Online Harassment, Streaming Preferences, and the State of Modern Culture

Hey, this is Steve blue and you are listening

to the geek cast radio network Hello and welcome

to Altered Geek Unlimited episode 65. I'm your

host Steve Megatron Phillips and joining me this

week is a different duo of Mike's. But we're

both fat. Yeah. One of us has a beard, one of

us not so much. Tag team combined weight over

900 pounds. There we go, we are earthquake and

fucking typhoon. Oh, we're level 9000. Yeah,

pretty much. As you can tell, he is BirdmanDodd,

I am DF2 and Mike. And what a week it has been,

hasn't it, boys? Yes. Let me see. So, in the

last 24 hours, I've learned several things. Evidently,

when you're Mike Dodd, don't express yourself

on social media, because you might bring people

down. But, by the same token, evidently, if you

prefer Netflix over Hulu, You are worse than

Mecha Hitler. And that's worse than regular Hitler.

Like we're talking worse than Genghis Khan, man,

with a robot suit. That's serious shit right

there. So you guys were telling me before we

got on the air here that you have received death

threats. Yeah, it was, it was a, I don't know,

about a month ago or so. So was this just some

random toolbox or some? We're gonna listener

or was this seriously? I'm gonna come to you

in the middle of the night in darkness and destroy

you Please tell me what more or less. I think

it it's spawned out of It's spawned out of an

old episode of GCR either GCR or or tune cast

or something they were commenting on years old

content and then Basically said that Why are

you always talking about net or Hulu or Netflix

instead of Hulu? There's others all these other

sources and we're like, well at the time the

shows weren't available on that and we didn't

have it So we didn't list it, you know So it's

like someone threatening to break your knees

because you prefer Google Chrome over Firefox

It's basically that kind of preference. I mean

it wasn't even a favoritism thing and they were

kind of saying that it was a favoritism so they

actually created like a Geetcast radio must die

Email and and like started trying to flood my

inbox with like a couple annoying people, but

And then in part of the email it said You know,

you guys are really bullying people into watching

Netflix and I'm like the I am. I am not bullying

anybody. You can pick your damn streaming service.

I don't care. The easiest thing for me to find

stuff on is Netflix. And I'm not... I use Hulu.

I use Hulu for He, That, and That's His Universe

for our Powers of Grayscale podcast. You know

why I prefer fucking Netflix? Because they have

apps on my gaming consoles. Sure, so does Hulu,

but here's the big secret. Hulu doesn't crash

every 30 minutes. Whereas Netflix can be stable

for days. And Hulu has commercials. Yeah, whereas

Netflix doesn't. No, even the WWE network is

more reliable than Hulu, and that says something.

I know. And the funny thing is, Steve mentioned

the commercials, and all I can think of is every

time now that Optimus Solo and I are watching

He -Man and the Master's Universe for Powers

of Grayskull, every time I put in our snake mountain

moments or our things we don't like about an

episode, every time... Hulu places a commercial

mid -transformation of He -Man. Like he'll say,

you know, by the power of Grayskull, next thing

you see is an ad for Ford or Toyota or mobile

phone or whatever. It's like, you don't place

an ad mid -transformation. You find where the

commercial break that's already there. Yes. Yes.

Yeah, it's really stupid. In fact, Steve and

I were talking about this a couple weeks ago.

The Simpsons app on the Fox website or the Simpsons

World or whatever has their commercial breaks

placed three seconds before the commercial break

actually happens. So Krusty the Clown might be

making a joke and halfway through it you'll get

a commercial about somebody screaming about beef

jerky. And then it just goes on and then it goes

to commercial and then gets back from black.

It makes no sense. And you know what, this would

be an intern's job for like a month because all

they have to do is look at time codes and just

go, okay, okay, okay, okay. It's literally a

checklist. It's ridiculous. I don't know. It's

so beyond stupid that I just don't get it. I

mean, it's funny too because you guys talk about

having a troll over the summer. I was doing a

lot of video game streams and I run and I use

a service called Twitch and I also use Twitter

to promote that service and as you guys know

this past year we had an election in Toronto

with a guy named Rob Ford and one of the most

popular accounts for him trust me I'm getting

to the point here was an account called slob

slob Ford right And evidently, I comment on a

lot of Toronto politics, because I think it's

rather interesting to see how the city that I'm

closest to works. So I tweeted something about

his stint in rehab. I've never made fun of his

drinking problem. I've never made fun of his

drug problem. I've made fun that he's an ineffectual

leader at best. So someone thought it'd be funny

to create a SlobDot account. And they were saying

all these terrible things. And I remember I actually

contacted Twitter. I actually got a hold of someone

at Twitter, which is surprising as all shit,

because their customer service is terrible. They're

like, can you prove who you are? Yeah, here's

my passport and about 10 pieces of ID. Trust

me, I'm Mike Dodd. I was actually fairly close

to getting verified, which was kind of interesting,

I thought. But yeah, I'm just thinking, who the

hell has time for that? But then again, we live

in the era of 4chan. We live in the era of anonymous,

we live in the era of YouTube comments. For any

asshole with an internet connection can post

whatever they want, and that's their right to.

It's the internet, the era of free speech. You

should not be censored. But Jesus Christ, I want

to ask these people, who ties your fucking shoes

in the morning? In the last 24 hours, I've seen

more evidence of human stupidity and why we should

stop breeding than I have in the last 33 years

of my life. I am now looking down the unfathomable

abyss of human retardedness. Well, it's it's

it's almost like these like in the US earlier

in the week The election stuff. Yes the election

stuff. Oh my god. Well, we spent three three

weeks to a month to a month and a half of Politicians

bashing each other but not actually talking about

anything I know right they're like did you know

the candidate for local school board trustee

he likes Cheetos that means he supports childhood

obesity vote this asshole because he's white

well and then yeah it's basically like that there

was an ad that that made me laugh every time

it came on because there's this this um somebody

in michigan that's that's uh they caught him

on tape saying i'm not prepared Basically to

answer a question and and so they were spinning

it like he's not prepared to You know handle

employment and he's not prepared to handle taxes

or he's not you know They just threw random words

at the end of when he's saying I'm not prepared

and just kept rewinding it It's like, okay. Yeah,

that's that's clearly, you know misquoted that

That attack ad is all the technical skill of

a guy who makes YouTube poops Basically. Like,

there are ones in Canada, and this one happened

earlier, I think it was this year or last year,

one of our guys, he's the head of the federal

liberal party, he's the son of Pierre Trudeau,

Justin Trudeau, and one of the things was Justin

Trudeau supports legalizing marijuana. I don't

want my kids doing that. Do you want him in charge?

And they have this, obviously, this soccer mom

voice actor doing it, and she's really putting

the screws to it, thinking, well, if he supports

pot, maybe he supports harder drugs. And it's

one of the most stupid asinine reasons to not

vote for someone. And of course, it's done by

the other side, the progressive conservatives

and whatever else. And even their ads are bloody

stupid, too. I don't get the point of attack

ads. It's basically political bullying. And I

just like, and you know what the sad part is?

It probably works on some percentage of the population

that doesn't take five minutes to read a website

or five minutes to read the newspaper in the

morning. And it's frustrating because you're

right though. In fact, my favorite though, and

this comes from you Americans. I love you guys

for this. I love television commercials for TV

lawyers. There's one near Buffalo. I love this

guy, hurt in a car called William Mattar. I love

that guy, or Salino and Barnes. I haven't watched

a Buffalo TV station in a number of years. Why

the hell do I still know Salino and Barnes and

William Mattar? That is the effectiveness that

the US, I think, has given us to the wonderful

world of advertising. If they can drill into

your head, it'll work. If it can actually be

called wonderful. Yeah, it's that weird viral

earworm. for stupid shit. I mean, like, you'll

have those songs that can loop in your head because

you might hear, say, um, the Bee Gees staying

alive or something, and that'll stick with you

for like a few hours because you'll, you know,

it just gets stuck in your head. These political

ads, I swear to God, there's like a giant think

tank somewhere probably controlled by like MoDoc

or OMAC or some shit like that, and it's literally

dedicated to nothing but developing stupid ads.

There there's a think tank run by Hydra right

here right now This is their sole purpose in

the world and it's friggin hilarious. I'm so

glad though the Election crap is mostly over.

