Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater interview Dan D’Argenio. Dan is a two time Android: Netrunner World Champion from 2014 to 2015. He writes on stimhack, post videos on youtube, and plays Netrunner almost all the time.
Topics:
Dan’s interest in Android: Netrunner, his success in the game
The origins of Netrunner, the game compared to Magic: The Gathering
The collectible card game culture of Netrunner, the structure of the tournament scene
The Living card game vs. The CCG format, the value of cards and collecting
Cyberpunk vs. Vaporwave aesthetics, Runner vs. Corporation, Philadelphia cyberpunk aesthetics
The influences of anime, cyberpunk, vaporwave, in Netrunner
The philosophy behind cyberpunk and vaporwave, consumerism, internet culture
Cards in Netrunner related to Cyberpunk, Tron, Blade Runner, Akira, Ghost in The Shell
Fuckbois using Data Leak Reversal Controversy
Netrunner Cube and drafting cards
Competitive players vs. Casual players
The art of Android: Netrunner
The meta-game, Netrunner culture, playing Netrunner at cool places
Netrunner deck builders, Stimhack, Dan’s streaming and decks
Music while playing Netrunner, burn-out while playing Netrunner
Getting new players into Netrunner
Dan’s shirtless tees, Philadelphia’s weather other hobbies then Netrunner
The Hollywood imagery and outsider stereotypes of LA
The history of LA
How LA’s urban core is spread out over a large geographic area from Santa Monica on the Coast to Downtown LA
Robert’s disclaimer that the photos capture the best of LA, but that most of the spaces in between are unappealing due to the cities sprawl
LA’s transit system
South Central LA
West Hollywood, and Rabbit’s experience living there
Downtown LA, the gentrification of the historic core, the grittiness and vintage signage of Broadway, and the Serial Killers Who Haunted The Cecil Hotel
Downtown LA’s architecture including John Portman’s Bonaventure Hotel, and the the 80’s Art Deco revivalHome Savings Building where Charles Lincoln worked
Beverly Hills, the 80’s futurist Rodeo Collection, the “Vaporwave” Roman Fountain , and the the 70 futurist/late modernistRoxbury Plaza Century City, which originally had a 60’s futurist aesthetic, was the the film location of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and the Century City Mall
1980’s Malls including the Beverly Center(Original image), Westside Pavilion, which reminds Pilleater of the game Myst, and the renovation of those malls which ruined their aesthetic
Historic preservation trends starting with demolition of the Art Deco Richfield Tower in Downtown LA, to the lack of preservation for 80’s architecture today
New architecture inspired by past styles including the new Streamline ModerneUnder construction Beverly Hilton tower, 70’s futurist inspired renderings for skyscrapers, and Rabbit’s observation that many apartments are being retrofited in mid-century modern styles
Santa Monica, the waterfront, architecture including the Art Deco Clock Tower, and Santa Monica NIMBY Restriction on heights
The Interactive Cafe, which is one of the last surviving independent businesses in downtown Santa Monica, and Pilleater’s point that it has a Cyberpunk aesthetic
The high cost of housing in LA, even in unappealing areas
The San Fernando Valley, which was traditionally home to LA’s middle class
Demographic trends, the destruction of the white middle class, gentrification of the urban core, and new suburban ghettos in the desert
Rabbit’s point about SWPLs he met in LA who look down on the suburban middle class
The Alt Left dilemma between identifying with SWPL Culture, and urbanist aesthetics, and supporting white middle class identitarianism, which often lacks strong aesthetic visions
Jeff’s background in parapsychology, having the only doctorate in the field
Raymond Moody’s“Life After Life,” life after death, near death experiences
The discipline of parapsychology
New Thinking Allowed exclusively on YouTube compared to Thinking Allowed on PBS
The beginning of Thinking Allowed
The synth intro of Thinking Allowed, the possible vaporwave influence of it
Alan Watts, New Age philosophy Terence McKenna, LSD and drug use
Ted Talks and conspiracy theroies The PK Man
The theory of open-consciousness, psychic experiences
Geographic locations with spiritual connections
The audience behind New Thinking Allowed, strange book stores
Transhumanism, Mishlove’s art, prescription drug use
The setting in Thinking Allowed, how Jeff get’s guest on the show
YouTube comments
Robert Stark and Alex von Goldstein talk to Pilleater. Pilleater is a college student, internet artist, musician, and blogs at Mineo Maya Fanclub. You can find his music at pizzadogstudios, pso119, and kingtrode.
