A Christmas Special: Unwrapping Memories

Gather around the hearth of storytelling as TJ and I, your festive hosts, unwrap a treasure trove of Christmas past and present in our latest podcast episode. We're joined by special guests like Olivia Peck, who sprinkle their own brand of holiday magic into the mix. Reflecting on the Nutcracker gifts that became a cherished tradition with my mother, and TJ's heartwarming tale of teaching his kids the art of computer building, we explore the deeper meaning of gifts and how giving truly outshines receiving.

As we travel back to the whimsy of our own childhoods, the echoes of bicycle bells and the spectacle of an Evil Knievel bike remind us of the pure elation that Christmas morning could bring. It's a sensory journey through the season, complete with the harmonious melodies of Harry Connick Jr. and the twinkle of festive lights that could lead Santa's sleigh straight to our homes. Friends from around the world contribute their voices, adding to the patchwork of yuletide greetings, while our guest, Jim Gleason, shares his gratitude for the warmth and connection the holiday season brings.

The episode is not just a stroll down memory lane; we also look forward with anticipation and gratitude for the journey that the Nola Film Scene podcast has taken us on. We celebrate the friendships cultivated, the wisdom imparted by our esteemed guests, and the unwavering support of you, our listeners. So, pull up a chair and let the spirit of the season wash over you as we present a Christmas special that is as much about reflection as it is about the joy that lies ahead.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Wow, mr Bingo. Is that Snow Santa? Is that you?

Speaker 2: 0:10

No, brian, it's time to record the episode. Could you quit Scurrying around?

Speaker 1: 0:19

Okay.

Speaker 2: 0:33

Ho, ho, ho ho ho, merry Christmas. From Noah Film Scene.

Speaker 1: 0:37

Okay, we're here with our Christmas episode and we appreciate y'all letting us take a break. We've got some very special things planned for you. We've got our friends. They're gonna drop in with some holiday wishes and TJ and I we're gonna share our memories and maybe some expectations for this year about Christmas. So it's all Christmas, it's all fun. Tj, I think let's start with a gift that you've given someone. Mine has been. I used to give my mother a nutcracker every year. It could be different colors, it could be different things. As long as it was in the Nutcracker family from the play, from the stage production, that was fine. I had a girlfriend one year gave her four of them the Wizard of Oz, they were nutcrackers and she was like your mom's gonna love them. And I didn't know about it until Christmas Day and I was like, yeah, no, I don't know how to tell her my mom, she didn't like that. It had to be the nutcracker, but it was a good gift though.

Speaker 2: 1:21

Yeah, that makes sense. Really, it's hard to narrow it down to one. I am happier giving gifts than getting gifts. I like to see the look on their face, especially when I put effort into getting just exactly the right thing, and, of course, everybody's different on what that right thing is gonna be. In the first episode, when we were talking about seven things, one of the things that I mentioned is I'm a big nerd. I'm a big computer nerd and one of my things is building computers. I build really high-end, full-on, water-cool gaming systems. Instead of just buying a computer for my kids or even just building one and giving it to them, built for each of my two teenagers, I bought all the components to build a gaming setup and then sat down with them and taught them step-by-step everything from the motherboard up how to build the computer cradle to grave, and they got something out of it because they learned something new and, for me, I got the pleasure of giving them something that I found kind of special. That's one.

Speaker 1: 2:31

That's awesome. Yeah, that's an improvement on the gift that you make. I never heard anything like that before. Wonderful idea. I wish that had happened to me as a kid. I had no more stuff now.

Speaker 2: 2:41

I've never been really good at crafts and making stuff Like I always got more glue and construction paper and glitter and stuff on me than on what I was making. That was something that I could make. One of my older brothers and his wife are very artsy and for many, many years they would hand-make Christmas ornaments for all their immediate family and they would date it on the back with the year and from them. They did that for a couple of decades, so each of the families has a box of these. It was always a theme for the whole year and they were all. I think, if memory serves, they were all kind of identical and that's something that I remember people making something for someone and I thought that was always thought that was really cool.

Speaker 1: 3:29

So I have a couple of surprises, so I'm going to hit you with one right now.

