Category: News

Leaving Neverland was an Emmy-winning documentary about the sexual abuse allegations made against Michael Jackson that forever altered many people’s perceptions of the pop star. Allen v. Farrow may do the same thing for Woody Allen.

The four-part HBO documentary series from Oscar-nominated filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering (The Invisible War, The Hunting Ground) uses home movies, court documents, police evidence, and audio tapes to “reveal the private story of one of Hollywood’s most notorious and public scandals: the accusation of sexual abuse against Woody Allen involving Dylan, his then seven-year-old daughter with Mia Farrow; their subsequent custody trial, the revelation of Allen’s relationship with Farrow’s daughter, Soon-Yi; and the controversial aftermath in the years that followed,” according to HBO. Allen v. Farrow features interviews from Mia Farrow, Dylan Farrow, Ronan Farrow, family friend Carly Simon, and prosecutor Frank Maco, as well as investigators and other relatives, many of whom are speaking publicly about the allegations for the first time.

Here’s more from HBO:

Once celebrated for their on and off-screen partnership, Farrow and Allen’s lives were irrevocably fractured and their sprawling family torn apart with the public disclosure of the abuse allegations and the vitriolic disputes that followed.

Allen v Farrow premieres on February 21 on HBO Max.

Longtime actor and screen legend Christopher Plummer passed away Friday morning at the age of 91 in his Connecticut home. The versatile performer who made his stage debut in 1946 is probably best known — much to his chagrin — for his portrayal of Captain Georg Von Trapp in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music before going on to become a Hollywood staple in a wide range of films that included Stage Struck, The Man Who Would Be King, An American Tail, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 12 Monkeys, The Insider, Inside Man, and more recently, Rian Johnson’s mystery whodunnnit Knives Out. In 2012, Plummer became the oldest actor to win an Academy Award after being nominated for his role in Beginners. Via Variety:

“Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old fashion manners, self deprecating humor and the music of words,” said Lou Pitt, his longtime friend and manager of 46 years. “He was a national treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots. Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will endure for all generations to come. He will forever be with us.”

While Plummer has been frank about his dislike for The Sound of Music, which he reportedly refered to as “The Sound of Mucus,” the actor was always thankful that it opened the door to his long and varied acting career. Plummer became so versatile of a performer that he famously replaced Kevin Spacey in All the Money in the World and had to reshoot all of Spacey’s scenes with less than a month before the film’s release. Not only did Plummer pull it off, but he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.

News of Plummer’s death has led to an outpouring of tributes:

And finally, from not-Hollywood, we’ll leave you with this little slice of dark humor..

This week, I was lucky enough to get to blindly taste single malt Scotch whiskies between 20 and 25 years old. It was a serious learning experience. The biggest thing I learned? 20-year-old single malt scotch is way easier to drink than 20-year-old bourbon. Whereas the bourbon can get more intense with all that age, single malts tend to soften dramatically while still holding onto their flavor profiles.

So while the bourbon sweet spot is often 8-12 years (with some exceptions), with scotch you don’t have a really firm upper limit.

Considering that we’re talking about single malts that spent a long time in barrels, you won’t be surprised to find that there was no price factor in this blind tasting. These bottles range from $200 to $900 — if you can find them at all. Also, I wasn’t guessing which was which. I know most of these well enough to make that a breeze. There’s no misidentifying an Ardbeg or Oban, for instance. Still, doing a blind helped me to trust my palate rather than a label.

What’s always interesting about these blind tastings is how these drams change when stacked up against something you don’t usually taste them with. Little nuances pop up that may have not been there before while flavor notes you thought you really liked can disappear. It’s a fun experiment in whisky tasting that always brings about new knowledge.

Let’s get tasting!

Part 1: The Taste

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

There’s a clear sense of honey on the nose with dried fruit, malts, and light oak. The taste leans into the honey and malts while a sweet red berry flourish arrives. There’s a hint of butter toffee next to those whisky malts.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

This is mildly malty with hints of tobacco spice, dried and candied fruits, and a bit of light molasses sweetness. There’s a body of the slightest dark chocolate chili note that leads towards a whisper of sourness at the end.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

There’s a clear smokiness but it’s more akin to a smoked stonefruit that’s started to harden a bit. The taste has a honeyed apple nature with an oaky chew that leads back to a very faint wisp of that smoke again.

