• About
  • Cats Dig Hemingway
  • Guest Bookings
  • John King’s Publications
  • Literary Memes
  • Podcast Episode Guide
  • Store!
  • The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film
  • Videos
  • Writing Craft Discussions

The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Monthly Archives: November 2017

Pensive Prowler #13: Flying High

27 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Pensive Prowler

≈ Leave a comment

Pensive Prowler #13 by Dmetri Kakmi

Flying High

I don’t want to brag, but … I recently flew to Rome and London business-class. It’s quite the experience. There’s nothing like it. The problem is I’m now elevated to a higher state and can’t possibly travel cattle-class again. It’s too too ghastly, I tell you, sitting at close quarters with the plebeian classes, eating with a plastic fork sludge that wouldn’t pass muster at Hungry Jack’s. I mean, why drink beer when you can drink champagne, darling?

Seriously, if you want to study the disparity between the haves and have-nots, look no further than the internal socio-political workings of an airplane. From nose to tail, it’s a microcosm of the divide that exists between rich and poor. And we’re not even venturing as far as first class. No, we’re just taking a short stroll from working class to middle class.

Let’s be clear about one thing. Under normal circumstances, your correspondent couldn’t afford business class in a mad fit. Such indulgences are outside his means, and he is usually squeezed in a tiny seat with his knees under his chin in economy, cheek by jowl with a human fart machine, developing deep vein thrombosis and fighting off nausea.

But this was a special occasion and my partner paid for us to travel in style, shall we say.

First intimations of privilege surfaced when we were fast-tracked through customs at Melbourne airport and made our way to the segregated quietude of the business-class lounge, there to while away the hours before take-off with a plenitude of food, drink and wifi. Soothing muzak and sparkling bathrooms big enough to accomodate a Roman orgy cushioned the experience further. Not that centurions and gladiators were provided.

When the call to board came, we calmly made our way to the gate, knowing full well that as priority passengers we could board immediately. No waiting in line with the sweaty masses.

Dear reader, I was escorted to a pod of my own. It was a private booth with a larger-than-usual TV screen and room enough to fling my arms with gay abandon, should I wish to do so. At the press of a button, the arm chair turned into a bed, with real pillows and blankets. No sooner did my bum touch the seat, then a hovering angel, obviously devoted to my comfort and wellbeing, appeared to offer excellent chilled champagne. And then more champagne. I quaffed elegantly, pinky held aloft, terrified of giving myself away before these unruffled beings who addressed me as Mr Kakmi (which admittedly made me feel a right wanker) and who took an interest in what I desired to eat during the long flight. No trundling trolleys with chicken, beef or fish for us.

Before the meal was served, the ministering angel appeared to enfold a starched white napkin ‘pon my table wide, on which various tasty treats were laid with care and tenderness. Perhaps nothing on this flight surprised me more than the real cutlery and crockery placed at my disposal.

Plastic cutlery is so economy class, darling!

Which got me thinking. Does this mean terrorists don’t travel business-class? The implicit message was clear. Violence is the domain of the lower classes, herded in the back of the plane and waiting to explode with innate aggression. Refined professionals are too busy stuffing their faces and quaffing fine wines to grab real cutlery and run around a plane screaming “Allah akbar.”

The red wine, by the way, was excellent. As was the dessert wine that discreetly appeared at my elbow as I watched Blade Runner 2049. (As an aside, I should like to say the sequel to this classic was disappointment personified. Lady Macbeth and My Cousin Rachel were more satisfying.)

As they say, what goes in must come out. Before turning in for the night, I ventured forth to the facilities, there to purge and anoint the sated body with an abundance of fragrant oils and exotic unguents. Imagine my surprise when I stepped into a space big enough to accommodate two fat people from the mile-high club in economy. Obviously the news that the poor tend to be more horizontally challenged than the weight-conscious, gym-hopping professional has yet to reach airline ears.

With lights dimmed and ambient music on the headphones, I stretched out in my bed to seek nature’s soft nurse. Suddenly, I sat bolt up right and stared with wide-eyed horror into the gloom. A heinous thought galloped through my mind. Conditions such as these, thought I, brought on the French Revolution. If the people up the back had an inkling of the luxury heaped on me and which was denied them, there’d surely be an uprising. What if they stormed the bastion of entitlement with their plastic cutlery and ire held aloft and demanded a piece of the cake? What should I do?

