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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Monthly Archives: July 2019

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #29: Cracking Open the Vault

31 Wednesday Jul 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart

≈ 2 Comments

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #29 by Drew Barth

Cracking Open the Vault

I talked a few weeks ago about the closure of Vertigo, the first mainstream purveyor of independent-minded comic work. Vertigo’s spirit has lived on in other publishers like Image, Oni Press, Aftershock, Black Mask, and many othesr. Fairly recently, like 2016 recent, Vault Comics emerged with series different than even among the other indie publishers. They were premiering series like Heathen, an LGBT Viking fantasy book; Deep Roots, an ecological horror story; and Failsafe, a sleeper-agent super-soldier hunt.

Despite being a relatively small, mostly family-run operation, Vault is still premiering nearly ten new series this year—which is pushing into Image levels of new titles. Many of those series so far have been some of the strongest first issues I’ve seen so far this year.

The first series I picked up from Vault this year was She Said Destroy, a series about gods, wars, space, and magic. Already, it’s a series that uses a concept I love that is rarely ever anywhere: just talking to the gods. They’re right there. You can ask them a question and they’re going to respond since they’re in the room with you.

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But this is also a series with critiques on cultural homogenization as only two gods remain in the universe, and the one with the most followers wants the other one dead. We also have magic as a martial art, the blending of science and magic to the point where they become indistinguishable, and the setting up of a massive quest. She Said Destroy has this incredibly bright color palate that feels as though it’s setting up for massive tragedy later. I’m excited to see where it goes.

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Test is already shaping up to be one of those prescient science-fiction series that comes out of nowhere, much like Transmetropolitan twenty years ago. The characters of Testare obsessed with the continual modification of their body as a means of becoming more than just a person. Also, they also don’t actually own a single piece of their body.  Test is a personal journey narrative from the perspective of someone continually grasping for the future. Test is also a horror story. Test is showing off some of the more interesting takes on the movement of time between panels, with a flashback being played in reverse like we’re rewinding a tape. The first issue already ends on a perfect cliff-hanger.

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Resonant is the kind of horror series that transofmrs something mundane into an object of supreme dread. Like the Silent Hill games did with alarms, Resonant’s setting does the same with cicada screams. What really shines throughout this first issue is the building up of the threat. We don’t know what these waves the main characters are preparing for, but we see the bunker they’ve prepared and all of the provisions and security to keep themselves safe—we wonder how bad it can really be. The panel structure and layout brings to mind The Authority and the idea of wide-screen comics that’s typically reserved for fast-paced action. But the speed here works beautifully. We have the sudden start of the wave of cicadas and are immediately swarmed by them as the pacing of the story and panels work hand-in-hand to maintain that feeling of being overwhelmed. It is pitch-perfect post-apocalyptic horror with the most interesting twist I’ve seen in years.

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And then there’s the play on the chosen one adventure narrative that is Sera and the Royal Stars. Sera shows  the second generation of having been chosen and the family being distraught since they have seen what being chosen has done to their mother. But how the creators show our lead, Sera, being chosen is mostly what’s really interesting because it stays neutral from much of its tone. Members of her family see it as a curse that killed their mother, others see it as a duty, but Sera herself seems ambivalent. Even though her quest is to restore the Seven Stars to the sky, she never treats the quest as a burden or a sacred duty—this is only a task to be completed. This kind of characterization is refreshing.  We’re not sure about Sera as a character yet, but we’re still intrigued.

All four of these series features some of the best first issue world-building I’ve read. Never do I feel lost or disconnected from the world of each series—I can feel that consistent dread in these troubling worlds.

Get excited. We’re breaking open the Vault.


drew barth

Drew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

Episode 377: Liz Prato!

27 Saturday Jul 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Creative Nonfiction, Episode, Essay, Travel Writing

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Episode 377 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 Liz Prato about being the best haole possible in Hawaii, the mixing of history and memoir, respecting the natural environment, and other important matters.

liz-prato-author-volcanoes-palmtrees-privilege

Photo by Jill Harriman Browning.

TEXT DISCUSSED

volcanos palm trees privilege

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my debut novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame Cover


Episode 377 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 #283: Someone I Touched

26 Friday Jul 2019

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

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The Curator of Schlock #283 by Jeff Shuster

Someone I Touched

Syphilis ain’t that bad. 

