February 6, 2024 • 38 mins
Joe Escalante's weekly dive into the business end of showbiz. This week: Alec Baldwin pleads not guilty, as did the armorer on the Rust set. Also, the latest from the Box Office, and Joe starts digging into his Oscar picks for Best Picture, including Zone of Interest, a WWII film that caught all of Joe's attention, and Poor Things (nominated for 11 Academy Awards). Also, Universal pulled all their artist masters off of TikTok for not paying enough. Considering TikTok is now the biggest distributer of music out there, musicians are not happy about it.
Joe doesn't care about the Grammy's .
Joe doesn't care about the Grammy's .
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Joe Ascalante live from Hollywood. Ifby Hollywood you mean Burbank across the street
from a Wiener Schnitzel that serves beer. This is two hours of the business
end of show business on this nonNFL Sunday, in between the Championship game
and the Super Bowl next week.You might hear the same thing because it's
(00:30):
a super Bowl day. What amI gonna do? Anyway, You're gonna
love it. This is two hoursof the business end of show business.
We do this every Sunday on thatfive pm, eleven to fifty on your
AM dial for two hours. Todaythere's a lot of Oscar stuff going on.
There's a lot of celebrities behaving badly. Let's start with Alec Baldwin.
(00:53):
Alec Baldwin. Let's well, firstof all, let's start with me saying
last week that this was in Texaswhen it's a New Mexico. So I
apologize for being a coastal elite andthinking that Texas and New Mexico is the
same place. But it isn't.But what we were talking about last week
was that, you know, maybeTexas was going to haha. We have
(01:14):
Alec Baldwin. You don't like hispolitics, so we're gonna we're gonna indict
him on a manslaughter and when thesecharges were dropped before and they revived it
for it, But it's not Texas, it's New Mexico. So New Mexico's
got a lot of lefties that loveAlec Baldwin. So I don't know,
maybe there's something to this. He'spleaded not guilty this week, and it
(01:38):
seems like he didn't have to goin and he just was able to do
it by some you know, enteringpapers in the court that say I'm not
guilty, he says. If you'llremember in this twenty twenty one interview he
did where he just said, hey, look there's not supposed to be live
(01:59):
ammunition on the set. Someone broughtlive and munition onto the set and that
person is responsible, not me.The armorer. What's her name, Hannah,
Hannah Gutierres, she's the person incharge of the guns on the set.
She has pleaded not guilty also,and she, I would say,
(02:23):
faces real jail time when Alec Baldwin, even if he's found guilty. I
think it's just like maybe eighteen months, but they'll never put him in jail.
I think They just want to punishhim for his hubris in general.
Now, is that justice? Probablynot. But Hanna Gutierres, what's her
(02:45):
name, she's she's Her excuse isI was pleading for more firearms training,
and that goes back to the producers, which is Alec Baldwin. I'm not
responsible for this because I wanted moregun training, and with more gun training,
live ammunition might not have ended upon the set, so it could
(03:10):
be mistakenly put into a gun thatwas given to Alec Baldwin that he aimed
and fired, killing the cinematographer.So that trial is going to be it's
Alec Baldwin's fault. Alec Baldwin's trialis it's Hana Gutierras's fault. So I
(03:32):
don't know, you know, youkind of want them both to go to
trial so we can get to thebottom of this. Otherwise, if they
all plead, then we never reallyknow. Meanwhile, the movies I think
finished because it got put back intoproduction and then the executive producer of the
deceased cinematographer was made an executive produceror the yeah, he was made They
(03:54):
just said, well, how aboutyou be executive producer and don't sue us.
I think that's what's going on thereand the movie normally this is a
movie. No it would just comeand go and no one would would see
what it is, and Alec Baldwinto just take the money and pay his
taxes or whatever he goes. AndI hope no one ever saw it be
(04:18):
on video and demand, And nowI still don't think it'll be in theaters,
but it will be. It willget some kind of more serious distribution
and more eyeballs on it. Iwould imagine, I want to see it,
so we'll let you know when thathappens. Of course, they if
(04:39):
either of these go to trial.Baldwin won't go to trial, but I
don't think. Oh maybe, Idon't know. But the armorer she goes
to trial. That's going to beinteresting because then we're going to find out
why was there live ammunition on theset? Was she part of those people?
People were doing target practice on thatset? Some of the reports say
so they were, you know,have them find hey, do you want
to put bullets and these guns andgo do target practice over there? And
(05:01):
the in the hills, you know, they're all in the desert and some
making some Western and things. Peopleget bored and they start goofing around and
did that happen? Stupid? ButI don't know what that has to do
with gun training. If you're thearmorer, don't allow live ammunition on the
set. But we'll see. Andas I've said, I've been the armorer
(05:24):
on a show and it's it's uh, it's really serious and and and you
don't goof around you just but somepeople goof around. I guess now in
the Gutierra's trial, there is actuallysome interesting stuff floating around. Uh.
(05:46):
The she was offered a plea deal, according to the prosecutor. Prosecutor's name
is Carrie Morrissey, by the way, So Morrissey offered Gutierras what she called
a favorable plea last September if shewould accept responsibility for bringing in the live
rounds. I guess she doesn't wantto do that because that's you know,
(06:11):
doesn't want to implicate herself that much, and she doesn't have to. But
that's a big sticking point. Andthen she she's supposed to testify against Alec
Baldwin and say that she brought thelive rounds in, and she says that
(06:33):
she didn't and the prosecutor says therewas training and they blew off the training.
And then there's some text messages floatingaround between A. Gutierras Reid is
her full name, and others thatmake apparent reference to the use of marijuana
(06:55):
and cocaine on the set. Notgood. One of them said, do
you want me to get any ofDo you want me to get us any
coke? One person asked Gutierras Readin September twenty twenty one, and Gutierras
Reid replies, already got some.She should have said diet coke. Another
(07:19):
exchange indicated Gutiras Read smoked marijuana thenight before the shooting headed down to get
high out back. She wrote,So you don't want to an armorer that
smokes pot and does cocaine. Andthe propmaster has stated that I think she
(07:45):
was so drunk that she didn't knowshe brought live ammal onto the truck when
she went to get a gun fromthe safe. This is the prop master
who was given a mune unity forhis testimony. So yeah, she's going
(08:07):
down. I mean she's she's takingif she's if she's handling guns and taking
drugs on a movie set. That'show you go to jail. So I
don't feel that bad for her,But Alec Baldwin I do feel bad for
because you know, he's just maybethere's some cutting corners here and he should
(08:28):
have been. If you want tobe a producer, be a producer and
get into the weeds and see ifthese are who they're hiring, and what's
the experience, what's the resume ofthis armor. Let's let's not cut corners
on the armor. And I'll betno one ever does in Hollywood after this.
