"OJ: Made in America" is the Best Film of the Year

Being the pop culture expert that I am, I binged watched all of "OJ: Made in America" this past week so I could review it for everyone. That was my thought going into the movie. I figured, since I do write about sports, movies, music, all things pop culture, I would watch this movie that everyone was talking about, just to say that I saw it. Good or bad, I was going to watch the monster film for you.

A funny thin happened when I watched that first hour and a half, I was blown away at how perfect a documentary "OJ: Made in America" truly is. I was fascinated. I couldn't wait to watch all 5, hour and a half parts of the movie. I wished and hoped that nap and quiet time came quickly for my kids so I could get back to this tremendous movie. By the way, I will call it a movie from here on out. I have read, and heard, that in some places it was shown in its entirety, so that qualifies it as a movie for me. Some may call it a mini series, I call it a movie. It was made as a movie, and it unfolded like a movie, so it is a movie.

Anyway, "OJ: Made in America", may be the greatest documentary ever made. It had everything in it that one could want. There was triumph, tragedy, love story, horror, downfalls, everything one could want from your typical movie. The movie started out talking about young OJ, about his childhood. They mentioned that he was a great athlete, but he was also a troublemaker. He did stuff that most kids do, but he would always push a little further. We also came to find out that his mom raised him, and that his father was a homosexual. That really made OJ an angry, rough and tumble kid. He felt he had to overcompensate on a lot of things.

As OJ grew older, he excelled at football. He went to junior college for 2 years, then to USC. We all know about his triumphs at USC. He was unstoppable. He won the Heisman. He made USC great again. But, amidst all this, he seemed to be a fame hungry, angry young man. When his first wife, Margarite, was interviewed, they asked what he was like away from the field and she said he was very intense and focused. How many 20 or 21 year old people are described as intense? That was the first moment I saw during the movie that made my head shake. His first wife looked legitimately scared when she had to answer questions.

After leaving USC, Simpson was drafted by the Bills. He was unhappy. Buffalo was cold, they had a bad team and an even worse coach. But, when a new coach came in, he excelled because this coach featured him. Only his fourth year in the league, but he felt that he needed to be the focal point of the offense. Sure, he rushed for over 2,000 yards,  but the Bills never won a title with him. And while, at least on the surface, he seemed to like all his teammates and coaching staff, that all may have been an act.

One thing I gathered from this movie was, OJ was very good at turning the switch to being a nice guy when he needed to. He was an actor before he became an actor. He eventually left football to pursue said acting career. This is where his life, and his choices, kind of start to go off the rails. He got a lot of jobs because of his name, but he was not a very good actor. He tried too hard. His co stars and directors didn't really like him. He wasn't a real actor, he was a pitchman. It wasn't until the "Naked Gun" movie that he became a "respectable" actor. He was funny on screen, but again, he was a pain to work with. While doing all the Hollywood stuff, that was where he met Nicole Brown. Now, prior to meeting Nicole Brown, Simpson was asked many, many times by leaders of the black community and the NAACP to speak out on all the problems in the 60's and 70's, and OJ would tell them that "I'm not black, I'm OJ". Talk about your classic self inflating asshole. Back to the Hollywood phase. I mentioned the movies and the acting and Nicole Brown. He saw her one night, said he was going to marry her, and he almost immediately started dating her. Mind you, he was still married when he started to date Brown.

The relationship between Nicole and OJ, as we all know now, was torturous. He was abusive. She was scared all the time, but she was hypnotized by him. OJ had a hold on her. He monitored her movement. He made sure she was never very far from him. He became extremely abusive. He started to become the monster that he always had inside of him. When Brown finally got the nerve to actually leave him, that pushed him over the edge. Simpson began to stalk her. He would show up at restaurants and family gatherings that he wasn't invited to. He would watch her when she would be with other men. He would threaten her and the other men. He was getting angrier by the second.

This anger all came to a head the night that he, and yes, I believed he did it when I was 12, so my mind has not changed, decided to end her and Ron Goldman's life. I one hundred percent believe that he acted alone and he, and his knife, took the lives of 2 innocent people. The monster inside finally came out. He couldn't push it down anymore. What he did to Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman is disturbing and scary. OJ Simpson is a murderer, plain and simple. Then, how much more of an admission of guilt can you have than a suicide note and a chase down a huge highway in LA? That should have been more than enough to put him away.

When he finally went back to his house, he was taken to jail, but the story did not end there as it should. We all know about the trial. We all know the saying, "if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit". We all know that the decision to have him try on the glove was a dumb move. We all know that this trial was rigged from the start. Even the jurors they interviewed have admitted that they let a guilty man go free. But, there were a few things I didn't realize from the trial. Johnnie Cochran and his team of lawyers turned this trial into a race war. It wasn't about murder, they made it about race. When the jury went to his house to check stuff out, they defense team changed photos to make it look like OJ only had African American friends. This was not the case, one of his lawyers admitted this. The photos he had hanging were of himself and only white people. Just like before, OJ never said he was black, he said he was OJ. But, when he and his team of lawyers realized they could use race, OJ not only allowed it, he ran with it. Mark Fuhrman, who is a monster himself, became the focal point of a trial that he should have never even been that big a deal of. When that tape surfaced of him using racial epitaphs, people forgot that OJ was on trial for murder. They simply focused on one racist cop in the LAPD. As I said, Fuhrman is a monster, but he should have not been the scapegoat. Johnnie Cochran would have never admitted this, but he completely played, and used the race card to his advantage to get a murderer off. This was all admitted by his team of lawyers during the movie. It was even revealed that after the jury was selected, OJ said to his team of lawyers, and I quote, "if this jury doesn't get me off, maybe I did do it", what a monster. I don't understand how guys like Johnnie Cochran, Rob Shapiro, F Lee Bailey, anyone on his "dream team" of lawyers, could sleep at night, or look at themselves in the mirror without being disgusted. Marcia Clark, and even more so, Christopher Darden, did a much, much better job of prosecuting this murderer, but they will be forgotten because they didn't win the trial. The way OJ's "dream team" attacked Darden was gross and shady. They should be ashamed of themselves. Darden was/is a great lawyer, and he did almost everything correct in the case, with the lone exception of having OJ try on the glove in court. That was a crucial error that cost them the case, in my opinion.

Once OJ was found not guilty, his life spiraled even further. He got custody of his two kids he had with Brown, but he was not a good father. The Goldman family kept bringing cases to court to try and get OJ to admit that he did it. They won the civil suit, but that was just a piece of paper stating they won. They didn't get money or an apology from OJ. He hid things from them. He was ordered to pay 33 million dollars, but he found ways around it. None of that mattered because none of that would bring their son and brother home. The Brown family was still terrified of him. They tried to get him out of their lives but they couldn't because of the kids. As his life got weirder and wilder, OJ started to do cocaine regularly and started to hang out with thugs. He never saw his kids. His friends who believed he was innocent, they changed their minds as time went on. OJ became erratic. He would go on binges. He wasn't getting acting jobs anymore. He was becoming a joke. He even wrote a book entitle, "If I Did It", which was basically an admission of guilt, but he needed the money and the fame.

This disaster of a life came to a head when he tried to get back some memorabilia at a Las Vegas casino hotel. He attacked collectors, stole his stuff back and used force and threats with a firearm. This was what finally put him in jail. He got caught because he is an idiot. The Las Vegas judicial system put him away for 33 years. That seems harsh, but remember, he got away with a double murder. Karma is real people.

I mean, I could go on and on and on about this movie. It is so, so good and I urge everyone to watch it. You don't have to be a sports fan to enjoy it. If you like sports, sure, it makes it that much better, but if you like mysteries and crime dramas, it's right up there with those as well. I do not know if "OJ: Made in America" is eligible for the Oscars, and do not care what the dumb Academy Awards rules are, it should win every single one that it is up for. This is the best movie I have seen in quite some time, and it is the best movie of the year. I know we still have six months left in 2016, but this is the best, hands down. Ezra Edelman has created something that will stand the test of time. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. In his opinion one hour of "American Crime Story: The People vs OJ Simpson" felt ten times longer than the entirety of "OJ: Made in America". Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Chicago Cubs, Aroldis Chapman, and Our Shame in Forgetting about Domestic Violence

How much more of their lovable identity will Cubs sell out?

There was a pretty big trade that just happened a few days ago in baseball. The Cubs, who have the best record in baseball, just acquired Aroldis Chapman from the Yankees for 4 minor leaguers. On the surface, this is a slam dunk trade for the Cubs. They did not have to give up any current major league players, and they got one of the hardest throwing closers in baseball history. Sure, he has control issues, RD can attest to this (ed note: he does), but he throws 105 mph. I don't care about control, that will scare even the best of hitters.

While it's all peachy in Chicago right now, and if they do not win the World Series now, they may never, I have a few problems with this deal. Let's get the minor problem out of the way first. The Cubs, and Theo Epstein, have always talked about building from the farm system and developing players. They did that last year to the tune of getting swept in the NLCS, but the team was mostly made up of players from the Cubs minor league system. Then, this offseason, the Cubs, and Theo Epstein, decided to eschew the whole build from within motto, and they went out and signed most of the top free agents. They got Ben Zobrist, Jason Heyward, they traded away Starlin Castro for some young assets, they signed John Lackey, they basically changed 50 percent of their lineup with top of the line free agents. I don't mind teams doing this, in fact, more power to you if you can, but don't tell me that you are building from within. That is not the case when the middle of your infield is made up of free agents, your new right fielder is a free agent signing, your third starter is a free agent, you cannot use the build from within motto if you sign a whole new team. Sure, they have Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber from the farm, but even Dexter Fowler was a trade, or free agent signing. They cannot say that this team was built from within, that is patently false. They went out and got big name free agents and that put this Cubs team over the top. This is not a team built from within, this is a team built on free agents and trades for big names.

The Cubs have become the Yankees of the NL by the amount of money they have spent the past 2 years on free agency. Even last year, they went out and spent a ton of money to sign Jon Lester, and made a very shady move in how they hired one of the best managers in baseball, Joe Maddon. Like I said, this is not a team built from the farm system, save for Bryant and Schwarber, and I'm sure there is one or two more guys that are contributors, but nothing like the free agents they've picked up the last two years. No more "we are built from our minor league" retort from the Cubs, I don't want to hear it.

Then, a few days ago, they traded away three of their top minor leaguers to acquire Chapman. Once again, they dipped into the farm system and traded some of their top prospects away for a much coveted, well established reliever. They did not draft and bring up Chapman from the minors, they traded for him and he has been a pro reliever for 4 or 5 years now. He is the hardest thrower in all of baseball. He's established. The Cubs are not a team built from their minor leaguers, they are a team built with star free agents.

The second, and more important problem that this Chapman trade brings, is the fact that Chapman had his first trade this offseason to the Dodgers called off because he was accused of domestic violence. He was still a Cincinnati Red until the Yankees decided to take a chance on him. After he signed with the Yankees, he was suspended by the MLB for 30 games for his domestic violence accusation. So, after getting one trade rescinded, then getting suspended, Chapman looked like a bad decision. He was all but forgotten about because he was accused of domestic violence. People who read my stuff know that I do not tolerate domestic violence. It's a disgusting and disturbing act done by disgusting and disturbing people. Anyone that puts hands on someone smaller than them, or a loved one, is a monster. That is one of the worst things that a grown person to do to someone else. Domestic assaulters are garbage people.

The real sad thing is that after Chapman's 30 game suspension, he came back, was throwing his incredible heat, saving games for the sorry Yankees and it seemed all was forgiven. Channels like ESPN were praising Chapman's heat. They seemed to have forgotten that he was accused of domestic violence. This as just like the Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, Richie Incognito and Hope Solo stuff. These monsters were all accused of domestic assault, but since they are good at sports, ESPN never talked about it. They only showed the highlights and talked about how they "overcame adversity". What a crock. When Chapman was doing his first press conference with the Cubs, a reporter asked him about the domestic assault charge, and he said, in not so many words, he didn't know what they were talking about. I'm sure a lot got lost in translation, but still, he should have had his interpreter fully explain the question to him, and he could have given a very cliché answer. But, he did not do that. He chose to say that he didn't understand or that he didn't want to answer the question. To me, that is an admission of guilt. That means he definitely did something. When I was watching "PTI" yesterday they had a story involving Chapman. They touched on the whole domestic assault issue, but they barely spoke on it. Being the fan boy that he is, Mike Wilbon blamed everything on the translator and said that this would not affect him cheering for Chapman. He is so blinded by his love for the Cubs that he is willing to look past the fact that Chapman is an abuser because he can throw a very fast fast ball. I guarantee that if any other team acquired Chapman, Wilbon would have chastised them for taking this guy. But since it's the Cubs, he is willing to look past any indiscretions. Co-host Tony Kornheiser also gave him a pass saying that, once he goes out there and hits 103 or 104 on the gun, the fans will forget and cheer for him.

