Sage That Sh*t

Transcript

Jenny: What did you eat for breakfast this morning?

You're looking at it.

Mark: I had a cup of coffee, a Z-bar, and then I went for a run.

Do you want a drink?

Jenny: I'm okay right now.

Mark: I had a true bar when I got home.

Jenny: From a Z-bar to a true bar?

Mark: Bars all day.

Jenny: Are we set? Can we just go?

Mark: Oh, I forgot to turn everything on. Wait a second.

Jenny: I'm going to take a moment to shout out my main squeeze, Dann Stockton, for Being our producer, our editor, our sound guy. Just all of it.

Mark: He's a heck of a guy.

Jenny: All the things besides you and me watching the Nuggets and sitting here chatting.

Mark: Yep.

Jenny: He's doing it all for this pod.

Mark: 🎶 [singing] Doing it all for my baby. Name the artist.

Jenny: Huey Lewis?

Mark: Yes!

Jenny: And we're off. I'm Jenny Stockton.

Mark: This week on the Nuggets Pod. AG is back! Jenny shares a poem she wrote about the relative angularity of Peyton Watson versus Scott Hastings. And the Nuggets Pod breaks down the Oscars race for best original score. Jenny likes the odds for composer Jerskin Fendrix, while Mark is leaning towards Alexandre Desplat. All that and more this week on the Nuggets Pod.

Jenny: Oh man, that was great.

Mark: Thank you.

Jenny: We've never started off stronger.

Mark: No.

Jenny: I loved it.

Mark: It's been a bad week for the Nuggets.

Jenny: I know.

Mark: We have to do something to shake it up.

Jenny: I really appreciate it. I appreciate that you came in. That you came in strong.

Mark: I feel like we should have some kind of like cleansing ceremony. Burn some stuff. Maybe chant some incantations.

Jenny: We used to have a sage plant growing outside. It's dead now.

Mark: well let's go to king soopers and pick up some sage

Jenny: okay But I think that's a good idea

Mark: Nuggets this week lost to the timber wolves. I guess that was technically last week

Jenny: that was last Sunday right?

Mark: that was the day after we recorded last, yeah. Minnesota led wire to wire. It was not really very fun to watch. Then they beat the Jazz the next night in Utah, which was probably even less fun to watch because the Jazz are like actively tanking their, I don't know, three best players are out for the year and the Nuggets barely beat them.

Jenny: That one, David Adelman saved his challenge. for the very end of the game.

Mark: Oh, yeah. I don't know how that call got overturned. It was the right decision. Thankfully.

Jenny: That was a bright spot.

Mark: The NBA might be helping Utah Tank for some reason. I was shocked that that call got overturned.

Jenny: On purpose.

Mark: But glad, yeah. Then they beat the Lakers at home.

Jenny: Sure did.

Mark: The Lakers I don't think are very good. Luka is such a baby.

Jenny: You know who looked good in that game again though? Julian Strother.

Mark: He did, yeah.

Jenny: Hustling.

Mark: Mm-hmm.

Jenny: It's always fun to beat the Lakers too.

Mark: It's true. I'm sure There were plenty of Lakers fans at ball arena that left early.

Jenny: That makes me annoyed

Mark: But also it's fun when that happens and they lose and then you just see them walking sheepishly up those steps

Jenny: and he's just singing nah-nah-nah-nah

Mark: You sing, doing it all for my baby. And then, oh my gosh, what a roller coaster night. AG came back.

Jenny: I know.

Mark: Everybody was so pumped. He was warming up with his little nephews. He got introduced. The crowd almost blew the roof off of the arena. The Nuggets actually looked really good for most of the first quarter. He had a dunk straight down the lane.

Jenny: He was running like normal.

Mark: Yeah, coming up gimpy and then it all fell apart. They got absolutely embarrassed.

Jenny: Do you feel like there's a turning point in the game? Because I feel like what I heard, I heard a couple of them talk about it after the fact, and they were all just basically like, that just wasn't good enough. And someone, maybe David Adelman said, like, that didn't have anything to do with Jamal rolling his ankle.

