Episode 02: Bob Geldof's Hair

Hello, folks. This is Mark Bagley, one of the hosts of Cambridge and Mashan, and I just wanted to let you all know that we are aware of the technical issues that are apparent in these first two episodes of the show, a little more apparent in this episode, but we are taking steps to eradicate that and hopefully from episode three on we will not have that dropout issue that was caused by a zoom connection which we are using to record these episodes. I guess you could imagine these as bootlegs passed down from person to person, or as a pirated transmission off the coast of California, if that'll make it go down a little easier, But we are working on solving the problem. Hopefully everything makes as much sense as humanly possible with some of that drop out.

So, without further ado, on with the show. Welcome to episode two of Cambridge and Was Shawn. I'm one of the hosts Ronald aka Ronnie as Mark called me and aka Skelevator if you know me from YouTube. Here's the other host, Mark. Yes, this is Mark Bigley, the other host of Cambridge and Was Shawan and the host of Wake Up Heavy recollections of horror and one of the hosts of From the Files of Police Squad, which is available now and you can listen to that, this Wake Up Heavy and everything else that suits your fancy overwordingwaymedia dot com.

I'm so excited about the Police Squad episodes. First two, they're already out. We'll hit about mid March with the ten episodes, plus a secret special episode that will be partnering with The Projection Booth, which one of the other hosts hosts. That's his main movie and probably one of the best movie podcasts out there, and so we're doing another za Z movie for him over there. Nice.

Yeah, it would be cool. I've been really enjoying his recent episode on Ice Pirates. Did you ever see the movie Ice Pirates? No? I haven't seen Ice Pirates, but I think Red Letter Media did an episode on it a review, and I thought, yeah, I'm fine just listening to people talk about it.

I don't think I need to see this movie. Oh, you gotta see it, you gotta see it. I think it's totally really yeah, I'll pass. It is an acquired taste. It's an acquired taste.

That's what I gather. So How are you doing, Mark? Good? How are you good? We're excited to talk about some other obsession cars from childhood today.

We made a little bit of a change. We're going to talk to things and then we're each going to talk about one aspect of where we grew up, Fresno. I've picked an element of Fresno that I'd like to talk about today, and I know Mark you did too, and that would be fun, be exciting to sort of talk a little bit more about Fresno as we did in last episode. So you had a few corrections from our previous episode. Yeah, so before I give my first childhood obsession, just some corrections and add endoms.

And this happens I do this on my own show. As you're talking, thinking in the back of your head, did I get that right? Am I making that up? We'll get into that a lot, I think, at least for me on this my memory it's sharp in certain ways about this stuff, but it's always a little bit jumbled up. And actually that'll come up in one of the items that I present today as well.

For my corrections, these aren't all corrections. Maybe clarifications is a better word. So Harry Goudini did die on Halloween of nineteen twenty six. His wife, I think, lived for a good another twenty or thirty years. I think she made it maybe to the fifties, for however long they had those seances on Halloween to see if they could get in touch with him.

I spent fifteen dollars on that Alan Ormsby book, so even more than I thought, Yeah, how interesting. Yeah, I mean I think that was the cheapest one I could find, too, so they've gone up in price. It's sort of like our memories. eBay is like my memories, fluid, like I remember correctly one day and then incorrectly the next, And I think ebays the same way. You know, one day you see that book five bucks buy it now, three shipping, and the next day it's twenty bucks, yea with shipping. True.

In regard to some of the sesame street stuff we talked about with the hand puffs, I kept calling this character Franklin, and it's Roosevelt Franklin. Yeah. And then I realized, as I was searching for images of some of this stuff to use in promotional material for the show, that I had completely forgotten that I had the Oscar the Grouch hand puppet, and probably because it wasn't like the others where it had that big vinyl head. It was really just an unstuffed plush. But how do yeah, you could move?

It was just a fat piece of that shag green carpet with eyes and a mouth. I had him for quite a while and then I realized, but after we recorded that the Ernie plush that I mentioned was sitting right next to me on the couch I was on. It was just covered up by a wind breaker of mine. Why and how that survived childhood, I'm not sure. I think it was stored in my lego box, which is one of the few toy items that survived my childhood, where my old legos the other clarificulant clarification correction at Endam Ronnie, we've talked about your music that's opening and closing the show, the old IG eighty eight stuff.

You mentioned that you have your degree in fine art and you do that medium as well in writings. You mentioned all that stuff, and I didn't get a chance to say, Ronnie's the kind of person that I hate who has talent across what is that called that? Music? Art writing, multidiscipline, multidisciplinary Yeah, that's bullshit. No one should be able to do that much.

It reminds me of Tim Bisup, who is another not native but lived in Fresno for quite a while. Yeah, he's associated. Yeah, I don't know how many bands of his I watched when he was living here and playing music fine artists, like literal fine artists, getting paid tons and tons of money for his artwork as all the designer vinyl toys. I don't know if he can write worth a damn, but you probably can. These kind of people make me sick.

