Rosalía‘s album Motomami, released on Friday, was met with instant success and praise. After a rollout full of catchy songs, seductive music videos, and glowing late-night television performances, she caught everyone’s attention and impressively built up the hype as much as possible. It turns out she even captured famous rapper Cardi B‘s attention, who took to Twitter over the weekend to share her love for Motomami: “Loving the Rosalia album…..soooo fireeee….Even if you don’t speak Spanish you will get into it.”
Loving the @rosalia album ….soooo fireeee ….Even if you don’t speak Spanish you will get into it.
Cardi B is known for appreciating artists through social media posts, and lately she’s been casually showing off her eclectic music taste; just last week, she tweeted a clip of iconic third-wave emo band My Chemical Romance‘s 2004 video for their thrashing hit “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” from their third studio album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. For the caption, she wrote, “They don’t make music like this anymore,” leaving the replies overflowing with questions like, “Cardi are you about to be in your emo era?” and, of course, “Remember when you used to release music? We miss that.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Following his recent interview with former Disney CEO Bob Iger, comedian Jon Stewart stopped by The Howard Stern Show on Tuesday morning to blast news media executives who refuse to sit down for an interview and “defend their product.” According to Stewart, his team on his new Apple TV series, The Problem with Jon Stewart, has been unsuccessful in getting news execs from any network to come on the show and discuss what they put on the air. The former Daily Show host couldn’t help but notice the hypocrisy of it all.
While explaining to Stern how his team would be rebuffed by promises to “run it up the chain,” the comedian didn’t hold back his frustration at the situation. Via Mediaite:
“It’s f*cking crazy. It’s crazy that someone who runs a news organization that goes to people houses when their kid has died. To knock on the door and go ‘Hey, how’s that feel! Come out and talk to us!’ They make it so that you owe them access and yet when you want to put them on camera to talk about the business model that you think is exploitative,” Stewart said. “If you work in an industry where the reason for being is to find out the truth and illuminate the dark corners and to expose corruption and yet you yourself will not come on and allow that same scrutiny to be applied to you. F*cking incredible.”
Stewart also had a zinger for those promises of running it up the chain. “I’m not sure where that chain ends but I’m sure it’s up somebody’s ass.”
He was a Marvel boy. She was a DC girl. And them needing to make a 1990s-style romantic-comedy together couldn’t be any more obvious.
Sebastian Stan, who plays Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Margot Robbie, the DC Extended Universe’s Harley Quinn, met on the set of I, Tonya. Her first thought after seeing his screen test for the Tonya Harding biopic, as she revealed in a conversation between the two of them for L’Officiel: “Wow, this actor is so good, who is this guy? He’s going to be such a find.” It wasn’t until she looked Stan up online that she realized, “Holy sh*t, it’s the hot guy from Gossip Girl and those Marvel movies!”
He’s also now the hot guy from Pam & Tommy and Fresh, which Robbie called “so brilliant and so f*cked up.” But Stan going cannibal mode hasn’t stopped the Birds of Prey actress from wanting to make a rom-com with him.
Robbie: Is there a genre you haven’t done that you would like to? Stan: I really need to do a comedy. [Laughs.] Robbie: Do you wanna do a rom-com? I was just saying this to a director the other night. I want to do a straight-up ‘90s rom-com. Stan: They’re the best! Notting Hill? When Harry Met Sally? That stuff just doesn’t get old to me.
Stan has seen Notting Hill “so many freaking times. If it’s available on a plane ride, it’s just gonna have to happen.” Here’s an idea: they should do a remake with some contemporary tweaks. Stan can still work in an indie bookstore, like Hugh Grant in the original, but Robbie, in the Julia Roberts role, isn’t a famous actress anymore; she’s the CEO of Amazon and… I now realize I’m basically describing the plot of You’ve Got Mail. They can remake that, too, except they talk over Tinder instead of email.
On Tuesday, the long-awaited 4K release of the three The Godfather movies will finally become a reality. (Technically, with this set, you get four movies. The Godfather Coda is now the official third movie, but The Godfather Part III theatrical cut is still included as a bonus feature.) The movies look absolutely gorgeous, which is a little surprising because the last time these movies were restored, back in 2007, we were basically told the original negatives were in such bad shape that these movies would never look better. Well, now they are better. Much better.
