FOR ALL THE DOGS

0:00I mean, listen, Kev, I pay top dollar to see your high school tape. I've got a junior year highlight. Okay. A couple plays floating around on the internet. Fuck, man. It's on Huddle. Not on YouTube? No, it's not on YouTube. Kevin Baturi. Huddle. Just look at H-U-D-L. 42 public views. Damn right. How have I never seen this before? You didn't vet me before you hired me. If this was on your resume, I definitely would have been, you know, I would have hired you even quicker than I did. Oh, here's the whole. Oh, my God. There's a sizzle? It's like 30 seconds. I got a sizzle. I'm looking at a sizzle right now.

0:35I didn't play a ton. Oh, I got an ad for Adobe Acrobat. Kevin, are you making money off of this? I should be. Wait, where are you? Oh, 38? Yeah, 38. Okay. There should be some indicators. Nice block on the outside. Okay. Let's see. Kevin. Whoa, here we go. Open up the hole. Open up the hole, Kevin. That's a touchdown. Touchdown. Oh, wow. This is the best thing I've seen all day.

1:05three two one kevin what's up dude what's up i love this huddle uh content yeah i think we should put this on uh front and center instagram page yeah you think so i mean kevin's uh kevin's eligibility yeah my illustrious high school football career that's right inquire within now that nil money is there i think i think you told me that you played high school football Yeah. And I like pseudo believed you. This is undeniable proof. Actually, I don't know if I don't see your face or, you know, in any of these clips. I don't really know that that's you. It is me. I believe that it is you. Number 38 in the program, number one in your heart.

1:52Well, we're going to have to share this with the listeners. And Kevin, his illustrious high school football career ended too soon to become a podcaster, a producer, and a copywriter. Greatness. We achieved the highest honor that we could have achieved. State champs. Oh, you did? You won state championship? Yeah, senior year. It was great. Fucking wow, Kevin. We beat a lot of dudes. Ohio. Yeah. That was a big deal. That's a fucking big deal. Division one. We played a couple dudes who are still in the NFL. Do you have a varsity jacket? I don't. I don't. I got a state ring. A state ring? How come you don't wear your state ring to the offices anymore?

2:27It's just barely too small. Got it. But that's kind of nice, though. If it was too big, it would be gaudy and unnecessary. Well, I mean, to fit around my finger, it's very big. It's very, very big. It's big, but it's too small to fit. It's a little too small to fit. It's too small to fit. It doesn't comfortably come off my ring finger. Got it. Okay. It scares me a little bit. Well, Kevin. But it's also massive. So it's pretty impractical. I see a lot of potential. Yeah. You got, you know. I can't believe you didn't Google me before you hired me. I mean, shocking. Shocking how little research and background checks I did.

3:04I could have had a record. You could have. You might still have a record. I don't know. I don't have a record. But you do have some tape. Yeah, tape's out there. You pancake that one guy, and you really set up that touchdown. Yeah, I did. I wish there was more. I could watch this video forever. 55 seconds. Oh, that's about all the action I got. It's only got 44 public views. I think two of those were just me. I mean, probably. It's not looking great for your. I'll fire it up like once a year. Oh, really? For the friends, yeah. Is there music on this? No, there's not. There should be. No. We got one highlight video of Kevin playing high school football.

3:42And I will say, I'm thankful that it exists. Welcome to the show. The show is called Front and Center. Each week, Kevin and I talk about the things going on in culture, design, branding. And my high school football career. And Kevin's high school football career. I wish I had a highlight tape of my lacrosse career. You would see me doing a bunch of jabbing and poking. Yeah. That's it. You weigh anybody out? Maybe. I can say yes, because there's no team. But the answer is probably no. The Oceanside Sailors, known for their lacrosse. One thing I noticed on the design kick is that my hometown has just stolen the O from, what do you call it, Oregon.

4:22Oh, yeah. We've just completely, Oceanside, we've just taken the exact same O from the ducks and put it on the side of our helmets and changed the colors to baby blue and navy blue, which are Carolina colors. So if you could picture. There's only so many things you can do. You know, there's only so many moves you can make. But I really do appreciate that, that we've just kind of ripped off another school. When I was there, we had an actual sailor who was like, kind of like steering at the games. No, no, no, no. That was kind of the icon. I'll show it to you here. You didn't have a mascot. You didn't have somebody.

