“I want to see them considering the beauty industry as a real industry worth saving,” said Mercedes Ortiz-Olivieri, who owns a salon in Washington DC.

View Entire Post ›

The two parties are miles apart on what to do in the next wave of coronavirus relief. Republicans say they do not expect anything to pass for a long time.

View Entire Post ›

Welcome to this week’s Wednesday Night Wars open discussion thread. This week it’s an AEW Dynamite featuring the long awaited clash of titans between Chris Jericho and Suge D, aka PINEAPPLE PETE, going up against an episode of NXT that includes a Tag Team Championship match and D-X making a “major announcement.” The announcement: suck it.

On tonight’s cards:

AEW Dynamite

• Match of the Century: Chris Jericho vs. Pineapple Pete
• Hikaru Shida vs. Penelope Ford vs. Kris Statlander vs. Dr. Britt Baker DMD
• Kenny Omega and Matt Hardy vs. Santana and Ortiz
• The Exalted One Mr. Brodie Lee vs. Christopher Daniels
• MJF’s return match
• appearances from Lance Archer, Jake Roberts, and Jon Moxley

NXT

• D-Generation arrive, presumably on a jeep they’re calling a tank, to make a “major announcement” about NXT
• Finn Bálor vs. Cameron Grimes
• NXT Tag Team Championship Match: Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher (c) vs. Imperium
• Rhea Ripley has something to say!

As always, +1 your favorite comments from tonight’s open thread and if we get enough comments, we’ll include 10 of the best in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of NXT and AEW reports. Make sure you flip the comments by selecting “newest” in the drop down menu under discussion, and enjoy the show!

Cate Blanchett doesn’t have a huge role in the Lord of the Rings trilogy; all told, we only get a handful of minutes with her elf-royal Galadriel. But it turns out we almost had if not more Galadriel then at least more Blanchett. The two-time Oscar-winner went on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, as caught by IndieWire, and as usual, her host was able to get some never-heard goods out of his guest. Among them: That she almost also played a dwarf.

Blanchett spoke about her too brief stint on the New Zealand set of Peter Jackson’s beloved J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation, which she enjoyed so much she didn’t want to leave. Indeed, she begged Jackson and his collaborator/wife Fran Walsh to give her a secret cameo, in which she would appear not only as a dwarf but a male dwarf.

“There’s not too many chicks in the Tolkien universe,” Blanchett told Maron. “I loved it so much and I did say to Peter and Fran, they were doing a banquet scene with a whole lot of dwarves. I always wanted to play the bearded lady, so I asked them, ‘Could I be your hairy wife woman when you pan across the banquet table of dwarves?’ Of course I couldn’t because the timing shifted. But it takes them forever. For me, Galadriel it was just three weeks.”

Blanchett’s Galadriel makes her biggest appearances in the first film, 2001’s The Fellowship of the Ring, and her appearances in The Two Towers and The Return of the King are comparatively brief. It’s a shame it didn’t work out, but at least she got to play a man on-screen a few years later, earning yet another Oscar nomination for playing ’60s electric Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There. So at least we got that.

(Via WTF Podcast & IndieWire)

View Entire Post ›

Epic dropped some big news on Wednesday, as the company announced that it has a new edition of the Unreal Engine on the way and the potential is pretty spectacular. Unreal Engine 5 will release alongside the new console generation, giving the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X the potential to make games that look and play like nothing we’ve ever seen.

The point of the demo was to show what Unreal Engine 5 is capable of. They released a nine-minute video showing someone travel through what appears to be a long lost city in a desert world. The effects are spectacular, the lighting is perfect, and the cinematography is breathtaking.

The video is incredible and the potential of what Unreal Engine 5 can do should have video game fans everywhere excited. The problem is that this code is also probably not actually what games will look like when the new consoles finally release.

Demo code is infamous for being created for the demo alone. This showcase was meant to show what Unreal Engine 5 will be able to do at its peak, but it’s also being shown in a short cinematic format. Who knows how it will respond once you start letting players get involved and running off the beaten path laid before them or crashing into things they’re not supposed to crash into.

This does not mean that the developers are lying or trying to pull a fast one on the consumer. They wanted to show us the Unreal Engine 5 at its peak, and that’s what they did. It’s amazing that we got to see what it has the potential to be. I’m hopeful that one day we will see games that look exactly like this, but it’s important to take it all with a grain of salt. This is what video games can one day become, it does not mean that’s what they currently are.

