Pex Lives: A Doctor Who Podcast

We're back on brand, back in Springsteen Country, and with very special guest Neil McRobert (author, journalist, reviewer, and host of the mighty Talking Scared podcast) in tow, it's finally time to dive into The River. Breaking this behemoth album into two shows, tonight we talk Disk One, as well as our histories with the record, general remarks about the album as a whole, and Neil's Grand Unifying Spreinsteen Theory. Expect discussions of parental loss and elemental relationship fears alongside some entertaining differences of opinions, and discussion of whether or not this album contains the platonic ideal for the mother-in-law joke. Enjoy! Part 2 to follow shortly :)

James and Kit continue their journey through rock 'n' roll discographies with a journey to Meatloaf and Jim Steinman's epic slice of guitar driven urban myth, Bat Out Of Hell. Next time, we take a dip in the River. 

Kit Power and James take a break from Bruce Springsteen to grapple with the entire Sex Pistols album discography. This is a great one, friends.

Kevin and James hit the classic William Hartnell serial from 1966 and the equally classic Zapata Western: Bullet for the General. 

Kevin and James are back and they recorded this at the beginning of the recent series, closing this journey off through the Clash's classic discography (is Combat Rock an imperative or a descriptor?) as well as the racist serial Time Flight - which James utterly failed to pick up on like the sweet summer child that he is. 

In which James and Kit are joined by drummer (in Kit's new band, no less) friend of the show and lifelong Bruce fan John Busvine, to discuss The Boss's seminal 1978 studio album Darkness On The Edge Of Town. For John, it's a conversation over 30 years in the making, and it's a privilege to get his perspective on an album that's formed part of the soundtrack of his life. Enjoy :)

Hey, demons, it's your boys and we're back in town to make some noise. We're here to play about Dr Who's State of Decay and the Clash's record from back in the day (Sandinista! (1980))

Kit and James are back! And they brought someone - the brilliant Andrew Matey - who knows what they're talking about for this, the second real episode of We Learned More From A Three Minute Record. This one goes in deep on Bruce Springsteen's sophomore album, the Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle. The songs? Dissected. The good? Passionately loved. The sacred cows? Delicious burger meat. 

Your long international nightmare is over. Here it is, the podcast episode so anticipated, so filled with good magick that it did the unthinkable and killed Henry Kissenger. You're welcome. You're also now able to sate your previously unquenchable hunger to learn what your old buddies Kevin 'n' James thought about the newest Doctor Who. Listen now. We're back. 

In which James Slater-Murphy and Kit Power begin their deep dive into the studio albums of Columbia recording artist Bruce Springsteen.  With a startling lack of originality, we start at the beginning, taking in 1973s Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ. There's a bit of initial amused bafflement that this is the origin story for one of popular music's biggest and most reliable stadium fillers, but we also discover a lot to enjoy and ponder, especially on side 2, as well as some signposts towards future greatness. An enjoyable start to a keenly anticipated journey. Join us on this ride, where we find out: Will we pay the cost to hear the Boss? You'll have a blast. 

Kevin and James spend an extremely small amount of time on the 1979 Dr. Who serial before getting concisely into the Clash's third record. 

Kevin and James talk about an all-timer of a record. 

Come and hang out with Kevin and James as they find small shoots of optimism in current events, navigate two very different times of day, and talk some classic Sylv! 

Kevin and James talk a Tom Baker serial & Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks!

The Bondage crew is joined by Jack Graham to discuss Moonraker. Hijinks and technical difficulties ensue.      

Kevin & James talk about a couple of good Bob Dylan records (well a couple of records, anyway) before falling into the gush-fest of Tom Baker's first story. 

Kevin and James chat about current events & the Daemons. A great chat, come spend some time hanging out.

