Anne Levine Show
Funny, weekly, sugar free: Starring "Michael-over-there."
Anne Levine Show
The Beast In Us
Start with a campy jolt of delight: we rave about The Beast In Me, a sleek Manhattan mystery that wears its Murder She Wrote spirit with zero wink. Claire Danes is magnetic, Matthew Rhys makes a delicious villain, and the joy is letting the show be what it is—lush, pulpy, and irresistible. From there we trade screens for survival, digging into VEIN, a post-apocalyptic computer game set in upstate New York with real seasons, wildlife, and consequences. Customize your character’s constraints, scavenge like your life depends on it, and plan for the day the power fades. It’s an infinity game in the best sense, inviting strategy, grit, and unexpected tenderness.
We keep the thread on endless play and meaning by reaching for Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and the echo of Shakespeare’s “tomorrow and tomorrow” that lingers beneath every restart. Then the tone shifts intimate and luminous: Come See Me in the Good Light, the Andrea Gibson documentary that holds humor, love, illness, and legacy with open hands. With Tig Notaro’s early spark and Meg Falle’s steady presence, it’s a portrait that will stay with you. If you’re gifting this season, Andrea’s books are balm.
When comfort calls for chaos, we break down Nobody Two—Bob Odenkirk’s neon-tinted, retro-lodge action romp featuring Christopher Lloyd’s welcome mischief. It isn’t the first film’s tight surprise, but it’s playful, explosive fun. We also build a Thanksgiving watchlist that actually fits the week’s mood: Hannah and Her Sisters for layered family rhythms and autumn glow, and Silver Linings Playbook for raw energy and earned warmth. To balance the table, we ground the holiday in place and history, from Wampanoag remembrance on Cape Cod to a candid look at first encounters that don’t fit the textbook myth.
We close with small human epics: a bus driver’s gentle mic-drop “I don’t like buses anymore” and a Barbie-pink child’s bike ridden fifty miles for charity. They’re reminders that choice can be a plot twist and kindness a genre. If this mix of sharp recs, grounded history, and heart-forward stories hits your sweet spot, tap follow, share with a friend, and leave a quick review—what will you watch or play first?
Find our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/447251562357065/
Hello. Welcome to the Anne Levine Show. It's Tuesday, November 25th, 2025. We're coming to you from W O M R 92.1 FM in Province Town.
SPEAKER_03:And WFMR FM 93.1 Orleans, and we're streaming worldwide at W O M R dot O R G. That's Michael over there. Hello.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm Anne Levine over here.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:And we are we here we are. Here we are, yeah. We are we. Oh, it sure is, and I'm feeling it tonight.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I've got a little bit of a hangover. Uh um, but as someone who doesn't and has never had even had a drink, because I'm allergic, I'm not sure what it means.
SPEAKER_03:What does it mean?
SPEAKER_02:No, I just mean like, you know, I feel like I have a hangover. I don't actually know what a hangover feels like.
SPEAKER_03:Right, okay, well, uh yeah. Do you have a headache?
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. But my sinuses feel a little Okay, not terri that's not hangover related then, probably. And I feel really tired and kind of spaced out. Okay, well, I mean, that's that could be anything.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, alright. I have anything.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because I'm an everything woman as opposed to a nowhere man. Yeah. Right?
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:That's like sounds the like the lyrics to a horrible country song.
SPEAKER_03:It kinda does, yeah. I'm everything woman, yeah. No, that doesn't no, that does not sound right at all. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Uh yeah. That's just uh bad reputation, is what that sounds like. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Which one is the bad reputation? Exactly.
SPEAKER_03:Either one, I suppose. It's depending on which side of it you're on. You know. Which side you're on. Well, you might, you know, your equation may be slightly different from someone else's.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I don't I don't have any equation.
SPEAKER_03:You have no Well, I know, but other people are listening and they have no putting themselves into that position. I see what you're saying.
SPEAKER_02:I see what you're saying. I've been watching something that I'm addicted to. I'm well, it's The Beast in Me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Which is on Netflix. And it's Claire Janes and Matthew Reese. And it's also what's his name, Mike?
SPEAKER_03:Uh Jonathan Banks.
SPEAKER_02:Jonathan Banks.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the guy who played Mike in Breaking Bad. And then there's And a million bad guys in the 80s and 90s. Oh my God, he was everywhere.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and who popped up in this most recent episode are two um Red Reddington people.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:The blacklist.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Um one is the Indian woman who was playing in Israeli.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't remember.
