So... Alright - Checking In...

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

Geoff checks in with y'all, talks Luka, television, Disneyland, Woodsy the Owl, and old Las Vegas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, So after pouring through all that data about security cameras and images and how many photos exist and yada yada yada last week, I thought maybe we'd take it a little lighter this week and just check in with each other, see how we're doing. How's everybody's 2025 going so far? Mine's been pretty good, you know. The United States seems to be on fire, unfortunately, politically and economically,

but outside of that, I've been doing all right. We suffered one setback with regulation recently where we found an office and went through the application process and everything and then submitted our deposit. And then the landlord backed out at the last minute. Decided they didn't want to rent it to us. Or maybe didn't want to rent it at all, I don't know. But so now we're back to square one on that,

which is a little bit of a bummer. But outside of that, it's been pretty okay. I went to Disneyland over the weekend with my wife and our friends Burndog and Vanessa Burndog, who I play trucks with. And of course, Vanessa of the Clutch My Pearls podcast that she does with my wife and with Eric's small wife, Barbara, Vanessa and Emily both have February birthdays. And so every few years we go to Disneyland to celebrate both of their birthdays together in February.

This year was one of those years. It was a lot of fun. Apparently, everybody else on Earth wanted to come celebrate Emily and Vanessa's birthdays as well. It was insanely packed. We did a day at Disneyland and a day at California Adventure Friday and a Saturday, which, which of course are the busy days But holy shit after we left we did some googling and apparently it was one of the busiest weekends in

A very long time it was I guess ski week, which is a thing in California where It happens before spring break. I guess and then kids can go skiing in the for a week That did not exist when I grew up in Florida and Alabama It happens before spring break, I guess. And then kids can go skiing in the for a week. That did not exist when I grew up in Florida and Alabama. There was no ski week, but I guess that's a common thing over there. Anyway, a lot of people came down for ski week, decided not to ski and instead to ride the Matterhorn, actually to ride the Guardians of the Galaxy ride, which had a three hour queue every time we tried to get into it with no lightning lane passes available.

So Guardians of the Galaxy and Space Mountain were the only two things we didn't get to ride. Did get to check out that new Princess and the Frog ride, which was awesome. Absolutely destroyed my wife. Got her so... she looked like she dove into a swimming pool. Had to run around the theme park finding new pants and shirt for my wife to wear. Shirt easy. Hard to find pants at Disneyland, turns out. Also finally got to ride Rise of the Resistance. I had wanted to ride that a bunch.

It had just opened last time we went to Disneyland, which would have been the pandemic year, I guess, right before the pandemic. But it was so crazy that it was sold out for the whole day by like 10 a.m. or something that time. So we finally got to do it. And it was just as good as everybody said, just as immersive and overwhelming.

And when I don't want to spoil it for the those of you who haven't done Rise of the Resistance, but it is a long ride. It is a journey. It is a story. And there is a moment when a couple of doors, a lot of moments where doors open up. There's a moment when doors open up and you're confronted with a scene that is just so immersively powerful. I felt like I was like fucking nine years old. I really, really did.

I don't know if you know what scene I'm talking about. There's storm troopers involved. It was exhilarating and terrifying in the span of about 10 seconds until I realized I was a grownup. Pretty wild. Anyway, ate so much candy that I threw up all night one night. My wife ate so much candy that I threw up all night

one night, my wife ate so much candy that she threw up all night one night. Didn't dampen how much fun we had though. Any chance I get to spend with Burndog and Vanessa, man I jump at it, they are just the two best people in the world to spend time with and the most fun to travel with, so. Feel very lucky that I got to do that this weekend.

Wanted to update you guys on the Luca A.D. saga. See where we are. I think this is just going to be a weekly update from here on out until you ask me to stop. But based on the continued emails I'm getting, nobody wants me to stop. So I'm not going to. OK, here's where we are. Since the last episode released today is Tuesday, February 25th. I'm recording this. So since the last episode released, the today is Tuesday, February 25th, I am recording this. So since the last episode released,

the Los Angeles Lakers have played two games. It was a light week for them. They went one and one, so they won one, they lost one, and I feel so fucking dirty reporting on the Lakers in a kind of positive manner, but I'm just trying to, I'm trying to funnel the positivity towards Luca, who I think is a dude who got like, unbelievably wronged and disrespected,

and not Lakers praise as a whole, because I can't do that. But Luca had an okay game, and a really, really fucking good game. But he's been playing himself back into shape, and it looks like he's probably there. The first game he scored 14 points, had 11 rebounds,

