92: STAR CATS TAKE NIGHT CALLYWOOD

our Malayoda and Test Lynch. And today we are joined by special guest Alex Pavidimus. Hello Alex, formerly on North Mollywood with me. This is now a supergroup podcast. Kicking it off right, there's a there's a multiverse of podcasts and they all kind of intersect. This is CSN and why special Crossover edition. Um. Alex is going to join us really to talk about cats and Star Wars, two things he has very strong feelings about. But first we're gonna start off the year with a night email about

a spooky fridge. This night email comes to us from Meredith. Meredith writes, Hey, night Call, first time caller. I live in New York City, and shortly after moving into my apartment I realized there was weird writing on my fridge. In the beginning, I thought it was a moving related stress hallucination or something, but then I realized you can only see it fully when the light is hitting the steel fridge in the right way, so usually very early in the morning. I've tried everything to get it off,

including having professional cleaners come, but nothing works. The writing appears to be notes or poems in all caps. The largest words are all alone my own existence written in huge letters on the middle of the door. There are a number of insults and what appears to be a reminder that maintenance people came, and just an assortment of words that have no real connection and something about sociology. I don't know anything about the guy who lived in

the apartment before me. I do feel like the fridge is kind of a sinister entity in my life, although maybe I should be a friended like a ghost who means well, thank you, Meredith. This is a real New York I mean, like, obviously their apartments are everywhere. You have to deal with appliances that have been owned by many people in every city, But this feels like specifically, like a real New Yorky type situation. I'm trying to

figure out how this could have happened. Do you think that it was that there were like notes stuck to the fridge for so long that there was photo damage, or like a pen, you know, like a permanent marker or something that like like it came through a post it note? Or do you think this person wrote directly on the fridge. I feel like somebody wrote directly on

the fridge. I feel like writing all alone my own existence, um on your fridge is kind of like a weird like shut in thing to do, and then the yeah, and then the landlord like scrubbed it down, but you you know, obviously couldn't completely break it down, so there's sort of a ghost image. I mean that that that's

that part. I don't really it's hard for me to imagine what these other things look like like are they are they like done by finger like because I was sort of imagining like when you write on um when you're with your finger on a fog mirror and then the fog clears and you can still see when people do that in dust when they're like wash me right, yeah, um,

I don't know. To me, this sounds like they had taped or otherwise placed notes on their fridge and that they were all kind of overlapping, because they could have had all alone my own existence could be like part of a note, and then the maintenance person could have been like a sticker in the words that aren't related could just be like layers and layers of notes. I

think you're thinking about this like a sane person. Yeah, okay, it's like I have to keep track of all alone my existence, right, Yeah, this seems more like a like a punk fridge situation. I have. I have a thought. Uh okay, it's a steel fridge, like stainless, like a stainless steel fridge, so I'm assuming it's like a smooth surface. It's not like the textured sort of plastic sort of like a white fridge. I'm imagining somebody probably used their fridge as a a wipe off board and they used um,

white chalkboard paint. You mean, no, with like white boff markers. Um. This is You're gonna have to get back to us on this, merete, because we're kind of piecing this together from your description. But like you know that stuff if you leave on a wipe off marker on a board for long off, sometimes it doesn't even come off. Like if you leave something on a wipe off board for a year, sometimes it just doesn't come off anymore. That

is an interesting point that could be. It also could be there people have this like chalkboard paint that I'm wondering if they thought they could remove or you can do. Um, they have sticky chalkboard paint that's almost like wallpaper, and then if they were writing directly on it, it could have etched itself into the fridge beneath, or it just could be haunted by ghosts. Um. I feel like I'm willing to explore some rational options before we go for ghosts.

But I do think it's like, you know, it's like all these things you talk about where it doesn't need to be a ghost to feel like a presence, a dark presence. It's very like Russian doll. Yeah. Also yeah, yeah, I guess you don't have to think about that as much here at the like eight million people that lived in an apartment before you. Yeah, I don't know, like people don't think about fridges enough, Like I think people think a lot about beds and hotels obviously, and the

sheets on hotels, but fridges and apartments. But like a fridge holds a lot of psychic energy. I feel like, well the idea also that she can only see it when it's like hit it, the light hits it in a certain way. I do think maybe you're right that it's like because sometimes you're like a white whiteboard pain if you like to leave it on too long leaves,

that weird snail trail. But just to know that at some point in your space, somebody was compelled to write all alone my existence while they were in your nice kitchen. I mean, it doesn't like you know your kitchen that you have tried to make the best stuff. Um like somebody has had wild and desperate thoughts in there. That's a little bit unsettling. What do you listeners think that the spooky fridge have or should do about the spooky fridge? Move? They have to move or get a new fridge. And

that's too now, that's to move, burn it down. You can't get a fridge out, everybody. You can't get a fridge. You see a lot of fridges on the street, though, yes, do you? Yeah, there's one on my street right now it's not mine. They also used to be like, don't play in the abandoned fridges was a big thing. Wait what what that was the thing? Alex means what I'm talking about. Maybe it's more a California thing. Don't play an abandoned, play in the abandoned anywhere. Stuck in a fridge, yeah,

you'll shut yourself in. There's all horror stories about like that's they have those magnets. I think they make them now so they can't do that, so they don't shut from the inside. You can get out of them. They are haunted though they're like that they leave, they're on the front lawn kind of just being haunted a lot like toilets. I think they have something in them like

air conditioners do. Also, so when you see them on the street, they've all all died by violence, Like they're all busted open because someone's trying to get the valuable, Like there's a piece of gold or free on something in there that freon hoarders and can you go around collecting free on for coins. It's the combustible converter, catalytic converter, or whatever it's called. You guys are really like changing

my perception of refrigerators in a terrible way. I'm like, you can get trapped in a refrigera like children playing in refrigerators. I had no idea, Meredith, Meredith, please send us a picture of this if you can. I really want to like I want now, I'm I want to know if I'm right about the wipe off board thing. So please get back to part is the insults. Sorry, I keep I won't let it go. I just keep circling back to the bad vibe party house. That sounds

like a bad vibe party house to me. Maybe it's a bad party house, or or what if they what if she looks up the person who lived there before and it's her. Oh, I just watched Black Swans. I watched that on the plane that I passed out on, So that explains everything. Yeah, get back to this, Meredith. And if you have a night call for us. We love getting your night calls in whatever format you prefer.

