Salem’s Lot, Tomato Knife, & Tormenture
About This Episode
We head to the theatre for the spooky sequel to 2022’s Smile, evaluate some new culinary tech to make your time in the kitchen more productive, and play a new metroidvania-style game set in the kaiju-filled Monarch Monsterverse!
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Show Notes
- Salem’s Lot » youtu.be/QtVzKkv03ic?si=yG_qMUeR8dDU2Mg_
- The Legend of Swordquest » apple.co/3NPc0CV
- Smile 2 » youtu.be/0HY6QFlBzUY?si=2rqIhBA5kCIMye7I
- Home Hero Tomato Knife » www.amazon.com/dp/B0BY36RCNN?tag=genxgrownup-20
- Ninja Hot and Iced Coffee Maker » www.amazon.com/dp/B0BBSN3NXD?tag=genxgrownup-20
- Tormenture » store.steampowered.com/app/2545220/Tormenture/
- Watch Jon Play Tormenture » www.youtube.com/live/dsUZdG_TAa0?si=zUc1vaJ0diHFGOH0
- Watch George play Camp Blood Virtual Pinball » www.youtube.com/live/Rmunupov_LQ?si=A3sRDIROoOJo5rx-
- Kong: Survival Instinct » store.steampowered.com/app/2769080/Kong_Survivor_Instinct/
- Here » youtu.be/I_id-SkGU2k?si=vzo4OweeYekoWBo7
- Arcane Season 2 » youtu.be/JpQOtc-YgUY?si=MxIA4KP6c_itk89z
- Email the show » podcast@genxgrownup.com
- Visit us on YouTube » GenXGrownUp.com/yt
TRANSCRIPT
| Speaker | Transcript |
| Jon | Welcome back Gen X grown-up podcast listeners to this episode 178 of the Gen X grown-up podcast. Mo always gasps every time I say the number. |
| Mo | it It keeps getting bigger, the number. |
| Jon | Well, that’s how numbers work. That’s how you do it. I am John. Joining me as always of course is George Amen. |
| George | Hey, how’s it going, guys? |
| Jon | And returning from his vacation after being absent last week is Mo. Hey buddy. |
| Mo | Hey, how’s it going everybody? |
| Jon | Did you have a good time? |
| Mo | Oh yeah, fantastic. You know, did you guys miss me? |
| George | Nope. |
| Mo | I didn’t think so. |
| Jon | I mean, yes, of course, of course we missed you. |
| George | Got plenty of American Ninja Warrior watching done while you were gone. |
| Mo | That’s on brand. |
| Jon | Yeah, obviously. |
| George | so |
| Jon | Now, we had Kat sit in from 1980s. |
| Mo | yeah |
| Jon | Now she popped in and helped us with the Halloween backtrack. She did a great job. but We’re great glad you’re back. We’re glad you got a break from us. That’s probably the best part of your vacation, realistically. and In this episode, we’re going to head to the theater for the spooky sequel, the 2022 film Smile. |
| Jon | Evaluate some new culinary tech to make your time in the kitchen more productive and play a new Metroidvania style game set in the Kaiju filled monarch monster verse. |
| Mo | Yeah. Bubble boom. |
| Jon | those stories and so much more coming up in this episode. But first, it’s time for some fourth listener email. Look, there’s three of us. We’re apt to listen, though no guarantees, we know. |
| Jon | But if anyone else has taken time to listen and writes in to let us know about it, you are our fourth listener. And the fourth listener this time around is Aaron R. Who dropped us a line. The subject was thank you. |
| Jon | Okay, you’re welcome. |
| Mo | You’re welcome. |
| Jon | right All right, email done. There we go. Aaron says, I was currently, oh, |
| Jon | guess iset Aaron says, I was currently preparing for a few trips requiring various forms of travel. Your interview with Halberd Scott Warshaw and the suggestion and the suggestion of his book was perfect timing. |
| Jon | I purchased the audio book between his book and your backlog of podcasts all of the time and cars and in the air has passed in an enjoyable way. Thank you for all of the great content. |
| Jon | There you go. |
| Mo | right |
| Jon | Great. Yeah, we’ve talked to Howard a couple of times, and we take the full unedited versions of those celebrity interviews and post them here on the podcast. We’ve talked to him a couple of times. We’ve talked to Gary Kitchen, a George just interviewed a lovely actress and director from the 80s film and television. Yeah, we try to get little bonuses when we can, and this was a bonus that Aaron listened to, so glad you enjoyed it. ah And he went on to say, if I may also ask, do you have, or could you point me to an email or website where I could purchase signed copies |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| Jon | of Howard Scott Warshaw’s Once Upon Atari. I know a couple people who something like that would make a great gift. Thanks again, Aaron R. |
| Mo | Nice. |
| Jon | Well, Aaron, you’re in luck. I did respond to Aaron directly with the link. ah But yes, you can get ah You can get Howard’s book, Once Upon Atari, anywhere you buy books, Amazon or wherever, but you want to go straight from Howard and he can autograph them for you. |
| Jon | Just head over to onceuponatari.com. We’ll throw that link down in the show notes. |
| Mo | sense. |
| Jon | So it’s pretty easy to remember and type and punch it in there. And yeah, you can get that lots of other cool little merchant stuff that he has, including, as I said, his novel. And I think you can get a signed copy of his, ah the audio book too. |
| Jon | I mean, he goes he has it all kinds of forms, but yeah, that’s the place to do it. Very cool. Aaron, thank you for dropping us a line. We’re glad that our interview and the back catalog of episodes kept you busy on your travel. If you would like your email featured here on the show, it is drop dead easy. Just hit us up at podcast at gen at grownup dot.com. We read every single one and most of them, like Aaron’s, is eventually going to make this show. All right, gentlemen, with a good business bar behind us, we’re going to jump… I can’t talk. All right, gents, with that good business behind us, we’re going to jump into the body of episode 178 after this quick break. |
| Jon | Great. |
| Jon | Let’s get the ball rolling. Talking about media. We have been checking out. Now, you know, this can be a television or film or music or books or whatever it is in the world of media you’re enjoying. And I’ll like to start with you, Mo. What have you been checking out lately? |
| Mo | Yeah, yeah. ah HBO Max, whatever the hell they’re called now, ah did a movie version of a Stephen King book, Salem’s Lot. There was a mini TV series, I think back in the late 70s, early 80s, I think they did something like that. |
| George | Well. |
| George | who |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | um So they they did a movie version of it. I watched it. You know, it existed. |
| Jon | You seem enthusiastic. |
| George | Riveting. |
| Mo | Yeah, it was, No surprises. I mean, it it to me is actually a little bit boring, actually, because I mean, and you guys know the basic story, but it seems I don’t know if you do or not. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | But essentially, a vampire is slowly taking over town. |
| Jon | Mm |
| Mo | That’s that’s the ah crux of the plot. Right. |
| Jon | hmm. |
| Mo | um At the end of this thing, I was just get because nothing frustrates me more than people who are in these like life or death situations that do stupid things. You know what it means? |
| Mo | Like you scream at the screen kind of thing, you know? |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | And they spent more time standing and looking. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | While I’m like, run! Why the hell aren’t you running? What the hell is wrong with you? what you know So that was like the most enjoyable part of the movie for me. I mean, it was okay. |
| George | But this is where the director told me to stand. |
| Mo | And and stare at the whatever’s hap- |
| Jon | Not the actors fault. He was told to look stupid. |
| Mo | It’s like staring at the monster as it comes towards you. You know, I’m like, why are you staring at it? Um, no, I mean, it wasn’t bad. i mean I mean, it wasn’t bad. It’s just, there’s no surprises in it at all. Um, you know, it was a pretty honest, I think rendition of the book, you know, uh, maybe a little too honest in a way. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| Mo | You know what I mean? Like there was no, nothing new in it kind of thing, but you know, it’s, it’s Cinemax. What are you gonna do? |
| Jon | You know, I tried to watch it, which again, doesn’t bode well. What a great setup like you. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | And I don’t think it’s just because I’d seen the story before. I think it just there was nothing about the presentation or the cinematography or like it was all fine. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly, exactly. |
| Jon | you |
| Mo | It was… |
| Jon | But no part of it got me interested. And I was multitasking. Admittedly, I’m bad about that. I’ll be multitasking. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | And something gets my attention. I go, oh, full screen. Let’s pay attention to this. And my attention just continued to drift to the point that I wasn’t even paying attention to the movie because it was just kind of dragging along. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | ah It gets it felt to me like it was gonna be a miniseries and they had to just cram it together But it and they had the added challenge the fact that it’s a story you’ve heard before So I guess I wasn’t super surprised that it wasn’t awesome. |
