(Patreon Preview) The Grid - Episode 120

0:20

Hello everyone, welcome to episode 120 of The Grid, the Patreon exclusive show for the Oblivion Bar, a nerd culture podcast. Aaron, we are live on the normal feed this week because it is episode 120. Yes. It's a, this is for the folks. This is for the free folks. This is for the normal feed. This is for the world. It's for the world. Can I share something with you? Please. A little bit of a, this is a little bit of a shameless plug, but I'm just going to, I feel like I've done something amazing here. Okay. So. You know that I'm a huge fan of G fuel and this is not like our normal running like advertisement like, Hey, drink G fuel code OPP. Um, but I've started doing something where I feel like I've kind of like set, you know, when you feel like an adult, you set that bar a little bit higher as, as we often do here on the building bar feeling like an adult. This is where we go to escape from feeling like an adult. So I started, um, mixing my G fuel with like tonic with Gross. With tonic water, like bubble water. Oh, okay. Why? I just like the, it just, it feels like it just elevates the flavor. It's, I. But why does that make you feel like an adult is what I'm curious about. Because like, I'm not just using fucking tap water, man. But it wouldn't water be more of a healthy option? No, tonic water is the same. It's it's just carbonated. Oh, okay. It's like club soda. I was just, I'm a little befuddled as to why tonic is. It's a healthier, more adult version. I mean, I'm not saying it's a healthier adult version. I'm just, I mean, G -Fuel itself is already like, you know, it's got the antioxidants, zero sugar, all that, blah, blah, blah. You know, we've heard the ad, Aaron. We've heard the ad. I know. But I'm just saying, like, normally it's just like flat. It's like drinking just like a flat mixed in a shaker energy, energy drink. And it's good, but put some carbonation in it. Sure. You know, and it's, and it's just. Chef's kiss. Chef's kiss. All right. Well, I'm glad that I'm glad you made that revelation. Everyone, this is what you get on the grid. This is where we get the things that I stop Aaron from saying on the normal show. You get it over here on the grid. So welcome. This is a preview for our normal. I should weekly. I should bring back the soundboard. No, no soundboard. No soundboard. Maybe. Can I give you a maybe I'll take a maybe. All right. Well, I'll take a minute. We're going to we're going into our next 10 episodes. So we maybe I mean, we like to keep things fresh. Yes. Right. Yeah, I think spicy. Yeah, maybe I'll just give you I'll give you one button one button that you could just use randomly. My belly button. I got a belly button. I got a belly button. Oh, man. Yeah. And the thing is, we would be having like a serious moment. I'd be talking about like the intricacies of like Mobius and the way that it makes me feel to read Silver Surfer Parable and how like I question my existence and God and the universe and all the things of good and evil. And you would just play the sense of being button right after the end of it. All of that emotion. All right, everybody. Welcome to the grid this week. Nothing really on the docket necessarily. Aaron, you spent the entire entire morning in Soho at a free Batman event. Want to tell the people a little bit about that? Yeah, actually, I would love to. So. Basically, I got a little card here that kind of has all the information on it, but today is celebrating 85 years of Batman's first appearance in Detective Comics number 27 from May, 1939. And so, excuse me, basically certain books, like newspaper, kind of like, I guess, because comics were initially sold from like newspaper stands, they kind of went to these Soho International like, news and bookstores and did a what I guess I guess I call it an activation, you know, and so they were giving away copies of this facsimile Batman Detective Comics and it looks it looks beautiful. Like I don't really iconic cover. I don't really normally subscribe or get like facsimiles for some reason. It just feels kind of disingenuous to me, but Batman's kind of a difference. Like it's it's it's set apart. And so because you'll never see. These icons, it's like, it's like if you got a facsimile of like a Superman, like him holding the car above his head, that first, you know, action comics, like it's amazing, you know, and it's art. And so it's like, it's like, you'll never be able to hold that single issue in your hand unless it's a facsimile. You know what I mean? And if you are, then you're, something's wrong with you. You've, you've committed a crime. Mistakes were made. Mistakes. How did I get here? I woke up in jail. But yeah, so this is kind of a cool thing. There's like eight different outlets all around New York city. Um, I just realized looking at this, I just looked at this piece of paper that they gave me with it and there was a much closer location than what I went to. Aaron had to, he had to take a train all the way into the city. I rode the train for like an hour and a half to get to this place. And there's one of this place. It's like 10 minutes. It's like a 10 minute drive from me. Of course. Anyways, it was a journey. I had a great time. I met some phenomenal people, the people behind it. Like check out the post on our Instagram. and our other socials. It was honestly, it was really cool. They gave away these little like popsicles cause they basically were trying to make it feel like you're a kid again. You're going, you get some ice cream, you get in this cool comic. It really made it. I don't know. It just, it felt fun. I had a good time doing it. Just like standing in line, talking to other fans, all the people at the, at the, um, Soho international were wearing cool Batman shirts. They set up this like cool, just like little area. I was second in line and the line ended up going, all the way around the corner down the block of the other side. Damn. So it was, it was wild. And I, I mean, I did get there kind of early. I thought it was, I thought it started at 10. It started at 11. I got there at nine and I was second in line. Well, third, if you got the old lady that I had to boot out of the way. Uh, that's really cool. I'm glad that things like that still happen. You know, we posted all of our socials. So if you want to see Aaron and all of his glory at this event, it's all in our socials on at oblivion bar pod on Instagram. So check that out. Chris, do you like Batman comics? You know? No, I don't. Batman's pretty terrible. As I say, if anyone if anyone could see my camera, I have an entire like if there's one character that has an entire shelf of comics, it's Batman. Like this whole shelf behind me. You see this? Yeah. All Batman. I know. Because the reason I'm