Nothing But Anarchy
"Nothing But Anarchy" hosted by Chad Sanders explores and subverts sports, media, Hollywood, and culture. Chad's vulnerable and raw commentary creates a fresh podcast experience you don't want to miss. Tune in Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12PM ET on Youtube Live.
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Game analysis, social commentary, and music.
Instagram: @chadsand
Executive Producer: Chad Sanders
Producer: Morgan Williams
Music: Marcus Williams
Nothing But Anarchy
Eps #98 The Review Episode: Jerrod Carmichael's Reality TV Show + Authenticity in Content Creation, March Madness LSU v IOWA game, and Beyonce's Cowboy Carter
Discover the raw edges where culture and competition collide, as I, Chad Sanders, guide you through an analysis of Jerrod Carmichael's entry into reality TV, the game recap of LSU v IOWA, and Beyonce's Cowboy Carter album.
Tune in Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12PM ET to watch the show live on Youtube. Follow @chadsand on Instagram and subscribe to the Nothing But Anarchy Youtube channel for full interviews and more anarchy!
Executive Produced by: Chad Sanders
Produced by: Morgan Williams
Welcome to Nothing but Anarchy. I am Chad Sanders. Gotta remind you, if you're watching on YouTube, wherever you're watching, like subscribe, go follow me at Instagram, at Chad Sand. You probably already do if you're listening to this, but all right, let's get to it. We have a bunch of stuff to talk about today. Today we're going to talk about the Jared Carmichael show or is it, gerard? I don't know? Lsu versus UConn, the women's game that was played last night, and among a few other things LSU versus Iowa.
Speaker 1:Wow, that was a lie LSU versus Iowa as well as USC versus UConn. Okay, so here's where we're starting. We are starting with the Gerard Carmichael reality show. To give context to this, for anyone who has not been familiar with Gerard Carmichael, who has not been familiar with Gerard Carmichael, anybody who does not know what Gerard Carmichael does which that was me about, I guess, two years ago. I had heard the name. I knew that he had a sitcom that he created that featured Lil Rel, among others, which I believe was self-titled the Gerard Carmichael Show, among others, which I believe was self-titled the Gerard Carmichael Show.
Speaker 1:I knew that he was vaguely like one of the what's the way to say this of intellectually and artistically accepted Black folks that and when I say accepted, I mean accepted by white people as such who are seen as being able to exist in circles of black art and TV and media, et cetera, but who have, who are seen as being intellectual, who are seen as being, you know, creatively inspired, on the edge, et cetera, by white people, like they're the kinds of black people who white people know, especially in New York City and Los Angeles, and they're the kind of black people who white people know, especially in New York City and Los Angeles and they're the kind of black people who white people will follow. And you know what? I think I'm one of those types of people. To be honest with you, different black artists who exist in that realm, especially someone with as big a profile as this guy, have different ways that they either steer into or away from that place of standing Right. It's like do you?
Speaker 1:Somebody asked me recently do you think you get to choose who your audience is? And that was them reflecting to me on watching the armchair expert audience, for instance, gravitate toward me and, by their point of view, I was being coy or being a little bit flippant about accepting that audience or even accepting that sort of community at large, community at large. And my answer to that question was I guess somebody could choose their own audience. But I personally feel like what I want to do is do what is exciting and inspiring to me and what feels like something that's good that I should be putting out and see who that attracts, and then continue to do that process over and over and over again. And so you know I have talked ad nauseum about what my audience looks like. But this guy's audience jerrod carmichael, I think, judging by his having a show on hbo max which features him as the main character, as the central character, um, judging by the response to his stand-up Rothaniel, which was, among other things, his telling the story of his own coming out of the closet, his own presenting himself to his family and the world as gay gay, judging by what I see in his appearances on, you know, his appearances on Jimmy Kimmel or Seth Meyers or any one of the white boy late night standup shows. I see someone who, as I see it, is steering into but sort of the East and West Coast liberal-leaning art snob world that is mostly inhabited by white folks.
Speaker 1:And then this thing came out, this special came out. It's not a special, it is a. I guess I would call it a series. It's supposed to be a reality series and it is called the Gerard Carmichael reality show. It came out a few days ago. I want to say it came out on Thursday, no, friday night, 11 PM, that's when episodes air, only one episode.
Speaker 1:And I was home over the weekend in Maryland. I was at my parents' house. My mom was actually out of town, so it was me and my dad hanging out. For the first time in forever. I did not watch this with my dad, just to be clear, but I did watch it in my childhood bedroom on my cell phone.
