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leverage-commentary · 2 years ago

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Part One of: Leverage Season 3, Episode 14, The Ho Ho Ho Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Hi friends! So quick mod note here. The Google Doc for this transcript was 51 pages long, and when I tried to paste this over, Tumblr told be that there can only be 1000 'blocks' in a post? Which I'm assuming means lines/each person speaking here. So I am splitting it into two posts. Here are the first 25 pages of the transcript; I will post the second half in just a sec.

Marc: Hi, I'm Marc Roskin, director of this episode.

John Rogers: I'm John, executive producer.

Michael: Michael Colton, co-writer of this episode.

John Aboud: Aboud, co-writer and talented half of this episode.

Michael: Woah.

Chris: Chris Downey, executive producer of this episode, The Ho Ho Ho Job.

John: Our first holiday job, cause it’s the first time we aired in December around Christmas. Colton and Aboud, preferably Aboud-

[Laughter]

Michael: He was sorta the primary writer of this-

John: Why don't you tell us how-

Michael: I was like, shotgun.

John: Why don’t you tell us what really started this episode.

Aboud: The origin of the episode-

Michael: You said, “Can we find the most cold hearted writers and see if we can warm their hearts by making them write a Christmas episode?”

John: It was, it was a way to make you personally transform.

Michael: Yeah.

Aboud: Failed utterly.

John: For the show.

Aboud: Failed utterly.

Michael: If we can get a Jewish writer and a Jewish director-

[Laughter]

Michael: To make a Christmas episode.

Aboud: To bring Christmas to life.

John: There you go.

Michael: What did we start with? It was-

Aboud: We started with the idea of Christmas Eve, what is a job that they could pull on Christmas Eve. And that led to-

Michael: Well who is-

Aboud: The mall.

Michael: Who is-

Aboud: Who is your bad guy.

John: Yeah.

Michael: Started with- we wanted to have Santa be the client.

John: Yes.

Aboud: Yeah.

John: That's right. And then all the attitude sorta came out of that. And then the other two things were, we were hacking around with the bad guy once you guys had come up with the crime, and then it was a chance to bring back Wil Wheaton's character Chaos.

Aboud: Absolutely.

John: Because the idea of Wil Wheaton as the Grinch Who Stole Christmas made me laugh for maybe seven minutes straight.

[Laughter]

John: And then of course Eliot in a Santa suit.

Michael: Yes.

John: This is a great take by the way. That's a lovely- and that's Mark Lewis as Santa.

Marc: That's Mark Lewis, famed storyteller of the pacific northwest.

[Laughter]

Chris: Would you show rack on tour?

Aboud: Troubadour!

Marc: Rack on tour.

Aboud: Troubadour.

Marc: Yes, he's actually wearing the beard and wig from Evan Almighty.

[Laughter]

John: Really?

Chris: Wow.

John: I did not know that.

Aboud: Oh god!

Marc: Yes, because he had a beard but Dean said it wasn't-

Chris: That is a pop up video worthy effect.

Marc: Wasn't big enough, so we flew in the beard and wig!

Michael: And this episode cost about as much.

John: Just like Forbes used to do. And thank you!

Marc: Exactly! Yes.

[Laughter]

John: Just for you. Yes, and the chance to make Nate be cranky and pissed off for Christmas was awesome.

Michael: We were worried actually that Christain was not going to be happy being in a Santa suit the whole time, but he was kinda giddy on the set. He was actually like “I get to wear a Santa suit!” He was excited.

Aboud: Loves it.

John: He loves this stuff.

Chris: The Santa fight, I mean think they were sort of key elements of this.

Aboud: Spoiler warning! Spoiler warning!

[Laughter]

John: They usually watch it first, John, and then come back later.

Aboud: Oh is that how this works?

John: Yes, exactly.

Aboud: Gotcha.

John: And great fellow Canadian Dave Foley, Kids in the Hall.

Michael: Yes.

Aboud: There he is.

John: Being unctuous which is really one of his great skills is unctuosity. Unctuosity-?

Aboud: We love- one of the early appeals of the story was having his character be redeemed.

John: Yes.

Aboud: In a kind of Scrooge type of way.

Michael: Yeah well we even called him-

Aboud: Eben Dooley.

Michael: Eben, there was one reference to Ebenezer.

Chris: There was a fair amount of debate about it, and it was- I think the challenging part was having it- was earning it early enough in the episode so that we have room for the heist.

Aboud: Yeah, right, right.

John: Exactly. It's tough to do that double turn with the bad guy, because we are 42 minutes and 30 seconds.

Chris: Yeah.

John: But this one is plotted really tightly. This one really flies.

Michael: It's very well written, it’s extremely well written.

[Laughter]

Aboud: Pretty well.

Michael: It's probably the best written-

Aboud: Half of it! Half of it!

John: Plotting is from Chris and I.

Aboud: Yeah, half of it.

John: You just fill in like mad libs, the script really.

[Laughter]

Marc: This is the second party we've had in McRory's. One was a celebration for the death of the owner, his funeral.

John: Yeah [laughs] and the other is a drunk unemployed Santa Claus.

Marc: John McRory's, yes. And then a drunk and unemployed Santa Claus.

[Laughter]

John: What were the challenges in directing this particular one, Marc?

Marc: The challenge was directing Christmas in the summer.

Michael: Christmas in July?

Chris: Yeah.

Aboud: July.

Marc: Christmas in July. So I threw the idea to Colton and Aboud, the idea that let's not try and hide it. Let's address it, that Parkers bummed because there is no snow.

John: Nice.

Marc: And we just address that in dialogue, so when you see exteriors with no snow it wasn’t something we'd have to try and cheat with snow blankets, or-

Michael: Which then led to the ending, which turned out to be sort of the best ending we could have.

Marc: Yeah it's fantastic.

John: Yeah, really sweet. And then the mall was tough.

Marc: The mall was tough.

John: Cause it’s a real mall.

Marc: It is a real mall that was open and-

Michael: Jansen Supercenter.

Marc: Yeah, Jansen Supercenter; they were very helpful.

Aboud: Jansen Beach.

Michael: Jansen Beach. Named for the Jansen Swimwear Company.

Chris: Wow.

Aboud: Good tribute.

Marc: We were able to use some of the storefronts and you'll see that Becca, our production designer, built about four or five different storefronts as well.

Chris: Now can I just say something-

Aboud: Oh wait Regency Square Mall, I should add.

Chris: Oh Regency Square Mall.

Aboud: Regency Square Mall. Becca Molino the production designer-

Marc: And there's a lovely family!

Aboud: Look at that! Who’s that!

Michael: Lovely family, horrible actor!

Marc: That’s the director right there! His hand on an elf!

[Laughter]

Marc: My kids! My wife!

Michael: Do they get residuals?

John: Wait, that's not the woman I see in Portland all the time.

[Laughter and Jeers]

Aboud: Woah, wait a minute.

John: Now I'm confused!

Chris: That's the Portland wife!

John: Oh, the Portland wife, alright.

Chris: Yes.

Marc: And our evil Santa is Charlie Brewer, famed stunt coordinator, who was the stunt coordinator on our pilot, and on season-

John: On season one, yeah.

