Episode 64 - The Art Of The Possible

Randy wanted non-cynical works of art about politics (I know, right)!   Joseph picked David McCullough's non-fiction book 1776, about that year in the American Revolution.  Amy picked the HBO film All The Way, the LBJ biopic starring Bryan Cranston.

What We're Liking Lately

• Randy talked up BrainDead, sadly, not picked up for a second season but available on Amazon Prime.

• Randy also is a bgi fan of Difficult People, the Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner Hulu original.

• Amy is watching The Get Down on Netflix.

• Joseph was reading Robertson Davies The Deptford Trilogy.

• Joseph really enjoyed the Lili Tomlin and Julia Garner movie Grandma.

• Finally, Joseph was surprised to enjoy the Mark Waid-penned Archie.

Show Notes

• At one point we talked about why Canada never had a revolution against the UK.  This is a pretty good timeline of the whole process and how Canada technically became really independent as late as 1982.

• Amy and Randy mention the song The Battle Of New Orleans, relating to the War of 1812, which is a damn fine Johnny Horton.

• Enjoy LBJ ordering pants:

• The LBJ 1964 Democratic Convention Speech:

• The trailer for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets:

On the Next Show


Joseph asked for thing that are Loopy But I Love It / Awesome People Doing Awesome Things.  Amy went with the insane 2007 movie Shoot Em Up and Randy went with the novel Roald Dahl's Matilda.

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Episode 63 - Swapping Bodies

Amy asked for body swap stories and boy did we deliver! Joseph came up with the 1936 H.P. Lovecraft novella Shadow Out Of Time while Amy had us watch the 1984 Steve Martin & Lily Tomlin comedy All Of Me.  Extra credit from Randy: "The Prisoner Of Benda," season six, episode 10 of Futurama.

(Note: Joseph was going through a thunderstorm so there will be a decent amount of thunder sound in the beginning of the podcast.)

What We're Liking Lately

• Randy has been enjoying Halt and Catch Fire, recently renewed for a fourth and final season.

• Amy has been reading Dave Holmes' Party Of One (since taping this, Joseph has also read this and can concur that it's damn good).

• Dave Holmes' excellent podcast is International Waters.

• Joseph recommended season 2 of Catastrophe and warned everyone away from Batman Vs Superman.

Show Notes

• Opening music: Stormy Weather - Ella Fitzgerald

• Closing music: All of Me - Frank Sinatra

• There have been a lot of Body Swap movies and TV shows.

On the Next Show


Randy asked for optimistic politics!  Amy came up with the HBO film All The Way, starring Bryan Cranston as LBJ and Joseph came up with David McCullough's 1776.

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Episode 62- Hippie on a Rocket

Joe was a little sick of dystopian science fiction (and this was even before the last Divergent movie) and asked the crew for optimistic science fiction.  Randy choose Star Trek: First Contact for the movie and Amy chose Spider & Jeanne Robinson's Stardance for the novel. 

 

What We're Liking Lately

• TIFF doesn't have a separate site for the Lightbox, but it's whole site is fantastic. - Randy
• Weiner - Randy
• Tickled - Randy
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Netflix) - Amy
• Being Erica (Hulu) - Amy
• Son Of Saul - Joseph
• Penny Dreadful (Netflix) - Joseph
• Sensitive Skin (the Canadian version!)

Show Notes

• Ooby Dooby - Roy Orbison

• Dancing in Heaven (Orbital Be-bop) - Q-Feel. (As heard by many in the seminal 1980s dance movie "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" starring future Oscar winner Helen Hunt.)
• Amy and Randy are obviously wrong about The Inner Light, one of the best Next Generation episodes [editorial comment by Joseph].
• If you want to read far too much about Starfleet uniforms, here you go.

On the Next Show

Amy wanted body swap stories!   Sorry, none of us chose the Kirk Cameron classic Like Father Like Son.

