Triforce! - Triforce! #281: Old Men talk about Old Man things

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

Triforce! Episode 281! Sips is suffering from Old Man Problems, Lewis went to a concert and didn't understand the music and Flax is having a great time in Sweden! Support your favourite podcast on Patreon: https://bit.ly/2SMnzk6 Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

pickaxe A Sweden with period flags? I'm not in Sweden. Hey, hey. I'm crippled. I got a trapped nerve in my neck and it really hurts. Oh, no. You've got to get to the doctor straight after this, have you? Yes. Old people chat. This is what happens now to us. We don't understand technology. Perion's got a crappy microphone.

I need some horse tranks or something. I can't sleep. It's insane. It's so painful. Like, everything is pain is painful everything how did this happen did you lift something heavy no i woke up one morning i slept funny i woke up one morning and i had a you know like a little crick in my neck as you do every once in a while and uh it just progressively got worse and worse and worse and over time it has evolved as well at first it just

really hurt to sit like sit upright in a chair or like drive a car or whatever it felt like on my left side it felt like under my armpit and like the side of my torso was like not able to to stretch like it was like really tight you know like it felt like every time i sat down like it was like really tight, you know, like it felt like every time I sat down, like it felt like it was gonna like rip. It was really, really quite painful. But, so it meant like if I sat at my computer to stream or play games or whatever, that also hurt. But I was able to sleep, no problem. Like I could sleep on my back, on my side, and it was fine. So I got some relief from it. I've just stood up straight and I've like flexed my neck and my back. I'm like really paranoid now.

Yeah, yeah. And then for the past week, it's been bearable sitting at a desk in a chair. It hasn't been so bad driving and stuff, but I cannot sleep. I can't sleep on my side. Like the minute I roll over on my side, I can feel my neck and my shoulder. Like the muscles just start to like spasm. And then they just, it just intensifies. This is over the course of like a minute to the point where I just have to sit up.

Like it feels like I'm being stabbed. It's unbelievable. Oh my God. Fuck it. What's the treatment? Well, I don't know. I want them to cut it off or fucking. They have to kill him.

That's it. Just fucking take me out back and old yeller my ass or something. I don't know. I'm done. It's just too painful. You must have Googled it, right? You must have done some doctor Googling. And it's like, oh, these instant relief.

Do these stretches. Do this. Do that. Great. Yeah, thanks. None of it has worked. I've tried every single one and not a single one of them has worked. These videos have like millions of views. So you're watching YouTube videos?

Man, yeah. If you wake up at three in the morning, you feel like somebody's stabbing you, you can't get back to sleep. There's not much else to do except for watch, you know, YouTube videos on what possibly could be wrong with you. Oh God. So yeah. So, so i mean and then like you said i've got cancer and i've got symptoms of cancer and every every known cancer now and everything else too so that's what happens when you have anything wrong with you yeah the other day i was um in fact this was uh two days ago we're getting the cab home because i'm

i'm in sweden for dream league right now we're driving back from the studio and the guys the car was quite loud and i was having a conversation with the guys in the back of the cab i had to turn around and turn my neck to talk to them yeah i had my neck turned for about 30 seconds i have a little conversation and when i go to turn back the muscles in my neck are like oh you tried to use us yeah yeah and i had to like stretch my neck and my shoulders out i'm just so fragile now any kind like i sleep on the wrong pillow or i don't move yeah too enough or i move too much when i'm asleep i wake up it's like well i think i had i had like quite a flimsy pillow because I made the mistake of, we went to get new pillows and I could have got like a firm pillow, but then they had a not so firm pillow, but it

was like a cool pillow, you know, like a chillo, like a, you know, one of those ones that's cold. It's like cold, you know, like... How does it stay cold? I don't know. What? But it turns out it's not a very supportive pillow and I think that's the root of the problem, unfortunately. I've changed pillows since.

I've never heard of chillos. Never heard of a chillo? I don't understand, is it electric? I think the ones in the 90s you had to put in the freezer or there was like a part of the pillow you put into the freezer for a bit. Like a cold pack. Kinda, yeah. But I think now they've got some crazy space age material that just can stay cool for a bit longer than normal material or something. I don't know. But it does actually stay cool.

Like when you lay down, it does feel quite cold. It's nice. I believe it. Like colder than a normal pillow. Oh my God. It has also crippled me so i felt like the oldest man at the weekend i went to this bristol simple things festival okay it's basically kind of kind of like a inner city festival where they've got like three theater

venues and some like swx where we we went and saw Ghostface Killer Sips. Oh yeah. That venue. And then there's a bunch of other little tiny venues as well, like the bowling alley and stuff where they were- The place where we saw Ghostface was pretty nice, actually. Yeah, some of them are pretty big venues, and they had about 50 or 60 Bristol-based or local acts. Some of them, I guess, had come down from further on, and they were all... I'd never heard of any of them, of course, because I down from further on, and I'd never heard of any of

them, of course, because I think modern music, there's so much, so many, it's so wild. And I didn't, I've got to say, I didn't like any of them. I must have watched like 20 bands, and I didn't like any of them. I'm sorry. I even made a little challenge for myself where I was like, going to spend 20 minutes at each place. Right. Just to give it a chance.

Yeah. But I found myself leaving, like waiting for that 20 minute mark so often. And I don't know, like some of the experiences were hard because they were packed from people and you're like shoulder to shoulder with people. Other places are like, you can't even get in the door kind of thing.

