Yellowstone Un-Canceled & Costner Returning? Zach Bryan Saving Local Bars?, This Comedian Argues for the Downfall of America (The Five for 06/21/24)
Plus, will 70's gangster IP The Penguin reverse the long downward slide of comic book TV shows/movies? Lot of new music discovered from deceased outlaw country artist.
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With that being said, let’s get into culture & commentary.
[one]
America’s favorite country singer is doing his dangdest to save small town bars with his new album.
From Whiskey Riff:
Zach Bryan is gearing up to drop his next album. Though there doesn’t seem to have been some coordinated announcement, some bars across the country have revealed that Zach has chosen a select number of small-town dives to host listening parties for the album ahead of its release.
An announcement from Old Mountain Tavern in Marlinton, WV details the event:
“In the summer of 2024, Zach Bryan will release his new album, The Great American Bar Scene. To commemorate his new album, Zach Bryan has chosen a small number of bars across the country that embody the spirit of an American small-town bar, and Old Mountain Tavern in Marlinton, West Virginia, is one of those select venues.
In recognition of Old Mountain Tavern’s commitment to community, atmosphere, and hometown hospitality, Zach Bryan has granted them the opportunity to play his new album before its official release to the public.
To celebrate this honor and Zach Bryan’s generous collaboration, Old Mountain Tavern will host a Zach Bryan Great American Bar Scene pre-release album block party on June 29th in Marlinton, West Virginia…
With apologies to the hardcore teetotalers out there, local bars have long been a gathering point in local communities for friendship, camaraderie and dating. Given the rates of loneliness (25% of people only have 1-4 close friends, 8% of people have none), and the declining rates of marriage and childbirth…maybe we need to protect institutions that gather people together…
[two]
Well, the political left and right have lost their dang minds this week, but for different reasons.
From New York Magazine:
“A true conservative woman,” Valentina Gomez, one of several Republican candidates vying to be Missouri’s next secretary of state, told me in an email this spring, “speaks the truth, works hard, loves and knows how to use guns of multiple calibers, cares for the wellbeing of children and her family, doesn’t sleep with multiple men and most important, does not murder babies.”
The 25-year-old Gomez made a viral ad in February in which she took a flamethrower to a pile of sex-education and LGBTQ+ books from the public library. In May, she filmed herself running through St. Louis wearing a weighted vest and advising, “Don’t be weak and gay; stay f***ing hard.” The day before, she had embraced her softer side, posting a photo of herself on X in a pale-pink pantsuit and pumps, with a winning smile and her eyes cast heavenward, under a caption restating Blackburn’s question: “What is a woman?”
Gomez told me feminists “have made men the enemy,” adding, “they end up alone with three dogs at the age of 50 with no kids or husband” — a time-honored Republican sentiment that liberal women, unlike conservatives, are sexless, unmarriageable spinsters. But even that rusty rhetorical frame is wobbly: In April, 31-year-old far-right activist Laura Loomer, standing outside Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York, told the New York Times, “You think I have a dating life? You think I’m married? You think I have kids? Do you think I go out and do fun things? No. Because I’m always putting every extra bit of time that I have into supporting President Trump.” Loomer told the paper she would not be at the courthouse the next week because she had to return home to Florida to take care of her dogs.
Contradictions abound among conservative women in Washington. In response to Jackson’s testimony, Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene attempted to be authoritative on the matter. “I’m going to tell you right now what is a woman,” she said. “We came from Adam’s rib. God created us with his hands. We may be the weaker sex — we are the weaker sex — but we are our partner’s, our husband’s, wife.” But Greene, who has since divorced, regularly refers to men, including Speaker Mike Johnson and President Biden, as “weak” and is not shy about showing off her own brawn. In May, in the wake of a dustup with Democratic Texas representative Jasmine Crockett in which the two traded barbs about each other’s appearance, Greene posted a video of herself lifting heavy weights to a song by Sia: “I’m unstoppable / I’m a Porsche with no brakes / I’m invincible / Yeah, I win every single game.”
The article praddles on like this for several thousand words, without identifying any real story or trends beyond “here are a handful of Conservative women we don’t like, so there for right wing bad.”