Speaker 1:That way, because when I found out about this show and the premise of it, when I watched the trailer and the premise of it, as far as I can tell, it looks like Dracar Michael taking a camera to himself, as he put it, truman showing himself to tell the story of what he is actually going through right now, as someone who has recently outed himself, unaccepted by his family, unaccepted by his mother, unaccepted by his father, treated like someone who is not just saying to the people around him I'm queer, but treated by someone who is saying, treated by them, as someone who is saying there's something wrong with me, wrong with me, and their response to that is to say in a fraught way uh, we love you anyway, even though this thing about you is broken, and we're going to pray for you and we're going to hope that God will heal you from this thing that is broken about you, which is your queerness, which is how you, you know, how you are sexually oriented. Okay, that is me doing my best to like, sort of frame the setup of this show. That's my. That's me doing my best to, without entering my own criticism or my own you know how I see it um, into what the show is. So I turn on the first episode.
Speaker 1:The first episode is called the Emmys and it is chronicling him. It's a good title. There are several tricks played in the pilot episode of this thing to get you as the audience to stay and to tune in in the first place. One is the title the Emmys. It's a sexy title. We know. People know that he won an Emmy for, for his special rothaniel. People know that he, um, I think did he host the emmys. It was either the emmys or the golden globes. Do you know the answer to that, morgan? Which one it was?
Speaker 1:I think it was the golden globes yeah, um, it's a sparkly title and it and I watched this thing twice. I watched it once by myself and then I watched it again with Tim a couple days ago. And right at the beginning you are pulled into this storyline, which is him getting ready to go to the Emmys. But it's not actually just him getting ready to go to the Emmys him revealing who his friend is, that he mentions in his special rothamiel, who he has unrequited love for. So, said differently, he is in love with someone that is a close friend of his. That person does not, is not in love with him. And he reveals who that is and is tyler the creator, which again is a pilot choice, I imagine, one that he chose when he was trying to sell this thing to hbo max, which is when you go sell a series, you got to tell them what's in the pilot, you got to tell them how the thing starts, and it's very buzzy and it's very sexy to say I'm gonna have tyler the creator in that first episode. That's my friend and I'm also going to drop this bomb on him, whether or not he knows, before we actually start filming or not, that I'm in love with him and we're going to get up to speed throughout the episode on how Tyler, the creator, is responding to that.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is a fucking mouthful. I'm trying to describe to you guys something that has a lot going on and I'm realizing, like, if you are not familiar with these characters or the setup or the premise of this show, like what I'm spitting at you right now might sound confusing, partially because I am still a little bit disoriented by this show. The show is supposed to be a reality show. The show is supposed to be a reality show. It's supposed to be like not even just a reality show, but like the Truman Show specifically, which is one of my favorite movies. Which is to say, I am trying to present to you objective truth about what's going on with me and what's going on with him, as far as I can tell in the show, is this person is hurting. This person is probably experiencing depression. This person is experiencing isolation. This person is also experimenting with his newly I don't even want to call it experiencing he is expressing his newly self-outed queerness, which is to say he's on Grindr throughout the episode. He's got guys coming over to his house throughout the episode. They sort of allude to sex that's happening at his apartment. They show you in intimate settings with some of the guys that are coming through and and this part was very buzzy on the internet they show this nigga sucking on somebody's toe on the couch as a part of this episode.
Speaker 1:Um, and there's something to be. There's something else to be represented here which is like Tyler the creator is. I mean, if you don't know who he is, you can Google him in a heartbeat. He is a very brown-skinned black man, very in my opinion. He is stereotypically masculine in a lot of ways, like of an athletic build. He is very alpha in how he moves and how he walks around, like he is braggadocious. He is arrogant in in his persona. Um, fantastic, in my opinion. Fantastic rapper, smart, successful, rich, etc. Whatever. Um, and like I said at the beginning of all of it, a very, very much a black man.
Speaker 1:I want to say I don't even need to say I want to say it's so that every other guy that appears in the special as dating sexual partner, whatever somebody who's coming through for Gerard Carmichael is a very light-skinned, either white or Latin dude. They all kind of like fit a character mold and he pokes fun at himself in the special by saying you know that he's going to go find himself, like I think he says, like a Mexican twink, like, like, like a fucking steamroll through a bunch of things that are said in terms that I was not even familiar with before watching this. So forgive me if I'm saying something, um, something that I just don't understand because I don't know. I still don't know what a twink is. I've only ever heard the word twink used in this special. So, morgan, do you want to tell me what a twink is? You're smiling.
Speaker 2:Well one. I don't know if it's something that straight people can really say.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I've only heard gay men use it in reference to each other, but I don't really know the direct definition, but it's very commonly used.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay. So you don't know what it means. It is commonly okay. So you don't know what it means. It is commonly used. I don't know what it means and you don't know if I can say it. So great work by us. Okay, let me continue because, fuck, this is a lot of fucking setup. I'm done with setup. If you guys just don't watch it, I'm done setting it up. I gotta say what I gotta say here. I've used 20 minutes of setup. It's fine. I think it was pretty good setup. All right. This is what happened. I watched it.
