Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Vanessa Bayer and this is my brother Jonah.
Speaker 2: We're two siblings who love to talk about our childhood
Speaker 2: and nostalgia and how it shaped us into the people
Speaker 2: we are today.
Speaker 3: Who are pretty cool dudes, if I do say so myself.
Speaker 4: Welcome to how did we get weird?
Speaker 3: So Jonah, I know we're both really excited about our
Speaker 3: guests today, and I thought we could talk really quickly
Speaker 3: about when we actually met him, which spoiler alert, was
Speaker 3: another time when you almost had a panic attack.
Speaker 2: Yes, I got very nervous meeting today's guest and his wife.
Speaker 4: We were in Portland or guests, Yes?
Speaker 2: And were you shooting Portlandia or were you just hanging out?
Speaker 3: I think I was shooting Portlandia. Wait, wait a second,
Speaker 3: I'm not sure because I think we were staying at
Speaker 3: Fred Armison's.
Speaker 4: Right, that's right.
Speaker 2: So we were staying at Fred had this apartment, and
Speaker 2: we were staying at Fred Armison's apartment, and he was
Speaker 2: very nice. He got us like a fold out futane
Speaker 2: for me to sleep on.
Speaker 3: He was not in town. Maybe I was shooting Portland, ya,
Speaker 3: but maybe it was like we got there a.
Speaker 1: Few days early or so.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 1: We were visiting Portland's for some reason.
Speaker 4: Or maybe we just like broke into Fred's apartment.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Somehow we're in his apartment he wasn't there, Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: but very nice of him to let us use it.
Speaker 2: And I remember you were talking to him or something
Speaker 2: and you were like Fred Hazi's friends Lance and Korn
Speaker 2: and they're they're gonna there can go out to dinner
Speaker 2: with us tonight.
Speaker 4: And then I sort of started thinking about it.
Speaker 2: And I was like, Okay, I think this is Lance Bangs,
Speaker 2: Corn Tucker, Slater, Kenny, and then I started looking up
Speaker 2: all the stuff Lancea did and then I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: I can't go, Like I can't do this. This is
Speaker 2: just like too much for me to deal with. I'm
Speaker 2: not like prepared mentally. This guy's worked with so many
Speaker 2: of these artists. I've like followed his work for so long,
Speaker 2: and I was complet letely freaked out. But you you
Speaker 2: kept it cool.
Speaker 3: Well. I think sometimes you know who really cool people are,
Speaker 3: and because I'm not as cool as you, I don't
Speaker 3: know who or I'm not as familiar with their work,
Speaker 3: so it allows me to keep it cool. And then
Speaker 3: once I learn more about what they've done, then I'm like,
Speaker 3: why wasn't I freaking out the whole time? But then also,
Speaker 3: I think from my experience at SNL, where we were
Speaker 3: constantly like you know, there were cool people around all
Speaker 3: the time, guests and stuff, that I kind of learned
Speaker 3: how to keep my cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say it was a mix of those
Speaker 1: two things.
Speaker 4: I remember.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was like, I have some friends record Dave Fridman, like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, Dave fram I was just looking for
Speaker 2: any sort of reference to sort of prove I was
Speaker 2: cool too.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And Lance and Corn took us out to like
Speaker 3: a really nice restaurant.
Speaker 4: Really nice restaurant.
Speaker 2: Nice. Then I think Lance took us out after and
Speaker 2: he was like, this is, yes, a bar that Elliott
Speaker 2: Smith used to hang out at. This he kind of
Speaker 2: gave us a tour of all these cool places we
Speaker 2: probably never would have figured out on our own, which
Speaker 2: was so nice and cool people he didn't even know.
Speaker 4: They didn't even know so that yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was so nice.
Speaker 2: They did.
Speaker 3: They didn't know us at all. They just knew that
Speaker 3: we were friends of Fred's and they were friends of President.
Speaker 3: By the way, once we introduced our guest. I want
Speaker 3: to hear if he thought that you played it cool
Speaker 3: that night or not.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, great, great, Well let's just get into it.
Speaker 2: If you haven't figured it out yet, our guest today
Speaker 2: is a filmmaker. He's worked with, you know, directed music
Speaker 2: videos and comedy specials, worked with bands like Green Day,
Speaker 2: Deathcat for Cutie ri Em, George Harrison. He's done specials
Speaker 2: for Fred Armison, David Cross. He's worked with all the
Speaker 2: Jackass shows and movies so much that we don't have
Speaker 2: enough time to go through a cell resume. But let's
Speaker 2: just please welcome our friend Lance Bangs Hey, Lance.
Speaker 5: Hello, good to see you about and speak.
Speaker 2: To you you too, So, what's your memory of that experience?
Speaker 3: Lance?
Speaker 6: I'm pretty sure that I'm familiar with with Vanessa as
Speaker 6: a performer at that time, but hadn't met the two
Speaker 6: of you in person or hung out with you Jonah,
Speaker 6: and So I do love the adventure of showing people around.
Speaker 5: I like traveling.
Speaker 6: I like learning how to move around different cities and
Speaker 6: different parts of the world. And so if I can
Speaker 6: ever catch up with someone somewhere and take them to
Speaker 6: like a great place to hang out or have a
Speaker 6: conversation or look at water moving or anything like that.
Speaker 6: I'm always open and so it felt good to be
Speaker 6: able to with my wife Kryn show the two of
Speaker 6: you around Portland and give you a sense of things
Speaker 6: that you might not have already stumbled into on your own.
Speaker 2: Did you think that I was like a cool music
Speaker 2: guy or did you think just as kind of I guess.
Speaker 6: I never I've never judged people about coolness, like I
Speaker 6: just like humans and I like conversation, and I'm not
Speaker 6: like telling any score of scene points or anything.
Speaker 5: I just like the world and the people in it.
Speaker 2: Fair enough, Well, I think that's a great answer. I'm
Speaker 2: just guta to embarrass myself. I was very nervous, but
Speaker 2: I hope there's.
Speaker 5: No embarrassment in my who I move around with or
Speaker 5: who I spent time with.
Speaker 4: Okay, incredible.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, and we've you know, Lance did my
Speaker 2: old podcast and yeah, Lance, obviously I think I saw
Speaker 2: you did that. So you were involved with that Slint
Speaker 2: film as well?
Speaker 6: Yeah, think I saw a movie about the band Slint
Speaker 6: that you spoke about.
Speaker 3: Yes, Yeah, And I recently got to work with Lance
Speaker 3: because he was directing this video for George Harrison for
Speaker 3: his estate, and I got to be a part of
Speaker 3: it with so many other cool people, so many other
Speaker 3: cool musicians, and it was truly an incredible thing to
Speaker 3: get to do.
Speaker 2: And yeah, just.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that was I'm so happy that you were available
Speaker 6: to do that and jumped in and elevated and made
Speaker 6: everything better. That was a sort of a short film
Speaker 6: and music video for the song My Sweet Lord by
Speaker 6: George Harrison. It was around the fifteenth anniversary of the
Speaker 6: release of that great triple album that he put out
Speaker 6: after the Beatles.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and there.
Speaker 6: Had never really been a music video for My Sweet Lord,
Speaker 6: and so his estate and his management David Zonshine and
Speaker 6: Olivia and Danny asked if I would make like a
Speaker 6: film and video to go with that song. Wrote a
Speaker 6: script that called for two people to be kind of
Speaker 6: exploring and looking but kind of missing signs that were
Speaker 6: around them, and thought that you and Fred would be
Speaker 6: a great combination for that and you were excellent in it.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. It was so cool to be
Speaker 3: a part of it. And just wow, that's just wow
Speaker 3: right on. So Lance, is this true? You were born
Speaker 3: in Sacramento? Is that where you grew up that's correct.
Speaker 6: I was born at like the American River Hospital in Sacramento.
Speaker 6: My dad was in the Air Force, and so we
Speaker 6: were only there for something like maybe ten days when
Speaker 6: I was born, and then had to kind of move
Speaker 6: other places, and so I didn't really like have any
Speaker 6: memories or formative stuff from Sacramento, but went from there
Speaker 6: to Colorado and Texas and Omaha, Nebraska, and Valdosta, Georgia, Montgomery, Alabama,
Speaker 6: different parts of upstate New York, different parts of Central
Speaker 6: New Jersey, wow, like Wellingborough, Smithville, Mount Holly, East Tampton,
Speaker 6: and then left Tumbell went down to Athens, Georgia, which
Speaker 6: was primarily where I spent like the nineteen nineties, mostly
Speaker 6: living and being based.
Speaker 5: But I would travel a lot to make things.
Speaker 6: Started visiting Portland, Oregon in nineteen ninety two, and that
Speaker 6: Rebecca Gates from the Spinanes and Elliott Smith and a
Speaker 6: band called Hazel that I really adored and would feel
Speaker 6: so great in Portland that I started just like renting
Speaker 6: a cheap room in a group house with musicians and
Speaker 6: leaving some books and records in a mattress in Portland,
Speaker 6: but mostly living in Athens, Georgia, and kind of going
Speaker 6: back and forth. And they were both remarkable cultural scenes
Speaker 6: throughout the nineties and inexpensive to kind of live or
Speaker 6: be based out of.
Speaker 5: But then I didn't really work in either place as
Speaker 5: much as I would go.
Speaker 6: Work in like New York or la or London or
Speaker 6: places where there were like films to be made.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's interesting because I feel like you
Speaker 2: know all these places, but you know, specifically, I guess
Speaker 2: I'm thinking of Athens like you were there during such
Speaker 2: a special time and play like it seems like you
Speaker 2: keep kind of landing in these places like Elephant six
Speaker 2: and RAM, like you keep landing in these places while
Speaker 2: these incredible things are happen and you were able to
Speaker 2: sort of document it.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I don't know, Vanessa, if you've listened to this stuff.
Speaker 6: But while I was in Athens, there was a great
Speaker 6: sense of like the work that Pylon and the BFG
Speaker 6: two's and RAM had done at the sort of late
Speaker 6: seventies early eighties and everything that they'd built up, and
Speaker 6: that drew a lot of people like myself to Athens.
Speaker 6: Once I was there in the early nineteen nineties, there
Speaker 6: was a sense that bands needed to kind of like
Speaker 6: react against that sort of like pop or jangle guitar
Speaker 6: or catchy thing. So there are a lot of like
Speaker 6: very kind of heavy, deliberately noisy, non commercial bands that
Speaker 6: were active in the early nineties. But then young people
Speaker 6: from Rustin, Louisiana, Jeff Mangum, Will Culin, Hart, Bill Doss,
Speaker 6: a whole bunch of their friends all moved from Rustin
Speaker 6: to Athens, Georgia around like ninety three or so and
Speaker 6: started playing in the early versions of Neutromil Hotel and
Speaker 6: Olivia Treuma Control and Circulatory System and all these great
Speaker 6: bands that felt like they were doing things that were
Speaker 6: melodic or had interesting visuals in theirs and building a
Speaker 6: real community that jonah Kind referred to of this like
Speaker 6: Elephant six scene that went on there throughout the nineties.
