The Underground – Issue #1
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch?! If there is something in our culture
that needs attention, dammit, we will bring it to your attention. With The Underground, we mean to do exactly that: Show you the underground things that you need to know about. Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about.
Don’t you remember the time you heard that first song from your current favorite band? You made the decision to jump head first into that first album and then delve deeper into them. Now, you don’t remember a time where you haven’t listened to that band. If you play guitar, you don’t remember the time where you didn’t know how to play. We want to bring you new stuff that you didn’t know you need in your life to the point where you can’t remember not knowing about it. That’s The Underground.
1. Primer is the best movie you have probably never heard of. It’s okay if you haven’t heard of it, that’s exactly why we’re bring it to you. Primer is a 2004 sci-fi film about four (mostly about two) fledgling entrepreneurs trying to create something new to sell out of their garage as a side business. What they created wasn’t at all what they expected to create: A time machine.
Looks beautiful with a big budget, right? Beautiful, yes, but big budget? Negative. It costs $7,000 dollars to produce. Mind-blowing, right? Not as mind-blowing as the movie. If anyone says that they fully understood the movie the first time they watched it, they’re lying to your face. I have seen it over a dozen times and still need a pencil and paper just to explain how the time travel works in the film.
If you love films in-tune with Christopher Nolan, but even more complicated, Social Underground suggests Primer. You can watch it for free on YouTube right now.
2. You should stop binge-watching garbage and binge on Luther. Yes, you read that right. Unless you’re binge-watching the The Wire or Deadwood, stop watching what you’re watching and head to Netflix to watch Luther.
Luther is a British crime drama television series starring Idris Elba (The man!) as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther, who works in London, Great Britain. It’s not a show where each episode has a boring crime to be solved and there are 22 episodes where you know the ending will have zero consequences to anyone, no. Luther is a brutal television show that affects everyone on a major level, and it’s fantastic.
This trailer will give you a glimpse of where you’ll spend your weekend:
Each story has a crime that is seriously demented. The larger story about Luther himself is on another level of realistic cop dramas. Luther isn’t the gumshoe cop who will stay on the side of the law because it’s right, he will delve himself into the darkness because that is how you have to think to stop such monsters that roam the city. Each series of the show leaves you wanting more and more, but each series (season in America) has 6 episodes or less. It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. This show embraces quality and it shows.
Idris Elba soaks up every second he’s on-screen and it shows. That’s why he was nominated for every season of the show and finally won Golden Globe for his performance during the 69th Golden Globe Awards in 2011. I happened to be with a group of people watching the show, and was the only one cheering when he won. All I heard was, “What’s Luther?” It’s one of the best shows on the air, that’s what.
3. Let’s be real: The War on Drugs needs to come to an end. Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York City-based non-profit organization working to end the War on Drugs, explains in a TED talk about why it’s a pointless venture.
People being arrested for having a joint in their car and getting jail time is complete garbage. If you have an actual drug problem, the answer isn’t heavy fines or incarceration, the answer is help. I believe most people with common sense realize that people who smoke Marijuana are about as harmless as a feather falling on your foot. The only thing they will hurt is the bag of chips you have in your cupboard.
With most drugs (like alcohol which is LEGAL), just make sure you don’t drive on them. Alcohol is a drug that is exponentially more dangerous than Weed. Tobacco is bad and just as deadly. Marijuana will make you not want to leave the house and has health benefits for those in dire need due to many health ailments:
Alzheimer’s—Marijuana may be able to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, according to research by the Scripps Research Institute and published in Molecular Pharmaceutics.
Anxiety—Harvard Medical School found that marijuana may have anti-anxiety effects. Of course, keep in mind that high doses may increase anxiety and paranoia.
Arthritis—Marijuana can alleviate pain and inflammation linked to arthritis.
Cancer—Research in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics found that cannabidiol found in marijuana, turns off a gene called “Id-1,” which cancer cells use to spread.
Epilepsy—Marijuana has been shown in studies by Virginia Commonwealth University, to stop seizures in the school’s animal studies.
Glaucoma—Researchers are working on developing new drugs based on cannabis to treat glaucoma pain after learning its effectiveness for treating the condition. Glaucoma is a condition that increases pressure inside the eyeball and can lead to vision loss.
Improves Lung Health—Research in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that marijuana can increase lung capacity, not decrease it as many people have long believed.
Multiple Sclerosis—A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that cannabinoids found in marijuana significantly reduced multiple sclerosis pain.
