Bonus Episode: It’s the Defrauding of Netflix 1-2-3
In this week’s Wrap Party, Zeth digs into the recent sentencing of filmmaker Carl Rinsch, who was accused of defrauding Netflix out of $11M while making a new sci-fi show. Plus your voicemails, texts, emails, and more. Become an All Access member today by visiting disgracelandpod.com.
Recommended this week:
Parliament Funkadelic - The Mothership Connection (Live in Houston, 1976)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Speaker 1: Dear listeners of Hollywood Land, does it feel like you're
Speaker 1: stuck in limbo? Standing under a flickering street light at
Speaker 1: the corner of Hollywood and True Crime, waiting for the
Speaker 1: next episode of hollywood Land to drop.
Speaker 2: I got you.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Hollywoodland, the Rap Party. What's going on? I'm
Speaker 1: fellow movie geeks, you true crime freaks just like me.
Speaker 1: You guys like your movie history served up with a
Speaker 1: side of grit and grime. This, of course, is the
Speaker 1: place where we rescue those stories from the cutting room floor,
Speaker 1: the stories that were left behind, the very same stories
Speaker 1: that have now made you the most dangerous person at
Speaker 1: the party. I'm your host, Zeth Lundy, writer, showrunner and
Speaker 1: good doctor here at Double Elvis, and today in the
Speaker 1: hollywood Land Rap Party, we're talking about defrauding NETFLI. We're
Speaker 1: talking about the prison sentencing of a promising Hollywood director.
Speaker 1: We're talking about Bob Crain, Wendy O Williams, and stories
Speaker 1: that shock you. Plus I've got recommendations from yours truly
Speaker 1: and Double Elvis's head of production, Matt Boden coming up later.
Speaker 1: Plus your calls, your text your emails. So come on, everybody,
Speaker 1: let's Party. On Monday of this week, Monday June twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: the American filmmaker Carl Rinch walked into a federal courthouse
Speaker 1: in New York where he was sentenced to thirty months
Speaker 1: in prison after being convicted of defrauding Netflix out of
Speaker 1: eleven million dollars. Now you may be asking yourself before
Speaker 1: the how of it all? Who is Carl Nch? Which
Speaker 1: is a great question. It's one that I asked myself
Speaker 1: when I first encountered this story, back when Rynch was
Speaker 1: charged with this crime. Carl Rinch is a filmmaker who
Speaker 1: came up through commercials, kind of like David Fincher, specifically
Speaker 1: through a post college gig he had at Ridley Scott Associates,
Speaker 1: yes that Ridley Scott, where he shot a commercial for Lexus.
Speaker 1: He gained some notoriety and he was eventually hand picked
Speaker 1: by Ridley Scott himself to direct a prequel to Alien,
Speaker 1: the film that became Prometheus, Although despite Ridley Scott championing
Speaker 1: Carl Rinch for this role, the studio found that Rynch
Speaker 1: was untested and they vetoed the idea altogether. Ridley Scott,
Speaker 1: of course ended up directing Prometheus, but that's another story.
Speaker 1: So eventually, with all this support from people like Ridley
Speaker 1: Scott and all this ambition, you know, Carl Rinch eventually
Speaker 1: settled on a directorial debut for himself. And it's a
Speaker 1: film called forty seven Ronan, which is a sci fi
Speaker 1: action epic that was described as a cross between Lord
Speaker 1: of the Rings and Gladiator and in addition to a
Speaker 1: mostly all Japanese cast starred Keanu Reeves. Now, Rinch got
Speaker 1: a huge budget to make this film, one hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy five million dollars. But as often happens with first
Speaker 1: time directors or even with second time directors, just you know,
Speaker 1: ask orson wells, Rinch wrestled with the studio, which was Universal,
Speaker 1: and once production had wrapped, Universal took the movie away
Speaker 1: from him and the suits there at the studio wound
Speaker 1: up editing the film. Completing the film, it required reshoots,
Speaker 1: which were done without Wrench, I believe, required more money
Speaker 1: and additional fifty million dollars, which ballooned the budget up
Speaker 1: to two hundred and twenty five million, and the release
Speaker 1: of the movie was delayed by more than a year. Now,
Speaker 1: when forty seven Ronin finally saw the light of day
Speaker 1: in December of twenty thirteen. It was a critical bomb,
Speaker 1: a huge critical bomb. Commercially in the US it was
Speaker 1: a bomb as well. It earned only thirty eight million
Speaker 1: dollars stateside. Internationally it did fare better. It earned over
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirteen million, I believe, but it still
Speaker 1: failed overall to break even on its huge budget. So
Speaker 1: Rynch goes back to the drawing board. Right this time,
Speaker 1: he pivots to TV, which is beginning to have another
Speaker 1: renaissance with the success of House of Cards on Netflix,
Speaker 1: and like the re prestieging of TV shows for streaming networks,
Speaker 1: Rynch and his wife developed another sci fi concept, this
Speaker 1: one called Conquest I believe. Originally it was titled White Horse,
Speaker 1: but they changed the name to Conquest. Both titles are
Speaker 1: referred to in different articles about this case, and it
Speaker 1: gets a little confusing, but I'm going to refer to
Speaker 1: it as Conquest, and the bottom line is Netflix was
Speaker 1: stoked on Conquest. They were stoked about this show, and
Speaker 1: so around twenty eighteen or so they jump on board
Speaker 1: to make this thing, and production of Carl Rynch's comeback
Speaker 1: series begins in earnest. Now the World of Conquest aka
Speaker 1: Whitehorse is a world in which artificially created quote unquote
Speaker 1: organic intelligence beings exist. These beings which resemble humans but
Speaker 1: which aren't human. Kind of a Blade Runner replicant situation,
Speaker 1: I guess. And when humanity figures this out, when it's
Speaker 1: discovered that these things aren't actually human, the so called
Speaker 1: organic intelligence creatures create their own cities, they create their
Speaker 1: own society, and they separate themselves from the rest of
Speaker 1: the world. That's the premise of the show. Now, it's
Speaker 1: reported that Netflix was blown away by the early footage
Speaker 1: that Rynch and his team were creating. And you know,
Speaker 1: Rynch had some skin in this game as well. He
Speaker 1: had used his own dough to produce some of this
Speaker 1: stuff at the beginning, which is a big reason Netflix
Speaker 1: was so keen to get involved because they saw this
Speaker 1: early footage that Rinch had been working on and they
Speaker 1: were like, holy shit, this is incredible. One Netflix executive
Speaker 1: even said that the visuals were something he'd never seen before,
Speaker 1: like this was like almost like unprecedented territory, which is exciting,
Speaker 1: and it was you know, something different, something groundbreaking. And
Speaker 1: then you know, of course, you think of the scope,
Speaker 1: you think of other huge pieces of sci fi ip
Speaker 1: like Star Wars or the aforementioned Alien and no doubt
Speaker 1: Netflix is thinking the long game here. You know, if
Speaker 1: this thing kicks ass like they think it's going to,
Speaker 1: and it does well, then it's something they can continue
Speaker 1: to cultivate and make money off of well into the future.
Speaker 1: But this is where things start to get a little dodgy. Allegedly,
Speaker 1: it's said that Carl Rinch was behaving oddly on the
Speaker 1: set of the show, that he was abusing abusing prescription drugs,
Speaker 1: that his wife had even encouraged him to seek rehab
Speaker 1: at some point. Now, at this point, Netflix has given
Speaker 1: Rinch forty four million dollars to make this show, but
Speaker 1: he goes to them and he says he needs more
Speaker 1: money to complete it. He's almost there, so in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty he gets another eleven million from Netflix, but his
Speaker 1: behavior continues to get more and more erratic. Allegedly, he
Speaker 1: was emailing and texting Netflix executives stuff about like how
Speaker 1: he had discovered COVID nineteen's secret transmission mechanism. Those are
Speaker 1: the words. He also apparently confided to his wife at
Speaker 1: this time that he had the ability to predict earthquakes
Speaker 1: and lightning strikes. So, as you can imagine, Netflix is
Speaker 1: starting to get cold feet on this thing. Seems like
Speaker 1: there's some weird signs here, some weird signposts on this road.
Speaker 1: And so in twenty twenty one, despite how psyched they
Speaker 1: are with the show and the concept, Netflix pulls the
Speaker 1: plug on the whole thing. They pulled the plug, and
Speaker 1: Carl Rinch is still sitting on this extra eleven million
Speaker 1: dollars that they had just given him, And as the
Speaker 1: indictment alleges, he then proceeded to divert that eleven million
Speaker 1: dollars to his personal bank account, and then proceeded to
Speaker 1: use that money to invest in pharmaceutical companies, to buy cryptocurrencies,
Speaker 1: to pay off one point seven million dollars in personal
Speaker 1: credit card debt, one point seven million dollars in personal
Speaker 1: credit card debt, and also to buy luxurious personal items.
