Cloves and Fedoras: Ty thinks you should give "I was there Too" a listen

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little known pieces of pop culture.  Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of undiscovered gems that must be known.

As with most people my age (let's say millennial) podcast are huge. They have a podcast for everything. From sports to comedy to food to politics and so on. It's all covered. I'm here to tell you about my new favorite podcast,  "I Was There Too". It's part of Earwolf's new sister network Wolfpop. Every two weeks Matt Gourley, who has been featured on other podcasts such as "James Bonding" and "SuperEgo". Matt interviews actors and actresses that have played semi small to bit part roles in classic movies. He's done 14 episodes so far and his guests have included, Paul F Tompkins from "There Will Be Blood", Ricco Ross from "Aliens", Greg Proops from "Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace", Peter Berkrot from "Caddyshack", Doug Benson from "Captain EO", the passengers from the bus in "Speed", Johnny Williams from "Goodfellas", Paul Rust from "Inglorious Basterds", Eileen Dietz from "The Exorcist", Jenette Goldstein from "Aliens", "T2", and "Titanic", DC Pierson from "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", Stephen Toblowsky from "Groundhog Day", and most recently, Diane Franklin from "Better Off Dead". All the episodes are great, even better for people who are fans of the movies. A couple of my favorites are, Doug Benson, Paul Rust and Peter Berkrot. Listening to Doug Benson talk about how odd Michael Jackson was on set to his(Doug Benson) exploits as a dancer in the movie are pretty funny. Paul Rust, who plays one of the grunts, talking about how cool and calm both Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino were give me even more respect for the two of them. And then there's Peter Berkrot AKA the kid who had the rake pushed against his neck by Bill Murray's Carl Spackler while telling him about caddying for the Dalai Lama, is excellent. According to him, most of Bill Murray's speech was improvised. That's incredible! But, my favorite episode so far is last weeks with Diane Franklin from "Better Off Dead". I'm a HUGE fan of that movie. My brother showed it to me when I was in my early twenties and I still quote it to this day. The movie holds up very well too. For those of you who don't know who Diane Franklin is she played the French foreign exchange student, Monique Junot Diane's character becomes John Cusack's love interest in the movie. Her stories range from her close friendship with John Cusack to, the fact that the director Savage Steve Holland wanted her character to not only have a French accent, but a lisp as well. Thankfully they got rid of the lisp before filming. It's a great episode of a wonderful podcast. Each episode is about an hour long which is a perfect amount of time in the podcast world. Their only 14 episodes in and it's bi weekly, so there's plenty of time for everyone to catch up. Give it a listen to, especially if you're a big time movie buff and enjoy.

Ty

Ty is the pop culture editor for Seed Sing.  He recommends other great Savage Steve Holland such as

Is Tom Brady the biggest disgrace of an athlete ever? Ty gives an opposing view

Editors note: Seed Sing was founded on the principle that everyone deserves to have their voices heard.  In our brief history I never thought we would find ourselves defending Tom Brady against the onslaught of the idiotic sports media.  It is also important to note that no one at Seed Sing lives in the greater Boston area.  We are not here to absolve Tom Brady.  We are here to expose the ridiculousness of the NFL and its sycophants in the sports media.

RD Kulik

I guess since everyone else is giving their take on "deflategate", AKA the dumbest. most fabricated story ever invented, I will give my take as well.I will give at least a few more words than I just said. I don't understand the outrage over some under inflated footballs. When this story first broke before the Super Bowl I thought it would be over and done with in a snap. Boy was I wrong. I suppose ESPN needed to fill coverage for the week in between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, so they brought up "deflategate" constantly. It was to the point of annoyance. So annoying in fact, I stayed away from all ESPN channels until after the Super Bowl.