Speaker 1:I got texts from friends who don't normally text me about TV being like yo, did you watch this? And I think that's because it made them feel something. I think it's because they knew for sure it would make me feel something. They knew I would be curious. They knew I want to see what's up with this thing because I have.
Speaker 1:When I watch this person, tim says to me in the car we're driving in the car down to Maryland and I'm driving. He's in the passenger seat. He's reading from his phone. He says oh shit, gerard Carmichael and I was like oh damn. I was like damn. He's going to tell me something terrible happened to Gerard Carmichael and what he actually said was his show is out. That's how I found out that the show was out, but I had the knee jerk reaction to the name and the tone that I think a lot of people are having right now to Gerard Carmichael as a presence, which is this person looks troubled. This person looks like he is self-chronicling. His demise feels a little too intense, but maybe just like his misery, his spin out in some ways.
Speaker 1:And I, while watching, had this question for myself several times and then, after I watched it, I continue to have this question for myself, which is am I enjoying this experience? Like, do I want to watch someone be miserable? Do I want to watch someone feel isolated by their family and also, in some ways, I think, in very honestly, very savvy and sort of almost sophisticated ways attacking that his family, a family that has made him feel alone and has made him feel not accepted? Do I want to watch that? And, as somebody who personally believes in transparency as an effective form of entertainment, it's making me question where are the lines on that Like, where does it hit a backstop? Where it's like okay, you are now sharing too much and you need to save some for yourself. You need to save an inner life for yourself.
Speaker 1:For example, when I did Yearbook, which is an eight-part series chronicling a year of my high school life part series chronicling a year of my high school life I brought my family's voices into that project in a way that I have not in other things that I've worked on, and in doing so I felt mostly clear, but a little sting, a little tinge of like you are now presenting your people, your closest people, into a public light that I can't say they didn't ask for because they were willing to participate, but like they might not even totally understand what the ramifications of that might be. And furthermore and in your book I was incredible, I think I, like I didn't say or do anything particularly critical of my family, even though I did talk about a time where my dad cried because I had failed him. I was who feels hurt by my family. I am someone who has felt let down, broken, attacked, pushed away, marginalized. My family is bigoted. He's telling us that. And what this special I keep calling it fucking special, what this show is making me question is like, as such, do you still owe, owe them anything in the way of grace and I'm not going to even as much as you have hurt me. I'm not going to put you on front street for it, even if it will further my career, even if it is what I have an impulse to express, I'm going to police myself. He's chosen. It sounds like he's chosen. No, and I've only seen the first episode of the show, so we'll see how it goes. But like, that's what the trailer tells me, that's what his interviews tell me.
Speaker 1:Another question I have about this show and I'm just going to get. I'm going to get to the point like, right here, I'm going to say the thing out loud because I don't want to, I don't want it to go unsaid as I discuss this. I do not trust what he is doing. Like, I do not actually trust this is someone who is trying to convey, this is someone who is meaning to convey transparency and clarity and that's it. I don't believe that.
Speaker 1:I did not believe that when I watched Rothaniel. I do not believe that while watching this, I could go back and forth with someone and try to intellectualize the reasons why I don't believe that. But let's say, my greatest honesty is I do not believe it. I think that what I see is someone who is trying to express a point of view and someone who is trying to reconcile some anger and some feelings of marginalization, which I completely can understand. I see someone who is trying to say something about his own genius, but I don't believe that this is someone just saying I'm going to turn the camera on myself and show you guys who I am and what I'm going through.
Speaker 1:Part of why I don't believe that watching the show presents a character who has control over the words that are said, in terms of how it can be edited, the scenes that are, that are depicted, what's cut, which characters walk in and out setting up for example, I'm in love with this black man, but all of my other dating and love interests and sex interests are these bright and white boys. But don't forget, I'm in love with this black man. That feels like that feels like a sort of artistic manipulation. That feels like something that a straight dude would do if he was going to make a show about a guy sleeping with a bunch of white girls is lead off, started off with. But don't forget, I'm in love with this black woman and she doesn't like me back. We've covered this ad nauseum on this show. I don't want to like go down the road too much.
Speaker 1:There's a frame early in the beginning where you see Gerard Carmichael talking to computer much like I am right this second talking to his computer screen and he says there's something about talking to a camera that makes it feel paraphrasing, like it's stupid to lie. Paraphrasing like it's stupid to lie. In other words, he's setting up at the top of this you can trust me, you can trust me, you can trust me. One way to get me to not trust you is to tell me I can trust you. That is like a trust is something I think that like grows from the memory of other people who pattern match to the person you're talking, to the feelings that come up, that you reflect onto that person.
