Category Archives: Las Vegas

Liminal Anglo (John Arcto): From Dissident Exhaustion to Cultural Reconstruction

Robert Stark and UK based blogger, John Arcto (formerly Anglo-Futurist) articulate a post-dissident, culturally oriented stance that has moved beyond conventional right-wing politics. Subscribe to his new Substack.

Topics:

The reasons behind Why John deleted his old Substack, “Anglofuturist”
How John’s views have evolved over the past few years, including his shift away from politics toward culture and philosophy
-Why John believes “Blue America” is actually worse about cancel culture than Britain
-How John’s earlier cancellation by the Left, led him to become performatively extreme, despite not being rightwing
-Robert’s contrasting political trajectory
-How the alt-right mirrored the left as a Brahmin-Dalit alliance against the Vaishya (mainstream) right
-John’s falling out with Walt Bismarck and Walt’s focus on status
-Robert’s book Journey to Vapor Island  as “authentically Robert Stark”—offensive on every level (Taxi Driver meets Clueless, devolving into Naked Lunch or David Lynch)
-How John’s moral signaling against Robert’s fetish postings was performative
-The problem with feminism: that women are power bottoms
-How immigration policy in the UK was worse under the Tories because their backers were the wealthy and boomers
-The need for a Danish Social Democrat-style approach that combines social democracy with immigration restriction
-How American online-right “slop” about civil war in the UK is often driven by Zionism
-The UK’s gradual decline and the shared sense of political malaise on both left and right
-How the 2010s were analogous to the 1960s and the 2020s to the 1970s
-How “anti-woke” has become a meaningless conservative wedge issue
John’s review of Backrooms contrasted with Robert’s mall-world article, and broader theme of liminal spaces
-Why John has turned to Christianity, partly for cultural reasons, describing himself as a monist critical rationalist (metaphysically realist but morally anti-realist and universalist)
John’s review of Plotinus’s The Enneads and why he prefers the term “Plotinusism” instead of Neoplatonism
-Robert’s critique of Christians who combine blank-slatism with eternal damnation, and his preference for an HBD-inspired theosophy
-Why John rejects theurgy as occult magic
Why John is a non-dualist about consciousness and identifies as a cosmopsychist
-John’s advocacy for sovereign polyarchic, pan-Westernism and its similarities to ethnopluralism and the Holy Roman Empire
-Why John is hostile to the concept of natural rights, viewing them as fundamentally authoritarian
-Why moral and social issues are better handled at the local level and adjusted for diversity
-Robert’s experience living in England in 2002
-Robert’s observation that, unlike New York City, movies and pictures fail to capture London’s unique vibe
-The Cool Britannia era, the 2000s show Skins, and why Tony Blair was “the dodgiest guy ever”
-Why there is nothing more liberating than accepting that it is too late regarding White demographic decline
-The total failure of Trump and right-wing politics overall
-How both America and the UK were never truly cohesive nations
-How Anglos made a Faustian bargain to become a global culture while losing their own distinct identity
-Americans’ and Europeans’ lack of a deep understanding akin to Rome and Greece
-Why the ideal healthcare model would resemble Australia’s: public funding with private doctors
-How America’s class system is uniquely nasty because it pretends to be purely meritocratic
-Why John does not believe in equality of opportunity and instead prefers security for all classes
-How blank-slatism is used to justify income inequality
-How England has greater genetic differences by class, which makes nationalism difficult
-How America’s WASP elite were absolute traitors, worse than the British aristocracy
-“Cher Horowitz is an American aristocrat”
-Why John hates dominant alpha men
-How both the right and the left end up screwing over autistic men
-How John pronounces the term “massage” and why he thinks Robert’s love of ASMR head massage content is homoerotic

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark interviews Lee Scrivner about Casinolabs

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas speak with Lee Scriver about his novel Casinolabs, which is a psychological thriller set in Las Vegas. Casinolabs is published by Imperium Press and is also available on Amazon. Also, check out Robert’s review of Casinolabs. Lee is a former adjunct professor at UNLV,  is known for his satirical avant-garde arts manifestos, and is the author of Becoming Insomniac. Subscribe to Lee on substack and check out his Youtube channel.

