Arts & Entertainment with Chris & Randall

Chris and Randall discuss the art and entertainment of the Bernie Sanders Mittens meme.

Topics discussed:

photojournalism the art of photography political cartoons Thomas Nast Che Guevara Heroic Guerrilla Fighter Shepard Fairey's Hope Howard Dean Scream JibJab's "This Land" "Crush on Obama" Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney. Epic Rap Battles Of History

Recorded January 27, 2021

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ep39: Favorite childhood toys or the aesthetics of toys

Chris and Randall discuss the aesthetics of toys through the lens of their favorite childhood toys.

MIT paper on toy design which incorporates Piaget's stages of development http://web.mit.edu/barryk/Public/Toys/PlayPyramid.pdf

Wikipedia's toy article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy

*** Randall's aesthetic toy categories:

Physics toys: Balls, construction sets, blocks. These toys allow kids to understand the properties of the physical world.

Arts/crafts: Drawing, sculpture. These toys help kids understand themselves better and allow them to communicate with the outside world.

The adult artist creates for similar reasons as the child artist. When a child has poor access to language, arts and crafts become more

important.

Games/puzzles: These toys allow children to explore abstract concepts and invisible rules and forces. They allow children and adults a level of

social interaction that is otherwise unobtainable. Problem solving is involved as well, social skills, negotiation, communication.

Dolls: This includes any scale models, figures, toy cars, action figures, etc. Children are trying to learn about the world by modelling and

simulating it. What is a child doing when playing with a doll or toy car? They are creating a simulation of the universe. They are probing it

from different angles, seeing what happens when they perform different actions. Kids who play with dolls activate their social brain. Just like a

scientist creates a simulation to understand the weather, a child creates a simulation to understand the world. World building is frequently the

ultimate activity of childhood play.

Costumes: self-explanatory ***

Topics discussed: Piaget's Stages of Development as they relate to toys blocks Legos Construx Fisher-Price Chatter Telephone cloth books books stuffed animals Gund Steiff Toy Story (1995) Harry Harlow's experiments Lincoln Logs Tinkertoy Construction Set Giant Tinkertoys FAO Schwarz Toys "R" Us Battleship cheating video games Dungeons & Dragons Recon Risk water guns BB guns paintball Laser tag Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots Robot combat Randall's aesthetic categories (see above) Train sets Chris' giant train set remote control boat, plane, rocket kites Nerf pool Bop Bop 'n Rebop pinball Ping Pong Foosball fireworks Bang snaps Cherry bombs smoke bombs Black snake cap guns Etch A Sketch Crayola Crayons Lite-Brite Magic: The Gathering Checkers jigsaw puzzles Puzzle Zoo Ravensburger Monopoly action figures Strawberry Shortcake Barbie Dressy Bessie Dapper Dan G.I. Joe Action Jackson Six Million Dollar Man Toy soldiers Star Wars (movies) Planet of the Apes (movies) Diener Inc. KRYGO 5 Hot Wheels Matchbox Corgi toys Rudolf Steiner Waldorf toys M.U.S.C.L.E. Figures costumes Halloween Pith helmet spacesuit monster masks cowboys Knott's Berry Farm soldier vs princess Frozen (2013) Pirates toys as brain hack

recorded October 5, 2020

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ep38: What makes some art timeless?

Chris and Randall ponder what allows some art to stand the test of time.

Topics discussed: Ozymandias (poem) Is it easier for some art forms to stand the test of time than others? Pompeii Roman statuary translations Bible Greek mythology avant garde art radio Arnold Schoenberg Igor Stravinsky Ulysses (novel) Don Quixote (novel) The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (novel) Salvador Dalí the classics Shakespeare The Catcher in the Rye (novel) science vs. art Rick Beato artisans and art symphonic music Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 ETA Hoffman role of the critic good taste Citizen Kane (1941) Cahiers du Cinéma (magazine) The Great Gatsby (novel) Johnny Tremain (novel) The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (novel) nationalistic art the Mona Lisa (painting) Of Mice and Men (novel) Brave New World (novel) 1984 (novel) Treasure Island (novel) Mark Twain LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl Gore Vidal on best sellers Eric Ambler Graham Greene Aristophanes Molière Oscar Wilde Monty Python The Three Stooges Michael Jackson Woody Allen Manhattan (1979) Sleeper (1973) cancel culture the canon Emily Dickinson video games The Humans (play) King Charles III (play) live performance recorded September 28, 2020

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Chris and Randall ask, does your social class influence the art you appreciate?