SPEAKER_02:I don't remember her name, but she's in this as like a slick, high-powered lawyer. Okay, yeah. And there was the other guy who was, I don't know, light brown, Middle Eastern, maybe part Indian, maybe, um, with really, really skinny, with a beard, and he was kind of like the the computer guy. You know how there's always one. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I yeah, I know who you're talking about.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:So the Natalie Morales is also in this. She's the the smiley Hispanic Shelley.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, um, those two people from that that cast are in this. And so there must be some cross pollination there.
SPEAKER_03:Amir Arison is the uh you know the nerd guy, yeah. Um I'm still trying to find what's her name. I know she's in here somewhere. Israeli woman play that. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, she'll be here somewhere. She'll be here.
SPEAKER_02:Um, anyhow, the beast in me, yeah, which has a divine cast of fabulous actors, is Brittany Snow is also in it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I told Michael that if I had to sum up in this i in one sentence, what this is, is Angela Lansberry, um, murder she wrote for the year 2025. And it is exactly murder she wrote, and you won't recognize that right away. Um Right.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I mean, if you remember, if it's at the top of your mind and the show starts and you realize she's a writer, exactly. There you go. There's your first, you know, first clue that it's somehow similar.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Well, I didn't I did not go into this thinking any knowing anything, except I heard uh an interview with Claire Dean's.
SPEAKER_03:Who I think is fabulous. I do too. I adore her. So there are some there are some people on the planet that play like odd and messed up and weird people so well, and she is all over it. Well people with you know mental illness, yeah, she's brilliant at it. I mean, her face is just it's so all these tiny minute, she doesn't specialize in just one mental illness.
SPEAKER_02:Oh no, she's got them all she's across the spectrum.
SPEAKER_03:Temple Grandin.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that was amazing.
SPEAKER_02:It was amazing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And um Homeland, she was playing someone bipolar. Yep. Anyhow. Um that's awesome. Yep. She's done a nice range of um people. Yeah. She also, you know, she was Juliet opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.
SPEAKER_03:I I did know that. Back when they were I remember seeing that when it first came out. I was a little annoyed, but annoyed by what? Well, the whole modernization of Romeo and Juliet and because it kind of messes with some some of the story, I think. But anyway.
SPEAKER_02:What about the modernization of murder she wrote?
SPEAKER_03:Well, how do you feel about it? Being that that's fairly modern already, I'm I'm a little okay with that.
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, how long ago is that? Uh 20, 30 years ago? Yeah. So, you know. Yeah. It's it's it's ancient history to a lot of people. Anyway, this is totally um updated. It's modern. Um, it takes place in Manhattan, and then someplace that's probably like Chappaqua, like a super wealthy um somewhere in the Hudson River Valley little enclave. It's fancy. Right outside New York. It's very fancy. Yeah. Uh and it's it's fascinating. Um, Matthew Reese plays a villain, um, which is clear from the beginning, no spoilers here. Um, it's uh most of this is pretty clear, actually. It's a strange one of the strange things about it, right? It is getting worse and worse as it goes. I think it's only eight episodes in this whole season. So I've I've finished six so far. Anyway, and I know exactly what's coming. Anyway, um the uh so she is trying to figure out a murder case. She ends up in in uh this villain is like a billionaire, you know, money mover.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And um Matthew is.
SPEAKER_03:Anyhow with a really weird hair dye situation. Yeah. His hair is so dark. It's so black, and there's there's Which it never has been. No, and there's not a bit of gray. There's nothing in it, right? But the face belies the fact that there's no gray. Yeah, it's you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's just a weird, you know, tick.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But I think this is really good. If you don't take it too seriously, in other words, go into it thinking about the Anne Levine version of this, which is Murder She Wrote.
SPEAKER_03:Right, yeah. Right. If you go into it as Murder She Wrote, this is a it's a it's it's delightful.
SPEAKER_02:It's delightful. And uh you don't have to worry about continuity. There's a lot of stuff you don't have to worry about if you don't take it too seriously. And I got obsessed. I watched the first episode, The Pilot, and I was like, boom, I'm in. Yeah, I'm all in. And it was the first time in a long time I saw anything that had me so excited that I I was like, uh, I gotta watch episode two right now. Isn't that something? Yeah. Yeah, it totally grabbed me.
SPEAKER_03:I'm having the same situation, but not about a show. You are having quite a situation. I am. Oh, it's an and it's about a video game. And uh it's a you know, a survival, uh you know, post-apocalyptic, you know, kind of zombie survival game, which is really kind of not my thing to begin with, but it is so in-depth, and it is so oh man, there is so much to do that uh it is intensely complicated. You can get diabetes and tuberculosis, you can find ways to to deal with those things too. It's just really So you say give yourself diabetes. You can't right. You can actually, when you start off the game, you can give your character diabetes so that you have to go around and scram scrounge up uh syringes and insulin wherever you can find it.