Joseph chose the 1936 novella The Shadow Out of Time by HP Lovecraft.
Randy chose the 1984 movie All Of Me, starring Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin.

Extra credit from Randy: "The Prisoner Of Benda," season six, episode 10 of Futurama.

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Episode 61 - Second Chances

Randy wanted us to talk about art that involves Second Chances, where people get the chance to fix things our screw them up even more.   Amy selected the novel Almost Like Being In Love while Joseph picked the movie Fetching Cody.

What We're Liking Lately

• UnREAL - Amy
• Casual - Joseph
• Dramaworld - Joseph
• Maya And Mary - Randy
• Veep - Randy

Show Notes

• Opening music: Almost Like Being In Love - Ella Fitzgerald

• Closing music:  "Click, Click, Click, Click" by Bishop Allen
• Martin Short's autobiography, I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend is fantastic.
• Joseph was on We Love To Watch, previously Listen To Our Podcast, talking about Candyman,

On the Next Show

Joseph chose the theme and wanted us to look at some Optimistic Science Fiction.   Randy chose the movie Star Trek: First Contact and Amy had the novel Stardance.

Where to find the podcast

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Episode 60 - Pretty Pictures

For Amy's rather broad theme of "Art and/or Artists" Joseph selected the 2014 documentary film FINDING VIVIAN MAIER while Randy picked Deborah Davis's 2004 non-fiction work STRAPLESS about the John Singer Sargent's "Portrait of Madame X"

What We're Liking Lately

• Full Frontal With Samantha Bee - Randy
• Not Safe With Nikki Glazer - Joseph
• Sailor And Fiddler, by Herman Wouk - Joseph
• Hush - Joseph
• Gate Of Hell - Joseph

Show Notes

• Opening music: Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition - Promenade 

• Closing music:  "Click, Click, Click, Click" by Bishop Allen
• John Singer Sargent at the Art Institute of Chicago.
• Sargent's painting of Mrs. George Swinton, great-grandmother of Tilda Swinton.

• Sargent's The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.

• Paul Delaroche's La Jeune Martyre

On the Next Show

Randy chose the theme "Second Chances.'  Amy chose the Steve Kluger novel Almost Like Being In Love and Joseph went with the Canadian movie Fetching Cody.

Where to find the podcast

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Episode 58 - Louisa, Uma, and Evan Rachel

Randy asked for underrated works, so Amy chose the little seen/known film The Life Before Her Eyes for Uma Thurman's (and, it turns out, Evan Rachel Woods') performance, while Joe picked one of Louisa May Alcott's books that has nothing to do with the March family: Eight Cousins.

What We're Liking Lately

• You're the Worst - Amy
• Catastrophe - Amy
• Pulling - Amy
• The Carmichael Show - Randy
• Jessica Jones - Joe (Check out the Jewel costume he mentions.)

Show Notes

• Amy misspoke - it was not the Project Gutenberg ebook she read, but the archive.org one. Go to page 25 in the pdf file to see the Scottish illustration she and Joe discuss. 
• Joe recommends Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson
• Randy did some follow-up sleuthing regarding the cougar:
  
  Here's a screengrab of the giant cat from the movie - it certainly appears to be a cougar. (In the first shot of this scene, the cat is in the foreground; in this shot, it's obviously in the background. So all of us were right about how it was framed.)
  
  Also, while trying to find this, I found another reference to cougars in the movie. While Adult Diana is prepping dinner, Emma's watching TV in the other room, and it's a nature program of some sort, and we hear the narrator of the nature program say something about mother cougars protecting their young.
  
  So many things are definitely not a coincidence. But I think it's probably a bit under-developed as a symbol, actually, since I'm don't know what it means. 
  

On the Next Show

Joe's theme is "The Year You Turned 16." Randy chose 1989's The Russia House by John le Carré. Amy picked Dogfight (1991), starring Lili Taylor and River Phoenix.

Where to find the podcast

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Episode 57 - Supes Up!

