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Hello everyone , this is Steve from A Better

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. Now our podcast Hello

0:49

everyone , and welcome back to A Better

0:51

Life with George and Steve . Happy

0:54

New Year . Happy New Year

0:56

, Episode one

0:58

of season two . If

1:00

you can imagine , what do you think about that , George ?

1:03

Kind of amazing , Amazing . It's

1:06

definitely a milestone . We survived

1:08

. Oh , it was 11 episodes and we're

1:10

going on strong . Season two , episode

1:13

one here we come .

1:15

It's funny because I think even I

1:18

remember seeing online someone saying don't

1:20

give up on your podcast , because when

1:22

you think it's time to give up , it's the time

1:24

to keep going . You just haven't done it long enough

1:27

and , strangely enough , we were off for a couple

1:29

of weeks over the holidays and we had a significant

1:31

amount of downloads , and I'm almost

1:34

shocked .

1:34

Again . Yes , we go through our ebb

1:36

and flows . There's days , there's weeks , I should

1:38

say where we're just hot and we're just constantly

1:41

wanting to record and

1:43

get more episodes out . And there's times where

1:46

life takes over and we have things to take

1:48

care of and at 1-9 , it's just

1:50

so hard to get together . But we

1:52

made plans this week . We're

1:54

sticking to it . It's Wednesday and

1:56

here it goes .

1:58

Here goes We've talked about 100

2:00

things that we want to talk about today . Hopefully we'll

2:02

talk at least about some of them . So I just wanted

2:04

to touch base about something I said

2:06

in the last episode

2:08

or the episode before about Chris Receive . So

2:11

, like I said , I was at my friend's

2:13

, Anthony's , house for Chris Receive

2:15

and he got the impression

2:17

that I didn't have a good time or

2:19

the food wasn't good and I blew it off . That

2:21

is not the truth . The food was amazing

2:23

and he said he was

2:25

embarrassed for me as an Italian that I don't know

2:27

what the seven fishes are . He

2:30

gave me a little rundown . First of all

2:32

, Chris Receive , the feast

2:34

of the seven fishes . So he had

2:36

steamed clams , shrimp cocktail

2:38

scallops wrapped in

2:40

bacon . I'm allergic to scallops , so that's why I forgot

2:42

those . Cramp cakes . Cramp

2:45

claws he had the . What are

2:47

the special little claws ? You get them in Florida

2:49

.

2:49

Stone cramp claws .

2:50

They were awesome . Yeah , they were

2:53

. I tried not to eat them all before

2:55

anyone else did , but they were really good

2:57

. He had fried flounder

2:59

. That was just amazing . He had this fryer

3:01

outside . He dropped all the founder and it was

3:03

awesome and he made smelts . And

3:05

then he did the shrimp with angel

3:07

hair , with hot peppers , and

3:10

it was I call it aoy , it's ogre

3:12

aoy , whatever however it's pronounced

3:15

Alyo , aoy , alyo , thank

3:17

you , I call it aoy when your

3:19

grandmother was Sicilian everything's abbreviated

3:21

, but I call it aoy with , and

3:23

he used hot , red , hot cherry

3:26

peppers . Oh , it was so

3:28

good , I was so stuffed . But

3:30

anyway , he finished off tonight . He said

3:32

we had Italian pastries . Yes , and

3:35

we actually had some pastries tonight , george

3:38

and I from the same place . I bought the pastries and

3:40

they were pretty good , and his wife made his , her

3:42

famous coconut cake . That

3:44

, yes , I had some and , yes , it was phenomenal

3:46

. Oh and even though I hate coconut

3:49

, I still had some , because he

3:51

lost some for the host and Samantha was

3:53

with me and Samantha loves coconut

3:56

, so sometimes you got to take one for

3:58

the team , right , it was excellent

4:00

. So I've also been reminded

4:03

that tradition of

4:05

the feast , specifically the number

4:07

seven , comes from the following the

4:10

number of the sacraments , seven sacraments , the

4:13

seven days of creation , the

4:15

seven virtues , the

4:17

seven deadly sins , the

4:19

seven days it took Mary and Joseph to

4:21

reach Bethlehem . So

4:25

I was reminded of these things and

4:27

I just wanted to say to Anthony I wanted

4:29

to be sure that our listeners

4:32

knew what a great time we had that

4:34

night and then the significance of

4:36

the fishes and how hard he worked at it and it

4:38

was great . He also reminded

4:40

me that , even though we had hearts

4:43

, hearts still has a piece of for dinner tonight before

4:45

we got started because we hadn't had

4:47

it in weeks . But he reminded me

4:49

that New Haven pizza is

4:52

amazing in New Haven , connecticut , and

4:54

I need to go to Sally's Sally's in New Haven's to

4:57

play .

4:57

Sally's pizza Okay .

4:58

So there's one in Stanford . He says it's just as good

5:00

. So there there may be a road trip

5:03

, and I like to take a road trip

5:05

to New Jersey to go to it's

5:08

in . Maui it's right over the border

5:10

from Suffren and my dad

5:13

used to take me there when we were little kinchleys . It's

5:15

been there since the 1920s

5:18

Old school place . You can

5:20

barely fit in the seats . It's tiny . The

5:23

line's out the door all the time . It's thin crust

5:25

pizza and it's awesome .

5:27

Got to eat it there .

5:28

Kinchleys in Maui yeah you gotta eat it there

5:30

, yeah , we go there in the middle of the day when it's not

5:32

crowded . So those are the things that I needed

5:34

to touch based on , just to clear

5:36

the record . I didn't want Anthony

5:39

to thank that . I wasn't thankful and

5:41

happy to be with him on Christmas . You got to

5:43

start the year right , make amends

5:45

, make amends .

5:46

That's a very good shout out , and I appreciate

5:49

the clarity of the seven , seven

5:52

days , seven sacraments . All

5:54

that makes sense now .

5:57

Yeah , does Glad

5:59

you didn't ask me what are the seven sacraments , because I could

6:01

probably name five or six . There's always

6:03

one I forget . Anyway , george has

6:05

been a world traveler since we've gone .

