The Podwits are in the weeds this week- literally! After debating the merits of preservatives, the boys go on about hunting, camping, DIY home projects, and doing manly things to help reinforce their fragile egos and prove they are still in fact MEN! Keep their fire going and download the podcast today!
Footnotes:
1970’s Las Vegas Home bomb shelter home for SALE.
and…
The imfamious 14 month-old McDonald’s $1 cheeseburger, in all its wonder.
The lads are back for an exciting, invigorating, and sensational edition of the Podwits Podcast! The band is back together and boy do they have a lot to catch up on!
Dion talks about a recent chat with actor Joe Piscopo which leads into discuss (or debate) for their love of the cult classic Dead Heat; Brian brings up some exciting Netflix/Marvel Comics news which segues into Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the fine acting chops of Clark Gregg (aka Agent Coulson). Plus the Borgninian Moment of the week is back!!! So come on down and have a listen!!!
Footnotes:
Mark Goldblatt was the editor of The Terminator, who directed Dead Heat.
The Six Degrees of Vincent Price (aka Our Love for Clark Gregg) [ 1:02:34 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1031)
I have very fond memories of playing with my G.I. Joe’s and Construx on the carpet in the living room of my parent’s old New Haven home -their rug I now recall as an imagery world, that would encompass the area from under the bay window where lived in front a massive 16″ Quasar cabinet television, to the large wooden coffee table some twenty feet away that guarded the couch and love seat my father would sit on- as he watched whatever TV show or films would come through on the 37 channels supplied to us by our cable provider via the tethered, piano-like Jerrold remote control that reached across the living room. While laying on my belly playing with my Joes who were knee-deep in shag carpeting, I would gaze up and watch 100’s of films that would eventually go on to shape who I am today; seeing haunting glimpses of movies in that little tube-image, some of which I still do not now the names of.
Occasionally I’ll wake up from sleep or see something while commuting to work, that will thrust be back into 16 Evergreen Court and onto that carpet, staring fixatedly at the unknown film that my father cared to watch. And then I have a new enigma to crack: to figure out all these years later by what I’d remember, to determine what film was I actually seeing as a bystander in that living room.
These weren’t the regular fare of movies I’d see and know and remember- stuff you recall watching from beginning to end -films you were aware of the title, and stars, and plots of. These instead were just snapshots of images, sequences and vignettes that I would only partly see but would make such an impact, that they’re still with me even to this day. It’s taken me sometimes years, but I’ve figured out the names the images that I were burnt into my retinas like The Boys From Brazil, Rage, Scarface, The Last Man on Earth, An American Werewolf in London, and the topper, the Granddaddy of them all, the guy who I didn’t figure out until junior year of college, William Friedkin‘s masterpiece, Sorcerer.
1977 Sorcerer film, il Lazaro truck on bridge, and a scene that for years haunted my memory until I was finally able to figure out what movie it was.
As stated in early articles here at The Podwits, my love for 1977’s Sorcerer grows every year with each viewing and I’d always dreamt it would be plucked from the fringes of movie purgatory that so many a great Hollywood film lies rotting and decaying a slow death in, and be restored to its formal glory. That finally happened last year when Friedkin announced he’d won the rights back from the studios that owned it, and at a Q&A at BAM theater that I attended, he announced he’d remaster and rerelease Sorcerer on DVD and Blu Ray so it could once again be viewed as it was intended. I was able to meet and briefly chat with Mr. Friedkin, and leaving it dawn on me: I am such a fan of the film and the original 1953 French version by legendary director Henri-Georges Clouzot, a nail-biting masterpiece entitled, Le Salaire de la Peur or The Wages of Fear, that I never tried to search out the book these films are based on and from which the 1953 movie takes its name, Georges Arnaud‘s Wages of Fear.
No new podcast this week, folks. Due to technical difficulties beyond our control, The Podwits can’t serve up a new cast this time. HOWEVER, we’re happy to bring you back one of the tried and true audio delights from our past!
Set the Time Circuits to November 2012… Disney just bought Lucas, and the Podwits had a thing or two to say… After all, we ARE Internet know-it-alls! J and Dion also take a look back at the show that was one of Joss Whedon’s most amazing (and underrated) masterpieces… “Firefly”!
Suit up! The Podwits Are Go!