Call us or text us at two four oh four six night or email us at night call podcast at gmail dot com and we'll be back in a moment with some tales from the Dark Knights of Berlin. Right after this had welcome back, to night call. Emily, you just got back from a trip to Berlin where you went to one of the most night call places imaginable, the Museum of Things. Well, I feel like Berlin in general is like one of the most night call places right now, like in a very literal sense, and that

it's like mostly night like all the time. The sun came up at like eight or thirty in the morning and went down and it was totally dark by four every day, so it was a lot of night like. We could do what we could do an intro and it could be like it's five thirty pm. It was the first time I've ever been there in winter actually too, so it was a very different experience. But I did go to the Museum of Things, which I now kind of put in this canon of museums that I don't know.

I love a good, small, very unique museum, like the Museum of Jurassic Technology is kind of, I think, like a pinnacle of that kind of a museum where you have to kind of figure out what the spaces as you're navigating it, like somebody has curated this stuff and it makes sense, but you're not going to get it at first, And the only way to do it is to kind of like actually move through and figure it out. Um. It's fun. It's like a mystery dinner or something. Um,

what are the things in the Museum of Things? So the Museum of Things is an archive. It's it's it's the archive of the Deutsche RK. Boon's I'm gonna use my terrible. I don't know a lick of German. It's amazing, I like I I it's one of it's. Any time I go to like France or Japan, I kind of exhausted because I'm trying to figure out how to speak there and I don't know any German at all, so I can lay back and let other people do it

for me. So I don't know any But it's the it was this um kind of government uh, I don't know, initiative. It predated um about how school and it was just this like initiative to create a specifically German idea of like design and like what manufactured like consumer goods should look like and and graphic design and advertising and stuff like that because they wanted to be competitive with the other um kind of first of all countries, I guess. Um. And it's so it's an archive. It's like it's kind

of through that lens. But the stuff there is not all stuff that was created by the work bone and the people who were designers for it. UM. It's kind of just like cabinet after cabinet that basically as you move through it goes through time, just kind of showing you what everyday objects if you lived in Germany and both East and West Germany, UH looked like as you

went through time, are you going backwards in time? Or because it started in um I think nineteen o seven, Yeah, nineteen o seven, I think, or nineteen o nine, UM, so it starts about there and gives a lot of examples of like the kind of objects and consumer goods that they thought were trash and we're very vocally UM critical of. And it's just like it's like a spoon or like a picture frame that then like somebody at the like set aside and it's like bad, this is

a picture frame, UM. And then I mean so and then they have a lot of stuff that was like so one of the things that's like the very signature UM look that came out of this organization with sort of those the very UM abstract sprayed on designs or like they look very Eastern block that kind of the plates with the yeah, yeah yeah. If you're a subscribed to our newsletter, you can see some pictures from there. Also you can just like google the plates with the

ants where the geometric pattern. Yeah, they looked like yeah, I mean kind of like Germany meets like New York loft of the primary color kind of rectangles. It's that super kind of like Soviet look of just and it's like non. The idea is that like you don't want anything figural in it. You're like kind of just you're trying to do something decorative without being decorative boring. I

mean a lot of it is quite pretty. I think like a lot of it looks, but how much of the kits did you like where you like, Oh, I like the bad stuff. I mean I like the bad stuff too, But then it gets really I mean it's it's the old bad stuff is funny because you're just like, oh, like they abhorred this chintzy like figure of the Virgin Mary or whatever, like stuff like like a lot of

religious objects are in the bad section. But then um, as it goes forward and you get closer to the present day and you're like looking at like iPod nanos and what were some of the other things, just like like dumb toys for kids, like you know that was kind of like cardboard with the plastic on top, like that kind of design of packaging, um that sort of glued on like all these you know a lot of it from like the eighties nineties and oh's You're just like, man,

we like make so much crap, like and it's interesting to see it. Like a museum is good for that, Like you can really contextualize like something that you don't think about in the every day when it's in behind a cabinet and with a placard over it and you're looking at a iPod nano from two thousand five or whatever, You're like, uh, it's like the museum. And um, do you ever see the really bad time Machine movie from like two thousand two or something Guy Pierce one? Yeah,

un original like a billion love. Um I saw I saw that. I just remember that. Samantha iconic Irish pop star Samantha Mumbo isn't um the time Machine the End Orlando Jones, but Orlando Jones and it is um He's like the holographic. UM. I guess like docent at the museum of like a history museum there and they just have like stuff from today, and it's sort of like, oh, why is this where the time machine is? UM, I can't remember it would make sense, was it or does

he build it at home as in the original? No, I think he goes to the future and the museum is there in the future and everybody has died, but the museum is still there anyway. But like, I don't know, I like that kind of like I like it's it's it's a it's a really interesting place to think about. I have two questions. One of them is that you shared a picture that's in our newsletter of you knew I was gonna as this. There's a t set, a white porcelain looking t set with very realistic ants painted

onto it that I that gave me a nightmare. It's a horrible nightmare. No, I mean, it didn't give me a nightmare, but it made me supremely uncomfortable, and I knew I had to share it with you as soon as when is that from? UM? That was that seems I think that was like in the fifties or sixties and that was good. I think it was bad. I think it wasn't it was good. It's good chaotic for UM. And then the other thing there was a there was a laptop with like a cutout picture of a boy.

What was going on there that all the electronics they had these little like pictures that seemed to be cut out of magazines at the time, like children's magazines at the time of like kids doing cartwheels and stuff on them. It was so weird. It was like very weird laptop arranged with a little cut out boy, but it really kind of crudely cut out, so he was just kind of like that was purely that was purely an act of like expression on the part of whoever put that together.

