Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Rockin Rhonda's Edition

I know it is a bit late, but I finally saw the most recent episode of "Bar Rescue" last night.

This time around, Taffer and crew headed to a bar in Florida called Rockin Rhonda's. This was another episode that involved not only rescuing a bar, but also a person, Rhonda. At first Rockin Rhonda's was raking in the dough and Rhonda left her job as a stock broker to take over the bar full time. She was having so much fun at first, she even started to sing and do open mic and karaoke nights. She always had the singing and playing guitar bug, and since she had her own bar, she thought it was the perfect opportunity. Now, she was not terrible, in fact, she was a competent guitar player, but she was no star either.

Then, Hurricane Matthew wreaked havoc on her bar. It destroyed a lot of the place she built up. After the hurricane, things really started to fall apart. The bar was in such disarray, when Taffer got there, I swear to god the place was on a slant. When she showed him the "kitchen", the shelves looked like they were ready to topple. The bar was a real disaster. The wells and the ice machine and everything in the bar was either leaking or literally sinking into the ground. It was so bad that the employees and Rhonda had to wear insoles because they all had back problems from bending over all the time due to the poor state of the bar. The floor was also falling apart. Pieces were just falling off and being replaced with tape or floor mats. The "kitchen" had been reduced to a fridge and a microwave because it was in such a bad place. Rhonda started to drink when she realized that she only had 45 dollars in her account. She was a shell of her former self. She couldn't really handle what happened, so she turned to alcohol.

When Taffer got there, he went in alone. He didn't have any experts at first because he wanted to see if the place was even worth the effort. As soon as he walked in, Rhonda spotted him and was immediately brought to tears. She then laid out everything I just told you. She was crying the whole time. She was at the end of her rope. Taffer said he was going to do everything he could to fix this bar, but he ordered Rhonda to close up shop immediately because, after seeing all the destruction, Taffer deemed the bar unsafe. Everyone was ushered out and Taffer's construction crew got right to work. They showed the workers working on the bar, and it was a total mess. The floors were too easy to rip up. There were leaks everywhere. They had to get new lighting, plumbing, floors, basically, Rhonda's bar was going to be completely revamped. One of the construction guys said that, "this is the worst condition we have ever seen a bar in before". That is wild considering some of the bars that "Bar Rescue" has visited.

While the workers worked on the bar, Taffer trained the crew at a different bar. Truth be told, the employees weren't half bad. They needed proper training, which they would get from Taffer's mixology expert, but they were fine, just rusty. The kitchen expert had a different problem. The cook had been cooking for 25 years, but he never cooked in a proper restaurant kitchen. He was also very quiet and not authoritative, like an executive chef should be. During stress test the bar did a decent job, but the kitchen was a nightmare. The chef couldn't get simple flatbread pizzas out on time, or he burned them. It was rough. They had a full day of proper training, and in typical Taffer fashion, he had a heart to heart with Rhonda the day before reopening the bar. It was typical schmaltzy crap.

The next day they all gathered for the relaunch. The bar was renamed Rhonda's. That was it. He just knocked off the Rockin part. The inside looked a million times better, obviously. Same with the outside. The construction crew did a phenomenal job I l must say. This may have been the best rescue I have seen due to how bad the bar was before they got there. During relaunch they did much, much better. The bartenders, with proper training, were busting out drinks. The chef was being more vocal and looked to even be having some fun in the back. He was also getting the flatbread pizzas out much quicker. The relaunch was going so well, Rhonda grabbed her guitar and sang a song for Taffer and his crew before they left. Taffer, of course, left with that weird, almost creepy grin on his face. At the 6 week checkup things were running well for Rhonda and her fixed bar.

These episodes, the "heartwarming" ones are odd, but I still enjoy watching them, and this episode was no exception. They are doing a back to the bar this week, so come back in a few weeks for my recap of the newest "Bar Rescue", whenever they air it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He caught the guitar bug years ago. I wonder what is the favorite of all the guitars he owns?

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Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Sidelines Bar and Grill Edition

This week's "Bar Rescue" was your run of the mill, "not only save a bar, but a family" episode. The bar was called Sidelines Bar and Grill, and it was in a small town in Florida. The bar had the typical story. They thrived at first, the owner then decided to switch to a full sports bar, lost some regulars and started to drink. He then drank some more and yelled at his staff, 2 of which are his sons, more than run the everyday business of the bar. He was a drunk that used physical violence as opposed to words to solve conflicts.

Like always, Taffer didn't care for this, neither did his experts, and when the owner hit one of his sons in the face, Taffer stormed in and went off. First off, the son that got popped, he did nothing but berate his brother in the kitchen. He would constantly annoy him, then go play on his phone and do nothing. The younger brother worked hard, but he was dirty. He never washed his hands, labeled anything and cooked and cleaned with no gloves. It was gross. The front of the house tried their hardest, but they had no guidance, and with the owner constantly drinking, they fell into a hole of bad habits. When Taffer came in, he berated everyone, but mainly the owner. The owner threatened to fight him, remember he was drunk, but when he calmed down, they all got to cleaning.

The next day the bar was fit to train, and they got to it. The drinks were easy, the food was easier to execute. It was made so they would look good during stress test. And during said stress test, they started out strong. But things fell apart due to no soda guns, a small bar station and no communication between front of house and kitchen. They closed up, went to a different bar to train and Taffer and crew got to fixing up the old bar. But, first Taffer had to have a sit down with the father and his 2 sons. Tears were shed, things were promised and Taffer left the conversation with his creepy smile on his face.

The staff got their training, and were sent home to come back the next day for the reopening. When they arrived, Taffer revealed the new bar and new name. He changed the name to Lake Shore, blah, and it had the look of a beach house. It was a typical fix. They had some new benches, barstools, a bar top, an outside seating area, new POS systems, multiple soda guns and, of course, a lifetime subscription to Partender and Taffer Virtual Teaching. All the same stuff he gives every bar this season.

During reopen they did great, obviously. The owner stopped drinking and the kitchen staff was cranking out orders with 7 minute ticket times. The bartenders did have a hiccup here and there, but they righted the ship and things ran smoothly after that. At the 6 week checkup, sales were up 17 percent from the previous year and the owner stopped drinking on the job. The brothers were doing better in the kitchen, but the older one was still ribbing the younger brother, as brothers do.

As I said, run of the mill episode. That is not to say it wasn't entertaining, it was just a very typical episode. Come back next week for a quick recap of the next episode.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He sometimes think that it would be good for Taffer to do a heart to heart between the head editor and Ty. Tears will not be shed, but fists will be thrown.

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Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Liquid Lounge Edition

Taffer and crew got back to one of their regular episodes this week, and I have to say, it was a good one. They traveled outside of Nevada finally, and they ended up at the "Liquid Lounge" in Long Beach. The bar's backstory was typical. They were making a ton of money, they had new customers every night, everyone loved the food and drinks, the same story told during every cold open.

Then, also as usual, one of the bartenders wanted to be the owner, so he bought the bar from the outgoing, soon to be retired owners. He spent his life savings on the bar, which they said was 400,000 dollars. But, earlier in the episode, the man claimed he inherited 400,000 dollars from his folks, so I do not understand why that was all that he had in his life savings. Anyway, as soon as Rob took over, "Liquid Lounge" went down the drain. By all accounts, Rob was a good guy to a fault. He was a total pushover. He let everyone walk all over him. Even his favorite employee, who genuinely seemed to try hard and like him, walked all over him. Don't get it twisted though, Lola was a great, great worker. She even brought her husband on to help out with basically everything that they needed help with, and he was always available. I don't know if he got paid, I assume he did, but he worked his tail off. In fact, the staff at "Liquid Lounge" was legitimately good at their jobs. But, when you have an owner that will let you skip out early, not always have you clean, not hold employees accountable, things tend to go awry, and that is exactly what happened.

Now, there were no mice or rats, but this may have been the dirtiest bar on all of "Bar Rescue". This place was an absolute nightmare. Everything seemed to be falling apart, and a lot of that had to do with the massive mold problem they had. The fans were even falling out of the ceiling because the mold was so plentiful. The wall paper was tearing everywhere. The stools were a mess. The bar tops and the bar were nasty. The kitchen was a total nightmare. The bowls they used to "ring" their margaritas, I gagged when they showed what was inside of them. It was disgusting.

After Taffer and his crew, food expert Tiffany Derry and drink expert Rob Ford, stormed in and laid waste to poor Rob. He didn't even know what hit him. He was like a deer in the headlights. And, because he is such a calm and chill guy, he did not fight back and he never raised his voice. After Taffer was done screaming at him, and he was most definitely screaming, Rob literally took all the blame. It was his fault the bar was dirty, not making money, his employees had no respect for him, he was too nice, everything he owned up to. It was a nice change of pace from other owners or employees that always want to fight with Taffer. Before leaving the crew to clean for the night, Taffer, Derry and Ford all got in a few more nuggets of how bad this place was run. Taffer and Derry were throwing food left and right and Ford was just as disgusted as I was from what he saw behind the bar. The whole crew, including Rob, stayed and cleaned all night to get ready for training.

Taffer arrived early ish the next day, but before they could get to training, he took a pool cue and banged it against the wall. I thought this was odd. They had cleaned all night, and the bar looked much, much better. But, when he banged that cue on the wall, there was an explosion of ants. They were everywhere. So, Taffer lost his mind again, and brought in a pesticide crew. They were able to fumigate without having to close the bar for more than a day.

The stress test had to be postponed, but they rescheduled it for the next night. The staff got some mild training. Ford showed them some easy drinks and Derry showed the chef a simple fried shrimp plate recipe. The doors were open, and stress test began. Everything seemed to okay, at least for a stress test, at first. Lola was pumping out drinks, only having to redo a few, and the kitchen was getting the food out. But, there was trouble around the corner. Rob never took down names for the food, so it was dying in the window. Lola was pumping out drinks, but we came to find out that only one person had paid for their drink. No one was charging anyone, and this was all on Rob. Rob had again shit the bed. He again took full responsibility, and he finally confessed that he needed to be more of a boss and less of a friend.

After hearing this revelation, Taffer got his people to fix up the bar for re launch. The "Liquid Lounge" crew gathered outside, and it was revealed to them that the name was changed to "Tidal Bay: A Beach Bar". That is not one of Taffer's best, but given the location, it wasn't horrible. The inside looked brighter and they had 3 new POS systems, new soda guns, new speed wells, everything was updated. And when they reopened, things went great. I expected that because, as I said earlier, the staff was already good, they just needed proper training. Even Rob began to be a bit more managerial. He was great during reopen, and so was Lola She was exceptional in fact.

For the 6 week check up, the bar sales had increased by 20 percent in both food and drinks, and Lola got a raise andpromotion to manager. This was a very good, old school "Bar Rescue". I want more episodes like these.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He regularly walks into places of business and slams a pool cue against the wall. He is not looking for ants, he just hates business walls and pool cues are his weapon of choice.

