Friday Faves 1/31: The Gentlemen, Football, Hardcore History, Chili, NA Beer, and Chili

Best Activity

Sunday Morning Grocery Shopping - We had a rather low-key Saturday night last weekend. Tiff planned her long run for Sunday (Big Sur Marathon is closer than it appears…), the weather was crappy, and I was fighting off a cold. That meant we were both up and at ‘em on Sunday morning. I was at Wegman’s nice and early, which was incredible. The traffic was non-existent, and the aisles in the store were peaceful.

This might speak to my relatively boring week or the rapid aging process I am experiencing, but seeing an early movie on Friday night, hanging-in on Saturday night, and grocery shopping early Sunday were delightful.

On top of that, we capped off the weekend with dinner at Orinoco, a delicious spot in the South End, with our friends Allie and Chris and then took in some jazz ambiance at The Beehive.

Best Watch

Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez - This Netflix docuseries is entertaining and chilling. I was left wondering what could have been for Hernandez if he could have just kept his nose clean. An incredible talent who was teamed with the greatest quarterback and tight end (Gronk) he could ask for. It’s shocking seeing the world he was living in and the crew he was running with. He believed he was invincible and worthy of endless loyalty from second-rate thugs, strangers, and anyone in between.

Sometimes, these types of documentaries make me uneasy because they start to manipulate the viewer into feeling too much sympathy for the central figure/villian: Brain damage, sexual repression, death of a father, a fractured family. Make no mistake, Hernandez was a bad dude, lacking any sort of guidance or conscience. The story is worth watching, however, I did think the sexuality angle was lazy and unnecessary, mainly because of the unsubstantiated claims.

The Gentlemen - Buckle up for more movies in this section… The Gentlemen was precisely what you’d expect from a Guy Ritchie movie. It was funny, lively, and fast-paced. Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels were some of my favorite movies to watch in college. Brad Pitt’s character in Snatch is one of my favorites in any movie anywhere. The Gentlemen has a little bit of violence (and one rather uncomfortable scene with a woman getting beaten up), but it’s not overt; a lot of it takes place off screen, with humor injected into it in in the aftermath.

Super Bowl - The sting of the end of the Patriots season is long gone, the Celtics have been a soothing salve for my sports wound. I am very much looking forward to this Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers. Having spent my elementary years in the Bay Area, the Niners were always my second team (I think Kansas City wins, though…). I’ve had some fun banter with a childhood friend, Jon, who is a big Niners fan. The Jimmy Garoppolo trade juxtaposed to the Tom Brady possible exit is another interesting subplot for Patriots fans. Pat Maholmes is electric, Andy Reid can’t manage a clock (but deserves a Super Bowl), the Niners are interesting and dynamic coached by the guy that blew a 28-3 lead, there’s a Buckeye on the Niners in Nick Bosa whose name could come up quite a bit.

If you’re looking for some great insight into what it’s like to play in the Super Bowl, Chris Long is your man. He played for the Patriots one year and beat the Falcons, the next year he played for the Eagles and beat the Pats. He has some great stories for his experiences. Here’s the link.

I’m looking forward to making wings, having a few beers, and enjoying the game without any real dog in the hunt (it’s been a while…) and no fear of a slight Monday morning daze at work. I wouldn’t blame you for hating my guts following that last sentence.

Best Listen

Hardcore History w/ Dan Carlin - These podcasts are monsters, bordering on the length of an audiobook. A few summers ago I spent a week cleaning out my storage unit and listened to Blueprint for Armegeddon, which is a six-part, 20 hours of content about World War I. It’s exceptional. Dan Carlin is one of the few people I can think of that doesn’t need post-production to make his solo pods interesting. No music. No sound effects. Just him and his research.

I decided to take a dip back into the long podcasts and listen to them on my runs during the week. The episode The Celtic Holocaust is about five hours long. I’m about an hour into it, and plan to make a major dent this weekend during my 10 mile run. Spotify.