Speaker 5: And I ended up being roommates with Jeff Mangham.
Speaker 6: And other members of Neutroment Hotel and Elf Power and
Speaker 6: the Music Tapes and Olivia Turma Control while they were
Speaker 6: at that kind of peak moment of the release of
Speaker 6: in the Airplane over the Sea and touring for that, And
Speaker 6: then it was roommates with Jeff Mangham when he sort
Speaker 6: of stopped being a public figure and just kind of
Speaker 6: stayed in the room and worked on things personally, but
Speaker 6: wasn't accepting all the offers to go tour or play
Speaker 6: live shows or make a follow up record in the
Speaker 6: airplane and really treasured that friendship and that time of
Speaker 6: my life and shot a lot of footage during that
Speaker 6: era and have completed a feature film that'll be out
Speaker 6: later this summer called the Elephant six Recording Company, along
Speaker 6: with Chad Stockflith from Louisville, Kentucky, producer from Los Angeles
Speaker 6: named robatch.
Speaker 5: Miller, and a great editor named Greg King.
Speaker 6: We made like an entire feature film, but we're very
Speaker 6: proud of about that whole music scene in Athens and
Speaker 6: I look forward to with you seeing it.
Speaker 4: Oh, we look forward to it as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is so much like my experience being Jonah's
Speaker 3: sister is like hearing all this cool stuff and like
Speaker 3: just feeling like I know, like one or two things
Speaker 3: like I just but I'm very comfortable in this space
Speaker 3: of being like the much less cool like but just
Speaker 3: knowing I can tell from the reaction on Jonah's face
Speaker 3: that like what you're saying is so incredible and I
Speaker 3: wish that I had more familiarity with it, But I
Speaker 3: truly can't wait to see this film. And I also
Speaker 3: like everything you do, Lance is so great and it's
Speaker 3: always I don't know, I'm just I am very excited
Speaker 3: about it, even though it's stuff that Jonah has a
Speaker 3: lot more.
Speaker 6: I think that you will love this film and the
Speaker 6: people in it and just watching these people great stuff
Speaker 6: and yeah, the bizarre, amazing things that were going on in.
Speaker 2: That totally Lance, I'm curious. You know, we had we
Speaker 2: recently had Amy Man on the podcast and we were
Speaker 2: talking about and this is not only in the Weeds,
Speaker 2: so I'd like to hear your take on this. So
Speaker 2: we were talking about the Replacements book, and in the
Speaker 2: book they're sort of talking about how they were almost
Speaker 2: had this rivalry with RAM, Yeah, which was I never knew.
Speaker 2: And this is so interesting because I think of them
Speaker 2: as such different types of bands. And did you experience
Speaker 2: that out? Was that a real like? What was that like?
Speaker 4: What's yeah?
Speaker 6: Honestly, like like the personalities of the guys in RAM
Speaker 6: and who they chose to work with, they were not competitive,
Speaker 6: they were not like in my experience, they weren't like, Ah,
Speaker 6: we got to outperform Radiohead this tour cycle or anything
Speaker 6: like that. They were always sort of like mentoring or
Speaker 6: you know, willing to kind of help get into the
Speaker 6: studio or give advice about whether or not to sign
Speaker 6: to a particular record label to all the other great
Speaker 6: musicians that were doing things from that sort of American
Speaker 6: independent music scene of the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 5: Not only that, but like they would take people.
Speaker 6: From England under their wing and they would like help
Speaker 6: Billy Bragg or Robin Hitchcock or people that they admired
Speaker 6: that were of a sensibility of like making internal, self
Speaker 6: fulfilling music from anywhere that across their path.
Speaker 5: I think that there was a different energy in the Replacements,
Speaker 5: who are a band.
Speaker 6: That I love and admire, where they might have had
Speaker 6: a little bit more of a like, ah, like we're
Speaker 6: going to fuck with whoskerdo in this dressing room and
Speaker 6: dtaing their amp and they won't know it or you know,
Speaker 6: they had a bit more of that to them, and
Speaker 6: often self sabotage and often like yes, you know, fucking
Speaker 6: with each other in a way that was detrimental to
Speaker 6: like the potential larger audience that they could have got
Speaker 6: their music in front of Have they maybe been less?
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I think that like you could objectively say that there
Speaker 6: was some insecurity or self sabotage among certain dynamics of
Speaker 6: the Replacements and their music.
Speaker 5: Is that fair?
Speaker 4: I think so. Definitely definitely love.
Speaker 6: Them, but like they may have been competitive, but I
Speaker 6: don't feel like Arim were competitive against them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes sense, yes, And.
Speaker 6: Honestly, like through Arim, I spent time around the Replacements,
Speaker 6: like when they would if anyone you know, from the
Speaker 6: Replacements came through Georgia to do a replacement show or
Speaker 6: a solo published show or a bash and pop show,
Speaker 6: Michael and Peter would always go support them and talk
Speaker 6: and give advice, and like I definitely went into dressing
Speaker 6: rooms with Michael and Paul Westburg when Michael would be
Speaker 6: giving all sorts of like positive support to Paul when
Speaker 6: he was like going to change labels or management or whatever.
Speaker 6: Like you know, there's nothing that support and love from
Speaker 6: the Rim guys that I ever saw for the Replacements.
Speaker 3: That's great to hear because also I love Arim right so.
Speaker 2: Great? Yeah, yeah, Lance, I was also curious about you know,
Speaker 2: when I was in college, I used to watch the
Speaker 2: Ky two K video a lot. Yeah, like like a
Speaker 2: lot a lot of me and my roommate Bruce, And
Speaker 2: I'm curious, like, I know, you worked on a lot
Speaker 2: of the Jackass stuff. Did that come up? Was that
Speaker 2: afterwards or was that? Like how did that?
Speaker 6: I would say that I'd met Spike Jones in the
Speaker 6: mid nineties and started working with him. He would bring
Speaker 6: me out to Los Angeles from Athens, Georgia, and he
Speaker 6: was really my sort of connection into like what you
Speaker 6: might call like Hollywood or like California stuff of working
Speaker 6: on like professional music videos and things like that, or
Speaker 6: short films or just whatever stuff he wanted to make
Speaker 6: that I was like a good fit for. And he's
Speaker 6: been a great friend and colleague and supporter and collaborator
Speaker 6: artistically and all kinds of stuff since the mid nineteen nineties.
Speaker 6: So I think that through him, he was friends with
Speaker 6: a lot of interesting characters, like Johnny Knoxville was just
Speaker 6: like a writer who was like getting by is sort
Speaker 6: of like a character actor that would pop up and
Speaker 6: stuff here and there, but like a really interesting guy
Speaker 6: to talk to or go out to a bar with,
Speaker 6: who was reading Patty Chayevsky and thinking about the screenplay
Speaker 6: for a network and just like a clever, interesting, fun,
Speaker 6: good to have a drink with guy.
Speaker 5: It was through him and his.
Speaker 6: Friendship with Spike and Jeff Tremaine, who has been like
Speaker 6: a childhood friend of Spike.
Speaker 5: When those guys started.
Speaker 6: Developing the TV show Jackass, they brought in the footage
Speaker 6: from Cky and Bam and De Camillo and that crowd
Speaker 6: to kind of like add to it. And once it
Speaker 6: was time to start shooting the TV show and movies,
Speaker 6: that's when I met Bam at ryde Don and Rake
Speaker 6: and Dee Camillo and that crew and started making stuff
Speaker 6: with them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2: It's what's so weird is when I watch Hulu, if
Speaker 2: something ends, it defaults to this family Feud where it's
Speaker 2: the cast of Jackass. So I've seen it like so
Speaker 2: many times because it just automatically comes on and I
Speaker 2: just end up usually just watching it again.
Speaker 4: Have you seen that?
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's great. They had a band of blast doing that.
Speaker 6: It's pretty funny.
Speaker 1: Jonah, would you ever do family feud?
Speaker 4: That's a really good question. I would. I think we
Speaker 4: would do pretty well.
Speaker 1: I do too, It's so funny.
Speaker 3: I had to talk with someone about this recently, Like,
Speaker 3: I think our family would kind of destroy, but.
Speaker 5: I just saw the other three members. B do you think?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 1: Wait, how many people are on the panel.
Speaker 5: I think it's five. I could be wrong, but I
Speaker 5: think it's five.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I guess it would be mom, dad, you, and.
Speaker 2: VICKI yeah, so my yeah, my wife and then yeah,
Speaker 2: our parents and you yeah yeah, and then I don't
Speaker 2: know who would play against. I think that family double
Speaker 2: there we would not do well.
Speaker 3: No, and actually I don't want to play family double there, Okay,
Speaker 3: fair enough, just because it's so messy. It feels humiliating. Also,
Speaker 3: I don't think family double there. I think that'd be
Speaker 3: harder because I think you'd have to bring it back because.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right, Derek came back. Still a thing, right, Lance.
Speaker 3: It would be so fun if we could go against
Speaker 3: your family, even though.
Speaker 2: I would, I would love that.
Speaker 1: I would want both of our families to win.
Speaker 5: I think we would be strong competitors.
Speaker 1: I do too. Yeah, oh, sorry, what were you going
Speaker 1: to say?
Speaker 6: I have a daughter, Glory who's fifteen, and a son, Marshall,
Speaker 6: who's twenty two, and I think that with Kren we
Speaker 6: would really.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we'd be pretty solid.
Speaker 1: I kind of think you.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying this, Jonah as an insult to our
Speaker 3: but I wonder if you might beat us just because
Speaker 3: you've got like some gen z in there, and we're
Speaker 3: pretty solidly millennial to boomers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, millennials, millennial? What gen x?
Speaker 4: Is that?
Speaker 1: What you are? Jonah?
Speaker 3: We're both on the cusp of either way we're we're
Speaker 3: kind of we're kind of leaning boomer, heavily lean in boomer,
Speaker 3: where you've got like a more diverse setup in terms
Speaker 3: of Yeah, but it's not a competition. I would I
Speaker 3: would hope would be that we would tie in, that
Speaker 3: we would both we win.
Speaker 5: Some vacation and all this go together.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly, Yeah, Lance, Like I feel like
Speaker 7: this is me you maybe projecting a little bit and
Speaker 7: not your personnel, but like speaking of like younger generations
Speaker 7: and stuff, do you feel like I saw all these
Speaker 7: incredible artists and you know, nothing's as good, and you
Speaker 7: seem like someone who's very up on current things.
Speaker 2: But I also feel like you were at so many
Speaker 2: amazing moments. I could see how you could be cynical,
Speaker 2: though you're not. I might be cynical if I were you.
Speaker 6: No, Yeah, I don't have a strong cynical element to myself.
Speaker 6: I love the things that I put myself at and
Speaker 6: was present for a lot of them were not accidents.
