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I don’t have any exciting pics of me from this week so here’s an exciting pic of Jinx taking a nap.
Random Thought
I’ve been trying real hard not to post serious opinions here in the newsletter or elsewhere on social media. I mostly find that it brings down the mood of the room and the mood needs all the help it can get. Sometimes I think the best thing I can do for the world is just talk about silly stuff or things of little importance because those are sometimes the most fun conversation starters and hopefully no one’s trying to start any beef over any of it.
But there’s still this odd urge to want to put it out there and let people know where I stand on things. I’m sure that it’ll mostly accomplish nothing. I suppose if Taylor Swift came out and told her fans to vote for Joe Biden or that what’s going on in Gaza is genocide, that could make a difference but I don’t think the opinion of Josh Wells is enough to start any movements. At this level, it feels like I’m more at risk of pissing people off and making my life harder than it has to be.
But that’s also kinda a shitty reason not to speak your truth. So I don’t know, I feel compelled to share a few serious opinions so I’m gonna shoot them at you in machine gun fashion instead of long drawn out explanations:
-What’s going on in Gaza is genocide.
-I’m not gonna tell you who I’m gonna vote for but I will tell you who I’m not gonna vote for and that’s Donald Trump.
-I believe the climate crisis is real but I also think it’s probably too late to do anything about it so you might as well let me use plastic bags in the state of New Jersey again.
-Men should have no say over women’s bodies.
-The current Supreme Court is a disaster and possibly the most important thing to think about when it comes to Presidential elections. Presidents are for four years but Supreme Court assignments can last a generation.
-One day the sun will expand and consume this planet and everything on it so mostly nothing matters. Still, it’d be cool if we all could just chill out and be nice to each other and enjoy this shared ride of pointlessness together.
-I think everyone should have a right to end their own life without shame.
-Things could be so much worse but they also could be so much better.
-Capitalism is a scam that benefits the rich.
-The U.S. prison system is broken.
-Talking in movie theaters is wrong.
-Chew with your mouth closed.
-Cats are better than dogs.
-The build and measurements of modern society are oppressive to tall people.
I think that’s everything. If I haven’t lost everybody yet, please enjoy the remainder of the newsletter.
Movies I Watched Recently
Your Lucky Day
(Netflix)
I went on a pretty wild ride with movies this past weekend. I actually watched 20 minutes of two other movies before I gave this movie a shot. I’m not gonna name the other movies because maybe I’ll watch them down the line and I’ll be in a better mood for either of them. But for what I was searching for this past Saturday, they were both a little too slow-moving for my liking.
‘Your Lucky Day’ is definitely not slow-moving or boring. The very first scene shows a drug dealer getting beat for some drugs. From then on, the movie keeps a pretty steady and fast pace. Said drug dealer (Sterling) ends up in a convenience store where some dude just won a $156 million lottery jackpot and is being very loud about it. Sterling is at the ATM while the winner is making a big deal about it and so he decides he’s going to try and rob this dude for the ticket.
Things get crazy and stay crazy and actually get even crazier. The store itself turns into a hostage situation. There’s plans and collusion and unexpected alliances and definitely some betrayals.
The whole movie has a dark undertone and in the long run you get to see the dark side of every character at one point or another. There’s maybe a character or two who could possibly be the “good guys” in this story, but even they make a couple of morally corrupt decisions along the way.
I enjoyed this movie very much. It’s not very long either, 1 hr, 29 min and it moves quick. The story is very straight forward and not heavy on the brain (not that I’m against ‘heavy on the brain’ type stuff but I just wasn’t in the mood for it at this time).
I was saddened after the fact when I did some googling and found out the actor who played Sterling had passed away.
Angus Cloud was most famous for the TV show, ‘Euphoria,’ it seems. I never watched it but I did see Cloud in the movie, ‘North Hollywood,’ not too long ago and he was very good in that as well. Gone too soon. Rest in peace, Angus Cloud.
TV show I’m currently watching
Atlanta
(Hulu)
I’m in the midst of the second season and maybe even more than the first season, the narratives jump around a lot from episode to episode. There was one particular episode where Earn and Vanessa go to some German-themed festival and things fall apart for them quickly there. This might be the heaviest episode so far. Vanessa is super into all the German-themed stuff but Earn can’t stand most of it and makes no effort to hide his displeasure. They’re so doomed and it’s so obvious but it’s like Earn won’t even try to make things right. They break up at the end and it’s almost a relief.
But with the different narratives episode to episode, I have no idea if the breakup sticks or not because the episode after that is all about Alfred (Paper Boi) going to the barbershop and his barber taking him on this wild adventure and the whole thing made me glad I cut my own hair instead of depending on someone else. I’m sure most, if not more than most, barbers are more disciplined than Alfred’s but still… it was a wild, silly episode. It sorta dulls the cut of the blade from the previous German-fest episode.
That’s where I’m at now. A part of me is hoping Earn and Vanessa work shit out but also I feel like that episode revealed a lot about Earn’s character and I’m not sure if I’m rooting for him as much as I was before I saw that episode.
Also, dig the Michael Vick cameo in the episode where he’s foot racing people for money.
Really? You’re gonna race Michael Vick? Earn was just trying to stunt in this episode. The entire episode was Earn trying to flex cash and stunt and watching it backfire. Ending the episode with a foot race against Michael Vick felt oddly appropriate, like there’s no bigger form of stunting blowing up in your face than trying to race Michael Vick outside of a strip club in the city of Atlanta.
