#123. 'Georgetown'
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This week's episode is guest-hosted by Mike Warren (the returning "Mulch Man"), filling in for JVL, who is off moving back to New Jersey, and the film under discussion is Georgetown, Christoph Waltz's 2019 passion project in which he also directs and stars as a thinly fictionalized version of real-life Georgetown con man Albrecht Muth. Sonny finds the movie a well-cast but inert misfire, arguing that Waltz's screen persona works best under Tarantino's direction and that the film's dual-timeline structure — cutting between the murder investigation and the schemer's rise through DC high society — fatally undercuts suspense since the killer is obvious from the opening scene; Mike agrees, calling it a "transparent puzzle-box" whodunit that needed to commit harder to either farce (Burn After Reading) or menace (The Ides of March) to really land; Vic came in with unusually high hopes given his own journalistic familiarity with the real Georgetown cocktail-party world, and was similarly disappointed, singling out the harried dinner-party opening and the scene where Waltz's schmoozing gets humiliatingly exposed at the Iraqi embassy as the film's best moments. Vic's Quadrant scores: Plot B+ (strong until an abrupt ending), Duration A++ (a brisk 100 minutes), Action/Violence C (spousal and elder abuse only), and Sex/Nudity C (unwelcome male nudity, though mercifully no nonagenarian sex). The episode opens with a long stretch of banter, including Mike's Father's Day wasp-sting saga at the kid-friendly Vanish Brewery in Loudoun County (contrasted with Sonny's rant about the decidedly not-family-friendly Vector Brewing), Vic's darkness-shrouded, Blair-Witch-style dial-in from the Free Beacon offices after a home power outage, a twice-baked-potato recipe, and a box office rundown (Jurassic World Dominion still number one, Lightyear a distant second, and Top Gun: Maverick holding astonishingly well at nearly a 4x multiple, with Mike admitting he still hasn't managed to see it despite a sold-out Myrtle Beach multiplex). Vic trades his own DC cocktail-party war stories throughout — mistaking a background extra for Judy Woodruff, diplomatic-car lunches with foreign ambassadors, and a decades-old unsolved house-fire mystery at his old Georgetown dean's home — before closing with a correction to a prior episode's immaculate-conception mix-up and Mike's now-traditional mulch update (the Boy Scouts handled the laying this year, with mixed results).
From the show notes
Mulch King Mike Warren triumphantly returns to the show to discuss Georgetown and the whole cocktail party thing with Vic (broadcasting remotely from the Free Beacon studios following a power outage at home) and Sonny (broadcasting at home as usual).
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00- There will be time for tears and remembrance. - Now there's urgent work to be done. - What work? - I must find and bring to justice the men who killed your mother and my wife. - Why did you leave the house on the night of your wife's death? - For a walk. - You're late. Do you remember your feelings when you learned that your mother was planning to marry Maude? - Shock, horror, disbelief. - He looks like he could be my brother. - Try to get to know him before you condemn him. - She left him $250,000. - A few months ago, she disinherited him. - Am I under arrest? - Not at the present time. - My mother gave him money, propped up his so-called career. In exchange, he cooked her meals. They gave her an excuse to keep having Georgetown parties. It was a marriage of mutual exploitation. - You are the perfect butler. Is that all you want to be? - You know it isn't. - So what are you waiting for?
?00:00:59We're going to talk about that in just a few minutes.
Vic00:01:02But before we do, I want to thank you all for joining us on this special edition of The Sub-Beacon. - Hello and welcome to another edition of The Sub-Beacon. I'm Victor Matus along with Sonny Bunch. Jonathan V. Last is out this week making the big move back to the Garden State. But you know what, Sonny, I've got great news for you. Today is the summer solstice, right? It was yesterday and today is the longest day of the year, and you know what that means.
Sonny00:01:27- Midsummer? You want to put on a bear suit?
Vic00:01:29- Well, that's what I was going to say. It's time for some lawn talk, yard talk, and who better than to have on our show than our old friend and preeminent mulch expert, Mike Warren of CNN.
Sonny00:01:41- People still talk about the mulch episode.
Vic00:01:44- That is his claim to fame. Hold on. Just a reminder, The Sub-Beacon is now available through Patreon. Go to subbeacon.com. You'll easily find us. Please subscribe to your friends and don't forget about The Sub-Beacon merchandise store at tpublic.com. Gentlemen, how are we? How are we? Mike Warren. Welcome back.
Mike00:02:01- Yeah. Thanks. I love the, I love the mulch talk, you know, because what I love is random mulch tweets in my replies, you know.
Sonny00:02:11- Do you still get the mulch?
Vic00:02:12- Every once in a while. - Yes. I see. I see. I see people still making mulch references. This is six years ago, by the way.
Mike00:02:18- Yeah. It's, you know, they're sick is what they are. They're sick. There's more. There's more to me than mulch is what I'm trying to say. - You know what?
Sonny00:02:25- First off, I don't know that's true. Second off, the, the, the funny thing about that is, I mean, that was literally, it was one of the, I want to say it was one of like the first episodes.
Vic00:02:34- It is one of the first episodes.
Sonny00:02:35- It was, it was not, we were not, we were not around for very long. - It was nascent. It was nascent. - So the, the people have gone back and rediscovered this classic. - It is a classic. - Sub-Beacon episode.
Mike00:02:47- Oh, you were on a couple of classics. - There were a couple of classics. - As you know. - Yeah. Well, you know, the thing that I feel like the, the, the, the, the fandom doesn't understand is that I started this podcast. And nobody, nobody on this podcast gives me credit for it, but you are all here because of me. - This is your idea. - That's true.
Sonny00:03:06You were, you were desperately trying to come up with ways to attract people to the website. And they were like, you were like, what about a pod, what are pod, what are podcasts? What are, what are podcasts? Could we do a podcast? I was like, ah, I sure I'll come do a podcast. This is my, this was my first pop, pop, pop the cherry on this one. And now I do seven, 7,000 podcasts a day. That's all I do.
Vic00:03:28- Just today. - That's all I do. - You did 7,000 podcasts.
Sonny00:03:31- Just today. - You're a podcast hooah. - Just today I did, just today I did a half and half, six different podcasts. It was a.
Vic00:03:38- Well, it's, it's late.
Mike00:03:39Yeah, I got it. - Well, you're welcome son.
Vic00:03:41You're welcome. - So you know what it is worth mentioning to our listeners that, you know, there's more to Mike than mulch. So you know, enough references to him as the mulch man on Twitter. - Thank you. - Mr. Mulch. And you know what it is, Mike? It's mulch ado about nothing. - Oh. - Thank you. You know what I was, I was thinking about? I was thinking about the, the, the famous SNL skit where Eddie Murphy interview. This is many years ago. Eddie Murphy was interviewing Ron Howard and in the entire interview he just, he just insisted on calling him Opie Cunningham, which is great because it's two different shows and he just kept on saying, and he would correct him and he goes, anyway, Opie Cunningham. And then he continued going on and that's like you and mulch. Okay. How are you?
Mike00:04:24And what is going, what's been going on with you, Mike? - How am I? How am I? I'm, you know, I'm great, Vic. I don't know. I mean, what last, last weekend was father's day. So I had a nice father's day. We you know, we went to church, we had you know, presence, there were presents for me. - You, you are America's dad and America's family. The Warrens. - Yeah, I guess so. Then we went out to a brewery in Loudoun County just to. - Oh.
Sonny00:04:57- Like.
Mike00:04:58- Which one? - It's called, it starts with a V. Now, well now I can't remember. I should have been prepared for this. Is it like Vision or Vista or something like that? It's, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll effort that to use JVL's term. - Okay. Yes. In his honor. - And it's like, it's, it's a, we've been there before and it's like a very kid friendly brewery. They have like an actual playground there and there's, you know, big fields, but it, it, it.