We delve into many things Superman this week by looking at three different versions of the legendary superhero.  But first it's...

What We're Liking Lately

• Booker T. Jones's current live show. Check out a YouTube playlist of some of the set list as well as Amy's pictures and video clips from the show in Athens, GA, on February 27.  -- Amy
• You can also look at pictures and video clips of Jay Gonzalez, the opener, with his acoustic keytar. Or sample his music on YouTube -- Amy
• Movie Freak: My Life Watching Movies, Owen Gleiberman -- Randy
• Until Dawn -- Joe

Show Notes

• Another World, the now defunct soap opera, for which Anne Heche won a Daytime Emmy. Check out the list of "Before they were famous" guest appearances
• Antipodes Map!
• One viewer's take on the differences in the Lester and Donner cuts of Superman II
• Mallrats conversation about Superman coitus
• Robert Kennedy did indeed write in his book The Pursuit of Justice "Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on."  However, he prefaced it with "In the words of the old saying." Amy's a lazy librarian, so someone else should go look up where it actually originated.
• Sarah Douglas is still pretty
• Bruce Timm, one of the influential artists working on Justice League
• Boing Boing's post about the Playmate gallery
• Justice League opening credits
• It looks like Tuesday Morning Quarterback is now part of a NYT blog
• The best bits of that Vanity Fair interview with Jennifer Garner, along with commentary by the Fug Girls
• The problem with learning your culture through the written word is that you often don't know how to pronounce things. So, with that in mind, Amy would like to let you know that the correct way to say "louche" is so that the vowel sound rhymes with coo, not cow. (She used it to describe Stamp's Zod.) Also, Beethoven's "Eroica" is not pronounced remotely like the way Amy mangled it. Say "heroic." Now add an "uh" to the end. Take of the aitch sound. Change the first vowel from ee to uh. There, now you've got it. 

On the Next Show

Randy asked for underrated works, so Amy chose the little seen/known film The Life Before Her Eyes for Uma Thurman's performance, while Joe picked one of Louisa May Alcott's books that has nothing to do with the March family: Eight Cousins.

Where to find the podcast

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We are also available on the Stitcher app.

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Episode 56 - Haven't You Always Wanted a Monkey?

Joe wanted unusual pets, so we presented him with a monkey and a bear.

What We've Been Liking Lately

• Getting On - Randy 
• The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness - Amy
• Stumptown by Greg Rucka

Show Notes

Dreamcasting 

Jennifer Brown (Yorick's mom), Jessica Walter,
and Mallory Archer. (Walter voices Archer.)

Paddington's Hard Stare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwiHQpWhxvs

More about the stop-motion animation series of Paddington: 

http://www.toonhound.com/paddington.htm

Amy's guest spot as a caller on another podcast: Quilt Your Heart Out

Terence Stamp and Michael Caine sharing a flat, OH MY

Ready, Steady, Go!: The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London by Shawn Levy

Music: "Leave My Monkey Alone" - Warren Zevon; "Savito" - D Lime featuring Tobago Crusoe

And our episode title is a reference to this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCImrmR63JE

On the Next Show

It's all Superman, all the time. Except for when we talk about Batman.

We'll be watching Superman II, two episodes of Justice League: The Animated Series ("A Better World, Parts 1 and 2), and Man of Steel

Where to find the podcast

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Episode 55 - Secrets Lovers

Randy asked for seeeeeeecreeeeeets. Amy chose as the book Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, soon to be adapted into an HBO miniseries. Joe selected  A History of Violence, directed by David Cronenberg and starring Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello.

