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Presence, Essence, Nonsense, Idiocracy, Sense
11 Plays4 months ago
Bryan and Dave speak about "being present" and the benefits as well as the repercussions of not being present. Also underrated media of the week review for last weeks movie and a new recommendation.
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Transcript
The Power of Presence in Daily Life
00:00:01
David Isaacs
Welcome, everybody. episode is called presence is a present or something. don't know. I didn't spend that much time thinking about it.
00:00:12
David Isaacs
It is February.
00:00:14
Brian Leithead
We're off to a great start already.
00:00:17
David Isaacs
Yeah, I mean, you know, no one knows how much actually goes into creativity. I'm not just sitting here rambling for no reason. actually spend many an hour hanging of contents to put out each week.
00:00:31
David Isaacs
But anyways, it February 19th, 2025. We are back and talking about being present today and how that is a present.
00:00:43
David Isaacs
Presence is a present.
00:00:46
Brian Leithead
I like presence. I like being present. So, uh, it's one thing that I've been talking with my therapist about. So I kind of wanted to bring it as a topic for this week. Uh, I'm always seem to be on my phone, even when I'm hanging out with my son or my wife and they're talking and I just not listening, just, just scrolling endlessly through Instagram and, and YouTube reels and shorts. So,
00:01:13
Brian Leithead
And I don't even, when I watch and scroll, I don't even really necessarily get any substance from these reels. So I've been working on a personal level of just actually being present and listening to people, know, sucking up the moment.
00:01:29
Brian Leithead
I'm just trying to be overall goal of being a better person. Being present by itself doesn't necessarily make better person, but it's just one of my goals of just being more active and interested in everything that is happening around me.
00:01:46
David Isaacs
Yeah, well, I think it can kind of help you. It's probably one of the steps to becoming a better person because being more present allows you to notice more.
00:01:58
David Isaacs
The more that you pay attention, allows you to have more empathy and sympathy for people. The more that you actually care about what's going on and paying attention to somebody's having a bad day, you can...
00:02:13
David Isaacs
offer any, you know, Hey, here, if you need anything or allows you to think about and check in maybe on a friend that you haven't talked to in a while and just want to make sure you can see how they're doing or even at home or family members. If, uh,
00:02:30
David Isaacs
you remember something about a conversation that you had prior and you bring it up and ask how that's going. I know I had a conversation with someone at work I haven't seen while because our schedules for going into the office are different.
00:02:45
David Isaacs
And uh, He was like, Oh, yeah, thanks for remembering. know, I was having issue with my side business because I had brought it up to him, I guess.
00:02:56
David Isaacs
Amazon changed something and they were making it so that any product that had batteries had to be third party tested. guess there's some issue with like lithium batteries in products that are being shipped.
00:03:11
David Isaacs
So he had to deal with that and actually him back quite a bit of money. I definitely think it's a step to becoming a better person, would think.
00:03:21
Brian Leithead
Yeah, for sure. so I know about that. Uh, there was saying it's supposed to ship with any batteries cause it's a potential hazard for causing the electronic device to explode. I don't know that's was that particular instance, but I know that Amazon has been cracking down on a lot of things like that recently. But back to the topic at hand. Yeah, I like earlier today, actually, there's a coworker that I have who kind of just talks and anyone who's listening, even if it's like kind of just turn around and make eye contact, they just kind of start listening or I'm sorry, start talking.
00:04:05
David Isaacs
this person's name Brian?
00:04:07
Brian Leithead
Yeah, yeah.
00:04:11
Brian Leithead
I'm definitely like, I'll just sometimes just think of something in my brain to speak it out loud. My boss goes, kind of gives me like, what fuck are you talking about? all right, anyway, back to work.
00:04:24
Brian Leithead
My menial labor task, but no, and I'm more mean see her son. She's like, I last couple of weeks, I've just been kind of like, I'll like look at her, kind of smile, not even listen, like turn around like I'm in like the fucking judge on the voice or something. Like, she, God bless her heart.
00:04:47
Brian Leithead
Uh, she kind of rambles on about stories about her dog or just cooking with her mom. She's very nice person. just don't think she has a lot of social etiquette, but I do spend, I have spent more time specifically today and this week just because kind of being more present for her just maybe in the hopes that she'll just kind of turn around and get back to work but that's more of a selfish kind of look at it but i you know i talk to everybody else she's kind of one that like i don't really know that well so i'm trying to spend extra time now being more present with her being also helps me with my patience because when people kind of just like
00:05:31
Brian Leithead
talk and talk, I kind of just lose focus.
Overcoming Phone Addiction for Family Connection
00:05:34
Brian Leithead
And I'm sure as I'm doing to our listeners right now, you know, with my own rambles. So I'm kind using her as like a test, maybe as an extreme case, like a jumping off point of being more present, but
00:05:52
David Isaacs
I got a litmus test for you
00:05:56
Brian Leithead
yeah, I think if I can kind of withstand, you know, RoboDoper in a sense, I think I can kind of, uh, withstand anything. So, yeah, I want to make sure that up to the task one, but, I'm also just trying to like, not be on my phone 24 seven. I'm really getting kind of the point where I think I just do like need to like, in one of those, uh, time blocks or something and put it in there at like five o'clock when I get home and then it doesn't open until six o'clock the next morning. Like,
00:06:27
Brian Leithead
I really am on my phone a lot when I'm at home. So just trying to be a better person and, you know, not rely on technology to have quote unquote a social life. So I have, have a son and wife and son here that need my attention.
00:06:43
Brian Leithead
So I'll do my experiments with the other people, my coworkers, who I'm with, with that for at least eight hours a day as a jumping off. And like you said, litmus test for, for improving that.
00:06:57
David Isaacs
Yeah, well, I mean, it's an interesting thought too, because with being more present, like you had mentioned that maybe they don't have as much social etiquette, or maybe it's because they don't have much of a social life outside of work.
00:07:15
David Isaacs
So do you think like being more, being able to listen more them when they're talking about certain things or engaging with them with things that they care about and want to talk about, do you think that will help them as well?
00:07:35
David Isaacs
Like, do most people just kind of dismiss them eventually? do you think, like, eventually you can... Do you have an issue with being like, hey, or have an issue like not confronting them and being like, hey, you know, that's great, but I got to get back to work or something.
00:07:56
Brian Leithead
Yeah, I think it does maybe more than one or more things. One, it kind of gets me to build a rapport with this person.
00:08:08
Brian Leithead
I'm not really the type of person kind of have a lack of better term confrontation with almost a stranger. that she's a stranger. It's just I'm not like the type of person just be like, hey, we're you know, not these exact words, like we should be working. don't want to listen to you ramble on about making spaghetti. Like, I kind want build a rapport with this person in particular. so I can kind of, don't know, be a social experience of, you know, listen to her, kind of give her that, that grace, but also build a rapport. So I can kind of be like, Hey,
00:08:49
Brian Leithead
we've been talking about your dog for 20 minutes. I think it's kind of time to pack it up here. You know, so at least we are getting to know each other, but we're also kind of building that rapport where we can kind of have something of that type of conversation when, if the time arises, you know, cause she'll just start rambling and people just turn around.
00:09:07
David Isaacs
Yeah.
00:09:10
Brian Leithead
I also kind of feel bad, but yeah.
00:09:15
David Isaacs
Yeah, I think it's mutually beneficial for both parties. Don't want to say like it's a you're only being nice to her because of a social experiment, but also in a way like you're empathetic and you've seen, you've noticed, you've been present to see that some people will just turn around when she's going on these things and thinking that's somehow better than just asking or saying like, Hey, you know, that's great.
00:09:45
David Isaacs
I'm glad Y, but do have to get these things done. So I got to get back to work now. I'll, I'll check in or we can chat a little bit later.
00:09:59
Brian Leithead
Yeah, exactly. I don't want to, uh, even with like my wife, sometimes I'm like, I'll kind of be like, Hey, we need to like, you know,
00:10:12
Brian Leithead
move on to something else. I'll kind of say it like that kind of mousy or otherwise I'll kind of like give a second and then I'll get like angry, be like, Hey, come on. Like we got to do this or, you know, then it kind of starts escalating. So,
00:10:26
Brian Leithead
for me again, the social, the social experiment, you'll just can't help but laugh that I can't really even really think of another term for that. But,
00:10:37
David Isaacs
It's not a great one, if I'm being honest.
00:10:39
Brian Leithead
yeah, I know for sure.
00:10:45
Brian Leithead
just learning to be also more patient and, a little bit more honest and direct and a healthy kind of way. So, yeah i don't know my goal of being more empathetic understanding with this person how about that instead of my my laboratory uh science uh sample that we got
00:11:12
David Isaacs
Yeah, it's not a, yeah, you know, not your guinea pig or whatever, but it's more or less that you, and we talked about it before, it's like you really, people want to make snap judgments and they want to see, and it's easy to be on automated or low power mode to be like, hey, you know, this person's annoying annoying.
Empathy, Self-Awareness, and Personal Growth
00:11:35
David Isaacs
has been rambling on about these things so just going to turn around instead of thinking like you had mentioned before maybe they don't have as much social etiquette maybe they don't have much of a social life maybe there's other things that are going on Maybe it's a way for them.
00:11:51
David Isaacs
It's their outlet to escape the stress of work or however, whatever it is. Like, we just don't know. And think at the end of the day, when you don't know, it's best just to be kind as much as you can because we all know the internal struggles and things that we face. And I think it's why it's harder for people to be present a lot of times just because they want to just move through the day.
00:12:17
David Isaacs
Like a lot of people hate the jobs that they do. lot of people have other stressors in their life. And sometimes they just, you know, go automated, low power, I like to say low power mode, because I'm on it a lot of times during the day.
00:12:32
David Isaacs
But it's because it is harder, it is harder to think about these things and work on these things and these stressors that we have every day, and some people can't do things about them.
