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This week The Bastards have a great talk with Andrew Britton who is the creator and star of the Red, White & True Podcast...the round table covers everything from globalist to a full review of the Bengals 2023 draft!!! Enjoy the conversation and please spread the word!!! Subscribe to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWPe35eMwx2WCmRlNtG3SgA for this podcast and EVERY Podcast they offer!!
This week The Bastards have a great talk with Andrew Britton who is the creator and star of the Red, White & True Podcast...the round table covers everything from globalist to a full review of the Bengals 2023 draft!!! Enjoy the conversation and please spread the word!!!Subscribe to @therebelutionnetwork for this podcast and EVERY Podcast they offer!!
Sisuhoiatus! Episoodis esineb sisu, mis võib osadele kuulajatele olla häiriv. Sarja üheksandas osas räägime sellest, mis toimub praegu Tšetšeenias. Räägib poksitreener ja filmitegija Georgi Abolõmov. Heli kujundas: Georgi AbolõmovKasutatud muusika:Andrew Britton, David Goldsmith - Drifting Shadow.mp3Frederic Sans - Doubtful.mp3Frederic Sans - Uncertain Case.mp3Fritz Doddy - Time Lapse Travelogue.mp3Karin Nobbs, Philippe Bestion - Unsafe Night.mp3Tony Anderson - Chasm.mp3Tony Anderson - Hope.mp3
Sarja üheksandas osas räägime sellest, mis toimub praegu Tšetšeenias. Räägib poksitreener ja filmitegija Georgi Abolõmov. Sisuhoiatus! Episoodis esineb sisu, mis võib osadele kuulajatele olla häiriv. Autor, saatejuht, helikujundus: Georgi AbolõmovKasutatud muusika:Andrew Britton, David Goldsmith - Drifting ShadowFrederic Sans - DoubtfulFrederic Sans - Uncertain CaseFritz Doddy - Time Lapse TravelogueKarin Nobbs, Philippe Bestion - Unsafe NightTony Anderson - ChasmTony Anderson - Hope
This week on The Spectator Film Podcast… Time Bandits (1981) 4.24.20 Featuring: Austin, Maxx Commentary track begins at 15:44 — Notes — We watched the Criterion Collection release of Time Bandits for the show this week. It’s a solid release with strong supplemental materials and an engaging commentary track recorded by the filmmakers in 1997. “Time Bandits: Guerrilla Fantasy” by David Sterritt — Here’s the accompanying essay with the Criterion Collection release of the movie. “‘Time Bandits’: The Ever-Lasting Importance of Terry Gilliam’s Best Fairy Tale” from Cinephilia and Beyond — As usual, Cinephilia and Beyond proves to be one-stop shopping for anyone looking to learn more about the films they enjoy. On this page you’ll find a PDF of Gilliam and Palin’s Time Bandits script, Gilliam’s original storyboards, and other material from the production and marketing of the film. Britton on Film: The Complete Film Criticism of Andrew Britton by Andrew Britton, Ed. Barry Keith Grant — Here’s the link to a published collection of Andrew Britton’s film criticism. We’ve only relied upon Britton’s writing in our preparation once before, but the precision of his insights is genuinely remarkable. Britton avoids over-reliance on structuralist language, and the clarity of his arguments make his writing very enjoyable. We’ll include some of the relevant passages from his essay “Blissing Out: The Politics of Reaganite Cinema” below: “Artifacts which tell us that we are being entertained… also tell us that they are promoting ‘escape,’ and this is the most significant thing about them. They tell us that we are ‘off duty’ and that nothing is required of us but to sit back, relax, and enjoy. Entertainment, that is, defines itself in opposition to labor, or, more generally, to the large category ‘the rest of life,’ as inhabitants of which we work for others, do not, in the vast majority of cases, enjoy our labor, and are subject to tensions and pressures that the world of entertainment excludes. It is of the essence that entertainment defines itself thus while appearing, at the same time, as a world unto itself. It does relate to ‘the rest of life,’ but only by way of its absolute otherness, and when the rest of life puts in an appearance, it is governed by laws which we are explicitly asked to read as being different from the laws which operate elsewhere. The explicitness of these strategies—the fact that they are always mediated by some form of direct address—is the crucial point. It is a condition of the function of entertainment that it should admit that the rest of life is profoundly unsatisfying… Entertainment tells us to forget our troubles and to get happy, but it also tells us that in order to do so we must agree deliberately to switch life off” (100-101). “The feeling that reality is intolerable is rapturously invoked but in such a way as to suggest that reality is immutable and that the desire to escape or transcend it is appropriate only to scheduled moments of consciously indulgent fantasy for which the existing organization of reality makes room. The ideology of entertainment is one of the many means by which late capitalism renders the idea of transforming the real unavailable for serious consideration” (101). “It leaves out everything about the existing reality principle that we would prefer to forget, redescribes other things which are scarcely forgettable in such a way that we can remember them without discomfort (and even with uplift), and anticipates rejection of the result by defining itself as a joke. Thus, Reaganite entertainment plays a game with our desire. It invites us to take pleasure in