Last summer, Tory Lanez was accused of shooting Megan Thee Stallion. More than a year later, a preliminary hearing was held regarding the case, and it ended Lanez charged with one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. While there’s no doubt that Megan was shot in the foot, Tory denies being the person who fired the gun. Despite this, an LAPD detective reporter testified during today’s hearing that Tory actually apologized to Megan for shooting her.
XXL reports that a source says an LAPD detective testified that “Tory called Megan’s friend Kelsey in a jailhouse call that was recorded to apologize for shooting Megan.” Another report, from the Los Angeles Times, revealed the detective’s name to be Ryan Stogner and confirmed that he said Tory made said call. Tory’s attorney, Shawn Holley, claimed that a shooting was not mentioned during the call.
Both Lanez and his attorney declined to comment. Next hearing Jan. 13th. In a preview of a possible defense during today’s prelim, Peterson’s attorney seemed to be hinting that another person in the car (a friend of Megan Thee Stallion) may have actually pulled the trigger.
Also one interesting exchange: As an LAPD detective testified about an apologetic jail phone call Lanez made to one of Megan’s friends, the rapper had enough: “How about you tell me what I was apologizing for bro? That don’t make no sense,” he yelled at the investigator.
Furthermore, James Queally, a reporter for The Los Angeles Times, mentioned another “interesting exchange,” which happened during the trial, over Twitter: “As an LAPD detective testified about an apologetic jail phone call Lanez made to one of Megan’s friends, the rapper had enough: ‘How about you tell me what I was apologizing for bro? That don’t make no sense,’ he yelled at the investigator.” Queally added, “Peterson’s attorney seemed to be hinting that another person in the car (a friend of Megan Thee Stallion) may have actually pulled the trigger.”
The next hearing for the shooting case has been set for January 13.
Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Mark Abbott has now been dubbed “Mr. Christmas” after transforming his home into an absolutely mesmerizing winter wonderland.
We’re talking illuminated reindeer (all nine of them), a glowing blue tunnel of light leading up to the front door, a candy cane forest, a snow machine, some outdoor music and an eight-foot-long sleigh. If that’s not enough seasonal spectacle, I don’t know what is.
But how and why this dazzlingly decorated Christmas house came to be is the real heartwarming tale.
Fifteen years ago, Abbott was registered as homeless. He shared with The Big Issue that he had been juggling three jobs to make ends meet. Then he lost his home after an expensive bill racked up for work on his car. The one he used to get to all three of his jobs. Needlessly to say, it was a difficult time in his life.
Abbott had been couch surfing and sleeping in his car before getting help at St. Martins in Norwich, in the east of England.
St. Martins describes its mission as “enhancing understanding and compassion towards homeless people in our community through education and advocacy.” It provides residential care for those with mental health and substance abuse related issues, housing care for the elderly and a “direct access hostel,” where Abbott stayed at for the next nine months.
While there, he saved up enough money to get on a housing register. And now, according to The Big Issue, Abbott is a proud father of three and has turned his passion into a business running a children’s dance company.
Not to mention, Abbott spares no expense for gorgeous Christmas lights each year.
“I’ve always liked Christmas lights, they’re so pretty. And I’ve always liked the festive thing, even the cold weather,” he told The Big Issue, adding “I do really love it when I see kids’ faces. The biggest thing for me is that it’s bringing people together.”
He certainly succeeds in that department, as families flock from miles away to glance at the breathtaking scene.
This year, two onlookers suggested that Abbott should use his festive display for charity, and having never forgotten the support he received from St. Martins, he knew exactly who to raise money for. He told BBC News “With the pandemic you hear stories of families being made homeless. I’ve got three kids now and I couldn’t imagine being homeless with children.”
With around 17,500 lights and 4,000 feet of wires, Abbott is giving back to the institution that once helped him all those years ago. Which means running more than 50 sockets to power the lights. But that cost is being covered by a friend Abbott made while he was homeless. Gratitude and generosity really are the gifts that keep on giving.