6:07

Not really Little trips here and there , but ultimately

6:10

it's just you

6:12

live every day to its fullest . I

6:14

think that's one of the lessons I learned in 23

6:17

. It was a tough year for me personally

6:20

. Just perseverance , trying to

6:22

keep my head up , float and with good friends

6:24

like you , steve , and just a great

6:27

network of buddies out there looking

6:29

out after me and cheering me on , it's

6:32

been great . Just trying to make the most

6:34

of everything , be grateful , thankful

6:36

and humbled , I don't know . It's

6:38

just one of those things where you

6:40

hit a bump or a big bump in

6:43

the road of life and you

6:45

pick yourself up and try

6:47

to do the best every day .

6:50

Yeah , I've certainly had mine

6:52

in the past three to five

6:54

years , there's no question about it . But it's a

6:56

new year , things are great , things

6:59

are looking upwards

7:01

, have some amazing

7:04

opportunities ahead of me .

7:05

I'm just trying to make sure

7:08

, dotting all the I's , crossing

7:10

the T's , making sure everything goes right and

7:12

have to believe in myself right

7:14

, have to believe in ourselves to make

7:17

the best of things to come , Absolutely

7:20

.

7:21

You know me as soon as I see

7:23

something new . I said oh , here's a new opportunity Eternal

7:25

optimist , let's add it in

7:27

.

7:28

And not only do you have a plate full , you have

7:30

a table full of things that you're trying to

7:32

spearhead and take control

7:34

of . And it's amazing , this juggling act

7:36

you do . Kudos to you , man .

7:38

Samantha asked me that . She was like why

7:40

do you do all these things ? I said listen

7:42

, there comes a point in

7:44

life when you realize that you're on the other

7:47

side of 50% that

7:49

second half and second half and

7:51

there are things that happen to you that could have

7:54

taken your life or could have been whether your illnesses

7:56

or other things and accidents

7:59

or whatever and you say to yourself you know what ? I'm going

8:01

to get it all in .

8:02

Yeah .

8:03

I'm going to just grab with both hands as much as I

8:05

can and do the things , some for yourself

8:07

, some for others . Certainly

8:10

, I'm a collector a little bit and I've

8:12

certainly been out of hand the last couple

8:14

of months , but my biggest accomplishment

8:16

of the year so far is when George walked into

8:18

my apartment , looked around , walked into

8:21

Studio 3J , as we like to call it , and

8:23

he looked around and said , oh my God , this

8:26

place is so clean . Now that's a victory

8:28

.

8:29

I mean , a lot of things have been put away , a

8:31

lot of things have been strained up and

8:34

, yeah , the significant

8:36

amount of room , even though I believe

8:38

you've increased your photograph collection

8:41

by 30% to 40% since

8:43

I've been here last , so I

8:45

think you're up to 15 now 15

8:48

, but four , not here right at the moment .

8:51

One's being worked on that has completed the

8:53

newest , biggest , coolest

8:55

one . You didn't see that one with the big

8:58

corner over the top . No , right , no

9:00

, but .

9:01

I mentioned . You know your eye to

9:03

the details of each

9:05

photograph now must be so attuned

9:07

, you're probably able to pick

9:10

up certain things that different models

9:12

, different years , had to not have

9:14

, and you're becoming a specialist

9:17

of these Edison's and Victrola's

9:19

.

9:21

Yeah , In the back bedroom setting

9:23

up a little museum Very cool . I

9:26

ordered some tables so I can layer them in

9:28

Okay .

9:29

Okay , mission right now is free , but Mission

9:32

is free right . Listen , in

9:34

two , three years you'll probably have three X of

9:36

what do you have today , and people

9:39

will be pinging you here and there wanting to see

9:41

if you're willing to let go

9:44

of a certain amount of these trophies

9:46

, these ancient artifacts .

9:48

It's funny because last week or

9:50

the week before , I told Sam

9:52

, I said I'm only promised to buy one

9:54

a month this year and she's , you

9:56

realize that's 12 , right . And

9:59

then this week I said I'm

10:01

sorry to tell you , I bought three .

10:05

At least it honest . Honesty , best policy

10:08

. What are you ?

10:08

gonna do good deals , I ran in . I

10:10

I'm a sucker for the same

10:13

story . I meet people that and

10:15

that's pretty much how I got involved

10:18

in after I bought the first one . I

10:20

meet people that say this is my grandmother's , this

10:23

was my great-grandmother's , this has been in

10:25

our family for 60 years and we'd like

10:27

to give it a good home . And

10:29

I ran into a few of those and they're not looking for

10:31

a lot of money . They're looking for people that's

10:34

gonna love their care for it , what's been

10:36

part of their lives , their whole life , and

10:38

they know you'll be a great steward of

10:40

that piece of history . Yes , as

10:43

you see I've been . George came

10:45

over to me and I'm polishing one of the

10:47

ones that I'm like . Look at this , george .

10:49

Look how nice Processes

10:52

great of the woods look at look how it

10:54

gets old .

10:55

This is 120 years of grime

10:57

and of American ingenuity

10:59

. It's amazing how they still

11:02

run . You wonder what we make today will still

11:04

run . I mean , you look at the pieces . Everything is so

11:06

Simplistic and

11:09

it all works and bounces and

11:11

the least amount of mechanical parts right

11:13

not overly engineered , but

11:16

it's Made to work , made

11:18

to last , with quality Products

11:20

or quality material .

11:22

You take a look at a dishwasher today . Good luck

11:24

five years from now , but yeah

11:27

, 120 years of so

11:29

, even the Edison .

11:30

So Edison made one brand , one one

11:32

model was called a standard . So I

11:34

have three different versions of the standard

11:36

and One is the original version

11:38

and you could just see his mind progressing

11:41

as you get to the final

11:43

one . And it

11:45

really is something in this case , something

11:47

you hear , and you hear

11:49

the song choices they took to record

11:52

and I don't know , maybe I brought another

11:54

hundred cylinders this week , but you

11:57

, everyone is like finding

11:59

a gift , right ?

