Enthusiasms - What to look forward to 4-10-24
Welcome to Enthusiasms. Your reminder to always be looking forward to something. Pulltab Sports Editor-In-Chief, John King, points you in the right direction.
WITH THE MASTERS WE OFFICIALLY TURN THE PAGE
When you live in the Midwest, at some point during the 6-month winters that we usually have, you’ll justify living here because we have “all 4 seasons.” Annually this plays out brilliantly with the Masters. Cue the piano music, Jim Nance whispering sweet nothings in your ear, Magnolia Lane, maybe even a cool promo with Wright Thompson saying something about Georgia or tradition or Georgia traditions. It’s the best.
The Masters is already iconic, but here in the Midwest it’s even more important because it’s the official start of Spring. White pants, gin and tonic, seersucker, softball shorts, whatever your “spring things” are, once the Masters comes it’s all good. Take the top off the Jeep, get the yard furniture out of the crawl space, buy a propane tank and see if the grill will fire up, leaf blow, pour more gin and tonics and watch the Masters.
The Masters is soothing. Watching the Masters is like drawing a bath, it’s a sport weighted blanked, it’s falling asleep on the couch with a warm golf baby on your chest. With any luck you’ll be in a Masters pool this weekend, maybe you’ll play hooky from work and gather with your buddies for a half-ass laptop workday. Maybe you’ll place a hope bet on Tiger, cut some limes for the gin & tonics, and quite possibly fall asleep at some point a little hung over as Jim Nance tucks you in. God bless the Masters.
THE FALL GUY COULD BE LIKE ROAD HOUSE ALL OVER AGAIN. YES, PLEASE.
When a movie breaks the Guinness World Record for most canon rolls performed in a car, it should automatically be taken seriously. When that movie is starring Ryan Gosling, who is quickly becoming one of the funniest and coolest cats on screen, even better. If Gosling had your 44-ounce drink shooting through your nostrils with his hilarious Ken in Barbie, The Fall Guy remake looks to be more pure unapologetic fun.
The trailer is over 3 minutes and features Bon Jovi on a loop. Also stunt guys are always cool, if you haven’t checked out the amazing Hal Needham book Stuntman!, you should strongly consider it to help get you in the mood.
Besides The Fall Guy release was pushed from March 1st to May 3rd anyway, so you have some time to get prepared. I vaguely remember the original, which included Heather Thomas, a GMC K-2500 truck, and Lee Majors—in that order.
With both the Road House and now The Fall Guy remake, it’s pretty clear something is happening in America right now. Maybe we’ve reached the point of anxiety overload, maybe it’s because it’s an election year, but it’s clear that the good ole USA is saying yes to pyrotechnics, muscle cars, leading men that can pull off action while maintaining that twinkle in their eye, and a killer soundtrack. I guess I know what I’m doing May 3rd.
IT’S TIME TO EXPERIENCE THE MURPH
It’s the year of women’s sports. You’ve got your Caitlin Clark jersey, and hopefully a new P-Dub hat. But if you’re a hockey fan, you really need to start paying attention to Abbey “The Murph” Murphy. The Murph is a University of Minnesota Golden Gopher, where she consistently stirs the pot. Check out this shootout slapshot which took place AFTER the Ridly Greig controversy in the NHL. As you can see, The Murph is not afraid.
Abbey Murphy somehow had 62 points and 110 penalty minutes for Minnesota this year, in college! The Murph is the girl version of a Gordie Howe Hat Trick. I haven’t checked her 23andMe, but there’s a strong chance she’s a Tkachuk descendant. She’s a folk hero. Wendel Clark with a ponytail.
I mention this because Abbey Murphy is playing with Team USA in the World Championships right now in Utica, New York. You should tune in to the NHL Network because they’ve made it to the knockout round. They start with Japan in the quarterfinals, but hopefully will end up running into Canada again, ideally in the gold medal game early next week. Regardless, it’s worth the price of admission to watch this young star fly around the ice, stir the pot, and wave the flag for Team USA. The Murph is no joke, you should have to wear eclipse glasses to watch her play because it’s unlike anything the girl’s game has ever seen. The Murph is more Miss Marchand than Lady Byng, and she’s made a fine art of getting under people’s skin!
THE GENTLEMEN WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO BE BAD.
I’ve never been a huge Guy Ritchie fan. I always felt that if Quentin Tarantino was the standard in that stylized violence, high word count, great dialogue genre—that Guy Ritchie was a lesser version. Like listening to Stone Temple Pilots instead of, say, Pearl Jam or Nirvana.
That was until I watched The Gentlemen on Netflix. Ritchie did a feature film of the same name starring Matthew McConaughey back in 2019, but truthfully the TV version of The Gentlemen more in common with HBO’s White Lotus.
I guess it makes sense then that the show’s protagonist, Theo James, was in both shows, and Kaya Scodelario is eerily reminiscent of Aubrey Plaza here. It’s almost as if The Gentlemen spun out of the White Lotus world. Safe to say if you like White Lotus, you’ll enjoy The Gentlemen.
The premise of The Gentlemen is a high-ranking royal dies but rather than hand things over to his heir, he skips him and gives it all to “the spare” played by James. James’ character is a former soldier, Eddie Halstead, and he uncovers that his late father was doing business right underneath their noses (and right underneath the estate) with the mob underworld.
The Gentlemen is high fashion and high style. All of the Guy Ritchie razzle dazzle is included here, as the series is served up with plenty of pocket-square flare. But The Gentlemen is more than just something nice to look at, it’s a dark comedy that will have you laughing while somehow maintaining enough soul to ask some deeper questions.
The show follows the familiar formula of good guy gone bad that we’ve seen in Ozark and Breaking Bad to name a few recent examples. We watch as Eddie Halstead spirals into the underworld, while developing a sweet tooth for everything a life in the shadows has to offer. In the end, The Gentlemen is so well made it will leave you wishing you too were a little more bad.
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