Not So Civil Adventures in Nashville and Cultural Observations | 03.05.25

In this episode of 'The Civil Union,' hosts Alex and Ryan recount their vibrant road trip to Nashville. From Kacey Musgraves' phenomenal performance at The Pinnacle to dining at Miranda Lambert's Casa Rosa restaurant, the couple dives deep into their concert experiences and culinary adventures. They also touch on the cultural growth of Nashville and its similarities to other major cities. Humor and real-life challenges pepper their narrative, including Alex's painting escapade at 'Art Urban Nashville,' navigating the city's nightlife, and even a memorable moment of sickness at Hampton Social. Sprinkled with personal insights, political reflections, and some lighthearted commentary on the Oscars, this episode offers listeners an engaging blend of travelogue and candid conversation.

00:00 Introduction to the Civil Union Podcast
00:57 Nashville Concert Adventures
02:01 Exploring Nashville's Culture
02:59 Dining Experiences in Nashville
04:43 Concert Night with Kacey Musgraves
06:27 Post-Concert Reflections
09:44 Hungover Morning and Hatch Print Tour
13:48 Fancy Sushi and Paint & Puff Session
17:52 Late-Night Eats and Gen Z Reflections
19:43 Unexpected Religious Experience in Nashville
20:39 Immigration and Labor in Nashville
22:49 Safety Concerns and Social Dynamics
25:15 Weekend Recap and Reflections
26:45 Oscars Highlights and Movie Reviews
31:43 Trump's Speech and Political Commentary
33:23 Closing Thoughts and Future Plans

Music: What's The Angle? by Shane Ivers -

https://www.silvermansound.com

Transcript

0:07

welcome to the Civil Union, the podcast where politics meets partnership. We're Alex and Ryan, a married couple, navigating life and debates in a conservative state. We bring you sharp insights. I. Bold opinions and honest conversations about political issues shaping our lives, especially those living on society's margins. Tune in for real talk, a touch of humor and plenty of passion because when it comes to politics, every voice matters, and we're here to make sure they're heard. Well, we're here for another episode of the Civil Union podcast. Thanks for joining us, everyone. Um, and if you haven't already, give us a follow on Instagram at the Civil U. That's just with the letter U. We need more followers, right Alex? Yeah. Then we also need followers on TikTok. Hey, we're on TikTok too. We are same username. So we had like a really, really busy weekend, extended weekend. Took some of that PTO. Um, and yeah, Thank you to my mom for watching the dogs, but we actually took a road trip to Nashville for the Casey Musgraves concert. I think this was her fifth time that we saw her live. Yeah. Five times. First time was in Oklahoma and this makes the fifth. Yeah, the, the first time was at, what was it called? The, what was it? Oh, the Diamond ballroom in Oklahoma. It was a more Oklahoma, yeah, when we lived there. Yeah. Yeah. It was like a little gymnasium. Yeah that was a good show too. But, uh, so she was the first concert at this new music venue called The Pinnacle. She put on just this phenomenal performance. She even performed some older songs in comparison to the Deeper Well Tour, which we also saw in Nashville, but that was at the Bridgestone Arena back in December. And Alex is just like a huge, huge fan of Kasey Musk Graves, aren't you babe? Big fan. I mean, we're basically best friends. Yeah, I think she knows who you are. I think so too. But the, the, the trip was just such a whirlwind, so we didn't get to see much of Nashville. When we went in December and our, our first trip was in 2018, and lemme tell you, that city has just grown so much and there's just. So much culture there. It's just, it's wild to, you know, you, we always have Chicago, which is five hours away, but it's really cool to see a new different city in a different state that has so much culture and it's music city, so there's always a concert going on. There's always something happening. It's really cool. And it's just about what, a four and a half hour drive from St. Louis. So yeah, a little skip across the pond. there's so many parts of the city that reminded me of, like Austin and Chicago and the Broadway downtown area reminds me so much of Las Vegas as well. I mean, if they ever legalized gambling in Tennessee, I think Vegas would have a run for its money. Literally, like it's. It's that, that popping down there. So we arrived around 3:00 PM to check in to the hotel and Alex had made reservations at Miranda Lambert's, uh, Casa Rosa restaurant. It's, which is on Broadway. And I, if you know me, you know that I am just a huge Mar Miranda Lambert fan since her debut album of Kerosene, which I think actually celebrated its 20 year anniversary this week too, which was. Kind of crazy to think that I've been a fan of that that long. Um, but her restaurants surf some. Just phenomenal Mexican food. I mean, you loved it, didn't you? Absolutely. Coming from a Mexican, coming from