Blondie, Bray, and Billie (Eilish, duh)

The Josh Wells Weekly, Episode 103

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Got to hang out with my nieces over the weekend. I don’t have any rad pictures of them beating me up but I did do some art.

Random Thought

It’s funny how perspectives can change in a short amount of time. Before this whole pandemic thing, the idea of working from home bothered me. I didn’t like the idea of my home and my work being the same place. I was worried it’d feel like there’s no escape from my employment. But now I feel almost the opposite. I’m currently on a hybrid schedule that has me in-office twice a week and I feel way more trapped when I have to leave my home to be in an office for 8 hours or so. And then there’s the commute, to which mine isn’t even that bad (about a 20 min drive) but if I can subtract that commute, I can do things like sleep in later or immediately get on with living as soon as I hit that log out button.

When I’m home, my environment is completely selfish. I’m way more comfortable. I don’t have to curb my behavior or act any certain way because I’m not sharing my space with others. And maybe this all seems obvious. But in the before-times, for some reason, I never had the insight to appreciate this idea. The idea of working from home just always irked me. Fuck you job, you cannot access my fortress of solitude. But now I’ve learned to compartmentalize and also appreciate that when I work from home, the work is done in a place that feels more comfortable, more me. The grind of being in an office takes a bigger chunk of my soul. If there’s no escaping the rat race, I might as well root for the path that’s more comfortable, more me, and sacrifices less of my personal time.

Not that I have a choice in the matter. And that’s probably why the subject is even on my mind at all. We’re in this fluid period where for all I know, my job might ask us to come back in five days a week (we’re moving to a new office in October, what’s the point of a new office if you’re not gonna use it?) or with the Delta variant and all that, maybe we go back to being home all the time. It’s all in flux and all I can do is roll with the punches and hope that when the dust settles, working from home, where I feel more like myself, is still in play.

Movie I Watched Recently

I’m Thinking of Ending Things

(Netflix)

This movie is a real head fuck. At the surface, I guess it seems like it could be a movie about a girlfriend who’s thinking of breaking up with her boyfriend as she finds herself on her way to meet his parents for the first time. And that alone is heavy stuff. But as the movie keeps moving, it becomes obvious that there’s something else going on, a bigger picture that you’re missing (or I was missing, maybe I’m just dumb and you’ll get it). If left to my own devices, I’d have thought it was about how she overthinks breaking up with him and how different her life would be if she stays with him vs. if she doesn’t. But there’s so much weird shit going on, that I was left pretty confused at the end so I had to actually google a recap once it was over and that’s when I realized I didn’t really know what was going on at all.

It’s peak Charlie Kaufman I suppose…. the same dude behind other mindfuck movies like, ‘Being John Malkovich,’ ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,’ and, ‘Adaptation,’ to name a few.

Also, it’s based on a book. I have no idea if the book is more clear in communicating what in the actual fuck is going on. Maybe I’ll read it one day.

I would like to add that even though I may have seemed lost a lot, there is a lot of great dialogue in this film, a lot of it delving into very deep and sometimes existential territory. There’s even a poem I enjoyed very much. The dialogue is what saw me through and prevented me from wanting to throw in the towel.

TV show I’m currently watching

You’re the Worst

(Hulu)

I just completed the third season and am moving full speed into Season 4. I can’t get enough of this show and it’s parade of garbage people (except Edgar, good ol’ Edgar, although he does have a douche moment or two but I suppose nobody’s perfect).

One of the series highlights for me is an episode that focuses on Edgar and his PTSD. The episode is completely from his point of view and it makes him a more sympathetic character. There’s brief moments in his interactions with Jimmy and Gretchen where you’re reminded, “ugh, those two are complete assholes.” Edgar is the good guy, the best guy, in this series and it was cool to see a whole episode dedicated to him and his issues.

He also gets to shine more becoming a pothead (it’s the only thing that seems to help with his PTSD) and having a girlfriend (Dorothy, who is up there with Edgar as being one of the only good people on this show).

Jimmy and Gretchen are bad, but almost any time I think I can’t deal with their bullshit anymore, Lindsay comes through and proves time and time again that she is in fact the worst. I will always feel bad for Lindsay’s husband, Paul, who left the ideal woman to get back with Lindsay, who is a fucking nightmare.

Jimmy and Gretchen’s relationship is evolving and getting more serious and that’s the arc that carries the show but it’s usually the least interesting part to me. Gimme more Vernon and Sam Dresden.

Doug Benson and Brian Posehn make some fun cameos as themselves.

Jimmy is writing a book. It’s erotic fiction and of all the not-real books I’ve seen in movies/TV, this may be the least interested I’ve been in actually reading that book, if it were real. Jimmy is fun to watch because he’s a world class asshole but I would in no way wanna support his art, especially seeing how highly he thinks of it himself. It’s bothersome but then again, I guess that’s the point.

