Elon Musk wants what he wants, and being the billionaire CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX isn’t enough for him. He wants to own Twitter, too, dammit, and of course, the MAGAcheerleaders think that having a “free speech abolutist” in charge of the joint is the key to getting Trump back on the platform. Unfortunately for their interests, Elon’s not going to be on the Twitter board after all, and then his bid to purcahse Twitter (for $41 billion cash, because he doesn’t trust the management) doesn’t look like it’s happening.
Reuters reports that Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns a significant Twitter stake, rejected that Elon bid while declaring, “I don’t believe that the proposed offer by Elon Musk ($54.20 per share) comes close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects.”
To no one’s surprise, Elon is now tweeting at this Saudi prince. “How much of Twitter does the Kingdom own, directly & indirectly?” the world’s richest Twitter troll tweeted. “What are the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom of speech?”
Interesting. Just two questions, if I may.
How much of Twitter does the Kingdom own, directly & indirectly?
What are the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom of speech?
Earlier on Thursday, Elon spoke at a TED talk (via lawyer Ron Filipkowski) to reveal how little he seemingly understands about “free speech” in a constitutional sense. Perhaps he’s being “intentionally misleading,” after all?
Musk had a lot to say today. His definition of “free speech” is either dumb, naive or intentionally misleading. Suppose you were organizing an attack on the Capitol using your twitter account to round up volunteers? Is calling someone the n-word all good too? Doxxing? Threats? pic.twitter.com/E6SKTces9V
Previously, Elon declared that he wants to “unlock” the “extraordinary potential” for Twitter for “free speech.” In other words, he wants every word to fly, no matter how harmful or inciting those words would be. And surely, this saga isn’t over yet.
Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 23 Bourbon is pretty much the most sought-after whiskey in the world right now. The classic wheated bourbon has been on a meteoric rise over the past decade or so, creating a hype that’s damn near unmatched. People line up for days for a chance to buy a bottle at its retail price of $299.99. There are endless raffles for the small allotment. The secondary price has, in some folk’s opinions, gone out of control. It’s a whole scene!
Pappy 23 is like the rarest Supreme drop, the coolest NFT, and that one-off Wu-Tang album made for the pharma-douche, all rolled into one simple bottle of bourbon. But can any whiskey — bourbon or not — ever live up to those levels of hype? Moreover, is any whiskey worth spending half a year’s college tuition on?
Since I’m lucky enough to have access to this level of whiskey, I set out to answer those questions. For this taste test and review, I sampled bottle F7088 at Justins’ House of Bourbon in Lexington, Kentucky. I had a neat pour in a mini Glencairn. After the first couple of noses and sips, I added a few drops of water to open up the pour and let it aerate for a spell.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Past Six Months
This wheated expression spends a long 23 years resting in new American oak. That age means that there’s still some old juice from Pappy’s previous home, the Stitzel-Weller Distillery, in the mix. Not every barrel makes the final cut. Only the “honey barrels” — the best of the best — are selected for blending, proofing, and bottling. The barrels that don’t make the cut are blended out into Weller expressions, generally Weller 12.
The Bottle:
The bottle is a classic cognac bottle. It’s clear, allowing you to see the amber juice within. The label has Pappy smoking his cigar and bottle number. It’s truly iconic at this point in bourbon history and almost unmissable on any bar shelf.
Tasting Notes:
The nose draws you in with a sense of an apple orchard with cherry and plum trees woven throughout as cherry bark, orange blossoms, salted caramel candy wrappers, and mulled wine soaked oak staves ebb and flow. The nose coalesces around a mix of dry applewood and cherry tobacco leaves stuffed in a very old soft leather pouch with a hint of dry and stringy cedar bark layered in with a dusting of soft nutmeg and black licorice.
The palate delivers on the promises of the nose with the caramel taking on a buttery edge, leaning toward a toffee cream silkiness, as dark cherries and overripe, bruised red apples lead toward peach stones, pear stems, and a hint of cinnamon-infused cider. The mellowness really takes hold on the mid-palate as the woody nature of the sip leads to a mix of those mulled wine oak staves, an old cigar humidor, a hint of bitter and almost over-roasted espresso beans, and a final flourish of dark cherry spiced tobacco leaf with a mild chewiness.
Bottom Line:
This truly does stand out for the first nose and sip to the last. It’s one of those bourbons that part the clouds, exposes the code in the matrix, and makes you say, “oh, shit, that really is good.”
I don’t even care that this word is overused, this whiskey is crazy smoooooooooth while offering some of the deepest flavor notes I’ve come across. It leaves you shaking your head at how accessible it is while having a seriously deep flavor profile.
