6 Comments

1) My full thoughts on Top Gun are well-documented elsewhere, but I still think the gay subtext thing is not intentional. Not that one can't read that into it, of course.

2) The Karate Kid is great fun, and Cruel Summer by Bananarama is one of my all-time favourite pop records.

3) I'm a big fan of Gran Torino. A great tale of tough love mentoring. The racism stuff is funny because it's absurd, not because the film endorses racism. But that's a nuance some people today either can't see or refuse to see. I also think the film makes a clear point of showing Clint Eastwood come to respect his neighbours and overcome prejudice in a realistic and plausible way (albeit still within the character's leopard-can't-change-his-spots grumpiness). Plus (spoiler alert) the Christlike sacrificial metaphor late in the film is actually quite moving, I think.

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Howdy, any chance you have a transcript of your pods? Gen-xer who doesn't like listening to people talk. Thanks

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Of course! If you click on any of the podcast posts, there's a transcript button at the top that is automatically generated by Substack. It's about 90% accurate. I noticed on the last episode, it introduced me as Art Pierce lol

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Maybe Art can be your alt-account, where you drop the really spicy takes. lol.

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🤣🤣🤣

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Alas, there is no transcript for Top Gun. Perhaps it has been transcribed. I'll check back. Thanks, Art 😃

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