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This week on the podcast, we put Putin in his place, D.C. McAllister on that Charlotte mayor and the writer we’d all like to write like. Then, dean of all pundits Charles Krauthammer stops by to discuss his new book “Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics” (Audible version available here). It’s a typically elucidating conversation with Dr. K well worth listening to. Finally, Peter, James and Troy delve deep into the deeper meaning of L. Frank Baum and John Lennon’s 1971 hit “Imagine”. Hey, we get to everything, eventually.
Music from this week’s episode:
Nobody Told Me by John Lennon
There’s no place like EJHill
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Published in: General
Thank you Jobius. Best friends forever.
Thanks for a great podcast guys. Y’all made a saturday spent on my back with a burning fever slightly less horrible.
The “Last Comment” ( |>) and “First Comment” (<|) hot spots work as Next and Previous, which makes them not only redundant but illiterate.
It is such a relief for me to know that other people find ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon upsetting. I didn’t know William F. Buckley even wrote an article about it! It is truly the liberal anthem.
YAY for the impending return of single column!
Just to level set: I think Alice in Wonderland and The Simpsons are better in snippets from fans than directly experienced. But I like Animal House, am very fond of Ghost Busters, and think that Groundhog Day is better than anything from Hollywood’s “Golden Years”. When Jonah and Rob and James and John Podhoretz say what a peak experience Caddyshack is, I figure it’s worth a try.
It isn’t. Ramshackle, featureless, and yes, except for some of Bill Murray’s lines, witless. I find the we-were-all-incredibly-coked-up tag fully credible.
So when the Lost Tribe boys (aka GLoP Culture) tout “Back to School” as an under-appreciated Ramis pic, I look at the trailer before putting down my money. Oops. It has Rodney Dangerfield, too, only as the star. (BTW: Are all Ramis films, except GHD, nerds_vs_snobs: losers transformed by an inspirational rant to have pride, maybe even practice(!) a bit, and prepare the battlefield with some devious tricks?)
Ditto when James lauds Buckaroo Banzai. The trailer—8-plus minutes—says witless mishmash with good makeup. Am I, or the trailer, missing some good stuff?
As the execrable cheese eating monkey boy who identified the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension as underappreciated, rest assured I meant no disrespect to James Lileks’ superior cultural achievements. But I beg to remind the gentle people of the Rico jury that the movie did $6.4M in box office in 1984, making it the 107th biggest earner of the year, behind:
Beverley Hills Cop
Ghostbusters
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Gremlins
The Karate Kid
Police Academy
Romancing the Stone
The Search for Spock
Splash
Purple Rain
Amadeus
The Natural
Greystoke
Revenge of the Nerds
2010
Red Dawn
The Terminator
The Killing Fields
Conan the Destroyer
David Lynch’s Dune
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Micki and Maude
The Muppets Take Manhatten
Nightmare on Elm Street
The Woman in Red
Moscow on the Hudson
The Flamingo Kid
Sixteen Candles
Missing in Action
Oh, God! You Devil!
The Neverending Story
Top Secret!
Blame It on Rio
Supergirl
Tank
Bolero
1984
Where the Boys Are
The Bounty
The Philadelphia Experiment
Swingshift
(Box Office Mojo)
That’s a brutal butt kicking, although I see more watchable movies in that list than I’ve seen released in a long, long time. Buckaroo is a picaresque that lives and dies with its breezy dialogue, pulp melodrama, a plot that would make a Soapdish writer blush and special effects that work despite not quite reaching classic Dr. Who level.
“Where are we going?”
“Planet 10!”
“When?”
“Real soon!”
I was thinking the same thing the first two weeks they were popping every were on the home page. I have not noticed them now. Then again I have been on mobile browers mostly because it was not giving them.
I thought Aaron was talking about Peter.
Did I hear James drop a “contrude” in one of his segues? We need Rob Long around to call him out on these things.