FIRST ROUND

0:00I'm on cloud fucking nine, dude. The city's electric. I felt it right when I stepped off the train last night. I smelled piss and I felt the electricity of Knicks basketball.

0:14All right. Three, two, one. Wow. I got an extra buzz. Mr. Knicks. Let's go. Yeah, it's good. I love when my friends' teams are doing well. Is there anything better in life than having your team win a big game? The next day, though, I was walking to the office. I was dancing. I was fucking. I saw another guy with a Nick hat, and I gave him a one. I was just like, one down. It's the best. It's the fucking best. It's just like sports are dumb, and they're the worst. But when you are winning, it's the best feeling on the planet Earth. It's the best. There's nothing like it. I haven't had it in a long time, Kevin.

0:57I haven't had it since 2015. 2015 the Mets went to the World Series. This is the last time I felt this buzz. That's not too long ago. I know, but that's a decade. Yeah. That's a decade. New York has been through a bit of a dry spell in the sports. The last time the Knicks were in the Eastern Conference Finals was 1999. Wow. And Patrick Ewing. Well, you guys aren't there yet. You're right. Fair. Fair, fair, fair. They get one series at a time. I'm getting ahead of myself. But yes, no. It's been a fucking long time. It's looking good for you guys. I mean, we almost lost the game. Yeah, but you won.

1:27It's a great. The weather's getting nicer here in New York. It's beautiful out. The Knicks won. And I'm just feeling great. And brand new first round, Friday. If you're not familiar with first round, brand new under consideration has a conference. They've been doing it for like six years, I think, where designers present their first round presentations for projects just as they were to the clients in front of a room of designers. Just as they were. Just as they were. You're not allowed to make any changes. You have to cut it down because you only get a half hour. But it is a really educational.

2:07It's a really entertaining. It's a really informative conference. And I'm not just saying that because I'm speaking there. I've gone before and I just enjoyed it because it's really cool because every designer does things a little bit differently. And every project starts somewhere. And it's cool to see behind the curtains. It's definitely a conference worth going. I have a promo code. I should probably look it up, but it's on my Instagram if you go to at the Alex Center. Why don't you just look it up right now? Okay. So I'll look it up right now. Kevin, you say something. Well, I'll just cut.

2:37Yeah, I'll just, you know, in post, I'll just make a cut here. If you want to go first round, it's this Friday. So today's Wednesday. Tomorrow's Thursday and the next day's Friday. Correct. So you have, it's very short turnaround, but it's here in New York City. and my promo code is fr-nyc-center, C-E-N-T-E-R, and you get 10 % off your ticket. And it's going to be great. Kevin and I will both be there, so come say hello to us. Yeah, I will not be speaking. I'll be speaking to people, but I won't be speaking up in the front. That's true. I haven't done any first rounds. Well, not like that. Tell us you listen to the pod, even if you don't listen to the pod.

3:20Just come up to us and be like, love the pot. It will make us feel better. And we won't know the difference, to be honest. It's not like we're going to check your iPod and iPhone. Don't talk to me unless you are a subscriber. Yeah. I'm like Pat Bev. Yeah, that's right. You got to show me on your phone. Show us on your phone that you're a subscriber. And then we can talk. And then we can chop it up. Yeah, then we'll have a good conversation. You're right. That's very much. We need to take a Pat Bev approach to this. But no, it's a great conference and I highly recommend it. If you're not in New York, I believe it comes available online like a week later.

3:50It's not a live streaming situation. If you're not in New York, what the heck are you doing? New York or nowhere, baby. Go, New York. Go, New York. Go. Go, New York. Go, New York. Go. I mean, listen, Kevin. It's taking everything in my body to not make this whole podcast about the New York Knicks. New York's back. I think he told me that you maybe should. Game one last night. Absolutely nail biter. The Knicks are taking years off of my life. We have not. No, I think they're adding years to it. We have not won a game where the game wasn't tied with like a minute to go in since like maybe the first like interesting ball.

