Matt Drufke

Music/Movies, Pop Culture, Uncategorized

A Hero For Our Time: Remembering Chadwick Boseman

August 28, 2020by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

Before there was Fancy Boys, there was another site I was writing for. I remember that I first started by doing insanely in-depth Oscar coverage (much like I did here in January) and the site founder asked me if Black Panther had deserved to be nominated for Best Picture. I made it clear that not only did the Marvel film deserve to be nominated, but that out of all the nominated films in 2018, it deserved to win. It was my #3 film of that year and was grounded by the amazing performance of it’s lead, the King of Wakanda, Chadwick Boseman.

Boseman died today at the age of 43 after battling Stage III colon cancer for four years. With his passing, the world has lost one of the best working actors in film today. We also lost a man who played so many amazing heroes… and heroes are something the world desperately needs right now.

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Comedy, Pop Culture, television

So No One Told You Life Was Gonna Be This Way: Unearthing The Lost Episodes Of Friends

August 24, 2020by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

With HBO Max, your pop culture viewing options are a plentiful harvest. You can catch up on movies you’ve never seen before. You can watch all of The Sopranosand try and figure out what gabagool is. You can start to binge all of the Studio Ghibli movies and then get angry when your wife watches Spirited Away with you and doesn’t “understand what the big deal is.”

Or you can just watch a buttload of Friends.

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Advice, Comedy, Pop Culture, Uncategorized

Give Me A Libertarian… Wait, No. Give Me Death.

August 12, 2020September 13, 2020by Matt Drufke1 Comment

It seems like the 2020 election would be the perfect time to shake things up.

For the GOP, there are a vocal and noticeable group of voters looking to separate themselves from President Trump and his policies and rhetoric and stupid face. For the DNC, there is an overwhelming wave of apathy for the Biden/Harris ticket on social media which leaves one to believe that this will be the 800th election in a row where the youth vote chooses to “sit it out”.

This is the perfect time to look third party; someone who can come and unite the disenfranchised and bring people together. Someone who can say, “The two party system has not had your best interest at heart for decades, possibly centuries!” Someone who can bring real change to a nation in dire need of exactly that. And there’s no better party to do so than the Libertarian Party, a political organization which seems to be the right group and the right time.

However, the Libertarian Party has given us Jo Fucking Jorgensen, which means it’s gonna be another election where almost no one is happy.

Don’t worry, though. I can fix everything.

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Music/Movies, Pop Culture

Rank The Rock: A Look At The Films Of Dwayne Johnson

August 5, 2020August 5, 2020by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

When news broke this week that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was going to be buying the XFL, I got excited. Not because I like, or even care, about that ridiculous league. Our site has spent way too much time and way too much talent talking about the second coming of the WWE’s failed attempt to break into the football business. No, my friends. I’m all on pins and needles because we finally get a chance to talk about Dwayne Johnson, the actor.

There is no doubt that The Rock is the most successful actor to come from wrestling and you could make the case that he has had the most successful post-wrestling career of all time. Sure, Jesse Ventura became governor, but that’s Minnesota, where there are more lakes than people. Johnson could become president. Hell, The Rock could be a pope if he wanted to.

But that’s not what I care about.

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Music/Movies, Pop Culture

Ghost In The Machine: a review of Taylor Swift’s “folklore”

July 30, 2020July 30, 2020by Matt Drufke2 Comments

Sitting in her log cabin and throwing another log on the fire (although it’s June), a quarantined Taylor Swift looks out her window and sees, chiseled in stone, the all too famous monument which is the Mount Rushmore of current pop music. Swift sees her own face, and why wouldn’t she? She smiles as she thinks about all of her amazing accomplishments. Sure, her fans would say she may not have as many Grammys as she should, but the proof is in the proverbial pudding: Taylor Swift sells records.

As she looks at the other faces carved into rock, Swift cannot help but think of her relationship with every member on the mount. Next to her is Beyoncé, the undeniable queen of this century. Yet, the relationship between Taylor and the true Child of Destiny has never been contentious; truly, game has recognized game. To Beyoncé’s right is Drake, a person who has had a similar career arc to Swift. Each dominated their original genre until pop music had no choice but to give them the respect they deserved. Next to Drake is an interesting situation, as construction crews are fervently dynamiting Kanye West’s face off this hallowed monument.

