Episode 231
#231 - Interview with podcaster James Walters
In this deep reflective and wild as hell episode. I sat down with author, photographer, and podcast host James Walters. For a conversation that flows from the power of perspective. To the absurd brilliance of The Big Lebowski, and what is to be the dude man.
James shares how he built a career telling other people’s stories through his photography. Until life handed him a hard reset and forced him to ask What now? That question sparked a decade-long transformation. Leading to his podcast A Joyful Rebellion, and his storytelling-driven book Meditations of the Mundane. Let's not forget his renewed commitment to writing his own life’s script.
We dived into how "boring" things. Like bike tracks in dried mud or sandstone retaining walls. Which when look at it from a different lens can hold surprising meaning. We talked about creative burnout, artistic reinvention. Looking at how comedy, photography, film, and subversive design. all intersect in the weirdest, most brilliant ways.
If you love rabbit holes, cult classic cinema, philosophy with bite. Brutally honest conversations about making art in a chaotic world, this one’s for you.
Where to Find the Guest?
🌐 Website: https://jameswalters.com/
🎧 Work: James Pod A Joyful Rebellion is you go to for the real talk.
📲 Social: Follow James @a.joyful.rebellion
And of course, you can find all the links for L.I.T.G, and where to listen at:
Transcript
James Walters
you mentioned that like a moment in time because yesterday ah so i came out with this book it was a picture book in uh well was in the fall last year it was the first photography book i've ever done all the others are just words right and you you kind of imagine what that might have looked like but this one it was a photograph of something that wasn't super interesting all on its own
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
okay
::James Walters
And it's stuff that I could find as I was walking around. I love to walk around old cities. And.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, landmarks and things. You find like that cool little corner with that coffee shop, and it's got that 180-year-old worth of history right?
::James Walters
Well, this was this was even more micro than that. It was like it was if you take the bubble gum that stuck to the sidewalk outside of that 180 old.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
well
::James Walters
like coffee shop, right? It was stuff that people would absolutely pass by, ignore, not think a second thing about. And i started asking myself, well, what did, what are these little details? What are these little mundane objects? That's what I ended up calling ah the book Meditations of the Mundane.
::James Walters
And what if they had a story like a backstory? What if they had hopes and dreams? And one of them that ah so I went down to about a town about two hours away on the coast yesterday.
::James Walters
And it's one of those that I walked all over the downtown for several hours.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
east or west coast okay yeah yeah because we're both east coasters okay i totally right i sure sorry west coast but uh
::James Walters
ah East Coast, North Carolina.
::James Walters
OK.
::James Walters
Well, East Coast is just older, you know, it's grittier.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
it is i mean you're you have like the first colonies that started in the east coast you know so there's just so much that um
::James Walters
It's got that history to it.
::James Walters
Yeah. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
What I find so interesting, oh and like you're pointing this out so clearly, is those mundane, stupid, like, you know, quote-unquote, stupid little things.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, it's like, why is that tree stump there?
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know? Like, why do you have a tree stump? You know, and it's like the whole element and story of, like, I don't know, like, you know, there was, like, a landmark or something that happened, and it's just there.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::James Walters
Yeah. And it is just there until somebody decides they want to quote unquote improve it or, you know, modernize it. And it's funny.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Paint it white.
::James Walters
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Make a squirrel sculpture out of it. I've seen that happen. But ah yesterday I was walking around and I was actually revisiting a lot of the places that I worked on the book, like pictures that I took.
::James Walters
And some of those things aren't the way they... were when I photographed it like a year ago or two years ago. And a great example is I was walking along the river walk, downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, ah my hometown, but I don't live there anymore. So have to go back and visit, have to be intentional about it. But it's got this, you know, 200 some year old river front.
::James Walters
ah Just that's where the docks used to be. That's where all the stuff used to go out on ships back to England, right?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No more. Yeah. yeah
::James Walters
Yeah, so there' there's a lot of history there and there's a lot of old stuff, but and not quite as old, but there was this river walk and there was this building that has super buildings.
::James Walters
ah wood siding on it and someone you know some teenagers had carved a heart and they carved their initials into it and it was a pretty cool image for the book and i kind of crafted a story around you know who these people might have been what led up to them feeling inspired to create this you know, carving on the siding.
::James Walters
and that was in the book. And that was probably two years ago that I took that picture. Well, I went back yesterday. I cracked the book open to that page and I was just doing some videos, some B roll to make a sales trailer for this book put it down.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Mm-hmm.
::James Walters
i i got to that spot, put the book down and there were all these carvings on this wall at this point and they were in hearts and you know initials and all this stuff.
::James Walters
And I was like, okay, cool. Somebody saw the first one and got inspired. Well, come to find out the one that was in the book, it it had all been scratched out. right it's It's like they came back and they were like, yeah, we broke up. So we're erasing this from history.
::James Walters
And so now you're talking about a moment in time. I've got it where it was like real. It was pristine. It was maybe, you know, a year or two after it had ah gotten there. But now those those two people aren't together anymore.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No, and, you know, honestly, you bring up something that is just so wild, especially like I come from a place that was like 90 miles outside of New York City.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And where I grew up for a very long time, it was quiet. Even though it was like, you you know, you drive a little further down and like New York City's right there.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But as time progressed, it became more and more. overgrown, there's not enough infrastructure, and the whole entire environment like completely changed around it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
graphy of what it looked like: ::James Walters
yeah Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But then you go from like: ::James Walters
Yeah. Like what happened?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
what the fuck happened
::James Walters
hifting, and then you had the: ::James Walters
what's next and then they started building office buildings that had residents in them at least around where i live and that's uh that's the thing now so it's pretty wild
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's just, it's so wild because when you look at, um again, this is why, like, especially people like yourself is so great because when you look at the elements of photography, especially when you're putting them together and you just see like the story within time.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
People in this country in particular have kind of gravitated towards living suburb lives, you know, and still enjoying somewhat of the larger cities.
::James Walters
Yeah. yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, that's kind of why we have the interstate. There's a reason why, you know, the suburbs was kind of invented after World War II to be able to make it affordable for people to live. But that's...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
not really a case anymore. And I mean, again, like you could be an amazing photographer, but like you go to those environments, you go to those urban development areas and you take those photographs, regardless of what you take, it looks like,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The takedown of human society replaced by global corruption, you know, and the giant ass bill for the next 50 years. It's just like there's no artistic element you can add to something like I don't know any other way of explaining it.
::James Walters
Yeah. No, you're right. I've got this one part in my, so there was one ah section where I did just a really long walk on a greenway out in the suburbs.
::James Walters
And a lot of this stuff was kind of based in nature, the things you might see, for example, I was walking on the green day, greenway one of the days and i looked down and there was just this kind of almost dried mud where you could tell it had been wet maybe the day before. And now if you stepped in it, it wouldn't get on your shoe, but your shoe would still leave an imprint.
::James Walters
But I could clearly see in that little patch and it was just right on the edge of the pavement. but I could see where a bike had gone through and left a really distinct impression.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh god.
::James Walters
And then I could also see a footprint that someone had left a really distinct impression. I was like, man, that's that's really cool. That's a moment in time, but that'll be washed away the next time it rains, which is really cool.
::James Walters
And so that was kind of the nature element of some of the things I saw. But then i would see these on the backside of neighborhoods because they don't put greenways. They usually put it kind of along the river.
::James Walters
where people it' it's really the the flood zone like if the river overflows that's where it's going to come so you can't build anything there so if people are going to enjoy it let's let's just pave a walking path that seems cool okay yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, they do the same thing here in Florida. It's very, very very commonplace. I mean, pretty much any like lakefront, riverfront you go to, there's some form of a pathway.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Or people usually, they put, um i don't know what they do in Carolina, but they have a barrier.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So like they'll put like either like rocks or sand like at the very edge of their land like before it hits the lake.
::James Walters
Okay.
::James Walters
Yeah. Okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, like, so I don't, I don't, I don't really, I don't own land. don't own a house next to it. like But I totally get what you're saying though. There's like those, it's just like that. Like, what are we, what the hell are we going to do with this?
::James Walters
Yeah, well, there's also the element like these greenways kind of weave themselves through these suburban neighborhoods.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know? we
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::James Walters
And one thing I noticed one time where these retaining walls and they they were made of these really large bricks, not bricks like you'd build a house with, but big bricks, kind of like center blocks, but they're, they're made to be a little bougier look in the center blocks.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's like a sandstone color. It's not like totally like white.
::James Walters
It, Exactly. It was a sandstone color and I just looked at it and the the sun was coming off of it just right. And I was like, man, this is this is kind of the perfect metaphor for suburbia because these are all, they're all kind of the same and they're all...
::James Walters
a little bit different because they've got pretty rough texture and they're made to look kind of like a stone block wall but they're also they're all beige like that sandstone color and i was like damn if that's not the perfect you know analog for suburbia i don't know what is because it's like everything's kind of beige everything's kind of the same trying to be a little bit different but it's all homogenized to be pretty boring and welcome to suburbia yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. I mean, have you watched the show Severance by any chance?
::James Walters
No, I haven't.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I've talked about this on the, I've talked about this on the, it's an amazing show that was made with Ben Stiller and another director, but like pretty much every single scene is pretty boring, you know, like regards to like color layouts, like they're in an office, they're underground.
::James Walters
Okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's like kind of seventies ish.
