Mike's Oscars Rundown! | Small Busness Ep. 2

00:15

Okay guys, how's it going? Mike Landlot here, coming at you from the sunny side of the planet. How's it going? How's it feeling? Hope you had a good weekend. For those of you who don't know me, I'm the owner of more than 216 local businesses across the Quad County Shelf, and I've been the executive co-scribe of the Skatchenash Valley Chamber of Commerce for the last six years, and I'm all around a fun guy. You know?

00:48

I like to cut loose and have a good time. This is Small Business. The podcast where we talk about all the ins and outs and ups and downs of being a small business owner, but you know, per the yoozh, that's just a jumping off point. We can talk about pretty much anything under the sun, or in the dark of night, whatever you're feeling. So what's up? How you doing? Everybody have a good weekend?

01:15

I did. I had a great weekend, thank you for asking. I made it down to Chicago. I was in the Windy City for a fantastic opportunity, actually, to come down and perform. A few months ago, I discovered that I, in fact, have the entertainers bug.

01:41

I knew it was in there somewhere, but it really blossomed. And ever since then, I have been hitting up my network to try to find opportunities to get up on stage and perform for people. I was reached out to by a nice young lady, a performer down in the Chicago area named Rebecca Jaffe. She's a comedian and a musician, and she asked me to come be part of her show. And so I said, well, I'd be honored.

02:14

And so I came on down and, you know, I embarrassed myself at first. I'd never seen, I'd only seen her name written. I'd never heard it spoken. So I said, ah, you must be Rebecca Jaffay. And she said, hi, you're Mike.

02:31

And I said, that's right. She goes, it's Jaffe. And I said, excuse me. She said, it's Jaffe. And I said, what's Jaffe? She said, that's my name. So it, I thought it was Jaffay.

02:51

But it was a fantastic show. I didn't fully understand what it was I was going to be doing on stage until I got there. And to be honest, I really wasn't sure at any point while I was doing it. But it turns out I was supposed to be doing sort of a humorous take on couples counseling live and for the audience there. And it was it was it was awkward. I'm not going to lie. You know, and I do like to push outside of my comfort zone.

03:24

You know, you got to as as an entrepreneur or as a performer, you know, you really got to push yourself out there. It's like putting on a pair of pants that are not designed for your body. It's, you know, and at first they're uncomfortable and you're feeling strange and certain things are squeezing in ways they shouldn't be. And after a while, the pain sort of starts to subside.

03:53

But then once you get them off, you're, you're thinking, wow, I'm not going to put those on again. That was real. That was painful and unpleasant.

04:09

But it seemed like everybody had a good time. I saw some some familiar faces there. I met some new people. Hopefully we got a few, few more listeners to the podcast here. If so, welcome. But yeah, it was a great weekend all in all. I went and I saw the bean there in Millennial Park, which is a giant reflective coffee bean where people go and they say, hey, get my picture.

04:37

You know, everyone is there and they tell the people they're with, hey take, take a picture of me. Look at my funny reflection.

04:46

It's all distorted in the in the bean. Look, I'm going to go up close now. Oh, look how funny I look. You know, and so I didn't do that.

04:55

I was there alone. But I I took pictures of other people, you know.

05:05

They and they were having a great time. I also made it over to the Field Museum, which I've been there before. It's it's oh, it's a fantastic display. Love the dinosaurs.

05:18

You know, they really they really figure out those dinosaurs really well. I for one, I would never be able to you know, I dig up some bones. I, you know, first thing I'm doing is calling the cops, right? You know, but seriously, I wouldn't know what to do.

05:37

I wouldn't know how to put together a dinosaur skeleton if my life depended on it. Thankfully, it doesn't. But yeah, it was always it's always a thrill to see the the giants of our past and, you know, to get to spend good time with good people. So yeah, great weekend. And but but I'm really looking forward to this weekend coming up. For those of you who may have forgotten, huge night coming up Sunday evening. This is kind of the the my version of the Super Bowl as a, you know, theatrilphi, theatrical, you know, person who loves movies. It's the drum roll, please. Brrrr, the Oscars.

06:28

That's right, folks. The 97th annual Academy Awards are coming this Sunday. The stars will be out in full force. They're all going to be descending on the the Chinese Grubbin Theater there in downtown Hollywood and the all of America and the world is going to be captivated with their eyes on, you know, to see who takes home the big prizes. You know, I will not be watching the red carpet stuff.