Maggie Rogers - I’m sitting in a Caffe Nero in Concord, MA right now killing time before a late meeting. I’m a little tired after some substitute teaching this week, and Maggie Rogers felt like the perfect shot of five hour energy. I love her album Heard it in a Past Life and was so pumped for her Best New Artist Grammy Nomination. I bet she outlasts Lizzo…

Best Read

Two Things Can Be True, but One is Always Mentioned First - The Kobe Bryant news is horrible, and it’s also inundated my life this week: TV, Internet, casual conversations. It’s exhausting. This piece I thought summed up a lot of what I think about how we grieve and remember people that were famous yet made hurtful mistakes. I finished this piece feeling jealous; I wished I had written it. - The Outline.com

Best Eat

Tiff’s Chili - On Saturday morning, Tiff sat down on the couch with three cookbooks, determined to create an original and delicious chili inspired by some of her favorite recipes. We are participating in a chili cook-off next weekend in New Jersey, and Tiff’s competitive streak kicked into high gear. The chili will be a contender, I have no doubt. I’m not going to give anything away, because I know some of the competition reads this post. But just know, it was the best thing I ate this week.

Plantains of all kinds - At our dinner on Sunday night at Orinoco, it felt like every dish came with some form of plantain, and I loved them all. Fried or not. Stuffed or not.

Effie’s Cakes - I did not participate in a full fledged “Dry January”, but I have not had any alcohol since January 12 (which is a Herculean feat when you include the fact that I’ve been subbing the last two weeks at my old school….). My dryness, however, has created a void that tea tends to fill. At night, instead of cracking open a beer or pouring a finger or two of bourbon (or Scotch), I warm up some water and have some tea. This leads me to another vice of mine, cookies. These things go hand-in-hand: tea and a cookie. Effie’s cookies are insanely good. They are simple, with a hint of sweetness, they’re a perfect match for some tea. We can find them at Whole Foods, but much to my delight, I just discovered I can order them online! If I’m feeling frisky, I’ll put a small scoop of Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter right on top. If you don’t know cookie butter, you’re missing out…

Best Drink

Athletic Brewing - Full disclosure, this is not a thing I’ve had to drink since September. However, if you’re coming off a Dry January and are enjoying the boost in productivity and mood, this might be a great way to satisfy the beer craving without the crummy mornings. Our bartender at our local spot told us during dinner this weekend that he wasn’t drinking and had read four books this month as a result. Imagine being informed, sober, and still have a sudsy drink at the end of a long day. Check Athletic Brewing out.

Best Plugs

Kobe, The Celtics, and Me - I wasn’t really sure I wanted to write anything about Kobe following the accident last weekend. There are times when I climb into bed and an idea scratches at me; Sunday was one of those nights. I woke up Monday and put some of my thoughts down. I’m not even sure it aged well in the five days it’s been out in the interwebs. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how we as a society grieve online and what it means. Kobe’s death might be the single most tragic celebrity death of the social media era. Here’s the link.

Boston Sports Cafeteria - About years years ago I wrote for a sports blog called TheFanHub. It was a blast and pushed me to write something every week. One monthly piece I did was a recap of the Boston sports scene through the lens of a high school cafeteria. I thought I’d bring it back for 2020… here a link to this month’s post.

The Random Division - Peter The Bachelor is flailing; it’s the most direct way to say it. He’s lost control of house, the women are pissed, and he just can’t get anything right. His best bet might be to try the Constanza Method where he just does the opposite of his gut instinct. Here’s a link to this week’s podcast. iTunes.

