Rock 'n Roll Ghost

Welcome back to the Rock 'n Roll Ghost Podcast. On this week's episode, the Ghost speaks with filmmaker Jamie Winterstern, the director behind Supercell, a film about storm chasers and a young man’s pursuit of connecting to his deceased father. Supercell opens in theaters across the country and via video on demand Friday, March 17th.

Winterstern discusses the genesis of the idea behind Supercell, writing the script with Anna Elizabeth James, how a limited budget made him think outside of the box in order to show the full power of a tornado and why the film looks so damn good.

Supercell, which stars Daniel Diemer, the late Anne Heche, Alec Baldwin and Skeet Ulrich, is in theaters and video on demand beginning Friday, March 17th.

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Jamie Winterstern 

Supercell 

Welcome back to the Rock 'n Roll Ghost Podcast. On this week's episode, the Ghost speaks with filmmaker Balin Schneider about his film (his first), Out of Time: The Material Issue Story, about the Chicago power-pop band Material Issue’s career.

Schneider, who is in his 20s, discusses how he “discovered” Material Issue and what led him to focus on the band for a short documentary for a film school project and how that snowballed into a feature length film. The Ghost and Schneider also focus on the emotional aspects of the film, particularly friends and family members’ interviews concerning the suicide of the band’s founder, lead singer, guitarist and lyricist Jim Ellison.

Out of Time: The Material Issue Story is currently on a tour across America (check the link below for a list of cities and dates) and will makes it debut on video and streaming services later in 2023.

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Out of Time: The Material Issue Story

Material Issue

Balin Schneider

Welcome back to the Rock 'n Roll Ghost Podcast. On this week's episode, the Ghost speaks with actor James Badge Dale about his role as John Dutton Sr. on the hit Paramount Plus series 1923 from creator Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone, The Mayor of Kingstown), as well as his career which dates back to his appearance in 1990’s Lord of the Flies adaptation.

Dale, who resides in New York City, but spent a good deal of his youth in California, discusses the reasons for both wanting to become an actor, as well as why he didn’t work as an actor after Lord of the Flies for a decade until he grew up.

The conversation also takes a look at some of his more memorable roles and films, including his role in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed opposite Matt Damon, the NBC series The Black Donnellys, HBO’s WWII mini-series The Pacific, Joe Carnahan’s The Grey - where he recounts a story about the cast and crew passing bottles of liquor on the flight to Smithers, British Columbia, and his experience working on Michael Bay’s 13 Hours and Gore Verbinshi’s The Lone Ranger, which ties into 1923 as he dealt with some of the same stunt people on both.

He also previews his work in the upcoming film Balestra, from filmmaker Nicole Dorsey (Black Conflux) and how important family is to him as he’s gotten older.

The first season of 1923 is available to stream now on Paramount Plus.

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James Badge Dale

1923 

Welcome back to the Rock 'n Roll Ghost Podcast. On this week's episode, the Ghost speaks with celebrity chef Tiffani Faison (Partner/Chef in Boston’s Big Heart Hospitality which includes Sweet Cheeks Q, Tenderoni’s, Bubble Bath, Dive Bar and Fool’s Errand, as well as the runner up on the very first season of Top Chef and the winner of Food Network’s Tournament of Champions III).

Faison discusses the changes she and her company have had to make in the wake of the Covid pandemic, including closing a couple of restaurants (Tiger Mama and Orfano’s) and opening three concepts in the food hall at High Street Place in Boston (Tenderoni’s, Dive Bar and Bubble Bath) and the difficulty of the changes coupled with her divorce during the same period of time.

She also talks about her beginnings - not only as an Army brat jumping from base to base with her family and how she got her start in the restaurant business (note: she never went to culinary school, unlike the false information that keeps following her), and how she learned what not to do from terrible restaurant environments.

The conversation also wades into the topic of LGBTQ concerns, a subject that Faison, who identifies as queer, holds close to her heart. She works hard to break down barriers on women and LGBTQ people in the food world, including on food TV. As shown in my introduction, I’m not as eloquent as I expected myself to be, but Faison indicates that at least we’re having the conversation, which is important for everyone to be doing in order to move things forward.

You can see Faison competing to retain her Tournament of Champions title every Sunday on Food Network.

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Tiffani Faison

Big Heart Hospitality

Tournament of Champions IV 

Welcome back to the Rock 'n Roll Ghost Podcast. On this week's episode, the Ghost speaks with filmmaker (12KM) /podcaster (In Love With the Process) Mike Pecci.

Pecci discusses what drove him to filmmaking, the pull from Boston to Los Angeles to invest in himself and his career from that point on, including his podcast, In Love With the Process.

