Hola, Sneakers. Welcome to Episode 437 – the show they couldn’t hang. Of get the hang of.
This week: a couple of long hairs; new podcast: “The Story Ruiners”; bribeable dwarf; bowdlerizing for dollars; an empty world; (not those) Avengers theory; wild, wild inventory; surprise twist surprise; infinite garbage channel; Roddy McDevil, seminal scary clown; tiny Liberace; The Dunwich Horror and heroic oldies; horrific endings; zoned out; don’t fear the other; it’s not the flu; protesting the protesters; freedom of stupidity; nirvana is a state of band; passive-aggressive proposal; future Deck Talk™; barbecue chickens; Chick Talk™; egg hunt success; asking for it; bird action; the trapped in a bucket rule; stop shining on; setting the pace; the redundancy of horror; Top 10 All-Time Box Office Horror Movies; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; music in the night; give in to the id; de-lesbianized; book haters; be careful where you start; space miscegenation; boarding school capers; new podcast: “We’ll Fill You In”; agoraphobia; CoviD.I.Y; promises, promises; and, finally, the Fantasy Island challenge.
Thanks for listening.
Well, we have a few things we expect Sneakers to do this week. First, as usual, we’d like you to answer our…
Question of the Week: Have you had the opportunity to make or build anything during the lockdown?
Sub-question: What is the movie, TV show, book, etc. that scared you when you were young?
Then: we’d like you to recommend a movie for David and Ian to watch for Fansplainers. Are only request is the movie must be available on Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney Plus. We’ll take your suggestions and have Sneakers vote which one they’d like us to fansplain!
And last, but not least:
Don’t miss out on your chance to **WIN WIN WIN** That’s right! Our 450th episode is fast approaching and we will be hosting our traditional Listeners’ Questions Episode! Every question gives you a chance in our GRAND PRIZE DRAW. The more questions you ask, the better your chances to win! So get to asking!
Send your list of questions by email to sneakyd@sneakydragon.com. If you’d like, record your questions, send us an audio file, and we’ll play it during the show. Fun, right???
Ian recommended Ryan North’s To Be or Not to Be during the show. You can learn about it here.
Interested in some Sparks merch? Check out Nina’s fabulous design here.
Want to join in David and Ian’s Fantasy Island Challenge? You can start with Part 1 on YouTube!
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The deal with Rapunzel (in the fairy tale version anyway, not sure about later adaptations) was that her tower had no door or stairs, so the only way to get into her room was by climbing her hair. Like you pointed out, Rapunzel herself couldn’t escape by her own hair. Instead, she and the prince (to quote from Wikipedia): “plan a means of escape, wherein he will come each night and bring Rapunzel a piece of silk that she will gradually weave into a ladder”. Things go awry when the witch discovers that Rapunzel is pregnant (I’m assuming this part got left out of Disney’s Tangled).
With Snow White, in the fairy tale the queen merely puts on a disguise, rather than drinking a potion to physically transform herself like in the Disney version. She makes several different attempts to kill Snow White, each time disguising herself as a different woman. Then in the end she’s invited to Snow White and Prince Charming’s wedding, where they kill her by making her dance to death wearing red-hot iron shoes.
What book scared me when I was young? Grimms’ Fairy Tales.
For Fansplainers, if you’re OK with doing a foreign film then I’d heartily recommend Parasite. Otherwise, perhaps Singin’ in the Rain? I know you’ve mentioned being fans of it a few times and I’d be interested in hearing you guys do a deep dive, having watched it recently myself. Both are available on Amazon Prime.
For fansplainers, I’d like to suggest John Carter on Disney+ or Ghostbusters: Answer The Call on Netflix? Both underrated? Both possibly contentious?
Netflix also has many “classics” preceding The Time Of The Fansplainers that could undergo the scrutiny – Inception, The Matrix, Titanic, The Hunger Games, Ready Player One, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Hot Fuzz, Monty Python’s Holy Grail or Life of Brian. So many! TOO many!!
