113: California Writ

taken by police in America throughout its history. We stand firmly with Black Lives Matter here at Night Call, and we absolutely condemned the acts of violence that we've witnessed that had been carried out by a militarized police force during the protests. At Night Call, we talk about our

dystopian reality, strange days and lonely nights. With that as our mission, it would be really avoidant of us to ignore the movement for change happening across the country, as well as the rampant police brutality and mismanagement we've seen it come up against. As our friends Bobby finger in Lindsay Webbert, who Weekly pointed out last week, our platforms are a privilege, and staying silent on issues like police

brutality and racism isn't on an option. We're putting a lot of thought into the best way to use the Night Call platform as we continue to release episodes during a very uncertain time. As always, we want to hear from our listeners about what's going on on and off

the air. Please keep emailing us at Night Call Podcasts at gmail dot com if you have any feedback, if there's anything you would like to hear us talk about on the show, anything comforting you want us to cover, And if this week's conversation about gambling in California Split is not your your cup of tea right now, we completely understand attention is a finite resource and we totally support you taking yours wherever you need to right now.

So with all that in mind, thank you so much for your support and understanding during our brief hiatus and now our discussion on gambling California Split, and as always, your night Calls. It's one fourteen am at the California Club and you're listening tonight Call Hello, and welcome Tonight Call, a call in show for our dystopian reality. I am your host, Molly Lambert, and with me, as always, are

Test Lynch and Emily O'sheia. We are officially out of y to May and are starting our new theme month ramble and gamble in June, we survived. Why to May, nothing happened, Everything happened. Yeah, Yeah, I feel did we conjure more end of the world with our May month? Probably it's always our fault. It was our fault, for sure.

I think we should blame ourselves. Yeah, we know, it's been a really rough week and there's just been you know, even somehow there's each week keeps topping itself with horrible news. This week is definitely no exception. And you know, we just want to say fuk the police, and we stand with everybody in Minneapolis, and we want to do a little bit of escapism still for you for our listeners. So but we just want to know that we're thinking

of everybody be out there. So yeah, yeah, And if escapism is not what you want right now, we also totally understand. Yes, we will be here at nightcall talking about gambling all month, but don't be afraid to call in about other subjects UM or you know, vent vent personal feelings about UM being under quarantine during the civil

rights crisis. Yeah, and also if you want to write in with stuff like that or give us a call, Um, we always honor people's anonymity if they want, so, just let us know if you would like to be anonymous. But we're we're here to lend an ear and uh yeah, we're we're sending support to everybody out there. It's uh, it's it's hard to talk about gambling right now, but we will anyway. So we are doing a whole month

on gambling casinos Vegas and other gambling cities. And I feel like we're going to talk about a lot about the American dream this month, ye like much like Spring Break month. Also, I just feel like we might solve the conundrum of the American dream over the next five weeks. So just you know, be ready for You're welcome. My father always says that Las Vegas should be the capital

of the United States of America. Oh yeah, no, I Um, I was telling you guys, I went through a phase of being wanting to be a kind of like self taught scholar of Vegas history because I was trying to write something about Vegas when I was in college. And um, I think there's a book by a former l a weekly columnis who's name I'm totally blanking on, but it's

called the Most Honest City in the world. And uh, because it's the only one that doesn't lie about what it insane crock America is it just it's all out there on the surface. That's why it's the capital. Yep Um. There's some really good Las Vegas books. There's a book called The Green Felt Junk All that's like an original like forties or fifties, like on the floor it must be whenever Las Vegas was was actually founded, but it's a in the casinos. In the world of casinos, Las

Vegas was founded long before the fifties. Yeah, Las Vegas was a little like you know, watering town for it's insane. The origins of Vegas World, We'll we'll get into that more later. We're going to do a whole episode about a Vegas specific episode, History of Vegas episode. But I have a quick gambling question for you guys as we begin our journey. What is the most you have ever lost or one gamble? Oh no, not that much. It always I mean, I've never had that much money to

put down Camblane. Yes, And if I have money, I like to hold onto it. I have a very strict twenty limit with gambling that I have observed. Always after I had a U I watched a friend go and have like a whole gambling addiction over the course of twenty four hours in a casino. Yeah, it was just really I was like, okay, twenty dollar limit for the rest of my life. But I did win two bucks once. I won like three fifty ones at Morongo Casinos, which

was like very exciting for me. But I think I lost the most actually the most recent time I gambled, which was in Atlantic City with the Blank Check Boys, and I mean I was maybe just It was also the first time I live I did live poker um, which will definitely get into this week more, but uh it. And there was something about the extra high of that that I think just inspired me to just keep pouring money into because I was like, this is fun, this

is fun. I'm every fun. And then it was like, oh ship, I've lost like two order bucks um, which is like against such small potatoes for like big time gamblers. I'm sure everybody's like rolling their eyes at us who gamble at all, but like for me, that was a lot of funny. Um. I really want to play pachinko.

