We finally figured out who is listening in Ashburn, Virginia
Top Songs to Grille / Cookout/ BBQ to!
Heaven on a Paper Plate by Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers
Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
Summer Nights by Van Halen
Rooster by Alice in Chains
Bad Fish - Sublime (there’s a Jack Johnson Bad FIsh/ Boss DJ acoustic version which is excellent
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.
Bird Box on Netflix ends 2018 in the meme hall of fame
Did we watch this movie because you the fact that it dominated the “meme” scene on instagram between Christmas and New Year’s
Did we like a Sandra Bullock’s performance? What’d we like about it.
What happened to the Police academy recruit and her Tall blond junkie paramour? Where’d they go? why? did they make it? why no closure? And here’s why I ask, “The OB/Gyn lady from the beginning of the movie came back at the end, so if we’re randomly closing that loop, i feel like we should’ve closed the one of the police girl and her junkie BF.”
Why were certain people “immune to the mass suicides”? The only quasi-explanation we got was “people who aren’t right mentally” are totally fine. But they also think that 1) whatever they’re seeing is beautiful, and they're compelled to show everybody "the beauty”. But, they are somehow cunning enough to fein victimhood even though they know they are making people kill themselves, and seem lustfully determined to let them kill themselves.
They never really explained “what the evil spirits were”. They essentially used “sound, wind effects, and creepy music” in place of a true villain or monster (which is creative).
The spirits not being able to “come inside the houses” also seemed a little flimsy… but I get it.
John Malkovich was being John Malkovich
using the car to go to the grocery store — the most far fetched thing — that “GPS NAVIGATION” works well enough to drive you to your destination while you’re blinded.
The Birds “knowing people were good ad bad” i guess we needed that part. Since it’s the name of the movie
Was this movie short on explanations because it was haphazardly created, or were they “crazy like a fox” in knowing that they’ll likely make a sequel?
The Mule review: Had an interesting premise, had a strong cast, and somehow it never quite became the movie we hoped.
Seemed heavy handed in the plot twist movements. Clint missed his daughters wedding for a flower convention. wouldn’t you choose a wedding day that is mutually agreeable for the parents of the bride? Wouldn’t you do so out of “season” especially since they lived in Peoria, Illinois and therefore have a winter/ no growing season.
The relationship between Clint and Bradley Cooper was really “Chummy” and his relationship with the Cartel prior to Andy Garcia’s character getting murdered was really chummy.
The grand daughter’s relationship with Clint’s character was way too manufactured and the way in which she called him to say that his ex-wfie was sick and her acting in that scene, not strong. Felt like a Lifetime TV movie in terms of quality. But, somehow Clint and Bradley Cooper and Lawrence Fishburn and Andy Garcia are in the cast.
I’m not sure I buy the whole “started muling” in 2017 after he lost his business… would have been more interesting if he’d been mule the whole time and that’s why his family life was garbage. The fact that he put family over business and somehow was still Broke at between 2005 and 2017 because the “Internet” killed the mom and pop flower business… that took my interest level down a few pegs for sure
Clint confessing to everything at the end - seems like the right move to save his family. If he gets off on probation that Cartel definitely comes after him.
The overly stereotyped messaging in this film was basically, if old white men wanted to be mules and the Cartel would just let them meander around at their own pace, then they’d be #1, also seems like wild hyperbole.
Rank the places listening in terms of where you’d like to visit next: Ashburn, VA / Atlanta/ Toronto / London / Angeles City Philippines/ Willemstad Curacao / Athens / Cape Town / Christchurch NZ / Orebro Sweden / Schwabisch Hall Germany / Sao Paulo
Westworld Season 2 Preview - premiers on April 22nd on HBO
Westworld’s first season ended on Dec 4, 2016 - we’re going to look at the craziest things that have happened since then.
188 listens in Athens, GA this week, Alexandria Egypt #2, Ashburn, VA #3
Australia as a nation third place
UK, Brazil, Portugal, Ireland, Singapore & Poland listened as well.
Ashley Howard, new HC at LaSalle University!
