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Transcript
Ryan George (00:05.544)
to episode one of the portable hole podcast. I’m Ryan George.
[email protected] (00:09.865)
I’m Justin Gild, aka Chef Sonic.
cinik (00:12.998)
and I’m your old pal, Cynic.
Ryan George (00:15.188)
So this has been a rebrand of a rebrand, it seems, of the podcast, but I’m here with two really good friends and people who I’ve done countless podcasts with over the years, so it’s kind of cool to get them on the same show together. This is the first time you guys have been on the same show together, right? So, yeah, so this podcast, you know, what’s interesting is we’ve been trying to define it and figure out what it was, and Justin had an interesting idea, which is
cinik (00:34.624)
Agreed.
Ryan George (00:45.085)
for what was it that we all kind of say what we expect of it? Was that it? So I guess Justin, tell me, what do you think this podcast is or is going to be?
[email protected] (00:48.681)
Yeah.
[email protected] (00:54.757)
Well, what I was hoping for and what I imagined was to take many of the things that we love that are sort of part of our dare I say the word culture, geeky culture, pop culture or whatever you want to call it and to discuss and analyze.
those things. I think we come from a background where we like, we have a certain sensibility, we like a certain type of show, certain types of music, certain types of movies that all have this aesthetic. And granted, it’s fairly broad, but it does kind of fall under this umbrella and I think that people that are also into that will get it, right? It’s…
Basically, get our perspective where we’re coming from, what we grew up with, what we like, and yeah, basically wanna discuss those things because it’s part of our lives, it’s part of our identity.
cinik (01:59.062)
Well, firstly, Ryan and Justin, I’m happy and proud to be invited to be part of a portable hole that won’t get me arrested or broken up with. So that’s a start. And I agree with you. One of the things when we used to do cynic and we probably will again, it was people would come up to me and say, I don’t have this type of, uh, conversations with people, so listening to you guys makes me feel part of it. Like, uh, I have a voice in it all. And when you’re in a group or a fandom.
Ryan George (02:06.671)
Hahaha
cinik (02:27.594)
It’s almost like you’re speaking your own language, because you could go on and on for hours and people wouldn’t know what you’re talking about. So to bring those people in is a great thing.
Ryan George (02:37.164)
Yeah. And yeah, I totally, well, I mean, I agree with what both of you guys said. I like, you know, it’s very easy, I think, in life, and especially like as you get older and responsibilities to kind of very easily get trapped in your own world. And I love kind of, I love hanging out with my friends and I love talking with my friends about stuff I like. And…
[email protected] (02:37.977)
What about you, Ryan?
Ryan George (02:59.38)
I find it’s hard to, unless I schedule time to podcast. So for me, that’s part of it is like, part is just like, hey, I wanna hang out with my friends. And it is nice to, being a big fan and kind of consumer of podcasts, that fly on the wall aspect of it is great. And it’s cool just cause there’s so much interesting stuff to talk about, whether it’s, and I think what I like about this, what we’ll try to do is, I think we’re big fans of pop culture and geek culture
[email protected] (03:02.985)
Yeah, I know. It’s funny how that worked out.
Ryan George (03:28.994)
that are current, but there’s also so much nostalgia built into our lives now that I think it’s interesting to look back, take a look back and as we’ll talk about in one of today’s news stories, just things that we grew up with and how what’s old is new and how something that’s 30 years old practically can reinvent itself and become massive and newsworthy. And yeah, I’m glad to do this with you guys. This is going to be a lot of fun. And I’m-
[email protected] (03:32.377)
There is a lot of nostalgia.
Ryan George (03:57.104)
super excited for this. So, we’ll get right to it. So the first thing I wanted to talk about, I have not podcasted without you guys in quite some time. What, Cinec, what have you been watching recently? What’s kinda caught your eye?
cinik (04:12.214)
Well, what I’ve been watching is I went back, new relationship, which turned into a new marriage, which turned into re-watching just about everything over again because she’d barely seen anything before we started dating. So we recently delved into Fargo and we watched, we started with season five because that’s what’s current and we really loved it so I convinced her to go back all the way to season one. So we’ve gone through season one through five of Fargo in the last couple of weeks and I can tell you.
That show just does not get the credit it deserves. It’s wonderfully written, beautifully acted, and it’s just intriguing how they just thread the seasons together without ever actually tying them to each other.
Ryan George (04:55.008)
Yeah, it’s really a brilliant show. I think I’m one or two episodes behind, but I love how the show’s able to reinvent itself. And somehow, because the movie is just one of the great movies of all time to me, and how it’s able to live up to the movie without trying to be the movie, I think, is amazing. Justin, have you watched Fargo? OK.
[email protected] (05:15.121)
I haven’t. But I recently, in preparation for that in a weird way, I recently rewatched the old movie just to, because it’s been a long time and I wanted to watch the show and I plan on it. And I just, I wanted to remember, because I was really young when I saw it, I was wondering if I didn’t get it as much as a kid. What were we, 13 or 14 when the movie came out? Something like that. So I wanted to watch it with adult eyes.
Ryan George (05:23.006)
Okay.
Ryan George (05:39.669)
Yeah.
[email protected] (05:44.621)
and sort of prepare me. And yeah, of course it’s a great film. And yeah, I’m excited to watch the show as well.
Ryan George (05:49.954)
Yeah.
Ryan George (05:54.216)
Yeah, now how about you Justin, are you watching anything interesting?
[email protected] (05:57.141)
So I’ve watched a couple things. I’ve basically binged The Reacher, which a lot of people have been into. It’s real popular right now. And yeah, it was sort of the exact show that I needed was to binge. Very entertaining and not so tightly scripted where you have to watch and be so hyper-focused that if you miss one part, you’re completely confused. So…
Ryan George (06:00.796)
Okay. Yeah.
[email protected] (06:25.769)
I’ve been enjoying that and I think we have one episode left. And I’ve also done a couple things sort of in preparation for Portable Hole. I started watching some old cartoons that I used to watch as a kid to see if they were actually good. Right? And I found that and this is sort of like for, you know, down the road. But I’ll say that some of them were really good, obviously taking into consideration that they’re for kids.
Ryan George (06:29.1)
Cool. Again, we’re going to talk about that next week.
Ryan George (06:44.352)
Hehehe
[email protected] (06:55.637)
So you’re always going to have continuity issues and stuff that doesn’t make sense. And you’re like, well, come on, that’s just absurd. But when you really think about it through adult eyes, but some shows were really well written and some were really poorly written. So I just found it interesting going back and watching some of those as well. But I’m not going to say which ones were great and which ones weren’t. That will be for another time.
Ryan George (07:18.552)
Okay good good. Well yeah, you know, this is interesting for you because I know Cynic you’re not a big cartoon guy, right? Yeah, how about how about old cartoons like do you does that does the nostalgia factor work for you?
cinik (07:27.397)
Me? No.
cinik (07:31.262)
Oh yeah, I mean, I look like I’m 75 years old, but I used to be a kid at one point, Ryan. So yeah, I did watch cartoons, but uh…
[email protected] (07:36.258)
Hahaha
Ryan George (07:38.19)
No, no, I’m not saying did you watch it, I’m saying do, like, are you, like, will you, will you enjoy cartoons that you grew up with for nostalgia reasons or you just like, yeah, I don’t care for cartoons.
cinik (07:48.154)
Um, I never find them as good as they were when I watched them. Like nostalgia doesn’t take over. I see them with a more critical eye, but I do still enjoy them. Like I could go back and watch that original Transformers movie over and over again.
Ryan George (08:00.552)
Yeah. Yeah, that was awesome. So yeah, I’ve been, I’ve watched, it’s weird, I’ve watched a million things and it feels like I’ve watched nothing. I think a lot, I’ve watched a lot of kind of mediocre TV in the last few months. And I’m sure there’s some really good things sprinkled in, but I’ll share two things that are, that have, one thing that stood out was a movie called Anatomy of the Fall, which is incredible. If you have a chance to watch that, it’s, I can, kind of an indie, indie-ish movie. I think it’s French, but it’s a lot of it’s in English.
[email protected] (08:08.97)
Yeah, right.
Ryan George (08:30.388)
And it’s just about, you know, basically a guy dies in a cabin with his wife and his kid. And there’s a lot of kind of circumstantial evidence and the movie deals with the aftermath and the kind of trial that the wife goes on is on, as she’s suspected of his murder. And it’s really, it’s a really compelling movie and definitely worth the watch. And then I’ve been watching something, it’s a little bit more of the fun dumb side, which is called the brother’s son, I think, which is really good. I think it just came out, it’s on Netflix.
