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Something Wrong With The Podcast
SWWP #30 - Blockbusters & Beats: The Latest Summer Movie & Album Reviews
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Nothing wrong with the pussy. Nothing wrong with the pussy.
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Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Welcome Back to episode 30 of Something Wrong with the Podcast. It's your boy Julian. Before I go anywhere, call in at 877-557SWWP to get in contact with me, your intrusive thought therapist. Guys, the the weeks of amazing summer music continue to roll on and I just have to say Malice Rapper of the Year. I've really been living and listening to their album the Clips album nonstop. And the more I hear Malice, the more I dissect these lyrics. I spent a lot of time over the weekend walking around, jumping between bars with friends and just kind of spending a lot of time in the sun and on my city bike rides. As I'm walking around. I've just been listening to nearly almost exclusively that album. I did make time for my boy Jid for JD which we'll get to in a second. And also I listened to that new Bryson last night, which is a double album. It's the 1/2 vices, which we'll talk to in a minute as well. But this clips album, I know it's like we often do this thing in hip hop and hip hop journalism where it's the album comes and goes. We give it the attention it deserves. In the week of release, we may give it another mention or two just to talk first week numbers. If something happens while they're on tour, we'll talk about that. But I don't want to strain too far from just the music itself. I have just been obsessive over this album and the guy, the damn Cole from Dissect has been doing these great lyrical breakdowns and I'm just like fully consumed into this whole, this whole album. And it's really cool because I'm seeing a lot of friends that aren't really hip hop heads that really are listening to this album and are obsessing over it, which is incredible and so cool. I have been walking a lot more recently and being gingerly, if you will, mainly due in part because on two weeks ago now, I think I've been going into week three. I don't know, my basketball run, my weekly basketball run, which is every Tuesday night, I got pushed into a wall. It was actually my team. We were undefeated on the night five and oh no, cap this for real and it's game points. Last game of the night, a really lazy pass gets lobbed at the top of the key. I steal it and I'm running as fast as I can. Not nearly as fast as I used to be and I'm going up for a layup and or to make a pass across court for someone to have a better look at a layup because there's my friend in defender who denies that he touched me on this play. You may have given me a little bit of a little tap on the back that sped me up, sped my footing up enough that I was off balance and slammed shoulder first, this right shoulder here into a wall. It was a padded wall but point is I ran into a wall and immediately went down, knew some was up, ran to the emergency room. X rays came back negative, thank God. But I did go to a doctor to schedule for an mri, determined that I have a it's in between a grade one into shoulder separation meaning it's non surgical but there's very much so discomfort. I got prescribed like an extra strength, you know, doctor grade Tylenol, which I take once a day currently. But I have a full range of motion. But it's. I can feel it like there's definitely a level of discomfort. Physical therapy is starting this week actually on Wednesday officially. I did do some stuff last week to just try to get ahead of it but my official like insurance covered physical therapy treatment is tomorrow. If you're listening to this and it's tough because it's sidelined me from basketball obviously, but also I haven't been able to lift so I kind of just feel like what do I do? It's kind of like just sitting at home and so I've been going on these walks. Last night I went on a long walk, about a sunset walk. I was in my apartment all day till about 6.30pm and then I went on about an hour and a half walk listening to Bryson Tiller's album. It's a two part album. Let's get into it since. Since it's just coming up naturally it's called Solace Invite in the Vices Disc two. Considering it's called disc two and if we're following the laws of language, I'm assuming this half is the the half that would be deemed the vices which would make sense based on the sound as well. There's a lot more hip hop influence. It's more rap heavy. It's him kind of talking his shit. Rick Ross is a feature on here Big Baby Drill, LA Tyler, Plies and T Pain. It's pretty cool to hear them on a song again. Boss man dlo it's okay. There's some. It started off actually in this in a lane that I like but then from what I care for. For Bryson, it deviated a little too much into the modern day drill kid rap. I want to call it disc one, which I'm not sure if the due date's been announced yet. I maybe is this a circumstance where he's doing it the back to back weekends? That'd be cool. I don't know how long we're gonna have to wait for disc one, but disc one seems more me. It's. Even if you look at the COVID here, the Solace, it's a double split in half cover, the