I mean, yeah, it's two more years I think your

president's in power, but now the Senate's changed

and well, we'll see what happens. Yeah, who knows

I I'm looking forward to to seeing who got voted

out and voted back in and so on and so forth

like myself I voted against every asshole that

is currently in I voted for Robocop as a write

-in candidate? You always vote for RoboCop as

a write -in candidate. Damn right, he's tough

on crime and he takes no shit. I'd vote for Batman

if that was available as my president, and then

I'd have Megatron as my vice president. I'm gonna

vote for Starscream as the Minister of Foreign

Affairs. No, you know, yeah talking with Libya

no, you'd have Cobra commander do that you have

Cobra commander do that you have Starscream is

the minute the the minister or the Secretary

of Defense. No Secretary of Defense. Oh My god

seekers out to destroy them I think that should

be the GCR in question of the week is who from

fiction would you put in power? There you go

the president and the cabinet. Yeah Who do you

want to see in certain positions of power? I'm

voting a write -in of Derpy Hooves of My Little

Pony. Mr. Finance. She loves muffins. Muffins

is now your new currency. You can take your own.

Oh my god. As long as the position isn't, you

know, missionary or anything. Wow. Wow, coming

from Steve, wow. Sorry, terrible person, Steve.

This was a family podcast. Oh, you brought that

up. In five years. It's well past that. Yes.

Going back to the commenting thing, I expect

at this point is how long I've been on YouTube,

I expect to see asshats saying first in multiple

different ways on several videos that I've seen,

but for people to start doing it on Facebook,

are you kidding me? Like, I saw - It's almost

like we haven't evolved. I saw the Marvel Entertainment

- Facebook page show you know the they basically

set up Hydra leaked the the age of Ultron trailer

and somebody. Actually, I don't even know who

the hell it was. Somebody actually commented

on that post on their Facebook page saying, first,

are you kidding me? What the hell is civilization

come to that you still have to feel the need

to say that you were the first person to comment?

That's all they're right. First, you know, all

it means is you're in the right place at the

right time. You hit refresh. It's a cookie. Like,

seriously, sometime in the future, that guy,

let's call him Little Timmy, Little Timmy is

gonna be applying for a job in some federal position.

And one of the interview questions is gonna be,

have you ever been first on Facebook or YouTube?

Answer me now. If you haven't, you can't have

the job. If that ends up being on, like, resumes

and shit, those people should just automatically

be declined. I think, for people at the bottom

of their LinkedIn profiles, just write all your

usual crap, then under... like you star star

in like a really tiny font has commented first

on multiple youtube and facebook posts just for

fun that i think i'm gonna do that later actually

it would be funny if if i got a job because of

that i'm like well it's time to kill myself because

clearly the world is too stupid to exist and

it's funny because we promised ourselves at the

beginning of this discussion we are not going

to turn this into a bitch fest yet It's you people.

That's right. You listening right now with the

green headphones. Fuck you With the green beats

by Dre headphones You are what's wrong with YouTube

and Facebook from the artist formerly known as

Apple Which I hear Christian Bale bailed ha on

the on the Steve Jobs biopic. I just don't know

if I could picture Batman as Steve Jobs, then

again, I had more of a time trying to believe

Kelso as Steve Jobs, so. I was fine with the

idea of Bale playing him because he could pull

the look off. The only thing I'd be a little

irritated with is if he got mad and he started

going, Where are they? Where are the iPhones?

You can't fire me. You want me to fucking trash

this OS? My God. See, I don't know. I mean, that's

a story. I think it does deserve a big screen

serious treatment. I just think they need to

cast someone unknown. Because anybody in Hollywood,

you're going to associate them with whatever

else, right? Well, I mean, it's like the thing

with Ashton Kutcher. Was he bad at it? No, I

think he played it very well. But he got a lot

of bad rap because of all of his, you know, that

70s show and because of Two and a Half Men and

Where's my car and everything? Yeah, I mean,

he got a bad rap because usually he plays the

stoner. Yeah, and that's terrible because I really

like Ashton Fitcher. He did a movie, like, I

guess it'd be about 10 years ago now. He did

a movie called The Butterfly Effect. Oh, that

was such a good movie. And there's one part at

the end that made me really respect him as an

actor, where he tells the girl he's supposed

to fall in love with to fuck off or something.

It's like, don't talk to me. And that's the thing

that makes her life better. I'm thinking, wow,

I really believed you in that moment. Good job,

man Where he basically commits suicide? Yeah,

like there's so many like there's so many actors

in Hollywood that I think get unnecessarily Typecast

or they're just put in the wrong roles. I mean

for example, I really like Johnny Depp But putting

him in everything I think he's actually hurting

his career more than moving it forward Like I

think I think you know, like for instance the

movie transcendence I didn't think it was a bad

film overall, and I think the only reason it

kind of sucked with him in it was because, like

you said, the oversaturation. Yeah, I mean, do

you guys remember, like, about five, six years

ago when Matt Damon was in everything? And now

he's not? Yeah, now he's just, you know, I'm

just gonna, you know, maybe I'll do another Bourne

movie. Like, oh, well, clearly your career is

not exactly going the way that you had intended.

But we have to also realize that half of the

actors and actresses that we have grown up with,

or we as adults now in the past 14 years... Are

they getting older? They're getting older. They're

getting to the point where they want to, you

know, go behind the camera. You know, that's

the... Whether it's Hollywood, whether it's sports,

whatever, you know... They want to have something

new. Hell, look at wrestling. You know, look

at... Look at Jerry the King Lawler. He started

out as a wrestler, and now he is behind the scenes

doing commentary. You know, you look at someone

like, um... JBL? Same thing. Yeah, JBL. I mean,

JBL, 14 years ago, was probably still on Raw

and SmackDown doing different matches and everything

else, and now he's, you know... doing announcing

and I mean that's with anything nowadays in in

a big Hollywood type business you start out as

an actor or a performer and then as your years

catch up with you you want to slow down And go

behind the camera or go behind the scenes and

deal with that. I mean, I know Steve isn't that

big in the WWE, but I mean, look at all of the

stuff that they have at developmental. All the

old stars, what's his name, Bill, Bill Mott.

Stone Cold, look at Stone Cold. I mean, Stone

Cold still got it. But he's more into doing his,

you know, broken skull reality thing and whatever

else. Yeah. I mean, it's funny, though, because

I remember when, like years ago, we used to see

Will Smith in everything, too. Now he picks and

chooses his projects very stupidly. I'm looking

at you after after. Yeah. Now his son, Jayden.

Don't think the kids terrible. I really liked

him in in the karate kid remake I think he's

got some of the family talent, but it needs to

be refined. Oh, that's by someone other than

Wilson Yeah, he needs to maybe go to like acting

school For like a couple of years learn your

crap. I mean Robin Williams did Juilliard You

know, we're sending them off to someplace big,

you know, make them learn make them earn so send

them off to West Philadelphia But yeah, I'm not

sure I like the current crop of Hollywood that's

rising up. I mean, I do like people like, say,

Jennifer Lawrence. I really like her, not just

because she's hot. Scar Joe. The guy that plays

Xavier in the X -Men movies. The young guy or

the old guy? Yeah, the young guy. I don't remember

his name. I mean, nuts, because I know someone's

screaming at their speakers right now. Damn it,

no! That guy! See, I like him. I didn't like

him in Wanted, but now that he's gotten older,

I really, really like him. And Michael Fassbender's

another guy that's coming up in everything, and

he's really good. Just so long as Kevin Bacon

is never in another X -Men movie, I'll be happy.

Well, they only did it so they could say it was

the six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Yeah, that -

Well - But they just put him at two. Some casting

directors are like, why not? My biggest problem

was him wearing the helmet. That was my biggest

problem with him being - It did look a little

goofy. It looked super goofy. Well, you gotta

also figure, it gave reason for Magneto to take

it. Yeah. Still. But why did it have to look

like that? It would've been nice if Magneto reshaped

it. Using his magnetic powers or something. Like

maybe Kevin Bacon's head, like, metal bacon on

the side, or horns, like Loki. Oh god. Now all

I'm flashing to, and Mike won't get this, but

Steve, now all I'm flashing to is your outtake

of metal floss. Oh god. By the way, it was James

McAvoy that played it. I had I had to look it

up. Although it's weird, though, because like

we were taught, like we just mentioned, there's

older people that are coming back. Bill Murray

seems to be doing a shit ton now. But Bill Murray's

weird. I don't I don't we went and saw that St.

