Mini Crush #116: The Return of Hodgman

That's great, mine was all right. Is there a delay? Well, there's sometimes a lag, but with the magic of post production, we can fix that magic of double p uh. Welcome to movie Crush everyone. I think we should leave all that stuff in. I'm here in Atlanta, and I'm speaking with my old pal and his above ground bunker in Brooklyn, New York, Mr John Kellogg Hodgman. Yes, that's right. That is my middle name k E double l O double g h O d G M A N No Ian Hodgeman.

You would never make that mistake. Check. But some of my oldest friends in the world still spell my name incorrectly. Really Oh yeah, but like John j O and h O d G E M A N, which is both of those are incorrect. You gotta cut these, yeah, I know that's the time, right, Now's the time, now that we're all home alone, and it's time to reevaluate all the friendships, start making a list and changing it. Twice, I thought that we would catch up on the air.

How you doing, I'm doing. I'm you know, I'm hold up and holding up. You know, we're okay here in Brooklyn, you know, for me, my, you know, for for my, for my wife and our children. Obvious disruption because she is a high school teacher. My wife that is, and our daughter and our son are are high school students at all different high schools, so they're all you know,

distance learning, distance teaching, which is a big adjustment. But my life is very similar to what it's been for the past couple of years since I kind of got off the road and I have been homebodying it up and writing books anyway and podcasting with your masks on. I don't have it, I don't. I don't have one. I would, I mean, I guess you can't donate those things, did you really? Well? Yeah, standing down would yeah, exactly.

Being a handy masculine man, well, well, thank you very much, I think well, I mean, compared to me I'm you're you're Conan the Barbarian. You're looking a little scruffy. You're looking good, thank you. I have not checked my we're not recording the video. I do not believe. So people just have to believe that I look like, as I always say, the part time bookkeeping, uh, the part time bookkeeper for the Duck Dynasty. Ever heard that one yet? That's good? Now, Now it's an old it's an oldie.

But okay, so just enough to where you can do some of their handiwork for them. No, I mostly just say, you're you're spending too much on Confederate flags. Let's end it that out. You're spending too much on colloidal silver pills. I don't know Duck Dynasty. Why are we even talking about them anymore? In past? I'm glad to say it's been too much on chlora nique hydro chloric quinn? Is that is that the other one? Are there a couple

of them? The one that uh, the one that's supposed to be the cure all for the COVID nineteen Well, I mean, I don't you heard the breaking news yesterday that we can bathe and UV light and inject disinfectant into our bodies. Yeah, I've been wasting all my time bathing in pure l. I could have set up a grow up in my in my uh, in my bathroom, in my in my shower stall. No. Yeah, I had to learn how to pronounce hydro chlora quinn because like

it just was bugging me that. Yeah, Donald Donald Trump could pronounce it effortlessly, and I and I was going I drive luck Luck. Oh. I think there was a great deal of behind the scenes effort there, my friend. Uh, well, yes, but I mean, you know, it just it just goes to show you that he that you know, when he puts his mind to something, he can do it. If the job is to pronounce this this snake oil the fucking presidency. Are we keeping this in? But sure? This

is the show, Okay. I just don't know your audience, you know what I mean, some people might hate this, but that's just the world we live in right now. Everybody out there who voted for Donald Trump, you are, you are my you are my neighbors, and I love you. I am. I have some quarrel with your decision making, but that's okay. Well, well they're going to get out of this together somehow. So John today a couple of things. I think it's. Um, if I'm not mistaken, is it

Jesse Thorne's birthday? Yes? Is it? Certainly? Is? Hang on one second place? Do do do? Text? Text? Text Jesse Happy birthday, Happy birthday. That's right, It is his birthday. That's right, because I'm suppsed to get on a call with him later. Yeah, I think it is if I'm not mistaken. And I only know that because here's the thing. Here's the thing, Chuck, time has no meaning. Days are blurring together. Yeah, exactly. Reality, Reality is collapsing, and we

all we're all doing the best we can right now. Yeah. Well, you know what that leads to me to our first little segment. What we have been doing for these mini crushes is starting off with reading out some of the Facebook messages asked for what positives are people experiencing during this time, because it's making us all feel better to talk about that stuff. And and lieu of that, I thought we'd talked to you about what positives that you

and your family have experienced thus far. Well, come on, man, there's gotta be one. Well, I mean, the the obvious positive is that, um, we're we're all you know, physically sound, and you know the I won't go I won't go into details because they're meaningless details. But there were a couple of days that I had a fever and some difficulty breathing. And who knows if this was this or this was just you know, nerves or something else, We'll

never know. Luckily it resolved as well. You know, if anyone ever finally knocks on my door and says you want to take a test, you know what I mean. But um, you know, we'll never We'll never know unless there is a test. And even now, the zoology tests for antibodies are not proving to be particularly reliable, so

eventually we may or may not know. But you know, those were those were days of hard to manage terror, right, um, which you know, on balance, I am glad that I went through both because my hope is, you know, knock wood, that's something you have in your house, you sand down

for a very anti person. Um. My my hope is that you know, it means the fact that I recovered from whatever it is I had and and my family didn't get sick, would suggest that we've we've got a little bit of an antibody firewall up, so that but you know, it really does bring into relief, you know. After that was after a week or two out out of the world and the beginning of a feeling of like this is a snow day, and then a reminder,

this is not a snow day. This is a public health crisis that is affecting a lot of people very very adversely and tragically. So that's the big pause, you know what I mean, Like every day I get up and I'm like, you know, this is this is really good. I've also I've also had some new soft clothes that, uh,

I'm really getting into elastic waste bands. This a little bit, you know, as I as I've been sliding into middle age, that was always the place where I would not go, like I'm not going to go to elastic waste bands as a lifestyle choice. But now who cares? You know, So you wouldn't even wear your soft clothes around the house. No,