00:12:46
David Isaacs
You know, if you have a bad home life, if something's happening the family, say, whatever, like some of these things that are just outside of our control that are still affecting us every day that we internalize find ways to have that outlet.
00:13:02
David Isaacs
And it's not easy to talk about these things or say them, especially for me, I dealt with it a lot of times with just shutting down. especially in like past relationships and stuff just because it was things that I was dealing with that were just buried so deep that they were affecting me and I didn't even realize it because you know I just push it down and worry about it later be a man just just get through your day don't yeah don't talk about these things or worry about them or whatever so instead of doing that
00:13:40
David Isaacs
I have worked on it quite a bit and had been to therapy for on and off for a long time. But it's harder to be like it's almost hell having the ability to identify what my issues are and not being able to build a path towards solving those.
00:14:03
David Isaacs
Because I think, too, with being present, there's a lot of things that you do have control over. So you can work on those things, and there's a lot of things you don't have control over. But just offsetting some of that load in what you do have control over can kind of help empty that bucket as much as you possibly can in trying to become happier.
00:14:25
David Isaacs
the other part of it, too, and things that I had noticed is...
00:14:32
David Isaacs
things that I was paying for. Like, I found out yesterday I've been paying for LinkedIn premiums since February of last year. And that's 40 bucks a month. I still have a gym membership for a gym I haven't gone to in three or four months that I've forgotten to call up there every day.
00:14:52
David Isaacs
Because I am just so out of it and I forget about it. I'm like, Oh, I got to get this thing done for work or I got to go walk the dog or whatever else. Like it's, it's not really the front of my mind to get these things done and over with.
00:15:05
David Isaacs
So it can be detrimental financially, health wise. And there are, from what I've seen, a lot of good health benefits when I had anxiety and panic attacks, depression, like the act of just being present.
00:15:22
David Isaacs
They say, if you're having a panic attack, you know, name, five things you can see, four things you can hear, don't know how it goes down, but it's basically like stimulating all your senses and trying to ground yourself.
00:15:38
Brian Leithead
Yeah, I think it's a countdown method. I think it goes 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Other things you're supposed to kind of name. Yeah, I used to.
00:15:47
Brian Leithead
When I worked for mortgage company, a very large mortgage company in the metropolitan Detroit area, worked in a pretty high-pressure job, of which I had to be present for every phone call that I had.
00:15:56
David Isaacs
Thank you.
00:16:01
Brian Leithead
And, you know, if this person didn't like what I had to say or. You know, there is a document that I had to obtain for us to close the loan, you know, a lot of resistance or if just things weren't going right with this loan, you know, I. Would just kind of like like you said, kind of just bottle up and move to the next one, but.
00:16:22
Brian Leithead
That wasn't healthy. I kind of like took.
00:16:27
Brian Leithead
I almost had like PTSD associated with being present because that's what my job was for at the time. So, you know, I'd kind of just like retreat into things, unhealthy substances like alcohol and being on my phone and just all these kind of addicting behaviors that didn't really
00:16:46
Brian Leithead
the underlying issue that I had. They were just kind of like a, you know, a bandaid for my own mental health. But all those things also just kind of had me spiraling out of control mentally where I was just having panic attack like it felt like every other week I had two two really bad ones where I had to go to emergency because I just couldn't control my breathing there was one instance where I had to have an ambulance come pick me up just because I could not breathe like I couldn't I was just like you know never went on meds for it but
00:17:22
Brian Leithead
just those two big moments were, you know, thinking back on them now, we're just, uh, you know, kind of a key pivot for me. like now just, uh, be aware of everything the moment.
00:17:39
Brian Leithead
you know, not like looking around, like I'm like Jason Bourne, like counting, you know, the number of exits. And if a guy has like a mean left hook or, you know, kind of memorizing license plates out in the parking lot, right? Like I'm actually doing the thing that I'm supposed to be doing and putting all my energy into that. So yeah, mental health is a tricky thing. So something that I'm extremely focused on because if I can get my mind right,
00:18:09
Brian Leithead
then everything else is easy.
00:18:13
David Isaacs
Yeah. I think it's continuous improvement. There's, we're always striving to be better. You know, perfection is a fantasy in a lot of ways, but there's always going to be something if you pay enough attention to yourself that you can work on and I think a lot of us get dragged down from growing up and falling into these habits from our parents, learned behaviors from our parents and other things that happened like
00:18:50
David Isaacs
you know, why am I 10 years old and my chest is hurting when I run they take me in to whatever the fucking doctor is and do a stress test and they can't find anything wrong. They call it like phantom pain. Well, phantom pain is usually for people that have lost a limb. They still feel like, know, they lose their left hand, but they still feel pain in their like middle finger on their left hand.
00:19:16
David Isaacs
Well, it's because I was fucking chest breathing all my fucking life and never learned how to breathe with my diaphragm. But between parents and doctors and whoever else, just never bothered to bring that up.
00:19:30
David Isaacs
Like, why the fuck? why fuck I was having shin splints all the time. Because I never learned how to walk properly. I was heel striking instead of like having some more of my weight forward and landing my foot.
00:19:43
David Isaacs
Instead, I was striking my heel into the ground and causing my shins to flare up. So it's like you can't even just how ingrained of just being on low power mode I am for most of my life and just not being as engaged. Like...
00:20:01
David Isaacs
not having that's the other thing too. Like you, you have, if you're, you grow up in a house where you don't have, you're not allowed to show emotion or you're not allowed to do these things. I mean, I've had
00:20:21
David Isaacs
growing up, I think we all kind of have these events that happen to kind of shape how we're able to just kind of make things not as hard on ourselves because we're under the scrutiny of parents and that affects us later on in the life. And some of those things being learned behaviors, some of them being trying to be different from how they were doing things.
00:20:46
David Isaacs
And sometimes it's detrimental when you go too far against the teachings that they give you or too far into the teachings that they give you and really carving out your own way in your own life.
00:20:57
David Isaacs
So, Yeah, be present. Otherwise, you're going to be walking wrong your whole life or you're going to get COVID 2020 and go to the hospital thinking you're having a heart attack because your back hurts so much. But it's because you're breathing with your chest and your lungs aren't supposed to.
00:21:14
David Isaacs
Your chest isn't supposed to expand like that because it causes issues. So learn how to breathe your diaphragm. Learn how to walk correctly. I mean, there's so many things like every day that you just I never really paid attention to.
00:21:29
David Isaacs
And I think that's one of the that's one of the things that I had noticed. But there's a lot of other things, too.
Therapy and Emotional Understanding
00:21:37
David Isaacs
So being present can kind of help with those things and what we were talking about. Like, so one of the other issues, at least socially, trying to become a better listener is one of the things that I'm trying to do asking people questions, expanding on what they've told me, not only waiting for them to finish speaking so I can get out what I want to say. And I kind of, if you go to therapist, if if anyone has been to therapy, they kind of understand too, is that they're great listeners. They're there to help you. It's a way to kind of dig up all that internal stuff that we've shoved down for so long.
00:22:19
David Isaacs
because it's made for a way to feel comfortable enough to say these things. And it allows you to have these eye opening moments, or memories that you have, you might have forgotten about and things that have shaped the way that you behave in dig up whatever else it is.
00:22:44
David Isaacs
you're like, Oh, I do this because of that I forgot about this.
00:22:50
Brian Leithead
Yeah.
00:22:54
Brian Leithead
Kind being an example, kind of going back to what you said with parenting. It's like I'm a parent and I grew up in a household where explosive arguments were normal.
00:23:12
Brian Leithead
Low self-esteem was kind of accepted because my mom would always... come home and, you know,
00:23:23
Brian Leithead
talk about how much she failed, failed us as parent, you know, as being a parent. you know, she, was very, very sensitive soul. and when she found out that me and my brother and my sister were in therapy, she kind of took it as, you know, I failed you. What did I do? I did fail.
00:23:43
Brian Leithead
And, you know, that's what I grew up with. So every, every sport, every thing that I did, unless I like excelled at it, I like dissociated from it early on.
00:23:59
Brian Leithead
Cause I didn't, I knew I wasn't to be able to succeed. So I would just put myself in an automatic state of I'm not good at this. I'm a failure. Like why even try? So think by the time I was a junior in high school, I'd all but dropped off all,
00:24:13
Brian Leithead
sports that I played and was a three sport athlete in high school. so, know, that's what I grew up with. And like, again, if like going into like our coding bootcamp, I kind of had to like reverse that mindset of, I can do this. don't need to be good at it immediately. I just have to work at it.
00:24:36
Brian Leithead
and I think that kind of comes, goes hand in hand with being president of knowing your feelings and knowing that you do have what it takes and having the work ethic to, to kind of do that. But, uh, it, it was a total kind of mindset change for me because again, know, growing up in a household of, you have to be kind of almost be naturally at something. Otherwise you're going to get, get down on yourself and like, you're not going to be good and you're just going to hate and what have you. So,
00:25:10
Brian Leithead
kind of going through the coding bootcamp was almost like a mind shift for me because wasn't something that everyone's going be naturally good at. Like you, you have to study patterns, you have to know syntax, you have to be good at problem solving. So these are all things that I maybe had a beginning of, but you know, not fully developed. And I think that's what kind of flesh that out. So yeah,
00:25:37
Brian Leithead
But, you know, that would have been something I wouldn't have been able to kind of figure out without kind of being present and understanding how I was feeling in that moment. So not getting overwhelmed. You know, because like I said earlier, panic attacks that almost put me in the hospital some that did.
00:25:55
Brian Leithead
And that was because I was just kind of like bottling things down and not understanding how I was feeling at the time other than just being anxious. And so, you know. I have a support system in front of you and I've kind of learned what my healthy coping mechanisms can be.