Solace cover. He's got like this big coat on and a hat and he's looking down. You could tell this is going to be his. His like in his feels half of the album, which is more aligned to me. But yeah, I mean it's good. I like Bryson. I've been championing Bryson. Big fan of his, of his last effort, that self titled album, which is incredible. It is tough because no matter what he puts out, he will always be compared to his first project, Trap Soul. And what's. What's tough with that is obviously he, you know, fell into like a depressive state and had, you know, insecurities and took a long break from music which people are quick to forget how long he really stepped away from music. And I'm happy that he's putting. He's back putting out music and putting out good music. That last album, the self titled album is very good. That's still heavy in rotation, but I'm excited to hear this other half of the new album. And he's putting out a lot of damn music. I mean this in itself is 33, 24 songs. Sorry across both discs, which is quite impressive. Let's go into Jid. Jid dropped God does like Ugly, which always reminds me when I first heard the title, reminds me of Atmosphere is God Loves Ugly album. If you are a Midwestern kid or know anything about rhymesayers, hip hop, shout out to that whole, that whole movement. That was a time for sure. Really cool to actually hit play on this album. And the vocals you hear first, the first person you hear on the album is actually Westside Gun. I'm always fascinated in the decision making of sequencing in albums. And one of the rules of rule of thumbs more often than not is you want to have your voice be the first voice heard on an album. So anytime an artist kind of breaks that stigma or like that expectation, I'm always curious as to know why. Haven't seen explanation, haven't figured out why. But it is interesting to hit play on a Jit album. And in here, west side Gun be the first person speaking for a while too on the album. Let me go through here. I did say this a minute ago that my. Probably my favorite track, at least that I can just think of off top of my head is Community with clips. Malice is doing stuff that no man in his 50s should be capable of. I said it. I'll keep beating a dead horse. Rap artist of the summer. Breakout artists ever since taking this long of a hiatus. The best man of God with a microphone. I mean, Malice is so unbelievably goddamn good at being a musician. It is so fun to see his name pop up as a feature anywhere. And to see them do a feature so soon after their album came out is pretty sick. Obviously they're aware that, you know, these dates are all pretty much set in stone for the most part. So to know that not only do you have this album coming out, but you also have a verse coming out with an artist that you respect and is really. This is Jids. I would say this is his, you know, breakout album. This is his like step into stardom. After all the. After all that he's gone through in the last few years, he's really been pushing in that next tier of artistry. What other records do I like on here? I mean, I. The. You all know how I feel about Eminem, so now I'm gonna go down that one. But yeah, I mean, it starts at the top half of this album. When you hit play just. It sets a great tone. I like the risks he took on Skate with. With Clara and Earth Gang. That's a fun record. The no Booze. I believe that's the Spanish sounding record too. With. Which is pretty cool to hear someone that is at this point in their career take risks musically is pretty great. And I mean Jids will always give you the bar your ass down like heavy rapity rap stuff. But it's always substantive and really exciting and fun to listen to. I'm going to be listening to this album quite a bit. Admittedly only one listen in, so I have to live with it more. But I think this will continue to just be a part of my rotation. Not at the gym anymore, but maybe on my walks. That my walks are now going to be my. My piece for music and my time for music. Bieber's album has not left my rotation. I would say of all the albums that have come out this summer, unquestionably Bieber and Clips album are the two that have been interchanging top spots. The Bieber album is just easier in terms of, like, the setting. Like, that's something I play at the home, at my crib a lot. That's something I'll just, you know, have on as I'm. As I'm cooking or cleaning or what have you. Whereas clips was. I was out all day Saturday meeting with friends, bar hopping, and that was like, yeah, I'm going to be on a city bike. I got Fico in my ears. Like, you know, dumb, dirty, dumb, dirty, dumb. I'm like, this is like, I need to be outside when that. Boom. Like, that's. It's just better to be living life when that album is playing in the background. Yeah. So music heavy weekend also, just like, in general, content heavy. For the last few weeks, I have been speaking about this on Instagram and I believe I mentioned it. I have mentioned on the show I got my Regal Unlimited movie pass, which your boy has. Don't give me a deal and tempt me with unlimited access. I've seen, I believe now, six films since I've gotten it about two and a half, maybe three weeks ago at this point. The two that I saw this past week, the two best, I would say that I've seen, honestly. I