This week, it's the first week of P.T.August as we're set to spend the next five Fridays indulging in the works of Paul Thomas Anderson, beginning with a Blu-ray J Mo's been carting around for 11 years now without having ever actually watched before now. It's 2012's The Master, written and directed by P.T. Anderson, and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Rami Malek, Laura Dern, Jesse Plemons, Ambyr Childers and Kevin J. O'Connor. Watching it now, it feels like PTA was a good four years ahead of the culture in exploring the dynamics of cults, how they operate and why people get sucked in to them -- a subject on which there are now countless documentary series, but must have felt cutting edge in 2012. Loaded with visual flair and anchored by a trio of tremendous lead performances, it's Anderson's own personal favourite of his films. Will our hosts agree? Plus: Hayley's still boiling over the cut kiss from the end of Twisters.

If you'd like to watch the film along with us this week, The Master can be found streaming in Canada on Amazon Prime, Hoopla and the Criterion Channel at the time of publication, the latter of which is also celebrating P.T.August with an August collection of Anderson's work.

Other works discussed in this episode include The Fabelmans, Deadpool, Deadpool 2, Species, Species II, Under The Skin, Evil, Plane, There Will Be Blood, Arrival, Night Bitch, Nocturnal Animals, Ren Faire, Fight Club and many more.

P.T.August continues next week as we get back at it with an unseen film-on-disc from Hayley's collection, as we watch Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps in 2017's Phantom Thread, also available to stream at the moment on Amazon Prime. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!

ADHD-DVD - 73 - The Master

This week we are once again fumbling our way to the end of a mystery as we're joined by our noir-comedy correspondent, as the great "Wild Eyes" Travis Woloshyn (Boom Pro Wrestling, Percy Jackson & The Olympians) returns to the program to talk a movie that is thematically linked to the last movie he was here to discuss. It's 2014's Inherent Vice, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson from the novel by Thomas Pynchon, and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Jena Malone, Hong Chau, Martin Short and Joanna Newsom. If it's not Anderson's funniest film it's certainly right up there, with two heavyweight comedy performances from Phoenix and Brolin, who are just as adept at character comedy as they are at broad slapstick.

If you'd like to watch the movie before listening to our conversation, you may be out of luck! Inherent Vice is not currently streaming in Canada at the time of publication. You may however be able to find it in stock at your local library.

Other works discussed on this episode include The Long Goodbye, Trap, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, Wrath of Man, The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Don't Breathe, Gremlins, Batman ('89), Jurassic Park, Melvin and Howard, Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom, Twister, Twisters, Riverdale, The Big Lebowski, Mandy, Her, C'mon C'mon, You Were Never Really Here, Joker, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sleeping With Other People, Alien: Covenant, Tenet, The Candidate, A Talking Cat?!, and other entries in the PTA ouevre like Phantom Thread, Punch-Drunk Love, Licorice Pizza, Magnolia, and Hard Eight.

We'll be back next week to close out P.T.August with our monthly canon selection, as 1998's Boogie Nights is up for consideration this time. You can find that movie streaming in Canada on Crave, Starz and Hollywood Suite, so good luck to ya. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!

ADHD-DVD - 76 - Inherent Vice (with Travis Woloshyn)

For this week's main podcast review, I am joined by Lauren LaMagna, Josh Parham & Tom O'Brien to review and discuss the sequel to the Oscar-winning 2019 film "Joker," Todd Phillips's "Joker: Folie à Deux" starring Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener & Zazie Beetz. Already igniting a ton of discourse amongst fans, including receiving the lowest CinemaScore in history for a comic book movie (D), this depressing, dark musical from the original team behind the first film has subverted expectations and given everyone much to talk about regarding its themes, performances, musical numbers, technical craftsmanship and more. Tune in as we discuss these elements, its awards season chances, and more in our SPOILER-FILLED review. Thank you for listening, and enjoy!