12:00

And you know , coming to

12:03

today's recording , I was thinking

12:05

a lot about Movies . I

12:07

had happened to catch Napoleon

12:10

on In theaters

12:12

I watched Oppenheimer twice

12:15

now and the second time

12:17

is better than the first and then my

12:19

girlfriend , I , we stumbled upon Monarch

12:21

on Apple TV and this is

12:23

the Godzilla TV series

12:26

that they just released and that

12:28

kind of propelled me to introduce

12:30

Godzilla to my son , andrew , and

12:32

we ended up watching three Godzilla

12:35

movies this past weekend because One

12:37

was better than the other and it just continued

12:39

. And I'm on this like Godzilla Renaissance

12:43

. I'm absolutely obsessed

12:45

over this Toho Production

12:47

, although the ones that we watch where the Hollywood

12:50

remakes , if you will , but they are

12:52

fantastic .

12:54

Yeah , I was looking at that because I he told

12:56

me he's watching it . So I started watching Monarch

12:58

. I'm on episode four , I think

13:00

, and it starts Kurt Russell , which

13:03

is who everyone loves . For some reason

13:05

everybody loves Kurt Russell . He's it's

13:07

like Mr America and it's really

13:09

good . And then I started looking back . When I was a kid

13:11

. They used to be an afternoon movie

13:13

every day on Channel 7 . I think it was

13:15

, and I don't know if it was after-school

13:18

movie or at late , early

13:20

, early movie or some story

13:22

like that , because it was an early

13:24

movie , then it was a late movie , then it was a late movie

13:26

. That's how it used to be . So

13:29

this is like the early movie , I think , or afternoon

13:31

movie , and they would do Godzilla week . Oh

13:34

wow , and you would get five Monday , tuesday

13:36

, wednesday , thursday .

13:37

Friday the old Japanese Productions

13:39

is . That was like claymation right .

13:41

So I looked at that and I realized they

13:43

made a move from like 1954

13:47

. They made a movie a year to like the 70s , everybody

13:49

made a Godzilla movie in .

13:51

Japan and I had no interest

13:53

in Godzilla until seven

13:55

days ago and now it's

13:58

Completely taken

14:00

over my mind , my mental space and this

14:02

Godzilla and the special

14:04

effects and then the storyline

14:06

and the history of this whole Monarch

14:09

universe . I can see how

14:11

they took a page from either Star Wars

14:13

or Marvel and then now they're recreating

14:16

this Monarch Universe

14:18

that they're calling it and it's it's

14:20

captivating man .

14:22

When you think about when I first started in

14:24

Japan , you're not . You're less

14:26

than ten years after the drop of the

14:28

bomb . Entire cities wiped out

14:30

in Japan . Yes , I can hear the

14:32

theme of radioactive energy

14:34

is Widely in everyone's mind and

14:37

it's the middle of the Cold War and everyone scared

14:39

the death that we're gonna blow each other up right

14:41

. So in the 50s you had all this going

14:43

on at once and

14:45

the thought of the

14:48

radiation creating or mutating

14:51

or Creating this huge monster

14:53

. And it's almost a metaphor Because the bomb

14:55

is the , and you bring up Oppenheimer

14:58

. But they realized they're creating

15:00

, creating the end of the world . He

15:02

realizes the whole time , absolutely we

15:04

rinse reads the Hindu text in Oppenheimer

15:07

. That's the famous story where he writes

15:09

I've become the destroyer of worlds . Partly

15:11

from revelation , partly from the old Hindu text

15:14

. But it's really pretty , pretty

15:16

interesting because you really see the mind . So when

15:18

you look back at those old Godzilla movies

15:20

you really see the different mindset

15:22

of the world at the time . But Monarch

15:25

is great . I've been watching it

15:27

since you told me about it . So , like I said , I'm

15:29

an episode .

15:30

It's definitely very . You

15:32

get hooked within two episodes and then you

15:34

just craving more and more good . Kudos

15:37

to the guys who revived the whole Godzilla

15:39

series . Apple .

15:40

TV plus Apple .

15:41

TV .

15:43

I love Apple TV . Yeah , so

15:45

I love the morning show . Ted Lasso

15:48

is ridiculously funny .

15:50

I love Ted Lasso on so many

15:52

levels .

15:52

I mean to think that was just a character that

15:54

he came up off top of his head with ESPN

15:57

as a joke . No kidding and somehow

15:59

yeah , it was an E a joke he did on ESPN

16:01

, huh , and

16:04

Next thing that's a series and next thing

16:06

wins every award Emmys , golden

16:09

globes , him . Whatever . The

16:11

writing is Ridiculous . The

16:13

cast is talented as can be

16:15

. It really is

16:17

quite amazing . It's such a funny show , you

16:19

can watch it hundred times . I .

16:21

Think I'm on my second or third no third

16:23

Cycle of Ted Lasso

16:26

and it's funny every single time I watch it . And it's

16:28

actually not just funny . They hit on so many

16:30

human elements

16:32

of being

16:35

a man , being Mary

16:38

, being separated , being

16:40

a mentor , being a coach . There's

16:43

just so many aspects of things

16:45

you can relate to and see yourself in

16:47

and that that connection

16:50

you get from all those different characters is

16:52

really well delivered .

16:54

I agree it's really good and besides

16:56

that's ridiculous funny and it's funny

16:58

.

16:59

Yeah , it's so . Yeah

17:01

, those have been my winding down rituals

17:03

for the past few weeks . A great

17:05

way to fall asleep .

17:07

I haven't seen Napoleon yet . I

17:09

was kind of wait till he came out . I thought it was gonna

17:12

come out on Apple TV plus for free . I

17:14

don't want to Let anyone think

17:16

that I'm on a budget , but especially

17:18

when it comes to movies . But so I haven't

17:20

seen it yet and I'm dying to .