asking if you liked it was because I was going to tell you live on the grid that I got you one, too. Oh, well, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. Aaron's Aaron's love language is getting me comics, everybody, just so you know, anytime we haven't been together for a bit, he'll just show up and he'll have just just a cornucopia of comics, just comics that he gathered of like I was at a shop and I thought of you when I saw this. So I appreciate that. Thank you. It's an iconic thing, man. You're never going to see this again. Did you know that the Joker is killed in that first issue? Good. Good. Good. Batman is a fucking murderer. And it's active comics 27, like straight up murders him. Yeah, he's a bad person. That's the only comic that Zack Snyder read. It was that and the dark. He's like, oh, so he just kills. Perfect. I'll just go that way. But anyway, I was a little bit more of a reaction. But it's OK. What do you mean? I said, thank you. Oh, my God. I just put my pants. I did put my pants, but that was besides the point. That was the comics. Yeah. I wanted to point out really quickly that Aaron, we were actually. showcased in a article from sketch .com, which it's called, we want to have this conversation with more than just us, an exploration of connected, excuse me, an exploration of connection between comics and podcasts. This is by David Harper. He is of course the host of Off Panel, which Aaron, I know you don't listen to a ton of other podcasts, but I will say that Off Panel and everyone listening right now, I'm sure you probably know this, but Off Panel is the tippy top of what we do here. Like, What David does is he is like the NPR of the comic book podcasting world, like the who's who in the comic book world go on his show to talk about whatever shit they need to promote or whatever stuff they want to put out into the world. So the fact that David reached out to us, our good friends, Brad and Lisa from the Combo Book Couples Counseling, also fellow patrons, Bodder Milligan of the Short Box, also fellow patron, John Suntrus, who is if so, if David is like the NPR, John. Over at Word Balloon, he's been doing it since I think like the early 90s. Like he is one of the longest running. He has had a podcast for a long time, but he's been doing like a radio show for even longer than that. He would be like the. I don't know who is that old talk show host like the original talk show host like Maury or no, no, no. Like I'm talking like the like late night with like who who was it before it was Leno? Jay Leno, who wasn't before Jay Leno. Oh God. We'll just say Jay Leno for this reference. But, but yeah, just one of the old heads that's been doing it for a long time. Uh, he also reached out to actually, uh, Oh, uh, Matthew Rosenberg, who's actually a comic book writer, a very successful comic book writer. Uh, he has a podcast called ideas don't bleed, which I, I think essentially what he wanted was he wanted kind of different corners of the comic book podcast. This of course, Matthew show ideas don't bleed. It would be a comic book writer. hosting a podcast about comics. So he was like that corner. We were like the all encompassing of nerd culture, but with mostly comics. I think Bodder was, you know, the long running. He had been doing pod. He's been doing the short box for 13 years now, which is wild to think about. And then Brad and Lisa, who of course have their own stick, which is, Hey, we're at an, like this warm, awesome couple that also loves comics and talks about comics and interviews creators. So if you guys want to check that out. sketch .com. It's also, we've got a link in our bio on Instagram if you want to check it out, but it is, it's again, it's just very cool to be recognized and showcased in an article among folks who we not only admire, but our friends. So shout out to David for that. He's also been on the show as well. So I wanted to point that out really quick, but what else, what else Aaron have we done? Battle Royale was this last week. That was fun. Yeah. We've been posting all the reels and the, and the. polls and such. So we'll get those out to everybody next week as we're obviously off this next week, which is why this is coming out on the normal feed. Aaron is currently losing the series. Is it two to one or three? Three to one. Three to one. This is number five. It's three to one. Yeah. Not that I mean, who's counting who's counting though, right? You know, but yeah, it's and I really, really love that episode. Aaron, have you had a chance to listen to that yet or not? Not the whole way through, not the whole way through, but I listened to it on the train. this morning and then, yeah, I'm excited for you to get to the Godzilla, a gun part, because I put a lot of work into that. People who have listened to that episode probably know what I'm talking about. So when you get there, let me know because I'm curious. But I was actually today I was sitting down editing together our Jason Aaron interview that we had a couple of weeks ago talking about Teenage Mutant Turtles and Uncle Scrooge and Berserker and all the things, Action Comics that he's working on. Really, really love that interview. And I know you weren't. You weren't present for that, but I'm excited for you to eventually listen to that because it is very turtle centric, I will say. I am excited because the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of those core, I guess, elements, threads to my being as a nerd. Sure. And I feel like I think that's I think that's the interesting thing about comics is you could be like a huge nerd in something and love. like be huge into the fandom and comics are still like one aspect that feel like they'll always escape you because there's again, there's so much to it and the turtles, I mean, they're on the road to one 50 right now. They're, they're about to hit some huge milestones. Jason Aaron taking over. Like there's a lot going on. So many spin -offs last Ronin to reevolution, like all this stuff. It's crazy how much stuff is going on with it. And they also have the, um, what does it call the, I have it right here. Actually it's called the black, white and green. Yeah, you heard about that. Yeah. But they've got like different creators on. It's like it's kind of like an anthology. It's like two creators doing a six page turtle story. And it's like four of those in one issue. Yeah. Which is really awesome. I love that stuff. But it's and it's. It's hard to feel you feel like you almost lost like a portion of your like coolness factor or like your points when it comes to the fandom, because you like I realize how out of touch I am. with Turtles Comics and I'm excited to listen to that episode because of that. I feel like, and maybe that's the benefit of podcasts. I feel