Letters to the Editor
The Josh Wells Weekly, Episode 347
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Me and the girlfriend recently celebrated our one-year anniversary. I’m sharing this picture because we took three pics and we both agreed this one was the worst. Enjoy!
Also, go follow the girlfriend on Instagram. She posts a lot of fun clips talking about horror movies and some other stuff:
Random Thought
Some publications will do ‘letters to the editor’ where they’ll answer questions that readers send into them. But so far, no one’s sent me any letters. So, instead, I will answer some random questions I’ve asked myself recently. Here goes:
Quetion 1
Why would anyone date me?
I don’t know, man. Don’t be so hard on yourself. And stop overthinking it. There was a time, after a lengthy seven-year relationship ended that I started to think I’d be single forever, that that was the life I was meant to live. But eventually I’d find myself going with the flow of life and ending up in dating situations. Not to be a cliche, but it usually happened when I wasn’t thinking about it anymore.
The relationship I’m in now, that if I’m fortunate will be long lasting and end when one of us expires many, many, many, many years from now, happened when I was not only not thinking about dating, but I was sorta anti-dating. I had just fractured my elbow and felt useless. I gave myself a four-month period to not put any pressure on myself about dating, women, romance, sex, etc. Just get through this injury and rehabbing it. That was all that mattered.
But life did its thing. I was on a comedy show. I told some jokes. I had what I like to think was a very good set, and the next day I woke up to a message from a woman who was in the crowd who enjoyed my stuff. One thing led to another, and she became the woman who’s in the bad picture I shared at the top of this newsletter.
It could be easy to beat up on myself and say I don’t deserve this. I know me better than anyone else and a lot of times I magnify the bad stuff. But that’s what’s so cool about dating and relationships, especially the one I find myself in right now. I see a reflection of me through her, and it all makes me feel worthy. That’s a really rad feeling. Love is rad.
Question 2:
Has it really been 25 years since Joey Ramone died?
Yes, it has. Joey Ramone died before 9/11. How crazy is that? It almost feels like the before times. The Ramones were already an old thing when I was a teenager. They were (and still are) one of my all-time favorite bands but it’s always been understood, they were young when punk was young, in the late 70s. So, if the Ramones were already sorta old when I got into them, and Joey died when I was a yong adult, and it’s been 25 years since, adding all of that up puts a lot of age on me.
But I realize as I age that I gotta hold on to the stuff I enjoy. It’s okay for older people to try new, hip things and get into new music, movies, etc. But we should always carry the load of our generation. I’m a Gen X anthropologist and it’s my duty to not let the memory of things like the Ramones end up in the dustbin. It’s been 25 years since Joey Ramone died and way longer since the Ramones put out an album. But to me, the Ramones will always sound and feel fresh. I will not shrink away from loving the music of the Ramones out loud with all my heart.
Sometimes I’ll think about when I was young and I’d run into older people who were into older people things and I’d think, “that’s some old man shit I just don’t get.” It’s everyone’s fate to become that eventually. I will not be embarrassed. I will always define what passes as “cool” on my own terms, generational gap be damned.
Question 3
Why is it 87 degrees in April?
I think we broke the planet. I don’t know for sure, but this shit doesn’t feel right. I know, I know… I’m the same dude who was bitching about snow and winter a few weeks ago. I wanted warmth and sunshine. But this is too much.
Maybe the human condition is to never be fully comfortable and always find something to complain about. Or maybe I’m just convinced that the perfect weather is upper 60s/lower 70s and everything outside of that range is worth complaining about.
I will not put the air conditioners in the windows. Not in April. It’s just too early. I will tough it out these few warm days before it drops and turns into something that feels normal for April. And when that happens, I will put on a hoodie, go outside, catch a nice, cool breeze and think, “this is sorta nice, but I could stand for it to be five degrees warmer.”
Joey Ramone forever. A true legend, an all-time punk rock great, and a hero for tall, punk rock dorks everywhere.
Movie I Watched Recently: Colossal
(Netflix)
This was an interesting take on monster movies. There’s a giant monster and a giant robot attacking South Korea and two randos in New Hampshire discover that the monsters are projections of themselves. It’s strange and you’d have to watch the movie for an explanation and even then, there’s one part of the explanation that seemed a little weak and felt like it was the producers saying, “hey, don’t overthink this. Just enjoy this fun flick.”
Overall, it’s enjoyable, fun, and weird. Also, Jason Sudeikis really pulled a fast one on me in this one. For the first third or so of the movie, he’s so vanilla and boring and I just kept thinking, “if you want boring and vanilla, Sudeikis is your guy.” But then his character takes a turn, and he becomes a major asshole and it’s like, “whoa, calm down Sudeikis. Now I hate you.” So, y’know, surprising stuff on his part.
I know sometimes we think we’re all capable of being monsters, but in this movie they both literally become monsters.
TV shows I watched this week
Mr. Robot
We’re approaching the tail end of the series here and oh wait, what’s that? Tubi is no longer carrying ‘Mr. Robot.’ Well, fuck, what am I gonna do now?
Me and the girlfriend scrambled to find it for free somewhere but no such luck. Amazon Prime is selling single episodes for $2 so I’ve purchased one of those so far (actually, I purchased two, but the first purchase was for an episode we watched already. I’m an airhead).
We got four more episodes to go and if we can’t find a free place to watch it, then so be it. I will totally pay $8 to finish the rest of this.
So, there you go. If you were looking for a review of a show, what could be better than me telling you I’m willing to pay cash money to finish out what had been a totally free experience up until this point.
One silver lining in all of this- we no longer have to watch commercials. The remainder of my Mr. Robot experience will be commercial free.
Jeopardy!