9 assists, 1 steal and it's a really good stat line. It's not as high as you'd want to see on points but it's pretty great facilitating. He basically has a triple double there which is kind of an earmark for all-star caliber play. A triple double is at least 10 points in three different A triple double is at least 10 points in three different stats in basketball. Most commonly, almost always, it is points, rebounds, and assists. On a very rare occasion, it will be steals or blocks, but that's like a... That requires like a Dyson Daniels to have the game of his life stealing or Victor Wiminyama to just have an awesome like monster of a blocking game, which does and can happen very, very rarely.

But most of the time, a triple double is points, rebounds and assists in that order. So for Luca to have 14, 11 and nine, that's fucking awesome. He was plus 13 on the game, which is great. Means he was distributing the ball, means he was scoring a little bit, but it also means he was playing defense and getting rebounds like those are. That was a good game for him.

You'd want to see his points come up more. And we did one problem with that game. He had six turnovers, not great. But he's a new guy on a new roster trying to figure out how to play with a new team that already knows how to play with each other. And those turnovers are to be expected a little bit, especially if you are going to be a primary ball distributor. The next game, however, he had a monster game.

32 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, four blocks, a steal and one turnover, or it might have been four steals and a block. I can't tell. Four, whatever. He had either had four steals and a block or four blocks in a steel Doesn't really matter either way. Those are both. That's an awesome stat line 32 10 7 4 1 and then only one turnover. That's Luca Donchich right there. That's what you expect. He played 31 minutes in that game He was a he had a plus minus of positive 20

So monster game from Luca looks like he's probably played back into shape. Seems like he's gelling. We'll see how he continues to go. Like I said, two games since the last time I reported for you guys, Lakers went one and one. They split it. Dallas Mavericks have also gone one and one. Anthony Davis still not playing.

The most recent update was last Thursday Thursday and the Dallas Mavericks said that he will be reevaluated in two weeks. Head coach Jason Kidd added that Davis is doing well, but it still might be too early to tell if he needs surgery. Here's a quote. I think you'll get a better understanding of what has to take place, but right now he's doing great, Kidd said. He's in the weight room. He was shooting on the court. A lot of positive things for him.

I don't know if that means surgery, but I think we're all excited to see him back to work. I bet you're excited to see him back to work. Jesus Christ. So Anthony Davis is in no danger of stepping on the basketball court anytime soon since his, if you've been following the saga along with us on this podcast, since his first game as a Dallas Maverick when he got hurt. I'll be back next week with more on that. We'll be another week into Anthony Davis's recovery, so maybe we'll have some more information, but it doesn't sound like we're gonna know for another two weeks at least. What are you watching on TV? I gotta tell you, I feel like I'm watching a lot and nothing all at the same time. Every time I turn on the TV and I go to watch something, I'm disappointed with my options.

There are things that I'm watching that I want to watch that I love, but it just doesn't feel like, I don't know, overall, I'm jonesing for something new. If you have any recommendations of really good television shows, reality or fiction or document, whatever, I don't care. Just something that really grabbed you that I may not have seen. Let me know about it. Email Eric at JeffSpots.com. Here's what I've been watching and bingeing lately. I'm all cut up on the new season of Love is Blind, the Minneapolis season.

And I got to tell you, I've been to Minneapolis before. I loved it. Seemed like a great place. The establishing shots they have of Minneapolis make it look so pretty. I mean, I know it is pretty, but man, that is a that is a photographable city. Kudos to those of you who live in the beautiful city that is Minneapolis. When the weather's good enough for you to enjoy it, because, man, love is blind is making me want to visit it. It really is. Enjoying that season, not particularly invested

in any of the people. I feel kind of medium towards all of them. Don't hate anybody, don't hate anybody, but I am enjoying it and desperate to get more episodes. The Traders, I'm all caught up on. I think it's been a phenomenal season. I see tons of US traders hate on Reddit. I'm in of course the traders subreddits on Reddit

and everybody seems to hate it and all they wanna do is compare it to the superior UK and Australia versions and then other countries that I don't have access to of course. And I get it, I watch those too. I think that the UK version of The Traders is consistently the best version of The Traders that I have seen.

