March 19, 2024 • 40 mins
Join hosts Will Meldman and Brock O’Hurn as they delve into a wide array of topics, from daily vitamin supplements to their adventures with a flat tire en route to a private screening of "Dune 2." The conversation weaves seamlessly between personal anecdotes, film reviews, and literary exploration.
The hosts share their experiences with various supplements, discussing the effects of caffeine and the benefits of mushroom gummies. A mishap involving a flat tire on the way to a movie screening leads to an impromptu discussion about the film industry and the experience of watching "Dune 2."
Moving beyond movies, the hosts dive into the world of literature, exploring classic works of fantasy and science fiction. From Tolkien's influences to lesser-known gems like "The King of Elf Lands Daughter" and "Tales of the Dying Earth," they provide insights into the rich tapestry of literary inspiration.
Listeners are invited to join the conversation on Instagram, where Mauldin shares his journey through a 50-book challenge. With engaging storytelling and candid commentary, Studio 22 offers a captivating blend of entertainment and intellectual exploration.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to Studio twenty two.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Studio twenty two. I'm your host Will Meldman,
joined by the Bold and the beautiful Bronco Hearn. How
are you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I'm feeling good? Man started taking some new tropics and
I'm feeling good. Focused tons of nutrients, Oh yeah, got
some some mushrooms in there, like Lion's maine stuff like that.
Oh yeah, just helps with mental focus and clarity. But
I took them this morning, so they're kind of wearing off.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I'm taking those mushroom gummies where same type of thing,
the reichsche and the Lion's Maine, but it just like
kind of like a daily vitamin supplement.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, some good stuff coming off from that science out there.
So yeah, I took it because I was just drinking
too much caffeine and now I'm barely drinking caffeine at all,
if at all, and I'm feeling good. I'm feeling better
than I felt a long time.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Do you, like, really feel the difference with or without caffeine.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
One hundred percent. I don't even think I need caffeine anymore.
It has a little bit of caffeine in it as
one hundred milligrams.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So it's not like nothing, but it's like a cup
and a half of coffee.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
But for somebody I do, on average probably drink four
and fifty milligrams a day. So to go from that
to nothing and feeling good the whole day before I
crash and stuff. I want to feel good. Yeah, now
I have energy. I'm sleeping better, like hell, yeah, I
recommend it. Dude.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
That's great to hear.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Ten out of ten. Yeah, yeah, more productive.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You're not taking those crazy pre workouts with all the caffeine.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
No, it's going straight into my workouts. I never thought
I would get to that point where I wouldn't need
a pre workout to work out because I lift very intensely.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
You do.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, So dude, this might be the new me. Might
be Uh, it might be all about the new tropics.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Dude, dude, how praise jeez?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
They're good. How are you doing? Man?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Very good? Very good?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
We just saw it doing too. We went to an
early private screening. Oh yeah, and thanks to Coldwater Canyon
and the massive pothole, we got a flat tire on
the way crazy and my car we had to pull
off park in the Ralphs Uber to the theater to make
(02:18):
the film on time, of course, and then meet a
tow truck after the theater.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, because we couldn't.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I couldn't drive it home obviously.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, you're running on the rim.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Oh and we would have replaced the tire, but there's
no spare in my car because it's a new lease.
It's not like we were all like, oh, we can't
change a tire.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
But it was. The more important fact was the movie
started in less than fifteen minutes, so we had to
get to the movie.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
That was the mission.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because I remember when we finally
pulled over. We got the uber within a minute and
we just took off and it was we pretty much
didn't lose any time. Yeah, from from uh parking and
then getting in there, but that was a that was flat,
like that was I think I remember driving was it
the next day? I think it was the next day
that we drove by the pothole again? And it is massive.
(03:14):
You couldn't be the you can't be the only person
who got a flat tire on that. It's insane.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, I don't know how every single car doesn't just
tank it right there every time.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's a little off to the a little off to
the right, So there's like I'm sure everyone sees it
for the most part, but due to his dark outside,
like we're mobbing through the hills, there's no way if.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
You're driving north on Coldwater Canyon from Mulholland right when
you go down to the north side, it's right there
on the kind of right side of the right lane.
So watch out for it, all you Los Angeleans.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, it was Angelino's and we.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Passed it on the way to go play golf at Lakeside.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That's when we saw it the second time when I
was driving and thankfully didn't hit it.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Well, we knew about it.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well that's that's my point. But yeah, no,
that thing's to beast, So watch out for the popples
and la people and plenty of them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
We played golf with Andrew Santino.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, Andrew's insane golfer.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Actually, dude, I did not expect him to be so good.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
No, he's got to be. He's one of the better
golfers I've ever played with. Actually he's a four. Yeah,
it's pretty much scratch. I mean he shot a seventy three. Yeah,
basically scratch yeah crazy, and he's I think he was
saying he's been lower too, like he's he's gotten down
to just zero or one, like no problem, but uh
(04:39):
right right, you got to play a lot obviously to
do that, like and just still do that on a
regular basis.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
He's a gamer.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, it was impressive, So, I mean it made me
step up my game, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And more importantly, a great guy. We had a lot
of fun with him, Yeah, funny, that was really cool.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, and his buddy Hank, Hank was cool.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I got along well with Hank. He's super nice, super
nice dude.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And then we did a podcast.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Oh we went to a podcast. Yeah, yeah, we did
my plus one with my buddy Vinnie fast Line and
uh Tony.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, thank you for letting me be your plus one.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It was a good time. I only did it so
that when he asked you the question why do you
love me so much? I just it was all. It
was all for my ego.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It reminded me of the Dan and Shay compliment cast.
Oh yeah, yeah, that's right when Shay it was like,
you guys just compliment each other all the time on
the podcast, Like, yeah, pretty much easy.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
He's an easy geta easy guy to compliment to. He's
so nice. Dude's hilarious and insanely talented. So it's it's
it's a little unfair when you're that talented and that
humble at the same time, and then you're funny on
top of it. It's like, dude, you won.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Those guys were really really cool though it was. It
was great to meet them and.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, do that do that shows its cool? Man? Yeah.
I didn't know what to expect going in, except for
I just knew Vinnie's a great guy and they've had
a lot of really great guests on too, so they're
off to a great start.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Who are some of the other big ones.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Tiffany Hattish they had on recently, so she's pretty big.
I remember Tiffany from the Comedy Days back before she up. Yeah. Yeah.
They also had on Joel David Moore, who's a director.
He actually was at Mammoth Film Festival last year. I
met him there and saw one of his films that
he produced and directed and in very interesting film, different film,
(06:34):
uh like like a mind Twist, and Ashley Green was
in it. She's she's a good friend and uh, you
know Paul Corey, right, but there's a couple of really
great talented people. But he brought in his plus one
was Zachary Levy from from Shazam. I think they go,
but they do all kinds of stuff, you know, they
get all kinds of cool people on. And you know,
(06:56):
Vinnie's a comedian, so he he's cracking jokes and we
had some fun. Yeah, it's not twelve when we get
to do another podcast also.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Together, also together, yeah, yeah, on the road Studio twenty two.
On the road.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
We're just attacking podcasts from every angle, guys. But yeah,
let's uh, we kind of skipped over it. But do
you want to talk about doing two? What your thoughts were,
how you felt, did you like it? Did you not
like it?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I thoroughly enjoyed that film. I thought it was one
of the best modern sci fi films I've ever seen,
one of the best remakes of an old classic. Visually
freaking gorgeous. Yeah, audio like, you know, everything you loved
(07:42):
about the first one, you're gonna love that again in
the second. And what I appreciated more about it without
giving too much away, is there is more of a
resolution in this story and obviously one was part one. However,
the second one was in greenlate by the time the
first one was released, so you really didn't know by
(08:08):
the third one is greenlate when this one came out,
so you knew, like, okay, they're doing a trilogy. Just
I really, it really bothers me. Not having a resolution
at the end of a story.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That's the whole arc of storytelling too, you know, that's
why we have the arc, you know, the three or
three act structure.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
At the very least, you know, make another b plot
that wraps up by the end of the first one,
but keep the main a plot open and continuous.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, I mean, that's a risky move to make a
film that doesn't have essentially, in my opinion, a third act,
you know, from what I remember, I only did see
it one time, but like you said, the visual effects
are off the charts. It was incredible seeing those worms
and seeing the technology they had in the film, and
then the world that they built. You know, you're really
in a different world, which is amazing, and it's like
(08:56):
highest quality I think too. But I think you nailed
it when you said it was it's one of the
best modern uh sci fi films. That are out right
now or that have been made in a long time,
and then the acting is insane. But the thing that
really like pieced it all together, besides the visual effects
and the story was great, you know, was dude, the score,
Like I was, the score moved me in a way
(09:19):
that you know, it took it to a whole other level.