::James Walters
Okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
kind of not It's kind of weird you know because like they're all driving like old K10 pickup trucks, but then they got a modern smartphone. But then they use like one of those mechanical calculators.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's one of those just shows that it's just artsy and baffling and weird and doesn't really make any sense, but it's just beautiful to watch.
::James Walters
Oh, wow.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i i love those kind of elements because you can take boring and make something fun out of it
::James Walters
Mm hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, you could take a boring like fluorescent office complex and make the floor green.
::James Walters
Yeah, right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Green. yeah Green. But it it kind of adds that element of almost like you're not a nature. Are you in nature? are You're not a nature. Are you a nature?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::James Walters
Yeah, exactly.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It fucks with you.
::James Walters
And yeah, no doubt it kind of messes with your brain.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It does. It really does.
::James Walters
and I mean, that's that's what designers do best. They very much under the surface, try to get to the things that pull your strings and either make you feel at home or not feel at home.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So good.
::James Walters
I mean, there are a lot of places where the designers intentionally create lighting that doesn't make you feel really welcome. And you don't know why at first. But it's just places they don't want you stay there.
::James Walters
And like transitional spaces in public, especially is like, ah we want to design this lighting so it doesn't really feel cozy, doesn't make you feel welcome or at home.
::James Walters
And so you move along to wherever else you need to be. And very much part of design. I love there's a there's a podcast called 99% Invisible.
::James Walters
Have you ever heard of that?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh, wow. Great name.
::James Walters
Yeah, but it's all about design and it's all about the things that designers think about that the general public would never think about, but they use those elements of design to subtly influence people's behavior.
::James Walters
And it's just fascinating. just It could be any kind of topic, ah sound design, visual design, lighting design. i mean, there are people who are experts at controlling your mind and your behavior who you're like, what kind of Jedi mind trick is this you're doing?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::James Walters
And they're just using normal physiology and human behavior, but they're just coming at it from a completely unexpected way.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think it's also very interesting where
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
not only like the psychology, but the way you have the interest intricacies of color. Greatest example is is that you you know you take like those um Japanese, i love, it's like Japanese drama series.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And it's like all of a sudden, like whenever there's an action scene, it gets dark.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, and there's like red and white and yellow. And it's just like, see you don't know, like this is getting like, and they get into like a still shot.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's not moving. It's just a still shot that you're watching and you're like feeling the buildup of action come with it.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's because like the image is the action, you know, like, you know Americans like now are like ripping off that idea. you know, like we get TV shows like invincible, which is literally that times a million.
::James Walters
Hmm.
::James Walters
Now that's cool.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Artsy fartsy.
::James Walters
I love, yeah, love the art and love the different perspectives on that and how people tell an action sequence.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Where's my light?
::James Walters
Pretty cool. Cause it's, there's a lot of complexity to it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It it's hard.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, you know, it's not like you're fucking making like a thousand piece puzzle, man. Like, i think it's a little more than that, you know?
::James Walters
Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot to it. And i I mean, as a still photographer for like a long time, i can't even wrap my mind around sequences and motion picture so i look at some of this stuff and i'm like shit how they do that like or not how they do that i can break down how they did it but it's like how they come up with that you know in the first place to put a sequence together in a way that tells a story and really i mean that's what motion pictures are is it's just
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
is genius.
::James Walters
really short clips of motion and they put them together in such a way with the angles to bring you into the story. You start wide, you go in a little closer, going a little closer. And the next thing you know, you're at the end of someone's foot in an action sequence and the camera goes black, right? Because you're knocked out.
::James Walters
So yeah, it's pretty awesome.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
there's just There's just so many pieces that come together to be able to make it a reality. And I was remember reading before, there was a ah director that made a film that had no dialogue.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It was just animals, the entire film.
::James Walters
Oh, okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And it's like, i don't know, an adventure with like a cat or something.
::James Walters
Whoa.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i if if I found the name of it, I'll i'll find it eventually. But that to me just screams, again, artsy fartsy. You know, it's like...
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Can we make a movie with no dialogue? And believe it or not, like there are movies that have no dialogue for periods. Great example is Quentin Tarantino. The amount of times that man has just.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
a
::James Walters
Lost in the Groove Podcast
and ten You know, but I again, like I think what we're trying to get at is that photography and moving film and like the written word all kind of symbiotically works together as one
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
a lot of times to make that storytelling a reality.
::James Walters
yeah
::James Walters
Yeah. And, you know, it's funny, you reminded me of something my grandfather used to say, you know, he, he came from the old days where you, you would get together with your neighbors, your family, the people in your community, and they didn't really even have radio in the beginning.
::James Walters
Right. So they certainly didn't have television yet. And you would bring ah musical instrument. Like if you had a, a fiddle, what where they called them, or if you had ah guitar or if you had whatever you could bring, tambourine, who knows, harmonica.
::James Walters
But he said, yeah, when we would get together, know, some people would be playing the music and then some people would be singing. And if you didn't sing really well, well, you made sure you played your instrument a little louder.
::James Walters
And if you didn't know how to play your instrument really well, you would sing a little bit louder. And that's kind of what you're describing with some of these movies. Like if you, If you're not great at dialogue and you don't have maybe the talent, the actors, that that kind of thing who can pull off the dialogue that you've created, well, then make those action sequences a little better. make Make the music a little louder, right?
::James Walters
Make the visuals a little more impactful. But I'll never forget one of the one of the coolest movies I ever saw. and And I was young. I was like right in college, so it would have been cool anyway. But it was called Slackers.
::James Walters
And not to be confused with Slacker, which is a completely different movie, as I come came to understand. But Slackers ah was a very low-budget film.
::James Walters
I think it was made... it was made the director went on to do a lot of really cool movies, but, uh, I think this was made like right after he got out of film school, didn't have a whole lot of backing takes place in Austin, Texas before Austin got bougie.
::James Walters
And,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and liberal and Joe Rogany.
::James Walters
ne uh, yeah, maybe was still, that could be true, but it was, it was the gritty Austin from the early nineties, late eighties.
::James Walters
And,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Wild Wild West.
::James Walters
It was so dialogue heavy. it was It's such a crazy film because the whole premise of the film is you never really follow any one of the characters for very long because you'll follow a character until they meet another character and they'll now have this insane conversation that is so off the wall.
::James Walters
you're like, how did they even think about this? And then what happens is the camera starts following the person they were talking to until they kind of wander into another interaction with someone else.
::James Walters
And then camera just follows that person along on their day or their journey or whatever's happening. And that was like, man, that's just huge.
::James Walters
Uh, just like the storytelling in that I have never seen it really since actually that I can think of in that format. But it was really cool, really impactful, but super dialogue heavy. I mean, it had some, it had some decent visuals, but it relied more on the interaction between the characters and just the holy shit factor. Like that was, that was crazy how they come up with that.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
it really It really is something special because a lot of the times what you're seeing is, especially when you're dealing with writing, it's coming from somebody else's perspective.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, somebody that either has that experience happen to them, you know, or they've either are journalists and, you know, they've traveled around and been able to gain that information.
::James Walters
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But. When those pieces are applied, you end up with somebody that not only can articulate a really great story, but it magnifies. It reaches not only like the director and the producer and everybody that's on board on crew, but also the actors that are portraying these characters told in these words.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, everything kind of almost has that echo effect to it in order for it to work.
::James Walters
Yeah. Yeah, and the, I mean, i don't know how it plays with the general audiences, with the general public, but it's like the thing I've found, especially with any kind of art, as an artist matures, what happens is their art becomes more nuanced.
::James Walters
Like the message behind it becomes more subtle because they don't have to scream, they don't have to beat it over anyone's head, but but then also they run the risk of losing part of their audience, right?
::James Walters
Because some people just aren't going to get it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I...
::James Walters
And I've seen films like that, like in some ways, Memento was like that for me. And in some way i've I've just seen films where it's like, um my gosh, that I can tell that I'm supposed to get this and understand it on a completely different level. I'm just not there yet. So I can respect it.
::James Walters
I just don't understand it quite yet. And it's...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i I totally get that, man. Oh my God.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah. I had that with the big Lebowski.
::James Walters
Dude, favorite film ever.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
For me, the Big Lebowski was the moment for... I had...
::James Walters
Yeah. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i look i was living in Israel, and at the time, like, I got introduced to Israeli hippies.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
If you ever meet these people, they're some of the cool... They're not, like, American hippies.
::James Walters
Okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They're usually people that, like, own coffee shops. They do breweries. They work, like, they live in kibbutz. you know lot of them own, like, very old vehicles, too, so it's kind of hilarious. Like, you those old boxy Volvos.
::James Walters
Those Mercedes like 240 diesel.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They're the ones... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah yeah yeah yeah um
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So I remember he was like talking to me about this. He's like, first thing he told me, he was like, you're libertarian. I said, excuse me. He's like, you're a libertarian.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And he's like, I'm going to prove it to you. i said, OK. He's like, I need you to watch The Big Lebowski.
::James Walters
oh yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I'm like, all right. He's like, you got to understand dudism. And a dead-ass series, like, we went to a friend of his, we sat down on a couch, he rolled a fat-ass joint, and there was, like, a bong on the table.
::James Walters
ha
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We watched the movie through, it was, like, 2 o'clock in the morning.
::James Walters
And it made no sense, I bet. Not damn bit sense.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Not at all.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Not at all.