Therein lies the problem with sports, fandom and journalists nowadays. They are willing to give these abusers 5, 6 or even 7 chances because they are very good at their sport. These people need to be banished from playing sports the moment they put their hands on a loved one. That is disturbing and gross and it shouldn't matter if you can throw a ball hard. Abusers need to be punished, not given multiple chances. It's a problem at all levels, even college athletics now. If someone is good at a sport, they are given a pass, and that is wrong. I don't care that Chapman can throw over 100 mph, I don't care the Adrian Peterson can rush for 1,500 yards a season, I don't care that Hope Solo is a good goaltender, they are all abusers. Don't forget that when you cheer on these people. Just remember when you watch and clap for them, they have a loved one, or ones, that are terrified that they will hit them when they get upset. This is a major problem in sports, giving abusers multiple chances, and it needs to stop now. It's disturbing and gross. The ESPN's of the world need to stop idolizing these abusers. They need to be condemned, not loved.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. If you are a victim of domestic violence, get help today. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest American Band Debate: Sonic Youth

SeedSing is filled with music lovers. We can not agree on who is the best band from the States. The Greatest American Band Debate will be a regular feature where we discuss and compare bands who started in the good old USA. If you have any suggestions of bands we should debate Contact us seedsing.rdk@gmail.com

So, it's Wednesday, and I'm going to get back to my regular writing schedule, so that means a new band is going to be nominated for the greatest American band. Today, I'm going to write about a band that has been on my mind for some time now. I didn't quite know how I was going to describe why I think this band belongs in the conversation, so I sat down and I have listened to a lot of their music for the past couple of weeks. Now, I'm going to talk about albums, or even particular songs, when explaining why I think this band is one of America's greatest. In fact, I'm going to talk about the members and, more importantly, their use of different sounds and effects. That is what made the band Sonic Youth so memorable and incredible.

Sonic Youth formed in 1981, the year before I was born, in New York. There were four of them, and looked kind of nerdy and, I bet many people thought they were a pop band, or were trying to be a punk band. Well, Thurston Moore, guitar and vocals, Kim Gordon, bass and vocals, Lee Ranaldo, guitar and vocals, and a plethora of drummers, most notably, Steve Shelley, were not a pop band. Or a punk band. Or, really, any genre of band. They would come out and perform some of the weirdest, wildest, trippiest and coolest sounding music, that almost no one had heard before. I know some people credit them, or lump them in with the "no wave" art scene, but they are the pioneers of noise rock. And more importantly, noise rock that was actually listenable. Other noise rock bands were, and are, like jam bands. They have no flow to their music. They use art as an excuse for why they are crappy. They have no band structure. But not Sonic Youth. They transformed noise rock. They made people want to hear more and more of it. They had structure. They had focus.

Kim Gordon is one of the better punk/noise rock/ rock singers that I have ever heard. She is also one hell of a bass player and a straight up rock and roller. Kim Gordon kicks ass. She is not only one of the greatest female musicians and singers of all time, she is just flat out one of the greatest singers and musicians of all time. Thurston Moore is an impeccable singer and song writer. He is also a great guitar player as well. He was kind of the heart and soul of Sonic Youth. He, along with Gordon, were the ones pushing the envelope and trying new things and they succeeded way more than not. Gordon and Moore were a match made in music heaven. No wonder they didn't get along behind the scenes. Two geniuses like that always end up fighting with each other. I know that they were married for almost 3 decades, 27 years I believe, but I can't imagine the type of bickering they did back stage. Lee Ranaldo is kind of the forgotten member of the band, but he was an integral part. He made some of the wildest sounds I had ever heard on guitar. He was the guy behind some of their iconic records and singles. He is a very under appreciated guitar player. Shelley, the most memorable drummer, was also very influential in their odd, yet intriguing sound. He had to keep the beat and add crazy fills that, had it been someone else, I don't think the band would have worked.

Let's get back to why I'm nominating them today. It is/was that sound that I keep mentioning. When I first heard Sonic Youth I was in middle school. I was starting to get into different music, pushing away from my pop-rap phase, and I was handed a few Sonic Youth records, most memorable for me, "Daydream Nation". That album was so weird and odd to me the first time I listened. I didn't have the brain capacity yet to understand why this was good. So, I stashed the record away and didn't revisit it until almost 10 years later, during my second year of college. My musical mind was much more vast and expansive and I figured I'd give Sonic Youth and "Daydream Nation" another shot. Boy am I glad that I did. I was hearing this unique, different sound from anything I ever listened to. It would start out as punk rock, turn to rock, turn into new wave, go back to punk rock, and finish with rock and some blues splashed in for good measure. Their time signatures were all over the place as well. Most bands do 3/4 or 4/4, those are the staples, but Sonic Youth was doing 5/7, 6/9, basically anything that wasn't the norm. It completely blew my mind. Then, the way they used effects on certain songs, incredible. They would throw all kinds of weird and wild distortion, loops, wah pedals, anything they could and it all worked.

The stuff Sonic Youth was doing back in the 80's and 90's was so ahead of its time. They don't need a genre or an era because their sound and their music is timeless. Well, it may not have flown in the 50's, but Sonic Youth could have been around in the 70's with psychadelia, the 80's with new wave, the 90's with grunge rock, or the 2000's as just an all around great band. Sonic Youth is an incredible band that, I feel, gets unfairly lumped in with 90's grunge. Sure, that is when they hit it big, but they are so much better and more experimental than any grunge band. I'd take Sonic Youth any day over grunge bands that I adore, like Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Both Pearl Jam and Nirvana are great, but they don't hold a card to the wonderfulness that is Sonic Youth.

Sonic Youth opened my mind to experimental music and to noise rock. I will be forever grateful to them for all the trippy music they have given me, and the world. Sonic Youth most definitely belongs in the greatest American band debate. Go listen to their stuff and try and tell me that you don't agree. Sonic Youth is awesome.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Make sure you check out all the bands we have featured as the Greatest American Band, and nominate one of your favorites (No Eagles allowed). Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty Watches Bar Rescue: The Blacklight District Edition

Turn the channel. Bar Rescue is about to start.

This past Sunday we had another episode of "Bar Rescue", and I'm here to review it today. This time around, Taffer only brought one "expert" with him because this place was only a bar. He brought along Phil Wills, who may be one of two "experts" that I can tolerate, because he is a "mixology" expert. He knows his drinks inside and out.

The crew traveled to a bar called The Blacklight District in Long Beach. This bar was a simple bar, but they also doubled as a punk rock, and only punk rock, music venue. The owner is a huge punk rock fan, and he figure, if I'm opening a bar, I may as well make it a music venue as well.

The beginning of this episode was a bit different than most. Most of the time the owner is talking about all the problems with the staff and the fact that they can't make money after they were raking it in when they first opened. This time around though, the owner wasn't really complaining, although he was 200,000 dollars plus in debt, he owed a friend of his 17,000 dollars on a loan, he was losing money and his bar would be gone in less than 2 months. He acted blasé and just seemed disinterested in his bar being rescued. He assumed that the show would give him the upgrades his bar needed, and build him an entire new kitchen because he wanted to start selling food. He must have thought that "Bar Rescue" was a hand out and not a reality show, that only fixes up bars, not completely refurnish and build new areas in the bar. The owner was also a total dickhead. He was making homophobic slurs towards his staff. He yelled at everyone that disagreed with him. He told people they were phonies if they didn't like punk rock.

When Taffer and crew came in to first talk to the owner of The Blacklight District, Taffer invited the bass player from an all time great punk band, The Vandals, to be one of his spies. When the owner of Blacklight District was told that this person played bass in a real life, successful punk band, he demeaned and insulted him. He told him he wasn't a real punk rocker because he didn't like his bar and because he was wearing a sweater. This guy was a real piece of work. He also constantly laughed in Taffer's and Wills' face at any suggestion they gave him. The staff all seemed willing, able and wanted to change so they could make money, but the owner, this was all a joke to him.

During the stress test, Taffer packed the place, as he always does, and while the staff was keeping up, and actually, doing a very good job, the owner, he was loafing around and when the band that "Bar Rescue" hired to play that night, he paid more attention to them than anything else, and the band was terrible. The acoustics in his bar where terrible too. The band sounded muffled and grumbly, and I know that I've said on this site more than once that I'm not a big punk rock fan, but this band was absolute and utter garbage. They sounded even worse when you put into account the very terrible sound quality the bar offered. Oh, and prior to the stress test, we got our second dead mouse of the season that the camera crew continued to keep the shot on for an uncomfortably long time. They kept showing it and making the staff look at it. It was gross and that is 2 of the 4 episodes so far that have shown a dead mouse. It never gets any easier to look it. It's still gross.

Anyway, after the stress test debacle, Taffer and Wills started to devise their plan to upgrade the bar and make the drinks more accessible to the community. They also had the idea to turn the place into a rock bar, not just punk rock. This episode was one of the few were I sided one hundred percent with everything Taffer and his "experts" wanted to do. Everything they talked about, for this particular bar, sounded perfect and money making. When Wills was training the staff on the new drink menu, they abandoned the kitchen idea early on, everyone was in, except for the owner. He laughed at the proposed new drink menu. He kept making more homophobic slurs regarding the drinks and directed some of them at Wills himself. The owner, as I have stated before, was a real piece of human garbage. He seemed to think that being "punk rock" meant to be an asshole. There was nothing likable about him at all. He was degrading, mean, ugly on the inside and out, a thief, a bad friend, an idiot and quite possibly the most stubborn person I've seen on "Bar Rescue".

This episode was different than most in that it is only the second time that I've seen where Taffer elected to not "rescue" the bar. He said, and I agree one hundred and ten percent with him, that this owner did not deserve their help. The owner didn't deserve help from anyone because he is a selfish douchebag. The staff at the end seemed to be quitting on him, and I hope they stuck with that decision. This guy is a shitty person who does not deserve success because of the way he treats people. I'm glad Taffer and crew walked out and didn't do anything to help out. I'm pretty sure that Blacklight District is out of business, and that is what that owner deserves. This was one of the few times that I have felt bad for Taffer, but he did the right thing by not helping this guy out. That is why he is the founding, and first, member of the late night hall of fame. Come back next week when I review the next episode.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He would definately go to a punk rock bar before one that specialized in easy listening soft rock of the 1970s. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The USA Men's Basketball Team may not be a Dream Team, but it will Still Easily Win the Gold in Rio

If Rio can build the rims, the US will dominate them.

Last night, and last week for that matter, Team USA basketball kicked off their preliminary games, en route to the 2016 Rio Olympics. I have watched both games, the first against Argentina and the second against China, and if they do not breeze to the gold medal, it will be a total and utter embarrassment.

I know the US doesn't have guys like LeBron James, Steph Curry, Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Anthony Davis and Kawhi Leonard, amongst other stars, but they still have Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Boogie Cousins, Kyrie Irving and a plethora of other future and current NBA all stars. The US is not hurting for talent when it comes to Olympic basketball. Sure, other foreign teams have some former and current pros, but it is nothing like what the US has. When they played Argentina the other night, I noticed that Manu Ginobli was playing. He is a great NBA player, and a possible hall of famer, but his best days were 4, or even 5 years ago. He is not the threat he once was to US basketball during Olympic competition. I didn't recognize anyone else playing for Argentina. When they played China last night, I saw one guy that looked familiar to me, but had it not been for NBATV, I would have not remembered that he played in the NBA for a few years. I don't even remember his name, and I just watched the game last night.

