As we’ve already noted, Dave Chappelle was fantastic as the host of last night’s Saturday Night Live. He was also apparently a fantastic guest at the show’s afterparty, as evidenced by a video shot by The Roots’ Questlove of the comic singing Radiohead’s “Creep” to a huge crowd.
The video shows Chappelle on stage, beer in hand, as he sings the 1995 hit and urges the crowd to join him. “Come, everybody!” he says as Leslie Jones dances next to him and films the crowd.
Questlove, who has performed for presidents and recorded with some of the world’s top artists, ranked the moment as one of the best of his career. “In a life full of highlights? I’m glad I waited til 5:22am for this….” he wrote on Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMvzBaphAma/
Questlove also shared a clip of A Tribe Called Quest’s Jacobi White rapping as Q-Tip looked on.
If there’s one thing that all Americans can agree on, it’s that both babies and dogs are Good. Who in this great country of ours wouldn’t want to watch a six-month old laugh hysterically as a determined mut tries to catch bubbles or a confused pup investigate a happy tot dressed in a dog costume? No one, that’s who. So we decided to compile some of the best videos that we could find into one post. Please enjoy.
When Dogs and Babies Collide
This video complition includes very good moments like a dog licking a bubble-covered baby in a bath and a baby laughing uncontrollably at a doggo eating a snack.
Big Dogs Playing with Babies Compilation 2015
Just as its title indicates, this is a compilation of big dogs playing with babies. Our favorite part is the baby playing with a very patient golden lab’s mouth as it tries to sleep on the kitchen floor.
Funny Dogs Protecting Babies Compilation 2015
Another self-explanatory video title, this compilation shows some good dogs protecting their tiny human siblings. A highlight of this clip is the very brave chihuahua standing guard over a crying infant.
Cute Cats and Dogs Love Babies Compilation 2014
We know this post is about to be about dogs and babies hanging out together, but who would complain about some cats getting added to the mix? Well, maybe some people would but let’s not dwell on that hypothetical negativity. Instead, let’s focus on some cats and dogs calmly tolerating the gentle prodding and poking from babies and toddlers.
Before you run, you need to walk. That is to say, before you can make mad delicious weed brownies, you’ve got to master the magically intoxicating key ingredient: cannabutter.
Cannabutter is exactly what it sounds like: cannabis and butter (or, if you’re vegan, a non-animal based fat such as coconut butter). It’s made by slow-cooking the aforementioned ingredients with a little water; this “low and slow” cooking allows you to extract the THC from the fat-soluble cannabis. It takes a while to make, but at the end of your culinary caper, you’ll be left with a slightly green-tinged spread which can be employed in any number of ways: as a topping for some bread, an addition to baked goods, or a palate-pleasing addition to mashed potatoes.
Making cannabutter is not difficult, but it does require a little time and the proper technique. Pick a day when you’re going to be around the house; while the recipe doesn’t require a lot of active time, you have to be around to monitor the progress for several hours.
Serving suggestion: You don’t necessarily need to substitute cannabutter for regular butter in a 1:1 ratio in recipes, especially if the recipe calls for a lot of butter. Personally, I budget for a few teaspoons per person per serving in whatever recipe I’m using. So, for instance, if I was making a cookie recipe that yields 12 cookies, I might use 12 teaspoons of cannabis butter and use “regular” butter for the remainder called for in the recipe. Of course, this can be adjusted to your taste and tolerance.
Cannabutter
Note: This is a fairly small batch. The recipe can be scaled for larger quantities; simply follow the same ratios.
¼ ounce marijuana
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
1 pint water (may need more during cooking)
Just as you would toast nuts to bring out their flavor and prime them for baking, you want to toast your marijuana before making cannabutter. This process is called decarboxylation. Scatter the marijuana on a lined, rimmed baking sheet; toast at 240 degrees F for 30-40 minutes, turning a few times throughout the baking. Remove from the oven, and let cool completely.
Finely grind the cannabis, using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
Photo by Jessie Moore
In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, add the butter. Once the butter has melted (it will be pretty quick) reduce heat to the lowest simmer you can, and add the ground cannabis.
Cook for about 3 hours, stirring every now and again, and making sure that the marijuana doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. In terms of doneness, you’re going to notice that as the water evaporates, the liquid will become thick and glossy.
Photo by Jessie Moore
When it’s starting to look almost done, set up either cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer perched above a heatproof bowl. Strain the cannabutter over the bowl, making sure to get every last drop from the pan. If using a cheesecloth, squeeze to strain out any last bits of liquid; if using a strainer, press down with a spatula or wooden spoon.
