5
April
2008

Episode 57 of Upon Further Review!

After a bit of a hiatus (hey, take your complaints up with our newborn!), we’re back with a look at bottled water, cartoon mice and Dickensian stories (not quite the ABCs, but we’ll take it!) in Episode 57 of Upon Further Review! In this episode we thank our loyal listeners for their patience during our absence before getting into the meat of the show: first, we look at how buying water can make everyone thirsty with our review of bottled water; second, we step into some magic with our review of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom; and finally, we step into the past (or at least the past’s stories!) with our review of Mister Ron’s Basement. As always, we appreciate your continued support of the show, and as always, we ask that you continue to spread the word to others! (As usual, podsafe intro music is provided by Sharif (“You’re My Girl”), outro by David Henderson (“We Gotta Go”).)

Reviewed in this show:

Bottled Water

Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom

Mister Ron’s Basement

11 Comments

  1. Media Districts Entertainment Blog » Episode 57 of Upon Further Review!:

    […] Upon Further Review » Where two ex-debaters get the last wordâ?¦on EVERYTH… placed an observative post today on Episode 57 of Upon Further Review!Here’s a quick excerpt […]

  2. Disney » Episode 57 of Upon Further Review!:

    […] Upon Further Review » Where two ex-debaters get the last wordâ?¦on EVERYTH… wrote an interesting post today on Episode 57 of Upon Further Review!Here’s a quick excerpt After a bit of a hiatus (hey, take your complaints up with our newborn!), were back with a look at bottled water, cartoon mice and Dickensian stories (not quite the ABCs, but well take it!) in Episode 57 of Upon Further Review! In this episode we thank our loyal listeners for their patience during our absence before getting into the meat of the show: first, we look at how buying water can make everyone thirsty with our review of bottled water; second, we step into some magic with our review […]

  3. DrumIntellect:

    I enjoyed the show.
    Tap water is a real problem. A couple of years ago the Orthodox Jewish community in New York began to use only filtered tap water because of copepods that are prevalent.
    Since I heard about the medically tainted water I have had trouble eating or drinking any NY products. In the Monday’s Daily News there was an expose that showed that NYC public school classrooms (especially in the Bronx) were exposed to levels of PCBs that were thousands of times greater than federal law allows. City officials of course assured us that there is no danger to the children (even though children are more susceptible to PCBs than adults). Just as the air at the World Trade Center site in the days and months after the terrorist attack was perfectly safe according to city and federal officials charged with protecting our health.
    Just like the recent fare increase was so service could be increased on some subway lines (I think the 7 line was one of those), but of course as soon as the increase went through the MTA announced that there wouldn’t be an increase in service.
    Just like if congestion pricing had gone through the money raise would have gone directly to improving MTA services and not for non-essential frivilous spending projects.
    The only problem is, I don’t trust bottled water either. I’m sure they are using tap water with some chemicals added and removed. So what can I do except slowly dehydrate and starve to death?:)

    I’ve never been to Disney places.
    I do agree with Greg about rides. The last time I went to an amusement park, I hung around the arcades and the baseball “guess your speed” booths. Riding on roller-coasters are for people with more trust than me:). (Give me a regular slice of “clean” pizza, a cup of “clean” coca-cola, an episode of Upon Further Review and I’ll have a good day.)

  4. Bernadette in Australia:

    Maybe you dont realise this but its very trendy these days for people outside your country to talk disparagingly about you people (and by you people I mean Americans not you Greg and Clea because honestly Ive never head anyone disparage you two by name). It is especially popular among the supposedly well-educated lefties that I generally hang around with. Because I am related to Americans (my brother has lived there for 20 years and is raising my gorgeous American nieces there) and because I am by nature contrary I often have Americans are mostly terrific people and you could do worse than be a bit more like them arguments. Disneyland, and my many visits there, features heavily in those arguments. Im guessing that if I had been to Disney World I would feel the same about it as I do about Disneyland.

    Disneyland represents many of the things I love about you people (again by that I mean Americans):

    Its totally over-the-top. Quite often in the rest of the world we make do rather than going that extra step.

    There is something for everyone. Even you non-ride lovers (strange though I think you are) have plenty to do at Disney. There aren’t many places left where the goal is to please everyone who comes through the door.

    It offers entertainment for the sake of entertainment. Go to Europe and try to have fun just for the sake of it, in all likelihood someone wearing a beret will sneer at you before delving back into their Descartes. Every film/book/attraction you come across is educational or informative or has a message. Fun is under-rated there.

    Its constantly changing and evolving rather than resting on its past success. Do you know how rare that is? And how necessary?

    Its the result of a grand vision. No one has grand visions these days. Well maybe the odd fascist or socialist government leader does but those generally dont result in pristine streets and crowds of smiling children.

    Its positive. Ridiculously so. In Disneyland evil and depressing things do not exist and you can, without much effort, forget they ever did. This is my favouritist thing of all. Because I gotta tell you, the rest of the world (my own little corner of it included) can get pretty bogged down in doom and gloom. If youre constantly told the world is going to end because of climate change or terrorism or prescription drugs in the tap water or some other disaster djour it can get pretty difficult to get up in the morning. Even with all the crowds and the cheesy music and the price of a soda its virtually impossible to be depressed in Disneyland. Optimism is under-rated too.

    Of course it’s possible I read a little too much into a theme park but Ive used worse metaphors in my life. I have been to Euro Disney and it was one of the most depressing days of my life: its got the rides and people in funny costumes but doesnt have the spiritthe buoyant, bold, brash American-ness of the original.

    So Id give Disneys lands (on US soil only) a great big 10.