4:27It's it's so tight and it's so crazy and it's so fun. I'm literally I'm sweating at the end of this game. It's different, dude. It's been wild and I'm feeling great. You know, round two. Obviously, the Pacers, tough matchup. And Reggie Miller coming back to the Garden on Wednesday. You know it's going to be on. It's going to be fun. And Spike Lee is going to be there. It brings back those 90s memories of those Knicks teams that I grew up loving. And, yeah, the Pacers. There's just a feeling, you know? It just feels good. Oh, it's good. Congratulations on the series. Thank you very much. I'm happy.

5:03I'm happy for all the Knicks fans. Thank you. Thank you. We all appreciate it. I've been critical of the Knicks victory celebrations in the past. But you guys moved on. You guys advanced. We'll live it up. You haven't really had a lot of chants in the past. 25 years to make noise. So fucking make noise. I don't know. You're damn right. They're still chanting fuck and beat, which is the best. Because we moved on. But the Knicks fans have not, which I love so much. Nothing like cursing out the player you beat five days ago. Yeah, it's good. So, hey, look. It's good stuff. How was San Diego, Kevin?

5:38You haven't been in New York for a minute. It's good. Yeah, California's nice, dude. Yeah? You like the vibes? Yeah, getting the sun. Yeah. Got a really California haircut, I think. Yeah, you do. I fit in. Yeah, you fit in, for sure. Getting some nice sun in my eyes, on my face, and my hair. Yeah, we don't got that here in New York at all. Yeah, no, it's not as good. Okay. That's the primo gas out there, that sun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great egg sun. Yeah, but I was out in San Diego. It was very nice, perfect weather. like 70 sunny every day. Put up record numbers for tacos in like two and a half days out there.

6:11I was out there for a bachelor party. We were doing some regimented eating. Okay. And so I didn't get to... Steathouses or that kind of vibe? No, just like made dinner one night. Oh, shit. We got... I don't know. I can't even fucking remember. Whatever. It doesn't matter. I was fucked up, bro. So you got tacos. But yeah, after everyone left, I stayed to see the Reds because they were in town. I stayed a day to see the Reds before I went to visit my brother in Phoenix. But in those two and a half days that I was by myself, I ate 24 tacos. What? Including, get this, Alex, pre-airport. When you got more tacos?

6:45I housed eight. What? I housed eight right before I went to the airport. What kind of tacos are we talking about here? Pastor, Langua, Cabeza. Wow. Yeah. I love that, not exotic meat, but I love a Langua taco. That shit rocks my world. Tripa. I ate around. I got some Camaronis. I got some pescato. Some fried fish. I had them all. We need to go back to Taqueria Ramirez. I haven't been in months. They expanded. Did you see there? I did not. They got a little bit bigger space there. Good for them. Green Point's own best tacos in Brooklyn, for sure. I think so. Los Tacos number one is the best, maybe, in New York.

7:30Tacos rule. um i'm on such a diet dude that literally everything sounds delicious to me i just i'm anything that you can say right now food wise i i'm craving all of it but good you know well yeah yeah i had food poisoning coming actually oh shit that's good for a diet it was actually it was except for it got me real bad what got you you want to put my blast i'm not gonna put the place on blast but it was delivery i'll edit it out delivery sushi oh and uh there are places i order from a lot and I was eating it and I was like this tastes a little off but it was Friday night and I was like fuck it dude this Friday yeah last Friday not not like not this weekend the weekend before I woke up three in the morning I knew immediately I was like I was like chills and like bad sushi I was like fuck man and when I tell you that I I felt poisoned yeah which is what it is but it's like I don't know that I've ever felt that bad it was like a bad trip it was like I got like genuinely poisoned and my body just was like fighting on for dear life i almost didn't make it i i really had moments where i was like i don't know if i'll continue to to go on that's tough i feel like that could go one of two ways on a diet it could either throw you off or make you go deeper so it was good it was definitely good um but uh yeah no i'm still like you know like i'm still i'm back to regular eating but i'm like definitely shaky like i won't have sushi for a while yeah it's real tough that'll do it sushi was yeah no it fucked me up um should we talk about the met gala uh yeah you were watching of course yeah i was on a flight so i didn't really see anything and then i didn't really look anything up because i think i just don't really have space in my brain to care about it but you want to give me a recap yeah so here so here's the thing kevin i also didn't care because basketball a because of basketball because of Of course, I was watching the game.

