Episode 299 - Albums That Shaped up w/ Amy Kenerup

Brad and returning friend Amy Kenerup talk about the Thompson Twins' album Into the Gap

Episode Transcript

(00:21):
From Geppetto Studios in New Freedom,Pennsylvania. Welcome to the Cosmic Geppetto podcast,
your home for inclusive, positive geekculture where we talk about movies,
comics, music, books, andwhatever else we feel like. Please welcome
your host, a ridiculously attractive person, Brad Mendenhall, eight kids. It

(00:57):
is episode two to the penultimate episodeof the Cosmin Hippeto podcast. For something
this big, I had to bringin someone really cool and I love very
much. Amy Kenra is back forthe final ever Music That Shaped Us episode.
I think I've come up with aboutfive different names for this segment,

(01:21):
and I love the segment. Iwish I could just be more consistent.
We could find a better title forit. Amy was one of the first
friends I made at lock Haven.She and I and Jarff all appeared in
the same play together at lock Haven. I've talked many times about the imports

(01:41):
of theater in my life. Amyplayed my mother in law, Jarff played
the telephone man. Another friend ofours, Kate, played my wife.
These people have all continued to bepure friends decades later, more than a
quarter century later. So lucky tohave all of them in my life and

(02:07):
I was so glad that you cando this one more time. AnyWho,
let's jump in. So very excited. It's been a while, and I'm

(02:30):
so excited to have her back.A favorite of the show and just an
absolute dream person who I have beenfriends with and I have such affection for
and such love for so many greatstories from our college days, our times
at Lockhamer University. Amy kennerrip ishere. Amy. How you doing?

(02:52):
Oh that was such a sweet andtrouble gonna make me cry. I'm good?
How are you? I'm really good? So this is uh, I
guess it's probably gonna be our lastone of these is we've been doing our
albums that shaped us. Okay,it's funny. You have sang theme songs

(03:14):
for the Cosmic Tripedal podcast. Youhave been the lead singer of a bar
band, and you know music morethan that, Like you are like a
studied singer who sort of understands theintricacies of like what people hear and we
just like, oh that sounds pretty. You actually know what makes it pretty

(03:34):
and what makes it good or whatmakes it musical kind of. I mean,
in high school we had some musictheory along with band and such,
and so I knew a lot backmore back then than I do now for
sure, but I don't know it. For me, it's kind of more
intuitive. I guess, I don'tknow. I'm not all that knowledgeable.

(04:00):
Sometimes you've lost some of the jargon. Yes, So I was really interested
to see what you would you wouldselect. So please share with our listeners
that the album that you know,the album that shaped you, what you
chose. I chose the album Intothe Gap by Thompson Twins. And when

(04:23):
you when you told me that,and maybe I'm reading into it, you
seemed a little nervous about what myreaction was going to be. Well,
yeah, you you are very passionateabout your music, and you know what
you like, and I mean,you do have a wide variety. But

(04:45):
you know, I know you havesome strong opinions, and I wasn't sure
what you would think of that particularchoice. Gurde your loins. I actually
love Thompson Twins, Yay. Ithink Hold Me Now is wonderful that that

(05:08):
song, especially Doctor Doctor, isa very good song. It's and I
also find the Thompson Twins fascinating,okay, because they are the eightiest eighties
the most eighties of eighties bands,Oh for sure, quintessential from the look

(05:30):
the eighties hairstyles. The there's aweird detachment with their performances, but there's
and it's it's a lot of synth, with tons of synth, Oh so
much synth. But they're also there'salso like a while it feels attached,

(05:55):
but there's also like a weird undercurrentof warmth with their songwriting and are very
good. Yeah, there was onething I was I was really listening to
the album, and I was somethingthat an observation that sort of occurred to
me was that the oh what's hisname, Bailey? Right? Bailey?

(06:17):
Yeah, he was who's sort ofthe lead guy? Yeah, he's the
guy. His singing simultaneously sounds likehe's bored and also very passionate and tormented.
That's a wonderful way to explain it, because yeah, he it's almost
like a guy who's just so rifewith heartbreak and the only way it can

(06:42):
express himself is with a forced detachment. Yeah, and this band couldn't exist
at any other time. No,No, they are very much up their
time for sure, and they're atrio. They were a trio. What
was it Tom Bailey, joe Leewayand Alana Curry? H Bailey and Curry.

(07:08):
They were married, they have kidstogether. Yeah, I knew they
were married. I didn't know toomuch about the you know, the rest
of their family other than it's sadbecause I'm like, we're doing researchers,
like, oh, they broke theysplit up. I should I shouldn't be
surprised when there's no reason I shouldbe surprised that a couple that formed while

(07:29):
in a band together are no longertogether. I guess not, but that's
still a bummer. They were socute, Yeah they were. It's not
like they they weren't glamorous looking.No, a lot of Curry and I
did. She never an attractive woman, but she never tried to glam herself

(07:56):
up or be a sex symbol.And in fact, I love this little
bit of trivia. She had aband before she was part of Thompson Twins
called the Unfuckables. I did notknow that. That's amazing and I know

(08:18):
nothing about this group. But ifthat's what you name yourself, you're not
going for sex simple status for surenot. But that's kind of amazing.
I love that, you know,into the Gap came out and I think
it was ninety five. It's ashort album. It's a forty five minute
long album. I think you meaneighty five. Eighty five, Yeah,