We’re maybe like five or six episodes in and it’s basically of these two brothers one has lived grew up in the US with his mom He’s a kind of a nerd. You know he’s really into his improv stuff Which his mom hates and his brother is like with his dad in
in China, I forget where, and he’s like a crazy assassin, and he ends up having to come to the US and hijinks in Sioux. And it’s got some pretty good martial arts, and it’s just batshit crazy, but it’s kind of a fun show to watch, so I definitely recommend. If you want something that’s easy to watch, shortish episodes, and doesn’t require, it’s not like you need to put all your brain power into it, I definitely recommend that. So anything else that you guys are watching, or that you want to shout out?
cinik (09:47.754)
No.
Ryan George (09:48.448)
No, okay. All right, cool, cool. So let’s get to some news stories. So I guess there’s a couple things that I pulled. One for, actually two kind of for nostalgia reasons, and then one just because it’s more current. But first up is, do either of you guys still listen to Rage Against the Machine? Yeah, so they have broken up for a third time after getting nominated or inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which seems.
[email protected] (09:48.758)
right now.
cinik (10:07.789)
Yo, yeah.
Ryan George (10:16.728)
Past due but any thoughts on that like do you listen said did you listen to any were you hoping to see them live? Have you had a chance to see them live? It’s a it’s a massive band I would think for the three of us and something that was really influential for us growing up But is it this is like whatever I don’t care. They’ve broken up, but you know, they’ve been broken up since you know Late 90s to me. So like what are your thoughts on that?
[email protected] (10:39.121)
Yeah, i’m gonna go with that they’ve been broken up with the late night, you know since the late 90s I barely knew that they had I mean I knew that they had broken up But I wasn’t really paying much attention to them and they weren’t really relevant in my life. I saw them at um, what maybe Maybe I was a sophomore in high school. Maybe a junior. I don’t remember at uh at um, it was a maybe continental airlines arena Um with the beastie boys, that was a great show
Ryan George (10:42.944)
Yeah.
Ryan George (11:07.093)
Wow, yeah.
[email protected] (11:08.349)
So I enjoyed that very much when I was growing up. So they were excellent. I loved them, but yeah, once, once they sort of broke up, we all moved on to listening to other bands and, um, and the fact that they’ve got back together and then broke up again, it all flew over my head and I don’t know any of their new music.
Ryan George (11:27.656)
Yeah. I don’t know. That’s, I think the most telling part is like, A, I don’t know any of their new music. I don’t know that they have put out any new music. But, you know, I think like many bands, I don’t know that any of their new music would be any good if they did put anything out. But any thoughts on your end, Cynic?
cinik (11:47.286)
Well, I had seen them for the first time at La Alpluzza 2 and they were fantastic. I mean, I had bought the tape to age myself when it first came out and I absolutely loved it. And they were one of the opening bands for La Alpluzza and they were great. They blew everybody away that day. They played, Tool played, Primus and I believe Alison Chains was the headliner. And, you know, they really left an impact on me. So after the first time they broke up.
Ryan George (12:00.308)
Thanks for watching!
[email protected] (12:10.477)
That’s a lineup right there.
cinik (12:15.134)
the rest of the band went and formed a band called Audio Slave, which I actually really loved. And I saw them three or four times when they toured with the late Chris Cornell. So I don’t know if they’ve technically broken up per se. I know that they’re done touring because during the last reunion tour or whatever it was, I think Zach Della Roach took a bad, bad fall and sustained a serious leg injury and they canceled the rest of the tour. So I know for sure that they’re done touring. Now, whether we get another studio album or not,
knows. But I think it’s been long enough to the point where there’s more nostalgia than relevancy if that makes sense.
Ryan George (12:53.832)
Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s like they’ve hit, I think they have Pearl Jam has like all these bands that we grew up with have hit the kind of when we were growing up the Rolling Stones, right? Like they’ve been around for so long. They’re just playing, you know, playing the hits. It’s kind of interesting to see, you know, the bands that we’ve grown up with kind of find that, you know, find that. Now, speaking of tool, like Maynard is 60, which is just like, it’s, it’s crazy to think. And they’re still playing. Yeah, yeah.
cinik (13:16.654)
Speaking of people aging, Brad Pitt turned 60 the other day and I’m not ready for old man Brad Pitt. I’m just not.
Ryan George (13:23.312)
Yeah, exactly. He still looks good. I’m like, I think like Tom Cruise, I think in the last couple of years hit that like it like a switch flip. Like he looked super youthful and then recently like not so much but I think Brad Pitt still has the looks good for his age.
[email protected] (13:23.917)
Hahaha
Ryan George (13:41.224)
So yeah, for me, I definitely tend to agree with you guys with Rage. It’s interesting for me, because I fell down the rabbit hole of reaction videos, which maybe we could talk about at some other time. And I just kind of like, I always, I remember growing up always thinking like, that Zack Villarroca was a legitimate MC. He was lyrically as good as anybody out there, but also like his flow, his cadence, like everything there was legitimately good. And so it’s kind of interesting
and realized that. So I just fell down this rabbit hole, just watched video after video, people just like listening to him and be like, oh wow, oh, this is, he’s legit, you know, he’s really good. So I kind of, it’s kind of, watch him, I guess, get his like flowers, so to speak, you know, and diving down that rabbit hole was cool. And they got me listening to him again. But yeah, it’s like one of those, you know, I’m not going to run to see them live and yeah, they’re not putting on anything new and we’ll always have, you know, their first couple albums, which were, you know, among the best things you’ll ever hear.
So the next news item, so we’re gonna talk about Tetris. And I know Justin, you wanna do a deep dive into Tetris as it’s become in vogue a little bit recently. But this is a really cool story and really interesting. So basically, a 13-year-old who goes by the name of Blue Scooty is believed to be the first person to beat Tetris. And there’s a little bit of like an asterisk next to it, but it’s still incredibly impressive. So basically, the way it works is at some point,
the game crashes so at some point you play it so much that things become unstable and the game will crash and no human has ever gotten to that point and up until I think like a decade ago it was thought that the highest level you could get to in Tetris was about I think it was 29 and then there was like I guess new techniques developed I think called rolling that allowed people to kind of advance past that and so yeah
[email protected] (15:36.097)
Well, sorry to interrupt you. So first it was hyper tapping, where basically where you tap very fast and then it evolved into rolling.
Ryan George (15:41.544)
Okay, yeah, sorry, you’re right. Hyper tapping, yeah. Yeah, so hyper tapping and then rolling. But these techniques allow people to go from 29 well past that. And so I guess a couple parts here. So AI has quote unquote beaten Tetris. And I believe that the highest level that AI has gotten to is level 236. And…
If you get to level 255, and this, we’re talking about like the NES version of Tetris, we’re not talking about like any updated versions of it. But basically, if you get to 255, what happens is it starts over at level 0. And I’m kind of explaining this for some context as far as questioning whether he really beat it or what it would take to actually beat Tetris. So basically, after about…
I think it’s level in the 150s, I forget the exact number. The conditions of the game start to get kind of erratic and chaotic and it can crash at any time. So AI, like I said, has gotten it to crash up to 236. And Blue Scooty got up to level 157 and that’s when the game crashed. So technically by that rule, if you can get Tetris to crash, you’ve won the game, he won the game. But the asterisk is that
there’s a way to then play the game to avoid the crashes. And if somebody can avoid the crashes and get up to 255 and get them back to level zero, that would be 100% fully winning the game. But it’s still an insane feat, which I believe somebody may have matched recently. It’s one of those things where like somebody beats a record and then all of a sudden like other people go immediately and beat the records. But it’s pretty crazy. Cause like, you know, we’ve all played Tetris. I can’t get past, I don’t know, like level 10. So it’s insane that, you know, to think that.
[email protected] (17:19.01)
Yeah.
[email protected] (17:25.28)
I’m sorry.
[email protected] (17:30.397)
Yeah, the whole thing is wild and we’ll do another episode on Tetris. For me, the fact that a game that I think it came out in 1984 was the original and there’s actually a fascinating story. If you look at the history of licensing, Tetris basically was made by a dude who was basically worked for Russia.
And they were like, nope, we own the rights to it. And then it went through all different sorts of things, rights in Europe and rights in the States. And then, you know, it’s really a fascinating story. And equally fascinating is how people are playing an old game and pushing the boundaries of it and really taking it to these new heights and how popular it is amongst kids that were not even born yet,
even close to being born when the game came out. So really, it’s pretty remarkable. I can’t think of anything else that compares to that where something, and it’s not like an update. There are newer versions of Tetris, but it’s not like a new version of it that’s gained popularity. No, it’s the original. I can’t think of anything else in any field where that’s happened. It’s bizarre.
cinik (18:51.582)
My wife actually plays Tetris every morning before, while she’s getting ready for work and eating breakfast and she’s completely addicted to it. However.
