Friday, December 11, 2015

Episode 51 - A Broad Definition of Abroad



Joe said he wanted things on the theme of a year abroad. I'm not sure Randy or I gave him what he asked for, but he liked both of them anyway.




What We've Been Liking Lately

Amy did a Gay Gasp when this came on the screen
when she saw Cinderella in the theater earlier this year.

And speaking of costumes, here's the blue dress worn by Helena Bonham Carter referenced by Amy specifically for its shoulder details.
From the front
From the side, where you can also see the deep dip in the back neckline.

Show Notes

Furthering the theme of "abroad," Randy recommends the last section of Paris, je t'aime, "14e arrondissement," starring the incomparable Margo Martindale and written and directed by Alexander Payne. Amy highly recommends Elaine Dundy's 1958 book The Dud Avocado.

On the Next Show

As only a true Southerner can, Amy has romantic ideas about snow and asked for a book and a movie on the topic of the white stuff that falls from the sky.

To read: Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg
To watch: The Long Kiss Goodnight starring Geena Davis, directed by Renny Harlin

Where to find the podcast

Listen At Podomatic
Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 
We are also available on the Stitcher app.


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Thursday, November 12, 2015

Episode 49: Space Vikings!

This week we were joined by first time guest host Michael Guarnieri, editor over at The Solute. Amy asked him and Joe to recommend things that they liked better than they thought they would going into it. Joe chose the Jon Favreau film Zathura and Michael picked Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead.



What We've Been Liking Lately


Show Notes

  • According to the Social Security Administration, Daniel was #11 in popularity for boys born in 1992. Walter was #272 for boys born in 1996.
  • Guillermo Navarro was the cinematographer for Zathura
  • Zathura opening credits sequence (YouTube)
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture had a score by Jerry Goldsmith. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan had the score by James Horner. (I'm not sure to which one my friend was comparing the Zathura music. -- Amy)
  • One of the trailers for The Peanuts used The Who's "Baba O'Riley" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVR4E6Q6u5g), another used a medley of current pop music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pCoVQDD-OY)
  • Check out the sweet 1964 Mercury Comet seen in Zathura on the always redoubtable Internet Movie Car Database
  • Although he had several books published under pseudonyms first, Michael Crichton's first book published under his own name was The Andromeda Strain
  • Apparently that study that said half of Viking warriors were women? Uhhh, not so much. Damn. 
  • Grendel was indeed written by John Gardner

On the Next Show

Randy's back, BABY! And appropriately enough, he's chosen "Returning" as the theme. Joe went with Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain, so Amy went all girly and retaliated with the Sandra Bullock vehicle Hope Floats.



Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Episode 48 - Halloween

Joe chose Halloween as our theme and Amy chose a scary movie! For real! Peter Jackson's The Frighteners. Guest host Matt Marcotte selected Elna Baker's memoir The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance



What We've Been Liking Lately

Show Notes

  • Deadpool currently has a release date of February 12, 2016 (Happy Valentine's Day!)
  • Zombi 2 by Lucio Fulci is the film Joe discusses in his recommendation of We Are Still Here
  • If you want your very own signed first edition of Furiously Happy and are not lucky enough to live near a bookshop that has some, Amy's favorite local bookstore, Avid Bookshop, is happy to deliver anywhere in the country.
  • The Frighteners was not Weta's first film. That honor goes to Peter Jackson's previous feature film Heavenly Creatures. Their first credited work on imdb is for the television show Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. However, their own site lists works as far back as a Ray Bradbury Theatre episode from 1987, although it doesn't specify in what capacity Weta was involved. 
  • Andie MacDowell was actually born in South Carolina, not North Carolina. Her family did have a summer home in North Carolina when she was growing up. She currently resides in California. 
  • Here is information from the Pew Forum about religious affiliation in Chicago. If you're Team Joe, you'll note that Catholicism is the most represented denomination. If you're Team Amy, you'll note that non-Catholic Christians outnumber Catholics. And that only 1 in 3 Chicagoans identify as Catholic. Choose your side and show your work in the comments.
  • Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler is a book similar to Baker's that Matt also recommends
  • Wookey, England
  • Listen to Elna Baker tell her FAO Schwarz story about the baby dolls

On the Next Show

Amy went with the simple theme, "I Liked It Better Than I Thought I Would. Way Better." Guest host Michael Guarnieri is having us read Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead (later made into the movie The 13th Warrior). Joe's having us watch Jon Favreau's Zathura (which is streaming on US Netflix).