I would. I would wear him around the house, but I would feel like a like a sluggard, a laya bid But no, But now I feel like that's half my job is to sleep and mark time and have intense dreams um and then you know, the other you know that, so that that's positively had some you know, uh with some good news or daughter got into the

college that she wanted to go to. But yeah, it's very exciting, and you know, we kind of she had been deferred after having applied early and had kind of made her peace with the statistical likelihood that she would not get in. So it was a very happy surprise. But you know, it's it's also like there's a big question Marcus to Weather College, as will even happen in the fall? Yeah, I'm kind of there. Everything is is,

uh is somewhat haunted by this. Luckily you're in Georgia where things are about to open right back up again. It's just going to be great business as usual, show show all of us blue states that we got. We got a little cuckoo over nothing. I can't wait, man, I'm going Yeah, we're going to go. I'm going to get my nails done because I want to have them all nice before I go bowling. Yep. And then I'm gonna go to I'm gonna hit the gym and get

a massage. Afterwards, I would go to the tanning salon, get some of that UV light, you know, what I mean just I mean, even though it's all it's even though it's all uh, it's all an overblown liberal hoax. I mean, why not, why not bathe in the wisdom of of our betters? Uh? What about what about you? What's been in pause for you? Well, I mean I'm at home a lot anyway. I don't have a job where I'm in the office. You know, forty is a

week or anything like that. So um, but it has been nice just for all three of us to be here all the time together. Uh, not without its challenges, to be sure, with a close to five year old, but um who doesn't quite understand things. But we've been having a pretty good time. I'm glad to hear that. And the nice thing is that you have I have been a guest in your home. You're a very gracious host. Thank you, wonderful guest room. Everyone should go check it out.

Chuck's addresses to come on out. But I mean you you have you have rooms, you know what I mean. That is a that is a big Atlanta advantage. You have a home with rooms, whereas here in Brooklyn we have uh an apartment with a room. Yeah, and some sleeping pods. But you know, we have we have some say, we have some escape valves, you know, are our our our apartment building is kind of half occupied the moment. It's a little it's a little twenty eight days later

feeling because a lot of people high tailed it. I thought you might to Maine. But yeah, we have, we have a home in Maine. And that was initially our our you know, immediate thought, especially that of my wife, who loves Maine more than any other place or person on earth. She was like, if schools canceled, we're out of here. Not not necessarily for any particular public health reason, but because it's like, why not let's go to Maine.

A S A P. That's her, you know, she's got a car idling in her brain ready to go at all times. Yeah, that would have I would have done that. But it didn't take much of a moment to think that that that was not going to be a good idea, a great idea, because on the one on this was you know, on the one hand, you know, she's still got to teach and the kids still got to learn.

So we need all the broadband we can get, and like a lot of rural communities, um internet Internet is hard to get not so great, which is, you know, part of the infrastructure that I hope we get around to fixing in this nation. Maybe this experience will sort of open some eyes in the the next administration, wherever it may come, how important, how important it is to make sure that rural communities are not at a digital disadvantage. I'm sure Trump, we'll figure that out in years five

through eight. Sure, sure, well, I will see what happens. Uh. And as well, you know, Maine is a statistically one of the oldest states. Um it's celebrating its bicentennials the state, so it's not the oldest state, but the population is quite elderly, and their health care system is small obviously much smaller even proportionate to their population than New York.

And then there was the thought, well, what if I went up there and got and got sick, I'd be putting a burden on there because I have asthma, and you know, I'd be putting a burden on their health care system, and and maybe you know, not not necessarily getting the care that I need right while also taking a bet away from someone who could benefit from it. But all of that, all of that changed what pretty

quickly when we realized, oh wait a minute. You know, we're trained by movies, which is what this podcast is all about. We're trained by movies like I Am Legend and twenty eight Days Later and all every zombie movie that we are the hero of the story. That we trained to think that we're the hero of the story A and B. We are the uninfected in our job is to run from the infected or to barricade ourselves away from the infected. When the reality that it's taking people,

it's a real hard mental leap to understand. Like my doctors said very early ones, most of us are going to get this. Most of us probably already have it. You know. The weird thing about this virus is that it is uh, it affects people in wildly different ways. Some people get it and never never a symptom. It's and and it's wildly contagious even if you don't have symptoms.

So it didn't take us as much of a second to realize, oh wait a minute, we're already, as people from away in Maine, we're already considered to be an invasive species. Yeah, like we're already problems, you know, We're we're just problem We're just headaches with money, you know. So if if we end up being highly contagious fevers,

then our money doesn't count anymore, you know what I mean. Like, um, so we decided to stay away from our our neighbors, and we know we've been, we've we've we've lived there part time now for almost five six years, and you know, we love our We've come to love our neighbors, and I think our neighbors have come to tolerate us, and we don't want to ruin that relationship by swanning up there in our plaid pants licking their door knobs, you

know what I mean. So yeah, Well, you can read about all this good stuff in a couple of great books if I'm not mistaken sure, Lost on a Mountain in Maine, A Classic Boy's Tail of Getting Lost in

a Mountain and Maine. Also my two books, the one two punch of of of autobiography by me John Hodgman, Vacation Land, which is named for the motto of the state of Maine and medallion status, and the other Big Pause, since we're since we're plugging and this is not something I plugged in order in order to make any money. It's just something I plug because I enjoyed doing it.

One of the big positives for me is that I have been doing this thing last year on and off every now and then called Get Your Pets, where I go on Instagram Live and people request to join my video and I select them and then I interview their cats and dogs and other pets. And as soon as soon as the as soon as the you know, quarantine, lockdown, stay at home, whatever you wanna call it, came in, I was like, well, I'm stuck at home, and I know a lot more people are stuck at home than ever.