 

What We've Been Liking Lately

• So many tv shows: Catastrophe, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Galavant, Agent Carter, Flight of the Conchords (Amy)
• Donna Lynne Champlin as Paula in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Joe and Amy)
• Joy (Randy) (imdb)
• The Drop (Joe) (imdb)

Show Notes

• Shots from the set of HBO's Big Little Lies: at TLo
• Spoilery outtake re: Who Dies. We each discuss who we thought was going to die. We manage to avoid saying who actually does die, but we mention a lot of people who don't. 
• I'd like to change an adjective - Madeline's story would be better described as "typical" than "realistic." I just happen to know more people like Madeline than Celeste or Jane. -- Amy
• Shailene Woodley loves the sun
• Genesee Cream Ale is the beer Tom/Joey orders as a "Genny"

On the Next Show

Joe asked for "unusual pets." Amy, as per usual, strictly adhered to the theme and chose a pet monkey. Randy went for a bear (surprise, surprise).

Book: Y: The Last Man: Unmanned
Movie: Paddington

Where to find the podcast

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The Dissolvers Best of 2015 Poll

As a member of the Facebook group for former Dissolve (RIP) commenters, I had the task of compiling all of your top ten lists for 2015 in film.  And my, what a fascinating list it was, so I figured I'd share it here.  We had 96 ballots covering 135 films that were released in or came out in the US in 2015  (I tried to lay down rules, but at some point you have to be fair, like how Paddington was a 2014 release for the UK but a 2015 for the US.)  With that said, the final results.


The Top 10

1. Mad Max: Fury Road - 694 votes (37 first place) 
2. Inside Out - 419 (7)
3. Carol - 298 (9)
4. Ex Machina - 225 (7)
5. Sicario - 210 (2)
6. Spotlight - 184 (4 )
7. Look Of Silence, The - 148 (1)
8. Duke Of Burgundy, The - 140 (2)
9. Phoenix - 121 (0)
10. Tangerine - 116 (0)

Carol was way behind for a long time but had a huge late surge (extending the voting through January helped).  Mad Max was never in any doubt of winning this, as you can tell.   I wonder how much Duke Of Burgundy, Tangerine and Phoenix coming relatively quickly to Netflix helped their votes.

The Top 10 By First-Place Votes

1. Mad Max: Fury Road (37)
2. Carol (9)
3. Inside Out (7)
4. Ex Machina (7)
5. Spotlight (4)
6. Sicario (2)
7. Duke Of Burgundy, The (2)
8. Clouds of Sils Maria (2)
9. Mommy (2)
10. Magic Mike XXL (2)

Well that's a wee bit different, isn't it?

Movies That Only Received A First-Place Vote

1. Jauja

Movies That Only Received A Tenth-Place Vote

1. Unfriended
2. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
3. Far From The Madding Crowd
4. Dude Bro Party Massacre III
5. Incompresa
6. She's Funny That Way
7. Peanuts Movie, The
8. Electric Slide
9. Faults

Movies With One First-Place Vote

1. Look Of Silence, The
2. World Of Tomorrow
3. Creed
4. Brooklyn
5. Force Awakens, The
6. Anomalisa
7. Room
8. End Of The Tour, The
9. Big Short, The
10. Forbidden Room, The
11. Amy
12. Queen of Earth
13. Shaun The Sheep Movie
14. Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
15. 71
16. Breathe (Respire)
17. Spring
18. Assassin, The
19. Jauja

Domnhall Gleeson is, apparently, the MVP of 2015 as every movie he was in made the list somewhere and three of them received first-place votes.

If you'd like to look at the full poll, with all the movies that were right in the middle, go here for a downloadable .csv file:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mDgS2xTCACTF_yWMM0q1XQt1L0Y0J0GqMmanAjSOo3s/pub?output=csv

Episode 54 - 2015 Books

This week we're talking about books from 2015. Randy selected The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Joe picked Displacement: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley, and Amy chose The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan.