17:22

I would say , wait for the director's

17:25

cut . So my only take from

17:27

watching it in theaters and it's

17:29

the first release , although it was

17:31

what ? Three hours and change

17:33

, or was it to and change ? But anyways

17:36

it was severely cut according

17:38

to the internet and I

17:40

believe it , because this storyline

17:42

, the character development , I think was

17:45

not up to par

17:47

with the caliber of the

17:51

director . Right Ridley Scott legend

17:54

, the guy can tell a story and

17:56

yet the version

17:59

I saw in the theaters I felt that somehow

18:02

the editing they just

18:04

weren't able to get the full

18:06

bravitas , gravitas

18:09

of each character

18:11

and you could

18:13

feel the lacking . I'm

18:16

not taking away the movie by any

18:18

means , but when you compare it to gladiator

18:21

or , for me , fierce or all

18:23

those other greats , it's not where

18:25

it could have been and I think the director's

18:28

cut probably will be significantly

18:31

richer in In in all

18:33

senses of cinematography . So

18:36

that's my two cents . I am by

18:38

no means a movie buff but

18:40

I could tell that from a storytelling

18:42

standpoint some things were a little

18:44

rushed and I watched it back to back

18:47

with Oppenheimer and the way Oppenheimer

18:49

was told was shot

18:52

and edited and just

18:54

the chronology of

18:56

the storytelling man . That that was

18:58

just Magnificent and there's

19:01

really not too many other words that you can

19:03

use to describe the the magnitude of

19:05

Oppenheimer .

19:07

So it's funny just to get back to Ridley Scott for

19:09

a second , how prolific he is . He

19:11

has 72

19:14

movies in and what is he ? 80

19:16

right 72 movies . He's

19:19

currently working on others . Producer

19:21

or director .

19:23

Yeah , he has another one coming out this year .

19:26

Just ridiculous . He's doing alien Romulus

19:28

, he's doing gladiator 2

19:30

, he's doing Blade Runner

19:33

2099 and

19:35

it just goes on and on . Emperor

19:37

the son of a moon Wow , he's doing

19:39

a movie about the cartel . It

19:43

was just ridiculous amount

19:45

of movies that he works on

19:47

it . One time we did talk about we

19:49

didn't really talk about in depth , about Oppenheimer

19:52

. I had the same feeling you did when

19:54

I saw it in the movies . I don't know . I went

19:56

on an opening day , went

20:00

to the IMAX , got my tickets ahead

20:02

of time , went in the day and

20:04

I don't know if there was just too much going on or

20:07

it's just too complex or

20:09

the solities of what he's trying to do with the

20:11

story are just not

20:13

made for the theater . And

20:16

I know they're re-releasing it now for IMAX

20:18

. But when I saw it at

20:20

home I thought it was one of the best movies I've

20:22

ever seen . It's so

20:24

different because you get the black and white

20:26

and the color perspective and the subjective

20:29

and objective viewpoints .

20:32

I think watching it in the theaters you

20:34

have some sort of free notion

20:38

or your perspective , and it probably hyped up

20:40

to a point where you're not

20:42

able to absorb everything

20:45

and anything . I

20:47

think for me the hardest part was

20:49

keeping the characters straight . There were so many

20:51

important

20:53

characters in the whole story

20:56

that just keeping

20:58

tabs on who they were , it took

21:00

a while for me to even understand who they

21:02

were the first time . And unless

21:04

I went on Google and googled

21:07

the important characters , they were

21:09

all pretty much important and understanding

21:12

the depth of each individual scientist

21:14

, their wives or their significant others , perspective

21:17

and the officers

21:21

and all that the second time around

21:23

I had a little bit more knowledge of the

21:26

pace of storytelling

21:28

and what to anticipate

21:30

. And still I would pause

21:32

at home and pick up on oh

21:34

so who was Dr Teller and

21:36

oh so he's the guy who wanted to do the H

21:38

bomb but he petitioned

21:41

it and no one took him seriously and whatnot

21:43

. And I did that for maybe five

21:45

or six characters just to get an idea

21:47

of who his inner circle was , who

21:49

were in the secondary circle

21:52

and who were up against

21:54

him , who were supporting him . It

21:56

was just a lot of information

21:58

to digest . I think it's one

22:00

of those movies , like you said , you

22:02

watch it numerous times . It's going to get better

22:05

and better because it's just so interwoven

22:08

, everything is just so packed in

22:10

and it's a whole different

22:12

way of storytelling , I think .

22:15

I agree , it definitely is , and

22:18

I think we've talked about this before . And Christopher

22:20

Nolan is known for telling two versions

22:22

of the story at the same time , and

22:24

that's why it's color and black and white , one subjective

22:26

, one's objective , and

22:29

so he tells the same story from

22:31

two different viewpoints . Like

22:35

he said , he did it in a momento , he

22:37

does it in interstellar , he

22:40

does it all along , and it's

22:42

brilliant . Sometimes it's so brilliant

22:44

it takes you a while to catch onto it .

22:46

Kyle is just so unique and so awesome

22:49

. Without watching Inception , I

22:51

don't think I would get as much

22:53

out of watching Oppenheimer . You

22:56

get a sense of the style of storytelling

22:58

and then you pick up on the

23:00

story itself .

23:02

Inception I'm still trying to catch onto .

23:04

Yeah , I'm sure I only have 5% of what

23:07

Mr Nolan was trying to get .

23:09

Every time I watch it I have a full sleep , because

23:11

it's so much to watch or there's

23:14

just so much to it . But it's an amazing

23:16

job . He does an amazing

23:18

way . He is a

23:21

different kind of storyteller .

23:23

And I get the fact that directors have their

23:25

favorite actors . I can see that the Nolan

23:28

and Murphy combo is

23:30

absolutely masterful , but

23:32

the first time you ever starred . But

23:35

he always plays a key component , true .

23:39

He loves him .

23:40

Yeah .

23:41

It's so funny he is in the only actor that he had in mind in

23:44

that whole set of scenarios

23:46

of people he liked . He

23:48

has long relationships with actors and

23:51

the

23:53

big part is still in his head sometimes and

23:56

that's how it was for Killian Murphy . He

23:58

always had the idea that

24:01

he would be at that big part when that bright

24:03

part came along .

24:04

In the beginning I'm like , oh , what's Tom and Shelby

24:06

doing here ?

24:08

Because Peaky Blinders is the greatest that

24:10

is so good , you need subtitles to

24:13

catch on what he said , even though everyone is speaking

24:15

English . But they talk fast

24:17

, they have slangs .

24:20

I went deep on Peaky Blinders too . I'm

24:22

grateful that there was what five seasons of it , yeah

24:25

, six , but I hear they're working on a movie . That's

24:27

what I hear .