Tiff and I are looking for some questions that we can answer on the pod, so send along any questions you have for us about the Bachelor or anything else, really! TheRandomDivisionPod@Gmail.com

Finally, follow us on Instagram…

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🚨 NEW POD🚨 WAH-WAH-WAHHHHHHHH⠀ Peter and the women head to stunning and gorgeous Cleveland! An ex shows up, but it's not Hannah B.! The group date gives Cleveland an exciting football game. Eat your heart out Baker Mayfield! Alayah returns for a chance at redemption. Victoria P. feels slighted and can't believe Peter doesn't believe her even after she's clearly been dishonest. Half the women remaining at 24 or younger, and we wonder if that's part of the issue with the chemistry in the house. How much should Peter be blamed for this "finasco?"⠀ ⠀ Link in Bio.⠀ ⠀ We're hoping to have a mail bag episode, so send slide into our DM with a question about us or about the show or whatever you want us to talk about! #bachelor #thebachelor #podcast #podcastersofinstagram #cedarpoint #bachelornation

A post shared by THE RANDOM DIVISION (@therandomdivision) on Jan 29, 2020 at 7:34am PST

Friday Faves 11/22: Social Media DeTox, Leeds United, Farro Soup, PB Cups, and Coldplay

Best Activity

Social Media Detox: On Sunday night I deleted twitter and Instagram from my phone, to ensure that I spent the week social media free, I asked Tiff to change my passwords. I was locked out. The result was a Sunday through Friday morning social media freeze. I have to be honest, it was glorious. I was finding myself getting lost in the crappy parts of twitter more recently. Instagram is just a time suck. It’s the place I go when I have a few minutes or if I’m bored. This weekly freeze is something I’m going to continue to do. I feel better; I was more productive, and I honestly didn’t miss it all that much. There was a muscle memory that I noticed the first day: I’d open up my phone and my thumb would hover over the spot that Instagram used to live. After a day, that habit disappeared. I highly recommend forcing yourself to take a similar type of break from social media.

Best Watch

Daybreak: This new Netflix show is a fun watch. It’s set in post-nuclear-bomb, apocalyptic Los Angeles, but the kids all survived and the adults were turned into zombie-like monsters. Just like high school, the kids have formed cliques (the jocks, the nerds, the outcasts, etc…), controlling different parts of the city and fighting with each other. The show follows “tweener” Josh, who was new in town before the bomb hit. He’s handsome, he’s “weird” (he’s really not, though), he’s a Canadian survivalist, and he has to find the love of his life: Sam Dean. The show is over the top, and, like many of these Netflix shows, targets kids; however, the language and general themes of the show are pretty mature. Maybe that’s an old guy take, but it’s not a show that I’d want a middle school kid to watch. If you’re older than a middle schooler, check out Daybreak (if you’re a middle schooler, I’m not sure how you found your way here, but welcome!).

Matthew Broderick plays the dull headmaster. Ah, Nostalgia.

“Take Us Home”: Leeds United has crashed into my conscious this past week due to my podcast with Both. We researched Leeds United for our latest episode, (coming next week), and the club has captured my attention. Between reading The Damned Utd. and watching this show, I have enjoyed learning about Leeds. “Take Us Home” is a docu-series following the club’s 2018/19 campaign as they rise from near financial ruin to fighting for promotion to the Premier League.

Best Read

The Damned Utd: I wrote about this book on my Book Club page. It’s a great book about 1960s and 1970s soccer, and Leeds United more specifically. Here’s the link to my longer thoughts.

Seeing Red. Boston’s Traffic Problem: Now that I’m working from home, the time I spend in a car has dipped dramatically. It’s glorious and many times when I do have to drive, getting back into the city is maddening. Charlestown is basically an island with three ways to get into it. With a casino on one side (and a horrible rotary), it can take a long time to get home. Wanna go 2 miles during rush hour? Better set aside an hour, pop some blood pressure meds, and download a good podcast (or just walk and skip the blood pressure meds… it’s probably faster to walk).

Best Listen

Everyday life by Coldplay: Ok, so I have to be honest. I am tossing this your way without having listened to it yet. It was just released this morning and my headphones are dead; I’m not super keen on trying to play it on my laptop while sitting in a coffeeshop. Some people might, I am not one of them. But considering I’m in a bit of a music/podcast groove, I don’t have much new to share. Oh… except for…

The Daily: This shortish podcast gives you one important story of the day. During this week, it was a great way to check in on the Impeachment hearings, especially considering I did'n’t have Twitter to scroll through. Beyond the hearings, this is a good one to listen to every day.

