You're listening to kf I Am six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King on demand on the iHeartRadio apps. It's time for your morning wake up call. Here's Amy Kig. I've decided this is just the music I need to wake me up on a Friday morning. This is your wake up call for Friday, August eleven. I'm Amy King. We've also got Tyler on the board and producer An in the house, and we are all wishing you a happy, happy Friday morning. It was nice, a cool yesterday compared to
everything. Yeah, it's not gonna last. Oh sorry, but it's gonna be nice. We're going to the Orange County Fair this afternoon, so it's it's the last weekend for it. And I gotta go check out Chicken Charlie's. Remember we talked to Chicken Charlie a couple weeks ago. Yeah, I'm dying for some deep fried goodies. We're gonna check that out. And then tomorrow night at Dodger game, which unfortunately, Tyler, you can't join us
for because you're going to be working the Rams preseason game. They're playing the Chargers tomorrow night at so far. Yeah, that's true. Phone Yeah, lots of sports going on this weekend. Here's what's ahead on the wake up Call. Hawaii Governor Josh Green says it's going to take many years to rebuild Lahina, which has been destroyed by wildfire. Fifty Five people have been confirmed killed. Firefighters are making some progress, but none of the fires are one
hundred percent surrounded yet. Negotiators with the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood Studios are going to return to the bargaining table today on this one hundred first day of the Writer's strike. New York City is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of hip Hop tonight with a concert at Yankee Stadium featuring that legends run DMC, ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Loew, Wayne Whizz, Khalipha, and Moore. Hip Hop is the most listen to music genre in the US. Who knew.
Let's start with some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. The death toll from the deadly wildfires in Hawaii has gone up to at least fifty five. More than a thousand buildings have been destroyed on Maui. Governor Josh Green says it's important for people to work together. We're
also going to call to action for people across the state. If you have additional space in your home, if you have the capacity to take someone in from West Maui, please do. Green says thousands of people are going to need housing, and the state is working to get two thousand rooms to assist those in need. President Biden has approved the state's disaster declaration that opens federal
funding towards state and local recovery efforts. A one hundred and fifty year old banyan tree in the heart of Lahina has been scorched by the fire that destroyed the town. Its survival is uncertain. The tree is more than sixty feet high, anchored by multiple trunks that span nearly an acre. It's been a gathering place on Lahina's historic front street and very popular with tourists. We just saw a banyan tree at the South Coast Botanic Garden when we went down there
for that washing a shore exhibit in Palace verdies. They're absolutely beautiful, so sad to see that one burn. CalFire has joined the Bureau of Land Management in a Good Neighbor Authority agreement to help fight wildfires. Part of the effort is intended to allow the department access to restricted lands to add fuel breaks in vulnerable areas. Calfire's John Fitch says heavy rains from last spring have created a
lot of ground growth that unfortunately helps fuel the fires. Fuel conditions in weather conditions drive drive that fire. So we're starting to see activity pick up from the southern part of our state and in reality across the state as our fine fuels dry out. CalFire says it's a major step forward in treating one million acres of wild lands by twenty twenty five. Chris Adler KFI News. A new book by gambler Billy Waters claims he had a sports betting partnership with professional
golfer Phil Mickelson. Water says Michelson bet more than a billion dollars over three decades and lost one hundred million. He says at one point, Michelson considered betting four hundred thousand dollars on the US to win the twenty twelve Rider Cup he was playing in, but he got talked out of it. What a beautiful landing and a perfect way to complete our first commercial flight and our first dedicated science mission. Virgin Galactic has launched its first civilian mission to the edge
of space. Three people, including a mother and daughter. Was the first time a mom and daughter had gone up, and a former Olympian, an eighty year old canoeist who bought his ticket eighteen years ago, took the ride. Today, let's say good morning to Alex Stone. So, Alex, the good news, if there is any, is that the rain has helped firefighters get some lines around the fires burning on Maui. But the bad news the damage is done and it's expected that the death toll is going to go