00:26:13
Brian Leithead
even winding down from work, like being present, isn't just like having a conversation with somebody and actively listening. It's, it's more than that. It's being, understanding how you feel, your reactions, kind of controlling urges. So there's a lot of benefits to it. And sometimes,
00:26:33
Brian Leithead
how you realize things may not be like the norm. Maybe it's going to an AA meeting because you've had too much to drink or, you know, having some sort of puzzle that you're stuck on and you can't quite figure it out. So don't know.
00:26:50
Brian Leithead
There's figuring, knowing yourself is going to be different for everyone. And I think that's kind of part of my point of being present is,
00:27:02
Brian Leithead
figuring out yourself by interacting with everything else around you and not getting overwhelmed.
00:27:12
David Isaacs
Yeah, um, I mean, parents, parents suck. Like, there's, don't know, I'm sorry to hear about your childhood.
00:27:27
David Isaacs
I mean, we can have a tragedy competition if you'd like, or who had the worst parents. I think we can kind of have that competition with anybody. But yeah, thanks for sharing that.
00:27:41
David Isaacs
I think that kind of goes into the other things that we were talking about is you never really know. And, you know, mean, the coding boot camp that we did and some people got it better than others. I mean, couldn't really see, know, outside of how much somebody was struggling or how much extra work that they had to do outside of the assignments or in class and like group work and whatever else. But I think it comes down just being kind and, know,
00:28:13
David Isaacs
being able to be present for those around. Unfortunately, the job market didn't allow for many people to succeed after that. And I'm going to I'm going to touch on the state of the job market here in a bit.
00:28:25
Brian Leithead
Yeah.
00:28:30
David Isaacs
But yeah, I think we talk about it all the time here. in the introspection and looking and understanding that each one of our actions, thoughts, and being able to control your emotions or control your actions based on the emotions that you have are kind of quintessential and going in through everyday life. Like I, know, talk to a friend of mine every few months
00:29:05
David Isaacs
every time it's like a very deep conversation about just life in general and we grew up together and ran in the same circles from the same city, both had terrible parents.
00:29:18
David Isaacs
So, uh, we kind of have that bond and you like pick up the phone and it's like, you know, just philosophy time. Right. But it is interesting to see kind of other people's thoughts on it. And it, sometimes it is hard to really look and think about these things like with,
00:29:37
David Isaacs
billionaires in this country, bosses, managers, people that just continue to take, continue to blame, they've been playing this game in a way that they know how to play it.
00:29:51
David Isaacs
And it's really terrible for everybody else. So they're always looking for more this whole scarcity mindset, trying to compete with other people, trying to bring other people down.
00:30:06
David Isaacs
terrible, but looking and doing things every day, I'd said before, that you have control over and that can feed other aspects of your life.
00:30:17
David Isaacs
I think a lot of people get past that and they start to develop these addictions because they have dreams of grandeur and my, my capstone in college, cause I was a psychology major.
00:30:32
David Isaacs
the experiment I did was how daydreaming affects motivation. And there have been some theories that hasn't expanded the science very much. Don't take this in any way. That's like we have proved this or there's sufficient evidence to prove this or to support this theory that daydreaming and motivation have a negative correlation.
Journeys in Motivation and Personal Challenges
00:31:00
David Isaacs
So your fantasization about who you want to allows you to relax in a way that demotivates you. And the thought is that imagining yourself in a place where you want to be comforting.
00:31:19
David Isaacs
but at the same time can also be detrimental because with the coding bootcamp, like we had talked about, uh, say you want to lose weight, say you want to get rich, like it jumps ahead to the end game and leaves out whatever, a thousand miles to your destination. It leaves out a thousand miles to be able to get there.
00:31:40
David Isaacs
So, I think being present allows you to kind of focus on the process and the steps and where you're headed instead of looking in the mirror and seeing, Oh, I didn't lose weight.
00:31:54
David Isaacs
You're looking at your bank account. Oh, you know, I'm not nearly where I want to be with my goals or what have you. Whereas looking and focusing on the process and,
00:32:07
David Isaacs
thinking about and writing out the steps to where you want to be at is very important instead of just thinking, because you can interpret it in any way that you want. I want to be rich. Well, people try to get rich by playing the lottery.
00:32:23
David Isaacs
And that's detrimental because you're gambling. It's it's not good for your health. You're thinking that that's the only way that you could possibly get rich. You've given up or you're trying to fold in gambling with also working hard and saving money in other areas like that's kind of detrimental to those things or trying to exercise and not focusing so much eating healthier.
00:32:50
David Isaacs
Or you get to a point where you start doubting yourself and you start shaming yourself. And can't remember where I'd seen it, but the quote is like, shame doesn't lead to change.
00:33:03
David Isaacs
Because when you start shame yourself for not being where you want to you've set unrealistic expectations for yourself. You start to believe that you don't deserve to be that person.
00:33:15
David Isaacs
And then you quit. You quit trying to better yourself because you told yourself you were going to do this and you didn't do it. So you think you don't deserve to be where you want to be in any facet, like whatever you come up with.
00:33:31
David Isaacs
So, yeah, I think it is important to remain present and be positive about these things because I think evolutionarily, our body or mind is always focusing on the negative, like what could go wrong?
00:33:44
David Isaacs
And that comes with living in caves and being worried about getting eaten by tigers or bears or whatever. Like we got to like make sure that we keep We keep ourselves safe in any regard. And there's no script when it comes to it. It's hard for people to it's hard for me, especially to write out the steps in where I want to be at and focus on those steps as I go along the line and putting more into it.
00:34:15
David Isaacs
Even in the coding boot camp, like we had talked about, I would try to jump into a problem. And even though I haven't been able to find a job in coding since completing it, it did help me understand, okay, well, you can't just jump into a problem, you're going to try to fix everything all at once, something's going to break and you haven't set yourself up to be able to fix it, you're just going have to start over.
00:34:38
David Isaacs
And I did that a lot of times banging my head against the wall, because I jumped in at the middle and try to expand out. And I couldn't. And it's lot harder to figure out how to fix something because you're here, you're there, you're there, you're here.
00:34:56
David Isaacs
yeah, I think it's a good metaphor for anyone trying to accomplish a goal. You have to have a plan in mind. And that's the first step. And to me, probably the most important step is being able to write things down, visualize it and keep it in your mind.
00:35:13
David Isaacs
Like I figured out
00:35:16
David Isaacs
I'm trying to get goal of 10,000 steps in a day. So what I do, I'm standing on my walking pad right now. If I had my walking pad in the basement, I would never get on it. I have an exercise bike in the basement. That thing's got more dust on it than a fucking 1997 computer sitting in someone's storage unit.
00:35:34
David Isaacs
Like, it's out of my mind. I'm not going to touch So I have to keep it here. Like, literal, in my presence, I'm standing on top of it. Otherwise, I would never use it.
00:35:45
David Isaacs
Because I know myself enough to know that I wouldn't.
00:35:50
Brian Leithead
Yeah, and that's being present. You understand how you're feeling in that moment, so you nailed the assignment. But, I mean, you hit the nail on the head. One thing that coding did teach me aside from being stressed about not getting your code to run because you have an extra comma somewhere, you misspelled a return variable, but was being able to jump into something that you maybe don't fully understand, like looking at a coding problem. I'm like, okay, I understand this part of the code.
00:36:28
Brian Leithead
I think it comes from here. And then you start kind of running your tests and then you start, you know, maybe changing up your variable names or, know,
00:36:40
Brian Leithead
maybe you should try an if statement instead of for loop whatever the case is. knowing what to do in those scenarios comes with experience.
00:36:51
Brian Leithead
It's time on task. Cause I say in football, you're not going to be able to, to how you're feeling in that moment unless you've experienced this before. So, uh,
00:37:08
Brian Leithead
kind of unfortunately, sometimes you're going to have those negative experiences. Like I talked about earlier with like being on the phone all day, getting yelled at, kind of having parents who had their own kind of emotional issues growing up. Cause like my dad was an explosive yeller.
00:37:27
Brian Leithead
He, he went through front windshield of a Volkswagen bug In 1961. Because his aunt uncle.
00:37:37
Brian Leithead
Valued their two children. More than him. at that There was no middle seatbelt. least not in Volkswagen Bug. So he went through. They got drunk.
00:37:48
Brian Leithead
His aunt and uncle. Got drunk. And then hit another car. parked car. And he went right through the windshield. He was in the hospital for months.
00:37:58
Brian Leithead
He had a. Still has a giant scar from think just below his shirt line here.
00:38:10
Brian Leithead
But he went from being kind of like a sweet kind person to fits of rage and anger over little things. Still to this day, mean, he's 76 years old, but he never really took the kind of time to invest in himself to understand his triggers and little annoyances that maybe will affect his day to day.
00:38:32
Brian Leithead
that's one thing that I want to kind of turn around in my life and then give my son. If there's only one thing I could give and it would be to, to know himself and not be, uh, you know, be present and be when you're doing something due to the best your ability.
00:38:52
Brian Leithead
So learning to, be present, I think goes a long way for not only mental health, but for others.
00:39:04
Brian Leithead
And like my social experiment, my, uh, I keep referring to from earlier, you know, is kind of like the, the start for me to and being a better person overall.
00:39:20
Brian Leithead
but, you know, going through my own personal history, uh, to get back on on topic yeah yeah coding does a lot i mean it find your coding you know if you have a problem you've just kind of banging your head out against the wall on for hours you know if it's you can't quite lift you know 400 pounds what am i doing wrong with my my form of lifting or you know can't beat this level on halo like what i doing wrong is it the difficulty setting is it just like the strategy i'm using to implement to beat this boss you know it's just kind of deconstructing in real time the problem or the thing that you're facing head-on really
00:40:12
Brian Leithead
But the more you kind of face it, the more time and tests that you have with it, the easier it becomes, the more present that you have. So it's kind of just like my, I guess, step-by-step little quick guide of what I'm, my own internal thinking of how I'm beating this problem, how I'm being this real-life coding solution or finding the solution to this real-life coding problem.