(08:48):
So I just say he's been throughenough. And I'm not really a
fan of the guy, but Ijust think he's been through enough, because
you don't want this to happen toyou if you work in Hollywood. You
know, you don't want to beaccused of this. You don't want to
be You don't want to have tohave someone say, hey, why don't
you testify against Alec Baldwin in exchangefor not going to jail? And then
(09:11):
you never work in Hollywood again anyway, because you're the person that did that.
You just have to choose another career. But a lot of people in
Hollywood have to choose another career allthe time because it's a you know,
it's a weird up and down business. I'm going to take a break right
now and check the traffic. Whenwe come back, we're going to talk
about the films, the Academy Awardnominees, Poor Things, and Zone of
(09:33):
Interest Joe Sclante Live from Hollywood.If by Hollywood you mean Burbank, and
we're talking about Academy Award movies thissegment, let's start with Let's see any
meany miny mo. Let's start withZone of Interest. Zone of Interest is
(09:56):
a British film, actually with Germanlanguage in English subtitles or whatever subtitles you
want to get. And it's directedby a guy named Jonathan Glazer, loosely
(10:18):
based on a twenty fourteen novel bysomeone named Martin Amis, and it qualifies
as a foreign production. It's kindof a co production between the US,
the United Kingdom and Poland. Andit stars a guy named Christian Fredell as
a I'll just describe it to youthis way how I describe it to most
(10:39):
people. It's about this family.This family lives in a really nice house.
They love the house. It's likenineteen forty two Ish and they've been
living in the house for a fewyears. It's basically it's in Auschwitz,
(11:03):
so it's butted up against the concentrationcamp. They share a wall with the
concentration camp, and concentration camp isin full swing. The guy that Christian
Friedell plays is the commandant Rudolph Haas, and he's striving to build this dream
(11:24):
life with his wife Hedwig in thishome. But it's in Auschwitz. So
it's about just you know, howthe people. I mean, you don't
have to blame it on the Germansreally, but it could be anywhere where
there's something going on and the governmenthas created this, you know, just
(11:50):
horror and it needs people to carryout the horror. So how does it
get those people? Well, Ithink it's one of the way it gets
them is by promising them things.And of course in a war like in
Nazi Germany, they're like, okay, you, I promise not to put
you in jail if you go fightthis war as a soldier. But then
(12:13):
more higher elevated people in the socialstrata they're like, I will give you,
I'll make your dreams come true thatweren't going to come true if you
carry out this horror at the concentrationcamp, or turn a blind eye while
other people do. And so thesepeople turned a blind eye to what was
(12:35):
going on, and it was verydark, but you can imagine that it
had to happen because someone had torun these concentration camps and where do they
live, and if they're efficient andqualified and desirable, you got to pay
(12:56):
them a lot, and you gotto give them a good house. You
got to take care of their family. So that's what they did for this
guy. And then the wife isjust trying to build a home with her
kids in a good yard, inher greenhouse and her bees and her pool
with a slide, and it's justso wonderful until you hear the screams outside
the wall. But they don't theydon't listen. So the whole time you're
(13:22):
watching this movie, you're thinking,did that just happen? Then someone else
happens something else, did that justhappen? You know? I'm watching it
with my wife. I saw itat the Bella Terra Theater in Huntington Beach,
and I'm just like what you're watching? Every scene You're like, Okay,
(13:43):
this looks like idyllic children, youknow, playing, for example,
in the yard or in the pool. But what else is going on?
So you got to look at everyinch of the screen and go, oh,
look at that over there. Oh, let's be on the wall.
Maybe there's a train smokestack can barecoming in. You know what that is?
There's a giant incinerator smokestack spewing ashes. What could that be? I
(14:09):
don't know. They don't care.I mean they know. It's like it's
I think they all know. Arethese just innocent people that were just fell
for the spiel of don't worry whatyou know, We're we're carrying out some
complicated missions. And you gotta putthese people in the uh in these camps,
(14:35):
and then this is how you treatthem because they're less than human.
And then you get fed that foryears and years, and you're you,
I guess you're after a while,you just believe it because the alternative is
to take your family out of thishouse. I don't know, but wow,
(15:00):
filmmaking it is one of the bestmovies I've ever seen. It's just
they just did it perfectly. Soas for some people might be a little
too dark, but it is.I mean, it's just something that happened
had to have happened, and someonewrote a book about how it happened,
and someone made a movie about howit happened. Is it true? I
(15:28):
think it's just based on things thatprobably happened, and box office not much.
It's like, you know, onlymade a million or so, so
like a maybe a three million,the three or four million total, what
(15:52):
is it? I don't know whatthe the budget was, but anyway,
you shouldn't see it. Let's seewhat else we got. Okay, so
now let's go to Poor Things.Poor Things is a film by Yurgos Lanthromos
I think is his name? Greekdirector? He made Oh wait, who
(16:17):
made Let's go back to the Zoneof Interest? Who made Zone of Interest?
You ask, well, it's JonathanGlazer. What did Jonathan Glazer make?
He made Sexy Beast? I mean, he made other films that I'm
(16:38):
not that familiar with, but SexyBeast. And this is kind of the
life of a director. I've noticeda successful director he directs a film in
the year two thousand. He doesn'tdirect a film until the year two thousand
and four, so that's four yearshe's running around trying to get some film
(16:59):
made kind of life? Is thatnot fun? Sexy Beast was a hit.
So he makes a movie called Birthin two thousand and four, that
one he writes, and then hedoesn't make another film until twenty thirteen.
Okay, so that's two thousand andfour to twenty thirteen. And the movie
(17:19):
Birth, it's a it's a bigmovie. He's working with Lauren Butcall and
Nicole Kidman and Hash doesn't make anotherfilm for nine years. So that's the
life of a successful director. Whatkind of director are you going to be?
(17:44):
Then doesn't direct another film until TheZone of Interest in twenty twenty three.
That's ten years. What's he doingduring that ten years besides driving his
wife nuts? So you want tobe a film director. That's a successful
film director. So hats off tothe film directors that stick it out and
stick it out, make movies likeSexy Beast, Hang in There, and
(18:08):
then twenty three years later, makea movie nominated for Best Picture called The
Zone of Interest, and congratulations onthe rewards that he's getting. He's nominated
for Best Director and that's a bigdeal. I don't know how many times
(18:30):
he's been nominated. I'm gonna guesszero. Certainly not for Sexy Beast,
even though it's just a fantastic filmif you haven't seen Sexy Beast. The
film is nominated for Best Picture,as I've said, Best Adapted Screenplay,
also by Jonathan Glazer, so he'sgot a writing Oscar nomination and a directing
(18:51):
nomination, and it's also nominated forBest Feature Film, International Feature Film.