Your pets business, Yeah, well, I mean it's not a biz. It's just like I want to It's more like I I really need some you know, an emotional support, animal therapy. I want to see some pets. It's very you know, looking at a dog as you well know is uh, you know, a hard shot of serotonin straight to the brain. You feel good when you pet a dog or a cat or a snake. Or We had a couple of chameleons on Get Your Pets. Kermit the Chameleon and then

Dave the Discount Chameleon. Met Dave the Discount Chameleon yesterday. Dave is one of the many pets of a woman named Amanda who's a grounded flight attendant. And she she said, yeah, we were getting we were at the we're at pet Smart getting a getting a mouse for our snake, Annabel, and we saw Dave the chameleon was there and that was highly discounted. And when we asked, when we asked why, the Pet Smart person said, because he's a he's an

asshole or something like that. No, well, I mean maybe maybe he does, maybe he doesn't, but like he he hisses and he's mean, and Amanda felt so bad that she took him in. So now he's Dave the Discount Chameleon. Um, it's just so much fun to you know. Part of you know, the other podcast I do ostensibly for money is Judge John Hodgman, and I want to thank all of the Maximum Fun members who are hanging in there with their memberships going maximum fun dot org slash joined.

But you know, Judge John Hodgeman is the joy of it for me is getting to appear, at least audiophonically into the lives of other people all over the country, in the world and get your pets. I can actually see into their homes and see their cats and dogs, and see their litter boxes and their snakes and there you know, Danny and Pittsburgh has a rabbit named Ander Sand and twenty hissing cockroaches that she didn't bother to name in a tank on purpose. Yeah, learn about people

and stuff. Have pictures of you in my son room with my animals literally sitting all on top of you. Yeah, I loved all your dogs. I don't remember their names, that's all right. Nico and Charlie were the dogs, and they were Nico on your lap. And I believe that pictures of my cats Leave On and Luna also sitting on you in various ways. Right, I knew that there was more than just the two dogs are all the There's a large menagerie there in the Chuck Bryant Home.

Always always gotta have two and two at least. Are you sure you don't have a third dog wandering around in there? It would be possible. I'm looking now, I feel like like a ghost dog. Shout out to Jim Jarmush. Well. Also, while we're plugging to one of the segments I had teed up here is one of your projects that you have been doing with the wonderful and charming Elliott Kalin. I have not listened yet, but I would love for

you to talk a little bit about I pod Vious. Well, okay, I guess Latin wise it be pronounced I Podius, okay, but we pronounce it ipodius. It is a podcast about Yeah, it's a podcast about the classic nineteen seventy six BBC Prestige drama mini series about ancient Rome called I Claudius. And in nineteen seventy six, I mean, this thing was the Game of Thrones of its time. It was wildly popular,

scandalous because of its frank, sexual content and nudity. It's a it's a it's a twelve part drama about the lives of the Claudian I guess it's the the Augustus slash Claudian family, the ruling family of Rome right at the right at the you know, turn of BC two Anno Domini, after Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome, had

seized power. And it is told from the point of view of Claudius, who is augustus step grandson, who has a stammer and a limp, and everyone presumes he is the dumbest person in Rome, but he's but he is not immediately put to death because he's a member of

the royal family. But in fact he's incredibly smart and he records the family history, including all the stuff that you don't hear about, like the backstabbings, the literal backstabbings, the figurative backstabbings, the literal front stabbings, the actual the

actual poisonings. And it's just this incredibly juicy family soap opera all wrapped up in this like with some of the greatest character actors in British history, from you know Sean Phillips, the famous Welsh actress, to Derrick Jacoby who plays Claudius. Brian Blessed plays Augustus. Patrick Stewart plays a villain named said Janus, and he and and his hair

is to pay On, which is very unnerving. Um so many incredible John Hurt plays Caligula, just incredible British actors in or before their prime, like before they had really been discovered, like Sir Patrick Stewart, and it's all wrapped up in the in this incredibly shabby package. Because of course they had about thirty five pounds sterling with which to make this thing, and the entire the entire show is said. I think Elliott and I counted it's it's it's shot on I think five sets, and they all

they all look like they're being filmed. They're being filmed like with a one of those video cameras used to rent from the video store for for a birthday party in someone's in someone's reck room, painted up to look like ancient Rome. It's just I mean, from an acting standpoint, from a sort of history of television standpoint, from a history of Rome standpoint, and just like a juicy mini series standpoint, It's just one of my favorite pieces of

culture of all time. So last year when Elliottkalin, who's the co host of a podcast called The Flophouse Terrible Movies, Elliot and I were doing some promotion for for the Maximum Fund Network are are Shared Podcast Network during their fun drive last year, and when I learned that he had not ever seen I Claudius Um, I dared him that if we reached a certain fundraising goal to record a mini series or recap mini series about it. And we reached that goal, I'm glad to say, and and

over the course of the fall UH. He and I were you know, rewatched and talked about all the episodes of I Claudius, and we ended up interviewing Patrick Stewart, the the famous UH podcast historian of Rome. Mike Duncan comes in UM, lots and lots of people associated with the with the production, and then Jordan Cowing, our producer, got in there and just mixed it all together in such a beautiful way. So it really ended up being

