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My tribe! Hanging with my mom and my brother. Had a fun family hang this past Saturday.
Random Thought
Ozzy Osbourne and the original lineup of the legendary Black Sabbath had a “final show ever” this past Saturday in England and although I didn’t get a chance to watch the whole thing, (I’d like to sit down one day and take it all in) I have enjoyed pretty much every single video clip I’ve run into since it happened.
It was all very bittersweet. It felt like a celebration and a farewell all at once. Ozzy ascended from below the stage on a cool looking black throne. He couldn’t stand. Sometimes you see old rockers and you think, “they’re looking good or moving around well for their age.” That was not the case with Ozzy. However, he fucking brought it while sitting in that throne. The Ozzy voice is so unique, powerful, and one-of-a-kind. He could sit, stand, or lay down on a bed and it would be incredible to hear those songs coming from his mouth.
It was all very star-studded with a bunch of other famous bands and musicians of the hard rock and metal persuasion present and performing as well. It was a bit of a who’s who for older metal heads. I’m not sure if it’ll go down as the greatest hard rock/metal show of all time but it definitely feels like it’ll go down as memorable and important.
But as Ozzy ages, so do the rest of us. A part of me supposes I could get sad about it. But I guess this, like almost everything else in life, is a reminder to keep rocking while you can. And always put respect on the legends that came before us no matter what the genre or artform is. We all have a limited timeframe, but what really matters is carrying the torch when it’s your turn to do so. Ozzy has passed the torch.
All hail Ozzy. One of the best to ever do it.
Movie I Watched Recently
The Road Dog
(Prime)
Full disclosure, the only reason I watched this movie is because it features my favorite living standup comedian, Doug Stanhope. I don’t know if I’d even know this movie was a thing if he wasn’t in it. It’s super indie, which is not a bad thing but it’s obviously off the beaten path of the mainstream and this is what drew me to it.
Doug Stanhope plays an aging, alcoholic road comic (Jimmy Quinn). It doesn’t feel like too much of a stretch for Stanhope from his real life. Jimmy Quinn feels like maybe a sadder, less famous version of Stanhope who instead of having fun being an alcoholic, has totally let it consume him.
Jimmy has a 21-year-old son (David) who he hasn’t seen or had contact with in a very long time. David surprises Jimmy one day and visits him unannounced at a motel Jimmy is staying at. The two connect and David begins to tag along with his dad for a few of his gigs. David has recently dropped out of med school and plans to move to NYC to be a standup comedian as well.
Their relationship starts out awkward but at times they seem to start to get along and like each other and the movie hits some sincere emotional notes along the way. There’s definitely this constant feeling though that it could all blow up at any moment.
Does it all blow up? Only one way to find out. I enjoyed it. It leans into dark territory without diving all the way in and also, all the comedy stuff is interesting and at times relatable for me. If this sounds like you’re kinda thing, give it a watch.
I feel like there could be so much fun backstory on Jimmy Quinn. Like one detail they never really dig into, he doesn’t have a car of his own. He takes the bus everywhere. Is it so he can drink more? Did he total his car somewhere along the way? Did he lose his license for what I can only assume was some kind of alcohol-related driving offense? We’ll never know, unless they make a prequel.
Rest in Peace Michael Madsen
Michael Madsen passed away recently. Making it weirder for me, in last week’s newsletter, I wrote about a movie from 1993 called, ‘Money For Nothing,’ and Madsen played an FBI agent in that movie. I put the newsletter out and maybe like an hour later, I started seeing posts and even got a text from my brother saying that he passed away. It felt so surreal that I had just seen this movie and wrote about it and even typed out his name, hit publish, and an hour later received the news.
To know me is to know I love the movie Reservoir Dogs. I know Madsen’s been in a ton of other movies, but I don’t think there’s a role more synonymous with his name than Mr. Blonde. In a movie featuring a bunch of killers (killers at acting but I guess also fictitiously they were killers), Madsen’s character shined the brightest. He was portrayed as a maniac by his peers for things he’d done in scenes we’ll never get to see. But anytime he took up space in Dogs, he was cool as ice. He steals the movie with THE SCENE. You know the scene, right? Stuck in the Middle with You, dancing, a cop, and an ear. And although his character doesn’t make it out of the first half of the movie, by the end of it all, he’s the most memorable.
I know there’s more to Madsen than just this one movie. But this movie means so much to me. It’s always been one of my favorites. And growing up, me and my friend Kenneth would watch this movie so much and quote it all the time. Kenneth passed away a few years ago which made this movie suddenly feel even more important to me. And now Kenneth is gone and so is Madsen and although I’m an atheist, I really wanna believe the two of them are in some afterlife somewhere quoting pieces of this movie back and forth to one another.
Rest in peace, Michael Madsen. Rest in peace, Mr. Blonde. Blonde probably deserved to die. Madsen should’ve been able to live forever.
TV show I’m currently watching
The Bear
(Hulu)
I have one more episode to go and then that’s it. I think subconsciously I’ve been holding it off so that the experience lasts a little longer. But also, realistically, I’ve just been too busy to fit it in anywhere. Also, when I do end up watching it, I wanna give it my full attention.
I feel like every season of the Bear has one episode that really sticks out and has everyone talking and my guess is this season it will be the hour-long Wedding episode. We get a glimpse into some of the inner workings of the Berzatto and Fak families. We also get the answer to one of life’s most important questions, how many people can you fit under a table?