higher. Absolutely, Amy, good morning. Yeah. The number that they're looking at right now is have you had about eighty percent of the lahine of fire surrounded now, so that number went way up yesterday when rain moved in. There were beautiful Hawaiian rainbows that we all think of and that you see on the license plate that there was. It was emotional for a lot of
people to see the rainbows. That's a sign that there is moisture coming down and that did help out the numbers that we are hearing that are going up as it continues to get worse. As you mentioned a moment ago, fifty five now confirmed dead. Those are from Tuesday when the flames went racing through
Lahinah. But it's only now that crews are getting in. I know Riverside County is sending a search and rescue team, getting the man and woman power in there to search through the remains of the buildings and the cars and everything else. So the while the numbers are going up, the fire is not actively destroying a lot, not actively killing people. It's what went on on
Tuesday and this morning. Amy. We talked to Maui's mayor a short time ago who went into Lahinah yesterday and saw this for himself, the devastation, and he told us this closest thing I can compare it to is perhaps a war zone, or maybe a bomb went off. It was cars in the street, doors open, you know, melted to the ground. Most structures no longer exist. And in so many ways, it's like what happened in Paradise a couple of years ago, or in the Sonoma County Wine Country in
twenty seventeen, where it just moved so quickly through the community. People could not get out. They died in their cars trying to escape. They died in their homes, unable to get out of there. Then there's all the missing. Around a thousand people are considered missing right now. People don't know where their loved ones are. Are they dead or are they just out of
communication. Communication and Kennapali and in Lahinah is down. And then the mass of the airport of all the Mainlanders trying to get out who have been parked there. What's going on with all the because we've been talking about the people who lived there, but then there were people at resorts and they've closed the resorts down. They're saying, you guys gotta go, and they're making every
bay to go to the airport. Absolutely, So it's a couple of reasons why they're doing that in Kannapally. And you know there's the Giant West in there, the really big Hyatt Share it in Marryott Vacation Club, a lot of condos, other hotels that they have told everybody, buses are outside, you gotta go, You're gonna be brought to the airport. You gotta go back to the mainland. And that one reason is there's no cell service,
there's no power in Kannapoly right now. People are arriving at the airports say they didn't even know how bad this was. They didn't know Lahinah was gone, even though they were only in Kannapoly right next to Lahinah, because they had no communication while they were there. But the other reason why they want to get people out they need those rooms that they've got about. They need about two thousand rooms. The hotels are going to be a big chunk of
that, and then they want to put Maui residents in there. So people are being dropped off, families who have been on vacation at the Maui airport. They're being told you'll find a flight, good luck, you know, get home safely. And people are camped out. They are living on suggage carts in the terminal. The airlines United Southwest, American Delta, Hawaiian Alaska, they're flying in empty evacuation flights. They've got on board formula diapers,
food from the mainland. They are dropping that off in Maui and saying everybody get on board ferries or nineteen bucks on some airlines, ninety nine dollars on others. They're taking them. People don't know they're gonna go to Honolulu, come to La San Francisco, Seattle, they're just kind of getting on wherever they can go, and it is it's a big airlift effort underway right now. Do they have any idea how long it's going to take to get everybody
out? They don't know. And then you've got people in Wailea who are just still vacationing and aren't leaving. You know that they're pretty far away from Lahinah. So you got those people down there, do they empty those out because they need the rooms? We don't know yet other areas the island where people haven't gone. So there's still a big effort that's going to need to go on. It's going to be a few more days of getting people out.