Vincent last week. Yeah. Was it any good? And

we made it through about 30 minutes of the movie,

my wife and I. And she's like, does this get

any better? And I said. It's Bill Murray. I said

you just have to take into consideration. It's

gonna be a dark comedy experience and and because

she wanted to see it because it had that Melissa

McCarthy in it, yeah, and She really likes that

actress. So she's like she's barely in it and

I says yeah, I know and I really I you wanted

to go see this and she's like I thought you wanted

to see it I says fuck. No, I didn't want to see

this. I wanted to see Guardians and So she's

she's like, well, we just started about 30 minutes

after we got into this movie. Let's go walk across

the hall. So we did It wasn't bad, but it kind

of reminded me of a lot of those like other kind

of scary possession movie sort of thing Basically,

I mean it was like the you know always summon

the ghosts the ghosts is telling us something

and it's killing us slowly one by one by possessing

us and then You know, it's the typical burn body

burn whatever is associated to destroy the ghost

You know something you'd see on supernatural,

but they stretched it to two hours Wow You know,

that's another big problem. I've kind of noticed

they advertise movies completely fucking wrong.

Like, the trailers are very misleading. I think

the biggest example I can think of from this

year, in particular, was Godzilla. Because they're

riding the high of Bryan Cranston from Breaking

Bad. And they're like, Bryan Cranston, his son

must fight Godzilla! And all the trailers had

almost all of his scenes in it, and you think

he's in it for the whole movie, he's in there

for maybe the first 20 minutes, maybe. Then it's

Quicksilver. or kick -ass fighting Godzilla,

though not really. And that's how they do it.

Even Godzilla didn't have a lot of Godzilla in

it, to be sure. I know there were a couple of

movies I've seen in the last year or two where

it was completely mis -advertised. Same with

even... I talked about this with the angry video

game nerd last month for the Topic Show. We did

the, like, Aliens franchise. Another movie that

I thought was completely... The trailer was very

misleading. Was Prometheus Like they're like,

this is the story before alien again. Well kind

of sorta I Had no intention of ever watching

that movie. It's not bad But when you realize

they're trying to shoehorn in the engineers out

or or the space jockeys into The alien universe

and like yeah, it's cool. I'm now we know that

they're out there sort of thing, but Supposedly

even Blade Runner happens in the same universe

as this movie, too. So technically Blade Runner

and Alien, Prometheus all exist in the same universe.

And there was a joke we made on the podcast that

you could even tie in Gladiator to it somehow,

some way, because it was directed by Ridley Scott.

So every Ridley Scott movie is somehow weirdly

connected. I don't know that that that sucks

when you have such high hopes for a movie and

it utterly disappoints the crap out of you. Like

in fact this year. I haven't gone to the movies

a lot this year and One of the other movies.

I thought was completely misleading by the trailers

Was transformers for age of extinction. I knew

that was gonna be dogshit Oh, well, I figured

Dinobots. How do you fuck up Dinobots? Because

they're only in at ten minutes not even and you

don't even know any of their names That's I think

to me that was the biggest offense to me I mean,

not withstanding Mark Wahlberg screaming every

10 minutes, but I'm an inventor! Okay, Mark Wahlberg

screaming every 10 minutes is better than the

last 10 and a half hours of Shia LaBeach being

in those movies for me. But at least Shia LaBeach

moved the plot forward. Barely. Barely, but he

did, whereas - He was a functional idiot that

served a purpose. As Mark Wahlberg is like honey

hand me my alien killing gun and don't in the

fact that they spent two and a half minutes on

a rape joke Was kind of funny too, but not in

the tragic or but not in the funny. Haha more

funny tragic I That movie was such dogshit. It

is where I've had people defend that movie up

and down again. It's a fun movie That's what

Transformers should be I'm thinking well, I can

concede that point. I can see that But at the

same time, you don't take the source material,

pour, you know, pee all over it and say, you

know what? That's a movie. Yeah, Bumblebee did

it in Revenge of the Fallen, so it's not like

they couldn't have done it again. See, I'm a

Revenge of the Fallen apologist. I like that

movie to a certain extent, but I see the problem

with it. There were a lot of issues with it.

A lot of bad McGuffins and bad writing, but overall

it wasn't a terrible film. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't...

We're sitting at the screen thinking when is

this going to end with Transformers? I remember

looking at my watch a few times thinking Jesus

Christ is still going I'll say this for the franchises

that we know and love that have had their to

films this year for their 30th anniversary, Transformers

and Turtles. For me personally, Turtles was so

much better, but at least Transformers was refreshing

for me because it was a completely different

cast and it wasn't the same old tired Shia plot.

Yeah, I'm a lot of focus on a different human.

Yeah. I wish the human meant something. Yeah.

Like. Like, honestly, if they had them refocus

on, you know, the robots, it might be actually

somewhat good. And they had a, what I felt to

be a fairly good idea that this military unit

is hunting down Transformers because of, you

know, Chicago. They should have just had Robot

Master and just, you know. I wanted Frasier teaming

up with that dickhead killing people. That would

have been cool. Not Marky Mark fighting Frasier

and Optimus Prime. Which is funny, in the last

ten minutes, that movie pulls a poochie. What

I mean by that is, he really says, I must go

now, and he just floats up and leaves Earth.

Like, you know, that ability would have been

really useful in, like, you know, Revenge of

the Fallen, or... I don't know. You know what?

If Iwis Prime could have flew in Revenge of the

Fallen, Jetfire wouldn't have had to die. Iwis

Prime is an asshole! A colossal one. Well yeah,

I mean that's another thing too. He straight

up kills Frasier. Just blows him away. He's like,

when I find him, I will kill him. Like, that's

not the Optimus Prime I know. That's Optimus

Prime unhinged off his meds. And I feel sorry

for him. And he should never complain about it.

So basically what you're saying is the Bay Optimus

is an American version of yourself. Yes, I will

kill anyone who questions me and I will do it

with a robotic John Goodman Okay, come on. You

gotta give Goodman something him is how he was

good. Yeah, actually Okay, I liked hound and

I think What was the name of the green one? It

wasn't Springer. No, you're talking about the

the other green one. That was um, the other green

meat God that was um crosshairs Yeah, that was

Bender from Futurama, wasn't it? I think so.

Pandemagio or something? Yeah, I think so. They're

utilized. That's one problem I have with the

Transformers franchise. They have this rich lore

and all these really interesting characters,

but they're never used. Yeah, and they pulled

Drift right out of the comics just to put him

in the movie and he's blue? Seriously? And...

I don't know, it makes me mad that half these

things... are reduced to quick cameos. Like,

hell, R .C. was in Revenge of the Fallen, and

she's in it for, like, I'm thinking maybe less

than 40 seconds. Yeah. And then they kill one

of the R .C. twins or something. It's like, what

the fuck, really? That Skidmark and Buttflap

get more screen time. Skidmark and Buttflap.

A character who's actually beloved and could

bring in new female fans to the franchise. So

we get, hey, Kraka? I don't know. And two, talk

about turtles. Two. That one, I thought, was

a pleasant... I don't want to say disaster. I

felt it was a good effort, all things considered.

It was a good effort, but you can see where they

had to scrape because of certain plot details.

I'm pretty sure they shoot it shredder. Well,

that's what I'm saying the whole thing with the

fan reaction online Oh my god, you're gonna have

a white guy William Fickner from from Armageddon

as shredder really seriously And yet they leave

him in with a purple tie and it leads you to

believe he is shredder even though he isn't Maybe

he's shredded to point out What I found absolutely

interest like Frieza What I found absolutely

hilarious about Turtles is they, at least for

me it's a Bill Cosby reference, they pulled in

Buck Buck. And I'm like, nobody fucking knows

Buck Buck. Like, one of the weird casting choices

for that movie was Tony Shaluba's Splinter. And

he didn't do a terrible job. No. But it's just,

that's a really weird casting choice. I would

have went with... the guy who did Drift's voice,

Ken Watanabe. That would have been awesome. I

would have actually either done one of two things

with Splinter. At first I was kind of hesitant

about Tony Shalhoub because I know, and I know

this is me typecasting him, but I know what I've

seen him in. Stuff like Wings. He was one of

the people in Wings and whatever else. But one

of the two things I would have done, I would

have either gone back to the cast, The old cartoon

and got Peter Rennaday to do it or I would have

gotten the new cast Hoon Lee Who is the splinter

in the 2012 cartoon series and had him? No, not

at all She's barely there. Yeah, she's like this

is Although all things considered I think it

I think me and Steve have talked about this before

I Specifically I was talking about man of steel

Mm -hmm, and I've got a problem with that, but

I'll talk about that in a minute, but it's a

good argument We'll see in Mike Powers likes

that movie. It's like it's the movie that needs

to launch a franchise, but it's not our franchise

So what you're saying is it's the movie we need

right now, but not the one we deserve. That's

exactly my argument. And that's the same thing

for Transformers as well. All of these franchises,

they need to draw on the younger audiences who

have more disposable income. I will put asses

in seats that are not going to be super critical

of it. They want a fun blockbuster. And that's

fine. That is perfectly their right. Because

you should be able to go to the movies and have

fun. But there comes that artistic integrity

I think for like some of these properties and

it's kind of like I think it was Dan We were

talking about this where there was this movie

called the people versus George Lucas and It

talks about George Lucas taking the stars movies

and re -editing them to their oh, this is my

original vision or whatever, right and People

complain about that saying no, you can't take

these movies. They don't belong to you anymore

I think that's our problem with us as nerds now

when we look at some of these franchises. We

see them as ours. They're not allowed to be different.