| Mo | Yeah, it can’t… |
| Jon | I’ve heard mixed reviews from other people, too Hmm |
| Mo | Yeah. Yeah. They said it was, it was it was okay. You know, like I said, I would not go out of my way to do it. It’s like one of the things you probably watch when you’re like getting over the flu or something, you need something to fall asleep on. |
| Mo | You know, it’s like one of those things pop that and you fall asleep. You don’t feel like you miss anything, but you know, it was there. So Salem’s lot HBO, you know, it’s a thing. |
| Jon | It’s a thing. |
| Mo | It exists. So how about you John? I hope you have something a little bit more exciting. |
| Jon | I do, and it’s been a while since I’ve selected a podcast to recommend here in the media section, but that’s exactly what I’m gonna do. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | And it’s a podcast right up our alley. So there’s a new, I guess it just started maybe a month or so ago, but it was recommended by one of our viewers and followers. and it’s called The Legend of Sword Quest. |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| Jon | yeah You guys remember the contest, 82, 83, that Tari did with the, ah you could win $150,000 in prizes, they had a chalice and everything that you could win. |
| George | Mm hmm. |
| Mo | Yes. |
| Jon | So when he first mentioned to me, I’m like, well, is this gonna be like a dramatized, you know fictional podcast, you know following the story of a kid trying to win it? Because I’m not that interested in that so much, but it’s not that. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | It’s effectively a very serious documentary following the rise and fall, during the course following Atari, of course, who also fell during the course of this contest. |
| Jon | and the I don’t know how much you guys know about it, but like the first first game, they brought winners out to California and somebody won. |
| Mo | You’re right. |
| Jon | It was a medallion. And they talked to Howard Scott Warshaw, who was working at Atari. They talked to Todd Fry, who was the designer of the ah Sword Quest series, also the guy that programmed Pac-Man that George loves so much. ah They talked to people who have, who did enter the contest and were flowing flowing out to California. I’m about three, two, three episodes in right now. And as a Like I never thought this silly Atari game series would get such a serious and thoughtful analysis in and in a podcast or any form, any kind of documentary. ah So look, the next time you’re listening to the GXG podcast, yay, thank you. We’re glad you love it. When you’re caught up. |
| Jon | I would recommend, we put a link down to the show notes. it’s I think it’s a production of iHeart Radio. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | It’s one of their iHeart originals, but you can find it anywhere. It’s not exclusive to iHeart, but it’s called The Legend of Sword Quest. Really well produced, really well written, and includes actual people who were there at the time. |
| Jon | And I’ve already learned more about, I thought I knew a lot about it. I’ve already learned more than I even knew. |
| Mo | Is this like a limited series podcast? It sounds like it is, right? |
| Jon | They haven’t said exclusively, but i yeah, I mean, this story has a finite ending. So I expect they like seven episodes in, maybe maybe they plan for 10 or so. I don’t know how far in the in two episodes in, they’re just up, just started the second game. |
| Mo | Oh, okay. |
| Jon | So we have a few more to go. So probably limited. ah Each episode, by the way, make sure you have access to your skip button because they have like five minutes of ads at the beginning and five minutes of ads in the middle and almost seven minutes of ads and credits at the end. |
| Jon | So these 50 minute episodes are really about 30 minutes of content, easy to consume and really well done. So if you like you like kind of nerdy stuff that we like, ah you’re liable to like this legend of Sword Quest. |
| Jon | I recommend you do check it out. |
| Mo | Nice. |
| Jon | Yeah. ah Now, George, how about you? You went and checked out a sequel to a film that was kind of a surprise hit a couple of years ago. |
| George | Sure. Yeah. A couple of years ago, 2022, there were two movies that came out during what Gen X people traditionally call the horror movie season around September, October. |
| George | One was Barbarian. Really well done film. |
| Jon | Yeah, yeah. Mm hmm. |
| George | Enjoyed it a lot. We talked about it, I’m sure, on the podcast. The other one, ah which was also surprisingly good because you don’t usually get two horror films good back to back like that, ah was Smile. |
| George | uh very creepy kind of a uh like a possession ah horror film kind of thing where this uh |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | entity, I guess I’m going to call it is kind of stalking people. |
| Mo | It’s good name for it. |
| George | And it’s also got a little bit of a ring or videotape element to it in that yeah the thing happens to you. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | You see the smile thing happen and the person gets killed and then within six to seven days you also die. |
| Mo | Mm hmm. |
| George | So ah that was smile. Smile to expand it upon the storyline exactly six days after |
| Mo | Oh, so it’s a direct sequel. |
| George | the uh the last film yeah like uh they you know kind of kind of did exactly what i would want them to with a sequel to that movie if you’re gonna make one um i’m i’m a little hesitant to uh give away too many spoilers because it’s in the theater and i was fortunate enough to get some time uh for me and my son to go see it who uh asked me before we stepped into theater dad please don’t tease me i’m probably going to be covering my eyes a lot |
| Jon | Oh, that’s cool. That’s neat. |
| George | Cause he just watched smile one the night before he had not seen the original. |
| Jon | ah And, uh, yeah. |
| Mo | Oh, okay. Oh, okay. |
| George | Uh, he did cover his eyes an awful lot. |
| Jon | Yeah, you did. |
| Mo | No. |
| George | Uh, and it was warranted. |
| Mo | okay no |
| George | It’s, I will say this within the first five minutes of the film is probably the best jump scare in the past five years of horror films for me. |
| Mo | Wow. |
| Jon | Oh, damn. Okay. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| George | Yeah, ah it it actually got me and I said, whoa, like it actually shocked and scared me. That doesn’t happen very often for me in horror movies. You generally can see the jump scares coming with the music or the tense of nature that’s happening right then as things slow down and the director zooms in on something maybe or turns the camera or does a quick edit. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah, you can smell it. |
| Mo | Music. Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | Squeak, squeak, squeak. |
| George | I didn’t see this one coming at all. um It was also part of a Martin Scorsese-like uncut long shot. |
| Mo | Nice. |
| George | it like The whole scene is uncut, which my son found out later ah for like at least three or five minutes, I think. |
| Jon | Oh, really? Those are cool. |
| Mo | Wow. |
| Jon | Those are fun. |
| Mo | Yeah. Those are cool. So did it, did it go into a little bit more the backstory of the whole curse thing at all? Or is it just still kind of like just sort of continued on? |
| George | Hmm, uh, kind of ish, but not really. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | And I liked that they didn’t because in order to go into the history of the curse, somebody would kind of need to survive the curse. |
| Mo | Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. That’s a good point. |
| George | Well, I don’t want anybody to survive the curse. Right. |
| Jon | ah right No one lived to tell the tale. |
| George | Uh, it kinda defeats the purpose. Right. Yeah. I mean, the whole thing about smile was, you know, it was not a final girl film, right? It was, you know, the final person got their ass handed to him and died. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Uh, what they did was they took the setting, which was in the first film, a psychiatrist who was being tormented by this creature um or this entity, whatever you want to call it. |
| Jon | Right. |
| George | And they shifted it to a public figure. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | They seen the trailer. |
| George | So the new target, she’s a pop star. |
| Jon | She’s like a pop star, right? Okay. |
| George | That lends a new dynamic to the whole going crazy in your own mind scenario that Smile used in the first film, because there are a lot of things that happen to a public figure that would make the average person go crazy anyway. |
