The Factual Opinion

Woodshed: It All Starts With A Bad Haircut

The Family, This Week:

The podcasts on this website saw their locations reversed for reasons that are guessable but never dressable, and if that sentence exists only as a dalliance in rhyme, it certainly still works for a time, your face may be covered in grime, cover dead bodies in coatings of lime, I never liked the fact that your mother was the originater of crime, slime, dime, climb. Monday: Joe and Chris talked about a comic that I read about yesterday on accident in an old Comics Journal--why couldn't they wait? Thursday: Sean and I talked about the movies I watched and I listened impatiently while he talked about the one movie I let him talk about. Why? Because I'm selfish, and I'm a bad listener. People can change! Ask the people who are trying to sell you on the idea that a Hugh Jackman Wolverine movie doesn't have to suck. They really believe that.

What else? Joe wrote about comics here. Then he wrote about some bawdy bawdathon here. Chris interviewed Rina Ayuyang. Everybody's so fucking BUSY. 

Oh yeah, me and Tom and Amy at Bergen Street: we're publishing the first three issues of Fiffe's Copra comic. It'll be at MoCCA, I'll be selling it at the Bergen Street table, along with a bunch of Nobrow comics.

Outsourcing:

I know that liking New Yorker stories about infidelity amongst intellectuals is probably a warning sign of slipping into some horrible stereotype, but Kevin Canty could write Dan Dare slash fiction and I'd still be his target audience. That issue also includes one of the bitchiest theater reviews I've read in a while. It's like eating a Dove bar.

David Fincher directed Justin Timberlake and chaperoned Jay-Z, the results were technically impressive. You know how people refer to kids and weddings when they talk about the best moments of their lives? Well, let me pull back the curtain: the best moment of my life was when a homeless man told me I looked like Justin Timberlake at 4 in the morning, when I was working an overnight shift at the animal hospital and was dressed in scrubs and dog feces. Life was uphill until that moment, and it's been downhill since. Death comes next, playboy.

There was going to be more links here but then a bunch of stuff happened. Abhay wrote this thing on Neil Gaiman that I liked quite a bit. I had it bookmarked on my phone but that's a stupid way to do things, because now I can't find it. I'll see you next week, at least, that's the plan.

-Tucker Stone, 2013

We Came Back. We Were Always Coming Back.

- - - -

00:00 - 09:32 - This week on Travis Bickle on the Riviera, we start by talking about what it means to be a man in America. Also the first season of The Shield, which is supremely important to understanding being a man in America. Also clothing gives you powers, and Alan Sepinwall's The Revolution Was Televised. America.

09:33 - 21:45 - Tucker watched Life Without Principle (2012), directed by Johnnie To, starring Lao Ching Wan, Richie Ren, Denise Ho, and Myoli Wu. Also mentioned in this section: other Johnnie To movies, Pulp Fiction, Amores Perros, Glenngarry Glen Ross, The Insider, Spy Game, To's collaborative movie Triangle, and this scene from Pam Grier's autobiography.  We also talk about Andrei Tarkovsky and the previous conversation had about him on the guest episode with Joe McCulloch.

21:46 - 26:34 - Tucker watched Destry Rides Again (1939), directed by George Marshall, starring Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Deitrich. This is pretty much the only movie we don't rave about this week. Also discussed in this section - The Blue Angel, The Young Mr Lincoln, Vertigo, and Jim Carrey reading Jimmy Stewart's poetry.

26:35 - 34:30 - Sean watched Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000), directed by Takashi Miike, starring Show Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi. Also mentioned in this section - Miike's other Dead or Alive movies, Ben Sachs' Miike pieces at MUBI, Terminator 2, Blues Brothers 2000, Ichi the Killer, MPD Psycho, James Gunn's Super, Shinya Tsukamoto, a little more about Life Without Principle, and Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai.

34:31 - 39:52 - Tucker watched Forbidden Games (1952), directed by Rene Clement, starring Georges Poujoly and Brigette Fossey. Also mentioned in this section: Saving Private Ryan.

39:53 - 49:57 - And finally Tucker watched Small Back Room (1949), directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger/ The Archers, starring David Farrar, Kathleen Byron, and Michael Gough. Yeah, this one sounds soooooo goddamn good. Also mentioned in this section: The Conversation, other Archers films, The Hurt Locker, Scorsese on three strip technicolor in Colonel Blimp, the Salvador Dali sequence in Spellbound, the BFI, the Criterion Collection, the production history of Dr. Who and Monty Python's Flying Circus, and our disgust at the failure of socialism.

NEXT WEEK - ANOTHER ONE OF THESE THINGS ABOUT MOVIES WITH TWO PEOPLE TALKING.

Homework assignments for next time: Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev and De Palma's Sisters.

