High school reunion month concludes with my all-time favorite reunion movies and one of my all-time favorite John Cusack movies, Grosse Pointe Blank. For this look at the high school reunion of Martin Blank, professional killer, I’m joined by Michael Bailey (From Crisis to Crisis, Tales of the JSA, Views from the Longbox) and we talk about the movie, its characters, its music, and how well it holds up nearly 20 years after its release.
Here’s where to listen:
iTunes: Two True Freaks Presents Pop Culture Affidavit
Two True Freaks Presents: Pop Culture Affidavit podcast page
For as long as DC has been publishing, talking animals have been part of their lineup. In this episode, I take a brief look at the history of DC’s funny animal comics with a story from The Fox and the Crow as well as some Looney Tunes stories. Plus, I take a look at the first appearance of Captain Carrot! Along the way, reading the comics for and with me is my 7-year-old son, Brett. So sit back and enjoy the zaniness!
It’s an extra-sized 50th episode of In Country. We’ve hit the halfway point in our journey through The ‘Nam as well as our look at the Vietnam War as a whole, so it’s time to look at a novel and movie that share a name with this podcast: In Country. In this episode, I take a look at the novel In Country, which was written by Bobbie Ann Mason and was published in 1984. It’s the story of Sam Hughes, a teenage girl in Kentucky whose father died in the war and her efforts to discover more about who seh is so that she can better understand him as well as her uncle Emmett, who continues to cope with his Vietnam experience. The film version, from 1989, was directed by Norman Jewison and stars Bruce Willis and Emily Lloyd.
It’s the 50th episode of Pop Culture Affidavit! For this special episode, I take a look back twenty years to the year I graduated from high school. Along the way, I look at how senior year of high school is represented in movies. It includes stops at, among other things, American Pie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Can’t Buy Me Love, and Paper Towns as well as a host of personal memories about my own senior year of high school (which ended on June 25, 1995). Was high school the best time of my life? Was it a waking nightmare? Was it a little bit of both? You’ll have to listen to find out.
In 1997, Sean McKeever self-published his very first work, The Waiting Place, a story about the ennui that comes with being a young adult trapped in a town that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. It was soon picked up by Slave Labor Graphics and McKeever along with Brendon and Brian Fraim and then Mike Norton finished the entire saga of the town of Northern Plains and its denizens in three volumes plus an epilogue.
Doug Murray is back after a brief fill-in by Chuck Dixon for The ‘Nam #44, a story entitled “Football Hero” that is a meditation on the fear that can paralyze a man, especially in the ‘Nam.
Chuck Dixon fills in for regular writer Doug Murray with a tale that takes us forward in time to April 1970. “The Weight” is a collection of three separate war stories told by GIs in a bar in Saigon with art by Wayne Vansant and Geof Isherwood and a cover you heard Mr. Vansant talk about when I interviewed him in episode 14. As always, in addition to the summary and review of the issue I’ll be taking a look at the historical context, letters and ads.
Pop Culture Affidavit 