| Jon | Oh, |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| Jon | Oh, I see. |
| George | And so |
| Jon | Yeah, they’re exposed to like super crazy fans, probably, and other nutty stuff. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | Exactly. |
| Jon | I thought of that. |
| George | And they use a lot of those celebrity tropes to subvert your view of the film to where you really don’t know what you’ve been watching until probably the last 10 minutes of the movie. |
| Jon | Oh. |
| Mo | Oh, okay. |
| Jon | Damn. |
| Mo | Interesting. |
| George | They did a really good job of cover up. |
| Jon | I like that. |
| George | I, I really appreciated it. Now some people might say, Oh yeah, the director, they did something that they presented something not in evidence, right? You hear people talking like that about movies where they just pull something out of left field that you had no way to figure out. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. |
| George | They didn’t do that with this film, but they hit it so cleverly that I was kicking myself for not |
| Mo | Okay. Not seeing it. |
| George | Well, not for not seeing it, but for not figuring it out. yeah I saw it. I just didn’t fucking figure it out. It would it it got me. |
| Jon | right? |
| Mo | Gotcha. |
| Jon | Didn’t interpret it as that. That’s very promising. |
| Mo | Yeah, that is very. |
| Jon | Like you want to be, but you got jump scares. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | You want to be entertained. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | It sounds like well produced and it was well assembled in such a way that it’s like a puzzle you can unravel and you’re not just sitting there waiting for them to show you what you already know. |
| George | yeah |
| Jon | That’s a rarity these days. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | It is editing was top notch on this. Whoever laid out the story and everything, I don’t know how much, uh, you know, directors, producers, editors, I don’t know how they collaborated or anything. I’ve seen any interviews, but the team put out a great product and. |
| George | It’s certainly um something that I would recommend full price for on my old AMC recommendation scale of, you know, AMC ticket and everything. |
| George | I would pay full price to go see this movie even a second time. |
| Mo | Wow. |
| George | Even though now I know what’s there, I would like to go back and watch this with that knowledge to see what other things I could see. |
| Mo | Mm hmm. |
| Mo | So they set up for smile three. |
| George | Yeah. |
| George | yeah Um, let’s just say, let’s just say the entity has choices and I’ll leave it at that. |
| Jon | There’s a big yes, Mo. |
| Mo | OK, OK. |
| Jon | Wow. |
| Jon | You really got me intrigued. Like I was kind of interested in this movie. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | And then I started to hear good things. And when I saw you were going to talk about it here, I even said before the show, I can’t wait to hear about it. Don’t tell me yet. I want to wait and find out during the recording that I now can’t wait to see it. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | I was, I’ve gone from yeah to wow. Oh, that’s, that’s promising. |
| George | Yeah, I was as happily surprised and enjoyed this movie as a message. as I did the first one the first time. |
| Mo | buts that’s says lot right c Yeah, |
| Jon | Wow. That’s killer. Cool. All right. I’ll go log into AMC and find a seat. We’ll be right back. |
| Jon | I don’t know. I tried it out there. |
| George | All right. |
| Jon | That might work. Or we’ll just start. |
| George | Do you want to know why the entity has choices? Because the entity shouldn’t have choices, right? It should just be the next person, right? |
| Mo | It should be the last person, right? |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| George | The person who saw the death. |
| Mo | Oh, I can see where this is going. |
| Jon | Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. |
| Mo | I can see where this is going though. |
| Jon | I don’t want to know. Yeah, I don’t want to know. That’s cool. |
| George | She’s a celebrity. |
| Mo | Nice. |
| Jon | That’s cool. |
| Mo | All right. Second toys. Five, four, three, |
| Mo | without any planning, me and John managed to pick tech that’s related it to each other, kinda. |
| Jon | Well-coordinated, right? |
| Mo | Yeah, it’s almost like we planned it, which we didn’t, which is even stranger. |
| Jon | Weird. No, not at all. |
| Mo | um So yeah, they’re both basically kind of like kitchen utilities or things you could use to help within the kitchen kind of environment. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | So John, let’s kick off with yours and then we’ll talk about mine. |
| Jon | Yeah, well, I’ll start right away. So, you know, whether you want to fast forward or not, I’m talking about a knife. So if you don’t care about a knife, I’m not going to have some big buildup and then reveal that it’s a knife. But but if you do any kind of cooking or food preparation or anything. |
| Jon | I’m not saying that I’m a chef, but the knives you have the things you have utensils are are your tools to get the job done. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | And if they’re crappy, you can have a crappy time preparing food if they’re really high quality, you know, nice sharp knives that maintain their edge and things like that. ah So I’ve been on a real, real salad kick. Remember back when I used to travel a lot, I would buy salad and eat it in my hotel room. And I just missed that. Like that was a regular meal. And at home, like it seems these days I only get salad when I’m at a restaurant. I’ve been on a kick where I buy lettuce and tomatoes and stuff and make them at home. But cutting tomatoes is always a pain in the ass. Like a serrated knife is a little bit better. Sometimes when they get a little soft and the serrated knife doesn’t have any leverage or anything. |
| Jon | And the the way that Google hears everything you say in your home, I’m sure I out loud mentioned something about being frustrated about cutting tomatoes. And then in some, you know, TikTok or Facebook reel, it came up special tomato cutting knife. |
| Jon | Like what’s special about a tomato knife? and I don’t understand. |
| Mo | Yeah |
| Jon | but I went looking, it’s only $10 and I did, I looked at, found and purchased the Home Hero tomato knife. Now this is not to say you could only use it on tomatoes or it’ll burst into flames or something. |
| Mo | It only works on tomatoes. so |
| Jon | But right, the way it’s designed, it’s it’s kind of like a filet knife, but it’s not designed to cut fish. It has, the problem with tomatoes is what the skin is rigid and you have to pop through it with something serrated or a knife. |
| Jon | But then as you and you do that, it’s soft and it starts to smoosh. You know, and then so you really can’t maintain it even things. |
| Mo | right |
| George | Mm hmm. |
| Jon | So any anyone who has cut tomatoes is nodding. Oh, yeah. Yeah. If you haven’t, you’re like, why are you wasting my time on a podcast about slicing tomatoes? But if that is the thing you do and it’s a regular, yeah right regular frustration, I was dubious i’m like for 10 bucks. |
| Jon | I’ll give it a shot. But I was dubious. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | And it really is remarkably good at handling slicing tomatoes, especially ripe tomatoes that are nice. Now, if it’s if it’s a little green, it’s still rigid and stiff, it’s easy to cut with any knife. But once you get them ah ripe and the red and soft inside, and the way they do it is like a filet knife, the entire blade is somewhat curved. |
| Jon | and there were little serrated serrations all along it so that as you cut, as the knife almost creates its own curve over the tomato to help you cut it before it starts to smoosh. It’s hard to explain what it does, but it actually works really well. |
| Jon | And I would say it would be good for, you know, anything, any vegetables that are kind of ripe and get a little soft, like maybe some cucumber slicing or maybe even slicing fruit, perhaps it’s soft inside and tends to smoosh as you’re slicing it. |
| Jon | You don’t want to crush it. |
| Mo | Mm-hmm Yeah |
| Jon | ah But stunned, I’m as stunned as the next guy, I was prepared to return it after I or why you ordering a special tomato knife. It’s It’s just a good vegetable knife, but it’s, it’s called the home hero. |
| Jon | Again, it’s only 10 bucks. mo I’ll give you a link down in the show notes. I can expect, you know, you’re both kind of looking at me like, really? And remember when I did the silly oven stickers and everybody said, thank God, I bet there’s two listeners that I just saved them hours in the kitchen with this thing. |
| Jon | And I really have enjoyed using it. So that’s why, that’s why it did it. |
