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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the Synops Podcast. How are you? Here I am. Here you are. Thanks for being here. Um I know some of you are longtime listeners. You've been listening since you know 2018. I've been at it for a while. Um, you know, I've been at it for a while. Thanks for hanging in there with me. Um, the host, Alvy. Usually I do a synopsis of a movie. I was in the military, cinematic operations, sounds like a military job. Synopse. You know, this is the this is the podcast, this is the little world. And um, thanks for popping in. Thanks for hanging out. Uh, I usually do movies, right? Every episode I'll do a different movie. We'll talk about it. I'll I'll talk about it. I'll tell you exactly everything that happens. You walk away like he just watched it. And we're building community. We build a community, we hang out, and everything's alright. I hope you're doing okay. I hope you're uh I hope you're winning. You know? That's all I can say. I hope you're winning. Um on the last episode, on the last episode, I I saved up some questions and then, you know, kind of read them out because I I didn't have a movie ready. Or I just didn't I don't know. I wasn't feeling it, I guess. I don't know. Um yeah, I've just been behind I've been behind a lot on a lot of stuff, but I've given up. I've given up also on a lot of things, so I have a little more time now, but a lot of people like the questions. They they thought they, you know, they were they're pretty creative. I thought I liked how it was a little bit at everything, right? Some people asked me about my military stuff, what what my opinion is on some people, some movies that everybody loves and I might not love. Um, but it was cool. It was cool to uh in a way, you know, by reading your questions, I got to s to meet you a little bit. So that was cool, and we're doing it again. I have some more questions here. I had some pretty good numbers, everybody liked it. I had some pretty good clips. So we're doing it again. And remember you can always email in the synopspod at gmail. Um I'm just Al V, just Alvy 21 on Instagram, just Al V21 on YouTube. That's kind of like a vlog channel where I hang out, but but um yeah, now that I have a little bit more time, I'm gonna focus more on it. And it's good to be back. Alright, if you'll have me, it's good to be back. Let's dive into these questions, right? Let's see. What made you get into movies so much? Was that a thing before the military or after? Excellent question. So I've been a movie guy since I first saw movies, I thought it was amazing. And when I was little, if I was in first grade, my favorite movie was Rush Hour. I love Jackie Chan, Rush Hour was dope, and then my stepdad would always watch movies, so I'd watch them too. So that's kind of what I where I got into movies, and um my stepdad, he wouldn't, I was a little kid, he didn't care. He'd watch the movie Rated R, and you know, now I knew Benicio de Toro and Tommy Lee Jones, they were hunting each other, and my favorite movie was The Hunted, you know, so it was super cool. So um I would watch movies all the time growing up, and the thing was, here's another another little thing. My stepdad would rent movies, right? I grew up in the in the golden era of Blockbuster and Movie Gallery and Movie Wizard, and these were all these uh walk-in rental places, right? You go in there and it's like a library of DVDs and VHSs, right? And you get to walk around and everything like that. So we would rent movies, but the thing is, my dad, my stepdad, I don't know if it was cheaper this way or whatever. He did not mess around with layfees. We'd watch them once and he'd return them the next day. So I would never be able to watch, I could never watch a movie twice, no matter how much I wanted to. I would never watch a movie twice, so it kind of forced me to hey, this is the one chance, watch the movie, so kind of like focus on the movie, you know? And uh, I think that maybe that has something, a little something to do with it. And then also, we would have, you know, movies at the house, and we would just re-watch movies all the time. And me and my sister, we would play this thing where like we would say a line from a movie, and we'd guess either you know what movie it's from or whatever, like that. So um, I was just always around TV and movies, and I loved it. And was it before or after the military? It was definitely before. But here's the thing about the podcast: I've always been a movie guy. After in the military is when I became the movie storytelling guy. So in the I don't know if you if you're new here, I was in the Marines. I was a combat engineer, we'd do field ops, we'd do deployments, and whenever you're anywhere, sometimes you don't have any service. All you don't have nothing, right? So if your phone is down, you got no service, you got nothing. And then somebody asked me, hey, what's that movie? Well, they just asked in general, they're like, Oh, what's that movie, Cars? Anybody seen that movie Cars? What's that movie about? And I told them exactly what that movie was about. To the point to where after I'm done telling them what that movie was about, they're like, bro, I feel like I just watched that movie. Have you ever seen