I hear some of the other European countries have pretty phenomenal seasons as well. I don't have access to those right now. All that to say, yeah, they're different shows and they're gonna have different levels of value to you entertainment-wise, but I still think the US version of the Traders is fucking awesome. And I see a lot of complaints about the US version having celebrities,

whereas the UK version doesn't. And I, once again, I love that the UK version doesn't have celebrities, but I love that the US version does. These are people that I want to see Tom Sandoval be a fucking dunce on camera. It's the most entertaining thing in the world. It's making me fall in love with dumbass Tom Sandoval again, after all of the fucking nonsense that we all got subjected to over the last couple of seasons of Vanderpump.

Watching Caroline from Survivor, who I was not a huge fan of on Survivor, on the Traders, has made me kind of fall in love with her. I mean, she's maddening, but there's something so genuine and pure and kind and kind of heartfelt about her that it's just, she's just a delight to watch. There's a villain in Danielle that's fucking been fun to hate. I don't know, it's been an awesome season and I really enjoyed it.

And a tip for all of you US traders watchers. I believe on Peacock, the week of the last episode, they will air the first episode of the new season of the UK Traders, which has been out for a while in the UK, obviously, but, you know, us dumbass Americans haven't seen it yet. So as soon as US Traders is over, we'll be able to roll right into UK Traders, which I'm fucking jazzed about. Uh, been watching White Lotus. It's pretty good. It is really the same show every fucking season. I don't know why, but it doesn't bother me.

It's written well. He does such a good job of making frustrating characters that you don't like, but you wanna watch for some reason. Kind of wild though, that it's just a pretty recognizable format, but it's just like, I don't know what it is, it just works and I like it every season. I like to see what this season's version of the format's gonna be, like what the flavor

to the format is. And so far it's pretty good. I'm enjoying it. You know, Parker Posey's family is horrendous and maybe some of the worst people on television. I guess that's what they're supposed to be. So you can tell Mike White has some real opinions about wealth and power and family dynamics. And it's interesting to watch him explore those. But if you didn't like White Lotus in the previous seasons, you probably wouldn't like this. If you did, you'll probably like it because it's exactly the same. I'm into it.

I'm seven out of 10 into it. I'm going to watch it all the way through. But I will say I feel like I've seen this before because I've seen the previous two seasons. Maybe I'll be surprised. We're only what, two or three episodes in, so it's pretty early. Severance, I'm one or two episodes behind on Severance,

and let me tell you, I am really losing enthusiasm and steam on that show. I loved season one, I thought it was damn near perfect. And then season two, I was perplexed by why they did a soft reset in the first episode to put everybody back to where they were after they spent so much time getting them out of that situation.

And then episode two cleared it up a little bit, three and four were a little bit, well, three was better, four was a curve ball. I just, it's, I don't know. It's just weird and I'm starting to get, I hate to say it, I hate to fucking say it, but I'm starting to get lost vibes from it where you just are starting to wonder like are they? Are they losing the plot here? Are they spinning off in too many different directions? Do they have a handle on where this is going?

I will also say I've watched a lot of interviews leading up to the launch of the season with Adam Scott and Ben Stiller and I grew up with Ben Stiller, you know, I'm a Gen X dude. I'm a Reality Bytes guy. I've watched his entire career, consider myself a fan of Ben Stiller. But when did that dude appear to lose all joy? He is like the straightest, just most mirthless appearing person in these press junkets. And I know that they're not fun and nobody wants to do them,

but man, he just looks like he's been sapped of joy. It's the only way I know how to describe it. I don't know what it is. It's bizarre anyway. So Severance is losing me a bit. Maybe you guys can steer me. If you guys disagree, let me know. Let me know what I'm missing there.