::James Walters
And i was that's exactly my reaction, too. Dude, yeah. I got the dude. I got a ah record vinyl of the dude right here on my wall.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Dude!
::James Walters
Love the dude.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
good
::James Walters
But yeah, like after about the third or fourth, you're like, oh, I see what this is about, man. in ah Yeah. What? the did the what What a wandering story that was.
::James Walters
Right. And if you really think about the dude too much, the, the movie, the, the plot of it, you're like, yeah, like I see a lot of issues, but if you're just willing to be entertained, can't do better.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean... Yeah. Nope. I mean, listen, you know, through and through, the man peed on his carpet. You know? That's the moral of the story.
::James Walters
He peed on the dude's carpet.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The man peed on his card carpet, and, like, somebody's gotta be responsible to replace that shit, you know?
::James Walters
Yeah.
::James Walters
It really held the room together. It really tied the room together. Yeah, that's what it is.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
really did tie the room together!
::James Walters
Yeah, it really did.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, deadass! You know, like, the third time in, you're like... ah I kind of understand why the man's pissed off like I mean besides the fact that like his car is a piece of shit Probably hasn't showered in days and he has a man that is divorced but yet Screams the high heavens.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's fucking Shabbos Donnie. I don't drive on Shabbos.
::James Walters
right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I'm like Jesus, you know, but Honestly, when you break it down in its simplest form, i had a... We're still friends. She's a ah photographer.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And her interpretation of photography is that very essence of that. It's just...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
A random... don't know, like a picture of a building. It's, you know, like we were talking about, like just a picture of fence. You know, and you can kind of like... picture that vibe, and then when you watch a movie or film that has that kind of vibe, it's kind of those pieces come together.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think what we're not realizing is, is that before we had this, that was our social media.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's just photography and just seeing and walking around and seeing cool shit.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, we turned that into ah phone that we carry with us everywhere.
::James Walters
Yeah, which ah took the value down quite a bit.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::James Walters
Because now there's so much now I gotta I have to ask you like, this is a conspiracy talk.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Let's get into it.
::James Walters
Big Lebowski.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh, I fucking love this shit. Let's go.
::James Walters
no Okay, so you know Big Lebowski has got a lot of layers to it. And first time you watch it, you're like, that's so what the hell was that about?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
it does.
::James Walters
i don't even understand. And then the third time you watch it, you're like, oh, okay. That's kind of genius. I see where it's going. I was the exact same way with Fight Club.
::James Walters
You watch Fight Club, and the first time I watched Fight Club, I was pissed off. I was i got to the ending. was like, I'm watching this shit the whole time thinking this –
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
What the fuck? the that ending That ending is just...
::James Walters
yeah yeah i was mad i was physically like that was i want my money back i i wasted two hours of my life but like the 12th time i watched it because i was like okay this this has so many layers to it ah okay so the theory
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Why?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i've only watched it twice.
::James Walters
The theory with Fight Club is that ah we know, okay, for anyone listening or watching, like this is going to be some spoiler shit right here.
::James Walters
So maybe maybe just turn it off if you've never seen it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh yeah, like...
::James Walters
If you're interested, maybe just...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Spoiler alert!
::James Walters
you know, hit that fast forward for a second.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Ding, ding, ding, ding.
::James Walters
But the, the whole theory of fight club is that Marla never existed. She was also a figment of the narrator's imagination, just like Tyler.
::James Walters
Right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
um There was a... Wasn't there a movie by Ron Howard that had kind of the same premise?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Hold on. I think it came out: ::James Walters
So not long after.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
a beautiful mind
::James Walters
ah beauty Yeah, the exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So look like it was all a part of their imagination. So back to Lebowski, there's this theory floating around that Donnie was imaginary as well.
::James Walters
Because he if you take Donnie out of the big Lebowski, i du okay, okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
which has been done by the way, there is a, on YouTube, I remember, I don't remember the exact ah thing, but I think if you put in, there is um a way of watching like some parts of without Donnie and it's, it's kind of fucked up.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's like nothing changes.
::James Walters
And it's like nothing changes, right?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's just normal. You're like, wait, what?
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh, oh my God. Donnie was not there the whole scene and I did not even notice.
::James Walters
Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, so that that's the theory people are floating like Donnie was figment of either Walter or the dude's imagination just just sort of to be there, ah but didn't have any influence on anything.
::James Walters
that was going on in the story. So I just that was kind of fascinating because when people start really digging into movies and scratching at, okay, what was going on in the writer's minds?
::James Walters
And also, like sometimes we create art and we're not thinking about it all that deep. Like it's all these other people who are putting it on it.
::James Walters
putting all this depth to the art.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Mm-hmm.
::James Walters
And can imagine, i mean, I've had it happen myself, not much because I don't have like a movie out. Right. But i can imagine ah a writer or director, sitting down with a critic or or someone who's really thought about this too much or read too many reddit articles about it and is like yeah man we just we just thought that scene would be funny we didn't really we didn't really like relate it to the end of the world or whatever the conspiracy theory might be it uh and sometimes yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, if you want if you want to go further with this, there's a conspiracy theory regarding the the narrator.
::James Walters
oh
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The idea is is that the um the narrator is the person that concocted the whole entire story from start to finish. So like somebody was explaining to them me this like idea. It's like almost like bowling talk.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you know, of like these wild and outlandish stories. And like the narrator is kind of like the greatest example, like the Lone Ranger, you know, sitting alone by the bar, you know, talking about shit.
::James Walters
Yeah, he is.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, like people are like, obviously like stayed debunked because there's a scene where you see the dude with the narrator.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But then again, it's kind of odd where... Not only is the narrator physically shown, which is not very common in most films, by the way. like
::James Walters
Right, right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Just throwing that out to most people. Narrators are usually like behind the scene. It's kind of a little interesting in how like the narrator is somebody you physically see at a bar, and he's actually drinking.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So I kind of see that idea too, you know?
::James Walters
And he's Sam Elliott, which is super cool.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The man never ages. like I guarantee when the man is 120...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He'd be like, can I have another whiskey?
::James Walters
That's right. You have to use so many swear words, dude. He's like, fuck you talking about? ah Best stuff. Good stuff.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, it's crazy. Like, the man must be in his 80s, and he still kind of looks and acts the same. Really hasn't changed.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's just kind of just a little odd. i'm not going to lie to you.
::James Walters
He's one of those. He's one of those. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
what What's the other one?
::James Walters
got ah We got to study this. ah we got We got Sam Elliott now. We got Willie Nelson and Keith Richards, apparently, that we need to leave a better world for because they're going to outlast us all.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and Mick Jagger.
::James Walters
Yeah, he's man he's been around a minute.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's crazy. Again, like, I think, especially when you talk about. pioneers and artists and creators and you know especially when you're looking at like the indian underground scene some of these stories honestly they come from real places all right lets let's be real for a second some of these very famous people have had some of the most close to near-death experiences i mean the 70s and It was the 80s and it was the 90s, you know, and there really wasn't that much security back in those days.
::James Walters
You're right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And if the ah Chinese mafia decided that they wanted to slaughter your entire family, they didn't really have a big problem doing that.
::James Walters
Ooh.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So you get people like we were saying earlier, like Quentin Tarantino is a great example, you know, coming out there like i don't remember his first film, but his first film was also amazing. And then you got Pulp Fiction, you know, and you got Kill Bill. And it just continues on from there. You know, Once Upon a Time Hollywood.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
This is coming from a person that like. Had a video store and met some of the most craziest people alive.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You see what I mean? Like the, we were like, and you said this like the very beginning, it's like seeing the artistry and like the smallest of things, you know, it's not just like, it's the panels of wood that has the carvings on them.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, it's that footprint in the greenway, you know, as you're walking down that like, obviously is going to be gone in a few days. Like
::James Walters
Yeah, and like Tarantino's first film, i think it was Reservoir Dogs.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
that's the power.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think so, too.
::James Walters
Because, yeah, it was ah it was done on a pretty low budget, and that's why it primarily, like 90% of the movie, maybe more, takes place just in that warehouse, in that one...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It was amazing.
::James Walters
setting I mean, they start off at the bank. There's ah there's a car scene. But pretty much everything after that takes place in that warehouse. And it's really dialogue-driven.
::James Walters
It's really anticipation-driven, building up that drama and all this stuff. And then the way, it again, you know we got Steve Buscemi in there just doing his thing.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Is it Buscemi? Oh my god, we're gonna have this conversation right
::James Walters
Yeah, he's Mr. Pink.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Is it Buscemi or Buscemi?
::James Walters
He's Mr. Pink.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i always...
::James Walters
Buscemi. Oh, that's good question. I don't know. I've never, never thought about it that hard. Buscemi. Damn.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Or Buscemi. I just... ah
::James Walters
Now we're going to have to.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But he is he's He's a very... you know he's kind of like Christopher Walken. Steve. Steve.
::James Walters
Yeah. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you know the the The two type of actors... you know like If I meet Christopher Walken, want him to be like, What are you doing here? why Why are you bothering me yeah you know
::James Walters
Yeah, what?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
its Those are the type of actors that, especially when I see them in in those cult classic films... I'm like, thank you, Jesus. Seriously, thank you, Jesus. Because it's just so right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah I cannot imagine Reservoir Dogs without him.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's
::James Walters
Yeah. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
crazy. He's a legend. Fucking A.