So the Super Bowl is played, a story comes out that only one of the twelve balls was under inflated and the Patriots were the champs. Time to move on, right? Well, as of May Sixth 2015, the story is back and bigger than ever. All the lead ins on all the sports channels are about "deflategate" again. On one channel you have pundits showing you email and texts exchanges between Tom Brady and a staffer about under inflating footballs. On another, does this tarnish Tom Brady and Bill Belichek's legacy? And on another, the Patriots are cheaters and will always be cheaters. 

Here's one take not to many people are saying, WHO CARES! So what if some footballs were under inflated. No, it doesn't tarnish the Patriots or Tom Brady or Bill Belichek. As readers of this site now know, I'm a Packers fan, so don't take this as me defending the Patriots. I could care less. I remember stories coming out when this first broke, from former football players, all quarterbacks, saying they used to have balls altered to their liking. This wasn't a big deal in the 60s 70s 80s or 90s. Why is it such a big deal now? Is that the reason the Colts got beat by 38 points? Why would the Patriots feel the need to do anything to the balls anyway? They were the far superior team. The fact that this is such a big story is complete nonsense. The NFL has much bigger fish to fry. Issues like domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, steroid use and the most appalling of all, their commissioner. Roger Goodell is by far the worst commissioner that I've seen in my thirty two years watching sports. He needs to go, he is the problem. He doesn't care for the well being of players or coaches. All he cares about is lining his own pockets and helping all the rich owners get richer. He's a joke. Unfortunately, until he's relieved of his duties, stupid stories like "deflategate" will get more publicity than the real problems that need to be addressed in the NFL.

The county's most popular sport is suffering because of Roger Goodell and it will only get worse. Much, much worse.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for Seed Sing.  He likes watching football, and dislikes watching the commissioner.

The Ohio Problem

As goes Ohio, so goes the nation.

That is where the problem begins for people trying to run for office in Ohio.  I have worked as a campaign consultant for nearly ten years to a number of candidates and causes in Ohio, I have always encountered the same problems. The Ohio Problem (as I have decided to call it) consists of the state gaining outside media influence and money every presidential election due to its perceived electoral importance.  This extra attention every four years causes the most talented, and professional campaign experts to migrate towards the high profile state and federal races.  This leaves mostly inexperienced campaign workers and volunteers to work on the local races. The existence of the Ohio Problem causes political amateurism and laughable local governance for a state that seems to always be front and center during a presidential election year.

What makes Ohio so attractive to the national political establishment?  It begins with basic demographics.  Ohio ranks as the seventh most populous state, and it is overwhelmingly white (over 82%). The median income in Ohio sits below the national average.  The unemployment rate sits slightly above the national rate.  This all shows that the residents of Ohio are usually the target of national political platform messaging.  There is no major demographic swing to alienate the residents on national politics.  The voters of Ohio turn out in record numbers for the presidential election, and their turnout in other years is usually a record low.

Why do Ohioans care so little for the local elections?  This begins with the local political parties.  Many of the same people have been in charge of their local county parties for almost a decade.  In Hamilton County (Cincinnati), the local democratic party has engaged in such amateurism as in endorsing ten candidates for a nine member city council, having their endorsed congressional candidate lose the primary to an unknown person who was not running an active campaign, and running candidates over and over again who have no ability to win the race.  These actions would get most party bosses tossed after one election cycle (I have seen this happen in Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois). These party leaders keep their jobs in spite of their failures. The response to the parties failures is to remind critics that Obama carried the county the last two elections. There is no interest or fidelity to the local governance of the people they are supposed to serve.  The strong republican area of Butler County, where the Speaker of the House John Boehner calls home, does not fare much better.  The local Democratic party has on occasion attempted to try new things and bring in new people. In 2012 there were some new candidates with broader appeal to the strong conservative voters of the area.  Before the end of May the party had lost any momentum because candidates were not fundraising, people in the party were looking for signs and t-shirts(again this was in May, nowhere near election time), and most of the resources were being hoarded by a small group of candidates. During strategy meetings the top priorities were knocking on doors, and getting people to vote for President Obama and Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown (both Obama and Brown received around 37% of the vote).  This showed a lack of interest in the local races in service to the national party.