So when you're sitting there and these these big moments
are happening, you know, because it doesn't feel like a
very dialogue heavy film to me, But when the dialogue,
when people speak, and when when you hear the conversations
and then you follow along in the story, like when
it happens mixed with the score, it hits so hard.
(09:40):
So by the end of it, you know, some of
the relationships, you're like, you feel for them in a
whole different light. And I think that it's just it
was just incredibly well done. And the talent in there,
dude is just Scar you know, Scars Garred, You got
Austin Butler, tim Ley Shamalay, how do you say? Sella
(10:01):
May freaking obviously I shout out to you for you
as well.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, yeah, for you, But.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
She is just amazing, dude, and them together is just
like what a duo? You know, everybody in there was awesome.
I just I can't praise it enough. I think, honestly
with and that's not even blowing smoke like that is.
It's a great film.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Austin Butler really did, I think, kind of do something
out of his normal box, out of his normal range
and saying right, that maniacal leader in villain. I really
do think he just crushed it.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, you know what I'm really curious about with that,
which it could one hundred percent be all him, but
I'm really curious the voice, you know, because he did
such a good job at sounding like he was part
of that family, part of the Scars Guards. What's his
what's the characters name? You know, the big floating, heavy dude,
the Baron, the Hearken. Yeah, I don't know what his
(11:06):
character name is. I can't think of it right now,
but Baron hark Baron. That's not Bill Scarsgard. What's his name?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Uh, he's the Chernobyl.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Guy, right, Stellin scars.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Art Right, phenomenal actor.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Dude, He's amazing. Their whole family. Every Scars Guard is talented, dude.
It's insane. What I found is that, you know, the
Scars Guard family kind of speaks a certain way, right,
and then so Stellin speaks in a way in his
character as well. And then Austin Butler, who you know
we've just seen play Elvis, adopted that way of speaking flawlessly,
(11:40):
and I'm and I'm curious, like if it was all him,
which I'm sure it was, or if it was some
like a d R voice manipulation kind of something to
make it sound even more in line, you know, because
it was so good. And I'm only saying it because,
like I'm I'm extremely impressed by it, you know, like
that that's anything that's a compliment, you know, Oh, of.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Course, yeah, I do. It would be cool to watch
the I think the behind the scenes is up on
Warner brother or I guess it would be max HBO
Warner Brothers streaming service that I want to go watch
the behind the scenes because I want to see what
they did with that audio, like you said, from dialogue
to the action, I want to see it all like
(12:21):
it's it's a masterpiece technically speaking, like undoubtedly Dune two
is a masterpiece and a masterful science fiction film.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I would say one last great point with that, and
we both mentioned this when we left the theater. Very often,
this movie's two hours and forty six minutes. Very often,
when you watch a movie that's close to three hours
units it's made by somebody great, there's moments where they
just feels like it drags on a little bit. You know,
(12:52):
I can wholeheartedly say for me, at least, there wasn't
a single moment where I was like, this is too long,
you know, like there wasn't and barely anybody left to
go to the bathroom, you know, like everyone I can,
they're holding it. They're in it. Uh, they're invested. And
then there's so much comedy in it too, you know. Yeah, dude,
I just like Javier Bardom's character. It's just like he's
(13:17):
so good, dude, and so funny. So I hope like
this would be me saying like that, this is a
This is a movie that you go to the theater
for and you have to and you sell yeah, and
you watch that with people around you, and if you
get the right crowd and they're laughing at all the
right moments like that is how you're supposed to experience
(13:38):
a movie. And this is one that it's like I
wouldn't compare to the Top Gun in the in that
in that sense, but I would say it's like on
that level of it's just a great film that there's
I have nothing bad to say about it, like it's
just great, and the first one I could say, I
don't think I had a third act and so I'd
(13:59):
left me.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, if anything, the third act was not long enough. Like, honestly,
slight spoiler, I think they could have drawn out the
third act a little bit more, like I wanted more
from that. It did start getting yeah, but I don't
want to get too much into into spoilers. I'm gonna
see it again with my girlfriend when she gets back
(14:20):
in town. But I'm gonna do the Dolby Cinema instead
of Imax because Dolby has way better sound.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah, and that Imax had great the whole the seats
were vibrating, like the whole thing was shaken when we
were going through some of the stuff in there. But
to your point about the you know, you felt like
maybe it was it was a little quick in the
third act. It leaves you wanting more, like I want
to know what happens after Now I have to see
three that doesn't happen all the time. You know, There's
(14:48):
been multiple franchises that you know, I have not seen
the third, fourth, fifth, whatever one's and then I'll go
back and see another one. I'm like, Wow, I'm I'm,
I'm I'm lost at eight guys, it's pretty obvious what
I'm talking about. Actually, damn yeah, yeah, I just I
just you know, I love the first ones and nothing
against sending the ones in the middle. But I remember
(15:09):
I went and saw I think it was eight maybe
or nine, and I'm like, where what happened? This is
a different If I followed it, it would have made sense
to me. I was just like, that's not possible.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
They have their brand, you know. No, they're crushing it.
They know what they're doing, right, It's like, just keep keep.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
It flowing them, dude. If you can do anything close
to that, you have absolutely won life when it comes
to making film and TV. So but for me, for me,
like I would watch Dune seventeen based off doing too.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Hell yeah, yeah, I keep I really hope they keep going, man.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
That'd be cool. But also love the genre and we
work in the genre, right, Uh, You you write in
the genre, which is kind of why we're doing this
podcast today. You know, you I've found have inspired me
actually truly, uh with your writing and with the creating
(16:10):
of the Kine comic universe. And then there's people who've
inspired you, and then there's people that have inspired them.
And that's kind of what we're getting into today. We're
going to dive into the books, right, So tell us
about this fifty book challenge you're doing.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Caine has inspired me in a lot of different ways.
I think it has both of us, right, Like we're
creating a comic universe, and creatively, it sent me down
an odyssey that I never knew I would go down
as a producer. And now I'm going on this journey
as a writer. And I've done all the quote required reading,
(16:49):
right like the Iliad, the Odyssey, Lord of the Rings,
the Giver, Enders Game, I've done a lot of the
required reading, science fiction, fantasy fiction, absolutely Calvin and Hobbes,
and you know, I really wanted to expand my knowledge
(17:15):
and in the area of literature and fiction and especially
as man. I'm writing Caine Volume two right now, I'm
writing about seven different spin offs. I'm writing volume to
a Desert heat and I really want to tap into.
Like you said, what inspired the people that inspired me? Right,
(17:36):
so you take J. R. R. Tolkien and who inspired him? Well,
it so happens that there's a book called The King
of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany, and Tolkien even stated
that it's a big inspiration to him. And I'm literally
(17:58):
only about ten pages into it. However, the pages, they
are pretty wordy, and you can already tell why this
book is so inspirational and lasted as long as it
did and affected the people that came after it. The
world it brings you in immediately, it's familiar but also unearthly.
(18:22):
It combines the enchanted with the mundane of a monarchy. Right,
There's familial relationships that you'll recognize. There's witches, there's runic swords,
and I am really really stoked about this one. If
I may, I'm going to read small section from it,
(18:44):
just to show the tone and writing style and the
prose of how the book is operating. So I can
talk about it all day, but show me, don't tell me, baby. Context.