Week Four of ABC Movie of the Week is here, and boy did I make a mistake. You see the trouble with doing a theme month is that it sounds great, but then you need to find a movie each week that fills that theme and then you hunt around Amazon Prime to find ABC Movies of the Week, but you realize that not many of these movies survived. There was one ABC Movie of the Week that starred George Kennedy getting attacked by a feral skunk.

Skunk1

I would have liked to see that movie, but instead I’m stuck this week with a cautionary tale on VD.

Touched1

1975’s Someone I Touched from director Lou Antonio is a cautionary tale on venereal disease (I said as much in the last paragraph–I was filled with so much hope back then). The movie begins with Andrew Robinson playing a guy named Frank Berlin and it appears that he’s stalking a teenage girl named Carrie (Glynnis O’Connor). I think this because Andrew Robinson played Scorpio in Dirty Harry and I associate his face with that of a violent psychopath, but it turns out that he’s one of the good guys in this movie. Really, that says everything about this specimen of schlock you need to know. Read on at your peril.

Frank Berlin works for County Health and he informs Carrie that she has stage 1 syphilis. Nothing to worry about since it’s treatable, but Frank will need a list of everyone she’s had sexual intercourse with in the last four months. Carrie’s response is, “Oh wow.”

Next we’re introduced to Laura Hyatt (Cloris Leachman), a career woman who works for a publisher of children’s books. She’s happily married to Sam Hyatt (James Olson) who works in an office building. Or maybe he builds office buildings. I think there was a scene with him at a construction site. Really this movie devoured most of my soul and much of my memory. Sam and Laura are expecting their first child, but unbeknownst to Sam, he has syphilis. He gets a visit from Frank Berlin after Carrie told him that he was one of the men she had a one-night stand with.

Frank tells Sam that if he has syphilis, he’ll have to inform Laura. Sam says something to the effect of Laura having a fragile mind and not being able to handle the stress of such information.

Uh huh.

Meanwhile, I’m wondering if Carrie was under the legal age of consent.

So Sam finds out he has syphilis. He tells Laura that she might have contracted syphilis. Laura gets tested and bingo, she has syphilis. And she’s pregnant!

What about the baby?

This is a bad scene!

But not as bad as the scene when Carrie tries getting some comfort from her mom by informing her that she has syphilis. Then Carrie’s mother keeps slapping her in the face. I know it was the 70s, but dear readers I can’t take the drama!

While Laura initially recoiled at the news that Sam gave her syphilis, it turns out that she’s the one who gave syphilis to Sam.

Turns out she had an affair with her boss.

Anyway, don’t worry. The baby is going to be fine.

Sigh.

Don’t let Someone I Touched ever touch you, take it from your Curator of Schlock.

Oh, look at that. It turns out Steven Spielberg’s Duel was an ABC Movie of the Week. I could have been watching Duel!

Duel

I’m going to cry now.


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.

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #28: Pros of Cons

24 Wednesday Jul 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart

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Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #28 by Drew Barth

Pros of Cons

Another year and another round of San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone. I’m not going to lie, it’s hard to keep track of  the avalanche of information continually coming out of the San Diego Convention Center. The problem with a lot of that information is that most of it now isn’t really related to comics as a medium. SDCC has become more of a convention for geek media as a whole with many panels and reveals being for films and shows kind of, sort of, not really related to comics. I’m all excited for that Steven Universe movie, but if this blog is going to be doing a round up of all the most interesting things coming out of Comic-Con, we’re going to focus on the comics. Mostly.

