Trash & Treasures

Drunk Book Club: Aprilynne Pike's Wings 

Special thanks to Jester for commissioning this episode! You can find out more about commissions on our Patreon.

Hmm, a 2000s-era supernatural love triangle YA novel by a Utah-raised author with a lot of extremely unfortunate implications baked into the lore….this all sounds familiar, but we can’t put our finger on it. Maybe it’s just Pike specifically name-dropping Stephanie Meyer all over the place. If only this protagonist had as much going on internally as Bella Swan.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of disordered eating and fatphobia, ableism, racism, anti-vax rhetoric/alternate medicine, eugenics, body horror, sexual harassment, and misogyny

Alex’s YA Recs

0:30 Commission! 2:00 Content Warnings 5:00 Drink Recipe 8:00 Stealth Mormonism 11:00 Our Stunning Perfect Heroine 18:00 Mmm, Gender Politics 23:00 Missing Body Horror 27:00 The Bad Boy One 32:00 Fairy Biology and Cosmology 41:00 Holy Eugenics Batman 47:00 A Climax Allegedly Ensues 56:00 The Shadow of Homeopathy

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PRIDE MONTH: Itty Bitty Titty Committee - Bush-Era Activism 

Our summer celebration of Pride comes to a close (with many apologies for the delay) on a return to a familiar face: Jamie Babbit, best known for the landmark lesbian film BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER. Today we look at her 2007 follow-up, its deliberate attempts to introduce young viewers to the world of queer activism, and how well it achieves those goals. Also, the fact that you’ve probably never heard of it.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of misogyny, body-shaming, fatphobia, homophobia and gaybashing, transphobia, racism, infidelity, age-gap relationships, and war crimes.

RAFIKI

OF LOVE AND LAW

1:00 Wolfe Media 10:00 “Clits in Action” 17:00 Generational Activism Divide 32:00 The Act Three Problem 39:00 The Ghost in the Film 44:00 Theory vs Accessibility 49:00 Bonus Recs

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PRIDE MONTH: Nowhere - Gregg Araki and New Queer Cinema 

Listen, this is a queer podcast 365 days a year. Pride Month won’t be stopped by a little thing like June being over. It’s time for the 90s, and the film its director describes as “an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 on acid.” On the board for this episode: the difference between “queer representation” and “queer cinema,” the queer reclaiming of mainstream genre work, and the pros and cons of making intensely of-the-moment art.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of suicide, racism, child sexual abuse, homophobia+biphobia, religiosity, gore/animal death and body horror

Variety Interview

Black Is, Black Ain’t

Disclosure

Poison

1:00 Intro to Araki + New Queer Cinema 12:00 24 Hours of “Nowhere” 14:00 Ethics and Young Actors 17:00 The Teen Soap Gang 22:00 Alien Invasion 26:00 At the Party 32:00 Nihilism and Vulnerability 37:00 Pop Culture Time Capsule 40:00 Fuck Harmony Korine Corner 45:00 Queer Cinema Recs

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PRIDE MONTH: Female Trouble - John Waters and the Art of Filth 

It’s time at last to spotlight the patron saint of this podcast, the pope of filth himself: John Waters. While he’s better known for Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble is the most potent and maybe the best of his 1970s work, a razor-sharp satire of heteronormative culture that can only flourish because it comes from such a tight team of collaborating artists and weirdos.

But it’s also worth asking: what happens when an outsider artist becomes a public figure? What does that new element of privilege do to their art and how they relate to the marginalized community they come from?

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sexual assault, incest, homophobia, transphobia, child abuse (physical/emotional/sexual), cults, and ableism

I Am Divine (Documentary; also on Netflix)

Female Trouble Theme

Shoes

John Waters Interview (2015)

John Waters Interview (2018)

1:00 John Waters and Filth 9:00 Divine and Gender 11:30 Content Warnings 13:00 The Life and Times of Dawn Davenport 26:00 Queer Satire 31:00 Modern Waters and Serial Mom 38:00 Should You Watch This

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PRIDE MONTH: Bride Of Frankenstein - James Whale, Openly Gay Director 

Happy Pride Month, listeners! It’s time for our annual four-episode journey through the history of queer film, and this year we’ll be looking in particular at camp and outsider cinema.

While Bride might be quite famous, it’s also a perfect starting place for our discussion: director James Whale’s camp masterpiece, which those who knew him spent years after his tragic death denying as a queer work (possibly, we suspect, because they feared it would be pigeonholed as “gay art” rather than cinema for everyone). Which leads to an even thornier question….how are queer artists pushed to define their audience?