Speaker 1:When I see older black women, I have a natural reflex to trust them because they remind me of my mom, who, for the most part, I trust in a lot of ways, who, for the most part, I trust in a lot of ways. When I see a 25-year-old white guy, I generally have to. It takes a lot of work for me to trust them because I pattern match to the white guys that I knew early in life who betrayed me, this person. I have no reason to distrust him until he starts selling me on trusting him throughout the duration of the show. And I'm coming in with baggage, which is that I also watched his special, which is that I also watched some of his interviews.
Speaker 1:Frankly, myself, when I am trying to manipulate for the sake of my career, and other people who I have watched do the trick of look how see-through I am, look how emotional I'm willing to be in front of you, look how vulnerable I'm willing to be in front of you, and then you watch them build a castle on that vulnerability and transparency and now, like he is serving us the ultimate chip of transparency, like the ultimate trading chip of transparency, which is I'm gonna do a whole show about my pain and as somebody who has done some art making recently um, about pain, among other things I know that that is not something that people do with completely pure ambitions. It costs too much to do it, for somebody to do it that way. So, anyway, I have now spent 30 minutes talking about this show. I think you guys should watch it for yourselves. But, as you can see, I have a lot to fucking say about this show. I think you guys should watch it for yourselves, but, as you can see, I have a lot to fucking say about this. We're probably gonna do not 30 minutes, but like a couple minutes on this show every week as it rolls out.
Speaker 1:I hope that the show is successful because, frankly, I want to see more black shows have opportunities on networks now that everybody's budgets have been cut. Um, and I hope that this person is going to be okay, because I think he is very clearly trying to tell us through his medium he's not okay. So all I all, emotionally, all I can come back to that with is I hope he's okay, because I would feel terrible. This is selfish. I would feel terrible having tuned into this person's demise. That would really suck. I hate that. So I hope that doesn't happen, okay, um, mortgage what do we do to filibuster here as we just switch segments?
Speaker 2:um well, I was just gonna say, I mean you kind of said it at the end, but like nobody, like there's no version of this show, of anybody doing a show like this, where it wouldn't seem slightly distrustful. I feel like, or do you think that is possible?
Speaker 1:yeah, okay, I don't. I mean, I think the closest thing that we can get and it's difficult to get it right now to like something that is pure in a visual medium, this, the closest thing, I think, is like. One is like, maybe, documentaries that are created by an unleveraged filmmaker, um, or and this is like why I think this show even got a chance right now, and this is going to sound crazy. But the other is like social media. It's probably as close to like unfiltered, raw images of what life is and, of course, like that's editorialized too. People are making choices about what they share and what they don't share, but the composite of everything that is shared, I think, does give you somewhat of a snapshot of what society and what life looks like. This, I mean, if you watch it like it doesn't, you know, in some ways it does very much feel just like regular mundane life. You're watching somebody sit around, scroll Grindr, choose clothes, talk to their friends, go on car rides, do mushrooms. Those parts feel pretty real and pretty subtle, or pretty mundane almost, but like he has been telling this story to us now for a couple years, the story of him outing himself and how his family is responding to that and how it's hurting him. And in some ways I bet he probably had to get Tyler in the first episode to get it made. But in doing so, all I could see once I saw tyler there was oh yeah, this is a tv show, because the tv show needs stunt casting to get the pilot made. And as soon as you start getting in, delving into the business of like I got to include this to get it green lit and I got to do this and it's it's contaminated at that point like it is no longer now.
Speaker 1:That's not to say I can't even trust the message, which is I'm in pain, I need help. I do trust that message. I believe it. I think that is what's going on with him, but not in the way that he is describing it. I do think his family's isolation of him and marginalization of him is hurting him, is hurting him. But I think there's something more real here, which is this person wants a larger acceptance that is not just about his sexual orientation. That is about wanting to be accepted as genius, wanting to be accepted as person, love interest, wanting to be accepted as just him. And this is ah. Thank you for asking this, morgan, because it reminds me of the thing that the cautionary tale in all of this for me is that sometimes I can be prone to the idea of, if I show somebody exactly who I am in a bare and raw way and they will accept me in that way, that that means that I'm good enough, that that means that like I, that that that means that like I, that that will be good for my self-esteem. And I think the broken part of that theory is that someone else's way of seeing you should have an, should have any effect on how you feel about yourself, how you love yourself, how you esteem yourself, the esteem you have for yourself. And I think that right now he is like ah, I'm going to bare soul for all to see and they will either have to accept me or reject me as I am. Um, and it's like, but why? So I'll continue watching.
Speaker 1:Last question I have actually here, morgan, I'm curious for your, for your. I told Tim after I watched it the first time the next day I was thinking to myself I wish there was more of the show, and that was a signal to me that I must like the show. If I want more, I must like it. And he disagreed. He felt like you can feel connected to something, want more of something, feel the impulse to grab for more of something, but that doesn't mean that you like it. It might just mean that, like I don't know, that you're curious about it, that you're interested in it. Whatever, it doesn't mean you like it. What do you think about that, though? In my opinion, like as far as media is concerned, if I keep wanting more of it, I think that means, like, I like it.
