Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to the Episode 556 of Sneaky Dragon – the podcast with the nicest smile!
This week: a lot of hot air; neck sweat; funny boned; the price is wrong, bitch; music cornered; public service; air-conditioned options; Dave recommends Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris; good by-the numbers; Hobbitrail; keep on trekkin’; gorilla wars; middling middle-aged mid-level kids show actors; descriptive TV themes; emasculating powers; first season nudity; the Burt Reynolds scam; good pie; reverse racism; giant spider problems; yep to Nope; learning the tropes; nope to The Grey Man; convincing peril; ineptly inconceivable; the hero’s way; characters first; give a fuck fans; kill your father; robot comedians; security money; unexpected outcomes; mental plans; personal problems; we still like Only Murders In the Building; fit to cast; pay to play; Dave recommends the audio drama Arden; complain to the weather; toilet talk; bidet by day; vampire faux pas; subtle layers of Hell; Dork Shadows – Pretties for You; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; football plays; Fosse remains; chicken shit; dance revolution; high school comedy club; the needle and the damage done; do ya wanna fucka; mountain spectacles; Sartre night fever; and, finally, scary kids.
Question of the Week: What are you doing to keep cool?
Sub-question of the Week: What is the best invention?
Thanks for listening.
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Hi Gents,
Hope things aren’t too toasty over there right now. I had a teacher in high school who would respond to any complaints about extreme weather with the following statement:
‘If you’re cold, put on a sweater. If you’re hot, take off all your clothes and lay on the bathroom floor.’
I suspect that teachers today might not get away with sharing this type of philosophy.
Best invention? It really has to be recorded music (in whatever device your prefer from phonograph to streaming service.) I can’t imagine a time where the only way to hear music was to listen to it played live. That is to say, I can imagine it and it is unimaginable.
I think I have to strongly agree with Mick on recorded music, that’s a wonderful answer. I think I’ll now go and listen to some recorded music, naked on the bathroom floor.
Happy August from Lucifer’s sphincter!
Before questions, I wanted to weigh in on the studio audience conversation you guys were having. One of the times I visited family in San Diego, we travelled up to Burbank and saw the Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was still hosting. I was shocked how small the entire studio was, let alone the audience of maybe 100 people, it looked nothing like I thought it should. Afterwards we just wandered into the Wheel of Fortune set where they were about to start taping, again…small set and almost no audience. The “ooooh’s” and “aaaaahh’s” you hear when you watch that show on TV are all recordings, there was maybe 20 people watching the show being taped, not enough to cheer it on like that. One man, had a binder and was somehow keeping track of all the puzzles and everyone in the studio knew him! I can only wonder if he was a regular fan who watched the show in person religiously or something. The studios were also cluttered and dark along with the astonishingly small size I was still getting used to, the only thing in the studio that looked dazzlingly beautiful was where they shot the closeups of jewelry or shiny watches while they called them out as prizes. That’s showbiz I guess, a million ways to fool the eye.
About Drew Struzan….having been on my bucket list for many, many years, I first met him about four years ago when Drew came to his first Dallas Convention. A friend of mine and Convention owner has become Struzan’s representative and actually built a gallery about 45 minutes away from me that is mostly Struzan’s work. I waited so long to see Drew’s work in person and so far I’ve been to the gallery twice for shows with Drew in attendance. He’s retired now but still signs posters, prints and books for fans, for free. He’ll even ask you to sit down with him so you can tell him about yourself. He’s the real deal and is more interested in us than we are of him. Here’s a link to The Galactic Gallery, take a look at Drew’s amazing work, most of it originals.
https://galacticgallery.com
I’ll return to answer questions!!
Just to translate, it was over 40 degrees Celsius here today, I could light myself on fire just to keep cool. Ian mentioned wearing a wet bandana around the neck to cool off, my Dad taught me that when I was outside doing the lawn work in the Summer. He’d soak a towel in the laundry tub, twist it up and put it in the garage fridge so it was cold and ready for me. I did the lawn work once I was old enough because my dad had asthma and I couldn’t watch him suffer like that, so he shared all his lawn work hacks with me. Fast forward to now, the weather service has been issuing red flag warnings every day to stay inside if you can during peak hours of heat. There’s also a strict burn warning since the lack of rain has made all the grass so dry that any open flames like grills and fire pits are forbidden. The grass looks like straw right now, in fact last week a yard crew set a fire off just by making sparks from a lawnmower blade on cement. The fire grew so fast it took out a huge area in Balch Springs, a suburb just East of Dallas and burned as many as 20 homes.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/grass-fire-mower-as-many-as-20-dallas-area-homes/
Mick’s post above really got me thinking about which invention has had the most impact on mankind. Surely not the stupid internet or something like plastic. Right now I’m inclined to say air conditioning but even that is a convenience and doesn’t change humanity. I originally was going to mention something like peniccilin or the X-Ray since they help save lives and benefit the health industry, but then I read what Mick wrote and it inspired me. Mick mentions recorded music, an auditory breakthrough! So I thought I’d take the flip side of that and make my choice the Printing Press…or simply PRINTING which is the visual Ying to Mick’s Recorded Music Yang. Think of where we’d be without the ability to print! Imagine if we still had to memorize stories and pass on the spoken word? A world without books, instructions or images or any kind sounds horrific, so I’m going with Printing.
Stay cool Sneakers around the Globe! I’m going to have some Freezies now!!!
Hey, Sneakers! I’m keeping cool this summer by living in the Highlands of Scotland. It’s a highly effective method, though perhaps not for everyone. 🙂 We’re actually having a lovely summertime here, for which I’m very grateful. What the future holds, though, who knows?
Best invention? Rock ‘n’ roll, daddy-o!
PS: Thanks for the 30 second soundscape of snack munching on the end of ep 556. (It’s the little details that reward committed listeners.)