Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Episode 539 of Sneaky Dragon – randomness personified!
This week: it’s curtains; small town girl; sentient logs; intelligent vision; small console-ation; cottage country; twenty years of nothin’; apologies to Dave Thomas; Bruno Gerussi’s mutton chops; king-sized; local discoveries; pub crawl; long and winding road; horses see horses; take a hint; the story continues; tough characters; Dave recommends the The Fifth Season; suspicious awards; added wizard shit; bear necessities; demonstrably clueless; murderous comedians; fun and movie games; white outrage; going wild; no leads; having a siege-ure; garbage of Mars; cover up; cat on the drums; family jewels; Top 5 Traffic songs; Questions of the Week – Sneakers respond; the sexual alignments of peanuts; an insupportable question; obsessing over obsessing; St. Paul; too much honesty; fully booked; smurfing your parents; truth in advertising; real narcissists; flower power; the long and winding yellow brick road; Dave recommends Cyrano; Beatle nut; mongoosed; and, finally, fuck Eeyore.
Top 5 Bad Traffic Songs:
- The Fredric – “Five O’Clock Traffic” – Evolution Records single b-side to “red Pier”, 1968 – 1:49:17
- The Jasmine Minks – “Where the Traffic Goes” – Creation Records single b/w “Mr. Magic”, 1984 – 1:53:15
- The Classics IV – “Traffic Jam” – Traces, 1969 – 1:58:39
- XTC – “English Roundabout” – English Settlement, 1982 – 2:05:57
- Jimi Hendrix – “Crosstown Traffic” – Electric Ladyland, 1969 – 2:08:36
Bonus track
- Bill Monroe – “Heavy Traffic Ahead” – Columbia Records single b/w “Along About Daybreak”, 1949 _ 2:15:21
Question of the Week: Have you ever travelled somewhere because you’d seen it in a movie or TV show or read about it in a book?
Sub-question of the Week: Did you ever have mentor?
Sub-sub-question of the Week: Have you ever had a bad vacation experience?
Thanks for listening.
Regis was kind enough to send along his ideal T-shirt message:
Chris Roberts provides definitive proof that Sparks 3 exists as well as some pictures of his beautiful family daffodil – and while not everyone has an heirloom daffodil, but it’s pretty easy to own Sparks 3: Future Purrfect!
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Hi everyone,
To be precise the drawing is meant to represent my mental view of myself and the T-shirt is important. Not to make fun of persons with any kind of disabilities, just myself.
R.
No worries, Regis! None of us would think you were making fun of anyone!!!
Thanks,
I know, younger I was kind of careless about my jokes, if I found them funny I make them and the more confuse people were the more funny it was.
But sometimes I made those kind of jokes with “strangers” or to a somewhat broader audience than usual, friends of friends I met for the first time for exemple, and it backfired. People were really really pissed as a result. Then I was pissed that people were pissed, that’s just a joke, and a funny one too. Or I thought it was.
Then the piece fall… I seeeee… ok…. but I still think it’s funny, but I see why it’s not funny too.
So getting old I became a little overcautious. On second thought. I still make the joke, because its funny, or I think it is, then see all the bad effects it could potentially have, and stress about them.
I just wanted to share some fun facts about equine eyes, since it came up:
1. horses have the largest eyeballs of any land mammal
2. horses have almost 365 degree vision, with the exception of a spot 5 ‘ directly in front of them – they usually have to lift their head up to focus on that
3. horses have different numbers of rods and cones in their eyes (compared to humans) so see colours differently (yellow is brightest) and also have exceptional night vision
For your question about the seahorses, I think horses would just be curious, if they could see them at all in the water. Not sure how their eyes work when you add refraction in. Horses usually don’t know what they look like and are confused when they look in mirrors (some get aggressive and want to fight, but only rarely. Most horses are petrified of donkeys and mules, even though they are in the horse family, unless they live with a donkey or mule, in which case they get used to them.
Regarding the questions of the week:
1. travel – almost every time I travel, it’s because of something I’ve read in a book or seen in a movie. Every time I go to the UK we visit different cathedrals – my first two years of Art History focused a lot on these structures. Have ticked a lot off of my list, but many still to go.
