Geek Culture Catch-up and Anniversary Reflections

It's gonna be fun. We can stay up late swapping

manly stories and in the morning, I'm making

waffles. Hey, this is Steve Bloom and you are

listening to the Geekcast Radio Network. You

are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered Geek.

Hello and welcome to altered geek I'm your host

Steve Megatron and joining me on this anniversary

episode of altered geek is one of the original

hosts I was gonna say we should let the true

co -host actually be first We just derailed this

whole thing. I know chart it over. Sorry take

two doing You have to leave all of this in. Yes,

yes, he does, and he probably will. I probably

will, because I won't edit it. I've gotten lazy.

I have to do, like, intricate edits at work now.

I don't care when I get home. So, hello and welcome

to Altered Geek. I'm your host, Steve Megatron.

Joining me again, like I said prior to this,

on this adventure into geekdom, is the original

co -host to Altered Geek. Booth ninja powers

Well, it's actually Mike powers, but thank you

for differentiating me from our other co -host

on this episode with us It's harder with with

multiple mics There's only one Steve though,

so yes, it's always how it goes though Yep So

as you've heard TFG one Mike is here as well.

So this is a kind of Just shooting the breeze

episode, catching up, discussing what we're doing

in our geekdoms at present to kind of. Pass the

time as summer goes by. So, yeah, hurry up and

go by already. Oh, yeah, no, I'm. I'm right,

I'm right there, but probably for completely

different reasons. Yeah, I kind of am, too, for

a different reason, too. but that's more so because

there's a huge drought on this side of the country

and all of our water reservoirs are running low

and they're like, we might not have electricity

or water. Oh, OK. Yeah. Mine's just I want to

be able to take better care of my yard and I

don't like the heat. Yeah, we're supposed to

like in our our homeowners association, we're

supposed to water our lawn, which when when you

have a massive drought that, you know, when Colorado

feeds like Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and part

of California, their water and your reservoirs

are running low. It kind of, you know, my front

lawn and my back lawn don't really matter when

it comes to people actually getting to drink

water. Yeah. Not unless your HOA thinks so. Yeah,

my HOA does think so right now. So. different

parts of Colorado are doing, you know, no more

watering your lawn effective immediately until

we get the reservoirs refilled. Ours is like,

no, we're good. We're in the northern part. We're

like an hour from Wyoming. Like we don't care

about anybody else. Let's just let's just roll

with it. Geez. So man. I'm just trying to conserve

water so I don't run out my water bill. That's

that's the only thing I that's the only thing

I worry about so I've only I'm I've just switched

to watering my front yard right now yeah, we

we have a sprinkler system and Benefits of my

four -year -old house here and They they allot

you so much of unpotable water per year for for

the watering of your lawn and They charge you

a flat fee of $300 every summer To water your

front lawn so and back lawn and so everybody

around here is like well since they're charging

me $300 I'm gonna water it three times a day

on my allotted days and They'll yeah, so there's

some people that do it every single day just

in spite Because not only do we have an HOA we've

got a metro district which is on top of and It

doesn't go away either so So yeah, and then my

my drinking water is separate Okay, so the one

thing I have started geeking out about in the

last year and a half since Like well, I think

I think it was kovat that really forced me into

getting in getting into this but I kind of saw

myself going this way anyways just because of

who I am I've gotten really into taking care

of my lawn and The one thing I've learned is

one of the things I've learned is that you really

should only be watering your lawn in the morning

between like 5 and 7 a .m. Yeah, like That's

the only time you should be watering your lawn

any more than that. You're you're you're wasting

your time and your water So so what I do is I

have mindset to go off between 4 and 5 a .m.

On my a lot of days because they go by like odd

houses you go like Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday,

and then the other days you do Monday, Wednesday,

Friday. So I do like a 4 a .m. to 5 a .m. slot

and then I do the 9 p .m. slot so that I get

twice in the day, but it's not during the peak

heat. I mean, it's basically like watering it

every day without actually watering it every

day. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Coming to the GCR in

next summer lawn mower man three booth ninja

on the lawn That's one of the things like I was

concerned about well like you know coming on

the show Because we talked about earlier to see

what the last time I was on the show, which was

2019 And that was right before we had moved into

our home so I have Now we're coming, Ali and

I are coming up on two years in our, in our new

home. And so we're, we're really happy with it.

And we spent last year. We spent a lot of time,

like, you know, just working, working around

that. Well, we did more work around the house

this year, but last year we had like things installed

that we kind of always wanted. Um, we had a tankless

water heater installed, which is amazing. Yes,

they are. And then we had a couple months after

that we had solar panels installed Which I mean

I would say is amazing but solar panels is one

of those things it's like you set it and forget

it and So there's not a whole lot to like you

don't most days You don't even really realize

that you have them until you get an electric

bill. That is like a dollar So it's That's the

greatest thing about solar is that it's very

cheap So well thought about getting that set

up for my house. We get a lot of Sun here it's

if you if your health if Well, you're in an HOA

so you might your guy look my HOA I went It took

me two months of going back and forth with my

HOA to get them to approve our solar panels Despite

the fact that our guidelines that I have say

nothing about adding solar panels to your house

So it was very it was very tedious, but I just

kept fighting with him fighting with him and

It took took two months, but then they were like,

okay fine. Here's your first they tried to give

me a conditional approval And I was like, no,

no, no, no, no. I am not spending X amount of

thousands of dollars to put solar panels on my

roof on a conditional approval. And for anyone

that doesn't know or might be familiar with it,

a conditional approval from an HOA basically

just says, you can do it as long as you follow

our guidelines. And you can also go outside our

guidelines as long as someone doesn't complain.

So what the issue was that I had Was the in the

guidelines they say the solar panels have to

match the color of your roof Yeah, one of those

weird rules. I'm sorry. What? Where are you gonna

you show me a black roof? Show me like and I

literally I I had the I went back and forth with

the guy that gave me the conditional approval

And then finally I called and talked to a different

lady about the whole thing And she was like,

yeah, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense

either. And so that and I was like, OK, I want

an actual hard approval. Because you're not going

to change the obviously the guidelines are going

to stay the same, right? Where the panels have

to match the color of the roof. So if the guy

that builds his house behind me decides that

he doesn't like my solar panels, he can complain

and we can get fined and we'd have to take him

down. Meanwhile, I would still have to be paying

for the solar panels. But I got a hard approval.

So even if someone complains I have approval

for my solar panels Nice so it's like I'm not

I'm not I'm not messing with that. No. No, thank

you. I Want them but I'm not I I need an actual

approval for it. So yeah, we went we were just

doing stuff like that the last year and I went

through three lawn mowers in the last year man

Wow. Well, I moved into a house. I'm sure some

people might remember this. I had a zero turn

lawn mower from when I lived on like almost an

acre of an acre of grass. And we moved down here

in the first house we had. It was not an acre,

but it was still like you could still mow the

whole thing with a with a zero turn mower. And

it was fun to do. Well, move into this house

and it's a much smaller lot. and it took me all

of five minutes to mow the lawn with the zero

turn and I did everything I could possibly do

to like try to be able to keep it like I went

and asked you know neighbors like I didn't like

want any money for it I went and asked like the

neighbors down the street for me because we all

kind of moved in at the same time so we all kind

of had like a little rapport I was like hey do

you want can do you want me to do mow your yard

yada yada yada like i went to like new people

that moved in and their grass is really tall

i'd go over and ask them if they want me to mow

their yards and they would uh everyone said no

and they would go i would watch them go out and

struggle and mow grass that was like over their

knees with a push mower and i'm just like you

guys are idiots like yeah why would you why do

you want to do it like in the middle of summer

it's like 90 degrees out and you want to push

mow a lot You want first of all you want to push

more a lot that is over knee -high and You want

to scalp it? Okay Clearly your first time homeowners

and don't know what you're doing It it just really

hurt me so I was like you know what? clearly,

I don't need it, so I threw it up on Facebook

one night and Within like 30 minutes of being

posted on the Facebook marketplace. I had a guy

give me you pretty much what I asked for it And

like it wasn't what I was worried. I was gonna

be like one of those We take $100 for it. Yeah

I got exactly what I wanted for it and I went

and bought an ego mower An electric mower and

I was like we're getting solar panels get you

know, I wanted to buy gas They don't they don't

smell there's no oil changes. No maintenance

or nothing blah blah blah. I had that for a year

I had that for the last half of last year, and

I used it for the first half of this season.