It kind of sucks because I don't want to see

certain things change because let's all face

it change is scary, but change can be good. Change

can be good, but it also sucks. Yeah, like I

have hopes Turtles 2 will be better. I have hope

because you know what Johnny Knoxville as Leonardo

didn't suck. The other voice actors for that

movie didn't suck. There was one moment with

Johnny that I heard his regular voice that he

uses every day. Yeah, there was one moment. I

think it was on the rooftop or when he was yelling

at Mikey or something, and I'm like, oh, come

on, don't break voice character. Oh, God. But,

you know, overall, Turtles was really, really

enjoyable. Mean I think it's the second best

Turtles movie that's been made I Look at the

one from 1990 as the best the best Yeah, this

would be the second because I'm not counting

the one that's animated from 2007 Yeah, 2007.

Yeah, 2007 was okay, but it wasn't anything special.

Yeah The other two movies I like secret of the

ooze I like it way better than Turtles in Time

or Turtles 3. Yeah But I'm trying to think of

other franchises that have kind of taken a dive

But I don't know what I don't see that as a complaint.

It's something that I'm noticing I wonder what's

gonna happen with Star Wars because this week

Abrams has wrapped filming on it They're done

and then they've they've tried to make the claim

that it's the best thing since sliced bread Well,

I see C3PO made that claim Yeah, but it's gonna

be better than Empire and it's like it's kind

of a hard claim because Empire came from a different

style of filmmaking to Like there's nerd movies

that can move you and I think Marvel has come

the closest in certain ways and the Christopher

Nolan stuff Mm -hmm for Batman is some the closest

to having a moving moment in a superhero movie

or something like that They tried to do the moving

moment with Abrams and Star Trek Wrath of Khan,

or not Wrath of Khan, Into Darkness. Just call

it what it is. Wrath of Khan, take two. No, no,

no. Wrath of Khan. Wrath of Khan, part two. Wrath

of Wrath Khan. It's terrible. And I don't know.

To say it's better than Empire, that's a pretty

bold statement. Like I said, it's two different

styles of filmmaking. But you know what? Maybe

Abrams can pull it off. Blair is showing me stuff

from his TV show, Alias. And Abrams can direct.

He can do some really impressive stuff when he

wants it. And he can be a really effective storyteller

when he wants. Alias. He loves Star Wars as much

as he says he does. Maybe it'll be good. But

Empire good? I don't know. Yeah. Because Empire,

I think, is an important movie. And will episode

seven be important? That's debatable. At least

it won't be the Phantom Menace. Yeah, and that's

something else, too. There are certain movies

that maybe shouldn't be touched again. And I

think we needed to see the beginning of the Star

Wars trilogy, but there was another guy that

I know. He's a YouTuber. He goes by, it's called

Fanboy Flix. I went to College with them and

he brought up this point. You guys remember a

couple years ago. They remade the Halloween movies

with Rob Zombie Unfortunately, yeah, unfortunately,

so he openly said he wasn't gonna do them and

They were not and when he did he said they're

not gonna be a carbon copy remake, which is good

He took them in his own direction terrible car

crash direction, but a direction nonetheless

and He gave evil a backstory with the little

kid becoming Michael Myers growing up, becoming

a Looney Tune, but he made him empathetic and

sympathetic in a way. You could see why Michael

was nuts. And giving a backstory to Darth Vader,

one of the greatest villains of our time, I think

kind of hurt him. You see, he's just a fucked

up kid with daddy issues. And, you know, obviously

he wants to protect his wife, and a lot of us

can agree with that sentiment. You know, we want

to protect the ones we love. But I don't think

protecting the ones we love is going to turn

us into murdering kids. Yeah, no. And I don't

know. I like the prequels. I really do. In fact,

Revenge of the Sith is probably my favorite Star

Wars movie. I know, right? And I don't know.

I think the Star Wars franchise, maybe it should

have just been, all right, let's tell other parts

of this. Kind of like the Boba Fett movie or

something. kinda like what they're doing with

Rebels on Disney XD Rebels has no... it takes

place between Sith and New Hope but it has no

characters in it that we would... that I recognize

in it like it's all new characters to me which

is really cool and interesting because it's better

than trying to shoehorn an animated series in

a round The movies like what they did with the

Clone Wars now. I'm sure the Clone Wars is a

good series I'm not saying it's not I haven't

seen a lot of it. I've seen the it's quite good,

but it's maybe a little much Yeah, yeah five

years worth of stuff. I don't know Yeah, but

at least it's better than droids Anything is

better than droids, but that theme song is awesome

I think I think the guy who did the theme song

for that movie or that not that way that series

was a guy from the police. I'm almost 90 % sure

of that. Well, hell, if Joe Perry from Aerosmith

can do the 94 Spider -Man theme, why not? I know,

right? There are certain other parts of those

universes that should be explored. I mean, it

would work with Star Wars because it is so huge.

Young Han Solo movie, in theory. You could do

a Boba Fett, but the story of the rebellion should

be done they won the end and Whatever. I mean

or if you're gonna do a post Return of the Jedi

not 30 years. No you do a hundred But like they

did in the comics and they go a Star Wars legacy

Yeah 150 years post Luke Skywalker or something

And, you know, it told a new Star Wars story

in that universe, and that's okay. Or maybe they

should have went back and told Ninth of the Old

Republic. That could have been really cool. I

think the only reason why they went 30 years

past Jedi now is because they wanted to not necessarily

shoehorn in, but be able to use Luke, Leia, and

Han before they... Well, they want to grab our

parents' generation one last time. Pretty much.

Since they grew up with it initially it makes

more sense to kind of shoehorn them in While

they may still give a shit Before you know, they're

dead Yeah, which is funny I think Mark Hamill

now is the same voice or the same age and Alec

Guinness was when he first So I can get that

and I'm glad they're passing the church in a

way, but I look at someone like Harrison Ford

You looked tired doing Kingdom of the Crystal

Skull. Him doing this, I don't know, I hope they

have him just sitting around in like a wheelchair

or something for half the movie. Well, at least

he's not going, I'm getting too old for this

shit. Yeah, and even like having Peter Mayhew

back as Chewbacca, that's great, but in the end

it's a guy in a suit, which sucks to even say

that. Because the performance, I don't know,

I think you could get that performance out of

almost anybody. But then again, you look at,

say, an alien franchise. I think it's Tom Woodruff,

I think, is the guy in the suit. And he moves

a certain way, so I don't know. Maybe that was

a really weak argument. And I know, Steve, you

and I have talked about this. We look at, say,

Star Trek, for example. That's a franchise that

I'm quickly questioning its relevancy to. That

sucks. Yeah, I'm scared to say that as well and

And it sucks because right now I mean in the

past two weeks we had our first major space disaster

And I think about 10. I think I think it's been

10 years since the shuttle blew up again or it's

been recent memory anyway with the Virgin Galactic

ship crash and killing one of the two pilots

That's set the space probe program back a little

bit You think? Yeah, I know. And it blows, because

now more than ever we need to be exploring boundaries

and figuring out what's out there so we can move

forward as a species. But no one's interested.

We're more interested in the shape of Kim Kardashian's

ass. We're asking less Battlestars Elastica and

more Detox Alien. You didn't just say that, Steve.

I did. My puns are good tonight. I want things

to be better in terms of our nerd culture, which,

you know, there's another thing I could kind

of point out. Being a nerd in the latter half

of this year has been the shit. Utterly terrible.

