#328 Let me bore you to sleep - Jason Newland (10th February 2020)

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. He's Jason and this is Let Me Bore You To Sleep. Only listen to this when you can safely close your eyes. In case you're wondering what that sound in the background is, it's the wind outside.

It's supposed to be the windiest day for years and years and years. We're very focused on the weather in this here English Britain, United Kingdom, once part of Europe. Very, very committed to noticing the weather.

For example, in January, beginning of the year, January the 1st, oh look at that, things are banging against the window now. On January the 1st, the weather forecasters get very excited. It's the coldest day of the year.

It's the hottest day of the year so far. It's the windiest day of the year. It's the wettest day of the year.

You know, it's like you're very excited on the 1st because it's everything. So there's a big tree outside. Well, actually that's not really a silly thing to say because some people do have trees inside.

You know, sort of in plants. Andre's just run out of his bag and gone to the toilet on the paper and I forgot I had him here. But for a little second I forgot I had Andre.

And I thought, oh no, I've got a rat. There's a rat in the house. How could I forget that little boy? It's probably because I just got out of bed.

Yeah. Please subscribe to this podcast if you want to. And I'd like to say thank you to everybody that listens because you are all very, very super groovy.

It's been windy before. Yeah. Many times.

And to me, the wind today doesn't seem any windier than other times when it's been windy. It's not standing out, you know. It's not that I want it to stand out.

But it's kind of, if you put 100 sheep or 200 sheep in a field and took me to that field and said, which one's called Stuart? I wouldn't know. It's like, none of them really stand out as a Stuart. It's a bit like the weather.

Maybe, sorry about that, I do wonder if that's a neighbour doing that. I think what it is, is the guttering above my window is now being cleared by the wind. So it is, I don't know what it is.

What would it be? Because that was almost like a stone that hit my window. If another one happens, I might actually have a look out the window. It might stir me to physically move, which I don't really want to.

Last night was strange. I was watching, I was looking on the internet and I looked at a picture of someone and I think it was on a, I can't remember what it was for. It was, I think it was in a magazine or on a newspaper website.

And I really, I don't know why, but they smelt. I got this and I thought, oh my goodness, I'm getting there. Sensory thing, you know where things, food, sounds of things and sounds, taste of things, you know that, whatever it's called.

I was looking at this lady and she smelt like that, a really bad smell. And I thought, I've got that hyper, I don't remember what it's called, the name of it, but it's very small amount of people in the world have it. And I was thinking, wow.

And then I realised that it wasn't that, it was because Andre had just peed, gone to the toilet on the keyboard with a laptop. So, no, it actually was because of Andre. He'd just done a toilet on the, urgh, urgh, urgh, toilets, urgh.

But it was really wafty, really one of those, you know when you come out of the toilet and said, and you jokingly say, I'll give you a couple of hours. That was one of those. But it was a couple of days, I think.

I felt dazed. There have been other times when I've noticed the wind. I actually looked out the window earlier.

Everything was earlier, wasn't it? I can't say I looked out the window tomorrow or five minutes time. It's earlier, everything. In the past, never needs to be said.

It's a sentence that never needs to be said. When I was younger, again, another sentence that needs to be deleted from the human anatomy, because it doesn't need to be said. I was younger before I recorded this.

I definitely feel older now. Older, yes, older. And I was looking out the window, so I walked into the kitchen.

I think I went into the living room, I came into the living room first. So I go out of bed, and the wind has been just, been part of my dreams, which is quite nice, actually. So I've had some windy dreams.

There's one dream, seriously, I'm not even joking. I had this dream where I was trying to close a window because the window had been left open, but the wind had blown the window right out. I was trying to get the window back in, to sort of lock it, that the wind had broken the window.

Wait a minute, have you ever noticed the word window has the word dough in it? I mean, is that some kind of reference to Homer Simpson? So windows are there to stop the wind. So window, so O must mean stop in Latin, because I never studied Latin at school. My dad's generation studied Latin.

I think it was the, isn't it the basics of, was it all European languages or, I don't know. But I didn't, I didn't, I didn't know. I never, I never will, although I might, could do.

I might look at it. But I think Latin is like the root, grows like a tree, has roots. Teeth have roots.

Plants have roots. Television has roots. Does television show roots? Never watched it.

That was when I was quite young as a kid. And I'll be honest, you know, there was a period in my life with this, if the Bionic Man or Wonder Woman or Mork & Mindy wasn't on, I wasn't really interested. If you ever watch Wonder Woman, you know, the television series, which was just phenomenal on so many levels.