That US / China game last night was a complete bore to watch. I usually enjoy a good blowout, it makes the game that much less intense, but this was an absolute drubbing. Team USA won by 49 points, and it wasn't even that close. Team USA didn't shoot the three particularly well, but they didn't have to because they got to the basket at will, and China may be the worst shooting team in the entire Olympic field. They have size, but they cannot make a shot from 16 feet and out. And then, this happened to both Argentina and China, they have no one, and I mean NO ONE, that can guard players like KD, Draymond, Kyrie Irving or Boogie Cousins. KD, who is essentially a guard, is 7 feet tall. He can shoot over some of the best defenders in the world that are taller than him. I saw one play in the Argentina game where a guy under 6 feet was matched up with him on a switch and KD backed him down, and decided to shoot a fade away. The Argentine defender had no chance, and KD was laughing as he walked back down the court. Draymond is a total harbinger to what a lot of the international players see. He stands at 6'9, but he rebounds and defends like a center, and he can run the point. He will lead this team in assists one game, rebounds the next, drop a triple double in the third game, and for the hell of it, he may lead them in scoring in the gold medal game. Kyrie Irving is so much faster and such a better ball handler than any of his competition will have ever seen. He will get to the basket with little to no resistance and, now that he has a jumper, he will be able to shake bigger defenders for some of the most wide open jump shots anyone will have ever seen. Boogie Cousins is an absolute beast on the low block, and none of the international players will be able to contend with his size, his shockingly fast feet, his beautiful footwork in the post and he will out rebound anyone that comes his way. He may be a hot head, but he has seemed to have been able to keep a cool head in international competition.

After those guys, the US can throw Klay Thompson out there. He will lock down anyone on defense and he can shoot and drive with the best of them. They can throw Harrison Barnes at anyone. He is young, fast, plays defense and can get to the basket with ease. Jimmy Butler is on the team. He is another great defender that can score at the basket with some of the greatest players in the world. DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry come off the bench. They can both catch fire at any moment, and with the three point line being closer, they can score in bunches very, very quickly. Paul George is back. He is another threat outside or inside on offense, and he is a very good defender.

The only 2 guys that won't really scare anyone will be DeAndre Jordan and Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo, while he plays very well in the Olympics, is old, plays no defense and only wants to shoot threes. He's on this team because he is never going to win an NBA title, so at least, he will have a few gold medals when he retires. DeAndre Jordan is only on this team because they need at least 2 big men. He is an average defender and rebounder for his size. He is a terrible shooter and free throw shooter. He is a very sub par passer. All he is good for is alley oops, that's it.

Team USA, as I stated at the top, should breeze to a gold medal. I think there are only two teams that may give them a bit of a hard time, and by hard time I mean, Team USA will only win by 15 or 20 points, are Spain and France. Spain has been a thorn in the US side since the 21st century, but a lot of their players are older and breaking down. Sure, they have the Gasol brothers, but Pau Gasol is about a million years old and Marc Gasol, he is coming off an injury that ended his season. I'm not even one hundred percent sure he is playing in these Olympics. France has some solid, current NBA players, but 2 of the three "stars" are very old and getting slower. Tony Parker is the point guard, and while he is great, he is not ready to guard Kyrie Irving, DeMar DeRozan or Klay Thompson. And Thompson himself can lock him down on defense. Boris Diaw is one of the best passers in the league, and he may be the only guy that can guard Draymond in all of the Olympics, but he will be tasked with having to guard Boogie Cousins and being the guy that switches in pick and rolls onto KD, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, basically, any outside threat Team USA has, and they have a lot. Diaw is a very smart and capable defender, but he won't be able to get to that gear that he will need to, to keep up with those guys. Rudy Gobert is the wild card for France. He is an excellent rim protector and rebounder and a very capable low post scorer. He is also very young. But, how many block shot attempts is he really going to get when France and the US meet? I'm sure the coaching staff for Team USA will put together a game plan that all but eliminates the threat that Gobert brings, and I'm sure it will work. When you have the shooters that Team USA has, it is damn near impossible to stop them.

USA will, or at least should, win the gold medal and every game should be at least a 20 point margin of victory. I think a lot of summer league and D League teams would put up a better fight than some of the international competition will bring. This is going to be a bloodbath and one of the easiest gold medals the US will win in the upcoming Olympics. This is no 1992 "Dream Team", but it is nice to know that when 2/3 of the biggest stars in the game pull out of the Olympics, we can still field a team that is more than capable of breezing its way to a gold. I'll be watching every single blowout that I can, and if the US lets any team closer than 10 points, I would consider that a bummer. They should, and most likely will, crush everybody in Rio.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is sad that they could not find room for Christian Laettner on the team to bring back at least one Dream Teamer. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Day After: Republican National Convention Edition

Time to move this mess to Philadelphia

It is now official. Donald J. Trump is the official Republican Party nominee to be President of the United States. I never thought this would happen. Even today I am filled with confusion and apprehension. The ascension of the New York businessman, and reality television star, to being one of two assumed choices for President is a story for the history books. For four days in Cleveland Ohio, the country got to witness what the Trump Republican Party was all about. Last night, for over an hour, candidate Trump had the attention of the nation all to himself. No more debates with ten or more people. No more primaries or states needing to hold a caucus. No more wrong media analysis. The GOP of 2016 has been solidified, and now onward goes the campaign for victory on November 8th.

The 2016 Republican Party National Convention was feared by many, and hoped by some, to be one of chaos and fighting. There was an expectation of political fisticuffs in the convention hall, and real violence from protesters who had descended on Cleveland. The Never Trump movement had one more chance to derail the nomination. Stories of the 1976 Republican Convention, and the Ronald Reagan supporters trying to block Gerald Ford's nomination by changing the rules at the last minute, were being linked to what may go on in Cleveland. The Cleveland police were requesting help from other cities. Public officials wanted to suspend the right to open carry firearms. The nominee himself was promising an exciting and non-traditional list of speakers. I for one was not looking forward to the violence and hate, but was intrigued by what a showman like Donald Trump could pull off. The 2016 RNC was going to be unlike anything we have ever seen in American politics.

The reality is that the 2016 Republican National Convention was a bit of a letdown. Thankfully we did not have any horrible violence in the streets of Cleveland. The protests were typical for any political event. Flag burning, yelling, and being drunk while political, typical protester stuff. Inside the convention halls, nothing much happened. The Never Trumpers tried, and failed. They failed in a spectacularly quick manner. The speakers were nothing to be that excited about. Typical Fox News republicans like Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, and Chris Christie did the same tired act they have been doing for years. An endless parade of actors and sports figures most of us have forgotten about would take the stage and yell about how horrible President Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton are as Americans. Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence put a lot of America to sleep. Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made their expected speeches, and both men were not welcomed with open arms. The Trump children were the only speakers that garnered any bipartisan praise. Possible First Lady Melania Trump stirred up some non-news by possibly plagiarizing a 2008 Michelle Obama speech. It was a dumb story kept alive by an underwhelming convention. 

Then there is Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The 2016 Presidential Primary contest was one of the most personal, and drawn out, contests in American history. Senator Cruz and Mr. Trump were both trying to run as outsiders, and Mr. Trump came out as the eventual winner. To the surprise of no one, Trump used personal insults and general bullying to gain voters. Florida Senator Marco Rubio tried to use Trump's tactics against the New York blowhard. Rubio was out of the race a few weeks later. Senator Cruz and his family were prime targets for Trump. It was ugly. By giving Senator Cruz a Wednesday speaker slot at the convention, many Republicans thought the Texas Senator would move past the primary, and endorse Trump to show party unity.

That did not happen. Senator Cruz instead used his time to take a passive aggressive swipe at his own party's Presidential nominee. Why show up and do this? Marco Rubio and John Kasich, who both have ambitions in four years, were smart enough to stay away and not take a chance at ending their national aspirations. The only reason I can see Ted Cruz going this route is that the man must be crazy. He has an irrational want to be the GOP's next Ronald Reagan, and maybe his speech was supposed to start an inter party revolution like Reagan's 1976 convention speech. The thing that the Texas Senator seems to forget is that the Gipper did not try to undermine the nominee, Reagan endorsed Ford and worked to try and get the incumbent President reelected in 1976. Cruz has tried to undermine his party and has used shady tactics in every campaign the man has ever run in. He attacks Republican and Democrats alike. The only reason Cruz could last as long as he did in the 2016 primaries is by being shady and because the Republican party on the national level is a mess. By allowing so many people to run in the primaries, Reince Preibus doomed any hope of a moderate Republican from emerging. Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump, should have been done in January, but incompetence at the RNC allowed their fringe campaigns to survive. By not supporting Trump, Senator Cruz has given up any chance of ever being the Republican Party's Presidential nominee. He is not a smart man who has shown everyone that the only thing that matters to Ted Cruz is Ted Cruz's own political ambition. The end of Senator Cruz's Presidential dreams is one good thing to come out of the Republican National Convention.

Finally, late last night, Donald Trump ended his speech and officially became the flag bearer for all Republicans this November. I for one was really looking forward to seeing the Trump acceptance speech It was going to be unlike any political speech in my lifetime. Unfortunately is more of the same from Trump, just louder and longer. I went to bed feeling a bit let down. It was boringly typical Donald Trump. America is a hellhole of crime. Illegal immigration, pointless war, and free trade have led us down a dark path. Hillary Clinton is incompetent, a crook, and dangerous to all Americans. President Obama has failed for almost eight years. The only thing that can save Lady Liberty is the awesomeness of Donald Trump. There was no actual solutions to these problems, just the awesomeness of Donald Trump is the only cure needed. Oh, and for the first time ever a Republican Presidential nominee said we should be nice to the LGBTQ community, and he was applauded. That was weird.

The balloons dropped, confetti fell, and my brain is still trying to accept that Donald J. Trump is on the ballot as the Republican candidate for President of the United States. The entire Republican National Convention felt like a big letdown. No grand solutions, only problems. The action on the convention floor did not seem to be well planned. Most of the speakers did not embrace their nominee. Many people gave rambling, or over the top, speeches that only incited the fringe of the right wing. Conspiracy theories were being given more time than actually trying to court new voters. From my perspective it seems like the RNC has given up on the Presidential race and is going to rely on Democratic Party incompetence in the down ticket races so the GOP can hold onto everything below the executive office. That is probably the party's best path forward. Donald Trump's new Republican Party had its star shine bright, and dim with the four days in Cleveland. 

RD 

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. We are looking for people to talk about the 2016 election from their local point of view. Have something to say? Come write for SeedSing.

"Vice Principals" is Another Great HBO Comedy

Something new and funny is flying into your tv antenna

I know that I'm about five days late, but Danny McBride and Jody Hill have done it again people. Their new show, "Vice Principals", premiered last Sunday, July 17th, but my DVR got all messed up from the storms I wrote about last week, so I finally got to see the premiere yesterday. It was almost as good as their premiere of the all time great TV show, "Eastbound and Down", almost.

"Vice Principals" opened on Bill Murray, who I believe is only in the first episode, as a principal of a high school and that day was his last at the school. He was getting ready to raise the flag one more time and he was chatting with two of his employees, played by Walter Goggins and the great, criminally underrated Danny McBride. They were all cordial at first, but as the conversation dragged on, you could see that Goggins and McBride's characters hate each other. They are literally enemies. When Bill Murray has had enough of the fighting, he makes the two of them perform the pledge of allegiance, all with his back turned, and the quiet back and forth between McBride and Goggins was classic Jody Hill and Danny McBride's comedy writing. The two were fighting, flipping each other off and insulting each other, basically all with their eyes and gestures. Very few words, other than the pledge, are spoken during this first scene.

We then cut to a fight happening inside the school. McBride is the vice principal, and he is the first administrator to see the fight. He goes to break it up, and while doing so, he gets punched in the face. He takes the three kids involved in the fight into his office to hand down punishment. If this wasn't on HBO, it would have been a cut and dry suspension scene, but since it is HBO, and they can be uncut, McBride goes off on these kids. He's calling them names, swearing at them the whole time and hands down a very by the book high school punishment, but the way McBride delivers the lines, it is so funny and so hilarious.

We later come to realize why McBride and Goggins hate each other. We see Goggins at a lunch table with all the other administrators and other teachers, and he is the coolest, most fun person for the to be around. McBride, on the other hand, has no friends at the school, except for the lunch staff, that only seems to tolerate him. He is talking to one of the workers about how much he hate Goggins and that he is so much cooler than him. Again, classic Danny McBride stuff. We also learn a bit later in the episode that McBride has a daughter and is divorced from his first wife, played by Bijou Phillips. The back and forth between them, while watching their daughter take horse riding lessons, is very funny and kind of uncomfortable . It is only made more funny by the fact that Bijou Phillips new boyfriend is a very nice guy that wishes well to McBride all the time.

McBride assumes that he is going to get the principal job, so he tells his ex wife, her boyfriend and his daughter, that he is going to be named principal the next day. His ego is only more inflated when he gets home and has a message from the school saying that they made a decision, and they want to see him in the office in the morning. The next morning, when he arrives at school, he parks in the principals spot and proceeds to the office, sits in the desk and gives Goggins a piece of his mind, because he assumes he is the principal now. But, we come to see that not only did McBride not get the job, but neither did Goggins, or anyone else at the school. They hired a principal from another school with incredibly awesome credentials.