Speaker 6: A lot of them were because I could tell this
Speaker 6: is going to be great. Someone should be there to
Speaker 6: document this or share this with other people that can't
Speaker 6: hear it currently. I definitely love going to see younger
Speaker 6: performers and new things that are happening now. I definitely
Speaker 6: go see weirdo comedians that might interest me. I go
Speaker 6: see writers that might interest me. I go see musicians
Speaker 6: or bands or performances or events that could culturally excite me.
Speaker 5: And yeah, I haven't like.
Speaker 6: Gotten cynical or I wouldn't judge anyone for what they
Speaker 6: were interested in.
Speaker 3: What about when I was just going to say, I
Speaker 3: think that's a real sign of like a lot of
Speaker 3: people that I've met that are may It reminds me, Jonah,
Speaker 3: your question reminds me of kind of what I asked
Speaker 3: Keenan about being on SNL and kind of being able
Speaker 3: to embrace the new people. But also, you know, miss
Speaker 3: have nostalgia for the people that he was working with
Speaker 3: when he first started there.
Speaker 1: And when he was younger and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: I think when you're I think a lot of really
Speaker 3: talented people part of their one characteristic they have is
Speaker 3: that they can sort of appreciate things in the past,
Speaker 3: but also I'll appreciate newer things. I don't mean to
Speaker 3: ramble about this, but I just think that that's such
Speaker 3: a great ad and it makes a lot of sense. Yeah,
Speaker 3: going with your personality too, that like, you're such a
Speaker 3: lovely person to be around, and it makes sense that
Speaker 3: like you can you're not like oh, nothing's like when
Speaker 3: I was younger, you know, like, yeah.
Speaker 6: I try not to go through the day of being
Speaker 6: like oh, that's always a good sound to make.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sorry, Joanah, What were you Gonnak?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 2: I was curious, like Lance when you were younger, you're
Speaker 2: like little Lance, you know, bouncing around the country. Where
Speaker 2: you did you also have that kind of excitement and curiosity,
Speaker 2: like what were you kind of like as a kid?
Speaker 5: I was not.
Speaker 6: I was probably enthusiastic about things that I was excited about,
Speaker 6: but it was pretty internal.
Speaker 4: I h.
Speaker 6: I went through some tough things and was kind of
Speaker 6: disassociated and living in an internal landscape of listening to
Speaker 6: music on headphones and reading and hiding from physical people
Speaker 6: and okay, on different military bases.
Speaker 5: And kind of leaving and hiding up wherehere I could.
Speaker 6: So it wasn't until I kind of got down to Athens, Georgia,
Speaker 6: I guess no what I was like In different parts
Speaker 6: of New Jersey around McGuire Fort Dick's military bases, I
Speaker 6: would cover a lot of ground. I would go see
Speaker 6: things at this great venue in Trenton, New Jersey called
Speaker 6: City Gardens.
Speaker 5: I would go up to New York City, I would
Speaker 5: go to Philadelphia.
Speaker 6: I would like drive or get rides of friends to
Speaker 6: go see as much as I could. And when I
Speaker 6: would a chance to talk to a performer that I loved,
Speaker 6: that meant a lot to me to kind of like
Speaker 6: strike up a conversation with Jonathan Richmond or Robin Hitchcock
Speaker 6: or the guys in RAM or the Replacements or whatever.
Speaker 6: And that venue, City Gardens, in trent New Jersey, was
Speaker 6: amazing and insane. The John Stewart was the bartender. James
Speaker 6: Murphy was one of the door guys. It was this
Speaker 6: cement bunker in a no man's land of like a
Speaker 6: place that you would take cars to strip them for
Speaker 6: parts and illegally run a racket in this lawless, very
Speaker 6: insane area of like beat up New Jersey, but performers
Speaker 6: that were based in New York or DC or wherever
Speaker 6: you could safely go do a show here and there
Speaker 6: wouldn't be any writers from Rolling Stone that we're going
Speaker 6: to be like, oh, the new songs were mediocre. Like
Speaker 6: you could safely go test out your new Ramon's album
Speaker 6: or Sonic Youth album or whatever in front of like
Speaker 6: mutant teenagers in Trent, New Jersey without it, you know,
Speaker 6: damaging your your trajectory or anything.
Speaker 5: It was wild.
Speaker 6: There were like insane battles like you know, sort of
Speaker 6: like skinheads and like Metallica washing audience members. Like all
Speaker 6: of that was in the wasteland of New Jersey and
Speaker 6: it was insane.
Speaker 4: Yes, there's a documentary about it. Did you make it?
Speaker 4: I didn't you make every documentary?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Basically, this guy named Randy Now that was like a
Speaker 6: mail carrier postman. He would take the money from his
Speaker 6: postal work and book the Beastie Boys and Butthole Surfers
Speaker 6: and Ween and Black Flag and Sonic Youth and the
Speaker 6: Replacements to play shows for a very low ticket price
Speaker 6: in this cement bunker that previously was like a car
Speaker 6: dealership that had gone out of business, literally not exaggerating,
Speaker 6: not being hyperbolic, next to like a place where they
Speaker 6: would scrap cars, and you know, organized crime was all
Speaker 6: around and it was a dangerous place to be. And yeah,
Speaker 6: you would be like at risk going out to the
Speaker 6: parking lot if all the skinheads had been kicked out
Speaker 6: of the show, because they might want to try and
Speaker 6: jump you.
Speaker 5: It was insane.
Speaker 6: And yeah, pre cell phone, pre everyone having a digital
Speaker 6: camera or way to get safety, you would just hope
Speaker 6: that James Murphy would keep an eye on usy walked
Speaker 6: out to your car and the tires might be slashed.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because we had Chris Gether on the podcast, and
Speaker 2: I think we talked about Action Park, which was also
Speaker 2: kind of an outlaw New Jersey thing from the path.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of outlaw natures.
Speaker 6: So I did cover a lot of ground and loved
Speaker 6: those bizarre places, and I'm glad that other people have
Speaker 6: talked about them or verified that they weren't just in
Speaker 6: my imagination.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that must be very validating because in retrospect it
Speaker 3: probably feels like did I just make that up?
Speaker 2: That's so crazy, But.
Speaker 6: It also worked my perspective, like I didn't realize how
Speaker 6: rare that was, Like I thought that they were always
Speaker 6: going to be bartenders that were as funny as John Stewart,
Speaker 6: or bouncers that were as cool as young James Murphy,
Speaker 6: or that I didn't understand that there were like I
Speaker 6: don't know, ten to fifteen cities in America like that.
Speaker 6: I just thought that there'd be like great record stores
Speaker 6: and Fugazi's coming to play two nights every spring in.
Speaker 5: Everywhere, and didn't realize like like, oh no, that's not
Speaker 5: really everywhere.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 3: Well, on that note, we're going to take a quick
Speaker 3: commercial break and we'll be right back with Lance Bangs.
Speaker 4: And we're back with Lance Bangs.
Speaker 2: So, Lance, you had some any great ideas for topics,
Speaker 2: and you know, one of your ideas was sort of
Speaker 2: these educational TV shows or movies we watched in school,
Speaker 2: and you recommended one called Cipher in the Snow, which
Speaker 2: me and Vanessa both watched. And I'm just curious sort
Speaker 2: of why this topic resonated with you and sort of
Speaker 2: what your experience was like this kind of as a kid.
Speaker 3: I just wanted to say it wasn't that you recommended
Speaker 3: it necessarily, but this was something that was definitely shown
Speaker 3: to you in school.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I would recommend it, Okay, I'll stand by it.
Speaker 6: Essentially, when I looked at what your guests tend to
Speaker 6: talk about, I wasn't sure if the things that were
Speaker 6: formative in my childhood would have still mattered.
Speaker 5: I think you're probably, you know, nine or seven years
Speaker 5: younger than myself.
Speaker 6: But the idea of something that you see that's like,
Speaker 6: what was that or why did someone show that to
Speaker 6: us as kids in a darkened room when maybe there's
Speaker 6: a substitute who's not available, or someone gets ill and
Speaker 6: they just need to like pacify a classroom of thirty
Speaker 6: kids and keep them quiet for twenty minutes. And this
Speaker 6: genre of like education films or kind of placeholders or
Speaker 6: things like that. There was this incredibly striking film that
Speaker 6: was so emotionally like baffling, informative called Cipher in the
Speaker 6: Snow that I wanted to talk.
Speaker 2: About Lance, how would you kind of summarize the plot
Speaker 2: of Cipher in the Snow.
Speaker 6: Cipher in the Snow was made It bring him Young
Speaker 6: University by presumably Mormon students who had just been excited
Speaker 6: by maybe French New Wave or the first Robert Altman
Speaker 6: experimental films. So they're taking a sixteen momentor camera and
Speaker 6: putting it in places that it normally wouldn't get to go.
Speaker 6: They're zooming with the zoom lens during shots, they're doing
Speaker 6: overlapping dialogue, all kind of like experimental film processes that
Speaker 6: weren't normally happening in you know, narrative films at that
Speaker 6: time yet. And it is a story about a young
Speaker 6: boy eighth grade, basically Kurt Cobain, who is lonely on
Speaker 6: the back of a school bus. All the other kids
Speaker 6: are talking and socializing. No one's talking to this kid.
Speaker 6: He's in silhouette. He gets up quietly and moves in
Speaker 6: his denim outfit through all the kind of like rambuncious kids.
Speaker 5: Who don't acknowledge him.
Speaker 6: He goes up to the bus driver in the first
Speaker 6: minute of the film, he kind of quietly taps on
Speaker 6: the bus driver's shoulder. He's like, excuse me, I have
Speaker 6: to get off here. It's in the winter and the snow.
Speaker 6: The bus driver's like, we're not supposed to stop here.
Speaker 6: The bus driver like lets the kid off. He steps
Speaker 6: off of the bus and he dies. He falls face
Speaker 6: first into the snow and it freeze frames and does
Speaker 6: an optical print of like the title cipher in the snow,
Speaker 6: like zero in the snow on the dead kid's face
Speaker 6: within the first minute of this like film for kids
Speaker 6: to watch. And then like a grumpy teacher that was
Speaker 6: in the car in traffic behind the school bus who's
Speaker 6: kind of grumbling like, oh great, I'm behind the school bus.
Speaker 6: We have to stop all the time. He kind of
Speaker 6: gets out to try and tend to the kid. All
Speaker 6: the other children come off the bus and they're like,
Speaker 6: who's that kid?
Speaker 5: Did anyone know him?
Speaker 6: Like, we don't know, you know, they don't even know
Speaker 6: the kid that just died because they so completely ostracized him,
Speaker 6: and they put him on a stretcherer.
Speaker 5: They put him in the back of an ambulance.