We're here already, pod people!  Jack, George, and Elliot reform to talk about one of the greatest of all remakes, one of the greatest of all sci-fi movies, one of the quintessential films of the 70s, the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy. Once again, my patrons got advance access. @_Jack_Graham_ @E11iotChapman @EnigmaticElegy / http://www.strangeplaygrounds.com/ / https://www.youtube.com/user/ExaggeratedElegy

Kevin and James heroically reject that Spotify money then chat the last part of Patrick Troughton's swansong as well as Nashville Skyline & Self Portrait by Bob Dylan. 

Elliot, George, and I are back to talk about Nic Roeg's mysterious and mesmerising Don't Look Now (1972), a tale of haunting grief and uncanny precognition in a decaying and dirty Venice, based on the Daphne Du Maurier story, starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie.  With digressions into Hitchcock, Hannibal, and heverything helse. Once again, my patrons got advance access. @_Jack_Graham_ @E11iotChapman @EnigmaticElegy / http://www.strangeplaygrounds.com/ / https://www.youtube.com/user/ExaggeratedElegy

Kevin & James battle on through the long Troughton serial and then continue to wander through the Bob Dylan discography with Blonde on Blonde & John Wesley Harding. 

Our saviour is born!*         *of a jackal

Kevin and James have a chat, then sink their teeth into the first three episodes of the '69 Troughton serial The War Games. Note: this was recorded just prior to the Omicron variant catching people's notice, immediately making it helplessly dated. Good talk! 

Elliot, George, and I are back to talk about William Peter Blatty's fascinating, flawed, ambitious, sometimes brilliant 1990 oddity, Exorcist III (AKA Legion)... with digressions into the other Exorcist movies and books, plus Christopher Lee, Hannibal, Theodicy, mythology, etc etc etc.  Once again, my patrons got advance access. The plan is for us to do The Omen next and release it on Christmas Day. @_Jack_Graham_ @E11iotChapman @EnigmaticElegy / http://www.strangeplaygrounds.com/ / https://www.youtube.com/user/ExaggeratedElegy

Elliot rejoins and the original IITSL gang assays Peter Strickland's 2012 triumph Berberian Sound Studio, a masterclass of aesthetics and irresolvably ambiguous, mysterious, gripping hauntological cinema. Berberian Sound Studio - Wikipedia My own piece from a few years ago, written immediately after my first viewing of this film: Carry On Screaming – Eruditorum Press Movie Soundtrack  @_Jack_Graham_ @E11iotChapman @EnigmaticElegy / http://www.strangeplaygrounds.com/ / https://www.youtube.com/user/ExaggeratedElegy  

Another podcast excursion into the Media Hauntological, this time focusing on The Shining, the 1980 masterpiece by... well, by several people, including but not limited to Stanley Kubrick.  (See also a triumvirate of brilliant women: Diane Johnson, Wendy Carlos, and Shelley Duvall.) This time George and I are joined by Kit Power.  Because we've decided we hate Elliot.  No, no, no.  I kid.  If the Joker ever tries to corrupt one of us, it'll be Elliot, because he's the best of us.  Truth is, George and Kit and I have long been planning a Shiningcast, since long before George, Elliot and I launched the project that I, to the silent embarrassment of everyone else involved, insist on calling It *IS* The Same Log.   Luckily, it fits very well into the running thread of IITSL.  By agreement with Elliot, George and I went ahead with Kit, and this episode slots nicely into the series. It's a long, long episode in which we mostly talk about the film but also talk a lot about the novel, some about the TV miniseries, and even a little bit about Doctor Sleep (book and movie).  As well as the usual manifold digressions. Content warnings for discussion of very difficult subjects, and also for gushing because this is very very my favourite movie.