McBride is crushed. He tries to get the administrators and teachers to sign a petition to get the new principal fired, to no avail. He tries to organize a student walkout, to no avail. He sends an open letter to the school board to get rid of the new principal, to no avail. Everything he tries, it doesn't work. He arrives home from work that first day, after getting the hammer from the new principal, and his daughter and his ex wife's boyfriend are throwing him a surprise party. He has to explain to them that he didn't get the job, but his daughter and ex wife's boyfriend, are so complimentary and supportive of him. That scene is one of the best in the entire pilot episode.

Later in the episode as McBride is on duty as basically a crossing guard, we come to see that Goggins, who has been acting like a total gentleman and getting on the new principal's good side the whole episode, dislikes her as much as McBride does. They both want to take her down. They decide to join forces to get this new principal fired. Goggins character said it perfectly, "She is your enemy. You are my enemy and she is my new enemy, so my old enemy has a new enemy, making my old enemy my new friend. Let's join forces". They high five and the credits roll.

I cannot wait to watch more "Vice Principals". Danny McBride is playing a classic Danny McBride character, which he excels at doing. He is a dreamer in a crummy situation, trying to make it sound much nice than it really is. McBride thrives at this kind of stuff. Goggins, who we didn't get a whole lot from in the pilot episode, until the end, is going to be great on this show. He is a menacing, yet very funny actor who I was late on the bandwagon to. I really enjoy him in everything he does, and "Vice Principals" looks like it will be another homerun for Goggins. This show is going to be great. Danny McBride and Jody Hill are great comedy writers. And this is the type of show that HBO excels at doing. I cannot wait for more, and if it turns out to be 1/10 as good as "Eastbound and Down" was, "Vice Principals" will be great. I love this show.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He visted the vice principal's office many times in high school due to being too real. Follow Ty's realness on twitter @tykulik.

"Any Given Wednesday" is No "The Bill Simmons Podcast"

Some people are better when they are heard, and not seen.

A few weeks back I wrote a review of Bill Simmons new show, "Any Given Wednesday". I thought that it was fine, but I also thought that it had some room to grow. I am a big Bill Simmons fan, so I just assumed that I would love his show. It seemed that he was bringing his wildly popular podcast to the small screen. What could go wrong, I thought.

Well, after four episodes, the show has shown very little, to no growth. It's just the same thing over and over again. I feel like, after only four episodes, the show has become stagnant and a little boring. This show has all the potential to be great, but they cannot seem to get over the hump. Now, it is only four episodes, and a lot can change, but they have done zero so far to make this show better.

The premiere was fine. I thought Charles Barkley was funny and seemed to be having a good time. Simmons seemed a bit nervous, but who wouldn't be with a new show premiering. But, when Ben Affleck went on his rant, that premiere went off the rails. It was bizarre and incredibly awkward TV to watch. I was squirming in my seat at home. I cannot imagine how the studio audience felt. I love that Affleck is such a big fan of his team, but that rant was so, so weird. It was bad TV as well.

The Affleck weirdness was followed by the second episode which featured Simmons interviewing Malcom Gladwell and Mark Cuban. They had a heated discussion about the owners and the amount of money being thrown around in free agency and how it has gotten out of hand. Cuban, being the billionaire and owner that he is, he had no problem with it. He was defending some of the ridiculous contracts being given out to marginal players. Gladwell argued that some of these players weren't worth it, and since he is so smart, his argument was eloquent and poignant. But, that was problem that I had with this episode. Malcom Gladwell is one thousand times smarter than most people in the room, and I felt that he had to dumb down his speech just so Mark Cuban could understand what he was saying. Now, Mark Cuban is by no means a dummy, but he is nowhere near Malcolm Gladwell's intelligence level. Not many people are at his level. This conversation would have been so much better if it was two owners or two intellects. You cannot put one very smart person with a marginally smart person and except a fair argument. This was a mismatch and the interview just didn't work. Simmons kind of lost control pretty early on during the conversation.

Episode three has been the highlight of the season so far, but it wasn't because of Bill Simmons or his writing crew. This episode succeeded because of Chris Bosh. Simmons had Bosh and actor Anthony Anderson as his guests. Anthony Anderson was fine. He is a very well spoken, smart person whose acting I really enjoy. But, when Chris Bosh spoke of Kevin Durant's decision to leave OKC for Golden State, it was phenomenal. There is no one else, possibly on the planet, that can relate better to what KD did. I, and many other people, have written about KD's decision, but we don't really know how it went down, or how he feels. Chris Bosh, on the other hand, he went through exactly the same thing when he left Toronto for Miami. Bosh's speech, and the way he talked about making decisions like that, was just great. He kind of opened my mind. I mean, I'm still kind of pissed that KD left OKC, but, Chris Bosh made me understand just a little bit why players make choices like this.

The latest episode  had Aaron Rodgers on for a one on one interview for the majority of the show. This should have been a slam dunk, especially after Bosh crushed it on the show the previous episode. But, this was very, very boring TV. Aaron Rodgers, while being a great football player, he is a pretty dull person, by choice. Most interviews he does are boring. He just wants to talk about football and being QB for the Packers. and that is fine, that is his job and he is wonderful at it. But, to dedicate 20 plus minutes to an interview with him was a bad choice. It was slow. They didn't talk about any real problems, with the exception of concussions, in the NFL. Aaron Rodgers seemed very coached in a lot of his answers. When asked certain questions, Rodgers would wait, almost calculating the right answer in his head, then proceed with his answer. It was only 20 minutes, but it felt like 20 hours. The other problem with this, this episode was on the day after Tim Duncan retired and they only dedicated about 2 minutes to him. Bill Simmons is a basketball writer, and he only gave himself 120 seconds, on his own show, to talk about one of the 5 greatest players of all time. That was a big bummer to me.

There have been other people on, guys like Joe Rogan and Bill Hader, but their interview were forgettable. I had such high hopes for "Any Given Wednesday", and they can still turn it around, but it feels more like they will be cancelled before they get a second season. Simmons, who seems so comfortable on his podcast, looks and sounds incredibly uncomfortable on his TV show. TV may not be his thing, and that is fine because he will always have his podcast and his website. Some people thrive on TV, but others don't. Bill Simmons, so far, has not lived up to the expectations of being a good host on his own show. His time is running out as well. Hopefully they turn it around, but it seems unlikely.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His podcast hero is still Bill Simmons, but his tv hero will remain to be Homer. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

A Millennial's Appreciation of Garry Marshall

Yesterday we lost another legend. This legend was huge in television and movies. We lost the great Garry Marshall at the age of 82.

Marshall was one of the great writers and directors that Hollywood had ever seen. Marshall had his hand in on many, many great television shows. Among many other things, Marshall created "Happy Days", "Mork and Mindy", "Angie" and "Laverne and Shirley". He wrote on classic TV shows like "The Dick Van Dyke Show", "The Odd Couple" and "The Lucy Show". He directed classic movies like "Pretty Woman", "Beaches", "Overboard" and a bunch of the television shows he created and wrote on. He was a master of comedy in the 60's and the 70's. "Happy Days" is a timeless television show that, at least the first couple of seasons, still holds up. "Mork and Mindy" was the coming out party for the greatness that was Robin Williams(another person we lost way too young). "Laverne and Shirley" was, and still is, one of my mom's favorite TV shows, and I really enjoy it as well. It was one of the first shows that featured 2 females in lead roles. Marshall was an innovator.

Writing for the shows he wrote for was just incredible. During that era, there were very few channels, so whatever the higher ups at the channels wanted on TV, that what was on. That included some great shows like "The Dick Van Dyke Show", "The Lucy Show" and "The Odd Couple". Those shows are all timers and Marshall was one of the lead writers on each one. Dick Van Dyke was an enormous star and a lot of his spoken words were lines written by Gary Marshall. There is almost no one as big as Lucille Ball in the history of TV, and Marshall wrote a lot of her jokes. "The Odd Couple", featuring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, again, written by Gary Marshall. Lemmon and Matthau are two of the biggest stars of all time, and Gary Marshall was one of the leaders in the writers room, feeding these guys their iconic lines.

I know that his movies near the end have become a punchline, but look at the ones I mentioned above. "Pretty Woman" was Julia Roberts coming out party. That movie made her a star. Also, to get a movie made in the 80's about a prostitute with a heart of gold, that's super impressive. Like I said, he was ahead of his time. "Beaches" is one of the saddest, most heart wrenching movies ever made, but I do not know one person that hasn't seen at least most of that movie. That movie is so sad, but it is also very well made and excellently directed. "Overboard" is a great comedy movie starring two fairly unknown people at the time. Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn were marginally famous, but that movie put them over the top. That movie is also very, very funny and it does hold up. The farcical story is so out there, but due to Marshall's directing, it's believable and executed exceptionally. I never thought of Kurt Russell or Goldie Hawn as comedic actors until I saw "Overboard".

He also had a hand in on a lot of the stuff his sister, Penny Marshall, was involved with. Be it helping her write or cast or perform himself in the movies, he was a big help. His minimal role in "A League of Their Own" stands out among many great things in that wonderful movie. I'm sure he helped some way in one of my favorite movies, "Big". He directed, and gave his sister her start, in the wonderful "Laverne and Shirley". He also never had any problems helping his sister out. When he was called out for nepotism, he didn't hide from it, he embraced it. His famous quote about hiring family members, "When in doubt, you bring in relatives. Nepotism is a part of my work", is incredible.

I know it might seem weird that the millennial of the site is writing about Garry Marshall, but he has been involved, some way, throughout my entire life of watching TV and movies. I adore Gary Marshall's TV shows and most of his movies. I'm also curious as to how the podcast "Comedy Bang! Bang!" will approach this news. For those that don't know, Paul F Tompkins plays a lot of characters on the podcast and the TV show, but I think his most beloved is his impression of Gary Marshall. He does a spot on impersonation, and I hope they do something special to remember the man. I'm sure they will and I'm sure it will be hilarious and heartfelt. I eagerly await your move "Comedy Bang! Bang!".

Rest in Peace Garry Marshall. You were an innovator, a genius, a writer ahead of his time and an all around fantastic TV and movie personality. Your directing and writing will go down in history. Enjoy the afterlife good sir.

ed note: We forgot an extra r in Garry when the article was first published. We have corrected the mistake. Sorry that we are idiots.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

Ty Watches Bar Rescue: Baseline Bar and Grill Edition.

Turn the channel. Bar Rescue is about to start.

I figure, as long as my readers want to read about my feelings on episodes of "Bar Rescue", I will continue to watch and review the new episodes. 

On Sunday there was anew episode of "Bar Rescue". This one took place at a bar in Arizona called Baseline Bar and Grill. The owner did her whole thing at the beginning, talking about all the problems the bar was having. It was your typical "Bar Rescue" stuff. The bar started out great, raking the dough. The Success did not last. Baseline Bar and Grill fell on hard times and now the owner was in some serious debt. I believe this lady was on the verge of losing her house. Instead of trying to make the business profitable again, she just let her employees, two of whom are her children, continue to run the bar straight into the ground. This isn't the first time that Jon Taffer has had to not only rescue a bar, but a family as well.

Game on.

When Taffer showed up to the bar, well, his first stop wasn't at the exact right spot. He and his two "experts" showed up at a place called Baseline Pub. Taffer and crew show up, claim that this place looks okay, but quickly realize that they are in the wrong spot.

Strike one for Baseline Bar and Grill.

Taffer is livid that there are two bars, within a 5 mile radius, that names are that close to each other. Taffer usually gets angry pretty quick, but he was real mad right off the bat. This was a great start to the episode.

When they finally get to the right spot, Taffer and crew get very angry once again. They have their decoy or secret shopper go into the bar. This decoy is a female, and the owner previously said that the bar is not nice to females. The whole bar tending crew is female, and they do not like to interact with female patrons, they flat out  say this on the show. To make matters worse, one of the owners daughters finally serves the lady, but she is incredibly rude and off putting. She even swears at her when she orders a "fancy" drink. It was very weird.

Strike two.

This wasn't the thing that put Taffer over the top though. A few seconds later, after ordering some awful food and the whole bartender-patron fiasco, the owner of the bar inflates a kiddie pool and fills it with cold spaghetti. No one in Taffer's car, including Taffer, can figure out why they are doing this. Then, 2 of the bartenders step into the kiddie pool filled with spaghetti and begin to spaghetti wrestle. It was bizarre and looked pretty violent and kind of gross. I'm not a big fan of any wrestling that involves food, and cold spaghetti did not change my mind. I know that one of the workers either broke or had a badly injured nose form the wrestling, and this was when Taffer stepped in.