Best Eat

Trader Joe’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups: We rarely shop at Trader Joe’s, but when we do, there’s always a few standout snacks that we find. Tiff went this weekend and found these little delights. They come in a small bucket, they’re bite-size, they’re delicious. It’s a miracle we still have some left, that’s probably because they’re in a cabinet, not sitting on the counter ready to be raided every time I enter the kitchen.

Tuscan Farro Soup: I made this on Monday, and it was super easy to make (read: limited chopping and a lot of “dump and simmer”). It lasted us most of the week. Hot tip: add some Wegmans Parmesan Garlic Bread as an accompaniment.

Best Drink

Wine Tasting: This could have gone up in the best activity section. On Saturday, Tiff and I went down to a wine shop in Boston called The Urban Grape. They had a pretty serious wine tasting, which was focused on Thanksgiving dinner wines. They had three tables with five wines each (from different distributors) and then one table with liquor. I’m not a big wine person, I like it; I don’t really have a grasp on all the nuances though. I do know I should swirl and smell before drinking, that’s about it.

Best Plugs

The Random Division: In our third episode about the this decade, Tiff and I talked about fashion. From Athleisure to hombres, nothing was off limits. We’d love if you followed the podcast on whatever pod app you use (and write us a review if your an iTunes person) We’re also on Instagram if you wanna follow us there, too. We’d love to hear from you on IG or in our email: TheRandomDivisionPod@gmail.com

The AFC East sucks at football: I crunched some numbers in the NFL from the last 16 seasons. The AFC East deserves a lot of the criticism it gets for allowing the Patriots to dominate for nearly two decades.

The Imperfect Game: I can’t speak highly enough about these deep dive pods I’m doing with Both Long. We have a Leeds United episode on the way, but if you haven’t listen to the other two pods we’ve done about Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United, check them out.

The Great British Baking Show is a soothing, must watch on Netflix.

There is a regal white tent out in the middle of the English countryside where the best of humanity spends its weekends. It’s a place where the people are kind, supportive, and creative. It’s a place that smells of sugar and spice and everything nice.

The Great British Baking Show is, by far, my favorite competitive food show, and it would also rank as one of my favorite shows, period. Recently, Netflix released a new season of the show, but it’s happening the old-fashioned way, one new show every Friday. No binging on sweet treats this time…

So what makes this show so wonderful?

First, the competitors on the show are unlike any group of people you will ever see. They are not competing for any money, but instead the prize at the end of this very long journey is a bouquet of flowers and a cake stand. That’s it. This final prize might be part of the reason the competitors are so incredibly kind to each other; the stakes are low. But maybe kindness courses through every single baker’s blood. Tears are shed at the elimination announcement each week. Oftentimes, the bakers will even help each other out when an extra set of hands is required, like putting the blades on a bread windmill or balancing the final cake at the top of a four cake tower. They’ll even share ingredients, and if competitors arrive at the same idea for a flavor combination, there is no whining, just maybe some good natured joking and depreciation that the other baker will probably do it better. They even cheer for each other, high fives and applause abound when someone get a good review from the judges.

Over the course of the show’s filming, the bakers return home each week. Yes, this show is filmed one week at a time. They are not holed-up for weeks on end, after two days, they go home, knowing what the next challenges will be. This means they are able to practice their skills. All while holding down steady jobs or going to school or running a household (or even some combinations of those things). That means the bakers who reach the final are competing for 11 weeks. I can barely manage my life when I have back-to-back busy weekends! It’s rather impressive.

As opposed to so many of the reality shows in the U.S, we are really not thrust into the lives of the bakers. We get a quick intro to where they live, what they do, and who is in their family. There are no clever chyrons, in fact, there are no chyrons at all. So it takes a bit of time to learn the names of the bakers. We learn about them mainly through what they bake. They all bring some form of inspiration with them to the tent, whether it’s regional flavors, a grandmother’s old recipe, or a family favorite.

