My hair has always been weird, so all my haircuts have been awful. Worst was the hair drapes, though. They just didn’t work.

I have no answers to the First question, never been to NYC. I live in Flyover Country, only taken two trips by plane. Oddly enough, both were to Orlando, but for different reasons. And I didn’t go to Disney World on either one.

I participated in mock United Nations with overachievers from around the globe wanted to be politicians, run NGOs and change the world. I insisted on being Mormon and wouldn’t eat rum cake. I still regret that decision!

I think I may have traded for a game. I don’t know what game I got, but the game I traded was Megaman 4, which I loved to death. The first one I remember for sure buying was a famicom, the Japanese version of Nintendo. I bought it when my family was living in Thailand in 1994 and me and my sister bought the system, as well as Prince of Persia (my sister loved the main character and insisted his name was Darien) and a 400 games in one cartridge. 400 games is actually a lie. It is really closer to 100 games with cheat versions of the others. It included Contra, as well as a bunch of early nintendo games (the kind that played more like Atari games in their simplicity) including some circus game, a generic karate game, a popeye game and the awkwardly named Nuts and Milk, which always got a giggle from us for it’s dirty sounding title. Man, Nuts and Milk was a weird one.

I never had a chance to make friends in Thailand, since we studied at home (we couldn’t afford the international school), but that system provided hours of entertainment.

Brent seems incredibly credulous to believe all those Disney urban legends. He should visit Snopes and enlighten himself a bit.

I demanded to have a go, but I’d never driven the go-kart before, let alone down a dangerous hill, and when I reached the bottom managed to turn right too quickly and too early, crashing into the side of the drive, tipping the kart, and my head hit the driveway, dragging my face along the gravel.

Half my face was covered in grazes for the next month.

Cole…

Cole…

So on top of walking through an unfamiliar part of town in the dead of night, I had to corral this guy who was stumbling and heaving and trying to sit down in the street all the time. The freedom of adulthood!

Eating as many grilled cheeses as I could possibly stuff in my face. Then a couple more.

It wasn’t the quintessential college experience, but it’s one of the first I realised – ain’t no one going to tell me how and when to eat anymore.

Well, unless/until I get married.

To Vanessa’s never skipping things… I have 3 _engraved medals_ from my Latin professor/later advisor for perfect attendance in Latin.

I was hooked from the first moment.

Love the State, Stella, Mike and Mike have Issues, Burning Love, and the rest of the projects by the State. Saw WHAS in Manhattan at a midnight show in Times Square during a vacation to the city. The theater lost air conditioning and it was so hot that the management gave us free tickets.

I’ve been a podcaddict ever since.

It’s a shame that you didn’t ask “what’s the second podcast you ever listened to?” My answer would have been the Paul Scheer episode of Pop My Culture, and I would have told you that I loved every second of it and to this day PMC is one of the three podcasts to which I am subscribed.

Also, great episode, David Wain is wonderful.

Sophomore year I found “The Nerdist” via the Matt Smith episode and that ushered in the new wave (WTF, Indoor Kids, PMC, YMIW, and many many more….) Now, three years later I’m up to 26 regular podcasts, and even started one of my own! But sadly, poor old “Wait, Wait” fell out of favor…

First autograph I asked for was Peter Tork who came to Hands Across America in Johnstown PA in 1985. The Monkees was my favorite show at the time. He signed it and drew a hand to signify the event. Ah, MTV in the 80s! It had music and music shows!

The candidness of the format was something new and refreshing, and addicting. I quickly started listening to other podcasts. I currently subscribe to 22 podcasts, and I’ve listened to every episode of each of them.

I started PMC in the beginning of June 2012, and marathoned all of the episodes in a matter of a few months. I became so entrenched in the podcast lifestyle that I started co-hosting one of my own. We’re at around 66 episodes and I can truly say that podcasts have changed my life for the better.

P.S. I love Vanessa and Cole. Forev-sies.

Both Stewart and McKellan stopped and talked to us for a minute because they recognised us from the front row and noticed our accents. Stewart carried himself with a dignified and regal air, but was so gracious when we told him it was our last night in London before returning home (he also complimented the bowtie I was wearing). McKellan was like everyone’s gay grandpa; he couldn’t stop smiling. He complimented the jacket I was wearing and asked about my label pin, which I’d picked up a couple weeks earlier when I saw Romeo and Juliet at the Globe. He asked me if the show was any good, to which I sheepishly responded, “it was wonderful, but not Ian-McKellan-in-Waiting-for-Godot wonderful”. He chortled and thanked me for the compliment.

I now understand why little girls scream and cry when they see Justin Beiber… I had a Waterboy-like stutter when I was trying to talk to them and I was shaking furiously.

Where was Flight and it’s super imaginative soundtrack that you enjoyed so much?

Didn’t enjoy The Hobbit (part 1) or Les Misrables? Have to agree, Wreck-it Ralph was a lot of fun.

For YEARS after I could think about that whenever I wanted to have an hour or so of horrible crushing guilt, even though it worked out fine and she really was surprised the next week.

Suspicion rising.

We went to the local “Showbiz Pizza Time Theater”. They had the best selection of games. When we arrived, my father game me $5 and said to go play as long as I wanted.

Who is this man?

Once I had depleted the $5 I returned to my father and said I was done. He checked his watch and asked if there was another place I wanted to go. “Uh… Hoagey’s Corner has some good games.” I replied.

We went to Hoagey’s Corner. I was given another $5.

I played about $2 worth of Xevious before I couldn’t take it anymore. “I’m not sure I want to play anymore. Can we go?” Dad checked his watch and we left for home.
My parents’ poorly disguised ruse had prepared me for a surprise, but not the one I had expected.
Upon entering the house we walked into the dining room. Seated at the table were my grandparents and great aunt and uncle dressed as “teenagers”. Grandma looked like an ancient flapper. Papa was wearing his “Banana Shirt”, the one he only ever wore when he was trying his best to embarrass the family. Uncle Olle wore the worst wig I had ever seen.
I almost wet my pants laughing, but teenagers don’t do that. Best birthday surprise ever.

1. Shooting of teachers and children by deranged killer. Then finding out that the mother of the shooter had legally obtained the weapons that he used and she wanted them for her own protection but got killed with them. This is so ironic that it is frightening.

2. Mitt Romney’s son telling the world that his father never really wanted to be POTUS. Then why did he run if his heart was not in it?

3. Adam Sandler continues to crank out crappy movies that people seem to love.

4. Ben Affleck not getting Oscar nod for Best Director yet winning the award at two other prominent award shows. Sometimes there is no justice or logic in this world.

5. Justin Beiber. I know he’s cute but I see a wall coming up for his career. For all you youngsters out there, look up 50′s star Fabian to see what I mean. Talent ultimately will dictate his longevity.

1. Establishing twitter account but not to tweet. Only to read musings of heroes Albert Brooks, Steve Martin, Joan Rivers, and Shandling.

2. The movie Chronicle early in the year. How did they do those special effects?

3. Seeing Obama re-elected and wondering how Republicans could lie and misrepresent themselves repeatedly and get away with it. Most Americans caught on eventually.

4. Marvelling at Katy Perry. A face like “New Girl” and a body like a porn star. She can sing quite well also.

5. Watching Letterman come clean on Oprah about Leno and fighting depression. Seeing him get the Kennedy Center Honors. If you can, look at You Tube for old appearances by Jay Leno on Letterman,s NBC Late Night show. You could make a case that, when together, they were one of the great comedy teams of all time.

Now the worst…
1. “Legitimate rape.” Ignorant dickheads should never speak “off the cuff” about something as serious as rape. Also, Kirk Cameron apparently supported Todd Akin’s views. This shames me as a Growing Pains fan.
2. Breaking Amish. I loved this show at first, and then I found out that most of it was fabricated. Most of these kids had been out of the Amish culture for quite some time, and two of the people who supposedly met on the show and fell in love, were actually already married with children. It was greatly disappointing and not as fun to watch after knowing that.
3. XFactor. Not just Britney on XFactor, which was bad, but the entire show. Simon Cowell isn’t tough like he used to be, the theatrics are just too much, and nothing about it feels genuine. I don’t become attached to any of the contestants at all. Britney was not the only problem with the show this season. It had just as many problems the first season.
4. Chris Brown. My opinion on Chris Brown is exactly the same as Cole’s. He is a vile presence in pop culture and just needs to go away.
5. Facebook. It just keeps getting worse and worse. I’ve contemplated deleting my account a million times but then I always keep it for some reason. But it’s not even fun anymore. #TwitterForLife

My song of the year is “Same Mistakes” by the Echo Friendly. I first heard it when it was playing during the end credits of Girls, and I immediately had to find out what it was and download it. The lyrics perfectly describe how it sometimes feels to be a young adult, screwing up all the time.