4:56That's a cool. That's a cool suit. No, absolutely. You should have. Yeah. But I would have went hard. Yeah. Now, now we got kind of just, just kind of the Oregon. know, just in different colors. But yeah, Kevin, we don't need to regale our high school sort of careers in sports and what they could have been. Yeah. I mean, if I worked as hard as I did back then on anything, I'd be massively successful. It is sad, right? Like at your peak of your caring and trying and desire and motivation, you're putting it towards something that genuinely has no impact on your life. Yeah, I mean, if I'm being truthful here, I don't think I'll ever care about anything as much ever again.

5:37Yeah, I mean, I guess that is the kind of sad part. And yeah, talking about Bishop Sycamore and the high school documentary I watched about the fake high school team that made it on ESPN. It's an insane story. Watch the documentary. It's on Mac's, like, incredible. But yeah, it is a story about a con artist and a scammer who exploited exactly that, which is these kids that like all they want to do is play football. All they want to do is make it to the next level. And like to your point, like that's the number one only thing in their life that they care about. Yeah. And so it's a very easy thing to exploit if you're trying to exploit it.

6:15And that's kind of that's very sad. I mean, exploiting, giving these kids opportunities. I don't know. I didn't see that documentary. So I don't know what the line is, but... Yeah, check it out. I don't know. I think you'll like it. BS High on Max. Yeah. It's my latest documentary to watch. Did you finish Telemarketers? I did. I watched it last night. Yeah. It was good. What do you think? I like the third episode. I thought it was really nice. It really showcased the friendship that... Yeah. It was a guy's name, Sam. Yep. The main guy, Sam and Pat. Sam and Pat. Yeah. Well, I liked how it really featured their friendship and how it grew over the years.

6:50And I thought also at the end, they were trying to do more and do more and do more and do more. And they had some success in the end, but they kept running into the roadblocks. Yeah. They tried their best. Yeah, they tried their best. And also, they probably didn't realize in the moment that even just putting this documentary out, even if it was one part to raise awareness about these telemarketers raising money for Fraternal Order of Police. Yep. Stuff. That in itself is just creating awareness and like... Totally. It could help a lot of people. Yeah, helping people not answer those calls. Yeah.

7:24And I think if you watch this doc, like everyone... Telemarketing has gotten even crazier in the last five years or so. Yeah, they said that they were like literally using people's voices and identities with AI and the people weren't even employed. That's fully insane. Yeah. And I get calls every hour, it seems like. And there's all new types of scams. Like I do think that the fraternal or the police one is particularly tough, especially in parts of the country where like they just want to get one of those stickers on their car. I think that's like half of what they're doing. Well, they just don't want to get pulled over.

7:57Yeah. And if they do get pulled over, they're like, look, I'm a supporter of the police. And what they don't realize is I don't think that's going to really do much. But maybe it does because the police are wrapped up in it. So it is. It is a great story. But I love, you know, Patrick J. Pespis. Right. That's his name. He's just like the worst interviewer though. Oh my God. But it's like, it makes it really good. That's what makes it great. It's like, he's clearly the star of the show. Yeah. And him trying to do interviews in a serious manner with his like incredible costume, like suits and sunglasses.

8:31It's like, that's what really makes this. The paper boy hat. Yeah. The fact that he really tries to talk to these people. Well, he's really good at talking. He's really good at selling and leading, but he's not so good at following and listening. An absolute legend. I actually just Googled him because I wanted to make sure I put respect on his name. He does have Instagram. He's got one single post, which is just thank you with the artwork from the show. He just got a follow from me because I need to see what he's doing out there. How many followers do you have? 1 ,700. That's pretty good. Good for him.

9:05I hope he made a good amount of money off this HBO documentary. I hope so. Something tells me he does not. Well, I don't think they would have fucked him, but you never know. You did get the feeling that he wasn't going to make it to the end of the documentary. And so I'm happy to see he's doing better and looking healthier as the show went on. Yeah. For sure. What an absolute legend. If you have not seen the documentary, watch that one. Yeah, it was a good doc. Yeah. Our show has now become what you should watch on streaming. Yeah. We should get the HBO sponsorship. We should. Absolutely. I mean, Max is interesting.

9:38I think there's more content than ever. There's also a lot of shitty content. Good classics, though. They got all the Anthony Bourdain shows, which pre-MAX, they were kind of difficult to lock down and find. I was paying$26 a month on Philo. Philo? What is that? Some shitty... The dough? No. Some shitty streaming service with commercials. No. I was doing it just so I could watch some No Reservations. Oh. I didn't cancel it for a long fucking time, so it just ran up on my credit card. That sucks. Yeah, that's what all these businesses are really doing. Philo. Yeah, that's P-H-I-L-O. There's so many fucking streaming services.