2. mentor – probably for me that would be a lady called Mrs. Jacquie Oldham. She kind of took me under my wing, advised me, encouraged me, and generally helped to direct me to be the horse person I am today. There were lots of other people who did that as well, for instance my mother, but when you’re a teenager, no one wants to listen to their mother, lol
3. bad vacay – well, I had a terrible flight one time that left Vancouver at the crack of dawn, we then flew to Edmonton, then Saskatoon, then Ottawa (where we changed planes) then to Montreal (where we had to disembark and were delayed due to a lightning storm) and then finally we arrived at our destination of Fredricton, New Brunswick – still in Canada, but it took just under 24 hours to get across the country. And the airport is so small, the car rental place had closed. Fortunately one company knew of the delay so stayed open – but it wasn’t our company. They gave us a car anyway, which had just been returned, so we had to come back to the airport the next day to change it over. Two of the girls I was travelling with had also lost their luggage, so we would have had to go back to the airport anyway. Long story short, we went to the airport the next day, traded cars, got our luggage, then went out to the competition (I was the coach for the BC team competing in a horse show there). Unfortunately, in all this shuffling around, I misplaced my return ticket. Thinking I could just buy a ticket home for myself at half the price, boy was I shocked to learn that it was going to cost me an arm and a leg to get back. Fortunately, my ticket eventually surfaced. Our trip itself was great, but that was a crazy and exhausting 48 hours or so.
I too read that ursine-human relationship positive work, Bear by Canadian author Marian Engel. Like The Great Gatsby, Bear has the virtue of being short which is probably why many people have actually read it instead of just pretending they did. I think it’s where I learned that bears have an actual bone in their boners. Thank you, Vancouver Public Library! I don’t want to deter anyone’s salacious interest in reading it by suggesting it’s actually a literary allegory for getting in touch with your natural female self. But it’s interesting to note that Pixar’s latest offering, Turning Red, also has a bear-related theme about embracing your wild side and it too is set in Canada.
I once saw Beachcombers actor Robert Clothier on the ferry when I was returning home from the Girl Guide camp on the Sunshine Coast. He was sporting his unshaven “Relic” look and was signing autographs for kids. I noticed he signed his character’s name rather than his own name which probably spared him from having to explain the difference between a TV role and the person playing it. He was a good theatre actor as well. I saw him in several plays at the Vancouver Playhouse doing serious dramas like The Crucible and Seneca’s Oedipus.
A place I travelled to after reading about it in novels: Versailles. I was in Paris anyway so it was worth the side trip to see the opulent décor and the extensive gardens and to imagine all the historical drama and intrigue that happened there in the past.
A few items before answering questions. Congratulations on the recognition you deserve at work Dave, it’s always good to receive praise from your superiors especially when you’re not expecting it. Well done, sir. (pats Dave on the back)
There’s one more Flip Wilson catchphrase! “Here Comes the Judge!” Remember that one? He was great to watch when I was a kid too.
I’m glad one of you is watching “Severance”, by the time I hear you read this on the podcast the first season will be over and I’ll be in a show hole. I recommend this show so highly, I don’t remember looking forward to a weekly show so much….The Mandalorian?, LOST?, Game of Thrones?
When I heard the song “English Roundabout” play, some bells went off in my head a little. It seems I’ve been listening to ANOTHER British Band who has a song with the word “Roundabout” in its title, “”The Skeleton and the Roundabout” by The Idle Race. Now Dave, when you were educating us during Listening Party did you ever mention or reference The Idle Race when playing Toy town Psyche music? In a corkscrew descent down the Apple Music rabbit hole, I’ve discovered The Idle Race and Jeff Lynne’s involvement in the band for the very first time. You may remember my enjoyment of the late 60’s Psyche Music during Listening Party and I can’t remember you mentioning Lynne in The Idle Race, just The Move. Finding these songs on Apple Music is like a goldmine, I was wondering what your take was on The Idle Race, particularly the earlier stuff? The later work gets a little folky/traditional rock after Lynne left but the 66-70 sound is like The Beatles and ELO had a baby.