I won't talk a lot about this because simply

this will piss people off. You guys know what

GamerGate is, right? Mm -hmm. Yeah, I've been

actively avoiding It is single -handedly one

of the stupidest things I've ever seen online

Well, it's like the the gamer version of water

key It's I don't know I have on my Facebook in

the last two weeks I've had threads go into like

a hundred plus comments about it and Ultimately,

it ends up in name calling on both sides. Both

sides have a point. Both sides are now doing

nothing but bullying each other for this. And

it's funny, because I remember, I'm pretty sure

you, Mike, and I have talked about this before,

how shows like the Big Bang Theory bring people

into our culture, because it's very accessible.

Then we go out and do shit like this. Basically

kick people out because they're not allowed in

our boys club Yeah, it it's just crazy it's weird

like we become a very weirdly niche subculture

that finally got the acceptance we've been fighting

for since like Since the first time biff tannin

picked on marty mcfly or the first time You know

that goofy kid in the glasses got picked on in

in the 50s We're finally at a level where we

can stand beside the jog and say hey man. What's

up? And we're accepted And now it's like... I

don't know, man. I'm not saying geek culture's

in trouble, but I think we maybe need a bit of

a reality check. I don't even think it's totally

geek culture. I think it's everybody that's trying

to act like a geek. Like, because the original

geeks don't have the problem. We were just there.

Yeah, I know I'm gonna probably catch shit for

that, for saying that, but it's true. At this

point in my life, you know, I'm about to turn

35 in February coming up and it's like I don't

Okay, fine. If someone goes out and likes Lord

of the Rings fine. Great. It's not for me I'm

not gonna sit here and bash you for liking something.

I'm not gonna sit here like I will You're just

that spiteful. You're turning into the me that

was about five years ago. It is true. I am hitting

that age. Mike, dude, I'm telling you, that sprint

commercial with James Earl Jones and Malcolm

McDowell, that is Steve and I. Dude, you've turned

into a monster. It's weird just kind of watching

ourselves kind of grow up and being very aware

of it. At the same time because I remember I

would take people to task like fuck Mike. I remember

giving you shit And it's I don't know it's one

of those things where I Hope we grow up goes

into avengers Goes into Avengers and kills it

both as Banner and the Hulk and it's like I fucking

told you so Yeah, that's true. You completely

called that and I would leave. You are right

for the rest of your life. Although Mark Ruffalo

Watts 2011 was hilarious. Like, I don't know.

It's weird being, like I said, being aware and

cognizant of things changing. And I think a few

of us are hip to it. Like, we're like, okay,

cool. We can, you know, not suck anymore. Don't

think enough of us are aware of that yet that

Things are gonna be good forever like there's

gonna be a title a big title shift how things

are perceived and that's why I kind of I Wish

there was a series like Star Trek right now,

and I know that's a really weird tie -in, but

hear me out Star Trek in the 60s spoke to the

problems that were happening in the world. Mm

-hmm and they used, you know, references to racism

and whatever. To have a series like that right

now would, I think, be kind of nice because I

kind of think now we're almost in that again

where we're having lines divide among really

bizarre lines like class warfare again. I mean,

it's not the race war, but you could argue that

with the Fergus and stuff that happened earlier

this year as well. which admittedly, it sucks

to be a different color. You know, like I'm native,

for example, but that's a whole different kettle

of fish. I'm not touching that. I'll catch shit

for that in the comments. I'll say it sucks,

but we're not here to talk total politics today.

Like, Star Trek held a cultural relevance and

it spoke to people and it got people having a

conversation. I don't see many television shows

generating that conversation now. Maybe some

of the more serious stuff like the newsroom you

could even put a point to the walking dead generating

a conversation but though i don't know what that

conversation is that's well it that in my personal

opinion when it comes to walking dead that conversation

is entirely fictional in our heads i don't know

i i have never gotten on the walking dead freight

train i never will it's Just not, you know, I'm

sure there are shows that I love that people

just don't care about and that's all well good

and fine, but you know, I think the problem with

geekdom and you know, pop culture and geek culture

today is it's not just us, but it's, you know,

I have to say this listeners. I'm sorry to say

this, but I have to. It's friggin Hollywood.

Instead of coming up with new and exciting fiction,

everything, it doesn't matter what it is, is

predicated upon a plot stereotype that we've

seen in the past 30, 20, 15 years of our lives.

It just is. There is no originality anymore.

Didn't someone very like there's some huge novelist

some historical guy. I wish I knew his name Didn't

he say something like there's only six types

of stories. We just change them around a little

bit Like like man versus man man versus nature

nature versus nurture blah blah blah blah And

it's true. I mean, I'd like to see more Interesting

content out there. I mean for me at least to

talk about walking dead for a moment. Oh A friend

of mine online has said it's terrible apocalypse

fiction, and I can see that because Sure zombies

are a big problem in The Walking Dead But it's

the living that you have to look out for like

the governor the guys from terminus or Why is

my wife sighing and looking at the floor? She's

not a walking dead fan is she oh no she loves

the show Although, to mention that though, she

is a teacher in elementary school. And you know

that's grades one to eight, right? Yeah. She

has grade eights spoiling stuff for her. And

I think grade eights, certain people can handle

fiction of a certain harshness if you're raised

right. Yet it's not about blowing away the walkers

and blowing people's heads off. It's about doing

what is necessary to survive. Isn't, uh, isn't

Walking Dead TVMA? Yeah. Then 8th graders should

not be friggin' watching it. I think it's okay

if they are prepared for what they're watching.

As long as they understand. So if they're prepared

for a zombie apocalypse, we're good. Yeah. Then

again, the grade 7 student I saw buying cod yesterday.

Oh my god. That's a whole other thing. Oh my

god. it's weird to talk cultural censorship and

that's another thing too that you know is a big

deal like we we we talked about the ratings board

for television shows or video games etc and i

don't know if we're having the right conversations

with our kids or even with each other um about

some of the harshness that we see i mean i like

walking dead because it tells the story of what

are you willing to do to hold on to your humanity

in a sense but also what happens when that humanity

is tested. Right, but that is a fictional television

show for us adults. That is not for... I just,

I don't know. For me, I cannot sit here and say

I would let my kid if I ever had any kids, which

probably won't because I'm too lazy. You know,

it's one of those things where... That is a show

for adults only it's not for chill like Sure,

we grew up in an age where you know, I used to

watch Star Trek the next generation I used to

watch I tried watching two episodes of Twin Peaks

and got scared shitless as a kid, you know And

it's but I knew the difference like my mom used

to show me the nightmare on Elm Street movies

And now I'm not a fan of the horror genre of

film because of that but it's one of those things

where i know the difference between the fact

that freddy krueger is a fictional character

christ i feel like ben from chasing amy um i

think less about the fictional part of it as

opposed to what the story is about because for

example i think you can make a very powerful

argument like okay you want to show your kids

walking dead would you show them a documentary

about the holocaust for example and i know that

seems really weirdly not until that not at eight

years old not i mean Then again, my parents didn't

hide much from me. I knew the world was messed

up at a very, very young age and that made me

curious to pursue more about it. But we grew

up in a different time though. You look at now,

Mike, and look at how children are growing up

now. They're growing up with the internet. They're

growing up with Twitter, with Facebook, with

YouTube, with all this stuff. And it's instant.

Like with us, it wasn't so instant. It was, we

had to read it in a newspaper or watch a news

program or, you know. You know, an encyclopedia.

Yeah, yeah get on an encyclopedia and actually

friggin read, you know It's weird my wife just

whispered in my ear something she wants me to

actually kind of mention I'd like to get your

guys thoughts. Okay, we pretty much agree walking

dead for a kid's probably not a good idea, right?

Yeah, we agree on a show like say Doctor Who

That's meant to be for children surprisingly

I haven't watched enough of it to give an opinion.

But you would agree it's not Blood Guts and Gore

and Machine Guns. It's not like The Walking Dead,

no. But I'm sure there are plenty of adult themes

in that show, like adult humor in that show.

I don't know about that so much, though. Only

for the fact that, I mean, if you look at things,

even looking at Star Trek, it's pretty fucking

solid for, you know, you could let a kid watch

it. My parents did and I turned out fine. Now,

Blair had told me at the schools that she works

with, I'm not going to obviously name names,

the students have to have a permission form and

be above grade five. Yet in the 60s, once again,

different time frame. I agree. The original Doctor

Who program was developed for children. Hell,

the Daleks showed up and I think like the second

episode and they're scary as shit. Even though

they look like salt and pepper shakers, but still,

regardless. It's weird that kids now are not

like we were back in the 80s, in the 90s, and

I don't think I like where this is going, if

you'd catch my meaning. You mentioned kids have

access to all this information, Facebook, Twitter,

Google, YouTube, et cetera, and they have this

really weird sense of entitlement, like the world

is theirs. It's not ours anymore, it's theirs,

there's no sharing about it. And you look at

the celebrities that are coming out of that age

group, like you're Selena Gomez as you're Justin

Bieber's. You don't see a lot of altruistic behavior

out of those people, maybe Selena Gomez, but

you look at say someone like say Bono or Johnny

Depp known for doing big bits of charity work.

