The World's Only Podcast™ about bizarre, overlooked, and misbegotten media
Tim can barely hold back his excitement about a movie that (kind of) has Cynthia Rothrock in it: Prince of the Sun!
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View the (kind of) English dub of the film at the Internet Archive.
Jen forgot that her Letterboxd list was called “Anti-Girlboss Movies“, and any movie starring Mai certainly qualifies for it. (Protip: there’s also a list of every single movie we’ve talked about on the show, and sometimes it’ll give you a little hint as to what’s coming up next!)
Jen invites comedian Kath Barbadoro to enjoy Psycho Kickboxer, the martial arts schlock movie that put Virginia Beach on the map!*
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Hear more of Kath on the Lie, Cheat, & Steal and What a Time to Be Alive podcasts. She also riffs movies with Master Pancake Theater on Twitch!
When in Virginia Beach, visit the Hot Tuna, as seen in Psycho Kickboxer!
Read Daisy Thursday’s Sex Change USA: Transgender Life in the Supermarket Tabloid at the Shapeless Press website.
*I assume. I’ve never been.
A mysterious stranger returns to the show to evaluate a weak Disney stab at a dark sci-fi blockbuster: The Black Hole!
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The Hollywood Reporter looked back on the production of The Black Hole in 2019, including interviews with Joseph Bottoms, director Gary Nelson, and Robert Forster.
Wayne Barlowe‘s Hell is so fucking cool that even James Cameron, Clive Barker, and Guillermo del Toro have raved about it. See it at the artist’s website.
Jen welcomes Jesse Hawken of the venerable Junk Filter podcast to help her detox from the bad trip that is Otto Preminger’s Skidoo!
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See Preminger host his own trailer for Bunny Lake is Missing, and you better not show up late or he’ll open up a can of Vienna-sausage-in-chicken-broth whoop-ass on you.
Preminger and singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson appeared on the August 30th, 1968 episode of Playboy After Dark to promote, quixotically, their latest film. Nilsson seems to know what’s up, triggering Preminger’s always-present wrath.
Skidoo screenwriter (yes, they had one!) Doran William Cannon wrote a piece for the New York Times in 1971 about the painful experience of writing Brewster McCloud for Robert Altman.
Jen welcomes musician and poster par excellence Patrick Cosmos to chat about a fun little movie with tongue firmly in cheek, Blood Diner!
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Find Patrick at veryimportant.lawyer on Bandcamp and Bluesky, and get his Tonal Rotors album at Big Sleep Records.
Sadly, Carl Crew’s California Institute of Abnormalarts is no more. Read an archived article from LA Bizarro about the venue.
Keyboardist Don Preston just wrapped up a tour at age 91! Read an interview with him at It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine.
Jen blasts off with Bitter Karella in search of the meaning of an artifact from 2011: the motion-capture kid’s flick Mars Needs Moms.
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We glibly refer to the film as “one of the biggest box office bombs of all time,” as well as THE biggest, but narrowing down the actual Failure of All Failures is tough. Wikipedia has an unranked list of box office disasters.
Bitter Karella guested on the show for three episodes on music producer and grotesque sex criminal Jonathan King. If you’re interested in true outsider art and also have a strong stomach, check them out!
Jen and Tim suffer through an ill-starred attempt at an international caper, Shanghai Surprise!
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Life With My Sister Madonna is a delightfully juicy read penned by her late brother, Christopher Ciccone. (And of course she’s hairy, she’s Italian!)
Madonna has denied that Sean Penn physically abused her during their relationship, but rumors still abound regarding an alleged domestic abuse incident in December 1988. The LA Sheriffs have since purged the report from their records, unfortunately.
Listen to George Harrison’s excellent solo album Cloud Nine, which contains some reworked material from the Shanghai Surprise soundtrack.
For more of us roasting Madonna’s atrocious acting, check out our episode on Body of Evidence!
Tim and Jen welcome living legend Hollywood Steve Huey to discuss a Quaalude overdose of a film, FM from 1978!
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The core creators of Yacht Rock (both series and genre classification) host the delightful Yacht or Nyacht podcast, in which they rate the yachtiness of user-submitted songs. Highly recommended!
See Bob Odenkirk narrate the story of Disco Demolition Night on Drunk History.
The venerable British news magazine show World in Action took a look at American radio all the way back in 1971, and even included an interview with celebrated chronicler of the working class Studs Turkel! The theme song to this show goes hard as FUCK, incidentally.
Jen and Tim wicky-wicky-watch a mostly loathed tentpole film from 1999, The Giant Mechanical Spider Invasion, aka Jon Peters’ Wild Wild West (come on, it might as well have his name right above the title).
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Mel Magazine has a retrospective article on the production of the film (good luck trying to read that link on mobile, though).
We didn’t get around to the original Jim West, Robert Conrad’s reaction to the film— he wasn’t wholly negative but he wasn’t exactly thrilled, either. Also, he dares you to knock this battery off his shoulder.
For more on Barbra’s ex, the Hollywood Reporter interviewed Jon Peters in 2024. Of course he’s a Trump guy.
Tim and Jen spend a LOT of time picking over a mid-tier Ridley Scott-directed actioner: Black Rain from 1989!
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Errata: Jen says “Tanpei Monogatori” when she meant “Tantei Monogatari,” the detective TV show starring Black Rain’s antagonist, Yūsuku Matsuda. All those wasted years as a weeb and she still can’t pronounce Japanese words properly. Sad!
For a much clunkier (read: Cannon Films) take on East-meets-West culture clash, listen to our episode on Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects.
The historical swordsman neither of your hosts could think of the name of is, of course, Miyamoto Musashi. The Historian’s Hut has a nice compact rundown on his astonishing life.