And you're like in a queue for an hour you know other places there's like just lots of people making like it wasn't like mosh pits and like lots of people being like physically like active and stuff i mean there's obviously always like that a gig that someone will shove past you and you'll get an elbow in the in the ribs occasionally like it's kind of are you saying that you felt old at this gig is that well i felt old at this gig? Well, I felt old partly because I felt like I didn't like any of the music. No. I felt like my dad saying, I don't understand new music.

I don't get new music. What kind of music was it, Lulu? Was it dance music? Was it indie music? Was it like pop music? What kind of music was it? Okay. So the first act I saw was like um one one woman dj playing like electronic music like kind of trancy music but not with without any without any like kind of

actual melody like if it was like 90s trance like ibiza trance like i'm sure i would have actually liked it but but no the most the main reason she was there was she had this incredibly fancy light show going on and it was like a firework display but like like if i had epilepsy i would have lasted like 15 seconds in there gosh do you mean it was that bad i was like and this was at 1 p.m i was watching this show i mean it was like i'm not ready for like no yeah this epilepsy inducing blinding light show some of these like a theater at 1 p.m some of these bands, I think like, when you think back to bands in like the, say like the 80s or the 90s or whatever, there were scenes around the music.

And I'm sure there still are scenes around the music, but I feel like if you're older, it's harder to potentially get into those scenes, you know? Because they're usually, younger people are part of them, right? Like it's almost like part of their everyday, you know because they're usually um younger people are part of them right like it's it's it it's almost like part of their every day you know like um like like say you live in california in the 80s and uh you're part of like the the punk rock scene back then it's it's kind of like your life right you you you go to parties with all the same people and all the same bands play and it's very intimate right like these these aren't big stadium filling bands at this point these are like party bands that play for 20 people and the same 20 people over and over and over and they're all drinking buddies as well and they

also deal drugs to each other and um and whatnot i see that you know what of that scene. It's a big scene. It's not really about the music. Yeah, I think for some people it is just the music. For some people it definitely is. And a lot of these bands had a big following, had a lot of people there, and were clearly very good at what they did. But I wasn't, like wine,

I'm not a wine expert. I'm also not a whatever their type of music is expert as a result like yeah i have no fucking idea can you name any of the bands i don't really want to because it's kind of mean well okay i saw this band it was like a obviously really talented drummer really talented guitarist and their singer it just felt it was like either their boyfriend you know or their girlfriend or whatever which was just terrible and it was like either their boyfriend, you know, or their girlfriend or whatever, which was just terrible. What were they called? I don't want to say. Why?

Because I don't want to get letters They were called Radiohead, okay? He doesn't want to say but they were called Radiohead. A little band called Radiohead. Actually, I don't remember. I'm going to have to look it up. Can you tell us and we'll beep it and that way at least we have some idea. Okay'm going to have to look it up. Can you tell us and we'll beep it?

And that way, at least we have some idea. Okay, it was called... All right, hold on. That's a pretty cool name, actually. It is a pretty cool name. This band only has about 250 monthly listeners on Spotify. So what you've done is... Yeah, a small band. Yeah, so you've listened to a very small and unpopular band,

and they're not very good. Have you never been there before? Like where you've been to a gig and it's like the support act or whatever, and it's just like, these guys aren't very good. Like that's just, that's nothing new. You're seeing this band, okay, at a point in their career, if you like, as a band, where it could go either way, right? Like they're probably just starting out or maybe you know they've been doing it for a little while but they just haven't gotten any any real traction if you like or whatever but i mean there's there's tons of huge bands now that started like that right that would play play gigs empty gigs you know of course yeah there's bands now that can fill the stadiums where

their first gigs were like, they had no money, they turned up to places and just hoped that they could even get a gig and would play to nobody. Or they played to 10 people who would all leave the minute they started playing basically. Yeah. Like stand-up comedians do that as well, don't they? Where they start off and they're like playing in a gas station restaurant as their first gig. I mean, like they might have 250 monthly listens now, but who knows, maybe in a couple of restaurant is their first gig. I mean, like, they might have 250 monthly listens now, but who knows, maybe in a couple

of years, they'd take off. You have to do 10,000 hours or whatever. That's what the Beatles did before they got famous. And I'm sure they were terrible if you saw them when they played their first gig. But no, I mean, I'm not, it's not like I it's just I felt like I was, I just felt like I didn't understand.

Fair enough. It is. There is an age component to it as well, for sure. There is, definitely. I think, again, and also, all these music artists are trying to be original, right? They're trying to create something their own, right? Yeah. They can't just be a rip-off of someone else or copy someone else's style. As a result, they're kind of experimenting with something a bit modern and new, and some

elements of modern music I'm not a fan of um there's this thing that like like well a lot of the kind of just some of the noise again that's what it sounds like my dad how noisy it is yeah it's just so noisy i mean my son really likes this um dj that i think there's a character of the dj in fortnight but he doesn't actually like he he likes the the idea that this dj has a character in fortnight i don't think he's ever heard any of the music or whatever but he's like oh yeah he's my favorite dj and stuff you know but and like most of the music in fort just drives me nuts. Like I have to turn the music off, the menu music and everything. You know, like it's like the one that's on now is like some anime music or something. And it just is just such an assault on my ears.

