Robert Stark and co-host Rabbit talk to Cartoonist Mark Velard. He publishes his work at Refractor Industries
Topics include:
How he got into drawing comics
His influences, including Daniel Clowes, Robert Crumb, Jack Kirby, and Jim Woodring
The 60s-80s influence in his comics
Why he prefers to work in Pen & Ink instead of digital graphics
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars and Mark’s parody “Pepe John Carter”
His short stories, including his recent one Cliff Wretched’s Escape, and the themes that drive them
How his stories tend to be tales of journeys and heroism
His upcoming graphic novel “Clowns of the Apocalypse,” about evil clowns who invade society and want to be seen as equals
His stand up comedy
His fascination with Space Travel and Escapism
John Carpenter’s Film In the Mouth of Madness
How he ended up associating with the AltRight
How his politics influences his work
His experiences with political correctness at Comic Cons
Whether his political views have interfered with his art career
Robert Stark and co-host Rabbit talk to Seattle based artist Charles Krafft
Topics include:
How Charles started out as a painter in Seattle and San Francisco in the 1960’s, and how his earliest influences included the The Mystic Artists of the Pacific Northwest
Charles’s involvement with the 60’s Counter Culture in San Francisco, and how he was hired to do Psychedelic Light Shows
Rabbit’s comment that many figures from the 60’s Counter-Culture expressed politically incorrect views
The pros and cons of drug use and how it affects creativity
How Charles was influenced by the work of designer Von Dutch, his correspondence with him, and how he inspired his transition into ceramics
Charles’s Ceramic work in the blue and white Dutch Delftware style
How Charles specializes in bone china made out of human remains, and commissions pieces to honor deceased love one’s out of their ashes
How his ceramic work includes replicas of guns as well as controversial historical and public figures
Charles’s experiences with censorship due to his political views and how that has affected his Art Career
The recent cancellation of his art exhibition in London due to threats from Social Justice Warriors
How some Art Journalist have used his case to demonstrate the need for freedom of speech in the art world
How politics is created by culture, and how the right has delegated culture to the left
Dissident Artist movements that have become marginalized such as Italian Futurism
Charles’s experience as a war photographer in Bosnia with the Slovenian band Laibach
How Charles’s views on the Yugoslavian Civil War have changed
Science Fiction writers Robert Heinlein and Cordwainer Smith
Charles’s interest in the concept of National Futurism
Architecture and how Charles’s favorite styles include Craftsman and Art Nouveau
How Thomas got interested in Neon growing up, and how he noticed it’s decline
His project charting and photographing existing Neon Signs before they disappear
The History of Neon, how it was invented in Victorian England in 1898, and latter made into signs by French Scientist Georges Claude
How the peak of Neon was in the late 1920’s and 30’s(Art Deco Era), but already started to see a decline in the 40’s
How Neon was originally used by Corporate chains but latter delegated to small businesses Churches & Neon
How Neon was originally seen as glamorous but latter became associated with seediness
Neon in Cinema, contrasting Dick Powell’s glamorous Gold Diggers Of 1933 – The Shadow Waltz and his 1944 detective film Murder, My Sweet, which depicts Neon as seedy
The 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life which also uses Neon to depict seediness Hotel Neon Signs and and Hotel Neon in the Film Noire Genre
Neon in future films including the utopian 1927 film Metropolis and the dystopian 1982 film BLADE RUNNER
Incandescent Bulb Signs
The history, decline and revitalization of Time Square, and how there are very few Neon Signs left
How Neon has become replaced by LED Signs
The myth that Neon signs are not eco friendly
Historic preservation issues regarding Neon Signs New Neon Signs designed in the Vintage style Neon in San Francisco and the book San Francisco Neon
Las Vegas, how newer casino’s have rejected Neon, and how older signs are preserved at the Neon Museum
The popularity of Neon in Asian cities
How there is a renewed interest in Neon
Artist who depict Neon in their work including Robert Stark
Neon in 1960s Pop Art
The importance of patronizing businesses that have Neon Signs
How Robert and Ray both have personal connections to Santa Barbara and how the city is almost too idyllic
Crime Fiction Novelist Ross Macdonald who’s work captures Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara as a place with strict zoning laws that was modeled after Andalusia in Spain
The contrast between life in Santa Barbara and New York City
How New York City has changed in Ray’s time there in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s
How Cuisine is the one area that has seen increased innovation in New York
Ray’s cameo in the film Exposed set in New York in 1983 staring Nastassja Kinski
How films such as Exposed and Taxi Driver are documentaries for New York in that era
The new peculiarly shaped skyscrapers going up in New York today “See through buildings” where wealthy Foreigners are buying up real estate in New York and leaving them empty
How Ray is drawn to architecture because it is art you can experience and changes the world in a way that regular art doesn’t
How most of the general public has little input and interest in architecture
How places without zoning laws tend to lack any aesthetic value
How the main rule in urbanism is not to do anything that harms the city Art Deco and how it succeeds in bringing tradition and modernity into one Architectual Revivalism which seeks to recreate older forms of architecture Robert Stark’s Artwork
Ray’s work at Newsweek as a reporters covering art, culture, literature, film, and theatre
How Ray’s most significant interviews were with Writers Philip, Roth, and John Updike, filmmakers Francis Coppola, and Robert Altman and Architect Christopher Alexander
How conservatives tend to avoid culture and leave that domain to the left
English Philosopher Roger Scruton as a model for a cultured conservative
Front Porch Anarchist Bill Kauffman New Urbanism
The The Retro Cocktail and Locavore movements James Howard Kunstler
Ray’s involvement with Environmentalism and Bioregional Anarchism
How the environmental movement abandoned the overpopulation issue due to political correctness and mass immigration
The Alternative Right
How the real political divide is between globalism and decentralization
Cultural trends and how Ray views himself as a cultural radar
The trend towards a focus on muscles for young men and men are more self-conscious about their bodies
The value of pleasure and leisure
Erotica and the debate about what’s art and what’s pornography
Controversial nude photographer Jock Sturges, who Ray interviewed
How society is a taking contradictory paths towards lewdness and prudishness Students Still Sweat, They Just Don’t Shower
How having taste and style has become equated with homosexuality
Young women moving to New York City because of Sex and the City “Sex Scenes” which is a raunchy, satirical audio entertainment that Ray created with his wife playwright Polly Frost. Check it out.
