Ep. 164: a JoAG family new year

[00:00:01] Speaker A: You. [00:00:03] Speaker B: Look, Christmas can be difficult, right? Agreed. Yeah, Christmas can be difficult. You know, it's. It's. It's a big source of pressure. It's a big source of stress. It's a big source of just a lot of fucking. Just this fucking pressure. And if somebody who's dealing with shit anyway, Christmas can be a flashpoint. So just keep that in mind. Right? Keep that in mind. [00:00:31] Speaker A: Oh, boy. Okay. [00:00:31] Speaker B: Just keep that in mind as I take you, Corrigan listeners, to 2008. Okay. [00:00:42] Speaker A: All right. The year I graduated from university. [00:00:45] Speaker B: Wonderful. What are your recollections about that year? What are the things that stick out for you? [00:00:52] Speaker A: Barack Obama became president that year or was elected president that year. [00:00:56] Speaker B: Yes, indeed. [00:00:57] Speaker A: That sticks out. [00:00:58] Speaker B: Well, we're going to 2008. We're going to LA. We're going to California, Los Angeles county. We're going to. [00:01:04] Speaker A: Well, that's just where I was. [00:01:06] Speaker B: Is that right? So do you know the place, the area, the town? [00:01:12] Speaker A: Course, yeah. [00:01:13] Speaker B: You do? [00:01:14] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. Especially mostly because of West Covina, but they're neighbors. West Covina was the setting for the television show Crazy ex girlfriend, but it's just kind of, just general outskirts, la kind of place. [00:01:32] Speaker B: Okay. Am I right in saying that a typical kind of american community? Yes. Nothing particularly standouty about. [00:01:44] Speaker A: A trick. The idea of a typical american community. [00:01:47] Speaker B: Is, of course, very broad. [00:01:48] Speaker A: Not a thing. [00:01:49] Speaker B: Of course. Of course. [00:01:50] Speaker A: So I would say, yeah, for kind of the LA area. It's pretty typical of a suburb of LA. Not one of the wealthier ones or anything like that. [00:02:02] Speaker B: Okay. [00:02:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Maybe a lower middle class kind of. [00:02:06] Speaker B: Well, in a lower middle class area, there was a lower middle class guy, right? A guy by the name of Bruce. Bruce Pardo. Now a covenant resident. Bruce had lived a quietly kind of unremarkable life, right? A 45 year old guy, same as me. A 45 year old guy indeed. So some common ground there that I share with Bruce. Hopefully the last bit of common ground I'm going to share with Bruce. [00:02:33] Speaker A: We need to picture Bruce. Just think of Marco. [00:02:36] Speaker B: Just think me. But American, 45, the guy was an electrical engineer by trade, right? [00:02:42] Speaker A: Just like you. [00:02:43] Speaker B: A fucking blue collar, distinguishable, just a fucking absolute salt of the earth kind of guy, an ordinary guy. Those who knew him, no significant kind of real red flags in his background that might have hinted about the shit he was about to get up to. [00:03:01] Speaker A: Oh, boy. [00:03:02] Speaker B: But as is often the case, right behind this facade of normalcy, Bruce was dealing with some issues. [00:03:09] Speaker A: Okay, I totally think I do know this story and I lied to you. But go on. [00:03:14] Speaker B: Yeah, so you see, 2008 was a rough year for Bruce. He was fired from his job. He worked for the electronic systems radar company, ITT Corporation. He was an electrical engineer. But he'd been fiddling the books, billing false fucking overtime hours. He got the sack. Right. Now, that led to financial difficulty that contributed to a divorce, a messy divorce. In June of that year. Yes, in June of that year, June of 2008, as part of his divorce, the divorce court ordered him to pay almost one $800 a month in spousal support to his ex wife, Sylvia. Sylvia Pardo. Like I said, he got fired. The divorce court, they suspended. They kind of pinned his divorce payments due to kind of financial hardship. But Bruce told all his friends that his wife was taking him to the cleaners, right? He was ordered to pay her ten grand settlement. She kept the wedding ring, she kept the dog. Bruce complained to the court that she was living with her parents. She wasn't paying rent. She'd bought cars, she'd bought fucking holidays, gambling, trips to La, sorry, Las Vegas. So Bruce, in Christmas 2008, was broke. He was bitter. He was gripped with fucking. Just animosity towards his ex wife and her family, right? This guy was fucking absolutely mired in spite and depression and anger. And he knew, Bruce knew that that Christmas Eve, Sylvia would be at a party being held at her parents house and in the dining room of their covena home. That evening, his in laws, his ex wife, their kids were all in that house, along with some 20 od other guests. There was a group in the lounge playing poker. After dinner, the grandkids were hanging out by the pool, fucking about, playing video games, having fun. Some kids were upstairs. There was a kid on a computer. They were just spread around the house, chilled. They'd just eaten, they were drinking. It was Christmas Eve. The fucking mood. [00:05:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Best part of the most wonderful, etc. [00:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:36] Speaker A: Yes. [00:05:37] Speaker B: Now, Bruce was not invited, but he decided. He decided he was going to pay a visit all the same. So you know what he did? He got dressed up in a fucking Santa suit, Bruce. He got dressed up in a Santa costume, beard and fucking red fucking material, loaded himself up with surprises. [00:06:02] Speaker A: Like candy. [00:06:04] Speaker B: And know who knows what Santa has in that fucking sack? Who knows? So Bruce packed himself full of surprises, drove to the party in a rental car, and at around half 11:00 p.m. Just as people were getting ready to leave, Bruce knocked on the door. Rattat tat. The door was answered by his eight year old niece. Bruce immediately produced his first surprise of the night, a nine millimeter handgun, which she used to fucking shoot the child in the head as soon as she answered the door. The second she fucking opened the door, Bruce shot her. She survived by the wave. [00:06:49] Speaker A: That is good news. I mean, horrible, but good news. [00:06:53] Speaker B: Through the act of Providence, of turning her head around, at the last second, the bullet caught her in the jaw. She lived. Fantastic stuff. Many others weren't so fucking lucky, because as soon as he was in the house, Bruce began fucking indiscriminately firing at anyone who came into voo, shooting fucking wildly into the running crowd. People ran terrified, screamed Sylvia. And her parents, Joe and Alicia Ortiga, were shot and killed in those first few moments of the attack. But that's when Santa Bruce revealed his second surprise, which was a fucking homemade flamethrower. [00:07:33] Speaker A: Jesus. [00:07:35] Speaker B: A homemade flamethrower which consisted of a kind of a modified pump which he used to spray motor racing fuel, high octane, fucking insanely inflammable fuel, which he doused the entire fucking floor with, which he intended to ignite with a flare that he was also carrying. But before he could use the flare, the fuel came into contact with an open flame, whether that was a candle or an open fireplace, and caused a fucking fireball to rip through the bottom floor of that house. There were fatalities from the flames, from smoke inhalation. Later, fire professionals had to identify people via their fucking dental records because there were people burned to fucking cinders. Between the shooting, between the fire. Nine people died in that house. Nine people died at Bruce's hand. [00:08:30] Speaker A: Was he one of them? [00:08:32] Speaker B: Stay tuned. [00:08:33] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Go ahead. [00:08:34] Speaker B: Stay tuned. Because he'd planned an escape, right? He had planned a detailed exit strategy. He'd taken out several kind of rented cars, which he'd parked in various strategic locations, one of which he parked right next to the house of Sylvia's divorce. Stocked up with ammunition, stocked up with supplies. A lot of speculation that was to be his Santa Claus's next visit. Yeah. He also had kind of travel plans in these cars. He'd purchased a plane ticket that morning to Illinois for some reason. He also had a large amount of cash strapped to his body, taped to. [00:09:22] Speaker A: What year was this? [00:09:24] Speaker B: 2008. [00:09:25] Speaker A: 2008, right? Yes. Okay, interesting, because already you're like, buddy, you're not getting on a plane. [00:09:32] Speaker B: Yes, indeed. [00:09:33] Speaker A: Really? Well, maybe on September 10, 2001. Yes, you could have flown to Illinois, but you're not getting on a plane in 2008 after murdering your family. [00:09:46] Speaker B: What was the plan? Well, whatever the plan was, he had to rethink things at the last minute because the explosion and the fire had left Bruce with third degree burns covering his arms and legs. He was fucked. So after he set the house on fire, he changed out of his Santa suit. And seemingly on the spur of the moment, he decided to detour and drive to his brother's house in Silmar, which is about an hour's drive away from Covina. Now, his brother wasn't home at the time. Luckily for him. I guess later, police, lord knows. Oh, yeah. Police would find Bruce dead in the house. A single self inflicted nine millimeter gunshot to the head. The autopsy stated, quote, horrific third degree burns to his hands and legs with patches of red fabric from the Santa suit melted into the fucking flesh of his legs. [00:10:45] Speaker A: This is what you want from a story of someone like this. Because here's the thing. It's got all the things here of, like, for one, people, murderers are stupid. Yes. He was like, yes, it's totally going to work perfectly that I douse this place with flammable material. [00:11:05] Speaker B: Step one must not. [00:11:07] Speaker A: Step two, affect me at all. And then it backfires horribly and ends up covered in burns and all this kind of stuff. He's dressed stupidly, so his Santa suit is part of why he's so horrifically burned. It's probably made out of synthetic nylon. Fucking right. Exactly. He goes somewhere, and then he's such a dumb ass coward that he's like, oh, man, my arms hurt. And he shoots himself. That's the dumb shit way. You want someone like that to go out. Just. They felt every moment of the pain, more pain than they inflicted on the people. [00:11:49] Speaker B: One imagine, like, wily coyote after some act fucking shit has gone off. Just sucked with two white. [00:11:58] Speaker A: Like, it's so dark, but it's like, I always kind of worry my brother is going to do something like this. My brother Zach, because he split up with his baby mama a couple of years ago, and he started spamming Facebook and stuff like that, getting wasted and spamming Facebook, and it's like, I had a picture of her on my Facebook, and that was like, my brother. So nice to see my brother and his lady. And he's like, that pig is not my lady. And he logged into his. It was from his daughter's account. So I was like, why is Luna saying this? That seems off brand. And when he logged in the next day, he was like, oh, sorry. Know, need to apologize to my daughter for this. And I was like, you need to get your shit together. And he was like, whoa. No, I don't. I'm fine. And the problem, know my ex. And I'm like, buddy. And then he posts stuff, like a week or two ago, like, a guy killed himself because of divorce proceedings and all this kind of stuff. And he's like, oh, no, he didn't kill himself. He killed a judge. And my brother was like, maybe the system should think about why men kill judges and stuff like that because of. And I'm like, it's because the men are bad. [00:13:14] Speaker B: Yes. [00:13:16] Speaker A: I don't go to bat for our justice system a whole heck of a lot, but the reason men kill is men being violent. It's not because those darn women and the judges who side with them, women have all the power in society. And it's just like that whole story. I'm like, it's so crazy that, yeah, that sucks that you have to pay money to support your children and stuff like that, but you don't go murder or attempt to murder an eight year old and murder a whole family for it. That's your fault. [00:13:53] Speaker B: It's tempting to think of Bruce as a dickhead in all this, right? It's tempting to cling to that fucking. Like you said, that image of this hapless fucking slapstick failure. It becomes less easy to cling to that lasting image when you realize his final move in his rental car parked a block from his brother's house. Right. It contained kind of torn and burned remnants of his Santa suit, which he booby trapped. [00:14:27] Speaker A: Jeez. [00:14:27] Speaker B: Which he booby trapped. So that moving the suit would spark 200 rounds of ammunition and an explosion in the car, which happened. The car actually did explode, but it was in a control way. Exactly. [00:14:40] Speaker A: No one was around. Yeah. It's just like the idea of men just wanting to inflict targetless violence, impotent, directionless rage. Exactly. Just because they feel wronged by a system. You're like, that's the issue here. Who feels bad for a guy who gets that violent? And you were going to stay with your wife. They were going to be the target of whatever this rage was, his wife and children, anyway. And it just came out this way. It's so bonkers. But the one thing that we can take out of something so horrific is just that he died painfully and looking. [00:15:32] Speaker B: Like an idiot, like a dickhead, alone with only the smoking fucking nylon sticking to his flesh for comfort and company. So, yes, Christmas can be tough. [00:15:44] Speaker A: Beautiful gift. [00:15:45] Speaker B: Christmas can be tough. [00:15:46] Speaker A: Christmas can be tough. Please don't murder anybody. [00:15:48] Speaker B: Take a walk. [00:15:50] Speaker A: Take a walk. [00:15:51] Speaker B: Practice focus. Breathing, mindfulness. Be in the moment. [00:15:56] Speaker A: Call your therapist. [00:15:57] Speaker B: You know, don't be like, bruce, let me quote directly from my notes, if I may. [00:16:04] Speaker A: Yes, please do. [00:16:05] Speaker B: Fucking look at these nerds. Oh, misel Sen. [00:16:09] Speaker A: I don't think anyone has ever said misel Sen in such a horny way before. [00:16:13] Speaker B: The way I whispered the word sex. Cannibal. [00:16:15] Speaker A: Worst comes to worst, Mark, I'm willing to guillotine you for science. [00:16:19] Speaker B: Thank you. That's really, really sweet. It's cold outside, but my pancreas is talking to me. I'm going to leg it. [00:16:26] Speaker A: You know how I feel about that, Mark. [00:16:28] Speaker B: I think you feel great about it. [00:16:31] Speaker A: You know what I miss the most about my childhood years and the aughts? Probably the stuff, too, but is it hope? Yeah, maybe it was just not the sense of the end of the world being imminent at any given time. Let's go more physical, more tangible. [00:16:56] Speaker B: Let's see. Do you miss the lack of consequence? [00:17:03] Speaker A: That is not really not tangible. I am talking about, like, a physical thing about the aughts that I miss. [00:17:15] Speaker B: No. You're going to have to help me out. [00:17:17] Speaker A: Soundtracks, Mark. [00:17:19] Speaker B: Fucking big time. Yes. [00:17:22] Speaker A: I was just someone like, there's. On social media, there's always those things that go around that are like, date yourself. Like, just memes. Date yourself with a movie that was out your senior year in high school, or like, things like that. This is one of these that was like, date yourself with a movie you saw in theaters as a kid and someone put Pokemon the first movie as their dating themselves film. I've never seen Pokemon the first movie. There are plenty of people my age who have gotten really into Pokemon, but for me at that time, I was, like, just a couple years too old for Pokemon. [00:18:03] Speaker B: Are you still friends with any of these people who are adult Pokemon? [00:18:07] Speaker A: I mean, it's super common. There's a lot of people who are like, elder millennials who are very into Pokemon and still play whenever the new video games come out and stuff. Like, yeah, there's plenty of adults I know who are into Pokemon. [00:18:21] Speaker B: Interesting. [00:18:22] Speaker A: I don't know, maybe it's not as big in the UK. Also, you're, like, seven years older than me, so maybe that makes a difference in the gap, too. [00:18:29] Speaker B: Thank you for the reminder. [00:18:30] Speaker A: Just want to remind you you're old, so I never got super into Pokemon. I played Pokemon go, whatever, but what I was into was soundtracks and pop music. I loved pop music when I was a middle schooler and high school. I mean, I still do. It's just like, obviously the pop music now is not the pop music of my youth. So I listened to slightly less of it, but I had the Pokemon, the first movie soundtrack, and it was so good. Let me just read you some of the tracks on here. [00:19:10] Speaker B: You bought the soundtrack despite not having seen the movie? You bought the CD anyway. [00:19:13] Speaker A: I bought the soundtrack. Nice pokemon theme. We all know the Pokemon theme, right? Be the very best. You start out with that action you got. Don't say you love me by m two m. You ever come across that one? [00:19:26] Speaker B: No. [00:19:26] Speaker A: Don't say you love me. You don't even know me. Remember that one? Classic. [00:19:32] Speaker B: Could you go on? [00:19:33] Speaker A: Real good. [00:19:34] Speaker B: What could you go on? [00:19:35] Speaker A: It was you by Ashley Ballard. We had we are a miracle by Christina Aguilera. No. Soda pop by Britney Spears. Somewhere someday in sync, get happy bewitched. We had some Emma Bunton on there with hey, you free up your mind, 98 degrees, fly with me. We had vitamin C on there with vacation. We had Billy Piper with making my way any way that we can, Aaron Carter. Have some fun with the funk. Listen to, like, even if you don't know those songs, listen to that list of artists. [00:20:06] Speaker B: Oh, completely. Yes. [00:20:07] Speaker A: Like, bro. [00:20:09] Speaker B: Yes. [00:20:09] Speaker A: And I don't think. Like I said, I've never seen the movie. I don't think any of those are in it. Don't think that this was a movie that was scored by the stars of our time. [00:20:21] Speaker B: The get out for that was music from and inspired by the motion picture, right? [00:20:26] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And this soundtrack, as soon as they posted that, I was like, bruh, like, that soundtrack brings me back. Other favorites included, like Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, the tv show soundtrack, also full of pop bangers. Can't hardly wait. Just full of all kinds of hip hop and pop, punk and all that of that time Empire records. I mean, need I say more? That thing you do. So many amazing soundtracks for things. Talk about Batman soundtracks. Come on. There were so many incredible soundtracks. [00:21:03] Speaker B: I am by no means the first or the last person to make this observation, right? But the Batman 89 soundtrack. Prince had no fucking business doing what he did with that, right? No business. It's fucking brilliant. [00:21:16] Speaker A: So obsessed with it as a kid, and then you even get into, like, is it Batman forever that has, like, kiss from a rose seal? Yeah, you, too. Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me. Yes, indeed. So many bangers on soundtracks. And a lot of times I'll watch a movie and they will have a lot of pop songs and stuff like that that I enjoy, and I have to shazam them. Why are they not on a CD that I can go to the store and purchase with my hard earned money. I want soundtracks back, mark. [00:22:01] Speaker B: Surely they still exist. Surely they still exist. [00:22:04] Speaker A: I don't think so, because nobody buys cds. [00:22:11] Speaker B: Do they not exist in playlist form nowadays? [00:22:14] Speaker A: Well, that's like, sometimes you can find users will put together a playlist of songs from a movie that they liked, or occasionally a particularly savvy film will be like, here's a playlist. Yeah, sure. But in the QR code, regular thing. Because part of the soundtrack thing was Hollywood records, for example, it was like they had a stake in both making the movie and know, making the soundtrack. They were like, we're going to make bank off of both elements of these kinds of things. And it's like making a playlist makes you no money barrels. [00:22:51] Speaker B: Well, yeah, it feels to me as though soundtracks often, particularly ones that I would buy, are often exercises from the label and getting exposure to some of their artists, which aren't doing particularly well. [00:23:03] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:23:03] Speaker B: You know what I mean? Corporate synergy that will pay off with additional sales for those artists down the line. It just makes sense. It just makes sense. [00:23:12] Speaker A: This is what matthew sweet is on, like, every soundtrack that ever came out in the 90s, no matter what. Why is he on all of these? I don't know. I guess the label is just like, we got to sell more. Matthew sweet, dude, we signed him for like eight records and I like his stuff. Lori, I'm not dissing matthew sweet. I know you love him. I also do. I'm just saying, clearly there was some promotion happening. [00:23:35] Speaker B: I don't know who matthew sweet is. [00:23:38] Speaker A: He was a 90s artist and his songs were on a lot of soundtrack. I guarantee. Well, I was going to say, I guarantee, like, you've been in the supermarket and heard him or something like that. But I can't say that because UK. I don't know if he ever crossed over there or whatever, but here you have certainly heard him as background music or in the. Like, you've definitely watched movies that have his songs in the background of them. This is just like one of those things that I dearly miss of the time because it's like, especially, I feel like the way music is released now is suited to it as well, because artists don't release albums anymore. They just release singles and then you can buy them on iTunes or whatever, and that's how they sell stuff. There's like no reason for them to put together 21 songs for you to listen to. You don't make money that way. [00:24:26] Speaker B: I mean, take barbie, for instance. [00:24:28] Speaker A: Right, right. [00:24:29] Speaker B: It feels as though all year there have been a stream of singles which were in that movie, right? [00:24:36] Speaker A: Like the dua lippo. [00:24:37] Speaker B: Dua lipo fucking lizzo, you know what I mean? [00:24:39] Speaker A: And obviously the I'm just Ken song. [00:24:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm certain. Surely that exists as a physical artifact you can buy. [00:24:48] Speaker A: I don't know. Now I want to know of all things that feels like one that you would be able to buy. [00:24:54] Speaker B: Barbietheaalbum.com, mate. [00:24:57] Speaker A: Barbietheaalbum.com. [00:24:59] Speaker B: It's right there. [00:25:01] Speaker A: Can I buy that in a physical format? I don't want that album. [00:25:03] Speaker B: Yeah, you can. [00:25:06] Speaker A: I like what they're doing. [00:25:08] Speaker B: You've got a deluxe package with no end of shite with a Polaroid of Ken, a plastic fucking Barbie card, a Barbie land driver's license, a copy of the Barbie Land News, a mattel. [00:25:24] Speaker A: Okay, but this also goes along with my thing, right? You can't just sell an album. You have to convince people to buy it by adding a whole bunch of shit in with it. Yes. No, I would just like a CD that I can put in my CD player over there and listen to these tunes and memorize them and these songs that are on these soundtracks. It's like, still, if I hear one of them out of context, my brain goes into the next one that there was going to be. It's like, yeah, there's so many singles out there. Compile them. Compile them into an album. What I want. But now nobody sells cds even anymore. [00:26:09] Speaker B: I definitely share your nostalgia for soundtracks, right? Anyone of a certain age and of a certain musical persuasion, all I've got to say are the words spawn. [00:26:21] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. [00:26:23] Speaker B: Holy shit. [00:26:25] Speaker A: We definitely had that one in our family. [00:26:27] Speaker B: Judgment night. Of course. That amazing kind of hip hop metal crossover album. The film was like a director video nothing movie with Dennis Leary, I think. [00:26:37] Speaker A: Right? This is totally how that works sometimes. It's like there's stuff. What was the one? The saint. Yes, I know, like one person who's ever seen the saint. But that soundtrack, everyone had it. Like pulp Fiction, Romeo and Juliet. [00:26:53] Speaker B: Yes. Like reservoir dogs. [00:26:55] Speaker A: Reservoir dogs, yeah. [00:26:59] Speaker B: So, yeah, I share your nostalgia, but I don't want them back. [00:27:05] Speaker A: Why not? [00:27:06] Speaker B: Right? I'll tell you for why not. Laura is still. I don't know if I've mentioned this on the cast before, but Laura will still buy cds, right? [00:27:15] Speaker A: Nice. [00:27:16] Speaker B: No, not nice. [00:27:18] Speaker A: Yes. [00:27:19] Speaker B: Not nice at all. [00:27:20] Speaker A: She's going to have things left when Spotify decides they don't want to give us our music anymore and Apple closes their library. I mean, I can't get stuff that I bought on Apple 20 years ago. It's going to happen with everything you own on it now. [00:27:35] Speaker B: I see a CD and I see oil and I see plastic and I see fucking. I'm fucking serious. I'm absolutely. [00:27:43] Speaker A: No, I get you. [00:27:45] Speaker B: That's why I hate the idea of paying 15 quid for the ability to play the same twelve songs and to consume fucking plastic and oil. To do that is absolutely fucking ridiculous. [00:28:00] Speaker A: I have bad news for you about how computers work. [00:28:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I know. And obviously, I'm cherry picking here, and I'm perfectly happy to buy movies on physical media, but for some reason. [00:28:16] Speaker A: Video games. You buy physical video games? [00:28:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I do. But for. For some goddamn reason, music on a CD, something as brief as twelve songs on a CD, feels nowadays frivolous and anachronistic, and I can't bring myself to do it. [00:28:33] Speaker A: I guess that's fair. I obviously have started to revert back to the physical stuff because I'm just sick of losing shit and I'm sick of paying every month so much money for streaming shitty versions of stuff. I can't tell at any given time. [00:28:55] Speaker B: The format that Apple. The lossless format that Apple Music uses. I listen to it and it sounds great. What am I not hearing? [00:29:04] Speaker A: Fair enough. To me, it sounds considerably different. Not that cds were the best format either, don't get me wrong, but I just don't like having to stream everything that I listen to. And the fact that, yeah, things get taken away. I'll have been listening to something for ages, and then all of a sudden they replace it with a live version and there's no version of the one that was there before, things like that. And I'm like, I just want, when I like something, to be able to hold on to it. [00:29:34] Speaker B: A massive pain in the ass is using a smart speaker to request that the AI calls up, brings up the band you want to listen to. I'm a massive fan of a band called therapy, for example. [00:29:47] Speaker A: Right. [00:29:48] Speaker B: Ask. No chance. I've had rain sounds, whale song played at me, AsMR, whatever the fuck that is. [00:29:58] Speaker A: Yeah. There's certain things that I simply cannot get my alexa to call up. I have to get on my phone, connect my bluetooth to the Alexa and play it manually because it simply is not. It's like, no, I do not acknowledge that's a thing. Or you learn, like, certain ways. You have to pronounce have to. If I want it to play the most recent ghost album, I have to say Alexa play Impa by Ghost. Otherwise it will not do it. [00:30:31] Speaker B: Yeah. And even as I'm talking about it, there is no perfect solution. I mean, rights issues. Bands who've been across loads of different labels throughout their career will have gaps in their discography on streaming platforms, and. [00:30:43] Speaker A: They'Re not making money off of it either, which is the other thing. That's one of the things that I was saying this to Kia when we were going, we were attempting to go see dury before the car, before the ending up seeing Aqua and all of that kind of stuff. Like, even at Aqua, I always say if I do like a band, I try to buy their music and I buy their merch and stuff like that and buy tickets to the shows. And when we ended up going to see, like, keo bought a t shirt for himself and for his brother and stuff, like. But like, yeah, if you want to support a, like, playing their music on Spotify doesn't do shit, except it's basically paying an is. [00:31:25] Speaker B: Yeah. It's later bucks, isn't it? Later dollars. [00:31:28] Speaker A: Right. It's like, hopefully you do this and then you go see me in concert and you buy my merch and stuff like that. Because just playing it will not make it so that they can make a living. [00:31:39] Speaker B: And it is. It's easy to bitch about the fucking ghastly price of concert tickets these days, but that's the trade off I quite enjoy. [00:31:50] Speaker A: Except they aren't really getting that either. [00:31:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:53] Speaker A: Also getting most of that money, Ticketmaster, and the label takes a good chunk of it. Unless you're like Taylor Swift or Beyonce. [00:32:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm not shedding any tears for Metallica's bottom line. [00:32:05] Speaker A: Right. Yeah, exactly. There's some artists, that's fine. They're going to be okay. But when it's dirty, like this little brother and sister band making music out of their garage. Yeah. Spotify doesn't help them, except for exposure by the cds. [00:32:28] Speaker B: Where did this thought come from? Corrigan? How long have you been pondering this? The soundtrack? [00:32:33] Speaker A: I literally saw that post, like, right before we started this, and I was like, man. [00:32:40] Speaker B: And of course, since you mentioned b asterisk witched earlier, now obviously the only fucking sitting in the tree wants you to comfort, and I'm going to be, say, la v. Yes. I'm not going to be asleep tonight, and I'm going to be hearing that at three, so thanks. [00:32:56] Speaker A: I can sing morbiwitch songs for you if you want. Are there more bewitch or are you a lie? [00:33:03] Speaker B: What? [00:33:05] Speaker A: There's more bewitch songs. I had the single. [00:33:08] Speaker B: For that I will name another bewitched song. Blame it on the weatherman. [00:33:16] Speaker A: Blame it on the weatherman. Oh, banger. Roller coaster. [00:33:20] Speaker B: Roller coaster. No, that's chili peppers. [00:33:26] Speaker A: Not bewitched. And now I can. Only a second ago I knew bewitched. Roller coaster. And now I only know red hot chili peppers. [00:33:34] Speaker B: This is the content that people tune in for. [00:33:37] Speaker A: It is, yeah. That's why you're here. Listen, it is New Year's Eve, probably. I mean, if you're really on top of it and you're listening to this, it's New Year's Eve. You're probably. Maybe you're making some sort of feast for your fam or you're putting your makeup on to go out to the clubs or. I don't know. What do you like to do for New Year's mark? [00:34:01] Speaker B: There is a friend of mine whose New Year's tradition he entertains here, has guests. And his New Year's tradition all the way back since uni days has been to make what he calls the punch. [00:34:17] Speaker A: Which is ominous. [00:34:18] Speaker B: Just a fucking colossal plastic container. He runs a bar as well. So just bottle after bottle after bottle of just no continuity or through line to the recipe. [00:34:28] Speaker A: Sure. [00:34:28] Speaker B: You know what I mean? [00:34:29] Speaker A: It's like a jungle juice sort of situation. [00:34:31] Speaker B: Exactly. So that's one tradition me. Look, there was a time when I would enjoy going out. I would enjoy getting on it. But as a family man in years past, we're not going to be able to get away with it this year because the jig is up. [00:34:48] Speaker A: But every say, yeah, you're going to have to start letting your kids stay up, aren't you? [00:34:52] Speaker B: Well, up until a year or two ago. And every time I fucking think of this, I pat myself on the back at the fucking absolute deviousness of it. We would play last year's fireworks on YouTube at like 08:00 p.m. Happy New Year. Off to bed. Yes, but no, I use it as an opportunity for introspection. Right. Because I happen to love New Year's Eve. I happen to love me too. I really do. It's like when you're watching a Shane black film, isn't it? It's always Christmas. That's why he does it. [00:35:26] Speaker A: True. [00:35:27] Speaker B: It's so all the characters are connected in some way. And New Year's is one of those. [00:35:31] Speaker A: I want to watch Iron man three now, but anyways. Go on. [00:35:34] Speaker B: That's not the one I want to watch. I want to watch long. Yeah, it's one of those times when the world, or. Or at least, you know, the world that. That we can see, the privileged fucking world, all is united in the same event. [00:35:52] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:52] Speaker B: You know? [00:35:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:53] Speaker B: And I enjoy that. I enjoy knowing that people are looking forward, looking back, thinking about themselves and weighing up how they want their lives to proceed. I think that's a really powerful thing. [00:36:03] Speaker A: Yeah. I think we talked a little about this last week. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether it was just us or on the podcast, but I think we talked on the podcast last week about how a lot of people really sort of poo poo the idea of New Year's resolutions and things like that. And I like the idea of, like you said, like, introspection. Thinking about things, thinking about where you are and where you would like to be and having a moment where you can sit there and go, all right, I've reflected. [00:36:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:32] Speaker A: Now either I'm, like, super chill, and I want to just keep being the cool ass person with my shit together that I am, or you go, hey, maybe I make some changes, and we'll see where that goes. And, yeah, sure, most people don't hold on to their resolutions for very long, but, like, the point. [00:36:53] Speaker B: But I see value in that. I see value in the introspection and the. Exactly. Time. [00:36:59] Speaker A: You don't always have to succeed for something to make an impact. If you don't succeed at something, there's something in changing your mindset about things. [00:37:11] Speaker B: Listen, success is often survival. [00:37:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:16] Speaker B: For real. And it is in that frame of mind, my dear co host, my dear listeners, it is in that frame of mind that I approach the waning, fucking, the dying embers of this year. Success is survival. And simply by being here, friends, you've done something right here. [00:37:36] Speaker A: Big agree with that. So we're going to get into, of course, a recap of the year in movies and books and games, in lives, in all of that. I'm so excited about this. We just decided to poll our listeners about some of their feelings about the media of this year and about their own goals and highlights and all of that kind of stuff. And the answers are wonderful and just makes me love our listeners even more, if that's even physically possible. So we'll talk about that stuff as well. We do have to make a huge shout out, of course, to one of our dear listeners. That is our new boffin. We have a second. Boffin has hit the podcast, and that is Stephen Root. We just want to send out the hugest congratulations to our boy. [00:38:34] Speaker B: That was really funny. That was really funny, by the way. [00:38:37] Speaker A: Thank you. I like when I get you a startle laugh out of you. [00:38:42] Speaker B: That was good. [00:38:45] Speaker A: But yes, we just want to send out a huge congratulations. So much work went into that. A long commute for years and just so much hard work to get to the point where you are. And we are super proud to call you friend and listener. [00:39:01] Speaker B: Rootsy. This one's for you, pal. [00:39:03] Speaker A: Here, here. This episode firmly for Stephen Root. [00:39:08] Speaker B: Congratulations. [00:39:10] Speaker A: Let's see, what else. How was your Christmas, Mark? Did you have a good time? [00:39:16] Speaker B: I did. Thank you. I had a fantastic. I. I consider myself, in many ways, super lucky, right? And super lucky just to be able to have some downtime, just be able to have some time away from work and kind of. This sounds weird because Christmas is often filled with fucking electric lights and fucking plastic and flashing noises and whatnot, but I felt able to kind of pair a lot of that away. The best times I've had over the past week or so have been spent just doing puzzles with my kids, just enjoying the little space that we have right now. It's gone a little south since then. As I was saying to you earlier on, you find me very stressed at the moment because, hey, what with Christmas and all the arranging and all of the expense and all of the travel and all of the logistics and the fucking pressure, like I said earlier on, what better time? When better to completely remodel a large part of your home? [00:40:26] Speaker A: Yeah, you thought it was going to take less time, right? [00:40:31] Speaker B: Oh, look, I just want it gone. I want it done. [00:40:36] Speaker A: Just chop the whole kitchen off. Forget about it. Get a George Foreman for the living room. [00:40:42] Speaker B: That's a great idea. Just sit around a fucking camping stove. [00:40:46] Speaker A: Right? Kiss is fine. Who needs a kitchen anyway? [00:40:49] Speaker B: But anyway, yes, Christmas was grand. Christmas was fucking lovely. [00:40:54] Speaker A: Good. [00:40:54] Speaker B: But, yeah, I'm quite fraught. But that's neither here nor there. When am I not? [00:40:59] Speaker A: Well, I guess that's a good point. You're always sort of dangling on the edge of euphoria and a big crash. [00:41:08] Speaker B: Good. Quite like that. [00:41:12] Speaker A: But I'm glad that it was a good time. And you got a new camera, which is really exciting. [00:41:16] Speaker B: Yes, I did. You've got to get yourself a little treat, haven't you? So I went in on one of those, that fucking action cam that you brought over here earlier in the year, because I was deeply enamored of it. It turns out I've got the newest version as well, which does ridiculous things like fucking 120 f frames per second, 4k. So you can slow down the 4k footage really fucking nicely. [00:41:38] Speaker A: Beautiful. [00:41:39] Speaker B: Yes. And I'm super looking forward to cracking that bad motherfucker out. Who knows? I may even start fucking making joy content again. Who knows? [00:41:47] Speaker A: Yes. That's really the goal for me is, oh, you've got this thing. Excellent. [00:41:53] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:41:55] Speaker A: What else are you going to do with it besides make more things for us? [00:41:58] Speaker B: Exactly. That's the plan. [00:42:00] Speaker A: So I'm excited about that. Yeah. Every time Christmas rolls around, I spend the week between Christmas and New Year's mostly reading. This is a thing that I do every year have for who knows how long. But it's like the end of the year. I usually get between three to five books done. And so I think I'm at three that I've finished nice this week. I think there's one more that I'll finish tonight and that has been like, absolutely beautiful. [00:42:32] Speaker B: Very nice. [00:42:33] Speaker A: So I've just been just stoked on getting my reading in. In this holiday time. [00:42:39] Speaker B: Another year has gone by where I've failed to capitalize on this fucking brilliant idea I have. Every single year I get the same idea again and I never do anything about it. And you know what? I'm never going to do anything about it. So I'm going to comfortably just share it with everyone. Right. So feel free to capitalize on this idea. Just remember me when the fucking money comes rolling in. Right. So know ye of the Christmas pop standard. Driving home for Christmas by Chris Ria. No, get the fuck out of here. Does that not go over the pond? Chris Ria's driving. [00:43:17] Speaker A: How does it go? [00:43:18] Speaker B: Driving home for Christmas? I can't wait to see those faces. Yeah. Fucking top to toe and taillights. Chris Rear. Get my feet on. Driving home for Christmas. Yeah. Driving home for Christmas. Yeah. No, come on. [00:43:39] Speaker A: I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm enjoying the serenade nonetheless. [00:43:47] Speaker B: No. [00:43:50] Speaker A: Right. [00:43:51] Speaker B: Anyway, I feel even better talking about my idea then, because none of the Americans are going to nick it because. Right. So you know how there's. All right, what about the Norad Santa tracker know ye of this? Sure. Yes, of course. So every fucking year Chris rear drives home for Christmas. Right. So I have an idea for an app which you can open which will tell you what a road in Britain Chris Rear is currently on at Christmas. [00:44:19] Speaker A: That's good. You know what I mean? [00:44:20] Speaker B: And I've never done it. So if somebody would like to do that crack on, just remember your old. [00:44:26] Speaker A: That's not a bad idea. Even though I have no idea what that song is. I'm still on board for shit. [00:44:32] Speaker B: Shit. Just had a notification. Right, Glastonbury festival. [00:44:39] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. [00:44:41] Speaker B: Yep. Ran by a guy called Michael Evis. So we've just got a fucking bing. Glastonbury founder Michael Evis. Obviously your first thought is died. Hasn't died, motherfucker. He's been given a knighthood. [00:44:54] Speaker A: Is he a dick? [00:44:57] Speaker B: I think he probably is, yeah. I think Glastonbury is shit for country. [00:45:01] Speaker A: The way you phrased that just made it seem like you were like, no, but he's wish that guy died. [00:45:05] Speaker B: I don't wish it, but you know full well that going into new year is a time of some admin for me from a death point of true for we have to pluck out the winners of the death pool this year, the deadpool. Congratulate those. [00:45:17] Speaker A: How's the spreadsheet? Is the spreadsheet coming? Have you started it? [00:45:20] Speaker B: Well, no, I can't really start it until you can make a template. The poll starts. No, I'll do it all on New Year's Eve, I'll do it all. I'll sit down with a nice warming drink and I'll compile the spreadsheet. [00:45:34] Speaker A: I would like you to know I have my picks in my phone. [00:45:37] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:45:37] Speaker A: Good for the deadpool. And again, if this is your first Jack Volgrraves episode, we explained this last time too, but every year on his facebook, Mark does a deadpool in which you can pick three celebrities who you think might kick the bucket. You're not wishing. [00:45:56] Speaker B: Please, let's get this clear. This is not ghoulish. You're not wishing death on anyone, you're simply predicting it. [00:46:03] Speaker A: Exactly, yes. So you predict three celebrities and you get a little shout out if one. [00:46:10] Speaker B: Of your numbers celebrity. [00:46:11] Speaker A: Yes. That has not happened for me yet. I also can never remember who I pick, but I've put them in my phone, this. [00:46:18] Speaker B: But no one does. You see, that's why it's so admin heavy. Whenever there's a notable celebrity death, I then have to scroll through the fucking posts. But not this year. [00:46:25] Speaker A: This year I'm making a not this year. This is going to be organized and it's going to be beautiful. And it is. It's a fun little time of weird camaraderie amongst people. [00:46:36] Speaker B: Lots of different areas, circles of friends. [00:46:39] Speaker A: Work, people talking to each other who have never met each other before. [00:46:43] Speaker B: Exactly. Sharing. United in death. [00:46:48] Speaker A: In death, yes, exactly. [00:46:51] Speaker B: I'd love that. If people felt they'd like to contribute. I think that would be a lovely thing. [00:46:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I feel kind of optimistic about mine, to put it in a little bit of a macabre, but I think I've got a better chance this year. I don't do that. I always feel like it's cheating to be really like that person is already on the cusp. You're not going to pick David Attenborough or somebody like that. [00:47:15] Speaker B: So many people do, though. So many people do. [00:47:17] Speaker A: And I get it. I get they're going for the win if it's by any means necessary. [00:47:22] Speaker B: But I feel like there's got to. [00:47:23] Speaker A: Be just like a little. Yeah, there's got to be a little bit of, like. It would be a little bit of a surprise, but not a huge surprise. That's where I'm going with mine this year. [00:47:34] Speaker B: The pick that I remain to this day proudest of was one of mine two, three years back. I. If you didn't get Chris Ria, you're certainly not going to get this one. A darts player called Eric Bristow. [00:47:46] Speaker A: No. Yeah. No. [00:47:47] Speaker B: I have no idea why the fuck he popped into my head. I don't know. [00:47:51] Speaker A: And he died. [00:47:52] Speaker B: And he died. Yeah. [00:47:54] Speaker A: Was he like ancient or like regular aged guy? [00:47:57] Speaker B: Not especially. I would imagine he was in his. [00:47:59] Speaker A: Fifty s. Sixty s. Wild. Yeah. That's a pretty. That's quite a pull. That's the kind of thing that would stress me out a little bit. I would be a little bit in turmoil about, like, did I kill that person? I also correctly, didn't someone pick Paul from s club this year, too? [00:48:14] Speaker B: Oh, maybe. [00:48:16] Speaker A: I feel like someone did and it was like, very possible, dude. [00:48:20] Speaker B: Wow. [00:48:21] Speaker A: Okay. [00:48:24] Speaker B: One guy has got two right this year. A good friend of mine. [00:48:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. [00:48:28] Speaker B: Sandeep has picked two of three. There's never been a hat trick yet. No one has ever got all three right. [00:48:34] Speaker A: Has anyone ever gotten two before this? [00:48:36] Speaker B: Yeah, we've got a few twos, but no one has ever got a full house. And I swear, when it happens, I'm going to do something big. I'm going to do something nice for them. [00:48:44] Speaker A: Anytime you say something like this, I just think of the time that you said that for, like, our hundredth episode. You were going to get your dick out. I'm going to do something big. I'm like, oh, no, it's your dick. I've stopped promising to show whole if someone gets a hat trick. [00:49:06] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I've stopped doing that now. I was promising to get my dick out all the time. [00:49:13] Speaker A: I thought you meant actually getting your dick out. I was like, was this a habit? [00:49:17] Speaker B: It turned out like the boy who cried dick. [00:49:21] Speaker A: Nobody believes you. [00:49:22] Speaker B: Nobody believes me until one day I get my dick out and no one cares. [00:49:29] Speaker A: Good point. That's a lot of dick on the Internet. [00:49:32] Speaker B: If you saw my dick, you'd say, good point. It is actually carved like an arrowhead. It's barbed so that it causes. [00:49:41] Speaker A: Oh, no. [00:49:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it's horrible. Anyway, well, top to tone, get a. [00:49:47] Speaker A: Hat trick and maybe you'll find out. Yes. So, also, just as a side note, if you need something to listen to as you're getting ready tomorrow, aside from this, Mark will be posting up his holiday New Year's reading on the ko fi for all of our supporters. So you can get a little bit of that smooth voice in your ear holes to send you into the new year. [00:50:13] Speaker B: We have a short story coming up. [00:50:22] Speaker A: There's something about a belfry. [00:50:23] Speaker B: Something. Yeah. Some spooky shit about a belfry. You're going to love it. [00:50:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Ghosty. [00:50:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:33] Speaker A: And everybody loves anything that's red in your voice, Mark. So I'm feeling pretty good about it. [00:50:37] Speaker B: Well, you're very kind. Thank you. [00:50:39] Speaker A: I only speak the truth. I only speak the truth. There's another soundtrack, Moulin Rouge, you know my feelings about. I know. Anyways, we're going to soar through some what we watched, because we've got a. [00:50:53] Speaker B: Lot to get through. [00:50:55] Speaker A: Um, but there's a few things Mark feels is important we discuss. [00:51:01] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:51:04] Speaker A: I was, eh. Maybe we won't do what we watched. And you were like, no, yeah. [00:51:09] Speaker B: Well, no, I mean, it's been a couple of weeks, so I've got some notable watches that I want to share. [00:51:15] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. [00:51:16] Speaker B: So I'm going to go in with a movie called El Conda. Right. El Conde. Wonderful. Really fucking wonderful. Which I watched on a whim. Right. Simply sat here. [00:51:27] Speaker A: I think I've been heard good things about that. [00:51:29] Speaker B: It's wonderful. It is a movie from this year. It's a horror satire, horror comedy. Horror drama. I love alt history. Yeah. I enjoy alternate kind of weird, kind of skewed takes on real life events. Love that. Fucking love that. And El Conde is exactly in that vein. It is a movie which asks the question, finally asks the question, what if Augusto Pinochet, former ruler of Chile, was a vampire? Nice, right? Fucking brilliant. Excellent. It's got some even taken in and of itself. Right on surface level. It's a cracking vampire tale. It's twisty, it's turny, it's got loads of really nice, classic vampire iconography. It's shot. It's so beautiful. Scenes of an aged Pinocchet soaring above the cities in his cape. It's a lovely, lovely film. It's in black and white. It's beautifully shot in monochrome, but as a satire as well, it's beautiful. It interrogates in some detail Pinocchio's war crimes, his fraud, his fucking double dealing, his machinations, his mass murder. It interrogates all that through the lens of his kind of long career in vampirism. [00:53:00] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay. [00:53:02] Speaker B: He was a part of the French Revolution. He was present at the beheading of Marie Antoinette. [00:53:09] Speaker A: Sure. [00:53:11] Speaker B: And I'm not going to spoil, because I deeply, deeply would love people to see this film. It's great. Yeah. El Conde. A really nice surprise, and one which I would massively recommend seeking out. I'm going to seek it out. It's not like you've got to know. Just open up Netflix. [00:53:34] Speaker A: All of these movies are, as always, in our description and on our blog. So if you missed the title or you're like, I don't speak Spanish and don't know what you just said to search for it, it is in the description of this episode, so you can check it out. [00:53:47] Speaker B: Yes. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. So thanksgiving. Eli Roth Thanksgiving. Right? [00:53:52] Speaker A: Right? Yes. And we were both a little, like, wary because Eli Roth. And neither of us are Eli Roth fans. I haven't seen this yet. [00:54:00] Speaker B: So it is obnoxious, right? [00:54:06] Speaker A: Sure. [00:54:07] Speaker B: It is an obnoxious. It is an Eli Roth film in every fucking manner. Okay? Obnoxious dialogue, obnoxious characters, lots of people to root against, and precious little to fucking hold on to. Right? [00:54:20] Speaker A: Okay. [00:54:21] Speaker B: However, what that means is if it's an Eli Roth film, you are going to get the juice, right? [00:54:27] Speaker A: True. [00:54:27] Speaker B: You're going to get the juice. You're going to get the meat. And what this movie does have in its favor is some spectacular kills. Like the kills. Right? That's all I'll say. The connective tissue between the kills can pretty much go fuck itself. The sinews and ligaments holding this movie together are shite. But when you get to the meat, it's worth the journey just for the fucking burger on the way. It's good stuff. [00:54:58] Speaker A: Okay. This is one of those ones that I'm like, I did want to watch it, but now we're sorry. Now we've gotten into that point where it's like, after Christmas, my desire to watch holiday movies just drops drastically. It's like, leading up to Christmas. Basically, from Halloween to Christmas day, it is nonstop holiday for me. [00:55:22] Speaker B: December 26. [00:55:25] Speaker A: Right. It's the post nut clarity of holiday movies. [00:55:31] Speaker B: You are killing it tonight, Corrigan. [00:55:34] Speaker A: Thank you. I don't know what's going on. [00:55:36] Speaker B: I felt perfectly comfortable watching Thanksgiving because we don't. Thanksgiving. [00:55:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:40] Speaker B: You know, I didn't have burnout. I could watch it. [00:55:43] Speaker A: But maybe Easter. Yeah. Maybe tomorrow or something. I will. Or even tonight, just because it's like, especially once it hits January 1, it's over. Either I watch it now or it's next year's movie. [00:55:53] Speaker B: Yes. [00:55:54] Speaker A: So I will give that a whirl. [00:55:57] Speaker B: Let me see. [00:55:58] Speaker A: I did, finally, on the Christmas movie notes. Most of the Christmas movies I watched were, like, hallmark and stuff like that. Lots of great Hallmark movies this year, by the way. Hallmark obviously is known for a type of movie, and those were largely corny, but they bring you the warm fuzzies, that kind of thing. But since they booted all the christians from the channel over to great american Christianity or whatever, now they have movies with gay people and non binary people and lesbians and people of color and all these kinds of things. And as such, they've also kind of stepped up the storylines from not necessarily just being, like, the most boring white. Whatever. And like I said, I liked them before. I enjoyed them, but they were a certain thing. And so this year especially, I feel like they really stepped it up with some of their movies. Like, there was a Hanukkah movie called round and round that was a time loop movie about, like, a magic dreidel that caused time loop to occur where it's, like, the central thing is like, hey, for one thing, the female lead in it is non binary, actually. [00:57:22] Speaker B: So hang on. If this is about, like, a magic dreidel, Dre is like a spinning top thing, isn't it? Yeah. Which goes round and round, goes round and round, you see, as does time. [00:57:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I see what you mean. A little clever thing happening. And the central thing is basically this girl in the movie, like I said, nonbinary in real life, but she is a woman in this. And the guy who she has met in this time loop and is falling for as it's going. And then his dorky ass friend at the comic book store, which also, by the way, this takes place in Montclair, which is really funny. But the three of them trying to figure out basically through, like, comic books and D. D and Sci-Fi and all this kind of stuff, how to solve the time loop problem. And it's delightful. They never would have done something like this on before. [00:58:19] Speaker B: That is a solid pitch, right? That is a very, very solid pitch. I would watch that. [00:58:25] Speaker A: Right? Like, if Laura forced you to watch this, you wouldn't hate yourself. [00:58:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm watching it in my head in the kind of vein of something like a hot tub time machine or. [00:58:34] Speaker A: Something nice, except just like tame because it has to be okay for the whole family to watch. But, yeah, it's like nerds solving a time loop. [00:58:46] Speaker B: Super solid. Nice. [00:58:47] Speaker A: Yeah, they have all kinds of stuff like that this year. So I will just say, even though this is not a jo ag thing, that hallmark is stepping it up. My other favorite was a time travel movie, Christmas at the Biltmore. Delightful. I recommend that as well. But Christmas horror I did watch this year finally got around to rare exports after years and years and years of people recommending rare exports to me. Have you watched it, Mark? [00:59:16] Speaker B: I have not. I've literally just heard about it for the first time. Never. I've never heard of it. [00:59:23] Speaker A: Fair enough. It's like some northern european place. Sorry. To our dear friend Jonas, who actually created an entire subtitle track that he did himself for this film because he said that the ones that are in the movie kind of blow I watch on my tv. So I couldn't use his subtitle track. And I wish that I could have, but he says, yeah, the translation is kind of shitty in the actual movie. This has been recommended for years. I thought it was, like, fine. So basically, the premise of rare exports is, like, this kid, like, gosh, it's kind of hard to explain. It's not that hard to explain, but it's been a couple of weeks. I watched it. But anyways, trying to explain the plot. [01:00:17] Speaker B: Of Alan wake too, right? [01:00:19] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Basically, there's, like, what seems like an evil Santa, but it turns out there's, like, all these evil elves that also look like Santa that are stealing and murdering children in this remote village. And so you're kind of following this one kid and his dad and his dad's two friends as they try to unravel what's happening to the children. And what this Santa figure guy at the heart of it is, it's definitely got the juice. It's very gory and all that kind of stuff. It's like lots of naked old Santas in it, which I was not expecting. But I do think that this is one of those movies that would maybe with Jonas's subtitles it would be better because I was kind of like, okay, it's an interesting premise, but I don't know. I don't think it's funny enough or. I don't know. It just didn't hit right for me. So it was kind of like, I can see why people like it. It just didn't quite hit. [01:01:24] Speaker B: But gore where I wanted it. [01:01:26] Speaker A: But there is gore. Yeah, rare exports does give you some gore. So you do have that for you. And it is like, surprising. I will give you that. It is not an expected movie. [01:01:39] Speaker B: Again, the idea of watching a Christmas movie now makes me want to be second to my hands. [01:01:43] Speaker A: Right. [01:01:44] Speaker B: But yeah, certainly one for 2024. Should we make it? God willing. [01:01:50] Speaker A: Seriously? [01:01:51] Speaker B: Let me see what else? Because Owen was flat out on that diehard tip. We watched diehard with a vengeance and let me tell you what a fucking movie that is. [01:02:05] Speaker A: Our new listener, Chris, is going to be very excited to hear this because unbidden, he posted in Facebook that diehard with a vengeance rule. [01:02:13] Speaker B: Diehard with a vengeance is fucking great, right? Do you know what I was most reminded of when watching Diehard with a vengeance for the first time in God knows how long, by the way, I can't have seen it in a decade or more. The first film that came to mind as a comparison was crank. [01:02:28] Speaker A: Okay? [01:02:29] Speaker B: I shit you not. Dial with a vengeance. Kicks off within the first kind of 30 seconds of the movie and it doesn't stop. It is always propulsive. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. One event to the next. And it really made me think, if John McClain stops, then he'll explode. It's crank. It's crank with John McClain. Brilliant fucking movie. Loved it. Samuel L. Jackson. [01:02:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I straight up forgot he was in that. You sent me like, a thing and you were like, look what I'm watching. And I was like, okay, a, they're in a lot of movies together. And b, yeah, straight up forgot that he was. [01:03:03] Speaker B: And I'm sure that Sam Jackson still exists, but I miss that Sam Jackson, man. That absolute fucking hilarious. Funny as fuck. Real authentic fucking Samuel L. As opposed to know I. Sure, yeah, I had a great time in die with the vengeance. It's fucking brilliant. Jeremy Irons is great in it as well. It's just a great movie. Let me see now. I'll tell you what isn't a great movie. Corey and I are going to talk a lot shortly about our bests of the year, right? About the best fucking things we saw and consumed and enjoyed during 2023. It's incredible to me that the two worst pieces of shit I've seen all year were within like a week of one another. [01:03:54] Speaker A: We have some disagreement on the level of shit here, but that was very funny to me. [01:03:59] Speaker B: Let's start with dead end then, shall we? [01:04:00] Speaker A: We'll start with dead end because that was last week's pick. This was my pick. Neither of us had ever seen dead end before. Film starring Ray Wise and Lin Shea. [01:04:11] Speaker B: If I pitch this to you, you'll think, oh, sign me the fuck up. Ray Wise and Lin Shea, two absolute genre stalwarts. Two super talented, super kind. Know they add gravitas to wherever they're in. Right. You know you're in for a good time when you see those. Except here. Right. Dead end. Also a kind of. A little bit of a time loopy movie, kinda from a certain perspective. It mostly takes place in a car. Ray wise and his family are driving somewhere for the holidays. He decides to take a different route, and all kinds of spookiness ensues. And it is awful. Right. [01:04:55] Speaker A: Disagree. [01:04:56] Speaker B: Okay, go on. [01:04:59] Speaker A: I think what's funny to me is that I'm not going to be like, this is a great movie or anything like that. I'm not disputing you that hard. But it's so campy and so ridiculous and over the top that for me, it was hard not to have a good time with. Especially, it's like, there's stuff in this that happens that's like, there's a point where the teen boy and it goes off and jerks off in the woods has nothing to do with the plot. [01:05:26] Speaker B: It was, like, never referred to. [01:05:27] Speaker A: They needed to get titties into the movie, so they had a moment where he could pull out a calendar with a naked woman on it. There's just no reason for this to have existed. [01:05:36] Speaker B: But, like, a teen who, by the way, they've cast a guy in his 30s. [01:05:40] Speaker A: Yeah, he's like, clearly, like 30 years old. Where his sister, who's supposed to be older, looks younger than he does. But, yeah, it's like a very campy, like, I told you. I was like, I spotted the twist in this movie. [01:05:58] Speaker B: You did? [01:05:58] Speaker A: Immediately. Very. [01:06:00] Speaker B: I enjoy it when you do that. [01:06:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I know it's one of your favorite things. When I do this, it's not like an unpredictable movie. It's not a great movie, but it is so, like, it makes you constantly go, why? What the fuck? There's, like, weird, jarring moments of violence and gore in it that you're like, holy shit. Why? [01:06:19] Speaker B: It isn't often I'll use cheap as a pejorative right? Because if a movie looks cheap, all that means is they fucking made a movie. You know what I mean? Cheap to me implies resourceful, it implies creative, it implies ingenuity. But in dead end, it looks so fucking cheap, HD hasn't done any favors either. I mean, there's one of the characters who has a cut on her head, and you could see the fucking edges of the latex around the fucking appliance. Very, very cheap looking movie. [01:06:51] Speaker A: I don't think it always looks that way, though. Like, when you get the ear or the back of Lin Shea's head or things like. Like, there's some actually quite good gore. And I do wonder how much just the fact that HD exists makes it look a lot cheaper than it would have at the time, because it didn't strike me as being like, oh, this looks excessively cheap compared to other movies made at the same time. [01:07:16] Speaker B: I thought that right from the titles, I mean, the titles look as though they were knocked up in some free editing software or whatever. [01:07:26] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I get that for sure. I just felt like it was charmingly shit. [01:07:30] Speaker B: I just found it shit. [01:07:32] Speaker A: Yeah. To me, I was like, this is like, it endeared me to it. How stupidly balls to the wall it was. Especially in the last 20 minutes, 30 minutes of it, where it was just kind of like, insane, unreasonable thing, weird, violent thing happens over and over and over again. And I was just like, yeah, I found it fun, but, yeah, so it's kind of a. You're looking at two very different perspectives on mean. Mine was like a three star response to it, not a like, this is an excellent movie. Mark's was a half star, my first. [01:08:08] Speaker B: Ever half a star rating. I've never rated a film, which is also. [01:08:11] Speaker A: That just feels very disproportionate, especially considering what we watched this. [01:08:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, be careful what you wish know. I'd been banging on about watching this fucking film called Perpetrator. Perpetrator caught my eye on the know, and for weeks I've been banging on, hey, Corey, let's watch perpetrator. [01:08:34] Speaker A: No, you never said this to me. Where you got this from? Yeah, you said this yesterday, too, and I was like, I have never heard. [01:08:40] Speaker B: Of this movie on a personal level. I have. Many a time, I've scrolled past perpetrator on the shuds and gone, oh, yeah, we got to watch that looks intriguing as fuck. Alicia Silverstone's in it. Perpetrator. And it was dire. It was just. [01:08:54] Speaker A: It was awful. Yeah, Yoish. Alicia Silverstone is doing, like, a voice, like a bad mid atlantic accent. Like, she's trying to be. She was born in 1928. I don't know why she's talking like this. [01:09:14] Speaker B: I think she was trying to kind of channel, like, malticia Adams kind of vibes off her. [01:09:19] Speaker A: Yeah, right. That's the thing is she's, like, going for, like, an era that it's not hitting and they just kind of, like, put some extra crows feet on her. And we're like, yes, definitely. Now she's 70. Like, this woman is 47 years old. [01:09:34] Speaker B: Yes. [01:09:34] Speaker A: I don't know why you're trying to have her act like she is ancient. [01:09:38] Speaker B: Try and precede the plot of perpetrator. [01:09:41] Speaker A: Oh, Jesus Christ. There's a girl, and she bleeds a lot. Mostly from the mouth, but not exclusively. Not exclusively, but, like, generally from the mouth. And she goes to a private school where girls are disappearing. [01:09:59] Speaker B: Yes, that's about all. [01:10:03] Speaker A: And the adults, they're all bleeding. They're all getting. [01:10:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And her and her dad, their faces change all the time. They've got this weird disease where their. Yeah, yeah. Jon Stewart. Was that her dad? [01:10:18] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. I forgot about him. Yeah. [01:10:19] Speaker B: It's not John Stewart, by the way. This really looks like him. [01:10:24] Speaker A: It just looks like the teachers are but a reverse Dracula because she bleeds. [01:10:33] Speaker B: Instead of drinking the blood. [01:10:35] Speaker A: Drinking the blood. And then there's, like, their school does weird school shooter drills. The thing about this movie is that it's clearly trying to be satirical, but it doesn't stick the landing in any way. I think it has to do with how it's filmed. It has to do with the editing. It has to do with the terrible sound design, performances, the performances, the script. You can see what it's aiming for, but it's not landing any of it. The idea of this principal who has them do insane school shooter drills or whatever, that could be funny, but because of the way it is scripted and edited and acted, it is not. Yeah, the perpetrator was not fun, so don't watch that. Don't watch that. I think we can categorically say that. [01:11:35] Speaker B: One that's agreed upon just super quickly on a whim. I just got to talk about the running man. Don't fucking ask me why, but sometimes I get it in my head that I want to see a particular movie and I have to exercise. [01:11:48] Speaker A: You've been kind of in action mode. [01:11:50] Speaker B: I have been in a very 80s kind of mindset lately with my movies. I watched a running man and fucking loved it. [01:11:57] Speaker A: Maybe this is why you've like, hated every movie we've watched for the past month and a half is you're in action mode. [01:12:02] Speaker B: It could be. It could be. It could be action horror. Is that a genre? Is that a crossover? Has that been done? [01:12:08] Speaker A: Like dread is action horror, right? [01:12:09] Speaker B: Yes, it is. Yes, of course it is. And things like train to Busan, that's a fucking action horror movie, right? [01:12:15] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. [01:12:15] Speaker B: But running man, right? So much to love for a start, takes place in the far, far flung, dystopian future of 2017. [01:12:28] Speaker A: Love it. [01:12:29] Speaker B: Absolutely love it. It's peak. Arnold. A line which stuck with me. What does he say? I'm going to shove my face down your stomach and rip out your spine. He says that at one point, which is what not to love. Eerily prescient. It predicted deepfakes. [01:12:51] Speaker A: Oh, there you go. Towards the end of the film, they. [01:12:54] Speaker B: Map Arnold's face onto a body double to convince the audience he's been killed. That's deepfakes, mate. [01:12:59] Speaker A: That is deepfakes. [01:13:00] Speaker B: The running man saw deepfakes coming. [01:13:03] Speaker A: Well, there we go. [01:13:04] Speaker B: So fucking think on that, if you will. But other than that, yeah, just a great laugh. Look, politics and him aside, I love Jesse Ventura from my time growing up with the WWF. Jesse Ventura is fucking. I love him. He's great. Great to see him on screen. Hey, having seen Jesse Ventura recently, he might be good for a little pick on a certain fucking deadpool. [01:13:30] Speaker A: That's a very good point. [01:13:32] Speaker B: Time has caught up with him, but running man was a mad laugh. Great stuff. Perpetrator. Dead end dog shit, die hard rocks, el conde. Fantastic stuff. And that's all the weather. [01:13:47] Speaker A: Beautiful. Takes a hit off vape. Satisfaction hits. Okay, so it is now time for us to recap the year of 20 and 23. And what a year. [01:14:03] Speaker B: Good stuff it was. This flavor is autumn tobacco, which it has a kind of a tobacco essence, but it's also got a little kind of hint of smokiness. Bonfires, autumn leaves, s'mores. You know what I mean? Hot chocolate. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. So you're right. Listen, something else that I love about new year, right? And I've been doing this fucking as long as I can remember, is just the old review of the year, right? [01:14:38] Speaker A: Sure. [01:14:39] Speaker B: Yeah. I enjoy it. I get a lot out of it. I get a lot out of the retrospection. I enjoy thinking about what was great. And that's what we're going to do right now. We're going to talk. We have some categories we've been asking you the jack of all graves universe, what your highlights culturally and personally of 2023 are. So we're going to fucking go into a couple of those now. What do you say? [01:14:59] Speaker A: Let's do it. So let's start right out the gate with the movie of the year, which this was kind of tough for me. We have talked a little bit because I was saying that on dead and lovely Steve and Ben had said this hasn't really been like a banner year for horror. And I would agree with that. I think this was a year for pretty good horror where nothing was like. That was amazing. That blew my mind. But there were a ton of things that came out that I was like. It was pretty good. [01:15:31] Speaker B: Yeah, there was actually. And I don't know if a banner year. All right, maybe not. But I think it might be a little better than your selling there. There was some standout horror when evil lurks, for example. [01:15:46] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. I mean, I put that shit squarely at the top or near the top. I didn't really rank. But, like, when evil lurks, you got to be watching it. If you're a horror fan, you really do. That is a really standout movie. [01:16:04] Speaker B: Any year that has a new Evil Dead movie in it, you can't call that a bad year because I didn't. [01:16:12] Speaker A: Say it was a bad year. [01:16:13] Speaker B: No, of course. Of course. I apologize. What were your kind of horror standouts? [01:16:19] Speaker A: Yeah, for me, I mean, obviously. Yeah. When evil lurks, Evil Dead Rise had such a fun time with that. I know you disagree, but I loved scream six. I had a blast with that. Yes. No one will save you. That was really high up there for me. The sort of Sci-Fi horror with very little dialogue, which you're just basically watching a woman being terrorized by aliens. Yeah, really enjoyed that one blend of home invasion and Sci-Fi that really works for me. [01:16:51] Speaker B: I know you didn't see it, but Hussieria, the bone woman, fucking the bone woman. So good. Really enjoyed it. [01:17:04] Speaker A: And the passenger, which we both watched, I put on there as well. The one in which. [01:17:09] Speaker B: So glad you brought that up because that was such a lovely surprise, that film. [01:17:14] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. In which the fella shoots up a diner and then takes hostage, essentially one of the workers and takes him on a weird road trip of reconciliation and danger and violence. Yeah, a huge surprise. Just maybe the passenger. [01:17:35] Speaker B: A wonderful message of redemption and about letting go of blame and living the life that you have the best that you can. Yes, absolutely. Weirdly, for a movie like that, I went away totally fucking heartwarmed. And full. [01:17:50] Speaker A: Right. For something that had been so violent and stressful. Intense. You come out of it with like a. Oh, weird. I feel warm about. [01:17:59] Speaker B: Yes, indeed. Angry black girl and her monster. Fucking bravo. [01:18:04] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a great one. Bravo so much with so little. [01:18:08] Speaker B: Yes, it does a fantastic monster. Air quotes again, beautiful performances. Really strong fucking sense of visual identity and style. Banger. Absolute banger. Agreed very much. Let me think. Was Megan this year? [01:18:27] Speaker A: No, someone picked that from our things too. But Megan, I'm fairly. Oh, wait, no, actually I think it might be because it did appear on big fat quiz. [01:18:38] Speaker B: Ah, there you go. There you go. There you go. Yes. Megan enjoyed again. Yeah, I'm not going to. [01:18:43] Speaker A: That must have been very early in the year. That feels like ages ago. Has to have been, because I've seen it like three times. [01:18:48] Speaker B: Have you really? [01:18:49] Speaker A: No. 2022 film. [01:18:51] Speaker B: Fair enough. Fair enough. I strike that from the record then. [01:18:53] Speaker A: Yeah. October of 2022. [01:18:56] Speaker B: So plenty of horror. [01:18:58] Speaker A: No, sorry, just kidding. Conflicting messages here. January 6. [01:19:04] Speaker B: Excellent. [01:19:04] Speaker A: Fresh 2023. [01:19:05] Speaker B: Squeaking in there, squeaking in there. So lots of good horror. [01:19:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:19:11] Speaker B: But my favorite, the ones that I'm going to go in that will go down as my best films of the year aren't horrors. Absolutely not. I mean, they cloned Tyrone, right? [01:19:23] Speaker A: Yep. I believe that was Anna's pick for the rest of the year. [01:19:29] Speaker B: I don't even know where to begin with what I loved about that movie. It was all great. It was all great. If a little over long. [01:19:37] Speaker A: That's been the reason that I have not watched it. It's like I really want to. Everyone really loves it. It's just really hard. [01:19:44] Speaker B: It is utterly unhinged. Let down quite badly by a scene where they do lock picking. Wrong. [01:19:53] Speaker A: Right. [01:19:54] Speaker B: They open a van door with a paperclip. Fuck off, lads. You cannot do that. [01:19:58] Speaker A: Listen, it doesn't take place in reality. They can do whatever they want. Yeah, but do you know how people started my car, Mark? They used a USB drive. I will buy that. They used a fair enough van. [01:20:12] Speaker B: Fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. But yes, stunning. A really fucking. Again, a left of center. I had no idea it existed until I saw it on Netflix and it was absolutely banging. But it's joint first place, right? Barbie is duking it out with dungeons and dragons for first place. [01:20:28] Speaker A: Dungeons and dragons has to be first for me. You know, I liked Barbie, but Barbie was just fine for was. For a lot of our listeners, it was their number one. Barbie took it by a long shot. But d d I've watched four times this year it has not gotten old. I still laugh like an idiot every time that one character yells, Jonathan. [01:20:50] Speaker B: That's exactly what I was just thinking about. A cracking little callback gag. [01:20:56] Speaker A: Just so much better of a movie than I could have even fathomed. [01:21:02] Speaker B: Yes, it's whimsical, it's good natured, it's heartwarming, it's surprising. It's fucking, you know, it's likable, man. It's just such a goddamn likable film. [01:21:15] Speaker A: How can get kind of scary towards the end? You got a good amount of horror in there. [01:21:20] Speaker B: Yes, that nice little. Oh, hang on. Are they going to be all right? Are they going to make it out? It's edgy. I have not a bad word to say about dungeons and dragons honor among steves. It's fucking great. And it is my movie of the year. [01:21:38] Speaker A: Outside of the ones that we named. We had. Sam loved Oppenheimer. I mean, Dan, look. [01:21:46] Speaker B: Gave us Oppenheimer. I am never going to see it again. [01:21:52] Speaker A: I don't think I'm ever going to see it in the first. [01:21:58] Speaker B: Deny. You cannot deny it. Right? It is a capital f film by a capital f filmmaker with. [01:22:07] Speaker A: I think that's why it just completely bores me. Kia watched it twice in a row last week. Not because he liked it, because he watched it the first time. And he was like, I was so bored, I stopped watching. And then he watched it again to try to fill in the blanks. [01:22:21] Speaker B: It is dry. So dry. [01:22:24] Speaker A: Yeah, super dry. This is obviously not the. A lot of people love this movie and really had a blast with it. [01:22:34] Speaker B: What I will say a lot of these best films of the year that our listeners are nominating. I was quite heavily into Xanax when I was watching a lot of those. So I've literally no memory of them. No memory at all. So I'm really looking forward to watching some of those for the first time. I know I've seen them. [01:22:54] Speaker A: Yes. But we also have. Dan said the creator was a favorite. I love this canadian boy. Ryan gave us the Meg two. [01:23:03] Speaker B: Yes. [01:23:04] Speaker A: Which. I love this. [01:23:06] Speaker B: Why not? [01:23:07] Speaker A: I have not watched it. I have a feeling I'm going to like it, too. I did not realize people hated the first Meg until the second one came out. [01:23:15] Speaker B: I haven't seen the Meg too, but I've seen the Meg. [01:23:17] Speaker A: Yeah. When the second one came out, everyone was like, the first one was shit, so why would this one be good? [01:23:21] Speaker B: And I was like, problem. [01:23:22] Speaker A: People thought the first one was shit. I thought that was so much fun. [01:23:25] Speaker B: Fuck is wrong with people? [01:23:26] Speaker A: I don't know what people expect when they go to see a Meg movie, but it delivered exactly what I was expecting from the Meg. So, Ryan, I haven't seen the Meg, too, but I have a feeling it's not going to be my top of 2023. But I think I'm going to enjoy it as well. So here's to you and your Meg. Most people said, barbie. Hello. Richard said that movie of the year is obviously Operation Fortune, Ruse de Gare, which he made me and Jen watch with him in April. A terrible sort of spy film with Jason Statham and Aubrey Plaza and probably other people in it that was on the sides of buses. And he kept telling us he wanted to watch Ruse de Gare. I want to watch Ruse de Gare. And we were like, that's not a movie. This is not a thing that exists. And then realized, for whatever reason, he had memorized the subtitle of it and not that it was called Project Fortune, which also tells me that they want to make a thing of this. Like, there's going to be more project fortune movies. And you know what? It is so aimed at middle America, people who have no discernment about the films they're watching that I would not doubt that there will be ten more of these. It was just the most. The blandest action film you've ever seen in your life. And at one point, I pointed out during it that I was like, you notice, like, there's no on screen kills. Nobody gets hit by anything. It's, like, completely bloodless. [01:25:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Anodine. [01:25:13] Speaker A: Entirely bloodless. Our next thing was. Oh, your favorite new to you movie of the year. Not a 2023 movie, but a movie that you saw for the first time this year. [01:25:25] Speaker B: Okay. Got a few. Possession was one of them. [01:25:32] Speaker A: Oh, God. [01:25:32] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. That possession. [01:25:35] Speaker A: Possession. Lord, I hate that movie for fucking. [01:25:40] Speaker B: Finding the edge and gleefully just skipping past it, for really pushing something and continuing to push it, even though nobody quite knows what it is that they're doing or pushing. Possession was brilliant, right? Just from a performance point of view, it was art. Just the shit that those fucking guys did with that film, man. Wow. I'd pay money to see that live. Really, really cool. Let me see. [01:26:09] Speaker A: I would pay money not to ever see it again. [01:26:15] Speaker B: Recent films, but not 2023 films. House of Jack built, like I spoke about the other day. Yes. And I was reaching on that cast when I spoke about House of Jack built to kind of remember what it really, really gave me. The same vibes as. And it's natural born killers, man. Natural born killers. That was the one. Just the kind of avant garde kind of inserts and whatnot. But, yeah, House of Jackpot was brilliant. After sun. Devastating. Devastatingly good. Five stars. Five easy stars as well. I am an r about giving five stars to films, but after Sunday, it was just a no brainer, a staggeringly impactful and moving bit of movie. Good shit. And in other films that Corey hates, bones and all. Bones and all. [01:27:06] Speaker A: It's so funny because it's like, yeah, all of your top films, aside from house that Jack built, are all ones. That's like. I feel like that's like the dividing line of, like, you because this is the thing I've said before, you know, that I hate self seriousness. And so if a movie takes itself seriously, I'm like, fuck it. I have no interest in this. And so you can see that's the. You describing something as art, as a positive to me is like, yeah, no, fuck it. I don't want anything to do with that movie. So you can see where the dividing line is. [01:27:38] Speaker B: I can. Yeah, listen. I can and I am aware of it. Don't worry. Right. [01:27:44] Speaker A: That's not a bad thing. This is similarly just the difference between what we like in movies is that I don't like movies that take themselves. [01:27:53] Speaker B: Seriously and you do, but, I mean, I think it's Mayor Angelou, isn't it? What's that quote? People always remember how you made them feel. [01:28:03] Speaker A: Or at least the Internet says it's Maya Angelou. [01:28:06] Speaker B: Yeah, of course, it might as well be Anthony Hopkins. But I vividly remember the fucking. The feeling that bones and all left me with just fucking. Just this hollow, stunned, unable to fucking piece together everything that has just occurred in that movie. Just fuck. So good. It ripped me a new asshole. And it was about Dracula's. I like Dracula's. [01:28:31] Speaker A: You do like Dracula's. And we do know that's a thing that I also don't particularly go in for, although I am really interested in Elcond. I think that sounds really interesting. [01:28:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it is. [01:28:41] Speaker A: I think that sometimes a vampire movie will intersect with things that interest me in a way that I like. And that idea of alternate history and. [01:28:50] Speaker B: A black and white film and really. [01:28:52] Speaker A: Satire and all that kind of stuff. [01:28:53] Speaker B: It connects with me sticking vampires where they shouldn't really go. [01:28:57] Speaker A: Right. [01:28:59] Speaker B: Bang in. [01:28:59] Speaker A: Exactly. I'm into that. [01:29:01] Speaker B: What about you? New to you in 23? [01:29:03] Speaker A: New to me this year. VHS. I absolutely loved that. Very short, very nostalgic. Very spooky movie. VHS was such a fun time and totally unexpected to me. I didn't think it was going to. [01:29:20] Speaker B: Be for a fucking, for a weird half a second there, I thought you were going to say like VHS 98 or whatever it was. Can you imagine? Yeah. [01:29:30] Speaker A: Also I'm a different person today and suddenly I like the VHS movie. [01:29:33] Speaker B: Talk about a 180. [01:29:36] Speaker A: No, I still hate the VHS movies from the core of my soul. Vh. Yes. For anyone else at home who was like, what? Where is this coming from? No, VHS was a lot of fun for me and I big recommend that to anyone. It was just a surprise blast. Pontypool, another one that people have recommended for ages, talked about that a few weeks ago and it was every bit as good as everyone said. And I had a total blast with that because I really didn't know anything about it going into it. I just knew people liked it. Very fun. One location film and the other one I picked was eyes of my mother, the film that we watched a month or so ago. Another black and white movie, a very surprising, violent, I want to say slow burn, but it doesn't feel like one messed up movie that I really enjoyed. [01:30:36] Speaker B: Yes. I would also add that to that list. It was terrific. [01:30:40] Speaker A: Yeah, we didn't give that one to our listeners. So tv of the year, this one is like one that it's really hard not to have recency bias about because it turns out there are a lot more great shows that came out this year than one might think. Because I think probably for both of us out the gate, it's usher. [01:31:02] Speaker B: Yes. The reflex. The reaction is to instantly go usher because it was unbelievably good. And in the final