LNC Criticizes AI and Pirates

Ariel and Jonathan go a little off track in 30 seconds or less thanks to artificial intelligence. And again thanks to pirates. Goodness knows what happens if we get artificially intelligent pirates. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey, everybody, Welcome to the large Ner Droun Collider podcast,
the podcast that's all about the geeky things happening in
the world around us and how very excited we are
about them. I'm Ariel Caston, and with me, as always,
is the delightful Jonathan Star.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
I got turned into a dracula?

Speaker 1 (00:30):
You got Wait? How'd you get turned into a dracula?
Are you on my discord?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Oh? Did other people get turned onto on a dracula?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
No? I was talking about vampires on a discord channel
that was distracting me earlier. No, how'd you get why'd
you get vampire? Vampired?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I didn't say I got vampired? I said I got
turned into a dracula.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Well, Dracula is a vampire.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
So so uh. Yesterday I went out for a stroll
with friend of the show, Shaye Lee, and we decided
to explore a trail called the Mountain to River Trail,
not realizing how long this trail actually was, and we
didn't go that far. We went about a mile down

(01:17):
the trail.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Did you go over the river and through the woods.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
We did go over a highway, but we didn't go through. Yeah,
there's a pedestrian bridge. It's not really a highway. We
went over a very busy street on a pedestrian bridge.
We didn't get to the river because that was another
nine miles away and we did not walk that far,
but we did walk through a cemetery anyway. On this walk,

(01:41):
we had a conversation about how we both find it
funny whenever someone refers to vampires as draculas, which usually
is done for comedic effect, right, Like, it's not purposeful.
You don't really run into that many people who will
reference a vampire as a dracula, but we just even

(02:05):
though it's not a really you know something, you really
run into it in real life. We both find it
funny whenever anyone does that. It's cheap comedy and it
works every time on us. So that's that's why I
said it delightful.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Delightful. Did I go walking anywhere this past weekend? I
feel like I did, but I don't remember.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
We'll have to go. We'll have to have you join
us on some of our walks. We tend to do
it during the week when it's not crazy on all
the different pathways, so that does make it harder for you.
But maybe sometime we can do like a like a
group stroll somewhere. There's a selection of walking trails that

(02:49):
are a good distance out and it would be a
heck of a trek for you because it's on the
southeast side of the city, but or outside the city.
But the trails lead to a monastery which has got
amazing architecture. Yeah, and I've never actually I've only seen pictures.
I've never actually been, but it looks amazing.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
I would like to go to there. Yeah, I don't
think I did much walking this weekend. I played I
played D and D and I saw Josh Johnson. So
that was fun.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
That's great, that's cool. Yeah. The weekend I did, I
celebrate my anniversary twenty eight years. So my partner and
I we went to a vegetarian restaurant here in town
that apparently is Billie Eilish's favorite vegetarian restaurant in Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Oh nice.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
We did not see her, although Addison Ray had a
concert right across the street, so we got to see
lots of very young people dressed in almost kind of
anime style clothing waiting in a extremely long line to
get into the venue.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
I don't know if I know Addison Ray, but I mean, like,
the name sounds familiar, but I don't think it's listened
to her stuff.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
So she she's She rose to prominence on TikTok apparently,
and I have seen her, but only in stuff like
she was in Thanksgiving, the Eli Roth horror movie. I
saw her in that, but I had no idea. I
had to look her up. Like at first, I had
to look up who is it that's playing at the

(04:26):
Eastern because there's so many young people waiting in line.
And when I say young, I mean like they literally
like a range of teenager to say, mid to late
twenties like that. But I'm I'm fifty, so that is
very young to me. So yeah, I thought, well, whoever
it is, they're really popular with the young'ins. And I

(04:47):
looked it up and I saw I was asking Ray,
and I'm like, Okay, well, now I need to look
up who this is because the name didn't ring any
bells for me either.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
I do a lot of tiktoks, so I don't make them,
but I'm on there a lot, so likely I've heard her,
and I'm just not connecting the name to the music
that happens a lot.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Ye well, and and I am so detached from all
because you know, I'm not on any social stuff anymore.
So I don't except for YouTube and a very small
subset of subreddits, and that's it. So I don't, I don't.
I'm not aware of pop culture anymore. I've definitely reached
that point of old age where I am completely out

(05:30):
of touch and I'm aware of it. And that's okay,
Like I realize that's that's for the young people, and
it's okay that I don't know what it is. I mean,
it's it's six or seven. I don't know what that means.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
I might know. I had to have to hear it
in context, okay, And as.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
The point is, it doesn't mean anything.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Okay, okay, uh, I like I don't know, I have.
My brain's just short circuited there. And I'm not even
grumpy old I'm just I'm pretty like I know I
know some of the really like current slang too. I

(06:19):
even use a little bit of it.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
So I think I think I misused. I think it's
technically just six seven, but it's it's accompanied by like
sort of like a like you're weighing things hand gesture.
Six seven. But apparently that's like a whole mean trend
on social that uh like, I only find out about
this when it leaks into some other format that I

(06:43):
actually still consume.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Nice. Nice. So each week I will bring a new
current slang that I am also technically tooled for and
use it at Jonathan.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Or what a real a real fun game for you
would to present to me something that you claim to
be slang and I have to figure out if it
actually is slang or you just made it up.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
That's gonna that's gonna take a lot of work. We'll
see if I'm up to that at some point.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
That's that's fair.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Uh Like, it's not like the actual slang is easy.
Making up something that you'll believe is slang.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
I hear you. Yeah, No, that's tricky because like like
you're like, how dumb do I go? Because sometimes like
modern slang to an old person like me can seem
exceedingly dumb. But you know, when you're trying to make
something up, you want it to be believable, and you're like,
I can't make it too dumb.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, yeah, I had to look up what Bosh meant
the other day.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Oh was I were you like watching an English comedy
or something.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
I was watching task Master. I just finished season seven,
Series seven, and uh, Carrie Gotten, Gotten him Gotten. Carrie
and Greg the task Master used bosh a lot in
a very funny way, and I was like, let me
see what that means, because there's there's a lot of

(08:10):
like British vernacular that I would love to adopt. I
like it.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah, but you want to make sure it's not super
rude before you start using it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, so like I'm not going to use the C word.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well no, yeah, that's so casual over there that it
is shocking to American years.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, yeah for sure. Okay, Well enough dithering. I got
a question for you.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Shoot hit me with your question.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
I want to hit you with my question. Well, bam,
what is the coolest Halloween costume? And it has to
be from Halloween that you have ever done?

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, this was tricky for me. Fair warning. Ariel did
share this with me before we started barely barely, yeah,
like maybe five minutes before I started recording. And it
is tricky simply because I haven't dressed up for Halloween
in a long time, and because we don't get trick

(09:13):
or treaters there's not much point unless I'm going out
someplace where we're doing some sort of Halloween themed activity.
But for me, and also I dressed up in costumes
for a lot of other things, so it's easy for
me to conflate them, right. Like I almost said, I
almost said kabuki mask from Big Hero six, but I've
never done that restrain. Yes, it was just for dragon Con.

(09:36):
Same with like Renaissance Lex Luthor, that was just for
dragon Con. So instead I thought of this. It was
essentially my Renaissance Festival costume. Like it's the same one
I wore in my last stint as the Admiral and
as a Robert Camembert Marquis de Roquefort, but it had

(09:57):
I had a dragon mask. So it's this very ornate
Renaissance Festival costume, noble costume, like with a black doublet
with the red shirt underneath and you know, gold accents
and then this red dragon mask I wore, and I

(10:18):
wore that for Halloween, and I thought that was a
pretty cool looking ensemble when it was all together, and
I even sent you a picture so you could see.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
You did it is really cool. I will post it
for people on Discord and hopefully our website. No no
promises on the ladder, but I'll definitely get it on
Discord because it is a really cool costume and it's
a cool picture you've got of it too.

Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, it's one of those where like the light is
kind of behind me, so it's cast me in shadow,
because it's one of those customs that definitely looks best
in low light for the mask. Like the costume itself
looks great in daylight, but the mask in particular looks
better in that low lighting situation. But what about you,
what's your coolest Halloween closet time?

Speaker 1 (11:01):
So I don't remember a lot from when I was
like an older kid slash young adult, because a lot
of them were like, oh, I got this cute prairie
dress and I feel a little sexy and it so
let me wear that. But as an adult, once I
got into the LARP community, I got invited. I've started

(11:24):
getting invited to Halloween parties. Like as a kid, I
would do Halloween stuff around my community. It was really
great because you know, I lived in an apartment complex
and everybody got involved and did fun things and we
all went out as a giant group. I had a
I was very fortunate to have a very I'm going
on a big bunny trail here, have a very active
community life and community built in when I was growing

(11:48):
up in my where I was living, so I don't
remember a lot of those, but as an adult in
the LARP community, I started getting invited to a bunch
of parties and they always had a theme, and so
I've actually had quite a few that I have thought
have been really fun. The two that stick out most
in my head because they're always kind of one of those.

(12:09):
I've got a month. Let me see what i can
throw together. But the two that fit most in my
head is Indiana Joan of Arc, except for it was
Joan from mad Men carrying an arc with a with
a Martina. It was carrying the Arc of the Covenant
from Indiana Jones with a Martini glass inside of it.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
So for your next costume, I recommend you wear a
hat on top of your other hat.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
Yeah, I get it, but it worked out well. And
then the other one I liked was one year the
theme was fear fears or phobias or something like that.
So I went as the fear of abandonment and I
turned a big old teddy bear. I had into a backpack,
and I dressed up like a little kid, and I

(13:01):
bought a balloon and mostly deflate like a helium balloon
and mostly deflated it and went around asking have you
seen my mommy? Wow, I don't think I have a
picture of that one. I do think I have a
picture of Indiana Joan.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Of arc Jeez. Nice to inflict psychological trauma upon others.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
I mean it was that one was literally what do
I have? What can I pull together? Last minute? But
I thought it was a clever, a clever, like not
a fear everybody would necessarily go to when you go
to a Halloween party.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Sure, and that's.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
What I like, write botusqu do you remember your very
first like, what is the very first Halloween costume?

Speaker 2 (13:42):
I remember?

Speaker 1 (13:42):
If you can remember.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Any Okay, well, all right, so my mom. You've met
my parents. My mom loved to make costumes for me
and my little sister, so we had lots of different costumes.
And I'll tell you one I remember for sure that
doesn't make me cringe, because there is one that does
make me cringe, and I'm not sharing that on here,

(14:06):
but the one that doesn't make me cringe is They
dressed me up as a Ghostbuster one year, and so
I had a proton pack that was like a cardboard
box that been coated with like tinfoil and had some
LEDs poking through that actually lit up and had a
little like you know wand that came within and everything.

(14:30):
And that was one of my favorites as a kid
because I loved the movie Ghostbusters. I was the perfect
age to watch that movie and not completely understand everything
that was going on because I was still a kid,
so I did none of the Bill Murray sleeves, buckets
stuff really made sense to me. But I loved the
movie for its you know, creativity and everything and like

(14:53):
you know lines like what about the Twinkie those? I
thought it was the height of comedy, and so I
was really pleased to to have that as my Halloween
costume one year.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
I never dressed up as Ghostbusters as a kid, but
I did at one of my lart parties. I dressed
up as Janine. And they don't sell slimmer balloons, so
I had to buy like a green heart balloon and
turn it into a slimer by like taping a mouth
and eyes on it.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
And arms on it and things like that, and then I.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Had a little slimmer floating around with me. The first
Halloween costume that I remember, and I think I was
like four or five at the time. It was before
I moved to Georgia, so I was under seven, and
I dressed as Butterbear from the Wuzzles. But it was
like one of those old old costumes where it's like

(15:42):
the like the sheet kinda like with the plastic mask.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, where it's like it's like you're
wearing an oversized pillow case that has the print of
a character on it and then the plastic mask with
the thin band of like the string of elastic that
cuts into the back of your head.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Yeah. I uh I. I loved it. I loved the Whustles.
I'm trying to find a picture of it because I
know it existed.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
But well, I mean it's also from an era before
there was like widespread use of the Internet or anything
like that. So yeah, you know, it's it's like, when
I think about stuff from my childhood, I'm amazed if
I can even find representations online because I mean, at

(16:38):
this point they're antiques, right, Like it's not or vintage.
If you want to be kinder, they're vintage, and so
you know it's it's unless it was something that really
struck a chord in my generation and that there's since
been replicas made. It can be hard to find some
of that stuff.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, I I can find a couple of the other characters,
but I can't find I can't find butter Bear. She
was a little yellow bear that was also a butterfly
with little flower antenna.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
The wuzzles were for I remember this, I remember this.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, the wuzzles were like you had bumble Lion, who
was a lion, bumblebee and things like that.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
So when you were first talking about it, I had
no memory of this whatsoever. But the more you talk
about the more I'm like, oh wait, yeah, no, that's
buried in there, deep in my brain. I do remember
these things.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah. So there was bumble Lion. There was Ella rou
which was an elephant kangaroo. There was Mussol that was
a moose seal, Hoppopotamus, which I love. Topopotamus was a
hippo rabbit, Rinonkey, and then.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Please Please end Me, which was just a failed mishmash
of all the most least wanted body parts of different animals, and.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Then there was things that like there was also they
didn't always make sense, like Brat, which was a boar dragon.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, didn't make sense, but.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
It was cute. It was a little kid's cartoon. It
was cute.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
So we're looking forward to hearing from you, are beloved
listeners about your favorite Halloween costumes, either in the far
distant past or maybe the recent past, or maybe even
what you're planning this year, if you're playing on dressing
up for anything. I don't have any plans that relate
to Halloween this year, so I don't have any costume plans.

(18:36):
I will be taking another trip down to Orlando, but
we're not actually doing the Halloween party over at Disney. Instead,
we're doing the Food and Wine Festival where we're going
to be going and trying all the different foods. But yeah,
it's a double Epcot trip, so we won't be Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
The last time I went to and Wine, I won
the cheese badge. I was so happy. We're so very sick.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
I'm planning on trying to do that too. That's one
of the reasons why we're doing two days is so
that we can try a bunch of different little things,
but not like feel gross afterward. We're also kinda hopeful,
though you know, this might be in vain, that the
weather will be mild enough so that we're not feeling

(19:25):
gross just walking around in the heat.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Like, there's so many dishes that I wouldn't mind trying,
except that they're so heavy, and you're like, it's boiling
hot and incredibly humid, and if I eat that, I'm
gonna feel sick.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
And then if they have the Reclet, which I like Reclet,
but if they.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Have it, that's the one I'm mostly thinking of.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like Reclet. It is a stinky,
stinky cheese. It smells like feet, but it doesn't taste
like feet. It's not like rope, is it roquefort?