SPEAKER_02:So is that what you did?
SPEAKER_03:No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02:Now, what other ailment is so do you have to give yourself an ailment?
SPEAKER_03:You do not. But you can give yourself a peanut allergy, you can Yeah, you can do all kinds you can do all kinds of crazy things to What's this thing called? It's called vein. V-E-I-N. Vain.
SPEAKER_02:So now I don't understand this totally.
SPEAKER_03:I spent all day yesterday cooking in the kitchen, baking bread and grilling things.
SPEAKER_02:See that I understand. I what I don't understand is who signs up for making the choices in the beginning where you're like in some park trying to find syringes.
SPEAKER_03:Well, because it because it gives you a different game. It makes it a completely different game.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so this is this is like um oh, I read a book about this.
SPEAKER_03:There are there are cars that might have keys in them. You can hotwire them if you're if you're good enough. I mean, uh and and the power and the water are still on, but in a month and a half, they will both disappear. And you have to be ready for that.
SPEAKER_02:But okay, so there are things that come at you.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Not everything is your oh, zombies, zombies and wolves and uh wild boars and foxes. There are a bunch of critters out there that that uh will also come after you. Yeah. And some that will uh like deer that will just jump out of the trees and scare the big jeebers out of you while you're uh trying to do other things, yeah. Good great. And you can hunt them and and get resources from them from you know, food and pelts and so on and so forth, uh in order to carry on. Yeah. It's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:It's really a very cool game. And I and it's a the strange thing is that I am not a trendy guy. I don't go along with trends, but man, oh man, there are a lot of people that are obsessed with this game. I'm playing it solo right now. You don't have to. You can play it with hundreds of other people at the same time.
SPEAKER_02:So are there enough people right now playing this game so that you've got uh people you can hook are there groups you can join? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:There are many. This game has been around for a long time, actually. It just has been uh it was a it's a big upgrade from its very first version, which was about 15 years ago. And uh and people were still playing the old version, and now this one came out and it's uh it's it's radically, radically different. It's very visual, it's it's really very cool. Huh. And you can watch TV. You can go you go around and you go around Luton houses and find uh DVDs and stuff that are in there, and and you can put them in your uh DVD player and watch them. Oh they are all uh in someone's living room? They're all public domain. Right, so there's there's uh tons of them out there um that you can uh like MP4s that you can download and just turn them, put them, plug them right into your TV.
SPEAKER_02:It's really well what you're describing is an infinity game. Yeah, it's yeah I mean you can play this for the rest of your life easily, eight hours a day.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, and uh there are there are uh you know there's temperature, there's weather, there's seasons, it will become winter in upstate New York.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03:Uh which is where this is all at.
SPEAKER_02:But if you've chosen if you've chosen to be in Ecuador, oh I see. You don't have a choice about where you are?
SPEAKER_03:No, this is all in upstate New York.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my God.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that puts a certain costume.
SPEAKER_03:All in the Champlain Valley, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Well, I'm familiar with that area, as are you.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm. You can uh you uh Clinton Correctional Facility, the prison.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Is there and you can go to it. Why would you go there? To to loot weapons and and stuff in the gate. That's in the prison, yeah. I thought you were saying that you can go visit the prison. No, no, no, no. But you you can't you well you can. And that's where you know that's where I uh headed to get security cameras and monitors and stuff like that to set up at my property. At my uh home base.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so are you and sh now are the police looking for you or something?
SPEAKER_03:No, I I don't no consequences. I've not seen another person that's alive. It's all been zombies so far. Oh boy, it's the Zombs. I'm sure there's some out there.
SPEAKER_02:The Zombs are coming.
SPEAKER_03:I don't think any of them are gonna be nice, though. You know?
SPEAKER_02:So Well, you never know about a Zom.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, the Zombs are not nice.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, yeah, but you never know, you know, you know mostly that they're not gonna be real nice.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Yeah. Uh so anyway, I'm having a blast with it. I really am. It's it's just vain tons and tons of fun, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, there's a novel that I spoke about at some point when I read it, maybe it was a year ago, called Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. And it's by Gabrielle Zevin, Z-E-V-I-N. It is one of my favorite books that I've read novels in a long time. Wow. And it is about a fairly redundant title. Um, well, there's a reason it's called that. Um you know what that's from, right? Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow? No. Shakespeare.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Uh Hamlet. Anyway. From Hamlet? Yeah. I see I don't remember that at all. Okay. Well. Um anyhow. I'll have to look that up because yeah, because maybe I have the wrong place.
SPEAKER_02:Uh well, yes, you Yeah. Hamlet centric.
SPEAKER_03:I yeah, he uh out of all of Shakespeare, that's that's my jam right there.