I just municipal art trying to make it slightly. It seemed so wrong for a museum, which made it seem so right for this musing UM. But I highly erect amend the museum. If you ever find yourself in Berlin, it's um. It's you know, it's it's an hour or two uh and and super interesting. You learn a lot and you think a lot about trash and pre trash. UM. I just went to the Librea Tar Pits for the first time in a while because they're threatening to redevelop it,

which they should not do. Part of the remodel. It's part of the never ending fiasco that is the Miracle Mile overhaul. Uh. They're building a death Star Hollywood museum, which we'll talk more about death Stars shortly. Well, there's also the Lucas that's the death Star. It's literally in the shape of a death star. It's very bad. But the Libreria Tar Pits is like a seventies, late seventies, early eighties museum. It's super weird. I love it so much.

Um there are no dinosaurs. It is only giant sloths, giant bear type things, California native sper fauna. I was so disappointed when I first went to the Libria tar Pets.

Now it's fine, But when I was a kid, I came out here and my parents were like taking you to the tar pits and I was like, what is that and they were like, it's you know, there used to be like tar underground and they were all of these animals in the tar and I was like, great, like a zoo, but they're like tar and they're like, no, there's sculptures of animals in tar and they're just like, this is scary. It's so scary. I'm not sure how

to interact and elephant. Yeah, especially when you're a kid and you're like, oh, that kid is watching one of its parents die forever. It's like it's the scene from Never Ending Story. An impact that certainly does. Certainly the Great Museum, and it's just like a little weird loop. It's got a great gift shop also, and a weird hill you can roll down that kids love to do.

I've never I've never been to the museum. There's the part where they explain why it exists, and that's just as weird as anything, where they're just like, somebody owned this big plot of land with a huge, bubbling tar pit in it, and it's like developed many times, like it belongs to a lot of different people, but they all are like, this is the historical feature. We must leave it intact. Didn't you say at some point, Molly, that there were tar pits under the Beverly Center or

did I make that up? There's a center and stuff underneath the whole the whole city. They were finding. They found some mammoths when they were doing the subway. Recently they found some more more mammoths. Makes you think about

what could happen to all of us. Yeah, there was in the subject of things that are underground in Los Angeles, when I was in college, there was once a um hesitate to call it a bomb scare, but it was this like we had to abandon the campus for afternoon because they found like old World War two nuclear like or not new. They just like bombs. They I think they were worried that they were a new glare, but

they were just like by accident. They were just like that because they were doing construction work down where all those condos and stuff are now and this l no, this is at Loyola Mary And and yeah, somebody just stashed those there. So you never know what you'll find if you go digging in Los Angeles. Tess, what's the weirdest museum you've ever been to? That's a good question. I have a tendency to go to museums and then just like erase the whole experience from my mind to

leave room for new museums. I did go to a weird museum in It was a long long time ago. I was visiting a friend in Munich and we went to Austria and I tried to google it right before I came here to do this podcast, because I was like, what is it called? What is it called? And I cannot find it for the life of me. I was a kid and with her family, so I had no and I'd never been to Germany, so I had no

idea where I was or what I was doing. But um, it had like a lot of jars of oddities, preserved oddities. And then I remember that I did go to the Bunny Museum once, um, which I think we've talked about on this podcast. Another hidden memory of museums. I don't think I even know that you went to the Yeah, this really like it's creepy, it's good, chaotic, good, had it good. It's a woman's collection of a billion stuffed

animals and like bunny statues and things. If you would like to really go down a hole on YELP, that's a good I'm gonna I'm gonna say, Emily would love it. They're they're conflicting reports of it's like by Santa Barbara right. No, it moved. It was in Pasadena in her house and then she moved it into a space. I heard Alex, did you maybe go there recently? I have not actually been there, but I've contemplated it because a delightful thing for a small child. But then I've been like, is

this going to be delightful? I heard from yelp that it's not to be done with a small children. Also, I think she's grumpy. Well, she's like she's she's an eccentric person. But it's like the perfect like woman from a David Lynch movie, like showing you funny. She shows you her bunnies. There's like a it just looks like a Mike Kelly photo. It's just like a room with like a million bunny stuffed animals, like stuffed into every crevice.

And then she takes you outside to the bunny graveyard where the bunnies that have passed are um, and then she tries to sell you her book about the apocalypse. Does it smell like some of the Mike Kelly stuff smells like like like, I'll be the one to say yes, but maybe I haven't been there recently. She moved into a space now and we should all go Okay, maybe, um,

that's a weird museum. And obviously in the Museum of Drastic Technology is a favorite of all of ours, although I'll be the one to also say that museum has a funny smell as well. Oh yeah, I mean all museums does a little sulfury or something. Yeah, well there's the there's the little outdoor area that's a very bird smell, aggressively bird smell, and then yeah, inside there's kind it's

kind of a sulfury. I went there. The most recent time I went there was maybe four years ago, um and I believe or maybe maybe it was five years ago and I was pregnant. Yeah, that's why you had birds smell a thing that you think, Yeah, it is a thing, I swear. Yeah. I prefer all the weird cluttered stuff too, you know, minimalist gallery, white wall stuff, two point two point enjoy it all. I enjoy it all. My favorite museum and in Berlin has just got like

two things in it. It's the Programmam museum. I mean, it's got a lot of stuff in it, but it's like built around two giant things and you just go and you see the things and you leave. It's great. I went to a weird mushroom museum also, Yeah, what was Pennsylvania. Um, we were in Philadelphia, me and my family, and we went to a botanical guarden in in the bourb somewhere, and on the way we stopped at this like just because my parents were into all kinds of

like you know, weird roadside attraction type stuff. Yeah, and it was a weird. It was like just about mushrooms. It was just psychedelic or edible or inedible or just edible, like a mushroom farm being like the history of mushrooms and people. Yeah, and just like here's all the different kinds. I love museums like that, but focus ye, yeah, about like one thing, Alex. Do you have a favorite museum? I do? I mean in this in this category. I

have many favorite museums. But the Grant Museum in London where you can it's in like the it's one of the university districts. It's in like one of those college buildings, and it's like a weird zoological museum with like it's really small and packed with all of these specimens like preserved in like old school ways, like we're talking like that, like a like just a jar of moles. Yeah, Like the in Philadelphia. I haven't been there, but there's the

