Hucklebug Episode 178: Hucklebug anniversary coming up, RIP Corey Haim and Merlin Olsen, shout-outs, Hucklebug audiobook project update, movies (Bet: WALL-E; Stennie: The Great Escape), lowlights & highlights, fuck-offs and you-rules, Favorite Ghost Movies.
Music: “The Hucklebuck,” performed by Otis Redding, Lee Rocker, and Frank Sinatra.
Did I miss your mention of “ghost” with Patrick, Demi, and Whoopie? I am going to post again after I pinch Baby J’s cheek but I didn’t want to forget to ask.
I too will post later after I finish listening to this episode, and after I finish pinching Baby J’s cheek. But for now…
Ooooh! A something in the mail from Bet? Whatisitwhatisitwhatisit?
Stennie, I’ll email you the song 461 – I didn’t include it on the cd because the only version I have of it is pretty terrible. BUT since you reqested it, you can have it as long as you promise to still love me after hearing it. As far as Dumbfuck goes, I have a great version of us doing it live, but it’s on a VHS tape that I keep meaning to get made into a Dvd. When I do I’ll send it to you.
Does anyone get the feeling that Bet isn’t super into the whole audiobook thing? She doesn’t want make one, she can’t be bothered to download Mike’s (btw I need that link again too…). BET! I’ll have you know your book is the one I’m most looking forward to hearing. So get crackin’, Missy!
Happy four year anniversary!!
Marla & Mish—
I can’t remember if I cut this from the show or not (I think that I did), but Bet wanted to be sure to impart to all Hucklebuggers that the cheek-pinching of Baby J Hackensaw is no longer Bet-authorized behavior. You can still pinch cheeks, but you do so on your own now, it’s no longer: “This is from Bet – PINCH.”
His cheeks are so pinchable. It would be hard to resist.
Awww, sorry Bet! Thanks for girding your loins and doing my topic suggestion anyway!
“Truly, Madly, Deeply” is a great ghost movie. I agree.
I am one of the folks that hate Sixth Sense and have hated it since I first saw it. I didn’t find it scary, either. Startling in spots, I guess, but the twist sucked for me because it’s based on omission, not a sense of “the truth was there all along, it was just hiding.” So, when Willis’ character is shot, we don’t see him die. So my thought, immediately after not seeing him die, was “well, I guess he survived.” The clues were only clues because you know looking back at them, they don’t really lead you to the conclusion that he was dead, IMO (wouldn’t dead people see other dead people?). Rod Serling did this same kind of story several times and better, so I have to respectfully disagree with you.
The Japanese “Ring” (りんぐ) is pretty damn creepy—and in a couple ways really kind of nice (can’t explain it w/o a spoiler). I don’t think it’s as scary as you guys think it is. But I really enjoyed it when I first saw it. For once I enjoyed the American remake almost as much.
With you both on enjoying Beetlejuice and Ghostbusters. Gotta differ on GB2. Coulda done without it.
I saw “Heart and Souls” with Robert Downey Jr. in the theater! But it was kinda fluffy for my tastes.
“Ghost Town” was fun and it was Téa Leoni as the love interest in that.
Glad we agree on “Dead of Night,” Bet!
It’s one of my favorite movies of all time.
“Jacob’s Ladder” has ghosts? I didn’t see it, so I don’t know. And no, Zombies don’t count as ghosts—ghosts are the opposite of zombies. Ghosts=souls with no bodies, zombies=bodies with no souls.
Ah, movies…
HAPPY #4, LADIES!!! You guys ROCK!!
Lemme cover the audiobook portion first, since that’s as far as I’ve gotten in this episode.
1. Yep, Bet needs a deadline. You know how she is with people who skip deadlines. (See: various CD mix challenge projects and her reaction if you sent your CDs out even a day late.)
2. Assuage? I read whole verses in German!
3. A tip: you can avoid most fuck-ups during recording by skimming through the chapter first. It’ll save time on editing later.
