The World's Only Podcast™ about bizarre, overlooked, and misbegotten media
Jen and Tim return to Gumbasia to discuss the legacy of a complicated man: Gumby creator Art Clokey!
The documentary that sparked the discussion, Gumby Dharma, may be viewed free on YouTube via the channel for Bay Area PBS station KQED.
Pay a visit to Clokey Productions to see some behind-the-scenes footage!
Here’s an example of that Lego wizard hat thing Tim mentioned. Clever!
If you missed our episode on The Gumby Movie(aka Gumby 1), listen to it here!
Jen and Tim contextualize the band that ruled Nixon’s America, The Carpenters, for Todd Haynes’s early dollhouse biopic, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story.
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Watch the film on the Internet Archive, but don’t tell Richard Carpenter you did!
Entertainment Weekly took a look back at the film in the aftermath of the unstoppable cultural juggernaut that was the Barbie movie.
Friend of Todd Haynes and producer Christine Vachon spilled some info on the restoration of Superstar in 2023.
Jen and Tim suffer through the half-baked hippie whimsy of the Beatles’ first major creative cock-up, Magical Mystery Tour.
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If you’re curious, you can watch the Pet Shop Boys’ head-scratcher of a longform music video, It Couldn’t Happen Here, at the Internet Archive. It looks like it was ripped from someone’s VCD copy of a Hong Kong laserdisc, but it still has plenty of bops!
The Anton Corbijn-directed Strange (A Black and White Mode) incorporates all those songs that Tim says you know from Depeche Mode’s Music for the Masses. You can watch it right now on YouTube, but a restored DVD and Blu-ray release will arrive in December.
Still mad at Paul McCartney? Listen to our Give My Regards to Broad Street episode with special guest Jane Altoids.
Jen and Tim welcome reproductive rights expert Mellie to discuss an exhaustive documentary on A BIG COMPLICATED ISSUE: Tony Kaye’s overview of abortion in the US, Lake of Fire.
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 80 other bonus episodes!
Looper has the rundown on Tony Kaye’s battle with New Line Cinema (and Edward Norton) over the final cut of American History X.
The Nation has a pretty good overview of the intertwining of anti-abortion activism and white supremacy in the United States.
Randall Terry is still alive, unfortunately, but Paul Jennings Hill, John Burt, John Salvi, and Norman Weslin are not.
Be sure to listen to Mellie’s first appearance on the show, where we picked apart the anti-abortion propaganda film The Silent Scream.
Want more discussion on reproductive ethics? Try our FREE episode on 1997’s Gattaca.
Tim and Jen confront the most infamous mondo film of all time, Faces of Death! Hear the entire episode over at our Patreon!
Faces of Death may be viewed in its entirety on Tubi.
Echoing Jen’s experience in high school auto safety, two students were traumatized after their math teacher showed the film in class in 1985:
“The people at the table,” says Forget today, “beat this monkey over the head with a hammer until it died. Then they cut the top of its head off and ate its brains.” As an animal-lover, she found the film deeply disturbing and asked to leave. Mr Schwartz said no and when Feese also tried to go, he forced her to sit down, grabbing her chair and spinning it aggressively towards the screen.
via The Guardian
Schwarz was disciplined, but with only a 15-day suspension without pay.
For more upsetting reenacted violence, check out our episode on Farewell Uncle Tom! OR if ambiguously fake snuff is more your speed, try our episode on Trent Reznor’s Broken movie!
Tim and Jen struggle to make sense of one of the most persistent cultural artifacts of 9/11, Loose Change, as well as the lasting damage done by the Bush administration.
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
View every edit of Loose Change (except the 2015 edition) at archive.org.
Watch Screw Loose Change, an exhaustive response to the second edition of Loose Change, at YouTube.
For more cogent commentary on U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East, listen to our episode with special guest Felix Biederman on Valley of the Wolves: Iraq.
Jen and Tim are astounded by one of the most pompous auteur statements ever made— Craig Denney’s The Astrologer from 1976! Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
The Astrologer had a theatrical run from at least 1976 through part of 1977, but was considered lost for many years. It eventually resurfaced in 2021 on YouTube. Paramount appears to have a copyright claim on the picture (amazing that they’d even want it), but that doesn’t mean it can’t be seen if you know where to look.
The story of auteur Craig Denney is as mysterious as it is surprising. Jim Vorel has a good rundown at Paste Magazine. Long story short, Denney made a bold play for notoriety, only to disappear sometime in the 80s. No one knows when he died, if he’s actually dead, or even his real birthdate! And that’s just the start of the confusion! From the article:
Denney’s friend and associate Arthyr Chadbourne (who plays business manager Arthyr in the film) has disputed these figures, suggesting instead at L.A. screenings/Q&As that Denney was notorious for exaggeration and self-aggrandizing. As Chadbourne reportedly said then, “Craig was wonderful with hype. Everything was millions … you should read some of the things we used to send out to investors.”
Jim Vorel, Paste Magazine
Vorel’s article draws from this well-researched piece by Sean Welsh over at Matchbox Cine. Did Craig Denney fake his death? Where the hell did he get all his money? Which of his claims about his life were true? Was he even as successful as he claimed he was?
If you’re curious about our allusion to Romeo & Romeo, check out our episode about possibly the greatest addition to queer cinema in the last twenty-five years.
Jen and Tim welcome back Mike Rosen so he can carve up Joss Whedon like the turkey he is and also to discuss an affectionate satire of the slasher genre.
Offensive Films by Mikita Brottman
Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film by Carol J. Clover
For more Mike, listen to our episode about a truly wretched Dan Aykroyd comedy, Loose Cannons!
Jen and show MVP Mike Rosen dissect some disgusting works by a disgusting person, Jonathan King. That’s right, he won’t go the fuck away! Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
If you can stomach it, here are our earlier episodes about Jonathan King’s revolting outsider works: we looked at the original Vile Pervert in episode 009, and the unasked-for sequel in episode 38!
Jen welcomes Marvin K to discuss a triptych of documentaries about the dancin’-est outlaw alive, Jesco White, and his fractious extended family.
Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!
We talked about Dancing Outlaw, Dancing Outlaw II: Jesco Goes to Hollywood, and The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. Purchase them on DVD or in downloadable MP4 format here!
Visit the official Jesco White website! And get merch!
There’s really nothing else like the Jesco White saga. But for another film brought to us by a listener, there’s our episode on the inept 80s horror flick The Sleeping Car!