Topics:

-How Lee found artistic success in London including performing at the Tate Britain
-Whether Americans are philistines about culture
-How Lee ended up sharing a dressing room with Yoko Ono in London
-How Lee’s upbringing in Vegas inspired Casinolabs
-Lee’s dad, who dealt with the darker underbelly of Vegas as a crisis counselor
-Why explicitly rightwing art fails
-How literary agents filter out people on identity issues
The Las Vegas Review Journal’s review that compared Casinolabs to the show Severance
-Contrasting GenX alienation in Casinolabs and Bret Easton Ellis’s work with the millennial/zoomer incel trope in Robert’s novel Vaporfornia and Matt’s novel Dragon Day
-How Casinolabs is fundamentally a critique of atomization, the breakdown of families, and a lack of meaning crisis
-The parallels between the Casinolabs casino design firm deconstructing Vegas history and the protagonist Morton getting his brain fried
-Why Casinolabs only partially veers into magical realism
-The labyrinths in Casinolabs and Vaporfornia as the backrooms
-Philosophical questions about fate vs random coincidences
-Lee’s early job at Caesars Palace
-Finding deeper meaning out of post modernist themed casinos in Vegas
-Minimalist renovations that erase Vegas’s limited cultural inheritance
-The symbolism of the Vegas Sphere as a giant phone screen that is malleable
-Contrasting today’s Vegas with the older stage of capitalism where every man was a king
-Is Vegas dying?
Woke inspired minimalist renovations
Vegas and Disneyland as Baudrillard’s simulacrum
-Planned suburbia as the counterpart to the Vegas strip
-Robert and Matt visiting Mount Charleston recently
-How the overstimulation of Vegas drove Lee to asceticism
-Lee’s paganism and thoughts on the pagan professor Wallingford in Matt’s Dragon Day

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark talks to Matt Pegas about The Black Album

Robert Stark talks to Matt Pegas about his book, The Black Album. The Black Album is a collection of essays and short stories, both fiction and non-fiction. The book deals with themes, including alienation, masculinity, incels, serial killers, spirituality, alchemy, philosophy and aesthetics.

Topics:
-the inspiration for the title from Joan Didion’s The White Album and the music trope of color-coded albums
-Mass shootings as a metaphysical attack against reality
-The context of Matt writing himself into fictional stories
-Adapting to writing with time limitations
-Matt’s struggles with serial killer OCD and POCD in adolescence
-the gnostic component to psychology and mental illness
-Jefferey Dahmer and the trope that the weird loner is the most dangerous
-the archetype of the Emo
-coping with malaise and dissatisfaction with life
-transcript of a disturbing correspondence involving an online follower
-Matt’s essay, Renaissance of The Ritual
-Foundational thinking over Traditionalism
-A painting of a failed alchemist and why alchemy is legit
-Matt’s experiences with Tarot, transcendental meditation, and esotericism
-Matt’s Essay, David Lynch, Bronze Age Pervert, and the possibility of inner freedom
-Matt’s thought experiment of a based Marianne Williamson or BAPist version of Steiner schools
-Matt’s essay, The Politics of Aesthetics Revisited
-The esoteric significance of Las Vegas
Revisiting Alt-Centrism
-How Robert and Matt manifested Dime Square in 2018

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark talks to Constantin von Hoffmeister about Esoteric Trumpism

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas speak with Constantin von Hoffmeister about his book Esoteric Trumpism. This is a simulcast with Matt’s New Write podcast. Originally from Germany, Constantin von Hoffmeister studied English Literature and Political Science in New Orleans. Constantin has worked as an author, journalist, translator, editor, and business trainer in the United States, India, Uzbekistan, and Russia, and is the editor in chief of Arktos publishing. Follow Constantin on Twitter and subscribe to his Substack.