I just don't like it. It's not for me. Like I get that people love it and that's great, but it's not for me. And I will never understand how anybody could could enjoy it like including my son if he does even enjoy it i don't know but you know what i mean yeah it is an old man thing for sure my eldest listens to uh music i don't know what style it is i've been trying to figure it out uh it's all over spotify and generally the band someone will know, someone

in the comments will know. She listens to music where I would say most of the sort of avatars for the bands are like cartoon characters or anime characters. It's incredibly fast, like very high BPM, and it's just like intense. It almost sounds like you're playing three tracks at once. It's like Gorillazillas but like sped up no no it's way way more intense than than that like it's no but like the idea of like the little avatars the animate the animated people and i guess yeah i mean it's like it's just like caramel dancing type stuff like really like i don't know what that is. It's like video game music. Yes. Like meme music. Very fast meme slash video game music.

Yeah. It's something core, it's called. And she listens to a lot of that, as well as some good stuff. But this is what she listens to. Everything has- Just switch off. Okay. So this one bad I saw was like a mix, so it had a guy like doing grime kind of rap over

the top of it. Right. Also had like a guy on keyboard doing pan pipes a girl on saxophone nice and i got it so it was like he described it as like grunge grime soul right okay right and i was i was like this is this is this is weird but also kind of good this is like mixing vodka and milk together that's the kind of that's the kind of shit no very few people like cheered or anything um either that's always a good sign i think if one of the lyrics i think was, was wagwan, right?

Wagwan. Wagwan, whatever. Which means, I don't know what it means. What's going on? But that was kind of very common. Now, of course, the person next to me, who I didn't know, was singing along quite loud, but he wasn't singing wagwan, because he didn't

know that that was even a word. So he's older than me, more out of touch than me and he's like he was really enjoying it but i was like does he not understand i didn't want to tell him excuse me mate you're you're ruining my enjoyment of this it's not whatever you're saying it's wagwan have i ever told you guys about Wesley Willis before? The whitest thing I've ever done. Oh my God. Have I ever told you about Wesley Willis before?

Wesley Willis. Wesley Willis. Flax, maybe you've heard of him. I don't know. Maybe Lewis is not. Do you mean Wincy Willis, the weather presenter? No, Wesley Willis. Wesley Lawrence Willis.

The actor from Blade? Okay, listen, I'll read a little synopsis for you and see if it jogs your memory, okay? Okay. As an American musician and visual artist diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1989, Willis began a career as an underground singer-songwriter in the outsider music tradition. Willis' songs are typically partially spoken in an MC style and partially sung in a nasal and out-of out of tune manner reminiscent of punk rock vocals. They feature bizarre, humorous, and sometimes obscene and or absurd

lyrics sung over backing created by using the auto accompaniment feature of his Technics KN keyboard. His songs cover a wide variety of topics with mental illness and consumerism being the most prominent themes. He's best known for songs like Rock and Roll McDonald's and I Whooped Batman's Ass. Amazing. I saw him live in Ottawa. Me and my friends went to see him. He gained a large cult following in the 90s, which is true, because we were able to listen to his music and download it from Napster. This is kind of like the start of the internet really. So, I do remember it. It was kind of meme music.

It was a bit meme-y at the time, yeah. But I mean, we didn't really have memes the way we do now back then. I mean, obviously, we all come from something awful and there were definitely sort of in jokes, they were like the proto memes where people would reference certain things and I guess that you know, Photoshop Friday always had certain consistent jokes that were like the early version of what we now understand as memes. Like for example, now you can just have on TikTok a single image of a cat or a dog just gently nodding its head, put some text over it and a particular song and that's the meme.

So it's like, it's just a format for a joke, like a knock-knock joke. But rather than just have knock-knock jokes or doctor, doctor, you know, there's a steering wheel in my pants and it's driving me nuts. Like that's the doctor, doctor is the very early version of a meme. Yeah. So yeah, Wesley Willis and that, Rock and Roll McDonald's, I definitely recognise that. You'd see it referenced on something awful. It was... That's probably the weirdest live act I've ever seen in my life.

You saw him live? Yes, I did. Wow. Yeah. That's awesome. And when we went to see him live, I'll tell you a little story about when we went to see him live as well. The bathroom of the venue, the men's bathroom of the venue was basically cordoned off.

And we got there and we got a couple of beers and we were having a fun time went to go to the bathroom and couldn't get in we're like what is there like a lineup what's going on with the bathroom we're talking to like uh some guy and he's like no no no uh it's wesley willis and we're like what do you mean he's like he does this every where he goes like before he goes on stage he takes a huge dump and basically clogs up like all the pipes in the bathroom. Oh my God. Oh my God.

And it just renders the whole thing unusable, or it's like a disaster zone in there. Good God. And apparently that was one of his things. I don't know if he did it intentionally. I guess he probably didn't do it intentionally. That is some kind of power move. Oh, I'm sure he didn't give a shit. It is a power move, yeah. You know, the weirdest band I ever saw... My friend and I were really into a band called The Fall. This was sort of in the 90s and the early noughties. Marky Smith was the front man. They're kind of a legendary UK band. John Peel was a big fan of them. And we loved them because Marky Smith was a very unusual

front man. Couldn't sing, looked like an alcoholic that would be on a park bench, but they were great. I mean, they were a really, really great band. Anyway, he went through members of that band very, very often. And a lot of people would sort of do gigs or go on to have little careers with pretty much their sort of, I guess, qualifications were, I was in the fall, right? So there was like, oh, this guy used to be the guitarist for the fall, and now he's got his own band, let's go see him. But the thing is, about a thousand musicians have probably been in the fall. Marky Smith

like fires people all the time. Anyway, we went to see this guy and my mate was like, this guy was a guitarist for The Fall, we should go see him. I was like, cool. We went there. He had a very odd set where he just sort of played non-music. So one of the things he did was he had the band going and then he came out with a drill and a violin and just ran the power drill over the violin strings, making this god-awful noise. Okay. And he would sort of, he had this dead look on his face, like, this is music, why aren't you all enjoying this?