Ranking:
100/100 — Yup, this is the real deal and does kind of standalone as a stellar yet classic bourbon for its MSRP price point. While it’s not reinventing the wheel or taking bourbon to new heights, it is probably the most classic example of a perfect bourbon on the planet earth.
Is It Worth The Price?
No.
One more time…
Nope.
This should cost $300 and tastes like it does. Spending $6,000 (or much more) on this is absurd. Moreover, that secondary markup is stopping people from ever experiencing the most classic example of bourbon there is. And that’s just a goddamn tragedy.
All of that aside, if you do come across a pour at a high-end bar or rare whiskey shop, buy yourself a pour (expect to pay upward of $200). That will be worth it just to have the experience for your palate and bourbon journey. Beyond that, don’t spend $6,000 on this bottle. It’s just not worth it, no matter how tasty.
This week serves as the tip-off to the NBA Playoffs. And if you’re planning on spending a bunch of time glued to the TV, you’re going to need food to help get you through it. Good news, sports fans — nothing pairs with hoops (watching) quite like fried chicken, it’s the ultimate finger food.
One of the top fried chicken purveyors in the game is Popeyes — home of the stone cold best fast food chicken sandwich. And this year the brand is celebrating the NBA Playoffs by teaming up with Uber Eats for what they’re calling the “Most Dunkable Meal.” The order consists of a 5-piece order of chicken tenders with a side of your choice (cajun fries, always cajun fries), a biscuit, and five dipping sauces of your choice. From now until April 17th, if you order the Most Dunkable meal you’ll be able to pick it up for 50% off.
This promo begs the question: What is Popeyes’ best dipping sauce? We decided to find out by trying all five sauces and ranking them from worst to best. You only have five sauce slots, you can be a total nerd and order all five or you can just quintuple down on the best sauce and make your meal delicious from the first bite to last.
*Honorable Mention *— Honey
Tasting Notes:
Let’s not forget about one of the best pairings at Popeyes, honey packets, which are totally free. You can load up on more honey than any other sauce at Popeyes. Sure it isn’t real honey, it’s mostly high fructose corn syrup, but that combination of earthy sweetness with the saltiness of fried chicken is a classic flavor pairing that will never get old.
Better On Fries Or Tenders?
Tenders. But we’ll take it on fries too!
The Bottom Line:
Most of the sauces on this ranking taste like variations on this OG flavor pairing. It may not be dippable, but honey walked so the rest of these dipping sauces could run.
5. BoldBQ
Dane Rivera
Tasting Notes:
Vinegar-heavy on the nose with a tomato paste brightness that obliterates any smokey qualities that might exist in this BBQ blend. It leans way too heavily on the sweet side and tastes mostly like a more interesting ketchup.
Better On Fries Or Tenders?
Fries, easily. It’s not that BBQ sauce and chicken tenders don’t go together, they do, but BBQ sauce often tastes better when it is baked straight onto the chicken. This dipping shit just doesn’t hit the same.
The Bottom Line:
Not bad by any means — Popeyes has a tight list of five sauces and they’re all pretty good — but this one feels like it needs some work.
4. Wild Honey Mustard
Dane Rivera
Tasting Notes:
A really pronounced mustard flavor that attacks the taste buds. While the overall aftertaste is sweet, this mustard blend keeps the earthy notes at the forefront, offering a lot of complex flavors that don’t need to hide behind loads of sugar like a lot of fast food mustards.
Better On Fries Or Tenders?
It’s better on the chicken. There is some sort of magic that happens when this pungent vinegar forward sauce combines with the garlicky qualities of Popeyes’ chicken breading. For best results, grab a spicy tender.
The Bottom Line:
A flavorful balance of sweet and spicy qualities that elevate the flavors of Popeyes’ fried breading.
3. Mardi Gras Mustard
Dane Rivera
Tasting Notes:
So much more interesting than Popeyes’ Wild Honey Mustard. The Mardi Gras has a distinct and complex character with a hint of horseradish and cracked pepper and a subtly spicy aftertaste that gently burns on the palate.
Better On Fries Or Tenders?
Both! The lack of sweetness in the Mardi Gras Mustard makes it a better pair for the cajun fries than the other mustard blend, and both compliment the garlic and black pepper seasoning of Popeyes’ chicken batter.
The Bottom Line:
Popeyes has two different mustard options and neither tastes remotely similar. Expect a spicier flavor here with a complex bitter aftertaste.
2. Sweet Heat
Dane Rivera
Tasting Notes:
A more apt name could not be given to a sauce. Popeyes’ Sweet Heat greets you with an intense sweetness, very similar to sweet and sour, before finishing off with a spikey pepper flavor that burns your tongue without actually tasting hot. It’s an interesting sensation as if the sauce is capable of alerting your taste buds to absorb more flavor. On its own, it can be overwhelming, but once dipped in it’s hard to find something on the menu that isn’t complemented by this sauce, including the biscuits!