the worlds it creates and the values they embody, but because it is also ironic about them, it confirms our sense of what reality is and leaves us with the anxieties and dissatisfactions which leave a space for Reaganite entertainment. The films continually reproduce the terms of ‘the world as it is’ while also a yearning for something different; if people go back to them again and again, it is perhaps because of the lack of satisfaction the films build into the pleasure: they regenerate the need for escape which they seem to satisfy and provide confidence of a kind which leaves us unconfident. By at once celebrating and debunking the ‘good old values,’ and addressing them both as viable norms and the conventions of a fantasy, Reaganite entertainment perpetuates a paralyzed anxiety and institutionalizes itself” (110-11). Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan… and Beyond by Robin Wood — We’ve referenced Robin Wood a great deal on the show, and this may be one of his most significant contributions to film criticism. This book is tremendous. We’ll include the quoted passages from the chapter “Papering the Cracks: Fantasy and Ideology in the Reagan Era” below: “It is important to stress that I am not positing some diabolical Hollywood-capitalist-Reaganite conspiracy to impose mindlessness and mystification on a potentially revolutionary populace, nor does there seem much point in blaming the filmmakers for what they are doing (the critics are another matter). The success of the films is only comprehensible when one assumes a widespread desire for regression to infantilism, a populace who wants to be constructed as mock children. Crucial here, no doubt, is the urge to evade responsibility—responsibility for actions, decisions, thought, responsibility for changing things: children do not have to be responsible, there are older people to look after them… don't worry, Uncle George (or Uncle Steven) will take you by the hand and lead you through Wonderland. Some dangers will appear on the way, but never fear, he'll also see you safely home; home being essentially those ‘good old values’ that Sylvester Stallone told us Rocky was designed to reinstate: racism, sexism, ‘democratic’ capitalism; the capitalist myths of freedom of choice and equality of opportunity, the individual hero whose achievements somehow ‘make everything all right,’ even for the millions who never make it to individual heroism (but every man can be a hero—even, such is the grudging generosity of contemporary liberalism, every woman)” (147). “Spielberg's identification with Elliott (that there is virtually no distance whatever between character and director is clearly the source of the film's seductive, suspect charm) makes possible the precise nature of the fantasy E. T. offers: not so much a child's fantasy as an adult's fantasy about childhood” (158). Lacan and Contemporary Film Edited by Todd McGowan and Sheila Kunkle — We’ve used Todd McGowan’s book The Impossible David Lynch during some previous episodes in order to structure our Lacanian analysis, but this is the first time we’ve used this particular book. I’ve yet to finish reading it, but this book seems like an adequate intro to Lacanian film analysis; I except it would remain challenging for newcomers. We’ll include the quoted passage from the introduction below: “What was missing in this Lacanian film theory was any sense of the power of film to disrupt ideology and to challenge—or even expose—the process of interpellation. This was the result of its too narrow understanding of Lacan, an understanding that elided the role of the Real in Lacan’s thought. According to this way of understanding Lacan, the signifier’s authority is absolute, and its functioning is flawless. But this fails to see the signifier’s dependence on failure—the role that failure plays in the effective functioning of the signifier. Failure is necessary because the signifier must open up a space through which the subject can enter: a perfectly functioning system allows for no new entrants, no new subjects. As a consequence, if the symbolic order is determinative in the path that it lays down for the subject, it doesn’t lay down this path smoothly but in a way that is fraught with peril. That is to say, the symbolic order continually comes up against a barrier that disrupts its smooth functioning—a barrier that Lacan calls the Real. This barrier is not external to the symbolic structure: the Lacanian Real is not a thing in itself existing beyond the realm of the signifier. Instead, the Real marks the point at which the symbolic order derails itself, the point where a gap occurs within that order. The symbolic order cannot exist without gaps at which its control breaks down. These gaps not only hinder the working of the symbolic order, they are also essential to its working. Without the hindrance, the mechanism cannot function. In order to function properly, the symbolic order must function improperly” (xvi-xvii) — Listener Picks — Do you want to pick a movie for us to discuss on the show? Here’s how: Make a donation of $20 or more to ofwemergencyfund.org Check your email for a donation receipt, and send a screenshot of your donation to austin@spectatorfilmpodcast.com or @spectatorfilmpodcast on Instagram In your email or DM, include 1.) your name 2.) the movie you’d like discussed on the show and 3.) a brief overview of your thoughts on the movie. That’s it!