Topics:

Literary references, including William S. Burroughs, HP Lovecraft, and Edgar Alan Poe
Misconceptions about the Beatniks as leftwing (eg Jack Kerouac’s admiration of Oswald Spengler)
How the Beats’ disillusionment shows problems with fetishizing 1950s America
Philistinism on the Right and the rise of a new creative culture-focused Right
How America has an underappreciated rich cultural heritage
America as an extension of European civilization
Rightwing Postmodernism
Trump as the great revealer of hidden Lovecraftian horrors
Why Trump’s political significance is primarily symbolic
Addressing criticisms and disappointments with Trump
Meme magic
Why Constantin rejects accelerationism
Why Rightwing multiculturalism or ethnopluralism is the future 
Constantin’s recent meet up with Robert and Matt in LA, and observation that LA is a model for ethnopluralism
Why Constantin is more optimistic about America’s future than Europe’s
Upcoming Arktos projects, including a new translation of Dominque  Venner on Ernst Junger, a rightwing critique of Nietzsche, and an art history book

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

A Rainy Weekend in Vegas

Photos were taken over labor day weekend, during a tropical rain storm, in Las Vegas. Album include the Rio hotel and casino, the El Cortez, the Fremont Street ExperienceFremont East, the Gateway Arch, Bonanza Gift Shop, Gold Coast Casino, Paris, Bellagio including the conservatory/botanical garden, Flamingo, Caesars Palace, The Mirage, The Venetian, Whiskey Pete’s and Buffalo Bill’s in Primm Nevada, Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner in Yermo, and bonus photos of Heaps Peak Arboretum near Lake Arrowhead.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Continue reading A Rainy Weekend in Vegas

Robert Stark interviews artist Gio Pennacchietti

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas talk to Gio Pennacchietti about aesthetic, cultural, and social trends. Gio Pennacchietti is a social impressionist painter and writer from the “first post-national country” (Canada), Gonzo Philosopher, and failed academic. Check out his YouTube channel GiantArt Productions, Instagram, writings at Substack and WordPress, and Twitter.

Topics:

Gio’s review of Robert Stark’s Art: The Fauvist Vaporwave Interiors
20th Century aesthetic genres, retrofuturism, post-modernism, late 20th century pop art, trends in nostalgia, and the psychology of hauntology
Political symbolism in aesthetics: 2010s minimalism, Neoliberal Kitsch, Sanford Biggers’ statue in Rockefeller Plaza, the de-evolution of Trump’s aesthetics, and the lack of a cohesive aesthetic trend for the future
Robert’s article on Pan-Enclavism and how it relates to Canada as a post-national nation
A critique of the Intellectual Dark Web
The need for a new bohemian/creative movement comparable to the Vienna Secession
Gio’s interest in the after prison Youtubers
Gio’s artistic background, influences, and art as a spiritual endeavor

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and in production documentary The Gospel of Gibson, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark interviews BLAUERGEIST! about Aesthetics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matt Pegan talk to Portland based blogger BLAUERGEIST! about architecture, interior design, art, and cinema. Check out BLAUERGEIST! on Twitter, his podcast Ellroy Boys, and new web magazine Apocalypse Confidential.

Topics:

The #BathistGang: love of 80s bathroom aesthetics
20th Century interior design genres
80s malls, Robert and Matt’s LA N O S T A L G I A  Mall series, the Breezewood meme, The Canal Walk Mall in Cape Town, and value of Interior Urbanism
Retrofuturism, trends in nostalgia, and Theme Park Urbanism
Eco Brutalism and the Interior Garden Aesthetic
Artists Patrick Nagel, Jim Buckels, and Daniel Merriam, and various sci-fi illustrators
Political symbolism in aesthetics
Aesthetics in cinema: directors Dario Argento and Peter Greenaway, and 80s films Year of the Dragon and Scarface
Horror films 3615 code Père Noël, Child’s PlayThe Serpent and the Rainbow, Jacob’s Ladder, Hellraiser: Inferno, Southbound, and Silent Hill: Revelation
The work of David Lynch and the Lynchian Aesthetic
Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and in production documentary The Gospel of Gibson.