Speaker 6: You're seeing like nineteen seventy three Utah ambulances, which are
Speaker 6: basically like a station wagon painted orange. Everyone's wearing the
Speaker 6: clothing they would wear in nineteen seventy three, and the
Speaker 6: kid's dead. And that's the beginning of this like twenty
Speaker 6: one minute short film to show to children, and the
Speaker 6: idea is essentially that he was so neglected that he
Speaker 6: died of being erased, like becoming nothing, becoming a cipher
Speaker 6: a zero, and so because no one paid attention or
Speaker 6: cared or achnologist kid, he just dies. So the teacher
Speaker 6: goes to the school and is kind of grumbling to like,
Speaker 6: you know, like what are we like, you know, trying
Speaker 6: to research on the kid's paper records, and whoever working
Speaker 6: at the office administration is like, oh, it says here
Speaker 6: you were his favorite teacher.
Speaker 5: And the guy's like, I don't.
Speaker 6: I don't remember this kid, you know, And they look
Speaker 6: back at his previous stuff and he had like an
Speaker 6: IQ of one hundred and six in first or second grade.
Speaker 6: Then his parents get divorced, which to the Mormons was
Speaker 6: like super bad, right, and everything declines in his like academics.
Speaker 6: He writes some poems you get re enactments and flashbacks
Speaker 6: of essentially like a young Kirk Coubbin type of kid,
Speaker 6: like writing poems about frogs.
Speaker 5: I like frogs.
Speaker 6: Frogs are nice, you know, But no one's paying attention
Speaker 6: to him. He gets bullied. Some mean kids like steal
Speaker 6: his hat and put it on a snowman. He essentially
Speaker 6: transfers his personality or persona or will to live into
Speaker 6: a snowman by taking the items out of his pocket
Speaker 6: and like making a face on a snowman as he's
Speaker 6: on the verge of tears after getting like bullied by
Speaker 6: other kids. And it's an amazing film. It's so emotionally resident.
Speaker 6: There's some kind of like sad flute score over everything.
Speaker 6: It's only twenty minutes long. I saw it as a child. Basically,
Speaker 6: you know a situation you probably have been through where
Speaker 6: it's like, ah, like so and so can't stay this period.
Speaker 6: They've got to go, what do we do with these kids?
Speaker 6: Let's close the shades and turn off the lights and
Speaker 6: run a sixteen milimeter film on a projector made by
Speaker 6: the Mormons. And it was so devastating and psychologically intense.
Speaker 6: And at the end of it, there's not enough people
Speaker 6: to go to the funeral. There's like a mom he had,
Speaker 6: like a step dad that didn't really care, and no friends,
Speaker 6: and so the teacher who barely knew him is like
Speaker 6: watching and the cameras in the grave looking up at
Speaker 6: like the mom.
Speaker 5: He's like, oh, I should have talked to him more,
Speaker 5: shouldn't I?
Speaker 6: And then another sad kirk couldbean child comes up to
Speaker 6: the grumpy teacher and is like, hey, mister, can I
Speaker 6: talk to you? And the guy's like no, no, it's
Speaker 6: not a good time and like shuts him down as well,
Speaker 6: and that kid kind of turns and starts to walk off,
Speaker 6: very sad and dejected. And then there's a moment of
Speaker 6: recognition on the teacher's face and he's like, wait a minute,
Speaker 6: and he leaves.
Speaker 5: The funeral, abandoning the funeral to go talk to the
Speaker 5: kid who's like, Oh, I'm going to be in your
Speaker 5: class next year? Could I get some help with math?
Speaker 6: So he's going to maybe like help future kids and
Speaker 6: not be such closed off, you know guy. But now
Speaker 6: it means that like poor Cliff Evans is being buried
Speaker 6: alone with only his mom who barely paid attention, so
Speaker 6: very intense, Like you know, they could have done it
Speaker 6: where the kid is in a coma, but they're like, no,
Speaker 6: let's have him die in the opening seconds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The point is it's supposed to be, like, it's supposed
Speaker 3: to help with bullying and stuff.
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 3: A couple the couple things that I noted about it.
Speaker 3: One is everyone's reaction to this kid fully dying feels
Speaker 3: a little muted. Like kids come off the bus and
Speaker 3: they're like, I've never seen a dead person before, and
Speaker 3: you're like, aren't you guys absolutely flipping out like you're
Speaker 3: looking at a dead body. And also the teacher's like,
Speaker 3: oh man, is he dead? It's like, guys, let's what.
Speaker 3: Let's like wake up. And then even like when the okay,
Speaker 3: and then so the principal or something is like there's
Speaker 3: like a little bit of a shady move cold where yes.
Speaker 3: The principal's kind of like, uh, okay. He's like he's like,
Speaker 3: do you know what happened? And that teacher who was
Speaker 3: like in the car I think that was the teacher
Speaker 3: who was in the car behind the bus. And the
Speaker 3: teacher comes in and he's like, yeah, he just like died,
Speaker 3: and the principal's like this is not good, and the
Speaker 3: principle is basically like, okay, could you tell the parents?
Speaker 3: And the teacher's like what and he's like he's like
Speaker 3: he's like you kind of he said the kid said
Speaker 3: the your's favorite teacher. And the teacher's like, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: I guess I like gave him a few notes I like,
Speaker 3: don't He's like, yeah, would really love for you to
Speaker 3: tell the parents. And then the teacher's like to the principal,
Speaker 3: he's like, why can't you tell the parents? You're like
Speaker 3: the principal of school, and the principals like, I have
Speaker 3: a meeting in ten.
Speaker 5: Minutes, yes, exactly.
Speaker 3: Why are we like treating this like somebody got the flu?
Speaker 1: Like, go go ahead, j right.
Speaker 2: Well, then then he follows up and asks to say,
Speaker 2: the principal has the teacher to write the obituary for
Speaker 2: the kid?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's like, he's like, oh, and also before I
Speaker 3: leave the office to go to my meeting in ten minutes,
Speaker 3: could you also write an obituary?
Speaker 2: That would be great?
Speaker 3: And it's like this principle actually sucks, like he's the
Speaker 3: true villain of the whole thing. But it's like then
Speaker 3: this teacher's like right. And then the teacher goes to
Speaker 3: the parents' house to tell them their son has died,
Speaker 3: and the mom's sort of like, yeah, I should have
Speaker 3: talked to him more. It's like, wouldn't you be like
Speaker 3: crying and freaking out if your son just died? The
Speaker 3: stepdad is like, uh, he was like a stupid kid,
Speaker 3: and the mom's like, don't call him stupid, And it's like,
Speaker 3: wouldn't you be freaking out if your husband was calling
Speaker 3: your debt now debt, your son who just died stupid?
Speaker 3: So so little, so little emotion. And then also, I
Speaker 3: want to go to the bullying scene. So the scene
Speaker 3: that's supposed to be sort of like the big bullying
Speaker 3: like you know they show they showed different moments when
Speaker 3: this kid was sort of neglected and no one was
Speaker 3: really talking to him. But the bullying scene, there's these
Speaker 3: kids and they're making a snowman, and the snowman.
Speaker 1: This I couldn't get out of my head.
Speaker 3: The snowman already has like three circles to it, which
Speaker 3: generally that's what makes a snowman.
Speaker 1: Like you're complete, that's all you have.
Speaker 3: So then this kid is like rolling up a fourth
Speaker 3: circle and you're like, that's not how a snowman works.
Speaker 3: Like also, to the creators of this film, why wouldn't
Speaker 3: you just have two? It just it's just a little weird,
Speaker 3: because wouldn't you just be like they're done with the snowman,
Speaker 3: Like I'm not going to add a fourth fourth circle
Speaker 3: to the snowman.
Speaker 1: It just the whole thing to me read a little bit.
Speaker 3: I felt like the acting and emotion of it where
Speaker 3: I didn't even notice all the cool, kind of revolutionary
Speaker 3: camera shots because I was so taken by the lack
Speaker 3: of emotion that someone died. It's also like, if you're
Speaker 3: going to have someone die and make this big statement
Speaker 3: in the first minute of the film, you know, maybe
Speaker 3: follow up with people treating it like a death as
Speaker 3: opposed to again some kid like got the flu or
Speaker 3: something like that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Jonah, what did you get out of it?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I wasn't sure what to expect.
Speaker 2: You know, it didn't really remind me of a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff that we watched in school. Yeah, Like, And
Speaker 2: that's kind of what I was thinking about a lot,
Speaker 2: because I feel like when I was growing up, the
Speaker 2: media portrayed like, when you're sixteen, you're going to watch
Speaker 2: all these really scary driving videos to like scare you
Speaker 2: from being responsible. I don't remember that ever happening, and
Speaker 2: I don't remember watching anything like this. So I was
Speaker 2: actually thinking, I wonder if, like culturally I graduated high
Speaker 2: school in ninety eight, if these types of really kind
Speaker 2: of dark, like scare you into the message videos. We're
Speaker 2: kind of coming out of fashion a little bit. I
Speaker 2: know're right, I think that this.
Speaker 6: You know, when people I don't make a big deal
Speaker 6: about generational things, like I just am curious about the
Speaker 6: world around me. But when people are like, oh, gen X,
Speaker 6: we had it so much weirder than you got, you know,
Speaker 6: this is the sort of like what the fuck were
Speaker 6: you doing to kids showing them this yeah right type
Speaker 6: of a thing like I think this might be where
Speaker 6: Genine Groffalo writes a Santa bit or whatever, like this
Speaker 6: is like something it might have been different in that
Speaker 6: age bracket of like what kids in the seventies ear
Speaker 6: ladies saw versus like a less crazy thing of a
Speaker 6: kid dying that might have.
Speaker 3: Been yeah, yeah, even like I feel like after school
Speaker 3: specials were pretty big when we were kids, but I
Speaker 3: don't I don't know, Lance, because you have kids what
Speaker 3: they were watching when they were younger, Like did those
Speaker 3: sort of go away?
Speaker 2: Too?
Speaker 3: Because I remember the one for the Love of Nancy
Speaker 3: with Tracy Gold about anorexia. My friends and I I
Speaker 3: would always say for the love of Nancy instead of
Speaker 3: for the love of God because we thought we were
Speaker 3: so funny and awesome. We were, but like there was
Speaker 3: the anorexia one with her like that was such a
Speaker 3: popular thing that and I feel like we watched some
Speaker 3: in school. But yeah, would do you think that those
Speaker 3: were those still around?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 6: I think that it really was, like throughout the seventies
Speaker 6: and eighties that there might have been these like bleak,
Speaker 6: pessimistic bummer warning things about like the dangers of someone
Speaker 6: that took LSD and jumped out of a window, or
Speaker 6: a kid that held a friend switchblade and then it
Speaker 6: turned out it was used in a stabbing and they
Speaker 6: got put in jail, or things like that that were
Speaker 6: around as like.
Speaker 5: After school specials or in school educational films.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that people realized that that was not
Speaker 6: that healthy to share the kids, and yeah, probably stopped
Speaker 6: before my kids were in school.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well yeah.
Speaker 2: And also it's interesting that this is like kind of
Speaker 2: a Mormon based thing because I wonder, like you said,
Speaker 2: sort of the message around the war, like it does
Speaker 2: feel like there was a bit of I would say,
Speaker 2: maybe like an agenda was something like this as well.