This week on The Spectator Film Podcast… Detour (1945) 11.22.19 Featuring: Austin, Maxx Commentary track begins at 16:35 — Notes — We watched the Criterion Collection release of Detour for our show this week. It’s a wonderful version of the film, and it’s got lots of fun bonus supplemental features as usual. As of the posting of this episode (11.26.19), Detour is also available on The Criterion Channel. “Some Detours to Detour” by Robert Polito from The Current “Ulmer, Edgar G.” by Erik Ulman from Senses of Cinema Detour by Noah Isenberg — The BFI Film Classics book on Detour is as insightful and useful as you’d expect. Isenberg manages to pack in a lot of information and lead introduce lots of additional criticism on the film. “Perennial Detour: The Cinema of Edgar G. Ulmer and the Experience of Exile” by Noah Isenberg from Cinema Journal — Here’s the link a PDF file of this essay. Isenberg discusses Ulmer’s entire career and his life as an Austrian-born émigré in the US, highlighting the ways in which Ulmer’s work can be seen as exploring concepts of exile. It’s a wonderful read. Britton on Film: The Complete Film Criticism of Andrew Britton by Andrew Britton, Ed. Barry Keith Grant — Here’s the link to a published collection of Andrew Britton’s film criticism. This was the first time we’ve relied on Britton’s writing in our preparation for the show, and the precision of his insights are genuinely remarkable. Britton avoids over-reliance on structuralist language, and the clarity of his arguments make his writing very enjoyable. We’ll include some of the relevant passages from his essay ‘Detour’ below: “The whole meaning of Detour depends on the fact that Al is incapable of providing the impartial account of the action which convention leads us to expect in first-person narratives… O’Hara and Marlowe [other male noir narrators] are to be thought of simply as speaking the truth, both about themselves and about the narrative world in general. They may be mistaken, but they never equivocate, and their impersonality is never questioned for a moment. Al’s commentary, however, though it is not hypocritical – he plainly believes every word of it – is profoundly self-deceived and systematically unreliable… In fact, Al’s memory of the past is in itself a means of blotting it out, and his commentary, far from serving as the clue which leads us infallibly to the meaning of the narrative action, is like a palimpsest beneath which we may glimpse the traces of the history he has felt comepelled to rewrite” (195). “[Al] has simply concluded this is the way life must be, and the willed (if unconscious) defeatism implicit in his attitude to his blighted career is the first sign of his habitual tendency to attribute his own choices, and their disastrous consequences, to forces external to himself… Ulmer uses these brief, and extraordinarily elliptical, expository sequences to define his hero as a man who lacks all sense of aim and purpose, who is essentially indifferent to everything but what he takes, at a given moment, to be his own interests, and who, above all, instinctively rationalizes his convenience on all occasions, either by absolving himself of responsibility for his actions completely or by providing himself with a spurious but flattering account of his motives” (195-96). “[Vera] clearly sets out to ‘rook’ Al in exactly the way he rooked Haskell, who was in turn preparing to rook his own father, but her spontaneous rapaciousness is actually quite different in kind from that of her male antagonists. The most obvious indication of this difference is the hectoring aggressiveness of her manner. Vera is not a trickster like Al and Haskell, and she does not try to deceive, disarm, or win the confidence of her chosen victim. On the contrary, she goes straight for the jugular in order to dispel any illusion that her womanhood makes her susceptible either to physical violence or to seduction. It is not enough for her to present herself as Al’s (or any man’s) equal… Vera needs to establish that the inequality of the sexes has been reversed, not eliminated, and her every word and action is designed to convince Al that she can do exactly what she likes with him… and to rub his nose in the humiliating fact of his complete subordination to her… Ulmer unmistakably invites us to take pleasure in the comeuppance of this obtuse pusillanimous egotist at the hands of a woman of such formidable wit, energy, and intelligence” (200). “Ulmer embodies the contradictory concept of the savage, or nonsocial, society in his use of the metaphor of the road. This metaphor recurs frequently in American narratives, and it is almost invariably used to celebrate individual resistance to the constraints of an intolerably oppressive, conservative, and regimented culture. Actually existing American society is seen as an insuperable impediment to the full self-realization of the individual, and the road becomes the last sanctuary of the true American spirit, which can survive only by taking flight from the social world constructed in its name. This use of the road metaphor turns the mythic American ideals on their head. It employs exactly the same terms of reference – heroic individualism and democratic society – but takes the irreversible debasement of the latter