So... Alright - People Watching and Sequels

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

Geoff hangs out at a coffee shop and thinks about sock heights and baseball caps. Also he saw a movie and talks about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka,

chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, chicken chicken, talka talka, So, I am happy to report that I am coming to you today from home, where I have been for almost 48 hours now. Sitting at about 40 hours back, it has been a whirlwind tour. Not really. I just had a trip and then another trip and then an unscheduled third

trip but unfortunately they all, just because of time constraints, they all ran into each other and so I talked about a little bit last episodes but I just now got home from visiting my family and spending some time grieving with them over the loss of a loved one. And now I'm home. Finally, I checked. I left somewhere around the first or second week of August. And then I was home for like 36 hours and then I was home again for like 36 hours. I'm just fucking home and I'm so happy to be home.

Let me tell you, I got to actually record with the regulation boys yesterday. We we had a blast doing it. It had just felt good. Felt good to be playing a video game with them again. We're doing it again today. We're recording some 3D ultra mini golf videos today that I could not be more excited about. I don't know if you're into video games at all

or if you're familiar with my previous work with Rooster Teeth and Achievement Hunter. But I used to play video games for a living, and then I stopped and I just became a podcaster and talked for a living. And now after about a almost a seven year hiatus, I've returned. And I got to say, it's been so much fun to get to do both now. To have the flexibility and the freedom to do both and to do them at will. I shouldn't say at will, I definitely have obligations, but I guess my point being is I'm playing video games now for content because I want to, not because it is my job, although I guess it is my job but you know

I'm just enjoying the hell out of it right now and I'm very very excited to be doing it But that's not even what I wanted to talk about today what I wanted to talk about today Actually, it's kind of a mishmash. I got up this morning. It felt so good to get up I've only this I slept in my bed two nights in a row now. It was fucking awesome. Don't, man, you really take your own shit for granted when you're away from it for so long. It's not like I was sleeping in uncomfortable beds at my mom's house or at hotels or whatever. It's just not your space, you know? And, and actually we stayed at an Airbnb in Michigan and that was not a super comfortable bed and it was an old house.

It was old like, you know, one of those old Tudor jobs that looks fucking incredibly fancy from the outside, but on the inside is, you know, 140 years old. Still lovely, but kind of musty and, you know, you get the whiff of mildew and like hundred years of old paint and who knows what else and it doesn't it doesn't provide a fresh sleeping experience. I'll say that Anyway this morning I got up and I went to a coffee shop to sit down and do some research and get back into the swing of things get into the routine of it all because I You know, it's funny. I don't think I'm very good at routines, but I feel like I really need them and I want them

and I wanna be good at them. It's like the thing that I wish, I wish I was either more disciplined and able to follow or my life allowed me to follow, you know, usually when I'm not able to adhere to my routine, it's not because of my own laziness, it's because something in the world or in life got in the way, right? But regardless, I don't think I'm good at it either way. Anyway, it felt good to be back at a coffee shop coming up with ideas. And I had gone there specifically because I wanted to talk about today, sequels and length of time between sequels.

I sat down yesterday, did some ironing, while I was ironing, I didn't have any podcasts or anything to listen to, so I threw on TV and I thought, fuck it. I tried to watch that Beverly Hills Cop Four movie on Netflix, Axl F., I don't know, about three weeks ago, a month ago, and I made it about 10 minutes in and it just lost me.

So I moved on. But I popped that back in because Andrew and Gavin have been talking about it and they got me, they got my interest peaked again. And so I was like, you know, I'm just gonna barrel through this movie for better or worse. And what happened was I really enjoyed it. It was fucking good.

It wasn't as good as one or two, definitely better than three. And I think the thing that I left with, when you have a sequel that takes place, hold on a second, I looked it up, 40 years after the original. Now, I know that, I think Beverly Hills Cop III came out, when did that come out?