So anyway, if you don't know who Tim Biscup is, looking at Biskup and Fresno, will Lake Clayton to him? Yeah, have you seen his pencil drawings? He's been doing, his graphite drawings, has been doing. That's pretty much all he's been doing for a couple of years. Interesting stuff.

To follow up on what you said, I think that the I appreciate your perspective of hatred of people who do lots of things, lots of things. Well, it's lots of people do lots of things. That's very kind of you to say, Like I've always felt that it's an unhealthy urge and see to do a lot of things, and I've had discussions with I've worked at a lot of galleries and museums over the years. I've been told two different things. One that it's absolutely the wrong decision to do a multitude of arts in that you'll never get good at one.

And I've also been told that it's healthy to do a multitude of arts because that keeps you working, if you have the urgency to work. And I would just say I understand the hatred. In my defense, I'd like to say that it's probably what has kept me alive over the years. If left without making things, I am definitely a problem to myself. I say it in jests, yes, of course.

Well that's also folks that are getting to know us in our relationship. That's how Mark and I talk to each other. I don't actually hate Ronnie. We donate each other. We know how to get each other's goat.

It's a relief that you said that you think that what I do is good because I think for anybody that makes stuff, and I think you can identify with this, with your podcast and with other projects that you've attacked creatively, we never really feel like we're doing the best that we can do at that thing as the person who makes it. I love the literary magazines you put out I think that they're making. I'm sure you would see a multitude of flaws there. I love every single episode of Wake Up Heavy, and I know that you probably see a multitude of flaw Actually, you and I have talked about that things that work from my perspective may not work from your perspective, and I appreciate that. My first item and I get this conflated with one I did last time, because I felt like they were in my life at the same time.

I have an image of myself in either fourth or fifth grade class paging through these things obsessively. So that one from previously was the Alien picture Book. I sent you an image. I'm not sure if that's the right one for that Alien picture book, but I think it was. That's the other thing that will come up later.

I won't talk about that right now. So this other picture book I thought I read and got obsessed with around the same time, but realized, oh no, this was much later, and that one is the picture book for Pink Floyd's The Wall, the movie. I was thinking, oh yeah, this came out and I was around ten or so and looked through it like I looked through the Alien Book and then realized, oh shit. The movie didn't come out until nineteen eighty two, which is when and I did find this one online. The picture book came out the same year, probably around the same time.

Maybe you can come out before the movie. I'm not really sure what drove me toward this. I wasn't a huge Pink Floyd fan at the time I got the album, probably when the movie came out. I don't think I really listened to any of their music except what was played on KFSR or something in the seventies, mostly probably from Dark Side of the Moon. So again, was seeing it at the Sunny Side of Vibrarian being struck by the front cover?

Was it when the movie was being released and I was seeing the commercials for it. The only song I knew from that album prior was another Brick in the Wall because that was like one of their only hits post Dark Side of the Moon, and that did play a lot when that album came out in seventy nine. I bought the album and I didn't ever own the book, but I feel like that all took place around the time of the movie's release, and I just poured through that book and the thing that attracted me the most about it, and this has always struck me as funny, was Bob Geldoff's hair or lack the Well, No, not that I didn't. The shaving stuff was intriguing, but no, that's not what I'm talking about. That bi level new wave hair due he had and we didn't call them bullets back then.

It was bi level because it was and if you go and watch videos from the eighties, a lot of people men and women had that bi level cutly. I just I actually posted this on Instagram, that picture of me with the pool stick. Oh yeah, I think that was me attempting a bi level haircut. And I'm like, this was around that time because that was I believe the summer. That was like the last day of school party at our friend's house again out in Sunnyside, real big house with tennis courts and pool table.

Obviously, I'm like that was eighth grade into eighth grade, so going into ninth grade, and that's when that have been around this time. So that was my lamb attempt at a Bob guild Off haircut. I believe to fallow up with that. I think the mullet for the biletle hair do is never going away. Every generation sees a version of that re emerge.

It. It's probably the worst decision a person can make regarding their hair, but it will always be slightly fashionable. His hair in that movie, It's fantastic. That's what I took from that, and later on in life became a much bigger fan of Pink Floyd. I have, if I don't know how many of their albums.

A lot of that had to do with Dan Davis, our friend, playing albums that I hadn't heard. I had Dark Side of the Moon, I Wish You Were Here, and The Wall for a long time, and unfortunately one of our cats sprayed my middle pe of the Wall, so it came with this big insert, you know, with all the lyrics and images, those Gerald Scarf images, and she sprayed on it and ruined the insert. I still have the album and all of that in my collection of albums that have survived since childhood. So yeah, I don't know. Something about Bob Geldoff's hair just really struck me as fascinating, and I guess I attempted it at some point that was the only time I've attempted a bye level and or mullet.

Thank God for that. You'll have plenty of other opportunities to try it now. Is it my hair? These days? That would not be a good look on a balding man.

And I have seen it, so I know you've seen it before. Oh yeah, just think Phil called yeah. I mean, hey, people back then, even if they didn't have hair on top, they still had it long in the back. And people still say today and guys, I gotta tell you, it is not a good look. It's an odd look, odd decision.

