After a yearlong hiatus, Ruminations is back with Episode 21, the last episode before co-host Steve becomes a father! To mark this occasion (and the possibility of an even longer hiatus), Steve and Chris return to their roots: discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly of Disney. This time around, it’s mostly the Disney theme parks and their controversial changes of recent years, with a sprinkling of TV and movie talk. Which Disney landmark, according to Chris, is no longer safe? Did Steve ever finish The Acolyte? Did Chris come up with a better plot for an unnecessary Disney prequel nearly 20 years before it was announced IRL? Can one have nostalgia for a place first visited at the age of 20? How did Steve not die while drinking (and eating cheese) Around the World last summer? Come for Chris’s burning hatred of a thousand suns, stay for Steve’s inability to say “paella” and a surprise cameo appearance!

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Credits

Intro:
“Sanctuary of the Sky Gods” by Nathaniel Wyvern, CC BY 4.0 via freemusicarchive.org

Intro quotes:
The Big Lebowski (Gramercy Pictures)
Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company)
Goldfinger (United Artists)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Buena Vista Pictures)
The Shining (Warner Bros)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line Cinema)
Game of Thrones (Warner Bros/HBO)

Song credit:
“How Do You Do?” by Robert MacGimsy from various Disney parks’ “Splash Mountain” ride (RIP).

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Composite image, featuring images of Bob Iger, Splash Mountain, Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, and The Acolyte (via Google) and personal photos

Ruminations is back for the third and final episode of our Star Wars trilogy, and like the characters in Rogue One, we’re going out with a bang! Not only is Episode XX three hours long, but we have, for the first time ever, two guests! Our good friends Rob and John, possibly the biggest Star Wars fans we know, joined us to discuss the countless books and video games that comprised the Star Wars Expanded Universe for over 20 years, its transformation into “Star Wars Legends” after Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm a decade ago, and the new Disney canon of cartoons, live-action shows, one-off movies, and more. Plus, we chat about collectables! Oh, and there’s lots of Knights of the Old Republic talk and even more Knights of the Old Republic II talk. This is a really fun one, guys!

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Credits

Intro:
“Sanctuary of the Sky Gods” by Nathaniel Wyvern, CC BY 4.0 via freemusicarchive.org

Intro quotes:
The Big Lebowski (Gramercy Pictures)
Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company)
Goldfinger (United Artists)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Buena Vista Pictures)
The Shining (Warner Bros)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line Cinema)
Game of Thrones (Warner Bros/HBO)

Song credit:
“The Old Republic” by Jeremy Soule from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Featured Image credit:
Composite image/FLIPP, featuring a collage of Star Wars Legends images and personal photos

Somehow, Ruminations returned… for a second Star Wars episode! This time around, Chris and Steve are joined by their old friend Frank for a look back at a trio of root canals put to celluloid: the ill-planned and ill-executed Disney sequel trilogy. Who hates the trilogy the most? Which of the three is the best (of the worst)? Was Frank subjecting himself to nearly 9 hours of torture just to be a guest on this episode worth it? We know this is a long one, folks, but there is a surprise at the end if you can make it that far–we talk about an infamous Star Wars… thing… that has a higher pedigree than even Empire Strikes Back. We’ll leave it at that. [Note: when we recorded, Disney had not yet announced that its Galactic Star Cruiser dumpster fire of a hotel was closing. It’s definitely closing. Yub nub!]

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A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one! In the first of (at least) three episodes focused on a certain long-running space opera franchise, Chris and Steven discuss the goofy, lovable Star Wars prequels with a very special guest star: Diana, Steve’s wife of 9 months. Why do they love these movies so much? Has the trilogy been redeemed in the last two decades? What color lightsaber does Chris yearn for? All this, and more, in Episode XVIII of Ruminations!

https://ruminationspod.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/18.-ruminations-episode-xviii-the-prequels.mp3

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Ruminations is back for our seventeenth episode, this time to talk about the two prequels to juggernaut fantasy series that premiered in September, HBO’s Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon and Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. For the second time this year, this is the second version of an episode that we, Chris and Steve, recorded. Before you ask, no, no one was too drunk this time! Back in August, we recorded a grab bag episode about our respective summer trips, interesting stuff we recently watched, a wedding and a 30th birthday, and ended with our varying degrees of apprehension towards HoD and RoP, but since each show finished its first season before we could edit the episode… we decided to re-record and focus on the shows in full. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we each enjoyed one of the shows over the other.