Speaker 3: 3:34

Hey everybody, my name is Olivia Peck. I am a film creative. I'm also a music teacher and I sell books over on Olivia Peckcom. But most importantly, I want to thank Brian and TJ of Nola Film Scene. Guys, thanks for having me on your pod. It was really fun and I love listening to it. Y'all go check it out, if you haven't. It's really inspiring, it'll get the creative juices flowing. And happy Christmas, merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy Christmas, ho ho ho, and to all a good night.

Speaker 1: 4:08

Bye, That'll work All right, Brian. My idea had been to like the 12 days of Christmas 12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers piping, 10 loads of leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids, a mil conceptions, one swimming, six skis a lane, five golds rings, four calling birds, three French ends, two turtle doves and a partridge and a pear tree.

Speaker 2: 4:25

Okay, 12 dancing mates. What is it 12? Drummers, drumming 12 drummers drumming. I'm not singing. You can't make me 12 drummers drumming you can't make me.

Speaker 2: 4:37

Please Okay, don't tell Olivia, wait, she'll probably listen to this Never mind as far as something that I got when I was in maybe fifth or sixth grade. We had a particularly difficult year financially. My dad had lost his job and his thing was model trains and model trolleys that actually ran from overhead wire and he had all these really intricate setups that he built. And to give us a Christmas that year he sold all of his train stuff and that is probably one of the most meaningful years we got. My brother and I got bicycles that year, like it was. It was a special year. We didn't know until later that that had happened.

Speaker 2: 5:25

Yeah, and back then there wasn't Craigslist and eBay and all these mechanisms where you could sell stuff. You had to do it through like the penny pincher and classified ads in the newspaper. So the fact that he was able to sell all that stuff was a feat in and of itself, and I have the only train that he didn't sell just displayed as a model here at the house. It was one of the things that I got when he passed. Yeah, that was. It's kind of difficult to talk about, but that was something that was a year, something that I really remember. Yeah, really meant a lot.

Speaker 1: 5:58

Yeah, let's cut to a few of our friends. See what they have to say this holiday.

Speaker 7: 6:02

Hi there, I'm Stephanie Hodge, an actor's, comic and writer from Los Angeles. I just wanted to thank TJ and Brian for having me on Nola film scene. Catch it, it's wonderful. Also wanted to say Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Winter Solstice and Happy Kwanzaa Just happy.

Speaker 4: 6:26

Hey guys, it's Rachel Jacob. I'm a writer-director here in New Orleans and I just wanted to say that I had a total blast with the guys on the Nola Film Scene podcast. Tune into their episodes they have a whole bunch of guests. This local podcast is really kicking off and I'm so excited and so proud of them for making this thing happen. It was a blast to be on. It was a blast being a guest and just getting to riff about movies and New Orleans and all these great things. But anyway, obviously, you know, no shave November really got to me, but it's got me in the perfect, you know mode, ready for the holidays. So I just wanted to say Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone and I hope you have a wonderful time of year.

Speaker 2: 7:02

Bye, Hello. I'm Creek Wilson and I am going to be on Nola Film Scene in 2024. And for right now, right before Christmas.

Speaker 6: 7:12

I just want to wish everybody a.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Merry Christmas. Well, thank you guys. We really appreciate y'all Wishing us and wishing our listeners all those wishes.

Speaker 2: 7:24

Yeah, some of those are pretty funny too.

Speaker 1: 7:26

Yeah, and there's more coming, folks. So one of my favorite memories of a gift I received I think we've talked about this before, you know off the air, tj, but do you remember color forms? Yeah, so basically just vinyl, and it would be cut out and decorated like they had a kiss set, they had a Star Trek set. Well, one year, while everybody was sleeping, I snuck into the living room and that was a big deal, because my dad would set up the camera with film, this digital stuff, and of course he had been, you know, tipsy the night before. They had been wrapping the presents. They were exhausted, so we had to wait outside the door so that when we opened it he got that expression picture. So it was sunlight, everybody was still asleep and I snuck in and there was my evil conneval bike, like a BMX bike, wasn't wrapped in the presents the tree.

Speaker 1: 8:06

And then Dracula Castle was like a three story color form. It was extra large and color forms had, like these, little detachable holders for the things. You know, you can see the outline, so you knew where to put it back. And in the castle there were little doors, like the dungeon and stuff. So I played with that for about an hour. I finished, put it all back, you know, put the, the holders back where they're supposed to put the cover back on, looked perfect, left the living room shut the door, woke everybody up. We unwrapped everything and what did I play with the color forms for another hour or so? And neighbors there was three of us and we went to one of theirs. And what did I receive from them as a gift? The exact same color forms. And I was thrilled. I had no filter, I think it was seven. I was like cool, I just got one of these. And my mom kicked me like no, it's great, I can do more things with it. One of my favorite memories.

Speaker 2: 8:51

You still don't have a filter. I don't want more. So another tradition that as I've gotten older I've discovered I mean, you see it on TV and movies all the time now, something my parents did, and it seems like a lot of people do this they would always let us have like one small gift on Christmas Eve, you know, like it was a little GI Joe or something you know, just something really small, just to kind of tide us over. So we would actually go to sleep to wake up for Christmas morning. Did your family do that?

Speaker 1: 9:22

We went to cousin's house so I got the gifts from other family members, but the in-house gifts couldn't touch till the morning.

Speaker 2: 9:29

We probably weren't right. I think they would pick out something small for that very reason and it would be set aside and we would get to open, like one thing, the night before. And my family we do that now and it seems like a lot of people I know that's kind of been a tradition, something that they've done as well.

Speaker 1: 9:49

It's smart Kids will go crazy if you don't. Yeah, that's right. Since we're working our way into TV and movies, let's kind of turn our conversation that way. Do you have a favorite Christmas special?

Speaker 2: 9:58

One that stands out just from an early childhood memory. Speaker 1. I don't know that that's really a favorite, but just you know, the old, like just the old claymation, or even the cartoons, the original Grinch, the cartoon Grinch.

Speaker 1: 10:17

Oh, rudolph's great. And the thing about it was for us to tell you young kidster out there, we couldn't just pop in a DVD or even a video tape or pull it up online. We had to wait. Yeah, look through the TV guide. On December 12th at 7pm, probably not that late. So December 1st, 7pm, cbs. You better be there watching Rudolph. And there was no pause, no bathroom break. Well, they were commercial. So it was Rudolph, rudolph, rudolph, run the P. Come back. Rudolph, rudolph, rudolph, run and grab a bite. You know you had to watch. It was terrible and great at the same time, but it made it must see TV, oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:50

And DVRs and pause on live TV. That was probably the second greatest invention ever. Oh, and Charlie Brown Christmas, that was.

Speaker 1: 10:58

People who are like well, that's kind of boring, it's kind of slow. I love it. I have to see it every year.

Speaker 2: 11:04

It's short, I mean, it's really short Lights, please. If you were lucky, though, they would have a. They would have it on a rerun if you missed it.

Speaker 1: 11:12

Reruns were the best and ranking in bass. Every year they drop a new one. Well, you'd hope they get a new one that year. So my absolute favorite Christmas special is a year without a Santa Claus. Oh okay, heat miser and snow miser.

Speaker 2: 11:22

Yeah, yeah, I'm hearing the song right now.

Speaker 1: 11:28

I'm trying to think when this was so, it was early nineties, it wasn't even out on videotape and I was working. I was actually working at a Chatsky shop little gifts, little knickknacks, and then it was a fun place to work, but they had their routine. So for Christmas, you know, had to dress up and have the hat on, which is fine, and he sold jingle bells, like a little wrist band of them, but our job was to ring those our entire shift. So would echo through them all. And the Christmas music he played was a Brazilian, it was. It was a sensory overload. Wonderful place though.

Speaker 1: 11:57

But I can remember that year going cause I'd start buying VHS and all that, and just I wanted that one. Oh yeah, I forgot about that and I started thinking about heat miser and snow miser, and I think that year. The next year came out. But that in mother nature, you know, yes, mother, it's just one of my favorites. I can't even say why. I don't think I need to, but I just love that one. Yeah, christmas special is a special. You know what else is special? Our friends sending their video cards. Let's cut to a few more of those.

