Space Artist Laci Brock
As an artist, Dr. Laci Brock mixes art with science. Using her PhD in Planetary Astrophysics to create realistic paintings showcasing what galaxies, planets and other celestial bodies really look like. We talk space art, exoplanets and finding her inspiration. Then, we countdown the Top 5 Space Movies.
Dr. Laci Brock: 02:05
Pointless: 34:10
Top 5: 57:33
Interview with Space Artist Dr. Laci Brock of Stellar Arts
Nick VinZant 0:12
Welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode space art, and space movies,
Laci Brock 0:21
I think the sense that you get when you look up at the night sky, you can look at it. And you could think, Whoa. And so I think space art can invoke these deep, complex feelings about human nature and where we fit in, I didn't even show my art to people, really, no one really knew I could paint, it was just sort of my little secret, I had sort of trouble with my identity, I didn't really think I could call myself a real artist. This piece combines two images from JW S T. One of them is a composite, and it has near infrared and mid infrared wavelengths. And the other one is just mid infrared wavelengths. And I weave those together in this checkerboard pattern to kind of show what the Pillars of Creation looks like.
Nick VinZant 1:07
I want to thank you so much for joining us, if you get a chance to subscribe, leave us a rating or review, we really appreciate it really helps us out. If you're a new listener, welcome to the show. If you're a longtime listener, thank you so much for all of your support. So our first guest blends science and art to create realistic images of what the universe really looks like. She has a PhD in planetary astrophysics. And what I think is really interesting about this is that her artwork has a scientific explanation as to this is what this galaxy or planet or other thing in the cosmos might look like. And this is why we think it looks like this. This is space artist, Dr. Lacey Brock. So what came first for you the science or the art.
Laci Brock 2:08
I think they both came at the same time. Honestly, I've been obsessed the science since I was little, maybe four years old. And I can't remember a time when I didn't have a paintbrush in my hand. They've always been next to each other. And I've done them simultaneously my whole life.
Nick VinZant 2:26
When did this kind of become the goal for you?
Laci Brock 2:28
I have the cliche story. I love to looking outside at the sky and see the clouds and looking at the stars. And I grew up in Indiana on a farm and I just decided that I wanted to study weather space and volcanoes does all of it. I didn't know that you had to pick a specific focus. I thought you could just be a scientist and you did everything. And painting was always just sort of this fun hobby for me not I never planned to sell my art to people. I didn't even show my art to people really, I no one really knew I could paint it was just sort of my little secret.
Nick VinZant 3:10
Then when did it transition into full time?
Laci Brock 3:13
Probably in 2017. I was a graduate student at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory here in Tucson at the University of Arizona. The department I was in actually had this annual space art show called The Art of planetary sciences. And I thought what a whole show was space art. And I had always loved painting landscapes and space and sometimes animals. So I painted something and I submitted it to the show. And I also helped volunteer and help run it because it was run by grad students in our department. And I submitted one piece, it was something I did in spray paint. And the night of the opening of the show, I was standing on the main floor and I could see my piece in the background. I was so nervous, like nobody knew like I was Lacey. And that was my art. Except, you know, my friends in the department. Strangers were walking around looking at the art. And I saw somebody just stand up my piece for a long time. I mean, maybe it was only three minutes, but to me that somebody I didn't know was staring at my art for the first time and I got really excited and anxious. And I just kind of awkward. So I walked over there and I just was like, I painted that. Like, I'm best me it was like no, I did I do that. But I just thought I wanted I wanted to know like, did they like it or was it? Tell me about it. Right. Like I blacked out after that. I don't know what he said. I think he was like, colors are nice. It's not he liked it. But I don't remember exactly what he said. But yeah, definitely I did that.
Nick VinZant 4:56
I know what you mean, right? Like you want to say something like profound and cool. Watch that it just comes out like me did.
Laci Brock 5:04
I'm lazy, thumbs up. But it was a completely different feeling from, oh, I painted this for fun and you know, gave it to a family member or gave it to a friend, or just hung it up in my room,
Nick VinZant 5:18
I would imagine that that would be inspiring in the sense that somebody that you didn't know, like the work that you are creating.
Laci Brock 5:24
Yeah, I think a lot of artists probably feel this way. But we are our own worst critics. And we paint something and see it almost differently than somebody else may do the art. And so I thought my painting was cool. But I didn't think it deserved to be in this art show with other real artists, I had sort of trouble with my identity, I didn't really think I could call myself a real artist.
Nick VinZant 5:52
Did that hold you back at all?
Laci Brock 5:54
I think maybe if I overcame that challenge earlier in my life, I would maybe have shared my art sooner. But it kind of goes back to when I was younger, I got all of this advice. From my high school guidance counselor, especially, you can't be a scientist and an artist, people would actively give me that advice. And it made me think that scientists weren't artists.
Nick VinZant 6:17
Why would somebody give you that advice? Like what was the kind of I mean, obviously, we're not like looking this guy up and going after him necessarily. We're getting this guy, all right, unleash them up. But like why? Why would there be that kind of a feeling amongst people that you can't combine science and art is that I don't know,
Laci Brock 6:36
it was. I remember sitting in the guidance counselor's office. And I mean, I, my I was raised by a single dad, and no one in my family has a college degree, I was a first generation student. So I went in there saying, I would like to be a scientist and an artist, I would like to do something with both. And he kind of old so he took the newspaper. And he tossed it at me. And he said, look in the classifieds. Do you see a wanted ad for an artist? And I think it was this old mentality starving artists are isn't a real career. And so I think, would people when I said, these are the things that I really liked. People were like, well, you can't survive being an artist. Why would you do that? Like go for science, and no one ever like these people? I remember when I tell the story, people are like, Well, why would you listen to a high school guidance counselor, they don't know what they're talking about? Well, I'm raised by single dad and I live on a farm in rural Indiana. Who am I going to listen to? My dad doesn't know, my grandma doesn't know, like, who helps me? How do I learn? And so I had this idea in my head for so long that I couldn't do both.
Nick VinZant 7:46
So when we talk about like space art, right, like, okay, it's art about space, right? But how would you kind of categorize it? What fits into the category of space art,
Laci Brock 7:57
when I think of space, or I think of nebulae, galaxies, planets. I think that space art can be real or imagined. Me personally, I really like to paint objects, real objects that were taken by images that were taken by telescopes. But I think space art can also be your own nebula that you create, because the universe is very large. And there's a lot that we still don't know and understand. And for many, many things, we don't have pictures of them. We don't have, you know, pictures of exoplanets light years away, as we do have Jupiter in our own solar system. And so I think that space art can fall in this category of objects. But that could be something that you create on your own. And I think space art is really important now, especially as we're discovering all these exoplanets, what might this exoplanet look like? How can we compare that to Earth, and I think art really can come in to make communicating science more relatable and easy to understand.
Nick VinZant 9:07
So when you paint something, or when you create a piece of space art, is it based off of the science like okay, this is what we think that this thing might actually look like? Or is it more up to your interpretation?