Yahoo Ian and David!!! Two copies of “Sparks! Future Purrfect” arrived in my mail yesterday! Soooo excited! I had, of course, pre-ordered ages ago, as all of us good Sneakers did… and at long last! Already I am loving it! Beautifully done!
Another joy this week was having a chance to view the Star James Watson daffodil in Chris Roberts’ photos! What a delicate little treasure, a true beauty, Chris. So it did bloom again this season! Weren’t you so delighted to see it sprout and then open up again? I am so fond of the daffodils whose petals flare backwards as if they have fairy wings! I wonder will Star James Watson multiply as most other daffs do? Is that a tiny new one next to the larger? Thank you, Chris, so much for the photographs! (And, Chris, I’m trying hard to be a very nice, not evil, grandmother!)
Question 1: Once on a trip north for a vacation in Maine, when my family and I lived in the FL Keys, we had to take a slight detour onto St Simon’s Island on the coast of Georgia. An author, Eugenia Price, lived there many years with her partner and many of the historical novels I read of hers in my 20’s were set on the island among the live oaks and marshes. It was just as she had described!
Question 2: I had a mentor for several years in an older beekeeper named Howard Blackburn who took me under his wing, so to speak, when first I was studying beekeeping. He needed the help in his beeyards (aka apiaries) as he was elderly, and he worked me really hard! but, of course, the experience and the hours we spent together, were invaluable. We got a lot of stings ( he especially appreciated the time I got stung INSIDE a nostril!) and had a lot of laughs. He’s passed away now, several years, but when he was inducted posthumously into the regional Agriculture Hall of Fame, I was honored to be one of the speakers at the ceremony.
Question 3: Bad vacation? Just once when I won a little trip to the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. As soon as husband and I arrived in our suite, we turned on the TV to relax a minute… and learned that a hurricane was headed for…the BAHAMAS and the KEYS, from whence we had come! We had to change our flight home, and left the very next night the last flight out of Nassau! The trip home was crazy and complicated, but as many of these vacation “disasters” do, it makes a good comic story!
Have a great week, all, as we enjoy our new Sparks!
Laurel
Consoles…. that’s the beginning of my demise, and the start of the end world.
At the start of the 80’s my mother bought a pong console one which have a gun too, you shot squares on your black and whiteTV screen, according to the packaging I think they were meant to be ducks.
Then a few months later I dreamed to have an Atari VCS 2600. The wonder of the wonder.
My friends had colecovisions or intellivisions (the gold one with the pad). But as a hint, one those friend had a DAI computer, or maybe his father. They were quite wealthy.
My mother toyed with the idea of buying a Vextrex, because whee like the practicability and the vectorial graphics were so futuristic!
Then as I was lobbying to really have the Atari one for one of my birthday, around 1982 or 83, my father in law said to me that I should really ask for a computer instead, because it was the future. Yeah my future !
I tried to put tractors between me and this future but it hasn’t worked my way.
I was really into Atari because I mean A-TA-RI…. duh !
So I got an Atari VCS years later in my twenties, just for the fun, I don’t even know if I plugged it to test it…
But in the mean time, for my birthday I got… an Atari 800. And now I’m a computer engineer. I’m collaborating to the rise of the Terminator. What a demise, for me and for the entire world. I told you !
For the first question, no not really. But I went to the beach of the Tati movie, Mr Hulot, because the parent of one of my girlfriend lived nearby.
I think you can’t really go to places which are in motion pictures, you just go to a lesser version of it, just the real thing… not the REAL thing.
Or even worse, the action is in Paris but the scene was shot in Budapest…. So were are you going to go ?
Maybe my mentors were the two farmers, the brothers of my aunt, because they made my dream come true… driving a tractor. And they trust me in my capabilities to do so (I was 13 or 14 teen I think).
Bad vacation, like the complete vacation ? Don’t think so, strange bed and breakfast yeah! But otherwise as long as spend your vacation driving tractors… you’re covered.