He also dives deep into his much buzzed about short film 12KM (see my review here), about a science team’s confrontation with something paranormal. Pecci has been shopping the film around as a proof of concept to hopefully make a feature version. He talks about working directly with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free production company and his hopes of making the feature a reality, while also pursuing other projects, such as other feature films, more short films and videos in the meantime.

In Love With the Process is one of the very few podcasts I actually listen to. There’s something about the inquisitive, deeply ruminative nature of Pecci’s style that is intriguing whether or not he has a guest to interview and is just talking to the audience.

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Mike Pecci

Welcome back to the Rock 'n Roll Ghost Podcast. On this week's episode, the Ghost speaks with actor Melissa Ponzio (Teen Wolf, The Walking Dead) about her role in the newly released Teen Wolf: The Movie, available now on Paramount+.

Ponzio discusses taking on the role of Melissa McCall, a hard-working single mother to the series and film’s title character, Scott (Tyler Posey), from 100 episodes on TV and into the feature film and how devoted the Teen Wolf fan base is. Ponzio also talks about her time on The Walking Dead and working with co-star Chad Coleman, as well as how she got bit by the acting bug to begin with (with help from her model/actor mother).  She also makes mention of the next project she has coming up with Kevin Hart, entitled Die Harter, as well as the podcast Bridgewater, which is available to listen to now.

Teen Wolf: The Movie is available now to stream exclusively on Paramount+.

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Melissa Ponzio

Teen Wolf: The Movie

Welcome back to the Rock 'n Roll Ghost Podcast. On this week's episode, the Ghost speaks with filmmaker/novelist Eric Garcia (Matchstick Men, The Repossession Mambo) about his new series, Kaleidoscope, which debuted on Netflix January 01.  

The series, about a heist 25 years in the making, has a fascinating structure. All episodes have a color instead of a title or episode number for one. They are also completely out of order, save for the "white" episode, which Garcia says should always be seen last even if you make up your own order or decide to figure out how to watch it chronologically. Netflix has put the other 7 episodes on "shuffle" essentially, and each viewer will get an entirely different experience from another. It's a pretty genius way of telling a story like this and, from my viewing so far, works damn well.   

Garcia discusses the show from an initial idea about a decade ago, to the pitch to streamers, to the writers room, through to the filming and post-production. He touches on the greatness of Kaleidoscope star Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, The Mandalorian), and touches on some of the "Easter eggs" found on the show - some, he predicts, will never be caught.  

All eight episodes of Kaleidoscope are now streaming exclusively on Netflix.  

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Kaleidoscope 

Eric Garcia

Welcome back to the Rock 'n Roll Ghost Podcast. On this week's episode, the Ghost speaks with musician Vonda Shepard about her new album, Red Light Green Light, which she will be touring on in 2023.  

Shepard discusses the creation and recording of the album during the Covid-19 pandemic, recording it in her and her husband's, musician/producer Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Sheryl Crow, Randy Newman), home recording studio, her time as part of Al Jarreau & Jackson Browne's bands (Vonda reached out to say she misspoke about her years with Browne - they were 1985 - 1986) and where to expect her on tour this year.  

Red Light Green Light is out and available for purchase now.  

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Vonda Shepard 

Purchase Red Light Green Light

Welcome back to the Rock 'n Roll Ghost Podcast. On this week's episode, the Ghost speaks with actor Amy Landecker about the return of Showtime's Your Honor where she co-stars alongside Bryan Cranston, as well as her role in the upcoming feature film, Missing.  

Landecker, who hails from Chicago and is the daughter of famed Chicago DJ John "Records" Landecker, talks about her breakout role in the Coen brothers' A Serious Man, where she worked alongside Michael Stuhlbarg (who is also on Your Honor). She worked with Stuhlbarg two other times, including her role as an anesthesiologist opposite him in Marvel's Doctor Strange, as well as on Amazon's Transparent.

She also lets me know about working on Missing (the sort of spiritual sequel to Searching starring John Cho), the school in Chicago's Lincoln Park where she and a number of other artists attended, her work in theater, Bill Murray being a dick, and I get to share a silly story about her husband, Bradley Whitford.  

Your Honor is available on Showtime now. 

Missing is in theaters beginning January 19th.  

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Amy Landecker 

Your Honor 

Missing

Welcome back to the Rock 'n Roll Ghost Podcast. On this week's episode, the Ghost speaks with actor Gabriel Luna (Terminator: Dark Fate) about his role as "Tommy" on the HBO adaptation of the video game The Last of Us (from Naughty Dog).  

Luna discusses working on the show with the game's creator Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), his bonding with Pedro Pascal (the series lead, Joel) and how playing the game helped him get into the TV's world.  

He also talks about his role in 2019's Terminator: Dark Fate as the newest terminator, Rev-9 and his role as Ghost Rider on the Marvel series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and his thoughts on returning to the role.  

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Gabriel Luna

HBO's The Last of Us