Fear not, quoth a voice in my sleepy head. They’re probably sedated into a stupor by cheap grog and soylent green. Rest easy, sweet prince, for they surely are not.

But I’m loyal to my working-class roots. In truth I knew that if the plane went down, we all go down. Privilege or no privilege. That gave me some comfort as I sought repose in sleep, o gentle sleep!


dmetri-kakmi

Dmetri Kakmi (Episode 158) is a writer and editor based in Melbourne, Australia. The memoir Mother Land was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards in Australia; and is published in England and Turkey. His essays and short stories appear in anthologies and journals. You can find out more about him here.

The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #65: King of Texas (2002)

26 Sunday Nov 2017

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Shakespeare, The Rogue's Guide to Shakespeare on Film

≈ 2 Comments

Rogues Guide to Shakes on Film

65. Ali Edel’s King of Texas [King Lear] (2002)

Those fucking snobs who discuss Shakespeare’s plays pretend like he didn’t even write any westerns. I wonder why?

Oh—right.

So Patrick Stewart has performed King Lear on film once, but it was set in Texas, and didn’t use Shakespeare’s text, but was re-written into a nineteenth century Texas vernacular by someone named Stephen Harrigan.

King of Texas 12

I watched this Shakespeare-free, made-for-TV Shakespeare movie without high hopes, but decided to give it a chance because—Patrick Stewart.

King of Texas 2

I don’t know who the unheralded Stephen Harrigan is, but the script of The King of Texas is quite smart and rather miraculously good. For the first thirty minutes, I kept waiting to be bored by the set pieces as the cast marched through a presumably bland version of the tragedy, but Harrigan—by not being beholden to the text—moved freely to find new pathways to Shakespeare’s sense of drama, including the psychological fallout of patriarchy and the devaluation of women in the American frontier. By granting his daughters his property, Lear is basically bestowing property upon his former property, which is now the property of their husbands, but which Lear still treats like his own property.

King of Texas 3

In Shakespeare’s version, the sisters flatter Lear when he demands to be informed about the depths of their love for him, and then use more stately rhetoric to cast him out of their provinces. In Harrigan’s version of the story, though, they will also reveal to their father their repressed emotions, thus making these villains more comprehensible, more anguished, more human, and perhaps more terrible because of it. The story is so engrossing that one easily forgets that this isn’t a strict adaptation of Lear at all.

King of Texas 11

I mean, this was a Hallmark production of a movie made for the TNT network, with a cast mostly cobbled together from television talent. Marcia Gay Harden and Lauren Holly are impressive as Lear’s eldest daughters.

King of Texas 10

David Allen Grier plays Rip, a ranch hand and former slave perhaps, who is our analogue to the fool in the play, and Grier’s performance is the first to find the toughness necessary for the bitter humor of the play not to come off as annoying.

King of Texas 13

Roy Scheider (of Jaws and Naked Lunch fame) plays Henry Westover, an analogue to the Earl of Gloucester, whose own family is torn apart by jealousy in a way similar to Lear’s. These are veteran actors feeding off each other’s performances.

King of Texas 6

I am not sure if I am sad that Stewart has not done a straightforward Lear on film. The King of Texas is too good. His mad scene is quite believable, exposed to the desolation of the Texas landscape.

The other shock is that this film is well-paced. It’s original running time with commercials must have been 2 hours. It comes in around 90 minutes, and doesn’t feel rushed. I am not sure how this project got green-lighted, but it seems as if all involved made the most of the opportunity. If you can find King of Texas, this rogue says, watch it.


1flip

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.

Episode 289: Laurie Stone!

25 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Laurie Stone, My Life as an Animal

Episode 289 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

This week I talk to the fiction writer Laurie Stone, and we talk about the need for more craft in experimental work, what New York means for writers, the tricks of memory and aging, and our beloved avant garde forebears.

Laurie Stone
TEXTS DISCUSSED
My Life as an Animal

NOTES


Episode 289 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

The Curator of Schlock #204: Doctor Butcher, M.D.

24 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Film, Horror, The Curator of Schlock

≈ Leave a comment

The Curator of Schlock #204 by Jeff Shuster

Doctor Butcher, M.D.

The M.D. stands for Medical Deviant.