Topics include:
The intro song, pissedoffindianman by Pilleater , which features clips of Jared Taylor
Jared Taylor’s Shadows of the Rising Sun: A Critical View of the Japanese Miracle(1983)
How Pilleater was exposed to electronic music at a young age, and became a Chiptune musician at age 16 as DJ Qudo
Latter on Pilleater got into Noise music, such as Whitehouse, and Digital hardcore bands, such as Atari Teenage Riot, and KMFDM, who are controversial due to the Columbine Shooters Oneohtrix Point Never, who was the forerunner to Vaporwave
Japanese Pornography similar to what you might see at websites such as teeni, and Pilleater’s point that it has a nationalist communal nature
The Ganguro culture in Japan, where girls tan their skin and bleach their hair, and is common in porn
Pilleater’s favorite music genre Eurobeat from the 90’s, it’s popularity in Japan, his favorite artist Bratt Sinclaire, Sinclaire’s song Running in the 90’s, and it’s origins from Italo disco from the 80’s
Generic Euro Dance(ex. Aqua and Dj Sammy)
The Italo disco song Shadilay, which came out in the 80’s by a band P.E.P.E with a frog on it’s album cover, and it’s esoteric Lyrics
Examples of Italo Disco include the global sensation Baltimora’s Tarzan Boy, and Pilleaters favorites, BRIAN ICE – Talking to the night, Eddy Huntington – Up And Down, and Lama – Love on the rocks
The New Retro Wave Genre of music that emerged in the mid 2000’s, inspired by 80’s New Wave and Italo Disco(ex. FM Attack, Lifelike – So Electric, Electric Youth, College, Kavinsky)
The French House band Daft Punk and their use of anime Chicago house music Vaporwave, and it’s nostalgia for William Gibson’s Neuromancer’s Japan
William Gibson’s Idoru
The anime film Akira(1988), set in a post apocalyptic Japan, and how it’s influenced Vaporwave, Cyberpunk, and New Retro Wave
The manga Patalliro!, about a ten year old cross dressing king, it’s colorful Art Nouveau aesthetic, it’s influence from H. P. Lovecraft, and it’s taboo themes
Asian Aryianism and whites living vicariously through Japanese culture
Themes of Asian Aryanism in The Legend of Zelda, which combines Japanese and Medieval European Aesthetics
Asian Aryan themes in Vaporwave with Roman busts and Japanese aesthetics
The minimalist Japanese vs. Chinese aesthetics
How each music genre has it’s own unique aesthetic
The Seapunk electronic genre, which uses Sega Genesis imagery(ex.UNICORN KID) Dark wave, which is apocalyptic electronic music from Germany(ex. Project Pitchfork, and Dunkerwerk) Betsy & Chris, the white Hawaiian folk music duo, who sang in fluent Japanese Stereolab, which reminds Pilleater of Rabbit’s AltLeft
Why Alex thinks Michael Jackson is an Alt Left Icon Sam Hyde and Tim & Eric on Adult Swim
Pilleater’s upcoming book, “Almond Eyes, Baby Face,” a collection of short stories on Asian Aryanism
Paul Schrader, who wrote both films, and directed Mishima
Schrader as a subversive non-conformist who exists within Hollywood culture
The theme of alienation in both films
The Nietzschean theme of a weak man empowering himself
The life and legacy of Yukio Mishima
How both Yukio Mishima and Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver are similar archetypes, existing in different environments
How both characters are aristocratic individualists, who envision an ideal world that is at odds with their current situation
An Aristocratic Individualist is someone who follows their own path instead of submitting to societies standards
Aristocratic Individualism is about having a clear vision for an ideal society, rather than individualism in the sense of everyone doing what ever they want
Examples of Aristocratic Individualists include, J. R. R. Tolkien, Aleister Crowley, Oscar Wilde,H. L. Mencken, David Lynch, Richard Wolstencroft, Salvador Dalí, Jonathan Bowden,Ernst Jünger, and Friedrich Nietzsche
The theme of romantic rejection, and the corrupting nature that sex plays in both films
Mishima’s story, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
How Aristocratic Individualists resent that they are being denied their rightful place in society, and the normie response that it’s a coping mechanism for losers
How Aristocratic Individualists take actions that can lead to either greatness or alienation
How Yukio Mishima rebelled against Japan’s process of modernization and Americanization
The scene where Yukio Mishima spoke to leftist college students, stating that he is fighting against the same forces they are, but they dismissed them
The parallels to to how European New Right thinkers such as Alain de Benoist share views with the dissident left( ex. anti globalization, anti-consumerism, anti-imperialism, and pro-environment)
How Yukio Mishima was dismissed in his time, but dissidents are later validated in times of turmoil
