Adventures in podcasting.

No, not mine…yet. I braved snowy roads to get into the office for reasons that satisfy me and me alone. May as well listen to some podcasts. After this morning’s The Villain Was Right (covering Hot Frosty*…OMG), I decide on less familiar territory.

- Filmshake intrigued me with their 1990s catalog. Looking for something in the 90-minute range, I settle on their The Frighteners/Mosquito episode. There’s a special guest from the Good Times, Great Movies podcast (the same template, only with 80s movies) and looking up those episodes, that seemed like a potential winner. The conversation turned to the film’s star, Michael J. Fox and how he took on a number of movies in the mid-90s to have something for his family when he looked to be laid low by his Parkinson’s diagnosis. The films they listed (as being not very good) were For Love and Money, Life with Mikey and…Greedy. Needless to say, I’m incensed enough to cut this one loose. (And it is entirely likely that, in talking about The Frighteners, they’d end up sucking off Jeffrey Combs’s nauseatingly over-the-top performance just like every other review of this movie. At that point, I’d want to put a jihad on those assholes.)

- Out of the Podcast - A Film Noir Conversation - talking about the terrific Phantom Lady - was more promising, if somewhat burdened by its host’s geeky voice. (Maybe, it’s years of Noir Alley talking, but a deeper, Eddie Muller-like voice gives these movies more import. A higher, not-as-confident voice doesn’t quite accomplish that. It’s pretty much the same reason I jumped ship from the YouTube channel Full Moon Matinee despite its promising hook.) Still, he’s got the information down, so maybe, I’ll stick with it.

- The Screwball Story looked at screwball comedies, which, okay, but this leaned too much on the host’s too-whispery voice (either she was truly committed to her lifelong Julie Hagerty impression or it’s time for new earbuds) and clips from the movies (which reminded me of my hatred of Bringing Up Baby and its unofficial remake, the movie under review, What’s Up, Doc?).

* - And next week, Romancing the Pod is covering it. I enjoy Lacey Chabert's Christmas movies, but, much like Jerry Seinfeld's reaction to his castmates/co-stars of North, "Not even for you."