Got That Dog in Me (Every Fourth of July)

happy fourth! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Howdy everyone. Welcome to the most recent episode of the podcast. This is going to be kind of a mini sode uh for you today, as we're we have some kind of time constraints that we're working with here, but wanted to get something out on this 4th of July weekslash weekend that we're going into that I'm super pumped about. I always go away, I think I mentioned before here multiple times that I go away to my uncle's on the beach house on the shore, and it's uh basically the highlight of uh the year. Um so really looking forward to that. Hope everyone else is as well. So kind of a short episode. We'll do some uh what's good, just a couple random topics and then question of the week uh to top us off here. Uh I also want to mention off the top, I've uh we had the question last week of what's your sound of summer, and mine was Katie Perry, which I still stand by. I also have a little bit of a deep cut that I've been listening to. Uh I don't know if you guys are familiar with the artist Kid Quill, but I would know the name. I would highly suggest checking out his stuff. He has a bunch of just awesome songs that are just feel-good um summer jams. So I highly suggest Kid Quill to uh to add on top of the sounds of summer.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

I'll have to add that on. And actually, I was thinking about it because I've I've discovered a new sound that I've been really into. Not just it's not a new sound, it's an old sound, but I've I've realized like kind of glass shattering moment that the there's like a tight that I'm like, man, I'm I'm really feeling this right now. It is it is like an early 2000s rock sound with like heavy distortion on the guitars and like heavy kick drums in with pop female vocals. I found a couple of bands here recently. There's a band called South Arcade and uh a band called Honey Revenge that have been popping up on my Spotify a ton of things.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

So are these covers?

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Or is it no, they're not covers. It's just it's just like a throwback type sound where it sounds like it was made in the early 2000s. They're newer bands, they're all from like the 2020s, but it has that, it has like the the it has really catchy hooks and like like female singers that uh uh sound like they would be pop singers, but it's like over these heavy guitars, these like like really distorted riffs, uh and it's just it's it's a jam. I've been that's been my uh my lawnmower music for the last couple of weeks, and I'm like, Who'd you say this is like summer?

SPEAKER_01 2:23

What were the names of the bands again? South arcade. South arcade, okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

And Honey Revenge.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

All right, sweet. Yeah. Uh I'll have to check them out as well. Um all right, cool. So going into July 4th, I think I mentioned it, I I had my top five list of uh or bottom five list of summer, I guess, or spring going into summer. Uh but uh on it, I don't think I made the bold claim, but I think that July 4th is my number one holiday right now. Number one, above all else. Just like the actual holiday itself. Holiday season, nothing's beaten Christmas. Christmas is above all else. But in terms of the actual day itself, just because of what it's turned into, and you know what I love? It's that's very unique about July 4th, is that it's the whole day, but the highlight of the day is at the end of the day. So you have the whole day where you have vibes, grilling out and cooking, and you know that the that the crescendo is at the end of the day. Whereas like Christmas, you know, like you wake up and the crescendo hits right then, and then like the rest is kind of like riding out the waves, calm down. Uh and like I guess Halloween's similar to that uh as well. Um, but uh, but it's one of the few holidays where it's like where you're looking forward to the end with the fireworks and everything like that, and it really like ends the whole day uh off. So I appreciate that about July 4th. But yeah, number one holiday for now. Yeah, nice. How do you guys feel? And then, you know, we have like what do you guys feel about the hot dog eating contest?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Man, I feel like there's I have like a very a dissonance inside me about that contest every year. One is like it's just fun to watch any competition. And if when there's been a legendary run, like uh what's his name? You're just kind of like, yeah, of course. Like, you know, is he gonna do it again? Uh at the same time, it will never not be like a viscerally disgusting thing to watch. Um, including like I think we saw it live once and I was like, ew, dude, like can't do it.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, yeah. I think that that's that's like kind of where lie where I uh where I land on it is that I like knowing that it's there. I like knowing that it's happening, but I have zero desire to watch. Yeah, like I don't want to watch at all. It's just like it, I know that it's a staple of July 4th, it's very American. If it ever stopped happening, I would feel a little bit of sadness, but I don't ever want to watch it. I just like knowing that it happens. I like watching the highlights. I like like watching what happened.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

And it's like like catching it up on like the the package that they do on SportsCenter, like, oh yeah, he won. Like I feel like they don't ever actually show them like like eating a lot. Like I get to see him take like his couple bites or whatever, like the final count, what it is. That's enough.

unknown 5:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

So that there's like no drum taking a month.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

You know who's winning it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

That's our that's but that's fine. It's a comfortable like the fact that it's there is not.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

I still feel like uh I don't know if this applies to all competitive eating or if it's hot dogs that have just become such a disgusting, sloppy mess. Yeah. But like, could we pitch like a return to hey, no water, you gotta eat these the way people normally eat hot dogs? And yeah, the numbers might be significantly smaller, but at least there's an element of like it's not so unappetizing to watch, you know? How do you make more or less?

SPEAKER_01 5:36

I don't know if that's I don't know if that's like I don't know if it's like baseball without PDs, but like it better to watch it just marginally, just they'd have to chew it so much more. You just have so much more food in the mouth.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

But I've always kind of like I've enjoyed like I've loved watching, you know, the random like man eats what is it? Um man versus food. Yeah, those alternatives and then there's a guy that just got baked before having all those eating challenges. And then there's those like YouTube videos of people trying to do this on their own, which are pretty impressive. But like no, no, no. There's guys who like take on there. I think there's a guy named Beard Beard versus Food or something. He's like a Scottish guy, Irish guy, I don't know. But he goes like all over the world to these eating content. I think other people do that kind of content too. And he's like a small dude. I've never seen him not actually succeed, which is kind of crazy to think. Um, but he just goes and you just see him eat in a normal way. He just fast forwards it so that you don't have to sit through like all of it, and he does voiceover of like, oh yeah, now I'm eating the fries. This is kind of slowing me down. Like but I don't know, it's at least not gross, right? Uh it it's I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

But you're right, I feel like man versus food. It it was tasteful. You can watch it and you knew what he was doing, but it wasn't it wasn't all up in there.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

I'm just so uh disgusted by like the remnants of like wet hot dog bun that looks like toilet paper in an ass. Like it's just disgusting.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

I'm like, especially when you're about to go out and grill up some hot dogs yourself. Yeah. Don't ruin this. Because they do it right in the middle of the day.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

The day we eat the most of it anyway. But anyway, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

All right, but yeah, so a lot of good stuff coming up with the 4th of July. Let's uh let's get into what's good. Who wants to start us off?