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Limburger, Limburger, Like it's stinky, but it tastes like a
pretty much like a Swiss cheese. But yeah, it's hot,
and waiting in line for it is hot, and then
it's you get it with like bread and pickles and
potatoes and it's just very heavy.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeah. Yeah, So we're hopeful that maybe it won't be
too brutal as far as the weather goes. We're also
staying at a resort that's on the World Showcase side
of Epcot, so that if it does get super hot
and we just need to escape, we can go back
to the hotel and rest in the air conditioning for
a while before we come back out. That kind of thing,

(20:37):
because I mean, as I get older, it gets harder
for me to endure that kind of heat and humidity.
Even living in Georgia, it's still rough. But anyway, that
goes way off kilter from the Halloween stuff. Let's get
the show back on track now that we're twenty minutes
into it and talk about the stuff that we've watched

(21:00):
since our last recording. Now it's only been a week
by Ariel, what you've been up to.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
So I've watched a bunch of task Master because that
is my go to right now. I need to watch Peacemaker,
but it's hard when there is so much task Master.
I'm actually I just finished, as I said, series seven,
so I only have six series plus the current one left,
and that's a little sad to me because I'm really
enjoying it. I'm working backwards. I have also I finished

(21:31):
season one of Wednesday and started season two and I
I hold like my opinion of Wednesday season one has
held throughout the entire season. I think that Mortitia and
Gomez just didn't have the spunk and the spark that
they needed to really feel like the Adams family. Even

(21:54):
Pugsley was missing it some and Fred Armison, who plays
Uncle Fester, tried to bring it in, so it felt
out of place when he was doing it because everybody
else was so low key. I think Jenna Wortega does
an amazing job as Wednesday. I think she plays the
character very well, but I felt the other characters were
a little uneven to meet the Adams Family vibe. I

(22:16):
also watched the first half of episode one of season two,
and it seems that they have made it a lot
more quirky. I'm enjoying the vibe a lot more so
I will probably stick with season two and finish it
out because I heard that it was better, but I
also heard you should watch season one and then I've
been watching all of the intro videos that have come

(22:37):
out with all of my co players for my actual play,
and it's it's humbling and inspiring to see how everybody
else plays and think about thinks about their characters. You know,
it really gives you a great idea of like, oh
I should think about that, or oh I like how
they did that. It is really cool. It is really
cool to see everybody else's thought processes and I'm very

(22:58):
much looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
So nice.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
What about you.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
I am caught up on Peacemaker at this point, So
when we last recorded, episode six had just come out,
but I had not yet seen it. Now I've seen
everything up through episode seven. Episode which is the penultimate episode,
Episode eight, it's the finale, comes out next week. I

(23:24):
saw the trailer for episode eight, and it's very James Gunn, so,
like you know, James Gunn's very good at upping the
stakes and the threats the characters face. And so episode
seven ends in a way as you would expect, in
that things are probably about as dark as they possibly

(23:46):
can be for our characters, and episode eight will be
the resolution. And so I knew going into it that
that was probably gonna happen, but it's still kind of
like it was still a pretty impactful episode. I will
also say that there is a twist in the season,
sort of. I don't think it's really a twist, but

(24:08):
there's there's something that happens in the season that's a reveal,
and it's wild because it was something that I suspected
earlier in the season ended up deciding I was probably wrong,
and then when it was revealed, I was like, nope,
I was right at the beginning.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Nice, but well, don't doubt your.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
My instincts. Yeah. I don't want to give any spoilers
because I think it's worth watching. But I will also
say the reveal it relies on a pretty heavy cheat
from a storytelling process, in that your point of view
as an audience member has been so carefully controlled that

(24:55):
there was no way for you to have necessarily noticed
something thing like.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
You're smart like Johnathan.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Or you just or you just know how James Gun works, right, Like,
It's it's not that I'm smart, it's just I've seen
a James Gun movie and series.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Before, so two things can be true, thank you.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
So yeah, anyway, I highly recommend Peacemaker if you don't
mind a lot of gratuitous violence and nudity, because there
is quite a bit of that. Although I will say again, uh,
the nudity has not really been a factor in the
the the season since episode.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
Two Okay, that is good to know and a little
bit uh delightful, so like, but yeah, it was just
episode one.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, Episode one has the brunt like the vast majority
of the gratuitous nudity, and it's it's it. Gratuitous is
a tough word to use because it is being used
for a point, there is a reason for it, but
it's also being used as kind of a joke. Like
it it's doing it's both being important to give you

(26:10):
insight into a character's mindset and the psychology of that character,
but it's also being used as a joke.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yeah. I mean, like you could show that not to
that extreme and still get the point across. That's where
the gratuity comes in.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, yeah, I suppose, But then you could say the
same thing. So again, not to spoil anything, but like
there's another character in that show who goes to incredible
extremes in order to quote unquote feel something, and that's
also you could argue gratuitous, but it's not. It doesn't

(26:51):
involve nudity, involves violence. But it's essentially two sides of
the same coin. It's just one is kind of a
heatedness stick search for, you know, try to use pleasure
to drive out all the darkness, and the other is
violence to do the same sort of thing. So it's
two sides of the same coin, just different ways of

(27:13):
expressing it. Which, yeah, you know honestly that that becomes
more and more of a thing as the show goes on,
in the sense that, like, I feel like it's almost
a little heavy handed. But but depending on how much
you're paying attention, you might need it to be heavy handed.
So you're like, oh, I get it, they're the same.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Well I do look
forward to catching up on it. I also in the
first episode that that violence was a lot for me
as well.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, I mean it's a rough scene. So all right,
well let us segue once more to talk a little
bit about a lot of things in our our segment
that we'd like to call half a minute or shorter.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Half a minute shorter, I like it. Okay. So the
first story we have is news came out I guess
this week about an AI actor named Tillie Norwood, and
then there were like reports of agencies wanting to sign
this AI actor. There's there's not a person behind it.

(28:20):
It is a fully AI creation, like Godzilla would be
and the union, the sag After Union, has spoken out
about it, saying that producers should be aware that they
may not use synthetic performers without complying with their contractual obligations,

(28:41):
which generally require notice and bargaining when a synthetic performer
is going to be used. And that is because part
of what the last strike it was about was not
banking actors' images to be able to just invoices, to
be able to put them in in scenes that they
haven't acted in. You know, they do that with like

(29:01):
they did that in Star Wars when certain actors passed
away and things like that. They got permission for that,
But then they were also doing it for like extra
workers and even some actors and voice actors being like
but they were putting in clauses where we could use
it for anything, like Tillie Norwood. I I understand that

(29:22):
AI is going to be a thing. It's just an
computer program and it can be used as a tool.
I am not particularly interested in watching AI creatures be
tell me a story, right, even when you watch like
a Pixar movie, it's I'm going way over thirty seconds

(29:45):
for this. I didn't mean to sorry. Ah, even when
you watch Pixar, there's a human actor behind behind the character.
So that's where I'm at.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Well in human animators too, all right, forget it. This
isn't thirty seconds or less anymore. This is quick discussion
on AI. So yeah, CGI is different from AI. CGI
is just like that's that's as if you were using
ink and paper or pen and a canvas or a
paintbrush in a canvas. CGI is just another tool AI.

(30:16):
Artificial creation of things takes the human artistry out of
the equation. You are relying on an algorithmically driven program
to generate something, and so I think it's you know,
you have to draw a line. There is a fundamental
difference between the things that humans create and something that's

(30:36):
AI generated. And whether it's an actor, or it's a screenplay,
or it's special effects like one and a lot of
these things, you can tell because it's just doesn't feel right,
you know, doesn't feel like it doesn't feel like it
was created with intent. But also, even as they get better,

(30:57):
let's say that it gets to a point where you
cannot easily distinguished between what was generated by AI and
what was generated by artists. You start to question, well,
what's art at that point if it's not, if there's
no human you know, anima behind it, and it's it's
just depressing to me. It's like, I want to see

(31:18):
the expression of actual artists. I don't want to see
a bunch of numbers that randomly generated this thing that
I see before me. Even if it was meant to be,
you know, tailor made to my type of preferences for entertainment,
I have no interest in that. And so this is

(31:40):
in the news a lot, not just because of this.
AI actor and other actor organizations around the world have
also spoken out about this, but also because I don't
know if you're aware. Ariel but open Ai launched an
AI based video sharing social platform called Sora so or.

