Los Angeles Post Kobe Bryant

Los Angeles post Kobe Bryant 

Discuss the vibe in LA post Kobe. Tana has unique perspective as a Bball player/fan who lives in LA but didn’t grow up there

Where were you when you heard the news? (This seems like an event people will remember forever “where they were”.) 

Reasons for this: partially Kobe’s massive fame, partially we saw him with Gigi on TV a lot lately, partially how vibrant/active his life was at the moment of his death. Partially cuz it all happened/ended in an instant. 

Rewind: what were your feelings on Kobe prior to moving to West Coast/ LA?

Assuming those feelings evolved, what stands out to you since you’ve been on the West Coast/LA?

What have you seen in terms  of memorials/murals/tributes/vigils around the city that stick out or are poignant?

Has any other death in LA had this type of impact on the city since you’ve been there? 

Only person even close off the top of my head (in terms of suddenness) actor Paul Walker from Fast & Furious - but it’s not even close. [This doesn’t include homicides, suicides or overdoses - the True accidental nature of this death really makes people take a step back]

Kobe was “our age” and that makes you take stock in life being so fragile. And then the kids and other passengers and pilot news came out and that takes it from sobering to senseless. 

The other victims - have people done an appropriate job of remembering them? It’s such a had circumstance to appropriately do that. 

Anything else you want to discuss on this? 

Places listening - Paris France and Hertford UK are the top 2 cities this week. 

France, USA, UK, Australia, Spain, Sweden, Canada, Austria, Latvia, Italy and New Zealand 

Christmas Past Songs from 2009 Podcast

Christmas Past (2009 Pop Song Redux) 

The return to podcasting after surgery begins

Places listening - Heavy in France, especially Paris thanks to Deezer podcast service 

We’re also on Spotify now so subscribe 

Places listening France has been number 1 for 2 weeks. USA 2, UK 3, followed by Canada, Pakistan, Cayman Islands, Egypt, Kenya, Australia, Philippines, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Seychelles (Say Shells), Poland, Peru, Netherlands, East Timor aka Timor-Leste, South Africa, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Fiji, Tanzania, Lithuania, Sweden, Bahamas  

25 countries on 6 continents — tell your friends doing research on Antartica that we want to go 7 for 7 

Little know fact - New Zealand is part of a submerged continent and Italy is also part of a submerged continent that smashed into europe and was most buried beneath it. Welcome to Plate Tectonics 

Top Cities: Paris by a mile followed by Tampa, Karachi, Georgetown (cayman), LA, Miami, NYC, Nairobi, Cairo, London, Walpole Mass, and Las Vegas  

Lightning round: Only in Boston’s twitter feed had a list of Billboard’s 2009 top songs - immediate reaction to them

#19 Kiss me thru the phone (garbage from Usher, he’s better than that)

#18 Live your life (Fire)

#17 I know you want me (Our introduction to Mr Worldwide, Mr 305, Pitbull — aka Mr. 1234 uno dos tres quatro

They skipped 16

#15 knock you down (can’t remember it)

#14 Use somebody (KOL’s coming out party was def in 2009)

They skipped 13

#12 Dead and Gone (can’t remember it)

#11 You belong to me (taylor swift’s coming out party in 2009 as well)

They skipped 10

#9 Heartless - can’t remember it

#8 Single Ladies (FIRE - prob most popular song on this list)

They Skipped 7

#6 Right Round (can’t remember it)

#5 Love Story (T Swift Killing it)

#4 I got a Feeling (Looking back, Black Eyed Peas we jumping the shark soon after 2009)

#3 Just Dance (Lady Gaga blew up in 2009)

#2 Poker Face (Like I just said Lady Gaga blew up in 2009) - this song is fire still

#1 Boom Boom Pow — this song looking back, was the beginning of the end for Blacked Eyed Peas magical run

Take aways - Taylor Swift, Pitbull, Lady Gaga, Kings of Leon were the Big Pop Music winners in 2009 - and they all kept it rolling  

Happy 4th of July podcast - Women's World Cup Predictions for the Semi Finals

World Cup Semi Final Preview

Dudes who drive dodge station wagons (what are they named?)