06:55

I'm not really into the e-news sort of thing about fashion and and rumors and gossip. I'm more into the you know, the actual craft and the art of it you know. I mean, on these red carpets, they you know the most substantive question, you know, they're asking the the performers is like so, you know, what what was it like? What was it like to do this thing? What was it like to be acting and pretending to be that character and you know the the reaction the response is always like, it was amazing. I It was so life-changing to be part of this team that did You know, it's kind of like the interviews they do with them with ball players after a game and t hey're just like, you know, uh Much love to Jesus.

07:55

I you know, I have I want to thank God. I just team effort, you know kind

08:04

of thing You know and you don't ever really learn anything They don't ever say anything different or interesting and I mean and that's the good stuff That's that's the hard-hitting journalism that takes place. For the most part, it's it's a very excited E news correspondent or TMZ or whatever you know looking in the camera saying OMG, I can't believe how spectacular everything is and they they oh look who we have here like they're so surprised by the people walking the red carpet I can't believe it's Scarlett Johansson. Scar Jo, Scar Jo, you know, you know, tell me who are you wearing? Who are you wearing? What kind of question is that that you know, peo- aliens land down to who are you wearing?

08:54

They think we make skin suits of each other and you know the answers are always the same. They you know Gucci designed by Vera Wang This this oh this old rag this is Oscar de la Hoya. It's custom. Oh, who who are you wearing? The devil. The devil made my dress. Like what are they gonna say? That's you know and it the idea that we're all go, you know run into our computers and go and oh gosh I gotta Google, you know, who who who made this dress?

09:34

I gotta know I you know, maybe maybe a lot of you are maybe maybe, you know, I don't mean to judge But for me, it's whoo don't care I don't care what they're wearing as you know people showing up to watch their own work and get celebrated for it. I want to know you know how they did what they did. How did you do that? You know me on the red carpet? I'd see you know Johnny Depp or something and be like did what was it like wearing scissors for hands? Were you freaked out?

10:13

You know? Not like can I look at the tag on your suit? What are we doing? What it you know what?

10:23

Nothing else. I mean, you know any other people, you know if somebody makes a a really great house, you know, y- your contractor when they present you the keys you don't go up and say um, uh, is that Carhartt you're wearing? You know It's yeah what Who cares get on with the glitz? Get out get out of here with the glitz. Let's get on to the to the to the show show business, you know Anyhow, that's the end of my little rant there But yeah, I huge Oscars fan always have been and I I do kind of a for my friends I do Mike's rundown leading up to the Oscars, Mike's Oscar rundown and so I had my one of my interns take some pull together my notes on this and I figured I'd do it with you guys just....

11:21

Didn't really have a title for it. I actually asked the intern to come up with when they didn't really put anything up here. It just start it just says Oscars at the top of the page, but well, let me let me text him here real quick.

11:43

It's like the third thing this week that he's been you know Hey recording now Never got the title for Mike's Oscar Rundown Ideas question mark

12:10

Oh, he's typing Why can't you just call it Mike's Oscar Rundown? Well, I can I....

12:29

That's fine You only put the word Oscars at the top of the page

12:47

In the future No, no, no delete. I don't want I don't even want to get into it with him right now Okay, you only put the word Oscars at the top of the page any other ideas question mark. Mike's Oscar rundown feels a little too on the nose. Send.

13:22

Sorry about this guys. I it's it's always hard with interns you know. Anyway, it's it's it's Mike Landlots big rundown guide to watching the Oscars. Oh, he's typing Let's see if he's got a better title here for us. He says My B. I think he made a typo there. B question mark Typing my bad. Oh, yeah.

14:03

Oh well a little bit of accountability no problem. I will send a thumbs up emoji All right

14:15

Okay, so Mike's Oscar Rundown. That's what we're gonna call it and we're gonna get into that next right after this quick word from our sponsor. You're listening to small business with Mike Landlot.

14:34

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15:07

You enter the store and you see other people just like you getting ready to start their day. Hey look. There's the postal carrier and look over there. There's a student. She's working on her laptop. There's a guy wearing a defund the police shirt right next to the cop. Used to be that the rooster crowing was our was America's signal to get up and go. Now it's the fish lady in the Starbucks logo calling out to you from the sign Get in here have some coffee and oh boy. Do we ever it's become part of America The American way of life.

15:42

You go in you have a coffee you what you wait in line and you get yourself something to eat too You can hear you can even you can hear them cracking the eggs the sizzle of the bacon and the crinkling of the plastic You point in the window and say I'd like that one and then they make it for you and you can get real complicated with your order adding foam milk soy milk oat milk goat milk Mix it up change it around latte venti with Italian names You know that it's got to be different than what you're used to.