As I always says Keep On Tractoring !
Or Keep On Sneaking if you don’t have a tractor at hand.
Sometime in the early 90’s my friend Brian and I drove from Dallas to Chicago on this massive road trip. We took it slow, stopping to see sights I never had the chance to see when driving to Chicago with my family. One of the places we stopped was Chester, Illinois, the birthplace of Popeye the Sailor. There was a statue in a book I had about Popeye, so we stopped in Chester and found the Segar Memorial Park and the “not so large” Popeye statue. What I remember being equally interesting was that the park overlooks the Mississippi River and you can see the Missouri state line across the river. If you looked North down the river bank you could also see the massive Menard Correctional Center, a maximum security prison. The prison is built on the highly elevated banks of the Mississippi to deter escape from within, along with signs everywhere alerting visitors not to pick up “hitchhikers.” Cartoon Sailors and Escape Convicts were both checked off my list that day.
The rest of the trip to Chicago with my friend answers the bad trip experience question. My friend Brian is not a fan of urban surroundings, if he had his way he’d retire in someplace like Mayberry. Trying to show Brian the sights of Chicago fell flat, he just disliked the entire experience. I spend my trips to Chicago going downtown, to the museums and city hiking all over the Loop. Brian wanted none of that, so we laid low in the suburbs most of the time. My family and everyone else also rubbed Brian the wrong way just by how they spoke. At one point Brian asked me why everyone sounded like they were trying to pick a fight with him, I assured him they weren’t…it’s just the way everyone talks in Chicago. I wasn’t trying to change Brian but it was this trip that made me realize my friend is and always will be, a good natured country boy from Texas.
Professionally, I have three strong mentors in my life and I’m still in contact with them all.
The first is Eric Ligon who was my first Creative Director at Dr Pepper. Eric took great care of me when I started and taught me many of the finer points of design and type that I lacked from my education. Having studied design at Pratt in NYC and being an educator at heart, Eric left Dr Pepper to become the Dean of the Visual Arts and Design Department at the University of North Texas, my alma mater. The last time I visited Eric in Denton, I introduced him to my son who now attends UNT now and will graduate in May.
My second mentor is Frank Kripaitis who I worked closely with at my later years at Dr Pepper. Frank comes from the old days of advertising and worked at some of the legendary New York agencies like Ogilvy & Mather and Doyle Dane Bernbach…when he looked just like Frank Zappa. His stories are many and our collaboration is endless as we still help each other through some design hurdles. Frank is retired now, lives less than ten miles away and we talk at least once a week. He’s having a colon cancer surgery soon, so say a small prayer for my friend.
Third and not least is Keith Wilson, my Senior Art Director from the last agency I worked at, Tic Toc. Keith was previously a comics illustrator and cover editor for DC Comics in New York, this came with many stories about the DC Comics staff from the late 80’s…like how much Gil Cane enjoyed strip clubs. The main thing I learned from Keith was how to treat others and act in a kind, professional manner that earned you respect. Keith was a gentle yet powerhouse creative who knew how to get results just by listening and treating everyone equally, he will leave this world with zero enemies behind. I’m still invited to his home to watch monster movies all night long.
I’m keeping an eye out for the new Sparks! book down here. If I see it for sale, I’ll buy it then send you guys a photo! I’m sneaking out of her now, be well fellow Sneakers and Sneakettes!!
Typo in the last post: Gil Kane, but I know you know who he is….
Hey Gents,
Funny to hear you reference the Paul Hogan ‘Shrimp on a Barbie’ Australian tourism campaign. Even almost 40 years later (it was first aired in 1984), it is still the dominant pop culture reference for Australia.
Sorry to bust some myths, but Australians don’t say shrimp. We do indeed say prawn, but the campaign was developed for the US market where it was felt (by the US ad agency N.W Ayer) that ‘prawn’ was too confusing. Also, we really don’t barbecue prawns (or shrimp.) Sausages, steaks, onions, even burger patties, yes. But I have rarely – if ever – encountered seafood being barbecued here.