Okay, Alex, thank you so much. While you really brought it home and kind of created a picture that I hadn't even thought of before, and so thank you so much. Appreciate it. You got it. Thanks Jay, have a good weekend you two. You know, it reminds me
of he mentioned the Paradise fire and the fire in Wine Country. There was also a fire a couple of years ago in southern Oregon, which where it is where I'm from, and the fires came along and just tore through these towns and get emotional about it. Okay, this is a happy Fredday, but they just tear they destroyed everything, and he and what Alex was talking about, what the mayor was talking about, it looks like a bomb went
off. I was driving through these neighborhoods a couple of months after it was done, and they were, you know, they were starting to rebuild and everything, but like there's nothing left. There's there's a you know, the concrete foundation and in some cases there was a chimney. Sometimes there was a melted refrigerator, but like nothing was there. And it's it's just so eerie to drive through even months later. So, wow, it's going to be
tough for the people in Lahinah and on Maui. And there are lots of ways that you can help. So we're going to put up a list of resources on our website on KFIAM six forty dot com. We'll put it on the wake Up Call page. But there are several organizations. Hawaii's governor is saying, the Hawaii Community Foundation and it's Maui Strong Fund are taking donations. The American Red Crosses getting in there. The Salvation Army is going to be
providing food and support. The Maui Food Bank is accepting donations. The Maui Mutual Aid Fund is out there, there's a Loha United Ways Maui Relief Fund. So several organizations just jumping in right away. And of course we can't forget the animals. The Humane Society of Maui. I'm sure it's again after the fires in southern Oregon. There were so many animals that they just run and they don't know where to go, and they don't have somewhere to come
home to, and they need us. Okay, Now, let's get back to some of the stories coming out of the CAFI twenty four hour newsroom, and I'll try not to be emotional. Boy, that's just kind of hit me by surprise. Sorry about that. The Writer's Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are set to meet to talk about a contract. The union has been on strike for more than one hundred days. The WGA said last week the two sides were still far apart on several key
issues, including success based residuals for streaming content love our streaming. Police in Ontario say they're looking for more children who may have been sexually abused by the owner of a daycare center. The owner was arrested earlier this month for allegedly sexually assaulting several children. Police say he ran the center for nineteen years.
They started investigating in March after a child reported some abuse. A multimillion dollar mansion in the Hollywood Hills has been vandalized by what police say was a group of squatters lapds. His officers got a call about a woman screaming at the mansion yesterday. They found several people inside the house. Several were detained. No one was arrested. Damaged to the estimated ten million dollar home included broken glass, graffiti, furniture in shreds, and grass trash all over the ground.
Regulators in California have approved an expansion of citywide robot taxis in San Francisco just by concerns over vehicles blocking traffic. The PUC voted yesterday to double the fleets of driverless vehicles and approved around the clock service. Some people say the taxis are dangerous and if blocked the path for emergency vehicles by stopping unexpectedly. Others say they will help more disabled people get around town and reduced drunk driving.
I'm still so nervous about that. Hawaii Governor Josh Green said the fires on Maui are likely to be the largest natural disaster in the state's history. Fifty five people can firm dead, so far more than a thousand still missing. A multimillion dollar mansion in the Hollywood Hills has been vandalized by what police said was a group of squatters. LA now has the nation's first all electric
street street sweeper. The eight hundred thousand dollars vehicle is part of LA's plan to transition the city to one hundred percent clean energy by twenty thirty five. At six oh five, is handling the news President Biden's ask for an their twenty four billion dollars to help Ukraine in its war with Russia. At five thirty five, we're going to be waking up with the house whisper Dean Sharp. We're gonna talk about some remodeling regrets, and if you're looking to make
changes around your house, you do not want to miss this. But right now, let's say good morning to ABC's Tom Rivers. Tom, it sounds like something out of the Apple TV series For All Mankind. Looks like the space race. Yeah, I love this stuff. And this was a spaceport they had the Russians haven't used too much in the Far East, was Stashny because they usually use Bikanore in Kazakhstan. But yeah, this is kind of
going over old history. The last Moon launch of the old Soviet Union was forty six years ago, so they're kind of retracing some of those old steps. In fact, when they were kind of preparing for this launch, and there's gonna be other launches in the coming years, but they were thinking of maybe having a rover up there, and they said one too complicated, too heavy. Let's keep it simple on this first robotic. If you will touch down near the south pole of the Moon, and then we can build on
it and other and other missions. But it's gonna be interesting. They should be there around the twenty third of August. A similar craft in the similar area too. It's been launched behind the country of India, and both countries hope they can find water. If they find water, then one day down the road, maybe after we're gone, it could be a colony up there in that part of the world, because if we have water, then you
can build upon that have we ever found water on the Moon. There have been there have been scientists have at least from our from our chunk, have said, yeah, we have detected what we think is water. So yeah, we'll see if in fact that is the case when we get our robotic probe up there, and they're gonna be checking not only soil but dust particles as well, and feeding that info back to Russia via communications channels, so that could be analyzed here. Okay. And you mentioned that India also sent
up a lunar landing craft, but it left linked on July fourteenth. Why is it going to take them so long to get there? I guess they're in the slow lane. Russians are in the Russians are in the fast lane. I don't know how exactly they're taking different paths, but they're gonna you know, they should both be at the corner cafe at the same time, same day, okay, and but neither one has people. It's all just
exactly exactly. So again, I guess it makes sense after all these years, it's like, well, let's uh, let's go in and do something we think we can do. And of course there's there's there's a myriad of hitches that can happen in both of these particular projects, but they want to minimize as many of the you know, potential problems and as I say, through other missions you can you can build upon that down the road. What are some of the hitches? Well, I mean, will it will Atlanta?