Vic00:05:25They figured it out, which is that families, parents, they wanna drink, but they have kids. Can you have something to keep them busy while we go through a flight of beers?
Mike00:05:34- Yeah. - And, and it was, yes, that's, that's exactly right. It's called, oh shoot. What is it called? Anyway.
Sonny00:05:43But we. - You keep looking that up. 'Cause I wanna complain about something real quick. - Yeah, Sonny. - You, you say this, Vic, and it's funny. So there's a place in, there's a place in my neighborhood called Vector Brewing, which is like, it's like a brew pub, right? - Yes. - Um, that has like pizza and it has like a play area, right? And so you think like, okay, this is like great family place. - This is good. Yeah, family fun. - But they hate families there. - What? - They hate, they hate fam, they hate it when families show up. They hate it when like after-school stuff happens and you show up with a bunch of kids. Uh, they, they always give, they, they have like always given, the waiters have always given, uh, my family the stink eye. And uh, it, the last time I went there.
Vic00:06:23- What, what do they want? They just want young people, couples.
Sonny00:06:25- No, they want, they want young hip, they have like, they have like a, they have like a, a drag brunch that they are very proud of and are always talking about. And like the, but like the, but like they, they want like the hip, you know, the hip, the hip crowd, young, young people and like.
Guest00:06:39- No children. - No children, no children.
Sonny00:06:41And like the last time we went there, the last time we went there, I like, I, I went and ordered pizza and uh, and they were like, oh, it's going to be like 45 minutes to an hour. And I was like, okay, fine. Like an hour and 20 minutes or something like that later, I went up again. I was like, Hey, I ordered this pizza, you know, hour, 20 minutes ago. Where is it? They're like, no, it's going to be like, it's going to be like another hour and a half. And I was like, dad, I'm out. I'm out. I'm out. I'm done. And the worst part was they were just, and, and I was like, are you kidding me? Or are you, are you like taking other, what, what is going on? They're like, sir, it's just not going to be ready. Do you want your money back? Well, not like, not like, you know, Hey, you want to like, if they had just given me a little bit of glad hand, just like, Hey, you want a glass of beer? I would have been like, fine, whatever. But they were just such, they were such, they were so prissy and dickish about it. I was like, I'm never, never going back to Vector Brewing.
Mike00:07:27Yeah. I mean, but spread the word. You would think there's a, there's like a, there's a market opportunity here, right? Which, which is what Vanish Brewery, that's the name of the brewery, Vanish Brewery in Loudoun County. Check it out, folks. Um, that's what they, that's what they had, right? Like that was when we first went several years ago with friends who live out there, uh, it was, you know, they had this playground, uh, kids love it. So we went back. And it, it has exploded, I mean, it has exploded into this sort of almost like bazaar or, uh, or like a marketplace. They have all these stands. Wow. They had, Vic, a raw bar. They had raw oysters at this, like, in the middle of this field in, it was.
Vic00:08:05Well, you'd be surprised. It sounds crazy, but you know, like when we drive up to see my, uh, brother-in-law in Winchester along route seven, like in the middle of nowhere, there'll be a thing where it's like, you know, like fresh seafood, raw oysters. And I'm like, where, where? Where? How?
Sonny00:08:21What? And yet it's there.
Vic00:08:23Like just pulled out of the Rappahannock? Well, quite possibly, although I wouldn't do it in, uh, in, in, in a month that doesn't end in R, but you know, like, like, like a hot July oyster, uh, because the water is not going to be, uh, cold enough, uh, but I can't imagine.
Mike00:08:37They should, they should have been from the Bay, right? Or, or.
Vic00:08:39I guess, but I mean, and, and it, it has to be safe because they would be, they would have been out of business a long time ago.
Sonny00:08:44Yeah. Well, or, or. Or nobody's ever. Fold up shop and go to a different street. That's true. That's true.
Vic00:08:50Like, oh, we're going, we're going over to route 12. That's true. I, I can't, I, route 12. Like, I can't tell. That's true. I've never stopped. So. I, one day I will out of curiosity. I'll be like, I just want to see what this, I'll, I'll risk it.
Mike00:09:00Yeah.
Vic00:09:01Yeah. You drive into those. Well, you have an iron stomach, so. Well, still, yeah. Well, yeah. What's the worst that happened? I lose some weight. You could have like a gout flare up or something. Could die. Yeah. Yeah. You could die. There's a thing. You know, I was going to say, Mike, I was going to say Port City Brewing. Oh, yeah. No.
Sonny00:09:19In Alexandria, in Old Town. In Old Town.
Vic00:09:21Oh, yeah. I used to go there. They have the video games, right? So like the old arcade style, there's two units and they're free. Yeah. They're just free. Oh, they, they, they had that advantage. They had that advantage.
Mike00:09:32And the kids. But we, we steered. Well, the kids love that. But we steered our kids. We, our kids don't do any video games except like educational games on, that, those are the only ones they know about. Like. Oh. We had to have them run around and, and, and exert energy so that, so that we could like enjoy being outside. It was a beautiful weekend. Yes. Enjoy all that. And, and so I didn't want them, you know, like just like staring at a screen and then being like, because like by the time we got in the car, we went out to eat after that. Like they were so beat. It was like, it was the perfect plan. Yes. You know, it was executed. That's the aim.
Vic00:10:09Yeah. To tucker them out. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Let me tell you what's going. Yeah. No, please continue Mike. It's been so long.
Mike00:10:17I had one, I had one cap cap to that story, which is, uh, yeah, please. So it's, it was a perfect day. My father's day. It was great. It was wonderful. A great, great time with the kids and the wife and all this stuff. The very end of the day, uh, we had a, we had a wasp nest in our backyard and, uh, and my wife was, uh, convinced that they were bees. And there are, you know, people like collect honeybees. And sure. Of course. Like in our neighborhood. Yeah. No, there's like people in our neighborhood. So she contacts them to have them come check to see, uh, if they're honeybees and they can take them. Well, like, so this guy comes with like his two little girls in their pajamas, like eight o'clock to like check that. And he's like, no, no, they're not, they're not honeybees, they're wasps. Um, and, and so it's like, okay, that's over. So I'm sitting there, I'm reading my, one of my books that I got for father's day, enjoying myself, relaxing. Melissa comes in and says, they're, they're, they're, they're wasps, uh, one has attached to her dress and got into our house. And then, so she flees, she runs off into the bedroom, close the door is like, take care of it, take care of it. Uh, so now I'm trying to get this like wasp or either kill it or get it out. And, uh, it stung me on the toe. Uh, wow. Yeah. Can you believe that? Uh, stung me on the toe and like, like basically ruined, uh, uh, the joy ruined father's father's
Sonny00:11:41day. It ruined father's day. You put gasoline on the, on the, the guys came once upon a time in Hollywood and I hope
Vic00:11:49you lit it up.
Sonny00:11:50Did you put a hand grenade in there and blow them up?
Vic00:11:54Uh, the worst, the worst part is, I mean, I'm like, you know, like with certain bees is, you know, Oh, we can, after they sting you, they die, you know, wasps. No, no, no, no. This, this thing, this thing, this thing stung me twice.
Mike00:12:06Yeah. Murder spree. It was ridiculous.
Vic00:12:09Anyway. It was like the ending of, uh, of, uh, that, that, that. Oh, my girl movie. My girl. My girl. Oh yeah. With Anna Cholmsky. Unexpected.
Mike00:12:19A horrible ending.
