Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to the 527th episode of Sneaky Dragon – just two grown men talking about chickens.
This week: let’s just start; where’s Ian; après-ski injury; slip, sliding away; side effects; triple dosed; other head injuries; sympathetic horror stories; Penis Penispenis; institute of corrections; rabbiting on; Welker back; memorable moose; slapstick murders; vaccine and not herd; unfunny bullshit; natural cures for living; YouTube hospital; assumed reality; resurrecting The Matrix; kung fu gun porn; murder of the innocents; real bondage vs. virtual freedom; my chemo romance; I hate the ’90s; low level unpleasantness; liking Licorice Pizza; the kids are all wrong; everything is great in retrospect; not the Neo; rerunning with the Daredevil; Dave’s special algorithm; rom-com recoms; effed up; done with media; back to backs; Top 5 Captain songs; Triumvirate of Terror; Captain Lou who; international confabbers; falling forward; Magic Max XL; dangerous outdoors; deep shits; Flanagrams; sorely head; living in the past; “Santa Baby” baby; and, finally, boring your grandkids.
Top 5 Captain Songs!
- Laura Nyro – “Captain for Dark Mornings” – New York Tendaberry, 1969 – 1:56:17
- Grand Funk Railroad – “Closer to Home (I’m Your Captain)” – Closer to Home, 1970 – 2:03:19
- Biff Rose – “The Captain” – Biff Rose, 1970 – 2:18:09
- Colin Blunstone – “This Is Your Captain Calling” – Journey, 1974 – 2:22:13
- NRBQ – “Captain Lou” – Tapdancin’ Bats, 1983 – 2:31:42
Question of the Week: What is a craft or hobby you appreciate? (Not necessarily one you do.)
Sub-question of the Week (from Brent): What is the best and/or worst concert you’ve ever been to?
Thanks for listening.
We forgot to mention it during the episode, but our friend Louise sent along this prescient comment made by Paul in The Beatles newest film – maybe you’ve heard of it – Get Back!
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I love stained glass. Dave mentioned the stained glass store on Knight Street which closed. It always had cool pieces in its windows. It relocated to Coquitlam so they are still in business. There is an awesome collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany stained glass at the Morse Museum near Orlando. It’s worth a side trip from the theme parks to see the massive art nouveau panels as well as the lamps and vases. I also admire weaving. Someone gave me a small table loom and I read up on how to use it. I made some placemats and table runners with it, but gave up on it fairly quickly. Yarn and thread were pretty expensive. And it takes hours to measure and cut the warp threads then string them on the loom in the proper order. But it was fun “throwing” the shuttle and seeing the patterns that emerged as the threads intertwined.
The worst concert I went to was probably not a bad concert. Someone gave our family tickets to see Andy Williams at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre here in Vancouver. There were lot so empty seats I thought was sad. His opening act was some drummer doing these long noisy drum solos. Andy’s songs were old-timey big band stuff. And he ended with this patriotic salute to America complete with a giant star-spangled banner projected across the stage. (Read the room, Yankee!) This was around the U.S. bicentennial in 1976 so no doubt that finale played well in Peoria. Looking back, some of those songs would’ve been classic jazz standards. And that drummer Buddy Rich, well, he was pretty famous. It was probably a good concert for someone. I wonder if there will be kids in the future forced by their parents to see an aging Michael Bublé in concert who will feel the same way.
Speaking of stained glass: that is a craft I admire and desperately wish I could do. Well, I probably could find a workshop for it, but I don’t have the means to do it at home.
And yeah Ian, there was a guy in a cast up in the ski slopes. I couldn’t get a very close shot but here’s a pic: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9pwtLxCAAIHHYo?format=png&name=large
Some examples of what I wish I could make: https://www.instagram.com/snipglass/
Craft I admire: ohhhh, there are so many! While I admire stained glass, and learned in university how hard it was to get red glass (message: we are to admire this colour more!), I personally have no desire to learn how to make stained glass. On a related note, I have an intense love for blown glass, although being afraid of fire, I again have no desire to do this myself. I also really admire the ability of those people who do those crazy good pastry arts – at least with a painting or some other similar thing, you keep it around and admire it for a while – not the case with baking.