(08:41):
pardon as she came out in eightyfour. Okay, it's a forty five
minute long album, so kind oftight, and it's not like short songs.
The shortest song was three minutes fortynine seconds, the longest was but

(09:01):
most of them are like four maybejust over five minutes long. They were
very, very famous for a shortperiod of time. It was, and
they played together for a while.They even changed, like sort of decided
they didn't want to be the ThompsonTwins anymore and went under a different name
for a while. Oh, Ididn't know that. Do you know what

(09:22):
the name is? Babbels. Itwas something silly, I mean, I
know, Babbel. Oh, theychanged their name, and I think it
was after Leeway left the band,and it seemed they played as the Thompson

(09:45):
Twins as a duo for a littlewhile, but then and it was more
of a they just didn't want tobe the Thompson Twins anymore. They sort
of wanted to change their you know, changed their five change their sound and
they they re themselves Babbel and theyput out two albums in ninety three and
ninety six. Hmmm, interesting,I have not heard those. They just

(10:07):
seemed to sort of get dialed inat the right time, but it wasn't
going to last long, gotcha.I have a theory on why that is.
But I'm curious, Like, you'rea fan, you let you this
is an album that's important to you. Or are you a fan of the
Thompson Twins outside of this album orwas it just like this album was perfect

(10:31):
and you love this album. Ithis album was the you know that my
first one of theirs. It wasintroduced to me by a friend in fifth
grade and she was a huge fanand I was like, oh, what
is this and so I, youknow, she would play it for me
and I ended up buying a copyon cassette myself and just learned to love

(10:54):
it. And then I did endup getting their next album. Didn't like
it quite as much, still likedit, still listened to it quite a
bit, but pretty much those twoare it. I think the second one
was Here's the Future Days, Right, Here's the Future Days. I'm looking

(11:15):
through the track list and I waslike, uh, nothing jumps out of
me. Nothing certainly had the samecultural hold as Doctor Doctor or hold Me,
Now, lay your hands on me? Is on that one, isn't
it? Yes? Yeah? Thatwas I think that was the big hit
or whatever from that one. Andthey had been together for a while,

(11:35):
like they their first album was aproduct of Participation in eighty one, then
they had Set in eighty two,quick Step in Sidekick in eighty three,
and then Into the Gap. Sothe Cap was their fourth album. Four
albums in four years. Wow,And I have literally never heard any of

(11:56):
the other ones. It seemed like, yeah, if you go to the
Wikipedia page, they had a lotof band members, Oh really yeah,
former members. You have a PeteDodd, John rug John had pod Gorski
Andrew Edge, like like seven membersbefore they got to the trio that you

(12:18):
think of gotcha. So it sortof strikes me as like, is a
Tom Bailey production And he liked thename Thompson Twins And there's a lot of
bands like that, like I guesssort of famously, Nirvana went through a
lot of drummers before they sort oflocked onto you know, the trio that

(12:39):
had all the success, which onlylast, which for them lasted two albums,
right, but that was you know, due to the untimely death.
Yeah, I mean they could havedefinitely could have kept going. Now you've
you've pulled me off course? Whichone it was gonna happen? What there's
tangents on this pods? I know, I know, come on, be

(13:01):
a professional, Brad. The eightYear Secret. What do you think would
have happened in Hairvana if any ifnot for the untimely, for the entirely
passing, what do you think wouldhave happened where Nirvana? Hmmm? Interesting
question. I mean I think theywould have kept going. I'm not sure

(13:22):
they would have continued to have asmuch success as they did. I mean,
I think it would have been thething where the first album was the
big thing, and then every otherone didn't quite live up to it,
and they just sort of faded out, but had their passionate fan base that

(14:03):
just standing there. I thought Iwas only dreaming. Yeah, might pursue
them then one so again you saidyou we come mans Sands with me,

(14:31):
timit across the seas he Confield moreshall not a thousand dreams? You can't
see a birch Maden another. Yes, I think you're right. Pearl Jam

(15:09):
is still in Pearl Jam was,and I know ten didn't sell as much
as never Mind, but it solda lot and there were a lot of
you know, are you a PearlJam person or you are an a person.
They were pretty concurrent, and PearlJam had a good amount of success

(15:31):
with their subsequent albums, But nowthey are a nostalgia act, right,
which is kind of what I wasthinking. Nobody buys their new albums.
Thing's been a very long time sincethey've had a significant hit, but people
go to their concerts liking You wonderif followed with the same thing. Of
course, what's interesting is Kurt Cobain. I think he was and I think

(15:54):
it's sort of understood not the easiestguy to be in a band with Dave
Roll obviously had as he's proven whatthe success he said with Foo Fighters.
Obviously had other stuff on his mindthan just being the drummer for a band,
right, although I seem to rememberhearing an interview with him saying that

(16:15):
he didn't mind not being the leadbecause he got to work with Fort Kobain,
because he had so much respect andadmiration for him. I would have
loved. I mean, bands ingeneral don't break off. It's it's it's
pretty rare where they stay broken up. I know, my like on my