for granted and goes on to affirm the former through characters whose refusal to participate in social life comes to signify a rebellious vindication of America in spite of itself. By contrast, Ulmer preserves the connection between individualism and American social institutions established by the original myth, and he uses the metaphor of the road to argue that this connection manifests itself in practice, not as a democracy of heroes but as an exceptionally inhumane and brutal capitalism. Ulmer’s road is not a refuge for exiles from a culture in which America’s ideals have been degraded; it is a place where the real logic of advanced capitalist civil society is acted out by characters who have completely internalized its values, and whose interaction exemplifies the grotesque deformation of human relationships by the principles of the market. Al, Vera, and Haskell are isolated vagabonds whose lives are dedicated to the pursuit of private goals which they set themselves ad hoc, in the light of their own immediate interests, and who collide with one another in a moral vacuum where human contacts are purely contingent, practical social ties have ceased to exist, and other people appear as mere values to be exploited at will” (204). “All Lost in Wonder: Edgar G. Ulmer” by Tag Gallagher from Screening the Past More Than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts by James Naremore — One of my favorite books discussing the noir genre. Naremore only spends a few pages discussing Detour specifically, but the book is an wonderful examination of the genre at large. “Film Theory’s Detour” by Tania Modleski from Screen — We didn’t bring it up much during our conversation, but Modleski’s writing brings a psychoanalytic angle to our discussion of the femme fatale archetype. Recommended reading for anyone who takes interest in psychoanalytic criticism.
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Star Trek is all about exploring strange new worlds and the wonders of the 20-something-th century. But, you know what’s cool about living in 2015? We ARE exploring strange new worlds! Right now! All over our galactic neighborhood called the Solar System (and even a little bit beyond thanks to Voyager). The focus of humanity’s space exploration efforts currently centers on Mars. Join us this week for our thoughts on how the history of Mars exploration is depicted in Star Trek as we talk with special guest Andrew Britton, a scientist with Malin Space Science Systems who studies Mars for a living.
As 132 innocent people were being killed in Paris by Muslim extremists an event in Bradford where radical panellists reportedly told of a duty to establish an Islamic state in Britain. The ringleader of the Paris attacks was seen drinking beer and smoking cannabis the day after the massacres, a witness has exclusively told Sky News. England played their football match against France whilst Germany v Holland and Spain v Belgium were cancelled. Turkey fans booed during the minute's silence for the victims of the Paris attacks before their national team drew 0-0 with Greece in a friendly international football game on Tuesday. French counter-terror police swooped on a flat in the northern suburb of Saint Denis on Wednesday morning and have now confirmed that Europe's most wanted Abdelhamid Abaaoud was killed in the seven hour siege ..... In Spain, Interpol tells us only 5,600 of 25,000 terrorists have been identified. Police organization tells Seville conference that world authorities need to work together to fight Islamic State while Spain is investigating 301 people over links to jihadist terrorism. Number of arrests this year has quadrupled compared with 2013, while the amount of open cases has grown 60%........ Men account for 82% of highest salaries in Spain, says new report and Spain’s road accident death toll is already past 1,000 victims in 2015. Supreme Court judges yesterday threatened to wreck the Government’s bid to ensure migrants speak English. A ruling called for the Home Office to water down its guidelines on English language tests for immigrant husbands and wives. If Theresa May fails to do so, the judges warned they will make a declaration that the Government is breaking human rights laws. Peers vote to allow 16-year-olds vote in EU referendum. Peers voted by 293 votes to 211 in favour of the plan, putting the Lords at odds with MPs who rejected the plan this summer, because it may delay the referendum by up to a year Doctors will strike over three days, providing emergency care only for 24 hours from 8am on December 1, followed by full walkouts from 8am to 5pm on December 8 and 16.” Lord Thomas, the leading judge in England and Wales, spoke out following the courtroom breakdown of the judge Mr Justice Dingemans who dealt with the killers of 16-year-old Becky Watts last week. He said Judges are suffering emotional damage because of the increasing number of sex and pornography cases, Meanwhile....Will they ever learn? Students swig from vodka bottles in the street and cover pavements in vomit in latest alcohol-soaked city centre pub crawl.......and CCTV footage captured by Andrew Britton shows the moment a man was kicked, punched, stamped on and dragged to the floor by a gang of children in Bradford, West Yorkshire.”