I noticed something new. Every, every maybe 10 or 15 years, and it is literally that, I think three times in my life, I've come over Wonder Woman on television, noticed it, because the first time was when it was on first, first of all, in the late 70s. And then I came over Wonder Woman when I was in Ireland, and it was on Sky, and I was 24.

And I hadn't seen it since I was a little kid. And then I came over Wonder Woman, I think about three years ago, here. And it was on, I don't know what channel it was on.

I think it might have been, well, it was a television channel, but I don't know which one. But anyway, it was on every, every day for a few weeks. I didn't leave the house.

Honestly, I've never been so dehydrated. But the, it was, it was really hot. It was a hot air.

If you need to get out, then drink enough water. What I noticed the second time, I won't, you know, really go into, but the third, the third time, what I noticed about Wonder Woman was at the end of every episode, Wonder Woman looked at the camera and smiled. Never noticed that before.

To be fair, I didn't realize she was a brunette. So yeah, she had dark hair. It's kind of weird.

It's just these things that we perhaps don't notice. Just like, I suppose, just then when I was thinking of Wonder Woman, I didn't notice, I didn't notice the wind outside. Didn't notice the, you know, I was very much focused.

I had a few crushes when I was a child. I'm talking when I was really little. So it was, it was emotional.

I think that might be the only time I've really had an emotional connection with women. It was when I was probably under 10. Yeah.

Because I just, I was attracted to women on telly, like, you know, actresses and singers and stuff like that. But I didn't, you know, I didn't have it. I was, I was a child.

I wasn't a teenager. So I felt differently. So it was kind of a romantic attraction, even though I was attracted to how they looked.

Very, very unusual. I don't know. Let's see, who did I have crushes on? One of my things, crushes was Sharon Davis.

She was a swimmer. I think she was Olympic gold medalist. And I had a picture of her on my wall of my bedroom.

I'm not sure if I had one on the ceiling above my bed. I'm not sure. But yeah, she, and she was in a swimming costume.

And you know, the weird thing about it is that probably would have got frowned upon if I'd have been 13 or 14, having a picture of a celebrity, because she's also, you know, became a celebrity as well. Having a picture of a, of a luxurious lady in a swimsuit on my wall. But because I was only eight years old, no one thought anything of it.

So yeah, I had another picture of Wonder Woman in her costume, superhero costume. Who else did I have a picture of? I had a picture, I had a photo, because I used to get a magazine called Looking. So I used to have a, I think it was aimed more at teenagers, but I used to get it.

And it was like a television magazine, but also had pop stars, the lyrics from songs, interviews with famous peoples, and also talking about television shows that were on, because I always thought I'd be the TV person. And always, yeah, I'd be more of a TV person if I had a comfortable chair. Really, my chair is just not very comfortable anymore.

Plus I got a back, got some back problems. So I need extra comfort. Oh, but I did like television.

Although I think it was easier. I think watching television was easier when there was only a few channels. So much easier to keep track of, you know, the next episode.

And now it seems a little bit of an overload, a little bit. Just been watching a new show on Netflix called The Lock House, Lock Key House or something. And I'm going to have to watch every episode today.

I've watched the first two, I think. And I think that's the thing, I quite like watching new things. Like Oranges and New Black, I watched that.

I loved it. I loved it, loved it, loved it. And that was on Netflix.

And I watched that first two or three series, or what do you call it in America, not series, seasons. And then I stopped watching it. It might have been I took a break from Netflix, which I've done in the past.

Sometimes I've not been able to afford to have Netflix. I just haven't re-subscribed or whatever, you know, stopped the subscription for a few months. And I get out of date with what's, you know, I have to catch up.

So in the end, I don't bother. However, however, however, however, there are some shows that I will watch regardless. The Walking Dead, that's one that I always keep up to date with.

There was Silicon Valley was another one that I always, always kept up to date with. Whenever a new episode came, I watched it and I would continue watching it for years and years and years, but they've stopped making them. The other one would be Game of Thrones.

I would wait for the next episode. So those, those shows, I never got to the point of getting behind because I'd actually, I suppose be looking forward to the next episode, which is what television used to be like. You know, when I was a kid, well to be fair, not even that far along ago really, you know, before the internet or before streaming or box sets in blockbusters before, yeah, before box sets, let's say.

