#1991

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #288: Fight Scene Analysis with Jeremy from Whistlekick – Brandon Lee vs. Dolph Lundgren in Showdown in Little Tokyo

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #288: Fight Scene Analysis with Jeremy from Whistlekick – Brandon Lee vs. Dolph Lundgren in Showdown in Little Tokyo

This week’s episode is the third in a series about Brandon Lee (episode 286 on Laser Mission for Brandon Lee’s birthday and episode 287 on Legacy of Rage).  Today, I am working with frequent collaborator Jeremy Lesniak from Whistlekick to discuss another fight scene, this time from one of my favorite films (and a guilty pleasure), Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), just in time to ring in the year of the ox. The scene we’re watching is where Brandon Lee and Dolph Lundgren officially meet on screen, and naturally it ends up as a fight, though not without justification.  This is one of those scenes that is so wildly implausible, you can’t help but smile (totaly fits with the tenor of the film, though), and today, you can watch it with is in 1/4 time.  As before, please check out Jeremy’s version of the show as well on Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio (episode 587, coming in a few weeks), since it has a video portion as well, so instead of just listening to the clip, you can actually watch it with us commenting on it.  But, for now, if you want to follow along, choose the playback speed in the lower right corner (the gear) to 0.25, and you can follow along with the comments.  We start the clip below at 0:46.

 

If you haven’t seen this film, there are a ton of familiar faces if you were ever into action movies of this time and a great Hollywood screen debut for Brandon Lee, who provides a great counterpoint to Dolph Lungren’s stolid modern samurai personality. 

And, as mentioned last episode, the patches I mentioned a few weeks ago are now ready and available for purchase here!  They come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.

img_2898

If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world!  SALE!  While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette!  Just $1/tape!
https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

9c855cfe-2bcf-4f9b-9681-898d80b49e9a

There are now Thirteenth Hour toys!  If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

empty hands ep cover_edited-2.jpg

Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #251 and Like a Hood Ornament 11: Welcome back Jeremy, Max, and Antonio – Nirvana Pilot Yume Redux and Fragments of the Past (Part 1/2)

Episode #251 and Like a Hood Ornament 11: Welcome back Jeremy, Max, and Antonio – Nirvana Pilot Yume Redux and Fragments of the Past (Part 1/2)

https://archive.org/download/podcast-251/Podcast%20251.mp3

On this week’s show, my brother, Jeremy, and I had the opportunity to reconnect with European game developer team Dev9k (Massimiliano ‘Haematinon’ Nigro and Antonio Scacchetti), who were last on the show in episode 123.  At the time, they had recently released the 80s anime / Skyroads inspired video game, Nirvana Pilot Yume, for the PC.

Nirvana Pilot Yume for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Game Details

Today, we’re discussing the recent port of the game to the Nintendo Switch as well as the release of Massimiliano’s recent fantasy art book, Fragments of the Past.  Most of this session was spent discussing the creative process.  We’ll be discussing more about the book next week, so just a taste this episode.

frag

There are many, many beautifully rendered painting in the book which we’ll explore more next episode.

By the way, if you haven’t gotten the chance to check out the 80s retro soundtrack for Nirvana Pilot Yume done by Retroxx, check it below or here:

777261cc-33ff-42cb-b641-368622356139

Since we’re essentially talking about the nature of the creative process in this episode, I thought for this segment, I’d post a little on the circuitous path Dave Stevens’ creation, The Rocketeer, took flight, first on paper and, eventually, on screen.  From the April ’91 edition of Comics Scene:

img_0001img_0002img_0003img_0005img_0006

 

See you next week for Part 2!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

9c855cfe-2bcf-4f9b-9681-898d80b49e9a

There are now Thirteenth Hour toys!  If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!

You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

empty hands ep cover_edited-2.jpg

Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #250 and Like a Hood Ornament 10: Welcome Jim O’Kane and Hal Bryan of The Rocketeer Minute! (Part 2/2)

Episode #250 and Like a Hood Ornament 10 – Welcome Jim O’Kane and Hal Bryan of The Rocketeer Minute! (Part 2/2)

https://archive.org/download/podcast-250/Podcast%20250.mp3

On this week’s show, I had the opportunity to continue the discussion with Jim and Hal from the Rocketeer Minute podcast, which if you never heard of the Movies by Minute podcast movement (I hadn’t until stumbling upon their show), it’s where people dissect a movie, generally one minute at a time.  Check out episode 249 for the first part of the conversation.

In the intro, I’m reading from a book I spent hours flipping through as a kid, The Smithsonian Book of Flight by Walter Boyne.

I always enjoyed the first third of the book since it was devoted to the pioneering and golden ages of aviation, that time when a garage tinker could put something together that – even if it might not ultimately fly – the dream was there, and it seemed attainable. So I’m reading from the introduction of the book on the Experimental Aircraft Association (at least, the 1987 iteration of the organization), Hal’s employer, since we’ll talked a bit about them last time and will be again at the end of the episode but also because making the goal of aviation attainable for everyday people captures the kind of hopeful spirit for a better tomorrow that The Rocketeer inspires.

The first aviation meet from 1910 …

To the yearly EAA gathering …

The barnstorming photo my daughter was commenting on at the start of the episode …

The “E” in EAA stands for experimental!  Back to the roots of aviation.

We then continue talking about the idea of what makes for a rewatchable film. That was my regular pattern for a number of years as a kid (getting up early on Sundays, usually, to rewatch movies I’d already seen). Most of those films ended up being ones I’ve talked about in some fashion on this website or on the show, ones like Labyrinth, Real Genius, Karate Kid 3 (the only one I had), Some Kind of Wonderful, The Last Starfighter, and, of course, The Rocketeer).