(Preface: I wrote the newsletter on Thursday evening so the below is slightly outdated.)
I missed last night’s episode and tonight’s episode is about to air (I’ll watch it as soon as I’m done with the newsletter). So, as I write this, I have no idea if Jamie Ding is still champion. And I won’t google it. I don’t want the spoiler. Jeopardy is at its best when there’s a super champion in the midst of a long run. If he loses, I wanna see it and be surprised by it.
That being said, since I never did catch up with last night’s episode, the only thing that could kill my mood is if I missed the one episode where he did lose. That would suck. So, I’ll be tuning in tonight hoping that he’s still there in the beginning intros like he has been for about the past month or so.
Album I listened to this week: Honora / Flea
Flea, famous for being a Red Hot Chili Pepper (among other things), released a solo album. He named the album after his great-great grandmother, which is impressive because I have no idea what my great-great grandmother’s name is.
Turns out, Flea made a jazz album, which if you know anything about him, makes a lot of sense. Flea loves jazz. I feel a little out of pocket talking about a jazz album. I like some jazz, but I wouldn’t consider myself a jazz-head so I have a hard time feeling like I have any authority at all to tell you if this is good or bad.
But it’s my newsletter so here goes… I enjoyed this album very much. I have some odd specifics for the small amount of jazz I do like and somehow Flea’s album fits inside those boundaries. The two songs I enjoyed the least were ones with guest vocalists on them (Thom Yorke and Nick Cave). But for the most part, I would say that this is a very solid album. I will probably give it more spins in the future when I wanna chill out. That’s the vibe it gives me.
Flea doesn’t sing but he does some talk-shouting in one of the songs which is kinda cool. It’s like he doesn’t waste a lot of space for words, which gives the small amount of words he does spit out more power.
The woman on the cover of the album is not Flea’s great-great grandmother. It’s a 1960s era photo of Flea's mother-in-law Shahin Badiyan in Iran (and also a bird).
Book I’m currently reading
My Boring-Ass Life / Kevin Smith
I did it, I finally finished this book. The last third or so of the book is definitely the best part. Kevin Smith takes a bit of a turn. He stops listing all the details of his days and instead starts dropping opinions on things and tells more stories. It starts to feel more blog-ish and essay-ish which was more enjoyable. He also stopped updating as frequently which made it feel somewhat less overbearing.
The highlight was a long story he wrote over several days about Jason Mewes and his battles with addiction. It’s good shit. It was probably more enjoyable to read it from the comfort of 2026 knowing that he cleans up and everything turns out fine in the end.
This book should be for Kevin Smith obsessives only. I consider myself a fan but there were many moments when I felt like I didn’t have what it took to finish this book. At one point I had thoughts of a plan to keep reading this book but in small increments over several days while dedicating most of my reading time to a new book. I decided not to do that though because I’ve never been good with reading more than one book at a time.
Anyways, snoochie boochies. Onto the next book…
Random Sports Thought
The Golden State Warriors won their play-in game last night and that’s pretty cool and I still love me some GSW after all these years. And while it seems like they still have a little magic left to offer, they still got one more play-in game (against the Phoenix Suns). And if they can get past that, all that magic spent will be to find themselves in a best-of-seven series with the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are the defending champions and a buzzsaw to most teams who get in their way.
So, am I rooting for the Warriors? Yes, I will root for the Warriors until it’s no longer an option. My heart is with them but my mind says if they somehow do find their way into the playoffs against the Thunder, they run a real risk of getting swept.
But hey, that’s why they play the games. So, we’ll see.
Way-too-early NBA Finals Prediction:
Oklahoma City Thunder vs Detroit Pistons
I almost went with the Celtics instead of the Pistons based on experience. But I’m gonna ride with the upstart Pistons on this one because the Celtics kinda bore me and the Pistons are anything but boring.
I don’t wanna say the words out loud, but I’m concerned that Curry and these Warriors may never win a championship again. And if so, that’s alright. They did their thing. They had their era. But I’ll still keep my fandom alive for the nights when Curry puts on a show and still reminds us all he’s the greatest shooter of all time and when he’s fully locked in, can still look like he’s playing with cheat codes.
Random Pro Wrestling Thought
Darby Allin is the new World Champion in AEW. Holy shit. What a great moment. It all seemed to happen so fast, it felt like kind of a blur. Darby won a #1 contender match at Dynasty on Sunday and MJF had a pretty crazy title defense against Kenny Omega at that same show.
A part of me didn’t think MJF should have to defend his title three days after a PPV defense. I also wasn’t sure if I was ready for MJF’s title run to be over. But whatever. This rules.
This felt right for a few reasons. Dynamite was right outside of Seattle where Darby is from. Darby is the forever underdog, and it feels good to see the underdog overcome. He also might be the coolest dude in wrestling at the moment. Darby is also a Day 1 guy at AEW.
Also, it’s the week before Wrestlemania. Why not make a little noise in the lead up to your competitor’s biggest show of the year? This had to be part of the thought process in AEW.
I love that they brought in Sting to give him a peptalk (and later congratulate him) which added weight to the moment. As the living legends of wrestling get older, it becomes more and more obvious that Sting is the coolest of them all.
I’m looking forward to the Darby Allin Era. Who knows how long it will last? But I would love to see a string of title defenses where people give their best, but Darby just digs into his crazy and overcomes.
AEW nailed this. They provided us with a classic, unforgettable wrestling moment.
Weekly Top 5: Ramones
1- Joey
2- Dee Dee
3- Marky
4- CJ
5- Johnny
Weekly Quote
“The Ramones own the fountain of youth. Experiencing us is like having the fountain of youth.”
-Joey Ramone
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.
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Upcoming Shows
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