Nausea—Marijuana contains a minimum of 60 chemicals known as cannabinoids, of which THC is the primary one associated with its mind-altering effects. THC has been used in the treatment of nausea, including drug- or chemotherapy-induced nausea. (Via Care 2)
Is shooting heroin in a bathroom bad? Of course. Does throwing someone in jail because they can’t afford a $100,000 spa pass to an exclusive rehab resort make sense? No. The War on Drugs has cost America $36,601,786,120 and counting. We could’ve spent that money on helping addicts instead of punishing them.
4. Chromecast is something that everyone should have for their television. This isn’t an Apple vs. Google thing, it’s just pure fact. Chromecast is the best thing you can hook up to your TV. With the apps you can install on your phone/tablet/laptop, it’s the best money you can spend on something for your TV. How much is it? $35 dollars. What can this device do? It can stream to your TV your favorite internet and television with loads of apps:
And more! But what if you want to stream files from your hard drive? Movies and TV you have stored on an external HD or on your local HD? Well, there is a fantastic app called Videostream for that. All you have to do is load it on your device and stream it through a browser. Download it here for free.
We wouldn’t be surprised if you repeated “This was only $35 bucks!?” over and over after you buy it. Trust us, we know. Chromecast is too good.
5. If there is a book you should read, Amy Poehler’s “Yes Please” is it.
Amy Poehler is one of the funniest people on the planet. The fact that she wrote a book is like magic for the eyes and the brain. Sure, you can watch her on Parks and Recreation, but that is only so much of Poehler kicking ass. This is an entire book of her kicking your brains ass with her hilarious and personal stories.
Poehler has some choice quotes from her book that only I will add make you want to read it:
- “I think we should stop asking people in their 20s what they ‘want to do’ and start asking them what they don’t want to do. Instead of asking students to ‘declare their major’ we should ask students to ‘list what they will do anything to avoid.’ It just makes a lot more sense.
- “Fighting aging is like the War on Drugs (Ed Note: Poehler knows what’s up). It’s expensive, does more harm than good, and has been proven to never end.”
- “You have to care about how good you are and how good you feel, but not about how good people think you are or how good people think you look,”
- “Please don’t drive drunk, okay? Seriously. It’s so f*cked up. But by all means, walk drunk. That looks hilarious.”
And the best advice of all?
- “Sleep helps you win at life.”
It surely does.
6. Ignore every adaptation of board games into films or television.
There seems to be a strange occurrence lately where board games are being adapted into films. I have a few ideas on the subject. 1) Studios know people are willing to watch a film based on a Ouija board. 2) People are stupid enough to go see movies like this:
- Ouija
- Battleship
- Clue
- Risk
- Monopoly
- Candyland
- Jumanji (Based on a short story about a board game)
If studios are willing to scrape the bottom of the barrel for movies to make – this indeed the deepest of the bottom — why not go further? F*ck it! Let’s have a Bop-It movie. How about a movie starring bobbleheads you put on your car’s dashboard? Super Soaker: The Movie? A Yoyo competition movie where all the best come together to compete, but one yoyo player holds the fate of the world in his hands because he yoyo was passed down for centuries and holds some power or something. It doesn’t matter what it’s about, if it has followers, it will get ticket sales.
In the past few decades it seems that A-movies are now B-movies, and B-movies are now A-movies. Those crappy horror movies that are made for cheap are now raking in the cash because good movies are getting straight to OnDemand releases. This will all get worse before it gets better. Ambitious movies are getting overlooked for movies based on kids toys or board games. Demand better of your cinema or we’ll have movies and TV based on TV ads. Oh, wait, too late: Cavemen. We’re doomed.
7. These are the 5 beers you should be drinking this holiday season. People have a wide array of choices when it comes to beer. Many stick to the bland American Light Lager promoted to you using packaging and not what the beer actually tastes like: Blood and aluminum with a hint of crushing shame. Good beer is advertised to you about how it tastes and what went into making it.
- Bell’s Black Note Stout — Bell’s Brewery, Inc. (American Double / Imperial Stout) /11.40% ABV
- Hopslam Ale — Bell’s Brewery, Inc. (American Double / Imperial IPA) /10.00% ABV (Ed Note: This beer barely hits the shelves it’s so in demand when brewed. If you see it, buy it immediately)
- Heady Topper — The Alchemist (American Double / Imperial IPA) / 8.00% ABV
- Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout — Goose Island Beer Co. (American Double / Imperial Stout) 13.40% ABV
- Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale — Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (American IPA) 6.80% ABV
As you can see, many of these beers have a high ABV (Alcohol By Volume), so you should sip and enjoy them, not slam them during a drinking contest. You don’t want to ruin/forget the holiday season entirely, do you?
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.