Laci Brock 9:20
I think you can do both. I've definitely the objects that I studied during my PhD brown dwarfs, I've definitely painted those before, and what they might look like were based in science, but there was a little artistic croute you know, creativity there as well, because I really like painting with bright bold colors. I think the biggest thing for me was space art is that I have struggled trying to come up with my own style. And I think it finally clicked last year, where I painted this big painting of Jupiter's Great Red Spot from a voyager image and I ended up really connecting this piece with science because I thought, I can't just paint Jupiter's Great Red Spot, I paint Jupiter all the time, I should do something different. So I took real research and data from the Hubble and Gemini telescopes. And I painted two large rectangles on the piece. And one of the rectangles was what the Great Red Spot would look like in ultraviolet wavelengths. And the other was what it would look like in infrared wavelengths. And, and this piece took me seven months, it was like it was right. Like when my postdoc was finishing, and I was thinking, What am I, you know, what am I going to do, I really need a break, maybe I'll just do art. And I looked at it and clicked. And I was like, This is my style multispectral art, where I can take and there's one piece behind me. And I was like, I can take data and images from telescopes in different wavelengths and weave them together. And it tells you a story about the science just if you look at it, why are there so many stars in that one part, but not over? Not over here? So that's when I really thought like, Okay, this is my style. And this is how I can connect science and art. And this is who I am.
Nick VinZant 11:14
Does the space art? In your opinion? Does it seem to have the same kind of effect on people that other art does? Or is it something that like, Oh, that's cool to look at?
Laci Brock 11:26
Okay, I'm probably biased. But I think that space are, it's hard for me to compare to other you know, how people feel when they look at other art. But I think the sense that you get when you look up at the night sky, and you realize that we live on a rock floating in space that these feelings are deeply akin even just they're indescribable. I think I even tweeted this a few days ago, I just went outside to let my dog out and just looked up and was like, Whoa, and I think that's what space are, you can look at it. And you could think, Whoa, those are all galaxies, you know, and you kind of come to terms with? Well, I'm just a tiny human. And so I think space art can invoke these deep, complex feelings about human nature and where we fit in, is there life out there? And I think those feelings are maybe different than somebody might get looking at an abstract piece or a portrait. But for me, definitely, I think space art is just so profound. But again, I think I'm biased. And also when I look at abstract art, I don't know. I don't know what to think. I don't know what I'm looking at. I get confused. So maybe I don't know, maybe it's just me.
Nick VinZant 12:42
I think the thing that would hold me personally back is like, that can't be real. Like that's not real. Is that a challenge? Or I guess what do you kind of think about, like, in my mind, like, all right, there's this nebula, but it's not like real to me, in the way that the tree outside is real.
Laci Brock 13:03
Yeah, that's a really good point. I'll tell you a story because I just talked about how space are, you know, can evoke these deep feelings of who we are? What's out there is there other life. And I that's what I think. And so I was taking, I took an art class for fun. During my PhD, I was in the art department. And for one of my first paintings, I did the Milky Way, like this night sky scape. And we were in critique in the class, and another student said that my art was trying to hurt. And I thought, how could you look at the Milky Way and think that it was trite, because I'm also a scientist, and I think, looked at all like, how many exoplanets are out there, and I have all these thoughts about it. But this student was telling me that it was trite because it was, I guess, kind of popular on social media, a lot of people like painting galaxies or night skyscapes because it was popular. So she had a completely different perspective of a Milky Way painting than I did. And so I think that goes back to what you mentioned that maybe it's so hard to grasp, and unrelatable that it's just not important to some people, and it's overdone. I don't know that. That was a weird day. I thought, Well, how could you think that looking at the Milky Way? I guess
Nick VinZant 14:31
I could see that both ways, too, in the same sense, right? Like there's a famous painting of the soup can like, in one level, it could speak to this profound nature of our existence. Or it's a fun soup can Yeah, it's kind
Laci Brock 14:44
of like it's just an all white painting. For a lot of money, stuff like Yes, and I don't think that is any less art. I just in the same way that maybe somebody doesn't care about the Milky Way or they can't relate to that I don't relate to a painting that's just all white I really like color. So I don't understand. But I think that's part of the fun of art is that it is subjective. And people can get different things out of different types of paintings.
Nick VinZant 15:11
But do you like do you feel an obligation that with your science background that even though this can be up to interpretation that like, No, I kind of got to make this like, what it really would be like, or what I really think it would be to have a factual so to speak basis to it.
Laci Brock 15:28
I try to paint things accurately. But I'm not a stickler for it. And so I think it depends on the audience and the purpose for the art. If the graphic is specifically been designed to be the cover of a research journal, or in an article, I think trying to make it look as realistic or portrayed as accurately as, as you can is important because you make give somebody misconceptions. This, this piece behind me, the reference images are from the James Webb Space Telescope, and I have tried to place all the stars as accurately as possible. And I've been counting them. Guess how many stars I'm at so far, I would painted 7521. So far, I'm literally counting them like I'm a crazy person. I thought, this will be fun. Because I want to know, like, how many how many stars are just in this square painting? I wonder? So
Nick VinZant 16:39
I guess when you go and you're going to start a new painting, right? So what is generally speaking your process like what inspires you? How do you decide what you want to do?
Laci Brock 16:49
I think the most important, important part of my process is creating the reference. And lately, I've been really inspired by the images from JW s t. And this piece combines two images from JW S T. One of them is a composite, and it has near infrared and mid infrared wavelengths. And the other one is just mid infrared wavelengths. And I weave those together in this checkerboard pattern to kind of show what the Pillars of Creation looks like in different wavelengths. And the JW S T images that keep coming out and I can't paint fast enough. So I keep planning my next painting. But with this multispectral art that I've created, I'm you know, taking images from Hubble, and from JW, S T and or other telescopes, and I'm trying to weave them together in interesting ways. And so what I'll do is I'll create a reference. And then after I've created that, I sort of deconstructed in my mind, and I know exactly how to paint it. As soon as I have the reference, I know what I'm going to do. And I just sort of break it down in my mind. It's different layers, like slices. And I usually draw the image on the canvas and, you know, do a sort of under painting to give the canvas some color. And then I start with a bunch of layers, and I build up layers and details. And I love using lots of colors, bold colors, and a lot of details is sort of my favorite thing to do. I can paint in six different mediums, I think. But oils is my favorite oils is these pieces behind me or in oils. And those take a long time. Probably because I like adding little tiny details. You probably can't even see them from far away. But I think if somebody would walk up to them, they could see all the subtle color changes and details in my pieces. And that's what makes me the happiest just fun colors and details.
Nick VinZant 18:56
How long will it usually take you like if you went from very start to finish
Laci Brock 19:00
depends on the size. And I've I've never really painted full time. Last July was when my postdoc ended. And I tried to keep track of how many you know how long a piece takes but but not rigidly because that gets that stresses me out. And I don't want to think about it by large Jupiter painting. It's in the other room that took me seven months. How popular
Nick VinZant 19:25
would you say that it is compared to other forms. It's
Laci Brock 19:29
much more popular than I realized. I I think when we had the art shows in our departments, we had three or 400 pieces sent from all over the world to a space art show. And that that's been going on for maybe 10 years. It's probably hard for me to place it among other art one because I don't like is this contemporary or modern? I don't really know. I don't really know the art lingo either. But I was surprised that space art was more Popular then I realized I thought it was just gonna be me. I thought I was like, I'm the one who's paid space. I was like, Wait a second. So many other people pay space as well.
Nick VinZant 20:09
But there's Well then how many of them also have PhDs though? You might be the only Pi was
Laci Brock 20:15
but I have some friends that I've met through social media that some people have their PhDs and our businesses.