It’s almost like smoked almonds without the salt.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

This has a real malty nature with hints of sweet oak, boardwalk-style salted caramel in wax paper, and a hint of chewy sweet fruit. The body has a dark chocolate/hazelnut vibe that’s like the best bespoke Nutella cut with a touch of toasted coconut and a hint of mint. This is also pure velvet on the tongue and leaves you with notes of sweet yet spicy oak.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

This is very light and approachable with a hint of pear candy drawing you in and developing on the palate. Notes of worn leather, spicy tobacco, and light malts really blend well with that pear/apple candy sweetness and a touch of vanilla.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

Cream, smoked toffee, lemon pith, and ashes from a campfire open this one up. Then there’s this real sense of potting soil that’s still in the plastic from the garden shop next to uncooked smoked bacon rashers with a slightly sour edge leading back to that cream. Finally, hefty/ spicy tobacco chewiness brings about a full-on head buzz — it’s a wild sensation.

Part 2: The Ranking

6. BenRiach The Twenty One Four Cask Matured (Taste 3)

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $185

The Whisky:

This newly-released whisky from BenRiach is a combination of peated and unpeated malts. The whiskies are then aged for 21 years in ex-bourbon barrels, ex-sherry casks, virgin oak casks, and former Bordeaux red wine casks. Those are then blended after their two-decade rest and proofed with that soft Speyside water.

Bottom Line:

I’m not a peaty whisky drinker, but I actually was kind of underwhelmed by the thin smoke in this dram. I need the peat to be earthier and smokier, with a bit of fat to it. This didn’t have those qualities.

5. Aberfeldy 20 Exceptional Cask (Taste 1)

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $190

The Whisky:

This special release from last year spent 20 years mellowing in re-fill bourbon and sherry casks. Then the prime juice was married and filled into hand-selected Sauternes sweet wine casks from France for a final year of maturation. The results hold onto the signature honeyed heart of Aberfeldy while adding more sweetened nuance to the dram.

Bottom Line:

In the end, it’s light and approachable but left me a little cold this time around. Also, I’m a big fan of their 18-year Expecptional Cask, released last year, thanks to deeper notes of cedar and tobacco which are muted in this dram.

4. Mortlach 21 2020 Rare By Nature (Taste 2)

ABV: 56.9%

Average Price: $835

The Whisky:

Mortlach is a Dufftown icon. The juice in this bottle are single malts that are small-batched and then refilled into former Pedro Ximenez and Oloroso sherry seasoned casks for final maturation. The whisky was then bottled at cask strength, allowing you a full vision of what was in the barrel.

Bottom Line:

This is really interesting. However, that sourness came out of nowhere and kind of threw me off. It could be from oxidization in the sample bottle I have… Tough to say.

Still, this is a damn fine whisky that really shines.

3. Cragganmore 20 2020 Rare By Nature (Taste 5)

ABV: 55.8%

Average Price: $200

The Whisky:

Cragganmore is another Speyside classic. This one-off expression from last year is a mix of single malts aged in refill casks and new oak with a fresh char for 20 long years. The juice is then bottled at cask strength.

Bottom Line:

This really hit well today. And, like the Mortlach above, it’s baffling that these are both “cask strength” given how delicate they are. That pear candy undercurrent hit the right spot of fruit and sweet with such a soft touch.

It really is like drinking the softest whisky you can think of while still holding real texture and flavor.

2. Ardbeg 25 (Taste 6)

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $900

The Whisky:

The newest expression from Ardbeg also happens to be their oldest expression (in the core line). The whisky is the epitome of peat on Islay. What makes this expression so special and extremely rare is that it was distilled and casked when Ardbeg was on its knees as a company, in the early 1990s. They simply weren’t making that much whisky back then and there’s hardly any of it left.

This is a one-and-likely-gone whisky.

Bottom Line:

I was really sort of blown away by this. It was such an unexpected gathering of flavors that didn’t seem to make sense at first, then combined to create something more than the sum of its parts. I mean come on! Cream and raw strips of bacon with potting soil and campfire embers!?