Where to find the podcast

Listen At Podomatic
Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 
We are also available on the Stitcher app.


Our Twitters

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Episode 47 - Conspicuous Consumption

Guest host Diane Trap chose our theme this week. Joe picked the documentary "Queen of Versailles" for us to watch and Amy went with Scruples by Judith Krantz for the book.



What We've Been Liking Lately

Show Notes

  • Gladys Kravitz was the nosy neighbor on Bewitched. Amy incorrectly identified her as "Edna Krabapple" despite (or because of) having only ever seen one episode of "The Simpsons."
  • David Siegel tells his employees to vote for Romney
  • "Wife Swap" episode featuring the Siegels
  • Jackie Collins's first novel The World Is Full of Married Men was published in 1968. The Stud, her second novel, came the next year. (Pun FULLY intended.) The Bitch was a sequel to The Stud. The later series Amy was thinking of is the "Lucky Santangelo" series, which includes, as its seventh entry, Poor Little Bitch Girl.
  • It was Barbara Cartland who called The World Is Full of Married Men "nasty, filthy and disgusting."
  • Judith Krantz's autobiography is Sex and Shopping: The Confessions of a Nice Jewish Girl
  • Despite owning a pair of underpants depicting Felix the Cat, Amy misidentified him as the subject of Steve Krantz's X-rated animated film. That was Fritz the Cat, based on the Robert Crumb creation
  • Clive James's review of Krantz's later novel Princess Daisy.
  • AIDS was first clinically observed in 1981 in the United States.

On the Next Show

Joe's chosen "Halloween" as his theme. And to that end, Amy has chosen Peter Jackson's horror comedy "The Frighteners." Guest host Matt Marcotte is picking the much less scary (but still funny) memoir The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance by Elna Baker. 

Where to find the podcast

Listen At Podomatic
Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 
We are also available on the Stitcher app.


Our Twitters

Diane Is an Amazing Knitter

Guest host Diane is quite the knitter. If you're into that sort of thing, she's PegofTilling on Ravelry
...

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Episode 46 - Marching To Our Own Drum

Amy asked for College themed entertainment this week, so special guest Becca Gross chose the 2002 film Drumline while Joseph went with the Pamela Dean novel Tam Lin.





Sunday, June 14, 2015

Quiz Time - Were The Hell Are We, Anyway?



Joe befuddles Amy and Randy with questions about fictional towns and cities in movies, books and TV.


Where to find the podcast

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Episode 45 - Never Give Up, Never Surrender

Joe asked for variations on the theme "Let's get the band back together." Amy and Randy both went with metaphorical bands rather than actual ones. Randy picked an old favorite - Galaxy Quest and Amy picked an old-but-new-to-us Donald E. Westlake book: The Hot Rock.



Show notes

What We're Into Lately:

Amy - Inspector George Gently (available streaming on Netflix and Acorn) and The Brokenwood Mysteries (streaming on Acorn)
Randy - Rectify 
Joe - Watership Down, now available as a Criterion Blu-Ray
Music

Intro: "Across the Atlantic" - The Budos Band (YouTube)
Outro: "Galaxy Quest - Main Theme" - The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

Next Episode

We're meeting up in Chicago in a few weeks to record our first ever live episode (a quiz, but still). So Amy chose "Chicago" as our next theme. Randy selected Michael Mann's Thief and Joe picked Joe Meno's Hairstyles of the Damned.



