Hola, Sneakers. Welcome to the Episode 464 of the podcast that is still rebelling against the man!
On this episode: cooking; metric-challenged; enemy avocado; read ahead; elusive chervil; secret menus; war stories; condo-flagration; big pickle; known and unknown mysteries; murder shows; steamed death; dangerous mirrors; lil’detective; mad neighbours; unlimited actors; rote romance; Brightburned; super-repressed; my two dads; seatbelts and face masks; Ian recommends that David watch Ted Lasso; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; name game; complicated cereals; moving innards; a Fincher assault; sad news; midnight runs; we are not a-muesli; and, finally, Jesus Christ honeyomb.
Thanks for listening.
Question of the week: What is a movie or TV show you find comforting?
Sub-question of the week: What’s your favourite jingle?
Here is the Canadian classic that – no kidding – terrified unsuspecting Canadian kids throughout the 60’s and 70’s!
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I hate to nitpick but my comment was that I had hoped Martin Brest would have directed a sequel to “Midnight Run” so it had a chance at being as good as the first film. I was attempting to avoid any mention of the abomination sequels that came after the original but you did that for me. I do agree that the day Dennis Farina died was the day to pass on any chance of a proper Brest sequel, I absolutely loved Farina in everything he did. Did you ever watch him as Mike Torello in the NBC series “Crime Story”? He was from Chicago and seriously sounded like every one of my Uncles back home. I used to watch “Crime Story” with my Dad who would point out places he remembered from Chicago in the 60’s.
I was watching “High Fidelity” this past weekend and I wondered since it’s centered around music, mix tapes and a record store, if David has any fondness for this film? The scene where Cusack opens the store with his employee Todd Louiso has them playing a Belle and Sebastian record, until Jack Black bursts in and replaces it with “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves. Like I need another reason to hate Jack Black and I know how much you like Belle and Sebastian. I was drawn too this film because it was filmed in Chicago and I’m from there but I was wondering how authentic David thought the music and record aspect of the film was. Having been adapted from a book where the recored store was in London do you think that would have worked better? If it was a comic store Cusack owned I’d probably be more critical having worked in one. Maybe for a future Fansplainers?
My comfort viewing: I think I’ve mentioned before my love for Corner Gas. I tend to re-watch the entire series every year or so, and watch a random episode whenever I need a pick-me-up. It has a style of humor almost completely free of mean-spiritedness, and it never fails to put me in a good mood.
I had decided against watching Brightburn, and your discussion of it makes me feel I made the right call. I seem to end up mentioning Alan Moore every week, but I’m reminded of his comments about The Killing Joke. Basically, Moore’s said that in retrospect he’s not very proud of writing that story, because it’s merely about Batman and the Joker, and doesn’t relate to anything in the real world. I think this sums up the problem with a lot of these darker takes on superheroes, which is that they’re merely dark for the sake of it, without any deeper themes. Of course, that’s not to say that everything needs to have deeper themes (I’m pretty sure Corner Gas doesn’t), but on the flipside, maybe there’s something a tad wrong with making a movie about a mass-murdering child simply as light entertainment.
Well, I still haven’t actually seen the movie, so I probably shouldn’t be so quick to judge. At any rate, that “Superman vs the Klu Klux Klan” thing you mentioned sounds pretty neat, so I may have to check that out.
Hey Todd, since we two seem to be carrying a torch for Alan Moore, I wanted to recommend a story I don’t think has been mentioned here on Sneaky Dragon. If you haven’t read it, find Superman Annual #11 by the team that brought you WATCHMEN, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The story is titled, “For the Man Who Has Everything” and takes place at Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Its Superman’s Birthday and the entire story is centered around Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman when they arrive to to celebrate. Here’s a link to this great single story by Moore & Gibbons:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6537607-for-the-man-who-has-everything
Ah yes, I have read that one. It’s pretty good! I’ve got it in a collection that’s basically all Moore’s Superman stories, so it’s Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, For the Man Who Has Everything, and then a Superman/Swamp Thing crossover. I think there was an animated adaptation as well, but I haven’t seen it.
Recently I got the collection of Moore’s Future Shocks stories for 2000 A.D. Basically they’re a bunch of short (2-8 page) sci-fi tales with a twist ending. They’re some of Moore’s earliest work and so overall far from his best, but they’re still plenty enjoyable, so I’d recommend checking them out if you haven’t already.
Hi,
That is exactly that… a plastic box (to be assembled so not so tight) to put a cracked egg in it and boil it… very disapointing. The gadget was announced in the previous week issue, so I had a week to imagined a magic device which could square a complete and raw egg…
Like when I saw the first add for the Lisa (the bis sister of the Mac), in which they say that the mouse allow you to retrieve any document on your desk… so I was wondering how it could grab a sheet of paper if you put it in a file folder or in a file tray… Too much litteral.
For the metrics in France when we buy fruits, vegetables or meet we use livre (pound) and demi-livre (half pound) for 500 or 250g weights.
A reconforting show or movie ? The Blues Brother and Densha Otoko (The Train Guy). A likable japanese sitcom, a drama as they say (spell Dorulama, or something like that), about A geek helping a young upper class lady in a train as she’s assaulted by a durnkard, in return for what she ask his number and how all his online otaku friends will halp him and encourage him in is lon journey to seduce the aforemention lady.
