Cameron H.

At least we're tied at being totally rad!

You can always count on me.

Okay, I'm on lunch now, so I have a little more time to process this. You asked for specifics, so I'll do my best. I'm sure there's nothing I can do to change your opinion, but I'll do my best to address your specific points. Right here. I think you may be projecting something on her that may or may not be present. Maybe you heard an arrogant voice, but I certainly didn't. And she didn't just volunteer her opinion either. Paul brought it up, because it is a little unusual for someone to say they don't like movies, but she certainly wasn't using the podcast as a podium to denounce them either. Furthermore, to call her an "asshole," based solely on her apathetic feelings toward films, doesn't really do your observation any favors. I'd argue, yes. There's absolutely nothing wrong with not liking movies. However, there might be something wrong with calling someone an "asshole" because they don't share your opinions. To be fair, I assume you do not personally know Deanna. You don't know what else she does with her time. Maybe movies aren't her thing. Maybe reading giant tomes of Medieval poetry is. Your argument is basically, "Does watching violent movies make someone violent or want to do violent things?" Personally, I love a good shoot 'em up, but I've never bought, nor do I ever intend to own, a gun. I also like the Fast & Furious movies, but I have never actually participated in an illegal street race. Yes, maybe what media we imbibe might have some affect on us, but to say it is the end all be all of who that person is or will ever be seems to really disregard an individual's unique and complex life. As I mentioned above, she never said that's ALL she watches, just that she does enjoy it. And you almost seem to be implying that all movies are trying to go "deeper." It seems to me that you want to impose a certain type of media (or movie) on her and others, because for you, it's superior. I'm not saying you are, but that sounds much more narcissistic to me...She didn't say, "I don't like movies, and if you do, you're an asshole. Like what I like!" Again, I think you are ascribing attitudes that just aren't there. If you don't know her personally, how can you even begin to guess at how she feels about something? She's not exactly running Sony Pictures or anything. If the head of Disney said, "Man, movies are a waste of my time!" then I think you'd have a more valid argument. As it stands though, she seems to be primarily a writer and a podcaster. There's a local radio personality in my city who has also stated on numerous occasions that he doesn't like movies. He's a media professional. Should we call for his resignation? Sorry man, I just wanted to be thorough in my response since I realized my initial response maybe didn't address all your points. No hard feelings. And I'm more than willing to continue this discussion as two rational, civilized adults.

I have not re-listened, but I didn't really pick up up what you're putting down. Maybe that has to do with the fact that I don't really care about Deanna's tastes one way or another. This isn't to say I'm dismissive of her opinions or that they aren't valid, just that her likes and dislikes don't really affect my life in any way. Do I think it's odd she doesn't like movies? Yes and no. "Yes," in the same way I think it's weird when I meet people who say they don't like or listen to music (which is something I'll never understand), but "no" because we all have our tastes. And I don't think she was saying, "all I watch is garbage TV," but more, "given the choice, that's how I'd rather spend my time" and that is something I can totally get behind. When I was in college I was a bit of a movie/literature snob, but as I've gotten older, I tend to gravitate toward lighter fare for the simple reason that, if I'm going to devote x amount of time doing this thing, I'd like for it to be a tonic to sooth my belly than be an ipecac. I spend much more time watching the "garbage" movies for this podcast than I do "quality" movies. I don't do this to feel "smarter" than the movies or that I'm afraid to be challenged. That's just my choice and my preference. For example, I'm sure Spotlight is a fantastic movie, which would undoubtedly make me feel a certain way, the question is: do I want to feel that way right now in this moment? This isn't to say that I'm ignorant of the issues the movie addresses, just that if I only have a limited amount of time to do something (e.g. sit and watch a movie) I would personally rather escape the bullshit of this world for a couple of hours than rage against injustice. And don't worry about hijacking the thread. Five days after an episode, most people have already said what their going to say about the episode's movie and the conversation goes in all kinds of crazy directions. I'm as happy to talk about this as I am anything