Where to find the podcast

Monday, June 1, 2015

Episode 44 - Some Legal Eagles Soar, Some Go Splat

Randy requested "courtroom drama." Joe selected Dominick Dunne's retelling of the O.J. Simpson trial Another City, Not My Own. Amy chose  The Lincoln Lawyer starring Matthew McConnaughey.




Show notes

What We're Into Lately:
Randy - U2's new tour. And Mad Max: Fury Road
Amy - Still more of The X-Files 
Joe - H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald and Up in the Air (better late than never)

  • The incomparable Joe Bob Briggs (aka John Bloom) 
  • Clearing up some of O. J. Simpson's criminal record: He was convicted in 2008 on multiple felony counts and sentenced to 33 years in prison with the possibility of parole. He was granted parole from some of the convictions in 2013, but is continuing to be held for other charges. It is possible he could be released in 2017.
  • Court TV launched on July 2, 1991. On January 1, 2008, it was renamed TruTV.
  • The novel The Lincoln Lawyer was published in 2005.
  • The AV Club's "Random Roles" with Bob Gunton
  • The beginning of the McConnaissance is hard to pinpoint... Was it with his excellent comedic cameo in Tropic Thunder (2008)? But that was followed by Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) - which Amy will happily defend but was critically drubbed and a commercial flop. The Lincoln Lawyer comes out in March 2011, followed later that year by Bernie and Killer Joe. So was Lincoln Lawyer the very tiniest beginning of the McConnaissance? Maybe.
Music
Intro: "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)" - U2
Outro: "Hot Rod Lincoln" - Charlie Ryan and the Livinsgton Bros.

Next Episode

Joe's chosen the theme "Let's get the band back together." Amy and Randy both went with metaphorical bands rather than actual ones. Randy's giving us all the chance to rewatch Galaxy Quest and Amy's reaching back for Donald E. Westlake's Hot Rock.



Where to find the podcast


Listen At Podomatic

Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 

We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters:


The Podcast's Own Account

Joseph

Amy

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Episode 43 - Mothers And Daughters

As Amy starts on a road trip with her mother and since this is also Mother's Day week, Amy asked us for mother and daughter stories.  Randy went with the high-strung people in Seattle novel Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple [Amazon] [Goodreads] and Joseph chose the 1993 drama The Joy Luck Club  (Amazon).


Show notes


What We're Into Lately:
Amy - The latest novel from the Fugg Girls, The Royal We [Amazon] [Goodreads]

Randy - The new Alabama Shakes album, Sound And Color.

Joseph - The new monster romance Spring [Amazon] [iTunes]


  • While we discussed Jupiter Ascending and Joseph expressed his...feelings about it, Amy mentioned her disappointment at the Chicago locations not including the Harold Washington Library.  For those not familiar, here it is with its striking red walls and fantastic aluminium sculptures on the roof:



  • The actress who played Auntie Lindo in The Joy Luck Club, Tsai Chin, is also notable for her history in the Bond films.  She betrays Bond in the beginning of You Only Live Twice (1967) and is Madame Wu, one of the fellow high-stake Texas Hold Em players in Casino Royale (2006).


  • A good profile of Andrew McCarthy, travel writer, can be found in Details.
  • We didn't know about it at the time, but apparently there is a movie in the works for Bernadette which Richard Linklater is in talks to direct.  Randy thinks Julianne Moore is perfect for the part, Amy goes for Amy Aquino but Joseph has the nutty idea of Courtney Cox (but may have been watching too much Cougar Town).

Music

  • Opening Music: Mr. T, "Treat Your Mother Right," possibly the greatest Mother's Day video ever:

  • Closing Music: Taylor Swift, "The Best Day."