| Mo | okay |
| Jon | So, all right. |
| Mo | hey emotionza good |
| Jon | That’s my kitchen thing, Mo. |
| Mo | All right. |
| Jon | What about you? |
| Mo | Let’s, you know, that’s not a bad thing. I mean, you know, it’s a kimp problem. |
| Jon | No, it’s all right. |
| Mo | Mine’s not terribly more exciting. It’s a coffee maker. |
| Jon | it |
| Mo | This is, I’ll also just not bury the lead. I’ll say what it is. Um, I drink a lot of coffee. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| Mo | I’m a coffee guy. And my old Keurig thing was basically on its last legs. So I was looking on a hunt for a new one and I want to buy one off Amazon. |
| Mo | Of course, like everything else is from the company Ninja. They make a lot of like high end products, but not quite. |
| George | Oh, yeah. |
| Jon | e Yeah, yeah. |
| George | I’ve got a couple of their air fryers. |
| Mo | There you go. Yeah, exactly. like they make the they therere They’re not quite high-end, but they’re just like one incy step below it, I kind of say, but for a lot cheaper. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Mm |
| Mo | yeah And I was looking at it, and so I found this Ninja you know Hot and Ice Coffee Maker. |
| Jon | hmm. |
| Mo | And it’s actually, I actually won. It makes Keurig coffee, makes really good cup of coffee. Let’s start with that. So that’s the the first criteria right there. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| Mo | The neat thing is it can make both Keurig and I can make a pot of coffee with it. |
| George | Oh, yeah. yeah |
| Mo | I could put a filter in it, put coffee grounds, and make a full pot of coffee as well. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| Mo | So I could do, it actually has a thing, I could pull out the curry part, put it in the filter, and make a full pot of coffee, which is pretty damn cool. |
| Jon | It’s almost like a weekday and weekend coffee maker, right? |
| Mo | Yeah, exactly. |
| Jon | Because it’s like on the weekend, you want a whole pot in the weekday, you might just want a quick cup on the way out the door. |
| Mo | um |
| Mo | There you go. um It also has a thing where it just pull out like boiling water for a tea, or stuff like that, automatically. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| Jon | Mm. Good. |
| Mo | you know So I was like, oh, because I had like a electric tea kettle thing, so I was like, oh, I can get rid of that thing. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | and It’s so I got it during the ah the prime sale day thing, you know, so I was able to get it cheaper than it’s going for right now. |
| George | Oh, yeah. Yeah. The one they just had. |
| Mo | they I got it for like one forty nine. I think it is right now. |
| George | Oh, wow. |
| Mo | It’s going for like 240. |
| Jon | Wow. |
| Mo | Yeah, it’s up there. |
| Jon | That’s quite a coffee maker. |
| Mo | It’s, it’s up there. Like I would not have paid that much eight note for any kind of coffee maker in the world. You know, unless it came with a person who made the coffee for me. |
| Jon | Perista. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yes, sir. |
| Mo | But, um but it’s it. it i’m I’m very happy with it. It makes a solid cup of coffee. |
| Jon | So you mentioned it sounded like you replaced a couple of other things in your kitchen with it. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Is that right? So it’s a Keurig. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | And then it’s a then it’s a regular coffee pot. |
| Mo | Yep. |
| Mo | Yep. |
| Jon | And these are something else you said it replaced. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah. |
| Jon | or Maybe there’s those two. |
| Mo | I had an electric kettle for just making tea like hot tea because he has a little switch. |
| Jon | Oh, the hot tea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The hot water. Yeah. |
| Mo | You switch it. And the nice thing is also is that the hot water flow for making that actually comes from a separate like supply line. So it doesn’t get any coffee. |
| Jon | Yeah, it’s not all coffee flavor. |
| Mo | contamination in it, you know, and you can even set it for boiling water or just really, really hot water, depending on I guess what you’re making, you’ making a cup of soup. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yep. |
| Mo | Maybe you just want really, really hot water or something like that. So I was so far i’m impressed. |
| Jon | Got it. |
| Mo | I had a few weeks. It’s been working well. |
| George | And I’m assuming like pretty much every coffee pot ever, it’s just got a reservoir for you to put the water in. |
| Mo | Yep. |
| George | Does it have separate ones for the tea and the coffee or it just pulls from one reservoir and it. |
| Mo | It pulls pulls from one. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| George | Okay. And so how does it heat the water only part? Because traditional coffee makers, and I don’t know how the K cup ones work because I’ve never used them, but when we have one in the grocery store, |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| George | The water got hot because the pot sat on something that was hot and the water got heated as soon as it hit the pot. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| George | But do these things heat the water before they get to your receptacle, like your coffee cup or a pot or whatever? |
| Mo | yeah Essentially. Yeah, it’s like one of those like um you like the ah the instant heat water heaters you get for your house. |
| George | Huh. |
| Mo | There’s no tank like the tankless ones. |
| George | Right. |
| Mo | It’s a similar kind of situation. It pulls the water from the reservoir. |
| Jon | Oh, like an element inside that’s heating it up. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | and Okay. |
| Jon | Like ah like with a, was that the capillary action or something? These are through really fine filters like a radiator or something, I betcha. |
| George | Yeah, yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah, but it has like a heating thing. So as it pulls the water in, it’s heating it as it pulls it through. So it’s, it so it only heats as you need it. |
| Jon | Got it, yep. |
| George | Huh. |
| Mo | And the other thing, one thing I did like my bite about my old one is that I guess because they were like trying to make it so you get coffee very quickly, it kept a reservoir of hot water in it all the time. |
| Mo | Like when it was on anyway, which. |
| George | Oh. |
| Jon | Oh, yeah. |
| Mo | which if you didn’t use it, you know, hot water, you know, um steams and seem leave. So then you want to make a cup of coffee, you get half a cup because it’s like steamed away. |
| George | Right. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | This one, I mean, so it takes like an extra 10 seconds for you to cup get a cup of coffee with this one, but it just heats it as you use it, which I think is probably a better way of doing it. |
| George | Right, less water loss that way. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | More efficient. |
| Mo | But like I said, it’s, it’s Ninja. Like said I said, I’ve had a couple of the products that you said their air fryer, a couple others, they make solid stuff and it’s got good reviews. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| George | Mm-hmm. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | So if you’re looking for something that does kind of a dual action on your coffee plus tea, you know, I don’t think you go too wrong with this one. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | All right, cool. Thanks, Mo. |
| George | All right, |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Cool, cool. |
| George | All right, time to talk about games and at least a couple of us have done live streams of the games that they’re going to talk about. So let’s start with John and the game that you played in your most recent live stream. |
| Jon | Yeah. Yeah. So this is, this is a really timely and almost like someone read my mind and said, what kind of cool spooky game would be perfect for you, John? |
| Jon | And they made it. They just kind of did it. This is a game called tormenture, which is kind of a mashup of adventure. The ah Atari 2600 game by Warren Robinette and tormented, you know, so haunted some, some creature thing. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | So, The premise of Tormenture, and you’re right, George, I live streamed it, but I also live streamed the demo a couple of months ago, and I stayed in touch with the developers and was eager. |
| George | Mmhmm. |
| Jon | i So I got a key from them. I live streamed it on the day it released. So it’s out right now. You can get it on Steam. It works on the Steam Deck, wherever you want to, you’d like to play. And the concept of the game is pretty amazing. |