Hey, that’s an opinion…but old school journalists used to craft articles with actual evidence and themes, which are apparently ideals of a bygone era.
Responding individually to the women listed above
A). Valentina Gomez has no message whatsoever to her campaign. She’s a meme that requires caloric input. But I don’t see how she represents an entire political party any more than the twerking State Senator from New Jersey. (No, I will not be embedding the butt-shaking vid, find it on your own time). Here is the aforementioned Senator trying to explain it away:
B). Laura Loomer claiming she’s “unable” to date, marry or have kids due to supporting President Trump with all her times tells us two things—the first is that she’s a very unhealthy person. And the second is that politics is her religion. This is stupid. I can’t imagine President Trump (or any other politician, ever) would ask a fan to forgo marriage and family to dedicate all their time to fan-dom.
C). For all the things to hit Marjori Taylor Green on, calling President Biden “weak” after he wandered off by himself while talking to no one at the D Day memorial is hardly a character attack that will stick.
The article is…completely void of any evidence that any of these women represent anyone other than themselves. There’s no trend here, just a handful of people the NY Mag doesn’t like.
Elsewhere, I’m really unsure why the hard political left wants to make “being in shape” a signal for voting Republican…but I don’t think that’s going to produce the results they think they’re getting.
An op-ed from The Guardian this month.
All conservatives have to do in a situation like this is to not be crazy, and let the other side be crazy.
But nope, can’t do it. Mike Cernovich, one of the dumbest voices on the right had to go full Leeroy Jenkins (if you don’t know that meme, click here) off that top rope with a take on music that only the Taliban agrees with.
Or, maybe just go to the gym and put on a record and enjoy your life.
I realize that declaring everything in political discourse to be stupid in 2024 is probably part of the problem, as I’m not offering any solutions.
Except, maybe people should be less stupid.
That’s the ultimate solution.
[three]
Before we’re done with “crazy,” comedian Louis C.K. argued this week FOR the destruction of America.
From a video posted to Twitter:
But my feeling is they should open it, the border, and just let them pour it, let everybody pour in, and, and then the answer, which is, well, then there'll be all these problems. Yes, there should be. It shouldn't be so great here. Is what I'm saying in America. It shouldn't be. It's a weird thing to sequester a certain group of people and try to keep upping their lifespan and their lifestyle and just keep trying to increase that for this group of people.
And then everyone's and then this pressure people trying to come in so they can enjoy it. Uh, and then it gets worse and worse down here. I mean, I'm not Canada. It's really just from down here. Uh, there's something wrong with that. That's not a system that's working. Okay. And it forces people to do cruel things to other people.
There's a lot of people that die so Americans can be safe. They're just dying. You know, weddings that are drone bombed in Yemen because the guy said something that might have resulted in American insecurity, not even like definite American deaths, but like just so we can breathe a little easier folks die and folks do labor in unsafe places so that we can keep the prices where we like them.
There's so much about American life that other people pay for it. That's part of it, but also it's not good for us either. It's not a good way to live. In a gated community, you know, if, if you let folks pour in like any other wave, it'll kind of slosh. And then y'all just, things will be different. I don't know, like, what'll really happen?
A bunch of people, like, will they just come with knives and start killing everybody? I don't think so.
Observations:
A). If you are so rich and so bored that you must argue for the destruction of your homeland in order to feel something…maybe go befriend and help an actual refugee.
B). Louis C.K., who lost his TV show over rather disturbing sexual habits/harassment (again, Google on your own time), used to have interesting things to say about society. This bit, on Conan O’Brien, is both hilarious and incredibly poignant.
C). His point about needless executions overseas is not wrong in the diagnosis of the problem, but destroying a nation of 330 million people rather than fixing the problem is a bit like amputating your entire arm due to a hangnail.
D). In case I have not stated it as of late…the vast majority of actors and entertainers I interviewed in my life are simply sad, insecure, and intellectually average people (some studies have the average actor in the 85-115 IQ range). We should not look to them for guidance or wisdom…although they do need to be rebutted from time to time.
[four]
Another study points out how much we need to keep teens away from marijuana.