Yeah it’s got a HEMI, yeah it looks like a muscle car in the front… but it’s still a station wagon

How crazy would it be if the person fouled in the penalty area had to take the PK? Instead of a designated PK taker. Feel like it would be more in the spirt of who was fouled and how likely that player would’ve been to score, vs the best striker’s opportunity to score? More drama to them… perhaps?

Italy and Netherlands playing in 93 degree heat and this game is 0-0 at the half and the weather seems to be winning this game against both teams, from a quality of play standpoint… looks a lot different than US v France game last night.

Apparently UEFA uses this world cup for Olympic Qualifying for 2020 Tokyo Games. So England has qualified by advancing to Semis and winner go Italy vs Netherlands and the winner of Germany vs Sweden will qualify for olympics. Certainly raises the stakes of these quarter final games even more so. I think that’s fairly cool actually.

2nd half netherlands start knocking on the door to score

69th minute - all Dutch and they finally score on a set piece - free kick to a perfect header past the outstretched arms of the GK.

The Dutch score again — 79th minute. Another set piece, free kick to another header. Seems like they’re the better team

Dutch almost score a 3rd goal off the ensuring kickoff. Good save by the Italian Goal keeper.

The Dutch fans — i think it’s the Dutch — have a Vuvuzela section and they keep playing “pop hits” like "we will rock you”, “hey baby" and and “Baby give it up” by Casey & the Sunshine Band. Classic Hits and Sign alongs for the Dutch.

So the Dutch are moving on to the semis of the 2019 world cup, and have clinched a spot in the 2020 olympics thanks to 2 excellent set piece headers that landed in the back of the net.

First semi-final in Dutch history. They are undefeated in 5 games this year. "6 of their 13 world cup goals have been headers”, says Fox host Rob Stone

Dutch Coach played at UNC with Mia Hamm under a legendary coach — that’s good to know.

Also England is coached by Phil Neville - of Manchester United Fame. Dude played under Sir Alex Ferguson. (Not saying he has Sir Alex’s chops, but you spend that kind of time around excellence… England vs USA match could be fascinating if it comes down to tactics.

Italy hadn’t made world cup in 20 years. Apparently not enough pro soccer in italy — but hopefully this gets things rolling for them, so they don’t have to wait another 20 years.

Futbol in Europe on the women’s side is starting to really pick up. This will make UEFA the strongest at the top, as well as the deepest. This is bad news for US Team over the next 20 years. CONCACAF is weak on the men’s side and it hurts the US i think.

Germany and Sweden are up next - and the Germans are likely a heavy favorite.

Sweden comes from behind - wins 2-1 in a stunning upset. First major win over Germany since approximately 1991

Sweden vs Netherlands in the semis

Netherlands vs USA for all the marbles in the final

US Women's Soccer podcast

US Women’s Soccer - the most polarizing national team in history?

Maybe they are - but for all the right reasons

places listening USA - NYC specifically Manhattan followed by the Bronx both my a mile this week.

Austria and Australia were 2nd and 3rd - Graz Austria got all of their listens so hello to our friends in Graz

#1 and it’s not the topic of this podcast. I believe the USWNT deserves the same pay as the USMNT. But, that’s a whole different podcast, so all I want to do is state for the record, I think they should be paid equally for their training, appearances in friendlies and for their appearances in real competitions, such as the World Cup. (Bonuses for winning games and advancing and such, is also something we should all talk about on a different day as well)

US Team beat a hapless Thailand team 13-0 (the next biggest blowout in the group stage was Italy’s 5-0 win over Jamaica

Thailand shouldn’t have been in the tourney - but here’s the break down of the where the 24 teams came from