The predicability of the show is comforting; it consists of three different baking challenges each week that all focus on one specialty or skill (bread, biscuits, chocolate, cake, etc.). Two of the week’s challenges allow for practice at home, but the middle challenge is a “technical” where the two judges, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith, alternate in choosing a challenging, often unknown, bake for the competitors to muddle through with limited instructions. Each technical bake is judged blind. The “showstopper” allows for a lot of the folks to show off their insane imaginations and creativity.

Like any good show, there needs to be a villain, and Paul Hollywood, the silver haired, barrel-chested, baron of bread, is an excellent foil to all the revelry. He challenges contestants on their thinking, planting seeds of doubt (especially during bread week). He’ll prowl around the tent, hands shoved into pockets, seeking out missteps in order to hand out a fatherly, “I told you so…” Prue and the hosts, Sandi Toksvig and Noel Fielding, all balance out Paul’s energy with jokes and ribbing, mostly at Paul’s expense.

The thing about Paul, though, is that the bakers all crave his approval. It’s like the tough teacher in school, praise from them means a whole lot more than praise from a teacher that doles it out all the time. Paul’s handshake is the ultimate stamp of approval, and if you get it during bread week, well then you might as well be knighted.

The goodness that reverberates through the show is soothing. There is no loud music or harsh cuts back and forth that leave the heart racing. It’s an hour of television that transports you away from the hustle and bustle (you know impeachments and stuff…), teaches you a little bit about baking, and shows you that, yes, there are good people out there, and they love to bake.

Friday Faves 8/30: Craigie on Main, Taylor Swift, Serial Killers, and Street Corn Pizza

Best Activity

This past Friday we did something we had been threatening to do for years. We went to Craigie on Main for their burger. It is consistently ranked as one of the best burgers in Boston. The tricky part to acquiring this burger for your belly is you have to get to Craigie on Main at opening, or even before opening, and hustle to the bar once the award winning restaurant opens. We showed up a little after 5PM for a 5:30 opening. We were third and fourth in line, and by the time 5:30 rolled around and they opened the doors I’d say 15 people were on the sidewalk.

Craigie only serves 18 of their burgers a night. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. It is served medium-rare next to some of the best wedges potatoes I’d had in my life. The burger was massive and we had a great little corner of the bar. The bartender was happy and chatty, the couple to our left was visiting from out of town and were curious about some other places to eat in Boston. The bartender was glad to offer his thoughts (Toro, Shojo, Brewer’s Fork for Pizza, and Monica’s in the North End for their Italian sandwich).

When we were done with the meal, it was still early given our 5:30 dining time, so we decided to walk home from Central Square to Charlestown. The Longfellow Bridge offers one of the best views of Boston (pictured above), so we took that route home and stopped at the Liberty Hotel on the way home as a pit stop.

An ideal end of summer evening, for sure.

Best Watch

Hard Knocks: As the NFL season sneaks up on us next weekend (and the college football season in full swing this Labor Day Weekend), if you have HBO this is always a well done show. This year they’re following the Oakland Raiders training camp. There’s plenty of interesting storylines, and John Gruden doesn’t disappoint. And Antonio Brown is a basket case. Catch up this weekend and be ready for the final episode next week.

Mindhunter: If you’re someone that has been sucked into the vortex of true crime TV shows or podcasts, I highly recommend Mindhunter on Netflix. It’s one of the best things on Netflix because it doesn’t feel like a Netflix show. It’s scary and smart and directed by David Fincher, who has a penchant for 8-10 minute scenes with serial killer interviews, just crushes this entire series. The show follows the development of the behavior science department of the FBI.

Watch it, but make sure you have some sort of “palate cleanser” after so you don’t stay up all night.

