The NBA pressed on through a December with rising case counts and saw well over 100 players go into COVID protocols during December, and while the league instituted new rules requiring teams to sign replacements to 10-day contracts on hardship exemptions in order to keep games going even during outbreaks, there were some postponements that could not be avoided.
In total, the NBA has postponed 11 games this season, and it appears the league office spent the time after Christmas crunching the schedule to try and figure out how to reconfigure things to make those games up. On Monday, the league announced the new dates for those 11 games, plus eight games that were moved to facilitate the rescheduled games, as well as a pair of new game times to help give teams the needed time between tipoffs.
The NBA today announced the rescheduling of the 11 games postponed in December due to the impact of the COVID-19 virus. pic.twitter.com/MJyiNesT5P
In total, 19 teams are impacted by the 21 rescheduled games, with the Nets, Bulls, and Raptors all having four new game days (with the Nets also having a new game time this Sunday).
The NBA will hope that will be the only rescheduling it has to do this season, and hope that the league is through the worst of the surge of cases that saw dozens of games go on with hastily thrown together rosters of players who, sometimes, hadn’t met one another before pregame warmups.
Sometimes we get a little too caught up in the American craft beer world and have to take a step back and pay a little respect to those who not only came before but are still doing it today. We’re talking about the European breweries that created and perfected styles that American brewers do their best to imitate. Today, we’re specifically talking about German beers. There are myriad German brands and styles just waiting to be discovered (or re-discovered) as long as you’re willing to put down your New England-style IPA or fruited sour long enough to try them.
Luis G. Brignoni, founder of Wynwood Brewing Co. in Miami likes Oktoberfest beer, regardless of the season.
“I really do appreciate a lot of different German styles and brands,” he says, “including a lot of the traditional styles from the Hefeweizens to the different lagers they offer. If I had to pick one, I may pick the Oktoberfest style. I enjoy the malt complexity in them. I look forward to them coming out every year and sharing with family and friends.
Eric Warner, brewmaster at Karbach Brewing Co. in Houston is more of a fan of the country’s take on the wheat beer.
“I’m a huge fan of the German-Style Hefeweizens (or Weissbier), which is ironic because the first time I tried this style 35 years ago I thought it was one of the grossest beers I’d ever tried,” he tells us. “They are definitely an acquired taste, but once the style did connect with me, I was hooked for life. The aroma of hefeweizens is complex and beguiling: notes of clove, nutmeg, banana, and bubblegum.”
Whether you enjoy weissbiers, doppelbocks, or helles lagers, Germany has something for your palate. To find the best options, we went to the professionals for help. We asked a handful of well-known craft brewers and craft beer experts to tell us their favorite German beers for now and any time of year. Keep reading to see their selections.
Aecht Schlenkerla Marzen
Aecht Schlenkerla
Alex Wenner, owner and brewer at Lasting Joy Brewery in Hudson Valley, New York
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love pilsners. However, we can get great pilsners all over the world. There is one beer style that has hardly made it out of Germany, let alone brewed as perfectly as it is by the masters. Aecht Schlenkerla are the premier maltsters and brewers of rauchbier, or smoked beer. Brewed with beech-wood smoked malt, the classic marzen from Schlenkerla is the gold standard for smoked beers. The intense smoke flavor that could almost trick you into thinking someone had managed to liquefy a smoked brisket or pork shoulder is not for everyone, but I recommend everyone try and have a taste at least once.
Weihenstephaner Helles
Weihenstephaner
Tom Fiorenzi, director of brewery operations at Shiner Beer in Shiner, Texas
German Beers have a distinctive aroma and taste. The malt, yeast, and hops are all unique and vary in intensity for each beer style. The beer style is very personal to me since I grew up in a German community that celebrated in a traditional fashion. I have two favorite German Beers and they are dependent on the time of year. Specifically, I enjoy the Weihenstephaner Original Helles and Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen. Traditionally, the brewmaster would adjust the recipes to make a lighter gravity beer in the summer (known as light beer today) and a higher gravity beer in the winter months.
Paulaner Munich Helles is my pick. It has just a little sweetness, great German malt character, and next to no hops. It’s the way beer is intended to be made.
Ayinger Celebrator is still a delicious classic and of course who doesn’t love two goats sharing a giant stein of overflowing doppelbock. We made a monster lager called Bock Bock influenced by the style and with typical American craft slight regard and slight disregard for tradition, we cranked up the ABV, threw in a slew of additional malt varieties — and then barrel-aged the whole batch in bourbon barrels.
Edelstoff Helles Lager from Augustiner-Bräu is a wonderful highly drinkable beer from Bavaria, Germany. Its grassy hop aroma, soft malt notes, and bright straw color, and effervescent bubbles make this one of my favorite beers to enjoy over and over and over (I can keep going here) again; and at a mere 5.2% ABV that is not that hard to do.