Housewives is whatever. Salt Lake City's over. There's a couple episodes of Beverly Hills Left, but it has not been the best season and I think I'm two episodes behind. Maybe one, I'll catch up. I just, I don't know. That's been fucking fantastic. I haven't watched it yet,

but I'm very excited to watch the Gross Point Garden Society. I don't know if you, but I'm very excited to watch the Grosse Pointe Garden Society. I don't know if you've heard of that show, but it's a new major network show, I believe. I'm not sure if it's ABC, CBS, or NBC, but I think it's one of those three. It looks like a murder mystery type show where it follows four members of a suburban garden club as they get caught up in a murder. And the thing that's interesting, well, I like mysteries anyway. I like murder mysteries for sure. You kind of, I've only seen a trailer

but it kind of gave me Rosemary and Time vibes a little bit maybe, like maybe Desperate Housewives mixed with Rosemary and Time, which sounds like a pretty fucking sweet spot to me. I was a big Rosemary and Time fan and I tolerated Desperate Housewives. I liked elements of it. So I'm pretty jazzed to watch that

but mostly because it takes place in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, which is where I will be hopefully buying a home sometime this summer or somewhere in that area. So it's nice to be able to tune in and watch an hour of television a week of establishing shots and sweeping vistas of the place that I'd like to move to. It's gonna get me all hyped up

to buy a house there, hopefully. And I think that's it. I think that's all that I'm into. Oh, you know what I've been watching? That's not true. The thing that I've been watching the most of probably is Southern Charm. Have y'all watched Southern Charm?

I had no interest in that show when it came out. It is a reality TV show that follows the lives of affluent, young, up and and coming adults and then some older people in Charleston. It's kind of like a cross between like Summer House and Housewives maybe a little bit or Vanderpump and Housewives. I was never interested in watching it but on this podcast I listened to everything iconic with Danny Pellegrino, who I absolutely adore. He has been talking about how good this show, Southern Hospitality is, which is a spinoff of Southern Charm.

And he keeps mentioning it and keeps saying that it's like all the best of what made Vanderpump Rules Good, which I really enjoyed. And so finally I was like, yeah, I'm gonna dive in and watch it. But I found out my wife was just starting Southern Charm at the same time. And I thought, I might as well jump on the Southern Charm

board, get through that whole thing, which I think there's like 14 fucking seasons of, and then roll into Southern hospitality, so I understand the backstory. And ooh, boy, we are three seasons, three and a half seasons or so into Southern Charm, and these people are a mess, and this show is dark. I had no idea, but it is gripping. I will say that also really makes me kind of love and hate the South,

the place I grew up in equal measure. It's beautiful. And there's some things about it that I just I can't deny. They're charming. But the people suck in all the ways that I remember them sucking growing up in the South. But anyway, if you if you haven't watched Southern charm, I really recommend it. It's pretty interesting It's also interesting to watch any reality television show that takes place before

The pandemic because the world is just a different place in all these little ways that you Don't think about until you sit down and you watch an hour of people interacting in the world in 2016 or 2017. My initial plan for today's episode was to talk a little bit about Las Vegas. I have been seeing these TikToks constantly. I follow a lot of Vegas TikToks because I'm just kind of, you know, fascinated with Vegas as a spectacle. Clearly I don't drink anymore and I don't really gamble other than, well, that's not true. I can't say that.

I don't go and play cards or roulette or dice games or anything like that, but I do bet on horses and I do bet on sports when I'm there and I do hang out in the sports book and play spats. So I guess I do gamble and it is a draw for me, but mostly we go to go to shows and to eat wacky meals and just to explore grownup Disney and people watch and just look at shit that's big and bright and colorful

and flashy and shiny, you know? It's just a spectacle and I absolutely love it for that. And I also like the city of Las Vegas outside of the strip. I think Las Vegas is a really interesting, fascinating place. And so there've been all these TikToks lately about how dead it's been. The Super Bowl was a fucking ghost town, apparently. A lot of casinos are losing a ton of money.

I think things are pretty tight for Caesars right now. They're facing this, I don't know, I think an existential crisis, right? Where people go to Vegas to gamble and bet. Super Bowl was one of the biggest weekends of the year in Vegas because everybody wants to go to Vegas and watch the Super Bowl on a giant screen surrounded by a billion other fans and throw money at it, right? You can do that from your phone now. Everybody has a DraftKings app or a FanDuel app or a Double Dog app or a

Upy Downy app or every fucking time I turn on the TV, Druski or somebody is advertising a new app I'm not familiar with to gamble. But what's happening, I would assume, because Vegas has turned into a ghost town, is I would assume a lot of people aren't going to Vegas anymore because they can gamble from their phone at home. So why would they need to? Also, of course, inflation and how fucking expensive it is to go anywhere? Do anything right now? I hear that vegas prices have been climbing pretty steadily and they were already pretty fucking high not on hotels and stuff

