Old Dads offers Bill Burr’s podcast in movie form

There aren’t too many people who I could listen to for about 90 minutes each week just ramble about sports, life, self help, comedy tours, and whatever else strikes him. But I do that with Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast, which airs Mondays (about an hour) and Thursdays (about a half hour, "he's just checking in on us"), and is an absolute hoot.

Burr has had minor acting roles in Breaking Bad, Outer Banks, The King of Staten Island, and plenty more, but he’s largely a stand-up comedian. But now Netflix has given him his star vehicle, a comedy he wrote and stars in called Old Dads. 

Fans of the podcast will recognize the themes. He and two of his fifty-ish buddies (played hilariously by Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine) get wake-up calls that their respective anger, being scared of the wife, and failing to commit are personal traits that have to end. It takes a Hangover-like trip to a casino and strip club outside L.A. (they had originally set off for Vegas but it was too far for the old achy guys) to finally help the fellas make sense of the way they should be living their lives. The Uber ride back with driver Bruce Dern may or may not help too.

Old Dads has an Adam Sandler vibe to it, but it is also thoroughly Burr. If you don’t know this guy, you should check out his comedy. To me, he’s the best there is right now. 

4 out of 5 stars

RIP Matthew Perry

Matthew Perry has sadly joined the list of celebrities with varying levels of depression who passed away in tubs, including Jim Morrison, Bobby Darin, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Whitney Houston.

Perry detailed his struggles with mental health in his recent memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. He had battled with alcohol and prescription drugs and claimed he was basically high throughout the Friends days.

Believe it or not, I’ve never been a big Friends fan, although I did enjoy watching several episodes in Thailand, where the show is wildly popular.

Perry, before moving to Los Angeles at 15, was from Ottawa, Canada, and became almost Beatles-famous as Chandler Bing in the 1990s.

Some of his other career highlights included the play he wrote and starred in called The End of Longing and Go On, a one-season TV show in which he played a sports talk radio host. But I probably know him most from frequent appearances in late-night talk shows, where he was often a pretty entertaining interviewee.

And much like me, Perry was obsessed with playing tennis.

The Club is Open in Baltimore for book and record shopping

One of my favorite neighborhoods in Baltimore is Hampden, a quirky little hipster haven just a few miles up Interstate 83 north of downtown and the Inner Harbor.

I got to stroll around today and take in the main streets (36th and Falls) a little more than I previously had in the past. One reason I’ve been here is to see the famed “Hampden Christmas Lights.”

But with the unseasonably warm late-October weather, today felt like I got to see more of what the neighborhood is even more famous for - at least in my book - the feel of a John Waters movie. 

The boutiques, graffiti art, great skatepark, ice cream and coffee shops, and bars and restaurants all give the feel of what shaped Waters, who grew up here and still spends time here, in his brilliantly offbeat filmmaking.

One thing I loved is Atomic Books, right next to a really good record store (great selection, but records are sooo expensive these days) called Celebrated Summer Records.

Back to the book store, not only was my second favorite band Guided by Voices’ music playing in Atomic, but they had the legendary “The Club is Open” neon sign hanging above the cafe in the back. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that sign anywhere besides GBV concerts.

They have an immaculate collection of music books, graphic novels, and a lot of discounted damaged pop-culture books.

Highly recommended stop if you’re seeking records and books.

Pop Culture Presidents: #2 John Adams

The second U.S. president, John Adams, was abrasive and not temperamentally suited for the role, but his intellect and statecraft somehow made him the perfect person to be elected in 1797. 

He had served as George Washington’s vice president for two terms, so he knew the ropes, and his foreign-affairs knowledge, at a time of great threat from other countries, was essential.

Sex

Adams and his wife Abigail were married for 54 years and had six kids. Unlike most of his contemporary Founding Fathers, Adams really had no pecadillos known to history. So, moving on to ... 

Drugs

It appears that John Adams drank something with alcohol at every breakfast. According to Iron Horse Brewery's awesome blog: 

"President Adams may have been the most beer crazy prezzi of the lot. Some report that he started every morning with a hard cider, others say that he woke up to a beer for breakfast. Reportedly his favorite style of beer was a porter but he also enjoyed rum and Madeira. Historians have even recovered letters written by Adams to his wife describing in detail what kinds of alcohol he wanted, how much and at what prices."

