Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Episode 521 of the podcast that asks the easy questions!
This week: offiception; infrastructure destructured; after the flood; boxing clever; oh, black water; cheap ghosts; mind your own business; dumbrella; bear comments; magical thinking; positive and negative stereotypes; culture uncancelled; joke writers; frustrated rat; ethnic shorthand; invisible diversity; service cats; no apologies; brave rudeness; the volcano solo; be true to your cool; middle table guy; Y was it cancelled; Covid casualties; thin blood; not a good sign; health snores; foot bats; lightly used soy sauce; Top 5…er 6 songs; the slide whistle of approval; well-beaten; suspection; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; stepping on toes; dark history; generally only; hole in the wald; unEDified; unmemorable; uncredited, and, finally, wise wisdom.
Top 5 6 Interrogative Songs!
- Who? – Fairport Convention – “Who Know Where the Time Goes?” – Unhalfbricking, 1969 – 1:49:07
- What? – The Monkees – “What Am I Doing Hangin’ Round?” – Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, 1967 – 1:58:20
- Why? – Buzzcocks – “Why Can’t I Touch It” – Singles Going Steady, 1979 – 2:14:04
- When? – The Staples Singers – “When Will We Paid (for the Work We Have Done)?” – We’ll Get Over, 1970 – 2:25:38
- Where? – The Mekons – “Where Were You?” – Fast Product single b/w “I’ll Have to Dance Then (On My Own)”, 1978 – 2:30:50
- How? – The Lovelites – “How Can I Tell My Mom and Dad (That I’ve Been Bad)?” – With Love from the Lovelites, 1969 – 2:35:01
Question of the Week: Tell us about a pop culture knock-off. Which do you you prefer? The original or the imitation?
Sub-question of the Week: What is some extreme weather that you’ve experienced?
Thanks for listening.
We mentioned it during Nina’s visit last week, but here it is: Twin Beaks
Speaking of Sesame Street parodies, well, so was Louise:
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Dave, I enjoyed your Interrogative Song list, especially “When Will We Be Paid?” You resisted adding a “which” song. I can only think of “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?” (1969) by the Poppy Family *which* was a big hit in Canada when I was growing up. Can you suggest another one?
I preferred the film Dangerous Liaisons (1988) directed by Stephen Frears over Valmont (1989) directed by Milos Forman. The former had a screenplay by Christopher Hampton which was adapted from his award-winning play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1985). The films’ production periods overlapped so Valmont wasn’t a knock-off of the earlier film so much as a knock-off of Hampton’s idea of adapting the public domain book. I preferred Dangerous Liaisons with its more vicious depiction of sexual politics amongst the French aristocracy. Forman tried to make his characters more likeable and sympathetic. But it was like one cast of characters was fighting with daggers and the other with feathers.
Yes, I did collaborate on the “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” parody that had the ripped-from-the-headlines “Asian youth gangs in the lane” lyric. The song was introduced as being sung by “the Perry Como White Bread Singers” (or something like that) to show it was about white peoples’ winter worries but that didn’t take the sting out of it for the offended theatre-goer. I can’t remember who wrote that line, but I probably wrote its rhyme, “Forty-two inches of rain” (still relevant.) The theatre-goer also wrote that a sketch was homophobic, which I didn’t agree with. It was about a Dad who didn’t want his son to get a doll for Christmas because “No son of mine is growing up to be a homo” to which the Grandfather said, “Playing with dolls isn’t going to alter his sexual orientation. And get with the times, the term is gay, not homo.” So from that show, I learned that even just using a slur or showing a bigoted character can offend some people, even if your intent is to show the behavior is wrong. You have to consider that as a writer and be open to criticism. I did agree when they criticized our costume designer’s choice to put a turban on a foreign exchange student character who was learning about holiday customs from a dysfunctional Canadian family. The character, played by my mostly-white brother, was from a place between the Middle East and the Soviet Union or as the Dad put it, “Between Iraq and a hard place” so a turban was wrong geographically and from a cultural sensitivity standpoint. Our director of Arab-Canadian descent didn’t nix it, but later said he had had his doubts about it. (30 years later, turbans are still a hot button issue in Canada, especially in Quebec, where the wearing of religious headwear and symbols is banned for some government employees.)