::James Walters
Totally. I mean, he's in, you know, so Tarantino likes him. The Coen brothers obviously like him. And it's funny to see, like, let's take the Coen brothers, for example, because they recycle just like Tarantino does. I mean, Tarantino loves his ah core actors, you know, that he's been using all of his career.
::James Walters
But then you got the Coen brothers who love John Goodman, right? They love ah Steve, whichever way you pronounce his name.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We're just going to call him Steve B. Okay?
::James Walters
Yeah, Stevie B.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
For the sake of argument, Steve B. That's a
::James Walters
Right. Stevie's a man. So, you know, they used him in Fargo. They used him in a lot of their films. And, man, it's just like ah the people who – you think fit a certain type, you see them in a movie where they're not playing their type exactly. You're like, whoa, what just happened?
::James Walters
But that actually worked really well. And I think of with the Coen brothers, it it took me a couple of watches to realize that the the same dude who played Jesus Quintana in Lebowski also played one of the hillbillies.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I had to do that. I'm sorry.
::James Walters
Yeah. Oh, what did you do? I didn't see it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The tongue thing with the ball.
::James Walters
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
oh Jesus.
::James Walters
Is that nobody thought we did Jesus? That's right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
no Nobody thought about Jesus. Jesus.
::James Walters
I love that line so much. And yeah, but the the same dude who played Jesus Quintana played one of the hillbilly convicts from old brother, where art thou?
::James Walters
And he had the thickest like cornbread, sweet tea sounding Alabama accent you've ever heard. And I was like, wait, that's the same dude. And yes, it was.
::James Walters
And I was like, mind blown because well done.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I don't... was he Latino?
::James Walters
i don't, think so. I think he really had to dig deep to ah to to figure out that place to go.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I'm...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No, it's John Tortoro that played...
::James Walters
To tour.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah.
::James Walters
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I'm wrong about that.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah he He was also in Severance.
::James Walters
Oh, you what okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh my god, like, dude, these are some of the greatest actors alive.
::James Walters
Yeah, because i mean, like chameleon man, he, he was blended in so beautifully with everything he does.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Chameleons.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh my, what the fuck? Okay, he's from, originally from Brooklyn.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He's from, he's from, oh my god, what is his back?
::James Walters
Okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He's Italian.
::James Walters
He's a tight, that's what I thought. That's why I was like, I don't think he's, because I remember an interview with him, an interview with him saying like, yeah, you really had to ah figure out, well, I mean, both roles are crazy, wildly different, right?
::James Walters
When he's playing Latino, when he's playing like this Alabama, ah like, I don't know, do they have mountains in Alabama? Like Alabama, mountain man kind of stuff.
::James Walters
But anyway, it was convincing.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, like it's just it's almost like baffling because, you know, it's it's almost where you have this actor that not only delivers.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
OK, I'm going to be honest. You have those portrayals where they play in every single movie and they they're kind of the same.
::James Walters
Yeah, they do their shtick and...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Okay, you know, I respect Jim Carrey, but Jim Carrey is kind of the actor ready. Like, I see him in a movie, I just think Ace Ventura, The Mask, it's just so baked in your head.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Tom Cruise is the same example too, like he's great in Michelin Possible, but he's the same in every single movie.
::James Walters
Yeah, he's the confident, get it done, stoic kind of like, yeah, count on him.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::James Walters
going to deliver ah Matt Damon. Same deal.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Same thing. it But the thing.
::James Walters
Now I'll tell you who Oh, go ahead.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But you don't have the same thing with John Turturro. don't have the same thing with Steve Buscemi or Steve B.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Sorry, or Christopher Walken. like They become chameleons in every single role that they play. And it's just.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It is possible. It is possible for actors to play completely different characters for each movie and be completely different. And it completely works in your mind. Period.
::James Walters
Yeah, and I gotta say, I gotta give a shout out to to someone who I never thought I'd be like, wow, that dude's a great actor. And I didn't realize this until I saw one of his earliest movies, but yeah and there's few people who don't know the name Leonardo DiCaprio, right?
::James Walters
And you you expect what you're going to get from ah like Titanic, right?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Leo, oh Leo. Yeah.
::James Walters
So I never even watched Titanic, but I knew about, you know, what what he was supposed to be about, that the heartthrob and all this stuff. And then he went on to make a bunch of other movies. But it wasn't until I saw this movie where he was just a kid.
::James Walters
And it was this movie with Johnny Depp believe it or not, called What's Eating Gilbert Great.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Grape, oh.
::James Walters
do that
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That, oh my God, amazing.
::James Walters
he So Leonardo plays an autistic kid and he he's got all the ticks, he's got all the everything. And I was watching that, not even enjoying the movie because the movie's kind of sad. The movie kind of gets you pissed off pretty much for an hour and a half straight.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's heartbreaking.
::James Walters
But yeah, it really is. And but but to see his performance and to see how he took that role at that young age, I was like, dude, i he's obviously whatever he does now.
::James Walters
He's just doing what the director asked him to do, ask him to bring to it because he's got the skills.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think he's worn i think he's worn out i think is one I think the same thing like applies with a lot of these artists.
::James Walters
That could be that could be.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
like Even with Johnny Depp. They're worn out. you know there's there's There's so much that you can pour out of them.
::James Walters
Hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And I mean, take even on the creative side, you know take creators like Peter Jackson, okay? That man deserves a well-deserved break, okay?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He was able to do something that no other director in human history has ever able been able to do, to take the work of a writer that is no longer alive,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and meticulously figure out a way of bringing these movies to film. Okay, you want to agree that he kind of messed up with The Hobbit? I hear you, whatever. But I'm talking about like, especially with like The Lord of the Rings, he stood very, very true to the story.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That takes a lot of work, effort, creativity, collaboration, like really understanding what the writer was bringing to the table, especially when you're dealing with these languages that he created as well.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Someone like that, I cannot imagine him spending his whole life making 500 movies or like, you know, 300 movies.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like if his career consists of 20 or 30, I think he's achieved the most incredible thing as being Peter Jackson.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Hands down.
::James Walters
Do you think there is like a a cap, not a cap necessarily, but you do you think everyone kind of like that stupid saying that people say you only have a certain number of heartbeats in your life, right? And you may as well live it up.
::James Walters
You think that's that way for creativity? You think like the you dip into the well and the well's pretty full when you're young. And then maybe maybe it dries up a little while and then you get a little older, you get a little more wisdom and you're like, let's go.
::James Walters
get a second win. But do you think and if people just run too hard, kind of like you were mentioning with the actors, that the the well dries up after a while and it's like you can't go back?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think it's all in your hands, honestly. And I think the greatest example, you know, you want to talk about white privilege, speak up but you got Betty White, which I mean, she lived until I think 99 or almost 99.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think she'd passed away 98. But her example of you can live a creative life throughout your life, even when you get get older. Like she did do TeeBee performances because she wanted to do that, regardless of her age.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
She loved taking care of animals and took it upon herself to do more for that, even though she was older. know And I can even home even more, like for example, with like even my own grandmother. My own grandmother is 87. My grandfather passed away few months, I think a month or two ago.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But she is a very strong woman where she was an aquatics director for many, many years. She likes to be a social person. People love her. People love being there for her.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And she is a very creative and meticulous person. In the very essence. So I think you're right. It does dry up as you get older. But I think as you get older, you can accept that and realize your limitations and still continue on. You know, if you want, like, the greatest example of that is take Jim Carrey and Cher.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think Jim Carrey is the greatest example of, like, he's in his 60s. He's successful. He doesn't give a fuck.
::James Walters
No.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He doesn't care.
::James Walters
He's done.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He's done.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He's like, you want to interview me? Go ahead. Go ahead. I'll interview I'll tell you all the problems right now. And it's bananas. Like the comment section is just insane. And it's like, this is an example of what happens to somebody. It's like, you know what? I want to be creative, but screw you.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Leave me alone.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like I live my life. Let me be who I want to be and continue on with that. Like, I think... There maybe are many ways, but I think that is the most successful way if you want to be an artist for the rest of your life.
::James Walters
And you bring up a good point that makes me think, OK, maybe there's not a finite amount of creativity, but there is a necessity to keep reinventing.
::James Walters
Because like you said about Betty White, you got a person who had a really great career and she played on TV. When she was young, she obviously had really different roles from when she hit Golden Girls. And then Golden Girls, you know, skyrocket success. And for a lot of people, that was their first experience, certainly for me, oh who the heck is Betty White?
::James Walters
She's this old older lady who plays, you know, with with these other older ladies and they live in Florida and they're having a great time. But there's a whole generation before me that knew her is something completely different.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
She was before Lucille Ball.
::James Walters
Yeah, I mean...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
This is the this is the craziest part is like Betty White was on television well before. Well before Lucille Ball.
::James Walters
wow
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And mean, interesting enough, like Betty talk about like her relationship with Lucille Ball. you know But the hilarious part is, like especially for people my age and older, we remember Lucy more than we remember Betty.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
remember Betty more of like 80s, but we don't really remember the Betty from the and 60s.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
also when she was on the Mary Tyler Moore show. you know I'm like one of those people like, I remember that shit.
::James Walters
Oh.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you know She played that nasty bitch.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
She plays a really good nasty bitch. I'll tell you that right now.