Photo by Jessie Moore
Let the liquid cool to room temperature, then transfer to the refrigerator to chill thoroughly. After about an hour, you can remove the cannabutter from the bowl and scrape off any excess cooking water. You’re ready to get baking!
Photo by Jessie Moore
Store well-wrapped cannabutter in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Dave Chappelle hosted last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live, which was easily the best not just of the season but of the past few years. His opening monologue was tremendous, equal parts somber and hilarious, and as perfect a response to last week’s election results as we’ll probably get. Another highlight was the “Walking Dead Chappelle’s Show” sketch, in which the comic resurrected characters from The Chappelle Show, his beloved mid-2000s Comedy Central hit, in a spoof of the gory season premiere of The Walking Dead.
Dressed as Dead villain Negan, Chappelle delivered a monologue as he picked which person to kill with his barbwire-wrapped baseball bat, just as Negan did on the Walking Dead premiere. But instead of Walking Dead characters kneeling to find out who would have their head bashed in, it was crackhead Tyrone Biggums, the white newscaster Chuck Taylor, the blind and black white supremacist Clayton Bigsby, Chappelle’s Lil John, and pimp Silky Johnson.
“Well, well, well, a n**** named Negan,” Johnson says. “You look more like a Stephanie…Them some ugly ass boots you got on there. As the white boys say on the internet, ‘What…are…those?’“
Later, as Taylor begs for his life, you hear Lil Jon/Chappelle’s trademark “What?!” And when Negan confronts the blind and racist Bigsby about the fact he himself is black, Bigsby puts on a Make America Great Again hat and says, “From what I hear this hat says otherwise. This is Trump’s America now!”
The sketch ends with a surreal message of hope. Watch it below:
While this week has felt like one long Hot Mess, it’s important to remember that actual Hot Messes were happening around the country and the world. So let’s take a break from politics read about deers smashing through glass windows, aggressive turkeys with good names, dumb-ass burglars, and more.
Let’s start with Downtown Tom, the aggressive turkey of Davis, California. Downtown Tom has reportedly been chasing and lunging at people trying to visit or walk past the Wells Fargo branch that he believes is turkey territory. “This is almost embarrassing,” one person told an emergency dispatcher. “I am trying to get into my office on G Street in Davis and I have this huge turkey surrounding my car, circling me and I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to run it over but I can’t stay in my car all morning, is there any advice you can give me?”
Experts advise that town residents try not to let Downtown Tom intimidate them, which is easier said than done.
In other animal news: On Thursday, a deer somehow became trapped in an American Eagle store in Oklahoma. This deer clearly didn’t want to do any shopping, and had lost his patience for finding the front door. So he did want any reasonable animal/person would do: he ran and jumped through one of the store’s glass windows, smashing it to bits.
And in Oregon, a man accused of stealing an SUV and starting a police chase was found hiding in a badger hole, where the man had become stuck. If not for his dog, the alleged thief might have remained in the badger hole for who knows how long.
Speaking of dumb thieves, two men in New Jersey were arrested for allegedly robbing a home after their taxi driver, who drove them to and from the crime scene, called police. Why would the driver snitch? Maybe because the two men reportedly stiffed him.
In India, lucky New Dehli residents loaded up on free booze after a truck filled with liquor overturned, leaving bottles and crates of whiskey all over the ground. It probably helped that the driver “mysteriously disappeared.”
There was also the young boy who, as a reporter was in the middle of a live broadcast, crashed his bike and face-planted during the shoot.
For those asking-The boy on the bike who went down face-first in our live-shot? He's just fine (& now famous with his friends)@WPLGLocal10pic.twitter.com/rsvTVBqpEX
And finally, there was the man who was rendered practically speechless after a since-discontinued drone fell from the sky and landed right at his feet.
Shopping can be stressful, especially if you’re a deer who probably doesn’t have much experience in stores. Unfortunately, no one explained this to the deer who on Thursday wandered into an American Eagle store in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Twitter user Alec Williams filmed as the deer tried to escape the store. “A deer smashed its way into American Eagle… then left the only way he knew how,” he wrote.
The video shows the deer running down an aisle directly at a glass window, which it then smashes through. “Oh, shit,” Williams says as the creature nears the window at full speed.
So why did the deer smash its way the store in the first place? Maybe because it’s named after another animal. Maybe it was confused. We may never know because deers can’t talk, plus it looks like this one ran away.
