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The Latest ‘Mandalorian’ Sneak Peek Shows Our Hero Looking For A Little Help From His Friends

As of this writing, The Mandalorian is set to return in less than two weeks, and it has a lot to live up to. Not counting the Hamilton movie and the inadvertently PVOD remake of Mulan, the Star Wars show is the crown jewel of the streaming service, at least in terms of original programming. And based on the trailers and ads for its second season, it looks like it will do what it needs to, which is deliver more of the same but next level.

Running a minute long, the new sneak peek — which aired at halftime during the Arizona Cardinals-Dallas Cowboys game — expands on what we’ve seen before. Our mysterious bounty hunter hero (Pedro Pascal) is still saddled with the Child that everyone just calls “Baby Yoda,” hoping to return it “to its kind.” But this time he can’t go it all alone. Along with reuniting with the characters played by Carl Weathers and Gina Carano, he announces that, this season, he needs to find “other Mandalorians.”

The new ad swaps out constant action, as seen in the last one, for more world-building, with our hero going to a fight, to some underground cavern and other places. There’s also a glimpse of some old school scout troopers once again learning not to give chase to the good guys.

The Mandalorian returns to Disney+ on Oct. 30.

(Via Deadline)

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Britney Spears Gives A Bizarre PSA About Her Five Beach Day Essentials

Ever since Britney Spears posted a video casually explaining that she burned down her home gym, people have been flocking to her Instagram page for more outlandish content. After the singer gained praise for a clip of her wearing a mask at the beach, the singer decided to follow up with some very self-explanatory beach day tips.

Appearing on camera her swimsuit, Spears said: “So this is the exact same bathing suit I wore like three days ago to go to the beach, but I said, ‘Hey, why not give it another shot?’ But while I’m at it, I just want to let you guys know the five most important things that you need to bring when you go to the beach: towel, oil, sunscreen, a dog, and a hat.” Just before storming off the screen, Spears announced, “I’m going to go to my jacuzzi now.”

In other Spears news, the singer is continuing her legal battle to remove her father as her sole conservator. Her father recently filed court documents saying he was against making her health history public to protect her image. Shortly thereafter, her former estate manager says her conservatorship is in her best interest.

“Britney is in a conservatorship for good reason, but a lot of the Free Britney people have no experience with the law,” the former estate manager said said, adding: “The most important question is whether the conservatorship is in her best interests. That’s what you always have to ask yourself and I absolutely still believe that the conservatorship is in her best interests. This movement on social media has definitely complicated matters. There are people lurking in the shadows pushing an agenda. I can’t say who but it is hurting Britney, she’s the only one who gets hurt by all this. I have my own theories and things are going to come out during discovery and the trial [to determine who gets appointed].”

Watch Spears’ beach day PSA above.

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A man named Edmund simply tweeted ‘I am not OK’ and received a worldwide tsunami of support

Eight months into the coronavirus pandemic, many of us are feeling the weight of it growing heavier and heavier. We miss normal life. We miss our friends. We miss travel. We miss not having to mentally measure six feet everywhere we go.

Maybe that’s what was on Edmund O’Leary’s mind when he tweeted on Friday. Or maybe he had some personal issues or challenges he was dealing with. After all, it’s not like people didn’t struggle pre-COVID. Now, we just have the added stress of a pandemic on top of our normal mental and emotional upheavals.

Whatever it was, Edmund decided to reach out to Twitter and share what he was feeling.

“I am not ok,” he wrote. “Feeling rock bottom. Please take a few seconds to say hello if you see this tweet. Thank you.”

O’Leary didn’t have a huge Twitter following, but somehow his tweet started getting around quickly. Response after response started flowing in from all over the world, even from some famous folks. Thousands of people seemed to resonate with Edmund’s sweet and honest call for help and rallied to send him support and good cheer.


Some people sent pet photos and videos, because what’s a quicker cheerer-upper than an adorable companion?

Some also sent photos and videos of animals out in nature to remind Edmund of the beauty and wonder of the wild.

Some offered the gift of music.

Others shared poetry, either written…


Twitter

twitter.com

…or spoken.

Some people offered motivational videos they keep on hand for when they need a lift of their own.

And others shared silly humor to make Edmund laugh.

Some, upon seeing in his Twitter bio that Edmund was interested in aviation, shared images and videos of airplanes or from airplanes. Dublin Airport even sent him “hugs from back home,” since Edmund is originally from Ireland.