Randall's four characteristics of rich-people art:

1) Not mass produced 2) Not popular 3) Have a pedigree proving its worth such as it was once popular 4) Timelessness

Topics discussed include:

the symphony opera art museums Shakespeare Pulitzer Prize winning books Infinite Jest Globe Theatre groundlings schtick, business, clownery theater low comedy Aristophanes Commedia dell'arte Vaudeville Burlesque Astor Place Riot The Industrial Revolution Buffalo Bill's Wild West The circus railroad Bach Sergei Prokofiev Arnold Schoenberg art education Thorstein Veblen The Theory of the Leisure Class conspicuous consumption Signaling Theory Emmy Awards streaming media fine art Andy Warhol and his Factory limited editions Mark Kostabi Rembrandt Damien Hirst Sistine Chapel Presidential portrait of Barack Obama class capture of art The Metropolitan Museum of Art Thy Guggenheim Hammer Museum Getty Center chamber ensemble Folk music cooption of art by the rich Pete Seeger Jazz Moneterey Jazz Festival Newport Jazz Festival Playboy Jazz Festival Bruce Springsteen "We have created the illusion of a classless society, but when it comes to our aesthetic taste, we might as well be wearing tuxedoes and sackcloths." --Chris Hamilton (musical) Arthur Miller All My Sons "We definitely have a class system in our country when it comes to entertainment and especially with the fine arts." --Chris

Recorded September 21, 2020

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Chris and Randall talk about the year in arts & entertainment.

Topics covered:

J. Paul Getty Museum storytelling COVID-19 pandemic Alex Theater 1917 (2019) Parasite (2019) Bong jun ho Snowpiercer (2013) Memories of Murder (2003) Ford v Ferrari (2019) Joker (2019) Marriage Story (2019) Green Book (2018) Halle Berry Monster's Ball (2001) Shore to Shore Film Festival 2020 Followed (2018) Matthew Ryan Brewbaker drive-in theaters streaming The Love Birds (2020) Coffee & Kareem (2020) Superintelligence (2020) On the Rocks (2020) Let Them All Talk (2020) Greyhound (2020) Mulan (2020) Tenet (2020) Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) HBO Max Netflix Apple TV+ Disney+ Avengers movies book sales and marketing children's books young adult novels Jaipur Literature Festival online reading groups Micheal Connelly Harry Bosch Eric Ambler Tom Clancy Rock the Casbah retro 80s Saved by the Bell (series) Blinding Lights Circles Neil Sedaka online concerts Nora Jones Youtube the generation gap Paul McCartney The Strokes Kansas Fleet Foxes no one will watch more TV than Gen X Star Trek TOS The Twilight Zone Star Wars: The Clone Wars (series) Transparent (series) Schitt's Creek (series) The Crown (series) The Queen's Gambit (series) lichess.org The Last Dance (series) McMillions (series) The Bee Gees: How Can You mend a Broken Heart (2020) Don't F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer (2019) Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness (series) The Undoing (series) What We Do in the Shadows (series) Ted Lasso (series) The Mandalorian (series) talk shows Saturday Night Live Real Time with Bill Maher Late Night with Seth Meyers The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon the Late Show With Stephen Colbert George Floyd Black Lives Matter blackface 30 Rock (series) Tina Fey Sarah Silverman The Sarah Silverman Program (series) Apu The Problem with Apu (2017) Kristen Bell Mr. Mayor (series) improv schools Amber Ruffin Silent Movie Theater / Cinefamily UCB Groundlings iO cooking exercise puzzles Barnes & Noble Chris' Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cknycla/ Zoom Video Communications the roaring '20s Good article on 2020 rock music: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/best-albums-2020/?fbclid=IwAR38AV6ogr6iRodi3dYwoO1TBptf0g2xZBZa-ZRjC3CQ6sEgfVe4bC7BEG8

Recorded December 30, 2020

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Chris and Randall discuss Charles Dickens' classic tale. In part two, Chris and Randall discuss various adaptations.

Of the movies, both theatrical and television, and including shorts, here are the highest rated while having at least 100 votes at time of recording.

1) Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) 8.1

2) A Christmas Carol (1951) 8.1 starring Alistair Sim

3) A Christmas Carol (1984) 7.8 starring George C. Scott

4) Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962) 7.7

5) The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) 7.7

6) A Christmas Carol (1971, animated) 7.6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN6IMZFwY50

7) Scrooge (1970, musical) 7.5

8) Christmas Carol (1978) 7.5 starring Rich Little https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AdkFdOs-Vs

9) A Christmas Carol (1938) 7.5

10) A Christmas Carol (1999) 7.4 starring Patrick Stewart

11) A Christmas Carol (2019) 7.2 miniseries, 3 1 hr episodes

12) A Christmas Carol (1969, animated) 7.2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4otTa2lRJnk

13) Scrooged (1988) 7.0 starring Bill Murray

14) A Christmas Carol (2000) 6.9

15) A Christmas Carol (2009) 6.8 directed by Robert Zemeckis

Bonus

Most popular on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxKE308POP8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peMpYHQGYp4

Most popular feature. 1997 animated TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KntAvJfGF6g

Early adaptations

Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Mk-B7MKP8

A Christmas Carol (1910) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ6ZxyjGRUk

A Christmas Carol (1914) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvVJB-5aeVg

A Christmas Carol (1923) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAbos_K_SC0

1939 radio play with Orson Welles and Lionel Barrymore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gJ3jINcTR0

"Christmas Carol" title hits on IMDB: 367 "scrooge" title hits: 108 Total: 475

Recorded December 16, 2020

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Chris and Randall discuss Charles Dickens' classic tale and various adaptations. In part one, Chris and Randall discuss the origins of the novel and the meaning of the story.

Recorded December 16, 2020

https://chrisandrandall.com/

Chris and Randall discuss what is compelling about live, in-person performance.

Topics discussed include:

Michael Jackson Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre the circus clowns fire eating sword swallowing tigers, lions, elephants school plays marching band The Taming of the Shrew The Importance of Being Earnest live music Rubén Blades Joe Jackson Carnegie Hall Mumford & Sons Bruce Hornsby in ear monitors improv being the only person in the audience LA Connection Comedy Theatre dramatic improv iO West magic shows audience participation cover bands Days of Days at Pancho's Manhattan Beach Beatlemania Returns! The Fab Faux RAIN Punk Rock recordings symphonic music tactile music Hollywood Bowl Joshua Bell challenges of recording live shows Marc Maron REDCAT Dynasty Typewriter Netflix End Times Fun Mike Birbiglia Spalding Grey Swimming to Cambodia Talking Heads Stop Making Sense 360 degree cameras the art of video editing being with your tribe storytelling Sebastian Maniscalco Robin Williams Angela Landsbury Sweeny Todd Stories LA Elaine Stritch A Little Night Music Lincoln Center

Recorded September 14, 2020

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In an epic 3 part discussion, Chris and Randall tackle what proves to be a complicated philosophical puzzle.

Topics discussed include:

Hays code It's a Wonderful Life (1946) On the Waterfront (1954) The House Committee on Un-American Activities The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) USSR Nazis Mussolini fascism The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) George Carlin FCC Straight Outta Compton (2015) Ice Cube Ice-T censorship self-censorship This Land is Your Land (song) President Obama President Trump country music Chinese censorship Alex Jones CIA and modern art Jackson Pollock Mark Rothko Operation Long Leash The Congress for Cultural Freedom The Metropolitan Museum of Art Nelson Rockefeller abstract expressionism William Paley John Hay "Jock" Whitney social Realism

recorded August 31, 2020 Visit us at https://chrisandrandall.com/

In an epic 3 part discussion, Chris and Randall tackle what proves to be a complicated philosophical puzzle.

Topics discussed include:

Fine arts Tom Clancy Ronald Reagan Jack Ryan military fiction crime fiction Darth Vader authoritarians Today's FBI (series) Top Gun (1986) Does propaganda or advertising work? advertising Soviet art mass entertainment George W. Bush administration The Hurt Locker (2008) Vice (2018) Zero Dark Thirty (2012) The Report (2019) Fair Game (2010) 9/11 Iraq War W. (2008) Nixon (1995) JFK (1991) 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) Oliver Stone Michael Moore Roger & Me (1989) Aaron Sorkin The Newsroom (series) The West Wing (series) A Few Good Men (1992) House of Cards (series, US vs UK) Madam Secretary (series) comic book movies Green Zone (2010) Paul Greengrass Spycatcher (book) Kathryn Bigelow Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter politics in comic books The Comics Code Authority Seduction of the Innocent (book) Hays Code Archie Comics Japanese comics Anime

recorded August 31, 2020

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