Wu-Tang Clan had high hopes when they created only one copy of their exclusive album Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, which was meant to be auctioned off and barred from commercial sale for 88 years. But things didn’t quite go according to plan when currently imprisoned “Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli bought the LP before going to jail for several counts of fraud. RZA now admits that selling Shkreli the album was a mistake, but his original vision for Once Upon A Time In Shaolin could still come true after all.
RZA recently sat down for an interview on Hot 97’s Ebro In The Morning radio show, where he discussed selling the album to Shkreli and said it definitely “was in the wrong hands.”
The rapper explained he met with Shkreli before selling him the album, but that was before his true character was revealed. “The thing that’s powerful about it now is, now that it’s out of our hands, no disrespect to Martin Shkreli, because I don’t never knock somebody who bought something,” he said. “But it was in the wrong hands in reality. He made the deal before it was revealed of his character, his personality, and all the insidious things he would go on to do. That wasn’t the guy that I met. He definitely unfolded into that guy. He had control of this one-of-a-kind piece of art, and I could see it was in the wrong hands. But still, it was a sale and I can’t complain about who we sell it to. Everybody’s got a right to buy something that’s for sale.”
The government has now soldOnce Upon A Time In Shaolin to NFT organization PleasrDAO in order pay off the $7.4 million forfeiture judgment against Shkreli at the time of his conviction. RZA believes that the album is now in the “right hands” after meeting with the person behind PleasrDAO, saying his original vision for the album could still become a reality:
“But now, I think it’s in the right hands. I’m hoping that it is in the right hands. I spoke to the gentleman who’s leading the way and he just seems to have more of a Wu vibe about him. Wu is a vibe and I strive to say it’s a vibe of positivity, even with the aggression. […] There were some original ideas that we wanted to do with this album. A lot of beautiful ideas that wasn’t disclosed to the public, and I won’t disclose them now, but those ideas were not able to happen with Mr. Shkreli. Now that PleasrDAO has it, there’s an opportunity for a lot of these beautiful ideas of what this art can be and how it can expand itself in the world.”
Watch RZA’s full interview with Ebro In The Morning above.
Zooey Deschanel is not just a Christmas icon because she was the apple of Will Ferrell’s eye in Elf. Her holiday output with M.Ward and their group She & Him also offers some of the finest yuletide cheer this side of the North Pole. Through both 2011’s A Very She & Him Christmasand 2016’s A Christmas Party, the pair enacted classic Christmas carols with a modern vintage feel.
Now for the album’s 10th anniversary, a deluxe edition of A Very She & Him Christmas is being released on November 12th via Merge Records. Today, the pair have put out a heartwarming version of “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas.” It’s such a lovely nod to Meredith Wilson’s 1951 original that was popularized by singers like Bing Crosby and Perry Como, that when Deschanel sings over Ward’s delicate guitar and a softly-singing backing chamber choir, it might as well trigger snow to fall outside your window.
The deluxe album features the original album, plus a bonus 7-inch disc with the group’s previously released version of Madonna’s “Holiday” and a cover of Wham!’s “Last Christmas.” “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas” arrives as a bonus download and all-in-all, this feels like a quintessential indie holiday album. And keeping with the spirit of Christmas, She & Him will continue their decade-long effort of donating a portion of the album’s proceeds to 826 National, the creative-writing non-profit co-founded by Dave Eggers that works with young people to “encourage the exploration of endless possibility through the power of writing.”
Ever since the album was first released in 2011, She & Him have donated a portion of sales from the album to 826 National, a non-profit for young people to ignite and channel their creativity, explore identity, advocate for themselves and their community, and achieve academic and professional success. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been donated to date, and She & Him are proud to continue that initiative with this reissue.
Listen to “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas” above, check out the album artwork below, as well as December tour dates for She & Him.
She & Him
12/02 — Santa Barbara, CA @ Arlington Theater
12/03 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Theatre at Ace Hotel
12/04 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Theatre at Ace Hotel
12/07 — Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre
12/08 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
12/09 — Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
12/11 — Dallas, TX @ McFarlin Memorial Auditorium
12/12 — San Antonio, TX @ Aztec Theater
A Very She & Him Christmas (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) is out 11/12 via Merge Records. Pre-order it here.
On Tuesday, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema continued to turn heads in the Senate, but this time, not for her puzzling policy demands, which have routinely frustrated her colleagues in the Democratic Party. On this particular occasion, Sinema presided over the Senate while wearing a denim vest, which prompted an avalanche of jokes on social media. However, there’s one person who’s not laughing, and that’s The View co-host Ana Navarro. Although, in fairness, she did open up her remarks with an effective dig.