My favorite German beer is Ayinger Urweisse. It is an amber weissbier that perfectly balances banana and clove yeast-derived flavors with bready and caramel malt-derived flavors. It is the quintessential biergarten weissbier.
Huppendorfer Pils
Huppendorfer
Jack Hendler, co-owner of Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers in Framingham, Massachusetts
ABV: 4.9% Average Price: Limited Availability
Why This Beer?
Huppendorfer Pils – but you can’t get this beer in the US. You will have to go to Bamberg, or right outside of Bamberg to get that beer. It’s a cool place. It’s an old-time family historical brewery that just makes classic Franconian beers and the pils is one of their best. It’s not overly bitter but it has a nice hop aroma. It has foam that sticks 5 inches out of the glass. It’s a perfectly crafted, excellent pilsner.
Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier
Weihenstephaner
Stephen Hale, founding brewer at Schlafly Beer in St. Louis
Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier, or Hefeweizen. Everything about this style is magnificent—the dedicated style of glassware, the distinct aroma and flavor, the freshness, and the overall uniqueness of the beer. I know not everyone is a fan, but there are those who feel passionately. The yeast strain really sets it aside (as with many beer styles), and once you fall in love with it, you’re hooked.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse, brewed by Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu in Munich. It’s a long story involving stumbling back from Oktoberfest and going into a German pub because we saw the Franziskaner sign when we definitely didn’t need another liter. It’s got all the best flavors of a Hefeweizen — great banana, clove, and wheat.
I love German beer and that was only fueled after studying at the Doemens Academy outside of Munich. My weekends were filled with chasing down some of the finest lager bier brewed in the world. Without a doubt, the favorite I found was Tegernseer Hell – a perfectly balanced and beautifully hopped helles. This beer is flawless. It is brilliantly bright, a rocky pillowy head, and has a hop aroma I have tried to replicate in my own beers for years. The hops burst from your stein like a radiant and vibrant bouquet of flowers.
Another reason this beer has stuck with me was the journey I took to get there. Taking several trains winding through the mountains finally depositing you in the most picturesque mountain town on a lake. The brewery is tucked away in the north wing of a beautiful monastery and the tables inside are adorned with the common “Stammtisch” placards awaiting their daily patrons who will inevitably consume a liter or two of this gorgeous helles.
One of the first German beers I ever tried in my younger days, Spaten Optimator is a 7.6% ABV doppelbock highlighted by notes of roasted malts, caramel, and dried fruits. It’s bold, rich, and well-suited for winter drinking. It’s the kind of beer I go back to again and again.
There’s a chance you got a little drunk on New Year’s Eve, even if (or especially if) you spent the holiday alone, quarantining or sick from COVID. (Chances are you dressed better than one of the richest people in the world.) Perhaps you got as tanked as weird Doritos eater Andy Cohen did. But you probably weren’t on national television. Cohen was, co-hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast alongside Anderson Cooper. Cohen went a little ultra, mocking both colleague Ryan Seacrest and exiting New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. Now he’s apologizing, or at least for the first part.
A visibly soused Cohen used his pulpit to belittle Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, ABC’s contribution to the night’s televisual partying, hosted by the co-host of Live with Kelly and Ryan. “If you look behind me, you’ll see Ryan Seacrest’s group of losers performing,” Cohen blurted out. “I’m sorry but if you’re watching ABC, you’re watching nothing.”
When the subject turned to de Blasio, who was succeeded that night by Eric Adams, Cohen was even more keyed-up. “Watching Mayor de Blasio do his ‘victory lap’ dance after four years of the crappiest job as the mayor of New York! The only thing that the Democrats and the Republicans can agree on is what a horrible mayor he has been, so sayonara, sucka!” Cohen said as he staggered around. “It’s done. What’s done is done. I liked ‘sayonara sucker.’”
By Monday, a recovered Cohen felt compelled to issue a mea culpa, at least to one of them. “The only thing that I regret saying, the only thing is that I slammed the ABC broadcast and I really like Ryan Seacrest and he’s a great guy,” he said on his SiriusXM show Andy Cohen Live. “And I really regret saying that. I was just stupid and drunk and feeling it.” He added, “I just kept talking and I shouldn’t have, and I felt bad about that.”
Cohen then suggested that he wasn’t apologizing for what he said about the former NYC mayor. “So that is the only thing. It’s the only thing,” he said.