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of racism, sexual assault, homophobia, and suicide.

The Hollywood Blacklist (The Code etc)

“Bela and Boris” Miniseries

1:00 Pride Intro 2:30 The Code Era Returns 10:00 A MORAL Sequel, Dear Viewer 16:00 That’s Pretty Gay, Bro 29:00 Craving for Legitimacy 41:00 Listener Question

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Magic Mike - Use Abs to Market Toxic Masculinity Movie, ???, Profit 

The sequel’s still better.

We revisit the weird double image of Magic Mike, a “quiet lives of desperation” dance movie that was marketed almost solely based on its five or six minutes of male strip revues. Which both sells the subtler moments of the script short and disguises the unmasked contempt that the film overall has for women. It’s…well, listen. There’s a reason we’re covering it here.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of toxic masculinity, misogyny, sexual assault, racism, whorephobia, classism, biphobia, and Matthew McConaughey

1:00 Production Info 12:00 Class in 2012 15:00 About That Misogyny 25:00 SHAME SPIRAL feat. Biphobia 32:00 Toxic Masculinity Central 37:00 The Alleged Happy Ending 47:00 Should You Watch This

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Go Crows! The Internet’s Only Smallville Podcast – Season 2, Episodes 1-4

We’re back, and not a moment too soon; there’s a twister in Kansas! As season two kicks off Clark gets boner powers and Pete finally gets a role in the plot, while Dr. Hamilton continues to mosey through his episodes being both inscrutable and delightful. Oh, and Lionel is blind now. It’s handled as tactfully as you’d imagine.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sexual assault, rape culture, misogyny, ableism, toxic masculinity, racism, and nationalism.

2:00 Bite-Sized Summaries 6:30 Monsters of the Week 31:00 Heart of the Show 34:00 And That’s Terrible 42:00 The Jukebox

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Our intro is “Slow Burn” by Kevin McLeod.

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Showgirls - Satire Requires Clarity of Purpose 

Today we were set a daunting challenge: find something that hasn’t yet been said about infamous cinematic trainwreck Showgirls. As the modern conversation swings from “reclaimed camp” to “was it in fact Good Actually all along” following the release of the documentary YOU DON’T NOMI, it felt like time to wade into those claims. What the hell was Showigirls trying to do, anyway?

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of racism, ableism, homophobia, misogyny, rape culture, sexual assault, whorephobia, fatphobia, drug use, ageism, and auteur bullshit.

Showgirls! The Musical!

You Don’t Nomi

0:30 Commission Stuff 3:00 Content Warnings 5:00 In Summary 18:30 Some Notes on Camp 24:00 Eszterhas v Verhoeven 29:00 A Second Bite at Flashdance 40:00 Versayce (The Characterization Problem) 48:00 Showgirl History 52:00 Failed Satire

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Return To Oz - Tracing a Beloved Terror from Book to Film 

For our 100th mainline episode, we decided to look in on one of Dorothy’s childhood favorites, a cult hit that inspires a mix of terror and deeply held affection in all who remember it. And since Dorothy is also a megafan of Baum’s books, it also provided a chance to talk about how the Oz series has been adapted over the years. Thanks for 100 episodes, listeners, and here’s to 100 more.

Content Warning: Discussion of ableism, medical horror, body horror, the House of Mouse’s Bullshit

1:00 Showing Our Age 5:00 Production Notes 15:00 From Book to Film 41:00 Many Adaptations 46:00 100 Episodes

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Drunk Book Club: Dennis Cooper's FRISK 

Special thanks to Anile for commissioning this episode! You can find out more about commissions on our Patreon.

This month we stretch our muscles by getting into some ~literary fiction~! More precisely, the work of Dennis Cooper, a big name in queer outsider art who influenced previous DBC alumni Billy Martin (aka Poppy Z Brite) and Chuck Palahniuk and whose published alongside inevitable future subject Brett Easton Ellis.

FRISK, the story of a dude who has a lot of sex and even more fantasies about violently murdering his partners, is considered his most intimidating work so….let’s plunge right into that deep end! Pack a bag, because we did a LOT of extra reading for this one. Also, all the content warnings. My God, all of them.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sexual assault, pedophilia, coprophagia, water sports, snuff, necrophilia, graphic descriptions of gore/dismemberment, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, grooming, ageism, and misogyny.

