Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

The Parallax Views #HalloweenPodcastMassacre continues as we turn our attention to the horror movies archetypal villain: the boogeyman. The cinematic boogeyman that haunt our nightmares comes in a variety of forms from classic monsters like Frankenstein's Creature, the Wolf Man, and Dracula to fictional serial killers (often with a supernatural twist!) like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger. And they come in all shapes and sizes too from gigantic beasts like Godzilla and King Kong to pint-size terrors like Chucky the killer doll and the Leprechaun. Some are men of brilliance, like the ingeniously diabolical Dr. Hannibal Lecter, while others, like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface, have only the mind of child. And then there's the really weird ones like the sadomasochistic "Hell Priest" Pinhead and his army of demonic Cenobites in Clive Barker's Hellraiser and its many sequels or the shape-shifting Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King's It. From goblins and ghouls to ax-wielding madman and brain-eating zombies these are filmland's most frightful menaces that make up our culture's Horror Hall of Fame. But what of the men behind the monsters? Horror movie fanatics will point out to you that Robert Englund is the man behind the horribly burned face of Freddy Krueger, that men like Kane Hodder and C.J. Graham donned a hockey mask to become Camp Crystal Lake's machete-wielding madman Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th films, and that the Golden Globe Award-winning Brad Dourif provided the voice for the foul-mouthed, murderous doll Chucky in the Child's Play movies. Generally, however, the men behind cinema's favorite boogeymen remain in the shadow of the frightful figures they bring to life when it comes to the casual moviegoers whose pants they aim to scare off. Parallax Views, ever eager to provide listeners with a perspective they may not have considered before, decided it'd be interesting to seek out one of the men behind cinema's boogeymen. And few are better equipped to do that than our guest on this edition of the program, the legendary character actor Bill Oberst, Jr. An Emmy and Lon Chaney Award-winner, Bill Oberst has made a career of playing strange, menacing, and monstrous characters in everything from TV's Criminal Minds (where he portrayed the "Unsub", one of the series most memorable killers, in the season nine episode "Blood Relations") and Scream Queens to horror movies like Ditch Day, Circus of the Dead, and The Devil's Junction: Handy Dandy's Revenge. Additionally, he's also appeared as the doomed Tony Commando in Rob Zombie's 3 from Hell (a sequel to The Devil's Rejects and House of 1000 Corpses), played a zombie hunting Abraham Lincoln in Abe Lincoln Vs. Zombies, creeped out social media users as a "Facebook Stalker" in the interactive short film Take This Lollipop, played a 21st century update of Falling Down's D-Fens in Mark Savage's Stressed to Kill, and appeared on stage as such historical figures as the special effects maven Ray Bradbury and, believe it or not, Jesus Christ. And now he even has his own podcast, Bill Oberst's Gothic Midnight, where he puts his thespian skills to good work for theatre-of-the-mind adventures into the world of the macabre vis-à-vis dramatic readings of spooky short stories! Bill joins us to give an insight into what it's like playing the monsters and madmen that haunt the horror movie landscape. Check out Bill Oberst's Gothic Goodnight Podcast This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