We spoke to James Mockoski (whose official title is Film Archivist, Post Production & Restoration Supervisor at Zeotrope) and Andrea Kalas (senior vice president of archives at Paramount) who, along with Francis Ford Coppola, led the restoration efforts. Ahead, they tell us about the painstaking procedure of making these films look better than they ever have before, but not crossing any lines where we lose the cinematic look. There’s a fine line between restoring and removing so much film grain and texture that it looks like it was shot with a digital camera last week – which (a) you don’t want, (b) it does happen more than one would think and (c) that is definitely not what happened with The Godfather movies.
So how did they do it? It was a combination of technology changing since 2007 (not just for them, but for us with the proliferation of 4K televisions) and they found a plethora of footage that wasn’t available to the team in 2007. To the point where some of the found footage was so fresh they could get a better sense of what colors were supposed to look like as opposed to what they’ve become over the years. Also, they take us through one of the toughest scenes to restore, which happen to be one of the most pivotal, the scene in the restaurant when Michael shoots Sollozzo.
With the 2007 restoration the attitude seemed to be, due to a number of reasons, this was as good as it was going to get. And now it’s better.
James Mockoski: Well, the difference between 2007 and now is that technology changed. We didn’t see HDR coming along the way. We were excited about exploring that presentation level. Also, Paramount didn’t stop. Yeah, we thought that was the best that they could do, but they kept finding more things to make the negative better because the first Godfather was loved over the last 50 years, and there was a lot of wear and tear. To Andrea and her team’s credit, they didn’t stop looking to try to improve the first film.
Andrea Kalas: We kept going back to the 2007 (restoration). There was so much good work was done in terms of capturing the vision of Gordon Willis and his cinematographic eye. That was important for us to maintain.
Right, the underlying theme was the original was not in great shape so this is the best we can do.
Andrea Kalas: I mean, I think the original negative, because it’s such a popular and well-loved film, and it also lent itself to Godfather II and Godfather III, and The Epic, and The Saga. So it was sort of split up into many different boxes and locations. Although they did some work to find that stuff in 2007, we knew there was more to find, and so we knew that we could undertake this as best as we could get. We can do even better. And maybe there’s more! Maybe we didn’t even find it all. But we got pretty close. We got pretty close.
In a process like this, how do you make sure that DNR [digital noise reduction] isn’t overdone where the result makes it look like it was shot on a digital camera versus a film? Because I’ve seen some 4K discs turn out that way.
James Mockoski: I could speak for Zoetrope, it’s the collaboration that we have the filmmaker in that room and making sure that that presentation was what he wants. We make sure with all of our films and our restorations that it still looks theatrical, still has that cinematic look. That’s what Francis and that’s what I believe Gordon Willis would have wanted. And respect to Gordon Willis’s memory, that we’re not creating something new or that’s not something faithful and respectful.
Andrea Kalas: And grain issues are nothing new to us. We’ve worked on them on a number of different films we’ve worked with. You do need to ride it very carefully because you don’t want artifacting from too much grain, but you don’t want to remove that look, and also, the detail that the grain represents, which can sometimes get scrubbed out if you go too far.
James Mockoski: Yeah, I was the annoying guy in the room, sitting, looking at things like, “No, no, we could do that.” So we were all very much glued to this and because people are going to ride us on that, and it wouldn’t be correct if we offered something that wasn’t was faithful.
You mentioned film grain. When you’re using a digital technology to restore something that’s broken, you’re not going to have the inherent grain in that digital spot. So do you have to recreate the grain? I’ve seen restorations where the grain doesn’t move.
James Mockoski: It’s not recreating grain, but what we had the problem with Godfather I is there’s such a collage of material. There’s tech print. There’s a dupe negative. So you want it to cut together. Bringing it up from the original negative and at least try to blend it together. So it is feeling natural in that matter and situation. But, generally, if it was original negative, we didn’t touch it. It’s only in those situations where it was trying to patch together these multiple sources.
In the documentary about the restoration in the set you mentioned finding all these dailies that no one had seen in a long time. Did I understand this correctly? You could look at some of those, and you could see the colors in those and realize the color of something in the movie wasn’t correct?
Andrea Kalas: I think what we gave ourselves with better elements was the ability to use digital tools to get the color palette as perfect as we could, right? Because you just had more input.
An example in the doc shows an ID card on the film that’s been white for a long time but you realized it’s actually green.
