Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Episode 575 of Sneaky Dragon – the podcast that isn’t getting any younger!
This week: uncertainly yours; guilty chocolate; offensive Irish; happy endings; livable wounds; the unidle rich; impossibly wealthy; headstart to happiness; no apologies; boring definition; bully for you; psychologically tall; reverse learning; pitch block; transforming dynamics; robot ape; miniature physics; Schwengi!; musical clearance; Biblical epics; all about Alex Toth; bathing your cat; bubble trouble; wall of Lycra; the cream of BC; heist-capades; unfunny money; quitting time; thrills, pills and bellyaching; challenge not accepted; dope on a rope; Dork Shadows – Light My Fire; Questions of the Week – Sneakers respond; your goose is cooked, you turkey; tire songs; Marley we roll along; Christmas tape; and, finally, boobs.
Question of the Week: If you came into money, what is the first thing you’d buy for yourself?
Sub-question of the Week: What bores you?
Thanks for listening.
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Season’s greetings from snowy London Town, where I’m rueing my decision to wear a glossy black top-hat through the middle of the Urchin district at the end of chimney-cleaning hours.
Deep apologies in advance to Ian for including yet another unpronounceable word towards the end of this note. Hopefully it won’t make your brain melt like Nina’s when I forgot about her no-swearing rule and made her say ‘shag’.
I’ve written before the difference between those people who are active bores and those who are passively boring – the former who insist on telling you everything about their choice of subject and who wrestle any conversation into their arena, whilst the latter have no interest in conversation and tap any ball you serve them into touch. Both sorts are equally draining, which makes me self aware when embarking on a ‘sneakers respond’ monologue! I always hope that you will pause to interject midway through my words, closing the gap between dictation and conversation.
Thanks for the digression about Rankin Bass and the Snow Miser / Heat Miser – having never been exposed to these animations in the UK I’d not heard the song before, and it went straight on the playlist for our festive swing dance. It also explains why my thermostat is called a ‘Heat Miser’, a name which had always puzzled me.
Finally, David’s talk of mishaps with a forklift made me think of the delightful German ‘educational’ film (here we go):
‘Staplerfahrer Klaus: Der Erster Arbeitstag’
– AKA ‘Forklift Driver Klaus: the first day on the job’. To say more would spoil it… let’s just say it’s worth nine-minutes and twenty seconds of your time.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KJdrQXyfhnk
Am I truly sorry for making Ian read out all these foreign words – or is it schadenfreude?
Bottom of the evening to you,
Peter
One addendum: I just learned that the Rankin Bass shows were made in Japan!
https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-complicated-man-who-made-rudolph?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwAR1yEZbKJQEJSMmchEjyvNfSAfohLgLkTkFVAyeokL7t8K_X_mlASFW2gDg
If I unexpectedly received a windfall of cash, my first non-house purchase would be an electric car and a home charging system. My little 18-year-old Echo Hatchback is still in great shape with low kilometerage and I don’t drive it much, but going electric would be a little better for the environment.
What bores me? Most recently, the movie Don’t Worry, Darling. I had to watch it in small doses with one finger on the fast-forward button. It looked stylish but the screenplay was a mish-mash of other similarly-themed movies.
You said it Louise, it took me days to get through “Don’t Worry Darling” at the behest of my daughter who is a huge fan of Harry Styles. Not much of a payoff. I actually came up with a better ending that my daughter liked. Now she ‘s asked if I’ve seen “My Policeman” also with Harry starring in that film as well. I’m wondering now which “One Direction” he’s headed in, up or down? I guess we’ll see him in some upcoming Marvel films now that he’s Starfox…I wonder if he’ll sing?
If I came into money, what would I buy? Land, of course – they’re not making any more of it! And then I’d buy me a horse or two or eight to go on said land.
And what bores me – meetings! If I learned anything from Covid-times, most meetings could have been an email. I am currently in the process of chucking anything meeting-related from my life. Wish me luck!
I think a similar question was asked before because I have the same answer. I’d buy the biggest, most ‘roided-out computer setup and studio I could build, top of the line everything with all the accoutrements: printer/plotter, scanner, monitor and Cintiq! Hopefully with all that equipment, I could go into business for myself as an illustrator/designer. It just might give me the leg up I need to illustrate and design my own creations and develop a style all my own.
I’ll say the Lezah stole my thunder above, my office is notorious for having way too many unnecessary meetings that could be emails. I think some people just like to hear themselves talk and pontificate. Okay then Alex, I’ll pick another “Things that bore me” for $400…and the answer is SPORTS! Attending sports in person where you can’t walk away from it is the worst, if it’s on television I can just turn it off or leave the room. I’ll take an exception with Baseball though, it’s more entertaining than any of the other sport events, maybe because I can follow it and it moves at a slower pace. The funny thing is about me and sports though, I really like sports movies and they don’t bore me. I also like designing for sports, maybe because there’s so many great elements and iconography available to do it successfully. So I do LIKE sports, I’m just not drawn to it as a long, boring event I’m supposed to sit there and watch. I usually spend it thinking of all the other things I’d rather be doing.
As I write this, I should note that we’re having at least 15 over for Christmas Eve and most of them love football. Add on that the Dallas Cowboys will be playing their rivals, The Philadelphia Eagles in what may be a playoff game. I’ll most likely be digging away at my Mother-in-Law’s delicious cheeseball in the kitchen ignoring the game.
Peter mentioned the Rankin Bass Cold Miser & Heat Miser earlier, I just set up my Rankin Bass figures for Christmas! I have the Miser Brothers from “The Year Without a Santa Claus” in one area and the cast from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” across the room. You can see them here:
https://flic.kr/p/2o5YdZL
https://flic.kr/p/2o5Z7kh
Did you guys talk about the Rankin Bass specials? I’m struggling to remember.
I’m taking my belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly and whatever sugarplums I can find and heading back up the Sneaky Dragon chimney. Merry Christmas to all good Sneakers and to all a good night!!
I wrote something and now it’s gone, does it need moderation? See if you can dig it up please…..