saw Eddington, which is Ari Aster's latest effort. It's got Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, because he's in everything. Emma Stone is in it. It's a really cool take on Covid. And I know people are hearing, they're tired of. Maybe we've as a culture and as a society, have exhausted the idea of reliving Covid or having to think about COVID ever again. But this did a really good job. It takes place in May. Was it May 2020, I think, in a small town, New Mexico. And I'm not about to spoil anything, by the way. You don't have to fast forward. And basically what happens is you're living through the lens of the worst of COVID in this small town in New Mexico where there's the mayor played by Patrick Pascal, the sheriff played by Joaquin Phoenix, who is the head sheriff of a very small town. And you're seeing during the movie George Floyd's murder happens, and you're seeing the polarizing opinions on both the far right and the extreme left of, you know, white people taking a knee and saying, you know, they're apologizing for their privilege and all that stuff. You're seeing the absurdity of that and the absurdity of the other side as well. And it's matched with like a mystery and a murder and a lot of gore. And I think the Ari Aster did a great job of elevating the absurdity and matching it with visual cues as well. Even down to their scenes where like the weapon of choice that's used and how many bullets are shot in a scene. It's like very. It's a la Tarantino esque with the scale of absurdity and visually stunning. You're looking at an expansive New Mexico land and there's like this great, like, like funny, like chasing as well. But it's, it's a really fun film. It paces well. Honestly, it kind of could have kept going. That was one. I wasn't ready for it to end. If you haven't seen it, do check it out. It is called Eddington. And I didn't write about this on my letterboxd account, by the way, which I am promoting my invisible reviews, invsble reviews on letterboxd. I've only written about two films, Ojai and Weapons, which I'll get into in a second, but maybe I'll come back. The way in which I write mostly for reviews in particular is after a film I'll come home and I'll just sit thinking about what I just saw. And then more often than not, and this is when opportunities, when something sparks creatively in my mind, it more often manifests in a single word or phrase that just loops endlessly into my head until I acknowledge it and write it out, physically write it out. More often than not, I'll pick up a pen and write before I touch the. Before I gesture to the laptop because I like the rules of the paper more so than being exposed to another screen when trying to think creatively. This is stuff that I've just developed over the years. It's a matter of habit. I don't think there's any science to it. Maybe, perhaps on a level I haven't even examined. But point is, once I address it, then the review itself will kind of build itself out on top of that or below it. And more often than not, that line is kind of the like ethos or theme or general mission statement for what I'm trying to accomplish or communicate. So point is, hadn't done that for Eddington. Hadn't had that moment for Eddington. But over the weekend I had a long night Thursday night. So Friday night I stayed in. Well, I saw a movie. I went see. I saw Weapons Friday night with a friend of mine, a later showing. And that film, man. Okay, so I wrote about it. So I'm going to push everybody to read the review because it's solid. Not patting myself on the back, just letting you know, understanding that how I write is in the moment. Those were my words, fresh out of the theater. It's just really nice to see an original script. I believe what's a Zach Kreger is. Is the man. I don't know if I feel like he's really having his moment, but his three directorial. His two directorial films before this one were Barbarian, which most people know in CLA, another classic horror, and then Ms. March from like 2006 or 7, which I remember being like in high school. And one of my good friends at the time thought it was the funniest movie. It's such a stupid, fucking, like, dumb movie a la American Pie road trip esque, where it's this guy hooked up with a hot girl in high. In high school and now she's Ms. March in Playboy. And it's like this road to go find her and get her or something like that. She's the one that got away sort of story. It's very stupid, but it is funny. And I do love that Zach Kreger, even in. Even in Weapons, because the guy is funny. He's writing partner Trevor, who passed away tragically. Trevor Moore was with him in Miss March and they wrote that together. That was his writing partner. And Weapons actually came out on Trevor Moore's birthday. I feel like there was some intention behind that as well. Weapons has a lot of good comedic relief in a very stressful film that is, you know, deeply dark in nature. We're looking at 17 children are missing in a town like. That's in Pennsylvania, rural Pennsylvania. It's the. That's in itself is terrible. But even in a movie where there's. It's such a heavy plot line and storyline, there are so many good moments of comedic relief that he, I think, honestly, masterfully weaves throughout this film to break up that