[Rydog]

This week on the Geekbox, we talk sportsball. YEAH SPORTSBALL!

Subscribe on iTunes!
Subscribe on Stitcher! (Make sure to use the promo code "GEEKBOX")
Subscribe on Zune Marketplace!
Follow me on Twitter!
Like us on Facebook!
Send us some email!
Throw us free money if you're so inclined!

[kenzo]

This week on the Geekbox, we talk sportsball. YEAH SPORTSBALL!

The NorCal Aces have won their spot in the finals for the National Sports Cup! Go San Francisco!

There is nothing more insufferable than a nerd that sneers at sports. They've easily eclipsed jocks for the prize of 'biggest douchebags award' - especially considering most 'jocks' these days adore geeky pastimes and by-and-large end up being nerds themselves in today's modern world. Hey Ryan! The 80's called and they want their backwards/retarded world-view back!

[LiQuid]

He's making jokes, you stick in the mud. Being apathetic to sports != sneering at them.

[puppybox]

...Hollywood-ization of fantasy books...

If I die without Lloyd Alexander getting his due in Hollywood someone will have to pay. We can get a million Hobbit movies but god forbid we get a good Book of Three movie

[kenzo]

He's making jokes, you stick in the mud. Being apathetic to sports != sneering at them.

Right, but when your jokes are simply of the "sports are dumb" variety, you're simply sneering rather phrasing your apathy in a meaningful or funny manner.

[geekahedron]

Very nostalgic podcast. As a kid I read all the books you guys were talking about, including the entire Oz series! All I vaguely remember, though, is a flying couch with a moose head, and a frogman, and a giant desert that kills you if you touch it, and something about an underground puzzle involving clocks. Also I remember that they were awesome.

...Hollywood-ization of fantasy books...

If I die without Lloyd Alexander getting his due in Hollywood someone will have to pay. We can get a million Hobbit movies but god forbid we get a good Book of Three movie

When I saw that in the description, I was expecting a discussion of the Ender's Game movie, which I am cautiously excited for despite knowing nothing about it. Which also apparently features Ben Kingsley as a non-Asian for a change.

[Jaebird]

I'm willing to bet Higgins' forgot about Marvel's Oz adaptations from Eric Shanower and Skottie Young because they're Marvel books. Which, there is the Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the Marvelous Land of Oz, and the issues for third book are still coming out (I think).

[juventuz]

This week on the Geekbox, we talk sportsball. YEAH SPORTSBALL!

The NorCal Aces have won their spot in the finals for the National Sports Cup! Go San Francisco!

There is nothing more insufferable than a nerd that sneers at sports. They've easily eclipsed jocks for the prize of 'biggest douchebags award' - especially considering most 'jocks' these days adore geeky pastimes and by-and-large end up being nerds themselves in today's modern world. Hey Ryan! The 80's called and they want their backwards/retarded world-view back!

I'm going to actually agree with this. It's not hard to just say "I don't follow sports, so I have no clue what's going on" instead of making snarky remarks.

[juventuz]

This one's for Adam Fitch...

[kenzo]

I remember reading at least a dozen Wizard of Oz books as a kid back in the day. You guys know - there are things such as libraries where kids can get books from. I think I got the first couple from the library, but then picked up the collection from like my grandmother.

Karen asking how the Mandarin is racist is priceless. I'm always having to laugh at/educate fobby friends of mine who don't have even the most basic level of knowledge about Asian-American history. Which is too bad because Karen - you live in Berkeley! You're a stone's throw away from probably the best department of Asian-American studies on the planet.

[zenkincaid]

Loved the books discussion/digression this week!

So some quick thoughts on Wizard of Oz and why no one in our generation was as familiar with the series growing up:

In short: Oz is old. really old.

The Wizard of Oz was published in 1900. To put this into context, the Wizard of Oz is only three years newer than Bram Stoker's Dracula.

The Oz movie adaptation was in 1939, about the time a 40 year old that grew up with the books could enjoy it,

Tolkien released the Hobbit in 1937, and LotR wouldn't arrive until 1954. CS Lewis's Narnia was also a 1950s work.These were new fantasy that went to superstardom in the 60s, so these were the books Baby Boomers spent their teens with.

If you are a child of the 80's you were likely handed Tolkien and Lewis via Baby Boomer nostalgia. My mother, too young for the Oz craze, would read me Tolkien back then. It's no different than a mom reading her kid some Harry Potter now.

BTW: not a huge Oz fan myself but I went on a research kick on it awhile back after seeing Return to Oz (1985) and my mind was blown that what I thought was a crazy secondary script was closely based off of two of the books in the series.

Baum wrote 14 Oz books in total through 1920 and shit gets weird. I mean Dr. Who weird.

A notably infamous moment involves the Tin Man, who used to be human until he hacked away his entire body and replaced it piece by piece with tin. In book 12 he finds his first love now married to a man made entirely of his discarded body parts, but with a different head.