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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Monthly Archives: March 2020

Episode 412: A Discussion of Douglas Glover’s The Erotics of Restraint, with Vanessa Blakeslee!

28 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Blog Post, Craft of Fiction Writing, Episode, Vanessa Blakeslee

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Douglas Glover, The Erotics of Restraint: Essays on Literary Form, Vanessa Blakeslee

Episode 412 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

This week, my occasional co-host, Vanessa Blakeslee, and I discuss Douglas Glover’s latest collection, The Erotics of Restraint: Essays on Literary Form. We explore his insights on time and plot construction, as seen the works of Alice Munro, Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, and others.

John & Vanessa Flash 2

Photo by Shawn McKee.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

The Erotics of Restraint

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.

If you are looking for a happier view than your own window yet again, try my scenic views of Walt Disney World playlist.

*

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

Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame Cover

And check out Vanessa’s books, too.

Perfect_Conditions_Front_CoverJuventudTrain Shots


Episode 412 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing.)

The Curator of Schlock #315: Uncle Buck

27 Friday Mar 2020

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

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John Candy, John Hughes, Uncle Buck

The Curator of Schlock #315 by Jeff Shuster

Uncle Buck

 An unsung John Hughes classic. 

Maybe I should thought this whole staying-in-a-cabin-in-the-middle-of-the-Florida-Everglades-while-the-world-goes-to-pot scheme through. Granted, I’ve got enough Campbell’s Pork and Beans to last me three months, but I forgot to buy Beano and I’m down to four rolls of toilet paper. Still, there are plenty of leafy plants sprung around this place. Wow. Three leaves! They say three leaves are better than two.

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Tonight’s movie is 1989’s Uncle Buck from director John Hughes because I just don’t care this week. I’m scared out of my mind and I need a 80s comedy to calm my nerves. I need some John Candy in my life. I mean look at this poster. The movie just screams, watch me! You can tell the nice suburban family wants nothing to do with their crude and crass Uncle Buck (John Candy). This is the kind of movie Elaine from Seinfeld would rather see than something like Howard’s End.

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I aspire to be just like Buck Russell. The man doesn’t have a job. He refuses to work and enjoys smoking cigars. He makes a living by making sure-thing bets at the horse track. His girlfriend, Chanice (Amy Madigan), convinces him to take a job selling tires at the garage she manages. Buck reluctantly agrees, but bails on her as soon as his brother, Bob, calls with a family emergency. Bob needs Buck to watch the kids while he and his wife, Cindy, go to Indianapolis to stay with her father, who just had a heart attack.

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They leave Uncle Buck in charge and the children wake up to find him making some disgusting scrambled egg concoction. I’m sorry, but he sprayed yellow mustard into the frying pan. That’s a no, no. So we’ve got a surly teenager named Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly) who makes it no secret that she can’t stand Uncle Buck and wants him out of their house. More understanding are her younger siblings Miles (Macaulay Culkin) and Maizy (Gaby Hoffmann). Uncle Buck has no problem winning them over. He chews out the assistant vice-principal at Maizy’s elementary school after she criticizes the six year-old for not taking her academic career seriously. Oh, and when a drunken clown shows up at Miles’s birthday party, Uncle Buck punches him in the face a few times.

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Uncle Buck was a childhood staple of mine, repeated viewings on gray Saturdays in the dead of winter. It’s not the best John Hughes comedy, but it’s far from the worst. I love Uncle Buck’s regular threatening of Tia’s handsy boyfriend, Bug (Jay Underwood), or the scene of him cooking an obscenely large stack of pancakes for Miles and Maizy. And this movie was my first introduction to Macaulay Culkin, who would make a huge splash the following year in Home Alone.

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I miss John Candy. He was taken too soon from this world, but he left me with some good memories. Great comedians often do.