“Apparently, Senator Sinema’s job is to dress like Schneider from ‘One Day At a Time’ while presiding over the U.S. Senate,” Navarro quipped before tearing into the denim oufit at the 1:45 mark below:
SINEMA SILENT WITH CONSTITUENTS? The co-hosts react to a video of a frustrated constituent approaching Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema at an airport while negotiations were in progress for Biden’s spending plan. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjApic.twitter.com/kwnTHawpiB
“Here, at this show, we are very careful and we know what it’s like to get criticized for what we wear and how we look. That’s fine, it comes with the territory. And we try not to do it,” Navarro added. “But this is not about gender. I assure you, if my friend Mitt Romney showed up in the Senate wearing that, I’d call him up and tell him he’s insane.”
At the heart of Navarro’s remarks is that Sinema owes it “to the American people and to the institution to show some respect.” And while Navarro has a point, co-host Sunny Hostin chimed in to say that the bigger issue is the 50 percent of the time when Sinema voted with Trump, which is not great and more damaging to her voters than an outfit.
While most of the Marvel series that have made the jump over to Disney+ has had a pretty distinct tone and some hefty ties to the concept of an infinite Marvel multiverse, based on its latest trailer it feels safe to say Hawkeye will serve as a big return to Marvel’s more grounded stories, which does make complete sense given the character. Rather than journey through different dimensions and across all of time, Hawkeye seems to be pulling a Die Hard, inserting high-octane action into something resembling a carol-filled Christmas special — and you can bet we’re ready to warm up some cocoa and give it watch.
Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Hawkeye follows Hawkeye aka Clint Barton (Jeremey Renner) and his protege Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) as they are hunted down by all the various villains Clint crossed paths with during his stint as the death-dealing vigilante Ronin. While it’s not quite certain just how Kate inserts herself into the situation (though insert herself certainly she did), Clint reluctantly takes it upon himself to show the young woman the ropes and keep her safe while the pair are under attack during the “most wonderful time of the year.”
In addition to Renner and Steinfeld, Florence Pugh will be returning to the MCU as Black Widow’s younger sister Yelena in Hawkeye while Alaqua Lopez makes her big debut as Echo, heavily foreshadowing this series could be the start of the future Young Avengers. The six-episode special begins airing on November 24, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday.
Imagine Dragons and JID are two names most music fans would never have “imagined” together, but thanks to Riot Games and the upcoming, League Of Legends-inspired animated Netflix series, Arcane, you won’t have to use your imagination — just click play on the video above. Made up of clips from the series itself, which follows the origins of several of the game’s characters, the video previews some of the exciting scenes fans can look forward to when the show hits Netflix on November 6. The video also features an animated JID rapping his lightspeed verse.
“Enemy” isn’t the first time Riot Games collaborated with musicians. In 2019, they partnered with a group of real-life stars to conceive True Damage, a virtual band in the game itself consisting of Becky G, Keke Palmer, Soyeon of (G)I-dle, Duckwrth, and Thutmose. While it’s a slightly different concept from what “Enemy” is doing — essentially, it’s a soundtrack song, which is definitely something we’ve seen before — the new track broadens Riot’s relationship with popular music and opens some exciting doors for the future.
Meanwhile, Arcane looks like an exciting show itself, deepening the League Of Legends story while leaving plenty of room for new or casual fans to get invested in its sci-fi/fantasy tale. You can watch the trailer below.
As the weather begins to grow cooler throughout the country, many of us are beginning to set down the lighter, lower alcohol content spirits in favor of darker, long-matured, potent, high-proof drams. Even if the warming sensation doesn’t actually keep away to late fall/early winter chill, it still feels pleasant on a brisk evening. This is why, this time of year, we turn our attention to barrel strength and cask strength whiskeys. Particularly bourbon.
While there are no specific guidelines for what exactly a “cask strength” whiskey is, it’s most commonly used to describe whiskey that was taken straight from the barrel, vatted, and bottled (with or without filtration) at the proof it ended up at in that particular blend. There’s also no specific ABV for cask strength but they tend to range from 89 proof to over 140 proof, depending on about a million variables.
To find the best options for your cold-weather drinking needs, we once again turned to the experts who bide their time behind the bar. We asked a handful of well-known bartenders to tell us the best cask strength bourbons to drink this fall. Keep scrolling to see their selections.
Wild Turkey Rare Breed is a treasure. It’s widely available and stunning. There’s so much flavor that rides on that proof, that it can never be boring: you could literally sip an ounce for 45 minutes. You’ll find vanilla, spice, oak, and a hint of nuttiness.
Adding a few drops of water will bring air a pleasant pepperiness.
Lost Lantern Single Cask #8 Balcones Texas Straight Bourbon
Lost Lantern Single Cask #8 Balcones Texas Straight Bourbon was made from 100 percent Texas-grown roasted blue corn, an unusual mash bill for a bourbon, and aged for two years in a 60-gallon new American oak cask. It tastes like charred, buttery corn-on-the-cob dipped in maple syrup.