For those in need of a quick crash course, an engine for video games is the base for a lot of games. While developers can take that engine and go in all kinds of artistic directions, having a base engine gives devs the ability to develop games quicker. Instead of starting from scratch, they already have something to build off of. This saves time, effort, and money. It already takes long enough to make a game, building your own engine from scratch will make it take even longer.

So what Epic does is they create an engine, the Unreal Engine 5, and sell it to development companies so they can build off of it and make their own games. What’s awesome about this is once it gets in the hand of developers they can really do whatever they want with it — games like Fortnite, Outer Worlds, Final Fantast VII: Remake, and Gears 5 used Unreal Engine 4.

No two games look the same despite all using the same engine. That’s why these new engines are always so exciting. It’s a chance for developers to make even more games and be even more creative. Even if none of these games ever look like the demo, you can be confident that we’re going to get some visually remarkable games in the future.

Featuring members of bands like Free Cake For Every Creature, Remember Sports, and Friendship, 2nd Grade is the latest exciting export to come out of Philadelphia. Led by Peter Gill, the new album from the band, Hit To Hit, is centered around one’s identity — specifically the ways that a person can be an amalgam of many different unique personalities. It’s a heavy topic to handle, but the music is significantly lighter. Hit To Heat features 24 tracks that span the spectrum from peppy power pop to more reserved and introspective.

To celebrate the new album, Gill sat down to talk Joni Mitchell, Jackie Brown, and the virtue of monochrome fashion in the latest Indie Mixtape 20 Q&A.

What are four words you would use to describe your music?

Smart power pop mess.

It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?

Cult classic band from the ‘20s that wrote great pop songs and inspired a new wave of teenage power poppers. Criminally overlooked, remembered for their brief cameo in Austin Powers 4!

What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?

Portland, Maine.

Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?

Alex Chilton of Big Star, Panther Burns, Box Tops etc. He truly had the voice, and he never stopped looking for new ways to use it. Also he was a connoisseur of high & low musical forms, which I admire.

Where did you eat the best meal of your life?

Peking duck at Quanjude in Beijing when I was a student there.

What album do you know every word to?

Blue by Joni Mitchell.

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

I’ve seen Jonathan Richman a few times and it’s always been transcendent.

What is the best outfit for performing and why?

Monochrome. It’s dramatic and establishes a mood, yet requires very little effort to put together.

Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?

@phillypublicpools on Instagram. Idyllic shots of swimming pools all over Philly, they only post during the summer.

What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour?

“Stop Ou Encore” by Plastic Bertrand. We first heard it on AM radio in Montreal and it quickly became a staple. It’s developed into a tour game where one person will say “stop… ou… encore” and everyone else responds with the high-pitched “encore” like in the song. A great way to kill eight or ten hours in the van.

What’s the last thing you Googled?

What to do with lots of turnips

What album makes for the perfect gift?

Love Is Overtaking Me by Arthur Russell.

Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?

Genuinely haunted mansion in New Orleans.

What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo?

I have no tattoos, but one time I saw one of a cartoon shark wearing swim trunks and holding a surfboard, and next to that it said “SPRING BREAK ‘94” in big aqua letters. The person who had it was probably around 23, I can’t stop thinking about it.

What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio?

If I’m listening to the radio, it’s WPRB (Princeton college radio) or WRTI (Philly classical & jazz public radio) and in either case there’s no way I’m touching that dial!

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

That’s a toughie, there’s a lot of good people doing nice things out there. But I will say — folks who give random touring bands a place to crash are angels from heaven.

What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?

Stop playing video games and spend that time learning how to do something useful!

What’s the last show you went to?

I think the last show I went to that I wasn’t playing was Alex G, Tomberlin, and Corey Flood in Philly.

What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV?

Jackie Brown.

What would you cook if Kanye were coming to your house for dinner?

Penne alla vodka and caesar salad.

Hit To Hit is out May 29 on Double Double Whammy. Pre-order it here. While we have you, don’t forget to sign up for the Indie Mixtape newsletter below for music recommendations delivered directly to your inbox every week.