Vic00:12:20Anna Cholmsky. Yeah. Yeah. Anna Cholmsky. That's right. That's right. Cholmsky. Okay. Horrible, horrible ending. Okay.
Sonny00:12:30Thank you. Sonny. What, how are you? How was your father's day?
Vic00:12:34What's going on?
Sonny00:12:35My father's day was fine. You don't have to talk about father's day. You can talk about whatever you want. Uh, my, my, my week has been fine. Do we want to talk about, do we want to tell people about the, the journey to get Vic Mattis tonight? I think so. He's recording. He's recording from the Free Beacon offices.
Vic00:12:48From Free Beacon Studios, which is quite lovely because it's got all the, all the accoutrements. You've got a great view. It's got, oh, you know what's so funny? At night it's really quite charming at night. I can see taking dates up here. Yeah. I should have done that. But anyway, uh, the, uh, oh, 4th of July is also great up here. You just have to turn off the lights because of the reflection. Uh, yeah, we lost power as you know. It's now summer. Uh, and so summer storm came rolling in and flickered on and off. Like three times and then finally off. Um, and then we were trying all sorts of ways to get connected, but I look like out of the Blair Witch Project.
Sonny00:13:22No, it was very funny. So I like, I log in to, I log on, we use a program called Squadcast, which is kind of like zoom, but better for podcasts. And uh, I, I log in, I see Mike in his basement looks, you know, like a dapper young, uh, professional. Yes. He dresses up for the podcast. And I, you know, I'm in my, my living room. My little, you know, movie closets, you know, I've got books in the background and posters on the wall. And then, uh, in the bottom right quadrant of my screen is the Blair Witch Project. It's like, it's like, it's like unfriended dark web. What does she say?
Vic00:13:57I'm so scared.
Sonny00:13:58The girl, it was like, it was like, it was, it was pitch black except for like the barest outlines of Vic's face, which was taking up three quarters of the screen. Like he, like he was strapped to one, a jigsaw.
Mike00:14:15It wasn't actually that far from the camera. It was just, I can't tell because I, but of course I have to, that's what I'm looking
Sonny00:14:22at it like this. Like what? You can't even, I'm going to have to take a picture of this.
Vic00:14:27I'm going to have to take a picture of this.
Sonny00:14:29Kate, they're on the, they're on the phone. Kate, how do I get them in my, and I was, and we're, and, and of course we could hear the echo. We could hear the echo because you didn't have any headphones on and then we were trying to figure out how we get. Yeah. And at some point I was like, well, what if we got a second phone and we just did it. We all recorded into our phones and we talked over squad cast and that, but luckily we, 10 minutes later, but here's the crazy thing.
Vic00:14:57So I'm driving down and you don't re like, you know, half, half the way into Arlington, it's just darkness. You know what I mean? It's amazing without the street lights, how dark it is. And then, um, I get on the, uh, 66 interstate 66. There's a state trooper, he like parked on the side, just near the ramp, I guess, monitoring because of the situation I had taken my car in for, you know, scheduled service as it's every six months or whatever. And when they checked my car, they, uh, they, they checked the headlights, but they, I, I always have it on auto so that when it's dark, the headlights go on well.
Sonny00:15:34They flipped it. Yeah.
Vic00:15:36They do this, you know, and like they do it, they do this valley parkers do it. It messes you up. And so, um, I'm trying, I was driving half the way in darkest, including past the state trooper. And it was right after that, that I thought about it, go, oh, wait a minute, wait. Oh. And then I start fiddling with it for the headlights to go on. And you know what it was like? It was like Jackie Chan and cannonball run. Remember that they drove the Subaru, it was supposed to be a high-tech car, the Japanese car. Do you remember this? And they would always play that Japanese music as he would drive by. I mean, it's very offensive now. Right. But this whole thing. So he drives by. And if you look at it, it was an old Subaru. It was an old Subaru. And sure enough, I'm driving a Subaru and I'm driving, I'm driving, it had like a rocket in the back. Cause it was a hatchback. It was a Subaru hatchback. And I said, I'm just like Jackie Chan driving a Subaru in the dark without the music.
Mike00:16:29They don't make movies like cannonball run anymore.
Vic00:16:31They don't make movies like that anymore. But so I'm here in the office now, late night, what we do for this show, for our listeners. I did want to say had a, a lovely. Father's day. Do you know what the big revelation I did steak and potatoes, except for steak, just for me, cause it's so expensive, you know, hamburgers for like the kids, you know, but, but I had to say, but I did make, I want to do baked potatoes and you know what he decided to do? I decided to do a twice baked potato. Oh my gosh. So you, yeah, Mike's a cook like this too. So you know, you put it in for an hour until the skin's nice and crispy. Then you slice it, you scoop it out into a bowl. You mix it with whatever they tell you, you know, butter, salt, pepper, you could put bacon scallions, whatever you want. And then you fill it and then you fill it back in to the empty halves of the potato skins and then you pop it in and with, and you top it with a lot of cheese and then you stick it back in the oven for 15 minutes at 425, a huge hit. It was out of this world. Speaking of out of this world over the weekend, light year came in a second place, second place. Not really. It just barely made it out of orbit. Let's be frank here. Um, 50 point, not 56, 58. 50.6 million dollars behind Jurassic World Dominion with 59 million. And in third place, Top Gun Maverick with an additional 44 million box office thoughts. Could Top Gun Maverick regain the top spot at some point?
Sonny00:18:01Uh, it's possible. I mean, I like, I, it would be, it would be tough. It would, it would be, it would be kind of surprising, but it wouldn't be impossible. I mean, I, uh, so Top Gun Maverick, it's not just that it grossed $44.65 million, uh, this weekend, that represents a drop of just under 14%, which is like unheard, I, you know, people, people were throwing around Titanic as a reference point to, to let you know what sort of numbers this is putting up and you know, it's not like we don't see, it's not like we don't see movies that gross on, on a pretty regular basis, 400, 500, $600 million. Sure. But the, the, it's how this movie is doing it that is impressive. It did not open to $200 million. It did not open to $250 million, right. It opened to 125 and it has, it, it is already almost at, uh, the, the way, the, the way that people talk about box office success is as a multiple of the opening weekends. That's one way to talk about it. Yeah. And a movie that holds very well, um, your average hold on a, uh, off of a standard three day, uh, weekend opening is 2.7 times, right. That's what, that's what the number is. It's probably closer to actually 2.5 right now, 2.4, something like that. Um, so that's, that's on average, a good hold is like three, three and a half. Um, Top Gun Maverick is already at four almost. It's a, it's already at a four times multiple. If it, uh, if it breaks, God, what is, if it, if it breaks, if it gets to 600 million, that's basically. A five times multiple, um, which is huge. That's, I mean, that's, that's a huge number for a movie like this. It's, it's, it's, it's an enormous, it's an enormous, enormous hit. People love it.
Vic00:19:52Uh, and it's possible it's coming back on IMAX, right?
Sonny00:19:55It's I, it, well, it, it looks like it has some IMAX screens this weekend. I mean, I, the, the, it's interesting, the, the IMAX, uh, theaters and I'll, I'll look it up real quick here, uh, while we're talking, but there were a couple of IMAX showings when I checked. Uh. Um, uh, the other day for, so let's just see, let's just see what's going on at the AMC North Park here near me in Dallas Friday. Uh, what do we got? What's on IMAX? So Elvis is on the Dolby AMC. Oh, sure.
Vic00:20:27This is the Baz Luhrmann.