It could crash, Is it going to stay in orbit? Is it going to shoot off to Elpha Centuri? We don't know, but you know, hopefully fingers crossed it it does good. And of course the US will be watching that, and India will be watching the Russians. The Russians will be watching India, and also the Chinese hope to get into the game in a few years as well. So yes, a lot of people are going to be watching this closely. It reminds me of Hidden Figures. Did you
see that movie? No, I didn't know. Oh my gosh, I so recommended. It's about the Space Program and it was about how people were actually computer they called people computers before we had you know, electronic computers. And it was a group of black women who were computers and how they helped, uh, they helped the Space program. And it's based on a true story and one of the lines they say when they said, are you ready
to go to the moon, and she said, we're already there. So it just totally I so recommend that that movie if you haven't seen it yet, Tom, Okay, we'll check it out. Yeah, why are love?
I love these stories too, and they're fascinating and they're captivating and you know, and it's like it's like it's like an unfolding sports story because we don't know the outcome is going to be, Yeah, we landed, No, we landed uh crookedly and the trajectory is wrong and whatever, but you know, it's it's it's it's it's good to see what comes out and watch the developments day in day out. Okay, Tom Rivers, thank you so much. I can't wait to watch this. I hope they beam back some
shots of this. Yeah, guessing the will I wonder if we'll get to see him. Since it's happening in Russia. I think I think we might see some stuff. I think I think so, I mean, we still are we don't agree on much. We still you know, send up you know astronauts, cosmonauts to be a Russian launcher, So yes, I would expect to hear and see some pictures coming out of the out of Russia and uh and you know, figures crossed. It's pretty successful. We'll up to
wait and see. Okay, we're gonna be looking at the target date of August twenty third, Tom Rivers, thank you so much. Okay, So this Weekend with Nick is our buddy Nick Polyuchini. He has a regular feature on Later with Mo Kelly on Friday nights, and this Weekend with Nick is out of this world. Hunt it boy, that's the truth, to be honest with you. So this is the Precents meteor Shower. And I know this is something going back to Elton singing at the beginning that you're super stoked
about. And this is going to be the best display you can see tomorrow and on Sunday throughout the Southland. And I've got places for you to not just go see those, but also to be able to enjoy something else going on. So kind of you know, got a twofer for you if you want to make it a little bit of a longer weekend or get out of town to enjoy it. So one of the locations for the Pursed, a media shower that will be happening, is going to be out in Joshua Tree.
