Thinking About Blogging (About Thinking)

I want to get back to doing some actual blogging rather than using this space to promote podcast episodes. I feel like by now everyone knows where to find my podcasts if they're interested. And for those who don't, the individual websites for each one are in the sidebar. 

I don't have a specific blogging plan other than to ease into it. I'm not gonna set any huge projects for myself right away. I need this to be spontaneous and fun. This is just a note to express my intention. Less podcast promo, more actual thoughts about things.

After Lunch | Planet of the Apes (1968)

Rob, Pax, and I visit the Planet of the Apes! Kicking off a bunch of discussions about the simian series, we start with a quick conversation about Pierre Boulle's novel before exploring the 1968 movie that started a phenomenon. 

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After Lunch | Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

On the 200th episode of After Lunch, Rob, Karen Flieger, and I close out the Sean Connery era of the Bond films with Diamonds Are Forever. We talk about the return of Connery, whether it's a worthy follow-up to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the wisdom of hiring a jazz musician and Crispin Glover's dad to play assassins. The movie's directed by Goldfinger's Guy Hamilton and also stars Jill St John, Charles Gray, Lana Wood, and Jimmy Dean.

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Hellbent for Letterbox | The Walking Hills (1949)

I accidentally pulled a fast one and made Pax watch a non-historical Western, John Sturges' The Walking Hills. It stars Randolph Scott and Ella Raines as two members of a party that enters the desert dunes looking for a lost wagon train and (according to legend) the gold that it was carrying.

But even though the movie takes place in the 1940s, the comic Pax read does not: the Sixth Gun mini-series Shadow Roads.

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After Lunch | Introducing: After Midnight

We're soon going to start a new horror-focused series of episodes called After Lunch After Midnight featuring Michael and his pal Jessica Hickman. It's sort of a spin-off of another podcast called Filthy Horrors that they did together with their mutual pal Darla Ecklund. So to introduce After Midnight, we thought it might be good to rerun the first episode of Filthy Horrors in which Jess, Darla, and Michael talk about their history with horror, the kinds of horror they like, and lots of examples of favorite horror movies, TV shows, books, and comics.

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After Lunch | Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023)

Rob and I wrap our Mission: Impossible movies watch-through (for now) with the new entry in the series: Dead Reckoning, Part One. We talk about all the spoilers and whether second viewings changed our perspective on anything. Well, one thing in particular, but sure, everything else, too.

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After Lunch | After Dinner Lounge – A Mission: Impossible Level Puzzle

Rob, Pax, and I finish this month's Lounge with discussion about our personal movie rating systems, Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series, Daniel Pemberton movie scores, The Haunting of Bly Manor, the second season of Schmigadoon!, more about Ted Lasso, Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship, Nimona, modern Luddites, The Flash, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Alamo Drafthouse, our top three favorite comic book artists, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, maybe a little bit about the new Mission: Impossible movie, and much much more.

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After Lunch | After Dinner Lounge – Sniff This Microphone

Rob, Pax, and I chat about farting soulmates, '90s revamped superheroes, Pax’s idea for a Batman ‘66 Season 4 crossover, Philip Marlowe in The Little Sister, Hammer Frankenstein and the Hammer House of Podcast, Men both Gray and Thin, weekly comics reading, crappy Spider-Man novels, the darkening of the Harry Potter books, and lots of other things.

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After Lunch | Star Trek: Discovery, Season 4

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Rob, Delaney, and I continue our Star Trek Trek with season 4 of Discovery. Find out what we thought of the butterfly people, the new Federation President, all that jargon (The DMA! Species 10-C! The Orb! The Hyperfield!), and the most contentious element of the season: Zora. 

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Hellbent for Letterbox | The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976)

Pax and I touch the plums on Western-comedy The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox, starring Goldie Hawn and George Segal.

Also: I vote for Lee Van Cleef as a bounty-hunter-turned-politician in The Big Gundown.

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After Lunch | The Hasbro Cinematic Universe

As Hasbro begins building its cinematic universe in real life, Rob and I welcome Jeeg and my son, David to talk about how we would do it. Following the MCU model, each person has picked a Hasbro game or toy to adapt into a movie that then connects somehow into the other movies, all leading to an Avengers-style crossover blockbuster. Madness or genius? You decide!

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Seriously Felicity | Getting Lucky

Kristi and I adopt a stray, try to remember a movie, and order a butterfly cake.

