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.
You can listen here:
Pop Culture Affidavit podcast page
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.
We are back in The ‘Nam with this episode as I take a look at The ‘Nam #42, which is called “Inquiry” and was written by Doug Murray with art by Wayne Vansant and Stan Drake. 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. And this episode has some special historical context to it, as issue #42 takes place in July 1969 so I spend some time on the Apollo 11 moon landing.
It’s time for another break from our regular coverage of The ‘Nam to talk about a classic Vietnam War movie. This time around, I take a look at Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, the 1987 film starring Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey, Adam Baldwin, and Vincent D’Onofrio. It’s a film known for its look at basic training as well as how war can harden a soldier. I give some backstory on the film, a summary, and review.