Speaker 2:maybe it just means I'm addicted to it.
Speaker 2:Um, I would agree with the latter half of that.
Speaker 2:But I also think, um, you've brought up like likability of characters before and I I definitely, in the past few years, have moved into like hate watching where, like, I feel like I went on a downward spiral of watching a lot of shows where I literally hated, like I didn't like any of the characters, but I kept watching because I don't know if it was because I was hoping maybe they would show me something else and then I would like them. Or I was intrigued by, like, the decisions that they were making, because I didn't think they made sense or anything in that realm. And so I think you've said before, like you don't think a character has to be likable, they just have to be interesting. Or I think I've heard that somewhere, but I think that falls into the vein of yeah, you can still want to watch something even if you don't like it, because there's something about it, and I don't really think it matters what that thing is, as long as you want more of it, like, I think that's the whole point. So that's my two cents.
Speaker 1:Yes, sense. Yes, I think that the character needs to be compelling and the stakes of what's happening with the character must be compelling, and both of those check out a hundred percent on this show. The character is compelling and the stakes he's not saying it, but while I'm watching it I'm like the stakes kind of seem like life or death. I hope that's not like I know it's not an exaggeration to say I bet other people feel the same heaviness while watching this character. Like the stakes feel grave, if not like life or death, like the acceptance or, I don't know, betrayal of your family, family is. Those are also really high stakes. So, regardless, the stakes are there. Um, I'm gonna say last thing I'm gonna say on this is this has the makings of, this has the makings of recently, while pitching, going to meetings with producers, going to meetings with, talking to my agents, all kinds of shit, people are telling me, basically the post George Floyd window of celebrating blackness, feminism, um, you know, pro LGBTQ, messaging in media, in entertainment, hollywoodwood, etc. Like the window, basically, of if you want to get something sold, you gotta put some window dressing on it that makes it feel god I'm gonna use this word that has been so bastardized you gotta make it feel woke, like the era of that. They're telling me in no uncertain terms. Some of them have told me just this, bluntly they're like that's over, okay, so that they're just. They're not even telling me what to do with that information, but they're just telling me it's over. They're not telling me you got to stop making this, that and the third, whatever. But, like I have already internalized on some level, probably six months ago as I was finishing my book, I have internalized that that's over and this show I think two years ago if it had come out, would have. I'm sure I mean it already has quite a buzz and I think it's already going to have like a larger conversation around it. But I think if this show had dropped in like 2022 or 2021, I think it would have exploded upon impact because of all of the themes of blackness, queerness, religion, family dynamics. I'm sure there's like going to be some bipartisan conversations around this thing with regards to how people in this part of the country see it and how this part of the country, whatever. I think it would have exploded on impact. I think it would have had a huge flame behind it and now I'm curious to see how it does. All right, that's been a long time talking about our first segment, so we got to move on to our second segment. Okay, um, I'll just go.
Speaker 1:So lsu versus. There were two huge games in the women's game basketball last night college basketball, ncaa tournament, elite eight games these were like candy for the advertisers on these networks who produce these basketball games. Last night it was ESPN LSU versus Iowa, followed by UConn, which is the most successful women's basketball program of all time, against USC and their star Juju Watkins, who is a prodigy freshman. But the first game was the main event. The first game was the main event for a bunch of reasons, including last year. These two teams faced off in the NCAA tournament and LSU won and there was some shit talking between LSU star Angel Reese and Iowa star Caitlin Clark.
Speaker 1:Like opposing mix of people, like opposing sort of brands, is very Southern conservative in a way that is jarring. I think women are scary to non-white people. You should familiarize yourself with more women like Kim Mulkey. There are so many of them. She is not a rarity, she is a type of a, she is one of a certain type of people and that, like that searing nature of like, this is how we do things, and I don't give a fuck what anybody else says.
Speaker 1:I am a part of a tradition and this tradition goes this way I am, and like I don't give a shit what you guys are tweeting about. I don't give a shit what this reporter from the New York Times or the Washington Post thinks about how I, how I move, how I live my life, like I am a part of the real American tradition. Ok, I'm from the south. I go to a southern ass church where other people are telling me you're doing the right thing here, keep those so-and-sos in line and don't fuck around with, for instance, that gay shit. Don't fuck around with that lesbian shit. Like, stay in order of god's order.