Speaker 6: 12:20

Hey, I'm Jim Neeson with the working actors studio. I'm an actor and I can coach. I'm also the SAG after president for the New Orleans local office. I want to say Merry Christmas, happy holidays and check out the new film scene when you get a chance. Hello everybody, it's December. I mean just freezing outside, just kidding. I live in Louisiana, so it's actually 78 degrees right now. But my name is Tavon Francis. I'm an actor. I've worked with the likes of Tyler Perry and Craig Robinson. I also recently was in a race track commercial. They got millions of views on YouTube only because it was a forced ad. Thank you, race track. Shout out to TJ and Brian. Nola film scene. I thank y'all so much for having me on. Anytime y'all want to have me on, I would love to. I just enjoy having conversations with y'all. Y'all are amazing. Y'all are great people and have a happy holidays. Thanks again. Check out Nola film scene. They're amazing. Happy holidays, nola.

Speaker 1: 13:10

Those are great. Billy's was a little short, but thank you for doing that. It was great.

Speaker 2: 13:14

Billy. Billy was funny. Yeah, we might have to do a vote and see which one was the funniest.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Put out some polls after the episode drops. Hopefully we'll find out about New Year's.

Speaker 2: 13:24

Yeah, that'd be funny. So I want to not change my answer, but I've got another answer in retrospect to your question about gifts. So, on deployment, I was deployed during Christmas and it's tough being away from home, but being away from home and being away from family, and I had really small kids I had a newborn. That makes it even more difficult and there were people like my brother and his wife. They go every year and they help box up the shoebox gifts to send to troops overseas.

Speaker 2: 14:00

And all of us, you know, we were all recipients of things like that throughout the holiday season, getting cards and letters from kids, like from school kids. They would sit down and write letters to troops and they don't know who they're going to and it would be random. We would get a letter almost every single day from a school kid somewhere in the United States and that was just incredible. And then getting shoebox gifts like that was really unexpected but it was really, really cool and really meaningful and I've still got a stack of letters and gifts that I got during deployment, you know, from receiving stuff while it was over there. So not changing my answer, I just want just adding to it. It was, it occurred to me, there's no one right answer.

Speaker 1: 14:48

We're just sharing memories and you know I love it. That's cool. So shoebox gift. If you said what it was, I missed it. What does that mean?

Speaker 2: 14:55

So they pack up gifts in a shoebox, like an actual shoebox, and it's snacks and little toys and a card and you know, just things to make people happy.

Speaker 1: 15:07

You know like little assortment, little things, but it's so cool yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:10

Cliff bars and you know people would be nervous about sending chocolate over there because it's going in a container and then going, you know, to 130 degree heat. You throw a melted candy bar in the refrigerator and it solidifies right back up. It's just a little misshapen and it's just as good. That's right. That's right. But they pack up gifts, trinkets from home, reminders, you know, and sometimes there's several letters in there thanking for the service and it just helps brighten the spirit when you're away from home. They'll sometimes they'll have movies like DVDs and you know just different gifts. I think it's kind of random the stuff that they pack. I don't remember everything that was in mine because it's been a while, but receiving those gifts really meant a lot. Nice.

Speaker 2: 15:58

And speaking of that deployment, I happened just the way my rotation worked. I happened to be off Christmas day but I went down. I was working on a qualification on the boats and I went down and got underway with the guys that had to work and I wore a Santa hat and the rest of the crew wore elf hats. It was kind of fun Nice, getting underway driving a boat in the nag wearing a Santa hat Very cool.

Speaker 1: 16:25

Bring the spirit wherever you are, no matter where you are, that's right Nag is North Arabian Gulf, oh cool, thank you. I knew it was water. Yeah, yeah yeah. That's about it.

Speaker 2: 16:36

They used to call the Persian Gulf, but then it's now it's the North Arabian Gulf, or whatever.

Speaker 1: 16:40

I got you. I got you. Something else that a lot of people love on Christmas is the lights. Do you have a memory of a favorite display or a neighborhood or anything like that In college?