Happy Black Friday, everybody. I hope you’re getting your shop on, mace in hand, so you can get that deal on zip drives down at your local Circuit City. I know most of you were dining on turkey or ham yesterday on our day of Thanksgiving, the food of the common American. You think the wealthy are dining on turkey and ham on Thanksgiving? No way. They have access to more forbidden fruit, and by forbidden fruit, I mean people! I know the 1% is eating people on major holidays. It’s a conspiracy at the highest levels. The Vanassterbelts must be behind it. And it’s not fair. Why should only the rich get to eat human flesh on Thanksgiving?

Unfortunately, as a Curator of Schlock, I only have so much pull. I can’t even get my human jerky business off the ground. There was interest when I launched the Kickstarter, but that was shut down. I’ll keep fighting the good fight, but in the meantime, how about a cannibal movie? I’ve got 1980’s Doctor Butcher, M.D. from director Frank Martin. It’s got cannibals, zombies, and a mad scientist in it. What more could you ask for?

Butcher1

I’d first read about Doctor Butcher, M.D. in issue number three of TurboZone magazine, the go to source on all info for the greatest video game console of all time, the TurboGrafx 16. Also included in that issue was coverage of new hit video game, Lords of Thunder, and the Japanese animated series, Bubblegum Crisis.

Butcher3

Lords of Thunder, Bubblegum Crisis, and Doctor Butcher, M.D. That was the perfect Saturday night back in 1992. Hell, that’s the perfect Saturday night today if you want my opinion.

Butcher2 (1)

What’s Doctor Butcher about? Uhhhhh…It starts out in a New York hospital. There’s a nurse who takes it upon himself to cut a hand off of one of the cadavers and sneaks off with it. Finger food for later? In a later scene, this same nurse cuts open another cadaver, rips out a heart, and starts chowing down. He’s the Augustus Gloop of cannibals. His feasting gets cut short when the head physician confronts him with a bunch of security guards. The nurse decides to crash through a glass window, falling several stories before he thuds on the ground. His arm even pops off from the impact. Funny how it was reattached when they examined the man’s body.

Butcher4

Enter Lori Ridgeway (Alexandra Delli Colli), an anthropologist, and Dr. Peter Chandler (Ian McCullough), a doctor. They discover that the nurse was a native of the Molucca Islands, an area of the world where the residents worship a cannibal god and practice human sacrifice. Naturally, the good doctor and anthropologist decide to lead an expedition to the islands to investigate. They run into some native cannibals. They kill members of the party, devouring their organs right in front of them as they bleed out. Lori makes out all right. After stripping her naked and tying her to stone slab, the natives realize she’s their cannibal queen.

Butcher5

Oh, and there’s a mad scientist on the island of Kito named Dr. Butcher (Donald O’Brien) who wants to extend human life by transplanting the brains of the living into the corpses of the dead.

Butcher6

All he ends up doing is creating a new type of zombie. Not too impressive if you ask me. Doctor Butcher, M.D. is currently streaming for free on Amazon Prime.


Jeffrey Shuster 4

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeffrey Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #64: King Lear (1987)

19 Sunday Nov 2017

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Shakespeare, The Rogue's Guide to Shakespeare on Film

≈ Leave a comment

Rogues Guide to Shakes on Film 2

64. Jean Luc Goddard’s King Lear (1987)

In 1987, Jean Luc Goddard answered the question everyone was asking: what if Jean Luc Goddard was haunted by seagulls and made a meta-cinematic fever dream about the history of film, fine art, and literature that occasionally thought about (or thought about thinking about) a post-apocalyptic King Lear in Switzerland starring Burgess Meredith as a gangster and Molly Ringwald—obviously—as Cordelia.

King Lear Goddard 4

I presume some of you have been asking that question a lot, too, so you’re welcome.

King Lear Goddard 2

A straightforward post-apocalyptic Swiss Lear starring Meredith and Ringwald would probably have been sublime—but that noisy invisible seagull got on my fucking nerves, dear reader.

King Lear Goddard 1

Even more annoying than the goddamned seagull or crow or whatever squawking bird it was that wouldn’t shut the fuck up was Goddard compulsively groaning and mumbling as one of the narrators or the director talking about what is going on, or otherwise blue-skying about a movie that is already fucking underway.

I would say that this is King Lear deconstructed, except there isn’t enough Lear in it.

King Lear Goddard 6

Peter Sellars (the controversial stage director) shows up as William Shakespeare, Jr V trying to reimagine the bard’s body of work through a constipated form of intuition and an uneasy dose of eavesdropping. In his wanderings across a desolated, but pleasant enough landscape, he meets the gangster and his daughter, which he sees as fortuitous. Soon he stumbles upon Goddard, as the professor. He is wearing a wig of dreadlocks constructed largely of AV wiring.