A new study published in the journal Psychological Medicine has found that teens who use cannabis are at an elevenfold higher risk of developing a psychotic disorder compared to those who do not use the drug. This finding underscores the potential mental health risks associated with cannabis use among adolescents, suggesting the association may be stronger than previously thought.
The potency of cannabis, particularly in terms of its THC content, has significantly increased over the past few decades. In the 1980s, the average THC content in cannabis was around 1%. However, due to selective breeding and advanced cultivation techniques, modern strains can contain THC levels upwards of 20%, and some extracts can even exceed 90% THC.
This dramatic increase in potency has raised concerns among health professionals about the potential for more severe and widespread adverse health effects, especially among young users whose brains are still developing.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup.
Well, maybe Yellowstone isn’t over. Kevin Costner says he could be open to returning to the show…after his Horizon western died on the vine in theaters. The series returns November 10th, but it’s not clear if A). Costner will be back and/or B). if this is truly the final seawson.
Julianne Moore is re-uniting with the Crazy. Stupid. Love. director team for The Lost Leonardo, for the true story of an art-restorer who finds a lost Da Vinci painting, created around the time of the Renaissance master’s famous Mona Lisa.
The Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon (trailer) returned for season 2 with a pretty good score on Metacritic and plenty of buzz about “brutal violence” (par for the course for the IP). I haven’t seen it…we canceled streaming for the summer to focus on non-screen activities. On HBO/Max.
Jake Gyllenhaal’s latest project, Presumed Innocent (trailer), first made it to the screen in 1990 as a Harrison Ford movie. The story is based on a novel about a Chicago deputy prosecutor accused of murder. Outlets I tend to align with, including Paste and IGN say this one is worth the watch. On Apple TV+.
A quick glance at the video game world, a bunch of new games were announced, including sequels to DOOM, Gears of War, Call of Duty, Perfect Dark and Fable, as well as new IP Avowed (think Assassin’s Creed meets Fenix Rising) and Iron Meat, a blatant ripoff of the 1980’s NES game Super Contra. Which is more than I can get to in the next 2-3 years with my nearly-nonexistent free time.
I was the biggest Apple TV+ hater when the service first launched (the service’s debut year was pretty rough, content wise), but the house Steve Jobs built is rivaling HBO for consistent quality these days. More murder/mystery stuff, this time with Natalie Portman (Black Swan, V for Vendetta), a 60’s-housewife-turned-self-proclaimed-investigator. Catch it this July.
When I said I was burned out on comic book fare, I simply meant that I’m bored with low stakes, CGI-filled, messy narratives that don’t go much of anywhere (looking at you: post-Endgame MCU).
But a spinoff of The Batman that’s basically just a 70’s gangster flick as a TV show? Down for that.
So…why, exactly? Watchmen is the only graphic novel I’ve ever read, due to it landing on Time Magazine’s 100 best novels since 1923. It didn’t entice me to pick up a second comic, but I highly recommend this one, which deals with the fears of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War.
But this story was just a blockbuster film in 2009 and a spinoff TV series in 2019…so, why do we need an animated version?
Still, the source material is so good (and, sadly, relevant again as the threat of nuclear weapons is greater than at any time in my life), I would say the story is worth engaging with in whatever format you choose.
[new music]
Shooter Jennings, the son of outlaw singers Jessi Coulter and Waylon Jennings, first followed in his parents footsteps as an artist. However, a decade ago he exited the artist’s life in favor of focusing on production full time, working with Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker, American Aquarium, Jamey Johnson, and Duff McKagan of Guns & Roses fame.
Now, Shooter is taking on his most ambitious, and personal, project yet. The younger Jennings found a “treasure trove” of material from his late father in a storage room, commenting “these are not demos. These are not unfinished, but, they will take some time to explore, prepare, and mix.”
An unspecified amount of previously unheard music from the late outlaw country giant will release sometime in 2025, after Shooter has organized, mixed and mastered the newly discovered material.
My old friends Flatfoot 56 dropped a feel good punk single, highlighted with their signature bagpipe sound. Still working out the details, but I’ll likely be hosting a limited run podcast (5-6 episodes) of the history of the band for their 25th anniversary.
Until the next one,
-sth