::James Walters
yeah that i don't even I watched the Mary Tyler Moore show. like It would come on after school a little bit, but I never really paid too much attention to who was on it. I was more into Ginger and Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island, so I was paying attention to that.
::James Walters
Okay.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think, though, shows like the Mary Tyler Moore show are honestly groundbreaking because if you take that show now, it's not like saying that, oh, my God, women should be single forever.
::James Walters
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
What it's showcasing is what it's like to be a single woman working in an office in the nineteen seventy s It's like almost like um a time portal.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
n a television station in the: ::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and It's completely fiction, but like yeah and it's kind of it's kind of what it is.
::James Walters
Yeah. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's crazy.
::James Walters
Yeah. I love those shows from that era are a ton of fun. You think about all the the crazy shows that were going on, like Laverne and Shirley, you got, yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Happy days. Yeah, Laverne was and Shirley. Oh my god.
::James Walters
You got Mork and Mindy. I mean, how crazy is that? or Or even crazier, ah you know, talk about groundbreaking.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Love boat.
::James Walters
I can't work can't even talk right now. Groundbreaking. You've got Three's Company, where it's these two women living with this guy so they could split rent.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Mm-hmm.
::James Walters
But the ruse was he had to pretend he was gay the whole time because, know, the landlord wouldn't let them live together otherwise, right? So ah the whole time he was hitting on the two girls and all their friends, but yeah that was hysterical.
::James Walters
But then you got stuff like All in the Family that the underlying...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
The Jeffers or the Jeffersons.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::James Walters
And the Jefferson sprang out of that, which was huge.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh,
::James Walters
I mean, just talking about all the and racial stuff that they covered in those under the guise of comedy and what kind of conversations they probably brought to dinner tables.
::James Walters
Right. it Maybe. I know probably not where I live in the South, but probably a lot of other places. ah Yeah. was just so much fun. And yeah,
::James Walters
Good times did the same thing. There were a lot of shows that were similar to that. And they just allowed, they came into people's homes. They allow people to see, even if it was fictional, even if it was supposed to be funny, it allowed people to see, okay, how other people might relate to life, how other families might be operating.
::James Walters
And it was ah really good peak. And you know what? I hadn't thought about this, but yeah, what's your opinion? I don't think there's that kind of diversity in television right now. There's a lot of crazy stuff, but it's, it's not quite that diversity that we had back in those days.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No, I mean, there's a lot of, I'm not going to lie, there's a lot of great TV shows that are out these days. I mean, one thing that's kind of killing it more than anything else is long movie format TV shows, which is kind of what Severance is, which are excellent.
::James Walters
Oh yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, it is a little annoying. You got to wait like for season to season, but it's OK. You know, you get like hour long, like almost movies, and then you can kind of continue on and watch them.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But i think the issue is is that there was an era where things didn't have to be perfect. You know, it you kind of knew it was a set.
::James Walters
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, obviously, like, Cheers is a great example. I mean, they literally were in the same freaking bar every single time.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And, like, they seemed to be miserable and not be able to pay rent, even though the place is constantly busy. Like, there's just so many things just don't make any sense. But the idea is you're watching something as, like,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, just to like relax or unwind, like keep in mind back in the day, people just had a television around. Some people just put things on for noise. You know, people just used to sit down and just like, I don't know, start thinking on their coffee table or something.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We exist in a world where everything is so mobile, you know, and it's not that we have short extension ah attention spans.
::James Walters
yeah yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think what it is is that we have attention spans. It's like the second we get hooked into something, we want more. We want more and more and more and just more. and Again, that's I kind of think where we're kind of headed is just that is our past.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Our future is
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You hope that like comedy has a better future, especially like with. You get here and there, but honestly, like it hasn't had a peak in a long ass time.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Long time.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i mean, there's sitcoms with it im go be honest a lot of them are really bad. The last really good one was like the Big Bang Theory. And that was OK at towards the end.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::James Walters
Yeah. it I gotta say, man, I, I feel like, and I don't know, i don't know what's real anymore in a lot of cases, but I've,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
What's AI? Oh.
::James Walters
Well, not not even that, but I mean, what's what's real in the public mood? Because it felt like for a while there, a lot of writers were, or a lot of performers were afraid to perform certain things, especially comedians, because comedians are supposed to just hold up a mirror to society and be like, you guys are ridiculous. You're whack.
::James Walters
And...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You're stupid.
::James Walters
e they said something back in: ::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's really i want to hit on this, too, because what you're bringing up is so important. You have like people like Robbie Robert Downey Jr. that it was in a movie called Tropic Thunder, OK, where he clearly does blackface.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And I and you have now where he's a part of this whole like franchise and infrastructure of Disney and Marvel.
::James Walters
Oh, I didn't see that. Okay.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And he not only becomes like this woke pillar, but he becomes like this liberal political like statesman, even though he's an actor and plays action movies. I'm like, what the hell are you doing, man?
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, it's like the polar opposite direction. I'm not saying what a person is supposed to be doing. I mean, like. You're an actor. You know, you're a creative person. You know, like, do you see a bunch of artists, critics, like being your judge?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Can you imagine, like, you have a court case and person that's going to decide if you're going prison is an art critic that's at Le Mans, that's down the block. I don't think that's going to work, man.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you know?
::James Walters
Yeah. No, that's actually kind of a cool concept, though. But no, you're right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
true.
::James Walters
You're right. Like ah so many people want to get their own personal validation from something external.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
o
::James Walters
Right. And so for some people, that is ah a certain brand. Some people, that is a certain celebrity. I'm going to do whatever they do. But. got to realize that people who are in that world every they're pretty insulated and they're pretty insulated from the problems that you and i probably have in a lot of ways now they they have their own set of problems that i would never want you know i like to be able to walk outside of my house and there's no one there with a camera i mean 100 of the time
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you
::James Walters
no one's there with a camera and I can rely on that. And i can walk down the street with my kids and I can 100% guarantee no one's gonna be pointing camera at me. but also all of the other things that come with that life is sometimes people in the general public kind of expect too much from those that they look up to.
::James Walters
Like they expect the answers and those people are just doing what they can do as well.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
to survive yeah
::James Walters
They, they didn't hit, they didn't go sit on a mountaintop and get wisdom just because they've been in a couple of successful movies. They probably have the luxury being,
::James Walters
of sitting back and and thinking about things when they're not in production, when they're not on a set, because when they're in production, it's brutal. It's just like one thing after another, but then they have, yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
in retakes and reshoots yeah there's a lot of people lot of pieces
::James Walters
And then, Then they have a couple months off. In those couple months, they're probably getting ready for the next thing. They're probably going on some insane workout routine, some insane diet. They're growing their hair, they're cutting their hair, whatever they have to do to be the next thing they have to be.
::James Walters
But again, maybe there's some discipline to that that the general public can get some information from. But ne that might not be who to vote for. That might not be who to, you know, what kind of diet to follow whatever it might be because their goals are really different from a lot of other people's goals and it's it's something that i see keep coming up and it's always been that way i mean it's all that's why
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They are, yeah. yeah
::James Walters
the yeah before the television media, it was the magazines, right? Whatever, whoever was on the cover of the magazine was the person that you looked up to.
::James Walters
And then it became politicians until people realized that that's not the way to go. And then it became people in media, people on television, people in the movies.
::James Walters
And we've seen how that's gone, man. oh I mean, Everybody who grew up in the 80s loved the Cosby show, right? And I don't know if you can talk about that too much anymore. It's like, oh, yeah, he was such a role model.
::James Walters
Okay. How'd that play out ah in real life? I mean, on on television, it looked pretty cool. But in real life, didn't go so well.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
it it ah it and the re you and the reality is this when you and when you're dealing with people like this especially on such a high level you're right i mean in the end of the day they are human beings just like us and i think what we are seeing now more than ever and especially like i've been able to talk with filmmakers and especially within the indie world we are You have independent filmmakers or directors or creative directors and creative advisors and people that come together, even sometimes with famous people.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, you know, ah we were i was talking about this in the other um episode.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
There was a movie that substance that came up that had ah Demi Moore that was that was starred in the film. And it has nothing to do about celebrity status. It has to do where you have somebody that already has a creative mind and perspective.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They have real life things that are going on and they're able to interact with the story that works for them. That's pretty much what it is. You know, in the end of day, it's like these are not role models.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
These are artists. These are creative people that are just portraying and telling stories through and through the same idea when you like again, when you're looking at certain photography or when things are kind of changed or you can't.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Do that in real life, like with your physical eyes, you know, a person doesn't physically look like that.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That's all done with lenses and trickery of lights and imagery. You know, we're dealing with things that are not supposed to be real. It's the same thing with movies. It's like, guys, movies don't have to be real. There could be racism in movies, okay? They could say faggot and tranny or dyke.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I don't give a shit. It's a movie. Who cares?
::James Walters
It's a movie. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Who cares? Like, is it real?
::James Walters
and
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, is the freaking guy with the gun coming out of the movie and killing you? no
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So let him say motherfucker.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
What's the problem?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know?
::James Walters
And movies are are meant to entertain.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yes
::James Walters
Sometimes movies, if they choose this, are meant to thought-provoking, which is always kind of fun. And so often when they are, there's that subtle underlying message that you may not catch until a couple of days later.