Those are typically pretty cheap But in terms of food and drink and just amenities in general But that got me thinking about vegas and the idea that some of these giant casinos can and do go out of business So I was wondering like maybe I wonder what the next big one to fall will be. You know, will it be Resort World? Will it be the Venetian? Probably not. I mean, I don't know. I don't know if it'll be any of them. But that sent me on a minor rabbit hole where I was looking at hotels

and casinos that have gone by the wayside in forgotten Las Vegas. And I think that I would love to dive into that at some point with y'all because there are so many, but I also see that we're pretty much through this episode and we didn't even quite get to it. So I'm just gonna throw it out there as a conversation starter for a future episode. I would love to go through and highlight

some of the old casinos with wacky themes and interesting gimmicks that have come and gone by the wayside through the history of Las Vegas. And I got a pretty cool list off Wikipedia of a ton of stuff, so we'll dive into it. I also would like to talk to you guys pretty soon about an old friend of mine named Woodsy the Owl. I was, when we were at Disneyland,

there was a lot of shopping going on all weekend. Emily and Vanessa and Bernie and I were just, you know, walking through the 10 billion Disney stores and looking for souvenirs and whatnot. And I liked Disneyland, I enjoy it. I enjoy all that stuff, but I don't, I don't see myself ever wearing like a Donald Duck t-shirt or a Mickey Mouse t-shirt or even a stylized

Disney t-shirt. It's just not my thing. But what I did see there that I thought was pretty cool was a non-disnified Smokey the bear sweatshirt and a Woodsy the owl long-sleeve shirt and so I bought both of those and I found out that Emily had never heard of Woodsy the owl and And I realized that he's not around anymore. He was such a big part of my childhood. I went and found some old Woodsy the owl commercials on TikTok to show Emily, you know, the in the city or in the woods. We keep America looking good.

Oh, you know, give a hoot. Don't pollute. Whoo. And that got me thinking, why? What happened to Woodsy? Why don't we have mascots who tell us not to litter or set forest fires anymore? That's kind of a bummer that we don't, you know? And so I wanna talk about Woodsy the owl a little bit.

Where he came from, who paid for him, if he's ever coming back, is he back? And I just don't know it. For some reason, I have a real, and I wonder if it's other people in my generation the same way, but I have a tremendous Affection and soft spot in my heart for Woodsy the owl and Smokey the bear they taught us to be responsible and to love and revere the forests and the environment way before Captain Planet ever did and I don't know look for an episode on that in the future.

Look for an or maybe multiple episodes on old and forgotten Las Vegas. But right now, oh, you know what? I'm gonna share some interesting stats with you before we fuck off. Some of the preliminary research I did on the Vegas hotel stuff, and I'll probably go over this again in the future.

Did you know that as of 2023, Las Vegas had over 150,000 hotel rooms, making it the largest hospitality market in the United States, like clearly the largest hospitality market in the United States. I guess New York and LA might be second, but 150,000 hotel rooms.

The MGM Grand Las Vegas is the largest single hotel building in Las Vegas with more than 5000 rooms. So, oh, and I'm going to have to verify this one because I can only find it listed once, but there are about 300 hotels and resorts in Las Vegas, which I don't know if that number seems big or low to me, but 150,000 hotel rooms seems pretty fucking big. And we're going to get into that and Woodsy and Smokey sometime in the future. Right now, I owe you guys a song of the episode and I have one. Where did my phone go? I feel like I've been a little single threaded genre wise lately, and I need to break out of that with you guys.

I guess last week we did do a little bit of Zamrock, but I feel like I'm over indexing on just like straight rock and pop and punk. And so I'm going gonna veer off of that in the future a little bit, but for right now, we're gonna go with Iron Sheik. My best friend is a nihilist. The whole album's fucking awesome, but this is just a, it's like an anthemic song

to sing along to, which you absolutely love. Check it out if you get a chance. I hope you enjoy it. I sure had a good time hanging out with you guys. I didn't even get to email today, I realized. And man, there's not enough time in the day. There's not enough minutes in the episode to cover everything we wanna talk about.

I am so excited to get back to it. I also, you know what? We're gonna save it for next week. I gotta stop, I gotta stop at some point. We gotta stop. All right. La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la. This is the end of the show.

La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la. Mwah!