This One's For Karran

The Josh Wells Weekly, Episode 287

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I recently lost an old friend that I hadn’t seen in many years. Here we are being young and silly and probably intoxicated. Rest in peace, Karran Sahadeo.

Random Thought

I hadn’t seen Karran in many, many years. He moved to Toronto at some point, I think to pursue college and then a career and he eventually carved a life out for himself in a faraway place. When friends move elsewhere, I don’t think about it a whole bunch. I just assume any and all of my friends who moved away are doing their thing and doing it well and will be for a long time. A lot of that is just me wanting the best for my friends and the people I love so I just like to assume there’s no way they’re not doing anything but well when they leave this place.

I don’t know if me and Karran were ever super tight. But we were buds. I was probably in my low 30s, maybe even my late 20s, and Karran was six years younger than me which means he was definitely in his 20s when I met him. He passed away recently at 39. It goes so fast but when I do the math in my head, it almost feels like a whole lifetime could be lived between then and now.

We became acquainted by hanging out at the same bar (the Wild Rover) and more specifically on the same night, Thursdays, karaoke night. There was a time in my life when those Thursdays were often the best night of my week. Friday hangovers at work be damned, it was always worth it. Karran was a spark plug. He was a little dude with more energy than anyone else in the place. He wasn’t a great singer, but he was a great performer. He was all heart up there. ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ was HIS song and he’d belt it out every week with the same enthusiasm and heart. Karran was always smiling, always having fun, always adding to the vibe.

Those were good times. There were a bunch of us, and we were all regulars on Thursdays and there was so much love and joy in the room. When you’re in the middle of it, you just think, “well, this will last forever.” We’ll come here again next Thursday and have the same amount of fun we had this Thursday and there’ll always be a next Thursday.

And then one day there isn’t. We got old. We did different things. Karran moved to Toronto. And life moves pretty fast and suddenly it’s like I’m only reminded of Karran when Facebook tells me it’s his birthday. He turned 39 this year. I paused and thought about some of our memories as I went to post on his wall as is yearly tradition. I probably smiled or maybe even laughed. I can’t not think about those karaoke days and not feel joy if only for a fleeting moment.

And then two days later, Karran was no longer with us. It was so strange. I had just had a small flood of happy thoughts inspired by him. And now for whatever reason, he’s gone.

I can’t imagine Karran was anything other than a sparkplug of joy and positive energy wherever he was. It didn’t matter if it was New Jersey or Toronto. The joy he brought to people around him must’ve been the same. I miss our good old days, but I’m sure this entire time, he’s been creating good new days with new people.

Karran was 39. I’m 45 and that just feels like a robbery to me. Why should any of my friends who are younger than me not get to live as long as I do? There’s no reasoning or rational I suppose. Just a constant reminder to live while you can and enjoy these moments and hug your friends and let people know that you care about them. And maybe most importantly, cherish the memories.

For the rest of my life, I get to remember karaoke nights and Karran and laughing and smiling and being fools together. And I just think, fuck, how lucky I am sometimes and blessed to have known all the good people I’ve known and to have shared all the good times I’ve shared with those good people.

Karran was a blessing to us all. I’ll never forget the good times and a part of me will always miss those good times. What I wouldn’t do for one more Thursday night.

I’m so glad other people took pictures because I never really did. We had a lot of fun though. This one is from 2011 according to Facebook. 14 years ago.

Movie I Watched Recently

Bad Lieutenant

(Prime)

Harvey Keitel plays a crooked cop, maybe the crookedest cop, and an all-around bad dude. There is nothing redeemable about his character. From the beginning of this movie till the end, he’s a completely unlikable asshole.

I’m not sure what drew me to this movie. I guess it’s because it was a Keitel vehicle and I thought I might enjoy that. I didn’t really enjoy this movie a lot. I guess Keitel does a good acting job in it, but maybe it’s almost too good if he made his asshole character feel like an asshole I just couldn’t get behind at any point in this movie.

The ending is bizarre. It definitely felt like this unredeemable character realized how unredeemable he was, and he tried to do something drastic to reverse that but even the thing he tried doing to be redeemed was an asshole move.

There are a couple uncomfortable scenes that put this on my, “I hope my mom never watches this,” list. I know art is supposed to challenge us and I get it and I was definitely challenged a few times in this movie. But sometimes I just wanna enjoy a thing. Life is challenging. Give me relief from that. This movie doesn’t really do that.

Don’t cry, Harvey. Who cares what I think?

TV show I’m currently watching

Six Feet Under

(Netflix)

I did it. It’s over. I have completed my ‘Six Feet Under’ binge.

There’s gonna be some HUGE spoilers here so if that’s something you don’t wanna read, scroll fast past this section.

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I can’t believe this show had the audacity to kill Nate twice. But the second time was for good. And how he dies is just insane. It’s like he’s lying in a hospital bed fighting for his life and it’s almost hard to root for him to want to live because of what he does with the last few moments of his life.