Best Read

Phone Addiction: This piece in The Guardian is really well done. This is a topic I am very interested in having worked with children and seen the effect social media and technology has had on how kids treat each other and the comfort they feel in using abhorrent language towards one another. It’s way worse than being called a bedbug, I’ll tell you that much.

Best Listen

Taylor Swifts Lover: I wrote about the album earlier this week. Check it out here…. I scored each song as a “0” or “1.” It’s a solid album.

Best Eat

The Craigie Burger: See Best Activity. A delicious burger, a cool experience. Glad I can check it off the list.

Mexican Street Corn Pizza: Brewers Fork opened in Charlestown a few years ago now. It was the first of a few new spots to eat in our neighborhood. It appears on a lot of best pizza lists, after the bartender at Craigie offered it as a pizza recommendation, I decided to head back for the first time in a while this week. This pizza was delicious.

Shameless Plug(s)

The Random Division is new this week with our thoughts on the latest 18 hours of Bachelor in Paradise that aired this week.

You can follow our Random Division Instagram here. You can email us with BiP observations or requests of other things you’d like us to pod about because we’re heading towards the Bachelor offseason and we’d like to keep up our weekly momentum.

Email: TheRandomDivisionPod@Gmail.com

I wrote about Taylor Swift’s album here… and I wrote about my Strange August Restlessness here.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Friday Faves 8/16: Veronica Mars, Ciders, and A Sign of Aging

Best Activity

This week’s activity could be tagged as a Sign of Aging, but hey, I’m getting older, so screw it, it was my favorite activity of the week.

Ready? Here goes…

I went to the chiropractor this week. Over the winter, after logging more miles on a treadmill than in past winters, my body was a tad messed up. At the behest of my wife, I visited our local chiropractor who fixed her up as she trained for the 2018 NYC Marathon. This was not a new venture for me, as I would tag along with my mom or dad when they would go see their chiropractor when I was younger. I would get a quick re-alignment (some satisfying cracks) and be on my way.

Now, I try to make an appointment every two months or so. I’ve been playing a lot of golf and adding miles to my runs because I’ve got a marathon on the horizon. The weeks following each visit are typically the best feeling weeks I have. I feel better on my runs and I feel better in the mornings. I’d like to think it helps my golf game, too.

Best Read

1619 Project - Slavery in America started 400 years ago this week, and the NYTimes has a massive section with stories, essays, and articles. It’s visually interesting and emotionally stirring. It’s worth your time.

Best Watch

The Family - This new Netflix series is captivating, strange, and confounding. Don’t let the first episode, a clunky combination of dramatization and documentary, turn you off. Once the first episode delivers the backstory, through the eyes author Jeff Sharlet, who wrote The Family back in 2008, it gets much more interesting as the dramatization is eliminated and it’s just a documentary. If you enjoy conspiracy theories and borderline cultish leaders, then you should giveThe Family a spin. Here’s a good read in The Atlantic about the show.

Veronica Mars - The impetus of Tiff and I deciding to watch this is unclear. If I were forced to come up with an answer, I’d say that the recent reboot of the series put the original season on our radar. The show came out in 2004, it stars Kristin Bell and a bunch of hack actors who end up in nothing else, ever. The show has the same feel as the O.C., which came out at the same time, but the tough, gritty Veronica Mars is on the case, showing up the Neptune sheriff, along with the rich, cool kids in high school. She takes down drug dealers and super-secret societies; infiltrates a supposed cult and uncovers a baby swap. The over-arching, season-long plot is Veronica’s mission to find the true killer of her best friend. She does all this while having time to narrate the show (one of the laziest story-telling crutches that exists and it drives me crazy.).

With all that being said (and I say it A LOT when we watch), the show is entertaining and contains some great, era specific references. There are also some hilarious pre-fame credits by Max Greenfield (Schmidt in New Girl) and Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad).