Motor Museum. Yeah, I don't. I can't do any love that stuff. That seems to me also like European museums, like, oh, we've just got like a billion ancient things in jars that we stole. Oh, there's definitely like Man in the Closet that stuff in the basement at the l a Natural History Museum, which is also a good weird museum. Yeah. I have always a little let down by the LA. It's not the New York Natural History even been to the New York Natural What are you doing with your life, Emily,

it's amazing that the whale seems overrated. You don't know, you haven't been like everything in New York. It's like everybody has made their impression of it. And I lived in New York for that many years, and you never went to the Natural History Museum. That's like the only thing that is fun to do there. I went to the Met like four times, and I went to Sorry, if we go to New York to do a live show, we're going to the Natural History for sure. I haven't

been there forever. You can't even do it in a day. It's true. It's like Disneyland for nerves. I actually really love the Ellie Natural History Museum stand for that, and I love the Science Center. The Science Center is great because it's also free free. I love a science center. I always love us a whole weird Exposition Park Plaza super Haunted for sure. Definitely maybe some nukes under the Natural History Museum there. Check it out. If you have nukes in your back. Give us a night call. I

went to four oh four six night. We're going to take a quick break and come back with another night call or night email. I suppose hello, welcome back. We have a night email from Christina high night call. I was so thrilled with Karina's Song of the South episode. I'm loving the new season of her show. And I have long had a love hate relationship with Splash Mountain as a so Cal native, I remember the whole thing with the America Sings accident and the recycled animatronic animals,

and it's never sat right with me. Did you guys know the robots and the Star tours Que are also recycled geese from America Sings. You can tell by their webbed feet. Anyway, my point, there are a few things I love more than a homegrown, off brand theme park, and there are too many in this country to ever have time to visit. When I can't sleep, I love discovering ride through videos of all the crazy dark rides in random parks I'll never go to, such as Garfield's

Nightmare in kenny Wood, Pennsylvania. This is how I discovered that Splash Mountain was actually patterned after a deeply weird log ride in six Flags, Georgia based on the Uncle Remus stories called Tales from the Oh There we Go Swamp, which still sort of exists today as Monster Mansion. This video makes me feel like I am losing my mind. I don't know how to explain any of this, so

I won't try. Also, I highly recommend you plan a night called trip to Epcot before Disney ruins it and turns it into an ip drenched build a bear for alcoholics. I'm obsessed with Epcot because it crystallizes the exact moment in the eighties before we stopped being able to visualize the future by for now Christina, Christina, what a great email email, very very good night email, vivid prose show. Well, do you guys have a favorite tiny theme park? Or

one that you grew up in. Maybe uh. I used to go to the Ghosten Fair, but I don't think that counts, which is like an agriculture fair, but it had some dinky rise. I've always learned to go to an agricultural fair. Oh. I milk the cow. I drank the cream. It was the whole, the whole thing. Yeause the hogs. I went every year. Friend of Night call It's the Brandy on Twitter posted about the minute Minnesota State Fair. I think it was our friend Ka would

often talk about the minute. It seemed unbelievable, like very much up our Alley two because she was in a seed art crop art competition where you make seed art, and it was yeah, just like people making seed art of current events and things. I love a state fair. I love a state fair for that kind of stuff. I was a frequent um entrent into there was a state fair. It wasn't a state fair, but it basically with a state fair in Washington that had a huge

Lego competition, and I was always entering that. I went to Lego Land and really liked it. Oh yeah, I liked like well, Lego Land. Lego Lands. Now I think it's like yeah, it's for babies, but it's good. I mean, I've never been miniatures. There used to be a miniature museum to bring it back to museums. Um in l A. That was really good. Um, well, you went to maybe the opposite of I went to any home Grown. I

went to Galaxy's Edge. And we talked about it last week, and then we got a response from another friend of the podcast podcast The Ride, the podcast about theme park rides. Um. One of those dudes wrote us on Twitter to say that the reason that Star Wars Galaxy's Edge is so jankie and dystopian feeling. Is they ran out of money, isn't jankie and dystopian feeling? Yes? Oh yeah, I forgot. You weren't here for this. The Cantina Emily, they only have a charcouterie plate and it's only like one. It's

like a green piece of It's so weird. All of the choices they made are so weird. And and Johnny, my boyfriend, said it sounded like Inner Zone from Naked Lunch. And then last night I watched Total Recall and I was like, oh my god, it's just like Total Recall. That is what. And I could enjoy it again, because but do kids who are going there care about the charcouterie plate or they care about like paying two hundred dollars for it's not four kids in any way, so weird.

It's like they made the weirdest choices and they started developing it around the time of Solo, so it's like, yeah, that's the weird thing to me that I've about it is that it's not really that based on the classic trilogy, which feels like a huge it's a huge misstep. And then they sell only just like the weirdest dolls and the weirdest things. Molly had a picture of one that was like a rubber octopus with a hole in its Yeah,

you would love it. You would love it. And the animatronics are just super like the choices made are super weird. But apparently they ran out of money for the project. They over that seems they went over budget. They wanted to open it in time for the Star Wars. See the Walt Disney Company ran out of money Star Wars. Disney more than you would think. They want us to

think that that can't happen. But there was a thing like two years last year's about um someone who said they were juking the stats with the theme park stuff to try and make the company look even more profitable, and then they felled the whistle fire the whistleblower. It's just like succession and parks and cruises is always where the skeletons are. That's true. Well, um, this continues to be a Star Wars podcast um for how many weeks now because we have a good street going. It's off

and on for the past two months. I would say there was the anticipation phase. Yeah, yeah, and we we had like our whole baby Yoda um appetizer, not a baby Yoda in sight at Star Wars Land. Isn't that so weird? That's the only thing that makes me think, like are they stupid? Are stupid? That's what I'm saying. They don't know what they're doing. They want us to think they always know what they're doing, but they don't. Tiki Taki, it's Poppydemus, Welcome back to night Call for