Speaker 6: Yeah, for sure, And you know, the whole physical thing
Speaker 6: of this being like a sixteen moment of print that
Speaker 6: would be running with a beam of light going through
Speaker 6: the classroom and hitting a projector you know, like a screen,
Speaker 6: and that kind.
Speaker 5: Of like like sound run the whole time.
Speaker 6: It added to like the mood and sadness of the
Speaker 6: whole experience, yeah, in a way, but taking like what's
Speaker 6: really like a brightly lit classroom and turning it into
Speaker 6: this like dark, weird dream state was also a strange
Speaker 6: thing to go through psychologically. And so I tracked down
Speaker 6: like a sixteen momter print from libraries that we're going
Speaker 6: to throw everything out when they were switching over to
Speaker 6: VHS and gearing rid of like film and projectors, and
Speaker 6: kept a couple prints of it and would like screen
Speaker 6: it for people to try and explain or show, like
Speaker 6: can you believe that they showed this to us?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 6: And then eventually the Mormons, like the Bringham Young University,
Speaker 6: made like a DVD available, and I tracked that down
Speaker 6: through some like educational program. But now the Mormons have
Speaker 6: put it up on YouTube, so anyone listening can search
Speaker 6: for cipher in the snow and see like a a
Speaker 6: decent scan of it.
Speaker 4: Yah.
Speaker 2: Don you remember what happened to you after you watched
Speaker 2: it that day, because it seem would seem very strange
Speaker 2: watching this in class and just walking out into hallway
Speaker 2: and be like, hey, like you want to play basketball recess.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: It definitely you know, certainly related to the main kid
Speaker 6: and was kind of changing schools regularly. We go be
Speaker 6: stationed somewhere for you know, not that long, and go
Speaker 6: through like a year or two at one school district
Speaker 6: and then change or move from Like you know, there's
Speaker 6: like big cultural differences in that time period between Valdosta, Georgia, Montgomery, Alabama,
Speaker 6: and like New Jersey or New York State. Like kids
Speaker 6: are all in a different age when they're in a
Speaker 6: certain grade, Like they might have started school at five
Speaker 6: and one part of the country and seven another part
Speaker 6: of the country. Uh huh, So like your peers could
Speaker 6: be a foot taller than you or like think that
Speaker 6: like any accent that wasn't a Deep South accent meant
Speaker 6: that you were like a Yankee. And you know, like
Speaker 6: they were just like weird cultural biases among random people
Speaker 6: at that time. So definitely felt a sense of identification
Speaker 6: with this Buyet kid that was being ignored or neglected
Speaker 6: and then dying in front of everyone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 6: Then everyone being like was he in our grade? Like
Speaker 6: I don't, like, I don't remember him from last.
Speaker 1: Year, right right, right? Right right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I remember I remember being shown stuff
Speaker 3: in school, but not like Jonah and I were talking about,
Speaker 3: we were shown like Square one, that show that was
Speaker 3: on TV, Jonah, Voyage of the Meme?
Speaker 5: Uh, what's that.
Speaker 2: Voyage the mem I think it was one of what
Speaker 2: ben Affleck was on it or something. It was one
Speaker 2: of his as a kid, and it was sort of
Speaker 2: this show that took place on like they would have
Speaker 2: adventures on like a boat. They would sail around and
Speaker 2: kind of like learn stuff about boating. And I just
Speaker 2: remember we would watch it in school all the time,
Speaker 2: and then it's on YouTube and all the comments are
Speaker 2: like I remember watching in school in like the eighties?
Speaker 6: Is it ben Affleck is like a teenager late teen
Speaker 6: or how old is he?
Speaker 2: He's a pretty young kid, right yeah, he's what you say, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: maybe around that yeah, and it's pretty young. But I
Speaker 2: think I taught you how to tie certain kind of
Speaker 2: knots nautical mats right right now.
Speaker 3: And Jonah, someone was saying, did you get this to
Speaker 3: someone was saying at the end of the year in
Speaker 3: math class, they would always show us stand and deliver
Speaker 3: that movie. Okay, you know what's weird is that like
Speaker 3: a theme? And also one time they brought my whole grade.
Speaker 3: I was talking to some friends about this last night
Speaker 3: to be like did I make this up? They brought
Speaker 3: my whole grade into this room called the LGI Room,
Speaker 3: and they showed us all this nineteen eighties movie called
Speaker 3: Watcher in the Woods that was like god, yes, yeah,
Speaker 3: which is like kind of a supernatural, kind of scary
Speaker 3: and weirdly starring Kyle Richards of when she was a
Speaker 3: kid of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Speaker 1: Like, so, what was weird to me is that.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you noticed this, Lands, but it
Speaker 3: kind of feels like this applies to you watching Cipher
Speaker 3: in the Snow, Like we would be shown these movies
Speaker 3: that were at least like ten years old, right, like
Speaker 3: a lot of stuff where it was like you couldn't
Speaker 3: just show us something modern that was like had normal,
Speaker 3: like looked like the normal stuff we would watch was
Speaker 3: like forbidden, Like you had to show us stuff that
Speaker 3: was at least ten years Yeah, And looked really yeah dated,
Speaker 3: so you've seen watch her in the Woods.
Speaker 6: Inside God, yeah, I definitely recommend that people check it out.
Speaker 6: It's so visually striking, like it's creepy, it's spooky.
Speaker 5: It has its own atmosphere to it.
Speaker 3: Don't you think it's weird that they brought my whole
Speaker 3: grade into like a room and played it for us,
Speaker 3: like it must have been before summer break or something.
Speaker 3: And then other kids were telling me that, Jonah, you
Speaker 3: had Missus Delile right in sixth grade.
Speaker 1: I think you did.
Speaker 4: You might not remember, memory.
Speaker 3: Someone was saying that Missus Delile showed their class the
Speaker 3: birds Wow, un a break. She also showed episodes of
Speaker 3: Twilight Zone. Not trying to burn Missus Delile, but if
Speaker 3: she's listening to this, I don't want to make a
Speaker 3: different choice, very beloved teacher, So I feel okay making
Speaker 3: this you know who knows. But then yeah, I remember,
Speaker 3: I think that Missus Kitcher, the art teacher, might have
Speaker 3: shown some kids it. I could be speaking out of turn,
Speaker 3: but like I just do remember. And also Lance, you
Speaker 3: were saying the projector thing, the thing that sort of
Speaker 3: we sometimes would have stuff shown on a projector, and
Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember this, Jonah, but sometimes
Speaker 3: it would also be that cart that had a TV
Speaker 3: on it, and they would roll that cart into your classroom,
Speaker 3: and I remember always being excited about that because it
Speaker 3: meant they were going to pop a VHS tape in
Speaker 3: and you were going to get to watch TV in class,
Speaker 3: which always felt fun and in retrospect, was probably so
Speaker 3: fun for the teacher too, because they didn't have to
Speaker 3: like we thought we were getting a great deal, they
Speaker 3: were also getting a great deal.
Speaker 2: They were getting it and.
Speaker 1: They yeah, they were made. They were getting the best deal.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Just weird the stuff that teachers show you sometimes
Speaker 3: to teach you a lesson, sometimes just because they don't have,
Speaker 3: you know, a lesson plan.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I watched the Challenger launch on a TV on
Speaker 5: a cart. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember actually watching I remember
Speaker 2: that day, and I remember we were watching it in
Speaker 2: school too, so yeah, that was like a huge cultural moment.
Speaker 3: I think, Yeah, oh I don't remember us watching that.
Speaker 3: Yeah maybe, Yeah, didn't you have a class. Weren't you
Speaker 3: in a class where there was like the teacher put
Speaker 3: a VHS tape in and someone had switched it with porn?
Speaker 2: I don't know if I was in the class, but
Speaker 2: that definitely happened.
Speaker 6: Okay, potentially a criminal offense.
Speaker 3: Isn't that crazy, But it's like VHS tapes that would
Speaker 3: be so easy to do at the VHS tape.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I don't think I was in the class.
Speaker 2: I don't, but I think people were talking about it
Speaker 2: like it was literally like the biggest news in the
Speaker 2: world for like months.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Did people know that it was him or did he
Speaker 5: keep that loose?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think they knew.
Speaker 4: I think he immediately got in trouble, like I think
Speaker 4: it was.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he probably as much as he didn't want to
Speaker 3: get in trouble, he probably also wanted like the credit
Speaker 3: for it. Yeah, you know, so got shown all kinds
Speaker 3: of things at school. I guess it's the lesson. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Cipher in the.
Speaker 2: Snow lance, when you were a kid watching stuff, were
Speaker 2: you kind of conscious of these more kind of I
Speaker 2: don't know, like cinematography or kind of filmmaking aspects of it,
Speaker 2: even before you're kind of making your own films, thank you.
Speaker 6: I don't think I was completely conscious of the choices
Speaker 6: that were being made, but I would know that emotionally.
Speaker 6: How Cipher in the snow felt was different from other
Speaker 6: sort of like more scientific films with like a narrator
Speaker 6: and voiceover and music and graphics and quiet and things
Speaker 6: like that, Like you could tell that it felt alive
Speaker 6: in a different way, or that the cameras where it
Speaker 6: wanted to be in a different way.
Speaker 2: Did you you know, it sounds like you were kind
Speaker 2: of you know, introspective kind of kid, and it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, I think of like watching like I recently
Speaker 2: just rewatched all the Freaks and Geeks, and you know,
Speaker 2: they're kind of relating to comedy. They're kind of like outcasts. Like,
Speaker 2: were you also into comedy and that kind of stuff?
Speaker 2: Obviously you work a lot with a.
Speaker 6: Lot of means or yeah, honestly, yeah, there were like
Speaker 6: things that you would just get and even if they
Speaker 6: were meant to be comedy, they might come to you
Speaker 6: in a sad transmission.
Speaker 5: Like there was an English comedy called The Goodies.
Speaker 6: It's like three guys that could do kind of like
Speaker 6: physical comedy on sixteen milimeter camera, Like they would do
Speaker 6: things with like stop motion or the camera cutting and
Speaker 6: then a banana is chasing a monkey or you know,
Speaker 6: things like that that were visual kind of Monty Python
Speaker 6: with fewer people and maybe aimed more at kids in
Speaker 6: Monty Python, but like clearly people in England with a
Speaker 6: TV show who were aware of what the Monty Python
Speaker 6: guys were doing and had access to similar cameras, but
Speaker 6: were like a little bit goofy or broader for.
Speaker 5: A younger audience.
Speaker 6: But when that gets broadcast on like a public broadcast
Speaker 6: station in the Philadelphia area onto like a black and
Speaker 6: white TV late at night, it all looks sadder and spookier, sure,
Speaker 6: and stranger than like the colorful thing that you would
Speaker 6: have seen in England during the daytime. And so those
Speaker 6: three guys like there's like a rocket ship and they
Speaker 6: aren't maybe they're not supposed to be on, but like
Speaker 6: somehow they end up accidentally going to the moon and
Speaker 6: then this giant hamsters on the moon and then they're
Speaker 6: kind of like cultural references that people do in a comedy,
Speaker 6: like if you're doing an impression of like a previous generation,
Speaker 6: Like right, I can't think of an example, but like
Speaker 6: if you Vanessa on SNL did a parody of like
Speaker 6: eighties jazz or size videos, like people in your age
Speaker 6: group would get it. But right then when you move
Speaker 6: forward like another decade or two, it's like, what why
Speaker 6: are they dressing in those clothes and dancing like that?