Rabbit is an artist, experimental musician, and blogs at AltLeft.com. Robert Lindsay joins latter in on the conversation
Topics include:
How politics is driven by the culture
How conservatives tend to focus on politics and are ineffective in creating culture
How the Alternative Right tends to attracts more creative types than the mainstream right
Why Rabbit feels that much of the Alternative Right holds backwards views towards art and culture
Rabbit’s artistic inspiration in Minimalism, Cubism, Mid-Century Space Age, and Dutch Constructivism Danish Modern Interior Design Robert Stark’s Artwork
The difference between between modernism and postmodernism Italian Futurism
How cultural innovation has stagnated
How the past is the future( ex: in the mid 20th Century the culture looked to the future instead of the past) Vintage Las Vegas
Skyscrapers
Whether capitalism is responsible for aesthetic decline
How in the early to mid 20th Century there was still an innocence to capitalism and higher aesthetic standards Mid-Century Advertisements
Strip malls Suburban cookie cutter houses as an example of when architecture is driven purely by profit without any aesthetic value
In the Sky(Dans le ciel) was written by Octave Mirbeau in France in the 1890’s. Ann Sterzinger translated the first English edition published by Hopeless Books. It’s available on Amazon.
Topics include:
How Ann discovered the book from Pierre Michel, a French literary scholar specializing in the writer Octave Mirbeau
How Mirbeau is best known for his book Diary of a chambermaid but In the Sky was little known outside of France
How Mirbeau was an anarchist and a Dreyfusard
How Mirbeau was a major influence on Louis-Ferdinand Céline who shared his misanthropic outlook
How Céline was marginalized for his support of the Vichy Regime however he influenced many writers such as Jack Kerouac, John Dolan, Charles Bukowski, and Michel Houellebecq
How the book reflects Mirbeau’s outlook towards life and society
The main character X who is a depressed, misanthropic, artist based on Vincent Van Gogh who Mirbeau knew
The Narrator who discovers X’s manifesto after his death
How X struggles to create his artistic vision
X’s mentor who looses his mind
The post Catholic concept of expressing spirituality through art
How X struggles with sexual and romantic frustration and when he finally meets a girl he dumps her because she did not live up to his romantic ideals
How the of meaning of the title In the Sky and both where X lives on top of a mountain where you can only see sky and metaphor for being detached from society
Mirbeau’s view on the family and how neurosis is pasted down from parents to children
How the book combines tragedy and comedy
Matt Forney’s review Elliot Rodger Goes to Paris
The genre “Loser Lit”
Ann’s article Dead David Bowie, French Nationalists, Antinatalism, and the Meaning of Life
David Bowie’s art & legacy
Her article The Magical Bottomless Labor Pool which connects political themes to her book NVSQVAM Why I’m Scared of Widows & Orphans Applied Dysgenics In Defense of Beta Females
Ann’s upcoming Science Fiction Dystopia novel Lyfe, which needs a publisher that specializes in Science Fiction
Topics include: Wife The Girl by Uncuck the Right How the Truth Will Live was Redpilled
How she was able to Red Pill most of her family
How most of her family was relatively moderate to conservative to begin with
How the first reaction to the Redpill is often a hysterical but after that the person changes their views
How women tend to be more conformist than men
How it’s easier to Redpill people of the same gender
How to Redpill liberals by bringing up how mass immigration harms workers and the environment and that immigration and feminism are driven by capitalism
How we live in neither a true Patriarchy nor Matriarchy but rather a culture driven by consumerism and profit
How our culture is in a spiritual and moral crisis
Her video Why Have Children? a response to anti-natalism
Social Atomization and how it leads to psychological problems
How Americans are expected to put on a facade of happiness
The Paleo diet and lifestyle
The Catholic Church and how it has changed since the 2nd Vatican Council
The end of the Latin Mass
How the Catholic Church is suppressing traditionally music such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Gregorian Chants
How Catholicism has become more like Protestantism
Aesthetic standards in religion and how it was affected by the prohibition against idolatry
Traditional Catholics who reject the Vatican
E Michael Jones and how he views Protestantism as similar to Judaism(ex. prosperity doctrine)
How modern Christianity has become synonymous with prole culture and has driven away creative types Missa Luba, A Choir in the Belgium Congo that was taught to sing Latin Mass by Missionaries
Her Art History Major in College
Her take on modern art and how it was innovative at first but has become repetitive
Why the mainstream right has little interest in arts, culture, and aesthetics
The decline of cities and the creation of bland suburbs
How mainstream conservative view the destruction of historic communities as part of the “free market”
How the Alternative Right attracts creative types and takes a more Eurocentric outlook
Why the people and culture is more important than economics in having a successful society
How there is something Spiritual and Transcendent about aesthetic beauty
Anarcho Tyranny which is an imposed standard of no standards
How standards in fashion have declined
How the upper class are emulating the aesthetic standards of the proletariat
The role of Aesthetics in Judaism and Jewish Culture