::James Walters
I've had those movies where... I watched it and i was like, okay, that was cool. And then two or three days later, I found myself thinking about part of the movie that either didn't make sense or was like, huh, well what was that all about? And then I realized, oh wow, that that was a subtle little undercurrent of a message that If whether they were intentional about it or not, it's a message I picked up on enough to be thinking about it a few days later.
::James Walters
So that's if if people get triggered, it's probably a good thing on the artist. I mean, unless they're just trying to be blatant about it, then I think people would call that maybe something like pornography. Right. If they're just shouting out racial stuff to be provocative.
::James Walters
But if it's to be thought provoking or if it lends itself to the story, because those people in that situation will really do that.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::James Walters
What was wrong with that? It's it's encapsulated.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I...
::James Walters
It's its own little world, you know?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
100%. I know. And the thing, again, is like the same thing I do with comedy, okay? think what made great comedy films was that raw element to them.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
t... Jesus try making that in: ::James Walters
Yeah, or what, Sausage Party? Or half of the South Park movies?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
um American pie is a great example try making American pine good luck but Again, would still watch these movies.
::James Walters
Right. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Okay. Am I gonna do this stuff that goes on an American pie? No, I'm not a slut. Okay But I still find it an enjoyable movie. It's the same idea with like American Psycho. It's like, am I going to go out and like start killing people?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No, it's a movie like a psychological thriller the same way. Like pete I like reading psychological thrillers. I think they're really great books. It gets you in that first person mindset of a psychopath.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That's the idea. It's like you start reading the story. It's like, oh very nice. And then I like slammed her with a sledgehammer. Whoa, you did what?
::James Walters
Yeah, left turn. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You did what? You know what I mean? So... Those are great stories. And again, we got to just get our heads out of this.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I feel like a lot of artists are suffering because of this. I feel like a lot of people are finding like depression and anxiety because you can't Express yourself if you're creatively like you say the wrong thing on a podcast and you're you know, you're canceled because you're not LGBTQ friendly like oh you're too conservative or oh like you're too left link like leftly left that that left wing leaning It's like guys, you know, we're all creative.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We all like like we've been talking about we you all love the same kind of shit like what are we doing here, man like we gotta be able to sport support artists across that chart.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That even means a marketing director.
::James Walters
Yeah. And, you know, free speech is ah is pretty cool until someone feels like they've been victimized by it, right?
::James Walters
And the key word there is feels because, you know, being something, having something done to you, those are real things. But feeling like...
::James Walters
that was done to you may or and may not be real, right? And so it seems like there's a big discrepancy nowadays with what things feel like and what things actually are when I hear a lot of the comments, when I see some of the YouTube videos where people are reacting to a certain artist or they're reacting to a certain ah actor who maybe said something in an interview that caught the attention of
::James Walters
one of the news, whichever left or right fits their agenda. And they latch onto that and they maybe slice it up in editing. So it sounds pretty triggering to a group that feels marginalized or may actually truly be marginalized. Yeah.
::James Walters
Because there's data about a lot of that stuff. But there's no data on your feelings, typically. So that that's where it gets really mushy. and comedians are supposed to be able to just say the craziest shit ever and make you laugh.
::James Walters
But then also, if they're good at what they do, they make you think. like George Carlin was really good at that.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh my God.
::James Walters
Yeah, he was so good at that. And you were like, whoa, that dude's kind of raunchy. But also, he's not far off from being right about that.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
No, is especially like his like prediction before nine eleven It's so funny, but it's kind of scary at the same time. You know which bit?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you know what I'm talking about?
::James Walters
No, I don't. No.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He's he was talking about, um you know, if you're a white person, you can walk through security with a machete. I have to find the clip, but um it was hilarious because he was like kind of making fun of like security where you can walk in with like a razor blade.
::James Walters
yeah yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You can make a bomb. And he's just like going on and explaining it. And again, like this is pre... And everybody's kind of like laughing. Ha, ha, ha. This is like kind of funny. But then to see it again afterwards, you're like, damn, was was he onto to something?
::James Walters
yeah did he come from the future to tell us about things that's pretty
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I wish he was ah he was old when he passed away, but honestly, like, that man had just—he had that moment, and it's so true. There are comedians where they just get to a moment—like, great examples, like also Bert Kreischer.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Fuck it. This is what I do.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, like, Bert Christchurch, obvious thing is, like, he doesn't wear a shirt on stage, you know, and then the venue doesn't allow him not to wear a shirt.
::James Walters
Right. Yeah. like Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He's like, screw you. I'm not coming here. Like, i like my whole thing is I take off my z shirt.
::James Walters
hey Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, that's the deal.
::James Walters
That's his deal. Like Richard, Richard Pryor was like that too. Back in the day, like way back in the day he was.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think it was like he had to say motherfucker or i don't know there was like a whole there's like something he had to say like some like nasty slur But he's they get that that that is the I feel like the true definition of artistry and you know comedy and It's not supposed to be I'm gonna say this again.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's not supposed to be real like people like get out of your thick skin like
::James Walters
Yeah.
::James Walters
And people, it feels like a lot of people, when I see the comments, of course, those are the people who just ah didn't just think something. They had to go and express themselves. And and that's okay.
::James Walters
I think people expressing themselves is great.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Mm-hmm.
::James Walters
Tell us how you feel. We may or may not care. It may not relate to us. It might. It might give us something to think about. But... it's like people are trying to figure things out in real time and that's how we all have to process, but maybe just don't,
::James Walters
don't say things until you've processed. You know what I mean? And I've seen processing happening in real time. You just mentioned 9-11 and I'll never forget. I talk about this when I'm teaching photography too because i I photograph people a lot.
::James Walters
And when you photograph people, you're less of a photographer and you're more of a coach ah in terms of getting that person comfortable if you want them to be comfortable.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You have to date almost direct them, you know, to get that that position.
::James Walters
If you don't, yeah, it's... Exactly.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::James Walters
It's like a director. And, but, but a photograph of a person is, is about lighting. It's about those lens you select. It's about what background, all those things are, are fantastic, but more so it's about body language.
::James Walters
It's about connection with that person to the camera. And I was in New York the month after nine 11, I was there for some work and the, the stuff was still going on. They were still had, you know, all the heavy equipment trying to clear the site. There was still smoke coming up from parts of the site and there were all these barriers around and there were these notes that people are written on them and they had them.
::James Walters
It was like chain link, but they had it covered so you couldn't really see, but you could kind of you could kind of see over of what was going on in the site. But the point I tell all my ah photography students when I teach you know,
::James Walters
there were people lined up all the way down that fence outside of the site and even across the street. And they were, for whatever reason, they felt the need to be a part of that moment in time and get their photo taken in front of that site to kind of prove to themselves in the world they were there.
::James Walters
But what noticed And okay, that's that's one thing. But what I noticed about these people is they didn't know how to act when they were doing that. they Part of them wanted to be part of that moment in time. Not not that it was a happy part of history, but it's just that they were there in that part of history.
::James Walters
And so they felt the need to prove it with a photo, right? But at the same time, They knew this was not Disney World and it was not a smiley photo. They knew it, they didn't wanna really seem mad or sad or cry when they're looking at the camera.
::James Walters
So they literally didn't know how to act And I watched this happen over and over because it's my job to observe things, to observe people. And I just sat back and I watched this happen for like an hour. People, tourists would come by and they would try to get that photo and they they would try a couple of different times to be like, oh yeah, that that one doesn't look good. That one's too happy. That one's too this or that.
::James Walters
And it's informed. I mean, that was 24 years ago, right? So it's informed so much of what I think about when I am talking to people, when I'm working with people and just understanding and being empathetic to the fact that people are working out shit in real time. They sometimes don't even know how to think about it or act.
::James Walters
um react to it and that's what we see a lot is people getting triggered people getting their feelings hurt people people feeling like a victim when they're they're really they're doing fine uh they're just they've been offended and they don't like what the other person's saying and they have to figure out a way to deal with it so i don't know that's um i i have compassion for those people because they're figuring their shit out.
::James Walters
But at the same time, I don't have much tolerance for like entertaining it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They are.
::James Walters
Like I'll, I'll listen to it. I'll have some compassion, but like if, if they're like, Oh no, this person should be canceled because they said something that offended someone else. I'm like, you know, it's good to be offended every once in a while. It's, it helps you check in with yourself, what your values are. Right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I feel.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I feel you in in a way that honestly, you know, you take people like even, for example, like, you know, been talking about people like this entire episode, like even like J.K. Rowling.
::James Walters
Oh yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
OK.
::James Walters
oh yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I consider myself a part of the LGBT community and. i don't find her to be transphobic or offensive in any any shape or form.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, people can say, well, that's my personal opinion. I mean, the end of the day, she wrote some really great literature that I think most of us can agree we all like and enjoy. Now, I spent my childhood reading her series and being very engulfed and like having conversations, so like eventually like meeting people who are also interested.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So that to me is her legacy. And I respect her as a writer for what she's done. i think the end of the day is like people are going to be people. regardless of all the shit that's going on.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's like, if we figure out a way of like, oh, well, this artist can't make stuff because they've done this and this. It's like, just stop.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Just, just stop. You know what? Like people are like, well, Quentin Tarantino can continue making his shit because he's been doing this for years. He can continue doing this shit because he's really good at it. Okay.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And people don't give a shit that there's nudity in his films and there's like blood and gore and like,
::James Walters
Lots of feet.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
ah Lots of so much.
::James Walters
So many, so many fucking feet.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So many feet.