It could do a you know,like a everywhere everything all at once or
parasite kind of thing. Best Sound. Also on the sound, oh man,
the sound is haunting. I wouldsee it for the sound. Zone
(19:15):
of Interest. We'll get back,we'll talk about poor things. Joe's Galante
Live from Hollywood. Joe Ascalante livefrom Hollywood. If by Hollywood you mean
Burbank, across the street from theWonderstonize that serves beer. We are talking
to Oscar Movies right now, andwe just talked about Zone of Interest.
(19:37):
Nominated for Best Picture, director byJonathan Glazer, also nominated for Best Director.
Highly recommend seeing this film. Idon't know. I hard to imagine
a better film, just in termsof how well it's made and the subject
(19:59):
matter fascinating. Just now I'm gonnaturn to a very different film. It's
called Poor Things, Poor Things.They describe it as a science fantasy,
black comedy drama film. I wouldcall it a morally offensive masterpiece directed by
(20:26):
yourgos Lanthromos. He directed the movieLobster that we talked about a couple weeks
ago, maybe a month ago.He's a Greek, He's a Greek freak.
Really, when you see this movie, hey, I think it's safe
to say this man's a freak.Who else is a freak? Emma Stone
that acts in the movie, andshe's also a producer, and I think
(20:52):
you wouldn't be able to get astar of her magnitude to do the weird
things that are happening in this movie. She wasn't also the producer, Like,
no one could tell her to dothis. Okay, now you do
this, Now you do that.In this scene, Emma Stone, you're
going to have simulated sex again nakedwith a weird, ugly old man,
(21:14):
because the idea is you're a prostituteand you have sex with everybody, so
we got to really mix it up. Here's another troll. There's troll number
fifteen. Anyway, that's a littlespoiler. Sorry, Because she does become
a prostitute at some point in themovie. I apologize for that, but
(21:37):
everybody loves this movie. I mean, it's, like I said, morally
offensive masterpiece. It is as ifTim Burton and Crispin Glover collaborated or maybe
got married and had a baby,and this movie was the baby the I
don't know if you've seen any CrispinGlover movies, but I mean I saw
(22:00):
one. I saw one when Iwas doing the morning radio on Indy one
three to one. I had themon my show all the time because I
had a lot of directors on theshow, and he was my favorite,
or one of my favorites for sure. And he did this film that was
the cast was entirely actors with downsyndrome, and he invited me to a
(22:26):
screening. The screening was in hisbedroom. Yeah, in his Hollywood Hills
bedroom. I sat on a redvelvet chase lounge in Crispin Glover's bedroom and
watched the movie. Now, beforeyou get weird ideas, there was another
journalist there too. We were bothinvited. So there's some lady. She's
(22:48):
sitting on a chair, I'm onthe chase lounge and we watched a movie
with him. And it was agood movie. But I mean, when
you watch Poor Things and think aboutChrispin Glover in the kind of movies he's
made, and the dialogue in aCrispin Glover movie so like bizarre and direct,
(23:10):
and this movie is similar. Butit has the budget of a Tim
Burton movie or beyond, and itis sweeping the awards. So it's nominated
for Best Picture in eleven categories.I mean everywhere, like you know,
makeup, production design, hair wardrobe, best Supporting Actor, Mark Ruffalo,
(23:37):
who's fantastic in it. Emma Stone, I mean, she's, you know,
always been one of my favorites.In this movie so disturbing to watch
her. I'm just kind of I'mdone. Okay, you acted so well,
I can't look at you anymore.How's that Best Picture in the Golden
Globes for a Musical or Comedy?And yeah, she went Best Actress in
(24:03):
the Golden Globes, probably will winBest Actress in the Academy Awards. And
you're kind you're probably wondering, like, hey, Joe, why do you
talk about these movies? Earlier?You already did your top ten for the
year. I know, but thenI forgot about the all these Academy Award
movies. So I used to livein LA and you just see them naturally,
you know, in the theaters aroundtown, and they'd be playing.
(24:25):
Maybe you could walk to a theaterthat played these movies. But now that
I live in Seal Beach, Igotta work to go see these movies.
Although Poor Things was playing at theBeltara in Huntington Beach, but I didn't
see it, probably because I waswaiting for my wife to be available,
and and she just looks so weirdin the trailer. I wasn't sure I
(24:48):
wanted to see it. I washoping it would just be terrible and I
wouldn't have to see it. Andthen I did finally get a screener from
the Screen Actress Guild, and Iwatched it that way, and Holy Moses,
you know, if you like setdesign and you like hair and makeup,
(25:10):
and I don't know, it's afantastic movie. It's just morally very
offensive. Don't take your kids.Do some binding prayers after you see it,
so the devil doesn't get inside ofyou from the horrible things your witness
too. But then you know itdoesn't. It's not heavy handed in its
message. I wouldn't say it's aneat your p's movie. It's in the
(25:33):
long line of movies where they say, you know what, this message I
have explains the whole world, andthere I did it. Some movies like
that are just crap. I've seenmany of them, or even books I've
read that say, oh, thisis like movies or TV shows that say
(25:56):
like, oh, God is justan all knowing fatherly being that likes all
religions and and all we have todo is love each other yawn, not
brave, and this one is alittle bit like that, but with utter
genius in the dialogue and the pacingand the delivery of the lines. It's
(26:25):
some people are just gonna hate itbecause the way that actors talk. It's
an affected dialogue, a lot likethe movie Lobster that I watched a while
ago. And it turns out yourghost Lanthemos directed Lobster. So if you
(26:52):
like Lobster, this is like Lobsterwith a one hundred million dollars added to
the budget. Where can you seeit? It's still playing in theaters,
so here I'm checking out. Okay, So what's next on my movie list?
(27:15):
Probably I've seen Barbie. These arethe Best Picture nominees American Fiction,
Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie,Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon,
Maestro Oppenheimer, Past Lives, PoorThings, Zone of Interest. A lot
of these movies are just so obscure. They haven't come my way. But
I do have a copy of AmericanFiction and the Holdovers, so I will
(27:37):
see those next, and then PoorThings, Past Lives, and Anatomy of
a Fall. I don't know whatI'm gonna do, but that's uh,
it's coming up. Who's gonna win? So far? Who would I say
is gonna win? I'd say,uh, poor Things is gonna win.
(28:00):
I haven't seen Holdovers or American Fictionor Past Lives, but if I was
gonna put money on something, I'dput it on Poor Things. The Best
Director Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan, andBest Actor I'm gonna go with I haven't
(28:22):
seen a lot of these movies,so I'm gonna maybe maybe Bradley Cooper.
The movie is like who cares aboutLeonard Bernstein? Like, you know,
ay, great music? Why areyou making a movie about this guy?
Anyway, I'm rambling, so let'stake a break and we'll come back after
this look at the traffic, etcetera. On eleven fifty A M K
E I B. Joe Ascalante Livefrom Hollywood, Joe Askanti, here's my
(29:11):
lawyer. You don't Joe Scalante Livefrom Hollywood by Hollywood, you mean Burbank.