Ryan George (18:59.98)
Wow.
[email protected] (19:00.345)
So question, did she, what got her into that? Was she, did she start getting into the Tetris competitions and that made her start playing or was she just, you know, played?
cinik (19:11.942)
Yeah, I think it’s just a pastime that’s always kind of been there. Like there’s always been like a small game before work, which evolved to some game that was eating up most of the memory in her phone to, Hey, why don’t you try Tetris because it’s very similar. And you know, that’s what she does every morning. And I mean, she’s first or second in the area that we’re in as far as them keeping track. So she does fairly well.
[email protected] (19:23.989)
Oh, she plays on her phone. Yeah.
Ryan George (19:35.069)
Oh wow.
cinik (19:37.142)
But any game with a score I’m hypercritical of or hyper suspicious of, because Blue Scooty sounds a lot like Billy Mitchell to me. So unless we have a video of that, and it wasn’t done in Maine with same states, I’ve gotta turn thumbs down because, unless after this whole King of Kong thing, I’m just jaded when it comes to old school video games with scores, because people will do anything they can to cheat just to get their name out there.
Ryan George (19:52.641)
Hey
Ryan George (19:59.689)
Yeah.
[email protected] (19:59.821)
Hehehe
Ryan George (20:04.201)
Yeah.
[email protected] (20:04.469)
Well, he was well known on the Tetris circuit. He was a competitive player and placed very high in the championships, and there is a video of it. So I’m sure he does a Twitch stream or something like that. So it is recorded. You could watch it, it’s on YouTube or whatever. And he was a very high level competitive player. So the fact that he would do that wouldn’t seem too out of the question.
Ryan George (20:33.824)
Well, how crazy?
cinik (20:34.754)
but we got to find out whether Twin Galaxies looks at that record and accepts it and puts it on their current boards, because there’s old school scores now and new school. Speaking of jumping down the rabbit hole, that whole Billy Mitchell thing, I’ve been watching these Carl Jobs videos and it’s all about his lawsuits, Billy Mitchell’s lawsuits against Twin Galaxies and Carl Jobs himself. Very captivating stuff, so we do need to talk about that at some point.
Ryan George (21:01.344)
Yeah, definitely. So it is interesting, like there’s a great documentary speaking of games. It’s crazy that everything has like a weird fandom and no matter what it is. And like I was watching really, huh? There was a really good documentary on Monopoly and the same thing, obviously everybody’s played it, it’s a big deal, but like that there’s like a world championships of Monopoly.
cinik (21:13.906)
except our podcast. Except my podcast.
Ryan George (21:28.936)
Somebody was telling me recently that, ah, I’m forgetting what it was, but a friend of theirs was going to compete in the world championships of some random kids game. But yeah, just like everything has some kind of big niche followings, it’s crazy. But yeah, definitely need to do a deep dive on these things. So I guess the last part, I just wanna talk a couple of, the Emmy Awards just happened, and award shows are weird and kind of.
I don’t watch them, but I do look to see who won and see if they get it right which often they don’t But I feel like they did so the two shows that won succession one big for a lot of things and The bear one so I’m do either you guys watch succession You’ve not okay Yeah, I figured I just you haven’t watched succession, right? Well, it should be required viewing it’s like an excellent show. It’s one of those it took me a little while to
cinik (22:09.682)
I have not one episode that one minute of
Ryan George (22:23.964)
into it. You know, the idea of, okay, it’s just about a rich family that’s kind of a sense or, you know, not a sense, but you know, kind of like the Murdochs to some extent and infighting and backstabbing, but it is an amazing show with some incredible performances. And it’s also incredibly funny. So it’s actually a show that like, if you really want, you know, if you watch it, like it could be a comedy. That’s how funny the show is and how it’s written and how it’s kind of paced. But I definitely recommend you guys watch it. It’s something that might
even be fun to do a little bit of a deep dive. And like I’d be totally down to rewatch it if you guys wanted to watch it. Cause it’s just such a good show and just gets better and better. And one of those shows it has, like there’s a couple episodes in there that are some of the best like hours of TV, you know, that you’re ever gonna watch. And then the other show that went big, and I know you watch this as the bear. And like that, yeah.
cinik (23:18.034)
Yeah, we’ve discussed our love for the bear and I absolutely can’t wait for more episodes of that. And, and I was extremely happy to see the, the kid, Steven Ewan from the Walking Dead win an Emmy award as well. I mean, fantastic talent and really nice guy. I got the opportunity to meet him in person and he couldn’t have been more humble or more kind with his time. So I was happy to see that happen, but I’m not sure if we’re cursing or not during this Ryan, so you can go ahead and edit me, but I think it’s complete fucking bullshit that Better Call Saul was on for six seasons and not one Emmy.
Ryan George (23:28.222)
Yeah!
Ryan George (23:47.216)
Yeah, that’s insane. Uh, yeah, so I didn’t re- Yeah, I didn’t even realize that. So now, that was- so I also was a little confused. The Emmy Awards this year, it was for 2022, right? It wasn’t for 2023?
cinik (23:49.858)
Justice for Jimmy McGill.
cinik (24:02.602)
That I do not know.
Ryan George (24:03.464)
Okay, cuz I’m wondering is there a chance for Better Call Saul to be nominated for anything again or is that it like? Okay
cinik (24:08.714)
I don’t think so because every article I read was this was for the final season.
Ryan George (24:13.02)
Okay, got it. Okay, which yeah that sucks like that’s crazy that show never was never nominated now Justin Did you watch the bear at all? Okay, another show like one of the modern kind of kind of classics. It’s so good Also funny, but just phenomenal acting that it’s a show that like the thing It plays with tension in a way that I’ve never seen like there’s some of the most tense
[email protected] (24:20.809)
I have not, but I will.
Ryan George (24:37.108)
Moments I’ve ever seen like on TV on that show and yeah, like everybody deserved that, you know, just deserve You know, they deserved all the awards. So definitely happy that it got the accolades that it did
[email protected] (24:50.061)
Nice.
Ryan George (24:53.18)
So for our cut, we have two topics to talk about today. So first thing we’re gonna do is a little discussion on episode one of Fargo. I’m sorry, not Fargo, True Detective. And then we’ll talk a little bit about, we have some questions with ChatGPT. So that should be interesting. We had ChatGPT write a large part of our first episode, so we’ll see how that goes. But let’s first talk about True Detective. So first, did you guys watch the first few seasons of True Detective and did you stick with it? Because I think season one, everybody loves.
phenomenal season and you know there’s mixed reviews of the other season so what were you know cynic what did you follow through after season one?
cinik (25:30.674)
I absolutely did not. I loved season one. What was the season with Marsha Ali was? Yeah, I tried to watch a little bit of that. I just I couldn’t stick with it. I was having a hard time. It’s one of those things where I’ve always promised myself I’d circle back around, but I have yet to do it. But this current season seems pretty interesting.
Ryan George (25:39.233)
Uh, three.
Ryan George (25:42.857)
Yeah.
cinik (25:59.586)
Uh oh. I don’t know if you’ve muted yourself or not, Ryan.
Ryan George (26:02.652)
Oh, sorry, Justin, have you watched the beyond season one?
[email protected] (26:06.165)
Well, I started I remember starting to watch season 2 and I think I got through a few episodes and then just Who know it just you know, it petered out. I just it didn’t keep my attention the same way that one did But funny I sat down to watch the new season and Something pulled me away and I never wound up watching it, but it’s definitely
Ryan George (26:14.624)
Mm. Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (26:34.597)
on the list coming up very soon. And if it’s gonna be a good season, then I’ll be all in. I have not.
Ryan George (26:41.688)
so you haven’t watched episode one yet. Okay, cool, the only episode that’s out. Oh yeah, so we’ll talk a little bit about that. But yeah, I’ve kind of been in the same boat with you guys. I watched season one, I started season two, did not, you know, I just fell off, it wasn’t interesting. I did watch the season with Mahershala Ali. It was good, it didn’t live up to season one. But he’s such a good actor.
And I think he did so well in that, that held my attention enough to keep me through it. Like I don’t think it was as compelling as the first season. It was definitely better than the second season. But he’s so good in anything that he’s in, that it was able to just keep my attention. I feel like it got to a point, I probably, there was a point where I could have given up and I kept watching and I’m glad I did because it was a solid season of the show.