And actually my wife made a very good point about

this. Okay, we know this year Amanda Bynes, Has

had some issues to put it delicately And this

is a year where mental health has become one

of those things where people are seriously they're

seriously talking about it and even Relating

to my own personal situation today It's a joke

or not. Well miss or it's not well understood

You make fun of someone about mental health and

you look at Robin Williams suicide this year

You're laughing at Amanda Bynes and yet mourning

Robin Williams, there's a problem with you. As

they both suffer from some form of mental illness.

Whereas one may prove to be a punchline on Jimmy

Kimmel or something, one of them ended with one

of the greatest comedians of the last, I don't

know, however many years taking his own life.

At least the last five decades. Exactly, at least

that's 50 years. um see here's the thing when

i see stories like the amanda biden's thing or

a kardashian story or a beaver story or whatever

i just shake my head and go on and and don't

even really think about it because that's not

the generation i care about I'm fine, you know,

looking at new actors and actresses in Hollywood

and seeing what's coming for later on in my life

for what I'll have to deal with. Because let's

face it, like I've already said in this episode,

Denzel and Tom Cruise, love them or hate them,

you know... Are all taking different roles now.

All taking different roles now. Harrison Ford,

Mel Gibson, you know... Even sly, you know sly

can't do the expendables forever as much as I

wish he would he can't You know, they're all

Going on to different roles and different things

and Hollywood has at least in the last six if

not the last 14 years changed dramatically You're

right and it's you know It's right now I care

more about revisiting the generation I grew up

with as a child than I do caring about what's

coming now from this generation. We just, which

movie was it? My buddy Doug Abel and I, Doug

Abel does talking about my generation. It's his

podcast. We just did a movie where we talked

about the differences in how movie posters were

done. Crap, what the hell film was it? It was,

no, it was the Teen Wolf poster, the original

Teen Wolf poster, because we did it for Halloween.

You know, we talked about how posters were done

back then versus how they're done today. And

it's completely different. Oh, absolutely. Because

if you look now, they're all lazy Photoshop.

Uh -huh. They're not drawn. They were drawn by

artists, like Drew Struzan, stuff like that.

Yep, exactly. And I think it's more of a thing

of... the times they are changing. And it's not

even the more things change, the more they stay

the same because they don't. I mean, you know,

you look at anyone that's in the media today,

whether they're, you know, making news or they're

reporting news. It's and again, it goes back

to that instant access of how much our civilization

has basically evolved in the last 30 or so years.

Yeah, because now we have this this Internet.

generation and they're going to be the ones to

lead the charge to save the world so to speak

because there are some some issues that do need

to solve in the next generation or two um that

you know need to be addressed and it's like i

know we all talk about looking back on our generation

with rose colored glasses our generations weren't

perfect either but i think there was something

was fundamentally different with them and i think

it was i I feel like maybe I'm not right in saying

this, but this is how I feel. Like there was

more of a respect for each other. Now it's all

me, me, me, me, me, me, me. And I don't like

that because I want to care about everybody.

And honestly, I've never shared this story before.

This past August when the Ferguson riots were

happening, I cried. over a world event that was

happening 800 miles away from me and the more

I see problems like that rise up in the world

it makes me want to care about things and I really

do I really do want to help the world in any

way that I can but I don't see others outside

of a select few giving a crap like you saw it

got buried in the news until it couldn't be avoided

And that's another political conversation for

a different day. My point being is this young

group of people has the potential to do so much

good, and they have. Hell, even groups like Anonymous

and Warchan have done some good. They've also

done some terrible things, too. I like to believe

in the collective good of people, but I find

that hope meaning. And I don't like that. Yeah.

You know, people always ask me, or people always...

My buddy Paul, Octobotamus on YouTube, he always

makes fun of me for never really going outside

the house. And one of the reasons why I barely

go outside of my house is because I, in general,

hate dealing with people. Because I have so much

more common sense than half the people that,

like, somebody will yell at me from down the

street and it's like, I don't know you! You know,

let me guess they're calling you fat or something

right? No, it's like Okay, for example, and I

understand this is a problem. Don't get me wrong.

I I have been in my you know last 14 15 16 years.

I have been homeless several times I understand

homelessness is a big issue in this country and

probably all over the world for that matter,

but It's like these people who hang out at stores

and don't even bring up Jay and Silent Bob, I

know. But it's one of those things where these

people hang out at stores and be like, hey, big

guy. Hey, big guy. Can I talk to you for a minute?

I know what they want. They either want money

for beer or cigarettes. And it's like, I barely

have any money myself. It's like, how am I supposed

to help out somebody else when I can't even help

myself half the time? And so it's like one of

those things where I basically live my life on

the internet at this point. I mean, yeah, sure.

There are several times a week per month, you

know, that I have to go out and go do stuff for

my mom and whatever else. But it's like, in general,

I am happiest sitting at my desk, on my computer,

interacting with people that I probably never...

I mean, to this day, we're about, you know, we're

five and a quarter years into the GCRN's lifespan.

Steve and I have never met. Hell, this past weekend

I almost met Gary Godso from Once on Joe Mine,

and that's kind of sad to me that I almost met

Gary before I met Steve. It's just one of those

things where I'm more connected with my friends

online than anyone in the real world. I'm starting

to feel that way too because I'm so... I'm far

away from the people that I grew up developing

Twig with. Even the people that I... grew up

with, I'm finding I have more of a connection

with the people online. Hell, I have more in

-depth conversations with Steve here than I do

some of my friends that I play our RPGs with.

And that, I don't think necessarily speaks to

the quality of the friendships, but things are

changing. And I like the fact that we're more

connected. In fact, a friend of mine, two friends

of mine are dating. They're not going to have

their first date until next year. Because they're

literally from Buffalo to Alberta. That's like

thousands of miles Yeah, and that doesn't matter

in 2014 because they have you know, they have

that connection and With that connection some

of us I think have grown to embrace it and it's

a very good thing for us because You've been

podcasting for five years. I've been I'm going

on eight next year, you know And you know, that's

all that's an awesome thing. And yet we see people

and yet we talk shit about people who maybe spend

all their time on their phones during class or

dinner or whatever. And I'm guilty of it, too.

I'm connected out. Yes. My wife is going to be

so my. Yeah. And I don't know yet. We have this

technology connecting us and we're actually having

a friendly conversation. This is the kind of

thing we'd be hanging around each each each other's

living room, probably having a couple of cans

of Coke or something, you know what I mean? And

probably playing video games later. Exactly.

That's, let's see, that's the coolest thing about

podcasting, honestly, you know, and I know, Steve,

you've talked about this, that sometimes you

have said that audio podcasting is kind of a

dying breed that people are going more towards

video. It is, but it is. I see. I don't think

it ever will be because there are a lot of people

like me who prefer to be audio only because I

grew up. Listening to radio stations in Boston.

I grew up listening to Lorne and Wally in the

morning on 105 .7 WVBF, which is now W ROR, but

it's Are you kidding me dude, I I can name almost

all the radio stations that I've listened to

in my 35 years of living but it's one of those

things where Like I grew up listening to these

radio DJs and wanting to be them. Like I've always

wanted to actually, I don't care if it doesn't

pay me any money. I want the prestige of sitting

there in the DJ booth, whether I'm on air or

not, just hanging out with those people, you

know, you know, you know, fame by association

or whatever you want to call it. It's one of

those things where when I found podcasting, it

was a savior for me because I didn't know what

the hell I was going to do with my life at, you

know, 28 years old. I've had maybe. Three and

a half semesters of college and it just college

just I it couldn't keep my attention It just

couldn't I got you know, I passed like my first

two semesters and The college I was attending

was a little community college and their biggest

thing was nursing. I Cannot deal with nursing.

I just can't I'm more of a creative type than

then, you know an active type You know, yeah.

And, uh, when I found podcasting, it was awesome.

It was great. It was like, okay, I, I, this is

just like being on a radio station. And I admit

in those first, you know, that first year or

so that I did the TFU and podcast, I was stiff

as hell. And then I, by 2009, I'm like, uh, screw

it. I'll just sit back in my chair and just relax.