::James Walters
Jesus. I can't.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I feel bad for his wife, but maybe she enjoys it
::James Walters
Not a, not a foot person, man. Yeah. Maybe.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
who
::James Walters
Uh, Man, but no, I hear you because everybody's perspective, and I love talking about perspective because everybody's got one and it's they don't always line up.
::James Walters
And that's totally okay until someone is truly getting hurt by it. Then it's a problem. But I...
::James Walters
i ah I don't know how how much more time you want to spend because I i had some crazy stuff going on yesterday that kind of.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh, we we can, if you've got time, we we can keep going.
::James Walters
OK, I OK, total rabbit hole. But yesterday I went back down. i told you I went back down to Wilmington. I was doing some videos, some B-roll for this.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
no North Carolina?
::James Walters
Yeah, North Carolina.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Okay, yeah, okay.
::James Walters
So it's a port city. It's ah on the west side of town. It's a got a river. ah You know, it was very active couple hundred years ago in the colonies, all that good stuff.
::James Walters
But on the east side, it's yeah, it's got a beach.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
All that jazz.
::James Walters
d house. it's It was built in: ::James Walters
And being in Wilmington, the person who had the house, they had enslaved people working at the house. is This is huge mansion. It's four floors. It's got the huge columns. It's it's amazing looking.
::James Walters
But to know that it was built by people who were enslaved is kind of like, wow, thats that seems like that's just not objectively not a good thing, right?
::James Walters
gs about her. She was born in: ::James Walters
, she died: ::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So she saw the Civil War, World War one and World War two
::James Walters
ese coastal towns back in the: ::James Walters
And in round: ::James Walters
right there next to the river and the marshes. So they vacated the house as did most of all the rich people in downtown. And then it was that same year that one of the forts fell ah and basically the union clean house and the union came into downtown, took over all the rich people's houses as their headquarters.
::James Walters
And so these people essentially lost their property and they lost the rights. The government took over their property. I'm saying all this to say that eventually the family got their property back. They had to write a letter to the government saying, okay, sure, we we acknowledge the United States of America as the real government and blah, blah, blah and They got their property back.
::James Walters
she lived in the house until: ::Lost in the Groove Podcast
She had a memoir.
::James Walters
wait it's It's like this thick, it's maybe 45 pages. And so it mostly as I flip through it, um because I just got it yesterday, it's mostly like maps of where the house started and how the city took over parts of the lot and all these things. So it's it's not really interesting. It's not a narrative as far as I can tell.
::James Walters
It's got a lot of dates. But what someone told me that I really want to corroborate is, and I don't know why I want to co corroborate it, it's just I'm fascinated, but they said that she never accepted the United States as a country.
::James Walters
n, we're talking, she died in: ::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Well established. Yeah.
::James Walters
But to be 93 years old, having lived through you know a government seizing all of your property, and then getting all of that property back and enjoying the fruits of, i guess, your the fruits of the labor of people who were oppressed because the next generation up, ah you know, made some interesting, not so great decisions for those folks.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Mm-hmm.
::James Walters
But then to kind of harbor that for the next however many decades, is something I've never really run up against in my brain. So I had to, wanna find out if that's real because then i would just be like, whoa, like i that's a whole new perspective that I didn't know could exist.
::James Walters
I'll put it that way.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
d of forward back to like the: ::Lost in the Groove Podcast
ah
::James Walters
Oh, the abolition, the, the emancipation.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
ah yeah the end The end of slavery. Yeah.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
So you end up in this situation where people like to hold on to the past and the idea of the past, even though that we live in the present.
::James Walters
Yeah. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You know, it's this like idea of like, we can't make a comedy slave movie because that would be racist.
::James Walters
Oh,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I'm just like,
::James Walters
And because Mel Brooks isn't probably up for it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Probably not.
::James Walters
He would be the guy. He'd be the guy, though.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
He would be he he would be the guy. I mean if you got Chris Brown and Chris Rock And JLo you need JLo
::James Walters
Oh, gosh. Well, because he's Mel Brooks, he would start with the Jews in Egypt. He would start historically, I would think, because, yeah, he would go that he'd go the Egyptian pyramid angle and then work up to the present.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
If he's going that Steve B's got to be in there, okay,
::James Walters
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. But no, that's that's a tongue in cheek, but you're right. Like, that would not be something that our current society, yeah even me, I mean, I i would be like, oh okay, somebody will probably watch that movie. But I'm pretty i'm pretty ah picky with like what I put in my brain.
::James Walters
And so i want to make sure it's either thought provoking or it really pisses me off so that I can toy around with it, um, in, in my brain and make sure that whatever comes out is going to be good for the people around me, the people, you know, the ripple effect that's to have in the world. But you're right.
::James Walters
Like a lot of people wouldn't be ready for that, but it could have happened in the seventies and eighties though. Like we when you're talking about but the, um, There was a lot racially suspicious stuff that was going around. The blaxploitation, shaft and dolomite. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
A lot of erotica.
::James Walters
solaite
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, there was tons.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and Again, like, a lot of people... Especially, again, I think we were touching on this earlier, it's like, when you mix that... This idea of like you can only be conservative and you can only be liberal. You can't be in between and have like mixture of ideas.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And this idea of where, you know, if you're supposedly like more faithful or religious, quote unquote, you know, you can't have this kind of erotica in films and movie.
::James Walters
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And I'm like one of those kind of people's like, man We're all adults, okay? I sometimes, like, if I'm watching a movie and is like, burlesque scene going on, bring me those damn fat titties, okay?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, and it's, again, it's just the art of creativity and entertainment. That's just, you know, the general way of sometimes being able to make those avant-garde films or just being able to express yourself as an artist.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I just feel like whenever we mix our just like religious beliefs and our like fucking political mindset and garbage into films, you end up like, don't even want to mention this is like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves that recently came out. Like that's what happens to movies if we take all of our shit and shove it on creators.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That's what happens. Okay. I'll be honest. I think like if we don't veer off into the other direction, which again, I feel like the independent film industries right now doing a lot better than the mainstream.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
people are just not going to be interested. You know, you're just making, especially even kids like, come on, man. Like we both know, like growing up as a kid, being able to like find those movies that like inspired you and like you connected with, you're like, holy shit.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Imagine the poor kids now, like look at the garbage that they have available.
::James Walters
Yeah. Seeing the same Marvel movie over and over again with different and scenarios.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like,
::James Walters
Right. ah Yeah. There's only so much of that I can take.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
it, Right? And i like I'll be honest with you. like You talk to these kids seriously. like I guarantee you they feel the same way that we do.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Okay? Like they have to, all right. They're like so engulfed in technology and like have so much at their fingertips. Why on earth would they be interested in being entertained by like the bullshit they hear their parents watching or dealing with?
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They're like, like this sucks, man.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, you know, like we need another big Lebowski. Like, and again, it's like kind of where like dude culture came from in the nineties. That's kind of where a lot of those films came from. Like, They're not supposed to make sense.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They're just supposed to be fun.
::James Walters
Right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's just a fun...
::James Walters
They don't all, yeah, they don't get all wrapped up at the end like you would hope for.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah
::James Walters
ah Some of them do, but yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i miss that shit, man.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
i like There has been some hits. like I was talking earlier, Burt Kreischer did come out with that comedy film last year, which was... ah that was good.
::James Walters
I gotta check that. haven't seen it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It was so good. it was it brings you back. like That movie was only made because Bert Kreischer decided to make it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We need that, man.
::James Walters
Right on.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We really do. we we need that creativity back.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and like I think they and think especially you is a great example of this. it's like It does exist. we We are real. We're out there.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You just... You can find us, you know, you can find us.
::James Walters
If you go looking, you have to go looking.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
We've got websites, we get social media. Like, it's just, I feel like it's it's a slow progress. Like, eventually, it's going to start picking up where the underground is going to become the mainstream.
::James Walters
Mm-hmm.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
There's gonna be that 180 degree flip when that's gonna happen. I don't know but i feel that we just have to be prepared that that is the direction that we're going It's because people want truth. They want honesty. They want real creativity. They want real photography. They want real writing. They want real stories They want real fucking movies where actors are okay with doing blackface even if they're Steve B Okay Hands down
::James Walters
Well, you know, that's interesting. I think it's going to get even more accelerated pretty soon because people are going to especially.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Oh, yeah.
::James Walters
Well, I don't know if kids will because kids won't know the difference like you and i we grew up on a lot of that real stuff and you don't know what's real anymore with all the AI stuff. You don't know what video clips real. You don't know what news clip is real.
::James Walters
You don't know. um it's almost all going to be viewed suspiciously by those of us who knew difference long ago.
::James Walters
But also, we we recognize that this stuff's getting good enough to fool us. So, okay, do we move forward in our history, in our lives, just knowing that everything...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Thank you.
::James Walters
could be completely the matrix and just being pulled over our eyes, right? Or whereas like my kids, that's how they're growing up. And so it is real to them is he because it's the only thing they've ever known.
::James Walters
But everything's so damn polished now. It's like getting back to making something gritty or bringing something gritty that really reflects human nature back to people.
::James Walters
is at some point gonna be welcome and probably demanded because it's gonna be rewarded.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Thank you.
::James Walters
i think maybe not by the mainstream, because the mainstream doesn't tend to reward you know people holding a mirror up to them, right? But the people who want to keep it real, those are the folks who are going to start demanding, hey, we want to know this is real. We want to know that this was written by a person with actual experiences and emotions and things that I could maybe relate to.
