Ty Listens to The Black Keys Cover of "Crawling Kingsnake"

This morning while scrolling on the internet I came across some good news for once. Let’s discuss.

I’m a big Black Keys fan. They’re my second favorite band behind Run the Jewels. I’ve seen them live more than any other band. I found out about them when MTV2 used to play videos and they performed on an awards show I came across in 2002. And I’ve stayed with them ever since. They’ve achieved a decent amount of fame and now they’re in a situation where they can do the music they want when they want. So when I saw they have a new record of old blues covers coming out next month I was pumped.

As I said, this was good news. When I saw the musicians they would be covering on the record I got even more excited. They said on the press release that they were doing covers of people who inspired them to do the music they now make. Guys like John Lee Hooker, RL Burnside and Junior Kimborough, amongst others, are who The Black Keys will be covering on this record. That’s great. It was also great to read this press release because they announced that they had released the first single off the new record today. I immediately switched over to Spotify to listen.

The song is called “Crawling Kingsnake”, which I believe is a John Lee Hooker cover. I absolutely loved this song from the first note. I am not familiar with the original version but I will soon be after some more listens to the Keys version. This is The Black Keys that I love. I love everything they do, but this stripped down version, the original version of just Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach, that’s what I adore. That’s the band I fell in love with. All the records they did as just the two of them, those are the best, especially “Thickfreakness”. And this version of “Crawling Kingsnake” has major “Thickfreakness” vibes. From the dirty guitar to the reverb to the chaotic yet somehow put together drum parts to Auerbach’s gravelly voice, it’s all there and it’s all amazing. I have listened to this song about six times already, both versions I might add. They have the unedited and edited version right now. There is no cursing, it’s just the length of each version of the song. I prefer the six minute version. The version where you can hear the two of them talk before they start the song. It is so damn good. To hear them sound like this again, to go back to the early days, it just made me so very happy. I was, and still am, ecstatic. Not that I ever fell out of favor with them, but the fuller band took just a teeny tiny bit out of their aura to me. So when they strip it down, when they go back to basics, it gives me the same vibes I had when I first heard them.

I highly recommend people go listen to this track and then the album when it comes out. Black Keys fans will dig it, blues fans will like it, garage rock fans will enjoy it and newer Keys fans will hear the original version of this band for the first time. I cannot say enough good things about this song. It gets all the thumbs up that it can have. I cannot wait for the record, but for the time being, I’m going to go listen to the new single about 5 dozen more times. I suggest you do the same.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty Watches "Godzilla vs Kong"

Based on RD's high recommendation, and seeing the positive feedback the movie got online, my wife and I watched "Godzilla vs Kong" on our Friday date night. This was her pick too. I am not a Godzilla guy. I do like King Kong, and I have enjoyed most of the movies they have made about the ape, but I was by no means psyched to see the new movie. I have been fooled by the whole "versus" franchise. "Alien Vs Predator" was not good. At all. I did not watch "Freddy vs Jason" because I thought even the trailers looked dull. I guess monsters, or bad guys, facing off is not that big of a deal to me. But much like RD, my wife does enjoy monster movies, and she was pretty excited to watch. So we did and I have some thoughts.

First, I enjoyed parts of the movie. It was exactly what I thought it was going to be, and that was good. I liked that I could actually see the monsters. Even when they fought at night time, the scene was lit so we could see the monsters in full. I also thoroughly enjoyed the battle scenes, especially the final battle scene. I liked the built in relationship Kong had with the scientist and the little girl that the scientist watched over. I thought Brian Tyree Henry was solid in what is a very different role for him. And the monsters themselves, they looked great and the motion capture stuff was done very well. Godzilla and Kong looked as realistic as ever. Spoiler alert, Mechagodzilla was totally rad. I loved the look of this robotic monster. When Kong would fight something other than Godzilla, I loved the ripping apart and drinking of their juices, mainly from the animal's head. Seeing Godzilla swim in the ocean was very cool. The stuff that this movie got right, they nailed.

I do also have a few, minor complaints. I did not need the story lines they shoehorned in this movie. As much as I enjoyed Tryee Henry, his whole thing with Millie Bobby Brown and the kid from "Hunt for the Wilderpeople", both actors who I really enjoy, was pretty pointless. Also, the stuff with Millie Bobby Brown and Kyle Chandler held zero weight with me. Maybe I needed to see the previous "Godzilla" movie to be more involved, but I didn't. And their whole thing was totally pointless to me. And the stuff with Kong, the scientist and the young deaf girl and the Skarsgaard guy and the girl from "Baby Driver", really nonessential to what I wanted from this movie. Yeah it was cool that Kong learned to sign from the little girl, and the world the scientist created for Kong was dope, I quite frankly could have cared less about any of them. Also, for as solid an actor as Skarsgaard is, his whole storyline was completely pointless. And to give him a hero moment was very blah to me. I also did not care for the villains. The two guys that created Mechagodzilla were so cliché and so scenery chewy and just, again, nonessential to what I wanted to watch in this movie. I also wanted all of the movie, the whole hour and 40 minutes to just be a fight between monsters. They gave me that for 40 minutes at the end. But to have to wade through back stories, some new stories and stuff like Hollow Earth, I just did not care at all about any of that. I get why the writers and director added it, it just felt unneeded to me. But, the movie is totally redeemed in that last 40 minutes, and the few fights we get between Godzilla and Kong in the first hour. For a movie that is based in total science fiction, and wild fights between behemoth monsters, they delivered tenfold in that final 40 minutes. That was more than enough for me to recommend this movie. That battle scene at the end is so awesome and so cool and I found myself heavily involved when the main monsters were fighting each other. The movie is also a breeze to watch. It is less than two hours, and for a movie of this magnitude, I appreciate the hell out of that.

So yes, watch "Godzilla vs Kong". The fight scenes are more than worth your time.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

I Got Vaxed

As of this past Sunday, I have had my two COVID vaccine shots. I’ve kept it quiet on social media because I do not feel it is my responsibility to post that stuff. My wife and I have both gotten both shots, we have not told anyone other than family and close friends and neither of us had posted a picture with our vaccine cards. This is not me saying that people shouldn’t do that, do whatever you want after you get vaccinated, just get vaccinated.

I do want to tell everyone who reads my blog my story of getting my shots. I assumed I was going to fall in the final tier. I’m a stay at home dad, I run and play basketball, I’m not completely unhealthy, I do not have any underlying medical conditions and I’m still relatively young. It made sense to me to have to wait. And I did. I waited a few months after the vaccine was starting to be distributed. I wanted my folks to get it before me and they did. I wanted my in laws to get it before me and they did. There were people who needed it well before I did. After all of those people got their vaccine, then I’d get mine. Then one day my wife found an opportunity to get her shot. I was so happy for her. I wanted her to get it before me too. She is the bread winner in our relationship, so she deserved the vaccine before me. So I took her to her first appointment. We wanted to be as safe as possible. We didn’t know what, if any, side effects she might have, so we figured it was easiest for me to drive. And we did have to go on a little journey. The vaccine rollout in Missouri has been very bad. All the rural spots got the shots well before the bigger cities and counties. Our governor is an idiot, and I fully assume he did this on purpose. The rural areas voted for him, and us in the city and county did not. He treated the rollout like a spoiled child taking his ball and going home. I will go to my grave believing that. So we made the trip, it was about an hour, and she was ready for the shot. While we went back, I peppered the people with questions. I had so many. I just wanted some kind of timeframe for when I could get my shot. Then a day later I got a call from the same clinic, and they had a shot waiting for me. I was euphoric. I sped back to get that first dose. When I got it I wanted to cry tears of joy. It was amazing. I couldn’t believe that I was on my way to being vaccinated. It was pure joy.

As far as side effects, my arm hurt where I got the injection. It was sore, it hurt more when I used it, but it was nothing that stopped me from continuing my daily routine. It also only lasted one day. I was totally back to normal after that. The same thing happened to my parents. Sore arm that only lasted about 24 hours. Then it was the waiting game again. My wife and I both got Moderna, so we both had a four week wait. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. I kept living as I have lived the past year. I had my mask on in stores, I still ordered pickup from restaurants, when running and hiking with friends my mask was on, basically nothing changed.

Then the time came for the second dose. This was the biggy. After this one, in two weeks time, I’d be 94 percent protected from COVID. So we drove again, got our second shots on the same day and are in the midst of being fully vaccinated. The second shot wasn’t as euphoric as the first, but it was reassuring. It felt right. It was the smart, scientific and right thing to do. As far as side effects from the second shot, for me it was largely lethargy. I felt pretty tired the day after. I drank tons and tons of fluid. I took it easy. The only thing I did that was even remotely vigorous was taking my dog on a walk. That was all I felt like going. I also had a mild headache. From what I’ve heard I was lucky. I know people who had fevers that lasted for two-three days. I know people who had internal issues. I know people who felt like not getting out of bed for a day. I’ve heard some horror stories, but all those people have confirmed that they’ll gladly take a few rough days if it protects them from COVID. No one regrets their decision to get vaccinated. I don’t either.