the Star Wars cats a palloza. You're allowed to talk now. There were two most important to do, most important releases of the holiday season that we haven't been able to talk about yet. We can start with Star Wars, which you all saw. Can you believe it? You say, that's so cute. Definitely saw Star Wars. Um Alex, what did you think about Tross? I saw it first of all, what's what does the refrigerator say? All alone by myself, dead Center. I did everything I could to make myself

like it and to make myself have a feeling. While I was watching it, I said, like dead Center and Dome and arc Light, you know opening day really you know excited. Uh, it hurts just to see a bad Star Wars still. I mean I hate to be, you know, for two year old white guy born in the seventies, but like it does mean something to me, and it means something to me when it's bad. And I was just you know, there were people on either side of me like cheering, and I was really I think bumming me. Yeah,

it was full, I was packed. So they are all these people, like all these dudes on either side of it just like really getting into it and like laughing at the jokes. And I was like, come on, man, this was on opening day. Yeah, just I'm just sitting there just like just just calm book guy. You're the best, the best Comic book Guy Piece of the Year. Also about um, Marvel and Scorsese and all those things that

I thought was really good. I was like, this is who I wanted to hear from about this, And you said all the things Star Wars. Maybe want to pitch a follow up like during the Holidays, which I would never do ordinarily. Well, there's an interesting thing, Like, it's an interesting thing to compare it to, especially them both

being like Disney properties. Is that I think that Marvel, especially among film twitter types, gets a lot of fun, and I guess like DC to it at the extent now that Joker has been out, but gets a lot of flat for like, Oh, you're just trying to like imitate other genres of actual movies. I say actual with heavy scare quotes that I will get added about, I'm sure, but um, but Star Wars is like the opposite, and

that the only thing it's ever going to quote is itself. Um, it's like like either not nobody's maybe maybe down the line if they truly do a zillion Star Wars movies, like everybody was afraid they were going to do a few years ago. I don't think that's going to be the case. Anymore. But um, but like, maybe we'll get the Martin Squirtasey Star Wars movie. I'm actually kind of curious what that would look like. But in general, that's

not the problem that they have. I thought that was what they were trying to do with Solo and nobody wanted it. It turns out, Oh, if they were trying to do that, then that was like the gritty seventies, like Star Wars attempt to be like, hey, remember the

thing you liked about this? But they're all like that, and then they I feel like maybe they start out as that, and then they eventually just revert back to type like it just reverts back to eating its own waste and kind of just ingesting and kind of you know, here's the thing that exactly, here's the thing you like kind of we moved the pieces around. What is the thing that you like about it? About Star Wars in general? Or Umm, I think it is a fun world. I

think it it feels very expansive. It feels endlessly like you can make up new stuff within it, and it's fun to think about stuff that feels like Star Wars and doesn't feel like stars or actors who feel like Star Wars like like um, Richard E. Grant showing up in in Return to Skywalkers, like a yes, A Star Wars was really so every yeah, and and and stay

with like Ben Mendelssohn in in Rogue one. I'm just like yeah, like like I will also just like just like I will you know Ben Medelssohn and anything like Princess Leia right now because you have your headphones on and they look like, well we all look like but yeah, I think like I, um, I don't know. I mean, it is a lot of it is nostalgia. I watched it for the first time when I was like seven. It's very impossible for me to be have any kind

of critical distance at this point. And I do feel like I'm probably like in for life with all Star Wars things, no matter how bad it gets. It's just sort of a burden that I will bear from my life. But I do genuinely like parts of the new movie, and those parts that I like, it's because like that's good Star Wars. Like I think that Ray is like a good Star Wars character, like kind of screwed up some stuff in this last one, but I think in general it's and it's like a fun it's just like

a fun, kind of simple comic bookie type character. Oh. I was like, okay, maybe I do like Star Wars because of the first Star Wars movie I've seen. Bob is a great Star Wars like pre most Star Wars, and it's like, really it really shines in that movie because it's like, oh, but this is what I'm here for. Phrase like a little critter that looks like flight in the Navigator or something like he's made of all thumbs. Yeah, everything in Star Wars Land looks like something out of

Oar and I marriage had his puppet movies. Yeah, fantasies. It's fun. That stuff is fun. And the e walks, the walks are good. Were there any uh? There's the walks and we're turning to very brief, very brief you us, but they are there. They go to endoor, but not before a smoon of endor. Whether he walks. I wish the Star Wars Park was endoor or like any of the places that I would want to go in Star Wars and the Redwoods. Well true, and you're right, I

don't have to pay to go there. You're making some very good points. We we live in, Um, well, we kind of basically live in Star Wars because it was all a lot of it was shot around here. Um, Alex, what was your biggest complaint or is it impossible to choose? I don't know if it's even like a complaint, it's it's it's it's more just that it seems like it's such a missed opportunity. Like I watched the first like

what you watch Force Awakens and you're like, okay. So they had to sort of this was a very hard needle to thread because they had to make a bunch of new things for kids to be excited about, and they had to give people the thing that they wanted, you know who'd been in you know, sort of the old people like me who were like, we're the best thing about Star Wars is being five like and so

both of those things had to happen simultaneously. And I was like okay, Like j J did that and like, now okay, now we can have a last Jedi that's going to sort of maybe go in a different direction.

