Goddamn ICE

The Josh Wells Weekly, Episode 336

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I tore a hole in my jeans while digging out my car from all the snow we got the other day.

Winter- 1

Josh- 0

Random Thought

It’s been a rough few days inside my brain. It started Saturday, waking up to the news that ICE gang-executed a dude on the streets of Minnesota. That was troubling enough. I’ve written about it before, but it feels like I’m watching everything that’s great about this country erode in real time. His name was Alex Pretti, the man who is no longer alive because of these ICE/gestapo asshats. I’m not gonna get into any of the specifics because you can get that anywhere else on the internet from more qualified people. But it sickened me and left me with a feeling of uneasy helplessness.

That laid the foundation for all the anxiety that was to come over the next few days. On Sunday, my area of New Jersey would get slammed with a snowstorm. It must’ve been eight inches or so. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen snow like that. The thing about snow is it takes up space. It adds a layer to everything else that was already bogging me down. It feels like there’s only so much space I can afford to maintain a certain amount of sanity and here comes all this snow that will end up occupying all this space for weeks, maybe months to come. It also doesn’t help that the temperatures have been freezing since and it feels like those temperatures are pressing the snow to the ground, turning it into… ugh, ice… ensuring that it will remain in the way and hard to get rid of.

I don’t have a driveway or a garage so the most pressing matter in my life right now will almost certainly be parking. There’s less spots and whatever spots there may be are sometimes hard to get in and out of. This area already lacked an adequate amount of space when it comes to looking for a place to put my car. Parking has now officially become a nightmare that I’ll have to live through every time I have the audacity to leave my home.

And then Monday hit and it was back to work, and it was stressing me out how we were all gonna go back to the daily grind and pretend we didn’t just collectively exist through the same dumb weekend. I’m just supposed to sit here and crunch numbers and reports and it all felt oddly out of place in my head.

And then Monday turned into Tuesday turned into Wednesday. I was hit with headaches that lasted till midday Wednesday. I’m not sure how or why they went away but they did and I eased up a bit after that. I figured I should also maybe cut down on my social media intake because if I was feeling anxiety and stress, that shit wasn’t gonna help, even if I felt this ugly obligation to stay informed on the shitshow outside.

There was also a moment on Saturday, before the storm when I knew it was coming, I just didn’t know how bad it was gonna be, when I really wanted to hit my local pub for a drink. I’m in the midst of a sober month but my logic was that I deserve to get it in because America is falling apart and the upcoming storm was gonna shut me in and complicate life and how nice would it be to at least unwind a bit with a few drinks before that happens?

Fortunately, I also had the thought of how unfun I would be at a bar. I’d just be that dude catching a buzz and feeling more and more passionate about trying to talk someone’s ear off about everything that’s wrong with America. I got some strong opinions for sure, but I also realize that there’s a time and a place for them and buzzkilling the Saturday night of other people who were also probably just trying to get it in before the storm would not be ideal.

I’ve recently been seeing ads and listings for summer concerts and that shit has helped a lot. I know summertime and concerts won’t fix America or make my parking-challenged life any easier, but it’s been a nice reminder that summer is inevitable. The snow will melt. The weather will be warm. Fun will be had. I don’t know where ICE and Trump’s gestapo fit into this summer scheme. I hope we push back. I hope they recede. I hope ICE and ice both melt and disappear from our eyes before the summer.

I’m still out here running in this. I’m very lucky to live very close to a park that is well taken care of. All my running paths in the park are clear and so far, I’ve gone for two runs since the storm hit. There’s something oddly empowering about running in this. It feels like my personal declaration that the storm and the snow and the culmination of all of life’s other burdens can’t keep me down.

Movie I watched this week: Stockholm

(Prime)

I didn’t even know about this movie, I just happened to stumble upon it while I was aimlessly scrolling my viewing options. I just recently finished up this TV series ‘Clark’ that is based on the life of Swedish bank robber, Clark Olofsson. His most notorious bank robbery is the robbery that coined the term ‘Stockholm Syndrome,’ and that robbery in particular, is what the movie ‘Stockholm’ happens to be about.

So, while ‘Clark’ offers more of a big picture view of Olofsson’s life, this movie zooms in on this one bank robbery. Also, Olofsson is not the main character in this movie. He plays a big role but the lead role is of his bank robbing buddy, Jan-Erik Olsson (played by Gen X hero, Ethan Hawke).

That single robbery does deserve to be its own story (and it takes up a whole episode in the ‘Clark’ series). It was also fun to be offered the perspective of Olsson instead, who is the reason that robbery happened (he took hostages and one of his demands was for the cops to bring Olofsson to him. Olofsson was in prison at the time. The cops removed him from prison and brought him to the bank. It’s a wild story).

There were a few major differences between the show and the movie. There are four hostages in the show, three in the movie. Which one is right? I don’t know, I’m tired of googling and fact checking all of it so I’m just gonna let it remain a mystery. Also, in the movie, they change everyone’s name.

Anyways, fun watch based on a true story. I totally recommend it. I also recommend ‘Clark’ but you can read more on that below.

Can’t wait to bust out this factoid on people and tell them I know the origin of the term ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ for the rest of my life. Invite me to your dinner parties.

TV show I watched this week: Clark

This series does an excellent job of mythologizing Clark Olofsson and making him seem kinda cool, almost like an anti-hero. Things move at a fast pace in this show, but it does get harder to ignore that beneath the cool, Olofsson is selfish and narcissistic. They finally hammer that in a bit with the final episode. Things seem to finally catch up to him also he does a thing that is totally unforgivable. For all his philandering and law breaking, there always seemed to be a lining of innocence or at least naivete underneath it all. But the thing he does in this final episode that I can’t forgive feels like Olofsson at his most disappointing.