SPEAKER_02:It's your Hamlet.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um I'm trying to now I know there's someone out there screaming. Is it Macbeth? Yep. Okay. Um through this dreary do you have the the uh let me click it.
SPEAKER_03:Let's see. Tomorrow, tom and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty place, petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out oh my god, look at this. All our yesterdays, out, out, right there. Yep. Life's but a walking shadow, Struts and Fretz player, Strutz and Fretz's hour on the stage. How many, how many common things in day-to-day life are coming just from this tiny little from these few lines full of sound and fury signifying nothing. There is so much that we people use every day right here.
SPEAKER_01:Well, see, this is amazing.
SPEAKER_02:This is what the Anne Levine Show has been about since 2007. It's about parsing literary.
SPEAKER_03:This is this is actually masterpieces. I don't remember having read this entire line uh like this. Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Um but you do now remember tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Yeah, yeah. In context. Yeah. Okay. Well, I just I will finish up saying that it's an incredible book about people who invent a an infinity game. An infinity video game. Okay. Um, something that sounds a lot like Vane.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you know, you know the hair s here's an interesting thing about that. That uh that uh you know the uh the initial video games kind of used to be infinity infinity video games. Yeah, like The Sims, right? Uh Donkey Kong. Oh, see that uh never ends. You just keep climbing and climbing and climbing and climbing and climbing and climbing.
SPEAKER_02:Well, um Mario Brothers wasn't quite Infinity, but it was a heck of a long time.
SPEAKER_03:Long way, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Doing the same thing over and I get what you're saying, yes.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, so they created this ongoing thing. Right. I love those games, by the way. They're great.
SPEAKER_02:Well, this is a fantastic novel, especially if you're not into video games. And what I mean by that is I'm not into them, and I loved this novel. So I recommend this to anyone. Okay. Really great. Where were we? How did we get here? Oh no, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Oh, your infinity game. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It's a good one. Well then you were talking about no, you were talking about the beast.
SPEAKER_02:I was talking about the beast in me and how it grabbed me and made me want to keep going. Um so I recommend it and um take it with a grain of high camp, but no one's winking at you. You know, it's one of those things where if you know, you know. Um I saw something really spectacular, which is Come See Me in the Good Light, which is the biography, it's a documentary of Andrea Gibson, who was the poet laureate of Colorado, and who was one of the most amazing spoken-word poets and presenters. And it wasn't like a slam exactly type of thing that she did. She was also deeply funny, but deeply intense. And this is about the end of her life, and it's very extraordinary, it's very personal, and it's so open, and I think part of that is because um also about her wife, um, Meg Falle, who's another poet who's fantastic. Um, so she's the other person that you see a lot in this film. Um, Tig Nataro was one of the may have been the initial, yeah. I think she she was the person who came up with the idea of making this documentary. And she and Andrea were like very, very close. And in fact, uh Tig was at her deathbed. Um quite a quite a wild thing. But see this film, it's fantastic. Um it's sad, but it's not the more you know Andrea, the more painful it is. I don't know how to explain it. It's not gonna ruin, you know. I don't know. It didn't, it wasn't ruinous for me.
SPEAKER_06:No.
SPEAKER_02:It didn't no, it didn't make me, even though I'm very familiar with the story, with the poems, Andrea Gibson, by the way, if you're looking for a great gift, it sounds like they're someone's paying me for this. If you're looking for a great gift to give someone um in these coming holiday situations, uh a copy of something of of Andrea Gibson's books is fantastic. I'm gonna get uh several of them and send them to people who need them. Um come see me in the good light. You must watch it. It's on Apple TV, and that's not optional, that's homework. Yeah. Now, Michael, you have a film to introduce.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, we saw this one. Um for for those of you who are fans of Bob Odenkirk and all of the funny, wonderful stuff he's done. Um this isn't this isn't one of the funny ones, but it's a lot of fun. Um He's done two movies now entitled Nobody. And this is we watch Nobody Two. And uh it is what? It's an action movie, right? I mean It's so weird.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, it definitely reminded me of what am I with the Kenobi Lake Park.
SPEAKER_03:With the the yeah, what the heck? The way way back? No. I mean that was Kenobi Lake Park. Yeah, no, but I mean Yeah, um Oh, with the yeah, with the the the you mean the amusing park and everything that they went to, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:The whole set, the whole setting of the weird kind of like vacation-esque sort of. But it was kind of back to the future in some ways. It was like the 70s. The location was like the 70s.
SPEAKER_03:Right. It's it was very uh it was like a trip back in time, yeah. Right. So um And it was insane. There's guns and and knives and explosions and oh, it's a blast.
SPEAKER_02:And speaking of it.