Speaker 1: He bought five rolls royces a ferrari as if the
Speaker 1: five roles weren't enough, right a Ferrari, He bought over
Speaker 1: six hundred and fifty thousand dollars in watches and clothes,
Speaker 1: plus other household goods, including two mattresses on which he
Speaker 1: spent six hundred and thirty eight thousand dollars. Sidebar, here,
Speaker 1: where's the mattress store where you're buying a mattress for
Speaker 1: over three hundred thousand dollars? Like, apparently I missed the memo.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like the high thread count sheets when
Speaker 1: you're like, I don't know, those sheets are pretty expensive. Well,
Speaker 1: they have a high thread count and so they're more
Speaker 1: I don't know, comfortable or whatever. At what point do
Speaker 1: you go, you know, this mattress I think is probably
Speaker 1: comfortable enough. Like I think I'm I think I'm getting
Speaker 1: to this is the best mattress I've ever had, like
Speaker 1: way before three hundred thousand dollars. But I'm a simple dude.
Speaker 1: I'm a simple dude. I grew up with simple just
Speaker 1: basic needs met. And I don't know, man, maybe I'm
Speaker 1: just out of touch with the times. Anyways. This past Monday,
Speaker 1: inside a New York courtroom before he was sentenced, Carl
Speaker 1: Rinch explained that he did what he did due to
Speaker 1: mental health issues and just struggles with his medication, which
Speaker 1: he was working on getting adjusted. He said, quote, this
Speaker 1: process has forced me to confront things about my health,
Speaker 1: my judgment in my life, I failed to recognize the
Speaker 1: danger of the state I was in unquote. Now, on
Speaker 1: the other hand, prosecutors said that Rynch had every possible advantage.
Speaker 1: As they put it, he had family money, he had
Speaker 1: this great education, you know at Columbia. He had famous
Speaker 1: friends in Hollywood. He had this multimillion dollar deal with
Speaker 1: Netflix to make the show. So the prosecutor said, just
Speaker 1: the motive here for Carl Rinch to do what he
Speaker 1: did was pure, was just greed, naked greed, was the
Speaker 1: way they put it. One of the famous friends here
Speaker 1: that prosecutors were referring to is Keanu Reeves, who was
Speaker 1: the star of Rynch's debut film, forty seven Ronin. Keanu
Speaker 1: Reeves actually wrote a letter to the court ahead of
Speaker 1: sentencing in which he asked for the judge's leniency and
Speaker 1: and while the US District judge admitted that Rynch's mental
Speaker 1: health issues may explain some of the excesses, as he
Speaker 1: put it, they didn't quote detract from the court's conclusion
Speaker 1: that he was determined to lie to get substantial moneies
Speaker 1: from Netflix and lie to cover it up unquote. So
Speaker 1: Rynch gets thirty months in the clink two and a
Speaker 1: half years for a crime that is hard to find
Speaker 1: precedent for. I was thinking this morning about the history
Speaker 1: of Hollywood and of other cases in which the director
Speaker 1: of a major undertaking film or TV defrauded the studio
Speaker 1: like this, and it's hard to find. The first thing
Speaker 1: I thought of, which is different but similar, was John Houston,
Speaker 1: one of the great mavericks of the twentieth century, and
Speaker 1: the story of how when he was making The Misfits
Speaker 1: with Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, that John Houston took
Speaker 1: the studio's money and he went and he gambled, but
Speaker 1: you put it all on the table and gambled it
Speaker 1: on poker in this casino while production was halted while
Speaker 1: Maryland was was was recovering at a at a hospital.
Speaker 1: But that's a whole other story there. We've got a
Speaker 1: whole episode on that, by the way, on The Misfits,
Speaker 1: on that that making of that movie, and we talked
Speaker 1: about we get into John Houston gambling away the film's budget.
Speaker 1: So that's the that's that's the one sort of comp
Speaker 1: here that I thought of. There's also the case of
Speaker 1: Ellie's Samaha, a nightclub owner turned movie producer who in
Speaker 1: the year two thousand was accused of fraudulently inflating the
Speaker 1: budgets of his films, including Battlefield Earth, that sci fi
Speaker 1: bomb starring John Travolta with the Dreads. This case was
Speaker 1: brought to the court on behalf of a German company
Speaker 1: called Entertainment AG, which won the case and Samaha was
Speaker 1: declared by the court to be personally liable for seven
Speaker 1: twenty seven million dollars in damages. When it comes to
Speaker 1: Carl Rinch, though, I have I have no words the
Speaker 1: balls on this sky eleven million dollars now, Jesus, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think Netflix is missing that money.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: The fifth and final season of Stranger Things reportedly cost
Speaker 1: upwards of four hundred to four hundred and eighty million
Speaker 1: dollars to make. That's close to half a billion dollars.
Speaker 1: But damn. In all seriousness, though, it sounds like there
Speaker 1: are some underlying mental health issues here at play. So
Speaker 1: I don't mean to make light of that. I just
Speaker 1: can't believe the audacity of the thing. It's just it's shocking.
Speaker 1: Even in this day and age, when we are well
Speaker 1: passed the nothing's shocking era when we're seemingly incapable being
Speaker 1: shocked by anything. This to me is capital s shocking.
Speaker 1: Maybe a car, maybe a mattress, maybe a couple thousand
Speaker 1: in credit card debt, but five cars, one point seven
Speaker 1: million dollars in debt, six hundred grand on two beds.
Speaker 1: Crypto shocking, guys. Shock is the name of the game
Speaker 1: right now this week here in Hollywoodland. Also over in
Speaker 1: our sister show, Disgraceland. First of all, here in Hollywood Land,
Speaker 1: we just dropped our fully scripted and sound design episode
Speaker 1: on Bob Crane back on Monday. Bob Crane, star of
Speaker 1: Hogan's Heroes, one time most popular DJ on the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles radio waves, seemed like an upstanding citizen family man,
Speaker 1: real Ozzy and Harriet shit, you know. But as we know,
Speaker 1: as you know if you've listened to our episode, Bob
Speaker 1: Crane was harboring some deep, dark secrets behind closed doors,
Speaker 1: secrets that involved sexual exploits videotape in which ultimately led
Speaker 1: to his shocking murder. Meanwhile, over in Disgraceland, we just
Speaker 1: released a brand new episode all about Wendy O Williams,
Speaker 1: one time leader of the Plasmatics one of the most
Speaker 1: shocking shock rockers of all time. I'm talking about blowing
Speaker 1: up Cadillacs on stage. Can you imagine going to a
Speaker 1: show at like the Palladium, Not the Palladium what am
Speaker 1: I thinking of? Uh? Not CBGB's in New York, but
Speaker 1: the club that they that they graduated too after Maybe
Speaker 1: it was the Palladium, now the Palladiums in Worcester. Anyways,
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm out of
Speaker 1: my I'm fucking out of my gord right now. But
Speaker 1: not on drugs. I promise it's not drugs. Uh, It's
Speaker 1: just a lot of caffeine and lack of sleep. But
Speaker 1: can you imagine going to a show at a small
Speaker 1: club and seeing a Cadillac on stage and being like,
Speaker 1: I wonder what they're gonna do with that, and then
Speaker 1: like halfway into the show, they fucking ignite explosives and
Speaker 1: they fucking blow it up in the hood of the car,
Speaker 1: flies into the air and nearly kills the lead singer
Speaker 1: there on stage, like lands right next to her, like
Speaker 1: could have killed somebody in the crowd. I mean, holy shit, dude,
Speaker 1: it's shocking stuff. Wendya Williams just truly one of one.
Speaker 1: She did all these things. She blew up cadillacs, she
Speaker 1: cut guitars in half with a chainsaw, She sledgehammer TVs,
Speaker 1: all this live on stage while wearing outfits that were
Speaker 1: meant to provoke and again meant to shock. And like
Speaker 1: I just said, her story is unlike any other music history.
Speaker 1: We've been waiting to tell this story for years, So
Speaker 1: make sure you bounce over to that feed and check
Speaker 1: that out. Okay, back to Bob Crane for one second,
Speaker 1: real quick here, and then I'm gonna let it go.
Speaker 1: This Friday. Here in the screening room, I'm going to
Speaker 1: take a deep dive into the nineteen eighty nine film Sex,
Speaker 1: Lies and Videotape, the directorial debut by Steven Soderberg. This
Speaker 1: seemed to be a natural choice for our movie this
Speaker 1: week because Bob Crane's story involves sex, and involves lies,
Speaker 1: and involves videotape. I could have covered Auto Focus, the
Speaker 1: movie about Bob Crane starring Greg Kinear, but that's directed
Speaker 1: by Paul Schrader, and I just did a Paul Schrader film,
Speaker 1: Blue Collar, a few weeks ago, so I wanted to
Speaker 1: mix it up, so it's sex, lies and videotape this week.
