Tag: travel

Ted Lasso Final Episode, Season 3 Finale Podcast: So Long, Farewell

It’s the Ted Lasso Final Episode from Season 3 on the Torg Stories Podcast.

click above for audio / video podcast below

Generally, what am I looking for in a final episode or the end of a story?

  1. Questions were probably raised in my mind. I’d like to see them answered.
  2. Answering questions is related to resonance. I expect echoes or reflections of the start of the story.
  3. In first person writing, I offer students up the option to come to realizations and new understandings. To look back and to look ahead.
  4. Ending with meaningful images can be a part of that. Ted and Rebecca sitting in the empty stadium bleachers. Ending with Ted’s eyes as he stands on the pitch coaching his son.
  5. There’s pressure to take me on one last good ride and make me laugh, think, and/or cry. How will they leave it? Will there be any surprises?
  6. Looking for a statement about the themes and topics of the story.
  7. Hope to be moved intellectually or emotionally.
  8. Questions for Anne: what’s your history with final episodes? I can remember Seinfeld and Sopranos. I don’t know if I remember any others.

Going into the last episode of Ted Lasso, which I thought would be the last episode ever, what was I thinking about?

  1. I wondered what Coach Lasso would do. Would he go home? Would he end up with someone such as Rebecca or Sassy?
  2. Would Roy or Jamie end up with Keeley? I tended to think Jamie was a better fit for Keeley.
  3. How would the team do?

Let’s go through this final episode and then let’s check on how we think the episode did based on what we’ve laid out:

  1. We get the Soccer Saturday show which has worked well to summarize what’s going on. Richmond can win the league. Rupert has been accused of an inappropriate relationship. Something we’ve been seeing since the first episode is coming home to roost for Rupert.
  2. I think we get some misdirection in the opening scene. Rebecca is in the kitchen. Ted comes walking out into Rebecca’s kitchen. Ted, do you want to talk about it? Then we get Beard in a thong. How did you like that Anne?
  3. Trent has finished his book. The Lasso Way. Beard severe critic.
  4. Higgins, Keeley, and Higgins. Bring up Rupert is getting divorced. Guaranteed spot in the Champions League. Rebecca asks about selling the whole team. 2 billion. EMO: Rebecca selling whole club. New issue introduced I hadn’t considered.
  5. Team does a song and dance from the Sound of Music. So long, farewell. Goodbye.
  6. Jamie invites Keeley to go with him to Brazil for a Nike photoshoot. Roy invites Jamie for a beer. We’re getting something I wondered about. Where will these relationships go?
  7. Rebecca in the pub with her mom. Tish is the psychic. The fans bought Rebecca dinner. Really good joke by Mae about lying awake at night thinking about how easy they’ve had it.
  8. Ted sits in the bleachers alone. Rebecca shows up to talk about him leaving. Ted says very little during this talk. Rebecca makes an argument for him to stay. She says if he goes, she goes and will sell the team.
  9. Jamie and Roy show up at Keeley’s. They tell her to choose.
  10. Ted goes in to see Nate who is looking at the empty spot on the wall where the Believe sign used to be. Nate breaks down and tells Ted he is sorry. Ted says when he looks up there, he still sees it.
  11. In the office before the final match, they go over the leagues and advancing and being relegated. Roy asks to be a Diamond Dog. They mention the perfect film the Shawshank Redemption, which you have never seen, right?
  12. Higgins: The best we can do is keep asking for help and accepting it when we can. If you keep doing that, you will always be moving toward better.
  13. They show the team a montage of highlights. The whole team stands on the pitch crying.
  14. Dr. Sharon is watching. Dr. Jake really missing the mood: well, something happened.
  15. Halftime 0-2: Let you gentlemen know what an honor is has been to be your coach. Loved getting to know you. Front row seat to the men you have become. I’m gonna miss you all. Sports would be a lot less fun if you know what was going to happen. Goes to point at the wall… The sign isn’t there. Peace of mind knowing we did our best. Sam gets up and puts a piece of the sign in the middle. Jamie’s is in a book. Issac’s under his captain band. WHEN A TEAM DOES SOMETHING ON THEIR OWN. There it is. #4: Believe. There ain’t a whole lot of pleaces like AFC Richmond too.
  16. Wow: on a 16 game winning streak. Tartt scores at 51 minutes. Jamie tells Dani to take it. He gives it to Isaac. He kicked it through the net. Net gets replaced.
  17. Rupert strides onto the pitch. Crowd chants Wanker at Rupert. He loved the team.
  18. Ted learned what offsides was!
  19. Issac takes a penalty and kicks the ball through the net. I looked this up and it has happened before.
  20. They run the play where Tartt is a decoy. BBQ Sauce. Sam scores. Nate, you used my play! Collin gets to kiss his fella. Ted dances and does the running man which we got in the opening episode of season 1. Rebecca decided selling 49% of team to fans. Richmond came in second. Wicked – Kinky Boots.
  21. Rebecca says she wants to stay with her family.
  22. On the flight: To beard. Is this nuts? Beard is in love with Jane. You’re just following your heart. Whatever is about to happen, that’s a great start. I love you Willis. Beard gets off.
  23. A little girl comes running up to Rebecca at the airport. Rebecca meets the little girl. Her dad is the Amsterdam guy.
  24. Ted gets the snow globe.
  25. Trent’s book. Change the title.
  26. Roy is the manager.
  27. Nate is with Jade.
  28. Sam makes his national team.
  29. Picnic at Higgins house. Life goes on without Coach Ted Lasso.
  30. Mae and the bar fans buy some of the team.
  31. The Richmond Way becomes the name of the book.
  32. Roy goes into therapy.
  33. Ripped sign put back up.
  34. Beard’s wedding at Stonehenge.
  35. Roy lands in KC. Mercedes car home. Ted brings his luggage in the house.
  36. Coaching his kid. Be a goldfish. “Fight Test” playing.
  37. Cat Stevens, Father and Son.