And sort of like, this unbelievable racket and this dead-eyed expression. And I thought, oh, he's like, almost like saying, you guys will fucking listen to anything, you consumerist scum. Like, that was i assume the vibe okay um and my mate looked at me he's like this is fucking awful let's leave so we went to the pub but it was just that that was probably the weirdest set i'd ever been to because it was packed and people were just standing there like with their heads cocked to the side like yes and some people were like what the fuck like it was a really weird mix yeah but some people were like, what the fuck? Like it was a really weird mix. But some people were clearly like, this is amazing.

It was terrible. It was terrible. It's like, I do enjoy live music. And I would even go as far as to say, I enjoy live music, even if I'm not particularly into the band or- Yeah, for sure. I just like to experience live music. I've seen tons of bands where I really enjoyed the live set and then you look at

their music later and you're like, this is no good. Yeah, same. But there are some real damn stinkers as well. Oh yeah. It's often the other way around, isn't it? Like, you hear music and then you go and see the people live and you're like, wow, this is not what I thought it would be like. Yeah, definitely. There are some bands that can't translate their sound to live. So, Fleet Fox is one of my favorite bands. And I remember that their music is very sort of close harmony. It's very, very, very structured. And their early live shows didn't sound anything

like what they produced on record. And I remember thinking, oh man, I really wanted to see them live. Subsequent years, they've obviously gotten better, but when they first started out, I don't think they could quite get the sound right. But there are tons of bands where their live rendition has that energy and that rawness and it's amazing. Yeah. And then you listen to the record and it's overproduced to fuck. Like just so overproduced that it sucks the soul out of it. Like the drums are muffled. But I saw one band, loved them. Really, really loved them. Fantastic band. But when you saw them

live, they were so loud, you couldn't hear the song. Like I know that sounds crazy, but the drums, the guy was like... Yeah. The guitar was so loud and the singer was screaming. He thought, I know that sounds crazy, but the drums, the guy was like, the guitar was so loud and the singer was screaming. He thought, I know this song, but I can't actually hear it over the sound of you playing the song. That's how loud it is. I don't know how else to explain it. Yeah.

I saw Andrew WK live in quite a big venue, but it wasn't a stadium. It was just, it was a venue and it was insane like it was so loud i was deaf for like a month after the show yeah that's that's your eardrums being being killed yes yeah yeah it was a fun show though like the energy levels were just like in outer space it was nuts but i always wanted to see dan deacon. Apparently, his live shows are pretty legendary. Yeah. But yeah, so Andrew WK, very odd career because I felt like he was one of those acts that either music journalists or the record label or someone was like, this is going to

be huge and treated him and pushed him as if he was going to be huge and he just wasn't. Yeah. Like, his career just kind of... I mean, what is Andrew WK up to now? I don't know. That party hard song was fucking everywhere. Yeah, the party music was in a couple of movies, I think, and that's probably enough to keep him comfortable. I'm sure he's okay. It's just weird to me, because it felt like I was almost being

told by the music industry, this guy is massive. Yeah. But none of us really seemed to believe it. We were like, is he? Because I don't really like his stuff. It's like, why is this guy everywhere? It was weird. Yeah, it's a weird kind of... It's really, really energetic rock, isn't it? Like, it's fast, but like almost exhaustingly so.

It's kind of simplistic, I think. Yeah. It's really weird. So, you were asking where I was. It's kind of simplistic, I think. Yeah. It's really weird. So, you were asking where I was. Obviously, for regular listeners, I do sound different. I am in Sweden right now doing Dream League for two weeks. I'm out here for two weeks.

I haven't done a two-week stint in some time. I've normally just been tucking a week in here and there. But I committed this year to being busy. I wanted to be busy all year. You want to be out there. I wanted to be out there. But I committed this year to being busy. I wanted to be busy all year. You wanted to be out there. I wanted to be out there. So, when they offered me work, I took as much as I could. Right. So, I was just like, you know what? I'm going to do it. I'm going to Birmingham in April. Nice.

For more Dota. I'm going to be there for a week. And there'll be more Dota coming up later this year and stuff. And it's weird, I guess that the kids are old enough now that I don't feel any kind of... I know what it's like looking after them. It's not as hard now that they're old enough. Sure. They make themselves breakfast, they make themselves lunch, they can cook dinner if you need them to. I mean, my eldest is almost at the age where she'll be babysitting for other people. So it's like, we don't mind leaving them alone for a little bit. And they generally go to their rooms when they come home from school. They don't want much to do with me anymore anyway. So I was like,

you know what, why not squeeze a few more drops out of my miserable career and go to Dota events. It's been fun. Good. It's been fun. Good. Is it the same old crowd? Same old crowd, yeah it is. Same group. Which, you know, so I've seen people complain about this, where they're like,

why is it the same old faces? And I'd say, first of all, it is an old game at this point. Yeah, I don't think it's attracting new players like they were hoping to at one point. I think there was a big push to get new players into the game, but I think there's just other options nowadays, aren't there? It's just so hard. Not even for MOBAs, but I think there's just other way more games now and other games that people can get involved in and Dota isn't the draw it used to be. No, it's not. I mean, also, I'm not being funny, but in the time that you're

learning Dota, I don't want to get into Dota chat. No, no. It's a slog though. It is a labor of love. So much. Jesus. But also you've lost the young, the next generation coming through. They are entirely It is a labor of love, really, isn't it? So much. Jesus. So much work. But also, you've lost the young, the next generation coming through. They are entirely playing Fortnite, or even CSGO, so maybe Valve don't care. And League.