Patrick Reed wins the Masters
Clearly Trump being elected 2 weeks prior to the end of season one, and everything associated with Trump since that time could take up spots 1-200 on this list — but let’s try and keep this as trump free as possible
The women’s march in Washington, which in some ways can be viewed as significant factor in the #MeToo movement
The Patriots have won a super bowl in Dramatic Fashion and Lost a Super Bow in Dramatic fashion - to the Eagles who’d never won one before
We had the Oscars’ best picture of 2017 mix-up with Moonlight belatedly winning after Warren Beatty and Faye Dunnaway messed up the announcement and said the wrong film first
United Airlines went viral for dragging a passenger off of a plane — somehow making every other airline look much better by comparison
We had a congressman - Steve Scalise - shot at a baseball practice for a congressional baseball game - which is very scary stuff
White Nationalism at Charlottesville ripped open longtime wounds and shined a spotlight on how emboldened racists and racist nationalism have become
Hurricane’s wreaked Havoc on Houston and in Florida but most notably destroying a modern day way of life in Puerto Rico - a way of life “electricity and fresh water” that is still not fully back on the island for its citizens
Floyd mayweather and Conor McGregor finally have a boxing match / 8 months later Conor gets arrested for crashing a ufc pay per view and assaulting fellow fighters and attacking a bus
The Las Vegas concert shooting - nuff said
Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and scores of others in Hollywood, business, etc - were all torn to bits by the #MeToo movement
Roy Moore almost wins a senate seat in Alabama despite overwhelming evidence they he is essentially a serial pedophile
There was a total solar eclipse
Facebook is massively involved in the election tampering by Russia in 2016
The aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas School Shooting - winter 2018 — has been pretty significant
The Mueller investigation seems to be just getting started
Loyola Chicago went to the final four
Special March Madness Tournament Hot Takes
Rosco P or Drilling 3's and Jeremy Johnson of Mancookgood.com
Not making pics - but i’m telling you some interesting tidbits to think about
The 12 over 5 upset is incredibly popular — but a great place to look is right next door in the 13 vs 4 game.
Especially in a bracket where everyone is talking about how good the 4 and 5 seeds are and how great their 2nd round matchup will be. So, i’d look at Boise ID where people think Kentucky and Arizona are inevitable second round opponents.
I don’t see Gonzaga losing and I don’t see Wichita State losing as the 4 seeds in their brackets — but Auburn against College of Charleston is a little interesting
But… Buffalo upsetting Arizona is where i’d look and here’s why — Arizona has some bad losses out of conference on Neutral courts including to SMU - the Pac-12 was down this year - and Buffalo was sneaky strong in the MAC. In addition Arizona doesn’t really have any big wins this year, just avoided any really bad losses and took care of their lackluster schedule.
But mostly, Arizona seems to be the invincible 4 seed and that’s a red flag. They’ve also had their share of drama lately and rallied around their coach in the Pac-12 tourney, if the get caught napping in this one, and buffalo can hang around — this could be your upset special
Play-in game winner who could be a tough out
If St Bonaventure gets by UCLA in Dayton — Florida should watch out for the Bonnies. They won 13 in a row before losing to team that hit 16 3’s in the conference semis. Neutral court in the Texas - Bonnies could keep the train rolling
The two teams that need a win really badly — Rhode Island started 21-3 before going 4-4 to end the year // mean while Oklahoma went 4-8 in their last 12 after starting 14-5
Rhode Island can struggle to score at times and Oklahoma has been pressing to much to live up to the Meteoric Rise of Trae Young early in the year. Something has got to give, and I think the 10 seed Oklahoma is due for a big game on the big stage from the aforementioned Trae Young
What’s w people saying you’re fine when you say “excuse me”. I think Fine is an weird word.