(32:04):
This one is super disturbing to me because you can
use it to generate videos that include like videos, AI
generate videos of say, your friends doing stuff, and I'm like,
I don't want to appear I don't want my likeness
and voice to appear online doing things that I didn't do. Right,

(32:25):
I don't care if it's on a social platform that's
just being seen by friends of mine. If you're a
friend of mine, don't do that, because that's just it's
it's a violation. I yeah, you know, it's it's it's
a thing that it's like, hey, we know that deep
fakes are possible, how about we make it easier to
create them. It's such an incredibly a moral thing to

(32:49):
do that I find it deeply disturbing. And I think
the only thing more disturbing than that is just the
casual way that Open Ai launches these things in the
first place, because that's a company that's run by human
beings and they're just casually creating this stuff and putting
it out there, and anyone with two brain cells could

(33:13):
recognize the potential harm this stuff can can create. So
and I apologize for ranting about that, but I feel
deeply about this stuff.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
I do too, and so like I agree, Please don't
please don't make AI of me doing things that I
haven't done. Just ask me to do things with you,
because that is better for everybody. Right. I am lucky
that anytime I have played with AI and like a, oh,
turn me into this character. AI does not do well
with my face. It's almost like my face has it was.

(33:46):
I was born with one of those faces that confuses AI.
So that's great. This is not a challenge to AI.
Don't recreate my face. But I also just don't like
it being called an actor. Right, It's not an actor.
It has no life experience or emotion to draw from,
you know. Not to get into a debate of whether
AI could ever become cognizant and have emotion. That's a

(34:09):
different thing, you know. So like, don't sign it to
an agency. Agencies are for real people with real life
experiences to give me stories, which is what I prefer.
It's so much there's an honesty there, and there's there's
a spontaneity there that you just don't get with AI.
I saw a TikTok video the other day of a

(34:30):
guy who was like, let me have chat GPT have
a conversation with itself, and within ten seconds it got
stuck in a loop because it's just regurgitating information and
if you don't give it new information, it's like what
do I do?

Speaker 2 (34:42):
So, I mean, speaking of stuck in a loop, this
is anecdotal and this is my last thing on this.
This is not generative AI, but it is AI related.
But my partner was telling me about how she went
to a coffee shop to get some coffee, oddly enough,
and it found it impossible to get into the parking

(35:05):
lot because in the parking lot was a driverless WAYMO
car and it was trying to negotiate its way either
into or out of the parking lot. She wasn't sure,
but it was just like pulling in and out of
the same parking spot over and over and over again.
And so later on, like later in the week, she

(35:27):
stopped at that same coffee shop and went in and
started telling to the baristas and said, yeah, how long
was that car out there. It's like, oh, yeah, it
was out there for like another forty five minutes, where
it just it could not negotiate its way out. And
I think about that, and I'm like, not to paint
all AI with the same brush. AI is a huge,
huge term. It doesn't apply to just one thing. It's

(35:47):
lots and lots and lots of different stuff at different
degrees of autonomy. But it's an example of something where
I look at that and I think, we know there
are limitations to this technology. Why is it being pushed
out there into the world so recklessly when in my opinion,
there needs to be a lot more R and D

(36:11):
like actual testing of this tech, like extensive testing before
just releasing it to a world that is going to
have all sorts of different people putting it to all
sorts of different uses, some of which will be bad ones.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Yeah, well we are the test apparently.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
But that uh, that was the first part of thirty
seconds or less.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Yes, it has been thirty minutes or less.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Your turn, Okay, I am now wondering whether or not
i'll I'm sure I'll put the music behind the first
one anyway, just because it'll be funny, sad, all right,
it's fine, okay. So, the stage adaptation of the Apple
TV Plus series Smegadoon had a short run at the
Kennedy Center earlier this year, but is now headed to
Broadway at the Nederlanders. The inter previews began on April fourth,

(37:02):
The show's officially opening scheduled for April twentieth, just plays.
It's a limited engagement that will end in September, and
it follows the first season of the show. So that
means that we won't get any Schmacago shenanigans, sadly, but
I hope I get a chance to catch it.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Well, maybe on Broadway we'll even get a third season.
That is, if they have gotten the new actors Equity
contract done for Broadway actors by that time. It is
there is the potential that they will go on strike.
Their current contract, three year contract ended on September twenty eighth,
and they are under negotiations. One of the big ones

(37:41):
they're talking about is healthcare. They would like the union
to put a little bit more towards actors healthcare, and
I think on Broadway that's super important because you're putting
your body through a lot.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
Of stress, right, and a lot of those shows are
marketed on specific actors, right, So like, if your show
is dependent upon them, those actors being in them to
help market it, then you need to take care of them.
I know. Thirty second c lass.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Fish all right here, No, no, no, I can't, I cannot
judge you.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
Well, there's an upcoming stage adaptation of The Hunger Games
that's coming to the Troubadour Canary War Theater in London
on October twentieth and being John Malkovich's John Malkovich is
being President Snow in it, but he will not be
appearing on stage next to the other actors. His role
will instead appear on screen. So I imagine this means Malcovich

(38:32):
will only have to record his performance once and the
actors on stage will react to pre recorded performance Malviovich Malkovich.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
So last week I said that Henry Cavill got hurt
training for Highlander. Well, now despite being hurt, he is
back to training. Collider has pictures of him that show
him training with a big old boot on his leg.
So I'm guessing he tore a muscle or something like that.

(39:02):
That's what it looks like to me.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Mh. Well, Henry Cavill definitely needs to heal up because
word is out he has a new secondary antagonist he'll
be facing off against in Highlander. So not only will
you have to fight off Dave Batista's version of the Kurgan,
he'll also match wits and perhaps blades with Jeremy Irons.
Probably not blades, because Irons is going to play the

(39:25):
leader of a group known as the Watchers, which were
introduced into Highland or television series they watch Immortals.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
I'm much more fine with that than I am.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
With Russell Crowe playing Ramirez.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Yeah, whatever, I guess some things you can't get away with.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Well, I do love that in the original Highlander, you
had a Scotsman playing an Egyptian who who spent a
lot of time in Japan only to end up in
Spain and adopting a Spanish persona. This time we've got
an Australian pretending to be et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
So my hope is that that just means that they
really are leaning into the camp and the cultishness of
the original movie. I'm hoping yeah, speaking of cult movie,
I guess it's not really a cult movie cult success.
Kill Bill the Whole Bloody Affair is coming out on
December fifth, and really that means that they've taken Kill

(40:29):
Bill Volume one in Kill Bill Volume two, and they've
smushed them together, taking out the ending cliffhanger ending and
the recap in the second one and just putting it
all together. And it will also include a little animated sequence.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
Interesting well. In July two thousand and seven, the Simpsons
movie hit theaters, and we now hear that twenty years later,
on July twenty third, twenty twenty seven, a sequel Simpsons
movie will hit the silver screen. According to Variety, this
will take the spot that previously was earmarked for an
untitled Marvel project. Probably not a bad idea as far

(41:10):
as that goes. No word on what the story for
this new Simpsons movie will be, but we do know
the television series has been renewed for a fortieth season. Yauza,
or as as Homer might say, whoo.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Nope, that was not a good Homer, I take it back. Okay. Next, Halo,
the TV show that had two seasons, is now on Netflix.
It's doing pretty well on Netflix, despite not doing super
well on its previous platform. It's currently I think number

(41:43):
four on Netflix. How many more times can I say Netflix?