00:40:37
David Isaacs
Yeah, and kind like we were saying, there is not really a script to follow. when it came to coding camp. Well, there was a script. I mean, there was, we were taught these things, but you're kind of put in front of a problem and say you want to put a button on the page and when the button's clicked, it turns the page red.
00:41:00
David Isaacs
So then you have to kind of go through the steps of, okay, well, I'll put in an HTML, I'll put in a button. And then I'll put in a trigger for when on click the CSS for the page is going to turn the page red.
00:41:15
David Isaacs
And then when it's clicked again, it would go back to normal. So you have to look and think about, OK, well, the first step is to get a button. So I'm going to code in a button and then need to make sure that the button looks correct. It's formatted correctly, whatever.
00:41:32
David Isaacs
And then the next step to be changing
00:41:37
David Isaacs
page color. So you put it in the CSS, you do the on click so when the button's clicked, it turns page red. So then that's the next step. Okay, I've clicked the button, the page red.
00:41:48
David Isaacs
And the final step, having to put on. So how do we put in something to make sure that it goes back to being normal once it had already been clicked again? So that's kind of like the highest level to thinking about that.
00:42:03
David Isaacs
but can also be applied different facets of our life. And being present and understanding yourself a little bit more, like I had mentioned with at least me, like out of sight, out of mind, I'll never be on my exercise bike in the basement.
00:42:20
David Isaacs
So I put a walking pad where I have to stand. I got rid of my office chair because I have to force myself to do these things. I have to write down or look at my task list for the day at work and block out time do things.
00:42:35
David Isaacs
Otherwise, I'm just not going to do them because I was in school. I was very good at school. I don't consider myself the most intelligent person in the world.
00:42:46
David Isaacs
especially not when it came to school, because I'm a lazy person. I figured out the easiest way to do things. I didn't want to have to go home with homework. So I did it in class and then I would socialize or whatever.
00:42:59
David Isaacs
But that's a lot different with learning how to have better time management, learning how to block out time outside of work to get things done that you need to get done.
00:43:12
David Isaacs
And with becoming a procrastinator, like I would wait and I would have even in college, I would have a 10 page essay do and be working on it the night before it was due.
00:43:24
David Isaacs
And I could get away with that. I would get decent enough grades. And I remember even classes in high school and college, like you figure out, I would figure out what the calculations were between like exams and the homework assignments.
00:43:37
David Isaacs
And if the homework assignments didn't have much effect on the grade that I was going to get, then I just didn't do them. I had pre-calc in what junior year of high school and the calculation for the homework was so much less. So only did like half of the homework assignments or whatever I could get done in class, never looked at it at home.
00:43:58
David Isaacs
But then I would ace every exam and end up getting a B. So for me, it was like I would spend less time. if I could spend two to three hours less each week to get a B, then I'm going to do that because I'm going to, I want to play call duty.
00:44:12
David Isaacs
Like, fuck you mean, I'm going to be sitting here doing fucking pre-calc homework, uh, at home when I could be
Balancing Leisure and Productivity
00:44:18
Brian Leithead
Thank you.
00:44:18
David Isaacs
playing call of duty or hanging out my friends or what have you.
00:44:23
David Isaacs
but you like look and think about certain things like it. And, you know, growing up trying to better soccer player. So I put, When I was playing Call of Duty, I'd have a soccer ball in my room and I would just juggle it in between matches, you know, stand up and juggle the soccer ball around.
00:44:40
David Isaacs
And currently what I'm doing with kind of different facets of everything that's going on, but I signed up for a library card. It's like I want to read, but and I like physical copies of books I can't do.
00:44:52
David Isaacs
I don't like them on my iPad as much. I'm currently dealing with it right now because the first book in the in the series that I'm reading has been checked out of the library for who knows how long.
00:45:04
David Isaacs
So I checked out the second and the third and a physical book, but the physical books only like this big. And it's like this thick. So the text is a lot smaller. have to deal with that. And beggars can't be choosers because I didn't have to pay for them.
00:45:18
David Isaacs
But I, one, I don't have to pay for things. Two, it sets me a deadline because I can only have them checked out for a certain amount of time. And three, it's not taking up as much space in my room or in the house because I need to get rid of a lot of clutter that I have.
00:45:33
David Isaacs
I mean, there's a thing on the ground over here. I've got... a flask an empty flask i've got an iphone box from like an iphone 8 i don't know how long that's been there an aux cord which i that that was from college and that wasn't even mine uh zippo fuel refill thing like i just there's a lot of things that
00:45:46
Brian Leithead
Okay.
00:45:59
David Isaacs
I just never really did learned how to do. And yeah, I think being present helps you out with like motivation if you can do it in a healthy way too, because I do lack motivation to look at and take care of some things.
00:46:15
David Isaacs
But also in that presence, like I've been walking the dog more often, spending more time with him. mean, he's laying on the ground over here and sometimes he gets gassy and I have to kick him out, but, he's been doing relatively okay right now and, you know, letting him outside and making sure he's got food and water and whatnot. But, yeah, there's, there's small things all throughout the day and could he be doing more? Sure. But are you doing more than he did yesterday? Absolutely. And that's, that's all I care about.
00:46:47
Brian Leithead
Yeah, 1% better every day It's like our classmate Jackson would always say Doesn't matter what you do, right? I mean, that's 300, at the end of the day, it's 365% better, which, you know, is an unrealistic number. But the point is, is that you're doing it in increments, right? You're not going from zero to hundred percent. Like that's not going to happen. So 1% every day minimum to get better, understanding the problem that you face, deconstructing it, coming up with a plan,
00:47:23
Brian Leithead
and just executing. So, I mean, that could be four different days. That could be four different steps, whatever the case is for you as each individual person. I think, again, I'm always a big facet of kind of giving generalized advice or generalized topics that, you kind of giving specifics of your own plan isn't necessarily going to work for somebody else. But I think for me, it's just taking one small step at a time, knowing that I'm improving and knowing that I was doing better next day. So I haven't even really looked at my phone, uh, this week kind of with my, especially with my son, cause he's going on vacation and couple of days and I won't see him for two weeks. not that my wife is leaving me or anything. It's just like, we both can't afford to go on vacation. She needs it far more than I do. So, they're both going,
00:48:20
Brian Leithead
down to Florida, you know, I'm going to miss them dearly. So going I'm spending as much time and being present with them both as much as I can. you know, family time, know, my six to eight clock that I have set aside more important now than it, you know, it will probably be really for the duration of this year. So I'm just focusing on that. And then once they're gone, then I can focus on improving on something else, but of being present.
00:48:54
Brian Leithead
you know, if I'm proving at work every day, know, if I learned a different Excel function or if I learned a different way kind of shorten getting data to our, to our product inventory management, or whatever, uploading it or doing something else. So, 1% every day doesn't necessarily have to be the same thing, but,
00:49:20
Brian Leithead
Whatever you're doing, just put your focus on that in that moment and just be great.
00:49:30
David Isaacs
Yeah, it brings up brings up something else to that we talk about being present, focusing on the process. lot of these things you haven't done before.
00:49:42
David Isaacs
It's going to be new to you. And we had said with the time on task or the experience and the knowledge that comes with you learn better. know they I read something before and like people that try to quit smoking they would feel like a failure because they went back to smoking.
00:50:01
David Isaacs
And the flip side of it was, no, well, you learned what doesn't work for you, what's not going to move the needle to get you to actually quit. So every time that you try to quit again, you're going to come back with that knowledge and that experience.
00:50:16
David Isaacs
And it's the same thing with anything that you're trying to do to get healthier. And if you haven't done it before, if you've tried and you fail, you come with that experience and that knowledge the next time that you try to do it.
00:50:28
David Isaacs
And to me, that's what I bring with me when I try to do these things, is that you look at the process, you focus on the process, and you have to learn how to adapt in what it is personally to you and to be able to do that.
00:50:44
David Isaacs
Like I have to do certain things because I know the way that I operate to be able to do them. And that's why I've stopped kind of giving generalized advice to people that I think it is pretty reductive and not present when someone just tells you, you know, have you tried not being sad?
00:51:01
David Isaacs
Have you tried just going to the gym? Have you tried eating better? Like that's such a high level thing and that doesn't help like that proves like they're not listening they're just trying to get out what they're trying to say because that's not personalized to what they're like actually saying but if you speak about it from like your own experience of like hey you know I was having issues going to the gym until I started going to a place where I feel like it actually has some community to it I'm not just going and leaving
00:51:35
David Isaacs
So have you seen or have you worked on or looked at, you know, what you do enjoy about exercising and focus on that first, or, you know, what have you tried? What, what don't you like about it or something like those are very more qualitative conversations.
00:51:53
David Isaacs
Whereas I think quantitative is just like, well, have you, have you, have you tried going in the morning? Have you tried going at night? Have you,
00:52:05
David Isaacs
well, you have to go at least four times a week. Well, if you're not eating well, you're never going to go. Like just, it's so, it's so nonsensical and just reductive. Like I hate speaking to these people. I don't open up to them. Like you're not, you're not getting, you're not going to know who I am. Like you're not getting any closer into my personality or whatever, just because yeah, to me, it's just, it doesn't make it like you're listening.
00:52:31
David Isaacs
Like anyone that's ever tried to do something, You have to learn how to do it on your own. And maybe for some people, they learned it. And instead of just pushing down all the tragic shit that's happened to them, they push down how they actually learn to eat healthy, get eight hours of sleep, go to the gym or whatever. And that's great.
00:52:50
David Isaacs
But it is very dismissive and reductive for these people just to say these things about anything.