24:29

I don't know if that's true or not true , but I guess

24:31

I don't look to see if it's true or not , because

24:33

I keep my fingers crossed .

24:34

I'll take it . It's not going to . I

24:36

don't know how it's going to live up to the series

24:39

, but I'll take it .

24:40

And Polly was a key part of it .

24:42

She passed . She was amazing .

24:44

When she passed . It was difficult .

24:47

Yeah , what an art form . Huh

24:49

, I really have become so

24:51

appreciative of this TV series

24:54

slash cinema type of product

24:56

. Netflix really

24:59

killed it . They really nailed it out of the park

25:01

. They knew that this was something the

25:03

audience wanted and they started

25:06

creating . They created a monster , let's

25:08

be honest .

25:09

They have a funny line when they

25:11

talk about people starting businesses

25:13

and people to , everyone tells you it's crazy

25:15

. They say we used to rent DVDs

25:18

Right Through the mail

25:20

. Right , that's the line

25:22

that the CEO says we used to rent DVDs

25:25

through the mail , and now look

25:27

what we do that was like blockbuster

25:29

2.0 .

25:30

Put blockbuster out of business , put them

25:32

out of business Sending out

25:34

CDs , three CDs at a time .

25:36

Think about how revolutionary

25:38

. You just have to get in a car and everybody got down there

25:40

and no one wanted to go and you never

25:43

remembered to return it . So you need to still in the mail

25:45

.

25:46

That's right , I was a subscriber

25:48

for those DVDs . Three at a time

25:51

, three at a time what a luxury .

25:52

Three at a time I used

25:54

to have them all the time .

25:55

And then they went digital and rest

25:58

his history .

25:59

Everybody would come home or come visit or whatever . What

26:01

do you got ? What movies do you have ?

26:03

Yeah .

26:04

And me , of course . I had this big time burning

26:07

thing going on . I had hundreds

26:09

of movies that I burned . I

26:11

had built my homemade menus and

26:13

then I linked

26:15

them to the Apple TV so

26:18

that anywhere in

26:20

my house you could just

26:22

go to a menu . And

26:25

then I went even further . I

26:27

hooked it up that you could go to over through the internet

26:29

and we'd be in the summer house

26:31

and be able to reach out to

26:33

it and watch any movie you want .

26:37

And when they went screaming I'm like , oh , who's going to do

26:39

that , who's going to do that ? And

26:41

everyone does that .

26:42

now yeah , because we have the bandwidth now

26:44

. And then I went farther than that . I

26:46

took my iPhone

26:48

and I used to film concerts and

26:51

I still have the films , but I don't have them set up

26:53

the way I did . And then I

26:55

converted them in a way

26:57

. So U2 and Adele

27:00

on that

27:02

U2 tour where they had that Somit

27:05

Madison score garden and they had a screen

27:07

that was the length of the garden and the stage

27:10

was in the middle of the screen and

27:12

they were all videos playing and they were walking

27:14

around playing inside the video . It was a

27:16

real trip . I don't know really what it was , but look what

27:18

they're doing now . They're

27:20

in the globe , there in Las Vegas

27:22

.

27:24

So you must have been a Napster person

27:26

. I wasn't . You were not , I wasn't

27:28

.

27:29

Because it was illegal .

27:31

All right fair enough .

27:33

But I so I filmed concerts

27:35

and stuff and then I would convert them to the same

27:37

kind of files , like you would convert DVDs

27:39

, and then I would load them on my computer

27:41

that you could stream the

27:44

concert from and any . So

27:47

people say , oh , did you see you ? To the other night

27:49

I said , yeah , I happen to have a version right

27:51

here . I remember my brother-in-law

27:54

, my old brother-in-law , being in the car and

27:57

he'd be like , how about when they

27:59

played Bullet

28:01

to blue sky ? I was like , oh , yeah

28:03

, I pull out my phone on the way

28:05

from the concert and I got the video on

28:07

my phone and I'm playing it through the , the

28:10

sound system in the car . And

28:12

he's like , how is it ? We're listening to something

28:14

we just saw . And I was like it's really

28:16

pretty easy , but not everybody

28:18

does . Well , I

28:20

Geeks yeah , I always

28:22

was , I always will be it's fun . It's

28:25

it really is . I can't hack like I used to

28:27

, but and I'm , and I missed that , but

28:30

I know it's illegal now .

28:32

That's some of the reason why I don't do it anymore . It's

28:34

frowned upon . I think that's the technical term .

28:36

I Think about when

28:38

what's his name ? Says that in hangover

28:40

when he goes . It's not illegal , it's just frowned

28:42

upon . We'll leave out what it would

28:44

be talking about . It's

28:48

just frowned upon , it's not illegal .

28:49

So anyway that's a great movie . That's

28:52

a great movie that's gonna .

28:54

I remember the first time I saw it . I wouldn't

28:56

see it in the movies , everyone was talking about

28:58

it , and

29:00

Then I sat down at home and watched

29:03

it . Yeah , and it was so over

29:05

the top . It's pretty hard

29:07

to do over the top and

29:09

make it work . Usually , when

29:11

you're over the top , it's just over the top , yeah

29:14

, but hangovers over the top and they make it

29:16

work .

29:16

I mean , remember when a hot

29:19

tub time machine , oh , another

29:21

first one ridiculous .

29:23

The first one was great and I love John Cusack

29:25

first of all , but hot tub time

29:27

machine was great .

29:30

It checks out . Stupid

29:33

movies really have a place in my heart . What

29:36

about dumb and dumber Tommy

29:38

boy ? Tommy boy is pretty good . These

29:41

are just classics . Ace Ventura .

29:43

It's for sure . It's really that

29:46

making that movie with him must have been

29:48

a strange escapee just coming out .

29:50

And who is this guy ? Yeah

29:52

, who is this guy .

29:54

It's funny .

29:56

Yeah , but you know me , I rarely chime

29:58

in when we talk about movies , but you got

30:00

me going man , this , this whole Godzilla

30:02

thing is metamorphosized . My take on

30:04

the good old golden screen

30:06

, yeah .