Mark: Yeah, I think they were down 11 or something when he got hurt. And they already looked pretty bad. for most of the second quarter, Valančiūnas played like two minutes. I don't know what the deal was with him, but that didn't help because the Knicks have Mitchell Robinson. He's like the best offensive rebounder in the league. And then without Valančiūnas, for whatever reason, and when Jokić was resting, they just think they got out rebounded by like 19 or 20. And it just got worse after halftime. I think We were probably all hoping they would have like a run in them at the start of the third quarter. Kind of make it a closer game and it just got worse and worse. CSU legend David Roddy played his first minutes for the Nuggets. He was like a minus 13 and six minutes of garbage time. But it was fun to see the big guy out there. Big body Roddy.

Jenny: Did you just make that up?

Mark: No, it's like a CSU fan nickname that's been around. He was actually, he's like one of the best basketball players to come out of CSU in recent years.

Jenny: But also Boo Rams Go Buffs.

Mark: All right. And we're done. That wraps up week three. Talk to you next time.

Jenny: End of the pod Just kidding. Yeah, it was tough. Yeah, it was a bunch of tough things all in a row. I will point out that I really love to watch Bones Highland play. That was maybe the bright spot of that Minnesota game last weekend. I was like, he's hanging in there and he's just doing his thing. And I know whatever happened with him when he left here was maybe not like his favorite way to end the year.

Mark: They got rid of him and immediately won the title. Right. Whatever they did that year, that's what we need to do now. I don't think he should have stuck around. Yeah. We need to like burn a Bones Highland effigy. Not because we don't like him, but just to try to recapture the good vibes from... Clear out the energy.

Jenny: Clear out the negative energy. Yeah. I just really, I like him.

Mark: Yeah. I'm glad he's found a role in Minnesota.

Jenny: Yeah.

Same.

Mark: Did you know Jalen Brunson's dad is an assistant coach with the Knicks? You know who Jalen Brunson is? Yeah. Okay. They came to the Knicks at the same time in 2022 and the Knicks actually lost a second round draft pick because the league decided that there was some kind of like shenanigans going on in the free agency period and like everybody pretty much knows that's one of the reasons that the Knicks hired his dad. Yeah. So that they that would like entice Jalen Brunson to sign there. His dad's name is Rick Brunson short for what would you guess?

Jenny: Richard.

Mark: Eric.

Jenny: Whoa.

Mark: Yeah.

Jenny: Never heard of one of those.

Mark: Wow. Me neither. Eric. Rick short for Eric.

Jenny: Hey.

Mark: to each his own. He was an assistant with the Nuggets for the last half of the 2007 season too, which was the year they traded for Allen Iverson. like in December of 2006, and then Rick Brunson came on in January of '07.

Jenny: Okay.

Mark: And that was, like, in my memory, one of the most disappointing seasons the Nuggets have had. It was like, oh, we got AI and Mello? Oh my gosh, nobody... And they ended up as the sixth seed and lost in the first round of the playoffs, so... I blame Eric.

Jenny: All right. Well... We're going to figure out a cleansing ritual. Listeners, we would encourage you to do the same. Get some sage. Build your bones highland effigies. Do what you got to do.

Mark: Sprinkle some butter on them.

Jenny: Sprinkle some sage into your melting butter to cook your sauce. That's what I have to say about that. I do feel excited about this game tomorrow night. Jamal Murray's questionable, Peyton Watson's out, but otherwise, everyone's in.

Mark: It seems like a likely spot for them to bounce back. It doesn't seem like they will play nearly as poorly as they did against the Knicks. They hate the Thunder, the Thunder don't like them. It's become a good rivalry. So yeah, it should be a good one. It starts early, I think like 5.30 or something. So get home from work in time to tune in.

Jenny: Tune in, lock in.

Mark: See what kind of dirty stuff Lou Dort has up his sleeve. I guarantee you there will be a play where somebody like Valančiūnas sets a screen on him and he pretends like his leg got shot off and falls to the ground and the refs will buy it and call an offensive foul. That happens every time they play. And I don't know why they let him do that every game. But they do count on it. I'll put my a month's paycheck on that happening.

Jenny: Whoa.

Mark: Yeah.

Jenny: You're going to bet. You're going to place a bet.

Mark: Yep. Bet three, six, five. If you were a new sponsor of the pod, bet three, six, five. That's not Mark Loyd's.