So, Cynic, so what were your overall thoughts on the first episode? Did it, did it, you know, it’s a new director or new showrunner. Did it maintain the feel of the first one? Do you feel like, you know, of the first season, do you feel like it kind of brought you back to season one? Or do you feel like maybe it’s going to be a little underwhelming like the other two seasons?
cinik (27:46.64)
I’ll say it’s completely different than what I expected. A very female driven narrative, which I think the show kind of needs because they never really went that route before, even though it’s kind of being done to death in other areas. This feels uh
appropriate for the story that they’re telling. Jodie Foster really led the cast and drove the story forward with just kind of enough strength that you could see her being the lead character. Overall, it felt more like X-Files to me than it did. The thing about
cinik (28:30.098)
in bits and pieces and kind of got stronger as the show went on to the end. Where this, they’re kind of leaning into it pretty heavily right off the bat. Like there’s a lot of unexplained phenomenon going on in the, you know, in basically every scene of this first episode where it’s like, you know, is this a detective story or is it supernatural?
Ryan George (28:50.848)
Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think I do think I was, it was compelling to me and I was, I was kind of fixed on the, on the screen. I really did enjoy the episode. I think it’s the best start to a season, at least since season one. I do feel like it was a little weird because I felt like season one, the supernatural elements.
was just subtle enough that it could be explained away as something else. Where this one seems to be leaning into it a lot more. Now part of it could be that you’re dealing with native Inuit people who are going to have different beliefs and part of also that the Jodie Foster character who seems to be a little bit racist and makes these comments, maybe kind of looks at them as being kind of almost unsophisticated and they believe in whatever this stuff is and maybe that comes into play as something that’s real.
this supernatural element is going to play a role in it. I do like, it feels much more like a horror movie. It almost felt like The Thing, you know? And maybe that was intentional.
cinik (29:52.79)
Well, I think a lot of it too is the setting it being, you know, winter and then the constant night and you know, it, uh, yeah, it feels almost suffocating at points, but, uh, definitely, I mean, it’s worth continuing. Do I, uh, am I a hundred percent certain I’m going to get to the end? I don’t know because I don’t like, uh, I don’t like questions for questions sake. Like I want answers at some point.
Ryan George (29:56.606)
Yeah.
cinik (30:17.918)
And if we’re just going to leave it open why there’s some sort of one-eyed polar bear wandering around town freaking people out, then I’m going to lose interest.
Ryan George (30:17.937)
Yeah.
Ryan George (30:26.376)
Yeah, well that yeah, that’s a thing for me is I you know both good and bad. I kind of started at some point I was like
watching them like, well, this is just mystery after mystery after mystery. And I think part of it is good world building, right? Like part of it is that there’ll be a little comment here that like all of a sudden that, that there’s like a web of things that you now have to think of because of this one little comment. But then a lot of it is just, okay, another mystery, another mystery. And yeah, it’s like, are, is it there for the sake of it? Or is it all going to, you know, it could be a world, there’s a world where this all ties together brilliantly and we’re like, oh my God, this is amazing. But there’s also a world where it’s like, okay, you’re giving us too much, too many things to think about.
cinik (30:34.442)
Mm-hmm.
Ryan George (31:01.462)
mystery of sakes so yeah we’re kind of it’s like I’m on the fence I think I the main mystery was compelling enough for me that I really was interested in it I did like how it was shot I like the mood and the tone of it so for me I’m definitely you know I’m in you know I guess the question will be am I and will we all be in enough to do like a full season review when this thing ends and I guess that’ll be the question you know that’ll be that’ll answer now Justin important question for you have we sold you on watching episode 1
[email protected] (31:30.213)
I was planning on it. Remember I sat down to watch it and I Don’t know what it was that pulled me away. You know, you know, that’s just how it is nowadays, but Oh, no, definitely For sure. I’m in
Ryan George (31:43.528)
Yeah. No, so definitely check it out. I feel like it’s a solid start, but it’s one of those things where it could, you know, it’s it could go off the rails real fast and unravel, or it could be, you know, a fantastic season that lives up to season one. So excited, excited about it. Solid start. Yeah.
cinik (32:02.411)
It did feel like kind of a bit of a long hour to me, but they did do a lot of world building. I will give you that. Like it felt like you had a sense of everything that was going on that was at least explained.
Ryan George (32:05.44)
Yeah.
Ryan George (32:12.84)
Yeah. And there’s just a lot of like, you know, there’s a lot of seeds being planted for relationships. And so I think they, in a way, did a good job of it feeling like a real, like lived in world, you know, and it’s something different from anything we’ve experienced. Like none of us have been, you know, in a place where it doesn’t get light, uh, or where it’s that cold or, you know, where they deal with those kinds of issues. So I think it did a good job of, of setting things up, but yeah, it’s a matter of like, you know, there are plenty of shows that start strong and then.
you know, don’t execute. So, you know, remains to be seen.
cinik (32:43.39)
I can say my one major complaint is that if we’re going to do a sexting and you need to keep clothes on, don’t do the sexting.
Ryan George (32:50.812)
Yeah, that’s true. It’s a little weird, like…
cinik (32:55.747)
I mean the core of what was going on was very tantalizing and appealing, but when they’re half dressed I don’t know anybody that has sex half dressed unless you’re doing it alongside the road on top of a car or something. It just, you know, if you’re in a bed everybody’s naked. I mean let’s shoot for realism here in our lovemaking. Come on.
Ryan George (33:14.812)
Yeah, no, that’s fair. It’s like you don’t, you know, either shoot it at weird angles so that, you know, if the issue is the nudity or the actor doesn’t wanna appear nude, then fine. Shoot it from angles that, you know, they, you don’t see whatever they don’t want you to see. But yeah, it’s a little weird with like the sex scenes with the clothes on. It’s like, come on, it does take it out because you’re absolutely right. Like, that is very rare that would happen unless it’s a very specific circumstances.
All right, so I guess that’s it for episode one. Again, if we’re into it, we’ll do a full season review. We’ll get a little bit more in depth into it and into the show and performances and how everything is. But let’s get to our next part. So again, so before we get into these questions with ChatGPT, what’s your guys’ experience with it so far? I must say, I’ve found it to be very useful. There’s a whole lot, AI is something that we will touch on a little bit more and talk about some of the, because I think there are a lot of interesting,
and unanswered at this point or at least without a consensus, moral questions with AI. But just from a tool to use to save time, I find it’s been extremely helpful for me. But what’s your guys experience been with, if at all, with ChatGPT or any of the AI art stuff?
[email protected] (34:31.993)
So I use it for mostly, well for a few things. I enjoy having it write scripts or summaries for movies that are in my head to see what it would come up with. And it’s done a pretty good job. And I think I’ve actually had stuff that’s pitch worthy because of it. Granted, you have to feed it the information. I also use it for writing songs.
And it’s, I’m actually going to have a video on writing a song with a chat GPT. And it’s interesting. Now you said that it saved you time, but what I found is that you actually have to put a lot of time into getting it to give you what you want. And that’s really interesting. So, so much of it is, is figuring out how to use it.
Ryan George (35:21.716)
You so… Yeah, so…
Yeah, so with any AI, there’s like a whole thing of like, you have to be able to create the right prompts. And there are people that legitimately, like they earn money.
[email protected] (35:31.148)
Yeah.
Yeah, prompt engineering, yeah.
Ryan George (35:34.256)
Prompt creators, right? Like they’re able to write it and you’re right So I always find that when I do have something I needed or wanted to give to me I have to be very specific about how I ask the questions But it saved me like for example, like I’ve been learning how to color comics And so it’s really cool because I can go into it and just ask it like hey, you know What color palette would be good for this or I’m trying to do this thing in Photoshop? What are those steps and sometimes it gives me amazing answers and sometimes it doesn’t but I do find that like, you know If I have an idea or something, it’s really great
[email protected] (35:47.548)
Yeah.
Ryan George (36:03.048)
a good tool to bounce ideas off. Now, you mentioned like writing scripts. I think creatively, it’s pretty bad. But I think as a tool to bounce ideas off of, it’s been great.
[email protected] (36:05.857)
Yeah, it’s a great tool.
[email protected] (36:11.905)
What are you talking about? Creatively, it’s fucking amazing. It’s a program that you say something and it comes up with the whole thing. Like, are you kidding me? I know what you’re saying.
Ryan George (36:16.928)
Okay.
Ryan George (36:20.532)
Okay, it is amazing in that way. What I’m saying is like, if you ask it to write you a story.
it’s gonna be a generic story, right? Cause it’s like, it’s pulling from all, it’s taking like, I don’t know, like the, you know, it’s pulling from what it, you know, it’s giving you what it thinks is going to be whatever you’re asking it for. So you can ask it for in a style of whatever, but generally like the, what you get, if you say like, hey, right, I want you to write me a story about whatever, it’s gonna be fairly generic, the dialogue’s gonna be fairly generic. There’ll be bits and pieces you can take out, but I find it much more useful to say, hey, I’ve got characters that are doing this thing,
[email protected] (36:28.33)
Yes.