King Lear Goddard 8

The impeccable Julie Delpy irons Jean Luc Goddard’s shirt. “When the professor farts,” she later says of the director, “the mountains are trembling.” This is what Lear’s storm has been reduced to. This is the least funny fart joke in the history of fart jokes, gentle readers. The fart didn’t even sound funny, although the sound of faraway thunder was almost impressive (and in a clearer aural film, it would have been).

King Lear Goddard 5

Did I mention the film’s action begins with Norman Mailer, apparently working on the script?

MAILER
Mailer. Oh, yes. That is a good way to begin, ha ha.

King Lear Goddard 9

If you are a fan of the tragedy, and want to watch a film that engages with the text without enacting it in any sensible way, then this is the movie for you.

This King Lear really hammers on and on about how nothing is no thing, and through so much repetition it is really persuasive.

King Lear Goddard 10

In Shakespeare’s play, the elderly king wants to retire and decides to mete out his kingdom into three quadrants for each of his daughters so that there would be no fight for succession upon his death, and makes a condition of these gifts that they proclaim how much they love him. Because this a tragedy, things do not go according to plan. His oldest two daughters flatter him, and his youngest daughter will not participate because her love transcends the words she has to use, especially since her two sisters have so degraded language. The old king doesn’t grasp that truly deep feelings are difficult, if not impossible to express.

King Lear Goddard 7

Love exists beyond language, and beyond power.

King Lear Goddard 14

Before Mailer appears, there are playful captions on a black screen about the permeable state of this project while we listen to a very breathy telephone conversation in which producer Menahem Golan gripes about the prestige of the Cannon film company being damaged by the delays to the release of the film, and how the film must be ready for the Cannes Film Festival that year. An intermediary on the telephone asks Goddard to respond, and he responds by beginning the movie.

Is this film an angry fuck-you to the commerce of art, like Lou Reed’s noise masterpiece, Metal Machine Music?

Or is it a playfully earnest engagement with the tensions of entertaining people while insisting that the meaning of art is elusive?

King Lear Goddard 12

The film ends with Woody Allen editing his own version of King Lear with William Shakespeare, Jr. V, and by his description of it, we know that his film is somehow the impossible result of the film we have just watched. There is a linear sense here, if not a logical one.

King Lear Goddard 13

At times, the scenes are affecting, and the film is layered enough so that re-watching it does add to its meaning. But the film seems to laugh too much at its own jokes.

And those fucking seagulls filled me with rage.


1flip

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.

Episode 288: Will Dowd!

18 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode

≈ 1 Comment

Episode 288 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

This is a special episode, for Will Dowd, checks in to talk about how he turned his Drunken Odyssey blog, Areas of Fog, into a book! We try to get to the bottom of our editorial relationship, the trick of bypassing or appeasing the gatekeepers among the editors of the literary world, and how the weather affects every aspect of life in New England.

Will Dowd - BPL

TEXTS DISCUSSED

FOG COVER

NOTES

If you are at Miami Book Fair this weekend, stop by the Burrow Press booth!


Episode 288 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

The Curator of Schlock #203: The Island

17 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Michael Caine, The Curator of Schlock

≈ 1 Comment

The Curator of Schlock #203 by Jeff Shuster

The Island

Michael Caine versus David Warner: Need I say more?

Michael Caine. I know I should have something profound to say, but such profundity is escaping me. I mean, he’s a legend in own time. Heck, he’s a legend in our own time  thanks to Christopher Nolan sticking him in just about every movie he makes. And let’s not forget about Now You See Me, that one about those outlaw stage magicians that fight for truth and justice. Caine was in that too. He’s still relevant. He was also in On Deadly Ground, but we won’t talk about that today.

Island2

This week’s movie is 1980’s The Island from director Michael Ritchie. It stars Michael Caine as a fearless reporter. It also stars David Warner (of Time Bandits and Tron fame) as a fearless pirate. It’s based on a novel from Peter Benchley, the man who brought us Jaws.

Does lightning strike twice?

 

No.

Is it terrible? I suppose not so much. I don’t know. I was expecting more out of movie featuring the descendants of the pirates of old, still scourging the Caribbean for loot and booty.