  1. Ahoy Comics’s Steel Cage series-winner is revealed!: If you recall our review of Steel Cage some weeks ago, you’ll remember its unique concept: three short stories enter, one leaves with a full series. cage1Readers were encouraged to vote online and the final winner was announced, as promised, at SDCC. And the winner is … everyone? Due to “voting irregularities” all three of the series in Steel Cage will be getting their own series next year. So, good news, your favorite of the three won no matter which one it was.
  2. Kofi Kingston demands his own graphic novel from Boom! Studios: If there is any way to absolutely get a graphic novel about your fictional life as a wrestler, it’s to burst into a publisher’s panel and demand it yourself from the editor-in-chief. Which is exactly what current WWE World Champion Kofi Kingston did during Boom! Studios’ Discover Yours panel this past weekend. This is the kind of absurd moment I love hearing about, especially at SDCC where a new series announcement is kind of just a panel in a slideshow. Who doesn’t want a man in head-to-toe pancake apparel carrying a championship belt over his shoulder cutting a promo to demand his own graphic novel? Someday, that will be me!.
  3. The Eisner Awards: Probably one of the biggest nights of the year in comics, the Eisners have been compared to the Oscars in terms of their prestige for many creators. This year saw creators like Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen, Jen Bartel, Faith Erin Hicks, Chip Zdarsky, and Tom King all winning for various projects. But the biggest stand out was John Allison, Max Sarin, and Julia Madrigal winning both “Best Humor Publication” and “Best Continuing Series” for their Giant Days series that comes to an end this September after five years. gd1This award actually got me incredibly excited since I’ve been reading Allison’s webcomics for coming on fifteen years now.
  4. The return of Strange Adventures: Announced fairly late in the convention, DC announced the return of a staple series from the sixties: Strange Adventures. Once home to anthology pieces about gorillas defending themselves in court, a man made of Radium, and a host of other oddities from the post-Comic Code years, Strange Adventures has been absent (save for a brief stint from Vertigo) for about ten years now. Focusing on Adam Strange, Tom King and Mitch Gerads come back together along Doc Shaner for a story we’re not quite sure of just yet. But with the attached creative team and Strange’s penchant for the…strange, we can only guess at the marvels that await.
  5. Snap Snap: The Addams Family lives! Back to the medium that birthed them so many decades ago, the Addams Family have returned to comic pages once again. IDW is bringing the family back for a one-shot special this October (of course) and are bringing their original designs with them. It’s always nice to see the return of something so delightfully devilish.
  6. Life on Mars: I, like most everyone else, had completely forgotten HBO was making a Watchmen For good reason. The TV series adaptation felt as though it was only going to be much like Zack Snyder’s forgettable film with a little more budget and foresight and less awkward sex scenes set to “Hallelujah.” But I’m concerned. Because what HBO is doing isn’t adapting the comic. They’re randomly expanding upon its universe and characters. But the trailer looks good. I don’t know how to feel.
  7. I hope Blade is rated R: If only so we can get this line spoken by Mahershala Ali in a massive budget, mainstream movie. Please.

drew barth

Drew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

Episode 376: Kendra Decolo!

20 Saturday Jul 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry

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Episode 376 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 Kendra DeColo about poetry, bohemian misadventures, editing, performing, and more.

Kendra Decolo

Photo by Lindsey Rome.

TEXT DISCUSSED

My Dinner with Ron Jeremy

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my debut novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame Cover


Episode 376 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 #282: Bad Ronald

19 Friday Jul 2019

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

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Tags

ABC Movie of the Week, Bad Ronald, Dabney Coleman, Jason Robards, Kim Hunter, Scott Jacoby

The Curator of Schlock #282 by Jeff Shuster

Bad Ronald

Would you be interested in watching a movie called Good Ronald?

Whatever happened to Dabney Coleman? I remember that as a kid, whenever you’d watch a movie with Dabney Coleman in it, you’d be in for an okay time. He was in Wargames, Cloak and Dagger, and Max Dugan Returns. Oh wait. Jason Robards was in Max Dugan Returns. Could you imagine a movie that starred both Dabney Coleman and Jason Robards? Talk about World’s Finest! Who would get top billing I wonder?

Time for another ABC Movie of the Week.

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Tonight’s ABC Movie of the Week is 1974’s Bad Ronald from director Buzz Kulik. It’s about a boy named Ronald (Scott Jacoby) who is bad. Everyone in town knows this. Just look at him. The guy looks like a super nerd, and I’m not trying to say that all super nerds are serial killers, but the facts speak for themselves. Ronald is a teenager who lives at home with his strange mother (Kim Hunter). He plans on going to medical school after high school so he can operate on her one day. That’s bizarre.

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Anyway, it’s Ronald’s birthday. After chocolate cake (Ronald’s favorite), he leaves to go to pool party that he wasn’t invited to so he can ask out Laurie, the hot girl in his class who is clearly out of his league. She rejects his offer of going out to a double feature at the local cinema. The other teenagers splash water on him as he leaves. No one likes you, Ronald. Just stay at home with your mother. In fact, your mother did warn you that “You shouldn’t waste your time with someone who doesn’t care.”

When leaving the party, he runs into Laurie’s kid sister, Carol, and by runs into her, I mean he runs into her, knocking her off her bike. Carol taunts Ronald, but he takes the barb like he should, but then Carol talks trash about Ronald’s mother and he snaps. He lifts Carol up with crazy strength and throws her. Carol’s head hits a cinderblock, and she dies. Ronald runs home to tell his mother about what he did. He then informs her that he buried Carol’s body in a shallow grave. Ronald’s mother doesn’t know what do. If only they had gone to the police after the girl had died, Ronald could have explained it was only an accident. But since he buried the body, that will cement his guilt in the eyes of the law. What to do? What to do?