Now that I’m fully vaccinated, not much has changed since my first shot. I still wear a mask. I have seen a few more friends who are also vaccinated, or on their way to be vaccinated, but we are still masked. I do not go to restaurants to eat, but I will go in to pickup food rather than having it delivered. I do have more confidence going inside the grocery store or hardware store or whatever I need to do errands. I feel more comfortable with my upcoming races. I am confident that my son and daughter will have baseball and softball this summer because all of us coaches will be fully vaccinated. Things seem a little bit better. I know we have variants out there and cases are up ticking, but as long as we stay diligent and keep vaccinating four million people a day, I see some light at the end of the tunnel. This pandemic is not over, not yet, but hopefully we are getting to a point where we can return to some kind of “normalcy”.

I’m glad I got the vaccine, I’ll definitely get any booster that’s required and I’ll stay vigilant. Also, these vaccines have made me so much more appreciative of doctors and science. That’s why we have this finally. Go get vaccinated. It’s easy enough when you get an appointment, and it’s more than worth any side effects and your time.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Enough is Enough, Again

How many more?

I seriously want to know.

Why is seemingly everyday another innocent black person gets murdered by the police. What is going on in this world? Have we lost all morals and ethics? Do people not care? Why is racism so rampant within the police department? Why do they have access to guns but no training in how to deal with people using words? I'm sick of this all. I am also scared. I do not know where we go as a society from here. The last administration made these racist police officers feel that they could go out and literally get away with murder. And now that we have a competent president and vice president, anytime they want to pass legislation to make it much harder to acquire guns, and to allocate more money for other parts of society than just the police, the GOP sits on its hands, or votes it down.

The fact is that Daunte Wright should be alive today. He should not be dead. His family should not be making arrangements for a funeral. His son should be seeing his father right now. He should be waking up next to his girlfriend and getting ready to talk to his folks. He isn't because some racist police officers saw a "traffic violation", and then saw him on his phone, and when he went to get out of his car, he was shot dead. This is sickening and worrisome. I want to know what this so-called "traffic violation" was, and why it was deemed serious enough to get a gun out. And I do not care if he was running away from the police. I feel like everyone should be running from the police right now with the way they have acted since the last administration. Derek Chauvin is currently on trial for the murder of George Floyd. Floyd used a counterfeit bill and this monstrous police officer decided he needed to put his knee to his neck for over 8 minutes and squeeze the life out of him. If Chauvin is not convicted of the murder he knowingly did, there will be riots. Wright was murdered by a different police officer not too far from where this trial is happening. And no one seems to be talking about it as much as they should right now.

I get worried every morning when I wake up and check the news because something horrible like this seems to happen everyday, and the people who commit these heinous acts, these crimes, seem to face little to no punishment. I saw today that the police department that is responsible for the police officer that murdered Wright said "we were supposed to taser him". Explain to me how you mix up a taser with a handgun. I haven't held either, but I have seen many, many pictures of both, and I know the difference between the two. This is a very scary time to be alive, and excuses like this are adding to the fear. It just came across my phone that they have postponed a baseball game that was supposed to happen in Minnesota this afternoon. That was the right call. Things like this cannot just continue to happen and we all just move on as a society. Consequences have to be paid. The punishment needs to fit the crime. The people who shoot to kill need to be held responsible and be prosecuted. I cannot take it anymore.

And it will happen again. That is what makes this even worse. Any of us who may have thought that George Floyd's death was going to be a wake up call, was going to change things, clearly we were wrong. Nothing has changed from the police's perspective. I'm sure there are still some decent police officers, but that wanes every time I see another story like Daunte Wright's. Police officers are given too much power, and I feel the good majority of them abuse it. I feel like a lot of officers were the "cool" guys and girls in high school, and it all stopped there. So they have to find a way to stay relevant, to still be deemed "cool", so they go out and find a job where they can have a miniscule amount of power, and then abuse it. There have been far, far too many deaths that could have easily been avoided. We also have traffic stops that, if they do not end in death, they still end pretty awfully. This past December there were two cops who openly harassed an Army veteran because he is black. They yelled at him, threatened his career and pepper sprayed him even though he was following their directions to a T. The video is only coming out now because the veteran rightfully pressed charges. Those officers need to be excused of their duties and rightly prosecuted as well. But with Wright and the police involved, this is clearly premeditated murder, at least from my perspective. They found a bogus reason to pull him over, and when he made a movement, the police fired their weapons in cold blood. This shit needs to end.

I say again, Wright should be alive today. So should George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Hamidou Diallo and Michael Brown and Philando Castile and Eric Garner and Botham Jean and Tamir Rice and so, so , so many more people of color that were murdered because they are not white. I have said it before and I will say it again, I am scared. I do not want to be pulled over by any officer. I am scared of what they will do to me and my wife and my kids. And I am a white male in my late 30's. I cannot imagine what my friends who are minorities think whenever they see a police officer, especially with how blood thirsty they have become over these past four years. I am also finding it harder and harder to not tell my children my true feelings about the police. This is another dark day in a very dark time. Something needs to be done. Something big needs to happen. And these monsters that are shooting people in cold blood, they need to be held accountable for their acts. BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

RIP DMX

DMX has passed away at 50.

This has been confirmed by multiple outlets this afternoon. I have been following his situation all week. I saw early on that he was rushed to the hospital, that he was in a coma, that he was in a vegetative state and that they were going to test his brain to see what could have gone wrong. I also later found out during the week that he was rushed to the hospital for a drug overdose. So when the news flashed today I was stunned, but not surprised. I was hoping he would pull through. I thought maybe it was one of the quick internet assumptions that another celebrity was sick and being rushed to the hospital. 2020, and so far 2021 have been pretty rough for people who have achieved some level of fame, but I was still hoping he'd pull through. He didn't, and now he is gone.

This is sad. People will have their opinions on DMX the person and the rapper. He spent a lot of time in jail. He bred dogs to have them fight. He was addicted to drugs and alcohol. He has a ton of kids, a lot of which he did not pay child support until he was forced to. He had many extramarital affairs. He made some bad choices, that is for sure. But he was also a good rapper. He was a famous rapper. He has one of the biggest hits to ever come out. "Ruff Ryder's Anthem" is a song I still sing walking around my house. "X Gon' Give it to Ya" was played in arenas when they had full crowds. "What's My Name" is still played on the radio today. He has one of the most unique voices in rap music. And, for all his faults, it has never been reported that he hit women and children. He was abused as a child, and I think he remembered that, so he did not, to the public's knowledge, lay hands on women or children. That is something he can take to his grave.

It just feels weird that he is just gone. This is kind of like Dustin Diamond passing. One day they are fine, the next they are rushed to the hospital and then they pass away. It is sad. DMX will leave behind his legacy of music, but he was also an ordained priest and tried to spread the gospel. I don't believe in that stuff, but DMX did, and he put his money where his mouth was. He preached when he was incarcerated. He preached when he got out. He preached when he stopped making music. He spread the word. He also was a solid actor. He did movies that fit his style of music, and he shined in some of his roles. He's solid opposite Jet Li in "Cradle 2 the Grave". "Belly" is a hip hop classic movie. He is funny in "How to be a Player". The stuff they used him for in Chris Rock's "Top Five" is awesome. "Romeo Must Die" has him paired up with Li again, and that is another solid karate movie. And you have all the documentaries that he was in, or was a subject of, that explain his style of rap and his life. I enjoyed some of the stuff he was in as an actor. He was able to carve out a spot for himself in both the music industry and in Hollywood. Late in his life he kind of disappeared from the spotlight until very recent, with the news of him being rushed to the hospital. Then we saw a plethora of musicians and actors, and family and friends all come out in support of DMX, and hoping he would come out on the other side of this. Unfortunately he did not. He has passed over to the next plane. He has moved on from Earth, and who knows where he is now.

This is a sad day for the rap community, and most importantly, the people who are in DMX's world. He had a tough life, that was always tough, even when he was uber famous. RIP DMX. You will be missed.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Ty Watches "Superstore" Series Finale

My wife and I decided we were going to watch "Superstore" about two months ago. We were looking for something new, something we hadn't watched yet, and we wanted it to be light and funny.

I had heard good things about Superstore, I am a big Colton Dunn fan and Justin Spitzer, the creator of the show, did some very wonderful things on the American "Office". So we started it and we couldn't stop watching. One episode a night turned to two, then three, then we were clocking five or six a day. Since she has been working from home, we would watch an episode during lunch, then one at dinner with the kids, then sometimes four more after they went to bed. The episodes are 22 minutes long, so we could blow through five or six a day with ease we found out quickly. In doing this we got caught up very fast. We found ourselves waiting to watch new episodes on Hulu very fast. We got to a point where we could watch it in real time if we wanted. We still opted for Hulu.

“Superstore” was so well done. It was funny, but also poignant. The way they tackled issues, issues that come from working in a big business with big corporate people that may or may not even know who their employees are, it was done very well with much needed humor. The stuff with unions and strikes, that was relatable. Having a character being undocumented, and going through his journey, that was eye opening. The inter store politics and fights and hook ups, I loved it all. I found the show so easy to watch because it was so well made. They even tackled systemic racism and the pandemic nearly perfect. Their racism episode was dynamite. The way they handled the last season, all of which was during this pandemic that is still raging, was very well done. My family finally decided we were ready to finish the show a few days back. They had their series finale and we were putting it off because I did not want to stop watching. I know I can always go back, but I will never get the first time viewing ever again.