In a market that is becoming increasingly reliant on delivered food, there is an all-out war brewing between consumers, businesses, and lawmakers and the food delivery services that we love to hate (but can’t seem to help ourselves from using). Earlier in the month, states started to issue commission caps against delivery apps in an effort to protect restaurant profits and struggling businesses. Now it looks as if some delivery apps are considering consolidating power — as the Wall Street Journal reports that Uber Eats is looking to purchase GrubHub, a move that would see Uber own a majority of the market and has some analysts worried will create a domino effect, causing DoorDash and Postmates to merge. A series of mergers could virtually eliminate competition in the delivery food app space, which is a bad thing for the hungry consumer as a lack of competition means a lack of choices, which inevitably leads to higher prices.

The latest power grab has lawmakers, city officials, and antitrust experts worried, as both companies have a history of being less than charitable to their employees and the businesses they rely on to operate. According to Ars Technica, Uber has a history of denying their drivers a fair living wage, and Grubhub has a history of “exploiting local restaurants through deception tactics and extortionate fees,” in the words of David Cicilline, a congressman who sits on the chair of the House Antitrust Subcommittee and characterized Uber’s move as “a new low in pandemic profiteering.”

According to Forbes, analysts at the investment firm Wedbush Securities estimate that a merger between Uber Eats and Grubhub would see Uber controlling 55% of the total meal delivery market, and, according to data collected by analytics firm Second Measure, would result in a market share growth of 80% in certain markets, like New York City.

“Should Uber buy Grubhub, a big ripple effect will happen,” warns managing director at Wedbush, Daniel Ives, “It would potentially be a catalyst to DoorDash and Postmates to have to get married as well.”

Consolidating food delivery apps will give companies more leverage to further exert their influence and power over independent restaurants, especially when it comes to fees — already a source of contention between cities and apps. In cities where commission caps have been proposed or capped, Uber has retaliated by either ending service, like in San Francisco where the company suspended all deliveries to the low-income Treasure Island area in response to a 15% cap, or by passing on the charges to the consumer, like in Jersey City where the company began to add a $3 surcharge after a 10 percent commission cap.

As other cities entertain the idea of implementing commission caps to further protect businesses, the idea of merging will only become more enticing to the delivery apps — who seem to want to avoid both regulation and competition at all costs.

I don’t follow international football (soccer, for us Americans), but a viral Facebook post prompted me to look up pro soccer player Sadio Mané. And I’m so glad I did.

The 28-year-old from Senegal plays for Liverpool and is widely known as one of the nicest guys in the game. He’s been known to help offload items off the team’s bus, treat unsuspecting fans and ballboys with gifts, and even helping scrub toilets at a local mosque after a big game.

He’s also known for donating much of his $14 million a year salary as a professional footballer, especially toward helping his home village in Senegal.

The viral post that caught my eye showed Mané carrying a cracked iPhone and included a quote from him explaining his approach to wealth. (The quote was not in response to being asked about the cracked iPhone, but it makes a nice visual.)

According to as.com, Mané said in an interview with a Ghanaian newspaper:

“Why would I want ten Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, or two planes? What will these objects do for me and for the world? I was hungry, and I had to work in the field; I survived hard times, played football barefooted, I did not have an education and many other things, but today with what I earn thanks to football, I can help my people. I built schools, a stadium, we provide clothes, shoes, food for people who are in extreme poverty. In addition, I give 70 euros per month to all people in a very poor region of Senegal which contributes to their family economy. I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips and even planes. I prefer that my people receive a little of what life has given me”

He’s sincere about that. Mané has paid for a hospital to be built as well—a project he funded because his father had died when Mané was a child because there was no hospital in their village. Last summer he also returned to Senegal on vacation to check up on a school he is building in his home village of Bambali.

Mané’s attitude toward his wealth and his choice to spend his money to help others are so refreshing. People are free to do what they want with their money, of course, and it’s not like Mané nevers splurges. But he tries to stay humble, and in a world with such extremes of poverty and wealth, seeing someone attempt to balance the scales voluntarily does a heart good. Imagine a society where every millionaire or billionaire were as detached from material things and as generous with what they have as Sadio Mané. While individuals aren’t responsible for public welfare, imagine the wide range of good they could do nonetheless.

Thank you, Sadio Mané, for being such an excellent role model.