Jeffrey Shuster 3

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeff 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 #63: We’re All In This Together

25 Wednesday Mar 2020

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

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Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #63 by Drew Barth

We’re All In This Together

If you’re like me, you enjoy the weekly excursion to your local comic shop every Wednesday to pick up your fresh batch of monthlies. But our weeks are getting different now. Even Diamond, the main distributor of comics for every major publisher, has halted all new comic shipments due to COVID-19. And that’s a good thing. People need to stay home.

This is going to be rough for creators, though. And that is one of the reasons that so many publishers are now putting out different comics online to keep people engaged over these next few months. While some of these comics are issues that publishers have had up previously, they are being highlighted again due to our current pandemic. So I present to you a brief list of publishers making first issues or full graphic novels available, free of charge, to help keep us sane and together.

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First up is the publisher I typically talk about the most: Image Comics. At the moment you are able to read through the first issues of 133 Image series. None of these are quick previews with a link to where to buy the rest at the end—these are the full twenty-plus page issues. I could recommend nearly every issue just to try it and see what you like, but particular attention should be paid to series like Pretty Deadly, The Wicked + The Divine, Saga, Monstress, Paper Girls, and Trees. The quality here is outstanding and you’re likely to find a new favorite.

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Next is another wonderful publisher I’ve talked about previously: ShortBox. Over the next few weeks, ShortBox will be providing a swath of their graphic novels for free via Gumroad. The first work up is Beneath the Dead Oak Tree by Emily Carroll, and if you’re at all familiar with her short comic collection, Through the Woods, you should be prepared for another masterclass in comic storytelling and gothic settings.

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Vault Comics began only a few years ago and already they’ve become one of the best outlets for science fiction and fantasy comics on the market. They had also started putting their first issues online for free a while ago as well. And while these issues have been up for some time, it’s always good to look over a good publisher and see what kind of work they have that you may not have picked up previously. Series like Fearscape, Friendo, and Vagrant Queen demonstrate how much quality can come out of a newer press during the last decade.

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And next we have a publisher I’ve been watching for a bit due to how interesting their publishing model is: releasing whole series at once either in a single issue box or trade collection so the reader can binge the series like they would a TV show. They’ve released their first wave of eight series with names like Roxane Gay and Jeff Lemire attached and, much like Vault, have been making their first issues free for anyone curious. With their second wave coming up soon, it’s a pretty good time to get a feel for their series now.

Finally, we have Dynamite Entertainment. Right now, they have fifteen first issues available for free via Comixology with more slated for release in the upcoming weeks. Dynamite is one of the biggest publishers of licensed property comics like Army of Darkness, Xena: Warrior Princess, and Shaft, so seeing them providing free first issues is fantastic. These are the kinds of properties that can get new readers excited about comics, especially when they wouldn’t know where to start on other, longer running series. So now is the time to start looking at some new series you hadn’t considered in the past, or finally finishing another that you had dropped earlier. It’s going to be weird for a while, but it’s the kind of weird we can get through together. At an appropriate distance.

Get excited. Wash your hands.


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 411: Paul Lisicky!

21 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Memoir

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Episode 411 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

This week I sit down with novelist and memoirist Paul Lisicky to discuss his new memoir, Later: My Life at The Edge of The World. We dive into the process of memory in writing memoir, the ways of poetically complicating how time works in narrative, and the influences that let him know what was possible to be at home in memoir. We also discuss his formative experiences living in Provincetown in the 1990s, and discovering queer identity during the times of the AIDS epidemic.

Lisicky credit- Beowulf Sheehan (7)

Paul Lisicky. Photo by Beowulf Sheehan.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Later My Life at the End of the Worldthe-narrow-door

Ninety nine Stories of GodCalamatiesTruth SerumAutobiography of a Face

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.


Episode 411 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

The Curator of Schlock #314: Leprechaun 3

20 Friday Mar 2020

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

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The Curator of Schlock #314 by Jeff Shuster

Leprechaun 3

Vegas, Baby, Vegas.