Marc: Season one.

Chris: No, I was gonna say one of the things that amused me the most [laughs] about this episode was we had to come up with fake mall stores.

Aboud: Yes.

Michael: That was fun, yeah.

Chris: I think you guys made a page of fake mall stores.

[Laughter]

Chris: Do you remember any of them?

Aboud: There was an email that like- from Carrie Glover, one of our producers, who said we need names for clearance. This email- Mike was- you were busy with something with family so you said you know, we gotta generate this-

Michael: I didn't wanna do it.

Aboud: Didn't wanna do it. We gotta generate some names. I said, “OK, no problem.” I think twenty minutes later I sent you fifty-nine names.

[Laughter]

Michael: They were great!

[Laughter]

Michael: The worst puns.

Aboud: And you just, you wrote back “Jesus, you had fun with this.”

[Laughter]

Chris: That's an assignment you don't wanna give to a writer.

[Laughter]

Marc: What was the name of the one- not linens and things but the other one-

Chris: A recipe for disaster.

Aboud: Towels and Such.

John: What's amazing is how many of them didn't clear.

[Laughter]

John: It’s like hackiest possible names, going with stores like- nope it’s a real store, nope it’s a real store.

Aboud: All real.

Michael: Oh yeah, there was a frame shop that had some pun and it turns out in Portland-

Chris: I've Been Framed.

[Laughter]

Aboud: I’ve Been Framed, can't use it. But I was just gonna add that Becca Molino, the production designer and I, grew up moments from each other, and about fifteen minutes from the Regency Square Mall.

Chris: Ohh.

Aboud: In Richmond, Virginia.

John: So that was a little shoutout.

Aboud: We had a bit of a chuckle over that.

John: [Sarcastically] Tough scene for Christian, always tough. I don't know how he motivates himself through these scenes.

Chris: He soldiers through.

Marc: Yeah it’s very difficult.

John: Yeah, he does, he's a brave man. And again a real challenge to figure out different moveable objects that we can cram Beth Riesgraf into.

[Laughter]

John: We've put her in a lot of things over the course of three years of the show.

Aboud: What other means of conveyance can she hide herself in?

Chris: Now I'm pretty sure that I had a poster on my wall of Cheryl Ladd in this outfit?

[Laughter]

Michael: I like it! It's almost like Sergeant Pepper.

Chris: I may be dating myself here, but she kinda had hair blown back.

[Laughter]

John: Nice.

Michael: You had a poster of Mae West, didn’t you?

[Laughter]

Aboud: You know, on a plot level, this is a very heavy Nate and Eliot episode. They do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of stopping our bad guy. But spiritually this is a Parker episode.

John: Yes.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Yeah, she's carrying the emotional weight pretty much all the way through.

Aboud: Very much so.

Michael: The childlike innocence who believes in Santa, and in God, really.

[Laughter]

John: Really?

Michael: What? Did I say that?

Aboud: You just said that.

John: I didn't really get that. This is also interesting. It's amazing the stuff that we come up with in research. There are these mall consultants, these people go through and do consulting on malls on flows, on security, and it's an enormous amount of research we wind up blowing on a character that we never actually repeat in the entire episode.

Aboud: Right, right.

Michael: Well we named him Anton Underhill because there's a shopping consultant named Pacco Underhill?

Aboud: Pacco Underhill.

Michael: But several people said “Hey, I love that reference to Fletch.”

[Laughter]

John: Oh?

Michael: Yeah, so I said sure, yes, it's a Fletch reference.

Aboud: Fletch reference, why not.

Marc: Who came up with Tela Ricos?

Michael: I think that's like the name of a-

Marc: Check out the sale at Tela Ricos.

Michael: Some comedy writer.

Aboud: He’s a writer friend of ours.

Michael: It sounds like some place that would sell, like, denim jackets.

John: Yeah, it's a comedy word.

Chris: That’s the Nate cranky seat. When he's cranky in a briefing, that's where you put him.

John: That's where he winds up.

Marc: And he wanted to be eating soup!

Aboud: He was very specific.

Michael: And reading the New York Times book review.

Aboud: Yeah.

John: It's very grown up, that's the thing.

Michael: Yeah.

Aboud: He's the dad!

John: Oh, the great bit, this- the fact the ornaments were valuable objects, I really love this bit. Where did we- cause we were talking about Sophie had her little hideaway, and the idea that Sophie keeps them for the future and Parker just takes things she likes.

Aboud: Yes.

John: And her entire- the thing we introduced in episode five, with Richard Chamberlain, the big warehouse of stuff.

Aboud: Yes.

John: There's probably 20 million dollars worth of crap in that warehouse.

Aboud: Right.

John: Just lying around like paper weights.

Aboud: It's a fun, organic way of showing their different approaches to what they do.

John: Yeah.

Michael: I was actually surprised we got in the line ‘Happy Birthday, Jesus,’ I just thought you couldn't mention Jesus.

John: You absolutely can.

Chris: No, you can't exclaim it as a-

Aboud: Can't use it in vain.

Michael: You can't say, “God Damn and Happy Birthday Jesus”?

Aboud: Oh that just got censored.

Michael: Ohhh god damn it.

John: No, I know-

Michael: Oh, again!

John: I know you had a hard time, we passed out the liberal media rules for-

Aboud: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John: For Christainity, but you gotta look at the specific clauses. It's interesting, everyone- you know the great phrase ‘idiot ball��? Everyone passes the cranky ball in this episode; everyone’s got a little Christmas crank going all the way through.

Chris: Yeah.

Aboud: Just like real life.

[Laughter]

Michael: Just like the movie Christmas with the Kranks.

John: That is an angry eating of soup.

Chris: He really did.

Aboud: He's grinding it.

[Laughter]

John: They're almost- Christain almost loses it there, there's really-

Aboud: Yeah.

Marc: Yes.

John: Beth can manage to get everyone to laugh, and actually having shot a bunch of them late night, Beth and Christain are the worst combination. There- he gets her more often than not. And then a crying baby.

Michael: It took a while to get here.

Marc: Crying baby!

John: What did we do to the baby to make it cry? Did we poke it?

Marc: Baby wouldn't cry in rehearsal, baby wouldn't cry in rehearsal, baby wouldn’t cry. Finally I had mom walk away from baby during the shot.

Chris: Ohhh.

John: Wow, nice.

Aboud: Does it every time.

John: Nice, that's actually a psychological experiment.

Chris: I mean, you didn't have to backhand her; I mean, that was the next step.

Aboud: Yeah.

John: For those of you for child welfare in Portland the number is 173-

[Laughter]

Michael: This kid was great.

Marc: This kid was good.

John: This kid was really great. It's tough, you know what, Portland child actor, right? Portland actor.

Aboud: Yeah, yeah.

Michael: No, no, no Portland- that guy’s 34!

John: Really?

[Laughter]

John: Wow!

Chris: He's got that disease.

Michael: That's not a child actor.

Chris: Oh that's great, that works really well.

Marc: I haven't seen Scott Baio in a long time.