Social Interactions and Personal Reactions
00:53:03
Brian Leithead
Yeah, that's kind like negative or flip side of being present. Not everyone's going kind of follow your cue. So kind of going back to what you had said earlier about controlling what you can control. Yeah, I mean,
00:53:20
Brian Leithead
there might be a day where I kind of fail chatting with this coworker. I'm just gonna be like, just turn around, don't say anything, not be present.
00:53:28
Brian Leithead
That's something that I can control. Her just talking. I can't really do that. So adding to the 1% of improving is trying, you know, already know that I can't just kind of turn around. She's going to continue to talk anyway. So,
00:53:47
Brian Leithead
What am I going to do improve that situation? Well, we're going to try maybe a more empathic kind of road with this and listen to her. So maybe, I don't know, five minutes. I'm going to be like, maybe that's when I turn around or maybe that's when I say something.
00:54:07
Brian Leithead
I'm not going to be rude about it. I know that's one thing I'm going to hundred percent not be, I'm going to maybe spend some of my time listening to her, maybe formulating in my head what can I say to That's not going to upsetting or insulting, but that same time, it's probably going to be, you know, taking away from the listening portion of this. So, you know,
00:54:39
Brian Leithead
again, just trial and error is the biggest key to being present just really in everything in everyday life, right? Like I've spent enough time in coding that I know that I don't like TypeScript. Can't stand it. 99% of the people listening this podcast aren't going to know what the hell I'm talking about, but it's a form of code. It's like a subset of a very popular programming language.
00:55:04
Brian Leithead
I don't, I know hate writing it. If I have to write it for a job, I'll do it. But I know from personal experience that I hate using that. So wouldn't have known that if I didn't try and try to like force myself to do it.
00:55:20
Brian Leithead
I have that skill in the back of my head, but you know, knowing myself, I'd rather just write in pure JavaScript. Like you said, with keeping your,
00:55:32
Brian Leithead
know, walking pad or treadmill underneath you. Yeah, I'm in my basement currently. had to cover up my mess because I couldn't stand. I've just been walking all day. I had to cover up my mess in the back. That's we haven't even we haven't cleaned up. So
00:55:52
Brian Leithead
but I know being down here. when I get a gym, my own private gym going, I know I'm going to be down here and holding myself kind of, I don't really have the space to have a gym or a walking pad up in bedroom that I share with my wife. We just don't, we just don't have the space and there's no one on main floor. So a long kind of long, getting a little long winded here. But the point is that knowing yourself and controlling yourself is You're going to have to be somewhat of a humbling experience and something to hold onto in situations where you can't control things.
00:56:27
Brian Leithead
That'll keep you from spiraling kind of out. I guess that's the point I was trying to make.
00:56:34
David Isaacs
Yeah, well, I think when it comes to person at your work, too, it's not only about with her speaking about these things, but if it's only with you, like other people could be distracted, too, when other people trying to stay on task or if you're trying to stay on task or whatever.
00:56:55
David Isaacs
So yeah, but I think if you learn more about it or maybe block off time, like, hey, you know, we can chat about these things in a little bit or like give it time or something like maybe that could be helpful in a way and it's not as reductive.
00:57:12
David Isaacs
Again, I'm not trying to just spitballing.
Improving Podcast Quality and Exploring Voice Acting
00:57:16
David Isaacs
I'm not telling you like what to do, but just kind of listening to what you were saying and thinking like, well, maybe this could work or maybe that could work or whatever.
00:57:25
David Isaacs
Again, mean, there's not a script to it, especially when it comes to podcast. Right. Like, how do we get better? Well, we can get better focusing on our topics, writing things down. We have our production meeting and we meet before to speak about the things that we want to talk about, try to build our chemistry a little bit better.
00:57:45
David Isaacs
So we kind of play off each other better with things. But there's probably a thousand more things that we could do. I'm already getting emails from somebody like trying to sell me something about with the podcast shit.
00:58:02
David Isaacs
So even with that, and yeah, they don't even get me started with. I guess one of the issues I was having like daydreaming about stuff with being a voiceover actor, like doing voice acting.
00:58:18
David Isaacs
And I had. I had people tell me all the time, like, oh, you have such a good voice, you should do audiobooks, or should be voice actor, or whatever. So always had kind of dreams about it. never actually fleshed out a plan to getting into it.
00:58:31
David Isaacs
And I guess one of my fears that I had was... If do something, like if I was an actor and I got preyed upon to do like smut, so instead of being voiceover actor, if I get into just reading smut books or something, and then that's, I get typecast and that's all I can be.
00:58:54
David Isaacs
So instead of being porn star, I'm like a fucking smut voiceover actor. And I get I get looked at by like other people in the voice acting community as don't know.
00:59:07
David Isaacs
But that was like one of the fears that I had. And even looking at it like. In the past year, I was looking and like, yeah, I mean, it's not easy.
00:59:18
David Isaacs
You're having to read a book out loud. So you have to make sure you have good breath control. You have to make sure you're not just reading it like whatever. You have to maybe different voices to separate the different characters. You have to read when it's an exciting moment. You have to read it excitingly. It's kind of more of a somber moment. You have to be a little bit softer.
00:59:39
David Isaacs
but you're going to be doing it for eight hours a day. Like you have deadlines and you might not be paid as much. And it's something that you're have to build off of. And it's still something that I'd like to do and look at, but I came to big, a better understanding as to how much work had actually gone into trying to get something like that.
00:59:58
David Isaacs
Instead, like, I mean, more than I think about it, maybe smut wouldn't be that bad. do you think of this? Like, uh, his man hands fondling her supple breasts.
01:00:13
David Isaacs
I think I could do that. But also like, what are they paying? Like, I don't know. Are these voice actors getting taken advantage of like animators do? Yeah.
01:00:24
David Isaacs
Who knows? There's a whole other world out there that exists and there's like a ton of ways for people to make money. But I thought it would be a cool way to do something and get famous in a specific industry. But no one really knows who you are.
01:00:38
David Isaacs
So you're not like getting hounded on the bus like fucking Keanu Reeves is.
01:00:46
Brian Leithead
Yeah. Who knows? I mean, it's your smut career, if it's break into the voice industry and, you know, the checks, cash, who cares, I guess?
01:00:57
Brian Leithead
You know, again, you can't really control...
01:00:59
David Isaacs
Well, porn stars never make it to become actors. And that was kind of what I was getting at. Like, I would just be forced into doing more smut.
01:01:05
Brian Leithead
Well... Right. I'm, you know, kind of just focusing on my own positive light here of, you know, it's... cashing those paychecks, you know, and then, uh, who knows, maybe fucking J.R.R. Tolkien or something.
01:01:22
Brian Leithead
God rest his soul. If you were still here, maybe heard your voice on a particular smut film and he was like, maybe, man, this guy really knows he could do really great Gandalf. And then there you go. There's your, your, your, your startup to, uh, I'll say quote unquote real, uh, voiceovers, voice acting.
01:01:44
David Isaacs
Yeah, who knows? I mean, the it would be great. I would I would love to do that as much as I hate my job to find something else to do. But again, I've not tried it. I've not done it. Maybe I would hate that as well, or the people that I would have to interface with when it comes to deadlines and stuff. So
01:02:06
Brian Leithead
Yeah, I mean, if it's like the opening scene from Mrs. Doubtfire, where he's like voicing over and then, you know, he gets into a moral quorum of the birds start smoking and then he starts coughing and he ends up quitting because the studio was paying for that voiceover he didn't, you know, moral object. So maybe he, and then he ended up becoming, you know, a children's, uh,
01:02:33
Brian Leithead
almost like a Mr. Rogers character at the end. So who knows? Maybe it's a pivot. Maybe it's you got to find your Mrs. Doubtfire type moment, if you want to call it that.
01:02:45
David Isaacs
What a great movie, too. Pierce Brosnan did that, and then, what, Goldeneye the year after?
01:02:52
Brian Leithead
Yeah, and coming off of Remington Steel, which is basically just like a modern prior to both those was like a modern James Bond almost. So at that time they hadn't done a James Bond probably four or five years. And I think that was with.
01:03:08
Brian Leithead
So the last one that they had done with. What's his name? Timothy.
01:03:14
David Isaacs
Yeah.
01:03:15
Brian Leithead
No, Timothy Chalamet. No, I got.
01:03:22
Brian Leithead
I'll look it up in a minute. But yeah, anyway. Yeah. Find your Timothy Chalamet moment. Voice acting. Maybe he could be Goldeneye or James Bond eventually.
01:03:40
David Isaacs
I have fate face and height for voice acting, so think that might be maybe not the voice.
01:03:40
Brian Leithead
I know that...
01:03:46
David Isaacs
I've heard bad things about people that are just monotone and can't express very much. But I loved reading growing up in class, but that was more because I hated people that tried to read and couldn't or like the teacher would ask them to read because they knew they weren't great readers.
01:04:05
David Isaacs
And it's so terrible of me. Like I was, I was so judgmental as a kid. I think we all were, but I just hated it.
01:04:12
Brian Leithead
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, 100%. I was an enthusiastic reader.
01:04:17
David Isaacs
It's fucking, the word is fucking popcorn, William. God damn it. Get it out. Like Jesus.
01:04:22
Brian Leithead
Yeah.
01:04:24
David Isaacs
He crossed the, you're, you're 15 years old. You can't read river. Like, what is this? God, I was in this hole.
01:04:31
Brian Leithead
Yeah. Man, you were the opposite of that and dumber moment when was reading the newspaper about the The annual wildlife fundraiser. gotta be like Harry. You gotta be empathetic. You gotta help Lloyd read.
01:04:46
David Isaacs
I can't
Childhood Experiences and Film Analysis
01:04:47
David Isaacs
help him read. I'm sitting at a desk across and just in my mind being judgmental and hating it.
01:04:53
Brian Leithead
He couldn't pronounce annual. He tried, but he just couldn't pronounce
01:04:57
David Isaacs
Yeah. Well, that's the other thing, too. I would always answer questions in class, not because I was like teacher's pet. It's because, one, just want to move the class along.