4. Did I really read mine that fast? I thought I slowed myself way down. You can’t read Vonnegut fast like that. If I do this again I’ll have to try a Raymond Chandler book and really go to town. (Philip Marlowe has to be read like he’s on an adrenaline rush, since he usually is.)
Given our relative speed when we talk, maybe Marla and I should do a His Girl Friday remake.
I agree with Pete on 6th Sense. I was partly bored throughout it (none of the characters thrilled me), and the ending was like so many Twilight Zone episodes I was thinking “okaaaay, so what?” The penny trick Willis told the kid basically showed off exactly what filmmmaker Shyamalama was doing to the audience. And seeing what the filmmaker did with the rest of his movies (which got dumber and dumber and dumber on a negatively exponential level) it’s no wonder. Actually “Unbreakable” wasn’t as bad, that’s his “best” work imho.
Was thinking about reading the essay “On Politics and the Art of Acting” by Arthur Miller as an audio book. I don’t have the time or voice to record anything longer!
I’ve never seen “Truly, Madly, Deeply” or “Topper”. On the Netflix they go!
Ghost Town was very charming because of Gervais and I liked the cameo of Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show. It wasn’t insultingly cute, which kept it above ridicule. We got to see it in LA as a pre-screening audience and filled out little cards saying “did you like the ending? who was your favorite character & why?” and stuff like that.
I remember “Heart & Souls” – it’s true, it’s a Hallmark card sweet movie but without being sickly or insultingly sweet. A great movie if you’re traveling, sick, or with a family.
There’s a really silly ghost Abbot and Costello movie called “The Time of Their Lives” which I had to google a bit to find the title of. Two lovers in the 18th-century are shot and become ghosts, and need to wait until modern-time Abbot and Costello help them prove their innocence in the Benedict Arnold plot so they can get into heaven. It’s not on Netflix, but I remember liking it as a kid (grain of salt firmly in hand? Good).
I got the census in the mail today. Is it from Bet? Is that the “something” you were sending me? If so, I love it!
I must disagree with Siskita—“Unbreakable” was very obvious to me—I kept thinking that something was going to change it up, but no, the villain was who I thought the villain was early on. I felt the same way about The Matrix. That would have been a far more interesting movie had there been a change in the good guys and bad guys, instead of telling you right up front ‘this is the good guy. Trust him’. Sixth Sense has been on network tv lately, and I’ve been catching bits and pieces, and I still like it. It was at least interesting.
Happy anniversary! To feel really old, we probably all met around 14 years ago—there will need to be a 15th anniversary discussion of your meeting in about a year or so.
You two are on fire this week. Really hilarious. Just ask anyone riding the bus with me.
Re: Ghost movies, I’m in agreement on:
– The Shining – This took me at least three tries to get through (I think I was 20 at the time—I really don’t like scary movies) but it’s a favorite now.
– Beetlejuice
– Ghostbusters
– The Sixth Sense – I also liked Unbreakable. I wonder if people sometimes hold Shayamalan’s later transgressions (The Village) against his earlier work.
Some you didn’t mention that I would include:
– A Guy Named Joe (“A Guy, a Gal, a Pal – It’s Swell!”) / Always (Spielberg’s remake) – If forced to choose between the two, I (and I suspect you) would go for the original. Spencer Tracy, man. How can you not?
– Poltergeist (I’m not partial to scary movies, but this is excellent)
Some comments I meant to include from last week:
As the recipient of a you rule under similar circumstances, I think we need a you-rule-by-proxy for Patrick MLL and his lovely wife, Heidi. They are, by all accounts, expecting.
The exam I was taking was the MPRE: the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination. Ostensibly an ethics test, but really it’s just a test of how well you know the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, i.e., the do’s and don’ts of attorney-client privilege, confidentiality, fiduciary duties to clients, etc.