Andrea Kalas: Yeah. Yeah. I mean they found a lot of footage in 2007. We found more and even some stock footage that was in our own collection of Vegas that we found the original negative of. That was really fun to see it looking so pretty.
Of the three movies, was there a sequence or a part that stands out as you’re first looking at it going, I don’t know how we’re going to fix this? Was there something that stands out as the biggest challenge?
Andrea Kalas: I mean, to me, the restaurant scene [when Michael shoots Sollozzo] is always… I mean that, originally, when it was shot, there were problems with processing, right? So there are things that we’re always going to wish we had even better elements on it than we do.
What was wrong with that scene just from the start?
Andrea Kalas: The processing made it so that it was just not the best negative coming out to begin with, right? And so they did actually put in some dupe shots from the beginning and that we couldn’t recover the originals for. We looked everywhere. We did find a couple.
James Mockoski: Yeah, in fact, more intact than it was in 2007. We found more original negatives, but we still had dupe negatives.
Andrea Kalas: But it’s such a pivotal shot. We would’ve loved to have found all the originals for that. I don’t know.
When you say dupe shot, does that mean there are shots in the restaurant scene that weren’t in what people saw in 1972? There are a couple of moments that you had to use something else because it’s gone?
Andrea Kalas: I’m not actually sure about that, James. There might have been something that we’re seeing for the very first time now because they duped it out originally, possibly? That does happen.
James Mockoski: I think that’s the question. I think that we went back to what the ’72 cut was. Yeah, over the years, people may have been slugged out a different shot.
Oh, I see.
James Mockoski: But that has been subsequently peeled away and put back what the original one was, not that there’s new material no one’s seen. That doesn’t exist.
Andrea Kalas: We didn’t change the content. It’s just the element.
That’s why I wanted to make sure and follow up because I didn’t want anyone to misconstrue that as like, “Yeah, brand new shots.”
Andrea Kalas: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just better material for the same content.
Chicago’s Lollapalooza fest has long been known as one of the biggest, most musically diverse festivals around, and this year, apparently, will be no exception. The 2022 lineup has been announced, with headliners including hard rock mainstays Metallica, disco-pop revivalist Dua Lipa, gymnastic rap enthusiast J. Cole, and pop-punk pioneers Green Day. The big print on the flyer for the four-day festival runs a bit rap-heavy, though, as Doja Cat, Machine Gun Kelly, and Lil Baby fill out the top third (yeah, I know, MGK’s technically an emo rocker now), along with EDM icon Kygo.
Further down the list is a truly breathtaking range of both up-and-coming and veteran artists including Glass Animals, Big Sean, Jazmine Sullivan, Don Toliver, Charli XCX, Denzel Curry, Blxst, Willow, Cordae, Caroline Polachek, PinkPanthress, Audrey Nuna, Wet Leg, Larry June, Coi Leray, King Princess, Dashboard Confessional, Baby Tate, Petey, Blackstarkids, and more. There’s even a special guest: Jane’s Addiction, who last performed together two years ago in 2020.
Lollapalooza is set for the weekend of July 28-31 in Chicago’s Grant Park. Tickets go on sale today at 12 pm CT, with General Admission starting at $350 and a four-day Platinum pass going for up to $4200. You can find more information at lollapalooza.com.
Lagavulin is one of the most beloved whiskies in the world. As with many brands, there isn’t just one bottle or expression to love; this company has been putting out a core range and yearly special releases for a long time. That means there are a lot of bottles collecting dust in vaults that most of us will never see, much less taste. That said, right now you can buy several of Lagavulin’s limited releases from the last year before they disappear into those vaults (and before the next group of limited editions drops throughout 2022).
Today, I’m ranking the current lineup of Lagavulin. That includes the core bottles, plus any special releases that are still available. Whether those bottles are available at a specialty liquor store or the distillery gift shop really isn’t considered here. This is about what’s out there right now to buy, taste, or maybe save for a rainy day (though I did skip some of the much older releases for brevity’s sake — otherwise this list could be dozens of whiskies long).
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to taste through the entire Lagavulin line recently on a trip to the distillery, and what makes this whisky so special is the way it both exemplifies an entire regional style (Islay), and does so in an accessible way. These aren’t the peat monsters you may have heard of. These whiskies are more about subtle fermentation, distillation, and aging that highlights nuance over bombast.