If you’d like to donate to St. Martins, you can do so here.
Alternatively, there are many ways you can help make a difference for those experiencing homelessness this season. The Independent has a short-but-sweet list of ideas that you can find here.
If Abbott’s “Christmas comeback” is any indication, you never know how a little kindness can help turn around someone’s life in a major way.
Tom Holland and Zendaya are no strangers to shutting down public interference when it comes to their relationship. The “Spider-Man” co-stars have already addressed feeling “robbed of privacy” after photos were leaked of Holland kissing Zendaya, before their relationship had been made publicly official.
For the record, Holland is reported to be 5’ 8”. Zendaya, on the other hand, is 5’ 10”. And for some reason, that height difference causes quite a commotion for fans. So much so that both Holland and Zendaya ended up addressing the “issue” while promoting “Spider-Man: No Way Home” on SiriusXM last Friday (Dec 10).
Tom Holland and Zendaya on the “ridiculous”stereotypes about their height difference.
SiriusXM host Jessica Shaw mentioned that in the previous movie, “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” Peter Parker (Holland) and MJ (Zendaya) share an onscreen kiss. No efforts were made to cheat the fact that Zendaya had a couple of inches over her co-star.
“And then it became this thing,” Shaw reflected.
In jest, Holland quickly defended that Zendaya was “not that much taller” than him. One, two inches tops.
He then noted how utterly bewildered he was that people just couldn’t figure out how the kiss could possibly be done. “It must have been so difficult,” he says sarcastically.
Zendaya also added, “it’s a nice sweet moment between them … why not just let it be?”
Shaw pivoted the conversation, saying that the public reaction indicates something much more misogynistic and problematic: the expectation that men should always be taller than women in straight relationships. Anything else just isn’t normal.
“My mom is taller than my dad, my mom’s taller than everyone,” Zendaya rebuked, saying, ”this is normal too.”
“It’s a stupid assumption,” added Holland, as he shared that during Spider-Man screen tests, every girl tested was taller than him.
“I had wondered if that was a decision that Jon [Watts, the director] had made. There was no one tested that was shorter than me,” he told Shaw, adding, “maybe that was a decision Jon Watts made and something he was aware of and wanted to break the stereotype. I think it’s great.”
Holland, never short on fun quips, also gave the disclaimer “to be fair, I am quite short.”
Despite the polite pushback, Zendaya and Holland remain good sports. As seen in this clip from “The Graham Norton Show,” where they joke about how their height difference affected some of the movie’s stunts.
As Zendaya explains, “There’s a particular stunt where Spider-Man swings us on top of a bridge, and he places me there. … Because of our height difference … we were attached, so I would land before him. My feet obviously hit the ground before he does.”
Then there’s a hilarious demonstration where Zendaya catches a falling Tom Holland. Physics fundamentals are no match for movie magic.
“It’s so nice to be caught for a change!” Holland exclaims.
“Like … it’s not a weird thing for women to be tall,” chorused “No Way Home”’s Jacob Batalon, who also appeared at the SiriusXM interview, adding “it just sucks that it has to be a conversation. Like it can’t just be normal.”
Zendaya reflected coolly, “I honestly never thought of it as a thing because my parents were always that way, so I didn’t know that people cared.”
It most certainly does not have to be a thing. And, as Shaw pointed out, seeing a taller MJ alongside a shorter Peter Parker seems tiny, but it can make a huge impact. Dispelling societal myths on the big screen can help change the mainstream real-life narrative as well. That is, after all, the true power (and great responsibility) of pop culture.
Hopefully with this obsolete construct out of the way, we can all focus on what really matters: that “Spider-Man: No Way Home” will be in theaters in only a few days time.
To those who reluctant to get into it, cryptocurrency can seem like a wild, reckless, even dangerous endeavor. It makes for jokey currencies, tie-ins with popular TV characters, and, of course, it gets a lot of people scammed. A good example of the dodgier nature of the biz happened Tuesday, when CoinMarketCap, a utility that aggregates crypto market data, suffered a bit of a glitch. How big? Big enough to make its users think they were all suddenly billionaires or trillionaires for about an hour.