Island4

I’ll say this, these pirates don’t mess around. The movie starts out with some upper crust types drinking martinis on a fancy yacht when a bunch of pirates pull up in the middle of the night and start hacking them to bits. Seriously, they drive a hatchet into the forehead of one rich guy and slice open the belly of another.  The pirates then steal what they want, burn the yacht, and go on their merry way. Apparently, this has been going on for a while. 600 ships have disappeared in the span of a year, arousing the suspicion of Blair Maynard (Michael Caine), a British-born American journalist. Funny, I don’t think he was British born in the novel. I guess they changed that for the movie. Why does no one have any confidence in Caine’s American accent? He had me fooled in The Cider House Rules. He sounded just like a regular New Englander. “Good night, you princes of Maine, you kings of New England.” Brings a tear to my eye each time.

Maynard heads down to southeast Florida to investigate, drags his son with him with promises of a trip to Disney World, buys him a Colt 45 instead, and charters an airplane out to the Caribbean.  The plane crashes on the runway due to the wheels being jammed. Maynard and his son escape unharmed, but they get kidnapped by pirates the next day while fishing for barracudas.

The Island 5

The pirate leader is named Nau (David Warner) and we learn that these pirates are the descendants of pirates from the 1600s. They’re not as swift, though, due to inbreeding. They kidnap children to indoctrinate into the ways of piracy and have their eyes on Maynard’s son.

The Island 3

The pirates also keep Maynard around to breed with the one woman on the island.

The Island 9

This is a weird movie, but if you ever wanted to see Michael Cain go all Wild Bunch massacring a bunch of pirates with a .50 caliber machine gun–and I know you do–this is the movie for you.

The Island 8

We also get a bit of kung fu action in this flick.

There’s kind of something here for everybody.


 

Jeffrey Shuster 3

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeffrey Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

The Rogues Guide to Shakespeare on Film #63: Edward II

12 Sunday Nov 2017

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Shakespeare, The Rogue's Guide to Shakespeare on Film

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Christopher Marlowe, Derek Jarman, Edward II, Nigel Terry, Steven Waddington, Tilda Swinton

Rogues Guide to Shakes on Film 2

63. Derek Jarman’s Edward II (1991)

Edward II is a little-known tragedy by Shakespeare, obscure probably because Christopher Marlowe wrote it, if you want to be technical.

Derek Jarman’s film of Edward II is dazzlingly stylish, refreshingly direct, and deliciously playful.

Edward II 2

This visionary film is set as a postmodern anachronism. Nearly all of England is imagined as a mostly whitewashed dungeon, making the activities of state seem ancient and secretive, if a bit classically untouched. The clothing—especially Sandy Powell’s costume designs for Tilda Swinton as Queen Isabella—is poshly mid-twentieth century, though the fashion sense is enduring. There will be a few dips into more contemporary politics. And Annie Lennox sings Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye”!

Edward II 10

Jarman’s treatment of gay culture in this adaptation is remarkably direct.

The play is a bit like Richard II, in that the English monarch comes into conflict with his nobles due to his disrespectful conduct towards the nobility of his upper class subjects. Edward II causes a mutiny in the royal court when he (1) brings his male lover Gaveston back after his father had exiled him, (2) bestowing a title upon Gaveston, (3) insisting that the other nobles respect Gaveston according to that title, and (4) scorning his queen, Isabella, both privately, and publically.

Edward II 5

Shakespeare would toy with same-sex dalliances in some of his comedies like Twelfth Night, or deal explicitly and quite satirically with it in Troilus and Cressida. (The sonnets are, obviously, a much different story.) Marlowe’s treatment of queer desire is much more nuanced, allowing the authenticity of the desire to find a real place in the drama.  Edward II was first performed in 1592. Three hundred ninety-nine years later, Derek Jarman would make us not just see gay desire as genuinely human, but also make us see it.

Edward II 12

At the beginning of the film, Gaveston delivers exposition about Edward calling him back to England to a companion while two other men are engrossed in amorous activities in the same bed. For Marlowe’s text and Elizabethan audience, the reveal that Gaveston is gay will arrive later; for Jarman, the context is clear from the outset. Keep in mind, I am not being a liberal cheerleader here–what I am cheering is a presentation of same sex desire in a way that is not elliptical in order to align with straight mores, which fucking bore me, gentle readers.

