Clerk Culture Review #2

Here're the podcasts I listened to at work on Saturday night/Sunday morning at the gas station. I've rated the episodes on a scale of four possible gas station burritos.

SONG EXPLODER
"Episode 35: Toro Y Moi"
Solicit:
Over the past five years, Chaz Bundick, aka Toro y Moi, has made music that’s spanned a range of genres and styles. On his newest album, What For?, he shifted styles again. In this episode, Chaz explains why. He breaks down the song “Half Dome,” named after a landmark in Yosemite National Park, and how he made it using a $20 bass and hidden vocals.

My Rating:

3 out of 4 Burritos

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ALLUSIONIST
"Crosswords"
Solicit:
Cryptic crosswords: delightful brain exercise, or the infernal taunting of the incomprehensible? Either way, crossword setter John Feetenby explains how they're made and how to solve them. He reveals how he composes clues (even one for 'Zaltzman'), why crosswords reign supreme over sudoku, and why 'jacuzzi' is rarely the answer.

My Rating:
3 out of 4 Burritos

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THE TREATMENT
"Peter Bogdanovich: She's Funny That Way"
Solicit:
From Paper Moon to The Last Picture Show, women have consistently had significant representation in Peter Bogdanovich's films. The veteran film director shares the humorous development of his recent film, She's Funny That Way, and explores his draw towards female-centric filmmaking.

My Rating:
2 out of 4 Burritos

 

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THE FLOPHOUSE
"Episode #186 – Guardian of the Highlands"
Solicit;
No show notes this week.

My Rating:
4 out of 4 Burritos

  

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JUDGE JOHN HODGMAN
"Episode 225: Go Set a Tip Jar"
Solicit:
Two friends co-host a literary reading series as a labor of love. Should they begin to seek donations? This week we say au revoir, till next time to our wonderful Summer Bailiff Monte Belmonte! Thank you for everything, Monte!

My Rating:
4 out of 4 Burritos

  

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99 PERCENT INVISIBLE
"Episode 188: Fountain Drinks"
Solicit:
On April 21st, 1859, an incredible thing happened in London and thousands of people came out to celebrate it. Women wore their finest clothing. Men were in suits and top hats, and children clamored to get a glimpse…of the very first public drinking fountain.

My Rating:
3 out of 4 Burritos

  

A Fischoeder Favorite Christmas Classic

Clerks Culture Review #1

This was my first night at my new part-time job, graveyard shift at a gas station. I'm 1 part clerk, 1 part security guard and 2 parts janitor. I listened to some podcasts and read a comic (on my break). Here are the pieces of culture I ingested and a simple rating of them using NACHOS.

THE TREATMENT
"Jason Segel: The End of the Tour"
Synopsis:
Actor and screenwriter Jason Segel is best known for portraying fictional characters in such films as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and I Love You, Man. Today, Segel discusses his immersion into the world of David Foster Wallace for his newest film The End of the Tour, and the importance of truly understanding and properly portraying the innovative and troubled author.

My Rating:
3 out of 4 Gas Station Nachos.

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MARVEL COMICS
"Captain America: White #1"
Synopsis:
From his re-awakening in the present day to his days on the battlefield during World War II, follow CAPTAIN AMERICA as he recalls a special mission during THE BIG ONE! • It's 1941 and the HOWLING COMMANDOS are just looking to kick back and relax.... But CAP and BUCKY are about to make their night a whole lot worse!

The EISNER AWARD-WINNING team of JEPH LOEB and TIM SALE reunite to tell a shocking story of CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BUCKY! • Extra-sized issue featuring CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHITE #0

My Rating:
4 out of 4 Gas Station Nachos

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THE FLOP HOUSE
"Grace of Monaco"
Synopsis:
Straight from Cannes to Lifetime (TM), it’s the Grace Kelly biopic Grace of Monaco. Meanwhile Elliott has a surprisingly deep well of Saved by the Bell knowledge, Dan speculates about Curly’s gold, and Stuart finds a new way to leave Dan out of things.

My Rating:
4 out of 4 Gas Station Nachos

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I WAS THERE TOO
"Waiting For Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind with Deborah Theaker"
Synopsis:
Phenomenal actress and improviser Deborah Theaker joins Matt this week to talk about her roles in a trilogy of Christopher Guest films. Deborah tells us about how George Lucas helped her get her green card, how bombing with the Kids in The Hall made her fearless onstage, making herself essential in Waiting For Guffman, and the real tears she shed in A Mighty Wind. Plus, Matt finally answers listener mail during I Was There Q&A!