The best cask strength bourbon I like to drink is the Chattanooga 111 Cask Bourbon. It drinks incredibly smooth for a cask bourbon. Great malt notes. It is a four-grain whiskey where three of the grains are barley. Honey malted barley, Caramel malted barley, and rye malt.
Those just sound like a late fall campfire and a pour over a big ice ball.
Stagg, Jr.
Buffalo Trace
Eric Heinel, certified sommelier and beverage director for David Burke in New York City
This bourbon is allocated so it is not easy to find, but it is much more available than the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection and is also available at a fraction of the price of those bottles. Typically, this bourbon tips the scales above 120 proof, making it a very strong cask strength bourbon, but the enormous flavor helps soften the bite from its strength.
Barrel Batch 027
Barrel
Robbie Robinson, sommelier and mixologist at The Ballantyne in Charlotte, North Carolina
Barrel makes cask-strength exclusively. It’s very diverse in its offerings, each batch being different, and none have disappointed. Right now, I have a port, rum, and Cabernet cask finish in my liquor cabinet. One of its easier-to-find expressions is its Batch 027 with its bold, robust flavors that are perfect for cool weather sipping.
Booker’s
Booker
Stephen George, director of outlets and bartender at 20 | Twenty Grill in Carlsbad, California
For me, I will have to go with the pioneer of this “cask-strength” category, Booker’s Bourbon. The good people at Jim Beam thoughtfully craft and select the perfect barrels for this iconic bourbon label. Always rich, bold, and full of spice character, a bourbon that can’t sneak up on you — you can smell it from the next room. It’s great for sipping.
Angel’s Envy Cask Strength is my all-time favorite for its ruby port finish. Oak, cherry, and baking spices linger on the palate. They also do a different cask strength release every year which makes collecting these, year by year, very exciting as well.
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Bourbon is my pick. The strength varies from release to release depending on which bottle you get, another unique selling point. Elijah Craig will happily nestle in your collection. There’s rich fruit, vanilla, char, spice, and brown sugar.
Woodford Reserve Batch Proof
Woodford Reserve
Rachel Stidham, bartender at Paul’s Landing in St. Petersburg, Florida
Woodford Reserve Batch Proof Bourbon is a classic for the fall season. It tastes and smells like a campfire, with warm notes of oak, vanilla, and honey perfectly balanced with fruity and floral flavors, making it smooth and rich on the palate.
Maker’s Mark Cask Strength is a wonderful opportunity to taste Maker’s Mark the way their master distiller does. On the nose, cherries, cinnamon, and vanilla complement a sweet aroma. Flavors of deep allspice and dark fruit are rounded out by just a touch of molasses. At 114 proof, it may be on the low end of the cask strength spectrum, but it still packs some heat and is approachable at the same time.
Adding just a few drops of water in the glass helps to open this one up a bit, revealing even more complex flavors.
As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.
Much fuss was made about the way that Adam Driver said the word “ghouls” in Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Won’t Die. Well, Driver (arguably) does it again with his ill-advised “sweetie” aimed at Lady Gaga in this trailer for Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci. This biographical crime drama’s based upon Sara Gay Forden 2001’s book, The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed — and filled with the likes of Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jeremy Irons, and Al Pacino. Naturally, Jared Leto looks nothing like Jared Leto here while playing Paolo Gucci, but watch out, Adam Driver. Lady Gaga’s portraying Partrizia Reggiani, who….
…eventually put a hit out on her husband, Maurizio Gucci, who’s played by Driver. And as we see with that visit from a Treasury Department agent, Maurizio wasn’t her only target.
The Italian accents are big, the wigs are big, and the make-up jobs are big. Everyone’s going all out here, and it’s a testament to the rest of the cast (including Pacino, who’s playing Aldo Gucci, former chairman of the global fashion empire) that Leto somehow does not steal the show. He does try, however, by donning massive prosthetics because looking like himself is apparently something that he rarely wants to do. The Gucci family wasn’t wild to hear of Leto’s casting, and god only knows how they’ll react to him smacking himself in the head with a newspaper and insisting, “Gucci is my name, too!”
Gucci is his name too. This Thanksgiving, Paolo welcomes you to The Family. Watch the new #HouseOfGucci trailer now! See the movie only in theaters this Thanksgiving pic.twitter.com/G1mJEBYVNY
Paulo was f*cked and eventually lost his clout, as well as his place within the legendary fashion house (although he did design that double-G logo). Below, it sure looks like Leto’s still oozing a few Bad Joker vibes (we live in a society).