a Texan, I can tell you it's legit. Yeah. And like, I'm currently, like as of like last week on this like health kick right now, so I, I had the salmon, which was absolutely delicious. I also had to try some of the drinks that were named after her song. So if you've ever been to Nashville, like there are restaurants there, like, Jason Aldeen, we don't talk about him anymore. And Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton. We don't know's Miranda's ex, we don't talk about him anymore either. But, um, they, they all have like their, um, what do, what do you call it? Their signature drinks. Signature drinks named after their songs, and then their decors, all of their, like, you know. Albums or things that they've worn in at shows and stuff. And it's all framed. Memorabilia. Yeah, memorabilia. There we go. Good word. But, um, so I, I tried the Little Red Wagon, which is a Miranda song, which was absolutely delicious. It was tequila, had tequila in it. It was real fruity drink. And then, um, I also had the. Belinda drink called the, the Wild Card. And that was, that was good. I, I was getting a little tipsy before Kacey. You know what kind of night you're gonna get when you start your night with tequila? Absolutely. And so like after, we ate dinner at Miranda, we had to, at Miranda Lambert's restaurant, we had to get another Uber and go across town to this, this new venue that Kacey was performing at, and it was called the Pinnacle. And it was, it was absolutely nice. Very nice venue. Everything smelled new. It was new, you know, it was first opening for, uh, concert goers. Really? You just reminded me of like Rose on the Titanic when she goes, the linens were new, the dishes were new. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And another benefit of being like the first people at this like venue is that they were giving little, little tabs out to everyone. Where it was, uh, you got a free drink and I, I, I went exploring. I went to the bartender and I was like, what, what does this get me? Exactly. And apparently this tab and everyone got one was a, you could go up to$20 on it and get, you know, whatever you wanted. So you could literally get two drinks off this$20 tab and it was all free. So. Not only am I tipsy from Miranda Lambert, I'm getting more tipsy at Kacey Musgraves. And so it was, it was a fun, it was a fun little experience. But, you know, overall, Kacey Musgraves was just absolutely excellent. She, she went on around 8 45. She even shared one of my Insta Story videos on her, uh, social media. I am so jealous of that and, and the crowds that she brings in, they're just all really, really excellent. Liberal people, everyone, uh, con conversate with you. It's just an overall, a really safe space to be in, especially when you know you're in a new city that you don't really know we're going with going to or who's around you. But it, it was a really fun experience. So we were so close to the stage, but like towards the end, I couldn't hold it anymore. After all the liquids I had been drinking, I had to pee and I had to run to the potty. And so like, I, I had to. Bust through this crowd of all these like spectators. And I felt so bad leaving you all by yourself there, but I had to go, babe. Like it was, it was very, it was an emergency. And so anyways, I, I get back and I, I, I couldn't. Push through that crowd. Again, I wasn't gonna be one of those concert goers that like pushes their way to the front, you know, where you were. And so, uh, I was like, well, I'm just gonna text Alex. And you know, even though it's like 2025, I still had no reception. I don't know how, how does that keep happening? We have, I had no, yeah, I had no text from you. And when it, they did come through, it was like all at once. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, anyway, so that's something that people need to change. I don't know what's going on with that. It's very unsafe. Like if something were to happen, we couldn't even contact each other.'cause the cell phone reception like just sucks. When you're in a crowd of people, that's a problem. Yeah. So I, I ended up standing like in the very, very back and watching the rest of her performance and I'm so sad I miss dancing to slow burn, uh, with you, Alex, because that's like my favorite Kacey Musgrave song. Slow Burn. That's so romantic of you. I mean, it's not a romantic song. Yeah. But you wanted to dance with me. Well, yeah.'cause I get it going. It's a slow song, but you can like really jam out to it. Yeah, that's true. I'm one of those jammers to that song. So, Alex ended up finding me in the very back and we watched the rest of the performance and. Afterwards, we're like, well, let's continue the party. Let's just keep on going. And so we're like, let's venture to the gay bars. You know, we're gays, so why not go to the gay bars and, dance more and like have some drinks or whatever and see what the, the vibe is like. So we get into an Uber and we go across the