Speaker 2 (41:48):
John Malcolvic, Yeah, well, I mean good for Halo and goodbye.
Once upon a time we heard that Margot Robbie was
going to direct a more female centric intro in the
Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, while another project, also in
the Pirates world, was in development at the same time.
It has been a while since we've heard about any

(42:10):
of that stuff now. Jerry Bruckheimer says that Robbie is
still involved in Pirates, but it's possible that the script
for her version of the film fell through. Where it
is the next film is going to be a reboot,
and it's possible that Depth will be back as Jack
Sparrow May.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
If you're excited about that, that's great. I am not.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
I mean, I like The Pirates as an idea. I
like the first movie a lot, and then things fell
off a cliff for me pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
I didn't mind the second movie, and I think I
saw the third, but I have not kept up with it.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
The only thing I liked in the second movie. It
didn't make any sense and it was totally fan service y,
and I still love did But the thing I liked
about the second movie was the very end where Captain
Barbosa walks down the stairs revealing that he's alive again
and he can eat an apple, And because I just
like Jeffrey Rush so much and I loved his performance
as Barbosa, so seeing him back was great. And then

(43:17):
the third movie. I definitely saw the first the first trilogy,
and I think I've only seen the second and third
movie once all the way through. I've seen the first
one multiple times, and.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
So that the second one was it with Davy Jones, correct.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Yes, Davy Jones. Yeah, that was Davy Jones's locker. Yeah,
the third one was at World's End, and that was
the one that begins with like thirty different jack sparrows
lurching around and had the Council of Pirates like I
had a lot of other fan service moments. I didn't

(43:55):
like it very much. And I've tried watching the fourth
and fifth one at different times, and I honestly I
just could even stay with them.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
I think I've seen on Stranger Tides. I think that's
the fourth one. I don't know, No, maybe that I don't.
I can't tell. It was the one with the Fountain
of Youth and Penelope Cruise. I did see that one.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Yeah, that's the fourth one. The fifth one is the
one that has uh Javier Bardem and I think, m
h because I think the I think the fourth one
has Blackbeard, right, it's got Ian McShane as black Beard.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Yeah, I think I think just there. It wasn't. The
subsequent ones weren't different enough for me to.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Care there was. Jenny Nicholson did a great video kind
of breaking down the Pirates films and why, in her opinion,
the first film is the only good one, and I
happen to agree with her. I'm not saying that her
opinion is the correct one. I'm just saying she and
I share the same opinion, and her main thing was
Jack Jack Sparrow worked great as a supporting character where

(45:04):
he was there for flavor. And also like no one
knew what Johnny Depp was going to bring to that character, right,
they didn't right the character to be this weird, wacky
kind of rock star sort of character. That's what Depp
brought to the part. But the problem is that once
he established who that character was, the writers began to

(45:27):
write the character as that and that's where it started
to go over the top and too much and felt indulgent.
And also they essentially made Jack Sparrow the protagonist. And
Jack Sparrow, I feel is better as a supporting character
because he ironically can affect the storyline much more effectively

(45:50):
as a supporting character than as a protagonist.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
He's not Deadpool people.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Yeah, so I feel the same way she does. And
again I'm not saying that her opinion, in my opinion,
are the right ones, just that a lot of her
arguments I found myself agreeing with, even though I had
not necessarily articulated them that way.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
Myself gotcha, Well, that is our thirty seconds or less
a could you tell sorry, half a minute or more.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Yeah, so let's talk about some stuff that we saw
that doesn't really fit our lineup. We've just got three
pieces this week in that section, which is that's nice.
Sometimes that's the longest segment of the entire show.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
No, it's a reasonably lengthd lineup. We are just extra
long winded this week.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
That's true. So first up, we have a British TV
series coming out on Apple TV Plus titled Down Cemetery Road,
and it stars Emma Thompson as a private investigator.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Yeah. I saw this trailer on you Like. It came
up in my YouTube feed and I was like whatever,
and I'm glad you put it in because I watched
this trailer and it's not Benoile LeBlanc levels of Zany,
but it genuinely made me laugh out loud at points,
like it looks like a really fun mystery.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Yeah. I wrote that it's a detective story that kind
of has a hard edge to it but still has
a sense of humor.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Yeah. Yeah, so it's not like Killing Eve level.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Dark, but it's not as silly as one of the
Ryan Johnson Knives Out movies.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
As you say, yeah, yeah, it just it feels like
it would be a good watch, like a well balanced watch.
I mean, I can't fully tell from the trailer, but that's.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
What I know from it, and it comes out on
Apple TV Plus on October twenty ninth. Also, I should
mention this is based off a novel, so this is
a series that is based off a book, so it's
not a whole original idea. But yeah, I thought the
trailer looked pretty intriguing.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
Yeah, yeah, you know, there's a lot of BBC stuff
that I might want to watch, yeah, or British esque Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
Yeah. Less intriguing to me is an action film called
Exit Protocol that stars Dolph Lundgren and Michael Jai White
as well as some other folks. But I wrote down
it's one of those assassins targeting other assassins movies.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
It's spy versus spy plus one.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
Yeah, I said. I also wrote it looks like Bullet
Train but less fun or expendables but probably less lame,
or John Wick but less good or.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
I don't know. I feel like Dolph Lunggren had a
daughter in there, like fou Bar, but twins but triplets.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Yeah, it's comes out October twenty eighth. I don't really
have anything more to say about it, Like it's it's
assassins being hired to target other Like it's one of
those where it's like this one assassin is retired, but
they are identified as being potentially dangerous, probably because of
something this guy knows, and so other assassins are hired

(49:22):
to take him out and the ultimately universe, yeah, because
he's still Flunderin. He also fought Rocky but he didn't win,
so uh but yeah, maybe maybe it looks to me
like they all team up to fight against the government. That's,
you know, pitting them against each other otherwise or something.
It's hard to say, but I can't care enough to

(49:44):
find out.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Uh. Yeah, I really just wanted to that entire little
bit to be us spoofing on names, but you had
so many more than me, and much better. The last
one we have is the thing with feathers. I'm so
sorry I said down Some Cherry Road was BBC because
as example TV, but british Ish, so this is also
this is not british Ish, but it's got a Britishish actor.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
I think, Yeah, Penndic cover batches English. Yes, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
I was trying to connect my thoughts. That's fruitless, that's
a fruitless labor. Yeah, the Thing with Feathers looks like
it's taking a fanciful, vaguely fanciful look at loss in
mental health.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
Yeah, it's a story that is largely treating with the
concept of grief, which has been a big thing in
recent years. Like there's been so many movies and shows
that have been dealing on the concept of grief, which
probably is a reflection of the world around us, like

(50:55):
often art is obviously a reflection of what's going on
in the world. So not for me to pontificate about
why we are having so many different stories that are
centered around the concept of grief, but this is definitely
one of them. It is based off a novel. It's
also one of those movies where the characters aren't given names,

(51:17):
like Benedic Cumberbatch's character is named Dad and his two
sons are Boy one and Boy two. Like we're seeing
a lot of that too recently, where it's a movie
where characters, like, the characters aren't given names, you're given
the idea that they're supposed to be kind of standing
in for more of a concept or a type like