And ever since then, I have been relaxing and

putting out consistent content for the last six

and a half years personally, even though the

network has only been online for five years.

And Steve's been doing it for longer than that.

What are you, seven now? Close? Yeah. Yeah. So

it's like, this is what I love is sitting here

having a conversation with people that I enjoy

talking to and to hell with the rest of the world.

Yeah, like honestly, this is my preferred interaction

outside of playing D &D with a group of people

Yeah, I just honestly I would honestly say podcasting

Probably saved my life in a number of ways and

I really have to thank people like Steve sailor

for basically introducing me to this world of

interactive media and I never realized I wanted

to be an entertainer until I first got working

at a TV station as a technical op. And it wasn't

until college when, like I said, Steve Scheller

offered me that opportunity to do something and

just creating content over the last seven years.

I've talked with people that are my idols and

I've made some really long lasting friendships.

Like I talk like I met Spada through the I can't

remember the name of his old podcast. That's

kind of like TFY. Yeah. And Spada invited me

into his home a couple of years ago. I stayed

with Spada for like three or four days. That's

awesome. And just all the opportunities that

have been afforded to me, like I've been flown

out to MTV to cover the Spike TV video game awards

and all sorts of other crazy. Hell, through Twitter,

I won a contest to Las Vegas through texting.

That doesn't happen. Hell, that's I used to think

people who want shit online were lying or was

some part of creative marketing. But anyway,

the point of the matter is I don't go outside

a lot either. I like controlling who I interact

with, how I interact with them. And it's not

that I'm a hermit because I'm really not. I really

enjoy getting together with people. I like going

out because I'm a bigger guy and getting around

is much harder. In fact, I might have to get

a wheelchair because my knees are. But when I'm

at home, hell, I'm talking to you guys in my

living room on a TV right now. Look at how cool

that is. I don't know. There's just something

about that that I really, really enjoy. And I

don't think a lot of people understand that technology,

podcasting, Skype, Twitter, Facebook can accomplish

wonderful, wonderful things. Absolutely. But

it could do some terrible things too like in

canada this past year or was it last year? I

can't remember There was a girl who was cyber

bullied so bad that she killed herself her name

was ritea parsons And I remember that and you

know cyber bullying is a big problem. It really

is Yeah, and you know and it sucks though that

because there's probably people like us who enjoy

the the technology like us That don't have the

familiar feelings that we have with it where

you know, they go online and maybe bad things

happen But they know it's their only safe space

Yeah, I don't know. It's like no matter where

you go. You can't win Pretty much. Yeah, but

I kind of sucks But there are good people out

there. I absolutely among those people. Oh absolutely

like It's funny, I look at our little group,

our little gaggle here, like, GCRN, Twig, TF

Wire, etc. You know, all these different podcasting

networks and shows never turned anybody away.

And as much as we gave crap to the guy who was,

like, making fun of us for slob -dod or GCRN

must die, I'd like to think if they genuinely

asked us for help, we'd probably at least start

a conversation. or not complete ass wipes. Well,

I mean, like even when I got the email, I, you

know, I said, okay, yeah, I mean, we did cover

that a little heavy, but, you know, I'm not going

to, more or less, I'm not going to sink to their

level. I'm going to acknowledge it. I'm going

to, you know, read it. I'm going to reply civilly.

And then I'm going to just let it be. There was

a guy that emailed me this year, and it really

bothered me. Evidently, I was doing one of my

live streams, and evidently, I made fun of him.

I'm pretty sure I didn't, or it wasn't me on

the thing. But if it was me, I totally accept

responsibility for it. I emailed him back. He's

like, you've lost a fan today. I'm like, really?

Well, what have I done? What can we do to fix

this? I genuinely want to hear your concerns.

And he replied back that you made fun of me,

blah, blah, blah. I'm like, OK, well, for what

it's worth, I am sincerely sorry. What can we

do moving forward to make things better for you?

And I never got a response back and that's always

kind of kind of bothered me But I've always kind

of prided myself at least in my social media

platforms where I tend to share and I never censor

Conversations even if they get a little bit uncomfortable

Mm -hmm. I never want anybody to feel like they're

being policed You're allowed to say what you

want what you say may be completely fucked up

But you're allowed to say that's your right as

a person So I don't know Like I said, I honestly

believe there are good people out there, and

we're among them, and there's good people out

there who want to connect with us. And they should.

And they should check out podcasting. They should

talk with each other. We should not be assholes.

And I think that's the crux of what I want to

say right now. Don't be... Bill and Ted said

it best, honestly. Be excellent to each other.

Because you know what at the end of the day we've

only got each other No, whether there's things

out there Well, we're only on this dirtball for

so long you might as well live nicely exactly

Like there's no point of being a complete prick

and even with the problems I had today earlier

with a person I see their point. I hear their

point and Honestly, I will forgive I probably

won't forget, but I will forgive because that's

the kind of person that I am, and I'm hoping

that karma somehow comes back someday. So yeah,

this turned into a lot deeper than talking about

Age of Ultron. Yeah, I think we'll skip the superhero

talk. Yeah, I think we just dug this wall of

philosophy. Exactly. I think honestly, that's

the episode. Yeah, well before we we sign off

I guess since there was a little bit of conversation

on the the episode post I'll bring that up briefly.

I will say that we we will hit the Superhero

DC verse Marvel stuff a little bit next week

along with the DC convergence the speculative

what we think anyway as far as when we'll see

a Batman versus Superman teaser mm -hmm just

it's yeah I'm either thinking that we're gonna

see it at least a 30 second shit teaser during

the Hobbit hmm if we see one at all It'll be

like one of those ones they did for the Dark

Knight or Dark Knight Rises. It'll be like a

voiceover with music and then it'll go to like

something. Yeah. But I'm thinking that's going

to be the the focus of it. But. Anywho. We had

a couple of listeners kind of. Get into the the

DC verse Marvel conversation. Connor Murphy says

the difference between DC Warner Brothers and

Marvel to me Warner Brothers announced its universe

plans for the DC Cinematic universe at an investors

meeting Marvel invited fans and media to make

an event out of it Marvel is making these movies

because they want to DC is making them because

they feel they have to I Don't disagree with

that statement there seems to be a lot more love

and passion at Marvel at least in terms of who's

in charge of the studio And the projects that

are being developed like for example This is

the one I almost always bring up with this People

expected Guardians to be Marvel's first flop

It's only second to the Avengers Which is amazing

which is yeah, it's telling a movie about a talking

raccoon and a fucking tree guy is Somehow big

I saw that and I actually really liked it. So

yeah, I have no previous knowledge I knew about

the Guardians of the Galaxy, but only because

I bought the Marvel trading cards. I didn't know

who any of them were because I knew about the

Infinity Gauntlet storyline with Gamora and Drax.

I didn't know who fucking Star -Lord was or Rocket

Raccoon or Groot. I think I knew Groot only because

I've read about him recently, but even still,

I don't know. With DC, you can tell they love

Superman. They love Batman. But they don't believe

in anything else. Well, they write it like it's

a Batman or a Superman movie if they don't write

it like a good movie. Yeah. And, you know, there's

arguably good Superman and good Batman movies,

but where's my good Green Lantern movie? Where's

my awesome Wonder Woman movie, right? And because

Marvel threw down the gauntlet and said, you

know what? We are a business. We are filmmakers.

We are geeks. Here's what we're gonna do and

Marvel treats its fans very very well And they

treat their actors that way too, and that's why

their actors are so geeked about it as well Yeah,

I mean Robert Downey Jr. This will be the role

that carries him into retirement Absolutely,

he'd be happy with it Well, I mean think about

it this way they could wrap up his character

after Avengers 3 He could never do the character

again. He'd be set for movies for life, and he

could do anything else he wanted You know, you

could do nothing he could come back in direct

Avengers 4 Possibilities open to these people

and their Their legacies are now cemented like

Chris Evans. He says he's gonna retire from movies

after the Avengers stuff is wrapped up He's made

his mark. Now. He wants to do other things. That's

cool someone like Robert Downey Jr., like we

just finished saying, his career was shit for

a long time. Iron Man brought it back to the

forefront. I mean, I think he was on, what, Ali

McBeal or something? For a while, I guess. He

was on a lot of things, but because of his addiction

problems in the 90s. Yeah, he was basically blacklisted.