Late in the day, those monitoring their crypto accounts on the service saw that their prices, market capitalizations, and more had abruptly skyrocketed. That includes Bitcoin, whose own market cap soared to an explosive $14.7 quintillion.
But it was not to be. Around 5pm EST, CoinMarketCap operators acknowledged that the “Engineering team is aware of incorrect price information appearing on [CoinMarketCap]. We are currently investigating and will update this status when we have more information.”
The glitch was resolved and then the service’s Twitter team rubbed salt on the wound, writing, “How did it feel to be a trillionaire for a couple hours?”
How did it feel to be a trillionaire for a couple hours?
The freak occurrence received extensive social media coverage, with people posting screencaps of their too-big-to-be-real crypto numbers, and joking about all the things they were going to buy with their totally real and now flush alternative currencies.
Just sold all my bags. This pump was all I asked.
I can proudly say that, thanks to Crypto, I’m a multi-trillionaire.
Anyway, surely nothing to worry about when questionable and under-regulated forms of currency briefly turns numerous people into the richest humans on the planet before reminding them that they again have nothing.
Over the weekend, Rand Paul did a good, some would even say socialist thing: He begged President Joe Biden to send federal aid to Kentucky, the state that’s been the hardest hit by a recent spate of tornadoes — and, incidentally, also the state he represents in Congress. It was a kind and humane move on his part. And it was also very unlike him. The Republican senator has a long history of voting against similar aid packages to other states that have been impacted by natural disasters. And when people pointed that out, Paul got real mad.
Fox News’ Sandra Smith: Critics have pointed out that you are asking for federal aid for Kentucky but opposed it for Hurricane Sandy.
Rand Paul: “It’s sad. We haven’t buried our dead yet and networks like CNN are, frankly, just dishonest people and saying things that are untrue” pic.twitter.com/JLhkvfTX6b
The senator went on Fox News, which recently became even more of a Republican safe space following the sudden departure of Chris Wallace. Host Sandra Smith brought up his voting record as well, but in a much friendlier way, framing it as a personal attack. And it nicely teed up Paul to strike back, mostly with name-calling, questionable shaming, and spin.
“It’s sad. We haven’t buried our dead yet and networks like CNN were, frankly, they’re fundamentally dishonest people saying things that are untrue,” Paul told Fox News. “When I was first elected in 2010, within months, I was advocating for disaster relief for Kentucky. I’ve never had a problem with the program. I’ve never really opposed disaster relief for any part of the country.”
That, however, was untrue. Paul opposed relief packages in the wakes of Hurricane Sandy in 2013, Hurricanes Maria and Harvey in 2017, and he was against a broader disaster relief effort in 2019. So Paul tried to spin his votes, basically by not mentioning that he voted against them:
“But I have said, when it goes over budget, when we spend everything that’s within our budget, that it should be paid for by taking money from places in the budget from places that are less essential. I think that’s a very reasonable fiscally conservative. But, you know, you watch CNN and you have people who basically all they care about is attack, attack, attack.
Paul kept calling CNN dishonest, saying, “All they’re going to do is basically lie to people. But it’s also why nobody wants to watch them anymore. They used to be a trusted source of news and now, my goodness, it’s just a factory of lies and partisanship and I don’t know how anybody can watch it anymore.”
Speaking of lies, Paul was briefly banned on YouTube earlier this year after spreading misinformation about masks.
After historic tornadoes tore through towns throughout Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Illinois Friday night, people were stunned to see the aftermath in the light of day Saturday morning. The devastation is hard to fathom. Scenes of not just buildings but entire city blocks leveled are hard to take in, but Mayfield, KY, where an entire town was ravaged, has become the viral face of the destruction.
The New York Times shared a video showing the apocalyptic aftermath in Mayfield, home to nearly 10,000 people. It looks like a war zone, or worse. An entire community laid flat.
