Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Episode 492 of the podcast for the disappointed.
This week: house branded; not Scotch; scary Canadiana; miscegenation warning; chicken hawk; frog and pig shenanigans; new math same as the old math; rock threat; not enough Fast and Furious; remarkably similar; arts rigmarole; memory muscle; too much audience; sensitive subject; no resort; unhelpful tips; polar bear enemies; balls of steel; money trouble; stay awake; dream states; hypnosis; magic time; mesmerizing; selective memory; the ultimate decider; human balloons; the Nancy Game returns; the gag supreme; praise for Two-Lane Blacktop; good 60’s movies; praise for Anatomy of a Murder; disappointed; the inner lives of characters; mini Dork Shadows – The Vampire’s Kiss; the next villain; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; post-disco lifestyle; awkward art gig; say a little praise for you; fans of fan mail; a perfect gift; get out of our heads; metric years; parent eyes; crazy person; and. finally, a song in our pants.
Question of the week: Have you ever been to a hypnotist show? Were you ever hypnotised?
Sub-question: Tell us an interesting fact about your children. And if you don’t have children, an interesting fact about your pets.
Yes, as Laurel kindly points out in this episode, David has created some amazing title cards and if you’d like to see them, you can go here, but more importantly….
Ed’s Peanut Duck Design!
Please go here to see our friend Ed Draganski’s wonderful designs for Peanut Duck!
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Ian’s bus trip to New York reminds me of the time I went across Canada one spring with my then-university-boyfriend. He was going home for the summer and I tagged along until my summer job started. We went from:
-Vancouver to Cranbrook by a two-prop airplane (to man a UBC information booth in a mall for two days)
-Cranbrook to Calgary by hitchhiking
-Calgary to Winnipeg by “drive-away” car (where a car relocation company lets you drive a car for free)
-Winnipeg to Sudbury by train
-Sudbury to Quebec, New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia then back to Ontario by car
-Toronto to Vancouver by jet
Like Ian’s friend, my boyfriend had probably seen enough of me by the time I flew home. But I learned a lot about the geographical and cultural differences of this immense country. I saw many pregnant women and pickup trucks in small town Cranbrook. We hit a late snowfall in Saskatchewan and saw vast fields of white. I found out when you start crossing the birch-and-muskeg-covered terrain of Northern Ontario by train at sunset, you’ll still be crossing it when the sun rises. I helped salvage a hardwood floor from an old schoolhouse in rural Ontario. I hung out on a communal farm in Quebec. I tried to sleep in a hotel room over a Francophone dive bar in Bathurst. In Halifax, I stayed with scuba divers who x-rayed the hulls of ships underwater for a living. I went to the Royal Ontario Museum and enjoyed its fundraising slogan: ROM wasn’t built in a day. In retrospect, it was a crazy trip and I’m lucky to be alive but on the whole it was a good, eye-opening experience.
An interesting fact about my children…hmmmm….there are so many.
Well, first of all, they’re both great in their own unique ways, but I’m sure most parents would claim the same about their own children.
For my oldest, I’d have to say her ability to cut to the root of any story, film, or other similar form of entertainment – even from a very early age: when she was little, my family had season’s tickets to the ballet, and every so often my mom wouldn’t be able to go, so we’d throw Mary in the car with us. While the more traditional stories are pretty easy to understand, the modern pieces are less accessible (to me, anyway) and I typically have to read that little synopsis to ‘get’ the story. Anyway, once when Mary was 4ish, after seeing one of these she started discussing how the characters were moving through the story and I was like, wha….?!? And I checked the synopsis, which I hadn’t done ahead of time, and it turns out she was way ahead of me and actually following the story. And since then, getting the theme, and understanding metaphors and all those things have been pretty easy for her whether it be in a book, film or what-have-you. Meanwhile, Eve, from an early age was able to read people super well. I can remember her tapping into how I was feeling even before I was aware of it. And as a result, she is also very good at dealing with people who aren’t at their best, and she likewise, she was able to easily and tactfully sidestep some kids who were friends by proximity in her youth who ended up heading down the wrong path by extracting herself from their orb in a timely way in a way that didn’t ruffle anyone’s feathers. Now she’s kind of the ringleader for activities with her friend group, so that skill has morphed into some leadership qualities which are always good to have.
As for our pets, Al (pitbull) is the Jack Reacher of the dog world in that he has the uncanny ability to know what time it is without wearing a watch – 5 am it’s breakfast, 4 pm it’s dinner time. On the dot.
Boo (Elkhound) has, in his dotage (he’s 15 this year) become a kid magnet – in the past he was largely ignored by the neighbourhood kids, but he is the current cul de sac favourite and now has fans knocking on our door to see if he can come out to play on a regular basis.