From artwork to photos of babies and rainbows to words of solidarity and understanding, the responses to Edmund’s tweet were diversely and profoundly uplifting.

Edmund responded to some, but there was no way for him to thank everyone who sent him good wishes. It was so moving to see the flood of support for this random man who put his need for connection out there on social media, with no idea it would result in such a tsunami of love.

And while it was so lovely to see people show up for Edmund in such a big way, the impact spread far beyond just him. Other people who have been struggling shared that people’s reactions to Edmund helped them as well.

It was like a huge humanity fest, with words of encouragement and inspiration flowing out in all directions to everyone who caught part of the thread.

Though we can’t fully connect with people in the ways we’re used to during the pandemic, people are finding ways to reach out and be there for one another—even perfect strangers who live across continents and oceans from one another.

BBC Breakfast talked with Edmund about his viral tweet and the overwhelming response.

“The whole experience has been absolutely surreal and provides me with a lot of hope,” he said. “I’ve gone from feeling like a nobody to feeling like a somebody. To have that happen overnight is just surreal, something that most ordinary people have never experienced or will never experience.”

He added: “Eighteen and a half million people and counting have seen my tweet. Nothing can prepare you for that!”

Just by being vulnerable and putting his feelings out there, Edmund created a beautiful wave of support for himself and others. This collective, global act of pure human kindness is exactly the antidote we need to this crappy dumpster fire of a year. Thank you, Edmund for making it happen.

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Jeff Bridges Has Revealed That He’s Been Diagnosed With Lymphoma (But Swears ‘The Prognosis Is Good’)

So 2020 has been kind of a rough year. A lot of very, very serious stuff has gone down, and it’s affected a lot of us. There’s no end in sight for some of the more calamitous developments, and there’s no assurance that whoever wins the presidential election in a couple weeks will be competent enough to make it better. If often feels as though we’re living in a horror movie, written by relentless and creative sadist. So with that in mind, here’s another piece of cartoonishly awful news: Jeff Bridges has been diagnosed with lymphoma.

The beloved and Oscar-winning actor revealed the news over Twitter, although he buffered the shock with his typical goofy sense of humor, channeling The Big Lebowski to make it all go down better than it should.

“As the Dude would say.. New S**T has come to light,” he joked, before getting into the thick of it. “I have been diagnosed with Lymphoma. Although it is a serious disease, I feel fortunate that I have a great team of doctors and the prognosis is good. I’m starting treatment and will keep you posted on my recovery.”

He continued: I’m profoundly grateful for the love and support from my family and friends. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes.” He then made sure to pass on another positive note: “And, while I have you, please remember to go vote. Because we are all in this together.”

The Mayo Clinic defines lymphoma as “a cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of the body’s germ-fighting network,” adding that the lymphatic system includes “the lymph nodes (lymph glands), spleen, thymus gland and bone marrow.” The disease, it says, “can affect all those areas as well as other organs throughout the body.” Treatments include “chemotherapy, immunotherapy medications, radiation therapy, a bone marrow transplant or some combination of these.” It’s not yet clear which kind of lymphoma Bridges has.

Still, let’s remain upbeat. As he says, this prognosis is good, he has a good medical support team, and his wit is in-tact. Hang in there, Dude.

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Two Experts On Cooking With Psilocybin And How To Make ‘Grilled Cheese Shroomwiches’

If you’ve ever eaten magic mushrooms — and let’s face it, you likely have if you’re reading this article — then you’re well aware that they taste like a combination of 100-year-old sunflower seeds and dehydrated packing peanuts. They’re horrific. Which explains why for as long as people have been taking psilocybin mushrooms, they’ve been pairing them with some type of food to make the drugs go down easier. The first time I had magic mushrooms, I ate them between bites of a fried chicken breast. I don’t recommend it.

The lack of consensus around what foods pair well with mushrooms is why mycology expert Dr. K. Mandrake (who has a doctorate in mycology) teamed up with writer and editor Virginia Haze to create the Psilocybin Chef Cookbook, a beginner’s guide to the brave new world of psychedelic cuisine. The duo wrote the Psilocybin Chef Cookbook after fans of their first book, The Psilocybin Mushroom Bible: The Definitive Guide to Growing and Using Magic Mushrooms, took an interest in some of the food-pairing recommendations included at the end of the book.

“Both K and I are really massive kitchen fiends,” Haze told me over the phone. “I really wanted to look into the cooking side of things because I’ve been taking shrooms for too long, I really just can’t chew them without wanting to vomit… and that’s not a good way to start a trip.”

