Tag Archives: kit laika

Episode 48 – Sin City

Posted on by
Reply

“I grab myself one last lungful of night air. Then I trade it in for a smoky soup spiced with sweat and vomit and booze and blood. I know the flavor well.”

After more than two years, we’re back with another panel episode! And this month, we’re tossing back some cheap booze at Kadie’s Saloon and making some bad decisions with Joe Preti, and Kit Laika, and get our filthy mitts on Frank Miller’s hyper-stylized, two-fisted neo-noir comics franchise that defined all things grim and gritty in the 1990s: Sin City!

After a rise to comics superstardom with Daredevil and Batman, Frank Miller turned his trademarked hard-boiled style up to eleven with a series of interconnected hyperbolic crime stories, set in the fun house mirror world of Basin City, a desert town populated entirely by lowlifes, mobsters, prostitutes, corrupt businessmen, assassins, creeps, killers, crooked cops, dirty politicians, and one hulking unkillable brute named Marv.

Illustrated in a stunning highly contrasted black and white, Sin City was a perfect distillation of everything comics readers loved and hated about the comics of a controversial and often problematic master of the craft.

Music: 
“Cool Vibes” from Film Noire by Kevin MacLeod

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Black Ops Episode 21 – Hunter Biden and the Holy Grail

Posted on by
Reply

This month, we’re back with Kit Laika to continue the conversation into the cinematic!

Movie theaters are back! And in a dystopian world ravaged by doomsday viruses, we have been inside of them! For the first time in almost two years, we are going into public buildings with giant screens, big sound systems and comfy chairs for the explicit purpose of watching movies. How does the return to cinemas change the movie-going experience after 18 months of exclusively streaming movies on our computers, phones and televisions?

We reaffirm the joy of going to the movies cold — avoiding even teaser trailers, if possible and just letting the movie reveal itself to you without any prior expectation of the story.

We (briefly) touch on movies we’ve recently seen for the first time like Pig, The Green Knight, The Night House, The Suicide Squad, Personal Shopper, Paper Tigers, and Deep Blue Sea.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Fun Size Episode 59 – Don’t Back Dun’, Double Dun’

Posted on by
6

In the soft glow of our most recent discussion, we continue our conversation with Kit Laika, and explore the imperfections of language as a communication tool, and the linguistic similarities between Germans and chimpanzees that have been taught sign language.

Plus, we talk about the first moments of realization that the reality of the voices on the radio were much less cool than the picture in your head.

And come to think of it, what is cool, anyways? Is there a way to make young people think you’re cool? All that and Punks versus Hippies, too!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode 47 – F for Fake

Posted on by
2

“Do you think I should confess? To what? Committing masterpieces?”

In our latest Single Serving Selection, we’re joining librarian and artist, Kit Laika to turn our critical eyes to the final film directed by auteur Orson Welles, a conventions-defying documentary about frauds, fakers, and art forgery: F for Fake.

Welles delves into the world of two (or is it three?) spectacular liars. One is Elmyr de Hory, notorious art forger who paints replicas of masterpieces so convincing that they’re said be hanging in many prominent museums, and even the original artists claim to have created them. The other is Clifford Irving, the novelist and writer who exposed Elmyr’s forgeries in a tell-all book, before being revealed as a charlatan and fraud himself. It’s a deeply philosophical and nonlinear exploration of art, authorship, and who the real phonies might actually be.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 21 – Jingle All the Way

Posted on by
1

Two Dads, One Toy, No Prisoners.

Put that cookie down! Now! Because, this month, Christmas is coming early! We’re getting into the holiday spirit with librarian Kit Laika, to unwrap Arnold’s holiday comedy Jingle All the Way!

Workaholic salesman Howard Langston hasn’t been the world’s greatest dad. Habitually breaking his promises to spend time with his young son, he vows to make it up to him with a coveted Turbo Man action figure for Christmas. The only problem is that Turbo Man is the hottest toy of all time, and Howard has waited until the last minute. Now, he must contend with an unhinged rival father, an amorous neighbor, stampeding shoppers, a gang of bootlegger Santas, and a vicious pet reindeer, in order to find the elusive toy in time for Christmas, and finally keep a promise to his son.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Fun Size Episode 35 – My Boss is Trying to Kill Matt Damon

Posted on by
1

We’re back with a Frankensteinian Fun Size double feature!