city. we started at this little dive bar, gay bar called Tribe, and they. They were good. They were fine. A little pricey, like they don't do, like St. Louis does how you do like a, a cherry bomb, which is like a little bit of vodka and a shot of Red Bull. It's like they. They give you an entire drink as a shot. And so it was just, and so that's what made it expensive. And so, and they don't, they just don't do bombs there. It's so weird. Very weird. Yeah. They, they charge you for entire Red Bull and just give you the entire can. It is strange. Yeah. So after that, we went next door, which think the, the owners own the same like. Strip of bars, the same owners do. And so we went over to this dance bar, which was right next door called Play, and it was a$5 cover charge. And I guess that went to the drag performances that were happening. But I was like, why are we paying$5 to get into a, a bar and a Thursday night? But we did it. We're tourists, you know? And so anyways, it, it was a, it was a really fun time. Had our, had our fun, danced a little bit, and then we. You know, ended up back at the hotel and there was like this little fast food place that was really hopping, I think it was called cookout. they're open until like five in the morning. But we were, I'm on this health kick and we're like, we gotta go to bed. And so I just, I just ate a banana and that was it. I went to bed. We were good. Yeah, we were good that night. We were very good, especially on this. Health diet that I'm on right now. So, the very next day we woke up and I was, I was not gonna lie, I was a little tired. Might have been a little bit hungover too. I mean, what, what are your thoughts on that? You were definitely hungover and so, but that's what happens when he drink tequila and Red Bull and just a banana. Exactly. I know. And so. Um, we had reservations at 1130 at this fancy bruch dinner place called Hampton Social, and before 1130 Alex booked a hatch print show tour at 10:00 AM So we, we didn't have time for breakfast, so it was just like, get up, drink some water, brush your teeth, and out the door we went. So we took an Uber to, I guess this was next door to the country Music Hall of Fame uh, which is just a. Crazy, crazy building. I mean, they've put a lot of money into that building. I mean, it's absolutely beautiful. And we didn't get to tour the Hall of Fame this time we did in 2018, and I highly recommend it if you ever go, you know, it gives you something to do. And it's really neat to learn all about country music and they always have special little popups for. Certain artists, you know, and, this, what, what was this hatch print place, Alex? What was it? They're known for their, their tour posters. I mean, if you think of old tour posters like Elvis and, uh, Loretta Lynn, they've done, you know, the print, it's like, uh, print with ink on paper. It sounds so stupid, but you'd know it if you saw it. And it's hatch print. It's like a company. Yeah. So, the two tour guides, they, they take us back into this little room and there was about. Eight of us, I would say. And the tour guides were absolutely excellent with their presentation. But during this presentation I kept whispering to my husband Alex, and I'm like, I think I'm dying. and you know,'cause I hadn't eaten at all and I was hung over and he just kind of smirks and kept like watching and I'm like. You know, slightly perspirating on my forehead. There's no refreshments or water anywhere, by the way. And I'm just, I, I literally, I said it again. I think I'm dying. And he just kind of ignored me. So, but I, I swear I was, I swear I was dying. And so immediately like. After the tour, I ran to the nearest coffee shop and got this little like bottle of electrolyte filled water or whatever and, and we had to book it, you know, the tour was at 10:00 AM we had to be at Hampton Social at 1130 and we had to walk six blocks, you know, down some street to close to the river and go eat at Hampton Social. So by the time we get to Hampton Social and we get seated at our, at our very, very nice view window seat. I was sick as a dog. Now, you know, and like now, I, I never, I never ever do this, but I look at Alex as we're waiting for our lobster rolls. I was like, babe, I think I need to throw up, you know, and I, I never have to do this. And Alex, my wonderful husband, reminded me that Hampton Social has these fancy private restrooms and, and we. We know this because we ate at one of these Hampton socials on our way up to the DNC in Chicago last August, and after he told me that I sprung up and I like briskly, walk over to the restroom and I, babe, I let it go. And you know what? I'm not ashamed to say that I did that. I told Ryan, I was like, you had a Gossip girl moment. This was definitely like a Serena Vander Woodson moment you had where you vomited in a establishment that serves lobster rolls and everything's white. It's very true, and, and you know what you said to me? You're like, Elis, it