Speaker 5: Or you know, yeah, it kind of becomes stranger.
Speaker 6: Or so if they do some reference to some nineteen
Speaker 6: forties English comedy trope, like it just makes no sense
Speaker 6: and seems strange to like a child in nineteen eighty two, right,
Speaker 6: and then it's intercut with like commercials for the Shining
Speaker 6: or whatever, like you know, so there are things like
Speaker 6: The Goodies or I don't know if you guys saw
Speaker 6: The Young Ones, or there's this thing called Bad Trip
Speaker 6: that was like English people doing like heavy metal and
Speaker 6: a tour and things going wrong.
Speaker 5: It was kind of pre spinal.
Speaker 6: Tap, okay, like strange things like that that would cross
Speaker 6: my transcend by being on late night via airwaves on
Speaker 6: like a black and white nine inch television late at
Speaker 6: night under the blankets or something.
Speaker 5: I would recommend that people.
Speaker 6: Watch The Young Ones and that tour, that Bad News Tour. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I see protos kind of pre spinal tap rock parodies.
Speaker 5: Great, so yeah, I was seeing stuff like that. It
Speaker 5: was resonating and stuck with me.
Speaker 6: And then other things that would just be on cable
Speaker 6: TV like mel Brooks movies, and I got to direct
Speaker 6: like it definitely is a child saw History of the World,
Speaker 6: and I liked his other things better. I liked you know,
Speaker 6: Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs are other ones more, but like definitely
Speaker 6: watched History of the World and then got to direct
Speaker 6: part of History of the World part two forty seven
Speaker 6: or forty eight years later, which is.
Speaker 3: Y It's incredible. I thought, yeah, how cool, that's so great.
Speaker 6: This is very grateful to get brought in for that
Speaker 6: and had a great experience and its own.
Speaker 3: People should watch it, yes, And mel Brooks like, yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 6: Made something with Melbrooks like a decade ago at the
Speaker 6: Chateau Marmont. He came to be on a thing that
Speaker 6: I made with John Hodgman called in Residence, and we
Speaker 6: were so happy to film with Melbrooks and he was great.
Speaker 5: But I was also conscious, like I had my daughter Glory.
Speaker 6: There with me, of like getting her to meet him
Speaker 6: and being like, wow, this is probably the last chance
Speaker 6: that I'll get to have a shot at working with
Speaker 6: Melbrooks or whatever. Then like a decade goes by and
Speaker 6: he's like executive prouising.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 6: Another thing that I drafted in and it's like, oh no,
Speaker 6: he's still chugging along making.
Speaker 1: Things so cool, so cool.
Speaker 3: Well, I think we're going to take another commercial break
Speaker 3: and we'll be right back with the incredible Lance Bangs. Okay,
Speaker 3: and we're back, so Lance, Now, we're going to play
Speaker 3: this game with you called change dot Dork, otherwise known
Speaker 3: as let's make fun of people who don't know how
Speaker 3: to use change dot org. And in this game, we'll
Speaker 3: bring up three different petitions that people are trying to
Speaker 3: uh for like sort of a lot of for like
Speaker 3: nostalgic things that people are trying to bring back on
Speaker 3: change dot org. And at the end of like hearing
Speaker 3: these three petitions will each kind of decide which one
Speaker 3: we would sign if we had to sign one of them.
Speaker 5: Right on.
Speaker 1: Okay, I can start us off with this first one.
Speaker 4: Let's go into it.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into it.
Speaker 3: It's called change Scooby Do Fruit Snacks back, so this
Speaker 3: person says. Scooby Doo themed fruit snacks made by Betty
Speaker 3: Crocker have always been a childhood favorite of mine and
Speaker 3: others alike, particularly the blue Scooby Doo shaped one, the
Speaker 3: one most people got their enjoyment of the snack from
Speaker 3: There was no greater feeling than tearing open a package
Speaker 3: and finding two or three Scooby shaped ones. Kids would rejoice,
Speaker 3: feeling as though they had been blessed with good enough
Speaker 3: luck to get multiple pieces of the best flavor in
Speaker 3: one pack. Unfortunately, sometime in the past year, Betty Crocker
Speaker 3: has changed their fruit snacks entirely. They are now no
Speaker 3: longer the same scoobies we all know and love. They
Speaker 3: are now semi transparent colors with all different tastes than
Speaker 3: what they used to be. So they're saying, I won't
Speaker 3: read the whole thing, but the Scooby Doo one is
Speaker 3: no longer opaque. Light blue doesn't taste the same. And
Speaker 3: so this person says, I wish to ask Betty Crocker
Speaker 3: on behalf of myself and thousands of others, to simply
Speaker 3: return to the way they make these fruit snacks back
Speaker 3: in the way they once were before the change in
Speaker 3: tasting color shattered the hearts of many many people who
Speaker 3: once knew these as a memorable part of their childhood.
Speaker 1: I want to be able to enjoy them again.
Speaker 3: Blah blah blah blah with the bottom of my heart.
Speaker 3: I wish for nothing more than to get this issue resolved. Now,
Speaker 3: I'm going to look at how many people so this
Speaker 3: petition was made out I believe to Betty Crocker.
Speaker 2: It's got three six hundred and sixty one supporters. Okay,
Speaker 2: so kind of a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of supporters out. Here's my question. This
Speaker 1: person seems like they're an adult.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 3: I think the thing about fruit snacks like these are
Speaker 3: you sort of grow out of them, so like if
Speaker 3: they change the formulation, you wouldn't necessarily notice because you're Okay, I.
Speaker 2: Think it depends I I as an adult, I'm enjoyed,
Speaker 2: you know, more than a few bags of Welchi's fruit snacks,
Speaker 2: so I can relate. But I will say a blue
Speaker 2: fruit snack to me does not sound good.
Speaker 1: And also, you, as.
Speaker 3: An adult, probably haven't had a ton of like animation
Speaker 3: themed fruitsna I'm not judging you, but like, right right,
Speaker 3: you're not eating a ton of Scooby Doo themed but
Speaker 3: by the way, maybe so anyways, Lance, what do you
Speaker 3: think about this petition?
Speaker 6: I have a lot of questions. How does one come
Speaker 6: across this petition? Like are people on forums talking about right.
Speaker 5: Snacks or where does this? Where does get how does
Speaker 5: one come across?
Speaker 1: As such a good question.
Speaker 3: I think people sometimes share their petitions on social media.
Speaker 3: Maybe other people were thinking the same thing and they
Speaker 3: looked it up to see if this existed, and then
Speaker 3: they signed it. That's a really great question, because yeah,
Speaker 3: three six hundred and sixty one people have signed it.
Speaker 5: Are their Facebook groups about fruit snacks?
Speaker 2: Maybe?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3: But to your to your point lance, what we have
Speaker 3: found with these petitions is a lot of times the
Speaker 3: people that are made out to, For example, this one's
Speaker 3: made out to Betty Crocker. It's not sent to Betty Crocker.
Speaker 3: It's just they say Betty Crocker. So there's a I
Speaker 3: don't know that this would be brought to Betty Crocker's
Speaker 3: attention unless someone directly sent it to them, because just
Speaker 3: writing their name out on the petition doesn't necessarily signal
Speaker 3: to them that this is happening.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's strange.
Speaker 2: I want to add that there's a comment on this Andessa,
Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw it, oh, but it
Speaker 2: says I bought some Scooby Doo Snacks fruit snacks this
Speaker 2: week specifically for the opaque blue ones. My boyfriend wanted
Speaker 2: pokemon fruit snacks and we got in a fight because
Speaker 2: he said the squirrel ones were probably opaque blue and
Speaker 2: I was like, absolutely not.
Speaker 4: An now we're both wrong, change them back.
Speaker 2: So it's like, I don't want to say you're not
Speaker 2: mature enough to be in a relationship if you and
Speaker 2: your part are fighting about, uh, which animation you want
Speaker 2: on your fruit snack. But uh, but that's yeah, that's
Speaker 2: an interesting take.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't mind if people have little things to
Speaker 6: kind of like have a conversation about, like it might
Speaker 6: add to your relationship to be like, oh I thought
Speaker 6: it was gonna be opaque, I remember it different, Like, yeah,
Speaker 6: that's true, non uh personality based thing to kind of
Speaker 6: both have.
Speaker 5: It's not like your breath, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's not a real loaded topic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, your mom's a bitch.
Speaker 5: Yes, the place for defining yourself differently from each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, okay, you know what, Lance, Actually I'm going
Speaker 2: to change change my my cynical stance yet again and
Speaker 2: come around to your side, come around to the more
Speaker 2: open minded side, because I totally agree with that.
Speaker 4: I think it's a really good point.
Speaker 3: But yeah, there are quite a few comments on here
Speaker 3: where uh yeah, someone wrote this is so important. I
Speaker 3: was so sad when I opened up a pack and
Speaker 3: discovered the scoobies weren't the same. Maybe these are people
Speaker 3: of kids. Actually they're trying their kids Scooby snacks. And again,
Speaker 3: I don't judge anyone who's an adult who's buying Scooby snacks,
Speaker 3: although I guess that's exactly what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: But it just feels like.
Speaker 5: I also like change generally.
Speaker 6: I like when things are different, and I, you know,
Speaker 6: I don't know the reasoning behind, is it, Betty Betsy.
Speaker 1: Crocker, Betty Crocker, Yes, yeah, but like.
Speaker 6: It could be like, oh, the carcinogenic blue five is
Speaker 6: no longer syllable in the state of California.
Speaker 5: That's why it's slightly less opaque.
Speaker 3: And generally when something doesn't taste quote unquote as good,
Speaker 3: it's because it's healthier, right, So maybe take that into account. Okay, Jonah,
Speaker 3: do you want to read this next one?
Speaker 2: Some really good points? Yeah, so this next one is
Speaker 2: pretty short. It's called make chess, an Olympic sport. Oh, which, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is not what I've seen before it says this
Speaker 2: one is made out just a chess player. So I
Speaker 2: don't know where that goes, but you know it says
Speaker 2: far too long chess and chess players alike have been
Speaker 2: silenced and forgotten in their communities. The ancient game played
Speaker 2: by many intellectually superior athletes has the opportunity to gain
Speaker 2: the recognition it deserves. Many sports to and the Olympics
Speaker 2: require their athletes to have strong muscles. However, the strongest
Speaker 2: muscle in our bodies is our brains. Chess is a
Speaker 2: support which to exercises one's brain to the highest degree.
Speaker 2: Therefore should be including the Olympic Games. And it goes
Speaker 2: on and on, and they also say it can be
Speaker 2: played during COVID virtually and online, making it safe lance.