Izmir Turkey most listens this week - love it. Izmir seems fantastic btw (like as a place in the world)
Ashburn, VA creeping back into listening charts
Turkey as a nation wins the week, Brighton, Australia is the 3rd place city- it’s on the outskirts of Melbourne / UK is the 3rd place country and Redcar England up by Newcastle has emerged with some serious listeners as well
Props to Norway, Chile, India, Romania, Kazakhstan and Sweden for listening
Litter pick up on exit 28 at 8:45am on a Friday. you can’t wait til 9:30 for that crap ?!?
Best thing about papa johns ditching the nfl is the dramatic lessening of Peyton Manning appearing with papa johns founder John Schnatter
Also, Pizza Hut slicing into the official pizza of the nfl within about 15 minutes of papa johns vacating it - shows you how strong the nfl brand is
Stock market has taken a dive recently and tariffs on aluminum and steel are a major factor thus far.
This is where being a populist America first leader veers wildly from many republicans- you mess with their money- that’s a problem. Greed is a much stronger factor than xenophobia- rich Americans want to stay rich
Basketball sneakers that look like timberland work boots - dude on Purdue wore em today. I’m at once in favor of the look and also think it looks kind of whack simultaneously
Lots of basketball - it’s championship week
congrats to Lipscomb on their first ever Big Dance
you know when the ball gets wedged in between the basket and the backboard, and the game awkwardly stops. Instead of going to the possession arrow — it should either be worth 1 points. cuz it’s actually harder to do than put it in the basket. And you can’t “dunk” the ball into the wedged position, it’s got to be a shot and an unblocked / tipped/ defected shot at that. You might be saying, Gavin... Actually, it should be worth negative 1 point — if you put up a shot and miss, so be it, but if you hoist a shot and the game has to stop because of your miss — you lose a point. Either way, it would make basketball have an added wrinkle.
I’ll put up a poll and we’ll see what people think
West World Episode 10
Places Listening Ashburn, VA/ Denver, CO / Cebu, Phillippines Berwood East, Australia, and Charlotte, NC in 5th place
Egypt, Peru and the Dutch Part of St. Maarten
Who Won the episode? Dr Ford (unquestioned) - Do you Label Delores a winning or a loser? Gotta give Bernard a strong win?
Who Lost the episode — nominees Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) — Logan (as called by Andrew Patterson) — Maeve’s free will (correctly called by Andrew Patterson)
Gratuitous Nudity - Armistice I’d say - tons for choices — but she may have won for the entire season in this episode
Most mind blowing moment - Ahhhhh Ford orchestrating his own demise while vowing full well, everything else
Questions - Does the Board (Charlotte hale / Man in Black, etc) know Bernard is a Host???? Felix now does, but I don’t think they do. He might be a HUGE double agent type in season two.
Do Maeve and Delores beef in season two? I doubt it - I think the Wyatt Character is too powerful
What’s up with those Samurai? Felix (Leanardo Nam) said there's “a complicated” explanation
Opening scene - Arnold making / turning on Delores
Next Scene - Delores shaving Man in Black - Delores in the town (where Teddy and Wyatt shot up people)
Question - How did the books spin this story — i feel like it would have been very frustrating if the book read the way season one has been unfolded
William and Captive Logan for back and find Lawrence / El Las
Teddy is back in Sweet water - starting his loop — and he’s looking for delores, gets back on the West World Train
Back at the “Church” Delores speaks to Arnold / then she finds arnold’s son’s toy maze in her own grave - Arnold - consciousness is the journey inward, not upward
Arnold realizes that the hosts are “alive” and he wants to convince Ford not to open to Park - Arnold Orchestrates his own death to “break the loop” before it begins. He instructs her to kill all of the other hosts, and tells her to enlist Teddy to help her too. He gives her the giant pistol she likes so much.
Through flash backs, Delores begins to remember her mass murder of all the hosts — Delores and Teddy Effed Stuff up
Man in black / William makes his “Guest can’t really lose” speech to Delores. His potential comeuppance is amazing as eff.
Charlotte Hale and Lee Daniels - talking about “Abernathy” getting out of West World — sounds like he got out. That’ll be interesting in season 2
Hale wants the hosts to be simpler - and uses famous last words that everything is under control. Just as the Delos Board members arrive on the train.