Some of the worst destruction from the Kentucky tornado was centered in Mayfield, a town of nearly 10,000 people. At least 110 people were huddled inside a candle factory in the area when a tornado ripped through. https://nyti.ms/3GrWmaSu00a0pic.twitter.com/Mh3i3oEzZa
— The New York Times (@The New York Times) 1639250750
As messages of support started pouring in and emergency management began the daunting task of figuring out next steps, one man who lived a half-hour away decided to take a boots-on-the-ground approach and help the people of Mayfield in a way that he could.
Jim Finch packed up his grill, loaded up the back of his pickup truck with food and drove to Mayfield to, in his words, “feed the people.”
ABC journalist Victor Ordoñez shared a video on Twitter of Finch in the middle of the destruction, standing in front of his grill in disposable gloves, explaining why he was there.
“I know they don’t have any electricity, so that means they don’t have any restaurants, no running water so I just figured I would do what I could do, show up with some food and some water,” he said.
This man drove half an hour with a grill and a truckload of food and parked right in the middle of #Mayfield, Kentucky.pic.twitter.com/xrVbrMdJ9S
— Victor Ordou00f1ez (@Victor Ordou00f1ez) 1639343706
“Jim wore a smile the whole morning,” Ordoñez wrote in another tweet. Finch laughed and shook his head when Ordoñez asked if he had a restaurant. “No sir,” he said. “It just needed to be done.”
Finch brought hamburgers, chicken, sausage, eggs, “just real simple stuff you can have and not worry about making a mess, grab and go type of food,” he said.
Jim wore a smile the whole morning, we laugh when I asked if he had a restaurant. He shook his head, “it just needed to be done,” he said. pic.twitter.com/tpZ1LMvdOA
Humans helping fellow humans in a time of crisis is something we never tire of seeing. People are praising Finch as a hero—a selfless person who saw a need and decided to fill it. In times of extreme crisis, basic needs like food and shelter become more immediate and vital than ever, and for the people who are reeling from their world literally being torn apart, the simple, thoughtful kindness of being handed a warm meal from a stranger is surely appreciated.
Thank you, Jim Finch, for being an example to us all.
If you’re looking for ways to help or places to donate to help western Kentuckians recover from the tornado damage, see this post from the Lexington Herald Leader.
Addendum: that message was for the children. Once you are an adult, if at all possible try to BE the helper the children are looking for.
It’s tough to compare the popularity of shows on cable and network TV vs. shows on streaming services, but it’s probably safe to call Squid Game the biggest show of the year. It’s Netflix’s most-watched original series ever, the costumes were everywhere on Halloween, and it even turned other titles on the streamer into mega-hits. So it’s a little surprising that Squid Game finished out of the top 10 for the most searched shows and cartoons on PornHub. But it’s still up there!
PornHub shared its 2021 Year in Review on Tuesday, which includes fascinating insights into the browsing habits of the website’s millions of daily visitors. “Hentai” is the year’s most popular search term, for instance, while the United States leads the world by traffic, but the Philippines is number one for time spent per visit.
The data also reveals that The Simpsons is the most searched show, followed by four more cartoons in Teen Titans, Scooby Doo, Dragon Ball Z, and Family Guy. Squid Game ranked at #13 (tops among live-action shows), likely because it didn’t premiere until September. That gave Rick and Morty (#6) a big head start.
On the film side, Harley Quinn led the way for Most Searched Movies and Characters. The rest of the top five goes: Wonder Woman, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Black Widow. Not to kink shame, but the people who got Joker up to 18th on the list should be locked up. Harsh, maybe, but fair.
When I traveled to Maine for the first time this past summer to visit Acadia National Park, I really didn’t know what I was getting into. Honestly, I was kind of expecting a movie set come to life — quiet, eclectic streets with ice cream shops, bed and breakfasts, lighthouses, and a whole lot of L.L. Bean.