Once the 2012 election had passed, many of the campaign consultants had moved on to other jobs.  A large percentage leave the political campaign world.  The ones left over are usually underpaid (if they get paid at all) and lose any loyalty towards the local party bosses.  While all campaign workers divest themselves from the system, all the county party leaders stay put to repeat the same mistakes in the next election cycle.  The next mistake turned out to be the colossal failure of the Ohio Democratic party during the 2014 state elections. Little known, and barely vetted, Cuyahoga County executive Ed Fitzgerald was tapped as the Democratic nominee for governor. Fitzgerald was going against incumbent Republican Governor John Kasich.  The poll numbers for Governor Kasich were trending below 50%.  The state Democratic Party brought in out of state consultants to run Fitzgerald's campaign.  There seemed to be no local campaign experts, because none were groomed during the 2012 elections.  By the end of August 2014, Fitzgerald's campaign imploded (go see for yourself,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_FitzGerald).  The entire state ticket went down with Fitzgerald's failed candidacy.   Since the local parties went all in with the Fitzgerald campaign, their backyard races all suffered.  Once the dust settled on the disaster of the 2014 campaign, the head of the state Democratic party stepped down, and that was the only high profile resignation.  The local party leaders were once again in charge of the next election cycle.  The 2016 election looks to be run the exact same way, all the resources moving to secure the state for the presidential candidate at the expense of local officials. 

Ohio has twice gone to President Obama, yet the state is overwhelmingly controlled by the Republican party.  Every day the citizens of Ohio watch women's health freedom get stripped away, LGBT rights sit well behind the rest of the nation, and local tax dollars being sent to the state capital so the richest can get more tax breaks.  The Ohio Problem is what causes residents below the median national income and above the national unemployment rate to .vote against their own interests.

Ohio is not alone in this issue.  The same could be said about Pennsylvania, Florida, and to a lesser extent Michigan.

The Ohio Problem must be solved.

RD Kulik

Head Editor

Let me respectfully explain why your team stinks: Sports Thoughts by Ty

The NBA playoffs have just recently started the second round. I'm an Oklahoma City Thunder fan and since they're not in the playoffs this year I didn't think I'd be paying as close attention as I have been. I was racking my brain the other night trying to figure out why I was invested even though my team is not playing. It finally hit me, after thirty plus years of watching sports, not only do I like rooting for my team, but I also enjoy rooting against teams that I don't care for. I've never liked any team in any sport from Los Angeles, so rooting against the Clippers was a natural fit. It doesn't hurt that they are the most arrogant, whiny, good for nothing team that's achieved ZERO in their history. They complain about every single call, either for or against them and it's gotten to the point of embarrassment to watch them. They are a very good team and if they remained focused on the goal of winning a championship that would be fine. But, the constant complaining is utterly ridiculous. Also, Chris Paul is the dirtiest player the NBA has had since John Stockton. I always assumed, at least it's the unwritten rule in my weekly pick up basketball games, that it was out of line to hit a guy in the groin region. But, apparently Chris Paul and before him, John Stockton, get off on doing this. There's video evidence of these two being repeat offenders.

