Mt. Rushmore Podcast

Months.

From caterpillarn to month. We see the beautiful transformation of...

**SPELLCHECK**

Month.

The thing one crams pizzah intah.

We are on vacay!! But we didn't want to miss an episode. So we dug deep into our archives in 2015, before we started recording and releasing podcasts, to when we recorded a "test" episode to see if this was a viable podcast. And we went through with it anyway.

It's game day! Time to head out to the stadium and root for your favorite team! Well, that's fine if you are some sort of Rockefeller who can afford tickets to any college or pro sports team, or if you like watching ants run around on the field from your nosebleed seats. For the rest of us, heading out to watch the game usually means hitting up the bar.

This week we're talking about everything – and everyone – that makes a trip to the sports bar great and miserable at the same time. Win or lose, these are the fans you're likely to encounter while watching the Big Game. So, put on your throwback jersey, order 20 pounds of wings and a couple of pitchers of Miller Lite and check out this week's new episode.

SHOW NOTES

• Going to a Specific Team Bar (Michael's Choice)
• Guy Who Wants to Watch a Random Game (Richard's Choice)
• Getting the Audio and the TV Channel Correct (Michael's Choice)
• Timing When to Arrive and Leave (Richard's Choice)
• An Excuse to Drink Morning Beers (Michael's Choice)
• The Guy Who Thinks He Knows More About Sports Than You (Richard's Choice)
• Sports on TV at a Nice Restaurant (Michael's Choice)
• Richard Watching the 2005 USC/Notre Dame Game at the Albuquerque Airport (Richard's Choice)

Grocery shopping is one of those things that ALL of us have to do, whether you are making a big trip to get your weekly meal supplies or just need to stop in to grab a few things. Depending on your point of view (and the check-out line), it can either be a relaxing way to spend some time or a trip to a hellish nightmare.

(This also depends on if you go to Costco or not.)

This week we're diving into grocery shopping and all of the wonderful/awful things about it. And don't worry, our choices add up to less than 10 items.

SHOW NOTES

• Check-Out Line Profiling (Michael's Choice)
• The Express Line (Richard's Choice)
• Going to a New Grocery Store (Michael's Choice)
• Self Check-Out (Richard's Choice)
• Not Cooking After Shopping (Michael's Choice)
• The Clearance Section (Richard's Choice)
• The Cereal Aisle as a Kid (Michael's Choice)
• Late Night Family Shopping (Richard's Choice)

Some of us are old enough to remember when the year 2000 was a benchmark for the promise of the future. And 2000 was a weird year, even if people weren't zooming to work on jetpacks or eating hamburger pills for dinner. Not least of all, it seemed like January 1, 2000 would be the end of Western Civilization thanks to the Y2K bug.

Y2K never really hit, and we had to wait until November 2016 for the apocalypse, but 2000 was a very interesting year in all of our lives. So let's turn back the clock to the days of boy bands, Tiger Woods and True Religion jeans and check in on what was big in 2000.

SHOW NOTES

• Y2K Scare (Joint Choice)
• Flying Cars (Richard's Choice)
• New Year's Eve (Michael's Choice)
• Richard's Nights at the Smog Cutter (Richard's Choice)
• Sci-Fi Promises (Michael's Choice)
• The Sorry State of Rock Music in 2000 (Richard's Choice)
• Bush vs. Gore (Michael's Choice)

Cats are trusting, loyal and loveable pets.

Wait, I'm thinking about dogs. Let me start over.

Cats are jerks.

That being said, we love our cats anyway - everyone on the show has at least one. So it only made sense to do an episode where we decide which animals would belong on a feline Mt. Rushmore. Expect plenty of talk about Mondays, lasagna and Richard making a terrible, stupid mistake.

SHOW NOTES

• The Cheshire Cat (Michael's Choice)
• Garfield (Richard's Choice)
• Lil' Bub (Michael's Choice)
• Maru (Richard's Choice)
• Felix the Cat (Michael's Choice)
• Bill the Cat (Richard's Choice)
• Toonces the Driving Cat (Michael's Choice)
• Peter Criss (aka Catman from Kiss) (Richard's Choice)

Celebrity stature has a huge influence on the world at large. Just by their sheer presence of being popular, famous and wealthy, they inspire us, the lowly dregs of society, to imagine that we TOO could be popular, famous and wealthy by buying the crap they promote. From Michael Jordan's Nike campaign to Brooke Shields wiggling like a weirdo in her Calvins, we examine the products and politics of Celebrity Endorsements.

Bram Stoker didn't intend Dracula to become one of the most endearing comedic characters of all-time. But I'll be damned if it didn't turn out that way. If you are making a comedy and you need laughs, there's a good chance that ol' Stakey Heart is the first name to which you turn.

This week we're looking at the Mt. Rushmore of Comedic Draculas. And no, that doesn't include Keanu Reeves' performance - we mean INTENTIONALLY funny Draculas.

CHOICES

• George Hamilton in "Love at First Bite" (Joint Choice)
• Leslie Nielsen in "Dracula: Dead and Loving It (Joint Choice)
• Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horrors IV" (Richard's Choice)
• Grandpa from "The Munsters" (Michael's Choice)
• Judd Hirsch from "The Halloween That Almost Wasn't) (Richard's Choice)
• Garbage Pail Kids Draculas (Michael's Choice)

61 percent of Americans wear glasses, while the other 39 percent are either lying to themselves or will need them soon enough. Fortunately, wearing glasses doesn't make you a nerd anymore. (Lots of other things make YOU a nerd, but I digress...)

In fact, some of the most iconic looks in pop culture history involve someone wearing a particularly hip style of glasses. Want to see what we mean? Just hold this up to your left eye and see if you make out the choices below:

SHOW NOTES

• Buddy Holly Glasses (Richard's Choice)
• Geordie LaForge (Michael's Choice)
• Ray-Ban Sunglasses (Richard's Choice)
• New Year's Eve Novelty Glasses (Michael's Choice)
• Randy "Macho Man" Savage's Wrap-Around Sunglasses (Richard's Choice)
• Clark Kent (Michael's Choice)
• Mr. Peanut's Monocle (Richard's Choice)
• Holly Golightly (Michael's Choice)

If you're a famous musician, it's easy to feel like you are doing the same thing over and over. Sometimes you just need to mix it up and do something different. Play a style of music you aren't known for, or collaborate with a new group of musicians.

Of course, this can come at a cost, as the "musical side project" is often code for "pretentious, navel-gazing mediocrity." But there are some definite exceptions to this rule, which is why we're debating what belongs on the Rushmore of Musical Side Projects.

SHOW NOTES

• Traveling Wilburys (Joint Choice)
• Monsters of Folk (Michael's Choice)
• New Pornographers (Richard's Choice)
• The Glove (Michael's Choice)
• Power Station (Richard's Choice)
• Gorillaz (Michael's Choice)
• The Raconteurs (Richard's Choice)

Sometimes the best actors aren't actor-actors, you know what we mean? It's those actors who are acting at acting.

On this episode we examine a number of amazing dramatic acting performances by those that are more attuned to wearing a comedic, musical or even a luchador mask.

Michael's Picks:

• Bill Murray (Lost in Translation)
• Madonna (Dick Tracy)
• Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
• George "The Animal" Steele (Ed Wood)

Richard's Picks:

• Henry Gibson (Nashville)
• Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me)
• Pam Greer (Jackie Brown)
• Courtney Love (The People vs. Larry Flynt)