Johnny Loftus

JJ Cale, man. Choogling will save us.

Thank you for the note!

Every time I’m at Reckless there are kids absolutely swarming the CD racks. It’s an interesting trend.

As a person who swears by written notes, obsesses over them being "clean," and hates having to cross out a mistake/misspelling, covering THE PITT and its firehose of medical terms/weird disease names presents particular challenges. Let's just say "Dr. Strikethrough" is always on call.

‘The Pitt’ Season 2 Episode 1 Recap: Captain Crunch Flying Squirrel Socks “I love boba!”

After Season 1 I'd think about characters on THE PITT like they were past coworkers, or people I knew in a different city. "I wonder how it's going with Whitaker crashing at Santos' place," etc. Anyway I'm insane. Hyped to be 'capping S2 for @deciderdotcom.bsky.social .

decider.com/2026/01/08/t...

A train station bar is random by design, especially on a holiday. So I appreciate the bartender who did not deviate from her playlist of 80s metal deep cuts. Faster Pussycat, Britney Fox, a FireHouse cut I’d never heard, a lesser Poison Bic ballad; the Crue w/ “Kickstart,” just for a holiday jolt.

I commanded myself about a month ago: no buying any records until at least when Spring Training starts. It's been going great, the rediscovery. The hearing things in unexpected new ways. Like you just did with that Chet Atkins, I've often said about something I already had, "Oh shit, this rips!"

Part of my recent break from buying new-to-me vinyl is because I realized I need to separate the thrill of discovering something cool/new from simple enjoyment/getting into again all the great shit I already have. (Sometimes if I go to grab a record, I listen instead to what's to the left of it.)

Slinky! Those harmonies.

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Last Samurai Standing’ on Netflix, a limited series where the last of Japan’s legendary warriors must battle to survive In modernizing 19th century Japan, as the samurai are getting canceled, one warrior decides the only way to survive is to fight his way through.

You should chase away the bullshit this weekend w/ 'Last Samurai Standing,' a thrilling, thoughtful action series set in 19th c. Japan, where a noble samurai has a few things left to prove to the jerk-offs running his country. Wrote about it @deciderdotcom.bsky.social:
decider.com/2025/11/13/l...

You should know your Lewes FC updates led me into a deep dive on the (long!) history of the Dripping Pan ground.

Thanks for reading ‘em!

I guess I was right about it flipping to Gen Alpha.

A galactic criminal is tapped by a shadowy Rebel Alliance recruiter for a crew attacking an Imperial outpost. The rebellion itself isn’t a thing yet. But momentum builds as Andor is radicalized. Like all of us, you will also become fascinated w/ Dedra Meero of the Empire’s Imperial Security Bureau.

‘Alien: Earth’ Episode 1 Recap: Cool If We Crash Here? The first few scenes are committed to bringing its franchise’s past into its present.

I’m recapping ‘Alien: Earth’ for @deciderdotcom.bsky.social, which is awesome because this show is scary and stylish and weird and a great place to escape to, even if its future is still full of rich dipshits. Also: Sabbath and Tool and other exquisitely curated jams.

decider.com/2025/08/12/a...

While I detest in all its forms the in-game interview w/ coaches/players, I’d pay extra for a feature that opened a (listen-only) mic whenever players were talking at first base.

Alternate idea: just combine. After Weezer, Olivia could’ve brought out the Korn dudes for a cover of “Got the Life.”

I feel like for FOUNDATION S3 — what year is it in this show? Wellllll… — basically everybody, even Asimov heads, must be watching only for its flowing river of impenetrability. My sense of what’s happening? Vague. But! Space drugs, mind-control pirates, and “something casting shadows in the math.”

Was able to dart in and grab an extra ice cube from the tray while my freezer's door was closing, extricate my arm without disturbing its motion. 🏆 (Feel like I deserve to take the rest of the day off)

No way never! The van’s powers would override my stupidity.

a man wearing a hat and a red jacket is singing into a microphone .. Alt: The playa haters ball

Live shot of Jake being forced to listen to Disturbed covers

TS at the Empty Bottle when

Stream It Or Skip It: 'Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)' on Hulu, a thoughtful Questlove-directed doc about the leader of Sly and The Family Stone Questlove directs Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), a doc about Sly Stone that finds wider import in what it meant when he became a kind of Black Elvis.

Sly was so cool, and his music will forever be powerfully danceable. Questlove's recent Sly doc is also totally brilliant.

decider.com/2025/03/25/q...

Like 20 years ago, I rested a coffee on the roof of a car before climbing in. Drove away and it went flying. “Never again!” I swore about roof-resting things. Anyway, I just rested my computer on a car’s roof and drove away 💀

‘Duster’ Episode 3 recap: Slippin’ into darkness “Follow the numbers.”

Nothing but anecdotal data on this, but TV used to have more bar fights. Nice to see a few pool cues meet cheekbones in the latest ep of DUSTER. Took a drag on a recap: decider.com/2025/05/30/d...

‘Duster’ Episode 2 recap: Too late to turn back now Duster continues to have a whole lot of fun with its take on the 1970s.

DUSTER is cruising away from all noise and bullshit at 275hp. I mean, in the second episode, 70s Josh Holloway is out here robbing Elvis. ‘Capped it for @deciderdotcom.bsky.social:

decider.com/2025/05/23/d...

‘Duster’ Episode 1 recap: You don’t mess around with Jim This thing feels as much like a riff on real life as it does a tribute to how the ’70s used to look on TV.

DUSTER is one of my fave pilots in some time. Thrilled to have the former Metro Wheelman himself, @johnnyloftus.bsky.social, recapping the exploits of Josh Holloway's wheelman over at @deciderdotcom.bsky.social. Fire up your 8 tracks and punch your gas pedals, hombres! decider.com/2025/05/16/d...

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘100 Foot Wave’ Season 3 on HBO, where Garret McNamara and his fellow big wave surfers keep chasing the dream What about a 500-foot wave? A thousand? If it’s out there, the athletes profiled in 100 Foot Wave will surf it.

'100 Foot Wave' makes being an infinitesimal speck of dust -- one human against a zillion tons of surging water -- look both insane and totally cool. And as a proud Midwestern flatlander, surfing to me just seems beautiful and impossible. Maybe like life? Wrote about it: decider.com/2025/05/01/1...

Cheyenne shouts at her former shipmates who tried to have her arrested

Haven’t seen much of Etoile, but the show’s first episode does feature a fantastic intro of Lou de Laage as Cheyenne, rogue prima ballerina.

And hey, solidarity w/ Cheyenne, too. In real life, lots of the forces and people harming our society deserve to get zinged w/ a solid line like this.

An all-time ripper [that whenever I hear also instantly projects me backwards in time to 1998 and playing the CD over and over and over again in my shitbox Ann Arbor garden apartment, believing I could hear a glorious future]