[Laughter]

Aboud: Casting him was fun because you realize- now this kid, not twerpy enough. This kid, not twerpy enough. Oh this guy’s a jerk.

Marc: Oh, yeah.

Aboud: This is the one.

John: Yeah, in the season finale when we have a little boy point and scream, it was very weird in casting to just keep telling moms: “Have your kid point at me and scream.”

Chris: Yeah.

John: Scream louder!

[Laughter]

John: Mean it!

Michael: I like Beth's elf voice in this, that was her improvisation.

Marc: Yeah, respect the suit.

[Laughter]

John: And Lucille 2.0.

Chris: Yeah. That was another thing that came in, his love of Lucille. Wasn’t that something that sort of evolved during the filming?

Aboud: Well, it-

Chris: It became a character, right?

Aboud: It built through the season actually, yeah.

John: Yeah, because what was great was when we shot the season finale, the way he dug in on Lucille the van, the first one-

Chris: Yes, that's right.

John: Was really unexpected, because he really gave the van death scene a true pathos.

Aboud: Right.

John: And then of course that created a little improv where when they were getting ready to blow up the van, Beth kissed it.

Chris: Yeah.

Aboud: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

John: And so the idea that it was like his dog that you are affectionate to, yeah it really turns into something big.

Marc: I don't know, I mean, I've seen Gina in lots of dresses and she's a knockout in everything, but there was something about her in this limo driver suit and tie.

Michael: I think that says something about you.

[Laughter]

Aboud: It's the British thing.

Chris: The Cato

Marc: The Cato, nine and half weeks, I don't know what that was.

John: This is very Miranda Zero that's what this was.

Chris: You can leave your hat on, right?

John: It's very Miranda Zero. And then the EM gun which shows up, which was planted by Albert Kim.

Aboud: In Boost.

John: Reinforced here and then pays off mighty in the season finale.

Michael: Does he get prop payments?

John: He does not get prop payments.

Chris: No, you don’t get that.

John: No, like all writers, we ruthlessly steal his intellectual property and then use it to our own whim.

Aboud: Next negotiation.

John: Yeah, but he's on another show he's on Nikita with- so he's got girls in short shirts with EM guns, so he's doing fine.

Aboud: He's fine.

John: Yes, exactly. And we trap another man to suffocate slowly to death in a limo.

[Laughter]

John: Really, I feel- we really do horrible things.

Aboud: The chauffeur- I mean obviously his audio is cut, but he was saying things obviously during the shooting and he sounded so genuinely sad to be locked in the car, he was crushed that he couldn't get out of his car.

John: And what is that-

Michael: That's good acting.

John: What is that character's thing as he's looking and seeing the sexy British chick pick up his client, is he like “I guess this is some sort of role play thing, I don't know.” I was like where is-

[Laughter]

John: I always am fascinated by these secondary characters' internal monologue.

Aboud: Right, right.

John: Tough shot, what- did we do trays here?

Marc: This was all greenscreen.

John: Okay.

Marc: This was shot in the-

Chris: Oh, looks great.

Aboud: Parking lot.

Marc: Parking lot, outside the stage with the green screen and plate shots.

John: Driving is a pain in the ass.

Marc: We had to make all the plate shots- we turned all of the green, brown.

John: What?

Marc: So it didn't look like green trees.

John: Oh alright. Oh, of course, ‘cause it's winter.

Aboud: Wintertime.

Marc: Cause it's winter.

John: There you go.

Marc: Christmas in summer time.

John: And how did we do the crash here?

Marc: Um, the crash we did-

Aboud: With difficulty.

[Laughter]

Marc: Yes, with difficulty.

John: I always ask when I know something’s gone wrong, it gives the people listening to the DVDs something to hear other than me drinking.

Marc: Done practically, and we did it outside the exterior of the sanitation plant while we were underground filming, Charlie Brewer and company crash the car.

Aboud: Took multiple attempts, and the car’s getting more and more bent.

[Laughter]

Aboud: But the barrier that it's supposed to move is not moving at all. [Laughs] It was deflecting off.

John: It’s amazingly hard- it's difficult to crash a car.

Aboud: You wouldn't think.

John: You know what, safety standards have really ruined the ability to have the good 1970s fireball that we’re so used to.

[Laughter]

Marc: That's right.

Chris: You know, I just watched The Blues Brothers last night, but you should mention it, they wreck cars.

John: The car rolls down the hill-

Chris: They know how to wreck a car back then.

Aboud: Tore that car up.

John: Also the sinister seatbelt unfastening button, available at the SkyMall magazine.

Aboud: Here we go.

Michael: Boom!

Aboud: Finally, yes.

Chris: There we go!

Marc: Yeah.

John: Finally. Isn't on that approach actually the bumper is already detached?

Aboud: You can tell, yeah.

Marc: Yeah, from take one.

John: And that's not Dave actually, that is-

Michael: That’s Mark McKinney, one of the other-

[Laughter]

John: We actually flew a different-

Michael: He's off in the- he’s double for Foley.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Michael: I have never seen Dean Devlin, our boss, so amused as on the set hearing Dave Foley tell the origin stories of Kids in the Hall's skits.

John: Yeah.

Michael: To Dean.

Aboud: Big fan, big fan.

Chris: He's a big fan.

John: Yeah, everyone’s a big fan, it's a great, really great great group of guys and the new thing is good. There's Charlie!

Marc: Charlie Brewer first acting lines.

John: No, no- is this his first acting gig?

Marc: Not the first, but with us, I mean.

John: Oh, yeah.

Marc: Normally Charlie’s, you know, coordinating stunts.

John: No, the vague hostility here. And this was fun actually, coming up with the- where was the origin of the credit card scam? Cause we’re coming into the crime story now.

Michael: Well it is real that in the last few years, like, the Salvation Army takes swipes.

Aboud: Yes.

Michael: Which just seems like a crime waiting to happen.

John: That's how you wind up thinking on the Leverage writing team. You get something that helps charity and you go: “How can this be corrupted?”

Aboud: I know, I know, exactly.

Chris: The great fake fact, and I know for those of us who- those of you listening to these before we talk about some of our fake facts, but my favorite fake fact is that on Christmas Eve, the traffic in credit cards over the line is so heavy that they can’t keep track of fake transactions.

Aboud: They just let everything go through, in the logic of the episode, they just let the transactions go through because the volume is so high, they can’t, you know, flag everything that's suspicious.

Chris: Right.

Michael: That's our logic, but it sounds credible.

Aboud: That's our logic.

Chris: That's our logic, but sounds utterly convincing, and makes-

Michael: Well you would think on Christmas Eve.

Aboud: With all the last minute transitions.

John: That's a legend.

Michael: No, it's a very well written show.

[Laughter]

Michael: No holes.

John: No holes, it's seamless.

Michael: And it makes you think.

John: And, by the way, it does speak to the casual cruelty with which we treat the characters in this world, that this entire- that we have put a man in a car crash, given him head trauma, and now we’re going to heavily medicate him.

Aboud: We’re gonna dope him!

Marc: With morphine.

Michael: And now we’re-

Chris: No, no, he's medicating himself!

John: No, no, later on.

Aboud: True.

Marc: Later on.