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"Joker: Folie à Deux"

Cronch cronch cronch, walking on dried leaves and bark, a ramble in the woods to start October’s Scare You Movie Mad run, we’re looking at the conceptual killer movie of 2024 about… walking. And sometimes a li’l murder for fun. Andrew eggs Johnny on to be more like the Johnny of the movie, and Johnny sings us his thoughts of new films including Joker: Folie A Deux, Megalopolis, The Substance and The Outrun. Andrew, though, slams down on some Salem’s Lot for good measure. We’re coming into Halloween month swingin’!

293 - In A Violent Nature

2019's Joker, which gave the iconic supervillain an all-purpose mental health disorder, a tragic origin story, and a name - Arthur Fleck - was never meant to have a sequel. But it made a billion dollars, so Joker: Folie à Deux is here. And, being a jukebox musical based primarily on show tunes from the mid-20th century canon, we ask who it's for. The first film took risks in eschewing so many trappings of the comic book genre; did the filmmakers hope that their audience would respond similarly to further experimentation? Or is it a means of punishing an audience they attracted but loathe?

If the film hates its audience... well, so does Mike, which might explain why he got on with it. José, on the other hand, liked the first film, and is happy to see more of Joaquin Phoenix and hear those classic songs. Joker: Folie à Deux is far from a great film, not that close to a good film, and doesn't have much of interest or intelligence to say about its themes - but it's fascinating that it exists.

Recorded on 7th October 2024.

429 - Joker: Folie à Deux

On this week's show, Kendall and Shamari give their review for Joker: Folie a Deux! In addition to this, they also give their impressions so far of the Penguin and Agatha All along.

Nu Generation Hero Talk - Joker 2 Review

Welche lieblichen Stimmen singen auf melancholische Weise, durch die dreckigen Straßen Gothams tänzelnd, die vergessenen Töne von Sinatras "That's Life?" Tobit und Dennis. Wer auch sonst? Mit einem Lächeln auf dem Gesicht werden heute wieder Filme exorziert! Wie viel französisch steckt im Franchise-Nachfolger JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX? Welcher Franzose beschießt Pyramiden zum kompensieren eigener Impotenz? Und was verspricht die französische Kulinarik von Käfersaft? Wenn euch das interessant, dann watschelt wie ein Pinguin direkt zur Folge!

184: Joker und anderer Klamauk

Join Andrew Dunn and Chris Triebel as they discuss Joker 2.

Then stick around for a review of Autonomous G.U.I. by by Odidious Mixzoplex. I have no clue how to pronounce his name, but he makes a good comic!

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IS JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX BAD??? Plus a review of Autonomous G.U.I. - 152.2

Based on the mentions on another podcast, Andrew loads the final episode of Scare You Movie Mad 2024 with Stuart Gordon’s HP Lovecraft adaptation from the mid-90s, and Johnny discusses post-birthday malaise and missing out on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s new Warriors musical adaptation because time has been unkind. Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut is discussed as well as the continual fallout of Joker: Folie A Deux.

294 - Castle Freak

THE JOKER is NOW AVAILABLE at Bandcamp.

5hr. MetaMix all about The Joker.

Put out by Phineas Narco via The National Cynical Network under The HOPE Club creative project (THC).

FREE all-in-one Lossless (.flac format) audio audio file DOWNLOAD of this is available at the SundCloud page for it.

https://soundcloud.com/pnarco/thc-the-joker

It is available to stream for free in HQ mode at my Micloud at:

https://www.mixcloud.com/pnarco/thc-the-joker/


Should be listened to, in this Bandcamp tracked format, with 'gapless playback'.

Some portions of this program may be considered to be Not Safe for Work, intense or triggering. Please use listener discretion.

Please enjoy!

-=-"PN"

The Joker

THC - The Joker

Operated by a trio of brothers; EJ, Kendall and Shamari Stewart, Nu Generation Podcast Network is home to a series of shows discussing the latest topics in sports and "nerd culture." Every week we release up to four different shows including:


Nu Generation Sports Talk: A 90-minute sports show hosted by EJ and Kendall discussing the hottest topics in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and major college sports.