30:08

I watch everything . I still I'm going

30:10

. Sam and I are going through Mr Robot and

30:13

you know I'm a Mr Robot freak and she

30:15

loves it , so I don't even know what to say anymore

30:17

. I've never been with anyone that actually

30:19

loved Mr .

30:20

Robot . It's way beyond everyone

30:23

does .

30:23

She saw things . The first time she

30:25

went through it she thought

30:27

saw things that I didn't see when I first

30:29

went through it . And I'm like amazed , because

30:32

I'm obsessed with the damn show , the whole genre

30:34

is your thing , yeah , I . I

30:36

love Mr Robot . I'm

30:39

up to the part of Robbie Carnivali and I love

30:41

Robbie Carnivali . I remember I saw him on Broadway

30:44

and Clean Gary Glenn Ross

30:46

.

30:46

Wow when .

30:47

Aaron Sorkin rewrote the script and

30:50

Al Pacino was in it and we're Bobby

30:52

Carnivali and one

30:54

of the guys from West Wing and it

30:57

was just so good . It

30:59

was so good , but you had to lift

31:01

. You had to put the parts on her head because Al

31:03

Pacino was an original movie , but

31:06

in on the Broadway stage Al Pacino

31:08

was playing the Jack Lemon part from the movie

31:10

. So you have to keep . If you saw the movie

31:12

a million times like I said you have to reset

31:15

your brain , just

31:17

like when I saw Kat on a hot tiff roof with

31:19

with Elizabeth Taylor's part being played

31:21

by Scarlett Johansson . Okay , that

31:24

was really good too . Yeah , she was phenomenal

31:26

. I didn't expect it , how good she

31:28

was .

31:29

Yeah , I guess I don't give a scar Joe that

31:31

much or enough credit , but

31:33

apparently she's a bona fide

31:35

actress .

31:37

Match , whatever the tennis that was

31:40

, it match she was in , which was the one

31:42

where they end up killing her at the end . Oh

31:44

Sorry , I won't bring up which one it is , so

31:46

you don't know so I don't give away the end plot , but

31:50

I think it's match All right . What else ? What else

31:52

you want to talk about ? I know we have some food ideas

31:54

. I'm moving forward

31:56

tonight .

31:57

It's just so cold out there today . I

32:00

think it hit 18 , but it felt

32:02

like negative 60 . It's

32:04

so miserable out there today .

32:06

It was . It was in a city . I parked across the street

32:08

, thank God . I parked across

32:10

the street from the doctor's office , just walked

32:12

over , but

32:14

people were wandering around aimlessly in the city

32:16

, even the card vendors on the side of the road they

32:18

were . They had no interest in doing anything

32:21

. It's tough , but

32:23

so what do we have planned

32:25

for this year ? I need some guests , don't

32:27

we ?

32:28

that's a good . That's a good idea

32:30

to think about . Guests

32:32

are always welcomed . I think we

32:34

had a few in queue , but

32:37

you know the holiday season

32:39

and right yeah , schedule we never went

32:41

back to Franco .

32:42

We never talked to him again . He was phenomenal

32:44

.

32:44

Yeah , he's always on top of

32:46

our shortlist .

32:47

I know , but I haven't talked to him about it . Then we got to have

32:49

your pizza guy on too .

32:51

Yeah , Jimmy Hank . Jimmy

32:53

, if you're listening which I know you are well

32:55

, we're gonna have you on soon . We'll talk about a

32:58

little bit of your Detroit style pizza

33:00

, your fermentation Madness

33:03

and that Frico that

33:05

you do . You are known as the Frico

33:07

King . What's Frico on a Detroit

33:09

pizza ? It's on like a Lloyd Pan

33:11

, it's high wall . And then that extra

33:14

cheese crust , the crisp , that's

33:16

the Frico . Oh , oh , and

33:18

Jimmy's Frico is legendary amongst

33:20

the pizza nerds out there . He competes

33:23

at the pizza expo in Vegas

33:25

in March and , yeah

33:27

, he's whoever knew there was such a thing . Come

33:29

on , there's the thing for everything in Vegas , right

33:31

? Yeah , I guess so yeah , that pizza

33:34

competition . There's eight or twelve

33:36

different divisions of pizza

33:38

and last year , I think , was

33:41

his first year competing and

33:43

he placed . He placed in a Respectable

33:46

number and more power to you , jimmy

33:48

. We're rooting for you . We can't wait to have you on

33:50

our podcast . Let's geek out on pizza

33:52

absolutely .

33:54

I Also I

33:56

remember I sent you something on Instagram

33:58

for my friends restaurant . They were making a nookie

34:01

and he's . And you were

34:03

like , oh , that's a nice craft . And then next

34:05

day I run into Paul who

34:07

owns Costellano in

34:09

Elmsford , where he is , and he says , why don't you guys

34:11

do a podcast from our restaurant

34:14

? And I'm like I don't know , I don't know he goes listen , we'll

34:16

make food , we'll keep bringing

34:18

you food while you're doing your podcast , so

34:20

I'm like , and you could talk about it ? I'm

34:23

like , alright , I'll talk to George , but I

34:25

think Paul's such a good friend I love him like a brother

34:27

that we're gonna have to go there anytime

34:29

.

34:29

People are making fresh pasta from scratch

34:31

. You know the nookie that he was making

34:33

. I'm sure they make a wonderful and

34:36

your lotty Telly , telly all

34:38

these when I eat there .

34:39

You know what ? I have spaghetti , meatballs Okay

34:41

, because the sauce reminds me both , remind

34:43

me of my mom's . That's great . So I have spaghetti

34:45

and meatballs , but he has great . I love

34:48

his stuffed zucchini flowers

34:50

stuff . Zucchini flowers are great

34:52

. He has great crab cakes

34:54

, but they're not all crab , they also scallop

34:56

in them .

34:56

So you have to be careful with me , yeah and the

34:58

clams are good , every pasta

35:01

is more of a northern or southern style , or

35:03

is it more of a hodgepodge ? I would

35:05

say it's .

35:07

It's parts of Sillian , I think the blossoms

35:09

are more of a Roman right .