Rock 'n' Roll

• The pure emotion of Adams is what made him a real rocker. He was insecure, volatile, suspicious, filled with rage, funny, witty, loving, and compassionate, which must have made for frequent rollercoaster rides for those around him after Adams had had too much to drink (like, by mid-morning, for example).
• His wife, Abigail, was rock n’ roll, demanding her husband not forget to “remember the ladies” in making laws for the new country.
• At the end of his first term, his friend and Vice President Thomas Jefferson barely beat him in the election and Adams left the still-unfinished White House without even attending the inauguration. This would represent the end of federalism and the beginning of democracy.
• One of his legacies showed that leading the country essentially from a position of independence (he wasn't a member of the Democratic-Republican Party and he was outcast from his own Federalist Party) would never go over well in the U.S.

Policy

• As a fellow Federalist with Washington and Alexander Hamilton, members of his party constantly undermined him and went straight to those other two guys with their needs.
• Adams signed a treaty to help end costly pirate attacks of U.S. merchant ships and created the Navy.
• He created the 11th Amendment to prohibit lawsuits against states filed by citizens of other states or countries.
• With Jefferson’s help, he established the Library of Congress, initially filled mostly with law books.
• He signed the dangerous Federalist Alien and Sedition Acts that allowed the president to deport foreigners and suppress critical speech.
• Congress’s first meetings in Washington DC occurred under his watch, even though the city wasn’t yet finished being built.
• On the last day of his presidency, Adams created a system of federal judges, filled with his fellow Federalists, a group that is about to wane out of power with Adams’ exit from office.

Best Magazine Reads: Rediscovering one of my surprise pre-teen favorite rockers Bryan Adams

Supposedly not a cool confession to make, but when I was a pre-teen, the top of the music heap for me was Michael Jackson, Hall and Oates, and a bunch of MTV bands. OK, that’s not totally uncool, but also right up there at the very pinnacle sat, wait for it, Canada’s one and only Bryan Adams.

Now, I don’t much know what’s happened with the guy since 1985. But I’ll still put his run of four albums from 1980 to 1984 - Bryan Adams, You Want It You Got It, Cuts Like a Knife, and Reckless - up against just about anything from that era. Pure power pop goodness mixed in with a handful of spotless ballads.

I’ve heard I should check out 1987’s Into the Fire as well. But by then, the ship had sailed on to the college rock of The Jam, The Replacements, and R.E.M. and then to a late-high-school hair metal phase with Ratt, Guns N’ Roses, and Ozzy. But looking back at the broad spectrum of rock, Adams was wildly talented and, kind of like R.E.M., his really amazing stuff was overlooked because of later major stardom that actually was arguably far less inspired.

Classic Rock Magazine recently had a cover feature on Adams (and he guest edited the issue) that gave me the chance to listen back on these old favorites and to learn some interesting things:

• 
  He’s 63, a super nice regular guy, and has been a vegan for 34 years - maybe longer than veganism has been a thing!
• He’s also a professional photographer with exhibits, books, and record covers.
• Growing up, his father worked in peacekeeping for the UN, so Bryan moved around a lot, living in Israel, Austria, and Portugal, and spending time in the UK. His father often played opera and military band music very loud. But he also let Bryan get albums from his Columbia Record Club membership and the boy would pick the ones with “the hairiest bastards on the front cover,” already being drawn to the visuals. This helped him first get into Creedence Clearwater Revival and Janis Joplin.
• Once getting more settled in Vancouver, at 15, he started writing songs and even soon had a song called "Wastin’ Time" that Bachman-Turner Overdrive used. It also appears on Adams’ debut and is more rocking’ than BTO’s also good version.
• Even with 1993's Cuts Like a Knife, he was living in poverty because he had signed a really bad record deal with a low royalty rate. He says he didn’t care much about the money thing, but it was nice to finally be able to pay some bills after 1984’s Reckless, with its six top-15 hits and 12 million slbums sold in the U.S.
• He went to see Tina Turner in 1982 and wrote a song to try to give to her backstage called “Lock Up Your Sons Cuz Tina’s in Town” that he called terrible. But he wrote another song later, “It’s Only Love,” that she fell in love with and insisted on singing it with him.
• The magic of “Summer of ‘69,” Adams says is that, like most of his songs, “it’s simple, and simple is hard,” but the point is for everyone to be able to sing along to songs together.
• In the 1990s, things got crazy and he worked with everyone from Mutt Lange to Sting to Rod Stewart. He’s duetted with Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez, and Billy Joel. He was the first Western artist to perform in Nepal.