Next Episode

Randy decided he wanted to do with courtroom stories for our next podcast.  For the movie, Amy went with the 2011 Matthew McConaughey vehicle The Lincoln Lawyer (sorry, not streaming anywhere but dirt cheap on Amazon).  Joseph went all meta and went with Dominick Dunne's fictionalized version of covering the OJ Simpson trial for Vanity Fair, Another City, Not My Own [Goodreads].

Where to find the podcast


Listen at Podomatic

Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 

We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters:


The Podcast's Own Account

Joseph

Amy

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Episode 42 - "Denise Fleming Is a Tampon"

Joe, inspired by nothing, asked for a book and a movie in modern times where it would, have been different with cellphones (or a working cellphone).  Randy went with the imprisonment novel Room, by Emma Donoghue [Amazon] [Goodreads] and Amy chose the 1998 comedy Can't Hardly Wait (which appears to be only available for digital rental on Google Play, but the DVD is dirt cheap on Amazon).

A note about the audio quality on this one: Due to technical difficulties, Amy recorded the first fifteen minutes with only the external mic on a Nexus 7. The rest of the episode was the regular USB headset mic and laptop. So if you notice a shift in how she sounds, that's why.

Show notes

What We're Into Lately:
Randy - Terriers
Amy - Hack, A Young Doctor's Notebook, The X-Files (for the first time! Really!)
Joe - Wolf Cop

  • The rest of the story for the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt episode with the plastic surgeon: NY Times
  • The podcast Joe mentioned: The X-Files Files
  • The most excellent treasure of the original video for "Moonlight Desires" by Gowan 
  • Amy would like to correct herself regarding the capitalization motif in Room. Obviously proper nouns should be capitalized. It's the improper ones that were bothering her.
  • Emma Donoghue does indeed live in London. London, ONTARIO.
  • The song "Mandy" wasn't even written by Barry Manilow, much less about his dog. Read more
  • Smashmouth has only two songs on the Can't Hardly Wait soundtrack: "Walkin' on the Sun" and "Can't Get Enough of You Baby." The latter is the only one on the soundtrack album.
  • Charlie Korsmo is a law professor at Case Western Reserve University. Faculty bio page, Undated interview in student newspaper.
  • Ilan Mitchell-Smith is a Medieval Literature professor at Cal State Long Beach. He's also an avid tabletop gamer. His Twitter
  • According to imdb, the following actors appeared both in Can't Hardly Wait and Six Feet Under: Lauren Ambrose, Eric Balfour, Peter Facinelli, Freddy Rodriguez, and Jennifer Elise Cox.
  • Also according to imdb, the following actors appeared both in Can't Hardly Wait and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (TV series): Eric Balfour, Clea DuVall, Seth Green, Amber Benson, Nicole Bilderback, Christopher Wiehl, Channon Roe, Paige Moss, and John Patrick White.
  • Clea DuVall has four imdb credits for 1998, Eric Balfour has two. Career-wise, DuVall has nine pre-1998 imdb credits, Balfour has eighteen.
  • $40 million in 1998 is $57,677,699.43 now. 
  • Can't Hardly Wait was indeed the first time Breckin Meyer and Seth Green worked on the same project although they have no interactions in the film.
  • Fun fact: No parent is seen (and only one heard) in classic teen film Fast Times at Ridgemont High
  • Pursuant to a recent conversation about the suitability of our podcast for children, Amy counted the number of objectionable terms in this week's episode. Results

Next Episode

Just in time for Amy and Ma Go to Arizona, Amy asked for "Mother/Daughter" relationships, with the caveat that no more than one of the guys could pick bad mommy stories. Randy's chosen Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette and Joe's picked Wayne Wang's adaptation of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

Where to find the podcast


Listen At Podomatic

Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 

We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters:


The Podcast's Own Account

Joseph

Amy

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Episode 41 - "Who Has That Kind Of Stamina?!?"



It's True Crime Week, as picked by Randy.  Joe had the movie, so we watched the 1988 documentary from Errol Morris, The Thin Blue Line. Amy had the book and we read Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief.