So we're going back. I think box sets really became popular, what, 15 years ago, maybe, maybe less. And I think part of that was because the record or video, not the, I don't know, like HMV record stores, those places, it started to sell or the places where they sold DVDs, they started to sell box sets of DVDs pretty cheap, especially if the entire collection was finished.

So I remember I bought the Sopranos, all seasons of the Sopranos for about £49 and all seasons of The Wire, about another £49. So I couldn't believe I got two of the seasons of the two of the top TV shows of all time. You know, critics, some people would say, would argue that I had two of the best seasons, yeah, but then other people might say Breaking Bad.

Other people might say Game of Thrones was the best TV show ever. Other people might say Walking Dead is the best TV show ever. I say watch all of them, because they're all brilliant.

All of those ones I mentioned. Another one I would mention, but I think Prison Break. I watched every episode because I'm dedicated.

But it did stray a little bit, it strayed a lot, strayed a lot, but it was still really good. But isn't it interesting how all these TV shows, yet one of the best ever, has kind of, I didn't mention, Lost. Lost, Lost, Lost.

That was on a different level. For me, personally, that was on a level that constantly being surprised. The music was brilliant, constantly surprised, and the setting was beautiful as well.

So they're in this beautiful, this beautiful beach, and you know, it's such a brilliant show. But I'd never seen the end of it, because it got very complicated. I think what happens, I might be wrong, but I get the sense that what happens with some of these shows is they have a really, really good idea.

Admittedly, they maybe adapted the TV show from a book, or maybe from a movie. And the first step, the first C-series season is, wow, really, really good. And it's successful.

And the people producing it, and the actors, and everyone, gets offered more money to continue. Which means the budget's bigger. They can build, perhaps, better places, or film in better places, and do more things.

Be more creative, possibly. Not that money's necessarily a creative thing, but sometimes they get even better. And then somewhere along the line, it sort of changes.

With Prison Break, it kind of, it ended up being about a prison break. I don't want to ruin it for you, by spoiling it for you, by saying that Prison Break is about a prison break. The Sopranos was about the Sopranos.

Lost is about some people that are lost, blimey. It's quite windy, isn't it? The only thing that concerns me slightly about the wind is there's a big, big tree that's really being moved around, and it's actually being turned. And it's leaning towards my window, generally, towards my building anyway.

But it's so big. It's one of those huge trees. If it did fall, it'd just crush probably the entire building.

But more so the people at the top. And more so the people at the top that are facing the tree, which is pretty much just me. So I'm kind of watching it.

So I'd have to find a way to grab Andre, and make a run for it. Because I have to get him. I'd say if a tree went through the window, and Andre was trapped, I would eat through the tree to get to Andre.

Trust me, I would. I would. I would crush every branch.

Unless of course it was big branches, and perhaps I wouldn't. Another TV show that I got really, really into. Two, actually.

And this is when I was at university. And I think what it was is, I didn't have a social life, really. I haven't really.

I don't now either. I have less of one now. But all I really had was the television.

And sort of in my room, I had a little, I went in a little room, and had a television. But got a little bit bored with the same old TV programs. And then I got myself, no, I think I bought the DVD player TV with me.

So I had a TV, or did I? Maybe I might have bought a DVD player. But anyway, I went to Blockbusters one day. Well, more than one day.

But I joined up with them when I first moved here. And it was one of my pleasures. One, on a Friday, I used to, and I remember this because Blockbusters were just around the corner from my college.

Literally, I had to pass it every day that I went to college. So I, what did I do? I started going in there. I transferred the membership from the previous town that I lived in.

And all was well. And then I started going, getting the movies, just normal kind of thing. And I started noticing the box set section.

And I kind of got a bit interested. And we're going back, what is this? Two thousand and, 1843. No, two thousand and, let's say 2008.

And one day I thought, I want to have a look. I did. I had a look at the box sets.

And it looked quite interesting. And the box sets they had there, there was The Sopranos. Because at this point, The Sopranos was still running.

It hadn't finished yet. So what I did for the last, I think two series, two seasons of The Sopranos, I watched them. Is that true? Yeah, I'm pretty sure The Sopranos was still running.

So I watched the last two series, last two seasons of The Sopranos during the first year of university. And yeah, that was a bit weird near the end. The last season was great, but one of these surreal in, I think the one from last.

And one of the box sets. Supernatural. Now, by the way, if anyone is sort of awake listening to this, please don't complain about the weather.

Wish you wouldn't make a recording when it's windy. It's windy. It's that time of the year when the weather is, it makes a sound.

