Hucklebug, Episode 134: RIP Lux Interior and James Whitmore, shout-outs, movies (Bet: No End in Sight, The Killing, Singin’ in the Rain, My Darling Clementine; Stennie: Shakespeare Behind Bars, Pursuit of Happyness, The Asphalt Jungle), lowlights & highlights, fuck-offs & you-rules, Fact or Crap!
Music: “The Hucklebuck,” performed by (respectively): Gerald DeVries, Tielman Bros., Billy Vaughan, Johnny O’Keefe, and Frank Sinatra.
Will be back to comment more once I get thru the entire epi, but wanted to be first to ring in:
In Pittsburgh, it’s called The Incline, though the rest of the world refers to it as a funicular. There are actually two, the Duquesne and the Monongahela still in existence, but there used to be several.
See here for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duquesne_Incline
Pittsburgh—actually Monroeville, Pa.—represent!
I like Cleveland, honestly, although I’m from the other end of the state. All of Ohio is like home to me.
You may remember Sterling Hayden from his role as Capt. McCluskey in The Godfather, whom Michael shoots and kills along with Sollozzo (“How’s the Italian food in this restaurant?”). Also in The Killing is an all-time madman, Timothy Carey. Carey gave an unforgettable performance in Kubrick’s next film, Paths Of Glory, as one of the unjustly condemned French soldiers under Kirk Douglas’ command. Finally, Hayden and Carey previously appeared together in the B noir Crime Wave, which I’d highly recommend.
As someone on another page about Carey said, he could not give a performance that wasn’t untouched by his own insanity.
Elisha Cook was great! He worked well with Bogart in a couple of films and was the unfortunate Stonewall in Shane. I always like watching him.
A correction to the shout-out—I am not not here because I have a life. I am not here because I have no life so I can’t even get to listen to the Hucklebug in time to comment. However, please do wish the baby who has sucked up all the time in the universe a happy first birthday. He is one year old this week. I would like to say that it went so fast, but….
The tram that goes up the mountain is the funicular, BTW.
I think we should try the mono version of the HB and allow commenters to vote on which they like better. I, myself, have had an issue with the stereo thing, since I often listen to the HB at the gym. Every now and then I’ll lose an earbud while I’m on the treadmill, and then not only am I fumbling to get the earbud back in, but then I’m also having to pull my ipod out of my pocket, unlock it, and rewind to catch the hilarous thing one of you podcasters said. This can really mess with your rhythm when you’re trying to run…ok yes, it’s a small thing. But why not do a mono test-run and see what we think?
Topic suggestion: 5 Songs I Never Need to Hear Again. These aren’t necessarily songs you always hated, they could have been great the first 50 or so times. Maybe they’re just songs that have been SO overplayed you’re sick to death of them (or maybe you always hated them AND they’re overplayed.) My top 5:
5. Smooth – Santana and Rob Thomas (Not played as much any more, but for a while there it was on at least one radio station on the dial at any given time.)
4. Tainted Love – Soft Cell (For obvious reasons.)
3. Dashboard – Modest Mouse (This was on 107.7 The End radio in Seattle 23 hours a day for about 5 months straight. For graduation a classmate gave me that Modest Mouse cd and it was all I could do to be gracious and say thank you. I finally found someone to re-gift it to on Thursday.)
2. Old Time Rock and Roll – Bob Seger (Just realized how damn sick of this song I am the other day. It’s what inspired the topic suggestion.)
1. Rock the Casbah – The Clash (This song will always top my list. I never liked it anyway, and I don’t think I can stand to hear it one more time. Uggh. I’m annoyed just thinking about it.)
While listening to the lame soft rock station they subject us to at work I came up with another topic idea after hearing “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing: Songs I Never Thought Would Still Be Getting This Much Radio Time.
Have a nice time with your Dad, Sten. I’ll miss you guys this week!
Yes, Patrick is correct. It’s called The Incline. Lots of fun to ride. And yes there are two still in operation downtown.
Finleyville, PA – represent!
I knew you guys weren’t bagging on Pittsburgh, I was merely explaining the general feeling most people have toward Pittsburgh. Doesn’t seem like the most exciting city to hang out in, unless you’re from there. I’m actually heading there tomorrow for my mom’s 70th birthday on Wednesday. Shout out for Joanne!!
Happy 1st Birthday Lily’s Baby!
Topic suggestion:
1. When you have to share things at work, ie. restroom/kitchen/computer, and someone before you was a slob, do you clean it up so people don’t think you’re the slob?
Kelly
I also like Ohio, particularly Cleveland, quite a bit. And I have lived in Chicago on and off for 29 years. Five of those on-and-off years were spent in Ohio.
Although I didn’t get a shout-out, I feel personally responsible for coming up with topics. Threatening me with Jenga can work wonders! Although, I do quite like Fact or Crap. Good on YOU Lily for the calendars!
Topics: I’d like to know how you are both doing with the not smoking, and if the fact that Obama smokes has made any difference in your smokin’ lives.
What exactly constitutes the perfect Martini?
What are your Oscar picks?
Are either of you participating in the Celebrity Death Pool this year? Who are your picks and why? How did you do in 2008?
Ahhh, you’re welcome for instantrimshot
I see what you mean about Obama and the tax thing—I think he should have been more specific as to what he was apologizing for.