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Ronald’s mother has the bright idea of walling up the downstairs bathroom and hiding Ronald in there until until the heat dies down. She’ll feed him through a secret compartment in the pantry. Ronald will, of course, have to keep up with his studies and his daily exercises, but in a couple of months, they’ll be able to leave town. When the police finally do come poking around, Ronald’s mother tells them that he’s run away. The police search his bedroom and find Ronald’s jacket in his closet. His jacket has a piece of cloth torn from it and wouldn’t you know it, it matches the piece of cloth they found at the scene of the crime. Mom should have burned the jacket. Honestly.

Ronald’s mother finally decides to get that surgery she’s needed. She leaves Ronald with some powdered milk and tells him it should only be about a week. Then she dies on the operating table. The house is sold to Mr. Woods (Dabney Coleman) and his family. Mr. Woods has three teenage daughters. Ronald spies on them through peepholes he’s hidden around the house. He also sneaks out at night to drink their milk and eat their hardboiled eggs.

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Did I mention that Ronald is having trouble telling fantasy from reality? He’s been hard at work on a Sword & Sorcery novel while being cooped up in that bathroom. I think he imagines one of the blonde daughters as the fairy princess and himself the fairy prince.

I’ll leave what comes next for you to witness yourself, but if you think Ronald is getting a fairy tale ending, you don’t know much about 1970s TV movies.


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.

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #27: Deep Background

17 Wednesday Jul 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart

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Tags

Greg Rucka, Lois Lane, Renee Montoya, The Question

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #27 by Drew Barth

Deep Background

 A new reader looks at issue #1007 of Detective Comics and would likely feel intimidated. There’s much to be said for a short series. It’s why I was recently drawn to Coda or Cemetery Beach, which tell fantastic stories that actually, satisfyingly end. DC has been working on some of these smaller-scale stories like Tom King and Mitch Gerads’ Mister Miracle, Cecil Castellucci and Adriana Melo’s Female Furies, and now Greg Rucka and Mike Perkins’ Lois Lane.

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The name Greg Rucka on its own should be exciting, as he was one of the architects of DC’s modern era. From being one of the writers on 52 to expanding the Bat-family mythology with his runs on Batman, Batwoman, and Gotham Central, his name has earned its reverence. And with Lois Lane, Rucka—with Perkins’ shadow and smoke soaked panels—is working within one of his strongest genres: crime.

Of course Pulitzer journalist Lois Lane is going to write about crime and corruption in the highest places—she’s won a Pulitzer prize and intends to expose every horrendous thing the current presidential administration has done. In only the first issue, Rucka has already given us the catharsis of Lane yelling at the White House press secretary about the funding for child internment camps with hard numbers and throwing out a name like Lexcorp, which is somehow less evil now. (Let’s be honest: we’ve all wanted to scream at the White House for one reason or another.)

But that catharsis is only one aspect of this story. From the beginning, we actually have Lois away from Metropolis, holed up in a hotel in Chicago, and working on a story that will soon devastate the current White House. We also have a Russian journalist murdered over secrets we know nothing about just yet. And it is through that little plot-hook that Rucka and Perkins catch us—those unknown secrets are mentioned sparingly..

Rucka excels at using contemporary issues to build the reality of the world he’s writing in. The corruption and child internment camps that Lois Lane mentions is a harsh reality. Characters like Lane and Renee Montoya in this first issue deal with that seedier reality as they’re not superhuman. Superman himself is right there, but he’s Clark Kent throughout this issue. Going back to his work on Gotham Central, Rucka always finds ways to make us believe in the peril and mortality of these comic book characters, typically with the contrasting of their moments of triumph with that abrupt shift into something dangerous. Although the danger hasn’t yet fallen into Lois Lane just yet, you can hear the sword swinging above, ready to drop.

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Lois Lane is the perfect canvas for the reintroduction and development of Renee Montoya (AKA, The Question), an intriguing character from the Gotham world that Rucka helped to define more than a decade ago. As this is the first we’ve really seen of Montoya since DC’s rebooting of their universe a few years ago, it’s going to be interesting to see how Rucka will develop her character in this new continuity. Personally, I’m excited to see The Question make her comeback. From her two scenes in this story—a Deep Throat-esque dark parking garage conversation and the rescuing of secret files form a murdered journalist—The Question is in her original element of investigation and punching.