| Jon | So here’s what you do. You are a kid in the 80s. You don’t you’ll see all this setup, it’s just you read it. And you’ve rented a game on your way home, this tormentor game. You’ve heard things about it, like maybe it’s a little spooky or haunted. |
| Jon | You come home, plug it into your ah not quite an Atari 2600 that they have there. It’s called a Limbo 2800, just you know kind of a knockoff kind of a fake version. And then you start playing the game and then something happens in the game and spooky stuff happens and it zooms you out of the game. And now you’re looking at the TV that the game was being played on. |
| Jon | and you’re sitting cross-legged I’m assuming in front of the television and you could turn around 360 degrees and see the things in your room it’s dark outside there’s creepy things like some blocks on the floor that keep rearranging themselves to say things |
| Jon | and what’s I played it for probably about two hours and there’s lots of it to go. It’s only like a $20, $25 game. It’s not like top tier $60 game. for In two hours, I still haven’t found the first treasure. |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| Jon | What I have done is needed to change my britches a couple of times because some really scary, you’re talking about your jump scares and smile too, George. |
| Mo | What? |
| Jon | I can’t remember the last time a game got me as good as this game did. I was in the live stream and I’m playing the game. Things are going great and it’s getting kind of creepy and there’s supposed to be a monster up here and he’s there and he starts chasing me. |
| Jon | I’m like, Oh, that’s scary. That’s scary. And he catches me and the power goes out in the house. |
| Mo | oh |
| Jon | And so it zooms out. There’s no power. You hear a squeaky noise. You look over at the window and there’s a big three fingered claw at the window, like a demon or something. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | And it absolutely grabbed me. it looks like what’s happening in it is you’re playing this old pixely Atari game much more advanced than Atari could have ever done but it seems to be affecting the real world you’re playing in the real world and things are bleeding over back and forth you can look around the room you can pick up the instruction manual and read it the receipt falls out oh you rented it for exactly six dollars and 66 cents appropriately enough |
| Mo | Oh, neat. |
| Mo | Of course. |
| George | Mm. |
| Jon | It just it keeps you on the edge of your seat and keeps you wanting to play the actual game within the game This torment your game. It’s actually a great throwback adventure game Kind of has it all |
| Mo | So what’s the kind of graphics does it have? Like, was it switched between kind of like 2600 graphics and when you pan out, does it? |
| Jon | That’s exactly right. |
| Mo | OK. |
| Jon | It’s realistic 3D, you know, modern game on the outside, including this realistic 3D model TV. On that TV though, is the old school pixel a game. |
| Mo | Right. Nice. |
| Jon | Yeah, it has both there. And you’re almost shifting between worlds. And based on what I’ve seen so far, I can only imagine later in the game, there’s gonna be even more crossover after there’s props in your room. There’s a cassette deck. |
| Jon | There’s, ah there’s a C and ah speak what’s it called? See and say speak and spell, speak and spell. |
| Mo | Speak, speak his bell. |
| Jon | Yeah, there’s that what’s the and what’s the one you can, the cow says, move that one with the dial. |
| Mo | ah Oh, oh. |
| George | I think that one’s seeing say, I think, I think so. |
| Mo | Does he say? |
| Jon | Is that seeing say I think it had both is that one and the electronic speaking and spell all the kids toys and and you know and and also there’s like a game of guess who you know the one with all the little people’s faces you flip down there’s a version of that. |
| Mo | Yeah, yeah, I got it. Yeah. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | I can only imagine a lots of it is going to come into play during the course of the game. ah I highly recommend it. It’s what it’s the most fun I’ve had on especially on a scary game a spooky game because it gives me both kinds it basically plays two games at the same time. |
| Jon | Really neat, so check out the live stream, Mo will give you the link to put in the show notes. |
| Mo | Absolutely. |
| Jon | There’s a demo you can go ah download and try it for free on Steam first though. It’s great, highly recommended, very much so. |
| Mo | Sweet. |
| Jon | All right, Mo, let’s shift gears to you. Is this the game that I told you about a few months ago that was about to come out? |
| Mo | Yes. |
| Jon | Okay, tell us about it, I can’t wait. |
| Mo | Oh, yeah yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a game that basically they said, oh, Moe’s going to buy this. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| Mo | Let’s put this game out. It’s Kong Survivor Instinct, and it’s set in the Monsterverse universe. |
| Jon | Yes. |
| Mo | It’s Kong. You know, it’s a Metrovania sort of style game. You know, the side scroller kind of deal. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. Love it. |
| Mo | Um, I saw it. I was like, Oh, yeah okay. Yeah. I’m definitely get it. It’s this Metrovania. I love those style games. You know, we play some really awesome ones in the past. Um, it’s got monsters in it. I mean, come on, you know, um, it’s surprisingly boring. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | Um, yeah, it’s, it’s kind of repetitious. |
| Jon | Oh, no. |
| Mo | So, and it’s a little buggy too, which is also the other annoying part. |
| Jon | Oh, |
| Mo | So the basic premise is your Kong is, brand sacking a city, you know, and your daughter lives there and you know of Monarch and the whole Monarch group and your whatever. And so you’re trying to find your daughter. That’s the basic thing. And so you’re going through like the side scroll, different buildings and all that stuff, you know, and it has some of the elements that, you know, Oh, you got it. You can’t do this yet. So you have to remember to come back to it after you get a certain tool or certain ability or something like those lines. Um, but it has like just, |
| Mo | Like there’s some random combat in it because apparently there’s like this monster terrorist group that is trying to get monsters to attack things or something like that. So they pop up randomly and you have to fight them off. Um, but I’m going through this and I’m like, no, I’m actually getting a little bored. Like it’s, it’s just, there’s not enough variety in it. |
| Mo | Just do normal gameplay, like you know the you fight the same couple kinds of people, at least so far. you know um It does have a neat thing, like there’s a whole segment where you’re in a building and Kong is there, and he’s destroying the building while you’re in it, so you have to like move to avoid like his him hitting you and killing you, so that was interesting. |
| Jon | Okay, yep. |
| Mo | But, you know, but that’s also one of these like, oh, once you learn the moves to do, it’s very easy. Like, it’s not like it’s a. Oh, I could strategically plant plant a style. I just have to know, oh, go here because he’s going to do this kind of thing. So you wind up dying and redoing it over and over and over again. |
| Jon | Oh, see, like you couldn’t have known on your own, you learned through repetition and dying once and I hate that. |
| Mo | No, I mean, maybe if you’re, you know, like our kids ages, maybe they could have come up quick enough, but I definitely couldn’t. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | I’m not sure if I’m happy to hear this or disappointed. I think a little of each. Like happy you don’t have to buy it probably. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Disappointed because it really looked like the second coming of a shadow complex style game with monsters in it. |
| Mo | Yes. yeah Yeah. That’s what I was hoping for. Maybe, maybe I set the bar a little too high with that. |
| Jon | So the question I have for you Mo is what about the monsters? You did mention there’s a scene where King Kong is smashing a building. |
| Mo | Yes. Hmm. |
| Jon | Are you interacting with them or are they just kind of there? |
| Mo | Yeah. No, there’s a thing where you actually you collect these, I don’t know what you call them, like sound bites. I don’t know what else to call them. And you get actually there’s a point where like things are blocking your way and you get to call Kong there using this thing. |
| Jon | I’m going to summon him. |
| Mo | You summon him and he and he wrecks the whole thing, of course, clears away for you in the process. |
| George | Oh. |
| Jon | OK. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | You get the impression so far that you, you’re going to be able to hit other monsters. Are you better? Cause if it’s just Kong, I’ll be very disappointed. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | Um, and it has things too. You can find like these monarch information cells. They talk about some of the monsters from the movies like, Oh, this was just from but the Kong Island, and the which I’m like, okay. Yeah. If you’re into, if you’ve seen the movies, you know this already. |
