The Pink Smoke podcast

Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke "Central County was a big, rangy county with mountains to the north and mountains to the south and a vast loneliness in between. The mountains were filled with trees and creeks. The loneliness was called the Dead Hills. They were thirty miles wide. There were thousands of hills out there: yellow and barren in the summer with lots of juniper brush in the draws and a few pine trees here and there, acting as if they had wandered away like stray sheep from the mountains and out into the Dead Hills and had gotten lost and had never been able to find their way back...poor trees..." The podcast heads west for this October's horror fiction episode, where they find a couple cowboy killers recruited from a brothel to vanquish a mischievous monster in an isolated mansion out in Eastern Oregon. Richard Brautigan's rugged, experimental, very funny The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western begins as a travelogue of turn-of-the-century frontier life and makes a drastic shift to the surreal when the two gunmen (who don't put any lace on their killings) reach their sinister assignment. Artist and American Western history expert David Lambert is on hand to offer his take on whether countercultural cult poet/novelist Brautigan passes muster as a western writer, or if Hawkline Monster is a xerox copy of an audacious literary achievement. Lambert talks with hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs about the unmistakable Brautigan-ness of the novel, how the book fares when it moves into much stranger territory in its second half, and the fascinating decades-spanning background of multiple failed movie adaptations. The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com David Lambert on X: twitter.com/DavidLambertArt The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers one week before their general release. We’re joined by screenwriter Tom Vaughan to discuss a pair of cult classics by director Gary Sherman. We dig into the small-town murder-conspiracy thriller Dead and Buried as well as the ne plus ultra sleaze-thriller Vice Squad. The strengths and weaknesses of the films make for an interesting contrast that leads into a larger discussion about the practical intersections of screenwriting and on set filmmaking (with some talk about meddling producers thrown in for good measure.) The trio compares Dead and Buried’s wonky & lumpy script (by Alien and Total Recall scribes Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett) to Vice Squad’s drum-tight story to consider how screenwriting plays into (or interferes with) making two such memorable films. It’s the Wings Hauser appreciation hour, folks, come get baptized in the neon slime. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Tom Vaughan on X: https://twitter.com/storyandplot The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers one week before their general release. www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke dives headfirst into the world of American pulp magazines of the 30's & 40's with two tales of derring-do featuring adventurer/scientist/detective/explorer and superhero prototype Doc Savage. Known as the Bronze Man, Savage trots the globe with his fabulous five-man brain trust facing off against all manner of ostentatious villains and colorful henchmen. Doc was the hero of 213 stories from 1933 to 1949, popularized for a new generation when revived as paperbacks between 1964 and 1990. Hosts Christopher Funderburg, Martin Kessler and John Cribbs chose two of them to read and discuss: The Fortress of Solitude and The Devil Genghis, both written by Lester Dent under the by-line "Kenneth Robeson" and published in 1938. Featuring death rays, giant amazon women and one of the most diabolical supervillains ever created who'll stop at nothing short of total world domination, the stories were so filled with action and intrigue it made each host emit a low, mellow growl subconsciously, something like the trilling of a strange bird from the jungle. Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on X: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg are back with their rundown of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival! From the highest highs (The Boy and the Heron) to the lowest lows (Limbo) and the poutine in between, they take a look at the state of cinema as explicated by one of the world’s premiere film festivals. They discuss new films by Wim Wenders, Anna Kendrick, Ethan Hawke, Hayao Miyazaki, Errol Morris, Victor Erice, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater, Shinya Tsukamoto and so much more - they discuss not just the highlights, but every single goddamn film they saw while in the Queen City! Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg return to the Queen City for the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival to watch all the best in the current world of le cinema. With a line-up seemingly handcrafted to get us excited, we talk our must-see films, wildcards, and the ones we’re dreading. Included in this year’s slate are new movies by Hayao Miyazaki, Errol Morris Victor Erice, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater, Shinya Tsukamoto and more …choosing which titles among the 300+ entries to see is going to be tough. Get psyched! Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas”