Aboud: She pushes the button later.

Michael: We gaslight him.

Chris: Oh that’s true.

John: We gaslight him with the fake Santa. It's not as bad as in the finale, we actually take the one honest man in a small European country and corrupt him to the point where he can be evil enough to become president.

Marc: Even Christain dressed as Santa gets to hit on extras.

[Laughter]

Marc: Unbelievable.

John: Unbelievable.

Aboud: Yup, yup.

Michael: I wanna point out there's a hat shop in the background that gave discounted hats to the entire cast and crew.

John: Oh that’s nice, that’s very nice.

Michael: Marc Roskin in fedora. The Jewish Sinatra.

[Laughter]

Marc: There you go.

John: Now this RFID thing is cool, we’d done a lot of research on RFIDs because, you know, right this year we were working on this stuff, that guy had built that great device where he could drive around the city and pick up peoples passport information.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Off the RFID in their passport just in his car, and then the latest big hacking conference, a guy built a device he could bring up on stage with him and read all of the RFID in the audience.

Aboud: Right, right.

John: So yeah, most people have no idea there's a web of invisible information. Bruce Sterling calls them spines.

Michael: You're basically telling people not to give money to charities.

John: Absolutely do not give money to charities, you'll be brutally ripped off.

[Laughter]

John: No, no.

Aboud: Well the thing about the RFID is like, it's in your debit card now.

John: Yeah.

Aboud: You had no say in the matter, they didn't ask you if you wanted it, you have it.

John: And that's why you should give out- we should go back to the gold standard and people should repeal the seventeenth amendment.

[Laughter]

Chris: Oh back to this!

Michael: Only took 15 minutes to get to the gold standard.

Aboud: Mark it! Mark the time.

John: [Sarcastically] Get your dry beef stroganoff and get a shack and move into the shack!

Chris: Ohhh.

Aboud: Welcome to the survivalist podcast.

[Laughter]

John: [Sarcastically] Obviously Santa Claus and Christmas are a plot to deprive you and get information about you for the corporation that will rule the world.

[Laughter]

John: This is a great- this is a four-hander. this is always-

Aboud: Yeah, a challenge.

John: This is one of the things we discovered during the course of the season, it's always easier to go to a four-hander cause you do two and two. The five handers - just that one extra human being the-

Marc: One extra is just-

John: Brutal bit of coverage.

Marc: So this is fun part of the script where, you know, the plot is-

Aboud: Oh they're all fun parts.

Marc: The plot is changing.

Michael: Yes!

John: This is the bit where we realize it's a totally different con. I mean this is- it's a standard thing in every episode where the episode turns into a different episode, or a different crime or a different con right in the middle of the second or third act.

Aboud: Right.

Michael: The bigger than we thought.

Aboud: Bigger than we thought moment.

John: Bigger than we thought, yeah. Is that- there you go.

Aboud: And she doses him.

John: And Gina's kind of really sexily, brutally, coldly ruthless as she fills this man with morphine.

Aboud: There is a dominatrix vibe at work here.

John: No kidding.

Chris: And you know-

John: This is great.

Michael: I love this, the random Christmas footage we have on the screen, it's just a sleigh going across.

[Laughter]

Michael: That's all it is!

Aboud: There it is!

Chris: That’s good! I didn't even notice that till now.

John: Why?

Aboud: He’s apparently watching some Rankin/Bass specials.

Marc: Rubbery Robby!

Michael: Rubbery Robby.

John: There you go. How long did it take to come up with that toy that would clear?

Michael: Not to be be confused with Stretch Armstrong.

John: No, legally not to be confused with Stretch Armstrong.

Aboud: No, no.

John: Stretch Armstrong is perfectly safe while Rubbery Robby is filled with toxins.

Michael: That was John's nickname in high school.

Aboud: Rubbery Robby.

John: Try saying that too many times. Yeah this is a great- we don't usually give guest stars this big a scene, but you know Mark and Dave Foley were pretty great.

Michael: Well, troubadours.

Aboud: They did it.

Marc: They were fantastic.

John: Yes, exactly.

Chris: And again, you're playing off the idea that Santa knows when you've been naughty, I mean-

John: Yeah.

Chris: You know, it doesn't take that much morphine for you to buy into this.

John: And we relentlessly dump it into him.

[Laughter]

Aboud: Oh, yeah.

John: The entire city, dead.

Aboud: High pressure [unintelligible] morphine.

John: There are world war one soldiers who look more together than he does right now.

[Laughter]

John: There are dudes off Flanders Field who don't have that much morphine in them. Make the call!

Aboud: Make the call.

Michael: Make the call, he’s-

John: We haven't even introduced Wil yet, this is insane!

Michael: Right now look, he gets the phone and he says-

John: It's an incredibly dense-

Marc: He wants to talk to you!

John: He's calling Woodstock, Apollo Storm has picked up and then Jonathan Coltan’s on stage.

Aboud: Jonathan Coltan, not to be confused with this Colton.

Michael: Yes, very different. He's got a u.

John: And a following.

Michael: Ohh!

[Laughter]

All: Ohh!

Michael: Oh.

John: He wants to talk to you, that's great. It was- there was a nice turn here by the way guys, he really-

Marc: Yeah, he wants to talk to Sophie Deveraux.

John: You really plotted the hell out of this. And the-

Chris: Here's our big reveal, there we go!

John: The reveal.

Marc: That guy.

#Leverage #Leverage TNT #Leverage Audio Commentary Transcripts #Audio Commentary #Transcripts #Parker #Alec Hardison #Elliot Spencer #Nate Ford #Sophie Devereaux #Season 3 #Episode 14 #Season 3 Episode 14 #The Ho Ho Ho Job

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year ago

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This day in history

Tonight (October 2), I'm in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab. On October 7–8, I'm in Milan to keynote Wired Nextfest.

#15yrsago Will Rogers talks to the bankers: keynote roast from 1924 https://ia904504.us.archive.org/24/items/WillRogersTalksToTheBankers/WILLROGERSTALKSTOTHEBANKERS_WillRogers_VICTOR_45374-A.mp3

#15yrsago Liar’s Poker: a timely moment to revisit 20-year-old memoir of the rise and fall of a financial bubble https://memex.craphound.com/2008/10/03/liars-poker-a-timely-moment-to-revisit-20-year-old-memoir-of-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-financial-bubble/

#10yrsago Fortunately the Milk: Gaiman’s kid-novel is a tribute to fatherly trolling https://memex.craphound.com/2013/10/03/fortunately-the-milk-gaimans-kid-novel-is-a-tribute-to-fatherly-trolling/

#10yrsago Unsealed Lavabit docs show that Feds demanded SSL keys https://www.wired.com/2013/10/lavabit-unsealed/

#10yrsago EFF: the NSA has endangered us all by sabotaging security https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/nsa-making-us-less-safe

#10yrsago Disney World extends hours for part timers so they get health-care https://archive.thinkprogress.org/under-obamacare-disney-world-will-promote-its-part-time-workers-to-full-time-status-eefa61bd314b/

#10yrsago W3C green-lights adding DRM to the Web’s standards, says it’s OK for your browser to say “I can’t let you do that, Dave” https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/lowering-your-standards