9:21But I'm a little bored with celebrities. And I know this is everyone's take. It's a super popular opinion, Kevin. Anytime I ever talk about celebrities, you're like, who cares? Da-da-da-da-da. But for me, I've always been entertained by them. I've always been somewhat intrigued by them. Because in many ways, they're brands. And I'm intrigued by branding. And I'm intrigued by personal brands. I do care. It's interesting to me a little bit, like Doja Cat. and like, you know, sort of Troye Sivan or I'm trying to, I don't know who else was there. But like, I just like, I kind of care about these people and what they do with their brands and how they dress.

10:01Obviously, the Metcalf is mostly about fashion. But I just, maybe I just am getting older or maybe I just don't have as much time or maybe it's just the Knicks are all I can think about. But it's just like, I don't fucking care. And I was just like... It's probably the Knicks. I'm just like, I'm not interested in what other people wear to a party that i'm not invited to you know what i mean like if you were invited be different a hundred percent i mean i'd be there if i can i mean you dress to the looks like you dressed to the theme right it was a garden party i believe so yeah i just i don't know are people having celeb fatigue is that a thing like i wonder if people yeah i think people have been having that um yeah especially you know the social medias and stuff yeah i just feel like i'm getting like you know a moment for kim kardashian it's like complex like chill the fuck out and like she's had so many moments she's run the past like i know decade and a half i know but it's like i just don't care and i just don't like yeah like they look good and like yeah someone's gonna do something crazy and it's like i just i don't i don't know i just i'm i'm kind of like i don't think it's i don't think that's cool i don't know like i'm kind of like um yeah i'm bored by it so it's kind of interesting one thing that i did think was interesting kevin if i'm gonna talk about you know uh branding and design or whatever the hell the show is about um i did see a picture of rihanna at the met gala and i was like whoa that's a really wild fit on her and she was wearing this big headpiece and then like an hour later uh i read that it was ai oh yeah so i got ai was running rampant this year ai is running rampant and that's interesting i mean we're just in this weird truth era of like it seemed very plausible that rihanna would wear a garden headpiece to a garden party at the met gala on the fingers i didn't i was just you know was watching the Knick game.

11:45I wasn't really paying attention. I think that's interesting. I don't know what that says, but it's definitely like anything can be faked right now very easily. And I was like, whoa, that's a cool draft. You can't fake a Knicks series win, though. That's real. That's authentic. That shit's real. That's absolutely real. That's a tangible thing you can hold on to in this world. I will say it's interesting to see the courtside people. Obviously, there's a lot of celebs and old Knick players and Ben Stiller. there's also just like so many like rich finance bros and it just makes you realize how rich new york is yeah that like the only people that can afford to really go to these games are like the upper echelon of like finance dudes and like international businessmen it really sucks i mean like it really did you look at tickets i've looked at tickets for every game what are they like 450 500 to get in the house and that's the worst seat in the place and it's like i really want to go but do I really want to go for a thousand dollars to bring my wife to go sit in the upper upper deck I mean last night's game was unbelievable but like say they lost that game that's a brutal loss so it's like you are taking a chance I mean it's almost like you should gamble and just wait till the Eastern Conference finals I mean game one but the Celtics it's going to be tough but yeah I don't know I'm just not really into the Met Gala and I'm a little bored by celebs and I just don't really give a shit.

13:12I really think it's probably because you're just into the Knicks right now. And I don't have anything else to pay attention to. No, it's good. I mean, when one of your top teams is doing well in the playoffs, it's fucking electric. It's a much better distraction. I did see the roast of Tom Brady, though. We should talk about that for a second. Roasts are back. Roasts are back. I've always thought roasts were funny. I always kind of watched them in the past. They do really well on TikTok. Do you know that? there's like a lot of roast clips get get clipped and put on tiktok so i'm not surprised that they're back and i'm not surprised to the social media editors cranking out all those clips yeah a hundred percent is that i got a team of 30 doing that a hundred percent one of the interesting points about it so i turned i was like oh roasted tom brady it's live so it was not a pre-recorded thing it was actually live at an event yeah to be honest i'm like why do this live like who cares They did the Cat Williams one live too.