Last week was a blur and before I knew it, it was Thursday and we were feeding 13 mouths at my house for Thanksgiving…and too late to write you gents for the week. Let me first write what I planned for last week. Nina has such a delightful presence, and had I know she was going to read the letters, I wouldn’t have used language. I respect her choice not to swear so I hope my language didn’t cause her too much discomfort. Nina is such a beautiful name, my Great Grandmother’s name was Nina and I’ve always loved it. Nina brings a nice touch to the podcast with such joy, it’s great to hear her voice. And Ian, you were damned funny in that episode! I think you like playing off Nina, you really brought it home, I was laughing at everything. You’re a funny guy…
Last week was also my birthday, the day before Thanksgiving, so we had to do something for that too since everyone wasn’t able to make it to my house on Thursday. I did have the opportunity to meet famed illustrator Drew Struzan at a local gallery and have him sign a few things. The Galactic Gallery, as it’s called, has the largest collection of Drew’s original art…and it’s breathtaking. This was my third time meeting Drew but the first time seeing him at this gallery. If anyone is wondering about Drew or the Galactic Gallery, here’s a link so you can see what I’m talking about. https://galacticgallery.com
For last weeks answers:
Uhhhh, zippers on pants, no zippers on shirts…I have so much hair on my chest like Dave mentioned, even though it drives the women crazy, right Dave?
I live just North of Dallas, which is famously known for killing John F. Kennedy and for that dopey J.R. show.
Before my knock off story. Ian, I cannot believe that that show “Creamerie” was even allowed with such similarities to “Y: The Last Man”! I’m a bit pissed too when I see stuff like this from a professional point of view. In my line of work we strive so hard to create and design with originality, if we didn’t we’d have our asses handed to us, it makes me livid when I see others getting away with it. We have such tight guidelines when it comes to licensing, safety and other compliances we have to meet in my industry. I’m proud to say we’re able meet all those standards but it still angers me when others don’t. Again, best of luck on “Y: The Last Man”, may if find a future for all to follow.
I visited Disney World in Orlando back in 1996 and one of the best attractions was the Disney Studios where I could go and watch the animators work. They were in kind of a pit below working on what was up and coming for Disney, the two being “Hercules” and “Pocahontas”. Both productions were unknown to me at the time and seeing them work was like a pre-internet sneak peek for me, so now I knew what to expect from Disney in the next year or so. I noticed a group of Japanese visitors there too, they were taking photos and notes as they walked around this elevated area looking down on the animators. I didn’t think much about it, only that I was shocked that photos were allowed. Fast forward to a year or so later when “Hercules” was released by Disney in theaters, I also noticed that a “Straight to Video” release by a Japanese animation studio was also released at the same time. My brother worked in a video store at the time and told me that families would come in the store looking for the Disney “Hercules” on video only to be told that it was still only in theaters at the time. The families would see the Japanese knock off of “Hercules” and buy or rent that as a substitute until Disney’s version was released! Then I thought of the Japanese visitors at Disney World I’d seen, could these guys be visiting the studios to get a preview of what Disney was doing…then go back to their studio to create a straight to video knock off? That way they could capitalize using Disney’s theatrical success to sell their versions on video. Once I noticed that, I saw that there were also Japanese versions of “The Lion King”, “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast” on video, so I think these guys had something going for quite a few years. It’s no wonder the studios are gone now, we live in such a “leaked to media” world these days, something that Disney now avoids at all costs.
My cousin and I were brave enough to drive from Dallas through New Mexico in January of 1990. A snowstorm had the closed the main highway from Albuquerque to Flagstaff, New Mexico so we decided to go south to get around it. Bad idea, we ended up driving into a snow bank and had to get towed out, we could hardly see it was snowing so heavy. We stayed in a nearby Native American Indian town overnight and when it was morning, realized we had driven into the mountains. The skies were clear and the plows had cleared the roads, so we headed Northwest and made it to Las Vegas by night time. One more reason why I live in Texas, I hate driving in the snow.
Have a great week ahead everyone!
Dave, I’ll be sending you some sponges and a few shop-vacs….
Pop culture knock-off?
Steve Tyler of Aerosmith is definately a poor man’s Mick Jagger.
Most of Oasis’s work is a poor facsimilie of 65/66 Beatles.