Also, I started listening to Cole and Vanessa’s podcast this year and now I look forward to it more than I do some of my favorite TV shows. I always find myself wanting to chime in on the conversation and I feel like Cole and Vanessa are friends of mine that make me laugh hysterically. Keep it up guys, we really appreciate what you do. And congrats on your pregnancy, Vanessa!

1) HOW DO I STILL NOT HAVE A JOB??

2) Moved home, discovered that my friends up here are in fact as shitty at being friends as I’d thought, that wasn’t just memories tainted by high school angst.

3) Elementary – really shouldn’t judge, because I haven’t actually seen it, but… why even did they make this, Sherlock is just so good

4) Every damn recipe in Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes A Day requires vital wheat gluten? What is that even about?

5) Certain shows/movies that you just can’t find (legally) streaming anywhere. The things Netflix has only on disk are so frustrating!

Seriously though, Congrats on the future kid.

1. It’s over! It kinda sucked. Does this count?
2. My daddy came through his heart surgery fine.
3. I discovered this and a few other great podcasts that make life better.
4. I met Dave Hill and was in a class with him where we started a band!
5. I got my first good haircut of my adult life.

All the insecurity and confusion around Community and Parks & Recreation. I just want to know whether they’re getting cancelled or not. Having to say goodbye to 30 Rock is hard enough. (Guess I’m getting more dramatic too)

3) My bicycle falling apart. I’ve spent more money on repairs than on the actual bike by now. I can live with having to get my brakes fixed and stuff, but my actual frame breaking in half? That’s just rude.

4) The trailer for End Of Watch. So loud, so obnoxious, so in front of every movie for six months. (I remember Cole tweeted about this as well. Are you super relieved it’s gone too?)

5) Seeing posters of a bewildered looking hobo all around town – then finding out it’s Brad Pitt. When people pay you seven million dollars for some photos, the least you could do is wash your hair.

5. The Hobbit: My absolute favorite movie of 2012 and definetely one of my top 5 movies of all time. I absolutely loved it.

4. Parks & Rec: I got into Parks & Rec after listening to Jim O’Heir on PMC, and it has become the show that I am currently obsessed with. I think it is hilarious and the cast is awesome.

3. Netflix: I have been streaming TV shows from Netflix for a while, but 2012 was the year that I found a bunch of great shows that I found myself getting really into.

2. Gangnam Style: Definitely the most addictive song of 2012, despite it’s supposed anti-American lyrics. I think this song is so catchy and fun to dance to!

1. PMC- I started getting into listening podcasts early this year, and I have to say that as soon as I discovered PMC, it instantly became my absolute favorite podcast. Cole and Vanessa are so funny, and the guests are always awesome. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to PMC over the past year and I am looking forward to another great year.

(Honorary mention: this list, because ever since watching High Fidelity I obsessively make Top 5 lists of everything!)

1) 1 Man 2 Guvnors (even the soundtrack was awesome!)

2) surgery that basically hollowed out my head so I can now breathe through my nose. gross at the time, but… air!

3) joined a floor hockey league, managed to get on a team that rules

4) a bunch of chefs for pro cycling teams joined twitter and started posting pictures of all the meals they made during the Tour de France and other races

5) the BBC radio comedy Bleak Expectations

Love Jane and Brad (and Husbands!), such a great episode!

Thanks guys love you!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg

http://vimeo.com/2429759#

Such a terribly bleak song perfectly intercut with the lamest viral videos of days past. This made my day, my week, my year, and still cheers me up without fail. It’s the trainer fist pumping, the walrus aggressively taking the sax as to not miss his cue, and Gerry Rafferty trying to soak in everything (or forget…).

I’m not sure there was a single video I was obsessed with, but I do remember some really early web shows I watch like Miss Muffet and the Muff Squad.

Anyway, I’m now addicted to Pocket Planes. CURSE YOU DAN HARMON!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnJb07H3v2w&list=FLnEjr8chopIsPLIPdqTBVyQ&index=81

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av6fWfmugds

While the footage of the odd cartoon/live action hybrid remake was hilarious (25-year-old women pretending to be 12-year-olds, wheelchair dancing, wheelchairs in SPACE, the absolute worst of early 90s fashion, and an earworm of a terrible theme song) the fact that the only audience that you see and hear happen to be grown-ass men and that they’re so into watching this terrible footage from a show made purely with little girls in mind? That’s what really made me continue to watch it. Now I wonder, of course, if those same guys are now all “bronies”.

A version with the introduction cut off is, of course, on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwQSWrA9CNg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_15G4Y11dY

“Dread Hawk” is still one of the funniest things to me in the entire world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz88kJSdT6Y

I really enjoyed this podcast. It was weird timing because I am running my first marathon this weekend. If EJ Scott can run 12 marathons in 12 months, then I can run one in my life, right?

Long before I saw MST3K, I was reading MiSTings of Sailor Moon fanfic. Doesn’t get much nerdier/better.

I developed an asthmatic reaction to a mold that was growing in my 4th grade classroom. 2 of my best friends had similar reactions and one of them even had to be transferred to a different class. I had never had any sort of asthma symptoms before that and the asthma has stuck with me since then :/ Now I’m a cool kid with a cool kid inhaler.

I found out I am allergic to sulfates, which is a preservative used in most wine making. Turns out I am more of a beer drinker now. I think for a very good reason.

Random aside, I’m also allergic to sulfa drugs (I got ridiculously sick after being given them while in the hospital once), so I totally knew what Cole was talking about when you guys had that discussion haha.

I played a few games of candy poker… The stakes are high, but…get lower as people keep eating their chips. I do pretty decently, not that I’m good at poker, but because I never get barfy from too much candy. Glorious!

Suffice to say I did not enjoy it.

But I have since sort of come to terms with camping and will not fight anyone inviting me along on a trip.

Growing up we took lots of long walks in the woods and when my sister was born when I was 2 years old, my parents asked me where I wanted to take her first and I told them Jockey Hollow (a forest area in NJ) so on her 2nd day of life, we went for a walk in the woods. And a bird pooped on me.

http://youtu.be/2FM3Em7FIOc

To answer the question – the first soundtrack I ever listened to obsessively was obviously the soundtrack to I Know What You Did Last Summer. Terrible movie, great soundtrack.

On a related note, it’s so satisfying to her Rob return to the turtles as Donatello. I was weary of the new TMNT but knowing Rob was involved had me give it a chance and it turned out to be pretty spectacular.

Thank you, the feeling is mutual. Is it sad how excited I am about the stamps? And have I mentioned how distracting Alex Wong’s biceps were throughout Newsies (on Broadway)?

I loved the full top 20 number! Speaking of the top 20, how many of the repeated routines were from the first performance show? I think I counted four. I remember thinking, “This season is going to be amaaaaazing!” but the ratio of memorable numbers didn’t quite keep up. Good caption on Will and Amelia. She was all uncomfortable with doing the butt dance on Mia night and I wondered if she somehow didn’t notice this move. The season is over and I still don’t understand why everyone cries with the Exorcist guy dances.

I guess Tyce decided that yes, the piece was about the holly-cost even though they were so vague about it on the original episode. I’m a little shocked we didn’t see Allison in this finale, her piece with Chehon was better than this one. Maybe she was in the Lion King number but I couldn’t tell. It actually wasn’t my favorite but it was fun.

I was joking on Facebook a couple weeks ago that I wanted to go to a SYTYCD viewing party in Zurich but hadn’t heard of any… local boy makes good and all, but I’m not sure if this will ever air there. I wish Eliana was just the winner of the whole season so we didn’t have the messy male dancer decision on our hands. She clearly would have won if they hadn’t changed the rules. They swept Cyrus away so fast and possibly gave him Chehon’s flowers… since Eliana came back with the same bouquet. Messy, messy, messy and heartbreaking. The last moments of the season are always a little odd. But yes, great season.

Thanks for recapping and giving me a place to babble so my poor husband didn’t have to listen to it all!!!

Also disappointing, my work computer doesn’t have whatever plugins to let me listen to this now!