First, we continue our chat with Kit Laika, where a discussion about Lords of Chaos, the recent semi-fictional Norwegian death metal movie, leads into a talk about how music biopics in general — and Bohemian Rhapsody, specifically — usually aren’t….very good.

Then we talk to Greg Hatcher about how the history of television shows didn’t include dedicated series finales until the Fugitive in 1967, and we look at the mixed results of shows that tried to continue after losing their lead actors.

Plus, we look at the trope of the characters who exist solely in high tech control rooms with hundreds of screens.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode 38 – Return to Oz

Posted on by
3

An all-new adventure down the yellow brick road.

In our latest Single Serving Selection, we return to the Emerald City and dig into some nostalgic childhood nightmare fuel with librarian and friend of the show, Kit Laika. This month’s topic is Disney’s weird and often terrifying continuation/quasi-sequel to the 1939 MGM classic: Return to Oz.

Dorothy Gale finds herself back in the Land Oz, after being rescued from a mental hospital by a mysterious girl. She finds the yellow brick road is crumbling, the Emerald City is in ruins, and its people turned to stone. Now, with a new group of strange companions, Dorothy must defeat both the villainous Nome King and the evil witch Mombi, rescue the Scarecrow, and restore an exiled princess to the throne.

Because all of the best children’s movies have body horror in them.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode 36 – Uzumaki by Junji Ito

Posted on by
3

“Spirals…This town is contaminated with Spirals…”

In our latest Single Serving Selection, we descend into a mind-bending and stomach-churning modern classic of Japanese manga horror with librarian and friend of the show, Kit Laika, but perhaps you’ll wish we hadn’t. Because this month, we’re descending into madness and body horror with Junji Ito’s Uzumaki.

What begins as a series of episodic tales of a small seaside town being driven to death and insanity by ubiquitous spiral shapes soon becomes a tidal wave of ancient apocalyptic destruction, lunacy, and unavoidable doom.

Apologies for the inevitable nightmares.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Fun Size Episode 19 – This Human Centipede of Cinematic Nonsense

Posted on by
6

We’re back in the studio for a continued conversations with our friend Kit Laika, to dig into why Dwayne Johnson may be the most likeable human being in the world.

And then we tempt fate by taking a critical look at the first DC superhero movie to get universal critical acclaim in nearly a decade!

Kit has an unpopular opinion about the new Wonder Woman film. What are the reasonable expectations we can have for a blockbuster superhero film? We talk about how we can unfairly pile our hopes and dreams onto a piece of entertainment, and how it can often be difficult to be honest about something that we really, really want to love.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 8 – End of Days

Posted on by
4

When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.

Stock up on holy water and grow out your sadness beards, because this month we’re joining Kit Laika to dissect Arnold’s turn-of-the-millennium supernatural thriller, End of Days.

Alcoholic and suicidal, ex-cop Jericho Cane is a broken man. But he’s the only thing standing between a young woman chosen to mother the Antichrist, and the forces of Hell themselves. And little does the Devil know that he’s fucking choirboy compared to Cane. A choirboy!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Fun Size Episode 16 – The Billy Martin Experience

Posted on by
2

We continue our chat with Kit Laika and Joe Preti, and veer into stories about strange liberties taken during menial high school jobs — and the potential spy thriller plots that can result from them.

We talk about the comics we love, swap nerd stories and the joy of pop culture recommendation. Mike finally takes his comic book fandom into the world of manga, and we might have just invented a very specific baseball fetish.

Plus, Joe really really really dislikes Wil Wheaton, and the entire world must know. Comments can be left below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode 29 – Vertigo Comics

Posted on by
3

“Magic’s just when you trick the universe into believing some incredibly outrageous lie.”

Mike and Casey hop into Chas’ cab for a journey to the realm of Dreams, because it’s time to go on a road trip across America. Our traveling companions, librarian Kit Laika and Joe Preti from the View from the Gutters podcast.

This month we dig into the Vertigo line of mature-readers comics from DC. From its inception with Karen Berger’s editorial work with Alan Moore on Swamp Thing in the 1980s through massive hits like Sandman, Preacher, Fables and 100 Bullets, we dissect some of the most influential, critically acclaimed and popular comic books of the past thirty years.

Is Vertigo dead, even if its spirit for creator innovation and quality live on at other publishers?

Music: 
“Main Theme” from Constantine (2014) by Bear McCreary

Previously titled: “Make Comics Great Again”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download