Speaker 1: This was a major watershed moment for American independent cinema,
Speaker 1: as you guys know, and as we'll talk about more
Speaker 1: on Friday. Come back here with me on Friday and
Speaker 1: check that out all right next week, Crystal Ball Here
Speaker 1: next week in the pod, We've got our episode on
Speaker 1: James Dean, one of the most iconic actors of classic
Speaker 1: the Classic Hollywood era, who died at the age of
Speaker 1: twenty four in a car crash, having only made three films,
Speaker 1: two of which were not even released until after his death.
Speaker 1: But one of the wildest things about James Dean's death
Speaker 1: is how much people believed, or how much they wanted
Speaker 1: to believe, that he was actually still alive, that either
Speaker 1: it was all a publicity stunt or that his ghost
Speaker 1: was easily summoned. And you know, people fans paid good
Speaker 1: money to believe this lie, to live this lie, and
Speaker 1: some didn't even have to pay good money. Some were
Speaker 1: one hundred percent true believers in like haunted cars and
Speaker 1: this haunted afterlife, that this matinee idol was continuing to
Speaker 1: live out. This is one of my favorite Hollywood Land episodes.
Speaker 1: If you guys have not heard this one before, you're
Speaker 1: in for a treat. There's so much stuff in here.
Speaker 1: I was unaware of all this freaky shit that happened
Speaker 1: at that time in the fifties immediately after he died.
Speaker 1: It's really wild, and I feel like a lot of
Speaker 1: it's been lost to history. It's been lost to the
Speaker 1: prevailing narrative that's gone on about James Dean. So tune
Speaker 1: into this and check it out. And while you do,
Speaker 1: while you're listening, I want you to be thinking about
Speaker 1: next week's question of the week, Okay, which is what
Speaker 1: character from movie history is your favorite rebel? Is it
Speaker 1: James Dean as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause?
Speaker 1: Or is it Jack Nicholson as Randall McMurphy in One
Speaker 1: Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Maybe it's Tyler Durden from
Speaker 1: Fight Club. I don't know either of them. Who you
Speaker 1: got sick? Nine oh six six six three eight, Leave
Speaker 1: me a voicemail, send me a text speaking at Tower Durden.
Speaker 1: Do you guys see that Tyler Durden was hanging out
Speaker 1: with himself at the World Cup in la the other day?
Speaker 1: Did you guys catch that Edward Norton and Brad Pitt
Speaker 1: were in this like skybox at the World Cup game.
Speaker 1: Edward Norton had this dope radio Head shirt on, and
Speaker 1: all the memes were like, you know, uh, Tyler Durden
Speaker 1: talking seeing talking to himself at the at the World Cup,
Speaker 1: which is uh, which is hilarious. And then there was
Speaker 1: like this old footage the people found of both Edward
Speaker 1: Norton and Brad Pitt in separate occasions, speaking on how
Speaker 1: Radiohead is their favorite band of all time, and you've
Speaker 1: got Edward Norton wearing the radio Head shirt. It was
Speaker 1: just it was great shit, all right, guys. Listen. Coming
Speaker 1: up later in the show here, I'm gonna get a
Speaker 1: visit from our head of production here at Double Elvis,
Speaker 1: Matt Boden. He's subbing for Jake Brennan this week. Jake
Speaker 1: has been on vacation. He's getting back later tonight, I believe,
Speaker 1: or first thing in the morning. So Matt's gonna jump
Speaker 1: in the booth with me for the recommendation section. And listen, guys,
Speaker 1: it's a holiday week the lead up to a holiday weekend.
Speaker 1: We've been grinding over here at both shows above and beyond,
Speaker 1: not even just creating the stuff you're hearing, but we're
Speaker 1: doing a lot of stuff in the background, a lot
Speaker 1: of news things we're working on and testing out, and
Speaker 1: we're about to lose our damn minds here. So instead
Speaker 1: of putting too much creative or intellectual fencing around this
Speaker 1: one this week, we're just gonna have a loosey, goosey talk,
Speaker 1: just me and Matt hanging out like old times, talking
Speaker 1: about some shit we've seen recently or heard or read,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna let y'all know. Okay, But before we
Speaker 1: do that, of course, I got to hear from all
Speaker 1: of you. I've got your text your emails, your voicemails,
Speaker 1: your DMS, your carrier pigeon letters that are rolled up
Speaker 1: and crumpled up by those pigeon talents, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get into it all right after this. What's up, guys,
Speaker 1: Zeth Lundy hanging with you here in the wrap party
Speaker 1: six one seven nine oh six six six three eight.
Speaker 1: That's how you get in touch, just like my guy
Speaker 1: Matt in the three one seven who sent in this text,
Speaker 1: good doctor. I'm getting used to my new phone. Here
Speaker 1: are some tidbits over the last few episodes. Thank you
Speaker 1: for spreading the love for blue collar. I was born
Speaker 1: and raised in Flint, Michigan. And remember the news coverage
Speaker 1: about making of the film. Yes, Sean Pen was basically
Speaker 1: playing William Holden in Licorice Pizza. In nineteen seventy three,
Speaker 1: Holden starred in a May December romantic comedy called Breezy.
Speaker 1: His younger co star was Kay Lens and it was
Speaker 1: directed by Clint Eastwood. A musician with an eyepatch, Mike
Speaker 1: Morgan of the Texas blues band Mike Morgan and the Crawl.
Speaker 1: A woefully underseen remake is the twenty thirteen Samurai remake
Speaker 1: of Unforgiven starring Ken Wananabe. Even though it was a
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers release, I don't think it got an American release. Yes,
Speaker 1: I own the soundtrack to the Hotspot. I'll be playing
Speaker 1: it on a future blues house party. Thanks for the inspiration.
Speaker 1: Take care. Matt from the three one seven Matt Dude,
Speaker 1: appreciate you as always coming in hot today with a
Speaker 1: lot of takes from a lot of different subjects. We've
Speaker 1: covered over a lot of weeks here, So if you're
Speaker 1: just tuning in for the first time, You're like, what
Speaker 1: the fuck are these guys talking about? Where We're talking
Speaker 1: about blue collar the Paul Schrader film, We're talking about liquorice, pizza,
Speaker 1: the Paul Thomas Anderson film. We're talking about musicians with
Speaker 1: eye patches. Because because, because because true grit who was
Speaker 1: wearing an eye patch. I'm my own breadcrumb trail is
Speaker 1: lost to me. Now we're talking about musicians and eye patches.
Speaker 1: Mike Morgan and the crawl. I don't know this spanned, Matt.
Speaker 1: And then you know what I really don't know about
Speaker 1: in this message here is I did not know there
Speaker 1: was a samurai remake of Unforgiven, one of my favorite
Speaker 1: movies of all time, certainly one of the greatest westerns
Speaker 1: ever made. Did not know this even existed, So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go hunt this down. Appreciate it, Matt. Thank you
Speaker 1: for the text, as always, got another text here and
Speaker 1: again six one seven nine oh six six six three eight.
Speaker 1: You can text, you can even call. Don't worry, no
Speaker 1: one's going to actually answer the phone. And then you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to talk to a human being, which I mean,
Speaker 1: if you want to, there's nothing wrong with that. You know,
Speaker 1: those days of calling people on the phones though, seems
Speaker 1: to be you know, it seems to be a bygone era.
Speaker 1: I don't do a lot of phone talk in these days,
Speaker 1: not that I don't enjoy it, but again my point is,
Speaker 1: you want to leave a voicemail, you can do so
Speaker 1: knowing that you're not going to like be put on
Speaker 1: the spot and have to talk to an operator or anything.
Speaker 1: There are no operators standing by. There's just our voicemail
Speaker 1: box which is awaiting your next message. Okay, six one
Speaker 1: seven nine oh six sixty six three eight text here
Speaker 1: from the two one four which reads, hey, Zeth and
Speaker 1: Jake Santiago here. I'm curious to see if y'all have
Speaker 1: watched Obsession yet, and if so, I would love to
Speaker 1: hear y'all's thoughts. I love this movie and the story
Speaker 1: of the director Curry Barker and how he started with
Speaker 1: a comedy sketch group making videos on YouTube to directing
Speaker 1: a couple of great short horror films, The Chair and
Speaker 1: Warnings to a found footage horror film Milk and Cereal
Speaker 1: were also great. He uploaded those of YouTube and they
Speaker 1: blew up and he went on to make this amazing
Speaker 1: movie for a budget of a little less than a
Speaker 1: million dollars, and he has now gross close to one
Speaker 1: hundred million worldwide. He already has finished filming his second movie,
Speaker 1: picked up by Bloomhouse. I just became an instant fan
Speaker 1: of his from this movie, and I am excited to
Speaker 1: see what he will bring us in the future. Hope
Speaker 1: to hear your thoughts on the pod and keep kicking
Speaker 1: ass double Elvis team Santiago, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: We will keep kicking ass here man. I believe Obsession
Speaker 1: has grossed closer to three hundred million worldwide or even
Speaker 1: over that. I think your number might be a little low.