Speaker 2: 16:49

we would go to New Orleans and go to Christmas in the Oaks and we would get out and we would ride the carousel and we would walk around on foot. We would do the whole, like the whole thing, walk through, and then sometimes we would even go back and get in the car and drive through after we were finished doing that. But it's been a while since I've gone to go do that and starting oh I don't know, probably my first or second year in the military we would start, we would go right around and look for neighborhoods and at Christmas lights. That was the beginning of being away from home for the holidays, so we would go right around and look at the Christmas lights and that's something we still do to this day. Every year my family talks about okay, what's a good neighborhood to go? I live out in the country so we have to drive for a little bit to go find a neighborhood that's got a good display. But we go. We go to Christmas light hunting every year. Sweet, what about you?

Speaker 1: 17:43

I was Copeland's Al Copeland, founder of Popeyes. We would go there every year and he's in the suburbs of New Orleans, near the levy of Lake Pontchartrain. In the cars we've backed up crowding the neighborhood. And you just see what did he had this year. Is there an animatronic? Is there snow this year? Like he had snow machines until his neighbor finally had enough and I think he sued him just like ah, somebody called the neighbor the Grinch, and then they moved it to his headquarters Popeyes headquarters. So it was bigger than a parking lot. It wasn't the same.

Speaker 1: 18:11

There was a couple of houses in my neighborhood, one of them two story building and they had balconies, okay, but the balconies were kind of recessed, you know what I mean. So like the edge of the roof covered them, and then that top balcony covered the bottom floor and they had some windows and they put the oh the glass kind of protruding I don't know what that's called, but it looks like a nook if you're in a kitchen and they had life size animatronics. So there was a family decorating the tree. There was like a sleigh thing, you know, same thing every year, but it was so cool and then they stopped doing it. I think they moved and down the street. These other people had kind of smaller animatronics, but there were a band of Fox like fiddlers, you know what I mean. They had a merry-go-round and all these little dolls it was. It was cool for being not the richest people. You know what I mean. Just middle America I loved. I waited for them to start decorating every year.

Speaker 2: 18:56

Now, all right, so it's been a while since I've gone down there, but for a while they were still doing Copeland's display in one of the parks down there, are they?

Speaker 1: 19:06

still doing that, Unless they added it to Christmas in the Oaks. I don't think so. I haven't gone to Christmas in the Oaks for years either. Yeah, it's been.

Speaker 2: 19:13

It's been a while I know, for a little while after he died they were still. They kept it going.

Speaker 1: 19:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:20

But I had. It's been a little bit since I've been down there, Right, Right Out here. It's kind of few and far between.

Speaker 1: 19:28

And the funny thing is out there there's more space to make the bigger displays.

Speaker 2: 19:32

That's right. Yeah, I mean, people do decorate, but you have to. You have to get in the car and drive to go find it Right.

Speaker 1: 19:38

And like driving to go find lights, let's drive to hear some more cards from our friends.

Speaker 2: 19:43

Oh yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 8: 19:45

What's up party people? It's your boy, MC Popsicle, aka Josh Young, creator of Popsicle Ghost, millionaire, genius, actor, philanthropist. And happy holidays from Nola Film City. Hello, actor Caleb Nakan here and I hope everyone's enjoying their holidays, ready for the new year. And don't forget those cookies for Santa, because he's going to be real pissed if you forget them, and we don't want that.

Speaker 6: 20:09

No one would say ever ever Greetings and seasonings Nola First, something like that.

Speaker 1: 20:16

Cool, and Billy sends another one. Thank you, billy.

Speaker 2: 20:21

Billy took care of us for the Christmas cards. He did, he did. We touched on Christmas specials. We didn't really touch on Christmas movies. I feel like we could do just a whole episode talking about just Christmas movies. But what about Christmas music? I like to listen to Christmas music. What about you?

Speaker 1: 20:41

I love Christmas music when I'm driving in my car. I'm not a music person. I listen to podcasts and I'm home I'm watching TV or watching movies. But I'm going to throw a few out there. Harry Connick Jr His Christmas album.

Speaker 1: 20:51

Okay, and not only the Christmas music. There's the what are you doing new year's eve, because my wife and I dance to that at our wedding. But if we go back to my childhood, like Johnny Mathis Christmas album, the Carpenters, tennessee, ernie Ford do you know who that is? Oh man, he had this deep bass baritone. And there's a song, little gray donkey just touching and moving in the I was going to say the absolute pinnacle, cause I liked the Star Wars Christmas album too. That was, that was. I'll tell a story about that one later. And there's a Snoopy's Christmas album from the sixties. That's not just Snoopy's, it's, you know, a whole bunch of songs. But first Christmas record for children from CBS records and it's got the classics like Rosemary Clooney she's singing Susie Snowflake, gene Archer singing Rudolph, the Red Nose Render but, Red Skelton doing.