I really liked it, but it wasn't doing it for

me. So I put that up on Facebook and got what

I wanted for it as well. And then I turned around

and just recently, within like the last three

weeks, I bought a brand new Honda mower and I've

just been like over the moon with it makes all

the difference in the world. Like I like the

electric one. Don't get me wrong. It was it was

cool. Cut nicely the problem is it doesn't have

any type of That's gonna sound really weird my

wife and I always laugh about it when I say this

it doesn't have any suction so If you're trying

to cut grass that is Like if you want to cut

your grass at three inches or higher Like between

three and four inches not gonna happen. They

can't pick it up if you do two and a half or

lower it's amazing so i was like i can't i don't

i don't want that so i got rid of it and i got

a gas one again so happy with that but yeah i

just got really into taking care of my lawn man

that's it's it's that i'm still very much into

video games and watching movies and tv but i

don't share my opinions online like i used to

No, you do that and you know you get 73 unwanted

messages about your opinion on something. Are

you talking about Masters of the Universe or

Transformers Kingdom, Mike? That would be the

first one. A buddy of mine that I know that has

been in the fandom for years has not even posted

publicly what his opinion of it is yet, and yet

just because he says he likes the old filmation

show, people have sent him abusive messages he

hasn't even given his opinion on the damn thing

publicly the new one but he says oh i enjoy the

old one and oh my god like people on the internet

suck they do they do genuinely i i think that

over the last year and a half people have really

become more polarized over stuff and like um

can't take someone's general general opinion

without getting offended over it and so like

i I like things that other people don't and other

people like things that I don't. I mean, you

don't have to enjoy everything. That's the beauty

of geekdom. Enjoy what you want and just ignore

the rest. Well, I disagree with you. So this

podcast is over. OK. All right. See you later.

But yeah, so like it's kind of entertaining because

people get up in arms really easily over over,

you know. Their opinion of of how a story is

changed or how they're retelling a story differently.

I I have more problems with not Any of that garbage,

but I have a problem when it's like cheaply written.

Yeah Or cheaply voiced cheaply voiced or cheaply

written and you know that they're doing it as

a cop -out like it's not it's not like They're

trying it's not like they're giving the illusion.

They're trying to put out quality content. They're

just like yeah, this is like what we're doing

right now and Yeah, I I I have like let me put

it this way I I took a clip from Transformers

Kingdom of a pad voice clip and I don't blame

the actor like I don't it all it's not his fault

it's the voice director but the whole trilogy

has been plagued with issues of This new transformers

were for Cybertron and like the first two parts

people talked incredibly slowly on everything.

And people were dogging it, you know, like the

voice actors suck. No, it's the voice director.

And then the third part, they fixed the speed,

but the voices are atrocious. And so I, you know,

being that I can do one of the characters, I

revoiced it with proper voicing. And then I submitted

both clips. And then what do you know? Everything

is going viral everywhere. We haven't been this

viral since I almost thought Maurice LaMarche

was gonna come from California to Kentucky and

kill me. Okay, so for those that don't know,

I think Altered Geek has been around for eight

years as we are releasing this on August 2nd,

2021. It is our eighth year anniversary here

on this show. 2010? 2011, whenever Arkham Asylum

came out, I don't remember off the top of my

head and I'm not looking it up. The original

Arkham Asylum? Yeah, Arkham City. But yeah, essentially

the original Arkham games. So Optimus Solo and

I got a chance to interview Maurice LaMarche.

This was like 2010 or something? Yeah, yeah,

yeah, somewhere around there. yeah well asylum

was 2009 so that's not right though because yeah

so so optimus solo and i kevin and i got a chance

to interview maurice lamarsh on tune cast so

at the time you know when we do voice actor interviews

we want to get their history we want to get how

they get into the business we want to talk about

specific projects if you're ever on an interview

with me i will send you a script that has my

intro, general questions to the actor or actress,

and then specific sections like, you know, Maurice

LaMarche obviously had an involvement in Inspector

Gadget. He was the brain on Animaniacs. He's

done all this other stuff. He's Maurice friggin'

LaMarche. And Kevin had a question on there.

What is your favorite type of voice acting to

do? Animation video games dubbing that you know

what it was like three different options Marie

says oh the funny thing about video games is

it's you in a room by yourself Yelling at people

or you know basically yelling at yourself, and

he just says offhand didn't even ask him didn't

even I didn't even know and He says I just got

finished with a session of doing Mr. Freeze for

Batman Arkham Arkham City and The next thing

out of my mouth is oh, can you give us a sample?

Of course, he's gonna say no. Sorry. I can't

do to NDA and that's fine. That's absolutely

fine So I get that recorded and at this point

I'm editing the podcast I finally learned how

to do the editing so I don't have to bog Steve

down and this is before Steve this before you

had kids, right? Yeah Yeah, this was 2009. This

is the year I got married. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I was doing the editing and I'm like, we recorded

it the night before, I edited it the next morning

and got it online. I edited it, I did everything

with it, got it online and I walked away. I did

the promotion for it and I said, hey, we have

an interview with Maurice LaMarche on blah blah

blah blah, talking about blah blah blah blah.

Some unknown website. I don't even know what

website it was It's like one of these we've got

it cut We've got this covered damn things or

whatever. It was it was some some unknown website

picked it up next thing I know IGN picked it

up. I'm not who headed it. Everybody had it.

Yeah game site on the internet had it and I'm

out grocery shopping with my mom at the time

and I'm just Steve's like this is blowing up

our website is going to explode we are getting

so many numbers we are getting so much traffic

blah blah blah blah all this stuff and I'm like

oh shit because I'm like panicking like I like

I contact his agent I do all this other stuff

I try to message Maurice and I'm like, I'm so

sorry, I didn't realize this wasn't supposed

to be out. So this is why now I ask at the end

of every interview, no matter who it is, is there

anything that we have talked about in this interview

that you do not want us to have in the interview?

Because even though that gained us a lot of attention,

it also made me, you know, basically fear and

loathe a guy that I've respected my whole life.

Cause I'm like, not low, I don't low with the

guy, but you know, I'll basically fear him and

it's like, cause oh crap, I've angered the great

and wonderful Maurice LaMarche and he's like,

there's nothing you can do about it now. It's

already out there. Even if we did, even if we

had gone back and re -edited it, that would make

us just look stupid. That would make us look

like that Kevin Smith video. You've never heard

this. Really? You've never heard this story?

It was April 20th, 2010. And what's funny is

on the GeekCast radio about page, the under the

recognition part on the about page, I mentioned

that we were mentioned by and featured on Kotaku,

which is now, I think, in Gadget. No, Kotaku

is still very much around in there. Oh, they

are. Yeah. Then yeah Kotaku still got their article

up as does IGN and in gadget has Joysticks articles

merged over But yeah, I I still have all of them

linked there It says you know voice actor Marley's

Maurice Lamar She previously voiced brain in

Animaniacs and Egon Spengler in the real Ghostbusters

cartoon confirmed on the geek cast radio podcast

He'll be providing the voice for mr. Freeze in

the upcoming sequel You know and then they quoted

him, you know From from the podcast. I've only

done a handful of video games and I'm very lucky

right now I'm about to go in and do mr. Freeze

for Arkham Asylum 2 I don't know how you've never

heard this story Mike. No, what was that? So

I'm curious. What was the? Because I'm trying

to remember how this went. Okay, so is it just

that? He was What was the was the spoil that

he was voicing a character or that? Tell you

the truth, I think contractually I can't because

he asked about the voices I've got to keep it

under wraps when asked about the character asked

for mr. Freeze's role in the game He's out for

blood right now because I can't tell you the

situation But he's actually some of it a sympathetic

character within the framework of the game So

nobody knew he was playing mr. Freeze at this

point until our interview went live. Okay, that's

good. Yeah, I never I found out about it because

I was looking up the Arkham games just for my

own purposes. And then I saw Geetcast radio popping

up literally everywhere. And I called Mike. I'm

like, what did you do? I didn't do anything.