Speaker 1: And yes, Santiago, I don't know. I can't speak for Jake.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's seen it, but I did mention this.
Speaker 1: I think I mentioned it the other week in some
Speaker 1: episodes somewhere. I did finally see Obsession. I loved it.
Speaker 1: I thought it was capital G great. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I've ever experienced a movie with a tone like that.
Speaker 1: I've been talking a lot about the tone of this movie,
Speaker 1: Curry Barker, as you mentioned, coming from comedy, and I'm
Speaker 1: making a horror film. You know, there are many moments
Speaker 1: in this movie where you're like, should I be laughing?
Speaker 1: Should I be pissing my pants right now? And sometimes
Speaker 1: you start doing one and then you do the other
Speaker 1: vice versa, and it's just Other people have referred to
Speaker 1: it as just an extremely uncomfortable watch, which it's very
Speaker 1: uncomfortable as well in that way. And it's just cool
Speaker 1: to see younger filmmakers striking out and making something, making
Speaker 1: something that's obviously indebted to not only movies from the past,
Speaker 1: but methodologies of making movies from the past. It very
Speaker 1: much has a through line back to like American independent
Speaker 1: cinema from the eighties and the nineties, but it feels fresh,
Speaker 1: and the idea feels fresh, and this idea of someone
Speaker 1: making a wish that that that someone else would would
Speaker 1: would love them, and how that turns into this like
Speaker 1: Ultimate Nightmare is the way it's executed is completely surprising,
Speaker 1: and you never know what's going to happen. And I
Speaker 1: thought it was great. I loved it, and I, just
Speaker 1: like you, I look forward to whatever Curry Barker's going
Speaker 1: to do next. I know that they I think they're
Speaker 1: given them keys to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise as well,
Speaker 1: which is fine. I wish these guys would just make
Speaker 1: you know, original movies, but whatever, Santiago, appreciate you. Thank
Speaker 1: you for listening, Thank you for texting in six one,
Speaker 1: seven nine oh six, six six three eight. Got a
Speaker 1: text here from the seven six. Hey, I just listened
Speaker 1: to the podcast about A Star Is Born and loved, loved,
Speaker 1: love the playlist and I'm going to add a song
Speaker 1: by Lou Reed called Underneath the Bottle. I believe it's
Speaker 1: on the Blue Mask album and is brilliant, as is
Speaker 1: most lou Read. Uh. Seven oh six, thank you for that.
Speaker 1: Seven oh six is referring to our screening room episode
Speaker 1: from last week about A Star Is Born. As you
Speaker 1: guys know, when I do these episodes, I make these hypothetical, theoretical, metaphorical,
Speaker 1: potentially possible mixtapes inspired by the movie. So this Lou
Speaker 1: Reed song Underneath the Bottle is going to be added
Speaker 1: to our mixtape for that. I don't know the Blue
Speaker 1: Mask seven oh six. I'm sorry, lou Read. I love
Speaker 1: lou Reid. I don't know this is this is sort
Speaker 1: of a blind spot for me a little bit. I
Speaker 1: know some of his stuff I know, like Transformer that record,
Speaker 1: and of course I know the Velvet Underground stuff, and
Speaker 1: then I know some of the later stuff really well,
Speaker 1: like for some reason Set the Twilight Reeling. I bought
Speaker 1: that album in college and that's always kind of stuck
Speaker 1: with me. There's another one from around that era too
Speaker 1: that I was really into as well. But there's this
Speaker 1: whole stretch of Lou from the seventies into the eighties
Speaker 1: that I just don't know. I gotta rectify that at
Speaker 1: some point. So appreciate you jogging that that that need
Speaker 1: loose in my mind. Here seven oh six, speaking of
Speaker 1: song choices for our mixtapes, we got a voicemail here
Speaker 1: from Shane in the nine to seven. Oh Matt, can
Speaker 1: you fire this up, yo?
Speaker 3: Doctor Zaz Shane.
Speaker 2: I'm so now as.
Speaker 3: Usual on a couple of weeks behind, trying to catch up.
Speaker 3: But I just listen to your watch Party on.
Speaker 2: We Collar.
Speaker 3: Sounds great.
Speaker 2: Haven't watched it.
Speaker 3: Put its definitely on at this however, I have a
Speaker 3: suggest during mistake that I can't leave Getn't get, and
Speaker 3: that would be one Piece of a Time by Johnny Cash.
Speaker 3: It seems like it's maybe a little out of the
Speaker 3: themes of the movie. Maybe I'll uh stuck in the
Speaker 3: middle with you Rushbourdog's kind of thing, got a night
Speaker 3: in this real road kind to be good. But if
Speaker 3: you listen to the lyrics, I think it's perfect. Talked
Speaker 3: about a guy who works on as Simbley Lion and
Speaker 3: can't afford to buy one of the cars he's making,
Speaker 3: so he spends his whole career stealing parts one at
Speaker 3: a time, and that makes a Frankincobile and he is
Speaker 3: a song that everybody thinks you takes this, so I
Speaker 3: think that should be like a mistake.
Speaker 1: Take it easy by damn man, one piece at a time,
Speaker 1: Johnny Cash, I don't didn't know the song until you
Speaker 1: just mentioned it. Great, great choice for a song for
Speaker 1: Blue Collar. You're right, it's like one of those ones.
Speaker 1: It's just like staring you right in the face if
Speaker 1: you know it. And I'm ashamed to say that I
Speaker 1: wasn't aware of the song, but now I am, and
Speaker 1: I appreciate that for the same episode Blue Collar over
Speaker 1: in our Patreon. That's disgracefully an all access over on Patreon.
Speaker 1: In the in the chat there, Jackie, she shouted out
Speaker 1: industrial Disease by Dire Straits, as well as a Town
Speaker 1: called Malice by The Jam. The Jam another band that
Speaker 1: I need to. I need to dive into more. I know,
Speaker 1: I know sound effects, and I know one of the
Speaker 1: other records, but I need to. I need I need more,
Speaker 1: I need more more Jam in my life. All Right.
Speaker 1: We got an email here from Ali and the subject
Speaker 1: is top five best cover songs. We did a what
Speaker 1: do we do? We did a rap party recommendations about
Speaker 1: the greatest of some of the greatest cover songs and
Speaker 1: cover movies the other week. So Ali's email says, hey, Zeth,
Speaker 1: no one mentioned these three amazing made it their own covers,
Speaker 1: so I had to write in and give them their props.
Speaker 1: One Bizarre Love Triangle by Frente, two I Will Survive
Speaker 1: by Cake, three Only Love Can Break Your Heart by
Speaker 1: Saying ATN four Feeling Good by Muse. Five Baby One
Speaker 1: More Time by Travis frent Day did what every female
Speaker 1: YouTube vocalist is doing nowadays. But they did that thirty
Speaker 1: plus years ago, and I believe their interpretation of new
Speaker 1: Order remains un matched. Ali from London, formerly of the
Speaker 1: four one five. This is a great, great email, great email.
Speaker 1: I agree with you about Frinde. I was in on
Speaker 1: the ground floor of this whole thing when it came out.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine freshman year of college, when this
Speaker 1: first had just come out, had a copy of I
Speaker 1: think there was an EP that Fronte put out, maybe
Speaker 1: it was the single it was. It was like a
Speaker 1: CD single, maybe I forget EP or single, but it
Speaker 1: had this cover of Bizarre Love Triangle on it, and
Speaker 1: at the time my knowledge of New Order was I
Speaker 1: just did not really register much with them. This is
Speaker 1: you know. I was seventeen at the time, so I
Speaker 1: believe I heard Bizarre Love Triangle first as Frinde before
Speaker 1: I heard it as New Order. Ditt oh believe it
Speaker 1: or not. For Saint Antien and Only Love Can Break
Speaker 1: Your Heart. I only heard the Neil Young version after
Speaker 1: I heard this, because again, one of my roommates in
Speaker 1: college was a big Saint Antienne fan and he had
Speaker 1: this and I used to play it all the time.
Speaker 1: These are great, great choices. Here baby, one more time.
Speaker 1: Richard Thompson did it incredible cover of that one time
Speaker 1: years ago. I haven't heard the Travis one, but now
Speaker 1: I want to Ali appreciate your message. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening and for getting in touch. I'm another
Speaker 1: email here from Jonathan. The subject line here from Jonathan
Speaker 1: is some feedback slash a humble request and it reads
Speaker 1: double Elvis team. Hey, it's your old pal Jonathan and
Speaker 1: the six one to Oh. I'm a disco fan for
Speaker 1: a few years and a Patreon member since the beginning.