Anyway, I’m not going to pass up a chance to win a sweet PMC t-shirt, so the first amusement park I can remember visiting is Sesame Place for a preschool field trip. Unfortunately, the only thing I really remember is a plastic Ernie taking a bubble bath with his rubber ducky because I wanted to jump in and join him. I didn’t then, but maybe one of these days…

I’ve actually thought Eliana would win from the start but I didn’t believe myself because how could two girls be clear winners from the start two seasons in a row? I didn’t like her partnered with Cyrus because he held her back so it was interesting to hear from her that she felt like she was in his shadow!

I wasn’t sure how I felt about Chehon until the routine with Allison. It really was great.

The pole dancing number had to happen since our introduction to Eliana way back in the auditions was about how she loves pole dancing and then they played footage of her doing her thang with the unflattering skin on pole sounds left in.

The Tiffany package was so good. Confirmed that we hadn’t seen her before the top 20 and that she knows she looks just like Audrey. She really is great, but I doubt she can beat Eliana… although she was *never* in the bottom.

Cyrus and Chehon were dancing the male version of of the Melanie and Sasha routine from last season, too funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdsTQoN4WcQ

The song choice for Alex and Eliana was awful, as were so many cliche/cheesy songs used this season… started with the Titanic piece and ended here. Come on guys! Yeah, I expected more from that routine given everything/everyone who went in to it.

I couldn’t watch Nigel’s thing about not voting for Cyrus, he started talking and I had to fast forward a minute. Too terrible even if he was thinking it. What a way to end things!

I can’t believe there is a whole week between voting and announcing the winner! Craziness. I’m going to go Eliana and Chehon… I’m not 100% sure but that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

I agree with you on the awkwardness of Nigel’s final comment. I wish they couldve just asked the judges who they’d vote for, rather than him try to throw it out there during that critique. Instead it may rally the Cyrus fans to vote for him more because of the condescending comment.

While this season feels a little weaker to me (as I mentioned in some other review, I’m pretty sure season 4 was my fave), I’m still excited to see the finale and some of the better dances of the season.

I think the once a week set up has hurt this season, it seems to have gone by much faster, and not in the best way. However, I’m still loving seeing the All-stars come back. Alex Wong forever!

Now that I think about it, I can’t remember a group number this season that I loved. Anyone have a memorable one? Maybe the vastly different contestants this season made it hard to have a cohesive dance? Although maybe I’m just forgetting some…

End note – team Chehon and Eliana!

In regards to the first question, it was King’s Dominion (in Virginia) which I always find funny since I grew up in Florida and have been to Disney a billion times. My favorite ride (and the only I remember) was the Scooby Doo Rollercoaster. awwwww yeah.

I could not get over how tired and sad Katherine looked the whole time she was on camera but I didn’t get that routine either. It was fine but there’s been plenty similar routines that didn’t get that kind of response. In fact, it made me think of this which I think was much better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YFACU54KL4.

If I remember correctly Marco gets left at the alter and then this happens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcpQyI-MH8 so it all worked out for the best anyway!

While I’m referencing past routines, last week’s Ade with a brunette in purple reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORBnAy1DgcA

Oh good lord, the critique of the cha-cha was maybe the worst thing I’ve seen this season (but then again I’ve fast forwarded through a lot of Mary Murphy). Wrong names and wrong dances referenced, Nigel doesn’t know a tango from a paso? Yuck.

Tiffany is great and has surprised me how she’s lept to the front of the pack but I have a hard time believing she’ll beat Eliana. Honestly in the end I’d take any of the top three girls over the top three boys! What a year to finally have switched to double winners. I was sorry to see Cole go but not surprised. I think it will be Eliana and Cyrus in the end even though I’d like to see Chehon win in the name of dance.

Awesome season. Awesome recaps. Thanks!

- http:/www.facebook.com/theinbetweenersusa

- http:/www.twitter.com/theinbetweenersUSA

- http:/www.youtube.com/inbetweenersusa

–”Best recap sentence ever written”– that made me blush…!

Thanks for all the great comments and feedback, Melissa. I look forward to your responses each week just as much as I look forward to catching some hot nipple action from the dancers.
–Heather

I too thought Tiffany’s sister was dead! I don’t know if they went unnoticed on the previous episode but I think Witney was actually wearing Chehon’s pants from his hiphop and they’re just even saggier on her. I was surprised when no one commented on his pants. Also, Witney was amazing this week.

“Chehon was born in Chicago, got adopted by Swiss Sally Jesse Raphael & Andy Warhol, then went off to Ballet Hogwarts to perfect his dance wizardry.” = Best recap sentence ever written. And I especially love the photo because I’m sitting in Zurich right now. They’re standing down by my old grocery store (from when I lived here) and somehow that makes me like him more and how did I suddenly grow a Swiss-bias?!? I really liked Will’s number! At least it was a good note to go out on after the Bollywood kiss of death.

I’m basically here to just babble since predictions seem to be harder this season. I’m still feeling rather meh about the boys! I didn’t think it could happen but I’m starting to wonder if Cyrus really could pull this off! I’m sure he’ll be in the finale… seemed like they were trying to make us love Chehon this week so I wonder if they are pushing for him to have a chance againist Cyrus. I think you’re right about Cole, he’s a really great dancer and partner but maybe not so great at grabbing attention. If they could somehow get a Chehon vs Cole finale it might make for better dance but I don’t think it would keep the same spirit. Tiffany REALLY impressed me this week. Like with Audrey gone she doubled in power since they were the same dancer to me anyway. I think Eliana is a toe-shoe-in for the finale and I’m going to say for the win, thought I HATE that they reminded us that JTF compared her to Melanie right from the start. If Witney gains in power now that Lindsay is gone (the same scenario as Tiffany/Audrey) she will probably pull through to the finale as well. Making the top two girls a ballet dancer and a ballroom dancer so either way SYTYCD has expanded its horizons.

All in all a rather stellar top six!

But.

I listened to this episode while I was on the bus. I have an early commute; it was 7 A.M. It’s a quiet ride full of business people.

And when y’all started talking about Downton Abbey, I started laughing so hard I snorted.

I think everyone else was too asleep to notice.

I can remember being in the backseet on a roadtrip with my grandparents listening to it (again, on my Talkboy) and my grandmother telling me to “turn off that trash music.” I tried to explain to her that the song actually had a positive message, but she insited all rap music was “evil.” I can still sing the song start to finish to this day. “Mr. Wendal yeah, O Mr. Wendal yeah.” Fond memories. And I loved my Talkboy.

p.s. That’s a great picture of you guys with Lake. The two ladies are absolutely stunning.

After freaking out for a bit, I dared a peek… And it was the dry cleaning. Not a proud moment.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k170/smartbunny/photo6.jpg

Not to out my husband as a SYTYCD watcher but he was in the room and I said of Benjamin Millepied, “I think that’s Natalie Portman’s baby daddy” and he followed up with the Google assist and confirmed. I loved his quirky American/French accent. He must have demanded no mention of her. I’m impressed Nigel could resist. But shouldn’t Ben be on his honeymoon? He’s not just a baby daddy anymore!

I feel like they give Travis to whoever they want to stay the most. Witney and Cyrus are being coddled. I agree that Witney’s dance had nothing to do with being a ghost, should have been done without the makeup. Plus we got dead makeup again later in the show.

Jacob was an amazing dancer who I could tell wasn’t memorable to a lot of people but he was so damn good I think he went to the finals, I think he was third? One of my favorite memories of him is that he was dancing with the married ballroom dancer whose husband was also on the show and Nigel tried to tell her she had better chemistry with Jacob than with her husband. I was happy to see him but the number was blah.

They really paid Eliana back for having to hold back all these weeks. Can I take this moment to brag that I saw Alex in Newsies on Broadway? Evan and Jesse were there too. And Alex’s arms. Good lord! He played a sleeveless thug very nicely at one point in the show. That dance made me so happy.

I thought Audrey did well in hip hop! I was shocked to see her go before Tiffany who I find very similar to her but less memorable. Kind of like the Witney/Lindsay comparisons.

Let’s see… I’m guessing Will is done. He was already struggling and then Bollywood. But I suppose it could be Cole. Could they really get Cyrus through to the end?!? Hmmm… Cheon might actually pull this off despite not being all that likable.

It’s certainly either Eliana or Witney for the win… how about I vote with my heart and say Eliana? I think Lindsay might be done next week. If not, then Tiffany but she’s baffled me by staying in this long so I wouldn’t count her out.

I have once again babbled far too much. Sorry.