With new music flying like warp-speed through the various channels of the Internet, it can be hard to keep up. But worry not! Each week The Fresh Toast will deliver the most-discussed and exciting songs that have recently dropped. Landed. Crashed. And also: soared. Enjoy.
Childish Gambino—“Me and Your Momma”
Stop doubting this man. He won over fans with his hoptronic smash record Because the Internet, re-invented his sound through the Gangsta Grillz STN MTN mixtape and tropical vibes Kauai EP the following year, and created the best show on TV this year. Just as hip hop embraced Childish Gambino as a rapper, he’s zagging once again with his latest single “Me and Your Mama,” from his new Awaken My Love album, out Dec. 2.
Following a synth-backed choir intro, establishing a pleasant, soothing mood, Gambino smashes in with a scraggly wail unlike anything we’ve ever heard from him. He sings over this yowling guitar line, conveying this emotional desperation that just overwhelms you, reaching a breaking point when Gambino dips into some Prince-style screeching. It’s obvious someone’s been listening to some Funkadelic and Prince in between releases.
“Let me into your heart!” the choir vibrates underneath Gambino’s vocals. By the time the slow-bopping outro kicks in, it’s a necessary relief. Not because the track’s poor—it’s quite the opposite. It’s just so much raw and pure goodness injected into your soul, you’re left lying on the flooring, absolutely devastated. And you can’t wait to do it all over again. One thing’s certain: Wherever Gambino’s going next with this project, we’re following.
A Tribe Called Quest—“The Space Program”
Honestly, I’m not ready to rationally discuss this new Tribe album. That we’re even listening to a fresh Tribe record in 2016 is victory enough. This group that serves as a cultural touchstone for so much of hip hop remains just as vital as they’ve ever been. Whenever I listen to We got it from Here…Thank You 4 Your service, it always starts with “The Space Program” simply because it begins the project, and I can’t imagine missing one song.
So “Space Program” is the pick for that reason. It could just as easily be the Andre 3000-assisted “Kids…” or the cathartic “Lost Somebody.” Somehow “The Killing Season” features Kanye West, Consequence, and Talib Kweli on a song together, making you wonder if this is 2016 or 2004. Kendrick Lamar flies through on “Conrad Tokyo” and Anderson Paak provides grooves to “Moving Backwards.” But of course it’s the main crew we’re here for: Q-Tip, Phife, and Jarobi, who has bars. Busta Rhymes makes multiple appearances, and you can hear his smile through the raps. It’s infectious.
The xx—“On Hold”
Though not on Tribe levels, years of silence and rumors had some wondering if we’d ever receive another record from the XX. But it’s really happening now and this single marks a new era for the group. It’s groovy and bouncy and samples Hall & Oates. Yet somehow it still sounds like an The xx song or at least within their sandbox.
Run the Jewels ft. BOOTS—“2100”
This week has been very emotional for many in this country, regardless of your politics. A sense of unknown permeates the future. Leave it Run the Jewels to punch through that instability with this track. Killer Mike fires off with “How long before the hate that we hold lead us to another Holocaust,” signaling very clearly the politics at hand here.
Shia LaBeouf—Sway in the Morning Freestyle
I’m honestly just shocked at how good this is. We’ve seen snippets of Shia freestyling before, but he sounds better than some rappers when facing Sway’s Five Fingers of Death freestyle challenge. “”Get ready, get set, this a meme / This is wild, this a childhood dream,” he raps and those are just the first bars. You really never know what goods Shia will deliver.
No matter how bleak things get, it’s important to remember that right now somewhere in the world a big and good bear is standing on his hind legs and rubbing his back against a tree in a way that makes it look like he is dancing to a classic funk song.
If you think you’ll have trouble remembering this fact, then please bookmark the wonderful video below, which shows a bunch of bears getting down to Kool and the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie” in the Canadian Rockies.
The clip comes from the BBC’s spectacular-looking Planet Earth II, which is currently airing in the UK. The series can’t arrive on American shores soon enough.
In addition to the happy dancing bears, Planet Earth II has also given us one of the most insane animal videos we’ve ever seen: A horrifyingly intense two-minute, 11-second clip of dozens of snakes chasing after an iguana in some sort of hell pit filled with rocks. Watch it below:
For more about Planet Earth II, check out the extended trailer here.
At some point you sort of expect it to stop. The investment, mostly, but also personal interest and curiosity. With the ambush now year-round from Marvel and DC and Fox Studios of comic book movie after comic book movie, numbness can occur without one really noticing it. That is, until you’re watching one of these films in theater and it hits you: “Haven’t I seen this before? Like twice?”