SPEAKER_00 7:18

I'll go first. Um, I texted Megan about this. I don't know if she told you, but um, I went and saw Ben Rector last night. Yeah, nice and also I'm not misremembering, right? You guys went and saw him recently.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

We did, yeah. Yeah, Ben Rector is Megan's favorite number one artist. Exactly. Okay, I'm glad I remembered. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

I remember it accurately. So he did this tour or whatever, and then he was ending his tour doing a show in New York City with the New York Philharmonic. So like it wasn't just a regular concert, it was like an entire orchestra behind him doing a bunch of songs. And we went last night, my friend Zayna got tickets. Amazing grab by her, by the way. I would have never known, like, wouldn't have been on my radar, but she was like, I just got tickets to this, who's coming with me? We went last night, and uh I have two parts. One is the what's good part, the other part is a funny callback to another earlier podcast. Uh one was an incredible show, and my what's good is not just like Ben Rector and like that kind of concert. My what's good is like the sound of an orchestra and what it adds to any kind of music. I I meant I I said this to Megan too. It just felt like you were experiencing all of his music, but as if they were Disney songs, you know, so it's not just the singing, not just the melody and the composition. There's just like this power behind it when the strings like hit and the brass lights up, you're like, oh my god. Like, I'm like, it it is I call it Disney only because I think those are the only movies that are kind of maybe just animated movies that are still doing a lot of like orchestral background music for their like soundtracks and their songs. It used to be in like all movies too. Like, I'm sure if you watch like old black and white movies, it does like this is the kind of scoring that comes back, but I don't know. It was just it it made all the music so much more moving, and like you just couldn't take your eyes off. I was closing my eyes multiple times because I was like, I don't even need to see this, I just want to experience it in my ears. It's beautiful. Um, so that part was great. Uh the other part, actually, I don't know. Maybe Ben did this at your show too. Did he do the bit about the encore? I think he did, where he like like said that this is what happened and like spelled it all out and kind of like okay, yeah. Yeah, he did. Okay, all right. Well, I don't need to repeat that then. I just thought it was funny that I heard that after we talked about like your MGK show and the lack of an encore. The thing he does does this whole bit about like, hey guys, like here's what happened. That's right. He did it. And he did this bit about like, has anyone never been to a concert before? And there was like one kid that was like four or five, and Ben was like, okay, it's like here's what's gonna happen, just so you know, uh, wink wink, whatever. Uh and I was like, oh shit, that's so funny to like hear someone talk about Encores being kind of a staple right after we discussed the fact that you went to one and that didn't happen. I totally forgot that.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

I totally forgot that he did that. Yeah, so did I until you mentioned that. That he almost makes it seem like if you haven't heard of it, that you've clearly never been to a concert in your life. Yeah, because it just automatically happens all the time.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Yeah. Yeah. His banter like with the audience was incredible. He had a little banter with uh John McLaughlin, who's an artist who I actually like was listening to way before I ever listened to Ben Rector, and I love all the songs. He played like four songs. I knew every word of those, but they had really good banter too. I think he was part of the tour in the show you guys saw too. But um, yeah, it was just it was just incredible. And like one of those things where I'm like, fuck man, it is kind of goofy that like this is accessible to me in such a easy, like low-key way that I finished work, got on a train, went and watched the New York Philharmonic back Ben Rector and John McLaughlin in this like beautiful night. And also it's kind of hilarious because like I'm there in a fucking t-shirt and shorts. There are people who have like flown from different countries, are in their like best attire, and I'm like, this is fucking hilarious. But like, you know, but it was amazing. So really cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Man, that's cool. Yeah, I've I've always they do it very often, uh, where they have um, as you guys have probably seen, where they have movie theaters that play a movie, and then the soundtrack is filled in by an actual, you know, live orchestra, uh, like Star Wars or Home Alone or um Harry Potter, even something like that. And I always think I've never gone to one, but I was like, man, like would it really add that much? Because I feel like if you're in a theater with surround sound and everything, like the music is still an important part of it. And I can't imagine that an orchestra would like make it that much more, but it sounds like it probably does.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

I've had both experiences because a Radio City Music Hall did over the last three or four years the entire Lord of the Rings original trilogy with the orchestral instrument. And I would say in that situation, it's a little bit it's not that you don't experience it and you don't enjoy it, but it is easy to get sucked into the movie and forget that you're listening to live music because it like matches so perfectly, right? Yeah, um, and you're distracted by this other thing. But when you listen to a song and you recognize what that song used to sound like, or even you don't even need to know the songs, you just know the genre this is, and that it's not normal for it to have an orchestral woodwind instruments, yeah, and like little like amazing little touches of like you know, the shit that you hear, like Epcot fireworks. Uh is I don't know. It was it's it it that was that was incredibly changing, but yeah, the movie experience, not on the same level, but still pretty pretty cool to check out.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

