PODCAST OF THE MONTH! GEEK’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY!

This is the first of what I hope will be many more features on my favorite podcasts!

Wikipedia defines podcast as: A type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of files (either audio or video) subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication. The word is a neologism [a newly coined term, word, or phrase, that may be in the process of entering common use] derived from "broadcast" and "pod" from the success of the iPod, as podcasts are often listened to on portable media players.

I have been listening to podcasts for many years now. I first began listening to podcasts on my computer on their websites’ MP3 players. The first such podcast I remember listening to this way was Slice of SciFi back in March of 2007, when they interviewed Amanda Tapping and Damian Kindler on the then Web series Sanctuary.

It wasn’t until I was given a “hand-me-down” iPhone 3GS that I became fully immersed in the world of podcasting. Thanks to the ease of the iTunes interface and being able to subscribe to podcasts, I now listen to about twenty different podcasts a week; with subjects ranging from Sci-Fi Television to Comic Books. If you have a favorite genre interest – be it a particular TV show or type of film or comic books or just fannish stuff in general – there is a podcast on that subject!

Podcast of the Month for March 2012 is:

Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy!

The following is from their "about the show" page on their web site:

Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy is an interview/talk show hosted by editor John Joseph Adams (Wastelands, The Living Dead) and author David Barr Kirtley (New Voices in Science Fiction, Fantasy: The Best of the Year). Each episode features an interview with a leading figure in the world of science and science fiction, followed by a discussion of science fiction books, movies, video games, and more.

Guests include novelists such as George R. R. Martin (A Game of Thrones), Charlaine Harris (the Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood series), Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club), William Gibson (Neuromancer), Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), China Miéville (Perdido Street Station), and R. A. Salvatore (The Dark Elf Trilogy), as well as filmmakers such as Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) and Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), comic book writers such as Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead) and Chris Roberson (Superman), video game designers such as Ron Gilbert (The Secret of Monkey Island) and Chet Faliszek (Left 4 Dead), science writers such as P. W. Singer (Wired for War) and Mary Roach (Stiff), and scientists such as Neil deGrasse Tyson (Nova scienceNOW) and Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion).

Season One (2010) was produced for Tor.com, the website of a major science fiction book publisher. Season Two (2011) was produced for io9.com, a science fiction and futurism website owned by Gawker Media. Season Three (2012) is currently being produced for Wired.com, the website of the popular tech magazine Wired.

If you are looking for professionally and impartially executed interviews of writers of books, television and film, then Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy is an exceptional podcast to start with. Most podcasts run at about one hour, with the first half-hour being dedicated to the featured writer for that episode and then the second half-hour usually features hosts John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley talking about other media events related to the author or subject featured in the first half of the program.

An excellent example of this is episode #55 [posted February 29, 2012] that featured an interview with Michael Chabon, the author of Wonder Boys and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, who discussed working for Disney and writing the screenplay [with director/co-writer Andrew Stanton and co-writer Mark Andrews] for the 2012 movie John Carter. In the second half-hour John and David, who are knowledgeable authors/editors and Burroughs-philes in their own rite, give a detailed and very opinionated review of the John Carter film, from the perspective of two men who have read the entire series of books about John Carter. One fascinating thing I found out about their review is that the many inconstancies between the books and the movie were received both positively and negatively by the podcasting duo.

If you want to listen to their podcast review of John Carter yourself, go to this link: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/03/michael-chabon-geeks-guide-galaxy. If you want to go to their web site and check out some of their other podcasts, go to this link: http://geeksguideshow.com/

ZACK SNYDER'S SUCKER PUNCH: WHAT IS THE REAL REALITY?

It has now been three weeks since I saw the film Sucker Punch at my local theater. I have read more reviews of this film after seeing a movie than any other film I have ever watched. The reason for this is I have yet to read a review that explains to me successfully why Sucker Punch deals in not one fantasy setting, but two distinct fantasy worlds. Most reviewers dwell on the sci-fi-fantasy action set pieces that take place in Baby Doll’s mind as she dances, while either ignoring the nightclub-bordello imaginary setting; or completely confusing it with the real world setting of the asylum. Snyder has done such an extraordinary job of creating lasting and impactful images in the fantasy quest settings that it is almost as if the human mind is not able to retain the more dark and disturbing imagery of the nightclub-bordello. For me at least, I found this primary bleak fantasy setting at least as gripping as the later secondary dazzling quest fantasy worlds. I have still not satisfied my need to understand why the director and co-writer of Sucker Punch created a counter unreality to the harsh reality of the asylum setting. To compound the confusion, the sequencing of these two separate, yet parallel (un)realities is done in a very nonlinear fashion, so that one is forced to piece together the timing of the events taking place in both worlds after the film has concluded.