Album of the Week

Happier Than Ever / Billie Eilish

This album is pretty great but I’m not exactly sure how to convey it into words what makes it great. It’s mesmerizing and dark, powerful and haunting, pop and polished. The sound is minimalist and yet heavy. I’m not sure what Eilish is up to, but it’s something unique for pop music. I can’t really recall anything else I’ve ever listened to sounding like it. It’s different but it doesn’t feel completely unfamiliar either. It’s not a total departure from whatever else is going on in pop music but it shines and sticks out and sounds/feels like nothing else. Her lyrics would lead you to believe that maybe she should be broken by the world around her but she has instead taken that hurt and turned it into something fierce, but in a very low key way. Sometimes you don’t need to shout to get your point across. Sometimes the lowest voice in the room is conveying the most important message. Maybe I’ve completely missed the point, but damn, this is a good album.

Book I’m Currently Reading

Blondie - Parallel Lives / Dick Porter, Kris Needs

I’m about four albums deep into Blondie’s career in this book. It’s been a journey, seeing them start out as an art/rock outfit from the rough and tumble lower east side of NYC and move into a more pop sound that would find them success and fame. I think maybe my favorite thing about Blondie is that they’re fun, both in sound and presentation. Everything else from their surroundings was punk and serious and there’s a place for that but when that’s all you got, it can get bleak. Blondie is like a beacon within all of that. And they’re not afraid to mess around with pop sounds or disco or reggae or even rap (I’m not gonna say they were good at rap, but they fucking nailed disco in, ‘Heart of Glass’).

The history of Blondie is also the history of NYC music. They bridge a gap from the glam/New York Dolls era up to the beginning of MTV and music videos while combining so many different genres and sounds. They cut their teeth at CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City and let loose a few years later at Studio 54. Blondie is pure-NYC through and through.

It’s odd to see them become more famous in Europe than America. A lot of it seems to be due to anything near “punk” being seen as untouchable by the powers-that-be. But it’s cool to see them get that superstar recognition and treatment, even if it also has its downsides.

There’s also all the hype surrounding Debbie Harry and how she maybe sorta steals the focus from the rest of the band. Blondie wanna be seen as a band but also recognize that Debbie’s appeal helps get them recognition so it’s a bit of a slippery slope but up to the point in the book where I’m at so far, it doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue within the band itself. A lot of their infighting seems to have more to do with anything but that like management, drugs, direction, etc.

Blondie is just super fucking cool.

Random sports thought of the week

Oh sure, the Olympics are happening and it’s a big deal and we should talk about that, right? Nah. Not when a cat found its way onto the field at Yankee Stadium the other night and put on an AMAZING display of athleticism running around and evading capture from groundworkers for a couple of minutes. The cat received cheers and chants of, ‘MVP,’ and even the baseball players themselves seemed highly entertained by this performance. I could rail against baseball and how boring a sport it is so of course a cat running onto the field would be super exciting… but it could’ve been anywhere/anytime and been just as awesome.

No lie, in real time, I was telling jokes in a bar while it was happening and it was on one of the TV’s at the bar and I completely lost the crowd and I wasn’t even mad. I would’ve easily given all my attention away from anything at all if I was watching that as it happened.

Anyways, here’s a video of it that you should really watch. It’s fun and will probably improve your day.

Random pro wrestling thought of the week

WWE released Bray Wyatt a few days back and not only was the news kinda surprising, but I find it kinda dumb. I suppose there could be reasons that I don’t know about behind the scenes, but on the surface, it just looks like a poorly calculated move to me. Wyatt was one of the most compelling personalities in all of professional wrestling. His main roster debut as a Southern cult leader type was probably one of the most amazing characters in recent years and the crowd was way behind it. He had arenas full of people singing, “He’s got the whole world, in his hand.” Powerful stuff. He’d get really strong booking pushes and constantly get cut off at the knees so WWE could push someone else instead (Cena, Goldberg, Jericho, etc). He’d go away and come back with some new, interesting character and that character would again get over with the crowd (most notably, The Fiend) and despite dumb things like red lighting and losing to Seth Rollins in a Hell in a Cell match, people still got behind it.

Pro wrestling can get bland and vanilla at times but Bray Wyatt’s creativity always felt fresh and exciting. In an era of scripted promos and predictability, Wyatt was eccentric. It was different and scary and cool. WWE will be a little more dull without his presence, and just as we’re getting back to live crowds no less.

Hopefully Wyatt pops up somewhere else in the pro wrestling world. I’d love to see him reappear somewhere where he’s allowed more creativity and direction. Who knows what’s in store? Maybe the best is yet to come.

Follow the buzzards.

Weekly Top 5 List: Top 5 Wyatt Family Members

1- Bray Wyatt

2- Luke Harper

3- Erick Rowan

4- Daniel Bryan

5- Braun Strowman

Weekly Quote

“If I make music and people hate it, you know, whatever. I'll die someday, and one day, they will too.”

-Billie Eilish

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