10:21It literally has commercials. It sucks. It's like$26 a month, and you're paying to watch commercials. It's the worst. $20 a month? Yeah. That's fully insane. I know. That's absolutely insane. I know, and they got me. Congratulations. Congratulations, dude. Yeah. Yeah, Fubo and Filo and Tubi. Honestly, Tubi's got some banging movies on there. Oh, you don't have Tubi. You really do? It's free. Oh, okay. They have commercials. Okay, then that's better. Me and my friend watched this Tubi movie called Sexaholic by Celeste Celeste. Okay. It was truly awful. Literally, the audio was like you couldn't understand the dialogue in the movie because they were recording audio with presumably the microphone built into the dslr oh yeah yeah the the ability to make content has never been easier which makes for literally anything could be on uh what seems like a streaming network uh service at this point um speaking of i also watch vacation friends i don't know if you're familiar with the uh the the comedy uh drama that is vacation john Cena and Lil Rel and like Yvonne Orji.

11:31Every now and then I like a really shitty rom-com-y. How was John Cena? You look skinny, right? I saw some screenshots. People were saying you look like Jimmy Butler. This is Vacation Friends. I watched Vacation Friends 1, not to be confused with Vacation Friends 2, which just came out, which is why I watched the first one. I was like, I can't watch the second one if I don't know the characters. I don't know the backstory. Fair. And John Cena, I think what's funny is about when I was watching, I was like, man, the fact that John Cena has made himself into an actor that can be insanely buff and still be somewhat taken seriously as a normal person.

12:08He's great. In a regular society is a huge achievement on his behalf. Yeah. You can't see me. And I'm not surprised to hear that he maybe slimmed down or got off the roids to be more of a believable person in society. Yeah. Because in this movie, he plays just like a regular kind of crazy guy. And then all of a sudden, he's in one scene. And his arms are just too big to be taken seriously as a human. He rules. He is kind of amazing. So shout out to him. That was my era of wrestling. He's right when I got into it. It's my favorite. Really? Yeah. I mean, again, showing our age, Kevin. Yeah. Yeah.

12:42I was more of Stone Cold. Yeah. Well, that's good. My era was more. Have you peeped Stone Cold's Instagram? I have not. He has like a ranch in Nevada. Sure. And he's got his own beer company, which looks sick. Makes sense. That's on brand. He documented this. He was hunting elk or something. And he was in his little gator and just documenting the whole thing, just on a beautiful piece of land in Nevada. And I was like, damn, I want to be him. Stone Cold. And then he's just product placement. Drinking beer. Yeah. I can't remember what the beer's called. Yeah. I like Stone Cold. I think he's one of those classic good human.

13:21Yeah, he's great. He hasn't done anything crazy. He never got into some massive controversy of any sort. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. Yeah. Fingers crossed. Kevin, we got a lot to talk about. First things first. First order of business. Have you seen the new Drake album cover? I have. I like it. Yeah. For All the Dogs designed by Adonis. It's a good name, too. Yeah. Adonis is Drake's five-year-old son. He's only five? Five years old. I like it. Adonis. I think it's a great album cover. Yeah. And I think we should appreciate it for what it is and not poke any holes in it. No. I have one hole, Kevin.

13:56Yeah. I believe that this artwork was inverted in Photoshop. I believe that this design was drawn on white paper using sort of a crayon. And then someone, not Adonis, brought this into Photoshop and inverted it and made it look more interesting with a black background versus a white background. What do you have to gain by this comment? I'm just saying that's as an expert in the field. I am putting my expert opinion out there to claim that Adonis designed this. Well, actually, Adonis didn't scan it into the computer either. That's what I'm saying. I don't think Adonis scanned or Photoshopped this to be.

14:36So it's based on an original drawing by Adonis. He art directed it. He art directed it and then had some junior designer finish it for him. Who's ghost designing this is really what I want to know. But it is very cool, and I will say I'm very happy. Yeah, it's sick. It's sick. Kevin, how is your – It's probably a lot better than what the album is going to be. Kevin, you posted a really beautiful Instagram photo of you and your nephew over the weekend. Do you want to tell the quick story as Kevin the family man? Yeah, I mean, I was just in North Carolina. Yeah. My nephew was trying out for the 12U U.S.