Nick VinZant 20:22
Are you ready for some harder slash?
Laci Brock 20:25
Oh, I'm so bad at question.
Nick VinZant 20:29
What would you consider to be the best planet?
Laci Brock 20:33
I'm very passionate about Jupiter. Jupiter is my favorite planet. All my followers on Twitter know that I'm obsessed with Jupiter. I have a tattoo of Jupiter.
Nick VinZant 20:42
But is it just because it has different colors?
Laci Brock 20:44
I think it's I studied brown dwarfs. And those are sort of the in between giant gaseous planets and low mass stars, they have properties of both. And they have clouds. But early in their lifetimes. They confuse deuterium. They're these weird hybrid objects. And Jupiter is sort of the closest thing we have in our solar system to a brown dwarf. But also, I've been obsessed with Jupiter since I was really really young. It was my favorite planet. I I just think yes, it does look cool. But it's just I was obsessed with weather and storms. I actually started as an atmospheric science major, but I switched to physics because I wanted to study clouds or storms on other worlds, which is what I ended up doing. And Jupiter just has the Great Red Spot a giant storm and other storms. It's so it's like, you know, the combination of weather and storms in space. That's Jupiter just takes the cake.
Nick VinZant 21:46
The other one is kind of, I guess, because you studied exoplanets? What's the best looking exoplanet?
Laci Brock 21:52
I don't I have no
Nick VinZant 21:54
idea. Well, good. We know what they look like.
Laci Brock 21:57
We don't really know what they look like. That's something that JW S T will help us study because we may find a planet that you know, oh, it's in the habitable zone, but could be maybe it's orbiting a red dwarf. So I don't know, its atmosphere has probably been vaporized long ago. And they're, you know, and it's tidally locked. So we don't really know what they look like. That's where the artists renditions come in and help because we can take the data that we have, like, oh, it looks like it has lots of hydrogen in its atmosphere. Or, you know, maybe it's a very primitive atmosphere, and then we can kind of, you know, paint something to represent what it might look like. I, I can't, I can't think of my favorite exoplanet. I know that the TRAPPIST one planets are really interesting, simply because there are so many of them orbiting such a small star. So maybe those are I pick those, those are the best exoplanets?
Nick VinZant 22:51
Is there anything that you would consider to be like, Oh, that's I would like to do this. I'll use the word celestial body. I don't know if that's the right word or not. But like, I think in space that would like I do that, but that's too hard.
Laci Brock 23:04
I thought painting a nebula would be really difficult because it's gas and dust and it's translucent and places. And when I started this piece, I thought it looked like shit. Like my, my squares, the checkerboard. It was just like really blue and really orange. And it did not look good when I started it. And I thought, Oh, I'm not going to be able to paint a nebula this way. I should have started the piece in a different way. But I think it's turning out okay. And I realized my method and approach worked. Oh, wait a second. I remembered I have a painting of Saturn's rings. That's hard. That's why I have a painted Saturn because I don't like painting. Measuring and making things symmetrical. It's it's really hard. I want the what the ruins what the lines look crisp and nice ellipse. But it's a pain. I gave up on it all day. I'll figure it out someday.
Nick VinZant 24:05
Is there like one piece of what would you say is probably the most popular piece of space art.
Laci Brock 24:10
People really like to imagine their own little like, I think I think back to that girl who called My Milky Way trait. I think what got really popular on social media a long time ago, maybe like way before I was like sharing art. People like to paint watercolor just blues and purples and flick white stars on it like and say oh galaxy, I think I think that's really popular or it used to be, which is sort of why that I keep calling her girl. Woman said Oh, that's right. I think that's what got really popular. Just sort of watercolor galaxies.
Nick VinZant 24:51
Does the earth count is space art.
Laci Brock 24:54
I think so. And I also I'm not really big on this is space or this is not space art because I don't even know what I don't even know what contemporary artists, I couldn't look at a piece and tell you what kind of art it is. I think if you painted like a picture of a pineapple, it's not space art. Because it's a pineapple, but Earth counts for sure.
Nick VinZant 25:17
Best sci fi, art depiction.
Laci Brock 25:21
Interstellar, the black hole. I was really good. I'd say probably to answer that. Probably interstellar with a black hole. Kip Thorne is an actual astrophysicist. And you work with them with that film. And so I think even a paper came out of depicting the black hole for the movie. Don't quote me on that. But there Yeah, that there was a lot of work involved in trying to make the black hole look accurate.
Nick VinZant 25:49
Um, all right. So this is one of the pictures of yours that jumped out at me because we talked about brown dwarfs. So looking at this, how did you paint this? Why did you choose those colors kind of walk me through it?
Laci Brock 26:05
So we we don't know exactly. If brown dwarf has banding on it. Jupiter has bands of color at different colors. It's rotating fast. We don't really know exactly what a brown dwarf looks like. But we know that they have clouds. And we know that they have different layers of clouds. So we've learned that through spectra of these objects part of what I did during my PhD. So to paint this, I took the I sort of took an image of Jupiter in my mind. And some research suggested maybe brown forests have banding. So I sort of did banding and, you know, sort of made little storms and Eddie's and brown dwarfs are bright in the infrared. So we think that they may look like reddish brownish, or they're not brown, but like a red orange, or like a magenta, depending on the temperature. And then maybe the coolest brown dwarfs or maybe like a like adult purple. So I sort of took the possibility that they had banding because they do have in their atmospheres clouds. That idea from Jupiter. And then you know, the thought about what colors they may look like in the infrared.
Nick VinZant 27:30
How about this one? This is a Hubble's cosmic reef.
Laci Brock 27:34
Oh, yeah, that for what
Nick VinZant 27:37
kind of looks like to me like the gassy stuff. I don't know what word like what would that represent? Like, what am I I guess what am I looking at?
Laci Brock 27:47
star forming regions, stars being formed? Oh, I have a description. star forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Oh, okay. So yeah, there's a satellite like small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way The Large Magellanic Clouds and stars are forming in these regions. Usually, when you see a nebula image, like there are stars forming somewhere in there, like the pillars behind me. But the scale on this is like this is really, this is really large, like light years across. I don't remember how many.
Nick VinZant 28:23
I bought this one. This looks more like an artist's kind of interpretation, right? Oh,
Laci Brock 28:27
yeah. So that's the moon Europa, and there was some interesting work that came out that it might glow in the dark. So I tried to, I tried to paint that there was a reference image that it was an artist's conception, like, you know, maybe what the glow might look like. So I tried to combine Europa with the glow using actual images of Europa, actual images of Europa plus the artist's conception, I tried to just blend that together.