Sonny00:20:28Um, uh, you've got a couple, you got a couple of showings of light year at 11:00 AM and 1:40 PM. Uh, you got, you got a couple of showings of, uh, Jurassic world dominion at four 20 and 10 45 on IMAX. And then there's a top gun Maverick showing, uh, at seven 40 on IMAX. Now that that's interesting because again, like that doesn't, you don't see that a lot. Usually it's one movie gets the IMAX screens for the whole time. And the fact that they're splitting it up in between, um, uh, some of these, some of these movies suggests that I just want to see how many tickets are actually left for this Friday show.
Vic00:21:09Because I was going to say that's a prime.
Sonny00:21:10It's actually still pretty, it's still pretty empty. If you want to go see IMAX, uh, at the AMC North Park, Top Gun Maverick, you'll be able to get tickets.
Vic00:21:17And keep in mind, notice they say seven 40. That means eight Oh five at AMC.
Sonny00:21:20Yeah. Well, I mean, that's, you gotta, you always got to keep that in mind. It's not like at the, at the draft house where, you know, you show up and.
Vic00:21:25Some of these trailers, by the way, are like two second trailers that are just annoying. There was one called smile. It looks like. Oh yeah.
Sonny00:21:33I don't know. It looks scary. I want to go see it. Nothing scarier than people smiling. Joy. The, the look of joy on somebody's face. That's a scary thing.
Vic00:21:41What is happening?
Sonny00:21:42In the year 2022, somebody smiling, that means, that means that somebody has just gotten canceled on twitter.com.
Vic00:21:51So do you do, do, do we need to see, by the way, do we need to see Elvis on IMAX? Is that really necessary?
Sonny00:21:57I mean, well, it's at the Dolby. So, I mean, it's the sound system that you want to.
Mike00:22:01The spectacle on a Baz Luhrmann.
Sonny00:22:04I don't, I don't understand who this movie is for exactly. I don't like, is it older? Is it for, but like, but I mean. Like Elvis was even before boomers. I mean, Elvis was like the generation, the pre-boomer generation.
Vic00:22:18And you have, and you have Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker.
Sonny00:22:22Tom Hanks as, in a fat suit. I don't know, man. I don't know. So I don't really know who this is. I like, I don't think that young people are going to be that interested in it. I, old people still aren't really going back to the theaters. So I don't, I don't know.
Vic00:22:35Is the Elvis actor a famous person?
Sonny00:22:37No, a new kid. New, new. Supposedly he's very good at it. Electric. Is the word I keep hearing. He's electric. All right. All right. Just like Elvis.
Mike00:22:45Can I say something just quickly about Top Gun? So I was in South. You saw it. No, I have not seen it. And I'll tell you why. Oh, for goodness sakes. I'll tell you why.
Vic00:22:53You know, first you tell us, first you tell us you don't have prime and now you haven't seen Top Gun. Where do you live in the United States?
Mike00:23:00I do live in the United States, but it's not for want of trying. And this is what I was going to try to tell you. If you would, you know, you know, just give me a chance to tell my story.
Sonny00:23:09Shut your mouth for two minutes.
Mike00:23:12I was in South Carolina last week for work. Oh, yes. There was about it was a it was covering a primary and it was basically a four hour window where I didn't have anything to do. So I said, I'm going to go. I'm going to go see Top Gun. I'm going to finally go see it. I have a window of time.
Vic00:23:28Yes.
Mike00:23:29To do this. I go to the only like Megaplex in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. And it's like the afternoon. It is not. It's a little rainy, but it's, you know, it's in the middle of summer. Like people should be riding, you know, go karts and going to the pool or whatever.
Sonny00:23:49Going down to the watering hole. Oh, yeah. Getting some fish.
Mike00:23:54Dirty Myrtle. I go in. There are there is literally a showing a screening of Top Gun like every 30 minutes at this Megaplex. I go in. I'm like, oh, I'll go. I'll go to the four o'clock. The guy's like, well, these are the only seats that are left. He's the you know, it's that a row. It's the front row. Like, I'm not going to say, oh, I said, OK, OK, OK, that's not that's not going to work. How about 430? It's like same thing. Five o'clock. Same. Well, now I'm running out of time. Wow. And wow. And he said, it's like every single showing is like that.
Vic00:24:28And they're coming back.
Mike00:24:28He's like, I'm getting ready to leave the next day. And he's like, do you want to try to come back tomorrow? Because you should get your tickets now. The other thing I would I would say is like this is the first movie that I have heard. A wide swath of people in like real meat space people mention like, you know, neighbors with a with ice cream social in the neighborhood the other day, like people are talking about going to see it or when they went to see it. I mean, that and people of all ages. Yes. Now, granted, this was a retired military guy who was who was in high school when the first Top Gun came out. So he's kind of target demographic. But still, I mean, it's like this is the first time that. In a long time that people talk about a movie in that. Yeah, yeah.
Sonny00:25:17So, yeah, it's it's I haven't seen anything like this in a long time. There is definitely like fear of missing out that people have. Yeah.
Vic00:25:25And also, you know, people who who haven't seen it up to this point. And so they have very high expectations. Paul Crookston was saying this had very high expectations because of all the hype. And it met the hype like it was as good as promised. You know. And everything is I don't know anybody who I don't think I don't I know anybody who didn't like it. I've seen some people snark about it on Twitter. Well, maybe I'll go.
Mike00:25:51I'm about to go on a vacation. Maybe I'll go see it. So you guys get off my back about not you need.
Vic00:25:58Yeah. What's your problem? You need to see it. Sonny, what is the what is the drop going to be like for Lightyear?
Sonny00:26:03I don't know. I mean, I thought the drop was going to be worse for for Jurassic World Dominion than it was. Remember, I was saying it was going to be like 67 to 70 percent had only dropped 59 percent, which I was kind of surprised by. Frankly, that's a better hold than I figured it would have. I mean, people love these people love these dumb Jurassic World movies, even though they're dumb and bad. They're all dumb and bad, but people people love them because people have terrible taste. I don't think I actually don't think the drop for Lightyear will be that bad because I think there are so few kids movies out that people were are still going to want to take their kids to go see it. You know, it's a summer movie. People will go through through the week. Yeah, I think that movie is going to I think that movie is going to end up doing better than people think. You know, it's got a minus on cinema score. The word of my mouth isn't terrible. I wouldn't be surprised if it legs out to one hundred seventy five or two hundred million dollars domestic. Now, that being said, it could drop off. It could just like fall off the planet. I don't know. I mean, I never, never be certain with these things.
Vic00:27:00Not no. Not having seen it. I have no intention to see it. I mean, my kids are old now, but, you know, having read John Podhortz's review of it, I was quite surprised. I told you what I Mike, have you seen this movie? No, we haven't seen it.
Mike00:27:15The kids, my kids don't know.
Vic00:27:16I right. I I told you what I thought the movie was about, which is that Buzz Lightyear gets like cosmically zapped at the end of the movie into the Toy Story world so that he is real. He's just, you know, small. And so I know you were saying in Toy Story 2, there's all these other dolls. But he's actually real. I just I just thought that I said, what is sprung from his mind? It can't be. It can't be.
Sonny00:27:43This is a problem. This is a problem with the marketing of this movie, though. Like you say this, but like people have no idea what this movie is about. No, it's very confusing. It's very people are.
Vic00:27:53I thought in the end of the movie, it'll be just like, you know, these silly prequel movies where the last thing you see is just before the beginning. Like, you know, wasn't it just like a rogue one?
Mike00:28:03Like you're going to see.
Vic00:28:04I was going to say Rogue One or I was going to say, which is an amazing movie, but like really just like beat you over the head with it. I think it was Hannibal. It was like and the last it wasn't Hannibal. I'm sorry. It was the prequel Red Dragon. And the last thing is, oh, somebody wants to see you. You know, it is all there is FBI agents.