Stories like these are how new fans are made—small stakes time and money investment, familiar characters and creators, and strong story-telling. These stories are also how old fans can get excited about the universe again. A good short series like what Lois Lane is shaping up to be is a revitalization for the whole line: low-entry curiosity for new readers and a shorter story for older readers fatigued from longer-running series.

Get excited. Answer The Question.


drew barth

Drew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

Lost Chords & Serenades Divine #12: Safe as Milk Dialogue

16 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Lost Chords & Serenades Divine, Music

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, Safe as Milk

Lost Chords & Serenades Divine #12 by Stephen McClurg and John King

Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band: Safe as Milk (1967)

STEPHEN: Unlike Machine Head, Safe as Milk has been a favorite album for about two decades, though I felt late to the Beefheart party.

Safe as Milk

After college, I played music regularly and met several Zappa fans. I knew Zappa as a pop culture reference, a guest on The Monkees. These guys discussed how Zappa and Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) went to high school and played in bands together and I thought that was interesting.

Most of my friends were not into Top 40 music. Everyone had a few overlapping tastes, but I had a friend into noise, a friend who played fingerstyle blues, friends playing jazz, etc. I had unknowingly played a few Beefheart songs in one band.  I played to the chords, since I hadn’t heard the songs, but they stood out to me and I wanted to hear more. When I found out it was The Magic Band, I asked what I should hear next.

Mistakenly, I was told Trout Mask Replica.

Trout Mask Replica

While it’s not my favorite Beefheart record, I do like Trout Mask now, but upon first hearing it, I felt cheated. Initially, I thought, “They’re playing two or three songs at once. Ok….” I had heard so much about this record over the years and I just didn’t get it. I know I’m not the only one who has had or will have that experience. It’s not an easy record to digest.

I gave up on Beefheart until I heard “Electricity” on a documentary. I immediately responded to that song and we started covering it. That made me want to check out Safe as Milk.

The album opens with “Sure ‘Nuff ‘n’ Yes, I Do,” a variation on the blues standard “Rollin’ ‘n’ Tumblin’.” It’s funny to think of this band–known for being challenging–whose first song (on an album, I think they did some previous singles) is essentially a “girls-and-cars” song.

That first verse has a mysterious quality. The desert part happens to be true for Van Vliet and it seems to place it out of the traditional Delta blues, but it’s a quote from “Minglewood Blues” that the Grateful Dead eventually popularized–after this record. Mentioning New Orleans brings in the hoodoo, voodoo, gris-gris, and all that which is accompanied by the slide guitar, something more akin to the devil’s instrument–the fiddle–than to traditional European guitar. The “tornado” piece reminds me of American tall tales, Pecos Bill, in particular, and finally, I love “the moon stickin’ in m’eye,” but I feel like that comes from somewhere, too.

The rest of the lyrics are mostly about pursuing love or sex, which just gets old to me and probably why I listen to a lot of instrumental music. Sometimes I just find that stuff boring, particularly men singing about “girls.”

During the third verse they play a two-measure break. That rhythmic sense in that verse, moving from something relatively smooth and pulsing to more stuttering parts becomes a method that the band will use throughout its existence. It’s one of the ways that they build contrasts.

Part of the lyrics at the end make me laugh: “Stick with me and I’ll stick with me and you.”

The most exciting aspects of this track for me are Ry Cooder’s slide playing and John French’s drums.

JOHN: If memory serves, I first started listening to the good Captain while recovering from a hernia operation deep in Interzone, quadrant 9.7. The bat couriers were disrupted by the sulfur hurricanes, and on a really bad TV set with sandpaper reception I probably saw the same documentary that you did: The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart.

“Electricity” drew me into its web, too, in part because the song is an ecstatic hoedown with swooping and galloping slide guitars and a theremin and the Captain is yowling like the ghost of Wolfman Jack who wasn’t even dead yet. It almost sounds like a 1950s novelty record. Those tinkling high notes on the guitar recall the Indian whooping of young David Lynch indicating something about the passage to the Black Lodge. One thing I find strange is that this never made it onto the classic psychedelic songs featured on the radio.

STEPHEN: In one of the Black Lodge or dream sequences, there’s a close-up of a mouth saying “electricity.” And almost every film uses flickering lights or sparks as some sort of sign of evil or danger.