Also, don't remember, don't forget that we're capturing, we're capturing history here. We're capturing the moment, the moment before the tree falls into my, on my head. Now we're capturing the moment in this moment.

And this is what's happening at this specific time. It is windy. So I thought about getting the Supernatural box set, but I never did.

And I looked at some of the other box sets. The Wire, I think that was the first one I got. So I watched all of them.

Or, no, I think The Wire, I watched that. I didn't, I waited and I bought, I watched The Wire when I bought it. So I bought the box set for all of The Wire.

So I didn't watch that on the box sets from Blockbuster. And I bought, yeah, The Sopranos on Blockbusters. The Sopranos rather, and The Wire box sets I bought in January sales in the very last part of my university course.

And the plan was to watch them while, well, the plan was to watch them while I was doing my dissertation. You know, to have a break, watch, watch an episode of The Wire, have a break and do the dissertation, you know, like that. It turned out I just watched the box sets.

And I'm not sure which one I watched first. I watched Lost. Lost was the very first thing I watched that I hadn't seen before.

And I, I don't think I've ever loved anything as much. Now I'm probably exaggerating, but I loved it. I'm talking like a real buzz.

It gave me very, a lot of pleasure watching that TV show. I think it was the, it was the newness of it. It was the, the creativity, the not knowing what's going to happen next, which is very unusual these days, I find, to watch something where it's not a little bit predictable.

And yeah, it was great. So I watched that, but there was, I didn't get to see all, you know, I think there'd only been maybe two or three seasons produced at that point. So I sort of watched the rest of them as they came out.

And then, apart from the, the last season, I didn't, didn't get to watch. And then, then, then, then, then I came across something that I'd never heard of. And I thought, I'll have a watch of it.

Never heard of it, but I'll, it looks interesting. It's called Six Feet Under. And took that home.

Loved it. Absolutely loved it. I'm talking back-to-back watching that is.

And I really, absolutely loved that show. Again, I didn't get to see all the episodes because I think I got the first two box sets out, or maybe the first two, possibly three, but I think only two seasons. And I didn't see any after that because Blockbusters just wasn't getting them.

Or I think maybe I got season three and the CDs were, the DVDs were scratched. So after that, I stopped getting DVDs out for Blockbusters. And, and then, guess what came next? Grey's Anatomy.

I took Grey's Anatomy home. I don't know why. There was something about it.

Maybe it was the cover. I don't know. I'm not sure.

I can't remember because it was quite some time ago. I watched the first episode and I loved it. I loved it so much.

I loved it so much. I mean, so it's kind of weird that I just fell in love with these TV shows. It's funny how they're all American, isn't it? None of them are English shows.

But Lost, The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Foot Under, Grey's Anatomy. And then I discovered Breaking Bad. Not Breaking Bad, Prison Break.

And I started watching that. Again, that was from Blockbusters. Rented out the box set.

And I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I mean, proper wow.

This is brilliant stuff. And I watched that. I got a couple of really fond memories of watching Prison Break.

Or one particular fond memory of watching Prison Break was my landlady and landlord went away on holiday for two weeks and left me to just take care of the house. I was living there, just sit there. So I was basically just water plants.

That was it really. And brilliant just to have... I didn't have the house to myself, but I had the kitchen to myself. And there was a table and chairs in the kitchen, which meant... And I had the other table.

So I just had a little bit more space. I wasn't just in one little room. And I brought the television into the kitchen.

And I had this routine. I decided I was going to make a stop smoking recording. And I was going to spend 10 days doing it.

Or as long as it took, but up to 10 days. And I was going to record and rerecord and edit and really work hard on making it sound as good as possible. And that's what I did.

It was my 28 day stop smoking course. And it took me 10 days, I think, to record the thing. To put it together, the editing, that was the hardest part.

And it was like a jigsaw puzzle putting it together. And very different to how I normally do stuff. Because normally I just talk, don't I? But this is quite a while ago.

And I made the recordings. And every hour, I'd spend an hour working on the recordings. And then I'd watch an episode of the Prison Break.

And then I'd go back and do another recording and watch another Prison Break. And I did that for about 10 days. I got through, I'm And also when I was counselling, I didn't counsel for the first year of university.

But the second year of university, I was counselling. I was seeing quite a few people every week as part of my training. And Friday was the last day of the week of doing it.

And I think I had about three clients on a Friday afternoon. And I'd finish about five, four, five, something like that. No, no, I'd finish, yeah, I don't know, something like that.