analysis, Usher will definitely come out as the best bit of tv of the year. [01:31:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:31:16] Speaker B: Succession. Why isn't succession my best tv of the year? Why isn't the ending of succession my best tv of the year? I've thought this through. Right, okay. And despite succession, those last few episodes being absolutely huge achievements, right in direction, the single kind of flowing shot around the yacht, just phenomenal performances. Phenomenal. But it was always going to be, do you know what I mean? [01:31:49] Speaker A: That's true. [01:31:50] Speaker B: I've heard it said. [01:31:51] Speaker A: It almost suffers from consistency. [01:31:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Not to its detriment because. [01:31:58] Speaker A: No, but in the sense of when you're thinking about best of the year, you're like, of course. [01:32:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I've heard. [01:32:03] Speaker A: Why would I even bother saying succession? Of course, it's great. [01:32:06] Speaker B: I attended a talk once like an ex Olympic athlete. Right. And he spoke about. There's a train of thought that says that if you've done the training properly and if you've committed and you've applied yourself and you've done everything right, all you have to do is turn up and claim your medal. That's what succession did. It just had to stick the landing and it would be amazing. And it did and it was right. [01:32:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:32:31] Speaker B: Same goes for last of us. Right? You know, I'm a fucking embarrassing, massive last of us. Fucking Stan, whatever that means. And last of us did a fantastic job of converting that experience of the interactive, the game and putting it on screen in a faithful way. And it was thrilling, it was visceral, it was exciting, it was thrilling, it was event television, brilliant stuff, but it was always going to be. [01:33:02] Speaker A: Obviously I have a slightly different relationship with it, but I get what you mean. I liked every other episode. [01:33:09] Speaker B: There you go. Whereas Usher was completely out of left. [01:33:14] Speaker A: Field, it could have gone either way. It wasn't guaranteed that it was going to be great. [01:33:19] Speaker B: And it was, yes, great. I can't say any more on Usher than has already been said. It gave scant fucking regard for any manner of boundary in terms of performance, in terms of writing. What am I struggling to say? I know that you hate. Like you've said, self seriousness works. Banasha was one. [01:33:51] Speaker A: That's not the same thing as self serious. To know making something you want to be good doesn't mean self serious. Self serious means not having a sense of humor about yourself and being very much. It implies poef this is art and you should interpret it as art. Where? I don't think Mike Flanagan thinks that way at all. [01:34:09] Speaker B: Certainly not. And Usher kept pulling trick after trick after trick out the know. It didn't rely on any one particular device, it didn't rely on gore, it didn't rely on sex, it didn't rely on language or shock factor, it didn't rely on any one of those things. It had every fucking one. They were there in ridiculous quantities, but it didn't hide behind any of that artifice. It just used it and used it until you fucking. Wow. Until you were a bloody broken mess. What a show. [01:34:41] Speaker A: Agreed. Masterclass. Other things that people brought in. Poker face, that was Anna said that. And also that was Kyo's pick for. [01:34:52] Speaker B: Good taste of the year, those two, let me tell you. Absolutely very taste. Tasteful. [01:34:58] Speaker A: Lots of last of us, lots of the bear. [01:35:01] Speaker B: Didn't see it. Didn't see it. What have I missed there? [01:35:04] Speaker A: I didn't watch it either. [01:35:06] Speaker B: There's not about a bear. [01:35:07] Speaker A: Is it for my brain? It's not about a bear. I've had multiple people tell me it's a really great show, but people yell too much and you'll hate it. And I'm like, okay, fair enough. So I have not watched that. Yeah. More succession. Oh, I love Melanie coming out of left field with this. So wholesome. She said the Christmas episodes of Virgin river, which is like a Netflix show that is almost hallmark adjacent, but it's a little spicier than Hallmark. But I just love that that's what Mel picked. She's a treasure. Followhouse usher. Let's see. Oh, great. Pulls from Xander, our man in Japan. I just wanted to say that because it rhymes. He lives in Okinawa. But anyway, our flag means death. [01:35:53] Speaker B: Okay. [01:35:54] Speaker A: And Star Trek, strange new worlds. Which Star Trek? Strange new worlds, buddy. Oh, man. That was a huge surprise for me because I have not done great at getting into the new Star Trek. [01:36:07] Speaker B: No. [01:36:10] Speaker A: And strange new worlds feels like what I loved about tos, which I'm a big Tos fan, which is not that common for someone of my age, but Tos and TNG, these strange new worlds really blends like the best of those particular ones, in my opinion. [01:36:29] Speaker B: Best of both worlds, you might say. [01:36:30] Speaker A: Best of both strange new worlds. Strange new worlds. Absolutely loved it. I think when it comes to network television, which isn't really represented here, which it's not network per se, it doesn't air on tv, but it is CBS. It is, in essence, a network tv show aimed at network audiences. And while all these other things are on these cable channels, Star Trek Strange New World is aimed at abroad audiences and hit so hard. Loved it. Absolutely up there for me as well. [01:37:08] Speaker B: Honorable mentions for Rick and Morty back on form, which has weathered the storm admirably, there was such a huge question mark hanging over this new season, and it mostly knocked it out the park, two duff episodes, but otherwise the rest of the season is classic. Rick and Morty. Really, really fucking good stuff. And of course, it's great to have Doctor who back in great health. [01:37:34] Speaker A: Oh, man. I've loved the specials. And the first episode of the new season. [01:37:39] Speaker B: Great. [01:37:39] Speaker A: And I am fully back on board. [01:37:41] Speaker B: Yes, again after a very bumpy couple of years. And that's part of the deal. If you're a doctor who fan, you've got to accept it ain't all going to be great. [01:37:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Listen, if a show is going to be on for like, 60 years. [01:37:54] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:37:55] Speaker A: Can all be bangers. [01:37:56] Speaker B: Exactly. But, yeah, we're in fantastic shape. Ready for the new season. Great shit. [01:38:02] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm really excited about it and that it's on Disney plus, so Americans can finally watch it. [01:38:07] Speaker B: That's something I'm going to have to get used to. I mean, I didn't watch the Christmas episode live because we were out socializing, but as soon as it finished, I got a ping notification. A new episode of Doctor who is now on Disney plus. That's going to take some getting used to. [01:38:21] Speaker A: Amazing. [01:38:22] Speaker B: But they've obviously just thrown money at it. Yes. [01:38:27] Speaker A: It looks great. [01:38:28] Speaker B: It does. It looks a million bucks. [01:38:30] Speaker A: While still keeping that little signature cheapness that is part of Doctor who. It hasn't made it, so it's seamless. It's still a little cheap looking in a really endearing way. [01:38:40] Speaker B: It's still clearly Cardiff. You know what I mean? It's fucking obviously Cardiff. If you know Cardiff. [01:38:46] Speaker A: Sure. [01:38:46] Speaker B: Yep. So, yeah. Really, really heartening as a fan to see that back in good health. [01:38:50] Speaker A: Absolutely love that. Our next category of thing. Oh, the other one. There was one more that I wanted to give a shout out to, because I just discovered this while I was in Puerto Rico. Muppet mayhem. [01:39:04] Speaker B: Okay. [01:39:05] Speaker A: I had heard people saying this show was good, but I was know there's so much Muppet content on Disney plus that it's kind of hard to keep up with, much like all the other franchises that they're running into the ground right now. But I was like, there was limited stuff to watch in the Airbnb in Puerto Rico, and I was like, you know what? I'll give it a whirl. Binged the whole thing in an evening, and it fucking rules. [01:39:33] Speaker B: It is excellent. [01:39:34] Speaker A: So flipping good. It is everything that you love about the Muppets and more. It's just watch. Muppet Mayhem. You're going to have a good time. [01:39:43] Speaker B: Nice. Sold. [01:39:45] Speaker A: News event of the year. And, Marco, you know what my news event of the year is? [01:39:51] Speaker B: Is it the same as mine? [01:39:54] Speaker A: I don't know. I think. You know what I would pick as the news event of the year? [01:39:59] Speaker B: When I spoke about New Year's Eve. Right. About the planet united. [01:40:04] Speaker A: I think you're about to say the same. [01:40:06] Speaker B: Pause for a second. Well, for a few days there, it was like we joined hands around the world and all enjoyed just a heartwarming tale of some billionaires. Some billionaires who had a dream, you know, some plucky billionaires who'd pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and decided in a hand built craft cobbled together from bits of shit that they were going. [01:40:36] Speaker A: To go see the Titanic, Corey, the Titanic. I'm glad you started singing because I wanted to, but only the Jurassic park theme was coming to mind. That's not it. Don't start singing that. Don't start singing that. [01:40:56] Speaker B: And it was a beautiful time, wasn't it? [01:40:59] Speaker A: It was a great time. Everything went perfectly smoothly. Happy for all those millionaires. [01:41:05] Speaker B: From our perspective, it went great. [01:41:09] Speaker A: Everybody coming together to watch the Titan sub. Because, listen, the thing about that is it's so niche to my interest. [01:41:18] Speaker B: It's got boat, it's got a titanium, it's got billionaires. [01:41:22] Speaker A: All of it is like, oh, hey, Corrigan, would you like us to, by AI, create a perfect news story for you? And then everyone else got into it, too. It wasn't just was, oh, it was such a glorious time of just everybody watching for like a week, all the stuff that was coming out. And it was like, for a good month afterwards, my Google suggested news was. [01:41:50] Speaker B: Like, all things Twitter was brilliant about. It was probably the last gap of Twitter, wasn't it? [01:41:54] Speaker A: It was Twitter's last gap of Twitter, for sure. [01:41:58] Speaker B: Yeah. The kind of drip, drip, drip of live updates, Twitter being amazing, the billionaires dying, you know what I mean? Not the kids. Not the kid. [01:42:07] Speaker A: Not the kid. Yeah. I feel bad about the child. [01:42:10] Speaker B: Yes. Not the kid. [01:42:11] Speaker A: From everything that I have read about that boy, he was a wonderful human being who would have given you the shirt off his back. [01:42:19] Speaker B: Didn't want to go, by all accounts. Just didn't really want to go, that kid. But the rest of them. [01:42:26] Speaker A: Especially, you know what? That guy was going to kill people. There you go. [01:42:33] Speaker B: And then fucking Jim Cameron got involved. [01:42:38] Speaker A: James Cameron getting involved and just being so matter of fact about that. Like, listen, one of my favorite media autistics, it's just a delight to watch when it comes to stuff like that. [01:42:54] Speaker B: Imagine just James Cameron just weighing in on your situation. [01:42:57] Speaker A: Just from. [01:42:59] Speaker B: James Cameron has weighed in on this. [01:43:01] Speaker A: All right, wonderful times. Multiple people said the Sag strikes, obviously, huge deal this year. And listen, I love our listeners. Oh, Trump and Giuliani being prosecuted was another one that people said Titanic sub came up. But listeners, you've really done my heart glad, because most of you said that your biggest news story of the year is, of course, the current ongoing genocide of the Palestinians by the Israelis. And lest you think that we've just been ignoring that, Mark doesn't know this yet, but I am planning to go into this in the new year and really sort of dive deep. It's just the kind of thing that I don't want us to be surface about and want to actually be able to sort of delve into this a little bit. But it's heartening to me that so many people who listen to this podcast are the types of people who are concerned about what is going on there and hate to see their tax dollars paying to murder so many people. It is a horrendous thing, and I salute you all for being so aware and having that sort of at the forefront of your mind right out the gate. [01:44:16] Speaker B: Yes, I'm a beautiful. [01:44:18] Speaker A: Yes. The next thing is our game of the year. Games, games, games, games, games, games, games, games, games. [01:44:28] Speaker B: You like to play the fucking games. I see a lot of our listeners have mentioned tears of kingdom. [01:44:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that one hit big. [01:44:41] Speaker B: I haven't played it yet. I've got it kicking about the house and I've yet to play it. [01:44:45] Speaker A: Oh, you bought it, but you haven't played it. [01:44:46] Speaker B: Yeah. There's just been so much game to play this year. [01:44:50] Speaker A: There has been so much game, especially towards the end of the year. But all year, I'm really surprised no balders. Gate three came up anywhere on this list of people's faves. [01:45:01] Speaker B: Fuck me. [01:45:02] Speaker A: I know that's not in your wheelhouse. [01:45:04] Speaker B: But people love that. It was that. [01:45:09] Speaker A: People love Balder's gate. [01:45:11] Speaker B: Yeah. It's multi award winning, huge fucking epic in scope and breadth and span and detail. Unfortunately, I can't make head nor fucking tail of how to play it. I simply don't understand it. [01:45:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And I have a feeling that's exactly how I would be if I attempted it as well. [01:45:31] Speaker B: Yes, you've got the same affliction as I have whenever somebody tries to explain the rules of something. Right? Even like the most rudimentary fucking card based game, brain bees, gone. And Baldersgate is rules upon rules upon systems, upon fucking. No, just gibberish. Didn't get it. I know it's my fault. Not the game, but it's not for me. Sorry, can't do it. [01:46:00] Speaker A: Which is strange because, yeah, didn't come up on anyone's list. [01:46:03] Speaker B: Dungeons and dragons is my film of the year. [01:46:06] Speaker A: Right. But the game that is dungeons and dragons. [01:46:08] Speaker B: Passive experience. [01:46:13] Speaker A: But what did you say for your. [01:46:16] Speaker B: Games of the year? I love where gaming is in 2023. Right. It's one of the things that no one can argue. I don't think that games, video games right now are the best they've ever been. Right? They just are. I love that connectivity in games is now so seamless and it's like turning on a tap. There are millions of people there to play whatever you want, whenever you want. I, however, don't want to. What I want in games is a single player, a rich, deep. I want character, I want story, I want development, I want narrative, I want progression. And my games of the year dealt that in fucking spades, man. Look, without. I don't give a fuck how it sounds. God of war. God of war. Ragnarok had me literally, literally in tears, right? In fucking ugly tears towards the end of it. [01:47:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:47:27] Speaker B: On the surface, it's a button bashy, fucking kill the monsters game. Griblis coming at you from all angles. Hack and slash, cool weapons, cool moves, cool cinematics, and it works on that level brilliantly, right? It's great, it's propulsive. The combat is meaty. It feels fucking satisfying. But what they've done is they've snuck in that format. Just a story that resonates a fucking authentic feeling. Story about the joy and the fucking fear and the pressure of fatherhood, of being a dad, of parenting. And through that game, fucking characters mature and viewpoints are changed and people grow and learn and the past is fucking accounted for and healed and accepted and moved on from. And everyone comes out of that game in a better place than they were going in. And it is brilliant. It is simply brilliant. Second place goes to horizon, forbidden west again. Rich, beautifully detailed. The world of that game. The fucking ecosystem of human versus machine. So rich, so fucking spectacularly beautiful to look at. And, yeah, I don't know how this. I don't care how this sounds, but you end up, because you've spent fucking 40, 45, 50 hours with these characters. You attach, you imprint, right? And those two best games of the year, Horizon and God of war, you're not sat on the couch with the controller, really. You feel as though you're amongst it. You feel as though you're a part of it. And I was staggered at how good those both games were. [01:49:25] Speaker A: I love that I'm the exact opposite type of game player from you. I don't want story, I don't want world building, any of that kind of stuff. I want to shoot things really fast and have lots of very fast moving elements and kind of goals to meet and all that kind of stuff as quickly as