I wish a belated Happy St. Patrick’s Day to one and all. I hope you all had a good time feasting corned beef and cabbage, maybe a pint of Guinness. I stayed in due to that worldwide pandemic that’s got everyone freaked out. I even closed up the Museum of Schlock and will be blogging from a remote location in the Florida Everglades. I just hope that thieves don’t ransack the Nightmare City display. Those sports coats from the movie set me back six figures.

Leprechaun 3

Tonight’s movie is 1995’s Leprechaun 3, which is also known as Leprechaun 3: In Las Vegas. This makes sense as the movie takes place in Las Vegas. Brian Medwin Trenchard-Smith serves as director this time around, and Warwick Davis returns as Lubdan the Leprechaun. I didn’t know this character had a name. Granted, I’m no Leprechaun expert, but I imagine this series of movies has its devotees much like the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street movies. I can’t imagine anything in this world sadder than Leprechaun fandom. They probably flipped out over the WWE Studios remake that completely negated the canon.

L3B

The movie begins with a stone statue of Lubdan getting sold for twenty bucks to Gupta (Marcelo Tubert), an Indian pawnshop owner in Las Vegas. Gupta is warned not to remove the magic medallion around his neck. Naturally, Gupta removes the charm and before you know, Lubdan is snacking on his ear remarking, “I love Indian food.” Gupta manages to ward him off with the charm. Lubdan runs away with his pot of gold coins, but leaves one behind. Now this is interesting. Gupta finds a CD-ROM on World Folklore and researches all he can on leprechauns. For instance, leprechauns love potatoes, but can’t stand the presence of another leprechaun. Also, you can wish for anything you want if you make the wish while holding a leprechaun’s gold coin.

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What’s a CD-ROM? Well, before the Internet became the sole source of all knowledge and wisdom in modern society, human beings used to store information on these interactive CDs they’d slip into CD drives on their personal computers. They contained fancy graphic and sound, sometimes even little mini games. Will Smith sung about a 101 Dalmatians CD-ROM that he bought for his son in his 1997 hit song, “Just the Two of Us.” I hope I gave you younglings some valuable history.

L3D (1)

Back to the movie. Uhhhh. There’s a scene of Lubdan the Leprechaun running into an Elvis impersonator, or maybe Elvis himself? Lubdan actually digs Elvis’s threads and Elvis digs Lubdan’s threads. Elvis even compliments Lubdan’s pointy boots and wonders if they come in blue suede. It’s actually a cordial meeting and it’s nice to see Lubdan not try and take a bite out of Elvis. See, we can be civil.

L3C

I remember that Big Trouble in Little China movie. Lo Pan is described as “The Ultimate Evil Spirit,” but I think Lubdan could give him a run for his money. In fact, I’d like to see a Big Trouble in Little Ireland movie, get to see Jack Burton versus the evil leprechaun. Of course, I also want to see Chucky vs. Leprechaun. And how about TRON 3 already! Why aren’t I running Hollywood?


Jeffrey Shuster 1

Photo by Leslie Salas

Jeff 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 #62: A Trip Down the River

18 Wednesday Mar 2020

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

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Tags

Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky, Persephone

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #62 by Drew Barth

A Trip Down the River

Let’s take our minds off the world by thinking of the underworld, specifically a new vision of what it could look like through the eyes of creator Loïc Locatelli-Kournwsky in Persephone.

per1

Locatelli-Kournwsky blends myth with modern storytelling influences, especially Hayao Miyazaki. From the first page we are introduced to a word vastly different from what we know of traditional Greek mythology. The world is divided between two realms, Eleusis above and Hades below—but these two realms do not separate the living and the dead. These are simply two realms that interact and trade with one another.

Until war happens. A magical barrier is erected between the two realms. All of this is established in a couple pages. We are handed this strange, familiar world. We start with Persephone, a student mediocre in everything but her botany class. She’s the adopted daughter of the esteemed mage, Demeter.