like that is a way to hear from the artist who's taking over and maybe get some introspective on that piece of the fandom that you might be missing as a fan. Yeah. I think you're really going to like it because again, now that I'm going through and editing it, I really appreciate what kind of the core idea of what Jason's bringing in this book, which is at the time of the beginning of his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles book. And we don't know a ton about it. He's been really tight lipped. So has IDW. They've been really, really secretive about what's going to be happening. But the one thing he does say is that when we pick up with the brothers, they have all separated. They've all gone their separate ways and something has to bring them back together. And he talks about in our conversation how he wanted to emulate this idea of like going obviously they're teenagers, but like going back to this idea of who the turtles have been. this entire time that we've known them since the early eighties to now, this idea of what we had have of the connection of these brothers and how somebody can take them apart and what has to bring them together. So for instance, like, you know, think of a friend that you had in high school that you were very, very close to. You saw all the time you hung out with on Friday, Saturday, went to the movies together, played sports together, all the things. And then think about, do you still talk to them today? Because I don't I don't talk to any of my friends from high school. And I and I wonder. It's sad in one instance, but at the same time you grow, right? Like you grow as a person, you change rapidly through your early 20s and your 30s. And to go back and talk to those two people who you were as a young person, as the person you are today. Like in one way you're essentially the same person, but in another way you're a wildly different person. So I just really appreciate that about Jason, his approach with these characters. Shout out to my boy, Constantine Carrah. Oh, I'm not going to drop his last name. Shout out to my boy, Constantine. Who we were friends like that's how we met in high school. You know, we moved in the same neighborhood. We were out riding bicycles and one day he rides up on me. I ride up on him. He's like, Hey man, you want to ride bicycles together? Hell yeah. And it was like, we've been friends ever since. Love that. Can I ask you a question really quick? Not to e -brake, even though that's what we do here on the grid. One would say we are segueing. Yeah, we're segueing. We're staying on brand here on the grid. We just bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. Segueing is our brand. We should get a sponsor from Segway. What are they doing right now? They're not in malls anymore. So could we get on there? Just imagine us at like San Diego Comic Con on some Segway's sponsored by sponsored by the Oblivion bar. OK, so you've said this a couple of times and I'm curious. I don't want to start a fight here on the grid, Aaron. All right. I don't want to I don't want to argue. I'm just curious because there have been a couple of times on the show here recently where I've mentioned Harry Potter and I'm currently wearing a Ravenclaw hat right now for everyone wondering what's happening. And you'll and you'll be like, Well, I don't like Harry Potter or why would someone like Harry Potter or whatever? Why do you say that? I'm curious. First off, I never said that I didn't like Harry Potter. Do you remember in our Battle Royale when I when I think I picked Voldemort and you're like, I don't know why anybody would pick Voldemort. Why was that? Why do you say that? I will have to I will have. Did I say that? You did say it. Hmm. And I left it in the show. I was going to expose you. That's what I was trying to do. OK, call me out, my friend. Do it. Why? I'm just curious. Why is that your reaction? I think I know the answer, but I want to hear you say it with your dirty little mouth. I don't know. To be honest, maybe it was like a knee jerk reaction. But I mean, obviously, you know, I am I am. I guess I'm going to show my ignorance here. I'm uneducated. I don't know the situation with, uh, JK Rowling and her being a turf and some of those things. But at the same time, I, I absolutely respect separating again. I respect separating the, the, the creation from the, the creator. Sure. So I don't know. Maybe, maybe it was because, uh, you know, Voldemort is just a, in my head, he's still, he's just a dick. The boy who lived come to die. We can't say Voldemort without doing that at some point. It's impossible. It literally is impossible. I can touch you. Um, I do. Prostitutes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I thought so. Yeah. We're getting off topic. Sorry. And I haven't had G feel you have. I haven't even had it. So yeah, I mean, I guess that's probably it. Like I'm probably in this mindset where it's kind of like for me, it's it's a little bit harder. I appreciate separating the creator from the creation. Mm hmm. I think for me, it's a little bit harder to do that, even though I accept people and, you know, who are able to do it better than I. And I don't, again, we don't yuck anybody's yums here on the Oblivion Bar podcast. So I'm, I apologize. I sincerely, I apologize if I said anything that, that made it seem, you know, the, uh, the other way, like that I don't. You know, I wasn't fishing for an apology. Yeah. I mean, I appreciate you doing that, but like, it's not, that's not what I want. I was just curious why you had that thought because I had this really interesting journey with Harry Potter. Cause obviously I I'm like the exact age, literally like I grew up with the books every year that I was in elementary going into middle school. And then even in the high school, a Harry Potter book came out. And I think I'm the exact age as Harry and his friends as they grew. Right. So. I very vividly remember buying Prisoner of Azkaban as like a third grader. Right. I even wrote to J .K. Rowling, you know, as a young person. And she wrote back or at least her publicist did. So somebody did. That's adorable. And, you know, when I went through cancer last year, what did I do the entire time? You the entire time. Hardcore binged Hogwarts legacy. Hogwarts legacy. Yeah, that's all I did. Literally for like months was play Hogwarts legacy. And again, like that's. totally cool. That's there's no issue with that. And like I said, I know you weren't fishing for an apology, but I feel like maybe I owe it to you and anybody else that may have picked up on the fact that I am I'm not okay with liking J .K. Rowling or the Harry Potter universe because no, not the fact I do not like J.K. Rowling. If that is again, this is where my ignorance sets in, where I do