possible, all that kind of thing. And yeah, this year, I mean, I didn't play a lot that was released this year. The only thing that I will say that was released this year is the expansion of Cult of the Lamb, which I was already playing. [01:50:02] Speaker B: How many hours have you sunk into Cult of the Lamb? [01:50:05] Speaker A: 160. [01:50:06] Speaker B: God damn. [01:50:09] Speaker A: Yes. I looked at it the other day that, yeah, 160 hours of cult of the lamb so far. There's an expansion coming out in like, a week, the sins of the flesh expansion. So who knows how many more hours are going to be put into it at the moment? [01:50:27] Speaker B: Beautiful. [01:50:28] Speaker A: So gold of the Lamb continues to be my game of the year. I don't know if anything else I played this year came out this year. I will say I spent most of the past several months playing enter the gungeon, another devolver game. And it's a rogue. Like, I had my 250th death a couple of hours ago. No, you just keep on keeping on. And I looked up because I was like, man, is this just me being bad at video games? Just to check because I'm having fun, but I was like, am I just bad at important things? Should I have beaten it by now? Or is this what other people experience, too? And there are, of course, people who are just like, they win things instantly. But I saw, like, there was a Reddit from someone who was like, I'm on my 400th death, and I've only been to the fourth floor once. And people are like, oh, yeah, no, that was normal for me, too. And I'm like, okay, cool. So I'm not just, like, terrible at this game. It's a lot of fun for me. Enter the dungeon. I love roguelikes. I love a dungeon crawler, and it has been a blast for me. So those are my two games of the year. We had various. We had, I think Xander said horizon as well. Yeah, horizon. Forbidden west. We had. What else did people like this year? Dan said he would love to find the time for Starfield. I have not heard great things about that, Dan. Just FYI, that seems to have been a disappointment for a lot of people. Delightful. Mel and her husband played Dreamlight valley religiously, which is so, you know, kind of a lot of the same sort of stuff through and through here. What else do we have? Oh, yeah. Tears of the kingdom. Lots of tears of the kingdom on this as well. Our books. What did you enjoy? Reading. [01:52:38] Speaker B: Time is finite. Right. And you spoke earlier about being able to squeeze in books. I have not done that this year. What I have read has been good, but I've been gaming a lot. I've been watching a lot of movies. I've been doing stuff. [01:52:56] Speaker A: Well, see, this is doing stuff. Yeah. This is the plus of the kind of games that I play that I can listen to a book at the same time because I am not going to miss anything. [01:53:05] Speaker B: Yes, I did mention before, though, a book called the Escape Artist, which follows an Auschwitz escapee by the name of Rudolph Verber. And the subtitle is the man who escaped Auschwitz to warn the world. Right. It is a fucking heartbreaking, uplifting. And just the detail about the working conditions, the day to day of being in a fucking internment camp like that, it recreates that in such detail with maps and firsthand accounts taken from this fella's notes, taken from this fella's letters and photographs and interviews with his ex wife. And what kept this fucking fella going was the realization that nobody outside of the fucking camps knew it was going on up to a point. [01:54:12] Speaker A: Yeah, right. Sure. [01:54:13] Speaker B: And just a fucking indefatiguable way that piece by piece, plotting out how an escape might work, where the fucking. The points of failure were in the system. Because, hey, Germans were efficient. And day by day by day, the routines would stay exactly the same. And he was able to fucking chip away at that routine and find little points of ingress that ended up with his what? Because that story's been told a lot, right, in various medium. But it's the story about after he escapes Auschwitz and after he finds safety, the almost crushing mundaneity of what his life then becomes. Then it goes in about his marriage breaking up and about how he lived out the rest of his life with the same kind of prosaic, day to day troubles that anyone else has. [01:55:20] Speaker A: Right. But just with something horrific. [01:55:23] Speaker B: But just with this horrific burden in his past. Yeah. Incredible, incredible stuff. [01:55:30] Speaker A: What was it called again? [01:55:31] Speaker B: The escape artist. The escape artist. The lengths that the guy had to go to to fucking get any traction from local and national government. How ready people were to kind of turn a blind eye into go, nah. [01:55:51] Speaker A: Feels like a book people need to read now for multiple reasons, including the just Holocaust literacy is down everywhere and Holocaust denialism is up everywhere. So it's the kind of book I feel like people should put on their teenagers reading list and stuff like that. [01:56:09] Speaker B: Yes. [01:56:10] Speaker A: I'll have to give that a look, although it sounds devastating, but I do read a lot of devastating books. [01:56:15] Speaker B: What about you? [01:56:18] Speaker A: As my top book of the year, I've read a lot of really good books. I'm going to go one fiction, one nonfiction, just to balance, because I read about 50 50 of each. Little more nonfiction than fiction. My nonfiction book I actually just finished is called the Library book by Susan Orlean. And I discovered her from her unhinged Twitter that I really enjoyed, or she would get wine drunk and tweet hilarious things on Twitter. I was like, I like this woman. And I looked up her books and so I read the library book, which is a book about in the late, or it might have been early in the Los Angeles Central library burned down and it was thought to be arson. A guy was charged with it, didn't. [01:57:07] Speaker B: Who burned down a library? [01:57:10] Speaker A: A lot of people actually comes up in the book, but in this case, she kind of doesn't necessarily make an argument, but brings to light the fact that there's every reason to believe he did not actually burn down this library. But while telling this story about the central library, she kind of uses that as a backdrop to talk about libraries in general and their functions and these histories of libraries and of the Los Angeles Central Library and all this kind of stuff. And that sounds like it would be boring. And it is not at all. It's such a fascinating history. And if you like books or if you love libraries, it really just solidifies that when you're reading it. And I had an incredible time, enjoyed every second of the library book. [01:58:03] Speaker B: I have a far recommend. I have a massive respect for your public libraries since that discussion with Anna a couple of months back. [01:58:09] Speaker A: Yeah. And she really goes into a lot of that stuff and how it developed and kind of as we discuss what is the future of libraries in a digital world and all that kind of stuff that, yes, they are repositories of information and things like that and keepers of all of this stuff, but at the same, like, they are a public service really, first and foremost. And they are one of the central things that takes care of homeless people throughout their day. One of the few places that people can go for free and use computers and take stuff out of the library of things like Anna was talking about and has all of these functions that are much bigger than books. Books are great. They're a huge part of. But like when it comes down to what a library is, it's so much more of a public service than it is just a repository for books. So big. Recommend the library book by Susan Orlean if you're a library nerd like me or just want to understand how they developed and all that kind of stuff, really fascinating. And then my fiction book, I read so many good fiction books this year, so I'm going to pick one that came out this year to fit the brief. And that was Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig, a book about evil apples. And that does not sound like that would be scary or interesting. And it is. [01:59:31] Speaker B: How evil are they? [01:59:32] Speaker A: Incredible. Very, extremely evil. It's got kind of Tommy knockers vibes. [01:59:40] Speaker B: To. [01:59:43] Speaker A: You know, so what that conjures up for you about what's the function of these evil apples and everything. Sort of a town driven mad by apples. And you're following various people in this town as it sort of changed perspectives throughout this. And it is. The longest book I read this year is like 650 pages, but I loved it. A 650 page book. Normally I tend to read short books because I like to be able to read a book in a day. So I tend to keep things like 320 and below. But I was riveted and just couldn't stop reading. Black River Orchard, so huge. Recommend that one. And we actually did not ask this question, but naturally Ryan answered it anyway. And her horror novels of the year, how to sell a haunted house by Grady Hendrix. Great book. Recommend that one as well. September House by Carissa Orlando. What kind of mother by Clay McLeod Chapman. I will be finishing that one tonight. I'm about halfway through that Black river orchard as well. Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison and she says many others. It was a great year for horror novels. [02:01:02] Speaker B: Excellent. Good to know. Good to know. Horror is in a healthy state. [02:01:06] Speaker A: Thriving. Yes, very much so. All right, let's get into the personal stuff. We're going to close out with just some reflecting and some looking forward into the future. [02:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll come to you first with this. What do you look back on with a sense of pride in 23? What do you think you added? [02:01:28] Speaker A: What are you so chuffed with? I feel pretty accomplished this year in general. Looking back over the year, I feel like I did a lot and I think I really like, for one, I really figured out my workflow and how to sort of harness my ADHD for good. I put together this office. I kind of figured out how to settle in, what things I can do to sort of calm the brain bees and what gets me focusing and how to be more efficient and all of that kind of stuff. And I think that that's really paid off in a lot of ways this year. And it's like when you've spent 38 years having a hard time sort of wrangling your brain and being able to get a hold on things, it's really nice when you sort of figure your rhythm out. [02:02:14] Speaker B: Yes. [02:02:15] Speaker A: Figure out how to push past executive dysfunction a little better and all that. It's never going to be perfect, but I have found various ways to cope that I'm very proud of that stuff and just that has played out in various ways as well. I mean, we've made stuff together, which I'm really proud of and had so much fun doing and gives me all kinds of thoughts of things to continue that. So I love the way that that has sort of spurred my creative energy. I've been kicking ass at my welsh, which is super fun. Just generally, I feel like it's been a year of accomplishments, so it's like I'm proud of myself. You're on a role this year. Yeah, exactly. What about you? [02:03:00] Speaker B: You deserve to feel proud of yourself, by the way. Thank you. And that was it. April, you were over stands out a mile as being one of the coolest times of the year. It was great spending some time with you face to face. It was great seeing as much of the UK with you as we did. We saw some stuff. We saw some shit, man. We went around. [02:03:21] Speaker A: We did. We were all over the place. [02:03:24] Speaker B: Yes. And it was a wonderful road trip. I enjoyed every fucking second of it. Me. Look, what did I say at the start? Success is survival, isn't it? And I've kind of confronted a few kind of preconceived ideas I had that I've spoken about in the cast, about things like therapy, things like counseling. So I've started a kind of a therapy journey in the last kind of four or five weeks, so I'll see where that takes me. I leave 2023 a lot fucking happier than I did going into it. And, yeah, let's keep that up. Health wise, I'm really pleased to have dropped like a stone and a half, which I've kept off. I've kept the gym fucking going, even underneath everything else that's been going on. Yeah. Like I said, I feel over halfway through a forest is when you're coming out of it, isn't it? [02:04:21] Speaker A: Right, yeah. Your momentum is forward now, which is great. Yeah. As an outside observer, I think you have a lot to be proud of in that way of, like you said, challenging things. I always say you joke about like, oh, I'm 45, I've done all the changing I'm ever going to do, I've done all the growing I'm ever going to do, but it's not actually true of you. And so those moments, over the course of this year, we've sort of taken stock, evaluated, and moved in a different direction, I think is something to be proud of as well. [02:04:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you. I mean, you said yourself, I think, some time ago, I think it was just Amina on the cast, but lots of people who've dug themselves into some shitty situations don't ever bother trying to get out of it. [02:05:10] Speaker A: Exactly. [02:05:11] Speaker B: So at least I got that for. [02:05:15] Speaker A: Exactly some achievements from our listeners. Anna started podcasting this year, not with us, but of course with legacy of brutality. If you haven't listened to that yet, check that out. Comes out, I believe, monthly their main episodes, but weekly if you join their patreon. So make sure that you check those out. You get a lot of extra content for your $5 if you join the legacy of brutality Patreon. And they basically talk about the history of horror. So they're going through all kinds of things. They did one that was like their month of things were about. They did like a wrestling end horror series, which is very cool. They do all kinds of different topics like that. So check out legacy of brutality. Congratulations on that, Anna. Chris said his achievement was confronting anxiety about my job and hitting goals, which is fucking huge as well. Excellent work on that. Anxiety is a bitch. So great work, Chris. That is super hard. We have from Lori dealing much more positively with stress and anxiety and being nicer to myself. This is a theme. [02:06:32] Speaker B: It is. [02:06:33] Speaker A: I mean, there's probably people who listen to jo? Ag are probably overrepresented in the anxious, realistically. And so mad. Props to that. Especially being nicer to yourself. Because there's nothing I hate more than people just can't stop being down on themselves. Listen, you deserve nice things, Lori. You deserve to be nice to yourself. And I'm glad that you're doing that. We have from Ryan, personal achievement of the year grew and curated the horror section at Gibson's bookstore, which is in New Hampshire. And if you go to Jackovallgraves book club, you can check out their website and her curated list of books for Jackoval graves, as well as get a jo? Ag discount. So check that out. Hosted Clay McLeod Chapman and Chuck Wendig in an epic event that was years in the making. Went to that. It was brilliant. Spearheaded a new annual horror panel event for the bookstore. The inaugural panel is a queer horror panel. Yeah, she's been busy and outside of the queen of scream stuff. Started training for the 2025 Dopey Challenge in Walt Disney World. Four days, four races, five k, ten k, half marathon. Marathon. I think the last time she did it, she was pregnant. [02:07:42] Speaker B: Hang on. [02:07:46] Speaker A: Say that again. Five k, ten k half and a. [02:07:50] Speaker B: Marathon in four consecutive days. Fuck me. [02:07:53] Speaker A: Four consecutive days. [02:07:54] Speaker B: Wild. [02:07:54] Speaker A: She's hardcore. [02:07:55] Speaker B: She sure is. [02:07:56] Speaker A: So, Ryan, don't forget to take a break for yourself, dear one. But you are a badass and we are proud of you. Sam. Personal achievement. Kept more shit in perspective and had a happier year. Nice, he said than 2023, but I think he meant 2022. And I love to hear that. [02:08:16] Speaker B: Very good. [02:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah, just keep it. Perspective is huge. Big on that. Melanie got a friggin massive pay rise at work. An extra $12 an hour, which is huge. So. Damn, Mel, excellent work and very happy for you. Dan got his health in order. Amazing. That is huge. Happy to hear you're healthy. Keep that up, canadian boy. Ryan started a YouTube channel with his buds. I'm sorry, off the top of my head, I can't think of what it's called. [02:08:53] Speaker B: The meg too, you fucking lunatic. [02:08:59] Speaker A: But I know that the channel is doing super well, so maybe if I can find it, I can try to link to it in our blog. But yes, excellent. Congratulations on that, Ryan. Love that Xander, love this. Helped produce the drag show despite the US military ban. They banned, like, Xander's partner is in the military. Xander lives on a military base. And they basically were like, not it offends people to have a drag show. [02:09:31] Speaker B: Children, the children, the children. [02:09:33] Speaker A: Think of the children. And Xander managed to produce that. Anyway, so mad props. And he also said, I did a number of small, brave things on a personal level. Honestly, just surviving and sometimes even thriving this year has been an achievement, all things considered. And like Mark has said multiple