Shave it, baby, but don't shave your eyebrows like Bob Geldof. And that's just terrifying. Just in connect with that. I do really like The Wall, and I did like The Wall back then as well the music. So I was thirteen.

There's no way my parents would have taken me to see that once VHS became big. That was a movie that, along with Heavy Metal, was something that I really wanted to see and took forever to come out on video because of music writes. And I think in the case of The Wall, Roger Water's involvement mucked that up because he wasn't happy with the final problem. I mean to see happy with anything. I don't know.

Yeah, I don't think he's happy with much. That's part of his charm, I think is that he's kind of a negative nelly. When it finally did come out, me and some friends rented it and watched it at my house, which was unusual. Usually watched videos like an Andy Davis house or somebody else's house, and there isn't a lot of adult stuff in there. Of course, my mom walked in right right when during some of the animation a flower turns into a vagina.

Yep. I was like, oh, farts left. It's always, it's always then, It's always in the most an opportune moment that your mom walks in. Oh yeah, that's the way it always. That's one of the bleakest movies.

It's not something I enjoy, but I watch it maybe every five years or so. It's so negative and bleak and dark, and there's really no levity in the film. It's a tough watch. It's pretty fascinating, but man, it's not fun to watch. It's the best thing, but there are a stud elements that are appealing.

Oh yeah, the Nation is beautiful little that in the music are what make it worth suffering through every once in a while. So what's your first topic this time? Yeah, my first topic this time is it sort of falls along the same lines as my obsession with the Muppets in that the backbone of this franchise is Puppets essentially, and that is Gremlins. One of the movies that we watch every holiday season is Gremlins. I think that it really fits the category of a Christmas movie.

There's a bit of sadness and weirdness to it, but it's also very Christmas. Ee. We watch it every year. It's a Christmas movie to us, at least takes place during the holiday season. It's super weird.

When it came out in nineteen eighty four, it struck a really strong chord with me as a kid. The reason why the movie appealed to me had everything to do with the creatures, had everything to do with the Moguay, had everything to do with the Gremlins. That was completely reinforced in my second topic tonight is the same kind of fits the same category, which is that culturally the world was sort of taken by a swarm these creatures gizmo plushies were shown up in all the stores. Trapper keepers, suppy stickers, toys, cereal gremlins were just everywhere, lunchboxes and I had the lunchbox, which was really cool. As I mentioned in the previous episode, I was kind of obsessed with the making up in a movie.

If I could see that a creature could be created and come to life, I was always very exciting to me. That's part of the reason why I've always been attracted to sci fi and horror and fantasy. There was one thing that came out during that time I thought was top of the line collectible item, and I could never find it in the stores, and it was the LJN Toys, which I don't think they exist anymore, but they came out with all the gremlins. They had little PVC figure, they had bendy rubber figures too, and then they also had a maguay A gizmo which was about eight inches tall, and then a Stripe which was about twelve inches tall. I was so deeply in love with Stripe that I think I had like a star log poster of him hanging on my bedroom wall.

But when I saw a commercial or something of this twelve inch tall posable plastic stripe with real you know, he had the mohawk thing with a real white mohawk out of reel fur. That's something I definitely wanted to have and I could never find it in the stores. And to this day, I go on eBay every once in a while and try and look it up, and it's always like seventy five to one hundred and twenty dollars, absolutely beautiful toys. I love the Gremlins movie. I think the Gremlins sequel came out like way too late for a sequel, but I still have an affection for that movie, and I know that there are a lot of folks that can either handle it or not handle it because it's super It's at least the weird tool level.

I Gremlin's sequel as well, and it's something that I always come back to. If I see a Gremlin's Neca action figure on the shelf, it's robard for me to resist it. Wheneka came out with the strike with the real white mohawk and the skateboard and everything, I was like, I had to get it on that. It's super cool. So yeah, Gremlins, So how old were you when you saw that?

Well, it was nineteen eighty four. I'm not going to do the math. I'm forties. I'm not going to do the medal. When were you born?

Do it from when you were born instead of going back. So yeah, seventy six, seven and eight and nine, eighty eighty one, eighty four, I was eight. Yeah, by then, I'm super into His Star Wars, super into he Man and the Masters of Gremlin's Out, and I get about all that stuff. I just become obsessed with everything that Gremlin's represented. It's funny, it's slightly scary.

The music is fantastic. I found nothing wrong with it, even with the sequel. When it came out, I was very excited. I had no doubt or trepidation about it. I was very excited I saw it.

It broke the fourth wall, you know, it referenced itself. It was super I feel like to this day, I think it's a super smart movie, even though it lacks in certain qualities and it takes the piss out of the first movie. That's why I don't like it. I think it's too self referential and oh little bit. And I think I've mentioned this to you before.

I think it's a little bit of a slap in the face to the first movie on purpose. I feel the same way about Texas Chainsaw Massacre too as well. How it almost feels like they're telling the audience f you forget about that first one. Yea. There are people that will certainly defend takes us change on Massacre two, but I know a lot of people that love it.