My hatred of my teams rivals has bled into other sports that I watch. I'm a St. Louis Cardinals fan, so I enjoy seeing the Cubs out of the race by September. I'm a Green Bay Packers fan, so seeing the Bears being led by Jay Cutler is phenomenal entertainment. But the one sport that's been very challenging to me is college football. I'm a die hard Michigan Wolverines fan. Some of my earliest memories as a child are watching Wolverine games with my father. Being a fan as a teenager was great since 10 wins was a given, as was beating Michigan State and all the UM and The University of Ohio State, as former "road scholar" Terrelle Pryor called it while committing there on national TV, were hyper competitive. But recently it's been much tougher on me. The Michigan State stuff will pass because, as the old saying goes, even the sun shines on a dog's butt some days, so that doesn't worry me. But The University of Ohio State(I will only refer to them as this because it's hilarious) is going to be tough. It will be tough that is, until Urban Meyer has another fake heart episode and has to retire again, or until he recruits another convicted murderer(that's right folks, he recruited Aaron Hernandez to Florida when he was coach there and only suspended him when the NCAA put his feet to the fire). Until that time though, it's going to be tough. The University of Ohio State is a talented team and I'm one of the skeptics about Jim Harbaugh. I hope he sticks around long enough to fix the program where he once was the star quarterback. All I'm basically trying to say is, it's okay to hate watch sports like I do. It took me thirty years to realize this and it makes me feel better. So, Thunder Up, Go Cards, Go Pack Go and most importantly, Go Blue.

Ty

Ty Kulik is the Pop Culture Editor for Seed Sing.  He does not like that his brother lives in Ohio, his least favorite sports state.

Cloves and Fedoras: What We Do in the Shadows reviewed

What We Do in the Shadows is a 2014 "mockumentary" that follows the lives of three vampires and room mates in modern day New Zealand. The vampires, played by Jermaine Clement(Jermaine, Flight of the Conchords), Taika Waitti(director of many episodes of Flight of the Conchords) and Jonathan Brugh(first co starring role), have to deal with many modern day dilemmas that are very foreign to them since they've been around for centuries. This has to be one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. One of the opening scenes is a round table discussion of the three room mates arguing over their chore wheel. It's so funny, I was literally laughing out loud in the theater. To see these three argue over who has to clean the blood soaked dishes is priceless. The back stories of the three are pretty great as well. Vladislav(Jermaine Clement) is a 862 year old self proclaimed sex symbol and a world class hypnotizer. Although since his run in with "The Beast" his powers aren't as great as they once were. Viago is a 379 year old "fancy pants" vampire. He's concerned with keeping the house clean and organized and making his victims feel safe before he feeds on them. And then there's Deacon, my favorite, a 183 year old former Nazi vampire. His explanation of fleeing to New Zealand after the war is uproarious. Along the way you meet other vampire friends, some victims and a great back and forth between the vampires and their enemies, the werewolves. They make a human friend during the movie that helps them with all the modern technology. Things like cell phones and Facebook being taught to them is incredibly funny. If you're a fan of the Flight of the Conchords TV show, you'll love this movie and if you're a fan of comedy in general, you'll get a kick out of it as well. This film is HIGHLY recommended. Enjoy

Ty

Ty Kulik is the Pop Culture editor for Seed Sing.  He does not smoke any kind of cigarette and never wears a fedora

The immortality and immorality of event sports

Saturday May 2nd, 2015 was like any other day in sports.  That is it was like any other day in sports prior to the rise of cable television in the early 1980's.  I am old enough to barely remember those days, but I do remember boxing and horse racing being a very big deal.  The idea of event sports, things like horse racing, boxing, the Olympics, kept people around their television when not much else is on.  These were also the days where This Week In Baseball, and ABC's Wide World of Sports were being shown alongside Gabe Kaplan's exploits on Battle of the Network Stars.  Today our event sports seem to be on the decline in favor of the sports who follow a regular season and have timed stories that the increasingly lazy sports media can regurgitate.