wasn't an Applebee's. I'm like, that's true. That's true. That would've been a different level of low, but, but the restrooms at Hampton socials, by the way, are. Very, very nice. And, and uh, that was the first time I've ever had to do that. So, uh, by the time I get back to the table, the lobster rolls are there, the food's there. And, uh, you know, it, we ate, we went back to the hotel and we took a very long afternoon nap. It was very, very nice. So, fast forward we wake up and we have reservations at a, like, probably the most fancy sushi place I've ever been to. I mean, how did you find that place? I just searched sushi and it came up as when the top reviewed sushi places and it wasn't as fancy as some of the other ones I had found. So I was like, sure. Yeah, it was very, very nice. So it was called Vigoro, was that what it's called? Vigoro. Yes, Vigoro. And it was like kind of hidden back behind like all these other restaurants. You had to like walk down this like mysterious hallway and like open this fancy door and it was just, it was just the most fanciest sushi restaurant I've ever been to. I had the first time sushi with like caviar and a shave of truffle on it. It was absolutely divine. And then I had my waiter, we ordered what? Miso, but real miso, like the green stuff that's really hot is usually really fake. Or is it wasabi? Oh, wasabi. It wasn't, yeah, wasabi miso. It was wasabi and. Um, real wasabi. I've never had, I've always seen it like on Chef's Table and he comes over to our table, this poor waiter, and he takes his root and he is shaving it on a what? Shark skin and Yeah. Shark skin. He's talking to us for like. 15 minutes shaving this poor miso route gave me like shavings. It was delicious. Wasabi route, wasabi fuck. And it was, but it was so good. And I'm so happy I tried it anyway. See, I didn't know what we were supposed to tell him that we were done and then he had to go, or I have no clue because he kept like really, really working on that. He worked on that route. He and he kept talking to us. Yeah. And I was like, yeah. So funny, which was fine. He was very, very nice. It was a great experience. I'm like telling him all about our life stories, but because he kept asking questions. So anyways, once th this was Friday, this is the second day there we're seeing the city and I had booked this like paint and puff session that I, I randomly like found on an events page on Facebook, you know, and I was like. What is this place? Because marijuana is like illegal in Tennessee, and so it's like the event page had this like frog with like red eyes that looks really, really stoned, you know? So it was like, well, what's gonna happen here? And so anyways, we, we get another Uber, we go across town north of Nashville, a couple miles north of Nashville. I mean like. Bars on the windows, like of all the houses and like we get to this plaza and there's like bars on the plaza windows as well. And there's like this car randomly parked in the uh, parking lot'cause I guess it died. And it was just sitting there and there's just like a bunch of like random parties going on.'cause there's like a strip of bars it looked like. And this. Paint and puff session at Art Urban Nashville. That's where, that's what the place was called. And so, we get in there and they're playing just like loud rap music. You get to pick your. Paint like your, uh, what do you call it? Your palette, I guess. What is it called? Yeah, a little, little art palette. Art palette that you get to paint and you can, you know, it's BYOB, you can bring your drinks and it was just, it was ended up being a really, really fun situation. It was just me and Alex and, you know, there were a lot of people there, but it was just, it was really fun. We got to, we didn't really have a teacher. It wasn't one of those teaching painting things. It was like You paint whatever you wanted to paint. Yeah. They just let you loose. Yeah. And mine was horrible, but Alex, you were just so artistic. Yeah, they had like options of painting like heels and people smoking blunts and like all these different things. And Ryan picked, what was it? What was that? Bluey. Bluey. I didn't even know what it was. It was a dog and like you're painting bluey. And he goes, yeah. Anyway, it was a great experience and it shows you that you can't judge a book by its cover. Like it was scary kind of initially getting there, but it was ended up. They were so nice. It was, I would highly recommend if you live in a Go Art Urban. It was so fun and welcoming. Oh, it was so much fun. And you know, the experience was completely different than what we had, you know, at KC concert or on, on Broadway or Vigoro. It was just, it just was so much fun. So, so we get back to the hotel. Okay. And I'm like, I'm super tired. Alex is hungry. And so we decided, well, we're just gonna check out this cookout place that's hopping. Open till five in the morning. Let's just see what it's like. It looks like you can eat inside, which