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Sunday, October 14, 2018

Flopcast 336: After These Messages Part 2 - Knock on Our Door

This week we conclude our look back at last month's concert by After These Messages, a weird new band (Kevin is the lead singer, sort of) that only plays TV theme songs, and may never play again. (You're welcome!) The second half of the concert included plenty of classic sitcom themes (such as Happy Days, Three's Company, Silver Spoons, and WKRP), another ridiculous duet (Family Ties), a Billy Joel cover (thanks to Tom Hanks in a dress), a School House Rock medley, an eerily accurate Peter Brady impression, and a song that no one could possibly remember (unless they're a Flopcast listener). It was a magic night. There were no survivors. Also: We celebrate National Grouch Day, we receive a surprise turxt, and we agree upon the stakes of our Fish Heads bet. The Vegas oddsmakers must be freaking out.

Sunday, October 7, 2018

Flopcast 335: After These Messages Part 1 - Take a Nothing Day

That show we'd been plugging for months finally happened, and the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts will never be the same. Kevin (your Flopcast co-host) was joined by Ed (his tricky partner from The Sponge Awareness Foundation), Mike (from Vortex, Tricycle, and more), and Carl (from Duck Duck, The Shods, and even more). Together, for one night only in late September, they formed a supergroup (well, a group) known as After These Messages. And they subjected The Lasting Room in Haverhill to a silly evening of TV theme songs, performed live, along with trivia, prizes, and a killer Edith Bunker impression. Kornflake was there too, lost in the crowd of screaming superfans (well, fans) (well, humans). So this week, we run through the set list from the first half of the show and discuss. Some of our band's live versions were pretty faithful to the TV versions (The Jeffersons, Perfect Strangers, Diff'rent Strokes), while others were a bit longer, with extra verses never used on TV (Golden Girls, Growing Pains, Facts of Life). In fact, a few of these songs have unknown verses that range from weird to downright problematic (Cheers, All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore). We also tackle the eternal Gilligan's Island theme song question: "And the rest" or "The Professor and Mary Ann"? Plus: Happy Birthday to Chevy Chase (a Griswold, an Amigo, and a golfer among gophers). Next week: The rest of the After These Messages set list. It was a long night.

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Flopcast 334: Baby Fish Mouth

This week we celebrate Elisabeth Shue's birthday, and consider dressing up like a shower to take her to a Halloween dance; Kornflake reports on her August movie (we're a little late), When Harry Met Sally; there's a new Mystery Science Theater 3000 comic book, just as the Mads (TV's Frank and Dr. Forrester) visit Boston; Kevin has concert reports on synthpop legend Gary Numan (yeah, the "Cars" guy) as well as the Bust Out Boston Music Festival with Stars Like Ours, Petty Morals, and VQnC; we enjoy a delightfully chicken-themed "What's in the Bag" segment; and we look forward to Super Megafest, October 13-14 in Framingham, Massachusetts, with stars from Lost in Space and Leave it to Beaver. (Suddenly we want to see a death match between Dr. Smith and Eddie Haskell...)

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Flopcast 333: Irish Voles

It's Flopcast movie night! All year long, Kornflake has been catching up on movies she should have seen long ago. So this week we watch and discuss one of Kevin's favorite movies from back in 1991, The Commitments. (Because if you want to experience genuine soul music... you go to Ireland.) We talk about the cast (hey, there's Star Trek's Chief Miles O'Brien!), the music (could Joey the Lips really play that trumpet?), trying and failing to rent the movie at Blockbuster, scary twins, Kornflake's collection of Corrs albums (on cassette!), and the time Kevin saw the Commitments live in concert. (Which actual cast members were in the touring version of the band? You'd be surprised...) Also, listen in horror as Kornflake is attacked by a vole or a pocketbook or both. (Note: This episode was recorded way back in March, during St. Patrick's Day weekend, appropriately. We've had it on reserve since then, waiting for just the right time to share it with you. That time is now. Enjoy. Now where did you hide our Lucky Charms?)

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Flopcast 332: Delicious Manipulation

It's our end-of-summer spectacular! (Disclaimer: May not actually be spectacular, but it's all we have...) Kornflake visits a zoo and amusement park, spends quality time with capybaras (they're giant rodents!) and weird birds (they're weird and they're birds!), appreciates elephants, gets kicked out of bounce houses, and has strong opinions about fried dough, salt water taffy, and a mysterious scary item known as "beach pizza." Meanwhile, pre-DragonCon (but we're just getting around to discussing it), Kevin and the Mayor road-trip all the way to Philadelphia for an amazing concert by Jeff Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra. (Just how obsessed with Xanadu are we? You have no idea.) While there, we are gifted with a beautiful Flash Gordon notebook from Rich's Really Cool Notebooks, and we're pretty sure it will save every one of us.

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Flopcast 331: DragonCon 2018 - All the Sponge Money

Kevin spent a long crazy Labor Day weekend in Atlanta for DragonCon, and shares a full report on our favorite convention with Kornflake and the Mayor of Chickentown! Highlights include: A Sesame Street reunion (with Luis, Bob, Gordon, and Big Bird); panels with stars from Mystery Science Theater 3000, Smallville, and all the DC Arrowverse shows; music from Tom Kenny and The Hi-Seas, and The Doubleclicks; The Newbie Walking Tours (because we like to be exhausted on day 1); the Geek Girls Run (because we still weren't quite exhausted enough); the ESO Network Meet and Greet (which may have involved pie); the science of The Last Jedi (should you barbecue your Porgs?); the Council of Michaels; late night fun with Wicked Geeky; the debut of the new book Earth Station One: Tales of the Station Volume 3 (with a weird new story by Kevin!); and a magic moment in the American Sci-Fi Classics Track room featuring the music of Bonnie Tyler. We also cover all of Kevin's panels, on subjects like Arrow, Krypton, Gotham, Flash, Classic Sci-Fi Legends, Roll-a-Panel, The Incredible Hulk, Classic Sci-Fi Court (aka The Revenge of Howard the Duck), The Cat from Outer Space (!), and School House Rock. Now the rumor is that for the School House Rock panel, and for the first time ever, Kevin finally wore a costume at DragonCon! But that probably isn't true. And if it is true, the costume probably wasn't weird and stupid. You shouldn't even bother searching for photographic evidence. Move along. Move along.

Sunday, September 2, 2018

Flopcast 330: Star Wars and Shaun

We're busy at DragonCon this week, but the podcast must go on! So we prepared this silly little show in advance, just for you. And what could be sillier than flipping through another old issue of Dynamite magazine? We selected an issue from 40 years ago based on the cover alone: It's Shaun Cassidy and Chewbacca, together at last. (Fun fact: Chewbacca came very close to co-starring with Shaun on The Hardy Boys, but then Parker Stevenson just nailed the audition by not being a Wookiee.) Inside the magazine we find not just articles about Star Wars and Shaun, but also Count Morbida's puzzle pages (hey, the Count has a delightful new girlfriend, Horribella), a card trick from the all-powerful Magic Wanda, Dynamite Bummers, and more. There's even a report on a jelly bean taste test, if you can stand that kind of excitement. We sure can. In fact, we were inspired to try another Flopcast taste test of our own, with a weird new bag of lobster-flavored potato chips. Now Kornflake loves lobsters... but will she love lobster chips? Listen to us chomp, and learn the shocking truth.