Well… I wasn’t wrong. And I also immediately fell in love with it all. The rocky coastline, the friendly people, the charming and historic towns — it was like being in a dream.
So when I had a long weekend in late fall with no plans and a surplus of frequent flier miles — I knew just where to go. Kennebunkport Maine is a (very) small town — just 3,500 or so residents — and I really didn’t know anything about it until I got there. I saw an idyllic photo while scrolling Instagram and booked the trip almost immediately after (#influenced).
Emily Hart
A quick wide view: Kennebunkport is part of the Southern Coast of Maine, with many small towns nearby dotting the coast. It is just over a 5-hour drive from New York City and under 2 hours from Boston, making it easily accessible to millions of people. Known primarily as the location of the Bush family summer compound, it boats a thriving art, food, and recreation scene for a town of its size. Tourism is of course higher in the warmer months, but Kennebunkport is also a gem in fall or winter off-season.
With endless holiday activities, a quieter pace, and more affordable lodging — Kennebunkport is a holiday movie come to life. If holiday movies were really stylish, that is. Here is my guide for where to stay, eat, drink, and more in this lovely little hamlet.
Where to Eat:
Emily Hart
The goal I set for my time in Kennebunkport really centered around two things: lobster rolls and fish sandwiches. As you can imagine, neither option is in short supply. Even in the shoulder season, I was able to find a couple of satisfying rolls, along with lots of other great fresh seafood options.
I really liked dining at The Boathouse Waterfront Restaurant, which is, obviously, right on the waterfront. The great thing about Kennebunkport is that everything is very easy to get to and centered around the Kennebunk River. I could walk from my hotel directly to everything I wanted to do. There was a short wait for The Boathouse — it is super popular — but luckily there is a bookstore and candy shop next door. I ate the impossibly fresh and satisfying Big Fish Sandwich with a seasonal refreshing cider/margarita hybrid.
Another night I stumbled onto the patio of the Pilot House Restaurant (just on the other side of the waterfront) and sat at the bar to read with a cold lobster roll, chips, and some red wine. It was no frills but just what I envisioned as a local Maine fisherman’s hangout.
Kennebunkport, like many coastal towns, is heavily centered around tourism — with lots of options for accommodations. There are quaint Bed and Breakfasts and AirBnbs, larger resorts, and a surprising (to me) number of stylish smaller boutique hotels and lodgings.
I decided to stay at two different places for my trip, the first being The Yachtsman Hotel and Marina Club. As a travel influencer and writer, I have stayed at an inordinate number of hotels over the years, but this is truly one of my favorites. Each room is its own bungalow, with a private outdoor seating area overlooking the Marina and river. Just steps from downtown, you can walk or use the complimentary bikes to get anywhere you need. The styling was luxe and it truly felt like an escape. I spent most of my time sitting on the terrace and enjoying the view.
In the warmer months, the Yachtsman is home to a floating barge pool (that I am very interested in coming back to float in), and is conveniently next door to the marina — where you can borrow a complimentary kayak, canoe, or SUP as part of your stay.
Emily Hart
After peeling myself away from the Yachtsman I checked in to The Nonantum Resort just a few blocks away. It definitely has the larger resort vibe, while somehow still feeling quaint and quintessential New England. I grabbed a drink from Heckman’s Pub and was pleasantly surprised to find an incredible sunset view from the balcony of my room.
Everything is within walking distance in Kennebunkport, making it easy to visit the many watering holes.
I spent a lot of my trip reading and drinking in Heckman’s Pub at The Nonantum Resort. It’s small and friendly, with lots of locals stopping by for dinner and drinks. It had the congenial atmosphere I was looking for, along with great cocktails.
Emily Hart
Another gem is The Tides Beach Club, which is open seasonally and is the best place to watch the waves with a local brew. I had another incredible fish sandwich and paired it with an Allagash Ale. The sun was warm in the late fall and the atmosphere felt worlds away from my normal life.