MGM
It’s like this family was filled with a dozen Fredo and Sonny Corleones or something, which fits with the brief synopsis for this movie: “The turbulent marriage and divorce of Patrizia and Maurizio Gucci, the head of the Gucci fashion house, leads to murder.” Using “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics is a splendid touch, too. It seems like we could (or couldn’t) use a Gaga-30 Seconds To Mars cover of that song, just for kicks.
Acclaimed electro-pop producer Kelly Lee Owens is currently commemorating the release of her 2020 album Inner Song with a cross-country tour, but now, she has another reason to celebrate. Owens was tapped by FIFA to pen the official theme song for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which is slated to take place in Australia and New Zealand. The project resulted in her euphoric track “Unity,” promoted by both Owens and FIFA on Thursday.
The fully-instrumental track shows what Owens does best, combining ethereal soundscapes with her wistful and airy voice. The release of “Unity” also coincides with the announcement of FIFA’s official slogan for the upcoming Women’s World Cup, “Beyond Greatness.”
Speaking about the new song, Owens shared her excitement about the opportunity. “I’m thrilled to share with you all today my new single ‘Unity,” she wrote on social media. “Written especially for the @FIFAwomensworldcup that will be held in Australia and New Zealand in 2023. ‘Unity’ is a song that I put everything I had into it – rising arpeggios, rising basslines…. It’s led with my voice, but I wanted the sense of community brought in with choirs.” Owens continued, “Our values were completely aligned. They [FIFA] kept using the word epic and I just took that and ran with it and made it as epic and bold as I could.”
Listen to “Unity” and hear it in FIFA’s commercial for the Women’s World Cup 2023 above.
While we now know Saturday Night Live was merely the beginning of a lifelong career in comedy for actor Will Ferrell, back in 2003 even the star himself wasn’t too sure about his future. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ferrell opened up about the years directly following him leaving the late night comedy sketch show — and how he was worried his career might have been coming to a close.
After filming Old School and learning director Todd Phillips had to fight to keep Ferrell’s role in the film, Ferrell began filming the now iconic Christmas comedy Elf with quite a bit of doubt about the performance. Ferrell even revealed he distinctly remembers “running around New York in his silly yellow tights, thinking, ‘Boy, this could be the end,’” while the movie was filming. According to Ferrell, both he and his manager kept a pretty close eye on the reactions to the film’s screening leading up to its release, with his manager calling to provide him with updates on the audience’s reactions. While the family screen test reportedly “went great,” Ferrell’s manager told the actor they might get “eviscerated” by a group of USC frat boys who were next to review the film. However, Ferrell said shortly after the USC frat test ended, he got a call saying, “no, that group actually liked it, too.”
When the film finally opened at the box office, it raked in a whole lot of praise as well as a massive $220 million — a substantial profit for the $33 million dollar film. It also helped cement Ferrell as a movie star and was merely one film in a string of iconic movies the actor would star in the mid 2000s, preceding Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
Following the success of Elf, Ferrell says that a sequel film was written. However, while the film would have paid the actor a whopping $29 million, Ferrell said he ultimately turned it down after balking at its “rehashed premise” and subpar quality.
“I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would’ve been, like, ‘Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money.’ And I thought, ‘Can I actually say those words? I don’t think I can, so I guess I can’t do the movie.’”
While Elf 2 ultimately didn’t work out for the star, thankfully we can’t say the same about his career. Even today, the literal comedy giant continues to work both in front of and behind the camera, producing 11 upcoming projects and starring in six. His most recent endeavor, The Shrink Next Door, features Ferrell alongside Paul Rudd and premieres on Apple TV+ on November 12.
The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a shocking loss on Wednesday night. Despite leading by as many as 26 points, L.A., which did not have the services of LeBron James, fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 123-115.
Russell Westbrook had major ups and downs during his return to his old stomping ground. He recorded a triple-double — 20 points, 14 rebounds, and 13 assists — but shot 8-for-20 from the field, registered 10 turnovers, and most notably, got tossed in the game’s waning moments. Thunder youngster Darius Bazley stole an inbounds pass from Rajon Rondo with four seconds left and OKC up by five, and instead of running out the clock, he took advantage of his clear path to the rim and dunked.
The crowd loved it, but Westbrook did not. He got up in Bazley’s face, which led to a fracas and his second technical of the night.
Westbrook, who was booed by the Thunder faithful, was asked about this after the game and was not apologetic about taking this approach.
“How I play the game, I’m more old-school,” Westbrook said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “And when sh*t like that happens, I don’t let it slide. … In the game of basketball, there’s certain things you just don’t do. Like in baseball, you don’t flip the bat. There’s certain things you don’t do in sports when the game’s already over. And I didn’t like it. Simple as that.”
The two teams are slated to play one another again on Nov. 4 in Los Angeles.
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See the movie only in theaters this Thanksgiving 
