S4E36.5: Q&A #14: The 5 Year Special

Regarding your last question about cracked eggs: I'm a recently cracked egg (been out to myself for about a month now) and while you weren't the ones to really crack it, the show certainly did nudge a few things along in hindsight that helped me come to my realization, and you've been an immensely positive influence on my relationship with my transition so far. Y'all are real ones, and I hope one day you can do live shows in the States (the Detroit metro area in particular) so I can thank you all in person - Not just for the show and how much joy it brings me, but also for how much you've helped me see myself and my transition in a more positive light.

I didn't realise all of my subscription money was being spent on fancy preserves and cheeses! Unsubbed! /j In all seriousness, I once got a Fortnum and Mason gift card as a Christmas bonus once, and now I am required to spend about a hundred quid on biscuits for Christmas gifts every year, because everyone agreed that they were, in fact, the best biscuits.

They keep making movies, and those movies need the modern day Siskel and Ebert

Lone human in The Felt And The Furious: Jason Statham. So you go through multiple movies going "I guess it's all puppets," only for the reveal that they've made a dangerous enemy of a real human guy.

I assume we'll get a Black Coal, Thin Ice episode on Be Gay Solve Crimes eventually. It was an interesting watch and it's been a while since I've screamed "Just kick him in the balls already!" at a movie about the ostensible protagonist.

It's wild hearing them wax nostalgic about kids movies when I remember either Abby or Nova going on a rant against kids films years ago specifically attacking Pixar. It's weird how people change over time and how vibes change when you're having fun with your friends.

I am begging you guys to watch Nimona. It's a fantastic kid's movie and it's based on the comic of the same name by N.D. Stevenson, author of Lumber Janes.

Ngl the only movie that makes me patriotic in a British (eugh) way is Chicken Run

Dev congrats on watching 'Buffy' (one of us, one of us, one of us!). I urge you to stick with 'Angel'. It is very different and there isn't a "I want to be her!" moment of connection I had with anyone there like teen me had with Buffy Summers but it is still a great show!

Abby's anecdote at 42:05 is making me want to create that indie game

On the "gay cities" topic : In Spain, both Madrid and Barcelona have a neighbourhood ( Chueca in Madrid, Eixample in Barcelona, nicknamed "gaixample"). Different cities... I only know one in my region : Sitges, which has a notable pride parade and carnival. If someone can help in other Spanish Autonomous communities... Post below 😁

As someone who’s been listening since episode 1. I cannot overstate how much this podcast helped me through the hardest years of my life (so far). Thank you for making this and being you’re good selves

Trans Am! lets go!

The toast question is a good one! I like a sour cherry preserve. Especially a seasonal spiced cherry preserve.

I've recommended The Good The Bad the Weird to the pod a couple times and I'm so glad Nova enjoyed it! It's one of my favorites!

I love all of you. I especially want to highlight how much I love you, Devon, with this episode highlighting your deep tenderness for humanity. Thank you.

I recommend spoiled milk by avery curran a lesbian horror novel about the fact that the sexiest woman’s name is violet

Dammit, Dev - your pitch on analogue photography was laser targeted at how my brain works and now I'm at major risk of a new special interest developing

I am once again saying: a proper Scottish links course is not a waste of water. That is okay to be like that. Golf can be fine if you‘re not some insane fucker in Nevada somewhere.

RE: Favorite words - right there with November on Syzygy. I've been a huge fan ever since boasting as a child that I could spell "Anything!" and then some uncle, with a huge shit-eating grin, broke out the big guns : ) But my favorite word, the one I am psychologically incapable of not using when applicable , which has caused some... issues, when my mother challenged it as a real word in Scrabble... Quim. I will go to my grave having tried my hardest to bring it back into fashionable use.

Abi and Devon in this one are a nice shot of optimism. I wish I could feel like that, but it's hard.

That De Gaulle bio kicks ass

On foreign movies, I want to recommend Ballad of a Soldier by Grigory Chukray. I would not say it is 'good', but it is interesting- shot in 1959, a movie looking back at the Great Patriotic War. The performances are a little weird because it has the air of an American movie some 30 or 40 years younger, and the performances are a bit stilted, but there is a strange undercurrent of sincerity to it

Since QA episodes are the Sincerity Zone, I just wanna say: this is the podcast that got me entertaining ideas that I might be trans. It also made me wonder if I might settle closer to non-binary ( not that those two are mutually exclusive ). Not a grand revelation given the user name, but I am not sure I would have arrived at either thought without you all. Thanks for being a positive thing in a world of uncertainty.

"I really like a bran.." November really not beating the horse girl accusations

Golf should be allowed, but only on working farms, and if you hit any of the livestock you have to lie down in the field covered in delicious barley

I once again respectfully push forward the 1966 Sidney Lumet film "The Hill" set in WW2 North Africa, but a terse psychological drama with a great cast including Sean Connery attempting to escape James Bond.