Speaker 1: 21:30

It's like a, like a little play, the littlest Christmas tree. And Well, I just think about it. It takes me back. And the little, you know, the tree gets chopped down, he gets brought into somebody's house and he's sad and he meets Sandy and talks to him. You know, you don't hear it that much. There is a talk against communism too, which might be a little strange, but it was very touching. And on the same album, captain Kangaroo reading the littlest snowman. That's Christmas. When I hear that, you know, boom the the Star Wars story. Have you ever heard the Star Wars Christmas album?

Speaker 2: 22:00

No, I don't think I have.

Speaker 1: 22:02

I. You can't stream it. I might be able to find it on YouTube and send it to you, but I had that. I think it came out in 1980. I think it was before Empire Strikes Back and then, years later, friends with these girls in high school and I think it was dating one of them, and I used to talk on the phone a lot Like people talk online. I would be on the phone, you know what I mean. So yeah, yeah, yeah, and they had to party calls too.

Speaker 2: 22:21

Oh, that's right. Yeah, oh, and if you didn't have call waiting, you would just yeah, your parents were pissed, Star, six, nine.

Speaker 1: 22:29

And then you'd run up the bill and did not, knowing that it charged you. It was Christmas time and the girls called me and they said we've got a surprise for you. And they start singing. I knew it by heart and it's what? Can you get a wookie foot Christmas when he already owns a comb? And they thought they had me. You can't go Star Wars with me. And then in R2D2, we wish you a merry Christmas. I'll hit you with this little trivia John Bon Jovi is one of the chorus singers. Hi, it's. It's a. I find it a very cool album. It's better than the Star Wars holiday special, but I love that too. Yeah, what's your music?

Speaker 2: 23:03

So I've got. I wrote four down just so I didn't forget. So I'm half and half on whether I'm listening to a podcast or music when I'm in the car. I probably don't spend as much time in the car as you when I'm at home, if I'm gaming, I like to listen to music while I'm doing that. I don't know why. I just always have the same thing when I was doing computer work, I like to have or study and I like to have music going. I think it keeps all the all the extra conversations kind of lulled lulled down while I'm thinking. But Silent Night is one of them, probably the top one. Silver Bells, the Bing Crosby and Carol Richards version no, the duet, that's one of my favorites. Nat King Cole, chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire and Bing Crosby again. White Christmas, naturally naturally.

Speaker 2: 23:55

Yeah, and that's. That's one of the movies that I usually watch at Christmas time as well. That stays in my Netflix queue for the following year, which is better. We might need to do a follow up episode and talk about Christmas movies.

Speaker 1: 24:09

Not a problem. But is Holiday Inn? That's where they first sang White Christmas and then, like, the sequel, is White Christmas. Is that right? I think yeah, but you like to watch White Christmas? Yeah Cool. Do you watch any of the new movies like Spirited with Will Farrell and the movie and Ryan Reynolds? It's like a new take on Christmas Carol. I found that very good. I found it very enjoyable.

Speaker 2: 24:30

I tried to watch it. I couldn't get into it. Gotcha, I don't remember why, I just remember trying to watch it and I couldn't get into it. I like Will Farrell and I like Ryan Reynolds, I just didn't particularly like that movie Right?

Speaker 1: 24:44

Some things just don't strike with certain people. You know, not everybody's not like everything. What about Elf? Yeah, okay, we can still call friends, you like Elf?

Speaker 2: 24:53

Okay, all right, I'm going to go ahead and say it I like Will Farrell, but Will Farrell, for me, is hit or miss. Some things that he's in I find a little too much. It's just a little too much of the absurd, but Elf isn't one of them. I like Elf and Daddy's home too Him and Mark Wahlberg and then seeing as in it a little bit at the end. That's one that my family and I watch together every year, and I think both of those were filmed in New Orleans.

