Thursday, October 20, 2011

Last podcast before the Halloween Special!


This is the last episode before our Halloween special; can you feel the Eldritch particles in the very air we breathe?? I thought so. In this podcast we discussed the "occupy" movement and would-be populist Michael Moore's attempts to capitalize on it. I did a quick review of George Clooney's The Ides of March to cap off this political diversion: meh. Then we delved back into ghosts and ghoulies: the new Hellraiser film is out, straight-to-DVD, and the first not to star Doug Bradley as Pinhead. This is obviously a lamentable attempt to keep the copyright for a still-planned remake; I'm sure it's terrible. The Boom Operator and I watched John Carpenter's gut-churning classic The Thing in preparation for the new prequel/remake (premake?). We expected to be disappointed by the CGI and the basic premise (to ruin some of the ambiguity of the first film) and we were, but not quite to the extent that we hated it. To cap things off we talked about the British sleeper Attack the Block which featured some rascally London chavs battling an alien invasion. This one we can recommend without ambiguity.



We heard music from the following films:
Alien Resurrection - John Frizzel (1997)
Predator - Alan Silvestri (1987)
The Day the Earth Stood Still - Bernard Herrman
The Thing - John Carpenter / Ennio Morricone (1982)
The Thing - Marco Beltrami (2011)

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Boy these podcasts are starting to get spooky!




Can you feel the ambient horror permeating the sepulchral October air? The Boom Operator and I certainly can: podcasts, parties, and Tavern Trivia are all being primed for the following weeks, and all are going to be immersed in the spooky spirit of the times. We tried to slowly seep into the October horror mien with music from John Carpenter who, his flaws notwithstanding, composes his own eery, electro-minimalist scores. Later I ended up going on a tangent about Jesusween. Goddamn Jesusween is a thing, y'all! Apparently some Christians, who I guess regard Halloween as occultish, Satanic, or otherwise totally awesome, are starting this Halloween alternative where healthy treats and Bibles are handed out instead of candy. I guess they need more reasons for people to laugh at them. Anyway, my favorite part of this show was playing music from the old LucasArts game Grim Fandango, which we both love. Our time-honored Halloween Special will air October 24th, Tavern Trivia is October 12th, and Beat Bachs' Halloween Dance Party is October 28th. This is an exciting time to be alive.

We heard music from the following:
28 Days Later - John Murphy (2002)
Big Trouble in Little China - John Carpenter (1986)
Corpse Bride - Danny Elfman (2005)
Grim Fandango - Peter McConnel (1998)
Magic - Jerry Goldsmith (1978)

DOWNLOAD THIS PODCAST

Thursday, October 06, 2011

October is here!


October has arrived. The month of creepy-crawlies, ghoulies, and gewgaws. Soon, pumpkins will line the streets and high fructose candies will line our stomachs. Needless to say, this is the Boom Operator and I's favorite time of year, and we started off right with a review of campy horror-comedy Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Our verdict: good, harmless fun. We also disappeared briefly into our faux-intellectual asses to discuss the rise of internet "review culture" and the popularity of sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, who offer aggregate critic scores and can distinctly impact whether the casual viewer will view/validate a film. I'm a big fan of Metacritic; they often expose me to great limited-release films, but there are drawbacks to only seeking out the "best".

Stay tuned for next week's show, particularly if you're interested in the upcoming Tavern Trivia.

Don't forget to donate to our cause over at EXTRA-LIFE.ORG

This week we heard music from:
Judge Dredd - Alan Silvestri (1995)
Howard Shore - Spider (2002)
What Dreams May Come - Micheal Kamen (1995)
To live and Die in LA - Wang Chung (1985)
Swamp Thing- Harry Manfredini (1982)


DOWNLOAD THIS PODCAST