A prince is in front of his father, the king
at his and his father said, oh.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Shit, please keep that day inspiration.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
What do you bid me do, said the son, when
I come to that palace, And his father said to
wed the King of Elfland's daughter. The young man thought
of her beauty and crown of ice, and the sweetness
that fabulous ruins had told was hers. Songs were sung
of her on wild hills where tiny strawberries grew at
(19:30):
dusk and by early starlight, and if one sought the singer,
no man was there. Sometimes only her name was sung softly,
over and over. Her name was le Rozelle. She was
a princess of the magic line. The gods had sent
their shadows to her Christenane and the fairies too would
have gone, but they were frightened to see their dewy fields,
(19:52):
the long, dark, moving shadows of the gods, so they
stay hidden in crowds of pale pink and enemies. And
thence blessed Lerizelle. So just the tone alone takes you
into that world, right, And that's from the first page,
So you're just thrown into this. Prince must go on
(20:14):
a journey to marry this princess in this magical land,
and he ends up getting a sword from a witch
that's blessed with magic, and the basically the town spoke.
The people of the realm want a magical ruler. They
don't just want like a normal man to be king.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Interesting, so you know, is that the human realm or
is that the Yeah? Ok, yeah, yeah, the human realm
wants someone with magical powers exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
So they set it up as is this going to
be a cautionary tale, right, why do they want magic?
Don't mess around with magic. But you set up a
romantic relationship between a prince and a princess, you set
up with magic, you set up the monarchy. All of
the themes are just beautifully established, like right there, and
(21:07):
like I love that, like on the hill where tiny
strawberries grow.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
And little little minute details that are just already to
paint the picture of the world, right, and even what
you're saying too, like I don't know much outside of
what we've briefly talked about about the book, and even
just that, like hearing that the humans want somebody with
magical abilities to lead them to me in my head
(21:34):
immediately I'm like, Okay, there must be a bigger threat
that can only be faced by somebody with magic, right,
And I don't know that, but that is interesting to me.
That's getting me hooked already.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
So the King says, right right after that, my people
demand a magic lord to rule over them. They have
chosen foolishly, the old Lord said, And only the dark
ones that show not their faces, no all that this
will bring. But we who see not follow the ancient
custom and do what our people in their parliament say.
It may be some spirit of wisdom they have not
(22:09):
known may save them. Even yet. The King is like,
they may have chose foolishly, right, But it's just setting
up so many things that I'm really really excited to uncover.
And you know, you're hitting the face with all these
fantasy motifs like pretty much immediately.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And this is a book that when was this is
early nineteen hundreds, what year was it, nineteen twenty four,
nineteen twenty four, So this is a hundred year old book.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
It's the one hundredth anniversary.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
That's crazy. That is crazy so good, and that it's
still relevant today and maybe not as much as it
was back in the day, right, or maybe just as much,
but it's it's relevant enough that in one hundred years later,
someone named Will Meltman is buying it and researching it, right,
like that is a testament to the story in there
(23:02):
and the way that's written in time. You know that
it transcends, It's transcended one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
If it inspired Tolkien, it's good. It's definitely good enough
for this old don.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Good enough for token, good enough for you exactly. That's awesome, dude.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
But yeah, this is book one of a fifty book challenge. Awesome,
and I'm thrilled to keep going on that. I'm going
to read this really quickly.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I'm like, I'm a big fan that you're doing a
book club. I love book clubs and I've always actually
wanted to start one, so you went ahead and did
the initiative of actually making one, which is so cool.
Where can people really quick join your book club?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So I am doing it on my Instagram. So if
you subscribe to my Instagram account for four ninety nine
a month, I'm going to be doing constant content around
all the books. There's fifty books, and I'm going to
be talking about them constantly, So I'll be putting up
videos all the time. And you can do it directly
on my Instagram at W Meldman thirty three W E
(24:05):
L D M A N thirty three. It's the only
subscription content that I'm doing, just pure books. I already
put out two first impression videos, one on Elflyn's Daughter
and then one on Solaris, another sci fi classic from
seventy one by Stanislav Lem and I'm ten chapters into
(24:28):
that one, and it's beautiful, like it captures being on
a space station and like this strange planet everyone's researching,
and it's beautiful, very elegantly written and extremely detailed. You
feel like you're there.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Awesome. So that means you got you got fifty books
you're gonna do over an extended period of time, and
subscribing you'll get constant updates, videos, and the ability to
interact with Will through the book club, through through Instagram
by subscribing, subscribe to his Instagram. And for anybody that's
interested that has listened thus far, I am going to
(25:10):
give you a little quick synopsis of the King of
Elfland's Daughter, just so that if you're interested, you know
what you're diving into for first book. Here we go.
Hopefully I don't stutter. Ah. The King of Elfland's Daughter
is a fantasy novel written by Lord Dunnaee Dunsany see
that is just it just gets ya. It's written by
(25:31):
Lord Dunsany. It follows the story of Alvrick, the son
of the King of Earl, who sets out on a
quest to marry the beautiful Lerizel, the daughter of the
mysterious King of Elfland. The novel explores the clash between
the magical realm of Elfland and the mortal world of Earl,
as well as the consequences of bringing enchantment into the
human realm. Rich with poetic prose and mythical elements, the
(25:55):
novel delves into the themes of desire, magic, and the
consequences of pursuing the fantastical. There you have it.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Thank you for the synopsis. I hope that sparks some
curiosity and people out there and can inspire some other
books to give a little preview into the other forty
nine Star of the Unborn, a nineteen seventy one classic
like it. I couldn't even find this book on the
internet like it took me hours to even find like
(26:25):
one copy left on one random site. But this has
also been a huge inspiration to tons of fantasy sci
fi writers out there. I'm going to read a very
small excerpt from this as well, to show you the
tone and writing style of what they got going on.
Since we are dealing with a kind of travelog I
(26:48):
feel the obligation to introduce the hero, or more modestly,
the central figure of the occurrences here set forth. This
particular literary form has the unfortunate weakness that the eye
that sees, the ear that hears, the spirit that comprehends,
the voice that narrates, the eye that is involved in
many adventures, constitutes the central point about which, in the
(27:11):
most literal sense, everything revolves. This central point, candidly designated
as FW is Unfortunately I myself, purely from an innate
aversion to getting into difficulties, I should have preferred not
to be I myself in these pages. Still, it was
(27:34):
not only the most natural, but the only way. And
I was regrettably unable to invent any he that could
adequately have borne the burden of the eye for me.
And so the eye of this story is not a deceptive, novelistic,
assumed fictitious eye any more than the story itself is
the mirror offspring of speculative imagination, and it goes on
(27:58):
from there. But I love the self reflexive meta sarcasm
it has in that like supercilious tone of word, twisted
for no fucking reason, right, just like it's so arrogant
and it's pros that I really think it's entertaining and fun,
(28:19):
and like I I'm really interested in how that plays out,
and like I did not expect that. I did not
expect that because it's like, okay, classic sci fi fantasy,
like what are we going to get into here? And
then it just hits you with this, like Okay, so
you are FW. That's all he said in that paragraph,
Like I'm FW, and I'm the narrator, like that's it.
(28:42):
But it took forever Star of the Unborn, Yeah, that
Star of the Unborn for you. And then the last
one before I bore everyone to death is Tales of
the Dying Earth by Jack Vans. This directly inspired the
Dungeons and Dragons magic system Stephen King in the Dark
Tower series, George R. Martin, Everybody that writes fantasy or
(29:06):
sci fi has pretty much read either this set of
four books or the first book, The Dying Earth. Turn
stood up, found a bowl of pap With a long
handled spoon, he held food to the creature's mouth, but
the mouth refused the spoon and mush trickled down the
glaze skin to fall on the rickety frame. Turgeon put
(29:27):
down the bowl, stood back, and slowly returned to his stool.
For a week now it had refused to eat. Did
the idiotic visage conceal perception a will to extinction? As
Turgeon watched, the white blue eyes closed, the great head
slumped and bumped to the floor of the cage. The
limbs relaxed. The creature was dead. So it brings you
(29:50):
right into this world of this guy Turgin, who as
the main character I believe, who's doing the science experience.
