Hola, Sneakers. Welcome to Episode 433 – the podcast that keeps on taking!
This week on the show: pre-ramble; starting backwards; mixed-up names; awkward circle jerk; full bellies; sorta hot guy; inoffensive garlic breath; cancelled culture; bad sports; keep it calm; high flying germs; first sign of the virus; unhelpful advice; teen dream; where’s the money; a quiet place; awkward chyron; laptop advice; trombone dreams; bullshit kazoo; speaking of Hitler; dumb; Going Down the Road Again Part II; self-contained entertainment; the sackbut question; retro butter commercial; angry butter commercial; other butter uses; his anal majesty; instant wealth; apology Oscar; Cronenbergiana; the Louis del Grande mystery; Canadian sitcoms; French mice; le podcasting; Tokyo Godfathers; Memories of Murder; reversal of expectations; The Other Guys; exploded; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; no grit; spoilers; religion exchange; Dave’s semi-monthly Austen rant; split on the Banana Sp;lits; pandemic shopping tip; shout out to our supply chains; scold off; swallow your anxiety; boring stories; good thoughts to Amanda; social grace; too far; don’t be a Dave; and, finally, no hands.
Thanks for listening.
Question of the Week: What’s something Canadian you like?
Sub-question: How are you dealing with the new now?
Louise, here’s your show: The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
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The early understanding of Canadian culture probably started with Dudley Dooright which led to SCTV and the McKenzie Brothers, then finished off with RUSH, and I suppose it’s all equally thought of from one region to another. It would be the same if I asked you guys what you thought Dallas was like and start with your perceptions from that, everything from oil wells in our backyards to riding horses to work. But I have to give you guys a lion’s share of credit for dispelling and debunking what the typical Canadian lifestyle is like…or what it’s perceived to be. I enjoy what I’ve learned about Canada from the two of you and up until I started listening to Sneaky Dragon, never really had an urge to visit our neighbors to the North. So if I said I liked something Canadian, it’s the knowledge of what makes Canada special that I enjoy learning about. Hopefully someday I can visit and see with my own eyes what makes Canada unique and interesting.
And maybe the bacon.
This quarantine has our office working from home which isn’t all that bad since I was able to bring home my big iMac Pro to work on. I have an upstairs office, headphones and unlimited music to listen to, so with that combination of elements I can stay quite productive. The best part is that around 5:00 pm when I start to get hungry for dinner, I don’t have to suffer through the ride home from work. I can smell my wife making dinner up until 6:00 pm and then just walk downstairs to eat! So I don’t miss the half hour commute either way or the fact that at 5:00 in the office all I smell is the maddening scent of anxiety.
I’ve also been walking twice a day for about a half hour just to get out. At the most I’ll lose a little weight during all this! The way I see it, if I don’t make it through this thing alive, my family doesn’t have to buy the giant fatty coffin.
Ten Canadian things I like:
1 Sneaky Dragon. I know, you said ‘apart from us.’ But, come on, guys – ignoring you would be like picturing Easter Island without the, well, you know… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms7z36QBcMU
2 You have, officially, the world’s coolest flag.
3 Canadians helped me through adolescence. What would my teen years have been if not for Joni, Neil, Leonard, and most members of The Band?
4 Norm Macdonald’s Cosby hypocrisy bit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWKyK4KL0jU
5 Dave’s record collection. I thought I had broad musical tastes, but every biweek the Listening Party extends my horizons to places I had no idea I needed to explore.
6 William Shatner’s version of Pulp’s Common People. No, I’m not being ironic. I love this!
7 Cape Breton fiddle music. There’s some fantastic fiddle playing here in Scotland too, but that Cape Breton swing is a sound all of its own.
8 Politeness. Nowhere else in the world would a guy square up to an arrogant asshole who deliberately endangered his life through reckless driving, only to return later to offer a note of apology.
9 Scott Pilgrim. Books and movie are beyond perfect.
10 Compleatly Beatles. Great, self-contained series in its own right (as are Totally TIntin and Full Marx), and my gateway drug to the Dragonverse, for which I will be forever grateful. Might just be time for another listen…
Hello fellow quarantinos!
I feel very fortunate as we deal with the “New Now” . Although I am currently out of a job, because it’s hard to do massage and keep socially distant, I do live on our 32 acres deep in a “holler” in woods with many trails we’ve cut. I have places to freely and safely walk with our dogs, Nash and Prairie, and I have a veg garden I’m getting going and neglected flower beds to tend. I also am painting furniture on the rainy days and cooking and cleaning out a closet or two , things I can do while listening to Sneaky Dragon, etc.
This morning I had to make a grocery run. I take the highway up over the mountain past the Blue Ridge Parkway to get there and here’s the thing: nothing can stop the new season of Spring and down here grass is greening and flowers and trees are blooming.
So when I get a little anxious and freaked out, for me it’s calm and there’s peace in nature.