Roundtable Discussion on the Tech Exodus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark, Dain Fitzgerald, and Adam Mayer discuss the tech exodus out of California. Adam Mayer is a Bay Area based architect and Dain Fitzgerald, also Bay Area based, is a blogger who works on the periphery of tech.

Topics:

Emerging tech hubs and whether we will see a decentralized tech industry
The exodus of legacy companies out of California
San Francisco’s commercial real estate crash
The impact of the exodus on the housing crisis and NIMBY vs. YIMBY debate
The mass closure of small businesses in California and record corporate profits
The implications of remote work on quality of life and privacy issues
Future tech trends in outsourcing and automation, and which  jobs will remain lucrative and secure
The global bifurcation of tech and social media

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and in production documentary The Gospel of Gibson.

Round Table Discussion on Urbanist Trends for the 2020s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark is joined with San Francisco based architect, Adam Mayer, and Oregon based urbanist commentator, D E C A Y, to discuss urbanist trends that we can expect to see as a result of the pandemic and economic transformation this year.

Topics:

Whether the outdoor dining trend is permanent
The Retail apocalypse, with a decline in small businesses and foot traffic
The remote work exodus and The Rise of Work-From-Home Towns
How the urban exodus could be beneficial for the creative class
Interior Urbanism as a reaction to urban decay
Why we will see less skyscrapers and mega projects in the 2020s
The new suburbanism: learning from past mistakes by Retrofitting Suburbia
Ski Lodge urbanism: rustic charm with urban amenities
The Missing Middle trend
The need for pragmatic zoning reform, political polarization of the issue, and why YIMBYs sometimes push too far
Dead malls being re-purposed(ex. Horton Plaza)
Why Every City Feels the Same Now: Glass-and-steel monoliths replaced local architecture
Whether we’ll see a shift away from 2010s minimalism towards a regional kitsch aesthetic(ex. Rustic Industrial)
Building fire resilient communities
Whether mass transit will remain viable and Kamala Harris’ husband’s involvement in a NIMBY lawsuit to stop the subway under Beverly Hills
Conclusion that we will see a population and economic shift to 2nd tier cities but not the total demise of cities
Adam’s upcoming blog on missing middle infill

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagram, and Stark Truth TV


Robert Stark talks to Logo Daedalus about America’s Promethean Aesthetics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matt Pegan talk to Logo Daedalus to analyze the Promethean themes throughout American history in regards to culture and aesthetics. Logo is the author of Selfie, Suicide: or Cairey Turnbull’s Blue Skiddoo and you can follow him on Twitter.

Topics:

Online Trad subculture as a search for authenticity within the Simulation
Embracing America as a theme park
Archeofuturism: progress fused with nostalgia
How cultural elitism can contradict economic elitism and vice versa
Popularity of Neoclassical architecture in 19th Century America, The Soviet’s later adoption of Neoclassical architecture, and Art Deco as the pinnacle of archeofuturism in early 20th Century America
The Minimalist architectural trend of the 2010s, focus on functionality, Puritanical origins, and popularity in the Silicon Valley
Logo’s experience living in New York, notable architectural sites, and it’s state of decay
Neo-Trad architectural fad
What Internet Memes Get Wrong About Breezewood, Pennsylvania
Finding political symbolism in architecture
Celebrity Futurism
The ironies of Trump’s aesthetics
Mormonism as a manifest of America’s Promethean Spirit
How modern America started at the Chicago World’s Fair
The early Electric Park and Freedomland U.S.A. Theme Parks
Utopian Societies in 19th Century America and Utopianism through accessing the capital to build rather than politics


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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island