Yesterday was different.  Everyone seemed to be interested in the latest super horse at the Kentucky Derby and the latest boxing fight of the century.  There was little talk of a boring and played out NFL draft, an epic NBA playoffs game seven, or the tired Yankees-Red Sox rivalry series.  Most people were talking about if American Pharaoh can win the triple crown and if "good guy" Manny Pacquiao can beat the villian that is Floyd Mayweather.  Buried below these discussions on who would win there was another discussion about how these sports are archaic and have real moral issues.  Horse racing has always been plagued by animal  abuse, drug allegations (surprising for the horses and the jockeys), and people having to watch horses being euthanized on the track (never forget Hillary Clinton's favorite in the 2008 Kentucky Derby http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Belles.   As for the discussions about the latest fight of the century, I am going to post the comments from Ty Kulik when we were discussing the fight yesterday afternoon:

Tonight marks the six years in the making boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather has ducked this fight for years(he was/is afraid of Pacquiao in my opinion) and now sees this as a fitting time since Manny Pacquiao may be past his prime. I see this fight being very boring, as Mayweather will do his patent defense, defense, defense attack approach that will wear Pacquiao out, as he will be on the attack the whole fight. I predict a unanimous decision to go Mayweather's way, unfortunately. What really bothers me about this, besides the fact that it's almost a decade to late, is Floyd Mayweather's attitude towards this fight. He's a money grubbing, wife and girlfriend beating, crybaby that won't allow press that has written or said anything bad about him to be part of the coverage. He's the epitome of a joke in my book and for a sport that, for all intents and purposes is dead, this fight is only about the gambling. I will be rooting very hard for a Pacquiao win, but I just don't see it in the cards.

Horse racing and boxing events will never be dead.  The interest due to how infrequent the big event happens will always capture the minds, and wallets, of the public.  Their issues will continue to haunt us.  It is up to us that we remember in our enjoyment, we are the ones with the power to create conversation about the issues.  Our conversation will be the catalyst for the positive change we need.

I was never able to find any evidence of these issues with Gabe Kaplan, so I left Battle of the Network Stars out of our discussion on immorality in event sports.

RD Kulik

Head Editor

Cloves and Fedoras: Starred Up Reviewed

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little know pieces of pop culture.  Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of little gems that must be known.

I recently watched a little known movie from 2013 called Starred Up. The movie is about a troubled teen named Eric, played by Jack O'Connell(Unbroken), who is sent to an adult prison where he sees his father(Ben Mendelsohn, The Place Beyond the Pines) for the first time in 14 years. The movie opens with silence, you see a young man unloaded from a prison truck and he's being checked into a new prison. Upon arriving to his new bunk, he immediately makes enemies. He fights with an inmate whom he thinks is stealing his lighter. The inmate is so badly beaten that Eric believes he may have killed him. He takes him to the infirmary where Eric is met by a SWAT team. They proceed to fight him and in the midst of the fight, a counselor named Oliver (Rupert Friend, Mr.Wickham in Pride and Prejudice) tells the SWAT team to stop and that he wants to help him. Oliver takes him to his therapy sessions that he holds in the prison. There he meets some inmates that teach him that talking through the anger and that boxing properly can help him curb his appetite for aggression. His father is not pleased with his new group of inmate allies. He wants Eric to do his time and get out of prison so he can live his life. He doesn't want him making friends or joining gangs, just do his time and get out. Eric fights his father’s wishes and continues to train and take therapy. Some shocking revelations come to light involving his father and his father's crew, as well as some of the prison staff that I won't divulge as I feel people need to see this movie. There were times watching this movie I felt like I was watching a documentary. The prison and actors seemed so real. Jack O'Connel is a tour de force in his role. He's phenomenal to say the least. I highly, highly recommend this film. 

Ty

Ty Kulik is the Pop Culture editor of Seed Sing.  He does not smoke any kind of cigarette or wear a fedora.

Coming Soon

We are still trying to figure out what is good and what is not so good.  To be continued...

Happy workers day. Allow the Seeds to Sing and take root

Hello all,

Welcome to Seed Sing.  We wanted to launch our new endeavor on National Workers day to begin the discussion that will lead to our society becoming equal and beneficial  for all. Things are not equal for all.  No one can deny this.  At SeedSing we want to get the discussion going with solution oriented plans.  Join us in the discussion and look to this space for many interesting, controversial, and society changing ideas.

RD Kulik

Head Editor