It came out when did that come out? it came out in 1994 so the amount of time Between I got to do math 94 to 30 years I figured that out pretty quickly 30 years is a long fucking time between Sequels and I got to thinking I, the first thing that you see is that Eddie Murphy looks pretty fucking good for his age,

and everybody else around him looks terrible. Taggart looked, John Ashton is 76 years old. That makes sense, because he looks 70. It was so good to see him and Judge Reinhold. It was awesome, even though Billy wasn't in most of the movie. It was so great to see them. and Paul riser to everybody in the film It was awesome to see to see the cameos and everybody looked so old though except for Eddie Murphy and it's just so wild the the disparity

Between them, but they make jokes about it in the movie And anyway, the point is I wasn't super excited after the first 10 minutes To see it. I didn't see the point in it, and then I watched it, and you know what I'm glad they made it I think it was it was good enough to watch it deserves to exist It was just the right amount of fan service there was some There were some comedy clinkers in there that didn't hit, and there were definitely some moments, but for the most part, it was just a thoroughly enjoyable Beverly Hills Cop movie that ended with a mansion shootout,

like the first one, which is the hallmark of final battle scenes in 80s films. So many 80s films ended up, like Commando, for instance, with this awesome bad boys. It always culminated in this awesome fight scene in a mansion where the villain drug dealer, whatever arms dealer was holed up. And it was always against like incredible odds, but they made it work. And so much fun.

And so many 80s movies ended in shootouts in mansions. It you don't even think about it till you see it. And you're like, all right, it's been a long time since I've seen a good shootout in a mansion. I forgot about the 80s But that got me thinking 30 years a long time What is the longest amount of time between? Sequels and I was surprised to find out that it's Bambi and Bambi 2

first off that it's Bambi and Bambi 2. First off, did you know there is a Bambi 2? I had no fucking clue. It came out in 2006, I believe. Let me double check that. Yes, correct. It came out in 2006. The original Bambi came out in 1942, which means that was a 64 year gap between the two.

I don't know what I was doing in 2006. I guess I do. I was three years into Rooster Teeth, so I was pretty fucking busy making Red vs. Blue, but I completely missed that a sequel to Bambi came out, although I was reading about it and it doesn't sound like a sequel at all. It's actually weirder than that.

And if you're familiar with this, then you know what I'm talking about. But I guess it doesn't take place after the events of Bambi 1. It takes place during Bambi 1, after his mom dies, as he's trying to gain the love and respect of the Prince of the Forest, I guess, his father. And it's just about that. It's about his relationship with it.

I guess, if anything, if Bambi 1 was about his relationship with his mother and then, I don't know, dealing with the cycle of life and growing up and and maturing and coming out into the world and becoming your own person, Bambi 2, I guess, is very much about his plight to find acceptance and love and respect your own person. Bambi 2, I guess, is very much about his plight to find acceptance and love and respect from his father. So it's weird that it takes place like in the middle of Bambi 1, I guess you would sandwich this in. Never fucking heard of it.

I guess Patrick Stewart played the great prince, his voice. So, you know, that lends some credence to, I mean, Disney made it, it's probably good and worth watching. I just don't know how I'd never heard of it. I think it's weird, I think it's weird that they, it's not a prequel or a sequel, it's an in the middle one, which is really odd. The others, nothing comes close to Bambi and Bambi 2.

I guess the second place would be Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick, 36 years apart. That might be the best example of movie to sequel across an expanse of time being fucking good. If anything, and I don't want people to get mad at me, you have to respect the fact that I was born in 1975 and in 1986 when Top Gun came out, I was 11 years old. I mean, I was the age that it was made for, you know?

And Top Gun Maverick was so fucking good, it was definitely better than the first one. And I imagine that'll annoy some people, but well, what are you gonna do? Coming to America and Coming to America 2 were 33 years apart. What is it with Eddie Murphy doing? Man, he really had to take that that time off, I guess. Although I guess he wasn't taking any time off. He was just making family friendly movies and kids movies. Still, 33 years between coming to America and coming to America 2.

I love the first movie and I just didn't watch the second. I have no idea if it's good or not. Came out in 2021. Don't know why I didn't watch it. I love the first movie. I just didn't. I't know why I didn't watch it. I love the first movie. I just didn't. I guess I just I don't watch movies anymore. Maybe after watching Axel F, I should go back and watch that. Rambo 3 to Rambo was 20 years.