I just edited an interview and put it online.

I didn't do anything. We just asked a question

and he gave an answer. It's interesting to me

because we kind of met each other in 2009. Around

Star Trek and I remember like we would we would

do podcasts together and I was doing my own podcasts

But I never remember hearing any any of this

I wasn't on this one, which is probably why yeah,

like I wasn't on this recording But but yeah,

it's cool. Yeah, it was cool Yeah, so And the

whole point of even telling this story again

is because Steve has just said, you know, we're

blowing up again because of his Revoicing kingdom

Megatron for Transformers in his I jumped the

gun and this was I did it on purpose I wanted

to see what would happen and that was yeah more

so there's there's this like gray area in the

embargo They didn't specifically tell me what

I couldn't play or have But they did tell me

what I couldn't have of three items that were

plot oriented. And it was like how the series

ends and it has no bearing on most of what's

going on in the season. So I just was like, hey,

by the way, what can you expect when it drops?

And then I did this whole blown out review, you

know, criticizing various things and then mentioning

what I did like about it, too. And then I used

I recorded a line from Kingdom Megatron from

the episode. And the first time the guy opens

his mouth, it's it sounds like one of those like

really anime lackey characters. Mm hmm. Like

it's not even like becoming of a leader. He's

supposed to be in charge. He's a buffoon. And

they turned his character from like a 180 from

this hardcore, you know, battle hardened, you

know, villain. that, you know, had a Shakespearean

element to this bumbling idiot that bowed before

the feet of the other Megatron. And so I redid

the lines and I did them in the same voice as

the original show. You know, I said, I'm no David

Kay, but I can easily be a contender. So I posted

my clip to and people were like, hire this man

now. Which was just funny to me So anyways, it's

been going around and like all the transformers

like discord channels the the Facebook pages

the their websites like in the forums because

And I've noticed it blew up across like YouTube

as well And what's funny is the images that are

being posted or from geek cast radio's review

because I know because of the Dimensions of the

images they're mine. Yep. Yep I should have put

a watermark on all of them. You should have put

a watermark. I was like, man, it's a missed opportunity.

But, you know, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So it was

it was hilarious to me. I've been like riding

the wave of it all week. Mm hmm. Like, hey, you

should go here and read the actual review. Mm

hmm. Or or dumping my voice clip. So, yeah, it's

it's it's not quite as big as the Maurice LaMarche,

but it's it's huge in the Transformers part of

it. Yeah. And the funny thing is a couple of

people on Twitter are like, oh, well, the voice

of Kingdom Megatron has been leaked. And they'll

post a link to the audio clip. Right off the

GeekCast radio upload. Off the GeekCast radio

upload. But they want to actually tag at GeekCastRadio

in the tweet. And I'm like, I respond to that

person. I'm like, hey, that's at scp21 at GeekCastRadio.

We did that. Or he did that or whatever however

you want to say it and I told Birdman about it

the other day when I recorded with him and he's

like He said you got to be careful man, and I

says well. They didn't exactly say that they

didn't want any other stuff Promoted like in

the review like they dropped the embargo. It's

just they didn't want you releasing information

about how it ends So I just was like it's free

game plus think of all the you know Positive

or negative the publicity they got from it Because

Netflix sure sec didn't do much. So can we talk

about this just for a second? And I know Mike

you probably Yeah, just for two seconds. I know

you probably haven't watched Masters of the Universe

I probably I'm pretty sure you don't care not

yet. Actually, I do want to because Ali was kind

of I'm not gonna spoil anything for you. I'm

not I'm not gonna spoil anything for you. It's

not about that What surprises me is how much

because Kevin Smith is attached how much publicity

Masters is getting from Netflix geeked from Kevin

Smith from all of the voice actors that are on

that project meanwhile Transformers Hasbro is

like Silent like the only thing I've seen in

the last Few days is oh we have five days till

kingdom we have four days till kingdom we have

three day like it's an image a day counting down

to when it's gonna be on netflix kind of thing

like. I haven't seen. Anything major. About kingdom

anywhere i all the youtube video reaction channels

i follow at times. Like clownfish tv and i'm

not calling them out i'm just saying that's a

channel i watch. Nobody's talking about Transformers

War for Cybertron Kingdom. Everybody is all up

in arms because of Kevin Smith and Masters of

the Universe, and it's just crazy to me. Isn't

that kind of like... One, it's Kevin Smith who

has a platform, okay? And the other one too is,

this is the third in a trilogy, so how much do

they actually need to... Emphasize anything and

the way that you guys have been talking about

kingdom. It seems like they just Shoved it out

the door because of how the first two seasons

probably went I now I say that because I I tried

watching The I thought you know what let me try

watching the first part, you know, and I Geez

guys, I don't I think I checked out Know I checked

out like halfway through the first episode once

and I went back to try to watch it again And

I think I made it halfway into the second episode

before I checked out To be fair, I Don't mind

the animation necessarily except that they don't

transform But not only that but I think it's

taking itself too seriously which is part of

the problem and then the other part is is they're

telling a bunch of stuff like I found Siege to

be completely uninteresting and Earthrise had

some interesting moments, but ultimately I don't

remember anything before episode five of Earthrise,

which is the second part of the trilogy. And

I only remember that episode. And then I remember

the last 30 seconds of episode six in Earthrise

because it had the kingdom nod with Dinobot.

But other than that, I don't remember anything

else because it's completely forgettable. Yeah,

I feel like that's just how Netflix is though

like you don't they don't do Like Netflix itself

isn't gonna do much beyond like hyping the the

the first part of a series especially like I

Don't it the transformer stuff isn't the same

I don't even think masters the universe is the

same to them is like their Witcher content like

like I think like shows that they that are like

theirs, I think they have more of an investment

in. So it's up to, I think it'd be up to Hasbro

to market whatever's going to be done for Transformers.

And I think Kevin Smith just has a platform.

I enjoyed all of it. I have little nitpicks for

each thing, honestly. I don't remember. This

is why at some point in the future sometime around

Christmas or something later this year. Don't

know if Steve's gonna be it's up to Steve if

he wants to watch it all again But optimus solo

and I are going to watch all three parts. Oh,

I'm going to once. Okay I just well I know you

said as soon as you watch Kingdom. You're like,

I'm only watching this once I'm never watching

it. Well, what's sad is I've watched it three

times because I wanted to get a well, it's more

so I wanted to get a clear like my first Impact

of watching it was like discussed over the voice

actor aspect right and how bad it sounded but

yeah Was trying to look at it with the with the

like reviewer I instead of my personal Feelings

on it Which is why I watched it three times.

I watched it once by myself once with once with

my kids to get their opinions and into taking

a note what they took away from it and then I

watched it again afterward and A lot of the same

stuff still traveled with me, but there were

other aspects I was able to find some decency

within it. And there were a lot more pluses in

this third part of the trilogy than the first

two put together. Yeah. Yeah. So at some point

down the line, we're going to do one episode

of it all. But honestly, ever since I watched,

recorded, and released each one of these things

that we've done. So we did one episode for Siege.

We did one episode for Earthrise because we got

early access. We did spoiler and non -spoiler

episodes for Kingdom. Ever since we recorded

those episodes and we're about to release them,

or one, the non -spoiler one is out, the spoiler

one as of this recording isn't out yet, but it

will be. Like, I don't remember, the only thing

I remember is two things. Apparently there's

snow or debris on, it looks like a snowstorm

on Cybertron. And Nemesis Prime shows up. Those

are the only two things I remember outside of

Beast Wars Megatron's voice being... Yes! It

is you! So, what have you guys been enjoying,

like, just in your personal geekdoms lately?

For one, it's been a while since we've done one

of these, so it's just kind of... interesting

to go around the panel and see what everybody's

been doing. Let's start with the guest or the

returning guest because we haven't heard from

him in a while and I enjoy podcasting with him

and I wish you would let me do more of it with

him, but it is what it is. OK, first of all,

I have time now to be doing podcasts. My issue

is like I don't. I don't think I need to share

my opinion on things, I guess. I don't know.