I saw it. You mentioned it being a Christmas movie, but it came out in the summer of eighty four. Yep. I saw it on the last day of ninth grade. Our school was on Bullard between Blackstone and Palm at the time.

Went across the street. One of the girls in our class lived there, hung out there for a while. We weren't supposed to be there. We thought her mom was coming home, so we ran out the back and I ran through her screen, and I think we were killing time before the movie started, because after that we walked up to where Target is now and there was a movie theater which I don't even remember that maybe one of the few movies I even saw there. Went and saw it, and I really enjoyed it.

I've always enjoyed it. I don't care much for the sequel, but it is a triition now too, I think the first time, and it wasn't that long ago. That's why I asked how old you were, because when I first showed it to Cleo, I thought she was old enough. I knew it had some scary moments, some dark moments, some black humor in it. But she bailed out at the pool scene, and so it took another year or two before we could watch it all the way through, and now we watched it all the time.

Yeah, but she wasn't eight. She was older than eight. She was probably more like twelve. She was a scaredy cat for a long time, so I don't blame her. I mean, there are certain things that still freaked me out about.

That pool scene is one of them. And the end sequence in the fountain with the gooby stripe melting in on and stuff. I mean, just it's grows and their transformation is gross. Yeah, for sure. So my second one is the Three Investigators, And this was a book series.

I believe I did a little bit of research on it, and I'm not going to get heavy into research on these things. Looked up the Wikipedia page. I believe it started in the sixties, and they were pretty popular when I was in elementary school in the seventies. I don't think I ever owned one. I believe this was all just either classroom or school library checkouts.

But I read a bunch of them and really liked them. I was mainly fascinated by their hideout, which was in a junkyard, and it was an old trailer, so either an RV or an old mobile home thing, and it had secret passages and secret passages and openings have always fascinated me absolutely. When I lived out there on Madison near Sunnyside, we had to realize much later in life just how big of a backyard the lots over where we lived were really big. At one point we had a shed, two sheds, actually one was just off the house, one was in the backyard, two greenhouses, a swimming pool, and a side garden, and there was still empty space in the backyard between the greenhouses. And I remember around this time always wanting to dig a hole that was deep enough for me in the backyard, kind of like the barons for the kids in it.

That's what I pictured in my mind. Something it actually had like a trapdoor where I could go and never got around to doing it. Never mentioned this dream to my parents because it would have been they would have put the kaibash on it. Anyway, as close as I got to it was digging a hole. I had a wooden box that I would store some toys in, So I dug a hole that was big enough to fit that in and it would cover it up and then go and uncover it and play with the toys and blah blah blah.

Yeah, that series appealed to my attraction to murder mystery. I don't think they solved murders, but to mysteries and murder mystery films. And also that it was at the time at least Alfred Hitchcock presents the Three Investigators, and I think what tuned me into this was he also put his name on a bunch of horror anthologies for kids, which when I've looked for this and looked for other Alfred Hitchcock stuff always come up on image searches, and I was like, oh, yes, I remember those books, so it's probably from reading those went to the Three Investigators, these three elementary school kids. So my age solving these mysteries that no one else could solve. The weird thing is that around the same time, I was really into The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew mystery show that was on TV back then.

I have never read a Hardy Boys or a Nancy Drew book in my life. I think about that, and I'm like, why didn't I merge from Three Investigators to Hardy Boys, or read them in tandem, or have any association with those at all. I loved that show, loved the theme song, love the show. We've watched a few of them a couple of years ago. They're not as good as I remember.

This is one of those times where your memory of something, the nostalgia of it, probably makes it more appealing than the actual show because they're not acted very well. But Nancy Drew stories are a little bit better than The Hardy Boys, but they're still kind of fun and they teeter on that spookiness that was just enough for a kid my age, because this was like eight, nine, ten years old. So the interesting thing though about the Three Investigators is that one of the investigators was named Jupiter Juke Jones and he was a former child actor. So I don't know if you've seen Nope, Yeah, Stephen Win character is named or his character's character, because he played a former child actor who I believe name on the show was Joke.

I don't think his name is I could be this may be a correction that I make next episode. His last name isn't Jones, but I thought, h that's interesting. Was this something that Jordan Peel was into when he was a kid. He's I think ten years younger than me, but I know that that series went on through the nineties. It's possible.

I feel like Jordan Peel has no shame in showing an attachment to something referential. I feel like he likes to throw in nods to other things. And in fact, this is what can link our two discussion items right now. But if you've ever seen it, Key and Peel's skit about the development of Gremlin's Too is freaking hilarious. So I wouldn't be surprised if he is making that reference to the three Investigators.

That picture that you sent me up, that one book. I bought that from a used bookstore, that exact book, And honestly, maybe it's because I never read Nancy Drew a Hardy Boys either. What drew me to that book in particular was that Alfred Hitchcock's name was on the cover. I mean, that was part of it, even though I'd never seen an Alfred Hitchcock movie, but we knew. It's so funny, isn't that funny?

