Oh my, so much awesomeness here - and food for deep thought here! Let me count the ways…
1. I was completely unfamiliar with Ben Feldman. I watched Mad Men religiously back when it aired, but apparently I’m experiencing cognitive decline as I don’t recall his character at all. What a delightful person.
2. I completely ignored Bojack Horseman. I knew it had a following and that my son liked it (I think he was in high school then), but I have had a lifelong difficulty appreciating works in which the characters are animals. I remember in 4th grade when all my classmates were ordering a book from Scholastic called Watership Down. It had a rabbit on the cover. I did not get it. In high school and then again in college, some classes were assigned George Orwell’s Animal Farm. That book was never among my assigned readings - nor was 1984. I eventually read 1984 on my own, but never read Animal Farm. Maybe I should push myself into the genre with Bojack Horseman.
3. I completely missed Superstore. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of it - or maybe that’s another sign of cognitive decline. Another one to watch. (Now how to decide which one to watch first?)
4. Parenting and kids. Oh Lord, this one had me crying. I’m acutely aware that my memories of my kids at 6 and 7 years old are spotty and fuzzy. I could blame cognitive decline again, but I remember being aware of this phenomenon by the time my youngest was in high school, which was around 10 years ago, so I don’t think it’s just my advancing age. What I’ve been realizing since I became an “empty nester” trying to figure out what I want my life to look like now is that I never lived my life intentionally and I don’t have the least idea what I want to do with myself. Except maybe watch a couple of great Netflix shows that I overlooked, and one that’s coming soon.
Thank you God for all of these revelations. Although I haven’t learned how to be intentional, somewhere along the way I did learn gratitude!
It's /Watership Down/, named for the plot of land it initially takes place on (if I remember clearly -- wait, no, that's where they were trying to escape to), and frankly, it's fairly grim and dark, but it did try to treat the lives of rabbits and such as a bit more "natural" and less anthropomorphic, and they are prey animals... :-/
They did an animated movie back in the day, where the incomparable John Hurt voiced one of the main character bunnies.
/Eventually/ it got to a happy-ish ending, a better one than might've been, but bring a lot of Kleenex. :-/
Well done, both of them, but ouch.
Same with /Animal Farm/, though I liked the animated version a bit better than the book; it had a more definitive, happier ending...at least for the rest of the proletariat farm animals. Basically, they wanted to rebel against the evil, drunken sot of a human farmer (most did; the girly-girl bourgeoisie cart horse mare thought she was doing just fine, thanks), with the pigs leading 'cause they were the smartest things with hooves...two of them eventually became basically Lenin and Stalin, essentially. It wound up about as well as you might expect; eventually, the remaining pigs started taking on all the execrable vices of the bad humans, the better to screw over the other "foolish animals, talking of 'brotherhood'."
"If God could prevent The Big One from hitting the Los Angeles area any time soon" that would be nice; we have enough on our plates right now. :-/
Silver lining: everything's pretty much burned, so there's hardly anything left to worry about if all our gas mains and electrical systems get disrupted by The Big One...
I agree… and I hope you have some peace and happiness as you rebuild your community. I live in Santa Rosa CA so I can relate having gone through a similar experience.
We were very, VERY lucky where we were; we were in a Yellow Evac Zone ("You might want to think about getting ready; get your animals squared away, your household members who might need a little extra time... :)"), surrounded by Reds ("GET THE HELL OUT RIGHT NOW! =8-0"). Thank the gods the roads to the freeways were still available, but we had everything bagged up in the living room, ready to bug out when/if it went Red on the map. That was a sleepless week, staying up all night/day in shifts, my hubby and I, watching the website displays...and the skies outside. :-/
For the most part, folks are pretty serious about rebuilding here and helping each other out, and our local governments have been pretty helpful, but there was still a heckuva lot of residents and businesses nuked, vs. "just" a wildfire. :-/
One very smart chap (helped he was an architectural engineer) had specifically built his home to withstand fires, since he was close to the foothills, "and it's not a matter of 'if,' but 'when'," and his place was a little scorched here and there, but still standing...being about the only one on the block that still was. :-/
Maybe it was God sending us all a message: "When you rebuild, make your houses like that guy. :D"
How are you folks in Santa Rosa doing these days? :)
Since the Tubbs Fire in 2017 some lots are still empty. It took some people 3 yrs to rebuild. But things are getting back to normal and we haven’t had any crazy fires in a few years. On occasion I can hear and see the Cal Fire planes taking off at our Sonoma county airports a few miles away. They have a very distinctive engine noise. I think we all have some PTSD from the experience. But it did really bring our community together which was great. Thanks for asking.
Loved this interview OG! Ben is very talented and funny. Please keep inviting guests that make us laugh and remember how fun and wonderful it can be to be human.
We all need more comedy especially now!
Bobs burgers, Rick & Morty, Archer, family Guy, ooo Puppy Cat my favorite 😍
Oh my, so much awesomeness here - and food for deep thought here! Let me count the ways…
1. I was completely unfamiliar with Ben Feldman. I watched Mad Men religiously back when it aired, but apparently I’m experiencing cognitive decline as I don’t recall his character at all. What a delightful person.