AFC (Asian Football Confederation) 5 slots (including Thailand) and Australia actually plays in the AFC

CAF (Africa) 3 slots

CONCACAF (N America) 3 slots

CONMEBOL (S America) 3 slots

OFC (Oceania) 1 slot New Zealand

UEFA (Europe) 8 slots + the host happens to be France so 9 slots

The Final 8 were the US and 7 European countries

The Final 16 were those 8 plus - 2 from Africa, 1 N Am, 3 Asia including Australia, 1 Europe, 1 South America

So, Europe had 9 teams in the tournament and 8 made the round of 16 and 7 made the final 8. So Unless they wanted to add a 10th European team to a 24 team tournament , Thailand had to get in — or somebody else like Thailand…

But Jamaica was rated worse than Thailand in the world rankings, as were all 3 African nations and 2 of the South American teams… but nobody beat those trams worse than 5-0. Teams exercised restraint in their dominance.

The USWNT Tried to destroy Chile - were up 3-0 and then the Chilean Goaltender started trending on twitter - because she stopped everything (including getting in the head of the Carli Lloyd for a PK at the end). Could’ve been 7-0 but only 3-mil - so the Chilean goalie took ‘em down a peg.

Third game against Sweden - won comfortably 2-0 against Sweden - all they needed was the win, final game of group stage. The control they played with against Sweden is the control they should’ve played with against Thailand. It could’ve been 8-0 and they would’ve proven the same point as 13-0.

My biggest problem was them celebrating goals 11, 12, & 13 as if they were each sudden death game winners in the world cup final.

They Showed up inferior players, the way an older sibling ruthlessly destroys their younger sibling. They punched down - and that’s a factor later in podcast

USWNT also struggled mightily with Spain. Spain played an incredibly physical game and dared the refs to call Penalty Kicks… and the refs did. Megan Rapione scored both kicks, and that was important, because Spain scored on some poor defense and goal tending by the US.

So the Mighty team that smoked Thailand, and tried to embarrass Chile, played safe vs Sweden and then was in a dog fight vs Spain. As the games get bigger and the teams get better, beating Thailand means less and less… but the bullseye you put on your own back isn’t going anywhere.

Now the US plays France in the quarters and France is great at home. US is the better team, but we shall see. Winner of this game is the favorite to win the World Cup.

But now politics come into play. Megan Rapione is very vocally opposed to the way the current administration is treating many of our citizens and many of the immigrants who are legally in the US, let alone how they’re treating folks at the border, people of certain religions, people of most races and ethnicities and the LBGTQ+ community.

So, the USWNT are saying they wouldn’t go to the the White House win or lose invited or not. And I feel like this is interesting because they are calling out an administration that makes a living out of “punching down”. The way we treat each other in this country and the way we treat people who are in at risk demographics is MUCH more important than how the USWNT played against Thailand … but ironically them being the “bully” to Thailand and taking joy in it… That’s right out of the playbook of this administration since it took power in January of 2017.

So here were go - there are 4 distinct schools of though on how people feel about the 2019 World Cup USWNT:

#1: Love that they beat Thailand 13-0, hate that they won’t go to the white house (Likely Moderate Republicans)

#2: Love that they Beat Thailand 13-0, love they they won’t go to the white house (Likely Libertarians)

#3: Hate that they Beat Thailand 13-0, love that they won’t go to the white house (Likely Far left Democrats, Green Party)

#4: Hate that they Beat Thailand 13-0, hate that they won’t go to the white house (I actually think this category may not exist in real life, but it’s plausible) Tea Party/ Fan Right folks aren’t very likely to watch soccer - cuz it’s for Sissies (so, i’ve been told)

But if we think about most of our national teams — we care about them as a nation, once every 3 to 4 years at best. The casual american non sports fans isn’t talking about them much. But, right now, they are — so whether or not this team is polarizing, people have an opinion — and that’s genius for a group that is trying to heighten awareness of the “equal pay movement”.