So we sat down and watched the two part finale. I loved it. I think the way they tied everything up, the way they pretty much finished everyone's story, it felt right to me. For people that watch the show, they know what I am talking about. Glenn reopened his hardware store and hired Mateo and Cheyenne. That was so fitting for so many reasons. Jonah and Amy got back together after Amy quit and moved back home. I was hoping this was going to happen, they were the best couple, and they should have ended up together. The show made us wait, but it was worth it. Dina took over the fulfillment center that Cloud 9 turned into, and hired her five best workers. She had Marcus and Sandra and Justine among the five, and it was nice to see them all still together. Dina also ended up with Garrett, which was super fitting. Hell, they may even beat out Jonah and Amy as the best couple. Garrett's speech that he gave, as the original Cloud 9 was closing, that was a perfect summation of the greatness of this show and I loved the moments they replayed for all of us to see and remember. It was so fitting that Garrett gave the speech too. I liked seeing everyone's interview when they first got their jobs at the store. I like the flashback stuff. I like seeing the characters before they became the people the show wanted them to become. And that barbeque scene at the very end, where everyone is together was so sweet and made me optimistic for the first time in a long time during this pandemic. They were all together hanging out, having fun, their kids were playing together, they were eating food together. It made me opine for the time before COVID when we could do it. It also made me realize that we will get to that point someday soon, hopefully.

I thought this was a great way to end such a great show. I will miss it. I will also most definitely be watching the Cheyenne and Bo spinoff show that is apparently in the works. "Superstore" was an under the radar show that I think will find a great second life on streaming services. It will become like "Friends" or "The Office" when more people, younger people, find it. "Superstore" was a classic, and it ended almost perfectly. I was very pleased with it all.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Ty Watches "Bad Trip"

This past Friday was my turn to pick the movie for date night with my wife. We have managed to keep this up while we are staying with my folks, and it has been great. We go down in our room, close the door and my parents hang with the kids until we put them to bed. Awesome. So since it was my turn, and I have been in a comedy mood lately, I picked the movie "Bad Trip".

Now, a few things. I am a big time Eric Andre fan, my wife is not. I liked almost every iteration of "Jackass", my wife did not. I am a big fan of prank movies, my wife only likes a hand selected few. I was in dangerous territory, at least I thought. I picked the movie because I really wanted to see it. I have been wanting to see it since I saw the trailer. This was a movie, in pre COVID times, that I would have watched in a theater. And add in the fact that Lil Rel Howery and Tiffany Haddish were in it with Andre, I was fully on board. Obviously the movie did not make it to many theaters, but it was purchased by Netflix. So, I clicked on it and fully expected to love it, and fully expected my wife to be bored by it.

Well, we both loved it. This movie is absolutely hilarious. The fact that they were able to pull this off is amazing. That they could stage these pranks on unsuspecting people, people that did not know a movie was being made, incredible. Then to add a coherent story, a tip of the hat to everyone involved. The moment I knew that my wife was in, that she was going to enjoy herself, was when Andre appeared out of a bathtub to an unsuspecting plumber and he got freaked out. She was cackling, I was howling and she said, "this movie right here, this is my kind of prank movie!". I was even more smitten than I thought I could be with her. From there on out the movie is wild. The pranks are nuts. The people being pranked are very real getting pranked. They don't suspect a thing. We have the plumber, but there is oh so much more. They do a whole song and dance number in a mall that is wild. The stuff in the juice bar is great. When Howery and Andre steal Haddish's car, the guy working behind the counter just lets it happen.

The story of “Bad Trip” is a simple one too, but I should mention it. Andre and Howery are life long friends that are stuck in their middling jobs in podunk Florida. Andre's high school crush comes into the juice bar one day and invites him to her gallery opening in New York and he decides he needs to go and bring Howery with him. Haddish is Howery's older sister who has been in and out of jail and they take her car to New York. She tries to track them down. All the while these pranks are being played. There is a scene where Howery gets stuck in a porta potty that was outrageous. Andre and Howery get their members stuck in a finger trap. Haddish steals a cop car by ripping the door off the hinges. She fights people who will not give her any info she needs. At one point they superimposed a gentleman into a picture with Howery and Andre, and her interaction with this man is gold. Andre and Howery go to a country bar in the deep south and they are the only two African Americans there. Some hilarity ensues while they are at said bar, and a lot of it has to do with alcohol. The zoo stuff, that was just wrong and hilarious at the same time. This movie was everything I hoped it would be. I mean the very first scene involves Andre getting his clothes ripped off by a car vacuum cleaner, and he convinces the patron to give him his sweatshirt and to try and get a phone number for him. That is quintessential Eric Andre stuff.

I have nothing but good things to say about this movie. Yes it is cheesy and weird and goofy, but it is supposed to be. It is better than any "Jackass" movie in my opinion as well. This movie works. It is short and fast. It is hilarious. And it is coherent. Check this movie out. I think it will give Eric Andre the much needed respect he deserves for the humor her does, and Howery and Haddish totally commit to their roles. I loved it and I think you will too.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Baylor Showed Up and Dominated, That is Why They are the Champs

Yesterday I touted how great the Gonzaga-UCLA game was on Saturday, and it was a classic, and I was hoping that the title game was going to be half as good last night.

Well, it was not.

The basketball was good, and Baylor came more than prepared, but Gonzaga was bad. Real bad. Baylor came out like their heads were on fire, they were everywhere defensively and it seemed like they could not miss any shots. They came into the game with a great plan and executed it to absolute perfection. This was one of the best, and most dominant performances I have ever seen. When they pushed their lead at the beginning to 9-0, I already started to see Gonzaga looking like they realized they had no chance in the game. Gonzaga came out slow and stiff. They played scared. They played to not lose. They didn’t have the giddy up, the oomph they’ve shown all season. They got beat like a drum defensively. They turned the ball over far too many times. They got into very early foul trouble. They couldn’t hit the three. They couldn’t regularly get the ball in the post. It was bad.

I don’t think it was the Bulldogs poor performance that gave Baylor the win. I think Baylor dictated every aspect of the game. Baylor controlled tempo. They forced the turnovers. They made shots. When Gonzaga switched to a zone, Baylor attacked the middle and outside with abundant success. Baylor hounded the ball handlers all night. Even when Gonzaga cut the lead to 9 early in the second half, Baylor didn’t clam up. They went on a 7-0 run to push their lead back up to 16. It was so much of a blowout that Gonzaga players did something I am not a fan of. Some of their players, stars like Timme and Suggs, started to move around like they were hurt. Timme was getting his hip worked on in the middle of the second half. During that time, Baylor kept hitting shots and forcing turnovers. They needed him on the floor, but he was “injured”. I just think he was tired. This was as big a blowout as I have witnessed between two teams that seemed evenly matched. These were the two best teams all year, but Baylor made very quick, and easy work of Gonzaga. Baylor owned this game. They were ready to play and Gonzaga was scared.

My hat goes off to Baylor. I was so very wrong about them in this tournament. I thought their late season COVID pause was going to crush them. It did not. At all. Baylor deserved to win this game too. They took the refs out of it, they took Gonzaga’s stars out of it and everyone on Baylor played their role to a T. I was very impressed with their overall performance last night. They are a much deserving champion.

I was so happy to have the tournament back. There were some great games and great individual performances. There were some humongous upsets and the correct team, the best team, won it all. Congrats Baylor. You deserve it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing. 

Ty Watches the 2021 Men's Final Four

Saturday night I watched the Final Four like I assume most sports fans did. I missed it last year, and this year I think we had three of the four best teams in the country, and the hottest team in the tourney, and I wanted to watch Gonzaga, who I have not seen an entire game of all year.

The first game was a blowout, and I did not see it coming. I figured Baylor would win. They have looked really good this whole tournament, and clearly I underestimated them. Houston has been great defensively, and they have done just enough on offense to get by. But they played all double digit seeds up to that point, they had blown large leads late only to pull away at the end, and they just seemed overmatched going into the Baylor game. That was all true. Baylor came out like gangbusters, they hit way more threes than they had all tourney, they locked down Houston's best offensive player right off the bat and rolled. The closest they got was 12, I believe. Baylor dominated, proved why they were a top two team all year and more than deserve to be in the title game.

The UCLA-Gonzaga game, at least I thought going into it, was going to be the same. I was very, very wrong. UCLA proved me very, very wrong in this game. They hung in the whole time. They probably should have won that game. They played the best they have offensively maybe all year. They slowed down two of the three stars Gonzaga has on their team. They never let Gonzaga pull away. They held the lead for most of the game. They looked like they more than belonged. This was one of the best college games I have ever seen, all time for me. This is how the final four games should be. This is what I look for during March Madness. I want these games to be back and forth. I like feeling invested even when I do not care who wins. This, this type of game, is what I missed so much last season when they rightfully canceled the tournament. It was back and forth. UCLA would build their lead, then Gonzaga would go on a run and take a lead of their own. And vice versa. When the best players on both teams needed to step up, they most certainly did. Johnny Juzang and Tyger Capmbell played amazingly. Jaime Jaquez was a key cog. UCLA let its stars shine their brightest, and they played up to the Zags level. And while Jalen Suggs, more on him in a minute, and Corey Kispert didn't have a great game, Drew Timme absolutely dominated in the low post. That kid has some of the best footwork in the post that I have ever seen. He looked like a mix of Tim Duncan and a slower Hakeem Olajuwon. He is going to have a long, productive NBA career based solely on his footwork. And he did everything he needed to for the Zags, which was almost everything. And as much as I dislike the charge/blocking call in every level of basketball, he took that charge near the end of the game, and it was rightfully called. He was outstanding.