Best Jingle : Hawaii O five (the original). Give me a big smile, always.
PS if you want to laugh with/about the frenchies :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pae2AMnmUVA at the show What the Fuck France https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6OtEXNyF-BWG-xntRgbvKOQLLW7jKEgj
I know Dave has mentioned this before, but those gosh darn Beatles films are just so enjoyable. I really could watch any Beatles film, yes EVEN Magical Mystery Tour, any day of the week. I think this goes hand in hand with the fact that most Beatle songs are very comforting to me, and their movies obviously feature their own music heavily (though you have to wait until the end of Let It Be). I swear, Beatle songs are warm chocolate chip cookies for the ears.
Other then those films, many Disney Channel Original films are comforting to me. I’m sure it’s the nostalgia that makes them so comforting, but my friends in college and I would often find ourselves rewatching old Disney films for a movie night. Films like High School Musical and Camp Rock are so campy and overacted, but that’s what makes them so fun (I’m really showing my age on this one). Plus they’re musicals, which makes any film better.
Oh and the best jingle is the one NOT stuck in my head and driving me crazy. Though I suppose that defeats the purpose.
A program on Netflix that has been comfort viewing for my sister and me this year is one I’d like to recommend to Dave’s wife Lezah as a change from all those true crime programs. It’s a droll Danish TV series called Rita about a rebellious junior high school teacher and divorced mom of three adult children who has not yet grown up herself. She drinks, swears, has sex with inappropriate men, and smokes way too much. She’s constantly clashing with co-workers and her students’ parents but she always has the kids’ best interests at heart. The series gives you a glimpse into Danish school culture and social issues, some universal and some unique to Denmark. A great supporting character is the idealist rookie teacher Hjordis, who is a big fan of Rita and also of The Lord of the Rings. She thinks of herself as the bard to Rita’s warrior. When in an amorous mood, she and her boyfriend break into (untranslated) Elvish.
An endless running of “Star Trek” Original Series episodes or any of the movies with Kirk & Crew has a comforting effect on me, they’re familiar and I know them all. I know you guys aren’t Trekkies but there’s a charm about those shows that I can’t put my finger on that never gets old.
Recently I took in the Netflix series “Dark” which turned my brain into gravy, I was so dead set on understanding the third season that I almost couldn’t wait for it to end. Wrapping everything I had around that show was exhausting and I knew that once it was over I should unwind with something softer and easier on the noggin…that ended up being “Stargirl.” Now I’m taking on all seven seasons of “The Clone Wars” so I can be prepared for the cross-overs they’re planning on having with “The Mandalorian.” I didn’t think I’d like the animation all that much but it’s actually done quite well and has grown on me.
Having been in Advertising for 30 years, I can’t really say I have a favorite jingle. Dr Pepper definitely had the most lasting impression on me because I had to work with those and my first wife was a buyer for the radio ad time. How about the jingle that you can’t stop thinking about? It’s successful even if it’s bad because if that ad starts renting space in your head, it’s done its job. There was an ad for Quizno’s Sub Sandwiches years ago that nobody could figure out, I’d like to have been a fly on the wall when Quizno’s Marketing approved this one: https://youtu.be/55oVPn7sFuM
I also watched “Brightburn”, the dark, dark version of Superman months ago and you know what? I didn’t remember a damned thing about it until you guys started discussing it. I think it was in and out of my head as soon as the credits rolled. I’ll just watch “Man of Steel” again, another comfort film of mine.
I’m completely with Ed on Star Trek for comfort viewing, both the original series and the first movies. Sure, they’re not all classics, but I agree there’s a charm to them that – if it resonates with you – makes even the low points absurdly enjoyable.
Columbo’s also pretty good company on a rainy Sunday afternoon, and I have to thank my daughter for getting me into Gilmore Girls a few years back. I think all these shows share a certain amount of faith in human goodness (and sometimes alien goodness too), and a lot of humour in the writing and performances, that hits the sweet spot most of the time.
As to jingles, I guess the obvious choice is We’ve Only Just Begun, which was origninally used in a TV ad for a California bank before writers Paul Williams and Roger Nichols expanded it into a full song for the Carpenters. I’m not a fan of the band, but Karen sure could sing and that’s a hell of a song.
We also had an ad here in the UK when I was growing up for a brand of bread called Nimble which targeted slimmers. Presumably this was because, as we now realise, bread makes you fat.
Nimble was a horrible product, a lot like styrofoam in its colour, texture and flavour, but without the nutritional value. However… it did have a crazy ad featuring a young woman dressed like an extra from the Mary Tyler Moore show and harnessed to a hot air balloon that flew her above the Swiss Alps or somewhere to a soundtrack of I Can’t Let Maggie Go by The Honeybus. Technically, this wasn’t a jingle as it had been a huge hit a few years earlier, but still a great song and very memorable.
You can check out the ad here, if you’re so inclined: https://youtu.be/NopAq6tUHVk
And here’s the full song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih4zwp-0GeQ