| Mo | So it’s not that big a deal. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | But the thing is that, and but the other thing though, is that it’s like, I got to a point and then it crashed. |
| Mo | So now when I go back and restart it, it just hangs now. |
| George | Oh. |
| Mo | So I pretty much stopped playing it at this point, you know, waiting for the next bug fix to come through because I’m like, you know, I mean, I had it like one time and I was playing it and it sort of kicked me out. |
| Jon | Launch troubles. Yeah, that’s disappointing. |
| Mo | I was like, Oh, weird. So I just restarted it. and You know, once last checkpoint kept going with this one, I can’t even get past every time I started. It just locks now. So it’s like just disappointing that I mean, come on, guys, you know. |
| Mo | This is you should have found this round one of QC. I mean, this is not like a pre-release game or anything like that. |
| Jon | And maybe it was better. You might work harder to make it work, but it sounds like it’s not good enough to motivate you to care. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | So you’re just like, yeah, the update will come eventually. And then I’ll come back to it. |
| Mo | Yeah, exactly. And that’s like when did they see a new update? Like, Oh, now I’ll go back and try it again. |
| Jon | Yeah, maybe I’ll try. Oh, oh, well, that’s disappointing. I’m sorry. |
| Mo | Yeah, that’s okay. It’s okay. |
| Jon | I thought it it looked perfect. |
| Mo | You know, yeah, maybe, maybe you’ll get better later, but again, we’ll have to wait and see, but I’m not counting on it. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Jon | Yeah, right. |
| Mo | So that’s what I got. So George, your sounds like a little bit more exciting. So |
| George | I mean, it depends on what you like to play, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. And I did a live stream on it just like a day or so after John did his, uh, pinball M from Zen studios, which is their horror variant of their virtual pinball system, uh, released a new table called camp blood brook. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| George | I’ll give you like zero guesses what it’s modeled after. |
| Jon | Well, let’s see, it’s a camp and there’s blood there. I’m going to say it’s kind of crystal leaky. |
| George | Yeah. It’s a little crystal achy. Yeah. ah So, you know, what is it? |
| Mo | That’s okay though. |
| Jon | None of that. |
| George | Legally distinguishable from Friday the 13th, I guess is how you’d put it. |
| Mo | Right. Similar to, but legally. |
| Jon | We promise we’re entirely not Friday the 13th. |
| George | um |
| George | Right. ah First of all, it’s it is slightly cheaper than there are other tables in that platform. |
| Jon | Wink. |
| George | Every other table in the platform is $5.49. This one’s $4.99. Maybe that $0.50 went because they couldn’t get the licensing rights for Friday the 13th. Everything else though, final girl, guy with a machete and a mask, you know stumbling around the pinball machine, ah the |
| Mo | It’s Saturday the 14th. |
| Mo | Okay. Okay. |
| Jon | Oh yeah. |
| George | things that you have to do are all very Friday the 13th related like you know um there’s one little ramp that takes you into a circle lake with a canoe in it and the ball spins the canoe around and if you do that enough times it’s a ball capture spot where the Jason like character comes out of the lake and pulls the ball down with him um yeah yeah |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | Like at the very ending credits, there’s like he’s even even a kid in the lake. Wow, it’s so grip offy. |
| George | Well, not a kid, but it’s the full adult Jason. |
| Mo | Okay, that’s cute. |
| Jon | Oh, the monster. Okay, still coming up out of the water. |
| George | Yeah. um there’s ah There’s another one when you so when you start one of the main modes, ah the final girl that’s kind of on the left side of the pinball table, the Jason or not Jason character, whatever you want to say, comes and grabs her by the throat and holds her up while you’re trying to complete the mission to save her kind of thing by going up certain ramps a certain amount of times. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | Come on. Great. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | Save the girl. |
| George | um All the the music is really solid. ah Sound effects are great on the machine. All the voiceover work is fun. |
| George | you know There’s police officers and the girls screaming and people calling out to each other and everything. It’s it’s a really solid pinball system from Zinn Studios who make solid pinball systems. |
| Mo | Nice. |
| Jon | I was watching the beginning of your live stream. I couldn’t watch the whole thing because I had pre committed to my wife to watch some television with her. So sorry, you lost out. But the beginning part that I was able to watch the first 20 minutes or so. |
| Jon | First, for me personally, what struck me was the stuff you’ve been talking about last several shows about your experience with virtual pinball and these, you know, Zen type studios, pinball, how much |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | Like just saying it’s digital pinball doesn’t really do it justice. It’s kind of a video game with things you could never do in pinball with you know live animated characters walking around and doing crazy stuff. |
| George | Yeah. |
| Jon | it’s It’s muted in such a way that you’re like, well, if you had a million dollars, maybe you could make a machine do this, but not really. But it’s very intricate. |
| George | It is. |
| Jon | and And beautiful. |
| George | It’s very intricate. |
| Jon | And for the, what I noticed in the chat was I think you may have converted a number of people watching who were like, I never even considered any game like this. And look at this, how cool this is. |
| Jon | I think you showed people a type of game that you’ve become enamored with lately that they might’ve even looked at before and they saw what you see in it. |
| George | It’s possible. I mean, I certainly have ah come around to virtual pinballs. I think the first time I ever saw a virtual pinball table, not including like the old, like Microsoft, you know, future pinball things that they used to have, you know, right next to Solitaire and Minesweeper. |
| Jon | Mm-hmm. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | I think the first real virtual pinball table I ever saw was at SFGE three, four or five years ago, something like that, probably. And I was like, oh, wow, this is kind of interesting, but it didn’t feel and look like pinball at all. |
| George | They’ve gotten substantially better since then is my observation, not just with all of the hardware and stuff that they’ve done on the enhancement side physically, but just the software and the visualization of the pinball machines making |
| Mo | yeah |
| George | ah depth of field things that work really well on the platforms. Now I’ve talked a lot about some of the other free ah virtual pinball systems like VPX and future pinball. |
| George | ah Their front ends like pinup popper and whatnot. ah Those are all great and you can play a lot more pinball tables on those because something like this from Zen Studios, PinballFX or PinballM, they’re going to release only what they want to release. |
| George | I think PinballFX probably has like 40-50 tables in it. |
| Jon | sure |
| George | PinballM only has like seven or eight tables total in the whole thing. |
| Mo | Oh, really? |
| George | Yeah, they release about like one every month and a half or so it feels like. |
| Mo | Wow. |
| Mo | Are they high quality? |
| Jon | But what tables? |
| George | um |
| Jon | Involved intricate tables though. |
| George | Yeah, very intricate tables, but you can tell that they are taking their time, they’re designing it to work within their system. |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| George | So the difference with what you might get with VPX is that you might get a ROM and a table that are maybe unfinished or maybe there’s some things where a ball gets stuck or the sounds aren’t quite right or something like that. |
| George | but what you get from Zen Studios is a more polished product. Now I know in the virtual pinball community there are a lot of naysayers of Zen Studios and I’m not trying to argue with them because I’m still a neophyte in this community, but for me as a novice This Zen Studios platform of pinball FX and pinball M gives me what I need to enjoy myself almost instantly. |
