Episodes

Episode 64: Sam Taylor-Wood, Unhappy Happy Meals, Inventions that Suck


This week: Artist-turned-filmmaker Sam Taylor-Wood reveals a secret… San Francisco takes the happy out of meals… And we learn about an invention that really sucked. Plus: new music from Deerhunter.

Icebreaker: Taylor Orci
Taylor Orci, comic and contributor to Huffington Post, jokes about one or two things.

Small Talk: John Letzing
MarketWatch reporter John Letzing tells Rico & Brendan about San Francisco’s war on the happy meal and explains the role of a McDietician.

A History Lesson With Booze: the Vacuum cleaner & The “Suck It Up
Around this time back in 1901, Englishman Hubert C. Booth patented the vacuum cleaner. But it took another few years (and ditching the horse-drawn cart) for the dust-busting device to take off as a consumer product, thanks to an Ohio janitor and a business baron named Hoover. Hear the story, then toast the spirit of invention with a cocktail that doesn’t suck:

“Suck It Up,” as concocted by bartender Melissa Venditti of the Main Street Grill in North Canton, Ohio — Hoover’s former hometown:

In a mixing glass, add:

  • 1 1/2 oz. Canadian Whiskey
  • 1/4 oz. amaretto
  • generous splash of fresh-squeezed lemonade
  • splash of soda water

Chill, pour into martini glass, serve it up, hoover it down.

Guest of Honor: Sam Taylor-Wood
Sam Taylor-Wood, one of the Young British Artists who took the art world by storm in the late ’80s and early ’90s, has directed her first commercial film: “Nowhere Boy.” It’s a John Lennon biopic that focuses on the iconic rocker’s troubled teen years. Taylor-Wood talks about the anxiety around fictionalizing a hero… and reveals, for the first time, a secret she shares with her husband.

One For The Road: “Helicopter” by Deerhunter
Indie-electronic group Deerhunter just released their LP Halcyon Digest – a brilliant collection of sounds that burble, pop and fizz in mesmerizing ways. Case in point: “Helicopter,” best heard while falling in love during an apocalypse. The video’s a trip, too.

 

Music On This Week’s Show:

Sea & Cake – “The Argument”

Aphex Twin – “Boy/Girl Song”

Tipsy – “Liquordelic”

Winnifred Atwell – “Britannia Rag”

Thomas Newman – “Welcome To The Suck”

The Beatles – “In Spite Of All The Danger”