I meant, with this strange creature, trying to get it
to eat, it dies, it fails, and you know, where
are we? What are we doing? Where do we go
from here? I just thought that was like such an
(30:12):
intriguing beginning of Like you're rooting for the creature, you
want it to eat and live. Nope, dead.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Wow, guy's out of his element.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Right, Like showing something dying in the first page of
like all right, let's I'm intrigued. Let's hit it.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
That can go a lot of different ways.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Where do you think it's going.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I don't know. It just feels like they they're exploring
a new land, right, So I think eventually it sounds
like immediately just from hearing that, it feels almost like
I don't want to say a Jurassic Park or something,
because that doesn't feel right, But it feels like they're
going in they want to understand the world, maybe develop
the world, or at least just understand it. Maybe it'll
(30:55):
help their world in some way if they can learn
about what's going on here, how it's the or what
ecosystems are working. But there's gonna be something in my
head later on that's going to be this massive antagon.
Say it's that thing's great grandfather that's seven thousand years
old or whatever, that that is going to come and
just destroy everything that they've ever It's got this impending
(31:17):
threat that's just waiting there to to that they're biting
off more than they're chewing. They don't know that that's there.
Whether it's a virus, whether it's a creature, whether it's
the ecosystem. You know, something's going to fight back and
it's going to cause them to get either stranded or uh,
it's going to be life threatening, I think, dude, I like.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
That, right, Like all we have is the title the
Dying Earth and then a creature dying in the opening page.
I like. I like that that kind of prediction where
the Earth is clearly dying, creatures are dying. So why right?
And like you said, what is that antagonist? Is it
(31:59):
simple time itself? Is it a creature a human? Is
it nature?
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Yeah? So? And now is the dying Earth? Is it
that Earth that is dying that they are exploring or
is it their own earth and they're trying to figure
out some issue of why this one's working and how
they can make theirs work.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I believe it's our earth? Okay, yeah, yeah, in the
far future.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah yeah, okay. So they've traveled somewhere else to try
and extract information and whatever whatever it may be, to
try and bring back to save our own earth.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
I want to read the description.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Sure, but that's interesting to me because I guess I
was not far off in the thinking of Durastic Park
where they're implementing that you know, life force onto our planet. Right.
Obviously it's to be a theme park essentially, but then
it overtakes it's it's life finds away, right, yep. So
that is where no matter what they do on this
(32:53):
Earth or this new planet that they're trying to maybe
extract stuff from, it's going to affect our Earth and
change it forever. So maybe it will save it because
it's dying anyways and we need that, but it doesn't
sound like it's leading down a good path.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
So one percent. So Jurassic Part Drassic World. The theme
of that, it's the same theme as Frankenstein or Doctor
Jackyl and mister Hyde. Yes, when man tries to play
God never works out for man. Yeah, right, So trying
to bring back dinosaurs to life, trying to save the planet.
(33:28):
If you try to play God, you're gonna you're gonna
have a bad time.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
There's this old X Men comic that my uncle showed me.
It was his favorite, uh, and it's it's God Loves
Man Kills and yeah it's a good one. Yeah. So
it reminds me of that, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Hell.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah, a dim place, ancient beyond knowledge. Once it was
a tall world of cloudy mountains and bright rivers, and
the sun was a white blazing ball. Ages of rain
and wind beaten and rounded the granite, and the sun
is feeble and red. The continents have sunk and risen.
A million cities have lifted, towers have fallen to dust.
(34:10):
In place of the old people's a few thousand strange
souls live. There is evil on Earth, evil distilled by time.
Earth is dying. So that's from the dying Earth. Hell. Yeah,
a dim place, ancient beyond knowledge. That sounds very interesting. Immediately,
there's a lot going on here in a short amount
(34:30):
of time, and that doesn't even tell you anything really
about the world except for small details of just what's
taking place over time, I think.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
And that's just book one.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
How many books are there?
Speaker 2 (34:44):
There's four in that, there's four in here. Yeah, that
book alone is a tetrology. It's four and one.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
And then this big daddy right here is a decology
ten in one, the old ten piece, nine Princes, and
Amber is the first one, the Amber Book of Amber,
the Complete Amber Chronicles.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Bye, ze Lesnie, I have a few Ze Lesnie books.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Prolific writer.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
But yeah, man, thank you for reading that. It's highly
influential and extremely fired up. But yeah, it's just a
little window into the fifty book challenge. Yeah, I appreciate it.
Going through it. With me. I'm so fucking excited, right.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Yeah, even hearing about the King of Elfin's daughter, Like
I am intrigued to follow along and hear more about
the story, you know, like it's.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Du'd read it after me. It's one hundred and fifteen pages.
I'll give it to you right after.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
It'll be dope. Yeah, yeah, it'd be fun.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
That's fuck. Yeah, that's why I'm doing this, man, Like
I'm literally it's even It's what we try to do
on the podcast, right, inspire, motivate, like do all that,
And I'm like, what motivated the people that motivated me? Right,
I'm going back in time on a journey, and like
if I can even inspire a couple of people out
there to pick up some of these books or just
go make your own list of three books that you
(36:09):
want to go do this year, right, Like that's my
goal because I am diving headfirst into the rabbit hole,
per se.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yeah. But because of your inspiration though, like that, you're
you're paying homage to this and all of these bodies
of work, but also paying it forward to anybody else
that might be interested and maybe have never been exposed
to this, Like this is the first time I've heard
about any of these books, yeah, right, which is amazing
because you know, if the first one's from nineteen twenty four,
and maybe that one's from nineteen forty three, and that
one's from you know, nineteen sixty seven, and maybe at
(36:37):
the latest one right yep, or something along those lines.
These are older bodies of in the sense of our lifetime,
you know, bodies of work that, like you said, have
inspired the greats, you know. And so if somebody could
take from this and take from the greats, take from you,
(36:58):
or a mixture of all, or a mixture of just
or just one or the other, and it plays into
even just escapism, right, just even into your own entertainment,
because there's something special about reading a book that you
don't get from anything else. Because I've I've read books,
and I've listened to narrated books, you know, from the
author or from you know, voice actors you know, and
(37:19):
and there's something different about reading it in your own way,
at your own pace and your own imagination and picturing
these things in your own way. That's why when they
adopt books into film and TV, so many fans get
upset with the way they do it because it's like,
that's not how it's supposed to be exactly exactly, so
(37:40):
when people get it right, it's very special. But at
the same time, there's there's elements of all of these
some of the best stories ever written and told in
our lifetimes and even before lifetimes, come from here, you know,
And I think that is pretty unique and cool in
its own right, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
One hundred percent to all of that, and it it
honestly was a complete coincidence that we saw Dune two
after I put all this together, because I researched for
an entire day, put together the list, and then went,
oh my god, I got tickets to Dune too today
or tonight. So like, it's kind of cool knowing that
(38:18):
some of these books inspired Frank Herbert when he was
writing doing yeah these pre day Dune some significantly.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Just so everybody knows out there. Will tricked me the
first time around and told me we were going to
Dune two like two months ago.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
They put the first one back in theaters and then
advertised it like it was the second one.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah, it all worked out, No, I just it was
a hilarious little little flop. It would have been freaking ridiculous.
If we went and didn't catch it, we would have
been paid. Yeah, I'm like, wait, really, we just watched
the first one. It would have been cool because Doune
two came out shortly after, right, But at.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Least when we did see it, it was an early screening, right,
so we still got to see it early.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Yeah, a little early, little. It was like about five
days or a week early, right, Yeah, But such a
good movie. These books, surf Free are just great. This
book club is going to be awesome.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Thank you, bro. I appreciate you letting me talk about it.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Yeah. I mean a lot of the stuff that I
even wanted to ask you, like why you know, what
inspired you to start the book club. You've already shared
these things, so I think it's now just a matter
of you know, you doing your thing, staying inspired and
creating content and sharing it with people and keeping this
thing going. So it's going to be a lot of
fun for anybody that's get involved. But there are if
you like sci fi and fantasy, these are some very unique,
(39:40):
great stories that I think you're going to get a
lot of takeaway from and only if you subscribe. Will Melbourne,
thirty three on Instagram and also the website linked below.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
There it is always search for what inspires you and
motivates you and expands your coniousness.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
I gotta ask, how does it feel to now be
a founder of a book club?