Mike00:28:25And the only yeah, the only thing that would have been worse if they'd gone to black. And then you heard. Hello, Clarice.
Vic00:28:31Right, right. Exactly. Just like that. So I was thinking this would be and all of a sudden you'd hear Tom Hanks's voice is what he's like. Oh, well, reach for the sky. Thank you. Mike. That was lovely. OK, so we're not. Yes, Sonny, you're going to have you have more thoughts. We're at 27 minutes. Let's get to let's get to Georgetown. Let's get to Georgetown, because, OK, so we weren't discussing any of the movies that came out this weekend. And the fellas were very kind to humor me because I saw a trailer for this movie. I feel like it was 20 years ago that I saw the trailer and I got very excited. Number one, it stars Christoph Waltz. Who I'm a huge fan of this Austrian actor, an Academy Award winner.
Sonny00:29:16And number two, best known for playing a Nazi.
Vic00:29:19Number two, it is about that story about the murder in Georgetown, which is not a Margaret Truman novel, by the way, not I'm not referring to that, but an actual one with Albert Muth and Viola Drath. It was a crazy story and it was chronicled by Frank Farr and other people. But most. Prominently by Frank Farr in The New York Times. And so I said, oh, this is going to be interesting. It's extremely niche. It's sort of my world. But I can't wait to see this movie. So we saw this movie. It was I thought it was on Netflix. I'm mistaken. I must have came across it on Amazon Prime. So that is what we're talking about. We're talking about Georgetown, which came out a couple of years ago to 2019. But to extremely limited release.
Sonny00:30:08Well, Sonny, what happened? It's an indie film. It's not very good. And those tend to those tend to here. OK, those those tend to those tend to not be in theaters for very long. I mean, like you can muscle a bad movie to a big box office opening if it has good IP or, you know, if it has some stars people like. But when you when you have when you have kind of a cheap indie film that is not based on IP is is is a, you know, kind of a character study. Georgetown is stars and is directed by Christoph. Yes.
Mike00:30:45Directed by C-Volts is the C-Volts.
Vic00:30:48So you would think, oh, my gosh, it's directed by this Oscar or this two time two time Oscar winner.
Sonny00:30:54And it is it. So Vic has described the barest of bones here. It is the story of this guy who, you know, it is it is inspired by they make they go to pains to say, oh, this is not the same guy. It's inspired by true events. But whatever. Based on this guy's story and the film is essentially about how he insinuated himself into Georgetown High Society and D.C. High Society as a result, how he how this guy who, again, is played by Christoph Waltz, he kind of made himself a presence, how he worked as an intern on the Hill. And then he started dating an elderly. Reporter and then from there used her connections to start a a a consultant, an NGO slash consultancy. What is it?
Vic00:31:52They're eminent persons group there, but they're done. Is that a real? What was it? What was like the real name was actually called? Yeah, there are a dime a dozen in this town.
Sonny00:32:02Yeah, they really I mean, they are. And the thing about this movie is that there is there is a feeling of reality to this film, like the the the schemer who. Insinuates himself and uses his connections to hop from like person to person, you know, amassing a a board that includes guys like Chuck Hagel. What's his name? Yeah, Chuck Hagel, the French who's the former French prime minister, former French prime minister, George Soros. Yeah, gets a gets a mention here. Very interesting. But and then from there it. Kind of chronicles his his own personal. Flaws and problems and the eventually the the murder of this this elderly woman. Excuse me. The problem with this movie is the problem that a lot of movies by that are directed by actors has, which is that it is very much in love with the performances of actors. And in in this case, you know, obviously, Christoph Waltz gets a lot of gets a lot of play. He's he's allowed to really do his thing. And his thing is best done under the auspices of Quentin Tarantino. Yeah, I think that should be stated just as a obvious fact. But for the record, Quentin Tarantino, better director than Christoph Waltz, really controversial.
Mike00:33:38That's fine. Real controversial.
Vic00:33:40See who's next if he gets another.
Sonny00:33:41That's fine, because Christoph Waltz is a better actor than Quentin Tarantino. So, I mean, like, you know, like it all evens out. It all evens out. But the movie is just the movie is just not very good. It's not it is structured kind of interestingly, but also wrongly, if I can be if I can be frank. I mean, the way it's the way it is built is there's a there's a there's a narrative that kind of takes us through the murder and then the investigation. And then intercut with that is how Waltz insinuated himself into the society. And again, it's it's interestingly done. It just doesn't work. Yeah, really. Like the hopping back and forth is is annoying. And it would have almost been better just to, like, start with murder, go all the way back to the beginning, work through that, and then we can get back to the get back to the trial and aftermath and all that. But, you know, that also could have been happening. Could have been, you know, just your standard in media res start, then going back, flashing back and going forward. I don't know. I just again, the problem is the movie is just not very good. It also has the oldest cast I have I've ever seen. Certainly like in a recent movie, like again, it's like, you know, it's the sort of movie that doesn't really get made anymore for a variety of reasons. But like the average age, I mean, like the stars are Christoph Waltz. Vanessa Redgrave is the the elderly woman who he. She seduces Annette Bening. Great. Who is is, again, great. But just again, like an older an older person, an older lady and underused and underused. Yeah, totally. Like like I she she is she is called upon to like just make kind of annoyed faces. Yeah. And she's like, it's I don't know. I the whole nothing nothing about this movie works. It's it's all very annoying, which is too bad because I like everybody in it. Right. I mean, you can imagine being told.
Vic00:35:41You know, if you're Frank Fowler and you're being told, oh, they're going to make a movie out of this. And Christoph Waltz was, you know, two time Academy Award winners, you know, optioned it, optioned it. And he's got Annette Bening and Vanessa Redgrave, the great Vanessa Redgrave. Oh, my gosh. This is going to be amazing.
Sonny00:35:55Great cast. Just it just is weirdly inert. I don't know. I like I was watching it. The nice thing about it is is that it is only 100 minutes long.
Vic00:36:05Well, I was going to say, speaking of which, the quadrant score for this, if I can just go through it. Uh, really briefly, the plot, the plot is a B plus and not an A because it, it, it, I thought it was very strong until the ending, which I really thought was abrupt. And suddenly it just ends as, oh, by the way, you got sentenced to 50 years and that's it. Uh, the duration on the other hand is an A plus plus 100 minutes. Oh, I love to see that. Uh, action and violence is a C. It's very sad. It's just spousal slash elder abuse. That's what it is, which is very unfortunate. And then, uh, and sex nudity. Is a C if you want to be a strict constructionist about it, uh, there is male nudity, uh, per se. Uh, and, uh, see a, but yes, and I'm also thankful, but I'm also thankful that there was no nonagenarian sex. I had a nonagenarian because we don't need, we don't need to see that. It's like the joke, you know, the joke about the two old guys who go streaking down the street. And then the old lady say, did you see what that was? And the lady says, I don't know, whatever it was needs ironing. You know, that one, because it's just, I think I told you that. Okay. Oh, it's an old one, Mike. I bought, I've heard it from many sources. Okay. Mike, what did you think? Yeah. Are you familiar with this at all?
Mike00:37:17This with this world or a little bit, but mostly honestly, vicariously through you, uh, is how I best know. I mean, look on the movie itself. I agree with Sonny. I mean, it's, it's like a puzzle box movie. If the box were transparent and you could just like, see how it all works. I mean, like it opens with this murder and it leaves you thinking, well, who could possibly have done it except it's very obvious that it's Christoph Waltz. And then spoiler alert, it's revealed that he did it. It basically exactly how I thought he would have done, which is he just comes back from his walk and he kills her.