Like I have them. I've thought about like. doing

various things with them and sharing opinions,

but I just don't think they're worth sharing.

But no, in response to this question, I'm still

very much into the gaming scene. I'm in one of

the lucky few to have been able to pick up a

PS5 and an Xbox Series X, so I'm going to toot

that horn a little bit. Now I will also back

that up with saying there isn't anything to play

on them at the moment So basically, they're just

really fancy ways of playing games that I've

already played before I got way too involved

in fortnight since November because that was

one of the games that got a next -gen patch for

free and on launch with the consoles. So I had

been playing that pretty much like every day

for hours a day up until about a week ago. I

broke that spell. Mike and I had a conversation

about breaking spells, loot grind stuff before

we started recording. So I'd done that. I haven't

really been able to find a good Single player

game to sink my teeth into I keep hoping that

something's around the corner and I keep like

games on the on the horizon that I want to Get

but then they end up being released and then

for some reason I end up finding a reason not

to buy them I will say this though. The one thing

I have The two most powerful home consoles in

my entertainment center but the only thing that

excited me this year for me three was nintendo

when they showed up and drop metroid all over

the place. Yeah that samus was definitely all

over the floor. I was i was over the moon for

that and it and i will say this the one thing

i have hated. more than anything since this whole

COVID thing started has been scalpers. Oh, yeah,

that's been in every industry because I've been

trying to find Transformers toys and it's nigh

impossible to find them. But like. I don't get.

I don't know. I don't I don't I don't get it

and I so I I don't do The the bot things or anything

like that I follow a guy on Twitter that posts

when things go live on sites and I try to go

in and grab one like Oh natural, I mean I was

able like I Feel like the scalping thing happened

like it it it kind of started getting really

bad around when the consoles launched And it

just got really bad when the graphics cards like

launched and like no one can get one. And I was

lucky enough to be up now. Now here's the here's

the crazy thing. I was lucky enough to not be

able to get one PS5, but three. Three. Oh, oh,

natural. First day they went up. So the I got

as soon as they went up, I got one from Walmart

and I got one from Target. au naturel and I kept

trying to get it on Best Buy's website but Best

Buy's website was a crap show so I went to bed

and I was having trouble sleeping because I was

really irritated that I couldn't get a freaking

pre -order on Best Buy's website and I remember

I woke up at like three o 'clock in the morning

and I rolled over and I grabbed my phone and

I was like you know what I'm awake I'm just gonna

check Best Buy's website one more time What one

was sitting right it was like right there pre

-order go through the whole thing it was so surreal

I felt like I had been dreaming, but I woke up

in the morning to like a confirmation email like

So that was was great. I got one for myself and

for for Ali and then I got one for friend of

the show Joe Reed so it like It I wasn't trying

to get like a whole bunch to like scalp. They

were going to actual gamers Right, yeah. Because

here's the thing about gaming with friends or

with significant others. You want your gaming

system. You want your gaming library. They want

their gaming system and their gaming. I'm sure

Ali plays a bunch of games that you have no interest

in. She's played way more games than I have since

November. I will say that right now. OK, well,

I'm not trying to throw your wife under the bus.

I'm just my point is like, like, for example,

let's say what's your favorite game of all time?

Chrono Trigger. Let's say that's not her favorite

game of all time. Let's say hers is something

else. Maybe a game you don't like or maybe a

game you have no interest in. She loves the Assassin's

Creed games, so we have those. okay well but

but my point is like you have your stuff on your

system she has her stuff on her system so like

you're saying it's not like you're buying three

systems to keep one for the two of you and then

scalp the other two to get your money back you're

actually giving them to people that want to play

them yeah and i don't i i can't scalp stuff so

like i remember i had the wii u and i i bought

that when it was popular and it was like kind

of like sold out before everyone kind of realized

that the Wii U was. Not what it was supposed

to be was a P .U. Yeah, and I have I really like

the Wii U I did. But the thing is, like I sold

it and I didn't try to make any type of a profit

on it. Like I sold it for what I what I what

I paid for it. But like the thing is, like I

threw in all the games I had included. So I spent

three fifty on the system. I bought like six

games I sold the console for 350 with the six

games thrown in yeah, so like I don't try to

like gouge anybody Gouge anybody for so even

if I was to like snag like a ps5 right now from

somebody I'd probably turn around and flip it

and sell it for like the cost of shipping Yeah,

see that's the thing like you're you're one of

those guys like my old buddy who is no longer

with us Optimus Scourge, back in the early days

of Transformers toy collecting and fandom and

online sales and eBay and everything else. He

was always the cost plus shipping guy. As long

as you're willing to pay the cost of the toys

plus the shipping to your house, then that's

what you would get. That's what the deal was

like there was no markup. There was no oh my

god I need to make a thousand dollars on this

toy. That's 20 years old Yeah, that's that's

how I sold you the SNES classic. Yeah, so but

coming back around to metroid, you know, they

they put up They made new amiibo. The only amiibo

I have are the metroid amiibos. I just metroid

is my favorite nintendo franchise, so They put

up two new Amiibos and of course they put up

like a collector's edition of the game that comes

with like an art book and all this other stuff.

And I was like, I want that so bad. And I tried.

I tried. I tried Walmart. I tried Target. I tried

Best Buy. Like I looked for it for like a week.

And Amazon, I believe, according to the internet,

Amazon hasn't even put up their pre -orders yet.

Or like the collector's edition. I don't know

what they're doing, but they haven't put them

up. And so eventually I just kind of gave up,

but this Twitter account I follow, I kid you

not, he posted that the Amazon Japan was selling

the US version of the collector's edition if

you wanted to pay $150 for it. It's 90 here in

the US, but import and exchange rate and all

that other stuff, it comes out to $150. And it

was like, how much do I really want this? So,

well, hang on. I'm sorry. Let me back up here

real quick. Amazon Japan put up their pre -order

for the collector's edition. It was exactly the

same thing as the American version. It was just,

instead of saying Super Nintendo on these little

art cards, it said Super Famicom, which is the

name of the Super Nintendo in Japan for anyone

that doesn't know. And the game, of course, you

can select your language so you can play the

game in English. It's the exact same game. It's

just none of the included stuff would say Super

Nintendo. It all say Famicom and they had a bundle

of it that came with the two amiibo. For $150.

That's a deal. I was like I get it sent here.

It comes like a week later. I get the Japanese

version. I get the amiibo and it's and it's $150

and I don't have to hunt for it anymore. I'm

done. I'm off the hook. I'm I'm good. And I got

it, but it just kept nagging at me in the back

of my head that was like, what if the art book

is in Japanese? You know, and but my buddy was

like, oh, you can just run. If you really want

to read it, you can just run a Google Translate

over it, because let's be honest, if I'm going

to read it, I'm going to read it once. Yeah.

And so that made a lot of sense. So, you know,

I kept it. And then a couple of days later, the

same Twitter account said that they put up the

American version. Of the collector's edition

by itself, but this time it was 150 bucks just

for the American version no amiibo included So

I jumped on that too So I have two Copies actually,

I think I have three copies of the game order.

I have a standard edition ordered from Best Buy

Because the scalpers didn't want just the basic

version. They only wanted the collector's edition.

Yeah, so I've got a just a regular old Plain

Jane version pre -ordered at Best Buy here in

the U .S. I've got the Japanese collector's edition

pre -ordered with the Amiibo. Luckily they come

separated so I could actually if I really wanted

to I could probably turn around and sell the

Famicom version. But and then there's I've got

the U .S. version also pre -ordered from Amazon

and the crazy thing is is when they put those

up you can't just go on Buying something from

Amazon Japan isn't the same thing as just going

to Amazon .com. It's a completely different account.

So when they put those postings up, I had to

go, I had enough time to go and make an account,

put in all my information, verify all my emails,

and still check out with what I wanted. Right.

It was, I was like, ah, and I'm off the hook.

I mean, short 300 bucks, but I'm off the hook.

