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Listen to Gobbledygeek Episode 496 – “FCF: Boxers & Saints”

Art from Boxers & Saints (2013) by Gene Luen Yang & Lark Pien

Gobbledygeek episode 496, “FCF: Boxers & Saints,” is available for listening or download right here, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts.

For this month’s Four-Color Flashback, Paul and Arlo tackle a blindspot from one of their favorite writers. Gene Luen Yang, author of Gobbledyfaves like American Born Chinese and Avatar: The Last Airbender, tells the brutal story of the Boxer Rebellion in Boxers & Saints. The graphic novel duology delves into complex subjects like faith, spirituality, nationalism, and fascism; we cover ‘em all, hopefully in something resembling depth. Plus, Arlo returns to the city of Metropolis for more Superman comics, including mega-event The Death and Return of Superman and Grant Morrison & Mark Waid’s JLA run. 

NEXT: we find our inner Greenwich Village folksters with a Geek Challenge featuring Noah Kahan’s Stick Season and Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks.

BREAKDOWN

  • 00:00:30  –  Intro / Arlo’s Adventures of Superman
  • 00:36:45  –  Boxers & Saints
  • 02:20:14  –  Outro / Next

MUSIC

  • “The Boxer” by Simon & Garfunkle, Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
  • “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” by Bruce Springsteen, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. (1973)

GOBBLEDYCARES

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Listen to Gobbledygeek Episode 494, “Geek Challenge: Alice vs. Labyrinth”

Top: Alice (1988), directed by Švankmajer / Bottom: Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie Labyrinth (1986), directed by Jim Henson

Gobbledygeek episode 494, “Geek Challenge: Alice vs. Labyrinth,” is available for listening or download right here, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts.

You remind me of the pod…the pod with the geeks. Paul and Arlo fall down the rabbit hole of another Geek Challenge, this time pitting Jim Henson’s 1986 cult classic Labyrinth against Jan Švankmajer’s 1988 headtrip Alice. Henson’s film finds Jennifer Connelly dancing with David Bowie and a variety of Muppets as she attempts to rescue her baby brother, while Švankmajer’s finds Kristýna Kohoutová assailed by a variety of bizarre stop-motion creations and a taxidermied rabbit. It should be obvious who picked which movie. Topics of discussion include codpieces, sellouts, practical effects, and weird sex, among others.

NEXT: Paul and Arlo ride through The Last of Us’ post-apocalypse with the inestimable Dale Guffey and Ensley F. Guffey

BREAKDOWN

  • 00:00:52  –  Intro / Reminiscence on Vomit
  • 00:42:07  –  Alice
  • 01:19:20  –  Labyrinth
  • 02:11:50  –  Outro / Next

LINKS

MUSIC

  • “Magic Dance” by David Bowie, Labyrinth (Original Soundtrack) (1986)
  • “Alice” by Sisters of Mercy (1982)

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Listen to Gobbledygeek Episode 493 – “RRR”

Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr. in RRR (2022), directed by S.S. Rajamouli

Gobbledygeek episode 493, “RRR,” is available for listening or download right here, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts.

Time to rise, roar, and revolt as Paul and Arlo engage in some extreme piggybacking with S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR. This alt-history epic is the rare Indian film to make a splash in the Western world, and our boys approach it as only two ignorant white guys can: with almost no knowledge of Indian culture or film! Nevertheless, they are in love with the movie, which reimagines Indian revolutionary figures Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju as superheroes who can outrun tigers, shoot a British bastard from a mile away, and stop motorcycles with their bare hands. The boys praise stars N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan, admire Rajamouli’s craft, and weep in awe at the insane shit happening in every single scene. Plus, there’s a trailer for The Flash and Arlo has finally gone back to reading old Superman comics.

NEXT: TBD.

BREAKDOWN

  • 00:00:44  –  Intro / Guest
  • 00:18:04  –  Main Topic
  • 02:03:24  –  Outro / Next

LINKS

MUSIC

  • “Dosti” by Amit Trivedi, RRR (Original Soundtrack) (2022)
  • “Naacho Naacho” by Vishal Mishra & Rahul Sipligunj, RRR (Original Soundtrack) (2022)

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Listen to the Gobbledygeek Season 14 Premiere – “In Like a Lion”

Gobbledygeek episode 491, “In Like a Lion,” is available for listening or download right here, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts.

We’re back, baby! After a longer than expected hiatus, Gobbledygeek has returned for season 14. That’s right, we’re up to 14 seasons of Paul and Arlo babbling on about any manner of nonsense–which they continue to do in this freestyle season premiere. 2023 has come in like a lion and is likely to go out like one, so we find our boys licking their wounds, recounting the real-life horrors that delayed their return to the mic, and generally complaining about everything. Including pop culture! Lest you forget that’s what they’re here for, Paul and Arlo sauté some thoughts on the mushroom apocalypse of HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation; rave about the movies they’ve caught up with, like The Fabelmans, RRR, and Aftersun; and decide to get high-brow by reading books that don’t have any pictures. Plus, a pitch for the inevitable Gobbledygeek TV series.