It sounds so ridiculous, and yet here we are. Plus, that final buzz really was something. If I was a peat-head, this would probably have landed at number one in this ranking.

1. Oban 21 (Taste 4)

ABV: 57.9%

Average Price: $480

The Whisky:

This whisky from 2018 is much-sought-after. The classic juice from the tiny Oban Distillery spends 21 years resting in a combination of used European oak barrels in Oban’s small warehouse nestled between a black rock cliff and the lapping of the sea. The juice is then married and bottled at cask strength, capturing all the nuances and uniqueness of Oban in the bottle.

Bottom Line:

Yeah, this is the shit. It’s just so well-balanced, nuanced, and easy to drink that it’s almost criminal it costs what it does. It’s also shocking every time I read the ABVs and realize this is cask strength. I literally have to look two or three times to assure that I’m reading the ABVs correctly … it’s that f*cking smooth and soft.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

There’s a certain pain to knowing that the whisky you’d love to drink as an everyday sipper is so far out of your budget. Still, that Oban 21 is really one of the best whiskies out there of any style. If you get a chance to drink some, don’t hesitate.

All of that being said, that Ardbeg 25 was the biggest surprise. It’s really … just interesting and new and kind of fun. But again, you’ll have to get one soon, as it’ll sell out very soon.

In the end, this wasn’t about accessible bottles you can just run out and buy. This was about learning, expanding, and taking a moment to appreciate just how beautiful a great dram of Scotch whisky really can be.

A recent airing of “Grease” on the BBC resulted in a backlash online with some calling for it to be banned from further showings.

Critics cited the scene where John Travolta’s character Danny Zuko repeatedly tries to put a move on Sandy Osbourne, played by Olivia-Newton John, but she pushes him away.

They also called the film homophobic because the dance contest is for straight couples only.

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People also objected to how Rizzo, played by Stockard Channing, is slut-shamed for being with multiple men. There’s also a line in the song “Summer Loving” where a T-Bird asks, “Did she put up a fight?”

Thematically, It’s also pretty cringey that Sandy wins over Danny in the end by dressing herself up for the male gaze by putting on skintight black pants.

All of these critiques seem to forget the fact that the film was made in 1978 about teenagers in the 1950s, an era that was far more sexist, segregated, homophobic, and racist than the one we live in today.

The film is also about men who are in a gang who talk about getting into rumbles and carry switchblades. Those types aren’t usually known for being too progressive.

Olivia Newton-John pushed back against people who believe the movie is too problematic in a recent interview on the “A Life of Greatness” podcast.

Newton-John said the movie was “not [meant] to be taken so seriously.” She believes that the criticism is “kind of silly, because the movie was made in the ’70s about the ’50s. It was a stage play. It’s a musical. It’s fun.”

“We need to relax a little bit and just enjoy things for what they are,” Olivia continued. “I think it’s just a fun movie that entertains people. That’s all.”

The actor’s call for people to mellow out is refreshing in a world where many people are scared and quickly dismiss work they’ve done in the past if it doesn’t live up to the exacting measure of our times.

“Grease” clearly falls short of the standards that we have today. But it also has some amazing music, choreography, and wonderfully charismatic performances from Newton-John, Travolta, and Channing.

We should have a bit more faith in people by believing they can walk and chew gum at the same time when watching an outdated piece of culture. Most mature adults have the capacity to watch something that is old and separate the inappropriate material from the wonderful music and dancing.

If we can trust people to watch a horror film and not come out the other side an axe murderer, we can let them see a film with outdated portrayals of gender without thinking they’ll become raging sexists.

In other “Grease” news, Travolta and his daughter Ella make a brief appearance in a new Super Bowl ad for Scotts Miracle-Gro. In the ad, the Travoltas recreate the “Hand Jive” dance that Travolta and Newton-John do in the film. But this time, instead of dancing to Sha Na Na, it’s to Surfaces’ “Sunday Best.”

Scotts & Miracle-Gro Big Game Commercial | Keep Growing :45

www.youtube.com

Foo Fighters recently sat down with EW for a career-spanning oral history, and a section of the piece was dedicated to perhaps the most memorable Foo Fighters moment of the past decade: the 2015 show where Dave Grohl broke his leg. It turns out that gig is Grohl’s favorite one he ever played.