Overall Observations / Questions:

  1. Rebecca and Ted are first bound by the pain of their divorces. Makes me think of friends I’ve had. And also the friends of going through something together.
  2. Between Ted’s take off from London and arrival at his home in Kansas City, is a montage that shows Roy getting introduced as manager of Richmond and Beard getting married. Ted is not at Beard’s wedding.
  3. The man from Amsterdam has unintentionally ended up with the owner of a Premiere League Team.

Where did the character start? How did they finish?

  1. Coach Ted Lasso: from full of pain from divorce, not dealing with his father’s death and marriage to heading home more mentally healthy and perhaps to reconcile his marriage.
  2. Rebecca: from trying to ruin Richmond to get back at her ex husband Rupert to thinking of the team and its fans as her family. She might end up with her own family too.
  3. Roy Kent
  4. Jamie Tartt
  5. Keeley Jones
  6. Nathan Shelley – unconfident self loathing ambition to peaceful acceptance of being a part of a team
  7. Sam Obisanya – from getting picked on by Jamie to being a leader of the team.
  8. Colin – from being closeted gay to, in the words of the show, getting to his his fella on the pitch.
  9. Rupert – a rich and powerful philanderer who owns two teams who experiences complete destruction and is ridiculed off the pitch of a team and fanbase he used to love.

Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!

The Outer Banks, Duck Doughnuts, and Ted Lasso Season 3, Episode 9

Hi Everyone! Anne and I are recording this episode on the top floor of the Torg Family Vacation Rental in Duck North Carolina, a town in the Outer Banks. On this episode we’re going to use our powers of description to talk about the Outer Banks, a local favorite that made it big Duck Doughnuts, the talk that athletes should keep their mouths shut about politics, and more from Ted Lasso Season 3, Episode 9.

We’re in Duck, NC. The first Duck Doughnuts opened in 2007. Take a guess as to how many there are now? 126. Click here to read more about Duck Doughnuts.