Show notes

Next Episode

Joe, inspired by nothing, asked for a book and a movie in modern times where it would, have been different with cellphones (or a working cellphone).  Randy went with the imprisonment novel Room, by Emma Donoghue [Amazon] [Goodreads] and Amy chose the 1998 comedy Can't Hardly Wait (which appears to be only available for digital rental on Google Play, but the DVD is dirt cheap on Amazon).





Where to find the podcast

Listen At Podomatic

Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 

We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters:

The Podcast's Own Account

Joseph

Amy

Monday, April 6, 2015

Quiz Time - It's Their Birthday Too!


Amy quizzes Randy and Joe about people born the same day as her and/or pop culture around the time she was born.

Go to Podomatic and listen

It's hard to do show notes without giving away answers, so don't read further if you want to play along unspoiled while listening.


  • I wasn't able to find a record of Howard Cosell appearing on the same episode of a David Frost show as John Lennon. But I'm open to correction.
  • Correction: Brenda Strong was on both the old and new versions of Dallas. She had a one episode guest spot as "Cliff's One Night Stand" on the original series and was a series regular on the newer TNT series. She did not appear on Knot's Landing. Marcia Cross appeared in seven episodes of the latter years of Knots' Landing's run.

    However, as to Joe's assertion that Cross seems too young to have been on Dallas - she's only two years younger than Strong. She's also four years younger than Dallas series regular Charlene Tilton. 
  • John Smoltz would not have been an entirely incorrect answer, except for the fact that he does not share my birthday. He has done some broadcast work for the Braves since retirement. However, Tom Glavine (who does share my birthday) has been acting as a broadcast commentator exclusively for the Braves since 2011, longer and more regularly than Smoltz.
  • Happy Days was a spin-off of Love, American Style. The live action spin-offs from Happy Days were Laverne & Shirley, Blansky's Beauties, Mork & Mindy, Out of the Blue, and Joanie Loves Chachi. The two animated spin-offs were The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang and Laverne & Shirley with Special Guest Star the Fonz.


Elton John on The Cher Show in 1974 performing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." THIS HAPPENED AND IT WAS GLORIOUS.


Elton John performing "Philadelphia Freedom" on Soul Train. This also happened and was only slightly less amazing than the Cher show thing.



Billie Jean King really was on a professional tennis team called "Philadelphia Freedom" 

Top: Climactic Dance Scene from "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"
Bottom: Future Oscar and Emmy winner Helen Hunt in the same film




Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Episode 40 - Happ Birthda

Our original recording date for this episode was Amy's birthday and since she had the theme, she chose "Birthdays."

Joe had us read Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake and Randy picked a movie that he had not seen, but that Amy and Joe had (thus inverting the usual formula): "Sixteen Candles."


Show notes

  • "Cinderella" (2015) is rated PG for "mild thematic elements." I guess that's a reference to all the orphaning and mistreatment of Cinderella. 
  • This is the leopard print robe in "Cinderella" for which Amy would give an arm. 
  • It's Adam Grosswirth from previously.tv who got me to binge "Once Upon a Time"
  • The "No Man's Woman" scene from "Alias" doesn't seem to be on YouTube, nor is the Joni Mitchell "River" one, but the "Back in Black" one is. (That's such a textbook example of "male gaze" but damn does it work.)
  • Here's the trailer for "Beyond the Lights" which Joe highly recommends.
  • When Joe says he's reading Sex Criminals he really means this collection of comics.
  • If you need about five minutes of bliss, you could do worse than to listen to "Lenny" by Stevie Ray Vaughan, perhaps the most surprising song on the "Sixteen Candles" soundtrack.

Music

Intro: "In Da Club" - 50 Cent
Exit: "If You Were Here" - The Thompson Twins

Next Episode

Randy, inspired by recent zeitgeist-y items "Serial" and "The Jinx" asked for true crime. Joe selected a classic in the genre, similar in tone to both of the titles mentioned, "The Thin Blue Line." Amy decided to take it in a lighter direction with her book choice: Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief.