Since we probably have a couple of days left until the mini comes up, I was just wondering if anyone has had, dare I say, the pleasure of watching Fuller House? I tried watching it the other day, and I swear to God, it was like playing a game of chicken with my sanity. I turned it off at exactly one minute and thirty-three seconds. I put it on again this morning and made it an additional five minutes (right around the time Mr. Woodchuck made his triumphant return) before I had to take another step back. However, the good news is, I think I may have come up with a new forum game we can play while we wait for a new episode of HDTGM. It's a little something I like to call "Cameron H's Fuller House of Madness." Basically, we pick an episode at random which we all agree to watch tonight. We watch it for as long as we can until the overwhelming inanity of the show forces us to turn it off. Whoever can endure the longest, is the... winner, I guess? Basic rules: 1) Honor system rules apply--although I'm not sure anyone wants to brag that they watched a full episode. 2) Once you turn it off, you're done. You can't take a break and come back to it later. 3) No electronic devices or other distractions. Attention must be paid in full to the episode. Doing anything other than watching the episode is grounds for immediate disqualification. 4) You have to watch at least two minutes of the show. 5) We cannot pick an episode that someone has already watched. For instance, it can't be the first episode since I have a six minute advantage on everyone else. Or, if people want to do an episode that someone has watched, the person who has already watched it would be required to recuse themselves from that particular challenge. So, what do you all think? Are you brave enough to accept the challenge?

Well...yes, that was problematic as well. In his defense, I will say he's pretty funny, seems really intelligent, he's very handsome, and if I was ever in a discussion with him about social issues, movies, or comic books, we'd be an intolerable echo chamber of, "I TOTALLY agree with you..." However, his frequent use of his comedy game show as a podium to espouse his politics, to a room that is probably already in line with most (if not all) his views on the subject, was pretty obnoxious.

Holy cow! This sounds terrible! It amazes me how many comedians get by on shock value alone. I think it says something about how some personalities just crave attention regardless of whether or not that attention is good or bad. Rape and pedophilia are a couple of subjects that I feel like are real danger zones. Personally, I think those are subjects that are better left untouched in comedy, but if you (for some insane reason) feel the need to make "that" joke, a certain amount of nuance is required for it to work. For instance, I think the HDTGM episode of Over the Top does it pretty well and I think the reason for this is the gang (particularly Jason and Bobby) weren't using "I" statements. There's a huge difference between, "Stallone is going to rape his son!" and "I'm going to rape that kid." For an example of a HDTGM episode where I felt like the joke wasn't done well, I'd point to Con Air where the guest implied that Steve Buscemi and a 6 year old girl had consensual sex. At the time I was just thinking, "What in the holy fuck, dude?!? That's totally uncalled for and not even remotely funny!" (Sorry, to get all heavy. I'm just really sensitive to all this kind of bullshit anyway, and it doesn't help that, just a couple of days ago, a co-worker of mine, a man that I've known for years, and has offered on more than one occasion to babysit my son, was just put in jail for molesting a little girl. I swear to God, sometimes I hope there's a Hell. I can deal with murderers--not that murder is ever good, but I get temporary insanity or whatever you want to call it--but rapists and pedophiles can fucking burn!) But...bringing this back to the world of comedy, dead horses (and the beating of them), and lazy jokes, can we all agree that if ever there was a time when a "Two in the _____, one in the _____" was funny, that time has long since passed? Not that I was ever a die hard fan of it, but I had to totally give up watching @Midnight because of this. There was a period where one cut-rate comedian or another would make some variation of this joke in like every other episode. Finally I was like, "Okay, I'm done with this."

I'm not a regular listener to DLM, so I've been more or less keeping out of this conversation, but I have to say--in general--I'm just tired of people talking about The Phantom Menace (and the other prequels), pro or con. I just feel like it's been nearly 20 years, it's just a movie, please just let it go. To make fun of it is like kicking the crutches out from beneath Tiny Tim, there's just no challenge in it, and at this point, kind of just mean and shitty. And if someone does like it, you're probably not going to change their opinion so there's no point wasting your breath. It seems to have become this hot button issue, like religion and politics, just agree to disagree and move on. To the "too old to be a prostitute" thing...wow. Just, wow. As mentioned, I've not listened to the episode so I can't speak to the context of the line, but there is just so much wrong with that statement it boggles my mind. If he's talking about an actress playing a prostitute, then that's a whole disgusting level of sexism I don't think I'm prepared to deal with; and if he's talking about prostitution in general, what is he even thinking? Does he believe prostitutes just age out of the profession? Like, "Oops, I'm 27 now. I guess it's time to quit this wonderful career of mine and be a dental hygienist or something." All I can say is that I'm very glad I didn't listen.