Speaker 1: 25:22

Oh I didn't the campaign get hard when he goes to prison? And I'm pretty sure the daddy's home films were here. I didn't realize that before our time of working in the movies?

Speaker 2: 25:33

Yeah, I didn't realize that.

Speaker 1: 25:34

Nothing wrong.

Speaker 2: 25:34

Maybe they'll film a third one.

Speaker 1: 25:36

Yeah, I'd love to meet him. Ryan, and I can picture my just blank times to transform a guy. He just said his name. He was in daddy's home, oh, mark Wahlberg. Mark Wahlberg, that's, I worry about my brain. Sometimes it just locks up and then the wheels spin, like I said. But anyway, we'll leave that in.

Speaker 2: 25:50

Well, I mean you know the more info that comes in, you have to. I find that I've got to erase a couple hard drives and purge some of that out because there's these older models don't have the same storage capacity that the newer models have.

Speaker 1: 26:05

Yeah, we're like the Atari 2600. Everybody else is running on the PCs now.

Speaker 2: 26:10

Yeah, we have kilobytes of storage instead and we were thankful.

Speaker 1: 26:16

That's right, we're going to be thankful. Let's cut to some more cards.

Speaker 9: 26:21

Hello everybody. My name is Hunter McHugh. I'm a casting director based in New Orleans, louisiana, primarily working in the film and commercial space. I'm pleased to announce that I will be joining the Gola film scene podcast. The holidays are among us and I hope everybody has a great holiday, wishing you all well, and we're hoping that this new year brings lots of projects for all of us to work on. Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Speaker 5: 26:47

Hey everyone. It's your girl, alicia. I'm a New Orleans based actor and you can catch me in a few indie films coming up in 2024 and also on Gola film scene with Brian and TJ. Thank you again for having me on. That was a lot of fun and I just wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays. It's the best time of year because it's officially stuff your face season, so, yes, happy holidays and happy new year.

Speaker 4: 27:12

Hi, my name is Hicksher.

Speaker 10: 27:15

Do we got to do like a stupid, like full body shot for this?

Speaker 10: 27:20

No no, oh, okay, it's Brian. He's just you ready, I'm ready, go Okay. Hi, I'm Hicksher. And what is the dog? Hey, it's okay, you can't hear it, okay, all right. Hi, I'm Hicksher, and I'm here to wish you, the listeners of NoLaFilm Scene, a Happy Holidays. I am doing this because Brian and TJ said that if I don't, it would just end my career. So here I am, wishing you a happy holidays. I'm super grateful for you guys and you guys have become family to me. I'm super, super, super grateful that I was actually on your first episode and you've had so many more interesting guests than me. Yeah, man, you just get it kicked off. It was a complete honor and I'm truly humbled. I hope you guys continue to push forward and I appreciate all the listeners who tuned in. Hope you all have a happy holidays and a merry Christmas. Thank you, cool.

Speaker 1: 28:25

Hicks crazy. Hick is crazy. Huh, yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for that one, hick, he's funny.

Speaker 2: 28:31

I said the part about the stupid full body, stupid full body shot for the slate, about spit out my drink, when I watched that, when you sent it to me right after he finished it because that is so right, I like that. I showed Amanda because she helps me with my self tapes, and we both laughed out loud at that because it's very funny. I mean I get it. I get why they want the full body, but it's kind of a pain.

Speaker 1: 29:00

It is. I don't like showing my full body, but also when he was Because Brian's over, I left my ass off. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:06

Hell yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:10

I also made these in the promos, as you know who people listening probably have seen it. So I took some stock Christmas pictures the video our friends sent us, and then stock Christmas music and I put them all together and that's why we're calling them video cards. So when he stopped you know line, I stopped the music and then he starts. And I put the music and then he starts talking to the dog. So I cut the music out because I'm always thinking of a record scratch moment. It shows some of my age. Nobody does that anymore. But I showed it to my wife and she's like what did that with the music? That's really cool. And I went me. She went oh, okay, no, she liked it. She liked it. She's like yeah, I like, oh, you did.

Speaker 2: 29:41

That's pretty funny. Kind of throws her off when you do something creative.

Speaker 1: 29:46

She don't know how to deal with it when I do something right.

