What if the big Lebowski was about eating progressively hotter wings?
The dude abides until wing seven. Walter maintains that the Scoville scale is not a legally recognized measurement. Donny dies.
Daniel Plainview goes on hot ones to promote the oil business. He refuses the milk because he considers it a sign of weakness. Sean asks one question about Eli Sunday and the interview ends immediately.
Imagine casino, except the entire plot revolves around eating progressively hotter wings. Ace runs the whole operation with absolute precision, while Nicky increasingly loses his mind as the sauces get hotter. Same three hour runtime, same voiceovers, same violence, just entirely motivated by chicken wings.
Pacino and De Niro discuss loneliness, mortality and killing each other while eating increasingly hot wings.
Neither acknowledges the wings.
Pacino is sweating by wing four, although that may have already been happening.
For me it’s Stand by Me.
I watched it again recently and realized how much of the movie is just four boys teaching each other how to grow up because, for various reasons, the adults in their lives aren’t doing a particularly good job of it.
They walk through the woods, cross a bridge with a train coming at them, get chased by a junkyard dog, sleep outside, fight, tell stories, insult each other, get scared, and keep going. It’s almost like a tiny platoon.
Chris is probably the closest thing they have to a leader, but really they survive because they have each other.
And thats what gets me about it. They’re still children, but they’re already figuring out loyalty, courage, class, death, disappointment, and what kind of people they want to become.
Then you find out what happened to all of them, and it makes the whole adventure feel even more important. They aren’t going to be together forever. Some of them aren’t even going to turn out okay. But for that little stretch of their lives, they had each other.
And then that last thought: you never really have friends again like the friends you had when you were twelve.
Anyway, what other film does this for you? Not necessarily a father-son movie or even literally a coming-of-age movie. Just a film that you think genuinely has something to say about boys becoming men.
Not the best restaurant. I mean the restaurant that best explains Dallas as a civilization.
Mine might be Mi Cocina. Valet parking at a place where you can get a quesadilla. $16 margarita. Everyone is dressed like they’re either coming from a closing or about to have an affair with a realtor. Highland Park moms absolutely blitzed because their kids got into Arizona state..
What say you?
Did I smoke too much weed or did I actually find the oddest film memorabilia ever
I’ve been doing this for years and lately I’m just exhausted by the lifestyle that comes with it. I work basically seven days a week because if I want to maximize my income, I have to keep my schedule open and take same-day jobs when they come in.
I try to pack a lunch and eat healthy, but half the time that goes out the window because a job pops up and suddenly I have 30 minutes to get across town. So I’m grabbing whatever food is nearby, sitting in traffic, putting miles on my car, getting home exhausted, and doing it again the next day.
The part that gets to me the most, though, is how dehumanizing it can feel. I’ve had plenty of great clients, but sometimes I don’t even feel like I’m being talked to like a person. I’m just the guy with a drill who showed up because someone needs something done. Some people barely acknowledge you or talk to you like you’re just there to take orders. After years of that, it really starts to wear on you.
Then there’s constantly thinking about the algorithm. Keep availability open, take same-day work, work weekends, fill empty spots in the schedule. You’re supposedly self-employed, but somehow your entire life starts revolving around when other people need something done.
The money can be good, which is obviously why I still do it, but I genuinely wonder how people do this long term without getting completely burned out.
Anyone else who has been doing this for years starting to feel the same way?
I’ve been on TaskRabbit for 5+ years, done 2,500+ jobs, and currently make around $8,000/month. I want to get that closer to $12,000, but this app seems determined to put a ceiling on how much you can make.
I’ve raised rates, use minimums where appropriate, keep broad availability, offer same-day, and focus on higher-value categories. Raise rates too much and bookings disappear. Lower them and you’re working constantly for less money.
For Taskers actually making serious money, what am I missing? Rates? Categories? Scheduling? Minimums? Repeat clients? I’m not looking for “get good reviews” advice. I want to know how you maximize revenue without just working yourself into the ground.
Why is squeezing another $4k/month out of this stupid app so difficult?
At this point I have one objective on TaskRabbit: maximize revenue. That’s it. I want every available hour converted into as much money as the market will legally and willingly give me. I want to outperform my competition, take market share, raise my rates, get the best clients, stack five-star reviews, and make more money next month than I made this month.
I don’t want to be affordable. I don’t want to compete on price. I want other Taskers to look at my rate and wonder who would possibly pay it, while my calendar keeps filling up.
Obviously I follow TaskRabbit’s rules and communicate everything upfront. Not because I’m running a charity, but because getting banned is terrible for revenue. Unhappy clients are terrible for revenue. Bad reviews are terrible for revenue. Excellent service is profitable.
Everything is an asset. My reviews are assets. My tools are assets. My experience is an asset. My calendar is inventory. My time is inventory. If demand exceeds supply, the price goes up. Welcome to capitalism.