Nick VinZant 29:04
So the blueish green part would be what the kind of brownish, clear ish part would be what
Laci Brock 29:11
the bluish part I try to remember the study, I think it was on the night side of Europa, because Jupiter's magnetic field is just really, really immense, its immense, very large. And the interaction with the surface of Europa is sort of where the glow might come from. And then the the non blue part like the browns and reds, those are like the cracks in the surface of Europa because there's a large subsurface ocean. And what we actually a mission recently launched the juice mission to study the icy moons of the Jupiter system. And we don't really know how thick the ice shell is on Europa, but we know there's this globe Well subsurface ocean. And the the cracks you get in the surface are sort of from the crust moving on that ice shell. And the colors are from some type of hydrated salts. Europe has a really interesting moon, especially just because of the ocean underneath. There's a lot of interest in astrobiology for this moon. And the glow is just this really cool interaction with Jupiter's magnetosphere. I think
Nick VinZant 30:32
I have a one more, and this will be our right this one. This is Jupiter's red spot, right. So kind of,
Laci Brock 30:42
that's a piece I was talking about earlier. Yeah, it's Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the big storm that's larger than our planet that's been churning for hundreds of years. And the original image was taken in visible light from the Voyager spacecraft, Voyager two, I think. Now the rectangles are what Jupiter's Great Red Spot would look like a different wavelengths of light. So the purple is ultraviolet. And the red is infrared. And I try to simulate that I use images and data from the Hubble and Gemini telescopes. And then I sort of super imposed and created those in this Voyager image,
Nick VinZant 31:29
and the wavy stuff kind of rounded, that would be what.
Laci Brock 31:34
So it's all the clouds moving around the spot a spot you can think of it like a, like a big hurricane, like a giant storm larger than Earth. And so it's just the atmosphere is just churning this storm. And then around is just, you know, the other like little white circle below it is just another little storm. And it's sort of the clouds are spinning around and you know, feeding the storm. And so in the different wavelengths, you could see that the infrared at kind of the brighter areas or the hotter areas. And then all ultraviolet, you can see that the there isn't any blue, or red, there isn't any red, it's all purple, because different wavelengths of light are being absorbed. So what you're seeing is this complex storm, and there's interesting chemistry that happens. There's an interesting chemistry with the sun's light that's hitting it, there's interesting reactions that cause haze and kind of make this red orange color around the spot. And then the infrared areas just show you, you know, where the heat is being generated where there's more heat. It looks cool. Yeah, thank you. It's my favorite one. Um,
Nick VinZant 32:58
so that's pretty much all the questions that we got what's kind of coming up next for you? Where can people find you? Where can people find the art that kind of stuff?
Laci Brock 33:07
I bought all the social medias, all the places, and it's at stellar arts, but it's spelled with an E S T. E ll e AR arts. And it's not because I can't spell it's because like I said earlier, I like birds. And so the Steller's Jay is one of my favorite birds. So it was like a way space art and birds all in one. Everything combined dollar arts, whatever, Twitter tick tock YouTube Instagram.
Nick VinZant 33:36
I want to thank Dr. Brock so much for joining us if you want to connect with her. We have linked to her on our social media accounts. We're Profoundly Pointless on Twitter, tick tock, Instagram and YouTube. And we have also included her information in the episode description, if you're interested in finding out more about her art and what it looks like. The YouTube version of this interview will be up on Thursday, April 27. And we have included a lot of her pictures in that video. Okay, now, let's bring in John Shaw and get to the pointless part of this show. How far in this space? Would you go? Leave the planet? Solar System galaxy? Like if you could, how far out into space? Would you really go?
John Shull 34:25
If so, if I didn't have a family, I would go and never have to come back. I mean, I would go until you know, on a mission to where I knew I was gonna die. With a family obviously that changes unless I can take them. But say I can't then I would just go I would like to go to the moon then. Because what does that take two or three weeks to get to or two weeks or something?
Nick VinZant 34:48
I think it's three days on the moon and back. But right I think you can get to like Mars in a month. I wouldn't. I wouldn't even go to the moon. I think I would get just enough about of where I could see like the whole earth and then that's, that's as far out into space, as I'm really willing to go.
John Shull 35:06
For some reason I've always had a fascination with the sun. And I know it's not possible, but can you imagine getting getting close to that? I mean, not not obviously, where it's going to burn you alive, but close enough to where it's like, Fuck, this is hot.
Nick VinZant 35:23
Yeah, dude. I mean, we can do that on Earth, just go to Arizona. You can go, you can go to Arizona, and it can feel like that. That thing's 93 million miles away. And it's hot. It's too hot in Arizona. And as a former Arizona resident, I can say that, like that's cool. Arizona is close enough to the sun. For me. That's as close as I need to
John Shull 35:44
get there's two things that you just that you just said that I'm interested one. How did you know how many million miles it was just off the top of your head?
Nick VinZant 35:51
I don't really know how you don't? I don't everybody knows the sun is 93 million miles away. Do you? Did you not know that?
John Shull 36:00
I mean, I knew it was millions of miles. I couldn't I probably couldn't I would not have come within 50 miles of being correct, I'm sure.
Nick VinZant 36:11
Well, I mean, when you're talking about millions of miles, 50 miles, that's really nailing it down pretty close.
John Shull 36:18
Like if you were to say, Hey, John, you know, give me a guess of how many million miles away the sun is? I probably wouldn't have come within 25 You know, million miles or whatever have been correct.
Nick VinZant 36:30
What would your guests have been before? I said, 93.
John Shull 36:33
I'm gonna probably would have been, I mean, 25.
Nick VinZant 36:36
Yeah, but in my mind, there's also no difference between 25,000,090 3 million miles that's still like, each one of those is like, that's pretty far.
John Shull 36:45
I've always wondered how how, you know, however, they actually, like measured accurately.
Nick VinZant 36:53
Math. Okay, is the best answer for that. I mean, I think the actual answer is they can like look at gravity and things like that. I don't really know. I just know that smarter people like, but I don't know that. But people who are like, well, I don't understand how that works. Well, I don't understand how TV works either. Doesn't mean it doesn't work.
John Shull 37:11
I mean, I think understanding TV is a lot easier to understand than to say, hey, you know, the Milky Way galaxy is 655 million miles away when we've never heard it work. Well, it's not a way we're in it. I know. I was I was using that as an example. You know,
Nick VinZant 37:29
I don't think you really know too much about space.
John Shull 37:33
Or dinosaurs.
Nick VinZant 37:35
Or dinosaurs. You know, what, how far how many miles away is the moon? Because I think I actually know let's let's both of us take a guess on how far away the moon is. I think I might know, what's your guess? I feel how many miles?
John Shull 37:48
How many miles? Oh, boy. I don't know if it's a if it's millions of miles. I'll say it's, I don't know. Let's see if it takes two days to get there. You said, You know what I'm gonna. I'm gonna save 300 out of 500,000 miles away.
Nick VinZant 38:08
My guess was 186,000 miles. It's 239,000 miles away.
John Shull 38:14
Well, you when the price is right.
Nick VinZant 38:16
Just That's crazy to me, right. Like that thing is it's like right there. But it also doesn't exist in reality to me. Like, that's not. If that was just a painting up there. I would feel the exact same way about
John Shull 38:29
sound like that's not real. Speaking of some days, I feel like I'm in The Truman Show where things happen on cue because I'm just in a gigantic, you know, acting scene and I'm the main actor. Some days I feel like
Nick VinZant 38:42
that. Yeah, you You are the star of your own universe, man.
John Shull 38:46
Oh, that's very nice. I'm gonna I'm a bright star and a bright universe. Thank you very much. Very, very good.
Nick VinZant 38:52
Okay, let's move on.
John Shull 38:53
You got a haircut, by the way? No, no. All right. Fair enough. Is that is that offensive to say that to somebody because I say that to people all the time. And some people respond well, and others I can tell like it kind of bothers them. If I'm, you know, wrong.