#5yrsago During the Kavanaugh hearings, House Republicans voted in a $3.1 trillion tax cut for the rich https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/28/house-passes-gop-bill-to-make-new-tax-cuts-permanent.html

#5yrsago Now on the Internet Archive: Brett Kavanaugh’s 1983 Georgetown Prep yearbook https://archive.org/details/cupola-1983/mode/2up

#5yrsago Sex workers pioneered the internet, and now the internet has rejected them https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvazy7/sex-workers-pioneered-the-early-internet

#5yrsago Ontario businesses want trumpy Doug Ford to kill leave for domestic abuse survivors, allow mandatory high heeled shoes https://web.archive.org/web/20190524175216/https://north99.org/2018/10/01/ontario-business-lobby-calls-additional-paid-domestic-abuse-leave-other-rules-harmful-to-business-begs-ford-to-repeal-it/

#1yrago An antitrust murder whodunnit: I accuse Judge Bork with the Powell Memo in the smoke-filled room https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/03/powell-memo/#means-motive-opportunity

#pluralistic

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daryfromthefuture · 2 years ago

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I posted 277 times in 2022

That's 123 more posts than 2021!

132 posts created (48%)

145 posts reblogged (52%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@fiddlstyx

@daryfromthefuture

@jayisnotdrawing

@bg-sparrow

@odddelorean

I tagged 258 of my posts in 2022

Only 7% of my posts had no tags

#back to the future - 233 posts

#bttf - 223 posts

#marty mcfly - 147 posts

#doc brown - 125 posts

#bttf fic - 73 posts

#bttf fanart - 59 posts

#until i get home - 25 posts

#doc and marty - 23 posts

#bttf 3 - 21 posts

#bttf cowboyvember - 18 posts

Longest Tag: 125 characters

#maybe its too much and ppl may see it as romance? its not too much they are family and if you see it as romance to to therapy

My Top Posts in 2022:

happy bttf day, tumblr!

64 notes - Posted October 21, 2022

Dary's big essay on "Back To The Future: The Musical"

I finally saw this show on Thursday! And obviously I want to share all my thoughts :D

(the stage already looks awesome change my mind)

Under a cut because spoilers ahead

As soon as Olly Dobson showed up on stage, it felt so real. Bttf the musical live. How awesome in that? He's an amazing Marty McFly.

The first song, "It's only a matter of time", is definitely one of my favorites. It's partly based on the bttf main theme! And I love that.

Lovelovelove that Jennifer gets more appreciation in this show. Her duet with Marty? Amazing. The fact that she played around with his hair to comfort him after his band got rejected? Yes. That Marty took pics of her during the song? YES.

The next song was "Hello - is anybody home?". While it's beginning sounds more darker (still replaying those chords in my head *shiver*, awesome music) it gets lighter as every family member sings and Dave asks everyone if "they want fries with that". It's a longer song in comparison to the others but also one of my faves! Clearly expresses what Marty feels about his home life.

Roger Bart as Doc is a vibe.

The way Marty stays on side being like "what the fuck is going on here" while Doc dances and sings about the time machine and how "it works!" is one if the best things about this musical

They cut out the Libyans and had Doc die of radiation poisoning after his suit ripped. On his ass.

Marty aka the confused kid in 1955 (bonus: everyone around him is singing???)

The Biff understudy was so good honestly

Goldie Wilson also has a bit of a bigger role - he's got an entire song for himself which is also pretty long and he's completely in the center for a while

George has his own song! "My Myopia". Nice one, but rather not in my favorites. He actually sings this while spying on Lorraine

"Pretty Baby" is a good song but the level of awkwardness. Lorraine, darling, you've literally just met this dude for the first time ever, lay off him. The tension in the audience was fitting

Doc: No, Mr. McDonald, sorry, but I cannot make an investment in Scottish hamburgers. (or something like that)

Doc's FACE as Marty tells him the flux capacitor story- afjafbdkaf

Marty: Doc, you've never let me down in the past! Doc: You mean in the future. Marty: *visible confusion*...riiiight.

The song "future boy" <333

George: "I'm your dentist"

Marty, Biff and the fight on top of the school lockers. Just this scene. Our boy took some sort of light tube and played star wars ("Biff, I am your father." "What?" "Ah, nevermind") and kicked Biff in the ass. Too bad this only impressed Lorraine more.

"21st century" is kinda neat but...kinda unnecessary? I loved Doc going crazy though. Guy felt as if he was on top of the world and he deserves that much <3

Lorraine (to Marty): "Pick me up at seven and take me to heaven~" Doc: *CHOKE*

Idk where exactly that was but this was one of my favorite moments of this whole show. So basically Marty said "this is heavy" and Doc replied with "There's that word again, heavy. Why are things so heavy in the future, is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull?" And Marty went "wait, what?" Then there was this: Doc: "wait, what?" Marty: "wait, what?" Doc: "wait, what?" Marty: "...wait, what?" Doc: "wait, what?" Marty:... :/ This was especially funny bc Roger spoke louder each time, pulling Marty's leg that way

George and his awkward but adorable dancing

"FOR THE DREAMERS". THIS SONG. I WAS IN TEARS. AW. ALL THE FEELS <3333 The moment Marty went up to Doc, touched his shoulders from behind and said "But I know who you are, Doc. And this dream of yours, it will come true, I know it will. Because I really do believe in you" *sobs* aaahhhhh

Doc hiring Goldie Wilson to attach the cable to the clock tower bc our science boy is afraid of heights ��

The whole enchantment under the sea dance was done so well?? Like...the decoration, the atmosphere, the set up? Many kudos for this!!

See the full post

67 notes - Posted March 8, 2022

For y'all playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I made some bttf designs that I wanna share for you to use!

See the full post

78 notes - Posted August 11, 2022

bucket hat Marty >>>

Also yes I did it I drew my idiots in the cat game

165 notes - Posted July 22, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I got the ultimate incorrect quote y'all

377 notes - Posted June 15, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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starman-waiting-in-the-sky07 · 25 days ago