We're talking about the business end ofshow business as usual, like we
do every Sunday from five to sevenon eight M eleven fifty K E I
B. It's kind of fun.I mean, I can't I you know,
I go see these movies. You'reprobably in the same game as me.
(29:33):
It's like you see these movies andyou talk to everybody at a party
and nobody's seen anything. Used tobe we would sit around and talk about
the movies we saw and the speakerswe have. I don't really miss the
conversations about the speakers that all thedudes had in the seventies, but I
do miss the movie stuff, sowe talk about it here. It's kind
(29:56):
of fun. I appreciate it.You indulging. If you want to give
your two cents, easiest way goto the Facebook page Joe Scalante Life from
Hollywood on Facebook. And I mean, we're not going to be pimpals.
But you know, you should talkabout it. So there's other stuff going
(30:17):
on that we should probably get intoa little bit, and a lot of
it is, Oh, here's someof it. I'll just kind of rattle
through it. We talked about VinceMcMahon from WWE resigning and he's just he's
got an onslaught of lawsuits against himand now they're investigating him. The FBI
is actually investigating him, according toReports four. That's Chewy, make a
(30:41):
noise back there, Chewy, calmdown. The FBI is investigating him for
trafficking. Sex trafficking, by theway, that kind of trafficking. So
he's in a lot of trouble's he'skind of like the Harvey Weinstein of sports
(31:03):
right now. So I don't look, I don't envy him. And here's
another guy. Look how much moneythat guy had. Did you envy him
his women and his money and hismaterial possessions. Well, if you did,
that was chewy. He did envyhim. But look at him now.
I mean, I'm not wishing shadenfreud on him, but I'm just
(31:25):
saying, let's appreciate our own livesand yeah, not worry about everything everyone
else has. Now look, Ilike to I'm just gonna take a little
side step here. I'm interested inthings that have an ounce of humility,
and there's no humility in WWE wrestling. I think there is a fair amount
(31:48):
of humility in other professional sports.I mean, what do you mean by
humility. I don't know. Imean, you know, just a guy
who at the end of the gamesays, you know, it's not me,
it was God, you know.I like that. I want to
thank my mom. I like thatthis is a team effort. It's not
me, it's my team, it'smy front line. I take my front
(32:10):
line out too. It's like thequarterbacks used to do, take the front
line out for a stake every week. That kind of stuff. It doesn't
happen in WWE. I don't careif it's fake or not. It just
doesn't happen. I don't like it. Rap music doesn't hip hop. I
mean I used to love like theold stuff back in the day, of
(32:34):
course, but then it's just likeeverything's about how much money they have and
how much power they have, andhow they're better than you. Not interested.
So the same goes with wrestling tome. But this guy, he's
(32:55):
out here a lot of people likeit. I did like The Iron Claw,
the movie about wrestling. That washuman story and they could have used
a little humility, maybe the dadstuff like that. Another big story this
week, huge story of music.First of all, you have the Grammys
this week. I don't know ifyou're going to the Joe Scolante Live from
(33:19):
Hollywood Grammy party after the awards atthe Wiener Schnitzel in Burbank, the one
that serves beer on olive. We'llbe there. There's a red carpet,
there's a band, there's a buffet. Well, the buffet is just a
counter where you go. It's kindof self. It's a no host buffet
(33:42):
of hot dogs and hamburgers and tastyfreeze items and three beers on tap.
So we'll see you there like wedo every year. And other than that,
the Grammys. Wow, what apuke fest? Right? I mean
yet I can already tell you that, so who cares? But the big
(34:05):
news in music this week is Universalhas pulled all their artists masters from TikTok.
So now, is that kind oflike cost them a lot of money?
Nope, it's a little bit ofmoney. But the TikTok is so
heavy in the you know, thepromotion racket. I mean people using it
to promote stuff. So they're goingto feel it all the artists. So
(34:28):
is this something the artist wanted?Why did they pull it? They pulled
it because they said, you're notpaying enough. Your royalty rate is too
small. We analyze what you makeTikTok, and you make so much money,
you could pay more for your content. And they phrase it as,
you know, you got to paythe artist. But by the time it
trickles down to the artist, it'seven less so universal. I don't feel
(34:52):
sorry for them. You know,by the time they've taken their cut,
they could take less of a cutand give it to the artists if they
cared about the artist. But theyhave. They're the biggest game in town.
They're the biggest music distributor and contentowner there is, and so they're
the big gorilla. And if theysay, TikTok, we want you to
(35:15):
pay more, TikTok has to payattention or they're gonna lose all the all
the all the music. And nowthere's no Taylor Swift music on TikTok,
just maybe silent dances. Without TaylorSwift on there so that's a problem.
I mean the football. You seehow the football people do it. The
football people like while everyone else isstruggling with advertising revenue. And you know,
(35:38):
even wokeness was a problem for allsports, football and I fill football
kind of cleaned up their act.I don't see any woke stuff on there
anymore, like the overt things they'veyou know, without totally angering the people
(35:59):
who have pressured them in the firstplace to be woke. Seems like they've
they're serving them and serving the fan. And the ratings are huge. Taylor
Swift comes to town. Ten millionmore people watch the Kansas City Chiefs games
than they did previously on TV,so you have ten million more eyeballs and
(36:21):
that's a lot of revenue. NFLis just just basking in that. And
somehow they made it. They didn'truin it. You know, it's just
happening. They could have ruined itsomehow. You know, they cut to
her and her friend, you know, high fiving each other after the good
big plays. But now the musicbusiness they lost. Taylor Swift live touring
(36:45):
benefits from Taylor Swift, NFL benefitsfrom Taylor Swift. Somehow, TikTok has
blown it and Universal they're not gettingthat the all that Taylor Swift income they
were getting. So I hope theyget their act together. And a lot
(37:06):
of people say that. The argumentsgo like this, Universal is always asking
for something outrageous because they have somuch market share. And then the other
hand, people say, TikTok andthese music services will bleed you dry and
leave you with nothing if you letthem. They will build an entire empire
(37:28):
off of your work and not payyou a cent unless you fight them every
single day. So maybe we're happyfor a Universal leading the way, but
if you're one of those artists,it's just like this is how you get
going and then Universal, I mean, your career is just kind of getting
going, and then Universal takes allyour music off of TikTok. Some of
(37:49):
these people only have one shot,and that shot could have been already lost.
The other big news in music thisweek is talk Heads turning down eighty
million dollars to do a tour.So that shows you how badly they do
not want to do anything together.So does no one asked them to go
into a cage fight and beat thecrap out of each other or build a
(38:13):
dig ditches. They said, wouldyou like to go play music? You're
amazing, awesome music for eighty milliondollars, saying Nope, don't want to
do that. So okay, loudand clear, I'm going to be at
the Punk Rock Museum on February seventeenth. People are always asking me, Hey,
Joe, when are you going tobe at that museum again? I
want to see your tour. SoFebruary seventeenth, I will be doing two
(38:37):
tours at the Punk Rock Museum inLas Vegas. I get tickets online punk
Rock Museum, and I will seeyou there. Now leave you with just
a taste of the greatest song everwritten.