So I've got a splash House happening in Palm Springs for you there that's going to be taking over one of the local hotels and it's got all music. Think of it like a baby Coachella, if you will. It's got all sorts of music artists that will be there, a couple of different DJs in residency. Also, if you're feeling, you know, like you want to head out to Ohi and get to take a little bit of a trip for the day, there's also the Ohio Pops concert that will be happening tomorrow
that's in the afternoon with a featured vocalist, Sophie Holt. And then if you're feeling really good, and this is my favorite because I love America's finders. City of San Diego, heading down to Chula Vista the Los Pinos Campgrounds is a great place to be able to view those because there's not a lot of light pollution. That's kind of on the far south side of San Diego
County. And they have the twenty six annual Lemon Festival. So if you miss a Lemon festival in Upland, which we covered on this weekend with Nick last month. You can actually go down to San Diego and check out their Lemon Festival that's going to be going tomorrow from about eleven to six, and then you can catch the meter shower later in the evening in the same general
area. So kind of got you covered all across the board absolutely, and when you talk later in the evening, the peak hours for this meteor shower are Sunday early Sunday morning on August thirteenth, so between one and three thirty am you should be able to see it. You know at other times, but those are the peak times. And it says, of course, get away from city lights, so you're if you're sitting in the la you gotta
get away from that. And some places you can go that aren't quite so far there's the Santa Monica Mountains, the Malibu Creek State Park is a good place to go and view. And also in Rancho's Palace forties there's the Rancho Palace Fortis Overlook just down the street from Robert E. Ryan Community Park. So if you don't want to go quite so far out, because I think being out Joshua Tree would be fuhomenal, right, but it takes a while
to get there. No, of course, I mean you have to think it's not it's just about you know, ninety minutes, a little bit more ninety minutes and then as Amy said, obviously, come on, it's it's a meteor shower. So late at night is where it is when I'm sitting
to get there in the evening, go out, enjoy yourself. You know a lot of schools are back in session or are getting ready to go back in session, so this could be your last family activity as well to get out and do one final weekend of something really cool and historic going on in the skies. And then also add a little bit more fun to your weekend. Absolutely, and we can find out more fun things to do this weekend
with you tonight. That's correct, And you can also check out this weekend with Nick on Instagram and you can also do kfiam six forty dot com forward slash Nick for more details about this and so much more going on this weekend. Awesome, Thanks Nick, you got it right. Now, let's wake up with the house Whisperer. It's the host of Home on KFI. Dean Sharp. Good morning, Dean, Good morning Amy. Hey, can I just say this before we get going. Yeah, I think Nick should have
a weekend show. He doesn't have time for a week md show because he's doing all this stuff that he talks about. I know, I know it. It would just be so great. My friend Tina Malave used to host I on LA right, and that's kind of a thing of the past now, but we need something like that back, somebody who's just like out there exploring southern California in all of its facets and just you know, some really cool magazine show. I think Nick would be perfect. Yes, I like
that idea. Oh and you know what we were just talking about, the Percy a meteor shower. Yes, we're going to put the viewing locations that we were talking about on the wake up call page at KFI AM six forty. Give us a minute to get him up there, but we'll put those up there in case you want to go check out the Percy. It's going to be cool, always awesome. Okay, back down on Earth, all right, here we are time to remodel. Time to remodel and not regret
it. Ah, that's the catch. Yeah, So you sent me this article from a BuzzFeed over the weekend and I told you, I said, you know what, I think this is great. Let's just do this. I pushed aside our schedule for the weekend because I thought, you know, this is really great. You know, remodeling regrets. It was a whole list of people who had done all these things to their homes and it ended
up regretting some of the money that in time they had spent remodeling. And I just think it's important understanding what goes wrong on other people's projects, and most importantly, why they go wrong, can help us avoid making those same mistakes. And they really all aimy come down to just a handful of basic principles or fundamentals that you might say that people either don't know or skip over