Speaker 1: I'm digging the rap party and all the extra after content,
Speaker 1: but I had a request for you, guys. I'm usually
Speaker 1: in my car at work or working on a project
Speaker 1: when listening to Disgraceland, and I love hearing the hot
Speaker 1: takes between Jake and Zeth. However, there are times when
Speaker 1: you talk about recommendations and Zeth will say, oh, this
Speaker 1: movie was amazing, or I can't believe you haven't heard
Speaker 1: their cover of blank song, and you'll go back and forth,
Speaker 1: and that'll take you somewhere else the films and cover songs.
Speaker 1: Here's my ask in the show notes, can you please
Speaker 1: put links to these things so I don't have to stop, pause,
Speaker 1: go back, write it down. This is a podcast for
Speaker 1: the true crime geeks and freaks, but can someone make
Speaker 1: it a little easier to follow the trail and dig
Speaker 1: the res thank you, thank you, and keep up the
Speaker 1: great work. Rock a rolla your old pal Jonathan in
Speaker 1: the six to one to Oh Jonathan, I hear you.
Speaker 1: I totally hear you. I'm wondering, and I'm totally not
Speaker 1: being a dick. I'm just I'm wondering if we have
Speaker 1: the technology. I mean, I know we have the technology
Speaker 1: to do this, and the technology is someone typing in
Speaker 1: the show notes, right, But I just mean, like we're
Speaker 1: we're a very very very small but mighty team here
Speaker 1: at Double Elvis, and there's very few of us getting
Speaker 1: a lot of things done. And I'm gonna look into this.
Speaker 1: I'm to see if there's a way in which we
Speaker 1: can easily make this happen. I know that Matt puts
Speaker 1: a lot of times in like Disgrace Lane episodes after
Speaker 1: party Jake will he'll mention older episodes from the archive
Speaker 1: of Disgrace and Matt will put links there. And I
Speaker 1: know that there's this whole thing now with moments that
Speaker 1: you can tag in the episode where people can go
Speaker 1: back and listen to certain sections. So let me send
Speaker 1: this up the chain of command here at the home base,
Speaker 1: and I'll see I'll see what we can do because
Speaker 1: I want to. I hear you, and I want you
Speaker 1: to be able to follow the Rex trail here. We
Speaker 1: do if you follow us on Instagram as well, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: we have been posting regularly in the grid. We've been
Speaker 1: posting our recommendations that come up in the rap party
Speaker 1: when Jake and I are talking about recommendations music and movies.
Speaker 1: We've been posting carousel posts of that in the grid
Speaker 1: weekly on Instagram, and then in our stories on Instagram weekly.
Speaker 1: We've been posting the songs from the mixtape in the
Speaker 1: screening room episodes, So we have been sort of dregg
Speaker 1: crumbing that trail there in Instagram. If that's helpful, maybe
Speaker 1: it's not. Feedback has been heard, and we will get
Speaker 1: back to you on that when we can. Thank you. Jonathan.
Speaker 1: All Right, guys, listen, I gotta take a quick break here,
Speaker 1: but when I come back, I'm gonna have my guy,
Speaker 1: Matt Boden, head of production here at Double Elvis, and
Speaker 1: we are going to give you guys some crazy recommendations
Speaker 1: for some What are we gonna be talking about. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I have no clue. I'm going into this blind.
Speaker 1: Matt's gonna be leading the way and I'm just along
Speaker 1: for the ride. And I can't wait to talk about
Speaker 1: what he wants to talk about. And I'm sure you
Speaker 1: guys are all gonna love it too, So do not
Speaker 1: go anywhere. We'll be You're back, all right, guys, Welcome
Speaker 1: back into the Rap Party. We're here in the recommendation section.
Speaker 1: Usually sitting with me in the co host chair is
Speaker 1: Jake Brennan, but Jake's not here, man, Jake's far far
Speaker 1: away on vacation. So I have the privilege today to
Speaker 1: have my guy, Matt Boden, head of production here at
Speaker 1: Double Elvis, joining me.
Speaker 2: What's going on, dude, not much, Man, Excited to talk
Speaker 2: to you today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a minute since you and I have
Speaker 1: done this sort of thing, like on Mike on camera.
Speaker 1: Usually I have some sort of a theme that's built around,
Speaker 1: you know, the scripted episode and the screening room and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. But I just wanted to keep it
Speaker 1: loose today and just sort of like have a casual
Speaker 1: chat with you because I know you've texted me about
Speaker 1: some shit recently and I've seen some shit recently. Then
Speaker 1: I was just like, let's just have a conversation and
Speaker 1: just like, tell me about some cool shit you've seen.
Speaker 2: Man, yeah, man cool.
Speaker 4: A while back on the Rap Party, we were talking
Speaker 4: about comedians, and yes, the listeners chimed in with a
Speaker 4: lot of, you know, great recommendations Maria Bamford and Richard
Speaker 4: Pryor and Bill Hicks and lots and lots of good recommendations.
Speaker 4: But you know, one name I didn't hear was Ali Sadik,
Speaker 4: who I feel isn't as well known as he should be.
Speaker 4: And it's kind of appropriate to bring him up right
Speaker 4: now because he just dropped his new special called My Father,
Speaker 4: which you can find on YouTube where you can find
Speaker 4: all of his specials, okay, and it's just absolutely fantastic,
Speaker 4: and I think he needs to be included in the
Speaker 4: conversation of great comedians, particularly great storytellers, because his style
Speaker 4: is more storytelling than jokes.
Speaker 2: Have you seen any of his.
Speaker 1: Specials I've seen. I haven't seen the entire specials yet,
Speaker 1: I've seen clips of them. I feel like I'm doing
Speaker 1: myself a disservice by doing it that way, because to
Speaker 1: your point, I feel like the point of his specials
Speaker 1: is like the overarching narrative of them right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah. His style is more of like a storytelling thing.
Speaker 4: It's kind of in between stand up in a one
Speaker 4: man show. I would say, this guy is so prolific.
Speaker 4: Starting in twenty twenty two, he'd been in the game,
Speaker 4: I think at that point for about a decade maybe.
Speaker 4: Right in twenty twenty two, he started this thing called
Speaker 4: his Domino Effect series, which was a series of specials
Speaker 4: that are all about his life from the time he
Speaker 4: was ten years old until now. And he puts out
Speaker 4: like an hour special every like three months, So he's
Speaker 4: doing like three four a year, which is insane when
Speaker 4: you consider most like the really top comics will put
Speaker 4: out an hour maybe a year, sometimes every other year.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: His stuff is really incredible because it's all like one
Speaker 4: long story. So for example, like a character that he'll
Speaker 4: mention in Domino Effect Part one will crop back up
Speaker 4: in Domino Effect Part four, and you can kind of
Speaker 4: connect the dots because you know the character, you know
Speaker 4: stuff about them, So it's a very like rich experience
Speaker 4: if you can make the time to listen to all
Speaker 4: of them.
Speaker 1: That's incredible that he does so many so close to
Speaker 1: each other, when it sounds like they're very like intricately designed,
Speaker 1: you know, narratively.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they are.
Speaker 4: But I think his part of his mastery is he
Speaker 4: makes it seem so off the cuff, but it's very clear,
Speaker 4: you know, if you really pay attention to what he's
Speaker 4: doing that you know, each each hour has a theme.
Speaker 4: Each hour tends to build to sort of an emotional moment. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and you know, effectively the you know, the moral of
Speaker 4: the story or the theme of the story. And he's
Speaker 4: so good that he can, you know, he can make
Speaker 4: you laugh and cry and laugh in the span of
Speaker 4: like thirty seconds.
Speaker 2: He's just just incredible.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 4: And the new the new one is all about his
Speaker 4: father and his complicated relationship with his father. His previous
Speaker 4: one was called My Two Sons, which is about his sons.
Speaker 4: So lots of stuff about family and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: He's he's from Houston. I think the thing that really
Speaker 4: put him on the map or where he really started
Speaker 4: was telling a lot of stories about his time in prison.
Speaker 4: He was in prison for six years for being, as
Speaker 4: he says, a street pharmaceutical rout. He's sort of discovered
Speaker 4: in prison, like, oh, I can make people laugh.
Speaker 1: Like Tim Allen. Yeah, exactly that kind It reminds me
Speaker 1: here and you talk about him kind of reminds me
Speaker 1: of that. Did you see that one John Maliney special?
Speaker 1: I forget the name now, but it was all about
Speaker 1: his addiction and like him going to rehab and stuff,
Speaker 1: and it's basically an hour long story. People don't do
Speaker 1: that enough, probably because it's fucking difficult to do right, right, right,
Speaker 1: But I love that sort of like comedy storytelling, you know,
Speaker 1: because that show is less like you know, haha jokes
Speaker 1: and more like this very intense, dramatic story that's being
Speaker 1: told through the lens of humor.