(16:36):
you know, on my feed islike, oh my god, Creed's coming
back to town, right, whatyear is it. Yeah, aside from
the fact he's like, well,people are still going to Creed concerts.
And second off, those guys hatedeach other. Mm hmmm. The most
interesting thing about that band was howmuch they hated each other. But it

(16:56):
seems like every five years they realizedthey like money more than they hate each
other. So they'll do a tour, right, gotta do what you gotta
do. Yeah, And I getit. You know, college isn't cheap
for kids, so so you wonderif it would be a thing of Nirvana.
Every like Kirk Cobain putting out soloEveryone puts out the solo albums and

(17:17):
then every five years is like,hey, we want to make a lot
of money the reunion. Oh yeah. I've seen the bands where it's like
I was a Black Crows fan inhigh school, in college, the brothers,
the Robinson brothers, who are youknow, the lead singer and the
guitarist of that band. They areboth sort of challenging personalities, and they

(17:40):
decide they hate each other and theydon't want to talk for five years.
And when they're split up, theyplay at small, you know, clubs,
and then when they play together theyplay at big outdoor venues. It's
like, that's got to be asignificant difference in checks they're cashing, for
sure. Yeah, because I meanthey I need the name recognition of the

(18:03):
band name that people have to belike hardcore fans to really know them based
on just the names of the individuals, which, in a weird way,
it tastes back to Thompson Twins.Okay, Tom Bailey didn't sing Thompson Twins
songs in concerts, So how weirdwould that be? That would be pretty
weird. Yeah, you find outthe least singer from that band is going

(18:25):
to be in town, it's likeit go see, was like, Okay,
here's everything other than doctor, Doctorand holding out. Well interestingly enough,
Oh maybe it's not that interesting.But a few years ago I went
to visit my sister in Minneapolis andat around the time of the Minneapolis State
Fair, and they were having aconcert that was like eighties Nostalgia Night or

(18:49):
something and Tom Bailey was the firstact just by himself, and he actually
did do pretty much all Thomson Twinsthings, and he seemed very happy to
do it, and he seemed veryappreciative that there were still fans and grateful
for his career and he seemed likea really good dude. What when was

(19:10):
that show? Do you remember?Five years ago? My dog, My
dog disagrees with you. I meanhe might know better. And the research
it said that starting in August oftwenty fourteen, and it's like he was

(19:32):
at the Temple Island Meadows in Oxford, Oxfordshire, the rewind South Festival.
It was his first time doing thosesongs in twenty seven years. Wow.
But since then he started touring andwould start presenting himself as you know Tom

(19:53):
Bailey from Thompson Twins when he wouldgo on, when he would go in
concert. Quick Google search, hesays, twenty eighteen, twenty eighteen,
okay, oh, when you sawhim? Yeah, that's what I saw.
And interestingly, that is five yearsago. I'm usually terrible at that,
but knowing that when things happened andI managed to estimate it correctly.

(20:15):
Weird, but he was the firstone and then they had boy George,
who was actually amazing. He wasa phenomenal performer. And then they had
the B fifty two's. I learnedtwo things. One that I don't know
as many befifty two songs as Ithought I did. Two that the oh

(20:38):
why can't I think of his name? The dude from beefifty two's, I
want to say he is Schneider.Yeah, Fred Schneider, that's it,
thank you. He has gotten olderand did not seem like he was having
fun and seemed very much like hewas yelling at kids to get off his
lawn. And it's a very differentsound from the you know happy that used

(21:03):
to be. If you'll be afight head sign at that side out of
that round, you know, it'svery different in an angry tone. I'm
a big fan of the comedian DanaGould, and he was once talking about
how bands that like reunite after likesplitting up and it seems like cash grabs,

(21:25):
and he said, I want topropose a law that if you're going
to like come back after breaking upand it's a cash grab, you should
be legally forced to have Fred Schneiderfrom the B fifty two's as your lead
singer for the first tour. Somehow, I don't think Fred Schneider would go
for that, but it would bea law Yeah, well true. And

(21:47):
of course it's like, you know, imagine if the Doors came back and
there's Schneider, you know, singingHello, I love you. It's like,
well, I mean I could seethat. It makes it sure that
the band really wants it. No, I'm picturing all the Door songs in
his voice. To be fifty twoswere such a weird band because they were

(22:07):
so campy and so and they weren'tcool and rock lobster and no mean really
rock lobster. Well right, anythingthat Fred Schneider would sing it sounded like
it was some sort of like wackycabaret. Yeah, although it sounded like

(22:30):
he was having fun back then,not so much more recently, but then
it was it. Kate Pearson,she was a wonderful singer. Oh,
she was great. I kind ofwanted to be here when I grew up.
Yeah, I can see that.I've always been very impressed and with
your singing ability, and because youhave a theater background, you also had

(22:53):
when you was singing, there waslike a nifty bit of theatricality to your
performance. Oh, yeah, you'rewelcome. I'm a big fan of that
was recently. My daughter is abig and I've talked about this on the
show before. My daughter has becomea big Saturday Live, Saturday Night Live
fan. Oh that's awesome. Yeah, it's weird. It's probably assigned that

(23:15):
I'm not parenting real well, buthere we are. I don't know.
I'd say that sounds like you're doingit right. My daughter's a big fan
of a Jenna Ortega Wednesday from theWednesday Show. Yes, she's fantastic,
She's wonderful. So she always wantsto watch the Jenna Ortega SNL. The
music act for that was the nineteenseventy five's not familiar. What what was