Vic00:37:56Right. And so like they show that at the end.
Mike00:37:58And so the, the whole idea of kind of walking us through it, it doesn't work because there's no, there's no turn. There's no reveal. I mean, we, we, we figure out very quickly. Or certainly I did that. It's all a con and, and then he killed her. So it doesn't, it doesn't work structurally. I also think, you know, it, it, speaking of this world, like it needed to be either more farcical, you know, like more humor. There was nothing funny in this movie. I was thinking of like, what are movies that have done this kind of world better? So there's burn after reading. I mean, sort of gets into a lot of this and that's just, I mean, it's just an outright funny movie. It's also the Coen brothers and they're everything else.
Guest00:38:41Yeah.
Mike00:38:41And then, but then think about like, if you want to go in the other direction, what was that movie with Ides of March with George Clooney? Oh yeah. And, and, and who else was in it? Ryan Gosling.
Vic00:38:53Ryan Gosling. I mean, just. Paul G. I don't know. Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Mike00:38:56That's right. That's right. I mean, it's, it, I wouldn't call that a great movie, but it was, I, it was, I kept comparing it to this.
Vic00:39:04I think it's an excellent, it's an excellent movie, but, and that is very dark.
Mike00:39:07Well, it's very dark, but I mean, just in terms, in terms of like, you know, I, I think of that opening, the opening scene, just even like the directing of it, like the opening scene with the, with, in that movie with the, with the Metro train and, or am I thinking, am I thinking of, maybe I'm mixing, mixing the movies up, but I think it's in there like somebody dies, like in front of like a Metro train.
Vic00:39:33Are you thinking of House of Cards?
Mike00:39:36No, I'm not thinking of House of Cards. I'm not thinking of House of Cards.
Vic00:39:38She gets pushed. No, no, no.
Mike00:39:40There is, there is a scene there.
Sonny00:39:41The Georgetown Metro stop.
Mike00:39:42No, this is the, I know what I'm mixing it up with, the Russell Crowe movie that takes place in DC. Anyway, the point is, is that they've all done like interesting things to capture like DC culture, but in ways that were actually compelling movies. This was like a play and a very boring play, but I'm interested in hearing Vic, you're kind of delving into this bizarre world that I think people have an idea of what it's like, what like a Georgetown cocktail party circuit is like, but they don't actually know.
Sonny00:40:14When people say, when people say Georgetown cocktail party, they imagine, you know, like salons and smoky back rooms.
Vic00:40:21And it is, and a lot of it, and a lot of it can be, but it's funny because, well, I, this movie, I thought he had a lot of potential and I thought it had a strong start. I was particularly amused and entertained by the opening dinner party scene because it's one thing. And we know people. I've been to these parties where you hire the help, right? You have the catering service, they do everything. And I've actually seen the, the doyen, you know, in the kitchen, just to order people around. Okay. Yeah, that's kind of work, but not really. Uh, but for a lot of the smaller places and, and where, you know, you don't have those kinds of means and you want, but you want to entertain people and have a throw a dinner party. It is a lot of work and you have to make it look very casual when you're in the presence. But very much so when you are in a kitchen, you are alone, you're hustling and you're sweating and you got to make it, but then you got to bring it up. And then by the time you bring it out and everything's got to be casual. I've been in this situation before and I've also, you know, seen other people. It is a lot of, it's a lot of, it's a lot of work. So, um, there was a lot of potential. So I was disappointed in it. Um, the Georgetown cocktail party scene is a funny, it's a funny trope. I mean, people throw it around, you know, derisively sort of like to say, oh, you're an elitist and stuff. And, and that was probably true, uh, certainly in the, you know, in the time of, you know, the Kennedys, for example, hanging out at the Alsop brothers and things like that, going into, you know, I guess into the Clinton years. And I know Obama had his big dinner at George Will's house, you know, but so much of where important people are meeting now in DC is outside of Georgetown, you know, it's an old neighborhood. And if you think about Georgetown now, um, and I mean, I went to school there, so I went up and down that neighborhood. Um, it's a very eccentric insular neighborhood of, and there are some nice folks who live there, but it's also really weird. And the people who live there are kind of weird, you know, and it's a mixture of old money and has-beens and they need each other. And, and, and, and if you can insinuate yourself, it's not hard to insinuate, insinuate yourself into that world. Um, you can kind of thrive. I mean, you know about this, I mean, as journalists. Um, you, you have a beat and, uh, once you devote yourself to that beat, there are invitations everywhere. You know? Yeah. You just have to go. And once you go to the, once you go to the general stuff, you know, you start meeting people and other people and then you start connecting and then next thing you know, you know, you're having a, for me it was like, I remember, um, finally getting invited to like a breakfast briefing at the German ambassador's residence with Yashica Fisher. And that was very exciting at the time because then you got to drive into the, you know, you're parking inside the residence and then you go in and I was more interested in what the food was, which was amazing scrambled eggs. Uh, but I mean, but, but you know, Mike, I mean, you, in your world of politics, you, you, you could, you're suddenly surrounded by all these politicians, you know, and Sonny with, and with, with, with actors and directors in, in, in movies and things.
Sonny00:43:31It's right there. Yeah.
Vic00:43:33Me and, me and Chris Nolan just hanging out. If you don't mind, I was going to say, if you don't mind like the, the mediocre salary, it's very exciting because it's, it's, it's. You get to meet all these interesting people. I remember Sonny. You interviewing Gary Oldman. Sure.
Sonny00:43:45Well, yeah, but that's like, those are like junkets, like there's, there's a difference between that and like the social parties. Oh, yeah, that's true. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean the only I've been, I, I, I think I've been to exactly one Georgetown cocktail party and that was for, uh, God, that was, uh, I want to say it was maybe, maybe it was Mort Kondracki's like 70th birthday or something.
Vic00:44:11Back in the day.
Sonny00:44:12It was, uh, or, or some, some, some birthday, it was probably younger than 70, uh, but the, but the, uh, but I, like, I, I was just never, that was never my scene. That was definitely never my, my circle of, uh, acquaintances, the occasional book party, I guess. I feel like Fred Barnes had a very good, uh, entertaining book party for, uh, Rebel in Chief.
Vic00:44:36Yes. Remember that? Yes. Yes, I, yes I do. And, uh, uh.
Mike00:44:41Mike, you were gonna say something. Well, I, I, I mean, I think the, I think what, to sort of take it back to the movie a bit, I think what is interesting about that scene and the way that somebody could kind of climb up is, I mean, it is very, um, it's the kind of place where if you are ambitious and if you're young, uh, and you're sort of hungry, you can, you can be the kind of person who impresses a lot of these has-beens, these old people with, with money, um, who are sort of like looking. Um, for like what, what's going on with the next. They want back in. They want back in.
Vic00:45:16That's right.
Mike00:45:17They want back in on the action. So what, what I thought would have been interesting for the movie to explore is like how weird it was for this 50 year old man, you know, who Christoph Waltz was playing to be doing this. I mean, they, they do a joke about him interning as a 50 year old, uh, in the congressional office. But I mean, it's, it was, I guess that's, that's why the cast was so old. I mean, he's like pitching himself to like. A generation older because he's a generation older, but that, that whole aspect of it was so weird. And maybe it's the fact that he's German.
Vic00:45:49It's even, it's even, yes, it's even way he was like of East German descent. It's it's even, so in the movie he's Ulrich Mott in the real life. It's Albrecht Muth, uh, obviously very similar, uh, in the movie. He's basically like my age is like 49 or 50 marrying a 90 year old or something there. And that's, that's crazy. Okay. I could do the reverse. I can't do that. That's too much. That's too much. So, uh, not to reverse exactly when you're 90, sorry. Yeah, no, no, no. But I mean, uh, so, uh, uh, but the reality was crazier, right? It was a 44 year difference. He was, he was 26 and she was 70 when they married. That's crazy.