It’s a heck of a story. I can’t believe I never heard of this dude before this. He’ll now be my go-to name that I drop whenever I find myself in any conversation about best bank robbers or law breakers (Doc Holiday is still my #1 dude, but Clark is up there somewhere high on the list).

This is Clark with an author who wants to write an authorized biography about him. There’s a devastating scene at the end that really puts a bow on things.

Album I listened to this week: Megadeth / Megadeth

First off, I gotta commend Dave Mustaine on waiting till the final album to do the self-titled thing. Well played.

And yes, apparently this will be their final album, and it definitely feels like that towards the end with the final track, ‘The Last Note.’ (There’s also a bonus track after, a cover of Metallica’s ‘Ride the Lightning.’)

I should probably get this out of the way; I’ve never considered myself a big Megadeth fan. They’ve been around for a long time and so have I but I just never caught the wave. I get Megadeth and I respect them and I think they’re very good at heavy metal, but they’ve never been a band that I listened to a whole bunch.

So, tell me why I loved this album? I can’t explain it. One track after another, I was just like, goddamn Megadeth, why am I suddenly finding myself enjoying your stuff so much now, at the end? I don’t know, it was a wild experience. But this album is dope. I’m not sure what I was expecting. I guess I feel like so many older bands mail it in and only put out new stuff just because. But this was different. This felt like a work of passion. What a way to go out. Megadeth is ending things in top form. Always leave them wanting more as they say.

Even the album cover goes hard.

Book I’m currently reading: Dancing Queen / Lisa Carver

This was such a fun collection of essays from the year 1996. It was a real blast from the past. I appreciate Carver’s overall world view that seems to skew a little towards living trashy and loud and appreciating what you appreciate whole-heartedly. There’s also something nostalgic about reading this book in 2026. I know that wasn’t the author’s intention when she wrote this book, but sitting here reading these essays that show appreciation for things like Kmart, Tonya Harding, The Bee Gees, Anna Nicole Smith, and Olivia Newton-John, it’s hard not to feel a little seduced by this book’s time traveling spell.

I’m not sure what the author is up to in these modern times, but I did give her a follow on Instagram. I’m definitely intrigued and will probably read more of her stuff in the near future (I also have previously read her memoir, ‘Drugs Are Nice,’ which I wrote about in this newsletter. Remember???)

Lisa Carver used to write a popular zine back in the day called ‘Roller Derby.’ Zines were like the substacks/newsletters of long ago before the entire world had computers in their pockets.

Random Sports Thought: Some Quick Thoughts

-I think the Seahawks should beat the Patriots and that is why I’m picking them to win the Super Bowl. Well, that and also because grunge and Jimi Hendrix are from Seattle. Go Hawks. Go grunge.

-The Buffalo Bills promoted their Offensive Coordinator, Joe Brady, to Head Coach. Choosing the Offensive Coordinator that worked under their previous Head Coach, Sean McDermott, feels like they’re just gonna keep doing the same thing, at least on offense. So, if they were okay with just doing the same thing on offense, why make a coaching change at all?

-Bill Belichick. Love him or hate him, he should be a first ballot dude for the NFL Hall of Fame. It’s unreal that he didn’t receive enough votes. Maybe he was a bad guy who rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, but it’s a disservice to the whole voting/HOF process to let that get in the way of which way you’re gonna vote. And make no mistake about it, any vote against Belichick had to be personal. The dude has all the accolades, maybe the greatest of accolades, for the Hall of Fame.

If you don’t have haters, you ain’t poppin.

Random Pro Wrestling Thought: Tommaso Ciampa

Ciampa made a surprising debut on AEW Dynamite this week shortly after his contract expired with WWE. I think this is one of the benefits of having more than one major wrestling promotion in America. We’re able to see wrestlers bounce around and quickly reappear on our TVs after leaving a promotion. I think it’s a fun thing for wrestling fans and I hope we get to see more of it, and that’s in both directions, not just WWE to AEW.

There was a time when Ciampa was my favorite wrestler on the planet. It was during his NXT Black & Gold run after he turned on his best friend, Johnny Gargano (classic heel turn stuff and my favorite heel turn since Seth turned on the Shield). The dude was throwing down some amazing matches and was fire on the mic.

I felt like he lost some of that steam when AEW hit and NXT started to transition towards their 2.0 era. Ciampa would eventually fully transition over to the WWE main roster where he’d do some fun stuff like win the tag team titles (w/ Johnny Gargano) but ultimately, everything he did on the main roster felt less than everything he’d done in NXT.

So, I look forward to this fresh start. I hope AEW gets behind him and lets him catch a little momentum to see where he can take it. I also think this could be a low-key huge moment for AEW. I think a lot of WWE wrestlers who got the itch to work elsewhere will see how Ciampa’s run plays out and that might help warm up or cool down future possible converts.

Ciampa came out hot in his debut, challenging Mark Briscoe for the TNT Title (which Briscoe obviously accepted). They’ll fight on Saturday, the same day as that other big wrestling event happening in Saudi Arabia.

Top 5 Outlaws

1- Doc Holiday

2- John Dillinger

3- Clark Olofsson

4- Bonny & Clyde

5- D.B. Cooper

Weekly Quote

“...I say long live the bountiful personality. Long live the people who make people mad. Long live the ones who won't listen to sense. Long live the people who are forever getting warned, "one of these times, you're going to go too far!" Long live the fiery, the unguilty, the unhumble, the dazzling, the cheerful and the brave. Even if they don't live long, even if they look obnoxious or even stupid in a certain light, they're still wonderful and magnificent to me, and they're free free free.”

-Lisa Carver

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