The first season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has wrapped, and Brian and J. Marcus are here to conduct the top-secret post-mortem! With their usual laser-like focus and military precision (read: all kinds of tangents and diversions), Brian and J. look at what worked, what didn’t, and what the future may or may not hold for our plucky band of super-secret agents. It’s Level Nine entertainment on this all-new Podwits Podcast! Hail Hydra! Oh, oops, er… Don’t Yield, Back S.H.I.E.L.D.! Yeah, that’s it. No one heard that other thing, right…?
SPOILER ALERT: This podcast contains spoilers for all of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s first season, as well as recent issues of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man, so if you’re planning to watch/read and haven’t yet, proceed at your own risk.
The Podwits' Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 Debrief [ 1:02:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (455)
The Podwits bring your Part II of their Side Cast special exploring Batman’s 75th anniversary! Dion and contributor J. Blake continue on with memories of the Caped Crusader, and get into Tim Burton’s franchise versus Christopher Nolan’s, and also bring up what is going on the small screen by way of the amazing animated films D.C. Comics have been putting out in recent years. And how about the visual similarities between the cover art of Batman‘s first appearance vs. Spiderman‘s?! So come and have a healthy dose of the Dark Knight in part II of their tribute to Batman at 75!
Footnotes:
Dylan Baker was the superb actor Sam Raimi had teed up in his Spiderman trilogy to play the Lizard.
The cover of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #80, September 1970. Art by Dick Ayers and Bill Everett
This week, former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas reported that Dick Ayers, a legendary artist from the Silver Age of comics, passed away on May 4 at his home in White Plains, New York, six days after his ninetieth birthday.
In addition to being a frequent inker for Jack Kirby in the early days of Marvel Comics, Ayers co-created the horror-themed Western gunman Ghost Rider for Magazine Enterprises in 1949 (a character later published by Marvel under the names “Night Rider” and “Phantom Rider”), and was the artist for much of the Human Torch’s 1960s solo run in Strange Tales.
But for this Podwit, Mr. Ayers’ lasting legacy will be his decade-long run as the penciler of Marvel’s WWII-era combat series Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, which introduced Nick Fury back when he was a working-class three-striper (as well as some of Fury’s long-time supporting characters like Dum-Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones). Between issue #8 in 1964 and #120 (Sgt. Fury‘s final issue of original material) in 1974, Ayers penciled all but six issues of the book, taking the book to heights of gripping action and battlefield drama that, for my money, made Sgt. Fury my favorite of the classic Silver Age war comics.
Dick Ayers continued to work sporadically into the early 21st century, but his amazing body of Silver Age work would have been a hall-of-fame achievement all to itself. A world-class talent and a life fully lived, the Podwits bid one final, grateful “Wah-HOO!!!” and R.I.P. to Dick Ayers, one of the greats.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Batman, The Podwits deliver a special edition of the Side Cast! Dion and contributor J. Blake celebrate the history of the character by sharing their memories and speak about the history, which leads into some very interesting topics: The various incarnations from comic, to small and then silver screen; the contention held by fans of The Shadow for the Caped Crusader; the journey from pulp, to comedic, to the Dark Knight, and much more! So come on down and have a listen to Part 1 of our toast to Batman’s 75th!
Footnotes:
Batman 66 is the comic book reboot of the 1966 version of the Caped Crusader.
The 1966 Batman trading cards were drawn by legendary artist Norman Saunders.
Four-Color Fanboys Issue 2: Upon the Bookshelves There Lurks… a Classic!
Once again, Brian and his fellow comic book addict Al Sedano (of Resurrections—An Adam Warlock Podcast) have become the Four-Color Fanboys! Check out this month’s podcast as they talk about the comics they’re reading (both new and old) and even muster up a bit of good old-fashioned topical outrage! Go to the new Four-Color Fanboys website to download and give it a listen!
Well they’re back at it again for an all new Podwits Podcast. While enjoying a nice cool beverage in a safety-cup at their local convalescence home, the boys wax about the oldest American Civil War widow to die in 2008, and Brian’s 2010 trip to Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, which lead the boys over to: The Doors and Jim Morrison‘s untimely demise; Oliver Stone; the Fillmore East and West venues overseen by promoter Bill Graham; and the greatness that was Duane Allman. They wrap up on a very serious note (harking back to their Shattered Hulls series), explaining the emerging details on actually what really sank the Korean ferry, the Sewol. They’re all over the map (quite literally) in this week’s installment, so come and download it today!
Footnotes:
Check out the Dock Ellis inspired short film depicting his legendary no-hitter while allegedly high on LSD: