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Had brunch with my mom this past Sunday. She’s the best. I wore my best hat and Beastie Boys t-shirt for the occasion.
Random Thought
Given the high tensions on social media as of late, I couldn’t help but notice that I lost a few Facebook friends in the fray (yes, this post will be Facebook heavy. I know, I’m showing my age). A few people unfriended me and I might’ve even unfriended a few people (one person I unfriended told me I was going to Hell. I don’t know if that’s what friends tell other friends unless they’re maybe a metalhead or goth, then maybe it’s a compliment).
And that’s all okay with me. I feel like social media has distorted our bandwidth for what a friend is. About two weeks ago, my Facebook friend count was hovering slightly above 1800. And that’s insane to me. I don’t think I actually know 1800 people. It’s possible that I’ve seen and met 1800 people (although a lot of them are comics I’ve never met and that’s just how social media is for comics sometimes) but to make the claim that I have 1800 friends (or 1787 as I’m writing this) is insane and just not true.
On a good day, a thing I post on Facebook will get 30 likes. Now, I’m not saying everyone who knows me or considers me a friend owes me a like. It’s cool if you saw a thing I posted, didn’t like it, and just kept scrolling. But I think it’s a good gauge for who’s paying attention and how many people my posts really matter to.
30 likes is less than 2% of 1800. Maybe if we discount the duplicate accounts and the people who are no longer with us, we could possibly bump that number up to 3%. So, how many people are not paying attention? 97% of 1800 is 1746. Even if we wanted to get crazy and say there’s 200 or even 300 people who do appreciate me, just not that specific post, that number would be 1446. I think it’s fair to say I’m connected to at least 1446 people who really don’t matter to me (and I don’t matter to them, nothing personal to those 1446 who are almost certainly never gonna read my newsletter anyways).
SIDENOTE:
(If I was tight with someone IRL and they passed on, I can’t delete or unfriend the account. It just doesn’t feel right. Also, sometimes it’s nice to keep those accounts around because they become memorial spots for them to be remembered, especially on their birthdays which Facebook will remind us of because FB has no idea they’re no longer alive. I also realize this means that over time the number of dead friends will increase, and the ratio will change and there’ll come a day when I will have more dead friends than alive ones on FB and that’s gonna be strange).
END OF SIDENOTE.
If I was going to throw a party and I told you that I was going to invite everyone I knew, I wouldn’t mean the 1800 Facebook friends. I doubt I could assemble a list of 100 people I’d wanna party with. I’m not even certain if I wanna party with all 30 people who liked my post in the hypothetical I brought up a few sentences ago.
As time keeps slipping, I find Facebook to become increasingly more about staying in touch with people I wanna stay in touch with and less about self-promotion and networking. All that sorta stuff can be done on Instagram and elsewhere.
And yet for some reason, every time something controversial and newsworthy happens, it seems we find ourselves in the same predicament of arguing with people we barely know and threatening to unfriend and break contact.
I say go for it. Unfriend. Block if you have to. Do it liberally. If you have more than 150 friends on Facebook, I’m calling “bullshit” (which means I’m also calling bullshit on myself). Let’s not let the collecting of friends as a numerical value distort the truth. If someone is giving you shit on Facebook (or anywhere else on social media for that matter), get rid of them.
Every time you get rid of someone on social media, you’re improving your own personal social media experience. You’re also recalibrating what a friend really is and in this modern era, I believe it’s easy to lose sight of that. I think we all know deep down inside that most of the people we connect with on social media are not our friends. Maybe some of them mean well and if so, that’s cool. But some of them certainly don’t and they’ll reveal themselves over time. And when they do, forget the numbers. This is quality over quantity, and they’re tainted goods.
Movie I watched this week: Blue Ruin
I was in the mood for something dark and I got it. I found this movie because it’s directed by the same dude who did ‘Green Room’ (Jeremy Saulnier).
There’s this dude, Dwight, and his parents were murdered, and the murderer is getting out of jail and Dwight is not happy about it and wants further revenge. I enjoyed this movie, but it is anything but light-hearted. Prepare for some doom and gloom.
TV shows I watched this week
The Daily Show
The Daily Show threw together a special show last Thursday (a day after the beginning of the Kimmel fiasco). It was very good stuff and felt like a very timely satirical rebuttal to all the nonsense going on surrounding one of Jon Stewart’s peers.
South Park
The new South Park was very entertaining as usual. This week they went after Trump, that FCC chairman dude who’s name I can’t remember and doesn’t feel important enough to Google at the moment, Israel, gambling apps, and Kyle’s mom.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
I don’t think I’ve ever watched an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live before. And I’ve mostly soured on watching late night talk shows since the pandemic (they were all recorded from home or empty studios/theaters, and it just didn’t feel good or joyful). I’m a fan of Stephen Colbert but I don’t even watch his show. The last dude I was a superfan of was Conan. But thanks to all the outrage surrounding Kimmel, I just had to tune in for this one.
Jimmy came out firing on all cylinders and charged directly into the controversy he found himself mired in. He went for Trump’s jugular and focused a lot on the importance of free speech. He was also apologetic and emotional at times, so it wasn’t all bloodthirst and vengeance.
Album I listened to this week: Jestures / Atmosphere
I probably preface it the same way whenever Atmosphere drops a new album, but I’m a huge Atmosphere fan. So, I’m always glad when they drop something new but it’s crazy because it feels like they’re always dropping something new. They stay prolific as they age into their 50s.