Joe Ascalante live from Hollywood. Ifby Hollywood you mean Burbank across the street
from a Wiener Schnitzel that serves beer. This is two hours of the business
end of show business on this nonNFL Sunday, in between the Championship game
and the Super Bowl next week.You might hear the same thing because it's
(00:30):
a super Bowl day. What amI gonna do? Anyway, You're gonna
love it. This is two hoursof the business end of show business.
We do this every Sunday on thatfive pm, eleven to fifty on your
AM dial for two hours. Todaythere's a lot of Oscar stuff going on.
There's a lot of celebrities behaving badly. Let's start with Alec Baldwin.
(00:53):
Alec Baldwin. Let's well, firstof all, let's start with me saying
last week that this was in Texaswhen it's a New Mexico. So I
apologize for being a coastal elite andthinking that Texas and New Mexico is the
same place. But it isn't.But what we were talking about last week
was that, you know, maybeTexas was going to haha. We have
(01:14):
Alec Baldwin. You don't like hispolitics, so we're gonna we're gonna indict
him on a manslaughter and when thesecharges were dropped before and they revived it
for it, But it's not Texas, it's New Mexico. So New Mexico's
got a lot of lefties that loveAlec Baldwin. So I don't know,
maybe there's something to this. He'spleaded not guilty this week, and it
(01:38):
seems like he didn't have to goin and he just was able to do
it by some you know, enteringpapers in the court that say I'm not
guilty, he says. If you'llremember in this twenty twenty one interview he
did where he just said, hey, look there's not supposed to be live
(01:59):
ammunition on the set. Someone broughtlive and munition onto the set and that
person is responsible, not me.The armorer. What's her name, Hannah,
Hannah Gutierres, she's the person incharge of the guns on the set.
She has pleaded not guilty also,and she, I would say,
(02:23):
faces real jail time when Alec Baldwin, even if he's found guilty. I
think it's just like maybe eighteen months, but they'll never put him in jail.
I think They just want to punishhim for his hubris in general.
Now, is that justice? Probablynot. But Hanna Gutierres, what's her
(02:45):
name, she's she's Her excuse isI was pleading for more firearms training,
and that goes back to the producers, which is Alec Baldwin. I'm not
responsible for this because I wanted moregun training, and with more gun training,
live ammunition might not have ended upon the set, so it could
(03:10):
be mistakenly put into a gun thatwas given to Alec Baldwin that he aimed
and fired, killing the cinematographer.So that trial is going to be it's
Alec Baldwin's fault. Alec Baldwin's trialis it's Hana Gutierras's fault. So I
(03:32):
don't know, you know, youkind of want them both to go to
trial so we can get to thebottom of this. Otherwise, if they
all plead, then we never reallyknow. Meanwhile, the movies I think
finished because it got put back intoproduction and then the executive producer of the
deceased cinematographer was made an executive produceror the yeah, he was made They
(03:54):
just said, well, how aboutyou be executive producer and don't sue us.
I think that's what's going on thereand the movie normally this is a
movie. No it would just comeand go and no one would would see
what it is, and Alec Baldwinto just take the money and pay his
taxes or whatever he goes. AndI hope no one ever saw it be
(04:18):
on video and demand, And nowI still don't think it'll be in theaters,
but it will be. It willget some kind of more serious distribution
and more eyeballs on it. Iwould imagine, I want to see it,
so we'll let you know when thathappens. Of course, they if
(04:39):
either of these go to trial.Baldwin won't go to trial, but I
don't think. Oh maybe, Idon't know. But the armorer she goes
to trial. That's going to beinteresting because then we're going to find out
why was there live ammunition on theset? Was she part of those people?
People were doing target practice on thatset? Some of the reports say
so they were, you know,have them find hey, do you want
to put bullets and these guns andgo do target practice over there? And
(05:01):
the in the hills, you know, they're all in the desert and some
making some Western and things. Peopleget bored and they start goofing around and
did that happen? Stupid? ButI don't know what that has to do
with gun training. If you're thearmorer, don't allow live ammunition on the
set. But we'll see. Andas I've said, I've been the armorer
(05:24):
on a show and it's it's uh, it's really serious and and and you
don't goof around you just but somepeople goof around. I guess now in
the Gutierra's trial, there is actuallysome interesting stuff floating around. Uh.
(05:46):
The she was offered a plea deal, according to the prosecutor. Prosecutor's name
is Carrie Morrissey, by the way, So Morrissey offered Gutierras what she called
a favorable plea last September if shewould accept responsibility for bringing in the live
rounds. I guess she doesn't wantto do that because that's you know,
(06:11):
doesn't want to implicate herself that much, and she doesn't have to. But
that's a big sticking point. Andthen she she's supposed to testify against Alec
Baldwin and say that she brought thelive rounds in, and she says that
(06:33):
she didn't and the prosecutor says therewas training and they blew off the training.
And then there's some text messages floatingaround between A. Gutierras Reid is
her full name, and others thatmake apparent reference to the use of marijuana
(06:55):
and cocaine on the set. Notgood. One of them said, do
you want me to get any ofDo you want me to get us any
coke? One person asked Gutierras Readin September twenty twenty one, and Gutierras
Reid replies, already got some.She should have said diet coke. Another
(07:19):
exchange indicated Gutiras Read smoked marijuana thenight before the shooting headed down to get
high out back. She wrote,So you don't want to an armorer that
smokes pot and does cocaine. Andthe propmaster has stated that I think she
(07:45):
was so drunk that she didn't knowshe brought live ammal onto the truck when
she went to get a gun fromthe safe. This is the prop master
who was given a mune unity forhis testimony. So yeah, she's going
(08:07):
down. I mean she's she's takingif she's if she's handling guns and taking
drugs on a movie set. That'show you go to jail. So I
don't feel that bad for her,But Alec Baldwin I do feel bad for
because you know, he's just maybethere's some cutting corners here and he should
(08:28):
have been. If you want tobe a producer, be a producer and
get into the weeds and see ifthese are who they're hiring, and what's
the experience, what's the resume ofthis armor. Let's let's not cut corners
on the armor. And I'll betno one ever does in Hollywood after this.
(08:48):
So I just say he's been throughenough. And I'm not really a
fan of the guy, but Ijust think he's been through enough, because
you don't want this to happen toyou if you work in Hollywood. You
know, you don't want to beaccused of this. You don't want to
be You don't want to have tohave someone say, hey, why don't
you testify against Alec Baldwin in exchangefor not going to jail? And then
(09:11):
you never work in Hollywood again anyway, because you're the person that did that.