14:10Yeah, but why does live matter? I don't know. Why do we want to do this live? I felt like, and also it was so long. It was like fucking a million hours and it looked like it would have been much better with not like with editors and with better cameras or like, you know, it's like it just didn't, it was in a big auditorium or in this big space. The dais had like 30 people on it. It was so many people, they had so many people roasting. And I was, you know, so I turned it on and I saw Edelman. And I was like, okay, Edelman's going to be good. Because I know Edelman is like, you know, knows better than anyone.

14:44Yeah, he's in the media too. He's funny too. He's got a good delivery. He's good at speaking. He does a good Belichick impersonation. And he knows Tom's like, you know, biggest insecurity. So he was great. But about like halfway through, I was, I kind of was like, I'll just watch this on the clips. Yeah. You know, I just like, I don't need to watch this. Yeah, just catch it on the clips. I'll just see the clips. And that's exactly what I did. And I saw Gronk. I saw Belichick made some good jokes. I saw Nikki Glaser is always funny. She's a fucking murderer. She just murder shit. She is so good at roasts.

15:19Yeah. They just had too many people. Yeah, just edit it. You could do a three-hour event. That's fine. But just cut it down to an hour and a half of the best stuff for us as viewers. I don't have time for the type of curation. So I was like, oh, I'll just watch it. I'll see the clips online. And I did. Is Kim Kardashian and Tom Brady, are they a thing? Is that confirmed now? I guess there's got to be some connection there. I mean, they definitely... I didn't watch her. I'm not going to sit through that. I didn't watch her. Rose, did she do well? I don't know. I didn't see it. I only watched until...

15:53I think I only caught the first 30 or 45. Yeah. I think you're right about my interest and my time for capacity of attention is definitely so preoccupied by watching Dante DiVincenzo highlights that I have a hard time. It's work and nicks, and that's all I got for right now. That's good. But I think it is putting things in perspective. Is Kim Kardashian ever been involved with Tom Brady? Maybe. Who cares? Good for them. Good for them. I think she was there for a reason. She's very calculated. Yeah. I mean, she loves clout. She can't. She can't. She can't miss an opportunity to be at the forefront of the conversation.

16:37Again, and I think that's why the rap beef is, just to talk about that for a second. I kind of care about that. I talked about it on the pod. I was like, this is intriguing. And that just became too much. It's like, I don't have time to watch an eight-minute Drake video where Type is on the screen and it's just doing all these backhanded disses about people I don't know. I was like, I don't give a shit. Apparently, some publication ran a poll on Twitter. Yeah. And Drake's winning, according to the people. Oh, wow. That's great. I just think it's entertaining. I do think that rap has gone a little boring for me as someone who grew up loving rap music.

17:15And just always, that'll be my primary passion when it comes to music forever.

17:24There's people putting out albums. And then there's rap beef. And rap beef is fun. And it's kind of cool that two guys, Drake and Kendrick, are so, you know, at this level, neither of them, you know, have really much to gain, but a lot to lose. They don't need this. Exactly. So the fact that both of them are willing to sort of engage in this kind of back and forth is pretty astonishing, I think. Yeah. I haven't really been tapped into it. I've just seen a couple things. I saw the album art, which I thought was pretty savage on Kendrick's part. Yeah. Yeah. That's, you know. you know, salute to that.

18:01And if you'll remember that on last week's episode, Jordan made some, called his shot a little bit. He did. He a hundred percent did about looking at Drake differently. He said, Drake is going to regret this. And he was right. Drake is probably regretting some of this. It's, it's not, it's not great. From what I've seen, I pretty sure Kendrick's whipping that ass. I, again, I only know the highlights of the, like what was said. and I don't want to go through that here on the show because it's all hearsay. But it's like, I know a couple things about Drake that are alleged. I don't know anything about Kendrick.

