It’s X-Men TAS Podcast: After Dark edition! Your intrepid hosts delve into all your fan requests and questions, covering everything from favorite Marvel heroes to our secret phobias! Join us as we discuss…

• Sonia’s desire to wear a breathable cotton superhero outfit!
• Willie’s budding private teleportation business!
• Our convoluted list of favorite super-heroes!
• The Simpsons, Seinfeld, the Beatles, Star Wars and Star Trek!
• Our existential dread over relationships, the environment and dying!

Well, this pretty outside our comfort zone so we you like it, if not, we’ll never speak of it again! Make sure to subscribe to our podcast via Buzzsprout, iTunesor Stitcher and tell all your friends about it! Last but not least, follow Willie Simpson on Twitter and please join our Facebook Group!

Phoenix Month continues, exploding from the deepest depths of the Hudson River straight into your earbuds! We have a jam-packed episode that takes you all around the galaxy and back again, somehow linking the world of the X-Men to the Seinfeld cinematic universe! So join us as we discuss…

• How to properly fly the space-shuttle through the skyscrapers of lower Manhattan!
• How Howard the Duck, Deadpool and Larry David all make their magical presences felt in this episode!
• How there is no better place to meditate then atop the Brooklyn Bridge!
• How lucky it is for Professor X that Lilandra is not a deformed space monster!
• How “The Gifted” impressed and depressed us and all our other thoughts on the new FOX show!

If that wasn’t enough, we lay out a plan on how to revitalize and energize the comic-book movie and television worlds before they decay into outright stagnation! It’s a crazy and whirling episode that we hope you all enjoy! Please make sure to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes (please leave a 5 star review to help us increase visibility so other X-Men fans can find us) or Stitcher! Also, follow Willie Simpson on Twitter and please join our Facebook Group!

The X-Men TAS Podcast

The X-Men TAS Podcast: Episode 30 - The Phoenix Saga Part II - The Dark Shroud + The Gifted Discussion

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Normally, when you think about the end of the baseball season, you don’t think about Petula Clark, but I do. I’m a rabid New York Mets fan, and when I was a kid, I had a VHS of “Amazin Era,” a film about the history of the New York Mets from 1962-1985. I watched that tape endlessly, over and over, and the soundtrack from that tape just fills me with that special brand of nostalgia. As the Mets season came to another disappointing finish yesterday afternoon, I randomly stumbled on the old Petula Clark song “A Sign of the Times.” This song was featured prominently in the “Amazin Era” tape, and its etched in the loops of my childhood memories. Now, those who read my website know that when I’m posting songs from the 60s, they are usually the absolute best songs of the era; the most artistic, the most serious, the most life changing. Petula’s 60s output doesn’t live up to those standards, but she WAS a product of the most glorious time in pop music, and as a consequence, her cheesy music still IS powerful. “Downtown,” made famous in modern times as a minor subplot in a Seinfeld episode, is an example of this. Its about a lonely woman who just travels to the city to see a movie to lift her spirits. Its totally dumb, but the melody, and Petula’s singing are out of this world. The same goes for “A Sign of the Times,” a sterling diamond of a song. To me, and I know this is borderline insanity, but “A Sign of the Times” was exactly the type of song Paul McCartney was writing in early 1967. It has an awesome vintage British feel that has proven incredibly hard to replicate by anyone since that era. So, sit back, and enjoy these two hunks of 60s confectionery sugar.

I was sitting around in Portland, Maine yesterday with nothing better to do, when on came the “Coneheads” movie.  I haven’t seen in quite sometime, but its one of those movies where you just have to sit through the whole thing.  I was amazed at the parade of 90s comedy superstars appearing in one scene after another.  Not only did you have original SNL stars Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin in their iconic roles, you had Seinfeld stars Jason Alexander and Michael Richards, mega comedy stars Adam Sandler, Phil Hartman, and Drew Carey, and even film indie stars like Parker Posey and Joey Lauren Adams.  When the film was released, it was a commercial dud, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t a cult classic. It contains Chris Farley’s best supporting role ever caught on film, where he plays the unlikely love interest Ronnie, and its riffs on the US immigration experience and laws are spot on and brilliant.  Anyway, I couldn’t get enough of the film, especially the scene where Beldar Conehead gets a 35 mm Kodak camera filled with glorious Kodachrome color film, and shoots his life on Earth with his family in the late seventies and eighties.  It’s a brilliant sequence set to Paul Simon’s classic hit song, “Kodachrome,” from his 1973 There Goes Rhymin’ Simon record.  Bit of trivia, the song was banned by the BBC in England for its use of a trademarked commercial item in the lyrics…kinda unfair considering how much commercialism is imprinted on our lives…just ask Andy Warhol.  So below, check out a sweet homemade “Kodachrome” video someone made, as well as the trailer for the legendary “Coneheads” film….See you next zearl!