I think a big difference in this season so far is that although the restaurant itself seems doomed and maybe things should be sadder and heavier than ever, the vibe is somehow lighter. This season hasn’t left me with the same feelings of anxiousness previous seasons have.
One of the bigger issues of this season, will Sid stay or go, seems to have been solved before the season even ends which was kinda surprising to me. Now I’m just sorta waiting for everything else to fall into place with this last episode. Are we gonna get a soft landing with a bunch of good feelings or will this show somehow pull the rug out from under me and find a way to crash and burn?
There’s a lot of people under that table.
Album of the Week
For The People / Dropkick Murphys
Look, I will absolutely listen to every album this band ever puts out. Do I like them as much as I used to? I do not. Will I ever enjoy any of their albums as much as their first 3 or 4? Probably not. But this band is just too important in my own personal punk rock history to ignore. I will be tied to them till the end of my days (it’s a long story for another day but DM play a pivotal role in my punk rock origins).
It’s not that this album is bad. It’s very okay. It just sorta feels like this band has a brand and is self-aware of it so they make sure they check all the items on the list and that’s what this album feels like to me. I might’ve even liked this album a lot more than some of their other “post first 4” albums. It definitely rocks, but in a sorta predictable way.
There are some valuable songs on here though. There’s a tribute to Shane McGowan to end the album which feels super appropriate. There’s another tribute to Fletcher from the band Pennywise who isn’t dead or even sick, I guess they just wanted the world to know what a cool guy he is. There’s also a song featuring Al Barr which holds sentimental value to me because Al Barr used to be a full-fledged member of this band and also, Al Barr rules.
These days, I think I love Dropkick Murphys more for what they represent than what they sound like. They’re total pro-working class, pro-immigrant, pro-union people. They hate Trump and they’re very loud and proud about it. Those politics don’t seem to come into play with the lyrics on this album, but if you pay attention to the news, the Dropkick Murphys seem to semi-consistently upset Republicans and Nazis at their shows. They’re older and maybe their music has grown more predictable but they’re still punk rockers at heart.
A very pro-protest album cover. I dig it.
Book I’m Currently Reading
Drugs Are Nice / Lisa Crystal Carver
I finished this book up. I was so close to being done with it at this time last week that I don’t feel like I got a lot more to say about it. Lisa eventually breaks away from her asshole husband and moves back to New Hampshire and it ends with her just sorta picking up the pieces of her life and moving on without that dude.
It was a bumpy ride for sure. Lisa seemed to have been living such a wild, chaotic, artistic life that also seemed mostly fun, if not dangerous from time to time. But then it felt so anticlimactic when she went from being this untamable creature to allowing some asshole to totally dominate her life and try to take away all her spark. It was a big relief when she broke free from him.
I’m not sure if this is an alternate cover or just some weird fan art I found on Google images, but I dig it.
Random sports thought of the week
I haven’t been paying much attention to sports. I did watch the hotdog eating contest on July 4th. I watched both the women’s and the men’s competitions. Competitive eating is interesting. I don’t think I’d ever wanna partake in it. I enjoy eating and I’d hate to ruin it somehow. I’m sure there’s glory to be gained, but while it’s happening, it doesn’t look like the competitors are having a lot of fun.
It’s insane how many more hot dogs Joey Chestnut can eat than everyone else. I think the next closest to him ate something like 20 less hot dogs than he did. That’s crazy to me. I don’t think I could even eat 20 hot dogs in one sitting, never mind eating so many that no one can come within 20 of me.
Just the best in the world doing his thing.
Random pro wrestling thought of the week
This upcoming weekend is going to be insane for wrestling. The biggest show of the weekend is AEW’s All In PPV on Saturday. It’s their biggest PPV of the year and apparently WWE took notice because they decided to stack the weekend with their own special programming as well.
WWE will air an NXT PPV at 2:30pm on Saturday (that pretty much goes head-to-head with AEW’s All-In) and then at night they will have Saturday Night Main Event which is on network TV (NBC) at 8pm and is probably the reason why AEW’s All In is starting so early (3pm).
WWE will also be airing their all-female Evolution PPV on Sunday which bothers me because I’d really like to see this show get its own weekend. I feel like it’s gonna get overshadowed by everything else that’s going on. And it doesn’t help that WWE has done a pretty mediocre job of building up stories and matches for the card.
There’s also a ROH PPV on Friday night if you’re a complete maniac or have no social life. And that might be it but I’m a little afraid I still might be forgetting something.
I’d really like to see AEW and WWE come to some agreement or mutual compromise to let each other have their own space around their big shows. I get that it’s business and business isn’t friendly but as a fan, this sucks. I wanna enjoy it all but I’m definitely not gonna be able to so decisions will have to be made (AEW All-In is top priority).
Then next weekend will come around and there’ll be no major wrestling show to watch. That’s when it’ll really feel like this pro wrestling arms race is completely silly and dumb.
Speaking of being overshadowed, FTR and Outrunners had a great match on Collision this past week that was well done and entertaining. It’s definitely the best match of the Outrunners’ career so far and for FTR, maybe it’s just par for the course. Those dudes are really good at this tag team stuff.
Top 5 Ozzy Songs (solo and Black Sabbath)
1- War Pigs
2- Paranoid
3- Crazy Train
4- Mama, I’m Coming Home
5- Iron Man
Weekly Quote
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