16:13

Bringing a little bit of Italy home to your small town American life. Hey, whether you're in the big city or a small town Starbucks knows what you need. That's caffeine. You got to get going. We'll get on into Starbucks. You need a cake pop That's good because they've got them It's like a lollipop made a cake and you eat and you just pop it in and you eat it and you think wow how That really went fast.

16:39

Where did it all go? All the bakery items are made fresh to order You know you say I I'd like the cheese Danish, please They say no problem They take it right out of the plastic bag pop it in the little warmer pull it out call your name and it's a personalized touch They write your name on every cup that they sell. Sometimes I like to give a funny name, you know. Instead of Mike I tell him my name is Robert and I just wait for them to call Robert It's a it's a good little gag gets me going in the morning You just can't forget what name you put in so that you know They're calling it over and over and you don't recognize it then someone else might take your stuff And you know and you got to get into a whole thing and you don't want to have to show ID cause your name's, that's not your name.

17:18

It's the best part of waking up. You may have a sign on your wall that says what time is it? It's wine o'clock. But for me, in the mornings, it's Starbucks o'clock. Nothing better come between me and my Starbucks.

17:33

Hey yo, welcome back to Small Business with Mike Landlot. As I said in the last episode, that was not a real ad.

17:42

I don't have any sponsors for the podcast yet, so I'm just kind of auditioning and showing sponsors what it is I can do. But yeah, if you're just joining us, welcome. If you've been with us the whole time, welcome back. It's time to jump into Mike's Oscar rundown.

18:07

I'm excited to hear that. I had one of my interns do a, I told him to do a fanfare there, so I'm excited to hear what that sounds like. But let's jump right into it. Of the ten films nominated for Best Picture, it used to only be five. Now they've got it up to ten. Of the ten, I have seen none. I have seen none of them.

18:34

But I did watch a lot of the trailers, so let's get into it right now. So the one that everybody's talking about across Tinseltown is the movie Emelia Perez. Again, I haven't seen it. I've seen the trailer.

18:50

Now this is a musical, you know, which is great. I love musicals because they're just talking. They're having a normal scene where the actors are just talking about, you know, what are we going to do, Bobby? And then someone has an emotional moment and they just start singing. And everyone's fine with it. They're just like, oh yeah, that's fine.

19:13

That's great. There's music playing. Why don't you sing and dance? It's exciting to witness.

19:21

That doesn't happen usually in real life. But yeah, Emelia Perez is a musical. It's starring Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. She's back and she's not green in this one, just regular color and Mexican. And she falls in love with another woman at a dinner party, but there's a kidnapping and then Ariana Grande is on the case. And ultimately they have to solve the mystery of who is Emelia Perez? I don't know.

19:58

I don't know who she is. Hopefully I get a chance to watch this one. We got, up next, we got The Brutalist starring Adrian Brody, who of course we all remember from his turn in King Kong, not the crappy one and not the old one, but the one with Jack Black. And they really leaned into the dinosaurs and bugs in that one. But Brody, you know, what an actor. He was incredible, of course, in King Kong. But in this one, he's a foreign man who comes to old timey America to follow his dreams as an architect working for rich people.

20:35

But it's hard being an immigrant, you know, as so many of us know pursuing the American dream. He's very dirty. He's got dirt on his face.

20:46

But he keeps working, you know, even when the rich guys treat him bad and say, you know, what are you garbage? What are you? Here's, here's a penny. You garbage person here. And then give that back because I'm a real miser. I'm a real Ebenezer Scrooge.

21:03

Oh, you want to build design buildings? Why don't you go to hell, immigrant? It's kind of, I don't, that's, I disagree with that. I think that's terrible.

21:13

Think immigrants is what make our country America in the first place, you know. But yeah, people are saying it's the best performance of Brody's career. I mean, beat out King Kong and then we'll talk, you know.

21:28

But you know, I'm, I'm, I'm can't wait to watch that one. Oh, wicked, wicked. What can we say about what at first I thought it was wick' d. Like it was a John Wick thing. Like, you know, get wick'd.

21:45

It's not, it's a, it's another musical. It's a, it's a Wizard of Oz thing, but boy, they have turned the Wizard of Oz on its head in this one. The wicked witch of the West, right? Get this and Glinda the Good Witch are working together now and all heck breaks loose in Emerald City.

22:06

It's in the Western skies. They're just, you know, they just really hit the high notes and, and, and really teach you that green people are just like you and me. Um, you know?