The pair recently hosted a live cooking demonstration with Double Blind Mag and we linked up afterwards to talk the basics of cooking with psilocybin. Over the course of the discussion, we talked about dosing, flavor pairings, and Dr. K and Virginia provided us with a recipe for “Grilled Cheese Shroomwiches” from their book.

Let’s dive in to the world of psilocybin cooking!

Dr. K/Virginia Haze

PART I: The Interview

Before we get into questions about cooking, it’s important we talk about dosing. It’s so delicate, what are guidelines to follow for the unexperienced?

Dr. K: Start slow and start low. You can always have a little more, second chocolate, or a second edible, but it is a really personal thing and set and setting are so important. You hear these people advocating for huge heroic doses, like the equivalent of five dried grams or more, in the book we start with a tenth of that, which is what most people would consider the high end of a microdose or a very low dose.

We don’t want people to think they have to take these incredibly high doses every time. We’ve made allowances for people to add more if they want, but we always suggest that people start low.

Virginia: For every recipe, there is the ability to double up but how strong a dose feels is so reliant on a number of different things. If you’ve slept, how much you’ve eaten in the day, whether you’re stressed out, whether you’re hydrated, how hot it is, how humid it is. As Dr. K said, you can always take more, but you can’t take less.

I remember one of the first times I took .5 of a dose, which is really low, and I was just so out of it for the entire night and it must’ve just been my particular circumstance that day, but I never assumed it could’ve been that trippy, so we kind of work off that basis.

Dr. K: And we work with just Psilocybin cubensis, which is the species a lot of people would grow at home, it’s a commonly cultivated species, there is a bit of variation of potency, but it’s more consistent to work with one species.

Dr. K/Virginia Haze

In the cannabis world tolerance is so affected by frequency of use, weight, your digestion, is it the same for ingesting mushrooms? Does a standard exist for a microdose of psilocybin?

Dr. K: Maybe a tenth of what you would consider a regular dose for you. The entire point is that it shouldn’t be perceptible. You should feel normal, you shouldn’t feel the walls breathing, and you shouldn’t feel… not straight, if you know what I mean. As you say, dosing is so hard to get ahold of, again we say start at your lowest. Take a tenth of what would be your lowest dose normally and see how you feel on that.

If you’re not getting the effects that you want — which with microdosing is usually a reduction of anxiety — you can always double up.

It’s important to start low, because you’re always trying to work with that sub-perceptual effect. If you feel it you’ve gone too far. You want to start low and work your way up to that level. If you’re going to push it do it on a day you’re not so busy. A day where having the full-blown psychedelic experience wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

What’s the best delivery system for psilocybin? Is it steeping it in liquid, baking it, raw, is there a better way or one that you’ve found agrees with the effects more?

Dr K: The way that is best is the way that works for you. Overall your mindset on this is really going to be affected by how you choose to dose yourself. What I personally like is some of the extractions from the book. You’re having a drink, so it’s very light and there isn’t any material to digest it, the onset is quite quick, I find it quite clean.

Virginia: I like the alcoholic extraction the best, just because I can put it in a dropper bottle and throw it in my freezer and it’ll last for ages. It’s really easy to microdose with it and freeze it into cubes of orange juice and throw it in your juice in the morning. It’s not like cannabis in the sense that if you smoke the same strain of cannabis and you put it in an edible and you do dabs with it, it’ll affect you in a noticeably different way, that’s not really applicable with shrooms. It’s whatever fits into your life the best.

Dr. K/Virginia Haze

Can you pair shrooms with alcohol or wine? Does that infringe on the experience or muddy it in some way?

Virginia: Well, the alcohol extraction is really a small amount of alcohol. You wouldn’t feel the effects of the alcohol unless you had it with an additional amount of cocktails. People come to shrooms from a variety of different backgrounds and communities, some really lean into a cultural and spiritual side of things. Those people would see it as sullying the experience, even if it was just a little bit of alcohol. We respect that, it’s just not really how our culture around shrooms works. Personally, I think when mixing alcohol with any kind of stimulant or mind-altering substance you should always be really careful, but saying that, we would have a beer while we took shrooms, so for us making a mild cocktail is just as enjoyable.

Dr. K: I think people should definitely proceed with caution if it’s something they’ve never done before. When you mix multiple drugs together, regardless of what they are, there are a lot of different outcomes you can get from that depending on when and how you take each one. With the simple ethanol extraction though, we’re looking at like a milliliter of alcohol so that’s not enough for anyone who wants to drink really. Some people will want to be totally pure about it, and in those cases we provide recipes for those people but we also provide recipes for small to medium amounts of alcohol for cocktail-like recipes.

