Posts Tagged montreal geek

274 results.

9ES327: Ram Proof

by on January 9, 2025 at 7:55 pm
Posted In: 9ES, Podcast, Podcasting

I just realized that after Trudeau resigns there will be a new Prime Minister and said Prime Minister will only be the third Prime Minister governing this country since we started the podcast back in 2011. Since 2005 it has only been Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau running this great nation that we call Canada.

 

20 years and only two leaders kind of feels wrong. As if 2025 needed more politically insanity right out of the gate here we are without a leader while the President Elect jokes about making our country the 51st State. Cool cool cool.

 

Ah well – what can you do?

 

I suppose you could get into a Cybertruck and blow it up in front of whatever the Canadian equivalent of a Trump building is? That’s a thing that people are doing these days.

 

Or I suppose we can bring back gladiatorial combat and maybe one of us will be lucky and skilled enough to fight our way to political change in the bloodsports of the Colloseum? No no – that’s Gladiator 2. I keep getting Ridley Scott films and reality mixed up. No – YOU failed the Turing Test!

 

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time we talk about that guy on reddit who read every single Spiderman comic and then discuss Spiderman comics. Keith continues to plow his way through every issue of Thunderbolts and it’s crazy that in a comic published in the year 2000 they just turned a white character black for no apparent reason. Keith also watched the French horror film “MadS” and you should too if you like single-shot tension and zombie outbreaks. If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

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Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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9ES 326: Wait, This Was 2024?

by on January 2, 2025 at 4:01 pm
Posted In: 9ES, Podcast, Podcasting

We’ve been doing 9ES for something like 13 years now and when we started we usually did a “best of” episode to close out the year. Kind of like the Much Music Holiday Wrap. We’d go over all the best things we watched, played and experience throughout the year and pick our favorites.

13 years ago we were all much younger people who were much more plugged into the pop-culture zeitgeist of the world. Now? We are old men in our 40s. Two of us are parents and Keith has spent most of his time playing video games and reading comic books from when he was in high-school.

Perhaps we are not in the best position to provide any sort of quantitative judgement upon what the “best of 2024” even looks like. So we talk about Marvel Snap and League of Legends instead.

“Faker is GOAT in a gigabanger” is a sentence I want to send back in time 100 years to see what they can make of it.

To close it all off we talk a little about the conviction of 51 rapists in France and whether or not Trudeau steps down as Prime Minister. You know, holiday stuff.

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time we take a trip down memory lane and consult an actual newspaper from 1988 to see what the best toys of that year were. That spins off nicely into us just talking about what some of our favorite toys of the 80s were in general and opens up some deep wounds from Keith because he never got a slot car racing set.  If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

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Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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9ES325: Deny Depose Delita

by on December 12, 2024 at 5:32 pm
Posted In: 9ES, Podcast, Podcasting

If you haven’t been following the saga of Luigi Mangione and the assassination of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson well – I don’t know what to tell you. I guess listen to this episode since I think we do a pretty good job of running through the main talking points.

 

Anyways, let me tell you about Andrew Witty.

  • Andrew Witty is the new CEO of UnitedHealth – he makes 23.5 million dollars a year (here’s a fun tool here to tell you how much CEOs make with a helpful relation to how much more they make than the median employee, in Witty’s case he makes 352 times more than the median employee).

  • That’s well over double the amount of his recently assassinated by predecessor Brian Thompson – who apparently made about 10 million a year.

  • Despite all that – a video has leaked from after said assassination where Witty doubles down and informed shareholders that denying claims is actually in the best interest of everyone involved:

    • In a video recorded after the Dec. 4 murder of Brian Thompson, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty said his company’s policy of rejecting a certain percentage of claims for coverage was in the best interests of all stakeholders—because the alternative would be a worst-case scenario of a systemic collapse in the health care system.“We guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe or unnecessary care to be delivered in a way that makes the whole system too complex and ultimately unsustainable,” he told employees.

That’s right. By denying insurance claims they’re actually keeping the entire health care system! It’s the insurance companies that are the real heroes! Not the Luigi Mangione’s of the world!