The malts for this whiskey are made at the Port Ellen malting house not far from the distillery. While the Lagavulin malts coming out of that mill tend to be on the smokier side, the process of slow fermentation, double distilling, and then mellowing in very old and reused bourbon and sherry casks (amongst others) adds genuine subtly to this otherwise “big” whisky.
Few whiskies in the world spend over a decade in an ex-bourbon barrel and barely pick up any color (Lagavulin can be very lightly hued). That means, generally speaking, that more of the distillate from those smoky malts are shining through than the wood (though not in every case). Add in special finishings in barrels from everywhere from Japan to Mexico to Italy and you’ll find that there are a lot of exciting things going on at Lagavulin — a brand that is both embracing traditions and pushing the envelope.
Let’s dive in!
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Scotch Whisky Posts of The Last Six Months
This release from 2021 is the second Nick Offerman collaboration with Lagavulin. This is an eleven-year-old single malt that’s then finished in Guinness stout casks for a four-month final maturation. That whisky is then cut down to 92 proof with Lagavulin’s own Islay spring water.
Tasting Notes:
The briny, peated malts come through on the nose with hints of black coffee beans, slightly waxy cacao nibs, and a hint of creamy mint-chocolate ice cream. The palate is one part beach campfire from a mile down the beach and one part Milk Duds and drip coffee with hints of vanilla and pine resin lurking in the background. The finish leans into the dark cacao with a smoky edge (smoked dark chocolate?) while the wood stays dry and resinous and the briny peat gently supports the bitter yet creamy mocha espresso and mild malts.
Bottom Line:
This was the hardest Lagavulin to place. It’s really tasty but doesn’t exactly feel like a Lagavulin. It’d make a great curveball in a blind tasting, and tasted blind I probably would’ve been fooled myself. That being said, the uniqueness of this dram — thanks to that Guinness barrel — is what makes it so damn drinkable. I don’t know. We have to start somewhere in this ranking so here we are.
This expression was originally released to celebrate the distillery’s 200th anniversary. The whisky was created to mimic the juice that was being bottled back in the 1880s, during a high point in Lagavulin’s history. The whisky became a modern hit and is now part of their core line.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is full of honey-orange, dry and earthy malts, and a nod to chocolate-covered cherries with the slightest hint of fried cod wrapped in newspaper. The taste brings a solid billow of campfire smoke with traces of dark chocolate, burning cinnamon sticks, dry mint, and burnt potato skins (yes, really). The end is long-ish and marries the tastes together, leaving you with the memory of drinking a dark mint-chocolate spiked espresso next to a smoldering backyard fire on a cold autumn night, while somewhere in the distance, the sea laps at the shore. The very end has a whisper of new Band-Aids still in the box.
Bottom Line:
This is just a stone-cold classic. It’s simple but deep. In fact, I’d argue this is the quintessential Islay malt that everyone needs to try at least once. All those citrus, spice, and dark chocolate is hard not to love, especially over some rocks after a long day of work.
This is the younger of two special releases from Diageo last year. The whisky is built from juice aged in refill bourbon casks, meaning that the casks had already aged bourbon and then aged single malts at least once before this whisky was filled into them and left for 12 years. That whisky was then vatted and bottled at cask strength.
Tasting Notes:
This opens with notes of air-dried sea salt mingling with nori wetted with sushi rice and a clear sense of green tea with a hint of dried florals that lead toward dry cacao powder, salted lemon peels, and a very distant line of sea-spray laced campfire smoke with wet sand lurking underneath. The palate takes that sea salt, nori, and lemon and tosses them together for a sharp yet dry and briny mouthfeel that leads back to now-sweetened tea with a hint of waxy saltwater taffy. The mid-palate rushes towards a big billow of dry driftwood smoke that’s emboldened by a handful of smoked and dried ancho chilis.
Bottom Line:
We’re already into “Wow” territory with this bottle. There’s so much going on that all just works. You do really need to add some water to let this one bloom. Once you have, pair this with takeout from your favorite sushi joint and you’ll be all set.
This limited-edition whisky dropped last summer for the famed Fèis Ìle 2021 Islay whisky fest. The juice in the bottle is a 13-year-old whisky that was aged in ex-bourbon casks before a final maturation in white port casks with a very deep char. That whisky was then vatted and bottled as is.
