Hola, Sneakers! Welcome back to Sneaky Dragon, the podcastiest podcast that ever podcast!
This week: prime directive; zero interest; co-noodling; journey into the pasta; one soggy evening; pressure cooking; tater taught; food services; it’s a miracle; bitter tea; golf course; temporal mores; old sport; fact checked; quick nicknames; pun-der appreciated; Marlowe and me; Tom Waits for no man; reality Cenobites; Noë out; wait for the twist; legal loopholes; sci-fi and/or sci-fantasy; Bothan dwellers; use of force; Top 5 Songs – Eloise; the golden age of Golden Books; laundromat blues; Questions of the Week – Sneakers respond; RIP Kevin O’Neill; architect support; Orlando strip; Community relations; doubtful entendres; LAX standards; fanny picked; diminishing returns; comfort movies; PR suicide; clockwork irony; and, finally, last-minute getaway.
Top 5 Songs – Eloise
- The Hollies – “Dear Eloise” – Butterfly, 1967 – 1:31:56
- Kay Thompson – “Eloise” – Cadence Records single b/w “Just One of Those Things”, 1956 – 1:41:37
- Barry Ryan – “Eloise” – Barry Ryan Songs Paul Ryan, 1969 – 1:48:36
- William Bell – “Eloise (Hang On In There)” – Soul of a Bell, 1967 – 1:56:19
- Stray – “Dearest Eloise” – Suicide , 1971 – 2:00:32
Question of the Week: What is your favourite non-movie spin off of a movie?
Sub-question of the Week: What is your favourite sports nickname?
Sub-sub-question of the Week: What is your comfort movie?
Thanks for listening.
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DAVID!! WATCH ANDOR!!
“Andor” checks a Star Wars box for me that one may find only in some of the books over the years, it taps into the underbelly of a galaxy far, far away. I like seeing the pedestrian side of what I think I’ve been missing out on over the last 45 years. So far, the Star Wars films tell the intertwined stories of Jedi mythology at the upper echelon of the Saga and the rebels/fighting/war is mostly a backdrop for what’s going on in a much, much larger galaxy. That’s how I’ve always understood it in my mind, that’s it’s a BIG galaxy and we’re just privy to seeing the focus on the Skywalkers all this time. Now it’s time to shift that focus to the everyday life of the rest of the galaxy and how its people fit into the backdrop of a conflict.
Favourite non-movie spin-offs of a movie: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Sadly, my memories of enjoying the series are now shadowed by what has been reported about Joss Whedon’s past and recent conduct behind the scenes. But I try to keep in mind that the shows were the work of hundreds of talented cast and crew members, writers and other producers.
Favourite sports nickname: the Italian Stallion. I know it best from the Rocky movies, but I checked to see if anyone had it prior to that. Turns out it was the nickname of Johnny Musso, a University of Alabama football player. He later played in the CFL for the BC Lions in the early 1970s and for the Chicago Bears before retiring in 1979.
My comfort movie is A Room With a View with its message of embracing “the Eternal Yes.”
Apologies if the last post sounds convoluted, I was half asleep when I wrote it. Seriously though, you guys need to take it easy on Star Wars, it may not make total sense but it does add up in the grand scheme of things. Fact check: The Bothans were the spies who are credited with stealing the plans to the second Death Star in “Return of the Jedi”, they’re mentioned by Mon Mothma during a Rebel briefing but we never see them. Now we can see the genesis of Senator Mothma in “Andor” and discover what drives her into her place with the Rebellion.
Remember 1996? Remember “Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire”? Technically a Star Wars spinoff, “Shadows” yielded every form of media EXCEPT a theatrical release, it was as if the movie had been made but never shown. What we got was the book, poster, comics, soundtrack, toys, collectibles and game as if they were supported media to a film, so every Star Wars fan was buying all this stuff and absorbing it using only one’s imagination. The game was a Nintendo 64 exclusive and I played it for years, it follows the story in the book and introduced some characters who’ve since been canonized along with the Star Wars films and television. I can’t think of any type of event like that before or since. I ate it all up since 1996 was otherwise devoid of anything Star Wars until the Special Editions arrived the following year.
