Smash A Pumpkin

The Josh Wells Weekly, Episode 271

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Some cat hanging outside my bedroom window trying to get their picture taken for the Josh Wells Weekly.

Random Thought

It’s the last newsletter before Election Day but it’s also Halloween. Why do I feel more pressure to express my opinion about the election than I do about Halloween? I don’t know the exact answer. But I’m obviously not alone. It feels like as we get closer to election day, the temperature is turned up and people are speaking up and everything just seems really loud right now.

Also, why are Halloween and Election Day both disrespected holidays? Close the banks on both days. Give people the day off. That’s an America I want to believe in, one that takes both of these days seriously.

Anyways, I don’t know what to tell you that you probably haven’t already inferred from the past few weeks of this newsletter. I’m obviously voting for Kamala Harris. I think Donald Trump is an idiot and a wannabe dictator and he’s also probably racist. He might be that type of racist who’s unaware that he’s racist. He’s the racist who says he can’t be racist because he has a Black friend.

I don’t think Harris is any of those things, so she wins. It’s pretty easy to me. But maybe not to you and others and that’s spooky to me. The idea that Trump is popular with half the country scares me more than anything Halloween-related. Others might suffer from “Satanic-panic,” but I think I might be suffering from “Trump-panic.”

No matter who wins this election, even if it is Harris and for a day I can breathe a slight sigh of relief, I don’t think it’ll put an end to the immense divide in this country. If Trump loses and disappears forever, I’ll still know his supporters are out there being the same garbage human beings they were before the election. Even if Harris wins, it still feels like the idiots are on the cusp of taking over and they keep inching just a little closer every day.

If Trump wins, fuck, I don’t know, the idiots win. Gonna be a weird four years for people who like equality and compassion.

But hey, I don’t wanna put a total damper on the Halloween spirit. So, if you’ll allow me one final Halloween/Election Day comparison, doesn’t Donald Trump’s head resemble a pumpkin? Big, orange, full of mush, and a stench that gets worse over time if you keep refusing to put it where it belongs, in the trash.

Movie I Watched Recently

When You Finish Saving the World

(Prime)

I would definitely classify this as “emo-cinema.” Also, I don’t exactly know why but I really enjoy emo-cinema. Something about me just wants to feel things sometimes when I’m watching a movie.

This movie is about a mother and a son who have a challenging relationship with each other. The son, Ziggy, is a teenage brat with a decent social media following for his song writing. The mom, Evelyn, is a social worker who is heavily invested in her highly demanding job. Evelyn seems to want a better relationship with her son and Ziggy seems more focused on his social media following more than anything else.

But Evelyn isn’t perfect either. A mom/son combo show up at her job in need of assistance and Evelyn starts to over involve herself in the son’s life and it feels like she’s overcompensating with him for the relationship she lacks with her own son.

Over the course of the movie, there’s this back and forth of who’s more responsible for their lack of a healthy mom/son relationship. In the first half or so of the movie, it feels like this falls more on Ziggy but as the movie progresses, we learn things about Evelyn that make her probably just as guilty as Ziggy. One telling moment in particular is when they both miss an important award ceremony for their dad/husband, Roger, because they were both off doing their own selfish thing.

You’d probably only be into this movie if you got an emo itch that needs to be scratched but there is one undeniable thing about this movie that transcends that and it’s Julianne Moore’s powerhouse performance as Evelyn. She’s killer in this movie.

I’d also like to give props to Jesse Eisenberg on this one. He wrote and directed it and it’s his directorial debut and he didn’t do that thing a lot of famous actor-turned-directors like to do and put himself in it.

TV show I’m currently watching

Daisy Jones & The Six

(Prime)

There are these memes I run into sometimes about people who’ll start binging a show and then just quit somewhere in the middle for no reason and anytime I’ve seen one of those memes, I’d think, “people actually do that?” I’m usually very disciplined on this. If I start a show, I finish it. I mean, were you around when it took me months to watch all of, ‘King of the Hill?’ (Which I loved all the way through, by the way).

But for whatever reason, I quit on this show. I quit after episode 8 and there were only two more episodes left to go. I was so close to the finish line and for whatever reason, I just stopped. I enjoyed it. I’m not sure why this happened. It just did. I was suddenly one of those people those memes were referring to. But then I read the Stevie Nicks interview she recently did with Rolling Stone (great read) and she brought this show up and how she felt like in some ways she was watching her own story (the parallels to Fleetwood Mac are plenty). And I was like, “oh yea, that show. Maybe I should finish it.”

And so, I did. And I’m glad I did. The last two episodes were excellent. I feel like a lot of shows blow it on the final episode. Ending things are hard and it’s probably even harder when the thing that’s ending was good all the way through. I loved the ending. If I had any complaint at all, it’d probably be that it’s almost too perfect (there’s also one detail I’m a little WTF about but I can’t write it out because it’s a huge spoiler).

But yea, overall, great show. I should’ve finished it weeks ago. What’s wrong with me?

This was my dude. The drummer. When everyone else was mired in drama and being sad about being rock and roll stars, this dude was having a good time and enjoying the ride. Be like this dude.