Crazy or Crazy like a fox - they’ve made the most of this world cup appearance, even if they lose to France. And if they keep winning - the snow ball of momentum is only going to grow.

But they’ve got to keep winning — so I hope they saved enough goals to eek out 3 more wins — cuz they certainly didn’t need all 13 they scored in game #1 - but i’m pulling for them to figure it out.

Wine, Wall & Dragons - Season 8, episode 4 podcast

Wine, Wall & Dragons Season 8 Episode 4

Places listening Kenya, Egypt, Kuwait, UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Italy 

Boston Slam question for Dan: Would you relish the opportunity for the 76ers to be the ones to beat the Celtics, to snuff out the bid for a Boston Slam, or are you content to have the Milwaukee Bucks finish the the job?

Pre show question: How do they follow up the death of the Night King with their fourth episode?

Opening Scene - Jorah’s dead body - Dany kisses him on the forehead - Sansa is grieving over Theon’s body — he’s been freshly shaved… interesting flex by the show on that one.

Sansa gives Theon a stark pendant to be burned with on the funeral pyres. 

There are like 100 pyres stacked full of the dead. 

GHOST IS BACK, again! Obviously. Jon Snow speech “they were the shields that guarded the lives of men, and we will never see their like again”.

The stench of all those bodies is going to be smelled all the way to King’s Landing 

A large post funeral feast in Winterfell grand hall. Gendry and the Hound a little verbal sparring. 

Dany calls Gendry out for being Robert Barrathoen’s son. She makes Gendry the “Lord of Storm’s End”. Davos’ seconds the notion. HUZZZAH!!!! To Lord Gendry. 

Are Jamie and Brienne of Tarth gonna get together? 

Davos and Tyrion talking about the Red Woman and the Lord of Light. They pay a little fan service to the Lord of Light angle fizzling with the unknown goals of the now dead Night King.

Tyrion and Bran - another fireside chart. “You shouldn’t envy me, mostly I live in the past.”

Tormund starts another round fo Toasts. Says vomiting is celebrating. Only unhappy person is Sansa, it seems.

Dany, Jon, Varys, ominous music. Tyrion laughing with Jamie. Dany feels alone AF. Heel  turn ground work being laid??? 

Tyrion calls Brienne out for being a virgin? 

Sansa and the hound have a convo. He foreshadows Clegane Bowl. 

Gendry looking everywhere for Arya — she shoots an arrow at him. And Gendry just proposed to Arya — be the lady of Storm’s End?!?!?! HMMM? 

Arya says she’s not a lady- never have been, that’s not me.

Jamie and Brienne - whoa buddy!!?!?!?! “I’ve never slept with a Knight before”.

Here’s the Dany and Jon talk - Dany says she loves Jon, is that alight. HBO leaning into this incestuous relationship - but then Jon stops, and Dany has the convo. She’s trying to blackmail him. She wants to go backwards in time to “ignorance is bliss”. 

“You are my queen, nothing will change that. They are my family, we can live together.” — “We can, i’ve just told you how”, Dany says.

Next morning - the battle plans — sounds like the odds / numbers are even.

Varys tells us that Yara Greyjoy has taken back the Iron Islands and the “new prince of Dorne” have pledged allegiance. 

Sansa and Dany are going at it — this is tough stuff. Jamie is staying at Winterfell.

Bran - ‘it’s your choice” to Jon about his true identity. Arya and Sansa now know Jon is their cousin. 
Bronn shows up with the Cross Bow. Tyrion offers him High Garden instead of Cersei’s offer of Riverrun. 

The Hound and Arya chatting - they both have unfinished business in king’s landing. They both don’t plan on coming back. 

Sansa asks Tyrion, “why her?” 

The men in the family don’t do well in the capital. 

Sansa is about to tell Tyrion about Jon’s identity. 