(51:39):
an archetype. I'm getting a little tired of both of
these tropes. Just this looks good. I don't mean to
say this doesn't look good. This looks good. It looks
like it's very well made. It looks like it's extremely emotional.
But I personally am getting tired of both the trope
of let's not give any of our characters names instead,

(52:00):
just give them a descriptor, and let's make this all
about grief. I'm getting tired of both of those things.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
I can't understand that. You know, watching movies about grief
can be good, but it also takes, like it's it takes,
it's emotionally taxing. The name thing, well, yeah, the name
thing I feel like is just the inner improver and
me box it like that's the first thing you do,
is you give somebody a name, but it's mine. The

(52:32):
reviews say that it's heartwarming, So my hope is that
this ends up being like a a positive, uplifting movie
by the end of it.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
Sure again, like I'm sure it is. It's not. It's
not this movie's fault that I've just been overwhelmed with
projects that are ultimately about grief like I you go
back to WandaVision from years ago. You know, WandaVision ultimately

(53:02):
love yes, and WandaVision ultimately ends up being all about
processing grief. Yeah, and and ultimately Wanda's failure to do that.
But like, since then, I just feel like there's been
eli Oh. The movie Elle Oh is largely about grief.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Like spoilers, No, I'm kidding.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
It opens up. It opens up with you seeing this
kid being sad because his parents are dead.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
Okay, no, I haven't seen it, but I was joking,
just just to give people an overview, a little bit
better idea of what this movie is, at least from
the trailer. So Benedet Cumberbatch is a dad with you kids.
I think their mom is dead and he's dealing with
that and he ends up. I don't know if he's created,
created it in his mind, or for it is actually

(53:52):
a thing that is happening. They make it seem like
he's created in this mind, like he's connected with ravens,
and so there's this giant raven creature that's like, I'm
not leaving you. I'm your grief. I'm gonna help you
through it, which is why it's called the Thing with feathers,
Which that's interesting, Like they never show a super clear
picture of the raven and hole in the trailer, and
I think that is an interesting artistic choice, which I

(54:15):
very much like.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Well, I definitely think it's a good choice for a trailer.
Whether or not the movie does it, I don't know.
But if the movie does reveal the whole Crow creature,
it would have been a crime to show that in
the trailer.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
Yeah, for sure. I mean I did, legit what. I
put this trailer on watching TV with my husband because well,
we'll put on YouTube, and I was like, is this
the new Crow movie?

Speaker 2 (54:42):
No, you would have known, because it would have been
way worse, and there would have been a lot of
like like like heavy metal music that you didn't recognize
playing in the background.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
Fair enough, that's it for things that don't fit. Let's
let's go to something that makes Jonathan happy.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
Yeah, John boys, horror Hutch. Here we are, come on
into my horror Hutch. Y'all, we're gonna we're gonna talk
about some horror. Before I began, thank you, Yes, I
gotta get some WD forty for that sucker, uh Ariel
Before we get started. Did you watch trailers for any
of the three? Or should I just blast through these?

Speaker 1 (55:21):
I did not. I did not watch trailers. No, Like
I watched some scary trailers, and I was like, I'll
let you pick which ones you want to put in.

Speaker 2 (55:28):
That's fair, that's fair.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
I watched the trailer for a Hell House. Don't ask
me why I don't want to watch that movie. I don't.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
That's the series I actually really enjoy, even the bad ones.
I like of that.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
I'm surprised you didn't put it in.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
Well, because we talked about it in a previous episode,
So it may be that there's a new trailer out,
but we talked about an older one. Uh, and I
just didn't come across it. But what I did see
was I saw a trailer for VHS Halloween. So if
you are somehow unfamiliar with the VHS horror franchise, it's
been around for a while. Actually, someone we know was

(56:04):
in one of them. Actually a couple people I know
were in some of them. But the VHS series, it's
an anthology horror story franchise, and typically the way the
films work is you've got a framing device story that
usually involves people coming across a bunch of VHS tapes
and then they watch them, and each VHS tape has

(56:25):
a different horror film in it. So this one, VHS
Halloween has a framing device, plus five distinct stories. And
all the VHS movies vary in quality. Some of them
very like some of them you just don't get any
really good entries. But some of them are like, oh,

(56:47):
like two of these five were pretty darn good, or
maybe even one of these was really good. But I
don't think I've ever seen one where they all knocked
it out of the park. This one is now a vail.
It's on Shutter, came out today as we record this.
We're recording this on October third. I hope to have

(57:08):
it out shortly thereafter, but I have sometimes been slow
to get these edited and published. But yeah, it's out
now on Shutter if you have that. Also, I will
say Rick Baker, the legendary visual effects like makeup effects
and creature effects guy. He is in this as he

(57:28):
plays a character in one of the segments. Next up
we have we Bury the Dead, which is a zombie movie.
The most notable thing about it is it starring Daisy Ridley,
she was ray in the Star Wars sequels, you know, seven,
eight nine, And in this movie, the dead begin to animate.

(57:51):
And originally, you know, first off, they are slow and docile,
so the government is essentially claiming that these animated dead
are harmless, they poise no threat. But Daisy Ridley's character
is looking for her missing husband, and as she is
searching for him, she discovers that as time goes on,

(58:15):
the dead get less docile. They become a bit more feisty.
And by the way, here's a big surprise. This movie
deals with the concept of grief an anyway, It's coming
out in theaters here in the United States on January second,
twenty twenty six. And then the third one that I
have on my list is called Psycho Killer Kescasse. It's

(58:39):
a story that follows a police officer who is seeking
out the murderer who brutally killed her husband, who is
a state patrolman. Turns out this murderer is a serial killer.
And I'm getting some vibes from Seven from this trailer,
like it's feeling very similar to the film Seven. The
marketing material is extremely quick to point out that two

(59:01):
of the producers on this film also were producers on
Weapons and Barbarian, But I would like to remind you
producers are money people, they are not creatives. Sometimes they
can interfere with creatives, but just because the producer is
involved with multiple projects doesn't mean that they're that similar.
Malcolm McDowell plays a supporting character in this and that's

(59:22):
kind of interesting. It comes out February twentieth, twenty twenty six,
and so since we're talking about a storyline where a
cop is seeking out her husband's killer, my guess is
this movie's gonna deal with grief and that's it. That's
it for me. From John Boys Horror Hutch.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
From John Boys Horror Hutch, let me close that door
for you.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Yeah, that was worse. Didn't get the WD fourty yet?

Speaker 1 (59:53):
No you can't because it is not a scary Hutch.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
No, No, that's that's true. Yeah. Well, well, moving on
to shows that are actually or films that are actually
in our lineup. First up, we got a new trailer
for Guermo del Toro's Frankenstein and Ariel saw this one
immediately sent it to me. So since you were excited

(01:00:17):
by this, why don't you talk a little bit about
what goes into this trailer.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
Yeah, so like you're like, but you already talked about
the deser in the official trailer Ariel and Jonathan, why
would you put another one in? You say, you try
not to do that, and that is right. However, the
previous trailer for this movie is told narratively from the
viewpoint of Victor Frankenstein. The new trailer is told narratively

(01:00:42):
from the viewpoint of the Monster, and I think that
that is really cool. So we get one trailer from
each side of the story. I mean, I was already
excited about this movie because it looks maybe a little
bit closer to the book than some other iterations we've had,
But I really like that choice.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Yeah. I also thought it was interesting that the Monster
implies at least that he can access memories belonging to
multiple people because he himself is made up of the
body parts of multiple people.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
Yeah, it doesn't look like it's going to be an
exact the story because of that, And it also looks
like maybe there is a love interest.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
For him possibly. Tell I'm not gonna go too deeply
into that because then it gets me into the stage
adaptation of Frankenstein that Benedict Cumberbatch was in I was
told not to watch that, so you should not watch that.
It's very upsetting in parts. But yeah, this looks I mean,
it looks really lush and really like. The horror elements

(01:01:47):
are really dialed up. It's Kiermo del Toro. You would
expect nothing less. It comes out in limited release on
October seventeenth, but it will premiere on Netflix on November seventh.
If you recall, well, this was a movie that originally
was just going to go straight to Netflix, and then
people started to demand that Netflix do a theatrical release

(01:02:10):
for it, and now that's happening. So my response to
all of you demanders out there is you better go
out and see this movie, because if you're gonna ask
for it to happen, you gotta follow through. Don't make
this be another Snakes on a Plane people.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
Yeah, yeah, I did go see Snakes on a Plane
in the theater.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
And then you do the song at karaoke.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
This song is the best part of the movie.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
That There is no argument here.

