Ty Watches "The Righteous Gemstones" Season 2

My wife and I just finished season 2 of "Righteous Gemstones" last night. Much like "Eastbound and Down" and "Vice Principals", "Righteous Gemstones" is another big time hit from Danny McBride and Jody Hill. I adore these guys and the content they make. I have recently sung the praises of "Eastbound and Down" and "Vice Principals" on this very site. I was very curious to see how they would do this season of "Righteous Gemstones" since it was filmed during the pandemic. Well, any fears I may have had were easily put to rest after the first episode.

This season was a great follow up to one of the most memorable seasons of TV ever. The first season of "Righteous Gemstones" was amazing. I thought it was going to be pretty hard to follow that up with anything close to what they had accomplished. Well I was wrong. They did an amazing job. They brought up new storylines while still keeping the story very dark and very comedic. I will try to keep the rest of my piece as spoiler free as possible.

When they opened season two, with a good amount of church people around a big table, there was some big news dropped on everyone and a guy tried to end his life, only to fail and hurt his legs very, very badly. From that point on I knew we were in for some wild and crazy times in the second season. This season more focused on Eli Gemstone's, John Goodman, checkered past. We found out about him being a wrestler and bodyguard and "gun for hire". Eli did some wild things back in his day. He was helped out by Junior, Eric Roberts, who was such a wonderful addition. He was funny with a mean streak and ended up becoming a big time ally. I loved seeing him and Goodman as kids and where they were now. It was great. Jesse and Amber mended their ways, but Jesse still wanted more. He wanted to become head preacher. He wanted to work with Eric Andre's, another massive and wonderful addition to the cast, church and their new development. Danny McBride is so good at playing a guy way in over his head but does not realize it. McBride was simply the best this season. Judy and BJ showed a ton of growth this season. They helped out Tiffany. Judy started to work with other wives in the church. BJ was accepted into the family by Eli and Jesse. There was also an awesome scene of BJ rollerblading this season. I highly recommend checking it out. Kelvin and Keefe were so pathetic and so funny and then, at the end, totally redeemed themselves. It was a great journey for them this season, especially the stuff with Kelvin and Eli. That was incredible.

As the season had its twists and turns, everything came to a head in the finale. And what a wonderful finale it was. I never seem to know how they are going to end this stuff. And with this season being nine episodes as opposed to the usual ten, they found a way to wrap things up nearly perfectly. Even the Jason Schwartzmann character, a journalist exposing these mega churches, had his story all wrapped up by the end.

I adore this show. I am so amped it is coming back for a third season. I think this may be McBride and Hill's best work to date. And the fact that they are giving actors like Edi Patterson, Adam Devine and Tim Baltz a chance to shine, I love that. And I cannot forget the greatness that is Walton Goggins. He is tremendous as Uncle Baby Billy. That character may be as great as Stevie Janowski. Uncle Baby Billy is amazing. Oh, and they even got MaCaulay Caulkin to appear in a few episodes. Please go watch "Righteous Gemstones". It may be the best show on TV right now.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Advent Calendar of Great Holiday Movies: Day 22 "Home Alone"

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a great movie associated with the holiday season. Many will be awesome, some will be extra awesome. Enjoy.

Day 22: “Home Alone”

Opened Doors: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15, Day 16, Day 17, Day 18, Day 19, Day 20, Day 21

The final few days before Christmas can get quite hectic. Now imagine you are planning to take your whole family overseas for a fabulous holiday getaway. The normal hectic becomes an uncontrollable kind of hectic. You have to navigate through your massive suburban home, your spouse is not helping, and a few of your kids are being annoying jerks as you make sure everyone is packed and ready to go. Sounds dreadful, right? Well it becomes a whole lot worse when half way over the Atlantic Ocean you realize that one of your kids was left in your sprawling house all alone for Christmas.

Released in November of 1990, “Home Alone” came out of the gate and was instantly a holiday classic. It made a young Macaulay Culkin a star, Joe Pesci and Daniel Heard created the modern template for comedic bumbling criminals, and it made us all cry when the old man was reunited with his wife. The elaborate traps set by Kevin were ingenious and gruesome at the same time (what would really happen with those traps?) The entire Tom and Jerry nature of the back half of the film is glorious. Yet the most important thing we all learned from “Home Alone” is that a mother that forgets her child is really not that bad of mom.