The actual bar examination for The State Where I Live is a two-day mind-fuck-a-palooza at the end of July. In fact, the second day coincides with my 45th birthday. Wee!
Speaking of birthdays and Bet’s turning 50 and the concept of lost youth . . . first: may we all reach 50 with as much grace, wit and good humor. But I’d like to add that this is an opportunity to overturn that old chestnut about youth being wasted on the young. Being a 40-something law student whose classmates were mostly born within a year or two of my high school graduation, I sometimes feel like Richard Dreyfuss wandering among the aliens as he boards the Mother Ship at the end of Close Encounters. On the other hand, I don’t know if it’s because my rugged good looks give me an ageless appeal or I’m just adept at “passing” because I’m hip to the pop-culture patois, but in general, my age has never really been an issue. Whenever I make some kind of 70s- or 80s-era reference on Facebook, I notice a clear divide between my 40-something friends and my 20-something classmates. But I think that being immersed in a younger social scene, along with being a the father of five-year-old and a four-month-old, helps keep me in a youngish frame of mind.
Oh, and I truly, madly, deeply loved Truly, Madly, Deeply.
Here is my Hucklebug Report…I’m sure Mish’s will be a completely different view…
I made the big ass tray of brownies in the morning and spent a part of the afternoon fighting teenage boys for them so I made about 2/3 of them into a big plate and COVERED IT WITH FOIL AND LOCKED THEM IN MY CAR…..that seemed to save them. I dropped them off before their sound check with Jesse who is sweet as can be…the other boys were heading into the club.
They didn’t play until almost 11, I had gone home to take my third nap of the day so as to not yawn during the show. Mish, my other friend Heidi (the one in my picture of the marquee) and Alisa and a few other friends showed up just before they started, and when the music started, we pushed our way to the front and pretty much stayed up front except for being pushed and mauled by the young hippie dancers long of body hair and short on body maintenance. Lots of sweaty stink, and not just from Ferd!!.
There were a few hundred people there this time (as opposed to the 30 or so last summer) and so at the end of the show, they did come down into the house for a close and personal acoustic set.
They were as awesome as ever, and so so nice. I also got a chance to talk to Ward and Justin and they both send their best to you Bet. And why would you deserve anything but the best???
I got home around 1, and posted my photos of the eveing on my Facebook page. Check out the ones of Ferd..that man never stops moving!!!
I’m looking forward to the day we can all go to see them together. <3
Amidst the crappy RIPs for the week, I’d like to throw in the name of Charlie Gillett. Who? Charlie was a radio DJ for the BBC who had a program in the 70s for a few years called Honky Tonk. One day in 1975 he played a few demo songs by a local London singer/songwriter, giving him his first exposure on the radio. A year later he started calling himself Elvis Costello and began his professional recording career.
So thanks Charlie.
I wanted to wish Stennie and Bet a happy anniversary. I miss contributing although I have managed to nearly catch up with the podcasts. Did not want to let the anniversary go without expressing my appreciate for your hard work and talents.
Re: Sixth Sense
I thought the big secret was completely obvious as Shyamalan stole so many elements from a 1987 film, SIESTA starring Ellen Barkin which I used to see on cable all the time.
nothing more annoying than a typo. It should be appreciation. You’d never know I write for a living.
Okay I suck. Been gone too long.
Here’s my brief contributions.
Marla: Glad to hear things are going well. GO Marla!
Mike: Audiobook link? Guessing it’s posted somewhere, but I’m lazy and somewhat irritable. Headed to Shanghai after Easter and I could use something good to listen to. You read Chandler, right? That qualifies!
Middlebrow: Thanks for spreading the word re Kid 2 AKA The Rookie. Best of luck on all your glorious testing. Sounds miserable, but probably exciting as the end is nigh.
DEAD OF NIGHT: YES!
ThePete re: IN THE LOOP: Aw, shucks. Must be all that potty language.
Bet, Stennie: You don’t look an episode over 30. Keep up the good work.