The patrons all saw Taffer coming, and so did some of the employees, but the owner had no idea. Even with one of her other employees very clearly yelling, "Taffer is coming!" three times. This is what makes "Bar Rescue" great. When the owner gets blindsided by Taffer, it is a thing of beauty. He immediately lays into everyone at the bar. He takes no prisoners when it comes to his wrath. He really lets them have it. The owner asks Taffer to not be so hard on her.

Strike three.

Oh boy does this set Taffer off. The owner is the person who is usually most to blame for the demise, so when they ask for a little relief, he yells at them even more and louder. And, I have to say, he is right most of the time.

After all this, the rest of the episode is your typical "Bar Rescue". The bar cannot handle the stress test, but there is always a silver lining. The whole crew gets re trained in the bar industry. Taffer has a conversation that makes the mom and the daughters close again. Taffer changes the name of the bar, this one from Baseline Bar and Grill to Brick and Barley, one of his better efforts. And the check up shows that the bar has turned things around.

Like I said last week, there is some odd comfort in the consistency of this show. A few weird things did happen though. First, during the reveal of the new restaurant, one of the employees said, and I quote, "this place is classy as f%^k now!", with no ironic tone to her voice at all. That one quote encompasses the type of people that Taffer and Spike TV deals with weekly. Second, during a commercial break, Taffer came on and gave a bar tip. His tip was to "eat up, before you meet up". What made this odd, he has never done this before. I have never seen an ad featuring Taffer during the show. It was weird, odd, bizarre, but brilliant. I actually watched a commercial for the first time in ages.

"Bar Rescue" is back and better than ever. The first two episodes of this season have been great and I will continue to watch and do write ups, not only because you guys are reading it, but because it is so much fun for me. Come back next Tuesday for the review of this coming Sunday's episode.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Since he doesn't drink, Ty is always looking for a bar with high quality entertainment. Food wrestling is not high quality. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

In the Barren Landscape of Summer Sports, the NBA Summer League is No Oasis

Not much to look at.

I've been watching summer league basketball because there is, basically, nothing else sports related that I can get into. Sure, baseball is fun and all, and they have hit the 90 game mark, but that means there are still, at least, 70 games left to play. I mean, the Cardinals, my team, are barely over .500, but they still have a chance at the wild card spot if they finish barely over .500. Baseball is only fun, for me, when it gets down to the very end of the regular season, and the post season is great. I don't watch car racing, golf, soccer, tennis, all of that does not interest me.

But, basketball, and more specifically, NBA basketball, I enjoy quite a bit. Summer league seemed like a cool thing that I could watch to get me over my sports blues this summer. I had never really paid much attention to it until now. But I figured, better late than never. Well, I'm here today to tell you fine people that summer league is an absolute waste of time.

This doesn't mean that I will stop watching. I plan on watching one of the summer league's championship games tonight when the Bulls face the Timberwolves. But, after watching it for about 2 weeks straight now, it is so much worse than the D League or any other "pro" basketball that I have watched. I get that this is a good starting point for the rookies. They need to get their feet wet, and what better way than to play some games in the summer. I don't think any of the top rookies played more than 5 or 6 games, which is a nice start for them.

The competition these players are facing in the summer league is nowhere near what they will face when the regular season tips off. I watched a 76ers-Lakers game earlier this summer because I wanted to see Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram play. Besides the two of them, the only players I recognized where Larry Nance Jr and D'Angelo Russell of the Lakers and Nik Stauskas of the 76ers. Those are not big time NBA players by any stretch of anyone's imagination. Russell has the ability to be a star, but he hasn't proven it yet, and most of the top picks from last years draft, Karl Anthony Towns, Kristaps Porzingis and Jahlil Okafor weren't playing in summer league. I think it's a little telling that Russell was playing. Maybe the Lakers aren't as high on him as some thought. But, the rest of the players that filled up the Lakers and 76ers rosters were guys that are on their last shot, undrafted rookies or guys just trying to make, at the very least, a D League team. I love the NBA and college basketball, but I hadn't heard of 65 to 70 percent of these other players. And, their games were not that good anyway.

One of the main problems I have with summer league is the fact that some of these guys are trying to get a full contract, so they play hero ball and shoot every time they touch the ball. It's no fun to watch players I've never heard of constantly go one on one and miss shot after shot. Then, the rookies, Ingram and Simmons, didn't really impress. I don't think Simmons was going full speed. I'm pretty sure he is saving himself for the regular season. But, he still does not have any jump shot, and until he finds one, he will be just an average NBA player. Possibly, a fringe starter. Ingram looked good at times, but he also looked really passive and tense at times as well. He passed on open threes, he didn't attack the rim and he got beat a lot on defense. He was probably going half speed as well, but still, he was getting beat by no names. That never looks good. Then, the other day, I watched a Pelicans summer league game to watch Buddy Hield. He looked fine, but his jumper seemed rushed, he seemed rushed and he didn't play much defense. His passing was fine, but it's summer league, and as I have already stated, the competition is not so good. The Suns were on the other day and I watched them because Devin Booker was playing, but so was Dragan Bender and Tyler Ulis. Booker looked great, but he should. He proved during his rookie year that he can score against NBA competition, so I expected him to dominate. Tyler Ulis looked decent, but competition, once again, is poor. He was fast and darted around the court, but what about when he has to go up against Chris Paul or Russell Westbrook? They will eat him up because he is very short and isn't much of a threat on offense. Then there's Bender. He is supposed to be like Porzingis, but he is not. He looked lost, got beat consistently by Jake Layman in a game, couldn't score and seemed more interested in his personal look than his game. Bender was disappointing. Other than those guys, nothing really important or mind changing happened. We have the players I mentioned, but guys like Denzel Valentine looked fine. Kris Dunn was up and down. Jaylen Brown has all the athleticism in the world, but he can't finish. Jamal Murray was non existent. The Greek center the Kings drafted looked awful. It was everything I expected, which was a bummer.

I was excited to give the summer league a chance, but it is very, very mediocre basketball at best. I'm just aching for the NBA and college football to come back, so this was a nice, albeit very garbage way, to watch a sport I love. I wouldn't read too far into anything other sports and pop culture writers are saying about the "winners and losers" from summer league. No one knows how good these guys will be until they play real competition in a real NBA game. The summer league is a tease. I won't stop watching it, but I won't stop complaining about it either.

At least I get to watch Olympic basketball in a few weeks, if that is any real consolation.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Who does Ty think are the 10 Greatest Athletes of the 21st? Download the latest X Millennial Man Podcast to find out. When you are done listening, follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

How the Internet has Changed Pop Culture

Popular culture is a complicated beast. Like the Hydra, it has many heads, and when you think you've figured it out, two more heads pop out of the last. I'd like to thank SeedSing.com for helping expand the conversation on so many topics, including this one. If you have time, check out their article about why the book is always better than the movie—argued from the perspective of someone who doesn't actually agree!

For its relatively short lifespan, pop culture has undergone many changes. Within the past century, it has developed alongside different forms of media, including radio, movies, television, and finally the internet. Of these forms of media, none has been more transformational than the internet.

While radio might at first seem like the first big mover of pop culture, the vast majority of pop culture has been a one-way street for nearly a century. Entertainers delivered material, and consumers absorbed it, transmitting it to other consumers in the process and growing the market. The internet has massively altered the way information is transmitted and, as a result, turned the entire pop culture scene on its side.

The Two-Way Street

In some ways, there's always been some level of interaction between fans of pop culture and perpetrators of pop culture. Music concerts, fashion shows, and other spectacles allow fans and enthusiasts to attend and see the latest—that much hasn't changed. But with the internet, people can also provide meaningful feedback instantly.

It has replaced the thousands of fan letters that are never read and go unanswered. Services such as Twitter and Facebook allow everyday people to interface with real celebrities, artists, and content creators on a very personal level. Rather than wait days or weeks for a response to hear from these famous figures, the public may see a response in mere minutes.

The leaders of pop culture haven’t let this change go unnoticed either. More than ever, social media pages are advertised on television, over the radio, and even within products. “Visit our website to learn more,” they say. “Text (something) to 321” will get you added to a list for any number of different things.

Even a person like Dr. Phil has gotten in on the act, with his show sometimes weighing the opinions of the public by broadcasting their responses to his questions live. As this trend continues, entertainment shifts more and more away from being a mostly passive to sincerely welcoming interaction.

The Death of Cable

Another amazing phenomenon we’ve begun to experience is the slow demise of cable. While there is still a hefty subscriber base to standard television, the numbers are beginning to dip. Consumers are seeking their entertainment elsewhere, mostly through streaming services over the internet.

As a result, the movers and shakers of pop culture are no longer just the late-night TV hosts or the faces of prime-time television. A new demand for quality entertainment that directly answers the wants and needs of the consumer has created an incredible lineup of original shows that can be seen any time so long as you have a subscription to the right service (typically Netflix).

That brings us to the heart of our next point: The change in audience has created a new type of consumer.

On Demand

The instant nature of the internet has, in many ways, altered the patience of consumers. As progressively more content becomes available on demand, it changes audience expectations. Pop culture becomes something the audience doesn’t want to wait to read about in the tabloids tomorrow—why bother when they can visit TMZ’s website right now?

In some ways, this has also created a conflict between the previous generation and the new. The older generation is used to waiting; what choice did they have? "Snail mail" got its name precisely because it was so slow. But the new generation wasn't raised on that.

The new generation has been exposed to an entirely different upbringing that is reshaping everything we know about pop culture. Deemed “millennials,” these new consumers are used to things being available instantly. They grew up with cell phones, email, and instant streaming movies.

Naturally, pop culture has developed to answer these needs. Vendors of popular items sell their goods online with fast-paced shipping. Virtually every major bill can be paid online with a few taps. And since the newer generation spends so much time online (typically on a phone or laptop), much of advertising has moved there as well.

Copy That

In many ways, the internet is solely responsible for the most freely produced content since the dawn of history. Because all online entertainment is stored as data, it can be (largely) freely copied. Unlike physical media, there are no limits to how many times data can be reproduced.

Internet users first figured it out on a large scale when Napster became big over a decade ago. A single user could post a song they had on CD, and thousands of other users could download it and share it themselves. Because there was no physical limitation on the number of copies, it meant millions of people could get music for free.

With time (and faster internet), file sharing expanded to videos and larger programs. So too did the record companies’ fight against what they deemed internet piracy. Today it still continues unabated, but new efforts have been made to fight against file sharing.

The Fight Against Piracy

This brings us right back to today’s on-demand culture. Piracy has been combated in two different ways. The first is through censorship and monitoring. The FBI has taken down several pirating websites, and Hollywood has sued the owners of select IP addresses that pirated movies. Well, except the people using VPNs, since they’ve been able to hide their IP addresses.

The second way has been just to make content more accessible. Instead of having to visit the video store, you can load a show up without leaving home. Music can be purchased one song at a time instead of having to buy an entire album. Little tweaks to the market have dissuaded quite a few pirates by making the legal way just as easy.

Other entertainers have embraced the idea of free content by literally making their stuff free but stuffing it with ads or add-ons that can be purchased for cold, hard cash. Video games have changed quite a bit as well. Many games can be bought before they’re even finished, allowing users early access to the still developing product.

Where most games usually shipped finished, now we see games sell with only a limited amount of content and the rest purchasable at a later date. This is made possible only by a fully connected population that can go online at any time to buy the new content.

What Tomorrow Holds

If present trends continue, we’ll only see more digital media come to replace physical media. The internet can’t quite replace live conventions or concerts, but it has afforded many more access to these events than ever before.

While print struggles to stay alive, online versions of popular magazines and TV shows flourish. Independent content also continues to grow in popularity, with YouTube and Twitch providing platforms for individuals to create content for other users.

We won’t know what tomorrow holds until it happens; my bets are in for something fast, convenient, and accessible anytime, anywhere.

If you have thoughts to share about pop culture and the internet, post a comment below.

Isa

About the Author: Isa is an internet security specialist and entertainment blogger. If you enjoyed her work, check out some more of her writing on Culture Coverage. Follow Isa on twitter @ Go like Culture Coverage on Facebook. 

