K support email. It also informed them that if they had already clicked the link, then they should change passwords and install two-factor authentication software. It sounds like whoever the hacker was, they were trying to steal passwords.

It’s worth noting that 2K Games and Rockstar Games, who dealt with their own hack this week, are owned by the same company, Take-Two Interactive. However, the two hacks do not appear to be related to each other, to anyone that may have been concerned about that.

The timing on this could not be worse, as 2K Games just had a major release with NBA 2K23 earlier this month. So if you got the game and are dealing with any support issues, you may want to try the phone line instead.

If it wasn’t apparent from his single term in office, Donald Trump wasn’t exactly prepared to become president of the United States. He’d never served elected office. He never seemed to learn how most of government works. He didn’t even seem to do much apart from watch TV, rage-tweet, and shout at reporters in front of deafening helicopters. So perhaps it’s not surprising that his aides were reportedly stunned by the depths of his ignorance.

As per Raw Story, journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser went on Morning Joe Tuesday to talk about their new book The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021. Co-host Jonathan Lemire dwelled on one of the latest shockingly weird revelations from his lone term in office: that he promised Jordan’s King Abdullah II that he’d give him the West Bank. Had Trump known anything about Jordan’s relationship with the Palestinian people, he’d have known that wasn’t anything Abdullah would have wanted.

To Baker and Glasser, this story is emblematic of Trump’s worldview, which Baker described as “very superficial and transactional.” It also speaks to his knowledge of foreign policy, which they said was “very, very much built on the basis of someone who didn’t spend a single day in office prior to becoming president and he had a lot to learn.”

In talking to aides they discovered some shocking stuff. “He didn’t know the difference between the Baltics and Balkans,” Baker said. “One aide was saying he knew nothing about so many things, it was startling to them even after they spent time in his presence.”

It’s true: According to one of his national security advisors, John Bolton, Trump barely knew where Ukraine was. But maybe second time’s the charm! Trump has yet to formally announce his candidacy, but even though he’s a little busy with other pressing matters right now, he probably will. After all, not only will it give him a Mulligan on learning about world geography, it will also keep him out of the slammer.

(Via Raw Story)