And this one was like no, no, no, We're bringing it all back home and like it's going to be all the things that you like, and it just sort of felt like, I mean I used this metaphor too much in things, but it felt like, you know, you like Star Wars, like here you smoke, it's like all the Star Wars things and so anything that is because there are things in there that are good Star Wars, like Boba freakus one. I like the little lamp robot. Yeah, that was the best. Excuse me, thank you? Yeah, the

little Oh he was so cute. I love to He looked like a little megaphone on wheels. But he didn't like to be talking like he had been like when you were gone. This week we were talking about the little robot, the waiter robot at the airport l a X, you know, talking about the one that's like please come in. It's just like that. It's like a little service robot and it makes you sad. It looks a little bit like C three b O, but it's smaller and why

eight And she's outside a restaurant. She's like, welcome to the restaurant. How can really? Yeah, and you can talk to her, but people are mean to her, and so you're gonna look in bad behavior. Yeah, you'll you see people like you know, just sort of like egging her on, and she just kind of like keeps trying her. It makes me like, like talking about it, we talked about it last week and don't ever talk about it again. Well, I think, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna get because I

have no outlet for these sorts of things. And it was like very loth to go on Twitter and talk about Star Wars, especially when I was on vacation. That just sounded like something I didn't want to go, like a path I did not want to go down. But I think that a problem that became very apparent in this movie was that, like we only know how to do heroes journeys now in these movies, like that's it. There's no other kind of character art that anybody can have.

And this was the problem with Solo. And so I think, like, if this new trilogy whatever you want to call it, is about Ray, then cool, like pretty good story. I don't even care that she's like Palpatine's granddaughter or whatever means stupid, but like, I don't know, I think like

it it holds up. I think the whole like kind of arc that she goes through holds up is like a pretty strong story it's just like they did not know what to do with anybody else in those movies, Like and the fun thing about Original Trilogy Star Wars is that you've got this main kid who has to go through transformation and going on, and you have his heroes journey or whatever. But it's like you also have

two other interesting people who were there. Um, that's the only reason it's good, right, Fisher and Harrison for the Yeah, and they and they and there's something to follow there and they kind of play off of each other and the and the dynamic is different from movie to movie, and but they're like it feels of a piece and this is just like it's about Ray discovering she has the Force, and then two other guys who like each other.

I don't know, it's just I also loved Oscar Isaac just being like they should have made us gay, Like he has been doing the best press tour about it, just being like, yeah, yeah, I just wish they'd just done it. Yeah. It's weird though, because I feel like on both sides there's this level of investment. There's the people who hate that it's about that you know that it's about a woman, and that you know that's sort of that there's like black characters now, and that the

people who thinks two woke. There's that side of it, and then there's the people who are super invested in like I want Finn and Poe to be in love with each other and I want that to happen, and like we need more better representation in these movies. And it's like I feel like both of those people are responding to this incredible lack of there there there's nothing on either side except that potential for something representational to

happen because there's no character stuff whatsoever about anything. It's like Finn is like the word. It's like that seems like such a cool idea that begetting the first time you see it's like this, I'm like cool, I like this Star Wars, Like this is a good idea for a new Star Wars. I don't know. And it's like and you have Lewen Davis and you have all that. It's like there's so much there's people who could have

done things, but they're just like action figure. Nothing happens exactly, like so like I think it's yeah, and then two women kiss and it's like we did it. It's like and it's like totally blinking you missed. It has no substance whatsoever. The guy hugging the slug was like held that shot for longer, like I love the guy hugging

the slug. That was one one part where I had to turn a Dave and be like, yeah, I don't know, and I and I also this is my other hot take about this movie and about these new Star Wars is in general. I don't know that I shipped them, but I like Ray and um Kylo or Ben or what horse you do Kylo Wren shipper. Yeah, totally. I think it's like a very interesting relationship for a like

big blockbuster movie. It's a very it's it's very much at five version of the like the person that you met on a chat or or like a message board when you were in junior high that you like have some kind of like weird friendship with and you're not

sure if it's going to turn into something else. Like that's like that's in their Darth Vader and then they turned into Darth well though, and then and then you like find them later on and they're like all right or whatever like that, but it's like it's a very union I feel like people trying to project like actual politics and this it does it's like a fool's errand and yet I see like people trying to do it anyway. I'm just using that as an example of like what

if what if you were friends? Like what if through the power of the force and or the internet, like you could be in contact with something you never would have met otherwise, and then like you find out you

have some things in common. But then it's like, oh God, but like you know, but it was it was better before they created this thing where they were connected cosmically on some genetic or sort of like hereary level, Like it was when they just sort of had a thing, and then it was like she was but she was just a person like that would have been interesting. But then when it was like, oh, they were meant to be together all because J J Abrams can't not square

the circus. Okay, I'm going to get very very geeky for a second here. Okay, I don't what do they call that a diet? Diet the diet of the four? Okay, that's bullshit. That's never nobody who knows what that is, um except if you're related to somebody I guess, but like also healing, like force healing is bullshit. Now they're just now they're just Wolverine. And also you know what also like in addition to the force heeling is bullshit. But also the thing where suddenly, oh now we can

pass stuff along, that was crazy. We can teleport physical objects like like you're telling me, like Obi wan Kenobi never figured out how to do that, and no, Yoda couldn't do it. There's never been a Jedi before who could do it. But it's like then the emperors like, oh, sure that you can you Yeah, it's hard, you can do it. You guys are talking in wingdings right now. Za, Well,

I know something that Molly, that you're well versed. I was going to say, speaking of a universe that is very grounded and has perfect cinemat um and a passionate fan passionate fan base um from the eighties Tom Hooper's Cats, Tom Hooper's Cats, I wish they would have put Tom Cats Cats is the best movie I've ever seen. It's so good, Alex, you can you can testify. I will testify. I I had an amazing experience. You have the opposite experience of the star Wars experience. I had the opposite

experience of the Star Wars experience. I walked out elated and alive with like the power of cinema and music and Cats and song. An my the only person who didn't see it. You know, I didn't see it. I'm I am really struggling here, you guys, everyone I know. I was telling Molly and Alex that I know people who have seen Cats like you guys, and all of them loved the film Cats. Yeah, but it has a what like on rotten to me? I personally think critics were just showboating on it, and not all of them.

