Category Archives: Culture

Robert Stark talks about his new novel Journey to Vapor Island

November 22, 2017 Mark Velard, 1980's, 80's music, aesthetics, Alicia Silverstone, alienation, Anime, Architecture, Art, Brandon Adamson, Class, Clueless, comedy, Consumerism, Culture, Depravity, Despair, Donald Trump, Ellliot Rodger, Erotica, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Film, Francis Nally, Futurism, Gender, Harvey Weinstein, High School, Hollywood, Homosexuality, humor, Incels, Journey to Vapor Island, Leisure Suit Larry, Literature, Loserdom, Love, Memes, Patalliro!, Pepe the Frog, Psychology, relationships, Retro Futurism, Science Fiction, Serial Killers, Sexuality, Social Rejection, social status, Spree Shootings, Surrealism, The Crush, Utopia, Vaporwave, Video Gamesrobertstark

Robert Stark is joined with Francis Nally and Brandon Adamson to discuss his new novel Journey to Vapor Island.

Topics:

Brandon’s review of Journey to Vapor Island(Contains Spoilers)
The cover art by Mark Velard
How listeners to the show will instantly recognize favorite topics when they make cameo appearances in the book or manifest themselves as part of the underlying themes
Internet memes in the book(ex. the men in the frog masks)
The fusion of genres including Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction, and Dark Comedy
A disclaimer that this book is not for anyone that is squeamish about sex or easily shocked or offended
Brandon’s observation that the sexual scenes in the book are more akin to the “random battles” in old school Super Nintendo RPGs like Final Fantasy IV
The theme of how central sex is to people’s motivations, and the overall perception of status in society
The main character Noam Metzenbaum who is a socially inept yet intelligent student with illusions of grandeur
The Chads and the theme of the nerd getting revenge against bullies and the popular cliques
Noam’s crush Natalie Bloom and his lifelong obsession with her
The Retro-Futuristic surreal fantasy world in the book; an adult Never Ending Story
The Roger Blackstone character who could represent a Trump-like figure, but could just as easily be a Ross Perot or even Willy Wonka
The outrageous comic elements in the book
The theme of the commercialization of tragedies and the celebrity status of mass murderers
How the book is timely with the ongoing Hollywood sex scandals
The theme of living in ones fantasies and how that shapes the book’s narrative

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!

Robert Stark talks to Richard Wolstencroft about his new film The Second Coming Volume II

November 12, 2017Adam Parfrey, aesthetics, Aleister Crowley, Asia, Australia, Boyd Rice, Charles Manson, Christianity, Cinema, Country Music, Culture, David Thrussell, Film, horror, horror films, Jim Goad, Music, Occultism, Pearls Before Swine, Poetry, Religion, Richard Wolstencroft, Salò, The Second Coming, Travel, Twin Peaks, William Butler Yeatsrobertstark

Robert Stark talks to director Richard Wolstencroft about his new film The Second Coming Volume II. Volume I is free to view on Vimeo.

Topics:

Intro: Johnny Tyler – God’s Gonna Turn Us To Dust
The film’s inspiration from the poem The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats and the film’s segments based on passages from the poem
“A low budget epic”
The film’s influences including Kenneth Anger, Andy Warhol, Lars Von Trier’s Dogma, Godard’s My Life To Live, and Terrence Malick
The film’s aesthetic
The film’s theme of man trying to usher in the Apocalypse
The conflict between the black magicians and the white magicians
Aleister Crowley and Occultism
“Charles Manson put a curse on Western Civilization”
Cameos by Jim Goad, Boyd Rice, and Adam Parfrey
Music by David Thrussell and old Country Western Music
Filming locales including Thailand, Australia, LA, Switzerland, Barcelona, and London

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!

Robert Stark talks to Lynn Zook about Gambling on a Dream Volume 2

October 25, 20171950's, 1960's, 1970's, aesthetics, Architecture, Cities, Culture, Fashion, Gambling, Historic Preservation, History, Las Vegas, Lynn Zook, Mid-Century Modern, Neon, Skyscrapers, Vicerobertstark

Robert Stark talks to Lynn Zook about her new book Gambling on a Dream Volume 2:. This second volume of a two-part multimedia book tells the fascinating story of the Las Vegas Strip hotels built during the turbulent years of cultural and societal change, 1956-1973. Nowadays, alongside traditional casinos, people can go online to sites such as togel singapore for easier access to their gambling/lottery needs. In the digital age in which we live today, online gambling has really taken over the world. This is indicated by the number of people using parhaat nettikasinot (the best online casinos) for entertainment or as preparation for a real casino setting. Competition is still fierce though. Online casinos have to offer bonuses and other initiatives to tempt gamers in. Want to learn How to receive the first deposit bonus? If so, doing some research on casino review websites is strongly recommended. Back to the book though, Lynn Zook also runs the website Classic Las Vegas, and has produced an hour-long, first person narrative documentary on the history of Las Vegas entitled “The Story of Classic Las Vegas. Check out Robert Stark’s first interview with Lynn Zook on Gambling on a Dream Volume 1.