Jenny: That's not real.

Mark: Bespoke better the game.

Jenny: Mark Lloyd's bespoke bet.

Mark: I bet you could make that bet on Kalshi. You know about Kalshi?

Jenny: No. What is it? Is it the one about war crimes? You can bet on anything.

Mark: Yeah. So, yep.

Jenny: We don't need to get into that, but it sounds terrible. Yeah. Woof. Did you hear that Lou Dort acknowledged that he crossed the line? Yeah, I did.

Mark: Like more so than anybody else affiliated with their organization. Like their coach was like defending him. Other players, their announcers, all their fans were like, oh, so it's illegal to like bump into somebody now? Yeah. And then he came out and made them all look like idiots and like said that he crossed the line. apologized for it.

Jenny: Do you think he was like, visited by some Balkan strongman after that game?

Mark: Think there's a better than 50% chance. Yes.

Jenny: We said we don't have to get into it.

Mark: We will make you pay for your actions. If you do not apologize, you will not like the result.

Jenny: I don't think it's totally outside the realm of possibility. That's all I'm saying.

Mark: I hope we get that crazy Jokić face again at some point this season, whether it's tomorrow or like if they play in the playoffs. I would love to see it.

Jenny: Yeah. I have to imagine that for all of them, they are under the same stress as the rest of us are about just like generally what's happening on Earth these days with our government and the climate and like all of the things that just seem to be not letting up.

Mark: You think so? And? I wonder how in tune the general like median NBA player is with that stuff. I'm sure some of them are.

Jenny: Yeah. And probably to varying degrees, for sure. But I think about just trying to do the things that I do in a normal day, which is not competing in an NBA game. And sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it feels hard.

Mark: I think about that every day. I'm like, how are we all just going to our jobs and doing our normal routine, pretending like...

Jenny: Nothing's wrong.

Mark: Yeah. Positivity. Get the train. It has been a downer of a week for sure. Oh man, it's tough. We're trying to find the silver linings.

Jenny: Yes, and I that just reminded me I after the game the Knicks game that was Friday night. Aaron Gordon said in a post game interview I have to play better. I have to do better. And also. I just am thankful that I get to play this game. He even said to be like to be alive. Like I have gratitude to be alive and to get to do this and play this game that I love.

Yeah.

Mark: And I just seems like one NBA player that might be more in tune with the world at large than the average.

Jenny: He also posted on his Instagram this last week all the books that he's reading this month. And it's like James Baldwin and bell hooks. And so I was like, Yeah. Yeah. Playing basketball, probably.

Mark: You think he's working on his hook shot? Is that why?

Jenny: bell hooks. She'll give you some pointers.

Mark: Yeah. She was known for the sky hook.

Jenny: That's right.

Mark: Taught it to Kareem.

Jenny: I think they were friends.

Mark: No, I know. She was his coach. I've seen footage.

Jenny: Oh my gosh. Yeah. So, that's what we can do, I guess. We can mirror that. Be thankful to be alive. We're alive.

Mark: Just try to put out positive vibes. Be good to each other.

Jenny: Yep.

Mark: and let the chips fall where they may.

Jenny: Correct. Also positive note, slightly nuggets related, 100% related to this podcast. We got like a foot of snow on Thursday. Yeah, that was cool. So, this is great news. Yeah, Thursday. No, it was Friday. It was Friday. It just came. It just started and it did not stop for the whole day. So the snowpack conditions are looking better. Today, again, it's 70 degrees and sunny outside.

Mark: My face is sunburned because I went for a run this morning. It really felt like a summer morning. I was sweating so much.

Jenny: I went for a run this afternoon and I had too hot of clothes on because I didn't realize how hot it was.

Mark: anyway that direct sunlight makes a big difference it sure does reflecting off of all the snow too I felt like created some kind of greenhouse effect on my body your face took my face in particular my big forehead bigger and bigger every day these these days

Jenny: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Things are looking up. I'm making another proclamation. Things are looking up. What was your last proclamation? My last one last week was anytime someone talks to me about that Lew Dort foul on Jokić, I'm going to remind them about that Christian Braun block on SGA at the very end of the game.

Mark: Did anybody bring up that guy? Oh man.

Jenny: No.