Speaker 4: I guess, you know, yeah, I think that's a good
Speaker 4: comp because a lot of the stuff he's talking about is,
Speaker 4: you know, it's a lot of it's very painful. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but he you know, it's extremely funny and unique style,
Speaker 4: and I just think a really unique voice that you know,
Speaker 4: we should be listening to. One caveat I will offer
Speaker 4: is that you know, maybe some of our listeners may
Speaker 4: be familiar with the sort of fallout from the Riad
Speaker 4: Comedy Festival, and I only recently learned that he was
Speaker 4: one of the comedians that performed at that.
Speaker 2: Oh interesting, So you know, I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 4: I'm a little disappointed that he did that, but I'm
Speaker 4: also not going to like pass judgment on it. And
Speaker 4: I also think he is such a great artist that
Speaker 4: to deprive yourself of the opportunity to listen to his
Speaker 4: point of view because of that, I think would be
Speaker 4: a mistake. So, you know, just for the listeners, if
Speaker 4: you if that's really important to you and that's a
Speaker 4: deal breaker, that's cool. But you know, I haven't heard
Speaker 4: his perspective on it either. I'm assuming that we'll hear
Speaker 4: very shortly, probably in a one hour special.
Speaker 1: What else, what else have you been checking out lately?
Speaker 4: I'm gonna I'm gonna caveat this with to the listeners
Speaker 4: of you. You and I were talking about blind spots
Speaker 4: the other day. You know, you and I especially you though,
Speaker 4: are particularly well informed about music and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: But everybody has blind spots, these things that they've just missed.
Speaker 1: Or ignored for some stupid.
Speaker 2: Or ignored or it didn't come along at the right time. Whatever.
Speaker 4: Well, we were talking in a while back when I
Speaker 4: was on the show that p Funk is one of
Speaker 4: my blind spots, and so I decided to kind of
Speaker 4: rectify that. And I was just like, I'm just going
Speaker 4: to dive into the pool here and the first thing
Speaker 4: I got into and I mean, I know p FUNK.
Speaker 4: I know the hits because of you know, the Doctor
Speaker 4: Dre thing, and I know the basic gist of it,
Speaker 4: but I do not know their records and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: So anyway, I wanted to recommend this video that maybe
Speaker 4: some people have not seen. Probably a lot of our
Speaker 4: listeners have, but if you haven't or you want a
Speaker 4: good place to start with p funk, there's a video
Speaker 4: Mothership Connection Live in Houston. It's a show from Halloween
Speaker 4: nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 1: And it's just it's on Netflix, right on Netflix. On YouTube.
Speaker 4: It's on YouTube, yes, yeah, and this performance is absolutely
Speaker 4: mind blowing. I could not believe what I was hearing
Speaker 4: and seeing. It was so good, yeah, so funky. So
Speaker 4: apparently this show is. In eighty six, they released the
Speaker 4: Mothership Connection Live album. I think it was one side
Speaker 4: of it was a live thing and then the other
Speaker 4: side was like George Clinton solo stuff. Okay, so it
Speaker 4: has been released and they also released it as a
Speaker 4: video cassette in eighty six as well. I don't think
Speaker 4: that that's available anymore. I don't know if it's been
Speaker 4: put out on DVD. Maybe a listener can chime.
Speaker 2: In on that.
Speaker 4: But my god, this show is incredible. It's got the Mothership,
Speaker 4: it's got the opening acts. Check this out, dude. The
Speaker 4: opening acts were Bootsy's Rubber Band and sly Stone.
Speaker 1: No shit, Wow, you.
Speaker 2: Have the horny horns.
Speaker 4: You've got Fred Wesley Mascio Parker playing horns. This was
Speaker 4: just such an eye opening experience to me to see
Speaker 4: how seminal p funk is in terms of things like
Speaker 4: afrofuturism and stuff like that. Like when you go see
Speaker 4: Black Panther or see any of these black sci fi
Speaker 4: it all goes back to them.
Speaker 2: And I guess Son Raw before that.
Speaker 1: But sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel like there's a
Speaker 1: giant communal blind spot when it comes to Funkadelic p Funk.
Speaker 1: I just said, they're so seminal, there's such a part
Speaker 1: of like ingrained in our consciousness, but I feel like
Speaker 1: they have been so underserved to us, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Yeah, And you think about like I was
Speaker 1: just watching Questlove as a new documentary on Earth Wind
Speaker 1: and Fire that I was watching the other night, okay,
Speaker 1: and he made that one on Sly a few years
Speaker 1: ago as well. And like all these like great Black
Speaker 1: artists who are like getting their due sort of, not
Speaker 1: that Earth Wind and Fire didn't get their due back
Speaker 1: on the day. I mean, September is like one of
Speaker 1: the biggest fucking songs ever, right, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like I don't know shit about I didn't know that
Speaker 1: that the dude from Earth Wind and Fire was the
Speaker 1: drummer in the Ramsey Lewis trio first before he was
Speaker 1: did that. There's so much history there, I think in
Speaker 1: Funkadelic and p Funk and George Clinton that we just
Speaker 1: don't know about that. I think is just like ripe
Speaker 1: for the picking. And I would love to like see
Speaker 1: a doc on this or read a book. Maybe there's
Speaker 1: a book out there on this, and I'm just completely ignorant.
Speaker 4: To it, right right, you know, I think a lot
Speaker 4: of it is just I think in black culture these
Speaker 4: figures are much more towering, yes, but they haven't necessarily
Speaker 4: crossed over into white consciousness in the in.
Speaker 2: The same way to the same level, you know.
Speaker 4: So I think you and I both probably are introduction
Speaker 4: to p Funk was probably through or at least for me,
Speaker 4: was probably through Doctor Dre and then seeing George Clinton
Speaker 4: as just this crazy man on MTV who was just
Speaker 4: like the coolest guy ever, you know, and I was like, Oh,
Speaker 4: that's the p funk guy, but not really understanding how
Speaker 4: important his music is, his whole beyond the music, like
Speaker 4: just the the whole like aesthetic, the whole art form
Speaker 4: of it is really really mind blowing. The sense of
Speaker 4: like communal joy that I felt watching that show. I mean,
Speaker 4: I'm watching show from fifty years ago on my computer.
Speaker 4: Somehow I feel transported to that place with these people.
Speaker 4: That's this incredible experience. Yeah, and you know, I guess
Speaker 4: it makes me think a little bit of like the
Speaker 4: when you talk to like a really committed deadhead or something,
Speaker 4: to the sort of experience that they.
Speaker 1: Just for sure, for sure, it's an interesting way to
Speaker 1: think about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems like kind of like the black version of.
Speaker 4: That totally totally and oh gosh, it was just fantastic
Speaker 4: and the I cannot recommend this enough. So if you
Speaker 4: are like me and are a middle aged white guy
Speaker 4: who missed the p Funk mother shit, get on on
Speaker 4: the Lord I.
Speaker 1: Know the I know the Funkadelic records really well, like
Speaker 1: before but before p Funk, and it's almost like the
Speaker 1: they took like the Hendrix thing and kind of like
Speaker 1: leveled it up to the next level, right like, especially
Speaker 1: with Eddie Hazel playing guitar there, who was sort of
Speaker 1: like the next Hendrix until he sort of fell off
Speaker 1: the wagon or whatever. Yeah, do you know that story
Speaker 1: about when they made Maga Brain and that title track
Speaker 1: Maga Brain is basically a ten minute guitar solo. It's
Speaker 1: very slow, and I don't know if it's apocryphal, but
Speaker 1: supposedly George Clinton said to Eddie Hazel, I want you
Speaker 1: to play the first half of this guitar solo like
Speaker 1: someone's just told you your mother's died, and then halfway
Speaker 1: through they're like, no, wait, she's actually so alive.
Speaker 2: Whoa.
Speaker 1: That was like the direction and they were all in
Speaker 1: like acid making it or whatever. And it's fucking incredible.
Speaker 2: I love it, you know.
Speaker 4: Going back to the blind Spot thing, I'm just really
Speaker 4: excited that there's this incredible music that is brand new
Speaker 4: to me that's awesome that I can experience as an
Speaker 4: adult as where my tastes are more fully formed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I can appreciate now.
Speaker 4: So I guess despite the fact that I'm so late
Speaker 4: to this party, like I'm just super psyched that I'm.
Speaker 2: There, I guess that's awesome.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 2: So, you know, speaking of acid.
Speaker 4: And incredible experiences, I want to recommend this video that
Speaker 4: I stumbled across.
Speaker 2: It's about five or six years old.