15:13baseball national team, which is pretty cool. So they had like a big tournament. he didn't make it but he had a good attitude and he played pretty well so a lot to be proud of Evan shout out to Evan Kevin you know if anyone listens to the program Kevin's got a big heart and is a big family man so when you see Kevin's Instagram photos from a night out or a trip across America you get to see a wonderful side of Kevin there is the family man can't a dude just sincere post in peace That's it. It was such a sincere post that it caught me off guard, you know, because I'm so used to your ironic or, you know, sitting on a toilet of some sort or David Buster's, you know, kind of type type content.

15:57So to see as very sincere, lovely family posts, it really touched me. Well, that's a beautiful thing. That's good. It's a beautiful thing. And again, you know, sort of don't be afraid to sincere post. Yeah. Every now and then just to say I love my family. Yep. It's a beautiful thing, Kevin. um before we get into design topics um i think it's it's worth addressing the fact that new york there's been a uh a takeover a city takeover um it's no longer our city it's no longer made up by the millions of people that live here it is now the lanternflies that live uh that that it's their city and uh we just live here because they're fucking everywhere on my walk here today they're just all over the ground.

16:42Are you stomping them? No, they're already dead in many cases. Multiple of them have broken into my apartment over the weekend. This weekend, I don't know what happened and I don't know what the full story is here, but they just fucking... They're just hundreds of them. Well, they're on that hockey stick type curve. They were here last summer. Last summer, I think, was the first time I heard of Landry Fries. It's the hockey stick, brother. What? Exponential growth of Landry Fries? Yeah, because they're fucking and nobody's killing them except for us yeah there's no predators but like we gotta get the rats on them we need to do something about this where's eric adams like this is a major fucking city-wide initiative it's the spotted lanternfly like these things didn't exist in new york when i was growing up but this is like a last this is a post-covid situation yeah i mean i think they can't i think i heard about them in maybe 21 or 22 yeah this is very very recent yeah And they were definitely around last summer.

17:38Yeah. I'm reading about a little bit. They were native to China and first detected in Pennsylvania in 2014. So yeah, this is like in the last like 10 years legitimately that these things, but it's gotten fully out of control. Yeah. I mean, you really hate to see it. I don't know what to do. Like, this is - Step on them. So that's the thing is that we've been told that we have to kill them. Right? That's what the public knowledge is. they are here and it's our job it's our duty as civilians to stop them out if we see them yeah i don't know i'm calling this is this is all a little fishy is what i'm saying like where did these come from like why is it our responsibility to fucking kill them and like they came from probably somebody or something transporting goods into the like importing goods that were laced with like some eggs and they hatched and then those started fucking and now they're everywhere and then eggs get transported on different stuff from Pennsylvania to New York and they're bad for agriculture too.

18:36They're going to be they said they really fuck up some soybean plants which is a huge industry in the US. So hopefully we're able to do something about them before they get our farmer. Yeah, I will say if our society and our life on this planet is taken down by these spotted land flags, I'm going to be like I told you so, right? I'll have this podcast on record to be like yeah i told you that we need to take those things fucking seriously they're fucking everywhere yeah alex is the first person ever i'm saying i just want to put it out there like these these spotted lanternflies like dude i don't know they're just they're just uh my um my third eye is open like are these even bugs are these aliens damn these fucking um are these real i don't know you should uh you should watch a ton of content about them and yeah see is anyone is Is anyone talking about this?

19:27How they're maybe not even real bugs? They're really just the government spying on us? I don't think so. Yeah. But I think I would love to spearhead that with you. Okay, cool. Yeah, honestly, I just think that there's something going on here. And the fact that these things, like, it just felt like on Saturday, like, in the city, it just went from, like, yeah, those bugs that are here. It's the hockey stick, bro. And then all of a sudden. But it's not the hockey stick. It's just literally one day. And the next day, they were fucking kind of gone. That's what a hockey stick does. It goes up. Yeah, but typically it continues to go up.

19:58Yeah, and it is. I'm saying like I've seen them around a little bit this summer, but then on Saturday it was just like an all at once attack. They're probably in like the prime of their lifespan or whatever. Fuck, man. I don't know. What's the deal with that? Is it because it was like a nice – I think they're like beetles first, if I'm not mistaken, and then they get their wings. I will say the one thing about them that I do like is that they're pretty easy to kill. They're pretty – they don't fly around. They're not like mosquitoes or other types of flies. They're big and they're slow. I think they're a little fast.

20:31Not against my fucking speed. They got nothing. If I should put out a tape of me killing these things, you'll see confirmed kills at a pretty high clip by me. These lanternflies, they're nothing. Fuck it. Alex lanternfly highlight reel. I put it up on Huddle. You should. I don't think you can get on Huddle. Just me, just like with paper towels around my apartment and stopping them out on the street. Like, I don't know. It makes me feel weird that they put it on us as a society to kill these people. What are you talking about? Like, it's our job now? You want the government intervention? Yeah. Yeah.