you could. And You know, we go over there, we go get some, you know, crappy food or whatever. And so it, it turns out this place, this cookout place is like a haven for college age students. And I guess there's a few universities around where we were at. Like Vanderbilt is one, and I think Belmont is another university. Um, but while we're eating these kids, these college kids have to be like 18 to 20 years old and. I, I realized as we realized, as we were sitting there, like these kids the last 10 years have witnessed nothing but chaos in this country. I mean, us as millennials, I mean, we, we've seen just a lot. I mean. Pick a date of where you wanna start and run with the rest of our history. What, September 11th is something that you think about and then you just move forward, or, we've seen a lot, but boy, these kids have seen just this Gen Z they've seen just. Crazy moments in our history and the they're kids seeing this, you know? So, this Gen Z population, if you think about it, they've seen two female candidates run for president and lose. They've witnessed Trump and the chaos of his first term. They've seen COVID. They've seen Black Lives Matter protests, they've seen inflation, they've saw a Biden being the oldest president ever, and, and now they get to see Trump ruin this country again. I just can't imagine what is going through their minds when it comes to politics in general, you know? We also had no idea, and Alex pointed this out, uh, that this cookout place had all these psalm sayings, P-S-A-L-M. Is that how you sawm Psalm? Yeah. And they had all these Psalm sayings all over their food bags and their drinks and as gaze. We were sitting there and we're like, where the heck are we? I mean, this was like a weird, weird situation being around all this, like we don't. We respect religion. We don't seek out religion, and it's just like, it was just a wild. Experience. It's weird when, when you have to put it on food things. Yeah. Or restaurants or businesses. Yeah. Yeah. And this was a restaurant that supposedly is in other areas of the country. And, you know, you were in this very like, hip little place with all these young kids. I feel It felt, you know, I felt like we just aged ourselves being in there. And then we looked down and we got like all these religious quotes on cups and wrapping paper. It's like, what? What? Just trying to enjoy a burger here. Yeah, exactly. so anyways, that was Nashville, that was our last night in Nashville and that was, it was a really good time. So, but you know, another thing I noticed is that like all the cooks at On Broadway, in Nashville, all the cleaning professionals and laborers, like, I'm not trying to be sound prejudice whatsoever, but you could tell that not all of them have to be legal, you know? And it's like, well. We, we keep talking about during this podcast, these, these immigration raids, these ice raids and how they're ripping families apart, especially up in Chicago, a very blue city, but here in Nashville, a red state. Uh, it's a blue city, but it's in a very red area, part of the country, that's for sure. And it's like, it's like you don't hear. Ice raiding these touristy areas of hotels or restaurants, because these are multimillion dollar places that are bringing in a shit ton of money for the state, for the city. In a red state. Yeah. Especially in a red state, you know, but, but here, even in Missouri, you hear of a, a small little Mexican restaurant having to shutter its doors for several days because the cooks got deported. You know? And so it's, it just, it blows my mind. It really makes you think what the real motive is about deporting non-citizens in this country. And it, it, it sickens me, it pisses me off. And it was just, it, just solidifies my belief that not only does racism play a part in this, the Trump administration is going after the blue cities, the sanctuary cities, it's, it's just crazy. Why haven't we come up with a better solution for non-citizens to become legal here? You know, just like we did in the, the 1920s when all our grandparents migrated here, you know, so Overall, though Nashville was an absolute blast. The city is absolutely thriving. I mean, there are literally huge, like plots of land, kind of like Vegas has, where there's like a barren piece of land with just like an elevator shaft just ready for like a, a building to be built around it. You know, it's, it, it's really neat to have that so close to us and see it, you know, just grow even more. one more point I want to make about our trip in Nashville is that the only time I felt unsafe, and I'm serious when I say this, was when I was around the red MAGA supporting people. I don't think Alex and I exude a gay married couple, but when I, I really felt like the dirty looks we got from them. And you can just tell. The type of people they were, you know? So I think the focus here is just. Why do we focus so much on deporting illegal immigrants and we should be deporting these MAGA