Tasting Notes:
“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” That’s where the nose starts before edging toward wood polish, Windex, smoked plums and apricots, candied almonds (those ones coated in red sugar), and a hint of dirty campfire smoke in the distance. The palate starts with a woody/oily nature that’s bitterly charred which leads to malty spiciness that leans towards pizza parlor dried chili flakes and freshly cracked red peppercorns. That spiciness melds with the smoked stonefruit late as the Windex and earthy smoke fade away.
Bottom Line:
On first taste, this feels all over the place. Then it starts to come together the more you add water and the more you go back to it. By the end, you’ll be hooked by this unusual and enticing pour. Admittedly, this one will not be for everybody.
This is the most recognizable Lagavulin out there. The malts are smoked just down the road from the distillery at Port Ellen and the juice is crafted expertly by the sea at Lagavulin. Then the whisky spends 16 long years mellowing in old American and Spanish oak.
Tasting Notes:
Imagine a beach fire that’s using dried seaweed as fuel next to mugs of honeyed black tea and a clump of wet moss on the nose. The taste of this dram meanders through dried pipe tobacco smoke laced with hints of vanilla and tart apple while notes of briny caramel lead towards an oyster shell minerality. The finish is pure silk as the seaweed grows wetter and the smoke sweetens towards that caramel, vanilla, and apple.
Bottom Line:
I almost ranked this as number one. This is easily the most drinkable Lagavulin on the list (also findable and relatively affordable). This is the bottle I reach for as a weekend pour over a rock or two (or with some Coke for a Smoky Cokey). It’s easygoing while offering just the right amount of nuance and depth to challenge your palate.
Last year’s Distiller’s Edition was another prime example of the heights Lagavulin can reach. The juice was aged for 15 years in the core Lagavulin barrels (ex-bourbon and ex-sherry) and then finished for around six months in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks that were specifically made and held specific sherry before the whisky was loaded into the barrels. The result is a 15-year-old Lagavulin that’ll help you fall in love with the brand and style.
Tasting Notes:
This feels like all the subtle notes across the Lagavulin range have come together in the best way. You’re drawn in with hints of honeyed smoke, salted caramel apples, mild hints of vanilla, and smoldering coffee grounds. The taste ties the honey to a soft oakiness next to vanilla-chocolate coffee, seaside salted taffy, and a touch of fish oil. The end is very long and pure velvet on the tongue as the sweet oak fades towards a sweet smokiness, with a hint of salty roasted almonds and burnt vanilla husks.
Bottom Line:
As much as I love the 16 above, this edges it out. Why? Honestly, it’s hard to say. But I can tell you this bottle is always emptied far quicker than the 16 at the ol’ Johnston residence. I think this is just that little bit subtler and more refined, and it really shines with a rock or two.
This is a very rare and unique whisky. First, it’s the first 26-year-old Lagavulin released. Next, there were only 7,500 of these bottles released. Lastly, the whisky was built from a combination of first-fill Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry casks. Those barrels were married after over two decades of mellowing and bottled at a very accessible cask strength of 44.2 percent.
Tasting Notes:
The nose opens with red wine barrel staves and old boat ropes thrown into a campfire next to figs wrapped in nori and drizzled with rich butterscotch while hints of outboard motor smoke on the dock just a few feet away. From there, the taste mellows towards smoked dates flaked, a sense of sardine oil, and plenty of salt and black pepper. The finish mellows as this wet and earthy note arrives that’s one part forest mushroom, one part wet green moss, and one part smoldering wet cedar branches with a slight peppery tobacco dryness and warmth on the very end.
Bottom Line:
This is a wild and fun ride. It’s also a pretty damn unique Lagavulin experience overall. Outboard motor smoke, sardine cans, and smoked dates probably don’t sound like they go together. But, trust me, they do in this whisky. Just make sure to really give this time in the glass and add drops of water to let it open up while you go back and forth on the nose and taste. There’s a lot to dig out of this one.
The other big festival in Islay is the yearly Jazz Festival (usually in November). Last year, Lagavulin released a special edition 13-year-old. This time, however, the whisky was finished in former mezcal barrels from Mexico.
Tasting Notes:
This opens with a whiff of cherry cough drops followed by wet bark, singed vanilla pods, and a hint of smoked brisket covered in paprika and black pepper with a grilled fruitiness underneath. The taste leans into the peat with a wet charcoal vibe next to almond shells and tarmac that’s all countered by almost sour tropical fruit and a distant echo of vegetal roasted agave pinas. Floral honey sweetness breaks through on the mid-palate as candied orange peels, new Ace Bandages, smoked pineapple skins, and black pepper soaked in smoked brisket fat drive the finish home.