Album of the Week
Happiness Bastards / The Black Crowes
So this was a super solid album. I’ve never been a huge Black Crowes guy but I do dig their whole 70’s/classic rock vibe. They’re very good at it and this album is no exception. It’s like a trip to revisit everything that’s good about rock and roll from 45-50 years ago. The Crowes aren’t inventing anything new here but that’s alright because they’re still able to deliver an album with a fresh sound. Sometimes I just want my rock music to rock and have a good time. There’s that old Keith Richards line I like to quote a lot about how a lot of music has the rock but it doesn’t have the roll. The Black Crowes got the roll. Sometimes I gotta settle my punk rock heart to get into it, but it’s there and it’s a solid groove.
I’m not sure what this title means because it’s not in any of the song titles or lyrics but I dig it. Feels more like a mission statement or a thing to aim to be.
Book I’m Currently Reading
On The Beach / Nevil Shute
This is such a wild book. It’s post World War 3 in Australia. Nuclear bombs have killed most of the world’s population. There’s radiation in the air that has made most of the planet unlivable except for parts of Australia. But the radiation is spreading and everyone who is still alive knows that it’s just a matter of time before the radiation reaches them and they too will soon be dead.
Maybe the most jarring aspect of this book is how all the characters just seem to go about their regular lives. Except for maybe one character, Moira, who drinks a lot because of the impending doom, it seems like almost everyone else is either trying to find reasons to live while they can or in some cases are in denial about how bad it is (the submarine captain, Dwight Towers, refers to his wife and kids in England as if they’re still alive).
Speaking of submarines, that’s another aspect of this book. The Australian Navy is still doing its thing and running submarine missions to inspect other areas on the extremely slim chance there’s life somewhere (and to get more exact radiation measurements so they can maybe better estimate when it’ll finally get to them). There’s recently been some radio transmissions from Seattle but it’s all gibberish and makes no sense. Still, they’re sending Dwight and his crew to go investigate.
And that’s where I left off. More to come next week…
At first I think my favorite character was Moira because she decided she was just gonna drink and party more and honestly, I’d probably do the same. But there’s this other character, John Osborne, who decides he’s gonna buy the world’s fastest car for pennies on the dollar. He gets it at a ridiculously cheap price but everyone thinks he’s crazy because the world is pretty much out of gas. But Osborne couldn’t resist and seems determined to make driving that car happen.
Random sports thought of the week
It’s that time of year where I confess I don’t know anything about college basketball so I don’t quite get all the madness around March Madness. It gets interesting as the tournaments progress, but the build-up hype is beyond me. I’m just not paying that much attention to college basketball and when you consider there’s 64 teams in the tournaments, I wonder if anyone else is either.
I will say that this year I have a case of Caitlin Clark fever. She’s been ripping it up on the court and in the headlines. She’s arguably the biggest star in all of American basketball at this very moment. She’s already declared for the WNBA draft for next season so this is it, championship or bust for her and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
I’d usually try to pick a slight underdog and usually as the tournament progresses, I’ll find myself naturally rooting for the lower seeded teams. Everyone loves an upset. I love when some #2 or #3 seed gets bounced in the first round. It’s so refreshing and it’s so final. One and done, no best of 5 or 7 or whatever.
And maybe for the men’s tournament I will still pull for underdogs along the way. But when it comes to the Women’s Tournament, give me the Iowa Hawkeyes all the way. It feels like destiny and for someone who doesn’t find himself caught up in the hype most years, this is definitely the hype I find myself fully submerged in.
That’s the sound of the Josh Wells Weekly jumping all the way up on the Iowa Hawkeyes bandwagon.
Random pro wrestling thought of the week
Sure, we’re gonna get Bryan Danielson vs Will Ospreay at AEW’s next PPV, Dynasty. And sure, I’m very conflicted as it’s the clash of my favorite wrestler on the planet (Danielson) vs my favorite wrestler of the moment (Ospreay). I totally expect Ospreay to win this match. What I’ll be rooting for personally is that it’s an instant classic that helps elevate Ospreay and also acts as a reminder that Danielson should still be in the convo for best on the planet.
But also, I wanna give props to Katsuyori Shibata, who probably had his best match so far in his AEW tenure against Bryan Danielson last week on Collision. This match helped build Danielson up for his match with Ospreay but fans took notice and there’s been a buzz about the Shibata match ever since. Not to be outdone, Ospreay has now challenged Shibata at next week’s Dynamite.
While I don’t exactly enjoy Shibata being treated as some stepping stone to bigger things, I do think there’s some value if Shibata gets in the ring with Ospreay and puts on another banger with him. That would be two bangers within a span of two weeks with arguably AEW’s two top talents at the moment. If there are any meaningful losses in professional wrestling, these would certainly qualify.
And what I really appreciate about it all is how it highlights three different talents in three different stages of their careers. It elevates Ospreay who looks poised to become “The Guy.” It’s a fresh reminder that Danielson is a living legend and we should appreciate all that we have left of his career as much as we can. And it puts a spotlight on Shibata, a talent who is maybe not as well known or beloved as the other two. Shibata is underrated but the dude is super talented and can mix it up and put on a great match with just about anyone. Hopefully his stature and booking in AEW will also benefit and improve from this build up.
Real recognize real. I also just realized this is the second week in a row I’m using a picture of Bryan Danielson shaking someone’s hand.
Top 5 Things I’d Do With $156 Million Dollars
1- Find a great financial assistant
2- Quit my job
3- Buy my mom something nice or maybe just give her a bunch of the money
4- Travel forever
5- So many tattoos
Weekly Quote
“I like unkempt; I don't mind if I have holes in my jacket or whatever. I think people should look more the way they feel.”
-Chris Robinson
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