Yeah, that's nice man. That's what I was yeah, just remembered Metallica did a whole album called SM where it's like these the Metallica like heavy metal songs backed by an orchestra, which is like a wild, uh a wild conglomeration of like mashing stuff up, but it actually works out really well. Nice. Brandon, what you got for what's good? My what's good is going to the world cup because that was a bucket list experience that lived up to the billing. Um we were seeing Ivory Coast and and Curacao, and I had like it was the World Cup. I didn't care who we were seeing anyway. I had lower expectations with it being like too lesser known. I thought it'd be like, you know, maybe 70 seats in the stadium and and be a little bit more watered down from what like the actual World Cup experience uh is. Um couldn't have been further from the truth. Packed house. Uh there were people decked out in their ivory coast garb where they were like dressed up like elephants. You saw orange shirts everywhere. There were people in all these like big headdresses for Curacle. There's there was a whole bunch of like Curacao is the smallest country to ever make the World Cup. There's like 250,000 people in the entire nation. There were 70,000 people in the stadium. So, you know, that's like 30% of their entire population was like represented there at like like from a just just from a like how many people they had. So I didn't expect there to be much blue in the stadium at all. Um shockingly, there was. Like all behind their goal basically was this wall of blue, and then there was like another section that had it, and it was like sprinkled, sprinkled throughout too. So um it was really cool that Curacao showed up and showed out for them. Um they technically weren't eliminated and could have advanced if like results went their way. So like they had a a reason to play. Um, but I think that they were also like kind of just happy to be there, which is also kind of like a nice thing because I'm like we're obviously in the knockout rounds now and seeing these countries like like lose in the knockout rounds, and then like everybody's in tears after it, like the players and the fans, everybody gets like so upset about it. And like that's not the case here at all. Like Kirk Curacle, they they lost true to nothing. And while I think if you were to look at the stats, it would probably I I don't even know what they were because I didn't look at them after the game, but I think it was probably heavily in favor of of Ivory Coast. Um that being said, Curacal, like watching the game, they had their chances. Like they could have they if if the ball bounced a different way, that game easily could have been a 2-2 game instead of 2-0. Um, which I think also goes to highlight, like, even though they are, you know, not the not the cream of the crop when it comes to to international soccer players, uh, everybody who's playing on this level can play. Like their their moves in tight spaces and their touch on the ball and the way that they were pinging passes around, like they every bit look like they belong to to be on that field within. Um so like the game itself was was a lot of fun to to watch. But beyond just the game, I think the World Cup is such a unique thing because it's it's like a festival. It is it is a spectacle in like the true sense of the word, where uh the gates, the parking lots open four hours early and the gates open three hours early, and they have this like massive fan zone. Uh, and there were two different places where they had like live music going around. Mikelobe did this like whole like outdoor setup where they have like the Mickelobe Lounge where they had live music playing and a fully stocked bar that you could go up to and all kinds of like activities and stuff going on, and Coca-Cola had their stuff going on. So it was kind of like like like there was a lot of like pomp and circumstance around like the fan experience that's like kind of surrounding the game. But even like the game itself, like like when you're in your seats and lead up to it, like they have these video highlight packages where they're playing music that like sounds like it's coming from the country, and like like it really seemed like culturally, it's like kind of like kind of exposing you to what the the countries are, which I thought was was really cool. Um and the the analog just because of what the boys have been into and kind of where we've been, the thing that kind of stood out to me was like kind of how the Quidditch World Cup is depicted in the Harry Potter Potter movies and how it's like written about, very accurate. Uh like very accurate, even though that's like like because it's a kind of like this magical, whimsical like thing to it. And it has that that kind of uh that kind of like aura around it, just the the experience and and being there.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Uh yeah, and it's like a celebration of cultures that you're not exposed to very often. So it has this this very uh cool feeling to it, it seems like.

SPEAKER_03 17:21

Yeah. Yeah, which was which which was really neat, and like I said, like I think it's a one-on-one experience. I don't think you know I I was trying to think of something else that could compare this to. Because like I've I've been to like European soccer games and have gone to Premier League games and such, and I think that there's like such a there's such a focus on the product and on the on the actual soccer itself. There's like really not much else that's going on. Like there's there's there's nothing else that's there, which I think is they kind of like that it's a distilled experience that it's focused on that. Um but I I I think that and then the other thing that would be uh kind of comparable to it would be like the Olympics, but also like the Olympics are these like random sports, and I don't think it has the same passion that the World Cup drives with soccer. So it's truly, truly unique experience. Um, bucket list item that I'm glad I I crossed off and and would highly recommend because it was it was awesome. And I have to say, um, you know, just with that many people coming in and around the logistics of it, I was like worried about like how it would be um like getting to, into and out of the stadium. They had people all over the place, like for blocks around the stadium, like holding signs, directing you to like they to where like the ride share drop-off was or like to where the the train station was and how to get there, all a bunch of people that have just like had information signs. So like ask me anything if you if you need help finding something. Uh like for the lines to actually get in, there were like people that were had signs up to like show where the shorter signs were. So like when you walk in, you could go to them and they would like like put you in, and and they had so many entry points um that even though security was tight and there's like a whole bunch of metal detectors and bag checks and all this stuff that you had to go through, they had so many of them available that getting into the stadium was was super easy, even though there it was you know sold out, there were 70,000 people there. So um like the the whole logistical experience around it was was also I was I was impressed with the way that they uh way they were handling it.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, I mean I I just had to look it up like how long have I had to prepare for this? And I guess they found out uh or it was revealed on June 13th in 2018. So that was eight years ago, and they probably had inclinations and were probably laying the groundwork for well before that. So you know, uh just to think of like a decade worth of planning uh paid off. And just like we were talking about before, it seems like there was a lot of negativity going into it. Seems like all that's kind of gone away, and like just like you said, like the celebration of everything, you know, yeah, it's about what's happening on the field, but everything outside of that uh has been going has been going really well and has been a big uh uh a big success.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