Scared the absolute crap out of me.

It all started when I went to put in my new DVD of Children’s Hospital that I won from the Pop My Culture podcast. What is this show about? Do children run the hospital? That seems like an inefficient model, but times are tough. Thanks a lot Obama!

As I started to watch the show, I saw the reflection of what looked like Rob Corddry from the show behind me! To say it startled me, was putting it mildly. I turned around and he said, “Hey listener you win Lake Bell”. The chills went down my spine as I picked up the DVD and that exact phrase was written on the very copy that I had won from PMC.

Obviously I was disappointed because I had just bought a bell for my lake house. What I really needed was a bell for my apartment; or Apartment Bell. This is when things got really weird.

Suddenly Rob Corddry took off his mask, and it wasn’t him at all. It was Lake Bell, the actress. She was wearing a Rob Corddry Children’s Hospital suit. I thought to myself, that it made sense now. I had won Lake Bell, the actress.

But is it a prize? Lake Bell has been stalking me for years! Leave me alone Lake Bell! Please don’t pick me PMC! I don’t need this kind of stress in my life!

PS I just read this and two things come to mind. I will never get the 8 minutes it took to make up this story back. Numero dos… I need to get a life. Love the podcast Vanessa y Cole!

Megan- I agree, Season 4 was pretty fucking phenomenal.

Darcie- “lacking” is definitely the word for these dances!

Melissa- I’m looking forward to more from Eliana too! Have you seen Bunheads? It’s (surprisingly to me) REALLY good! Lots of beautiful ballet and Sutton Foster is so damn charming.

Sounds like you all think Witney might go all the way… I gotta say, she’s not my personal favorite, but we’ll see! They are sending 2 dancers home on the next episode, so it’ll be down to 8 at the end.

Unless the person I was using the board with, who didn’t watch or care about baseball, had memorized that roster, I don’t have an explanation for that.

More recently one of our stove burners heated up and a canister of sugar caught fire, even though the burner dial was set at off. That one probably has some science-y reason for it.

I remember when I was catching up with SYTYCD past seasons on YouTube when I started watching late in the game thinking that Twitch didn’t have much to do in the door routine but he was so charismatic, Cyrus didn’t do much with it. I can not wait to see what Eliana does now that she won’t be dancing with him. I thought she was great in the auditions but we haven’t seen much from her since then.

Ryan Ramirez was always Mia’s assistant even before the season that she didn’t make it on to. I remember that from an interview.

I was so indifferent on the girls’ elimination… but the boys actually surprised me. Next week is really hard to predict. I think there’s only two girls and two boys who will be safe, right? For the girl’s I’d say Witney for sure and maybe Eliana. And then for the guys I’d say Cole and Cyrus will be safe this week. I’d guess Will might be done unless he really shines earlier in the episode. Same for Tiffany, she’s too similar to Audrey but stands out a little less.

I predict Cyrus will only last another week or two. And Witney and Cole might win this whole things.

I was bummed to see Amelia and Matthew go, though I’m glad they saved Lindsay and George. Lindsay surprises me each week, and definitely did not deserve to go home. I really liked Matthew’s first couple of dances, but the two or so dances haven’t been as strong. I wonder how much longer Cyrus will make it – he’s not my favorite but I can see why he’s been kept around.

Who I think will make it far – Eliana, maybe Chehon?, Will, Audrey. I would’ve guessed Matthew before this week too.

Had a subscription to Ranger Rick when I was a pre-teen, but that was probably my parent’s idea. First subscription I requested was Games Magazine, and the first subscription I actually paid for was Sports Illustrated.

Of course, my REAL collection (not from any specific store) is my Rocky Horror collection! Every VHS, DVD & Blu-Ray release of the film, dozens of different Rocky Horror albums in a variety of languages, poseable figurines and bobble-heads, comic books, postcards, lobby cards, posters, costumes… I’ve always been obsessed! I even wrote every lead and supporting actor back in the 90′s, begging for autographs. I only received responses from Richard O’Brien and Jonathan Adams, but it sure would be nice to add another autograph to that collection. By the way, have I mentioned how BEAUTIFUL and PERFECT you are, Vanessa? (You’re beautiful too, Cole.)

I can’t believe they kept Lindsay over Amber. Both had rather breakthrough nights but as you said, if they ditched Lindsay they’d still have Witney. And what is with the uber cheeseball songs? I used to discover good treadmill tunes on this show but now it’s Total Eclipse of the Heart, Unchained Melody and I Will Always Love You.

Picks for the bottom three: Tiffany & George, Dareian & Janelle and then maybe Amelia & Will with Dareian & Janelle going… they’re fine but not connecting with each other or the audience. But then again if Dareian does another solo like that he might save himself again!

Who will win? Eliana has a Jeanine vibe… and just like that former winner, once she’s not with her quirky hip-hop partner I think she will do really well. I think it’s true the men’s spot is probably Matthew’s to lose… but as a random guess I’ll add that I think Cole could potentially give him a run for his money. Honestly this group is already getting down to fairly well matched! I’m anxious for the all-star rounds to start, THEN we’ll see what’s going to happen.

Great hearing Doug Jones. Always knew he was one of the Gentlemen, but for some reason always thought the lead Gentleman was Camden Toy. Glad to finally know the truth…

I wish Brian Jacques came to my school

Peaking at the right time is such a critical part! Hell, there were some exceptional dancers in Vegas that seemed to max out there and didn’t make it on the live show. Kinda like horse racing (or human racing, I suppose)- being in the lead at the quarter mile mark doesn’t mean anything at the finish line.

Also agreed on Audrey & Matthew getting a lot of positive feedback- just about any of the contemporary/lyrical/ballet/jazz type dancers could’ve been in their places and it would have been just as fantastic… although I guess their relative sizes were a factor in all the lifts and throws.

Thanks for commenting- hardly babble! We’ll soon see if your guesses are correct for next week!

-Heather

I’m having a hard time telling who will win who so many people being shoved down our throats (Witney and Cyrus etc., the early front runners rarely stay there besides Melanie. I feel like Eliana could go far (technique meets some edge). But I think it’s dancers like Audrey & Matthew who will “peak at the right time.” Yes, I know they got a lot of attention this week but that was really for Travis more than them.

Sorry for babbling…

The principal didn’t really even seem pissed when he brought me in to explain myself, but told me that he’d have to ban me from the computer room for the rest of the term.

We were all called into the office later that day and questioned about the incident. I talked my way around my actual involvement and skated with getting yelled at. Thank god this was ’87ish before parents were cops and litigation crazy and it was all chalked up to over zealous playing.

I was sent to the principals office over Pokemon cards.
What can I say? I’m a badass

I’ve never seen a Broadway show, never been to New York actually. Other than filmed adaptations, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Broadway show. For some reason, my high school seemed to pick off-Broadway shows to produce — You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown; Godspell; The Fantasticks.

So zero dimensions are a point, one dimension is a line, two is a square, three is a cube. I know you guys don’t really care but it was driving me nuts…

And I think the first “broadway” show I saw was a local production of Oliver.

Andy’s “what’s next?” riff on 80s bands makes me think he should a podcast based around all of his running bits like that, turned into games.

So like, during the “what’s next?” segment of the podcast, Andy would throw out words in a topic, ie 80s bands, and the guest does the “what’s next?” part.

Apply the same idea to his other bits. He names an activity, guest tells how black people do activity vs how white people do the activity.

I dunno, I’ll let the pros take it from here, but I think it’s got legs!

The documentary was just so awesome and inspiring to watch. Pixar began as a dream and evolved into so much more. It was also very insightful to see Steve Jobs’ involvement in helping build Pixar into what it is today. Would definitely recommend anyone to watch it!

The documentary that sort of got me the most riled was The Art of the Steal. It really frustrated me. Kind of vaguely remember finding Devil’s Playground pretty amusing at the time, in a “better you than me” sorta way…

Keep up the great work!

By the way, if you want to see not only Furst’s transformation into a slim guy(who finally looks like an adult) and some amazing acting by him, watch “Babylon 5″. The arc of his character over the seasons was just remarkable.

And lastly, I personally really like most of “1941″, particularly Stack’s “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell(just as in “Airplane”, he understood that he should play it straight as an arrow–although, by all accounts, Stillwell was more acerbic & snappish when annoyed, hence the nickname) and the great Warren Oates. I think part of the reason it didn’t click w/audiences was that, although the West Coast’s reaction(in real life) to Pearl Harbor was in many ways/places just as ridiculous as in the film(minus the property damage to L.A.), the rest of the country didn’t believe it was like that–and those who were there at the time & lost their heads would never have admitted it, even to themselves. But, dig around in the newspapers of the time & you can find some bizarre stories, especially in some of the more isolated, unworldly communities.