2. I completely ignored Bojack Horseman. I knew it had a following and that my son liked it (I think he was in high school then), but I have had a lifelong difficulty appreciating works in which the characters are animals. I remember in 4th grade when all my classmates were ordering a book from Scholastic called Watership Down. It had a rabbit on the cover. I did not get it. In high school and then again in college, some classes were assigned George Orwell’s Animal Farm. That book was never among my assigned readings - nor was 1984. I eventually read 1984 on my own, but never read Animal Farm. Maybe I should push myself into the genre with Bojack Horseman.
3. I completely missed Superstore. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of it - or maybe that’s another sign of cognitive decline. Another one to watch. (Now how to decide which one to watch first?)
4. Parenting and kids. Oh Lord, this one had me crying. I’m acutely aware that my memories of my kids at 6 and 7 years old are spotty and fuzzy. I could blame cognitive decline again, but I remember being aware of this phenomenon by the time my youngest was in high school, which was around 10 years ago, so I don’t think it’s just my advancing age. What I’ve been realizing since I became an “empty nester” trying to figure out what I want my life to look like now is that I never lived my life intentionally and I don’t have the least idea what I want to do with myself. Except maybe watch a couple of great Netflix shows that I overlooked, and one that’s coming soon.
Thank you God for all of these revelations. Although I haven’t learned how to be intentional, somewhere along the way I did learn gratitude!
It's /Watership Down/, named for the plot of land it initially takes place on (if I remember clearly -- wait, no, that's where they were trying to escape to), and frankly, it's fairly grim and dark, but it did try to treat the lives of rabbits and such as a bit more "natural" and less anthropomorphic, and they are prey animals... :-/
They did an animated movie back in the day, where the incomparable John Hurt voiced one of the main character bunnies.
/Eventually/ it got to a happy-ish ending, a better one than might've been, but bring a lot of Kleenex. :-/
Well done, both of them, but ouch.
Same with /Animal Farm/, though I liked the animated version a bit better than the book; it had a more definitive, happier ending...at least for the rest of the proletariat farm animals. Basically, they wanted to rebel against the evil, drunken sot of a human farmer (most did; the girly-girl bourgeoisie cart horse mare thought she was doing just fine, thanks), with the pigs leading 'cause they were the smartest things with hooves...two of them eventually became basically Lenin and Stalin, essentially. It wound up about as well as you might expect; eventually, the remaining pigs started taking on all the execrable vices of the bad humans, the better to screw over the other "foolish animals, talking of 'brotherhood'."
Thanks Nancy! I didn’t realize that autocorrect had changed “Watership” to “Watershed.” Fixing it now.
I had forgotten that there was an animated version of Animal Farm. Thank you for the summaries!
You're welcome! :)
"If God could prevent The Big One from hitting the Los Angeles area any time soon" that would be nice; we have enough on our plates right now. :-/
Silver lining: everything's pretty much burned, so there's hardly anything left to worry about if all our gas mains and electrical systems get disrupted by The Big One...
I agree… and I hope you have some peace and happiness as you rebuild your community. I live in Santa Rosa CA so I can relate having gone through a similar experience.
We were very, VERY lucky where we were; we were in a Yellow Evac Zone ("You might want to think about getting ready; get your animals squared away, your household members who might need a little extra time... :)"), surrounded by Reds ("GET THE HELL OUT RIGHT NOW! =8-0"). Thank the gods the roads to the freeways were still available, but we had everything bagged up in the living room, ready to bug out when/if it went Red on the map. That was a sleepless week, staying up all night/day in shifts, my hubby and I, watching the website displays...and the skies outside. :-/
For the most part, folks are pretty serious about rebuilding here and helping each other out, and our local governments have been pretty helpful, but there was still a heckuva lot of residents and businesses nuked, vs. "just" a wildfire. :-/
One very smart chap (helped he was an architectural engineer) had specifically built his home to withstand fires, since he was close to the foothills, "and it's not a matter of 'if,' but 'when'," and his place was a little scorched here and there, but still standing...being about the only one on the block that still was. :-/
Maybe it was God sending us all a message: "When you rebuild, make your houses like that guy. :D"
How are you folks in Santa Rosa doing these days? :)
Since the Tubbs Fire in 2017 some lots are still empty. It took some people 3 yrs to rebuild. But things are getting back to normal and we haven’t had any crazy fires in a few years. On occasion I can hear and see the Cal Fire planes taking off at our Sonoma county airports a few miles away. They have a very distinctive engine noise. I think we all have some PTSD from the experience. But it did really bring our community together which was great. Thanks for asking.
Best wishes to you, your family and friends 😇🥰
And you and yours, and all the rest there! :)
Loved this interview OG! Ben is very talented and funny. Please keep inviting guests that make us laugh and remember how fun and wonderful it can be to be human.
LOL the god’s bunkbed 😆