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Who sleeps harder than Jinx?
Random Thought
I just got back from the vet with Jinx and I can’t imagine what she’s thinking when we go on this little adventure together. Sometimes I worry that my one bedroom apartment bores her and her life is monotonous and maybe she stares out the window hoping and wishing for something more. But once I put her in the carrier and take her outside, I get the sense that she doesn’t like the great outdoors that much and is wondering just what in the fuck is going on and why has she been removed from her normal surroundings of an apartment where everything is either a bed or a toy for her.
Going to the vet is weird in the midst of a pandemic. You can’t go inside so the waiting room is outside. Once they’re ready for Jinx, I can’t go inside with her. “No owners allowed inside due to covid,” says the sign. So I just hand her off to some stranger who brings her inside a room full of other strangers, one of them trying to poke needles in her. I know this is all for Jinx's good but does Jinx know that? I have no idea how she reacts on the inside. I just keep my hopes high and tell myself this is necessary for her health. The cafe con leche I buy next door each time I go is also a nice treat. (I should probably note that this vet visit is for routine shots a kitten’s supposed to get. She’s fine.)
The last two times I brought her, I brought a stool sample. So not only did I hand Jinx over to a stranger, but I handed over a bag of cat poop as well. This felt like a necessary and comedic detail to let you in on. I brought a stool sample two times in a row (I swear that’s what their receipts they were giving me said to do) but the dude at the door was like, “You didn’t have to bring a sample a second time.” My bad y’all. You should see me when I wake up in the morning and and look at reminders on my phone I leave myself: “Don’t forget cat poop.” It’s really important to me that I don’t mess this up.
Movies I Watched Recently
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
(an actual movie theater)
I just wanna note that this is the first time I’ve been inside a movie theater since you know when and it was pretty cool. I went to the movies with my mom for Thanksgiving and the choice of movie is pretty cool because my mom raised me on the original Ghostbusters.
Ok, so I enjoyed this movie a whole bunch. Nothing will ever surpass the very first Ghostbusters which could be one of the greatest movies of all time, but it’s a lot of fun. There’s fun, new characters for the young folk and throwbacks a-plenty for the nostalgia crowd who were alive in the 80’s like me.
I’ll go one step further and say that I’ve enjoyed every Ghostbusters movie. They’re all fun in their own ways. I’m fine with reboots and sequels and whatever else. I love the Ghostbuster brand and I don’t think anyone’s desecrated it. I think every movie since Ghostbusters has been a fun addition that didn’t do any disservice to the original.
So hopefully there’ll be more Ghostbustin’ to come.
Bustin’ makes me feel good.
Wanderlust
This wasn’t a great movie. It’s a mostly silly take on commune life. But I appreciate the philosophical undertones going on in this story. A couple, played by Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston, are tired of the rat race amidst some hard times. They stumble upon a commune and decide to give commune-life a shot. Commune life turns out to be hella-annoying though and maybe their normal pre-commune lives weren’t so bad after all?
Sometimes the grid can be overbearing so I get having the temptation to wanna get off it. But for all my complaints about life on the grid, I think I prefer it to any sorta life off of it. I’m a sucker for convenience. I like things like indoor plumbing, fast food and dive bars. At some point we traded in hunting and gathering and ended up with 9-5’s in return. I think it’s better this way, but because it’s all I know, I can also show you a long list of complaints I have about it.
Anyways… I’m not sure what my overall point is or if I have one. See this movie if you wanna see something silly. Alan Alda’s in it. He’s pretty cool.
None of these actors will claim this is their best movie.
TV show I’m currently watching
South Park: Post Covid
I signed up for Paramount + just to watch this and now I don’t know if I should cancel it before my free trial ends or just keep it going because I know more South Park specials are in the works and I’m gonna wanna watch them. Fandom is so hard.
South Park is the best and this hour long episode doesn’t disappoint. We get a glimpse of everyone in the future (I guess about 20-30 years in the future) and it’s a lot of fun to see everyone grown up and to see South Park take shots at what they think the future will hold like singing doorbells and cars you can sleep in while driving (I can’t wait for the latter).
The pandemic never ends and life just keeps moving and everyone just has to deal with it and that seems a bit drab I guess but we’re almost 2 years into this pandemic thing so maybe this is the comedic relief we need at the moment. Much like most South Park episodes, this is of the moment (even if it is set in the future) and the jokes will work best right here, right now, although we might get a kick out of it a few years down the line when maybe, hopefully there’s no more pandemic? Or maybe South Park are the real truth-tellers and we’ve got at least 18 or so more years to go.
Behold the future.
Album of the Week
Motorheart / The Darkness
My apologies to The Darkness, but I am just not a fan of this album. 4 to 5 songs in, it really started to feel like a chore. It’s like they’re going for some kinda Poison/Motley Crue vibe but it just misses with me. I think you’d be better off spinning the greatest hits of both those bands instead if that’s the kinda party you’re trying to get started.