Speaker 2 (40:10):
It feels the same.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Yeah, that's awesome, but I appreciate it. Signing out Studio
twenty two once again, Will Melman and Brock o'hearne, thank
you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Stay inspired out there, like and subscribe. Thanks for tuning
in to Studio twenty two.
You're listening to Studio twenty two.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome to Studio twenty two. I'm your host Will Meldman,
joined by the Bold and the beautiful Bronco Hearn. How
are you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I'm feeling good? Man started taking some new tropics and
I'm feeling good. Focused tons of nutrients, Oh yeah, got
some some mushrooms in there, like Lion's maine stuff like that.
Oh yeah, just helps with mental focus and clarity. But
I took them this morning, so they're kind of wearing off.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I'm taking those mushroom gummies where same type of thing,
the reichsche and the Lion's Maine, but it just like
kind of like a daily vitamin supplement.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, some good stuff coming off from that science out there.
So yeah, I took it because I was just drinking
too much caffeine and now I'm barely drinking caffeine at all,
if at all, and I'm feeling good. I'm feeling better
than I felt a long time.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Do you, like, really feel the difference with or without caffeine.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
One hundred percent. I don't even think I need caffeine anymore.
It has a little bit of caffeine in it as
one hundred milligrams.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
So it's not like nothing, but it's like a cup
and a half of coffee.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
But for somebody I do, on average probably drink four
and fifty milligrams a day. So to go from that
to nothing and feeling good the whole day before I
crash and stuff. I want to feel good. Yeah, now
I have energy. I'm sleeping better, like hell, yeah, I
recommend it. Dude.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
That's great to hear.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Ten out of ten. Yeah, yeah, more productive.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
You're not taking those crazy pre workouts with all the caffeine.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
No, it's going straight into my workouts. I never thought
I would get to that point where I wouldn't need
a pre workout to work out because I lift very intensely.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
You do.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, So dude, this might be the new me. Might
be Uh, it might be all about the new tropics.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Dude, dude, how praise jeez?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
They're good. How are you doing? Man?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Very good? Very good?
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
We just saw it doing too. We went to an
early private screening. Oh yeah, and thanks to Coldwater Canyon
and the massive pothole, we got a flat tire on
the way crazy and my car we had to pull
off park in the Ralphs Uber to the theater to make
(02:18):
the film on time, of course, and then meet a
tow truck after the theater.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, because we couldn't.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I couldn't drive it home obviously.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, you're running on the rim.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Oh and we would have replaced the tire, but there's
no spare in my car because it's a new lease.
It's not like we were all like, oh, we can't
change a tire.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
But it was. The more important fact was the movie
started in less than fifteen minutes, so we had to
get to the movie.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
That was the mission.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because I remember when we finally
pulled over. We got the uber within a minute and
we just took off and it was we pretty much
didn't lose any time. Yeah, from from uh parking and
then getting in there, but that was a that was flat,
like that was I think I remember driving was it
the next day? I think it was the next day
that we drove by the pothole again? And it is massive.
(03:14):
You couldn't be the you can't be the only person
who got a flat tire on that. It's insane.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, I don't know how every single car doesn't just
tank it right there every time.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's a little off to the a little off to
the right, So there's like I'm sure everyone sees it
for the most part, but due to his dark outside,
like we're mobbing through the hills, there's no way if.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
You're driving north on Coldwater Canyon from Mulholland right when
you go down to the north side, it's right there
on the kind of right side of the right lane.
So watch out for it, all you Los Angeleans.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, it was Angelino's and we.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Passed it on the way to go play golf at Lakeside.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That's when we saw it the second time when I
was driving and thankfully didn't hit it.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Well, we knew about it.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well that's that's my point. But yeah, no,
that thing's to beast, So watch out for the popples
and la people and plenty of them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
We played golf with Andrew Santino.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, Andrew's insane golfer.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Actually, dude, I did not expect him to be so good.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
No, he's got to be. He's one of the better
golfers I've ever played with. Actually he's a four. Yeah,
it's pretty much scratch. I mean he shot a seventy three. Yeah,
basically scratch yeah crazy, and he's I think he was
saying he's been lower too, like he's he's gotten down
to just zero or one, like no problem, but uh
(04:39):
right right, you got to play a lot obviously to
do that, like and just still do that on a
regular basis.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
He's a gamer.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, it was impressive, So, I mean it made me
step up my game, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And more importantly, a great guy. We had a lot
of fun with him, Yeah, funny, that was really cool.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, and his buddy Hank, Hank was cool.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I got along well with Hank. He's super nice, super
nice dude.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And then we did a podcast.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Oh we went to a podcast. Yeah, yeah, we did
my plus one with my buddy Vinnie fast Line and
uh Tony.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, thank you for letting me be your plus one.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It was a good time. I only did it so
that when he asked you the question why do you
love me so much? I just it was all. It
was all for my ego.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It reminded me of the Dan and Shay compliment cast.
Oh yeah, yeah, that's right when Shay it was like,
you guys just compliment each other all the time on
the podcast, Like, yeah, pretty much easy.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
He's an easy geta easy guy to compliment to. He's
so nice. Dude's hilarious and insanely talented. So it's it's
it's a little unfair when you're that talented and that
humble at the same time, and then you're funny on
top of it. It's like, dude, you won.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Those guys were really really cool though it was. It
was great to meet them and.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Yeah, do that do that shows its cool? Man? Yeah.
I didn't know what to expect going in, except for
I just knew Vinnie's a great guy and they've had
a lot of really great guests on too, so they're
off to a great start.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Who are some of the other big ones.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Tiffany Hattish they had on recently, so she's pretty big.
I remember Tiffany from the Comedy Days back before she up. Yeah. Yeah.
They also had on Joel David Moore, who's a director.
He actually was at Mammoth Film Festival last year. I
met him there and saw one of his films that
he produced and directed and in very interesting film, different film,
(06:34):
uh like like a mind Twist, and Ashley Green was
in it. She's she's a good friend and uh, you
know Paul Corey, right, but there's a couple of really
great talented people. But he brought in his plus one
was Zachary Levy from from Shazam. I think they go,
but they do all kinds of stuff, you know, they
get all kinds of cool people on. And you know,
(06:56):
Vinnie's a comedian, so he he's cracking jokes and we
had some fun. Yeah, it's not twelve when we get
to do another podcast also.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Together, also together, yeah, yeah, on the road Studio twenty two.
On the road.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
We're just attacking podcasts from every angle, guys. But yeah,
let's uh, we kind of skipped over it. But do
you want to talk about doing two? What your thoughts were,
how you felt, did you like it? Did you not
like it?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I thoroughly enjoyed that film. I thought it was one
of the best modern sci fi films I've ever seen,
one of the best remakes of an old classic. Visually
freaking gorgeous. Yeah, audio like, you know, everything you loved
(07:42):
about the first one, you're gonna love that again in
the second. And what I appreciated more about it without
giving too much away, is there is more of a
resolution in this story and obviously one was part one. However,
the second one was in greenlate by the time the
first one was released, so you really didn't know by
(08:08):
the third one is greenlate when this one came out,
so you knew, like, okay, they're doing a trilogy. Just
I really, it really bothers me. Not having a resolution
at the end of a story.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That's the whole arc of storytelling too, you know, that's
why we have the arc, you know, the three or
three act structure.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
At the very least, you know, make another b plot
that wraps up by the end of the first one,
but keep the main a plot open and continuous.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, I mean, that's a risky move to make a
film that doesn't have essentially, in my opinion, a third act,
you know, from what I remember, I only did see
it one time, but like you said, the visual effects
are off the charts. It was incredible seeing those worms
and seeing the technology they had in the film, and
then the world that they built. You know, you're really
in a different world, which is amazing, and it's like
(08:56):
highest quality I think too. But I think you nailed
it when you said it was it's one of the
best modern uh sci fi films. That are out right
now or that have been made in a long time,
and then the acting is insane. But the thing that
really like pieced it all together, besides the visual effects
and the story was great, you know, was dude, the score,
Like I was, the score moved me in a way
(09:19):
that you know, it took it to a whole other level.