My Duck Doughnuts rankings for the six I tried:

  1. Peanut Butter: like it comes off a fancy dessert menu. Peanut butter cookie dough or right out of the oven.
  2. Chocolate Explosion: dominant dark chocolate.
  3. Bacon- just like when my syrup, bacon, and pancake all run together. A little weird coming from a doughnut.
  4. French Toast.
  5. Straight Glaze.
  6. Coconut.
beach near Corolla, NC

Let’s talk about some of the other beaches we have been to as a way of getting into the beaches we’re seeing at the Outer Banks. My list:

  1. Cape Cod. Quite a bit of variety. Provincetown. Mayflower Beach near Dennis, MA. Chatham.
  2. Lots of variety on Maui too.
  3. Myrtle Beach. Folly Beach. Wrightsville Beach.
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (tallest brick lighthouse in country)

Season 3, Episode 7 titled “The Strings that Bind Us”

  • This episode starts with all of the businesses in Richmond coming to life. Then we get short shots of all of the characters starting their day. Wonder why this was something we were given steadily throughout the episode?
  • Nate looking in the shop where Jade works.
  • Jack and Keeley. Sense and Sensibility first edition. People come on strong to Keeley.
  • Sam at his restaurant. Sam’s restaurant booked months in advance. He asked for a special table. The chef seems to be a great leader / coach. Sam’s father is coming from Nigeria. They were talking crap about Prime Minister, immigration stuff. Huge topic today.
  • Coaching staff introduces Total Football from the Netherlands.
  • Beard gives a good presentation. He worked in a funny line about Jamie. Reminds me of what I heard about Phil Jackson and Tex Winter. Might be where the idea to do a presentation like this came from.
  • LOL: Beard lists a line of greats including Gaga and Pinter.
  • Roy: you turn those frowns upside down because we’re f’ing doing it. Coach Ted: hush your butts.
  • Barbara takes some jabs at Keeley for dating Jack. She is a pretty funny character.
  • Ted and Beard continue to tap glasses and then tap the table. Maybe this: a sign of respect, a way to acknowledge the bartender, or a form of “cheers” to the group. It can also be a way to settle the drink, like beer, and make it easier to finish quickly. 
  • Ted invites the three bar guys to come to training.
  • Roy still yelling whistle. They commit to the little gags!
  • Jack says they are two consenting adults and she is get away with murder rich. Jack anounces to the office they are dating.
  • Lots of throwing up. Jamie’s not tired.
  • Rebecca tells Keeley about what happened meeting the boat guy. Rebecca introduces the phrase “love bombing.” Keeley says maybe we’re “love blind.” It’s an emotional version of color blindness where a person interprets red flags as giant green go flags. Jack gets the meal.
  • Nate’s sister’s birthday party. How do you tell if a girl likes you or is just being nice to you? Show him the map. So much pressure on one date.
  • Sam tweets a political statement.
  • Nate goes to ask her out. EMO moment! He doesn’t spit. He rushes out.
  • Total football: What does this situation need right now? Changing places. Dani and Issac pretty good switches. Jamie doesn’t switch with anyone.
  • The friend fans switch positions. The one guy says Paul has unwavering positivity.
  • Sam gets the “shut up and dribble.”
  • LOL: It’s like taking a hike with Robert Frost. It could go either way.
  • Keeley an office full of daisies. Ted connects them all with red string.
  • The crowd is starting to grow in the stands.
  • LOL: Will picks up the string with a tool.
  • Sam calls the political person a bigot.
  • Nate makes a box for Jade to ask her out. (is he doing his job now?) Jade waves at Nate. He trips and his box gets run over. He asks her out anyway.
  • Sam’s business is trashed.
  • Trent is writing his notes and he wonders what #4 is to play total football? #4 has not revealed itself yet. Ted says, “Sometimes you gotta leave space to let God walk into the room.”
  • EMO: Sam is going off to the team about his restaurant. And his dad calls out his name, “Samuel.” Sam’s dad: Anger will only weaken you. If you want to make them angry, forgive them. Big Whoop, says dad. Don’t fight back. Fight forward.
  • Richmond at Arsenal. Hornby’s team. Fever Pitch. 3-nil lead for Arsenal.
  • Halftime speech. Roy says he hates what Ted has done to him. He says the ZZ Top Cover Band would have been called Sharp Dressed Men. Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Says he has a Foxworthy. Makes the guys laugh. The right idea is just sitting behind a couple of wrong ones. Jamie tells them how to play.
  • Immediate goal for Richmond. Tartt in the role of conductor. The Lasso Way. total Football. Crimm says it’s going to work.
  • Nate waits for Jade. Jack knows the term love bomber. Sam and his dad go to the restaurant. Dad seems to know about Rebecca.
  • The team asked themselves what does this situation need and they are cleaning up the restaurant. Sam’s dad didn’t know the place was named after him?
  • Do we learn Simi and Sam are a couple? Ends with Sam and his dad cooking dinner.

