Double Fours

The Josh Wells Weekly, Episode 227

Dec 22, 2023

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BIRTHDAY! This was right after my set at the last Hell Yea! Comedy Show. Everyone sang Happy Birthday. Tim Rager is the one holding the cupcakes. He’s a swell dude and funny. Follow him on IG:

@timothyrager

https://www.instagram.com/timothyrager

Random Thought

I recently turned 44, or as I like to call it, Double 4’s. Because y’know, that maybe somehow makes it cool. Getting older is cool though. I’m big on celebrating birthdays. If you don’t celebrate your own birthday, why should anyone else? It’s your one chance to really celebrate yourself out loud without having too many people tell you you’re full of yourself. I know some people get weird about it and to each their own but I dig that shit. I feel like my birthday is my own holiday. A Josh-holiday. There better be a party and there better be fun.

And you never know just how many of these you’re gonna get. Getting old is tricky and it’s like the odds slightly decrease with every birthday that you’ll make it to next year’s as well. That might be grim, but it’s true. Celebrating life is celebrating not dying and when you think of all the ways you could die and how the probability increases with each year, I think that’s an impressive thing to behold.

Last year, when I turned 43, I found out one of my life long best friends died. He didn’t die on my birthday but the news didn’t reach me till my birthday. And it was devastating and that wrecked me in some ways. He was also 43 when he died. Here I was, just starting my 43rd year, I couldn’t help but think that maybe 43 was some cursed number and if my best friend could die at 43, then so can I. Maybe it’d be some numeric curse on my circle of friends.

So there’s some relief with 44. If I die now, at least it’s not some silly curse I made up in my head. I wasn’t super invested in this curse, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it in a logical (or maybe not-so-logical) sense that if he can die at 43, then so can I. That thought just isn’t allowed to exist anymore.

Anyways, I’m happy to be 44. I had a great extended birthday weekend. I saw some bands. I had a birthday comedy show. I saw, spoke, and hugged so many people I love. One of the tougher things about getting older is that everyone gets busier and it’s harder to get everyone you want in the same space at the same time. I wish I could combine all the hangs over the weekend into one big hang. I also wish time could slow down just a little, especially at Hell Yea! I had so much fun but when I woke up the next day, there was a part of me that wished I could’ve gotten more time with everyone who showed up.

And thank you so much if you made your presence felt over this past weekend. I don’t want any gifts. I’ll take them (especially the koozies), but that’s not important to me. What’s important is hanging out with the people I love. Friendship is probably the coolest part of life. And whether it’s in the form of a comedy show or a concert, somewhere deep down in my heart, it’s all about the hang.

I’m gonna try and make Double 4’s more about the hang. Let’s keep hangin’.

I also got to hang out with these little monkeys, my nieces. What a gang. They melt my heart every time. If I slow down and take a moment to think about it, I have so much to be grateful for. This pic makes me so damn happy.

Movie I Watched Recently

Cop Land

(Netflix)

This movie, I don’t know. I really like the premise but the delivery feels off. I was kinda bored by it. The cast is ridiculously great. But if you look at all the names in this movie, I don’t think it’s anyone’s best movie. It’s like all these great actors, but no one is giving the performance of their career (even Jeneane Garofalo).

And Sylvester Stallone is the main dude and I feel like he mails it in for most of the movie. I guess his character is supposed to be a timid cop who lets people walk over him. So he just sorta shrugs and tries to be nice through most of the movie. It’s kinda lame.

I think I only watched this movie because I remember when they were filming it in ‘96 or ‘97, it was mostly all being filmed in Edgewater which is a town that’s down the hill from me. This was before social media and the buzz of a movie being filmed close to home spread in a very organic way and it became a hot topic to talk about at a time when there seemed to be less hot topics.

POW – “Cop Land” – Craig Zablo's StalloneZone

The ending is kinda exciting though. But you gotta sit through a lot of non-excitement to get there. Also, De Niro crushes in this movie. What a stache.

TV show I’m currently watching

I guess I’m on a TV show hiatus. I don’t know if it’s birthday stuff, the holidays, or what. I just didn’t have any time to sit down and binge anything. Hopefully I get back into ‘My So Called Life,’ for next week’s issue.

My So-Called Life - Honeysuckle & White Tea | Handcraft Candle – Lunar Light Co.

Oh wow, someone made a My So Called Life candle.