Book I’m Currently Reading
Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo and Hardcore (1994-2007) / Dan Ozzi
This has been a really enjoyable read so far. I love the breakdown of each chapter by band. I’m not saying all historical music texts should be organized like this, but it really fucking works here. I will now review what’ve I’ve read of this book so far in the same manner:
Blink 182
This chapter really endeared me to these guys. They were just silly young punks looking to make music and have fun and they put no limit to how high it could go. Some bands wanna stay true to the scene and avoid the sell out or have to be pushed but that wasn’t really the case with Blink. They were comfortable with the idea of blowing up and being popular. They liked their music and they wanted it to reach as many people as possible and there’s really nothing wrong with that.
I’m not a huge fan of their music but I think Blink 182 is historically important. They’re like the second coming of Green Day and what that did for punk in general is huge. A whole new generation of kids were swept up in it and stared their own bands and wrote their own songs about fart and dick jokes. Music doesn’t always have to be so serious. It can be fun and that’s what Blink’s usually all about (although Adam’s Song is pretty sad).
At the Drive-In
Of all the bands I’ve read about so far, this is the band I feel like I missed out on the most. I was around and alive and well and I just completely missed them and that’s too bad. They seemed like the real fucking deal. They were almost too explosive to last and in many ways, maybe that’s the most punk way to be.
The Donnas
I kinda almost forgot how huge the Donnas were for a brief moment. They were in movies and commercials and the whole gimmick was a lot of fun. They were kinda the band that didn’t wanna be that band. They took on the Donnas gimmick and put their original band (The Electrocutes) to the side as sorta a goof but the goof blew up and that’s who they ended up becoming.
Thursday
Of all the bands I’ve read about so far, this is probably the band I’m least interested in. I’ve just never been into them. But there is something endearing about their humble New Jersey beginning in the basements of New Brunswick. I felt bad for Thursday. Labels thought they were the next big thing and it feels like their moment could’ve been stolen by a much bigger moment, which is when rock fans got wise to getting music for free on the internet. There’s one moment recounted by a rep for their label who goes to see them live and when he sees a sold out room of fans singing every word to every song, he has that light bulb moment where he’s like, “how do they know the words? This album didn’t sell that well. Ooooooh, they all pirated it. Fuuuuuuuck.”
The stuff about Victory Records and label owner, Tony Brummel is also kinda wild. This book has done a decent job of shedding light on the downside to indie labels and why some bands feel its necessary to take the major label leap. But most other indie label owners/personalities have so far been shown in a sympathetic light as an underdog who just couldn’t deliver the goods a band needed or felt like they deserved, whereas the stuff about Tony at Victory and his agro personality makes him come off as an antagonist at times.
4 more bands to go!
-The Distillers
-My Chemical Romance
-Rise Against
-Against Me!
I’d like to take this brief opportunity to say that the Josh Wells Weekly is ready to sell out so bring me all your bags of money. Thank you.
Random sports thought of the week
Don’t look now but the Patriots are good again. Are they going to win the Superbowl? Are they going to beat Tom Brady and the Bucs in said Superbowl to do it? Are we going to be forced to recognize Bill Belichick as the GOAT of coaches (I mean, if you don’t already)? Is Mac Jones the next Tom Brady? Am I jumping to conclusions way too early?
All I’m saying is that if things play out this way, the NFL might be faker than wrestling, but much like wrestling, when it’s the right storyline, it’s entertaining as fuck. Who doesn’t wanna see Brady vs. Belichick in the goddamn Superbowl? The more I type about it, the more I want it myself. What have I become?
Nothing can get in the way of true love.
Random pro wrestling thought of the week
(Please note: I wrote this yesterday and have yet to see this week’s Dynamite so I’m a week behind.)
The CM Punk stuff is getting good now. I’ve probably mentioned before that I felt like he was playing too much into the, “happy to be here,” role but since his angle with Eddie Kingston, the heat has been turned up and Punk has started to deliver. His recent promo with MJF that lasted for about 20 minutes last Wednesday was next level stuff. And good on both of them. It wasn’t an absolutely one sided affair. In fact, there was a moment when MJF was done with his initial flurry of words that I thought maybe Punk didn’t have anything in the tank to come back with. But that just shows how dumb I am. He’s, at the least, the greatest promo guy of a generation. He fired back and it was awesome and I can’t wait to see/hear more from these two and also look forward to what will hopefully be a fun few years of watching CM Punk. At his best, he’s my favorite wrestler in the world and I think we’re starting to get there again.
I’m told by the internet that this is young MJF meeting CM Punk and fuck I hope this isn’t a fake. That would make this pic the new this pic:
Weekly Top 5 List: Ghostbusters Movies Ranked
1- Ghostbusters
2- Ghostbusters 2
3- Ghostbusters: Afterlife
4- Ghostbusters (Reboot)
5- there were only 4 but I’ll use this spot to show some love for ‘The Real Ghostbusters,’ cartoon which was way better than the not-real Ghostbusters cartoon.
Weekly Quote
“It's actually cool to be positive and optimistic and idealistic. It's cool to see yourself doing beautiful, great things.”
-Tom DeLonge
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Upcoming Shows
NEXT HELL YEA! ALERT
Fri, Dec 17th. Me and Yobs have birthdays that week. Come check us out. This is going to be a fun one for sure.
Thu, 12/2 (TONIGHT)
The legendary Meatlocker
Montclair, NJ
8pm (and it’s BYOB)
Sat, 12/4
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Newark, NJ
8:30pm
Sat, Dec 18th
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Fair Lawn, NJ
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