or ignore, and you end up with something that you didn't want. And that's you know, this is not like going out and buying a blouse and regretting it, you know three days later. It's just us in yeah, exactly. We're talking about tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Most homeowners have one one really major remodel in them and to think that when you're done, there's some of it that you regret is just heartbreaking because you either a have to bite the bullet and go back and reinvest to change what you regret, or you just live with it for you know, twenty or thirty years, and nobody wants that exactly. So let's let's find uh what some of the ones that popped up for you. Well, you know,
they're they're all interesting. I actually wanted to hear about your friend who had done like four of these. She okay, so my friend Debbie is doing a fabulous remodel, and I will tell you it looks great. It is absolutely beautiful. She took. They have a condo. Actually it's it's not a condo, it's an attached wallhouse, but it's this beautiful house, great location, but it's older, and so they wanted to open it up and make a great room, which everybody is doing. So they've made a
great room. They've used gray flooring. I believe they got a one of the single farmhouse style kitchen sinks. And there was another thing that they did as well that was on this list, and I went up, oh, okay, so here's the thing of it right now, and I've seen it. It's beautiful. Okay, all right, So that's perfect, all right, So so just everybody, so everybody knows we should we need to post
this article somewhere on the KFI website or maybe on wake up Call. But but you know, so here is part of this article was somebody had put a gray luxury vinyl plank flooring in their basement after a leak, and then somebody else had installed, you know, a classic single base and farmhouse sink, and somebody else had opened up their family room to the kitchen in a big open space. And people do this all the time, but each one of these were items where people regretted it, regretted it. So this is
what I'm talking about. I talked to Conway about the sink last night. He's like, you know what, we put in one of those single basin farmhouse sinks and the whole bottom is really flat and they don't drain like super easy. You've got to actually go in there and like rense them out in the bottom. He's like, I hate it. I don't think anybody should have these. And I'm like, well, here's the point, tim, farmhouse sinks. You know, they're kind of proven, they've been around for
two hundred plus years. This is the oldest kind of think you can get and they're still going strong. So it's not about the fixture being a bad fixture. And that's what I thought was funny about the article, because the impression is don't ever buy a farmhouse sink. That's a mistake. Now it's about you, as the homeowner, knowing what it is that you really want,
knowing yourself well enough to know what you really want. And you know, we encourage people all the time, Hey, step out of your comfort zone, try something new, get outside the envelope, get outside the box. But if you're gonna be working with a fixture or something a material that you are utterly unfamiliar with, get familiar with it before you commit to putting
it in your home. So most of these areas most of the issues on the list of oh I would never do this again, or I would never Some of them are just mistakes that people make with the way they get installed. But when it comes to something like a farmhouse sinc. The mistake here is not doing your research, not educating yourself. And it's not that there's anything wrong with a farmhouse sinc. They're classic, it's just that it was
wrong for them and it's wrong for them. Yeah, Like I have one of the two sinks, and I like that better because I use half of it to dry dishes, right exactly, and so so which is better? I get that question all the time. Which is better a double basin sink or a single basin sincing. I don't know. I don't know what's better for you. I'm a single basin sinc guy. We do a lot of
cooking in the kitchen. I got a lot of big pots, pays, griddles, and I love the fact that I can take the biggest cooking implement or platter that we're using and get it all laying flat down in the bottom of the sink. Other people want the two basins. There's no right or wrong to it. What is the truth? Is right or wrong for you?
And that's one of the fundamental principles that we can learn from these lists of regrets, understanding yourself, understanding what went wrong with the project in terms of you. Absolutely here's one that and I do want to put this list. Let's put this on the wake Up Call page on the KFI website because it is super interesting because you look at some of these things and you go, oh, like an open floor print plan. Who doesn't want that?