 

deep breath

 

We also have now all watched “The Batman”.

 

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time we shift back to our usual pop-culture driven silliness. Keith continues to spend as much time in the late 90s as possible by almost exclusively reading comics and playing video games from when he was in highschool. Scott and Keith are both watching Interior Chinatown and we fan-cast the inevitable Fast and the Furious reboot. If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

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Credit Where Credit is Due

Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

One more thing – we mention Jon’s beat poetry of the Luca Mangione “happening” but it truly must be observed to be appreciated. Like a modern e e cummings.

Enjoy:

deny defend depose

assassinate Brian Thompson

united health claim refusal 10.9%->22.7%

NYSE:UNH 2022 profit 20.6b on 324b rev

ai refusal bot

4chan hit list Brian only made 10 million $/yr (list 9 med ins CEOs > 20 mil)

book: delay deny defend by jay feinman

whistleblower claim 2011 unh defraud medicare billions

monopoly money bag in central park

jon’s dza dza insurance

equally bear risks not equally bear costs

righteous justice vs vigilantism

im spartacus

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9ES 324: Hasbro Sucks in a Million Ways

by on November 28, 2024 at 7:08 am
Posted In: 9ES, Podcast, Podcasting

The Montreal podcast that really enjoyed Transformers: One and thinks Hasbro sucks returns to the airwaves for another episode of podcasting goodness.

To say that Scott really enjoys Transformers is an understatement. He clarifies in this episode that he is really only a mega-fan of what’s known as “Transformers G1” which specifically refers to the original run of toys and accompanying cartoons from 1984 to 1990 (or 1992, depending on how you’re counting). But still – that man has seen Transformers: The Movie well over a hundred times. So it was with mild trepidation that we entered into a viewing of 2024’s “Transformers: One”.

But guess what? It was pretty good. Was it the greatest thing to ever happen to transforming robots? No. But few things are in the last 20 to 30 years. It was an effective telling of a bit of Transformers lore that most fans might only have a cursory knowledge of. Namely the story of the friendship between Orion Pax and D-16 that would devolve into the generational conflict between Optimus Prime and the Autobots against Megatron and the Decepticons. That’s good shit man. It’s a good version of a story that only the most diehard fans are even aware of.

You know what wasn’t as entertaining as Transformers: One? That Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight, the less said about that the better. So obviously we devote like 20 minutes to it.

Scott also shares his professional “comic book guy” opinion on Deadpool & Wolverine and his takes are so hot you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out what they are.

Meanwhile, over on Garbage Time – Keith is almost finished with Peter David’s 12 year run on The Incredible Hulk so we talk about that. Scott finished off Agatha All Along and makes Keith try to guess that wacky and wild origins of the comic character Jimmy Woo. If that sounds up your alley do yourself a favour and subscribe to the I <3 9ES level over on our Patreon.

Enjoy the show!

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Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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9ES 323: There Is So Much Batman

by on November 16, 2024 at 2:03 pm
Posted In: 9ES, Podcast, Podcasting

If you’re into horror movies (and if you’re a devout 9ES listening you just might be) I don’t mind telling you that ‘The Substance’ might be my favorite horror movie of 2024.

I think the shortlist here includes Longlegs and maybe Cuckoo but The Substance is an easy pick over both of those films if only because it is more interesting to look at it and sticks with you in a much, much more visceral way. The Substance also has a lot more to actually “say” than those other films and that counts for a lot too.

Donald Trump is going to be President again and there was kind of no way we weren’t going to talk about it a little, but I promise we try not to wallow too much and keep it as light as we can. Also, we recorded this on Monday so when Keith was like “Elon Musk might definitely be a part of this government”, it hadn’t happened yet. Womp womp. He gets his own whole new department of the government! What a fun and cool turn of events!

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time… we finally finish off going over Rolling Stone’s “Top 150 Best Science Fiction Movies” list that came out earlier this year. That means we finally get through the Top 10! Honestly we were pretty sure of a lot of these before we went further into the list but there were still a few surprises. Hot take – we have hot takes. If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

PS: Sorry this episode is a little late – Jono has strep throat so has been down for the count this week.