This is America. Existing costs money. I therefore need to make as much money as possible, as quickly as reasonably possible, before I die.
Read the rules. Beat the competition by being better. Raise your rates. Get five stars. Make money. Reinvest. Make more money.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I honestly think a lot of Taskers are sabotaging themselves without realizing it.
Why are so many experienced people still driving across town for one-hour jobs with no two-hour minimum? Between gas, taxes, travel time, loading tools, and messaging clients, how much are you actually making? I don’t understand the business logic.
Then we wonder why clients expect everything for free. They book one TV mount and suddenly they’re asking for shelves, curtain rods, furniture, picture frames, and “just one more thing while you’re here.” That didn’t happen by accident. We trained people to expect it because too many of us say yes.
The same thing goes for pricing. Every time someone undercuts everyone else by a few dollars just to get booked, it lowers the expectation for the entire marketplace. At some point you’ve got to stop chasing volume and start asking whether you’re actually making money.
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I’d rather do fewer jobs that are actually profitable than spend my entire day driving around doing bargain-bin work. If more Taskers treated this like a real business instead of a hustle for whatever booking pops up next, I honestly think we’d all make more money.
Curious what everyone else’s philosophy is. Is your goal to maximize bookings, or maximize profit per hour?
have lived in Dallas long enough that I’m starting to think mattresses are our biggest industry.
I don’t know a single person who’s bought a mattress in the last year, yet every major intersection has 2-3 mattress stores that somehow survive.
What am I missing here? Is there a secret mattress economy?
The second version is more likely to get people joking, while the first will probably get a mix of jokes and actual explanations.
I’ve been thinking about this after rewatching JFK. Whether you agree with Oliver Stone’s conclusions or not, the movie feels like it was made with a genuine desire to get people to question what they think they know instead of just accepting the first version of events they’re given.
What struck me isn’t really the conspiracy aspect—it’s that the film encourages skepticism. It basically says, “Don’t stop asking questions. Look at the evidence. Think for yourself.”
I don’t feel like many big-budget movies today are interested in doing that. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like a lot of modern films are more interested in telling you what to think than inviting you to wrestle with competing perspectives.
Are there recent films that scratch the same itch as JFK, or was it one of the last of its kind?
I’ve been watching Miami Vice, and I don’t think younger people should watch it just because it’s “cool” or nostalgic. I think they should watch it because it’s about work.
Crockett and Tubbs spend most of the show doing the boring, frustrating, exhausting parts of the job. Long surveillance, failed operations, paperwork, sleepless nights, and constantly putting the mission ahead of their personal lives. They’re professionals first. That’s what I admire.
Whether you agree with that lifestyle or not, it feels like a perspective that’s become less common in TV. So much media today is about finding yourself or chasing happiness. Miami Vice is about duty, competence, and becoming exceptionally good at something, even when it’s difficult.
Am I reading too much into it, or is that part of why the show still feels so timeless?
Just watched love and death for the first time and man I wasn’t expecting it to be that funny. It felt like there was another joke every 10 seconds lol. Some landed, some didn’t, but it just never stopped throwing stuff at you.
Now I’m kinda chasing that feeling. Doesn’t have to be the same style of comedy, just movies where it feels like the writers were incapable of going 15 seconds without trying another joke.
What should I watch next? I’m sure there’s some obvious ones I’m forgetting.
Man, I think I’ve been smoking way too much weed because I’ve been thinking about this all day. I’m losing my goddamn mind trying to imagine what that timeline would even look, would Charlie Kirk still be alive??
I think it would be cool, think about it, first gay president.
Not necessarily because it was gory or disturbing in a horror sense, I mean a movie that genuinely left you feeling sick, like you needed a shower afterward.
For me, it’s conspiracy (2001), the HBO movie about the Wannsee conference with Kenneth Branagh, Stanley tucci, and an incredible ensemble cast.
There’s almost no violence on screen, which somehow makes it even worse. It’s just watching intelligent, well-dressed bureaucrats casually and methodically discuss the logistics of the Holocaust over lunch. The banality of it all is what got to me. By the end I honestly felt grimy, like I’d been sitting in the room with them.
I’m curious what movie did that for you. It doesn’t have to be horror or even intentionally disturbing. It could be a historical film, a drama, a documentary, or anything else that left you feeling genuinely disgusted or unsettled after the credits rolled.
What movie made you feel that way, and why?
I was rewatching Interview with the vampire and I realized that this is the only movie Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt ever made together.
That just feels weird..
They’re both so good in it, but for completely different reasons. Cruise is impossible to take your eyes off of, and Pitt plays the perfect counterweight. Every scene they’re in together has this push and pull that makes the movie way more entertaining than I remembered.
You would’ve thought someone would’ve put them in another movie together at some point. Instead, that’s all we got.
I don’t know if it was timing, personalities, or just the way Hollywood works, but I always end the movie wishing there was one more Cruise/Pitt collaboration.
Does anyone else feel that way, or is it just me?