[email protected] (36:37.816)
Yeah.
[email protected] (36:56.002)
Yeah.
Ryan George (36:56.758)
I’m struggling with a very specific thing. Can you give me ideas for that? And then it’s great. But if you ask it to write a book or write a chapter of something, to me, it doesn’t come out particularly interesting. But Cynic, have you worked at all with any AI or chat GPT or mid journey or anything? Yeah.
[email protected] (37:09.959)
yet yet.
cinik (37:14.326)
I really haven’t. The only thing that I have done is I work in a bit of an iconic spot in New York City, and I used it to take pictures and change them to post-apocalyptic images, which was pretty cool. And out of the hundreds of things I save a day to bring up to talk to you guys about, I think they rewrote the end of Game of Thrones with it, didn’t they? Like somebody went back and rewrote the whole last novel. So that’s out there for consumption.
Ryan George (37:25.672)
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Ryan George (37:39.492)
Oh, wow.
Interesting.
cinik (37:44.246)
But the one thing I want to warn you about is that we’ve already been through this chat GPT conversation and it was called like Terminator 1 through 7. So have fun playing with this while you still can guys because soon it’s going to be haunting us and planning our demise.
Ryan George (37:53.698)
Ha ha.
[email protected] (37:53.885)
Yeah, I’ve been saying that.
Ryan George (37:56.312)
Yeah. I mean, the scary thing with that with art is like it is it is, you know, and that’s where I like, well, I say it’s not creative, you know, in the sense of like, you know, it’s not going to give you the, you know, write the next great American novel, that might be a couple years away, you know, like the art even the arts can be pretty cool. It’s it’s, you know, it you can generally tell that not always actually, I should say, but you can tell when it’s AI art.
[email protected] (38:00.493)
Judgment Day is coming!
Ryan George (38:25.768)
But a lot of times, there are things that have won contests, art contests. So if it’s not at the level of writing the next great American novel right now, it will be at some point, and sooner than later. And yeah, maybe we do need to be a little worried about it, it taking over our lives, but.
cinik (38:42.678)
I mean, they’re doing automated McDonald’s and stuff. It’s gonna cost a lot of people their jobs in the end.
Ryan George (38:46.224)
Yeah. Yeah, you’re no, you’re right. I think that is so to me right off the bat. Oh, well, right. Well, huh.
[email protected] (38:54.665)
And rightfully so. People suck. Like, have you like experienced people in most modern service industries? It’s terrible, right? At the, you know, this could be like a rant or what you would call the just in words of wisdom, but it’s awful. Like people are really terrible at it now. And more importantly, the companies don’t care. They’ve sort of all taken the stance of, well, too bad, go somewhere else. And everyone’s done that.
So you can’t go anywhere else because no one cares. So I’m all for AI, you know, replacing people that are, you know, that do a terrible job.
Ryan George (39:26.677)
Yeah, but you know-
Ryan George (39:33.228)
then we have to figure out what we do with all these displaced people who can’t find jobs.
cinik (39:35.774)
Well, that’s it. That like, that’s the, what was it? The argument for 15 or the argument for 20 is, well, they don’t deserve 20. Yeah, but we’re paying them 20 anyway, through, you know, social programs. If we put these bad fry cooks out of business, then we’re going to be paying these bad fry cooks full salary.
Ryan George (39:45.481)
Yeah.
Ryan George (39:53.409)
Yeah.
So yeah, I think there is a world where there are a lot of jobs in industry, I think that already AI is going to take a lot away from, because I mean, why hire people to write marketing copy when you can just plug stuff into like AI, plug it into chat, GPT, or why hire somebody to draw, put together like a flyer for your company when you could just have chat, have mid journey, come up with something. So there is a lot of these, there are a lot of these jobs already that it’s easy to, and that’s where we’ll talk more when we do our deeper dive.
[email protected] (40:17.881)
That’s a whole other thing, yeah.
Ryan George (40:24.082)
into AI, you know, about the moral kind of complexities of it and how it should or can be used and then whether or not we’re doing, you know, is it even right that we’re using it to write this episode? But anyway, so as a, I had a good segue, but I lost it, but ChatGPT will be taking over the episode for now. So I’m going to go through these questions. We’ll do one, you know, we put together 10 questions with ChatGPT. We’ll just rotate between us answering each of the questions. And then the last one.
[email protected] (40:43.041)
Haha.
Ryan George (40:53.436)
we can all take a stab at. So, Cynic, I’ll start with you for the first one. So what’s a movie or TV show from your childhood that still holds a special place in your heart and why?
cinik (41:04.914)
Oh, it’s gotta be Star Wars. From the second I laid eyes on Darth Vader and the whole Star Wars universe, it’s been my first love forever. And probably always will be, no matter what Disney does to ruin it. But yeah, I mean, that was the first thing that I, even pre-Batman or Spider-Man, like…
Grandparents had HBO and Star Wars would be on there 80 times a month and I would probably watch it at least 75 times.
Ryan George (41:35.424)
Yeah, so speaking of Star Wars, we might my niece some we went to Disney with her for her birthday This weekend and but I was like I have to go if we’re gonna go to Disney. I have to go to the Star Wars area the rise of the resistance ride whether you like the new Star Wars stuff is the Is the most incredible thing ever if you’re if you’re a fan of Star Wars and I won’t I won’t even tell you what it is If you haven’t looked it up don’t because it is so such a cool experience that you have to do it
like that ride is insane. So much like, like Anna loves it, we might try to go in October. If you guys want to come along, we should all, we could all do a Disney trip with the significant others in October for the, I think she has off like the Rosh Hashanah holiday. And I was like, well, if we go, we’re spending a whole day in that park because it’s so cool. But that ride is incredible.
cinik (42:29.037)
Well, as long as you guys agree to do the horror houses at Universal, I’ll absolutely go.
Ryan George (42:35.484)
Oh yeah, absolutely. That was so weird saying that because it was like a very short, we went, it was like just for the weekend and we didn’t get to do nearly what we wanted to do. But yeah, we were saying we might go for like four days and we could do one a day at Universal and then like a day at each park. But that ride is so cool that like, yeah, it’s like.
There’s a couple moments in it where it was just like, almost awestruck, like you become a child for a moment. Especially if you’re growing up with it. It was really cool. All right, so question two, Justin. If you could live in the universe of any fictional TV series or movie, which one would it be and what role would you wanna play?
[email protected] (43:18.733)
Boy, good question. There are so many of them.
[email protected] (43:33.537)
man, you know, I think I would just love to be a Ninja Turtle. Like, going back to, you know, which sort of reminds me of the childhood. It’s like, that’s what of all the of everything I loved as a kid, I know this is not even asking about childhood stuff. And yeah, I could go dirty and like, you know, pick a fictional character that like
Ryan George (43:40.557)
That’s a good one.
[email protected] (44:02.285)
you know, bangs every hot woman, you know, like what does that add to the, you know, if I mentioned that, of course, that’s where my brain would go, but that’s not very interesting, it’s like, well.
No shit, that’s what you would want to choose. But let’s do something a little more fun. Yes, I just would have loved to have been a Ninja Turtle. I think that that, I remember as a kid, just of all the cartoons, of everything, of every sort of superhero that I loved and wanted to be, that’s, you know, it just would have been cool. So there’s my answer. Even more so than being like, you know.
Ryan George (44:34.352)
Okay, that’s a good one. Alright.
[email protected] (44:41.015)
some, you know, Herculian character that gets to like bang all the hot chicks or James Bond or something like that.
cinik (44:47.518)
I think the nice part about being a turtle is you’d never be homeless. So regardless of what your career choices are, even if the ninja thing don’t work out, you always have some place to lay your head. For me, I think it would probably be the walking dead. Only because I think we’re headed that way anyway. So I would just be prepared for it.
[email protected] (44:50.76)
There you go.
Ryan George (44:55.016)
Hahaha. Yeah.
[email protected] (44:56.801)
go.
Ryan George (45:02.156)
Hahaha
[email protected] (45:04.909)
I thought we were headed for Judgment Day. Maybe both. Maybe there’s going to be some AI, you know, vampire shit going on. Zombie shit, yep.
cinik (45:06.934)
that quite possibly could be if you guys keep playing with this J-G-P-T stuff.
Ryan George (45:10.535)
What the fuck?
cinik (45:16.626)
I just want the six people that ever hear this podcast ago when it happens that you know that guy cynic really told us this was coming
[email protected] (45:23.545)
what’s coming.
Ryan George (45:25.695)
We’ll ask ChatGPT to write our Terminator slash Walking Dead crossover movie. We’ll see how that comes out. We’ll post it on the website. We’ll post the ChatGPT Terminator Walking Dead crossover pitch.