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Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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9ES322: It Stinks!

by on October 31, 2024 at 4:08 pm
Posted In: 9ES, Podcast, Podcasting

I think when it comes to movies taking insane swings I am firmly “for”. Sure Francis Ford Coppola might regret spending $120 million of his own money on Megalopolis, a film that I’m told is “an overstuffed opus that’s equal parts stimulating and slapdash”, but isn’t that better than just being Avengers 11 or whatever?

 

It’s why a part of me (Keith) has a special place in my heart for films like Cats and Southland Tales. Cats is arguably terrible and Southland Tales is a disjointed mess of ideas that never come to fruition. But aren’t we happy they exist?

 

I’ll definitely see Megalopolis eventually, if only to form my opinions but also to see what the hubbub is about. (See also Joker 2). We’re kind of lead to believe that studios and producers are constantly standing in the way of visionary directors but maybe they’re actually sometimes really good at their jobs and are actually reigning in terrible ideas?

 

Speaking of visionary directors – we take a crack at populating the “Mount Rushmore” of horror film directors. I’m not sure if we land on a definitive four or not but we certainly make some compelling cases.

 

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time… we continue to dig into Rolling Stone’s “Top 150 Best Science Fiction Movies” list that came out earlier this year and we make it through another 15 movies. That means after this we will only have the Top 10 movies left to go over! We’ve got so many more opinions about the top ranked movies than the bottom ones obviously. If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

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Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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9ES321: Look At The Folly Of Man

by on October 18, 2024 at 11:05 pm
Posted In: 9ES, Podcast, Podcasting

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was… fine? Good even. I think it ends up feeling like a bit of a letdown because of the 36 year gap between the release of the original. If you waited 36 years to make a sequel and get most of the cast back together it kind of feels like you’re making it because some kind of inspiration struck.

 

It doesn’t quite feel like a cash grab. There’s a little more artistry and respect given to the original than something completely money-grubbing and derivative might have going for it. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice would have probably felt fine if it came out in 1994 instead of 2024.

 

Anyhow, Scott watched Abigail so that means we’re two-thirds of the way to putting a new movie on the list and also we assign Jon a brand new movie to watch that I think he will find particularly loathsome.

 

Off the top of the show we run our mouths about the UN which sends us on a mildly religious tangent (remember that Keith was raised as Jehovah’s Witness so that can pop up from time to time) and then we talk about how Google might get broken up by the American Government. So if half-informed political chatter is your thing then we’ve definitely got you covered on that front.

 

Finally, Keith went to Chicago and Jono has never heard of “The Bean” (a Cloud Gate by any other name).

 

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time… we continue to dig into Rolling Stone’s “Top 150 Best Science Fiction Movies” list that came out earlier this year and we make it through another 20 movies. I’m not sure we will even be able to finish it off in one more sitting. We’ve got so many more opinions about the top ranked movies than the bottom ones obviously. If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

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Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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9ES320

9ES320: Body On The Ice

by on October 14, 2024 at 4:55 pm
Posted In: 9ES, Podcast, Podcasting

We’re probably a little late to the whole “Dave Grohl scandal” if somehow a rockstar getting a lady pregnant constitutes a scandal anymore. Grohl is kind of the bridge between the classic and modern rockstar and a lot of times leans a lot more into the “classic” variety in terms of his public persona.

 

I guess maybe it stings a little that he has been presenting himself as a dad recently but in my mind he’s still the guy who casually has three or four shots of Jager and a few beers before every show and getting arrested for drunk driving a little scooter around.

 

As Scott says maybe we should just stop treating celebrities like people. I don’t know how to feel about that.

 

You know who else doesn’t treat people like people? Vince McMahon! What a segue. Keith watched all 6 parts of the Netflix docuseries on “Mr. McMahon” and honestly if you want a much more honest and sordid account you need look no further than the Behind the Bastards series on the monster himself.

 

It’s also the dawn of spooky season so we talk up a bunch of horror flicks and podcasts too so if you’re looking for spooookkky recommendations we got those too.