I feel like that would be, um the thing that would make me give all my money away to a machine because I love pinball, sure, and when I don't love that, like I would rather give all my quarters to a pinball machine and then pay for the experience of playing pinball then just for a slot machine, because it's like not that fun to do a slot machine.

The last time I went to Las Vegas, I definitely lost the most I ever have, but it was probably still about like a hundred bucks, maybe like sixty bucks on one game of poker because I was like betting only really low stakes things. Was that I was doing the whole time, and what I've always done is just like the really cheap slots, and so I was like, Okay, I'm gonna do one expensive game. I like watch the blackjack table for a while and I was like, uh, maybe I'll just go do a machine. So I did

like an expensive poker machine and just lost immediately. Machines it's just like no bad vibes. I don't know if they just like use bad luck for me. That The thing is also like being a gambler, even if you're not superstitious, will bring out your inner superstitious freak. Yeah, I was trying to like lean into it. More because I was like, I'm in Las Vegas, I should like gamble and have a drink because I'm not a big drinker,

you know. So I got a tequila Sunrise and it was amazing and uh yeah, but then I was like, it doesn't feel good to lose money. It is not fun. It's not fun at all. Money. Do you guys have favorite games or I like black jack? Black Jack is like the perfect length for my attention span. Yeah, pokers too long. I I won the two fifty dollars on it was like a single slot game. It was like, you know, just within five minutes at the slots. And then I was like I love slots, and I was like,

don't press my luck. But um as for gambling at home, which one can do now, maybe should not. But I got in the habit of getting either like a regular lottery ticket or a scratcher, Like I limit myself to one a week, but I still feel like so gross about it. Somehow remember this coming out at one point and I was just like, oh, we have to talk about this. I had a brief brief scratchers period for like one summer where I only get one at a time, and I only get one a week, but it still

feels really like yucky somehow. But I remember when I was a kid, for my birthday, my grandmother and aunt would give me like five scratchers, and I would just sit down and be like, wow, it's so crazy. They're either giving you zero dollars or they're giving you like millions of dollars, and usually they give you just enough

to buy another ticket. This is my experience. If you'd buy like a three dollar ticket, you're gonna win it, usually at least three dollars on it, and it's just like do you want to go in and do it? You're just going to get another one? Like my kid and his friend I got a scratcher that I was I told them that they could like have the money from and I think it was like I don't know, like twenty five bucks or something, and they donated it

to charity, and then I felt so bad. I was like, Okay, great, but like now I have to give you that money also, like I'm matching you, because that's not in the spirit of a scratcher. If you're supposed to pour it back into the game, no good causes forget it. Um. I had a really quick thing to mention though that I thought was super interesting and we don't have to get into it that much. But um, it's just very bizarre that there is a restless leg syndrome and parkinson Parkinson's

medication called Rickquip. And then there's a few others that have different brand names, UM their dopamine agon is, and they actually can cause compulsive gambling disorders. It's a side effect of the drug. UM, So there have been My mom actually brought it to my attention. I was like, we're doing gambling month and she was like, oh, you have to just mention because if you look into it, it's super crazy. It's like an overnight shift when you

start taking the medication. These people be um, super addicted to gambling. And then there was one woman who I read about she stopped and then a week later was like, I can't believe I was ever gambling. What the fuck? Um?

And it works because there it's basically like the dopamine receptor, I think it's called the D three receptor causes like motor problems like tremors um and it also is like a dopamine center, so the dopamine agones can inhibit the tremors by mimicking dopamine in the brain, but they're like fiddling with the D three receptor, which is also the reward system, so they make it a much more intensely

pleasurable experience. Um, when you're winning it gambling, if you're having great sex, if you're eating delicious food or whatever, so you become like physically incapable of quitting what you're doing. Why isn't this like a big black market drug? Like

why aren't the kids doing this? I know they aren't. Yeah, Like it sounds like such a sci fi movie president at a premise, like it's a drug that just makes everything that already feels good feel even better because everybody's just like worn out their pleasure receptors and and just eats more and more and more. Um. Well, yeah, it's also a great screenplay idea, somebody free idea. I just

gave one atom, always given out free ideas. There's something sort of like this in a series of cyberpunk novels that are fake authored by William Shatner. Oh my God, that I looked up recently because there was a joke about them on The Simpsons on an old Simpsons What are they called Tech War is a science fiction novel written by William Shatner and uncredited science fiction author Ron Goulart. It was first published by G. P. Putnam Sons in October.