I think lot more than some of its parts. A lot of people, you know, have been saying to me, I've I've listened to the podcast. I've never seen an episode of I Claudius, and it's still a ton of fun. But I would encourage people, if they're home and they don't have anything else to do, check out Acorn TV

or your local library. Hoopla is a streaming service that connects to your library card UH and and get your or iTunes, get your hands on some I Claudius because it's really it's a really great watch, and then you know, follow along with us. As h Elliott and I talked about it on I Potius. I can't wait. I've been looking forward to that because I'm a big flaphouse guy. I love Elliott and when you when you guys started

talking about this, it's really wet my appetite. I've just been binging another show, but I'm about to catch have you been what have you been binging? I've been binging the Scott Ackerman, Adam Scott, you two and R. E. M podcasts. Oh yeah, right, exactly, that's sure, of course, that's right. Yeah. So I've been doing that and I'm almost done with those, and there's a lot of them, and then I'm free to back up and have a lot of great stuff on the on the back iron

that I can now backburner that can now get into. Well, you and you and Emily should watch I Claudius, and then whether or not you listen to I Podies, you

should watch I Claudius is great. Uh, don't let your daughter in the room because it's it's it's scandalous and a big, a big you know I or you know for me, going back, when I first watched I Claudius all the way through in the nineties, it was because I, like so many other children of public television watchers, have been traumatized wandering in to the television room while my parents were watching John hurt Uh do his cuckoo murder

dance with with his nude sister bride or whatever. And one of the great pleasures of Ipodius was was getting letters from people recounting their own childhood traumatic experience, either you know, being being being uh? Was it being exposed to eye Claudius in inopportune times like right uh? Including a lot of high school Latin classes watch it moves and the tea and the teachers would like run to cover up the screen with a Minila folder when right,

because here's new to d in it and stuff. It's fun. There's an orgy. Well, of course I can't wait to see it. Well, we're gonna move on to a segment John that I don't think that we did with you the other times that you appeared on the Mini Crushes. It's a little segment called Hodgeman's Holes. Yes, wherein I list out twenty movies of a specific genre, in this case indie films, and you have to tell me whether or not you have seen this movie. In your holes

will be exposed. I have a lot of holes checked. Well, I know about your holes, no, but I mean in this particular regard. If you indie movies, I bet you there's a lot I haven't seen. So I just want you to prepare, listeners, prepare yourselves. I pretend to know a lot about stuff, but I don't know everything. All right, I've got my sharpie out, I've got my yes column and my no column, and we're going to start out with a little indie movie. Uh, the screen debut of

a certain young actress, a movie called Winter's Bone. Yes, seen it? Okay, starring Julia Louis Dreyfuss. That's right. Is that West Virginia detective movie where she's the she's the teenage detective, that's right, and someone car tracking down her dead beat dad. Right, Yeah, that's right. But I forget the name of the actor, Jennifer Jennifer Lawrence. I think Jennifer Lawrence. That's right. She's called debut her debut. So I'm losing a lot of brain cells during this quarantine.

I gotta tell you. Oh, I'm glad to hear that. Okay, go ahead, all right. Number two John, a little movie called Little Miss Sunshine. Saw it? Okay? Yeah, I saw that, So far, so good. Number three John, the third movie of a trilogy thus Far. Trilogy that was hang On that was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Ferris A Little Miss Sunshine. Yeah, I worked with them for a long time on a script. After that. We had a

great time. They were wonderful, They're wonderful. The script went, the script did not end up happening, of course, well that's how it usually goes, right, But I adored them and Little Mis Sunshine is great, great, great, And I'll

say one more time, great movie. I love it. I'll tell you what in that movie, that bit that I could not get enough of, and I laugh every time I see it is the that weak Volkswagen horn getting stuck and occasionally just going I just remember early on in the movie when they picked up Alan Arkin and he just casually shooting up Heroin in the back of the microfress. I was just like, Oh, I'm all, I'm

along for this ride for sure. Uh So. Number three is the the third movie of a trilogy thus Far, a trilogy from a filmmaker named Richard link Ladder, a movie called Before Midnight. I saw the first one before Before Sunrise, and that's it. That was the nineties. Thinky rom com Jam not not calm rom rom rom dram, rom dram, thinky smarty, pansy, Julia delpi ethan hockey thing. Yes, And then I think I saw so it was before sunrise, and then was like before lunchtime. What was the next one?

I think it was post brunch, before afternoon nap, the one where they got back together, you know, before on set, and then before midnight. It was the third. Yeah, I saw before sunset, and I'm like, I don't ever need to see these people ever again. Okay, well that's I don't care what time of day or night they're meeting, alright. Number four uh an indie film that that got a lot of acclaim that I still have not seen from a few years ago called Moonlight. Yeah, I saw it.

I'm doing good, Chuck, You're doing great. That was amazing. That was an amazing movie. I got that on a screener because I'm a member of the Screen Actors Guilt. Oh well yeah, but I mean, you know, like getting getting screeners for awards consideration is this huge mental burden because you think you're getting free movies, but what you're really getting his homework, ay and be piles and piles and piles and piles of DVDs, Like, what do you like?

Who wants these? I don't even know. I don't even like. It's hard to find a DVD play or to put this into. And never mind the tremendous, uh ecological waste of printing these things, putting them in cardboard or plastic, and then mailing them all over the place. Just send me a link, Send me a link, Hollywood. Well, so I'd like to work again some day, so please don't take him again. Ser you have a DVD player? Right? Probably? No? Do you have a PS four? Your son? Probably? Yeah?

That was the maybe the greatest error I've ever made in my life, was getting your son is PS four. No. I got a p S three originally because a friend named Kenneth Plume, who knows who knows and knew what he was talking about, told me that that was the best blue ray player. And this goes back to, you know, fifteen years ago, right when physical media was still a thing we're thinking about and blue ray was kind of maybe going to happen, and I'm like, what's the best

one to get? And Ken told me Ken who has a great podcast called A Bit of a Chat, which I'll plug I Wonderful Conversation podcast. Wonderful conversationalist can Ken Plume look him up? Uh? Ken uh said, well, really, the PlayStation is the best one because it's the only one that updates automatically. And I'm like, all right, whatever, And I was like, but this is a great excuse to get a game console as well. And it was.