Mishima’s Japanese minimalist aesthetic vs. Taxi Driver’s urban grittiness of 70’s New York City New York Neon: Taxi Driver locales in Time Square, and “porn tourism,” which seeks out the remnants that have survived gentrification
The Neo-noir genre
The Retro-futurist theme in Mishima, combining ancient Japanese culture with the 80’s vision of the future(Vaporwave) Eiko Ishioka, who was the art director for Mishima
The fantasy dream sequences in Mishima, and the dream like quality to 80’s films which are the essence of art Bernard Herrmann‘s Jazz score for Taxi Driver, which captures the feeling of alienation and urban grittiness, and Philip Glass‘s minimalist classical score for Mishima
Aristocratic Individualist Fashion style including designer Comme des Garçons and the director John Waters
Trump’s debate performance far exceeded the first debate, and was consistent yet combative from the beginning
How despite that Trump did more to solidify his base, rather than appeal to undecided voters
How Trump responded to the leaked lewd comments of his Trump vows to get rid of carried interest loophole, despite his support for tax cuts for the top 1% WikiLeaks Dump: Hillary Dreams of ‘Open Trade and Open Borders Excerpts from $Hilary Clinton$’s $Wall Street Speeches$
How Hillary Clinton represent the worst of both the left and right(ex. corporate plutocracy, anti-worker, anti-white and male discrimination, and a Neoconservative foreign Policy)
In contrast, Bernie Sanders proposed policies that would of benefited the working and middle classes, and like Trump posed a threat to the establishment
How the political ideal would be to combine the best aspects of Trump and Sanders(ex. Radical Centrism)
How Trump’s economic policies are not ideal, but he is going as far as he can within the limits of the GOP’s overton window
Healthcare in the debate, how Trump focused on criticizing Obamacare, but only briefly touched on his proposal to allow insurance companies to compete over state lines
Robert’s point that in the American Healthcare model your screwed if you can’t afford healthcare, but in the public model in England where he lived everyone gets healthcare, but the quality is not the same as private hospitals in the United States
Rabbit’s point that socialized medicine works best in small homogeneous societies, but not on a large scale in the United States
Robert’s point that the Swiss Model for Health Care is the best out of existing models, but ideally insurance should be a usury free public utility
Trump correctly admitted Russia, Iran and Assad are a counter balance to ISIS and Wahhabism, to the dismay of GOP foreign policy hawks
Why there needs to be restrictions on democracy
Rabbit’s article A Proposal To Go Away, about the Alt Left, and how many of the new members are saying that Rabbit isn’t Alt Left, despite being involved much longer
How Alt Left founder Robert Lindsay has been involved in left race realism for a long time
The article Sub Types on the Alternative Left, and how Rabbit, as well as Robert and Alex fit into the Left Wing of the Alt Right
How the Trump’s campaign, Milo, and Breitbart are bringing mainline conservatives into the Alt-Right, and the Alt-Left is attracting disaffected Bernie Sanders supporters, who still hold onto a degree of political correctness
Rabbit’s article Milo Inc. – Not One of Ours Either, about how Milo is a mainstream capitalist conservative not Alt -Right, and supports importing foreign tech workers, and a neoconservative foreign policy
How despite that Milo has been useful in trolling political correctness
How Rabbit’s socially liberal views, and interest in futurism and modern art often make him feel out of place in the Alt-Right
Robert’s point that the Alt-Right is adopting Retro Futurism, New Retro Wave/Synthwave, and Vaporwave(ex. Alt-Right Synthwave Artist Xurious)
Rabbit’s response that they are attracted to the aesthetics and popular memes, but still hold onto reactionary traditionalist views
Rabbit’s article Blood, Soil and Food Courts, about the demise of the 70’s and 80’s malls
Robert Stark, joined with Rabbit, and Alex von Goldstein talk about his recent trip to the SF Bay Area
Topics include:
Robert’s departing point Santa Barbara, which is a nice laid back coastal town, but under the cultural influence of LA Robert Stark’s podcast with Bay Area Guy about his last trip to SF
Robert met up with Bay Area Guy and Anatoly Karlin in Berkeley
How like Robert, Alex, and Rabbit, Bay Area Guy and Anatoly Karlin exist on the periphery of the Alt-Right(ex.The Radical Center, Alt Left)
The Cultural Leftist legacy of Berkeley, and how Anatoly Karlin spoke at Richard Spencer’s event at UC Berkeley
How places that are politically correct often produce interesting dissident thinkers
How Berkeley is on a scale similar to European cities(ex. small, compact, dense and walkable)