Tormund is going to head back to the north. And Jon gives Ghost to Tormund. This is farewell then? You never, know. You’ve got the north in you, the real north. 

Gilly is pregnant with Sam’s baby. Sam is staying at Winterfell. Sam, “you’re the best friend I ever had.”

Jon leaving Ghost behind — eek — bad sign dude.

Greyworm and Messandre 

Varys now knows the secret as well. Says if 8 people know, everyone knows. If we marry them, they could rule together. 

Vayrs worries about “her state of mind”. 

WHOA!!!! Rhagal is DEAD - Shot by scorpions on Euron’s ship. 

Dany is Pissssed- She can’t take Euron on he’s got catapults for days. 

She’s out of the fight. Tyrion jumps overboard - gets hit in the he’d with a mast. He lives, Varys lives. Grey worm lives. Messande is missing. 

Cersie is passing off Jamie’s baby as Euron’s. 

Lot of foreshadowing - and They have Messandre as a hostage. 

Varys is trying to speak reason to Dany. Dany is not in the mood for reasoning. “they should know whom to blame when the sky falls down upon them.”

Thoughts aren’t treason. 

Varys, “each of us has a choice to make.” I pray we choose wisely. 

Jamie gets the news about Euron’s victory at sea. He’s gonna make his way South. Brienne begs him to stay. Jamie makes a strange “heel turn”, saying Cersei is hateful and so is he. 

Cyburn comes out of the castle - big standoff between he and Tyrion coming up. At the gates of King’s Landing. 

Tyrion blows of Kyburn - going to appeal to Cersi directly. 

He’s really dumb - Messandre says “Dracarus” which means BURN/FIRE/AHSES in Valaryian.

Mountain cuts off her head. This is going to be a bloodbath 

Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 1 podcast

Game of Thrones Season 8 - Bran is going to build a new wall perhaps. Like the old “Bran the builder did, using magic like 1,000’s of years before.

Places listening: Canada, The United Arab Emirates, France, Spain and Italy. 

For the first time in a long time no Ashburn, VA this whole week… do you guys in Ashburn hate Game of Thrones? Did you move? Let us know.  

#DragonSeason 

Dan O’Brien has had “brutal sound quality” — we’ll see if we can engineer a solution. 

Wine, Wall & Dragons Season 8 Episode 1

opening - little kid running in the snow - the unsullied have come to Winterfell- and there’s thousands upon thousands of them.

Jon and Dany ride together to Winterfell - Arya sees Jon for first time and she sees the Hound and Gendry - Family Reunion for Arya.

The Two Dragons make their entrance  - dramatic as always. 

Bran is waiting for Jon - the whole crew is. Its amazing how far flung all of these characters have been until this moment. 

Bran breaks the news on Ice Dragon - and wastes no time doing so. 

Lyanna Mormot throwing lots of shade at Jon for “bending of the knee”. 

Sansa is worried about groceries  - seems about right. 

Tyrion and Sansa have their first awkward convo since Joffrey’s wedding. Sansa gives Tyrion some hot truth on Cersei bailing on him.

Jon and Arya reunion got a little bit dusty in my house - "You used to me taller”, line was good. 

Kyburn tells Cersei the dead have broken through the wall — and she says “good”. Euron has the Iron Fleet off the shores of King’s Landing. 

Yara - still a prisoner.

Golden Company - 20,000 men 2,000 horses - zero elephants. Captain Strickland is the leader of the Golden Company - nothing like a new character with 6 eps left. 

Bronn in the house of ill repute as usually / Kyburn with the C-Block and wants to make a deal to do so. She wants Bronn to kill Jamie and Tyrion with a cross bow. Weird Flex. And she cranked Euron Greyjoy and lamented about not getting Elephants from Golden Company 

Theon is breaking Yara out of jail — wow first episode. Yara and Theon are making for Pyke and the Iron Islands. 

We’ve now got 3 queens - in the realm. 