The first 3D movie I ever saw was Dr. Tongue’s House of Cats on Monster Chiller Horror Theatre, but I couldn’t afford the $27 for the glasses. Come to think of it, it may actually have been Dr. Tongue’s 3D House of Stewardesses.

But seriously, the first 3D movie I ever saw was Treasure of the Four Crowns — a terrible Raiders of the Lost Ark rip-off. You either had to get the blue-red glasses at 7-11 or they came in the TV Times.

The first 3-D movie I ever saw was The Three Stooges in Spooks. It was part of one of those 3-D specials that local TV stations ran ever so often… you’d go to 7-11, buy a Slurpee and get the free glasses. For some reason, this year it was a particularly big deal. They played some shorts beforehand, then the feature played. I can’t remember a lot of the details, but I clearly remember a bit where the mad scientist is about to inject a syringe into a gorilla, and that was probably the best 3-D gag in the movie. My brother and I still say, “When you wake up, you will be HUMAN!” to each other to this very day.

It wouldn’t be until nearly 20 years later that any 3D movie would ever work for me. It wasn’t until Spy Kids 3D came out that I finally saw anything in 3D ever, it was part of a triple feature and it was magical, things really did come out from the screen and I tried to touch them. From that point onward I have enjoyed 3D films and they work for me, but for most of my life, I was denied the pleasure of seeing the eyeball scene from Friday The 13th III and having that bloody thing flying at my face.

…I remember the movie being pretty cool too

I wonder if he has heard that Hor-Riff-ic Productions riffed Gremlins. I helped write some of that, and it came out very well. You can tell they like the movie and are having fun with it.

I think the first movie I ever watched in 3D was the rerelease of Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D. Loved the movie, still do. The 3D was very well done, even though it was a post-conversion. I think that’s because I heard they spent a loooong time on it to prove out the technology.

Ryan (Darth Geek)

Rob Paulsen will make your friends jealous…

I had an unhealthy infatuation with Andy Warhol, so she let me uncover the schools abused and dusty screen-printing materials. She also spent school money to buy some new supplies for just me. I made 3 pictures each of Ronald Reagan and both Bush’s and mounted them tic-tac-toe style on like a 6X4 ft board. I used a bunch of sloppy, scary looking color palettes (and Reagan came out looking like the Toxic Avenger). I remember thinking I was making some big deep statement about how they were an “evil legacy.” Regardless of my not very deep (or original) politics as a 17-18 year old, the teacher gave me her top award at the end of the year, much to the chagrin of the kids who had been working hard on their art for years. (To be fair, I think the “top award” was only something like $20, a certificate, and good placement at the school art show.)

Enjoyed the episode a lot. Mary Lynn Rajskub always brings a unique comic voice to the podcast table.

Throughout the show I could feel Cole sort of stepping back and letting them shine together. It was truly hilarious from start to finish, and I never get tired of either of you, it was hard for me to imagine how cool it must have been to be improving with Mr. Lennon(I call him Mr. because he’s 5 years older than me and I gotta show him a little respect.). I can’t say enough good things about you guys, and I don’t want this to be too sappy, but you guys are definitely the cat’s pajamas and they’re a perfect fit.

The worst part? I can’t find the exact game now! I’ve seen a few “Peanut Butter and Jelly” board games, but none of them had the foam half-sandwich pieces or bubble that I still clearly remember.

just kidding… boys who go on to play minor league baseball and marry some waitress instead of me. it’s okay though, i went to college!

My favorite game as a kid was definitely Trouble. It wasn’t even that great of a game, but there was something super satisfying about that pop-bubble-dice thingamajig. As an adult, I understand why my father was always reluctant to play because it “gave him a headache.”

In related news, I now understand how Hungry, Hungry Hippos annoyed the shit out my parents as well. Not only were marbles involved, but also the sound of plastic banging on plastic must have been quite obnoxious.

Each actor was playing a reality show archetype (the Rich Bitch, the Gay Guy and Kristian Wiig as the Quack Marriage Counselor. It was really funny. It was also surprisingly dramatic and sweet since Matt was so kind and gullible, so much so that the producers felt a bit bad about it, or so I hear. I don’t want to spoil the show in case you track it down and get into as I did (as funny as it is, the prank leads to some heartbreaking moments), but it is tremendously fun. And I will say that Matt is married with 2 children in what I hope is a happy ending.

Oh, and the guys who created the show went on to make Zombieland.

Oh, and the band that sung U + Me = Us was made up. As in fictional, not just put together for a show. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2gether_(band)

Hilarious show as always=)

The first song I called a radio station to request was “Wonderwall” by Oasis. Before I bought the CD (it was my first), I would call the local pop station EVERY day after school. I was so obsessed that I would literally run home from the bus and ignore my friends to make that call.

Side note, the only person that I have heard pronounce in mare-eo was Canadian.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leisuresuitlarry/make-leisure-suit-larry-come-again

Oded Sharon
Adventure Mob

My favorite cereal as a kid was Cinnamon Toast Crunch. My parents are dentists, so we didn’t get too many sugary cereals, so CTC was always exciting. I dunno what that loathing for Kix is about, though, I still like that, especially the Berry Berry ones!

My first stuffed toy was a My Buddy doll. I actually had a strange resemblance to the doll – thick brown hair, sported lots of overalls – which made me love the doll even more. It was enough of a resemblance that my dad walked in the door one afternoon, saw My Buddy laying lifeless face down on the couch and attempted to start CPR, thinking that I was near the brink of death. True story!

My first favorite stuffed animal was a Wile Coyote doll my dad won at a school fair.

My first beloved stuffed animal was a Piglet my Mom made that died a horrible death in a washing machine accident. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t know for sure how many quarters I threw away to finally “be the one escaping”, but I do know that the $10 my dad used to give my brother and me did not quite cover both of us surviving.

In a heart-breaking, Joss Whedonian finish, my brother Iron Man sacrificed himself so that the fat, bespectacled, 8-yr-old Hawkeye could save the world.

“OK, go!”

I know I played some Atari and other NES games, but that’s the first one I have actual memories of playing and beating.

It still kind of is.

Wait, i take that back, the first game i completed was duck hunt on the nintendo 64… my parents didn’t always have the newest game systems for us to play growing up (though as we’ve gotten older, the newer systems began popping up in the house), but they definitely had the coolest

…and, i’ll admit that i’ve never really been a huge gamer like my brothers..i’m more of a book nerd than a gamer lol

Sorry Cole, but you understand. And you are a very lucky witness.

Oh, bat. How I still hate thee.

But back in the day, that was the height of entertainment technology. It was our Skyrim, but with more ducky looking dragons. Getting the grail back to the castle was a triumph on the level of getting the ring to Mt. Doom. Or to put it in Vanessa terms, it was like meeting the Olsen Twins. It was just that cool.

Oh, and there’s an online MASH thing, although it sucks in some browsers: http://www.bored.com/playmash/ You play a pretty rough version, Cole! We had more like 4 good, 1 bad of each category.

(The real answer is Super Smash Bros. But that’s no fun.)

Also, Felicia Day is the best! Dr. Horrible, The Guild, so great.

It’s also the only game I ever passed.

The first game I ever remember beating (and being REALLY proud of) was the Island of Dr. Quandary. It was a point and click puzzle game and it was (pardon my French) REALLY FUCKING HARD. Or maybe it’s because I was in elementary school. I have looked everywhere to see if I can get a copy because like so many games from my childhood, I would love to play it again.

On a related note, Geek and Sundry is amazing. Felicia is amazing. Dr Horrible is my favorite product of the writer’s strike. Love the podcast, and this one is especially awesome.

It was about kids in a school and all the different things they had to deal with drugs, relationships etc. Sadly, It is no longer on TV.

I like Amber a lot, but my wife likes her even more. So it’s time to try to get her to listen to the show.

If we’re talking soaps, like Susan, mine was General Hospital, at times the show had science fiction subplots like the evil Cassidines freezing Port Charles while Laura is dying of a fever on a tropical island. Or something…

P. S. My son, The Boo Monster (David, was named after the fellow whose comments is above mine. Hey Ragz (David), I can see up your pant leg.

