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July 16, 2021 16 mins

In this edition of Zeitlander 4: Trendgame, Jack and Super Producer Joelle discuss the new Anthony Bourdain documentary, the soon-to-be youngest person in space being some spoiled rich kid, the Frito-Lay worker strike, Netflix's new game streaming service, and Ryan Reynolds being the most meta actor ever.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of Zeitelander
for trend Game. I don't think I ever finished the
Highlander series of short show titles. That is courtesy of
Come On, It's still good podcast. Um. Shout out to y'all.
I am Jack. That is Joel Monique. Hello, Hello, Hello, hello, hello,

(00:24):
thank you for joining us on this fine Friday afternoon,
sending people into the weekend with six trends for them,
six things that are trending. Uh, let's kick it off
with Anthony Bourdain is trendling. So there's a new documentary
that just hit Can that is about his life, and

(00:48):
the filmmaker, in a recent New Yorker profile, talked about
how he used AI to do some of the Anthony
Bourdain voiceover stuff from the from the documentary, which I
don't know. I don't know how I feel. I feel
like Anthony wouldn't like it, and therefore I'm having trouble
getting behind it. There's something about putting words in a

(01:11):
person's mouth that's really like ringing alarm bells. And Anthony
is so prolific on on radio shows and in his
own like shows. I just feel like, as a documentary,
unless I don't know what they're ai. Is it stuff
they scripted or is it like things he wrote and
maybe didn't get a chance to do like read or

(01:33):
do voice over for it. So it's emails that he wrote,
so he's it's if you're gonna do it, Like having
him read some of his emails out loud feels like
the way to what you would want it it being
him reading something that he actually wrote. However, I don't know,

(01:56):
like just from a filmmaking perspective, like if I was
watching that, I'd be like, wait, why did he read
his emails out loud before he died? Yeah, And I
think there's something to be said about either find the
footage or find someone to do the voice like U
in I'm Not yourn Ego, Samuel Jackson does the voice
for James Baldwin, and it's like so beautiful. It's it's

(02:19):
definitely an interpretation of the person using their own words,
but there's something that feels more authentic than here's an
artificial voice we used to make it sound like that.
On the other hand, we are so familiar with Anthony
Bourdaine's voice, like I don't Tons of people me included,
are constantly rewatch his show, uh, specifically CNN version, and

(02:40):
it it I understand from a filmmaker point of wanting
to be like, listen, we're intimately familiar with this voice.
It we should hear it coming from him. But then
there's like tone and inflection, and I feel really free
about it. Well, I think it has the potential to
be beautiful and great and really put the viewer in
Anthony's headspace, which is the goal of a documentary anyway. Um,

(03:05):
but it also has the possibility of being alienating and
putting wrong inflections on an emphasis on words that maybe
we're not his intention, and that makes me feel a
little weird. Yeah, here, I think I have the audio
right here. Let me just okay, let hello. My name

(03:27):
is Anthony Borda. You're so wild that I was like,
why is it happening? Yeah, hopefully I don't. Yeah, we'll
shout out to one of the greatest to ever do it.
And I hear the documentary is pretty good. So um,
but again, like this is one of those things you
didn't need to distract from it by using technology. But

(03:50):
I do offer people, um, the complete freedom once I
died to use the hundreds of thousands of hours of
my voice, voice that I've recorded and released to make
me say whatever they want. Use me as a human
greeting card, whatever you want, not have my permission with
my voice, don't. Let's see. Oh, we finally found out

(04:12):
who the third person on Jeff Bezos is. Space flight
this weekend is going to be um And I think
this is gonna inspire lots of people whose dad's are
millionaires bordering on billionaires, because it is eighteen year old
Oliver Damon, who whose dad paid twenty eight million dollars

(04:34):
to make him the youngest person ever in space. And yeah,
I mean shout out to him. Very cool, well deserved.
He's applying to colleges. This is really you know, he
needs this right now. He really needs to get the
advantage over the other kids so that he has a
chance at life. Yes, flex, sir, flex on those college freshmen.