Are there any specific ingredients that lessen or heighten the effects of mushrooms?

Dr. K: We try and be guided by what research is out there but unfortunately there is very little research about this brave new world of psychedelics. We work with some tried and tested ones, like ginger, which in particular is an antiemetic, so if people get nausea, ginger is an established antiemetic and reduces nausea.

Virginia: Citrus juice, but I don’t know how much of that is based in science and how much is anecdotal. The general idea is that when you ingest psilocybin your body turns it into psilocin, and that’s what brings the magic. The idea is that if you put shrooms or shroom material into a lemon juice or a lime juice it already begins that process for you, so by the time you ingest it it’ll already have done a bit of the work, which will get you higher quicker. That’s what lemon tek is, which is basically putting mushroom material in lemon juice and chugging it, which is effective but kind of horrific. It’s also why we use lime juice in our truffles.

If you’re spacing out a little bit too much, or further than you’d like to go, there is an anecdote that sugar can help to bring you back to yourself a little bit.

Dr. K: Yeah most of the stuff that we work with in this area is pretty anecdotal. Ultimately, no one is going to fund the study of the effectiveness of lemon juice in a psychoactive experience, but if they are, I know two people who could lead that study and write it up!

Dr. K/Virginia Haze

On that subject is there some type of food-related psilocybin study you’d be specifically interested in?

Virginia: Proper scientific peer-reviewed research into whether or not heat degrades psilocybin. This is something we wrote about in the book, it remains a huge bone of contention within the psilocybin community, some people very strongly feel that it does degrade psilocybin, so you shouldn’t put mushrooms into anything that you’re going to bake and you shouldn’t heat it for an extended period of time but there is no evidence for either way!

In the book, we’ve provided a bunch of recipes that are no-cook ingredients, like our cheesecake, but we do have things like brownies because it could be true! I’d love to put that to bed with science.

Dr. K: With the heat thing as well, it’s on a continuum. How much heat do you add-in? How long are you heating it for, it’s not just as soon as the thing comes near heat its over, that’s definitely not the case. It may not be the strongest dose, so you may get a little loss of potency but it doesn’t render it completely inactive. Having some data on that would be great, as well as the effectiveness of lemon tea.

Do you have any favorite flavor pairings?

Virginia: Molecular gastronomy works on the idea that flavors that are similar on a molecular level work well together, no matter how strange they appear. Parsely and white chocolate, chili and cinnamon, the pairing that we’ve played on with this in mind is blueberries and shrooms.

They complement each other in a way that is difficult to understand until you experience it. We came upon the idea of doing it in a risotto, because it’s slightly acidic, it really worked well as a platform for that flavor pairing.

Dr. K: When it comes to dried mushrooms, we use earthy flavors like dark chocolate, that strong intense flavor works with the earthy notes of the mushrooms, but then we have things like lime juice and it’ll just cut straight through and completely mask the flavor. A chocolate recipe with elements of citrus and dark chocolate has a lot going on that your brain doesn’t really register mushroom material.

That’s the first recipe I played with — ginger and lime chocolate truffles. It’s something we’ve used in the first and second book.

Dr. K/Virginia Haze

On that subject, recipes, what’s a good recipe to start off? What do you recommend for the person who has never made food with psilocybin?

Virginia: I think I would always recommend people start off with the ginger and lime chocolate truffles. It’s a fun process, it lets you get a little bit messy, but they also look really cool at the end of the day. They’ve very inconspicuous and they last for a long time. I have some in my fridge that are at least a year old, they won’t be the most potent in the world but they’ll still work.

Dr. K: The chocolate is pretty good because it gives you the sense that you’ve created something. All of the drinks recipes are also very straight forward. The smoothies, or the juice-based recipes, we have a nice one that works with beetroot and apple juice, and it’s based on The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. They used to put their acid in kool-aid, we went with that bright color and made this purple beetroot based smoothie/juice. It drinks like a house drink, its just got a little psychedelic edge to it.

Virginia: We also have a really good grilled cheese recipe.