| George | Like I don’t have to worry about, okay, do I have the right VPX version? And did I download this file and put it in the proper folder? No, it’s just log on to steam, launch pinball FX, buy a table. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| George | play the table right there. um So far I’ve had a lot of great luck with all these tables and there is yet to be a table in their horror theme pinball M setting that I have not thoroughly enjoyed and that’s just the tables. That whole thing of these little environments that they put the table in where you get to like you get items for doing things in the pinball table, like certain achievement stuff that populate the little pinball corner that your pinball machine is in. For instance, for Camp Bloodbrook, you’re at a campsite with a little like cabin that has a door on it and one side and you can earn like a Jason statue and you can earn a picnic table that has blood on it and you all these different little things that just enhance the overall experience. So |
| George | Uh, for five bucks, if you enjoy pinball and if you like Friday the 13th, I don’t think you can go wrong with a camp blood brook. |
| Jon | yeah |
| Jon | Yeah, great recommendation. I enjoyed watching it. And it’s it made me like yours and a lot of your viewers think second time about ah virtual pinball is not for me will help. yeah It but kind of maybe is after seeing that. That’s neat. Good in there. Oh, I think I ticked off a show note. That’s my bad. Okay. |
| Jon | Coming into the back end of this episode, you know, we always like to take a few minutes here to talk about the things we’re either looking at right now or looking forward to between now and the next time we get a chance to speak. And I’d like to start with you, Mo, this time. What do you have on the horizon? |
| Mo | Okay, so to start with, I mean, Venom, Last Dance. I’m assuming it’s his last movie he’s going to be doing as Venom, I’m supposing, because they’re calling it Last Dance. |
| George | Mm hmm. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | But I enjoyed all of them. You know, Tom Hardy, amazing. you know So I’m looking forward to this one. |
| Jon | Yep. |
| Mo | The other one is a series based on a movie called ah The Day of the Jackal. it they did They did a remake of it. |
| George | Oh, well, Bruce Willis movie. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | that was a Bruce Willis was a remake, actually, of an original movie that was done in the 70s. |
| George | Right. |
| Jon | Oh, wow. |
| Mo | And I remember because it was one of my dad’s favorite movies, the original one. So they’re doing like a series based on it where basically there’s this master assassin out there and this person is basically trying to catch him. And they somehow turned into a series. |
| Mo | yeah It’s worth a shot, right? We’ll see. It’s on Peacock, and it airs 11.7. And what I’m most looking forward to, and I had no choice, I better say this, is that I’m actually getting married, getting married on November 1st. |
| Jon | Finally. finally |
| Mo | you know |
| George | Well. |
| Mo | and as she She does listen to our podcast, so I had to say that for sure. That’s what I’m mostly forward to. |
| Jon | I thought you were going to watch a movie called Getting Married. It’s coming out 11-1. |
| Mo | Nope. We decided that since we’re ah older, we’re just going to do the elope thing. We’re just going down to St. Augustine, just two of us. We’re all arranged. We’re going to get married down there, come back. you know No complications. |
| Mo | Uh, no family to worry about. Um, you know, I said we, we’ve been there, done it, got the t-shirts already. So we’re like, okay, we’re gonna do this a low stress way that, you know, makes us both happy. |
| Jon | Oh, all right. I tell ya, that means George, the next time we talk to Moe, he’ll be married. |
| George | Hmm. |
| Jon | He’ll be tied up. |
| Mo | That’s right. |
| Jon | He’ll he’ll be a taken man. |
| Mo | She, she, she’ll make an honest man out of me. |
| George | Those are two separate things. He’ll be married and tied up. Is there something going on on the honeymoon we don’t need to know about? |
| Jon | Well, I meant figuratively, but I’m not gonna judge. whatever Whatever gets his freak on is fine with me. That’s quite all right. |
| Mo | It’s privacy, my own home is none of your business. the Anyway, on that, so… |
| George | Long as it’s not on the podcast. |
| Jon | That’s true. |
| Jon | and Unless he finds a really cool rope, he can advertise. I don’t know if we can talk. we give him |
| George | Wow. |
| Mo | My next tech item, the next kitchen item. |
| George | New kitchen item. |
| Jon | oh |
| Mo | Anyway, so John, what are you looking forward to? |
| Jon | yeah Yeah, so I first of all i have a game Tetris forever. So this is digital eclipse now owned by Atari, but this is the people that did the Atari 50th anniversary. |
| Jon | They’re the ones that do the the gold master series. They did the karateka and they did the Jeff Minter story. |
| George | Mmhmm. |
| Jon | I think this is their third one in the series. And it’s the gold master series for Tetris. And they cover, you know, I think there’s 20 or so different versions of Tetris, but it’s not just the games. |
| Jon | It’s that interactive digital documentary with you know video interviews and stuff. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | And of course, they made some ah original like one original Tetris game called Tetris in Time or Time Blast Tetris or whatever, where as you play through the game, you jump from different iterations and decades of Tetris. |
| Mo | Oh, obviously. |
| Jon | all the way back to like playing the text version, you know, on the on the old in terminal screen, all the way up to modern stuff and Game Boy stuff. |
| Mo | Oh, wow. |
| Jon | Anyway, so Tetris game, not that I’m the biggest Tetris fan, but man, digital eclipse, they do great interactive documentaries. |
| Mo | Yeah, they do. |
| Jon | So ah November 12th, that’ll be out if I didn’t say. I’m currently enjoying the what is apparently, sadly, the final season, the fifth season of Star Trek Lower Decks, ah just kicked off on Paramount+. |
| Mo | Oh, so just so upset about that. |
| Jon | plus This is a tremendous animated Star Trek series that is tongue in cheek, but also reverent to the the franchise and a canon. |
| Mo | Mm hmm. |
| Jon | It’s part of the mythology. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | It’s not just an also-ran. It’s great, and it’s the last season, unfortunately, but I’m here for it. And finally, there’s a tremendous movie or at least it looks tremendous to me that I can’t wait to see. |
| Jon | It’s called here. Now this is stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. |
| Mo | Okay. |
| Jon | It’s a Robert Zemeckis film comes out November 1 in theaters. |
| George | Hmm. |
| Mo | oh Okay. |
| Jon | The premise of the movie is there is a single camera shot that sits in one place in the corner of this room of a house for the whole movie. |
| Mo | Oh. |
| Jon | And the characters come in and out of frame in and out of the house over time, as this couple meets and they get married and they have family and people live and die and, and you follow their entire life with the camera parked right here. |
| George | Ah. |
| Jon | Here is the location of the camera. |
| George | Okay. |
| Mo | Oh, interesting. |
| Jon | ah The trailer even starts like prehistoric times. You see the but asteroid come in and then you see like Victorian times and they’re lifting up the wall across from the town hall. And it’s literally that camera’s been there throughout time and has never moved. |
| Jon | It’s a concept film, no doubt, but Zemeckis, Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, I’m there. |
| Mo | interesting Interesting. Yeah. I know, really. Huh. |
| Jon | I’m there. Can’t wait. November 1st. Can’t wait to see that one. George, what do you got coming up? |
| Mo | in |
| George | Yeah, well, not sex rope, I’ll say that much. |
| Mo | yeah Okay. |
| George | um |
| Jon | Well, what’s the point even? |
| Mo | yeah |
| George | Yeah, right. Why keep living? ah I would guess that the first thing I’m looking forward to might make its way into my trilogy of bowling films. It’s a movie called The Gutter. |
| George | ah I enjoyed Kingpin, loved Big Lubowski. Now we’ve got The Gutter coming out on November 1st to theaters and streaming. I think it’ll be fun. it The trailer looked funny. um It’s what you might think a bowling film is going to be. And that’s as much as I can tell you about it. it It looks interesting. |
| Jon | Okay. |
| George | Um, there is, um, a Netflix series called don’t come home. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| George | Uh, I believe this one is the, the Thailand, uh, kind of, uh, like a. Horror mystery, like a child disappears in the house kind of thing. |
| George | And it looks, the trailer looked pretty interesting for me. So I was like, okay, um I’ll give that one a um take a look because you know, like some of the stuff that’s come out of Korea has been really good on that front. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | I want to see how Thailand does with this, but looked, looked interesting. This thing I’m most looking forward to is something that my son introduced me to last year. ah It’s this animated series called Arcane. |