And you have what you want. Yeah, and I don't

have to search for it anymore. I have all this

high -end hardware and the only thing I'm excited

for is something that I'm going to play on the

Switch and it completely blows my mind. I also

had an opportunity to buy that Switch OLED. I

had it in the cart and it said, check out. Never

got the air that you know, it wasn't can't put

this in your car cuz we're out of no it was there

and I could have clicked checked out and I could

have gotten one buzz like you know what I Coulda

I don't need it. I don't want it. So I I let

it go I thought about buying it and doing like

I said, you know just posting it up for cost

plus shipping just cuz but But no that was the

scalpers have just been the bane of my existence

And as far as anything else goes, Ali and I've

been watching TV shows, which I don't know if

you guys have the ability to do this or if you've

tried it, or maybe you have seen it or not. But

if you have any means of getting a free trial

of Apple TV Plus, you anyone that has the means

of getting a free trial of Apple TV Plus needs

to check out Ted Lasso. Yeah, I knew that's what

you were going to say. I you know what I so.

I lasted it came out last fall the first season

came out in in the fall of 2020 or No fall 2019.

I think early 20. I don't remember what it was

It was early sometime in 2020s when it came out,

but I I waited I held out a month before I checked

out the first episode and I watched Ali was out

of town when I decided to put it on so I was

like I'll just check this out and see what it

is I watched the first 15 minutes of it and I

was like, you know, I have to wait I have to

watch this with my wife because it was it. It

was amazing. It's probably like the it was the

perfect thing to come out in 2020. Yeah. And

my my friends and I, my friend and I have a joke

that we're not in 2021. We're in 2020 dash one.

Mm hmm. And season two is just a continuation

of what everything that made season one so great.

And it it's still it's it's still like the perfect

thing for right now. It's like overwhelming optimism

in the face of just crap. Yeah, is is amazing.

And it's like you like you. You almost think

it might be annoying. And then you just get.

Swept up into it because you realize you don't

have to be. I think I think what the thing about

it is it shows you that you don't have to be

mad about the stuff that you Think you should

be mad about And i'm not saying there isn't like

important things i'm not saying that there isn't

anything in the last like year and a half that

people Shouldn't be mad because people should

be mad about quite a lot Yeah, but i'm talking

about like the smaller things the stupid things

that people get hung up on like It shows you

it kind of shows you that that stuff Isn't as

important as you might think it is and I just

Yeah, yeah, we just we just love that show we

we watched it and then we watched it again like

a month ago just to get ready for season 2 and

That and between sorry between that and there's

another show on there called mythic quest between

that and mythic quest A trial to Apple TV plus

is is is worth it. So Very cool. There was one

Apple TV plus was announced There was one thing

that I wish was on any other streaming service

except Apple TV plus That was the movie the banker

with with Mackie and Jackson Jackson. Yes Cuz

I'm like, hey, it's Nick Fury and it's Falcon

and yay. Luckily somebody who actually does have

Apple TV Plus found a way to get that to me.

But Ted Lasso did debut last year, August 14th

of 2020. OK, yes, I don't think I checked it

out until October. That's who I am with some

stuff like I'll see something and then I'll be

like. I'll get to it. It just it will. It just

looked. Like it's one of those things where like

it looked hokey to me, but enough people in my

Twitter feed whose opinions like matter to me

like. It got to me and I was like, you know what

I just and like I said, my wife was out of town,

so I was like, whenever she goes out of town,

like we watch a lot of shows together. Like I

know what my life, my wife, my wife likes to

watch. So when she's here, we watch what? We

like a lot of the same things, but we watch that.

But when she goes out of town, like that's when

I go, OK, I can't watch this. I can't watch that.

Can't do that. Got to go. So I start just fumbling

around trying to find something to watch. And

I was like, you know what? Everyone's talking

about this Ted Lasso show. Let me just let me

just check it out. And like I said, 15 minutes

into it, I was like, nope, I'm not the way until

she gets home and we're just going to watch this

together because I know she's going to want to

watch it. Yeah. So. And it was just the perfect

thing for The the crap show that was 2020 yeah,

and I The other thing though, and I thought it

would be really annoying When Disney did it when

Disney plus launched and they released the Mandalorian

and they did it weekly instead of dumping it

Like like Netflix does I thought that'd be really

annoying, but there was something Not so much

the end of 2019 when the Mandalorian actually

came out, but like in 2020, because Apple did

that same thing too, where it was like, we're

not going to dump everything at once. Things

are going to be released weekly. And there was

something about like. Having to come back to

it. Yeah, there was something about having appointment

viewing in 2020 and in this year. Well, because

you need something to do because everybody doesn't.

A lot of people lost their jobs. Some people

had to switch from working at their actual jobs

to working from home. So you needed something

on your schedule to look forward to something

to enjoy. Yeah, like I think, yeah, it was it

was structure. It was a way to add structure

to something that was like pretty chaotic. Now,

don't get me wrong. I still like minging my shows,

but yeah. Yeah, I finally got on board with the

Disney Plus weekly thing. I watched both seasons

of Mandalorian every week because for me with

those shows it was, oh good. This means Ludwig

Göransson is going to release a score for each

episode or however he's going to release it on

Spotify so I could hear the music outside of

the show. So I'm like, oh, especially living

out here in the Pacific time zone. Like at nine

PM Pacific time, which is midnight Eastern time.

I know in two hours. I can go on Spotify and

I can finally listen to the Transformers War

for Cybertron Kingdom score by Alexander Bornstein,

because I know it's going to be on Spotify. Same

thing with the Mandalorian scores. As soon as

I knew there was a new episode, I'm like, ooh,

I immediately have to go to Spotify and make

sure I have all of the music from the Mandalorian.

And I was like that with Wandavision, even though

I'm not sure if there's a score of that on. I'll

have to look that up. And Falcon and Winter Soldier,

the only thing I did not do with that, and it's

mainly because I'm not that into... I like the

character okay enough, but I have not watched

Loki yet, because I'm just not a Loki fan. I

don't dislike the character, but it's not...

For me, seeing what happens to Sam Wilson was

important viewing for me to see how his story

progressed, because he has to take up this huge

ass mantle that Steve Rogers left behind. Same

thing with Bucky with the whole whatever but

Loki I'm like, yeah, I can wait and I'll just

binge it at some point I Like I like Loki but

I know a lot of people I know a lot of people

didn't but at a certain point like I just have

to think I Don't like people think that The biggest

criticism I saw of Logan is not a spoiler or

anything like that, but the people just kept

saying like It didn't stick the land like it

was a good show that failed to stick the landing

Because it was too devoted towards the future

And it's like just okay. We've been in this for

12 13 years now. We know how these movie we know

how the Marvel machine works like you can't That

is a criticism that has been like thrown since

Iron Man 2. Yeah, like you It didn't I don't

know I feel like you can't keep harping on that

like yeah it Yes, it launched it. It's launching

all of phase four like That is exactly what it

was doing and it was never not going to do that

And for you to sit there and think that for you

just have sat there and watch that show Thinking

that it was it wasn't going to do that That I

feel like you See I'm trying not to be negative

I just feel like maybe you shouldn't have been

the one to review it. Yeah, I don't know like

That's the it's one of those things where the

Marvel Cinematic Universe is so big and They

have these things in the universe that makes

sense to them And it makes sense to most of us

to the point of it's the long game. It's not

the short game. It's the long from the after

credits scene in Iron Man to the very last scene,

no after credits in Endgame. That's 23, 24 movies

and multiple years of story. That were given

to us at a decent pace. It wasn't just Shove

down our throats now. I know I think I'm remembering

this right you went to a Marvel marathon. Didn't

you at one point? No Okay, that was not me. Okay.