A bunch of uh the New York City crew here went down for that same game, Brandon. They they they they said all they echoed all of that. They're like, it was it was actually like just such an experience.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Um Yeah, that's really funny because M Megan's uh or our now brother-in-law, I guess, um that they knew friends that went to the same game as well.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

So I wonder if that was just like the one game that just didn't sell any tickets, so like everyone else was getting So So I I think like to do it was the cheapest, if you were buying them secondary market, it was the cheapest one to get. Uh-huh. Like all the other games are going for a thousand dollars plus. And I was I checked up like right up to kickoff to see like how low they would go. Lowest ticket I saw to this game on like Subhub or SeatGeek or something was like $700 some dollars, like $750, $760. Um I do also think that like when you're putting in the lottery, because the way that they do the lottery system, where if you put in for the game, you have to like go to the game. And the other games that we had, we had uh Brazil and France here, uh, and then the other one was like Croatian Ghana, which is like a more competitive type game. So like when you're looking when you're looking at them, if you were to put in for the lottery, um you I I think most people, if you were going to skip one because you didn't want to buy five games if you if you got them all, this would probably be the one that that you would want to skip. So I think that overall it they probably probably had definitely the least amount of lottery submissions for it. Um but like but like it's it was still a sellout crap. Like I I don't think it was like a an an easy thing to get. I just think your odds were were a little bit better if you're putting in FIFA.

SPEAKER_04 21:35

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Yeah, definitely once in a I mean it sounds like we might be getting it every like sixteen years, the World Cup. Sounds like they're really uh it's it's kind of working in our favor that there's a lot of, you know, hey FIFA is one of the most corrupt organizations uh around. Uh and it sounds like it's really setting up for the USA to uh to be hosting it every now and then. So maybe not as once in a lifetime as it was once thought, but the the one thing