If you need any more convincing, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar is a writer for the reboot and had this to say in The Hollywood Reporter about the first season and the chance to join the reboot:

But the original Veronica Mars is one of my favorites. It expanded the boundaries of both the mystery genre and the high school drama genre by combining them in such a clever, witty and intelligent way that the whole exceeded the sum of its parts. Raymond was a superfan: He teaches the Veronica Mars pilot in his English lit courses at Orange Coast College. No way we weren't doing this. Our only fear: screwing up a series we loved.

Best Listen

The Clearing - This podcast dives into the life of Ed Edwards, a convicted killer (due to his daughter turning him years after the case went cold). Following his conviction for murder, Ed Edwards to tied to a rash of internet conspiracy theories. Edwards became the scapegoat for some of the most famous unsolved murders in the country: the Black Dahlia and Zodiac to name two. Over the course of the podcast, the host along with Ed’s daughter, April, begin trying to debunk these connections to other murders, but it is harder than it seems.

Best Drink

Downeast Cider Aloha Friday - I enjoy a good cider, and as the English Soccer season kicks off, I doubly enjoy a Saturday or Sunday morning cider as I watch a match or two. I have been on the lookout for the Aloha Friday for a while and finally found it in cans this week (maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough?). In an effort to stave off this insane invasion of pumpkin beers, I am trying to find as many summer-y beers as I can. Aloha Friday is one of them. And it’s aptly named or this blog.

Best Shameless Plug

The Random Division - Tiff and I are gluttons for punishment. The last two weeks we have consumed far too much Bachelor in Paradise (four episodes that are all two hours each…). If you love the Bachelor franchise or know someone that does, please send this to them! We plan on recording every week, and once the show ends this fall, we will dive into more random topics (if you have an idea for a topic you’d like to hear Tiff and I talk about, add it in the comments!)

“…of the decade” - It’s 2019, which means we’ll be turning the page on this decade in December. I will be doing a little mini-series of podcasts where people come on a rank things from the past decade. The first guest was Paul Burke, we ranked the top five golf majors from the decade. Here’s the link.

I’d love a bunch of guests to join me on this series. There are no rules or requirements. Your list could come from any category you would like. It could be personal, pop-cultural, or super-niche. It doesn’t have to be the “best” either. Pick your superlative: the worst, the scariest, the saddest, the most petty. Whatever you’re passionate about, make your list and tell me about it on Skype or in person.

If you have an idea for an episode send it along to theimperfectgamepod@gmail.com.

What were your favorites this week? Stick them in the comment section.

The Sad Story of Bobby Bruce

The second episode of the latest season of Last Chance U opens in a Greyhound bus station. The saddest version imaginable: empty parking lot, glowing vending machines against the outer wall. There’s a dimly lit lone figure standing with his bags. The stringy dreads give away his identity quickly if you’ve been watching the show. It’s Bobby Bruce, the forlorn, confused, misguided Independence Community College football player. Finally, a bus pulls up and “Six Days Earlier” flashes up on the screen.

This is going to be a Tarantino episode. We know how it ends, now we learn how and why Bobby Bruce is at a Greyhound station with his bags packed after one week of the football season.

Watching Last Chance U always puts me in this strange headspace. I am a white male who grew up in New England and suburban San Francisco. I attended private schools growing up and then worked at a private school for 13 years, serving elite, competitive, driven, privileged families. This show provides endless windows for me to see into a world that I don’t understand but also frustrates me and breaks my heart at the same time.

In my opinion, Bobby Bruce is the most gut-wrenching character of the entire show. He’s a kid from Titusville, Florida, which is due east of Orlando on the Atlantic Coast. Judging by the anecdotes about the town, it was not an easy place to grow up. Gangs and violence were prevalent and for Bobby Bruce, football was his only chance to get out.

The culture shock of arriving in Independence, Kansas at the local Community College has to be sky-high for the majority of the recruits. Many of them are former Division 1 flame-outs looking for a chance to get some reps and film as they search for a new route to life in DI football. Some make it. Some don’t.