Boone and LA Restaurant Recs, Report from London, and a Ted Lasso Tour of Amsterdam

Welcome to the Torg Stories Podcast! In this episode, Anne is back from London. We’re getting ready to see her at the Outer Banks. We talk solo vacationing, and we get what amounts to a travel program on Amsterdam from the television series Ted Lasso. Anne, give us a story from London.

Click player above to listen to the podcast

On this episode, I give Boone, NC restaurant recommendations and Anne gives LA, we get a report from London, and there’s what amounts to a tour of Amsterdam from the television show Ted Lasso.

Notes for Discussion of Season 3, Episode 6: “Sunflowers“

  • The episode gets its name from the Vincent van Gogh’s series of sunflower paintings.
One of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings
  • Anne, I wish I had been keeping track of a list of my favorite episodes. This one ranks way up there for me.

What are the reasons this might be one of my more favorite episodes?

  1. It works like a sitcom version of a travel guide or video with a sports, culture, and history slant. Better than something like White Lotus because it gives the history on purpose.
  2. The characters adventures really move the plot and evolve their characters at a quick pace.
  3. The Roy and Jaimie scenes are sweet and funny. The Chicago Bulls, Tex Winter triangle offense, and invent Total Football couldn’t be more in my wheelhouse.
  4. The amount of things you could stop to look up is incredible: the jazz club, the jazz musician, the BBQ sauce that Ted is handed in the restaurant

  • The team gets hammered in an exhibition match in Amsterdam. The season has taken a turn for the terrible. The team needs a shift in mojo. Coach Lasso decides there’s no curfew for the night.
  • Roy says Jamie doesn’t get to miss training. They get off the bus and start running.
  • Higgins invites kit man Will to go to the Red Light District with him. Nice bit of mystery about what they are going to do.
  • Roy and Jaimie jog through narrow brick streets with boats on a canal. Jamie knows so much about Amsterdam.
  • Rebecca out walking by herself. A man yells at her and she falls into the water. “Space cake”? The guy throws his phone into the water.
  • Beard and Ted getting ready to go out. Yankee Doodle Burger Barn. How do you decide where to eat when you are somewhere?

Let’s say I’m coming to LA. Where would you tell the Torgs to go eat?

What places do I reccomend to people coming to Boone, NC?

  1. Booneshine
  2. Town Tavern in Banner Elk
  3. Black Cat Burrito
  4. Stickboy Kitchen
  5. Boone Saloon
  6. The Local on Howard Street

Haven’t tried: Dan’l Boone Inn, Fizz Ed, South End Brewing Company, Horton Rooftop

  • Team in the lobby trying to figure out where they will go. Collin excuses himself. Boat tour. Train to Paris. See a tulip. Go to a party with a DJ. Museum culture. Team movie night. William is the kit man. A Dutch DJ named Martin Garrix is mentioned as the Dutch player’s cousin.
  • Rebecca in the boat. Sees kid’s stuff. He leaves tea for her. Guess it’s good tea.
  • Beard downs a psychedelic. Ted decides not to.
  • Collin slips out. Trent follows. Wearing leopard skin boats?
  • The boat man kisses Rebecca’s bleeding ankle after he puts a band aid on it out of force of habit. LOL: Rebecca says all that military training. He’s pretty forward.
  • Ted just wants to stay in? He gives Beard a chance to go and he jumps at it.
  • Trent runs into Collin at a gay bar. Collin freaks out. Trent tells Collin he already knew. (Did you know Trent was gay at this point?)
  • Ted drinks most of his tea and goes out alone. Anne style! Anne, compare and contrast going to London alone and joining us in the Outer Banks.
  • Worked in a way to get Rebecca to sing, which I appreciate. Some Kenny Rogers!
  • Roy didn’t know how to ride a bike. Anne, how are your bike riding skills?
  • Going out alone: Ted, Beard, Rebecca, Collin, and Trent.
  • Higgins on the jazz outing with Will: One pilgrim alone is merely a zealot, but two pilgrims together, that’s a pilgrimage. Jazz Cafe Alto is real. Click here for website. Anne, is this a shot at what Ted is doing and your solo vacations.
  • Collin and Trent Crimm talk. Dr. Sharon helped Collin realize he has an ache. We can’t fix every ache inside of us.
  • Museum night. Van Gogh works.