But this person says, well, now I can hear every clang, every curse, every mutter, every footstep, So you just have to plan for it. If that's not right for you, then don't do it. But it might be right for somebody else. But here's one of the ones that I thought was really interesting is they put in a speaker system with surrounds sound in their home. And they said technology has changed so quickly that all of it's now outdated, and they built it in. It's not like they mounted
speakers, it's they built them into the walls. Yeah, exactly. Now, Okay, so that's a fascinating one on the list. This is an area of what I would say homeowner ignorance for it to make it on this list. It was not wrong for them to build in a surround sound system. It was not wrong to build it into the walls. Because their complaint here on the list is only half correct. Okay, it is not outdated to have built in speaker wire in your house leading to a surround sound system,
and the speakers aren't outdated. What's outdated? Very likely if they did this, you know, fifteen years ago, is the receiver that's sending the signal to the speakers. All this homeowner needs to do is update the receiver. The speakers, they're just kind of there, right. Speakers from thirty years ago would work fine just as well as speakers today. It's that one component. One component needs to be switched out, and this whole thing is
back to life again. So again, assuming oh we did it wrong, don't ever build in your surround sound system into your house because you know five years later when the new technology comes out, it'll be out of date. Not really, not the speakers. You never see the movie theater changing the speakers out of the wall in the cinema, but they are changing the hardware
that's driving them. Okay, So remodeling regrets. You're going to be talking about that more on your show this weekend, and also getting some input from listeners who've done some stuff that they're not so happy about it any longer. Right, Absolutely, Saturday and Sunday. We're doing it all weekend long. It's going to be a great time. It's Home with Dean Sharp Saturday's six to eight am. Sundays from nine to noon. You can also follow Dean
at Home with Dean Dean Sharp, thanks so much, Thank you. Amy. Negotiators with the Writer's Guild of America and Hollywood Studios are going to return to the bargaining table today. It'll be the first negotiating sessions. The strike started in early May. The strike is one hundred one days old. The Dodgers will retire the number thirty four worn by legendary lefty Fernando Valenzuela at tonight's
game. It's more ceremonial than anything. No one has worn the number thirty four for the Dodgers since Valenzuela was released during spring training in nineteen ninety one. Let's say good morning to ABC's Jason Nathanson. Jason, can Barbie be beat at the box office? Nope? Oh you not this, Not this weekend. This We're into the dog days of summer at this point where studios
don't typically release. Although the whole release schedule has been upended and everything is topsy turvy these days, but uh, studios don't typically put out big movies at this time of year. It's seen as slower time. People are going
back to school, it's in the summer. People are getting in those last vacations it's just not really the time where you release big blockbusters, as we see by this week, where you have two movies that are pretty small with Jewels starring Ben Kingsley as a guy who lives kind of a quiet life in a small town until UFO shows up crash lands in his backyard. It's a
uh, it's like it's an independent movie. It's you know, it's it's not the kind of movie that's gonna make more than maybe a couple million bucks if that, and that's on the strength of Ben Kingsley alone and his name recognition. Jane Curtin also stars. It's a movie for adults. It's one of those movies that you could wait till it goes on streaming, which to be about two weeks probably, And not that it's bad, but it's just, first of all, it's it's an odd movie for Ben Kingsley to sign
on to. I'm not exactly quite sure why he did, even though I actually talked to him about it and he said he really liked the character and it was much different than the last guy he played. He played Savador Dali in his last movie, so it is a much different, quieter character. So that's why he liked the juxtaposition of that. But the film itself is not something you know, it's going to be forgettable after a couple of months. Is it it like a happy heartwarming or is it a scary alien movie.
It's not scary. It's definitely not scary. It's it's on the edge of comedy and drama where it kind of it quite doesn't know exactly what it is, but it leans more towards the happy and you know, kind of also thoughtful thinking about our place in the world and older relationships and friendships and things like that and how how those form, and uh, you know,
also are thinking about what else is out there. But it doesn't it's not so it's not like a sci fi alien movie so much, you know, it's it's a little bit like a geriatric et almost, uh, is maybe the best way to describe it. Jane Kurtin also stars and Harriet Sansome Harris Okay, I think I'm gonna wait till it's streaming. Yeah, Okay, So then there's another new thing streaming on Netflix called pain Killer. Yeah. And if you saw Dope Sick on Hulu last year, I did not,
which was about the opioid crisis in the Sackler family. It started Michael Keaton and a bunch of other big ensemble cast got a bunch of Emmy nominations. This is that story as well, but told in a very different way.