NEXT: okay, but we really like books that do have pictures in them. This year’s Four-Color Flashback series kicks off with Al Ewing and Simone Di Meo’s We Only Find Them When They’re Dead.

MUSIC

  • “At Last” by Etta James, At Last! (1960)
  • “This Will Be Our Year” by The Zombies, Odessey and Oracle (1968)

GOBBLEDYCARES

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Listen to Gobbledygeek Episode 489 – “Geek Challenge: White Christmas vs. Eyes Wide Shut”

Top: Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, Vera-Ellen, and many more in White Christmas (1954), directed by Michael Curtiz / Bottom: Tom Cruise and many, many more in Eyes Wide Shut (1999), directed by Stanley Kubrick

Gobbledygeek episode 489, “Geek Challenge: White Christmas vs. Eyes Wide Shut,” is available for listening or download right here, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts.

Hang your stockings by the chimney, roast some chestnuts on that open fire, and prepare yourself for a very special Twisted Christmas installment. Our annual yuletide derangement has morphed into a Geek Challenge, featuring two obviously similar films: Paul has challenged Arlo to Michael Curtiz’s holly jolly classic White Christmas (1954), and in turn Arlo has thrust upon Paul Stanley Kubrick’s festive psychosexual nightmare Eyes Wide Shut (1999). Paul has some harsh words for Kubrick’s orgy, Arlo cringes at old-timey patriotism, and both of our boys come away filled with a little less Christmas cheer. Oh, and who is Danny Kaye again?

NEXT: for our season finale, we become real boys for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.

BREAKDOWN

  • 00:00:52  –  Intro / Paul and Arlo’s Holiday Spirit
  • 00:11:15  –  Eyes Wide Shut
  • 01:12:40  –  White Christmas
  • 02:02:00  –  Outro / Next

LINKS

MUSIC

  • “Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing” by Chris Isaak, Forever Blue (1995)
  • “Masked Ball (1999 Extended Mix)” by Jocelyn Pook, Flood (1999)
  • “Musica ricercata, II (Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale)” by Dominic Harlan, Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
  • “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing” by Danny Kaye, Selections from Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” (1954)

GOBBLEDYCARES

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Listen to Gobbledygeek Episode 488 – “Weird: The Al Yankovic story (feat. Kenn Edwards)”

Evan Rachel Wood and Daniel Radcliffe in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022), directed by Eric Appel

Gobbledygeek episode 488, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” is available for listening or download right here, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts.

Now that rock star biopics have peaked with Elvis, what else can the genre do but get Weird? Dare to be stupid with Paul, Arlo, and Alex Jonestown Massacre guitarist Kenn Edwards as they discuss Weird: The Al Yankovic story. Everyone’s favorite accordionist parodies Oscar bait bologna to tell a fact-free version of his own life story, starring obvious choice Daniel Radcliffe. The gang recounts their history with “Weird” Al, dives into the film’s loving homage to early alt-comedy, and can’t help but wonder what Madonna thinks of it all.

NEXT: I’m dreaming of a Geek Challenge featuring the holy jolly classic White Christmas and the yuletide wet dream Eyes Wide Shut.

BREAKDOWN

  • 00:00:38  –  Intro / Guest / Theater Trauma
  • 00:15:37  –  A brief history of our heroes histories with “Weird Al”
  • 00:34:35  –  Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
  • 01:41:00  –  Outro / Next

LINKS

  • The Alex Jonestown Massacre on Spotify

MUSIC

  • “The Weird Al Show Theme” by “Weird Al” Yankovic, Running with Scissors (1999)
  • “Now You Know” by “Weird Al” Yankovic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)

GOBBLEDYCARES

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Listen to Gobbledygeek Episode 487 – “Reservation Dogs: Season 2”

Lane Factor, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Devery Jacobs, and Paulina Alexis in Reservation Dogs: Season 2 (2022), created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi

Gobbledygeek episode 487, “Reservation Dogs: Season 2,” is available for listening or download right here, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts.

Aho, podcast listeners! To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, Paul and Arlo check in on the latest season of Reservation Dogs, possibly the best show on TV. It would be hard to top Rez Dog’s freshman year, a revelatory season filled with joy, pain, and a whole bunch of shitasses. Yet that’s exactly what Sterlin Harjo and his collaborators have done, deepening the themes of loss and community that made the first season so resonant. The boys rave about the show’s core cast–Devery Jacobs, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Lane Factor, and Paulina Alexis—while lauding Harjo’s ability to shine an even brighter light on supporting players like Zahn McClarnon, Jana Schmieding, and Lily Gladstone. Skoden.