League is fucking huge, too. No, I mean, equally, you're not gonna convince 10 million new people to put a thousand hours into a game just to get some kind of idea of what's happening. Yeah. Like, you're just not. Yeah. But I mean, I feel like people who give Dota a try, it either instantly grabs you, or you think, oh, I'm just not interested in this. Yeah. But I mean, I feel like people who give Dota a try, it either instantly grabs you, or you think, oh, I'm just not interested in this.

Yeah. Which is absolutely... I'm not even going to say it's a Marmite of games, it's just... It's not like you either love it or hate it. It's just it either grabs you and you immediately want to put the time in, or you just go, I can see this is incredibly dense and it's not for me. Like, that's how it feels. It's got enough in it to grab you in but i think predominantly it um it grabs people in by pissing them off because no i think it does though because i think people play it and they're like there's no way i could possibly be this bad at a game what is it about this game and then they invest after that they're like okay i'm gonna figure it

out but they don't realize that it takes like thousands of hours to get decent at it. So the complaints from people were not necessarily about same old faces in terms of the pro players, because there are actually quite a few new pro players coming through over the last few years. The issue was the talent, if you like. So people like me, why is it the same old people? And I suppose to answer that if you're putting together a production the main focus is the games where people want to watch the games the stuff in between the analysis the filler stuff and all that the tying together production

you just want people who are experienced in making that a smooth transition from one game to the next and if you're an all filler it's filler it's filler if you're an organization and you're putting together the production of a show, why would you say, hey, let's get 10 brand new people in and just gamble that somehow this is going to be the same? I think it's a risk. Well, you don't want people turning off. No, you don't.

Exactly. But also, you're very familiar. I think that's the other thing. People... Okay, this week I've been playing Pacific Drive. How is it? Which is Kepler's new... It's a game where basically you're, I read this book, I read the Boris and Arkady's,

whatever their name is, their book about the exclusion zone and roadside picnic. Okay. Which basically is like, the whole thing is like, it's like the stalker, right? And that's where, obviously Chernobyl happened after they'd written this book, but the whole book was about what if aliens just popped by Earth and had a picnic and left again, but all of their stuff,

their yogurt pots, their cigarette butts, we're like the animals that come out of the forest and they're poisonous to us or they kill us or they're radioactive or they're alien. It inspired this this annihilation and loads of other media right over the years that's all been really good any pacific drive similar idea there's this peninsula with weird anomalies alien shit it's all walled off and a little bit like scp style you you get sucked into it and you have to sort of but you've got one

of your car is like this remnant okay it's like an old like clark griswold car that you drive it's an old 1983 station wagon that's all beat up but it's kind of enchanted right it's like it's magical and you can upgrade it too and well the whole the whole game is like these remnants people get obsessed with them and you get obsessed with your car because that's the whole game the whole game is upgrading your car like polishing it cleaning it fixing it up like changing the wheels upgrading the stuff bring like the game is driving out into this exclusion zone trying to dodge these weird anomalies collecting shit and bringing it back but it's such an such a pure game it's like obviously it's it's it's it's it's it's what gaming has become these days. It's the evolution of music and all the things we're talking about today.

The only thing it doesn't have is the Assassin's Creed tower where you have to climb up and it pings the whole zone. It doesn't have that, but it has basically every other thing that games have. And it's quite slow as a result, but it's also quite like, there's quite a lot of filler. Right. And I always find that this is quite interesting when I see games have boring, deliberately make their game slow and boring and awkward, right? Because it keeps the player grounded. It immerses the player, but it's also comforting sometimes. Yeah, I thought Death Stranding did that really well. I love that.

Yeah, it feels like they could have just sped it up. If I gave feedback on the game, I'd be like, this is too slow. well i love that i yeah it's like it feels like they could have just sped it up like if i might if i like i gave feedback on the game i'd be like this is too slow but i think they have to resist that sort of player feedback and make it quite slow and it's what i call like a stream a good game for streaming streamers because you can kind of just stop at any point and talk to chat and then you know get in your car and put it in gear and drive into the rain. I don't know. I don't have to pay full attention while playing it, but sometimes I do. Okay.

So it has those gripping moments where you're like, I'm going to have to pay attention now. I'm going to pause my movie. I'm going to get in, and I'm going to do it. And I think it's a similar – I don't know. I just feel like some people – it's comforting. The filler that you do, P-Flex, I'm sure is excellent and has its moments, right? Much like everything does. The Apprentice has its moments, but mostly people watch it

because they kind of know what to expect. It's kind of- It's just easy and comfortable. It's like brown, like pink noise, not brown. Also, I'll be honest with you, a lot of the people that I work with are really, really good at what they do. And when you get someone new in, sometimes you realize why the people that do what they do are hired all the time. It's because they're very good at it. Oh, well, you're not wrong.

We have a similar thing with Yogscast people. We've been playing games together for 10 years. And so sometimes when we play with someone new, even though they're amazing, they don't quite gel with our group. And as a result, they're talking in the wrong places. They're like saying things that are a bit awkward or like. They're horrible racists, all that stuff. It is quite common to take this for someone to take time to fit in with their group.