If you enjoyed The Rocketeer, you may enjoy these films:

–Zone Troopers (also written by Paul DeMeo and Danny Bilson)

–Out There (also starring Bill Campbell, playing the same kind of earnest, down on his luck character to Cliff)

–The Brylcreem Boys (also starring Bill Campbell, playing the a downed flier similar to the sort of character you’d expect Cliff to be had he enlisted in WW2).

–Captain America: The First Avenger also directed by Joe Johnston)

777261cc-33ff-42cb-b641-368622356139

It was great to connect with Jim (of TVDads.com) and Hal (of the EAA) to discuss the making of their show.  Here’s how to find out about their show and/or connect with them.

–RocketeerMinute.com

–The Rocketeer Minute Bulldog Cafe

–The Final Mission by Chris Henry and Hal Bryan.  From the EAA product page: “This book tells the powerful and personal stories of some of the people who have stepped back in time by taking a flight on the Experimental Aircraft Association’s restored B-17 bomber, Aluminum Overcast.”  Just got mine and am looking forward to reading it!

finalmission

 

This little animated .gif is, of course, from the point in the movie where the Rocketeer, not above a little self conscious vanity, asks how he looks.  Peevy, not above a little blunt honesty, says “Like a hood ornament!”  The Rocketeer blasts off for the first time, Peevy gets blown backwards into the hangar, and I get a name for this part of the podcast!

Stay tuned for more Rocketeer talk next week!  Stay safe!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

9c855cfe-2bcf-4f9b-9681-898d80b49e9a

There are now Thirteenth Hour toys!  If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!

You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

empty hands ep cover_edited-2.jpg

Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #249 and Like a Hood Ornament 9 – Welcome Jim O’Kane and Hal Bryan of The Rocketeer Minute! (Part 1/2)

Episode #249 and Like a Hood Ornament 9 – Welcome Jim O’Kane and Hal Bryan of The Rocketeer Minute! (Part 1/2)

https://archive.org/download/podcast-249_202005/Podcast%20249.mp3

On this week’s show, I had the opportunity to connect with Jim (of TVDads.com) and Hal (of the Experimental Aircraft Association) from the Rocketeer Minute podcast, which if you never heard of the Movies by Minute podcast movement (I hadn’t until stumbling upon their show), it’s where people dissect a movie, generally one minute at a time.  So one minute of the movie = 1 episode.  The 1991 Rocketeer film, based on the original comic by Dave Stevens, screenwritten by Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson, and directed by Joe Johnston, is 108 minutes long.  But there are actually 116 Rocketeer Minute Podcasts if I counted right, making for over 60 hours of listening.  That’s one hell of a DVD commentary!  (Rocketeer fans have long had to deal with a dearth of any substantial extras on the official DVD releases of the film, but even if there had been a DVD commentary, the amount of material on the Rocketeer Minute podcast would be over 30 times whatever was on the disc!)

As mentioned, I found their show totally by accident.  Ever since I learned about the internet in the mid 90s, I would occasionally type “Rocketeer” in whatever search engine was used at the time just to see what popped up.  As I recall, there was really only one Rocketeer site in the mid 90s (when I first realized that the internet was someone more that those AOL Online floppy discs that used to come in the mail – we never had AOL Online, but for awhile, that’s what I thought this “internet” thing was).  While there was never a ton of info online about the film and comics, there were always a few sites and fanart pictures on places like Deviantart.  Earlier this fall, I was doing what I usually did, this time typing in “Rocketeer” in Twitter (which I only half understand), and lo and behold, something called The Rocketeer Minute popped up.  (I’d looked around on iTunes in the past, back when I did episode 53 on my first rewatching of The Rocketeer since childhood and hadn’t found any podcasts devoted to the Rocketeer; turns out I was about a year too early.)  I listened to the first few episodes that night and was hooked.

img_0881

It took about a month and a half to listen to all the episodes, and like when I was a kid watching the film over and over again (more on this next week), I was kind of sad when it was all done!  (I’ve come to wonder if that is the mark of any meaningful work of art – you miss it when it’s gone.)  This was also around the time that the Disney Jr Rocketeer cartoon was released, allowing me to introduce my children to the Rocketeer.  The timing of both made me realize there was so much I wanted to talk about when it came to The Rocketeer and also hammered home the realization that there were quite a few other Rocketeer fans out there lurking under the surface that might also like to be interested.    And since so much of The Rocketeer influenced my writing of The Thirteenth Hour, I figured, why not just keep it as part of the same podcast as its own recurring segment:

777261cc-33ff-42cb-b641-368622356139

Before we sign off for this week, I’ll leave you with this little spread of pictures from a 1991 issue of the kids’ magazine, Disney Adventures, which thanks to the magic of eBay, I was finally able to read ~thirty years after originally wanting to.

img_0867img_0868img_0869

I totally remembering wanting the water rocket Rocketeer as a kid but never being able to find one.

Next week, we’ll talk a little bit more about the EAA, Hal’s employer, in the intro and during the episode.  In the meantime, please check out The Rocketeer Minute’s Bulldog Cafe Facebook Group for more pictures and behind the scenes info from the movie as well as the episodes.

This little animated .gif is, of course, from the point in the movie where the Rocketeer, not above a little self conscious vanity, asks how he looks.  Peevy, not above a little blunt honesty, says “Like a hood ornament!”  The Rocketeer blasts off for the first time, Peevy gets blown backwards into the hangar, and I get a name for this part of the podcast!

Stay tuned for more Rocketeer talk next week!  Stay safe!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

9c855cfe-2bcf-4f9b-9681-898d80b49e9a

There are now Thirteenth Hour toys!  If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.

If you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!

You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.

Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.  

empty hands ep cover_edited-2.jpg

Stay tuned.  Follow along on Spotify!  There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.

Check it out!

As always, thanks for listening!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