Christopher Funderburg is joined by Martin Kessler to discuss Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Bundesrepublik Deutschland trilogy: Lola, The Marriage of Maria Braun and The Longing of Veronika Voss. Collectively one of the most incisive looks at post-war West Germany and the re-birth of a nation shattered by Nazism, Fassbinder’s uncompromising and tender BRD films represent, for many, the highpoint of his legendarily prolific career. All Pink Smoke Podcast episodes are made available a week early to our Patreon subscribers, the most sophisticated, urbane & hoity/toity of all audiences. Support our Patreon:
 www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site:
 www.thepinksmoke.com Movie Kessler on X:
 twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on X: 
twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X:
 twitter.com/cfunderburg Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” 
Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

All Pink Smoke Podcast episodes are made available one week before their general release to Patreon subscribers. Subscribe to get early access & so much more: https://www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke Reality is under attack! Chaos reigns in an unnamed capital city where unwholesome apparitions exist among the besieged citizens, projected by apparatuses invented by magician/mad scientist Dr. Hoffman which modify the nature of reality itself. The city's last hope is to send a Ministry of Determination clerk on a picaresque journey to assassinate the doctor and destroy his device, a mission that will involve river cannibals, Sadeian pilgrims, religious centaurs and anatomical acrobats. This is the world of The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, written by the inimitable Angela Carter. Joining hosts Martin Kessler and John Cribbs to travel Carter's mythological landscape of desire is Melanie Daniels, producer and co-host of the Cinema Parlor Podcast. Together they attempt to traverse this almost indefinable, orgiastic blend of romanticism, horror, fantasy, surrealism, magical realism, philosophy, science fiction, Gulliver, Kafka and Conrad from one of the most unique voices in English literature. Melanie Daniels on Twitter: twittter.com/plasticwerewolf Cinema Parlor Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/cinemaparlor The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Movie Kessler on Twitter: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

A classic episode (utterly classic) episode released from behind the Patreon paywall. Savor it like some kind of a savory soup. Hosts John Cribbs & Christopher Funderburg are joined by Marcus Pinn of Pinnland Empire as well as Calgary's own Carly Schmidt to discuss the new film from Olivier Assayas, NON-FICTION.

What more can possibly be said about Dziga Vertov & Mikhail Kaufman's Man With a Movie Camera, one of the most studied, discussed and written-about films ever made? Is everybody sick of hearing how amazing it is? Perhaps it speaks to the film's timeless artistic energy and bold experimentation that there's always something to say about the camera techniques, radical editing and unique blending of avant-garde and documentary styles which come together using "no titles, no scenario, no actors, no sets" to create an "absolute language of cinema." To help get the best possible insight into this giant artwork, hosts Martin Kessler and John Cribbs welcome Jeremy Workman, a filmmaker who's taken inspiration from Vertov in everything from his award-winning film Lily Topples the World to his latest short documentary Deciding Vote. How has Workman trained his Kino-Eye to the subjects in front of his own movie camera? Is a one hour-long, nearly-100 year old Russian movie's impact so far-reaching that it continues to inspire modern art and filmmaking around the world? Jeremy Workman's website: www.jeremyworkman.com The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Movie Kessler on Twitter: twitter.com/MovieKessler The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"

The Pink Smoke is coming in from the cold to debrief our listeners on 100 years worth of espionage thrillers. Starting in the 1920's, we chose one notable spy movie (as well as a few alternate picks) for each decade leading to our present day in order to decode how they reflect the history and pop culture of their respective epoch. From the years leading to World War II through the Cold War and up to the modern age of counterintelligence in the time of domestic terrorism and the internet, we recruited agents John Arminio (co-host of Popcorn Eschaton!) and Bill Scurry (co-host of I Don't Get It) to analyze these cloak-and-dagger tales and what they have to say about the excitement and morality of the spy profession. In Part Two, we deal with the 1980's, an era of glorified excess in which the spy movie survived by integrating itself within other popular subgenres, and make our way up to the 2020's, a much quieter and retrospective period for espionage thrillers. In between, we discuss the most charmingly repugnant spy of them all, a rip-roaring roller coaster ride about the CIA's greatest asset with amnesia (no - not that one!), betrayals and double crosses set in the corporate world and plots critical of counterintelligence agencies that can't detect deception among their own ranks. Popcorn Eschaton!: https://soundcloud.com/zebras-in-america/popcorn-eschaton-1 I Don't Get It Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-dont-get-it-podcast/id1205228194 The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com John Cribbs on Twitter: twitter.com/TheLastMachine The Pink Smoke on Twitter: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"