On Netflix, I also suggest a lesser known, but fun one: See You Yesterday. A time travel movie starring, basically, Moon Girl without the Devil Dinosaur.
In the version of Rapunzel I remember, she blows the secret of the Prince’s visits by asking the Witch, “Hey, how come you’re so much heavier to pull up than the King’s son?” Dang, Rapunzel, you had ONE secret to keep! “Tangled” would be a good movie Fansplain during this pandemic. People are making much out of the eerie coincidence that the kingdom Rapunzel is from is called Corona. They’re also pointing to her song “When Will My Life Begin” as a good guide to coping with self-isolation. In it, she demonstrates her daily routine of passing the time with cleaning, baking, sketching and painting, music and dancing, reading, and home hair maintenance. I like this quarantine-version parody of the song by cosplay tutorial YouTuber, Micarah Tewers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCZpq83f_eM
Another movie you could Fansplain during this apocalyptic time is “Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon” available on Netflix.
The first movie with scenes that scared me as a kid was The Wizard of Oz… particularly the scene where Dorothy is being held captive in the Witch’s tower. She sees Auntie Em in the big crystal ball calling to her then the Witch suddenly appears in the ball, mocks her, and turns out to the audience and cackles. I found that really disturbing.
I had all the usual scary scenes from movies when I was a kid – it’s like a buzzfeed checklist, I’m sure. Return to Oz – The Wheelers, or when Dorothy tries to steal a key from around the witch’s neck’s head and it wakes up, waking up all her other heads and they start screaming – take your pick. Neverending Story – The Nothing (the wolf at the end). The Witches – the scene where the *ahem* fat kid gets turned into a mouse. Watership Down – Fievel’s dream of the warrens being filled in and the rabbits all being squashed and suffocated. The Dark Crystal – The Garthim. The Skeksis. When Fizgig first jumps out at us. When the podlings get their souls drained. Just everything about it really.
I’d have to say that I’ve been busy enough working on a daily basis to put any down time towards a home project or building something. We’re right about to pitch an entire new batch of kid’s meal toy concepts to one of our clients, so once that’s done I we’ll all be able to breathe a bit easier and free up some time for something else…just not sure what.
The first film that came to mind as my scariest movie as a kid was one our local affiliate would show late at night…and I always watched it. I may have mentioned this film before but it’s “Race with the Devil” starring Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit and Lara Parker. From 1975, the story is about two couples traveling through Texas to a motor sports event when they’re pursued by a Satanic Cult. They’re in a big motorhome and everywhere they go the Satanists aren’t far behind. You guys spoke about horror films and how they should or shouldn’t end on a happy note, this film ends horrifically. Spoiler! Just when the two couples think they’re finally safe from the Satanic hordes, they find a quiet place to park the motorhome in a forest clearing. Without a moment to enjoy their freedom, all the Satanists walk out from the surrounding forest and a huge circle of fire surrounds the motorhome and the two couples. The End. This ending haunted me the same way all this shit was supposedly taking place not far from where I lived!
Speaking of where I grew up, I mentioned I was a Chicago Cubs fan. This is due to the fact that I’m originally from Chicago, so just like you mentioned, we watched WGN in Chicago and then the Superstation in Dallas once we moved to Texas. I guess I’m a sucker for hard luck teams and I followed the Cubbies no matter what. I still consider Game 7 of the 2016 World Series to be one of the greatest moments on television as I watched the Cubs narrowly defeat the Cleveland Indians and win the Series for the first time in over 100 years. That night was intense magic and every Cubs fan was in tears for days.
Lightsabers are free in some cases…BUT several Jedi have paid for them dearly by losing their hand(s)! Even though it was cut from “Return of the Jedi”, Luke can be seen finishing his newly constructed green lightsaber and hiding it inside R2-D2. Later on during the siege on Jabba’s barge, the droid shoots the hidden saber at Luke to use for their escape. It’s been said that it’s kind of a “Right of passage” for a Jedi to built his or her own lightsaber, unless you’re a coughing trainwreck like General Grievous and you have a huge collection of stolen lightsabers hidden in your cape. I do know that they can’t be bought anywhere, just passed down, stolen, built or earned.