One doesn’t expect to get from life, what one has learned it cannot give, rather one begins to see that life is a kind of sowing time, and the harvest is not yet here. – often attributed to Van Gogh

  • I really liked the farm painting. When you know you’re doing what you’re meant to do, you have to try. (we’ve already heard this from Ted’s son. You have to try.)
  • Stroopwafel sounds good! Waffles with a syrupy filling?
  • Ted goes to Yankee Doodle Burger Barn. (fictional restaurant) “Table for one.” Darts evoke Ted’s father.
  • Gezellig. The man on the boat keeps saying it. The gezellig Dutch culture can remind us all to be more present with friends and ourselves. Funny moment of dumping water on the wet clothes.
  • Bulls on. Ted used to watch the Bulls with his dad. Pyramid ain’t nothing but a triangle. Chance the Rapper. Going deep on this. Nate as a waiter. Arthur Bryant BBQ from Kansas City.
  • I appreciate not having all of the allusions explained to me.
  • Everything goes black for Ted and he talks with a voice who says it is The True Spirit of Adventure. A lesson on triangles. Ted starts writing.
  • Higgins yells, “Let’s Get Lost.” It’s a Chet Baker song first appeared in a 1943 film. Montage: Higgins playing bass, big pillow fight, Ted working, Collin in the club, Rebecca dancing in the boat house, Roy and Jaime found a windmill. Ted continues to move the ketchup and mustard bottles around. Majerus book, My Life on a Napkin.
  • Boat man says, “Did we? Oh yes we did.”
  • Whoa, Beard’s outfit!
  • Ted comes up with Total Football, invented in Holland in the 70s.
  • Rebecca: My phone is at the bottom of a canal.
  • Rebecca sings, Don’t Worry, About a Thing.

Questions for discussion:

  1. Why so much Van Gogh? You have to try. The pursuit of something beautiful. Ted is meant to coach, according to this episode.
  2. Why say the psychedelic was a dud? What are we to believe happened with Ted in this episode?

Life in Asheville: Launch Trampoline Park

I took the girls to Launch Trampoline Park in Asheville, North Carolina.

It was a rainy summer day in Asheville, North Carolina, and my girls kept after me to take them to Launch Trampoline Park. Because one of the girls won a complimentary pass at the local high school basketball camp (Hot Shot Champion!) they’d been before with my mom and wife. This would be my first time to Launch. It’s located at 24 Walden Drive in Arden, North Carolina, south of Asheville on Highway 25 / Hendersonville Road.

We Made a Video Review Below

I checked online about how much tickets cost.  They have some online coupons that you can sign up for. The good thing about checking the website was I realized they have specific jump times. We decided to jump for an hour from 6:15 – 7:15. I think you could get by with 30 minutes for $8, but I recommend an hour’s time for $14. Any more than that would have been too much for my girls, ages eight and ten.

Launch Trampoline Park, Asheville
the line for the obstacle course

I didn’t buy myself a ticket, but once I got there I could see that I would have a good time, especially dunking on the basketball hoop and doing the obstacle course. However, I would have had to overcome the fact that at 45 years of age, I would have been the oldest person jumping by at least a decade.