How transplants often adopt the stereotypes of cities
Demographic trends in the Bay Area, how the traditional white middle class is being pushed out, but also working class Blacks and Hispanics are being priced out through gentrification
Asian culture and immigration in the Bay Area, and Asian Majority Cities, including Daly City, where Robert stayed
The seedy Tenderloin District, urban grittiness, and how it reminded Robert of the film Taxi Driver
The film Dirty Harry
The BART(Bay Area Rapid Transit) System, which has a 70’s futurist aesthetic, and has had issue with crime
The film Fruitvale Station about a Police incident on BART in Oakland
The 70’s futurist Embarcadero Center, designed by architect John Portman, and the importance of having urban oasis’s
How the Silicon Valley is a bland suburban region, which demonstrates that technology has limitation without culture and aesthetics The Shortage Of Women In Silicon Valley
How the area where the tech elite lives has wilderness preserves, in contrast with their support for mass immigration How the Bay Area has done a better job at Wilderness Conservation than Southern California
Robert’s observation’s about where to build in the Bay Area in response to his interview with Laura Foote Clark of Grow SF
How San Francisco has it’s own unique Aesthetic, and is the most scenic American City
How San Francisco is on a high level aesthetically, but the dominant culture is consumerism mixed in with some cultural leftist views
Robert stayed in Walnut Creek, which is a mid-century car oriented suburb in the process of being retrofited into a walkablle New Urbanist community
Walnut Creek aslo has BART access, and owns more open space per capita than any other community in California 80’s Vaporwave Architecture in Walnut Creek, how historic preservation has neglected 80’s Kitsch, and the occultist origins of Kek in California 80’s culture
Nearby Lafayette, which is an idyllic semi rural town, with quick BART access to the city(the best of both worlds for those who can afford it) The San Francisco Bay Area Renters’ Federation lawsuit against Lafayette, and the debate regarding development and diversity
Whether the Bay Area should be it’s own separate country, state, or broken up into a bunch of small independent city states
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.
Colin’s background in music journalism
How he interviewed Ian Astbury of the Cult, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, Herbie Hancock, and Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa
Colin’s article Loving the Alien
The significance of the year 1947 of Bowie’s birth and the year 2016 of his death
How in the 70’s Bowie set the style while in the 80’s he was influenced by the sound of that era
The liberal concept of progress and how each decade from the 50’s to 80’s had a distinct culture
How culture has stagnated in the 21st Century
Bowie songs that told a story such as Space Oddity
Bowie obtuse and abstract lyrics
Bowie’s use of symbolism
How different people have their own interpretation of Bowie’s work
Bowie and British culture
How Bowie and British bands in general put a stronger emphasis on visual imagery
Bowie’s non musical artistic endeavors
Bowie as a precursor to troll culture
How Bowie and other counter-culture icons of the 70’s and 80’s such as the Clash, Sex Pistols, Joy Division, and New Order flirted with fascist symbolism
The Nietzschean aspects of Bowie Peter Schilling’s Major Tom which was inspired by Space Oddity and Neue Deutsche Welle
This is a continuation of the discussion on True Stories
Topics include:
The demographic transformation of Southern California
Robert Lindsay’s experience as a substitute teacher
Beverly Hills
The Film Fast Times at Ridgemont High set in the San Fernando Valley in the early 80’s
The depiction of adolescent sexuality in the film
How in the 70’s and early 80’s hedonism existed with less materialism and higher social trust than today
How the rise in hyper materialism coincided with the popularity of Reagan
How Robert Lindsay was involved with the Punk scene in the 80’s
The Film Earth Girls Must be Easy
The Porn Industry in the San Fernando Valley
Southern California Mall Culture
How the decline of traditional Mall Culture symbolizes how all of society is becoming one giant mall
How strip malls in LA are being replaced by higher density development
The debate about density and Urbanism
Mexican Culture vs. Mexican American Culture in California
The Film Blade Runner which is set in LA in 2019
Whether Blade Runner is an accurate depiction of the future
The genre of Dystopian Future Films(ex.Hunger Games, V for Vendetta, Mad Max) NEON SIGNS OF BLADE RUNNER The Film “Her” which depicts the future of LA as an eco friendly SWPL utopia
The decline in the quality of products
