Entering August Mode
Spike is out of Sixers takes, so he's watching some stuff and asking for your Ricky questions.
It’s July 24th. August is here. Many say that August is their favorite time of the year for The Ricky.
If you’re new, August is the time of the year that The Ricky lets its hair down. Some guests that might not be Sixers or basketball centric. More Relationship Advice (if you need it), Jigsaws (if I think of them), re-litigating old debates, so on and so forth. We’re also going to re-watch the Boston series from the playoffs (Mike keeps saying we should all do this but I don’t know how to provide everyone with the games so they can watch them).
I did not think we could start August before LeBron signed, even though I don’t think there’s any chance he’s signing with the Sixers. Mike changed my mind on that one. I’m kind of adopting his way of looking at this; when he signs, he signs. If it’s here, we’ll deal with it.
So, with August, comes you. August is always better with Ricky Community ideas. If you have email questions (Sixers or non-Sixers), send them to rightstorickysanchez@gmail.com. If want to reach us by voicemail, it’s 833-LICKFACE (you, yes you can get your own eyeroll from Mike when I start playing a voicemail! It’s absolutely free!). I’d say to hit us on social media but we’re checking those less and less. So just email us or voicemail us.
To get myself into August mode, I’m going to simply tell you about the non-sports content that I’ve been consuming, and whether I like it or not.
The Pitt (TV Show). It’s ok. I tend to not be watching shows, or as many shows, as most people do. I’ve got to watch all of the Phillies/Sixers games, and I just like movies better. So Val and I are always watching one show, which we’ll watch once or twice a week, and she picked The Pitt.
Also worth noting, if I think a show starts to suck I never “stick with it.” I’ll give a show two bad episodes and then I’ll bail, no matter how many seasons I’ve watched. Recent bails include From and Your Friends and Neighbors (season two).
The Pitt is an emergency room drama that takes place at a Pittsburgh hospital, and each season takes place over one day.
It is a fine watch. It’s reasonably compelling.
I’d give two warnings if you plan on watching it. First, it’s pretty gross and graphic. I have to cover my eyes almost every episode (I don’t deal well with realistic gore). Second, the show goes out of its way to teach you a lesson like four times an episode. It’s too much. I do not need some hospital show asking me if I’m tolerant enough every episode. There’s a fun game you can play where you can predict what lesson one of the storylines will teach you when it first is introduced.
Gracie Abrams, Daughter From Hell (Music). I think it’s great.
Pretty bold for a pop album to be sixteen songs and 56 minutes but she pulls it off with flying colors. You could probably cut a song or two but tough to find an album nowadays that you wouldn’t say that for.
I don’t know if it’s just the way things go from a timeline perspective, but there has certainly been a bit of an influx of ‘90s alternative feel to current pop music over I’d say even the last half decade. You can absolutely hear it several times in this album. I think the most obvious one is the title track, “Daughter From Hell,” which could absolutely be a Smashing Pumpkins song.
Listening to the album is almost like laying with a comfortable blanket on a Spring Saturday when it’s about 65 degrees and you’re drifting off to take a nap. There are some really great songs here, but none of them knock you out of the vibe.
Aside from the singles, “Hit The Wall” and “Look At My Life,” I’d say the standouts to check out if you’re interested are “The Knife,” “Good Reason,” “Sober” and “Daughter From Hell.”
And, some movies I’ve watched…
I do keep an active Letterboxd but my reviews are pretty short. Really just a couple of thoughts and a rating so I can remember what I thought of them.
Evil Dead Burn. Really just so so. I love horror movies, I love this franchise, and I really liked Evil Dead Rise. But this one didn’t really work for me.
Evil Dead movies are best when there is a little bit of humor, but it’s difficult to balance because it should be terrifying too. I do think the first of the reboots had no humor, which made it tough to think of as an Evil Dead movie, but was still a very solid horror movie.
I thought it was just a little too dumb and silly.
Deep Water. Plane crash and shark attack movie that has a terrifying plane crash but gets pretty boring once it becomes a shark attack movie. It’s OK.
Ready Or Not 2. I thought it was boring. Liked the first one much better.
Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. I kind of loved this movie. I acknowledge it’s pretty terrible and you have to take so many leaps of faith to just stick with it past the first hour that it almost seems like it was on purpose. But the second half of the movie was amazing and definitely seems like it is part of the Evil Dead universe.
I want to reinforce that the movie is very stupid, but if you like horror movies you’ll probably say “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I enjoyed that” at the end.
Over Your Dead Body. My wife really liked it. I tolerated it.
Crime 101. Paint by numbers crime movie really but a perfect movie to stream at home.
Disclosure Day. I am not a Spielberg guy at all. I do not want my movies to have ridiculous happy endings and I don’t want a positive view on life. I want my filmmakers to be fucking miserable.
I am an alien guy though, and while I didn’t think this movie was great or anything, I didn’t hate it, and Emily Blunt was awesome. I had a pretty good time with it even though I had pretty good idea where it was going and it was generally unbelievable.
Backrooms. Enough has been written about it. I am glad it exists, I loved how weird it was, I only thought it was OK. Just not enough story for me. Kind of reminded me how I felt after Skinamarink or In a Violent Nature. Glad it was made, unlikely I’ll ever watch it again.
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