So when you're sitting there and these these big moments
are happening, you know, because it doesn't feel like a
very dialogue heavy film to me, But when the dialogue,
when people speak, and when when you hear the conversations
and then you follow along in the story, like when
it happens mixed with the score, it hits so hard.
(09:40):
So by the end of it, you know, some of
the relationships, you're like, you feel for them in a
whole different light. And I think that it's just it
was just incredibly well done. And the talent in there,
dude is just Scar you know, Scars Garred, You got
Austin Butler, tim Ley Shamalay, how do you say? Sella
(10:01):
May freaking obviously I shout out to you for you
as well.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, yeah, for you, But.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
She is just amazing, dude, and them together is just
like what a duo? You know, everybody in there was awesome.
I just I can't praise it enough. I think, honestly
with and that's not even blowing smoke like that is.
It's a great film.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Austin Butler really did, I think, kind of do something
out of his normal box, out of his normal range
and saying right, that maniacal leader in villain. I really
do think he just crushed it.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, you know what I'm really curious about with that,
which it could one hundred percent be all him, but
I'm really curious the voice, you know, because he did
such a good job at sounding like he was part
of that family, part of the Scars Guards. What's his
what's the characters name? You know, the big floating, heavy dude,
the Baron, the Hearken. Yeah, I don't know what his
(11:06):
character name is. I can't think of it right now,
but Baron hark Baron. That's not Bill Scarsgard. What's his name?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Uh, he's the Chernobyl.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Guy, right, Stellin scars.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Art Right, phenomenal actor.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Dude, He's amazing. Their whole family. Every Scars Guard is talented, dude.
It's insane. What I found is that, you know, the
Scars Guard family kind of speaks a certain way, right,
and then so Stellin speaks in a way in his
character as well. And then Austin Butler, who you know
we've just seen play Elvis, adopted that way of speaking flawlessly,
(11:40):
and I'm and I'm curious, like if it was all him,
which I'm sure it was, or if it was some
like a d R voice manipulation kind of something to
make it sound even more in line, you know, because
it was so good. And I'm only saying it because,
like I'm I'm extremely impressed by it, you know, like
that that's anything that's a compliment, you know, Oh, of.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Course, yeah, I do. It would be cool to watch
the I think the behind the scenes is up on
Warner brother or I guess it would be max HBO
Warner Brothers streaming service that I want to go watch
the behind the scenes because I want to see what
they did with that audio, like you said, from dialogue
to the action, I want to see it all like
(12:21):
it's it's a masterpiece technically speaking, like undoubtedly Dune two
is a masterpiece and a masterful science fiction film.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I would say one last great point with that, and
we both mentioned this when we left the theater. Very often,
this movie's two hours and forty six minutes. Very often,
when you watch a movie that's close to three hours
units it's made by somebody great, there's moments where they
just feels like it drags on a little bit. You know,
(12:52):
I can wholeheartedly say for me, at least, there wasn't
a single moment where I was like, this is too long,
you know, like there wasn't and barely anybody left to
go to the bathroom, you know, like everyone I can,
they're holding it. They're in it. Uh, they're invested. And
then there's so much comedy in it too, you know. Yeah, dude,
I just like Javier Bardom's character. It's just like he's
(13:17):
so good, dude, and so funny. So I hope like
this would be me saying like that, this is a
This is a movie that you go to the theater
for and you have to and you sell yeah, and
you watch that with people around you, and if you
get the right crowd and they're laughing at all the
right moments like that is how you're supposed to experience
(13:38):
a movie. And this is one that it's like I
wouldn't compare to the Top Gun in the in that
in that sense, but I would say it's like on
that level of it's just a great film that there's
I have nothing bad to say about it, like it's
just great, and the first one I could say, I
don't think I had a third act and so I'd
(13:59):
left me.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, if anything, the third act was not long enough. Like, honestly,
slight spoiler, I think they could have drawn out the
third act a little bit more, like I wanted more
from that. It did start getting yeah, but I don't
want to get too much into into spoilers. I'm gonna
see it again with my girlfriend when she gets back
(14:20):
in town. But I'm gonna do the Dolby Cinema instead
of Imax because Dolby has way better sound.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah, and that Imax had great the whole the seats
were vibrating, like the whole thing was shaken when we
were going through some of the stuff in there. But
to your point about the you know, you felt like
maybe it was it was a little quick in the
third act. It leaves you wanting more, like I want
to know what happens after Now I have to see
three that doesn't happen all the time. You know, There's
(14:48):
been multiple franchises that you know, I have not seen
the third, fourth, fifth, whatever one's and then I'll go
back and see another one. I'm like, Wow, I'm I'm,
I'm I'm lost at eight guys, it's pretty obvious what
I'm talking about. Actually, damn yeah, yeah, I just I
just you know, I love the first ones and nothing
against sending the ones in the middle. But I remember
(15:09):
I went and saw I think it was eight maybe
or nine, and I'm like, where what happened? This is
a different If I followed it, it would have made sense
to me. I was just like, that's not possible.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
They have their brand, you know. No, they're crushing it.
They know what they're doing, right, It's like, just keep keep.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
It flowing them, dude. If you can do anything close
to that, you have absolutely won life when it comes
to making film and TV. So but for me, for me,
like I would watch Dune seventeen based off doing too.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Hell yeah, yeah, I keep I really hope they keep going, man.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
That'd be cool. But also love the genre and we
work in the genre, right, Uh, You you write in
the genre, which is kind of why we're doing this
podcast today. You know, you I've found have inspired me
actually truly, uh with your writing and with the creating
(16:10):
of the Kine comic universe. And then there's people who've
inspired you, and then there's people that have inspired them.
And that's kind of what we're getting into today. We're
going to dive into the books, right, So tell us
about this fifty book challenge you're doing.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Caine has inspired me in a lot of different ways.
I think it has both of us, right, Like we're
creating a comic universe, and creatively, it sent me down
an odyssey that I never knew I would go down
as a producer. And now I'm going on this journey
as a writer. And I've done all the quote required reading,
(16:49):
right like the Iliad, the Odyssey, Lord of the Rings,
the Giver, Enders Game, I've done a lot of the
required reading, science fiction, fantasy fiction, absolutely Calvin and Hobbes,
and you know, I really wanted to expand my knowledge
(17:15):
and in the area of literature and fiction and especially
as man. I'm writing Caine Volume two right now, I'm
writing about seven different spin offs. I'm writing volume to
a Desert heat and I really want to tap into.
Like you said, what inspired the people that inspired me? Right,
(17:36):
so you take J. R. R. Tolkien and who inspired him? Well,
it so happens that there's a book called The King
of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany, and Tolkien even stated
that it's a big inspiration to him. And I'm literally
(17:58):
only about ten pages into it. However, the pages, they
are pretty wordy, and you can already tell why this
book is so inspirational and lasted as long as it
did and affected the people that came after it. The
world it brings you in immediately, it's familiar but also unearthly.
(18:22):
It combines the enchanted with the mundane of a monarchy. Right,
There's familial relationships that you'll recognize. There's witches, there's runic swords,
and I am really really stoked about this one. If
I may, I'm going to read small section from it,
(18:44):
just to show the tone and writing style and the
prose of how the book is operating. So I can
talk about it all day, but show me, don't tell me, baby. Context.
A prince is in front of his father, the king
at his and his father said, oh.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Shit, please keep that day inspiration.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
What do you bid me do, said the son, when
I come to that palace, And his father said to
wed the King of Elfland's daughter. The young man thought
of her beauty and crown of ice, and the sweetness
that fabulous ruins had told was hers. Songs were sung
of her on wild hills where tiny strawberries grew at
(19:30):
dusk and by early starlight, and if one sought the singer,
no man was there. Sometimes only her name was sung softly,
over and over. Her name was le Rozelle. She was
a princess of the magic line. The gods had sent
their shadows to her Christenane and the fairies too would
have gone, but they were frightened to see their dewy fields,
(19:52):
the long, dark, moving shadows of the gods, so they
stay hidden in crowds of pale pink and enemies. And
thence blessed Lerizelle. So just the tone alone takes you
into that world, right, And that's from the first page,
So you're just thrown into this. Prince must go on
(20:14):
a journey to marry this princess in this magical land,
and he ends up getting a sword from a witch
that's blessed with magic, and the basically the town spoke.