Also, each group has its own dynamic. What I'm saying is that in a sense though, Pflex, you having this set group that's done it together for so many years is almost exclusionary to new people coming in. It doesn't matter how good they are, they're going to take time to fit in. Oh yeah, 100%. I suppose the thing is, we're not saying we don't want new people. The problem is like, I guess it's a difficult one because how do you get new people without a tier two and a tier three scene? And that

whole scene of the secondary and tertiary events that orgs would just put on kind of died. They got rid of a lot of those things in the last few years for various reasons I'm not going to go into. That whole scene kind of died off. So, it's hard for new people to get their faces out there, so therefore it's hard to find these new people to hire. That's just the way it is. Yeah. And yeah, when it comes to like, commentary and stuff, a lot of the guys that do the casting, they are the best at doing it. That's why they get hired over and over again. And then you have people come and go too. There's people, longstanding people who leave the scene for a variety of reasons as well

and stuff too. There's always new blood coming along who were good, like Jenkins, you know, people like this, who were relatively new, but also really good. Although he has been around for ages. Well, now, yeah. But I guess what I'm saying is though that it's not worth taking the risk on an unknown. Right, yeah. He needs to have done something to prove that people don't hate him.

Because you don't want people just like, oh my God, this guy's awful. Or I just can't, you know, and all Twitch chat and everyone's just like turning off. You know, that's like the ultimate. It could be really bad for that person's career as well. That's the problem. Yeah. And it might not be their fault. It might just be that they're just not experienced with

it. So further to me being in Sweden, first of all, it's very cold here. Much colder than I remembered it being in February. Yeah, but I just kind of, I knew it was going to be cold, but it's like zero. Yeah, well, that's cold, yeah. When the wind hits you, it's cold. You're lucky it's

that. Yeah, it could be much colder. I know. It's still cold. I came from a fairly balmy, almost spring-like London, landed in Stockholm. I was like, fuck me. There's like ice, there's still grit in the roads. There's a little bit of snow lingering around. I was like, Jesus. So I'm looking forward to getting back. It's going to feel like landing in one of those hot foreign countries when you get off the plane. Yeah, you're going to have your Hawaiian shorts on and your camera around your neck and stuff. But I don't know if this is just a Stockholm thing, even if it's just a this

neighborhood thing. We're in sort of the southern part of Stockholm, Hammarby, I can't pronounce it Swedes, I'm sorry. Hormabu or whatever it's called. There's tons of restaurants around here. The Swedes seem to love to eat out, they eat out a lot. They eat out quite early and it seems to be every eat out. They eat out a lot. They eat out quite early, and it seems to be every single night. So, this was a Wednesday. I was trying to get a table at a restaurant. It was for about 10 people. But you think on a Wednesday that should be easy enough? Nowhere. Nowhere. Couldn't get a table. They were all like, nope, we're booked. Nope, we're booked. So, we finally found a place. We just walked in and hoped for the best. It was about seven o'clock.

Place was packed. By 7.30, it was empty. Everybody left. And we were the only ones left in there. I guess it's a school night, really. So most people want to get home early. Yeah, but so they're eating out, but they eat out early. Like, I don't think they're like the rest of Europe that eats late. I guess maybe because it gets dark so quickly.

Is this the aging population thing? No, these were young people. So like, you know, the world is getting older, right? The average age of people in like, Germany is like 46 or something. Of course, yeah, yeah. Do you think young people nowadays are a bit more cleaner living than maybe we were when we were younger? Oh, they don't drink at all. Yeah, because-

Like, when I was out last night, there were 10 of us out, I was the only one that had a beer. Actually, there were two of us. The other lad, a that had a beer actually there were two of us the other lad the welsh lad so it was like he had one beer i had i had a couple of beers and but nobody else had it they all just oh just water for me please i was like man times are changing yeah well they're they're they've got what they're they're fair for work the next day a lot of us weren't working you You got to get greased up for work. And I'm like, what, one beer? You're used to working on a few pints deep, though. That's like your natural state. Well, so I've decided to cut back on drinking this year. Oh.

You're like that guy on The Wire who's got like a, you know, like he's got like a Mickey in his desk. He's just been on the job. He's retiring in like two weeks just let him see his time out he's almost got his bench um so i i uh obviously when i'm streaming i'd normally have a few cans when i'm streaming to just kind of you know have a laugh and everything and because just got into the habit of it really so i was like all right the drinking is gonna have to i'm gonna have to do less of it because it was just it was just becoming a habit where i'd have

a few cans, quote, to relax in the evening. I was like, actually, I don't need that. And I found, so what I did was I substituted like drinking alcohol for just having tonic water, the same as I'd have for a gin and tonic, but with no gin. So just the tonic water with a bit of lime in. And that sort of, I realised that I was just drinking for the taste and just sort of habitually, because I didn't want to just drink water in the evenings. So I would just have a couple of cans. So if I just have tonic, that was fine. So we got here on the Friday. I had one beer with a couple of lads. Then we came back to the hotel and then I hadn't had a drink until last night,

only had two beers. I was like, man, I'm really... If I was in Bristol right now, I would have already had a 5am finish, a 3am finish, and probably another 5am finish, and my liver would be aching. So I was just like, you know, let's try and cut down on the booze. Let's see what effect it has. And I've noticed a couple of differences already. First of all, I didn't realise that most people can just wake up in the morning. That's something. Even having a couple of beers makes me much more groggy the next day. Just like two beers. I kind of hadn't realized that. Okay.