tension that's felt that's looming throughout the entire film. I just replied to somebody's tweet about this about my review. I do love that a lot of the scare and the horror is done during the day. It's a tactic that I think it takes a lot of skill for a director on a horror film to understand that inherently, when we associate scary and horror and gore and all that, it's mainly under the COVID of a night sky where it's difficult to see and you can manipulate shadows and let the unknowingness of the scene itself, do a lot of the scare and trick the viewer into maybe seeing something they're not and then pop out with like a jump scare. Like, make, you know, use that. Use the darkness itself as a character. This film, a lot of it is done during the day. A lot of the. The instances, a lot of. There's the one scene where the. I'm not going to spoil anything, but the gentleman's, like, running through the street because he's, you know, coming after the main character. And it's all broad daylight, like three in the afternoon, you know, in this town. And I like that. I think that there's, you know, if it's well written and if the circumstantially, if the. The scare and this. The stakes are high enough in themselves that you don't need to cover it with darkness. You can just let it play out at, you know, during the daytime, in the middle of the afternoon. And it'll be just as effective, if not more, because now you're looking at it as like, oh, shit, this shit can happen. We don't need to wait for the night sky to then, you know, code switch internally to know that, oh, this is when the scary stuff's about to happen. Which is pretty exciting. I can go on and on about this movie. I'm so happy that it was a success. It's really tough to have a home run of a trailer like that and to have expectations through the roof, especially with the contract dispute. That was quite the only other storyline outside of that trailer that people were talking about. In particular, for those that aren't aware, Jordan Peele apparently put in a bid for this script and his production team didn't win the bid or they didn't offer enough money. And he was on the verge of, like, firing a lot of people on his team and felt really, he was pissed off that he didn't get the rights to the script. Not to say he would have done a better job than Zach, but Zach knocked it the fuck out of the park. So I don't know. I'm thoroughly happy. I did see rumblings of them wanting to make a sequel. I'm always anti sequel because more often than not, you strip away the art of what made the first one what it is, and it becomes more about the budget and pushing ticket sales. I'm not. I don't want that to happen, but I can't speak any more highly about this film. I'm a horror junkie. As a kid, I was a terrified little shit, but my mom and my brother in particular loved watching horror movies. Mostly Halloween, the classic Michael Myers franchise, and I'm talking the originals. Because my mom, you know, when she was younger, when she was a young woman, that was when those were coming out. So she always wanted to show us the ones that she grew up on. I was the kid that would be under a blanket sweating and peeking out periodically because I wanted to be in the room and a part of the action. But I, but I was too chicken shit to actually just sit and watch it and that those movies kept me up at night. Friday the 13th was terrifying. Nightmare on Elm street ruined me and my sleep cycle for years. But point is, as a kid it's been a full turn. It's been a full 180. Was terrified of these things. I honestly think. I mean, becoming an adult helps, but also going to school, studying film and being exposed to a set in production and seeing how certain things are done. And I kind of became obsessive with like the. The magic of how scenes are shot and movies are made. So it just. The more you get exposed to the industry itself on the level of production, the more you see it for. For what it is as an art form. And I kind of became, I became obsessive over that rather than. I think there's a beauty and innocence to those that don't care for that part of the film journey. Especially when you're a kid. The best mind frame to, I think consume a film is when you're a child because you're assuming you don't put together that this is something that was. You just. You accept that reality for what it is and you assume that it's true on a level which I think is beautiful. That level of like losing yourself to a piece of art in that regard where you're just overall consumed and believe that like when you're a kid and you see Lion King, you're like, those are real animals shit like that. Toy Story, you're like, this can happen to me. My toys are coming to life when I'm asleep. It's very innocent and sweet, but I've really taken a liking to the behind the scenes sort of things and studying so much. In the Weapons re trailer, the weapons review that I gave, I mentioned Hitchcock, who I was, who I am. I'll say I am. But I was in college for sure, deeply obsessed with how he was able to accomplish what he did without getting too, too deep into it. I was always fascinated by, okay, how does someone that is making films in a genre that exists long before. Before he. Not long before, but before he came around and was currently