Eruditorum Press

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podcasting

These Podcasts Were Made for Listenin’

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Hi, everyone. 

I don’t have anything for you today, though I am currently tinkering with a couple of things that might end up being postable. 

But neither of those are ready yet, so or today I’ll have to just point you towards a new episode of Consider the Ray Gun, the strand of WWA in which Daniel chats with someone about a book. 

This week it’s Kit rejoining Daniel for a conversation about the early Richard Bachman (Stephen King) novel The Long Walk.  Listen/download here. 

It’s every bit as good as their recent episode on Ender’s Game.

CtRG started as part of Oi! Spaceman, so previous episodes can be found here.

Happy New Year all.

 

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Orson Audio

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Nice new bit of audio content for you today, mainly on the subject of guys called Orson. 

From the Wrong With Authority stable, a commentary track for Orson Welles’ undervalued late masterpiece F for Fake, featuring myself and Daniel Harper.  Download or listen HERE. 

This commentary is basically a spin-off from an episode of They Must Be Destroyed on Sight in which I guested to chat about the same film – here.  TMBDOS also recently did an episode on Welles’ finally-completed final film, The Other Side of the Wind, here.

Plus, we recently released a podcast in which Daniel and Kit chatted about Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, and somehow managed to find new angles on it, despite it being one of the most discussed texts on the internet.  Download or listen HERE.

Also, if you haven’t listened to the Wrong With Authority’s third ‘Trumpism’ episode, recorded after the mid-terms, but feel like subjecting yourself to five hours of our self-therapy, that’s here. 

On the subject of Wrong With Authority, we still have two great new episodes in the can, being edited, and slated to be released soon (hopefully).  There’s our next proper full WWA episode, hosted by Daniel this time, which will tackle D. W. Griffiths’ racist alleged-masterpiece of early American silent cinema Birth of a Nation, and a Consider the Reagan commentary on James Cameron’s The Terminator.  Holly joins the team for both.  Look out for those.

Speaking of Holly, people should definitely check out her new seasonal podcast series So Here It Is, in which she is joined by a succession of guests to chat with her about the tracks in the British Christmas music canon.  One of the guests who has already been on is our friend Andrew Hickey, whose own new podcast series, A History of Pop Music in 500 Songs, is another absolute must.

(Oh, and I haven’t forgotten that I was meant to be reposting the Doctor Who commentary tracks I recorded with El.  I’ll get back to that, probably in the new year.)

In other me-news, I’ve recently had something of a posting spurt over at my Patreon, and people who sponsor me for as miniscule a goddamn pittance as one measley dollar a month goddammit can exclusively access forthcoming posts of mine (fucking looooong ones too) on things like the TV show Legion (which I’ve perversely decided to find fascinating), Doctor Who and Brecht’s ‘Epic Theatre’, and Marx’s theory of capitalist crisis… as well as an audio snippet from the WWA episode we did on Anonymous in which me and the gang get drawn into a little chat about the ‘New Atheists’.

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Further Thoughts on Hannibal

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This really is how these stories have to be done.  Not the faux-realism of the movie of Silence of the Lambs.  That approach jars with Anthony Hopkins’ (less than entirely successful) attempt to capture the uncanny and semi-demonic nature of Hannibal himself, who was always a creature of evil magic.  Look at Harris’ descriptions of him in Red Dragon, with his maroon eyes and his extra finger and his preternatural senses.

What the TV version of the stories has done is capture (with the proper ambiguity) the essentially magical nature of Hannibal and his world.  He lives in a twilight interzone between our world of quotidian normality and the deep, dark pit where human nature as brutish meat intersects with human nature as beset by devils and shades.

Yes, it glamourizes him and his violence, in contrast to real murderers… but that seems a superficial way to look at these stories, even if it’s a perfectly valid one which should be given its own space.  Below that, there is more to say.  Treating Hannibal as an uncanny creature who blurs our senses of place and time and knowledge is actually much better in this respect than the ‘realist’ approach, which ends up straightforwardly making him a glamorous monster.