this movie? What other movies have you seen? And little by little I would I would tell all these movies that I remember, and the crowds got bigger, everybody started listening to the thing, listening to my stories, remembering these movies, and then when I came back from that field up, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do it. Everybody was hyping up, everybody was saying, Oh, this is so cool, so fun. You're good at telling stories, you're good at movies. You should do it. And I did it, and I started doing it in uh, you know, so I started telling stories in the Marines, I started doing the podcast 2018, and uh here we are. Yeah, so the storytelling thing kind of came from from the military, but I've always been a movie guy. So that answers that question. Thanks. Thanks for your question. Really, let's see here. Is there a military movie that you think Hollywood always gets wrong? What was the transition like coming back to civilian life? Oh, these are two different things. Okay, is there a military movie that you think Hollywood always gets wrong? Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, here's the thing. Um I think movies in general, there's always like, oh, here's this one guy, and the guy's always super handsome, super ripped, and he's uh he's the best at whatever it is, right? He's the best at this branch of the military, this special forces, and he can he's in a situation where now he has to do everything alone, and he can do it because he was in that branch and that uh special forces, right? But in reality, something that's wrong is nobody ever has to do anything alone, right? They're never gonna be like, hey, just this one guy, go send that one guy. It's a it's a it's a big effort team conducting a raid, it's a lot of people, a lot of moving parts, and I think that's wrong, right? They portray so then then kids or people they're gonna be like, oh, I'm gonna join the Marine Corps special, you know, and special forces are badass, right? Yeah, hell yeah, they're badass. But they're not like the movies, they're not super chill, they're very stressful, it's very hard. And uh think kids they want to go do that because they saw the movie, but in reality, that's just the movie. Um, so I think that is wrong. And and a lot of movies do that. And another thing that I another thing about military movies, very few TV shows like Generation Kill, I think they got it right. Uh, some other movies with like Marines, well, I can only speak for the Marines, but another thing is these Marines, everyone that's out here for the most part are kids, you know, they're like 18, 19, early, like in their 20s, and very rarely are they so ultimately they they are kids, right? They're probably like in their 20s, they're doing these ops, deployments, everything like that. So they're gonna be a little silly. So it's it's they're they're pretty funny. So a lot of times they just make everybody look kind of miserable and hardcore, but in reality, they do handle their job to you know, they do well at their job, whatever their MOS is, they do their job well, but they're also pretty funny. So I think sometimes in movies they don't show that. They always show like these salt dogs, everybody's older and and and you know, and you know, everybody's been through everything, but at the same time, a lot of them are kids. But that's something I think about movies. Um, here's something I I just I just saw something. Uh what is it? What is it? How'd you go from military military life to starting a podcast? That's a random. Okay, yeah, so like I said a few seconds ago, I was always a movie guy. Turns out I also I'm a good storytelling guy. And uh, people like the way I told stories, and I re-re-re almost I recreated them. And you know what's what's the best thing? One of the best things, right? Have you ever been So you say, how did you go from military to podcast? The podcast started in the military. I was in the Marines, I tell these stories, and it was man, telling. Have you ever been around a ton of Marines? They're they're rambunctious, you know what I mean? If you leave them alone long enough, they're gonna end up wrestling, they're gonna be throwing rocks or doing whatever they have. Because they're kids, right? They're they're kids full of energy. They're tough, they gotta do this, and they're always up to something, right? But when I would tell these stories, right? When I started, when it was when it was chow time, they're like, hey, Rotto, hit the what story you got for us, right? I go up there and I tell them the story, right? And I could see as I'm telling the story, right? I'm looking at the entire crowd, I'm telling the story, you know. So every I want everybody to feel part of this. Everybody's listening, and I'm telling the story, and every single Marine, every Marine in this area was completely quiet. And they were looking at me, right? But the thing is, when they were watching me tell the story, they weren't looking at me. They were looking at me, listening to, listening to, they were looking at me, listening to the story, and in their eyes, I could see the story playing out in their head, in their in their mind. So they were listening to me, but they were I could see their minds working, they were playing the story in their head. And that