He suffers a stroke (or a heart attack or some kind of traumatic event that puts him in a coma) immediately after cheating on Brenda with Maggie. And it felt like Nate and Maggie were gonna hook up eventually, but I kept hoping Maggie would have the sense to push him away. But she had a weak moment, and they did the thing and after they were done, he gets up and has a stroke and that’s it. It’s off in an ambulance and next thing you know, the Fishers and Maggie are sharing a waiting room.

Meanwhile, Brenda went to the dumb Quaker church to meet Nate (as a surprise. She didn’t tell him she was going). She’s an atheist who doesn’t believe in anything, but she went to give Nate’s new thing a chance or just to meet Nate halfway. It was just a super decent move on Brenda’s part and Nate is off having sex with the Quaker chick who got him into that church in the first place.

It should also be noted that Brenda is pregnant with Nate’s child. Brenda married Nate and took on the role of being Maya’s mom because Maya’s real mom is dead. Brenda, who before Nate, had a pretty good thing with this dude Joe, risked it all and cheated on Joe with Nate. Brenda was ALL IN and then some on Nate.

So, Nate, who’s going to die soon, wakes up from his coma for a short amount of time. Within this short amount of time, he has a convo with Brenda about how he doesn’t want to be with her anymore. She’s pregnant with his child and he is dumping her on his soon-to-be deathbed. It’s so unreal and such a high level of disrespect.

So, Nate dies. And I wanna be sad. I suppose I’m sad in a way that I feel bad for Ruth, David, and Claire because he’s their son/brother. But Nate was being such a jerk right before he died, it’s challenging to find the sympathy.

They throw in this short scene where Claire remembers Nate crying the day Kurt Cobain died and then offering Claire her first pot ever. And they almost had me. I was also sad when Kurt died and just started smoking weed around that time. He’s just like me, right? NO!!! Nate was a bad dude in the end. He went out like a jerk. Every scene with Brenda after just makes me feel bad for her, not Nate.

Nate dies and they still got two more episodes to go. A part of me thought they could’ve just ended it with Nate’s death. But there were a fair amount of loose ends to tie up and they get to that. It’s decent. The part I was the most into was watching Brenda move on. But there’s some other stuff like David and Keith’s family, what now with the business, and Claire’s new boyfriend, Ted, who I hated at first because he’s a jock/lawyer, but sorta becomes an endearing character quickly. But also, Claire gets some job in NYC and she’s leaving so I guess, so long Ted?

Claire leaving is how the show ends, sorta. It’s how it should’ve ended. As she’s driving on highways, they do this insane montage that goes through time and shows all the main characters when they die. That seemed like such a wild choice. I don’t know if I needed to know that, especially Keith’s death. Shot to death working for an armored car service. They did him dirty. Also, Ruth dies in the year 2025…. that’s this year. Creepy.

This show was incredibly sad. It’s easily the saddest TV show I’ve ever watched. Whenever I spend five seasons with the same characters in a short amount of time, there is a bit of separation anxiety. I sometimes miss the wacky adventures the characters I’ve grown to love are gonna get into. And maybe there’s some of that here, but there’s also a sense of relief that I won’t have to subject myself to another sad episode any longer.

Of course, I’m not really allowed to be surprised that this show was that sad. It was a show that focuses heavily on death which is clearly advertised up front. I knew what I was getting into. And I even dig some sad content sometimes. But five seasons in a condensed period felt like a lot. I’m not sure if I would’ve found this show more manageable if I watched it once a week or maybe if it wasn’t bingeable, if I would’ve even had the gumption to stay committed the entire time. I guess I’ll never know for sure.

I would say it’s a good show that borders on great sometimes. But it will always carry an asterisk with me because of how incredibly sad I found this show to be on a regular basis. I would find it hard to make mention of this show without bringing that up.

As a sign that things are really coming to an end, Claire ends up getting into an accident in the green hearse and junking it for parts. It truly is the end of an era on all fronts.

Album of the Week

My Apologies to the Chef / Winona Fighter

Sometimes all a band needs is a clever enough name and that’ll be enough for me to give them a listen. This would be one of those times. It helps that I knew going in that this was going to be of the punk rock variety. Add those two things together and here we are.

Winona Fighter are a solid blend of pop punk and anger. Most of the tunes are catchy and they tend to keep things within that framework. But the lyrical content and the vocals, provided by Coco Kinnon, seem to come from a slightly darker place. Most of it is of the accusatory anger variety; exes, backstabbers, people who talk shit… that sorta thing.

It’s an overall youthful anger that gives it a fresh vibe. If we were looking to make comparisons, I would say that Winona Fighter is something of a more pissed off Paramore. But I don’t wanna dwell too deep into that comparison and would rather allow Winona Fighter to be their own thing.