 

Download We came back

 

Related articles

Empty Wallets, Empty Parking Lots THAT'S NOT OUR STYLE

Portland's Finest Pornography

Two Men Enter, Two Men Leave....As Friends

What is Homestuck? And what was it doing in the bucolic landscape of Lancaster County? Chris Mautner can only rely on the sage and deep wisdom of Joe Mculloch  -- as so many of us do — mainly because Tucker Stone and Matt Seneca were off gallivanting about God's green Earth engaging in super-secret activities far too important to even hint at here. But the Homestuck discussion turns out to be merely the appetizer for a heady in-depth examination of the Cities Obscures series by Francois Schuiten and Benoit Peeters. Are you up to listening to two grown men talk about semi-obscure (at least in the U.S.) Belgian comics? Frankly, we don't think you are.

Download THIS PODCAST AND KEEP IT FOREVER

Related articles

The Big Old Mess

A Horse Walks Into A Bar That Is Located Near Where The Horse Would Normally Eat

On this episode of Comic Book Podcast, Cryptic Wit is talked about before talking about the Shadow story inside and some Studio Proteus comics are talked about and the Comics Journal is talked about.

Download Comic Book Podcast

Two guys talk misogyny. Because that's fair.

-  -  -

00:00 - 21:16 - INTROS - This week on Travis Bickle on the Riviera, we're crossing the streams, possibly endangering the entire Factual Opinion Podcast Universe by getting chocolate in the peanut butter of our interpersonal conversations. That's right, Joe McCulloch, of the Comic Books Are Held in Burundi podcast, is here for a special in-house Stunt Casting episode which will eventually devolve into some sort of Beat It-style gang/ dance/ knife fight in a comics warehouse behind a movie theater. HIT IT EDDIE.

This week our entire episode is heavily focused on the FAB press book House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography Of Female Neurosis In Horor And Exploitation Films by Kier-La Janisse from last year. Both of us read this recently and we thought it would be great to cover on this here old podcast. Different from the traditional Travis Bickle Book Club by-laws of "Tucker reads old school film criticism" and "Sean reads navel-gazing books written by directors" by being neither of those things. If you're interested in reading more Joe has already written about the book over in his Comics Journal column. Cinefamily recently put on a film festival based on this book, the very awesome trailer for which you can see here, edited by Kyle Reiter who has been directing some really smart and great-looking stuff on Channel 101 for a while now.

Also in this section we talk about Anne Frank, Joe's secret origin in horror criticism, Cinema Sewer and Sleazy Slice (the other cartoonist FAB publishes is Rick Trembles and his book Motion Picture Purgatory), Black Swan, Stephen Thrower and other FAB press books, Man Ray's The Mysteries of the Chateau du De, Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon, Multiple Maniacs, Moustapha Akkad's religious films (not the other Halloween producer Irwin Yablans, like I say on the podcast), If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? by Ron Ormond (Blood Freak was actually directed by Brad F. Grinter) , and Men Women and Chainsaws by Carol J Clover. 

21:17 - 38:03 - HOMEWORK - This week Joe was asked to watched Antichrist (2009), directed by Lars Von Trier, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe. In this section we talk about other work by Von Trier (including his USA - Land of Opportunities trilogy), the direct influence on the film of Tarkovsky (specifically The Mirror), Dave Sim, Eric Clapton, Night of the Lepus, and Garth Marenghi's Dark Place. We were wrong about the fox having Von Trier's voice, which is Dafoe's voice not his. Oh and Joe compares Nymphomaniac to Twilight: Breaking Dawn, which is the best.

 

38:04 -50:38 - Sean watched The Brood (1979), directed by David Cronenberg, starring Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle, and Cindy Hinds; and both of us watched Possession (1982), directed by Andrej Zulawski, starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, with effects from Alien-suit builder Carlo Rambaldi. Also talked about in this section: Alan Moore, Zulawski's On the Silver Globe, Enki Bilal (and the interview about the two men meeting that I think is in this issue of the The Comics Journal - the only issue of the 80s old school Comics Journal that Sean ever read), Alphaville, the subway scene freakout scene in Possession, and Zulawski's Szamanka (which was not inspired by Zulawski's divorce, Possession was). And it turns out Zulawski's most recent film was La fidélité. It has been released on dvd, but in fairly small-run editions from various nations... apparently the only legit release in print right now is an Italian edition that lacks the original French audio.

50:39 - 1:00:11 - Joe watched Nightbirds (1970), directed by Andy Milligan, starring Julie Shaw, Berwick Kaler, Elaine Shore, and Bill Clancy. Milligan is a self-declared misogynist, which is an interesting position to take, and we talk about Jimmy McDonough's autobiography of Milligan's The Ghastly One, and Milligan's short film Vapors, and Birth of a Nation.

1:00:12 - 1:11:51 - HOMEWORK - This week Sean had to watch Living Dead Girl (1982), directed by Jean Rollin, starring Marina Pierro, Francoise Blanchard, Mike Marshall, and Carina Barone. In this section we also talk about Rollin's other films especially Requiem for the Vampire, the Rob Zombie song and video named after the film, and the Cabinet of Dr Caligari (directed by Robert Weine and found in its entirety on youtube here), The Hunger, Vampyros Lesbos, Heavenly Creatures, Louis Feuillade, and Cat O'Nine Tails.

Next week someone else will be here to discuss something with some other person, it's a crap shoot who knows who it'll be? I don't! So come back if you enjoy a lack of stability!