Watch Catherine O’Hara’s performance as mother Kate McCallister in “Home Alone” and wonder why the excellent actress has not won an Academy Award yet. O’Hara takes a thankless role, one of a mother who leaves her young child home alone as she gallivants off to Paris, and makes the audience sympathize with her struggle to get back to her helpless child. Along the way Kate runs into many obstacles, but it is the angel like John Candy who reminds the distraught mom that kids are resilient, hell he left one in a mortuary one time so how bad could Kate’s son be? In the end Kate, alone herself, makes back by Christmas Day to be with her ingenious, and maybe psychotic, son. In the end Kevin had an adventure, learned a lesson, and Kate went from being the worst mom, moved heaven and earth, and become an adequate mom, With that a holiday classic film was brought into the pop culture.

The weekend before Christmas is one of most hectic times of the entire holiday season. The shopping malls are like a thunder dome, the airports are filled with self centered mobs, and our own homes devolve into chaos due to uncooperative spouses and children. Things tend to get forgotten. But if the thing forgotten is your genius, semi-psychopathic, child, the power of a mother’s love will always save the season. Also, a polka playing John Candy is always a welcome helper on the way back home.

RD

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. What is better than being home alone and stopping inept criminals for Christmas? Listen to Patton Oswalt destroy the terrible song “The Christmas Shoes”.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

The Greatest American Band Debate: The Moldy Peaches

For the greatest American band debate today, I'm going to nominate a band that is way off the realm from almost any band I've written about to date. You could call this band genre-less or you could say that they span many, many different genres of music. They play folk, rock, metal, ballads and they even rap on a few songs here and there. They also only put out one official album. They had LP's and EP's, but they only truly released one record in their short run. Now, I absolutely adore this band and they were also the first band that I heard that made me think, professional music can be easily done, if you know how to manipulate equipment the right way. They also did everything themselves. They recorded, produced, wrote and released everything on their own dime, to the best of my knowledge. This band will not be a popular pick for some, but as I said, I adore this group and I'd be remiss if I didn't recognize how influential they were and how they gave me true and real hope of becoming a professional musician. The band that I speak of is the Moldy Peaches.

I LOVE the Moldy Peaches. I first heard them when I was a teenager and my love has only grown from there, and they only have one real album. I cannot stress that fact enough. I don't know how they crept in my mind and stayed there for so long with such little material, but dammit, they have stuck around. I still listen to their self titled album in my car to this day. Sure, they released live and rare stuff that only hardcore fans of the band like myself own, but their self titled is the only real commercial record they have. And it is great. They have had as many as 11 unofficial members in the band, including Toby Goodshank, who I saw recently and he is great, but the Moldy Peaches is primarily, and most importantly, all about Kimya Dawson and Adam Green.

Everyone by now knows of Kimya Dawson. She is a folk singer that did all of the original music for the movie "Juno". She kind of blew up after that soundtrack and movie were released. It was well deserved because she has a unique voice, can play decent guitar and writes poignant, beautiful and silly songs. She has continued her musical career post Moldy Peaches very well. She tours and records new stuff to this day, but I will always love the Moldy Peaches stuff the most.

Adam Green may not be as well known as Kimya. Yes, he still plays and records, but he hasn't gotten the acclaim that his former girlfriend and bandmate has achieved. This is partly his doing and partly the industry's doing. He's very talented, but he is also heavily involved with drugs and art and making weird short films that make no sense. He does art with Macauly Caulkin. In fact, they have had a show and boutique of their drawings and paintings and they are very, very bizarre. Green has also played music with a lot of people including Ben Kweller, Binki Shapiro and Har Mar Superstar. He is a much better musician than artist or filmmaker, in my opinion. He, much like Dawson, knows how to write and craft sweet, but very silly and very weird songs. And, also much like Dawson, I enjoy his Moldy Peaches stuff the most. I have seen him live, and we discussed the show on a previous podcast, but, that show was weird and he walked off stage after playing wrong chords and singing wrong words. But, while I enjoyed the majority of his show, before he walked off stage, this was were I decided to buy not only his solo album, but the Moldy Peaches album.

