Mike Russell has had his brains scrambled by exercise and heat. That means we spend a lot of the first half of the show alternately confused, bemused, and enthused by conversations including: The power of Edward James Olmos, the prospect of trading Portland landmarks for a Chicago tradition, at least 3 legitimate off-the-cuff, money-making goldmines of film pitches, and an examination of why the home-workout phenomenon is so long lasting. And then – then we dig into David Cronenberg taking shots at Christopher Nolan over the state of Superhero films, and whether he has a point, or whether he’s just being an crotchety old man; Why Trek in the Park might be extra-extra-good this weekend, and the scary, fun, charming delights that wait within theaters playing “Paranorman.”
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Cronenberg pretty much is a cranky old man now, but I mostly agree with him.
“The Fly is still a guy with shit falling off of him.” And it packed a more emotional punch than the last two Dark Knight movies.
Also, GOLDBLUM!
Having lived in Chicago I would prefer trading a Voodoo Donut for a Soul food restaurant from the windy city (Morrison’s for instance). Chicago style pizza, imho is nothing more than lasagna with leavened noodles. but that’s just me.
I agree. I’ve eaten the stuff in Chicago even but I still have never been able to understand the fascination with deep dish pizza. You could just stick a hunk of bread at the bottom of the bowl and pour a punch of tomato sauce over it and glop a huge mound of cheese on that and it would be the same thing. It’s just a big, gross, pile of food.
Here’s my proposed trade:
–Portland Trades–
- BUNK Sandwiches
- All the strip clubs currently in operation
- All the Zoo-bombers
–Chicago Trades–
- Chicago-style pizzeria and Staff
- An NBA medical staff that actually knows how to treat/prevent knee injuries
- Mike Ditka leading the Timbers Army for the next home game vs the Sounders
I LIKE That one. That’s pretty damned good.
You know, I had managed to finally forget about Gangyam style. Then Mike starts talking about it, and I remember the glory of the song and video, but keep it out of my head. Then you play it at the end, and now it’s stuck back in there.
Damn you Cort, Fatboy, and Mr Russell. Damn you all.
Great show as usual, any way.
Mike sounds like he’d be a joy to have in your fantasy football/baseball/basketball/etc. league. “I’ll trade you Greg Oden for LeBron James and Kevin Durant. …whadda mean you don’t think that’s a fair trade? You’re making out like a bandit on this one! Have you SEEN Oden play?!”
I’m going to have to veto sending the downtown Voodoo to Chicago because that’s the only location that sells their lemon-filled donut. So either the east side starts selling them too, or Chicago can continue to endure stale Dunkin’ Donuts.
Show-notes for Friday, Aug. 17:
Michael Shannon:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0788335/
Michael Sheen:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0790688/
Martin Sheen:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000640/
That PSY “Gangnam Style” music video:
http://gawker.com/5930283/did-this-underground-hip-hop-artist-from-south-korea-just-release-the-best-music-video-of-the-year
“The Bastard Swordsman” at the Hollywood Theatre
Tuesday, Aug. 21, 7:30 p.m.
http://tinyurl.com/97z2mon
“Top Down” outdoor screening of “Drugstore Cowboy” at the Hotel deLuxe
Thursday, Aug. 23 at 8 p.m.
http://nwfilm.org/screenings/42/433/#2528
“A Clockwork Orange” at Tanker Bar
Sunday, Aug, 19, 10 p.m.
4825 SE Hawthorne, Portland
http://www.tankerbar.com/
In which Television Without Pity argues that EXPENDABLES 2 is Simon West’s stealth remake of his own CON AIR:
http://ht.ly/d2H3V
The official “Paranorman” YouTube channel, with trailers and behind-the-scenes stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ParaNorman/feed
Drew McWeeny angrily tweets his reactions to the “Robocop” remake script:
http://io9.com/5934194/rebooted-robocop-script-reveals-alex-murphy-is-now-a-transformer
And oh right, SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION:
Another “Sabertooth Vampire” one-page strip in Dark Horse Presents #15, on stands Wednesday, Aug. 22
Print: http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/20-284/Dark-Horse-Presents-15
Digital: https://digital.darkhorse.com/browse/60/
The webcomic: http://www.sabertoothvampire.com/
Oh, and here’s that dopey thing David Cronenberg said about Christopher Nolan:
http://www.themarysue.com/cronenberg-superhero-movies/
For the record, it was Cort who said ‘Michael Sheen’ first, not Mike
I just wanna say a couple things;
1) I would buy the SHIT out of PSY action figures, and horse stable playset.