was pretty, that was pretty awesome. Being able to see everybody, you know, you see people like biting their nails, they're like, oh, oh, what's gonna happen next? When I start telling the Iron Giant to a bunch of Marines, everybody's quiet. Everybody's listening. And that was pretty beautiful. And that's where the podcast came from. Me telling a story to a bunch of Marines, kind of the same thing. Same thing, same way I'm doing it now. Difference is I have a camera, I have a mic now. But at the same time, when I was in the Marines, it was just like this, just nothing. Just me telling a story, no phones, no nothing, off the muscle. So that's where that's where this kind of came from. What was it chat what was the transition like coming back to civilian life? Did movie and pop culture feel different to you after? Um okay, so this is kind of like a two-part two-part question. Uh you know, one thing that movies always portray is like the really heavy-duty PTSD, oh, I can't sleep. And that is true. That is true, but it that's not the same for everybody, right? A lot of people have trouble adjusting, even though they they weren't in combat, even though they weren't uh they weren't fucking under fire for you know for years. So a lot of the PTSD, a lot of ones that are portrayed in uh in movies, they make it look like super, it's always like super badass related. You know what I mean? But at the same time, you did change your life for the duration of your thing. Everybody's trauma is different, right? So I know I have uh female marine friends that had uh sexual assault cases, so they they feel uncomfortable, you know, around around certain people. And then I have other people that were, you know, they they lived a certain way, they went to the Marines, they're not used to certain things, and now they're back. So I think uh PTSD put is portrayed uh it makes it unfair. No, let me see. So I think PTSD is portrayed uh that if you if you don't have it like this, it's not real. So I think that's that's a little bit different from movies, right? I think that's something they don't they don't get right. Um as for me, adjusting to civilian life, one thing I notice is that no matter how great you were in the Marines, when you get out, boom, zero, you start at zero. So no matter what rank you got to, how many things you did, how many ribbons you have, you don't wear ribbons in civilian life. You don't wear them on your chest, and then when you bring it up, it's not in reality, in reality, anything that you did, you can't bring it up all the time, I don't think. You know what I mean? It's like okay, okay. Well now we're here. What are we gonna do now? Now we need to move forward. So that's something that I had to adjust to. Like I was already when I got out of the Marines, I was 28, I think. I was 28, 29. I had just had my first kid. I didn't know how to be a dad. I was uh being a civilian again, I had I was very aggressive compared to you know coming out coming out of the Marines. I was very aggressive still. Uh I think now I talk a lot of shit, but I'm pretty chill about it. Um I don't get angry as like like I should, or like I don't get as angry as I used to, and things like that. And uh yeah, my transition was hard. I'm no, I know there's a lot of guys that have had harder transitions, but I did have to adjust from starting at zero, you know, and that's something I didn't think about before. The MOS that I had, I was a combat engineer in the Marines. I got to do a lot of cool stuff, a lot of cool training. I got to see things and do things that no one you're never gonna see in your life. But at the same time, you're never gonna do again, and people aren't hiring that. So I did have to start from zero. And my story, my story, I'll save that for another day. But I did have to start from zero, and that was pretty hard. So my transition was a little difficult, but you know, we made it. Here's a movie one. It says, bro, what is your most controversial movie opinion? And I mean the one that gets people mad at you. Alright, let me think, man. My controversial opinion. Because you if you know if you're a fan of the show, you know me. I don't want to share on movies, right? This is a podcast where we love movies. But that being said, I haven't seen every movie. I'm sorry. So sometimes I'd be like, What? You never seen Lord of the Rings? I'm saving it for a good time. I'm sorry, what am I doing what am I doing? I haven't seen Lord of the Rings, I haven't seen The Hobbits. I watched almost every Harry Potter movie, not the last one. Um what else? What else? What's a controversial thing? I can't think of can't think of anything now. Let's see. This is random okay, this is random, but what is the first movie you remember seeing in theaters as a kid? Okay. In theaters? Oh man, I remember theaters are so So, you know, I think I grew up in a nice era, in a very beautiful era for movie kids, right? So it was the movie theaters and then it was the movie rentals, right? And both of those, oh, oh, being able to go to those, oh, that's beautiful. That's a very special moment. Those are special memories of me, right? Because every theater you go to, if you go to a different one in a different town, it's every theater is slightly different, but it's the same thing, right? It's cool, it's