Edward II 1

When England breaks out in civil war over the king’s defiance of the demands of the court, Jarman will make Edward out to be making the issue one of civil rights in a move that is brazenly appropriate, even if Edward does happen to be tragically narcissistic.Edward II 11

Edward is played by Steven Waddington with a muscular vulnerability. This was his first film role (and his next was as Major Duncan Heyward in Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans). Andrew Tiernan manages to make Gaveston seem both unbearably conniving and winningly coy. As Edward’s lover, I love him. As a ne’er-do-well, I despise him. For example, he feels compelled not only to privately replace Edward’s wife, the queen Isabella, but to taunt her by teasing with her unmet desires.

Edward II 4

One can easily imagine his desire to be revenged for being scorned and exiled, but his hubris and cruelty are deeper flaws than Edward’s.

Tilda Swinton, as Isabella, is incredibly reserved, like a model,  like someone who is tamping down her soul at almost all times.

Edward II 13

Marlowe did not have Shakespeare’s great poetic gifts, but with Edward II he does demonstrate a masterful sense of dramaturgy. Edward II is more likable than Richard II or Macbeth. His legendary manner of execution is inordinate to any offense he may have given. I wonder if Jarman pulled his punches in depicting it out of sensitivity for his viewers, or if it is meant to leave Edward some dignity.

As for the playfulness of Edward II, the acting, costume design, and presentation of prince Edward makes this dark narrative hopeful and wild and fun.

The great Nigel Terry plays Mortimer, which has some fun moments, too.

Edward II 8

Track down this film and watch it.


1flip

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.

Episode 287: A Craft Discussion of Ann Hood’s Morningstar with Vanessa Blakeslee!

11 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Ann Hood, Morningstar: Growing Up with Books, Vanessa Blakeslee

Episode 287 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I talk with Vanessa Blakeslee about Ann Hood’s MorningStar: Growing Up With Books.

Morningstar Vanessa & John

NOTES

Check out my interview with Ann Hood back on episode 242.

If you haven’t yet done so, get ahold of Vanessa’s books!

Train ShotsJuventud


Episode 287 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

The Curator of Schlock #202: Robocop 2

10 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Film, The Curator of Schlock

≈ 1 Comment

The Curator of Schlock #202 by Jeff Shuster

Robocop 2

Sequelitis isn’t such a bad thing.

I don’t know what to say. I’m a bit tuckered out this week. Was tuckered out last week too. It’s been a long year, but it’s coming to an end. I still have yet to review a movie starring Michael Caine or a movie directed by Lucio Fulci. Unfortunately, a movie directed by Lucio Fulci and starring Michael Caine does not exist. But that’s okay, because I live in a world where Blade Runner 2049 does exist.

Blade_Runner_2049

I’ve seen Blade Runner 2049 twice. I’m still processing it, still trying to figure out what level of great it is, but make no mistake that it is great. Greatest movie of the decade? Yes. I mean the decade isn’t over yet and we’ve seen fantastic films such Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Sicario, and The Wind Rises, but I don’t think anything will soar above Blade Runner 2049. Greatest sequel ever made? I don’t know that I’ve seen every sequel ever made, but of the ones I have seen, yes, Blade Runner 2049 is the greatest. It is the rare sequel that is better than the original.

I grew up in the age of the sequel. If a movie were popular, it would likely get a sequel. And then would come the avalanche of criticism about how the sequel wasn’t as good as the original. In fact, some sequels are downright hated. Growing up, I could remember one sequel so viscously maligned for reasons I couldn’t understand. That movie was 1990’s Robocop 2 from director Irvin Kershner. Kershner’s biggest claim to fame was directing The Empire Strikes Back, so everyone figured he could do no wrong in directing the follow-up to Paul Verhoven’s Robocop.

Robo1

Kershner never directed another movie again.

The critics savaged it and fans of the original Robocop followed suit. Rotten Tomatoes currently has it at a percentage of 31% fresh for critics and 36% percent for audiences. I was unaware of just how much contempt critics and audiences had for this film back when I saw it in theaters at the age of 12, the same age as the character Hob, one of the henchmen of the megalomaniacal drug lord/cult leader named Cain (Tom Noonan).

Robo3

The critics hated Hob, Roger Ebert in particular:

“Cain’s sidekicks include a violent, foul-mouthed young boy (Gabriel Damon), who looks to be about 12 years old but kills people without remorse, swears like Eddie Murphy, and eventually takes over the drug business. I hesitate to suggest the vicious little tyke has been shoehorned into this R-rated movie so that the kiddies will have someone to identify with when they see it on video, but stranger things have happened.”