Well somebody I know went to a Marvel movie marathon

to catch up on whatever flick it was like The

first six films or something to catch up before

the next one or whatever when they used to do

those things Okay, my point is is that the Marvel

Cinematic Universe and what they've built up

over the last almost you know Whatever third

like you said 13 years or so It's the long game

you're never going to get a simple answer you're

like some especially with Loki You're never going

to get a simple answer with Loki. Loki is the

onion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He has

all these layers. He has everything like going

on behind the scenes and the mischief and everything

else. So of course that's going to set up phase

four and the fact that everyone assumed, everyone

that assumed this, that Loki was going to have

a good fit. Loki wasn't a finishing point. It

was a starting, as you said, it was a starting

point. It was to lead everyone into what comes

after the Infinity Saga. Yeah, and it's like,

are you? The other thing I have to say is like,

have you ever read a comic? I mean, there are

entire comic series that are like a six issue

miniseries that its only purpose is to start

a bigger event. Like you don't get like it. They're

literally making comics into movies. Yes. And

it's Like you can't. It just it just annoys me

when I see that kind of stuff. It's like you

to have expected anything else from the Marvel

machine and I will continue to call it the Marvel

machine. It is is is is silly. Yeah, I don't

see calling it the Marvel machine as a negative

thing because it is a well oiled machine. Everybody

knows what they're doing and where they want

to go. Not everybody is going to like where they

go after now that. The Infinity Saga is done,

but I'm open. I I'm curious to see what happens

next I'm curious to see how they continue on

without Iron Man or whatever and so okay now

This is I don't know if I feel like I tweeted

this out or maybe I had a conversation with Ali

about it I think I did tweet about I don't know

if you guys saw it or not But I'll just bring

it up here so we can actually have a maybe have

a conversation about it is Mike, we talked about

before this, we talked about that getting in

that cycle that repetitive that you get in that

repetitive cycle. And then if you can break that

cycle, you realize that it's not whatever you

were doing might not have been that important.

Right. We talked about that before the show.

Yeah. And so I had this thought when Ali and

I were, you know, thinking about going to see

Black Widow. And it was like, does it still?

matter and I don't say like I don't mean it like

like a black widow had come out when it was supposed

to which was 20 like like spring 2020 yeah like

like I feel like the more I felt like the Marvel

machine and having the conversation on my wife

about going or not I felt like the Marvel machine

had lost its momentum Mm -hmm because we got

conditioned to it started with one movie and

then the next next year It was like two Marvel

movies and by the time like everything was kind

of wrapping up. We had I think We had five movies

with five Marvel movies within the last between

2018 and 2019 there were five Marvel movies.

Yeah, yeah, right, but we got drip fed Like that

stuff from. The from from the beginning it wasn't

like okay here's five movies it was okay here's

iron man okay that works okay here's iron man

to incredible hot okay that work here's iron

man three four captain america. Avengers like

in the slowly like okay then they're like okay

now we can we got the production team now we

can do three movies a year we can do four movies

a year. And then. You know they have their big

finale and can we just take a minute here real

quick to highlight the fact I don't know if you

guys did this or not but how remarkable it is

how lucky it is that both Marvel. And Lucasfilm

got to wrap up their Star Wars stuff and the

Marvel like Infinity Saga before COVID hit. Like

can you imagine like having to like wait two

years to the end game? Yeah, no, I like that.

Like, yeah, that just keeps blowing my mind that

they got like geeks like lucked out so hard.

Oh, yeah. On the amount of the amount of things

that wrapped up geek wise in 2019, like Before

the world went to crap is just I can't I can't

believe that that happened But okay, so we were

drip fed all this stuff. They released their

last movie boom koba hits There's not a movie

in sight but we're get we we get the TV shows

to keep us kind of interested in what's going

on and then finally they're able to release black

widow, but it's a year and a half later and Maybe

people kind of realize that like Being first

see it or whatnot is is not all that important,

but now There's Black Widow Shang -Chi Spider

-man and Eternals There are four Marvel movies

this year Three of them are releasing between

Like September and and December yeah like Go

from nothing to all of a sudden for I feel like

I'm missing one but to go from Nothing to four

movies like yeah, that was fine when we got ramped

up into it But now that the movie going public

is like trying to ease back into Going to the

movies with all the restrictions and everything

like that like throwing four movies out the gate

like That's what I'm saying. Back then, I was

the frog in the solely boiling pot of water.

Yeah, I'll go see four Marvel movies a year.

Yeah, that's nothing. You want to do three Marvel

movies in three months? Whoa, buddy. Hold on

a second here. I think the reason, and I could

be wrong. I could be completely wrong. I think

it's because the entertainment landscape has

changed as we were talking earlier. We were actually

talking about this off air before Steve got here.

Mike and I are not really interested in going

back to theaters at all. I'm not either. Okay,

good. So the three of us are not interested in

going back to theaters. For me personally, as

I said to Mike and Steve, you already know this,

I'm a control freak. I want to control my entertainment.

I have not seen Black Widow yet, but I know what

happens because spoilers don't affect me. I want

to know, I want to go to Wikipedia and read whatever

I have to read so I have the information in the

back of my head in case anything does, anybody

on the internet does say something about it that

does spoil it. And I'll be like, eh, whatever,

and I'll just forget it, that it got spoiled,

whatever, doesn't matter to me. But the thing

is, because the entertainment landscape has changed,

The movie industry had to change to the point

of, oh, people aren't going to the theaters anymore.

People are sitting at home. Let's have them pay

$30 a month to get... premier access. And that's

fine. I have no, no, I'm not saying anything

about the $30. I'm not saying if people want

to pay that, that's great. If they want to see

it for me, I can wait till October 6th to see

Black Widow for what I already pay on Disney

Plus. That's fine with me. I don't have a problem

with that, but I love the option for anyone,

especially families. You know, Steve and Mary

have two children. If Steve and Mary want to

show their kids, Transformers the movie 2022

whatever animated whatever thing that might be

and It's whatever, you know, I mean, it doesn't

matter what it is. Like oh, let's you know, let's

spend the $30 we have However long you get it

for I don't know what the premise Mike you can

probably tell me what how long premiere access

grants you Well, that's what's interesting and

I'll I will because I want to touch on that a

little bit I'll wait for you to finish your thing.

Okay, so people can do this premiere access thing.

They can get the movie right at home on whatever

television surround sound setup they have. They

can go to Walmart and spend 20, $30 or less on

snacks or whatever and drinks and what, you know,

soda, Gatorade, whatever you want to use for

the kids, whatever, water, whatever, you know.

And go home and make a family like this reminds

me of that old Stevie. You remember this family

home video the old company that used to do the

Transformers VHS tapes. This reminds me of that

where families are at home. Whether it's because

of COVID or not. And they can have a personal

experience by just spending $30 to have premier

access. for whatever it is. There's no going

to the theater. There's no, you know, kids at

home. Kids are going to be kids, but in public

you want them to behave. There's no having to,

you know, take Ian or Nolan around the corner

and say, if you don't behave right now, I'm going

to take away your toys when we get home. You

know, there's none of that because it's home

entertainment. And that's where I think the movie

industry is going. That's why I think there's

going to be Marvel movies. One every month or

one every three, whatever it is. Well, and I

think, like, honestly, I stopped going to movies

years ago, but that's more so because one, I

don't have time to get away anyway. And between

work and, you know, the kids and everything else,

like by the end of the day, I just want to sit

home and watch from the comfort of my house.

I mean, I've got two monitors set up here. Half

the time I'll be doing graphics or messing with,

you know, editing something or just messing around

anyway or playing a game and I'll watch Netflix

on the other screen. So it's I don't know. It's

just the convenience of it. And not to mention

every time I've gone to the theater. There it's

and it's no knock against the theater. It's against

the morons that are there but You'll have these

inconsiderate fools that are constantly in the

theater with you and making the movie going experience

miserable So honestly like that's but always

been a deterrent for me Going to the theater

as opposed to just staying home now. I think

the last movie I saw in theater was Terminator

I think I went and saw it with a guy from work

and we went after a recording session and he's

like, hey, you want to go catch that new Terminator

movie? And we're like, sure. And so we went over

to the theater and it's one of those ones where

they they serve you food if you are inclined

to do so. But right. So we went in there. It

was dead. Not a soul in there. This was before

this was before covid. And yeah. And we went

in there and sat down. Uh, the theater was not

only under staff, but there was nobody there

seeing a movie. I think we were the only two

in the entire theater. Um, and so we just watched

the movie kick back and relaxed. Like, I mean,

we just didn't worry about it, but yeah, it was

just, it was, it was just, I don't know. I enjoy

going to the theater for the surround and the

big screen and everything, but on a whole, like

I just don't enjoy going to the theater anymore.