When he was elected in 2013, de Blasio was seen as a progressive, transformative candidate who was serious about, among other things, cleaning up the city’s often aggressive police force. He didn’t. Instead he discovered what so many mayors learn: that being mayor of one of the globe’s largest and prickliest cities is incredibly tough, and that everyone will hate you, and not just because of your “trash” taste in pizza toppings.
9-1-1: Lone Star (FOX, 8:00pm) — God bless this franchise for keeping things chaotic and absurd, long after the flaming burrito that started it all. Since that time, the Austin setting has seen a volcano and a dominatrix-centered storyline. On, and there’s been roller-derby and military-tank madness, but in the midst of it all, handsome Rob Lowe is keeping things handsome while carrying the weight of the 126 on his still-sculpted shoulders.
Kenan (NBC, 8:00pm) — Kenan Thompson’s long overdue turn as a leading man heads into second-season territory. He’s getting into dating apps (ugh) and that minefield is (naturally) seeping into other areas of his life.
Ordinary Joe (NBC, 10:00pm) — James Wolk’s still playing three Joes, including a cop and a nurse and a rock star. In this week’s episode, Cop Joe deals with harsh truths while Music Joe finds himself questioning a lot of what he thought he knew.
Profile (HBO, 8:00pm) — Journey into a real-life horror as an investigative journalist unearths a scheme that recruits young women (from Europe) into the clutches of ISIS.
In case you missed this recent pick:
Insecure: The End (HBO Max) — Issa Rae’s brainchild and longtime block party came to an end with Sunday night’s series finale. This documentary-style wrap-up takes an intimate look back at the award-winning comedy’s process and cultural impact. Expect plenty of interviews from star and executive producer Rae as well as Jay Ellis, Yvonne Orji, Natasha Rothwell, Amanda Seales, Wade Allain-Marcus, Kendrick Sampson, and Christina Elmore.
It’s been almost a year since Joe Biden became president and since the Democrats took control of the Senate and thus all three bodies of U.S. government. And yet, in that time, they haven’t gotten much done. One reason for that: the dreaded filibuster, the ages-old political procedure that gives whichever party is out of power (in this case, the Republicans) the ability to delay or block legislation they don’t like. But now there’s a chance — although not a very good one — that the filibuster could finally be scotched.
As per CNN, Chuck Schumer, who took the job of Senate majority leader away from Mitch McConnell after the 2020 election, told his colleagues Monday that he’s planning a vote on whether or not to eliminate the filibuster from the Senate, scheduled for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This will only happen, he said, if Republicans block Democrats’ voting and elections overhaul bill in the coming days.
“Over the coming weeks, the Senate will once again consider how to perfect this union and confront the historic challenges facing our democracy,” Schumer said in the letter. “We hope our Republican colleagues change course and work with us. But if they do not, the Senate will debate and consider changes to Senate rules on or before January 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to protect the foundation of our democracy: free and fair elections.”
Mind you, Schumer may simply not have the votes. All Democrats must be on-board for removing the filibuster, and the dynamic duo of Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin have repeatedly announced they are against removing it (just as they’re against many of the Biden-era Democrats’ plans).
In his letter, Schumer described how the filibuster had evolved into a tool to gum up the wheels of Washington. “The weaponization of rules once meant to short-circuit obstruction have been hijacked to guarantee obstruction,” he wrote. “The Senate must evolve, like it has many times before. The Senate was designed to evolve and has evolved many times in our history.”
McConnell has vowed a “scorched earth” response should Democrats deep-six the filibuster. Then again, his party has no real power. For now.
A five-time Grammy nominee, including two at the upcoming 64th Annual Grammy Awards, British electronic producer Bonobo (neé Simon Green) has always had a master stroke when it comes to choosing his collaborators. While most of his compositions on his soon-to-be seven albums have been instrumentals, the occasional times where a vocalist joins him on a track have always been impactful. From Erykah Badu on 2013’s “Heaven For The Sinner,” to the traditional Moroccan sounds of Innov Gnawa on 2017’s Grammy-nominated “Bambro Koyo Ganda,” and recent stunning collaborations with Jamila Woods (“Tides“) and Jordan Rakei (“Shadows“) on Bonobo’s upcoming album, Fragments, these are tracks that linger with you long after the music has stopped playing.
Now Green has released one last single ahead of the release of Fragments on January 14th, and it features Japanese Alt-R&B singer and 88Rising signee, Joji. “From You” is a whirling number that plays into the album’s theme of yearning for a sense of normalcy amid the isolation of a global pandemic. Green paints a signature Bonobo atmospheric canvas for Joji’s breathy vocals to envelop, giving rise to a sense of floating in a carefree sky. “I remembered all over again how much I loved crowds and movement and people connecting with each other,” Green said in a statement on how the song made him feel. Joji is a fine addition to the Bonobo universe, and “From You” is yet another standout taste of what the new album has to offer.