Davos - proposing a marriage between Dany and Jon — eek — when’s Bran gonna break the news. 

Is Jon going to ride Rhaegal ??? HOLY ESS! Jon’s riding a Dragon Ep 1 — BOOM! 

Water Fall love scene - call back to the old wildling watering hole. Drogon EYE BALLING Jon Snow. he’s a peeping tom! 

Gendry, Hound and Arya reunion. It was pretty comical. 

Jon Snow and Sansa — doing the old “you bent the knee” argument, again. 

Sam Tarly ! With Jorah and Dany! BOOM! Then she learned she burned his dad and brother. Tough look, tough moment. 

Sam and Bran gonna talk. Sam is going to have to tell Jon. This is going to get complicated AF. Jon is Aegon the 6th — hell of a moment. 

Tormund, Berric and the boys - walk into a murder scene 

The Umber Boy is dead and the Night king had him pinned to wall. He’s a wight - and it’s creepy AF. 

Jamie arrives in Winterfell - Bran is eyeballing him from Jump Street. 

George HW Bush, Christmas Music hot takes and Portugal

The Azores are like the Revis island of Europe. All alone but more than enough to win the day. 

Swimming in the ocean downtown, driving into two different volcanic craters, black sand beaches, hydrangeas everywhere, New England like weather unpredictability, I also drove for the first time outside of America. Interesting. 

Ponta Delgada is like if Ireland, Puerto Rico, has a baby with Portugal- the geography and weather are like a weird combo of Ireland and Puerto Rico. 

Places listening: Canada, Philippines, France, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Italy, Kuwait, Malaysia , Jamaica, Mozambique, Gabon (1st time), Tanzania, New Zealand and more

Top Cities listening: Ashburn VA, Ugong Philippines, New Liskeard Canada, Athens Greece, Kuala Lumpur, Maputo Mozambique 

Is Christmas music the original Christian Rock - I mean not quite / cuz one is about Santa (mainly) and one is about Jesus... but there are a ton of Christmas classics that do have religious lyrics “oh come all ye faithful”, “silent night”, “little drummer boy”, “joy to the world.” - so I’m going with kinda 

If Steve perry said. I’ll play faithfully for your wedding ceremony and oh Sheri to kickoff your ceremony... but in the middle we need to play my whole newest album... are you in?

Feel in love w the Fast & the furious: Tokyo Drift In Ponta Delgada. Tokyo drift = fake band name of the week 

The actor who played Han, Sung Kang, is so beloved to me after fast & furious 4, fast 5, fast & furious 6 - that watching him in Tokyo drift was enough to get me excited. 

George HW Bush passes away. 94 years old. Rest In Peace. “Read his letter to Bill Clinton from Twitter”

Kayne West White House

Places listening Czech Republic - Uhersky Brod. Ashburn, VA Chicago, Providence, Miami, Des Moines, Atlanta, Omaha, Denver, Pretoria South Africa, Stuttgart Germany, Abu Dhabi, Scalfati Italy and Bogota Colombia, Singapore and Malta

Cable is out - internet is out. In the age of streaming videos — i’m really missing my DVD’s and/or VHS collection — i had a great VHS collection 

What is Kanye’s deal? This is a publicity stunt to help himself in some weird way, right? Because if it’s a publicity stunt to help Trump, all Kanye is doing is making himself look like a joke (but not in a ironic way), he’s just literally the butt of the joke. 

Is this career suicide? 

Who is Kanye’s “fan base now’? Who is he trying to make his fanbase? 

hot take - he knows his creativity tank is empty. He knows Trump supporters care way more about FAME than substance. So, he’s appealing to that small but fiercely loyal niche of the trump train to carve out a new fan base. Problem is — he’s alienating people who like good music and who have “common sense” in the process. 

Does he come back from this? If so, how does he come back from this?

Being involved with the Kardashians never ends well for the non-Kardashian.

Filibuster freestyle - FilibusterFreestyle.com