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donezo

Mr. Game And Watch Donkey Kong Diddy Kong Dixie Kong Cranky Kong King K. Rool Little Mac Balloon Fighter R.O.B Ice Climbers Mario Luigi Wario Waluigi Yoshi Birdo Princess Peach Princess Daisy Toad Koopa Bowser Jr. Bowser Paper Mario Vivian Dimentio Dr. Mario Fawful Cackletta Mallow Geno Link Young Link Princess Zelda Mipha Navi Midna Tingle Morshu Skullkid Ganondorf Samus Aran Dark Samus Ridley Mother Brain Pit Dark Pit Palutena Viridi Marth Roy Byleth Captain Falcon Kirby Bandana Dee Gooey King Dedede Meta Knight Magalor Marx Fox McCloud Falco Lombardi Wolf Ness Jeff Lucas Porky Giygas Ash Pikachu Brock Misty Cynthia Jigglypuff Greninja Incineroar Hitmontop Charizard Mewtwo Team Rocket Galeem Master Hand Crazy Hand Tabuu Villager Tom Nook Isabelle Olimar Louie Ashley Chibi-Robo Mii Wii Fit Trainer Shulk Pyra And Mythra Inkling Min-Min Noob Bacon Hair Quincy Dart Monkey Red Bloon M.O.A.B Red Chuck Crazy Dave Peashooter Sunflower Conehead Dr. Zomboss Barbarian King Archer Queen Barbarian Wall Breaker Builder Royale King Mega Knight Shelly El Primo Crow Imposter Will Smith Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson LeBron James Jack Black RuPaul Hirohiko Araki Shigeru Miyamoto Toby Fox Gordon Ramsey Joe Sparrow Charles Darwin Albert Einstien Nikola Tesla Freddie Mercury Weezer David Bowie Micheal Jackson "Weird Al" Yankovic Ludwig Van Beethoven Taylor Swift Hbomberguy DougDoug Markiplier Matpat Jaiden Animations DougDoug Dream Donald Trump Barack Obama Abraham Lincoln Benjamin Franklin Karl Marx Bernie Sanders You Your Mother God Satan Jesus Judas Noah Adam And Eve Buddha Zeus Poseidon Hades Hercules Medusa Kappa The Grim Reaper Headless Horseman Santa Claus The Easter Bunny Sandman The Tooth Fairy Thor Odin Loki

Desperate Dan Cuddles And Dimples Dennis The Menace Gnasher Minnie The Minx Roger The Dodger Calamity James Les Pretend Billy Whizz Bananaman Baby Face Finlayson Walter The Softy Spiderman Captain America Iron Man The Hulk Deadpool Doc Ock Thanos Superman Batman Wonder Woman The Flash The Joker Garfield Jon Arbuckle Odie Nermal Captain Underpants George And Harold Ranger Rogue Sorceror Necromancer Beholder Mind Flayer Lich Olly Gaytor Mr. Monopoly Stonks Guy Big Chungus Pepe Wojack Chad Loss Jeff The Killer Slenderman Ilikemenderman Pepsi-Man Ronald McDonald The Kool Aid Man Emmet Brickowski Juno Ruler Of Everything Sonichu Jouta Kujo Jerma France Akinator

#hunger games simulator

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davedocrogers · 10 days ago

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Working on an End-Result

I’m working on an end-result.I am not there yet, but I am going to be.…Romans 12:1-2 KJVI beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and…

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#bible #changed #dave doc rogers #Doc Rogers Writes #empowered by God #empowered by the Holy Spirit #end result #God #Holy Spirit #image of God #jesus #Jesus Christ #not there yet #renewed #transformed #walk with God

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rejjisheart · 4 months ago

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July 27, 2024

haluuuu. mga bandang 7 something ata nakapag breakfast pa nga. haneep. hahahah naligooo. tapoos nagligpit. sinundo kami ni kuya dave. hinatid sa san juan. sila mama nagligpit ng gamit nila. ako naman nag ayos ng mga gamit sa sikand. yung mga gamit na inakyat from the baha ganeern. awooow. hahahaha. tapoos nag lunch. kasooo ang bagal nung net kaya naglakad nalang ako pa jollibee. bumili ng food namin nila mama at papa. dumating din pala yung docs from xdt. awooow. naglinis din ng ref. tapoos ayern nagka kuryente na din. wohooo. dumating din eventually sila tita jing, kuya, ecka. awooow. lezzgoo. hahahah. tapoos nautusan pa bumili ng diatabs kasi nagtatae si alba. anyways nanood pa kami ng pics and vids nung kasal tapos eventually umuwi din sila mama. ayeern. tuloy lang ayos. tapos nautusan ulit. naglakad pa n. domingo. bumili ng walis tingting, mop, dust pan, brush ng semento. hinanap ganern peroo sa palengke ko nakita lahat except yung mop. actually may mop sa palengke peroo mahal. kaya binalikan ko yung nasa labas na mop. balik sa bahay. tapooos ayun nag dinner din kami yung chicken. nagligpit. balik din sa kwarto. bilang may kuryente naglaptop. nood konti.

July 28, 2024

nagising po tayooo. huhuhaha. ayeeern naging tagalinis fordat day. huhuhaha kala ko may mga natawag si tita na tutulong perooo ending kami lang naglinis. huhuhaha. anyways ayun nagpunas ng mga furnitures kasi yung iba maputik pa. tapoos punas punas ek ek. awooow. hahahaha. nag order nalang ng lunch. kenny rogers mga beshie. haha. chicken, sides. si koya umorder e. hahahaha. bumaba ako kasi umambon pagbalik ko si ecka na naghugas. hayy thank you po. hahahaha. anyways back to linis. tapooos tuloy ang linis. more more linis. nag akyat pa ng gamit sa kusina. nagpahelp kay kuya tapos niligpit lang sa sikand. nung natapos na, pahinga naman. awooow. hahaha. naglaptop. nood.

#rejjrndm

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scavengerhunt-toronto · 1 year ago

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Top Bars in The Annex, Toronto

Next to University of Toronto's St. George Campus, The Annex is a lively area that draws students to its casual eateries, indie bookshops, bars and cafes on Bloor Street West. It also has the iconic Lee's Palace rock concert venue, the quirky Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema and the Royal Ontario Museum art and natural history museum, one of the largest in North America. Leafy residential streets feature stately homes. Corporate activities Toronto

Madison Avenue Pub

It all started in 1983 when Dave and Isabel decided to open a small bar in the basement of 14 Madison Avenue Pub. Then over the years we grew, and grew some more; now we occupy 3 Victorian mansions with several bars and multiple patios, all interconnected. But the main thing that makes The Madison so incredible are our amazing customers who have been coming back to The Maddy for almost 40 years.

The Maddy has always been Toronto’s melting pot, where all can gather and become friends. We are known for our scenic patios, huge busy Victorian rooms, our live piano man, and a fresh selection of local beer and homemade pub grub. The atmosphere is casual and energized. Throw on a pair of jeans and come for a casual, unpretentious time at one of Toronto’s oldest pubs!

Crafty Coyote

Crafty Coyote Ale House is the latest addition to Toronto’s bustling beer scene, featuring a craft beer selection like no other in The Annex neighborhood with 30 rotating taps, three local casks, and sharing plates from our eclectic kitchen. We strive to offer the best of both local and international brews in a comfortable environment.

Crafty Coyote is open Monday – Sunday 10:30am to 2am. For both patio dine-in and take-out. Crafty Coyote Ale is also available for parties and corporate events.

Scavenger Hunt Anywhere provides team building activities Toronto. Team building activities are a great way to get your employees out of their comfort zone, and encourage them to work together in a fun and creative way. Scavenger Hunt Anywhere is a company that specializes in providing these types of activities, allowing you to choose from a variety of different options that will suit your needs.

