Category Archives: Retro Futurism

Robert Stark interviews Architect Adam Mayer

1960's, 1970's, 1980's, 1990's, Adam Mayer, aesthetics, Architecture, arcology, Art Deco, Asia, Brutalism, California, Chicago, China, Cities, Culture, Environment, Historic Preservation, income inequality, James Howard Kunstler, John C. Portman Jr, Lafayette CA, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Los Gatos CA, Malls, Mass Transit, Mid-Century Modern, Mount Diablo, New Urbanism, Orinda CA, Postmodernism, Retro Futurism, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Silicon Valley, Skyscrapers, Sonja Trauss, Suburbia, Urbanism, Walnut Creek CA, Wealth, Wilderness, Zoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adam Mayer is an architect based out of San Francisco. Check out his Twitter, Instagram, and Architectural Portfolio.

Topics:

Growing up in Los Gatos which is a small town on the edge of the Silicon Valley
Studying architecture at USC and observations on LA
Art Deco and Mid Century Modern Architecture in LA
New Urbanism and Retrofitting suburbia
The Bay Area Housing Crisis and the importance of developing smartly while protecting greenbelts
How ugly architecture leads to NIMBY sentiment and why the YIMBY movement needs to address aesthetics
California Senate bill would force more dense housing near transit hubs
Working on a redevelopment project at the Walnut Creek BART Station
San Francisco’s SOMA district’s new skyline
San Francisco’s new Transbay Terminal
Architect John C. Portman; The Embarcadero Center and Hyatt in San Francisco and the extension of the urban realm to the inside
Architect Jon Jerde; his projects including Westside Pavilion and the Universal City Walk in LA, Horton Plaza in San Diego, and the Wynn and Bellagio in Las Vegas
Architect William Pereira who designed the Trans-America Pyramid in San Francisco
Brutalism
1980’s architecture and whether it will make a comeback
Frank Gehry
Modernism vs. Postmodernism and where to draw the boundary
How current architecture lacks one cohesive aesthetic
Adam’s work as an architect in China, master planned projects, and observations on architecture in China
Winner Take All? Richard Florida’s ‘New Urban Crisis’
How to accommodate families in cities

Click Here to download!

This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Ashley Messinger

aesthetics, Africa, Alt Center, Alternative Left, Alternative Right, Architecture, Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Ashley Messinger, automation, Basic Income, Brandon Adamson, California, Cities, Class, Consumerism, Corporations, Culture, demographics, Distributism, Donald Trump, Economics, education, Effective Altruism, England, Environment, Eugenics, Europe, European Nationalism, Globalization, Immigration, Imperialism, income inequality, Islam, Islamization, London, Los Angeles, Nationalism, Neoliberalism, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Politics, Psychology, Rabbit, Retro Futurism, social status, Steampunk, Taxation, technology, terrorism, Third Way Economics, Transhumanism, Wealth, welfare state

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Brandon Adamson talk to ASHLEY MESSINGER. Ashley is based in the UK and writes for Brandon’s AltLeft.com. You can also find Ashley on Twitter.

Topics:

Why Brandon’s moniker is now “The Left of the AltRight”
Ashley’s political evolution to the Alt Left(Left Wing of the Alt-Right)
Ashley’s disillusionment with the Alt-Right
The immigration and demographic situation in the UK
Radical Islam, the Charlie Hebdo Massacre, and the Rotherham scandal
The ineptitude of Right Wing politics in the UK
Ashley’s preference for SWPL cultural amenities
Retro-Futurism
Whether there is a large enough demographic for a “Red Pilled” SWPL movement
Misconceptions about English culture
The Thacherite Neo-Liberal de-industrialization of the UK
Ashley’s support for a secular form of Distributism
Luck egalitarianism 
The Signalling Model of Education 
Automation and the Basic Income
The Techno Futurist faction of Neo-Reaction
Effective Altruism
Technogaianism
Ashley’s article The Push to Normalize Polonophilia

Click Here to download!

This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings! and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Vaporwave Artist Spear 槍

1980's, 80's music, aesthetics, animation, Anime, Art, Consumerism, Culture, dreams, Francis Nally, Internet, Japan, Japanese Culture, Journey to Vapor Island, Literature, Malls, Music, Psychology, Retro Futurism, Sam Hyde, Spear 槍, Surrealism, Vaporwave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Francis Nally talk to Vaporwave artist Spear 槍. He is a musician and DJ who attends Pennsylvania State University. Check out his music on Facebook, SoundCloud, and Bandcamp.