http://www.earwolf.com/episode/over-the-top-live/

This is insane! From what I'm hearing, what these people put you through is harder than what it is to be an actual parent. Was that the point? Also, like my question to Ellen, why couldn't your brother leave the baby at home, keep it plugged in to his bracelet, and go on with his day? I mean, 8 hours? By yourself?!? That is the craziest thing I've ever heard. Do they assume all parents don't have some kind of help--whether that be a family member, a partner, a friend, or a Daycare? Do they assume parents don't have to work? Yes, you're probably holding that baby a lot, but it's in fits and starts. Babies aren't awake all that much. Look guys, I'm going to be straight with you, as a father, don't listen to all the horror stories. Yes, being a parent can be tough sometimes, but since you presumably love your child, the inconveniences are like nothing. My three and a half year old is more exhausting now than he ever was as a baby. Babies can't do anything. They poop, the pee, and they sleep. Sometimes they cry, but that's because they need something, and you learn pretty quick how to fill, and better yet, anticipate those needs. What these schools seem to be teaching is borderline criminal.

Wait a second--did it have some kind of sensor to make sure you rocked it for the full 45 minutes? If not, why did your mother bother rocking it? Throw it in a closet and go back to sleep. I thought this was Canadian Sex Ed... For my part, I don't remember taking sex ed, and my parents certainly didn't talk to me about it. I guess I just have to cross my fingers and hope that I've been doing it right...

Well, d'uh!

This also might explain the weird relationship Luis shared with her father. Maybe he knew his family history and recognized Luis' potential. Maybe he transformed his wife into the woman he wanted. Dear God, somewhere inside her mother is an awkward little girl just screaming to be freed from his evil clutches. Oh my God! That's why her mother tries to dress Luis like such a square! It's her true self trying to break free! Wow, this shit just got really depressing... As an aside, it annoys me so much when movies and television shows, particularly ones with a fantasy/sci-fi bent, show descendants to look exactly like one of the main characters. You just know, inevitably, someone is going to be pulled forward in time or go back in time and will be able to fool everyone by seamlessly taking the place of their doppelganger. Never mind that, at the very least, they probably wouldn't sound the same or share the same dialect. At most, someone will say, "Gee, you're acting a little weird today." There is absolutely no way two people, excluding identical twins, would ever look that much alike. It's like these writers don't understand how reproduction works.

Dick Sargent? In my house, it's York or nothing! Fun fact: Did you know that you can't Google "Dick York" with Safesearch on? I'm just saying, I hope you all really appreciated my joke and that picture of Dick York up there. The things I saw. Oh, my...

I think it's funny that movies dealing with witches always try to legitimize themselves by attaching the witch characters to Salem, but, in doing so, aren't they tacitly saying that the Puritanical fuck-turtles that gruesomely murdered a bunch of innocent women and men were kind of right to do so? Also, since you brought up yearbooks, I had this great idea to share one of the messages I got in 8th grade from an unrequited love that I had always remembered as pissing me off. Sort of a, "Look at the shitty thing someone said to me in Middle School. Man, I was such a dork" kind of bit. Some background: There was a girl during the first half of 8th grade that I had my first real mind-blowing, Earth-shattering, time-warping crush on. We became friends. We'd talk on the phone. We had the same sense of humor. I even got kicked out of Spanish because I spent more time talking, joking, and gazing longingly at her than learning anything. Everything was great--except I couldn't just ask her out, right? What if she said no? She started dating other guys. It eventually got back to her that I had a crush on her. Awkwardness ensued. Friendship ended. On the last day of school, she stole my yearbook and wrote me a message without my knowledge, the contents of which have incensed me to this very day. She wrote: "Cameron, wuz up? We never got to go out with each other, but don't worry, you're really cute. Have a gr8 summer! Love, Tara. P.S. Write me over the summer (she was moving away). Write me!" Can you believe her nerve? The fucking gall! Of course, this could not stand! Don't you see how clearly she was totally rubbing it in my face that we never went out, and was not at all expressing her own regret that we never dated? Well fortunately, 6 months later, I had the perfect opportunity to deliver her comeuppance when she called me out of the blue to ask me out to a dance at her school and I. SHUT. HER. SORRY ASS. DOWN! Want to know what I did that night instead? Who the fuck knows? But I can tell you what I most definitely was NOT doing--I certainly wasn't sharing my first kiss with the girl of my dreams like my life was some kind of goddamn awesome eighties teen movie. Honestly, I probably stayed home and played video games. Great choice, fourteen-year-old Me. Bra-fucking-vo. Cameron H...what a dork. But seriously, guys, I literally just realized 15 minutes ago that my Middle School crush liked me too. This changes everything! I'm sorry I derailed the Teen Witch conversation. Please--carry on.