The longest Shabcast ever - both in terms of its total running time and of how long it has taken to release - draws to a close.   In this final fantastic episode, Holly offers some closing remarks about texts, fan art, fan fiction, fantasy and its relationship to real action, play, etc.   As you might expect by now, these remarks are complex, thought-provoking, and challenging.  They take in matters of great delicacy, and even darkness and danger.  Touched upon in our final discussion are: the nature of fantasy, the line between the pornographic and non-pornographic, unregulated fan spaces, attempts to regulate them through community pressure, accusations and abuse in fandom, the safety of children to think through their development through fiction and gameplay, possible exploitation of young fans, good and bad faith in discussions of what is or isn't appropriate, the complexity of moral judgement and legality re representations of criminal and immoral acts, realism as ideology, the tension between exploration and normalisation, etc, etc. Some of this is knotty stuff so content warnings abound.

Elliot, George, and Jack continue their podcasting odyssey into the Media Hauntological, branching off into a related but new direction with Robert Eggers' 2015 masterpiece The Witch.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witch_(2015_film)   Content warnings abound. @_Jack_Graham_ @E11iotChapman @EnigmaticElegy / http://www.strangeplaygrounds.com/ / https://www.youtube.com/user/ExaggeratedElegy

A little extra.  George, Elliot and I don't consider, let alone take a course of action as drastic as 'stop talking' lightly.  Our Blair Witch conversation continued for another near 40 minutes after the point where I ended the episode.  And here it is.  

Aaaand, for Halloween itself, here's yet another spooktobery new episode of It IS The Same Log (because these days we are *all* Heather in the woods sobbing "It's not the same log!" over and over again but... I gotta tell ya... it *is*) and once again I (Jack) am joined by Elliot Chapman and George Daniel Lea. My (Jack's) October odyssey through the Media Hauntological with erudite and enthusiastic pod-mates Elliot Chapman and George Daniel Lea continues and culminates with a consideration of the source text of this show's title, 1999's terrifying, ominous, ineffable, and intensely freighted 'Found Footage' classic The Blair Witch Project, taking in digressions on The Terror, Stalker, Come and See, Salò, Cannibal Holocaust, Doctor Who, Peter Watkins, David Bowie, Baudrillard, Frederic Jameson, Lovecraft, and LeGuin. We had some technical problems at the start and poor old George was a bit runny of nose with a nasty cold (rather appropriate given that BWP features some of the most celebrated snot-shots in cinematic history) but I've worked my usual folk magic - I am to podcasts what Mary Brown (maybe?) is to threatening corn dollies and stick sculptures - and made it so listenable your ears will cancel their plan to overthrow you and run your body themselves (yes, I was in on it). As ever, my Patreon backers got advance access to this, so consider chucking me a dollar a month.  I have such sights to show you... slightly earlier than I show other people. There's a substantial off-cut from the end of this conversation which you'll get as a separate extra, early next month. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blair_Witch_Project Content warnings abound. @_Jack_Graham_ @E11iotChapman @EnigmaticElegy / http://www.strangeplaygrounds.com/ / https://www.youtube.com/user/ExaggeratedElegy

Come one, come all! Elliot Chapman, master performer and one of the finest storytellers of our Internet Age, is on Human Bondage. He witnesses strange things, like Christopher Lee's third nipple, Kit's defense of Fleming's novel, a shoutout to Wrong With Authority fans, and James bodying Christine near the end.

Welcome back to the loooong discussion between myself, Jack Graham, and the excellent Holly Boson (@fireh9lly) in which Holly explains Final Fantasy VII to me, a total novice, in pitiless detail. Sorry for the looooooong gap between this and the last installment. So here, at last, is Part 4 This episode is mainly about why the remake is amazing.  Even so, some possibly disturbing subjects are mentioned, so I must again attach a content warning. The series will conclude with a fifth part, probably next month.  Or possibly in eight months, knowing me.