(05:00):
As a parent, could you imagine sending your eighteen year
old in what is essentially a space experiment from a
price like I NASA gets it wrong sometimes I can't imagine.
I can't imagine being my baby on a plane to space. No,
like the first time flight three hundred and sixty maybe uh,

(05:21):
right right, absolutely not. Yeah. I also can't imagine it's
going to be like great for them. Also, I'm not
impressed that he's the youngest person in space. That absolutely
you do not learn this space prodigy. This is just
ruining the record for youngest person in space. Now it's
just like, okay, well technically, you know, yes, yes, I'm

(05:46):
waiting for that seven year old prodigy you know who
can do. I don't know what science is you need
to get to space. I'm just gonna say rocket science,
the bath you know that that kid who's like I'm
ready and NASA like you know what, yes, yes, we
need actually surprisingly easy, it's just like addition and subtraction.
So uh the Yeah, this feels a little bit like

(06:12):
for some reason, this just intellectually does not agree with me. Um.
It reminds me of like when YouTube influencers right there
autobiographies at the age of like nineteen. It's just like
you haven't done ship, Like when when this kid gets
up there, like the whole thing with going into space
is supposed to be that like you have this amazing

(06:33):
like pull perspective back and suddenly you realize that we're
all just part of this human race together and we're
just very insignificant. And this kid, what is this kid? Anna,
He's gonna be like tight Jeff. That's pretty to right. Yeah,

(06:53):
I mean maybe he'll turn out to be like Howard.
He's esque in that. You know, he had a lot
of money and dream and it started off sort of weird,
you know, mostly just about athletes and getting out there.
But then he found a passion and it blossomed into
something unique. You know, maybe maybe now him a large company. Yeah,

(07:23):
and then he almost tanked that company trying to launch
his film career. A Um, that's that's awesome that I
have like completely bought into the You know, America loves
to erase any sort of hand hand me downs, let
the rich get and make it a story of them
pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Um just him and

(07:46):
his millions of dollars and a fleet of airplanes. He
had a larger airplanes in the Navy. I didn't mean
to make a spot Howard he's but you don't give
the drift. Young guy given money could maybe become something,
but it just seems so silly. I really wish they
had brought someone where it would have been significant to
be like, oh wow, they're going to space. That's so yeah.

(08:06):
They got a hundred year old eighteen year old ye Richie,
like three gs. It just sucking powder against the back
of the higher keep them on the ground. Um well

(08:26):
uh down in Topeka, Kansas or up in Topeka, Kansas,
depending on where you are spiritually. I am spiritually in
the spacecraft with Jeff Bezos and this young man. But
in Topeka, Kansas, Freedo lay workers are striking after being
forced to work twelve hour days, seven days a week.

(08:50):
Quote from one of the strikers. I think people are
pushed to the edge. COVID created some of this. During
COVID managers got to work from home. People see that
and realize they have other options. I don't know. It's
pretty dope. Collectives, Yes, get out there by for your rights.
Five months off, five months with no day off unacceptable, exhausting.

(09:14):
My guesses. Most of them are on their feet all
the times. It's a factory, so twelve hours on your feet.
We know what factory conditions are like. We've all read
animal farm uh and we've seen the Amazon workers and
their pea bottles. So I hope they get some respect.
But my guess is, uh, they're gonna pull a similar

(09:34):
thing that um is an abiscoe who owns Oreo and
was just like, y'all are mad, We'll just take our
jobs to Mexico. Piece. It's it's such a scary time
for workers right now, particularly blue collar workers who don't
have a lot of leverage in their ability to dictate
their schedules or you know, make plans for their lives.

(09:55):
They're just literally half at the will of their employer.
So I don't know. Hopefully somebody can give them some
ability to make better decisions for themselves, because that's wild. Well,
my time at Amazon has taught me that unions are
actually evil and we could learn we can figure this
out on um. So yeah, alright, let's take a quick break.