Our pony Harris is 4X Canadian Champion Connemara, which is impressive in its own right, but he also has the somewhat rare ability to be able to ‘dial it in’ as a horse to match his rider – we can put scared or beginner riders on him and he does the Harris shuffle, barely moving above 2 mph, but if Eve or a more accomplished rider gets on him, he’s all go-go-go-jump-jump-jump and also figures out those riders of intermediate ability and gives them just the type of ride that they need for building confidence.
My horse Archie has the magical ability to hurt himself fairly catastrophically on a regular basis, but he’s also very cute and loving and will whinny and gallop across the field to me when he sees me, so I guess you can say he’s a horse who knows what side his bread’s buttered on. Not that horses should eat bread. Neigh!!
I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard about Al and Boo on the podcast! I love dogs! Isn’t that amazing how dogs can tell time by our behavior? I have two dogs who do stupid things all the time but still manage to astound Susan and I by how clever their behavior is. I suppose it’s repetition and reinforcement but it seems like these critters know more than we give them credit for.
Sincerest thanks for the kind comments on my May the 4th news segment (It’s been ages since anyone has called me handsome! Wow!) and for featuring my Peanut Duck! designs!! That was something I hadn’t intended to follow through with but the more I thought about how fun it could be I just had to design it to completion. It always begins with a simple sketch but doesn’t always lead to a finished design, I’m glad ‘ol Peanut Duck made it. He’s original and fun. It’s a good thing to design something like that once in awhile when it comes from raw inspiration. I even devoted a section to Peanut Duck on my very, very “still in progress” website:
https://eddraganski.wixsite.com/dragantskidesign/peanut-duck
Now that you’ve validated me, it’s my turn to validate David! Those title cards!! Damn!! I’ve never seen the entire collection until the link that was provided above, it’s inspired me to draw a version of Sneaky Dragon but I digress…that’s your thing. Those cards are priceless and incredibly funny, it’s amazing how much laughter can be delivered in a single panel. I looked at every one. I think the Action Comics one with the steering column through David’s chest and the glass in Ian’s head made me laugh the most. Destructive and humorous, you guys know how to fracture my funny bone. The Dragonfeathers and Podeye ones are great too…hell, they’re all great! Fellow Sneakers, go look at these if you haven’t already! David’s masterpieces need your attention!!
I don’t think I’d ever want to be hypnotized, especially by a stranger in front of more strangers. The whole experience just seems off-putting to me. I don’t even like the thought of appearing on a stage in front of strangers unless I had something to offer to them in return.
I have two kids, Erin and Alec and three step kids, Jacob, Jordan and Griffin, so I’ll pick one interesting fact for one…because I could go on about all of them. My daughter Erin and first born is close in age to Dave’s daughter Mary and just as cantankerous. Erin’s due date put her extremely close to January 31st which was the release date for the Star Wars Special Edition films and you know I was all into that. Everyone kept telling me she would be born on the same day as the Star Wars Special Editions but I thought what are the odds of that happening. I bought my ticket anyway, took the day off work and the night of January 30th, my wife’s water broke and Erin was born at 10:30 am January 31st, the same day Star Wars was re-released. I still have the unused ticket in an album and I wrote about Erin to all the Star Wars magazines at the time which published Erin’s story. To this day I call her my Star-Child. There were many who thought I should have named Erin “Leia” after this, but her Mother wouldn’t have any of that and I really think Erin is such a wonderful name. I won the battle three years later when I named my son Alec Ben Draganski after Alec Guinness (Ben Kenobi). My wife at the time, who wasn’t a Star Wars fan at all, was never the wiser….
Now I think I’ll just hang out here and reply to the other Sneakers, IAN!!
Ed D, your Peanut Duck is fantastic! Thanks for sharing him with us! Also, I checked out your website… it is really great. I love the Groucho Marx quote about art. I encourage everyone to have a look!
Kind Thanks Laurel! It’s still a work in progress, I was learning to use WIX to build my own website so I could learn how to maintain my company’s website….challenging but fun!
Love that Peanut Duck design!
Peanut Duck Loves You Chris!! And so do I.
Please, Ed, I thought we agreed – not in public! 🙂
LOL! Oh, you guys!
Ed!
I would love to see your version of Sneaky Dragon! We’ve had lots of listeners try their hand at him/her(?)!
David
I have a question of the week if you need one, I found one laying around here so I thought I’d suggest it.
Question: What is something used in film or television that always captures your attention? By this I mean a film style or a gimmick that makes the film stand out. It could also be something that is used in multiple films that you look forward to.
Have you guys watched “The Queen’s Gambit”? I started watching the series last week and they used the film technique of “Diegetic to Non-Diegetic” sound I love seeing in films. For example, the show takes place in the early 60’s and I thought of David when I saw this scene. The main character, Beth is with a room full of girlfriends and they’re watching Hullabaloo on television. The announcer brings on The Vogues who sing “You’re the One” on TV and all the girls sing and bop along to the song except for Beth, who leaves the room in boredom. Even as Beth leaves the room with the TV, we still hear The Vogues singing as the song now becomes “Non-Diegetic” sound. The song follows Beth out of the scene and far away from the source that started it becoming part of the soundtrack. Later on in another episode they do it again with The Monkees singing, “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone” and I thought of Dave again!