So, this wacky and wild show was my gateway to one of my favorite bands. I went home the next day, listened to Green's solo album first, enjoyed it, then listened to the Moldy Peaches record and immediately adored it. It played on repeat in my car stereo and apartment for the next two or three months straight. Friends and family would come over and be very confused with what I was listening to, then that confusion would turn to, typical Ty, listening to some weird folk music. Everyone, with my brothers Seth and our editor RD being the lone exceptions, blew off this weird band I was suddenly enamored with. That didn't stop me. I listened to this record so much, I knew all the words to all the songs within a week. I love every song on this record. There are some great tracks like "Lucky Number Nine", "Nothing Came Out", "Downloading Porn With Davo", "Steak for Chicken", "Anyone Else But You", "Little Bunny Foo Foo", "Who's Got the Crack" and "Lazy Confessions". In my mind, these are all classics. These songs span all kinds of genres of music and they do it quite well, considering that they seem to be recording on either a tape recorder or an old school eight track recorder. I love that. "Lucky Number Nine" is a great, folksy opener to the album. It's very simplistic in it's skeleton, it's just drums, guitar and bass. But, Kimya Dawson's vocals are very good and Green's backing vocals are great. It's an awesome song. "Nothing Came Out" is also a very slow folk song, but it's also dirty and silly. Quintessential Moldy Peaches. "Downloading Porn With Davo" is raunchy, pop punk, silly and awesome. I'm not a big fan of pop punk music, but the Moldy Peaches do it extremely well. "Steak for Chicken" is so weird and absurd, but the music is classic rock and roll, with Green playing some really good, really underrated guitar. It's like Andy Kaufman wrote a song and the Moldy Peaches recorded it. It's a perfect marriage. "Anyone Else But You" is probably their most famous and sweetest song. You may think you don't know it, but you do. It's the song that Michael Cera and Ellen Page sing to each other at the end of "Juno". The song shows love from both the man and woman's perspective, but the woman is more aggressive and the man is a bit of a whipping boy. I absolutely adore this song. This song should be played at every wedding everywhere. It's wonderful. "Little Bunny Foo Foo", the old traditional kid song, is turned into a punk rock song, with Dawson yell singing the vocals by the end. I love it. "Who's Got the Crack" is everything that is great about Moldy Peaches. They sing slow and fast. They pay their instruments slow and fast. And the song is one of the most absurd and one of the dirtiest songs I've ever heard. It's incredibly vulgar and weird, but it is also tremendous. "Lazy Confessions" is a return to slower folk music and I absolutely love Dawson's vocals on this song. The whole album is great, but these particular songs are my favorites.

I love how weird and how primitive the Moldy Peaches were. Both Green and Dawson are still kind of primitive in their solo stuff, but nothing compares to what they did in the Moldy Peaches. Dawson has achieved more success, which isn't surprising, but I'm kind of shocked that Green isn't more famous. Anyway, I love the Moldy Peaches and I could not continue with this greatest American band debate without mentioning them. Don't listen to them with your kids, but listen by yourself and I can almost guarantee that after three or four listens, you will get what I'm saying and you will become a fan.

Did I mention that I love the Moldy Peaches.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Do you have a greatest american band nominee? Tell us all about it. While you think of your favorite band, follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Thank You David Bowie

Today we have lost a legend in the music business. He was not only a legend in music, but a pioneer, a fashion icon, an actor and an all around great guy. This morning, I turned on my phone, went to Twitter and saw that David Bowie had passed away.

I was shocked.

I first thought it was one of those celebrity death hoaxes. A couple of months ago there was a story being passed around the internet that Macauly Caulkin had passed away. I thought this was bizarre because I'd just seen his band, Pizza Underground, open for Har Mar Superstar. They were terrible, but I didn't think he should lose his life over it. It was found out about an hour later that he was still alive and all was well. That's what I thought when I read about David Bowie this morning. At least, that's what I hoped. But, further research proved that the stories online were true.

We lost David Bowie very unexpectedly. I really didn't know how to process this. I do not know him personally. I just came to his music about a decade ago, I was admittedly very late to his genius. I really liked him in "Zoolander" and "Labyrinth". But, I found myself pretty upset. It's not like losing a family member, but it still hurts. He was an inspiration to me musically. The first album of his I had was "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" and it completely changed my preconceived notion of his music. I assumed he was a disco, rock type of guy. He seemed more poppy than what I really like. Well, "ZSATSFM" totally floored me. It was rock, psychedelic and pop all blended perfectly together. Songs like "Soul Love" and "Five Years" and "Starman" are all classic pop songs. "Soul Love is beautiful and moving. "Five Years" is a very cool intro to this album. I like the quietness at the beginning and I love a song that explodes at the end, much like this one did. "Starman" is just an absolutely perfect pop song. Then there's the mega hits on this record, "Suffragette City" and "Moonage Daydream" and "Ziggy Stardust". "Suffragette City" is such a cool, punkish rock song that only Bowie could pull off. "Moonage Daydream" is the personification of the perfect psychedelic/pop song. And "Ziggy Stardust" has the hippest, coolest and most innovative guitar riff in almost all of rock music. The moment I first heard that riff, I went out and learned it on my Gibson immediately. I was so into the riff, I couldn't go on without teaching myself how to play it. The song, lyrically, is so perfect. I absolutely adore that song. I know that I'm only focusing on one of his albums, but why not this one that is so perfect. I know he has many, many other hits and beautiful songs, but "ZSATSFM" is his best and one of the best albums of all time. It's the perfect rock/psychedelic/pop album.

