View Episode 262
Originally aired 03.14.11
1:19:07
14:41 – Seth watched the 42nd annual NAACP Image Awards (Episode 054, 4:09) – a multicultural awards show from an African American point of view. The nominees for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture were Don Cheadle in Brooklyn’s Finest, Idris Elba for Takers Michael Ealy for For Colored Girls, Samuel L. Jackson for Mother and Child and Justin Timberlake for The Social Network. The winner was Samuel L. Jackson, but Seth is having a tough time with the Timberlake nomination.
39:49 – Seth watched James Ellroy’s show James Ellroy’s Los Angeles: City of Demons. He’s an old-school guy whose second ex-wife, Helen Knode, a writer living in Los Angeles, gave him old crime photos as a gift. She happened to stumble across police files of his mother’s murder, a manila folder entitled “Jean Ellroy.” It only contained one thing, an 8-by-10 black-and-white photograph of James Ellroy taken 10 minutes after he learned his mother had been murdered. He’s standing at the kitchen sink with the LAPD officers there. She framed it, wrapped it up and gave it to him as a present on Christmas Day. He was 45 years old at the time this happened, and had never seen this photograph of a repressed memory, and loses his shit. They got divorced and he lost his mind, it’s been 25 years since and he’s written a ton of crazy books.
52:55 – Seth saw a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl featuring a guy and a girl at the end of a date sharing a soft romantic good-night kiss. He jumps in his car and the car talks to him: “Good evening, what would you like to do?” He responds,” Facebook news feed.” Car replies: “First post, Jennifer French: ‘Best first date ever!’” The narrator: “The all-new Chevy Cruze with real-time Facebook status updates. When the good news just can’t wait.”
1:08:13 – Seth watched HGTV’s Secrets From A Stylist with friend of the show Emily Henderson, winner of the reality show Design Star. She has to meld a couple’s personal styles together. She does this by running a style diagnostic on them. Seth thinks everyone in the world should have one of these done on them.
1:02:21 – Bud Light will release a new bottle this year called the “Etch It,” on which drinkers will be able to write their name directly on the bottle using a key or coin or fingernail. It will allow users to not lose their beer at parties.
1:04:00 – Dr Pepper (aka Snapple Group) is testing Dr Pepper 10 – a 10-calorie-per-serving drink aimed at men 25-34 years old. It will be demo’d in Austin, Colorado Springs, Denver, Des Moines, Kansas City and San Antonio. “It has a blend of sweeteners and a little bit of sugar,” says Dr Pepper/Snapple Group executive Dave Fleming. “It delivers that mouth feel, that full regular taste. The experience we heard from these males is that some diet soft drinks have a thin diet taste to them. It has high fructose corn syrup in it and Ace-K potassium. Diet Dr Pepper is sweetened with aspartame, which tastes terrible. Other competitors have low-calorie products with a blend of sweeteners. During the week of April 11, a mobile man cave will make its way to Des Moines, and Dr Pepper will unveil “points of testosterone” for its tour stops.
Games That Jonathan and Seth Play
8:52 – Seth doesn’t think he understands the rules to the game Bingo, and wants J-dawg to explain them to him.
34:49 – Missouri has held a title for some time, being the No. 1-leading state in meth lab seizures and busts, but for the first time since 2003, Tennessee has usurped them and taken the title. However, a spokesperson for the DEA said all the real facts and figures won’t come in until July. It seems as though Iowa and Kentucky are in contention and making a move.
3:32 – Seth isn’t sure how many miles he averages per day driving his Sundance, but he says he will try to calculate that and get back to Jah. Seth is still perplexed by cars having computers in them because he rolls his window up himself.
5:08 – Jah can’t drive a stick shift. He can’t tie a bow tie either, although he can tie a regular tie because he went to a private school that required them for assemblies.
5:48 – Jah is curious about Seth’s gas mileage because his is crazy – it averages 12-14 gallons. It’s an older SUV and he spends all his money on food, coffee and gas – thinks that make him go.
11:20 – Jah talks about going to a bachelor party in Las Vegas years ago (Episode 252, 48:00). He lost a good chunk of money on his way there when they stopped for gas at the state line. While somebody was getting gas and a snack, Jah ran into the casino and managed to lose over $1,000 after being there just a few minutes. He lost the rest of his money the first night he got to Vegas and then was basically flat-out broke. A couple other people at the bachelor party were also broke and so they came up with an idea to play Bingo at the Gold Coast Casino, where it’s only $7 a game and you can win quite a bit of money. They got there and there were all these old people with computers called TEDS, which allow you to play up to 40 games at once and so your odds of winning rise exponentially. Jah won $500 back from playing Bingo.