PART II: The Recipe

Dr. K/Virginia Haze

Grilled Cheese Shroomwich

Ingredients

  • 4 slices good-quality sourdough
  • 200 grams of your favorite cheese; we used Camembert and Shropshire blue (because we’re British) but you could use whatever you want.
  • 2 tablespoons red onion marmalade 1 gram of ground shrooms
  • olive oil
  • good quality butter

Servings: 2
Prep time : 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes

Method

  • Butter the bread.
  • Top two of the slices of bread with the cheese.
  • Top each cheese layer with half of the ground shrooms.
  • Spread the other two slices of bread with the marmalade.
  • Press together one cheese slice and one marmalade slice to make a sandwich and butter the outsides of the bread.
  • Repeat with the other slices to make a second sandwich.
  • Heat a griddle pan and fry each sandwich on each side for 3–4 minutes
  • Slice and serve with a side salad, pickles and a cold beer.

Recipe taken from The Psilocybin Chef Cookbook Dr. K Mandrake & Virginia Haze

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The Cast Of ‘Succession’ Recorded Profanity-Laced Videos On How To Vote In Swing States

Succession is not only one of the most awards-friendly shows on television right now, but it’s also one of the most profane. Creator Jesse Armstrong used to write for the British political show The Thick Of It — and its movie spin-off, In the Loop, and its semi-American remake, Veep — which was so cuss word-friendly the staff actually included a “swearing consultant” to punch up the profanity. On top of being riddled with curses, Succession is also one of the most anti-rich shows on television, its monstrous corporate family almost as evil as the one currently occupying the White House.

So when Team Succession got together to get out the vote, it was bound to be very blue. As per Deadline, a handful of cast members went above and beyond, recording not just one but five videos to help drive awareness only two weeks shy of Election Day. But they didn’t just give vague bromides about the importance of voting. Each one was tailor-made for five battleground states — Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, Arizona, and South Carolina — breaking down the specific rules of each part of the union.

Four of the five videos are hosted by J. Smith-Cameron, spiritually channeling her role as ever resourceful Roy family counsel Gerri Kellman. She’s the one asking the big questions over Zoom, directed at fellow cast members. In the one for Wisconsin, which you can watch above, she asks Logan Roy himself, Brian Cox, such matters as the deadline for voter registration, voting by mail, early voting, and son. Their banter is liberally peppered with bleeped out cussing. For instance, when Smith-Cameron asks Cox if everyone is eligible for mail-in voting, he replies in the affirmative, then adds, “And anyone who says otherwise can [bleep] the [bleep] off.”

Other videos follow suit. The one for Pennsylvania finds Smith-Cameron talking to both Cox, again, and Peter Friedman, who plays longtime Logan ally Frank Vernon, as well as Fisher Stevens (Hugo Baker, the exec in charge of dealing with the Brightstar curise line debacle) and David Rasche (Waystar RoyCo’s chief financial officer, who has a panic attack during the terrorist hostage situation in Season 2).

The one for Florida features Smith-Cameron and Cox again.

The one for South Carolina is just Smith-Cameron and Stevens.

And the one for South Carolina features Alan Ruck, aka mostly (but not always) laidback Connor Roy, and Justine Lipa, aka Connor’s lady friend.

Anyway, Election Day is November 3, but if you can, as the Succession cast would say, f*cking vote now, for f*ck’s sake.

(Via Deadline)

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50 May Be Changing His Vote After Learning About Joe Biden’s Tax Plan

The November election is only weeks away and while there have been tons of musicians suing Trump over using their music at rallies, some are actually supporting him. Recently Ice Cube was the source of controversy after news broke that he worked with the Trump campaign, although he maintains that he has not “endorsed anybody.” The same can’t be said for 50 Cent now, who has apparently changed his vote.

The rapper’s change of heart came Monday shortly after Joe Biden shared his campaign’s tax plan. Under the former vice president’s plan, taxes will be raised for those making over $400,000. According to CNBC, the wealthy living in California and New York state could see 62% of their income taxed — and 50’s not happy about that number.

Sharing a photo of a CNBC’s report, 50 wrote, “WHAT THE F*CK! (VOTE ForTRUMP) IM OUT, F*CK NEW YORK The KNICKS never win anyway.” The rapper added: “I don’t care Trump doesn’t like black people 62% are you out of ya f*cking mind.”

Of course, 50 Cent’s pivot to the right has sparked quite a backlash on Twitter, with fans pointing out that his change of heart is solely due to his refusal to pay more in taxes.

You can read 50 Cent’s endorsement above.

