The glass bottom boat of the cultural press
Friends, sex symbols, actresses…lend Peter Bogdanovich your ears for this discussion of movie stars he has known and loved. It’s a sometimes maddening, sometimes sensitive, sometimes candid trip through Wonderland with filmmaker Bogdanovich your own private mad hatter. Ben Varkentine says pass the butter.
Skinny Dip,by Carl Hiaasen,Knopf,Ben Varkentine
In a Hollywood-ready plot, an attractive woman named Joey is tossed off a boat by her husband, for reasons unknown. With the help of her friends and relations–including a loopy sheepherding brother from New Zealand–she sets out to find out what’s what. Come on in, Ben Varkentine says. The water’s fine.
After taking everything he wanted from Liberal Hollywood, Joe Eszterhas, author of Showgirls, now lives in the happy heartland of Ohio. How did he get there from here? This book answers that question, spilling many secrets in the process, and Ben Varkentine stumbles across the biggest: Good writing.
Would the human race be better off without the urge to procreate – or at least, to get busy? That’s the theme explored in Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel, The Elementary Particles. Terry Eagan explores the novel and its core philosophy.
Four local bands lit up Melbourne, Florida at the Pineapples Moon Room. The lineup, presented by Red Eye Booking, included London on Fire, The Speed Spirits, and Dunies, all from in Melbourne, and special guest, Orlando band Better Than This.
In this episode, Jeremy Glazier talks with Noah Lekas of the band American Restless, who draws on his Midwest roots for inspiration.
A young man with a mental condition struggles to understand the world.
This week, Christopher Long pulls up at a neighborhood garage sale and picks up his fourth vinyl copy of Song of Joy, the 1976 platinum slab from the Captain & Tennille.
Mikko Niskanen’s recently restored 1972 mini-series Eight Deadly Shots is a complex look at the real-life murders of four police officers in the farming community of Sääksmäki, Finland, in March 1969. Lily and Generoso review the powerful fictionalized adaptation of this tragic incident.
Lily and Generoso review Smoking Causes Coughing, the newest creation from surrealist comic genius Quentin Dupieux (Rubber, Mandibles) that follows the adventures and storytelling endeavors of the kaiju-fighting Tobacco Force!
Ink 19’s Roi J. Tamkin reviews Drumming With Dead Can Dance and Parallel Adventures, Peter Ulrich’s memoir of an artistic life fueled by Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard’s remarkable friendship.
Tymisha Harris tells the story of Josephine Baker with the perfect mix of theater, history, and jazz in Josephine: A Burlesque Cabaret Dream Play.