18:35It feels like, you know, it doesn't feel like anything. I didn't learn anything except for Kendrick has size 7 sneakers, which is funny. That is funny, yeah. But the stuff about Drake having another child or other things like that that are way worse. Yeah. Nobody, nobody at all. Drake. Yeah. Millie Bobby Brown was just a friend. Yeah. I mean, I've thought... That's the only thing I clocked from the... I've thought that for as long... When that was happening in the moment, I was like, why is Drake so close with Millie Bobby Brown? That's weird. I remember thinking that. Well, he cleared up. He said they were just friends.

19:11Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. Just friends with a 14-year-old girl when you're 30-something. Yeah, no, Drake cleared up. They were just friends. Just friends. He cleared up on the track. Yeah, yeah. He got out in front of that one. It's actually funny because he has been in beef for so long and I don't think that's come up before, But it was right there, you know? Yeah. Because whether he was just friends or whatever, it was inappropriate. It just didn't make sense. It doesn't. Yeah, very inappropriate. It just doesn't make sense. There's no reason for them to be friends at that time. Yeah, you should not be friends with a 14-year-old.

19:41No, absolutely not. So, yeah, I guess the question is, how does it end? And I hope it doesn't end in some sort of violence. I don't want that. I feel like people are crazy and people do crazy things. So hopefully it just ends in some sort of like truce or some sort of collab track. I think it's just going to maybe fizzle. A double album of the two of them. It could just be promo. Best of both worlds, you know, kind of R.R. Kelly and Jay-Z. That's what I'm looking for. Kevin, we got to give you some flowers here. You called a hot trend in fashion. I did. So a brand by the name of Jordan Luca. So famously named after Michael Jordan and Luca.

20:21Yeah. Luca Doncic released a pee-stained jeans for$800 and instantly sells out. There's a picture on a runway of a guy walking down the runway with a pair of blue jeans, and his crotch looks as though it's been wet, but it's not him. It's pre-pee-stained. Vindication tastes good. It feels nice to be right. Yeah. And it feels kind of crazy that a bit that I was, that I said on the show probably a year ago, um, came true. Yeah. Um, we, we were talking about pre-sweat stain shirts. Uh, if you remember there was some Balenciaga did some shit with pre-sweat stain shirts. Um, and you know, everyone wants to look like they work and I guess everyone wants to look like they piss now.

21:12Yeah. Um, so pisses, pisses hot in 2024. for. I'm excited to see where else we see piss coming into culture. I think it's great. I'm all for it. You're a piss boy. I'm not going to get these jeans. If I want them, I'll just make them myself. Shout out Jeff Cardos. I zoomed with him yesterday. I know. I heard. It's his birthday. It's his birthday. Happy birthday, Jeff Cardos. Peeing your pants is cool. Consider me Miles Davis. Kevin, these pants, if they weren't$800, I'd have them for you. I'd buy them for you for a second. Well, I'll just make my own. Yeah. I prefer piss stains the old-fashioned way.

21:50I don't need some fucking high-fashion company putting piss stains on my pants. I put them there. Yeah. That's the problem with today's generation is they want to get pre-pissed pants. They don't want to put in the work to piss their pants on their own. Yep. Yep. It's sad. This is exactly what it was like when they started selling pre-ripped jeans. I remember a previous generation of ours said the same thing. They're like, these kids, they don't even have the work ethic to rip their own jeans. And here we are. So generations repeat themselves. These kids, they can't piss their own pants anymore.

22:25They can't piss their own pants. It's sad. You know who's on the hot seat? Balenciaga. They should have thought of this. I know. I mean, are they coming out? What are they going to do? I don't know. They're going to have to respond. What does this mean for LeBron's legacy? Good questions. Also, shout out to Jordan Luca, a brand I've never heard of. And now I'm on their website and they do some pretty wild shit out there. So shout out to you. What's next? Shit pants? God. This is... I should work for Jordan Luca. Yeah, we should hit them up. Yeah, we need a collab. Yeah, they only have 52 ,000 followers.