   

Show Notes

The Girl on the Train

• Jennifer Weiner on Claire Messud, Meg Wolitzer, and "likable" female protagonists
• Cast listing for upcoming film adaptation

Displacement: A Travelogue

• Lucy Knisley's own website
• Knisley's memoir Relish won the ALA Alex award, given to "best adult books that appeal to teen audiences", in 2014

The Royal We

• The website that started it all: Go Fug Yourself
• The alternate history of the book and how it came to be
• British monarchs may now marry a Catholic (or Buddhist, or whatever) but they cannot be one themselves.
• Passions - which apparently once had a storyline in which a character was presented "as an intersex person who became pregnant with his own father's son." Whoa. One critic for the New York Times wrote that it featured "acting that would make a pro wrestler blush." Oh my.
• Amy misspoke - in the prologue, Bex states that it is the day before, not the day of, the wedding
• SNL sketch wherein Kate Middleton (Anne Hathaway) meets QEII (Fred Armisen) and Philip (Bill Hader) and gets quite a surprise
• Lauren Graham has written only one novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe.
• To shave a few minutes off the episode and because it required major spoilage, I put our discussion of "What would you want from a sequel" into an extra mp3

On the Next Show

Seeeeecreeeets. Randy selected "Secrets" as the theme. Joe's having us watch A History of Violence and Amy selected Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies as our book.

Where to find the podcast

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Episode 53 - My Uncle Was a Sheep for the Last Five Years

This week we're discussing some films from 2015 that maybe didn't hit with audiences but that we liked. Randy picked The Last Five Years, Amy chose The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Joe went with Shaun the Sheep. 

Show Notes

The Last Five Years

• "Still Hurting" lyrics | audio
• "A Miracle Would Happen" lyrics | video
• "A Summer in Ohio" lyrics | video
• "Every Song In 'The Last Five Years,' Ranked By Uncontrollable Sobbing" - Linda Holmes
• "If I Didn't Believe in You" lyrics | audio

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

• Soundtrack
• Promo posters for the movie, as discussed on Tom + Lorenzo
• "Cry to Me"- the scene from the movie
• The opening titles sequence, with "Take Care of Business" by Nina Simone
• Trailer for OSS117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
• Hoyay!
• This isn't the Elizabeth Debicki outfit Amy was referring to, but it's ALSO fabulous
  
• This IS the fabulous black and white dress, but it's not the shot Amy wants to frame for her wall. That's one on a boat dock. You'll see it if you watch the movie.
  

Shaun the Sheep

• "Feels Like Summer"
• A good George Thorogood song: "Steady Rollin' Man"
• Megamind soundtrack
• A cursory search of imdb lists "Bad to the Bone" in the following movies and TV series (year for tv series indicates year of episode not year series began):
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
• Man Up (2015)
• The Muppets (2011)
• Christine (1983)
• 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)
• Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008)
• Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010)
• Hawaii Five-0 (2011)
• South Park (2015)
• Married with Children (1989, 1993)
• The Parent Trap (1998)
• My Name Is Earl (2005)
• Joe Dirt (2001)
• Eureka (2012)
• Miami Vice (1985)
• Las Vegas (2003)
• According to Jim (2004)
• Problem Child (1990)
• Major Payne (1995)
• Beavis and Butt-Head (1994 -two episodes)
• Problem Child 2 (1991)
• The Lone Gunmen (2001)
• Early Edition (2000)
• Flesh and Bone (1993)
• Firehouse Dog (2007)
• Take Me Out (2012)
• Transylmania (2009)
• Reasonable Doubts (1992)
• Mongrels (2010)
• Slayground (1983)
• The Legend of Dick and Dom (2010)
• How to Boil a Frog (2009)
• Penguins, distinguishing good from bad, with discussion of Feathers McGraw
• We didn't get around to talking about it on the show, but Aardman did a rather amusing set of parody posters around Oscars time last year to promote Shaun the Sheep
• Shaun the sheep has round pupils
  
  Real sheep do not
  

On the Next Show

Books from 2015 - We read some! Be prepared for these picks:

• Randy: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• Amy: The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (AKA The Fug Girls from Go Fug Yourself)
• Joe: Displacement: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley

Where to find the podcast

Listen at Podomatic
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We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters

• The Podcast's Own Account
• Joseph
• Amy
• Randy