You just have to choose another career. But a lot of people in
Hollywood have to choose another career allthe time because it's a you know,
it's a weird up and down business. I'm going to take a break right
now and check the traffic. Whenwe come back, we're going to talk
about the films, the Academy Awardnominees, Poor Things, and Zone of
(09:33):
Interest Joe Sclante Live from Hollywood.If by Hollywood you mean Burbank, and
we're talking about Academy Award movies thissegment, let's start with Let's see any
meany miny mo. Let's start withZone of Interest. Zone of Interest is
(09:56):
a British film, actually with Germanlanguage in English subtitles or whatever subtitles you
want to get. And it's directedby a guy named Jonathan Glazer, loosely
(10:18):
based on a twenty fourteen novel bysomeone named Martin Amis, and it qualifies
as a foreign production. It's kindof a co production between the US,
the United Kingdom and Poland. Andit stars a guy named Christian Fredell as
a I'll just describe it to youthis way how I describe it to most
(10:39):
people. It's about this family.This family lives in a really nice house.
They love the house. It's likenineteen forty two Ish and they've been
living in the house for a fewyears. It's basically it's in Auschwitz,
(11:03):
so it's butted up against the concentrationcamp. They share a wall with the
concentration camp, and concentration camp isin full swing. The guy that Christian
Friedell plays is the commandant Rudolph Haas, and he's striving to build this dream
(11:24):
life with his wife Hedwig in thishome. But it's in Auschwitz. So
it's about just you know, howthe people. I mean, you don't
have to blame it on the Germansreally, but it could be anywhere where
there's something going on and the governmenthas created this, you know, just
(11:50):
horror and it needs people to carryout the horror. So how does it
get those people? Well, Ithink it's one of the way it gets
them is by promising them things.And of course in a war like in
Nazi Germany, they're like, okay, you, I promise not to put
you in jail if you go fightthis war as a soldier. But then
(12:13):
more higher elevated people in the socialstrata they're like, I will give you,
I'll make your dreams come true thatweren't going to come true if you
carry out this horror at the concentrationcamp, or turn a blind eye while
other people do. And so thesepeople turned a blind eye to what was
(12:35):
going on, and it was verydark, but you can imagine that it
had to happen because someone had torun these concentration camps and where do they
live, and if they're efficient andqualified and desirable, you got to pay
(12:56):
them a lot, and you gotto give them a good house. You
got to take care of their family. So that's what they did for this
guy. And then the wife isjust trying to build a home with her
kids in a good yard, inher greenhouse and her bees and her pool
with a slide, and it's justso wonderful until you hear the screams outside
the wall. But they don't theydon't listen. So the whole time you're
(13:22):
watching this movie, you're thinking,did that just happen? Then someone else
happens something else, did that justhappen? You know? I'm watching it
with my wife. I saw itat the Bella Terra Theater in Huntington Beach,
and I'm just like what you're watching? Every scene You're like, Okay,
(13:43):
this looks like idyllic children, youknow, playing, for example,
in the yard or in the pool. But what else is going on?
So you got to look at everyinch of the screen and go, oh,
look at that over there. Oh, let's be on the wall.
Maybe there's a train smokestack can barecoming in. You know what that is?
There's a giant incinerator smokestack spewing ashes. What could that be? I
(14:09):
don't know. They don't care.I mean they know. It's like it's
I think they all know. Arethese just innocent people that were just fell
for the spiel of don't worry whatyou know, We're we're carrying out some
complicated missions. And you gotta putthese people in the uh in these camps,
(14:35):
and then this is how you treatthem because they're less than human.
And then you get fed that foryears and years, and you're you,
I guess you're after a while,you just believe it because the alternative is
to take your family out of thishouse. I don't know, but wow,
(15:00):
filmmaking it is one of the bestmovies I've ever seen. It's just
they just did it perfectly. Soas for some people might be a little
too dark, but it is.I mean, it's just something that happened
had to have happened, and someonewrote a book about how it happened,
and someone made a movie about howit happened. Is it true? I
(15:28):
think it's just based on things thatprobably happened, and box office not much.
It's like, you know, onlymade a million or so, so
like a maybe a three million,the three or four million total, what
(15:52):
is it? I don't know whatthe the budget was, but anyway,
you shouldn't see it. Let's seewhat else we got. Okay, so
now let's go to Poor Things.Poor Things is a film by Yurgos Lanthromos
I think is his name? Greekdirector? He made Oh wait, who
(16:17):
made Let's go back to the Zoneof Interest? Who made Zone of Interest?
You ask, well, it's JonathanGlazer. What did Jonathan Glazer make?
He made Sexy Beast? I mean, he made other films that I'm
(16:38):
not that familiar with, but SexyBeast. And this is kind of the
life of a director. I've noticeda successful director he directs a film in
the year two thousand. He doesn'tdirect a film until the year two thousand
and four, so that's four yearshe's running around trying to get some film
(16:59):
made kind of life? Is thatnot fun? Sexy Beast was a hit.
So he makes a movie called Birthin two thousand and four, that
one he writes, and then hedoesn't make another film until twenty thirteen.
Okay, so that's two thousand andfour to twenty thirteen. And the movie
(17:19):
Birth, it's a it's a bigmovie. He's working with Lauren Butcall and
Nicole Kidman and Hash doesn't make anotherfilm for nine years. So that's the
life of a successful director. Whatkind of director are you going to be?
(17:44):
Then doesn't direct another film until TheZone of Interest in twenty twenty three.
That's ten years. What's he doingduring that ten years besides driving his
wife nuts? So you want tobe a film director. That's a successful
film director. So hats off tothe film directors that stick it out and
stick it out, make movies likeSexy Beast, Hang in There, and
(18:08):
then twenty three years later, makea movie nominated for Best Picture called The
Zone of Interest, and congratulations onthe rewards that he's getting. He's nominated
for Best Director and that's a bigdeal. I don't know how many times
(18:30):
he's been nominated. I'm gonna guesszero. Certainly not for Sexy Beast,
even though it's just a fantastic filmif you haven't seen Sexy Beast. The
film is nominated for Best Picture,as I've said, Best Adapted Screenplay,
also by Jonathan Glazer, so he'sgot a writing Oscar nomination and a directing
(18:51):
nomination, and it's also nominated forBest Feature Film, International Feature Film.
It could do a you know,like a everywhere everything all at once or
parasite kind of thing. Best Sound. Also on the sound, oh man,
the sound is haunting. I wouldsee it for the sound. Zone
(19:15):
of Interest. We'll get back,we'll talk about poor things. Joe's Galante
Live from Hollywood. Joe Ascalante livefrom Hollywood. If by Hollywood you mean
Burbank, across the street from theWonderstonize that serves beer. We are talking
to Oscar Movies right now, andwe just talked about Zone of Interest.