Bottom Line:
This was a revelation. Shout out to Diageo for pulling (what I’m guessing is Casamigos) mezcal casks and sending them to Islay. It’s smoke on a smoke, sure. But this is operating at a whole different level of fruit, carbon, and medicinal quality than any other Islay peated whisky out there. This truly will have you saying “wow” from the first sip.
This bottle was released in 2016 along with Lagavulin 8. The juice is a sherry-cask-aged whisky that was left alone for 25 long years. The honey barrels that made it through that era were then vatted and bottled as-is at cask strength into only 8,000 bottles.
Tasting Notes:
There’s a dryness and softness to this whisky that’s kind of mind-blowing. The nose meanders through old and sticky wood polish, rich sticky toffee pudding with salted caramel sauce, savory almost moldy figs, black-tea-soaked dates, meaty smoked prunes, peppery smoked beef fat, chewed-up Band-Aids, and an old cedar box that’s been filled with pennies for decades. The palate feels like raspberry saltwater taffy wax wrappers filled with smoked honey candies and waxy cacao nibs straight off the tree.
A soft cherry wood smoke meanders through more honey and pine kindling with plenty of pitch, tart yet dry cherry tobacco, long and dry willow branches, and burnt mint leaves. Candied orange peel drives the mid-palate back to that smoked honey and peppery beef fat as dried chipotle chilis mix with a very dark and bitter chocolate, a dash of BBQ ash, and a little bit more of that pine resin.
Bottom Line:
These last two entries are two of the best whiskies I’ve tasted in a long time. But this one is just otherworldly. This might be among my all-time favorite whiskies, full stop. Amazingly, although there seems to be so much going on, this whisky is somehow chilled out. It’s so soft and subtle while taking you on a journey that feels thrilling, nostalgic, and, well, sexy.
When most Americans think of German beer, they think of the big names — Paulaner, Spaten, Bitburger, Beck’s. There’s nothing wrong with those, but there’s a lot more complexity to German beer than just what you’ll find from the biggest exports. This is a country with 1,500 breweries, and with that kind of production volume, there are bound to be countless underrated and underappreciated German beers flying under the radar every year.
Underrated is a subjective term, of course, so it requires a bit of explaining. For our purposes here, “underrated” doesn’t mean that the beer can’t be popular. It just means that the beer maybe doesn’t get the acclaim or the respect that it should. “Underrated” encompasses both the brands you’ve never heard of that deserve your attention, and the ones you have heard of that maybe deserve a second look.
We welcome help from the professionals, so we asked a few of our favorite craft beer experts, brewers, and brewing professionals to tell us their choices for the most underrated German beers. They gave us quite a list.
Weihenstephaner Original Helles in my pick. I’m glad to see the craft community embrace the pilsner style in recent years, but I would love to see more people get into the Munich helles style of light and maltier lagers. Perhaps the most challenging beer for a craft brewer to pull off, there’s no room for error in this incredibly soft beer. But done well, it’s perfection in a beer glass. It is a pure experience, celebrating the malt with only a kiss of noble hops.
Aventinus Eisbock is certainly a wild experience. Its featured flavors of banana esters, dried fruits, and rich malts are certainly worth the liver workout at 12 percent ABV. It pushes the bounds of what beer can be.
I’d go with Erdinger Dunkel. It’s a German lager that has a good balance and flavor. It has a solid German style, which is what also first inspired us at Sprecher to brew beer in the Germanic style for a domestic audience in Wisconsin. And now, the market is shifting back more to this style, rather than the crazy IPAs.
No question, Augustiner Helles. Underrated might be a bit of a misnomer because any resident of Munich and Germany knows it’s the best helles in Germany. But it’s underrated because the brewery doesn’t rely on any marketing other than word-of-mouth advertising. The malt characters are soft and delicate and there’s a subtle, noble hop character to balance it out.
Schonramer Pils is probably my favorite pilsner. One guy in California imports it in tiny fresh batches and sends it out to very limited accounts across California, Oregon, Washington, and Washington, D.C. While the more widely-distributed pilsners get more hype, Schonram is tops in class for me. It’s one of the more aggressively hopped pilsners in Germany, and the higher alcohol helps balance that along with the decoction of mashed flavors of the local pilsner malt.