The Parallax Views #HalloweenPodcastMassacre continues as the 13 O'Clock Podcast's Jenny Ashford returns to discuss her new game design venture Giallo Games, based on the 70 Italian horror/thriller movies of the 60s-80s, and spooky cases from her three volume book series The Faceless Villain: A Collection of the Eeriest Unsolved Murders of the 20th Century. We begin the discussion by talking about horror movies and Jenny's various board games based on giallos, or Italian murder mystery thrillers, like Dario Argento's Suspiria (arguably not a giallo but it gets lumped in) and Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace. We talk about two games in particular, The Three Sorrows and A Crimson Drop on a Crystal Palette. We also talk about the various giallos that Jenny is a fan of like All the Colors of the Dark starring Euro-starlet Edwige Fenech and Lucio Fulci's The Psychic. And, of course, we take a detour to talk about the greatness of John Carpenter. And we note how Mario Bava's Bay of Blood aka Twitch of the Death Nerve is a proto-slasher as well as chatting about the weirdness of Dario Argento's cinematic collaborations with his daughter Asia Argento. Additionally, we talk about women in horror fandom and why women are attracted to the genre despite it's penchant for misogyny. In this regard we also discuss rape/revenge films like I Spit on Your Grave and Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45. Is there something cathartic about such films for some female viewers? We talk about how I Spit on Your Grave is completely unglamorous in it's depiction of violence against women whereas many films of its type glamorize said violence. We also talk about how horror films have been influenced by women and in this regard mention how Daria Nicolodi was instrumental in the early film's of her former husband Dario Argento. Then we pivot to the real-life horror of unsolved murders that Jenny writes about in the 3 volumes of The Faceless Villain trilogy. First, of course, we delve into how Jenny got the title for the series. Then we discuss a question that immediately pops up for readers of the trilogy: Why Iowa? In other words, why do so many cold cases occur in the mid-west. This leads us to a discussion of the Black Dahlia case and the theories of Steve Hodel, son of Black Dahlia murder suspect George Hodel. Additionally, we talk about ax murders and why they're connected to so many unsolved murders in the early 20th century. From there we delve into a potpourri of different cases from the trilogy including: - Unsolved murders that have been tied into the JFK assassination conspriacy theories, specifically the shooting of JFK's alleged mistress, who may have introduced the late President to LSD, Mary Pinochet Myers - Lover's lane murders and how they're not just something you see in movies or urban legends. In this regard we talk about the Texarkana Moonlight Murders and the movie The Town That Dreaded Sundown; this leads to an odd sidetrack conversation about the Amityville Horror and paranormal investigator Ed and Lorraine Warren, now famous for one of their investigations being the basis of The Conjuring - The murder of Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan; the potential connection of "The Serial Killer You've Never Heard Of" Edward Wayne Edwards; the problem with trying to close cold cases with characters like Edward Wayne Edwards or Henry Lee Lucas - Jane murders including the Lady of the Dunes case and it's potential connection to Steve Spielberg's Jaws thanks to... Stephen King's son Joe Hill? Yep. you read that right; oh, and one of the suspects is the notorious mobster Whitey Bulger - The gruesome cases of the Houston Icebox murders, the Tattington suitcase murder, the Pink Socks/Fred the Head murder, and the Nude in the Nettles - Hitchhikers murders including the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders whose suspects include Ted Bundy, the Zodiac Killer, the Hillside Stranglers - Unsolved disappearances; the chilling case of Tara Calico's disappearance and the polaroid photos found that may or may not show or tied up along with a young boy - The Smiley Face murders, the so-called "Manchester Pusher", and conspiracy theories This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

On this edition of Parallax Views' #HalloweenPodcastMassacreSeries, "The Historian of the Strange" Robert Damon Schneck shares with us macabre and ghoulish tales of autoerotic asphyxiation, man in black attacks, homicidal preachers, and... bigfoot porn? Robert Damon Schneck is the author of The President's Vampire: Strange-but-True Tales of the United States of America (later re-issued as The Bye Bye Man: And Other Strange-but-True Tales) and Mrs. Wakeman Vs. the Antichrist: And Other Strange-but-True Tales from American History. He covers all things eerie, strange, and "Fortean", but from a perspective closer to a folklorist than a believer in the paranormal. For Schneck whether or not strange stories have a paranormal explanation makes them no less strange and ultimately his interest is in what these stories say about our history. Lately, Schneck has been investigating the history of auto-erotic asphyxiation. That is to say the phenomenon of people, mostly men, who cut off their own oxygen supply for sexual pleasure. Yes, it's weird but has become well-known thanks to the death of Kill Bill actor David Carradine. Carradine's death led to the phenomenon being more widely hear of and since then it has even been the punchline of jokes in sitcoms and TV shows like South Park. However, auto-erotic asphyxiation didn't become a named phenomenon until the 1980s due to the work of researchers like forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz. Schneck's research delves into cases before the 1980s that are otherwise inexplicable without the auto-erotic asphyxiation explanation.  From there we delve into a potential mass panic in 1935 involving a a person being beaten by a man in black using a silver ball. Yes, it does sound like a scene straight out of the cult classic horror franchise Phantasm featuring the villainous "Tall Man" played by Angus Scrimm. We then discuss other weird stories from America's past concerning "Man in Black" figures including the story of the Black Flash and tying in the tales of phantom leapers, like Spring-Heeled Jack, into our discussion. From there we pivot to a potpourri of strangeness that is wide-ranging and cover many different cases and even some movie talk! Among the other topics covered: - The serial child attacker known as the "Los Angeles Witch Woman" - A vile Detroit serial killer known who became nicknamed "Bigfoot" - Strangeness involving serial killers, specifically Charles Starkweather's weird journal entry claiming to have met a supernatural creature in his childhood (he called it "Death") and the Yosemite Killer Cary Stayner's peculiar obsession with sasquatch - Weird movie discussion! Strange Bigfoot movies involving Sasquatches ripping off people's lower parts, a one where Bigfoot is an interdimensional demon, and, yes, the existence of, believe it or not, Bigfoot erotica. Then we discuss one of the strangest zombie movies of the 1970s (and one of Robert Damon Schneck's favorite movies) Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. - The peculiar use of hair pins as weapons - Briefly revisiting the story that brought Schneck to the attention of movie studios, "The Bye Bye Man" - Insane, homicidal ministers, preachers, and religious men! - Stories of mesmerism and mind control (as an excuse for bad behavior?) in the 19th century - The Satanic Panic of the 1980s and Michelle Remembers! - The only piece of crime memorabilia Robert Schneck owns and its relationship to an electrocution story Yes, this is a barn-burner of a conversation clocking in at just a little over two hours that's perfect listen for the spooky season! This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