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

The JT Leroy Scam

William S Burroughs’ Nike Commercial

Cooper’s Formalism and The Sluts

Interview w/ Cooper’s Biographer

Article BY Cooper’s Biographer

Personal Relationships in Cooper’s Writing (Salon)

On Cooper’s Mother (LA Times)

BOMB Magazine Interview

Not Like Other Gays (Honcho Magazine)

1:00 Content Warnings 4:00 Drinks 9:00 A Helpful Timeline 14:00 OH Shit, it’s the Frankfurt School 26:00 Sexual, Not Erotic 30:00 The Sad-But-Not Ballad of Dennis Cooper 42:00 “In Your Lane” vs “Blinkers On” 57:00 Interview Diving

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Boku no Sexual Harassment - 90s Corn Yaoi 

Yes, the actual name of this anime is either "My Sexual Harassment" or "Boku no Sekuhara," but we wanted our title to briefly capture the extremely mangled naming convention from the height of this title's memetic fame. Because anime fandom is, has always been, and will always be an embarrassment. We're looking at you, "Boku no Hero" people. For this year's horny Valentine special, we dove into the infamous yaoi OVA and how its creation in the 90s and popular English-language distribution in the 00s ended up having a ripple effect on how Western fandom conceives of BL even up to today.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sexual assault, dubious consent, graphic sexual descriptions, and queerphobia

Minotaur’s Sex Tips for Slash Writers

Gentlemen Behold, Corn (AMV Hell)

Twittering Birds Never Fly

1:00 Content Warnings and Production History 15:00 Bone Your Way to the Middle 28:30 Behold, Corn 32:30 Bad Porn Physics 38:30 Trailer Porn 45:00 Generational Market Shifts

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Go Crows! The Internet's Only Smallville Podcast - Season 1, Episodes 18-21 

We made it to the end of season one! And then they left us with a cliffhanger! Rude! There continue to be Vibes we did not request. But on the bright side, John Glover came back to chew some more scenery, and that’s always a fun time.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of police brutality, sexual assault, racism, incest

1:30 Bite-Sized Summary 4:00 Monsters of the Week 30:00 Wisdom from Pa Kent 34:45 Heart of the Show 40:30 And That’s Terrible 54:00 The Jukebox

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Our intro is “Slow Burn” by Kevin McLeod.

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Jack Frost (1997) / Jack Frost (1998) - Zombie Snowman Double Feature

Our holiday gift to you, our dearest listeners, is a second bite at the meme, the myth, the legend: that terrifying dead-eyed snowman puppet animated by the trapped soul of Michael Keaton. And also a microbudget slasher. We figured we’d watch one basically watchable movie and one deeply uncomfortable one, and that’s sure what we got! Also feat. cameos by all of the Zappa children, for some reason.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sexual assault, existentialism/morbidity, graphic depiction of car crash death, grief, parental neglect, body horror/gore

“Jack Frost” Fangoria Interview (Pages 34-37)

1:00 Battle of the Budgets 7:00 Absent Dad Films 14:00 Never Try, Kids 21:00 Best Bully Ever 26:00 The Sweet Release of Death 31:00 When Camp Fails 41:00 Framing and Audience Expectation

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Drunk Book Club: Carry On 

An academic specializing in fan studies and a trans media critic walk into a Harry Potter fanfic. Chaos ensues.

Special thanks to Ceslatoil for commissioning this episode! You can find out more about commissions on our Patreon.

In which we unpack the different structural needs of fanfics versus standalone works, the problem of only thinking through the implications of your bad guy twist halfway, and why all the most interesting characters are dead.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of racism, queerphobia, transphobia, JK Rowling (the redundancy is noted), misogyny, ableism, and domestic abuse

Russell Howard Reads 50 Shades of Gray

Ursula K Le Guin Roasts JK Rowling

Racism in Eleanor & Park

1:00 The Harry Potter Connection 6:00 Drinks! 8:00 Limited Scope of Fandoms Highlighted 21:00 Our Off-Brand Cast 30:00 Ladies and Queer Stuff 38:00 “The Worst Chosen One” 45:00 It’s About the Implications

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Star Trek (2009) - JJ Abrams Makes a Star War 

Special thanks to Roisin for commissioning this episode! You can find out more about commissions on our Patreon.

In which two Star Trek fans — one casual, one Deep — reckon with a Star Trek movie made for people who hate Star Trek and pay homage to all the good fanwork this movie spawned before digging into the messy postmortem of the project itself.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of genocide, homophobia, and misogyny.

Star Trek by Apple (the Dyson hand dryer shot)

Choice AMVs Tik Tok Hurt So Close

1:00 Trek History 12:00 JJ Abrams, Avowed Trek Hater 15:30 The AU Angle 22:00 Our nuCast 30:30 Enterprise by Apple 35:00 Insert Emotions Here 43:00 About Vulcan 48:00 Compliment Sandwich

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