I decided that if I was going to get an answer to these questions, the only place I might get them is from the creator himself, Zack Snyder. After a fairly lengthy and exhaustive search of the Internet, I came up with many fluff pieces talking about all the surface glamor of Sucker Punch, but not anything that answered what the film is actually about; either thematically or theoretically. The closest I could find was this interview of Mr. Snyder by Jack Giroux posted on the website Film School Rejects on March 27. I’ll post some of the quotes by Zack Snyder from this brief interview that I feel give at least a glimpse as to what Sucker Punch was really about.

Jack Giroux: The film has gotten that interesting type of polarizing reaction.

Zack Snyder: It has. For me, I honestly think with Sucker Punch – it’s weird. I feel like people either see it two ways: completely in the overt version as exactly what they see, which is just this girl going crazy and then going on this adventure for no reason. That version of the movie that people see is as a super straightforward movie. Or people see it as a crazy, sort of, commentary on genre films and what is sexuality and why the girls are dressed like that. I think that’s also valid, because that’s what the movie is.

Jack Giroux: Would you say the film is a critique on geek culture’s sexism?

Zack Snyder: It is, absolutely. I find it interesting, in a lot of ways, that this movie – of all the movies I’ve made – has been universally hated by fanboys, which I find really interesting. It’s like a fanboy indictment, in some ways. They can’t have fun with the geek culture sexual hang ups.

Jack Giroux: I thought it was basically you commenting on those attendants at Comic-Con who shout, “You’re hot!” at beautiful cast members.

Zack Snyder: Yeah! 100%. They don’t know how to be around it. It’s funny because someone once asked me about why I dressed the girls like that, and I said, “Do you not get the metaphor there? The girls are in a brothel performing for men in the dark. In the fantasy sequences, the men in the dark are us. The men in the dark are basically me; dorky sci-fi kids.”

Jack Giroux: Do you feel like most people are missing that idea? Aren’t there self-referential lines about that in the film, like when Sweet Pea says the dances have to be more than titillation?

Zack Snyder: Oh yeah. There’s a few of those. She says, “The dance should be more than titillation, and mine’s personal,” and that’s exactly a comment on the movie itself. I think 90% are missing it, or they just don’t care. See, I don’t know. I haven’t had the opportunity to question people about the film, and I feel like that’s the next step with taking the time to interview people about what they saw, or what they thought they saw. The other line that I think is important is, as soon as the fantasy starts, there’s that whole sequence where Sweet Pea breaks it down and says, “This is a joke, right? I get the sexy school girl and nurse thing, but what’s this? A lobotomized vegetable? How about something more commercial?” That is basically my comment on the film as well. She’s saying, “Why are you making this movie? You need to make a movie more commercial. It shouldn’t be so dark and weird.”

This is only about half the interview, but it deals with the aspects of Sucker Punch that I’m the most interested in. Here is the first quote of Zack’s where he states, “Or people see it as a crazy, sort of, commentary on genre films and what is sexuality and why the girls are dressed like that. I think that’s also valid, because that’s what the movie is.” Is Mr. Snyder saying that the movie is just his way of pointing out the conflicting motives of genre films that both empower women and exploit them simultaneously? If that were the case, he might have chosen a far lighter tone that would have accomplished the same goal. Therefore, there must be more to the film than that.

In this next quote, Mr. Snyder seems to reinforce this theme of Sucker Punch by saying, “Do you not get the metaphor there? The girls are in a brothel performing for men in the dark. In the fantasy sequences, the men in the dark are us. The men in the dark are basically me; dorky sci-fi kids.” Zack Snyder seems to be underplaying the darker undertones of the brothel, by stating that it is a metaphor for “dorky sci-fi kids” who go to see genre films to watch girls in skimpy outfits acting out male fantasies. If I thought Mr. Snyder was being completely truthful with this comment, I might be insulted. However, I think he’s having a laugh here at his own personal joke, which he is still unwilling to completely let anyone else in on. I think like most creative people, he wants the work of art to speak for itself and he feels uncomfortable or is just unwilling to explain it to anyone else. It’s like the old adage: If you have to explain the joke, than it’s not really funny is it?

