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Jinx being a blanket hog.
Random Thought
Today The Josh Wells Weekly is going to endorse a candidate for Governor of New Jersey and that candidate is Phil Murphy.
Why Phil Murphy? I say, why not Phil Murphy? Murphy has been a completely mediocre governor so far and that’s all I really ask of in our candidates anymore. The state of New Jersey is filled with mediocre people, a lot of them less-than-mediocre. Mediocre is what we are and what we deserve and I think Phil Murphy can be that mediocre governor one more time for my home state of NJ.
I’m sure a lot of people will probably not vote and I get it. Neither of these candidates are very inspiring. But why should they be? We are not a very politically involved people. Most people would rather you not talk about politics. We spend most of the year not caring and then a few weeks before an election, the caring is suddenly on. And that’s fine, but if that’s how it’s gonna be, we’re always gonna have mediocre candidates and we should accept that and realize we’re partially to blame because we don’t wanna be more involved in the process than we have to be.
We’ve allowed our own political system to get away from us and as a result, we get what we deserve, two middle-aged white dudes trading barbs at each other under the guise of regurgitated talking points. No matter who wins this one, they’ll be average at best and the best we can hope for is that we successfully don’t choose the less-than-average middle-aged white dude. I believe Murphy is the closest to average of the two therefore the best case scenario. He’s got my vote.
Third party candidates have not been considered. I’ll consider them when they consider running more serious campaigns instead of launching hail Mary’s at the end zone as the clock ticks down at the end of the 4th quarter.
Movie I Watched Recently
Layer Cake
(Netflix)
While everyone else seems to be catching up on the latest Bond movie starring Daniel Craig, I decided to take it back to 2004 and watch the movie Layer Cake instead. And it was a very fun action movie. There’s drug dealing and bad guys and honestly, no good guys. I mean, I guess Daniel Craig sorta plays a good guy, but really he’s just a bad guy who happens to go up going against guys more bad than he is.
True to its name, this movie has a ton of layers. It never lets you rest. As soon as you think you’ve gripped the plot, they add something else to it. It gets messy but messy can be fun and it mostly is in this flick.
I enjoyed the ending a whole bunch. Very memorable, it sticks with you.
Hit me with them layers.
TV show I’m currently watching
Reservation Dogs
(Hulu)
There’s so much I like about this show. I’ve had my eyes on it for a few weeks but I wanted to let some episodes build up so I could binge it a bit. Obviously, the first draw for me is the name. It’s a nod to one of my all-time favorite movies, Reservoir Dogs, and just in case there’s any doubt that’s what they’re channeling here, they make a few obvious references to that movie in the first episode which I thought was rad.
But really what this show is about is a group of four Native American friends, teenagers, who live on a reservation. It’s a bit of a coming of age story. It’s got some comedy and it definitely has some drama. The four friends band together and acquire money in shady fashion to try and save up so they can all move to California. They had a fifth friend, Danny, who died the year before and that weighs pretty heavy on them.
There’s also a turf war between them and a new gang of teenagers. There’s fighting and paintball shooting and other fun stuff and I really just want to see them take it to this new gang of kids but so far that hasn’t happened so we’ll see.
Every episode is different and unique but slowly adds to the overall story. It’s very enjoyable. I’ll be sad when I’m through with this and have to wait for a second season (or maybe it just ends and there is no second season, I don’t know).
The gang.
Jeopardy!
Matt-mania is over and I am sad. Matt Amodio’s win streak ended at 38, the 2nd longest in Jeopardy! history. It was tough to watch. He’d been so dominant and then suddenly he found himself matched up against 2 contenders who were able to go blow-for-blow with him. I guess nothing lasts forever. The getting-to-know-you segment should’ve been spoiler enough. Amodio had probably run out of interesting stuff to talk about (anyone would) and so this episode his interesting tidbit was how he was getting recognized in public for his sudden Jeopardy! fame. Just seemed like if he had to come back for one more episode, what more could he possibly say during that segment?
Matt-mania was fun to watch though. Jeopardy! was weird without Alex Trebek but things keep moving and I think this helped move Jeopardy! into a good place post-Alex. I think Alex would’ve dug it.
Usually when I watch Jeopardy!, it’s to play along and answer the questions myself (which I am not very good at). But with Amodio stacking wins, I was tuning in to be a fan of something. I’d just watch in awe sometimes as he’d clean up the 2nd round and make wild Daily Double bets and solidify his large winning margins in Final Jeopardy!
Matt-mania forever. Let us never forget this fun chapter in Jeopardy! history.
And let us never forget the $1 at the end that kept his total winnings from ever being a nice, round number. I loved that.
Album of the Week
No Taste/ Bad Waitress
Bad Waitress is a 4 woman punk rock band from Canada and they rock. This album is a cool listen. It sorta feels like a tale of 2 albums. The first half is ragey and punk. There’s some definite throwback vibes to some of the Riotgrrrl bands of the 90’s. On the 2nd half of this album, they sorta slow things down a bit and show a little bit more melody which is also cool. But I definitely am more partial to that first half. Turn that shit up loud and work yourself up into a beautiful frenzy.
Book I’m Currently Reading
Nöthin' But a Good Time / Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock
I’m all wrapped up with this book and what a ride it was. This was a very informative and dense history of hair metal. I’m not even the biggest hair metal fan, but this was a fun read which I guess makes sense because whether you love or hate hair metal (or fall somewhere in between), that shit looked like fun.