[email protected] (45:30.645)
Yeah, there you go. Zombie Terminators. Yeah.
[email protected] (45:40.697)
Have you ever asked chat GPT if it’s gonna turn on us and you know, basically turn into Terminators Have you ever asked it I have It gives me it appeases me it says that basically that
Ryan George (45:50.468)
What’s the answer?
[email protected] (45:59.409)
the idea of AI terminators existing, you know, is just science fiction right now, and that we don’t have to worry about it. But then again, the idea of a program that could create anything that you ask it to a few years ago was science fiction as well. So I’m not very confident in its answer.
Ryan George (46:22.904)
Alright, so now my question. Share a geeked-um moment that significantly impacted your life or shaped your interests. That’s a tough one. So I’m gonna say actually the red wedding in Game of Thrones. So the reason why, because that’s a newer moment, not newer, but it’s a more, so here’s why.
[email protected] (46:46.585)
As an adult, that’s interesting.
Ryan George (46:53.928)
I think that moment got me into listening to podcasts, like at a real, like at a crazy level. So before that, I think the only podcast that I really listened to was like,
Like a couple science podcasts and even that I wasn’t even doing on the Apple app It was like I was like I think was like a thing where I was listening in on their website so right like so my podcast consumption was pretty minimal and That moment was so big that I was like I got a I try to consume everything I have to listen to everything that everybody has to say about everything Having to do with this and I just sort of listen to all these like Game of Thrones podcasts and then and then that was then that I just dove down the rabbit hole of just the
podcast world and that shifted to like listening to other, you know, like pro wrestling podcasts. You know, I don’t really watch much pro wrestling, although we should do a, a WrestleMania, like live viewing or something. Cause it actually looks like it’s gonna be pretty cool. Yeah. Or Royal Rumble too. Yeah, that’s coming up. But no, it’s like, it’s actually like crazy. Like it’s funny, like I don’t watch it, but I listen to podcasts that talk about it, but like.
cinik (47:51.806)
Royal Rumble.
[email protected] (47:59.081)
Yeah, I know. It’s interesting. Yeah, with you.
Ryan George (48:02.08)
But it’s pretty cool right now. Like some, some good stuff is going on. But, but yeah, so I think that got me into the world of podcasting and then listening to people talk about that stuff. And then that feeling of being like a fly on the wall, but like being engaged with these people who are talking about stuff I like got me really more interested in, in doing it myself. And so I would probably say that would, that would be the moment for me. Um, that, that kind of helps shape where I am now. Cause like, I don’t know that I’m, you know,
heavily doing podcasts, if I didn’t have that moment, I don’t know that even like the Jimwits necessarily starts if I don’t, you know, have that moment of like really diving deep into listening to lots of different podcasts. So that’s probably it. You gonna say something Justin? Okay.
[email protected] (48:46.613)
give mine real quick. It was when I the first time I played a Dragon Quest game and now come to think about it, it would be fun to live in that universe too. But I remember when I first played that game, I sort of I really sort of fell in love with that whole that whole ethos of just, you know, of magic and
Ryan George (48:54.206)
Yeah.
[email protected] (49:09.785)
Dragons and warriors and stuff like that and it’s always been because I never played I was never really big into Dungeons & Dragons But when I played that game it really had I remember just loving it so much as a kid and I played all the titles and even Recently, I still play the Dragon Quest games whenever they come out. It’s really one of the only video games I play so it was it was a big impact
Ryan George (49:33.94)
Alright, so, uh, Cynic, question four for you. Who’s a character from any medium, movie, TV, book, et cetera, that you strongly resonate with and why?
cinik (49:43.71)
Oh, it’s got to be Tyrion Lannister. Just everything about the way that guy goes through the world. I not only admire, but I try to emulate every step. I drink and I know things.
Ryan George (49:46.196)
Hahaha
Ryan George (49:51.188)
Yeah, I can see that.
Ryan George (50:00.152)
Okay, that’s fair. At first I was like, what? Yeah, I could totally, like, 100% can see that. Alright, Justin. What’s a guilty pleasure movie or TV show that you secretly adore despite knowing it might not be critic- Yeah, it worked out. Yeah, that, you know, most important question of the day. What’s a guilty pleasure movie or TV show?
[email protected] (50:13.625)
You were working this out so that I had to get this question, right? All right, so.
[email protected] (50:22.665)
So, all right, I’m going to go on one of my rants here. I detest, it’s like, you know, I guess Chachi P.T. was just reading my mind of what I didn’t want. Maybe it has an ironic sense of humor. But two terms that I detest are guilty pleasure and critically acclaimed. So they’re…
cinik (50:25.835)
Own down.
Ryan George (50:25.848)
Thanks for watching!
[email protected] (50:47.981)
They’re both so, they’re both.
Well, guilty pleasure is an insulting term, first and foremost. And critically acclaimed is a meaningless term. Like, who cares what critics say? What matters is what people say, right? You know, critically acclaimed. It’s such a worthless term. And guilty pleasure is just as bad in its own way because it’s implying that whatever was made by people that worked very hard is not good and that it has to, you have to feel guilty.
So there is no guilty pleasure because I don’t believe that anything that someone has created is a guilty pleasure. They worked hard, they put money into it, they use their talents to create it except for one. I do have, I guess I have one.
Ryan George (51:39.138)
Okay, now who’s the one?
[email protected] (51:42.561)
the movie Freddy got fingered. And I love the fact that, and not only was it not critically acclaimed, it was critically dismissed, supposedly. But very few movies, despite it being maybe one of the worst movies ever made, that’s not a B movie or even less.
Ryan George (51:54.017)
Yeah
[email protected] (52:07.309)
Very few movies have given me as much joy as Freddy Got Fingered. Besides that, it taps into my twisted sense of humor. But the true joy is in watching other people. So it was like I was into doing reaction videos before it was even a thing. So I remember I would have people almost force people to watch it, not knowing what they were getting into, and that was part of the enjoyment. So, yes, for the most part, there, you know, there’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure. But.
If I have to give one, it’s the movie Freddy Got Fingered.
Ryan George (52:38.936)
Okay.
cinik (52:40.074)
You did keep the gun or knife off the camera, right? So it was a natural reaction video and they didn’t know that they’re being forced to do that against their will like a… Go ahead, Ryan.
Ryan George (52:46.169)
D- Hahahaha
[email protected] (52:48.011)
Exactly natural reaction. There you go
Ryan George (52:52.859)
I don’t know that I agree. I think critics are critics. And I think you don’t want to shame somebody for working hard and doing something and creating something no matter what it is. And it is easy for critics to just talk crap about stuff and get on their high horse. And a lot of times they get things wrong.
[email protected] (53:12.125)
Even Freddy got fingered.
Ryan George (53:17.6)
But there’s a place for it, you know, and I definitely think there are things that are critically acclaimed because they’re that good. And so I think there is, you know, there is something to be said for like acknowledging things that are great, you know. But I get the guilty pleasure thing though, like, like.
You know, it’s like, there’s probably, I’m sure there are pop songs that you will never, as a musician, never want to admit you like, but like, it’s kind of a guilty pleasure. So I, I feel like those exist that you don’t admit, it doesn’t even mean saying it’s bad, right? Like, it’s just like, there’s some, you know, pop music is pop music and us being kind of cynical kind of assholes all would, don’t want to admit that we like certain pop songs for the most part. Yeah, that’s, that’s true. Yeah.
[email protected] (53:40.679)
Well
[email protected] (53:52.873)
Well, I, you know, I love pop music. I love pop music. And one of my most fun things to do is whenever anyone rags on someone like it’s so right into to rag on Taylor Swift right now, even though she’s an amazing songwriter and a brilliant business woman, I just love to sing when anyone ever talks shit about her and be like, how many records have you sold?
cinik (54:13.684)
Oh no.
Ryan George (54:13.973)
Oh.
[email protected] (54:15.829)
How many billions of dollars have you made? Oh, that’s great, because you’re a nobody, and she’s one of the most famous people in the world. So, good job. But that’s my cynical nature.
Ryan George (54:25.07)
Yeah. Sydney, can you say something? Ha ha ha.
cinik (54:26.134)
I’ll tell you what, I didn’t realize the reach of Taylor Swift until she was at MetLife Stadium for two or three days. And the crowds that she drew to the train station just to go across the water and go was incredible. It was not like Thanksgiving or New Year’s or Christmas or anything I’d seen in my commutes.