fuckers. Yeah. You know, and I will say, I was about to book a concert, like a little sing singer songwriter concert thing in downtown Nashville, and Ryan kind of stopped me and was like, babe, that sounds fun and I'm sure it would be fun, but like, think of the crowd we'd be around. So we ended up going to Art Urban, which was a little bit more of a different demographic. And yeah, it, it, I think we were way more comfortable at Art Urban than we would've been. At that other video. Exactly, exactly. Because I have found myself as a gay man in situations, and this is what I told him.'cause he really wants to go see, like these live music performers of, of song, they, these people that sing and they, they write songs for country artists or whatever and excuse me. And, and, um. Yeah, you know, I found myself in those situations where I didn't feel comfortable being myself. Or not necessarily being myself. I just, I don't want to be in a situation where I don't enjoy myself for an hour. You know, I think what Kim Cattrell said that once I, I have that quote written down somewhere. She, what's the quote? Oh, here it is from Kim Cattrell from Sex City. I have a little post-it note. I don't want to be in a situation for even an hour where I'm not enjoying myself, and I, I just felt that I was not gonna enjoy myself there because. I didn't know what the type of people were gonna be there. Yeah. You know, and you know, it's, it is funny because I don't think many people understand that feeling that we get as gays or even as, you know, as a two husbands, where we have to be mindful of that. And I'm very grateful that you kind of pointed that out.'cause I, I kind of forget that sometimes too. And I feel like we, if we would've gone to that concert, I don't think we would've had a good time, unfortunately. Yeah, so anyways, yeah, that was my first question. When you like trying to book it, I was like, are there gays gonna be there? And anyways, so, Overall great time in Nashville. We get home Saturday, get the dogs. I left my, my horrible painting with my mom and she told me she hung it up and we just relaxed the rest of the night and we, we got some pizza and we watched the city sc have another freaking draw. Which was, uh, zero to zero, I think it was against, uh, San Diego's new soccer team. We played well. We played well. It's, it's promising we are playing well. I'm just ready for us to get a point, and I'm ready for us to, to win a game. That would be, that feeling would be so great. But, um, I, I also saw all these social media posts on Saturday and it was actually Mardi Gras in St. Louis. Which is wild. Um, I used to attend Mardi Gras in my early twenties. I don't know if I'll ever attend a Mardi Gras again. It's fun. But I did think that too. When we were driving in, I'm like, God, if we were in our twenties, I bet we would've driven in and we would've gone straight to like change and we would've gone to St. Lord. Yeah. And that did not even crossed my mind this time around. I was like, screw that. Yeah. So, but it looked like everyone had a fun time. And so Sunday we wake up Sunday. Refreshed. and it was a little cooler outside. We went to first watch, had breakfast, went to Trader Joe's and I got some healthy snacks. We walked the dogs and so it was, it was a packed weekend, but overall, a lot of memories made. Um, I wish I could do it again. Um, just without getting sick and enjoying my lobster roll. Without having your Serena moment. Yeah, exactly. But, um, so did, did you watch the Oscars? I watched, yeah. I watched the beginning of it. It was surprisingly not bad, and Ariana Grande opened it. I really didn't know what, what to expect, but man, they, they blew it out of the park. Wicked. It was Ariana Grande and Cynthia Revo. Cynthia's vocals are insane. And the fact that they were able to perform to find Gravity live, and she made a nod to the Oz, which was awesome as well. Which, you know, Michael Jackson, you know that older Wizard of Oz movie spinoff thing. But anyway, very good. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that performance was just amazing. I just loved it. It was so good. But then, uh, I think. Conan O'Brien opened. He was good. Told some jokes and I can't believe an Nora won all those awards. You know, an Nora. When that trailer came out, I was like, I wanna go see this movie. I knew it was gonna be good. I like the lead actress, Mikey, she's in Scream and things. I've kind of slow, like, yeah. What scream movie is she in? She's in the original remake. A scream, not the original, the remake. A scream. When? Um, 2008 Dewey, she actually killed Dewey. Her character killed her. Oh, was she? She was the killer. Oh, she shouldn't tell people if they didn't see. Well, I know Spoil. Well you should have seen it by now. Spoil. You should have seen it by now. But yeah, she actually is one of the Killers great killer too. Um, but anyway, when that a Norm movie came in, I was like, this is gonna be up for