::James Walters
so yeah, I
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
s, I think what the: ::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But again, this has given underground artists, particular filmmakers, the ability to create films, especially even using real-world settings, for you know a lot better budgets than a lot of the mainstream are doing.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And I mean, they're using a lot of CGI. So, you know, it's like... If you don't catch up, the other one's going to beat you.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's kind of like the end game. It's not where you have two industries that are fighting against each other. You have two different engines, right? I like that. Engines that are both helping operate two different types of applications.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
One that is solely focused on money, marketing, and consumers. Whereas the other one is more focused on branding, collaboration, and artistic vision. Like how can we ah as a community get this thing out there and get this made? Like, how can we get this to this film?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And i that's the same idea of like film festivals. Like you go to a film festival,
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
to be a part of that. And the cool thing a lot of times with film festivals, you get people ah to meet the people that actually were in the films. So you get to actually talk to the actors and like you have those like burning questions after watching, like oh, hey, hey, can I ask you?
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
like Oh, sure, sure. you get that out there, you're like, oh, you don't get that sometimes.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And I'm like, oh, I love those moments. I love them.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They're amazing.
::James Walters
No, it's, uh, times are changing, but that's cool. Times are always a changing
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Great Bob Dylan song.
::James Walters
and That's a great thing about time. It just keeps floating on. If you're here to be part of it, then cool. Just saddle up, right? Just get ready because it can change for the better for a lot of people. And that's not going to be better for ah certain group of people. it's It's never going to be different. So just get in where you fit in, right?
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Find your niche. and No, fight find your jive.
::James Walters
Yeah. it
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Wanted to use that for a while. Okay.
::James Walters
I like it. I like it, man. That's cool. has been fun talk.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
yeah It has been, man. ah James, the biggest question out there is where can this one these wonderful people find your um art, your socials, um that magic place where they can find your cool shit?
::James Walters
Yeah. Yeah, everything happens for me through my website, which is easy. JamesWalters.com. and all the socials are there, all the stuff, yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Yeah.
::James Walters
All the pics.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
All the pictures. Like you have, um I think, yeah, you do. You have a whole catalog of all the pictures and stuff that you've worked on.
::James Walters
Yeah, the like that one has a lot of the, I love to do environmental portraits, which is basically people in their world.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
on
::James Walters
You know, if if they, they're a race car driver. want to get them, you know, around that world. I don't have any race car drivers on there. That was a long time ago that I did that kind of work, but, uh, no, what's on there now is a lot of creative entrepreneurs.
::James Walters
I work with a lot of people who just are great at what they do and I like to show them immersed in their world. So that's part of what's on there. It's a little bit about me. It's going to have some of the stuff about the books. Um, that's coming out this week on, uh,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
That would be a joyful rebellion.
::James Walters
Well, that's the podcast. So I do a podcast every week called The Joyful Rebellion. it's The whole theme of that is about that time in people's lives where they've kind of checked all the boxes. They are outwardly successful.
::James Walters
They've um maybe done the work to get that degree or that job or that spouse, that family. and did all the things that people told them to do to make them happy and successful. And they look around they're like, man, I'm not feeling it.
::James Walters
Right. And so the joyful rebellion part is where they have to figure out, okay, what's next? What am I going to do to live a life that I love to feel like I'm writing the script to my own movie, like to put it in what we've been talking about here.
::James Walters
So I like to talk to people who have been through that process.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::James Walters
And I talked to a lot of people who now that they've been through that process, they help other people through that process too. And that's been really fascinating having all those conversations and every week just talking to somebody about a completely different topic.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I think that's amazing. And again, like that's kind of the joy, especially when it comes to podcasting, right? You get to interact with different stories, you know, different people from different places and it can just go on and on and on.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And it's just, especially when you're a photographer, you know, you can kind of almost like picture yourself in that setting, you know, like where they are or like what's going on.
::James Walters
Totally. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And I think it's incredible. It's amazing.
::James Walters
That's the cool thing about it.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Uh,
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
you You said you had a book, though, that was coming out. What is the name of the new book that's coming out?
::James Walters
Yeah, it's called Meditations of the Mundane and it's a black and white coffee table size book. So it's pretty large book, ah black and white photos.
::James Walters
Every photo has a complimentary story on the other page that's written from the perspective of whatever object it is that's in that image.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Ooh.
::James Walters
It could be simple as a hair tie, like a, you know, you hold a ponytail with or yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah, I see that. Or a dishwasher. yeah, Oh, wow. Or like um a port-a-potty. That is.
::James Walters
Yeah, so those porta-potties are judgy because they're out in the suburbs and they get to see all the soccer moms all day long and how they raise their kids.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
a a i like that.
::James Walters
So they're pretty judgy porta-potties.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, and also, like, especially, like, with that brickwork, you know, like, the brick, and then, you know, you have the rocks, you know, the separation.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::James Walters
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Damn, man. Like, wow! Okay, this is...
::James Walters
That brick was...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
and
::James Walters
That brick was pissed because it was like, ah it was a sidewalk. It it was made around the 40s. And of course, all these stories I made up, they're from my imagination, right? But they're from the perspective of that thing.
::James Walters
So I got to use a lot of different perspectives in the writing of the book. And that was a blast. So that was a creative part for me. Not so much the pictures, but the the writing for sure.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You need, I'm not saying obviously like uni, but I'm just like throwing this idea out there. Like, I don't know if you've ever done this before, like the opportunity to like go to one of those rural places where, you know, the person has like tons of old cars on the lot and just, you know, start like taking pictures and stuff.
::James Walters
Oh yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like, dude, I'm like going through this intro and there's just like insane picture after insane. Like there's one of like this abandoned like sandwich shop. It's,
::James Walters
Oh yeah, that one's fun. And that's one of those places is not there anymore. Like it was a moment in time, but it's not there anymore. So it's cool. And it's this glossy bougie, uh, like, I think it's a ramen shop now. So,
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
ah
::James Walters
Yeah, back and I love him at some ramen, but still.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I know, but that sandwich shop, like, he I can just imagine an Italian being like, what do you want?
::James Walters
All right.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
want some gabagour? Put some gabagour, put a little mozzarella, put a little balsami.
::James Walters
Yeah, those good times. And yeah, in some ways, it's a history book almost as much as it is just a bunch of short stories put together.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It is.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I mean, like, I think the short stories add that extra oomph and element to it as well. You know, it allows you to, like, almost get immersed in the picture, you know, for, like, a brief moment.
::James Walters
yeah
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And again, man, like, this is what we're talking about the whole time. Like, when you mix artistry, especially, like, when you have podcasting, in your case, like, you're even creating, like, with this book, like, this almost noir memoir to each like right it's like almost like a noir memoir to each picture um this is coming from a creative mind and lens like it's not supposed to be like oh my god you know like what is james like deep like behind the scenes like what are you trying to get at like no man like james is just giving you really cool pictures with a little cool little fictional story to go with it like that's it
::James Walters
Yeah. yeah
::James Walters
yeah
::James Walters
And I was trying to be really careful about that because there are a lot of the stories that are completely different from how I think about the world and how I interact with the world.
::James Walters
And that was just what...
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
ah hundred percent 100%, yeah.
::James Walters
That's what that thing was about. it wasn't about me. So, and there, and there are some things that line up more with what I'm about, but that's just because it, when I looked at that object, I was like, okay, maybe this is weird like me.
::James Walters
And we went with it
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And that's... so Honestly, that's okay. Like, I think, again, James, I'll be honest, like, you are... create like Freaking ta ten fantastic as an artist.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
And like on top of that, being able to like bring all these elements together and like be able to make a book and be able to do a podcast and all things. like It's really incredible. you know and And again, like i I try to say this every single podcast.
::James Walters
Thanks, man.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
You don't need to be freaking like Beyonce or Theo Vaughn or whatever.
::James Walters
No.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
I don't give a shit. just gotta be you, you know? And, and that's what shines through. Like that's what people resonate with the most is you'd be the best artist for yourself, not for anybody else.
::James Walters
Yeah, and that is really difficult, and it's not you don't get as many applause, but the ones you do are real, and they're not just jumping on the bandwagon.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's not easy. no
::James Walters
So, yeah, I appreciate you saying that.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
They want to hear what you got next. They want to learn, you know, like we were talking before, like get into the rabbit hole.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Like people, when you finish this episode, you want to get into James waters ah Walters. but My brain is fucking fried right now. You want to get into a rabbit hole. You could like check out and I'm sure like go through the podcast as well.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
But like, again, you got to be able to start your own journey. And where are you going to start? are going to start? You're going start.
::James Walters
yeah Just start right where you are. And that was the hardest thing for me to figure out is i I'm one of those over researchers. So I'll research something, research something, but man, just getting started. And I talk about that so much on the podcast now that I've realized it and embraced it. And if I'm starting something new, I'll just start and then fumble my way through it and figure it out.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
It's a joyful rebellion.
::James Walters
Yeah, man. Very much. Very much.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
Hey, thank you for letting me throw that in there. ah But again, James, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on.
::James Walters
Yeah.
::Lost in the Groove Podcast
To anybody out there that wants check out more of the podcast, you can find us @Lostinthegroovepod everywhere and anywhere. With that, catch you on the next one. Peace out!