(23:38):
interesting is they came out and they'reall wearing like some snappy suits and they're
all sort of like they were it'sa rock band, sort of a pop
rock band, and they were dressedsort of snappy, and they all had
their you know, they were allwell quaffed and we're dance a little bit

(24:00):
while they were playing. And Iwas watching it and I was like,
yeah, I'm sort of into that, Like I'm sort of into I've seen
too many bar bands or opening actswhere everyone looks like a it's like,

(24:25):
you know, buddy, you areI see them playing some of these opening
acts or festival groups playing. It'slike listen, I know you're all dads,
but do you have to wear thecargo shorts? That is something that
plagued my own band. And theywere all amazing music, right yeah,

(24:45):
yeah, just great, but justthey wanted to be comfortable, which I
can't blame them. You can't blamethem, and I'm not in when I
started playing out with a band,and you were one of the first people
I talked to about it because Iwas looking for advice on it. And
I remember when we first played.The first time I played, it's like

(25:06):
I actually went out, was likeI got a nice pair of I like
paid twice as much as I everhad for a pair of jeans, twenty
five dollars that tracks that tracks,yeah yeah, bought a sort of quirky
well it's funny. The first timeI played, I was like, Okay,

(25:27):
I got a nice dress shirt andlike a best to put over the
dress shirt. I was like,oh, this is gonna look great.
I was sweating my ass off.Yes, that is a danger. Oh
oh, that's why people do this. I am dying. Yeah, I
always get so warm when I'm performing. I don't know if it's the adrenaline

(25:48):
or what, but it's just,uh, it's unpleasant, the adrenaline,
nerves of lights, whatever, itis a combination of all those things.
So the next time, I waslike, Okay, I'm gonna like,
I'm gonna sort of find off kilterband T shirts and it's like, all
right, that'll work, you know, and a good T shirt, one
that sort of fits. I canonly do so much because I'm definitely very

(26:11):
close to fifty with a dad bod, and god forbid, I try to
get in shape before I perform.It's like, yeah, but flip flops
in the cargo shorts and you know, a poor fitting Hawaiian shirt. It's
like, come on, guys.Most of the guys I've played with at

(26:33):
least would do like a buttondown shirt, but with the cargo shorts it it
was kind of an odd combo.There's a scandal, embassy, lots of

(27:22):
rumors playing round. I gave themall my money. What I have to
play pounds. Sometimes I think thatmatter that hasards, having tea, sipping
up the situation to destroy SI.Don't be small the wicked. We're dancing

(27:49):
until we rock, Bess, I'mat rest, bore the wicked, and
we're all too scared. We werealso often playing outdoors. It's been a
while, correct, Your band sortof is a victim of the pandemic of

(28:11):
memory serve. It was, yes, although more recently we've just started picking
up the thread again and our formerdrummer was no longer interested in being in
continuing the with the band, sadly, but we found a new one.

(28:32):
We still don't have a keyboard player, but we did actually get together and
practice once, so there is hope. We did you play a lot of
outdoor events or was it usually inbars? Yeah? Most of them were
outdoor, almost all of them actually, And they were usually during the summer,
and I was usually dying. Andwe had this one show that was

(29:00):
outside in the summer, like inAugust at like from like six to eight,
and the stage faced west, sothe sun was like directly honest,
and the temperature was in the ninetiesthat day. It was not awesome.
I started playing well, like wheneverwe would play out and we didn't play

(29:25):
out a lot. We did abunch and we did a handful of open
mics, and then we had acouple of gigs and I started playing with
a wristband like an actual athlete wouldwear because I was sweating so bad.
So I just always had like aI had like special order on that special

(29:45):
order, but I like order onAmazon just playing black wrist bands because I
felt weird wearing one for the ChicagoBulls and that's all they would have.
Yeah, that would be an oddchoice, just like I had. I
definitely wanted to wristband for the valueof getting the sweat off my brow.
But I didn't want to try topretend that I was like supporting any basketball

(30:06):
team or was an athlete in anyway, because that wasn't gonna fall anybody
same here with the Thompson Twins,we're gonna go back. Oh, is
that what we're talking about? That'swhat we're talking about. I preparing for
talking about. This was the firsttime I listened to this album start to

(30:27):
finish. The Thompson Twins were alwayssort of a greatest hits band for me.
Oh, okay, the songs,I love the songs that I loved,
but I never felt the need tobuy the full album. And that's
pretty good company. There's a bunchof bands like that, especially from the
eighties. Oh sure. I wasjust driving my parents to the train station

(30:51):
today and I put on like TomPetty's Greatest Hits, And that's how I
feel about Tom Petty, right,very good songs, but I don't I
don't feel the need to like gothrough every song Tom Petty, John mellencamp
ryl Crowe all in that rare youknow, in that same thing where honestly,

(31:14):
that's who the food fighters are.For me. The songs I like,
I like a lot, but whenI've tried listening to their albums,
I'm like, eh, you know, I just need the bast I just
need the greatest hits. And whenI listened to this, the songs I
liked, I liked so much,and they were the hits Doctor Doctor.
I've always thought that was a greatsong. And it's sort of a song
that and I'm thinking of like thebridge in the song where Leeway was doing

(31:38):
that great background vocals on it,where he started like passionately singing in the
background and repeating the songs that Baileysings and it's like, oh, that's
really good and hold me now there'sthere's just a fun heartbreak to that song
where being detached with passionate lyrics reallyworked for me. Yes, now for

(32:00):
you? I mean, is itthe other songs? And it also could
just be a thing where it wasagain my first one or two times listening
to the album in full, andso I haven't given so some songs,
especially when it's synth, so itcan take a few more go arounds to
literally fall in love with the music. I mean, are you you know
when you listen to this, doyou still listen to it start to finish?