NEXT: Alex Jonestown Massacre guitarist Kenn Edwards is back and ready to get Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.

BREAKDOWN

  • 00:00:34  –  Intro
  • 00:08:00  –  Reservation Dogs: Season 2
  • 01:42:03  –  Outro / Next

LINKS

MUSIC

  • “Going to California” by Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
  • “I Still Believe (Great Design)” by Tim Cappello, The Lost Boys (1987)

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Listen to Gobbledygeek Episode 486 – “Interview with the Vampire (1994)”

Kirsten Dunst, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire (1994), directed by Neil Jordan

Gobbledygeek episode 486, “Interview with the Vampire (1994),” is available for listening or download right here, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts.

Listen to Gobbledygeek and live forever. This week, in a stealth continuation of this year’s Gobbledyween, Paul and Arlo head on down to New Orleans for Neil Jordan’s 1994 adaptation of Anne Rice’s classic Interview with the Vampire. Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Antonio Banderas are the most beautiful men anyone could have cast as immortals in the mid-’90s, and they’re joined by a prepubescent Kirsten Dunst to form a truly tragic coven. The boys discuss the evil joyfulness of Cruise’s Lestat, why the role of Louis de Pointe du Lac does not play to Pitt’s strengths, how amazing it is that the film’s overt homoeroticism made it to the screen, and much more. Plus, yoghurt.

NEXT: we’ll be back in two weeks to discuss season 2 of Reservation Dogs.

BREAKDOWN

  • 00:00:53  –  Intro / Go Go Yoghurt!
  • 00:10:08  –  Interview with the Vampire (1994)
  • 02:06:08  –  Outro / Next

LINKS

MUSIC

  • “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)” by Concrete Blonde, Bloodletting (1990)
  • “Sympathy for the Devil” by The Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet (1968)

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Listen to Gobbledygeek Episode 485 – “The Blair Witch Project”

Rei Hance in The Blair Witch Project (1999), directed by Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez

Gobbledygeek episode 485, “The Blair Witch Project,” is available for listening or download right here, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts.

We all get lost, every now and then. Most of us don’t get quite as lost as the three film students at the center of The Blair Witch Project, a massive hit in 1999 whose reputation among the average moviegoer has also taken a massive hit. If you ask Arlo, though, it’s one of the greatest horror films ever made–and he tells Paul exactly why, as they celebrate the second and final week of this year’s abbreviated Gobbledyween. The boys discuss the incredibly convincing performances, why the characters being so annoying makes the movie so believable, how the found footage genre has expanded in the years since, and just how easy it is to get lost in America.

NEXT: why are you standing in the corner, Paul?

BREAKDOWN

  • 00:00:32  –  Intro
  • 00:02:34  –  The Blair Witch Project
  • 01:39:11  –  Outro / Next

LINKS

MUSIC

  • “Gilligan’s Island” by Television’s Greatest Hits Band, Television’s Greatest Hits: Classic TV Theme Songs (2021)
  • “Out of the Woods” by Taylor Swift, 1989 (2014)

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Listen to Gobbledygeek Episode 484 – “Midnight Mass (feat. Joseph Lewis)”

Hamish Linklater and Samantha Sloyan in Midnight Mass (2021), directed by Mike Flanagan

Gobbledygeek episode 484, “Midnight Mass (feat. Joseph Lewis),” is available for listening or download right here, on Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts.

Leaves are on the ground, blood is on the screen–it’s time for a (very late) Gobbledyween! Gobbledygeek’s annual horror-thon returns for an abbreviated run, kicking things off with Mike Flanagan’s 2021 Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass. What at first seems like a riff on ‘Salem’s Lot–a vampire ingratiates himself into a tiny coastal community–becomes a soaring exploration of addiction, faith, and death. Joining Paul and Arlo to discuss the series is original Gobbler Joseph Lewis. Together, the Three Heathens rave about the central performances from Hamish Linklater, Zach Gilford, and Kate Siegel; dissect the show’s “bad miracle” vibe and how it relates to their own spiritual journey; and poke a little good-natured fun at the many, many monologues.

NEXT: we’ve got one more in store for you, as Paul and Arlo pop a tape into their camcorders for 1999’s The Blair Witch Project.

BREAKDOWN

  • 00:00:50  –  Intro / Guest / Banter
  • 00:23:13  –  Midnight Mass
  • 02:27:36  –  Outro / Next

LINKS

MUSIC

  • “And the Grass Won’t Pay No Mind” by Neil Diamond, Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show (1969)
  • “Nearer My God to Thee” by The Newton Brothers, Midnight Mass (Soundtrack) (2021)

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