Critics love to write a bad review. They love to trash something that's like I will say it was a pile on. It was a lot of critics last film to review before the holidays. Having been in this position, the last film before you leave for the holidays often is just like, I'm gonna go nuts on this thing. Yeah I'm and it's unfair, but it kind of is just how it isn't and everybody feels insane by that time a year. They can surprised me. I think that

there are two camps. There's people who love the musical Cats so much that they wanted like an entirely faithful adaptation with no changes whatsoever, the same costumes and makeup and everything. Those people don't like it. And then there are people who are like, why does this exist? The c G I is so bad, like finish good idea for a movie, and that's like those are both just beside the point. You just have to give yourself over to Cats. Yeah, it's really The movie that it reminded

to me the most of was Holy Motors. I'm not kidding to see it. Yeah, Okay, somebody did something where they set the gelical Cat song to the beginning of climax, and I was like, this is how I'm going to get Emily to see Cats. Um, I mean, just to tell you it was a French extreme movie, totally French extremists. That's the only way to sort of contextualize it cinematically, I think, because it's also I mean, it is a very faithful version. Would have a good treat about it.

We were like, this movie would be insane if it weren't like a perfectly faithful adaptation of an insane thing. No, because it's like I I remember once showing my my wife and her sister there was I was like on A and E like they broadcast the sort of the televised version of it, like they filmed it once, the London production or something, the Anderleig Webber one, and they had never seen it. And I was like, Okay, you're

sitting down, We're gonna do this right now. And I just like the experience of the movie, like what, like what is even? I like they just did not and

like it's the weirdest thing. And so I felt like this was actually I was expecting at some point that the cats would be like mumble rapping or something like there'd be some sort of like nod to it being and like other than like casting, it never really came, and that made it so much crazier than if they I thought it was just gonna be like trolls, like they sing like a Justin Timberlake song at some point, and like you know, it's like the it's like eighteen

nineties London, Yeah, which is incredibly weird to see happened at this at this level of budget, with this level of excitement. It rules. It's just a tribute to British music hall. So it's like the plot is that the jellical cats are having the jelical ball where they pick the cat that gets to ascend to the heavy side layer Old Deuteronomy, the great old cat, the cat that ascends to the heavy side layer, and they just are all having a competition of like which cat deserves to go?

And they all sing songs about themselves. Is it like survivor um? No, because you don't die if you don't go. Sometimes you get thrown on a barge by Macavity, the mystery cat, who is played by Idris Elba, who's amazing, has amazing the only thing I care about. To be honest, the show is like one show stopper after another. They also made the great choice to not change the orchestration at all, which is like they didn't try to class it up and like lame is it up? Which was

brilliant because if they had it would suck. They just kept cord since that they used in the original, so it has this just weird kind of vapor wave feeling to it the whole time. It is like, yeah, it's I learned. What I learned about Cats is that it kind of was the Star Wars of musicals. It was

not expected to be a hit at all. It got terrible reviews both in London and on Broadway, but it was like a huge, massive hit nonetheless, and it like destroyed the like created super musicals created Phantom and Miss Sigan and Lamas and all the like big stunt musicals that took over. Speaking of lame Is, didn't anybody see

Tom Hooper is lame Is? Yes, it was fine that movie gets trashed on, like like people are really like a lot of film critics really have it out for Tom Hooper, and I understand because of like king speeches bullshit and stupid and boring. But like I actually think I like what he did with lame Is enough, But I don't have a relationship with cats, so I don't really like it's good because he like he gave lame Is the appropriate treatment for lame is, he gave cats

the appropriate treatment for cats. I was seriously worried he was going to give cats the lame is and try and make it serious and about something, and it's like, no, it's falking about cats. You weren't at all put off by the c g igal technology at all, And I was like worried for the first there was like a minute in the beginning, because I convinced like Johnny and like our two friends who don't care about casts at all, to go, And I was like, what if it's horrible.

Oh no, But there was like a moment where I was concerned, and then I was like, no, this is great. They look like people with cat bodies, like it's not trying to be they looked like seals. Well, the one

thing they're plump. The thing that kind of makes me a little bit hesitant a better feels like a bummer to me about it is that, like so much of it is c G. I that the actual fun of seeing a musical where people are dancing and doing fun movemancing and doing fun movements, there's kinds of yeah, it's really it's but do you when you look at it, you're like, wow, I can't believe humans are doing that. Yeah, they hired lit twins are like in the background of

every scene just dancing. There is like some very good dancing and singing. Um. And the thing that I kept thinking that was it was like, but a good version of it was because I also saw The Lion King, the Disney remake of The Lion King, and that gave me the Uncanny Valleys really badly. The whole time. This did not because it's like, but that's that that they're not trying to be humans. But this is like, you're not supposed to believe their cats. They're like humans in

cat costumes, but the cat costumes are virtual. It's Judy Judy Dench star Wars the digital cost Judy Dench plays like an old cat named Old Deuteronomy. She's which is like reverse gender from how it Yeah, she plays the cat who chooses the cat who gets to go, and she's just like, I don't know. It's like they're cute, you want to hug them. I don't know that I wanted to hug them. I wanted to hug They did a weird choice. They made a weird choice with the proportions.

I mean that is the one on Candy Valley thing is that everything is whatever scale it needs to be given time. Are they tiny cats? It's a very This was a weird decision. They seem to have looked. You've looked, you've seen a cat. Everybody's seen a cat, right, like, so you could have done like, oh, it's a cat is like a long thing that has four legs. They're like, here's the We're gonna do a cat like from shoulder height.