This album is 26 tracks long. It’s in alphabetical order and each song starts with a different letter from the alphabet. It’s a wild task to take on this deep in the game but Atmosphere does it well.
In some ways, i feel like I’m aging in the wake of Atmosphere. Slug of Atmosphere is about 7 years older than me. It’s almost like having an older brother or maybe a close cousin who’s good at rapping and as he progresses, his albums follow along and seem to help navigate this whole getting older thing.
He’s a positive skeptic (a thing I’ve always thought when listening to Slug, but he says it out loud on this album) which I’ve always had an easy time identifying with. Sometimes I feel like I can be a little less positive than Atmosphere lyrics, so I always find listening to their albums a bit of an uplifting experience that also feels realistic and not too lofty or idealistic to measure myself against.
Book I’m currently reading: The Come Up (an Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop) / Jonathan Abrams
This book has taken a weird chronological turn. There’s a chapter on Jay-Z and it came before a chapter about Biggie, Tupac, or East Coast vs West Coast. Stranger than that, I’m currently in a chapter about Southern rap and they’re talking about Outkast and the first mention of the famous Source awards where the whole “East vs West” thing started is through the eyes of Outkast (they won best new artist which admittedly had to be weird AF for them given the climate at that show).
I’m guessing that this book is saving Biggie/Tupac and the East vs West stuff for its own later chapter. There’s no way they can skip it. But it sorta feels like maybe it belonged before the Jay-Z chapter.
Despite all that, this book is very entertaining and informative. I can’t recommend it enough, especially if you’re someone like me who considers themselves on the outer periphery of hip-hop fandom. I like and enjoy hip-hop but I’m definitely not super knowledgeable about it, so this read has been a real learning experience so far.
Random Sports Thoughts
WNBA
I don’t think it’s gonna happen, but what if the Fever beat the Aces and get to the Finals? Imagine them making that accomplishment without Caitlin Clark? (She’s currently injured.) Even if they lose to the Aces in this current series (which I think they will) this team is gonna be a THREAT next season if Clark is able to come back healthy.
I still believe the Finals will be Aces vs Lynx. Last week I may have been leaning more towards the Lynx winning it all, but I don’t know… I think the Aces took a couple of games off but are back to being ferocious. I’m picking the Aces to win it all.
Also… what’s up with the New York Liberty firing their now former coach, Sandy Brondello? Seems like a crazy and dumb move. This team won it all just a year ago. They were the toast of NYC sports. It’s not like they were a total bust this season. They made it to the playoffs. They made some noise despite Breanna Stewart’s injuries. I think Brondello earned at least one more season, maybe more.
NFL
Oh yea, I guess there was football this week too. Lions beating the Ravens was something. I think this week’s Superbowl prediction is:
Detroit Lions vs Buffalo Bills
This is not only my prediction coming out of Week 3, but it’s also the Superbowl I really, really wanna see (and wanted to see last season).
Random Pro Wrestling Thought
AEW and WWE both had PPVs on the same day this past Saturday and there’s been a lot of back and forth about which was better, who’s the better promotion, and all that noise. I personally thought AEW’s All Out was a more entertaining show than WWE’s WrestlePalooza. But y’know, to each their own.
I’d like to use that old cliche about how the real winner was the fans but I don’t know if that’s true this time around because some fans sat down on their couch and watched both live and that means they spent like eight consecutive hours on their couch watching wrestling and as much as I’m a fan of the sport, that’s just not how I wanna spend the majority of good hours on a Saturday afternoon/evening.
(I watched AEW All Out live with a few friends. I watched WWE WresltePalooza in chunks over the next few days.)
Adam Copeland (FKA- Edge) did the ‘You Can’t See Me’ fist drop to pay homage to Cena (who had previously done a spear during a match to pay homage to Cope). This is the kind of cross promotion pollination I like to see (or “not see”).
My Top 5 Favorite Social Media Platforms
1- Myspace
2- Facebook
3- Twitter (Twitter, not X. Before X.)
3- Instagram
5- the neighborhood bar
Weekly Quote
“Western cultures believe we must be alive for a purpose, to work, to make money. Some indigenous cultures believe we’re alive just as nature is alive: to be here, to be beautiful and strange. We don’t need to achieve anything to be valid in our humanness.”
-Melanie Lau
Thanks for reading!
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@joshaintfunny
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.
I got some other videos as well if you want to check them out. I just uploaded a raw phone recording of my 30-minute set for my 45th birthday. Unpolished, unedited, warts and all, if you’re into that sorta thing. Go here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRg2MM2mOOvh1JKnDatFiBQ
Upcoming Shows
Fri, Oct 3rd
I’m doing stand up and you get to watch a movie that I’m in for like 15 seconds. Gonna be a fun night!
Sat, Oct 4th
IT’S GINA’S 50TH BIRTHDAY!
This is definitely gonna be a fun one.
Sun, Oct 5th
Kearny, NJ
More info to come.
Fri, 10/24
NEXT HELL YEA! ALERT
Wawa Social Club
North Bergen, NJ
more info to come
Sat, 10/25
The Office
Guttenberg, NJ
More info to come.
Thu, 11/20
I win because I had to check that I even still had a facebook. I can't delete it because Marc still has his and then I think people would think we got divorced or something if he wasn't listed as married suddenly!