(32:22):
Or its like or do you havethe songs that you play the hell
out of? I do, justfor basically for nostalgia's sake, I tend
to listen to it start to finish. My favorite songs, though, are
the ones that weren't the singles becauseyou've heard them a lot, you know,

(32:45):
I do still love them, butthey're not my favorites. My very
favorite song on the album is NoPeace for the Wicked? Okay, love
that song? Did that one hityou right away? Or in? You
know? There's always the gateway songsthat that's what singles are there for as

(33:06):
far as I'm concerned, It's like, Okay, sure you have the songs
that you listen to, and thenif it's a really good album with depth
you find out it's like, oh, okay, it's actually this little B
side or this little you know,towards the end of the first side album,
that end of the first side ofthe album song, that's the one
that everyone should be listening to.Do you remember, like how long did

(33:30):
it take for No Peace for theWicked to jump out? It's like,
oh, this is the one thatyou should really love. Well, I
was in fifth grade, so itwas kind of a long time ago.
I haven't been in fifth grade forquite some time. Like a good like
a good seven or eight year sinceyou were in the fifth grade at least.

(33:52):
Yeah, yeah, don't give awaymy age. Just kidding. I
mean I knew the hits, Ithink, I mean, I do remember
I got the album before the videofor You Take Me Up premiered because I
distinctly remember having a sleepover with myfriend who got me into this album when

(34:13):
the video for that was going topremiere on MTV. We're so excited,
So I had it before that onecame out, so I guess there were
only a couple of singles at thatpoint, but I honestly don't remember.
I just listened to it so much. I don't know. I do remember
that it wasn't until I became anadult, really that I had any appreciation
at all for Storm on the Sea. It's kind of a slog I didn't

(34:37):
like that one much as a kid, but I don't know, I just
like the other The stuff that wasn'ton the radio was a little bit more
quirky, I guess, a littlebit more out there and actually actually had
a little bit of like darkness toit, whereas the other songs were kind

(34:58):
of, you know, morel upliftingand full of hope and love and pureness
and light. There is a quirkiness, uh, and I'm maybe I'm wrong,
Like it was also fun because theywere quirky and different. They weren't
trying to be too dark. Andby the way, I'm all for you

(35:19):
know, quirky, uh, quirkysongs where you actually give a listen to
and it turns out it's like unbelievablydark. I just this was insane to
me. I introduced some people tothe war Wolves of London by Warren Zevonka,
which I think is a wonderful song, and I was like, no,
no, listen, it's messed upextremely and Warren Zevon was very good

(35:47):
at singing like poppy, happy songsthat were actually really messed up. Mm
hmm. It's excitable boy. Iremember explaining that to freaking contributor to the
show Sean Reynolds is like, yeah, that's just a goofy song. It's
like, what do you mean?It's like weed the lyrics, it's like,

(36:09):
oh, he's a murdering rapist,lovely, weird excited. Well,
doesn't seem to be a good enoughturnal for that, A little underselling it.
No, you you have a lotof affection for this era of music.
Anyway. You talked about going andseeing you know them perform with their

(36:29):
Bailey perform with the B fifty two's. Am I remembering right? You were
a Howard Jones fan. I was, yes, And I actually got to
see him perform a couple of yearsa few years back, and that was
very cool. Yeah, mm hmm. What was his performance like? Because
I've seen some now I'm especially Ithink things can only get Better is brilliant.

(37:01):
But Howard Jones, I think thatis a great song. I love
that song. I think, didyou do did you like, do a
soundtrack for a play I directed andput that on there. I don't remember
if I put that one on there. I mean I did do a soundtrack
for or not a soundtrack really,but the I did the music cues,

(37:22):
Yeah, and I put together aplaylist for you know, while everyone was
coming in to sit down prior tothe show. I don't remember if I
put a Howard Jones on there?You did? You? Did? You
put that song on there? AndI knew that song, but you putting
that together and mean hearing it everynight while people were coming into the end,

(37:44):
it's like, oh my god,I didn't realize how great this song
was. Yeah, he's and actuallyI think of his stuff. I only
ever had his greatest hits album,so that was the greatest hits one for
me. But I I yeah,his more hit hit songs were terrific.
No one is to blame. Uhkill me. That song is amazing.