Dev, if you're setting aside a day to watch foreign language films: Encounters of the Spooky Kind. Martial arts comedy horror film from Hong Kong, the guy who directed, starred in, wrote, and fight choreographed it is the same guy who does the fight choreo for Man From Hong Kong and did the action coordination for Ip Man. He mentored Jackie Chan, he was the Shaolin student Bruce Lee fights at the beginning of Enter the Dragon, it's excellent fighting. And it's a completely ridiculous film. Cannot recommend it enough.

I fell asleep while listening to this and dreamt I was an unofficial 4th host. I somehow managed to convince everyone else to do a Robin Hood season, but instead of doing chronological order the first movie was the 2010 Robin Hood gritty prequel (I think???) starring Russel Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott. I completely forgot that movie even existed but the idea of starting a Robin Hood season with it is really really funny

Unfortunately in the US, when they film stuff they often have right of way because they either hire off duty cops or have on-duty cops who are tasked by the municipality with keeping you out of the shot. I did however the distinct pleasure of watching a crotchety middle aged cop ream out the set of one of the Spider Man movies. It was 4:30 or 4:45 pm and she was like “get your shit off of the sidewalk” and dude was like “um, actually we have the right to,” and she was like “not until 5, get your shit out of the thoroughfare”. I fucking hate having film crews around. It makes me want to do something Devon would be proud of.

Nova having the WW2 PTSD flashback from Planes ready to go off the dome as insane kids movie fodder just burst my crusty old dad heart wide open. You can have my sub money forever now.

La Grazia was probably my favorite Italian movie of last year, and it reminded me a lot of Le conseguenze dell’amore (completely different story of course, but it’s more of the “grounded” kind of Sorrentino movies)

absolutely do chitty chitty bang bang! and consider following it up with The Great Race?? similar vibes, but it has an excellent 1960s woman lead, a textually gay henchman, a male lead called Lesley, and a very horny duel.

Agreed with Nov, Havoc was a dreadful and miserable film. That guy made the raid? And cast tom hardy? And he made THAT?! oof.

Devon I am listening to this lost in Chongqing

I can't explain it, but /of coarse/ Abigail is a marmalade lady. It fits right in with her whole lesbian-communist-in-a-Miss-Marple-book vibe. My favourite jam is strawberry, and as a kid I assumed everyone "knew" that strawberry is clearly the best and the only reason mum bought raspberry was to save money, because the obviously inferior jam was presumably cheaper (I was a child and thought capitalism was meritocratic and therefore the more expensive thing was also the better thing.) The day I learnt they were the same price was the day my childhood innocence died. EDIT: You Only Live Twice Connery in Tokyo Drift would kill a Victorian chimney sweep. EDIT2: For kids' movies, I'd love a K-Pop Demon Hunters episode because I swear the moral of that movie is the virtue of "being one of the good ones" and any time I try to tell anyone they look at me like I'm an alien and I'd love to hear if this pod would agree. Also: the return of conjugating the verb "to Grend?" Thankyou.

Absolutely agree with Abi's Blackcurrant Jam being best (Tiptree Jam personal preference), and the butter + marmalade for toast.

Done with religion season?! But you haven’t done the problematic Hudson Hawk

Bring Her Back is a damn good, but omg I hope the crew cover some Aussie cinema. Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, The Big Steal, Strictly Ballroom, Cosi, the original Mad Max, Ground Zero, Undead, Wyrmwood, Two Hands, etc etc etc

I'd love a Chicken Run episode for kids movie season

On an earlier podcast Abi once said something on the lines of "reject nihilism, embrace absurdism" - and I went looking for what she meant by that. I found Camus, read Sysiphus, followed by the Plague - and those works expressed exactly what I needed to hear and had always kinda believed. Existence is big, scary and meaningless and we are each so small while trying to live it. We can pretend it isn't those things (believe there is a just controlling force we can't see or evidence), or we can give into despair. The secret third option is to embrace life, acknowledge that there may be no point in striving, and choosing to do so anyway. Looking after ourselves and each other not because we get brownie points, but because we're not fucking arseholes. Gaze into the abyss while pulling weird faces and doing bits. And fucking fight for what matters to you. Was great to hear Abi articulate how Sysiphus reads to her.

