The Post Relevant Podcast

Purple tidings, Post-Relevantians!  Today we are like kings making a royal decree to be different, as the podcast steps away from its regular obsession with the film "Under the Silver Lake" to talk to an up-and-coming film writer and director Max Kane.  Max has created an excellent new short film called "House of Brotherly Love," and he cast your host Phil in it to play the ne'er-do-well character 'Lucas Pickering.'  And it was a blast!

The film is now online to be seen, so Phil and Max throw down the blueberry-colored gauntlet of conversation and talk about travel, NYC vs Philadelphia vs LA, assembling the ideal cast, filming in your parent's house, making movies with your friends, and more.  Then Phil tries to understand if Max has made a film about racial injustice during the pandemic, or just about being overprotective of your kid sister.  All this, and Phil reveals how he worked "listening to Coldplay on acid" into the script, and how Max figured out how to cut it out of the movie.  This interview is great, and so is the movie.  Check it out!

You can see "House of Brotherly Love" on Vimeo, YouTube, and Directorsnotes.com, where you can watch the film and read an interview with Max here: https://directorsnotes.com/2021/12/23/max-kane-house-of-brotherly-love/

If you have a response to the film, you can contact Max at [email protected].

You can see all of Phil's acting, art and music on his website www.TheseAreDreams.com

If you have any comments about the episode, contact Phil at https://www.facebook.com/philristaino or https://www.instagram.com/philristaino/

Grab your hats and sling your flats (stones), the Post Relevant Podcast is BACK!!!

Happy 2022!  We passed...a kidney stone.  Well, Phil did.  On January first!  Is it good luck? Dare we call it...auspicious?

Big things are afoot as we doggy paddle around the Silver Lake.  After a month away, episode 6 has finally dropped (like a stone to the bottom of a lake?) (too many stone metaphors, sorry).   Here's how we rock (sorry) the pod:

1. Phil welcomes you to 2022 and tells the harrowing tale of painting a house and purging a crystal pill.  

2. Phil drops (sorry) a killer new tune based on REM's "What's the Frequency, Kenneth,"  which, as we all know, is featured in UTSL.  It's a rap song called "The Frequency is This."  It officially bangs.  

3. Phil and Andy discuss if William Shakespeare was and enlightened master, or just that bastard Francis Bacon.

4. Phil and brother Andy dip back into the next killer section of Under the Silver Lake, specifically, two major scenes:  The scene where Sam decodes the song 'Turning Teeth' and the scene where Sam meets the Homeless King.  We explain why the Bird Lady is window washing, admire how the movie demonstrates what inspiration looks like, marvel at Shooting Star #1's effortless exposition style, and reminisce with Topher Grace about how any moron could just look behind a rock (sorry) and find a new mystery.  Also, can you solve a mystery by jerkin' it?

5. Finally, we rub Dean's head and stand under Newton until the Homeless King appears, which causes Phil to drop (sorry) a MAJOR DECODE, explaining what the sequence of Sam meeting the HK and wandering through the tunnels into a 'bomb shelter' and, finally, drinking milk, really means.  You won't find this information anywhere else! 

 All this, and the 2 brother's mother makes her debut on the cover image of the episode, hobnobbing with James Dean's head itself.   Oh, and Osiris's phallus makes its debut, too.  We are paddling into the deep end of the lake, there is no turning back from here.... 

Come with me!  Its old music night at the Crypt Club!

Welcome back to the Post Relevant Podcast.  You've arrived at episode five.  Imagine that.  No, really, imagine it.  Are you imagining it?

Its another Under the Silver Lake decode banger, as we descend into the LA underworld with our perplexed protagonist.  The episode starts off with Phil telling a successful D&D story (drugs and dancing).  Then we take a left turn and interview artist and liminal space dweller Anna Tanner in an attempt to understand what a thoughtful-artsy-type lady might think of this lewd movie.  

