This week with the always wonderful Paul F. Tompkins: build a snow tunnel, sing a few piano tunes, or recite Edgar Allen Poe in the place where his macabre work truly shines, a brightly lit classroom. Boys of Summer continues!
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I love this podcast, and I loved this episode! Paul F. Tompkins is a delight!
I just wanted to share my experience with the Sacrament of Reconciliation (aka Confession) as an adult convert to Catholicism. I hear what PFT is saying about feeling like, Can’t I just hear: You’re human and that’s okay? Yes! But also, when I do something that I know hurts other people, I need to have a way to make it right with God and with the other person. I know that 12-step groups also do a great job with this tricky part of being a human being, but I find great healing through Confession and Reconciliation through the Church!
Ditto to all the PFT love here. “He’s a National Treasure” is a right and proper sentiment.
God I LOVE Paul F. Tompkins. And I took accordion lessons as a child (my choice, oddly…) so I loved that part. It’s very under appreciated. Ok, it’s terrible to play, but I imagine had I been taller and never got boobs it would have been fine?
Accordion: the original synthesizer. You made a good choice.
Ah, Paul F. Tompkins, a national treasure.
His “Cake vs Pie” is hilarious, and thankfully, comes to the correct conclusion. It’s the reason that whenever I’m traipsing around the grocery store and see the cans of frosting, the word “shame” comes to mind, and I laugh.
His rendition of “Skyfall” is something so awesome I think Shirley Bassey thinks “man, I wish I was in on that”.
Not to mention “Speakeasy”, a gem of an interview show.
It was good to hear that I share at least something with PFT, the 13 years of Catholic schooling. It makes one part of an elite club, and if you’re old enough, gives you particular insight into the character of “the penguin” in The Blues Brothers.
Picking Bailey Quarters as a possible honeybunch in the MASH game was genius. She’s the character that makes me scoff disdainfully at the “girl with glasses gets a makeover without them” trope.
Another great summer episode, Janet.
Indeed. Jan Smithers always was the more striking of the two primary women cast members on WKRP…it was hard to miss how improbable it was that only Johnny Fever noticed…meanwhile, her first great public exposure was as Face of Her Generation, on a 1966 NEWSWEEK cover: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rwnGdxi9okQ/TQBNRipTmLI/AAAAAAAAARE/obGxPCqDy1M/s1600/009.jpg
I love this episode a lot ( I feel like I say that a lot but its true) because I connected with SO many things. The stillness of snow is so true because not only is the stillness and the awareness amazing, but since i go to school in the city and the contrast of the stillness/silence to the usual is very jarring but in an awesome way. I connected/was interested when he was talking about how in New York you have to dress for all weather all the time and that’s something that Chicago/IL does also. When he was talking about not wanting to go school reunions (which is how I feel about seeing my friends back from school who I’ve been friends with since grade school) and the conversation about being not okay with oneself was something I related to since I’m becoming more aware of that feeling but resolving that with the fact that most people feel like that. With all of that I found this episode really funny and enlightening.
I can confirm that growing up in a house where the snow piles up in front of the stairs is pretty amazing. Clearing it away was probably the one chore I wanted to do, because you could just fling yourself at the pile whenever you wanted.
Here’s a little of my hyping for BORGEN and such other items of similar excellence as BURNING LOVE: http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2013/04/tv-notes-zombieland-debuts-borgen.html
Oh, yes, there is apparently an attempt to do a US version of BORGEN as well…if it’s nearly as good as the original, THE GOOD WIFE and VEEP and ALPHA HOUSE will have a new colleague among the good Yank political drama going down right now (I haven’t tried SCANDAL yet, myself).
Always ready to endorse BORGEN, the superb political drama from Denmark (from the folks responsible for the original version of THE KILLING, as well). PFT is slightly off about provenance–it’s on LInk TV, which merged with KCET after KCET quit PBS, so he’s been seeing it (most likely) on KCET Link in local broadcast/cable, but most of the US can see it either on Link TV on DirecTV or Dish Network, or on the Link site: http://www.linktv.org/borgen There are dvd sets available for the series, as well, which won a Peabody this year…one of the few international series visible in the US ahead of the UK, thanks to LInk, which has been running it since it was pretty damned new (and I’ve been cheerleading for it from pretty early on, too…it’s Way the hell better than THE WEST WING):
I can never get enough Paul F. Tompkins. Insightful, funny, and seems genuinely like a stand-up guy,
Great interview. It actually really meant a lot to me to hear this right now, Paul and I had similar upbringings and he struggled with some of the same things so it’s nice to know that things got better for him and he has a great relationship.
So that’s why you went to Ottawa (and there wasn’t a convention in town)! I knew it wasn’t for pleasure, weddings never are. Who’d want to get married there though?
Speaking of earthquakes on the East Coast, there were like two 5.x earthquakes in the last 4 years or so around Ottawa. Of course, I remember the last 6.0ish (Saguenay earthquake) one back in November 1988, biggest earthquake on this side of North America (excluding Mexico and the Caribbeans…) in the last like 75 years.
whoa! Great podcast. I really relate to the cathol-confessional stuff, and the early dating not knowing how to have a good relationship was spot on, it’s a breath of fresh air to hear “you’re not a bad person for not knowing how to deal with relationships right away.” lot’s of other great stuff.
A beautiful little boy who grew up to be a beautiful big boy.
Lawrence Welk was Catholic.
NOOOOOOOOOOO, he said “my wife” in a normal voice.But apart from that, brilliant.
Thank you. I have barely started listening to this, and already, thank you.