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

Ty Watches "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" Season 3

Last night I finished the third season of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and I have to say, this has been the best season so far.

I really enjoy "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt", but this season had me laughing harder than the other two did at any moment. I feel like the show's writing this season was extremely sharp. There were so many jokes, and if you missed one, there was another right around the corner. The episode that featured Maya Rudolph as Dionne Warwick was one of the funniest, best written and just flat out best 31 minutes of TV I have ever witnessed. I literally slapped my knees multiple times from laughing so hard the whole time. Maya Rudolph's performance is worth watching the whole episode alone. But, everyone else involved, and the story, it was magical.

"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" has a great group of creative people around it, mainly Robert Carlock and Tina Fey, and they were at their peaks this season. This season was the closest thing they have had to the best seasons of "30 Rock". I'd go as far to say that this season of "UKS" ranks right up there with what many consider the best seasons of "30 Rock".

The performances this season were top notch as well. Even small characters had great moments. When Kimmy's old roommate in the bunker, Gretchen, has her own episode that shows how her new cult is going, absolutely riotous. The whole storyline was great. Gretchen is great, and I think this was the only time she was even on the show this season. Amy Sedaris as Mimi, great. She was so annoying and rude, but also so funny and heartbreaking. I loved when she needed Jaqueline to take care of her. That was a great mini storyline. And Jaqueline's arc this season, tremendous. I'm a big Jane Krakowski fan, and working with Tina Fey has been the best thing she could have ever done for her career. She was tremendous this season. In dealing with her husband being smooshed by an electric car, fighting NFL owners to change the Washington football team name, to stop caring what other people think of her, and everything else, she was great. Carol Kane was wonderful. She is one of my favorite people on the show, and this year, she had a very big change in character and a new love interest. I love her old school attitude, how little she truly cares what people think and how much she loves her new boyfriend, the owner of the hilariously named grocery chain, Big Naturals. The episode where she and Jaqueline go shopping together and have a makeover, just tremendous. Her "key" bit, which was just a hammer, was used multiple times this season, and it was funny every time. Her filibuster episode was excellent as well. Tina Fey's one appearance as Kimmy's disgraced former therapist, awesome. She works at a mall piercing kiosk now. The addition of Daveed digs this year, I loved it. He is so funny and charming and I hope they bring him back next year, I'm almost certain they will. He looks like he is going to be an incredible actor. He was great on this, and even better in "Tour de Pharmacy". He's going to be a star.

Ellie Kemper as Kimmy had a very good season. She struggled with always trying to look on the bright side of things. She went to college. She struggled with jobs, but always did them with a smile. She had her issues with the guy that kept her in the bunker, wonderfully played by Jon Hamm. The episode where she tries to save Laura Dern from marrying him, exceptional. Kimmy's old "friend" Zan, in her much smaller role, was just as moody and hilarious as she could have been. Her show she started in college, "Profiles", that was an excellent button to another excellent show.

Finally, we have who I, and many consider, the star of this show, Titus Burgess as Titus Andromendon. If he doesn't get some kind of Emmy love this year it would be a damn shame. He was so, so, so great this season. His spoof of Beyoncé's "Lemonade" was one of the best things I have seen on TV in a long, long time. His journey, from breaking up with Mikey, to his tales of working on the cruise ship, to his run in with Dionne Warwick, to his new relationship with a guy in the church choir that has a baby named Linda, to him using a gas station bathroom, and everything I may have left out, it was all perfect. Titus Burgess is absolutely the best thing on this show. His selfishness, that turns into selflessness at times is so great. He is so funny. He can be heartbreaking, yet make that hilarious. His singing is wonderful. His one liners are great. Everything about Titus is tremendous. If you need only one reason to watch "UKS", watch it for Titus Burgess. He is incredible.

"Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" is a tremendous show, and this season was the best to date. I highly recommend watching all of it, but if you want to start on season 3, be ready for some great writing and jokes after jokes after jokes. This season was an absolute homerun.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He was once stuck on a boat with Dionne Warwick. They were fleeing a future where children ruled the earth. He then realized he was asleep on a canoe with easy listening hits of the 1980's playing through his Pandora station.

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

Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Jack's Place Edition

We had another new episode of "Bar Rescue" this past Sunday. Taffer is sticking to his hometown this half of the season and he went and saved another bar in Las Vegas. Last week he was in a small town in Nevada, this week, he was in the biggest town in Nevada. The bar he went to this time was called Jack's Place.

Jack's Place had the typical "Bar Rescue" story. The bar was thriving at first under the first owner, he retired and sold it to Corine, a bartender, and now it was going down the tank. Corine did not have the authority, or the want, to be the big time boss. She let people walk all over her so much so to the point that the staff called her mom. Mind you that only one of her biological children worked there. She also had three managers, but only one bartender. That meant that one guy had to basically pour all the drinks and take all the orders. You'd think that he would take this responsibility seriously, but he was a total jackass. He kept trying to flip the bottles around and do all these tricks that he was in no way capable of pulling off. I feel like he saw the movie "Cocktail" once and decided he could do everything in that movie. He couldn't do one simple thing, and that was making the drinks. He either put too much liquor, or not enough, sometimes forgetting to put liquor in a drink. He broke multiple glasses trying to do these tricks. Then, when pressed by one of the managers, he would just argue and complain that he was getting three different directions and he didn't know which one to follow. He was useless.

Corine, the new owner, also had no idea how to appeal to a new client base. Everyone that came to the bar was old regulars from the past, and she said that she had been to approximately 50 funerals of former customers since taking over as the owner. That is crazy. When you own a bar I imagine that I would want a wide variety of customers, not just your regulars. She just didn't know how to pull in a younger crew.

When Taffer arrived with his mixology expert Phil Wills, they saw everything I just told you. The customers were old, the drinks were messed up, the bartender was a total moron and the managers and the owner had no control. When he sent in his two spies, they both said all the same stuff too. One of them told his buddy that there was no alcohol in his drink. It was a mess. When Corine's son finally confronted the bartender that was screwing around, the bartender went off on everyone. He was yelling at anyone and everyone within ear shot. This was when Taffer went off and stormed into the bar. Instead of going to Corine, he went straight to the bartender and started to go off on him. It was your typical, yet spectacular Taffer rant. He kept telling the guy to "be a man and own up to your mistakes", and the guy kept coming at Taffer. The tension was only broken by a commercial break.After the break, the bartender relented and apologized to everyone he was just yelling at previously. This was expected.

With the apology out of the way, they went into stress test. Stress test was a nightmare. Everything went bad. They had only one well and one ice machine. The bar was circular and everyone was running into one another. The drinks were wrong, of course. The drinks were late, of course. It was a mess. Taffer and Wills shut it down and got to their training. First off, Wills went to see how clean the bar was, and you guessed it, it was disgusting. Bottles of liquor had fruit flies. The keg was leaking water. The ice was leaking Freon. It was totally unsafe and gross. After the crew cleaned the entire place, they got to work, but not before the male bartender threw a fake tantrum and quit. He came back, of course, and they got back to training. Wills made the drink menu much simpler, and this episode was clearly sponsored by Jack Daniels. Everything was a mix with Jack Daniels, and 2 of the bartenders, one of which has 11 kids, got to go to their distillery and check everything out. This happens from time to time on "Bar Rescue". Some big liquor company comes along and the show caters everything towards how great this particular alcohol/liquor is.

After the trip and the return, they got their big reveal, but not before Taffer and Corine had a heart to heart about her ownership style. Taffer said all his usual nonsense, and of course Corine promised to change. They changed the name to Regan's Bar. I think that was Corine's last name, and got set for re launch. The new inside of the bar looked fine, but not spectacular. During re launch everything seemed to be going over smoothly. The lone exception was one of the managers, Caryn, seemed unhappy with all the changes and she retreated to the back. After this little problem, Taffer left and everyone seemed happy. They did the 6 week check up and everything was going well and Caryn had been fired.

The past 2 episodes have been your average, run of the mill, episodes, and I love it. When "Bar Rescue" has trashy people acting trashy and Taffer stooping to their level, that is when it is at their best. Next week is a back to the bar episode, and I don't watch those, so come back in a couple of weeks for my review of their new episode, whenever that may be.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He used to flip his kids baby bottles behind his back like Tom Cruise in "Cocktail". No one was impressed.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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

Ty Watches "Tour de Pharmacy"

There are spoilers for the HBO film "Tour de Pharmacy". Go watch and come back to read Ty's review. It is currently showing on HBO Go, HBO Now, and periodically showing on one of HBO's family of channels at some time of the day.

This past weekend The Lonely Island and HBO released their second sports based faux documentary/comedy, "Tour de Pharmacy". I loved the first one, "7 Days in Hell", so I was excited for this second movie. When I say movie, I use that term loosely. This is basically a short. The "movie" runs about 35 minutes long. This is perfect for this subject material, and an excellent amount of time for what is basically a long form sketch.

Anyway, "Tour de Pharmacy" tells the "true" story of the 1982 Tour de France. This was the most drug riddled race in the history of bike races, according to the narrator, Jon Hamm. We all know now that, for the most part, the guys that do the Tour de France are dopers. It is widely accepted. "Tour de Pharmacy" takes this knowledge and makes it the entire basis of the movie.

Early in the program we find out that a rich German guy named Dittmer Klerken, played hilariously by Kevin Bacon, writes a letter to all 170 racers saying that they can do whatever drugs they want and they won't be tested, if they give him 50,000 dollars a piece. Klerken had built up incredible credit card debt due to a very absurd credit card ad in Sweden. The scene with the ad was probably my favorite part of the entire movie. It was so bizarre and odd and the talking heads comments on it were hilarious. If you watch this movie for one reason, make it to see the part with the ad. It was uproarious.

After the ad shows, they cut to the racers. They introduce us to 5 specific riders at the beginning. The first is Nigerian born racer, Marty Hass. He was played by Andy Samberg. Hass was born into a royal family that just happened to mine diamonds in Nigeria. They say that he went to an all American boys private school, and the people of Nigeria hate him. They hate that he is their country's representative. He is the epitome of a spoiled rich kid, and Samberg plays him hilariously. Another great part of this movie is they have the main characters as their older selves, and the actors that portray the older versions are perfect. Jeff Goldblum plays the older Hass. He is so god damn funny. He has some fake blonde hair hanging out of his hat and he wears African coats the whole time. Goldblum is just as funny as Samberg.

We also meet the first female, posing as a male, to ride in the tour. Freddie Highmore plays the young version of Adrian Baton. He was hilarious. His attempts to act like a female acting like a male was classic Lonely Island stuff. Julia Ormond played the older, and real, Baton, and she was equally as funny. She is a classically trained dramatic actress, but she pulls off the comedy to perfection. Her reveal at the end is wonderful.