Nu Generation Hero Talk: A 90-minute show hosted by EJ, Shamari, and Kendall recapping the latest news involving superhero movies and TV shows.


Throne Tales Podcast: Hosted by EJ, Vlad Francois, Martin Torres and James Holley, every week the guys breakdown the latest episode of the HBO series "Game of Thrones"


The Imperial Broadcast: Hosted by Shamari and Kendall, the guys recap all of the latest news in the world of Star Wars.

A podcast by NextBestPicture.com that reviews the latest film releases and discusses various topics within the world of film and the awards race.

Co-Host / Producer / Engineer of the Real Good Show and Top Marks podcasts. Sports Announcer. Board Op / Producer @ Sportsnet 650. Formerly a play-by-play voice for the BCHL, NWJHL, and BasketballBC. Former Music Director and afternoon host on Peace FM in Chetwynd and Dawson Creek.

Are You Movie Mad? Is the podcast that asks the most difficult question one man has ever faced. Cinephile Andrew Jones is perpetually flabbergasted that Johnny Ellis uses the online moniker 'Movie_Mad' yet at any given moment seems not to understand any movie references. Join Andrew as he journeys through a collection of films to educate Johnny and ask if Johnny is Mad about the movie he watched or remains Movie Mad.

The Media Lunch Break is your best resource for geek news, reviews, comedy, and the Oxford comma! We'll argue the oldest of debates: DC vs Marvel, Mac vs PC, Michael Bay vs our collective childhoods.
We're here to serve YOU!
And ourselves.
Mostly ourselves.
But hopefully you like it too! So sit back, relax, and listen to two idiots riff on topics they know nothing about.


Phineas is the curator and primary creative force behind a multipronged 'Latent-Einstein Outreach Ministry' comprised mostly of 'mutated MetaMedia audio mixes' meant largely to be a therapeutic and sonic REPLACEMENT FOR DRUGS for the Masses and the 'Not-That-Reality-Oriented'. He is a self-styled 'MetaMediagician' in this respect, as well as a formerly official canonized (and carmelized) 'Church of the SubGenius' (lapsed) 'SAINT'.

The neologism (meaning literally a 'new word') 'MetaMediagician' is a 'Pre-Zuckian' use of the prefix 'Meta' (which may be confirmed through 'The Internet Wayback Machine's cached copies of Narco social media accounts so... 'nyyyah') and denotes an artist who utilizes content from the media at large like a 'painter's pallette' in order to make further developed or synthesized 'macro' media work out of that media content in a more or less 'collage'-type format. 

Phineas' efforts in this regard have evolved from the personally expressive to the social therapeutic and have been structured around more and more relatable 'universal themes' with the general goal of attaining a more enlightened understanding of the matter or matters at hand.

Phineas is a very late Baby Boomer (a 'Barely Boomer' as he terms it) and is a 'PROUD MENTAL PATIENT' (since 1984) who has never married and has no kids and who lives alone in Silicon Valley since age 9 after his family moved out to San Jose from the Midwest. He has been creating and distributing Experimental audio artwork of one sort or another SINCE THE 1970s. NOTE that the featured profiled pic is from 1983: the year right before he 'GOT SICK' and became disabled lifelong.

Phineas' birth name is James Scianna (surname is typically pronounced 'SEE-ah-na' although the proper Italian pronunciation is actually: 'SHIAHn-nah').

The alias 'Phineas Narco' was created by Phineas around the time of the onset of his overarching, disabling mental health condition at age 19 (guardedly referred to typically as 'the exact same diagnosis as had by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys') and is serious.

Phineas' condition exists independent of and unrelated to his creative skills, artistic life and efforts although it often inspires the subject matter of those efforts that are about mental illness and its aspects.

The alias name 'Phineas Narco' was created around the time of the onset of Phineas' illness as a 'church name' for his inclusion in 'The Church of The SubGenius' an actual mind control cult that Phineas was involved with for many decades but resigned from in 2024.