Nick VinZant 39:11
If you ask if they got a haircut. Yeah. I don't know. I don't think asking if somebody's got a hair cut. Like if that is becoming offensive to Pete. Like, if that's one of the things that we now can't ask people about. We've gone too far. If you get a haircut or do something new, do you kind of try to fight for acknowledgement? Right? Like let's say you get a new shirt. Will you walk in and be like, arms out? showing it off a little bit?
John Shull 39:41
No, but I will say this about my wardrobe is that when I do wear something new people like oh, that's a nice shirt. I haven't seen that before. Because I have the same clothes on rotation. You know, once a week. You can. I'm pretty much down to a science.
Nick VinZant 39:58
I don't quite have them. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday schedule, but I'm definitely wearing the same five outfits throughout the week.
John Shull 40:08
You know, I'm still old school I still wear, you know, blue jeans and, you know, polo shirts and everything else into the workplace.
Nick VinZant 40:16
Do you and your wife dress alike? Have you started? Debbie, you've been together long enough that you're starting to dress like
John Shull 40:22
Nah, not really. I mean, she'll wear you know, she'll wear like at night some of my shirts but you know, they're big on her. Obviously. That's what happens when you're 5x All right, shout outs here. Let's start off here with a. Makayla Lindstrom, Aiden Henning, Adrian Garcia, Georgie Rivera, Jonas Webb. I don't know why, but I'm coming around on Jonas's lately, I'm not sure why but I was kind of against that name, you know, five or six years ago but I'm kind of coming around Jonas. There's no right name now by me.
Nick VinZant 40:57
Okay, was it the Jonas Brothers that did that for you?
John Shull 41:00
Maybe you know, and then I think I knew knew of a couple of Jonas's and I you know, and they kind of rubbed me the wrong way. And but you know, listen, four or five years ago, by here we are I'm alright. Getting alright with Jonas's.
Nick VinZant 41:14
Okay, sometimes it takes a little bit of time a little bit, little bit, takes a little bit of
John Shull 41:17
different other good name here. Bo Morgan. Bo's good name, right?
Nick VinZant 41:23
Is that now wait a minute that a man or a woman,
John Shull 41:26
I believe. I believe it's man. It's spelled B E. Au which to me is the acceptable way of being a bow I do not like be OHS be au I'm okay with
Nick VinZant 41:42
First of all, don't Matt badmouth Bo Jackson, probably the greatest athlete who ever lived. Probably the greatest athlete of all time.
John Shull 41:51
I mean, that's that's tough. I mean, he's definitely he's definitely up there. But I don't know if I I would never I would not go on record saying he's the greatest possibly ever.
Nick VinZant 41:59
I would say that maybe not in terms of athletic, but he's okay. I mean, in the sense of like, athletic performance, like if we tested all of the athletes ever, I think Bo Jackson, and LeBron James would probably be at the top of that, where they're just a good every single, athletic, measurable.
John Shull 42:17
LeBrons definitely up there. Bo's definitely. I mean, don't forget Deion Sanders.
Nick VinZant 42:22
Not strong, though.
John Shull 42:24
I mean, he was strong enough. He was a cornerback in the NFL for a decade.
Nick VinZant 42:28
Wasn't a great tackler if I remember correctly, but he doesn't have the strength. He had the speed. He had the quickness he had the agility didn't have the strength like Bo Jackson and LeBron James does. We could talk about this forever. Anyway.
John Shull 42:40
We forgot Michael Jordan. No, not LeBron James caliber. All right. You're like going because LeBron James is considerably bigger body size, I would assume than Michael Jordan. Yes. Yeah. All right. Yeah. I'll see Sean Ronny. Luca Vukovich. Emmanuel, Connie. We're gonna end with an easy one hill with our here with Bill Ward. Man, it was nice and simple. Just get it out of the way. Oh,
Nick VinZant 43:09
I 100% Chance Bill Ward is from the southern part of the United States as Bill Ward right there.
John Shull 43:14
If Bill if you are send us an email, we'll we'll send you a complimentary eraser.
Nick VinZant 43:21
I'm okay with the name bow but only if you live in Louisiana.
John Shull 43:26
I was not a big I only accept
Nick VinZant 43:27
bows in Louisiana.
John Shull 43:28
I'm not a big fan of two letter names. Bo, Jo.
Nick VinZant 43:37
mo, mo, actually know a guy named Paul.
John Shull 43:41
You know, I mean, it's just you know, it's I don't know why I'm just not a
Nick VinZant 43:45
fan. It's not his real. I don't think that Bo Jackson's real name is Bo.
John Shull 43:49
Let's see what the Google says. Okay, well,
Nick VinZant 43:51
I'll look it up PDSA.
John Shull 43:53
Well, It's question time. For you.
Nick VinZant 43:57
His real name is Vincent. Edward Jackson. Bo is a nickname. I think that like some women that I've known that have been nicknamed Bo, I think that they're usually pretty cool. But Bau is only Louisiana specific, maybe? Maybe some parts of Alabama. Maybe.
John Shull 44:17
So I've known one bow in my life as a as a woman or as a and her nickname was or her name was Beatrice. She went by bow, and she's the only woman I've ever known to smoke, drink into all within the same night.
Nick VinZant 44:35
Bo is definitely going to be a tomboy. And she's probably mentioned at least 135.
John Shull 44:41
Yeah, and that is no joke. She she hung with the fellas that night, and that became she became a legend that's for sure.
Nick VinZant 44:48
There are not many women who did. I've known a few women who did and I was that was all women that I was like, I'm not that He's like, Look, you just Yeah, okay, anyway. Yeah,
John Shull 45:05
well, that's more power to you, if you do it just know, any listeners out there that are female. If you do all three of those things, you have a special place in our hearts. All right, let's see. Were you a front class siter? Are you a back class that are
Nick VinZant 45:22
always the back of the class, always the back of the class and then slowly got moved to the front of the class before moving being moved back to the back of the class. But I was also my last name is Van Zandt. So I was also alphabetically always at the end, I was definitely a back of the class, did you deliberately back right back right,
John Shull 45:37
according to a study recently released, that people that sit at the front of the class, or 93%, more times, often to be successful, now have higher grades than those students who sit in the back rows of the class,
Nick VinZant 45:54
because they're paying attention. I mean, that's one of those things that's not really hard to figure out, I understand why we would have a study for that. But pretty much anybody could have told you that right from the very beginning. Generally, the people not paying attention to something are not the ones who do well on it.
John Shull 46:08
But every time I've gone into a classroom, that front row is always empty. So I didn't you know, no one in my grade sat in the front, it was always a second row and beyond. No one wanted to be in the, my wife loves sitting in the front row and infuriates me.
Nick VinZant 46:26
Does she make you sit next to you? And have you ever sat someplace else? Like, I'm not sitting,
John Shull 46:30
of course, you know, pre K orientation. We show up 10 minutes late, and we have to go, you know, we have to take the two seats that are in the front, walk by everyone, as we're 10 minutes late, and then sit in the front of the class. It's like, Oh, man.
Nick VinZant 46:45
Oh, man. Everybody was staring you down like, well, that kids not gonna get in?
John Shull 46:49
Oh, yeah, for sure. Well, she didn't. So thank you very much. Well, even if you're
Nick VinZant 46:53
not, you're still the front row is relative. Like, even if nobody sits in the exact front row and you move towards the back. There's always a front row, no matter how far back it starts.