big, there's popcorn, there's snacks, there's lights, there's yeah, it's so amazing, right? And then the movie rental place, you go in. I remember the movie rental place, they have like the movies that are new that week on the window, and then you can walk around the aisle, they'll have a Nintendo 64 section or whatever games were coming out, and then they had you know, you walk through the aisles, see whatever you like. I grew up in a beautiful time for movies, but the first movie that I remember seeing in movie theaters man, I remember I remember going to the movie theaters as a kid, but I don't remember what I watched. But I also remember watching Death Becomes Her, and it was not for kids, so that was that was pretty bad. Um, I remember watching a lot of scary movies and then uh being terrified of things as a kid, right? I'd be like, be scared of the dark because like you know, Chucky wanted to kill me, and I'd be like, I'm scared, I'm scared, and then you know, I mean, shouldn't have been watching these things, but um, so I don't remember exactly what movie I want to go watch first, but I remember the movie theaters. How do you pick what movies to do next? Do you have a list or is it just whatever you're in the mood for? Oh well, I try I had a list, right? Every time I'll remember a movie, I'll remember a movie that was great. You know, lately I've been trying to put more effort into that into the podcast, so I'll I'll do a marathon, right? I did all the Kung Fu pandas, all the Rocky movies, and they're kind of thing, you know, they're kind of together, and then maybe if something happened in the in the in the world, maybe like a current event that can relate to this, I'll do a movie like that. A lot of them are requests from people that I you know email in, like the secretary. When we did the secretary, that was kind of like uh that was a request, so that was pretty cool. Yeah, so if you have a request, email in, text me, whatever. You I think you can text on the podcast thing wherever you listen to it, or you can comment, right? Comment, text, email in. I'll get it. Alright, we'll do it. Um, but that's how I pick. I see there's something I just watched recently that's amazing, uh, a classic, like Shaw Shang Redemption, maybe something related to what's going on now, or whatever. So that's how I pick them. And the thing is, they don't have to be the episodes that I do, they don't have to be great movies, right? Because some some movies aren't great, but they're a great story, and that's kind of what we do here. Let's see. Yo, love the pod. What's a movie everyone loves that you just don't get? I feel like you gotta have one. Okay, that's kind of like last last episode. I kind of mentioned the Big Lebowski. Um, I didn't watch, I didn't watch Oppenheimer, I didn't want to. Um this is a good example. So I was in a cinema class, right? And in my cinema class, the professor was always talking about, oh, this, and it's very artsy, right? It's very artsy, which I'm not. Right? I'm a simple man, and I like to enjoy things simply, right? As a fool, right? I'm not too smart, I don't want to dig too deep into it. I'll let you tell me whatever you want me to, you know. Let me, I'll feel whatever you direct me to feel, right? Whatever this movie wants me to feel, I'll feel that. And then the professor was kind of going on, and he's going on about Citizen Kane. He's like, Oh, citizen Kane. Oh my god, this dude was like, you know, I mean, he's a professor of cinema, of course, I'm sure he's right. But me, I wanted to argue with him, and I was I was saying, hey, I don't think, oh, Citizen Kane isn't better than Toy Story 3. And I was just making that argument, just kind of being like a shithead student. And then I thought that was pretty funny. Very good. So we watched a lot of like foreign films in that movie, and it was like, that's what I'm like, okay. We watched we watched a black and white par French movie, uh Hirosh Hiroshima Monamor. Um, we watched an Italian film, we watched uh uh what else we watched, man. Elephant Man. Elephant Man was alright, you know, it was cool, I understand it. Um, so we had to watch all these things, and I was like, you know what? Maybe being a cinemacritic, I didn't want to be a cinemacritic, but maybe all this stuff isn't for me, right? I'm a simple guy. I'll watch the movies, and if I like it, I'll like it. So that's kind of my uh what's a movie that everyone loves. So yeah, he was going on about Citizen Kane. I watched it, maybe I was in a bad mood. I was like, okay, this is alright, it's not Toy Story 3. What is an episode that you regret making? Looking back. I used to say the N-word a lot. And you could you could you could try to cancel me. Look at this is this is the thing about saying the N-word. Being able to say the N-word isn't given, it's earned. Hey, you ask him. Ask him about me, alright? I used to say the N-word a lot. I stopped. It hurt sponsorship opportunities. I still don't have sponsorship opportunities, but you know what? I'm not gonna say it. I'm trying to grow. I don't cuss as much as uh you know, in the first in the first few episodes, the first few years, I'd cuss all the time, say the n-word all the time. I think I would like go like this all the time, like a bad habit. Like, you know, I could