But what I really wanted it to do was everything they ever did on television’s Whiz Kids.

Did not work.

P.S. Did not agree with the good Mr. Hodgman’s analysis of the Hunger Games and ended up spending too much time yelling, “Yes. Oh, Yes there are plenty post-apocolyptic warnings in the book!! You, you Hodgman, you,” into my iPhone. (By the way, there really is no established acceptable amount of time for yelling at a phone. Yelling into a phone that you are not currently using as a phone is just silly.)

My first computer was a Compaq of some sort, running Windows 3.1, when I was about three years old. I used it primarily for DOS and Windows games, and I especially remember Lemmings, DinoPark Tycoon, and the Chex cereal game Chex Quest, in which you are a piece of Chex cereal fighting against an alien invasion with a spoon and various projectile weapons.

(and yes, I may be unintentionally buzz marketing Chex cereal here. But Chex cereal is delicious. Just saying. Chex.)

My grandfather had eight children, of which my father is the third, and when my grandfather decided to by a computer, he decided all of his children should have one as well. That is why I will always remember the Christmas of 1986 as The Christmas That Papa Had Nine New Computers That Cost $1000 Each Stacked Up In His Office And He Gave Us One Oh My God. I was blown away and could not fathom how he could spend so much money at one time.

In our house, we used the computer primarily to play Sierra games — your King’s, Police, and Space Quests. I also used it to learn some basic DOS commands, and some basic BASIC. The Tandy also taught me Advanced Material Yearning, because I so desperately wanted another floppy drive (to make loading King’s Quest 3 much less tedious) and my parents wouldn’t spring for one.

I played Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? on it a lot. (I tried playing Where in TIME is… and failed. Not good at that one.)

I also made ridiculous looking cards with our dot matrix printer. I still have some of these.

And Math Blaster. (the original) I can’t believe I found that game fun, but oh I so did.

The most memorable game was called Madam Fifi’s Whorehouse, a “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style erotic story game where your character visited a brothel. I use the word erotic loosely; I think one of the women you could sleep with had an acidic pussy that burned your dick. It was pretty amusing to my tween self, but a couple years later we got WebTV and the computer was given to my aunt.

Dreamysusan is totally right about the simple pleasure of tearing off the feed-wheel paper strips from the side of the dot-matrix printer paper. I enjoyed the finality of the gesture. Nothing says “I am DONE with this book report!” like a pair of 3′ paper ribbons.

We also had an old Wheel of Fortune game on it. Vanna was green and red…very stylish.

I think John Hodgman is a delight and would love to get a copy of one of his books!

It came with essentially nothing. You could purchase Altair Basic for it (written by a young fellow – Bill Gates – pre (or at least very early) Microsoft, and definitely pre Windows). The Altair newsletter has a rant from Bill Gates about software piracy and how if folks paid for their software, instead of being a 2 employee company, he’d be able to hire 10-20 people and really be able to do some great things.

We still have the computer in our basement.

We used it to do payroll for the Regal House, a place that Cole’s familiar with.

… thanks for letting me share.

The ’80s were when I first got into pop music. The first group I was really into was Alvin & the Chipmunks. The first two LPs I ever bought with my own money were Men at Work’s Business as Usual and Hall & Oates’ H2O. I listened the hell out of those records. Sorry Vanessa, but even as a Canadian kid, I hated Sharon, Lois & Bram— give me Raffi any day of the week.

Awesome show. Love Fred Stoller. Love old school comics and old school character actors.

xo,
Vanessa

One morning in preschool, I dared another preschool kid to climb up a to the first branch on a tree in the playground (this was during the 1980′s: the age of lawn darts and minimal adult supervision). Afterwards, I told him that it was perfectly safe to jump down from that tree branch, because I had done it before (LIE).

This other preschool kid following my directions and launched himself off the branch and towards the ground… which resulted in a broken arm for him.

I’d like to say that I didn’t laugh when I saw the poor kid crying on the ground, but that might be a lie too (yeah, I was a horrible toddler…and human being).

Anyway, when I was about 10, my brother and cousin and I decided to have a picnic in the woods near the big rock pile next to the duck pond. We had sandwiches in little plastic bags and built a little fire after clearing away some dry grass next one of the big boulders and lining the little pit with smaller stones. In theory, this was an excellent fire pit. In practice, it didn’t account for the high winds that day or the fact that it was the dry season. A lick of fire slipped between the rocks and caught on the grass. Instantly it was ablaze and very quickly created a bonfire many feet in diameter. And there was a LOT of grass to burn. On top of that, we were right next to a large field many acres across and filled with corn.

We went into action. Forming an assembly line from the duck pond to the growing fire, using the sandwich bag (my idea, thank you) to move water to the deadly blaze.

Against the odds, and in spite of a mishap where my brother actually FELL into the fire at one point, we managed to get it out.

We covered the scorched area with more dry grass (a lot of very good thought went into this, seriously) and decided to never speak of it to the people with the power to deliver punishment.

We kept that secret for almost 20 years before finally telling our parents.

My mom wasn’t pleased with us.

Luckily, we could outrun her.

Apparently, I was a good liar.

Or just really freakin’ adorable.

To this day, it still haunts me that I did that, and I regret never getting the chance to apologize to him before he passed away when I was seven. I did apologized to my cousins however, as they’d had to endure a long draw out lecture of why lying was bad. I’d gotten out of said lecture, but my personally inflicted guilt-trip was obviously effective, as I still have issues telling anyone anything but the truth these days.

Over a broken faux egg.

…Yes, I know I’m a weirdo. But at least I’m an honest one.

Luckily he didn’t have a reaction and I’m fairly certain he is still alive.

She asked, “Georgia, have you been eating candy?”

“…no.”

I was a pretty typical latchkey kid of the late-70s/early-80s, with my parents divorced and my mom working long hours. So I’d come home, do my homework, get dinner started, blah, blah… my cousin, who was in a similar situation, was required to come with me, as per our mothers’ orders, so that neither of us would be left completely alone. One of these days, somewhere in my twelfth year, my cousin, who is arguably, one of the stupidest people on the planet, decided it would be a good idea to make French fries for dinner, never mind that neither of us had ever made French fries. I was doubtful, but even though I was the older by a year, she was five inches taller and fifty pounds heavier, so French fries it was going to be. While I set to cutting up potatoes, she grabbed a large cast iron pan, poured copious amounts of oil in, and turned the heat to high.

You can see where this is going, right? Right. All of a sudden, the oil ignited, freaking her right the hell out, to which she responded by… pouring a pitcher of water on the fiery oil. Cue huge column of fire and her freaking out some more (I was freaking, too, especially as I’d been yelling, “No… don’t—” as she poured the water. Finally, I remembered my basic science, grabbed the baking soda, and poured the entire box over the mess, which doused the fire. Afterwards, we were left with a smoke-filled house and my mother’s BRAND NEW harvest gold range & hood a sooty, blistered mess. Cue me, REALLY freaking out, because we didn’t have a lot of money and it was brand new and OMG, she was going to Kill. Me. DED. So I ran next door and fetched my neighbor, who was a professional graphic artist/commercial painter and begged him to come fix the hood, which had taken the brunt of the fire damage. Initially, he was reluctant, because he was all about responsibility and honesty, but he also knew my mother and knew she would Kill. Me. DED. So he mixed up his paints, sanded the hood, and repainted it, which I cleaned the kitchen and opened every window in the house. (My stupid cousin didn’t help, since she felt I should have known what the oil would do, so it was clearly All My Fault.)

Miraculously, my mother, she of the eagle eye and nose that a drug-sniffing dog would envy, never noticed except to note, “Why didn’t you girls make anything for dinner?”

Me: “Well, we were hoping you’d let us walk over to McDonald’s and get cheeseburgers and French fries.”

I finally told her the truth… twenty-five years later.

And she didn’t believe me. Because, in her words, “You’re a writer, Barbara, you make things up like this for a living. And believe me, if something like that HAD happened, I would have known.”

And so, like Tim, recounting HIS story, that was pretty much when I knew I had a gift for lying and could maybe do something with it.

Comment by corinne — February 23, 2012 @ 5:51 pm

Most fabulous cheekbones: Benedict Cumberbatch

Comment by GuanoLad — February 23, 2012 @ 10:00 pm

I don’t understand the love for the Chemical Brothers soundtrack to Hanna. I thought it was a cacophonic disaster that was wholly inappropriate and almost ruined the movie for me.