Listen to and watch the visualizer for “From You” above and check out the album artwork and tracklist for Fragments below.
The Golden State Warriors have been patiently waiting for the return of Klay Thompson, who has been steadily working his way back from a torn Achilles suffered prior to the start of last season (just as he was getting back in game shape coming off a torn ACL).
There was hope prior to the season that he could get back on the floor before Christmas, but as that day approached, Thompson was apparently not back at full capacity to play his regular minutes load, which is what he and the Warriors have both said is the goal for his return immediately. Thompson will be back in the starting lineup whenever he comes back, and while back-to-backs could be limited for him, Thompson is adamant that he wants to be able to play 30-plus minutes from the start.
As his target date shifted from pre-Christmas to January, there were a few dates circled on the calendar, as his return has always been booked for a home game. One of those is this coming Sunday against the Cleveland Cavaliers, a familiar foe for Thompson (although with a roster he’s barely ever faced), and on Monday ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski added fuel to those rumors by indicating there is “optimism” in the Bay that will indeed be the date Thompson makes his debut.
There’s optimism Golden Warriors guard Klay Thompson will make his return vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday, sources tell ESPN. A final decision is expected once the Warriors return from a two-game trip on Friday.
As has been the case throughout this season, this report on Thompson’s return is filled with cautious language, as there isn’t anything firmly decided and likely won’t be until Friday or Saturday. If Sunday isn’t the day, Thompson would have to wait until January 18 for the next Golden State home game for his return.
All many people know about NFTs (short for “non-fungible tokens”) is that they can command high price tags, even if they don’t really know what they’re for. Indeed, NFT art has become a bit of an internet craze in recent months, one that Eminem has reportedly gotten in on, and it cost him quite a bit to do so.
Hypebeast reports that the rapper bought a Bored Ape NFT art piece that was created to resemble him (it’s called “EminApe”) for 123.45 ETH on the night of December 30. While it’s not clear at exactly what time Eminem bought the NFT (which has substantial implications on the value of the purchase in dollars), at 7 p.m. ET that day, one ETH was worth about $3,713.85 (according to CoinMarketCap), meaning the 123.45 ETH the NFT sold for was worth around $458,474.78 at that time.
GeeGazza, the artist who created and sold the NFT, shared the illustration on Twitter in early November 2021 and wrote, “I still think @Eminem is destined to buy my @BoredApeYC one day.” After the sale, he tweeted, “I’m living in a simulation. Thank you @Eminem for buying my ape and joining the club! Madness. Let me write a lyric in your next single [crying laughing emoji].” The rapper has since made the art his Twitter profile picture.
Hypebeast also notes that Eminem’s latest purchase adds to his existing collection, as he owns 15 NFTs on OpenSea (the leading NFT marketplace) under the name “Shady Holdings.”
Keeping track of all the new albums coming out in a given month is a big job, but we’re up for it: Below is a comprehensive list of the major releases you can look forward to in January. If you’re not trying to potentially miss out on anything, it might be a good idea to keep reading.
Friday, January 7
Canyon City — Matinee EP (Nettwerk)
David Bowie — Toy:Box (Warner)
The Dollyrots — Down The Rabbit Hole (Wicked Cool Record)
Eric Nam — There And Back Again (The Eric Nam Company, Inc.)
This morning, The Weeknd announced that his new album is called Dawn FM and that it’s coming out this week, on January 7. Aside from the impending new music itself, perhaps the biggest takeaway from the news is the fact that Jim Carrey — who, like The Weeknd, is one of the biggest icons in Canadian entertainment history — features on the project. Now it appears the two listened to the upcoming album together yesterday and Carrey is a big fan of the project.
Carrey tweeted today, “I listened to Dawn FM with my good friend Abel @theweeknd last night. It was deep and elegant and it danced me around the room. I’m thrilled to play a part in his symphony. ;^•.” The Weeknd shared the tweet and added, “Thank you for being a part of this. It’s kismet. Full circle [single tear emoji].”
Carrey has had the occasional brush with the music industry over the course of his career. He has a couple of singles on Spotify: 2014’s “Pecan Pie,” which originated from a 2003 Michel Gondry short film of the same name (the song was released as a single after Carrey performed it on Saturday Night Live). There’s also 2013’s “Cold Dead Hand,” which he recorded with Eels as part of a Funny Or Die sketch in which Carrey portrays Charlton Heston.
He also had some international success with a couple of songs from his movies: 1995’s “Cuban Pete” from The Mask charted in Australia and the UK, while 1996’s “Somebody To Love” (a Jefferson Airplane cover from The Cable Guy) charted in Australia.
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