The Whole Shebang: The Minute-by-Minute Velvet Goldmine Podcast

In the final minute of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny thank their generous Patreon supporters, their lovely, talented and glam guest hosts, and talk a little bit about Velvet Goldmine, watching it for the podcast, and how their opinions of the film may have changed over the 24 weeks of the podcast. Thank you, everyone! Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 119 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny talk more about the soundtrack and about buying it back in the early ‘00s, about what vinyl we want for Christmas, and then talk about what Bowie songs could have possibly been used if he'd allowed permission and how it is definitely better that the film couldn't use Bowie, and we talk about the real musicians behind the music in the movie, then we move into the Special Thanks, talk about Todd Haynes's awesome grandparents, and then talk a little about those boilerplate warnings about films being based on real people and how ridiculous it is that Velvet Goldmine has this disclaimer. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 118 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny finish up the technical credits, talking about film locations, why they shot the Manchester scenes in Manchester, the psychogeographical history of London, a total diversion into forbidding candy factories, and then go into the music credits, talk about Andy Pratt and “Avenging Angel,” which we missed during the movie, and talk about our favorite songs from the film. Then we deliver our long-promised (divergent) thoughts on a Velvet Goldmine sequel, and what happened to the characters after the frame of the movie. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 117 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny continue their look into the closing credits, encountering the progeny of Nicolas Roeg in an unexpected place and we go into Hollywood nepotism, talking a little about Duncan Jones, then Mike realizes he shouldn't mock the job title of “clapper loader,” because it actually when you think about it is probably way complex, how they decide who gets their funny nicknames listed in the credits, Jenny talks about machines named after her, and we talk about Action Vehicles, which gets Jenny thinking of her neighbors during childhood and their electric kid-sized jeep, then we finish looking at the technical credits and talk about what the main cast members have done since Velvet Goldmine. And Mike and Jenny settle all pop culture grudges gleefully, heaping derision on Richard Curtis, new Doctor Who, and The Princess Bride. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 116 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny begin their journey into Velvet Goldmine's closing credits by talking about Steve Harley and some of the other social realist films of the 1990s that used 1970s-heavy soundtracks, then closing credits in general, how much Mike hates the Marvel movies, closing credits cuteness and all, and how it all started back in the ‘70s with Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise, then we begin with Velvet Goldmine's actual credits, starting with the top-billed cast. We rank the performances of the top-billed cast and we compare Jonathan Rhys Meyers to Malcolm McDowell, look at some of the workaday actors “below the fold” in the credits, and then spend some time projecting Whatever Happened To The Fripperies, then talk about the stunts and whether or not there were stunt butts. Then it's onto the cast members who were parts of bands, and a discussion of the producers and the people behind the titles, Bureau. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 115 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike say goodbye to the actual action of the film with a thought about a Victorian and English Gothic aesthetic as captured by Americans like Todd Haynes and Terry Gilliam, Jenny talks about being a “third culture kid” and Mike talks about British creators who aren't able to go the other way, how this film is ultimately just a snapshot of a very rarefied pantheon and how an entire story is happening outside the narrow frame of the film, and as we look at a montage of schoolkids looking up, a bunch of umbrellas in motion on the London pavement, and a candlelit pub during the miners' strikes in 1974, we take a moment to do a last-minute Marxist analysis of the film as a whole and a look at the social, political, and cultural impact of the transistor radio. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 114 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike talk about our final looks at Mandy and the Flaming Creatures watching Jack onstage, the honor given to Brian, Curt, and Malcolm in the silkscreen projections on the curtain at the end of the concert, and our final return to Arthur and Curt on the roof in a misty snow of nostalgia. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 113 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at Arthur's dopey joyful grin, at Arthur's closing narration and the idea of allowing oneself personal and sexual freedom, how Brian got to have it both ways and how that interacts with the Tommy Stone persona, how all that interacts with the final incontrovertible proof of Jenny's Theory we're shown at our final flashback to the Death of Glitter concert, and again, the unbearable poignancy of “2HB” as delivered in this final sequence. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 112 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike talk about Arthur's Great Refusal of the Oscar Wilde pin, the beauty of old-style vinyl-playing jukeboxes and Mike's childhood jukebox-and-pizza memories, the masterful nostalgic reprise of “2HB” in this final montage of the movie, the awkward, longing goodbye between Arthur and Curt, how badly we want them to be together, Jenny reveals the secret of the fanfic term “pepperjack cheese,” and the sleight-of-hand involved in dropping a choking hazard into a bottle of beer. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 111 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at the history of the legendary green pin (and our awesome pins available on Patreon), take a side trip to Mike's intimidating leather jacket-wearing college years, talk about the problems of provenance in Mike's Museum Corner, especially when it comes to alien artifacts, our return to the beginning of the film through the pin, memories of the fairytale narrator who's never appeared again, and how that fits Velvet Goldmine's postmodern aesthetic, how Mike doesn't like The Neverending Story, how cute Ewan McGregor is as 1984 Curt, how Curt's dual flashbacks to his lovers Brian and Arthur use the same film stock and how that signifies nostalgia, Curt's peeing off the side of the Rainbow Theater and the role of urine in gay and in transgressive art from Warhol to Mapplethorpe to Serrano, how the pin represents something Arthur still cannot access within himself, and how the pin represents handing on an artistic, musical, and cultural legacy. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 110 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny talk about what kind of swear words English people can't say authentically, Curt's use of an Oscar Wilde quote in talking to Arthur and his possible tacit support for Brian's artistic change, what Curt is up to artistically in the ‘80s and what his real-life analogues, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, were up to in our ‘80s, what the kids are listening to in the Velvet Goldmine universe, how the kids in our ‘80s were helped by the second wave of American hardcore punk, Curt's comment on how the glam scene didn't change the world, just themselves, how Dorian Gray hovers over this set of questions, and how Tommy Stone hovers over the grim music fans of the 1980s. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

  In Minute 109 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny look at Arthur and Curt's long-promised reunion ten years after their rooftop tryst, Arthur's flabbergasted approach and Curt's 1984 look with a ponytail, and the fact that Curt doesn't remember Arthur (or does he?), Curt's attending the Tommy Stone show (or does he?), and the beginning of Arthur and Curt dancing around the secret identity of Tommy Stone. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 108 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny break down the scene where Arthur gives his Tommy Stone press pass to a young Tommy Stone fan, who just happens to be Whole Shebang friend of the podcast Nadia Williams! In this episode, all is revealed about Christian Bale's on-set preparation methods and what happened at the Velvet Goldmine afterparty thanks to a listener mail sent in by Nadia! We also talk about what it's like to briefly touch the band by getting a press pass or a set list at a gig, checking out the wall decorations and jukebox at what we assume is Curt's bar, and, after finding out the name of Tommy Stone's tour, “Juke Box Jive,” the blight of jukebox musicals. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 107 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny sit through the rest of Tommy Stone's presser, talk about massive stadium tours of yesteryear, including Bowie's Glass Spider Tour in 1987 and U2's Zoo TV Tour in 1992, the spectacle involved in these tours, on ‘80s Broadway, and on ‘80s digital compact discs, Mike's first gig: a pompous Zoo TV U2 and a fractious about-to-break-up Pixies opening for them, Jenny's desperate hatred of U2, and then it's back to Tommy Stone's press conference, Arthur's reaction to both his fellow “journalists” and Tommy Stone's showmanship, Arthur's “outing” of Tommy in Reynolds's America and what it means for the metaphors of the 1980s gay experience, Tommy's backstage arrangements and how they differ from 1970s decadence, Tommy's resemblance to a televangelist, the moment where Tommy sees Brian in his own Dorian Gray cathode-ray image, the grim bar where Arthur ends up after the gig, and Mike waxes rhapsodic on the genius of Arkanoid. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 106 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny finish up their time with Maxwell Demon's goodbye number, the sprinkling of flower petals gets us talking about the secret origin of confetti and the fragility of avians, we look at Arthur in the crowd at the Tommy Stone show, Tommy Stone's sorta-fascist logo, rock and roll logos throughout history, and rock and rollers who use symbols instead of words for their albums and own names. And then we talk about the personal dimension of Arthur in 1984, and how the world of music changed around him, and how Velvet Goldmine might be more about the personal rather than the political, going to gigs as a 40-something, and Tommy Stone's impromptu stage door press conference, the egoistic impulse to market a mask of your own face, and Tommy's weird mid-Atlantic accent. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 105 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike take dueling interpretations of the grand chandelier that appears at the end of this minute and use it as an excuse to talk about two of their favorite movies, Jenny gets into why she hates Close Encounters's characters, then we get back to the set decoration and the statuary figures, and then we use the excuse of Maxwell Demon's downfall and the UFO's presence to talk about Oscar Wilde's downfall, disgraced artists, and the continuing appeal of disgraced artists' art and how some people will still work with disgraced artists despite the ignominy. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 104 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike begin their look at Maxwell Demon's swan song, “Tumbling Down” by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, Alan Parsons's involvement as producer, Maxwell Demon's visual presentation in this sequence as an amalgamation of Maxwell and Brian Slade himself, the broken theater setting of this sequence, how the scenery reminds us of the dichotomy of Maxwell Demon as fusion and Apollonian and Dionysian, how Steve Harley reacted to the use of “Tumbling Down,” and how Todd Haynes as an American had to actively seek out British culture in the form of glam, and how American culture doesn't require that kind of work from British fans. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 103 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at Arthur's very sexful way of taking off his shirt and how difficult the “crossed-arm” method is to pull off smoothly, Curt's brief flashback (or flashforward) as Arthur and Curt come together, and Arthur's taking mescaline before the evening's events and how many hallucinogens, like DMT, simulate alien contact, and how Jenny is a true believer in the UFO and its glitterdust sprinkling down over Arthur and Curt, Arthur and Curt's lovemaking and how Curt compares it to being onstage, how this sequence breaks down the boundary in a quite literal sense between audience and artist, how the groupie experience allowed a girl in the 1970s to touch the feeling of being onstage, how we as the audience are watching Arthur, and how the identities of our protagonists are being melded and boundaries are breaking down. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 102 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike take a look at Arthur's continued approach to Curt on the rooftop, Curt's continued asking of personal questions of Arthur, Arthur's engaging in dropping mescaline and how far he's come since his days in his bedroom, a brief history of the Rainbow Theater, on which roof Curt and Arthur are hanging out right now, Curt's cracking open an anachronistic pull-tab beer, their spotting of a shooting star, Arthur's joy in having this time with Curt, and how this minute encapsulates the fan's prototypical fantasy of hanging out with the band… among other things. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 101 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at the aftermath of Brian's incognito visit to the Death of Glitter show, Mandy and Curt's continued definition of themselves in terms of Brian, Arthur's reticence about Brian and paralysis in the face of Mandy and Curt and the tantalizing possibility that 1984 is Arthur's fault, Curt and Arthur cruising each other, Arthur's fashion, hair, and makeup and how they stick with the amateurishness of the fans throughout Velvet Goldmine, the various relationship mashup names from the movie, Curt's questions for Arthur and how they betray his need for a human connection, and Arthur's imminent experience with Curt and the profound fear, pressure, and intensity involved. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 100 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny take just a brief moment to celebrate their hundredth episode and examine Jenny and Mike's respective singing talents and Mike's taking karaoke entirely too seriously, before cracking into: the crowd reaction to “Gimme Danger,” Brian's turning away from Curt's feelings and an opportunity to return to him, our sequel featuring Curt-as-knight-in-shining-armor saving the prince (Brian), the similarities between Brian Slade and Darth Vader (look! 5 and 5 again!), the similarities between Velvet Goldmine and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, how Velvet Goldmine would be a great conversation-after-cinema-over-coffee movie, Arthur's presence backstage and how Arthur is Todd Haynes's proxy as well as the audience's, and how sad it is to be coming closer to the end of our podcast. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 99 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny examine the arrival of Brian Slade in trenchcoated and be-fedora'd disguise at the Death of Glitter show, exactly who if anyone noticed him, how the end of “Gimme Danger” gives the film audience some closure on Brian and Curt, the fact that this is the first time all four main characters in the same place, Curt's questionable belt and our coming around on Ewan's physique in the movie and how no one could healthily look like Iggy Pop, Mandy's emotional reaction to Curt's performance, and our own crackpot theories about how music is able to evoke emotions in the human heart and mind, how lyrics add to (or detract from) that emotional connection, and what exactly comprises the language of music. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 98 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny look at Curt's continued performance of “Gimme Danger,” the arrival of Mandy and her relatively low-key arrival at the Death of Glitter concert, what everyone's funereal roles are at the Death of Glitter, the fact that Arthur has been around Mandy, ten years before their big interview, Ewan McGregor's musical performance as Curt Wild contrasted with his Moulin Rouge! performance, the irony of rejecting glam's aesthetic and inevitably constructing a new aesthetic, and the ambiguity of Mandy's presence at the show. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 97 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny hope you like “Gimme Danger,” because you're about to get a hell of a lot of it, first tackling the lyrics and whether they're about heroin or a relationship and what that means for Curt, the S&M elements within “Gimme Danger” and glam in general, what happens when you go to a gig and the singer starts writhing on the stage and you can't see them, the audience's reaction to Curt including Pearl's appreciation and Arthur's raw sensual appeal, Arthur's transference of his fandom (and sexual attraction) to Curt, a little on Iggy Pop's late ‘70s output and its influence on punk and goth, Todd Haynes' decision to use only music from 1974 and previous in the movie, and Jenny's joyful discovery of the word “diagetic.” Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 96 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny start off with a seemingly-huge tangent to the “stranger danger” paranoia of their childhoods (thanks to the presence of “Gimme Danger” in this minute), then we dive into Arthur's frantic phone call to find Curt Wild, Curt's pretending to not be on the other end of the line, Curt's strange grungy garage-like office, the two men, presumably from the Reynolds regime, watching Curt carefully, why the Reynolds administration is so scared that word will leak out that Tommy Stone is Brian Slade, crackpot theories about subliminal messages and backmasking, which we link back up to the 1980s paranoia about stranger danger, the Parents Music Resource Center under Tipper Gore, what the hell kind of name is Tipper, rock opera dystopias from The Wall to The Apple, and the unsatisfying ending to the film's 1984 segment and Jenny's pitch for a Velvet Goldmine sequel. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

  In Minute 95 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny, Mike and special guest Rob MacDougall reveal ALL! Yes, the big twist of Velvet Goldmine is finally revealed for real. And spinning out from that, we talk about: the actor who plays Tommy Stone, the questions of identity swirling around Brian, Tommy, and Jack, Rob's deeper theory on the dramatic poles of the movie and how Brian really is the villain of the piece, and Rob's even deeper theory about fellow cultural chameleon Jane Fonda, some thoughts on both Brian and Arthur getting their wishes, but in horrible, monkey's-paw-type ways, our mystification at what role Tommy Stone actually plays in the Reynolds Administration and how far their evil tendrils go (and real-life analogues with Elvis, John Lennon, and the FBI), yet another look at the unconvincing New York and a theory on why Manhattan is full of right-hand-drive London buses, President Reynolds, the real-life analogues to Tommy Stone with Ronald Reagan, and Tommy Stone's similarity to both 1980s Bowie and other bombastic self-congratulatory pop stars of the ‘80s. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 94 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny, Mike and guest host Rob go deep into Arthur's research methods, comparing his look through a big periodical index in an earlier minute with his use of cutting-edge 1984 high technology in this one: fax machines and online databases. Then we go SUPER deep into the history of fax machines, 1980s computing and online research, and how this old retrotech evokes an uncanny alternate 1984 very well. We talk about Arthur's sad apartment, and then we talk a little bit about why Rob chose these minutes, how expertly Todd Haynes creates just the edges of a dystopian 1984, and how endlessly intriguing Rob finds it. Then we get back into Arthur's research, his look into Brian Slade's dual name changes, and the mechanics of changing your name in the Velvet Goldmine universe, and his sudden epiphany upon seeing who Tommy Stone's manager is… Shannon herself! Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