SPEAKER_03 22:01

is uh I do find it hard, like like think about like Qatar and like like South Africa, all of these countries that did not have the existing infrastructure in place to handle that. I I do worry about like what that experience would be like. I would I would be interested in like going to one of those and comparing it to see what it's like because yeah it's like it's a lot. And I know similar to like how the Olympics have been, um, a lot of those stadiums have gone unused and fallen into disrepair and like this this huge negative economic impact on having to do all of that for and that's like one of the like the key selling point for the the US and the combined bid that we had with Canada and Mexico is that all that stuff is in place. We have the train systems, we have these massive stadiums, we have the parking we have you know the and I mean the police presence was insane. Like we walked we parked we parked over at the um baseball stadium and like like right all of the roads around that is where they parked all the police vehicles and it was just bus after bus after bus of like like I guess they where they had just bust them in from all over the city and and all the police cars and like some of the armored vehicles and stuff it was it was nuts.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Yeah nice well that's awesome man. Good to hear that it was uh well worth it that you guys got to experience it. Yeah that's cool for sure uh all right my what's good kind of a little bit of a journey a little bit of uh starts out low but ends high um I was on as is typical yeah I was a I was on a trip uh out in LA this past weekend and um or I was out in Phoenix I got to visit some family out there I have an aunt out there and my grandfather lives out there now so uh it's good to see them so hot yeah like what are we doing? I actually had to look up I was like why is Phoenix a city? Like why did it become a city? Like you think like it wants to be on like a major waterway or is like a port city or something like that. Like I was like what are you doing here? Just it's hot. It's just so hot like every day. Uh so that wasn't great. But um while I was out there uh we we got the unfortunate news that one of our really good friends uh was in a car accident um and it was a pretty bad car accident um so that was that was tough and it was a little bit of a roller coaster because information was uh you know different different reports that we were getting and obviously we were not prior you know primary people to be filled in so it's not like we were getting the most up to date, you know, trying to be respectful of the family as they were going through it. Um but uh yeah like I said really close friends and some of the reports were pretty bad uh out of it where we didn't know where it was going to wind up. Um so the what's good is that it was not as bad as it was uh feared and everything is turning out to be much better than was uh originally thought which is which is good obviously um definitely very sobering to have moments like that because obviously you're concerned about the people themselves and making sure that everyone is okay you know throughout the entire family and then you also kind of put yourself it's hard not to put yourself in those uh in that situation you know and I'm imagining how it would be uh you know if if you know obviously it's hard to picture yourself in that situation but if like Megan was in that situation and uh was getting that news and had to and if I wasn't around when it happened, you know, if I was on a trip when it happened and you know I had to try to make my way back and deal with flight delays or whatever and then go to a hospital and see them in that situation and deal with the kids and all that sort of stuff kind of like just makes you think about all that sort of stuff. Uh and so um yeah again it was just a roller coaster of we found out about it and uh it was looking pretty bad and then started to get some positive updates uh which were really good but we didn't know which way it was gonna go. So once again what's good is that things are turning out well. We talked to the person this morning on FaceTime and it was yeah and it was just really good to see them uh back to what we you know the person that we know uh was there. Um you know and not much worse for the wear, luckily. That's you know everything I kept you know kept saying I was like man for what you've been through you know expecting a lot worse and you look great. It looks fantastic. And uh they're out of the hospital now today and headed back. So um that's all that's all good stuff. Positive stuff that uh that it turned out it turned out well. Obviously still a long a long road back. It's not you know back to business as usual. Still still some recovery to go. Um but uh considering what it could have been it's it's best case scenario I think so amen yeah that's awesome yep yeah all right uh cool just moving into some uh to some random stuff first of all have you guys ever pulled a back muscle or a neck muscle yeah back muscle it's terrible I think I pulled the neck muscle like 10 like a long time ago lucky you lucky you to like not have the recollection of it because it is I mean for people that have bad backs and unfortunately I have a very weak back where every like six months or so I'll pull either a neck muscle or a back muscle and it's like and it's debilitating. Uh and this one I so I'm working through it right now uh and I'm so mad at myself for this one it was so stupid I was at the uh I was at I was uh I was at the squadron doing some stuff and I was leaving like I had my stuff and I was leaving and one of the people there was like hey have you gotten your workout in here why don't you try this and this person had brought up I guess it's a weight it's just this giant like I don't even know how to describe it uh I don't know it's this giant weight but it doesn't look like a weight and it has like two like bar handles on the side but it's all like one big essential like circle I don't know okay uh a circle or like a ball no not a sphere not a sphere not a ball just a circle weight it was like it was almost like it was almost like what they would put on a bench but like with a handle on it. Yeah think of like a 45 pound plate but like it can it can it can sit on its own you know it has like a flat bottom and it has like two handles on the side okay yeah he was like he was like oh yeah like if you haven't done your workout yet yeah like this other guy did it and he did two overhead presses with it uh I was like okay cool and I'm like I'm very jovial around the squadron I'm like oh yeah sure and I like throw it on my stuff let's go what is it and this thing was a hundred and forty one pound weight which is not nothing and I just like I put no thought or preparation into it I was just kind of like joking around and I went to like yank it up and I got it on my leg and like I could tell you know I was like contorting my body and everything like this thing is not meant to go over your head just like that. And uh and normally when I pull a back muscle it's like I feel like a little tweak and I'm like oh man this is gonna suck it up and it like sets in a little bit right but this one it was like immediately where I was like oh I was like oh this is really bad. I can tell this is really really bad. And uh and you know and I so I was like I was supposed to be going to the gym I didn't go to the gym. I texted Megan I was like I pulled a back muscle really bad she's like oh what'd you do and I'm like something really stupid just so stupid and I got home I was talking about I was like I'm so mad at myself like I'm so mad because like you think of all of the things that led up to it I'm like man if I had just not gone into the squadron today would have totally avoided it. If I had just left when I wanted to leave would never have even come up my computer needed like an update and I was like oh should I wait for this to update uh I'm here I'm just gonna wait it out and see if I had just not and just gone home wouldn't have ever dealt with it like all these things that was like I'm so mad at myself because we have July 4th coming up I want to be able to like experience it fully and not be like hobbling around. And I was just like man I'm just because it was so stupid. It was so stupid put no thought or effort into it just went and started yanking up this 140 pound weight that I had no business you know I probably lifted all with my back like I didn't squat down a little it was just it was it was so dumb. Like it sucks because like when you have a pulled back muscle your your whole body is tense because you're waiting for because like you're trying to protect against like a little like flare up so your whole body's tense. So because of that you're just sweating like I'm hot and sweaty the whole time because my body's so tense just trying to protect against it. But luckily I think I've been managing it as well as I can uh I it's it's really hard for me because be going to the gym and working out is like part of my identity unfortunately or fortunately so not being able to go to the gym uh and this happened yesterday uh has really bothered me I went today because I was like I gotta try to see if I can at least like get on the elliptical or do the stationary bike or something like that. And then I went to the gym and I was sitting on the bike and I was like can I really not do anything like I think I maybe I can do something. Like I think if I do chess stuff where like I'm just like lying against a bench and like pushing up and I like forced myself to do something just to like mentally I know Megan was like whoa she didn't even want me to go to the gym at all obviously um but like in my head I'm like hey what whenever you like rest like it's easy to think that just lying down and resting helps but in my what in my experience like keeping moving and keeping the muscle warm uh helps make it better. And luckily we googled some things because I've always just put heat on it but it seems like ice immediately helps and that and that did seem to lessen it a little bit. But yeah so working through it now hopefully I'm somewhat more mobile at 4th of July but I'm just it it was really dumb. If you've ever had a back muscle if you've ever pulled a back a back muscle uh you know what it's like and it's really miserable and to do it so dumbly is dumbly? Is that a word? I don't know. But do it without putting much thought into it really sucks. Um but so uh so yesterday after pulling the back muscle we went and saw Toy Story 5. That was uh our plan to go see it. So um glad we got to go see it. I thought it was fine. Again my family ditched me and did me dirty by seeing three and four without me they'll all deny it but you know uh the fact of the matter is that is that they've seen it and I haven't so I feel like I was missing two of the other ones but I thought it was fine. It was good. You went and saw five without having seen four at all I couldn't have just not gone with my family you know I was doing homework watch the movies. I know because I hear that three and four I also I also saw five on Sunday. Yeah having seen all of them though unlike you uh I still like three the most I think okay or maybe just three hit me at a right time at a right age you know I I think that's a that's a fair yeah I think that's a popular opinion to yeah for uh so it's good that you've seen it the thing that really I don't I didn't look anything up on this but immediately the thing that sticks out is um Jesse's voice I was like whoa is a different different actress like they must have totally no it's the same actress she's just she's just older yeah so much older comes out in the voice like no she like Jesse sounds like she might be a little bit of a Jane Cusack Jane Cusack yeah and uh so it sounds like Jesse's a little bit of a smoker now and it just like sounds old and gravelly where it's just like jarring like this is not the Jesse the I mean but Jesse's old so it makes sense. Yeah but so is Woody and Woody doesn't sound I don't know you know Tom Hanks doesn't sound that old but um but so that was kind of jarring. And then I thought it was funny that you know I think that I mentioned on here that I was interested in seeing like what the message of Toy Story 5 is because it's all about technology and I was like man that's a really like delicate line because it's so integrated. So like you can't just like totally denounce it but also like how do you get them to like work together. But it's funny that the message is kind of like well from what I got from it it was like eh technology's not all bad people are just shitty like yeah it's just very much like no no no it's not the technology it's just that just that kids kind of suck sometimes and there are people that are just mean. And I was like oh so that was in on it.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