John Shull 47:03
Yeah, sure. But there's still there's still a front row, right, there's still a designated front row.
Nick VinZant 47:10
I would never certainly even if I didn't, even if I was interested in the class, or the thing that was going on. And didn't know anybody else in there, I'd be hard. I might go, the closest I would go was high middle. Maybe like second to fourth row. That's it. As far as I'm going now,
John Shull 47:28
during I remember, during driver's training in high school, I sat in the front row, because if I didn't, I would have fallen asleep. And that is the only time I've ever sat in the front row.
Nick VinZant 47:39
Good. That explains a lot.
John Shull 47:41
I'm a good driver, except I have a parking lot. And is it
Nick VinZant 47:46
terrible, terrible driver or not getting into this. You're a terrible driver.
John Shull 47:50
I wanted I want to know something about Seattle, because somebody that I know recently visited there. And they posted a picture of themselves. And this was their caption. And they said I'm next to the in famous gum wall. Is there a gum wall that's famous in Seattle? Yeah,
Nick VinZant 48:09
it's a wall full of gum. It's disgusting. And I don't know, it's one of those things that I can see the appeal. Like it is kind of a landmark. It is something that's popped up and it's definitely unique. But to me, it's gross. And the few times that I've accidentally found myself in there, I had to like, I gotta get out of here as fast as possible for throw up. But it's discussed. I
John Shull 48:30
know, there's hyperlocal. But I'm curious. Like, is it? Is it like in a market isn't a restaurant like? Like, what's the appeal? Like? How did it come to be a popular like tourist destination?
Nick VinZant 48:40
I don't know. I didn't stop and read the plaques when I was there. But it's next to Pike Place Market, which is this famous market in Seattle that is next to the basically the waterfront area. So it's Seattle used to be largely kind of It's a city that's kind of built on top of a city in certain places. So there's kind of an underground Seattle and the gum wall goes from like the underground ish Seattle. Up to the main levels of Seattle. People who are in Seattle are like that's completely wrong explanation. But that's the best way that I could describe it. It's a unique place. disgusting to me, but unique place.
John Shull 49:18
Interesting. All right. Second question. Would you rather be a Disney character?
Nick VinZant 49:25
What was the first question
John Shull 49:27
about
Nick VinZant 49:30
the gumball?
John Shull 49:31
No. What was the first question?
Nick VinZant 49:34
I don't think you actually asked it.
John Shull 49:37
Um, dang, I don't remember I didn't write it down. I didn't I only wrote one question down today. And it's this one.
Nick VinZant 49:47
Okay, good work. Good work.
John Shull 49:50
Yeah, no, I don't know why.
Nick VinZant 49:53
One job for this old
John Shull 49:55
Why is it escaping us? I don't understand. I don't remember why. It's
Nick VinZant 49:57
it's not escaping us. It's escaping me.
John Shull 50:00
It was the front class that are back class that are question. Oh, that's right. That's right. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And then my question is, or my second question, rather, which I'm forgetting as we go on and on about this good thing, I wrote this one down. Would you rather be a Disney character? Or be casted in like a, like a superhero movie? And be known forever as one of those type of characters?
Nick VinZant 50:27
Superhero one, that seems to me like, yeah, because you don't necessarily know exactly what Disney character you're gonna get. Right? Even though I can't really think of any Disney characters, I wouldn't necessarily want to be except for maybe like quasi moto I wouldn't want to be cast as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I'm pretty much okay with just about any superhero. Because even if it's kind of ironic, like I can think some of the Deadpool characters that were in there, like you're still a superhero, and you're always going to be a superhero, and you probably make lots of money off that because they use your likeness.
John Shull 51:01
I mean, you're, you're famous, I will first off I think you're famous forever, no matter what you do, either, or, but definitely superheroes who probably got a little more fame than you do.
Nick VinZant 51:13
Yeah. I don't think there's a lot of like conventions. If you get cast as a superhero, you can probably make a living off of the convention circuit autograph circuit for the rest of your life.
John Shull 51:23
But I mean, how many how many times you go to Comic Con, and there's John Shoal writer of the 1967 Superman's comics, and people like just flocked to that person.
Nick VinZant 51:36
From my days as a former reporter, Lou Ferrigno is still going to like every single one of those and he's got a pretty good line willing to pay 20 bucks for an autograph.
John Shull 51:47
At least 20 bucks. I'm sure it's double no East
Nick VinZant 51:49
20 baht like it's probably a lot more net for some of them. Like no
John Shull 51:53
joke. That was it, man. Let's see. Let's see what people wanted.
Nick VinZant 52:00
Did you actually do it? Are you making it up right now? What? exactly
Unknown Speaker 52:07
did I actually do? What?
Nick VinZant 52:08
Did you actually put out a poll? Yeah,
John Shull 52:10
I did. Yep. Okay, go on right now. I'm going right now to it on.
Nick VinZant 52:14
I apologize.
John Shull 52:14
I apologize. But because, you know, it's because I'm not prepared it and have it pulled right up immediately. But here we go. So let's see the options this week. Um, let me the New Super Mario Brothers movie, doing good things that did not win, either. By the way, electric toothbrushes for whatever reason, a new study came out basically saying that electric toothbrushes are 18 times more likely and better for your teeth than the original brushing, you know, just standard brushing without an electric toothbrush.
Nick VinZant 52:50
I was a person that resisted the electric toothbrush for a long time. Right now, if there was a situation in my home that we had to flee the house with everything in fleet. If we had to fleet if we had 10 seconds to flee the house. I would grab the pictures, they would grab our saved pictures and my electric toothbrush. It'll change your life if you've resisted the electric toothbrush. It's one of those things that you will change over the electric toothbrush and wonder what the fuck was I doing before this?
John Shull 53:23
I actually I went back to the to manual brushing to be honest. That's ridiculous. I know. It's dumb. I get it. I have a reason though. I've kind of sensitive teeth. Most of my teeth aren't real by the way. No, they are real. But well then why are they sensitive? They're sensitive because literally every tooth I've had has been worked on. I have like no I have like knobs in the back. Like I don't know why don't have crowns but they're like just little nubby pieces of tooth and the rattling from the that electric toothbrush just you ever been sitting in the dentist's chair? Getting ready for that? Like have a simple we'll say a cavity drilled and yeah, you kind of get a little get a little sweaty, get a little whatever. And then they start drilling. And it's just it's just the worst feeling in the world.
Nick VinZant 54:08
I fell asleep in the dentist chair while they were drilling into my teeth. Yeah, well,
John Shull 54:13
that's because you're not human. It's because I'm sorry, you're low IQ.
Nick VinZant 54:18
That's because just like look, I'm gonna zone out
John Shull 54:21
that's I've never known anyone to fall asleep during a dental procedure except for you. So congratulation. Yeah, I mean
Nick VinZant 54:31
I was I don't know if I was 100% asleep but I was definitely like in a trance like state
John Shull 54:36
where you were Way We Were you under like anesthesia or whatever gas
Nick VinZant 54:43
well and in that area, but not the rest. Not overall. No, that area was numb. But yeah, I was not under anesthesia.