  In Minute 93 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny, Mike, and special guest for the week Rob MacDougall cover: Arthur's endearingly dancing like a loon and other bands' professional goofy dancers, the dangers of dancing like an idiot at a gig, Curt Wild's fantastic entrance backstage at the Death of Glitter show and the theory that Brian Slade has a League of Evil Exes, Curt and Arthur's coming connection and whether Arthur caught Curt's eye with his budget hair dye, and the inclusion of “Dead Finks Don't Talk” on the soundtrack and glam/punk's obsession with snitches, stooges, and finks. And then we talk with Rob about how he first watched Velvet Goldmine and got our entire group of friends into the movie while running his Starchildren: Velvet Generation role-playing game in 2004. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 92 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny, Mike, and special guest for the week Rob MacDougall cover: T. Rex's penchant for listing animals and a possible Muhammad Ali reference in “20th Century Boy,” the fashion sense of the Flaming Creatures and a possible nod to the Cockney Pearly Kings and Queens, Arthur's finally having a good time, and his role within the Flaming Creatures, the relationship between rock journalist and rock band and where Arthur falls on that continuum, then we look at the Flaming Creatures' preparing for the show and Arthur's makeup table, the Second Wave of Glam's representatives on the Flaming Creatures' wall of fame, Mike's question of whether Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue whiteface period could properly be called “glam,” and Jenny's pop quiz of Mike about The Six Makeups. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 91 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike are joined by Mike's OTHER podcast partner, Rob MacDougall, of Hold My Order, Terrible Dresser, the Deep-Dive, History Nerd WKRP In Cincinnati Podcast! Jenny, Mike, and Rob kick off this week with: the feeling of being starstruck by glamorous podcasters, what exactly did Jack Fairy do for Curt Wild's career, the genius of the slam cut and ominous organ intro to the Death of Glitter concert, a brief detour back into horror-glam with Jack's opening looking a bit like an Alice Cooper stage show, the use of the word “glitter” to describe glam and its possible American roots in Gary Glitter and the Second Wave of Glam, the funeral for glitter given at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco on the Sunset Strip in autumn 1974, the feeling of having missed a musical scene and Mike's own personal The Day the Music Died when Green Day played the concert immortalized in the Weezer song “El Scorcho,” the constant nagging Generation X feelings of inferiority to Boomers and their cultural experiences, and fittingly we wrap up with a look at the T. Rex song “20th Century Boy” and the vérité quality to the concert scenes in Velvet Goldmine. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 90 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny are joined by Jen Melchert who is now a fully vested and tenured fancyperson thanks to her week on the podcast! In this minute, we cover Mandy's abortive flounce out of Brian's office, Shannon and Brian's cruel mocking laughter at her, and we go deep into the inspiration for Shannon's character, Bowie's longtime PA (and platonic life partner?) Coco Schwab. We also Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey with Jen, who had a close encounter with the longtime Bowie collaborators at one of the shows on their Holy Holy tour. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 89 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny are yet again joined by extra-fancy, Maleficent-hoodie-wearing guest host Jen Melchert, and after a brief detour into talking about late ‘90s/early ‘00s Hot Topic hate, we go straight into the Mandy vs. Brian RPG battle using quotes and references: Mandy's opening volley of a combined Rolling Stones/Aleister Crowley quote, then Brian's return to good old Oscar Wilde's post-prison period with a quote about “suffering at the birth of a child as at the birth of a star,” Mandy's riposte with Brian's living in terror of not being misunderstood, and then Brian's shockingly misogynist (or perhaps not?) use of a quote from Dorian Gray, and then Mandy's eventual capitulation and disillusionment with the time and energy she gave to Brian. Then we talk a little about the rise of Dark Shannon and her new look copped from Jerry and from… the future? And finally we wrap up with Jen's decision to pick such a dark five minutes of the movie for her week. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 88 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny are joined by fancy guest Jen Melchert to discuss: the beginning of Brian and Mandy's final argument and the Mystery Moose hovering over this scene, about how in Britain if you run out of tea, you are obligated to offer your guests cocaine, Brian's decision to stage his downfall at the office and not his own home, how this scene with Mandy serving Brian papers is based on a specific incident from Angie and David Bowie's tumultuous marriage, and how Mandy and Brian's split highlights some of the decadence of the late ‘70s. And then Jen talks a little about how she discovered the movie, how it intersects with her own early 20s, her Bowie fandom, and her love of fandom and fanfic in general. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 87 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny are yet again joined by fancy guest host Jen Melchert, and we discuss: Mandy's being misled to believe Brian was actually dead after his assassination on stage, what Mandy would've worn to the funeral, how Courtney Love fits into Jenny's “maiden-mother-crone” formulation of rock and roll women, Mandy's being utterly alone and isolated in Brian's circle, and then we turn to Brian's fall into cocaine paranoia and how it echoes Bowie's own cocaine period, and how Bowie's flirtation with the occult came at the very same time, look at how Aleister Crowley's (and the Nazi Party's) opinion of cocaine and amphetamines jibes with occult fascist Bowie, the strange career and life bookends of Bowie's wearing the Station to Station striped suit in the videos for the Blackstar album, Mandy being the only adult in the room who was capable of ending it, our unexpected realization that Velvet Goldmine and Interview With The Vampire are the same exact movie, and Jenny's obsession with the costumes from Velvet Goldmine and where they ended up. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 86 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny kick off a week of being joined by FANCY guest host Jen Melchert! Jen joins Jenny and Mike to discuss: Arthur's lovely down-to-earth response to the barrage of witty epigrams from the Flaming Creatures, the Flaming Creatures perhaps having read a book or two on fascism (last week's Big Brother reference) and Situationism, and whether Arthur's nonplussed reaction to their dimestore philosophy is a meta-commentary on the wilderness of queer theory, Mandy's mysterious appearance in the middle of a black void and how the movie overall poses people in situations like album covers, the silliness of Bryan Ferry's video for “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall,” how the Flaming Creatures are not just a goth-glam tribute but also a tribute to the punk and postpunk artists who wanted to tear Bowie's legacy down in the late ‘70s, Brian's late-night recording session, his single melodramatic tear running down his cheek, and how it might be a tribute to Sinead O'Connor's iconic “Nothing Compares 2 U” video. We then pivot through Prince and the future Paisley Park Museum to talk about Jen's visit to the Bowie exhibit a couple of years ago and our SEETHING jealousy. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 85 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at Curt in Berlin and him in an alley full of hustlers, Jack Fairy's arrival in Berlin to help Curt Wild, how this interacts with our theory that Brian Slade is Jack Fairy, our own nights of iniquity in clubs where people end up topless by the end of the night and/or drinking Bailey's from a shoe, our close-up look at the Flaming Creatures' makeup and how it reminds Jenny of the New Romantic movement, our plans for Decadent Spiral Chips and/or Breakfast Cereal, the Flaming Creatures' predicting the arrival of Big Brother, how great works of art and societal advances come out of awful periods in history, and how we as oldsters won't see the good art when it happens. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 84 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at Arthur's abashedness at meeting the Flaming Creatures and being blown a kiss, the proto-goth aesthetic at the Flaming Creatures show, the beginnings of the prehistory of goth in Jim Morrison and the Velvet Underground and the ‘90s resurgence of a glam-goth look, and then we look at Brian Slade's fans' rebellion against his assassination hoax with the burning of his albums and memorabilia, the burning of records throughout rock history and how it's reflected in Disco Demolition Night, Brian's post-assassination downfall surrounded by groupies, drugs, and bad hairstyles, and Brian's being an early adopter of home video technology, and our own memories of how video recorders and home video entered our lives. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 83 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at what we've lost in terms of emotional revelation in movies and in real life now that there are no phone receivers to hang up or slam down anymore, Curt's retreat to Berlin and how it's a reference to Bowie's Berlin period and trilogy and to other German retreats like the Beatles in Hamburg, the differences between Brian Slade and David Bowie, especially in how each of them were treated by their managers, the cultural history of the doner kebab in Germany, Britain, and the U.S., Jenny's inability to tell European countries apart, Brian's Berlin doppelgänger, and then back to Bowie and his paranoia and how he escaped his cocaine period in Berlin, how Bowie used the Berlin trilogy to recap his career up to this point, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Jenny's disappointment with Neil Patrick Harris's performance of Hedwig, a short detour in “straightwashing” queer classics like Rocky Horror, and then back to London where Arthur's having his own montage, Brian seeing the Flaming Creatures (played by Placebo) for the first time, Placebo's own history, their flouting of the Velvet Goldmine curse, and Jenny's anger that they are considered a one-hit wonder in the States, Placebo's connection to Bowie, Brian Malko's acting experience and how actors and non-actors in music movies provide some new and weird energy, and the goofy look on Arthur's face as he finds his people in London. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.  