have just blown my nose. I don't like doing this stuff. So like on the first few episodes, I I might even have to go back and delete them. But um, I'm not proud of them. I was still growing, I was still learning, I was finding my way on the podcast. And uh That's what I would say. Episodes that I regret making is uh bad quality in the first ones. Um yeah, that's what I that's what I think. Worst remake ever made, no hesitation. I never wanted to bring this up, but Avatar the Last Airbender, that movie broke my heart. I was Avatar, you know, every once in a while I'll probably rewatch Avatar Last Airbender every year. It's super cool. Each time I watch it, I learn something different. Maybe I watch it from a different perspective because I've changed in a year or in time that's passed that I haven't seen it. I've changed. So I see it, I can see it differently. And then they they made that the movie, right? A few years ago, they made the movie, and it was it's probably one of the worst things I've ever seen, one of the worst remakes, one of the worst things ever. They did the the live action recently, I didn't even Even wanna, you know, I don't even want to be in the same room with it. But um, worst remake ever, that would that would be my answer for that. But at the same time, I only want to love movies. So that's my answer, but I want to love movies. Do you think being in the military changed the way you find uh change the way of what you find scary or intense compared to what you compare to what you thought before? Uh maybe not being in the military, but just getting older. Um, I've never been I've always been kind of a full send kind of guy. And that means, oh yeah, let's send it. 100%, let's do it, right? Full send kind of guy, I've never been scared. Right? I've been in trouble with the law. I've lost everything. I didn't speak to my family for years. I've I've been a little homeless before for a brief moment. So there's a lot of physical things that that don't hurt me, that don't scare me. Right? I went to the Marines, trained for you know, all these things. I learned how to do a lot of things. I was confident in my abilities. And I'm pretty I'm 6'1. You know, I'm not not not scared of anything. I'm not even scared of ghosts. You know, I say that in the daytime, but I'll take that back for now. Uh so for the most part, I'm not scared. I wasn't scared of anything. I didn't feel I didn't feel scared of anything until I became a parent. When I became a dad, now I have this little tiny baby to take care of. And I don't want anything bad to happen to him, whatever it might be. You know what I mean? So for the first time, oh, and this is kind of movie related. I would always watch movies, thinking like, oh, that's so cool. Oh, that's so badass. I'd I'm the whenever I watch movies, I kind of picture myself as a main character. And then I had my first son, and I was watching the movie Robots, right? And Robots is with uh Ewan McGregor. He's he's Rodney, he's a young inventor, he wants to go to the big city and make a change, but then he finds out, oh, the the system is changed. The people in charge are oppressing the other robots so they can't grow, this and that. And it turns out he can't follow his dream. He can't follow the dream, he's not gonna be able to make it, and he has to go back home and he calls his dad. And he's like, Dad, I can't do it. He says, He says, Dad, I can't do it. It's not, it's not, it's not what we thought it was. It's not it's not what it's not what we thought it was gonna be, Dad. I can't. And the dad tells him, Ronnie, listen to me. He says, Ronnie, whatever he says. But that was the first time I watched a movie, and instead of m m picturing myself in the main character's shoes, I was the main character's dad. I saw myself as the main character's dad, and I thought it hit me, right? I was like, oh I'm a parent now. I have this is my life. My life is for my kids, for my family. So that is something that that changed.

unknown 24:58

Right?

SPEAKER_00 24:59

And the way I watch movies, that's something that's changed. Something that I'm afraid of is my family getting hurt, things like that. So that's that's something that's changed. Because you see you you asked, do you think the military being in the military change what you find scary? Maybe not in the military, but being a parent has. Let's see. How did your buddies in the service feel about movie talk? Was that a thing y'all bonded over? Uh we the same way we do it now, they would they would say, Hey, what's a what's a good movie, bro? Tell us a movie, what's a good movie? And I would tell them, I would tell them the movie, and they would just listen and it was like a s I was just the narrator, I was just a storyteller, and they um they liked that. You know what I mean? Everybody everybody enjoyed the stories. So that was that was uh a bonding, yeah. I would think so. If they were to watch this and they're like, Oh yeah, yeah, we like Albies movies, isn't it? That's a cool guy over there. You know? So, yeah, I I think they bonded over a little bit. What's a movie you were forced to watch as a kid that you now love? I wasn't really forced to watch anything, but movie that I didn't like, that I like now. Uh growing up, I was a big Jackie Chan guy. I love Jackie Chan.