The Parallax Views #HalloweenPodcastMassacre continues as we delve into the infamously mysterious disappearance of a young woman at a scandalous hotel with journalist Jake Anderson, author of Gone at Midnight: The Mysterious Death of Elisa Lam. For the unfamiliar, Elisa Lam, a Canadian student with a history of mental health struggles, disappeared while visiting L.A. in January 2013. Lam was staying at the Cecil Hotel near L.A.'s skid row that has a very seedy history of scandals, suicides, and tenants of a rather morbid variety including serial killers like "The Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez and "The Austrian Ghoul" Jack Unterweger. The hotel has become so infamous that some speculate it was the basis for the setting of hit TV show American Horror Story: Hotel. Surveillance camera video prior to her disappearance shows Lam acting strangely around a hotel elevator. She seemed nervous or frantic and some speculate that she appeared to be hiding or running from someone. The video went viral and has captured the dark imagination of the online world. In February of 2013 tenants of the hotel reported that there water had turned black and was giving off an unpleasant odor and taste. This led to the discovery the 21 year old Lam's body in a water tank on the rooftop of the Cecil Hotel. Needless to say, the strangeness of this case has made it infamous. For example, Lam's death mirrors key plot points of the 2002 Japanase horror movie Dark Water and its 2005 American remake. And, of course, many amateur sleuths were pulled into the case after the surveillance camera footage leaked online and became a viral sensation. Conspiracy theories involving MK-ULTRA mind control and "invisibility cloak" experiments by the CIA have arisen out of the case. Yet the most common explanation for Lam's death is that her death was a tragic accident brought on by her struggles with mental illness. Jake Anderson first came to the case believing, like many others, that Lam's death was an open and shut case of a horribly tragic accident. However, in investigating the story more, he found possible corporate corruption and a potential police cover-up (LAPD was dealing with the blowback of the Christopher Dorner case at the time). Still, he stresses, that he has come to no firm conclusion about Lam's death. However, due to his own mental health struggles, he found himself drawn to the case and believes that it holds a sociological significance. Perhaps Lam's story is less a story of paranormal curses than it is of sociological curses. What hauntings aren't just about ghosts but the dark underbellies of our society that, metaphorically, haunt our cultural memory. Listen to this fascinating conversation if you'd like to find out more of what we mean by that turn of phrase! This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

Parallax Views initiates the #HalloweenPodcastMassacre, a series of episodes devoted to celebrating the Halloween season, by highlighting the brand new horror movie The Good Things Devils Do, a wild ride of gory vampire hijinks set appropriately on All Hallows' Eve, with the film's director Jess Norvisgaard and director of photography James Suttles. Boasting a a cast headlined by a trio of horror icons in the form of the Emmy Award and Lon Chaney Award-winning Bill Oberst Jr., scream queen Linnea Quigley, and the Friday the 13th franchise's Kane Hodder (aka the man behind the hockey mask of the machete wielding maniac Jason Voorhees!), follows in the footsteps of such fright flicks set on or around October 31st as James Roday's Gravy (2015), Patrick Lussier's Trick (2019), the anthology of terror Tales of Halloween (2015), and Michael Doughtery's Trick 'r Treat (2007) in vying to become a cult classic regarded as annual viewing for the spooky season. Taking its cues from such ghoulishly gory fear features as Kevin S. Tenney's Night of the Demons (1988), David DeCoteau's Witchhouse, and Dan O'Bannon's The Return of the Living Dead (1985), The Good Things Devils Do offers up a mix of wicked dark humor and dark humor. At the same time, however, Norvisgaard's first feature length effort may offer a bit more than just blood-soaked gore and B-movie camp thanks to some truly emotion-stirring moments that conjure chills, thrills, and maybe even a sincere tear or two. Provided below is a trailer for The Good Things Devils Do and a plot synopsis by the director himself, Jess Norvisgaard: Richard, a small-time gangster is retiring. Before he can, he must take one last job: to steal money from a rival gangster's house. Miles apart, Melvin is a reluctant family man who has dreams of becoming a famous curator for his Museum of the Macabre. His newest acquisition? The remains of the notorious Masquerade, a vampire born from the embers of hell, slain centuries ago. On Halloween Night, their paths will collide and they'll be forced to work together to fight centuries-old evil with everything on the line. This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

