Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to Joseph Dobrian. Joseph Dobrian is a novelist, essayist, poet, and financial journalist, also known as a political activist and TV talk show host. Hard-Wired is his third novel. Previous books include the novels Ambitions and Willie Wilden, and the best-selling collection of essays, Seldom Right But Never In Doubt. He ran for Mayor of New York City in 2009, and now lives in Iowa City, Iowa, with four rescue cats.
Robert Stark, co-host Pilleater, and Cartrell Payne(The Adventure Kid) talk to art advocate and candidate for Santa Barbara Mayor Maiza Hixson. Maiza is the Former Chair of the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission and Co-Director, Curator, and Artist in Residence at SBCAST – Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science & Technology. Her campaign website is MaizaHixson.com.
Topics:
What inspired Maiza to run for mayor and her key issues
Making the city an arts destination and giving artist opportunities to network with local businesses
Economic niches in the art world and the need to support a variety of art
Giving artist a role in urban planning and city government
Solutions to the lack of affordable housing including rent control
The debate about housing density and height limits
The problem of empty storefronts on State Street, holding land owners accountable(ex. Transient Occupancy Tax), and Maiza’s proposal to use them for art
Ending the reliance on car transportation and creating a pedestrian friendly environment
The water shortage, water pollution, re-using reclaimed water, and the The Blue Economy
Transit, improving the bus network, and rail and monorail proposals
The City Budget
Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to Game Designer James Ernest. He is the owner and founder of Cheapass Games
Topics:
James’s background as a professional juggler
How James got started with game design, his start start with MAGIC: THE GATHERING, and starting Cheapass Games
Self Publishing as a basis for game design
Kickstarter fundraising for games
How the narrative is more important and challenging than the mechanisms
Casino games
Games based on novels
The game UNEXPLODED COW
The game FISH COOK
The game KILL DOCTOR LUCKY inspired by Victorian Murder Mysteries
The game BEFORE I KILL YOU, MISTER SPY which was originally “Before I kill you Mister Bond”
The game GIVE ME THE BRAIN and the sequel LORD OF THE FRIES
The game PENNYWISE
The game FALLING
The most recent game TAK
Pulp games like American Idol CCG, Looney Tunes CCG, LandyLand, and Sailor Moon Crystal Dice Challenge
The adult themed game XXXenophile
The artist Phil Foglio who James collaborates with on games
James’ comedy film The Man Between
Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater spoke to Musician, Artist, and Web Designer Dino Olivieri from Turin, Italy.
Dino Olivieri has been known for producing some of the most technologically advanced websites. Her creativity is always on display when she’s at work, proving to her clients that she is the very best. These days, she tends to outsource this work and sends it over to an SEO Company Chester. But her music is at the very heart of what she does.
Uploading content to these social media platforms is a great way for Olivieri to get his music heard from people all over the world and with just a click of a button. His next step should be to consider uploading his songs to music streaming sites like Spotify, and he may want to have a look at getfans.io/buy-spotify-plays to see how he can get more people to listen to his music. The more people that are aware of his music, the more likely he will be at getting discovered, resulting in his career taking off.
Topics:
Intro: Beyond Human
Early artistic inspirations, figure drawing, and aesthetic interest ranging from Italian Renaissance Art to Anime, Vaporwave, and Cyberpunk
Interest in anime, especially the giant robots created by Go-Nagai and Matsumoto’s work such as Captain Harlock
Italian Design
Dino’s Photography of the Italian Alps on Flickr
Early musical influences; early 80’s New Wave and Italo Disco
Influences from and use of classical music in his work
Japanese Composers Joe Hisaishi, Kenji Kawai, Kento Masuda, and Sakamoto
The new Singularity Album which is for a theatrical show created by Director Raffaele Lamorte
Movie Soundtracks; Vangelis’s Soundtrack for Blade Runner
The Singularity album cover; posters for the films Neon Demon and Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange
Dino’s upcoming album which has influences from Synthwave, Retrowave, and 90’s Dance Music
Dino’s illustrated novel “Di Undici Foglie” and his upcoming novel “Legend of the Starlight”
Dino’s video game Over The Net from 1991; comparisons to Leisure Suit Larry
Outro: Sex Surrogates and Jealousy
Australian director Alex Proyas, his background in Punk, and his style
Proyas’s films The Crow, Gods of Egypt, and Knowing
Proyas rebelling against the conformity of Hollywood Cinema
Comparisons to the Matrix which came out a year later and the theme of a meta reality
The setting of the City in a Space Ship disconnected from earth, the theme of parallel universes, and comparisons to the Truman Show
The role of “the Others” in the film; the metaphor for powerful people who manipulate reality from behind the scenes
How the others switch peoples memories and give them false memories; comparisons to Ghost in a Shell
The Gothic and Neo Noire Genres
The aesthetics of the film; Decopunk, Metropolis, Edward Hopper, and other influences
The irony of dystopian films is that they often succeed in creating utopian aesthetics
The films success in building upon the sense of mystery
The theme of man becoming a “God Like” figure restructuring society as a utopia
Plato’s allegory of the Cave and the Ship of Theseus
The symbolism of Shell Beach
The directors cut vs. the theatrical cut
Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater interview writer and game designer Ken St. Andre. Ken St. Andre created Tunnels & Trolls, the second oldest roleplaying game ever. He blogs at Atroll’s Entertainment and has a Twitter.
Topics:
St. Andre’s introduction to Dungeons & Dragons, his creation of Tunnels & Trolls Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls and it’s Kickstarter Campaign
“The second-person narrative,” Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game books, and the solo adventure St. Andre wrote for T&T
The Mythic Game Master Emulator by Word Mill Games, “single-player role playing games”
Fighting Fantasy, Fabled Lands, Jorge Luis Borges, Zoë Quinn’s Depression Quest.
Wasteland, video-games Andre was involved with
Buffalo Castle, Agent of Death
How to write a second-person book or solo-adventure
Robert E, Howard, Gene Wolfe
St. Andre’s blog and his photography MetaArcade’s Tunnels & Trolls Adventures
Pilleater’s upcoming gamebook about Sea Slugs “Sea Slug Love”.
Robert Stark talks to Argentine author, businessman, former military officer, lawyer, and Professor of Social Science Gustavo Semeria
Topics:
Gustavo’s Spanish Language book Adiós a la Democracia about the role of Demographics in Democracy
Gustavo’s article for American Renaissance Argentina: A Mirror of Your Future
The early history of Argentina, the Nation’s Golden Age from the late 19th to early 20th Century, and the massive wave of European immigration
Buenos Aires as the Paris of South America and the extravagant architecture of the early 20th Century
The Art Deco Kavanagh building, Galerías Pacífico, and the Neon lit Lavalle Street The Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company which built the Nation’s vast railway system and Buenos Aires’s Subway
Argentina’s demographic transformation, starting with internal migration from the North and later mass immigration from neighboring countries
The effects of mass immigration on infrastructure, healthcare, education, and crime
The decline of the Argentine Middle Class and growth in gated communities in the suburbs
Cultural changes; the decline in the Tango and Argentine Rock and popularity of foreign culture such as Cumbia
The parallels between Argentina’s situation and that of the United States
The Kirchners’ open immigration policy and concept of Patria Grande
The new president of Argentina Mauricio Macri
Latin America’s fluctuation between socialism and oligarchy Juan Perón’s Third Way between Capitalism and Communism