That? Like, I had never seen Hitchcock movie either, but I knew about him. It's like I mentioned on the Murder of by Death episode, you knew who Andy Warhol and Trum and Capote were. She really didn't necessarily know what they did exactly exactly. That makes me want to go find those books and revisit them.

Yeah, I'm sure you can find them on eBay. That's right. We should get sponsorship from eBay. It's possible. In every episode.

My next item is definitely in the same vein as Gremlins in that it was a sort of cultural phenomenon took the world by storm. It was the nineteen eighty nine Tim Burton batmanity. By this time, I'm in you know, I'm in middle school. I'm sort of transitioning from childlike interests. I'm going to put that in quotation marks.

I feel like I'm transitioning to more mature pop culture interests at this stage. But Batman eighty nine made me feel like I like I did with Gremlins and Star Wars and Masters of the Universe. I just suddenly became obsessed with Batman, and Batman was everywhere. It's my first experience with my brother. Probably my first experience was shoplifting, was stealing Batman trading cards from one of the low ampms or whatever.

I needed to have as much Batman in my life as I could, and so I started going to Wonderland comment and buying Batman comic books from the nineteen seventies. I wanted all the Batman stuff I could get, so I cited about Batman as a comic book character. I began collecting those, and I started to understand through this that comic books could be valuable. Visiting Wonderland Comics allowed me to have this sort of like, oh, that one's from the fifties, it's twenty dollars versus this one from the seventies it's three dollars. And I started to realize what that whole world was through Batman comics.

Through the Tim Burton Batman movie, it started an obsession with Tim Burton movies. I then wanted to see all the Tim Burton movies through that. It started my obsession with Jack Nicholson's which led me toward experiencing a lot of seventies Jack Nicholson films. I was like all about every movie that Jack Nicholson was in, and also reinvigorated my interest, which I had previously in special effects makeup, because I thought that what they did for Jack Nicholson's Joker Face was a phenomenal achievement as far as special effects makeup goes. It was subtle, but it was also over the top.

It was creepy, but not gruesome, at least after they mended his wounds and everything. It even got me back into toys at this stage in my life where I'm like right on the cusp of going through puberty, I'm really trying to not be a kid anymore, and I saw that Joker action figure from toy Biz Toys, I saw the Batman action figure, and I felt like I needed to be in on that. To this day, I still feel like it's the best Batman movie out there, and I'm not sure if that's just nostalgia that makes me feel that way, but in comparison to other Batman movies, it's just they don't quite reach that pinnacle of weirdness, campiness, and seriousness. I'm going to sound high falutin when I say this, but aesthetic majesty that Tim Burton brought to that.

I mean, Tim Burton's movies are silly, but there's an esthetic quality to the Batman movie. And I could even say to the Batman Returns movie that it's kind of perfect darkness, weirdness, but still a little bit subtle. Every once in a while, the family and I would go to La We either go to Universal Studios or something. I don't remember what this trip was all about. My dad, Oh, I think my dad would go.

My dad's a photo bographer. I think he would go pick up photographic chemicals from a shop in Los Angeles. He even let me look up Jack Nicholson's address up on Mulhall and Drive, and we drove up there and I left a drawing of him in his mailbox. It's like, what the hell? I know, right, what the hex going on?

Here? Is minivan pulling up to my house and this kid coming out and putting something weird in my mailbox. I'm sure it happened a lot to him. After the Batman movie came out, I still love a good Jack Nicholson movie. His rendition of the Joker, I still feel is the best, and I know that'll anger some people out there that are attached to Heath Ledger's Joker.

I don't think anything quite reaches the magic that he achieved in forming as the Joker. How are your feelings about the Batman movie when it came out. I enjoyed it. I think I thought it was going to be a little more serious because I kept hearing that inspiration was more the Frank Miller Dark Night, which is very dark, and I don't think Batman eighty nine is all that dark. It definitely takes it more seriously.

At that time, you could only really compare it to the sixty six TV show, and which is way more serious than But yes, it does have still a bit of camp and color, and I mean there's a freaking print song halfway through, you know, so it's not too serious. I enjoyed it. I was twenty not really into comic material at the time. I had grown out of that and hadn't gone back to it by then. Saw all the sequels in the theater, though, so I must have enjoyed it enough.

Enjoyed the sequels, as weird as some of them are enough to keep going back. Those sequels are Gremlin's too territory you can either or appreciated, and after Batman returns, they're way too campy, and the definite return to the nineteen sixty six campiness that I feel like Tim Burton was trying to get away from but couldn't quite. They're fun. Those are ones actually that I've been meaning to watch with Cleo because I don't feel like watching the Christopher Nolan trilogy with her. And I'm not a DC guy, so Batman as an icon is fascinating.

We'll sort of get into that when we talk about action figures at some point. But not a big DC fan overall, and I don't know that I've read a single Batman comic book. Oh really, it's surprising to me because I know you have an appreciation for the look of those characters. I know from your toy collection that you are predominantly a Marvel collector, always have been. The Christopher Nolan movie I was super enthusiastic about them when they first came out, partly because I am a Batman fan and do still to this day enjoy the comic books.