So yeah, we'll see how it goes. So you mean influenced by all these good, clean living young folks who are, you know, doing their exercises? Yeah. I was like, maybe they're onto something. Maybe they're onto something. You know what a lot of young folk are doing now as well, Flex? They're excluding meat from their diets too. Yeah, I know.

Well, King Flex already does this, we talked about this. But I got a couple of comments, some people on my Discord were asking about that egg thing. How much you love eggs. No, so like, I don't want to get into it again, because obviously we did it last week. I've said this so many times, I have no problem with vegans. Lewis is a vegan, he's one of my best friends. When we go down to Bristol or whatever, I will go out to eat with people and they're all vegans, and I'm not preaching at them and shouting at them and stuff like that. I just require two things, occasionally explanations-

That's just common decency, Bflax. You don't need to have a fucking- Right, but the idea is that that's not what I'm doing. The idea is that somehow I'm like, how dare you fucking guess for me, Danny Neckley? Like an orc. Like a fucking orc, right? Like I'm not that person. So let's not go for that caricature. My issues are, number one, sometimes I will have legitimate questions.

I think asking why vegans don't eat eggs is fair enough. And a friend of mine said that he does know some people who are vegans, but eat the eggs that their own chickens produce because they know that these chickens are well looked after and all the rest of it. It's an egg. The logic to me of veganism makes sense as a concept if you're saying it's about the harmful treatment of animals, like the harming animals. I completely understand that. I think that's a genuinely noble stance. Fair enough. There's no actual moral argument that I can make that says actually torturing animals and eating them is a good thing. I'm not going to try and make that argument. So I will just occasionally have questions, and one of them was about eggs. And everybody jumped to, well, people at these

battery farms, I'm saying, all right, so if we take the battery farms out of it, and these chickens live a luxurious life, you're still not eating the eggs. So if the answer is no, then just say, well, it's a personal choice, I don't like eggs. That's a completely different conversation. That's all I'm saying. Sorry. I think we're all right. Quick things though, let's go through before we run out of time.

Sips, The Apprentice was in Jersey. It was. In Jersey, please talk about this. It was. I watched the episode It was good Well, I mean, it was The Apprentice They were all useless Do you recognize local Jersey sites?

Well, of course I mean, I knew everywhere they were I knew like, even just like When they're in the car in the countryside I was like, oh yeah, I know where they are You become familiar with the place that you live in. Like it's- Especially a small place, right?

Like, yeah, you're going to know it inside out. Was it like watching yourself on a task box or something? Or on like a YouTube video? Well, no, not really. But like it was, I mean, there was one point when they were, well, you've been here before Lewis, you know, the central market in town. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was one point when they were in there and they were snooping around trying to find some stuff or whatever.

And Karen Brady had her notepad and her sunglasses on. You bet she did. She was looking around and making notes. And we thought that was kind of funny because like, you know, to think that Karen Brady is like in the market that you go to nearly every day or whatever. Yeah, the place where you get that pizza. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, that was about it. They went to like the, you know, the really nice parts of the island for sure. Karen Brady's so hot. She's such a strong and powerful woman.

Step on me, mommy. Okay. Good stuff. So yeah, no, it was good. It was interesting. It was funny. That's the Lewis. Please don't talk about that anymore. Okay. Good stuff. Let's move on. So, do you want to hear the gaming news? I don't want gaming news. I want weirdo news. I want gaming news. I want weirdo news. We'll do one of each. We'll do one of each. Tom, I want gaming news, I want weirdo news. I want gaming news! I want weirdo news!

We'll do one of each, we'll do one of each. I want gaming news! Weirdo news! In America, Wendy's is stuck to do surge pricing, like Uber does. Are you fucking serious? So when it's busy, the prices are gonna go up. That is crazy. How has no restaurant thought of this before?

That's ingenious. Those devilish bastards. So burgers, frosties and other menu items will cost more. Maybe that's what they're doing in Sweden. That's why they're all leaving at 7.30. The surge starts at 8. Gotta get tuck in, guys. It's almost 8 o'clock. I think it's just because it gets dark earlier that they got used to eating earlier, but anyway. So surge pricing at Wendy's, okay. In related food news, the 29 vending machines

at the University of Waterloo in Canada are being removed after students discovered they all have little cameras in them that film whoever uses them and whoever's in front of them. You know how ATMs have cameras in them, right? And they use it on crime shows all the time. Vending machines are now just sticking them in

as a standard practice. Yeah yeah but standard practice for what well because to catch people who are trying to shake them shake out those crisps loose you know do they have a little alarm in them shake the polo mints out i don't know people still get crushed by vending machines maybe it's for safety reasons but no it just seems like it's get their arms stuck in there yeah everywhere's got cameras these days they're so cheap. I would imagine they were in everything. Yeah. If I didn't know better.

I don't care if a vending machine watches me buy a Twix, unless, of course, it reports me to the vegan police. I just assume there's cameras everywhere, and that's why I make a point to just jerk off everywhere I go. I see. As much as possible. So the students were appalled that there was a camera in the vending machine? Yes, students got mad about it.

Why? Because they're naive and they don't realize that cameras are everywhere. But they're everywhere. They're probably on 15 cameras already while they're using the vending machine. That is odd. That's why. Because it's news, isn't it? Right.

That's why. Because it's news, isn't it? Kids in Norway, studies have shown that younger kids are being bullied over their lack of cosmetic skins and in-game items in FIFA, Fortnite, and Warzone. So again, this is not news. Kids have always been bullied for having less.