The original idea before theremin was to use a saw, but supposedly they couldn’t get a good recording of one. Saws on metal making music and sparks (metal machine music?) which oddly links with the future Lynch work. I’ve always imagined that they would have sounded similar to the various metallic sounds Peter Thomas was able to conjure in the 1971 Fists of Fury soundtrack.

JOHN: Safe as Milk might be the safest Beefheart record, but it sure punched a big psychic hole in 1967 and marked a major psychedelic turn, but it’s also a trippy march through so many classic genres of songs. On a first listen, Safe as Milk is both weird and very familiar.

STEPHEN: One of the interesting things about the record is the mixture of genres you mention. They do garage rock. They do soul/R&B, blues, and whatever “Electricity” is.

“Zig Zag Wanderer,” again, in some ways is a rock-and-roll cliche: the drug song. Most of the time that’s also boring to me. Zig Zag is a type of rolling paper.

I do like the fairy tale imagery. I feel like “the wanderer” here isn’t going to lose his house because he is in some ways his house and is always traveling with it. “You can dance, you can prance. / These old timbers got strong beams.” The house is well-built: he’s got strong legs.

Again, like that “stick with me” line, I love “Heaven’s free, ‘cept for a dollar.”

JOHN: The lyrics get so specific for Beefheart, even if I don’t really follow what he is saying. Maybe I am not listening hard enough, or maybe I am listening exactly as lucidly as can be without going crazy. This was the same year The Doors released Strange Days, The Grateful Dead released The Grateful Dead and Anthem of the Sun, and The Beatles released Sergeant Pepper and The Magical Mystery Tour, though “I am the Walrus” certainly reaches Beefheartian levels of lyrical disjointedness.

STEPHEN: I love the bass and vocals section of “Zig Zag Wanderer.” The bass sounds like a tuba. There are a lot of complaints about the way this recording sounds, especially from the musicians involved, but I’ve always liked it. It’s not clean, but it is full of character. I know there were quite a few overdubs, but it captures a band playing together in a room really well.

JOHN: Compared to the Beatles, the good Captain seems to be recording in a tin outhouse somewhere in Albuquerque. “Zig Zag Wanderer” is a bit repetitive to me, and a bit too on the nose–the song doesn’t zigzag as much as the lyrics would suggest. Not a bad vamp, and wow that bass is fat, but not a lot of surprises outside of the general crusty texture. Honestly, the strength of this record is its profoundly crusty texture and the odd arrangements.

STEPHEN: The only record I know well on that list you mentioned is Strange Days and it has marvelous production, but I agree, the texture and arrangements here help make the character of the record. I’ll take odd and crusty as much as marvelous.

“Call on Me” always makes me think of the intro to The Byrds’ “Turn! Turn! Turn!” It’s partially because the guitar effect sounds somewhat like a 12-string. The lyrics don’t do much for me on this one.

JOHN: “Call on Me” is rhythmically interesting. The jangly guitars bouncing with the harpsichord bits make this a seasick adventure in the best possible way. The lyrics are vapid, instructing the listener that the singer can help appease her (his?) loneliness while the music is a bit batshit, suggesting that the singer is lonely and weird and maybe not the most reliable antidote to loneliness, but then again if you are lonely you probably need someone weird to identify with. But frankly when listening to Beefheart, I often ignore the lyrics, except when he speak-sings poetry.

STEPHEN: I’d never thought of that, but Beefheart’s narrators come off as unreliable as Poe’s.

I like the horn parts on this and that they fade into the riff from “Then He Kissed Me,” which turns up in a lot of places.

JOHN: “Dropout Boogie” is the first great song on Safe as Milk.

STEPHEN: Yeah, even though the voice is stylized after Howlin’ Wolf, this one feels like the first “Beefheart” tune on the record. He sounds menacing even though the lyrics, again, aren’t much to me, though I love this section:

You told her you loved her,
So bring her the butter.
You love her adapt her.
You love her adapt her.
Adapt her adapter.

Something about “Adapt her adapter” reminds me of early domestic relationships in Cronenberg films.

And then there’s a great pseudo-waltz section with marimba that transitions to solo guitar that builds the phrase higher and then when the main riff slithers back in it just sounds even dirtier. The rhythmic sense of this track has nice off-kilter moments like the “What about after that?” phrase.

JOHN: The feel is if The Trashmen had a cold and were covering The Kinks and forgot the lyrics, with the odd dainty flourishes of the marimbas.