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was 19 years. Man, that didn't have to happen, that movie. 19 years. Man, that didn't have to happen in that movie. Bad Boys 2 to Bad Boys 3 is 17 years, and that one is a real shame to me because I really wish they had struck while the iron was hot.

The gap, you could really feel that gap. And man, I just, I wish they wouldn't have waited so long. I really wish they wouldn't have waited so long. You know, maybe they'd stopped at three. Why would I say that? That's rude. I'm glad they didn't stop at three. Don't listen to me.

Everything deserves to exist. Oh, I hate that attitude. I hate that attitude. And here I am doing it just because I didn't like bad boys three that much. And bad boys, right or die, I haven't even seen but just you know Doesn't look like it'd be for me. Why the fuck do I have to? Shit on the reason for it. It's definitely deserves to exist many people liked bad boys three and there were moments of bad boys three that I liked I had a

Get off my fucking high horse anyway Looking for a path to accelerate your career off my fucking high horse. Anyway. at York University School of Continuing Studies, where we offer career programs purpose-built for you. Visit continue.yorku.ca. Bambi is the record holder. I was gonna look up, I was gonna go into a whole thing then about properties that had the most remakes,

most sequels, yada, yada, yada. But while I was sitting at the coffee shop, I just couldn't help but people watch and just enjoy being home around local strangers, I guess. And as things always do to me, it always descends into me looking at people's socks. I'm so fascinated by this whole Gen Z sock revolution where they they flip the socks back to's socks. I'm so fascinated by this whole Gen Z sock revolution where they they flip the socks back to crew socks and millennials are

caught off guard like my wife, who are like, all I have is ankle socks. Now I got to flip back to the fucking crew socks because the young, cool people are wearing crew socks now and I got to look young because if you this has been confirmed by my daughter, if you see a person in ankle socks, you instantly assume that they are an older millennial or boomer or fucking Gen X, not that we ever get mentioned. And it drives millennials specifically crazy. I don't think Gen X and boomers give a fuck whatsoever.

But it's just funny to me to watch the flip happen, and it's so pervasive. Every person I saw, almost every person I saw in the coffee shop today had crew socks on. No matter what they were wearing, there was a fucking guy, couldn't have been older than 32, was wearing basketball shorts, like gym shorts, you know like he was about to go shoot some hoops and then crew socks white crew socks with

Slip-on black dress loafers. It was and he had a long sleeve maroon shirt on which it's you know, nothing against long sleeve shirts, but it's fucking Austin, Texas in early September. It is still gonna hit a hundred a couple more times. We're still in the 90s every day. A long sleeve shirt in Texas blows my mind before November. But on top of that, just the idea that you would be so worried

about sticking in with fashion that you would wear. I'm sorry I've been living in Austin for 30 years Maybe it's just location bias, but it is so fucking hot here nine months out of the year I don't know how you could wear crew socks these little fucking ankle socks that my wife got me on to they make Everything easier. They make life better my feet feet, God, you ever, you ever take, you ever, you ever spend a day walking around when it's, I don't know, 103? You go to the grocery store, you go to the post office, you run to Target, you clean up the sticks in your yard, take the trash out. What, just the normal course of stuff? Walk the dog.

By the end of the day, those socks are so fucking gross from your sweaty ass feet, and I don't even have sweaty ass feet. I have some pretty non-sweaty ass feet. But by the end of the day, it is so much fabric to put on your feet when it's 100 plus degrees outside. It blows my mind that in Austin,

people care more about their sock height than their own foot comfort. I get it, but this is an example where I am not gonna follow the trends. I am gonna bucket, I don't care how old I look. I am not gonna wear uncomfortable socks. In the winter, sure, but in the winter, I'll have pants on so you won't fucking know.

You only know what kind of socks people are wearing when they're wearing shorts and people are only wearing shorts when it's hot outside. And if it's hot outside, where heat appropriate socks blows my mind. And that's my old guy take of the day. What other observations that I have from the coffee shop? Oh, I know one. You got to give the city of Austin credit. And I know this exists outside of Austin, but I do feel like this is a movement that

if it didn't start in Austin, it is heavily imbued in the Austin aesthetic, which is you go into a place, taxify, industrialize it, right, which means go into a place like get a warehouse with just shitty center block walls, paint all the walls like white high gloss paint then stick some plywood up on another wall and just slap some lacquer on it and you have a modern Austin Mecca every place in Austin you spend it is I got to eat all the credit in the world to the architects who figured this out they They managed to come in and say, how little can I spend and trick people into thinking this place is nice? And it works every fucking time, every fucking time. Here's another observation. There were 11 men in the coffee shop when I was there of the 11.