Grohl said, “When someone asks me, ‘What’s your favorite show you’ve ever played,’ I’ll say, ‘The one where I broke my f*cking leg.’” He went on to give his account of how he reacted in the immediate aftermath of the break:

“I put weight on my right ankle, and it’s just not there. It was dislocated, I’d torn all the tendons. I snapped the bone in my leg. Immediately I thought, there’s no way we’re not finishing this show. There are 50,000 people here who paid a lot of money to see this band, and we’re two songs into a three-hour set. Like, there’s no way. So, they picked me up, and they put me on a gurney to the side of the stage as I’m looking at Taylor like, ‘Just keep playing, just keep playing.’ […]

This guy looks at me and he goes, ‘Your ankle’s dislocated. We have to put it back in right now.’ I looked at my tour manager of 25 years, and I go, ‘Dude, get me a case of Crown Royal.’ And I f—ing took a hit of the Crown Royal, put my wife’s leather jacket in my mouth, took a bite as they put it back in. That was it. […] We play another two-and-a-half hours, I go get surgery, and we decide to stay on the road for another 60 shows. That to me was the best thing that had ever happened to the band.”

Check out the full feature here.

Trevor Noah had a lot to work with Thursday night when it came time to focus on wacky QAnon congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who was stripped of her House committees by the Democratic majority earlier in the day. Thanks to her past social media use revealing a cornucopia of controversial activity like harassing Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg, supporting calls for the execution of Nancy Pelosi, writing that the California wildfires are caused by Jewish-owned space lasers, and accusing Hillary Clinton (and other Democrats) of being part of a satanic cabal that mutilates and eats babies, Greene attempted to downplay her QAnon beliefs by admitting that school shootings and 9/11 are “absolutely real.” Or as Noah described it, “I’ve never seen someone try to delete her browser history in real life.”

However, The Daily Show host questioned the decision to remove Greene from her committees, which he called a “pretty sweet deal” that could backfire on those who wish to silence her. “Her punishment is to do less work for the same amount of money,” Noah said. “The last thing you want to do with a crazy person is to give them more time to be crazy.”

In an either hilarious or terrifying coincidence, Greene had the exact same thought. The embattled congresswoman fired off a tweet on Friday morning where she essentially threatened to make ample use of her recently opened schedule.

“I woke up early this morning literally laughing thinking about what a bunch of morons the Democrats (+11) are for giving some one like me free time,” Greene tweeted. “In this Democrat tyrannical government, Conservative Republicans have no say on committees anyway. Oh this is going to be fun!”

(Via The Daily Show with Trevor Noah)

Indian-American singer Raveena Aurora has a unique visual style that highlights her silky vocal range and earthy, heady lyrical themes, and once again puts them to use in the video for her new single, “Tweety.” In the dazzling, colorful video, she mugs for the camera with super distorted features and some impressive hair art. She also plays a hippie-themed solo game of Twister and tries her hand at some light rapping.

The 26-year-old pop-soul star is preparing to follow-up on her self-released 2019 debut album, Lucid. Distributed by Empire, the album garnered near-universal acclaim as Raveena expressed her story through the jazzy, dreamy influences of singers like Minnie Riperton, exploring surprisingly mature themes of trauma and healing with a polished, light touch. Her sound is a favorite of Tyler The Creator’s, as well — in 2018, the burgeoning mogul included her on the lineup of his Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival (I mention Raveena in my review).

Now that she’s got the co-signs out critical outlets like NPR — her Tiny Desk Concert is a sight to behold — she’s using her platform to speak on a variety of social issues as well as taking more direct action. In 2020, she helped to establish a community fridge in her adopted city of Los Angeles, and she talks openly about mental health, social justice, and issues affecting the Sikh community in her parents’ native India. She’s an artist that you should keep a close eye on as she expands her range and grows into a star in the making.

Watch Raveena’s “Tweety” video above.

The plan was to talk with Don Cheadle about football and his new Super Bowl commercial around doppelgangers and hard seltzer, but what are plans nowadays? Cheadle let us know about what it was about the ad that appealed to him and how his hate of Tom Brady is softening, but then we freelanced a little.

Don Cheadle is a movie star and producer. When and how we return to movie theaters sans anxiety is anyone’s guess, but it’s also on seemingly everyone’s list when it comes to things that would signify the restoration of normalcy. So we had to dig into his thoughts on that and on the things that are touched by the state of movie theaters including filming in a bubble to continue feeding the need for fresh content and what it means to have nearly all movies released to streaming or pushed back until… your guess is good as anyone else’s.

In addition to a no-bullshit conversation around the state of entertainment culture, we also touched on Cheadle’s thoughts on the GameStop “stonk” story, a natural fit considering the “outsiders screw with the rhythms of the market and status quo” focus of his Showtime series, Black Monday, which is about to start filming its third season. And for good measure, we threw in a question about Meteor Man. The style is called: eclectic.

What’s the litmus test for you to do a Super Bowl commercial? What is it that makes this the one you wanted to jump into?

Well, it has to be several things that have to come together. It has to be a product that I’m like, “all right, I’ll mess with that,” and having this hard seltzer be the first USDA certified organic seltzer is more on-brand with me, and how I feel about what I would put in my body. The Super Bowl is a sweet moment to do it, and my team happens to be in the Super Bowl and I believe will win the Super Bowl. The Chiefs are my people, I’m from Kansas City. And also, sort of the cherry on top and the icing on the cake is that my brother is in the spot with me. We get to do what we do normally anyway, which is take shots at each other and have a great time, so that was definitely… That sweetened it.

Speaking of the Chiefs and the Super Bowl, your pick is obviously biased here. I’ve seen before, you definitely have your issues with Tom Brady. That extends now that he’s with the Bucs?

Actually, I was a Hatriot, so I’m fine with him taking this team all the way and doing what he’s done. Look, you can say whatever you want to say about Tom Brady as a quarterback, but he’s clearly the GOAT. Even Patrick Mahomes gives it up to him as being the GOAT.

For now.

Well, for now, and has been for how long? Does he have another finger to even put a ring on? He’s balling out of control, so it’s great. It’s going to be a great game. It’s not going to be a cakewalk for the Chiefs. It’s going to be a game for sure.

Is this a tougher match, do you think, than the 49ers last year?

I think it will be, because it seemed to me that at some point the 49ers sort of caved to the moment [last year]. You could see when it got super, super tight… I mean, they could have legitimately won, ostensibly, late in the game. I don’t think we’re going to see Tom Brady getting shook. He’s not the entire team, but absolutely he’s the driving force of the team. If he can keep everybody together, the Chiefs are going to have to play a full game every down to make sure they win.

Obviously, with everything going on with the GameStop thing and with Black Monday focused around the stock market [in the ’80s], you’ve got to have an opinion on this stuff. What are you thinking while watching this unfold?

Well, it’s unbelievable in some ways, and I think it really shows you the power of… whether it’s for good or for however you want to couch it, I think it’s great when you see people coming together and figuring out what their power is. Now, is it just a pure cynical play, and they just want to do a David and Goliath [thing]? Maybe. I don’t know. I think it’s unprecedented in this space. I think it’s telling that, when you want to shut down one side of the buying, they don’t shut down the billionaires. It’s like, that’s not right, and when the tail wags the dog, people freak out. I’m, in some ways delighted that it happened. In other ways, I’m just watching it to see what are they going to do? What’s the course correction now that they’re going to do? What’s the market adjustment going to be?

Yes, exactly. It’s like, you want to root for the David versus the Goliath. You just want to make sure you don’t get any on you, is the thing.

[Laughs] You want to watch it from afar. You’re like, just call your guy and go, “Where’s my stuff? Do I have any…”

I see a season four of Black Monday. You guys do season three and then season four is the GameStop debacle and you jump ahead.

It seems like it’s a good fit for us, or we just ape it now and do something to be right on the nerve of stuff. So maybe we just take some of that now and bring that into season three.

Have you started filming yet or is it on hold with everything?

Yeah, coming up next month, in fact.

Have you gone through the process of filming during COVID?