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Locatelli-Kournwsky has created a visual world unlike anything I’ve seen in contemporary comics. The life breathing through a train station or a ferry boat or a single room within this world is enough to warrant their own stories. Everything feels lived-in here. Even the most opulent of palaces still resonate with a history that happens just off to the left in the bleed between panels. Those panels themselves are sometimes massive. What Locatelli-Kournwsky does throughout Persephoneis use the space of this graphic novel, a space bigger than many normal collections, to let the world and characters breathe. Persephone herself exists in giant rooms and spaces that bring up how small she is in her world. A nine-panel grid of her trying to make plants grow in the dead soil of Hades still feels massive even next to some of the splash pages. This is a world that lets the air move through it with ease amid the tensions boiling beneath its surface and the art only helps to strengthen that feeling.

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Persephone is a triumph of mythopoetic storytelling, and is another spectacular comic being put out by Archaia. Known for recently publishing some of the expanded universe of Jim Henson’s Dark Crystal and Labyrinth series, Archaia has been putting out some of the best graphic novels of the past couple decades, namely Old City Blues and Mouse Guard. Persephone is among them.

Get excited. Look below.


drew-barth-mbfi

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.

The Anonymous Diaries of a Sozzled Scribbler #5

17 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Blog Post

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The Anonymous Diaries of a Sozzled Scribbler #5

As transcribed by DMETRI KAKMI

16 March 2020

Greetings from the Hotel Cortez in beautiful downtown Los Angeles.

AHS_501_0271_f.JPG

I’d like to say I hunker down here while the coronavirus cleans out the planet, but I’m just avoiding having to deal with the four recycling bins rolled out by the Victorian state government in Australia. One for glass. One for garden clippings and food scraps. Another for paper and some plastics, and yet another for everyday rubbish. All too hard and confusing.

As a neighbor said afore I fled the country, ‘I haven’t a fucking clue what goes in which cunting bin and when to put ‘em out, mate.’

The eloquence of the average Australian cannot be underestimated.

‘Dump it in the streets,’ I told him. ‘It doesn’t matter. The world is drowning in rubbish and the Chinese will soon take over.’

‘What did you say?’

‘Who would have thought the Chinese would wipe us out with a virus,’ I went on, oblivious to the trap I was walking into. ‘The consensus was they’d do it through finance and infiltration of Western universities and schools.’

I should have been more careful with my audience. Turns out the neighbor—a Caucasian named Clancy Smith—‘self-identifies’ as Chinese. Taking on the mantle of victims everywhere, he was greatly offended by my insensitive comments.

‘You are racist,’ he shouted as I fled up the stairwell. ‘I’m going to get the Chinese government to harvest your filthy organs.’

So here I am in the Cortez, safe as virgins in Harvey Weinstein’s orifice.

After freshening up in my room, I made my way to the Blue Parrot Lounge on level two. There to be greeted by the elegant bartender, Liz Taylor.

‘How are you, old piss pot?’

Liz and I go back a long way; I knew her when she was a salesman called Nick Pryor.

She slid an extra-dry gin martini across the countertop.

I tossed it back and said, ‘Feeling rather misanthropic. The coronavirus can’t come soon enough.’

‘My, my, we are in a bad way.’ And when I didn’t play word ping-pong with her, Liz added: ‘The personification of the virus sits yonder.’

She aimed a gleaming talon at a booth occupied by bombshell with long black hair.

‘Who is she/he/it/them/they?’ I said to Liz.

‘Corona.’

‘The Italian Eurodance singer?’

‘Strictly speaking she/he/them/they is Brazilian. But yes, that Corona.’

‘Baby, baby.’ I leaped to my feet with more zest than I’d shown in ages. ‘Bring a martini for the esteemed personage.’

‘She/he/them/they only drinks Corona beer,’ Liz advised, lowering her voice.

‘Furnish me with a bottle forthwith, fair lady, and stop dawdling.’

Excited, I approached the Corona booth with a fresh martini in one hand and an ice-cold bottle beer in the other.

‘May I join you?’

Corona looked up and said, ‘Slide your toosh in, baby, and hand me that piss.’

I dared not disobey.

Beer chugged and burped, Corona said, ‘Ah, cold chill down my spine. No no more tears, give me a smile.’