I count myself as one of them. So I am only 11. Eight of us were wearing baseball caps and Three were hatless Nobody wore a different kind of hat. No, nobody wore a Trilby or a bowler cap or a top hat I saw a dude at the airport Like in fashion man, I saw a dude at the airport I don't even remember which airport it was at this point sometime in the last three weeks he was going through security in front of me and he had had a silk button-up shirt with flames on it,

like a Tommy Bahama cut, like one of those Hawaiian, it's like silk Hawaiian shirt cuts, but people put the Simpsons on it or whatever. This one just had Guy Fieri style flames on it, and he had jean shorts on, but the kind that have loops and shit shit and they're a little long, like, I don't know, carpenter shorts, I guess they would be. I didn't even see his shoes. I couldn't see his shoes. But then he just had a top hat on.

And like it wasn't ironic or anything. I was just like that dude's style and he was fucking rocking it. And I was thinking to myself, when was the last time I saw a top hat in public? Not associated with a costume of some kind, but just like, you know, somebody wearing it throughout the course of their average day and And that was what that was One top hat sighting this year. I'm gonna stop in it like I'm I'm counting Dobermans over on the regulation podcast and hot dogs over here I think I'm gonna count top hats. I Bet I don't get to two before the end of the year anyway, I don't know what we're supposed to glean by that but

If you're looking for like a gift to give a guy and you don't you're not sure what to give them Eight and eleven of us wear baseball caps at all times. So You know 8 and 11 of us wear baseball caps at all times. So, you know, maybe throw somebody a baseball cap if you, if there's a man in your life and you're not sure what to give them, there's like a greater than 80% chance that they like wearing baseball caps apparently. That's my guy observation of the day. Man, I realize now I had a bunch of other stuff

that I came up with at the coffee shop that I'm not gonna have enough time to get to in this recording. So let's leave with this. You ever have a band that you like? That's not it. I'm going somewhere with this. I was just thinking for a second. You ever have a band that you like historically,

maybe you don't listen to them anymore, but they were a big deal to you or you liked them a lot or even a medium amount back in the day. And then suddenly everywhere you go, you hear them constantly all at once. That has been me with Fugazi for the last like month. I don't know what it is, but I feel like I am hearing Fugazi out in the wild constantly. I heard today at that coffee shop a song off Steady Died and Nothing.

I can't remember which song it was. I just recognized it. But I want to say I've heard Fugazi in the wild now like five or six times in maybe the last 45 days. A band that I probably hadn't heard in the wild at all for years before that. Not a, I mean like a beloved successful wonderful band, but not one that was commercially played

or that enjoyed any kind of radio success. So you wouldn't expect to hear them on random That often in random places, but here we are and that got me thinking I Should start paying more attention to fugazi the universe is trying to tell me to get back into fugazi So I've been listening to the breadth of their catalog man when I was in I Love fugazi. I've lovedugazi and Ian McKay and Guy and all of their bands, you know, from Minor Threat to Egg Hunt to Embrace,

Fugazi obviously, the Evens, Corky, Guy's Bands, One Last Wish, Rites of Spring. Like a big fan for a long time of most of the music that the members of that band have created over the years. I remember specifically, it's been sticking in my head, In on the Killtaker came out right around the time I was in the Army, I joined the Army rather, and I remember being in AIT, which is,

oh fuck, it's been so long, I don't remember acronyms, Advanced Individual Training, I believe, is what it stands for. It's basically when you join the military. It's pretty similar for most branches, but I can only speak intelligently towards the Army, and then I can only speak intelligently towards the Army in 1993 to 1998.