Over the course of the 2017 football season, Bobby Bruce experienced many ups and downs. His size put him at a disadvantage, as the coaches couldn’t find a real position for him (this bled into the issues on the field in 2018). Bruce’s self-worth was directly tied to his success on the football field. He needed snaps and he needed to make big plays. Nothing else mattered because nothing else ever matter. Once the going got tough, Bobby Bruce shut down.

He missed home. He missed succeeding on the football field. And, in my unprofessional opinion, it made him depressed.

The title of the show drives home the point that this is the last chance for a lot of these players to make it to the next level. They still have a slim chance at getting to the NFL, they just need the right Division 1 program to come calling.

However, (and this isn’t ground breaking) it’s also just their last chance at any sort of education and a place where people give a shit about them as they try to instill a sense of self-worth and self-esteem into these young men that most likely are not going to make it to the NFL.

During this particular episode, we spend a lot of time with Bobby Bruce. He is struggling with his lack of playing time and practice participation. We watch him bonding with teammate, Kailon Davis. Davis took on a role of big brother for Bruce, introducing him to the Bible and helping him remain upbeat when things become tough. Bruce was arrested over the summer for armed robbery, which put his attendance at Independence CC in jeopardy, but he was allowed back for is Really Really Last Chance. Kailon Davis was trying to be a guiding light for Bruce and keep him on the straight and narrow.

Sadly, Bruce, and two teammates, are caught on security video enter another student’s dorm room empty-handed and leave with a plastic bag. The video surfaced because the student who lived in the room complained that $250 was taken from his room. Bobby was blamed for the theft, as he was the only one that left the room with something in his hands. He claimed it was food, but he also didn’t put up much of a fight when he was accused.

Here’s where we get a really interesting look into the machine that is Independence CC and how players are used up and disposed of when their chance is over. Coach Brown, a lump of a man who drinks on screen, swears and yells at his players, and generally gives zero fucks about anybody, called a meeting and told the team that Bobby Bruce was cut for what he did (Bruce took the fall for his two teammates, too). Bruce had no idea he was cut; he was just told by Coach Brown to skip the meeting.

Before Brown delivers the news face-to-face to Bobby Bruce, word gets back to him, as he’s haphazardly playing pool alone, that he’s cut. Coach Brown loves to say how much he loves his players and how much he loves Bobby Bruce. Sadly, we never get to see that final moment between coach and player. Maybe it happened. Maybe it didn’t.

What we did get to see was his teammates and a teacher come to say goodbye. His English teacher, Latonya Pinkard, a star of the show, came to Bruce’s dorm room as he was packing up. She put a lot of time and energy building up Bobby Bruce when he was in one of his funks. They exchanged a teary good-bye, which was capped off with the teacher asking to read Psalm 23 with him. Bruce opens his newfound Bible and begins reading. He can barely get through the first two sentences before the teacher offers to read. It’s heartbreaking, this 20 year-old kid that can barely read is losing his last chance at some sort of education. At some sort of normalcy. At some stability.

It feels like it’s already slipped through his fingertips. And it sucks.

Before we return to the Greyhound bus station, an assistant coach walks into Coach Brown’s office with Bobby Bruce’s bus tickets to get home. It’s a four leg trip. First he gets to St. Louis. Then St. Louis to Atlanta. Then Atlanta to Orlando. Then Orlando to Titusville. It’s a horribly callus moment. One where I was stewing to myself, they couldn’t even just spring for a GD plane ticket for this poor kid.

If Coach Brown really loved Bobby Bruce, we would have seen some human moment between the two, or he would have tried to help get the kid home more easily.

We return to the Greyhound bus station, knowing that Bruce is taking a very long trip home. He’s going to be with his pregnant girlfriend back in his hometown. Bruce is an incredibly sympathetic figure. He grew up as a football star in Florida, who couldn’t quite find his way to the next level. His happiness and future depended on something that ultimately wasn’t going to shake out in his favor.

At the end of the episode, I was left saddened for Bruce. He’s got a good heart with a bent for self-destruction. I sure hope everything turns out okay for him.