Next up is Jackie Robinson's nephew, Slim Robinson, who is trying to get out of his uncle's shadow. He wants to be the first African American to break the color barrier, and at the time, cycling was the only sport that did not have many, if any, people of color. Daveed Diggs, of "Hamilton" and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" fame is terrific in this movie. He is so funny, but understated. Danny Glover as the older Slim was equally tremendous. His wig is absolutely bananas. I loved it.

John Cena plays Austrian cyclist, Gustav Ditters, and he may have been the best in the whole movie. They show a picture from him the year before and he is rail skinny, then they show the actual Cena, and he is ripped. His claims that he isn't doping are so funny. The fact that he is that shredded, but constantly denies doping, is awesome. When the big fight breaks out in the first stage, and Cena starts to beat the hell out of people, I was in tears. Dolph Lundgren plays the older Ditters, and the whole "cheetah" and "cheater" scene is comedic gold.

The final main cyclist, JuJu Peppi, played by Orlando Bloom, was classic cycling cheater. He had so many drugs in his body that he actually died during the race due to a heart attack. Unfortunately for Peppi, he died while going pee, so his member was out when he died. There is a ton of male frontal nudity in this movie by the way. I have to say, while I don't like Bloom as an actor, he was really good in this movie.

The reason there are only 5 riders left is due to the fight I mentioned earlier. After the fight broke out, many of the riders came forward and said they were paid to not tell anyone that they were doping, and Klerken was the one that paid them. The only riders to not pay him were the 5 main characters, or as Seth Morris' ESPN anchor dubs them, "The Fab Five", claiming no one else will live up to that nickname ever. This was when we get a mini interview with Chris Webber and underneath his name it days, "a member of the much more famous Fab Five". Again, I was cracking up.

Lots of funny and wacky stuff happens during the race. I mentioned Peppi's death. Ditters get caught with cheetah blood, thus setting off the whole cheetah and cheater scene. Hass and Baton start to fall in love. Slim leaves the race to go be a farmer in France, only to return in the end. James Marsden, who was incredible as the announcer for the BBC, is involved in the race, but it is later found out that he is using a bike with a car motor on it, and Baton throws herself onto him to help her new lover, Hass, win the race. Just tons of crazy, hilarious stuff.

The people that they got to be the talking heads in the movie were phenomenal as well. Maya Rudolph is the head of a cycling magazine. She is great. Nathan Fielder is the head of the anti doping committee and he brings his dry humor to this movie, and it is pitch perfect. Joe Buck is himself, and he is really good. Mike Tyson and Lance Armstrong, both people that have done truly awful things in their personal lives, were actually pretty good in this movie. Lance Armstrong was pretty funny. Mike Tyson was a riot. JJ Abrams was pretty tremendous in his small role, as himself too. He plays a heightened version of himself, and I found him to be pretty good.

The entire cast was phenomenal for this small movie. The star, at least in my opinion, was Cena. He was the funniest of all the funny people in this movie. I have found that I enjoy Cena as an actor. Diggs was also really good too. Watching him try to get out of Jackie Robinson's shadow was just great. Jeff Goldblum was also really funny as well.

What I am trying to say is that "Tour de Pharmacy" was incredibly funny and I highly recommend everyone watch it. The Lonely Island seem to have found another niche that fits them, and I hope they continue to do little movies like this. "7 Days in Hell" was great, "Tour de Pharmacy" was better. I can't wait to see what they do next. Until then, go watch "Tour de Pharmacy" if you want a good laugh.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He recently competed his first mini triathalon and has his sights set on the 2018 Tour de France. Anybody know where he can score some cheetah blood?.

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

Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Casual Tap Edition

Just because it's the Fourth of July, that doesn't mean Ty is taking the day off. Enjoy. 

This past Sunday we got the glorious return of "Bar Rescue". That's right, Jon Taffer and crew are back to save some failing bars. I hadn't realized how much I missed this show until I watched it on my DVR yesterday. I was so happy to see that crazy looking, mean yet helpful old man, Taffer. He is a national treasure. I needed to hear that shrill yell again. I missed it so much.

On the season premiere or mid season premiere, or whatever this show and Spike TV decide it is, Taffer and one of his drink experts visited a bar that shut down 3 months ago in Chicago. The bar was, and still is, called Casual Tap. The guy who owned the bar doubled as a firefighter, so it was hard for him to be at both jobs. His firefighting job, as it should be, was priority number one. His wife also has a disease called Huntington's Disease, which is kind of like Alzheimer's. So, his bar was pretty much number 3 on his important things list.

The bar started off strong, as most do, so the owner decided to step away and let his employees run the place. This is always a disaster. Everything went down hill. The people didn't know what to do, or they just didn't care. When the owner realized that he was nearly 700,000 dollars in debt, he decided to close the place down for awhile. He didn't give up, promising to reopen the bar soon, but he was close to letting it go. In fact, when Taffer shows up, he has to meet him at the firehouse. As I said, the bar was shut down. The owner told Taffer about the employees, the firefighter job and his wife. Just then, this became not only a bar rescue, but a family rescue too.

This is Taffer's personal wheelhouse. So, instead of a stress test, Taffer decided to see the crew in action in a very small sample. He had the owner reopen the bar and invited some guests. The bartenders, minus one guy, were not that terrible, they were just out of practice. The guy though, Louie, struggled mightily. This was bad news for the owner because he wanted Louie to be the new manager. Taffer warned against this, and even told the owner to let the newer bartender, Zee, be the manager. Taffer even went so far as to have the 2 take a mangers test that he set up, and Zee crushed it, where Louie, he crapped the bed. They had some intense training after this, and the owner still hadn't decided who was going to be the manager.

Taffer and his crew did their magic and gussied up the bar. They kept a lot, including the name, the bar was a mainstay, but they gave them some POS systems and other, newer things. They also tidied up the floor and walls too. At the reveal, everyone loved the place. They like that it looked the same, only a bit newer. They loved the new menu, and in classic Taffer fashion, he named a drink after the fireman and decided that some of the proceeds would go to Huntington Disease research. He also cut a check himself. Taffer may come off as an asshole, and then he does stuff like this. The owner was moved to tears, as was his daughter.

After they all gathered their emotions, they got ready for the reopen. During this though, Louie cut his hand getting garnish ready. He cut it so deep that he couldn't work. It looked dire for Casual Tap, but the rest of the crew stepped up, and Louie was not really needed. They had a great reopen.

During the end credits it said that the bar was taking a hiatus before reopening later in 2017. They didn't specify, but I hope the owner's wife and daughter are okay. I want this bar to succeed. The people deserve it.

I'm very happy that "Bar Rescue" is back. I missed it so, but now it's going to be here for the next couple months or so. They are taking one week off, but they'll get back on July 16th, and I'll be here to review it. Welcome back BR, you were missed, and I'm so pleased that you are back in my life.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He wants to one day open a bar called "Need Rescuing". Maybe the name will be enough for Ty to meet his idol Jon Taffer.

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Ty Watches "Playing House"

This past Friday "Playing House" returned to our television sets. I was so thrilled to see this show again after the long layoff. I was confused why it took so long for season three to come back on, but after hearing about Jessica St. Clair's battle with breast cancer, it all made sense. I have heard that the cancer is going to be a storyline, and I bet that they will tackle this tough subject matter in a very proper, yet very funny way. Both Parham and St. Clair are comedic geniuses. they are skillful actors, great improvisersand exceptional writers. I know they will create something magical when they get to the cancer story arc of this season.

With that being said, the first 2 episodes of season three did not touch on that subject, yet I still loved them as much as I loved all the episodes from the first 2 seasons. The first episode started with both Parham and St. Clair at a mommy self defense class. This whole bit was a riot. Parham was one of the stars of the class, and she used St. Clair as her partner, whom she deployed her newfound strength on. It was all played for great laughs. The instructor of the class was hilarious too. She was a total badass that, upon hearing Maggie(Parham) and Emma's(St. Clair) story of how they came together, she pauses for a moment and points at them aggressively and tells the whole class, "this is what true friendship looks like. I want you all to admire this". She then goes back to kicking ass.

It is later found in the episode that Maggie's ex husband, Bruce(Brad Morris), has a new girlfriend, and it is the self defense instructor. Maggie is thrown off by this, not because she still has feelings for Bruce, but because she is the only one on her core group without a signifigant other. Emma and Mark(Keegan-Michael Key) are officially a couple as well, after the season 2 cliff hanger. The story of the 2 of them trying to be intimate with each other,  but they both have concerns over their aged bodies, the motto of the episode seemed to be, "this is 40", was very funny. They do eventually get intimate, and they both love it.

Later on, Maggie has a big freak out at a party she has at her house for Bruce, his new girlfriend and Emma and Mark. They are playing a game where they guess movies with vague clues and she gets "Home Alone", and the party guests are all saying that she is alone, that no one except an old man likes her, that she has been forgotten, everything from the movie, and she blows up.

After Maggie's moment, her and Emma have a great moment in the kitchen, and things seem to be smoothed over. I love this about the show. Their moment doesn't seem hacky or tacked on for sympathy sake. Parham and St. Clair are lifelong friends, so their conversations, even in their characters, seems so real.

There was a second episode immediately after the first, and this one finds Emma and Tina, AKA "Bird Bones"(Lindsay Sloane), Mark's ex wife, trying to smooth things over after all that has happened. Tina says she is okay, but she looks like she is on razors edge. She isn't so much mad at Emma as she is overwhelmed with her new career. She has unfortunately gotten involved with a pyramid scheme, even though she keeps saying that she is a business woman. This leads Emma, after profusely apologizing for being with Mark, to try and help. She was a big time business woman herself before she moved back to help with Charlotte, Maggie's baby. She thinks she can take down the head of this pyramid scheme. This only leads to her being too cocky and deciding that she is going to prove to this lady that she can sell all the product. I know, it sounds like your typical sitcom nonsense, but again, all the people involved, mainly Parham and St. Clair are so sharp witted and funny, they make this seemingly typical story line absolutely hilarious. When Emma applies lip balm to Maggie, and it makes her swell up because she is allergic to bees, it was gold. Tina's constant flip flopping of emotions was great and funny. Emma's hubris, then realizing she had screwed up, it was all very well done.

Maggie's other story arc of the episode involved her and another nurse working with a new doctor, possibly Maggie's love interest for the season, who was very cold and no nonsense. The scenes with all three of them, Maggie, the male nurse and the doctor, are comedy gold. The scenes with just Maggie and the male nurse might have been even better. It was all great.

I'm beyond thrilled that "Playing House" is back. I've been a fan of this show from day one, and I've been a fan of Parham and St, Clair since I have been listening to podcasts. I highly recommend this show for everyone. It hits all the comedy marks that one could want out of a 30 minute sitcom, and they hit them so much better than any piece of garbage on CBS. I love this show so much and I cannot wait to watch it again on Friday. "Playing House" is a must watch TV show.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He one time went to a daddy self defense class. After hearing the rules, Ty figured out he was at a fight club.