I love that this show dances on the borderline between diegetic materialism and a diegetic acknowledgement of a supernatural world.  It leaves open to us the possibility that Hannibal truly is a demon, or a demon-inhabited man.  By refusing to foreclose upon the literal supernatural reading, the show leaves the incredible oneiric fertility of the supernatural story open to us.  It does what lesser works like The Babadook and The Innocents fail to do.  It respects the uncanny, and it also allows it a possible existence without making it anything less than numinous and ineffable.  It ultimately asks us to not care – but in a constructive way.  It asks us to recognise the essentially uncanny, weird, gothic, sick, twisted, irrational nature of reality itself as we live it.

Phil Sandifer (I suspect) enjoys the show in terms of Blakean visions.  I enjoy the show in terms of the Gothic Marxist insistence upon the really existing world as a twisted, phantasmagorical and irrational hellscape, but also as a site of the creative and expressive production of phantasms.

Season 3 is surely the fruition of this approach, as begun (falteringly) in Season 1 and continued (far more confidently) in Season 2.  And the great thing is that they’ve recognised this strain in the original stories, particularly in Red Dragon (which really stands above and apart from the other books), by placing the story of Francis Dolarhyde as the terminus of the season.

Dolarhyde is the figure who, through his Blakean-inflected hallucinations and his status as tragic and enmonstered outsider, allows the categories to crash into each other in horrific but visionary ways.  I love how Harris does all this in the book without ever losing track of Dolarhyde’s viciousness, or his essential patheticness. …

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Viva Hate (Shabcast 9)

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This month, the Shabogan Graffiti Podcast sinks happily into a morass of bile and spleen.

I’m joined by the wonderful Holly B – star of the City of the Dead podcast, Pex Lives guest appearances and her own blog – for a gargantuan complaining session, an epic voyage into annoyance that goes on for so long I had to split it into two parts.  Hate is fertile ground.

Download or listen to Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

In Part 1 we cover Doctor Who that we detest.  We both choose victims from both classic and new Who.

In Part 2 we move on to non-Who hates and lambast and villify a movie each (two of the most popular, lauded and loved movies of recent years as it happens – ha!).  We round things off by indulging in rants about pet hates.  I go for a soft target, Holly for a tougher one.

No clues.  You have to listen.

Proud of this one.  Lots of fun to record and (I hope) listen to.  And much credit must go to Holly who not only came up with the idea for the episode but also the structure of the discussion.

PS – This episode also features a cameo return appearance by a popular Shabcast star of the past.  But again, no clues.

PPS – Very excited about forthcoming Shabcasts.  Returning guests and new ones.  Great topics.  

As always, thanks for listening.  You’re peaches, all of you. 

(Except you.  Yes, you.  You know who you are.)…

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Is this a Shabcast which I see before me? (Shabcast 8)

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What bloody man is that?  It’s bloody Jack Graham.  Again.

The curtain rises on Shabcast 8.  Listen and/or download here.

Another Shabcast so soon?   Yes, but don’t get used to this kind of schedule.  It’s only happening because time is out of joint.

This time, myself and my actorly buddy Elliot Chapman (returning guest from the Macra shabcast, and Big Finish’s new Ben Jackson) discuss Shakespeare’s great tragedy ‘Macbeth’ (we only shabcast about things that begin with ‘mac’), and Shakespeare generally.  We even say the word ‘Macbeth’ occasionally… hopefully without bringing too much theatrical ill-luck down upon ourselves.  We chat as we watch the TV film of Trevor Nunn’s legendary production from 1978, starring Ian McKellen and Judi Dench, and produced by Verity Lambert.  The second most profound material she ever televised.

Elliot will be appearing in a production of ‘Macbeth’ soon to run in Redcliffe Caves in Bristol, produced by Insane Root as part of the Bristol Shakespeare Festival.  Jack will be appearing in the kitchen soon to make himself an evil sandwich as part of a obscene, perverse ritual.  Root for us insanely, and download our shabcast.

When shall we two meet again?  Probably to discuss macaroni cheese.

Exeunt.…

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Shabgraff in Wonderland (Shabcast 7)

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“[T]he speaking of language is part of an activity, or a form of life.”

– Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations

Today is the 150th anniversary of the origins of Alice in Wonderland.  A century-and-a-half ago today, Lewis Carroll took a boat trip with the Liddell family, and told the children a story.  Alice Liddell asked him to write it down.  He started the next day.

To celebrate, follow me down the rabbit hole and listen to Shabcast 7 – here.

A special one, this.  I’m once again joined by Josh Marsfelder (of Vaka Rangi) and for the first time by the wonderful Jane of many fames.  We watch (and chat about) the neglected 1966 Jonathan Miller TV version of Alice in Wonderland.  A forgotten masterpiece.  Well, maybe not forgotten… but not exactly remembered either.

This podcast had various titles before I settled on my final choice: ‘Alice Narrates Herself’.  It was going to be called ‘Cobwebs on the Tea Urn’, then ‘Mock Turtles all the Way Down’, then ‘Pig Latin’…  I even toyed with a facile but amusing ‘Shabcast Madness Returns’.  I eventually settled on a title which reflected something myself and my guests all seemed to notice and cherish: the fact that this production gives control of the narrative to Alice herself, and lets her tell the story.  One of the many things which makes this production unique.

I’m very proud of this episode, not just because I was lucky enough to get Jane to guest with myself and Josh, but also because the dynamic of the discussion is lovely.  The three of us attend a tea party, detached from time (it’s the evening for them, the middle of the night for me) and talk at cross purposes for ages… though, of course, unlike the Hatter and his friends, we’re hopefully not talking nonsense.  I love the way our distinct perspectives each hook into something different about the story we’re watching, and the way we overlap and converge.  We don’t always end up in exactly the same territory… but we get to read and enjoy each other’s maps.

What could be more apt?

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UPDATE (Same day):

I somehow forgot to link to Josh’s pieces about Alice.  Here they are:
http://forest-of-illusions.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/pet-hobby-of-mine-has-always-been.html
http://vakarangi.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/and-when-i-grow-up-ill-write-one-once_26.html
http://forest-of-illusions.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-second-song-of-queen-aliissa.html 

And here’s Jane’s essay about LOST, mentioned in the Shabcast:
http://www.philipsandifer.com/2013/11/pop-between-realities-home-in-time-for_27.html

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EDIT (Also same day):

In the original version of this post I mistakenly claimed that today was the 150th anniversary of the publication of the book.  I have corrected this howler. …

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Spare Parts, A Love Story (more podcasting)

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Yet more audio news, listeners. 

This time I’m a guest on the lovely, cuddly, clued-up Oi! Spaceman podcast, hosted by married couple Daniel Harper and Shana Wolstein. 

Here‘s my episode.

We discuss the Big Finish cyber-masterpiece ‘Spare Parts’ by Marc Platt, and loads of other stuff including Cybermen in general, emotion in drama, capitalism, communism and fascism…

I know, it sounds a bit dry, but we also do loads of nerdy chatting about Doctor Who, and there’s plenty of mucking about and giggling.  Also, I receive my first ever aural blowjob. 

Shana and Daniel have a great podcast going (I’ve been enjoying their back catalogue and its been a blast) and I was honoured to be asked on.  I had a great time, and I think you will too if you lend us your ears.  Your spare ones will do.…

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The Ark in Space Commentary, etc

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Phil and myself are back with more episode commentaries, for ‘The Ark in Space‘ this time.

Oh your lucky, lucky ears.

Download a zip containing all four episodes here.

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In other audio news, Holly B of Comfortable Bohemian Elegance has begun a new podcasting project, City of the Dead, which will cover all the Amicus films.  She’s accompanied by James Murphy of Pex Lives.  Here‘s episode one, covering the movie City of the Dead (AKA Horror Hotel) which features the late Christopher Lee.  It’s a funny and thoughtful first episode, and the series looks well worth following.

It’s really nice to see tabs like ‘City of the Dead’ and ‘Eruditorum’ and (of course) ‘Shabcasts’ appearing down the side of the Pex Lives Libsyn page.  Kevin and James really are generous and encouraging coves who are coaxing great content out of great people… and even some passable content out of me!  Long may they continue.…

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