Where to find the podcast

Listen At Podomatic

Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 

We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters:

The Podcast's Own Account

Joseph

Amy

Monday, March 16, 2015

Quiz Time - Being Green



It's Joe's turn to do the quiz this time, so in honor of St. Patrick's Day he came up with a quiz
on all things green in books, movies and TV.


Where to find the podcast itself and us

Listen At Podomatic

Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 

We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters:

We have a Twitter feed for the podcast now!  

Joseph

Amy

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Episode 39 - Urban Ireland




Joe asked for works of urban Ireland in honor of St. Patrick's Day
  • Amy chose Colin Bateman's Belfast thriller, Divorcing Jack.
  • Randy selected the 1935 John Ford classic that won a est Actor Oscar for Victor McLaglen and John Ford's first Best Director, The Informer.

Show notes

Intro Music: "Tell Me Ma" by Gaelic Storm
Outro Music: "James Connolly" by Black 47

  • Randy talks about The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and the new Madonna album, Rebel Heart.
  • Joe's been watching The Last Five Years and is still working his way through Parks & Recreation.
  • As for Irish politics, there was no Prime Minister of Ireland in 1995 so...hell, we have no idea.  They haven't had one since 1972 when the Parliament was suspended (but they have a First Minister since 1998).
  • The Nobel Prize Stearkey refers to in the novel would have been the one that Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan were awarded in 1976 for their work for a peaceful resolution to the violence in Northern Ireland.  The Good Friday accords come three years later in 1998.
  • Atoní Dvorák was indeed Czech and Béla Bartók was Hungarian.
  • An example of the Spider-Verse newspaper strip can be found here.
  • Linda Holmes from Pop Culture Happy Hour wrote the Bachelor Pad recap of lore, including the phrase "The Courtyard Of Abandoned Dignity."
  • The Florida novels Joe was trying to remember were the Travis McGee books by John D. MacDonald.
  • There was indeed a much better Quiet Man Blu-ray that came out for the 60th anniversary in 2013.

On the next episode

Amy's birthday is coming up!  So, birthday stories.

Where to find the podcast itself and us

Listen At Podomatic

Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 

We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters:

We have a Twitter feed for the podcast now!  

Joseph

Amy

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Episode 38 - Controversy!



Randy asked for works that were controversial at the time of their release. 
  • Joe chose D. H. Lawrence's classic piece of smut, Lady Chatterley's Lover.
  • Amy selected Dirty Harry singled out by both Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert as "fascist" at the time of its release


Show notes

Intro Music: "Dirty Harry Theme" by Lalo Schifrin

  • Reviews of "Dirty Harry" at the time of its release: 
  • Lalo Schifrin did indeed write the theme for the television series "Mission: Impossible"
  • The closest I could find to the quotation Joe alludes to is one from Shirley MacLaine: "I am an expert in hookers. I'm an expert in doormats. I'm an expert in victims. They were the best parts."
  • Andre Braugher played Frank Pembleton on "Homicide: Life on the Street"
  • The Irish film Joe was trying to remember is actually titled "Waking Ned Devine"
  • "Dancing with the Stars" returns March 16.  Here's the cast of "stars"  
  • Willow Shields played Primrose Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" 
  • Redfoo was born Stefan Kendal Gordy and is the youngest son of Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr. 
  • Here's an image of Cris Collinsworth, then and now. The hair's been trimmed, but it's still basically the same style

On the next episode

Joe returns to his Irish roots, just in time for St Patrick's Day, and asked us for tales of urban Ireland.

  • Randy chose John Ford's 1935 film The Informer.
  • Amy originally chose Colin Bateman's Murphy's Law, but it proved a bit difficult to obtain via library methods. So the pick was switched after recording to Colin Bateman's 1995 novel Divorcing Jack.



Where to find the podcast itself and us

Listen at Podomatic

Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 

We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters:

Joseph

Amy