And I and I had played some video games in the nineties, you know, because I had no no families, Yeah, no prospects, no family. What else was I gonna do but stay up all night playing thief or tomb Raader. But and I and I had just gotten kidnapped by television and gotten this completely unexpected job on the Daily Show. So I had a little bit of money and I'm like, yeah,

maybe I'll go a video game. And our kids were really too little to play video games, so uh, it was like I just I got back into video games for a bit. But then this thing was lying around to be discovered by both of our children and especially my son, and now the PS the PS four is now a huge, huge, huge part of his life. And quarantine and it's um because we do not live in several rooms check uh, I feel we are living spaces

one big living room, timing room, TV area, kitchen. I feel like I've spent the past several several fortnights in Fortnite, if you know what I mean. Is that what he's playing, so that Apex legends a little bit of Elder scrolls. He rolls a lot of different dice. But anyway, yeah, so I've been so yeah, well we can play it. Sorry,

you go. Well, I've been gaming a little bit again in the Quarantine, and I've been talking a lot on the show, but I've bought my first headset of my life, and I've actually been playing Red Dead Redemption to online with Adam Pranica and Ben Harrison. Oh that's fun and so late at night because they're on the West Coast, we will form a posse and spend a couple of hours robin banks and and fishing and hunting and killing people.

And it's it's been so much fun. You need to get out there in the world with your friends, even if it's virtually don't kill people unless you're in a video game. I've been having a great time. It's really but yeah, no, I mean, you know, we have the we have the ability to play a physical media. And I guess that that was the year that I sat down and I was like, I'm gonna watch as many of these nominated films as I can see. Yeah, and

you know, it's good. It's good. It's good to force yourself to see something absolutely new rather than, because there's so much out there, let's just you know, rehash, a reboot. And it's also there's so much of a inclination right now to just go back to the comfort to the comfort food, especially now for sure, like watch Raiders at the Lost Ark for the seventh time. Yeah, alright's a good idea. Number five Johnson, is that on your list? I've seen that one. No, it's not an indie movie.

I know you've seen this. I feel pretty sure. From your Coolidge Corner of theater days a little movie from a filmmaker named Jim Jarmish called Stranger Than Paradise. Yes, chat out to the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, Massachusetts, my hometown. They're doing virtual screenings, like a lot of

small local movie theaters are doing. You know, if you've got a local movie theater, local small independent movie theater in your community, check out and see if they're doing any virtual screenings, it's a quite a great way to support your local independent movie theater. Totally, where did I Where did I see? Did I see Strangers in Paradise in the theater? I think I saw it on video, probably because down by Law was screened at the Bookline

Arts Center. Great movie, and Sam Potts and I went to see it, and that was the first time I ever heard the music of Tom Waite's in that opening credit sequence, and then of course Tom Whit's is in the movie. Just movie reshaped my brain. That's one of the ones that reshaped my brains. And then I went back and watched Strangers Strangers in Paradise, which is a

good movie too. Yeah, I have been listening to a lot of Tom Waits again as someone who I used to love, who I didn't listen to for a little while, and I've picked it back up. And I was thinking about how distressed I was when you told me that David Reese had changed your mind about Tom Waits, and I hope that didn't stick. Well, No, I still love

Tom Waits. I mean David Reese's point, and he shares this point of view with a lot of people is that Tom Tom Waits is as big you know, he's a he's a maybe a talented musician, but he's also a cost player basically like he's gone through phases of various iterations of the sort of phony hobo act. Now I've met people who know Tom Waits and they say, not an act. He's just a genuinely eccentric guy, which I trust and believe. But yeah, you you you know

you you you. He went through a beat like a beat nick phase into this sort of like screaming hobo noise phase. He was a great reinventor, but there's no

question that his music is theatrical and performative. That he's playing characters as opposed to what a lot what a lot of white dudes think singers, songwriters and rock musicians should be, which is sincere, you know what I mean, like stripped down, you're just seeing the raw meat, whereas Tom Waits you're like sometimes and sometimes uh and when you know, sometimes someone shows you something in a fresh way and you can't unsee what they've shown you. But

I'll take Tom Waits. I'll take Tom Waits no offense. I'll take Tom Waits's Jersey Girl over Bruce Springsteen's Jersey Girl any day. And you know, Bruce, Bruce Springsteen is an incredible musician and person, you know what I mean, a role, right. I don't think that people who I mean maybe true Bruce fans, the casual Bruce fan. The image of Bruce had been at least for a long time being like this is just a regular guy playing, playing, playing from his heart as it was Tom Waits, which

is all. And I sing into a count like I was always a you know, like give me the guy with a hat on his singing into a can like I don't need I don't need sincerity. Let me see this guy, let me see this guy wearing a washboard for a underwear or whatever. Like I liked I liked him. Well. It's funny though, because Bruce Springsteen, in this most recent Broadway performance, which was very uh Storytelly, was very upfront about the fact that he's a big phony and like

he's like, I'm a rich guy. He's like, I'm not. I'm not a New Jersey street guy, right, and he is a performance you know, I'm playing a role as well. Well. Yeah, but I think he came up with wearing his heart on his sleeve, you know what I mean, Like he

had early success and he's been successful ever since. But yeah, I mean, anyone who's a performer is going to be giving a performance, right And I can I can get why Bruce, by the way, I have all the respect in the world for his artistry and his you know, person ship. You know, I've he's incredible. But you know, I get why Bruce has a little bit of an imposter complex because he's he's been a wildly successful and internationally known and financially successful performer for almost all of

his career. But he is singing songs from the point of view of you know, down and out folk. And that's a that's a circle to square. That's a hard circle to square for any successful performer. And you know, particularly it's like, you know, all of all of the all of the you know, sort of comedy purists who are out there yelling at comedians for being, you know, not being honest and raw. I'm like, well, you know, you're you're honest and raw quote unquote. Comedy heroes are