As 132 innocent people were being killed in Paris by Muslim extremists an event in Bradford where radical panellists reportedly told of a duty to establish an Islamic state in Britain. The ringleader of the Paris attacks was seen drinking beer and smoking cannabis the day after the massacres, a witness has exclusively told Sky News. England played their football match against France whilst Germany v Holland and Spain v Belgium were cancelled. Turkey fans booed during the minute's silence for the victims of the Paris attacks before their national team drew 0-0 with Greece in a friendly international football game on Tuesday. French counter-terror police swooped on a flat in the northern suburb of Saint Denis on Wednesday morning and have now confirmed that Europe's most wanted Abdelhamid Abaaoud was killed in the seven hour siege ..... In Spain, Interpol tells us only 5,600 of 25,000 terrorists have been identified. Police organization tells Seville conference that world authorities need to work together to fight Islamic State while Spain is investigating 301 people over links to jihadist terrorism. Number of arrests this year has quadrupled compared with 2013, while the amount of open cases has grown 60%........ Men account for 82% of highest salaries in Spain, says new report and Spain’s road accident death toll is already past 1,000 victims in 2015. Supreme Court judges yesterday threatened to wreck the Government’s bid to ensure migrants speak English. A ruling called for the Home Office to water down its guidelines on English language tests for immigrant husbands and wives. If Theresa May fails to do so, the judges warned they will make a declaration that the Government is breaking human rights laws. Peers vote to allow 16-year-olds vote in EU referendum. Peers voted by 293 votes to 211 in favour of the plan, putting the Lords at odds with MPs who rejected the plan this summer, because it may delay the referendum by up to a year Doctors will strike over three days, providing emergency care only for 24 hours from 8am on December 1, followed by full walkouts from 8am to 5pm on December 8 and 16.” Lord Thomas, the leading judge in England and Wales, spoke out following the courtroom breakdown of the judge Mr Justice Dingemans who dealt with the killers of 16-year-old Becky Watts last week. He said Judges are suffering emotional damage because of the increasing number of sex and pornography cases, Meanwhile....Will they ever learn? Students swig from vodka bottles in the street and cover pavements in vomit in latest alcohol-soaked city centre pub crawl.......and CCTV footage captured by Andrew Britton shows the moment a man was kicked, punched, stamped on and dragged to the floor by a gang of children in Bradford, West Yorkshire.”
a very special thank you to Aine Britton who came in to talk about life and her sons Chris, and New York Times Best Selling Author Andrew Britton. You can find out more info on Andrew Britton at www.andrewbrittonbooks.com
DG Martin interviews Andrew Britton - The American With a mix of his own military knowledge and vivid creativity, Andrew Britton sets his new novel The American in contemporary times, introducing readers to 33-year-old Ryan Kealy, a man who has achieved more in his military and CIA career than most men can dream of in a lifetime, but who has also seen the worst life has to offer and is lucky to have survived it. Now, living on the coast of Maine, Ryan wants nothing more than to be left to his sporadic teaching and his demons. However, he is soon brought out of retirement when a complicated terrorist plot to assassinate the U.S., French, and Italian presidents by Al-Qaeda, Iranian terrorists, and even Americans out to destroy their own country, is uncovered.
DG Martin interviews Andrew Britton - The American With a mix of his own military knowledge and vivid creativity, Andrew Britton sets his new novel The American in contemporary times, introducing readers to 33-year-old Ryan Kealy, a man who has achieved more in his military and CIA career than most men can dream of in a lifetime, but who has also seen the worst life has to offer and is lucky to have survived it. Now, living on the coast of Maine, Ryan wants nothing more than to be left to his sporadic teaching and his demons. However, he is soon brought out of retirement when a complicated terrorist plot to assassinate the U.S., French, and Italian presidents by Al-Qaeda, Iranian terrorists, and even Americans out to destroy their own country, is uncovered.