not know if she actually is still saying those things, if she's actually still of that like idea. And if she is fuck her. But if she's not, thank you for growing. Thank you for becoming a better person. If she hasn't fucker. Um, and then, so I'm, I'm, I'm love two minds here because on one hand, I think there's a very radical part and this is getting way off the rails guys. I apologize, but I just, I need to say this because I've had a moment ago. Yeah, exactly. As I said a moment ago, I went on this wild journey with like Harry Potter because I also was conflicted for a bit. I was like, I want to be an ally. I want to be a friend to folks who are. you know, the disenfranchised, those who are trying to figure out their sexuality or their gender or what have you, I want to be that person that supports them in whatever they do, right? But I wanted to figure out, did I hate JK Rowling for no reason? Am I just listening to the masses? So I tried to do my own research. I listened to the witch trials of JK Rowling. And I think, here's my official stance on JK Rowling. Number one, I do not think she is a turf. I think that she has been radicalized into this, She basically was trying to defend her femininity. Like she's a stonk feminist, like to her core. And like, she is very vocal about that. So I think what she was trying to say was that like, we should not subside female rights for another gender or otherwise. We shouldn't like just, we've already, women have been displaced since the beginning of time. We shouldn't, the moment they start to get something, take it away from them again, right? I think that's what she was trying to say. But here's where I'm of two minds because since then, since she said all of that and everyone started attacking her and all these things, she has just doubled down and doubled down and will not shut up about it. And the thing is she has a platform. She's got millions of followers on Twitter and social media and all these things. She's one of the most famous writers in our generation. Just shut up for a bit. You know, like if you have these things that you believe, that's totally fine. But let it simmer. Like she just keeps doubling down and doubling down. And that to me feels like maybe she was trying to say something. I don't know. But the point is I agree with you 100%. I love Harry Potter separate. Like I love thriller, right? I love college dropout. That's Kanye West's first album. I love Cthulhu. H .B. Lovecraft was a giant racist. Like I love all these things that like someone, you know, Alan Moore is a freak, but I love all of his work. You know what I mean? So you can separate for sure. I think. I think that's smart. And I think also there's, there's something to be, there is an argument to be said for the fact that regardless of what JK Rowling feels about her creation in the universe and the world that she has, that she did create, it has outgrown her. Oh, absolutely. And it stands for much more than what she probably intended. And despite what she says to ruin that or to bring it down or to change its intent. You cannot do that, especially when you have an entire multi -generational like group of hardcore fans that love the world that yes, she built, but one could, one could imagine that our, our thoughts and our imaginations and our dreams and the things that we put into this have built it to be much more than what she defines it as. And I think that that's important to remember. And especially like when it comes to like what you went through, you. used as an escape, as something to focus on during a really bad time in your life. And it's given you kind of a new sense of, you know, of adoration for that kind of universe. And I respect that. Absolutely. I don't think that. And again, I feel like that is, that is another brick in a Diagonale wall that, that just opens the doorway to something that she cannot even touch anymore. Absolutely. I mean, this is a young adults. book series, everybody. This is what we're talking about, right? Like it could have easily died at just being that, but it was people that are passionate about that universe who created Pottermore and these forums who loved the series and love this material that made it like it would have never gone past that had it not been for the fans. Right. So I agree 100%. Let's get off our Harry Potter soap box here. Let's get out that I grew up with Harry Potter as well. And I remember going to the bookstore and like waiting. for the release day of those books because I too read them and I too, I love them and I enjoyed the movies and I'm one of those people that will sit down and watch those movies when they come on during holiday times, even though the first one's terrible. The first two are really bad. Yeah. Come on, Harry. OK, anyway, that's it. That's all I want to say. It's Livio Sarr, not Livio Sarr. She said it the same way. I don't care. She said it the same way, everybody. What is going on? All right. Let's give out another nickname. So everybody that's listening right now. Each week on the grid, this is like a new perk when we restructured our Patreon a couple of months ago, we decided to give out a nickname to our $10 tier member. So if you're a $10 tier member, each week we will give you a nickname based on something that we know about you, something we like about you, or maybe it's just something random, because hey, that's what we do here. Actually, let me go over the previous ones. So Travis, he's the official Dr. Indiana Jones of the show. Dr. Jones. Kristy, which is my mom, she is the official mama bear. of the grid. We've got Kyle, who is the official defensive coordinator, which you actually, if I, can I make a quick rebuttal or a quick like edit to this? You gave like, what was the saying that you said in our - Oh, win one for the Gipper? The Gipper. Can we make a change and call him the official Gipper of the show? Sure. I think that's better. It's a little more unique. So Kyle, you're officially the official Gipper of the show. All right, that'll work. And then this week we've got - Robert Donaldson was a regular of mine when I was in St. Louis. He's one of my favorite people in St. Louis. He has always been so supportive of the show since the very beginning, Aaron. Through COVID and everything, he was often, anytime he would come and he would talk about the show, we've posted pictures of him with t -shirts that he's bought back when we were being sponsored by the one store. I can't remember even their names now, but he and his son both were avid, not only listeners, but Friends of the show. So Robert, he has been a patron since April 30th of 2022. He's been a $10 tier member. So shout out to Robert. That's right. He is a big Detroit sports fan. So he loves the Red Wings. He loves the Tigers. I want to