It has nine in the series, spawning a comic book and TV series, video game, in a TV movie. It's called tech War, and tech is spelled t e K, and tech is the drug spice in the Dune universe. It's like and it's set in the twenty second century. A former cop who is framed for dealing tech. Oh yeah, YOI okay, will Ever in the mood. Yeah, it just thought. I thought something about the like fiftieth generation photocopied version

of a cyberpunk novel was funny. I think the thing about the dopamine and the thing about you know, test your friend who kind of went through an entire arc over you know, twenty four hours at a at a casino. There is some way in which gambling just feels like this microcosm again of just like the experience of living

in capitalism. It's like a way to do it all once, uh, in a really intense way and in a short amount of time, like do do the It's it's capitalism concentrate um, and and the fact that it is uh, you know, completely arbitrary and um, it doesn't really have anything. It's it's not a meritocracy. I gambling is not necessarily a meritocracy. There's some skill involved in some games, but not not overall.

And uh and yet people still will pour their lives into it and often destroy their lives um because it still feels like there's still this like kind of hope and optimism at the base of every Every chance is another chance to make back that money and more, which is also yeah, what capitalism is all about. Draw your money away, it'll come back to you. Yeah, I mean,

it's also it can be. It's the kind of thing where it's like if people are along for the ride and then someone gets really sucked in and starts to show obvious signs of like struggling within it, it's a very weird thing to see, how like you try to take people along for the ride. And we'll be talking

about that later when we talk about California split. But I mean, it's like this kind of thing where you want to experience it with someone but by nature, like this is an experience where you're going to be in opposite emotional places. At least, it's not a like collective experience, I guess in the way that you would hope it would be. Um. Yeah, with my friend, she was walking around at one point like whispering to like, you know, the superstition and the kind of like feeling like you're

communing with like the whole casino. It was just really scary to see. Uh, I don't know. It haunts me still. And also I just also watched that Simpsons episode where Marge becomes a gambling addict where they open a casino and Marge goes through the whole cycle of gambling addiction. Great episode, great March episode. Well should we take a night call. Let's just do it. We got a bunch and again. Send us your night calls night emails one to four oh four six Night Night Call Podcast at

gmail dot com. Tell us your gambling stories, tell us your vagus conspiracies. UH, give us everything you got about, uh, the wonderful world of losing money for sport, for fun and pleasure. We're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to take a night call. So you gonna take this call from Haze. Sure, yeah, let's do it. Let's do it, and I'd call this. I just signed up for the Patreon I saw that you were doing gambling episode. This is a very quick

gambling story. I used to work at a job where we would get cut really early every day for some reason. Uh, usually around like one or two pm, and like three times a week, a lot of people from the job and I would go to uh Commerce Casino because the traffic was light in the afternoon. This is the big casino by the to held the huge outlet mall down the five in Commerce obviously UH. And every time we went, maybe almost every time, but like pretty much every time

we went, Kato Kalin was there. That's all. I love this night call. Thank you, great call from his friend of the pod uh from Hollywood Handbook and also the l a podcast which I just went on a bonus episode. There's to talk about Magnolia. Check out both check him out. UM Commerce Casino is the bleakest and that is why it is the truest casino. Have you been? No? But I love it. But how do you know you love it?

Because everyone I know who goes there, like only has incredibly dark stories about it um and it was a major plot point on True Detective season two. Right. Oh, yes, of course I'm obsessed with like the City of Commerce in the City of Industry because their names are the fucking City of Commerce and Industry. Yeah, I mean I'm obsessed at the Citadel. Yeah. I just heard a news story yesterday about how they are reopening the Citadels. Such

a bad idea. Do you guys have a favorite Southern California Greater Los Angeles area casino or because I have never really been to any other than Morongo, which I've been to multiple times. Um. I ate at the restaurant at the top of Morongo when I won that money there, because I was like, what high rollers, We're gonna get us stake at Morongo Casino. No, I mean not really. I've done more video gambling in New Orleans where they have it everywhere, but I haven't been to the Hustler casino.