STEPHEN: “I’m Glad” is fine as a soul track, but it’s not my favorite thing that the Magic Band does.

JOHN: It’s a cross between The Philly sound and Van Morrison. What’s weird is how not weird it is.

STEPHEN: It does serve as a kind of palate cleanser for “Electricity,” which we’ve discussed a little. But, yeah, imagine being in a crowd and seeing them play “Electricity” and then “I’m Glad.” I would be energized hearing “Electricity” last, but confused if “I’m Glad” were last.

“Electricity” reminds me of Blue Velvet, “Now it’s dark,” “In Dreams,” the lipstick scene, etc.:

High-voltage man kisses
night to bring the light
to those who need
t’ hide their shadow-deed
hide their shadow-deed
Seek electricity………..

“Yellow Brick Road” is one that I normally wouldn’t like. Too positive, but besides “Electricity” it is one of the tracks that oddly defines the record for me. Lynch also uses Wizard of Oz imagery in several films. There’s a simple bell or xylophone that plays a simple, happy melodic line, and I’ve always liked the kind of bouncy, fairy tale, “peppermint kite” aspect of this track.

These works are all Americanizations of the European fairy tale tradition. Similarly, Lynch mines The Hardy Boys and ‘50s Big Boy culture in a way that Beefheart mines these American musical traditions.

“Plastic Factory,” for me, is like “I’m Glad”: It’s fine for what it is, I’m just not as interested in it. I like some images in the lyrics, the vocal whoops that Beefheart does so well, I’m not sure what they’re called, but it’s almost like an octave shift on a syllable, and the primal nature of the bridge that shifts into a three-feel.

“Where’s There’s Woman” has some cool echo or delay effects and creates a dangerous, sexy–maybe noirish?–mood. I think Zappa is on the backing vocals, but that’s about all I think about the track. I like what it evokes, but the details aren’t necessarily interesting to me.

JOHN: The tempo of “Where’s There’s Woman” is so fucking creepy, like insectile smoke unfurling into the mind of a city, and the lyrics seem to match:

Where there’s truth, the green valley steals cottonwood

Where there’s peace, a little cloud of music gleams brotherhood

STEPHEN: One of my favorite drum tracks is on “Grown So Ugly,” especially what French does with the high-hat accents on the verse. The guitar intro has that off-kilter blues sound the band could do well. Also, there’s a magnificent use of tension before the band shifts into what I guess is a pre-chorus of fantastic howls in a two-measure guitar and drum phrase that builds to those wolfman sounds (Oooohhhhh Baay–Bay!”).

There’s a sense of the wolfman’s story or something like a doppelganger, though it’s explained through the line about being in Angola prison for 20 years. Unlike “Where’s There’s Woman,” there are a lot of details in this one I find more interesting. The bass part is traditional, but perfect in this song.

JOHN: When white people appropriate the blues, it helps for them to find a gimmick that lets them in. Jack White used avant garde style with the costumes and color schemes of The White Stripes. But weirdos like Tom Waits and Beefheart seem to transcend the question of race, which is to say their blues are reconfigured into their own weirdness.

STEPHEN: For me, the weakest part of “Autumn’s Child” is the vocal lines with Zappa and the theremin that then become the chorus. They sound boringly psych-rock to me, but the rest of the track is spectacular. The song has a range of parts and maybe my favorite lyrics on the album. There are several spots I like, but I might as well quote the first verse:

Autumn’s child got a loophole ‘round her finger.
Halo rings her head.
Cornhusk hair makes me linger.
Her cat’s stare meets my dare.
A man’s chair greets my stare.

I’ve always heard that second line as “Halo razorhead,” but I guess the pronunciation is something like “Halo rangs’er head.” I’ll still probably always hear the former.

JOHN: You’ve skipped over the absolute best song on the album: “Abba Zaba”! The rumbling percussion with those madenning lyrics sung with such confidence:

Song before song before song blues
Babbette baboon
Babbette baboon

STEPHEN: Yeah! I don’t know why I skipped it. I feel the same way–everything works here, which is maybe why it was supposed to be the title track. The company who owns the candy of the same name had issues with it. The back of the record has the pattern that’s on the wrapper! I’ve heard the Babbette baboon reference is to the artwork or some kind of artwork associated with the candy, but I may be confused about that.

Of course, as a bassist I was intrigued that there was a bass solo. I should relearn it. I love how French, as usual, drives the song. I just find the lead guitar parts on this one beautiful: crackly, birdlike, sometimes insectile, but still beautiful.