Learn more about Mané and the work he’s done for his village here:

The touching reason Sadio Mané built a hospital in his village | Oh My Goal

www.youtube.com

One of the skills we’ve all collectively leveled up the quickest since being in lockdown is our ability to make a great meal at home. Foccacia, fried chicken, gourmet ramen — you name it, we’ve all more or less become our own favorite personal chefs out of necessity. Now, as part of our continued quest to improve ourselves (we’ll need these new skills for dating in a post-COVID-19 world), we’re going to learn how to infuse THC into every meal in an effort to “elevate” our breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.

When it comes to the world of DIY THC infusion, there simply isn’t a better person to talk to than Monica Lo. She’s the founder of Sous Weed — a blog dedicated to using cannabis as a secret superfood ingredient in your home kitchen by providing detailed recipes on how to make everything from eggs benedict to seasonal cocktails, both of which will get you as high as you want/need them to get you. Chef Lo specializes in sous vide cannabis extraction which essentially unlocks an entire kitchen pantry to THC-infusion, and through Sous Weed she passes on that knowledge to help give her readers the skills they need to get cooking, whether they’re beginners or tried and true enthusiasts.

In addition to pioneering her own sous vide extraction method, Chef Lo also acts as the creative director and photographer for Sous Weed, which has the look of a digital cookbook. To help get you started on your THC-infused journey, we connected with Monica Lo while in lockdown and she offered advice on finding the right dose, how to make your own THC-infused olive oil, and offered us recipes for some seriously delicious-looking dishes.

Sous Weed is a blog that encourages people to make their own cannabis-infused edibles at home. Why is putting that power into our hands important to you?

My goal with Sous Weed is to empower people to make their own infusions at home. Given the current pandemic situation, it might be challenging to get to a dispensary to stock up on your medicine. With rising unemployment rates and high prices due to licensing costs and taxes, it’s more economic to grow-your-own (in legal states) and to make-your-own edibles. With new state regulations on lower dosages, people who need stronger doses for medical purposes might not be able to find what they need in stores.

When you do-it-yourself, it’s easier to make healthy edibles and to customize the dosage to personal needs.

You came up with your sous vide method of cannabis extraction out of necessity, can you shed some light on that, and how the process of THC extraction via sous vide works?

Sous Weed was born from a need for discreet edibles when I had herniated a disc and the painkillers my doctor prescribed wreaked havoc on my system. I lived in a strict apartment building where smoke and cannabis smells were prohibited. As the former creative director of a sous vide startup, I thought, “well, maybe I can sous vide my weed?”—and it worked!
It was so simple. All I needed to do was fill a jar with cannabis and oil and drop it underwater to cook. There’s no smell whatsoever and I didn’t get evicted. I started to document my creations on my blog, as I was healing, and that’s how Sous Weed came to life.

Why sous vide? We have a food writer here who also swears by them.

Precise temperature control — babysitting a stovetop or slow-cooker is no longer necessary. You can set it and forget it. No fear of evictions: It’s completely aroma-free during the infusion process. Simple to infuse fats, oils, and alcohol. Save time and resources — you can make multiple infusions at once.

In your opinion, why are home-made edibles so much better than those found at a dispensary?

When you make your own infusions at home, like olive oil, for example, it’s simple to work into your everyday meals. I didn’t want to have to eat a chocolate bar or a pot brownie every time I needed pain relief. By filling my kitchen pantry with a variety of homemade infused oils, I could easily medicate myself during mealtimes. Don’t get me wrong, there are tons of delicious edibles out in the market that I enjoy. But in my humble opinion, fresh is best.

How do you go about dosing, and how much control do you have over the potency?

Short answer? There are so many variables with the cannabis strains, oil you use, heat fluctuations, etc… that the only way to know for sure is to get your homemade infusion lab tested. That takes a lot of money and time but we can estimate.

To get a better sense of your dosaging, make sure you purchase cannabis that has been lab-tested. The percentage of cannabinoids should be listed on the package.

The gentle cooking temperatures of the sous vide method means that various cannabinoids, delicate terpenes, and aromas are left intact, making edibles that are delicious and true to the strain that you’ve chosen, rather than burnt and acrid. When the multitude of cannabinoids and terpenes from that particular strain are infused into your oil, they work together to boost the effectiveness of each medicinal compound in what we call the “entourage effect.”