Okay damnit, if Ian hasn’t seen Godfather Part II, then that’s the film I’m recommending for Fanspainers! It’s a masterpiece and worthy of multiple viewings, just steer clear of that day-long version they cut into chronological order from the first two films, the version of Godfather II on Amazon Prime will do nicely. I get it that you’ve caught onto all the cultural references over the years but to watch it and put it into the context of the film will be well worth your time.
I’ve learned how to make pickles, but that’s about it. They’re great on top of a tuna melt, or a chicken sandwich (I use vegan chicken).
I was going to try to make a face mask, then decided the result wouldn’t be very good and that I’d end up getting one made by someone else instead. As Ian knows, I ended up lending my sewing machine to Vicky and Pia, and I’m glad it’s in much more capable hands.
My current new project is to work on my flexibility. I stumbled across the flexibility subreddit, and I’ve been doing deep stretches daily ever since. My goal is to be able to do front splits one day.
I was scared of E.T. when I was little and I’m sure I’m not the only one. That thing was designed to be appealing and they based it on old people, but it’s pretty horrific-looking. I guess it can be considered mildly cute in the same way a pug is. Still, it’s infinitely better than its knock-off: Mac from “Mac And Me.”
Every kid in the world is scared to death of “The Wizard of Oz”. For me the scene where Dorothy is looking into the crystal ball and her Aunt Em turns into the witch is probably the scariest scene in all of moviedom.
I was also scared to death of the original “House on Haunted Hill” with Vincent Price. I’ve watched it as an adult, and it’s STILL scary.
Fansplainer movie- It’s a Wonderful Life. Dave could do this one blindfolded. There’s a lot of interesting trivia associated with this movie that I’ve heard over the years.
I generally listen to your podcasts while driving, so of course things are a bit asynchronous these days. Occasionally I dash out as an “essential service” (relief pharmacist), so that’s when I catch up a bit.
You were talking about the old “Wild Wild West” series – which was a go-to experience back in the 60s, and even then I thought they were taking liberties with the ingenuity of Atemus Gordon – two inventions come to mind –
(1) a cylinder phonograph where a broken cylinder is repaired (good luck with that!) to reveal an odd piano melody, which when sped up, played out a message in Morse code, and
(2) a stereoscopic slide reel that, when projected in rapid succession, created a movie showing Grant signing a secret treaty with (I think?) Japan, with the potential for international scandal; the first drove the plot for that episode, and the second bit of intrigue was thwarted by Gordon when he dressed up as Grant and did some slapschtick spliced into the projection, after which he mused whether this sort of thing could ever catch on.
Well, the first phonograph in late 1877 (post Grant) was tinfoil, black wax not being around until around 1902, and the earliest films were 3 second experiments in the late 1880s, and were certainly not projected. The stereoscopic film part reminded me of “The Fabulous World of Jules Verne” (1958), which had lots of Verne-ish sci-fi with the director-animator Karel Zeman giving everything a neat woodcut look. There, they used a huge phenakistoscope disk to deliver a “newsreel.”
Great to hear you, even if it meant being coughed upon by the best of the worst!
Here’s a link to that Zeman film –
During the shutdown, I’ve been converting old recordings (some of which are the aforementioned cylinders) to mp3/wav formats. One collection, on 12 inch 78s , was a full Orson Welles adaptation of “Merchant of Venice” which ran almost 2 hours. Wartime 1941 shellac is dreadfully noisy, even on the best basic material, but it is finally done after 15 years on the shelf.
As a kid, I was utterly petrified not only of the flying monkeys, but of the ending cave scene in 1938’s “Adventure of Tom Sawyer.” Ran to bed crying, even after Aunt Polly backhanded that little snitch at the end. (link to entire youtube Technicolor feast at – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbZuCrmSHN4 )