name him unless you have another suggestion, Aaron. What's what's something nerdy that happened in Detroit? Is there is there a is there a movie as a RoboCop? Oh, OK, perfect. I was going to say like something sports related, but I like that better. So. What's like some of your favorite Robocop quotes or references? What would you say? I'm going to hand this off to you since you're the Robocop fanatic. Let's see. What are those big? What's those big machines? Ed You don't have to finish your sentence. I know what the fuck you're talking about. I made the gesture, like the wide drop your weapon. You have five seconds to comply for. Three just 30 seconds of unloading on that fucking guy. Do you like that? Or do you want to, do you want to think about it a longer? Let's see. Um, I mean, we could call him the official Ed 209 of, of, you know, the, the podcast or I'm trying to think, um, what's the name of the company that makes Robocop? Okay. Omni -consumer products. He could be the president of OCP. The official president of OCP. Yeah. Official president of the OCP of the show. OCP president of the show. Yep. Oh, it's either that or we calm the he eats. Oh, what is the drug that they use in that show? Now I can't remember it, but it's not going to Google this drug from Rubo. New is what we do here. The official nuke deal, the official nuke dealer. I like that. All right, well, Robert, hopefully you enjoy that nuke dealer of the show. Perfect. All right. Well, there's another name next week. We're going to give one out to George who Aaron that you're good friends with and he's been a patron since May of 2022. So George, unless you cancel your membership between now and next week, you get a, you get a nickname. So, uh, again, and thank you to everybody who's supporting the patron in general. Of course, everyone's like on the normal feed is listening to this right now, but this is what you get when you come over to, you know, hang out with us on. Patreon. Yeah, it's one of the perks. It's a good time. This is just us like kind of going along with the flow. Um, there was something else that I wanted to talk about that I probably completely forgot. Was it us defending our movies that we wanted to talk about? No, no. Cause I think. I think I was going to say something of like, Oh, oh, yeah. I just want to humble brag. I'm going to brag that Alicia Alicia Keys retweeted me. Okay. Alicia Keys retweeted me. What was the tweet to tell the people I know what it is, but just for the. Yeah. So if you guys go over to my Twitter, which is at better actions, I went and saw her new basically her new stage show, like her new Broadway show, which is called Hell's Kitchen. And it's based off it, obviously, that the. the borough in New York City called Hell's Kitchen. And it's about, I would say it's loosely related on her childhood, but it's all like 90 % of the soundtrack is music from her discography. But I'm not going to lie. This is one of the best shows I have ever seen on a stage. And like I tweeted that I said, this is a hands down, one of the best shows got full of heart. Obviously the music is amazing, but the cast. The cast has to bring all the delight. Like it's basically set in the nineties. So it's got the nineties dance moves that the kid and play. Yeah. You know, it's got like, they're wearing Jigo jeans and they're wearing Fubu. It's got the fashion, the dance, the music is again, this is just like a phenomenal show. So I tweeted that and she ended up retweeting me and I was like, ha, you know, humble brag. That's very cool. Yeah, that's awesome. Uh, yeah, no, that's really cool. I love whenever, you know, artist or whomever they actually acknowledge when people like praise them. Cause I feel like the, maybe this is my pessimist coming out, but I feel like a lot of times when celebrities react to things on social media, it's only negative stuff. Like they'll just like try to defend themselves instead of posting the probably hundreds of millions of things that people are saying that's nice about them. You know, so that's just social media in general. It kind of entices people to, you know, that kind of embrace the hate a little bit because they know it's going to get clicks and attention engagement and whatnot, but. Anyway, that's another topic, but Aaron, we had one other thing we wanted to do. We're at 30 minutes. Do you want to do it or do you want to save that for episode 121 of The Grid? Let's leave him hanging. Let's give him a little teaser. Let's give him a little teaser. I feel like that conversation. Okay, so everyone that's listening right now, just so you know, Aaron and I, we were going to do a defend a movie that like one of us loves that the other one doesn't. So. Aaron, do you know yours by the way? Do you have what you have the movie that you're going to defend? No, honestly, because I have mine. I know I found it as we were talking like I found the one that I think I love that you don't really love. We actually covered it on the show too. I'm sure we did. Yeah, I tell you. Go ahead. OK, it's Resident Evil. Welcome to Raccoon City. Right? Did I, did I defend that one as good? No, no, no. You didn't like it. I like it. Okay. Oh, yeah. I literally liked it. I was like, I was like, uh, no. The thing is we are, we are of one mind a lot of times. Like we are often, we, we like the same things, but they're every blue moon. Like I'm thinking welcome to raccoon city, the flash. Uh, is there another one that I'm fucking? Let's do it. Let's do it right now. Let's get into it right now. Let's do them a little, let's skip, throw them a little extra time. Okay. All right. Yeah. I guess this is going to normal feed so we can do that. All right, so do you have, do you know which movie? Okay, so this is okay. Yes, I do. Okay, all right. What is yours? The Flash. Okay. All right. I was pretty honest with my thoughts on that initial review. Yes. If you guys want to go back and find that review. It wasn't that long ago. It was only last year. Yeah. So, okay, sure. Do you want to go first? You want me to go first? You go first. Okay. See, that's not fair because. Usually the, the, the argument at the end is always the one that's more powerful. Okay. Then I'll go first. You want to go first? Okay. I'll go first. Okay. So, uh, we, we both discussed the flash very much in detail, very much in detail. And when we had this initial conversation, cause I went back and I checked the notes and I thought about this, one of your biggest complaints was that the graphics were, were ass quality. Does that does a verbatim graphics be ass be ass it be like that? Yeah, okay like that It do be like that now, okay, and and here's the thing where I'm going to defend it, but I'm also gonna slightly Succeed in my argument of how good this movie was