awards. It was getting a lot of feedback and so I made, I dragged Ryan into the theater and saw it was such a. It's artsy. It's an loved it interest movie. Is that an A 24 movie? Um, no, it was Neon. I believe it should have been a 24, but I think it was Neon and which also plays, produces artsy movies. But it was so good. I enjoyed it a lot. I think it was kind of, you either loved it or hated it, but I definitely knew. That it was gonna do well. So I do feel bad for Demi. I think she really worked her ass off and she really had her moment and she was winning all the awards this season from Golden Globes to Keynes to Critics Choice Awards and, um, screen Actors Guild, I think even. But, you know. Mikey deserved it too. She, her performance was great. There was also talk of like Cynthia and Ariana not winning anything, but you know, when it comes to that, I do feel like sometimes, especially in sequels or things like that, like Lord the Rings or, um, any movie that has multiple movies that are already going to come out, you already know there's gonna be sequels. I think they were focusing on the actresses that. Perform well this year knowing that there will be a Wicked two in November, I bet you next season, next award season, they will at least give one of them a best actress award for like the overall Wicked movie, part one and two. They'll be awarded for part two. Yeah, you know, I didn't know that, that Sean Baker, who literally. Took home, he directed a Nora and like he did the screenplay. I mean, he literally took home Four Academy Awards home with him. Yeah. That was a record for one person to do that. I didn't know that. That's wild. I, well, I didn't know that. He also did. The Florida project. Mm-hmm. Which was in I think 2017 and we watched that movie. Remember that one? Yeah. And I think that's why I wanted to go see aor actually. I think I like saw who directed AOR and I was like, oh this is gonna be good.'cause the Florida project was just visually really great. Yeah. So I knew it was gonna be like a win-win hardcore Florida vibes and it was like a sad, sad movie. But, um, if you're an artsy movie person, I would recommend seeing that movie too.'cause that was really good. One other thing too with the Oscars, which was really cool, was that, I didn't watch the entire program, but I do feel like this Oscars, for some reason, Oscars had been slipping in viewership the last few years, and this, this year, I actually think a lot of people watched it from my understanding. I think even on social media, a lot of people were tuning in, which was interesting. I don't know why, maybe it was'cause of Wicked, but, um, it was a good, it was a decent show. I, I'm excited to see what they do next year. Well, yeah. Well, and then cable's just so it, well, no, I guess it was on A, B, C, but we, I wouldn't even know how to watch it. You're the one that streamed it from Hulu, I think, right? No, but that was interesting. I streamed it from our actual like spectrum. But people on Hulu got pissed because I guess people streaming on Hulu. Hulu, like dropped the feed right before the best picture announcement or Nora, I can't remember, but everyone was like livid online. I was watching the replays on YouTube and the comments, everyone was like, screw you, Hulu, blah, blah. They're canceling memberships because they really dropped the ball on. Wait, how did you stream it from Spectrum? We don't have Spectrum or it was on, on our TV somewhere. I don't know. It was from your mom. From my mom's account. You don't have to whisper that. Yeah, it's from your mom's. Yeah. We bounced cable from my mom. Sorry guys. Cable's expensive. It's so expensive and we're already paying all the streaming other things. Yeah, it was on that. I don't know how we logged in. I thought it kicked us out. It did. It worked. I have no clue. So I can watch TV right now. Yes. Alright, well I thought knew that maybe we should in this and now I'm gonna go watch TV now. I'm just kidding. But, um, right now, as we're like recording this, I think Trump is giving his, uh, I don't call it a state of the union. I don't know if it's a state of the Union speech exactly, but he's giving a, a speech on the tariffs and all the other bullshit he's been doing. And hi. I wonder if Elon's gonna make an appearance there, but I, I'm interested to see what. What's happening with that? Because it's, it's a mess out there, guys. I mean, it's an absolute mess. Wasn't his wife talking to about something? Oh, she did something about, what was it? Revenge porn or something? She's against it or something That is the most, what was it? What did she, uh, who knows? Let me see. I'm looking it up right now. I. I roll my eyes every time she does something.'cause I'm like, what is she doing? Well and this whole Trump speech, I mean, you really don't need to watch it.'cause every, all the important reels will come off of it. The next tomorrow. Oh, she here. Here's a headline from USA today. Melania Trump's