Topics:

Intro: 名誉
The Vaporwave genre
Slowed down compressed 80’s music
Lo-Fi Trip Hot
The revival of cassettes and VHS
Adult Swim
Vaporwave as a surreal idealized consumerism
Mallsoft
The visual art for the videos
The Vapor Room show
Saudade; a Portuguese term to describe the longing for and memories of good times
Hypnagogia; the state between being awake and being asleep where you can’t distinguish between what is real and what is not
Vaporwave Literature(Robert Stark’s Journey to Vapor Island)

Click Here to download!

This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark talks about his new novel Journey to Vapor Island

 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 Games

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Click Here to download!

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




Robert Stark interviews Synthwave Artist Damokles

1970'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, Transhumanism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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




Robert Stark interviews Musician Jody Coombes of Star Noir

1980's, 80's music, Absolute Valentine, aesthetics, Art, Asia, Asian Culture, automation, Basic Income, Blade Runner, California, Cinema, Cities, Comic Books, Culture, Cyberpunk, Depeche Mode, Dystopia, England, Film, Film Noire, Florian Renner, FM-84, Futurism, History, Hong Kong, horror, horror films, Industrial Music, J.G. Michael, Japan, Japanese Culture, Jody Coombes, John Carpenter, Las Vegas, Leisure Suit Larry, London, Music, Neon, New Retro Wave, Perturbator, Photography, Psychology, Retro Futurism, Sam Kevorkian, Science Fiction, Star Noir, Stranger Things, Synthwave, The Summoner, Transhumanism, Travel, Vaporwave, Video Games, Wilderness, William Gibson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark, Sam Kevorkian, and J.G. Michael talk to Illustrator, Photographer, Video Game Designer, and Musician Jody Coombes. Check out his music under the label Star Noir on Facebook and bandcamp, and his photography and illustrations on Flickr.

Topic:

Working on video games including Call of Duty and Need for Speed
Cyberpunk games such as Shadowrun and Beneath a Steel Sky
The New Retro Wave and Darkwave genres
The  Cyberpunk genre
How To Make Synthwave Retrowave with Timecop 1983 in FL Studio
The visual component in making Synth music
Jody’s first EP Psycho City
Jody’s first-ever gig in London at the Retro Future Fest
Jody’s illustrations and 80’s Retro-Futurist aesthetics
80’s Action and Horror films
80’s Video Game Arcades; London Trocadero
The new series Stranger Things and the film Drive
Jody’s photography of locations including the UK, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Nova Scotia
Sinofuturism
“Design is not art….. Design is an exercise in psychology”
Robert Stark’s Paintings which fuse Retro Futurist genres
Transhumanism, Automation, and the Basic Income
The Pilot project “Lost Future” about a man who lost his future
Upcoming projects and performances

Click Here to download!

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




Robert Stark talks to Jamie Curcio about Narrative Machines

1980's, aesthetics, Aleister Crowley, Alexander Dugin, Alternative Right, Anarchism, Aristocratic Individualism, Art, Beatniks, counterculture, Culture, Cyberpunk, David Bowie, David Lynch, dreams, Fascism, Film, horror, Industrial Music, J.G. Michael, Jamie Curcio, Jean Baudrillard, Laibach, Literature, Media, Memes, Milo, Mishima A Life in Four Chapters, Morality, Mulholland Drive, Music, Narrative Machines, Nietzsche, Occultism, Philosophy, Politics, Postmodernism, Psychology, Retro Futurism, Sam Kevorkian, Social Isolation, Social Media, Stranger Things, Surrealism, They Live, Thomas Ligotti, Vaporwave, Yukio Mishima

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark, co-host Sam Kevorkian, and J.G. Michael talk to Jamie Curcio about his new book Narrative Machines: Modern Myth, Revolution, & Propaganda. Jamie is an Artist, Writer, and Musician, and blogs at Modern Mythology.

Topics:

Intro: Nefarious from the Album EgoWhore by HoodooEngine which Jamie co-produces and does bass and rhythm guitar for
The main thrust of Narrative Machines is the way in which myths function in our lives
How the conflict with our longing to connect with the sacred leads to seeking re-connection in the form of reified ideology in the current “Meme Wars”
Jean Baudrillard’s book Simulacra and Simulation
The concept of hyper reality and how social interactions are mediated by social media
Post Modernism and Deconstructionism; skepticism towards all ultimate truths
Hobbes vs. Rousseau: the debate over human nature
Jamie’s illustrations in Narrative Machines
The Artist David Mack
Aesthetic theory and how artist can affect the world politically
Interrogation Machine – Laibach and NSK
Aleksander Dugin, Nick Land, and Neo-Reaction
The relation between myth, retro-aesthetic creative movements like vaporwave, and the current cultural climate
The 80’s Retro themed show Stranger Things
The aesthetics of Horror and horror writer Thomas Ligotti
Surrealism and connecting to the sacred or primal force
Jamie’s book Join My Cult!, occultism, and Aleister Crowley
David Bowie Inspires Jamie’s Upcoming Book, “Masks”
Yukio Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask
Jamie’s involvement in the goth industrial music scene of the 90’s and 00’s
The ways in which virtual reality, myth, and “the real world” have collided
Alternate Reality Games, the film The Game, and playing with peoples perception of reality through media

Click Here to download!