hiding something too. They're hiding the fact that they they rent porsches and then leave them at the and then don't bother to return them and then call and then call the rental desk from the airplane saying, oh, yeah, I left it on Sepulvida in the in the in and out, you know, parking lot, Go get it. You'll have to text me is who's that was? Because that

sounds way too real. That's that's a real story. That's a real story, like you know there Yeah, but yeah, but Bruce, like everybody, you're perform Everyone is a performer as a performer, that's the way it goes. So yeah, But and I love Tom I love Tom Waits, but like Tom Waits, particularly a lot of the early stuff that my mind melted with when I was in my late teens early twenties. To me, it's now it's like the Beatles, like I can't hear those songs again. I

hear them, and I can every I've heard them. They're so brilliant, are so perfect, and every note in them is so ingrained into the folds of my brain. It's like there's no need to listen to it again. Trying discovering anything new, all right, John number six, a movie from Gus fans Aunt called My Own Private Idaho never

saw it. I never saw it, but may I offer this There are a lot of games that you play around movie titles, like change you know what movie titles just naturally sound like you're like a reference to using the bathroom. I'll just I'll leave operation Jumbo drop just there. You know that's what they're like. How do you how do you change a word or phrasing in the title of the movie to make it it's a porno version?

And I remember distinctly an evening in the late nineties hanging out with my my New York friends, with whom many of them I'm still friends with. I think we're at sam Hats House. I met that guy and we're Yeah, he's a great guy, and we were we were playing this game, like change the title of a movie to make it a Is this inappropriate for your podcast? It's all appropriate. It's fine. Change change the title of the

movie to make it a porn version. And Christine Connor, my old high school friends still our best friend, pipes in with how about my own private guy to blow not bad? It's hard. It's hard to get better than that? Sered in my brain forever, all right. John Number seven is a movie that came out, I believed last year or the year before, starring or featuring Patrick Stewart a little movie about Neo Nazis called a green Room green Room.

I saw it late at night, good movie, probably probably with the Martini and my and I think I could probably easily watch it again and not know what happened because my mind erased it. It was too late at night. My mind racist the tapes at Midnight U eight. I will say, well, I'll say this about Gus van ZANDT. I was recently rethinking. I'm thinking about rewatching Midnight Cowboy, which is a kind of a forgotten, showerful indie movie starting um, Matt Dylan, Oh no, no, drug Store Cowboy.

Excuse me, drug Store Cowboy. Right, Midnight Cowboys also a great movie. Yeah, Drugstore Cowboys excellent. Drug Store Cowboy is I think one of those movies that just kind of disappeared from film nerds minds to a certain degree, like it's not talked about a disgust. Maybe it doesn't deserve to be. I haven't really, I haven't relived it since I saw it. Yeah, Young Steve's on, Kelly Lynch, Kelly Lynch, Yeah,

Williams Burrows, isn't it. Yeah, that's right. I remember it very very well and um and yet it it slips from the mind such that I referred to it as Midnight Midnight Cowboy instead of drug store cowboy. I'm walking here. Hey, I'm I'm stealing lauded over yere, Hey, don't put a hat on a bed over here. Come, I'm going through the tramps. I'm into the drug store to steals the d lauded over. Yeah, that's right. Hat on the bed was bad luck, right, hat on the bed? Don't put

a hat on the bed, all right? John Number eight a little movie from Todd Haynes about Julianne Moore losing her mind. Yes see, I thought you were gonna be talking about indie movies like from the past century or this century? Is I'm gonna see all the ones in the nineties were the same age are close to it? All the ones in the nineties I'm gonna have seen. I think, yeah, safe, I saw that one. That might be the only Todd Agins that I've seen. Seriously, you've

never seen Far from Heaven? So which one is that? Which was that one? Again? Far from Heaven? Was the one again with Julianne Moore in uh um, Dennis QUAIDH Yeah, I saw that. I saw that was great gold mine. I never saw it, all right, I figured, yes, I saw a say I saw a safe all right. Here's an older one. Number nine, a movie from John Cassavetti's called The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. No, I never saw it. Put that on the no column. Okay, great movie, right,

I'll put it in my think about column. I think I'll put it on. Put it in my my little ongoing list in my computer. That says Chuck's homework for me. Number ten a movie from director John Sales about a group of coal miners Mattajuan or made a one. Yeah, I think it's Mattajuan. I'm not positive though. It's named for a town I think in Pennsylvania. But I've never seen that particular movie. Or maybe I did. Maybe I did. Entering some seven. Chris Cooper's in it, I think is

in it. He's the most of his movies. No, I'm looking at the Wikipedia right now. I'm okay, now yeah, um uh yeah. This was in my wheel eyes. I would have been sixteen at this time. This was my wheel eyes. But I probably would have rolled it on VHS because I was such a pretentious art house nerd. So yes column or no column? I mean, you got to be pretty sure. I think it's a maybe. I have a very vague feeling of having seen it. There is no maybe column. So all right, but I didn't

know then probably not all right. I'm not going to take credit for watching it unless i'm sure sure. Mary Mary McDonald sarcerlat because Mary McDonald wasn't it. Number eleven a wonderful little romantic indie film from a few years ago shot in Athens, Georgia, called The Spectacular. Now, no, I don't know anything about this movie. See here we go. Great movie about young love, A great movie about young who's in it? What's the deal? Who was in it? Is the young lady I can't remember her name that

was in The Descendants that played Clooney's oldest daughter. Uh uh, what's her name? What is the name of the movie? The Spectacular? Now, he's Spectacular? Now? Yeah, the guy from I'm not I'm not ashamed to just look it up. I think Miles Teller was the lead. Miles Teller, Bree Larson, Bob Odin kirk Burialism with Winstead, Jennifer, Jason Lee, Kyle Chandler, Shyleene Woodley. Yeah, that's her, Shylen Woodley, that's who. It is.