SPEAKER_03:Christopher Lloyd is in it. That's what I was gonna say. Speaking of back to the future, he's so much fun, that guy. Yeah. And I'm so glad to see that he is still working because he's he plays Bob Odenkirk's dad in both of these movies. And he is a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_02:Well, those scenes in that lodge, you know, with like the uh the room they stayed in.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yep. It's all very, very retro.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's bizarre because the film doesn't start like that at all. No. You know, but then they get in their, you know, whatever it is, their SUV, um, family of six or whatever, and head off to this place, and suddenly you're in the 70s. Yeah. It's really weird. But there's no mention of that.
SPEAKER_03:There's no Well, they didn't time travel. It's just that that's a the town itself never got out of the 70s. Right.
SPEAKER_02:But there's no way you would have where this doesn't exist, this place.
SPEAKER_03:Well, no, of course. I mean, the premise of it is very silly.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Well, that's the other stone.
SPEAKER_03:Sharon Stone is a criminal mastermind, exactly. Psychopathic criminal mastermind. Some like drug cartel. Owns a town. Right. That uh they do all they do all their business in, and then some guy goes in with his family to take a vacation, and boom, they're at each other's throat. Yeah. It's uh it's fun though. It really is fun.
SPEAKER_02:Bob and Christopher for I can't remember what's the story with Bob? He's some sort of you know, he's an agent or something.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, right. He uh yeah, he he he he worked for the government as um I'm trying to remember what the an auditor is what he was called, and he is a guy who gets in sent to places to fix problems. Big big problems. And that usually has to do with like removing bad guys. That was his that was that was his job during the day. Removing bad guys. Yes. That's that that's his job during the day. That's fabulous. Um so yeah. Anyway, it's it it's so much fun. It's goofy as all get out, and you can't take it seriously. It doesn't take itself all that seriously.
SPEAKER_02:No. Um I mean this is not a film you would recommend this, right? Oh yeah, yeah. It's because it's fun. Okay, so f I would not recommend this necessarily. This certainly wasn't it's not as good as the first one. Right. Um so So you can s nobody the first one was very interesting to me. Yeah. Um, this one, um, you're expecting certain things from Bob that you never saw coming in the beginning.
SPEAKER_03:Anyway, yeah, that is true. That is true. You're you aren't surprised. There isn't that moment of surprise when uh when you notice, oh, he's not this timid little guy that he's pretending to be all the time. Right. Can't make it to the garbage truck on garbage day. Yeah. Can't get the cans out on garbage day. He never can. He doesn't do it in this movie either. He tries. He does try. He's got a little problem with that. Yeah. I don't know. Anyway, it's it's a lot of fun. Um I do recommend the first one. Yeah, certainly more than this one. Yeah. This one was very colorful. It was. It was extremely colorful. Yeah, lots of yellows and reds and yeah, it's really I don't know. I noticed that right away. Very bizarre movie. Um yeah, not not meant for uh education, but just uh just basically to waste some time. We had a well a couple different looks at things.
SPEAKER_02:Uh but this one is a special one. Uh but this is about a community choir in Minnesota that holds rehearsals in a park. Okay. And this is something that I had been reminiscing about recently. Um, in boarding school, I was in the choir, and every now and then we would go into the woods and sing there. It would echo all over the place just as a fun little thing. It was it was magical. Anyway, this is a little different. One week a duck walked over during the rehearsal in the park, stood with the tenors, and quacked perfectly on beat. Ah, I believe it.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my god. I've seen parrots do this all the time.
SPEAKER_02:Well, he is now listed on their website as percussionslash waterfowl.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that is awesome.
SPEAKER_02:I know.
SPEAKER_03:That is incredible.
SPEAKER_02:I want I want to be He got the job. He did. I want to be part of that choir. Right on. You know, you do have to. Uh I'm gonna take us on a complete detour here.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:So when we were talking about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, I I know the story. I think we all know the story, that they grew up two blocks away from each other, two years apart, ended up being best friends, went through high school together, and then went to college together, and then they were trying to get work as actors. And they they would get a few things here and there, a commercial or something, but they were really trying to break through through. Yeah. And they said, let's sit down and write what we would want to be in. And they wrote um Goodwill hunting. Okay, so some questions. First of all, these guys just sit down and write a screenplay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I guess, yeah. Well, that's not, you know, normal. No, no, but I mean, for some people it is. I I Seth Rogan and his friend Evan wrote Super Bad when they were 14 or 15.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but I know from Seth Rogan, I know that he was a child actor. So he at least was familiar with what a script is.