I think that was maybe the only thing that kept the movie from like reaching greatness for me is like I was like oh that's a very hand wavy like you can't set up this like showdown between yeah toys and tech and feel like you have something to say and then it yeah it you don't really like you instead flip it into this is a kids' movie guys these are all characters and they're gonna work together now and we're not gonna go back like try to have any stance on like whether tech is good or bad anymore. And I'm like uh maybe you could have just avoided that from the start but I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Right. Because they definitely set it up of like how much technology has taken over and about how negative I mean they showed how negative it is of people getting sucked into it. And then at the end they tried to spin it of like oh your technology and toys you can play with them together and it's like the technology was like playing a song during a wedding or just like off to the side just like playing like the wedding anthem.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

It's like all right well otherwise though I gotta say I mean like actually like you can't deny killer fucking movie. Like just really good incredible animation the uh the the the visual of like how much they're kind of like they're not committing to photorealism obviously that would change the visual language of the old movies but like even the beginning and the island and you're like watching these buzzes and the porch I'm like yo this is just really well like beautifully animated. Yeah and like also just you know you can have your your uh your knits but like they I mean perfect record though there's there's no such thing as a bad Toy Story movie you know yeah that's what's wild we talk about how sequels never live up to it and they're on the fifth one and like you know it's a banger.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

Like you know without a doubt Toy Story is just going to deliver it every time. So uh I don't think that was too much of a spoiler. I I realize that Brandon you might not have seen it but like I don't think it was I mean it it it's it's a toy story.

SPEAKER_03 35:36

It's not it's not like like I'm not in it to be surprised by any of it.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

But I think we were talking I thought we were talking about it because you saw it already right didn't you bring the book I saw it Brandon did it Brandon did I I I haven't I remember you talking about it's a big thing that you guys are going to go do it.

SPEAKER_03 35:51

Fuck yep it was a big thing that and I had planned on doing it maybe maybe this past Saturday but then um George's birthday is on is this coming Saturday so I was going to do it and I'm off on Thursday and Megan's not so good I was going to do it on Thursday. Now Teddy's got baseball and there's like other things but so at some point this weekend still plan on seeing it. And like I said like it's not honestly it's a relief because I given that Toy Story has now had two what I thought were pretty definitive endings and have come back for it um was a little wary about five and it being reaching the point where it would get to the the point where they're kind of running out of gas. Sounds like that's not the case that's uh that's promising.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Yeah because yeah and and I immediately felt kind of left out when the movie started I had to turn back and be like why the hell is Woody just out in the wilderness? He just out doing his own thing out there. I definitely missed a plot point.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

I have no idea yeah that's right I think it's uh I think it's Quentin Tarantino who will r refuses to watch any other movie because he's like any other Toy Story movie because he said that three made it a perfect trilogy. He said that that the perfect trilogy in cinema is Toy Story. Like three was the perfect ending to it and he refuses to engage with anything past that because he thought that that it couldn't be better than what it was.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Interesting. So you should you should definitely watch at least three yeah I will at some point um all right and uh speaking on the entertainment I think we talked about how normally this is the this is the dry season for sports where it gets really rough when you just have baseball luckily there's a lot of things carrying the torch from the World Cup uh primarily the World Cup at Wimbledon starting uh golf matches going on and then the other thing is the NBA postseason has just been awesome. Like they are they wasted no time on going from the Knicks championship riding the high to like building all the drama for next year from you know uh Giannis being traded to the Heat uh John Morant got uh finally he's out of Memphis um uh what else we had we had uh Lamella ball and Miles Bridges getting traded out of Charlotte um Kawhi looks like he's gonna be traded to the or he is traded to the Raptors. Seems like they got a haul for him. They got a whole bunch of things they did I was surprised because I didn't know that that Kawaii still had it like that. I mean I think he's I mean he's old but when he's how old is he now 36?

SPEAKER_03 38:23

But he's 36 and he has a history of not being available. What's going to happen as his body ages like I I that was that the amount they gave up and the the number of picks that were attached to that was shocking to me.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

But it and it's and it's funny that the uh you know the the side conversation is about how Kawhi needed to leave the country to avoid all this uh Pablo the Pablo toy stuff yeah all of his uh as I I I forget what the company is but yeah I think uh all the money laundering essentially to him so maybe that's why maybe the Clippers knew that they had the leverage that like hey man you need to get him out of the country for this well you're gonna have to pay to do it um but yeah and then all the Jalen Brown stuff and how messy that is now how he it's basically him versus ESPN and Stephen A. Smith. Yeah and everybody and and the biggest one now possibly is about how the Warriors are making moves so that Steph, LeBron and AD might be teaming up uh on the Warriors next year uh which is like is that still in play with the because Porzing they resigned Porzingis to $20 million a year. Yeah and they're gonna be able to still afford to bring in in Anthony Davis and LeBron I do not uh pretend to know all the ins and outs of the NBA salary cap structure and the mid-level exception and the apron and second aprons I know it's changed a bunch now it seems like uh it seems like the big move was Draymond uh not picking up his deal and then and then and then restructuring his contract that seemed to be that's what ever that's what Wendy's saying is that hey you know have any other you know they're because LeBron has officially said that he's leaving the Lakers he's told them he's not coming back next year but he is going to be playing somewhere else. And then the other teams that are were in play were like Cleveland or uh Toronto before Kawhi also and Winnie's like yo these guys have done nothing like the Warriors this Draymond like that is a signal that they are making a move. Like they are they are doing stuff for this so it seems like that's what they're posturing for uh is to get is to get LeBron and AD and if you're him you know why not? Like you're still in California you get to play with Steph. Could you imagine the I mean I don't know if either of them want to do it but if Steph and LeBron retire on the same year like their retirement tour going around would just be bonkers. Yeah I I have I have a hard time believing that's going to be a good team though. I mean Steph LeBron Draymond Porzingis Yaxel Lindenberg now who I just read about how Draymond was just talking tons of shit because uh Yaxel's out there lying he was saying that he texted Draymond and Draymond never texted back and Draymond's like no no no you're not gonna be out here lying you're not gonna come into the league right away like he was like the Warriors we're not a big hazing team but we can bring that back really quick like you got to learn how to talk to your elders around here. So it was funny. But I mean that's a good and um that's a genetic that's a great that's a great team six years ago. Sure. But I mean obviously you have the Spurs and you have the Thunder for the cream of the crop and then maybe like the nuggets closely behind them.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