And 2), and slightly off topic, I just wanted to thank you guys for letting me know about Trek in the Park. For the past three years, I’ve been meaning to go, but something’s always come up, or I’ve been straight up lazy, but this year I resolved to go, and I was infinitely glad I did. I went last week with a couple friends, and we returned this week, with the whole family and made a picnic out of it. It was an absolute blast. So yeah, thanks for letting us know about such an amazing thing.
Also Adam Rosko was fucking PERFECT in the dog scene.
LOL at Gawker calling Psy “underground”. Korean hiphop can be mainstream, and Psy has been consistently popular, so his underground days are way way behind him.
I don’t necessarily agree with Cronenberg’s points about Nolan but I do personally strongly prefer the stylistic take of Burton’s Batman over Nolan’s dark but sterile “real” take of him. Pretty much all of Nolan’s films are populated by ideas, not characters. I find the worship he gets in geek corners kind of exhausting at this point.
And here’s another unpopular opinion: both of the Expendables films were awesome. They’re 50% send-up on old crappy 80′s films and 50% some of the most genuine, heartfelt cinema I’ve ever witnessed. I love virtually everything about them.
BREAKING: Listener Jeff Egger informs me the PSY / LMFAO mashup in fact exists: http://youtu.be/nnzu8bsjDsE
Just wanted to say I’ve never lived in Portland but I have lived in Chicago and I would say: don’t make the trade! Lou Malnotti’s is ok, but honestly it’s better on rare occasions rather than a neccessary add to a city. You want something from Chicago: their hotdogs.
Many times yes.
I have to caveat this support with the admission that I don’t live in either city, but Chicago dogs are pretty awesome.
You know, that’s a pretty good point – I’ve never heard a negative word about Chicago-style hot dogs.
But as Fish points out (I hope he’s named after Abe Vigoda’s character on Barney Miller. Or maybe he’s local politician Nick Fish. It’s entirely possible) – Chicago-style Pizza seems to be some sort of magical shape-changing beast. We don’t have ANY of that here in Portland. I still say the trade goes down.
We already have a Chicago-style hotdog place on MLK. Or at least we did. Haven’t been in a while.
There are technically 3 different styles of Chicago Pizzas.
Deep Dish, which no one really eats in Chicago. Stuffed pizza, which most chi-towners only eat once or 3 times a year and Chicago Thin crust which is the true and most amazing of the three pizza styles. It is a thin, crispier style crust which is usually cut into squares, not pie cuts. Beats the fark out of NY thin, soggy crust. I would love to see a Nancy’s or a Rosati’s here!
+1
I’m a sucker for Chicago’s various stuffed pizza but fortunately I only get to eat it once every couple of years when I’m there. I’d prefer that Chicago keep said stuffed pizza lest I grow to about 400 lbs and end up on a reality show, begging for pity and suffering endless ridicule.
The thin crust though – that’s where the magic comes in.
Fish is quite correct. Stuffed pizza is not a true Chicagoan’s (or midwesterner’s, even) preferred choice. Partly because thin crust is generally better but because stuffed pizza more than every few months will only lead to Dick Gregory sitting beside your bed with a camera crew asking how you got to the point where many attendants now help to clean the many folds rippling around your corpulent ass.
That said, great stuffed pizza is worthy of a trade. My proposal: Los Gorditos, our world-renowned recumbant bike community and blues rocker and police chief Reese FOR Chicago stuffed pizza and ex-cop and character actor Joseph Kosala, the guy in The Fugitive with the thick Chicago accent. Our city leaders could use a little vocal flavor, after all.
http://www.thelin.net/laurent/cinema/films/tt0106977/59176.jpg
The real key to all our trade success is, of course, campaigning to get Chicago native and legend Isiah Thomas elected mayor after which time we’ll be able to ship out whoever and whatever we choose-Portlandia, rainfall, you name it.
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