They haven't grown with me. I've lost a little bit of my appreciation for them over the years. That could just be that maybe they're not as good as I thought they were. I know a lot of people really like them. I haven't seen the new one, the Robert Pattinson one, haven't even seen it, have no interest seen it.

Yeah, that's what I've heard. Their stuff just does not pull me in. I mean, I'm not all that interested in what Marvel is cranking out as far as movies goes. Either. We generally end up watching those when they hit Disney Plus.

Now I got to ask, because I know you're a fan of the Fantastic Four, are you anticipating there might be some improvement in that regard when they really does four movie? I don't anticipate anything that Marvel does, Okay, honest, I really don't care. I have been over them since we saw the Age of Ultron in the theater. I've been over Marvel movies. You can figure out how long and how many movies have come out since then.

It's too much. Its oversaturated for me. Like I said, we watched them when they come out of Disney Plus, and that's about it. I think The last one we watched was the most recent thorror movie, and it did close to nothing for me. I would follow up with that in agreement.

Didn't say that most are missed rather than hit. There have been a few that are good, but most of them are just not quite there. I enjoyed the Hawkeye show pretty well, and the Falcon and Winter Soldiers show pretty well, but again it's something that I really don't remember anything particular from those and we'll never watch them again most likely, but they were fun distractions as a TV show. We tried watching Sheet Hulk and it just wasn't I have no interest in that. So what's next on your list?

Well? Are we moving on to places? I guess, so now's the time. Well I had something in mind, and I changed it for two reasons, because I realized it goes better with something that will get to eventually, and because another place that is on my place list was recently the victim of an arson fire. Oh that is the Sunnyside DELI.

Oh really, I kind of forgot that they were still around, so this is sort of a commercial for them now. A lot of the places that I will mention on this section of the show are places that don't exist anymore, but this one does. And I guess as for the most part, since I was a kid, I think they may have closed off and on over the years. When I was looking this up to find out what exactly had happened with this fire, it had mentioned. I think back during the pandemic they suffered pretty hard at the beginning of lockdown, and we're going to sell and a family bought it and kept it going, which makes us even worse.

Yeah, there was a fire on I think January fifth or sixth overnight in that section of the strip mall. Actually it's not even really a strip mall. It's just a little section of shops, like three or four shops. I think there's a pharmacy there. Found out a couple of days ago on the news.

They brought it back up and it was mentioned that it was an artison fire, which just really sucks. Right. This was near another shop that's on my list to talk about later. It's that same area that I mentioned before where the Sunnyside Library was just a little further east up the road, and this is where my dad went and bought our cold cuts as we called them. Wasn't what do people call sandwich meats?

Yeah, sandwich meats. We always called them cold cuts. I mean I got that for my dad. The term used to be more common than it is now. That's what I feel, because that's what I always think of them in my head when I'm going to go to a sandwich place.

But that's not usually what they're calling. But he would go and buy a ton of different meats and we would make our big dagwood sandwiches. And that's where I first discovered and fell in love with my favorite cold cut, which is Mortadella. Oh yeah, we get Mortadella roast beef and I'm not sure what all else, because those were the two that I enjoyed. Yeah, So shout out to Sunnyside, Delhi.

I hope they recover from this and continue on. I haven't been there since I lived over in that area because it is quite a ways away, although much easier to get you now with the freeway. Yes, I hope they are able to reopen, and I have a fond memories of eating very delicious sandwiches from the cult cuts that my dad would buy their. Well, shoot, now you got me hungry for more Toadella wouldn't they open you and I gotta go get sandwiches there. I love more to Deela.

If anybody wants to send stuff to the show. If I still had my po box, I would pass it out on the show, but I'm not giving to help my address on this smart. For a while there, I was really excited because Trader Joe's was selling more Toadela, and then they stopped. I don't know why they stopped. It's hard to find good more Toadela except for out of Delhi.

But I'm with you on that. I love that stuff. He too, what's your place guy? I did a little research on this because I wanted to see if I can nail down some dates, and I couldn't quite get specific dates. And I know that pretty much everything I've said today and probably most of what I'll say in the future, is toy centric.

The place that I've chosen is Arthur's Toys, which had a couple of different locations here in Fresno. When Toys r US came around, they I feel like they really struggled against Toys r Us and now neither of those exist in the Fresno area. Arthur's Toys was a different experience than Toys r US. For me, I came to the Arthur's Toys experience around the same time that I came to the Toys r US experience. They were both becoming part of my life in the early eighties.

Apparently it had started out here in Fresno in the late fifties and they changed ownership. Apparently these are all like vague dates, but late fifties they started. They changed ownership in the seventies, and I believe they closed up shop in the nineties two or ninety three or something like that, because I do remember going there later, and I say later in life, meaning eighth grade or ninth grade, stopping in. For some reason, Arthur's Toys was Fresno's equivalent to Fao Shortz. So they had like a fancy toy section in Arthur's Toys, which was like expensive toys, which wasn't really part of the Toys r US experience.

So whenever I'd go there, it felt like it was I was going you had all the toys you could find, And remember Jemco. Jemco was on Shields. It became that target over there on Shields. Vaguely. I don't think we ever went there.