John Shull 54:52
So I don't I don't you have to be not like nothing. Just going nobody
Nick VinZant 54:55
could fall asleep like that. Nobody could fall asleep at that amount of pain. God that would hurt. If there's
John Shull 55:00
somebody out there that has I don't care if you approve or not just send us an email because I, I want to know because you are, you are above and that's a beast. Anyway, so what one this week? It's kind of the most it's funny, but it's not funny. And that is the Fantasmic dragon setting on fire at Disneyland caught fire and it was quite the spectacle for folks in the park. The best video that came out of it was people going over excuse me the falls like the Grand the magic Canyon falls and as they're going down there's just a blaze their side
Nick VinZant 55:39
it's just I'm not going to theme parks man.
John Shull 55:41
I you know what? i My wife has been bothering me to go to Disney World and not land world because we're close to Florida. I have no desire to take my my young daughters to Disney. None.
Nick VinZant 55:56
If there is a hell that exists. My idea of Hell is Disney World in the summer.
John Shull 56:03
I mean, listen, and we both know uh, you know more than I do because you were out there reporting sometimes on it. It Yeah, I nope. Don't I want nothing to do with it.
Nick VinZant 56:12
Nothing to do with and that's your thing. That's your thing. But for me. Oh, I don't even like to drive by him.
John Shull 56:18
I don't I want nothing to do with theme parks. Give me a zoo. Give me a zoo on a on a on a spring day. I'll take that a million times over Disney World.
Nick VinZant 56:29
By seven. Well, we could do top five places. We have no interest in going disney world number one disney world would be up there for me. I'm going to Lego Land now. I can enjoy some Lego Land. I could also go to one of those more theme parks and theme parks or less less theme park theme parks like what it's just straight rides. I'm not impressed. I've never cared about like, Oh, look at this great decoration leading into the ride. I just want to get on the fucking ride. I bet we do that ever. We spend less money decorating the ride and more money getting me on the ride.
John Shull 57:03
I mean, the Midwest has the best theme park in the country Cedar Point.
Nick VinZant 57:09
I think you're gonna see joy Land Run front in Wichita, which is an abandoned theme park that people used to sneak into. No. Have you ever seen the abandoned theme parks online? It's pretty interesting. It's kind of crazy looking.
John Shull 57:19
I'm I'm sure Joy land. gave lots of little Nick VinZant. A lot of leisure why there were children.
Nick VinZant 57:27
I think people used to sneak in there and drink but okay, are you ready for our top five?
John Shull 57:33
I am. This is a tough one. It's a tough top five this week.
Nick VinZant 57:36
There's a lot of ones that I think that could be up there close to the top. I think that there is a dominant number one. But there's a lot of things that could push into it. So our top five is top five space movies to number five.
John Shull 57:51
So I'm going to ask this question right off the bat because this is going to determine where we go on this top five. Okay, okay. Okay. Did you go personal preference, or critically acclaimed movies as your for your top five?
Nick VinZant 58:05
I went with neither one of those matters. I went with the best movies.
John Shull 58:10
Okay, well, this one. This is how I'm going to start off my list. Number five, I have Starship Troopers. What?
Nick VinZant 58:23
That movie is like a joke movie. I didn't think that anybody actually liked that movie.
John Shull 58:30
I mean, the only lesson I get I get on the list of tops, space movies ever. It's not. It's not even a talker. But
Nick VinZant 58:38
it's not even on the top 100 I don't think but I think if there was a list of 100 space movies, it would be 99. That might be the worst space. But for me,
John Shull 58:47
you know, it was what it Come on. 9697 It's a cult hit. It's a fun movie. I mean, it's just I know, it's a personal favorite of mine, which everyone who's listening this that knows me is going to say wow, of course he put that on his top five. But my list will go up from here, I promise. Well, it can't go down. It can definitely cannot go down. That's a good that's I mean, it's it's not a good movie. But listen, Neil Patrick Harris, isn't it so get off my back about it.
Nick VinZant 59:21
I don't think that Neil Patrick Harris really? Like that's not. That's not the trump card that he wants was like, okay, that's one of those actors like well, he's in it. Yeah, and yeah, what's your point? Casper
John Shull 59:34
Van De and let's go. Might number five is
Nick VinZant 59:37
predator. Predator is
John Shull 59:39
a great, great choice. I am. Yeah, I don't I don't have him on. I don't have it on the list. But that's a great. That's a great movie.
Nick VinZant 59:50
I think that you can make an argument that Arnold Schwarzenegger had an action run that is better than anybody else. Of all time. Maybe Will Smith If I could compete with him, but Schwarzenegger had Terminator predator, Commando Total Recall? Yeah, I
John Shull 1:00:09
don't I don't know in terms of action stars. I mean, I I know we laugh a lot about about the rock, but I think the rock is up there in terms of action stars.
Nick VinZant 1:00:19
But those aren't movies that hold together. They don't like Arnold Schwarzenegger movies are the rock stars in like, movie. All right, they're making this movie this year kind of movies like The Rock Star in forgettable movies. Arnold Schwarzenegger did not star in forgettable movies. All of the rocks movies are forgettable. I mean, that's tough. That's tough. I can't even think of any movies that he's been in right now.
John Shull 1:00:48
I mean, I
Nick VinZant 1:00:49
literally cannot think of any movies at this second that he has been in besides Fast and Furious. mean he's Jumanji but not like Schwarzenegger where you can just run the list of movies that he was in?
John Shull 1:01:01
I think you're i You might be right. Arnold may have may have had the best run as an action movie star for for legacy roles. I think you're correct.
Nick VinZant 1:01:12
Yeah. Okay. What's you number four?
John Shull 1:01:14
Man this is so tough because I there's so many. I'm gonna go with alien at my number four.
Nick VinZant 1:01:22
Okay, I've heard that too. Good movie. It's too scary for me to watch.
John Shull 1:01:24
That's that's fair. I on my honorable mention. I have Prometheus as well. I have to give that a shout out because that's also a great movie. But aliens. Or alien rather, is my number four.
Nick VinZant 1:01:37
Space Jam. Space Jam is a good movie.
John Shull 1:01:43
It's fine. I didn't even have it on my list. I guess because I I don't know why I didn't consider that a space movie. But it's it's it is
Nick VinZant 1:01:50
a space movie literally has space in it. Yeah, the title.
John Shull 1:01:53
Yeah, it's fine. It's definitely a space movie. So
Nick VinZant 1:01:58
yeah, it just has aliens in it. Okay, number three. Ah,
John Shull 1:02:01
man. This is gonna give me a lot of grief. But I'm going to do it. Independence Day. Do I know I know. But listen, it's I've Tuesday. Good. I have two reasons. I don't know if it's a good movie. I don't it's probably a shit movie. But it's it's a cult classic in everyone whether you want to admit it or not, has seen it? And if you say you haven't, I don't believe you.
Nick VinZant 1:02:29
Yeah, but they did they remake it once or twice. How many sequels? Did it have?
John Shull 1:02:35
I don't even I honestly have no idea. There's only one independent state to me.
Nick VinZant 1:02:40
Right? Like even if they made another one. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. My number three, I have a hard time because I've got three movies that I would all kind of the same. No, I take that back. I'm gonna make my number three a tie between Guardians of the Galaxy and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Both of those kind of like funny, action oriented space movies.
