Hola, Sneakers! It’s Episode 603 of the podcast you hate to love!
This week: going swimmingly; unusual punishment; his and hirsute; shaved fruits; solitary man; by the books; lovingly kill your babies; cultural osmosis; conspicuous presumption; going crackers; cookie monsters; secret recipes; pick pock; dedicated marshmallows; muffin boom; vanity factor; scam buster; beat the system; pop machines; bottle cry; fish story; Flash mob; promotional spoilers; faux science; time travail; Batmaniac; over-matched heroes; under-cooked characters; damned dementia; too big an opening; they like boys; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; rare meat-filling; diverged to death; stacked mom; refusing the call; the gentlemen of surf; and, finally, pay-per-view.
Question of the Week: What is your favourite scary film from your youth?
Sub-question of the Week: What’s your favourite bird?
Thanks for listening.
It’s true. We like “We Like Boys”:
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Love the podcast. I got hooked on Totally Tintin (being a huge Tintin fan myself – https://strobez.ca/wp/index.php/tintin/tintin-1-72-scale-projects/ ) and then worked my way through the Beatles and the Marx Brothers as well. Lately I’ve been getting back into my comic collection, reading along with podcasts for both Legion of Super-Heroes and All-Star Squadron… and what did my eyes spot in the letter column of All-Star Squadron #10 (1982j… but a letter from Ian Boothby from Delta, B.C. imploring Roy Thomas to keep Plastic Man serious and asking for Captain Marvel to join the team… that HAS to be legit, no? 🙂
Probably but I don’t remember that at all. Wow. I think I was coming off of Plastic Man’s run in Adventure Comics which I didn’t like and the animated cartoon with Plastic Baby and really didn’t like either.
Plastic Man? Serious?
1982 Ian is right though, Captain Marvel should join the All-Star Squadron.
Plastic Man!
Imagine how brilliant a Plastic Man movie could be with the right director.
On the other hand, imagine how awful it could be with the wrong one… yikes.
It wasn’t a long letter… but your dislike for Woozy Winks came shining through… 🙂
I downloaded it on kindle but the letter wasn’t there. And yes, still not a Woozy Winks fan. But he’s much better than Doiby Dickles.
Jaws, Alien, Hummingbird, Chickadee.
Those are also the new Girl Guide stages.
Hello dear Sneakers,
Like Comedy, one of the secrets of horror is ….timing! This goes for the age at which you see a film – if you haven’t seen much horror, simple things can really un-nerve you: equally, if you lacking life experience, psychological horror can waft harmlessly over your head.
There was a Laurel and Hardy film that I must have seen aged 4 or 5, where they stay in a haunted house and are sitting up in bed afraid of ghosts – and the sight of grown men being scared wouldn’t leave my brain. Another film I saw just that little bit too early, before cynical teenager-dom kicked in, and took at face value – Critters. There’s a cruel streak in that film that I just couldn’t handle at the time, although it’s clearly designed to be ridiculous.
Then there’s the era we were living in – and in the mid 80s there was nothing more terrifying than ‘When the Wind Blows’. The pathos of seeing two charming old people keeping calm and carrying on as the world and their bodies fall apart remains one of the most disturbing pieces of fiction I’ve ever read or seen.
Finally, a quick shout out for ‘Paperhouse’ – which I remember as a video store staple but seems not to have survived the 80s. A girl in draws a house from her hospital bed – which then comes to life in her dreams, in a brilliant bit of set design. The more she draws on waking, the more disturbing her dreams become. I’d love to revisit this one – I remember it somehow managed to summon up the same mood as Hellraiser, without any gore effects.
David – I see from the notes and clippings I have pinned to the wall in my basement lair that your trip to England is coming up, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for any exhibitions and events that may appeal to you. The Cartoon Museum is always worth a visit, so that’s a given.
Toodle pip,
Peter.
Really good discussion on The Flash, I enjoyed hearing your critique on it. I hear the box office totals are less than spectacular but at the same time all I’m hearing is good feedback from those who’ve seen it. Maybe Miller’s personal status affected the film? However one scathing review I read really hit The Flash with a low blow, the reviewer wrote, “With all the cameos, The Flash is like the “Skidoo (1968)” of superhero films and it makes Green Lantern look like a masterpiece.” Jesus, that’s got Otto Preminger spinning in his grave. Were either of you reminded of a certain episode of Star Trek as you watched The Flash? They basically “Edith Keelered” the whole thing. Not too bad to go in that direction, I just hope the Harlan Ellison estate doesn’t sue. It’s a stretch but it got me thinking of that Star Trek story since it was one of my first encounters with time travel in entertainment.
Now we switch to Horror entertainment. I wasn’t allowed to see scary films in the theater like Alien or Jaws with such a vivid imagination and all, so mine was repeatedly shown on television. The movie was 1975’s “Race with the Devil” starring Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Switt and Lara Parker. I think I’ve mentioned this before in writing to you guys but the scary thing about this film was that it was shot here in Texas, so I felt like this happened very close to me. The story is about two couples traveling to a motor sports event in an RV and they’re being chased by Satan worshippers. These fuckers are everywhere and the couple barely makes it out alive everywhere they stop in Texas. They stop at the end of the movie in a clearing thinking they’ve killed all these Satanic goons only to be trapped by an immense ring of fire around them and the barely running RV. All Satan worshippers from the film then come walking out from the woods around the clearing and that’s how the movie ends!! Remember films from the 70’s that kept you wondering? No resolution, just imagine what happens next? That’s what made that goddamned movie so scary…
My favorite bird? Why, Peanut Duck of course!!
Love and Laughter to all my fellow Sneakers, I have a date with The Dial of Destiny tomorrow that I’ve been waiting fifteen years for. Until next week!
I was reminded of that same certain episode of Star Trek when my sister and I were watching last week’s episode of Strange New Worlds, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.” We appreciated the episode’s setting, coming as it did just a few days before our national holiday. I haven’t been to that city lately and when I spotted a change in the skyline, for a minute there I wondered to myself, “Did they build a new bridge?”
‘favourite scary film’ = oxymoron
I love peacocks. I also love our chickens (past and present).