Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to the Sneaky Dragon – the podcasst that doesn’t know when to stop!
This week: stop start; force majeure; pure magic; space thanatophobia; third film flops; improving the perfect; prolonged catharsis; arcs, lines, and loops; pity the poor space immigrant; star cult; knock three times – let’s look at movie trilogies including the Mission Impossible, Red Dragon, Blade, Toy Story, Terminator, X-Men, Matrix, Park Chan Wook’s Vengeance, Raimi’s Spider-Man, Die Hard, Pirates of the Caribbean, Evil Dead, Dollars, Indiana Jones, Bourne, Godfather and Back to the Future trilogies; the swinging thug; connect the dots; curse of the Farrow; killer consumables; kitchen party; meet choir; time travels; play days; R.I.P. Norman Lear; Park place; when death is a blessing; conversational cul-de-sac; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; Newley frightened; separation anxiety; brute trees; elf power; the darkest Crystal; and, finally, Simpsons BS.
Question of the Week: What is a TV show that shouls be revamped?
Sub-question of the Week: What’s your favourite book your parents read to you growing up?
Thanks for listening.
Before we get to the videos, here is a history of Brett Bunt’s tragically short-lived comic book series Existing Earth, as told by Brent himself to local paper The Tisdale Recorder. Follow this link.
The link Mark provided of Belle and Sebastian’s appearance on The Simpsons unfortunately didn’t work in Canada, so we’ve used these videos instead:
Here is the video of Marc Maron in conversation with comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff:
And, finally, some fabulous Fred Barry dancing:
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Fantastic episode. “At the Movies” should be revamped. My favourite book that my parents read to me growing up was “Nate the Great Goes Undercover”.
I do like the idea of The Force as semi-sentient, or doglike. Dogs don’t care if you’re evil in general. My preferred conceptual framework for The Force is a combination of everything Ben says about it in Star Wars and a mashup of Zen and Taoist ideas in a similar vein. “It’s an energy field created by all living things, it surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.” It was a fun way to bring magic into the world of future fantasy. We have laser guns and spaceships but also we can move stuff with our minds! It’s energy, never static, moving and flowing. It’s elusive and difficult to harness. Anyone can potentially use it, for good or evil, but to be able to focus its power requires discipline, practice, and study, like any skill. In the sequels there are shreds of ideas worth exploring about the idea of dark vs. light sides of The Force. Not “prophecy” and “The One who’ll bring balance,” etc. Those are dumb dead ends that burden the story with unnecessary exposition and lore.
Speaking of lore, don’t let’s start on the ponderous waste of time that way too many writers engage in by chaining themselves to a massive stone of world-building before they even get started on actual stories. Tolkien is the main model for that, I know, but he did it as he went along, and ye gods does EVERY book need to be part of a multi-volume series steeped in the history and geopolitical machinations of its setting? Just fake it and move on. There’s plenty of room to pad out one’s world if and when it’s time to write the [sigh] sequel or prequel. Honestly, I’ve rather soured on series in recent years. I’m on the lookout for one-offs more and more, since seeing “part 1 of the ___ Saga” is making me tired and cranky.
It’s like eating a fresh donut, and it’s sweet and fluffy and delicious. And you turn to go, licking your fingers, and the counterperson says, “but wait! Have another one, this has extra icing!”
And you say, “well, okay, I did like that one, sure lemme have it.” And maybe it’s fine, but not as satisfying as the first because two donuts is pretty filling, and it’s a little stale.
And they say, “hang on though babe, because we got a whole BOX of them on the way, just for you!”
So you go, “Jesus, I really think I’m not going to be able to keep all this down, can I just go, because I have some errands to run?”
“No! C’mon! You love it, everybody loves these donuts, it’s a party, look, there’s so many!”
So, yes, one-off books are where it’s at for me right now. (Except for Sparks. Sparks can have many sequels.)
QotW 1: I really enjoyed a show that aired for one season in 1984-85 called *It’s Your Move,* starring a young Jason Bateman as a perpetually scheming, nascent con-man. David Garrison played his nemesis, the writer living next door and dating the kid’s mom. But in contrast to most shows centered on wise-ass kids, Garrison’s character was both clever and perceptive. The two spent most of the series sabotaging and outmaneuvering each other, and it was a lot of fun to watch. The schemes escalated into frankly ridiculous heights, but I was still all in. Our local affiliate canned it before the final few episodes, so I never saw the producers wreck the show by having Bateman’s character exposed for his hoaxing to his mother and promising to knock it off. What follows is purported to be more pedestrian sitcom fare. I’d love to see this premise taken up again, where I don’t have to suspend my disbelief that either every adult is monumentally clueless or every young person is petulant or surly.
QotW 2: Picking just one favorite book that Mom read to us as kids is hard. We went through a bit of Tolkien and the entire Narnia series together, and those were a complete delight. Likewise most of the Moomin books, but I think my most cherished is *Comet in Moominland*. It’s apocalyptic, funny, fantastical, and full of truth about life and family.
There are two picture books that my mom read to us that I remember fondly. One is “Swimmy” about a lonely little black fish who organizes a school of little red fish to swim in the shape of a big fish to scare off a predator. Swimmy becomes the “eye” of the fish in a striking strength-in-numbers image. The other book is “Paddle-to-the-Sea” by about a model of a canoe and paddler that a First Nations boy carves and launches into a river. The story follows its journey through the Great Lakes, over Niagara Falls, down the St. Lawrence River and into the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, people help the canoe to continue on its journey. It’s a story of how you never know how far your original creation can go and how many lives it can touch. Both books are beautifully illustrated and won awards. You can check them out on YouTube where people read them aloud for you as they show you the pictures, just like mom. “Paddle-to-the-Sea” was made into an Oscar-nominated live action short by the NFB and is also available online.
Speaking of original creations, instead of remaking an old TV series, I’d prefer it if producers and writers create a new one. So instead of a revamped Twilight Zone, you make Black Mirror. Instead of a reboot of Columbo, you make Poker Face. I’d like to see some sort of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that explores the demons that plague people in the second half century of their existence (i.e. over 50).