Give Adams a chance. You might just like him.

RIP Dwight Twilley

I'm a huge fan of the power-pop genre. Give me Big Star, The Raspberries, The Cars, Fountains of Wayne, The Replacements, Cheap Trick, Badfinger, The Who, The Records, The Jam, and a whole slew of others to listen to just about any time night or day and I'll be happy.

One artist in the genre who mostly passed me by was Dwight Twilley, who has passed away due to injuries suffered in a car crash. 

I already had his 1984 hit "Girls," which reached #16 in the U.S., in my music library. It notably featured prominent backing vocals by labelmate Tom Petty, a long-time friend. But I had nothing else. However, this morning I woke up and listened to a great podcast I've recently discovered, Rockin' the Suburbs, which just released its latest episode, a tribute to Twilley. The show features hosts and various guests and they all got me listening to the next layer down of his catalog.

1975's "I'm on Fire" also reached #16 in the U.S. This hit was somewhat of a surprise, and, with very little promotion, the song came and went pretty quickly in the minds of radio listeners. "Why You Wanna Break My Heart" is a shoulda-been-classic 1980s ballad as well, although it did achieve some minimal fame when it was covered by Tia Carrere for the Wayne's World soundtrack. "That I Remember," "You Were So Warm," and "Three Persons" are already some other Twilley tunes that I'm coming around to and have serious Alex Chilton/Big Star vibes. Which is saying something.

Twilley, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, always had troubles getting his career off the ground during the major-label era. But once that ended and he was able to start releasing his huge catalog of music with more flexibility, he was able to at least get that collection out to the public. And in the future, I imagine there will be many others like me who start to discover some of Twilley's power pop. 

Nancy Pelosi’s daughter shows that discussing our political differences is key for a more empathetic future

My main hard-news media sources are The Week Magazine (which is great because it tells all perspectives - right and left), The New York Times, and The Washington Post. To me, these seem like the most balanced and most well-funded in order to do the most in-depth and investigative journalism. 

I can’t go so far as to listen to the entertainment/ratings-driven news at the likes of FOX, Breitbart, Newsmax, or any number of other “outlets” that will tell subgroups of radical conservatives the kinds of conspiratorial misinformation they somehow want to hear. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear what's being propagated in those worlds. It’s interesting, even if it is fanciful and devisive.

That’s why a minute or two of The Righting is my answer each day. It’s a website (I get it as an email newsletter) that sums up what the far-right Trumper press is talking about. That press, in short, is obsessed with thinking Biden is the anti-Christ, DeSantis will stomp out the woke that is destroying this country, and how anything that's not white and male is a clear and present danger.

The Righting also alerted me to an interesting-sounding documentary that was just released on HBO MAX, created by famed lefty politician Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra Pelosi. 

The Insurrectionist Next Door ran the risk of being a preachy takedown of the idiocy of the people who attacked the U.S Capitol on January 6, 2021. But it is instead a thoughtful and entertaining glimpse into the worlds of several Insurrectionists who each had at least loose reasoning for being there that day, and somehow it doesn’t ever feel like Pelosi is in danger around these characters, even sitting down to “break bread” - or, rather, eat cake - with a Tesla-driving Trumper who says he wants to do his part to keep the world from being destroyed. 

The documentary is definitely no glimpse into the minds of geniuses, but it does serve as a painful reminder how dreadful the mental-health crisis has become in the United States.

I found it hard to take my eyes off any of the character studies, which each lasting about 10 minutes, as Pelosi tries to understand what led them to D.C. that fateful day and also hears their backstories and what makes them tick. 

The documentary is only about 80 minutes and kicks off with a Florida muscleman (pictured) who dreamed of becoming a pro wrestler but filled the hole in his life from that failed attempt by becoming a diehard Donald Trump fanboy.

That profile is mesmerizing as is the one about a very misguided young woman (pictured at the top) from outside St. Louis who follows her uncle to D.C. only to get caught up and then later kills someone as she drives drunk down the wrong way on a highway. 

