sportsalcohol.com podcast (general)

We got a little bit behind editing this one, we admit: Our annual round-up of a dozen-plus indie movies from the summer blockbuster season is dropping closer to the end of the year. But you know what? That works, because this marathon episode includes tons of recommendations that might get lost in the end-of-year awards-movie shuffle. Enjoy our enthusiasm over indie horror, indie whimsy, indie young-adults-figuring-stuff-out, and all the rest! Featuring Aubrey Plaza, Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba, Maika Monroe, Marcel the Shell, Jessie Buckley, and more!

Direct download: SportsAlcoholPodcastSummerIndies22.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:24pm EDT

Once again, the longest-running and most popular SportsAlcohol.com episode format returns to look at the biggest summer movies of 20 years ago. What the hell was going on in 2001? Sequels, dinosaurs, Diesels, and ogres, among others! Join Marisa, Jesse, Ben, Nathaniel, and Jeremy as we talk about the nine highest-grossing movies of that summer, because most of us refused to watch Dr. Dolittle 2. But we also include another half-dozen non-blockbusters that we genuinely love! It's another nostalgic yet skeptical trip down memory lane to summers past!

Direct download: SportsAlcoholPodcastSummerMovies2001.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:18am EDT

Look, it's been a long sort-of quarantine for everyone, including your friends at SportsAlcohol.com, and we haven't all completed the projects we thought would be our silver linings for this extended period of inactivity. For example: Thinking we could all use some laughs during a pretty dark time, a bunch of us recorded a comedy-centric podcast about what makes us laugh, back in the spring, when it seemed like maybe we'd be dealing with a pandemic through the summer. Jesse's neglect in editing this long but fun-filled episode turned out to be prescient, as it's now almost six months later, and here we still are, dealing with the pandemic, and maybe still in need of laughs? So here's Marisa, Jesse, Nathaniel, Sara, Jeremy, and Jon talking about, and analyzing, the kind of comedy (well, mostly comedy) that makes us laugh now, has made us laugh in the past, and we hope will make us laugh again in the future.

Direct download: SportsAlcoholPodcastWhatMakesUsLaugh.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:49pm EDT

It's the end of the year, and you know what that means: music publications published their year-end coverage approximately one to three months ago. We here at SportsAlcohol.com do not have a list of our 200 Favorite Albums That Came Out Between January and Mid-October. For our best music of 2017 wrap-up, we decided instead to take a different tactic and take a roughly chronological trip through the various live shows we all attended, together and apart, throughout the year, and let the discussion spring from there. You'll find out who we went to see because we're afraid of death, whose live show exceeded their disappointing album(s), and which show got Rob feeling real emotional in a rough year.

Direct download: SportsAlcoholPodcastBestMusic2017.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:24am EDT

We'll have a proper podcast about Star Wars: The Last Jedi soon enough, but in the meantime, here: we made you a mixtape.

Here are the instructions:

1. Figure out when you will be arriving at your theater of choice to see The Last Jedi.
2. Approximately 35 minutes before that time, hit "play" on the mp3 of our mixtape on your music-playing device of choice.
3. Get psyched.

There is also a trivia component:

The songs and samples on this mix (EXCEPT those that are from a Star Wars movie or constitute some kind of reference to Star Wars or a Star Wars cast members) have one thing in common. What is it?

Direct download: TheLastJediMixtape2017.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:55pm EDT

While the Steven Soderbergh oeuvre isn't universally beloved by The SportsAlcohol crew, it is well studied. We talk about his return to filmmaking in Logan Lucky as well as his whole career. If you're worried we only cover his films, don't worry: we talk more about K Street than anyone has since K Street aired. Other topics include:

  • Legacies
  • George Clooney (like, a lot about Clooney)
  • Blonde women
  • Movies that aren't as good as Do The Right Thing
  • Why exactly one of us thinks the universally reviled Ocean's Twelve is the best one of the series
  • non-actor actors
  • professionalism
  • contempt
  • K Street
  • The very nature of reality

 

Direct download: Soderbergh_SportsAlcohol_Podcast.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:03pm EDT

As we did for 1994, 1995, and 1996, we look 20 years back at the top films of the summer of 1997. Things were much different 20 years ago and we tackle some of the bug changes including: 

Watching trailers without a broadband connection
Bookstores, existence of
Nicolas Cage was respected, dammit
John Travolta too, for that matter.
Girls wanted to hang out with us

Direct download: SportsAlcohol_Movies_of_Summer_1997.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm EDT

If you're anything like us, this year has been a hard one for living in the moment. That's why we've spent a number of podcast episodes reliving moments of the past, both in our own lives and in the culture. Today, Marisa leads Jesse, Rob, and Sabrina down a guided trip of a representative cross-section of Billboard Magazine's top songs of 1996. It was a simpler time, one when we were all in high school and Bob Dole was the worst thing that could happen to us. Some topics covered: 

Every band is someone's favorite
Getting into a band you don't like before they make it big
Sheryl Crow dishing dirt on the seedy underbelly of the music industry
Rob and Jesse's AP English class
Mickey Rooney's worst role is good argument for a 1984-style regime 
Friends (both the tv show and the concept of a close bond with others)

Be sure to check out SportsAlcohol.com for some videos related to this episode.  