I don't have to worry because I've got, I bought the Wu-tang pack for fortnight and uh i've got a uh season one skibbity toilet uh skin for my guy as well so i'm good god your digital shit is not as good as my digital trainers that's right yes it's i'm sorry but that is that is just kids are shits to each other yeah part a thousand yeah that's ridiculous they did uh there's a thing in fortnite um my son plays it uh every day with his friends from school they they go on and play like when they get home from school and uh i was i every once in a while i just like you know peer over his shoulder and say oh oh, you know, take cover or, you know, I'm giving him advice.

He's probably way better than me. But he's on the shop and he was talking to his friends and they got a Lady Gaga skin on there, which is a bit weird because I feel like she's not very... No. She's not super relevant anymore, right? Especially not for the kids that play Fortnite. I don't get it's bizarre but anyway she's got like a skin and there's like some music clip when she with an emote and stuff and i just figured nah nobody's probably gonna buy that right um and he joins the

game in the lobby he likes every fucking person has it like there's all lady gaga skins and they're all doing the emote music and stuff so what the fuck do I know how strange I've got apparently there's a company called GameScent and this sort of happens every few years that this comes around but there's the idea of

this device by a tech company that you put a little box on your desk or whatever and it connects to what you're doing in a video game and will release scents alongside your gameplay so it has currently it's got the smells of do you want to hear the smells can you guess what the smells are farts for sure how many farts are there in a video game sips well you're playing the wrong games what does blood smell like kind of iron my favorite game perfect lover

has a lot of farting in it okay no there's no farts the ones are gunfire smell of gunfire i would be alarmed to smell that in my gaming garage i would think that there was actually a fire breaking the smell of explosions that's not Which sounds like it would be very similar to the smell of gunfire. Yeah. The smell of racing. I guess imagine that's like burned tires. Imagine the thing malfunctioned and you're playing like Baldur's Gate 3 and you meet like your dream honey for the very first time and it emits the smell of shit and just ruins

the whole thing for you. This smells like manure. What the fuck is going on with my scent box? Exactly. Yeah. And then the other two are Storm and Forest. What does that mean? Storm is like, it smells like wet leaves and stuff, I guess.

Maybe Forest does too. Forest probably just smells like pine, you know, like those pine scented car scent. I mean, I'm not being funny, but Sips should get the smell of soap for all those power washing. Yes. You know, the smell of detergent. Bubblegum soap. Freshly wet concrete. Yes, that would be very nice.

And the smell of old recycling. I actually have a diffuser in my garage. And I have some soap in it. I have the smell of cedar in here all the time and it's glorious. Very relaxing. So this immersive thing, the way it works is it uses AI to hear what's- capture the audio.

So it's not connected into the game anyway, it's just like the audio that the game produces, if it hears that stock bear sound, then just must like make a bear fart or whatever i would love it if it could detect you know using ai it could detect what i'm doing like farting or burping and then when i'm playing tarkov or whatever with a squad if i burp they could smell like it would it would their scent box would go out and it would just be like kind of like bad breath and yeah like vinegar and cola mixed oh my god that would be great such a good idea i love that just like do a little fart just a really eggy one i think it would improve you know, morale across the squad. A must have.

Yeah. Oh my god, who let one rip here trying to hold dorms? Fucking hell, it stinks! I gotta get out of here! Oh my god, yeah. It's perfect, isn't it? Yeah. So yeah, I like the idea of that.

Well, I don't. No one's gonna buy it, of course. I hate that. Didn't they do something like this for the South Park game? Yes, when they promoted it. Fractured butthole. Yes, they did. What else have you got? The Florida Man Games has happened.

Is it as in like an Olympics, but for Florida Man? They rose up by the dozens from across Florida, caricatured competitors in tank tops and cut-off shorts for a showdown that treats evading police and wrestling over beer like Olympic sports. Nice. The most insane athletic showdown on Earth. It pokes fun at the state's reputation for

brawling, drinking, gunfire, reptile wrangling, and other antics that involve jail, time, or intensive care jesus um so yes it's it's it's i don't know i don't even know okay so okay james gorson of d land won the first event which involved wolfing down a plate loaded with barbecue pork and sausage jesus okay he chugged a beer to celebrate i've lived lived in Florida my whole life! Of course he said, after washing sauce from his hands.

Nice. They're calling these events. I'm calling this fucking Tuesday afternoon. Very good. One event had contenders dueling in muddy water in an inflatable pool. Jesus. One event had contenders dueling in muddy water in an inflatable pool, pummeling each other with weapons made from pool noodles and duct tape. Another was a theft relay in which competitors raced while carrying a pair of bicycles, copper pipes and catalytic converters. Heavens.

Good God. Yeah, it's great. Donnelly 42 says, Larry Donnelly, I have an absolute disregard for self-preservation. I will do anything. When I was in the military, I did a little alligator wrestling. Of course. He says. I have no regard for my life, essentially.

That's insane. Those are the people who say, hurricane, I ain't moving. And it's just like the hurricane comes in and raises them to the ground. Well, if that's the case, you can take my pinched nerve then, my friend. And I'll carry on enjoying my life if you don't value yours. Amazing. All right, listen, I got to go to the doctor. Okay.

My man's got to go. Thank you, everyone. Good luck, Sipsy boy. Thank you. Wish me luck and I'll let you know next time how it goes and um enjoy yourselves out there everybody all right goodbye