The timber rolls are making moves but then after that it's like eh I don't know yeah so they're competitive doing all this to be the fifth or sixth best team in their own conference? I mean they're not gonna not to mention that the defending champions are over in the East.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Yeah but what else? I mean what else you might as well sell tickets and get LeBron and Steph on the same team for their last final year. Yes. You know and it's an exciting team that I mean that's going to do numbers. You know like every like they're selling out every single game you know ESPN when whenever they're on national broadcast they're it's gonna do huge numbers. So like hey they're probably not you know I don't think anyone's expecting them to win the championship but it'll be exciting having them together and just seeing LeBron and Steph on the same team, those are two generational players and they get to play together now like they did in the Yeah but you've seen them go way past their prime. Yeah I don't know we'll see but either way the NBA offseason delivering right off the bat and it's awesome. And then we still have to see what happens with uh Jalen Brown because it doesn't sound like he's going back to uh to Boston um all right cool let's uh yeah perfect time let's roll into the question of the week just a quick one as we're getting into the 4th of July week and weekend uh what is your favorite uh cookout slash july 4th dish for me the thing that makes the cookout is the potato salad i am a I'm a big potato salad guy and it's something that I think like when you're looking at and you're looking like 4th of July cookout it's burgers and hot dogs all the way like the like what I want to put on on the the plate next to that baked beans if they're available love to have that right there and then the thing right next to that is a potato salad and how good that potato salad is I think is is what like makes the overall cookout burgers generally going to be good hot dog they're they're great.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

The thing that that like really make makes or breaks it for me is the the potato salad.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

That's a good point because there's a lot of variation yeah really I I feel like so much of it comes down to your use of mayonnaise how heavy or light you are on the mayonnaise makes it easy to overdo it.

SPEAKER_03 43:30

But then if you have it too dry that's also an issue. Yeah but then I I think it's like the seasoning that's in there too. Yeah you know you you gotta you you gotta strike the the right balance you can't have it too salty but then if it's not salty enough it's super buoyant. It's uh there's the there's a lot of and then you got the pickles and the pickle juice that you have in there like how much how much dill you got going on in the in the mixture there. How uh you know if you you get were a little too uh heavy handed on your slicing for the the celery or the onion Could have a little bit too much crunch that could be a little bit of a turn off. You know, there's a lot of moving parts there. And what but but when it's done right and when you nail it, it is delicious and like the perfect compliment to a nice char like grilled burger. Ah, nothing.

SPEAKER_01 44:14

I tend to agree. I can get on board with that. I think that potato salad and also macaroni salad to some extent. I think they're like the glue guy. They're like the glue guy of the, you know, they're not going to be the star, but if it's not there, you know this that something's missing and it's not really all coming together. You need that you need a good potato salad to bring it all together.

SPEAKER_03 44:32

Yeah. Yeah. The burgers are always going to be the star for me. Like I love to have a burger on the grill. That's like what I look forward to eating. But when I'm talking like when I'm thinking of like cookout foods and like what's like the unsung hero, it's for me, it's the potato salad all the way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

So Rob, how about you? I'm like kind of drawing a little bit of a blank. Only because I feel like so many of the July 4th cookouts I've been to are also kind of they become these like potluck moments, right? So everyone makes kind of like interesting things. Not saying that it's a complete deviation from, you know, cookout food. It's just kind of fun spins. So I I I'll I'll give a multi-layered answer. One is like I think basic cookout food stuff, this isn't really an unsung hero. It's just my thing that I appreciate because I don't actually eat them that often through the year, ever, maybe, uh, are hot dogs. I just don't eat hot dogs that much. But like for some reason, July 4th is both this alignment of like there's cooking happening, and I really want hot dogs. So that's one.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

Yeah, I would say that that that's you telling me that you don't go to Costco without telling me that you don't go to Costco. Yeah. Like not eating a hot dog. That's also true.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

Yeah, yeah. Maybe I would eat more hot dogs if I went to Costco more. Yeah, you have to. Uh, and then I'll give honorable mentions to some of the really great uh uh cookout foods I've had over the last like two, three years. One is um one of my friends in New York, we went to his family friends cookout in Norwalk, Connecticut, like a year or two years ago. And the food there was like a 20 out of 10. They're like a Indian family from like southern India, um, like all have like Portuguese names because they're like one of the they were like the the the areas of India that are Christian, and they did all the basic cookout stuff, amazing, and then also added like a bunch of other stuff. But my star of that day was um this grilled shrimp that they made that like I was like, how do you have this much flavor and depth on shrimp, which you have to cook very quickly? So it's like I literally talked to uh the the the the mom who uh was hosting and like you know put put the whole spread together, and I'm like, I need to understand. And it's a technique I now apply to things I cook, especially with seafood and stuff like that, which is like you just cook all the spices and stuff separately and like get it almost like nearly all the way, or sometimes you just do it and it's done, and then you dump the shrimp in there and then put it on the grill. Tastes fucking amazing. Um, and then the second thing I would say is someone did really great uh sliders, kind of similar to what we had, Brendan, when we did like the hamburger slider kind of things with the Hawaiian bread where you just layer it onto like a whole sheet of that. Um someone did those, but they did like Mexican style pulled chicken. And I'll just I'll still remember that bite because I also wasn't expecting it. It just looked like, you know, pulled chicken, curious what it's gonna be. It's amazing. So yeah, those are those are two of my honorable mentions, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:39