There’s the gay diehard Trump fan who plans to run for office once his sentence ends, the parkour enthusiast who just apparently went along blindly with his sister to D.C., the emotional redneck who says he’s not racist but just had to align himself with the Aryan Brotherhood to survive in prison, the family-man rapper with "Proud Boys" tattooed across his forehead, and a few other notable deplorables.

This was one of the best documentaries I’ve watched in a while. And it’s interesting to go back and see the January 6th-ers and how they are faring nearly three years later. Some have some regrets about that day, but overall, their futures do not look bright.

5 out of 5 stars

Banana liqueur is more essential than you probably think it is

As my amateur mixology journey continues apace, I started noticing a lot of fancy cocktails associated with bananas. Now, I know what many of you are thinking. "I have bananas in my alcohol when I'm lounging in the Caribbean with a frozen pina colada in hand." Fair enough, that's a great time for banana-themed drinks. However ...

I love eating bananas, but one of my biggest pet peeves has always been when the peels are sitting around. Left in a car, or even just on the counter? Ugh. Disgusting. Oddly enough, an overripe, mushy banana works ok as a drink garnish, since you want it to rest on the rim and an overripe banana may just fall off the side. That said, putting the overripe or mushy or a banana chip in any of these drinks that I'm about to share with you is a-ok! I like to think of mixology as a science, but a bit of an art as well.

Now, you can get the cheap bottles of banana liqueur, like De Kuyper. But if you splurge a little for the Tempus Fugit Creme de Banana Liqueuer (pictured), you may find it so delicious that you'll just want it straight on the rocks.

That said, there's nothing like a great cocktail, and a bottle of banana liqueur, I'm now convinced, is a must-have for any respectable home bar. I have yet to try many of these drinks, but I've done my research and curated them here, and I'm pretty sure all of them have great promise. The two I can absolutely vouch for, that I have made, are: 

Nathalia, which is a bit sweet but, be careful, it's strong:

• 2 parts cognac
• .75 parts yellow chartreuse (see my two yellow chartreuse blogs) 
• .75 parts banana liqueur
• 1 dash of angostura bitters
• Garnish with orange zest

Banana Old Fashioned is just like it sounds - a really tasty classic Old Fashioned with just a hint of banana. Surprisingly classy:

• 2 parts bourbon
• .75 parts banana liqueur
• 6 dashes of Abbott's bitters (Campari is a fine substitute)
• Garnish with a dried banana chip

Now for the ones on my list to still try.

Banana Bliss:

• 1 part cognac
• .5 parts banana liqueur
• .33 parts sherry (dry vermouth is a good substitute for sherry)
• 4 dashes of Abbott's bitters (sub again can be Campari)
• Garnish with a banana chip or slice

Banana Alexander:

• 1.5 parts cognac
• 1 part banana liqueur
• 5 or 6 parts half and half
• Garnish with nutmeg

Banana Boulevardier

• 1 part bourbon
• 1 part sweet vermouth
• .5 parts Campari
• .5 parts banana liqueur
• Garnish with orange and banana

Banana Caipirinha 

• Cut half a lime and drop it to the bottom of a glass under ice
• Muddle a barspoon of sugar and a third a banana
• 2 parts cachaca
• .5 parts banana liqueur

Frozen Banana Daiquiri 

• 2 parts gold rum
• 1 part banana liqueur
• .5 parts lime juice
• 1 banana, with the center cut garnished on the rim of a hurricane glass

Banana Daiquiri Shaken

• 1.67 parts rum
• .75 parts banana liqueur
• .5 parts lime juice
• .33 parts water
• 4 drops of daiquiri bitters (I think this is something I actually need to invest in; as far as I know Bob's Bitters is the only brand)
• Garnish with a banana on the rim

Banana Split

• 1.5 parts cognac
• .75 parts banana liqueur
• 2 dashes of vanilla bitters (all these bitters can start to get pricey, so I'm going to try a teeny bit of vanilla extract as a substitute when I make this one)
• 2 dashes of chocolate bitters
• .75 parts banana tea (I don't know what this is, but I'm intrigued)
• .17 parts half and half (in other words, just a little!)
• Garnish with chocolate powder and banana on rim

Now the next time you're thinking about that frozen pina colada, remember what I've shared with you here. And some bartenders may be able to help you out!