Okay, I think this may be all I've got left for this movie (I can't promise that), and I admit, it's pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but I think it's worthy to bring up because in order to sell a fantasy movie, I believe that it is crucial to nail down the mundane moments, otherwise it makes your job all that much harder to sell the fantastical elements. So, when Luis transforms her brother into a dog, did it bother anyone else that their mother felt it was necessary to honk her car horn to announce her arrival? Are Luis and/or Richie chronic masturbators or something? Was she giving them a couple of seconds to zip it up? I just found it so odd. It occurs around the one minute mark in the video. Oh! And I just wanted to stand in solidarity with Paul in regard to tender kissing in television and films. Passionate kisses, fine. Slow, loving, kisses with the man cradling the woman’s head in his hands or something, barf! So, gross.

Well, she was talking to Randa at the lockers, and Randa, who's in the same class, managed to make it on time. Maybe there's a time jump...but the movie doesn't seem to indicate that. UGH...this movie is inscrutable!

I had two separate issues with that scene. First of all, I can't stand when people go on and on, like the teacher does in the movie, about people wasting other people's time and how they are being a disruption. I know it fits his character, but no, dude--at this point--you're the one wasting everybody's time. A simple, "Please see me after class" will suffice and you can continue with your lecture. But that brings me to my second issue. It would have been nice had the movie took a moment to explain why she's late in the first place. I mean, she appears to be significantly late--he's in the middle of his lecture, and everyone is seated quietly. What the Hell was she doing? She doesn't walk in breathlessly. She doesn't try to explain or apologize. She also doesn't have such an active social life that she might have got caught up talking with her friends. She just sort of walks right on in. Uh, we're on a schedule here at Upper to Upper Middle Class White People Only High School, Missy! Do try to respect that. By the way, I found their school mascot online: Fair enough.

Just One of the Guys is one of my all time favorite eighties movies! "Dresses like Elvis Costello, looks like the Karate Kid--I'm gonna get him!"

I've never kept a diary or anything, but is it normal to write what basically amounts to erotic fan fiction? I mean, I get it if she wrote, "Brad is so cute," or "I wish Brad would kiss me all over my body." I'll even take, "I had a dream last night that Brad fucked the Jesus out of my life." What I don't get is fictional erotic prose written in the first person. Isn't the point of a diary to document your real life and dreams and not made up bullshit? Also, Brad is a pretty common name and she didn't include his last name. I'm aware that, if this were to occur in real life and there happened to be a boy named Brad in class, there would probably be some teasing, but I think it is pretty presumptuous of everyone to jump to the conclusion that he's the Brad she's writing about. And, if it is just understood that he is the Brad in question, why the Hell isn't Randa jumping out of her seat and screaming, "What the fuck, Brad?!?" Luis wrote: "He pressed his lips against mine, but he didn't stop there...Soon, every inch of my body was covered in Brad's lips. Who would have thought--tonight, I would be all his?" There is nothing in that to imply that it didn't actually happen. If anything, it suggest that it 100% did happen. What the fuck Randa? Respect yourself!

I had to look that up, but, no, they were two different guys (John Newton, Cool as Ice; Dan Gauthier Teen Witch). I do agree that they look similar though. I guess they both fit that late eighties, early nineties "hot, but douchey guy" archetype...lean, brunette, with clean cut "actor" hair, and handsome, but with (more or less) forgettable features. (And, for those who don't know what I mean by "actor" hair, check out just about any male love interest in a TV show from pilot to about 6 episodes in. It is one of my very favorite things )