SPEAKER_06:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02:I I don't know how to explain it, just the way they tell the story just sounds completely bonkers. Yeah. Well, they're they're very focused and driven guys, both of them. But then, okay, so they write this thing. Um, and then how do they get it taken by a studio?
SPEAKER_03:No idea how that happened, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And it's not like, you know, it was some sort of little film. It was presented as something huge. Right. It was Robin Williams. Um who else was in it, Dornet? Um oh, in in the in the movie.
SPEAKER_03:In Goodwill Hunting, yeah. Uh well, Robin Williams.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Uh Mini Driver.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Um, so it was, you know, not like five people we haven't seen. It was a big film. It had a lot of money and so it's that step that's kind of missing for me in that story. So they say, yeah, well, we wrote this brilliant screenplay magically.
SPEAKER_03:Actually, he uh let's see, um he started writing Goodwill Hunting as a final assignment for a playwriting class in his fifth year at Harvard. This is Matt Damon, turning in a script of around 40 pages instead of a one-act play requested. Okay. Uh the only scene actually that stayed was the uh verbatim was their first meeting. But that stayed in the first script. Uh the rest of it changed quite a bit. But uh, let's see. He took uh he went to work on a film called Geronimo in Los Angeles with uh Ben Affleck, and he brought the script with him. Uh-huh. Um then he asked uh Ben for input and then they started working on it together. Uh they were inspired by Quentin Tarantino, by the way. Right. And Reservoir Dogs. Uh-huh. Um I d I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I Yeah, see, I want to know then then what? So how did how did they get it put in front of anybody? You know, I mean I'm taking them at their word that He brought it to their agent.
SPEAKER_03:And their agent went to work on it. Which agent? His name is Patrick Whitesell.
SPEAKER_02:With uh CAA with William Morris, do we know? Well, anyhow. Endeavor. Endeavour. Endeavor talent, yeah. Well, okay. So didn't you enjoy this detour?
SPEAKER_03:I think it's actually very cool because it it's a great movie. Um it really is. It's one of the great movies.
SPEAKER_02:I mean Oh yeah. It's definitely on my list of must see and it's also evergreen. Yeah. It doesn't have too much to do.
SPEAKER_03:It's not really going to be, you know, go out of yeah. Because they're not using, you know, I mean, it's it's yeah, okay, it's about MIT, but they're not saying, hey, look at this current technology. Oh, it has nothing to do with technology. Right.
SPEAKER_02:So, you know, because that's gonna go out of well, if it did, it would be a different film, actually. Because, you know, the chalkboard has everything to do with it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_02:So, anyhow, see if you haven't seen it, Goodwill Hunting. See if you feel like it, nobody too.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you can we can you can do that if you want to. How about uh do you have a Thanksgiving recommendation for a film? Some people want to do that. Uh they do? What would you want to watch? Actually, Thanksgiving is one of the uh it used to be one of the biggest, you know, cinema days uh in the country.
SPEAKER_02:Well, um Christmas Day is Christmas Day and Thanksgiving, yeah. Um I don't know if I a Thanksgiving movie?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Gosh. I don't know what that would even be.
SPEAKER_03:I would say Well, there's the Charlie Brown one. You know. Well, yeah. That of course is the right uh That's the correct answer.
SPEAKER_02:Um but I was thinking you might want to do something football and go with any given Sunday. Okay, yeah. Or Rudy.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, Rudy's a good one.
SPEAKER_02:Would that be I'm thinking like, you know, autumnal because I can't think of a single movie and I'm gonna kick myself for saying this later, but a single movie that has a great Thanksgiving scene in it.
SPEAKER_03:Um Well, here you go. I've got one for you.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Hannah and her sisters.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I you know what I was thinking? Annie Hall.
SPEAKER_03:Three Thanksgiving dinners in Hannah and Her Sisters. Okay. So, yeah. Oh, I'm gonna have to reach three sisters are doing Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's the whole that's I'm gonna have to rewatch it. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:So that's a that's a good one.
SPEAKER_02:Didn't that win the Oscar or come close? I don't know. I think maybe Diane Weist um was in that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, she was, yes. Uh let's see, Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher, Barbara Hershey, Marino Sullivan, Diane Weist, Max Voncito, Michael Kane, Lloyd Nolan. I loved it. Wow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:What an amazing cast.
SPEAKER_03:I know. It's incredible.
SPEAKER_02:Woody Allen.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I was thinking Annie Hall. I was thinking about that dinner scene. And I was trying to remember if that was Thanksgiving or not, but I don't think it was.
SPEAKER_03:Um Well, so I think we have found, I think we have found like the definitive Hannah and her sexgiving film. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Isn't that a bummer?