Kennebunkport is the perfect place to disconnect and relax, which is how I spent a lot of my time, but it’s also a surprising hub for outdoor activity and recreation. Its position along the coast alone is enough to fill up your days — with beaches and nature reserves all nearby. I took a drive along the coast — stopping near Walker Point (the Bush family compound) and every pullout on the short drive to Portland.
The beaches on the southern coast of Maine are sandy and pristine — I loved spending the morning at Goose Rocks Beach listening to the waves and drinking coffee. There were only a handful of other people this time of year. With The Tides Beach Club just across the street, I can’t wait to go back in the warmer months.
Emily Hart
If you want to hike, the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge — a nature reserve with ten sections spanning over 50 miles of coastal Maine — also has a Kennebunkport outpost. The trail I hiked was short but beautiful — especially in the fall. There are plenty of places to stop and relax, admire the view, and bird watch.
During the warmer months, there are endless activities on the water. Boating, SUP, kayaking, canoeing, or sailing on a historic Schooner are all easily accessible activities. I spent an afternoon kayaking through downtown on the Kennebunk River, which was the perfect mix of solitude and bustle.
Despite what you might think, the activities don’t stop during the winter months in Maine. There are ski areas within a couple hours from Kennebunkport if that’s what you’re into, but even closer there are lots of options for snowshoeing and cross country skiing.
The area is also known for The Holiday Trail of Lights, where homes and businesses try to out-holiday-decorate each other — with the exact amount of quaint (but seriously over the top) New England vibes you might imagine.
Emily Hart
If Kennebunkport is too small for your style, Portland Maine is just a short 30 miles away, with tons of dining and drink options. It is worth the side trip in my opinion just to see the Portland Headlight on Cape Elizabeth — possibly the most quintessential and Instagramable place in all of Coastal Maine.
We are smack dab in the middle of the holidays. While Thanksgiving in all of its turkey and gravy-filled glory and the eight crazy nights of Hanukkah are behind us, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve are still upcoming. This means that we’re deeply immersed in the holiday beer season.
Strong ales, winter warmers, and of course Christmas ales are the norm this time of year. These seasonal staples are known for their caramel malts and seasonal spices like cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and orange, along with other wintry flavors. But there’s no official recipe for what exactly a holiday beer should be brewed with — which makes every beer a little different… in a good way.
To find the best examples of classic holiday beers we asked a handful of our favorite brewers, beer professionals, and craft beer experts to tell us their favorite holiday beers ever. Stock up on these warming, sweet, and oftentimes spiced beers to guarantee good times around the fire this season.
Hardywood Christmas Morning
Hardywood
Alex Wenner, owner and brewer at Lasting Joy Brewery in Hudson Valley, New York
Whenever I manage to get my hands on it, Hardywood Christmas Morning is a must-have. It is the perfect gingerbread stout with the right touch of coffee. I will never feel guilty about pouring myself a glass in that quiet time between my four kids opening presents and having to start cooking Christmas dinner.
Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome
Samuel Smith
Dess Leeper, sales representative at WeldWerks Brewing in Greeley, Colorado
Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome Ale is always a treat during the holidays. I remember first having one around the time when I reached legal drinking age, and when I was first starting to pique my curiosity into craft beer back east. Aside from being intrigued by the clear bottle and gold foil top, I was amazed by the rich, roasted nut flavor and warming that was finished by slightly spicy and subtle hop bitterness.
I was immediately hooked and every year during this time you can find me grabbing a four-pack of it to pair with a great holiday meal.
I’ll cheat and say two. Gouden Carolus Noel is just extremely delicious. It’s somehow super punchy but balanced and smooth with wonderful flavors. But for the local scene and of course, the good shtick, gotta go with Sloop “(No) Santa” NEIPA — so lush and yummy for a completely different experience and a whole lot of fun.
My favorite Christmas beer has to be Stille Nacht from De Dolle Brouwers in Esen, Belgium. It’s their strongest beer at 12 percent ABV and shows the full complexity of their house character from the copper brewhouse and coolship to their unique and funky yeast that creates a richly fruity and spicy amber-colored ale with a huge rocky head.