Aaaand here's another spooktobery new episode of It IS The Same Log (because these days we are *all* Heather in the woods sobbing "It's not the same log!" over and over again but... I gotta tell ya... it *is*) and once again I (Jack) am joined by Elliot Chapman and George Daniel Lea. This time we tackle the legendary and infamous Ghostwatch, created and aired by the BBC in 1992 much to their own horror.  Written by Stephen Volk, directed by Lesley Manning.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwatch I would probably call this one of my very favourite pieces of uncanny media, brilliantly crafted, genuinely scary, and a veritable bottomless pit of implications.  I don't find much disagreement from my co-hosts and, once again, our enthusiasm runs riot.  We cover many topics from the BBC internal reaction, the public furore, media 'realism', gothic marxism, etc.  We were even plagued during recording by terrifyingly appropriate technical glitches.  Skype got media hauntological on our asses.   Once again, my backers got days of advance access. Spoilers and content warnings @_Jack_Graham_ https://www.patreon.com/jackgraham @E11iotChapman @EnigmaticElegy / http://www.strangeplaygrounds.com/ / https://www.youtube.com/user/ExaggeratedElegy

Spooktober continues with IITSL (because these days we are *all* Heather in the woods sobbing "It's not the same log!" over and over again but... I gotta tell ya... it *is*) and a new episode that is genuinely one of my (Jack's) favourite things I've ever done, a conversation with the same team as last time (Elliot Chapman and George Daniel Lea) about the classic 1972 Nigel Kneale TV ghost story The Stone Tape, the terrifying and multi-dimensional masterpiece of the BBC gothic. Spoilers and content warnings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stone_Tape Whole show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtvJWKaDI9s @_Jack_Graham_ @E11iotChapman @EnigmaticElegy / http://www.strangeplaygrounds.com/ / https://www.youtube.com/user/ExaggeratedElegy

Welcome to the first episode of It IS The Same Log, a new series for October, in which Jack Graham (of I Don't Speak German and the Shabcast) talks to his erudite friends Elliot Chapman and George Daniel Lea about lesser-known landmarks in the cinema and television of the uncanny.  This week, it's 1980's The Changeling, an underappreciated classic of haunted cinema. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changeling_(film) @_Jack_Graham_ @E11iotChapman @EnigmaticElegy / http://www.strangeplaygrounds.com/ / https://www.youtube.com/user/ExaggeratedElegy  

Christine and Kit welcome Roger Moore with Live and Let Die. They're joined by their brilliant and hilarious friend Miranda, who has never seen a James Bond movie and proceeds to gloriously dunk on the source material and this show's gringo hosts.

Kevin and James talk the 1965 artifacts the Rescue, Bringing It All Back Home, & Highway 61 Revisited

    Christine, Kit, and James tackle Diamonds Are Forever, Connery's second (and last, yes, shut the fuck up) swansong as James Bond. It's a weird fucking movie and they have some takes on it. Things go to hell.

The Human Bondage team returns to take on George Lazenby's sole outing as Bond, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. There's stuff we liked, stuff we didn't, and a great deal of fun was had in the conversation. Come for the breakdown of what may end up being one of the most faithful adaptation of a Fleming novel, stay for the Diana Rigg worship.

Kevin and James have a great time saying "chumblies" to one another and then get into a deep dive in the second part of their subseries about Bob Dylan's albums, covering The Times They Are A-Changin' and Another Side of Bob Dylan.   Chumblies. 

Hey, Bobby Dylan, we recorded you a 'cast.

Christine and Kit are joined by James Slater-Murphy to talk about the horribly anti-Japanese You Only Live Twice.

Kevin, James and Jack get wet. 

The year of Pex Lives continues! This month: Resurrection of the Daleks. 

Kevin and James shoot the breeze and talk about the third Dr. Who serial. 

Here is the next part of the loooong discussion between myself, Jack Graham, and the excellent Holly Boson (@fireh9lly) in which Holly explains Final Fantasy VII to me, a total novice, in pitiless detail. In this episode we delve into the history and politics of sequels and remakes, and fandom as a way of constructing the self. Content warnings apply because some potentially troubling issues are mentioned. Part 4 will be posted in advance of publication for my Patreon backers. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4196618&fan_landing=true