Rothaus Tannenzäpfle Pils is a very clean and sharp pils with a full malt flavor. I don’t see much chatter about it, but if you get your hands on some, you’ll dig it. It’s crisp, delicious, and complex. The way great pilsners should be.
Bayreuther Hell is the most underrated German beer. It’s clean and crisp with notes of fresh bread and grain. Can you tell that I really enjoy helles lagers? It’s a great beer that will get you excited about the style. How could it not?
Aecht Schlenkerla Helles is my pick. The subtle smoke in this helles makes for a unique and delicious beer that serves as both an easy introduction to smoked beers for some, and a regular sipper for others. It’s a truly unique and memorable beer.
Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier
Weihenstephaner
Douglas Constantiner, founder and CEO of Societe Brewing in San Diego
Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier is a beautiful Bavarian hefe that I never get tired of because it’s so approachable, you can just keep drinking it. Hefeweissens were meant to be day drinking beers so they get looked over. But Weihenstephaner has been making them for a thousand years, I’d say they’re pretty good at it.
Hofbrau Original is my pick. It has the perfect amount of sweetness without being cloying as far as a helles goes, and finishes crisp and clean. I think it also offers a slightly floral aroma which makes it stand out against other helles lagers in the best way.
Last month, Omaha folk legends Bright Eyes, who returned in 2020 after a hiatus with Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was, announced that they’d be reissuing their nine studio albums and releasing new songs to add to them. So far, they’ve unveiled “Contrast And Compare” with Waxahatchee, “Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh” with Phoebe Bridgers, “Falling Out Of Love At This Volume,” and they’ve unleashed another Phoebe Bridgers collaboration today with a cover of Elliott Smith’s “St. Ides Heaven” from his classic 1995 eponymous record.
The track is more brazen than the other singles, propelled forward with heavy, electric guitars and Conor Oberst’s angry intonations, harmonized with Bridgers’ ethereal, echoey alto. It’s much more intense than the original, on which Smith strums an acoustic guitar and sings in airy, detached lulls.
Smith is a known influence for both songwriters. In Uproxx’s interview with Bridgers for her 2020 breakout LP Punisher, she said that the title track is “basically Elliott fan-fiction.” She continued: “If we were alive at the same time I think I might have been a little bit of a brutalizer to him, which punisher is a short term for. Just someone who doesn’t know when to stop talking, and might follow you home.”
Listen to the cover above, which comes from Letting Off The Happiness: A Companion.
Less than a month after petitioning the court, Amanda Bynes’ conservatorship is set to end this week, and the former Nickelodeon star is looking forward to the next chapter in her life. Bynes filed to end her conservatorship not long after fellow child star Britney Spears brought hers to a very public and messy end. However, the process for Bynes has been significantly less dramatic thanks to her parents being “very supportive” of the move to end her conservatorship, which had been in place since 2014 following a string of erratic behavior and drug abuse. Bynes’ psychiatrist also signed off on the decision, which resulted in a judge ruling on Monday that the conservatorship is no longer needed.
With that ruling set to become permanent during a hearing on Tuesday, Bynes will be a free woman, and she’s ready to get back to living a normal life. Via Variety:
“Besides normalcy as a person and a student, I know that she is looking forward to what her next step is going to be,” Esquibias says. “One of the things that she’s talking about is a fragrance line and possibly a clothing line, while she is concentrating on school. She is very creative, so she’s trying to find an outlet for that.”
Of course, the big question is whether Bynes will return to acting, but that’s not a world she’s ready to go back to yet. “She has a new life ahead of her and she is so young,” Bynes’ attorney said. “She was a great actress. I’m sure many people would love to see her return to acting.”
Bridgerton is almost back, and I’ve gotta hand it to Shondaland because this second season is as well-played as the first outing. And this comes as a surprise to me, not because I thought that the show that John Oliver described as “lots of jizzing in blankets” couldn’t, like, jizz in blankets again. (This summation will never stop being funny, by the way, because he wasn’t wrong.) Rather, I found the character who’s now the focal point to be rather uninteresting (not to mention grating) last season. Add my cautious attitude to the sheer fact that this show, as smart and sexy as it was, whipped fans into a frenzy (one that SNL reenacted in an on-point way) for one overriding reason.