Comment by Shawn “Father Wizard” Colton — February 24, 2012 @ 1:19 pm

I know it was said during the podcast but Best Technologically Enhanced performance for folks like Andy Serkis, seems the perfect category. “Caesar is home.”

Comment by Bozbozbozboz — February 26, 2012 @ 2:53 pm

Down on Beginners and positive reviews for Crazy Stupid Love… Oh boy what are other people missing about how brilliant Beginners was? I think in a few years people will realize what a great romantic-comedy Beginners is. For shame Po’scars podcast! Even still, i love you guys and keep up the great podcast.

By the way, I would pay SOOOO much money to see a movie version of “The Fancy Spider-Man”.

First video I was obsessed with was Wax (not the Andrew Gold/Graham Gouldman collaboration who had a hit with “Bridge To Your Heart”, good song and video – check it out, but the American alternative rock band) and the song, “California”. Oh yes. Youtube it. Oh yeah – what a video! I grew up watching Beavis and Butthead and that video will always be special to me and Beavis. Had to stay up late (as mentioned in the lyrics) and watch MTV through the night to try and catch it. That and Ween’s “Freedom of ’76″. Two great songs and two awesome videos from Spike Jonze. Youtube them to check them out.

I too really loved “Black Hole Sun”. I had to watch ‘MTV’s Most Wanted’ with Ray Coakes with my parents as we only had Sky downstairs just to see these class videos. Still listen to Soundgarden. Parents just didn’t get the Alternative American rock scene from 1991 to 1996! Some of my favourite bands came from that era.

First music video I fell in love with: Green Day’s “When I Come Around”. It helped that it was on MTV almost constantly.

The first video I fell in love with was “Our House” by Madness. The first video I fell in lust with was “Legs” by ZZ Top, with an honourable mention to “Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran.

As a kid, I listened to my parents’ music — lots of Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. I finally got into “modern” pop music around age 11 or 12, c. 1995. One of the first videos I saw was Alanis Morisette’s “You Outta Know” and it blew my mind. The video itself isn’t that amazing, but just….wow. It was a far cry from the oldies station. I always regretted being too young to be a riot grrrrl. It was one of the first “real” albums I bought, too.

I do remember loving REM videos and always stopping when they were on.

Enjoy!

Love,
GO – The Future of Personal Mobile Broadcast

Oh, and Spy Gal? Best. Banana. Joke. Ever.

When I was around ten I did a karate intramural, and did the side-by-side kata with my brother. We got participation medals that I pretended were bronze ones.

Greatly enjoyed the banana jokes.

Two incredibly stupid things we did “round our way” growing up. First – we’d go down these “bogs” as we called it – like a marshy wooded area, to look for cars that joyriders had dumped. Sometimes they’d set them on fire and leave them. Other times, we get in the cars they hadn’t torched, set the car on fire and then sit in it and the last to jump out of the burning car was the winner. I did this like 3 or 4 times. On one of the last times we ever did this, the gas tank exploded after like about 20 seconds after the last of us had got out the car. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Another thing we did at around this time was make each other pass out. You get somebody to stand against a wall and then make them take really deep breaths for like a minute and then after a minute you exhale all the air from your lungs as your friends push on your chest and boom – you drop like Tommy Cooper. You blackout and have a tiny little dream sometimes. It’s stupid! We got this one lad to breathe in and out for like 5 minutes and then we pushed on his chest and he fell on the floor and his body started twitching all over so we legged it! The lad was alright but he never spoke to us again. What a cheek! And yes, I did have a NES and a MegaDrive (Genesis) growing up. Just not many games!

Thanks again for another awesome show.

The first truly dangerous thing I did was traipse carelessly through the forest and inadvertently anger a wood nymph. I have had mud slowly dripping from my nose ever since, because hey, who could really live with lush below-the-waist fungus?

Or maybe it was the time I believed in the magic of Mary Poppins so fiercely I jumped from the (albeit quite low) roof confidently clutching an open umbrella…

Burns: This is a thousand monkeys working at a thousand typewriters. Soon … they will have written the greatest novel known to man.
(rips sheet out of cigarette smoking monkey’s typewriter)
Let’s see… “It was the best of times, it was the BLURST of times” ?!
(wads it up and throws it at monkey)
You stupid monkey!
(monkey shrieks)
Oh, shut up.

Great pod. First dangerous thing? I’d rather not comment.

The first dangerous thing I did happened when I was 10 or 11. At the middle school near our house, we had what we called the “Roller Coaster”. It was in no way an actual roller coaster. What it was was an imaginary path from the top of the hill where the soccer field was, across the parking lot, then down the hill on to the track. The idea was that you ride your bike as fast as you can across the soccer field, then rocket down the hill, across the lot, and down the hill again, and try not to die. I made it.

*Although, to be fair, I went back and did it again in high school, flipped over my handlebars down the second hill and blacked out for about a minute. Thank God for helmets, right?

1. Downton Abbey
2. Community
3. Bridesmaids
4. Social Media and its role in Arab Spring and Occupy
5. Florence + The Machine

My worst of 2011:

1. REM’s break up. I mean, it’s not a surprise or anything, but they were such an iconic group, and such an important part of my young adulthood. It’s weird to think they aren’t around.

2. Amy Winehouse’s death. I’ve not listened to her music, but her death was a tragedy. What was worse was the rhetoric surrounding it, as if she deserved her illness and death in some way.

3. Speaking of rhetoric, Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting. The man who shot her is clearly very ill, but the shooting exposed some very ugly parts of American political rhetoric, which, unfortunately, is still going strong.

4. Charlie Sheen. Another ill person who clearly needs help and instead is held up as entertainment.

5. Most reality shows. I admit, I do like some, such as the various cooking shows and “So You Think You Can Dance.” I enjoy shows that celebrate talent and hard work. Ones that exploit people — like Toddlers and Tiaras, Real Housewives, Hoarders, etc, are pretty gross.

Also, I agree with Vanessa about….men’s business downstairs. That whole section had me cringing! So painful and so funny.

My 2011 top 5 Fav:

5. LMFAO’s song Party Rock Anthem and Kia Soul Hamster Commercial. Pure genius and slightly mind numbing idiocy.

4. Watchable baseball playoffs/series, especially for non-Yankee or Sox fans… or non-baseball fans in general.

3. Ashley Green is single again. The *only* reason for me to be dragged it yet another Twilight Series movie.

2. Hotter chick on the TV show Fresh Beat Band (it’s the little things when the only TV I watch is programmed by a 4-year old).

1. TheOatmeal.com. Guilty pleasure of seeing idiocy revealed through sarcastic animation.

I know … “snore!”

1. Though I did lose most of my itunes when my PC crashed, I think having cancer kind of sucked more.

2. The zillions of movies and television shows featuring domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual violence as plot points or in a few cases, the basis for the entire show.

3. Hate making a big comeback.

4. DC’s reboot, which I believe is the houndred and fifth reboot since 1985.

5. The death of Randy Savage.

4. Heart of Archness

3. Arkham City

2. The Muppets

1. Getting appointed as a teacher.

Having Community on dvd would help to ease the pain a little, especially because I’m currently broke-ass and can’t afford them otherwise.

Love the podcast!

2) Sherlock

3) seeing Tim Minchin

4) the Thomas Lennon PMC

5) hearing about Homestuck, making it through the whole archive

A lot of shows I watched as a little girl were old reruns like Mr. Ed.

I remember crying my eyes out when David the Gnome ended — not because I was sad it was over and there’d be no new episodes, but because David and his wife died at the end (they became trees).

As I got older, I tended to stop watching shows before they ended, so I didn’t really feel sad when they went off the air.

So I was probably a teen the first time I was genuinely sad a show went off the air — Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Regardless, Love you guys. You make work go by much faster

Just a thought.

And also, we play the game regularly, making up elaborate back stories of the characters as we go along. Like Alfred, the one-armed convicted rapist born-again Christian. He lost his hand gambling in international waters and saw Jesus while he was starving on his life-raft. Cliche, I know, but it would be a great start to that “Guess Who: The Movie” movie. COPYRIGHT! TM TM! I’m now going to begin casting that film, the next time I play said game.

Look up a picture of Alfred and tell me I’m wrong.

As a kid, I read Archie and strips in the paper, and that was about it. In college, a friend introduced me to Gaiman’s Sandman. That was the first comic I read start to finish.

I also read Simpsons and Futurama comics on occasion.