I’m not sure what this album title means or what it has to do with anything. Most of the song titles follow a similar formula of seemingly having nothing to do with the song itself (or at least not made up of any of the lyrics from that song). I kinda dig that.

Book I’m Currently Reading

I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both / Mariah Stovall

This book has been pretty okay so far. It follows Khaki who is going through her past because of an invite from her old friend, Fiona, who is having a party to celebrate her newly adopted daughter. Khaki and Fiona were best friends at some point and Fiona had an eating disorder and their friendship seemed to have a lot of challenges.

Then Khaki went to college and seemed to slowly lose touch with Fiona. At first, there’s some contact and talks about visiting each other. But I don’t think it ever happens. The crux of what I’ve read so far is about Khaki early on in her college years. She’s a punk rock kid who doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. Also, she seems to have developed an eating disorder of her own since parting ways with Fiona and maybe even sees it as some trade off. Like in her head, if she has the disorder, Fiona won’t have it so maybe it’s a good thing in a way?

Khaki seems really troubled by her past with Fiona. It feels like there’s something huge she wants to bring up, but she never says it. I feel like this book is one big obvious point away from being clearer. But for now, it’s mostly about Khaki’s struggle to be her own person and to try and overcome her eating disorder.

More to come…

This is an actual page of the book. It’s not all like this but it got weird for a few pages there.

Random sports thought of the week

This dude, Mac McClung, won the NBA’s slam dunk contest for the third year in a row and in turn, has made it pretty exciting to watch again. The slam dunk contest has suffered a bunch as of late because big names mostly stay away. I don’t know if it’s because they don’t wanna embarrass themselves or whatever, but the contestants are usually not the same players who make the All-Star rosters.

So, Mac McClung is not a household name. But by winning this thing a third year in a row with exciting trick dunks and Harlem Globetrotter-esque showmanship, he’s starting to make a name for himself and garnering attention for himself and the contest. And maybe most importantly, his dunks are fun to watch.

His dunks are nothing you could pull off in a game. They’re all dependent on something that couldn’t happen in those confines. But that’s alright with me, as long as everyone’s having fun. And if anyone takes any issue with it, let the all-stars of the NBA rise up and take it back.

But they probably won’t. And I say, stay seated. Let’s get more tricksters in the contest. Let’s get more eye-popping content. This works well for these current times anyways. Give me something that’s gonna garner millions of likes on TikTok and Instagram.

Mac McClung seemed uncommitted to doing the contest again next year. Let’s hope that if it’s true and he doesn’t come back to defend his threepeat (the only person in NBA history to threepeat the dunk contest btw) that he’s done enough to inspire more lesser-known names to get out there and blow our minds. McClung was a G league dude in his first contest. If it takes G league dudes to provide us with the next wave of exciting slam dunks, then so be it. I think what’s more important is the popularity of the slam dunk and the contest itself than the players who decide to participate.

It was a wrap when he hit this one. It was a true thing of beauty.

Random pro wrestling thought of the week

All is right in the world now that Toni Storm is the AEW Women’s Champion again. They had me worried there for a second. Storm went on a bit of an international losing streak, picking up losses not just in America, but in Japan and Mexico as well. And then she disappeared. I thought maybe that’d be it for a while. Maybe Toni herself just needed some time away from the game and if so, it was well deserved.

And then she came back to AEW pretending to be a younger version of herself who forgot the previous three years of her career. And that was fun. I enjoy the young rock-and-roller Toni Storm, but also, that character had its time, and I just knew at some point, Storm would have to bring her “Timeless” character back.

And then she did and in hindsight it all worked out well and made sense. They were able to get it all in line with a big AEW show in Australia, Toni Storm’s home country. This allowed her to win the top title in front of a home crowd, something that’s not easy to pull off if that home is Australia.

I’m also happy to see Luther back in the fold.

It’ll be fun to see where they go from here. 2024 was a huge year for Toni Storm. In my head, the obvious plan should be a build up towards Toni Storm vs Mercedes Moné at the next All In PPV which is AEW’s biggest show of the year. That would be a pretty sick flex for AEW, showcasing two of the true top female talents on the planet at the moment.

Toni Storm reclaiming the title in front of a rambunctious Australia home crowd.

My Top 5 Go-To Karaoke Songs

1- Gay Bar / Electric Six

2- Give It Away / RHCP

3- No Sleep Till Brooklyn / Beastie Boys

4- The Humpty Dance / Digital Underground

5- Ace of Spades / Motorhead

Weekly Quote

“I'm a huge karaoke person even though I have the worst singing voice. When you love doing something, who cares?”

-Hoda Kotb

Thanks for reading!

I am now on BlueSky. You can now follow me there as well as Instagram and Twitter at:

@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.

I got some other videos as well if you want to check them out. I just uploaded a raw phone recording of my 30-minute set for my 45th birthday. Unpolished, unedited, warts and all, if you’re into that sorta thing. Go here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRg2MM2mOOvh1JKnDatFiBQ

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