Speaker 2: 29:49

I mean, I wasn't going to go there. She does all the time Since you did it, since you brought it up, yeah. So, brian, do you have a favorite holiday meal? You know, maybe a family dinner or holiday treat or something that you look forward to during the holiday season every year?

Speaker 1: 30:07

Yeah, we've talked about it before. Mincemeat pie if I can get my hands on that, everybody had turkey, or ham, yams or sweet potatoes with, you know, marshmallows, all that good stuff. Cranberries we had two unique things Eggplant fritters, which is like eggplant pancakes, and then a coin squash, and those suckers were tough. You had to get them soft, cut them in half, and then my dad would put syrup in there and some seasoning and you'd either have apple sauce in the middle or sausage. I love that. I tended to eat more of the sausage than the squash, but yeah, those you know I could see that you're more than militant stuff and just eggplant fritters because nobody else had it.

Speaker 1: 30:41

How about you? Do you have a favorite food?

Speaker 2: 30:42

I've never. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I've never, I've never heard of such the plateaus are unique.

Speaker 2: 30:50

Apparently. I mean, I may know, but I do think back. So my mom always made these cookies, these cookies that were like peanut butter cookies with Hershey's kiss on top of it. Yeah, and growing up I was convinced that she invented, that she was the only one that made that. And come to find out the recipe to do that is on I think it's on the Hershey's kiss bag, or maybe the peanut butter cookie container or whatever. Yeah, she didn't invent it, but I was convinced that she did.

Speaker 1: 31:23

Maybe she sold that to Nestle. They got it from her. Interesting your Christmas memory is intact. The plot thickens or she, you, time traveled and gave it to them to give to her, or we could write that make it a movie, a Christmas movie.

Speaker 2: 31:37

You might be onto something Hmm.

Speaker 1: 31:39

Maybe we'll have a audio drama of it for next Christmas.

Speaker 2: 31:45

That probably doesn't need to get published, though, because somebody will be stealing that idea. Some grinch out there might be stealing our idea. Well, Brian, I think we have come up to about that time. I'm thinking we might need to do a follow up episode and talk specifically about movies and TV shows. You know, Christmas movies and Christmas specials, because this is no film scene after all, and I feel like we could probably take up a whole episode talking about just that.

Speaker 1: 32:17

How about this? This episode we're probably going to release a Wednesday before Christmas and Christmas Eve. How about we do a little film countdown or film review of Christmas movies and specials and drop that either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? As a bonus, we're going to bring you all a Christmas present and we just thought of it and we're going to get it done. Merry Christmas everybody, and happy holidays if you don't celebrate that, but Merry Christmas.

Speaker 2: 32:37

Merry Christmas. And, as Tiny Billy would say, God bless us everyone he did it.

Speaker 1: 32:44

He did it. You deducted out the park. Really, thanks a lot and thank you everyone who made those cards. Again, thank you everyone who's been listening this year. They said don't expect a thousand downloads before your year is up and we're over three quarters of the way there after just like three months. We're very thankful, we're very happy and this has been such a thrill TJ and a couple of times like I was listening to our episodes and you may have thanked me or complimented me and I never complimented back verbally, so let me say here publicly, in case anyone doesn't know how thankful I am that to be blessed with your computer know how your initiation of let's do a podcast and your friendship, thank you. Thank you so very much.

Speaker 2: 33:20

Thanks, brian. The check's in the mail? Yes, I'm touched, brian. Thank you, that's. It's very kind of you to say it. It really means a lot. I've really enjoyed everything that we've done up to this point. We've had just absolutely amazing people on the podcast that we've released up to this point and we have quite a few more that are going to release after the first of the year. We've had the opportunity to sit down with some really truly just amazing and inspiring people. I've gotten something out of every single episode that we've done. I've learned something. I've made some new friends, people that I hadn't met before, and it's been a blast. I'm blown away by the support and the kind words that we've gotten from the listeners. I love doing this. I really do. It's been so much fun and I just can't wait to see what 2024 has in store for the Nola Film Scene podcast.

Speaker 1: 34:21

And the Nola Film Scene so we can get back to work. Indeed, indeed, happy holidays everybody. Merry Christmas, merry Christmas.