unknown 26:26

Jackie, I'm co.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

I love Jackie Chan. And um that I now love. I might I might have to get back to you on that one. What's a movie you walked out of, turned off, and never finished? Okay, okay, let me think. Uh there's some movies or there's some movies or TV shows that uh I just didn't didn't finish. I just didn't revisit it, revisit them, or by the time the name the new season came out, I had forgotten and I didn't want to, you know, I wanted to start over or something like that. So there's a few movies, there's a few Netflix series that I didn't finish. Um what uh another kind of like another version of that question is like uh what's a a movie or TV show? Specifically a TV show that didn't get renewed for a second season or for any more. There was this one show, right? Uh it was like on not TBS, but it it was a it was some TV show, right? And it was called Forever. And Forever, it's it's uh what's this what's his actor's name? The guy that plays uh Mr. Fantastic in the in the 2000s, Fantastic Four. Pretty much, he has this curse. He lives forever, right? That's the name of the show. He lives forever, and he's a medical examiner, so he was a doctor, and then he becomes friends with the police officer that's investigating this, but whatever. Turns out he's 200 years old, right? He doesn't know what happened to him, how it happened to him, why it's happening, and the season goes on, and then you find out he's being watched by somebody with the same curse as him. But this person has been alive 2,000 years. And they only did one season, and I was pretty pretty salty about that, and that was a pretty cool show. It was called Forever. Do you ever get nervous before recordings, or is it second nature now? That's a good question. That's a very good question, and it's something that I guess I don't think I don't consider myself a content creator, but I have been making videos. I've been making videos for a while on my YouTube channel. Then I was doing this audio only in the last year or two. I've been doing video. But when I first did the podcast, right? First of all, I didn't know how to do podcasts when I started in 2018. I didn't know how to do podcasts. I there was an app that supposedly you could do podcasts on the app called Anchor. Anchor, you record your podcast and you just post it, right? And I was okay, let me try that. So I try to record the entire story of the Count of Monte Cristo, but the thing is, it would only do it in five-minute increments. So you would you would hold it, talk for five minutes, you have to save it or upload it or something, and then record another five minutes. So the entire show, it was like an hour, an hour of five-minute increments, and I was trying to upload it, and it was like super bad. And I uh my wife, well, my wife was sleeping next to me, and it was like it was real bad. Then I was okay. This didn't work, let me try something else. I was on SoundCloud. I used to upload my my tracks to SoundCloud, and I had bought this mic. You can't see it, but there's there's a silver silver mic here. So I had bought this mic, I had an old laptop, I was recording, I was using this this software here, everything was good, and I would record, right? I would hit record, I'd start talking, and I would be like, Good evening, or I wouldn't even know how to start. You know, I didn't even know how to start. I'm like, hello, hi, uh, and I would just like super awkward, and I would like record all I would say was oh hello, hi, I'm Alvy. And uh, it was so bad. I would play it back, I couldn't stand the sound of my voice. I couldn't even, I was like, oh my god, this is so bad. It would take I think the first time, the first time I tried to record a podcast, it probably took me 20 minutes just to record that first line because I couldn't stand listening to myself. And then I I I edit it kind of still I still barely know how to edit it, but I edited it, sent it. And I'll be like, all right, whatever. First episode done. So I was super nervous recording the first episode, but now it's pretty second nature. I have I uh for the most part, I think I know what I'm doing, right? I know, I know, uh, you know, I know I'm ready to talk, I'm wearing my black shirt, I have my gear set up, I got my light, my mics. For the most part, now it does feel a little second nature. And if if I were to do a vlog, same thing. The thing is, um, the thing about vlogging, uh, on my other channel, I do like it's like a vlog style, right? And I live in a I live in a good town to vlog, San Diego. If you look up San Diego, there's not too many San Diego vlogs. So I live in I have a good opportunity. I have a good opportunity to vlog in San Diego, but sometimes I just oh that one I I vlogging in person, I still get nervous about it. I wish I had a cameraman that can go with me instead of me holding my own camera, but um, I don't have anybody yet. But the audio, the podcast, second nature, it's all good. Since you were a chef, is there a movie that gets kitchen restaurant life totally right? And one that's a joke. Okay, so if you if you're new to the channel, um from when I was 18 to 24, I worked in a restaurant, right? I showed up as a dishwasher, I worked my way up. I was a nice cook, a decent line line cook, and I was the chef of the chef of the kitchen. And that was I was pretty proud of that because I was like in charge of this very nice I was in charge