I shot a movie in Detroit in the fall and we got through it. No incidents, a couple of scares, but nothing really happened. Steven Soderbergh, to his credit and the team that we worked with in Detroit, Wayne State, we had a great epidemiologist and a great doctor. We bubbled and we were able to do it, hit it and quit it, get in and out in six weeks. The day we left, it was going off in Detroit. It was surging like crazy. We just got out under the wire, but everything held together. It’s a real question of risk-reward, and it is a lot of… It causes a lot of anxiety when you’re in that environment, especially when you’re the actors or the performers, and we’re the only ones who can’t wear any PPE. It’s a little dicey.

Does that enhance the camaraderie? Being in the bubble?

Oh yeah. I think so. Again, to Steven’s credit and to the credit of the production, and Casey Silver and Warners, and everybody who came in to make it happen… The staff of the hotel was tested every other day as we were. Steven paid for the bar up top, so everybody in the restaurant, so you get to have whatever you want. People just didn’t have a lot of incentive to try to go off and do other things elsewhere. And when we did, and if we shopped or if we ate someplace else, we were very careful about how we did everything. Then if things were surging and things were bad, then nobody did, and we just hung out. We were able to get through it. Like I said, I think because we had a great team, and hopefully, going back to work, we’ll be able to observe… Because if we’re not, I’m not going to go. We’ve got to be able to be 100 about it, because nothing’s worth somebody getting sick and dying.

Yeah, exactly. What’s your take on the idea of all these movies going to streaming. As an actor and as a producer and a filmmaker, how does that impact things for you? Because it seems to open up some avenues, but it also seems to maybe just flood the marketplace.

I think it’s exactly what you said. It’s going to move in both ways. There are some benefits to it, because people can really get what they want immediately and especially in this environment, but there are absolutely some downsides to it. The pressure that… Talk about AMC, AMC’s having a similar GameStop thing with that stock, but this was coming for awhile. It was trending this way. I think it’s potentially very bad for the distributors. We’re going to want to, I imagine at some point, I don’t know when it’s going to be, I don’t know if anyone… No one has that crystal ball, [but we’re] going to want that cathartic experience of being all together in dark space, looking at iconographic people on a big screen and these big stories, and have that theatrical experience. But I don’t know when that’s going to be. When are we going to want to huddle together seven inches from each other again and do this?

I couldn’t imagine right now, or even anytime in the near future, doing that without it being on my mind constantly. You go to a movie to escape. It’s another thing to try and escape from. It just makes it really challenging.

Exactly. That’s what I’m saying. It’s like one of those situations where, do you just hold back and not produce it at all? Or do you do it and say, well, this is going to happen. Someone’s going to be watching it on their couch at home or in a home theater, or however they’re going to watch it. On their laptop. It’s a brave new world as far as how we’re experiencing that, and like I said, it was already coming and then COVID pushed it over the top. I saw a movie during this time. I went and saw Tenet at the theater, but it was just me and David Harbour [who he was bubbled with on set in Detroit]. You have to rent out the whole theater for 150 bucks or whatever it was. That’s how we experienced the movie and I wouldn’t go do it any other way. It was that or my house. I wasn’t going to go sit in the theater, even at 25 or 30% capacity. I’m not completely comfortable, because we don’t know how this thing is spreading exactly. With all these variants that it’s more transmissible, it’s just, you’re playing Russian Roulette to go see a movie.

Yeah, definitely. I have one more question and I’m going to just get stupid — if you had to pick in terms of who would win in a fight, is it War Machine, Captain Planet, or Meteor Man? Obviously, you didn’t play Meteor Man, but you’re in the movie, so I’m curious.

Great question.

I’m hoping that’s something you’ve never been asked before.

I’ve never been asked this. I think the answer would be… we’d have to determine what the rules are. If you could use all of your powers and have unlimited whatever that rock was that he touched that gave him his powers… [Laughs] Then I think Meteor Man would probably win. Right?

I think the rules are that you have it in the street, same as at the end, he can do the runway walk thing if he needs to.

Yeah, I think Meteor Man wins, because the bullets, we already saw, War Machine’s got crazy bullets. But if he can deal with all that, then he’s gotta be the last to go. Although, Captain Planet might beat them all.

