57. Kelly Asbury’s Gnomeo and Juliet (2011)
Nope.
John King (Episode, well, all of them) holds a PhD in English from Purdue University, and an MFA from New York University. He has reviewed performances for Shakespeare Bulletin.
09 Sunday Jul 2017
57. Kelly Asbury’s Gnomeo and Juliet (2011)
Nope.
John King (Episode, well, all of them) holds a PhD in English from Purdue University, and an MFA from New York University. He has reviewed performances for Shakespeare Bulletin.
08 Saturday Jul 2017
Posted Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode
inEpisode 268 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.
On this week’s show, I talk to the poet and novelist Kathleen Rooney about the flaneur as geographic narrator of imaginative space, the aesthetic pleasures of walking, writing about New York City, the value of elderly characters, the dramatic provocations of history, and the structure of the novel of memory.
TEXTS DISCUSSED
NOTES
Episode 268 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.
07 Friday Jul 2017
Posted Film, The Curator of Schlock, War
inThe Curator of Schlock #187 by Jeff Shuster
First Blood
They’re not hunting him. He’s hunting them!
Sorry if I freaked out a bit last week. Maybe it’s my delicate sensibilities, but a movie where a ten-year-old boy gets shot and killed because of the decision of some old guys in a board room meeting really ground my gears. My introduction to poliziottesco left me confused and bewildered, questioning the morality of this cruel world, where cops and criminals are no better than each other and the innocent are made to suffer. But then I then celebrated Independence Day, remembered what it is to be an American, where the distinctions between right and wrong are as clear as crystal. I know who the good guys are. I know who the bad guys are. It’s time for another Patriot’s Month, and to celebrate, we’re going through the Rambo series!
Tonight’s entry is 1982’s First Blood from director Ted Kotcheff and starring Sylvester Stallone. I’m ashamed to admit this, but I am largely unfamiliar with the Rambo series. It must have been an HBO exclusive back in the day. So who will Rambo fight in this debut? The Viet Cong? The Soviets? Nope. He’s up against one jerk of small town sheriff and his band of sadistic deputies. The sheriff’s name is Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) and he doesn’t like the looks of this drifter that’s passing through his neck of the woods.
Teasle tells this drifter that he needs a shave and a haircut. The drifter wants to get a bite to eat in the town. Teasle drives him to the city limits, tells the drifter he doesn’t want his kind in his town. As Sherriff Teasle drives away, the drifter starts walking back into town. Teasle arrests him for vagrancy. One of his men snatches the dog tags from around the drifter’s neck. The drifter’s name is John Rambo.
The deputies begin their abuse on John Rambo. The nastiest is Art Galt (Jack Starrett) who beats Rambo with a baton before turning a hose on him to get him nice and clean. Deputy Galt wants to give Rambo a shave. The razor triggers a Vietnam flashback, making Rambo snap. He breaks a out of the police station, steals a motorcycle and is on the lamb. Teasle follows in close pursuit, but overturns his car as he follows Rambo into the mountains. Things escalate from there. Dobermans are unleashed. Deputy Galt tries shooting Rambo with a sniper rifle from a helicopter only to fall out and die after Rambo throws a rock at the helicopter pilot. Galt was Teasle’s best friend so the sheriff now wants Rambo dead.
Things keep escalating. The Washington State Police are brought in. The National Guard is brought in. It turns out Rambo is a Green Beret with an expertise guerilla warfare. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Woah.
At some point Rambo blows up half the town. I think a Dairy Queen catches on fire. Rambo cries to his commanding officer about how his best friend in Nam blew up and got his guts all over him. Oh, and Rambo can’t hold down a job at a car wash. I think he gets arrested at the end. This movie is one of the great ones. Plus, the score is Jerry Goldsmith. You can’t go wrong with First Blood.
Jeffrey Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, and episode 131) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.
01 Saturday Jul 2017
Posted Disney, Episode, Postmodernism
inEpisode 267 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.
Nathan Holic, right, in dire need of another beer at The Outer Rim lounge of The Contemporary Resort.
On this week’s show, I talk to my friend Nathan Holic, who is an Orlando writer and editor of the 15 Views of Orlando anthology series. While in situ at The Contemporary Resort, we discuss the stressors of theme park-going, the uses of such postmodern settings, and the odd counterbalances of melodrama and dark satire in Stanley Elkin’s The Magic Kingdom.
TEXTS DISCUSSED
NOTES
Mary Cottle’s room? The equivalent of room 822 now, but perhaps not back in 1986. (No, we didn’t knock on the door.)
Check out Nathan’s books!
Episode 267 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.