That place was wall to wall Taylor Swift fans. And I didn’t realize how big this thing had gotten. And you know, on another note, I think this whole thing with her and Travis Kelce is kind of like a feel good story. I don’t, is the NFL leaning on it a little too heavily? Sure, but they do that with everything because it’s bringing eyes to the sport that weren’t gonna be there without, you know, showing her 10 times a game. Is it affecting anybody in any way? No, and I…
I dig that they’re dating. I think it’s great for the both of them and I hope they’re happy and I hope they stay together. One thing I agree and kind of disagree with you on Justin is the critically acclaimed thing. Because critics without agenda back in the day were kind of rotten tomatoes before there was rotten tomatoes. And so you could kind of get, but anymore it feels like.
Critics now have agendas, so there’s one person over on IGN. Every time I see that this person’s reviewed, so I won’t even read it because I know it’s going to be a low score. There’s not going to be much of a reason behind it. And if you go every place else, the scores are going to be much higher on whatever that particular thing is. It’s almost like she lives to give low scores. She lives to shit on things. Now, if we look at the people side of things, I read a quick article saying that people are bombing True Detective.
[email protected] (55:44.012)
Yeah.
cinik (56:11.286)
because it’s got a female lead. So people even are worse with the agendas and there’s no accountability because most of the time their names are assigned to it. So when they run something like Starfield into the ground because it’s an Xbox exclusive and not for PlayStation, just because they’ve got an axe to grind, it’s like, who do we listen to now? I mean, ultimately we got to make up our own mind, but I do like to go into things knowing whether I should waste my time on it or not.
[email protected] (56:15.861)
Yeah, that is true.
Ryan George (56:38.07)
Yeah.
cinik (56:39.634)
The investment of time to me as I get older and more busy, it’s important to me knowing that I have some sort of idea of whether I should avoid a certain product.
[email protected] (56:49.833)
I think I should reiterate, like I actually don’t have issues with the critics themselves.
I think they have a role. I think my issue was the term critically acclaimed. That was more the issue. Critics definitely have a place. In fact, I actually loved going back and watching the old episodes of Siskel and Ebert. I don’t know if you guys have done it. It’s really actually quite interesting to watch how they would work. They’re fantastic, they’re very entertaining. And I really respect, while I don’t always agree with what they had said, you know.
cinik (57:02.176)
Yeah.
cinik (57:13.655)
They were good.
[email protected] (57:22.529)
But, so my issue isn’t with the critics themselves. I feel they’re necessary. It was more with the terminology of that term critically acclaimed.
Ryan George (57:30.908)
Yeah, I get it, but I think it’s a marketing term, right? And it’s something that is useful if you have something out there that is widely regarded by critics, I think it’s useful to say it and work says a marketing term. But yeah, but I definitely agree. I think you made a great point, Cynic, about, I think sometimes you do need somebody that you can trust, that you can trust their opinion and know that, okay, they said it’s good, I can trust that it’s good.
[email protected] (57:34.814)
Yeah, of course it is.
Ryan George (57:59.532)
But a lot of people do have agendas. All right, so I’m up to me. And again, I got a weird question. Okay, share an experience where a piece of geekdom helped you through a tough time or influenced a major decision in your life.
[email protected] (58:17.345)
you get stuck with the deep questions.
Ryan George (58:18.244)
Yeah, um…
Is there an experience where… I mean, I can’t think of anything that helped me through a tough time. Influence… I guess I could say influencing a major decision. Okay, so I don’t even know that. I guess the first thing that pops into my mind right now is I’ve always wanted to write a comic. I’ve always wanted… well, so let’s say I’ve always wanted to write a book. Or I should add, I have a story that I have been working on for a very long time.
And so at some point I decided I wanted to write a comic
And, but I didn’t have any of that motivation. And so my, one of my favorite geek pop culture, pop cat podcast is the fat men beyond podcasts, which is Kevin Smith and Mark Bernard and listening to them, there was one day and it was actually cool. I got to tell Kevin Smith this, but basically in one episode, he was, they were talking about, somebody had asked a similar question. Like, you know, what do you, how do I get started? What do I do if, you know, if I feel like I’m not good or I feel inadequate or I don’t have the, you know, I have the skills, I’m comparing myself to other people. And he said something, it was,
tell the story that you want to you know like tell the story that only you can tell which that like clicked something for me because it was like you know no matter how good I am and how many how good I am or no matter much better anybody else is than me right if I can watch read a million comics and say that’s amazing that’s amazing that’s amazing nobody’s gonna be able to tell the story that I have in my head the way that I want to tell it for better or worse and so if I ever feel like I’m not like good enough or if I
Ryan George (59:50.656)
get in that mindset of trying to compare myself, I always kind of go back to that. Nobody can tell that story. And for me, the goal is not to become a millionaire or ruin my story. It’s just like, I just want to tell my stories. And that was a big moment for me because that kind of disconnected any feeling of inadequacy or not being ready or not being good enough because it was like, no. At the end of the day, I’m the only person that can do this. It’s in my head, only my head, and that’s.
that’s helped me along the way. So I guess a roundabout way to say something that’s influenced, because over the last couple years, I’ve been very focused on creating stuff. Like I just finished a comic that should be released, well, just sent it to print and it should be delivered and physically in my hands in a couple of weeks. And there’s no…
easy feat to get that done. You know, working on an audio drama right now, you know, I’ve got several things that I’m working on and it’s like, yeah, I’m gonna put the money and time into this because I just wanna do it and nobody else is gonna be able to do it. But you know, so I think that was something that I would say has been a major influence on my life.
cinik (01:00:55.818)
Well let’s jump to the next question and I want to ask you Ryan, if we were to spin your comic into a show, what would be your dream cast?
Ryan George (01:01:03.475)
Oh wow, that’s a good one. Ah, damn.
Ryan George (01:01:09.86)
I…
Ryan George (01:01:15.052)
For spoilery reasons, I don’t want to say who my, what my cast would be for this, for anybody that does listen to the show that may be purchasing it. But Justin, let’s talk about, we can talk about the audio drama, the James Whitty audio drama. Let’s fan cast this. So, sort of bring you up to date, up to speed. We’ve got to, can we, yeah, we can talk about what it’s about, right?
Yeah, okay. So basically the story is about a superhero trainer. So he’s a trainer to superheroes. As part of he’s like the trainer as part of like a Justice League type team and you know, long story short, he wants to be a superhero. They don’t want to be a superhero because he doesn’t have any powers and he ends up training super villains. Or at least that’s the route. That’s the path he’s taking. So the main character is James witty or James Witward.
[email protected] (01:01:46.113)
Yeah, absolutely.
Ryan George (01:02:13.628)
Or Jim, Jim Witty or Jim Witts, whatever we want to call it. But Justin, who would you, who would, huh? Huh?
[email protected] (01:02:18.809)
started to get an insight into our sense of humor. Starting to get an insight into.
cinik (01:02:20.686)
Boo.
Ryan George (01:02:24.756)
Yeah, no, the, but the thing is he takes character, he takes people with dumb powers and makes it work. So that’s kind of like the thing in the show is like him basically finding somebody with ridiculous power and then somehow turning that into something that’s effective. So Justin, who would you cast as James Witte? Let’s do him and we’ll do the Great Triad.
[email protected] (01:02:51.771)
Ah.
[email protected] (01:02:56.989)
I think, um, I think Zac Efron would make a great James Witte. He’s funny, right, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously, and I think he’s a little bit of a better actor than people give him credit for. I think he’s young and has the body. You think he’s too good looking?
Ryan George (01:03:10.552)
I feel like he’s two.
Ryan George (01:03:14.312)
No, no I didn’t mean that. I just thought he was a little too… How old is he?
[email protected] (01:03:21.981)
Ummm… Maybe it is late 20s by now?
Ryan George (01:03:27.264)
So I’m gonna go completely different. I think John David Washington would be really good in that role. Although maybe he’s not, no, he’s kind of sneaky. No, I feel like he can play that. And who would you have as like the Captain America ripoff character? Oh, forget that, let’s do the villain. Who would you have as Cheesy? Who’s superpower is that he can read minds if you’ve eaten cheese. So if you’ve eaten cheese, he can read your mind.
[email protected] (01:03:39.342)
We check.
Oh, um…
[email protected] (01:03:55.353)
Just looking up his birthdate. Um, I’m not sure. That’s a good question. Let’s see. Oh no, Zac Efron’s older than I thought. He’s 36. Huh. So maybe he’s, well, he still looks young. Maybe he’s too, I don’t know. I don’t know, that’s it. Well, 36 could be, I don’t know. I don’t know, that’s a tough one, but. Yeah. He, he.
Ryan George (01:04:09.141)
Yeah.
Ryan George (01:04:18.154)
We might have to punt this because we have to figure out how to fancast this. It might take a while. Alright so, let’s see.
