SFUltra

By Sean McTiernanArts Books

SFUltra episodes

September 06, 2023 Murder House Sold #5 - The larger the prisoner's pain, the larger the torturer's world.
I'm happy to welcome Astrid Rose on this fifth episode of Murder House Sold, a Perfect Taste Forever miniseries about True Crime. We talk about Gordon Burn's Happy Like Murderers, a book about Fred and Rose West. Annoyingly, Astrid is an amazing writer of both horror fiction and criticism. She is also the co-host of Live At The Death Factory, the only perfect podcast ever to exist. Most recently, she was one of the writers of this video game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2231460/Roman_Sands_REBuild/ You can find her horror fiction here: https://astridannerose.gumroad.com/ Murder House Sold is Perfect Taste Forever miniseries, a show usually only available to SFUltra patrons. The other episodes are solo, like SFUltra itself, and cover the more esoteric end of long form, largely literary, cultural criticism.
2 hr 6 min
September 01, 2023 SFULTRA #12 - The Employees - Olga Ravn
"Art is creation in response to lack. Quite different from a stand-in for the archetype, which must be there, somewhere, the art object is a kind of fetish, a replacement for some real thing that is missing." - Mike Kelley
39 min
August 17, 2023 SFULTRA #11 - Cleansed - Sarah Kane
"Rattled by and by As if someone was right Drawn and downed Indifference stands But a light from deep It glows They must have seen it too Rattled" - Scald Scar of Water, Altar of Plagues
1 hr 26 min
August 10, 2023 Murder House Sold #2 - "...in cold blood with not a bother on him"
I'm happy to welcome Mark O'Connell on this second episode of Murder House Sold, a Perfect Taste Forever miniseries about True Crime, to talk about his new book A Thread Of Violence. Mark's a fantastic author and journalist whose previous books To Be a Machine and Notes From The Apocalypse are both remarkable examinations of grim insistence entropy can be defied.

Ultimately along the same lines, his new work A Thread Of Violence is recounts extended conversations Mark had with one of Ireland's most famous living murders in order to write a book about him that doubles as a meditation on what it means to write true crime. It's one of the best true crime books I've ever read, though I think neither author nor subject would be totally comfortable that description.

I know Mark so decided to ask him loads of annoying questions, and even a few "more of a comment than a question"s, about it. He kindly agreed.

Murder House Sold is Perfect Taste Forever miniseries, a show usually only available to SF Ultra patrons. The other episodes are solo, like SFUltra itself, and cover the more esoteric end of long form, largely literary, cultural criticism.
1 hr 42 min
August 06, 2023 SFULTRA #10 - Ice - Anna Kavan
"I know that. The difference between male and female perversion. The action of the man is directed toward a symbol, not himself. The woman acts against herself." - In the Cut, Susanne Moore
1 hr 26 min
July 21, 2023 OhleFans - The Age Of Sinatra - David Ohle
"Ok, that's life, that's what I was told anyway And picking your feet till they bleed may only be the half of it If every fourth animal in the world is a beetle Perhaps every fourth person is a dumb fuck Listen, listen carefully now here's the answer It rhymes with 'axe' Why...it's those personal acts of course Those personal acts Those suicide pacts Those carelessly stored razorblades in the hands of small children... It's my face smeared on the pavement" - Every Day I Start To Ooze, Nomeansno
45 min
July 04, 2023 Ohle? Olé Olé - Motorman - David Ohle
"Well, they called me a little so and so and so Yeah? Now they're hummin' a different tune Oh, this is a job for a stupid man

Smoke it down to the filter and put it out on your hand"

- Glamorous, Jesus Lizard
50 min
June 21, 2023 SFULTRA #9 - We Who Are About To... - Joanna Russ
"The streets were empty as I drove home, the air was cool and the sky was dark Streetlamps cast their mockery of light over ghostly shapes in an empty night Should I believe in the things I see? Am I in you, are you in me? What should I believe? Tell me, what should I believe? At home, on the porch, the wind in the trees murmured a background for my waking dream Where I drive through a city with labyrinth streets, where no one walks, where no voices speak Where empty towers above me rise toward an empty, starless sky Like a cold wind washing over me, I saw the meaning of this dream I felt that I was finally free, I felt that I was finally free But you know what they say The world wasn't built in a day You know what they say The world wasn't built in a day (no way) You lie before me sleeping, your eyes flutter in a dream Am I in you? Are you in me? What should I believe? Tell me What should I believe?" - The World Wasn't Built In A Day, Nomeansno
52 min
June 07, 2023 SFULTRA #8 - I, Vampire - Jody Scott
"Besides myself, the basement is totally empty. It is dark and musty. It serves no purpose. And yet the entire world is down here, the whole universe" - Down Here, Bosse-De-Nage
51 min
May 25, 2023 SFULTRA #7 - Babel-17 - Samuel R Delany
"If I'm the talker, here's the thing Just who the hell is listening? And if I am not tongue but ears Then whose voice is it that I hear? I swallow, choke, and clear my throat Here comes another anecdote A narrative of restlessness Of what's been done and what is next Does it love me, does it not? Will this seduction never stop? Hear the clacking parrot's beak That speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks Speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks Speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks Speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks Speaks and speaks and speaks and speaks" - Nomeansno, Can't Stop Talking
54 min