https://ruminationspod.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/17.-ruminations-episode-xvii-house-of-power-rings-of-the-dragon.mp3

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In an episode two months in the making, Chris and Steve delve into the heart of darkness to explore five of the most famous Vietnam War movies made in the aftermath of the war in the 1970s and 80s. Which version of Apocalypse Now is best? Why is The Deer Hunter so dull? Which of us grew up thinking Full Metal Jacket was a comedy? Why does Vietnam have such a visceral place in our pop culture and collective memory? Stay to the end for a game of “Would You Rather?” and a glimpse into the first time we recorded this episode–yes, we liked this topic so much, we talked about it twice! (But only Chris remembers that.) Episode 16 is messy, a bit overlong, and has a dubious history reminiscent of its subject matter, but what else do you expect from this duo?

https://ruminationspod.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/16.-ruminations-episode-xvi-apocalypse-now-redrunks.mp3

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Happy Halloween from Ruminations! For the first half of our 15th episode, we chat about the latest movies we’ve seen in theaters, from the ground-shaking sounds of Dune to the earth-shattering disappointment of The Many Saints of Newark. Then, for the main portion of the episode (28:00 on), we break down our experiences watching two of Netflix’s recent shows, the stressful South Korean juggernaut Squid Game and Mike Flanagan’s latest horror slow-burn, Midnight Mass. Why was Matt Damon’s hair so silly in The Last Duel? Will Dune get a sequel (the answer’s yes, but we didn’t know that at the time of recording)? Was Squid Game better in Korean or in English? Was Midnight Mass a good Catholic show, as one Vox reporter lamented? Listen to find out!

https://ruminationspod.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/15.-ruminations-episode-xv-squidnight-mass-1.mp3

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For Episode XIV, Chris and Steve discuss the ins and outs of the 59-year-old James Bond franchise, which just saw its 25th movie, and the fifth and last of Daniel Craig’s run as 007, No Time to Die,  premiere in theaters this month. Well, it’s less of a discussion and more of Steve talking about a series of movies and books near and dear to his heart while Chris feigns interest. (To Chris’s credit, he has a better grasp on Bond than Steve does many of his esoteric religious interests.) What’s the best Bond song? Who’s the worst Bond? Why did George Lazenby only do one movie and later intimidate a teenaged Steve at a nerdy movie convention? Who will the next Bond be? Most importantly–to Chris at least–what aspects of the franchise directly influenced Austin Powers? Ruminations will return!

https://ruminationspod.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/14.-ruminations-episode-xiv-on-her-majestys-secret-agent.mp3

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For Episode XIII, Chris and Steve discuss … not Star Wars for the 4th episode in a row! Instead, due to recent AMC 4K re-releases, they talk about their favorite piece of popular culture ever, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson’s seminal film adaptations, the first of which will be celebrating its 20th anniversary later this year. For the episode’s first half, Steve, having watched 15 hours of behind-the-scenes footage and read a 560-page book on Jackson’s journey through Middle-Earth, focuses on the making of the trilogy and The Hobbit, its much, much worse prequel series. For the second half, Chris channels his inner Elrond and fields Steve’s questions on Tolkien’s themes, alleged plot-holes, and the Bible of Tolkien’s legendarium, The Silmarillion. Altogether, it amounts to 2 hours of Middle-Earth content! A day may come when Ruminations releases a short podcast … but it is not THIS day.

https://ruminationspod.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ruminations-episode-xiii-the-podcast-of-the-rings.mp3

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Chris and Steve discuss a range of topics relating to Christmas movies with Lou, Ruminations’ second-ever guest host. Questions like: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Is Ron Howard’s Grinch movie worth its two-hour runtime? Why can’t Steve keep the Rankin/Bass movies straight? Will Mel Gibson’s Fatman become a perennial Christmas watch? How many times has Lou seen Jingle All the Way? How does it feel to spit up whiskey and/or to record half of a podcast with the hiccups? All of this and more in the messiest, most laugh-filled episode of Ruminations so far! Give us a listen, and merry Christmas to all of our listeners!

https://ruminationspod.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ruminations-episode-xii-christmas-all-the-way.mp3

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