23:00So, Kevin, you can get in early. I'm buying the piss stock. Yeah, did you see Doja Cat showered? was showered you know sort of uh uh she wore a towel and then she wore a shirt that just looked like it came for shape in the shower so you know this is fashion it's cool to be i guess wet is wet is in wet is in yeah we saw it with uh those tank tops yeah kanya i saw someone in one the other day and i was like that's uh that's a crazy shirt to be wearing uh in public uh uh but you know yeah wet is in you heard it here first yeah um let's talk about pickle spritz kevin um it is actually called Pickle Seltzer.

23:38You are famously a lover of pickles, a big-time picklehead. A brand by the name of Spritz Society has teamed up with Clausen, one of the Mount Rushmore pickle makers, or no, not even close. No, no. When I was younger, maybe, when there wasn't that many people in the pickle game, maybe we could say they were a good brand. An iconic brand. Since the boom of good food, they've fallen off. Shout out Grillo's. I would drink a Grillo's pickle seltzer. Kevin always supports on the pod here. That was rep. Yeah. So pickle spritz is a pickle seltzer, spritz society, and Klaassen. It's a limited edition summer flavor.

24:26Can label kind of looks the same, except for it's got a little bit of a Klaassen sort of design. Is it Klaassen or Klaassen? Is it Claussen or Claussen? I don't know. I mean, that's just my Long Island. It's Claussen. Claussen, baby. Comes in 12-ounce can. Are you going to be buying this, Kevin? I will not be buying it. The name's good, though. Credit where credit is due. I think Pickle Spritz is pretty tight. I won't be buying this, but if I see you drinking it, salute. I'll give you a salute in the park. Yeah. This story comes with a Dye Line, and so shout out to Dye Line, sort of new subscription model.

25:02Go support them. Yeah. Like I said, just I have some I have some stuff. Yeah, I have a little something something dropping on there a little bit. Oh, and also dial in awards, which will be the day that this comes out. We probably can talk about it, but we may have won something. Maybe may have won two things. I guess we'll find out. We'll find out. So, Kevin, speaking of package design, Walmart launched Better Goods as part of their mission to make quality, great tasting food accessible for customers. The retailer announced today it's a private label innovation called Better Goods. It's a new elevated experiences that delivers quality, unique, chef-inspired food at incredible value.

25:42Better Goods marks Walmart's private label. First private label brand launch in 20 years. Wow. And the fastest food private brand Walmart has brought to market, highlighting the speed with which Walmart can bring trend and innovation to market at scale. Wow. But the real story here is not that it's a private label brand from Walmart and not the fact that they did it so fast. The real story is that it looks great. And that's the key, is that it looks bold and colorful and minimal and elevated, which you don't typically expect from Walmart. But it looks high quality and the price will still be low.

26:24And this feels like a move from the Target playbook. It does look very Target-y. And shout out to David Hartman, friend of the pod, who is a leading design at Walmart. And we should get him on the show. We should. Vice president of Creative and Design. And I believe that's a relatively new-ish job for David. He used to work at Target. Wow. So fun connect the thread situation. And this package design looks really nice. Yeah, it's dope. It's the same stuff, same product. would have come out from Walmart in considerably worse package design. No one would be talking about this, but it's a private label brand that doesn't look like private label.

27:10It looks like it was designed by a great design studio. And bravo to David and his team over there. Better Goods, great name. Fire name. Great name. I'm pretty sure I've had that on a couple docs. Yeah, no, no. Do you want goods? Do you want better goods? Better goods, yeah. Simple, simple. simple as that it's great yeah single word lowercase letters custom typeface yeah it's just a really nice job and it looks in line with like you know other cool modern cpg brands yeah as snack shots said they yassified walmart yep and they did and you know what that's that's that's uh that works yeah i think that's kind of the thing it's like run the ball run the ball exactly uh we have a quote from hartman himself he said the packaging uh photography is artful and designed to elevate the product and cure the quality of our premium ingredients.