Maeve - getting worked on by Leonardo - and she begins making changes to park security and to Armistice and Hector (Get the character name).
Charlotte Hale visits Ford - tells him he’ll resign but first introduce his new narrative. Love that he says, “aren’t you afraid i’m going to smash all my toys and go home”?
The smarmy (pervy) Tech who gets his ultimate downfall — deserves it so much — and his death is GRIZZZZLLLLY as is the other tech whose finger Armistice bites off
Best part of show is when Felix thinks he’s a Host too.
The Delores / William / Man in Black “battle is pretty interesting”. the Reveal of him being William is surprising to no-one but William.
How about when William sends Logan off on a Horse Naked? Does he factor in for the second season - If not - how did William explain him never coming back from West World??
William takes Delores “getting wiped clean” very personally. For an investor in the park — shouldn’t he have known about hosts getting wiped clean
The message of this show is, HUMANS ARE THE WORST.
Delores - Upon that sand, A new God will rise — her Wyatt Heel Turn is fantastic - I correctly called Man in Black getting his ass kicked last week — But he still really wants and likes to get his ass kicked by hosts. Stabbing Delores is interesting too (because of how well it ties in with Ford’s overall plan). Then Teddy Lights him up with 5 pistol shots
Then Teddy Takes her to where the “mountains meet the sea” and it’s all part of Ford’s “Narrative” - i did’t quite realize where the was going yet, but I was starting to think that whatever he did, was going to be badass.
How about Maeve bringing back “Bernard” from a full head trauma, but leaving Pennyfeather lobotomized? That’s a little messed up. Especially since it took Felix like 8 mins to fix Bernard (and Bernard has all of his memory still). Tells Maeve her memories are tied to consciousness, how can she learn from her mistakes if she can’t remember them.
Ford meeting Man in Black about the “hosts fighting back” is pretty fantastic - his “i think you’ll find my new narrative more satisfying" line is good, too. The Maze wasn’t meant for you, and how it’s tied to Ford’s plan to get the hosts ready to defend themselves.
Maeve — won’t heed Bernard’s advice that someone has altered her storyline to orchestrate “getting out”. Her existential free will dilemma is interesting. Penny Feather is one personal mannequin challenge, btw - she’s the winner - case closed.
Love that Handsome Security guys’s replacement is so overmatched - as the “gala is starting” and Maeve is about to wreak havoc during her escape. Clearly getting Stubbs and Elsie out of the picture is part of Ford’s vision, too
Ford is Kaizer Sosze in his ultimate “win” - “Teddy says maybe this is the beginning after all, the beginning of a brand new chapter.” The new narrative is called “journey into night”
How about the Samuri’s that Maeve and her Crew happen upon, what’s gonna happen with that?
Ford - fixing up Delores - Does the whole “Machaelangelo” speech with her — God giving humans life with purpose. The Whole arnold/ Delores/ reveries piece. Arnold turned Delores into Wyatt!
Arnold’s plan to kill himself, so Ford can’t Bring him back — despite being able to bring the hosts back — seemed pretty ingenious. Delores killed Teddy, Arnold and Herself. And then Ford rolled her back.
So Ford - isn’t a monster — he feels like he’s been prepping the hosts for the moment when they will have to confront the human race for survival. “In order to escape this place you will need to suffer more. Goodbye and Good luck”.
Felix - gives Maeve info on her daughter, and Maeve now can’t leave. Literally on the train to leave and she can’t do it.
Tandi Newton created an Army to follow Delores - with Ford’s help - and now Delores is Wyatt - EFF this should be really good.
Love that Ed Harris s getting cranked on bourbon by himself right before the ultimate speech / scene - Love that he’s the first one to see the Rouge Hosts, and he kind of likes that his cutthroat dream is coming true.
Lee Daniels happens upon the empty “Retirement tank” and that’s when I knew it was ON! But, i honestly didn’t see Ford killing himself til the end. Oh and Pennyfeather shoots Man in Black in the arm — she was salvaged!!!
I’m pumped for season two