of a dinner service of a very nice steakhouse, and I was 24. And it was pretty cool, it was pretty baller because it was pretty badass because it was me and one other chef, right? We're the we were the dinner chefs, people would come in on a Friday, Saturday. That's that's game day, that's big leagues. So you you're cooking dinner Friday, Saturday, and people would come in and they'd be like, Oh, I want the tall Spanish boy, I want the tall Spanish boy to make my make my food, and that would piss off the other guy because he was he was my buddy, he was my friend, and I would just rub it in his face, you know what I mean make him mad about it. But um, what are some movies about uh the kitchen? The most accurate, the most accurate kitchen description is a book called Kitchen Confidentials by Anthony Bourdain, and the reason it's beautiful is because you watch a lot of TV shows, a lot of movies, everything is very everything's very elegant, very polished, but at the same time, that's not always true. There is a lot of drugs and sex going on behind the scenes. It's a real a real F fest, right? Because servers, some of the servers, they do drugs, some of the cooks, they do drugs, everybody drink a lot of people drink. Um, and it's just like uh Honestly, you get to be a little bit of a rock star, and that's pretty sick. So, you know, in kitchen confidentials, you get to see the grimy world of the chefs that put the chefs and they put out these high-quality foods, right? For the for the for the dinner, for the service, but at the same time, it shows the reality of how how much prep goes into things, and then at the same time, how each chef, they're still a person, right? They're not you know, it's not always the the painted picture you have, it's not it's not always a pretty picture. There's still people, some of them have drug addictions and uh bad habits. So kitchen confidentials is pretty pretty pretty legit. And then I don't like I know the bear on Hulu. Okay, the bear on Hulu, uh for me. Look to me, if somebody's being a bitch, I'm gonna say it. And if somebody's crying like a little bitch, hey, you gotta you gotta lock up lock in, bro. You gotta lock in. You wanna get this done? One of us is gonna have to stop crying. That's that's all I'm gonna say about that show. Uh do you think being a chef changes how patient you are with the process? In a way, yes. In a way, yes, it makes me realize I have the ability to put out a good product, I know all the steps to make something really perfect, and I do have the patience to make it. But I don't have to give it to you. You know what I mean? So even though I do have the patience to understand the process and make something very nice of great quality, I don't think some people deserve it. I don't know where that came from. Maybe it's being feeling unappreciated, or you know, maybe sometimes people are telling me about what I should do, even though I'm the one doing it, and that bothers me. So even though I do have the patience and I understand the process, I don't think everybody deserves it. So that was you know, that was a problem I had also as a cook. Favorite food scene in every movie? Oh, does it actually look good to you as someone who's cooked professionally? I think the movie chef, the movie chef, John Favreau, the movie chef, is beautiful. I love a lot of things that John Favreau has directed. The movie chef, the movie chef, the chef's show, which is like the the behind the scenes with the Roy Chef Roy Choi, and they're in there cooking. That's a beautiful show. That's a beautiful thing because what I like is that they made it, they're not like, oh, we need to do something impossible, we need to have the best of the best of the best, best to do this so we can eat. No, he made a grilled cheese, he just made a thrill, a three-grilled cheese for his son, and he made it look beautiful, and that's I think that is beautiful. Because all the time everybody wants, everybody wants the extinct rare plums from Japan, so they can make a reduction, so they can make this, so they can do this, and whatever. But the real reality, hey bro, make a make a delicious grilled cheese to share with your son. Whatever's there, that's that's what I that's what I agree with. Sometimes people, everybody gets so caught up in everything needing to be something, to where they can't just make something nice to share somebody with somebody they love. I don't know. I I didn't plan this out, so I don't know what that's called. But that's I think that's what I think. That's what's beautiful about that show. He made a grilled cheese for his son, it looks delicious. He didn't need everything else. Between the military and being a chef, which one is taught you more about handling pressure? Oh 100%, 100% the the military, alright. Uh if you could understand because in the Marines, if you could understand how tired, how cold, how miserable you are, because you you could be cold and miserable. There was there was one time where I probably slept a few hours in a five-day period. I was tired. I was you know, but we still I couldn't rest. You know, I mean like you can't be like, oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna sneak off and rest because you're you're screwing over your team. So I did have to handle a lot more pressure in the Marines. But as a chef, you want to do things perfect. Perfection is a lot of small things done right, and that's a quote from Marco Pierre White, Chef