I also read quite a bit, and that brings me to Question 1: there’s a delightful Canadian author, Louise Penny, who writes a fantastic series of mysteries in which the main character is one Inspector Gamache. These are beautiful books with a set of lively characters based in the fictional Canadian village of Three Pines. Highly recommend!
And Sneaky Dragon!
Thanks for continuing to give us updates on YOUR situations, David and Ian! You are good guys!
A Canadian thing I like: Corner Gas. I got hooked on it during the brief period when it aired on PBS in the US back in the day, and afterwards sought out the DVDs. I still periodically re-watch the entire series, nowadays mostly via Amazon Prime, because who can be bothered to physically put in a DVD anymore? The quirky word-based humor, remote small-town setting, and excellent cast continue to draw me in (Emma Leroy is for my money one of the greatest female characters in TV history, and I was deeply saddened when Janet Wright passed away a few years back).
I’m also rather fond of the Canadian Doctor Who podcast Radio Free Skaro. They are reliably entertaining and pretty much always positive, a quality often lacking within Doctor Who fandom. It’s thanks to them that I first learned about the wonders of Rocket Robin Hood (not exactly a Canadian thing that I like, but at least a Canadian thing that I recommend everyone watch a clip or two of via YouTube).
Belatedly responding to your thoughts on In Search Of last episode, but as fate would have it there’s a new podcast called In Research Of that reviews those old episodes in light of the science known both now and at the time. It seems that some of the topics the show covered weren’t too weird at the time but have since been discredited, while others were total nonsense even back then (and a few hold up well even now). In particular, the hosts echo Dave’s thoughts on the whole “ancient astronaut” idea being fairly racist at heart; nobody ever invokes aliens to explain impressive monuments built by white people (with the possible exception of Stonehenge), only to explain away the achievements of the ancient Egyptians, Maya, etc.
It’s a bit sappy, but listening to podcasts I enjoy is my main way of coping with the new now. I hope you guys stay healthy and keep up the great work!
Hey chaps,
Hope you’re both well in this crazy era of human history.
Something Canadian I like – apart from Sneaky Dragon – is the positive, easy going, slightly apologetic Canadian optimism. It is a characteristic shared by Australians like me – and New Zealanders too, I’ve noticed. It probably comes from being neighbours to big ‘high powered’ countries. It makes us – on the whole – nice people to be around.
I also like the way you pronounce ‘boot,’ and specifically the way that Ian pronounces ‘caramel’ with utter disregard for the second ‘a.’
As for the new normal, it is eerie and unsettling, but – despite the scenes of supermarket fights and toilet paper hoarding – it is also bringing out some great kindnesses in people. I am enjoying seeing how people are sharing their experiences on social media as a way to feel connected despite our social isolation.
Without sounding too earnest, hopefully this experience will force us to re-evaluate what is actually important to us as a society and how we function together. I would love to imagine that on the other side of this we might have a greater appreciation for healthcare, teachers and the arts.
Stay healthy gents and please keep doing what you are doing. It is more important right now than ever. No episode is too long right now.
Mick
> Question of the Week: What’s something Canadian you like?
I like the drive from Prince George to Vancouver along highway 97 and the Transcanada. It’s long, but I love how the landscape changes. It slowly goes from the endless forest of the Interior to near-desert around Cache Creek and Ashcroft. Then you enter the really narrow stretch of the Fraser Canyon and it’s striking and dramatic. Then you round the bend into the Fraser Valley and suddenly there’s rainforest and soggy mountains and everything. Even the drive through the Fraser Valley to Vancouver is pretty nice, at least until you start hitting traffic.
> Sub-question: How are you dealing with the new now?
Poorly! I’m still in denial about everything. I know intellectually that things will get worse before they get better, and no-one knows how long this is going to last, or whether we’ll be able to get back to the way we lived before. But it hasn’t sunk in. Thankfully, I can work from home, and my family is doing fine. I’ve been cooking more, finding new ways to keep in touch with friends, going for walks. But still, it’s rough.
A Canadian thing I like are maple trees. I enjoy the oxygen they release, their shadiness in the summer, their colourfulness in the fall, and the sweetness of their sap when boiled down and poured on my pancakes.
I’m not worried about the pandemic so much for myself but I’m very anxious about bringing the virus home to my senior mom. Unfortunately, being very anxious makes my throat sore and makes my body alternate between hot and cold. I wonder, “Is it just me or is that you, Covid-19?” So I take my temperature a couple of times a day. And I treat every item I bring into the house as if it might be infected. I was at the drug store last week to pick up some shower gel. Then I saw this woman in the aisle flipping open the tops of all these bottles to smell their fragrances…which I totally would’ve done myself in the Before Times. But I felt woozy at the thought that she could be shedding virus on every bottle. What’s been helpful are the people, like you, who are using the internet to stay connected. My ballet teacher recorded herself in her living room leading a ballet class and posted it on YouTube so we can do it at home. My choir director is going to start hosting rehearsals on Zoom. And it was fun to watch the Critical Hit Show online.