Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to the podcast that promises nothing – and DELIVERS!
This week: 50% less Dedrick; replacement parts; Garner support; not that Webster; bad Appetit; cheese bleus; skin storm; crustworthy; the leftovers; under pressure; family style; dirty clean; mean girls…and boys; offensive line; us and them; trans-aggressive; selectively sensitive; safe spaces; working churls; give it and take it; caring and sharing; going for brokerage; caution: stuffing; happy meals; laser chat; let’s look into The Abyss; Ian has a Holiday Affair; Tourneur round; generation aches; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; sneaky gimlet; promises, promises; and, finally, defensive line.
Question of the Week: Is there a movie you like a lot, but has an element you wish wasn’t in the film?
Sub-question of the Week: What was the first big meal you ever cooked?
Thanks for listening.
Ed Draganski sent in a drink suggestion: it’s called Swamp Water at a local restaurant, but let’s call it Sneak Water.
But may we suggest a gummy dragon in place of the gummy worm?
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An element that spoiled a whole movie, maybe even a whole franchise for me, was when it was revealed that Newt and Hicks were dead at the beginning of Alien 3. I didn’t mind the prison planet premise and the idea of pitting human predators against an alien one. But after that opening, I felt…what’s the word? Oh, yes. Alienated! Also, I found the ending was much too similar to the ending of the previous year’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The first big meal I ever cooked was a roast chicken dinner for my Girl Guide Cooking Badge. I probably made my first pie for my Baker’s Badge.
Another of journalist Jack Webster’s catchphrases was something like, “Get on with it!” This was to callers who took too long to get to the point when they were phoning in.
If I haven’t already mentioned it, Happy New Year to all!
The laserdisc formats Dave was discussing were CLV and CAV. CAV required more digital information and spread the movie out over more sides thus requiring more flipping, but this also meant you could pause the film to get a sharp image at any time. CLV took less digital info and when you paused the film you saw the blue PAUSE screen. I still have some of the greatest boxed collections of laserdiscs, it truly was a videophile’s medium. There was a Coppola Director’s set of “Dracula” that actually encouraged you to connect your laserdisc player to a VCR and re-edit alternate scenes from the film that were provided on the disc. It was a kind of a director’s workshop thing for film enthusiasts that Coppola had endorsed. I have a huge Wizard of Oz set with loads of galleries and commentary tracks, at the time there was nothing like it. And of course my Definitive Star Wars Trilogy set which isn’t all that definitive now but at the time I could connect my laserdisc to my Mac and get any screen image I wanted because the entire trilogy is CAV. It’s also the last iteration of the original trilogy before the Special Editions were made in 1997 and loaded with all kinds of great stuff. Lastly, just to make David cringe, laserdisc also was responsible for the first extended version of “1941” with an extra 45 minutes!! I bought that without even thinking twice.
Speaking of “The Wizard of Oz”, it used to annoy me when the scene where the Scarecrow gets his diploma/brains from the Wizard he immediately proves it by solving a geometry problem. Every time we watched it my Dad felt compelled to say out loud that the Scarecrow was wrong and he should get a brain that works. The Wizard is a fraud. He’s and engineer and I’m just a dumb artist who pushes pixels around all day, so what the hell do I know?
As far as single scenes go, the gimp scene in “Pulp Fiction” is repugnant to me and I wanted to walk out when I first saw it. I respect “Pulp Fiction” for what it is and Tarantino’s vision but I just hate that entire part. I really do like most of Tarantino’s films, I consider “Inglorious Bastards” to be one of the greatest films of the last 20 years but I really don’t like to see ‘ol Quentin show up in his own films either.
I’m the last guy who’ll EVER say anything bad about any of the 13 films made by the Marx Brothers but you dragged me into this. Has anyone ever made it through the Tenement Symphony scene in “The Big Store”? That was a great bathroom break for me when “The Big Store” was on television as a kid and I’m sure the scene originally showcased Allan Jones nicely for a broader audience back in 1941. Just get me to the chase scene at the end or point me in the direction of the opera.
I’ve never made a big meal of any kind, so I got nuthin’ on that one. I’ve helped on a few but I leave the lion’s share to more qualified family, friends and professionals.
Stay warm, dry and bundle up if you’re experiencing the winter blast!!
See ya next time!