The “song before song” lyric you mention is one of my favorites, along with “two shadows at noon” and “tobacco sky.” Pungently evocative imagery. It gives the listener a lot of room for interpretation and discovery.

JOHN: That dominant bass and noodling guitar reminds me of how gorgeously off-kilter Primus is. That is a fine bass solo, and the song is this rhythmic chant of joyous nonsense. Hopefully that description can be put on my tombstone.

Marc Maron bought the LP and a stranger who saw him asked, “Catching Up?” Aren’t we all?


McClurg

Stephen McClurg (Episode 24) writes and teaches in Birmingham, Alabama. He co-hosts The Outrider Podcast, writes at Eunoia Solstice, and infrequently blogs. He has contributed music as a solo artist and with the group Necronomikids to past episodes of The Drunken Odyssey.

 

Episode 375: Chet Weise!

13 Saturday Jul 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Blog Post, Episode, Music, Poetry

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Chet Weise, Third Man Books

Episode 375 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 Chet Weise, the publisher of Third Man Books.

WeiseAuthorPhotoSmallbyJamieGoodsell

Photo by Jamie Goodsell.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Lucy Negro Redux CoverAscend Ascend Covermary wants to be a superwomanMy Dinner with Ron Jeremy

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my debut novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame Cover


Episode 375 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 #281: Go Ask Alice

12 Friday Jul 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Film, The Curator of Schlock

≈ Leave a comment

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ABC Movie of the Week, Andy Griffith, Go Ask Alice, William Shatner

The Curator of Schlock #281 by Jeff Shuster

Go Ask Alice

More like Go Ask Alice and She’ll Get You High!

We’re on Week 2 of ABC Movie of the Week Month! Are you excited? Yes, you are. Why? Because tonight’s movie is 1973’s Go Ask Alice from director John Korty and stars none other than TV’s William Shatner, star of T.J. Hooker, Boston Legal, and Shit My Dad Says! But you know him as Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, you super nerd. And you now reflect on all those times in high school when you got your head dunked in the toilet for knowing Captain Kirk’s middle name or that you knew for a fact that the Starship Enterprise has only one bathroom. You ask yourself if being a Star Trek fan was worth it as the grungy 70s TV movie unfolds before your eyes.

Alice1

There’s a disclaimer before the movie begins, stating that the movie is based on the actual diary of a fifteen-year-old girl, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. The first thing you see is a fifteen-year-old blonde girl named Alice (Jamie Smith-Jackson) buying a diary and then discussing sex hormones with her mom, and you’re getting angry because there is no William Shatner.

You were promised William Shatner!

Then they play that disgusting Jefferson Airplane song “Go Ask Alice” over the credits and you know the movie will be filled with drugged-out hippies! But then you see in the credits that this movie of the week has a special guest star, TV’s Andy Griffith, and you are reassured that all is right in the world.

JAMIE SMITH JACKSON

Alice doesn’t start out as a drugged-out hippie. On the first day at her new school, she’s lonely until she meets a nice girl named Beth (Mimi Saffian), who tells Alice about a recurring nightmare she has about being abandoned in the synagogue on her wedding days when her fiancé discovers she isn’t a virgin. You feel that Beth is a good friend for Alice and that she’ll keep Alice on the straight and narrow.

But then Beth goes away for the summer.

Alice goes to a party where she’s force fed some uppers and downers by some burnouts, and now Alice is a druggie.

Booooooooo!

And still no William Shatner.

Until you do see William Shatner and you can’t believe your eyes. He plays Alice’s dad, an English literature professor at a major university. But he looks middle-aged, his hair is brown, and he’s sporting a mustache. And you know all is not right with the world because William Shatner can’t sport a mustache to save his life. And you wonder what happed to the man who four years prior had been seducing green women and striking fear into the heart of the Klingon Empire.

Alice3

Just when you think Alice can’t sink any lower, her boyfriend gets her to start hawking pills to some 1st Graders.

1stGraders!

And then she finds out her boyfriend has been cheating on her and she runs away. You feel awful for Alice, hoping that Andy Griffith will be able to save her, but you know Alice is doomed. You find out the movie is based on the actual diary of a young girl who was addicted to drugs and then died. But then you learn of the controversy surrounding the book, about how the author may have made it up. Does it matter? Of course!

Alice4

Because you just watched 74 minutes of melodrama interspersed with William Shatner sporting one of the worst mustaches you’ve ever seen.


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.

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