| Mo | Oh yeah. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| George | Yeah, season two is coming out on Netflix on November 9th. So great animation, great storylines, characters that make you care. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | So, you know, I think they’ll continue with that. |
| Mo | Intense. |
| George | It’s a very tense ah series. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | I definitely enjoy it. So I’m looking forward to arcane season two Netflix November 9th. |
| Mo | Nice. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| Mo | Sweet. |
| Jon | Yep. Yeah, tremendous soundtrack in that series to great music throughout. |
| Mo | Wow, that sounds great, but you know, it’s also great. Are our patrons? Yay. |
| Jon | Of course, naturally. |
| Mo | Um, you know, and one of the benefits of being a patron is that they get to pose us questions that we’ll answer right here on the show. |
| George | Mmm. |
| Jon | That’s right. |
| Mo | And today we have a question from Stewart and he asked a very simple, but maybe think for a while question, which was what movie slash TV prop, if any, did you covet as a child? |
| Mo | And since mine is going to be super obvious, I’m going to go first, which was a lightsaber. |
| Jon | Right. |
| Mo | That was by that, without a doubt, I played more fake lightsaber, making the fake lightsaber sounds with whatever I could get my hands on than anything else. |
| Jon | right |
| Mo | So without a doubt, that would be the prop that I would love. I would have, if I got that, I just probably would have died as a child. So that’s the one I would mostly forward to. |
| Jon | Yeah, probably you and 20 million other kids also. |
| Mo | Exactly. Exactly. How about you, John? What do you got? |
| Jon | yeah I had to think hard about this one, too, because I’m like, well, what’s your I was thinking like, well, what do you qualify as a prop? You know, could it be like a vehicle or a handheld object or whatever, or just a thing in the background or and then I decided, look, Stuart didn’t give us criteria. |
| Mo | That’s a good question. Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jon | I’m going to pick whatever I think was most intriguing to me. |
| Mo | That makes sense. Go for it. |
| Jon | And the one for me is I wanted it for a couple of reasons. I wanted the original box and instruction manual from the aliens that were given to Ralph Hinkley in The Greatest American Hero. |
| George | Oh. |
| Jon | First, ah well he had the box still, right? He had the box with a suit in it, but he lost the instructions. |
| Mo | Right. But he lost the instructions. Yeah. |
| Jon | so i would If I could have gotten a prop you know back then, I wanted that box and A, to have a superhero suit. That was the one thing. But I was so captivated by what must be in these instructions that someone could just read them and be able to understand how to fly and how to telekinesis and how to be invisible. |
| Jon | And like, what kind of manual little step one, think hard about this or jump up there. |
| Mo | Right. |
| Jon | What could it be? I was just so, He never got the manual and I’m like, I wanna be able to read it. I kinda got a taste of that later when I got the DVD box set and there’s a replica of the instructions. |
| Jon | It’s in alien writing, you can’t read it. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | but ah that But that was the thing that most captivated me like, boy, I would love to take a look at that. Even if it doesn’t exist even, could I read then it? I’m sure they never wrote anything for it. But yeah, that was mine. |
| Mo | That’s a good one. |
| Jon | George, what about you? You think of something? |
| George | Yeah. Heather Thomas it depends on your viewpoint, sir. |
| Jon | Now, clearly not a prop, George. |
| Mo | Yeah, I don’t know if a pee person it could be a prop. |
| George | She’s handheld. Something I could ride anyway. |
| Jon | whoa |
| Mo | ah oh Oh my God. |
| Jon | Whoa. |
| Mo | ah The views of the people on this show do not reflect everybody else. |
| George | but Watch that get cut out on the Tuesday edit. |
| Jon | I’m not saying I disagree, I’m just saying it’s crude. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | ah Yeah. And your point now, I mean, It’s very difficult to narrow down because he used not the TV prop part, but covet as a child. |
| Mo | yeah |
| George | Like, I don’t know what age range I’m supposed to go with. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| Jon | It’s up to you. |
| George | I mean, if I’m a little child, maybe the sun sword from thunder, the barbarian or, um |
| Mo | Hmm. |
| George | the sort of power from Masters of the Universe, ah you know, weapons are obviously a theme. ah The Dukes of Hazzard generally certainly was something I would say I coveted as a child. |
| Mo | I’d say that’s a prop. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | um Anything from Star Trek really, you know, Enterprise itself all the way down to a tricorder. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| George | I don’t know, I guess if there was one thing that I had |
| Jon | Oh |
| George | that I would have loved to be real would have been a transporter, I guess. |
| Jon | yeah. |
| George | I always wanted to be able to go places and see things with, uh, just a thought, right? |
| Mo | It would have been handy. |
| Mo | Yeah. |
| George | Like not have to like prep and get on a plane or go ride in a car for 12 hours or whatever, but just to be instantly transported to the destination of the place that I wanted to go see. |
| Jon | Mm hmm. |
| Jon | Sure. |
| Jon | Yeah, love it. |
| Mo | Sweet. Great. |
| Jon | Yeah. |
| Mo | That’s great answers everybody. So again, for all you people out there to get a question on the show is super easy. Just go to patreon dot.com slash genics grown up, donate as little as a dollar a month. |
| Jon | Hmm. |
| Mo | And we have your question right here on the show. |
| Jon | We’ve got a couple of new patrons too that I want to recognize here on this show. |
| Mo | Oh, awesome. |
| Jon | I’m having trouble keeping up. That’s why I’m doing two at a time because I’m catching up. I think I’m up to August now, but since we last spoke a couple more, I want to recognize. I’m going to try to pronounce this. I don’t know if it’s a screen name or it’s a name I can’t pronounce. |
| Jon | Bosque de Stat, I think is your name. Thank you. And much easier to read pop culturally challenged. ah Both recently joined us over at Patreon. They headed over as Mo said to genexgrownup.com slash Patreon, opened up their wallet and their hearts. |
| Mo | Sweet. |
| Jon | made a regular financial pledge to us of as little as a dollar a month, just to help support what we do. Keep the lights on, help pay for all the services that are required to make these shows happen. And we’re so grateful, both to you, Basque, and to Pop Culturally Challenge that you did. You’re joining a roster of amazing people. And we’re so grateful, grateful that you’ve hopped on board. It really helps us out. That’s gonna wrap it up for this edition of the show. Before we leave, oh, before we leave, no. but This is a show. |
| Jon | Don’t worry, they’ll be back in two weeks with another one. But next week, that’s our backtrack where we pick a single nostalgic topic and dig in deep. And George, you want to let the fourth listeners know what is in store for them next week? |
| George | Yeah, we’re going to challenge ourselves quite a bit and try to condense down a topic into one podcast that probably needs like a series of podcast episodes. |
| Jon | A whole series of podcasts. |
| George | We’re going to talk about the. We’re going to talk about the Gen X martial arts craze, so we’re going to talk props and movies and TV shows and people. |
| George | i Eventually, I know we’re going to plan on talking about some things in some more detail, but for next week, we’re going to get into just the general topic of the martial arts craze as it related to our generation. |
| Jon | Yeah, that’s that’s gonna be another good one. It’s another one that George and Moe are bringing their expertise. I wasn’t that big into the into that craze, but as always happens, I learned so much that I end up getting involved and wanna know more. |
| Jon | So I look forward to talk with you guys next week. Until then, I am John. George, thank you so much for being here, man. |
| George | Yes, sir. |
| Jon | Moe, you know, I appreciate you. |
| Mo | Always fun, man. |
| Jon | Fourth listener, it’s you though. We all appreciate most of all. We can’t wait to talk to you again next time. Bye-bye. |
| George | See you guys. |
| Mo | Take care, everybody. |
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