this arguments not starting off well, but keep going but I'm gonna so I'm gonna One of the things that you hated right from the beginning Yeah. Was the scene with the babies. Yeah. That's fair to say, I think. Which I understand. Which is fair. Which is fair. But at the same time, they're all graphics. They're fake. He rescues all of them, including the dog. And by putting one of them in a microwave. By putting one in a microwave that wasn't even plugged in. Okay. Wasn't even plugged in. I'm just saying, was not plugged in. But the point is, look beyond it because it was still like, he's not, he's still a new hero. He's still not the quickest on his feet. Like he's not like he shows. Yes. Pun intended. I was like, I gave a look because I'm like, he's not, he's not the cleanest on his feet because he is like literally the quick. He is the quick. He is quick on his physically. Like, and what's the word like, um, and his processes and his lit like his mind, literally the quickest, uh, metaphorically, not the quickest on his feet. Okay. That's very true. Yeah. The source of the flash is very stupid. He is very much a young. like younger version of the flash. He's a younger, he's young at heart. He still has to think things through because a lot of this stuff is like, yes, like why would you put a baby in a microwave? Like it's the only way to protect it from this explosion that's about to happen, which makes sense. But maybe you could have chosen, you know, let's go up with the car. Let's go up with not back. Let's go up with the car. If you ever seen Hancock, it's a reference to Hancock. So I just want to argue the fact that this movie had a lot of heart. to it. And I think that there are a lot of things that that you are looking at kind of like you you have you have when you went in this movie, I feel like and this is just again, I they say in therapy use things like I feel like because you can't assume that that's what they're thinking. I feel like you went into this movie with very high expectations, which is understandable. But at the same time, everyone was saying how amazing it was. Yes. At the same time. I think that the movie itself was still really fun, had a lot of heart and brought back, you know, Michael Keaton as the Batman, as an, as a version of a Batman that we all love. Even George Clooney was in it. Like there was still so many things that were like, I would say slightly redeeming of this and really enjoyable. And I get when we talked about things that we talked about during the argument, when we reviewed this movie, we talked about how it seemed like a lot of the characters weren't even in the same room. I mean, they probably were just green screened in there because it's. Like a lot of those didn't really feel genuine. But also if you go back and you watch those, they're very not like from the original film, it's still a very odd vibe from those original, like the Man of Steel film. So I think like when they go back in time to Zod and such. Yes, so I feel like that some of this stuff is kind of understandable because they're actually trying to make the - they're trying to emphasize the jarring feeling of him going back in time and having to deal with it. Like they're trying to set that tone of, of, of an, uh, emphasize like out of time feeling. So I think that there's a lot of elements to that movie that maybe we're not considering because it just may take like another watch or another bit of understanding. Uh, no, I think I'm good. I think I've seen it enough. I've seen it one time. No, I think I'm fine. I think I'm good because this movie, am I? Can the plaintiff take the stand? May I go? All right. This movie is fucking ghoulish. This whole this whole shit it is. It's hollow. It's like all these things that you're naming about Michael Keaton being in it and George Clooney and, you know, Michael Shannon as General Zod, the references. All of this is just, it's again, I think I say it in the review and I'm gonna stick by it. It's like those Easter bunny giant chocolates that you get that you bite into and there's nothing in the middle. The ultimate disappointment as a kid. That's what this movie is. It throws a bunch of these things that they think that we're gonna like and it just falls short because there's no care behind it. We talked about it in the review, but this script went through, I think five rewrites and they just kept adding shit on top of it because the universe kept changing because Warner Brothers kept changing their. direction of their DCEU. And it's obvious. I mean, that whole opening scene with Wonder Woman and Batman is like ripped. That's supposed to happen like right after Justice League, Zack Snyder's Justice League. And they put this weird filter on it that makes it all bright and shit. My point, I think ultimately, I could nitpick this thing all day long. But I think what ultimately why I hate this movie so much is that the tone is all over the place. One of the barriers that I'm supposed to be behind the entire movie is an absolute. knucklehead and an idiot. If I am not immediately swept up and loving seeing Michael Keaton back as Batman, that should be your biggest indicator that I am not having a good time. Like that, if that was all I could get out of this movie, I would have been fine. Like I would have been told, this movie would have been just fine. And just to kind of remind folks, Aaron, you gave it a 3 .5, I gave it one. So had Michael Keaton somehow saved this movie? But in an, I say all this, but also like, why should that be his responsibility? Shouldn't this movie be about the flash? Shouldn't we be behind flash? And yes, there are moments in the movie, I think that they were starting to trend towards some kind of heartfelt moment, but ultimately it all fell short because not only were they leaning on jokes, but the tone was everywhere. Like they would just, they would do a sad thing and then they would end it with a joke or they would start joking and then there would be a sad thing. Like I hate it. I'm going to rewatch this again. Please do. I'm going to rewatch this again and I'm going to see what, cause again, I hear what you're saying. I valid your, your, okay, Chris, your feelings are valid. You are heard. You are safe. We didn't even mention that whole time travel scene with the weird wax. We don't have to half the people that were in that didn't even agree to be in it. That's all. I mean, that's literally all I have to say. Got it. All right. So nothing's changed. We you still like it and I still hate it. Right. Yeah. All right, cool. Let's get into Raccoon City then. I feel so defeated right now. Sorry. And I think you felt the same way because a lot of times in the review, I mean, because when we talk about it, I am like going I am when we review things