22:20

Yeah. So it's, it's all wonky. They've really taken the story and mixed it up. I don't know if there's any Cowardly Lion action or Tin Man Scarecrow, whatnot, but I hope so. Love those guys. There's like the three Stooges of the Yellow Brick Road, but no, it's, it's a, it's a, it's real, really a think piece where they're just taking it and they're changing it up on you. Uh, up next we have a complete unknown.

22:46

I mean, wow. Timothay Shalamit stars as Bob Dylan himself. It's a, it's one of those biopic biops biopsal biopsy movies. I got to say, it's a brave transformation for the young actor. Again, I haven't seen the movie, but I mean, you're sitting there watching it and I feel like I'm looking at the bard himself. I feel like I'm looking at Robert Dylan up there. You know, he just up there writing his words, songs of a generation mumbling into the microphone, changing the world. You know, it's, uh, wow.

23:29

You know, my hat's off to him. It's just a lot of actors aren't able to really do that kind of immersive thing where they, they become someone else. And, and you know, to have totally different hair, different looks on your face and it's just, you know, I, it's like you're watching the movie Ray with, you know, Jamie Foxx and you're like, is that Ray Charles? And then the next time you see Jamie Foxx and he's using his eyes like he's not blind, you're like, Oh my God, your first instinct is, was he cured because of how immersively impressive the portrayal was? That's what I see here from Timothay. You know, he's certainly gotten the Oscar nods here.

24:10

So a big fan, big fan of that. I hope I haven't seen it. Conclave Joseph Fiennes is one of the highers up, higher ups in, in the Catholic church and it's time to choose a new pope, which is a big deal. There's a lot of scandal though. They made one of these a few years ago with the choosing a new pope movie. So I was thinking maybe it's one of those things where you got multiple studios doing the same concept, you know, kind of like the, the volcano thing with Dante's Peak and the, and the other studio released the other one with Tommy Lee Jones in it.

24:47

I don't know, guess it's something like that. For my taste, it's a little too Catholic. There's a little too much Catholicism going on and not nothing against Catholics. I was raised Catholic. It's just, you know, when you get all the way into the Vatican, it's just, it gets real Catholic where everything is just Catholic, Catholic, Catholic. And the other guy's like Catholic, Catholic. And you're like, you're thinking, you know, you know, can we just tone it down a little bit?

25:15

Just get a little less Catholic here. Again, I haven't seen the movie, but it's kind of like you smell an air freshener in the store and you're like, oh, I like this smell. This is pretty great. But then, you know, you get into a Uber with it and it's just overpowering and you feel like you're drowning in it. It's not good.

25:35

So that's probably going to be a pass for me. Up next we got Anara. A-N-O-R-A, Anara. I guess that's the name of the character.

25:51

It's about this party girl who meets a Russian guy and they make a deal to keep partying together and they do until they get married. They're partying in Las Vegas. They're swimming. They're drinking. They're having fun.

26:06

They're listening to music and he's got lots of money and they're just spending all the money. But then there's these emergencies and there's bad guys chasing them. And it's just, it's a real hoot. You know, there's kissing and slapping and yelling and running and this is all in the trailer.

26:24

It's, it's just love story central, you know, probably not going to see that one. Dune. Timothay Shalamit again.

26:36

You know, I mean, this guy did Wonka. Now he's Bob Dylan and he's now he's one of the, he's hanging out in the sand dunes. You know, what can't Timothay do? I don't know. I thought this one came out a couple of years ago. I could be wrong, but it's real good. I did see this one actually.

26:58

Yeah. No, this, this one's real good and they're teasing at the end that maybe in the future someone's going to be riding on those sandworms, which yes, please sign me up. I'll take two seats, one for me and one for all my popcorn.

27:16

You know, I'm a fan. Continuing on with the official run-up to Mike's Oscar rundown for the Oscars. Other great Oscar contenders.

27:31

Again, none of which I have seen. Oh, up. Oh, The Substance. Oh, Demi Moore is back. G.I. Jane herself back and better than ever. This is a pharmaceutical thriller. Apparently about this medicine that gives you extra abilities. I don't know if it's like an X-Men kind of thing. I saw on the movie poster they've got, she's got like an extra pupil in her eyeball. So I don't know if I can stomach that one.

28:04

I get weird about bodies having extra things on them and stuff, but yeah, that looks real good and I'm very happy for Demi Moore. Up next we got Nosferatu, which, you know, spooky, spooky. You know, I thought these movies only came out for Halloween time. Maybe this did come out at Halloween. I don't know, but I thought it was a Dracula thing. It's not. It's a whole, it's its own thing totally, you know, Dracula's like, I want to suck your blood.