Mike00:46:33I, I, I feel like the movie could have been better in that kind of Harold and Maude, like, uh, you know, dynamic, you know, or it's like short. Where, because then it becomes a little more realistic and, and I apparently realistic to the story, just having like this young, uh, kind of hungry person. I mean, it reminds me a lot of these, of these, um, kind of real life scam, uh, con artists, things like, uh, like Elizabeth Holmes or, uh, or what's her name, the, the, the German girl who pretended to be like from royalty, who's, uh, uh, something, Hannah or something. Yeah. Inventing Hannah. Like, I mean, there's like an element of that, but it. It requires the person to be younger. And I just, it, the whole thing with him being, uh, uh, you know, a grown man doing it, it was just, it was, it was like a little too weird, even for this weird story.
Vic00:47:22It is weird, but you know what you were saying about being able to insert yourself into this, you know, uh, into that world and parlay it, um, like for me, the, the weirdest thing was, um, there was a moment in time and now I'm old, but, you know, back when I was, you know, more ambitious and doing things.
Mike00:47:41Long ago.
Vic00:47:42It connected a lot. Many decades ago when I was, you know, all these things, it was probably my, I was probably in my thirties at the time, but, uh, it was a weird moment where suddenly I was, I was literally like good friends with, uh, a guy who became the German defense minister. And at the same time, uh, Carl Theo Gutenberg. And at the same time was very friendly with Radix Corsi, who became the Polish foreign minister. And then Liam Fox, who is the, the, the, the shadow, I think the defense minister became the health minister. And, and, and, and then I went and then, and then I was friends with Jim Osborne, who became the German head of the German green party. And I thought watching this movie, I should have put them on a masthead. I could have created my own, uh, missed opportunity, missed opportunities. And I became very good friends with these, particularly like the ambassador from Cyprus. We would have these one-on-one lunches. I would just have lunch at her residence, you know, and, and it was quite lovely. She was so sweet and she was showing, yeah, but then what happens would, yes. And she's showing these amazing. Icons and things. And then she's just, oh, take a, we'll, we'll drive you back to the office. And then, you know, they like the driver in a diplomatic car would take me back, you know, to the office and things and, um, but then what happens is all these people are gone, you know, and then suddenly you're just, you know, you become, you get lost in the mix,
Sonny00:48:59you know? Yeah. I mean, the, the thing about this, the thing that this movie really does get at is just how, how superficial and tenuous all of these relationships are the best, the best scene in the movie. And that first one in the, the, the, the dinner, because he's got the dumb waiter. That's why it's so great. The dumb waiter is fantastic, the, but the, the best scene, uh, I thought was the one where he meets, he goes to the Iraqi and goes to the Iraqi embassy and he's trying, he like brings a big plan to, you know, we're going to have a peace conference and you're going to meet with Makhtar al-Sadr and you know, we're going to get the Taliban there. And, and there are three Iraqis there. The first of whom is like the guy he has the relationship with. Who is like kind of humoring him, like, thank you for bringing this on. You know, we're, we obviously can't really, and we love your parties, you know, we love
Mike00:49:47it. That was, that was, we love you too.
Sonny00:49:49You put on great events and great parties and you know, let us know if we can come to any more of those. And then there's, there's like a kind of a, uh, a like serious guy who's trying to let him down softly. Who's like, you know, obviously we cannot meet with the Taliban, obviously, obviously we can't do that. And then the third guy who's just like mocking him to his face. What are those, uh, what are those metals on your chest? Oh, that was humiliating. What are those metals on your chest? Wait. From the French foreign legion? I don't recognize. I don't recognize.
Vic00:50:18And he's Iraqi, so he's going to call him out on it.
Sonny00:50:21And I like that, that is like the perfect kind of demonstration of how tenuous and how like once, once you get into a position where people stop recognizing the niceties, it all collapses like that. Yeah. Just like that. Like, I mean, it just like falls apart in a second, which is, I, I mean, I thought that, that scene, that sequence was pretty. Pretty well done.
Mike00:50:42Well, and they built it up. They built it up well to the point where I didn't see it coming because he's been kind of snowballing in success and, and you're sort of like, I can't believe he got away with that. I can't believe he got away with that. He's getting these people on his board and, and, and it, it, I felt.
Vic00:50:57He's convincing other people that he's friends with the other people. Right. But I, I felt the brick wall that he hit, you know, it was like, whoa, oh, ouch.
Mike00:51:05By the way, speaking of that first scene, did you think like I did that one of the women at the party was Judy Woodruff? Yeah.
Vic00:51:14I, I immediately like looked, I was like. But you mean like playing her, but not her. I thought it was actually her. You thought it was actually her.
Mike00:51:20I thought it was actually her. I was like, I was like, is that, is that really Judy? Did they get, because then it started to, like, are they gonna get like celebrities? And then I realized, oh, this is not that kind of movie. No.
Vic00:51:30This is, this is not much of it. That would have been interesting. I've been, and, and there are some, you know, there's some terrible parties out there. I went to one. It was for a friend who used to work at the Standard and then he was gonna end up working. He was gonna work in the administration. And so some other, he knew some important people and they threw a party for him out in Fox Hall. And so Kate and I go there to Fox Hall at this party, it's a beautiful mansion. And there was an old Clinton lawyer who was there. I'm not gonna mention his name, but absolutely insufferable. And we're talking with Fred, I was, oh, thank God Fred's here so we could talk with Fred. And he just wedged his way in between us and the conversation to introduce. And then he was bragging about something and it was so embarrassing. About what he was bragging about. And I was asking him about it and he was like, oh no, not really that, but this or whatever. And I'm like, wow, that's, you know, that's depressing. And then he had some, it's depressing and he had left. And then, and then I remember Fred saying, oh, that guy's terrible. I hate these parties. You know? And so, but we were there as a favorite because it was our friend who was being thrown this party. You know, the kind of parties that you both know that I like, of course, are, you know, you, everybody at the party is your friend. So no matter where you go, it's somebody you want to talk to. And you just want to have, you want to drink with them, eat with them, and then see if they're open to new experiences. Right. Right. You know, you know how, you know, my New Year's parties, as you know.
Sonny00:52:56That's how you, that's how you, that's how you expand your horizons.
Vic00:52:59Yeah.
Mike00:53:00That's what I'm saying. Trying scotch when you're there.