On this edition of Parallax Views, much has been made of the religious right's political power in America, especially in light of President Donald Trump's nomination of the ultra-conservative Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat of the recently deceased Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the Supreme Court. Ginsburg along with Trump administration officials like Attorney General Bill Barr have a great deal of support coming from the religious right or what has alternately been called Christian Nationalist. Joining us on this edition of the show to detail how this small evengalical element of Christianity and society as a whole rose to prominence is Katherine Stewart, journalist and author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. In this conversation we detail: - How Katherine got onto the beat of the religious right, or as Katherine prefers to call it "religious nationalism", through an after school program called The Good News Club; Katherine argues The Good News Club indoctrinate children and engages in faith-based bullying - Claims that the religious right will soon be on the wane because demographic are not on their side and why Katherine doesn't buy the claim - The religious right's definitions of "religious freedom" and their ideas concerning America as a "Christian Nation"; the theocratic nature of the movement; major players of the religious right, past and present, like David Barton and R.J. Rushdoony - The relationship between Christian Nationalists and pro-corporate, libertarian, and states rights supporters - And much much more

On this edition of Parallax Views, it's often been said that U.S. war in the Middle East are fought not to protect America from Weapons of Massa Destruction, terrorist threats, or to spread democracy but rather for the cynical purpose of gaining access to natural resources, specifically crude oil. "No more blood for oil!" cried many an antiwar protester and pro-peace activist during the the George W. Bush administration's Iraq War debacle. But Robert Vitalis, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, argues in his provocative and controversial new book, Oilcraft: The Myths of Scarcity and Security That Haunt U.S. Foreign Policy, that we've been hoodwinked by the conventional wisdom, accepted by elements of the political Left, Right, and Center, about oil and U.S. policy. "Oilcraft", Vitalis says, does not represent a form of "Statecraft" but a form of magical thinking based on myth rather than reality that has negatively impacted U.S. energy policy for decades. Vitalis joins us on this edition of the program to lay out his controversial case. Among the topics covered are: - Robert's previous books When Capitalists Collide: Business Conflict and the End of Empire in Egypt (1995), America's Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier (2005), White World Order, Black Power Politics: The Birth of American International Relations; who these books, like Oilcraft, sought to undermine institutional myths and challenge our preconception about geopolitics and grand strategy in the 20th and 21st century - Why the title of the book is not a reference "statecraft" but rather the myths of witchcraft; the influence of Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life (2012) by Barbara J. Fields and Karen Fields on Oilcraft - The U.S.-Saudi Special Relationship and whether it's origins are as true as people have been led to believe since 9/11 - Why Robert, who himself opposes many U.S. interventions overseas from a left-wing perspective, believes the "Blood for Oil" narrative used to explain the the U.S.'s Middle East Wars is incorrect; why the idea of the Iraq War being a "War for Oil" doesn't, in view Robert's view, make sense - What Robert argues is the misrepresentation of Alan Greenspan's thoughts on oil and it's relation to the Iraq War based on a quote from Greenspan's book The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World (2012) - Why should antiwar activists oppose the "War for Oil" narrative? Isn't opposition to the war, regardless of the reasons for it, what should matter most? - How the belief of oil's role in informing U.S. foreign policy and international cuts across political spectrum Left, Right, and Center; the libertarian Cato Institute as one of the few voices that stand in opposition to the conventional wisdom; What does the Cato Institute get right about this issue and why does Robert, himself left-leaning, agree with them on this matter? - The U.S. refrain of the "need to secure access" of resources and how the Left understands this as meaning "control" - Oil as a world market in which "the oil will simply flow" - Our oil addiction as being faith-base and akin to a cult - The story about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) meeting King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia in 1945 that is used to explain the U.S.-Saudi strategic relationship - Douglas Feith, the under Secretary of Defense for President George W. Bush who has been described as one of the architects of the Iraq War, and his curious comments about oil, OPEC, Saudi Arabia during his involvement in the Ronald Reagan administration - Scarcity ideology and it's relationship to war and social Darwinism; specifically Robert points out the "Heritage of Mankind" argument and how notions like it and others are originate in deeply racist thinking born of Colonialism - The U.S.-Iran relationship and U.S concerns with who controls the profits or rents of oil production; Robert makes the case the countries like Iran and the wealth they gain from the oil market are seen as threats to the U.S. do to said countries opposing American aims and policies - Is it possible to "Break the Spell" of Oilcraft? - Robert's opinion on the Wall Street Journal review of Oilcraft that characterized him as a libertarian even though his arguments came from the Left This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