We’ve got to figure out a way to make that happen. We’ll have to get a GoFundMe going for a trillion dollars to pay for the licensing.

Exactly.

Let me take you back to a moment that changed my life. Flashback to a pre-pandemic America, everything is open, strip mall parking lots are packed, people are wearing pants, and we’re all holding hands and breathing on each other or whatever the hell we all use to do. A hungry future food writer (me) is waiting in line to grab a bite to eat at a Mod Pizza when his eyes glance over at some promotional material hanging in the store. “We make our dough the right way: just flour, water, olive oil, and a pinch of sea salt.”

Whoa whoa whoa, wait what?

“Is that all that’s in pizza dough?” I asked a friend. “You mean to tell me I’ve been living my entire life buying pizza when I could’ve just made my own goddamn pizza with four freaking ingredients?” (It turns out to be slightly more than that… but not much.)

Since that day, I haven’t had a single reason to buy a frozen pizza or pre-made dough. And my pizzas have been better for it. Yes, it turns out that making pizza dough is one of the easiest kitchen tasks you can do. Truly. So this Super Bowl weekend, don’t spend a fortune getting your pies delivered or waste money picking up pre-made “fresh” dough, instead let’s learn to make our own.

You won’t need any special tools (no pizza stones, steels, peels, or special ovens required) and you probably have all the ingredients sitting in your kitchen pantry right now — all just waiting to get turned into a delicious homemade New York-style thin-crust pizza!

Ingredients

Traditional pizza dough is made with just five ingredients: flour, water, olive oil (and even this ingredient is debatable), salt, and active dry yeast, but because we’re assuming you’re working with a conventional electric home oven that isn’t capable of getting nearly as hot as the type of pizza oven the pros use, we’re going to alter this recipe slightly to ensure your crust is nice, crispy, and brown.

To yield four 12 inch pizza pies you’ll need:

• 5 cups of flour (+ a bit more to fine-tune)
• 2 cups of warm water (+ a bit more to fine-tune)
• 1 packet of active dry yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp)
• 2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 2/3 tablespoon of salt

Why sugar? Two reasons: 1) It’ll help to feed the yeast and make the dough rise faster and 2) It’ll help your pizza brown better (along with the olive oil) in your low-temperature oven. If you feel like a tablespoon of sugar is too much, you’re wrong, it’s not, and don’t worry this won’t result in the sweetest pizza you’ve ever tasted — the yeast will devour it and you you won’t even notice sweetness.

Do you need bread flour? No, All-Purpose will do in a pinch, but bread flour will give you a chewy end product, which is more desirable for pizza.

Turning It All Into Dough

First, in a warm cup of water combine your yeast and sugar until the yeast has activated (bubbled up). Combine your 5 cups of flour, 2/3 tablespoon of salt, olive oil, and warm yeast water in a large bowl and slowly work in an additional cup of warm water while folding your dough into itself until it’s at the consistency you like. This ratio of flour to water should get you near the ballpark of where you want your dough to be, which is semi-wet and sticky, but not sticky enough to stick to your fingers.

Knead your dough with a rubber spatula (or your hands if you feel like transferring to a flour-dusted surface or have a large enough bowl) until the ingredients combine into a smooth clump-less consistency. You’re may find yourself adding in more flour and water here and there to get it just right.

You’re going to have to eye-ball this step and call it when it looks right to you, but If you pick out a chunk of your dough and it tears like this:

It’s not ready. Look how chunky that is! No good.

When it’s stretchy and smooth like this without any tearing:

You’ve hit the sweet spot, give those arms a break!

Once your dough is smooth and semi-sticky, transfer from your mixing bowl to a flour-dusted surface and tear it into two large chunks with your hands (a twisting motion works best here)

Repeat the process until you have four chunks of dough of approximately the same size and weight. Store your four dough balls in well-oiled containers and wait for the magic to happen.

If you’re making the pizza the same day, you might as well leave your dough out to rise. If you’re making this dough in advance (which we recommend) go ahead and toss it in the refrigerator. After about 2-4 hours (slightly longer if refrigerated), your dough should have doubled in size.

Apologies for my lighting. I promise that the dough didn’t turn green.