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Ty Watches "Carnival Eats"

Amidst all the TV shows I watch because I genuinely have interest in them, i.e., "Legion", "Fargo", "The Simpsons", so on and so forth, I need shows like "Bar Rescue" and "Barefoot Contessa" that are just kind of on in the background, serving almost as white noise. Well, I have found another show that fits this bill perfectly, and it has become my show of choice on Thursday afternoon, if I am inside at the particular time the Food Channel is running a marathon.

Said show is called "Carnival Eats", and it is my new obsession. First off, I love the host. His name is Noah Cappe, and he is a wonder to watch. The guy has a ton of energy, but is very good at doing people on the street type interviews. He's incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to certain foods. And the people he talks to that make the food seem to enjoy his company.

The food that Cappe gets to eat as well, man does it make me jealous. Obviously, due to the name of the show, Cappe goes to random cities that have big carnivals, and he tries what some consider to be the best spots. His job makes me so jealous. I would do awful things to get a job like his. What is even more confounding, and makes me want to watch this show even more, the dude is in relatively good shape, considering all the crap he eats.

Anyway, I cannot get enough of "Carnival Eats". Cappe has eaten so much fried food that I would love to try just once. I've seen him eat so many variations of a corn dog, and they all looked tremendous. One of them was a breakfast type corndog, with the batter being pancake batter, but the chef used a polish dog, and the outside of the corn dog was drizzled with peanut butter and chocolate sauce, and to top it off, they put a light dusting of powdered sugar on top. My mouth is watering as I type this. He's had many varieties of funnel cakes, including a red velvet funnel cake. I love red velvet cake, so I imagine a funnel cake version is just as good, if not better. He's had fried Twinkies, fried doughnuts, even fried s'mores.

The craziest fried food I've seen him eat was fried watermelon. I was put off at first, but after he ate it, then described it, I want to try some fried watermelon right now. The person that made it used a pancake batter, of course, froze the watermelon over night, and after they fried it, he drizzled a watermelon syrup on top. The chef also added powdered sugar because, why not. Cappe said it tasted like a watermelon Jolly Rancher. That is my absolute favorite flavor. I need to go out and find some fried watermelon now.

It is not just fried food at these carnivals. He has had cheesecake quesadillas before. You read that correctly. He had a strawberry cheesecake quesadilla, covered in a cherry sauce. It looked incredible. He has eaten popcorn balls that have sparklers in them. Again, it looked awesome. He has had many different ice creams and a wide variety of slushies.

All the sweet food looks so great, but the savory stuff looks just as good. Cappe has eaten a ton of BBQ on the show. On a recent episode, he had a slow cooked pulled brisket bowl that included mac and cheese, cornbread, homemade baked beans and a homemade BBQ sauce. It looked dynamite. He's had so many different tacos, it is hard to single out any single one. They all look fantastic. He has had a million different types of mac and cheese. Whenever my son watches with me, he sits up when he sees mac and cheese because that is his favorite food. He has had some crazy pizza, including a gyro pizza. The gyro pizza looked so good, I wanted to crawl through my screen so I could try it.

Then there are the burgers. My god, these burgers look glorious. He has had all types of hamburgers. Burgers with doughnuts as the bun. Regular burgers heightened by the chefs secret recipe. Fried burgers. You name it, he has had it in burger form.

I absolutely love "Carnival Eats". Anytime it is on, I stop what I'm doing and watch. It's great for my kids too because they love food shows, but there is also the carnival angle, and they enjoy that as well. I always say to my wife, "I wonder if he is going to throw up this episode because he has been on the tea cup ride like 10 times". "Carnival Eats" is a homerun in every possible way. I think Cappe is wonderful. The food looks great. The people on the show seem to be having a ton of fun. Hell, even the rides look like they would be a good time. But, what makes it great is, I can put it on and just go about my day. I don't have to have laser focus like I do with other shows. It is just white noise, but it is the best kind of white noise.

Check out "Carnival Eats" if you don't already watch it. I think you'd enjoy it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He used to work for a carnival, and has eaten his fair share of funnel cake batter and cotton candy sugar. He just has not had any of these fine foods in a higher form, yet. 

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Ty Watches Gorburger

Recently I have become more and more engrossed by the show "Gorburger"  on Comedy Central. I knew of the character of Gorburger prior to the show, but the show was my gateway. TJ Miller, of whom I'm a very big fan, had this blood thirsty, alien monster that hosted a talk show on Tokyo television. I saw some of the old clips online, but when the show was announced, I was very much on board. I like the idea very much, and I love when younger comedians spoof old time television.

So naturally, I tuned in to the series premiere 4 weeks ago. I did not know what to expect, but what I saw for 22 minutes kept me onboard. The show starts out as a game show in Tokyo, but then Gorburger gets blasted down to the set, quenches his blood thirst by devouring almost everyone on stage, then walks up to the 2 hosts and tells them that this is his show now, and he says that he will keep the very few people that you see standing on stage. One of those people is the announcer, and the other is the pop duo, Tokyo Fever, who whenever you say their name, they have to repeat in Japanese, "We are Tokyo Fever!". It is so bizarre, but I laugh every time.

The pilot episode features Reggie Watts, another guy that I am a big, big fan of. The whole plot is based on vaping. Gorburger even has a buddy of his, some guy that is famous on YouTube for the things he can do with vapor smoke, named Trevbone, that just sits there, vapes and does weird shit with the vapor smoke. It was distractingly weird, but it was also fun to see Reggie Watts looked just as confused as everyone else seemed to be. Reggie Watts was a good sport though, and he went along with all the weird stuff that Gorburger wanted him to do, including some absurd games. There was also a pre taped segment where Gorburger visited a real doll factory. It was disgusting, but also very funny, because TJ Miller, dressed as Gorburger, was given a full tour and got the whole spiel from the owner. It was wild. The episode ended with Reggie Watts and Thundercat doing an improvised song together, which was dope as hell. But, to keep it crazy, poor Trevbone was delivered a fatal blow to the head with a brick.

Like I said, the show does not make a whole lot of sense, but I found myself thinking about the pilot a few days after watching it. The more I thought about it, the more it was like a full sitcom version of an Adult Swim show. "Gorburger" was like watching a 22 minute long episode of "The Eric Andre Show" or "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", or even "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast". I love all those shows, so a 22 minute version of one was a great surprise.

Since the pilot, I have obviously watched the next 3 episodes. The second episode had Dr. Drew as the guest, again, being a very good sport, and the central plot was Gorburger's obsession with smooth jazz. The entire episode had Kenny G, who was literally wearing cement shoes, playing music anytime Gorburger wanted, because if he didn't, he would be hit with a brick, a la Trevbone. During the show, Gorburger visited a "twerking" class. That segment was nuts, but also very funny. "Twerking" is such a thing of the past, but to see this enormous alien try to "twerk", and the teachers really trying to teach him was a thing of comic beauty. Before the episode ended, Dr. Drew helped cure Gorburger's bloodlust, and played another absurd game. But, poor Kenny G had to keep playing jazz, Gorburger couldn't stop, and he met the same fate as Trevbone at the end of this episode.

Episode three had one of my favorite comedians, Tig Notaro, as the guest. Throughout the entire episode, little "gorbabies" keep showing up because it was shedding season for Gorburger, and they have been known to only give bad advice. During the interview segment, Notaro played a hilarious game called "Christian Bale or Christian Male", where she had to guess a quote Gorburger gave her as to if Bale, or a Christian male said it. It was laugh out loud hilarious. Later, Gorburger visited a wild life zoo, and again, it was bizarrely hilarious. The fact that these people want to be on TV so bad that they will let a guy dressed as an enormous blue alien monster come to their place just to get exposure. The interviews are always weird, but that is the point. The end of this episode was like the first 2, with Notaro playing another game, but it coming to a terrible demise for her and another gentlemen, when she took a Gorbaby's advice to smash herself through a brick wall. I'm sure this will be a running theme for the rest of the season.

The most recent episode featured Zach Woods and Johnny Pemberton, two of my favorite improv comedians/actors. They were game for all the weirdness that was "Gorburger". This has been, by far, the best episode to date. It was Grizzlebub's Day, which is like Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa for wherever in the hell Gorburger is from. They sang carols and played games and did other nonsense for the whole 22 minutes. The interview was very funny, playing another name game that immediately went off the rails. There was another death because Gorburger thought that Grizzlebub was coming due to a loud clanking sound, and the only way to appease him is a human sacrifice. It was disturbing, but dammit, I was laughing. The show ended with a performance from Portugal the Man, and the song was pretty good. We also come to find out that the clanking noise was the air conditioning guy fixing the AC unit, so the sacrifice wasn't needed.

I know this all sounds very bizarre, but for fans of absurdist humor, "Gorburger" is a homerun. I'm pretty sure season one is only 6 episodes, and they're already 4 in. I hope the people at Comedy Central keep this show going because I will watch the hell out of it, if it comes back for a second season. "Gorburger" is great. Weird, but great.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. One time he hot a guy in the face with a brick just for playing jazz. Ty does not fool around when jazz is being played. 

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Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Desi Romano's Edition

This past Sunday "Bar Rescue" got back to its usual form. The episode the week before, with Big Mike's Sports Bar and Grill, was moving and very different from anything I have come to expect. While that was a very nice change of pace, I was happy to see it get back to its roots.

Taffer and crew traveled to New Orleans once again, but the bar was not in trouble due to a massive flood of epic proportions. This bar was failing because of the ownership and staff. You know, typical "Bar Rescue" type stuff. The bar is called Desi Romano's, and I will say right at the top, Taffer could not and did not change the name. It was named after the owner, and to Taffer's credit, when the bar has a historical or meaningful name, he does not change it.

This bar was like most other bars on the show. At first, they were making tons and tons of cash. They were making so much money, they couldn't count it fast enough. Then, the bad stuff happened. In this bar's case, the owner Desi had a stroke. This was very unfortunate and it happened at the worst possible time. Desi was ready to hand the bar over to his daughter, but she needed lots and lots of training. She is very young and inexperienced, but he wanted to keep the bar in the family, which is very understandable. So, Desi has the stroke, and he misses 3 plus months of work. He had to get his life back together. During that 3 month period, the bar took an enormous tumble. The staff started to take major advantage of Laura, Desi's daughter. She could not run the bar properly yet, and the staff knew it. A bunch of the bartenders and the head chef started to run their own bar tabs. The bar also was becoming neglected. The staff didn't clean as much and they did not restock liquor and food kind of took a back seat. When Desi was healthy enough, he came back, but he more so came to his bar to drink and berate his daughter, along with the entire staff.