You could find all the normal toys there, but then they also had this sort of special section for fancy toys. I don't remember that. It was sort of like in the center, but toward the back, and then they also had to the right hand side or what would that be the north side of the store. This is the one that was on Blackstone that I went to the most I know. There was one over there in the Sunnyside area.

Near the doll section. They had a whole row of Goldburger van Triloquist dolls. The Goldburger Ventriloquist dolls were newer renditions of old timey characters Lauren Hardy, Bozo, the Clown Grout Show, Marks WC. Fields that they have Charlie McCarthy and Charlie McCarthy and had all those characters as vent triloquist dolls, and what should have probably creeped me out, I was totally drawn in by them. And that's where I began an obsession which we'll talk about Lady of Silent Film or old timey film comedians.

By the time to high school, I went deep into Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Lauren Hardy. Territory got really interested in that stuff, and I know that it stemmed from seeing those Goldberger and Triliqis dolls on the shelf of Arthur's Toys. They always had a huge selection of Star Wars toys. Now, something I did find out in my research was that the person who started Arthur's Toys his name was al Ormsby. I saw it's a different spelling.

We talked about Alan Ormsby last week on our last month on our discussion about the movie Monsters book. I don't know if you found your information in the same place I did, but there is a message board called lost Fresno. Yes, so check that out and it's still active because somebody had just posted this question which I have about the video store that I went to in Sunnyside on that corner of Kings Canyon and Clovis that was down the strip mall from Vaughans, And they said, what was the name of that? It's not Sunnyside Video because that was the one across the street by Javier Or And I was like, yes, what was it? I rented there constantly, that was our store.

It hadn't gotten any responses, but he had just posted it like the day before so I may end up because of our show signing up over there on that message board chime in and saying yes, I would like to know too, because I had the exact same question. Yeah, I saw Alan ormsby stuff, and yeah, the mention of the different stores. And I think a lot of those people are like us where they misremember things as well. But I know that that shop moved around a number of places. I saw mention of a Fulton Mall or just Fulton Street.

It wasn't the mall at the time, So Fulton Mall, Fulton Street iteration of the shop, which I don't think I ever went to, and the Blackstone and Bullard, which I don't believe I ever went to. I could have sworn there was one. I saw mention of one on Shields and Blackstone. I thought it was Shields closer to McClane. I think I even mentioned that to you.

Yeah, I was surprised because that was before my time. But yeah, there was definitely in Arthur's Toys in the Blackstone and Shields building that's sort of Florida ceiling glass windows. Okay, I was trying to figure out where it would have been. It's right next to Ay McDonald's, which was one of the first franchise McDonald's and now has sort of they gave an vintage look eventually. For a long time it was a musical instruments on piano's shop.

I know what building you're talking about. Yeah, surprisingly before that, it was briefly in Arthur's Toys. Now I know what building people are talking about. I found a picture of it and it is certainly that building. Okay, cool.

I've always felt like it was a really cool building, but definitely doesn't have enough parking for families going to a toy store. The Arthur's Toys that I always used to go to is now it's Pets over there next to the movie theare which has had art House Films, which is now a vacuum cleuder store. Yes, I saw a lot of great movies there. We will be revisiting Arthur's Toys for one of my obsession story. You're kind of stealing my thumber here, but it'll come back up because I lived close to the other one on tularyan Chestnut that was only about a little over a mile away from my house, So I have a whole summer of nineteen eighty story to get into with that particular branch of the store.

So we will be revisiting Arthur's toys. I don't know when. I don't know when we'll get to that story. It's down the roadways. That's one of the reasons why folks should keep tuning in.

I'm sure that we will cross streams, as they say on a number of things. So I had a question for you. I'm just kind of throwing this out here unexpectedly since our last episode, have you picked up any items that would connect to one of your childhood obsessions? Not necessarily one that we've talked about when you and I started hanging out again when I moved back to fres Now, you'd recently gotten the Gentle Giant twelve inch Vintage style Kenner Style a few of those action figures from Gentle Giant. Something that I got for Christmas was a Gentle Giant Kenner's Style twelve inch version though of the Ralph mcquarie designed Darth Vader concept.

The concept Darth Vader, I would love to find a vintage toy version of Darth Vader in that size. The boat on that I was really excited to see that it came out with a concept design of Darth Vader in that vintage figure style in the twelve inch scale. And as you know, those gentle giant figures are great because not only is the quality fantastic of their skull, but also you can take them out and you can return them back into the packaging and still have them look like they're mint on card. That is definitely me popping back into that love for Star Wars that I have a tendency to drift back into about once every couple of months. Does that meet the expectation of your question?

Yeah, I was kind of thinking more specifically an actual old item, but that'll do for since I just threw it at you. This may be an addition that we continue with for these episodes. I'd like that idea you mentioned fluidity earlier in the shows will be fluid as well. We're not going to stick to any particular We're doing two items at a place this time. Next time we may do one.