Concerts:
I kinda had an experience like Louise’s, in that I saw Queen (with Freddy Mercury) not once but twice, a year apart. My jaded self was all – ‘What a waste of my time!’ – about seeing what was essentially the same show the second time around. What some people would give today to see that…
Best concert – Beta Band.
You’re not wrong, I’d pay to see that Queen Concert with Freddy! AND the amazing Brian May….
Lezah, if you enjoy glass sculpture, check out the amazing work of Chihuly. Chihuly had an exhibit some years ago at the Dallas Museum of Art and I had no idea glass could be used to these extremes. If Chihuly ever travels your way, check out his work…it’s glass and mind blowing with no fire needed!
https://www.chihuly.com
Thanks Edward, we did manage to take in a Chihuly exhibit in Seattle a while ago. Love his stuff!
Over the years I’ve had friends who’ve restored classic cars to look like new, the bodies, interior and engine. I thought about how great the payoff is for something that commonly takes years to accomplish but I haven’t the time nor the cash to enjoy a hobby like auto restoration…but it sure looks like fun. My Father, who was an AT&T engineer for 40 years, used to rebuild old telephones, the kind with the wood cases and a cranking magneto inside. He’d hit flea markets and conventions where they sold and traded all these old phones, find the parts he needed, rewire and rebuild them to actually work. In their last house, Dad had a room where most of these antique phones worked like new and when someone called the house their ringing could wake the dead. If you cranked one of the old wall mounted phones in the wood case fast enough, the electric feedback was powerful enough to make all the other phones in the room ring at once. It was insane. Now Dad devotes all his time to genealogy, it’s less noisy and isn’t a fire hazard.
I’ve already spoken about the “Beatles LOVE” show at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas but I think that was more of an experience than a concert. It should be considered mandatory if you’re a Beatles fan, better if you can go see this in Vegas and bypass all the gambling, it’s worth the trip. I had a few co-workers surprise me with a ticket to a Hans Zimmer concert a few years ago, Zimmer toured around the World with this show and it was unbelievable with what he brought to that stage. I’ve seen John Williams twice conduct the Dallas Symphony which was kind of a bucket list thing for me but the real deal would be to see Williams with the London Symphony Orchestra. The London Symphony was touring about 12 years ago (not with Williams) and had a concert planned for Dallas, I didn’t even think twice about it and bought a ticket to go. A few weeks later my money was refunded and the concert was cancelled due to lack of interest. I couldn’t believe that! Seeing the LSO is still high on my list if they ever forgive Dallas for an insult like that. I’ve never been a huge rock concert enthusiast but I have mentioned before that I’ve seen The Rolling Stones three times back in the 80’s and 90’s which is three times more than any other band really. They were old fuckers then and they’re still at it to this day which is unbelievable to me, and people piss and moan about Harrison Ford playing Indiana Jones for a fifth time. I’ll throw in McCartney as an honorable mention since I saw him once back in the early 90’s, that was a really huge show.
Add me to the list of people happy to hear Ian’s dulcet tones in the lugholes again!
In the Sneaky Dragon movie you would at this point:
– Have movie amnesia – and a dead body to account for
– Be able to speak Esperanto
– Have ability to see into the future – if you eat a childhood favourite chocolate bar
– Have woken up in the year 2023, with a year of Dork Shadows to catch up on.
A few songs to begin the inevitable ‘playlist for Ian’s mishap’ (since nobody else has):
Slippery People – Talking Heads
Head over heels- Tears for Fears
Oops Upside Your Head – The Gap Band
Ain’t that a Kick in the Head – Dean Martin
Placebo headwound – Flaming Lips
Peter continues:
This week’s discussion of faith healers took me back one whole week to David’s chat with Jason about getting back treatment, which touched a nerve – in my SPINE!
To my dismay you mentioned that you might be visiting a ‘Kinesiologist’. As someone who has suffered from back pain, including three months of agony with a herniated disc, I woluld strongly recommend that you stay well away from this practice – which amounts to quackery – and stick to proven maintenance regimes.