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After Lunch | The Man from UNCLE (2015)

While Rob and I wait for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One to come out, we follow up Henry Cavill's performance in Fallout with another Cavill spy movie, Guy Ritchie's The Man from UNCLE.

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After Lunch | On Her Majesty's Secret Christmas

Since we just talked about On Her Majesty's Secret Service last episode, now seems like a good time to revisit this conversation from my old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast in which I talk with Carlin Trammel about the movie and how (or if) it functions as a Christmas movie.

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After Lunch | On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

After some Goldfinger and Thunderball trivia that you can play along with, Rob, Karen Flieger, and I talk about George Lazenby's grounded and human James Bond, Diana Riggs' lovely and kickass Tracy di Vicenzo, and Telly Savalas' tough and brutish Ernst Stavro Blofeld. It's an unusual entry in the series, but is it also good? Once we settle that, we wrap with some On Her Majesty's Secret Service trivia, too.

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After Lunch | After Dinner Lounge – This Changes a Man

Rob, Michael DiGiovanni, and I talk about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Star Wars Visions Season 2, Ted Lasso Season 3, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, the Our Man Flint movies, Hammer's Frankenstein movies, Peter Pan and Wendy (2023), streaming service avatars, Fast X, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Silo, Disney’s Stan Lee documentary, how our buying and reading of comics has changed, aging and wisdom, budgeting entertainment time, and other things we've been watching and thinking about.

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After Lunch | After Dinner Lounge – Flintstones Calisthenics

As Pax recovers from vacation, Evan returns to the Lounge for a bit with me, Rob, and guest-lounger Michael DiGiovanni. In this first half of the discussion, the conversation includes butt tattoos, underwear preferences, Joe Hill, nepotism, how horror works in books vs film, jazz trombone, William T Riker, Fourth Chair Carryover Questions, the difference between the book and movie versions of Prisoner of Azkaban, The New Classic Film Jerks, the Off Panel comic book interview podcast, the Purple Stuff podcast, letting your kids introduce you to new music, celebrity podcasts, Action Comics, Dawn of DC, Star Trek: Double Double by Michael Jan Friedman, Cassandra Cain as Batgirl, and X-Men comics.

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After Lunch | Batman (1966), Season 4

Rob and I welcome Erik Johnson and Noel Thingvall to create a fourth season of the Adam West Batman series by crossing it over with other late-'60s TV shows. In addition to the new guest-characters, some of the stories also include new villains pulled from comics of the day and played by popular actors of the period. 

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Seriously Felicity | The Love Bug

Kristi and I blow off midterms, audition for a movie, and try to avoid getting mono.

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After Lunch | Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

Rob and I finish our Mission: Impossible movies catch-up with a discussion of Fallout. Henry Cavill, Vanessa Kirby, and Angela Bassett join the series while other favorites return. But is that, plus emotional closure and fantastic stunts, enough to make this one of our favorite in the series?

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Hellbent for Letterbox | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Pax and I watch the Coen Brothers' anthology movie, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Plus, Pax listens to the 1001 Stories from the Old West podcast and I watch The Secret of Convict Lake (1951) and Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949).

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After Lunch | You Only Live Twice (1967)

This extra-sized episode opens with Rob, Karen Flieger, and I answering trivia questions about Dr No and From Russia With Love. The questions are multiple choice, so play along as you listen. 

After that, we return to the official Bond film series with Sean Connery's first last appearance in the role. And we are not in agreement about the quality of this film. We'll talk about why before wrapping up with more trivia, this time about You Only Live Twice.

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After Lunch | After Dinner Lounge – Technical Difficulties

Rob, Pax, and I experienced some technical difficulties in the lounge before we got around to thinking about anything this month. But we did get to talk about what we've been watching, including Perry Mason Season 2, John Wick Chapter 4, The Super Mario Bros Movie, Renfield, Sisu, Strange New Worlds, Air, Fast X, Bruce Lee, Philip Marlowe, The Black Phone, and Star Trek: Lower Decks.

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After Lunch | After Dinner Lounge – Conquering Heroes to the Mall

Rob, Pax, and I talk about what we've been listening to and reading, including our favorite podcasts and comics, but also Harry Potter audiobooks, Cameron Crowe's novel Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, Circe by Madeline Miller, Raymond Chandler's The High Window, and additional thoughts on Rogue Nation and Picard, Season 3.

All of this, plus a new Ask Us Anything segment thanks to listener voicemail from our pal Jody Collins.

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After Lunch | Dungeons & Dragons, Session Zero - "You Here to Kill Gerald?"