What are some dosing guidelines for people who have no knowledge of calculating a proper dose for themselves?

Edibles are a low barrier to entry — everyone eats! As a beginner, I recommend starting with two to five mg and waiting up to two hours for full effects. That’s how you get a sense of your tolerance level. Have water and snacks around. Take a walk, write, relax in a bath, or enjoy being in your happy place.

While you can’t overdose, it’s uncomfortable when you’ve consumed too much. You might get dizzy, feel heavy, or get paranoid. None of that is fun so I keep a CBD tincture on hand in case that happens. For many people, CBD will help counteract the psychoactivity of THC and balance you out.

What is an easy cannabis-infused recipe for first-timers to attempt?

I would start with a simple Sous Weed Olive Oil because it lends itself so well to so many recipes! It’s incredibly easy with a sous vide machine but it’s ok if you don’t have one! I have a basic stove-top recipe as well — it’s just a smellier process. Don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to olive oil or butter though! Some of my favorite recipes include infused sesame oil, lard, coconut oil, honey, vodka, and more!

Just like the cannabis-infused butter, it’s super easy to infuse cannabis into your olive oil with the sous vide technique. Since you can fit many mason jars in a sous vide water bath, imagine the all the different flavored oil concoctions you can whip up all in one sitting! This technique is simple and discreet–no smell! You can just set it and forget it.

RECIPE: How to make 16 oz Sous Vide Cannabis-Infused Olive Oil

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (16 oz) extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 oz cannabis trim or flowers*, roughly crushed

Directions:

1. Decarb your cannabis to activate the THC.
2. Pour olive oil and add decarboxylated cannabis into a large 24 oz mason jar. Seal the jar finger tight. It’s important to use heat-tempered jars specific to canning, so please, no repurposed mayo jars. A large freezer-safe zip bag or silicone sous vide bag may be used as well.
3. Set your sous vide water bath to 85ºC (185ºF). Once the sous vide water bath has reached its temp, gently place the jar (or bag) in the water bath. Sous vide for 4 hours.
4. Carefully remove from water bath and strain out the solids. Discard the used flower and allow the infused olive oil to cool. Store in a cool dark place.

To Consume:

The dosage of cannabis olive oil specified in this recipe is a loose suggestion. Dosing homemade edibles can be tricky, so the best way to test for potency is to start with one portion of a serving, in this case, one teaspoon, and wait one to two hours, then make an informed decision on whether to consume more. You can always add non-infused olive oil if the infusion is too strong.

Always dose carefully and listen to your body, and never drive under the influence of cannabis. Keep out of reach of children.

*Note: You can add more or less cannabis flower depending on desired potency.

What’s a cannabis-infused dessert recipe we need to try?

I didn’t have a sweet-tooth until adulthood and I’ve been craving sugar especially during the pandemic! These days, I turn to a sweet treat for comfort and I keep cookie dough in the freezer in case of emergencies. One of the best things I’ve made recently is a Cannabis-Infused Basque Cheesecake, infused with medicated honey. It’s got a deeply caramelized top with a silky, lava-like center. So heavenly.

What’s one of your favorite cannabis dishes to prepare, and why?

I have a Spicy Sichuan Wonton recipe that I love. I’ll usually pick a gassy, garlicky smelling strain of cannabis to infuse into the sesame oil and make a chili sauce out of it. It’s a great meal or an afternoon snack and it reminds me of my childhood making dumplings and wontons with my mom.

Any cannabis-infused cocktail recipes we need to try?

I have a Bloody Mary Jane recipe on my blog that I use all the time and it’s chock-full of charred tomatoes and jalapeños. Smoky and delicious. I also have a recipe for Cannabis-Infused Bitters to use for all your cocktail needs.

What excites you about the cannabis culinary scene right now, and where do you expect to see it go in the near future?

There are a lot of cannabis chefs creating exciting food on social media. Unfortunately with legal issues and our current regulations, it’s difficult to bring to the masses. DIY, at-home-for-personal-use is the way to go right now but I hope to see more cannabis restaurants and cafes pop up in California when the pandemic is over. I would also love to see cannabis and edibles at local farmer’s markets in the future.