Running directly to listen to all the kids movies episodes

My grandpa made fig preserves that were just whole figs. Those were awesome. An inch thick layer of fig on the top of my toast growing up

The game of golf predates any of the criticisms of it by like hundreds of years. It doesn't inherently require water or developed land. "Golf is bad" is not a material criticism, it's an idealistic/aesthetic one

Damn I had no idea how badly I needed this poem. Thank you for mentioning it. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48501/the-envoy-of-mr-cogito

I love Devon's bit on foreign terms for gay people. I recently thought "Okay, 'sodomy' comes from the tale of Sodom, but where does 'buggery' come from?" Turns out it's also (semi-)geographic in origin, sharing a root w/Bulgarian of all things: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bugger I just love that across languages and cultures, seemingly all the slang terms - not necessarily slurs - for people and sex acts which fall outside the cis-hetnormative ideal are derived from place names which become associated w/them (likewise 'sadism' and 'masochism' coming from the names of real people.)

My grandmother was named Velvaleen, which apparently is a very sexy name according to this podcast lol

Saw a protein poptart the other day. Texture's a bit wack.

I'm sorry to report to The People that you don't need nearly as much protein as you think and more won't help. It'll just be converted to fat and then it just counts towards like just eating more. Anyways that's just me replying to the bit about the protein regime and protein Baby Bell

Oh man I've been thinking about getting "be faithful Go" as a tattoo for years, great choice.

Bend it like Beckham mention!!! God loved that movie as a kid

Snow Runner is so good. I learned about it from watching Casey Explosion playing it and nothing is more nail biting than seeing a truck with a full load starting to slowly slide as it crosses a flooded river.

Come to Wellington, NZ, it's the gay city in NZ

Devon is correct, Raspberry is the best jam on toast. My mom's apple butter on (american) biscuits is pretty amazing, don't know if it's like November's pick. Lots of clove and cinnamon. Golf should be restricted to sheep pastures where it came from.

Thank you for answering so many of the questions in the questionnaire! The time spent on them is most appreciated. I’ll ask the others on a later Q&A

If I may be sincere for a moment, I love this show, and I love that I get to learn about movies and you've all really taught me to have a more nuanced appreciation of them. Congratulations and thank you so much!

Competence is the hottest thing ever, seriously.

For the cheese folks I have a gift for you. Savory toasted cheese. Chose you measurement system, since I'm in the US, I'll explain in Freedom Units©®™ 8 oz of Brie 8 oz of cream cheese 4 oz of butter Melt the Brie, cream cheese and butter over low heat in a double boiler. Stir until creamy. Blanch a green vegetable, green beans, broccoli or brussels sprouts of best. Just enough to line the bottom of a baking dish. You can add bacon as an option. Pour the cheese mixture over the vegetable. Pop in an oven that has been pre-heated to 350F. Until the cheese mixture is golden brown. Serve. Enjoy the cholesterol bomb.

Thank you for answering my Zack Polanski question!. Im an active member n canvasser, local chapter boardmember, regional candidate (without no realistic chance of getting in) of The Left party in Sweden :) I agree that its a Team effort. "HOPE US HERE, ITS ALL OF US" as Zack says. I hope you see Nimona. Its the best movie n I use it to educate students, colleagues n doctors in my inpatient emergency psych ward workplace :) /Counselor Comet

Right there with you in Snowrunner. When I found out they had a Maine DLC and I'm determined to beat it. Unfortunately it's considered a Hard DLC so it's been a struggle.

Whilst you're all wonderful, I think the fact that Nova starts to describe her signed Robert Vaughn, and I immediately start to think of the very Simpsons joke that she references not a second later is a key reason I'm following you all.

Sean Connery being eliminated from the Olympic equestrian after beating his horse to death with his shoe

The talk about doing kids films got me thinking... When are we doing Disney season? Either all the animated or I'll even take those strange live action films from like the 60s and 70s

Bill Kames Jond

Swear words are verbal flavoring, spicy flavoring. So it is very white suburban of me that I overuse very basic swear words to the point that they have no more flavor. "Fuck" has no impact anymore.

big hero six is a big part of the reason i went into engineering lol. would love an episode on it. i still have my notebook from middle school where i tried to draw a schematic to actually build the magnetic levitation bike/roller skates from the movie. now that i think about it the fact that i fixated on Go Go and her tech probably meant something.

Smugness is a big creative turn-off for me, which I guess has a lot of overlap with Smarm. It afflicts a lot of folk and indie music (indie movies too). If we're opposing qualities to sincerity, well done irony can be a way of opening up layers of meaning and ambiguity, creating emotionally affecting works in the process; smugness on the other hand closes everything down to a "I've got this all figured out" kind of flatness which I find repellent.

I was so disappointed that I didn't get a Silent Hill question in because I've been playing it for the last two weeks and it's my current obsession. And apparently Devon read my mind and brought it up anyways 😂

new vocal stim, November saying "goops"

i pack salads for my work lunch occasionally and have settled on a really nice combo: greens of choice (i like a spring mix), cherry tomatoes, almonds, dried cranberries, feta, and some sort of vinaigrette dressing (usually balsamic or champagne)

"Indubitably" is the best word. "Itechikwa Tzintzuntzani" is the best name of a thing I've ever heard.