Speaker 1 (01:02:36):
I did not enjoy that movie, but I really like
the Snakes on a Plane song from Cobra Starship. Yeah,
the next thing we have. Is this I guess could
have gone into Jonathan's Horror hutchcnically, but we didn't put
it there. It is a trailer for R. El Stein's
Pumpkin Head.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Yeah. I didn't put this in my horror hutch because
you know, Ralstein primarily rights for younger readers, like young adults,
and I like my horror hutch to be for big
boy horror movies. And I'm being very facetious, so please
don't get on to be about saying big boy there.

(01:03:18):
But yeah, I didn't put there because I thought of
this more as like a gateway horror movie. I think
of certain movies being kind of geared toward like teenage viewers,
maybe somewhere in that realm, and how those can be
kind of an entry point for horror for certain folks.
So when I was a kid, the movies that kind

(01:03:41):
of got me into horror were stuff like Gremlins and
The gate like that kind of thing, And there are
every few years we get other movies that kind of
fall into that. This feels like that to me. I
have never read any R. L. Stein books. I'm not

(01:04:01):
a Stein officionado, but this trailer looked kind of interesting,
like it. It has some very tropy bits in it,
but it still looked it still looked like it's done
fairly well, especially for a to Be original because this
is just this is You can watch it for free
on to.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Be Yeah, honestly, it looked kind of actually scary to me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
Yeah, Like it looks pretty intense for something that's geared
toward younger. Like when I say younger, I am talking
like maybe thirteen, fourteen years old, somewhere in that range.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Yeah, I yeah, it does look like it's a really
good quality for a two B movie for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
So yeah, the story is pretty simple. Family goes to
this small town like has like a harvest festival type thing.
They noticed that some of the towns people are acting
a little odd. They appear to be worshiping a scarecrow figure,
very pagan issue, and that there's a grouchy old man

(01:05:02):
who jealously guards a disgusting looking pumpkin. And then this
jerkface kid. It's clearly here's another trope. It's the kid
who's clearly dealing with something, and the way this kid
deals with it is by acting out like he's he's

(01:05:23):
a bad He acts out like a bad kid. He's
probably not ultimately a bad kid, because that's the way
these movies work out, but that he acts like a
bad kid because of something. You know, it probably has
something to do with an absent father figure, because we
don't see a dad in this bit, and these movies
stories tend to be pretty heavy handed with that stuff.

(01:05:44):
But the kid ends up stealing the pumpkin and thus
precipitates the rest of the action. You find out it's
very Twilight Zone ish in this little town. Not really
my Bag, but it does come out October seventeenth. It's
on two B, so you can watch it for free
once it's out.

Speaker 1 (01:05:59):
Speaking of not Someone's Bag, we got a season two
for trailer for Has Been Hotel, which I tried season one.
I've got a lot of friends who really love it,
but it just the humor did not hit for me.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
Neither the humor, nor the music, nor the characters work
for me. And you know, like the things that bother
Ariel are not the same things that bother me. Like
we are two different people with two different sensibilities, but
in this case we both agree. Like, I don't see
what the I honestly could not understand what the hype

(01:06:35):
was for this series. I guess some people just really
they like the music style and they like the art style,
and maybe they just like obnoxious characters who are terrible
to each other. But for me, I was just like,
none of this is hitting.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
Yeah, like it was. It was raunchy humor, but it
wasn't clever to me. Yeah, it was just put in
and oh yeah, it just didn't hit for me. The
original appeal for me was one I love musical television,
like Gallivant, like Schmigadoons, so I was excited for something
else along those lines. And they were using Broadway singers

(01:07:16):
in the show, so I loved that. Stephanie Beatriz is
in it. She's the voice of I don't know if
she's done Broadway, but she certainly has done musical movies.
She was the main character in Enconto. Ah Beatlejuice is
in it. H thank you. Yes. I was like Adam Leavin, no,

(01:07:37):
that is not correct. But there's a whole bunch of
Broadway singers in it, so that was very exciting to me.
And then the execution just I have friends who will
fight me tooth and nail on this, but they're like,
but it's so good and it does this, and it
does this, and it does this. I'm like, that's all fine,
I don't enjoy the journey.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
Yeah, maybe it may be the kind of story that
appeals to people who have just very different life experience
than the two of us have. Right, So, for example,
you know, I don't identify as queer, but I know
lots of my friends who do have elements of this
show that they really connect to, and that's just a

(01:08:18):
point of view. I don't. I have a lot of
empathy for them, but I don't have that life experience.
So it's very possible that that's like, it's just literally
that it's not for us, which is fine, that's yeah,
you know, and it's fine for people to like it.
It just totally didn't work for either of us for
different reasons, or probably a lot of the same reasons. Anyway.

(01:08:39):
Season two is coming out October twenty ninth on Amazon Prime.
So if you are someone who really digs has been Hotel,
first of all, that's awesome. I love what you love.
Second of all, you got more of it coming by
the end of this month.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
Yeah, and I will say, like, I also don't identify
as queer, but I do enjoy stories, those stories that
are told. Again, it was the x Secution, it was.

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
Yeah, yeah, it didn't work for me either, but yeah again, anyhow,
we both know people who just absolutely love it, and
yes we don't. We don't let them into our lives anymore.
We've shut them out.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
We love those people. Shoot, we love those people.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
I need to make some calls.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
What have you been doing? Yes you should.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
Let's just get through the rest of the show.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
Okay, okay, uh so tailor kid Boo, my tongue got
twisted trying to talk about the next trailer, which is
for Twisted Wonderland. It wasn't on purpose, but it was
kiss Met I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
Yeah, so I did not know this before I started
looking into it. But this is based off a turn
based game, uh that that has been out for a while,
And so this is an anime series that is set
in a world that has a magic school that it
seems to be incredibly similar to a certain magic school

(01:09:59):
about you know, pig Boils and I'm sorry Hogwarts. Anyway,
this particular magic school has seven distinct houses, each of
which is centered around a classic Disney villain. So those
villains include the Queen of Hearts, who is the central
figure for the first bit of the series, the evil

(01:10:22):
Queen from Snow White, Ja'afar, scar Ursula, Maleficent, and Hades.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
Yeah it, so, I said, as soon as because you
put this trailer on here, as soon as I saw it,
I sent it to our mutual friend Jen because she
also loves Disney greatly and also likes a lot of
like those anime shows that have a similar vibe. And
what I said, I was like, I sent this to

(01:10:51):
you because it reminded me of Disney's Descendants, which is
a Disney Plus TV show about the children of famous villains,
meets the Orian host Club, which is an anime about
and a manga about a private school. And she was like,

(01:11:13):
that is exactly what I thought to it. I'm so excited.
So yes, not necessarily new ground anywhere, but it could
be a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
Yeah, So this comes out in October twenty ninth, which
is a pretty crowded date at this point with all
the stuff we've been talking about. But yeah, it definitely
looks very stylized. Didn't look like something that I'm going
to really get into, but I can totally see how
people would be jazzed about it. So yeah, check out

(01:11:42):
the trailer if you're curious. We also got a full
trailer for Zootopia too. I don't really have anything to
say about this one though, other than to say it
just shows how, you know, Nick and Judy are investigating
pursuing an investigation while essentially against orders.