Mark: Well, we remember you, CB.

Jenny: Sure do.

Mark: We will try to keep the memory alive.

Jenny: We're hoping you bring it, bring that same energy.

Mark: Bring it, bring it.

Jenny: Tomorrow to OKC.

Mark: Yep.

Jenny: Yep. You got any nuggets stories you want to tell?

Mark: No, not this week.

Jenny: I think we should tell our pod audience the story of our tattoos. Podience.

Mark: Pawdience. Our Pawdience. The Pawdience.

Jenny: Tell the Pawdience. That's a word I just made up about our tattoos.

Mark: Yeah, let's do it.

Jenny: You start.

Mark: Here's my memory of the tattoos. So we were watching Lakers, Nuggets, Western Conference Finals during the title season 2023. It was game three.

Jenny: Yep.

Mark: Okay. So that was it in LA because the Nuggets were the one seed that year. We were in your basement. A whole bunch of us were over watching it. It was a really fun game. The Nuggets won, obviously, because they swept the Lakers in that series.

Jenny: Correct.

Mark: And at some point, I think it was in the first half, I was standing behind the couch just standing watching the game. and there's a little desk behind me, behind where I was standing, kind of in the corner, and there were some papers and coloring implements on the desk, and I just was kind of looking at the stuff on the desk during a time out or something, and I saw a picture, and the picture immediately caught my eye, and I picked it up and looked at it, and it was a picture of what I thought at the time was a bear, because there was a little word on the paper that I thought said bear and the picture was of this crazed looking animal drawn by a nameless person that we know. And I picked it up and I showed it to Jenny and whoever else was down there. And I just thought it was the funniest thing. And then what do you remember from there?

Jenny: It was cute. I will point out it was a five-year-old person at the time.

Mark: Between the ages of three and 50, let's say. But maybe closer to three.

Jenny: Closer to three. I just remember I wasn't really paying attention because I was watching the game, but the paper like made its way around the room. So maybe you picked it up and then it like got passed around and everyone was taking a look at it. And a little unclear about what exactly it was. I think maybe because the lettering was a little immature.

Mark: It ended up being B-A backwards G-R, which I thought was B-A-E-R. Yeah, Bear.

Jenny: Yeah, I thought Bear, but no, it was Badger. It was Badger, yep. And it did, it was a little disproportionate. It had some crazy looking eyes, kind of.

Mark: Yes, the eyes are to this day what stand out to me the most.

Jenny: And besides the word badger, there was also a little like dialogue bubble that said, oh shit.

Mark: I forgot about that.

Jenny: Oh my gosh.

Mark: That was probably like the funniest part actually and I had totally forgotten that that was even on there.

Jenny: So at first we thought it said bear and then we got clarification that no it actually it says badger and it is a badger and we were all kind of like oh great cool why does it say oh shit no idea and then The next thing I remember happening is that the game is ending and it's becoming clear that the Nuggets are going to win this one and go up 3-0 on the Lakers. And our baby brother said, If the Lakers, if we sweep the Lakers, I'm getting a tattoo. And you said, if we win the finals, I'm getting a Badger tattoo.

Mark: Yes. Yep.

Jenny: And I was like, OK, yeah, same. If we win the whole thing, I will get a Badger tattoo as well. And then one of our sisters was there. I don't remember if she said it at the time or not, but. They did. The Nuggets won the title.

Mark: Yeah.

Jenny: And the four of us agreed, we're going to go get a tattoo of this artwork that is classic. I don't know how else to describe it at this point. It's classic.

Mark: What better reason to get a tattoo?

Jenny: Exactly. And I love telling people the story because When they see it or I'm telling them about it, what I start with usually is like, my nuggets tattoo.

Mark: And then I show it to them.

Jenny: They're like, oh, wow, okay. And then I tell the backstory and it's like, oh no, it's like this fun shared celebration with me and my siblings that we all did together. We got, yeah, you told that part.

Mark: I was just gonna say we got four of the five of us that we have, there are five of us that are siblings. Four of the five of us got different iterations of the Badger tattooed on our bodies by Monocle Mike, who is the tattoo artist that gave Michael Malone his Nuggets tattoo right after they won the title. Correct. Jenny sought him out specifically.