It’s somehow comfortably warming and shockingly quaffable at the same time like only the great Belgian brewers seem to be able to pull off.
Anchor Christmas Ale is always fun around the holidays, especially if you can get one of the magnum-sized bottles of it. It’s full of chocolatey malts, spices, and beer nostalgia with friends. What more could you want for Christmas?
“Weihnachten” means Christmas in German. My colleague Joe and I just went to Germany this past fall and met with breweries to talk about all things lager. Schonramer was the first one we visited. Their head brewer Eric Toft showed us around. They make a whole variety of excellent beer but this one, in particular, is unique as a Christmas beer.
Christmas beers in Germany tend to be somewhat similar to what people think of as Octoberfest beers — they are malty, stronger, somewhere between a regular beer and a Bock beer. It hits all the right notes for all the flavor profiles I like. It’s a continuation of that Octoberfest style of beer right through the holidays.
I’ve always loved Sierra Nevada’s Celebration. I enjoy all their products, really, but this beer brings back a lot of memories. When I first got into craft beer, it was a favorite and one that I still drink and use for cooking. For instance, I use it to brine our turkey during the holidays so it brings back memories of cooking with the family and the joy of the holidays.
It’s a fresh hop ale so you get some of the stickiness from the fresh hops and the aroma is wonderful, which makes it perfect for both drinking and cooking.
Eggenberg Samichlaus
Eggenberg
Stephen Hale, founding brewer at Schlafly Beer in St. Louis
My pick is Eggenberg Samichlaus. It’s not just the rare pleasure of being able to get a bottle, but the blissful enjoyment of such a complex, rich beer, pretty much just perfect as is for the holidays. Make sure to decant it. The visuals, aromas, and flavor are all part of the experience.
A wee bit of decadence every once in a while, surely you deserve that.
A small brewery in my hometown called Bent River Brewing Co., which began brewing in the mid-’90s, has a flagship coffee stout, Uncommon Stout. Every holiday season they release Jingle Java which is a spiced version of that coffee stout featuring everything from vanilla and pecans to rum.
Whenever I’m visiting family during the holidays, I have to get a Jingle Java.
This eleven percent ABV, eagerly-awaited holiday ale gets its flavors from the addition of honey and a slew of cherries including Bing, Lambert, Van, Royal Ann, and Montmorency. The result is a yeasty, rich, and sweet beer with hints of dried fruits, holiday spices, and warming alcohol. All in all, it’s a perfect holiday beer.
It’s been a relatively quiet, but still intriguing 2021 for Burial. The influential South London electronic producer released the split EP Shock Level Of Lovewith fellow Brit Blackdown in April, and then the two-track “Chemz/Dolphinz” in May. On the former, Blackdown’s ambient dubstep breakbeats give way to Burial’s layered soundscapes on the shimmering “Space Cadet” and the industrial techno of “Dark Gethsemane.” And on “Chemz/Dolphinz,” Burial fuzes R&B samples alongside footwork rhythms.
He’s always been unpredictable and today, Burial has announced Antidawn, a solo 5-track EP that’s due out on January 6th. No music has been released with it yet, but a description of the next trick Burial has up his sleeve was sent out in a statement:
“Antidawn reduces Burial’s music to just the vapors.
The record explores an interzone between dislocated, patchwork songwriting and eerie, open-world, game space ambience.
In the resulting no man’s land, lyrics take precedence over song, lonely phrases colour the haze, a stark and fragmented structure makes time slow down.
Antidawn seems to tell a story of a wintertime city, and something beckoning you to follow it into the night. The result is both comforting and disturbing, producing a quiet and uncanny glow against the cold. Sometimes, as it enters ‘a bad place’, it takes your breath away. And time just stops”.
Antidawn is out 01/06/2021 digitally and as a physical release on 01/28/2022 via Hyperdub. Pre-order it on Bandcamp and check out the album cover art and tracklist below.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