My regards to the Duke. Hell, everyone’s regards to the Duke.
There’s a reason for that, too, beyond the obviousness of people fawning over Regé-Jean Page’s physicality. It was more about him flinging himself into how the show maneuvered through all the sultriness via the female gaze. He was in on it, and I’m not talking about like being “in on a joke.” He was game for rolling with the punches as a roguish rake in a story where, ultimately, the focus was finally on the needs and desires of his lady (Daphne Bridgerton, who’s still played by Phoebe Dynevor), both physically and as a partner. There was a sleight of hand in the writer’s room and even a bit of pioneering, and the audience loved it, but then Page left the show (as planned), and there was no denying that a void would be felt.
Still, Netflix quickly renewed the show for three more seasons, a situation that could have grown awkward, fast, if the show couldn’t drum up magnetism out of a character who, to be quite frank, can come off (if you’re squinting sideways) as nearly physically indistinguishable from his fellow male Bridgertons.
Netflix
Wait, which one is Lord Anthony Bridgerton again? Oh, he was the one who scared off Daphne’s suitors last season and had an ongoing affair with a young lady who’s considered to be unworthy of becoming a viscountess. Last season, the writers may have used his affair to ward off Austen-esque vibes (and sure, he had some fans but wasn’t terribly likable), but this season, yep, he’s pulling off a clear Mr. Darcy-In-The-Lake reference. (Subtle, very subtle.)
Netflix
It’s actually mildly irritating how Bridgerton charms here. They take a lead character, who previously functioned as a pain-in-the-butt and boorish, and crafted his complicated backstory in a believable way that doesn’t fully drum up sympathy, but it does humanize him. He’s also the primary focus of this season’s courting season, but the real highlight is the leading lady who brings much more than a corset to the table.
Netflix
That role would be Kate (portrayed by Simone Ashley, far left ^^), a supposed spinster who guards over her younger sister, Edwina (Charithra Chandran). Their newfound acquaintance (after the ladies arrive from India) with Anthony ultimately lands in a predictable place, but I will say that there’s quite the atypical route to how the show gets there. Kate signs up for no sh*t, and Anthony’s considered to be the ultimate catch while he searches for his viscountess, but he’s also operating like a big ol’ dope at moments. Meanwhile, Kate and Edwina’s family backstory takes the show deeper on the subject of race and social stature, something that the show did struggle with early on. The role of Kate does a lot to balance out the sillier aspects of the show, although those, too, hold a lot of value because the show doesn’t forget to entertain (whew).
Somehow, this love story (such as it is) works. No, it’s not quite as intensity-fraught as Regé-Jean Page with anyone (let’s get real, they couldn’t have done that without putting Jason Momoa in Bridgerton or something, for inarguable reasons), but the show does a fine job of carrying on despite losing its most valuable chess piece. Shonda Rhimes previously went on record to admit how “shocked” she felt over the backlash to Page’s departure. To be fair, this move was in accordance with Julia Quinn’s books, but one can imagine some behind-the-scenes panic, which could’ve done the motivating trick.
Beyond the Anthony-Kate dynamic, the show catches us up on numerous threads from the first season as well. Daphne is hanging around again despite getting married, happily ever after to the Duke. He does not show up at all, and maybe he’s off alone with his blankets, no one knows. Mystery abounds! Yet there’s no longer much mystery (for the audience) about the true identity of gossip columnist Lady Whistedown, who’s still doing her Regency-era Gossip Girl thing while living under constant fear of getting busted. Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) continues to walk that fine line with an assist from Julie Andrews’ voice, and Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) continues to be a hoot.
Netflix
The show’s a freaking delight. It’s more fun than it really should be with plenty of soap-operatic flourishes to keep the fires burning even if this season isn’t as steamy as the original outing. I can’t imagine that anyone who enjoyed the first season will be disappointed with how this season ends. It’s a slightly slower burn, but the payoff does arrive. Granted, I don’t immediately see a candidate for next season’s Diamond Drama, but Shondaland is undoubtedly already on the case (just dial Momoa). And surely, Lady Whistledown will breathlessly report those events, when they happen.
‘Bridgerton’ returns on March 25. Grab your smelling salts.
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….Even if you don’t speak Spanish you will get into it.
4-Day Tickets on sale today at 12pm CT. 