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




Robert Stark interviews Italian Musician and Artist Dino Olivieri

1980's, 1990's, 80's music, 90's music, aesthetics, Akira, Anime, Art, Art Nouveau, Asia, Asian Culture, Blade Runner, Comic Books, Culture, Cyberpunk, Daft Punk, Dino Olivieri, Europe, Film, Florian Renner, Futurism, Ghost in a Shell, Italo Disco, Italy, Japan, Japanese Culture, Leisure Suit Larry, Literature, Music, Neon, New Retro Wave, Photography, Pilleater, Retro Futurism, Science Fiction, Stanley Kubrick, Synthwave, Transhumanism, Vaporwave, Video Games, Wilderness

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.

His website is Onyrix and you can check out his work on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, and Youtube.

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


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




Robert Stark and Richard Wolstencroft discuss The Film Dark City

1990's, aesthetics, Akira, Alex Proyas, alienation, Architecture, Art, Art Deco, Australia, Cinema, Cities, Count Isidor Fosco, Culture, Dark City, David Lynch, Dystopia, Edward Hopper, Film, Film Noire, Ghost in a Shell, Hollywood, horror, horror films, Jennifer Connelly, Metropolis, Mid-Century Modern, Mythology, Nihilism, Philosophy, Pilleater, Plato, Psychology, Retro Futurism, Richard Wolstencroft, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Surrealism, The Matrix, Utopia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark, co-host Pilleater, and Count Isidor Fosco, talk to filmmaker Richard Wolstencroft about the film Dark City(1998) directed by Alex Proyas.

Topics:

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

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




Robert Stark talks to Count Isidor Fosco about creating New Retro Futurist Sub Cultures

1980's, 80's music, aesthetics, Alicia Silverstone, Alphaville, animation, Anime, Architecture, arcology, Art, Art Deco, Asian Aryanism, Asian Culture, Batman, Blade Runner, Cinema, Cities, Comic Books, Count Isidor Fosco, counterculture, Culture, Cyberpunk, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Europe, Film, Film Noire, Futurism, Helen Slater, Homosexuality, Identitarianism, Israel, Italo Disco, Japanese Culture, Kaze to Ki no Uta, Memes, Mid-Century Modern, Milo, Mishima A Life in Four Chapters, Music, New Retro Wave, Peter Sotos, Pilleater, Postmodernism, Retro Futurism, Sarah Michelle Geller, Sexuality, Steampunk, SWPL, The Crush, The Legend of Zelda, Toronto, Trolling, Urbanism, Vaporwave, Video Games, Will McBride, Winona Ryder, Yukio Mishima

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and co-host Pilleater talk to returning guest Count Isidor Fosco.

Topics:

Retro-Futurism and it’s sub-genres
Whether Retro-Futurism and fusing past genres can evolve organically or end up being a “cut and paste”
Merging an Aristocratic or Traditional Genre into a Futuristic one
How fusing genres is most effective when there is a distance in eras(ex. Art Deco and Cyberpunk, Baroque and 80’s Retro-Futurism)
How futurism overlaps with the archaic in architecture(ex.Arcology)
Steampunk; Victorian era Train Stations in London, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, and shopping centers inspired by European shopping arcades
The Toronto Eaton Centre in contrast with the Underground City in Montreal, which is more Retro-Futuristic
Why “Decopunk” Deserves to Be Bigger than Steampunk
The Art Deco revival during the New Wave Age
Batman: The Animated Series, Batman & Architecture, and Anton Furst’s visions for the Aesthetic Of Gotham City(1989)
Alicia Silverstone in Batman & Robin and playing piano in the film The Crush
The aesthetics of Mishima: a Life in Four Chapters and the manga Kaze to Ki no Uta
New Retro Wave, Italo Disco, Falco, and Alphaville’s Forever Young and Big In Japan
The “Vaporwave” Babylon Club from Scarface which was featured in Miami Nights 1984’s Early Summer
How we are in post-post modernism and must rebuild cultures from scratch
Subcultures based on ethnic and cultural identity; cultural and ethnic fusionism(ex.Asian Aryanism)
How the future will either be mass global homogenization or forming new cultures from scratch but there is no returning to the past
Asian and Israeli Aryanism as memes
Count Fosco’s hierarchy of fetishes

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