The regulation 40 minutes wasn't enough, so this epic game got to go into overtime. Overtime was classic. Timme scored 6 quick points, but UCLA kept answering. Juzang was pulling up from everywhere, and it seemed to fall almost every single time. I even threw my hands up at one moment and asked my dad if he had missed at all during the game. Neither of us knew. Gonzaga led by 2 with 30 seconds left and UCLA had the ball. Everyone knew Juzang was going to shoot it. He got the ball, dribbled the clock down to about 12 seconds and drove. He took a contested floater, a shot I did not like at all, and he did miss it. But, Gonzaga didn't block out and he got his own rebound, extremely sound basketball, and made an uncontested layup to tie it with 3 seconds left. I assumed Gonzaga would call a timeout, try to heave a pass and we would go to double overtime. They didn't, and the rest is history. Timme took it out before UCLA could get ready and passed it in to Suggs. Suggs raced up past half court and put up what looked like a decent three. It was in Dame and Steph's range. And that ball banked in and Gonzaga won. I jumped off my parents couch, my dad was aghast, even my wife was pretty amazed by what just happened. I applaud Gonzaga for just going with the ball instead of slowing anything down. That was their best option all game, and when they needed it most, they used it and it worked. That shot by Suggs looked so pure and looked good the moment it left his hands. I believed Mark Few when he said he wasn't surprised when it went in because apparently Suggs does that in practice all the time. It was truly a once in a lifetime shot. It will be on replays and classic game showings for the rest of time. This was just an amazing ending to, by far, the best game of the tournament. This game truly had it all.

When that game ended, we were left with the title game, which is tonight, between Baylor and Gonzaga. This is the way it should be. They were the two best teams all year, their earlier game this season was wiped out due to COVID and now one of these schools will win their first ever college basketball title. I still think Gonzaga will win, but I wouldn't be surprised if Baylor finds a way to pull it out. In the end though, I hope it is half as good as what UCLA and Gonzaga gave us two nights ago.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing. 

Happy Retirement Coach Williams, One of the All Time Greats

I wanted to wait until today before I wrote about Roy Williams, in case it was some wild April's Fools joke, a "holiday" which I despise, especially with two young kids who are way too into pranks. But it was confirmed after his press conference he had last night, assuring everyone that this was real.

I am still kind of in shock. Williams just seemed like a guy who was going to be coaching college basketball forever. He has been around, and relevant, since I was a little kid. I remember watching him as the KU head coach. I remember being upset when he left for UNC because, outside of Michigan, I used to like KU basketball as well. Georgetown has now taken that spot. I remember when I realized why he left KU for UNC and finally getting it. I remember him winning titles and being a force almost every year while at KU and UNC. I remember the scandals, which looking at what is going on elsewhere now, seem so tame. And I remember his painful white boy dancing, that he did unapologetically. All in all though, the thing I remember most is the winning.

In Williams two stops as a head coach, the guy won. He has won three national titles. He has been to nine final fours. He won the ACC regular season title nine times, and the tournament three times. At KU he won four Big 12 regular season titles and three tournament titles. He won the Big 8 five times. He's a two time national coach of the year winner, a two time ACC coach of the year winner, a three time Big 12 coach of the year winner and a four time Big 8 coach of the year. And he has been inducted in both the college and pro basketball hall of fame. That is one hell of a resume. I think anyone would happily take that as their record. He's one of a very few college coaches that have won over 900 games. He has a career winning percentage of .774. His tournament record is astonishing as well. He is 79-27 in the tourney. That means deep runs most years his teams made it.

Roy Williams is a Mount Rushmore college coach. He is just as successful and important to the game as Coach K or John Calipari or John Chaney. There are very few coaches I would have ahead of him. Hell, it may be just a few of the classics, guys like John Wooden and John Thompson. But Williams is, for the modern day, an important and famous coach. He has coached a TON of guys that have had solid NBA careers. At KU he coached Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich, Drew Gooden, Jacque Vaughn and Paul Pierce, among others. Those guys all had solid careers, and are now all somehow involved in the game. At UNC he got some more big time players. Guys like Harrison Barnes, Reggie Bullock, Ray Felton, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, Tyler Hansborough, Justin Jackson, Cam Johnson, Ty Lawson, Nassir Little, Coby White, Cole Anthony and Marvin Williams. That list has current players, former champs and guys that are still giving back to the game. The fact that he has been around so many stellar basketball players is amazing. Add on that he got the best out of them, that is one hell of an accomplishment. I watched a video from last NBA season where Coby White was being interviewed, and to hear the way he talked about Williams, it just showed the love and the respect he has as a head coach. Roy Williams is respected in every basketball corner of the world.

As I sit on the news of his retirement, and what went into his decision, I think of kind of get it. UNC is still a very good school, just not like they used to be. The whole ACC has been down the past couple of years, and UNC is not immune. The college game has changed drastically too. I think more change is needed, and hopefully we are headed in that direction, but for a guy like Roy Williams, I can kind of see why he walked away now. One and done is the way of the game. The G League has created a team that will pay the top high school players, so a lot of kids will choose that route now, rightfully so. And overseas is yet another option for some of the top talent. Then you take into account the new transfer rules, I am sure Roy Williams was just fed up. UNC was coming off a year where they were okay. They made the tourney as a 9 seed and got blown out by Wisconsin in round one. Then his best freshman, a kid that played a ton of basketball for them, decided to transfer, citing "better competition". I mean, that is kind of crazy to me. Again, I do not fault these kids for going out and getting theirs, especially when coaches do it all the time and are praised for such moves. But this was not some kid who rode the bench all year. He played and played big minutes for them. I just think he did not like the fit, and nowadays that is more than enough for kids to make a move. Apparently this was the last straw for Williams. And I kind of get it from his point of view. That has to be frustrating for an old school guy like him, and a guy that likes to develop talent rather than just put all 5 star players on the floor.

Roy Williams has earned the myriad of accolades he achieved over his long coaching career, and I think he will take to retirement quite well. He had earned it. I just want to say congrats to him on a wonderful and memorable coaching run at two college basketball powerhouses. Roy Williams is an all time great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing. 

The SeedSing 2021 MLB Preview

I was out on a hike this morning with a buddy of mine, and he informed me that today was opening day in the MLB. I had no idea. I really do not follow baseball anymore, and with the pandemic, I follow it even less. I am so much more involved with my son's team. We started practice the other week, we have a tournament coming up and I am focused on teaching him the game because he seems to be enjoying himself. I didn't even remember that the Cardinals traded for Nolan Arenado, or that Tatis and a few other guys got 300 million dollar contracts. I was reminded of all of this after my buddy told me that it was opening day.

As I do every season, I have my version of a preview. This year, and I say this every year but it holds so much more weight now, please take my picks with the biggest grain of salt you can find. I truly do not know too terribly much anymore. Hell, I didn't realize how old Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina are now. I assumed they were still in their prime. Anyway, I do have some picks, so let's get to it.

I'll start with the American League. When I looked at the teams to get an idea, the only two that really popped out to me were the Yankees and Twins. I'm sure other teams are good, but I at least know of some guys on both these teams. In the AL East, I have to pick the Yankees. I know the Rays have been a solid team, I believe they even made the playoffs in the shortened season last year (ed note: They made the World Series and won a couple of games), so I am sure they will be some kind of threat. And the Blue Jays do have Vlad Guerrero Jr, and that kid rules. But they are the new disappointment team every year. As for Boston and Baltimore, they were both bad, especially Baltimore, and I do not think they did anything to change that this offseason. I think the Yankees will roll.

The Twins should roll in the AL Central. They are the best team. They are the AL version of Atlanta. They are up and coming, but their time is now. The Indians will be okay because they always are, but they have some off field stuff they need to deal with first. The Royals are bad, and so are the Tigers. Those teams will be lucky to win 70 games. The White Sox are kind of a wild card, but I know they lost a key hitter to injury. We will see. But the Twins are the cream of the crop here.

The AL West seems like a real dumpster fire. The Rangers are allowing their stadium to be at full capacity, so they will most definitely have a COVID stop that will crush them. The Mariners seemingly are never going to get over the hump. The Angels are wasting Mike Trout's best years. And the Astros are a bunch of cheaters. I guess this means I am going with Oakland, but Oakland always bows out early in the playoffs. They will win the division, and then get swept in the first round by a team that might not be as good as them.

As for the AL champ, I am going with the Yankees strictly because they have the most guys that I still know, and if those guys are healthy, they are going to hit a ton of homers.

Now for the National League.

The NL East is off to a bad start already with the Mets and Nationals postponing their opening game due to COVID. That being said, I think I am going with the Mets to win this division. They have one of those 300 million dollar guys, and they made a ton of offseason moves that look helpful. The Nationals do have a good amount of pitching, but I think their window is closed. The Marlins were better than I thought in the shortened season, but they are still so very young. They're not ready yet. The Phillies have Bryce Harper, but I think both parties are regretting that deal. And the Braves are very, very good. I think they will be a playoff team, but I think it will be a wild card. Hell, they may win it all. But the Mets made those moves, and they want to win. That is why I am picking them.