When Taffer and crew showed up to the bar to watch from their van on the monitors to see how poorly the bar was being run, the main thing that stuck out to them, and me for that matter, was that Desi just got more and more hammered as the night wore on. Taffer sent in his spies, who were former bar owners that had their bar rescued and were now thriving, and what they saw from the inside was even worse. The bartenders couldn't make a simple drink, and a New Orleans staple, the Hurricane. The bartender told them she had no idea how to make one, and instead offered to make him a margarita. When they tasted the margarita, both spies said it was terrible. The other spy ordered a rum and coke, seems simple enough, and he said that it was watered down and gross. When they ordered food, they ordered what the menu said was "Award Winning Mac and Cheese". Well, this did not look like halfway decent, and definitely not award winning, mac and cheese. It looked awful and that was confirmed by both the spies.

All the while this stuff was going on, Desi was having beer after beer and shot after shot. When Taffer finally decided to enter the bar it took him over 3 tries to get Desi's attention. When Desi finally acknowledged Taffer was there, he called him Tom. His first name is Jon. All of us know this. But, Desi was so wasted he couldn't even say his first name. While Taffer was berating him, Desi would go back and forth between yelling and asking for help. He couldn't figure out what he wanted because he was so inebriated. It was a mess. It started out funny, but soon became sad. Desi clearly has an alcohol problem and his daughter was very worried about him. After Taffer had enough, he walked out to Desi yelling at him to not leave, then giving him the finger.

Taffer, of course, came back the next day, and Desi showed up sober. He even stated that he did not remember what happened the night before and that he was very embarrassed. It is always nice to see an owner own up to his or her bullshit on this show. Taffer and crew immediately got to training after Taffer let Desi and his daughter know how much money their staff had run up on their bar tabs. The first few were average, right around 50 or 60 dollars, but then they got to the head chef. Her bar tab was 2,000 dollars. That is a whole lot of alcohol that she had not paid for in three months.

After this was all resolved the real training started. The staff was not prepared for the simplest of tasks and you could see it weighing on Taffer's experts. Stress test came and it was a nightmare. They had no system in place that was any good, and Desi and his daughter could not run the bar. No one was getting drinks and food was getting cold in the window. It was a typical stress test nightmare. After seeing how far behind they were, Taffer's experts decided it would be best to make the menu as simple as possible. During this training session, Taffer and his construction crew got to fixing the bar up.

With the new, easier menu and the bar being all gussied up, Taffer was ready for Desi and his crew to see their new bar. The name was the same, but the inside was totally different. There were new POS systems, new décor, new bar tops and stools, new pool tables, charging docks at the bar. Basically, the inside looked brand new, and everyone loved it. It was one of Taffer's better efforts I must say.

During re launch, everything ran smooth and Desi Romano's looked to be getting back to its money making ways. The staff was better, the kitchen staff was firing on all cylinders and Desi and his daughter were doing everything right. Taffer left feeling he had done all he could. During the 6 week check up, the bar sales were up 12 percent and the staff no longer had open bar tabs. Desi Romano's looked to be slowly, but surely getting back on its feet.

This was another run of the mill "Bar Rescue" , and I loved it. This Sunday they are doing another back to the bar thing, so I won't review that, but in 2 weeks there will be a new episode and I will be back to review that one. Come back then for your next "Bar Rescue" update.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He was relieved when he found out the bar was not serving Mac's Famous Mac and Cheese. Poor dog.

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Ty Watches "Love" Season 2

ed note: Ty Watched season 1. Read about it here.

Recently I finished season 2 of "Love" on Netflix, and I really enjoyed myself while watching it. I really liked that it picked right up where season one ended. I will do little to no spoilers today, so anyone who hasn't seen it yet should be fine reading this.

Where we left Gus(Paul Rust) and Mickey(Gillian Jacobs) were outside a gas station where Gus was buying snacks. Mickey lays it all out for him and tells him all of her secrets. She says that she wants to take a year off from dating and get her life together. Gus proceeds to kiss her, and that is where season 2 starts.

I really like this show. A lot of people will say "Master of None" is the better romantic comedy show on Netflix, and while I really like it, I think "Love" is much better. "Love" doesn't take itself as serious as "Master of None" seems to. I also prefer the leads in "Love" to the leads in "Master of None". I love Aziz Ansari's stand up, and his phenomenal role in "Parks and Rec", but for a sitcom type show lead, I, for some reason, prefer Paul Rust. He is way goofier and way less self serious. As far as the female leads, I will take Gillian Jacobs any day over Noel Wells. She's a much better actress and way, way funnier than Wells. She is just more fun to watch act. People are trying to compare these shows, I chose not to. These are 2 different style shows. "Love" is much more of a straight forward comedy and "Master of None" borders on the dramedy line. I like both shows a lot, but, as previously stated, I prefer my comedy as goofy and straight up, therefore I prefer "Love". That is where the comparison stops for me.

Anyway, season 2 of "Love" follows a couple of months between Gus and Mickey. Mickey doesn't want to date anyone, but her addiction to love gives in. Not only is she an alcoholic and drug addict, but she is also a sex and love addict. She really, truly seems to very much like Gus. Gus is different from any guy that she has dated before. Gus is polite. Gus is nice and complimentary to her. Gus tries hard because he feels that he doesn't deserve someone like her. Gus, at least on the surface, seems to be a great guy. But, he is a little overbearing. He can be complimentary, but also condescending. He waits until the last minute to explode on Mickey when he is upset with her. Mickey, to her credit is trying to get her life together. As I said, she is involved in all the addiction programs. She actually takes her job seriously this time around. She wants to better herself. She doesn't want to give in to Gus, but she likes him so much that she gives it a try. But, she too has her flaws. She flakes out a lot on friends and family. She rants and raves about Gus a lot. She feels that she can give relationship advice, even though she clearly doesn't know what she is doing in that aspect of her life. That is what I like about the 2 main characters, they have flaws. Neither is right or wrong with their decisions. There is some great back and forth this whole season between Gus and Mickey. The creators and writers, including Paul Rust and his wife Lesley Arfin, really did an excellent job portraying relationships in your early thirties during this season.

While Rust and Jacobs are the clear stars of the show, the supporting actors were used excellently, and frequently, this season. Claudia O'Dougherty, who plays Mickey's roommate, was great this season. She is funny, quirky and plays her role as fish out of water so great. She is the best supporting actor in the whole show by far. Mike Mitchell, of "Doughboys" and "Birthday Boys" fame, was used a lot more this season, and he had a creepy and weird story arc, but it was perfect for him. Judd Apatow's daughter Maude, who plays the actress that Gus teaches, had a much bigger role and she can really act. The people who work on the show "Wichita", the show where Gus works, weren't used as much, but when they were, they were really funny. Brett Gelman is awesome in his few and far between scenes that he gets this season. Bobby Lee is really funny in his minimal role. Gus' friends, the guys and girls that make up theme songs for movies that don't have theme songs, where really good as well. Everyone in the show is great.

I cannot say enough nice things about "Love". I think it is the best Netflix show, and I am way into a lot of Netflix shows. Paul Rust has found a perfect place for him to shine as a writer and actor. Lesley Arfin is a tremendous comedy writer. Gillian Jacobs crushes her role on the show. All the supporting actors I mentioned are fantastic. Watch this show. I know you will love it as much as I do. I saw that they are filming a season 3 and I cannot wait until it comes back on. "Love" is great, and it is one of the best comedies on any type of television right now. Check it out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. If Ty watches a bunch of Netflix shows, where is his review for Voltron: Legendary Defender? That show rules. 

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Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Big Mike's Sports Bar and Grill

This week's episode of "Bar Rescue" was so much different from anything I have ever seen on the show before. They have done rescues of bars that have been damaged before, they did one in the Northeast after they had their big storm, but this one was just different. This was the first ever episode I have seen where I was legitimately moved by what happened over the course of 44 minutes. I literally thought I was going to shed a tear or two, and I do not cry at anything, except Pixar movies.

For this rescue, Taffer and crew go to a bar in a small town in Louisiana called Big Mike's Sports Bar and Grill. This town just three months ago was absolutely destroyed by a horrific storm. During the cold open they were flashing stats of the storm, and some of the things I remember where, there was 2.3 billion dollars worth of damage, they said there was more rain and flooding than Hurricane Katrina and that 90 percent of the businesses in the town had still not re opened and may never open again. Right off the bat the music was sad and the announcer's voice reflected that sadness.

When we finally get to meet Big Mike, who seems to be one hell of a nice guy, he tells of the terrifying tale of what has happened to him and his family since the storm. Big Mike, and his wife Jocelyn, are being interviewed and they show pictures of the damage to their house first. It is absolutely wrecked. They needed to have, pretty much, their entire home fixed due to flood damage. They show pictures of their children sitting on cars that are in 4 feet of flood water. It was so goddamn sad. Big Mike has a water damage stain on one of his walls and shows the viewing audience that the water got as high as 64 inches in their home. That is almost 5 and a half feet. That is so scary.

Taffer comes by himself to talk to Mike and Jocelyn about the bar and their home and their lives afterward. When he shows up they tell him that before the storm, Big Mike's was the place to be in this town. During LSU games on Saturday and Saints games on Sunday the bar was packed to the rafters. People would come in after sporting events, have kids parties there, basically anything that a restaurant and bar could handle, Big Mike's handled and then some. They were making almost 2 million dollars a year, and they deserved every cent of that. Jocelyn and Mike where hard working, nice people that their employees and their neighbors and the town loved. Hearing all this almost brought Taffer to tears. That was crazy. When they showed him where they were living while their home and bar was under construction, I got even sadder. They were living in a mobile home and their daughters were living in a different mobile home. They were separated because they did not have the space to live together. The kids were older, teenagers I believe, but still, that would be very hard. I cannot imagine not living with my kids.

At this point I found out that Jon Taffer is a dad. I never knew that. He told them that he has a 28 year old daughter. I was floored. But he sympathized with them not being with their kids. This was the point where Taffer promised them that he would fix up the bar in a week, they were told it would take up to 6 months to get the bar up and running.

Taffer brought Jocelyn and Mike out of the bar after he had them show him around and at this point we see the entire town there ready to help anyway they can. Again, I almost shed a tear. There was so much crying I could not help myself. Taffer brings in his best construction crew to get to work, and while they are getting the bar ready, he has 2 experts, one of which was McCargo, get the staff ready at a different bar that was back up and running. This staff had not worked in a bar or restaurant for about 3 months, so they were rusty. But, following the theme of this very off the cuff episode, the experts and Taffer never demeaned the staff, instead they encouraged them the entire time. Sure, he told them they needed to speed up and shake off the rust, but he never called one person a failure or told them that they were letting their loved ones down. The training was all very civil and respectful. McCargo helped out the kitchen staff with a big smile. The mixology expert was always complimentary, even in his criticism. It was a very nice change of pace.

There was one point during the training and construction where it looked like Taffer's construction crew may not get all the work done. This was a 10,000 square foot bar and restaurant. This place was big and needed a ton of work.