I have not been to Hollywood Circle. I would love to go to Hollywood Park. I used to work by Hollywood Park and my coworkers and I we kind of had a similar thing where we got off work early because we were on this East Coast time schedule. So we would always be off at like three, and it was always this idea like We're going to go to the racetrack one of these days, and then never did it. I would still like to go. Yeah, I love Hollywood Park again, just like as a place that there were

ads for that. I was like, oh, seems glamorous not to be a horrible person in a skuld but I mean not, I'm I'm being a good person, but I'm being a horrible skuld. Well yeah, as a friend of ponies, I can't deal with the racing like I can. I cannot. It makes me It's it just feels like it's so cruel and like unnecessed. And I keep being like, couldn't we have as much fun with like a snail race

and they just crawling? Can't we can't we just like invertebrates and like maybe also we take better care of that. There's a turtle race and Marvista exactly. The turtle race is horrible. Yeah, I know, turtle race all animal racist that like, listen, we I think we need to maybe have like a like a may Back music type tag over all of rambling gamble in June. That's like this ship is evil. Like everything we're talking about is evil.

Uh except scratchers. Uh yeah, I mean sure they fund our schools or whatever, but that shouldn't be that is autem. It's all the trap. I think. Also, Hollywood Park is one of those things where, like the idea of it was fun, but I'm sure if we had gone there, we would have been like, this is so depressing. Totally. Yeah, I mean that's the thing. We'll talk about this more later later in the California split section of the episode.

But I think a lot of a lot of gambling, even even if you're in some places in Vegas, but like especially if you're gambling outside of like a resort town, the veil comes down pretty quickly and you see it for what it is, and you know, but you see it for what it is if you're not addicted to gambling, you know, like if you're outside of that bubble, then the depressing factor becomes apparent pretty quickly. Like if you're on a reservation casino in Washington State or something like that's,

you know, it's a different scene. It's not going to Vegas with your girlfriends and having fun and playing slots and getting free drinks. It's like a very different vibe. Well, speaking of that, we actually have a night call about a pretty bummer of a trip that someone took to the Silver Legacy Casino. Should we take that? Yes, my name's Utah. I've never listened to your podcasts. I just kind of stumbled into Twitter drunk in the middle of the night a couple of months ago and somehow came

across this. But my story is basically that a friend of mine who lives in Oakland, UM, came down to l A. And we drove from l A to Wyoming and on the way spent the night and we know and stay at the Silver Legacy Casino, in which I've gone back too since then. And it's just the most horrible casino you've ever seen in your life. The middle of it is a gigantic like Neon electrified oil rig that is the most terrifying thing you've ever seen. On top of it was just completely dead the way you

want a horrible casino to be. Uh. And we spent all night gambling getting wasted, uh, and then woke up the next day, um, and we're walking out of the hotel with our bags that are you know, of course filled the drugs because we're on our way to go see a once in a lifetime it clicks in Wyoming, Um, and it happens to be the day that Trump is having a rally or something in Reno, and there's two cops just posted up by the elevators. When you come out of your room with drug dogs, I guess you're

looking for bombs, probably not really looking for drugs. But we were so hungover and paranoid that we both walked out of there like we were two by fours or something, just so stiff. Uh. And then we got out and I just remember like completely having one of those hangover panic attacks, trying to drive the car out of Reno and just like feeling the weight of Reno creeping up on me. Uh. Needs to say it was It was

a good time. I don't have any any more details about the Silver Legacy because it was kind of a blur and it was only that one night. Um. But the eclipse was amazing. It was one of my favorite trips I've taken. And I guess I'm gonna listen to your podcast tonight. All right, thanks a lot by what a ride? D you tah? You listen to our podcast? We love you clearly. That was one of the best

calls we've ever gotten. Yeah. I I heard that call and I was like, I'm going to force them to listen to this call, whether they because he there were a couple versions. One of them had more details, but the they you know you talk kept getting cut off, So this was the one that he he suggested. I used, Uh, Yeah,

isn't that like pretty much gambling in a nutshell? Like all of that is a feeling that's so easily identifiable with Yeah, I mean, like I think that there's this thing that's like like because of fear and loathing and stuff and Hunter as Thompson, where it's just like, oh, if you go and you like are having a weird paranoid feeling where you feel like you're the outsider, weirdo and in the gambling town and the cops are all after you and they're going to find your drugs or

whatever that you're like doing some sort of all version of it. But like, no, it's like the universal feeling of PS and Yeah, it's like everybody knows that I'm a bad person and I'm going to get arrested for

something I don't even know what it is. I found out at some point that the reason Hunter S. Thompson was in Las Vegas other than just because it's like the one place you can get a magazine to pay to send you because casinos will calm things for them, is that they were paranoid because he was going with Oscar Zeta Acosta who was covering the Chicano Moratorium in Los Angeles and thought he was being wire tapped by the l A p D. Because he probably was, and uh,

