Hola, Sneakers! It’s Episode 607 of the podcast that said “Fuck that shit” a long, long time ago.
This week: scatterbrains; the yoke’s on them; chews leaf; archeological horror show; now museum, now you don’t; practice three repetitions; kill your father; funny or why; black and white opinions; that’s the Spirit; insurance plagiarism; justifiable nursocide; Dave wins big with California Split; overlapping diagetics; two-thirds of a good movie; Altman’s ingenue; Ian is drawn to Dave Stevens: Drawn to Perfection; trivial trivia; I don’t wanna read some Chelsea; Dave is struck by Moonstruck; the downfall of Nicholas Cage; the Coens of comedy; talent novas; the Merry Moat; the problem with sub-titles; Dave goes down the bridle path; old-fashioned detecting; Dave gives Green for Danger a go; six Sneakers in search of an author; spoiled food; a momento mori of your time; who was that masked man; discourse of the werewolf; Maniac Mansion mania; sheeper-receiver; treasure seekers; and, finally, why didn’t we say “Ham-let”?
Question of the Week: What’s your favourite group of artists?
Sub-question of the Week: What’s a movie that you put off watching, but was totally great when you finally saw it?
Thanks for listening.
Here is the tape of Harry Nilsson rehearsing “He Needs Me” with Shelley Duvall:
I’m not sure if this was the episode of Maniac Mansion that Ian was talking about, but, not only does it feature David Cronenberg, it also features the amazing Andrea Martin:
Here is the trailer for the movie about the cartoonist Dave Stevens, who created The Rocketeer:
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We need a criterion channel corner in more episodes. Like Dave, I am often drawn to the leaving soon section and try to catch interesting stuff before it’s gone. And some help narrowing down what to focus on will be much appreciated.
The recording session with Shelley Duvall is forever fascinating. Maybe a bit frustrating with so much edited out, for musicians who enjoy how the sausage is made, but fascinating. “He Needs Me” is not an easy song to sing, either. Slower than you think, with no drums or percussion to follow the tempo, and Nilsson determined to keep the vocals often dragging just behind the beat. Harry’s a patient producer here, gently encouraging and nudging just enough to get the performance he wants. Also, the notes of the melody are close, with series of half-step runs and long-held notes at the end of a line. And, Shelley has to sing it in character throughout. Beautiful, brilliant songwriting, masterfully directed.
You know that those issues I ate of Jack Kirby’s “Forever People” gave me a terrible case of heartburn?! A nice case of Silver Age Kirby Marvel goes down much easier….
Favorite artists? A group…hmmm. I think with all possible respect to the visionaries who created the Silver Age of the Marvel Universe like Kirby, Ditko, Steranko, Romita, Barry Windsor-Smith and Buschema, I really took to the artists those guys inspired. So speaking of Dave Stevens, his “era” and those who were at their zenith around that time are most powerful to me. I lived through those times and saw it happen while I was at Lone Star, it was the greatest time in comics. So much talent back then that mattered, John Byrne, Steve Rude, Frank Miller, Adam Hughes, Michael Golden, Bill Sienkiewicz, Walt Simonson, Art Adams, Brian Bolland, Alan Davis, Dave Gibbons, Dave Sim, Gerhard and of course our dearly departed George Perez…how great he was. I met all these guys and they were my heroes, they still are. I remember meeting Dave Stevens one time, he was so fantastic, I brought my Rocketeer books and graphic novel to get signed…what a talented individual. Thanks for posting that trailer for his documentary “Drawn to Perfection”, I must check that out.
It’s not a movie but I’ve still never watched the series “Firefly”. I’ve heard great things about it and how short lived it was but for some reason I’ve never taken the time to watch it. I have friends who are actively angry at me about it too, They also think that if I wait too long the show will seem dated and I’ll have missed out on it’s impact…if in fact it still has any. I might watch it and think it’s the greatest show of all time! Who knows?
After years of badgering my wife she finally watched “The Matrix” for the first time ever. I blame a bit of fallout from taking in all the John Wick films one weekend, so whatever streaming service she was on probably pushed her into “The Matrix” as a continuation.
Now if we can just get Ian in front of “The Godfather.”
I did just start watching Ms. Marvel on Disney+ in preparation for “The Marvels” coming up soon. Outside of thinking maybe it was a show for teens, I had no pre-conceived notions about it, however let me just say that Iman Vellani is A-dorable! That kiddo is full of talent, I really like her.
Okay, welcome home Dave! Looking forward to your tales from the UK!
Cheerio to all my Sneakers!
I’ve enjoyed the work the group of artists who made Freaks and Geeks. Some of the cast members have gone on to work on award-nominated/winning films and series, especially the “freaks” Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Jason Segel and Seth Rogen. Collectively Paul Feig and Judd Apatow have written, directed or produced some of most successful comedy movies of the 2000s. They’re not always to my taste, but they take some big swings and usually have good roles for female actors as well as the guys. I’ve liked: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Bridesmaids and the Lena Dunham series “Girls” which was my first exposure to Adam Driver. *wink*