Our first milestone has been reached here at Where the Long Tail Ends, we have completed 5 episodes. When I initially decided I wanted to do a podcast earlier this yer, my goal was to complete four episodes by the end of the year and now James and I have shot by the lofty goal with over four months left in the year. I doubt we will keep this pace up, nor do I want too, but if we can finish three more by the end of the year I’ll be very satisfied. Hopefully you will as well.
In this episode our theme is Dynamic Duos, and we focus on two very different films. The first is the martial arts action film Showdown in Little Tokyo, with the starring duo of Brandon Lee and Dolph Lundgren squaring off in the celluloid circle. The second is the lesser known Spanish produced horror film Horror Express, which stars the famous Hammer horror film duo Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as dueling anthropologists on a Trans-Siberian train that harbors a nasty secret. Will we like either? Will we agree to disagree? Will James invite his own brother to share his bed with him? Find out on our latest episode of High and Low (Brow).
As always, if you have any feedback, suggestions for themes or films for us to watch feel free to email us. If you like the show please feel free to subscribe to us on iTunes or simply follow our RSS feed here for updates. Also you can follow me on Twitter by simply clicking the logo up in the righthand corner. One of these days I’ll finally convince James to join Twitter, and then the real fun will begin. Until then I hope you enjoy the show and thanks for listening.
Show Notes 0:00 – The Donger
2:30 – John Hughes Memorial
8:25 – Showdown in Little Tokyo
29:25 – Horror Express
33:40 – SPOILER ALERT!
54:25 – James reviews Cantankerous
1:03:25 – James and the Giant Bed
1:09:45 – The Selection Show
1:30:20 – Final Thoughts
Neil Gaiman has been kind enough to post a link to this incredible, detailed interview about the writing the now legendary Sandman, its influence on modern comics, his fans, people he’s worked with and some fascinating tales about following around Guillermo del Toro on the set of Hellboy II in order to learn how to direct a movie. If you haven’t ever heard Neil speak you are in for a real treat.
I can understand why you might not head over to Film Junk for enlightenment. Sure they run a great site and have the best film related podcast on the Internerd, so I understand that you might not realize they have a slumbering giant just beginning to awaken in Cantankerous. With only three episodes produced to date Cantankerous is a podcast still trying to discover just what it will cover, but what it has delved into is outstanding.
The duo behind Cantankerous is Jay Cheel, the sardonic film snob who just might be suffering from Munchausen syndrome, and Reed Farrington, the Star Trek uber-nerd who engages completism at warp factor 9. Apart they are capable of entertaining you, but together they form an intoxicating mix that will thrill and mystify you with each passing episode.
And while Jay typically dominates most of Film Junk’s podcast, it is Reed that makes Cantankerous destination radio. In episode one you discover his Kermit the Frog impression that only works when no one else is around, or marvel at his learning of the space shuttle Columbia disaster four years after it occurred.
But that would be outdone in episode two when Reed admits that his life is incomplete because he has never suffered from food poisoning. He then follows this up with a lecture on his disappointment at how people are not attempting to become more intelligent and uses his love of the film Soylent Green, which he views as a piece of high brow science fiction that will challenge people, as the basis for his argument.
But both episodes pale in comparison to the third, where we learn that the last hardcover book Reed purchased was the Joan Collins biography simply because she talks about her experiences guest starring on Star Trek. From there we learn about how Reed becomes confused at why white actors shouldn’t play other races in films, his short lived attempt at making his own cooking show entitled Cooking with Gerry, and Reed’s frustration with Dawson’s Creek inconsistent use of theme songs on the various DVD sets. But the true apex of the show is when we learn of Reed’s ongoing attempts to archive the Internet by using a video camera to tape it.
That Cantankerous continues to top its own style of unbridled brilliance in every show, drawing the listener ever closer to understanding the complex world Reed Farrington lives in, it quickly becomes evident that this podcast offers up the possibility of a window into a fantasy world that you never would have dreamed existed.
Our first milestone has been reached here at Where the Long Tail Ends, we have completed 5 episodes. When I initially decided I wanted to do a podcast earlier this yer, my goal was to complete four episodes by the end of the year and now James and I have shot by the lofty goal with over four months left in the year. I doubt we will keep this pace up, nor do I want too, but if we can finish three more by the end of the year I’ll be very satisfied. Hopefully you will as well.
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