The Dodgers are going to roll yet again in the NL West. They are absolutely loaded everywhere. They are the new Yankees. They are the Warriors and Bulls of the MLB. They are the Patriots. They are Alabama. They are unstoppable. The Padres will fight and claw and win some games, and Tatis Jr is awesome, but they are not the Dodgers. And the rest of this division is very mediocre. The Giants are in a swoon period, the Diamondbacks have spent money, but they have traded away great assets and the Rockies are .500 at best. The Dodgers are the cream of the crop.

The NL Central features my hometown team, and they have a very good lineup now, but they do not have the best pitching. That being said, I think they will win the Central this year. The Cubs are very good, but they seem like a team that is going to blow things up soon. They are not going to be able to keep everyone. RD's team, the Reds, have Joey Votto, and not really anything else. They have let good players walk for nothing. I think RD would agree with me (ed note: yup). The Pirates are as bad as Baltimore. And the Brewers are very good, but last year may have been a one time thing. I am going with my heart here and picking the Cardinals.

As for the NL champ, it is the Dodgers. Duh. They are too damn good to get beat. I also have them winning another World Series. They are the best team in baseball. Hell, they may go through the playoffs undefeated. They should win well over 100 games. The Dodgers are the dominant team in baseball. Full stop.

Ty

Another View

Ty is right about almost everything here. The Reds will stink again, along with three quarters of the American League. The Dodgers look loaded, but it has never been easy for them, and something seems to happen to the team in a more semi normal season. The Padres, Braves, and Cardinals could take down the Dodgers in a playoff series. The Cardinals are old, the Padres are young, and the Braves are just right to make that midseason trade and win the NL Pennant.

In the American League it is the Yankees and everyone else. Unfortunately for New York, their big guys either under produce or they get hurt. This leaves an opening for an upcoming team, a team like the Chicago White Sox.

Atlanta will beat Chicago in six games to win the second COVID World Series.

RD

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Ty Talks 2021 Final Four

The Final Four is set, in both the men's and women's tournament. I have not watched the women's tournament, but I saw UCONN won, with a little controversy, but when they get this far, I just assume that they are going to win. That is my pick in the women's tournament. As for the men's tourney, I have watched a good amount of it. I have been really involved. I like that some players are speaking out against the NCAA, but that has not stopped me from watching this tournament endlessly. So, I have some takes going into the two games this weekend, and who I think will win it all.

I'm going to start with my team, Michigan. They blew it last night. They went ice cold at the absolute worst time. Mike Smith, who I love, was not even playable at moments. Franz Wagner picked a terrible time to have his worst game as a Wolverine. Hunter Dickinson did not wake up until early in the second half, and they needed him fully engaged all game. Eli Brooks didn't get enough touches. I wish Chaundee Brown played more. But I have to give UCLA a ton of credit. They locked Michigan down. They swarmed all night. They may be smaller, but that did not matter in the grand scheme of things. And that Johnny Juzang kid was the only player that could hit a shot. He played lights out, and he did it when they needed someone to. Even after he rolled his ankle, he came back and Michigan still could not stop him. Michigan blew it. They had multiple chances, ten to be exact, and they missed every single one of those shots. This was a rock fight, save for Juzang, it was a messy and sloppy and gross game to watch and the deserving team won last night. The Big 10 fell on its face, they couldn't get it done and this season will go down as a wash. Maybe the Big 10 is overrated. But again, kudos to UCLA for what they did last night, and for this run that they have been on since making the tournament.

The Bruins reward for winning last night, they now get to face Gonzaga. Gonzaga has looked absolutely dominant. They have looked amazing on both ends of the floor. No game has been that close. They have come out and steamrolled their way to the Final Four. When Oklahoma got an early lead on them in round two, I thought here is where they choke. That did not happen. They easily turned that deficit into a double digit win with ease. Then I thought USC was going to give them a real problem last night. They have length and size everywhere. They have players that looked like they could lock down some of Gonzaga's stars. That did not happen. Gonzaga did not trail for one second of that game. They won 85-66, and it was not that close. They are such a good team. Maybe this is the year where they finally live up to the hype.

The other two elite eight games were pretty solid. Baylor raced out to a big lead over Arkansas, but Arkansas cut it to single digits before the half. They looked like they may have figured Baylor out. Then Baylor realized how athletic they are, and how great defensively they are, and took control back with ease. The game felt kind of back and forth, but Baylor was never not in control. They won by 9, but some of Arkansas' points came at the end. They were hollow. It was like when a football team wins a game 24-14, but they led 24-7 up until there were three minutes left in the game and they put in their backups. Baylor has proven me dead wrong in this tourney. I thought their COVID pause was going to hurt them. It has not.

As for Houston and Oregon State, that game ended up being much closer than it should have. Houston led by 19 in the middle of the second half, but then Oregon State started to hit some shots. They came all the way back and tied the game at 55. Then Houston woke back up, locked Oregon State down, made some free throws and walked away with, I believe, an 8 point win. Houston is really, really good on defense, they just have these little lapses that could kill them in the Final Four.

On Saturday we will get the two Final Four games, with Houston facing Baylor first, and the night cap will be Gonzaga and UCLA. I think Baylor is way too good to let Houston's defense, as elite as it is, slow them down. Baylor is playing with swag, they look loose and free, they play almost equally as good defense as Hosuton, and they just seemed destined to be in the title game. There is a reason they were the number two team for most of the year. Baylor should beat Houston.

As for UCLA and Gonzaga, the Zags should cruise. They should score upwards of 90 points, if they want. They should be able to easily stop UCLA. UCLA wants to slow the game down to a grind, but I do not think that matters to Gonzaga. Gonzaga is loaded everywhere on the floor. They are the better team. They are the best team in college basketball this year. I think at this point the only thing that can stop Gonzaga is if someone on their team gets COVID and they have to forfeit. They should cruise by UCLA.

That means I have Gonzaga and Baylor in the title game. And surprise, surprise, I am picking Gonzaga. Baylor will be the best team they will face all year, but Gonzaga is a different breed this year. They are too loaded, too good, too fast, can play any pace, can beat any team. Gonzaga is the best team and they should easily win the title. We now will have to wait a week to see.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing. 

A Shout Out to All the Soap Opera Actors

We are entering week three of living with my folks. Our house is still being worked on, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. They placed concrete where the new room will be, they were putting up 2X4's everywhere, and there is only one big excavator in our yard, as opposed to the three that were there last week. They're moving along. And I am not complaining about living with my mom and dad. We are close, my wife gets along with both my parents swimmingly and my kids adore their mimi and papa. It is getting to a point where it is fine, but I would still rather be in my home. Unfortunately, for the time being, that isn't on the table.

One interesting thing I have noticed in these two plus weeks is the shows my folks watch during the day. I usually do not have the TV on during the day until my son gets home from school. But both my parents are retired, and they like TV. In the morning it is news or "The Middle". Side note, as soon as I get back in my home, I am going to watch the entirety of "The Middle". That show is solid, at least the bits and pieces I have seen thus far. But every weekday at 1pm both my parents watch "General Hospital". And if they are not home at 1, they record it and watch later. I have never been much for soap operas. It is not my thing. It is too dramatic and silly and wild and ridiculous. The stories are like what you see on "Maury Povich", but with beautiful people. This is not to say that I am some kind of fancy TV watcher who only likes "real" TV shows. I watch mindless reality TV. I am all in on "90 Day Fiancé" because it is so trashy. I love cartoons. One of my all time favorite shows is "Aqua Teen Hunger Force". I like weird, absurd TV. I am not above soap operas, they are just not for me.

In watching these shows, well they only watch "General Hospital", I have a newfound appreciation for the actors on the show. I have to assume they know how ridiculous the plot lines are, how insane some of the stories can be, how funny some of the conclusions are, but they all commit. I remember when James Franco was on "General Hospital" because I would go back and watch only his scenes on YouTube. And you know what, the character he played, named Franco, is still on the show, someone else plays him now, and all the actors act like it is totally normal. I respect that. They could make weird inside jokes about it, but they don't. They just all accept the fact that "Franco" is still on the show, even though it is some random actor. And for the actors, this has to be a plum gig. I'm sure they get paid very well, they get to do wild and crazy things, they get to chew as much scenery as one can imagine and they can stretch their acting legs. Yes, it is crazy, but if you are trying to break into Hollywood, what better way than to start out on a soap opera. Or, if you are someone who has achieved James Franco level fame, why not take a chance to do something different? Or if you are an older actor, some of the people on this show look familiar to me as far back as when I was in my 20's and they are still on, why not stay with a job that you are comfortable with, and one where you can make a nice living? My mom has even informed me that this show wins all kinds of daytime Emmys. I think award shows are lame, but when shows win, that usually means they have some kind of value, some level of achievement in Hollywood. It is nothing to scoff at, that is for sure. And my parents follow the many different storylines like I did when I watched "The Wire" or "Breaking Bad". They are just as involved. I asked my dad about a week back to explain the show to me, and he went on a 15 to 20 minute long speech, telling me the entire plot of the show over the whole year. He may act like he doesn't like the show, but he at least pays attention, and that says something to me about this show.

So while I am not a fan of soap operas, and will most likely not revisit them when we get back in my house, I do respect and appreciate what the people who make shows are doing. They have a tried and true method, and it has never stopped working. That is important.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Ty Watches "Coming 2 America"

For date night this week my wife picked "Coming 2 America".