This is how that's the impression on the ground. Look like those monkeys that come to steal your food national parks in other countries. You know, like they have a weird sort of simian vibe because it's a human that's this, that's a foot tall. It doesn't take place and any kind of reality that we know. There are no humans and cats. There's no humans and cats. There's nothing to scale it. They're in like a a weird abandoned post apocalyptic London. Yeah, we're only cats survivor, much like ts

Eliot's other work, The Wasteland. Emily asked a very quiet question that we need to answer, which is how was Taylor Swift? Oh she was great, Actually she got her part. Yeah, this musical builds and builds, and like I was in a theater with not a lot of people, but we were all like best friends by the end. You know. It was a great bonding film experience. Everybody was singing along at certain points. I think if if you give yourself over to it, it's really it's really something and

I just like it, Like washed my brain. All I could think about was Cats afterwards, and that was great. I'm really bummed that I'm not going to get a screener for it. That was the one thing I was waiting on a screen. If this movie is going to do crazy numbers on streaming, that's my blue You have to go and see It's so it's just amazing what it brings out of people because also like we were

in this row. Well, first of all, there was the lady in our row who jumped up and it was in cat makeup the whole time, and I was like, she's just a super fan. I was like, that's really cool, and we were just all enjoying the movie together. But then like when the open the end credits hit, like just right out of her chair up onto that sort of little stage front there and arc light and just doing the full like cat dance and everybody's cheering. She

was really a super fan. But then the person I felt bad for there was a lady like one row back from us UM and everybody was just mystery science theatering the hell out of it, like to their partner. But then one guy was doing it sort of out loud. It was not me. I swear, and he was getting a little he was not funny, and he was getting a little bit sort of like volume increasing, like trying

to get a reaction everything. And so Memory is coming up, which is the big number, the big sad song, and it's like, I mean the ascent to the heavy side layers like Awards season, like you have to perform your suffering, and so Jennifer Hudson does this amazing version of Memory that's like actually really it's like legit, like she just you know, cuts your heart out after this, you're laughing

at this whole movie. And then like she's incredible, and but you know, you have somebody has to land that. So this song is coming up, and like the guys like doing his commentary and like this lady clearly is this cat superman who knows when Memory is coming. And she's like, could you please like just give me this one moment that I'm going to have with this and then like everybody was quiet from Memory. Oh my gosh.

Well I learned something about the plot of Cats that makes it make a little more sense, um, which is that apparently it's well known among everybody in England that tuxedo cats can become invisible on the vernal equinox. Learn this looking up stuff about my own black and white cat. But I was like, oh yeah, people who are like cat makes no sense. It's like it makes its own kind of sense. It makes it has its own like

a Star Wars. It has an internal logic that is flawless, but like impenetrable if you don't your I always understood I've never seen the show. I've never have no, I've never really I mean I know some of the songs from it, just by osmosis, but I just didn't. I assumed it didn't have a plot. Like I assumed it was basically like a review. It is a review. I mean after we saw it, like my boyfriend was like,

what is this moving about? They just introduced themselves. Well yeah, and I was like, it's about class, Like some of the cats are rich and live off the rich people scraps and someone and that's the James Cordon cat. And some of the cats are poor and destitute, like Grizabella. It's about London. It's implied that Grizabella is a sex

worker of some kind, is it? I never picked that up as a child, But that's the one who sings Memory, and they're like, she was a great star on the Cat stage and now she's But it's weird because she seems young for that role. She is young for the role. I thought Judy Dench would be here. And also Judi Dench I found out was supposed to be in the original production of Cats and like sprained her ankle during rehearsals and couldn't do it. So she's been waiting to

do Cats this whole time. Juden sings Memory somewhere she she was supposed to originate one of the rules sent in the class. Just like all the cats, all the names of the cats are really funny and fun to say. Yes, skimble Shanks and I would I left my body while that was happening because I couldn't believe it because it was also you know, first of all, it's like, oh, he's a railway cat. You know, a railway cat like everybody in kids, everybody knows a railway it's working class cats. Yeah,

but he's like a he's like a station master. He's got a hat. He was skimble Shank. He's the railway cat who plays skimble Shank. I don't know. With the mustarch looks like the guy from Eagles of Death Metal, Like as a cat, I can't read this tap dancing on. Yeah,

it's it's so good. Is this the kind of thing where if you were in a union you would get a screener or no, you seem to imply no, no, the coman you can't actually something That's really bothering me too, because I hate that everybody associated with it is like running away from it, you know, like because it's a bomb, because it's like it's going to have cult appeal for a million years. It is, It's going to be an

instant Rocky Horror. I felt like I was watching Rocky Horror in the theater on opening weekends and like if any of those people, like if if Taylor Swifter or whoever was like, you know what. I thought it was a fun thing to do, and I'm glad I did it, Like I hope people enjoy it forever, like that would be cool. The fact that everyone's like not doing a press tour, like James Cordon claimed he hadn't seen it even it's just like maybe it wasn't a lot of fun to make. Oh it looks like a lot of fun.

It may look like maybe it was a bad really difficulty had a great time in cat school. I mean, I think they probably didn't know it was probably entirely green screen. They had no idea what movie they were making while it was happening, so you know, and that's how you make a great film. But no, we should not. We cannot let this just sort of go directly to riff tracks, like we can't just let them have it. Like we should all sort of embrace this while we

can see it in the theater. It's all. Yeah, I mean, it's not an original movie, but it is like the weirdest big budget movie I've ever seen, and that to me is an accomplishment. You know. Well, I feel like, yeah, I I feel like it's not going to go away. I feel like it's it's going to be like a ten years from now, forever now and forever now and forever. Maybe Emily and I just aren't cat people and you guys are cat people. Maybe we're dog people. Oh, I'm

going to see it. I'm not like I'm not. I'm just like I I and I agree with you that it's not going to go away. But yeah, I just haven't seen it. I'm not going to see this movie. It gives everyone. Someone has to say that it gives everyone the toxoplasmosis that you get from cats. But don't forget that huffing cat pe as the study proved a couple of years ago makes you more ambitious. It's true.

Thanks everyone, and thank you Alex for coming by to talk about the two most important movies of nine and possibly um Where can people find you on the internet? God, Twitter, hiding out on Twitter, and you know various luck rack Maybe I think muck muck rack is where you can see all that I've discovered, this that my mom found it. That's where all the stuff that I wrote goes. He's aggregating you, all of you probably being aggregated to it aggregates and then you can email them and take control

of your profile if you wish. Sounds exhausting, well find Alex Papadimus on muck rack, Dot, hiding out on letterbox rating. UM. We will be back next week. Give us a night call in the meantime. Our numbers one to four oh four sixth night. You can also follow us on Twitter at Night called Pod, Instagram and Facebook at Night Call Podcast and you can join our Patreon at patreon dot com slash Nightcall where you can get bonus episodes and newsletter mix tapes all sorts of fun stuff, So check

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