"Cool Runnings" is Still a Great Movie

I'm getting shivers just looking at the flag

A few weeks ago I was channel surfing and I came across the movie "Cool Runnings". When I was a kid, this was one of, if not the, best movies I had watched. I loved everything about this movie as a 10 or 11 year old. It had sports. It had comedy. And it was Jamaican. I love all things Jamaican. I love the flag, Rastafarianism, the accents, the people, everything. A a place that can give me all those things plus being the hometown of Bob Marley, I will forever be grateful to Jamaica. Then, they gave us the movie "Cool Runnings". Well, at least the setting.

 "Cool Runnings" is about the first Jamaican bobsled team that qualified for the 1988 Winter Olympics. It was a Disney movie that starred John Candy and lesser known actors at the time. The bobsledders were played by Leon, Doug E Doug, Malik Yoba and Rawle D Lewis. The only one of the bobsledders I even recognized back then was Leon. As I stated above, the child me adored this movie. When it came on the other day, my kids were in their rooms and I had an hour or two to kill, so I decided to see if the movie still held up.

Boy, does it hold up and then some! I was just as enamored as I was when I was a young kid. I hung on every important moment of the movie. I felt bad for Derise Bannick, Yul Brener and Junior Bevil when they all got tripped up trying to qualify for the 100 meter dash to go to the summer Olympics. I felt terrible for Junior Bevil(Rawle D Lewis) because he was the one that caused them to all trip and miss their chance at the summer Olympics. I felt bad for Yul Brener(Malik Yoba) because he thought that was his one chance to get out of Jamaica, which is all he wanted. But, I felt the worst for Derise Bannick(Leon) because he was the fastest man in Jamaica, and it was a foregone conclusion that he would be going to the Olympics. The character that I didn't feel bad for, at least at the beginning, was Sanka Cofee(Doug E Doug). He was the goofball in the movie. He provided the comic relief. But, he was also pivotal in them starting a bobsled team. When we first meet Sanka, he is doing a push car derby race, and he is the self proclaimed best push car derby driver in all of Jamaica, so he kind of knows how to bobsled, even though he doesn't really know that yet.

After the trials, and the tripping, Derise is determined to get a second chance at the Olympics. He was in the, I don't know if it's a senator, or a mayor, or whatever, but it was some big time person, office asking for a re race. He doesn't get this wish granted, but he does see a picture of his father with some white dude and he asks the big wig who that guy is in the picture with his father. We come to learn that that man's name is Irv Blitzer(John Candy). Blitzer was an Olympian himself, as a bobsledder, and he wanted to get Derise's father to try it out because he thought that sprinters would make for great bobsledders. The elder Bannick had zero interest, but Derise, he was onboard with anything that would get him into the Olympics.

From then on we get a lot of clichés and troupes from Disney movies. There's classic stuff like, Jamaican's don't like the cold, so why would they want to do a winter sport. The whole town, including Blitzer, thinks Derise is crazy. The guy's that all miss out on the Olympics are, conveniently the only ones that stick around to stay on the team. Sanka wants nothing to do with it, but because he is best friends with Derise, his mind is easily changed. We have the training montage. We have the Olympic committee constantly changing rules because they don't want the Jamaicans there. We have the bad guy team from Swiss. We have the fights. We have a cheating scandal, because what would an Olympic movie be if it didn't have a cheating scandal. And we have the Jamaicans not only qualifying, but winning the hearts of the entire city of Calgary, Canada.

I know, it all sounds cliché, and it shouldn't work, but it just, somehow works. The actors, who are all Americans, and I'm pretty sure they are all New Yorkers, totally pull off the accents and make me believe that they were born and bred in Jamaica. This is one of John Candy's best, most understated roles of his very underrated career. The bad guy from the Swiss team is the best kind of sports bad guy. The Jamaicans really did face obstacles from the IOC because the IOC is just as corrupt as FIFA. Everything about this movie works. It never feels schmaltzy. Nothing feels shoehorned in. The actors are great. The directing was great. The script was great. The movie was just flat out great. I'm glad I sat down and watched it again, and I'm glad it still holds a very special place in my heart. Even my wife watched it with me the other day, that's right people, it was on again just a few days later, and she found herself enjoying it as well.

"Cool Runnings" is awesome and I cannot recommend it enough. If you are my age, or for that fact, older or younger than me, watch this movie again because I guarantee that you will love it. "Cool Runnings" is, and always will be, incredible.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He was a neighborhood champion in the four man saucer sled race when he was a young lad. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Last Generation Gamer: Pokemon Go

I was a bit too old to really get into Pokemon. In the 1990's the Sega Genesis, and then the Sony Playstation, appealed to my college and young male adult mind more than any of the kid games that were thrown out by Nintendo. While I did play my share of dice rolling role-playing games, the card trading games like Pokemon and Magic were never on my radar. As I grew older Nintendo reentered my life with the DS and then the Wii. By that time I was still only interested in the Mario, Zelda, and Metroid games. Pokemon was always the game of mythical animal cock-fighting that I never really understood. Never cared to catch them all, probably never would.

Last week the mobile game Pokemon Go was released in the United States. I downloaded the app immediately. By switching from Windows Phone to Android a few months ago, I was just happy to have the option to download the new hip thing. I signed in with my Google account, allowed all the ridiculous permissions, and waited for the game to start. My phone told me there was an error, and I was immediately kicked out of app. The next day I woke up and tried to sign in again. Since I was up fairly early, I figured the servers could not be overloaded. I assume my hunch was correct, because I finally was able to create my trainer. Being the short bald man that age has turned me into, my trainer is dashing with a nice full head of hair. There were not that many options.

Once my trainer was created, I checked my surroundings, and I immediately saw a blue box. Excitedly I touched the box and the augmented reality of Pokemon Go went into full effect. Sitting right on my breakfast table was a little blue Squirtle. I was very familiar with this particular Pokemon due to my experiences of playing Super Smash Bros for the Wii and Wii U. He was hanging out right next to my coffee. I quickly tossed my Pokeball, and I missed. I tried a few more times and after a few trials, I caught the little bugger. It was quite a thrill.

Now that I had my pokemon, I was ready to start fighting. Since I never read any of the rules, I had no idea what I was doing. Soon the realization came to me that I need to train the Pokemon at a gym. Luckily there was a gym within walking distance of my house. I grabbed my son, our new dog, and we embarked on a nice long walk on a very hot day. Along the way my son manned the phone looking for new pokemon, he caught one. When we were in range of the gym I quickly hit the icon, I also noticed my phone battery was near the end. Again, not being one for reading the rules, I learned I needed to be level 5 to use the gym. Maybe it was time to stop investing in this game I know nothing about?

I let Pokemon Go stay unused for a few days, then yesterday I was with my son and dog at a new park. There were people all over the place with their phones out looking for pokemon. I figured why not reopen the game and see what I am missing. Since I opened the app for a second time, every where I go I will open my phone to look for pokemon. The gym, I caught three more. Playground, I scored a Cubone. Even today, in my living room, I saw a crab little monster hanging out on top of my sleeping dog. I am not level five yet, but I am getting closer.

I am not the only one in my house amused by Pokemon Go. My six year old son is interested in catching the little monsters. Because of his interest I decided to download an old Pokemon game to his 2DS. He choose Pokemon Red because that is his favorite color. Once the game was installed, my son got ready to play. The lack of color, and the story aspect of the game, quickly made the boy bored. He put his 2DS down and went back to playing Mario Kart 8. I picked up the 2DS and decided to give the old game a chance. An hour later I had to force myself off of the ancient game so the dog could go outside and pee. The whole time outside with the dog I was kicking myself for missing out on twenty years of great Pokemon games. I knew I would have to catch up soon, but there was a new pokemon just down the street. It was then that the dog got to take another walk.

Many of the people I know have been looking for all the problems with Pokemon Go. I hear complaints about people going to cemeteries and other solemn places to catch their virtual monsters. My inner circle of friends post memes of how dumb it is for adults to play the game. Stories of danger, stupidity, and the horror of Pokemon Go has been the go to news item for the entire press. The narrative around Pokemon Go seems to be doom and dorkery. It is another fad, and we all must dismiss it immediately.

I am not here to bury Pokemon Go. It is the best mobile game I have ever seen. Everywhere I go there are people with phones out looking for cartoon creatures among the real world. Most of the people playing the game are women. The gaming community could really use more female gamer positive stories. I went to Target and saw people shopping and looking for pokemon. On the bike trail near my house, there were many walkers looking for an elusive pokemon. It is the middle of July in the Midwest, it is hot and humid, and there are way more people outside playing this game. They are playing the game together. Every time I glance at my phone in public, people ask if I am playing Pokemon Go. Most of the time the answer is yes. We need to embrace the social, and active, consequences of a free app that you can install on your phone. Yes people should stay out of cemeteries, but let's focus on the 1000+ great aspects of Pokemon Go and not be obsessed with the handful of bad stories. We should celebrate something great, not tear down what we want to dismiss.

I am so happy to have Pokemon Go on my phone. It has encouraged me to explore areas of my community I have never thought of. It has given my new dog an expectation of frequent, and ever changing, walks. It has made my son want to go outside. It is a great app. You need to download it. Reading the rules is not required. I just wish the actual Pokemon games and cards were not so expensive.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. While he was writing this post, RD took a break to check on Pokemon Go. He caught another Pidgey. Catch the SeedSing fever by liking us on Facebook

There are a Number of Reason to not Live Off the Grid

Until this gets better, we need to stay on the good old grid.

Many parts of the US are getting destroyed by bad, windy storms recently. I know that they hit the North very hard a few weeks back, and yesterday, at least in the Midwest, we got crushed. I live in Saint Louis, and we were absolutely hammered by a very bad storm yesterday. It got very, very dark during the late afternoon, and then the wind started. At first, I thought, this will be a quick, passing storm, boy was I wrong. This storm lasted for a good 2 to 3 hours and it was brutal. The rain was pouring. The wind was intense. The sky stayed dark.

The absolute worst part about this storm, the power went out in our home. I have not been in a storm when the power has gone out in almost a decade. Usually when it rains hard, the power stays on and the rain passes. That was not the case yesterday. Our power went out at about 3:15pm central time, and it did not come back on until 9:30pm. We didn't even have it the worst. I know people that live in neighboring towns that power went out the same time ours did, but they didn't get their power back until 2 or 3 in the morning.

I am not here to complain about rainstorms today. I actually want to take my time to talk about how, in this day and age, miserable it would be to be "off the grid". Many people know what this term means, but if you don't, a simple explanation of being "off the grid", you don't use TV, cell phones, computers, basically no electronic devices. It's almost like living Amish. In fact, I bet the Amish thrive in rain storms and being "off the grid". But, I always thought it would be interesting and kind of cool to see what it would be like to be "off the grid" myself for a few months. Well, I can say, with authority, after only 6 and a half hours, being off the grid would be the worst.

I always feel nervous when a bad storm hits, so add on the fact that my cell phone was about to die, and I had no way to charge it. That meant, if my phone died, I would have no way to contact my wife, my in laws or my folks. That was frightening.

Secondly, the storm hit when my kids where resting. My daughter, who is nine months old, slept through it all, but my son, who is 4, was very, very scared. So, not only was I frightened by the fact that I may have no way of communicating with my wife and family, but my son's fear added to mine. He did not care for the lights being out. He is kind of afraid of the dark to begin with, and with it being as dark as it was during the day, he was terrified. He snuggled like to me like he had never before, that's how scared he was, he never snuggles up with me.

Third, this is where it will start to get trivial, but it bears referencing, we had no television or radio to listen to. Having no TV, at that time of day, totally threw us off our routine. When my son gets out of "quiet time", he gets to watch a TV show. That is what we do everyday. But, with the power out, that was off the table. My son, much like my wife and myself, thrive on consistency. When he realized he would not be watching a show, he grew even more upset. Then, the radio thing, we don't have a boom box in our house anymore because it is 2016. We haven't had a stereo in the house for about 5 years now. It's pointless because we listen to everything on our phones or our iPods. And I wasn't going to get in the car to listen to the radio because it was so terrible outside. So, another lack of communication outside.

Fourth, the fridge and the freezer were shut down. We had ice cream and frozen pizza in the freezer that could have easily thawed and been rendered useless. In the fridge, we had meat, milk, cream and a bunch of other perishable items. I was very nervous that these would all go bad and that would be like throwing cash into the trash can. We have some good pork chops and chicken breast that could have very easily gone bad had our power not come back on. I was so looking forward to my pork chop last night, but that was a no go since our fridge and stove didn't work. Fifth, we had to go out for dinner, but a bunch of places closed or had an hour wait. We spent over an hour just trying to find a place to eat when my wife got home. That's just annoying.