Really quick before Mike goes, I'll say this.

Over on our one of our other shows studio 2009

that we started last year this year whenever

it was I'm doing this thing with Birdman Dodd

12 months of Star Wars where I have always wanted

I've always wanted to wait until The entire saga

was released to cover it in Chronological order

and that's what we're doing. I have never enjoyed

the Phantom Menace more than I have watching

it on my phone laying in my own bedroom. Like

- Gross. Okay, but - or whatever, but I'm saying,

like, you know, say what you will about fa -

hey, at least it's not Attack of the Clones.

I didn't enjoy that one. No, I'm not saying anything

about your choice of movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

I know, I know. I'm grossed out by your viewing.

Well, okay, but, you know - You are what? Yes?

Yeah, go ahead. Nope. Go ahead, no, I want you

to. Come on. I can take it. No, it's fine. It's

just that anytime I hear something like that,

I'm always reminded. I think I actually found

the Wired magazine because I have it. I know

I've brought it up before, but there was a Wired

article. It's just about the good enough generation.

It's not for me. It's not about that, but go

ahead, but it's no it's it But you are though

because you're watching a movie on your phone,

and that's a good enough for you That's that's

what I'm saying and that but and that's what

the whole It was about the people that is what

the generation of people that would consume media

any way that they could Down to like the lowest

common denominator versus like people that Only

want to watch a movie off of like a 4k disc or

only want to listen to music off of vinyl and

it was like that the And that's where the good

enough generation comes from mp3 is good enough

YouTube videos are good enough Watching the good

scratchy vinyl I'm not saying vinyl vials bad.

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying yeah like

Hey, but I'm saying like, you know watching any

movie on your phone is That is one thing I can

safely say I've never done No, I have I have

watched movies on my iPad But like never at home

like So see see for me I've I download movies

and TV shows to my phone but The convenience

factor of it is more so what it is in and usually

it's because I'm somewhere like if I'm at work

and I'm doing something monotonous where I don't

have to pay attention and It's literally like

click copy paste move drag do this, you know,

it's just a bunch of consistent It's mostly when

I'm doing website work So I I have certain shows

that they're not necessarily something I've They're

usually something I've seen before honestly because

I can't give full attention to it. So it's more

so background That's so different like I have

every Star Trek movie and TV series Like I have

multiple episodes downloaded and then I sit there

and it's like background Mostly and I'm taking

it in but it's so that I can concentrate on something

other than work. But when when I'm watching,

you know Something new I generally do it from

either my TV, which is a smart TV now. I never

thought I'd get one of those But it's it's money

convenient And then I that or I watch it at my

my second monitor in my my desk area or my laptop

upstairs but when I Watch something new on my

phone It's usually when I'm gone somewhere like

an airplane or Camping and I have no access to

internet and I so I download them to watch right

and for me It's not about the just good enough

thing. I Was born with optic atrophy and the

stigmatism. I have nerve damage in my eyes Even

with glasses. I only have correction up to 2050

and I hate wearing glasses so I am technically

legally blind so while I would love to be able

to sit here and I actually have my well Karen

got me a 4k 55 inch television back in Christmas

of 2018 it's sitting in my bedroom in the box

I haven't put the mount up yet to get it on the

wall so I have something that I can watch this

stuff on it's just when I'm watching it for podcast

purposes Any old pictures of me anywhere from

back when I was a kid? I am literally less than

five inches away from the television because

my eyesight is that damn bad. So me laying in

bed on my Samsung Galaxy S9 looking at my phone

watching Revenge of the Sith because that's the

next one we have to watch. To make sure I see

and catch everything so I can discuss it on a

podcast That is what I mean by I'm okay with

watching the stuff on my phone because for me

I want to be able to catch every detail and sitting

here at my computer watching it on a 24 inch

monitor It's not gonna cut it I didn't mean to...

I didn't mean any type of offense with it, I'm

just saying... No, I'm not offended, I'm just

explaining to you that it's not... I'm not saying

there are use cases for it, it just, whenever

I hear that, it just reminds me of that article

about the Good Enough generation and how it's

like... You'll have to send that to me so I can

put it in the show notes. That's what's destroying...

Oh, I have to go find it, that article was written

like ten years ago. Like, things are way worse

now than they were ten years ago. Oh yeah. yeah

but so all right here's my thing like the okay

real quick so i don't lose this the $30 premier

access thing with disney plus it is a one -time

fee you pay to watch that movie now the neat

now the nice thing is you own it oh really it's

not You're not renting it. It's not thirty dollars

to rent it where it's the usual. Once you start

the movie of twenty four hours to finish it or

or if you if you rent it, you have 30 days to

start watching it. No, you own it. Wow. That's

cool. Hold on on Disney Plus. It does not go

to your digital locker. You do not have a digital

copy of it. It does not go to movies anywhere.

It is in. Disney Plus. Yeah, I have a problem

with that. I don't I don't do the whole purchase

thing in an app. I if I'm going to buy it, I

want to own it. Well, so now my thing my thing

with the Disney with with Premier Access was

always like. I don't have a problem going and

paying 30 dollars. Or or more. Now i'm in a different

situation than you guys when we moved down here

to columbus We ended up with an amc theater near

us that has a dolby theater in it And it is immaculate.

It is laser projection i'm pretty sure i've talked

about it here before and i've lamented about

it many times online but You don't have to worry

about people kicking your seat. They have walls

behind every seat. So you can't get kicked in

the back and everything's a recliner it's Mac

like the presentation is immaculate The sound

system is superb. It makes IMAX look like a crap

show so We had signed up for AMC's a list thing

which was it was for 20 bucks a month You could

go see as many movies as you wanted, right? So

Ali and I both of us together We paid 40 bucks.

We can go to the movies as many times as we wanted.

Didn't matter what what show it was, what time.

But like, you know, if you went, we always went

to try to go to the Dolby house because that's

where you got the most bang for your buck. Because

if you went once. You've pretty much once at

least once a month, you've pretty much paid for

itself. Yeah. And if you go again, like the next

week or even if you went the next day and it

wasn't just once a day, it wasn't like that stupid

movie pass thing. It was you could go it you.

Go see whatever you wanted. You could basically

theater hop. You could go to the theater at nine

a .m. and leave the theater at nine p .m. and

you've seen like nine movies within one day.

Yeah. Yeah. OK. So we had that. So and we had

no because we had that we had no problem paying

for for for movie snacks or anything like that

before or anything like that. But in before that,

before we had that, we didn't have a problem

paying whatever it was because we knew. We were

getting the experience that we wanted. We knew

what we were getting. So when they did the premiere

access thing, well, when it first started, remember

when COVID hit and everything was shifting to

being at home, it was $20 to rent the movie.

And that wasn't just on premiere access. That

was like on all the digital storefronts. It was

$20 to rent it. And I'm like, that ain't happening.

Yeah, that's dumb. Not a chance, but the what

really irked me about it was I don't know if

you guys remember this or if you use it the way

that I did but in the early days of iTunes Okay,

when songs were 99 cents or a dollar 30. Yeah,

if you bought songs off of an album and Then

you wanted to buy the actual album. It was cheaper.

It was prorated. Yep So I've I've always kind

of thought like okay if I rent this movie You

know that I rented it on your store Why wouldn't

you just give me like the let me buy the movie

like when it's actually available to buy digitally?

Let me buy it for five bucks Yeah, like you you

know that so like why isn't that like a thing

first of all? Because I would rent way more movies

if that was the case. Let me just say that right

now But my big issue with coming home like i

don't have a problem paying what i pay for to

go see a movie in the theater but thirty dollars

to or twenty dollars to rent a movie at home

like they didn't they didn't subsidize the my

home theater like the money that i spent buying

my home theater i paid that yeah disney didn't

throw any money my way or cut any deals with

with with me or or a distributor or anything

like that like When I go to a theater, like I'm

renting that laser projector. I'm renting that

Atmos sound system. I'm renting that giant screen

and those those leather, lazy boy recliners.