Speaker 2: What do you think about making chess and Olympic sports?
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on.
Speaker 5: I think that's a great idea.
Speaker 6: That's what this kind of a change dot org org
Speaker 6: thing is probably best suited for. That's a good idea
Speaker 6: that someone had. They can build momentum for it. Any
Speaker 6: reasonable person can hear it and be like, have an
Speaker 6: opinion yes or no, but yeah, why not like it?
Speaker 6: It's so many people could become eligible to consider themselves
Speaker 6: Olympic contenders. Sure, a lot of like fourth graders could
Speaker 6: be like, this is my shot, this is my path.
Speaker 5: I think that's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's great too. I think, you know,
Speaker 2: chess is does require a lot of brain power. You know,
Speaker 2: Vanessa recently got me. When I was in LA last
Speaker 2: time I was, Vanessa had Rubik's cube, yes, and I
Speaker 2: was messing around with it a lot, making no progress.
Speaker 2: Vanessa recently got me a keychain Rubik's cube, just with
Speaker 2: four squares. I keep it in my jacket pocket and
Speaker 2: I use it all the time and I have not
Speaker 2: gotten anywhere near solving it. Yeah, I mean it is tough.
Speaker 2: So it's like, yeah, this stuff requires a lot of
Speaker 2: brain power, And I think, yeah, why not?
Speaker 4: I think why not? What should have been the What
Speaker 4: do you think, Vanessa?
Speaker 3: Well, I think not a lot of people agree with you, guys,
Speaker 3: because only thirty eight people have signed. And look, here's
Speaker 3: my only thing about this is I think there's something
Speaker 3: to like the showmanship of the Olympics, and that it's
Speaker 3: generally kind of a physical.
Speaker 1: Test of whatever. I worry that if you included.
Speaker 3: Chess, which yeah, a lot of people loved Queen's Gambit
Speaker 3: is that what it was?
Speaker 4: A gam But yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought it was good.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, But like I think the show was good,
Speaker 3: not because you were necessarily following the chess game, but
Speaker 3: more because of like the drama of the show. I
Speaker 3: just worry that watching someone else's chess game, unless you're
Speaker 3: truly it's just like a little bit of a harder
Speaker 3: thing unless you like really educated yourself on chess. And
Speaker 3: again I'm not trying to but like by the by
Speaker 3: those standards too, would you have to include like could
Speaker 3: you would you include like spelling bees, would you include
Speaker 3: Rubik's cubes competitions? Like you said John, like there's so
Speaker 3: many brain things you almost would want to have like
Speaker 3: almost a separate kind of Olympics that's maybe called something
Speaker 3: else for more intellectual games, and absolutely no one would
Speaker 3: watch it.
Speaker 2: But but I.
Speaker 5: Want to see this at the Olympics.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I mean, look, I don't know, I just
Speaker 3: feel like the kind of the the presentation quality of
Speaker 3: watching someone play chess might not be as entertaining. But look,
Speaker 3: I don't watch the Olympics a lot because they stressed
Speaker 3: me out, because I always feel bad I always want
Speaker 3: everyone to win, and I feel bad, especially during figure
Speaker 3: skating when people mess up. So I guess I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm not the one to be the judge of
Speaker 3: this necessarily. I just think it's kind of a slippery
Speaker 3: slope if you start including brain games.
Speaker 1: Sure, and also a viewership nightmare.
Speaker 2: Okay, I want to add that one thing that is
Speaker 2: not going for this petition is the image like the
Speaker 2: torso lower tours of a cat and then a blacks.
Speaker 2: I mean it doesn't really Yeah, yeah, it's strange. I
Speaker 2: think they could have put a little more work into
Speaker 2: this potition.
Speaker 3: And also making the petition made out to chess players
Speaker 3: as opposed to to the Olympics.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, what, I don't even know.
Speaker 3: Speaking of brain games, I don't know if this person
Speaker 3: knows how speaking of intellectuality, intellect is that a word?
Speaker 3: Who's talking? But the point is just speaking of like
Speaker 3: being smart. I don't know if this person was super
Speaker 3: smart about the way they did this petition.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, for it, Okay, lances for it. Okay
Speaker 4: for that record, lances for it.
Speaker 1: Okay, love to hear that, love to hear that.
Speaker 3: Okay, Now, this last one Jonah, and I thought was
Speaker 3: very funny.
Speaker 1: It's called fandom Summer Camp.
Speaker 3: So this person found on Pinterest this thing that says,
Speaker 3: why isn't there a summer camp for fandoms and we
Speaker 3: can all meet at the end of the summer, our
Speaker 3: idols come and do a concert and meet and greet. Okay,
Speaker 3: So the petition is I know a lot of people
Speaker 3: would love this so much, including me, so I decided
Speaker 3: to make a petition for it, because why not, and
Speaker 3: if it does happen, I know I will be going.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So the person doesn't do a great job of explaining
Speaker 3: what they're asking for. But this person says in all caps,
Speaker 3: actually meeting and then instead of just talking over the internet,
Speaker 3: a bunch of my fandom friends, and then at the
Speaker 3: end of and then at the end of possibling meeting
Speaker 3: Rick Rard and Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, Marissa Meyer, Lin,
Speaker 3: Manuel Miranda or any of my favorite authors and our
Speaker 3: actresses would be so amazing. And I just want to
Speaker 3: put the out there in case other people would want to,
Speaker 3: and I know they would, so please if lots of
Speaker 3: people vote for this, please consider it summer camp. Please
Speaker 3: consider it Summer Camp. Makers, because I know it'd be
Speaker 3: a hit. We could be in can we could be
Speaker 3: in cabins sorted by fandom. Have a camp half Blood
Speaker 3: type of layout for the camp cosplay. Our favorite characters
Speaker 3: take writing, slash singing, slash acting lessons from our favorite authors,
Speaker 3: slash actors slash actorses.
Speaker 1: And I can't even imagine how amazing that would be.
Speaker 3: So I think this person wants to have a fandom
Speaker 3: camp or they're divided in camp cabins by what they're
Speaker 3: fans of, and then the people they're fans of they
Speaker 3: get to take like workshops from and meet at the
Speaker 3: end of the summer.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I'm sorry, Yeah.
Speaker 6: This is there's just like a person is one step
Speaker 6: away from completely being able to achieve this. Like there's
Speaker 6: somebody right now that's trying to book a venue in Harrisburg,
Speaker 6: Pennsylvania or Wilkspar, Pennsylvania, and they're struggling and they can't
Speaker 6: get enough off audience and they wish that they could
Speaker 6: book Gia Margaret or whatever, and they you know, like
Speaker 6: that person who has that skill set of like booking
Speaker 6: a venue just needs to find out what the appearance
Speaker 6: fee of Lynn Manuel Miranda is or Rick Reordan or
Speaker 6: these other people, and it's going to be five thousand
Speaker 6: dollars to leave New York City and come do an
Speaker 6: afternoon you know, if they were going to go speak
Speaker 6: at a college in Pennsylvania, like what they would charge.
Speaker 6: And then that person just needs to do the math
Speaker 6: of like how do I get these fandom people and
Speaker 6: like could they each pay three thousand dollars to come
Speaker 6: for a week to a camp in the cat Skills right,
Speaker 6: and then like book that otherwise empty cat Skills camp
Speaker 6: and pay the appearance fee of five thousand dollars to
Speaker 6: get Rick reord in er. But you know what I mean,
Speaker 6: Like it is doable, and someone who has those skills
Speaker 6: could make a bunch of money off of these fandoms.
Speaker 6: I don't know that world, but like I know that
Speaker 6: that try and promote or put on events that like
Speaker 6: wish that more people had come out for, like the
Speaker 6: Super Chunk concert or whatever that could apparently like fill
Speaker 6: camps of fans.
Speaker 2: So Lance, you're saying, you think, you know you could
Speaker 2: connect this person with some people who can make this happen.
Speaker 6: Past I feel like in certain regions of the country
Speaker 6: where it's not that big of a ask for like, hey,
Speaker 6: can you leave your apartment in New York and go
Speaker 6: across to Pennsylvania to on a Sunday afternoon like shake
Speaker 6: hands and take photos and talk for ninety minutes about
Speaker 6: storytelling to very appreciative fans who spent the week dressing
Speaker 6: up as characters that you previously created.
Speaker 1: I think you'd have to pay these people like a
Speaker 1: million dollars.
Speaker 6: I think there are these like appearance booking companies that like, yeah,
Speaker 6: if Penn State wants Lin Manuel to go yes, yes, lecture,
Speaker 6: there is a fee of this many thousand dollars for
Speaker 6: him to go do.
Speaker 3: It, go stay overnight at a camp.
Speaker 5: I don't think they have to go overnight.
Speaker 6: I think that like you run the thing for the week,
Speaker 6: and then on the Sunday afternoon at the end of it,
Speaker 6: that's when Rick Reordan or whoever is there to like
Speaker 6: talk about storytelling for ninety minutes and posts Well, IoT.
Speaker 4: I think that that's true.
Speaker 2: I think this person maybe thinks that people are just
Speaker 2: going to be like a accessible at the camp, just
Speaker 2: kind of hanging open.
Speaker 5: They think that the fan.
Speaker 6: While is like teaching archery all week long. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: I can't I can't make that happen.
Speaker 3: Like imagine if Lynn Manuel Miranda was like you, like
Speaker 3: there were like these super fans who were like singing
Speaker 3: Hamilton all weekend and just like and then like that's
Speaker 3: already kind of like a charged up group to meet, Okay,
Speaker 3: especially because this person's writing I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 1: But this person's probably like fourteen.
Speaker 3: Or something like can you it's gonna be the kind
Speaker 3: of thing where they meet Lyn Menuel and they're like, oh.
Speaker 1: My god, you're my favorite person in the world. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be like being around those kinds of teenagers
Speaker 3: such like kids, Like it's gonna be like the most intense,
Speaker 3: like so it's like fandom people, so you have to
Speaker 3: like take that into account. Is like, they're not gonna
Speaker 3: be cool about it. Okay, they're not gonna ask like
Speaker 3: Jonah was when when you guys took us to dinner.
Speaker 3: So it's gonna be full circle. So it's gonna be callback.
Speaker 3: So it's gonna be so such intense teenagers. And then
Speaker 3: I think this person is I think that they would
Speaker 3: they want a concert and also a meet and greet,
Speaker 3: but I think what this person is sort of asking
Speaker 3: for is cosplay our favorite character. So they're so imagine
Speaker 3: so these people have also been cosplaying lin Manuel for
Speaker 3: a week, okay, all week they've been like pretending to
Speaker 3: be him and then take writing slash singing, sack slash
Speaker 3: acting lessons from our favorite so they wanted to. So
Speaker 3: it's sort of like they change in the description where
Speaker 3: they're asking for because at the beginning, what this person
Speaker 3: had put on Pindrist that this person picked up on
Speaker 3: was just like at the end of the summer, we
Speaker 3: get to meet them one day and meet at Green.