Two weeks ago we watched the original movie because she had never seen it, and she enjoyed herself so much that she wanted to watch the sequel. This worked out well for me because, as a big fan of the original, of course I wanted to watch the second one. Eddie Murphy is also on some kind of come back tour, if he even needed one. "Dolemite is My Name" was one of the better movies I saw last year, and he crushed when he finally came back to host "SNL". It seems like he is finally having fun again being funny. He isn't doing the family comedy stuff or the big paycheck stuff. He is more in a "Tower Heist" groove, a very underrated movie I might add, and that is the perfect Eddie Murphy mood for me. He is so funny, and when he has really good material to work with, he usually crushes it. And I did not care at all what the critics were saying about the movie. I know it didn't get the best marks, but hey, neither did "Hot Rod", or the myriad of movies RD and I talked about on the pod a few weeks back, and I like those movies very much.

This is the category "Coming 2 America" falls into for me, the "Hot Rod" category. I had an absolutely delightful one hour and forty minutes watching this movie. There were call backs that were great. They had everyone who is still alive from the original in the sequel. Arsenio Hall was dynamite as Semi, and all the heavily made-up characters he played. I loved the newer character he played, the old man that lives in Zamunda, that guides Prince Akeem after his father passes. I could say the same for Eddie Murphy. Prince Akeem is a classic, but so is the sexist minister and the barber and the infamous singer from Queens. Murphy returned all these characters, and they all made me laugh just like I did when I first saw "Coming to America". Murphy really nails this, or these, roles. Shari Headley, as Lisa, is just as strong and confident and beautiful and proud as she was in the original. James Earl Jones, in his maybe five minutes of screen time, was awesome. His funeral was one of the silliest, yet saddest, and most choreographed things I have ever seen in a movie, and I loved every single second of it.

In the movie, Akeem and Lisa have three daughters, one of which is played by Murphy's real life daughter. They are all strong willed, tough and have the best qualities of their mom and dad. The oldest daughter, Meeka, played by KiKi Layne is almost a replica of her father from the original movie, except she may be tougher. Her story arc is one of my favorite things about this whole movie. She was awesome. They even brought back John Amos, Louie Anderson, Clint Smith and Paul Bates to reprise their roles from the first movie. It was nice to see them all acting and all doing a great job in these very memorable roles. The new additions were excellent as well.

The main story of the movie is that Akeem has a son who was fathered while he was in Queens in the first movie. He is the rightful heir, so Akeem and Semi go back to retreat him. The son is played by Jermaine Fowler. His name is Lavelle. I am a Jermaine Fowler fan. I loved his role in "Sorry to Bother You", he was one of the only things I liked in Pete Holmes' HBO show, "Superior Donuts" was decent because of him, and he does a great job in this movie. For him to keep pace with Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy is a triumph on its own. Add on that this movie also put Leslie Jones in it, as his mom, Tracy Morgan, as his uncle and Luenell as his aunt, and he kept up with all of them. Leslie Jones was hysterical, and she made me laugh any time she was on screen. She is so consistent. Luenell is quietly hilarious in everything she does. And Tracy Morgan, he is my favorite actor of all time, and Fowler kept up with all of them. This had to be a dream for him. They also put Morgan Freeman in this movie as the narrator at the funeral, and that ruled. Trevor Noah was a newscaster from Zamunda, and he was great, and so was his fake mustache. And Wesley Snipes, much like he did in "Dolemite is My Name", nearly stole the show as the rival king from Nextdooria, a great name by the way.

Look, this movie works on a few different levels. It is great nostalgia, it is fun, it gives Eddie Murphy another starring role, it gives some up and comers a real chance and it allows great comedic actors to do funny things over and over again. This movie is good. I definitely would ignore the critics reviews and check this movie out. It is more than worth your time.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Urban Meyer is Not Ready for the NFL

I was recently checking some NFL news, it has been a free agent bonanza lately, and I came across quite the interesting story for me. I felt like the people writing this particular piece had me in mind when doing it.

What’s the story?

Free agency had just ended, and it appeared that the new Jacksonville Jaguars coach, a man who I despise, who I think is a liar and a cheater, who makes excuses constantly and continues, even now, to make poor choices, Urban Meyer, does not like how the NFL does their free agency. He complained that you do not get to talk face to face with the players, that everything is done through their agents. He claimed that "in the old days" it was more important to have a dinner with the player, to get to know them, before deciding if he wanted to sign them. But now he guessed that it has just changed. That the players kind of pass the buck to their agents, and let them do the work.

Well Urban, this has been going on forever. Even me, just a fan of football, knows that this is the case. This is not college football anymore. You do not have to convince a kid to come and play at your school. These guys are established pros, guys who have made copious amounts of money, guys that want to go to a place where they will either get more playing time or compete for a ring. They do not need to be sold by anyone, especially a coach who will be, most likely, making less money than them. Professional football players do not want some show. They do not need to see their number in the stands, or have some PA announcer say some nonsense about how they are going to be the greatest to ever play for a certain team.

When the Clippers did this for Blake Griffin I cringed. And now look at where Griffin is in his career. The Clippers traded him less than a year into that contract, he struggled mightily in Detroit, and while I like his fit with Brooklyn, he still looks out of shape. All of that happened because the NBA is a business. This might have worked at Oklahoma, when he played there, but in LA, when he was no longer an asset, they let him go. The same can be said for the NFL, except the NFL is so much more cut throat. I remember when running backs were the hot commodity. Now, they will be cut or released two to three years into their career. People are already crushing the Cowboys for paying Ezekial Elliot so much money. Leonard Fournette has become a spot back making far less than when he was a rookie. Doug Martin is out of the league. They didn't produce like some teams thought, and they cut them. That is how it goes.

For Meyer to say what he said, to whine like this, to be this, quite frankly, stupid about how free agency works, it makes me think he is not going to be the success himself and Jacksonville thought when they hired him. I did not like the move because I thought something like this was going to happen. It is just like Chip Kelly and Steve Spurrier's offense getting figured out so quickly. It reminds me of all the awful decisions the Washington Football Team has made trying to lure big time free agents. It is akin to what Dallas has done the past couple years. Teams, mainly the GM's, have to be shrewd. That is why New England and Green Bay, and even Kansas City, who just restructured Patrick Mahomes humongous deal are so good. They know how to do free agency because they do not have college guys running their system. Meyer was a great college coach. It hurts my soul to write that, but it is true. He also was an ace recruiter, and I am sure he did most of it underhanded. I'm sure he skirted some rules to constantly get the best kids. I think every major school does it. Even Michigan. But in the pros, and I know I have said it a ton, these guys do not need the money. They have plenty of it. Most players have people that work for them who help them invest and save because they have too much money. Meyer needs to realize that very, very soon. He is going to have to rely on young, inexperienced players to win. He will have a rookie QB starting for him. He is going to have to learn to build a team through the draft because free agents are not going to want to play for one of the worst franchises in the NFL. All of their good players have left for greener pastures and better teams. If Meyer is frustrated by free agency, just wait until he has to face a very good NFL defense that isn't going to be intimidated by a hurry up spread offense. Those guys won't be fooled. They will be ready to rip some heads off.

The Urban Meyer era has started off very rocky in Jacksonville, do not forget he hired that former Iowa coach with a racist past and a penchant to undermine players and then gave some BS apology after he was forced to resign. Add on this free agency thing now. And they haven't even had a practice or played a game yet. I still think he has a small chance to succeed in the NFL, but that window gets smaller and smaller for me everyday whenever another story like this comes out. Times could continue to be rough in Jacksonville unless they get their coach to realize this is a business, that this isn't college anymore. If they don't, they will be looking for another new coach much sooner than they hoped.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Ty's Thoughts on the NBA Trade Deadline

I was waiting until after the NBA trade deadline to write about it today. I did not want to write about a trade that didn't happen only to have it happen two hours later. I wanted to give myself time to see it all the way through, even so far as to waiting to see the big names on the buyout market. Now that we are over an hour past the deadline, I have some takes.

A few "big" trades happened a few days, or even weeks, before the deadline. PJ Tucker made his way to the Bucks a week or so back. There was the massive three team Harden trade over a month ago. And we had all the offseason craziness that occurred. But this deadline, this was as wild and crazy as I can remember in some time.

The day started slow. The Clippers traded a bench guy for future stuff, and Delon Wright moved from Detroit to Sacramento for Corey Joseph and picks. These moves didn't really do much for me, and I do not think they do much to change the future of the teams involved. Then around 9 am Saint Louis time stuff started to really happen.

The first trade I saw was JaVale McGee to Denver for Isaiah Haretnstein and picks. This is a good move for Denver right now, and maybe even better for Cleveland in the near future. McGee is a great backup to Jokic, and has proven he is a quality bench veteran for a contender. Just look at his time with the Lakers and Warriors.

Next was one of the bigger trades, and the first of many moves for Orlando. They traded Nikola Vucevic and Al Faroq Aminu to the Bulls for Otto Porter Jr, Wendell Carter Jr and picks. I like this trade for both teams. The Magic aren't going anywhere this year. They stink. So they were pretty much forced to move Vucevic. In return they get Otto Porter, who still could be bought out and Wendell Carter, plus those picks. Carter never got quality time in Chicago and a fresh start seems great for him. The picks are for rebuilding. For Vucevic, he gets to go to a team fighting for a playoff spot, and adds more scoring to a team that has Zach Lavine and Coby White. Those three will fill it up night to night. And Al Faroq Aminu is a seasoned vet with decent playoff experience. Both teams "won" this deal.