Hunters Thompson was writing something about it for Rolling Stone but was like, let's go to Las Vegas. I'm supposed to cover this car race. We can go to Vegas and then they won't be tapping us in our hotel room. So that's why they went in the first place. So it's like they were paranoid for a super legitimate reason and also free trip out of town. It's funny to think that there was a time you could like stop being tracked if you just stopped answering your phone at

home on your landline. Oh my god, um, now I I love I love this call. Also because it speaks to the weird. Um, there's some sort of suspension of politics that happens in a casino, and then when it does, weird's head. It feels like getting splashed in the face with cold water and like you could be, you know, just getting wasted and gambling some shitty casino and rino and then realize, like everybody y're around is like a Trump supporter. You're like, oh god, it's very body snatchers. Yeah.

I feel like I've had that happen a couple of times in Florida, where I was like having an amazing time in Florida and then I just like looked around at some bumper stickers and got totally freaked out. Yeah, you see that, you put on the glasses. But as you said, like you see that in Los Angeles too. Everywhere.

Also when you when you start to go to like San Diego, which you're like, my neighbor is San Diego the neighbor of l A. And then you're like, oh, okay, I'm like surrounded by people whose views I found disgusting and horror. No, Southern California has a bad energy, yeah, but so does America. So America. I've never been to Atlantic City, but I've always super wanted to go, and everyone's like why would you want to go? It's so depressing, And I'm like, well, that's why I want to go.

It just seems really interesting. Yeah, it's like the first Las Vegas that was then abandoned when they invented second Las Vegas. Yeah, it's uh. I didn't even really see Atlantic City when I went there because we were staying at the Borgata, which is like the nice place in Atlantic City. But it's like the nice place because it's really far from the boardwalk, Like you have to get in a car to go to the boardwalk, which is

like what I would want to see if I went there. Um, And everybody in our in our group was just like, it's not really worth it. Let's just not go. And I was like, I'd like to see it though, but I think that I think it's just not fun. From from what I understand, you're like as part of my Boardwalk Empire completionist sightseeing toy. I'm like a super fan. Definitely.

Do you guys remember at the Emmys when they saying get Nucky when they get Lucky parody that was about Nuckie from My God Nuckie Thompson just flashing back to the before world just to get Nu Nucky did it all for the neck. One of those times my soul left my body and I was like, this is what prestige television is. This is a little bit like the Casino. It's like at its heart, it's still a little bit of like Michigan Jay Frog. All TV as Michigan Jay Frog.

All the celebrities are Michigan Jay Frog. Now they're all just like, look at me, love me, because they're all trapped in their homes and they're like starved for attention. They don't know how to do anything. Like the Inner Theater kid comes out. Um oy, Yeah, we're all doing our own Vegas residencies from home. Now. Um well, we're gonna take a break real quick, and when we come back, we're going to talk about California Split. Welcome back to

Night Call. We are kicking off Rambling Gambling June with what I apparently, according to Wikipedia, is considered one of the greatest gambling movies of all time. I had. I just thought it was like a good movie. I didn't know that it was so revered in that way. In fact, it wasn't even available to watch for so long, so I feel like it's a Little Hidden But anyway, rambling gambling, California Split, then I need somebody for Robert Almond movie. We all watched it this week. It's below of I

feel like it's having kind of a resurgence recently. I think because it's on maybe because it's on Amazon. Now I wouldn't know about such things. Um, I watched a bootleg because it felt in the spirit. Have you guys seen it before? Yeah, yeah, I've actually seen this one a lot of times. Um. They showed at the New Beverley a lot. So yeah, there's a print that's that

floats around l A. I saw it. Um. I saw it at Sinnaspia actually like a long time ago, like thirteen years ago or something like it was like two thousand seven or something. And I think that was the time when they you couldn't really get it. It didn't exists on DVD or what you know. I guess it was still DVD era, so it was kind of hard to see. And you know, I've been like I've all been fans since high school basically, so I was just like, oh, I haven't seen this one, and this was like one

of the rare opportunities to see it and Um. I loved it, and it kind of kicked off my obsession with Elliott Gould. Um And I warned, I warned tests in Molly, I'm gonna be like extremely horny on me and talking about cold. Molly is a Gould fan as well. Yeah. I thought that was just the basic normal human response to Elliott Gold was sorry, guys, but then we found out that tests we do not have a quorum, but

that makes it more fun to talk about. I was more confused because I was like, oh, you're a George Siegel lady, and you were like both of them. I mean, look, my main issue with Elliot Gold is that his his reputation precedes him, and his reputation is that he's a dick, and so it it. I had that in my head from like before I had ever seen a movie he