Really really good movie, quite a cast shot in Athens, Georgia. Yeah, very very good movie. All right. Put that on the list. The score right now, John is six to five six yas Oh, I didn't realize that. I was What happens if I lose against myself? Nothing, we just like to keep score. Uh. Number twelve, wonderful little movie from last year from written and director. The director is James Pond Sould and it says that he went to Yale University, so I should get a screener from Skull and Bones

for that. Oh, that's right, that's your old high school. Yeah, my old high school. All right. Go on a movie from writer and director Bo Burnham that was just lovely called Eighth Grade. No I have. I didn't see that, and you know why I was worried that that movie was going to crush me flat. It's pretty crushing. Yeah, I mean, not like sad, but just real for someone who's got a high school daughter. Yeah, yeah, as a as a parent of teenagers, like the same same reason

I couldn't see Ladybird yet. I will see them both. But I just felt like like I could just tell it was going to be a beautiful, great movie that was just gonna hollow me out emotionally. Not not sad, you know what I mean. It just be like too much, too much to take in. Yeah, you need to see Ladybird, though I know I need to see lay Bird. I got Look, I got a lot of Chuck Brian homework. You got a lot of holes. So Number thirteen a movie from director of Harmony Corinne Gummo. No, I didn't

see that either. No, I did not see it. I did not see it because I did not see kids. As I saw the trailer. I saw the trailer for kids, and I was, so, you know, I'm a good kid. I'm not a bad kid. They scared you, didn't they Those kids scared me. Those bad kids, those bad kids. I was like, I don't want to give I don't want to Like I knew that they were actors, but I was like, I don't want to give my money to those bad kids. Harmony Coryn used to live above

the restaurants Savoy. Uh. It was this weird situation where his apartment door was basically in the upstairs dining room of this restaurant, so you would see him and there's a there's a bar upstairs, and he would just sort of wanted through the bar to go home. It was a very weird New York thing. Coumo did not appeal to me. I had no interest to kids was great, but Gumo just looked to ross. He directed Spring Breakers, right, yeah, I did never. I never saw that. I heard it

was pretty good. I liked it. It was I think that might be the only movie of his that I have seen. Okay, because I couldn't see I couldn't see his movie because I'm a good kid and he was my age or a little bit younger, and I just it always rubbed me the wrong way when people my age we're sort of plucked from obscurity and called geniuses and I and I wasn't. I wanted to get plucked,

you know what I mean. So it was a little bit of I can't say that I was into uh yeah, alright, anyway, alright, so this movie I have a feeling you have probably seen because it is about you in some ways. With Stillman, movie called a Metropolitan Yeah, I saw Metropolitan. Okay, yeah, what Stillman? I didn't have what Stillman was more up my alley. I figured that. Yeah, yeah, smarty, smart, smarty pants, good kids trying to be bad kids. It's tied up

John seven to seven. Yeah, that feels fair. Number Tidebreaker. No, well we go through twenty Okay, I better I better talk less about No, that's right. Number four, I'm sorry. Number fift, Sorry, we'll cut it all anyway. A movie he called it, two Lane Blacktop. Is that a David Lynch movie? No, it is not. It is a movie sort of the original car Chase movie. Uh, starring two singers. It starred I think Dennis Wilson and James Taylor. Oh wow, how about that? Yeah, I didn't know. I never knew

that James Taylor had ever been in a movie. Alright, this this one I'm happy to put on my happy to put on my homework sheet, all right. Dennis Wilson, of course, famous housemate of Charles Manson from It for the Beach Boys. That's right, Charles Manson. He took Charles Manson in. He's like, why don't you cut? He's a good judge character. He's like, hey, you seem cool. We're talking. We like, we like to talk about songs together. Come

live in my house. And then Charles Manson moved all of his girlfriends in, and Dennis Wilson's like, yees, these people are cuckoo birds. And he just left. He left and he didn't come back. He gave them the house. He's like five others. Yeah, because he's he was a drum for the Beach Boys. I also want to shout out the great and very much underrated cult favorite album from Dennis Wilson called Pacific Ocean Blue from Seven Chuck.

If you want to hear a really moving recounting of that phase of Dennis Wilson's life and his friendship with Charles Manson. And if you haven't listened to it already, it's a few years old now, but listen to Karina Longworth's sequence of You Must Remember This podcast. That's a

great shot about Manson in Hollywood. It's I think it's thirteen twelve episodes, twelve or thirteen episodes, just talking about not just the history of the Charles Manson, the Manson family and the various people that got ensnared in his web of acquaintances and victims, but also what was going on in Hollywood at the time that made it possible for Charles Manson to meet Dennis Wilson and major film producers and and you know, sort of entrenched himself in

this world. It's a really as a movie person, you would really, I mean, obviously you must remember this as an incredible podcast about movie history, Hollywood history specifically, but that sequence is like I always say that those thirteen episodes are one of the best books I've ever read, even though you don't read it, like you just try to get her on Movie Crush and it did not happen. But I'm gonna try again. Yeah, I try again. She's been you know, she's busy, but her thing about Dennis