No idea how things have changed since then. One would assume they have. But when you join, you go through basic training, you do your eight weeks of basic training, I think it's longer in the Marines, and then you go into your specialty training, right, for what your job in the military is gonna be. Mine was to be a journalist, photojournalist,

and public affairs specialist. It was kind of a combo MOS, they call it. MOS stands for military occupationalty, I think. And that is your job, right? I was a journalist. It was a couple of different things. You know, they kind of sandwiched a bunch of different careers into one. Army does that to kind of make it work.

But at the end of the day, it was mostly just being a journalist. And in my journalism school, in the now defunct Fort Benjamin Harrison, where I went in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1993, it has since closed down and they moved the, it was called the Defense Information School, and DINFOs. And it is where they train all journalists across all branches of the military.

The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, actually, are all co-located in this in the school, or at least they were back then. And so I've talked to a billion stories about my life in AIT, getting beat up by the Marines up on the second floor, all that stuff. But the first floor was all army. Second floor was the rest of the branches. Third floor was all the female soldiers.

And we all lived together, we didn't spend a lot of time together, but we shared some classes and got to know each other a little bit. But at that period in time, I just very clearly remember in on the Kill Taker getting it at the PX and which is the It's called post exchange. It's like the mall or the target on bass and they had it

I know I just said that the band didn't enjoy a lot of commercial success and here I am buying an album at the PX But I'm pretty sure I did I might have bought it at a record store locally in in Indiana But I'm pretty sure I probably I mean I was living on base I don't have a lot of opportunity to get off at that point. So, a lot of opportunity to get off, in more ways than one I guess. Didn't have a lot of opportunity to get off bass to go explore, maybe I got to go to the mall

and I bought it there, but I think I probably, it doesn't matter, why am I even talking about it? I got the fucking album somehow, a CD, and I just remember being obsessed with it for, and when I think of that album, I think of that time in my life. There was a British punk compilation album that my friend Mike and I would listen to over and over again

that just had the Buzzcocks and Generation X and, oh, I don't know, X-Ray Specs and Sex Pistols and all those just like all the heavy hitters the jam from that era we would listen to that and we would listen to Misfits Walk Among Us and we would listen to In On The Kill Taker by Fugazi those were like the big three albums and anytime I hear any songs from In On The Killtaker, it makes me think of being 18 and 19 years old and out on my own for the first time and figuring out how to be my own person. And I don't know, man, that was a, that was a, it was a special album

to me at the time. I think I'll pick a Fugazi song. There are a million I could pick across their catalog. Clearly everybody knows Waiting Room and Repeater and Shut the Door and all of those more popular songs. I will say if you go back and listen to, go back and listen to now, say if you go back and listen to go back and listen to now at the time end hits and the argument came out i don't think a lot of us they weren't super well received by fugazi fans at the time at least in my memory they were a lot different than we were used to as the band was maturing and exploring uh different themes and styles man i have gone back over the last few years and the argument is they're both great but the argument especially is so fucking good. And I can't believe I wasn't. I just wasn't. Smart enough to understand it

and to fully appreciate it at the time, right? It I think it was like it was it was. I think they call it art rock, right? And I just I wasn't ready for art rock. I wanted punk rock at the time. But in on the Killtaker, man, not their best album, but a great fucking album produced by Steve Albini, I think. Let's pick, you know what?

We're gonna pick Public Witness Program. That's your song of the day. Public Witness Program by Fugazi. It's a short song, guy sings it, it's your song of the day, Public Witness Program by Fugazi. It's a short song, Guy sings it, it's awesome. Maybe not the Fugazi song that people immediately think of when they think of Fugazi, but as I've learned in my old age, the later Fugazi albums are just so complex and interesting and slept on

because everybody loves, I mean, why wouldn't you? 13 songs and Repeater are such fucking amazing albums and they are such musical forces, goddamn. Steady died, nothing's real good too. Anyway, they're all good, here I am, I'm just rambling. So there's your song of the day or song of the episode I guess and I will be back next week to talk about musicians with alter egos and Bands that are places really I had a lot of fun reading into both of those things and want to talk about them when I

Have a little bit more time. So Hopefully you'll come back next week and we can discuss more music and who knows whatever else. That'll be it for me today. As always, I love you. Check out the regulation podcast. Keep your eyes out for the new ANMA dropping with a different name. Same podcast feed sometime in the nearest future. And all right. This is the end of the show.

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