17:25 – The only time Jah ever saw Stevie Wonder was at an NAACP fundraiser at the Wiltern. They hadn’t raised as much money as they thought going in, so he announced that there would be buckets going around and played a money-raising medley and all of a sudden Jah saw crazy cash being thrown into these buckets. Seth saw Stevie at Stand Up To Cancer when Stevie was on a golf cart.
18:11 – Jah was at a bar this week, standing and waiting for an alcoholic beverage – probably a Stoli and pineapple. There was a giant television behind the bar above the booze, and Blade Runner was on. There was a guy in front of him who was maybe in his early 20s, and he was watching the scene and asked the bartender what movie it was. The bartender, Jack, replies, “Blade Runner, you know, 1982.” The guy replies, “Yeah, little before my time.” Jack says, “Yeah it’s a good movie, I think it grows on you after a while.” Guy replies, “Yeah yeah yeah, a cult classic,” as Harrison Ford walks across the screen.
27:49 – Seth received a family radio pamphlet that is telling him the end of the world is happening May 21, except it says “Spring Issue 2011.” Seth thinks it should say “Final Issue.”
28:37 – The same night J-dawg met his cult classic homeboy, he met a traveler/shaman who had just returned from seeing his kids in Hawaii. He talked about how he got his wife pregnant when they were living in northern California, etc. He’s originally from the East Coast so he travels a lot. He started talking about sacred geometry and shows Jah what he’s been writing and his 9-day calendar. He said “They talk about 2012, are you kidding me? Good luck getting through this summer.”
46:26 – Jah’s dad would always say “Cut another finger, mommy” to Jonathan when he was being all gimme-gimme. It stemmed from a mother and daughter who were trapped under an apartment building for a long time following an earthquake and she started letting the daughter feed off the blood in her finger. After a while the finger died, so the daughter said “Cut another finger, mommy.”
51:09 – Jah sees Paula Poundstone once a week because they shop in the same market. Jah also wonders if other people say “market” or “grocery store.” Jah said Paula is always wearing suspenders while being with five of her multiple kids.
55:05 – Jah has been speaking with a friend about a brief but somewhat intense interaction he had with a girl recently. She’s brand-new to LA with a new place and new car and new job. Things were totally great for 48 hours, then he got a wishy-washy text and she dropped off the face of the earth. The tailspin he went into was based on nothing other than communication outside of the realm of one-on-one communication.
20:58 – Osama Bin Laden turns 54 today. Happy birthday, Osama.
24:00 – The median age for first marriages in 1950 was 20 years old for women and 23 years old for men. In 2009, the median age for women at first marriage was 26 and for men was 29.
32:01 – On Saturday night, April 9, UYD will do a live show extravaganza in Los Angeles at Largo at the Coronet Theater on La Cienega Blvd. by Trashy Lingerie. This will be an extended show – more than an hour long. The theater is bigger and will be able to hold more people than the Broad Theater.
37:53 – Rolling Stone magazine used to be a huge magazine. It’s now a tiny mag. In 1971, the people who graced the covers were the Beach Boys, Muhammad Ali, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Jim Morrison and Keith Richards. This month, we have Snooki on the cover.
1:11:53 – Jennifer Aniston listed her Beverly Hills estate for sale. It’s 10,000 square feet with a formal living room, paneled rosewood, a secondary living room, wet bar, 5 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, a gym, a 3-car garage, a swimming pool, spa, ponds, fountains, al fresco living room, etc. Jah guesses that it’s listed for $17 million, but it’s $42 million.
2:42 – This is Episode Number Two-Hundred Sixty Fruit.
2:53 – Seth announces his presence by whistling (Episode 144, 0:25, 1:02 and 1:17)
1:10:23 – Jah can’t bake, so Seth thinks he might get him a cooking/baking class for his birthday as a couples gift with Jah’s lady.
44:34 – A new paper in the journal Psychological Science reveals that parents are actually lying when they talk about the joys of parenting. Idealizing the emotional rewards of parenting helps parents rationalize the financial costs of raising children.
48:10 – If marriage is about compromise, then happy marriage is about self-delusion. So found scientists at the University of Buffalo. They followed 222 newlyweds through their first three years together. The ones who went into marriage idealizing their partners ended up happier together than those who went in with clearer eyes. This is attributed to the vast powers of the human heart over the human brain. People can really convince themselves that a spouse is better-looking, smarter, kinder or more virtuous than he/she really is.
6:22 – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recently recalled three products in the month of March that were manufactured in the C to the H to the INA. There’s a fitness resistance tube sold at Dick’s Sporting Goods – it has a plastic clip inside that’s on the handle and if it breaks, the plastic fragments shatter off and can go into your eye and lacerate your skin. There’s a slow cooker sold at Burlington Coat Factory, on which the control panel overheats, then melts, then sparks, then starts a fire. Lastly, a coffeemaker sold at Ikea that has an issue where the pressure builds up too quickly and the glass of the coffeepot breaks and shatters into your face.