01:05:10
David Isaacs
Right? And two, was wrong half the time. But I would just raise my like, I would look around. one's raising their hand. So I'd raise my hand and just give my best guess for what I thought the answer was.
01:05:21
David Isaacs
Sometimes it was right. Sometimes it was wrong. But if I was wrong, somebody else feels more confident enough to raise their hand and then they get it right. And then we just move along because I just hated and I hope people understand this or maybe the same way as me. I just hated like sitting there silence as the teacher waited for somebody to raise their hand or then they would start being like, okay, somebody other than David.
01:05:48
David Isaacs
So I wish I would have told them like, listen, I don't know half this shit, but I know somebody is going to be more confident in their answer because there's probably people here that are worried about raising their hand and it being them being wrong about something.
01:05:52
Brian Leithead
yeah
01:06:04
Brian Leithead
yeah no it's like watching jeopardy and then uh you know somebody buzzes in it's the wrong answer they're like no and then there's like that awkward silence and then the person who got it wrong chimes and goes oh yeah it's xway and then the person other times and steals it and goes yep that's correct answer I know that feeling from watching and I'm sure I know that from being wrong in class all the time. So I know that feeling all too well.
01:06:33
David Isaacs
Yeah, I thought it would help me out more. guess they were... was pretty observant as a kid. You know, we were just like sponges about stuff and any knowledge and anything that you can get.
01:06:45
David Isaacs
that's why I like... having a smart kid and having terrible parents. I mean, it's just terrible because I was just soaking up so much bad information about what to do in life and how to be a shitty parent. But I think most people's parents are like that.
01:07:03
David Isaacs
we talk about all the time. It's like nutrition, parenting, education, whatever. Like there's more that comes out all the time. So even if you thought like what our ideas for nutrition were 10 years ago, they're going to change going forward.
01:07:20
David Isaacs
Now that we're all full of fucking fluoride microplastics and whatnot. But yeah, and think we can transition into Grumpy Old Men.
01:07:32
David Isaacs
I did finish my homework assignment for the week, so I want to talk about that.
01:07:37
Brian Leithead
Nice.
01:07:38
David Isaacs
So I'll give you... enjoyed it. It did have that kind of feel to it. Even though it was the early 90s, it felt more like 70s or 80s type of film not too many actors not too much of a premise outside of the fact that they are neighbors that hate each other and the hijinks that they get up to like the whole old men doing stuff uh like being funny trope so in ways that they can be comedic or trying to get into a fight with each other but it's funny because they're old so
01:08:16
David Isaacs
That was pretty good. There's one scene in particular I told you before we got on here that I didn't really understand. And it was basically like, what's actor's name? So I know Jack Lemmon, and it's the other actor.
01:08:33
Brian Leithead
Walter Matthau.
01:08:34
David Isaacs
Yeah, Walter Matthau does something just heinous. Like, basically, like, nearly kills him. He could have killed him. And then the next scene, Jack Lemmon, that's the other actor's name, right?
01:08:47
Brian Leithead
Yeah.
01:08:48
David Isaacs
Yeah. He just does something nice for that person.
01:08:53
David Isaacs
So it really didn't make too much sense to me. It felt like they were just... thinking of moving the story forward and they did that.
01:09:04
David Isaacs
It's like, I don't know. It doesn't, it's not very congruent. So you can kind of tell like it's comedy, uh, comedy in the sense of the story a very like story driven when watching or reading anything.
01:09:18
Brian Leithead
Well, I think with that particular moment, it was kind of just like, I think realized he couldn't really provide anything Ariel, or he thought he couldn't really provide anything to Ariel, but that's not what she really wanted.
01:09:27
David Isaacs
Thank you.
01:09:33
Brian Leithead
She kind of just wanted a companion, so was kind of just... Maybe an example of not being present and understanding of other another person's feelings what they were kind of wanting from you.
01:09:45
Brian Leithead
But don't know, maybe that's just me overthinking that scene, especially in a comedy with it's two old guys making dick jokes the whole time.
01:09:57
David Isaacs
Yeah, it's possible. And well, you should have said spoiler alert before you said anything about the plot, but we'll work on that. But in hindsight, spoiler alert, because I'll expand on it a little
01:10:12
Brian Leithead
Edit. That's all right. We'll cut this in post.
01:10:16
David Isaacs
too. we're not because I'm lazy and I'm not going to do it. So if any...
01:10:19
Brian Leithead
You got practice being in the moment. You got a moment to learn your editing skills where it can take you. And also, I'm lazy and don't do editing.
01:10:27
David Isaacs
no
01:10:29
Brian Leithead
So there you go.
01:10:31
David Isaacs
no uh anyways well that was the kind of the one thing that i've forgotten about too when it uh so there's a woman that moves in across the street who is little bit younger by by all accounts like a beautiful woman that they're vying for and she
01:10:51
Brian Leithead
who's played by Ann Margaret, by the way, who's a legendary actress.
01:10:55
David Isaacs
Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
01:10:58
Brian Leithead
Yeah, and Burgess Meredith was Jack Lemmon's character's father.
01:10:58
David Isaacs
They...
01:11:04
David Isaacs
Yeah. And also Daryl Hannah, which I will talk about little bit because I always go down the rabbit hole with these things.
01:11:12
Brian Leithead
Yeah.
01:11:13
David Isaacs
She basically picks Jack and even though think Marty, Max, whatever Walter Matthau's character is, like goes over to her house first.
01:11:23
Brian Leithead
Yeah, it's John Gustafson and Max Goldman.
01:11:28
David Isaacs
Yeah.
01:11:28
Brian Leithead
They're the two main characters.
01:11:30
David Isaacs
So she breaks into Jack's house near the beginning of the movie. It's like giving him his mail and strikes up a conversation with him. And she goes back and the man that works at the bait shop, Chuck,
01:11:47
David Isaacs
he hears that she had moved in and he goes over there and then both Max and Jack go into the bait shop the next day to see what had happened over there.
01:11:59
David Isaacs
And then the next time, The next day, Max goes over to her place and they're talking and invites her to his ice fishing shack, which she has a good time. But at the end of it, like basically friend zones and then is at Jack's house the next night.
01:12:18
David Isaacs
cooking him dinner. And the premise of it was that she's like, I felt like we had similar soul or there was like a specific vibe that we shared.
01:12:31
David Isaacs
And that's why she had picked Jack over Walter. So there are certain like personality quirks or something that she identified and what she'd care about more.
01:12:41
David Isaacs
And the scene that you're describing where maybe that's not being present in the moment or understanding, is that Max tries to push Jack's ice shanty into thin ice, which it eventually sinks, and he jumps out of just in time.
01:12:58
David Isaacs
And after that, Jack is having issues the IRS. He's going to get his house taken away. He's going to lose pension, yada, yada, yada, thinking that he can't be a provider for Ariel.
01:13:06
Brian Leithead
Thank you.
01:13:10
David Isaacs
And that was kind of the same thought I think that Max had is that he could provide for better than Jack could. And they kind of both have this mindset and one's on one side one's on the other, instead of actually caring too much about what she wants and what she was looking for and kind of the dynamics when it comes into probably easy, like general male thinking like they have to be a provider. They have to have the house and they have to pay for things. Whereas this woman is very, uh, articulate. She's a, I think she's a college professor in the movie. She has a bunch of art in her home. She's like a sculptor artist, very, very like form of expressionism. She's has like kind of her own way about go of going about things.
01:14:02
David Isaacs
So, and they're they're old dogs right so the way they view the world and relationships and how they should act and everything's probably a little bit different so it's harder for them to even really conceptualize and understand like what a woman's looking for and vying for that kind of later on in life
01:14:28
Brian Leithead
Yeah, I think the... I don't remember if they... Yeah, they had to have. I think it was that scene, too, where he knocks ice shanty into the shallow part of the... or the thin part of the ice and it sinks was... cause he Max claims that John stole his wife. He's the one John ended up marrying his, like the love of his life almost.
01:14:52
Brian Leithead
that's kind of what started the rift in their, their friendship and their relationship. and so I think
01:15:01
Brian Leithead
that's why he kind of felt guilt, almost guilty in a way of like, you can just kind of have her, but you know, Max wasn't going to be able to offer her anything of, you know, what she was looking for, because, again, Max is looking it from the perspective of, you stole my woman, I deserve her, and, you know, I don't got much time left on this earth, or whatever the case was.
01:15:25
Brian Leithead
She's mine. So it was almost like this kind of macho, don't know,
01:15:31
Brian Leithead
dick joke kind of movie so but i think that jack lemon and walter matthew's seventh or eighth movie that they had done together two kind of in my opinion legendary actors they kind of they started off especially in their early career they were just character actors but they ended up both winning know least walter matthew i think won an oscar
01:15:56
David Isaacs
Math Howe 1-1, Lemon believe.
01:16:00
Brian Leithead
Okay. Yeah. That's what I thought. So yeah, they, they, they made it from being character actors and you know, you can watch all the stories interviews with like Kevin Pollack you know, with his experiences of being on set, you know, Walter Matthau only did the movie cause he owed his bookie $2 million. He's like, you know, Kevin Pollack walks on, walks on screen. He's like, Hey, know, I'm going to be playing your, your son, you know,
01:16:26
Brian Leithead
what do you think about this movie? He's like, this movie stinks. This script sucks. I owe my bookie two million dollars. Uh, you know, and he's like kind of the contrary when he's talking to Jack lemon, he's like kind of just going on these rants of like, Oh, I just said Marilyn. And he's like, of course talking about Marilyn Monroe.
01:16:44
Brian Leithead
And he's like, cause of course you met Marilyn Monroe and we're in the same movie with this person. Cause you're a legendary actor. So, but I think that was at their time, this their seventh or eighth movie that they had done together.