Burnout accusations differ between studios. The last installment of Fox’s X-Men franchise, Apocalypse, sighed its boredom, and its characters, once vibrant, were dull and depthless. A franchise that invented the modern comic book movie with X-Men, now produces bloated, tired films. Hugh Jackman ending his decade-plus run as Wolverine with Logan, a trailer raising earned expectations, doesn’t help the brand’s aimlessness. So what happens when a pillar in a house of cards retires?
Reports surfaced that stars Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, and Nicolaus Hoult reached the end of their three-picture contracts and remained unsigned. Those price tags won’t be cheap, which is why, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox is eyeing a reboot of X-Men, a franchise that’s already been rebooted. You’ll remember Fox already tried this approach with its other comic book property: the dumpster fire Fantastic Four reboot.
Those aren’t the only wheels churning in quicksand. The Channing Tatum-attached Gambit project lost director Doug Liman in August and is stuck in development. Deadpool 2 also lost director Tim Miller, who helmed the original, over creative differences with Ryan Reynolds. With the studio already promising a Deadpool 3, it needs Reynolds, who made the sarcastic, deliriously immature superhero relatable to casual audiences. Without him and Deadpool, it’s a studio possessing a bunch of rickety vehicles with no one to currently drive them.
Warner Brothers’ DC properties and its extended universe…do we really need to discuss this? The results couldn’t trend worse. Through his masterpiece Batman trilogy, Christopher Nolan engendered great support for DC. But like the Golden State Warriors, they blew that 3-1 lead.
We could nitpick the individual movies—honestly: Batman V. Superman didn’t deserve its critical bashing; Suicide Squad did—but a general distrust permeates DC’s properties. Its “filmmaker-driven” approach, while admirable, hasn’t produced anything stellar. Its hire-five-noncollaborating-screenwriters-for-one-script approach, not admirable, created the messiness of its world.
Can it reverse course? The Wonder Woman film’s trailer teases a promising WWI, old-timey epic, though it’s too heavy on the Chris Pine. It doesn’t help the movie’s director Patty Jenkins—pro: first female helming a comic book movie, possibly offering fresh perspective; con: kind of unproven, huge leap from her primarily TV background into a giant studio tentpole—has already faced allegations the film’s “a mess” from a former WB employee, forcing a public response otherwise.
Meanwhile, The Flash has lost two directors over creative differences and Bret Easton Ellis provoked rumors over Ben Affleck’s The Batman script, stating it has “serious problems” but executives remained largely apathetic over fixing them. He’s since backtracked those comments, though it hasn’t swayed the prevailing image surrounding WB’s DC movie universe—super rich kids crashing daddy’s Ferraris, knowing the foreign market’s insurance claims will pay for the mess. (Hold that thought.)
Perhaps Warner Bros. have learned from their mistakes if Aquaman, of all movies,is any indication. Casting Game of Thrones’ Jason Momoa dispels the negative wiener association of the character. Hiring horror savant James Wan, who also directed Furious 7, and allegedly promising him control, will (hopefully) ensure a competent product. His description of a “swashbuckling action adventure…in the spirit of Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Romancing the Stone” sounds what no DC movie has been yet: fun.
Which is sort of the mission statement of Marvel. Change the context if you want. America vs. Nazi period piece, sci-fi buddy squad flick with talking raccoons, Norse mythology, sure. But ruthless fun is what you’ll have.
If the above summary of Fox and Warner Bros. properties seems less than inspiring, Marvel’s future plans sounds just tiring. An onslaught of films manifested like a machine army, so massive, so powerful, so everywhere. Even the most stringent and proud critics have given up arguing against their existence. Acceptance was inevitable. What hope does an individual battling a tidal wave?
This is the point for a necessary pause. This article is not meant as complaint or enraged criticism. This is a top-down view of where we’re at with it. As frustrating and messy as things seem, most of these films are exciting. The scope of these enterprises are incredible. Plus, they make billions of dollars. Yeah with a damn b. Whatever opinions you or I hold—casual moviegoer, cinephile, enthusiast—are sort of irrelevant. Suicide Squad sits at a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes; it made close to $750 million worldwide, making over 50 percent of its gross overseas.
It just doesn’t matter, you want to think (or you’re Bill Murray). These studios don’t care, you can’t help but believe. But that’s cynical and only half of the truth. Or maybe I’m still too high from Doctor Strange.