But the campaign was so impactful that it still resonates four decades on. Most Australians have just come to accept it – though there is a whole generation younger than me who have literally no idea what it is a reference to.
Ian, on your question re Gargamel, I always assumed that he wanted to eat the smurfs. But to be honest, I always found his cat (Astrial, I think) a more significant threat. I did like Hank Azaria’s live action take of Gargamel in the films.
And as far as mentors go, I have been lucky to have a few great ones in my career, though I’ve never actively realised at the time that they were mentoring me. They were mostly just good managers or bosses who encouraged me to undertake tasks that I would not have considered myself qualified for. I think this is the definition of a mentor. It is someone who shows you the path but doesn’t tell you how to walk it, just that you can walk it. Whereas I have had bosses and managers whose default position was to tell you exactly how you should do things – and always their way, so that you always felt that you were less qualified or capable than them.
I have had the opportunity to mentor people in my later career and there is nothing more exciting and satisfying than seeing them exceed your own achievements once you have set them on their path. Some still call me for guidance or suggestions and I am always flattered to have my counsel sought even though they have long since become more skilled than me.
I have had a few vacation shockers, worst of which was when I got run over by a cyclist in India, landed in a puddle of mud then developed chronic food poisoning and ended up in hospital.
Good times.
gargamel
Hi Davian,
Mick’s right, nobody barbecues seafood here. I saw someone in Darwin throw a baramundi on the outside grill once, and there were sniggers all around. It’s a shame that the ad men didn’t have the confidence to use local terminology and second guessed themselves with ‘shrimp’. Then again, maybe the word shrimp just sounds funnier. Imagine that bit in Forrest Gump was all about ‘prawn this’ and ‘prawn that’ – doesn’t have the ring to it.
Question of the Week: Have you ever travelled somewhere ….
I have travelled to San Francisco three times enroute to South America. I’d be lying if I said that a big impetus for selecting this layover was not to see the filming locations of a certain film. Let’s call that film…. um, Phallic Problematic Cop. Turns out, it was actually a good way of seeing a lot of the city’s neighbourhood beyond the famous bits (though they were outstanding as well).
And I’d do it all again, see, if wasn’t for those meddling kids….my two year olds that is.
I also once made a fleeting one-day visit to Liverpool for the express purpose of seeing some of the basic Beatles sights. I took some or other Beatle tours, but in retrospect wish I’d just navigated a route myself and gone by foot/bus. I’d love to have done one of the tours that actually goes into Paul’s Forthlin Avenue home. That would have been the holy grail. Or seeing incognito, unaccompanied Bob Dylan jump on and off a motorised Yellow Submarine.
One day I need to get my arse to Toronto to see the Degrassi Junior High sights. Before they are gone. Forever. Neil Hope forever!
Los Straitjackets! That’s the band in the luchador masks who sometimes play with Nick Lowe. Perhaps unexpectedly, they’re actually from Nashville. I know of them through my friend and bandmate Doug (the guy who played the awesome lead guitar on my song Hettie’s Moon), who is a big fan of surf rock and guitar instrumentals. In fact, we play a few of their instros in our band The Sea Hunters, Isn’t Love Grand and Aerostar, probably others I’m forgetting, and sometimes I get to play drums on Half A Boy And Half A Man done in the Lowe/Straitjackets style. They also have some Christmas albums out where they play surfy versions of holiday songs melded together with popular surf tunes. They’ve become one of my favorite things to listen to during the holiday season. And this concludes my raving recommendation of Los Straitjackets.
Speaking of raving recommendations, Sparks! Future Purrfect was wonderful! It actually, legitimately made me tear up a few times, as well as being good for quite a few big laughs. I loved the names of the horses! Lezah of course, and am I right in thinking Harris and Archie are names of David and Lezah’s actual horses? Those names seemed very familiar. Ferocious Monster Charlie with the red eyes and a million claws and teeth cracked me up. I also loved the rougher drawing/coloring style when Kip was telling his story. Very clever. I’ll leave the rest of my favorite parts out as they’d qualify as spoilers (especially most of the parts that made me teary), but if any Sneakers are on the fence about Sparks!, just do it!