(Extra special thanks to Joe for his help with this week's show notes!) 

Download The JogCast

 

Related articles

Empty Wallets, Empty Parking Lots THAT'S NOT OUR STYLE

Ask Dr. Racism, of Hollywood Upstairs Medical School

Wizard Versus Bagpiper? FIGHT

Alan Moore. Grant Morrison. Truly the only writers to have ever mattered in all the history of comic books. Now they have NEW SHIT out, full of CHILD ENDANGERMENT and DUBIOUS GENDER POLITICS and H.P. LOVECRAFT and LAMESTREAM MEDIA TIE-INS, aka the only themes in the entire world. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Batman Inc. Join us, little flower. Join us, in funnayz.

Download The Comic Book Podcast!

Related articles

Mythology, Taken To The Ultimate EXTREME

Matthew Returns From California, Having Read Heavy Metal and Marti

Ask Dr. Racism, of Hollywood Upstairs Medical School

- - -

0:00:00 - 0:01:23 - INTROS - This week, we have a very special episode of Travis Bickle on the Riviera. I know we like to joke on this show, but this week, we have a frank and serious discussion of the depiction of race in film and it's impact on culture. In order to help me in this endeavor, specialist in racism and Atlantic contributor David Brothers joins me for 90 minutes of contemplative discussion. It gets deep, not for the faint of heart. The movies which we discussed are:

0:01:24 - 0:25:21 - Out of the Past (1947), directed by Jaques Tourner, starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming.

 

0:25:22 - 0:42:52 - The Long Goodbye (1973), directed by Robert Altman, written by Leigh Brackett, shot by Vilmos Zsigsmond, starring Elliot Gould, Sterling Hayden, Nina Van Pallandt, and Henry Gibson.

0:42:53 - 1:06:21 - Stray Dog (1949), directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura.

1:06:22 - 1:14:08 - Gangster Squad (2012), directed by Rueben Fleischer, starring Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Anthony Mackie, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte. 

1:14:09 - 1:33:38 - Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion (1972), directed by Shunya Ito, starring Meiko Kanji

We hope you enjoyed this discussion of important themes in our lifetime shed some light on your own life. Next week somebody somewhere will be on the podcast about something sometime.

Download Travis Bickle Solves Racism

Related articles

Portland's Finest Pornography

Empty Wallets, Empty Parking Lots THAT'S NOT OUR STYLE

My Fair Lady For Dudes

 - - -

00:00 - 06:56 - INTROS - Here we talk about where Tucker has been the past few weeks, video websites, Cinemax, David Lynch, and The People Vs. Larry Flint.

06:57 - 16:44 - Tucker watched The French Connection (1971), directed by William Friedkin, starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, and Fernando Rey. In this section we also discuss Night Moves, Heat, Pauline Kael's review of the film (again), Bug, Killer Joe, the career of Ashley Judd, Jennifer Lawrence, and Anne Hathaway.

16:45 - 25:54 - Tucker also watched Collateral (2004), directed by Michael Mann, starring Jamie Foxx, Tom Cruise, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Mark Rufallo, and Javier Bardem.  Also in this section we talk about the David Fincher Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

25:55 - 37:44 - Sean watched Side Effects (2012), directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by Scott Z Burns, starring Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Channing Tatum, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Vinessa Shaw. In this section we talk about the recent Soderbergh films, the career of Adrian Lyne, Breakdown, Captain Ron, the commentary track for Big Trouble In Little China, Martin Short on Damages, and noted thespian Josh Duamel.

37:45 - 45:23 - Tucker watched The Lovers (1958), directed by Louis Malle, starring Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Marc Bory, Judith Magre, Jose Luis de Vilallonga, Gaston Modot. Also discussed in this section - James Cameron's Terminator,  the Supreme Court trial related to the film, Louis Malle's other films, Jean Cocteau, and Moonrise Kingdom.

45:24 - 57:58 - Sean watched The Cable Guy (1996), directed by Ben Stiller, starring Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick, Leslie Mann, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller,  Bob Odenkirk, Andy Dick, Janeane Garafalo, Charles Napier, George Segal, Eric Roberts, and Kyle Gass. Also in this section we talk about Zoolander, Jim Carrey's career, Election, Judd Apatow, This is 40, the Before VFX blog, Megan Ellison, Olympus Has Fallen, The Bounty Hunter, and our dream for the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

57:59 - 1:28:53 - And here we have a special guest feature with Nina Stone talking about awful movies, the movies she discusses are: The King's Speech (2011), directed by Tom Hooper; Good Dick (2008), directed by Marianna Palka; Queen To Play (2009), directed by Caroline Bottaro; School Ties (1992), directed by Robert Mandel; and The Switch (2010), directed by Will Speck, who we can only assume is related to Richard Speck. We also talk about a whole bunch of other stuff in wide ranging topics and junk.

Next week we'll have some kind of episode about something. Who knows! The world is your oyster. Seize the day, every day. Kiss the pan, the pan kisses you.

Download Panda Bears Living In The Future