Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to Jack Ravenwood. He is the author of Paradise Theater, a collection of short stories centered around the theme of the post-industrial American small city. He is also the main writer at Mean Street Cinema, a website dedicated to films from New York City in the 70’s and 80’s, as well as the co-founder of little ape press. He blogs at Foreigner Thoughts
Topics:
The setting of the book Paradise Theater in Jack’s home town West Allis, Wisconsin in the 1980’s and early 90’s
The Paradise Theatre movie house which the book was named for and featured on the cover The Fairview Motors Sign which is featured on the back of the book; Mid-Century Road Signage
The cultural, political, and economic themes in the book Allis-Chalmers closing in West Allis and the de-industrialization of the Midwest
Ross Perot’s campaign in 1992 against NAFTA, and Trump campaigning on trade issues
Jack’s Unz Review article Trump, JFK, and the Deep State National Review Writer: Working-Class Communities ‘Deserve To Die
How the best case scenario for the US would be to carve out a niche in high end manufacturing that caters to China’s growing middle class
Jack’s new home Shenzhen, China which is a manufacturing power house, and new mega city built from scratch
Jack’s Mean Street Cinema site, his interest in Vintage New York City, and Robert Stark’s interviews with Thomas Rinaldi about New York Neon and Robert Brenner about his Time Square Tours
Jack’s observations about Hong Kong Neon and how Hong Kong Is Slowly Dimming Its Neon Glow
Jack’s future plan to document Neon in Hong Kong in either a book or blog
The culture of Hong Kong as a bridge between the east and west and it’s “relative autonomy”
Vertical living and how it is the norm for urban China for all classes
High density living isn’t inherently bad but it is necessary to have a high quality of culture to sustain it
Jack Kerouac’s The Town and the City
Conformity in Asian culture; authentic Asian culture vs. SWPL larping
Chinese Philosophy; the Tao Te Ching
The evolution of Western Philosophy; Deconstruction and selective deconstruction Jean Baudrillard and the simulation
Robert Stark, co-host Pilleater, and director Richard Wolstencroft discuss the new film Ghost in a Shell based on the 1995 anime.
Topics:
How it compares to the original film
The plot and characters
The film’s aesthetics, 1980’s retro-futurism, holograms, and cyberpunk
The synth soundtrack
The Robot Geisha scene
The fictional futuristic Asian city filmed in Hong Kong
Richard Wolstencroft’s experience in Hong Kong and observations on Asian culture
Comparisons to the films Akira and Blade Runner, and William Gibson’s Neuromancer
The Anime Right
The “white washing” controversy about a White actress playing an Asian role
Scarlet Johansson
Takeshi Kitano
Themes of Trans-humanism and Cybernetics Ray Kurzweil’s Wildest Prediction: Nanobots Will Plug Our Brains Into the Web
The Philosophy of Mind, Gilbert Ryle’sGhost in the machine, and Arthur Koestler’s Ghost in the machine Hubert Dreyfus’s views on artificial intelligence influenced by Martin Heidegger
Political messages in the film
“Ghost in a Shell” as a metaphor for the rootless atomized society where people lack any real identity
Richard’s upcoming film The Second Coming Volume II
Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to musician Alex Romane. He is a electronic musician and operates Urban Sunrise records. He is known for coming out with the first drum and bass record ever, under the name Apache.
Topics:
Intro Song: Alex Romane – Warrior Princess
Alex’s early background in music, influences from his mother, and basics in classical music and folk music
Alex’s father who was a music producer and brought back tapes of Iraqi Artist during the embargo
Alex’s music career in the early 90’s
How Alex invented the drum bass Delirious – the world’s first ever Drum and Bass album
80’s synthwave music; Gary Numan and Tubeway Army
Cross over in synth and classical; Techbeat
Writing stories with music
Digital Hardcore and Jungle Music
The Dubstep genre, and other trends in music
The animated visuals on Alex’s website
Alex’s Philosophy; Direct Democracy and the Nature of God
The UK Direct Democracy Party
Alex’s experience lawfully infiltrating the UK Government
Alex’s new album Demokratia, which uses music as a political vehicle, and is a hybrid of hip hop, trance, and techno
NATO and war
Global Warming and Alternative energy sources going back to Henry Ford’s use of Hemp and Tesla’s energy devices
The creation of Trip and Pilleater’s other new book Almond Eyes, Baby Face
Cause & Effect’s Trip album
The main characters Tom Delunge and Daisy Liang
Information Society –Pure Energy
Tom Delunge as an alter ego of Pilleater, Robert Stark as Howard Festler, and Rabbit as Turtle
Sex and Race-Play in the book
Tom’s stand-up comedy as a way to deal with his past trauma
Asian-Aryanism as a new sub-culture
Porn Actress Harriet Sugarcookie, Franny Choi, and avant-garde Asian culture(Amped Asia Magazine, Alt-Porn)
Asian-Aryanism as the new street or “queer theory” culture, synergizing the Alt-Right/Left, Adam Parfrey’s Apocalypse Culture, and Asian studies
The setting of Santa Barbara, West Coast America
Chinese vs Japanese culture
Tom’s dreams; the subconscious dream becomeing a reality; Phillip K. Dick’s VALIS, and the film Monkeybone
SJW culture and the “Yellow Feminist” Jack Kerouac’sOn the Road and the cliche of road trip stories in film
Socioeconomics, snob culture, and the fetish of youth culture
Personal experiences with Autism and Aspergers
How society treats people with Aspergers; human alien hybrids
Non-conformity and rejection of social programs
Evolution and Epigenetics
Jasun’s book Homo Serpiens: A Secret History of DNA from Eden to Armageddon, written under the alias Aeolus Kephas
Online subcultures; 4chan culture and Aspergers
The autistic anime reality vision
The occult and meme magic
Jasun’s interest in the Occult as a way to break free from the socially enforced distortion of reality, but latter found it to be an illusion of freedom
How architecture and geography effects psychology
Jasun’s artwork
Jasun’s latest book Seen and Not Seen: Confessions of a Movie Autist
The film Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle as autistic, and the theme of alienation, and violence as a quest for identity
David Lynch’s film Blue Velvet , identifying with Frank Booth, and confronting ones own darkness
Dating advice
Traveling abroad and personal experiences with foreign cultures
Robert Stark, co-host Pilleater, and John Curley discuss the new Depeche Mode album, Spirit.
Topics:
Depeche Mode’s Spirit album
Pilleater’s article The Meaning Behind “Spirit
Where’s The Revolution?
The Meaning behind “Spirit”
Fail
Pilleater’s opinion that Exciter, Sounds of the Universe, and Delta Machine are their worse albums
When Alan Wilder left the band
Pilleater’s opinion that Violator, Songs of Faith, and Devotion are their best Pilleater’s review of Get The Balance Right! Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages
Depeche Mode compared to KMFDM
Depeche Mode being normie music
Richard Spencer’s claim that Depeche Mode is “the band of the Alt-Right,” and Depeche Mode’s denunciation
Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence 9/11 Performance
Robert Stark’s outing to see Fire Tiger at the Viper Room
Intro Song: Aileron – Stratosphere
The release of Robert Parker’s Lazerdiscs album Awakening
Darren’s background in the music industry, and how he got involved with Drive Radio
The New Retro Wave Genre, it’s unique sounds, and audience
The Film Drive, featuring College, Electric Youth, and Kavinsky, and how the film exposed the genre to the masses
The Artists produced by Lazerdiscs Records and Drive Radio
Darren’s nostalgia growing up in the 80’s, and the original New Wave Genre
90’s Euro House Music
80’s Aesthetics, Video Game Arcades, The London Trocadero
80’s visions of the future, and New Retro Wave illustrations Brutalist Architecture in the Sun Darren’s book New Heights, the Surreal Aspect of the book, and the illustration by artist William Holder
Themes including the meaning of life, love, despair, and death
Video Synthesis
Darren’s next book which is a science fiction novel murder mystery that deals with themes of social inequality
Vaporwave
The Concept of the Left Wing of the Alt Right; The Alt Left
Greg Johnson’s essay on SWPL Identity and Rabbit’s Alt Left Manifesto Millennial Woes’ talk with Rabbit and Greg Johnson about the Alt Left
The 60’s Left Counter-Culture as a fusion of Tolkien and Marcuse, and the need to reclaim the positive attributes of the left, such as ecology, historic preservation, and anti-consumerism
The Alt Left dilemma identifying with SWPL Culture, and urban aesthetics, while supporting forms of identitarianism that often lack strong aesthetic visions
The lack of cultural sophistication among conservatives, and the left’s monopoly on cultural institutions
Suburbia as a by product of the middle class being cleansed out of cities, and the need to sustain a strong urban middle class
Affordable family formation
The Basic income, how it should be implemented, and who it should favor
Putting caps on high incomes with the exception of artist and inventors
The Nietzschean concept of the artist as the ruler
The conservative outlook that judges people on their material wealth over their aesthetic taste, and creative potential
Overpopulation, and how the ideal is to have immigration reduction with a stable or slowly rising birthrate
Greg’s experience living in San Francisco and Berkeley, San Francisco as a SWPL Utopia, and the aesthetic and ecological attributes of the region
The Transamerica Pyramid and Embarcadero Center in San Francisco
Rabbit’s interest in Mid-Century Space Age aesthetics, and his observations going to Mid-Century Modern home tours Frank Lloyd Wright Art Deco, which was a heroic vision of the future with respect for tradition; Art Deco in New York and San Francisco Film noir, and the Blade Runner
David Lynch’s Archeo-Futurist aesthetic in Dune, and ruin porn
The tradition of right wing modernism; Italian Futurism which captured the vitality, optimism, and new possibilities created by technology
The concept of degenerate art, distinguishing between modernism and postmodernism
Defining what is degenerate; Robert and Pilleater’s show on Avant Garde Film