01:16:54
Brian Leithead
And they just had, incredible chemistry and you know again as you said earlier it's kind of a trope of just two two old guys making dick jokes so uh i don't know i loved it as a kid i still kind of love it maybe i'm just nostalgia but uh you know i enjoy the movie it's kind of wholesome in my opinion so uh yeah hope you liked it
01:17:20
David Isaacs
Yeah. And, uh, So what I generally do, kind of a, go down rabbit holes when watching something or about to watch something. So I did look up Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
01:17:33
David Isaacs
And I think Jack Lemmon was an alcoholic, so he was a recovering alcoholic. Walter Matthau had gambling problems that took him a while to pay off. I think Wikipedia said it was around like $200,000 that took him a while to pay off to like his mafia bookie or whatnot.
01:17:52
David Isaacs
And he still would have like losing four to $500 a day sometimes at the horse track. So like the heroes that we have in these actors, they could be good in one facet of their life aren't necessarily good in all facets. I think we've kind of come to understand that with a lot of controversies that exist with these actors, business people and whatnot.
01:18:18
Brian Leithead
Yeah. At Walter Matthau's funeral, because he died in 2000, and Jack Lemmon a year later in 2001, or might have been vice versa, but at Walter Matthau's funeral, they actually had his book that he would bet on at the horse track.
Celebrity Imperfections and Film Industry Trends
01:18:37
Brian Leithead
Because he had died...
01:18:39
Brian Leithead
I think in the middle of the week and he was going to go to the track on Sunday and he had the horses that he was going to bet on, on the last page. So thought that was kind of funny, but yeah, sometimes our heroes aren't really our heroes. They're just people, uh, kind of hard pillow to accept with like people like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, you know, wrestlers who I grew up with, uh, you know, for the people with visually, you know, I got my WWF championship belt, but,
01:19:08
Brian Leithead
Yeah, listening to podcasts of those folks now, it's like, you know, they went from being top of the world wrestling, you know, guerrilla presses, cutting promos, taking bumps, dealing with marks, you know, all these things. And then now they're, you know, have their own, if they're alive, if they made it through all that, then all the dark stuff comes out about how like Hulk Hogan was a piece of shit backstage would never, you know, elevate any other superstar, but himself is all about the money.
01:19:36
Brian Leithead
Then there's a whole lawsuit of him. And, you know, obviously the stuff with his daughter, all the racist things that he was kind of recorded saying about being an African-American.
01:19:52
Brian Leithead
hard to set those aside. Sometimes when you kind of watch these people, you know, on the silver screen.
01:20:02
Brian Leithead
I mean, this can be said about really anybody. I mean, we were talking about our parents earlier. It's like, yeah, I mean, yeah, our parents were kind of pieces of shit sometimes, but they tried to the best of their ability.
01:20:13
David Isaacs
Thank you.
01:20:16
Brian Leithead
That's really what all can ask for is just making your life better than what they had. But, you know, I guess I can't say the same for celebrities. Don't know them without...
01:20:29
Brian Leithead
most of them but we can read and research and kind of take our way our own opinion but i think from a pure entertainment standpoint you know a hulk hogan or a walter matthew is i guess maybe that's how i'll remember them as you know what they meant to me so
01:20:46
David Isaacs
Yeah, and I mean, it's hard to say Jack's drinking problems, Walter's gambling problems, the effects that it had on their families and working with them and everything.
01:20:59
David Isaacs
But yeah, they were highly accomplished. I believe both of them were veterans. Like they lived pretty full lives for however many years that they had.
01:21:10
David Isaacs
And eventually the issues that they had caught up with them. I think they were both in like... 80 or early 80s when they died. But yeah, so like going down the rabbit hole and looking at kind of some of these actors and other roles and things that they did.
01:21:28
David Isaacs
Daryl Hannah was one that was pretty prevalent there in the late 80s up until the early 2000s. And she did a movie, Steel Magnolias, which was one of Julia Roberts' earlier movies as well.
01:21:42
David Isaacs
That was a Broadway show and it was a true story about a family in the South that was written by the brother to be put on Broadway eventually became a movie with Dolly Parton's in it as well and I believe the woman from Smokey and the Bandit Sally Field was in it so it's kind like movie about you know, the small town and Dolly Parton runs hair salon and Darrell Hannah comes in and she's like working underneath her. And then it kind of goes throughout the years of, know, what's going on with the town and the family that we follow and everything.
01:22:25
David Isaacs
And Daryl Hannah was also in Kill Bill, Volume 1 and 2, I believe. Like, she's very accomplished actress, and she actually married Neil Young back in 2018.
01:22:30
Brian Leithead
Yep. Huh.
01:22:36
David Isaacs
So it is, for me, at least, interesting to kind of follow these actors' filmography and see, you know, they did this there, and then they did this, and what have you, et cetera.
01:22:50
David Isaacs
So I do enjoy being able to do that quite a bit. And it's kind of the difference because she was young in that movie, whereas Jacqueline and Walter Matthau were near the twilights of their career. And, you know, it's 1993 and they both passed away seven or eight years later.
01:23:07
David Isaacs
So kind of like how those things work in together. But yeah, I guess the old guy trope in movies, it's like funny with, was that movie that came out with like Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, like,
01:23:22
Brian Leithead
Oh, yeah. I was getting mixed up. I always want to call it bad grandpa, but I think that's the, uh, Johnny Knoxville.
01:23:28
David Isaacs
Johnny Knoxville.
01:23:30
Brian Leithead
Yeah.
01:23:30
David Isaacs
Yeah. Maybe Dirty Grandpa or something.
01:23:33
Brian Leithead
Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. That's one with,
01:23:38
Brian Leithead
uh, what's her name? I'll be, yeah. Yeah.
01:23:43
David Isaacs
Yeah.
01:23:43
David Isaacs
And like the Sandlot growing up where they you know, trying to get this ball back in the old man's yard with the giant dog, like the bull mastiff or whatever it is, and the old man, like James Earl Jones, so.
01:23:58
David Isaacs
So it's like kind of like the, the stories about like the kid that befriends like the grouchy old man. Like that's always kind of like one of those comforting type stories for me. But yeah, like to have feud that's going on between neighbors that have lasted however many years that still hate each other, but still, think near the end of it, he's in the hospital and the asking where,
01:24:30
David Isaacs
Max is asking where Jack is for the nurse and she was asking if he was friends or family and kind of like pauses for a bit until he calls on his friend. So it's like they, guess that's the other, other part of it, like not being present, really understanding like they are there.
01:24:45
David Isaacs
They hate each other, but they still are each other's closest friends.
01:24:52
Brian Leithead
Yeah. And that's, uh, again, one of things that kind of comes with time of understanding exactly what happened if that's going to be something that ends your relationship or strengthens it. And while they, you know, we're playing pranks on each other or, uh, you know,
01:25:13
Brian Leithead
pretending that they hate each other. I think they secretly did really care for each other. I mean, they live next door for Christ's sake. So can't really hate that somebody that much and, you know, not want to move to a different street, let alone a different city or, you know, state or whatever. So, yeah, it was, like I said, it was just like a wholesome story and kind of just good that it ties into our topic for today. So,
01:25:39
Brian Leithead
Yeah, I hope, David, that we don't ever come in to blows over a woman and I have to knock her shanty into the middle of a lake.
01:25:48
David Isaacs
Yeah, hopefully not. I haven't gone ice fishing before, but I am curious about it.
01:25:50
Brian Leithead
Or try to...
01:25:56
Brian Leithead
Yeah, and what's funny is when I drive by some of the lakes over here on the west side of our county, shanties aren't really a thing anymore. They're kind of more just pop-up tents.
01:26:08
David Isaacs
Yeah. Well, yeah, I don't know what happened, really. And the movie, but not as much as like the shanties that they roll out onto the ice. Yeah, they've maybe like the insulation technology or something have gotten better for them.
01:26:22
David Isaacs
But yeah, most of the time, if I hear about somebody who's going to ice fishing, they've got... Kind of like a pop-up tent and a space heater, and that's about all they need.
01:26:33
Brian Leithead
Yeah.
01:26:36
David Isaacs
They've got a record player or a TV in there, whatever.
01:26:41
Brian Leithead
Yeah. Yeah. yeah. I mean, cause yeah, like you said, like a mini house that they had now. It's, you know, or like a shack or something. Now it's, they're literally just like pack up and go or pack in place.
01:26:54
Brian Leithead
Like we put our, my, my son's sleeping when we go on vacation and stuff. So, But yeah, I think that'll wrap things up for this week.
01:27:06
Brian Leithead
thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.
01:27:08
David Isaacs
I didn't want to leave with one piece of underrated media.
01:27:13
Brian Leithead
Oh, sorry about that.
01:27:14
David Isaacs
No, you're fine. Just kind of want to make sure we stay consistent. really enjoy buddy movies or people that start out as enemies and become friends.
01:27:28
David Isaacs
Also, the the those movies were like unlikely allies, things like that. But The Nice Guys, which came out, I believe, in 2016 with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, is a dramedy.
01:27:42
David Isaacs
But they balance things so well. between comedy and drama. Like it is very comedic. It's very fun, but also very serious in some aspects, very action packed.
01:27:53
David Isaacs
And it's one that flopped at the box office. And I know Gosling did an interview saying like the Angry Birds came out at the same time. So it killed them. And why they're probably to have a sequel to it because it, it flops so bad.
01:28:09
David Isaacs
it was another one of those ones where I went down the rabbit hole where the director was the same director for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with Robert Downey Jr. And who's the Val Kilmer.
01:28:22
Brian Leithead
Yeah.
01:28:23
David Isaacs
And it kind of follows along the same guys as kind of these buddies, unlikely friends. They come together. And it's actually The character that Robert Downey Jr. played in that movie, which I believe came out in 2005, got him the role as Iron Man.