Why You Should Make Your Pizza Dough In Advance

If you don’t tear through four pizzas in one evening (no judgment if you do, it’s the Super Bowl, we get it) you’ll find that your dough consistently improves as it ferments. Once your dough smells slightly beer-like (2-3 days), you’re in the sweet spot. Prepare to enter a world of crispy almost sour-dough like crust.

When it comes to good pizza dough, time is the most essential seasoning.

Optional Ways To Spice Up Your Dough

If plain pizza dough isn’t what you’re after, feel free to infuse a helping of Italian herbs and garlic powder into your olive oil before mixing your ingredients. It’s an easy way to flavor your crust, but we strongly recommend going the fresh route and just implementing those ingredients as toppings on the pie itself.

Tips For Stretching And Cooking Your Pizza

Hey friend, all we said we’d do is tell you how to make dough. If you want to turn that dough into a pizza, that’s your business… All right fine, we won’t leave you hanging like that.

First things first, pre-heat that oven as high as it goes (probably 550-575 degrees Fahrenheit). Place your dough on a well-dusted surface (flour, semolina, or cornmeal) and form a circular crust along the rim of the dough gently with your fingers.

Since we used olive oil in our dough, it should be fairly easy to work with so you won’t need a rolling pin or any special tools to stretch out your pizza. The key for first-timers is to be patient and move slowly here, you don’t need to toss your pizza in the air (though, there is a good reason to), it’s more important that you don’t tear your dough.

Instead let gravity do the work here, gently lift up your dough with two hands and work your way around, lifting slightly and letting the weight of the dough do the stretching. If you really lack the confidence, watch a YouTube tutorial but don’t beat yourself up about your pizza not being perfectly circular, it might turn out as a weird oblong shape. That’s okay, prettier pizzas will come with practice, all that’s really important is that your pizza tastes good, which it should!

Once the dough is stretched, transfer it to a well-oiled flat 12-inch pan or steel cookie sheet if you have one. If you don’t, use parchment paper. If you don’t have parchment paper, use aluminum foil.

Top your dough with sauce (I use Rao’s, but feel free to use any pizza sauce) [true Italian pizza sauce is just canned tomatoes crushed by hand.], then cheese (I like whole milk mozzarella, people can debate which is best until the cows come home), then your toppings of choice (I did spinach and pepperoni), then finish with more cheese, slide into the oven, wait about 8-10 minutes or until the cheese has a nice bubbly brown and bam!

You just made your first homemade pizza. Look at that cornice! The puff!

Flag and Independence Day enthusiast Dril is making a video game and he wants your help to finish it. The enigmatic Twitter persona (@wint) has branched out to other mediums in recent years, starting a Patreon for writing and other projects. But the latest, announced on Friday, is a 2D platformer video game already in the works.

They shared what was called an “extremely beta version” of the platformer, which you can watch above, and a character that sort of looks like a policeman deftly leaps through the air and over bad guys and obstacles. It looks a bit sparse, of course, but pretty fun.

According to the Patreon, the game is very much the product of the pandemic, though the art and story is basically done at this point.

being locked indoors and/or unemployed for almost a year, however, offered me the opportunity to develop the foundation of a full-fledged 2D action/adventure game which i believe will be pretty good. The game follows the quest of a silent protagonist who stumbles upon the gift of immortality in a dangerous future where Top Influencers and corrupt hollywood guys maintain a cruel grip on society. The gameplay places a strong emphasis on employing satisfying, responsive aerobatics to traverse a dozen or so worlds and find a shit load of treasures and secrets.

There are also some animated sprites that were shared as well, including a corn man holding a pitchfork, and another with the head of a camera stepping on another dude.

The goal stated on the Patreon is to get $5,000 a month from Patrons to “make the good game,” with a stretch goal of making the game “very good” if it reaches $10,000 a month. Making a game is hard, though, and there’s mention of bringing on some help to develop and get the title over the finish line if things go well. According to the Patreon, it’s on track for completion in the next few years.

“So far I’ve done all the artwork and programming myself, and could likely finish the project sometime before the mid-2020s at this rate,” Dril wrote. “Although I’d be open to hiring assistance if I raise enough ‘DOUGH’ here to pay someone a reasonable amount.”

You can support Dril here.