Topics:

Lynn’s first book Gambling on a Dream: The Classic Las Vegas Strip 1930-1955
Lynn’s interest and personal connection to Vintage Las Vegas
Caesars Palace
The Hacienda
The Stardust
The Aladdin
The original MGM Grand which is now Bally’s
The International which is now the Westin
The English Tudor themed Tally Ho which was built by the creator of Yahtzee
How the Tropicana and Circus Circus are the last two remaining from this era
The Sin City Era
The Rat Pack and Frank Sinatra
The showrooms and variety show performers
The role of the Mob
Historic Preservation and the Neon Museum
Lynn’s upcoming book on Fremont Street and Downtown

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!

Robert Stark interviews Dain Fitzgerald

October 16, 20171980's, 1990's, Alternative Right, Asian Culture, Baby Boomers, California, censorship, Cities, Class, Conservatives, Corporations, Culture, Dain Fitzgerald, demographics, Economics, Family Guy, Futurism, Gender, Generation X, gentrification, Harvey Weinstein, Historic Preservation, Hollywood, income inequality, Joshua Zeidner, Libertarianism, Millennials, Music, New York, Oakland, Political Correctness, Politics, Sacramento , San Francisco, Science, Silicon Valley, Skyscrapers, Social Justice Warriors, Synthwave, technology, Transhumanism, Urbanism, Wealthrobertstark

Robert Stark and co-host Joshua Zeidner talk to Dain Fitzgerald. Dain works in the Silicon Valley, is based in Oakland, blogs at Dry Hyphen Olympics, and writes for The American Spectator and Secular Right. He is also on Twitter.

Topics:

How Robert met Dain at a Bay Area futurist meetup
Growing up in Sacramento, CA
Life in the Bay Area
The Bay Area’s economic situation and housing crisis
Dain’s political views, how he is fairly centrist economically, and opposed to SJW culture
The Grey Tribe
The Culture War; the humanities vs. the sciences
The political climate of the Silicon Valley
The firing of James Damore from Google
Neurodiversity
Dain’s article Asian-American Leaders Are Scarce in Silicon Valley. And?
Dain’s article Meet the New Boss about how well behaved Millennials are
Futurism and science based politics
The Harvey Weinstein Scandal(note: the show was recorded before the recent SNL)

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!

Robert Stark interviews Synthwave Artist Damokles

September 30, 20171970's, 1980's, 1990's, 80's music, 90's music, aesthetics, Cinema, Culture, Damokles, Film, Futurism, horror, horror films, Industrial Music, Internet, J.G. Michael, Kraftwerk, Music, New Retro Wave, Rammstein, Retro Futurism, Sam Kevorkian, Science Fiction, Space Travel, Sweden, Synthwave, technology, Time Travel, Transhumanismrobertstark

Robert Stark, Sam Kevorkian, and J.G Michael talk to Swedish Synthwave Artist Damokles. Check out his work on SoundCloud, Facebook, and Future 80’s Records which produces his music.

Topics:

Intro: Into the Future from the new Time Machine album
Damokles’ new 14 track album Time Machine
The Time Travel Theme; Back to the Future
Creating synth music since the 70’s
Influences including Kraftwerk
Favorite songs including Yazoo’s Don’t Go and Don’t You Want Me? by the Human League
Experimentation with synthesizers in the 80’s
Being a DJ in the 80’s and how DJ culture has evolved
Working as a piano bar entertainer
The New Retrowave genre and how it is different from original 80’s synth music
Industrial music
The future of electronic music, the mainstreaming of synthwave, and the need for an alternative to mainstream pop
The pros and cons of producing music online without large corporations
Cinematic influences; sci-fi and horror
The illustrations for the albums
80’s Retrofuturism
Visions of the future and how humans are becoming cyborgs

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!

Robert Stark talks to Director Jared Shumate about his film Last Night Out

September 26, 20171980's, 80's music, acting, aesthetics, Blue Velvet, Cinema, comedy, Culture, David Lynch, Film, Film Noire, horror, horror films, J.G. Michael, Jared Shumate, Last Night Out, Music, Neon, New Retro Wave, North Carolina, Stranger Things, Synthwave, Theatre, Twin Peaks, Wes Cravenrobertstark

Robert Stark and co-host J.G. Michael talk to filmmaker Jared C. Shumate about his upcoming horror comedy film Last Night Out which is set to be released on Halloween and will be available to view online. Check out the Facebook page for Last Night Out, the Official Trailer, and the poster which is available on the Facebook page.

Topics:

Intro: Jerry Galeries’s In For A Long Night which is used for the film and trailer
The basic plot
The horror genre
Dark Comedy with some slapstick thrown in
Jared’s influences ranging from Wes Craven’s Scream to Scooby-doo to David Lynch
The 80’s theme, the New Retrowave genre, and how the music influenced the film
The filming location in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, the abandoned lingerie factory, and the surreal atmosphere of forest and ghost towns in North Carolina
The special effects
The actors and characters including a group of teens and two drifters
The plan for a feature length version which might introduce a supernatural element
Jared’s short thriller, The Ramifications
Jared’s Film Noire set in 1946, The Picture Room
Jared’s screenplay, “Otto” which is based on the true story of the outlaw Otto Wood

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!

