Author: Tom Panarese

Pop Culture Affidavit, Episode 15 — One Savage Evening

This time out we have an extra-sized and extra-AWESOME episode of the podcast. Joining me is my friend and fellow podcaster Michael Bailey (of Views From the Longbox and From Crisis to Crisis) and we spend THREE FULL HOURS discussing the films of Savage Steve Holland!

Who is Savage Steve Holland, you ask?

You may not necessarily recognize the name but any child of the Eighties will recognize the phrase “I want my two dollars!” That’s right, Savage Steve directed Better Off Dead …, the 1985 John Cusack classic about breakups, French foreign exchange students, psychotic paperboys, and weird neighbors who sit at home crocheting and snorting nasal spray.

But that’s not all we talk about. We also reminisce about Savage Steve’s other two films: the 1986 beach romp One Crazy Summer, which also stars John Cusack as well as Demi Moore and Bobcat Goldthwait; and we talk about his least-known but most-underrated film, How I Got Into College.

Here’s where to listen:

iTunes: Pop Culture Affidavit

Direct Download

Pop Culture Affidavit podcast page

Also, here’s a few great extras. First, the theatrical poster for Better Off Dead … (more…)

In Country: Marvel Comics’ “The ‘Nam” Episode 3

It’s episode 3 of “In Country” and time for a little R&R for Ed Marks and his friends as they take a long weekend in Saigon but wind up getting more than they bargained for in The ‘Nam #3: “Three Day Pass.” The issue was written by Doug Murray, pencilled by Michael Golden, inked by Armando Gil and features events from April 1966. As always, in addition to the summary and review of the issue I’ll be talking about the story’s historical context as well as taking a look at the letters, ‘Nam Notes, and ads.

You can listen to it on iTunes or right here: In Country, Episode 3

Pop Culture Affidavit, Episode 14 — Life is a game. Easy to start. Hard to finish.

This time around in the podcast I take a look at the 1992 Cameron Crowe-directed film Singles, a romantic comedy whose soundtrack became one of the definitive albums from the 1990s. Starring Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Bridget Fonda, and Matt Dillon and set in 1991 Seattle, Singles follows several characters in their twenties as they go through the complexities of trying to date and find love.

But of course, many people remember it for its music: Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Smashing Pumpkins, and other bands important to the era make appearances on the soundtrack and even in the film, which is a great snapshot of a particular moment in our cultural history.

I spend the episode discussing the movie as well as my opinion of it and then spend a little bit of time on the soundtrack as well as a bit on its lasting legacy.

You can listen to the podcast via iTunes, or here: Pop Culture Affidavit Episode 14

Also, if you’re interested, here is some extra reading–articles and blog posts that I used for research this episode …

“Singles Turns 20: Who Would be on the Soundtrack in 2012?” (Spin)

“Singles: 25 Things You Didn’t Know About the Cameron Crowe Flick” (Moviefone)

“Where’s the Cast of Singles Now?” (NY Daily News)

“Singles Soundtrack Turns 20″ (Stereogum)

Singles Production Notes (“The Uncool”: The Official Website for Everything Cameron Crowe)

“Mindhole Blowers: Cameron Crowe’s Singles Inspired NBC’s Friends and 14 Other Facts That Might Explode Your Head” (Pajiba.com)

“Five Ways Singles Ruined My Life” (Hello Giggles)

And as mentioned in the podcast, I have some pictures of my VHS copy, which was bought from the late, lamented Sayville’s Video Empire …

Forever Evil (My Life as a Teen Titan, Part Thirty-Four)

Thunder and Lightning, who hadn’t been seen in years, are taken by Evil Raven in New Titans #118.

During the time I’ve spent the last few years blogging and eventually podcasting about my time as a die-hard Titans fan through the early 1990s, I’ve sometimes gone back to remember what I was doing as a comics collector when certain issues or storylines were coming out. After all, New Titans #71 was not just my first issue of this series but it was one of my first comic books and had it not been for the Titans Hunt storyline and Wolfman-Perez-era back issues being so cheap at the time, I probably wouldn’t be so passionate about this particular group of super heroes. It probably wouldn’t also pain me so much to read these post-Zero Hour issues because they are kind of painful.