Jenny: I did, I tracked him down.

Mark: Yeah.

Jenny: His nickname is Monocle Mike because he's blind in one eye.

Mark: Which we only found out when he was halfway through my tattoo.

Jenny: And completely done with mine.

Mark: Yeah, but he did a great job.

Jenny: Yeah, they look awesome. Mine looks exactly how I wanted it to.

Mark: Mine too. Still looks great.

Jenny: So great.

Mark: Shout out Monocle Mike. Was that like Arvada? Yes. Okay.

Jenny: I don't remember if his, if there was a name of his business.

Mark: I'm sure there was, but yeah. If you, I bet if you search Monocle Mike.

Jenny: Yep. If you're looking to get a tattoo, just Google Monocle Mike. Hopefully you'd be able to track him down as well.

Mark: Yeah.

Jenny: Great. Good times. Good memories. I also just recently found out that this whole thing is from a book that we read. called like Fox and Badger or something like that. And it's for children. And it's like all of the characters are animals. And there's something about I need to go back and reread the book. I think it's Skunk and Badger and they're like friends. But then one of them is like his house is getting invaded by like other animals.

Mark: By ICE.

Jenny: I hope not. It's a cautionary tale. Are ICE the heroes in this story?

Mark: Jenny, what kind of propaganda are you indoctrinating your kids with?

Jenny: The crazy part is it's like this fun, silly, like children's story about animals.

Mark: Does the badger in the book look like the drawing of the badger?

Jenny: That I don't think so. It's not a very close... likeness. I'm not certain about that though. I'd have to go back and look at it. What does happen in the book is that the Badger's house is like getting overrun or something. Something bad is happening to his house. And he says, oh, shit.

Mark: Oh, OK. And when we read it, I remember it feeling so surprising to everyone that was in the room.

Jenny: We're like, oh, did that just? But then I realized that was like it was like a perfectly placed instance of that word.

Mark: That's how it felt. Like, I can't believe I forgot that was on the drawing originally. But now that I remember that, it was like that on the drawing too. Like, perfectly matches the facial expression of the badger.

Jenny: Correct.

Mark: And yeah, just made me crack up so much.

Jenny: And one of our sisters has those words tattooed on her. She got the full original.

Mark: Yeah, all the text.

Jenny: Yep. It's great. Good times.

Mark: Making memories with the nuggets.

Jenny: That's right.

Mark: Hopefully we'll get to make some more this year. Good memories. I still have faith. I know they have not looked good for like kind of a long time, but I was thinking today they fired their coach with three games left last year and then almost beat OKC. So if any team can flip the switch, if any team can turn it around once they get everybody healthy, I think it's this team. They might have some more ugly games between now and then. They still have five really tough games in a row coming up, but I still believe.

Jenny: Same. You know what I would like to see them do a little bit more often? I just realized today.

Mark: What?

Jenny: Dance. I remember in '23, I think the year of the title. Don't you laugh at me. There were, I can't remember who it was like from, but there were occasional little video clips of them just like doing their dance moves during warmups or like during timeouts, whatever, obviously, probably when they were winning.

Mark: Now that you say that, I do remember at the end of every first quarter, the whole team would do the electric slide all together.

Jenny: Oh, I don't see. I don't even know that.

Mark: Yeah.

Jenny: I feel like there was also maybe like they didn't.

Mark: That was not serious. Did you hear what I said? The whole team, you thought the whole team between the first and second quarter would get out on the floor and do the electric slide, the line choreographed line dance all together. Oh, I don't remember that. That's cool.

Jenny: That sounds awesome. That's probably why they won. I'm just saying I think dancing could help them get loose and stay loose and out of their heads. Yeah. I just think dancing is really important.

Mark: We know Jokić likes to dance. He I've only seen it when he's like drunk, but it's yeah. Yeah. I'm bringing that energy sober or maybe have a few drinks before he goes on the court.

Jenny: I don't think that's allowed.

Mark: How much do you think he has to drink before he's drunk?

Jenny: I don't want to think about it. It would be enough to kill all of us. Yeah. Oh, dear. Just it's just my I don't even know what to call it. Just a thought I had about what I think I think might be able to help them get out of their heads a little bit.

Mark: You think David Adelman has good dance moves?