  5. Bernadette in Australia:

    Gee that was a long diatribe. Sorry ’bout that.

    I forgot to mention my thoughts on bottled water (I know you’ve been waiting with baited breath). I hate it. I have always hated it even before I knew that it takes 7 bottles worth to create 1 bottle of it. I spent a year in the Middle East and Africa in my impressionable younger days and I’ve seen water that does REALLY kill people. Daily. People still drink it because they have no choice. Bottled water for the first world has therefore always seemed particularly arrogant and self indulgent to me. It says “up yours” to the bulk of the world’s population. I’d give it a zero.

    Promise that’s it :)

  6. idiosyncratic idiot:

    Must say I’m kinda overwhelmed by Bernadette in Australia’s comment. While I’m aware of the existence of cultural differences between Europe and America, I’ve always thought clichd characterization accounted for much of the cynic, nose-in-the-air attitude often associated to Europeans.

  7. admin:

    DI: In fairness, Greg is all about the spinner rides (his favorite was the “Scrambler” when he was a kid) and the water rides, particularly water slides. Sign him up all day for those. But roller coasters…not so much. Either way we appreciate the idea that UFR is one part of a good day for you!

    Bernadette: Wow…that has to be one of the most compelling arguments we’ve heard in favor of a not-so-negative appraisal of America in a long time. It actually reminds Greg of discussions he’s had with some of his friends, who (even though Greg considers himself pretty liberal) are way, WAY left, so that Greg’s ended up somehow defending the U.S.A.! But what it comes down to for both Greg and Clea is that despite the U.S.’s problems, and boy does it have a lot of them, it’s as ridiculous to claim that America has no redeeming features and nothing to offer the rest of the world as to claim that it is the only country that matters on earth, the best country, etc. etc. (which tends to be the right wing’s view). The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between…and to the extent that Disneyworld reflects the positive side of American, that unique brand of American optimism, it may indeed be a worthy place. Greg might have to rethink his review. :)

    i.i.: Unfortunately, Greg and Clea encountered the attitudes Bernadette mentions all too often when competing on the international debate circuit. Greg has found that international academics tend to be a different group, though, so it may be that the attitude isn’t incredibly widespread, or that things have changed a bit. With a new president in office we might be able to start to repair our image in the world at least a little bit…

    Thanks as always for all the comments, and we’ll have a new show out to you next week!

    T.R.

  8. Tim Byatt:

    While Bernadette has some good arguements about the stereotyping of Americans, it does seem to me that she is equally guilty of stereotyping Europeans as stuck-up, pretentious snobs.

    Why can’t we just admit that there are great people and morons in any given society rather than sink to petty labelling of entire countries and cultures?

    I enjoyed the show Greg and Clea. Any chance you could review any of the following TV series: Six Feet Under (long finished but available on DVD), Weeds, or Lost.

    Cheers,
    Tim

  9. admin:

    Tim: Good to hear from you again! We’re not sure that’s quite Bernadette’s take (we think she was probably a bit more tongue in cheek about the description of Europeans than you’re taking from it), but we’ll let her speak for herself. As for the review requests, they have been added to the list–but those might take a while, as we don’t have HBO and never really got into the LOST phenomenon…we might be, er, lost if we tried to catch up now. :) But we will definitely see what we can do.

    T.R.

  10. Bernadette in Australia:

    Well my take on Europeans was only a little tongue in cheek. I’ve just come back from a month there (in the UK and France) and not a single day went by without me seeing or hearing some kind of sneering commentary about the hideousness of American food, sport, film, literature…Even the commentary on the ‘war on terror’ seemed a bit laughable – especially as the UK jumped in with both feet (as did Australia) but they seem to have conveniently forgotten that fact.

    The US bashing happens here too – especially by the media. Commentators and opinion writers say the most awful things about Americans and get away with it: if they said those same things about any other race/nationality they’d be labelled bigots and there would be an outcry but it seems somehow acceptable to be rude, crude and largely inaccurate about Americans.

    Sure I can think of some awful things that have been done in America or by Americans, but there’s an old proverb about letting him who is without sin cast the first stone (you’d thinks this Catholic-school educated girl would remember it exactly) and I think it would do us all the world of good to get our own houses in order before we point our fingers at America.

    And somehow that all has something to do with Disneyland.

    Or bottled water.

    :)

  11. classic chris:

    G&C – bang-up show!

    I’ve had a water cooler and water delivery for the last 15 years as Florida tap water is horrid for the most part (one or two towns that have spring-fed systems, excepted). Your exploration of all sides of the bottled water issue was so wonderful to listen to. It’s kind of a perfect topic, isn’t it? Health benefits, health concerns, recycling and landfill… it has it all!

    Never been a big fan of Disneyworld, myself. Not particularly opposed to it, but just not a big fan. The one thing that really tips me toward the negative, though, as a former theatre industry person, is the treatment of actors by Disneyworld. They’re treated horribly. Chewed up and spit out. And the Disney town of Celebration is just creepy with speakers playing disney music in the bushes and all that. But, still, it’s kind of one of those ‘must see’ attractions. I have heard good things about Animal Kingdom, and hope to go there sometime…

    Had to rewind a couple times to see if I heard right that Mr. Ron passed the 1000 episode mark?! Quite an accomplishment. Must be doing something right? I look forward to giving it a listen, especially since I’ve gotten myself quite involved with a local organization that is focused on preserving city heritage and I’ve been toying with the idea of a podcast associated with the organization and it would be interesting to see how it plays out…

    Thanks, again, G&C, for keeping shows coming as you adjust to parenthood. Looking forward to #58!

    – Chris

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