Taylor allows herself a brief smile before turning away from her window, heading to her music room where her piano and guitar sat, and began to get to work.

From these sessions, folklore was born.

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Advice, Comedy, television

Whoever Arranges Movies For HBO Max Needs To Be Fired (and possibly beaten up)…

July 14, 2020by Matt Drufke1 Comment

HBO has always lived by the slogan that they are “not tv”. They’re something more, something better, and for the most part, they’ve lived up to that by going above and beyond. They don’t just give us a little show about dragons, they gave us Game Of Thrones. They just didn’t give us a crime show, they gave us two of the best ever with The Wire and The Sopranos. They didn’t just give us a new Perry Mason, they gave us a Perry Mason that fuuuuuuucks. (Author’s note: my wife says I talk about this too much.)

Veep. Curb Your Enthusiasm. True Blood. Last year, HBO received 137 Emmys nominations, which was 20 higher than the next highest network (to show you dominance, NBC finished in third with 57). Anything anyone can do, they can do better… and then they do it.

When HBO launched HBO Max on May 27^th, everyone expected something special. For the most part, it’s pretty great. They’ve teamed up with Warner Brothers, New Line, DC Entertainment, Turner Movie Classics, Adult Swim, and others to give an amazing amount of content for it’s viewers. Considering we’re in a global pandemic, more content is a very, very good thing to most of us.

But they need to fire the person who arranged their movies. And they need to fire them today.

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Music/Movies

Fancy Boys Stays Home With The Movies: Palm Springs

July 13, 2020by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

With movie theaters closed, many studios have decided to release current-run movies out for streaming and download. I caught up with the newest romantic comedy available on Hulu.

If living in the time of COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is that time is, truly, a construct. All it took was a sledgehammer to people’s everyday routines to have them completely unsure of what clocks and calendars even mean. We have gone from the age of, “I hate Mondays!” to “Is it even Monday?” to “Dude… what even IS Monday?” And we did it in the span of about four weeks.

Remarkably, Palm Springs is the perfect movie for this time in our society.

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Music/Movies, Pop Culture

Fancy Boys Stays Home With The Movies: Irresistible

July 7, 2020by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

With movie theaters closed, many studios have decided to release current-run movies out for streaming and download. I caught up with the second film from comedian/writer/director Jon Stewart

When Jon Stewart’s career is long gone, he will be known for two things: comedy and politics. During his run on The Daily Show, Stewart redefined what political humor and satire could mean to a populous. Young voters trusted him, a fake newsman, more than actual news anchors. So much of this was because of his passion: he cared not just about crafting the best possible joke, but the best possible argument.

It’s why my hopes for Irresistable, Stewart’s second film as a writer/director, were so high. It’s also why I was so disappointed by the final product: a scattershot bleh of a film which spends most of its’ time feeling lost and never finding out what it’s trying to be or who its’ characters are.

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Pop Culture, Uncategorized

A brief primer on Roger Stone

July 2, 2020by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

In twelve days, barring a presidential pardon, Roger Stone will report to a prison where he will turn in dapper collection of suits for a significantly less-stylish jumpsuit. How does this affect you? Not at all. Should you care? Honestly? Not that much.

But it is an interesting story. So, for those of you who know nothing about a man who has a significant impact on politics in the last 40 years, let’s take a quick look at the man and his troubles and ask a question that, really, only one person really cares about: Will Roger Stone end up going to prison?

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Misc., Uncategorized

Election 2020: Learn From Your Mistakes

June 24, 2020by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment

By any metric, these last few weeks have been bad for the Trump presidency.

Over the weekend, President Trump attempted to get back on the campaign trail with a stop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it was poorly-attended. Twice in three days, members of the administration have had to find ways to justify the President’s use of the term “kung flu” to describe the coronavirus, which is still around despite what some GOP governors may have been telling you. The lone victories in the past ten days or so came from the President bragging that he was successfully able to walk down a ramp (on twitter) and drink a glass of water with one hand (in Tulsa). This kind of seems like the bar for presidential excellence is being set a tad low.

And yet, if I had to wager my last $100 on who would win the election in November, I would bet that Donald Trump would be re- elected.

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