Probably because of other (important) events in this country, Doctor Strange didn’t generate giant buzz preceding its release, but has owned the box office (close to half a billion already). This is stunning. Why? This movie shouldn’t work. It’s about a mystical, dimension-bending sorcerer who protects Earth from magical, cosmological threats. A hippie “head” characterized the comic’s early readers because they experienced similar perceptions tripping on psychedelics. Oh, and they liked the colors. This was a *tokes once* druggie comic, man. He battles demons “normal folk” can’t and will never see. To repeat: None of this should function into a mainstream movie.
Yet it’s a bona fide smash. Critics adore it to the point some label that praise overhyped. Doctor Strange doesn’t break Marvel’s hero journey origin stories as much as bend and push that concept to its limits. The film’s storytelling efficiency astounds, even if they probably chopped off too much character fat. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Steven Strange is typical Marvel superhero: punky, egotistical, in his own way, until he becomes a hero. Brainy and relentless, Cumberbatch finds some room to make Strange his own, and not “new superhero Y.”
The film also remains true to the comics’ ethos: Two to three sequences really make you wonder if you’re tripping. It may steal from Nolan’s Inception and M.C. Escher’s perspective-twisting artwork, but it wears those influences proudly. It knows you know.
What’s so encouraging, then, is that Marvel allowed Scott Derrickson, another director emerging from horror, to execute this off-color vision, albeit within their restricted palette. And goodness is it relieving to see some color. Marvel’s machine earns deserved flack for its drab, muted aesthetic for its film universe. Even in Strange, the dialogue is shot in the least imaginative way possible and a sense of place remains sorely lacking. So when Derrickson has room to detour and awe, using some new toys and effects within the Marvel universe, it’s probably more rewarding than it should be. This loosening-up possibly hints at a new structure from Marvel: Include some Easter Eggs, follow the road map to larger Marvel universe narratives, then make whatever film you want.
This was a *tokes once* druggie comic, man. He battles demons “normal folk” can’t and will never see. To repeat: None of this should function into a mainstream movie..
This largely hasn’t been the case. When Edgar Wright and Ava DuVernay both quit different Marvel movies, questions of a commitment to filmmaking surrounded the studio. During Joss Whedon’s press tour with Avengers: Age of Ultron, he labeled his experiences as “really unpleasant” and overall sounded like he had PTSD. It made Marvel resemble some totalitarian regime from their own source material.
Ryan Coogler stands out as one of the most exciting young voices in Hollywood. His signing-on to direct Black Panther follows the procedure for many of these existing IP behemoths, which is to snatch up talent while they’re hot and available. For example, Colin Trevorrow directed the indie favorite Safety Not Guaranteed and was rewarded with keys to the Spielberg kingdom, helming Jurassic World last year and he’ll direct Star Wars: Episode IX (no pressure, dude). Similar pattern occurred for Josh Trank: created the cult hit Chronicle, and earned himself Fantastic Four duties. And we all know how that went! What most don’t know: That misfire cost him the Star Wars: Episode VIII job.
Anytime a fresh talent enters these colossal franchise waters, it’s difficult not to worry they’ll lose something precious in the process: their confidence, their career, their voice. What happened to Trank is tragic. The worry: Will that happen to someone as talented and vital as Coogler? Another one: What other personal vision could he be creating instead of playing director-for-hire?
Derrickson and Doctor Strange should give us hope. He was allowed to play. The money on display in the film’s visual effects just aren’t seen outside these franchises. For movie fans, these films stand as one of the final bastions to find what a real budget can do. Derrickson didn’t waste his shot—those moments are mesmerizing. He also was given room to tell a worthwhile story of a man learning self-sacrifice and letting go his ego. An optimist might view the film as a neat character drama dressed in superhero clothes.
But maybe Doctor Strange is just fool’s gold. Maybe this is a case of director and studio sharing similar visions, as Derrickson has indicated. Maybe we’re headed to a seven-vehicle, Heaven’s Gatepileup with one of these projects eventually.
Hopefully not. This country has enough destruction right now as it is. No wonder we keep watching these superhero tales, no matter what the studios provide. We’re all just wishing someone will save us.
Earlier this week, GoPro announced that it was recalling its GoPro Karma drones because they kept falling from the sky. What would it look like to be on the ground when a drone suddenly crashed at your feet? Everyone’s response would probably be a little different, but odds are they’d be similar enough to the guy’s reaction in the video below.
After approximately 12 seconds of standing completely still in stunned silence, the crashed drone and its camera resting at his feet, the man finally said something.
“What the fuck?” he said, before pausing for another 10 seconds. “What happened?”