Vic00:53:02Yeah. That's what you mean. Right. That's right. I will, I will say, by the way, it was very funny. I was thinking about these old, when I, I used to go to all these things all the time, right? You get invitations. Once, what happens is once you stop, then they, that's it. But I used to go all the time and sometimes it'd be like random dinners and you just show up there with all these people. And there was a guy who I used to see all the time at these parties and, and he worked for Time Magazine. His name was Roland Flamini. A very, very nice fella. And I said, whatever happened to Roland? So I'm reading the Franklin Four piece and then there's Roland Flamini is quoted in the piece. I'm like, oh, well there, that makes perfect sense. I will say this. I'm looking at our clock here. I do have the weirdest story. Georgetown story, which I will show you this is, this is, uh, so, um, when I was a senior in, at Georgetown, um, me and, uh, like four or five, five, I think other buddies of mine, we had gotten this dinner. We had finagled a dinner with, uh, the Dean of the Foreign Service School at his home where he would, you know, have, he would host you for dinner and this whole thing. Uh, and he lived, you know, in Georgetown just off campus on N Street. Uh, and it was like, it's the kind of home that was very much. Much like in this movie, because these Georgetown homes are narrow, uh, and they're old. I mean, uh, the Dean's home, um, you know, goes back to like the 1700s. If you go to the basement level, you can see the, you know, the, the, the foundation is, is ancient. Uh, and then of the, they're worth millions, which is funny because there's not a lot of space there. It's all cramped in, but a lot of character. And of course the house had a name because you have to have a name for a house. It was Brondersley. And uh, what I. And he was, and he was such a gracious host and, and you know, I was intimidated at first, but he was such a gracious host. Like he asked, what would you like to drink? And there was nobody else in that house at the time when we were there. So he had probably people prepping stuff. But when we were there, it was like him as the only host. And he came back from up downstairs because it was all downstairs, just like in this movie with a tray of everybody's drinks. And I think I ordered, like, I had like a gin and tonic and he's like, well, if you don't mind, I often, I often like a splash of Campari and I'm like, uh, yeah, that's great. And then when he comes back, he gives us these drinks. And then eventually he invites us to downstairs, which is where the main dining room was. And I saw him in the kitchen and he was alone there, much like with Christoph Waltz and he's hustling in there. And it was like a lamb. It was a giant rack, like a lamb that he was flipping over, over this fire and everything. And, and I had never had like the fancy lamb with the mint jelly and stuff. I've never had that before. And it was really something. And the conversation, he was very good about conversation. Two things I remember about the conversation. Um, he loved Gary Hart and he thinks what happened to him was a shame that, you know, poor Gary Hart was his thing. This is 1995. And the other thing was, he said, as a Dean, you, he says, you haven't done a day's work if you didn't pick up the phone once to ask for money every day, like that's the job is asking for money. So that was interesting. But here's the crazy part. I know when we had like brandy and cigars and was, we had a lot of fun. Um, a couple years later, not many years after that, he went away, like, you know, he travels a lot. And so he was like down in New Zealand or somewhere he had rented out like, or, you know, you sublet, he subletted his home Bronner's Lake to this economist woman, a fire breaks out in that house and she dies in the fire and the, and DC Metro ruled it a homicide. And it is to this day an unsolved mystery. Hmm.
Mike00:56:39Isn't that wild? Yeah. It's like the sequel to Georgetown.
Vic00:56:42I, this one would be something. Georgetown too. I should look into it. And in fact, you know how it, the craziest part is, do you know how I found out about it was because a friend he had seen, it was, it was like on an episode of unsolved mysteries with Robert Stack. They never solved it, but obviously she must've been doing some sort of important work or something because it was like.
Sonny00:57:02Georgetown to Backdraft.
Vic00:57:03It's back. Yeah. No, it's like Georgetown meets Backdraft and that, yeah, that's right. It was Scott, it was Scott Glenn. It was Scott Glenn. Who did it. So, uh, okay. I'm looking through all my notes. I think I'm, I think I've gone through it all. Um, Georgetown parties. Okay. Uh, any, any other thoughts on this? We ready to move on? Yeah. Okay. Mike, you said you had a spirit of the week. I did. Yeah.
Mike00:57:28You were going to drink. So I was going to drink something, but I, but you're not, I know I ended up drinking a, uh, I ended up drinking a, uh, sparkling water. So it's, it's pretty, I, I was, I thought you were speaking, speaking of, of, uh, Hamlet uh, have a glass of, uh, Chianti, uh, with my, with my pasta this evening. So does that count? Very nice. That does count.
Vic00:57:49Uh, I had, I was, I was having a Scotch and soda that is now in a basement of darkness. So I left it.
Sonny00:57:55Hopefully your power's back by the time you get back.
Vic00:57:57I don't know. I'll just have to stay here. Uh, okay. Um, I do have a correction. This caused a little bit of a hubbub online. Um, in our last episode, Jonathan and I, we were talking about the awfulness. Uh, with along with Sonny of the awfulness of the drastic world dominion, the movie, the plot. And I was complaining about this girl who the sub, you know, she, how she was cloned and she's always, she's not a clone. The mother just through the miracle of science gave birth to her without a man. She just gave birth to her like certain species in the, um, in the movie. Yes. There was no, so it's not like there was nothing artificial about it or inseminate. No, she just gave birth because she was this brilliant scientist. And I said, what is this? Immaculate conception. I misspoke. Ooh. I misspoke. Yeah, I know. And so our friend, father Harrison air of the now famous clerical pod, which was featured in the wall street journal, what are we going to get there? Sonny and a head column on, on the sub B I was hoping they'd even mention us, but no, uh, anyway, he called us out on it and get the, to a catechesis. He says, I understand. I said, I don't know what he's talking about. I don't see where I made the mistake of that. Of course I talked to my wife and she explained my catechesis. Confusion over immaculate conception versus virgin birth original sin. Okay.
Mike00:59:15I stand. You know, usually it's the, it's the Protestants who get that wrong. It's just, uh, it's the, for a cradle, a Catholic, uh, to screw that one up, Vic.
Vic00:59:24I mean, well, I mean, that's the thing. Do you think they actually teach that in when I went to school, Catholic school in the eighties, I got great folk songs. I can sing to you later on. That is all the time we're giving to this episode. Questions, comments, compliments, tweet us at Sonny bunch at Victor to Matt. It's at Michael are Warren again, be sure to subscribe to us on Patrion. Just go to some beacon.com. We are there.
Sonny00:59:48Tell your friends until next time.
Vic00:59:58So you know, usually on, uh, uh, other podcasts when you have a guest host, they, they do you the courtesy of saying, uh, what do you want to promote? Mike, you're on. What do you want to promote? I don't want to promote anything. I don't want anybody to pay. You don't want to put it. Should we read anything? I don't want anybody. Check you out on Instagram. Uh, please don't check me on Instagram. I don't do anything.
Mike01:00:18Books? Just go to, just, you know, CNN, cnn.com. You can read what I write. I mean, it's look for, you know, uh, no, I don't have anything to promote. I don't, I I'm, I'm very bad at self promotion. There is nothing. I would not be, I would not be very good at, uh, at doing what Christoph Waltz.
Vic01:00:36Yeah. You, you know what you should write? You should write a book on mulch.
Mike01:00:39That's a great idea. It's so, it's so clever. That would be a huge hit. It would be. That would be a huge hit. Uh, yeah.
Sonny01:00:45Michael Warren presents Mulch. Well, yeah. It could just be pictures of you with piles of mulch. Yes. Travel the country.
Mike01:00:55A brief history. You know, speaking, I guess I do have to mention.
Sonny01:00:57It would be like a Mark Kurlansky novel.
Mike01:00:58I do have to mention mulch because, uh, uh, because apparently that's what we have to do whenever I'm on this freaking podcast. Uh, we have the, we've been typecast. We have the, uh, uh, we had the boy Scouts lay the mulch this year, the boy Scouts. So we paid them. Oh yes, of course. They do with that thing. Um, so I didn't lay any mulch this year. They did an okay job. There were a couple of places they spilled over into the lawn. I wasn't too happy with it.
Sonny01:01:20Did you, did you, uh, did you oversee the mulch? No, I wasn't even there.
Mike01:01:23I was, I think I was even out of town for work. So I just, it just, I showed up and, um, but you know, it's trusted somebody else to do
Sonny01:01:30the mulch.
Mike01:01:31It's a good lesson here. It's a good lesson that if you want a job done right, you got to do it yourself, you know? And so I've lesson learned. It was, uh, I'll, I'll be mulching again next year.
Vic01:01:42When are you going to do peat moss?
Mike01:01:43Peat moss? No, no, no. Isn't that the same? No, it's peat moss. That's what they make like scotch from. I'm sure it's fine.
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