I first encountered the word ‘kinesiology’ at the start of my back injury journey. I had been recommended a sports physio by a good friend who has been dealing with chronic injuries for many years. The treatment centre had a gym attached, and was right next to London’s Royal Ballet School (the source of all the injured ex-ballet dancers I started meeting around age 25).
I was in desperate pain, and went along with the treatment. Soon I was surprised to find myself participating in something more akin to stage hypnosis than actual therapy, being asked to look at pictures of crossed and uncrossed lines as part of the ‘Arm pull down test’. This test involves the practitioner pushing against the patient’s arm under changing conditions – as the conditions change, it becomes more or less easy to resist the pressure.
It’s bunkum, if interesting bunkum – but I’ve never been able to tell my friend that his beloved physio is actually an expoitative crank.
The Arm Pull Down Test was beautifully debunked by the dearly missed James Randi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_MzP2MZaOo.
QOTW:
Crafts:
I love stone carving – it’s much easier to get into than you might think, but you need time, and that’s one thing I have little of at the moment. I spent a beautiful summer on the Isle of Portland carving the local stone, as used by Portland’s mayor Sir Christopher Wren on the great buildings of London. Carving, like many crafts, is a perfect mix of zen-like mind and no-mind: the combination of intense focus and repetitive tap tap tap sends you into a trance-like flow state which allows time to melt away – and allows you to ignore bodily functions. When you look up at the end of the day and step back to see a New Thing in front of you… well that’s something remarkable.
Concerts:
I caught glam-rock revivalists ‘Earl Brutus’ at the tiny basement Night and Day club in Manchester. The stage was set with a pair of rotating forecourt signs reading ‘Piss / off’ and ‘Beer / Chips’. They came on stage, spilt their backstage sandwiches, played a blistering set, , smashed a bank of computer monitors, and let off fireworks that bounced off the low ceiling. The whole thing lasted fifteen minutes. It was brilliant!
At the larger end of the spectrum, ‘Bestival’ on the Isle of Wight has a fancy dress theme each year: seeing the Kraftwerk robots at playing ‘We Are The Robots’ to a field full of people dressed as robots was pretty special.
Thanks for the listening pleasure chaps – much love.
Peter.
PS – can you remind me when you record your show so I know which deadline I’m missing?
ta!
Bonus material on Earl Brutus, because I know David likes this sort of thing: no need to read it out.
Earl Brutus were an offshoot of World of Twist, featuring lead man Nick Sanderson, Jamie Fry (brother of ABC’s Martin Fry). Live shows were augmented by the presence of Shinya Hayashida, who was employed to stand on stage with a beer and headbang or shout random abuse at the audience.
Sanderson died of cancer age 47, and the band reformed as ‘The Pre-New’.
A taste of the live experience:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNNW7rrv700
And a favourite track, mixing Kraftwerk and Queen:
Hi Peter, they typically record on Thursday.
Hi,
Glad Mister Bampton like my views on his podcast. And yes the submarine thing made quit a big noise here. But we like to fight with everything anglo-saxon and despise everything latin.That’s why everybody love France but not always the french.
By the way, Dirty Harry, 1971, which is the same year than Columbo. Quit opposite takes on policing.
And as you know I love neurodiversity. And boy what a nice specimen, socially awkward, oblivious of the propriety yet attentive to people how need attention. Obsessional behaviour, like eating nearly only chilly. Dressed like a tramp, but has a good culture and is a fast learner. Forget everything, messy train of tough but with a compulsive attention to details and a capacity to connect things or meanings which does not seems to fit logically or being related.
Don’t like to be taken for a dumdum… at all and can be quit mean when needed.
And he is quit annoying.
The hobby conundrum ! Every time I saw somebody making something requiring skills I want to do it. And there’s a ton a woodcrafters, mechanics, makers of all sorts on Youtube or Instagram to be inspired by.
I’m waiting feverishly for each new episode of Colin Furze, Bad Motorsport Obsession, This Old Tony among others.
Ian I like you remark about not forgetting things by photographing them, to have a trace of your accomplishments. Because 527 episodes of podcasts, some good writing, several comics, shows and others things…. that’s only few things.