Carrie Fischer grew up amidst Star Wars between her parents

Carrie Fischer, almost always referred to as Princess Leia of Star Wars, wrote several books before her tragic death at age 60 back in 2016. I may get to writing about Postcards from the Edge, The Princess Diarist, and Shockaholic sometime down the road, but here is what I learned about someone I’ve always been fascinated with from her 2008 memoir Wishful Drinking (which was incidentally turned into a Broadway show and is also streaming as a documentary on Max).

• Her parents were 1950s tabloid superstars Eddie Fischer and Debbie Reynolds, and Carrie grew up as a true product of Hollywood. “As a child, I thought that Father Knows Best was real and my life was fake.” It didn’t take long, though, before Fischer left Reynolds and married Elizabeth Taylor and then Connie Stevens. And then Miss Louisiana. And then Betty Lin. 
• Reynolds starred in Singin’ in the Rain at age 19 and Carrie starred in Star Wars at age 19.
• Her best-selling Postcards from the Edge was turned into a hit movie with Shirley MacLean and Meryl Streep basically playing Debbie and Carrie.
• Fischer once dated Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd. And when he was asked about that courtship, he responded that it happened “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.” She thinks that comment is why he lost his bid for the presidency.
• 
  She tells the story of how her gay Republican friend Greg died while sleeping over at her house, in her bed, from an OxyContin overdose. She says she liked her friend because he had great stories, including ones about his former office mate George W. Bush, who he said had a talent for farting on command and would often come in right when Greg was about to have meetings to fart and run off. 
• It struck Fischer that she married Paul Simon, a short Jewish singer, just like how her mom married Eddie Fischer, a short Jewish singer. She had a passionate relationship with Simon until the big words they used with each other turned into mean words and they divorced.
• Carrie loved her mom, but she writes that Debbie could be eccentric, such as when she nagged and nagged about how her husband - Debbie’s husband, that is! - should have a baby with Carrie. Debbie also, one Christmas, bought her mother and Carrie vibrators.
• The second half of the book - which I’ll return to at a later date - promises to turn more to Sat Wars-related matters. Carrie wrote that her friends made fun of her for starring in a movie that sounded like it was about her parents. Star Wars.

The Bear - Season 2 makes the case for history's "best fictional TV show about a restaurant"

I waited a little while to watch The Bear - Season 2 after its release. I wanted to anticipate and savor my enjoyment of the show.

There probably is no arguing that this is the best-ever fictional TV show about running a restaurant. The only thing that I can think of that comes close is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but that's about a bar and is hardly "run" by the owners. Alice? Nope.

Back in the first season, we met Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who returned from his wildly successful chef career to take over the operation of his Chicago family's restaurant called The Beef after his brother Michael committed suicide. Those episodes were more about Carmy's struggles re-acclimating to where he grew up and our unique view into the kitchen to witness him teaching a bunch of restaurant workers how to make food magic.

Season 2 keeps some of the kitchen battlefield moments, but now we get a chance (often among a great soundtrack including the likes of Wilco, R.E.M., The Breeders, Taylor Swift, and much more) to learn more about Carmy's team. They work to secure funding to turn The Beef, a fairly run-of-the-mill sandwich eatery, into The Bear, an elite dining experience with high ambitions.

In the lead up to opening night, Carmy struggles to keep his eye on the prize when he succumbs to an actual non-restaurant-related relationship with old acquaintance played by Molly Gordon. But it doesn't seem like he can keep that together.

Meanwhile, the best episodes of the season focus on other players. 

Carmy's second-in-command Sydney, played by an award-worthy Ayo Edebiri, goes on a quest across Chicago to taste other potentially great foods and see if this restaurant direction she's taking her life is a big mistake in a world of daily restaurant failures and economic downturn.

Pastry chef Marcus, played by Lionel Boyce, goes to Copenhagen to apprentice in some of Carmy's former footsteps. 

And Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) transforms, through an apprenticeship he is temporarily sent to across town, from a divorced loser to an exacting and essential component of The Bear's hope to succeed.

In the conversation for best TV episode ever is the Christmas family dinner one, when Carmy's mother Donna, played by a very-high-intensity Jamie Lee Curtis, in maybe her best perfomrance of many great ones, cooks, drinks, wallows, and crashes. But not without inspiring Carmy through food.

The character development and the acting had me fully invested after Season 1, but now the creators have upped it another level. Season 3 can't happen soon enough.

5 out of 5 stars