My Rating:
2 out of 4 Gas Station Nachos

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iFANBOY
"Pick of the Week"
About every six months I think I'll try to give this a listen. These guys know their contemporary comics. Seriously, they are super super knowledgeable. Before they down-sized their website, the podcast had great audio. Since, biting the bullet and backing off their efforts, the audio quality has gone down... so much so, that every six months when I give it another try, I can't even make it to the first comic review. Great content. Horrid audio.

My Rating:
1 out of 4 Gas Station Nachos

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SONG EXPLODER
"RJD2 'Games You Can Win (Feat. Kenna)'"
Synopsis
RJD2 has been making music since 2002. His song “A Beautiful Mine” was turned into the opening credits music for Mad Men. He’s a producer and beatmaker, but also a singer and songwriter. But for the vocals on the song “Games You Can Win,” he tapped Kenna, a Grammy-nominee who Malcolm Gladwell wrote about in Blink. In this episode, you’ll get to hear the parts that make up the track, as well as the unreleased demo vocals that RJ originally recorded himself.

My Rating
3 out of 4 Gas Station Nachos

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99 PERCENT INVISIBLE
"Episode 187: Butterfly Effects"
Synopsis
Ballots are an essential component to a working democracy, yet they are rarely created (or even reviewed) by design professionals. Good ballot design is mainly a matter of following good design principles in general—familiar territory for graphic designers, but not necessarily so for election officials.

My Rating
3 out of 4 Gas Station Nachos

Making Max and William Gaines Squirm - Goddamned #1 (SPOILERS)

Bible stories are nothing new to comic books. All-American Publications (and then Educational Comics) published "Picture Stories from the Bible" as early as the late 1930s. When Max Gaines died in 1947 and his son William took over Educational Comics, EC went from godly to ghastly. But William Gaines never attempted to cross the genres of crime/horror and bible story in his newly named Entertaining Comics. Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera do cross the genres in "Goddamned."

"Goddamned" is about as far from a bible picture story as one might get and still consider the "good book" as source material. But issue #1 is definitely born in the bible (Genesis 4 to be exact). For those gentiles who skipped that day in Sunday school, Genesis 4 is the story of Adam and Eve's children: Cain and Able.

According to the Bible, Cain was the first to commit fratricide when he killed Able. There are many myths as to what happened to Cain after Genesis 4. For the sake of brevity, we can look at the popular myth that Cain was cursed to forever be a vagabond who would be murdered over and over again but unable to die (though the text of Genesis 4 doesn't imply any of that). Aaron has taken this myth of an unkillable Cain and run with it.

"Goddamned" #1 starts out with Cain waking up in a literal deadpool -- a pool of rotting corpses and human excreta. Guera's art is sufficient for some of the more gentile readers to be gagging in their mouths with his "picture stories" inspired by the bible. The rest of the issue is Cain exacting vengeance upon those who killed him, sevenfold (that actually is a line from Genesis 4). Cain's vengeance is just as gruesome as his beginnings in the issue. The issue ends with big reveal that the unkillable main, is in fact Cain, the first murderer, just as Noah enters the story.

In an interview with Vince Brusio, Aaron explains that this biblical-noir is wholly new, but does nod to previous work he's done with Guera.

"I'm quite confident in saying that there isn't another book quite like this one on the stands at the moment," said Aaron. "This series is a punch in the face and a kick in the gut but also a serious exploration of character and setting in line with what Guera and I previously did in the pages of Scalped."

In the aforementioned interview, Aaron expounds on the sand box of the pre-Flood setting he's playing in.

"I've always been fascinated by the story possibilities of the antediluvian world, of the world before the Flood," said Aaron. "Not so much from a perspective of faith or religion, but simply as a storyteller. There's good fertile ground. Bloody, but fertile."

If you feel this first issue of "Goddamned" is too in-your-face or too irreverent that's by design. Aaron doesn't want readers to be lead astray into thinking this comic doesn't deserve a parental advisory just because it's based in biblical history. Regardless of what your religious/historical/political views are of the Bible, if you want a primal crime comic that doesn't hold any punches (or decapitations that even William Gaines might have considered "in bad taste") then don't miss this title.