I'm renting all of that for my money to get that

experience. Right. You want to charge me that

same thing at home and you didn't pay for any

of the stuff I have in my house. Yeah, no. That's

like I didn't agree with that. And like we held

out for a while, but I kind of in the back of

my mind, I was like, I know that we're going

to end up seeing, we're going to, we're probably

going to end up paying for black widow. And I

tried, I ended up, they put up the tickets for

black widow with AMC and I pre -ordered my tickets

and then AMC changed their COVID policy. Right.

And it used to be the way it worked was when

you, cause they, you have reserved seating. So

when you picked a seat, AMC would automatically

block out the seat immediately to the left and

right of you. So nobody could sit right next

to you. And so Ali and I discussed it. We're

like, OK, let's get some. We'll get we'll get

tickets. We got our tickets. We got them in the

seats that we wanted. And I was sitting on the

porch one day and like a week before the movie

came out. And I went just to check because you

can go back in and see how many tickets they

sold, like how many seats. And I noticed that

the seats immediately to our left and right were

now sold. And we had a conversation about it.

And when push came to shove, we didn't exactly

feel safe going to see the movie. And even before

that, like when we were going to go, like I worked

at a movie theater. I worked at a movie theater

for 10 years. Okay. More than that, like 15 almost

like. Nobody in the theater going to enforce

a seating policy. No. So especially for a movie

like Black Widow. So like I told Ali, I said,

if we go to this movie and someone sits down

in the seat that is not supposed to have been

sold to either my left or your right or vice

versa, however we depended to say, if someone

sits in those seats that they're not supposed

to sit in. We won't say anything, we will get

up and walk out. Like I'm not I'm not gonna start

an argument with anybody But if someone's gonna

sit in those seats that they're not supposed

to be in no usher is gonna tell somebody to move

I'm not gonna cause a scene. We're just gonna

get up walk out and ask for a refund. That was

our plan Yeah, luckily AMC took that out of our

hands by telling those seats and so we're like

we're not going yeah, and We ended up we did

it we we did the $30 thing like the Saturday

after we were supposed to go Friday night and

Saturday night, we're just like you know what

let's just let's just do it and Like I Don't

know I don't know if it's because I got so used

to like the Marvel stuff Like the Marvel TV shows

like the black widow didn't do anything like

I felt like I There's no doubt in my mind that

if I saw that in the theater like that opening

That the opening Marvel Studios logo like if

I had seen that in a theater after Like a year

and a half of not being in the theater Probably

would have seen a grown man cry. Yeah, but like

watching that at home nothing So like there is

something to me. I know there is still something

in going to the theater. I just don't. It's not

that I don't want to go. It's not. I don't find

it worth it to go. I don't think it's worth it

to me to risk it to go. Yeah, it's more worth

it to sit at your home theater that you paid

all this money for to have the experience at

home. Then to go out and like you said rent the

experience for two hours three hours, whatever

it is I also want to back up real quick because

I can only imagine so many people shouting and

screaming I know Marvel isn't releasing one movie

a month. I'm just saying movies still coming

this year Yeah, and then next year. I think they

have another Four. So there are seven movies

between that Marvel movies between now and the

end of next year. Like all I was saying is, is

before we got conditioned to that. Right. We

were used to the drip of of movies where it's

a movie or two a year and where it's now three

a year or four a year or whatever. Yes. That's

all that's. Yeah. And so it's because because

under any other like just think about it. Think

about this for a second. any other movie, people

would be saying that's too many too fast. Mm

hmm. Like, but nobody said that about a Marvel

movie. I remember when Pixar made the announcement

that they were going to go from one movie a year

to two. And I thought luck keeping up that quality,

boys. And boy, did they not. But like. When Marvel

decided that they were going to be like, oh,

we're going to do four or five, I was like, OK.

I'll go see them all. We'll see how good they

are. And of course, because, you know, we got

that cookie cutter stamp and they're all they're

all pretty solid. Yeah. Yeah, that's just been

my whole thing. Like I don't it comes down to

like I would have no problems at all paying that

thirty dollars like if that digital copy went

in my movies anywhere. Yeah. Like the fact that

it stayed tied, that was like the really the

biggest hang up that I had. was that it was locked

to Disney Plus. So if I ever stop subscribing.

Mm hmm. Like I've lost that money. Yeah. Yeah.

You've lost that ownership of. Well, with you,

you're you're lucky because you have a three

year deal because you took the advantage of the

oh, Disney Plus is launching. And if you pain,

I think it was pain now for three years. You

have it for three, you know, three years. I wish

I could have done that. Oh, you bet your butt.

Would have canceled that so many times By now

like and signed up for it again like I don't

need to keep Granted they've been smart. I will

say this Disney has been smart They it's like

it's it's not almost like they've made it not

worth it to cancel between their shows Because

like Mandalorian ends a Marvel show starts when

that Marvel show starts stops They've got like

you get maybe like a three week breathing period

before the next one starts up. They've been smart

about how they're doing this. And because they're

not making it bingeable, they can do that. If

this had been a binge, if their stuff had been

bingeable, like. I definitely would have been

had, I would have had time to cancel. My subscription

in between so they've been very smart about how

they're doing it and I hope that there is something

that allows me to renew again. Yeah, and the

one thing about the Marvel shows and Star Wars

specifically between everything they have these

little vignette things like Marvel has two things.

Let Marvel Legends and assembling the. the universe

so assembling the universe on disney plus is

essentially behind the scenes of whatever shows

so behind the scenes of one division falcon winter

and loki legends is basically for anyone who

has never seen any of the marvel movies like

they can catch you up on Wanda or Vision or Falcon

or Zemo or Black Widow or Loki or the Tesseract

or whatever. So they have these things for the

for new, not us, new people that may not want

to go back to 2008 and watch Iron Man and whatever.

No, no, I'm not saying yeah, I'm not saying people

shouldn't want to do that for me right now. Because

I am the way I am and I'm all about continuity

and and how faint like the chronological order

I found a website because now that the Infinity

Saga is done listed everything From phase one

to phase three Chronological order so you start

with first Avenger you go to Captain Marvel Iron

Man Iron Man 2 I still don't believe Incredible

Hulk is included, but whatever that's just my

personal opinion And whatever else. So I'm looking

at phase three here, and I want to specifically

bring this up really quick to talk about Black

Widow. Everybody's like, wait, Black Widow died

in Infinity War. Oh, it takes place between...

Right, right, right. It takes place between Civil

War and Infinity War. So phase three starts with

Civil War, goes to Black Widow, goes to Homecoming,

Strange, Panther, Ragnarok, and then... Infinity

War, Ant -Man and the Wasp, Endgame, and then

Far From Home. I am perfectly fine watching Black

Widow on its own, now that I know where it fits

into the universe, once I actually have access

to it, and I'm perfectly fine waiting for it.

Because for me, it brings up more of, oh yeah,

I need to watch that. Even though they should

have given her her movie, like after Iron Man

2, but whatever. It was. Yeah, they couldn't

because of contracts. Yeah, I know. So Steve,

we've kind of taken over your show. That's all

right. It was a great discussion, though. Yeah,

it just means we'll have to do another one of

these again soon. This same time, same channel

next week. No, I don't know. Well, whatever.

I am available. I am game. Yeah, seriously. I

think I think my wife would rather have me do

anything than play Fortnite right now. I have

never gotten into Fortnite. So hey, maybe that's

one thing you could do. You can hop on Twitch

and just kind of give me a walkthrough of Fortnite,

but I have never been into the whole Fortnite

thing. I don't know what it is. I just never

paid attention to it. Sounds good. So with that,

thank you for joining us here on Altered Geek.

As you can normally find us on GeekCastRadio

.com and on various Podcatchers, you can find

me on Twitter at scp21. And you guys, where can

they find you? I am at BoothNinja81 on Twitter.

I am at TFG1Mike on Twitter. So thank you for

joining us here and we hope you enjoyed this

discussion. So until next time, get altered,

get geeky with the Altered Geeks. Unplugged unleashed

on whatever. Oh my god. This show has come a

long way in eight years