Marco Pierre White. So the the kitchen does have a lot of pressure, it's very you have to do it fast, you have to put out good products because it has to be good to the customer, right? The person eating, it has to be beautiful, hot, perfect, delicious. So it is amount of pressure, but at the end of the day, you get to hook you go home after your shift. In the Marines, you don't. In the Marines, you're a Marine 24-7, you don't know when your shift is gonna end, you don't know when you're gonna chill again. So the Marines, I had a there was I had a lot more pressure in the military, and sometimes it was just pressure for no reason. I wasn't even in uh in a bad situation. They were just like, hey, go do this, go do this, go do this, and it was just like annoying, you know what I mean. So so I think that was uh I definitely handled more pressure in the Marines, but I think overall, my the the I think I think my mindset about pressure has changed because now anything that I have to do now, I don't feel like it's gonna kill me. So I don't really worry that much. I mean, oh we do have this problem. Alright, we'll figure it out. So for the most part, I'm pretty chill about everything. What was the last movie you watched and didn't tell anyone because you were embarrassed to like it? Uh I don't feel embarrassed. I don't feel any kind of embarrassment about anything. I feel I recently watched La La Land. I've seen it before for my cinema class, but I watched it again recently, and it's like uh something really something that really stuck out about La La Land that I didn't notice or care about the first time is throughout the movie we see the relationship of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, and we see the way things turned out, right? They didn't choose each other, but then one day she just happens to be back in town with her husband, they go into a jazz bar, it's his is Ryan Gosling jazz bar, and they're listening to play the music, and as he's playing the song that we kind of we kind of hear throughout the the movie, he replays the song, and it shows in a way it shows the entire movie again. But if they're but if they chose different options, if they chose all the right options. So when this happened, instead of doing this, they did this, and this person came and they did this and they did this, and then if they would have chosen all those things, they would have ended up happily together. And it was super sad. And it makes you know sometimes you remember in your own life, oh, what if I would have said this? What if I didn't stay quiet and I said this? What if I didn't say this? What if I would have turned this way instead of turning that way? What if I would have you know so that kind of uh stuck out to me a little bit because I think about those things sometimes and I just saw it in La La Land. So I'm not embarrassed to say that. And I just I don't I don't I don't feel too embarrassed about things like that. But that's still a good question. Best movie to watch at 2 a.m. when you can't sleep? Uh you should I I think you should turn off the TV and try to go to bed and read something. So I would say uh best movie to watch at 2 a.m. when you can't sleep. Thank uh to everybody, first of all, thanks. Thanks for emailing in the questions or commenting the questions. 2 a.m. when you can't sleep. I love just something simple. Right? Something that you don't have to put too much thought into that's just awesome. So I like Pacific Rim, or sometimes if you if it's something you've already watched before, I would I would do that. Like put something that you know you know is kind of funny, or something that you've you've seen before, so you don't have to like overthink or like pay too much attention, you kind of start drifting off, drifting off to sleep. If Hollywood remade one of your favorite movies tomorrow, which one would make you the angriest? Every remake now makes me angry. Everything is kind of a spin-off or a remake, and I think I'm not for it, you know. So I just like I like uh just watching the older movies. So all re all remakes make me angry as of now. What movie do you and your friends quote the most in real life? Probably Nacho Libre or Don't Mess with the Zohan. Don't mess with the Zohan. I've when I watched Don't Mess with the Zohan, I didn't know anything. I didn't know what Palestine and Israel were. But watching it now, pretty pretty wild. If you had to delete one movie from existence so no one will ever see it again, what's the pick? I mentioned it. I mentioned it earlier today. It's Avatar Last Airbender. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but it's uh I delete Avatar Last Airbender. That's it for the questions. That's it for the questions. There's a few more, but we'll get to them next time. If you like this kind of episode where I kinda just hang it out, I'm gonna try to do it more often. And we'll kinda maybe, maybe, you know, maybe this is the time where we're pivoting in in in the style of the podcast, right? Maybe I'm not doing the narration that much anymore. Maybe we'll do we'll talk about it, right? We'll talk about it, we'll enjoy it, you get to know me a little better. Things like that. This is the Synops podcast. I'm Alvi. You're you. You hang in there, alright? Make sure you drink enough water. Thanks for tuning in. Like, subscribe, share. Thanks for listening. Thanks for emailing in. Thanks for listening. I love you guys, stay safe. Until next time.