Kind of like my life was in the winter of 1994-1995. Oh, who the hell am I kidding, it’s not like I lost a limb or anything. I had a girl break up with me in November and pissed and moaned about it until I started going out with another girl that following February (a story that’s best saved for another space and is … odd at times, to be honest). But I was that nerd, the kind who barely had a girl look at him prior to this and now I had to contend with the fact that I had some semblance of a love life. Plus, I was trying to get into college and still trying to get good grades, so my weekly comics haul, while important, sometimes took a backseat. At times, I was disengaged, and I can see that in what I remember actually picking up from that week:

Aliens/Predator: The Deadliest of the Species #9
Batman #515
Batman: Shadow of the Bat #35
Darkstars #27
Deathstroke: The Hunted #44
Detective Comics #682
Flash #98
Legion of Super Heroes #65
Legionnaires #22
R.E.B.E.L.S. ’95 #4
Robin #13
Spawn #27
Star Wars: Dark Empire II #1
Superman #97

Add New Titans #118 to that and you get … well, I don’t know what you get out of all of that aside from an argument for a waste of money and time. Half of those series I was buying because I had been buying them for a while, and some of them I had a genuine interest in (I wound up sticking with Flash right up until the time Mark Waid left), but I look at a few and go … huh? I spent my money on that? (more…)

In Country: Marvel Comics’ “The ‘Nam,” Episode 2

An issue-by-issue recap of The ‘Nam continues with issue #2 of the Marvel Comics series. We continue to follow the tour of duty of Ed Marks in “Dustoff,” written by Doug Murray, pencilled by Michael Golden, and inked by Armando Gil, which takes place in March of 1966. And as always, in addition to the summary and review of the issue I’ll be talking about the story’s historical context as well as taking a look at the letters, ‘Nam Notes, and ads.

You can download the episode via iTunes or listen directly at the Two True Freaks website

In Country iTunes feed

In Country Episode 2 direct link

This time around, in addition to all of the usual podcast features and show notes, I’ve got the video clip that I talk about toward the end of the episode, which Jim Shooter discussed in that month’s Bullpen Bulletins. Below is the 20/20 report about Marvel’s 25th Anniversary, courtesy of YouTube, which rarely lets you down.

Part One:

Part Two:

Protected: Pop Culture Affidavit, Episode 13 — Wait, I Wrote a Novel?

In Country: Marvel Comics’ “The ‘Nam,” Episode 1

Introducing a brand-new podcast about “The ‘Nam,” Marvel Comics’ Vietnam War comic book that ran from 1986-1993. Over the course of the next 100 episodes, I will cover every single issue of the series as well as some unpublished stories and other pop culture featuring the Vietnam War.

This episode features issue #1 of “The ‘Nam,” where Doug Murray and Michael Golden introduce us to Ed Marks, a newly drafted G.I. who is about to start serving in the Vietnam War in 1966. I’ll take you through the issue’s events, give my opinion/critique and will also provide some historical and cultural context for the month when the story takes place (in this case, February 1966). I’ll also cover the issue’s lettercolumn as well as ads. So join me as I take my first step into … The ‘Nam.

You can download the episode via iTunes or listen directly at the Two True Freaks website

In Country iTunes feed

In Country Episode 1 direct link

New Team, Old Foes (My Life as a Teen Titan, Part Thirty-Three)

I have to admit that I was a little hesitant about getting back to writing these posts about the Titans. Part of this had to do with my being a little burned out on Titans and Titans-related comics as I’ve been working my way through all of the Dick Grayson-related stuff over at Taking Flight, and that’s why I took a bit of a break from all of them for a little while. Part of it, however, had to do with whether or not I wanted to reread comics that are notorious for being representative of the nadir of the 1990s. But I have soldiered on and am going to take a look at the first two story arcs over the course of the next few weeks as a way to get this back on track to its eventual conclusion.

The New Titans limped into Zero Hour having gone through a few disastrous storylines that were most known for their rather disastrous artwork and with a new editor at the helm (and a refreshing change in the art style) went through a lineup overhaul. Gone were the characters introduced in the Titans Hunt era and now we had a new team: Arsenal, Damage, Changeling, Terra, Mirage, Donna Troy (now a Darkstar), and Impulse, a team that seemed more or less “given to” writer Marv Wolfman instead of having naturally come together (and he has confirmed as much in interviews about this time) and that never really seemed to gel.