on the show, we often try to find the things that like the silver lining. We try to talk mostly about the things that we like. And if we don't like it, we won't try to harp on it too much. You were adamant that there was no silver lining. Very much. No, no. Not a thing. I'm trying to think of like one thing that I liked about it. Like I truly am trying to like, you like Kara. Yeah, I mean, sure. Yeah, I think Sasha Calais as our car Zor-El, she was kind of cool, but like they did nothing with her and they murder her at the end. So like we're not getting more of her. She's done. She's a dunzo. All right, let's get into Resident Evil Raccoon City. Welcome to Raccoon City, which came out in, when was this? want to say it was 2021 height of COVID came out direct to I think it was Amazon perhaps. It went straight to VOD if I'm not mistaken, but I did see it in theaters. We covered on the show. I can't remember what rating we gave it. I'd have to go back and listen, but I really liked this movie. I guess I'll go first since this is my movie, but I think that I guess I can understand why some folks didn't connect with it super well, but. If I can say growing up, Resident Evil was this giant thing for me. Like I think when I think back to my childhood, the first thing that comes to mind is like Toonami, WWE or I guess WWF at that time, Final Fantasy, Pokemon and Resident Evil. Those were like my biggest kind of in comics, of course, but like those are kind of like my biggest fandoms as a kid. And I think what Raccoon City does really well is it kind of captures that perfect blend of like Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. Like They basically what I think the director, it's Johanna, Johanna Roberts. I think what would the plan was, was to go, what are the video games? What are they good at? Survival horror. Let's just do that. Let's like not even try to stray too far from the source material. Let's just do exactly what the video games are. And I think while there are certain elements of this movie that I think are pretty bland and not well done, specifically the CGI and some of the acting, especially the third act, the third act is pretty bad. I'm not going to lie. I think what they capture in the first two acts, and especially with the cast, I'm thinking of Hannah John -Kamen who plays Jill Valentine. You've got Tom Hopper as Albert Wesker. You've got, I don't know how to say her name, but it's like Kaya Sorin Dorino. I think it's how you say her name. Robbie Amell. Scottolario. Thank you. Thank you. Robbie Amell as Chris Redfield. So, and you had the one guy, what's his name? Avon Gouriana. Is that how you say his name? Avon Yogya. Yoga. Okay. Yeah. As Leon, anyway, I think that a lot of this just works for me. I think it just does what I want it to do. And I, when I look at it in the sense that it's just trying to be the video game, I'm okay with that. Like it's not, I don't want this to be thought provoking high brow, you know, entertainment. I want to just watch folks try to survive a zombie apocalypse. And I think it does that. Okay. I just wish. And again, I do, I could, cause to be honest, I don't really even remember what my arguments were. I think you just said it looked bad and it wasn't acted well. And I agree. Yeah, that might have been most part that might have been it. You know what it was? I think it was, it was some of the choices. Cause like it was a Dovel log or Donal log as a chief irons. Yeah. It's chief irons. I think he was the only one that I was like, okay, he's believable. Yeah. What about Millic Dunno just going way over the top as William Birkin? Yes. Yeah. I think my biggest, again, my biggest kind of, um, argument in this was like thinking about it now. And I, and again, I would actually be willing to rewatch this one because I could tell from the trailers when I watched the trailers again, it looks really good. And I remember the excitement that I had prior to it coming out. And I was like, this is going to be good. I'm excited for it. But I feel like honestly, what the one thing that really kind of took that away from me was the fact that they could have made a clear decision to make it very much more like the video game where it was again, just give me one that's inside the mansion. Yeah. They bypassed that. They went straight to Resident Evil 2, which is in the PlayStation. If they would have just done this one, like they did the first movie with Milla Jovovich, it would have been phenomenal. It would have been, it would have been self -contained. It would have been like a mansion focus story with the thing in the bottom. And like, you wouldn't have this weird, creepy girl with like a human flesh skin, skin suit. I don't know what she's from. I think she's from like the later games that I haven't played. I don't know. Cause she's the daughter of one of the creators of Umbrella, I think. Yeah. Right. She's like from number five. I think it was four or five. Sure. Um, but yeah, it was just like, there was a lot of. There was a lot of weird choices that to me could have really been like, like weeded out early on and it would have made for a more concise, like scarier story. Again, great cast. This cast is really good, but I really feel like they all just majority of them called it like it phoned it in. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair. That's totally fair. And I think I meant to say this as well. I'm glad you brought it up that Paul W .S. Anderson, Resident Evil films really liked the first one. Second one's okay. I think second one's pretty much on par with this. Like it's pretty much essentially kind of Resident Evil two and three mixed together again for some reason. But once they start going off the rails with those movies, which is funny because that's the shortest one. Like number two is like the shortest one. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is. It is the shortest one. Yeah. But this is how I know like it's not a great series because I love all of the Resident Evil movies with Mila Jovovich. because of how bad they are. There's, there's such popcorn films. They're, they're as good as monster Hunter was with me and Jovovich. And I enjoyed that. Also done by Paul W. Sanderson. Exactly. Because it's stupid. Yeah, it is. Yeah. No, I get it. Yeah. And I mean, I think there's a really interesting lore to resident evil. I just think it's, it's a weird property to try to adapt because what makes resident evil special is. the survivability of the video games. Like what makes them compelling is that you as a young person in the early nineties had to survive. I mean, it was essentially one of the very first survival horror video games, right? That's what made it so special. And to watch someone, it'd be like, Aaron, you playing Resident Evil and me watching you play it, right? That's not as fun, right? That was, but that's the, that's the exact experience I had with the Resident Evil when I was a kid. And you enjoyed that. I had a friend, we took turns playing it. Oh, sure. Okay. You know, and that's cause it was terrifying. Yeah. I still remember like the original Resident Evil game, even the second one, I still remember the first time I was like, shit my pants scared when I played that game. Pizza rolls next to you in a Mountain Dew Code Red. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, any change to your thoughts on, on. Welcome to raccoon city. Did I compel you with my, Hey, it's shitty, but I like it kind of argument. No, I think more so I compelled myself to watch it again and give it maybe another shot. If that is any, any answer to you saying anything, maybe, but at the same time, I feel like I'm going to kind of feel the same exact way, but I'm willing to watch it again. Okay. I am not willing to watch the flash again. I'm good. Actually I'm fine. I will be here. Yeah. Maybe one day there, there have been movies that I like. like vividly and know for a fact that I don't like. And I've gone back and tried to rewatch, i.e. Zack Snyder's Justice League, Man of Steel is OK. I don't like to call it the just ice league. I've definitely gone back to watch both Fantastic Four or Fan Four Stick, and I've seen Batman v Superman a handful of times, which reminds me, Aaron, we still have a Batman v Superman audio commentary. We've we've been at 25 members for a bit. We're at 28 right now. So. We owe them. We owe the patrons. So, hey, another perk, if you're still listening to episode 120 of The Grid here on the free version, if you want that audio commentary of Batman v Superman, Dawn of Justice, we've owed our programs, as we call them, for quite a bit. And yeah, programs and David. Shout out to David. So, oh, and speaking of which, before we close out this episode of The Grid, because we're almost in an hour, I want to say thank you to Sean. Sean, joining the Patreon officially, he did the, you know, And again, this is a perk. You can join the Patreon for free seven days for free. Pick your tier, whatever tier you want to try out. Try it out for seven days for free. And if you like it, bam, you're in like you can just join along. And that's what Sean did. And we appreciate Sean for joining us over here on the Patreon. So they shout out on that's right. Shout out, Aaron, anything else you want to say to the folks before we close out episode 120? No, I think I would just like to say, you know, again, We said this at the beginning, this is going out on the worldwide release. So generally, you know, we have the grid for our patron specific, you know, members, just like you said. Yeah. And I really hope that people enjoy this because this, again, this is, you know, our chance to kind of like go off topic off format and just really lay into some shit. And I think this is a perfect episode to kind of show off what the grid is, showcase what the grid is, because we really, we have hit, we've hit some. We've laughed. We've cried. We thought about each other and we've grown emotions and we've grown. Truly. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Well, I think we've done it. I think we've we've officially closed out episode 120 of the grid. So as of March 30th, 2024, we have 120 episodes of the grid logged in and we have 150 episodes of the normal show logged in. So that's crazy. 270 episodes total of just oblivion bar content, not to mention other random shit that we've done throughout the last four years and our, um, our, was it five, four year anniversary is coming up, Aaron. Let me get you an official date here. I'm going to look it up in our calendar. It's an April mid April, April 16th is our fourth and our fourth birthday. So anything we want to do, I'm going to take a sexy picture with a cake. I like that. Oh, should we mention that we have a panel at CTE2? I think we should probably mention that. Probably should. Everybody listening right now, if you're going to be at CTE2 at the end of April, both Aaron and I are going to join Bodder, who we talked about earlier, and Greg Licktie of the First Issue Club for a live crossover recording of our three shows joined together to talk about all the things. So if you are in the Chicago area, if you're going to CTE2, please join us on, I think it's April 26th at 11 15. So come join us, come hang out. It's gonna be a lot of fun. We'll be blasting all of that stuff throughout the next month, along with again, fellow patron of the show. Elliot made us a really cool graphic that we haven't shown anyone yet, but I think Aaron, it's fair to say that we're both very excited about it. This is by far my favorite. I almost bought. the inspirational. Oh, sure. Is it expensive? Is it an expensive cover? A graded version is. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. I think like a nice version is probably worth a pretty penny, but I think you could probably find like a decent version for less than $40. Maybe I kind of want like I want a comic size of it so that I can like display it next to that if I do buy it. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. All right. Let's close this thing out. We're hit. We're almost at an hour. So again, thank you to all our patrons for, of course, you know, continue to support the show, you know, helping us make the show better, just joining us. It really, it truly does mean a lot. This is honestly the best way to support the show and it, Aaron and I cannot even put into words how much we appreciate folks who come over it. It always, it's always a fun thing that we send each other. We'll send a, we'll send a text and be like, Hey, look, we've got a new patron. So really cool stuff. Uh, Aaron, anything you want to say to the programs, David and everybody else before we close out the grid? You know, we look forward to seeing you next weekend. or next week when we release the next episode. And you know, if you have suggestions, make sure you email us. If you have stuff you want us to cover, make sure you email us, you know, the usual at oblivion, bar pod at G or not at oblivion, bar pod, oblivion, bar pod at gmail .com. Yup. Or find us on social media. on our socials. Yup. Look in the show notes. All the things are there. So sandwich from Aaron and I, thank you so much. We will see you next week for our Godzilla X Kong, the new empire slash Ghostbusters, the frozen empire. Movie review. Possibly the longest title of any episode we've had so far. A lot of empires. Just different empires. Yeah. Oh yeah. The clash of the empires. That's right. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next week. The empires strike back. That's the name of the episode.