At another point, Deuce McCallister, formerly of the New Orleans Saints, showed up to lend his support and help any way he could. This whole town was coming together to get this well known and loved establishment back up and running.

After working throughout the day and night the construction crew got the job done. I would usually have a snarky comment about this, but this was such a touching episode, I'm not going to say anything mean. When the staff and Jocelyn and Mike see what the bar looks like, they cannot stop crying tears upon tears of joy. The place looked spectacular. This was the best rescue they have ever done in my opinion.

They kept the name too, thank goodness. While looking around at everything, the television crew kept showing old pictures with all the flood damage next to the new look of the bar. It was amazing. When Taffer sat the staff down, he showed them a video of the bar owners that he helped get back on their feet in the Northeast, and they donated 10,000 dollars to Jocelyn and Mike to get another trailer for their daughters to live in while they house got fixed up. Again, I was just about to cry until I realized that I was watching "Bar Rescue".

During the re-opening, everything, thankfully, went so smooth and the staff crushed it. I was so, so happy that these people were getting back on their feet. Taffer left the enormous bar to a great ovation. It was well deserved.

When they did the 6 week checkup, Big Mike's was doing great. They were recording record sales and their house was nearing completion for the family to move back in. This was, I kid you not, the best episode I have ever seen of "Bar Rescue". It was so different from the norm, but it was incredibly touching and moving and I was taken aback at how sweet these people on the show can be. I loved this episode so much. I actually wish more were like this, but "Bar Rescue" has made its dime on trashy people. But, this was such a great change of pace and I applaud them for doing something like this.

An episode like this of "Bar Rescue" makes me like this show so much more than I thought ever possible. Thank you for this "Bar Rescue" and Spike TV. You guys did a tremendous job on this episode.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. If Taffer and the crew ever make us shed a tear for a run down super trashy strip club, they deserve a goddamn Nobel Prize. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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

Ty Gets Ready to Watch the Final Four

The 2017 Final Four is set. We have UNC and Gonzaga, the 1 seeds, Oregon, the 3 seed that hasn't been this far since 1939, and the Cinderella 7 seed, South Carolina. I don't think a lot of people predicted this. In fact, on my Tournament Challenge app, a stat popped up that said only 657 out of 17 million plus entries correctly predicted the Final Four. That comes out to 0.003 percent of entrants that got it right. That is crazy.

With all this being said, I do like the matchups and the teams. But, before I jump into my predictions I want to touch on the last 4 days of the tournament. All the crazy things that led to these teams being the teams left standing.

The tournament picked back up last Thursday. As you all know by now, Oregon beat Michigan in a great game. Gonzaga and West Virginia played one of the sloppiest, foul ridden, terribly run offensive games that I have witnessed. There were 50 plus fouls called, a combined 61 free throws shot and missed after missed opportunity by both teams. In the end Gonzaga won late when WVU ran the worst 3 offensive plays to close out a game ever. Later that evening, KU demolished Purdue. Purdue kept it close for a half, then KU bulldozed them. Frank Mason, Devonte Graham and Josh Jackson looked unbeatable. The last game of the evening was incredible, and in a pretty big upset, Xavier beat Arizona in the final minute. Arizona showed its youth and Sean Miller reared his ugly head, and Xavier just kept plugging away until it took the lead for good with 40 seconds left. Xavier played with so much more heart and they deserved that win.

The next night had some marquee matchups, and only one of the games really lived up to the hype. Earlier in the evening, South Carolina laid waste to Baylor. Baylor looked like Baylor and South Carolina took advantage. Is Scott Drew a good coach? Maybe, but this team always chokes in March. The UNC-Butler game had potential to be close, especially with how UNC played against Arkansas, but UNC came out scorching hot, and rode a great first half to an easy 12 point win. The game that was supposed to be the game of the night, UCLA-Kentucky, was good, but not great. Kentucky played incredible defense. De'Aaron Fox was ridiculously great. Malik Monk did his thing. I was shocked at how nonchalant, and seemingly uninterested both UCLA and Lonzo Ball looked in this game. TJ Leaf also played really bad. These are 2 projected first round picks, with Ball being considered number 1 or 2 overall. He showed little to no effort, and Fox absolutely crushed him all night long. To no one's surprise, Ball immediately declared for the draft, but man oh man did he look really terrible. And TJ Leaf, he was a complete no show. He couldn't keep up with Kentucky's big men and they destroyed him all night long. The game was good for awhile, but with about 11 minutes left in the second half, there was no doubt that Kentucky was moving on. The game of the night was Wisconsin-Florida. Florida seemed to have the game put away, but Wisconsin came up with big plays and an incredible shot at the end of the game to tie it up and push it to overtime. But, after making that shot, the Wisconsin kid showboated, and I said to my television, with no one else in the room, you will regret that. Well, with under 10 seconds left, one of Florida's guards went the length of the floor with his team down 2, and took almost the exact same shot as the Wisconsin kid, but this time, it was a game winner. The Florida kid hit all net. That game was truly great, especially the last 5 minutes of regulation and all of overtime.

Then we had 8. 

On Saturday we had KU-Oregon and Gonzaga-Xavier. Gonzaga-Xavier was a blowout from the tap. They crushed them the whole time. Gonzaga actually looked like the team that only got beat once all year. People may say that they got to play an 11 seed, but Xavier blew away FSU, a 3 seed, and beat Arizona, a 2 seed, and Gonzaga absolutely destroyed them. They won by 24 points, and it wasn't that close. I thought this would happen. What happened in the KU-Oregon game though, I did not expect. With the way KU hammered Purdue, and how Oregon had to come back against Michigan, I just naturally assumed that KU would continue their destruction. Well, Frank Mason did his thing, but no one else showed up for KU. Graham was an 0 fer from the filed. Josh Jackson was very mediocre. The Myhkulik kid was non existent. Bill Self was out coached. They just played terribly, and Oregon played great, especially their big men. They had one forward that had 11 points, 12 rebounds and 8 blocks. That is a phenomenal stat line. He single handily shut down everyone but Frank Mason. Oregon looked very, very good in this game.

So Saturday's games were both blowouts and gave us half of the Final Four. Sunday's games were much better. We started off with South Carolina-Florida. Florida looked like the better team in the first half, holding a 7 point lead, but South Carolina came out firing away and hitting shots in the second half. Sindarius Thornwell is a tremendous college basketball player. He is awesome and he kept this run going for South Carolina. They had a 4 point lead for pretty much the last 4 minutes, and they pulled away at the very end and won by 7 points. I'm still in shock that South Carolina, a team that has never been to the Final Four, is there. It's crazy. Congrats to them. To finish out the weekend, we had a great, great game between Kentucky and UNC. UNC looked like they had control in the first half, putting Kentucky's young stars in early foul trouble. But, Kentucky fought its way back, took a five point lead with about 3 and a half minutes left, but then UNC went on a 10-0 run to take a 5 point lead themselves. Then things that crazy. UNC pushed the lead to 7, but then Kentucky started to finally hit threes and with about 14 seconds left Malik Monk hit an incredible three to tie the game. The shot was awesome. But, instead of taking a timeout, UNC pushed the ball up the court and passed to this bench guy who hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds left. Kentucky never got another shot off. This was a great way to end the weekend. This game was flat out awesome. It had everything you could want out of an NCAA tournament game.

Now we have the four. Next Saturday Gonzaga will face South Carolina and UNC will face Oregon. South Carolina is on a magical run, but Gonzaga finally looked like the team we have all been waiting to see. I think this game will be very competitive, but I see Gonzaga ending South Carolina's magical run. I remember about 10 or 11 years back when George Mason was an 11 seed and on a similar run all the way to the Final Four, and it all came crashing down in their matchup. That is what I see happening here. It will be highly contested, but I just think that Gonzaga is a better team, and they should win. Oregon-UNC will be a blowout. I know that a lot of people are saying that Oregon is the team that no one wants to play, but UNC is a much, much better team with much better depth and equal size and skill from their big men. I think UNC will demolish them. Great for Oregon that they beat KU, but UNC is, I just have a feeling, going to throttle them. They passed their toughest test and came out of the South region as the Final Four recipient. I just do not see how they don't hammer Oregon.

That will give us a Gonzaga-UNC title game, and I think UNC will make up for what happened last year and win the title. It may be taken away in a few years, what with all the allegations coming at UNC athletics, but I see them beating Gonzaga in a very good, not as good as last year, but still highly contested game. It will come down to the final couple of minutes, but I see UNC winning it in the end. I think Justin Jackson will win MOP because he is the guy that most people know of on UNC. He has also had a very solid tournament run.

This is how I saw the past weekend, and how I see the Final Four playing out. I'm excited for next Saturday. This has been an entertaining tournament thus far. Hopefully that continues this weekend.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Where is Ty's sense of loyalty? He picked Oregon at the beginning of the season. Why bail on the Ducks when they are closer than most people imagined. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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

Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": The Speakeasy Edition

We had a new episode of "Bar Rescue" this past Sunday. It was nice to see the show again after last week's check up episode. I prefer my "Bar Rescue" episodes to be new and not "clip shows", if you will.

This time around, Taffer and crew went to a bar called The Speakeasy in New Orleans. This was one of the most middle of the plate episodes that I have ever seen. It had everything you could ever want from an episode of "Bar Rescue". When we first meet the owners of The Speakeasy, it was your typical story. The bar was owned by a husband and wife, and they will making lots and lots of money. They had a nice spot in a town that is known for their alcohol and night life. They were making so much money in fact, the husband and wife decided that they wanted to have kids, so they sold their shares to the other owner and moved on from the bar business to start a family. They had 2 kids, each had solid office jobs, but they missed the bar life. They both liked to drink and party. The wife loved to dance, or as they kept saying in the episode, "twerk", side note, "twerking" is not a popular thing anymore, stop with the "twerking" stuff, it is played out. The husband loved drinking beer and taking shots. They each said that the corporate world was not for them, so they went back to the bar and bought back their shares.

When the couple returned to The Speakeasy, they noticed that the bar wasn't really doing as well, and it was not being properly taken care of. Did they do anything to fix this you ask? Well, if they did, it would not have been on "Bar Rescue". They, of course, neglected to fix the bar up and just let it get worse and worse. The owners cared more about dancing and drinking than they did about training their staff and keeping their bar clean and efficient. They started to lose tons of money, so much so, they were in debt 250,000 dollars. They were in danger of losing their house and their bar. The wife's mom was the other owner, but she did not need to be running a bar. This husband and wife should have been doing everything, but they had other stuff in mind.