was in and had to have great prejudice against him. Uh. And it's you know, he just has that energy where you're like, he's just gonna talk over you, which is probably accentuated by the A track. Uh yeah, where I'm just like I don't think i'd get a word in edgewise, and he does a lot of tangents, Like right before

we recorded. I read all of these interviews with him, and almost every interviewer is like, so well, yott cool, like pretty difficult to interview because he just like likes to do a lot of like non sequiturs and long kind of okay again, like a dream interview. Though. I feel like if somebody who keeps talking and I'm like yes, yeah, and I'm like, tests I am your friend, but you're not. I mean maybe I'm like a little bit of misinterest about this. I love the talkie talkiness. It's so it's

so endearing to me. I find it like so charming. There's a Debritannin book that that she's a linguist that came out where she talked about how the over talking in the New York Jewish culture, uh, but also like a lot of ethnic cultures. It's like it's not rude, it's signals comfort. It signals that you're comfortable enough around each other to just sort of talk over each other

and know that everyone's listening. Yeah, yeah, how I justify it to myself anyway, when I'm talking over all of you all of the time, I would I wouldn't mind if I were myself an over talker. I I feel like bound by the rules of waiting my turn polite. Others would disagree, but I feel like it's it's a it's a like macho, like yammering energy that I'm so

not into, but not much. It's the seventies like neuroses macho, if it's any kind of macho, which is just like I am a jangling bunch of nerves and I have to keep talking or else I'm going to implode, which I feel like is like both charming to me and also very I feel very sympathetic to it, so I'm just like, oh, you're kind of like me. Yeah, maybe this is the fight club thing again. I'm just like, I only relate to these characters. I don't in any way I think of them as like, like dudes. I'm

just like, it's us, it's it's you. Well, I wish I could identify with George Siegel. Having Elliott Gould does not not an option for myself, but he's too depressing, and I find his He makes insincere expressions with his face, otherwise known as acting. I guess, but like I was like, I was like, I don't have anyone to cling to, so I decided to attach myself to Ann Prentice is character Barbara, which, as I think Elliott Gould points out, or maybe it's George's eagle. There are so many Barbaras

in this movie. She's one Barbara. Everyone's named Barbara. Um. She's so great too, She's awesome. The sister of Paul Paul Apprentice. I was like, wait, we're in where the boys are, and then I was like, no, it's it's Paula Prentiss younger sister. But they have the same face.

I love that whole subplot with the girls, um, who are sex workers of some kind, um, seemingly going on dinner dates with dudes, um, because again it's like it's treated very respectfully in a way that you wouldn't necessarily expect from this movie. It's like, don't know, everyone's so so interesting, everyone's multidimensional wells. I haven't seen Nashville. Um, Nashville is going to be next up in my Altmand Journey of Its Worth it. Do you like any Altman movies?

You know? I really didn't like mccab and Mrs Miller, and I kind of clocked out after that. Really you don't like McCabe and Mrs Miller, I know, and I don't really talk about it because that's what everyone says, but I don't. There was also it was very trendy to like all the seventies, all movies in Los Angeles and in the two thousands, which is also I think why they were showing California Split all the time, because because there was a big vogue for The Long Goodbye,

which is a great movie. I first watched that with Possible overrated that movie. Yeah, but I also think Altman. Altman is one of my favorite directors for sure, because yeah, he can do any genre in a way that's interesting. And yeah, if you don't like the over talking in the eight track, it might not be that. Yeah, the hrack thing is so it's so funny to have because this is the first movie to use it that wasn't

a cinema scope movie. Because they created that technology that surround sound technology for cinema scope and then they're like, well, we could also just do it for like a non spectacle. I wrote a paper about it in college. Mavie sound design of this movie, because I think it is like the best sound design movie. I brought up Uncut Gems because I think Uncut Gems is another gambling movie that used the sound design really well to sort of convey that just like never never a moment of downtime in

that in your brain. I listened to it on headphones this time, and it was a great experience. I listened to it on these headphones that I weared right now because I also had to like kind of do some chores, so I had it up on the kitchen counter while I have my headphones on, and it was like I could just feel that I could feel myself in a smoky bar even as I was washing dishes, like um, yeah, and the extras are all really interesting looking people, real

looking people. So I think it's funny that most Vegas movies are glamorous. Most gambling movies tend to be glamorous. Uh maybe also because they get free, you know, the ability to shoot in casinos if they make the casinos look cool and fun. But most yeah, most casino movies are like propaganda for casinos and for trips to places