So if you saw Dope Sick, you can still watch Painkiller, I think, and not feel like you're going over the exact same ground, although it is the very similar story of It's a sixth episode mini series about the Sackler family and the rise of the opioid epidemic and the creation of OxyContin and what that has led to in the United States and who's the sack family. Well,
I'm sorry, who's the Sackler family. Oh, the Sacler family is the ones behind Perdue Pharma and they created OxyContin and they're also in litigation right now over all of that, several lawsuits in you know, they're going back and forth, and a lot of people blame them for the opioid crisis and the deaths and getting people addicted to drugs, because not only were they did they make this drug, but they were very as you see in this series,
very savvy at marketing it to doctors and getting people to use it and getting doctors to prescribe it when maybe they didn't necessarily need to. Again, a lot of that is up for litigation right now. I think that judge just rejected a settlement on it, yes, exactly. So you know, it's very much, very timely, very much in the news, and this
series is very good also at going into everything. Matthew Broderick plays one of the sacular nephews, the guy who is credited with creating OxyContin or at least pushing Perdue Armac to make OxyContin. Uzo Dubas stars as a prosecutor, kind of a smaller time prosecutor who was looking into the beginning of this and kind of following the threads and we kind of see things through her eyes. It's
a very it's a strong series. My only little quibble is it's directed by Peter Berg, who's done Friday Night Lights and a bunch of other things and also as an actor as well. He tries to get a little too flashy with his directing, a little too cool, which, given the mean, given the very serious subject matter, it comes off as a little strange, you know, instead of kind of just going straight ahead and straightforward with it.
You know, there's cuts and you know, the cool imagery and things like that, which is which it's I think it's him flexing a little bit and it's a minor thing, but it just struck me as a little bit weird given how serious the subject matter is. Yeah, I think something that's really interesting. And I don't know, because I didn't see Dope Stick. Was that a movie? It was a serious It was also a serious Yeah,
and you said this one is a six episode series. I think some of these streaming series are so fascinating because it allows them to dig deeper into something as opposed to cramming it all into an hour and a half or two hours. Yeah, I think I'm loving streaming. Yeah, it really is. It really is good. And some some you know, you'll you'll hear the phrase a lot, Well, it's it's it's it's actually a six hour movie or it's actually an eight hour movie, which I know some people who
do what I do for a living, they hate that term. You know, a TV show is structured in a very different way than a movie, and the two are very different things. But for the viewer, yeah, when you're when when something is done well, and you also get a lot more context than you would in something that is shorter. I think it is
definitely beneficial, and I think it is definitely very interesting to watch. And a story like this which is so big, right, I mean it covers so much ground and goes back to the fifties and the start of Purdue Pharma and the start of marketing of Meta and those kinds of things. It takes a while to tell that kind of story. Okay, perfect, Thanks for the update, Jason. So I'm staying at home until Jules comes out, but I can go ahead and watch Painkiller now. Sure sounds like a good
plan. Okay, fabulous, Have a wonderful weekend. Take care. Okay, Hey, I gotta mentioned before we run. I can't believe the hour is up already. Weird Barbie. Remember Weird Barbie. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you're probably alone. But Weird Barbie is. She's got her hair all funky, and she's got painting on her face and she does the splits. So now Mattel is making an actual Weird Barbie. It's a real life available to buy. It's a limited edition features a bright pink dress
with colorful artwork and puffy sleeves. Snake skin boots that are green and markings on her face to emulate a doll that's been played with a little too much. So if you don't want to actually play with your doll too much, you can go buy a weird barbie. And I just saw a picture of her. It's actually very cute and it's a fifty bucks so you haven't tell August eighteenth to get it because again it is a limited edition. And one last note, El Segundo All Stars. They're playing for a spot in the
Little League World Series tonight. The game is on ESPN or you can go cheer on the team because it's being played at Al Houghton Stadium. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right in San Bernardino. Again. The game is at six. They're representing southern California and hopefully on their way to the Little World Little League World Series. Will be cheering you on we Lead Local Live
from the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. I'm Amy King. This has been your wake up call, and if you missed any of wake Up Call, you can listen anytime on the iHeartRadio app. You've been listening to wake Up Call with me Amy King. You can always hear wake Up Call five to six am Monday through Friday on KFI AM six forty and anytime on demand on the iHeart Radio app