Right after trading Vucevic, the Magic immediately moved on from Evan Forunier, trading him to Boston for Jeff Teague and more picks. Again, the Magic will probably buy out Teague, and they got more future picks. Fournier has not been great this year, but he brings some much needed bench scoring to a Celtics team that desperately needs it right now. This trade isn't as "sexy" as the Vucevic one, but I get it.

Boston then decided they needed to trade Daniel Thiess for Mo Wagner. This trade confuses me a bit. Thiess was a good defender against other teams centers, and as much as I loved Wagner while he was at Michigan, the dude does not play a lick of defense. He can score and stretch a defense, but Boston will miss Thiess' defense. He may like playing with Russ and Brad Beal though. And they will love his toughness.

After being quiet for about five minutes, Orlando then made their biggest move of the day, trading Aaron Gordon to Denver. I love this move for Denver. This will only help them. This makes them so much more athletic and switchable than they already were. Gordon should thrive alongside Jokic and Jamaal Murray. He is a perfect third option on a very good team. This move, to me, pushes Denver to the second or third best team in the West. Denver did have to give up Gary Harris and RJ Hampton, but it is worth it to get Gordon. Harris has fallen off a bit, and Hampton rarely sees the floor. With Orlando they will both get so much more time, and set themselves up for future contracts. But Denver getting Gordon is a big, big deal.

The Kings, after making one move, traded Nemanja Bjelica to the Heat for Moe Harkless and Chris Silva. This isn't a bunch of big names, but it adds shooting for the Heat and depth and some youth for the Kings.

The Trailblazers got a steal when they traded for Norman Powell. He has been on fire this year, he adds scoring depth and has played solid defense. All Portland had to give up was Gary Trent and Rodney Hood, both of whom I wouldn't be surprised if they were bought out. Toronto seems to be punting this season anyway.

The 76ers got a solid point guard in George Hill. While he is not Kyle Lowry, he is another tough nose vet who will really help the 76ers, especially with Embiid still out.

The Thunder acquired Tony Bradley, who just had a career night, Terrance Ferguson and more picks. I think all they want is the picks, but Bradley is a nice addition.

The Knicks got involved in this deal as well. They sent Austin Rivers to OKC and acquired Terrance Ferguson. They also traded Ignas Brazdeikes, another former Wolverine, to the 76ers. This deal was all about getting the 76ers a point guard, and that is what they got in George Hill.

Things slowed down for a half an hour after that, with bench players being traded for other bench players. Then the Clippers traded Lou Williams to the Hawks for Rajon Rondo. I love this trade for the Hawks and I am very skeptical about the Clippers. I know Rondo was great in the Finals, and all of the playoffs when he was healthy for that matter, but he does not add scoring at all. They have two Patrick Beverly's. Lou Williams is a walking bucket, one of the better sixth men in the league, and he is from Atlanta. The Clippers traded scoring for point guard depth, but the Hawks got the better of this deal. Lou Williams is going to love playing in a free flowing system in Atlanta. The Hawks "won" this trade.

Then right at the end of the deadline, literally with seconds left, two big deals got done. JJ Redick joined the Mavericks when the Pelicans traded him for James Johnson and Wes Iwundu. I'm sure the Pelicans will buy out both those guys. This was purely for Redick to go to a team that is almost a playoff lock. The Mavericks got more shooting, but they did not add any defense. They are also the whitest team in the NBA. They are like the Iowa of the NBA. Then, maybe 30 seconds past the deadline, the ink dried on a Victor Oladipo trade to Miami. Houston finally pulled the trigger and let Oladipo go for Kelly Olynkn and Avery Bradley and a pick swap. The Rockets can continue to tank, and the Heat add a serious athlete on a rental who should now start going full bore since he is looking to cash in this offseason. The Heat needed a guy that can create his own shot, that plays sound defense and who can coexist with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. If this doesn't make Oladipo take that next step, nothing will. He got what he wanted, the Heat got what they wanted and so did Houston. This was another "win" for both teams.

At this point, the two biggest names on the buyout market are LaMarcus Aldridge and Andre Drummond. Both will find good teams to join by the end of the night I would guess.

There was such a flurry of moves I didn't even mention some guys that stayed put. Lonzo Ball is still a Pelican, Kyle Lowry will most likely retire a Raptor, Myles Turner stays in Indiana. These names were mentioned, among others, but they stayed put. But this deadline did not disappoint. There was a flurry of movement and I loved following along all morning and early afternoon. Now I want to see these guys in their new uniforms, especially Aaron Gordon in Denver, What a deadline.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing. 

Ty Watches "Promising Young Woman"

For date night this past week I chose the movie "A Promising Young Woman" for my wife and I to watch. I hadn't heard much about the movie, but Adam Brody was on "Comedy Bang! Bang!" promoting a different movie, and Scott Aukermann mentioned how much he liked "A Promising Young Woman", and how cool he thought it was that some comedy actors had bit parts in the movie. That piqued my interest. Then my wife kept talking about how much she wanted to see it. Then it got nominated for a bunch of Oscars. I was already getting on board, and then all this other stuff put it over the top for me. So we rented it on Amazon and watched.

We both loved it. This movie does have some comedic elements to it, but make no mistake, this is a thriller. And Carey Mulligan is so good as the lead actor. I bought her from moment one. The movie, no spoilers, is about a lady who loses a friend, and then kind of goes on a revenge tour in her honor. We come to realize that the friend was assaulted, and she is turning the pages on guys, and messing with their heads. This is where some of the comedy actors show up. Brody plays a guy at a bar that picks her up and brings her back to his house. You think he is being nice, but it is all a ruse to get her more drunk and take advantage of her. But this is what she wants. She wants these guys to think they are in the clear, that they can take advantage of her, and then she reveals that she is not drunk, and chastises these assholes for the punks and scum they are. It is great. She does this same thing to Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Sam Richardson. She does start to date a gentleman in the movie, a very solid performance from Bo Burnham, but that has quite the twist in the end as well. Laverne Cox is very good in this movie too as her overbearing but well meaning boss and only friend. Molly Shannon is very good in her very small role too.

All the acting is great. but this is a tour de force from Mulligan. She is so goddamn good in this movie. The way she manipulates these low lifes, the stuff she lets them get away with before calling them out, the thing she does to the dean of her college, Mulligan pulls it off so well. There were moments where I was like, damn she is cold blooded, but then I remembered why she is doing what she's doing, and I am instantly back on her side. Even when she tries to give it up, to move on if you will, that's when things kind of crumble in her everyday world, and she goes on a truly vengeful trip after that. But that works in her favor. She finds a bachelor party of the guys who did horrible things to her friends, and that is when she takes over. Even when it looks like she may have been had, she finds a way to turn the tables in the best possible way. Mulligan more than deserves her Oscar nomination. She is that good in this movie. I also like the message of the movie. Hopefully some frat boy idiots will see it and think twice before they try to take advantage of a seemingly drunk person. I love the way they did the thriller stuff in the movie too. There is no jump scares or blood or gore, it is all mental, and it still has me shook and thinking about it almost five days later.

I highly recommend this movie. Watch it for Mulligan's performance alone, and in doing that, I think you will really end up liking the movie, or at the very least it will leave you thinking about it. This movie is good. Watch it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Thoughts on the First Weekend of the Men's NCAA Tournament

The first two rounds of the men's NCAA basketball tournament are in the books, and I have some takes.

Right off the bat, my bracket is busted, and I am sure pretty much everyone else's is also. This has been a wacky tournament filled with upsets. It was kind of stunning to turn on the TV the past couple of days and see that there was another upset. So many teams, teams with real promise, are out. Their seasons are over. And some lower seeded teams, some that some people would call "Cinderella", a term I am not a big fan of, have made their way to the Sweet Sixteen, and done it with relative ease. I do want to point out that three of the number one seeds are still in the tournament. Illinois, more on them in a second, is the only one that got knocked out. But the other three have taken care of business to this point. Also, the Sweet Sixteen is filled with teams from power five conferences. 11 of the 16 come from power conferences, and Gonzaga is not a "Cinderella" anymore. They haven't been for years. They are legit. Hell, I'd go as far to say that Loyola Chicago isn't really a "Cinderella" either. Two of their five starters were on the same team that made the Final Four a few years back. I guess what I'm getting at is, some of these teams may be seeded as underdogs, but they have played top notch competition all year. They are solid teams.

As for the Big Ten, this tournament has been a major disappointment. They looked like the best conference in college basketball all regular season. They had three and four teams ranked inside the top ten all year. They had two number one seeds. Their conference tournament was pretty great. Now Michigan is the only team left, and they barely beat LSU. I love my Wolverines, but they are on very thin ice. Their play has left a lot to be desired. They are still here, but barely. The eight other Big 10 teams, what a bummer. Illinois looked like one of the big favorites, and they got owned by Loyola. I know Loyola is good, and they were under seeded, but Illinois is a much better team. They just laid an egg at a horrible time. Michigan State couldn't hold a big lead, the players and their coach were openly fighting going into halftime and they blew their game. Rutgers and Maryland each won one game, but they both bowed out in round two. Iowa got crushed by Oregon, who got a free pass to the second round. The university of Ohio State was the ninth 2 seed ever, in the history of the tournament, to lose to a 15. The online aftermath of that has been disgusting by the way. No player deserves what that kid had to deal with. Wisconsin smoked UNC, and then got their asses blown out of the water by Baylor. And Purdue, they let North Texas win their first tournament game ever. This has been a bad tournament for the Big Ten.