After Michael, Rob, Jeff Somogyi, and Ben Graham talk briefly about their various experiences playing Dungeons & Dragons and their expectations for the game, Ben leads the rest of the party into a quick encounter with a sheep-stealing griffin. Assuming the group survives, this is the first of a series of adventures that will also see William Bruce West joining the fun in future episodes. Roll a d20 and make a Fun Check.

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After Lunch | License to MCU

Rob and I are joined by Michael DiGiovanni and William Bruce West to imagine a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that includes characters from the wide array of toys, movies, and TV series that Marvel Comics has licensed over the years.

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After Lunch | Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Rob and I continue watching our way through the Mission: Impossible movies with Christopher McQuarrie's debut in the series, Rogue Nation. Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner are back, but how does Sean Harris measure up as the villain? And then there's Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust. Is this the entry that will supplant Mission: Impossible III as our favorite? Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tune in and find out.

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After Lunch | Jason Copland's Full Tilt

Rob and I welcome my friend and Kill All Monsters partner Jason Copland to talk about his new graphic novel, Full Tilt. Successfully funded on Zoop in an hour, the book is a non-stop scifi noir action thriller. Jason talks about its inception and the creation process, but there's also some Kill All Monsters talk and we wrap up with a discussion of some of our favorite other "full tilt" stories in various media. 

Full Tilt promises to be a unique story in a beautiful package and there are currently no plans to publish it traditionally, so please be nice to yourself and order your copy on Zoop right away.

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Hellbent for Letterbox | Hatfields & McCoys (2012)

Pax and I try not to break into a blood feud when we delve into the History Channel mini-series Hatfields & McCoys starring Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton.

Plus: Cowboys & Indians magazine, Rachel and the Stranger, and Zorro Rides Again.
 

Thundarr Road | Challenge of the Wizards

David, Noel, and I ride again, this time to Las Vegas to watch an apocalyptic Cannonball Run when a wizard coerces Thundarr, Ariel, and Ookla into competing for him in a road race against his rivals.

Download or listen to the episode here.
 

After Lunch | Casino Royale (1967)

Rob, Karen Flieger, and I wrap up our digression into 1967 unofficial Bond movies with a look at Charles K Feldman's spoof, Casino Royale, starring David Niven, Ursula Andress, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, and Orson Welles. It's a classic train wreck of a movie, but does that mean that it's no good? We talk about what happened behind the scenes during production, critique the jokes, and try to make sense of the plot.

Seriously Felicity | Crash

Michael and Kristi go on a blind date, buy a new fridge, and play video games.

After Lunch | Picard, Season 3 (Initial Reactions)

Rob and I reunite with our old friend Carlin Trammel to talk in a very spoilery way about the recent, third season of Star Trek: Picard. This isn't part of After Lunch's official Star Trek Trek discussions, because those won't get to Picard for a long time. We just couldn't wait that long to talk about the season. 

And again, lots of spoilers in this episode.

After Lunch | After Dinner Lounge – $#!t, Did You Do the Tooth Fairy?

Rob, Pax, and I talk about what we've been watching and thinking, leading to conversations about New Girl, Shrinking, Star Trek: Picard, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, John Wick, Chapter 4, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Ted Lasso, The Mandalorian, Murder, My Sweet, Nope, The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek, former fandoms we used to enjoy, Easter traditions, and dream RPG settings.

After Lunch | After Dinner Lounge – And... We're Dead

Rob, Pax, and I talk about what we've been listening to and reading lately, leading to topics like the intersection of faith and feminism, different approaches to film podcasting, the novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Bono's memoir Surrender, Pax's reaction to Rob and my Ghost Protocol episode, Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, ‘90s Batman comics, and Batmobiles in general.

Some of the Batmobiles that come up are Norm Breyfogle's sports car, the '70s Super Friends classic, and the happy batface from Batman: Prodigal.

After Lunch | Evan's Marvel Comics Reboot

Evan wasn't able to join us last episode when Rob, Jody Collins, and I rebooted Marvel Comics, so in this episode, I ask Evan about his ideas for all-new versions of Thor, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Hulk, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men.

Hellbent for Letterbox | Comanche Moon (2008)

Pax and I return to the world of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove with the chronologically second mini-series in the saga, Comanche Moon, starring Steve Zahn, Karl Urban, Linda Cardellini, Elizabeth Banks, Melanie Lynskey, Wes Studi, and Val Kilmer.

Plus: quick thoughts on Robert McCammon's Trevor Lawson books and the movies Station West (1948) and Westward the Women (1951).