Speaker 4: It's got one point seven million views, so I don't
Speaker 4: think it's particularly obscure or at least to a particular audience.
Speaker 4: But I stumbled across this film called Star Trek Acid
Speaker 4: Party on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Is there an exclamation point at the end of that, by.
Speaker 2: The way, or I just I don't think so, but
Speaker 2: there should be? All right, Yeah, how to describe this?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I've always liked Star Trek, so yes,
Speaker 4: that was sort of an end to me, and I
Speaker 4: like weird videos, so this was really perfect for me.
Speaker 4: So this was created, I believe around twenty twenty, maybe
Speaker 4: in the pandemic. Okay, this is a film. It's like
Speaker 4: a forty five minute film that samples and recontextualizes clips
Speaker 4: from Star Trek the next Generation, mashing it up with
Speaker 4: a variety of really excellent music, and it's sort of
Speaker 4: described as following the emotional and psychological phases of an
Speaker 4: acid trip. So that's where our jumping off point. I'm
Speaker 4: not sure how to describe it.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine Picard, like, you know, dropping a tabot
Speaker 1: acid and the Enterprise, not the Enterprise.
Speaker 2: What ship was he on at the Enterprise?
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? The Enterprise? D.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, Enterprise D.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you. Let's clear that up. We don't
Speaker 2: want to get a lot of angry emails.
Speaker 4: I don't know what the Venn diagram between Discos and
Speaker 4: Star Trek.
Speaker 1: That's that's a great question.
Speaker 4: I know, when we're talking about TV a while back,
Speaker 4: a lot of people recommended Star Trek, so I think
Speaker 4: we've got a few listeners out there. So this film
Speaker 4: is really technically impressive and artistically impressive because the creator
Speaker 4: is doing all this incredible editing. I think there's a
Speaker 4: whole genre of stuff that's in this style, but I
Speaker 4: don't know really what to call it. Maybe somebody can
Speaker 4: fill me in. But you know, he'll do things like stutter,
Speaker 4: like rock the reels kind of and stutter and like
Speaker 4: create these rhythms out of the soundtrack of someone.
Speaker 2: Speaking okay, really really interesting.
Speaker 4: He's manipulating the video in all these trippy ways, like
Speaker 4: people's heads are distorted, and but the thing that really
Speaker 4: got me is the music. The way that he's using music.
Speaker 4: It's filled with kind of stoner classics. Like there's a
Speaker 4: lot of Pink Floyd. Like there's a scene where the
Speaker 4: card and the crew are watching on the big view screen.
Speaker 4: They're watching the Wizard of Oz Sink.
Speaker 2: To Moon, you know.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's a bunch of pink pink Floyd.
Speaker 4: There's some stuff from Live at POMPEII and that kind
Speaker 4: of stuff. So that's another blind spot for me. So
Speaker 4: this was like a great way. I mean, I know
Speaker 4: some pink Floyd, but this is another great way of like, whoa,
Speaker 4: this Live of Pompey thing is wild.
Speaker 2: They gotta check this out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 4: There's Doctor Dre, There's Miles Davis. You know, there's this
Speaker 4: scene with this great Herbie Hancock keyboard music, and there's
Speaker 4: like this alien with long fingers and he's just kind
Speaker 4: of like moving his fingers around. I'm not saying you
Speaker 4: have to be in an altered state to watch, sure, right,
Speaker 4: but I imagine it helps there's fart jokes.
Speaker 1: I always wanted Star Trek to have more acid in it,
Speaker 1: so I think that's that's gonna be. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be good.
Speaker 4: Oh and there's a great scene that's set to Enya
Speaker 4: with This is for the Star Trek heads out there,
Speaker 4: but there's a great scene with Nya where Picard is
Speaker 4: playing his flute. Star Trek fans will know the flute
Speaker 4: is very important in an episode called The Inner Light,
Speaker 4: which is considered one of the greatest Star Trek episodes
Speaker 4: of all time. So if you want to watch Picard
Speaker 4: play his Inner Light flute to an Enya track, this
Speaker 4: is where you go to see that content.
Speaker 1: I think that's been means, right, hasn't it. Yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, all right.
Speaker 4: That's a great episode if you just want a good story,
Speaker 4: even if you're not a Star Trek fan, that's a
Speaker 4: fantastic episode, all right.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I've ever watched an entire Next
Speaker 1: Generation episode before.
Speaker 2: I can give you some starting points if you're interested.
Speaker 1: Okay, cool, cool, what the more flute the better? Well,
Speaker 1: I I really I wanted to hear I wanted to
Speaker 1: hear from you today mostly, but I'll shout out a
Speaker 1: couple of things that I've been digging lately. So I
Speaker 1: saw Steven Spielberg's latest movie, Disclosure Day. You know, kind
Speaker 1: of like Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. This new movie,
Speaker 1: Spielberg's like, what, he's seventy nine, eighty years old. This
Speaker 1: film is exploring a lot of the themes that he's
Speaker 1: been exploring over his entire career, and it feels almost
Speaker 1: like summationally, sort of like, you know, we're here nearing
Speaker 1: the end and I'm still thinking about aliens and families
Speaker 1: and whatever. In the context, everyone's kind of using this
Speaker 1: as an opportunity to look back on Spielberg's catalog, And
Speaker 1: a movie that kept on coming up over and over
Speaker 1: again was Munich, right, which he made back in their
Speaker 1: two thousand and three. Maybe it's the early two thousands,
Speaker 1: I think about the hostages at the nineteen seventy two
Speaker 1: Olympic Games in Munich. I saw this when it first
Speaker 1: came out, and I remember really liking it. It was
Speaker 1: one of those you know, it's like Saving Private Ryan
Speaker 1: or Schindler's List, where it feels like a different kind
Speaker 1: of Spielberg movie, and then it's rooted entirely in reality,
Speaker 1: and it's about a really serious subject, and it's sort
Speaker 1: of him operating on a different frequency, you know. So
Speaker 1: I remember thinking that about this when it came out
Speaker 1: and really liking it, but I haven't seen it in
Speaker 1: over twenty years, and everyone keeps on bringing up, Well,
Speaker 1: you know, probably the technically the most impressive movie Spielberg
Speaker 1: ever made was Munich. So I went back and I
Speaker 1: rewatched it last week. It's just it's incredible. It's the
Speaker 1: most violent movie Spielberg's ever made. I didn't remember that.
Speaker 1: It's like Scorsese level violence technically it is. It's just incredible.
Speaker 2: Hell.
Speaker 1: He'll set a scene and there's like five different characters
Speaker 1: and the camera will start over here and it will
Speaker 1: start moving and there's like someone on a bike over here,
Speaker 1: and there's someone getting out of a car here, and
Speaker 1: there's someone in a foam booth here, and it's almost
Speaker 1: like as the camera's like tracking over, the focus is right,
Speaker 1: it's changing from here to there. It's the foreground, it's
Speaker 1: the background, and it's just like so masterful, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't feel gimmicky either. When it's happening. The subject matter
Speaker 1: is dark. It's a dark film. One of his dark
Speaker 1: film is probably it's just fun to be like in
Speaker 1: the hands of a master filmmaker like that and just
Speaker 1: sort of be along for the ride, you know.
Speaker 4: You know, it's funny you mentioned that that shot knowing Spielberg,
Speaker 4: you know, who knows. He may have set that up
Speaker 4: on the day, you know. Yeah, he's known for doing that,
Speaker 4: Like he's so good at blocking and I know, setting
Speaker 4: up a scene and he usually just does it on
Speaker 4: the day when he gets there, which is crazy.
Speaker 1: It is crazy, and he is crazy.
Speaker 2: The cinematographer must have been like, wait a minute, you
Speaker 2: want to do what? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I know, but anyways, totally recommended a great movie and
Speaker 1: then something I'm listening to a bunch lately and this
Speaker 1: isn't a movie. But do you know about this guy
Speaker 1: Arthur Russell?
Speaker 2: Arthur Russell, No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: So he's this dude. He was from Iowa. He moved
Speaker 1: out to New York City in the seventies and became
Speaker 1: so he was like a he was a cellist. He
Speaker 1: had a background in like classical music, but he moved
Speaker 1: to New York in the mid seventies. He was part
Speaker 1: of this whole like avant garde music scene, but he
Speaker 1: was also on the ground floor of like underground disco
Speaker 1: there as well. He ended up collaborating with people like
Speaker 1: David Byrne and Philip Glass and Ellen Ginsberg. He was
Speaker 1: very much a part of the cutting edge art scene
Speaker 1: music scene in New York City from the seventies into
Speaker 1: the eighties. He died in the early nineties. I think
Speaker 1: aids complications of due to AIDS. I think he was
Speaker 1: only like forty. I think he died in poverty. He's
Speaker 1: remained very obscure, but he was. I mean, there's so
Speaker 1: many of these characters from that whole era that were
Speaker 1: so integral to that scene, but that nobody knows about
Speaker 1: because they've just sort of been lost to history a
Speaker 1: little bit. There's this compilation of his stuff that came
Speaker 1: out a few years ago that I finally picked up.