In Minute 82 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at the end of the goodbye scene between Curt and Brian, Curt's frantic smoking of a cigarette, and all the “cigarette business” actors could get up to in movies during the smoking era, Brian's cubey electric-blue jacket and how it hearkens back to Brian and Curt's first business breakfast, Jenny's love of overly literal music videos, Brian's flashbacks to Brian and Curt's “much-needed” getaway and how it reminded Jenny of the 1991 film The Hours and Times about John Lennon and Brian Epstein, Curt's trip to Heathrow and the sequence immediately following which gives Mike a chance to discuss the Kuleshov Effect, Brian's desire to finish the tour not as Maxwell Demon and its connection to the green jewel, Todd Haynes objectifying Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the manner of the filmic male gaze and film noir, and how Brian's objection to finishing the tour leads directly to the endgame for Maxwell Demon. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 81 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike talk about the aftermath of the recording studio blow-up, including Mandy's gradual drift away from Brian (and her fashion choices and hair for hanging around the studio), Mandy's bubble perm as a tribute to Angie Bowie, the changing hairstyles of the main characters and the famous hairstylists of Swinging London, Jenny and Mike's visit to the V&A for their “You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970” exhibit, the Fall of the Fripperies and Brian's cruelty to Curt in the face of Brian having been his caretaker, and the introduction of “Bitter-Sweet” by Roxy Music, the women on the cover of Roxy's Country Life and their jobs as models/German translators, and two scenes from a balcony: the night of Brian and Curt's fight and the morning after. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 80 of The Whole Shebang, we continue the uncomfortable time looking at Curt, Brian, and Jerry's conflict in the recording studio, the idea of studio polish vs. raw energy, where Brian's energies are best directed and how Bowie used his time in inadvisable ways early in his career, Curt's insults cutting to the core of Brian's puffed-up space-age persona and coterie of yes-men, and then we look at this behavior through the lens of the fact that these rock stars (and actors) are really young when they're behaving badly, Brian's milquetoast suggestion of having a bit of a break, and the whys and wherefores of an artist's vitality fading. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 79 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny take a good long detailed look at the scene where Curt and Brian have their “creative differences,” take a detour into talking about how hard it is to be honestly critical of the person you love, siding with the suits rather than the dungarees, and then look at the fantastic acting on the part of Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Eddie Izzard in this scene. We then look at studio argument outtakes from commercials (Orson Welles), music history (Buddy Rich), and movies (Christian Bale), and then take some time with Brian's bulge and how it echoes the cover of Sticky Fingers and David Bowie's famed package in Labyrinth. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 78 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny look at Mandy's statement about Maxwell Demon and Curt Wild being fictions, then we enter the recording studio to recap David Bowie's producing Lou and Iggy, and listen in to “My Unclean,” an original song made for the movie meant to unite the grunge and glam aesthetics into a proto-punk and how the folks in the studio just don't get it, then cover the rock movie cliché of fights in the recording studio, look at Brian and Curt mentor-mentee relationship in terms of Oscar and Bosie, the reactions of the Venus in Furs, Mandy, and Jerry to Curt's studio indulgence, and talk a little about Abbey Road studios… and the Abbey Road webcam. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 77 of The Whole Shebang, we finish looking at Arthur and Mandy's confrontation about Arthur hearing the rest of the story of the fall of Brian Slade, take a brief silly detour into talking about goths' mycological method of reproduction, Arthur's ambivalence about his glam fandom in the 1984 period and how the movie expertly uses the two time periods to reveal details of the characters, the power of nostalgia, its inherent melancholy, and how it is the engine at the center of Velvet Goldmine, how we can't trust Arthur's perceptions of 1984 and how Arthur's grim view of the world could have to do with his finally growing up, how Arthur's attitude about the Brian Slade story has taken a complete 180 from disdain to fascination, Mandy's complex opinion of Curt as an empty symbol and Arthur's reaction to this, and Mandy's apparent mood ring! Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 76 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny look at Mandy's discovery of the empty bedroom and the very perfunctory and telegrammatic goodbye note that Brian leaves, other brief notes from pop culture (including Cabaret and a very interesting Twitter account featuring Postcards from the Past), Brian's reference to Hammersmith, the real-life Hammersmith Odeon/Apollo, and some of the big artists who've performed there, including Bowie, Kate Bush, and Eddie Izzard (and the reference to it in the title of Motörhead's classic live album No Sleep ‘Till Hammersmith), then we swing back to 1984 and judge Arthur's skill as a journalist, how he's changed from the vulnerable kid we've been seeing in the 1970s portions of the movie, the meaningful look that Mandy gives the barman, and his cornering Mandy to get the final bits of the breakup story from her. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 75 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike continue to look at Shannon and Mandy's conversation post-orgy, Mandy's condescending patronizing interpretation of Shannon's feelings, the use of Jack Fairy's music to denote Mandy's coming loss of Brian, and Mandy discovering Brian and Curt gone after having spent the night together. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 74 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike see Arthur leave home for London, and talk about the ‘60s and ‘70s phenomenon of teenagers striking out on their own as embodied by the Beatles' “She's Leaving Home” and the influx of young hippie (and gay) youth heading to San Francisco, and the difference between teenage rebellion in the US and UK. And then it's back to “the morning after the night before,” as Shannon and Mandy have a morning-after heart-to-heart about Brian, and we speculate on whether really is emotionally invested in Brian, trying to intentionally sow discord between Brian and Mandy, or some combination of the two, and then we talk about the famous discovery of Angie Bowie, when she supposedly found David Bowie and Mick Jagger in bed together. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 73 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike continue to look at Arthur's falling out with his parents, his dad as a non-stereotypical homophobic father figure and Arthur's mum's conflicted emotions as she recedes into the background, the violation of Arthur's former sanctuary in the form of his bedroom, and the unexpectedly anti-climactic ending to the confrontation with his parents. Then we return to the orgy to find Curt leading Brian off, Pied Piper-style, to a private assignation, and how Shannon and Mandy both notice Brian walking out the door. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 72 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike continue to look at the orgy in great, voyeuristic detail, but also look at what the orgy says about various characters' evolutions: Shannon's turning point in becoming powerful and ruthless, Mandy's hedonistic exhibitionism slowly turning to jaded cynicism, Curt's intense, almost monogamous desire for Brian, and voyeurism as it relates to this scene, and to Warhol's legendary voyeuristic near-asexuality. Then we go back up to Manchester to watch Arthur's heartbreaking confrontation with his parents about his sexuality and examine the ongoing problem for gay youth of being disowned and finding themselves without a home and support. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 71 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at Brian turning into a scuttling wounded lizard under the sonic assault of Curt's guitar solo, Arthur's inner conflict at his gay desire for Brian and Curt, the mechanics and acoustics of having a teenage wank, and the depiction of the ambivalent sexual experiences of both Arthur and Shannon. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.

In Minute 70 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny take the briefest of glimpses at the coming orgy, Shannon's initiation into the decadence of the rock and roll world in that whirlwind New York City weekend, Jerry's smug satisfaction at being the initiator, and more of Curt and Brian's ever-circling stagecraft, the sexual poetics of the electric guitar as embodied by Jimi Hendrix's playing the guitar with his teeth and Chuck Berry's duck walk, and the inherent ouch factor involved in tonguing or teething electric guitar strings. Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.