Scavenger Hunt Anywhere 36 Toronto St. Suite 850 Toronto ON M5C 2C5 1-866-994-6832 https://www.scavengerhuntanywhere.com/ https://www.google.com/maps?cid=1210609155025681665

#team building activities toronto #scavenger hunt toronto

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greensparty · 2 years ago

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Movie Review - Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with Dave Letterman and Album Review - U2 “Songs of Surrender”

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today than with a double dose of my favorite Irish rock band ever U2! I’ve been a longtime fan since discovering their early music videos in the mid 80s. Then with The Joshua Tree, they blew up and took the world by storm: a personality band where singer Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. were bigger than the sum of their parts and brought their sound together with meaningful lyrics. I’ve been lucky enough to see this band on three separate occasions in 1997, 2001 and 2005. Through this blog, I’ve had a chance to do album reviews of the recent anniversary editions of The Joshua Tree in 2017, All That You Can’t Leave Behind in 2020, and Achtung Baby in 2021. This week I got the chance to do an album review of the band’s new album Songs of Surrender which is being released today as well as the new documentary film Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with Dave Letterman, which premieres on Disney+ today.

Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with Dave Letterman documentary

movie poster

There are a lot of things about this doc that got my attention when I heard about it: (1) director Morgan Neville is one of the great documentarians of the now. In addition to winning an Oscar for 20 Feet From Stardom, he directed one of my favorite docs of the last decade Won’t You Be My Neighbor? about Fred Rogers. But he has always had a passion for musicians as his subjects, notably the docs he did on Johnny Cash, Keith Richards and Yo-Yo Ma. (2) host David Letterman is a legend! His brand of comedy truly reinvented the talk show format when he hosted Late Night and Late Show, and now in his “retirement” his interview show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, he is always a reliable host / interviewer. (3) U2 is always an interesting doc subject. Phil Joanou’s concert doc U2 Rattle and Hum showed the band on tour in 1987 in North America and immersing themselves in American culture as they became the biggest band on the planet, Mark Pellington and Catherine Owens’ concert doc U2 3D showed the band on their 2006 tour in 3D, and Davis Guggenheim’s From the Sky Down was a deep dive into the making of Achtung Baby. All of which were different approaches to the same subject. Bottom line: I knew going into this movie that even if it was shot on a cell phone and was just Dave, Bono and Edge reading a phone book, it would have something interesting about it.

The Edge, David Letterman and Bono

The doc shows Letterman on his first visit to Dublin, Ireland. He goes around with U2′s Bono and The Edge (Adam and Larry were not available at the time). The band members show Dave around, perform songs, and talk with Dave about their band as well as Ireland’s history. There are a number of other interviewees including musician Glen Hansard.

What was interesting about this doc is that it is actually two different docs that dovetail into each other: Dave learning about Dublin from the locals and U2 talking about their history having formed their band in Dublin in the mid 70s when they were teens. As someone who hasn’t visited Dublin (other than a layover at their airport), I was very engaged because it showed how both the country and the band have had similar trajectories, as Dave pointed out the country is a little over 100 years old, the band is almost 50 years old. As we’ve seen on his Netflix show, Dave is actually a good interviewer. But the real star of this doc is the amazing performance footage. Highly impressive to see Bono and The Edge together with maybe a few other musicians playing their songs in an intimate environment. This is one of the best music / pop culture docs I expect to see this year (and it’s only March)!

Bono & The Edge... premieres on Disney+ today: https://disneyplusoriginals.disney.com/movie/bono-and-the-edge-a-sort-of-homecoming-with-dave-letterman

4.5 out of 5 stars

Songs of Surrender album

album cover

It’s been over 5 years since the last U2 studio album, Songs of Experience released in Dec. 2017. I say this because at over 5 years, this is one of the longest gaps between albums for U2, No Line on the Horizon released in Feb. 2009 and Songs of Innocence released in Sept. 2014 is slightly longer. I bring this up because it’s been a few years and now expectations are high. What they have released is something completely different than anything else in their discography: re-recording and re-interpreting 40 of their songs over the course of their career, Songs of Surrender.

U2 circa late 70s

Recorded during the pandemic, this album serves as a companion to Bono’s recent memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. The album is 40 songs, spread out over 4 CDs (there are other editions being released, but I got to review the 4-disc version) and it clocks in at almost 3 hours. The album reminds me a lot of MTV Unplugged live albums, where musicians would perform their songs acoustic and re-interpret them (maybe even change the lyrics if the mood struck). U2 never did an episode of MTV Unplugged, but as far back as the Zoo TV Tour, they would have a portion of their concerts where they performed acoustic. This is like the MTV Unplugged episode the band had up their sleeve and are just giving us now. These songs are stripped down to their core essence, no studio trickery or sound effect bells-and-whistles here. In most of these songs, it is very few instruments and Bono is singing as he is in 2023, “Stories for Boys” being the most obvious example of changing the song to who they are now. There’s even some cellos and violins on some tracks. This is a solid album from start to finish. Many U2 detractors have complained that there is too much reliance, especially from The Edge, on technology and guitar effects. This is the album that will shut up those detractors! The entire band is a well-oiled machine that all play off each other so well and this album is both a look back and a look at the here and now.

For info on Songs of Surrender: https://shop.u2.com/

4 out of 5 stars

#U2 #Bono #The Edge #david letterman #morgan neville #documentary #movie review #album review #adam clayton #larry mullen jr #music nerd #bono & the edge: a sort of homecoming with dave letterman

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daydreamerdrew · 2 years ago

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Comics read this past week:

Marvel Comics:

The Incredible Hulk (1968) #233-237 and The Defenders (1972) #69-73 and the Hulk stories in Hulk Comic (1979) #1-6 and #9-13

Within the main The Incredible Hulk book, I went from December 1978 to April 1979. All of those issues were written by Roger Stern and penciled by Sal Buscema. Issue #233 was inked by Chic Stone, issues #234 and #237 by Jack Abel, and issues #235-236 by Mike Esposito.

I enjoyed the story of these issues on their own, but they were a disappointment as the follow-up to the events of The Incredible Hulk #228-229 in which the best chance the Hulk’s ever had to live a peaceful life was ruined by the villain Moonstone goading the Hulk into attacking her and then playing innocent, which led to Doc Samson giving up on rehabilitating the Hulk, when he’d previously been making progress as his therapist. Issue #230 had been by a guest creative team and issues #231-232 were a crossover with Captain America (1968), so I had thought that it made some amount of sense for those stories to feel sort of discontinued from all that, but it seems to me now that they’re just not committing to having lasting consequences for any of that, which is disappointing because that storyline had been so impactful as a reader. The end of issue #229 was Doc Samson dramatically declaring that now he’ll likely help hunt the Hulk and then in these issues he’s inexplicably working towards helping the Hulk as he was before and also learns that Moonstone was a villain in an aside in a scene largely focused on something else.

The Defenders #69 was co-plotted by Jim Shooter and Jo Duffy and then scripted by Jo Duffy. Issues #70-73 were written by Ed Hannigan. Herb Trimpe penciled issues #69-70 and #72-73 and for issue #71 he just did the breakdowns and Jack Abel finished the art. Al Milgrom inked issue #69, Mike Esposito inked #70 and #73, Jack Abel inked #71, and Fred Kida inked #72.