Speaker 1: It's called Love Is Overtaking Me. It's great. There's this
Speaker 1: song that opens with it's just him an acoustic guitar.
Speaker 1: It's called close My Eyes. It's very like Elliott Smith esque.
Speaker 1: It's very like tender, almost like a country ditty kind
Speaker 1: of song, and it's cool. The compilation goes between like
Speaker 1: country ditties, and it's got like almost like Amungardi classical
Speaker 1: pop kind of stuff, and it's got stuff it's more electronicy.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of like all over the place.
Speaker 1: And he was definitely like a guy who had his
Speaker 1: hand in many different pots musically and creatively. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's like unlocking this other dimension of that whole era
Speaker 1: of New York. It's it's fun to discover these things
Speaker 1: like this.
Speaker 4: Arthur Russell, Okay, I'm gonna have to check that out.
Speaker 4: I wonder if there's a dock or something about him.
Speaker 2: You know there.
Speaker 1: I think there is a dock and I now that
Speaker 1: you mentioned that, I need to look that up. I
Speaker 1: think there might be a doc about him.
Speaker 2: Yeah wow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But Love Is Overtaking Me is the compilation. I think
Speaker 1: that's the easiest, the easiest one to find. It came
Speaker 1: out a couple of years ago, and I think it
Speaker 1: was just reissued as well.
Speaker 2: So very cool and nice to check that out. Thanks man.
Speaker 1: All right, that's I got two recommendations for you today.
Speaker 1: We were going along here and I and I honestly
Speaker 1: I was really just I just wanted to hear about
Speaker 1: p Funk and star Trek on acid.
Speaker 4: So all right, well, I'm curious if the listeners know
Speaker 4: about some of these things or can can school us
Speaker 4: on some of the holes in our in our knowledge here,
Speaker 4: so totally let us know, let us know.
Speaker 1: Hit us up always six one seven nine oh six
Speaker 1: six six three eight, leave us a voicemail, send us
Speaker 1: a text. Matt, thanks so much for joining me this week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, absolutely, have a great week and I will.
Speaker 2: I'll see you soon.
Speaker 1: All right, sounds good later? All right, gang, there you go,
Speaker 1: Just a couple of main boys giving you some recommendations
Speaker 1: for the holiday weekend. Not sure what you guys have
Speaker 1: got going on, but I hope some R and R
Speaker 1: is in your future. Maybe a barbecue, maybe a pool party,
Speaker 1: maybe a movie. What are you guys watching this weekend?
Speaker 1: Let me know you're gonna go to the local cinema,
Speaker 1: you're gonna fire something up on your TV at home.
Speaker 1: I want to know what you're watching over the fourth
Speaker 1: of July weekend. I just watched Raging Bowl last night. Again.
Speaker 1: My son is trying to watch all these classics with me.
Speaker 1: So whenever we get the chance to do so, you know,
Speaker 1: we do. And he really digs Scorsese, so we busted
Speaker 1: that out last night. I was telling him how this
Speaker 1: was the movie that made me want to go to
Speaker 1: film school back when I was in high school, which
Speaker 1: is absolutely true. I remember seeing this and just being
Speaker 1: blown away by the black and white photography and the
Speaker 1: camera work, the boxing scenes, de Niro's performance, Joe Peshi's performance.
Speaker 1: I'd never heard people talk like that to each other before.
Speaker 1: You know, my my my grandmother's from New York. I've
Speaker 1: got family in New York. My grandmother was from Queen's
Speaker 1: but still, you know, besides a family reunion here and
Speaker 1: there where I got a little bit of the accent
Speaker 1: going on. I've never seen this sort of this sort
Speaker 1: of home life or culture or anything before. The movie
Speaker 1: just blew me away on so many levels. So anyways,
Speaker 1: we watched it. He really liked it. He put it
Speaker 1: a number two on his scorsesey list of what we've
Speaker 1: seen so far. I think he's got Shutter Island at
Speaker 1: number three because he's a he's a horror fan. Ride
Speaker 1: or Die, what's it? Number? Oh, Goodfellow is his number one.
Speaker 1: He obviously hasn't seen everything yet, obviously, but that's where
Speaker 1: he's at so Far Goodfellows one, Raging Bull two, Shutter
Speaker 1: Island three let me know, guys, don't be a stranger.
Speaker 1: Give me a shout. However you want to do it.
Speaker 1: You can text me six one seven nine oh six
Speaker 1: six six three eight. You can leave me a voicemail
Speaker 1: also six one seven nine oh six six six three eight.
Speaker 1: You can email me at disgrace lampod at gmail dot com,
Speaker 1: or if you are a member of Disgraceland all Access
Speaker 1: over in Patreon. You know I'm always there, always hanging out,
Speaker 1: always doing something, so you can talk to me there.
Speaker 1: If you are a member of disgrace Land all Access,
Speaker 1: by the way, thank you as always for your support.
Speaker 1: You guys allow us to do all kinds of cool
Speaker 1: shit here, there and everywhere. I hope you guys are enjoying.
Speaker 1: This film should be played loud. Our video podcasts over
Speaker 1: there are se month episode of that show just came
Speaker 1: out last week, all about dazed and confused. What are
Speaker 1: we going to do next? I don't know. We've got
Speaker 1: a poll over on Patreon of you guys asking you
Speaker 1: what we should do. We need a good summer movie
Speaker 1: with a great soundtrack, A movie that takes place in
Speaker 1: summer with a great soundtrack. Our idea had been do
Speaker 1: the right thing, or my idea had been do the
Speaker 1: right thing. Of course Jake had to go and complicate
Speaker 1: it and be like, well, what other summer movies are there?
Speaker 1: So we put it to you guys, and there's a
Speaker 1: poll up on Patreon. I believe it's going to be
Speaker 1: there until Friday night, like eleven fifty nine pm Eastern time.
Speaker 1: So if you have not voted yet, if you want
Speaker 1: us to cover do the right Thing, or you want
Speaker 1: us to cover something else. People have talked about stand
Speaker 1: by Me, they talked about Adventureland. They've talked about all
Speaker 1: kinds of Kenny Loggins, Cheese Top Gun and flash Dance
Speaker 1: and the like. Get over there, Disgrace Land all access
Speaker 1: on Patreon. I believe you can vote as any tiered
Speaker 1: member to vote, of course, you gotta be a member
Speaker 1: of the Sound and Fury tier. That's the video tier
Speaker 1: to watch the show. Anybody can vote, Okay, So get
Speaker 1: in there and vote. And while you're doing that, while
Speaker 1: you're thinking on that, let's recap number one first of all, right,
Speaker 1: now in your Hollywood land, feed our episode on Bob Crane.
Speaker 1: Number two coming at you this Friday. We've got a
Speaker 1: new episode of the Screening Room and this week I'm
Speaker 1: talking all about the nineteen eighty nine film Sex Lives
Speaker 1: and Videotape starring James Spader, Andy McDowell, Peter Gallagher, and
Speaker 1: Laura San Giacomo. Number three. Next week on Monday, we're
Speaker 1: bringing you our fully scripted and sound design episode on
Speaker 1: James Dean. Number four. Over in our sister show, Disgraceland,
Speaker 1: we've got a brand new episode on Wendy o' williams.
Speaker 1: This is the story of one of the most extreme
Speaker 1: shock rockers in music history. Check this out in the
Speaker 1: Disgraceland feed to hear that episode number five. This film
Speaker 1: should be played loud our video podcast over on Patreon
Speaker 1: Days and Confused. Brand new episode is out now. We
Speaker 1: also episodes on Big Lebowski, Boogie Knights, High Fidelity, Trading Spotting, Goodfellas, Disgrace,
Speaker 1: lampod dot Com. Right there on the homepage you can
Speaker 1: learn more and sign up to Day and Now. In
Speaker 1: honor of this week's episode, Here's what America was watching
Speaker 1: at the movies in nineteen seventy eight, the year that
Speaker 1: Bob Crane died at the age of forty nine. Number
Speaker 1: one Greece directed by Randall Kleiser. Number two National Lampoon's
Speaker 1: Animal House directed by John Landis direct Number three Close
Speaker 1: Encounters of the Third Kind directed by Steven Spiel directed
Speaker 1: by by Jay And Number four Every Which Waymer Saturday
Speaker 1: directed by James far directed John Number five, Number Eavann
Speaker 1: Waiters directed by Warren Baty and Buck Henry directed by
Speaker 1: John Badder. Number six Number Jaws two directed by Janneau Schwartz.
Speaker 1: Number seven Saturday Night Feet Talking and Start Mixing