21:08Oh, yeah. Actually, by the way, those things are really bad. You people. I'm sure that I'm killing them. I am sure that there are some measures being taken on, like, you know. I need to know. To be, you know, in the agricultural sector. Yeah. Yeah, but like - Sriracha? Like, what's up, government? Step in. We need to help out the sriracha, you know, sort of shortage. And now number two, lanternflies. Like, what the fuck is the point of having government if they're not going to take care of the issues that matter most to us as civilians? I don't know. Just take some personal responsibility and kill them.

21:37Yeah. Be a good citizen. Okay. Yeah. Moving on, Kevin. Embrace debate. There's a TikToker. Her name is Cecily Balkman. and she posted a video that went a bit viral on TikTok in that she ate a order of spicy salmon sushi while she was perusing the aisles of her local grocery store and then she paid for it on the way out, sparking a debate online, which is, do you eat while you're shopping? Is this something that you do? Say you go to a grocery store. Not every time. Do you grab something, maybe a ready-to-eat product like sushi or like a rotisserie chicken? And then you kind of take some bites of it or you eat the whole thing.

22:22And then at the end, when you're paying for everything, pay for it at the end. Yeah. I mean, I've certainly done it. Yep. I've been at grocery stores. Maybe it's like post-activity or post-work and I'm really, really hungry. And I'll grab something or really thirsty for that matter. Yeah. And I'll grab something and enjoy it a little bit and usually pay for it. Yeah. But I think it's a step too far to take a video of yourself. Okay. And promote doing it. Because it should be something you should do in private. It should be a little sneak. I think this is something that you shouldn't do on a daily basis.

22:56If you go to the supermarket and every single time you're eating something, I don't think that should be normal. I think you should – this is – then all of a sudden everyone will just be eating everything in supermarkets and paying for it as they go out the door. No, you buy it and then you eat it. like in a rare circumstance say like you're just ran you went to the gym or something and you like are very very thirsty and you're like oh man i need some coconut water and i'm gonna take a sip of this and i'm gonna like you know maybe even finish it while while i'm food shopping or something like i think that's okay every now and then drinks are far more acceptable i think i think if you were to i think if you were to drink every time that's fine like yeah that is totally and the rule is of course that you have to bring the empty bottle to the register and pay for it Like that's 100 % the rule.

23:42Like, I don't know. I just think if you're just going around eating like pre-made sushi at Wegmans and just like kind of eating while you're shopping and everyone was doing that. I don't know. I don't know if I want to live in that society. Damn. I think this is like, Hey, you got to do this, you know, in, in, in dire circumstances is what I'm saying. I think it's allowed. I don't think it should be the norm. Yeah. I don't know. I think I, it's fine. And just don't record yourself doing it and post it on social media. I do think this is interesting, though, because this is something that there is no...

24:18I wonder where the supermarkets stand on this issue. And I think this is the first time that I've seen this conversation even become part of the lexicon of cultural conversation. I mean, on one hand, it's not very sanitary to be eating something and then touching everything else. But on the other hand, who's going to get security guards? Are we going to put some robots in the store? Yeah. Just smack it out of their hands. Do it sparingly. Don't get out of control. I think you're right. I think we agree here, which is like, if you need to do this and you're like starving and you're like at a supermarket, you're like, cool, I'm going to eat a little bit of this and I'll pay for it at the way out.

24:56But like every time you go, I don't know. There are people in the comments being like, this is my normal course of action. Cool. And I just, I don't know. I don't know. I mean, obviously, as long as you pay for it, I guess it's okay. But I feel uncomfortable. I feel like it makes me uncomfortable. It makes me anxious. That probably says more about me as a person than it says anything. Why does it make you anxious? Because I feel like the order of operations. Do you have some past life trauma that you want to unload here? I did have a situation when I was a kid, now that you mention it, where me and a buddy of mine, we were under the age of 10.

25:30So this is a couple of years ago. and uh we were you know uh at the supermarket we're illegally uh you know consuming pickles out of the big ass jar and uh you know maybe we were uh not uh they take you in the back and they did they took us in the back and they called their parents and my dad had to come pick us up and uh they had us chained to the to the wall really no they didn't buy us up but they they made us like stay in like some back room like some interrogation room at your local you know so a fucking food store, which if you've ever been in the back rooms of a supermarket, it's not too different than a prison.