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

Yeah. My yeah, mine is uh unconventional as well. It's just a product of circumstance more than anything. Um, but so when we first started going down to my aunt and uncle's, it was very interesting because my aunt was like, Well, what would what would Brennan and his family like? Probably stuff that he grew up with. So she went and like got recipes from my mom of like stuff that she used to make when I was like a kid. And I was like, Well, he'll probably like this. And she would make that stuff, which I was like, it's very interesting because like normally when you go to someone else's place, like I'm very interested in like having the food that you make. But they have um no complaints at all because the stuff turns out great. My aunt's a great cook and it's come out really great. So one of the things that she makes that's very interesting because I feel like we this has been interwoven in our lives since we were friends are crab cakes. And uh it we always for some reason I I feel like you know, we had our little culinary adventures when we were in high school and things that high school and college and things that we like to make. And I feel like we used to come back to crab cakes very often of getting the black can of like Phillips lump crab meat from Stu Leonard's, something like a can of that that would cost like 50 bucks. It was like super expensive, but it was really high quality. And then the crab cakes that we made were just like primarily the lump meat, and then like very little breading and other stuff. It was just very crab heavy. And then the star of the show for me was this roomelade sauce that I think my mom had this recipe for. And so, um, and so my aunt makes those every time that we go up there, and it's the highlight of it. And she does not skip on it. It's not like, oh, like, you know, I can have one and a half crab cake. It's like, no, we've got plenty for you to have like five, six, seven crab cakes, however many you want. Like, we've got more than enough for it. She makes sure that nobody goes hungry whenever we have any food, but it's it's particularly noticeable with the crab cakes because I go through a ton of them. Um, and it they're so good. They're so good. It is not traditionally July 4th at all, but I mean, summertime on the shore, seafood is definitely a staple that comes out, and crab cakes are like my favorite. And that's coming from someone, you know, who now is in Maryland who's known for crabs. But I'd say that I don't even get crab cakes very often down here because those ones, it's kind of like having it's kind of like a steak, where like I'm I'm sure I could probably get a steak that's that's that's generally accepted as better, but I love the way that I make my steak, so it just makes it hard to do it. Same thing with the crab cakes. I'm always comparing all the crab cakes that I have to those ones that we used to make growing up and now that my aunt makes every year. So that's my that's my unconventional highlight of the July 4th meals is having those crab cakes there.

SPEAKER_02 50:10

Dude, I love that.

SPEAKER_03 50:12

Is that your was it your mom's recipe that she used? Or did she had she made this before?

SPEAKER_01 50:17

Man, no, but it's sort of because like I feel like like we had a recipe for crab cakes, and then I made them for my family, and I feel like my mom kind of used that recipe going forward. I don't know where the recipe where we got this from, if it was it maybe not like Adrian, like because I feel like that was right, it could have been from his restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

Yeah, because we I think multiple of us have asked him for it, and at one point I think he had shared it in detail in our group me somewhere. Um that might be it.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

Because it's I mean, this is now almost I mean, this is 20 years ago, 25 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 50:50

Just to say, like, you know, there's also we have to acknowledge, like, there's a standard, there's a standardness to a crab cake recipe, and it's just minor kind of like changes that like help really differentiate bad from amazing.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Yeah, yeah, really as long as the crab is the star of the show, you're good. Yeah, if you make the breading and filling, if you try to have that outshine the crab, it's not gonna hit the same. As long as you really accentuate the crab, you're all right. Um, but yeah, so to say that it's like this family recipe that's been passed out, uh it's not that. It's just, you know, they they stick to what's important when you make a crab cake, and that's the room allot sauce and good lump crab meat.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

I'll just say, real quick before we wrap, I have a favorite crab cake memory to this day that is yet to be topped. It was when I worked at the restaurant where Adrian's dad was the manager, and I'll never forget we had uh a uh the place booked for a private event, and I shit you know, just exactly the kind of like rich people that would book that restaurant for a night and like truly disregard all of the amazing food that was made. So we had like three or four platters of these like baby crab cakes that they make, like tinier ones as like finger food, but it's still just as good as the main crab cake that like again is the recipe that we know from uh Adrian and his dad. I ate so many of those when we were closing, and like it was all of us, like we were just feasting on all this food that like these people just were letting go to waste. I don't think I've been in heaven like that in a while. Like, if you think there's too much of a good thing when it comes to crab cakes, I don't think there is. Like I was like, I could keep going if I had room.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

Man, that's awesome. I like the idea of that they weren't on a platter, that they were actually on on like each like person's plate that they hadn't eaten, and you're just there just like cleaning them up. You're not gonna eat that, pass it over here, man. Just shoveling them down. Not that savage. Yeah, but for those crab cakes, maybe you would be. I would be, honestly, maybe. Yeah, all right. Cool. I think that brings it to a wrap on this uh mini sode. I guess we're I mean it's still still about an hour, so it's not really uh not exactly the shortest, but um the shortest we keep it. Yeah, it's gonna be uh great week. Looking forward to it. Hope everyone else is as well, just as the plug going off of my what's good that's not, you know, totally good. Just be safe for everyone. Things can change very quickly uh as we're as there's a lot of traveling around July 4th for it. So enjoy it, but always look out for those. And uh, you know, it was a good it was uh keeping the real thing the real thing. It was a good perspective uh adjustment for sure. So uh hope everyone's safe, but hope hope hope everyone has a good Fourth of July week. And uh yeah, we'll be back again next week. So I hope everyone has a good one. We'll talk to you later. See ya. See ya. Happy fourth.