Taffer brought a new mixology expert, she was involved in a previous rescue, and my favorite food expert, Aaron McCargo with him. When they got to the bar, all three of them watched from the van outside on the monitor. They saw what we all saw. The husband was drinking shot after shot and beer after beer and the wife was "twerking" and showing off her dance moves in between throwing darts. The staff was getting wasted with the owners and everyone was fighting with everyone. Taffer sent in his spies, one of which was McCargo, and when they got inside, it was much worse than expected. The bartenders could not make the simplest of drinks. The kitchen staff was non existent for about 20 minutes, and when the cook did show up, he did some disgusting things with old and unmarked food. He touched raw chicken with no gloves, and then proceeded to touch everything else around him.

When the food was coming out, it was at that point that Taffer came in and told his spies to not touch the food. He did his usual yelling. He told the staff and owners, after he got them all to stop yelling at each other and acting a fool, that they were in danger of getting many, many people sick. It was your run of the mill kitchen stuff, and it was a sigh of relief. Nothing like something very common to give me a sense of relief. Taffer and McCargo went to the kitchen, and what they saw was absolutely disgusting. This kitchen had clearly never been cleaned and the food was old, and most likely, rancid. Taffer dumped all the food on the prep table, all the while berating the whole staff. Taffer was yelling so much, the wife owner started to have a legit panic attack. It was bizarre.

Taffer ranted and raved, all of which was 100 percent correct and needed, and told the staff to clean the kitchen. They started, but they were all so drunk, they blew it off. This did not make Taffer and McCargo happy. They were pissed, as they should have been. Taffer had his crew clean the kitchen, but the next day, he laid into the owners and the staff. He really let them have it. It was more so a "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed", but coming from Taffer, it sounded brutal. He told the husband and wife that they were failing their kids and the wife's mom. The wife started to cry and Taffer called bull shit on the crying. I loved it. He told her it was a crutch and that when she cries, people lay off her. She told him that was true. He got to the root of her main problem. The husband was simply a drunk that needed to be relegated to the kitchen because that it was he knew. That's not a bad thing either. I know I was put on this planet to do grunt work and I'm fine with that. Each person has their thing, and this guy needed to be in the kitchen. And you know what, he was very good, when sober, cooking food.

Stress test went as expected. Their POS systems were garbage. The staff could not keep up with the orders. The kitchen was not getting their tickets because of the crappy POS systems. And one of the staff, Cassie was her name, was just terrible. She was put on as a waitress for the night, and she was rude and mean and never smiled. She was a nightmare, and she got rightfully fired after stress test.

After the terrible stress test, Taffer and crew got to fixing up the bar and training the staff. They changed the drink menu to make things simpler and they made the food much more Creole/Cajun style, perfect for the area. During relaunch, in which Taffer changed the name to Second Line, I did not care for the name change, I actually liked the name The Speakeasy, the bar was done up like most bars on this show. New tables, chairs, bar stools, big screen TV's, all the usual things we expect.

When they re opened the bar with the new name, things ran very smoothly, of course. During the 6 week checkup, the husband and wife were doing their respective jobs well and not fighting, the staff was doing better, and the bar was starting to make a bit of money here and there. And just to hammer it home, they said that the wife is no longer "twerking". They always do this now. They always have to add something on at the end that makes me say, "stop it with that nonsense".

As I have stated, this was your very run of the mill "Bar Rescue", and I loved it. I liked that he brought a new mixology expert that was part of a previous rescue. I'm always happy when McCargo is his food expert. And when Taffer not only has a bar, but also a relationship to fix, "Bar Rescue" is at its best. Keep up the good work, and I will be back next week to review the next episode.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is sensative about twerking ever since he lost a twerking competition to the head editor back in 2012. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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

Ty Watches "Trial & Error"

I've been spending a lot of time this week talking about basketball, it is tournament time, so who could blame me, but today I'm going to write about a new show that I really enjoy.

This past Tuesday night NBC aired 2 episodes of a new show called "Trial & Error". When I first saw commercials for the show I was a bit dubious, but also kind of intrigued. The dubious part of me was seeing the commercial and thinking it was a rip off of "Parks and Rec" and "The Office". But, after much thought, not that much really, I thought, why not do something in that model. Both those shows were great and had great runs, for the most part. "The Office" got really bad after Michael Scott left, but it was pretty good up until then, and it's first three seasons were phenomenal. "Parks and Rec", I thought, was great all the way through. So, the bad feelings I had about the previews for "Trial & Error" kind of disappeared.

The trepidation fully left my mind when I saw more of John Lithgow in the previews. He looked funny. He looked like he was having a good time filming the show. He is an extremely talented actor who I have liked in pretty much everything he has ever been in. I loved "3rd Rock From the Sun". He was terrifying as the bad guy in the greatest season of "Dexter". He was decent in his smaller roles in "Interstellar" and the revamped "Planet of the Apes". He's just really good in everything, even if it is bad like "Cliffhanger". He is truly great as a bad guy, but has proven that he has some great comedic chops. That is why "Trial & Error" is the perfect show and perfect role for him.

"Trail &Error" centers around a murder investigation in a small town in South Carolina. Lithgow's character, a roller skating poet, is accused of murdering his wife after she is found dead, looking like she was thrown through a window. I know it sounds really dark, but this show is a straight up comedy. I saw some other people say it is a cross of "Parks and Rec" and "Making a Murderer", and I couldn't agree more with that comparison.

Lithgow is the unequivocal star of the show, but the supporting actors are just as good. Nicolas D'Agosto plays the big time lawyer from New York that comes into town to defend Lithgow. He is not really that big time, this is his first case without his boss, but he is from New York, so the people in the town of East Peck just assume that he is a hot shot. D'Agosto is very, very good in this role. Some of you may know him from the terrible movie "Fired Up", or the latest "Final Destination" movie. I remember him most as Hunter, Jan's assistant, from "the Office". He is wonderful, at least in the first 2 episodes, in a leading role. He is just as funny as Lithgow, and his looks to camera, the show is shot documentary style, remind me so much of Adam Scott and John Krasinski in their NBC shows. He is just as funny as they are, in my opinion. I know he has been a "star" in a few bad movies, but I feel like this show will really put him on the map.

Some other great actors that popped up in the first 2 episodes are Sherri Shepard, Steven Boyer and Jayma Mays. Mays is well known for her roles on "The League" and "Glee". But much like A'Gosto, I feel like this is a perfect fit for her. She is a hard ass lawyer in this small town, and all the locals love her. She is the prosecution's lead lawyer, and she has the town behind her. She is tough, no nonsense, but also makes weird passes at A'Gosto all the while hell bent on destroying him in this case. Steven Boyer is the goofy townie who happens to be A'Gosto's lead investigator. The only reason he got that job was because he knows everyone in town, and his brother/cousin is part of the local police, so he can get inside information. He is also always involved in some kind of hiccup that is a massive blow to the case, but then stumbles upon some new break that helps the defense.

But, my personal favorite character on the show is Sherri Shepard's character. She has so many weird abnormalities, and all of them make for some funny television. She has something called "facial amnesia". This means that she never remembers people she just met. She has a very funny line in the pilot where she says, "it's great for me and my husband because it is like I have a new lover every night. But...I do remember penises". I cackled when I heard that. She also has a disease where she laughs at incredibly inappropriate times. Whenever they mentioned something involving the murder that is horrific, Shepard cannot control her laughter. She mentions a death in her family, and it takes all of her strength to not laugh, but by the end of the interview, she is cracking up. She has another strange disease that when she sees something beautiful she passes out. Again, it is played for big laughs, and it worked on me tenfold. She is awesome in this role and on this show.

If the first 2 episodes are any indication of where this show is going, I am really excited. It was funny, goofy, dark and very well written. I have high hopes for "Trail & Error", and I think you all should too. If you haven't watched it yet, check it out. It is a very good show. Here's to hoping it gets a real chance at staying on TV.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is of the opinion that NBC should give good shows at least as many episodes as they gave "Veronica's Closet". That should be a law. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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

Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Back To the Bar - Brick and Barley Edition

There will be no "Bar Rescue" update today. They did have a new episode, but it was a "Back to the Bar" theme. I already reviewed the episode with the bar they featured in the "Back to the Bar" episode, and I do not think I need to do a retread. If you want to read my review of the bar featured, search for the "breastaraunt" bar, or as it is now known, "Brick and Barley". There is another new episode this Sunday, and it is a real episode, so next week I will be back with my regular "Bar Rescue" reviews.

Ty

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

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

Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": The Dug Out Edition

This past Sunday was one of the most excellently trashy episodes of "Bar Rescue" that I have seen. Now, it's not on the level of gross that "The Landing Strip" episode achieved. But, this was trashy for other reasons.

First though, let me explain the nuts and bolts as I like to do. The bar that Taffer and crew came to rescue was in the heart of downtown Chicago. The bar was called "The Dug Out", and it was located literally right next to Wrigley Field. During baseball season, "The Dug Out" would make a ton of money from people coming and going to the game. It was during the off season when the bar would hemorrhage money. Well, that and the owner was a complete mess. This guy was so much worse than any owner I have seen, "Landing Strip" and "Piratz Tavern" included. This guy was completely clueless and did not seem to care about anything at all, except getting wasted. To the staff's credit, they tried very hard. They did the best they could, but they were never trained properly and the owner did not seem to care to train them. It was his way or the highway.

During baseball's off season, and during the regular season for that matter, the owner did not make the staff clean the bar. This was where I felt the staff could have done a bit more. This bar was disgusting. But, to the staff's credit, whenever I had a manager or owner that I worked for that showed no signs of caring, I took that as, I should not care as well. He didn't seem to mind that the bar was a disgusting mess, so why would the staff clean? They were still getting paid either way. And when I say this bar, and the kitchen too, were disgusting, I mean they were absolutely barf worthy in the filth that had piled up. I have never seen so many fruit flies in my life. The staff was swatting away flies left and right, the flies were on the walls, cups and trays, they were everywhere. The stools and tables in the bar were old and broken down. Cushions were coming undone and the tables just looked worn down. I also saw caterpillars, ants and some cockroaches crawling around in the front of the bar.

The kitchen was just as bad, if not worse. Nothing looked to have been cleaned one single time. The owner doubled as the chef, and when Taffer and crew watched from the van, what they saw, and what I saw, made me sick to my stomach. The owner did not wear gloves and cross contaminated everything. He also refused to clean anything, as I have already stated. Condiment bottles had so much build up he didn't even use the cap anymore because he could not close them. There was mold, grim and possible grease fire traps from all the loose grease everywhere. Taffer had his spies order food, but when he saw what was going on, he rushed into the bar to tell them not to eat anything. Taffer then told the kitchen expert to throw all the food out and close down the kitchen. He also told the bar expert to close down the front as well.

When they came back the next day, the kitchen expert had asked what happened to all the food he threw away, he did not see it in the trash, and the owner stated that he took it home to freeze. HE DIDN'T WANT RANCID FOOD TO GO TO WASTE! THIS IS VILE! The bartenders were sat down to train, and they were clueless. All they had known before was pouring random alcohols into a big fish bowl that was dubbed non ironically, "The Fishbowl". He also had a lemonade pitcher filled with multiple bourbons. He called this "concoction", "The Hot Pussy Shot", and they kept saying it over and over again throughout the whole episode. It was so gross.