happening when he was around it. But what made him so different than his peers, his contemporaries and those that had come before him? Like what in particular was his thing that made him the auteur that we that his name will forever be, you know, immortalized with film and certainly the genre of horror. So studying that for years really led me down a path of curiosity that opened up to many other directors as well, which is pretty fun. I've said this a couple episodes ago and I have been making more of a conscious effort to talk more about hip hop and pop culture and keep things relatively light and let the politics and things of that nature not go away because it is deeply important to me but not dominate the content of my show. But I do want to leave some space in today's episode in particular to pay respects to the five journalists that were killed, the five Al Jazeera journalists that were killed in Gaza by an Israeli airstrike that was targeted at their tent for the exact purpose of the ongoing silence of journalists in that region. Anas Mohammed, Ibrahim Mohammed and Mo Men, these heroes and arbiters of truth were simply out there doing a job and continuing to try to offer a voice for the voiceless. And they have become now just another statistic. As we've seen, the total journalist death toll in Gaza is now up to 269, all at the hands of Israeli bullets and missiles. Again with the intent and purpose of silencing the truth and scaring other media outlets, Western media outlets from joining the region and seeing the atrocities that are taking place on a daily basis. As discouraging as this is and as it, as it continues to be, it really is the plight of a journalist is, you know, what you're signing up for, especially in these situations. And I, when I was a freshman, I studied, I was, I really wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to be a war torn war scene journalist. Something my mom was very adamant about me not doing for reasons. Now as an adult I understand, but at the time I struggled to grasp with I, you know, these men died a martyr. I think there's something beautiful about dying on behalf of others and trying to uplift, speak truth to a group of people that are so underrepresented and under heard in general. But I keep going, keep writing, keep giving Palestinians platforms. I think that those are the things that need to continue. More deaths of journalists cannot discourage others from going in there and picking up where they left off. I Think there's a. Under an underwritten code of sorts that it's assumed that the mission continues and just because they lost their lives doesn't mean the story in itself is no longer something worth discussing or talking about. Outside of these five gentlemen, obviously there are many Palestinians that still that are being starved and a lot of lives that are being lost daily in Gaza. And it's something that is tough to ignore as much as a lot of people here do and also just place blame on the people that are from there or native to that land and yeah just something to keep in your thoughts, in prayers and those that know me know I'm not the most religious person but doesn't mean I don't have a heart and I don't think a lot about other people to not have empathy for people in that. In that situation. I think you have something seriously wrong with you if you can't see the truth of this matter no matter how hard they try to mind it. I've been on obviously X a lot and like YouTube and I've been getting a lot of targeted ads from Israel's official account very much with distinct messaging showing comparative photos of. Look at this, look at the starvation of by Hamas and these are the bad people. And then it's all fucking bullshit. It is. It's tough to watch. I tried to block it but they, you know, the APAC money is different, it hits different. I. You can't avoid it. Just. Just know that it's. I added this up. No. Anyway, point is keep seeking the truth, keep reading up on stuff. These journalism, these journalists are risking their lives every day. Give their works the time and effort that they deserve to be read and consumed so you can better understand the struggle of humanity outside of your own. Okay with that. I do want to thank everybody for being here at episode 30. This is quite a milestone and is not lost on me how far we've come since episode one and I am feeling very comfortable doing this alone. I know I've had some friends on and I do want to continue to have more friends on but I think that there is a level of comfort that has been established one that took quite a while for me to get. I was struggling with for a bit but I'm so happy to be in this position and cannot thank you guys enough for tuning in and checking this out every week. Just a reminder again, call in. I just need new voicemails. I have a few but they're not great and I'm not just going to do a voicemail for the sake of doing a voicemail. So Please call in 877-557-SWWP. Leave a great voicemail. I know you've all had some weird wacky summers. Tell me some stupid shit that you've got going on, please, and I love you all and I will see you next week. Peace.
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Nothing wrong with the pussy. Nothing wrong with the pussy. Nothing wrong with the pussy.