We got home from dinner and the power was on, but only for about 5 minutes. That was a tease. They hadn't fully fixed the problem yet, and they shut us down again at about 8:15pm. I was about to give my son a shower, but now we had to do that by candlelight. That was tough and not fun. My son was scared. I couldn't see what was going on. I was frustrated. He was scared and started to cry. It was a disaster. I also had to shower myself by candlelight, and that is a pain. It's like taking a shower with a mini strobe light. It was not ideal.

My wife and I finally got the kids to sleep right around 9pm in our very warm house. That was another problem, it was steamy in the house. We had no relief, even with the windows open. It was hot and I was sweaty, another deal breaker. But, we got the kids asleep, I showered, was getting ready for bed, then the power came back on. I felt a relief like I had never before. It was so nice to hear the AC click on, the lights power up and turn the TV back on.

That little 6 and a half hour departure from the grid was more than enough for me to not want to do more than that ever again. It all sounds nice and peachy to say that you want to live "off the grid", but I think it is just that, just a nice thought. The people that actually do it, more power to you, but it is not for me and I think it is highly overrated and kind of gone the way of the "hipster".

"Hipsters" want to do everything old school, but the problem with old school, like vinyl records, unicycles, VHS tapes and being "off the grid", everything has been updated to make it better. We have CD's and MP3 players, we have mountain bikes, we have DVD's and Blu-Ray's and we have electronics that make our lives so much easier and better.

The storm from yesterday erased any thoughts I had of trying to be "off the grid" at some point, and I think being "off the grid" is an old fashioned idea that sounds good, but is pointless and worthless. People who live "off the grid" are just as lame as "hipsters". The grid is our friend.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His views on hipsters are very, very, clear. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Brexit, Democracy, and the Ash Heap of History

The first on the fire?

Have you heard about how the Brexit referendum has destroyed democracy? It definately ended Prime Minister David Cameron's political career. Since the British people voted 52%-48% to leave the European Union, almost everyone with an opinion has decided that Britain made the wrong decision. The "Leave" voters have been called racist, children, and ignorant. People are trying to make the referendum vote as proof that there is a divide between people living in urban areas and those living in rural parts. Those of two different generations have views that are diametrically opposed. The young urban intelligentsia have compassion, and the old uneducated hick is an idiot. The war between the future and the past was fought during the Brexit referendum, the old barely won, and the rest of the world has lost. Democracy has failed to secure our future.

Almost everything written, or televised, about Brexit is insulting and wrong. The coverage is focusing on a small group of angry remain voters, and discounting the 17 million plus majority voters who want to leave the European Union. Let's take a closer look at how the British people actually voted.

A big deal is being made out of the urban "Remain" voters against the rural "Leave" voters. The majority of the urban centers did vote for "Remain", along with all of Scotland and Northern Ireland. It was not just the far out, lowly populated, rural areas that carried "Leave to victory. The majority of England and Whales voted "Leave". Once you exit the center of the urban areas, nearly all of the suburban parts voted "Leave". Almost all of the blue collar, highly populated, areas pushed "Leave" over "Remain". 

The higher educated were also applauded for wanting to remain in the European Union. Nearly three quarters of UK citizens with a college degree voted "Remain". The problem here is that less than one third of UK citizens have a college degree. The media tries to make it look like half the country is college educated and the other half is not. The fact is that by using this group in one's analysis, the whole truth cannot be seen. A minority this small is insignificant in swinging an election.

Another interesting piece of the Brexit vote is party affiliation. Predictable the "Leave" voters mostly identified with the conservative party and the UK Independence Party (UKIP). The conservatives are currently the majority party in the Parliament, and had won a hard fought election just over a year ago. Even if the former Prime Minister David Cameron was backing "Remain", many of the voters stuck to their conservative principles and voted with their nationalistic hearts.

The most telling voter data can be easily described by the BBC.

"Younger people voted Remain

According to polling by Lord Ashcroft, younger voters were much more likely to vote Remain than older voters.

But turnout in areas with a higher proportion of younger residents tended to be lower."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-36616028

The millennials who are being championed in the media as the sensible losers in Brexit, most of them did not even vote. Lack of interest in voting is not being discussed in the Brexit vote because the media would rather paint the millennial generation as victims of baby boomer excess. Once again voter turnout is a problem.

Why do we swallow the media narrative of the disappointed electoral minority and immediately discount the majority votes of an entire nation? More than seventeen million people voted to leave the European Union, and the global narrative is focused on the exact opposite. The answer is quite simply. It's all about the money.

Every single post Brexit story focused on the fall in the global stock market and the devaluing of the British Pound. The concern for a few peoples wealth was way more important than the humanitarian consequences of Brexit. President Obama and Speaker Ryan supported Britain staying the EU because of how it would effect US trade policy and what an exit would mean to the business owners in the United States. That is exactly what the elected leaders of the United States should do. It was the same thing around all the industrialized economies of the world. The world's economy was going to suffer if Britain left the EU. Quietly, Vladimir Putin supported Great Britain leaving the European Union, but that has more to do with consolidating power than it does for global economic stability. If Putin supports something, it usually means the rest of the global economic powers will be against it.

If the economic consequences are so dire, why would 52% of the voters want to bring about the chaos? The answer is that the majority of Britain's citizen's, and the citizen's around the world, have been exploited and held down by the politicians and business leaders of the twenty first century economy. When David Cameron took the keys to 10 Downing Street, he immediately enacted programs that drained the social programs of needed funds. These so called austerity measures were supposed to restore the economy to pre-2008 levels. The Prime Minister's family was named in the Panama Papers as someone who was avoiding taxes. He has no idea how important the government funded social services are to people that cannot afford to hide their money and dodge taxes. Cameron did not have anything to lose by demanding that the working people pay more, and sacrifice much more. He did not care how much the majority would suffer.

The non-college educated working class suffered the most from Cameron's austerity plan, and the rich got even richer through tax cuts/incentives. London Mayor, and fellow conservative, Boris Johnson enthusiastically blamed immigrants for the city's economic troubles. The people who could not afford to live in downtown London saw their social safety net being cut to shreds by Parliament, and had immigrants to blame through the mayors racist rhetoric. Nigel Farage, the head of the UKIP, was even running advertisements in the suburbs telling people that the money saved by leaving the EU was going to help strengthen the drained National Health Service. The day after the vote, Farage sort of rescinded that promise on national television. When the majority of your voters are non-college educated, struggling to get by, and looking for a way out, leaving the European Union was their only viable choice. That is why leave carried the day.

The myth of democracy is what caused the Brexit vote. David Cameron could not find anymore of the people's money to give away to his rich business donors, so he approved the Brexit referendum. Boris Johnson had a small period of time to maintain the immigrant hatred, so he pushed hard for Brexit. Nigel Farage is another demagogue he wants to justify his hate through the will of the people. Brexit was formed out of fear and economic hardship. The rightfully elected majority party in Parliament created and fed this flame of discontent. The will of the people was created by these leaders of government. Modern democracy created the majority leave voters.

Today we are questioning the will of the people. It has been weeks since Brexit, and our global economy is begging for a do over. David Cameron has resigned, and new Prime Minister Theresa May has promised to carry out with Great Britain's exit from the European Union. Democracy must be respected. The people have spoken, even if their voice said the wrong thing.

Brexit should represents the end of our love affair with democracy. The fact remains that 52% of Britons voted for the wrong thing. The leave supporters were fed a bunch of lies, and voted on baseless fear. The voters were used as pawns by rich men who were trying to hold onto the little bit of power they can still embrace. Austerity did not work, it only made things worse. With the failures of austerity, the leaders turned to racism. That will also one day fail. Great Britain has shown that an up or down popular vote is not the answer. The conservatives gained power by standing on top of the majority. The weight of the conservative party's greed has crushed their nation. Leaving the European Union was politically their only way to hold onto ill gotten power. The fallout from Brexit will hurt all of Britain, and leave the conservatives with no avenue forward in their quest for wealth and influence. 

Democracy has exposed the mob as not fit to govern. Brexit is the most glaring example popular voting's failure. More than 17 million people believed that leaving the European Union would improve their rapidly declining economic conditions. They never thought the people they supported in previous elections were the ones who were causing the economic decline. Once democracy relies on racism and fear to gain power, it is time to find a new way. Leave won because the supporters relied on lies and fear, while the opponents were met with low voter turnout and disorganization. Is this the best way to govern an entire nation, or a global economy? Democracy has failed, and Brexit is one of many examples to come. The fires of history has produced a lot of ash. Democracy will be next. What do we do know?

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. What is our new way forward? Tell us by writing for SeedSing. 

The Greatest Television Ever: The Series Finale of "Maron" brings a Great Show to an Untimely End

Tonight marks the series finale of the IFC show, "Maron". Depending on who you ask, this was either IFC's choice to cancel the show, or it was Marc Maron's choice to end it after 4 seasons. Either way, this is an upsetting end for me. I really, really like this show. "Maron" centers around the life of comedian/writer/actor/podcaster, Marc Maron. It is a heightened version, but nonetheless, it was pretty much autobiographical. From the series premiere to tonight's finale, the show has been very funny, but also more realistic than any reality show on TV right now.

The first season was pretty much about how Maron and his podcast, "WTF" was blowing up. People were recognizing him and, in typical Marc Maron fashion, this made him uncomfortable. He did not like the spotlight being on him. Even more so though, he didn't feel that he deserved the spotlight. It was a great way to start a series about his life because his podcast was really blowing up at that time. Sure, he didn't have President Obama on yet, but he was getting some pretty famous people to appear on the show. The first season also talked about how his friends, the great Dave Anthony and Andy Kindler, were either jealous or didn't think Marc Maron deserved all the attention. There were funny and real moments during that first season that were just fantastic.

Season two found Marc with a new, very young girlfriend. She was controlling and wanted a baby. While this may sound like a big departure, it was still a very good through line for the season. Season 2 found Maron trying, and failing, to relate to his girlfriend's very young group of friends. Maron was trying to be hip and cool, but he also knew that he was older and he didn't want to do young adult things anymore. He wanted to play his guitar, do his podcast, play with his cats and listen to records. Maron's parents were more involved in this season as well. This really showed how the person Marc Maron came to be. His dad was a crazy man that lived in an RV that never showed any real love towards his son. His mom, retired and living in Florida, was a tough, no nonsense women who always told Marc that he was fat. This was also very good stuff. We also got to meet Marc's brother this season and more of the characters in his life. Season 2 was a big step up from season one, and I loved season one. The second season ended with him and his girlfriend splitting up, but it was definitely for the best.

In season three Marc Maron really starts to explode. His podcast is bigger than ever. He is getting deals done and doing some of the best work of his career. Friends and family even respected the fact that he was getting the acclaim he deserved. This all came to a head wonderfully and tragically in the season 3 finale. Maron finally got his own talk show, but he had previously hurt his back trying to stay in TV shape, thus leading him to a pill addiction. If you don't already know, Marc Maron, both the person and the character, is a recovering addict. Some shady doctor decides to give him oxycotin for his back, and being the addict he was, he got hooked right away. During the taping of his pilot episode, he was so high, he passed out. This was a harrowing season finale to a comedic show. It was dark, but funny, as only Maron and his writing team could do.

The start of this fourth season found Maron living in a storage unit and fully addicted to all pain pills. He looked rough. He had an unkempt beard that was shaggier than mine. He was sleeping with a nurse, who was keeping a cancer patient alive, so he could get pain pills from her. Dave Anthony, who I cannot stress enough how great he was on this show, finally gets him to go to rehab. Maron had screwed enough people over, and he needed help. The scenes that took place in the rehab were funny, poignant and terrifying. He was put in a rehab with a bunch of young, rich white kids and that seems to be one of Maron's biggest pet peeves. He hated this, but he did what he needed to do to get better. We, the audience, also come to see that Dave Anthony has become a big time guy in Hollywood, but it was all due to him stealing Marc's life. It was, much like the whole series, very funny and very weird. The scenes between Dave Anthony, Marc Maron and Amy Smart, who played Anthony's wife, were so bizarre, but I couldn't look away. While going through recovery, Maron is doing his apologies to the people he had wronged, and we come to realize that he fathered a kid as a sperm donor. In the penultimate episode, Maron leaves town to find this kid. He ends up in the hometown of the child, is about to leave, but changes his mind and stays.