Mind you, all this has happened, and I checked the time left in the episode, and we only had abut 25 minutes left. I soon realized that Taffer was probably going to walk out. Back to training for stress test.

During the training, the staff was on board with everything that Taffer and his crew were showing them. The owner though, he couldn't have cared less. He just sat through all this, questioned everything and told anyone involved with Spike TV and Jon Taffer that he wasn't going to do anything they told him to do once he and his crew left. He was a real asshole. The staff desperately wanted all the changes. What has become a recurring theme on the show, the staff needs the job way more than the owners do. They live paycheck to paycheck, so they need the bar to work out, or else they are back on their own looking for a new job. That can be very tough and stressful. So, the fact that this owner was so cavalier in his attitude really made me dislike him. The failures, as Taffer loves to say, were solely on him. If you cannot succeed with a bar that close to Wrigley Field, you should not be in the restaurant or bar industry. This guy had a goldmine and he was letting his childish attitude flush it down the toilet.

They eventually got around to stress test and it was, to no one surprise, a total disaster. The owner screwed everything up. Oh, he also decided to have a few drinks before stress test right in front of Taffer's front of house expert. This owner was a real piece of shit. I cannot stress that enough. During stress test and training he just floated and never paid attention to what needed to be done. When they were finally drowning in a sea of customers not getting food or drink, Taffer shut it down.

The next day Taffer gathered the staff and not the owner and told them that he was going to remodel the bar for them, but he was leaving immediately after that. He was leaving it in the hands of the employees. This was a first for me in watching "Bar Rescue". When he was telling the staff the plan, a few of the employees literally broke down in tears. It was sad. He let the staff see what he had done. He changed the name to "The Press Box". Not great, but not bad. He added some ivy to the outside and totally refurbished and refurnished the inside. It looked like a legit sports bar. It was one of Taffer's better "rescues".

The icing on the cake was just about to happen right near the end of the episode. After the staff saw the new bar, who should show up but the uninvited and incredibly wasted owner. He walked through the crowd and yelled, "JON! MY MAN!". He then went on to berate Taffer and his staff. He was slurring his words and couldn't say a single sentence coherently. It was a total nightmare. His whole staff quit on the spot. He yelled at them as they were walking away, but they did the best possible thing, given the situation. Then, after the staff and Taffer split, the Spike cameras followed this moron inside and chronicled all the nonsense he said when he saw the bar. It was total gibberish, and he even tried to do a line from "A Few Good Men", which came out horribly wrong.

They did do a 6 week checkup and 2 of the 4 employees came back, but the owner had changed everything back to the way he wanted it, even bringing back "The Hot Pussy Shot", which they just had to throw in there one more time. This bar was a total and complete disaster, and when I fully side with Taffer, there is a serious problem with the people involved with this particular bar. This owner was horrendous, and while I wish no ill will towards anyone, I hope he is no longer involved the food and bar industry because he is going to get people seriously sick due to his lack of caring. This owner was an abomination and he deserves to have his bar taken away from him. It's as cut and dry at that.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The head editor has been to Wrigley Field a few times, and has been to many bars in the area. There is a good chance that he was victim of "The Hot Pussy Shot". Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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

Ty Watches "Taboo"

"Taboo" just finished its first season on FX. I have been very vocal about how much I anticipated this show. I loved how FX promoted the show. I loved how the commercials gave away nothing. I had no idea what the show was going to be about, and I liked it that way. I purposefully waited until now to write about the show because I wanted to fully experience it for myself before I wrote about it. Now, I am not going to spoil much, if anything, I know that binge watching is the new thing and "Taboo" is a perfect binge worthy show, but I do have some thoughts that I want to get out since the show finished its first season.

"Taboo" centers around a man named James Delaney(Tom Hardy) who has returned to his home in the UK after a trip to Africa. The people who know James Delaney assumed he died on this trip because of the stories that had made there way back to the UK. When he first arrives back home, the townspeople are shocked. Everyone has questions. Delaney has no time for answers. He is on a mission. First spoiler, his father has died, and Delaney is back to run the family business, which seems to involve some kind of shipping. The show takes place in the early 1800's by the way, hence the shipping company.

Anyway, we come to realize in the pilot that the entire Delaney family is mentally unstable. The mom, the dad and most definitely James Delaney. They are all very crazy. The mom is sent to an institution for all the horrible things she did when she was alive. The dad went madder and madder the older he got we were told. And when Delaney returns from Africa, he claims he can talk to the dead, he says, "They sing to me", and he has many hallucinations. The hallucination scenes are scary, but also very neat and interesting. He is also filled with many tribal tattoos.

We also come to find out that he has a half sister, same dad, different moms, that he is in love with. Her name is Zilpha Geary, excellently played by an unknown to me, Oona Chaplin. She too is in love with him, but after she assumed he died, she married a very mean and brutal man, Thorne Geary(Jefferson Hall). He is a dick head and he gets what he deserves. I'll leave it at that. The two of them love each other, but it is, so to say, taboo, and they do not end up together. Again, I do not want to spoil too much.

There are some other great supporting characters in this show as well. Delaney's butler is wonderfully played by David Hayman. His name is Brace, and while he is a very loyal worker to the Delaney family, he too has done some serious shit and has some dark secrets. We also meet Delaney's fathers second wife, Lorna Bow(Jessie Buckley), who is in it at first for the fortune, but later as a James Delaney supporter and helper. We also meet some prostitutes that may or may not have been some of his fathers clients.

Then we have the British Parliament. They are the baddest dudes in the whole series. The king is a disgusting, gout filled blob of a man. Everyone in this show is some form of filthy kind of monster, but the king takes the cake in looks and attitude. He is so gross. There's Solomon Coop(Jason Watkins), who is the king's right hand man, but he is a slime bag of epic proportions. Then there are the members of Parliament that are just as corrupt as any current politician we have in our government. Sir Stuart Strange(Johnathan Pryce) is a terrible, monstrous human being hell bent on money and killing people. Godfrey(Edward Hogg), the closeted note keeper for Parliament who is a male prostitute at night and Delaney spy on the side. John Pettifer(Richard Dixon) who is a corrupt underling of Strange's. Benjamin Wilton(Leo Bill) is another underling errand boy for Strange. Basically, all of Parliament is corrupt because Delaney owns a piece of land that they need to win the battle that they are in with the United States, but Delaney will not give it up. Watch the show to find out why he won't let go of this land.

Some other characters I really liked in the show include George Chichester(Lucian Msamati), the African American man that has climbed the ranks of government who works with Delaney for what is right. Cholmondeley(Tom Hollander), the chemist that makes gunpowder and just likes to have a good time that ends up helping Delaney out. Dumbarton(Michael Kelly), who is an American spy in the UK posing as a doctor and flag maker that meets a gruesome end. And Atticus(Stephen Graham), Delaney's former enemy turned adversary. There are so many more great characters, these are just the ones that stood out to me.

I enjoyed "Taboo" very much. At first glance I thought it might have been a little too much History Channel for me, but the way the story was told and how it unfolded had me rapt with attention. The show was violent and dark and sad and no one was the good guy. Sure, you root for some people, but in the long run, each and every character has way more flaws than not. The British Parliament is the "bad guy", but that is not to say that Delaney is the "good guy". He is very, very far from a good guy.

I highly recommend people watch "Taboo". It is a very interesting and unique take on some classic historical stories from the US and UK's past. I also recommend binge watching it. It is perfect for that type of viewing.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. If you have FX, you can get FX Now and binge all of "Taboo" right now. What are you waiting for? Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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

Ty Watches "Bar Rescue": Summit House Grill and Pub Edition

This past Sunday on "Bar Rescue", Taffer and crew headed to the Summit House Grill and Pub in Colorado. This was a husband and wife owned bar. The wife had a steady job in I.T., but her husband convinced her to quit that job and enter the bar industry.

This was an obvious mistake.

At first, the bar was making tons of money, as per usual. The husband owner said they started out making 30,000 dollars a week and at one point, then started to make closer to 45,000 dollars a week. They were making enough money that they were turning a decent enough profit, so the husband and wife decided to turn the bar over to the employees and managers, only coming in once or twice a week to check up on things.

This was when things started to go downhill. The employees and managers had free rein to do what they pleased. Some worked hard, Nichole to be exact. But, the others had a free for all. They did not respect the husband owner, they played free and loose with the rules and they basically did what they wanted. The husband owner would start to come in more often when he realized they were starting to lose money, but he came in only to get drunk. He seemed to care less and less about the bar and more and more about getting drunk and blaming everyone else for his problems. The wife owner was the one who called Taffer to come and save the bar.

When Taffer arrived, he had the wife come and watch her husband run the business. This was a nightmare. All he did was drink, berate customers and workers, hit on customers and cause big scenes. His wife was mortified by what she saw. When he started to get drunker, meaner and hitting on any female customer he saw, the wife said she'd seen enough and stormed in the bar and gave her husband the business. She yelled and crushed him for what seemed 15 minutes straight. It was beautiful. After the husband blamed her for all his problems, the employees cut him off and had to physically remove him from the bar. It was funny, but also kind of sad. Taffer came in during this fight and poured a beer on the husband as well. It was so disrespectful and totally awesome.

When everyone sobered up, Taffer had them in the next day to train. Before training though, Taffer made the husband blow into a breathalyzer, and luckily for him, he was sober. Then they got to business. The training was a nightmare. The employees had no idea what they were doing and it showed. The kitchen staff was just as clueless. The "experts" did their best to prepare them for stress test.

Needless to say, stress test was terrible. No drinks or food made it to anyone at any decent times. The husband looked so stressed, I said to my wife that he should have a drink to calm his nerves. The wife was great and so was Nichole. Everyone else, a total train wreck.

After shutting down, Taffer and his people got down to fixing the inside of the bar. Interesting fact about this bar, it was clean and nice, it was the husband that was the problem. So, the work Taffer and crew did was minimal. They kept the name and gave the inside a forest feel. It was one of their nicer efforts. Prior to relaunch, Taffer had a heart to heart with the husband, seems to be his new thing, and they hatched out all their problems. Everything seemed great after their talk.

During relaunch, the employees and owners were struggling, at first. I haven't seen something like this in awhile. Of course they dug themselves out and things were running smooth enough for Taffer to leave. During the 6 week check up, the bar seemed to be back on track and they were making a bit of their debt back. Nichole was also a full time manager now, which was much deserved.

This was a very down the middle episode of my beloved "Bar Rescue". That's not to say it wasn't great, but you could tell what was going to happen beat for beat. Come back next week for my review of the next episode.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He was going to open a bar with his wife, but when Ty said he would not serve liquor, his wife shut the whole thing down. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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