I am trying pretty hard to remember what I was into around this time. I know that Harris and I were still writing the occasional letter to the book, even if we had given up our crusade to kill Donna Troy, but I also know that I was interested in other titles, plus I had a lot going on outside of comics being that the first post-Zero Hour issues hit the stands at the beginning of my senior year of high school. But putting my personal life at the time aside, I can see that Titans was sort of lower on the priority list at the time. A glance at Mike’s Amazing World shows that I was reading the following in October 1994: Batman/Detective Comics (Prodigal had started), Damage (a series I intend to re-collect, re-read and do either an episode or a post about), Deathstroke: The Hunted (which I’ll cover soon), Flash (Waid and Weiringo doing amazing work), Legion of Super-Heroes/Legionnaires (at the beginning of the reboot, which I enjoyed), R.E.B.E.L.S. ’94 (Don’t ask), Robin (natch), Spawn (collected this until about #60, don’t remember much about anything in it), and Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi (soon after, I’d lose track of the EU). I’m sure Batman was high on this list, as was Flash (I also had an on-again, off-again relationship with the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern book and the Superman titles), and looking at some of the other stuff being offered at the time I was missing out on some stuff (Starman, for one) but really not much. 1994-1995 were kind of nightmare years in the comics industry and I know that between being a senior and starting college, I really would be kind of going through the motions with a lot of my comics collecting until around the time Kingdom Come came out and I started to get back into things. (more…)

Pop Culture Affidavit, Episode 12 — A Lloyd Meets Girl Story

In 1989, Cameron Crowe wrote and directed one of the seminal movies of the teen film genre. Starring John Cusack, Ione Skye, and John Mahoney, it’s Say Anything …, one of my favorite movies of all time.

Join me as I take a look back at the movie, talk about my favorite scenes and also take a look at the soundtrack.

You can listen here:

iTunes: Pop Culture Affidavit

Direct Download

Pop Culture Affidavit podcast page

Six Movies That Changed The Way I Watch Movies

I saw Man of Steel on the day it opened and absolutely loved it. I found myself quietly cheering in a few scenes and actually got choked up in a couple of others. It wasn’t a perfect Superman movie–it could have been maybe 10-15 minutes shorter, a few more jokes would have been nice, and someone needs to confiscate Zack Snyder’s copy of the Singles soundtrack–but when I walked out of the theater I had a big smile on my face and was all, “YES!”

Then, I went on the Internet.

My liking Man of Steel in the midst of a serious backlash over a variety of things (and I’ll keep it spoiler-free for those of you who haven’t seen it) made me feel like I was stupid or had done something wrong. Reading through last week’s Entertainment Weekly made me feel even dumber–they had a fun cover story on Superman’s 75th birthday but then did what’s a typical fake-out for them where the critic destroyed the movie in his review. This week’s issue didn’t help matters much, with Supes appearing in the outer rim of their back page “bullseye” feature with the caption, “Man of Steal–as in, you stole two and a half hours of our life, and we want it back.”

Now, I don’t know why I am taking this as personally as I am taking it. After all, this is only a movie, right? I guess some of it is rooted in the psychological trauma of high school, where I often found myself ridiculed for my musical tastes (among other things–I took a lot of shit from my “friends” in high school, who were actually quite cruel). But I graduated from high school almost twenty years ago and am pretty much over all that crap, although I sometimes wonder if you can be completely over it, especially when you develop reactions to certain behaviors in such a way that they almost become reflexive.

Anyway, this post isn’t meant to be about the shit I went through in high school, it’s meant to be about movies, and it’s not meant to be a defense of Man of Steel, either, because there are plenty of people out there doing that. What led me to writing this post was that in the midst of all of the hand-wringing and Internet-bashing (some of which I am pretty sure is of the “It’s fun to hate on something” variety) about the movie, I began to think about why I like what I like and how I came to have the movie collection that I have. I’m sure there’s enough for an entire book, let alone one blog post, but in thinking about the experience of seeing Man of Steel and then feeling weirdly hurt when the media I read has the complete opposite reaction to the movie that I do, I thought of other times I’ve watched movies and they’ve either changed my tastes or changed the way I view the moviegoing experience. I narrowed it down to six, and since lists are fun, here they are in chronological order. (more…)