I showed my pearly whites and, in a sign of the times, asked: ‘And what pronoun do you prefer?’

Corona looked at me as if I was barmy. ‘I am She.’ Head tossed back, she sang, ‘I’m every woman. It’s all in me,’ in excellent imitation of Whitney.

‘I’m glad that’s sorted,’ I said, settling in my seat.

‘What about you,’ she said. ‘What pronoun do you prefer?’

‘We,’ I told her. ‘I have sixteen different personalities, like Sybil.’

‘And are you into men, women, or goats?’

‘Yes.’

Corona smiled. ‘I’m going to like you. Okay, spit it out. What do you want?’

‘I hear you’re the embodiment of the coronavirus.’

She preened, serious when an opportunity presented itself. ‘Word gets around.’

‘Help me destroy civilization as we know it,’ I said, putting my cards on the table.

‘You better have a good reason.’

‘I don’t like having four recycling bins.’

‘That’s good enough.’

‘It won’t be easy,’ I pointed out. ‘Trump has used magic to erect a forcefield that stops Mexicans and viruses from entering citadel US.’

Corona bristled. ‘Trump erections are useless. He is a powerful mage from the hellmouth, but he is no match for moi.’ She stood, resplendent in figure-hugging red latex catsuit. ‘Come.’

I came, dear reader. And then I followed her to elevator. It took us to the rooftop. The view as the sun set was across ragtag buildings to the Port of Los Angeles. A giant cruise ship, big as an apartment building, was about to berth.

There was triumph in Corona’s voice when she cried, ‘Behold.’

‘Is that what I think it is?’ I said, astounded.

‘The Diamond Princess cruise ship.’

‘From Yokohama?’

‘The same.’

I could barely believe it. ‘But that’s like the Demeter arriving at Whitby with Dracula’s coffin and the rats.’

Corona’s proclamation rang over the basking city. ‘Let’s party.’

Upon her word, the plague ship opened, the quarantined spilled forth in their thousands, and invaded the streets. And when the avenues and boulevards of the movie capital thronged, all stood still, took their places and waited.

Techno pumped out of nowhere. Corona stepped onto the parapet of the Hotel Cortez, spread her arms, and began to sing.

I want to roll inside your soul
To know the things you need and feel…

By magic, the world broke into spontaneous synchronized dance. A seething mass of perfectly timed movement, as if all of humanity had been practising its moves and awaited only this summons to show its expertise. The music was infectious.

Every time that you’re by my side
I can’t get serious, because you got me…

The refrain swept the width and breadth of LA, encompassing the high and the low— even Steve Bannon was momentarily light on his feet.

Baby baby, why can’t we just stay together, yeah yeah yeah…

After a while, I began to pirouette and gyrate, giving myself over to the spread of the Corona Virus as it dispersed nationwide, infecting all of North America so that in time the Un-united United States stopped tearing themselves apart and tripped to the light fantastic.


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The Sozzled Scribbler was born in the shadow of the Erechtheion in Athens, Greece, to an Egyptian street walker and a Greek bear wrestler. Of no fixed abode, he has subsisted in Istanbul, Rome, London, New Orleans and is currently hiding out in Melbourne. He partakes of four bottles of Bombay gin and four packets of Dunhill cigarettes a day.

His mortified amanuensis, Dmetri Kakmi, is a writer and editor. The fictionalised memoir Mother Land was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards in Australia. He edited the children’s anthology When We Were Young. His new book The Door and other Uncanny Tales will be released in May 2020.

The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #85: Henry IV (2018)

15 Sunday Mar 2020

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

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Rogues Guide to Shakes on Film 2

85. Phyllidia Lloyd’s Henry IV (Part 2 of The Donmar Warehouse’s All-Female Shakespeare Trilogy), 2018

Donmar Trilogy

Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 are difficult plays to like, at least for me.