times, yup, absolutely is a huge achievement we had from rich. My personal achievement of the year was raising two point five k pounds for the little princess Trust, a charity that makes wigs out of donated hair for kids who lose theirs due to cancer. So rad. That's a lot of freaking money. So incredible work, rich, great job. And from Boff and Eileen, her personal achievement is that she's still breastfeeding her, feeding her baby, trying to make it to one year, and she's close. Eleven months so far. I know how much of a struggle people have talked about, that being obviously not from experience, but I know that that is no small feat. So congratulations. [02:10:43] Speaker B: Super commendable. Actually. [02:10:45] Speaker A: Super commendable. [02:10:49] Speaker B: When we had Peter, Laura started a breastfeeding support group in Ebouvale where we used to live, and it's still going now. Yeah, I've seen firsthand the reward and the pain that breastfeeding can. Yeah, huge props. [02:11:09] Speaker A: Amazing. Great to hear that. Thank you so much, everyone, for sharing that. And this goes along with the other thing we asked you about. But Mark, what are your hopes and dreams for 2024. [02:11:23] Speaker B: Well, I've signed up for a half marathon in September in Cardiff, which I'm really looking forward to. So it's time to start. Fucking. Time to start pounding the goddamn pavements again. [02:11:34] Speaker A: Very nice. [02:11:35] Speaker B: Yes, a lot of it is fitness related. The past kind of four weeks, I've been on a banging roll at the gym. I'm feeling fucking jacked and strong as fuck right now. [02:11:47] Speaker A: Amazing. [02:11:48] Speaker B: So I'm going to carry that on. Just lots more of this. Lots more of fucking jack of all graves. And look, keeping my targets realistic, keeping my goals achievable. I just want to be here as good or better a position that I'm in right now. Thank you. [02:12:09] Speaker A: I love that. [02:12:10] Speaker B: Big fan, you. [02:12:12] Speaker A: Hopes and dreams. Obviously, it's time for the Marco visit, and I'm not the only one. Multiple people put this on. The hopes and dreams for 2024. Is Mark in America in 2024? [02:12:26] Speaker B: Well, I'm not going to fucking pop any caps just yet, but wheels are in motion, let's put it that way. [02:12:36] Speaker A: Yes, we're working on it, everybody. And so this is about hopes and dreams. This is about manifesting right here. Yes, indeed. That is a thing that I and. [02:12:47] Speaker B: Many others, there are the beginnings of a plan taking shape. Yes. [02:12:51] Speaker A: And hopefully we will see the fruits of that and it will be absolutely wonderful. I get so excited at the concept of sort of showing you my world. I've been desperate for it in yours and now feel pretty comfortable in it. And I just am so stoked at the idea of you coming here. So that's a huge hope and dream for me this year. I would love to get back over to the UK this year as well. And really, I want to make more stuff together. I want to put out more things and just really sort of my hope for this year is that we can just be more creative together. Like I said, now that I have my workflow kind of figured out and all that, really harness our creative energy together and be able to make more stuff. I have so much that I do in the world and all that kind of stuff. I always have my hands in a lot of things, but I think Jo Ag is just such a rewarding thing for me. [02:13:47] Speaker B: Completely same. [02:13:49] Speaker A: Yeah, doing more of that. And my other hope for this year is to get paid more. I want to make some more money this year. Dollars, dollar, dollar bills, y'all. Rich said his hopes and dreams, he wants his kids to be okay when they go to school. My son is autistic and I don't want him to get lost. Love this. It's a neurodivergent person, myself. We have a listener base of a lot of autistic, adhd, and other forms of spectrum folks as well. And I think that is just something we relate to. And school was hard for a lot of us. And having a parent who cares and is watching and making sure that you don't fall through the cracks means everything. So really on board with that goal for you this year and love to hear that. That know your primary concern. Great stuff. Hopes and dreams from Xander. Xander's moving back to the US, so hoping to see some old friends and make new ones and find a place to be more vocal about trans activism and continuing to make progress with his art and guitar, which that's a well rounded set of hopes and dreams. [02:15:09] Speaker B: If you pull off half of that stuff, you're going to have a great year. [02:15:12] Speaker A: You're doing amazingly. So love that canadian boy. Ryan's hopes and dreams for 2024. Ground beef not being $10 a pound anymore. While I don't eat ground beef, I do share your concerns about the rising cost of groceries. So I think we're all with you on that goal. CBR. [02:15:34] Speaker B: Yep. Maybe we'll do, like, a fundraiser, a ground beef fundraiser to get Ryan the beef. As much beef as he can fucking handle. [02:15:45] Speaker A: Get Ryan a beef fridge. [02:15:47] Speaker B: Just ship you a cow. [02:15:50] Speaker A: When I was a babysitter, the people that I worked for had a fridge in their garage. Well, it was like a garage that they'd turned into, like, a family room, but thus it was like a garage fridge. Whole full size fridge. And they went in with another family on a cow. And so they had a whole half cow in their fridge. It was just an entire fucking. [02:16:13] Speaker B: What a flag. [02:16:13] Speaker A: I guess it was a freezer. Like a full size freezer. [02:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:16:16] Speaker A: Fridge of just white butcher paper full of cow parts. [02:16:23] Speaker B: Mate, that wasn't cow. Let me tell you that right now. [02:16:29] Speaker A: Cow. Don't worry about it. [02:16:30] Speaker B: Special cow. Long cow for dinner. [02:16:34] Speaker A: No, absolutely not. [02:16:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:16:36] Speaker A: Forbidden cow. The last babysitter, Dan says his hopes and dreams are family. Surfing and guitar. Beautiful things. [02:16:49] Speaker B: Nice. [02:16:50] Speaker A: And to prepare for the inevitable takeover by our AI overlords, all Hill Skynet. [02:16:55] Speaker B: I'm feeling quite good about that. [02:16:57] Speaker A: I'm sure you are. [02:16:58] Speaker B: No, I am. It's one of the things that I'm really enjoying having a front seat and seeing develop, you know, I love different fucking technologies and formats coming and going, living and dying. It's nice to be. [02:17:12] Speaker A: It's nice to watch the technology of humans coming and going, living and dying. [02:17:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Thrilling. Really thrilling. [02:17:18] Speaker A: Really thrilling. Mel is trying to have a so and says, I think we would make great parents. I think so too. Bless you on your journey, dear one. I hope that that plays out with little drama and just little people pop out. A little person and Sam Tories out. [02:17:43] Speaker B: Oh, that's happening again. [02:17:44] Speaker A: I think we can all agree. [02:17:47] Speaker B: Super quick, super quick. So the news tells me that some state or other has ruled that he can't stand there Trump Colorado and Maine. Yeah. So how does that work then? [02:18:02] Speaker A: I mean, it's not going to stand up realistically, but the idea is because of, I think because of his criminal indictments. [02:18:09] Speaker B: Yeah. What I'm saying is he can't be on the ballot. So what can he be president of 48 states? [02:18:17] Speaker A: No, it's not that he won't be president if he wins of those states, it's that he won't be on the ballot for those states. They can't vote for him. [02:18:26] Speaker B: Okay. [02:18:28] Speaker A: And I think it's in the primary. I don't think it's for the actual presidential race. [02:18:31] Speaker B: So it doesn't really have any party matter. [02:18:34] Speaker A: It's symbolic more than anything. [02:18:36] Speaker B: Fine, fine. [02:18:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:18:38] Speaker B: Heavy on the. [02:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah, Tori's out. Lasting peace and security for the people of Gaza. Here, here. Sticking to a gym routine. His dear girlfriend Shauna coming to the UK. I assume he wants her to come live there since he says Shauna in the UK, she obviously visits. So here's to that and some deserved peace and joy for those in his life whose lives have held so much sorrow and upset this year. Beautiful wishes and I hope that absolutely. [02:19:13] Speaker B: Speaking it into existence. [02:19:15] Speaker A: Speaking it. We're manifesting know. Listen, we did tarot a few weeks ago, so now we are manifesting super spiritual on this podcast now. [02:19:24] Speaker B: Super quick. Some of my favorite episodes we've done of the year have let me just. [02:19:28] Speaker A: Get through real quick and then we'll do this. I think there's only one or two more Ryan Jo ag meet up more horror events for the bookstore and once again, free Palestine. Lori says travel more, spend more time with people she loves to be around and perfecting her rating system for celebrity crushes, which is amazing. Very on board for. [02:19:58] Speaker B: Details. I'd like details. Come on, talk to us about it. [02:20:02] Speaker A: Ryan also says to travel to London and maybe get to meet up with Mark Lewis. Oh, wait, that is happening. [02:20:09] Speaker B: Absolutely happening. Which I think is the first ever pan atlantic jack of all graves meetup. [02:20:14] Speaker A: Aside from us. [02:20:15] Speaker B: Aside from us. Because. Yeah, I'm absolutely frothing for that. I cannot fucking wait. It's going to be great. [02:20:21] Speaker A: Yeah, it's going to be amazing. I can't wait to hear about that. Chris hopes to be able to afford a family vacation and home repairs and also to stop Trump all very laudable goals. And I hope for all of those things as well. Please do let us know where you go on that vacation that we're manifesting. Anna just wants to have more energy. Boy, I get that. Wants to make lots of art. And probably most ambitious goal art wise, is to get a tattoo machine and start learning that craft. Anna, you know that you can tattoo me anytime. It's one of your early guinea pigs, so bless. And Laura also says a Jo ag meetup in the US so we can meet the elusive Marco. [02:21:08] Speaker B: I'm not elusive. I'm right here. [02:21:12] Speaker A: As far as Americans, you could be AI. So we want to fix that. [02:21:17] Speaker B: I sometimes wonder. [02:21:19] Speaker A: All right, now you can go on with what you were going to say. [02:21:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Just my favorite episodes of this year have all been guesty ones right back to the start of the year when we had Mike Mulcher on fuck me. I love that episode. That was superb. Leanne, you were fantastic. Kerry Thomas, you were fantastic. Eileen, every time you grace us with your presence, it's a fucking wonderful, wonderful event. So, yes, I love it when we get people dropping by to chat with us. So let's do more of that. [02:21:47] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I can't. Was Dr. Duffin Jones this year? Maybe that was last year. [02:21:52] Speaker B: He was last year, I believe. Yes, he was last year. [02:21:54] Speaker A: Okay. Towards the end of last year. Rob Dean. [02:21:57] Speaker B: Yes. Fucking hell. So good. So good to see him. [02:22:01] Speaker A: Lot of amazing guests. And if we didn't mention you, it's probably just because we don't know what year it is, not because we forgot that you were on this show. Yeah. Amazing guests this year. So our final category, New Year's resolutions. I'll go first while you think about it. [02:22:21] Speaker B: Okay. [02:22:23] Speaker A: My big resolution, which I'm actually kind of excited about, is I'm going to try to do a no drink 2024. Sober 2024. [02:22:33] Speaker B: Because you like a drink? [02:22:35] Speaker A: I do like a drink. Here's the thing about I like a drink. I'm drinking an old fashioned right now. [02:22:39] Speaker B: Yeah. That surprises me. [02:22:41] Speaker A: But the thing is my body doesn't like a drink. [02:22:45] Speaker B: Okay. [02:22:45] Speaker A: And so it's like, I love the taste, but I could probably have a sip of somebody else's and it's like, that's delicious. And go on with my life and then not have to be like, of course, oh, but my tummy hurts or I have a headache or whatever the case may be. Ultimately, I just don't really like the effects of any of it. It's not like I binge drink or anything like that, but of any of it. My body just doesn't super like it. And so you know what? I figured? Why not give it a try and see how a year without it feels? [02:23:18] Speaker B: Are you committing to that right now? [02:23:20] Speaker A: Big. Yeah, that's my. I mean, we said we were going to hold each other accountable to whatever we said. Our resolutions are. So that is my commitment. Let Jo ag be my witness. I'm an attempt that, like I said, if I have a sip of somebody else's whatever, but I'm not going to have a drink myself. I think I'm too old for the shit. [02:23:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I see. [02:23:44] Speaker A: And then my other less big ones that I think that I could commit to. I want to walk at least a mile every single day as long as conditions aren't dangerous. But I bought rain boots, so I can even go in the rain. That's usually the thing that stops me. It's like rain or snow and just getting my feet wet, I hate. So I bought nice rubber boots that I can wear and won't stop me. So a mile every day, unless it's dangerous to do so when hurricane season comes through, I might miss a couple of days. And then the other thing is to listen to a new ish album every week. They might not necessarily all be 2024 albums, but, like, recent ish, a new one every week. Because I feel like I tend to just listen to the same things over and over again. Like many middle aged people. You just want to listen to the stuff that you know and can sing. [02:24:42] Speaker B: Along to my Apple replay, apple music replay that comes out every year at the gym. Yesterday, I thought, oh, let's just check in on 2021. Oh, it's the same songs. Okay. [02:24:51] Speaker A: The same stuff every year. Yeah. It's like, usually I discover, like, one new album really dominates everything. So ghost this year obviously had a new album, and Nickel Creek had a new album, and those were like, enduri, those were the three things that were new. And then everything else is the same stuff I've been listening to since high school, basically. So I want to make a concentrated effort this year, every week, to listen to one new album and see where that takes me. [02:25:20] Speaker B: Beautiful. You might end up with just an entirely new set of loves. Isn't that lovely? Right? [02:25:26] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. [02:25:28] Speaker B: Nice. [02:25:28] Speaker A: So what's your new year's resolution? What are we holding you to, Mark? [02:25:31] Speaker B: For me, this is quite broad, but I'm going to make good choices. [02:25:37] Speaker A: Oh, I love that. [02:25:40] Speaker B: Just make good choices. Choices that are just less destructive vibes in 2024. [02:25:51] Speaker A: How about, yes, I like that. I feel really good about that. So that'll be the thing. When you text me something, I'll be like, is that a good choice, Mark? Yes. [02:26:03] Speaker B: Feel free. Yeah, feel free. [02:26:05] Speaker A: You know, I do that kind of thing already, but I love it. So I'm optimistic about 2024. [02:26:12] Speaker B: I think ahead. So am I. [02:26:15] Speaker A: And good things ahead for our listeners. [02:26:18] Speaker B: Oh, God, that goes without saying. Because as long as we draw breath, whether we stick to these resolutions or if they all fall burning around our ears, then you fucking better believe we'll be here one way or the other. We'll either be fucking crying about our failures or cheering at our successes. All, of course, while the world around us slowly burns. [02:26:44] Speaker A: Here. So let's do this journey together as always, dear friends, into another year. We've been doing it since 2020. Let's go into 2024, hitting it hard, all of us supporting each other. Update us, get in the Facebook group, get on the gram, get on the blue sky, whatever, and update us and tell us how you're doing. If you need support, this group will support you. We're going to be at your back. [02:27:10] Speaker B: If you. [02:27:12] Speaker A: Yeah, we're your accountability budies. If you just want people to cheer you on, give you a hail, we're here for that. Let's journey together, because that's what this show is about, isn't it? [02:27:23] Speaker B: Yes, very much so. And on top of, underneath and throughout all of that, you know full well that you got to stay spooky. [02:27:33] Speaker A: The spookiest. If you're gonna dress as Santa, like, you would think that it's because you're gonna, like, infiltrate the place subtly. Right? But he did it. He dressed up as Santa, and then he started shooting as soon as he got to the door. No, he was just dressed up as Santa for no reason. Well, Christmas just for kicks. [02:28:06] Speaker B: If he dressed as Easter Bunny, that would have been style. [02:28:09] Speaker A: It was short, right? Yeah. Like, if it was just a little bit, like, just chaos. Right. But no, he just, like. Yeah, it just shows he couldn't follow through with a plan. [02:28:20] Speaker B: Cheap heat.