Direct download: SportsAlcoholPodcast1996BillboardSongs.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:12am EDT

By the time you listen to this, The Suicide Squad movie will have set a box office record for August while receiving such bad reviews its fans are petitioning to shut down review aggregate rottentomatoes.com. So is it any good? There's actually a lot to break down here:

  • Studio medling
  • Racism
  • Ike Barinholtz
  • Sexism
  • Soundtrack cues
  • The triumph of Margot Robbie
  • Uneeded DC vs Marvel comparisons
  • The many lives of Jai Courtney's career
  • How much worse Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was
  • Hollywood It Boy Joel Kinnaman 
  • Method Acting
  • Ike Barinholtz again for good measure
Direct download: SportsAlcoholSuicideSquadPodcast.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:12am EDT

Mother's Day Weekend means that all the SportsAlcohol got together to watch and talk about Captain America: Civil War

Spoiler Warning: Lots of spoilers about this movie and the MCU in general

Direct download: Sports_Alcohol_Captain_America_Civil_War.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:54am EDT

Both The History of The Eagles and its Documentary Now! parody are currently on Netflix.  This coincides with the release of Weezer's latest self-titled album. This has gotten us thinking a lot about California music recently, but what does that even mean? Sara, Marisa, Sabrina, Jesse, and Rob tried to break that down. Topics we covered include:

  • The Eagles (and other bands our parents like)
  • Weezer through the years
  • faux-spiritualism
  • the feminist impact of overalls-releated imagery in songwriting
  • How little we actually know about rap
  • My new genius account: http://genius.com/roberthenryk

Spoiler Warning: Lots of spoilers about The History of The Eagles

 

Direct download: SportsAlcoholDoesCaliforniaMusic.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:21am EDT

Jesse, Nathaniel, Rob, and Sabrina all saw Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. None of them really liked it. They knew this would probably be the case. So why go see and then record a very long podcast about it? Long story short: Zack Snyder. This film's director makes watchable movies that are always some degree of hot mess.  For the long version: listen on! You may want to read this seminal essay that is referenced early on.

There will be spoilers, but not nearly as many as there were in the trailers. 

 

Direct download: SportsAlcoholBvSPodcast.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:08am EDT

The SportsAlcohol.com crew gets together to discuss favorite holiday movies, TV, and music, including an inquiry about the continued popularity of Home Alone, a spirited debate about "Baby, It's Cold Outside." and freestyled TGI Christmas episodes.

Direct download: SportsAlcoholPodcastHolidayEntertainment.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:34pm EDT

All of the sportsalcohol.com founders were not only upstate for the holidays, we've also read all of the Hunger Games books and seen all of the movies. On the heels of the release of Mockingjay, Part 2, we talked about it all: the plague of breaking up books into multiple movies, the chemistry of Jennifer Lawrence and her co-stars, multiple directors, and Josh Hutcherson's sweet skateboarding moves.

Direct download: SportsAlcoholHungerGames.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:21pm EDT

1995 was a crazy summer, I think. As you listen to this podcast, you'll discover that I didn't 'experience' things so much in the 90's as I read about them in Newsweek. That doesn't stop me from breaking down the top ten domestic box office gross earners of '95 with Jesse, Marisa, Nathaniel, and Sabrina.

We ask the tough questions:

What's the best Die Hard?

Why did we like Batman Forever so much?

Do I even like movies?

So on and so forth. Enjoy!

Direct download: SportsAlcoholSummerFilms1995.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:15am EDT

Upstate New York: where podcast magic is made. 

We waitied until all the SportsAlcohol.com founders had seen Jurassic World and gathered around a dinner table north of Albany to lay down some truth about the premiere dinosaur-based adventure franchise of our time (behind Dino Riders, of course). Not only are there a ton of spoilers for all the movies in the Jurassic Park franchise, but I reveal one of my deepest, darkest secrets!

Direct download: SportsAlcoholJurassicWorldPodcast.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 5:30pm EDT

Our Mad Max review catches us after watching the original trilogy and then after a screening of Fury Road.

Direct download: SportsAlcohol_podcast_-_Mad_Max.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:54am EDT

Four of SportsAlcohol.com's founding nerds saw Avengers: Age of Ultron together and talked about it afterward, including thoughts on who got the short shrift, how the the movie fits into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, what might be in store creatively for Avengers 3 and 4 as well as nerds everywhere, and what Joss Whedon got right.