Albums of the Week

If We’re Really Being Honest / The Defiant

The Defiant are what some would call a punk rock supergroup, I guess. It features members from Offspring, Smash Mouth, Street Dogs, The Briggs, and front man Dicky Barrett, formerly of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

I don’t think punk needs supergroups though. Punk is supposed to thrive on less than super. Punk should celebrate a group of unknowns in some garage somewhere more than a collection of dudes who are already well known. I mean, I can’t knock them if they’re into it, but I don’t know if they are. This album felt very formulated. It felt like a bunch of vets who know what to do and know what things should sound like and I find that problematic for punk. If punk is close to perfect, it’s missing the point.

And some of these lyrics sit on a very thin line between punk and just being an out of date elder Gen-X’r. It’s a lot of complaining about the way things are today and sure there’s valid things to complain about but there felt like this undertone or theme of, “things were better back in my day.” It’s more old man yells at cloud than punk throws rock at cop.

So yea, I don’t know. Don’t mean to be so harsh but I just wasn’t very enthused with anything on this album. It’s okay but nothing sticks out. Nothing excites. Nothing feels dangerous.

If We're Really Being Honest - Album by The Defiant - Apple Music

The cover’s kinda cool though.

Book I’m Currently Reading

I didn’t read anything at all this week. I did however buy a new book, so that’s exciting. So hopefully next week I’ll write something about it.

‘Dead Inside’ by Chandler Morrison

You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but since that’s all I got this week, things are looking pretty cool.

Random sports thought of the week

Things that are sorta shocking to me:

-Draymond Green punched someone. Okay, maybe that’s not super shocking. But still, kinda wild. Anyways, he’s going to counseling now and is out for an indefinite amount of time. I hope he comes back all Zen’d out talking about meditation and mindfulness.

-Fans were ready to turn on Patrick Mahomes who to me at one time was the biggest babyface in the NFL. But then he threw a tantrum on the sidelines that included complaining to the other team’s QB after losing to him when it’s really just customary to say, “good game,” and keep it moving. I’m a Mahomes fan. I think he’s great for the NFL so it was a bit of a bummer to see him receive backlash from fans. But it is what it is and no one’s perfect.

-People talking about the Steelers firing Mike Tomlin. I think I heard someone say this for the first time a week or so ago and I just laughed it off. Like c’mon man, the dude is a rock. You want stability, that’s your guy. But I keep hearing more people talk about it and the more I hear it, the more real the possibility of it happening becomes in my head. One team’s loss would definitely be another team’s gain, that’s for sure. I don’t care if the Steelers lose out the rest of the season. They’d be crazy to fire Mike Tomlin.

-The Eagles don’t look so good. I thought they were the best team in the NFL at one point this season. Maybe they figure it out before the playoffs? But time is very limited. Late in the season is a strange time to play your worst football but worse than that would be in the playoffs. So who knows? Maybe they get this out of their system and are back performing at a high level just in time for the postseason.

Chiefs Patrick Mahomes NSFW complains to Bills Josh Allen at handshake

Josh Allen is showing real, ‘that’s great, gotta go,’ energy right here.

Random pro wrestling thought of the week

This was a tweet that Bayley sent out the night Billie Starkz was set to take on Athena for the ROH Women’s World Championship and I love it. It shows how far things have progressed with women’s wrestling. I remember when Bayley and the 4 Horsewomen (Becky, Sasha, and Charlotte being the other 3) were ripping it up in NXT and starting to open a lot of people’s eyes. They ended up inspiring a lot of would-be female pro wrestlers along the way. Who knows how many girls who hugged Bayley at WWE shows will go on to become pro wrestlers themselves? But I find the whole thing to be really cool. A whole new generation is on the rise following in the trail blazed by the Horsewomen. The future of women’s pro wrestling continues to look promising.

Top 5 Teams I Think Will Win The Super Bowl (at this moment)

1- San Francisco 49ers

2- Baltimore Ravens

3- Kansas City Chiefs

4- Philadelphia Eagles

5- Detroit Lions

Weekly Quote

“How do I confront aging? With a wonder and a terror. Yeah, I'll say that. Wonder and terror.”

-Keanu Reeves

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If you haven’t seen it yet, please go to Youtube and give my 40th birthday comedy set a spin, and while you’re at it, a like, a comment, or a share would be appreciated and goes a long way as well. If you’re feeling really crazy, hit subscribe… no pressure.