guest at Joint address. Include victim of deep fake images, an exfo child, something I don't, I don't know. She's going out against revenge porn. Even though she was like posing nude on like covers of magazines for like in the nineties, wasn't she? Yeah, those were definitely not deep fake images. And her husband is like a convicted, isn't he convicted rapist? Yes. In the midst of also getting 34 felony accounts. And she's, you know, the. Person, the, the angel that's gonna rescue all of us deep fake porn. Yeah. Yeah. That is very interesting. Yeah. Put that two together. Yeah. So anyways, um, okay. So quick episode. This is a fun little light episode. We kind of wanted to take a little break from politics and I think it was fun. Yeah. There was still politics mixed in, but it was good. There was mixed in. So when's our next trip? Where are we going next? Um. I would love to go to like Aspen or Seattle, but I feel like, we'll probably our Latinx trip will probably be our Hawaii trip most likely. But we'll see. Yeah, we're all about going to Washington right now since watching Twilight. Mm-hmm. But you can anyways, so, um, oh, also, by the way, and if you've gone to Aspen or Seattle and you think one of those is better or have any tips or really think we should go, send us an email. what's our email? The Civil Union. 25. 25. At gmail com. Com. Yeah, totally. So I also got into a fight with a troll today on social media, on Facebook about tariffs or whatever, and he was like, berating my friend. And I was like, absolutely not. This affects everyone. It affects the entire world. Nothing good comes of tariffs. And you know, I've done all my research. I really have, like, we do research here'cause we wanna tell facts, we wanna tell the truth and everything. And, and he starts berating me, going after me telling me that I need to start posting links and everything. And I'm like, wait a minute. And you know what I did, Alex, you know what I did? I gave him a link to our PO podcast. I was like, episode four is all about tariffs if you wanna really get into it. And he blocked me. Of course he did. My coworker actually it was hilarious. I'm sure you could find the clip online, but Trump was speaking on CNN or some news channel and you know how they always had like the tickers on the bottom of the windows uhhuh of the screen and the Dow and as Trump is talking,'cause he this a whole tariff situation. The Dow is literally like live. Dropping, like the number is dropping, dropping, dropping as Trump is speaking. It is, it is very, I feel like that happens every time this man is in office. Do you remember when Covid was happening and all the, the numbers were dropping, dropping, dropping, and he's like, it'll be gone by the summer. It'll be gone when, when the weather's warmer, you know, drink some bleach. Isn't that what he said at one point? Um, but yeah, I feel so bad for Canada right now too, by the way. I mean, I'm seeing this leader. Justin Trudeau, is that his name? Justin Trudeau Speaking to the American people and out of confusion, like why are you guys doing this in Canada? Like why are we fucking around with Canada? They've done nothing to us. We will have no allies by the time this, I mean, we're not even two months into this presidency and we have no European allies. We've dropped our shit with Canada, Mexico, Ukraine, I mean everything. Do you think Trump is actually going to make it through the four years? I, do you ever wonder that? Really? Hope not. I, I haven't talked about this yet. I didn't know if there was gonna be a story that I was gonna, like, a speech I was gonna make on this podcast or something, but I really, I don't know. I have no, I think something happens that, that's so big that Republicans turn on him at some point. It's just like. What is that event that happens And as millennials and as Gen Zers, we're all, we all know events happen like, like clockwork. Here I just feel like something's gonna happen. Yeah, but you also gotta remember too, I mean, what really Trump. He's been, he's been impeached, he's convicted, felon, and none of that has stopped anything. I mean, these supporters, it's like a cult. And I mean, Nixon got impeached. Nixon dropped outta the presidency. We moved on from that. I don't understand how he was on a second term too, by the way. Right. I didn't know he got another term on that. Yeah, Nixon. Nixon got a second. Good term, but I just, I don't know what it's gonna take. I'm just counting down to 2026. Yeah, I'm just, I'm just ready for those lawmakers to start naming streets after Trump too. I think that's what some of those state senators in Missouri doing. But anyways, uh, thank you for listening, guys. A quick light episode again, and we're gonna end it here. make sure to give us a follow at Instagram at the Civil U. That's just what the letter U and email us any, any concerns, anything you guys want us to talk about at the Civil Union, twenty5@gmail.com. Thanks everyone. Thank you. Bye.