The first comic I collected seriously was John Byrne’s Alpha Flight. It was a seriously mediocre book, but I think I felt I was being a good patriotic Canadian by reading it.

On an unrelated note, my family also says “Which one’s Will?” whenever we hear “Fire at Will!”

The first candy I can clearly remember eating, craving, and actively seeking was Swedish Fish. Even now, 20 something years later, I’ll admit that I bought 4 bags at the supermarket tonight.

In the beginning, y’all were talking about video games….I believe the commercial Vanessa was referencing (with the hoods) was for Assassin’s Creed. Could be wrong, though.

I grew up in the south but was raised by midwesterners, so there was always a ton of candy and junk food in my house. Little Debby Nutty Buddies (I think that’s the name) was probably my first *favorite* sweet food. Or maybe Entemann’s chocolate donuts. I also loooved Cheetos.

I don’t think I’ve ever written any other complaint letters. I try to leave notes when someone does really good, though. I like to reward good service. It’s so easy to focus on the negative.

Ps Ms Salanger shot part of that movie on a friends ranch in BC where I met her and the wolf. Long ago.

I remember going into the water with my brothers and leaving my favorite red shoes on the shoreline. When I got out of the water, my red shoes were nowhere to be found. I remember my older brothers trying to help me find them as they knew how much I liked them.

Turns out I was happier that my older brothers tried finding them with me than being sad about losing the shoes in the first place. I really looked up to my older brothers.

*when you’re little, time passes in a strange way. Especially when you’re forced to sit in an uncomfortable chair when you’d rather be riding exciting rides.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=684897662526&set=a.531837112096.2074143.9507413&type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=684897832186&set=a.531837112096.2074143.9507413&type=3&permPage=1

I breathlessly told my mom “Tasha almost got killed by a rattlesnake! Tasha almost got killed by a rattlesnake!” (perhaps a bit of an exaggeration), she called a neighbor with a hunting license, and he went down there and killed it within 15 minutes. My mom made me go look at the chunks of snake that remained after being blasted with a shotgun. The snake was about 7 feet long, a good 8 or 10 inches in diameter, and had a pretty fresh-looking rat in its gut.

The real tragedy of the story is that the neighbor’s total bitch of a daughter got to keep the rattle, even though I was the one that stared death in the face! (also a slight exaggeration) She wasn’t even home at the time- she was away at some fancy East Coast equestrian camp for the summer. It’s been almost 20 years and I’m still pissed about that, actually.

Um, and, I don’t really remember being scared very badly of anything until I went to a camp that had foot-long leeches in the lake. If you got one on you, once you got it off they made you put it back in the lake! People were so freaked out by the end of the summer that on parents day, some kid managed to pull a leech out onto the dock, and just started punching it over and over. It was nuts.
Still leery swimming…

Holy cow, how funny is Tom Lenk?!? Dude.

Also, the only thing that would make this post better if you two were reenacting the poses on the shirts while wearing the shirts in a picture advertising the shirts. It’s very deep and intellectual.

Great episode as always, even when I don’t actually know who the guests are!

Does Jonathan have a twitter or facebook page. i would like to follow these sites.

Thank you,Robert

My first collection thing was trolls, too. I don’t think I ever did anything, just put them on a shelf. They’re long gone now.
Key chains were really big in my middle school, too, until they got banned because people with 30 on their backpack would turn around fast and people were getting whipped by them. We got a LOT of things banned in that 3 year period (pogs, snap bracelets, loose sugar and kool aid mix…)

My first club was the Daisies, which is part of the Girl Scouts. It’s officially sanctioned and everything, but I don’t think it’s widely known. It’s meant for girls too young for Girl Scouts; I was in kindergarten when I did it.

Anyway, at the end of the year, I participated in the bridge ceremony (we walked over an actual bridge) and became a Brownie. I never did anything else with the Girl Scouts, so that probably tells you how I felt about it.

The first club I belonged to was The California Raisins Fan Club. Surprisingly enough, there weren’t as many benefits as you’d expect. All I got was pride (of course) and a bumper sticker, which I put on my racecar bed.

I think the first thing I was in was probably little kids soccer. I was way, way too lazy for that. We played some Sheep and Lions game, and this girl brook and I would always end up being lions, but then just lie down and say we were dead lions.

The first club I was a part of was a group called “Confetti Kids.” We were a youth performing arts group… I did it from 4th to 8th grade, and it was AWESOME.

As a little girl, though, I *loved* Beetlejuice, and I watched it a zillion times. Not only was it VHS, it was something we had taped off of HBO.

The first movie I saw more than once in theaters was the Matrix. I saw it at LEAST four times.

Never three-peated another movie until Inception.

P.S. Love Nigel’s humour!

Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bermuda_Depths
Clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoopj9G548s&feature=related

My first paycheck was for the hefty sum of $50. When I was 11 or 12, I got a “job” pulling weeds in a family friend’s garden while they were on vacation. It was hard work, but someone had to do it, right? Plus, after I was done weeding, I got to watch The Monkees and drink Werther’s Ginger Ale.

Just curious was Vanessa boozed up during this episode? Love her but she threw out a lot more voices, ball jokes and claims to being a ‘wall of tits’ than usual.

My weirdest nickname is from my sister. She calls me squishy. *shuddering* Now her friends have picked up on it.

Your brain is a wondrous thing, Cole Slaw.

She lasted me for maybe two years and we had a great time. Took my road test in her, I did!

Sidenote: Vanessa, I’m pretty sure you were in that very car around 1998 or so, on one of your CNY adventures. If that doesn’t earn me brownie points on this one, I don’t know what will!

You know, I’d like the DVDs but I already have Dave C’s autograph on a Full House board game, so if I don’t win this one, no biggie!

lolololololololol

That whole performance was amazeballs, and this is an excellent description of how I felt when it was over.

I bow (or maybe just do a grande plie) to your brain.

How awesome is Rob Paulsen? I nostalgia’d so hard listening to the voices. Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain were two of the best (and funniest) cartoons of all time.

My mom didn’t make me wear it, it was all my idea. Which brings up a more troubling question: Why in the hell didn’t she *stop* me?

And believe it or not, I am straight.

A few years later in junior high, I insisted on wearing much-too-short-shorts in PE. (I swear I’m straight)

Also, in elementary school, i refused to wear anything that wasn’t sweatpants. I had several sets of matching sweatshirts and sweatpants in lovely colors like teal and purple. And yeah, I’m a guy.

I was no more than 8 or 9 years old and I wanted to take a ride on my bike, a sweet Haro FST (look it up, its sweet) to the local QT to buy some comics, a slurpee, and play some Rush’N'Attack. But rather than wear typical clothing, I want in my full ninja outfit complete with mask and fake sword.

I don’t think you could get away with that now as the sight of a small ninja riding a freestyle bike would illicit some serious panic in the suburbs.

Wonderful, Cole. Yoo rite reel gud.

To Cole’s point about deaths of popular characters:
The person who stands out in my mind when this comes up is Joss Whedon.

Buffy, Angel and Serenity!! All featured that “Holy shit! got killed???”

Great show. Kevin is always a treat to listen to.

Best,
Vic

Beyond great episode, ya know, as always.

Other than that, I did actually play extreme badminton in my highschool’s tournament. My team, the “Shuttlecock-blocks” didn’t get very far, but damn it all if we didn’t have spirit.

PS I went to an art high school. That should explain why we weren’t playing a real sport.

I don’t remember my position, and since we were all like 5 years old. I’m sure it was more “Play wherever the hell you want” anyway.

I never scored, and I was once traded in the middle of a game.

And there’s my hockey career.

—————————————–

This was such an amazingly fun episode!

No idea what position it was, and since we were 5 years old, it was probably just running around and playing wherever we wabted to go.

I never scored, and I was once traded in the middle of a game.

This was such a fun ep.

Near the end of my 2nd year without getting a single hit, my dad finally promised me that he’d buy me whatever I wanted if I would just hit the damn ball. I finally made the hit and got onto second base. And what did request as my reward? The soundtrack to “Annie”.

Best game ever.

Never heard of this podcast before. Will have to stop by and check you guys out more. Gotta love Rob!

I was tickled when I saw Rob Paulsen was the guest. I had been in a bad mood all day, and listening to the podcast really brightened my day. I about died when Paulsen starting singing “Yakko’s World.” Amazing. Thanks!

Looking forward to catching Rob in Hotlanta!

(And during downtime, I would browse the Internet and indulge my obsession with Animaniacs and fascination with cartoon voiceovers!)