(19:37):
Nominated for Best Picture, director byJonathan Glazer, also nominated for Best Director.
Highly recommend seeing this film. Idon't know. I hard to imagine
a better film, just in termsof how well it's made and the subject
(19:59):
matter fascinating. Just now I'm gonnaturn to a very different film. It's
called Poor Things, Poor Things.They describe it as a science fantasy,
black comedy drama film. I wouldcall it a morally offensive masterpiece directed by
(20:26):
yourgos Lanthromos. He directed the movieLobster that we talked about a couple weeks
ago, maybe a month ago.He's a Greek, He's a Greek freak.
Really, when you see this movie, hey, I think it's safe
to say this man's a freak.Who else is a freak? Emma Stone
that acts in the movie, andshe's also a producer, and I think
(20:52):
you wouldn't be able to get astar of her magnitude to do the weird
things that are happening in this movie. She wasn't also the producer, Like,
no one could tell her to dothis. Okay, now you do
this, Now you do that.In this scene, Emma Stone, you're
going to have simulated sex again nakedwith a weird, ugly old man,
(21:14):
because the idea is you're a prostituteand you have sex with everybody, so
we got to really mix it up. Here's another troll. There's troll number
fifteen. Anyway, that's a littlespoiler. Sorry, Because she does become
a prostitute at some point in themovie. I apologize for that, but
(21:37):
everybody loves this movie. I mean, it's, like I said, morally
offensive masterpiece. It is as ifTim Burton and Crispin Glover collaborated or maybe
got married and had a baby,and this movie was the baby the I
don't know if you've seen any CrispinGlover movies, but I mean I saw
(22:00):
one. I saw one when Iwas doing the morning radio on Indy one
three to one. I had themon my show all the time because I
had a lot of directors on theshow, and he was my favorite,
or one of my favorites for sure. And he did this film that was
the cast was entirely actors with downsyndrome, and he invited me to a
(22:26):
screening. The screening was in hisbedroom. Yeah, in his Hollywood Hills
bedroom. I sat on a redvelvet chase lounge in Crispin Glover's bedroom and
watched the movie. Now, beforeyou get weird ideas, there was another
journalist there too. We were bothinvited. So there's some lady. She's
(22:48):
sitting on a chair, I'm onthe chase lounge and we watched a movie
with him. And it was agood movie. But I mean, when
you watch Poor Things and think aboutChrispin Glover in the kind of movies he's
made, and the dialogue in aCrispin Glover movie so like bizarre and direct,
(23:10):
and this movie is similar. Butit has the budget of a Tim
Burton movie or beyond, and itis sweeping the awards. So it's nominated
for Best Picture in eleven categories.I mean everywhere, like you know,
makeup, production design, hair wardrobe, best Supporting Actor, Mark Ruffalo,
(23:37):
who's fantastic in it. Emma Stone, I mean, she's, you know,
always been one of my favorites.In this movie so disturbing to watch
her. I'm just kind of I'mdone. Okay, you acted so well,
I can't look at you anymore.How's that Best Picture in the Golden
Globes for a Musical or Comedy?And yeah, she went Best Actress in
(24:03):
the Golden Globes, probably will winBest Actress in the Academy Awards. And
you're kind you're probably wondering, like, hey, Joe, why do you
talk about these movies? Earlier?You already did your top ten for the
year. I know, but thenI forgot about the all these Academy Award
movies. So I used to livein LA and you just see them naturally,
you know, in the theaters aroundtown, and they'd be playing.
(24:25):
Maybe you could walk to a theaterthat played these movies. But now that
I live in Seal Beach, Igotta work to go see these movies.
Although Poor Things was playing at theBeltara in Huntington Beach, but I didn't
see it, probably because I waswaiting for my wife to be available,
and and she just looks so weirdin the trailer. I wasn't sure I
(24:48):
wanted to see it. I washoping it would just be terrible and I
wouldn't have to see it. Andthen I did finally get a screener from
the Screen Actress Guild, and Iwatched it that way, and Holy Moses,
you know, if you like setdesign and you like hair and makeup,
(25:10):
and I don't know, it's afantastic movie. It's just morally very
offensive. Don't take your kids.Do some binding prayers after you see it,
so the devil doesn't get inside ofyou from the horrible things your witness
too. But then you know itdoesn't. It's not heavy handed in its
message. I wouldn't say it's aneat your p's movie. It's in the
(25:33):
long line of movies where they say, you know what, this message I
have explains the whole world, andthere I did it. Some movies like
that are just crap. I've seenmany of them, or even books I've
read that say, oh, thisis like movies or TV shows that say
(25:56):
like, oh, God is justan all knowing fatherly being that likes all
religions and and all we have todo is love each other yawn, not
brave, and this one is alittle bit like that, but with utter
genius in the dialogue and the pacingand the delivery of the lines. It's
(26:25):
some people are just gonna hate itbecause the way that actors talk. It's
an affected dialogue, a lot likethe movie Lobster that I watched a while
ago. And it turns out yourghost Lanthemos directed Lobster. So if you
(26:52):
like Lobster, this is like Lobsterwith a one hundred million dollars added to
the budget. Where can you seeit? It's still playing in theaters,
so here I'm checking out. Okay, So what's next on my movie list?
(27:15):
Probably I've seen Barbie. These arethe Best Picture nominees American Fiction,
Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie,Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon,
Maestro Oppenheimer, Past Lives, PoorThings, Zone of Interest. A lot
of these movies are just so obscure. They haven't come my way. But
I do have a copy of AmericanFiction and the Holdovers, so I will
(27:37):
see those next, and then PoorThings, Past Lives, and Anatomy of
a Fall. I don't know whatI'm gonna do, but that's uh,
it's coming up. Who's gonna win? So far? Who would I say
is gonna win? I'd say,uh, poor Things is gonna win.
(28:00):
I haven't seen Holdovers or American Fictionor Past Lives, but if I was
gonna put money on something, I'dput it on Poor Things. The Best
Director Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan, andBest Actor I'm gonna go with I haven't
(28:22):
seen a lot of these movies,so I'm gonna maybe maybe Bradley Cooper.
The movie is like who cares aboutLeonard Bernstein? Like, you know,
ay, great music? Why areyou making a movie about this guy?
Anyway, I'm rambling, so let'stake a break and we'll come back after
this look at the traffic, etcetera. On eleven fifty A M K
E I B. Joe Ascalante Livefrom Hollywood, Joe Askanti, here's my
(29:11):
lawyer. You don't Joe Scalante Livefrom Hollywood by Hollywood, you mean Burbank.
We're talking about the business end ofshow business as usual, like we
do every Sunday from five to sevenon eight M eleven fifty K E I
B. It's kind of fun.I mean, I can't I you know,
I go see these movies. You'reprobably in the same game as me.