Yeah. And it brought him back. The saddest thing,

and I'm not afraid to admit this, but the saddest

thing as a kid, the only movie I ever had seen

his name in was alongside Civil Shepard in a

movie called Chances Are from 1985. I had not

seen him past that movie until Iron Man. I think

there was a movie, I saw it on the front of a

different movie. but it looked really cheap.

And I'm not even sure whether it was Robert Downey

Jr, but it had Molly Ringwald in it. And it was

called the Pickup Artist or something like that.

And I'm thinking, Jesus, man, I haven't seen

you in like anything. Or if I have, it's like

minor background character 12 or something, or

you're like a side cameo or something. You know,

it's something always very small. And you see

how much he champions Marvel. And that's great.

Although someone like Sam Jackson will be remembered

for Pulp Fiction mostly. Well, see, that's the

thing with... People will remember him as Nick

Fury, too. Well, see, that's the thing with Sam

Jackson. He's done so much in his career. I mean,

people will remember him as Zeus from, you know,

Vengeance, from Die Hard with a Vengeance. People

will remember him from A Long Kiss Good Night

alongside Gina Davis. People will remember him

from... Mr. Glass. You know, Mr. Glass from Unbreakable.

You know, he has done so many cool things in

his career. He has had a long Standing career,

you know, you look at someone like Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman has done everything Morgan Freeman

is known for his voice. Yeah, I mean He has done

everything You know, yeah I mean, you know from

shashiv from a prison movie to to to being lucious

fox, you know god Yeah Bruce almighty, uh And

evan all might but yeah, well to lesser extent

evan almighty, but yeah So rounding rounding

back to the the the feedback so we can Yeah A

couple other comments, uh You know, uh, they're

saying that You know, with Marvel being so far

ahead, this is SuperFilmFan98. And Marvel heading

into phase three and DC just trying to establish...

They're more or less saying DC is trying to get

out of the shadows of Man of Steel. So to this

point, Marvel has the edge, but not to leave

DC in the dark. They have Batman going against

Superman. two of the biggest superheroes of all

time in one movie, and if all ends up being good,

it can change the entire conversation, and people

will start looking at DC with more optimism.

Yeah, like, I really hope... I hope DC puts out

quality movies. I really do. And as much as we

give shit to Zack Schneider, at least he's passionate.

Misguided, but passionate. So, we're just gonna

have to wait and see what happens. I think a

lot of the problem with DC is Warner Brothers.

Yeah, if DC formed their own studio, I'd like

to see what would happen. Well, the only problem

with that is Warner Brothers owns them. And they

have a tight thumb on everything. They're like

the evil... cousin of Disney yeah Disney at least

gives their people room to grow like all their

little children underneath you know their little

tree branches whereas Warner Brothers is like

no you must do what I tell you or I kill you

I'm gonna go ahead and make a Steve type prediction

here one of these days one of these years before

any of us know are long gone from this This plane

of existence Warner Brothers is gonna go bankrupt

and Disney is going to buy them and then that

at that point That is when we will have DC versus

Marvel in film I'm gonna make a prediction Comcast

is gonna buy Warner Brothers Now hear me out

on this Comcast is the largest cable company.

Yep They own NBC. Mm -hmm. They own Universal.

Mm -hmm So it only makes sense that if they bought

Warner Brothers, they'd have their own comic

studio They'd have their own, you know, Warner

Brothers, you know, the Warner Brothers Entertainment

They're already buying Time Warner, but wouldn't

they have but wouldn't that is there some kind

of like Monopoly law or something, you know,

they used to actually fight the monopoly law

But if you might really want to argue that look

at how much shit Disney owns. Yeah They own Lucas

films. They own Marvel. They own Marvel's entertainment

They own the Muppets. They own everything They

I mean they really do So, I mean it's it's in

Disney owns television stations they own ESPN

they own Mean so it's It's it's you know they've

got a lot of branches too, so the the whole You

know antitrust monopoly that kind of crap the

only time that's ever been called into play was

Microsoft in the 90s And that's because the government

didn't know what to do with it Yeah, oh God imagine

if DC or did Disney bought Sony and Microsoft

It won't happen. I know I know Microsoft will

buy will eventually buy Apple No, that'll never

happen. Don't say never I'm the one that that

said that that Disney was gonna buy Lucasfilm.

I said Lucas is gonna pony up and sell to Disney

Mark my words something like this will happen.

Yeah, I think Comcast will buy Warner, but they're

already halfway there Then Justin Washington

says Marvel sees the possible issue with over

saturation That is why they have moved away from

making superhero movies and are now making movies

with superheroes in them Yeah, so the galaxy

has a more common more in common with Star Wars

than it does Batman and and Captain America Winter

Soldier was a spy thriller with great action

Yeah, and I really I'm really curious to see

what they're gonna do with Civil War because

there are so many great storytelling possibilities

with that Pitting friend against friend and safety.

This is freedom That's gonna be if they play

right it'll be amazing and imagine Dr. Strange

is probably gonna be their new fantasy property

because Thor Ragnarok will probably be the end

of that Mm -hmm. Okay, they'll kill Thor and

then they'll introduce the female version. Oh,

let's not go down that rat hole again, please

I I just just yeah just don't I don't know enough

about the female Thor to speak about it, unfortunately.

I know there's like a character named Valkyrie,

but I think that's different, so... It is. It's

she, Thor, but... Just stop. I'm dropping it,

I'm dropping it. Inhumans will probably be their

next superhero -ish thing, but that could even

be a story like X -Men dealing with like outsiders.

how they kind of fit in. That'll be interesting.

Inhumans is the property I know the least about,

but I'm the most curious in. And supposedly Ant

-Man's like a heist movie, like Ocean's Eleven

or something. Oh, Lord. That could be fucking

awesome. Like that could be like Guardians and

actually have a real sense of humor about itself

and be really well if you see George Clooney

show Show up, you know, you're gonna see nipples.

So It'd be really funny if he did like a cameo

as Danny O'Shea's that would mean Danny O'Shea

is now Marvel canon But that would be hilarious,

but yeah, like like that could be really awesome

And I think the problem is with DC like you guys

said they're superhero Yeah, not Movies on their

own. I mean maybe the Christopher Nolan movies

you could argue but even still they're obviously

Batman versus Ra's al Ghul the Joker and Bane

at the end of the day. Yeah So I guess we'll

see what happens up to 2019 I think is when the

big slate has been announced till on both sides

Yeah, it has So the two questions I'm going to

ask before we sign off is the one that We kind

of mentioned at the beginning of the show the

who from fiction would you place in the Oval

Office? as the president and his Cabinet or the

people underneath it Yeah, I'm throwing that

little blow and do you think that Hollywood has

jumped the shark not only with the bringing dead

series back like Dumb and Dumber or Wayne's World

or Bill and Ted or that kind of stuff or as far

as the superhero films constantly coming out

and both studios blowing their load on the amount

of days or the amount of years that they're going

to have all these films come out. There you have

it. Anything you guys want to pimp out? Let me

see. I should have a review coming up for review

a day on the Halo Master Chief collection sometime

next week. A lot of fun, actually. As of today,

my embargo lifts. You know what? Worth it. Is

it a system seller? Well, if you're buying an

Xbox One and you want a launch, if you want a

good game to go with it, you're getting four.

You really can't bitch at a hundred multiplayer

maps or something ridiculous like that. I should

have a review for Call of Duty Modern Warfare.

I'm just finishing that up right now. I'll have

a review show next weekend. I know I've been

promising this for months, but I just got the

Batman complete series on Blu -ray. So I will

be not sleeping for several days Going through

those special features and whatnot. So yeah,

a lot of good stuff this week in geek dot nut

dot net at Birdman dot on Twitter and Facebook.

I'm always around So, yep, anything else like

Now, just keep watching GeekCastRadio .com. I've

got several interviews coming up. Actually, one

thing I will mention, since it is kind of timely,

right before Thanksgiving, Wednesday, November

19th, I will be putting up a special 20th anniversary

interview with John Semper Jr., the producer,

writer, kind of creator of Spider -Man, the animated

series. That's cool. So yeah, I just confirmed

that tonight, so that'll be going up on the 19th

Yeah, and just keep checking get castradio .com.

There's tons of stuff. We've got over there tons

Metric amounts yes five years Either one doesn't

matter, but which one is more Don't know dude.

It's after midnight. You're asking me to do math.

No, thank you and Imperial Oh Sweet So if you'd

like to interact with the show you can do so

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on instagram too oh good lord uh tf2 and mike

on twitter so as always get altered give geeky

with the altered geeks see you next time be excellent

to each other Oh.