Robert Stark talks to Count Fosco about the Mechanisms of the Arts

September 21, 2017Adam Parfrey, aesthetics, Alicia Silverstone, animation, Architecture, Art, Brandon Adamson, Canada, capitalism, censorship, Cinema, Class, Comic Books, Count Isidor Fosco, counterculture, Culture, David Lynch, Economics, Erotica, Film, Italian Futurism, Joseph Dobrian, Larry Clark, Malcolm Gladwell, Philosophy, Pilleater, Political Correctness, Pornography, Postmodernism, Salvador Dali, Socialism, Surrealism, Trevor Brown, Vaporwaverobertstark

Robert Stark and Pilleater talk to returning guest Count Fosco. Count Fosco has a background in the film industry in Canada.

Topics:

Count Fosco’s background in the Canadian Film Industry
The economic mechanisms for funding the arts
Conservative opposition to funding the arts
Robert Stark’s debate with Joseph Dobrian on funding the arts
The cultural left’s influence on grants favoring politically correct demographic groups
Where the free market falls short and the importance of having an economic safety net for artist
Being an artist as a luxury for the rich and the importance of having the right connections and patrons
The fallacy that the best artist are rewarded economically(ex. Van Gogh)
Preferred relative guidelines for artistic funding and support for relative artistic freedom
How grants work for the film industry in Canada
Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour Rule’ and how it applies to the arts
Should art serve a purpose for society?
Censorship in the Art World
The debate about what is art and what is pornography and the concept of “degenerate art”
Creating new artistic sub-cultures
Low Brow Pop Surrealism
Surrealism from Dali to David Lynch
Robert Stark and Brandon Adamson’s Art
The animated series Braceface staring Alicia Silverstone

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!

Robert Stark talks to Giovanni Dannato about the Mechanisms of Social Status

September 18, 2017aesthetics, Alt Center, Alternative Right, American Culture, Art, Calvinism, capitalism, Christianity, Class, conformity, Conservatives, Corporations, Culture, Donald Trump, Economics, Gender, Giovanni Dannato, High School, Loserdom, Post-scarcity economy, Psychology, Sam Kevorkian, Sex Robots, Sexuality, social capital, social statusrobertstark

Robert Stark and co-host Sam Kevorkian talk to Giovanni Dannato. Giovanni blogs at Colony of Commodus and is the author of A Kingdom For the Introvert. Follow Giovanni on Twitter.

Topics:

The Mechanics of Status
How status enables reproduction with desirable mates and increases ones odds of survival in pre-modern societies
The utilitarian culture that views all problems from a statistical basis and therefore neglects social status
Social status as a driving force behind economic motives
How social status will become even more important in a post scarcity economic future
How manipulating the status system is more effective and far less energetically expensive than direct coercion
High School And Status in America
The silly myth that the quarterback ends up bagging groceries while the unpopular kids become Silicon Valley billionaires
How corporate culture mirrors high school
Attacking ones political opponents by disparaging their social status
How Trump to many symbolizes the crass high school bullies who scored with their first crushes
The Macro-Sexenomics of Female Beauty
The Social Cosmology
How people create their own status within sub-cultures
The Alt-Sphere Should Embrace Culture and Aesthetics

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings!

Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu returns to talk about his album Forget & Twin Peaks

September 16, 2017 Angelo Badalamenti, 1980's, 80's music, Alt Center, Alternative Right, Animal Cruelty, animals, Art, Australia, capitalism, censorship, counterculture, Culture, David Lynch, David Thrussell, Depeche Mode, Donald Trump, Drugs, Environment, Erasure, Haarlem Venison, Homosexuality, Jamie Stewart, Los Angeles, Marquis de Sade, Martin Heidegger, Marxism, Music, Nihilism, Occultism, Pearls Before Swine, Peter Sotos, Philosophy, Pilleater, Radical Center, Richard Wolstencroft, Sexuality, Snog, Socialism, Twin Peaks, Xiu Xiurobertstark

Robert Stark, Pilleater, Haarlem Venison, and filmmaker Richard Wolstencroft talk to musician Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu.

Topics include:

Intro: Xiu Xiu – Queen of the Losers
Xiu Xiu’s album- FORGET
The new Twin Peaks and the show’s finale
Xiu Xiu – Plays The Music of Twin Peaks
Performing at a David Lynch exhibit in Australia
The soundtrack of the new Twin Peaks
Richard’s Xiu Xiu story
Influence from 80’s synth; Depeche Mode, Erasure and Jamie’s cover of Erasure
How music in the 21st Century has become stagnant
Music revenue in the internet era and the importance of live performances
Apocalypse Culture; Peter Sotos
The Gay Marriage vote in Australia
Jamie denounces the Alt-Right
Jamie’s hometown LA and how the city has changed
Animal Rights
Jamie as a pessimistic nihilistic hippie
After Jamie leaves Richard discusses his political and cultural views and his films including Pearls before Swine and his upcoming film The Second Coming Volume II
Richard’s Melbourne Underground Film Festival