Finally, Phil and brother Andy wade into the Silver Lake where they eat all the cookies and follow all the balloons across the glamorous graveyard and down into the hipster mausoleum, eventually dancing the metaphorical Watusi in Batman's disco.  Questions asked:  Does anyone in this movie give a shit about anything?  Do skunks and weed have different smells?  Do you like the movie? (I'm talking directly to you).  Do we have to call Topher Grace "Bar Buddy," or can we still just call him Topher Grace?  What is the actual gosh darn Frequency, Kenneth?  And finally, can you call sleeping off a hangover in front of Janet Gaynor's grave 'working?'  I say YES.  But who am I...?

You only get one chance to enjoy your body, and this is that one chance!  It's time to make it with the Balloon Girl, or puke trying.  May the best Kurt Cobain cosplayer win!

Happy Moon Day, post-relevantites!  Welcome to a very special episode of the PRP.  Today we reveal a very important piece of the "Under the Silver Lake" puzzle, a pivotal key to understanding the real meaning of this movie.   If you had to listen to only one episode of this podcast, THIS SHOULD BE THAT EPISODE.   But please, don't do that.  Listen to them all.  Maybe...uh...listen to this one twice?  It's that big a deal.

On this episode, Phil gives his Moon Day Manifesto in the form of a musical story about an unusual encounter with the Moon herself.  Then Phil and brother Andy dive into why the moon is so important to overstanding "Under the Silver Lake."   No more shall be revealed in this episode description, the price of revelation is far too high....

Find out more about Phil at www.TheseAreDreams.com and contact him @philristaino on Facebook and Instagram.

Find out more about Andy at www.AndyRistaino.com.

Theme song written and produced by Allen Towbin and Phil Ristaino.   You can hear their full album as the band Agents of Venus by searching Agents of Venus on Bandcamp and Spotify. 

Welcome back, toe-dippers!  Ready to paint your toenails silver?  The water's sooooo refreshing!

Its time for more "Under the Silver Lake" deep dives with the Ristaino brothers Phil and Andy.  In this episode, we lead off talking about broken third eye management while attempting to relate to Sam's fractured psyche.   Then we get into decoding the next section of the film, where we discuss 'good puking,' Sam's magic TV remote control, insightful media analysis while bathing in tomato juice, and the glamour of auditioning in some shmoe's garage.  And of course, we ask that important question:  Why is Vanna White so angry? 

We also head over to the the conspiracy cartoonist's house, where we call bullshit on Christopher Columbus while we peep the life masks, the Cult of the Whale, hobo codes, subliminal ads, and the orgy of evidence of the Owl's Kiss conspiracy all over this well-adjusted man's walls.  Favorite headline?  "Headless Man in Topless Bar."

Oh, you think that's weird?  Find the Spacestones in your crawlspace, its a great time for a cold beer on a hot day!  

So, you've come back to stare into the depths of the Silver Lake?  Fingers gripping the fence as you try to understand the ever-shifting facets of this mercurial pool. You've left a dog biscuit and lit a candle, now you're hoping for some inspiration....

On this episode of the Post Relevant Podcast, Phil and brother Andy spend the whole time trying to find a foot hold on the rocky shores of their brains in an effort to 'get' just what the hell the film "Under the Silver Lake" is trying to say.  Listen to them ask dumb questions and toss out theories like idea-frisbees to the ghosts of good dogs roaming this infamous LA reservoir.  Listen as they puzzle their way through the puzzling actions of slacker Sam aka the nameless one while he feeds nutritious eggs to children,  slithers into empty apartments to sniff for clues, and runs that weird run with his arms at his sides after three brides in a rabbit across the Echoing Park and into shallows of Purgatory itself.  The bros spend some quality time lurking around this underground party, but do they use it wisely?

Throw your pins away, the balloon girl is dancing!  She's dancing!  Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Find out more about Phil at www.TheseAreDreams.com --  contact Phil @philristaino on instagram and Facebook.