SPEAKER_03:Well, okay. Uh so maybe maybe you don't want to watch that one. I mean, it is a bummer, right? I don't know. It's funny. It's okay. It's got the heart tugging kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02:Watch Hannah and her sisters. Thank you, Woody Allen, for such a fantastic title.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Just rolls off your tongue, Hannah and her sisters. And no other Thanksgiving movies?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I don't know. There's probably a few more, yeah. Let's see. You just sounded like Jimmy Stewart. Um Silver Lining's playbook has some kind of thing in it.
SPEAKER_02:That's a really good one.
SPEAKER_03:That's a great movie.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's a good Thanksgiving movie.
SPEAKER_03:The first big one uh I remember with Jennifer Lawrence in it.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_03:See Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. That was that was really cool.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, David O.
SPEAKER_03:Russell movie. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I recommend that one. Okay, so we've got two Thanksgiving recommendations.
SPEAKER_03:I want to know what everyone's doing for You know, well, I and then you can go do the things like planes, trains, automobiles, the the earlier the Christmassy kind of things, because you know, that's the switch is flipped.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, my switch is on Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_03:My switch is a few.
SPEAKER_02:Well, now uh Thanksgiving in this part of the world um is being celebrated locally on Cape Cod on the Sunday after Thanksgiving um by the Wampanoag tribe.
SPEAKER_03:I see.
SPEAKER_02:And one of the elders passed away and he was 90 years old. So there's good for him. There's a thing at church um of a huge group of people, Wampanoag people, who are having this memorial. Um and they've used the church before to do other activities. I don't know if it's the UU or what it is. Um I know it's not Catholic guessing about this. But anyway, um they're all in beautiful Native dress and it's fantastic. Um there was a picture in the Cape Cod Times this week of um Native Americans in Native American dress um filling up a church. Cool. Yeah. Anyhow, uh Michael and I have this conversation I'm gonna say probably once a quarter. Would you say? Where we talk about what Thanksgiving should be, what Columbus Day should be. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. So when it comes to Thanksgiving, um we often crack up about what actually happened when the stinking Mayflower landed here on Cape God after two months. Two months, Michael.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Crossing the Atlantic in like essentially a rowboat.
SPEAKER_03:I know it's amazing. Those boats were not big.
SPEAKER_02:And they were not very big, and they were not as seaworthy as you would want them to be.
SPEAKER_03:No, I mean they obviously did the did the job, but yeah, I'm sure they had to Oh God, I don't know how anyone dealt with any of that. Yeah, I don't either.
SPEAKER_02:But yeah, so what really happened when they got here? Well, we know it wasn't too fabulous. We know that that Thursday they didn't sit down and have turkey and corn and stuffing. The first encounter was a hostile one, yes, and that took place at in Orleans First Encounter Beach. Um Cape Cod really is kind of uh ground zero as far as I'm concerned for Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, absolutely, absolutely, yeah. Yep. Now I know that's the first time they saw each other and there was you know a confrontation then. I did learn the other day the very first words that the pilgrims ever heard from a Native American and they were uh got any beer? Uh-huh. Um, because Squanto was the guy speaking to him, and he'd already been to England like six times and knew some English.
SPEAKER_02:So he wanted some beer.
SPEAKER_03:So he asked him when they when he saw him, yeah, if they had any beer. Because we didn't have any around here.
SPEAKER_02:How in the world, what text did you read to get this information?
SPEAKER_03:It was uh it was written in somebody's journal somewhere. Yeah. I wonder whose Kate's?
SPEAKER_02:Was it in Kate's journal?
SPEAKER_03:It might have been, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Um Kate, if you're listening, happy Thanksgiving. She journals every day.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I can't I can't do that.
SPEAKER_02:What about Bridget Jones?
SPEAKER_03:She she she does she journal every day?
SPEAKER_02:I'm just yeah, that it's her diary. Um is actually the book. But I'm just wondering, you know, whose diary was this in? Or whose journal?
SPEAKER_03:And Bradford's, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's what I want to know. Is there how much contemporaneous literature exists about that time?
SPEAKER_03:I think there's actually quite quite a bit. Uh-huh. Um but it's not all, you know, it's not readily available, obviously. But no, I think I think the documents do exist. Yeah, I mean, and it's got to be available. I mean, we have not seen much in the way of writing by George Washington. But that's almost all he did. I thought we had quite a bit of his journals. We d we do, but they're not they're not like public. You know, people aren't reading them, they're not published, you know, you know what I'm saying? It's not but he did nothing but journal.
SPEAKER_02:He did nothing but write and but are so are what you you're saying is um this stuff hasn't been made available by the government.
SPEAKER_03:It's not commonly available. And uh and if it was, it could be people just don't know you know what to call it or how to find it. But I'm those tweets are out there.
SPEAKER_02:Online?