I love this sound technique in film, it’s better when used sparingly and it really catches me when I see it starting to happen. Two more notable uses are “Danny Boy” playing in “Miller’s Crossing” when Albert Finney defends his burning home with a tommy gun. And finally, “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole in a perfume commercial as The Comedian is attacked at the beginning of “WATCHMEN.”
Hello dear Ian, dear David and dear Sneakers!
No hypnotism has happened to me! And I haven’t seen it done… other than on our fave tv show, The Mentalist!
But I do have two children who are NOT children anymore but great adults. My older is Neal, 36, and an interesting thing about him is that he lived 11 years in Asia. Right our of college he taught English in South Korea for 3 years, then 1 year for Disney in Shanghai. After that he chose to go to grad school at university in Taichung Taiwan, and ended up staying 7 years, employed in two different during his time there. He came home for visits several times and I was able to visit him in Taiwan once, and we used Skype often. He now lives just 2 hours south of us with his lovely Taiwanese wife and Corgi.
My daughter, Meg, is a home mom of 3 and also an amazing mechanic and builder. She does all sorts of woodworking and built her own workshop, singlehandedly, siding it in a diagonal pattern, all in pallet wood. I’m fortunate to have her and family just 40 minutes away.
Pets: we currently have two dogs and 4 cats. I just adore them all, and they all have their quirks and interesting characteristics. I always say about cats, if someone says they don’t like them, they’ve never had cats, because each one has a very individual and distinct personality! Two of ours have generally chosen to live outside and they are 18 and 20 years old! A little scruffy now, but so sweet!
I could go on and on about kids and pets… but I’m stopping now!
Have a wonderful week!
I’ve seen hypnotists perform a couple of times as entertainment at corporate conferences – which I think is a fairly appropriate platform. I was sceptical until I witnessed a group of male colleagues who were archetypal old school, beer-chugging misogynist types go on stage and perform a series of increasingly humiliating tasks while under hypnosis.
These were guys who prided themselves on the type of loud, crude male behaviour in the office that I couldn’t stand. So when they ended up pretending to battle each other with invisible lightsabers with their shirts off in front of hundreds of people, I had to concede that there was something genuine in the hypnotist’s skill.
The hypnotist brought them out of the hypnosis while they were cuddling each other like teddy bears. The shock and confusion on all their faces was authentic. I’d worked with these people for a long time and knew them well enough that they would not have agreed to be publicly humiliated like that for any amount of money.
It was also interesting to see how at the start of the act, the hypnotist weeded out the volunteers who’d come up on stage until he had a core group that must have been more susceptible to hypnosis.
One guy who’d been on stage said afterwards that he knew what he was doing while hypnotised but couldn’t help but go along with it.
Interesting fact about my kids: they melt my heart on a daily basis.
Hello again!
I have actually been to a hypnotist show, they had one at my prom. I think it was a weird choice, but many kids were excited for it. I thought it was funny but I wasn’t buying it. High schoolers love attention and I think it’s totally plausible that those kids were just going along with it for the laughs. As someone mentioned before the hypnotists removes people that aren’t going along with it through the act. This discussion actually prompted me to look up some videos on hypnotism. Here’s a TED talk from a hypnotist who explains what’s happening when he hypnotizes:
https://youtu.be/tXIRq6LxYFk
I guess I won’t spoil it fully, but it’s based in persuasion.
No kids and no pets here, but I’d like to add that I also don’t really like Easy Rider. I’ve watched several 60s counter culture films, and while they are never stellar they are least have a certain charm that Easy Rider lacks. Like films like Psych Out are just so absurd it’s just fun. It’s like Easy Rider is both trying to be a low budget hippie film while also trying to be an actual film, and fails at both. And the New Orleans scene is torturous! At least the soundtrack is great. Ok Im done sorry for the rant.
Hi David & Ian and everyone!
I’ve never been to a hypnotist show. I have wondered about hypnotherapists who do past life regression sessions. If I weren’t so distrustful of hypnotism, I’d be interested to “discover” what fantastic tales my subconscious could create from a life-long interest in history.
My little boy has the greatest smile in the world! He smile is infectious: it melts strangers hearts and brings smiles to faces of everyone he meets. One smile (and possibly a giggle or two) from him can completely change a bad day to a great day. He even received a class award this year for “best smile.” His condition prevents him from being athletic, excelling academically, or performing on any level comparable to his peers so the fact that his teacher thought to include (and not exclude) him from awards day meant the world to him, and of course my husband and I. When he smiles, his whole face just lights up. Everywhere we go–his smile brings joy to others, especially the elderly. Actually, I am smiling right now as I type and think about his sweet little face and smile.
Have a great week!
Thanks, Crystal! I love to hear about your little guy!