On this edition of Parallax Views, how did we get to this moment of social uprisings and the repressive states, represented by ICE immigration detention centers and rising authoritarianism around the globe, that color the present? Sociologist William I. Robinson provides a theoretical framework for understanding how 21st century tumult came to be in his new book The Global Police State. Robinson argues that we are living in a world in which rapidly accelerating economic inequality have led the transnational capitalist class to create systems of control and repression that will quell dissent. Additionally, he argues that this unstable situation, in which the masses are angry and the power elites divided, has led to an encroaching, creeping, 21st century fascism that threatens to engulf the world. He joins us on this edition of the program to lay out what The Global Police State is, the green zones and gray zones that separate the "haves" from the "have nots", the three factions of the global power elite and how the third factions (reformists) can be pressured by the masses, how Trump and the movement of Trumpism is not a populist movement and is in fact backed by elements of the transnational capitalist class, technologies of repression and the modern surveillance society, the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM) and why the transnational capitalist class are directly threatened by anti-police sentiments, the cooptation of social movements by the transnational capitalist class, the militarization of policing and security organizations, the capitalist and corporate elements that benefit from private military firms (ie: mercenary) and private policing, the major difference between the 20th century and 21st century crises (hint: there is no longer a strong left/labor movement), and much, much more! This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window

On this edition of Parallax Views, the Weather Underground have been variously described, depending on one's perspective, as radical activists who opposed the Vietnam War or, more pejoratively, terrorists. Bill Ayers was one of the leaders of the Weather Underground in those tumultuous days and has written about his experiences in his memoir Fugitive Days. He joins us on this edition of Parallax Views to discuss his time with the Weather Underground, why certain factions of the antiwar movement that came to be associated with the Weather Underground in the 1970s became more radicalized as the Vietnam War raged on, the Weather Underground's jailbreak of psychedelic guru Timothy Leary, and much, much more. Additionally, Bill give his thoughts on having dinner w/ the likes Andrew Breitbart and Tucker Carlson, the infamous Ayers hosted dinner with Barack H. Obama that the right used to claim that Obama was mentored by Bill, the FBI and COINTELPRO in the days of the Weather Underground, Bill's son and California District Attorney Chesa Boudin, James Baldwin and racial justice, universal healthcare and demanding the impossible, and much, much more! Bill's wife Bernadine Dorhn also makes a bit of a cameo as we delve into the history that led to the Weather Underground and thoughts on current hot topics like the Civil War statues debate and the need for political imagination in these trying times. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views! This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window  

In light of John McAfee recently being detained in Spain and facing charges leveled at him by the United State IRS we present this interview w/ McAfee that may serve to shed light on his psyche. On this edition of Parallax Views, an equal parts wild and tense conversation with the founder of McAfee associates (the creators of McAfee Antivirus), bitcoin bull, Presidential candidate, international fugitive, and person of interest in the Belize murder of Gregory Faull, John McAfee. Joining me to help ask some of the more probing questions in this interview is the inimitable freelance journalist Marlon Ettinger, who previously joined us to discuss his experiences at the NY trial of the now deceased Jeffrey Epstein. Marlon was helpful in trying to ask questions that dug a little deeper during the course of the conversation. I trust that, unlike some podcasts dealing with the controversial figure of McAfee, this is not an exploitative or "comedic" conversation and gives some insights into both the notorious John McAfee and some of the infamies associated with him. In any case Marlon and I tried to do something different with this interview and we hope that you, the listener, get something out of it. Special thanks to Jamie Curcio, author of Mask: Bowie & Artists of Artifice, for help with this episode PRE-ORDER JAMIE CURCIO'S MASKS: BOWIE & ARTISTS OF ARTIFICE FROM INTELLECT BOOKS This Episode Brought to You By: The War State: The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963 by Michael Swanson of The Wall Street Window