Album of the Week

Cartoon Darkness / Amyl and The Sniffers

A lot of weeks this section is a bit of a chore. I force myself to find something new to listen to each week just so I can write about it here. And although it can feel like a chore, I do enjoy this part of the newsletter if only because it forces me to stay fresh and current with music. Before starting the newsletter, I didn’t really push myself a whole bunch to listen to new stuff. Now that I do push myself to listen to at least one new album every week, I can tell you that the odds are usually with me not loving the album. Honestly, most of what I listen to is just okay. Most of it rarely gets listened to again.

But this week was no chore. This week I got to listen to the new album of one of my favorite new-ish bands (they’ve been a band since 2016 and their debut dropped in 2019), Amyl and The Sniffers and this album did not disappoint. This album is a fury of high energy rock and roll that leans heavy towards a punk sound. Amy Taylor delivers as usual and retains her position as one of the most exciting lead vocalists/frontpeople in rock and roll right now.

The Sniffers are brash and in your face but also lovable and relatable. This album could get a party started and start a ruckus. If you were looking to get amped up or in the mood to fuck some shit up, this is it, look no further. And this is pretty much in line with everything else they’ve released up to this point.

They are possibly the most exciting band I know of right now. They are a surge of electricity that I’d love to see more of in rock music today. They are the shot of whiskey you take when just drinking beers won’t do it on a Friday night. They’re dangerous, fun, and they’ll have you waking up the next day wondering what the fuck was that and let’s do it again.

A rowdy bunch.

Book I’m Currently Reading

I am in between books. See ya next week.

Random sports thought of the week

Some quick random thoughts

-Damn, this is probably the worst season that’s ever happened to Aaron Rodgers when he’s healthy.

-The Washington Commanders may not be the best team in football, but they may be the most fun to watch. Jayden Daniels is the truth.

-The Buffalo Bills are really finding their form. I’m a fan of Josh Allen and this squad and I feel like Allen’s been cursed with the unfortunate positioning of being on a really good AFC team during the Patrick Mahomes era. I don’t know if he can surpass Mahomes, but it’d be fun to see the Bills be that team this season.

-But, as always, the Chiefs are the best team in the NFL until some other team in the playoffs proves otherwise.

-Go Lions! There’s no team I’d rather see win a championship more.

-I watched the end of the Celtics/Knicks home opener in Boston and the Celtics had such a large lead that they were able to try and chase the record for most 3-pointers in one game. They had the record tied at 29 and for like 8 minutes they shot as many 3-point attempts as possible and missed. It was one of the most accidently funny 8 minutes of my life. I still kinda can’t believe they didn’t break the record.

-The NBA is back. I’m not sure what I’m rooting for exactly this season, but I do wanna see Klay Thompson light it up in Dallas and I’d like to see Steph Curry continue to be an all-time great. I suppose no matter the circumstances, I’ll always be a Splash Bros fan.

Dwyane Wade got a statue. Well deserved. He was one of my favorites to watch when he played (I realize the internet had a field day with the statue’s face and it is what it is. I’m not gonna take this opportunity to add to it. Just wanna give my props to the man himself).

Random pro wrestling thought of the week

Props to Smackdown for throwing together what felt like an incredible 30 minutes or so to close out last week’s episode. The scheduled main event was the Motor City Machine Guns vs DIY for the #1 contender spot for the Tag Team Championships. That match on its own was really good and worthy of being a main event. But then you combine everything that happened after, and it was just incredible.

If you don’t want last week’s Smackdown spoiled, I’d definitely stop reading right NOW….

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After MCMG defeated DIY, the new Bloodline came out and bullied MCMG into having their championship match at that moment and it was like wait, these dudes just had a really good match. They can’t possibly be ready for another match. But they accepted the challenge and of course a ton of Bloodline antics ensued.

Jimmy and Jey Uso ended up helping out to even the odds and miraculously MCMG, a team that just debuted in WWE a week earlier, are now the Smackdown tag team champs.

Boom, awesome ending, right?

But wait, it still gets better.

Then we get a Jimmy and Jey Uso stare down. And then they hug. An amazingly feel-good moment and after everything else that just happened, what a ride. They pan to Roman who’s at the top of the stage looking on as his cousins hug it out and take in the crowd’s adulation. And then they close the show.

Incredible.

I’m not gonna say the Bloodline storyline is always hitting like it used to. But it’s almost unreal to see it still get incorporated into segments and many times still be the best part of the show. The new wrinkle feels like this time around, Jey and Jimmy will be strong individuals who’ll get to shine on their own instead of being relegated to as lackeys for the Tribal Chief.

There’s a Bloodline vs Bloodline storm brewing. Should be a fun time but also, what a way to incorporate MCMG, a new tag team in WWE but a team that comes in with an immense amount of pro wrestling accolades and experience, and help push and establish them within the confines of the WWE world.

Also, better luck next time DIY? I love Ciampa and Gargano. Hopefully this isn’t the last we see of them. But they might possibly need that Uso treatment of being treated more as individuals than as a team.

Ciampa and Gargano probably peaked with their rivalry in NXT. Still one of my favorite storylines of the past 10 years, heck, maybe ever. I don’t know if they’ll ever do anything this good again, but I dare WWE creative forces to prove me wrong.

Top 5 Candy Bars

1- Almond Joy

2- Peppermint Patty

3- Peanut Butter Twix

4- Snickers

5- Crunch

Weekly Quote

“Live free, do what you want, we’re all gonna die, so what does it matter anyway?”

-Amy Taylor of Amyl and The Sniffers

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