Bowie was a pioneer of the movement in the late 70's and early 80's of musicians taking on new personas. He became Ziggy Stardust, and all of the sudden, "new" people showed up. Without Stardust, we'd never gotten the band KISS. There'd be no new career for Rod Stewart, he would have disappeared just like Faces did. Mick Jagger, who was already mega famous, started to wear make up at the same time as Bowie and he became even more famous. These guys, and many more owe a lot to Bowie for being the first to do it and do it well.

As far as his acting career, I mean, how great and extremely weird was he in "Labyrinth". That movie is so nutso, but only a guy like Bowie could pull off that role and pull it off so awesomely. Try to imagine anyone else in that role, it's impossible. "Labyrinth" is one of the most bizarre movies I've ever seen, but Bowie's performance is so perfect, it makes that movie very enjoyable and very, very memorable. He was also excellent in his five minute part in "Zoolander". He just shows up, seemingly out of nowhere, and crushes it. He was funny. His hair was on point. He looked dashing. He seemed normal. And him judging the runway walk was so hilarious and so great. I loved when Stiller tried to pull his underwear off like Owen Wilson did, fails at this task and they cut to Bowie making a hilarious ouch face. It was great. I hope he had some kind of role in "Zoolander 2", since they already filmed it, because that would be great to see him one more time so we can remember how great of an actor he was. His movie choices were weird, but he pulled them off like only he could.

David Bowie was married twice, but you never heard of spats or disputes in public like we seem to with every other celebrity. I didn't know much about his first wife, but he's been with super model Iman for 14 years and they seemed to be very happily married and very happy to be with each other. Two beautiful people being married for that long and looking that good in the modern day social media society is incredibly admirable. I feel very upset for Iman. We, the fans, lost a musician and guy that we adored, she lost her husband whom she knew inside and out. I'm incredibly sorry for your loss Iman.

What I like most abut Bowie is the fact that while incredibly famous, he always seemed to come off as a genuinely good guy. There weren't any stories, at least not to my knowledge, of him taking his celebrity seriously. You never heard about off stage demands or illicit affairs from him. I'm sure he did a lot of drugs, who didn't in the 70's and 80's, but it didn't wreck his life. He was super cool all the way to the end of his life. He didn't seem to have any enemies or people that didn't like him. I've never run into someone that is not a fan of Bowie in some capacity. He was just an all around good guy for the most part. I'm sure he's made mistakes, but it was never really aired out in the media and who among us hasn't made mistakes.

David Bowie was an incredible artist and he will be missed. He's an influence to a countless number of people and will continue to influence people posthumously. Rest In Peace Mr. Bowie, you had a great life that was cut way, way too short. Enjoy making music with Freddie Mercury wherever the two of you are now.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing. Follow him on twitter @tykulik.

"The Jim Gaffigan Show" Season Finale and Looking Forward to Season 2

All set for the next great show

This past Wednesday the season finale of the first season of "The Jim Gaffigan Show" aired.

I wrote about the show after the premiere and, as I wrote back then, I really enjoyed the episode. The season only got stronger as the first season went on. The show consistently got better and funnier. Gaffigan is a hilarious comedian and he and his wife wrote a very, very good show. Michael Ian Black and Adam Goldberg were pretty fantastic in their roles. Michael Ian Black was Jim's wife's ex boyfriend. It's quickly revealed that he's gay now and he and Jeanie are best friends. He's a realtor, but that's not what made him so good in this role. He and Jim Gaffigan are not friendly towards each other. Their scenes together are great. Every time they were on screen together, it was hilarious. Adam Goldberg plays Jim's comic friend Dave that still lives with his mom in her nursing home. He's the complete opposite of Jim Gaffigan. He has no wife and kids, therefore, no responsibilities. I didn't know what to expect from Goldberg in this role, he seems like an intense dude, but he was really, very funny. I enjoyed him a lot. Ashley Williams plays Jeanie, Jim's wife. As I mentioned in my previous blog, she's really excellent on this show. I knew nothing of her before, but I really liked her on this show. Besides Jim Gaffigan, she was the best one on the show by far.