35:11

Naples , roman dish , yeah

35:14

, perhaps some

35:16

southern side of but they have all

35:18

these Specials all

35:21

the time . That's the best you

35:23

get to hear the how it

35:25

was created , the inspiration behind the dish

35:27

. I love that stuff . I love when the chef

35:29

Talks about what inspired

35:32

him or her to make that particular dish

35:34

. The elements that you go

35:36

in and how some of the elements

35:39

is just so much greater

35:41

than anything else .

35:42

Of course the menu is in Italian , I'm not gonna pronounce all

35:44

these words , just the anti-pasta . Clam cocktail

35:47

, shrimp cocktail , jumbo

35:49

, crab meat cocktail , italian

35:51

ham and melon , pujo , do idea , melon , mozzarella

35:54

, fresh tomatoes , basil they do

35:56

a whole thing with clams . Shrimp , eggplant

35:58

, burlattini stuff , mushrooms

36:00

, they do baked clams , they

36:03

do clams and tomato and wine

36:05

sauce , clams , mussels and tomato

36:07

and wine sauce , stuff mushrooms , just

36:09

goes on and feels called Castelletto

36:12

, castelletto okay , and

36:14

it's a little weird corner in Elmsford

36:16

. Elmsford they have ten different

36:19

feel of it . You know field cutlet feel

36:21

sauteed white wine , feel

36:23

a batter flower with egg and lemon

36:25

. Vile scalp feel scalapini

36:27

, feel so Tade more salad , deal

36:29

with prosciutto eggs , just

36:32

goes on . And on breaded chicken

36:34

, he just has a fantastic

36:37

menu and that's just the regular menu . I .

36:40

See that spaghetti and meatballs . I

36:42

got a laser focus on that as well , so

36:44

he has flounder .

36:45

He has filet a soul . He has shrimp

36:48

, shrimp fried a volo , and I really

36:50

love over pasta ship

36:52

francesse , shrimp , scampi

36:54

, shrimp and scallops and mussels and thing

36:57

. The whole soup of the Pesh Goes

37:00

on and on . That's great , it

37:03

looks great . So

37:06

I guess that means we're coming your way , paul . I

37:08

know , I saw it the other day . Paul works

37:10

500 jobs even though he owns a restaurant . Yeah

37:13

, and it's a big restaurant . You'll

37:15

see it when we go . It's a big restaurant and

37:18

he does 500 things . He

37:21

has a vending machine business . He's got

37:23

four kids . I think when he's

37:25

working to , he's the man . He's the man he's

37:27

killing himself . I

37:29

see him at night in a cigar lounge . He comes in at 10.30

37:32

and he's exhausted . Sure he is

37:34

, he's exhausted . He falls asleep with a

37:36

cigar in his hand sometimes .

37:37

Exhausted . What's better than a

37:41

hard day's work ? Sit down with your buddies for

37:43

a cigar .

37:45

Quite nice . Yeah , he's a big guy

37:47

too . Just a few over on the bad end

37:49

of a punch with him . He

37:51

definitely needs plastic surgery .

37:53

You got me excited . I'm looking forward

37:55

to a nice Italian meal .

37:56

He does a good job .

37:57

I love to talk about food . I love to talk about just

38:00

the passion behind each dish .

38:02

All right , so I'll work that out .

38:05

Fantastic .

38:07

What else we got to do this year

38:09

.

38:09

I think , on the overall theme

38:12

of a better life

38:14

, I think we touch up on what

38:16

makes us happy , what makes our

38:18

clocks tick . I think giving

38:20

back is such an integral part of

38:23

being a good person , being

38:25

someone that's benefiting society

38:27

rather than just absorbing and taking

38:29

I don't know . I hope that at

38:31

least just one person out there feels

38:33

a little bit more relieved or a

38:35

sense of togetherness , for lack

38:37

of a better word . But again , anytime

38:40

someone or any of you needs

38:43

an ear to talk to , or just to shoot

38:45

a text or a line over , please

38:48

do . I've all been there . I think

38:50

Steve and I are great examples

38:52

of people that just won't give up and

38:55

would love to just be someone

38:58

to run an idea through

39:00

, or just someone , a safe haven

39:03

where you can just talk and not be

39:05

judged .

39:08

That's funny . I ran into somebody from it's

39:10

called the Westchester . I should know because

39:12

I send money every month the

39:14

feeding Westchester food bank . And

39:17

you would think here we are , Westchester , a

39:19

very affluent place

39:21

and nobody's really

39:23

for food . But I

39:26

think it's every Thursday or

39:28

one night I don't know if it's a week

39:30

or a month in my planes

39:32

, along my route to my office

39:34

, there's a food truck and people line

39:37

up and can get groceries and the first

39:39

time I saw it I didn't know what it was . And

39:41

then I see this long line of people and

39:44

it's usually a woman with a

39:46

few kids waiting in line trying to get

39:48

a basket of food . And

39:50

I recommend

39:53

, if you live in Westchester or

39:55

work in Westchester , that you donate

39:58

money to a feeding Westchester food bank . You

40:00

don't have to give a lot , you could do whatever

40:03

. It is 10 , 20 , $30

40:05

a month . If everybody does that

40:07

, they would have more money than they need and they

40:09

set it up monthly and I don't know how much

40:12

I give a month , but they take it out every month

40:14

and they call me and thank

40:16

me all the time . Every bit

40:18

helps , right . Every bit helps . And if

40:20

you're not in Westchester , for wherever you are , I know

40:22

we are 160 countries

40:24

now , 160

40:26

cities and five

40:29

continents , right Listening

40:31

. If you can imagine that , five

40:33

continents , I don't know who you are

40:35

out there listening to us , thank you . But , thank

40:37

you , I want to say what you have something

40:39

better to do with your time and listen to us talk now

40:41

. So , no matter where

40:43

you are , there is some food bank or something

40:46

like this . You could donate just

40:48

food or a little bit of money or whatever

40:50

it takes , because

40:54

hunger is a real problem out there

40:56

, especially for children , and good food , nutritious

40:59

food , is very is scarce

41:02

.

41:04

It's more of a scarcity than you'd

41:06

think . Let's put it that way .

41:08

It's so funny because when I'm driving , the first thing

41:10

that goes through my head is they give all the money we give

41:12

around the world .