Better On Fries Or Tenders?
Tenders. It’s still good on fries but when that sweet chili heat meets the crispy crunchy texture and buttery flavor of Popeyes tenders (assuming you ordered mild, if you ordered spicy sub ‘buttery’ for ‘cayenne-forward’) it elevates the experience tenfold.
The Bottom Line:
So close to being number one that I considered ending this ranking in a tie. It’s sweet, it’s spicy, you can’t go wrong.
1. Blackened Ranch
Dane Rivera
Tasting Notes:
I’m not a ranch fan. It’s too creamy, buttery, and sour to ever really appeal to me so I’m actually shocked that I’ve ranked the Blackened Ranch as the best but, this is without a doubt in my mind Popeye’s best dipping sauce. It’s creamy, a medley of butter, garlic, and onion flavors that are reigned in by a pronounced black-pepper aftertaste that adds some much-needed earthiness into the flavor of ranch.
Better On Fries Or Tenders?
It makes both better, and we can’t honestly say that about any of the other sauces on this ranking. If you’re having a hard time deciding, just order both sauces and mix them up, who knows what you’ll get.
The Bottom Line:
Popeyes’ best dipping sauce. I’ll admit It isn’t that much better than our number two choice (though it’s certainly more interesting), but because it works so well with both the fries and chicken, we have to give it the top spot.
As long as he stays (in a galaxy) far, far away from the Millennium Falcon, Harrison Ford is an indestructible “monster of a man.”
That’s according to his Indiana Jones 5 co-star Mads Mikkelsen in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. “It was the first time I met him, and he’s an insanely powerful person,” the Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore star said after being asked about Ford’s shoulder injury on the film’s set. “Not just as an actor, but physically.” Mikkelsen then told a story about the first of day of shooting. “It was a night shoot,” he said, “then we stopped at 5 a.m. — and then he got on his mountain bike and went biking for 50 kilometers [31 miles]. Harrison is a monster of a man, a very nice monster.” (Something tells me Mads doesn’t have to worry about Ford going method.)
Mikkelsen wouldn’t reveal who he’s playing in Indiana Jones 5… but, come on, it’s Mads Mikkelsen. He’s obviously the villain who you can’t help but root for (and be a little turned on by). He did, however, say that the film will go “heavily back to the first and second film and getting that original feel, the original Indy, something dense and epic.”
Longest 12 days ever! Cardi B temporarily deleted her Instagram and Twitter on April 3rd following backlash from online stans from her decision to skip the 2022 Grammys. Jeez… can we let the woman breathe? “I’m deleting my Twitter but on god I hate this f*ckin dumbass fan base,” she wrote. “You got the slow dumbasses dragging my kids all cause y’all [thought] I was going to the grammys and I didnt the f*ck ? When the f*ck I hinted I was going ? just f*vkin stupid I can’t I needs to protect myself.”
Online fan culture can be pretty pathetic sometimes and if you’re an A-List celebrity like Cardi B, you definitely feel it most. And quite frankly, a two-week break from social media culture sounds pretty liberating. So today, a refreshed Cardi B re-activated her Instagram and Twitter account with a series of stunning photos that show off her signature curves.
“Takin you to The Bronx wit my Amiris on ….SHAKE IT OUT TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT MUSIC VIDEO ASWELL !!!!,” she wrote, referencing her designer Amiri jeans that she’s wearing in the shoot. Meanwhile, “Shake It” is New York drill rapper Kay Flock’s new single which is dropping tonight. It features a guest verse from Cardi B, as well as appearances from Dougie B and Bory300.
Chicago is aptly named “The Windy City,” and in baseball we typically hear about the howling winds at Wrigley Field, where a day where it blows out can lead to tons of home runs, and days it blows in can lead to a pitcher’s paradise.
The wind still blows on the Southside, too, and the White Sox took advantage of a blustery Thursday afternoon with one of the funniest sequences you’ll see all year in Major League Baseball. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, the White Sox trailed 2-0 when Adam Engel skied a ball straight up in the air, causing chaos for the Mariners infield who moved back and forth trying to track it in the wind, ultimately leading to a drop by the catcher and Engel reaching second on the error.
The very next batter was Jake Burger, who likewise sent a baseball straight up in the air and had the wind drive the ball from straight over the pitcher’s mound to out by shortstop, where it was dropped again as Engel calmly rounded the bases and scored.
It is a hilarious way to score a run, as the two pop-ups couldn’t have traveled much more than 100 combined feet but they managed to manufacture a run out of just those two swings to cut the Seattle lead in half.