There's other primary characters, the Gaffigan's nanny, the people that work at the deli, the children, but the one non main cast member I want to point out was Macauly Caulkin. He played himself and he would show up in random spots throughout the season. He was an employee at a coffee shop, you saw him walk out of Scores Strip Club with a date, he showed up at a party full of comics, and he made an appearance in the finale hanging out with Alec Baldwin. It was so bizarre and excellent. I loved that he took this role, and the fact that he played it so well. Kudos to Macauly Caulkin.

But, I'm here to talk about the finale. It was really good. The show has already been renewed for a second season, so I think this kept the writers and actors at ease, and they all had a really good time doing this episode. The finale started with Jim Gaffigan and Dave going to lunch at the Katz Deli they frequent throughout the season. Dave is telling him that he's going to Melbourne, Australia for the Melbourne Comedy Festival. It's a one month commitment and Jim lets him know that he turned down his offer because of his wife and kids. He has five children after all. They both run into another comic, John Mulaney, and he and Dave are talking about the great time they're going to have in Melbourne. Gaffigan seems jealous of what the two of them are planning. He definitely wants to go, but he just can't. His house is also all getting over the stomach flu, adding more insult to the injury of him not being able to go to Melbourne. This does produce a hilarious line from Gaffigan talking to Dave. Dave is "scared" to visit his house because it's "crawling with disease" and Gaffigan counters this by saying, "you ever puked while having diarrhea? You go right through the five hole". Absolutely hilarious. Gaffigan returns home and all the kids may or may not have lice. There was an out break at the school and Jeanie, always one to over prepare, is making sure no one has lice. This annoys Gaffigan. He is tasked to watch one of the kids in the tub and he looks away for a split second and another one of his children throws his laptop in the full bathtub. This makes Gaffigan extremely angry. He's yelling at his wife and kids and he needs to leave the house to get some air. He feels like he's suffocating. While out, he runs into his preacher and tells him, in a fit of rage, that he wishes he never had a wife and kids. He then sees Steve Buscemi about to get hit by a bunch of bicyclists, steps in the way and he gets knocked out. Then, the "Scrooged" effect comes into play. Buscemi plays his guardian angel and takes him around town in a world where he never met Jeanie and they never had kids. In this world he's a filthy comic, we all know Gaffigan works clean, and his comic friends hate him. He has a full head of hair, but he looks like an a hole frat boy. He now lives with Dave. In this universe, Dave is the responsible one, threatening to kick Gaffigan out if he doesn't stop bringing home loose girls and not paying his part of the rent. His preacher thinks he's a crazy homeless person and doesn't try to help him. But, in Gaffigan's mind, the worst thing of all, Jeanie owns a bar and is married to Michael Ian Black's character, who's put on a lot of weight. Jeanie looks like a punk rocker and proclaims to Jim that she would never marry him and that she hates kids. Meanwhile, Michael Ian Black is a huge fan of Gaffigan's and tells him his standup is not only great, but it makes him love all food. Everything is different, for the worse. After the Jeanie from this universe claims she hates kids, she punches Jim in the face. This takes us back to present day in real time. Gaffigan wakes up, realizes everything is normal again and immediately runs home. We get to his house and his real wife Jeanie is cooking in the kitchen. His real children all come to hug him and Gaffigan is happy once again. When Jeanie asks him why he's acting so weird, he says he had a dream that a television network filmed a bunch of actors portraying their real lives. Then, the cast of "The Gaffigan Show" all appear and start singing "Auld Lyn Syng". They all proclaim they're excited for season two and the finale ends.

It was a great ending to a great first season of "The Jim Gaffigan Show". I'm excited for season two and I'm happy that Jim Gaffigan has a platform to put his family friendly standup and stories on the air. Thanks TV Land and Nickelodeon. You guys made a great choice. And thank you Jim and Jeanie Gaffigan for sharing these excellent stories with us.

Bring on season two.

Ty

Ty is the pop culture editor for SeedSing and the co host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Ty does not envy the choices one makes when they have diarreha and have to puke. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.