 

If reading transcribed Nardwuar interviews is your thing, you can do that here.

 

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time… we continue to dig into Rolling Stone’s “Top 150 Best Science Fiction Movies” list that came out earlier this year and now both Jon and Scott have thoughts! Last time we made it through a full half 75 but this time we only made it through 30. We have more opinions the deeper we go! If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

9ES320

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Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

 

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9ES 319: Stan Lee Lied

by on September 19, 2024 at 9:05 pm
Posted In: 9ES, Podcast, Podcasting

The Montreal podcast that would never lie to you like Stan Lee has returned to the airwaves of the internet to talk mostly about the Editor in Chiefs of Marvel Comics.

Look, there’s no good way to say this – Jono is off taking care of his sick family so it’s left to Scott and I to hold down the fort that is the 9to5 Entertainment System. What does that mean for you, the listener? It means we’re going to get really, really nerdy about comic books.

We talk briefly about Scott’s role as the Ever-Lovin’ Blue Eyed Thing in the Avengers Audio Drama (check out his episode here) before getting into some really deep Marvel comic publishing history. Which of course leads to us talking about the history of everyone who has ever held the title of “Editor in Chief” over at Marvel comics. That naturally leads into a discussion about how Stan Lee Lied.

But listen, love him or hate him the man had a very good moustache and that has to count for something. We also talk briefly about the ads we’ve been seeing for Transformers: One. Have you noticed that it’s just the voice actors goofing off? They’re trying to sell us the movie by showing how much fun it was to make. I’m willing to bet that the people making “Movie 42” had a bunch of a fun on set. How did that turn out?

Meanwhile, over on Garbage Time we start digging into the first half of Rolling Stone’s “Top 150 Best Science Fiction Movies” list that came out earlier this year and Scott has thoughts! If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

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Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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9ES318: Giga Banger

by on September 6, 2024 at 8:54 am
Posted In: 9ES, Podcast, Podcasting

If the hosts of 9ES were stranded on the International Space Station because they were Boeing Starliner astronauts hearing strange pinging noises outside of the airlock there would literally be only one person we would want to be stranded with.

 

You can also better believe that we would keep doing the podcast from space. “The 9to5 Entertainment System: IN SPACE” has a nice ring to it.

 

I hope that when the three of us are in our 80s space tourism has advanced to the point where it’s feasible that we can make the dream of podcasting this show from space a reality. Stay tuned for episode 1320 – where we are in space.

 

I really wish there was a version of the introduction to Chinese Grand Finals of League of Legends where there wasn’t a streamer talking over it for you to appreciate the full majesty of the pageantry involved, but I couldn’t find one. I barely looked, but I still couldn’t find one. There are people in robes making special hand signs, a full orchestra, the trophy descending from the sky like Shawn Michaels… it’s spectacular.

 

I think the only thing that would make it better would be if the players themselves took to the stage wearing special team coloured robes as they took the stage. But no – they are just in special track suits.

 

Make it more like wrestling please.

 

All that to say it’s the time of year where Jon is watching highly competitive League of Legends and we do our best to try and contextualize why it’s cool. The back half of this episode is dominated by breaking down the gigabangers of the League Of Legends North American LCS Finals this past week.

 

GIGABANGERS.

 

Meanwhile over on Garbage Time… there is no Garbage Time! Due to scheduling and Scott maybe having Covid-19 we couldn’t get a GT in for your listening pleasure. Instead we’ve re-uploaded one of our very first hard-to-find episodes: 9ES Episode 7 – Our Tabletop Gaming Origin Stories. I listened to about 5 minutes of this episode and the audio quality and the general lack of quality all around is pretty cringe. There’s a good amount of toot-talk right off the top. That’s why it’s behind a paywall. Subscribe and find out just how bad it is! If you would like to show your support and head over to Patreon and subscribe at the 9ES Deluxe tier to listen to this and all past episodes of Garbage Time that would be appreciated.

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Our intro song is a brand new jam cooked up by OKU-DA just for us, do yourself a favour and check out his SoundCloud).

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