(38:07):
How Like when he performs that lot, when he performs his songs live because
they're so synth heavy, is ita full band or is he standing behind
a lot of computers and a lotof keyboards? Oh gosh, there was
a full band. I'm trying toremember exactly. I mean, I think

(38:30):
he did actually sit down at apiano at one point. Well, especially
with things can only get better.That's the song I've always been wondering if
I and I've actually looked for iton like YouTube. It's like, is
there a way that people can makethat an interesting sort of more lo fi

(38:54):
or acoustic or like like making itmore of a rocker song. I've never
seen anyone do it particularly well.And you know, with Thompson twist was
hold Me. Now, that's asong that I think could really very not
easily, but I think it couldbe very well changed into a you know,

(39:17):
four piece guitar, bass, drumssinger song. Oh sure, yeah,
you know, I think it canbe sort of pard down a bit,
and with Howard Jones like those songs. Often, those songs seem like

(39:37):
the only way they can be inexistence is as they are, Like they
are the perfect creations as they are, and like almost they came out of
they were came out of the egg. You cracked the egg and boom,
there it is. That's how thosesongs are possibly, and I wish I
could remember better, But I feellike there was at least one of his

(39:59):
songs that he did in kind ofa different style and it was very cool
and I could not tell you whatone. It was so great. Story.

(40:30):
I have a picture and my wallan image of few me and we're
laughing. We're laughing at all.Look at my life now, Tattington,

(40:55):
It fuzzn't fight and July in theis and we cry until the who say

(41:23):
with Thompson twins? Uh into thegap, no peace for the Wicked.
That's that's your favorite song off ofit. So they should they should They
should listen to hold Me now.Uh, they should listen to Doctor Doctor,
But then go go to that fitsong on the album, go to

(41:43):
that one, and that that's howthey can really develop a love for Thompson.
Oh well, I mean I alreadyloved them, so I don't know.
They might just be able to deepentheir love. One thing I got
to ask you, I got movingaway from that. It's been a few

(42:04):
months, but I realized something andit was very sad. Arlene Sorkin passed
away. Yes, I saw thatI was so sad, just not right,
just not right. Best known,I would argue, as the voice
of Harley Quinn from the original Batman, the animated series NIU iconic, absolutely

(42:31):
iconic, and I actually was awareof her before that. She was on
a soap opera I used to watchcalled Days of Our Lives. She was
a very quirky, amusing character,and so I actually knew who she was,
even though I didn't find out untillater. Oh that's the one that's
doing advice. That's amazing. Iknow her. She was. She played

(42:54):
Harley Quinn throughout all of the differentiterations of that you know that Batman.
She played Harley Quinn quite a fewtimes. They kept bringing her back.
She was so great at it.She voiced the character up until twenty eleven.

(43:15):
She was perfect. She was perfect. And I remember you always were
a fan of the character. AndI remember what was there was a brilliant
graphic novel, Mad Love mm hm, and it deepened what I like,
which was basically originally just aside athug for the Joker, where I think

(43:43):
Paul Deeney, who was the cocreator of that show, I think he
sort of said it's like, well, the Joker had a crew of bad
guys behind him, and it waslike, it'd be fun to have,
you know, a girl bad guyin a good cossume, and then very
slowly added depth and mad love waswhen you realize just how damaged and crazy

(44:05):
and how balattle the relationship was,and it was a neat thing where she
was what started as just sort oflike a background characters had her own movies.
Have you watched the Harley Quinn MaxShow? I have. It's amazing.
I think it's hilarious, really good. It really makes me real reevaluate

(44:32):
my opinion of Kelly Kuco. Notonly is does she do a good job
voicing the character, but it's prettyobvious that she is very has a lot
of affection and respect for the character. Yes, yes, she does a
very good job. Boys to girl. I was a little eh when I
heard about it at first, Iwas like, I don't know, but

(44:55):
she does a really good job.Well, it's funny Harley Quinn is able
to exist in comics and other propertiesoutside of the Joker. Mm hmmm,
because she's so much she's not Imean she yeah, she's a little off
kilter, a little you know,mentally unstable, but she has a really

(45:16):
good heart and she wants to dothe right thing, I think, and
so it gives her her character alittle more complexity than just you know,
the Joker who wants violence and chaosand to do bad things. Yeah,
often was very little motivation, andthey keep trying to make that a character

(45:37):
point of Joker, and it's like, eh, okay, exactly, it
doesn't. It doesn't make it thatinteresting if he doesn't have reasons. He
just I just want to see theworld burn. Okay, you can get
an interesting individual story, but there'sno arc there exactly. Have you seen?

(45:57):
Because Lady Gaga is going to playHarley Quinn and the new Joker movie,
yeah, what inspires the Ugh didnot like the first one at all,
and I don't dislike Lady Gaga,but I can't imagine that the version
of Harley Quinn that's going to bein the sequel is going to be anything

(46:21):
like the Harley Quinn I know inLove. How'd you like to Margot Roby?
I thought she was really good,actually she I think she thought she
embodied the character really well, sortof similar to what we said before about
Kuko. Margot Roby seemed to wantto do the character right. It seemed
to have affection for it. Shewas saddled with some pretty mediocre movies to

(46:47):
do that. I thought, youknow, the first Suicide Squad was it
was a mess. M H.And I do remember you and I years
ago talking about the fact that itwas a mess. And is also they
seem to be taking every opportunity toput Margot Roby in short shorts and then
film it. Yes, for sureit was and I understand, well,