Speaker 1:Like that woman that person is living with as far as she can see, I'm certain she is living with all 10 toes on the ground. And the rest of you are the ones who are presenting some woo woo bullshit. The rest of you are the ones on some new age shit that's going to disintegrate into dust, and so you will leave me the fuck alone about how I live my life and how I position myself in this world, and I'm just going to be honest, like the thing that continues to make more people print out in this version similar to the tech bro which continues to print out over and, over and over again is like she is so successful with this brand of how you run a life and a program and young people. She is churning out wins now, a national championship and a bunch of star players who are going to like, who are already millionaires, who are already like future WNBA stars, who are already like media entities in their own right, who, when they get a microphone in front of them, they are able to move culture and tell a story about themselves and about what's happening with them in a way that is impactful. So, like you guys, you are not going to change her, like she will not be changed, changed she, and I don't think she will be remorseful either about that, and and and I don't see any other way around that. But let me get back to the game. Let me actually talk about basketball for a second before I start talking about the culture wars between iowa and lsu. If I even get to that, um, iowa won, which made me I was rooting for LSU. I think, uh, I would get, I would venture to guess, 95% of black people watching this game were rooting for LSU and they won. It was a really good game. I mean, it was like both teams came out firing, both teams came out shooting at a high percentage, both teams were filling it up from three. But I must be honest in the storytelling of this game.
Speaker 1:The second best experience in life is when you go into something with a certain set of expectations. Like you go to a oh my God, this is great, we all love this. When you go to a burger spot in the middle of nowhere, like you just pull over, you're driving somewhere. You pull over to a burger spot or a burrito spot or whatever it is that you like to eat and you sit down, you wait for that burger. It's like a burger you've never had before. It's not McDonald's, it's not, you know. It's not fast food, it's not like some super cute bougie boutique shot like shit that has an Instagram. Like it's just a fucking burger spot. Like it's just like hey, come in here and get a burger. And you look at it and you're like, oh, it looks pretty good. And you bite into it and it's like, wow, holy shit, this is a phenomenal burger.
Speaker 1:Second best experience in life is when you go into something with very high expectations, like you go into it almost with the goosebumps already, like that fun crackle of tension and anticipation, cause you know, you've been sitting with it for two days knowing, ooh, about to get that shit, I'm about to have that thing that I want, that thing that I like, that thing that everybody is saying is that crack, I'm going to have that. And then you get it and it's that and it meets the expectations that you had that are through the roof right, that is fire. Through the roof right, that is the, that is fire. That is like, because what you got on the front end was that you got to live with that tension of anticipation. So that's two, three, four a week, a month, a year. That's all that extra time that you got to sort of dream about and think and feel like as you're going through the mundanities of life. You got to look forward to it. You got to have that in the back of your head. Ooh, you got to feel that way that you wake up a little bit earlier each day as it gets closer, because you're excited about that thing and your heartbeat, your heart races and you're as you're doing other things. You're like I don't even give a shit about having to take my car to the shop because I know I'm going to have that thing on Thursday. And then when the thing hits, and it hits the way that you thought it was going to hit, that's the best experience and this game was that experience. Even though the team that I wanted to win lost, I still felt treated to something spectacular and that met the moment. But and I got to be real about this because we're just talking about basketball okay, kaitlyn Clark delivered on those expectations, period. There was not a moment in that game, there was not a second. I promise you you will not be able to point to the moment in that game where Kaitlyn Clark did not live up to the expectations. That doesn't mean she didn't have a turnover, because she had plenty. That doesn't mean she didn't miss a shot because she missed plenty and she did something that is a hallmark of superstardom across mediums, spectrums, sports industries, jobs, personalities, whatever. When someone is great at something and in her case it is shooting and controlling a game with her shooting, and they lean into that thing unabashedly, it's… that is how you meet those expectations and that's what she did the first play of the game is Kaitlyn Clark dribbling, remember, sorry, she tries to go around the screen but she can't. She goes under the screen. Kaitlyn Clark steps back, pow. It's her first three out of nine that she would go on to hit in this game. Kaitlyn Clark was extremely Steph Curry-like that is not her hyperbole.
Speaker 1:Every time down the court the possession. For Caitlin, most most basketball players, the possession starts when you know the point guard kind of like dribbles down or like there's a kick up to the guy, to the person in the wing or whatever. The possession starts when someone is approaching the three point line. That's usually in a basketball game. Where the possession starts that's when someone is reasonably in a scoring threat position on the court and everybody else, all of the nine players, need to be aware of what's happening because a shot can go up. For people like Steph Curry and Kaitlyn Clark, the possession and there are few of them on earth, there may only be two of them on earth the possession starts at half court. The possession starts as soon as that person crosses half court. As soon as Caitlin Clark came across half court it was mayhem because she would pull up from 25 feet, 27 feet, 28 feet, 30 feet. She was ready to pull up and she was ready. She was looking to hit the jugular vein on every possession of the entire game.