Direct download: The_SportsAlcohol.com_Podcast_-_Age_of_Ultron.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:24am EDT

Over the holidays, some of the SportsAlcohol.com crew got together and took in the (probably? hopefully?) final Peter Jackson film based on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. We discussed frame rate, plot, pacing, and the many wonderful animals used for transportation.

SPOILER ALERT: In this podcast we discuss a movie based on a popular book that's over seventy years old with millions of copies in print. If you don't know what happens, it's your own fault.

NOISE ALERT: The were some weird clicks in the recording I couldn't get rid of. Also, our cats were hungry, so you might here their bells or their whining in the background.

 

Direct download: TheSportsAlcoholHobbitPodcast.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:36am EDT

Talking about The Newsroom: the series finale, the rest of the show, Aaron Sorkin, good things, bad things, the whole deal.

Direct download: Sports_Alcohol_on_The_Newsroom.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:12am EDT

At the risk of dating ourselves, the majority of the SportsAlcohol crew loves the music that was tearing up the CMJ charts during the transition of the Clinton to Bush 43 administrations because that's when we were in college.  Sabrina, Marisa, Jesse, and Me (Rob) went to see one of our favorites from that time period, The Dismemberment Plan, on their current tour when it came through New York. 

We were joined by Sara. Not the Sara that has been writing great pieces for us about unlikeability (among other things), but another equally excellent Sara that we've been going to shows with for about fifteen years. It is just dawning on me now how many Saras with no 'h's Jesse knows.  It's at least three, which feels like a lot to me.

Afterwards, we sat down to talk about The Plan as well as other music from the turn of the century. What bands did we like back in the day? Which ones are still going strong and which ones fell by the wayside? What group's lack of a promised second record is driving Sabrina insane? How come Interpol is still together? All those questions and more follow.

Direct download: SportsAlcoholTurnOfTheCenturyMusic.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:59am EDT

With the possible exception of Jesse and Marisa's Wedding, a record number of SportsAlcohol contributors gathered in the same place this past weekend for a screening of Interstellar in IMAX. Afterwards, some of us sat down to talk wormholes, black holes, and Dogstar (the band not the star). Tune in to find out who liked it, who had reservations, what Ben would call Interstellar if it were a TV show, and how Rob felt about that name.

THIS PODCAST IS FULL OF SPOILERS

Direct download: SportsAlcoholInterstellar.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:02am EDT

We talk about the 40th season premiere of Saturday Night Live.

Direct download: SNL_podcast_092814.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:50pm EDT

Bands that got back together to play the hits on tour was a phenomena that, like so many things in American culture, catered to baby boomers until very recently. About a decade ago, the Pixies started playing shows again and hipsters in their 20's and 30's suddenly had something in common with all the grayhairs who enjoy the classic rock circuit.

SportsAlcohol.com founders Jesse and Marisa had the pleasure of seeing a reunited Replacements play with Deer Tick and The Hold Steady at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens this past weekend with a bunch of friends. Afterwards, they discussed their uncomplicated feelings of getting into reunion acts in their 30's. What do they want to see and why? They discuss their specific experiences and idealize what they want to see with reunion acts. They were joined by recently-minted SportsAlcohol contributor Ben and future SportsAlcohol contributor Derrick, who has participated in a couple of our music list surveys.

This featured image was taken by Nicole Fara Silver and shamelessly swiped from Rollingstone.com's review of the show.

Direct download: Sports_Alcohol_Bands_Reunion_Podcast.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:07am EDT

Join us as Rob and Jesse look twenty years back in time at the top ten movies of the summer of 1994.

Direct download: Sports_Alcohol_Summer_Movies_1994.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:39am EDT

The SportsAlcohol Podcast: Guardians of The Galaxy

A majority SportsAlcohol.com's team found themselves upstate for opening weekend of Guardians of The Galaxy, so we did a podcast about it. In a discussion moderated by Marisa, we discuss the movie's biggest laughs, the strengths and inherent limitations of the Marvel Film's house style as a growing brand, the cruel trick Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson pulled on Hollywood, and the AM pop hits of the 1970's.

 

Direct download: sportsalcoholguardians.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:54am EDT

The SportsAlcohol.com roundtable: Amazing Spider Man 2

SportsAlcohol.com's editorial summit 3 coincided with opening day for The Amazing Spider-Man 3. In a discussion moderated by Marisa, we discuss the probablems we had with the movie, how great Emma Stone is, the myth of the multiple villian problem, and much more.

Direct download: SportsAlcohol.com_on_Amazing_Spider-Man_2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:30pm EDT

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