where you can gamble, and they aren't. Aren't all the extras I'm sorry to interp but aren't all the extras in this movie or or a large portion of them from a gambling addiction support groups synanon or signing on s Y and Yeah, I thought, I mean that was great, like in terms of like the texture of just like you know, having these like faces being featured like there. I really did like enjoy this movie more than I thought I would. It's just that I didn't want to

hook up with either protagonists. Let's just make clear, because I do. I mean it's visually it's like so beautiful. The over talking is more just like you're also not as spontaneous, like like gambling trip kind of person. I feel like that's like your worst nightmare, spontaneous anything to be honest with. Once we're done, once we have a vaccine, Please anybody to invite me on a spontaneous gambling trip. I'm almost always down. Emily and I had a really

good time in Las Vegas that wasn't even spontaneous. That was that was planned, like above the board trip to Vegas I've ever taken in my life. Like, but I think I do think about it often about like when the party bus pulled up and your friend had got it in this party bus that you loved now the joy of a child, Yeah, I had I had fun. When I went to Vegas. I view it through the lens of like maybe it was darker than I was aware of while I was there. Really hated it the

first time I went, because I was a kid. We went for a Grateful Dead concert, um, and it was an outdoor concert and it was just like absurdly hot. It was like a hundred and fifteen degrees the whole time, you know, So I was like, why would anyone come here? And I couldn't go in any of the casinos or anything. We stayed at like a kind of regular, non themed one, and I think my parents attitude just kind of rubbed

off on me of like Vegas is not cool, you know. Um. But then I went back for the Avian Awards and fell in love, I guess. I. I also, I really don't like the drugs that you take to enjoy Vegas. I like, I don't think we should talk about learning from Las Vegas at some point, which is the book written by an architect couple that was like the first scholarly book about Las Vegas and sort of like putting it up front that every building is just a big advertisement. Sure.

Back to the movie Real Cook, I kind wanted to talk about it, and uh, and like the gambling Buddy Buddy movie in general, because like Fight Club and other films we discussed, it's like such a it's such a male romance in such an almost explicit way, and like even in the beginning of this film, it's they're they're even like joking about it, like they're just like when they're rubbing shaving, they can create on each other's chest,

and it's like it's like very sweet. It's not it's not like no homo at all, just like so we

have to take care of each other. And seventies and eighties buddy comedies, even when they do have gay panic stuff, it's just like such a far cry from the Hangover, you know, like every two thousand's movie was just male gay panic I feel like, and none of it aged well at all at this age so well because it's so tender, and it reminded me of like in planes, trains, and automobiles when they wake up cuddling each other and

it's like they don't play it immediately for disgust. It's like they they commit to cuddling each other, which is what makes it funny and good. There's just this tension I think. I also recently watched Mississippi Grind, the the Boden inflect film with its uh another one of my crushes, Ben Mendelssohn and Ryan Reynolds. The best cast Ryan Reynolds

performance ever. Not a Ryan Reynolds fan, but Ryan Reynolds basically plays the Elliott Gold character in it, and he's like kind of the slimy con man guy who's just like playing the most depressing casinos in the Midwest. Umld is good at playing villains. Yeah, he's actually like he's amazing and adventure land when we played. When he lets himself play sleazy and not be the good guy, I feel like he can be very good, very good. Yeah,

I mean I would recommend watching it. It's also got that energy and and that kind of that first act thing in a Buddy gambling movie where because of the world, because of the milieu and the kind of scuzziness of it, there's this like kind of huge suspense over like can I trust this person? This person is being nice to me and like wants to spend time with me and seems excited to be around me, And is this just because they like me or like are they going to

stab me in the parking lot? And and then when it ends up being like, no, we really have this connection in this bond, then it's just like, oh my god, like it's the most important thing in the world. And that's as much of a high I think in a good kind of gambling movie, like the relationships are just as much of the high as the gambling, and buddy comedies are probably like the best romance as we get, you know, in American movies, right, because romances are weird.

I think it's also a great because, like like I was saying earlier, you know, I do think that gambling is the kind of thing where like any kind of connection you have with someone is going to be transitory, Like it's not you can't really like be in the same emotional state as someone else in a game of chance. So so having when you buddy up with somebody it's kind of inevitably going to fall apart, which is something

that happens in this movie. And you know, it's it's kind of thrilling because it's like a law of affair that you know is going to end. I like shared madness. Yes, you know, I was talking about this on summer. My other summer house Quarantine, because I'm watching melrose Place, which deals a lot in like two crazy people getting together and then just like planning something. And I'm always like, oh, what could be more romantic? Natural born killers? You know, Yeah,

why lose your mind on your own? You can lose it with somebody who loves and it's just like us against the world. Um, you're reinforcing each other's craziness. That's the most romantic thing is reinforcing each other's craziness, being

like they don't understand but I do. Yeah. And then there's and and then because you're like you're playing with such a kind of unpredictable set of psyches and uh psychology, psychological realities, it's like then you have that beat like when um, when Elliot Gould leaves and disappears and then comes back from from Mexico and George Chagall is like so mad because it's like the fight club thing. It's like, why did you do something without me? Like we are friends?