As I said, I was a 12-year-old kid at the time. I didn’t identify with Hob, but I knew there were bullies and delinquents my age capable of turning into Hob. And Hob’s “All-American Boy” appearance only added to the idea that monsters can come in many forms.

robo2

But let’s not forget that everything in Robocop 2 is over the top, no doubt aided by the fact that Frank Miller wrote the screenplay. My favorite character in the film is Mayor Kuzak (Willard Pugh), who throws a raging, f-bomb infused tantrum when he realizes the evil corporation OCP will take over Detroit because of a bad loan agreement he signed. The movie is filled with these moments, like when OCP has a focus group decide what Robocop’s new directives should be, such as collecting for the Red Cross and roasting marshmallows with some Cub Scouts.

Robo4

Time went by and I forgot about Robocop 2. I even started to believe the critics, chalking up my love for the film as my childhood self not having refined enough taste.

Then I watched it again this year, rediscovered my love for it. Past all the over the top violence and cynical humor is a true good-versus-evil story with villains rotten to the core and a hero able to hold onto his humanity no matter how much bad programming gets inserted into him.


Jeffrey Shuster 1

Photo by Leslie Salas

Jeffrey Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

← Older posts

Online, shop here:

If you must, shop Amazon and help the show.

Audible.com

Blogs

Not forgotten

Categories

  • 21st Century Bronte
  • A Word from the King
  • Aesthetic Drift
  • animation
  • Anime
  • Art
  • Autobiography
  • AWP
  • Biography
  • Blog Post
  • Bloomsday
  • Buddhism
  • Buzzed Books
  • Cheryl Strayed
  • Children's Literature
  • Christmas
  • Christmas literature
  • Comedy
  • Comic Books
  • Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart
  • Craft of Fiction Writing
  • Creative Nonfiction
  • David Foster Wallace
  • David James Poissant
  • David Lynch
  • David Sedaris
  • Disney
  • Dispatches from the Funkstown Clarion
  • Doctor Who
  • Drinking
  • Dungeons and Dragons
  • Editing
  • Education
  • Episode
  • Erotic Literature
  • Essay
  • Fan Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Film
  • Flash Fiction
  • Florida Literature
  • Francesca Lia Block
  • Functionally Literate
  • Ghost writing
  • Graphic Novels
  • Gutter Space
  • Help me!
  • Heroes Never Rust
  • History
  • Horror
  • Hunter S. Thompson
  • In Boozo Veritas
  • Irish Literature
  • Jack Kerouac
  • James Bond
  • James Joyce
  • Jazz
  • Journalism
  • Kerouac House
  • Kung Fu
  • Like a Geek God
  • Literary Magazines
  • Literary Prizes
  • Literary rizes
  • Literature of Florida
  • Litlando
  • Live Show
  • Loading the Canon
  • Loose Lips Reading Series
  • Lost Chords & Serenades Divine
  • Magic Realism
  • Mailbag
  • manga
  • McMillan's Codex
  • Memoir
  • Miami Book Fair
  • Michael Caine
  • Military Literature
  • Mixtape
  • Music
  • New York City
  • O, Miami
  • Old Poem Revue
  • On Top of It
  • Pensive Prowler
  • Philosophy
  • Photography
  • Poetry
  • politics
  • Postmodernism
  • Publishing
  • Recommendation
  • Repeal Day
  • Science Fiction
  • Screenwriting
  • Sexuality
  • Shakespeare
  • Shakespearing
  • Sozzled Scribbler
  • Sports
  • Star Wars
  • Television
  • The Bible
  • The Curator of Schlock
  • The Global Barfly's Companion
  • The Lists
  • The Perfect Life
  • The Pink Fire Revue
  • The Rogue's Guide to Shakespeare on Film
  • Theater
  • There Will Be Words
  • translation
  • Travel Writing
  • Vanessa Blakeslee
  • Versify
  • Video Games
  • Violence
  • Virginia Woolf
  • War
  • Word From the King
  • Young Adult
  • Your Next Beach Read
  • Zombies

Recent Posts

  • Lost Chords & Serenades Divine #17
  • The Perfect Life #2
  • Episode 456: Lily Brooks-Dalton!
  • The Curator of Schlock #339: Black Scorpion
  • Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #106: Crafting a Witch’s Story

Archives

  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel