February 2023 – Fancy Boys Club

FBC 2023 Oscar Coverage, Part X: Ranking Cate Blanchett’s nominations…

February 28, 2023February 27, 2023by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

The biggest story among this year’s acting nominations is just how new so many of these actors will be new to the Oscars stage. Of the 20 nominated thespians, only 4 have been previously nominated. However, of those four with prior nominations, one of them just happens to be one of the best working actresses in the whole goddamned world.

With her Tár nomination, Cate Blanchett now has eight nominations over her amazing career, which brings her into a tie for 9th place of total acting nods. Her company includes Glenn Close, Geraldine Page, Jack Lemmon, Judi Dench, Peter O’Toole and Marlon Brando, which is pretty good company to keep. If she can win, and this race feels like a knock-down brawl between her and Michelle Yeoh, it will be her third victory, and that company would be even more impressive. A third Oscar for the Australian actress would have her tied for second for all-time acting Oscars and just one behind the leader who you get the feeling she can probably catch and surpass (Katharine Hepburn). Watching Blanchett is truly watching one of the best be amazing, and Tár may be a perfect example of that.

Let us rank all eight of her nominating performances and just marvel at what a brilliant force Ms. Blanchett is.

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Music/Movies, Oscars, Uncategorized

FBC 2023 Oscar Coverage, Part IX: Predicting the Winners, Part 3…

February 27, 2023by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

This is a year when I am absolutely stunned that the lead acting categories are both so close. It’s easy to make a case for five people to be taking home one of these two trophies a week from Sunday. Which thespian will be walking away with acting’s biggest prize? Let’s get right into it…

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Music/Movies, Oscars

FBC 2023 Oscars Coverage, Part VIII: Predicting the winners, part 2…

February 20, 2023February 19, 2023by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

In the last few years, all of the major locks have come from the supporting acting categories. There have been no real surprises or upsets. You don’t see Olivia Colman winning over Glenn Close or Anthony Hopkins stealing Best Actor from Chadwick Boseman. There is something nice to know I can just check these off as guarantees, but also kind of a bummer to know there’s really no home for an upset.

Will 2023 be the same? Let’s take a look…

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Music/Movies

I Can’t Feel The Way I Did Before

February 17, 2023February 16, 2023by Michael GraceLeave a Comment

Twenty years ago I was sixteen, still a few years off from even comprehending what twenty years felt like. Every responsibility I have now was merely a pipe dream. Kids? Wife? Mortgage? I couldn’t begin to imagine how far away these concepts were back then. In 2003, my primary concern was getting a driver’s license. I was a suburban kid full of all of that teenage angst and disillusionment toward the world around me. I internalized every negative thought and interaction, feeling as though only I could see the cracks in the suburban façade. Linkin Park was practically handing me a tract for whatever they were preaching. Their debut album, Hybrid Theory, was my obsession. I gravitated toward their extremely catchy hooks and melodies. When they announced their second studio album, Meteora, was coming in March of 2003, it was the most important thing in my life. I had favorite musicians and bands prior to them, but no act had fully overtaken me like Linkin Park did at that time.

But as I found out- time doesn’t stop. And the only constant is change.

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Comedy

Fancy Boys Club sits down with: Jack Baker

February 16, 2023February 14, 2023by The Fancy BoysLeave a Comment

A staple of the Chicagoan suburban comedy scene for over a decade, there are few comics working more than Jack Baker. Clubs and shows love him. Audiences love him. Other comedians love him. It’s really kind of gross.

This Sunday, Jack is preparing to record his first special at The Comedy Vault in Batavia. He agreed to sit down with us and let us ask him some questions…

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Music/Movies, Oscars, Uncategorized

FBC Oscar Coverage, Part VII: Predicting The Winners, Part 1…

February 13, 2023February 13, 2023by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

Ok, so normally, I start predicting winners a week earlier, but ya boi caught the COVID and it sucked butt. So, let’s not waste any time and jump right into the sweet, sweet screenwriting categories. This year, I will be brief in my remarks about what films should have been nominated, as I gave you my thoughts on the matter a few weeks ago.

So, let’s begin…

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Pop Culture

For heavens sake, you don’t have to play the fucking wizard game!

February 12, 2023February 12, 2023by Matt Drufke3 Comments

Hogwarts Legacy, one of the most anticipated video game releases of the year, came out a few days ago. The game, in which a player controls a child wizard at the school of magic made popular by the Harry Potter book and film series, is bound to sell a whole lot of units, though I won’t be one of them. For starters, I don’t own a video game console unless you include my phone, of which there are several games I often pass time with. Also, I think there have only been a few great video games, and the last one may have been Halo. There is no better video game, to me, than Burger Time. That being said, I understand that this boy wizard franchise, created by J.K. Rowling, meant a whole heck of a lot to a whole bunch of people and that sentimentality is going to be huge for sales.

Even if it means that people are supporting something that’s really gross.

Yeah… it’s one of these pieces.

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Advice, Uncategorized

I’m A Casualty Of Mass Layoffs

February 3, 2023February 6, 2023by Mat ElfringLeave a Comment

For the past eight years, I worked as an editor for GameSpot and Comic Vine–and I was a freelance writer prior to that. During this time, I wrote and published thousands of news pieces, editorials, features, reviews, and listicle galleries that I often called, “Fun toilet reads.” Additionally, I had the role of host/producer/editor of a wrestling podcast called Wrestle Buddies. I had what many considered to be the dream job. Then, one day, it was taken all away, as I was part of a group of people that were laid off by our parent company.

This isn’t something new. Throughout my years working at GameSpot through various parent companies, I saw this happen a few times. It was never easy. You lose people you talk to every single day, as they’re no longer in your work Slack. And from there, you grow apart from many of them. But after surviving numerous rounds of layoffs and seeing people move on, I was brought into a meeting on a Thursday morning and told I no longer had the gig of a lifetime. It still stings. It still hurts. And it’s hard to pick yourself up.

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