Culture Dumps

Prince is one of the most famous and successful musicians of all time. In a storied, highlight laden career, one of the strangest moments for Prince came in 1993. The megastar officially changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. The motivation was to create a loophole around a massive $100 million contract with Warner Brothers. Eventually, the symbol and confusion lead to a more manageable name; The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. The jokes and pop culture references cast a great shadow during his career in the mid 90s

LA Gear was an active wear brand started in the 1980’s that focused mostly on sneakers. What started as a women’s accessory company quickly became one of the most recognizable brands of its time. But how did a company that at one point was said to be the best performing company listed on the stock market become all but forgotten? In this episode we will break down what happened to LA Gear, run into Michael Jackson, and prove that brand visibility doesn’t always equal success.

Parks welcomes back Matt Davis from the Y2K episode and his own ATL Podcast. Matt discusses his time learning and utilizing Pick Up Artist and Speed Seduction techniques.

Faces of Death, the 1978 film that showed audiences scene of gore, animal death, plane crashes, corpses and ritual sacrifice. This movie was hugely successful and created many copycat type videos. We explore the human’s dark fascination with the grotesque. We also cover Rotten.com, Banned from Television, Porsche Girl, ISIS Beheading videos… lots of fun death for your Halloween weekend!

This week we were lucky enough to get Academy Award nominated filmmaker Eddie Schmidt to chat with us. Eddie’s body of work is vast and awesome. We discuss several of the documentaries he produced and directed as well as his time as a writer for the very dumpable show Blind Date. He also gives Ryan a brief history lesson on the middle finger and tells us what it is like to lose at the Oscars.

The rise and fall of Hervé Villechaize. Hervé goes to Hollywood. Hervé makes it big; appearing in a James Bond movie. Hervé keeps drinking like a man 3 times his size. Hervé’s enormous appetite for woman cannot be satisfied. Hervé strikes gold with the TV show Fantasy Island. Hervé gets fully loaded and blows all his money.

Hervé Villechaize was everywhere in the mid 70s. He is most famous for his role as Nick Nack in a James Bond film and as Tattoo in the hit TV show Fantasy Island. Villechaize was born with dwarfism and as an adult stood to be just under four feet. Relentlessly bullied as a child, Hervé was driven to achieve success. Part 1 finds him as the darling of the Paris art scene, as well as the transition to New York as something of a hippie curiosity.

It is our 80th episode (proper) so we decided to kick it off with a bang! A “SHE BANG” that is! Ryan sits down with the legendary William Hung to discuss his rise to fame, his adjustment to normal life, and his love of gambling. Truly inspirational. 

This is from the brilliant mind of Ryan. This book is classic of modern American literature. Ryan hates it. Parks loved it as moody teenager, as did millions others. This falls into a category of influential works that really get away from its creator. Author JD Salinger became increasingly reclusive after Catcher’s success. Mark David Chapman had a copy of the book in his possession when he murdered John Lennon!

This week Ryan is joined by Mike Connelly of Noisextra to discuss the now defunct pro-wrestling giant, WCW. WCW was a powerhouse that dominated the Monday night wars of the mid 1990’s. That was until the inclusion of actor David Arquette. Both the company and Arquette suffered due to what is considered to be the most controversial win in this history of the business. Even if you are not a fan of wrestling, there is something here for you.