Speaker 1:There was a moment, only one, that I saw in the whole game where Kaitlyn Clark. It was probably in the third quarter. Kaitlyn Clark doesn't have the ball. Someone else has it. Kaitlyn Clark comes off of a screen on the right side. This person's holding the ball on the left side, the person on the right side, this person's holding the ball on the left side. The person on the left side is looking at the woman on the block. She's looking to bump it down to the lady on the block Caitlin Clark does like an Iverson, cut across, through, you know, around a screen over to about the free throw line, with her hands up, like ready to catch the ball, both hands up, she's open and the lady with the ball bumps it down to the big woman and, like I don't know if we call it a big man or big woman, I think big, big woman, I don't know bumps it down to the post player and caitlyn clark doesn't get the look and she's the look of frustration.
Speaker 1:She claps her hands at the woman who passed the ball down she's. Her face is like frowned up, like yo it is. She is saying everything except give me the fucking ball. And she's almost saying that she may have said that and that is like that's what you want to see from a superstar. And, to be clear, you saw that from her and Angel Reese on the other side. Even though Angel Reese wasn't having a phenomenal game, she still finished with 17 and 20. But like she got hurt during the game. She hurt her ankle, like she was in some ways neutralized because Iowa knew that they, that LSU was looking to feed her on the block. So much throughout the game. But Kaitlyn Clark stole the show. It was that it was the Kaitlyn Clark experience and I've seen Kaitlyn Clark play before.
Speaker 1:But, like, stakes are what makes. Someone asked me the other day what makes a good story stakes. Stakes make the whole story. Stakes make rooting. You don't root for a main character unless there's. You don't root for anything unless there are stakes. If winning or losing it's all the same, there's nothing to root for. And the stakes of this game transcended the NCAA tournament. The stakes of this game were there's race behind it. There's people trying to present these two teams as good and evil. There's politics behind it. There are newbies like me tuning in to see who really does run this, this women's basketball shit like. Is Kaitlyn Clark really that person like that? There's. So there are such stakes.
Speaker 1:Kaitlyn Clark even told someone one of the reporters that the stakes of the game were making her feel pressure the whole week, that the stakes of the game were affecting her. Now she didn't say she was nervous, she made a point to say I'm not nervous. She said I slept like a baby last night, in so many words, but I'm not nervous. She said I slept like a baby last night in so many words. But she could feel. You can feel when there are stakes. And to speak to those stakes and I wondered about this man, did I love watching the fucking LSU women play? I'm going to tell you exactly really why. Now for one, these people can just hoop.
Speaker 1:Flau'jae is a like, in a way, kayla Clark is obviously a better player and she's awesome and she's going to be a great WNBA player in my opinion. But I have no idea how this game translates to the pro game. Well, I'll find out. Flau'jae, flau'jae, flau'jae. I'm so sorry. I'm such a newbie to this this. I'm sorry, I did mispronounce people's names. Please, please, don't. Please, don't be mad at me. She is a dynamic basketball player, a dynamic athlete, and she moves and plays in a way that I think is on the cutting edge of the modern sport, like the stuff that kids are practicing right now. To have all these euro steps putbacksbacks, step backs, like she has all of it. And they talked about her training schedule. She wakes up at five in the morning and does her first workout. She works out three times a day, like you see it all there. And I think she's a sophomore. You see it all there. She's the one who also has a recording, a record deal at rock nation. She's recording artist. She is, I believe, named after her, her father, who was a rapper.
Speaker 1:I love everything about the LSU women's basketball team. Let me be blunt. Part of it is that they're black as hell. They are fucking black as shit. They came in with hair done, eyelashes done, skin popping. With hair done, eyelashes done, skin popping, Like there is a flair and a style not only to how they present themselves but also to how they play the game. That there's no other way for me to describe it. Besides, it's black and we can go through history and talk about, oh well, who invented basketball and basketball's origins are in Indiana, and this, that and the history of these games is blah, blah. It's like no, that is dumb shit. I don't give a fuck about any of that. This is a black sport and these are some black ass people playing this sport in a black way and that is something that I celebrate.
