Hola Sneakers! This week on Sneaky Dragon, Ian and Dave are joined by their friend James, who asked to be on the show to celebrate their 21st birthday and Ian and Dave were happy to have them to talk elaborate moustaches; the correct length of sideburns; how Stryper inspired Dave; thematic street names; street stories; confounding math problems; the language of math; the insulting coat; the wounded American psyche; mind fucks; doing the Puyallup; a brief intermission; graveyard activities; three-legged cat problems; Annihilation fractals; favourite math songs; imaginary children; improv too everywhere; when shame kicks in; the comedic path; Hannah Gadsby; the myth of laziness; stressful stress; disappointing treats; Chinese Chinese food; and, finally, the Top 5 songs about swords as requested by Haden.
Thanks for listening.
The Top 5 sword songs as chosen by Dave:
1) “Two Swords” by The English Beat from the 1980 album I Just Can’t Stop It
2) “Fall On My Sword” by The Heavy Blinkers from the 2006 album The Night and I Are Still So Young
3) “Don Quixote” by Gordon Lightfoot from the 1972 album Don Quixote
4) “From a Silver Phial” by Gene Clark from the 1974 album No Other
5) “The Lamb Ran Away from the Cross” by Judee Sill from the 1971 album Judee Sill
and bubbling under (or over), from Dave’s favourite album of 2017:
6) “Soldier” by Richard Dawson from the 2017 album Peasant
James surrounded by two goofs:
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Great to hear both poor Gene Clark and poor Judee Sill on the show this week. From a Silver Phial is simply one of my all-time favourite songs by anybody, so it was a thrill to see it on Dave’s playlist.
Interestingly, it’s been alleged that David Geffen’s decision to drop Judee Sill from his label was also based on spite, after she made an onstage, derogatory reference to his sexuality. She was a wonderful writer and musician, and The Donor is a haunting, baroque masterpiece.
James was an excellent addition to the mix – more like another friend than a guest. And what an infectious laugh!
Hey, I have a favourite fractals song. Okay, so before listening to this week’s podcast, it was the only song I knew that has the word fractals in it. It’s a little ditty called “Let It Go” from some animated flick called Frozen. “Fractals” shows up in the bridge.
“My power flurries through the air into the ground
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around”
I thought that was pretty cool that a mathematical term made its way into the middle of a power ballad in a Disney movie. And that kids all over the world were singing about them along with defiant lyrics about non-conformity and self-acceptance.
Okay, but can we agree the snowman wasn’t needed?
So I guess your answer to the musical question, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” would be a rather frosty “no.”