Anyway, I used to go to Blockbusters and get myself a box set to watch. And I'd be so, just so relieved after the week's over because, you know, it was quite, it was a bit full on at times. It was just nice to, you know, the week's over, got the weekend to myself.

And I can just chill out, watch these box sets. Oh, it felt nice. I felt really, really groovy.

And I think that's what happened really with the box sets. I kind of started, because I used to rent them. I bought the two box sets, you know, the wire and the, because I really got into the wire.

I loved the wire. And then I bought the Sopranos. I bought them both at the same time.

But other than that, I don't think I've ever bought box sets before or since. And then I was trying to think, going back to Blockbusters, because it's only been closed for, what, four years, I think, did I used to, yeah, I think I started, since the streaming's come in, I think it's getting windy around there. Since it's, I'm just trying to think of what have been my biggest box set or since the streaming, you know, with Netflix and Amazon and now TV, Sky.

Yeah, I probably, there's been some comedies I've watched, but I don't, I don't class those as box sets, although they are, I suppose. But I kind of think more of the more dramatic, big shows. And Game of Thrones is clearly one of the biggest ones.

Breaking Bad, some people class as the best TV show in history. So Breaking Bad. What's the other one? Is it The Walking Dead? Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad.

Oh, yeah. And this was a brilliant TV show. I loved it and I forgot the name of it.

Boardwalk Empire, is it? Boardwalk Empire. Yeah. Great show.

I think it's just so many different shows that I think they maybe just get forgotten a little bit. But that was a phenomenal show. I remember watching it and thinking, wow, I like this.

And I followed it, you know, all the way through to the end. So it's another TV show that I really had to follow. Another one I really like.

But this is more of a recent thing. And although I did try and watch it in the past by streaming, but my internet wasn't strong enough. So I just gave up.

But now the internet's strong enough to stream everything here. I had, yeah, Peaky Blinders. So I've watched every episode of Peaky Blinders on box, you know, box sets online.

And just waiting for the new, well, there's just been a new season and that's, that's done. Just waiting for the next one. I'm trying to think of any others that I've been.

There's probably some Boardwalk Empire. Yeah. Did I say Broadway Empire? Did I? Boardwalk Empire.

Steve Belushi or Bushi, whatever. It was set in the, I think it was set in the twenties, 1920s. There has to be others.

There must be another, at least another TV show that I really loved. I wonder what it was. I wonder.

Something that I kind of just watched and it'd be easier if I had the TV on and I could just like skim through Netflix and stuff. Okay. Let's, let's focus on Netflix.

What TV shows on Netflix do I really, really like? Okay. The stuff that I like new is the one that Barry, Barrymore, what's the name? ET's girlfriend, Barrymore. Michaela Drew.

That's it, Drew. Drew Barrymore. And she's in that, that's a really good show.

I forget what it's called. Caliris's Diet or something or Santa Monica's Diet. I won't spoil it for you, but it's worth watching.

It's very good. She's such a great actress. She's just, I don't know.

I think when someone's been around as long as she has, she almost becomes part of the, of the consciousness of the entertainment world. So, you know, she's, she was in one of the biggest films of all time at the time, ET. And she was only what, about five then.

So she's not that much older, like younger than me. Cause I was probably 11. And at the time, ET, cause ET was what, 1981? I mean, if it was 80, then I was 10.

And I don't know, when I see her, I just feel comfortable. There's a comfort just in her, in her face, in her voice. Just, I don't know, in her smile.

And Caliris's, is it Caliris's Diet? Maybe, maybe that's her name in the show. I don't remember, but it's really, really good. And what other TV shows do I like on Netflix? Um, um, I don't know.

I liked, I was watching the Star Trek, the new Star Trek show. Not the Picard, but the one before that. And then I stopped watching it for some reason.

Just trying to think, what other TV shows? Well, there's loads. Um, the spinoff from Breaking Bad, I watched some of, but then I stopped. Orange is the New Black, as I said earlier, I used to watch that.

Then I stopped. And I think the reason for it is because there's so much to choose from. And I'm thinking maybe I need to start getting myself a bit more organized.

Make a little list of, you know, shows that I need to watch and ones that are completed so I can just ignore them once they're done. Yeah. I don't know, what about, there's been so many that I've started watching and not finished.

And I never used to do that before. I'm pretty much a finisher. I like to complete things.

I'm going to complete this recording because it almost seems to be getting louder out there. So I'm going to say goodbye. I'll speak to you soon.

Remember to be kind to yourself because you deserve to be happy. Lots of love. Bye.