Find out more about Andy at www.AndyRistaino.com

Theme song by Agents of Venus, find them at www.agentsofvenus.bandcamp.com

Hey!  You've found the Post Relevant Podcast Episode 1, with your host, Phil Ristaino.  We are standing across the street from that strangely poetic Silver Lake over there, trying to look nonchalant as we glance at our retro copies of the Post Relevant Manifesto.  Don't want to draw any undue attention while we're trying to decipher this mystery.  And decipher we do!  Here's how it all plays out on this magnificent first episode of the Post Relevant Podcast:

1. Phil welcomes us to the podcast, defends his initiative, and lays out the skinny as to the sequence of events.

2.  A strange and gnarly, tripped out tale of high adventure unfolds as our intrepid host journeys about Prague, leading to....

3. ...The invention of the Post Relevant Manifesto, which is read aloud for the first time in 25 years.  Shield your eyes!

4.  Also for the first time in 25 years -- we hear the original demo of the song "Prague" by Phil's old SF band, the Globs.  Shield your ears!

5. Finally, we dip a toe into the Silveriest of Lakes, as Phil and his brother, artist Andy Ristaino, dig into, tear apart, and reassemble the deeper meaning of David Robert Mitchell's 2018 masterpiece "Under the Silver Lake."  This is the first in a series of conversations as the two bros attempt to unlock the secrets and solve the cyphers of this esoteric hipster noir.  A mystery a minute!  More interpretations than you can shake a skunk at!  Bark once if you know what that damn bird is saying!  Turn your teeth and shoot for the stars, Soda Pop, its swimmin' time!

Find out more about Phil at www.TheseAreDreams.com.   Contact him @philristaino on Facebook and Instagram.  

Find out more about Andy at www.AndyRistaino.com

Hey!  Welcome to episode zero of the Post Relevant Podcast, with your host Phil Ristaino.  This is a brand-spanking-new podcast created by actor/artist/musician Phil as a way of celebrating the rebirth and imminent demise of the nigh-eternally defunct Post Relevant Movement, a movement for the End of the End of Time.  It's just a joke, really.  The Post Relevant Podcast is an optimistic excuse to explore Phil's interests in film, art, music, symbolism, interpretation, the esoteric and occult, conspiracy, spirituality, extra-terrestrial and astronomical ideas, the surreal and absurd, lost histories and future mysteries, and whatever else lurks in the periphery of his cosmic eye.  Hopefully this podcast will, somehow, be entertaining for whosoever ears stumble upon it. 

Show notes for episode zero:   1. Introduction (featuring the Post Relevant Movement theme song, written, recorded and produced by Allen Towbin and Phil Ristaino.  2.  Phil greets the listener, waxes semi-poetically/semi-pathetically about our train wreck of modern times, and, eventually, he cries.  3. Phil presents a recent recording of his acapella interpretation of the song "Piece of Dirt" by They Might Be Giants.  4. Phil talks about his fascination with the hidden alchemical story inside the 2018 film "Under the Silver Lake,"  written and directed by David Robert Mitchell.  5.  Phil and his brother, animator and comic artist Andy Ristaino have a conversation about their love of the film "Under the Silver Lake," and prime the listeners for the epic upcoming series, where they launch an exhaustingly detailed investigation and interpretation of the the film "UTSL."  They hope and pray that you, the listener, will follow them as they strive to discover what mysteries swim cryptically beneath the surface of the most silvery of lakes.   6. We finish the episode with a special treat, as Phil plays you the entire Agents of Venus song "The Post Relevant Movement."

Find out more about Phil at his websites: www.TheseAreDreams.com and www.PhilRistaino.com.  You can contact Phil @ PhilRistaino on Facebook or Instagram. 

Find out more about Andy Ristaino at his website www.AndyRistaino.com

Check out the album "Boduvt" by the band Agents of Venus at https://agentsofvenus.bandcamp.com or on Spotify.

Look out for Episode One of the Post Relevant Podcast, where we launch our multi-part, in-depth investigation and interpretation of the mysterious and brilliant film "Under the Silver Lake," plus more about the origin of the Post Relevant Movement herself, and more music and funny shit, too. 

Coming in one short week.   See you there!