The most revealing comments of this interview is when Zack Snyder says, “The other line that I think is important is, as soon as the fantasy starts, there’s that whole sequence where Sweet Pea breaks it down and says, ‘This is a joke, right? I get the sexy school girl and nurse thing, but what’s this? A lobotomized vegetable? How about something more commercial?’” Here is where Mr. Snyder at least infers that he intentionally created a film that contrasted ugly truths with beautiful fantasies; but still, he does not address to what end! Is Sucker Punch just one glorious visual manifestation of men’s ignominious treatment of women; at least within the confines of our popular entertainments? These quotes from the director seem to indicate just that. If that is the case, than Mr. Snyder is a far shallower creative mind than I have given him credit for.

Even now I find myself wanting to better understand this dark disturbing film that is interrupted by bursts of intoxicatingly stunning visual images that should have made it far more entertaining than it actually was. I find that I’m disappointed that Sucker Punch wasn’t either a pleasant diversion or a profound exposé, but a diluted mixture of both.

Anyone who is interested in reading the entire interview with Zack Snyder can read it at http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/interview-zack-snyder-on-the-sexuality-and-world-of-sucker-punch.php.

WICKED COOL GHOUL INTERVIEW!

I just read the most boffo socko article and interview of Ron "The Ghoul" Sweed ever! Detroit's Metro Times had a cover feature story by Anita Schmaltz on my favorite bearded maniac, The Ghoul! It briefly detailed the history of Detroit's love of all things Ghoul, then segued into an interview with Ron's mom, Ron himself and his current wife.


Here are some great quotes from Ron's mom Irene Barnard:

"Ron was very different right from the time he came out of the chute. It started out when he was about 3, maybe 4 years old. His grandfather took him downtown to see Santa Claus, and he was going to buy him one Christmas present, like maybe a football or a baseball or a catcher’s mitt. Ron picked out a hand puppet, and he couldn’t be dissuaded to give that up. As early as that, he wanted to entertain."

"He and a bunch of kids one day went to the neighboring show which was, oh, maybe a half hour’s distance from our house. And the matinee show should have been over maybe 4 o’clock, maybe 4:15, and I waited, and I waited, and I began to sorta worry, then, all of a sudden, I see this crowd of kids come walking down the street, and I knew ... Ron is in the middle of this crowd, and he was. What had happened ... this was some sort of a fright show at the Shore Theater in Euclid. Unbeknownst to me, he said this was tossed into the rubbish. It was a gorilla suit, and he wore it coming home. He said that it was just thrown out in the trash. I was very gullible. I believed that. That poor guy lost his gorilla suit. This is how he met Ernie Anderson"

Here is a great quote from Ron's wife Mary Terese Matousek:

"It’s just been amazing to me. The first time I saw him, he was at a small club (in Cleveland). It was like a Thursday so there weren’t a lot of people. But we went to Detroit, at the Magic Bag, the first time I saw him do a big live show. It was amazing to see how the people responded to him. I mean, literally, his foot hit the stage, and everybody in the whole place just got to their feet. It sent chills up and down my spine."

Here are some great quotes from Ron "The Ghoul" Sweed himself:

"My friends and I went to a afternoon matinee of [in a carnival barker’s tone] “Dr. Silkini and his live stage show of horrors, on stage in person, the Frankenstein monster, Dracula, King Kong and 45 horror movies,” you know, all in one afternoon. Well, hey, can’t pass that up. You know, that’s almost as good as Christmas. All the kids are screaming, throwing popcorn at the Frankenstein Monster. We weren’t very kind 13-year-olds … Then the show was over, so we took this short-cut home which was through a back alley. Silkini was loading up to go home. It was his misfortune to have left an open trunk with a gorilla suit there."

"I always had a fascination for gorilla suits. You know, The Three Stooges always had some gorilla in it, some of those old B-movies. Yeah, look around, there’s no Dr. Silkini, Hot damn! I got a gorilla suit. … We were walking from one street to another to get to our street just gathering more people, 'Hey, a gorilla! Look at that!' "

To read the entire Metro Times article on Ron Sweed  go to http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=2251 and tell 'em "Doc" Freak sent ya!