Tonight we get the conclusion to this whole series. I'm excited, but also sad to watch the finale. I truly hope it was Maron's decision to end this show. I know it's going to be great, but I could have watched so much more of this. Well, at least we will always have "WTF" to listen to. Thank you for four great seasons of television. "Maron" will be missed.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Like "WTF" Ty hopes his podcasting career takes off in season two. Catch the first episode of our second season where The X Millennial Man talks about great dogs. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

"Bar Rescue" is Back to Reclaim our Joy and Disgust

This bar is just right when it comes to my standards for trash

This past Sunday, July 10th, the new season of "Bar Rescue" premiered. I have written once before about this show, which I adore, but the episode I wrote about was rather disgusting. "Bar Rescue" is almost always about some dingy bar that is in dire need of a "rescue", so hall of famer in the nightclub industry, Jon Taffer, comes in with two experts and they fix the bar up.

The episode I wrote about previously was the first, and possibly, only time they "rescued" a strip club. Everything about that episode was gross. Jon Taffer is always gross, but he was extra disgusting. The experts looked scared and like they needed a shower afterwards. The strip club, which was called Chix on Dix(ewwwwwwwww), changed it's name to The Landing Strip, but that was the only change. It was still extra gross and downright sad.

Well, after that episode, I kind of lost a little interest in "Bar Rescue". They had crossed a line, in my opinion. I'm not a fan of strip clubs and the fact that they tried to "rescue" one, it all seemed way too weird and icky for my personal taste. But, my brother and head editor and owner of the site, RD, said I should watch this season premiere because they were doing a bar in my home city, Saint Louis. I thought, why not, let's give it another try. 

Man am I glad that I watched "Bar Rescue" again. When the episode opened, they did their patented thing of talking to the owner and having them explain why their bar is failing. This particular bar, called City Bistro, was losing money because the bartenders were getting drunk on the job, giving out free drinks and flashing their bare chests to patrons in hopes of getting big tips, they did not get those tips. The fact that these bartenders kept exposing themselves kind of gave me that icky feeling again, but it wasn't because it was a strip club, this was a legitimate bar. People should never be topless or bottomless in a place of business, unless it is a strip club. These bartenders were being gross because they were drunk and lost any inhibitions they once had. Tami, the main bartender, was constantly drinking and flashing anyone in the bar. Taffer, who was watching everything from his car, as he does on every episode, was growing more angry by the second. He was literally yelling at his two experts about this bartender drinking and exposing herself. There was even a shot of Tami, aka Tam Tam, taking her shoes off behind the bar. At that moment, Taffer walked in and went directly to the owner Tiffany. He spoke to her about what he was seeing and told her, this is his trademark, that she needed to fire Tami immediately. I swear, Taffer gets some weird pleasure from telling owners to fire people. It's disturbing how his face lights up when they go through with it and fire said employee. Tami was fired, obviously, and in typical fashion of the bad bartenders shown on "Bar Rescue", she walked off, swearing and slurring all her words on the way out.

Then, the experts had their turn to slam City Bistro. Taffer's drink expert showed the remaining bartenders all the fruit flies in the liquor bottles and how dirty the bar top had become. It was very straight forward "Bar Rescue" stuff. Then, the food expert went to check out the kitchen, and to his and Taffer's surprise, the kitchen was not even open. Apparently, they shut it down awhile ago because they couldn't afford to buy the inventory needed to run a kitchen. The kitchen was filthy, but the topper, and perhaps one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen on any TV show, there was a dead mouse floating in the fryer. It was just as gross as anything I saw on the strip club episode. What made it worse, the camera crew kept going back and staying on the shot of the dead mouse. My stomach is upset thinking about it now, and it's been two days. They cleaned that kitchen better than I had ever seen any kitchen cleaned on "Bar Rescue". I still wouldn't eat there, but they cleaned the hell out of that kitchen. They eventually got it up and running and hired a cook, Sam. Sam was the best part of the whole episode. He was funny, a hard worker and seemed more involved than any other employee there. Sam was great. The owner and the bartenders got to go on the Busch Brewery tour so they could "reconnect" with the local beer company. This was all pointless, wasted TV time. It felt shoe horned in the episode.

After retraining and cleaning up the bar, they changed the name to Beechwood, because Busch beer is "beechwood aged". I thought City Bistro was a better name, but Taffer always picks stupid new names. They seemed to be doing okay after Taffer and his people left, as is the case with every episode, but after reading some local stuff, I guess Beechwood isn't as great as "Bar Rescue" and Jon Taffer hoped it could be.

The good thing about this episode, one, they didn't go to some gross strip club and they fired the main person that was exposing themselves, but secondly, and most importantly, it was like any other episode. If you've ever seen an episode of "Bar Rescue", you could figure out what was going to happen, beat for beat. There is some kind of comfort in the familiarity. I'm actually excited to watch more episodes now. I'm back on the "Bar Rescue" bandwagon, as long as they stay away from strip clubs.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Being the youngest of four brothers, Ty has been going to bars since he was 10 years old. He knows a disgusting bar when he sees one. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik. 

Tim Duncan had the Career Every NBA Player can only Dream of

Sit and rest Tim. You have earned a happy retirement

After an incredible 19 year NBA career, Tim Duncan has decided to retire. Duncan's retirement has seemed like it was coming for the past two or three seasons, but it is still a shock to see an all time great hang it up. Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward to ever play basketball, hands down. It's not even close. Some people will throw out Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Daryl Dawkins, Moses Malone, anyone big time hall of famer, but Duncan has surpassed them all, and it's not even close. Duncan was the consummate pro. He was THE pro's pro. Every player should strive to have a career like Duncan had. His longevity, his ability to play highly competitive basketball all the way to the end, being the greatest teammate, being humble, not having any crazy off the court issues, I mean, everything about his career was almost perfect. He was so durable and so reliable and just flat out awesome.

Duncan was the first pick in the 1997 draft. He went to the Spurs the year after they tanked out after David Robinson got hurt. Going into the 97 draft, Duncan was a can't miss player. The fact that he got to play with David Robinson his first two years in the NBA is a highly overlooked aspect of him getting accustomed to the NBA life with another humble pro. He and David Robinson were great teammates as well. Duncan's second year, they won the championship, giving David Robinson his much coveted title.

After winning rookie of the year in his first season, then the title his second season, Duncan really took off. That's not to say he wasn't great in his first two years, he was exceptional. But, after Robinson retired, Duncan took over as the team leader and thrived. He won four more titles as a player. He won the NBA finals MVP in three of his five titles. He was a 15 time all star. He was a regular on all NBA and all NBA defensive teams. He was a double double machine, averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds with regularity. Even as his career wore on, he adjusted to the new pace of the game. This also has a lot to do with the one coach he played his entire NBA career for, Gregg Poppovich. These two were as perfect for each other as Robinson and Duncan were the perfect teammates. How many players, in the entire history of the NBA, can say that they played for one team and one coach for a very, very long career. I'd venture to say that list is less than 5 players. And, I'd venture even further and say that Duncan is the best of all those players.

Getting back to adjusting to changing his style of play to the changes of play in the NBA, Duncan did it best. When he was first in the league, centers were the man on offense. The ball and the plays ran through them. Duncan excelled as a back to the basket center and was one of the better scorers in the low post of all time. Then, as a defender, he was a world class rim protector and a very capable rebounder. He stood at 6'10, but his arms were so long, it made him unguardable and dominant as a defender. Then, as the NBA has kind of evolved from centers being the focal point to this new "pace and space" and shooters being the first option and the "point forward" position being invented, Duncan still found a niche. He became a great passer. He developed a mid range jumper. He still protected the rim when guards would drive and he was one of the better rebounders still in the league. Even in the last couple of seasons, with his knees going and his legs not as strong or as fast and his jumping ability non existent, he was still a threat. He could still hit the mid range jumper. He still made hook shots. He still was a beast on put backs. He still played all NBA defense. He was still a very capable rebounder. He was still great.

I will miss watching Tim Duncan play basketball. There will be no other player like him, probably ever. He was such a great player on the court and he was very famous, but he carried himself with a humbleness and a humility that is unmatched. Like I said, there is no scandals that involve Tim Duncan. He was never boastful of arrogant on or off the court. He keeps to himself and is a very quiet, non assuming person. He never raised his voice and he rarely complained to officials. He never seemed to foul out of games or get kicked out of games. I said it before and I will say it again, he IS the pro that everyone should strive to be.

The time has come for Duncan to hang it up, but what a way to go and what a great, all time career. Tim Duncan is, and always will be, the greatest power forward of all time and he is a top five player of all time, no doubt about it.  Enjoy your retirement.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He thinks you can be the greatest person of all time by supporting SeedSing. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Michigan and Notre Dame will Play Football Again, and that is Awesome

Does Michigan have a rival in Paris?

Yesterday Michigan and Notre Dame both agreed to renew their rivalry for the 2018 and 2019 season, at least. I couldn't be happier about this. Notre Dame-Michigan is a classic, must watch rivalry game. I looked forward to it every season when I was a child, a teen and now, an adult. It makes sense for these two teams to play each other for many reasons.

First off, they are the number 1 and number 2 winningest programs in college football history. Second, geographically, they are very close to one another, so they recruit high school teammate and kids that have played against each other since they were young teens. Third, alongside teams like USC, Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma, amongst a few others, they are both blue blood college football programs. They have fans all over the country, regardless of where they are from, or where they went to school. Fourth, both teams are perennial top 25 programs, save for a few seasons.

Look, there are about a million more reasons that these two teams need to play each other at least every two seasons. With the new playoff system now, it makes even more sense for them to play each other as opposed to Notre Dame playing some also ran from the ACC or Michigan playing another MAC team that is little to no competition. The playoff committee claims to value quality wins more so now, so which ever team wins, it looks so much better in the long run in a push to the playoff. Notre Dame also lost nothing from bringing this game back, they actually gain from doing this. Like I said, instead of playing Boston College or Syracuse early in the season, they get a marquee matchup in week 2 or 3.

Michigan had to pay a massive payout to Arkansas to reschedule the Notre Dame game, but it was totally worth it. I know that Arkansas' AD and their coach, Bret Bielama, are not too happy, but they need to get over it. I'm a huge Michigan fan, and the thought of them playing a home and home with Arkansas in 2018 and 2019 was very ho hum. I wasn't excited or thrilled that Michigan was going to be playing a mediocre to mid level SEC school. If they were going to schedule an SEC team during that time, I'd rather it be Alabama, Auburn or Tennessee. Arkansas was way, way down on my list. I'd have been happier if they scheduled Missouri over Arkansas. The University of Missouri is closer and it would have been easier for me to go to the game. So, the AD and Bielama need to keep their stupid comments to themselves. Arkansas is not Notre Dame, plain and simple. And also, if I were Bielama, I'd be thrilled that I didn't have to coach at the Big house again. When Michigan was being coached by Rich Rodriguez, and playing terribly, do you know which Big Ten team they beat that first season besides Minnesota? It was the Bret Bielama led Wisconsin Badgers. The Badgers should have trounced Michigan that day. In fact, they were crushing them going into halftime to the tune of 19-0. But, as Bielama has done his whole coaching career, he let Michigan stay in the game. The Wolverines scored a defensive touchdown, came back and won. This was a Michigan team led by Steven Threet and Sam MacGuffie. This was a Michigan team that finished 3-9. This was, statistically, the worst Michigan team ever. But, they still beat Bret Bielama. He shouldn't be throwing shade, he should be thanking his lucky stars, because this current Michigan team is a whole hell of a lot better than anything Rich Rodriguez threw out there.

I digress.

I love that this game is coming back in 2 years. It will be great to see Brian Kelly, whom I despise, and Jim Harbaugh matching wits. Michigan will have 4 full years under Harbaugh by then, so it will be a team full of his type of players. Brian Kelly, if he doesn't bolt for the NFL in the next 2 years, will be one of the longer tenured coaches at Notre Dame, and with consistency comes continuity, which leads to a good program. Also, these two programs have the best uniforms in all of college football, and it is always great to see the uniforms on game day. You have the solid gold helmet for Notre Dame with the navy or white jersey and gold pants and the classic winged helmet, navy or white jersey and maize, navy or white pants of Michigan. It doesn't get much better than that. This is also just good in general for all of college football, to have major programs play each other so early in the season.

What it all comes down to is that I am happy that I will get to watch a meaningful game in the early weeks of the season. I'm also happy that I will get to root against Notre Dame. I'll be even happier if Michigan wins the games, because all of Michigan's victories are great, but they are even better when they beat rivals. This is a good move by both schools and I'm glad it's coming back. I cannot wait.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He once ran out of gas in South Bend and decided to just leave the car on the road. None of his money was going to that community. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.