Wilson and particularly Pacific Blue is really amazing. You dig it, I think. Yeah, it's a great album. Number sixteen movie from Adam Igoyan from called The Adjuster. This was playing at the Coolidge Corner Movie Theater when I was working there. I had a feeling that's why I picked it, and it has that. I don't think that I ended up seeing it. What were the other Adam mcgoyan movies. I feel like I've seen at least one he did. Uh, the ones from back then when he was doing kind

of weird art art house type movies. Um, let me see here the Adjuster and I started. This started a lot is colodious. I remember that. I have to say I probably didn't. I probably didn't see it. I worked it, I ripped tickets. I definitely saw the end credits several times. Exotica was one of the big ones. The Sweet Hereafter was a big one. Those were some of his earlier films. And Yeah, the Adjuster, he's kind of yeah Canadian guy. Yeah,

good good movie. Weird, strange movie about an insurance adjuster. Right, Um, missed it, missed it? I gotta say, all right, I think I counted that as a no. Yeah, number seventeen a movie that I have a feeling you've seen from director and writer how hardly called a Surviving Desire? Nope, what hardly? No, I never really got into how hardly though I worked with him. Really he directed. He directed an episode of red Oaks that I was in that

was incredible, because I want to check Suriving Desire. No, I never saw Surviving Desire was great. Um, because so I I worked on a couple of episodes of the second season. I believe it was of red Oaks on Amazon, which is a great funny, sweet moody with an incredible performance by Paul Riser in it, um as well as my my friend Ennis Esma as a tennis club pro. But it's basically like a combination of Dazed and Confused and uh, what's the famous Ted night golfing? Right, So

the combination of Caddyshack and Dazed and Confused. It's like eighties. Yeah, it's set. It a said it a tennis club in the eighties called red Oaks, and it's sort of a sweet coming of age story. Um. The main character, let me you know what I'm talking about here when I talk about these I haven't ever heard of that. I gotta check that out. Red Oaks. Yeah, it's great. It was.

It was created by Joe Gengemi and Gregory Jacobs and the main characters Craig Roberts, the actor Craig Roberts, who who was in Rich Diawatday is great coming of age movie Submarine if you haven't seen that. Um. But so it's like Craig robers is young aspiring filmmaker who spends the summer making a little bit of money teaching tennis at this ritzy uh you know country club called Red Oaks in New Jersey in the eighties. So it's a period piece. It's it's really really funny, like his parents

are played by Richard Kind and Jennifer Gray. Paul Riser plays the husband of his girlfriend. He's got all these great and Ennis Esmer plays the tennis pro and Ennis is If you don't know Ennis, check him out. He's

an incredibly funny actor. But um, yeah, and I had I had this little recurring role as the manager of a public access cable station, and it was incredible because I got to meet all of these actors that I, you know, loved and admired, and they brought back they and they brought in tons of independent you know directors, particularly from the eighties. Yeah, uh to direct episodes. And I got to work with Hal Hardly. I got to

work with Amy Heckerling. That was incredible, she was so amazing direct Gregor Rocky directed some too, That's a great work with I worked with Gregor Rocky. It was you know, for a for you know, a person who saw maybe fifty of the indie movies. I guess how's my how's my rating now? Or would you say you gotta sweep the last three to get to okay? Well, in any case, maybe I'll sweep the last three David Gordon Green. It was just an incredible lineup of in front of and

behind the camera, and the show was terrific. And you know, they did a third season without me, but you know, there you go. That's what happens, all right. Number eighteen John a movie from I have the feeling you are not going to sweep these. A movie from two thousand fifteen called Dope. No. Did not see it, different kind of coming of age period piece, said in the early nineties. Yes, very wonderful movie. A lot of these are coming of

age now that I'm looking at it. Number nineteen a movie that was also sort of a musical or music influenced called Once No. I didn't see it, even though Sarah Reid told me to, and I take her homework very seriously too, failed to see it. I was supposed to be in Ireland. That's about Irish musicians, right, Yeah. I was supposed to be in Ireland for the first time in my life last week. Obviously that trip got canceled. Yeah. Uh, and finally, just we've got to finish these, even though

you will not reach a wonderful movie called Sing Street. No, do you know that movie? No? Why would come on Sing Street? Look it up? It's right, it's right two thousand sixteen musical coming of age drama film. Yeah, really good, said in Dublin. Pitch me on it, pitch me on it. Okay, Ireland in the eighties. Uh, coming of age story. It's

really really wonderful. You would love it. When was the last time you saw the commitments speaking of oh jeez, musical Irish coming of age, I haven't seen it since then. I have not seen it since then either, And as we were planning this family trip to Ireland, I'm like, let's take a look at this again. I'm getting goosebumps

just thinking about it. It's a gorgeous movie, completely, completely, Now, however you may feel about the cultural appropriation of white North dubbed, white working class North Dubliners singing soul songs, it's you know, it's it's it's done with so much love and the movie is just gorgeous. It's gorgeous movie. Alan Parker, director of that very underrated director. I think too.

It's and then and you know, it became such a cliche to put that soundtrack on in the nineties, but you know, like the guy, the actor who plays Deco, the lead singer, Try Little Tenderness. Yeah, they were all that, they were all playing their music. It was for real and his his just watching this. I love a heist movie or the band Getting Together movie? Me too. Yeah, what's your favorite heist movie? And if it's not Sexy Beast, and then the answer is wrong, Sexy Beast. That movie

was so fucking great. That was such a random movie that I wandered into at the at the Theater and Union Square with John Sellers one afternoon, long before we had children or just just around the time, and uh, we're like, let's see this thing. And it was that's such a great, great movie with Ian McShane and obviously Ben Kingsley and Ray Winston. Yeah, boyl boy, what a delight it was. Yeah. That movie. Um, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, fucking yes. That movie had one of the more original

um vault break in scenes that I've ever seen. I don't know if you remember they did it underwater. They fledded. Yeah, Yeah, that was great. I gotta rewatch that. Yeah, me too, and that's on the list for me to rewatch. All right, John, that's all the time we have for episode one. I think you're gonna stick around and do another one. Yeah, I can. I can go all the way up until just a little bit before two pm. Fantastic. So we're

gonna wrap for now. Thank you for listening, everybody, and uh, stay safe and be kind to one another, and we'll see you next week. What was my final What was my final final total? You started off pretty hot? Seven? Yes, is in thirteen knows? Yeah, but that's that's thirteen. That's thirteen movies that I get to watch now. Yeah, thirteen opportunities. That's a good way to look at it. That's right. All right, let's get out of here and do another episode.

All right, bye everybody. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.