Speaker 3: What this person's asking for is like we get to
Speaker 3: take lessons from them. Like this is again I think
Speaker 3: you're gonna have to pay each person, even if they're
Speaker 3: only there for a day, a million dollars.
Speaker 1: So this is going to be an expensive camp.
Speaker 5: It could be expensive.
Speaker 6: But again, like when they said Rick Reard and I
Speaker 6: really think that if they're being divided up into Percy
Speaker 6: Jackson themed bunks and dressing up and doing rowing competitions
Speaker 6: among themselves and then on the final day he shows
Speaker 6: up and signs copies of books and talks about characters
Speaker 6: or whatever, maybe that's enough for a three thousand dollars
Speaker 6: a person camp experience.
Speaker 3: No, let me ask this for the for our listeners
Speaker 3: who don't know who Rick Reordan is, can you explain
Speaker 3: who he is?
Speaker 6: He wrote Percy Jackson the Olympians series, okay, and like
Speaker 6: you know, thirty million books. Again, he's like a very
Speaker 6: successful contemporary writer for young readers.
Speaker 1: I know that, okay, But I just didn't know if
Speaker 1: for some of it, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3: I had no idea who it was, but I had
Speaker 3: heard of the name that was familiar with the thing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but like I guess, so, I guess the point that
Speaker 3: you're making lance is maybe if we manage the expectations
Speaker 3: of this camp, if we manage the expectations of the campers,
Speaker 3: then maybe why not.
Speaker 1: Why why couldn't why not this camp?
Speaker 6: Yeah, one could get on a cruise with the Impractical Jokers, Yes,
Speaker 6: within the next three months. Like if that's your fandom
Speaker 6: and you're sleeping and people are pulling pranks and you're yes,
Speaker 6: hearing stand up comedy from people from their world or aesthetic,
Speaker 6: like those things do exist and that kind of like
Speaker 6: weird cruise ship deal.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yeah, I mean I guess I feel, you know,
Speaker 2: like this fandom or like fan service or these things
Speaker 2: are just you know, and not to make it, you
Speaker 2: know again me being cynical or generational. But but I
Speaker 2: feel like, you know, a really formative experience for moves.
Speaker 2: My mom took me to see Guns N' Roses in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one, a user illusion tour, incredible formative, life
Speaker 2: changing experience, And no point did I think like I
Speaker 2: should be able to just like hang out with them,
Speaker 2: meet the band, Like it's just like that, that's just
Speaker 2: not something like we're I'm like a thirteen year old kid,
Speaker 2: Like this is just not in the realm of the
Speaker 2: universe of possibilities.
Speaker 6: If there had been a Paradise City rock camp, how
Speaker 6: much would you have asked you, like, what would you have.
Speaker 4: Expected my parents to, like, great question put up.
Speaker 6: For something like that for you to go for a
Speaker 6: week and like learn guitar from slash.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that you're no, You're absolutely right.
Speaker 2: I mean I was actually was really bummed because Vanessa,
Speaker 2: this isn't your fault, but Vanessa got bought Mitzvad in
Speaker 2: Israel the same week that the Metallica Guns and Roses
Speaker 2: tour came to Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I didn't you never told me that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, Well you know what's funny is mom and
Speaker 2: dad actually felt so bad that they offered to take
Speaker 2: me to the show in Columbus. I think, whoa.
Speaker 4: And I don't know why I didn't take them up
Speaker 4: on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I had no idea this controversy was going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I was very upset because those are like
Speaker 2: my two favorite band.
Speaker 4: This is probably like early to mid nineties.
Speaker 2: But but yeah, again, if that existed, yes, Lance, answer question,
Speaker 2: I would be totally into it. But I wouldn't.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't expect it, I guess, or I wouldn't advocate
Speaker 4: for it. It would be more Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: So there's a lot happening here.
Speaker 3: Well. The other thing I was just thinking of is like,
Speaker 3: would there be scholarships for kids? Like it would be
Speaker 3: so expensive? Would be the issue too? Would it just
Speaker 3: end up being all these rich kids?
Speaker 6: Yeah, you cut up in it up to like, you know,
Speaker 6: five slots of campers that anonymously didn't have the same resources.
Speaker 2: Right right, right? Sure? Sure. And there's an article actually
Speaker 2: in the New Yorker this month about private concerts. Like
Speaker 2: all these artists now that will do private events or
Speaker 2: play bar mitzvahs for these kind of exorbitant fees. So yeah,
Speaker 2: people are willing to pay it, that's fine. I'm not
Speaker 2: sure this person is willing to pay it, and I'm
Speaker 2: not sure there's a group of people. But yeah, if
Speaker 2: people want to support this and they can make it happen, sure,
Speaker 2: why not.
Speaker 3: I Lance, You've been so much more positive about petitions.
Speaker 6: But I have a positive take on the competitiveness of
Speaker 6: the replacements. Now, part of the reason that we know
Speaker 6: and love all of their songs that they were able
Speaker 6: to write and record is because they were more competitive
Speaker 6: than Run Westy Run, or the Wallets or the suburbs. Sure, yeah,
Speaker 6: bands of their same milieu and scene in city. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and maybe that competitiveness is why they broke through to
Speaker 6: us and a larger audience and some of those other bands.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's true. I think competitive can be
Speaker 2: a really positive you know, waiting Yeah, yeah, to take
Speaker 2: your your whatever you're working on to the next level.
Speaker 2: So so fair enough, that's a really good point.
Speaker 4: Lanes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, Now the moment of truth, we have
Speaker 3: to decide if each of US had to sign one
Speaker 3: of these petitions, which one would be signed, and just
Speaker 3: to remind you of what the petitions are, the first
Speaker 3: one was changed Scooby Doo fruit Snacks back, the second
Speaker 3: one was make Chess an Olympic sport, and the third
Speaker 3: one was Fandom Summer Camp Joe.
Speaker 2: Nance, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go. I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: with chess as a sport.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: To me, the Scooby Snacks, I can't. I can't really
Speaker 2: get behind that one. That the fandom thing not for me.
Speaker 2: But but yeah, chess is where I do think it
Speaker 2: requires a lot of skill, a lot of intellectual prowess,
Speaker 2: and yeah, why not?
Speaker 4: Why not?
Speaker 2: I think we should recognize, you know, that kind of
Speaker 2: intelligence in our society and not only recognize it but
Speaker 2: celebrated and like Lance said, like the replacements in RAM,
Speaker 2: maybe that competitiveness can help these players go to the
Speaker 2: next level. Lance, what do you think.
Speaker 6: I'm definitely chess as an Olympic sport supporter. Yeah, I
Speaker 6: think that's like a realistic thing. And even if it
Speaker 6: doesn't get to the level of Olympics qualification, I think
Speaker 6: that either people could tell each other, like hey, Dommy.
Speaker 6: There is a international yearly competition. That's what the Olympics
Speaker 6: of Chess is. Here's how to enter. See you there, yep.
Speaker 6: And I think that also people that really want to
Speaker 6: go hear lin Manuel Branda speak or show them archery
Speaker 6: or whatever. I bet he does some kind of lectures
Speaker 6: or events or workshops or something in some form. So
Speaker 6: maybe that means that you're going to like the Daughters
Speaker 6: of American whatever place in DC to go see him speak.
Speaker 4: Then yeah, he's He's not like JD. Salinger. He's around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, Vanessa, what about you?
Speaker 3: Honestly, I'm shocked that I'm going to say this because
Speaker 3: I thought it was kind of stupid at first, but
Speaker 3: I'm going to I'm going to sign change Scooby Doo
Speaker 3: Fruit Snacks back because to me, it feels like the
Speaker 3: most realistic and also, I don't know, I feel like,
Speaker 3: give these four these people are really like feel so passionate,
Speaker 3: passionately about it, and I don't necessarily feel as strongly
Speaker 3: about this in particular, but like I would love if
Speaker 3: they would bring squeeze Its back, even though I never
Speaker 3: it would drink them as an adult, So there's something
Speaker 3: nostalgic and sweet about it.
Speaker 1: So I want to bring back Scooby fruit snacks.
Speaker 6: All right, I can solve that problem for everyone. Go
Speaker 6: on eBay search for expired, out of date Scooby Doo
Speaker 6: snacks from whatever the cut off when they got rid
Speaker 6: of blue dye, carcinogen number five or whatever. Yep, And
Speaker 6: I'm sure that you can buy a palette or a
Speaker 6: caseload of those and gradually eat those whenever you need to, fair.
Speaker 3: Enough, Yeah, when you're like about to do a cleanse
Speaker 3: or something stick in your well. That was so much fun. Lance,
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for doing this. Now that we've
Speaker 3: decided which petitions we should uh we would sign, where
Speaker 3: can people find you? I mean, I know you're you
Speaker 3: always have so much stuff coming up, But what are
Speaker 3: some things that people can check out?
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's on Hulu right now. Is History of the
Speaker 6: World Part two, the mel Brooks series that I directed
Speaker 6: part of. We made a Jackass film called Jackass Forever
Speaker 6: that came out last year. Another thing for Netflix called
Speaker 6: Jackass four point five. That's like another feature length thing
Speaker 6: of things that didn't make it into the movie. Great
Speaker 6: Vanessa stars in the music video for George Harrison for
Speaker 6: My Sweet Lord, which is a great song, and I'm
Speaker 6: proud of how that that film.
Speaker 1: Turned out so great. It turned out so great.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and then coming up this summer, I made a
Speaker 6: feature film that Jonah kind of talked about. The bands
Speaker 6: under the reo of the Elephant six recording company Neutramil
Speaker 6: Hotel Olivia, Trauma Control, Apples and Stereo elf Power, a
Speaker 6: bunch of other great artists musicians primarily Athens, Georgia in
Speaker 6: the nineteen nineties. There's a feature film that'll be out
Speaker 6: in movie theaters. It got like national distribution coming out
Speaker 6: later this year. We can't they haven't announced like the
Speaker 6: date yet, but like people can look forward in theaters
Speaker 6: this year. I'm going to make a bunch of great
Speaker 6: stuff for a musician that I love from Chicago. Her
Speaker 6: name is Geo Margaret and I've made like a conceptual
Speaker 6: thing for every song on a new record that she
Speaker 6: just put out, the records called Romantic Piano, and those
Speaker 6: will be appearing in upcoming months. And yeah, I just
Speaker 6: love making things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, clearly.
Speaker 3: And You've made so many incredible things and people got
Speaker 3: to check them out.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Lance.
Speaker 1: This has been so much fun.
Speaker 3: Thanks to everyone for listening, and if you enjoyed this,
Speaker 3: please subscribe to the podcast and keep an eye out
Speaker 3: for next week's episode of How Did We Get Weird,
Speaker 3: where we will discuss more stories from our childhood and
Speaker 3: cultural touchstones like educational and odd shows.
Speaker 1: That we watched in school. Thank you so much, Lance.
Speaker 2: It was so much fun.
Speaker 5: All right, Take care everybody, You too,