We may have themed episodes where we both talk about the same thing in different ways, so don't expect the same old junk each time. What people should know also is that when Mark and I start a discussion, we continue through discussion for the entire month, and we're sending photos back and forth to one another of stuff we're finding on eBay. You know, we both found images of those Sesame Street finger puppets. I haven't bit the bullet on that, but I definitely want to go into that territory and some of those the Fisher priced Sesame Street stuff. But so, what did you find?

This will probably come up. It's a little pencil topper that I was obsessed with as a kid, and I'm just gonna leave it at that because I do think this will be a topic of mine, so I don't want to give it away too much other than it's a pencil topper. It is something that, along with a lot of these other things. Once eBay rolled around, Yeah, it was like, oh, how do I search for that because I don't know what those are called? And so you type in pencil topper and fruit or this or that and that'll come up.

I've got two things on the way to me right now from eBay that will feature in a future episode. One of them was an easy recall. The other one was not. And I had conflated things and mixed things up and misremembered things. But once I found it or looked deeper into one of the items, I was like, oh, yeah, that's it.

So I'm real happy that I tracked both these things down, although I had looked for one already before and found it quite easily. It's a pretty big obsession from childhood, and finding this item made me happy. That'll come up eventually, Oh I can't wait. Yeah, pretty cool stuff. I'll tell you what those are when we're done recording here.

Yeah. So, other than the pencil topper, I want to say I had something else other than finding my Ernie. I wanted to mention I discovered something and looking up the Ernie plushy that you have. I was looking that up on eBay. But I also wanted to see about the vinyl head stuffed Burt and Ernie and see what those were going for on eBay because I personally loved the vinyl headed Muppet toys.

I saw that they came out with in the nineties early nineties or mid nineties, almost the same exact design. So you get there are these vinyl headed stuffed versions of Burt and Ernie that came out in the mid nineties that had plush bodies but vinyl heads interesting. I only associated those with the hand puppets. The vinyl heads. I didn't know that they made plus Yeah.

Yeah, I could be misremembering that too as plush figures because I never had them. I always sort of coveted them the vinyl head for some reason. I was just fascinated by the vinyl Yeah, I mean it works better for what they are as far as the shape of them, yeah, for sure, and maybe the durability as far as kids go. Yeah, alrighty, well that's all I have for this go around. Yeah, me too.

You know, every time we talk, I take little notes of things that we can talk about in the future. I always get ideas from you and from what you talk about, and I'm sure it works both ways. But yeah, I'm excited. I've got, you know, multiple things here on my list that I'd like to excited to talk about next time. Well, I think that's to our benefit here, to keep the longevity of the show, because, like you, that first episode particularly, I wrote down ten other things.

Yeah, and a couple that you mentioned, and a couple that I remember, like, oh wait, that was a big deal, And like you, I went back to eBay after that first episode a lot of the sesame street stuff. Mostly have a couple on my watch list. Got this little pencil toppers that sprung up in my mind as we were talking. It's funny what triggers these thoughts and things that maybe you didn't think about for a long time but realize, Oh wait, I was really into that. We'll have stuff popping up all the time, I think.

I think these discussions are good for folks that are tuning in to listen to this. It's less about like, let me find out who I am through these discussions about nostalgic items or whatever. It's more about how important it is to revisit and re experience these things that helped us develop into the people we are. The more we sort of step away and don't look back. I don't want to sound like I'm getting on a behind the pulpit here, but I think the more we don't look back on how we became the people that we are today, the more we might be stepping further away from understanding who we are.

So I think it's really important to have these discussions. I personally hope that if anyone's listening to this, they get inspired to step back in time and have these discussions with their friends or just with themselves. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I mentioned this last time. Just to be clear. This is a monthly show.

The main reason I think, for me at least to do it monthly and not bi weekly or any sooner is to not run out of things to talk about. Yeah, for sure, eventually we'll get into more current stuff. I think for us weren't necessarily childhood obsessions. We'll keep that fluidity alive by not sticking to any particular thing. Yeah.

But also it's just easier to do the research to do these things on a monthly basis without putting any pressure. I mean, even with Wake Up Heavy, I don't do anything that often. You do more stuff more frequently on your YouTube channel than I do with the show anymore. I don't want this to become a chore, So I think that's the other main reason. Also, it allows us to, you know, continue to have our dialogue that we normally have, which is like what's happening out there, And it allows the next conversation to be a little bit juicier because our dialogue that we have between us as friends continues on a weekly basis practically, So it's like it allows us to think of more stuff to talk about.

It's good, yes, I agree. Well, thank you all for listening to episode two of Cambridge and was Sean. Please remember that, you know, usually the first of the week of every month, we'll post a new episode of Cambridge and was Sean. You can find it through Weirdingwaymedia dot com and wherever you can find your podcast us that you listen to, because it's pretty much on every platform. Correct, Yes, it should be available pretty much anywhere.

I've been exploring weirding Way Media through their website and there's a lot of good content there. I highly recommend all of it and definitely listen to Wake Up Heavy with Mark and I hope you all tune into a Skelevator's YouTube channel. It's a lot of fun stuff out there. We'll see you all next time. It should is selling.

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