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Blackstarkids’ ‘Acting Normal’ Offers ’00s Nostalgia Through A Gen Z Lens

After debuting a handful of self-released albums as well as a collection of demos, Blackstarkids have signed to Dirty Hit and now share a label with the likes of The 1975, Rina Sawayama, Beabadoobee, and The Japanese House. The Kansas City trio are days away from releasing their next full-length effort and have already caused a stir with their recent singles. Offering one last taste of their LP Whatever, Man, Blackstarkids share the buzzing track “Acting Normal.”

Tapping into early ’00s nostalgia through the lens of suburban, Gen Z musicians, “Acting Normal” boasts videogame-like synths, fuzzy guitar, and driving drums. While upbeat, the instrumentals leave ample room for each member of Blackstarkids to offer their own daydream about a day as a “normal” person. “I’m done acting normal / No I don’t give a damn / About what they say / ‘Cause I know who I am,” they sing.

“Acting Normal” is the latest single released off of Whatever, Man and follows a handful of well-received tracks. Their recent single titled “Frankie Muniz” even saw a sincere co-sign from the Malcolm In The Middle actor himself.

Listen to Blackstarkids’ “Acting Normal” above.

Whatever, Man is out 10/22 via Dirty Hit. Pre-order it here.

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Skullcrusher Shares The Chilling Track ‘Farm’ And A Wistful Cover Of Radiohead’s ‘Lift’

Helen Ballentine introduced the world to her moniker Skullcrusher with her 4-track self-titled EP back in July. Her gentle melodies and enthralling lyrical delivery quickly captured a large fanbase. Riding the momentum of her EP, Skullcrusher returns with two new songs.

Skullcrusher’s track “Farm” arrived alongside an artful video. Directed by Silken Weinberg, the visual depicts Skullcrusher as the lead role in her own play. The singer holds a glazed look as the set continuously morphs around her.

About “Farm,” Skullcrusher said she was inspired by reflecting on vignettes of her childhood:

“‘Farm’ was created out of time I spent reflecting on my childhood and family. The process of developing it to its current version ended up being really tied to these reflections. Noah and I were visiting my family on the East Coast when the decision was made to release it in the coming months. We went up to a studio in Woodstock, a couple hours from where I grew up, and recorded the song in a day. I was able to gather a lot of really nostalgic sounds from the area: crickets, cicadas, the beach in CT and the creaking of old homes. I had the ability to really talk through the memories and emotions of the song and how they could be manifested sonically.”

Along with “Farm,” Skullcrusher also appeased fans with a cover of Radiohead’s 1997 track “Lift.” Infusing her own style into the track, the singer transformed the song into a wistful ballad complete with banjo, rolling snares, and Skullcrusher’s folksy lilt.

Watch “Farm” and listen to Skullcrusher’s “Lift” Radiohead cover above.

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Robert Downey Jr. Did Not Enjoy The Original Version Of His Iron Man Helmet

Robert Downey Jr. is retired, at least from the MCU, meaning he never has to strap on that clunky helmet again. And that’s good news for him because he hated wearing it. The actor and occasional singer was one of David Letterman’s guests on the upcoming season of his Netflix chat show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, alongside the likes of Lizzo, Kim Kardashian West, and Dave Chappelle. And when the aggressively bearded former late night host about Iron Man helmet, saying “Is that thing really there?”, his guest had some thoughts.

“Excellent question,” Downey replied with a big smirk, ready to reveal the irksome evolution of the costume that helped take his career next level. It didn’t start off so well. “Initially everything was there. They wanted to spend as little as they could on CG replacements.” (As you’ll recall, the first Iron Man was seen as a potentially risky proposition, “only” costing about $140 million in 2008 dollars.)

Downey went on to describe how the filmmakers assumed he could actually act with the helmet on.

I remember this helmet went on, then there’d be a shot, I’d be in this whole suit. And they’d say, ‘Alright, Robert, it’s like you’ve landed on the roof, so when we say action, just go like that, like you just landed, and start moving forward.’ So I moved with this helmet on, and it slammed closed, so I couldn’t see anything. And then these LED lights went on, and it was like Manchurian Candidate, like I was absolutely blinded.

It got better, but it appears he grew reluctant to have an actual helmet on his actual head at all. “By the time we were doing the last Avengers, they’d be like, ‘Hey, Robert, would you mind putting on that…’,” Downey said. To which he would reply, “Helmet? No. Yes? No. Paint two dots here and you can paint it in later.”

You can find out what other tidbits Downey dished out to Letterman when the show’s third season drops on Netflix on October 21. Perhaps he has some choice words about acting with another menace — CGI talking animals — in his notorious stab at Doctor Dolittle.