Speaker 1:I could not help myself but to hear. I mean, for part of it is like literally one of the ladies on the LSU team is a recording artist, but like I couldn't help myself to hear Glowrilla, yeah, glow in my head. I'm not lying to y'all, I'm not. This is not a corny little like thing. I'm laying over this to y'all, I'm not. This is not a corny little like thing, I'm laying over this. Like I literally was hearing that song, yeah, glow in my head over and over and over and over throughout the duration of this entire game, and it brought me to.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about this this this morning. It brought me to like how I, I my actual thought was somebody should Make some sort of something A documentary, a YouTube series, whatever Like the connection between Hip hop and basketball, which are. Again, I'll be extremely blunt, these are Black forms of expression Period that other people participate in, but like they're black, the this moment of black women transcending in hip hop and black women transcending particularly in the college game Because I think now South Carolina is probably going to win the NCAA championship in the women's game, led by black players Like I would love to see somebody do a side-by-side and I know I'm the same one who was like stop comparing John Morant to rappers, blah, blah, blah but like, okay, I would love to see someone do a side-by-side sort of analysis, storytelling, exploration of those two things and the ways that they are connected especially because we have a women's star who is actually a recording artist and the dynamics of larger society taking so long to have an appreciation for and a love for, and honor and honor and give respect to this game and this medium as played by black women. I would love to see somebody explore those two things and just like the boom that is happening right now as those two things really take center stage. I'm definitely going to watch the men's final four, I'm definitely going to watch the championship game, but I'm going to have to make up reasons to root for some of the teams that are involved. I really don't care who wins UConn, I don't care. I'll probably try to root for NC State, just because they got the big boy and they're just fun to watch, because they don't look like a basketball team, because of their center he looks like a football player or Shrek. I want to root for that, but like I don't care, I cared last night and caring is stakes and that's what makes the story and so I don't know. I want to see somebody make those. I want to see somebody make that happen. All right, I've run out of time. I can't even do another segment. Who's texting me? Whose number is this? We did two segments today. I don't even care, I like it. I think that's good. We did a good job. It was thorough. All right, I'll do it quickly.
Speaker 1:Cowboy Carter, this is going to be extremely, extremely quick analysis. Cowboy Carter, beyonce's country album, which she's saying is not a country album, it's a Beyonce album. Fine, whatever Love, capital letters, l-o-v-e. I have listened to the album now twice, one time while road tripping, which was the best way to listen to an album like this is driving on the open highway. I'll start with the one. There's literally only one bad thing I have to say about this thing, which is hate the title. Bad title, don't like it, I don't, I don't. It's not for me to choose for her, but like I don't want anything that evokes Jay-Z in the title of this album. He's not on the album, he's not Beyonce, and this type of album from Beyonce is a singular feat that I believe only Beyonce could pull off, which is and this is the feat she made an album that feels one is.
Speaker 1:Now. I did not have to be baptized this way because my mom loved country music. My mom loves country music, and so I listened to a good amount of country music growing up. Mom is from the South, my family's from the South. Country music is not foreign to us. I can there are, I know, a couple of Bonnie Raitt and Shania Twain songs, word for word for word for word. I can, I can. I got it. Ok, I was already primed. I was looking forward to this. This was not a reach, this was not something I had to be baptized into, but a feat she is pulling off is people. I've already heard people who wanted to look the other way on country music and who don't feel led into country music change their tune because this album not just because it's Beyonce, but because this album is so good I love the first and last songs of this album and they represent what is there in that's packaging. That's bookending Okay, bookending is important. It's like the cover and the back cover of a book and they represent what is there in pack. That's packaging. That's book ending okay, book ending is important. It's like the cover and the back cover of a book.
Speaker 1:The sound quality is so distinct and so ultimate, it's like so peak, it is so crisp, um, and at the same time damp, and at the same time her voice comes. Her voice is like in your headphones. She is there with you. She has a way of I'm gonna, I'm gonna be so real, which is like I don't even know how much I'm gonna be able to listen to this album, because listening to it is an emotional and spiritual experience in that it is Beyonce does not let you free from humanity, she doesn't let you avoid while listening to her music, especially in this album.
Speaker 1:She doesn't let and I'm not. It's not even. It's not the writing, it's not the words, it's not the messages, it's just this. It's just the musicianship, it's just the clarity, it's just the. It is so cinematic. Whiskey and cigarettes and Levi jeans and cowboy hats and straw and space. I can see those things while listening to this album. I can feel them. It reminds me go.
Speaker 1:My mom is in Bolivar, tennessee right now, visiting family. My family has a farm in Bolivar, tennessee. It reminds me, go back to that farm. There is something for you there, something, and she's giving us that in this album. She's giving us when I say my family, I mean my extended family, like 50 of us.
Speaker 1:But she is giving something that all artists do not give right now, because for most of us and I mean across mediums there is the urgency and the pressure to create at volume, just to stay afloat, just to get your money, just to get your notoriety, just to get allowed to be invited to the next thing. There's a volume play happening and she has managed to accomplish both volume because it's a long ass album and she just put out an album, I guess two years ago. It's long, but it is thorough, it is dense, it has feeling, it is raw, it is full, it is dripping with. This is what is real. So it's my favorite Beyonce album. I'm not even gonna act like I'm a Beyonce stan, because I'm not, but this one is doing the thing, so check it out. All right, I'm out of here. Goodbye, this is nothing but anarchy. We will see you guys Thursday. No, I don't know. We'll see you guys when the podcast drops, cause that's what, how, how this really goes now.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Outro Music