(47:13):
sure, you know, it's MargotRoby, a ridiculously attractive person, but
it was still it was still alittle gross. She's still gonna be pretty
no matter what. You don't needto like put the camera right on her,
you know, exposed but cheeks exactly. Yeah, it yeah, it's
just icky. Made you feel icky. I thought. I thought the Birds

(47:36):
of Prey movie was fine, exactly. It had good scenes. I didn't
think the bad guy really worked.What's his name, Obi wan Ewan McGregor,
Yeah, I like you and McGregor. I just think it was an
underdeveloped villain until you said who theactor was. I completely even couldn't remember

(47:59):
who who the villain in that moviewas. You know, mcge He did
his best. He was sort ofchewing scenery. It was like, eh,
okay, get the paycheck exactly.And I liked the Suicide Squad,
but it did feel like Margot Rubywas sort of shoehorned in. Yeah.
I mean I I liked it exceptfor it was really gross and points.

(48:25):
I don't know, lots of goreor something. I don't remember. I
just remember being just kind of likeit was a gross movie. Yeah,
so I didn't really like that part. It was stretched by James Gunn,
who is now set to direct thenext Superman movie, and I was like,
huh. And I like James Gunn, I do, but I don't

(48:46):
see him as a Superman director.I see him as a guy who,
you know, when left to hisown devices, he he likes it,
he leans into the gore mm hmm, and needs strong supervision to slow him
down. Not everyone has agreed withme on that, and I would love
to be wrong. Yeah, thegore is just I don't know, it

(49:07):
doesn't do it for me. Itdoesn't always bother me, but for some
reason that in some particular instances itdoes. Yeah, well it was.
It was a weird where they sortof I don't know they were going for
gritty or grimy look with that movie, so then it made it more visceral.
It sure was. You did feelthere was there was nomaly, a

(49:28):
vibe, a hepatitis coming off thatmovie. Absolutely, it's been wonderful talking
with you. I tell me moreabout the band. So you've had a
rehearsal or a couple of rehearsals.We had a rehearsal. We're looking into

(49:49):
at a keyboard player. We're lookingto add more songs to the repertoire.
In fact, I have a listI need to listen to and vote on
because our band is the most democraticband you will ever ever meet. Do
you have the list available? Uh? Sure, hold on. And I

(50:12):
haven't listened to them yet, soI don't necessarily know all of them.
Okay, there are thirty five songson this list. Just read a few,
just read a few. Well,I guess I can read ones I've
suggested. I suggested two whole songs, Celebrity Skin and Malibu. Okay,
well holes the Winner and I amI'm sure that's fun. That music's fun

(50:37):
to sing, Oh yeah, forsure. And it's not too strenuous on
the voice, not the ones Ipicked. Anyway, there's a song called
No One Sleeps when I'm Awake bythe Sounds. A song more recent song,
I think it's more recent, calledRiver by Bishop Briggs, one of

(50:58):
my old favorites. One of theRspeedwagon songs from the eighties. I don't
want to know. Oh oh,oh man, Okay, now, oh
boy, here we go. Uhoh picture it percumb of La Elementary School.
Okay, I'm in fourth grade andmy family we lived in the middle
of nowhere, terrible TV signal.We were one of the first people to

(51:22):
get cable because quite frankly, weneeded it. Mm hmm. So I
got a very so I was oneof the first people to watch MTV,
and man, we watched it allthe time. And back then, first
off, Ridiculousness wasn't even a show, whereas now it's like eighty percent of

(51:44):
the program yeah, yeah, andall and basically kids, old man Brad's
talking to you. So all MTVwas. It was basically a radio station.
They would have the they would callthem vj's video jockeys, and they
would just song after song after song, and then there wasn't any even rhyme

(52:05):
or reason to it. I sawthe video for Ario speed Wagons. I
don't want to know. Mm hmm. It was a perfect video for a
kid to like, sure, becauseit was very kinetic and it had a
like a wacky kid running like Ithink it was an adult dress as a
kid, just running around and beingcrazy. So smash cut to a day

(52:29):
or two later, my teacher,mister Cook, who, by the way,
my favorite teacher ever changed my life. Awesome. He's a teacher that
believed in me. But he saidit's like okay, everybody, uh,
and I don't know why he didthis, but it's like, I want
to hear what music you guys likeyou were your favorite bands and everyone was

(52:49):
like Michael Jackson, Duran, Duran, def Leppard And I was like,
oh, well, I just sawa band just and a raised bands like
Ario Speedwagon. And everybody laughed atme, oh, because no, he
had heard of this band. Sothey were like, okay, Brad Ario
Speedway. That doesn't sound like aname. It was like, and Duran
Duran does fair enough. You postedup there and it's like, Okay,

(53:13):
we're gonna vote and see who's thewho wins the vote, and then it's
like, oh, well, MichaelJackson, and that was the era where
everyone loved Michael Jackson and def Leppardwas very popular. And then it's like,
oh and Ario Speedwagon and I didn'teven vote for him because I was
so humiliated. Oh oh no SmashCut two. Maybe a week or two

(53:35):
later, mister Cook started the classeslike, well, everybody, we all
owe Brad an apology. Everyone's like, what what happened? And I'm like,
what's going on. It's like,the number one song on the top
forty was Rio Speedwags in one oftheir ballads, probably can't fight this feeling.
Brad was ahead of all of us. It's very popular. Just amazing

(53:58):
how smug a fourth grader can be. And all credit to mister Cook because
he's like, huh shit, thekid was right. Yeah. I will
always have a warm place in myheart for Rio sped Wagon. And that's
a good song. I love thatsong. It just it freaking rocks.