Being a Cubs fan, you already mentioned Slammin’ Sammy Sosa, who I’ve actually seen in action, so I borrowed some inspiration from a friend and co-worker…
I work with a huge New York Yankees fan, who’s family is from there. She’s always mentioning the Yankees of the late 1920’s as “Murderers’ Row.” Murderers’ Row were the baseball teams of the New York Yankees in the late 1920s, widely considered some of the best teams in history. The nickname is in particular describing the first six hitters in the 1927 team lineup: Earle Combs, Mark Koenig, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel, and Tony Lazzeri. I guess what we’d call a “Dream Team” today was a little more down and dirty back in 1920’s New York. Fire up my wayback machine! I want to see those games…
My comfort film list is extensive and I’ll just go on record to say that any of the movies I’ve watched millions of times are contenders. Any of the Marx Brothers, Star Wars, Star Trek, DC or Marvel films qualify. I seem to throw on “Thor: Ragnarok” or “Guardians of the Galaxy” a lot since I never tire of those.
I have this tradition of watching a Christmas film every year while I wrap all the gifts in one evening, I try to find one I’ve never seen before as a challenge. If I can’t, I have holiday comfort films that either are Christmas classics like “Elf”, “Christmas Vacation” or films that take place during Christmas like “1941” or “Die Hard.” What are your Holiday Comfort Films? Does this qualify as a question of the week?
Okay, I’m not sleepy now but I’ll back out slowly like Homer Simpson into the wall of shrubs behind me….
By the way, the last episode was one of the funniest ever, especially the conversation about cereal milk. I side with Dave, I love drinking that chunky shredded wheat milk from a bowl!
Best to all! OXOXOXOX to all!!
I am really into shredded wheat right now, too, and usually, after my little cat Etta gets done with the milk, why, I finish it up! 🙂
Favourite sports nickname: Refrigerator Perry
Mine, too, Lezah! And they also called him “the Fridge”, for short!
My son was a chunky little toddler during the years William Perry played for the Bears, and, thus, known around the family as “the LITTLE Fridge”.
Hey both-
David asked a good question about whether architects have to run concepts by engineers:
The boring answer is legal – we need to work with professionals whose liability insurance covers the work. The anecdotal answer takes me back to a project for London’s V&A Museum: they wanted to cover their courtyard as a winter events space. Unfortunately, the site was somewhat inaccessible, being at the centre of one of London’s largest museums. Our (admittedly bonkers) concept was to freeze the fountain and hang a tent from an enormous pole of ice. At the first meeting with the engineer (a serious Israeli dude who’d survived a faulty parachute jump), he was nonplussed.
“You don’t do that. What we need is a steel column with…”
We insisted. He resisted. The next day, he came back: the idea had been annoying him all night.
“So if you really wanted to do it, this is what you need…”
Through dialogue, we worked out a solution involving those ice blocks that get carved into swans, stacked into a hollow chimney shape, lagged with coolant tubes and packed with snow. By taking an absurd idea and rendering it plausible, it remains my favourite collaboration… if not the strangest project of my career so far…. but that’s a story for another day.
Briefly:
My school friends and I had a great fondness for the first two Aliens spin-off comics from Dark Horse. Mark [now Ian – relax – you can do this] Verheiden’s writing took the series in interesting directions, with stellar art, particularly Dennis Beauvais’ gorgeous fully painted issues. Both seem to be unavailable- a crime given the quality was so much higher than the filmed sequels.
A few years back the New Zealand Badminton Team was called ,,THE BLACK COCKS” for a New York Minute or two.
Funny fellas on the other side of the Ditch eh!
UNRELATED SPORTS TRIVIA: The umpires of our footy codes were once sponsored by O.P.S.M., a company that sells spectacles and optical wares. Quite ironic considering how often meatheads in the crowd like to hang shit on the “blind referees”!