Jenny: I bet he does. I bet same thing if he's like at a wedding and he has a couple drinks. I bet. I just wouldn't be surprised. I don't know what they would be, but probably.

Mark: Yeah, probably. Probably a good dancer.

Jenny: Yeah. Should we do some recs?

Mark: Sure.

Jenny: Let's do it. Did you come with one in mind?

Mark: Well, the only I was just thinking about this past week, the thing that made me like the happiest was this. I just saw this like short video clip of the caption was something. It was like, what's your dream job? And then it said me with like a colon and it was some adult dressed up like the Scream villain. in like a karate dojo with a giant orange like inflated ball that had like a pumpkin face on it, so it seemed like it was like some kind of Halloween themed day at the dojo. Okay. And all these little like six-year-old kids And the teacher was just the it was the balls like three inches or three feet Okay, more than three inches three feet wide Okay, and the teacher was just throwing it at the kids and every time it hit a kid They just toppled to the ground and it made me laugh so hard So I'm sure there are a lot of different ways to find this video. I don't know if it has like a known name on the internet by now but it yeah the teacher was the person in the scream costume my favorite thing i've seen this week

Jenny: They're like running laps.

Mark: There's like 30 kids. So like no matter where the teacher throws the ball, it's going to hit one of them. And the teacher's not throwing it hard, just tossing it gently. But it's like the weight of the ball. As soon as it hits a kid, they just go down.

Jenny: It's as tall as their bodies. They're on like the karate mats. They're not getting injured. They look like they're having fun.

Mark: Yeah. All right. What's your dream job? Me throwing a giant pumpkin ball at seven-year-olds. I think it's a yoga ball. Yeah, probably a yoga ball.

Jenny: I wonder how much that person gets paid. Dream job.

Mark: I would do that for free. I would pay. How much would you pay to get to do that for like five minutes? I'd pay 20 bucks.

Jenny: How many kids? Oh, dear.

Mark: Good business idea. Dream nobody steal it. Come on.

Jenny: Yeah, don't take it. Okay, we'll put a link to it in the show notes so people can go find it. The Pawdience can find it. Cool, man. I'm going to recommend another podcast.

Mark: Okay.

Jenny: Don't stop listening to our podcast, though.

Mark: No. Listen double to make up for the other podcasts you listen to.

Jenny: This one is called Our Common Nature. Have you heard it?

Mark: No.

Jenny: It is from WNYC, and it is so good. It moved me to tears more than once. It's about Yo-Yo Ma, goes on like a journey across the US. I think it started in 2020. So he partnered with a reporter from WNYC and they visited national national parks all over the US and he like meets people from the communities where the parks are and he meets musicians that are creating music and playing music from those parts of the country and those traditions of wherever they are. It's just so good. And then, of course, he's there, so he's going to play with some of these people, which is just mind blowing that they have this opportunity. And the reporter's just really good. She's awesome. Yo-Yo Ma is hilarious. I think he's 70 now, but he's like super sharp, super open-minded and like curious and just like it all comes through and it just is and then all the music that's in it is really beautiful. So I think it's like seven episodes. And there's just one season. Yeah, looks like seven. But yeah, Our Common Nature.

Mark: Check it out.

Jenny: With Yo-Yo Ma and Ana González.

Mark: Cool.

Jenny: We'll put a link to that in the show notes as well for the podcast.

Mark: But just remember, yeah, every episode of that podcast that you listen to, you have to listen to ours again.

Jenny: Two times.

Mark: Yep.

Jenny: Yeah. Deal. Don't forget.

Mark: We're on the honor code. We're not going to check your pod history, but we trust you.

Jenny: We do. That's true. Just like we trust the Nuggets.

Mark: Yeah.

Jenny: To show up and do their thing in Oklahoma City tomorrow night.

Mark: Sure do.

Jenny: Can't wait.

Mark: Over and under on how many free throws SGA shoots?

Jenny: What's he averaging? I don't know. 17. Too many.

Mark: Yeah, 1,000.

Jenny: 29 billion. I'm going to go with 18.

Mark: I'll take the under, but I wouldn't be shocked.

Jenny: OK. We'll talk about it next week.

Mark: Sure will. Until next time.

Jenny: Later. See ya.