(54:20):
But I have a quick a Reospeed Wagon story myself. My sister and
I had gotten tickets to go seethem and then it got the show got
canceled during because of the pandemic,and so I had told her because she
was the bigger fan than I was. I said, I'm going to make
it my life's mission that you getto see them. So then last year

(54:44):
they ended up coming to Minneapolis andwe went to the show there and I
was talking to I was working outwith a trainer at the time at the
gym and I he had asked meif I had any plans for that weekend.
I said, well, yeah,actually, I'm going to visit my
sister and we're we're gonna see aReo Speedwagon. He goes, what's that?

(55:07):
And I was like, oh no, I'm very old. Didn't even
recognize it as the name of aband. What's that not? Who's that?
Thinks it's possibly something you need penicillinfor? Apparently? Oh God,

(55:28):
I don't feel bad because I have. You just don't realize that people don't
know music, Like even stuff thatyou would think everyone would know, people
don't know. And I remember beingin a spin class and they were playing

(55:52):
I forget the name of the song. It was from the Verve, Oh,
Bittersweet Symphony, right, So I'mplaying Bittersweet Surphony and I turned to
the young woman next to me.I was like, Oh, this is
the song where they got sued bythe Rolling Stones for using this on an
orchestral version of one of their songs, and the girl just was like,

(56:15):
who are the Rolling Stones? He'slike, God, damn it. Oh
no, you should know the RollingStones. And then for the rest of
the class, I was like,okay, but the Beatles, right,
It's like Beatles is like okay,the who oh man, and it's like
what are we doing a bit,It's like, oh my god, Like,
there's no you should know the Beatles. You should know the Rolling even

(56:37):
if you don't like them, right, just understanding you know Beatles, Rolling
Stones, the Who, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, uh,
you know. An then you gointo the eighties and you have like
Madonna, Whitney, Hughton, Likethere's just people, even Michael Jackson,
even if you don't like them,you know who they are. Right.

(56:59):
That actually beats the story I wasgoing to tell, which was I think
it was last summer. I tookmy niece to a concert that the headliner
was Bare Naked Ladies, which shedoes know and she's a fan of,
and she used what twenty four atthe time, I think twenty three,
twenty four or something like that,and one of the openers was Jim Blossoms,

(57:23):
and she was like, I don'tknow if I know them, And
I was like, oh, you'llprobably recognize one of the songs when you
hear it, because you know,for us, they're just everywhere. They
have so many songs that everybody knowsat least one of them. And then
when they're part of the show wasover, I asked her if she recognized

(57:43):
any of the songs and she said, not a one. Woh yeah,
ouch yeah. And I saw JimBlossoms. They came to York years ago
and I actually got my wife gother picture taken with the band, and
they were very good and very nice. As a Marshall Crenshaw fan, I

(58:04):
especially love the song Till I hearit from you. M h that's a
Marshall Crenshaw co wrote that, Ohokay, yeah, it's a great song.
Imagine that's probably like the second biggestcheck he gets is from that song
being played as a co writer.Probably biggest check is from someday some way,
but just because he that he wroteit and recorded himself. But the

(58:25):
second biggest is like, oh,it was a much bigger hit for another
band, right, I mean,money's money. Not gonna argue, Amy,
this has been a joy's always.I need you to plug your plug
ables. If people want to checkout and see when your band's going to
play again, and hopefully you'll getyour your keyboardist and figure out your songs.

(58:49):
Where can they check it out?Well, it'll definitely be quite some
time before we have anything to report, but the it's still the same website,
Midnight Drive dash Ohio dot com.We recommend everyone check that out,
subscribe to it on Facebook, andyou know what, when when you guys
are ready, everyone should be there. Thank you so much, Amy,

(59:12):
of course, it's been a lotof fun. And I know you've had
a lot of fun doing the show, and it's sad it's coming to an
end, but I get it.And I've had fun being on and helping
you with your your little theme songsand the little skits and stuff. It's
all been great. You've always beenso great with that. So thank you
so much, of course. Andthat wraps episode two ninety nine. Big

(59:49):
thanks to Amy kenraup so much funto talk with her, so glad that
he was able to get her tocome back one last time. Up next
New Year's Eve Day, episode threehundred of the Cosmic Geppeto podcast. It's
the final episode. It'll feature,of course, Honey Badger and are Amazing

(01:00:13):
friends until then. In the wordsof Jar Parker, seeing the funny pages,

(01:00:37):
subscribe to the Cosmic Geppetto podcast oniTunes, Stitcher, or wherever quality
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don't follow jerks like us on Facebookat Facebook dot com, forward slash Cosmic

(01:00:58):
Geppetto. We love hearing your ideasfor upcoming episodes. Email us at Cosmic
Jupeto at Comcast dot net. Iwas sweating my assholes stuffs. I shouldn't

(01:03:01):
be shod at a long to know, but know I want to do supposed
doll I had along the wild I'msupposed to, well I had, I

(01:03:22):
don't want to know I hadn't alto