Let me remind you of the plot. Henry finds the crown heavy to wear after deposing Richard II (whose play is the only Shakespeare I loathe). There is a dispute between the king and Harry Percy (nickname Hotspur) and his family over the return of a hostages; the Percys hold out for a quid pro quo:

Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners,
But with proviso and exception,
That we at our own charge shall ransom straight
His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer[.]

The king senses the rebellious spirit in this family, and insists (rather like Richard II) that his subjects must obey him because he is king.

Meanwhile, the prince, Henry (nickname Hal), fucks about with Shakespeare’s outsized comic character, Falstaff, who claims to be a knight, though one doubts he could produce the proper paperwork. In medieval times before Shakespeare, morality plays dominated the theater in England, in which vices would be personified. Falstaff (A false staff?) is essentially numerous vices (arrogance, cowardice, lust, sloth, untrustworthiness, vanity, weakness) balled up into one gigantic VICE.

Adolf_Schrödter_Falstaff_und_sein_Page

If Terry Jones was right, that might apt for a medieval knight.

Hal’s youthful indiscretions are a ruse, however. His long game is to surprise everyone (the enemies of the crown, the populace, and his dad) about how good he will be when the time comes. And a civil war with the Percy family becomes that time.

King Henry IV is a bore of a character. The bickering of the Hotspur clan borders on annoying under the best of circumstances. And maybe there was a time when the hijinks of Falstaff and his incompetent crew seemed funny to me, but I doubt it. The humor is mostly on the level of a Ritz Brothers movie. My Own Private Idaho did well with some of the gags, but frankly, the few lines Kenneth Branagh pilfered for his film of Henry V make the most out of Henry IV’s material.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that The Donmar Trilogy’s version of the play is pretty good, actually.

Henry IV 7

Like Caesar, this Henry IV takes awhile to grow really good. Harriet Walter plays Hank IV, whose whinging is less annoying than that of the honorable Brutus (from Caesar). The excellent Jade Anouka plays Hotspur, who is in the play quite a bit. While Henry IVis setting up Henry V, Henry IV also exhibits the roles of tribalism and family in English politics. There is some low, but okay humor in the Hotspur scenes. Early on, King Henry works better as an archetype in this play.

Henry IV 5

Sophie Stanton is our Sir John Falstaff, and her performance is, thankfully, understated enough to allow for some charm. Falstaff’s band of brigands bedecked as football hooligans seems like a perfectly modern fit.

Clare Dunne (Prince Hal) in Henry IV - Photo by Helen Maybanks

The chief concern with this production is that the Irishwoman Claire Dunne plays Hal, and Dunne really chewwwwws on her vowels. It is Dunne who delivers the prisoner preamble to the play, and she announces that she wants to quit doing drugs after she is released in a few weeks. Her prisoner character (who will enact Hal) says this play is appropriate because it’s theme is change. Since the change of the prince in Henry IV is more about appearances than essences, the claim that the theme is change is preciously stupid—worthy of maybe a C- if made the thesis of a 10thgrade English essay. Maybe I am supposed to extend some leeway to the hopeful, if shallow, interpretation of a prisoner (though she is not actually a prisoner, or at least I don’t think so). This awkwardness is perhaps director Phyllidia Lloyd’s fault.

When Dunne makes her transformation into an ideal Prince Harry, though, she makes her accent less thick, more musical, which means, I think, that her carrying on as Hal was meant to be irritating. I can say from experience that the vulgarity of the Hal-Falstaff scenes are too often treated as if they are comic gold. It’s like hearing someone drone on about the genius of Jim Carrey.

The first half makes us, dear reader, root for Hotspur and the Percy family—and that is actually an interesting twist.

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The longer the play goes on, the better it gets, largely due precisely to the prison as context for the performance—the leave-taking of soldiers, for example, perhaps never to be seen by spouses and children again, is quite moving.

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The melee between Harry and Hotspur is also gripping (like a brawl in the yard).

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The king’s deathbed scene is likewise compelling (which is difficult to render in a way that doesn’t seem hysterically melodramatic); I suspect the tawdry crown sculpted out of flattened aluminum cans adds the right amount of pathos.