We are are yeah, and the and the reason why is because Elliott Gould had a dream and George's character wasn't in it, so he thought he would jinx him which I mean, that's like one of the best little subtle turns in a relationship is just that moment where where he's like, I can't have you in the room, like when they're when they're in Reno and they're playing the Big Game and George Chagall is like, I can't have you in the room here, and just that little

it's not a big emotional statement or anything. It's just like, I think you should leave. And then that's sort of this the schism, this like you know, that can't be mended because you can't have the high highs without the

low lows. You get you get the high, the high, the super crazy like all of your dopamine flooding out at once um in exchange for something which is like feeling like a complete garbage person after that, Yeah, but everyone forgets there's that part in the like I feel like the sentiment that that reigns over the whole film is like I think I forget who's at the I think it's when jer skills at the bar and there's like the sex worker that's at the bar who's just

like being a real pill and annoying everybody there. And then you know, eventually just starts talking to herself. It's just like, what am I doing here? That's just like how everybody in the movie feels. It's just like what what were do you in here? Like come on? Yeah, you feel like the movie could zoom in on any of these people and tell an interesting story about them, which is like that Sopranos quality where you're just like, this whole world is so interesting that anyone in this

world would be an interesting movie to me. The one thing I still don't quite understand from it, and it feels like the the one like kind of capital P problematic part of this film is the whole thing with the women and their friend who's like the cross stresser. Yeah, Helen, what was that it was? It's a very confusing scene because there's not that much set up and you are kind of dropped into the middle of it. They are sex workers and he's paying them to pretend he's a woman.

Oh is that? And that's yeah? Oh I did not. That's what kind of never gathered this. That's what's so sweet about it. And then when they break in as the cops, they pretend that they just think he's like an older woman and and he's so happy that he's passing right. It's actually like I just love that whole thing. It's like, you know, what's up with you? You know you beautiful older lady, like so wonderful where Yeah you smell Shalimar? Is that Shalimar? Like? I love it? And

she yeah? And the and the cross Chester doesn't realize that that is that they're not real cops. But it does like break up the party so they can hang out with them, so everybody wins. That is great. I I was very because it's my first time seeing it too. I was like, how am I supposed to feel about this? Like there's a number of possible like ways that this could be presented, And I like missed a line of

dialogue and was like, what is it bad? It's accepting? Yeah, yeah yeah, I mean I didn't get like a hateful vibe from it, just like what's happening here? It just seems strange. Yeah. But I think also this movie has it's not a downer ending as much as you would expect. I mean it's like they do end up breaking up, that's like the downer, but they had to bring in a bunch of money before they break up, kind of

like the eclipse story. You're like, oh, yeah, you got to see the eclipse at the end, and it was all you got, the hot streak you were dreaming of And you can't keep following this guy around. Take your thousand dollars and go home. And the memories, the sweet memories you always have Reno. My friend Jamie grew up in Reno, and it's definitely going to leave us a call. Maybe we'll even have her on to talk about Reno.

But never been to Reno. Oh, it's fascinating. She worked in a casino before she was old enough to drink because they employ all the local teens to work at the casines. This is this is the thing I was gonna the thing I was working on writing in college was like about what like, you know, teen teen waitressistant stuff. I like working at casino in high school and just like, yeah, so yeah, we hope everybody checks out. Californy to Split Great Great Quarantine viewing. Highly recommend it. Go on an

almond binge. I think it's good. I think it's good lockdown viewing. And it's ah nothing, nothing hits too hard with the Almond. It's kind of like a nice vibe that you can just ride UM and the movies also are great UM. Today's show notes will also include some links to bail donation sites and other organizations that are working hard across America to ship funding from the police

to community based and peaceful or alternatives. And for our fellow Los Angeles residents, we urge you to read up on the People's budget and let your elected officials know that the funds currently slated go to the l a p D would be better applied to schools, mental health services, and supportive housing for our own house population. Thank you so much for listening this week, and as we said at the top of the show, we'll be back soon.

In the meantime, please check the show notes for a list of organizations that you can donate to your support, and please be sure to do your own homework as well. As the funding needs are changing every day. The