It had been some time since I’d read any Defenders and I really enjoyed getting back into this book. I’m invested in the overall team and the relationships between the various members, the Hulk characterization within these issues was great, and I also really liked Herb Trimpe’s art here. I’m really hoping that this is the end of the Lunatick’s time in the book, his role as a villain has been going on forever and he’s not interesting enough to justify that. I’m specifically hoping for more stories about Valkyrie at college that don’t feature that guy and actually depict her taking classes. I am expecting the conclusion of Kyle being investigated for tax evasion to be coming up soon, but I’m not sure what’s going on with Patsy. And I’m not sure yet if Dr. Strange has returned to the team or if that was only a temporary thing for the specific plot of these issues. Clea Strange has expressed an interest in joining the team.

And Hulk Comic was a black-and-white weekly anthology British magazine that began publication in March 1979. Some of the content in it is original and some of it is reprints of previously published comics but extensively edited to condense them to 3 pages. I’m skipping the edited reprints and am just reading the original Hulk content. As supplementary material to the main Hulk comics, I actually like these stories better than I did The Rampaging Hulk (1977) and do The Hulk! (1978).

The original Hulk story in issue #1 of Hulk Comic was written by Steve Moore, the ones in #2-3 and #5-6 and #9-13 by Steve Parkhouse, and the one in #4 by Kelvin Gosnell. The original Hulk story in issue #1 was penciled by Dave Gibbons, the one in issue #2 by Steve Dillion, the one in issue #3 by John Bolton, and the ones in #4-6 and #9-13 by Paul Neary.

Fawcett Comics:

the Golden Arrow stories in Whiz Comics (1940) #43 and #52 and #56 and #58 and #69 and #83

The Golden Arrow stories in Whiz Comics #56 and #58 were written by Otto Binder, the writers for the rest of the stories are unknown, and all of these stories were drawn by Harry Parkhurst. This was my first time reading any Golden Arrow, who was a long-standing character in Whiz Comics that actually appeared for the first time in the same issue that Captain Marvel did, Whiz Comics #2. Golden Arrow was a western character that fought with golden arrows and rode a white stallion named White Wind. Some of these stories here looked a lot like what I’ve read of Harry Parkhurst’s Hopalong Cassidy stories, another western Fawcett character, and a few of them actually looked a lot like his work in Champion Comics and Champ Comics which was a welcome surprise.

I selected these issues to read, and the Hopalong Cassidy stories I read last week, by checking what Harry Parkhurst had been credited with on the DC wiki website. But I checked the Grand Comics Database this week and saw that he actually drew a lot more Golden Arrow and Hopalong Cassidy stories than the DC wiki had listed. But I’ve decided that this was a good enough dive into his work for now and I’m ending my Harry Parkhurst journey after I read through the Golden Arrow stories he drew in Golden Arrow (1942) #4 just cause that was on my list to read this past week but I didn’t get to it. I do intend to read through the rest of his Fawcett work at some point, but it’s not a priority for me. I really enjoyed reading a variety of comics drawn by the same artist and seeing the variations in his style and I liked how this process got me reading genres I hadn’t ever checked out before, so I intend to repeat the process I took with Harry Parkhurst with other Golden Age artists whose styles look interesting to me.

Harvey Comics:

the Jungle Man stories in Champion Comics (1939) #2-9 and Champ Comics (1940) #11-12

I don’t know who wrote any of these stories. I could believe that Harry Parkhurst drew all of them, but the story in Champion Comics #2 has the name Don Traver within the art in a panel on the last page. The reason why I’d question that is that I’ve seen a few stories that are clearly not drawn or written by the same person that have the credit “by Don Traver” on the first page, including the Jungle Man story in Champion Comics #5 which looks just like the Neptina stories, which makes me think that this was a pseudonym used by multiple people. The story in Champion Comics #6 actually has Harry Parkhurst’s signature on it. There isn’t much of anything on Don Traver online, other that he also apparently also drew some Koroo the Black Lion stories for Bilbara Publishing, so I’ve added those to my ever-growing comics to-read list.

These stories started out following the adventure of Jungle Man, a ‘white savage’, in a Cambodian jungle. Then he agreed to move to America with his love Louise and her father Professor Carson, a plan that was immediately derailed. The rest of the stories had Jungle Man and co trying to survive on the jungle island they were shipwrecked on. This was my first time reading jungle-based comics and I thought it was interesting, though there were obviously some uncomfortable elements.

Note that there was actually a Jungle Man story, presumably also drawn by Harry Parkhurst, in Champion Comics #10 but I wasn’t able to read it because that issue hasn’t been scanned and uploaded online yet. And there were Jungle Man stories in Champ Comics #14-17 but I didn’t read them because Harry Parkhurst didn’t draw them.

And note that these issues were actually published by Worth Publishing Company and then Champ Publishing Company, because Harvey Comics didn’t take over the series until issue #18. I’ve listed these issues under Harvey Comics just because that’s the section on the Digital Comic Book Museum website they’re available under.

Eternity Comics:

the Betty Blake stories in Spicy Tales (1988) #3 and #5

These two 2-page stories, which were reprinted from the November 1934 issue and the July 1935 issue of Super-Detective Stories respectively, are all that’s available to me of Harry Parkhurst’s work from the 1930s. I had been completely unaware that there were any comics printed in men’s pulp magazines in the 30s before reading these. I saw a site that compared Betty Blake to another similar character from this era, Sally the Sleuth, and determined that in Betty’s stories “the almost-obligatory bondage and rape scenarios that Sally regularly endured (particularly in her earliest adventures) were absent” and that the character existed in “a seemingly more stylish and less raucous- if no less treacherous- world than the one Sally inhabited.” I enjoyed these two stories and would like to read all of her appearances if only they were available. There doesn’t seem to be as much of an effort online to scan old pulp magazines as there is for old comics, and the material the pulps were printed on probably doesn’t help.

The Betty Blake stories were actually both written and drawn by Harry Parkhurst. Both of these stories were recognizable to me as his artwork and didn’t seem any less skillfully drawn than the stories I read drawn by him from the 40s, despite the decade gap between them. Though the first story was drawn in a less-detailed style that looks more like his Jungle Man work and some of the westerns that he drew, and the second is more detailed and more reminiscent of his Neptina, Queen of the Deep, stories. The bulk of his western work, particularly what I’ve read of his Hopalong Cassidy stories, seems to me to be at a middle point between those two styles, but I think find the two solidly different approaches more appealing than the middle ground.

Eastern Color Printing Company:

the Connie pages in Famous Funnies (1934) #1-19

Famous Funnies, which reprinted popular syndicated newspaper strips, was “the first regularly published comic book in the standard format” and I decided to start reading the Connie reprints in it after seeing a page of the strip in Ron Goulart’s Great History of Comic Books and really admiring the art. Funnily enough, that page depicts the character time traveling, but everything I’ve read so far shows her in detective stories reminiscent of the Nancy Drew books that I read when I was younger. I’m not sure when it evolves into a science fiction strip, but I think the process will be interesting to read, though I did find these stories really enjoyable. Connie was both written and drawn by Frank Godwin and issue #1 of Famous Funnies had 4 Connie pages, issues #2-16 had 2 Connie pages, and issues #17-19 had 1 Connie page.

#comics read this past week #my posts

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