Henry IV

This Henry IV makes a lot of the parts of the play that often seem of less interest more interesting, including Prince Henry’s extraordinary first moments of nobility. For that, I am grateful.


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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 410: Ron Schneider!

14 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Disney, Episode, Memoir, Theater

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Bamboo Forest Press, Dreamfinder, EPCOT, From Dreamer to Dreamfinder, Golden Horseshoe Revue, Journey Into Imagination, Leonard Kinsey, Ron Schneider, Shakespeare, Theater, Theme Park Entertainment, Titanic The Exhibit, Universal Studios

Episode 410 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

This week, I speak to actor, show writer, and memoirist Ron Schneider about the show business life, theme park creativity, and learning to master new creative challenges.

Ron Schneider

TEXTS DISCUSSED

From Dreamer to Dreamfinder

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.


Episode 410 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

The Curator of Schlock #313: Jason X

13 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Horror, Science Fiction, The Curator of Schlock

≈ Leave a comment

The Curator of Schlock #313 by Jeff Shuster

Jason X

Friday the 13th…in Space!

Happy Friday the 13th! Be sure to avoid walking under ladders, toss that spilled salt over your right shoulder, and if a black cat crosses your path, turn around and walk in the opposite direction. And I guess since it is Friday the 13th, I have to now visit a chapter from the ongoing saga of Jason Voorhees, our favorite mentally-challenged mass murderer. Tonight, we’ll be covering the tenth movie in this series, Jason X.

JasonX1 (1)

2001’s Jason X from director Jim Isaac stars David Cronenberg as Dr. Wimmer, a scientist who wants to study the regenerative powers of one Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder). Another scientist named Rowan LaFontaine (Lexa Doig) wants to put Jason in cryogenic stasis because Jason has the tendency to go around murdering lots of people. Dr. Wimmer overrules her, but that doesn’t matter since Jason escapes his bonds and massacres everyone except for Rowan, who he stabs before she switches on the cryogenic machine freezing them both.

JasonX2 (1)

Four-hundred and forty-five years later, an archaeological expedition is exploring a now- ruined Earth.  A Professor Brandon Lowe (Jonathan Potts) and a bunch of future victims—I mean students—find Jason Voorhees and Rowan LaFontaine still frozen and retrieve them. They have fancy nanobots to repair wounds. Hey, if some machete-wielding maniac chops off your arm, some nanobots will fix you good as new.

JasonX3

This is a bizarre movie. It’s a Canadian production like most Friday the 13th movies, but it has more of a feel of a Canadian science fiction series. Two of the main actors in this movie, Lexa Doig and Lisa Ryder, both starred on Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda. It wouldn’t surprise if they used the same sets from that series for this movie. Funny. Lexa Doig played an android on Andromeda and Lisa Ryder plays an android in Jason X.

The rest of the movie takes place on a spaceship. The students use the nanobots to save Rowan’s life while they leave what they believe to be the carcass of Jason Voorhees to defrost in the lab. Professor Lowe thinks people will pay big bucks to see a woman from the early 21st century, but his colleague on a nearby space station says no one will care. However, he suggests that people would be willing to pay to see the corpse of Jason Voorhees since he is a famous mass murderer even hundreds of years in the future.

JasonX4 (1)

I guess Professor Lowe’s dreams of wine, women, and song gets dashed when Jason re-animates and starts massacring the crew. There are some space marines on the ship, but Jason makes quick work of ’em. So much for the BFG. Later in the movie, we get to see a fight between Jason and the android, Kay-em 14 (Lisa Rider). It’s kind of neat because she feels no fear due to her being a robot and all. She kicks his butt and it seems that Jason is finally down for the count. Then some nanobots fix him up and turn him into Uber Jason. I wonder if Jason X is considered Friday the 13th canon, or if I must forget about it under penalty of torture.


Jeffrey Shuster 3

Photo by Leslie Salas.

Jeff 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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