On this week's episode, we took a look at 1992 Joe Pesci vehicle, My Cousin Vinny (dir. Jonathan Lynn). Featuring the struggles of visiting the Deep South, does this 90s courtroom comedy still hold up? Do good grits take more than 5 minutes to cook?
Content Warning: Strong Language, Suggestive Material
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
We're back with another monster length music episode on guitarist Eric Johnson. Famed for his dreamy guitar tones, exquisitely crafted instrumentals and general guitar wizardry, we take a look at his 80s and 90s output (Tones, Ah Via Musicom, and Venus Isle) plus one of his more recent albums, Up Close.
Content Warning: Strong Language
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
We take a trip back to the SNES for Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, the premier babysitting platformer where you play as a green dinosaur. Remembered for its coloring book aesthetic, banging soundtrack, early 3D graphics, and bizarre place in the Mario canon, Yoshi's Island is a wonderfully different Mario game that remains a platformer classic.
Content Warning: Strong Language
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
We're back with a look at Anthony's Bourdain's memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. Taking a break from science fiction and fantasy, we take a "warts and all" look into Bourdain's life, career, and the bizarre world of restaurants.
Content Warning: Strong Language, Adult Themes
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
Taking a detour over to Jersey, today's episode is on the punk band The Bouncing Souls. With all the classic punk joys of 45 second songs, bouncy guitar riffs, and sophomoric lyrics, The Bouncing Souls did carve out a respectable niche in the 90s. Is it enough for punk-averse Derek to get on board?
Content Warning: Strong Language
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis.
Live from Jordan's house, and just in time for Christmas, we cover Shane Black's directorial debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It's a weird little meta detective movie, wherein Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer team up to to solve a murder in the mean streets of Los Angeles.
Content Warning: Strong Language, Abuse
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
We take a journey to the future of 2032, where Taco Bell has crushed all other fast food restaurants, for Marco Brambilla's 1993 sci-fi action comedy Demolition Man. Starring Sylvester Stallone as a cowboy cop and Wesley Snipes as a criminal mastermind, both characters are transported to the utopian future where everybody is extremely peaceful, sanitized, and unbelievably lame.
Content Warning: Strong Language, Police
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
This week we're taking a look at Megacrit's indie roguelike deckbuilding game, Slay the Spire. In it, you climb a randomly generated tower and build a randomly generated deck to fight hordes of random generated monsters (sorta) with your choice of fire, poison, lightning or anger.
Content Warning: Strong Language
Created by Derek Delago
Music by Jack Ellis
Taking another step into horror video games, today we tackle the psychological horror masterpiece, Silent Hill 2. Remembered for its foreboding atmosphere, terrifying imagery, and strong storyline, not to mention iconic and terrifying enemies, Silent Hill 2 has remained a classic in the genre.
Content Warning: Strong Language, Horrific Imagery, Sexual Violence
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
We're back with everybody's favorite reggae-infused punk band, The Police. Featuring future Spyro music composer Stewart Copeland on drums, former session musician Andy Summers, and some guy called Sting, The Police only put out five albums but had a huge impact on the 80s sound, in addition to immense success.
Content Warning: Strong Language
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
Continuing our streak of bizarre high-concept 80s films, for this week's episode we took a chance on Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985, dir. Tim Burton). In the first screen depiction of Paul Reuben's kitschy manchild, Pee-wee Herman, we follow his surreal antics in recovering a missing bicycle across an equally strange America.
Content Warning: Strong Language, Suggestive Content
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
Just in time for Halloween, we took a look at Junji ito's surreal horror manga series, Uzumaki. Known for body horror and a preoccupation with all things "spiral," this manga ain't for the faint of heart.
Content Warning: Strong Language, Horror Imagery
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
In today's lesson we talk about the 2020 Olympics, the disintegrating political system, and of course, psychic children. Of course, we're talking about the groundbreaking 1988 animated film, Akira. In addition to covering the complex characters, complicated story, and rife amounts of body horror, we also talk about the animation industry in the late 80s and how Akira influenced the next decade (and more).
Content Warning: Strong Language, Discussion of Graphic and Sexualized Violence
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
For today's show, we take a trip to the Baker mansion in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. The most recent mainline Resident Evil game took the series back to basics by having you fight against "evil residents" and innovated by adopting a first person perspective, in a series famed for it's third-person gameplay.
Content Warning: Strong Language, Horror Imagery
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
Join us for the low down on the Soggy Bottom Boys...er the Coen Brother's comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou? Painting a loving (if occasionally) critical picture of the American South pre-World War II, O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a gold mine of quips and references to mythology, if lacking some of the dramatic or satirical teeth of other Coen films.
Content Warning: Strong Language, Discussion of Hate Groups
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
For our episode today, we take a visit to the grotesquely cute roguelike indie game, The Binding of Isaac. Liberally mixing biblical horror, classic dungeon delving, and a whole lot of black comedy, The Binding of Isaac proved to be the breakthrough hit of indie game maker Edmund McMillen, later spawning a remake called Binding of Isaac Rebirth.
Content Warning: Suggestive Material, Strong Language
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
Taking a detour to harder sci-fi, we take a look at Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. A fitting title, considering all the craziness that happens when a fight for independence occurs on 2075's premier penal colony: the moon.
Content Warning: Suggestive Content, Strong Language, Politics
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
For today's show, we're taking a look at Disco Elysium, a bizarre narrative RPG developed by ZA/UM. After surviving the bender to end all benders, you play an amnesiac detective investigating a murder. How (if?) you solve that murder is up to you as your emotions and thoughts tailor your strange journey through a town in the midst of chaos and corruption. And yes, you can continue to do drugs, punch children, and worse on the way to the truth.
Content Warning: Suggestive Material, Strong Language
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
For today's show, we take a look at Nobuhiko Obayashi's House, a bizarre horror classic. Created with input from Obayashi's young daughter, the film juggles bizarre and horrific imagery with extremely goofy setups and asides, creating a dreamlike atmosphere that manages to be both uncanny and hilarious.
Content Warning: Strong Language
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis
For this iteration of Music Class, we're covering the retro-inspired soul artist, Mayer Hawthorne. Known for his geeky aesthetic in a sensual genre, Hawthorne has evolved from a one-man band to an Indie darling, combining retro mo-town with modern tricks.
Content Warning: Strong Language, Sexually Explicit Lyrics
Created by Derek Delago and Jordan Hester
Music by Jack Ellis