Midlifing
Two friends Lee and Simon have serious conversations about silly things, and silly conversations about serious things. Together they dig into the pleasures, absurdities and imperfections of being human.
Midlifing
173: Penelope is going to die
Lee laughs weirdly and sets in motion a sprawling natter about cartoons and Penelope Pitstop, before together Simon and Lee drop into a) what it is to be disciplined and committed and b) taking family for granted.
Some other details from the episode: Hanna Barbera cartoons, double feature films, staying awake in films, VHS and Betamax, TikTok and the ubiquity of culture, John Berry and timeless time, the scale and invisibility of the climate emergency, weathering the weather with movement artist Helen Poynor, colleague cousins, Woody Woodpecker, the Ant Hill Mob, Penelope Pitstop, Wacky Races (including Dastardly and Muttley), Susan dry retching through lack of content, Simon's brother Ian training as a cyclist, avoiding rain clouds in the Wairarapa, Ian riding into the back of a parked car, Lee being too easily distracted, Ian doing squats (actually they were leg presses), not having siblings and spending so much time alone, coming home in the dark (unsupervised), taking family for granted once we are grown up, Lee's cousins Neil and Mark, Northern idioms and accents, being social creatures, being in and out, teenagers constructing language, understanding family through distance, being excluded, and being a timid kid.
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Related links (and necessary corrections):
- Coming back to a TikTok: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/you-are-you-we-live-here-this-is
- Penelope Pitstop running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxfFM9neB8M
Get in touch with Lee and Simon at info@midlifing.net.
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The Midlifing logo is adapted from an original image by H.L.I.T: https://www.flickr.com/photos/29311691@N05/8571921679 (CC BY 2.0)