Obviously grunge and alternative rock come in and ruin everything in the end for hair metal. There’s some fun quotes of dudes in some of those alternative bands who were also into hair metal themselves, so it’s not like they came in purposely trying to destroy it. It’s just the way things played out (although Kurt did have a couple anti-hair metal stances in his feud with Axl and also turning down an opening slot to tour with Skid Row because they were homophobic).
But then there’s the resurgence and revival of hair metal and the craving for that nostalgia. And maybe that means more to older people such as myself, but that’s also a lot of fun. Going to a Guns N’ Roses concert (a thing I’ve done twice in the past 5 years) is a sure way to find myself surrounded by people my age who also probably used to scream-sing the lyrics to GNR’s, ‘Get in the Ring,’ when they were 12.
I’m sure the work on this book was exhaustive. If someone put forth this kind of effort on grunge or punk, I’d be all over it for sure. This book is great and if anyone’s trying to write a book about any genre of music, they should aspire to want to be anywhere near as good as this.
Random sports thought of the week
Some tool at Barstool Sports tried to give John Cusack shit for being a fan of both the Chicago Cubs and White Sox. Cusack is known to show up at both Cubs and White Sox home games rocking the hats of both teams. This dummy from Barstool Sports (who I’m just not interested enough in to google his name) decided to confront him at a White Sox game about it and it sorta blew up in his face. He was way too worked up about it and Cusack just calmly and coolly handled his shit.
If you’ve known me for a while, you probably know my guidelines for sports fandom are way looser than most. Idgaf who you root for or if you change teams or hop on bandwagons or front run. I’ve done and will continue to do all that shit. I say follow your heart. If you’re rooting for a team and they’re doing you dirty, abandon them like you would a relationship or a job.
I did this with the Jets and it’s helped me to enjoy football more than ever before. They had broken my heart so often with bad decisions and I just decided, enough, I don’t need to root for this anymore. I changed teams (switched to the Raiders for a couple seasons). But now I’m pretty loose with it. I’m mostly on the Bills bandwagon this year but I don’t totally commit to any one team anymore. I’m a player and a free agent and I’ve never enjoyed being a fan more.
Same goes with basketball. I used to be a New Jersey Nets fan but the moment they packed up and moved to Brooklyn, I decided to not root for anyone. Now I just enjoy basketball. Now I’m happy when mostly any team wins the finals. I sometimes find myself rooting for teams (got hung up on the Warriors and the Trailblazers a bit) but I mostly find something to like about every team. It’s such a fun way to enjoy the sport.
This Barstool chud thinks that suffering is a must if you wanna consider yourself a “true” sports fan. I don’t subscribe to that philosophy. I try to find joy in sports always (except for injuries obviously). There’s no rulebook. People will try to pressure you to believe there’s some unwritten rules but that’s dumb and if you’re chaining yourself to some foolish beliefs and it’s making you miserable and you try to wear that like some badge of honor, I think you’re ultimately wasting your own time and are the true creator of your own misery.
Cusack is less miserable than that Barstool idiot. Cusack wins.
Face-to-face with a legend.
Random pro wrestling thought of the week
This Becky Lynch heel turn. I was not into it at first. When she came out as a surprise return at SummerSlam and beat Bianca Belair with a cheap shot, I thought to myself, damn, it’s good to see her back but I don’t know if I like this.
Before that, as soon as fans were allowed back in attendance, they were chanting, “We want Becky!” My lazy assumption was that she would come back and be the biggest star in wrestling so I didn’t think a heel turn suited her. But suddenly I find myself liking this heel option so much better. She’s actually great at being a heel. She’s conceited and braggadocios and it feels right. In a land of vanilla promos that feel forced and robotic, Becky’s feel legitimate and natural, as if these were the actual words someone of Becky’s stature and confidence would say.
Before her return, I’d tell you the best story going in WWE is anything involving Roman Reigns. I suddenly feel like Lynch is giving that a run for its money. Two legitimate stars doing some of the best work they’ve ever done and both as heels. It’s the two most must see angles on WWE. I knew I’d enjoy Becky once she returned, but I didn’t know I’d enjoy it this much.
And they might possibly make a star out of Bianca Belair. After SummerSlam, I was worried the manner in which she lost made her look weak. But now it feels like the crowds are behind her more than ever. Suddenly WWE is looking like it has a new female star to step up and stay on top. I don’t know if there’s been a more over female talent post-Charlotte/Becky/Sasha/Bayley.
It’s almost unreal to think of all the bad booking I sit through sometimes when watching the WWE stuff and yet this angle feels like a masterful piece of storytelling. The triple threat women’s match might be the match I’m looking the most forward to at the upcoming Crown Jewel event (and that’s before considering the historic implications of having a women’s match that means something take place in Saudi Arabia).
Just killing the game.
Weekly Top 5 List: Top 5 Wrestlers in the World Right Now
1- Becky Lynch
2- Roman Reigns
3- Kenny Omega
4- Tommaso Ciampa
5- Bryan Danielson
Hangman Paige is a very close 6th and with that Ladder Match win, might be interchangeable with Danielson right now.
Weekly Quote
“I think when you get to the point where you don't need to be in love, then you could be in love. You have to just be OK with yourself-and that's a long process.”
-John Cusack
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