01:28:42
David Isaacs
Or helped him get the role as Iron Man. And for people that don't know, Robert Downey Jr.'s father is very big in Hollywood, and Robert Downey Jr. was kind of a shit...
01:28:55
David Isaacs
kid i remember seeing him in weird science in the 80s but he had had a lot of problems i don't exactly remember what they were tied to whether was alcoholism and drug abuse or whatnot
01:29:08
Brian Leithead
He had a huge cocaine problem. He got caught
01:29:12
David Isaacs
that'll do it that'll do it
01:29:16
David Isaacs
But anyways, so that iteration didn't like as much. But then 11 years later, they kind of do things like storyboards kind of similar and it becomes like this buddy cop dramedy film that is probably my favorite movie of all time.
01:29:35
David Isaacs
Highly recommend it. I believe it's on Netflix right now. Stop what you're doing. And watch it, please. I would love to see a sequel.
01:29:47
Brian Leithead
Yeah, I remember when that movie came out, actually, one set in theaters. Yeah, it was a great movie, but for the sake of our audience and everything, I would re-watch it again. It has been a couple years, so I always find when I watch movies that I enjoy, I always find something new that I like about it or appreciate about it.
01:30:09
David Isaacs
Yeah, and that's going down that rabbit hole. Keith David is in it. He's the voice actor for The Arbiter and Halo. He does a lot of voice acting work. He's the president Rick and Morty. Kim Basinger, who played... She won an Oscar for LA Confidential, which also had Russell Crowe in it, which came out 1997. Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, the piece of shit that is Kevin Spacey, and a few other actors.
01:30:36
David Isaacs
So... kind of bring her back into a similar role with Ellie Confidential, like how she did in Ellie Confidential. And then also kind of went at Margaret Qualley's earlier roles as well. So a lot like a really great cast, really great. Like said, they tow the line between comedy and drama very well.
01:30:56
David Isaacs
Gosling's character in it is great. Russell Crowe's character in it is great. The whole premise of discovering this mystery and how it expands and continues to expand because they're trying look for this girl and they're uncovering this giant conspiracy is honestly it's hard because it's preferential between so many people but I think most people that watch it would enjoy it.
01:31:23
Brian Leithead
Yeah, I mean, it's got a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score and 7.4 on IMDb. Those are all pretty solid scores.
01:31:34
Brian Leithead
And then fun fact about the director. So his acting debut was in The Predator. was one of the military, part of the military team for Arnold Schwarzenegger.
01:31:45
Brian Leithead
He's the second who dies.
01:31:45
David Isaacs
I am seeing that right now.
01:31:48
Brian Leithead
Maybe he's the first. Spoiler alert. Number two, most of his movies that he writes or directs are around Christmas movies for whatever reason.
01:32:01
Brian Leithead
Like Iron Man 3 he directed was a Christmas movie. I think the Predator that he did, I think that actually Halloween. But then Nice Guys was also a Christmas movie or Christmas era movie.
01:32:15
Brian Leithead
Yeah.
01:32:21
Brian Leithead
Oh, and then Matt Bomer, he was the assassin that. He did, what, Suits, I think. So...
01:32:31
Brian Leithead
also love that the... I won't spoil it anymore.
01:32:33
David Isaacs
Was it Suits?
01:32:39
David Isaacs
White Collar.
01:32:42
Brian Leithead
White collar, okay.
01:32:43
Brian Leithead
I knew it had something to do with it.
01:32:43
David Isaacs
Yeah, the show that he was in.
01:32:47
David Isaacs
Yeah. Go and watch it. Don't think about it. you're sick of new age Hollywood like I All these shows that are coming out that they slow things down to a fucking absolute halt.
01:33:03
David Isaacs
It continues to happen. It happened Silo. It happened with House of the Dragon. It's happening right now with Invincible. Like just... And that's what got me to going back and trying to find movies that weren't as appreciated or as highly...
01:33:21
David Isaacs
renowned because not a lot of people have seen them because the content creation now is with streaming services is just terrible.
01:33:33
Brian Leithead
Yeah, they definitely don't put as much effort into making these things. And, you know, rather than trying to make new ideas, they just go for the big banger, like whether it's a superhero movie or, know, a remake of something from 20 years ago or a sequel
The World of Sequels and Hollywood Criticism
01:33:49
Brian Leithead
for that. We didn't ask for from 20 years ago.
01:33:54
Brian Leithead
Like, don't know, for instance, Gladiator one or Gladiator two. didn't need the movie. The, the gladiator to itself didn't add anything to the lore of gladiator.
01:34:05
Brian Leithead
I
01:34:08
Brian Leithead
would say that would be overrated piece of media that somebody could watch. Cause it's on, I think it's on for rent now. So, or no, actually it's on paramount right now, paramount plus. So, uh, you know, give Ridley Scott a few extra bucks in his pocket or something, if you really want go for it. But, uh,
01:34:26
Brian Leithead
If you want my personal opinion, wouldn't waste time on it.
01:34:29
David Isaacs
it's way too massivatory for the first movie and that's what sequels think like a lot of the if you're not advancing the story so there are a lot of sequels star wars episode five really good the dark knight obviously dune 2 like sequels should be like trying to extend the story that has been written and expand the universe in a way that they can, not kind of reliving what the same thing from the first one, and then also paying homage to the first movie. Because they either try to differentiate it from it so much,
01:35:13
David Isaacs
or they like really just try to ingrain like everything that had happened in the first movie, which is pretty tough. which like Furiosa, which was prequel, but came out after Mad Max. Like they did really good job, like telling a different story in the same universe, expanding on a character story in that sense.
01:35:32
David Isaacs
but yeah, gladiator two, they, they try to, I don't know exactly how to describe it. And, It's one of those things that I understand and I don't really know how explain it more than already have, so I'm not going to try.
01:35:48
David Isaacs
But I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. I do think it's worth the watch when it becomes available to you for free at some point. But yeah, I wouldn't go out of my way in any sense of the word.
01:36:05
Brian Leithead
Yeah.
01:36:07
Brian Leithead
I said earlier, it didn't add anything. Going from Star Wars New Hope The Empire Strikes Back,
01:36:19
Brian Leithead
this movie hooked everyone This hooked everyone in because it expanded. It was one of the very first instances of expanding on the scope of the lore of Star Wars. It's like they added a Super Star Destroyer and they showed that they could do things outside of the Rebels trying to blow a Death Star.
01:36:43
Brian Leithead
The struggle between good and evil. That's why sequels are so tough because they kind of have to build on top of that and yet also be the same like core structure, core bones of what these movies are doing. And, you know, when they take 20, what, 24, almost 24 years to release a sequel that most people probably haven't watched in a decade and held in high regard. And now you're going kind of try and topple that with a feeble story. Anyway, I can't express how much I did not enjoy that movie.
01:37:25
David Isaacs
The last, so we'll, we'll stop here in a second. The last thing I'll expand on is Ridley Scott tried sword and sandals movies after gladiator. There's probably four or five of them.
01:37:38
David Isaacs
Exodus gods and Kings. There's few others that I can't remember the name of, but. to his credit he is 87 years old so he did do pretty well for somebody his age and his directorial style and put together a film that was entertaining in a sense and might be for like the general populace but yeah the homage to the original one that most people hadn't seen were a lot of people that would be interested in going to the movies weren't alive for so yeah i mean it is kind of tough in that sense so and
01:38:12
David Isaacs
20 years or something, it'll be looked back on like his fact he was still able to put something together being as old as he was, and kind of be like the I'm imagining the, what's the old man in the sea Ernest Hemingway that it's held in high regard because he was, it's kind of like his own story that he was putting out terrible books after terrible books for so long. And most critics thought he couldn't do it anymore. And he finally,
01:38:42
David Isaacs
put together something that was at least legible of a story but i read it and that book sucks like so it it might be like one of those uh types of situations not to say that gladiator 2 sucks as much as uh old man in the sea or whatever the fucking book call is called but yeah i think it's just going to be kind of like one of those things in 10 or 20 years they look back and it's like
01:38:50
Brian Leithead
Bye.
01:39:10
David Isaacs
Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, that was not as much of a total piece of shit as some of the other sword and sandals movies that he had come out with.
01:39:21
Brian Leithead
Yeah, and I think this one kind of boggles my mind sometimes of when these movies, like nice guy doesn't do well in the theater, and then
01:39:33
Brian Leithead
it's clearly just would be a sequel for that would maybe, don't know, might be unfair to ask for a sequel against a movie that's actually come out and the first one didn't do so well in the theater, but So that's why it boggles my mind of movies like that do that probably deserve more credit.
01:39:52
Brian Leithead
Don't until they hit a streaming platform, but then, you know, these kind of, don't know, nepotism movies, they just make because they assume that's going to do well because of the first movie that came out 22 years ago or 24 years ago, however long it was.
01:40:11
Brian Leithead
And that's not Hollywood not being present. Yeah. Hollywood not figuring out.
01:40:20
David Isaacs
They hate you.
01:40:22
Brian Leithead
Right.
01:40:27
David Isaacs
Fuck
01:40:27
Brian Leithead
It's transactional. I feel like a prostitute. And I'm the one who has to pay.
01:40:33
David Isaacs
Yeah. All right. Well, it's getting to be, mean, we're at an hour and 45 minutes, so we'll cut this one off here. But Hopefully, if anyone has made it this far, thank you for your continued support, continued listening. I hope that you enjoyed yourself.
01:40:55
David Isaacs
Not really. It's kind of like me and Brian just talking to each other about personal improvement.
Concluding Thoughts and Listener Appreciation
01:41:00
David Isaacs
So if you take anything away from it, then great.
01:41:06
Brian Leithead
Yeah, thanks for listening. know we kind of rambled on about certain movies, but speaking from experience. But thanks for listening, everybody, and have a great day.