John Shull 1:03:05
So So Guardians is all my honorable mention. I don't have Hitchhikers Guide. Guardians easily could have been my number five, but I don't want the personal choice. But the Galaxy I don't know or hit Yeah. Hitchhiker's Guide. Not not national. Sure, but Guardians is a great choice. Great choice. Oh, okay. So number two 2001 A Space Odyssey. Which, you know, it's still considered possibly one of the greatest cinematic moments of all time. You have to have it on your top five of space, anything.
Nick VinZant 1:03:46
I don't even have it on my honorable mention Jesus. It's one of those movies that I feel like people talk about it. Like they like it. Like, oh, I've seen that. I'm sophisticated. I get it. I'm sophisticated. But I don't think people actually liked that movie. Like, I watched it. I was like, Okay. Where are some explosions, man.
John Shull 1:04:09
I mean, Hal 9000 is amazing. You never expect that until what half? Halfway three quarters through the movie when it's just goes into. I'm gonna break everything in this. You know, I'm gonna break this whole entire world. And it happens that would happen.
Nick VinZant 1:04:24
Oh, maybe I never watched the whole movie. Well, you should. It's definitely worth it. Then somebody get ejected into space.
John Shull 1:04:32
Is that gravity? I think now you're confusing it with gravity.
Nick VinZant 1:04:36
Maybe I'm confusing it with gravity. Was that your number two? That was? Yeah. My number two I thought long and hard about making it number one. I would have made it number one, if not for one other movie that is in this particular franchise, but my number two is Spaceballs.
John Shull 1:04:55
That's fair. I I have Spaceballs on my on my honorable mentions. Number one is unanimous, right? Yeah.
Nick VinZant 1:05:03
Wally. What's your number one? You don't like Wally. You can't walk away to Wally. Now if I would have said Men in Black, I would be okay with you walking away. But while he is a pretty good movie, and I would have liked to put it on its list, but I don't think that while he has the cultural resonance that's needed to make the top five, what's your number one? So same as mine, so
John Shull 1:05:31
you're not putting this as number one makes me wonder. I mean, this is a space movie, but I think you're gonna be critical of it. Molly was my number one a Star Wars.
Nick VinZant 1:05:41
Yeah, it has to be Star Wars. Yeah. But I would make an argument that if not for Empire Strikes Back. I would have put Spaceballs at number one.
John Shull 1:05:55
You didn't have Star Wars on the list? I don't think
Nick VinZant 1:05:57
I have Star Wars. My number one. Oh, you
John Shull 1:05:59
do have Oh, you were messing with me. With Wally. I literally walked away like I just left.
Nick VinZant 1:06:07
Walked Welcome to the show. I just walked. Thanks for participating in our 200 and 50th. Episode. I was like, this fucking guy does sarcasm is your sarcasm detector not detecting sarcasm. No.
John Shull 1:06:18
Because you you were you just looked at me with that look like? Yeah, I did that. Yeah, fine. Star Wars is fine. Okay. All right. I'm calm down. Now. Go into your you know, go go into your spiel about it, please.
Nick VinZant 1:06:30
It has to be Star Wars, I think but it's Star Wars is a franchise. The only movies that I would say are great Star Wars movies. Not entertaining. Not interesting to Star Wars fans, but are great Star Wars movies are the original. The Empire Strikes Back. Revenge of the Sith is a good movie. That's got a lot of stuff going on. And other people seem to have like Rogue One, but I was like, Okay, it's all right.
John Shull 1:06:58
Yeah, I agree with your list. I mean, any anything from that? What the eight 910 and all that. I don't really I mean, they're good movies, but they're not. They're not the even the first three or what are what four or five? Six? I guess if you want to be technical? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the first three are kind of garbage one and two. But Samuel Jackson has a pretty prominent part in part two, so that's fine. Revenge of the Sith is what it is four or five, six are good. Seven, eight. Like I'm not even sure I can name you the titles of like, 789 1011 87. I'm not sure.
Nick VinZant 1:07:35
The only thing about seven, which I think is like the Force Awakens is that was the first time that I went to a movie theater and was like, Oh, I'm excited to see this movie. People were excited to see that. And then they realized halfway through with it. Oh, wait, this is just the first movie. Updated. This is like a remake. It's not even a new movie. Anyway, we can go off on the Star Wars stuff. But I do think Star Wars number one. And it's not even close.
John Shull 1:08:03
I mean, which is funny because I debated it. I've never been a Trekkie. But I debated like just putting Star Trek on the list somewhere. Because I feel like Star Trek, though not not obviously as critically acclaimed as Star Wars. But still everybody knows what Star Trek is.
Nick VinZant 1:08:23
Yeah, but I think the only Star Trek movie that's big as Wrath of Khan. Which is the second one, I think, to Wrath of Khan.
John Shull 1:08:33
Let's see. I have a lot on my honorable mention. I don't know how long yours is.
Nick VinZant 1:08:38
It's probably about the same as yours. Let's go. Let's hear it.
John Shull 1:08:40
So I do have Wally. I have the Martian. The Right Stuff. First Man, event horizon, which is I think a very underrated like dark or a movie, but it's it's really good with Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne.
Nick VinZant 1:08:58
Yeah, they've seen parts of that. Yeah, like that looks like Oh, that's too scary for me. But I think that that movie picked up like a cult status. Yeah, it
John Shull 1:09:05
would be too scary. underrated movie. Apollo 11. Another horror movie Apollo 13. The Tom Hanks movie. Galaxy Quest.
Nick VinZant 1:09:14
Wait Apollo 11 is a horror movie.
John Shull 1:09:17
It is. Yeah. Yep. Really wasn't four or five years ago. I think
Nick VinZant 1:09:22
there wasn't an Apollo Wasn't there a real Apollo alone
John Shull 1:09:25
there? I believe there was but this is like the alternative take as to if you know things when, you know, to the wayside. I'm okay. Outland starring Sean Connery and gravity which it's kind of a mixed bag. There are no there's nobody in the middle on gravity. Either you loved it or you hated it. And I thought Clooney and Sandra Bullock did a good job in that movie.
Nick VinZant 1:09:53
The only other movies that I have on my list that you didn't have, which I thought about putting this in the top five was do The new Dune is very good.
John Shull 1:10:03
I haven't done it but I know nothing of the university there to really comment on it.
Nick VinZant 1:10:09
How many times have you burped in the last minute?
John Shull 1:10:14
I mean, that's what happens when you're gassy, I guess.
Nick VinZant 1:10:19
Are you drinking? Are you drinking beer?
John Shull 1:10:21
I actually, actually I've had two ciders while talking to you.
Nick VinZant 1:10:26
So it's either a beer
John Shull 1:10:29
that's an alcoholic beverage is not a beer, but it's you know, it's it's still an alcoholic beverage.
Nick VinZant 1:10:34
We're recording this at 9am on a Tuesday. Okay, that's gonna go ahead and do it for this episode of Profoundly Pointless. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, subscribe. Leave us a rating or review doesn't have to be some big thing. Anything just really helps us out and let us know what you think are some of the best space movies. I think it's very hard to beat Star Wars as a franchise. But there are other space movies that I think could make an individual run number one, Starship Troopers is an embarrassment though. But it's also kind of weird good in a way. So I get where John is coming from number one. Starship Troopers is an embarrassment though. But it's also kind of weird good in a way. So I get where John is coming from