While I quiver at the idea of a world without caffeine, let's get into a few things rattling around my head.
Starting with what I DO NOT like doing, and that's dress up. The dress code at the new gig is business casual, and I'm amplifying the "casual" in that equation. Nothing against the nice dressing folks of the world, but I just prefer a t-shirt and jeans, or a t-shirt and cargo shorts. Button-down shirts and nice pants feel about as comfortable as sitting in a dentist chair. Do I look good? According to my wife, yes. Do I like looking this good? No.
Sometimes, though, you find something out about yourself in the midst of a wardrobe change. For me, it's the newfound love for v-neck undershirts. Taking off the fancy shirt, putting on gym shorts, and walking around my backyard with a Stella Artois in one hand and a gram of fine cannabis is my dream-like state.
The Cardinals helping the Pirates literally walk it off last night is not a dream at all for Cards fans, but a useless loss that allowed manager Oliver Marmol to see which relievers could swim in high-leverage waters at the moment. Here's the scary thing about usually pretty good reliever, Giovanny Gallegos: when he's bad, he's really bad. There’s no world where walking three straight Pirates is passable.
I'm talking about not being able to find the strike zone with two road maps attached. The timing wasn't ideal for Gallegos, who signed a two-year extension before the game to remain a mainstay in the bullpen. The Cardinals have officially won the Luke Voit trade, as he's traded jerseys a few times since leaving STL while Gio has found a real home as an everyman in relief. Let's just hope he got his one rough appearance out of the way.
New beverage crush: Coke Zero. Yes, I have reentered the land of soda consumption. Like many new things I take on in life, blame my dad. He sucks down the sugar free caffeine like it's an endless stream of caramel. so I tried and found that this aspartame-enabled product doesn't hurt me. A far healthier cry than my Pepsi-binge drinking episodes. Do I need it? No. Did I need those French fries last night? Nope. Life is hard, so we cope with our flaws.
Actor/comedian Billy Eichner took to Twitter to complain about his new movie, "Bros," performing horribly at the box office. A groundbreaking film for being centered around a gay romance, it was also an R-rated comedy with no big stars to open the film in the late summer. If the studio was more serious about his film, it would have opened in the dead space of August.
September isn't exactly January, which is widely known as the dumping ground for studios to roll out their crap films, the fall season starter month is a risk to drop intuitive films without a strong lead. Billy is funny and appealing, but few casual moviegoers know who he is. Having a recognizable and beloved face in front of an R-rated comedy (Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in "Wedding Crashers") helps.
Eichner, an openly gay man, blamed the lack of return on straght people not seeing his movie. That's not entirely false but if that's the case, why didn't more gay movie fans head out and see it? Marketing, lack of a star, and an R-rated comedy with something new is going to be a risk. Sorry, Billy. Yes, a bunch of narrow-minded asshats who (STILL!) have something against other human beings finding love in different places than they do, but that's not the whole case here.
I do plan on seeing "Bros," because I love the idea of a gay romance becoming normalized in Hollywood and a few trusted film critics did love it. Week night screenings, coming after nine hours at the office, aren't appealing at the moment.
What's appealing? Ryan Reynolds selling North Wales football on FX. "Welcome to Wrexham" is definitely a pick for "Ted Lasso" fans feeling homesick and standard professional football fans. Along with fellow (lesser known) actor Rob McElhenney, the "Deadpool" actor bought the failing professional football team with the hopes of revitalizing the rabid sports culture in Wrexham.
A place that holds the oldest stadium in history yet needs a major face lift to rise in the leagues, "Wrexham" and its diehard locals are the real stars of this TV documentary series. You don't have to love football/soccer in order to adore this show; you just need to know how a sports team can become a part of a city's emotional fabric. Cards fans know this. Blues fans get it. Any sports fanbase gets it. That unconventional attachment that grows between a team and community.
I'm getting a crash course on how professional soccer leagues work. Imagine if your MLB baseball team stunk so bad-- aka, the Pirates-and you relegated to a lower league, like the Triple-A squad. That's what happens to pro teams overseas in football. You stink for a while or have a run of bad seasons, and you get demoted. Wrexham is so far down when the show starts that it becomes an underdog story to see if they recover.
Throw in the always funny Reynolds and the always sunny McElhenney, and it's a good 30-minute episode series.
That's all I have for the morning. Make brave choices, my friends. As George Clooney told his fictional son in "Michael Clayton" and I repeat to my son just about every day before I drop him off at school, "teach these people something!"