Cinema Death Cult

Returning guest Helder Mira and first time guest Brendan Mahoney join me for a podcast about Russell Crowe, maritime adventure, movie theater memories, bird law and vibes.

It's no secret that dudes rock. But lesser known is the fact that the ladies? They rock sometimes two. My first female guest, Brianna Snyder, joins me to talk about Éric Rohmer's The Green Ray and Lina Vertmüller's Seven Beauties.

As we discuss, I started doing a Letterboxd. You can keep abreast of my dumb opinions on movies here.

Jim Knipfel returns to talk about his newly-launched Patreon and to ponder the wonders of the grimy '80s cult classic C.H.U.D. Well, mostly we talked about C.H.U.D.

I'm kind of at a loss for describing the C.H.U.D. conversation. We cover a lot of ground. But trust me, this one's a banger. It's so good that I didn't realize I confused Joe Pesci with Joe Piscopo until three hours after we stopped talking. Oh, the C.H.U.D. filming location site is here.

Alan Kaplan joins me to talk about the organized labor history, psychology and philosophy behind John Cusack's 1997 dark comedy Grosse Pointe Blank.

In my most deranged podcast episode yet, I do a deep dive into the QAnon-related conspiracies and blind item gossip surrounding the 1983 Jim Henson movie The Dark Crystal.

The blind item that started the whole weird ball rolling is here.

The ADRENOCHROME!! reddit post is [here](ttps://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/jdp3uf/adrenochrome_heres_a_clip_from_the_dark_crystal/).

The debunking reddit post is here.

The New York Times Seth story is here.

The fan cut of The Dark Crystal is here.

James Griffith, a philosophy professor and one of my best friends, joins me to discuss Eminem and the movie 8 Mile.

It's an hour of two bros bro-ing out on Eminem, Voltaire, Neoliberalism, Malcolm McLaren, George Plimpton and Rocky Balboa.

This is the Dr. Dre discovers Eminem documentary we discuss at the end.

The song I can't remember the name of is "I Won't Back Down" and it's here.

The episode ends with my "remix" of "My Name is." I put remix in quotes because I didn't mix anything. It's me on bass, guitar and drum machine under Eminem's vocals.

This is one of God's perfect songs. All I know is I'm upstairs and I'm listening to my Will Smith CD. LOL.

Guitarist and total chiller Dave Cinquegrana joins me to talk Frank Zappa and the Alex Winter doc Zappa.

Dave is an accomplished, trained musician. He helps me, a dullard who barely plays guitar and can't read music, piece together some of Zappa's elusive world of music.

Oh, the Day in the Life of Frank Zappa doc I mention is here.

The "Eat That Question" Doc is here.

The long collection of Zappa interviews is here.

For completists, here's an episode of Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa's Man Show-esque TV program.

The audio track is garbage. Sorry but Jim's an old blind guy so it was really a goddamn miracle we recorded anything at all. Janky sound was inevitable. And, as we address almost immediately, perfect for the subject matter: the documentary They Live.

Anyway. There's a real murderer's row of talent on hand to discuss the rich, insurrectionary art of They Live. Two of my favorite writers and people join me to celebrate and dissect John Carpenter's masterwork: Slackjaw columnist Jim Knipfel and investigative journalist Alexander Zaitchik.

When it was released in 1988, They Live was a reaction to Ronald Reagan's America but, as Jim says, "They Live never goes away." We talk about the cultural and historical forces that made _They Live _ inevitable and the diverging ideological interpretations of the movie that have sprung up since. Jim is a force of nature. Alex makes sharp observations. I drop a minor bombshell about "Rowdy" Roddy Piper being a teensy bit reckless about racial slurs in a decades-old interview. Hope his estate doesn't sue. Maybe I can convince them to put on these special sunglasses they'll see things my way.

Video producer, pop culture expert and podcaster Helder Mira stops by Cinema Death Cult HQ to defend the honor of Tim Burton, a director Adam doesn't like very much.

In the second part of a two part episode, Adam and Helder debate the merits of Ed Wood _and _Batman Returns while straying into other, barely related, topics.

Check out Helder's podcast, So Pretentious, here.

Video producer, pop culture expert and podcaster Helder Mira stops by Cinema Death Cult HQ to defend the honor of Tim Burton, a director Adam doesn't like very much.

In the first part of a two part episode, Adam and Helder debate the merits of Ed Wood _and _Batman Returns while straying into other, barely related, topics.

Check out Helder's podcast, So Pretentious, here.