Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Sneaky Dragon – the podcast that rules, ok?
This week: the awful truth; only a pawn in the game; Captain hook; hot stuff; game theory; fun guy; God mode; motion smoothing; movie madness; motion picture sickness; real-time reactions; blithe spirit; pool hall; practically perfect in no way; the old banjo; anti-social drinker; disappointing reality; RIP Trina Robbins; designing women; Crumb bums; canyon lady; true romance; animal lovers; of woman bondage; Bat libs; seriously wrong; nothing to crow about; untrue-torials; totally wired; vacation pay; dog day afternoon; food complaisant; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; flagged to death; 70s sexy; return to sentinel; the Holy book; full fathomed feet; boners content; no regrats; and, finally, back chat.
Question of the Week: Are you a perfectionist? If so, do you find it helpful?
Sub-question of the Week: What disturbs you the most to see in a movie?
Thanks for listening.
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Hello dragon hosts! Disturbing in movies:
I have increasingly found that there is a difference between disturbing and scary, and I strongly prefer the latter. A good shark scare or general creepiness is good, but I stay away from torture porn type flics. I love Silence of the Lambs but I skip that damn quotable lotion scene because it’s the only part where someone is being tormented, so I guess that’s my limit. I also miss the simple scares of childhood; I completely stopped watching tv for a while at the age of about four because I saw the Tarzan trailer. The man traumatised me just by landing on a branch and looking at me. Happy times.
Did you guys ever pick a sore spot with the first question, I used to be the worst perfectionist with no self awareness or change in sight. It wasn’t until I married Susan that I loosened up and realized that it was okay to let some things go. This was mainly about my own projects, I’ve tried not to be a perfectionist in the workplace which can be seriously detrimental in the creative environment. Another sore spot about this topic being that even though I’ve beaten perfectionism in the workplace, some around me have not…and it’s been a problem lately. My fellow art director is a prime example. If I ask him what time it is, not only will he build a clock to tell me he’ll also attempt to build the clock factory. We’ve lost certain key colleagues in the last year that were efficient at keeping the workflow moving, now it’s become downright pedantic and tedious all the way up the chain. I feel like Jack Warden in the movie “Heaven Can Wait”, the scene where Vincent Gardenia is questioning the butlers and maids about Leo Farnsworth’s hats and all they can discuss is Leo Farnsworth’s hats comes to mind. I can allow myself to be a perfectionist but only when it’s taking up my own time to be so and not wasting someone else’s, I have a much better handle on it nowadays.
I’m disturbed most when I see animals harmed in any way, not only in films or TV but also in those commercials that appear without notice causing me to run from the room. I didn’t even like it when Vincent D’Onofrio was abusing the CGI dinosaurs in the 2015 “Jurassic World” movie, that scene really turned me off even though I knew they weren’t real. I also have to cover my eyes when needles are shown onscreen, I’m a big baby and can’t even watch that when it’s being done to me let alone projected on a 30 ft. screen.
Loved the discussion about your sports bar 85″ television, I have to say I’m envious. We just bought an LG OLED eco C3 65″ that has the thinnest screen I’ve ever seen and the best picture I’ve ever seen on a television, I’m just blown away by it. The additional payoff is that I get the television that was in its place as a hand-me-down so I get to move it upstairs to my studio room. Now I’m in your place Dave, do I hang it on the wall or do I rig some sort of surface for it since the stand isn’t a single center podium but two separate stands at the bottom left and right. My media console is about four inches too short in width to support the stands, so I have to rethink how it’s going to be supported. Either way, I’m excited that this television has made it upstairs, even though it’s a hand-me-down it’s far better than what I’ve had and it’s a 4K upgrade!
That wraps it up this week gents, best to all and our fellow Sneakers Worldwide!
I do like “Dear John,” don’t get me wrong. But “Stud Talk” was right there!
I got to see true perfectionism firsthand when working on my comics series. My co-creator, Adam, was one—probably still is, actually. While I can admire the results sometimes, I’m not sure it’s worth the time and stress required. With very few exceptions, I think there’s a point of diminishing returns that can strip out the life or soul of something, resulting in a final work that perhaps has a beautiful exterior but can be sterile, or in exreme cases, even hollow. It’s not that I don’t appreciate Steely Dan’s *Gaucho*, or Def Leppard’s *Hysteria*, but when punk showed up in the late 70s, it blew the ornately filigreed doors off the AOR temple. When Nirvana hit, they destroyed whole genres. There’s an excitement to the rawness of a messy but immediate idea, to things that offer us fresh creative sparks while they’re still spitting and sizzling. They have a compelling quality that can be polished off and lost if you fuck with it for too long.
I hate sending out an email or posting a comment on a platform that doesn’t have an edit button. That mistake is in cyberspace for… (echo effect) ever…ever…ever…ever! And from a young age, I’d be frustrated when I couldn’t draw an image as perfectly as I saw it in my mind. Now I’ve come to terms with “close enough.” There is a song on YouTube I’d like to recommend called “Not Perfect” by Tim Minchin, a devastatingly witty Australian comedian, singer and piano virtuoso. Actually I’d recommend any of his songs, especially “Prejudice,” “Thank You God” and his magnum opus “Dark Side.” “F Sharp” is pretty fun too (and short).
I found everything about Midsommar profoundly disturbing, mostly because the shocking events were part of a cult’s belief system, and not caused by some supernatural entity or deranged maniac.
To Ed: We had the same problem with our new TV. Its two skinny legs came within a centimetre of either edge of our old media stand — too close for comfort. So I ordered a universal table top TV stand off Amazon. You bolt the central podium to the TV’s wall mount holes. We went with a Perlesmith model that claimed to be compatible with “most brands.” It came with an array screws of different widths, none which was right for ours, but I was able to make it work with a trip to the Home Depot hardware aisle.