SPEAKER_03:I I'm just yeah, I'm sure you can find a lot of it online. Oh, okay. At least mentions of it online, yeah, if they haven't been already um digitized and stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I will have to check it out. I don't know how you digitize um something ri written with a quill um and a jar of ink.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I mean you just you simply basically taking a photo of it. I know. That's all.
SPEAKER_02:I know. I'm just being a goofy. I feel goofy. Yeah. It's Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_03:I've got a little holiday Thanksgiving, by the way.
SPEAKER_02:And to you and yours. Um there's a bus driver who did one of my favorite moves. Um remember the guy who um was a flight attendant and the he was getting hassled by every passenger on the plane, and he finally grabbed a beer out of the galley and hit the slide. Remember this?
SPEAKER_03:Yes, I do remember this.
SPEAKER_02:And he slid down onto the tarmac and he said, I quit. Yep, I'm out of here. Okay. So there's a bus driver in the UK who abruptly stopped the bus during um some sort of outbreak. Like some kids were fighting and stuff.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:And he picked up the microphone and said, I've decided I don't like buses anymore.
SPEAKER_02:And that's it. He set the brake and got off the bus. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my God, that is hilarious.
SPEAKER_02:And the passengers sat there silently, sort of, you know, looking back and forth. Yeah. Just yeah. Oh my gosh, Michael, I didn't know. Yeah. I didn't know you had it. So but I've got to say, you know, that whole thing of um it's very Canadian sounding. Like he was very polite. Yeah, right. Yeah. Um, he didn't like say, I'm out of here, you know, and bang the door open or something. Right. No, he's like, No, but I've had enough.
SPEAKER_01:I don't like buses anymore.
SPEAKER_02:That's awesome. Well, I have another transportation story, and Michael, I want you to, I'm I'm hoping you'll get inspired by this. Okay. We're back in the UK where everything is funnier just because it's in the UK.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So a man in Wales raised money for charity by riding a Barbie pink child-sized bicycle for ages four to six for fifty miles. Oh my goodness. How much did he raise? He wore full cycling gear with knee pads. Oh my goodness, that's designed for toddlers. This is hilarious. Okay. And he said the hardest part of it was maintaining my dignity.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Well, that could have been a lot easier if he hadn't done those silly things. I want to see you. Oh my god, that's funny.
SPEAKER_02:Hop on a Barbie bike with the whole toddler with toddler knee pads.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And just, you don't have to go, you know, you could just head to the bridge. I would I would you could raise a lot of money by doing that. Oh yeah. I think now, don't you don't crick at me. I th I think that there should be like a Barbie bike or any kind of bike. What were the what were the boys' bikes called?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I don't know, the Huffies.
SPEAKER_02:No, but there were like race something racer. I don't know. Yeah. There should be a toddler bike. Banana sea bikes. But there should be a toddler bicycle, like Tour de France.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I want to see a full-on, or like on the Cape when we have the duck things.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:I just want to see a mass of adults on toddler bikes. Okay, yep. And just going around a parking lot. That would be a lot of fun. Wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_03:Or going around one of the rotaries. I've seen uh a couple dozen witches on paddle boards.
SPEAKER_02:Well, exactly. So and that that's what you get in Chatham. Right. Absolutely. So they they suffered this idea.
SPEAKER_03:We could we could start this. This could become a thing.
SPEAKER_02:You know, I with w with a friend of mine used to do something, created something called Clam Fest.
SPEAKER_03:I that's one of the reasons I mentioned you could you could start this, because you did start something.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I wonder if anyone out there remembers Clamfest. It lasted only twice, two years in Dennis at the marina.
SPEAKER_03:And people got tired of it. Well, no. Of doing it.
SPEAKER_02:And unfortunately, my partner um who was doing this with me dropped the ball. I'll just put it that way. And so we were never able to do it again. Yeah. It was so much fun, but I think it could be replaced by adults riding toddler bikes.
SPEAKER_03:I agree.
SPEAKER_02:It would be a beautiful, beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_03:I absolutely agree.
SPEAKER_02:What are you thankful for, Michael?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, you know, I'm I'm I'm thankful for a lot of things, but mostly for uh for my family, for you and my critters.
SPEAKER_02:That's what I was gonna say. Yeah. I'm mostly thankful for you and my friends and my family, and our furry children. And I'm thankful for every single listener. You have no idea how much. Have a wonderful Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, whatever it is that you do this week.
unknown:Thank you, Emmy.
SPEAKER_02:And for all of us, everyone on planet Earth, put a light on.
SPEAKER_05:Thank you, comes to class. Thank you, thank you, Dylan. How about me that baby gives for everything?
unknown:Yeah.