I usually forgot projects because I start 5 things in parallel, see new cool technics searching for the current project so I drift, forgot half complete projects then found their remains tucked away in some boxes some month later while rummaging to find some pieces I need for new project, soon to be forgotten too…
For the smashing stat of this new year, a mother in emergency for brain problems… I already waiting for 2023… but with not too much hope… And they just discovered that she had covid right before the surgery… Hopefully she has all her three shots.
Best concerts? If only I could remember… I would say the Zappa by Zappa concert, some Nick Cave ones, M (french singer/guitarist Mathieu Chedid). Robert Plant/Jimmy Page a quite mixed experience because of crowd movements, but you know nostalgia of a time I wasn’t born. Oh Chilly Gonzales, what an entertainer! Plus some gigs of unknown blues guitarists at pubs in the Paris flea market of Clignancourt in my youth.
That be all folks.
Both this week’s show and last week’s shows were excellent. Glad to hear Ian back though, and on the mend. Was very glad to hear it slip last week that Compleatly Beatles is making a return.
Speaking of the airport cafe pie, I heard on another podcast, or maybe radio show, of a small airport up in the Pacific Northwest, that people will fly to specifically for lunch. Don’t know if it’s the same airport you fellas were referencing, but it’d be odd if there were two small airports in that part of the world, known for their cafeteria’s food rather than for their aeronautic services.
Hobby/craft I really appreciate is any kind of woodwork.
Best concert I’ve ever been to: U2, Philadelphia, October 2005.
Worst concert: The Rolling Stones, Philadelphia, 1999. Had seats behind the stage. So, not only were we staring at the backs of the band and their amplifiers but apparently, there was no PA facing these seats behind the stage. Most of the show sounded as if we were listening to The Rolling Stones being played on a car radio in a parking lot. And said car was parked fifty yards away, with its windows rolled up.
Your conversation in episode 527 about YouTube self-diagnosis and COVID-19 vaccine distrust has really hit home. I am writing this from home on what would normally be a work day. School is out today due to inclement weather. Typically, if schools are closed, but the main roads are clear enough to travel, I would take my son to my parents house for the day. But today is different. I had to take a sick day because guess who is eat up with a bad case of COVID? I’ve mentioned before that I am completely vaccinated and boosted, but I never could persuade, rationalize, or convince my elderly parents (with rather serious preexisting conditions) that a very simple vaccine would not kill them. You would think that people with a background in chemistry, science, and medicine would believe the experts over the rattlebrains on talk radio and YouTube. But they didn’t. And despite habitual hypochondria, the wearing of masks, social distancing, hands washing, and claiming to only go to the store and medical appointments, they’ve contracted it. Ugh…. Hope everyone out in Sneaky Listening Land continue to stay safe (and please choose to be vaccinated).
Dave, thanks for including Grand Funk Railroad in the top 5. I was given several cassettes of them when I was teenager, and listened to them a few times (not nearly as much as my Beatles records, though).
Like other listeners have mentioned, glass blowing fascinates me. I also enjoy watching my husband make brooms. We make a 24-hour trip to Virginia and back to purchase a 100-year old broom winding machine. That’s a story in of itself and best saved for a later date. 🙂
Interesting concert experiences seem to befall me. I’ve not had a truly bad concert experience (as far as the musical ability of bands go), only just interesting ones. One of the first concerts I attended as a teenager was an oldies night sponsored by a Nashville oldies radio station. It was great. It had Micky and Coco Dolenz, Herman Hermits, and many favorite bands… including Paul Revere and the Raiders. Here is where the story starts. This was right before the Internet exploded and everyone had computers. We did not have a computer, and I am not entirely sure that the Internet was even an option then. Having seen much old footage of girls holding up signs at Beatles concerts, we decided to make a sign for the concert. It was a parody of the “Give me Liberty or Give me Death” flag. It was a cartoon of Mark Lindsay and it said something along the lines of “Give Us Mark Lindsay or Give Us Death.” We weren’t seated near the stage, so we couldn’t see the band members closely, but we did eagerly persist in rudely holding up our banner and shouting “Mark! Mark!” until an older lady informed us that Mark was no longer in the band and that was Carlos Driggs singing. *facepalm*
Happy week all!