The people of the realm want a magical ruler. They
don't just want like a normal man to be king.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Interesting, so you know, is that the human realm or
is that the Yeah? Ok, yeah, yeah, the human realm
wants someone with magical powers exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
So they set it up as is this going to
be a cautionary tale, right, why do they want magic?
Don't mess around with magic. But you set up a
romantic relationship between a prince and a princess, you set
up with magic, you set up the monarchy. All of
the themes are just beautifully established, like right there, and
(21:07):
like I love that, like on the hill where tiny
strawberries grow.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
And little little minute details that are just already to
paint the picture of the world, right, and even what
you're saying too, like I don't know much outside of
what we've briefly talked about about the book, and even
just that, like hearing that the humans want somebody with
magical abilities to lead them to me in my head
(21:34):
immediately I'm like, Okay, there must be a bigger threat
that can only be faced by somebody with magic, right,
And I don't know that, but that is interesting to me.
That's getting me hooked already.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
So the King says, right right after that, my people
demand a magic lord to rule over them. They have
chosen foolishly, the old Lord said, And only the dark
ones that show not their faces, no all that this
will bring. But we who see not follow the ancient
custom and do what our people in their parliament say.
It may be some spirit of wisdom they have not
(22:09):
known may save them. Even yet. The King is like,
they may have chose foolishly, right, But it's just setting
up so many things that I'm really really excited to uncover.
And you know, you're hitting the face with all these
fantasy motifs like pretty much immediately.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
And this is a book that when was this is
early nineteen hundreds, what year was it, nineteen twenty four,
nineteen twenty four, So this is a hundred year old book.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
It's the one hundredth anniversary.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
That's crazy. That is crazy so good, and that it's
still relevant today and maybe not as much as it
was back in the day, right, or maybe just as much,
but it's it's relevant enough that in one hundred years later,
someone named Will Meltman is buying it and researching it, right,
like that is a testament to the story in there
(23:02):
and the way that's written in time. You know that
it transcends, It's transcended one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
If it inspired Tolkien, it's good. It's definitely good enough
for this old don.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Good enough for token, good enough for you exactly. That's awesome, dude.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
But yeah, this is book one of a fifty book challenge. Awesome,
and I'm thrilled to keep going on that. I'm going
to read this really quickly.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I'm like, I'm a big fan that you're doing a
book club. I love book clubs and I've always actually
wanted to start one, so you went ahead and did
the initiative of actually making one, which is so cool.
Where can people really quick join your book club?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So I am doing it on my Instagram. So if
you subscribe to my Instagram account for four ninety nine
a month, I'm going to be doing constant content around
all the books. There's fifty books, and I'm going to
be talking about them constantly, So I'll be putting up
videos all the time. And you can do it directly
on my Instagram at W Meldman thirty three W E
(24:05):
L D M A N thirty three. It's the only
subscription content that I'm doing, just pure books. I already
put out two first impression videos, one on Elflyn's Daughter
and then one on Solaris, another sci fi classic from
seventy one by Stanislav Lem and I'm ten chapters into
(24:28):
that one, and it's beautiful, like it captures being on
a space station and like this strange planet everyone's researching,
and it's beautiful, very elegantly written and extremely detailed. You
feel like you're there.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Awesome. So that means you got you got fifty books
you're gonna do over an extended period of time, and
subscribing you'll get constant updates, videos, and the ability to
interact with Will through the book club, through through Instagram
by subscribing, subscribe to his Instagram. And for anybody that's
interested that has listened thus far, I am going to
(25:10):
give you a little quick synopsis of the King of
Elfland's Daughter, just so that if you're interested, you know
what you're diving into for first book. Here we go.
Hopefully I don't stutter. Ah. The King of Elfland's Daughter
is a fantasy novel written by Lord Dunnaee Dunsany see
that is just it just gets ya. It's written by
(25:31):
Lord Dunsany. It follows the story of Alvrick, the son
of the King of Earl, who sets out on a
quest to marry the beautiful Lerizel, the daughter of the
mysterious King of Elfland. The novel explores the clash between
the magical realm of Elfland and the mortal world of Earl,
as well as the consequences of bringing enchantment into the
human realm. Rich with poetic prose and mythical elements, the
(25:55):
novel delves into the themes of desire, magic, and the
consequences of pursuing the fantastical. There you have it.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Thank you for the synopsis. I hope that sparks some
curiosity and people out there and can inspire some other
books to give a little preview into the other forty
nine Star of the Unborn, a nineteen seventy one classic
like it. I couldn't even find this book on the
internet like it took me hours to even find like
(26:25):
one copy left on one random site. But this has
also been a huge inspiration to tons of fantasy sci
fi writers out there. I'm going to read a very
small excerpt from this as well, to show you the
tone and writing style of what they got going on.
Since we are dealing with a kind of travelog I
(26:48):
feel the obligation to introduce the hero, or more modestly,
the central figure of the occurrences here set forth. This
particular literary form has the unfortunate weakness that the eye
that sees, the ear that hears, the spirit that comprehends,
the voice that narrates, the eye that is involved in
many adventures, constitutes the central point about which, in the
(27:11):
most literal sense, everything revolves. This central point, candidly designated
as FW is Unfortunately I myself, purely from an innate
aversion to getting into difficulties, I should have preferred not
to be I myself in these pages. Still, it was
(27:34):
not only the most natural, but the only way. And
I was regrettably unable to invent any he that could
adequately have borne the burden of the eye for me.
And so the eye of this story is not a deceptive, novelistic,
assumed fictitious eye any more than the story itself is
the mirror offspring of speculative imagination, and it goes on
(27:58):
from there. But I love the self reflexive meta sarcasm
it has in that like supercilious tone of word, twisted
for no fucking reason, right, just like it's so arrogant
and it's pros that I really think it's entertaining and fun,
(28:19):
and like I I'm really interested in how that plays out,
and like I did not expect that. I did not
expect that because it's like, okay, classic sci fi fantasy,
like what are we going to get into here? And
then it just hits you with this, like Okay, so
you are FW. That's all he said in that paragraph,
Like I'm FW, and I'm the narrator, like that's it.
(28:42):
But it took forever Star of the Unborn, Yeah, that
Star of the Unborn for you. And then the last
one before I bore everyone to death is Tales of
the Dying Earth by Jack Vans. This directly inspired the
Dungeons and Dragons magic system Stephen King in the Dark
Tower series, George R. Martin, Everybody that writes fantasy or
(29:06):
sci fi has pretty much read either this set of
four books or the first book, The Dying Earth. Turn
stood up, found a bowl of pap With a long
handled spoon, he held food to the creature's mouth, but
the mouth refused the spoon and mush trickled down the
glaze skin to fall on the rickety frame. Turgeon put
(29:27):
down the bowl, stood back, and slowly returned to his stool.
For a week now it had refused to eat. Did
the idiotic visage conceal perception a will to extinction? As
Turgeon watched, the white blue eyes closed, the great head
slumped and bumped to the floor of the cage. The
limbs relaxed. The creature was dead. So it brings you
(29:50):
right into this world of this guy Turgin, who as
the main character I believe, who's doing the science experience.
I meant, with this strange creature, trying to get it
to eat, it dies, it fails, and you know, where
are we? What are we doing? Where do we go
from here? I just thought that was like such an
(30:12):
intriguing beginning of Like you're rooting for the creature, you
want it to eat and live. Nope, dead.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Wow, guy's out of his element.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Right, Like showing something dying in the first page of
like all right, let's I'm intrigued. Let's hit it.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
That can go a lot of different ways.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Where do you think it's going.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I don't know. It just feels like they they're exploring
a new land, right, So I think eventually it sounds
like immediately just from hearing that, it feels almost like
I don't want to say a Jurassic Park or something,
because that doesn't feel right, But it feels like they're
going in they want to understand the world, maybe develop
the world, or at least just understand it. Maybe it'll
(30:55):
help their world in some way if they can learn
about what's going on here, how it's the or what
ecosystems are working. But there's gonna be something in my
head later on that's going to be this massive antagon.