The ink is barely dry on Warner Bros. and Discovery officially completing their merger and already the newly-formed entertainment giant is looking to overhaul one of its biggest intellectual properties: DC Comics. Despite The Batman and Joker being recent hits that bucked the shared universe trend over at Marvel, Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly looking for a Kevin Feige-like hire who can bring all of the DC Films and TV series together into one unifying entity like… well, like Marvel.
Oh, and also, the new suits are kind of curious why Superman is sitting on the bench. Via Variety:
Discovery insiders believe that although DC has achieved cinematic success with recent films such as “Aquaman” and “The Batman,” it lacks a coherent creative and brand strategy. Discovery believes that several top-shelf characters such as Superman have been left to languish and need to be revitalized. They also believe that projects like Todd Phillips’ “Joker” are a shining example of how second-billed characters from the DC library can and should be exploited (Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn is another example).
Like a hastily fired-off tweet, Warner Bros. Discovery’s aims seem to be at odds with each other. Joker‘s success was built on crafting a film that was entirely free of connecting to other DC Comics’ films. Same with The Batman, which as of now, operates in its own separate Bat-universe that’s unburdened by whatever the heck is happening in the other DC Comics films, where Michael Keaton is taking over as the main Batman following Ben Affleck’s exit.
Complicating things even further, the Keaton/Batman overhaul is being anchored by Ezra Miller, whose future at Warner Bros. was reportedly put on pause after the actor’s recent legal troubles.
The lineup for the 75th Cannes Film Festival was announced on Thursday, with new films from James Gray, Claire Denis, Park Chan-wook, Kelly Reichardt, and not David Lynch. David Cronenberg‘s Crimes of the Future will also premiere at the festival, which is exciting news because it’s his first movie in eight years.
It’s also a return to Cronenberg’s body horror roots with movies like Videodrome, The Fly, and The Brood. That’s evident from the teaser above, which features a man with his ears on his forehead and his mouth sewn shut, a child (?) eating a garbage can (??) next to a toilet (!), and Kristen Stewart freaking me out by doing something to her eye.
Welcome back, David Cronenberg. Here’s the official plot synopsis:
As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. Timlin (Kristen Stewart), an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed… Their mission: to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.
Crimes of the Future will open in the United States in June.
Florence And The Machine’s fifth album, Dance Fever, is due out on May 13th and Florence Welch and company have been extremely thorough with a well-thought-out series of drips leading up to the album’s release. There have been powerful videos like the Ukraine-filmed “Heaven Is Here” and the death-defying dancing on “King.” Two weeks ago the band announced a North American Tour slate with support from Arlo Parks, Yves Tumor, King Princess, Wet Leg, Japanese Breakfast, and Sam Evian, and now the full album tracklist has been revealed in the coolest ways possible.
On the band’s website, a series of beautiful tarot cards, each bearing a track title and chapter number, is on display. Click into each one and if a video is out for it, you’ll be taken to the clip. If it isn’t yet, you get sent to a pre-order link. We can’t say enough about how beautifully designed each card that depicts Welch is. Shout out to the super fans at FlorenceBrasil.com, who took the liberty of clipping these track listing cards and tweeting them out one at a time.
Detroit rapper Babyface Ray is joined by his hometown peer Icewear Vezzo in his new video, “6 Mile Show.” In the latest video from his breakthrough album Face, the two ride through Detroit and show off their jewelry while dancing outside of an empty and sitting on top of a couch.
When the beat switches, the video then cuts to a coke- and lean-fueled house party, filled with dancing, neon lights, and money flashing.
In addition to the “6 Mile Show” video, Babyface Ray has announced the “Sincerely Face” tour, a 21-date tour across the US. Supporting him on his tour on are rappers Peezy, Baby Money, GT, LOS, and Natty, all of whom are Detroit artists.
Check out the “6 Mile Show” video above and the list of tour dates below.
05/08 — Washington DC @ Broccoli City Festival
05/21 — Seattle, WA @ Neumos
05/22 — Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
05/25 — Denver, CO @ Cervantes Other Side
05/27 — Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
05/28 — Chicago, IL @ The Bottom Lounge
05/29 — Grand Rapids, MI @ The Stache
05/30 — Cleveland, OH @ House Of Blues – Cambridge Room
05/31 — Toronto, ON @ Axis Club
06/02 — New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre
06/03 — Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
06/04 — Philadelphia, PA @ Roots Picnic Festival
06/06 — Philadelphia, PA @ Foundry At The Filmore
06/07 — Washington D.C. @ Union Stage
06/08 — Charlotte, NC @ The Underground
06/09 — Atlanta, GA @ The Loft At Center Stage
06/11 — Dallas, TX @ Studio At The Factory
06/14 — Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live Studio
06/17 — Oakland, CA @ The New Parish
06/19 — Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory – Constellation Room
06/20 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy Theatre
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(@RonFilipkowski) April 14, 2022
(@SiteFloBrasil) 