 

navigating the obstalce course
Navigating the Obstacle Course

There were only a few small negatives to consider:

  • Maybe the $14 is just a bit expensive? I felt this way more before going than once I got there.
  • The line was pretty long for the obstacle course. I think they might be able to send the next person onto the course a little sooner.

 

Launch Trampoline Park, Asheville, North Carolina, Things to do, family, Life in Asheville, tourism
Whew, all this jumping is tiring!

Reasons we recommend Launch:

  • Very fun!
  • My youngest especially loved the dodge ball. The referee did a good job.
  • Great exercise
  • Super clean facility
  • Friendly Staff

I do more “Life in Asheville” posts on this site.

We just started a Life in Asheville Facebook page. Click here and “Like it” if you’re interested in our Blue Ridge Mountain town in Western North Carolina.

If you have favorite things to do in Asheville or Western North Carolina, let us know about them as a comment below. Please consider subscribing and/or sharing this post.

Thanks for stopping by the Torg Stories website!

Armpit Travel and Beer Poems: Torg Stories Podcast with Editor Peter Gregutt

Armpit Travel and Beer Poems with Mountain Xpress editor Peter Gregutt in this week’s Torg Stories Podcast.

I met Peter Gregutt when he worked with me as an editor on a piece published in Asheville’s Mountain Xpress titled “How Christopher Mello Sows Peace and Community in his West Asheville Garden.” 

In addition to listening above, you can click here for the iTunes link or just search for “Torg Stories” in the Podcast App of your iPhone.

When I learned Peter had climbed volcanoes in Guatemala, trekked the Himalayas, and spontaneously took a boat to Africa, I wanted to get him on the podcast. I was interested in his time in New York City studying English at Colombia, that he’d spent decades as an editor, and I admired his clever phrase Armpit Travel as a way to capture some of his experiences on the road.

Armpit Travel, Peter Gregutt, Travel, Mountain Xpress

***

As a way into our conversation, I asked Peter to read from the introduction to his collection. Here it is:

 

My Slime, Your Dime, High Time

Some folks “travel” via flickering images that dance across the screen. Others prefer to plant their ample posterior on a cushy seat in plane or train or air-conditioned motor coach and watch the world pass by beyond the glass.

And then there are the Armpit Travelers, those intrepid souls who strive to sniff out places a less ardent sort might choose to skip entirely in favor of a visit to the proctologist’s office.

Guided only by their own nose or gut, these indefatigable wayfarers aim to see the world — to taste the motley pleasures of the road and touch the very essence of experience — while ducking the troublesome encumbrance of paying for it. (Inevitably, of course, one does pay, though perhaps in blood and suffering in lieu of legal tender.)

To some, the words “budget travel” evoke visions of bland, greasy food; filthy, flea-infested beds; bathing in frigid water thick with icky microbes; and long, arduous bus rides that seem to go from nowhere to nowhere else. But to the true Armpit Traveler, the rewards of the road don’t stop there.

Beyond thrift, beyond grit or grift, beyond sanity, even, there lies a further storied realm whose streets might well be paved with gold if only they were paved at all. And to those with ears to hear and a nose that isn’t overly particular, that unceasing siren song may ultimately prove as irresistible as the last unprepossessing-looking person who’s still lingering in the singles bar at 2 a.m., blurry but determined, and casting inflammatory glances your way…

No travel agent orchestrates the Armpit Path; no map can aptly delineate its putative treasures. No, it’s up to the self-annointed pilgrim to discern and pursue the elusive way, guided only by the kind of enigmatic inner prompting that drives the arctic tern on its annual pole-to-pole journey and makes lemmings take their fateful leap…

But to the curious, the damned, the misfit or the annelid, a hint or a whistle or a tissue of outright lies just might prove to be the fire that lights the fuse, the fire ant whose mordant mandible incites the sluggard’s reluctant posterior to forward motion…

And to any and all who thus succumb to the blandishments and ballyhoo presented in these pages, I bid you a hearty bon voyage, albeit tempered by the slippery wisdom of an old Scottish proverb: “What may be, may not be…”

Thanks for checking out this edition of the Torg Stories podcast!

Coming soon: French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson and Grail Moviehouse owners Steve and Davida