The Big 12 hasn't fared much better. Kansas got thumped by USC last night. Texas was beat by Abilene Christian. Oklahoma ran into the Gonzaga buzzsaw. Oklahoma State, my pick to win it all, was destroyed by Oregon State. And Texas Tech blew a humongous opportunity against Arkansas. All the Big 12 has left is Baylor. They are just like the Big 10.

The ACC has done okay. Outside UNC getting throttled in round one and Virginia being upset, they are fine. Florida State looks really good right now, especially on defense.

The SEC is also doing okay. Alabama looks good and Arkansas can run up and down the floor with the best of them. The only true "upset" was Oral Roberts beating Florida.

The Pac 12, on the other hand, that conference has looked awesome. They got five teams in and four are in the Sweet Sixteen. Oregon, who got the free pass because VCU had a COVID issue, looked like world beaters in their game against Iowa. USC dismantled KU. That game was over at the half. They looked so much bigger, stronger and better coached. UCLA has taken their comeback win in the First Four, and they have rolled since then. And Oregon State, the Pac 12 tourney winner, smoked Tennessee, and then did the exact same thing to Oklahoma State. They look legit.

The non power 5 teams left are very worthy. Loyola Chicago is under seeded, but they have done what they do in the tourney. They play a solid team game, and their defense is so, so, so good. Houston has always been able to score, and now they are playing sound defense. They will be a problem. Oral Roberts may be a 15 seed, but they have the top scorer in the country, they won 20 plus games this year and they are playing great basketball right now. And Gonzaga has looked every bit as good as advertised. The other teams, Creigthon and Villanova, they don't do much for me. Creighton has to play Gonzaga and Villanova gets Baylor. Those would be humongous upsets, and this tournament has shown us that that is a real possibility, but I would not bet against either Baylor or Gonzaga. Those were the favorites coming in, and I think they still are. I'm also surprised they only had one game canceled due to COVID to be honest. I figured we'd have a few more.

So far this has been a crazy tournament, filled with wild upsets, but it has also been fun as hell to watch. My bracket died on day one and I couldn't have cared less. This is what the tournament should be like, and after it was canceled last year, for all the right reasons, it is so nice to be watching the tournament once again. I am so happy to have it back. Let's hope the rest is as wild and crazy and fun as the first weekend.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing. 

I, Bald Man

I am a bald man.

I think I have made that pretty clear on the website and on the podcast. I am not complaining about this either. At first it was frustrating. I used to have dreadlocks, and when I cut those off, I grew my hair out like all millennials used to do. But I noticed in my mid twenties that I was losing my hair. The anger subsided quick, and I just kind of dealt with it. What else could I do.

When my hair was first thinning out I tried to keep the cut short, to kind of blend it in. That worked for a while. I still have some hair in my wedding photos. Pretty soon after my wedding and honeymoon, I began to lose more and more hair. At this time I started to shave it with an electric shaver. My wife would cut it, or I would do it from time to time. I would forget a lot, and my hair would look rough. But when it got to that point, boom I turned on the shaver and took care of business. After some time, after my kids were born, my wife took over shaving my head. She would shave my head and trim my beard. It was a two for one type deal.

One night I decided that I wanted to see what it looked like when I used a razor. I'm not talking anything fancy, no straight razors or anything like that. I would use a BIC, or something similar. And it worked. My wife and I did not know what I would look like, if I would look any different, and I didn't. Shaving your head totally bald doesn't look much different from a close shave. The only real difference is you can see all the knicks and cuts in your head. You also need to use some kind of aftershave, or those cuts get even worse. This has become my new norm now. I shave my head, usually, once a week. I will go on a long run, and my cool down is a shower and shaving my head.

I come here today to tell you a tale of "horror" about waiting too long to shave your head. Keeping a schedule is key. You need to stay on it. You need to make sure that you do it the same day every week. It is just like shaving your face for work. If you miss a week, it will be a pain. That happened to me today. We are getting work done in our home, and we needed to be out by last Sunday, the 14th. I figured I would shave my head when we got to my folks house. No big deal. Well, the moving of objects out of the bedrooms in my home, and setting things out of the way so the workers wouldn't have to, took way more out of me than I thought it would. I was pretty exhausted when we got to my parents house. Add on the fact that my kids had to be cleaned, and my wife and I did too, things got out of hand quick. I got our clothes in the house, moved the stuff into our room in the basement, gave my daughter a bath and decided I was going to sit down before showering. When I finally got around to cleaning myself, I was too tired to shave my head. I just decided to do it the next day.

Well, the next day turned into an entire week. I just kept forgetting. What with my new living situation, getting my kids to and from school, stopping by the house to check on it daily, training for a marathon and trying to get some sleep, shaving my head became an afterthought, until today. I finally had time. My kids are on spring break, my parents were willing to watch them and I had a scheduled rest day. I just finished shaving my head, and it took over 30 minutes.

It hurt. I have cuts all over my head. I had to slop on the aftershave, and it hurts. The water was freezing cold by the end in the shower. When I first started to shave, the razor felt like it was cutting grass for the first time in two years. I would move the razor two to three inches on my head, and the razor would fill up with hair. I had to keep cleaning the hair out. It took forever to get one side of the top of my head barely shaved. I kept going over the same spot three and four times with little to no movement. I finally got through the top part of my head, and the back was untouched. Mind you, I kept going over the back with the razor, it was too full of hair to work. I kept at it, changing midway through for a less dull blade, and that helped, but man did it scratch my head up bad. I could see blood on the white razor. I knew it was bad, and when I finally, thankfully, got my head shaved properly, my teeth were chattering, and my head was on fire with all the razor cuts and burns. It was brutal, but I got it done, and I feel okay now.

I am writing this today to say, if you are a bald man like me and you have decided to shave your head, stay on schedule. I do not want anyone to have to deal with what I did today. It was all on me, I did not stay on course. But I will from now on. This was not fun, and it took way too much time. Stay on schedule. That is the lesson I am trying to pass on today.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Can a Non Phish Fan Still Enjoy Phish Food?

Wrong kind of Phish

Like most people I enjoy some good ice cream. I like going to shops to get scoops, but that’s a moot option in the time of COVID. I can, and sometimes still, order from the shops I like, but it’s not the same as physically going inside. It doesn’t travel as well, it becomes soupy, it’s just a mess. But, I do go grocery shopping for my family. I am the shopper. I like going to the store, finding deals and getting our food.

I’m on a diet, a low carb one, I do have “cheat” days, and my favorite dessert to have on those days is ice cream. I will legitimately eat a full pint of ice cream on Sunday, which is my “cheat” day. And while there’s plenty of pint options, Ben and Jerry’s is the best. Full stop. I’ll debate anyone who disagrees. What they’ve achieved over the years is amazing. They make some crazy flavor mixes, but they all work. I don’t like cherries, but I love some Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia. I’m not a fan of frozen chocolate bananas, but Chunky Monkey is so good. Cinnamon Buns is like eating breakfast ice cream in the best possible way. Netflix and Chilled is an amazing salty and sweet flavor. My son and I argue over finishing the Salted Caramel Core. My wife will steal the Chubby Hubby. It is all so good.

For years I never tried Phish Food. I was opposed to this flavor for a dumb reason too. I used to love jam music. I was a big Widespread Panic fan. I saw String Cheese Incident live more times than I’d like to admit. Yonder Mountain String Band was a big deal to me. I listened to almost every jam band. The one I didn’t, the one I openly refused to listen to, that was Phish. They were too “mainstream” for me. They were the “popular” jam band, and I was a snob about it, so I never listened to them. And it’s not like I listen to them now. I’m over jam music, and I never gave Phish a shot. I don’t intend to either. It’s over for me. But, that was why I would not eat Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food. It was strictly due to my dislike for a band I never gave a real chance. It’s silly looking back at it now.

Recently I was inspired due to the podcast “Doughboys”, and what they’re doing for Munch Madness, that all changed a week ago. “Doughboys” is doing a dessert tournament for March, and of course they’ve had Ben and Jerry’s multiple times. And each time they’ve had it, they’ve mentioned Phish Food. So I went and got the family some pints of Ben and Jerry’s, and this time I got Phish Food. Then Sunday rolled around and I was ready to give it a shot. I didn’t know what to expect, but boy was it fantastic. For those that may not know, Phish Food is a chocolate based ice cream with caramel, fudge fish and marshmallow. Oh my goodness does this work. It is near perfect. The way the chocolate and caramel and marshmallow mesh, it’s divine. I found myself going back to the Phish Food more than the other pints I bought. I just kept digging in until the pint was empty. When I finished it, and I finished it all myself, I said to my wife that it was one of the best tasting ice creams I’d ever had. I’m upset at myself that I waited until my late 30’s to try it. And for such a dumb reason. I was wrong, but better late than never I suppose.

Phish, the band, may not be for me. But Phish Food, the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, that is top notch. I truly love this ice cream, and I will be eating it many, many more times. Man is it tasty.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.