Say it's that thing's great grandfather that's seven thousand years
old or whatever, that that is going to come and
just destroy everything that they've ever It's got this impending
(31:17):
threat that's just waiting there to to that they're biting
off more than they're chewing. They don't know that that's there.
Whether it's a virus, whether it's a creature, whether it's
the ecosystem. You know, something's going to fight back and
it's going to cause them to get either stranded or uh,
it's going to be life threatening, I think, dude, I like.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
That, right, Like all we have is the title the
Dying Earth and then a creature dying in the opening page.
I like. I like that that kind of prediction where
the Earth is clearly dying, creatures are dying. So why right?
And like you said, what is that antagonist? Is it
(31:59):
simple time itself? Is it a creature a human? Is
it nature?
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Yeah? So? And now is the dying Earth? Is it
that Earth that is dying that they are exploring or
is it their own earth and they're trying to figure
out some issue of why this one's working and how
they can make theirs work.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I believe it's our earth? Okay, yeah, yeah, in the
far future.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Yeah yeah, okay. So they've traveled somewhere else to try
and extract information and whatever whatever it may be, to
try and bring back to save our own earth.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
I want to read the description.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Sure, but that's interesting to me because I guess I
was not far off in the thinking of Durastic Park
where they're implementing that you know, life force onto our planet. Right.
Obviously it's to be a theme park essentially, but then
it overtakes it's it's life finds away, right, yep. So
that is where no matter what they do on this
(32:53):
Earth or this new planet that they're trying to maybe
extract stuff from, it's going to affect our Earth and
change it forever. So maybe it will save it because
it's dying anyways and we need that, but it doesn't
sound like it's leading down a good path.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
So one percent. So Jurassic Part Drassic World. The theme
of that, it's the same theme as Frankenstein or Doctor
Jackyl and mister Hyde. Yes, when man tries to play
God never works out for man. Yeah, right, So trying
to bring back dinosaurs to life, trying to save the planet.
(33:28):
If you try to play God, you're gonna you're gonna
have a bad time.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
There's this old X Men comic that my uncle showed me.
It was his favorite, uh, and it's it's God Loves
Man Kills and yeah it's a good one. Yeah. So
it reminds me of that, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Hell.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Yeah, a dim place, ancient beyond knowledge. Once it was
a tall world of cloudy mountains and bright rivers, and
the sun was a white blazing ball. Ages of rain
and wind beaten and rounded the granite, and the sun
is feeble and red. The continents have sunk and risen.
A million cities have lifted, towers have fallen to dust.
(34:10):
In place of the old people's a few thousand strange
souls live. There is evil on Earth, evil distilled by time.
Earth is dying. So that's from the dying Earth. Hell. Yeah,
a dim place, ancient beyond knowledge. That sounds very interesting. Immediately,
there's a lot going on here in a short amount
(34:30):
of time, and that doesn't even tell you anything really
about the world except for small details of just what's
taking place over time, I think.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
And that's just book one.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
How many books are there?
Speaker 2 (34:44):
There's four in that, there's four in here. Yeah, that
book alone is a tetrology. It's four and one.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
And then this big daddy right here is a decology
ten in one, the old ten piece, nine Princes, and
Amber is the first one, the Amber Book of Amber,
the Complete Amber Chronicles.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Bye, ze Lesnie, I have a few Ze Lesnie books.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Prolific writer.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
But yeah, man, thank you for reading that. It's highly
influential and extremely fired up. But yeah, it's just a
little window into the fifty book challenge. Yeah, I appreciate it.
Going through it. With me. I'm so fucking excited, right.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Yeah, even hearing about the King of Elfin's daughter, Like
I am intrigued to follow along and hear more about
the story, you know, like it's.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Du'd read it after me. It's one hundred and fifteen pages.
I'll give it to you right after.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
It'll be dope. Yeah, yeah, it'd be fun.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
That's fuck. Yeah, that's why I'm doing this, man, Like
I'm literally it's even It's what we try to do
on the podcast, right, inspire, motivate, like do all that,
And I'm like, what motivated the people that motivated me? Right,
I'm going back in time on a journey, and like
if I can even inspire a couple of people out
there to pick up some of these books or just
go make your own list of three books that you
(36:09):
want to go do this year, right, Like that's my
goal because I am diving headfirst into the rabbit hole,
per se.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Yeah. But because of your inspiration though, like that, you're
you're paying homage to this and all of these bodies
of work, but also paying it forward to anybody else
that might be interested and maybe have never been exposed
to this, Like this is the first time I've heard
about any of these books, yeah, right, which is amazing
because you know, if the first one's from nineteen twenty four,
and maybe that one's from nineteen forty three, and that
one's from you know, nineteen sixty seven, and maybe at
(36:37):
the latest one right yep, or something along those lines.
These are older bodies of in the sense of our lifetime,
you know, bodies of work that, like you said, have
inspired the greats, you know. And so if somebody could
take from this and take from the greats, take from you,
(36:58):
or a mixture of all, or a mixture of just
or just one or the other, and it plays into
even just escapism, right, just even into your own entertainment,
because there's something special about reading a book that you
don't get from anything else. Because I've I've read books,
and I've listened to narrated books, you know, from the
author or from you know, voice actors you know, and
(37:19):
and there's something different about reading it in your own way,
at your own pace and your own imagination and picturing
these things in your own way. That's why when they
adopt books into film and TV, so many fans get
upset with the way they do it because it's like,
that's not how it's supposed to be exactly exactly, so
(37:40):
when people get it right, it's very special. But at
the same time, there's there's elements of all of these
some of the best stories ever written and told in
our lifetimes and even before lifetimes, come from here, you know,
And I think that is pretty unique and cool in
its own right, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
One hundred percent to all of that, and it it
honestly was a complete coincidence that we saw Dune two
after I put all this together, because I researched for
an entire day, put together the list, and then went,
oh my god, I got tickets to Dune too today
or tonight. So like, it's kind of cool knowing that
(38:18):
some of these books inspired Frank Herbert when he was
writing doing yeah these pre day Dune some significantly.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Just so everybody knows out there. Will tricked me the
first time around and told me we were going to
Dune two like two months ago.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
They put the first one back in theaters and then
advertised it like it was the second one.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah, it all worked out, No, I just it was
a hilarious little little flop. It would have been freaking ridiculous.
If we went and didn't catch it, we would have
been paid. Yeah, I'm like, wait, really, we just watched
the first one. It would have been cool because Doune
two came out shortly after, right, But at.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Least when we did see it, it was an early screening, right,
so we still got to see it early.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
Yeah, a little early, little. It was like about five
days or a week early, right, Yeah, But such a
good movie. These books, surf Free are just great. This
book club is going to be awesome.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Thank you, bro. I appreciate you letting me talk about it.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Yeah. I mean a lot of the stuff that I
even wanted to ask you, like why you know, what
inspired you to start the book club. You've already shared
these things, so I think it's now just a matter
of you know, you doing your thing, staying inspired and
creating content and sharing it with people and keeping this
thing going. So it's going to be a lot of
fun for anybody that's get involved. But there are if
you like sci fi and fantasy, these are some very unique,
(39:40):
great stories that I think you're going to get a
lot of takeaway from and only if you subscribe. Will Melbourne,
thirty three on Instagram and also the website linked below.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
There it is always search for what inspires you and
motivates you and expands your coniousness.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
I gotta ask, how does it feel to now be
a founder of a book club?
Speaker 2 (40:10):
It feels the same.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Yeah, that's awesome, but I appreciate it. Signing out Studio
twenty two once again, Will Melman and Brock o'hearne, thank
you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Stay inspired out there, like and subscribe. Thanks for tuning
in to Studio twenty two.
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Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.