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
Yeah, I don't know. It looked heartwarming, it looked fun.
It made me laugh. There were little bits in it
that made me laugh. I wasn't gonna go see Zootopia too,
but I think I am going to go see Zouotopia too.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
I enjoyed the first one well enough. I mean, it's
got some elements in it that I find irritating, but overall,
I enjoyed the movie. This one comes out November twenty sixth,
so I'll probably see this one too.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
Cool. What about Charlotte's Web?

Speaker 2 (01:12:35):
All right? So this is a three episode mini series
that's coming to HBO Max and it comes out of
Sesame Workshop. I'm a sucker for the nineteen seventy three
animated film So Good. I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
It was so good. I don't think I'd ever watch
it again, but I loved it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
Templeton the rat is fantastic in that one. I think
it's Paul Lynd. It does the voice for him. But
it's it's such a it's such a good adaptation. This
looks like it's very sweet. It looks the animation style
is very cute. The voice cast has some great folks

(01:13:14):
in it, like Amy Adams, Randall, Park Rosario Dawson, Elijah Wood,
Gene Smart. So, you know, really interesting and strong voice cast.
But I I'm cool with the nineteen seventy three version.
That's that's no aspersions to this one. It looks like
it's really well done. I just I'm like, well, I

(01:13:36):
already have a really good adaptation.

Speaker 1 (01:13:39):
Yeah, but it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
Looks it looks like it's it's made with a lot
of love, and it's already available. It's available now on
HBO Max.

Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
You know, I think I feel the same way as you.
I love that some of the classics that I enjoyed
growing up. Even though I don't like spiders now and
I don't like animal stories, Charlotte's Web does hold a
a warm place in my heart, and specifically Templeton, like,
anytime I hear a voice like Paul Lin's, I amase
it even if it's not him, I immediately think of

(01:14:10):
Templeton from Charlotte's Web, right, But you're right this it
is also a cartoon, So the original cartoon I think
holds up well enough that it didn't need to be remade.
But maybe it's just because it's a new release. I
don't mind it. It looks really cute.

Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
Yeah, I mean, and I can understand like some kids
kind of are reluctant to watch things that are older
just because it doesn't follow the same kind of art
style and format that they're accustomed to, which I guess,
you know that's legitimate. It's not like I don't seek
out a lot of stuff from say the fifties and sixties,

(01:14:49):
Like you know, I'm not going to go watch classic westerns,
but I do like postmodern westerns, So I get it.
Like i've I think it's just a natural way. So
I understand the need to do new adaptations to introduce
people to works that otherwise they might not bother consuming,

(01:15:11):
whether it's the original novel or the nineteen seventy three
adaptation or whatever. So yeah, no objections here. But again,
I feel like my version's always going to It's kind
of like Willy Wonka. My version is always going to
be the seventies one.

Speaker 1 (01:15:27):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Last thing we have is Reading Rainbow.

Speaker 2 (01:15:33):
It is coming back, yes, but not with LeVar Burton.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
No, this time it is with.

Speaker 2 (01:15:40):
Oh my god, I had his name, Michael Threats.

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
Michael Threats, who is a librarian who is famous on
TikTok and does a lot of literacy advocacy and mental
health advocacy, and so he will be hosting this new show.
The trailer for it. NBC News posted a trailer for
it that was also shared I believe on Instagram. It
looks absolutely darling. I am super into this and I

(01:16:07):
wish I had kids so I had a better excuse.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
To watch it. Yeah, it's It premieres on October fourth
on YouTube, so by the time you hear the show,
it'll either be almost out or totally out. So yeah,
it's it's exciting to see it come back. LeVar Burton
tried to bring back Reading Rainbow several years ago, but

(01:16:31):
ran into some copyright dispute issues with the the PBS
station that first essentially launched Reading Rainbow, so they didn't
really get as far as even though there was a
huge crowdfunding support for it, it didn't get to take off.
This is a fully you know, licensed piece of work

(01:16:57):
that's coming out. It's kind of sad LeVar Burton is
not a part of it. I hope that it's going
on with his blessing, but at the same time, Threetz is,
you know, it's impossible to argue threats. Is very much
a strong advocate for reading and for mental health. Like,

(01:17:17):
even though I'm not on social I've seen some of
his stuff and I've always been impressed with how he
presents himself and how frank and honest he is with
his own mental health challenges. So I think it'll be
I think it'll be a really valuable piece of educational
entertainment out there, And like Sesame Street, it's one of

(01:17:41):
those things I think has a needed place out there
in the world.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
I agree. I agree he's going to have celebrity guests
and readers for books, which is cool. He is not
as polished as LeVar Burton, Like he's not an actor, right,
so his delivery is not as polished as bar Burdens
was from what I have seen this far, but it

(01:18:09):
is very like our honest and charming so I like it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
Well, that's it. That's that's our lineup this week. So no,
we're not doing another two hour plus episode today.

Speaker 1 (01:18:24):
No. No, I'm actually surprised it's so short because when
we were watching it originally, I was like, oh, this
is going to be forever when.

Speaker 2 (01:18:30):
I was watching o'clock. Yeah, that's because our first thirty
seconds are less. Went on for ten minutes. But I'm sorry, no,
it's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:18:38):
I'll go put myself in the long winded corner. Okay, Okay, Yeah,
So thank you all for listening. Thank you, thank you
all for being awesome and nerdy, and Jonathan if they
want to reach out about the things that we've talked about,
how did they do that to talk to you?

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
Okay? So I've decided that what I'm doing is I'm
generating an AI version of myself, And so all you
have to do is find the website where the AI
Jonathan is hosting and ask your question. I do recommend
you get there early because that AI Jonathan is going

(01:19:19):
to be trained on whatever people say to him, and
we all know the Internet people are going to be
saying some truly terrible things. So if you want to
hear the closest thing to actual Jonathan's response. You need
to get there fast because by the time you get there,
if you drag your feet at all, it's going to
be some sort of alternate universe monster Jonathan version who

(01:19:43):
enjoys kicking puppies and spitting on old people. So I
would recommend you know, if you really need to ask
me a question, you get on it and find that
Ai Jonathan out there. And here's another hint. He might
be speaking span.

Speaker 1 (01:20:02):
And if you can't find him before I shut that
monstrosity down, then you can reach out to us on
social media on Facebook and Instagram and threads. We're a
large nurderm collider. That's also our handle on discord. Come
join our community. It is small, but awesome the Discord community.

(01:20:23):
You can also reach us to send a long form
message via email. We are a large neurdron pod at
gmail dot com. That's it. Like I said, thank you
guys again, and until next time, I am Ariel, I
really descript some more of what I say out caston.

Speaker 2 (01:20:43):
And I am Jonathan me noobinary as Jonathan.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
Strickland shouldn't spreacken to Espaniel.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
The large Nerdron Collider was created by Ariel Caston and reduced, edited, published, deleted, undeleted,
published again. Curse That by Jonathan Strickman. Music by Kevin
McLeod of incomptech dot com