THE UNDERGROUND – ISSUE #6
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: The climate change debate, a comedian you need to know about, the TMNT movie was garbage, a TV show you need to see, the CIA approves scripts (?), and a look at the biggest piece of garbage on the planet.
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 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. Humans are clearly responsible for climate change. 4 out of 10 people don’t believe that it exists. You’ll see a big snowstorm in Buffalo and you’ll hear crap like “Big snow storm? Doesn’t that prove there is no global warming?” No. Climate change/global warming means that there will be extreme weather in areas you wouldn’t expect. It just snowed in Southern Cali, Buffalo got a years worth of snow in a few days, major drought in Cali, and the worst Winter I’ve ever seen at the end of 2013 in Michigan.
Let this video explain things for you:
2. Bill Burr is the best comedian you might not know about. In the comedy world, there are thousands of comedians. Some you watch and think, “Why is he/she not more famous?” Bill Burr is quite famous, but still not a household name like others. This is a problem. You can put this man on stage at any venue and he will destroy. Every time he guest on Conan it feels like an event.
Check him out on Conan talking about Black Friday and the NFL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFue1YJQat4
Now jump into his mind with his comedy special You People Are All The Same:
3. This Honest Trailer breaks down how terrible the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was. Go back and watch the live-action film from the early 90’s. It was and still is a pretty good movie. No, it wasn’t an art house film, but it worked really well. This most recent film was a trainwreck. Megan Fox as a journalist? Was the casting guy not paying attention the entire time?
Also, why was Michelangelo giving out the weird rapey vibe to Megan Fox? You’re a turtle. You aren’t attracted to another species. That’s the part of the internet you try to keep away from your search history, not part of a movie for children.
4. The Missing is a show that you need to watch. I randomly stumbled upon this show the other night. It’s about a case of a missing boy in France and how it affects the family and the investigation. It feels like what a possible True Detective season 2 or 3 could be. You think one thing, but then in dives deeper and changes your mind — or does it? The show seriously messes with your head. You don’t know if someone is a good guy or a bad guy throughout the entire 8 episode series.
Check out the series premiere from Starz free:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LoJGEFgai0
5. The CIA keeps a close eye on FX’s TV show The Americans. It’s a show about Soviet spies living in America that stars Keri Russell set in the 80’s. That’s pretty much the jist of it. It’s a fantastic show, but the CIA has to look into it and approve the scripts. Here’s a little background info on why it’s better to be a spy in the 80’s:
Joe Weisberg worked for the CIA in the early ‘90s, just as the Cold War was ending. He came from a very liberal family, so joining the CIA was a bit of a rebellion. But after some time inside the organization, he started to doubt it. “It was all kind of BS,” he tells Kurt Andersen. “The intelligence they were providing wasn’t worth anything to the U.S. government. But what you did to collect that intelligence was ask people to really risk their lives — for a lot of nothing…
One advantage of making a spy show in the 1980s: no cell phones. “Philip can’t pick up a phone and call Elizabeth and say, get out of there!” Weisberg says. He’s also proud to show off what agents could do in the analog era, when they had to rely more on brains, guile, and sometimes their bodies. But the CIA keeps a close eye on Weisberg’s scripts to make sure that he doesn’t give away tradecraft he learned with the Agency. (Via Studio 360)
Having a cellphone means that anyone can contact you at anytime. It gets pretty annoying, so being a spy and not being trackable means not having a cellphone. Now, it’s all but impossible not to have one. The fact that the CIA is looking over the scripts from a show about the 80’s spy game means that some of the old tricks are still being used. Maybe? I don’t want to say too much.
Check out the season 3 trailer for The Americans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSu2dpWBjfQ
6. Steve Harvey is actually just a huge pile of shit. I’m pretty tolerant, but Steve Harvey is a gigantic intolerant piece of human filth, so screw it. Sure, you can watch him on television and he will rattle off obvious things that everyone knows by the time they are 5, but then when he is questioned seriously, he reveals his true nature:
What’s my moral barometer? I don’t believe in God and I haven’t went on a murder spree. I know what is right from wrong because I just know, I guess. Plus my parents raised me to be nice. I remember my Dad holding me back to let a woman walk through a door first. Solid parenting and life lessons.
If Steve Harvey walked up to me and I told him that I’m an Atheist, he’d walk away? Is that what God teaches you?
“If we were evolved from monkeys? Why we still got monkeys?” – Steve Harvey on Evolution and poor speaking skills.
The next time you see him on television, remember this video. Treat others well and they will treat you well. Don’t be a maniac like this guy.
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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.