Still, I’m in forgiving-mode after putting up with so much for the last 8 years. Bush set the bar so high as to how bad you have to fuck up before I get annoyed now.
I do agree with ass-wipes being held accountable though I do not like to hold ass-wipes after they’ve been used.
I like the peanut butter ones, too, but the thin mints are my faves. (Probably needed a segue there
OH and we watched “This is England.” Will review it on my site, soon—but it was really pretty good.
“The Killing” is really good, too. Saw it a few years back at the NewBev. Stennie knows the NewBev—haven’t replaced that theater in my life, yet. So far, only multiplexes here in NYC. :\
Isn’t Will Smith a Scientologist?
Siskita’s birthday is mentioned in “Singin’ In The Rain”.
I thought “Asphalt Jungle” was “Blackboard Jungle” too, Bet.
Hey, Stennie, did you hear about the new Red Dwarf episodes being shot right now? Robert Llewellyn has been Twittering from the set.
So, sorry to hear about your mom, Bet!!
Positive thoughts from my brain winging her way through the psychic jetstream!!
I’m sending a few to Stennie’s dad, too.
I have so been there re: Comfy Chair stress, Bet. One of the reasons the 5 Minute Show stopped getting produced was precisely that. It just stopped being fun and easy-breezy.
Congratulations on the Python learning, Sten! Too cool! Can you write an iPhone app for me now?
How about *vocal* Republicans getting weekly fuck-offs? A bunch of vocal Republicans follow me on Twitter—I follow them back under the “keep your enemies closer” principle—and all they do is talk about how they are getting organized and using social media and blah-blah-blah and I swear, I’m just waiting for a good chance to ask them “Still hate gays? Gonna let more than 3 black guys in the party? Women good for anything other than cooking, birthing babies and looking good?”
They use Twitter and think they have hope as a party. w.t.h.
Wow, I love it when you guys get this mad. This is great!! 😀
I loled when you rimshat, Sten—that was perfect!
Hey, Sten—Neil deGrasse Tyson is on Twitter, did you know? Huh? Huh? Huh? He doesn’t Tweet that much though.
I like Krizzer’s topic suggestion, though I could never narrow down my list of songs I don’t need to hear ever again because to just five.
Hey, what’s your favorite room in your home and why? Mine’s the living room because it’s where my home cube is (aka my office area). It’s also where the big-ass HD TV is. (sorry, I’m boring)
In case you can’t tell, I’m still dayjob-free.
ThePete beat me to it – but yes, my birthday is mentioned in “Singing in The Rain,” which in my mind is the most perfect movie ever. There isn’t one moment that lags, or that needed a second take. My birthday is mentioned, at 1:30 in the morning, as Gene Kelly’s “lucky day.” “whaddya mean the 24th?”
One of my fav. lines from that movie is spoken by an unknown woman in the audience as she watches Lena Lamont on screen; she deadpans to her friend next to her “She’s so refined. I think I’ll kill myself.” Times don’t change, do they? And another: “It’s vuuulllgah!”
I’ve never been to Cleveland, but I have been to me.
Okay, you big shot movie types. Captain A challenges you!
In what movie does Jack Nicholson play the clarinet?
Just you two, Bet and Stennie. No cheating, too.
I want to hear you both say you’re stumped before you call in Mike (that jerk) for the answer.
Quiz coming up later, but a word on Singin’ In The Rain:
Cosmo Brown is the greatest innovator in Hollywood history. Just about every great idea in the early talkie era originates from him. Discuss.
Sorry, you guys, but I doubt if they did know about their unpaid taxes. In proportion to the money they make every year, a hundred thousand or so in tax liability ain’t nothin’ nohow.
These guys don’t do their taxes, their accountants do, and though they ARE responsible, I can’t imagine them sitting down at the kitchen table and going over their deductions. They just sign (or have someone sign for them).
We peons have NOOOO idea what having big money is like.
P.S. Kill all the lawyers and big shot accountants.
“Saturday Night in Toledo Ohio” – Made famous by John Denver, though I don’t know who first wrote and performed it.
As for Cleveland, it was a nasty, dirty, polluted steel town, so bad that, when we swam in the lake, we had to dodge the dead fish and occasionally pull a lamprey off our backs.
It became a really cool place after I left. (For Bet: “ba da bum.” For Mike: “Kiss my lamprey.))
Quiz time!
Name these songs by their opening lines:
1964
Every time you kiss me I’m still not certain that you love me
1965
When I see her comin’ down the street
1966
As I walk this land with broken dreams
1967
Sometimes in the mornin’ when shadows are deep
1968
The preacher talked with me and he smiled
1969
Look over yonder, what do you see
1970
I was once out a strolling one very hot summer day
1971
Well, I´m on my way to the city life
1972
I never knew how complete life could be
1973
Wash away my troubles, wash away my pain
1974
Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac
1975
Can’t get no rest, don’t know how I work all day
1976
Everybody’s high on consolation
1977
“Goin’ up,” she said, “uh huh”
1978
Pack your grip, takin’ you on a trip
1979
How come he don’t come and P.L.P. with me down at the meter no more?
1980
Come on and hold me, just like you told me
1981
Dance all night, play all day
1982
I was a car hop, you was into be-bop
1983
Step right up and don’t be shy