(10:16):
We'll be right back and we're back. Uh. And Netflix.
First of all, Netflix just hired a head of podcast
So really, Netflix coming to take the food out of

(10:37):
my baby's mouth. Um. But also, uh, they are apparently
aiming to do some video game and I'm excited about
what did they launched like a video game section or
what's what's happening? Super not clear, it's early stages. They
hired Mike verdu who used to work for Facebook acquiring

(10:58):
games for the Oculus heads set, So those guys clearly
in the know. Ac Let's work with a bunch of
different video game development companies, so it sounds like what
they're gonna do is just put it right next to
the movies and television shows. I don't know what kind
of controller you'll need, if they're going to come out
with their own specific kind, if you can buy any

(11:19):
generic kind and connect it. Um. It's just not really
clear yet. It's still very early days, but it's an
exciting opportunity because I think they're looking to launch new
release video games, so it'll be a great opportunity for
indie developers. In my opinion, it will be your opportunity
for indie developers to be like, hey, here's my game
that most people would not normally buy, given on this

(11:40):
very large platform. Uh. And it sounds like at this
point in time they're not planning to increase. It's not
like an additional package you'd have to buy. It would
just calm with the rest of the stuff, so you
wouldn't have to buy a console. You would just be
able to play through Netflix. I don't know how that's
gonna work because you can play so many different things,

(12:00):
so I'm not sure how it's gonna all work. A
big game change, totally. Absolutely, Yeah. I think it's exciting
just to see again the potential for indie game developers,
of which there are so many right now, to have
a large platform to watch their games could be exciting. Um.
Deadpool is trending. There is a new movie coming out
called Save Guy. Is that? What? It's called? Free Guy?

(12:24):
Free Guy? Uh? That is in which Ryan Reynolds plays
a video game character who finds out he's a video
game character. It's like a video game cross with Truman Show. Uh.
And it's very meta. Continues with Ryan Reynolds is thing

(12:46):
of being meta in meta movies. Um. And to complete
the metaness of it all, uh, they released a Deadpool
trailer for uh free Guy, which is Deadpool commenting on
Ryan Reynolds in Ryan Reynolds the most surreal. It's so

(13:07):
surreal and was confusing to me at first. It was
like twentieth century Fox resins Free Guy, and then here's Deadpool,
and I'm like it's not a Fox property, and then
like suddenly dawned and be like, oh right, no, Disney
purchased twenty century Fox or acquired it, and then they
also put core again because Deadpool hasn't officially entered the

(13:28):
Marvel universe yet, so this is technically his first appearance
in the m c U maybe, but it's the trailer
on YouTube, so it's not really the m c U.
But he's interacting with m c U characters again sort
of for the first time. In the first Deadpool movie,
you get a bunch of m c U characters, but
again not from Marvel's Disney from Fox. So the incest

(13:51):
of studios and the overlap, and it also seems like
a potentially like illegal hurdles head it was wild. It
really blew my mind watching it. I still can't fully
process what, if literally anything it means other than like
Ryan Reynolds is just a g and can do whatever
he wants. Now he's reached this sort of um superstar

(14:12):
status of not having to adhere to the typical Disney rules.
You know, a lot of these actors performers have to
live like real strict, clean cut lives, like you do
not want to upset the mouse, asked Gina. She knows,
but but he also can reach out to these other
companies and and do other things and still find a
way to fold it back into Deadpool because that character

(14:34):
has been designed to be like so meta and out
of the box. Again, I don't know if it means
anything long term or if this is just a weird,
one off thing Ryan gets to do. And I just
have to like Marvel at how bizarre it is. It
was weird. I don't know, literally, Marvel, yes, literally, so
so this is because Deadpool has not been in the
Marvel universe. This is like a the first time that

(14:57):
Deadpool has crossed over into the Marvel universe. And it's
because of those two characters being and if you want
to hear something crazy or someone pointed out like they
were both in a DC property because Ryan played Green
Lantern and Tica has a bit part in that Green
Lantern movie. Because technically a reunion for those two guys,
but for a different comic book company. It was wild

(15:18):
all right. Well, Joel, it's been such a pleasure having
you on t d ZY. We only got to five stories,
but that's all the time we had. So where can
people find you and follow you? Yeah? You guys, send
me and Joel Monique, you can find me all over
the internet. Actual moniqu gets j O E l l
E m O win I q u E. There you go,

(15:39):
and that's gonna do it for us for this week.
We are back Monday with the whole last episode of
the show. Until then, I have a good weekend. Be
kind to each other and be kind to yourselves. Don't
do nothing about white supremacy. We'll talk to you all
on Monday. By BYW

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