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

Randy

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

Randy

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.

• Randy chose John Hughes' 1984 movie, Sixteen Candles.
• Joe choose the Jhumpa Lahiri novel The Namesake (and for the record, it was her story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, that was awarded the Pulitzer).

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

Randy

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: 
• New York Times - Roger Greenspun
• Roger Ebert
• 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

Randy