[email protected] (01:04:25.867)
Who would play Cheesy? That’s a…
cinik (01:04:27.949)
The power of editing
Ryan George (01:04:29.652)
Yeah, exactly Alright so a cynic Discuss a popular piece of geekdom that you have never resonated with
[email protected] (01:04:30.265)
Yeah.
cinik (01:04:40.522)
Harry Potter. Yeah, got through maybe the first movie started watching the second, you know, it was at gunpoint so to speak because I was in the relationship with somebody that was hugely into Harry Potter and she got me to watch the first one and luckily we broke up before we watched any more of them.
Ryan George (01:04:40.652)
Are you okay?
cinik (01:05:00.31)
but it was always her point of contention that I had been through the Harry Potter lands at Universal several times, and she would get upset every single time that I had gone because I don’t know what I’m looking at. I don’t know what I’m experiencing. So it was always fun to kind of rub it in and send her pictures of, oh, there’s me near the fountain or station or something, owls, witchcraft. Yeah, so Harry Potter and Twilight.
Ryan George (01:05:11.119)
Yeah.
Ryan George (01:05:19.489)
Yeah.
Ryan George (01:05:26.437)
Okay.
[email protected] (01:05:29.533)
I’m gonna one up you on the hot take of what I’ve never, because Harry Potter is big, yeah, huge, right? I’m going for the granddaddy of them all though, of what I’ve never resonated with. You know what it is, right? Star Wars. There, I said it.
Ryan George (01:05:31.36)
What?
Ryan George (01:05:43.98)
What?
cinik (01:05:44.91)
Don’t you do it.
Ryan George (01:05:48.12)
Just say it. Yeah. It’s gonna be.
[email protected] (01:05:57.945)
Cynics like, uh, I don’t know if we can be friends
Ryan George (01:06:01.225)
It’s gonna be a rough podcast for you. We’ll come back to that because we have some stuff.
[email protected] (01:06:09.656)
Oh yeah, that’s a good one for the future. What about you?
Ryan George (01:06:12.584)
Alright. Um, I mean, I would probably say Harry Potter is definitely something that I’ve not resonated with. But I mean, there’s a ton of stuff that’s there that I just never got into. But yeah, I would say Harry Potter is like the big pop culture thing that I can think of. I’ve been to the musical, I’ve seen some of the movies, I fell asleep during the last one. It’s just, yeah, not for me.
[email protected] (01:06:34.761)
Yeah, I’ve never been too into it either.
Ryan George (01:06:38.304)
All right, Justin, okay, so we got two more questions. We got one more question for you, Justin, and then we’ll have our little last question for the three of us. So what’s a movie or TV show that you’ve watched many times and are still entertained by?
[email protected] (01:06:51.521)
I mean there’s so many of them I’m thinking of like what’s the one that pops that pops into my head?
Ryan George (01:06:55.865)
I don’t know why for me, but I’ll just give you a quick one. Peewee’s Big Adventure. Okay, you can finish yours.
[email protected] (01:07:00.061)
Really? Huh. I’m gonna go I’ll go. Yeah, I like the idea of going retro with this. I’m gonna say the movie RoboCop. I love that movie when it when I first saw it, even though it was probably highly inappropriate for me to see it as a six year old. But I loved it then. And it’s sort of one of those things that
Ryan George (01:07:09.233)
Okay, that’s a good poll.
Ryan George (01:07:17.056)
Yeah.
[email protected] (01:07:24.541)
I don’t I don’t scroll through cable anymore like because you just don’t there’s no reason to do it But whenever I did in the in the in the past I whatever was on I would always watch it and enjoy it or if ever like YouTube decides that and it probably will now after You know after hearing me talk about it. I’m sure that clips will start appearing but
I always enjoy going through, if it ever comes out in the algorithm, I’ll always watch a clip on it, and I love to read what people have to say, so it has a lot of rewatchability, and I enjoy it.
Ryan George (01:07:54.442)
Yeah.
Ryan George (01:08:04.124)
Alright, and then last question. So, Sinek, I’ll start with you. Why do you think it’s become cool to be a geek?
cinik (01:08:12.594)
I don’t know, probably for the same reasons it’s become cool to become a OnlyFans creator or porn star. People just love flesh, baby. And I’m not talking about boobs and a T&A, I’m talking about the guts hanging out from under your t-shirts. I mean, you go to Comic-Con and, uh… Nah, I mean… I think it’s just one of these niche fads that, uh, you know, is swung around. Everybody wants to be a part of everything at one time or another and, um…
[email protected] (01:08:20.086)
Ha ha ha.
Ryan George (01:08:20.514)
Yeah.
Ryan George (01:08:24.469)
Yeah.
cinik (01:08:42.386)
I think it’s the availability of product with the internet and YouTube and everybody gets to experience it more where us poor souls needed to drag our asses into a comic book store to experience it at the beginning. And that’s probably why I think it’s reaching a broader audience so it has the ability to resonate with more people.
Ryan George (01:09:02.961)
Yeah, that’s good. I think there’s several other ways to look at it. I can feel like in some ways, it’s like our modern kind of mythology. It’s also like we
I don’t know if it’s just that we have so much, especially in our society, or if it’s just that as a culture, like we export pop culture, and pop culture and nostalgia seem to be just the biggest things in our worlds, and in our world now. And I think, yeah, I guess with the internet, with being able to access, have access to everything and anything, nostalgia becomes such a big thing that it’s like we are all into what we were into when we were young. And I guess, yeah, the question is, why is it cool to have a bunch of toys?
Like why is it okay for, you know, like why has it become cool to kind of be a geek? And one thing I did hear that was the same as like, yeah, it kind of makes sense. It’s like that all the guys that write all of, all of our favorite shows all played D and D like when they were kids. And so it’s kind of like an extension of that, but I’ll, I’ll pose that to you. Just, why do you think it’s become cool to be a geek?
[email protected] (01:09:55.99)
Yeah
[email protected] (01:10:02.737)
I think that I’m gonna look at it in a practical way that yeah obviously a lot of the writers and the creators all grew up with that sensibility but I think that the powers that be the evil empires said wait a minute there’s money in this so we have to make it sexy and that’s exactly what they did so how do you make Dungeons and Dragons sexy?
Game of Thrones. How do you make sorcery, magic, sexy Harry Potter, which in a weird way it is. How do you…
how do you take these things that were sort of like geeky and outcasty and make it sexy and make it cool for massive consumption? Well, that’s how you do it. You get good looking actors, you make it either uber violent, you make it very clever, you have, you know, you put big budgets behind it. And that’s exactly what happened. And now everyone, you know, has sort of jumped on the bandwagon.
[email protected] (01:11:10.455)
was like sort of outcasts, he’s like, Oh, this stuff, you know, it’s like, oh, you were, you know, you got beat up in school for that. It’s like, well, now everyone’s into that even, you know, you know, there’s so much of it, like, in like anime, I remember when we were kids, it was sort of like, you know, people who were into that, that was, you know, their sort of thing. Now it’s, you know, obviously, it took new levels with Pokemon. And it just, you know, it exploded from there and became sexy and cool.
And so, you know, that’s it. And then comes the franchises and then comes everything. And yeah, that’s how you do it. You put the machine behind it.
Ryan George (01:11:52.94)
Oh, that’s fair. Good answer. Yeah. So, well, that was awesome. I mean, of course, I would like to thank ChatGPT for a combination of questions that were, some were interesting, some Justin hated, some were deep. But a solid, solid start. But, you know, hopefully we won’t have too many ChatGPT run episodes in the future. Although it would be funny if we had ChatGPT write the AI episode.
[email protected] (01:12:02.269)
Haha, yeah.
[email protected] (01:12:09.204)
Yeah.
Ryan George (01:12:18.292)
you know, like would it paint itself in a good light? Would it actually ask the real moral, you know, questions or hard hitting questions of itself? Yeah, it does get very meta very quickly. But yeah, I wanna thank you guys. This was awesome, it was a lot of fun. And you know, solid start to this new Revamped Portable Hole podcast. So Justin, why don’t you take us away? Wait, how do I go? I will edit this. How do we go into that?
[email protected] (01:12:27.065)
That starts getting very meta.
[email protected] (01:12:43.181)
So as.
[email protected] (01:12:49.333)
You see…
cinik (01:12:49.678)
How about just till until next time like we used to do in Cidic and then he does the whole skit.
Ryan George (01:12:51.9)
Okay, got it. Okay, okay. Yeah.
But yeah, I’ll do that over.
Ryan George (01:13:01.749)
This was a lot of fun. This is really awesome. So Justin until next time
[email protected] (01:13:02.093)
All right, so you.
[email protected] (01:13:08.285)
Watch out for the hole.
Ryan George (01:13:13.182)
I wanted to see-