(29:33):
It's like you see these movies andyou talk to everybody at a party
and nobody's seen anything. Used tobe we would sit around and talk about
the movies we saw and the speakerswe have. I don't really miss the
conversations about the speakers that all thedudes had in the seventies, but I
do miss the movie stuff, sowe talk about it here. It's kind
(29:56):
of fun. I appreciate it.You indulging. If you want to give
your two cents, easiest way goto the Facebook page Joe Scalante Life from
Hollywood on Facebook. And I mean, we're not going to be pimpals.
But you know, you should talkabout it. So there's other stuff going
(30:17):
on that we should probably get intoa little bit, and a lot of
it is, Oh, here's someof it. I'll just kind of rattle
through it. We talked about VinceMcMahon from WWE resigning and he's just he's
got an onslaught of lawsuits against himand now they're investigating him. The FBI
is actually investigating him, according toReports four. That's Chewy, make a
(30:41):
noise back there, Chewy, calmdown. The FBI is investigating him for
trafficking. Sex trafficking, by theway, that kind of trafficking. So
he's in a lot of trouble's he'skind of like the Harvey Weinstein of sports
(31:03):
right now. So I don't look, I don't envy him. And here's
another guy. Look how much moneythat guy had. Did you envy him
his women and his money and hismaterial possessions. Well, if you did,
that was chewy. He did envyhim. But look at him now.
I mean, I'm not wishing shadenfreud on him, but I'm just
(31:25):
saying, let's appreciate our own livesand yeah, not worry about everything everyone
else has. Now look, Ilike to I'm just gonna take a little
side step here. I'm interested inthings that have an ounce of humility,
and there's no humility in WWE wrestling. I think there is a fair amount
(31:48):
of humility in other professional sports.I mean, what do you mean by
humility. I don't know. Imean, you know, just a guy
who at the end of the gamesays, you know, it's not me,
it was God, you know.I like that. I want to
thank my mom. I like thatthis is a team effort. It's not
me, it's my team, it'smy front line. I take my front
(32:10):
line out too. It's like thequarterbacks used to do, take the front
line out for a stake every week. That kind of stuff. It doesn't
happen in WWE. I don't careif it's fake or not. It just
doesn't happen. I don't like it. Rap music doesn't hip hop. I
mean I used to love like theold stuff back in the day, of
(32:34):
course, but then it's just likeeverything's about how much money they have and
how much power they have, andhow they're better than you. Not interested.
So the same goes with wrestling tome. But this guy, he's
(32:55):
out here a lot of people likeit. I did like The Iron Claw,
the movie about wrestling. That washuman story and they could have used
a little humility, maybe the dadstuff like that. Another big story this
week, huge story of music.First of all, you have the Grammys
this week. I don't know ifyou're going to the Joe Scolante Live from
(33:19):
Hollywood Grammy party after the awards atthe Wiener Schnitzel in Burbank, the one
that serves beer on olive. We'llbe there. There's a red carpet,
there's a band, there's a buffet. Well, the buffet is just a
counter where you go. It's kindof self. It's a no host buffet
(33:42):
of hot dogs and hamburgers and tastyfreeze items and three beers on tap.
So we'll see you there like wedo every year. And other than that,
the Grammys. Wow, what apuke fest? Right? I mean
yet I can already tell you that, so who cares? But the big
(34:05):
news in music this week is Universalhas pulled all their artists masters from TikTok.
So now, is that kind oflike cost them a lot of money?
Nope, it's a little bit ofmoney. But the TikTok is so
heavy in the you know, thepromotion racket. I mean people using it
to promote stuff. So they're goingto feel it all the artists. So
(34:28):
is this something the artist wanted?Why did they pull it? They pulled
it because they said, you're notpaying enough. Your royalty rate is too
small. We analyze what you makeTikTok, and you make so much money,
you could pay more for your content. And they phrase it as,
you know, you got to paythe artist. But by the time it
trickles down to the artist, it'seven less so universal. I don't feel
(34:52):
sorry for them. You know,by the time they've taken their cut,
they could take less of a cutand give it to the artists if they
cared about the artist. But theyhave. They're the biggest game in town.
They're the biggest music distributor and contentowner there is, and so they're
the big gorilla. And if theysay, TikTok, we want you to
(35:15):
pay more, TikTok has to payattention or they're gonna lose all the all
the all the music. And nowthere's no Taylor Swift music on TikTok,
just maybe silent dances. Without TaylorSwift on there so that's a problem.
I mean the football. You seehow the football people do it. The
football people like while everyone else isstruggling with advertising revenue. And you know,
(35:38):
even wokeness was a problem for allsports, football and I fill football
kind of cleaned up their act.I don't see any woke stuff on there
anymore, like the overt things they'veyou know, without totally angering the people
(35:59):
who have pressured them in the firstplace to be woke. Seems like they've
they're serving them and serving the fan. And the ratings are huge. Taylor
Swift comes to town. Ten millionmore people watch the Kansas City Chiefs games
than they did previously on TV,so you have ten million more eyeballs and
(36:21):
that's a lot of revenue. NFLis just just basking in that. And
somehow they made it. They didn'truin it. You know, it's just
happening. They could have ruined itsomehow. You know, they cut to
her and her friend, you know, high fiving each other after the good
big plays. But now the musicbusiness they lost. Taylor Swift live touring
(36:45):
benefits from Taylor Swift, NFL benefitsfrom Taylor Swift. Somehow, TikTok has
blown it and Universal they're not gettingthat the all that Taylor Swift income they
were getting. So I hope theyget their act together. And a lot
(37:06):
of people say that. The argumentsgo like this, Universal is always asking
for something outrageous because they have somuch market share. And then the other
hand, people say, TikTok andthese music services will bleed you dry and
leave you with nothing if you letthem. They will build an entire empire
(37:28):
off of your work and not payyou a cent unless you fight them every
single day. So maybe we're happyfor a Universal leading the way, but
if you're one of those artists,it's just like this is how you get
going and then Universal, I mean, your career is just kind of getting
going, and then Universal takes allyour music off of TikTok. Some of
(37:49):
these people only have one shot,and that shot could have been already lost.
The other big news in music thisweek is talk Heads turning down eighty
million dollars to do a tour.So that shows you how badly they do
not want to do anything together.So does no one asked them to go
into a cage fight and beat thecrap out of each other or build a
(38:13):
dig ditches. They said, wouldyou like to go play music? You're
amazing, awesome music for eighty milliondollars, saying Nope, don't want to
do that. So okay, loudand clear, I'm going to be at
the Punk Rock Museum on February seventeenth. People are always asking me, Hey,
Joe, when are you going tobe at that museum again? I
want to see your tour. SoFebruary seventeenth, I will be doing two
(38:37):
tours at the Punk Rock Museum inLas Vegas. I get tickets online punk
Rock Museum, and I will seeyou there. Now leave you with just
a taste of the greatest song everwritten.
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