28:34

Then the guys who made this movie were like, oh yeah, Dracula. Okay. Hold my beer. Watch this. I'm going to get real spooky with shadows grabbing people and stuff. Women's eyeballs rolling back in their heads and sticking their tongues out all wonky.

28:52

Yikes. There's two scary ones in a row. The Substance and Nosferatu. A few more here. I'm Still Here, which is probably about staying power. Sing Sing. Another musical.

29:12

The Wild Robot. You know what? Uh, I get it. Follow protocols until we party. I don't know. Uh, kind of thing. I don't know.

29:27

I'm excited. I kind of picture C-3PO breaking it down, you know. Maybe that's, maybe it cuts loose and does a whole thing. And then the last one I got here is The Apprentice, which, uh, I, it's got to be different from the TV show. It's got to be a whole other thing. Anyway, that's your Oscar wrap up.

29:56

Uh, real excited to watch it. Let me know if you're going to watch it too in the comments. Maybe I'll do a live tweeting thing. Yeah. It's exciting. So if you're, uh, if you're also a big Oscar buff like myself, let me know and maybe we can watch together. Uh, let's take a quick commercial break. We'll be right back.

30:23

No summer is complete without the high octane thrills of Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor. If you haven't been on a roller coaster recently, well, you're missing out.

30:34

Six Flags is your destination for number one adventures. Soar above Gotham City with Batman. Soar above Metropolis with Superman. There's so much soaring to be done with various comic book heroes. Who knows if you'll even have time and it's not just nonstop thrills. All the Looney Tunes gang is there.

30:55

Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and even Yosemite Sam. There's little kid activities where you sit there and you spray each other with these little plastic spray guns. Maybe you want to get a turkey leg over there in the Ren Faire area and walk around and look at all the kings and queens and jesters and whatnot. And if you're getting a little too hot, you should always head over to Hurricane Harbor where the water slides are twisty and steep and fast is all heck. It's like the end of Goonies when they're all going down those water slides in the caves. But this is outside. Splash out on the big splashy rides.

31:32

And if you're tired, you can always float down the lazy river and forget your cares. They usually got some kind of promotion going on. Like where you're bringing a Coke can and everybody gets in free, something like that. And you can find Six Flags all over America and probably in other countries too.

31:50

I think we can all agree that Six Flags is better than Disneyland only because it's a lot closer. Who doesn't have teenage memories of going there with a group of friends, only the kids whose families couldn't afford to send them there. And we feel bad about that.

32:07

But the rest of us got to go. Don't you remember walking around, having a good time, waiting in line, buying cotton candy, eating a burger. Someone spills ketchup all over the ground and you all just walk away and no one even cleans it up or alerts staff. That's the innocence of youth. But you know, you have to be careful because there's always some rough looking guy who's like 13, but he's got like a full mustache and he's walking around in an undershirt. His shoulders are hunched real low and he's got his arm around some girl he's dating and he's just, it doesn't even look like he likes her, but he's just looking around at everybody, daring them to look at his girlfriend so he can try and punch him. You stay away from that guy. And don't worry, if he tries to throw hands, the staff will get there quick and they'll break it up and they'll obviously blame him.

32:59

You didn't do anything, right? So get away from the humdrum and the winter blues and book your day at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor right away. It isn't open till summertime though, so you're going to have to wait. It's going to be a while, but you could probably get a season pass, you know, sort of if you're thinking ahead, which I recommend Six Flags Hurricane Harbor. Here comes adventure.

33:26

All right, guys. Once again, that was not a real ad. That was just Mike showing off his skills, hoping to attract some advertisers. And I am a fan of all these brands, you know, so all of this is coming from the heart. And that those make the best kinds of ads, I think.

33:43

All right, guys, that's about going to do it for me here. This has been small business with Mike Landlot. That's me. Hit me up on Twitter or X. I talk to business leaders there all the time. Come join the conversation. You can follow me @whynotlandlot.

34:01

You can send me your questions about small business or life or whatever you want. I got to run to a community meeting tonight after work. Oh, I organized it.

34:13

And I just got to warn you, getting involved politically, even on a local level, can be hazardous for us small business owners. But yeah, you do what's in your heart. And you got to just keep moving forward. So anyhow, thank you guys so much for listening. Be safe out there, everyone. Think global, dream local and watch out for deer.