41:13

Trillions , billions of dollars or

41:15

missiles .

41:16

Or weapons and things like that

41:18

. And I see here's a handful

41:20

of people that live right down the street from

41:22

me and they don't have enough food to eat . How

41:24

?

41:24

is that .

41:25

Right , you

41:27

know that you ever hear that joke , that

41:29

you never see the military having

41:31

a bake sale to raise money to run

41:34

the school to run their

41:36

third bake .

41:37

Yeah , yeah , they seem to have a blank check

41:39

, yeah . I think , the whole

41:41

theme is do good . Just

41:43

sometimes take a moment

41:46

, reflect and just do good .

41:48

Yeah , get back a little

41:50

bit . Get back , especially if you're doing

41:52

well , especially if there's always somebody less fortunate

41:54

than you , and I think that's

41:56

real important . If you're like I said , if you're here

41:58

in Westchester Food Bank , please tell

42:01

them . You heard it on A Better Life with George and Steve

42:03

, where we talked about it . Like I said

42:05

, I give every month and

42:07

it's nice because we all get

42:09

busy , we all get dumbed down in our lives

42:12

and what we're interested in , or

42:14

watching movies or collecting photographs

42:17

or whatever crazy crap I

42:19

do . But then I know that

42:21

at least automatically every month

42:23

, that some money goes to a good cause

42:26

, and there's so many good causes

42:28

out there . I mean , there's a church in NIAC

42:30

. I know very well

42:33

that they run a soup kitchen and

42:35

I would say they're always looking for donations

42:37

as well and that's in Rockland County

42:39

.

42:40

Yeah , it just comes down to the fundamentals , fundamentals

42:42

of humanity .

42:44

We all came here yeah , my family , my

42:46

father . I

42:48

was reading my grandfather's naturalization

42:51

papers and he talks about what he came here

42:53

and who he knew and what all that and

42:55

it was really just all bull . I

42:58

don't think he knew all the people he

43:00

talked about how he had jobs . I

43:02

think he had any of that . I think

43:04

he said it and filled out the form so he could get

43:06

better . He could get in and

43:08

when he got in he was a hardworking guy and he

43:10

got a job and yeah

43:13

, like so many families right . Did

43:15

whatever he could do . He met somebody

43:18

. They all spoke the same language . He was from Austria-Hungary

43:21

, czechoslovakia at the time . I'm sure he found

43:23

other people who were like him from

43:25

that part of the world and he

43:28

got a job because he worked hard and

43:31

I think he started his own business and he was building

43:33

the houses and stuff when he passed , because he passed before

43:35

I was born , but

43:37

one

43:40

of those things . So here we are going to a

43:42

new year , all of our new year's resolutions

43:44

. We've talked about people saying in the gym

43:46

, and I think our new year resolution is try

43:48

to reach out and to help somebody less fortunate than

43:50

yourself , whether it's physically

43:53

, whether it's monetarily , whether

43:55

it's support and just people

43:57

are going through tough times mentally

43:59

, and it's just reach out there

44:01

and try to help them . Believe me , you'll

44:03

feel so much better for it .

44:05

Absolutely .

44:05

It's going to be a better place and

44:08

I firmly believe in

44:10

through the idea

44:12

of paying it forward . I

44:15

have so many people that said to in my life

44:17

and when I became out of labor . I'm an arbitrator

44:19

by trade now attorney and arbitrator

44:22

and at a famous arbitrator's name is

44:24

Roger Marr , and he helped me

44:26

get in the arbitration business . He helped

44:28

me become a better arbitrator , he

44:31

helped me make connections , he recommended

44:33

me to people and he would say to me

44:35

the only thing I want you to do is

44:37

pay it forward . One day you're going to have an opportunity

44:40

to help someone and you should help them and

44:42

I do . I absolutely believe

44:44

that and I try to do that and everything I

44:46

do , because we

44:49

all had tough times . We've all

44:51

gone through difficult

44:54

moments . Look where we live in New York . We

44:56

went through 9-11 , we went through other things

44:58

and our families , and still

45:00

families , are paying the price for that , as

45:03

we know , many people around us . So , on

45:06

that terribly upbeat note

45:08

, there's hope , right , there is hope .

45:10

Let's just leave it at that . There's

45:12

hope for everything , and

45:14

if we can just take a step back and

45:17

look past and

45:19

not be so short-sighted all the time , paying

45:22

it forward , is a huge blessing

45:25

. It's a blessing that you can actively

45:29

participate in . We

45:32

can leave it at that , yes , so

45:35

we'll be back next week . I'm

45:37

thinking lamb stew , I don't

45:39

know why that just popped in my head , but

45:42

a nice hearty , red meat

45:44

type of stew I think would be

45:46

very apropos

45:49

.

45:49

Those of you who know me out there know I hate lamb

45:51

. If we do make it , I'm sure

45:53

George will tell you how it is All right , we'll make it a

45:55

beef stew . I'm in for beef . I

45:58

love beef . I love pork .

46:00

Yes , no scallops and no lamb

46:02

for Steve .

46:03

No scallops , no lamb and green peppers

46:05

.

46:05

And pineapple , not pineapple , coconut

46:07

.

46:09

So that made me this really great dinner

46:11

and had all these vegetables

46:13

in it and right afterwards

46:15

I started not to feel well and I was trying to hold

46:17

it in and it just got out of hand and

46:20

I was sick all night . I was sick the next day

46:22

, I was sick for three days and a day or so

46:25

went by and I said to her May

46:28

I ask you a question , Was there any green peppers in there ? And

46:31

she was like , yeah , there were lots of them . I

46:34

said , oh , I forgot to tell you I'm allergic to green peppers there you

46:36

go . So , on that note

46:38

, growing pains , growing pains . On

46:41

that note , I

46:43

wish you all a happy new year .

46:46

Season two , episode one .

46:47

In the camp .

46:48

Yeah , All right guys .

46:50

Good Wish you the best

46:52

for years and this year

46:54

, and we'll hear you in a week . Thank

46:57

you so much for listening , thank you all You've

47:00

done for us over this time period , and

47:02

we'll see you again soon .

47:03

Thank you

47:11

for listening .