I’m getting pretty good at predicting trends.  Just a few days ago I posted a series of Seinfeld trailers cobbled together by a brilliant internet guy, and today I have a new one from a different guy who imagines Jerry and George lost somewhere on Brokeback Mountain.  His future film entitled, “Brokeback About Nothing,” is a passionate and serious look at the obvious chemistry between Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza and the consequences they face pursuing forbidden love.  Of course there have been dozens of Brokeback parodies in the past, but this is the first Seinfeld one, and its just as funny because there is ample accidental moments to pull from.  Anyway don’t feel bad if you enjoy this because after all, it’s not like there’s anything wrong with it.

Some of the best running gags on Seinfeld were the fake movies the gang was always seeing.  Rochelle, Rochelle, Death Blow, Checkmate, and Sack Lunch all come to mind, but it all begs a larger question, what would a Seinfeld movie look like?  Well, luckily some genius on the internet has no shortage of ideas.  These really must be seen to believed, but I’m gonna present you my three favorite Seinfeld movies coming soon to a theater near you.  The first is “Kramerica,” a tale of a country boy and cockeyed optimist, who gets caught up in a dirty game of worldwide diplomacy.  The second is “The Real Peterman,” the tale of a rich playboy whose perfect life is about to come crashing down when the world learns his crushing secret, that he’s a fraud.  The last flick is “Jerry the Great,” a story about an arrogant man’s rise to dark power, and the backstabbing betrayal he commits against his best friend.  There are more trailers beyond these three, and they are surely worth seeking out as they will entertain Seinfeld fans to no end.  Enjoy.

Youtube is kind of awful.  I found some absolutely golden clips from “Seinfeld” that I’d love to post and do intensive analysis of, but nearly all of the clips are disabled for embedding.  Luckily, I have found a few killer scenes that have escaped the clutches of the youtube machine for now.  They’ll probably be taken down in the future, but I live for the moment.  The first montage clip is my favorite.  It’s the gang all dancing around to Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” from Off the Wall.  It’s short but sweet.  The next clip is everybody making crazy noises, and the clip after that you see them in their craziest get ups.  The last clip, the famous Superman montage, is a bonus that I’m linking off site to represent the both the tyranny and wonder of youtube.  Enjoy.

SEINFELD MEETS SUPERMAN!!!  CLICK HERE!!!

I’m pretty sure this is from the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” pilot, but who cares where its from exactly, I’m not double checking Wikipedia.  All you need to know is that its genius and hilarious.  This is Larry returning to his roots, doing strait up stand up, and killing.  He riffs on masturbation, blow jobs from Jews, Clinton, Hitler, Chinese men, answering machines, and Jack Kevorkian.  It’s a brilliant montage of his best jokes, and it all ends on a joke that sums up his entire comedy philosophy.  Just sit back, press play, prepare to laugh, and thank me later.

The “Seinfeld” obsession continues, this time with a great documentary on it’s unlikely creation and even more unlikely smash success.  It’s a revealing 6 part look into how the show started off as a quirky experimental program whose premise was wrapping a sitcom around a standup comedians act.  It was a totally novel creation springing from the minds of Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld.  The documentary is great because you see the enormous strain and pressure Larry David was under in the creation of this thing countered with the unnatural calm and ease that Jerry Seinfeld exuded during the whole creation.  The whole video series is great, a must for “Seinfeld” fans, which should just about include the entire human race. Sadly, Part 3 and 5 cannot be embedded! Stupid youtube censors. Don’t worry, I’ve provided links so you won’t miss out. Enjoy.

PART 3, Click here!!!!!!!

PART 5, CLICK HERE!!!!!!

If you caught last Sunday’s episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Palestinian Chicken,” you know Larry David is on a hot streak.  There are a lot of genius comics in the world right now, but Larry is going for the throne of world’s funniest man.  I can’t get enough of Larry and the world of “Curb,” and because of my addiction, I found this awesome series of clips featuring Larry, Cheryl Hines, and Jeff Garlin talking about the creation and origins of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”  This is a long multi-video post, so be sure to click the more button so you don’t miss out on any videos.

VIDEO #1- Larry on the show’s creation.  Here Larry talks about how he thought his return to standup would be stale, so he decided to wrap it around a clever little mockumentary idea.

VIDEO #2- Jeff Garlin, director and executive producer of the show, explains how Larry coaxed him into starring on the show as Larry’s agent.
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