The two names refer to figures in Greek mythology. 'Narco' is meant as a contraction of the name 'Narcissus' (in the non-pathological sense) and is not meant as a reference to drugs. The name 'Phineas' refers to an ancillary character in the story of 'Jason and the Argonauts'. In addition to this, there is some identification with the character Phineas from the John Knowles novel 'A Separate Peace' although the significance of this 'referential idea' would not fully blossom until life events from 2021 to 2024 had occured in Phineas' life.

In addition to his involvement in the SubGenius mind control cult, Phineas also had a months-long dalliance with The Church of Scientology in 1991 in San Jose, CA in order to see, from the inside, what it was all about, working for the organization for many months but cleverly 'escaping their clutches' by pre-programming into his brain, in the pre-indoctrination period, a predetermined 'escape response', in other words *Phinny's cue to 'exit stage left* when a Church representative uttered a certain inevitable phrase to him, which of course they DID.

Bye, bye Scientology.
They were NOT PLEASED.

Phineas's current religious identification is Christian. He considers himself to be a Man of God but does not ascribe to any particular 'church' organization, being perfectly comfortable with his own, personal sense, useful understanding and concept of God.

Phineas has had a robust, lifelong interest in Psychology and has earned a trained certificate in Peer Counseling which he has utilized in volunteer efforts in his local community. So he is 'certified and certifiable' simultaneously holding both 'consumer' and 'practitioner' status in the mental health community.

Phineas also has since childhood had a driven natural affinity for, and very keen interest in language and its usages, even studying vocabulary and etymology on his own as a child, long term as an interest. 

 When Phineas was given a standardized IQ test as a child, he was found to have a verbal comprehension score of 139 which is very, very high.

Phineas was also tested positively as being on the 'autism spectrum' in an official capacity much later in life although the severity of this was not deemed to be problematic enough to require treatment.

Phineas' post-Highschool educational efforts can be classified as 'some college' but also as 'MUCH some college' taking many, many courses of interest in a number of local community colleges all with no intention or desire of ever earning any sort of degree during his 20's and 30's. These self-interested,  self-motivated educational efforts typically resulted in high grades and included a number of efforts in artistic, drama, media production, Psychology and English courses and curricula. Otherwise, Phineas has  mostly acted as an 'autodidact' (a term meaning essentially someone who is 'self taught') in his extracurricular learning efforts.

Phineas has worked intensively and creatively with the likes of such groups and artists such as Negativland, Bran Flakes, TradeMark Gunderson of (The Evolution Control Committee), Doktors 4 "Bob" and Big City Orchestra with whom he has collaboratively help create online virtual theatrical video events for his 'musical mashup movies' for the 3-D immersive VR community environment 'Second Life'.

His work has been lauded by the likes of the late comedian George Carlin and mainstream media critics such as Brad Kava (The San Jose Mercury News) and Richard Von Busack (The San Jose Metro).

https://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/09.05.02/midnightvoice-0236.html

Phineas has also worked extensively and creatively, for decades collaboratively, at the Pacifica Radio flagship radio station KPFA in Berkeley, CA as well as the prestigious, exclusive and critically-acclaimed college radio station KFJC located at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, CA. These former creative efforts were reviewed favorably by the aforementioned mainstream media critics at the time.

Despite all this 'impressive display' of extraordinarily unique talent and brainpower, Phineas frequently has difficulty putting on his own pants.

Phineas notoriously once mailed a package containing one of his radio shows to Ted Kaczynski ('The Unabomber') in the mid-nineties to where the notorious insane criminal resided at the time at the Supermax Federal Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado after having secured the notorious serial bomber's exact mailing address through the help of a local (and quite amused) reference librarian.

The program in question was called 'Bombscare', the result of a year-long creative effort by Phineas and was broadcast mixed live around that time by Phineas and Negativland band member, the late Don Joyce on KPFA. The show was, in part, about Mr. Kaczynski, his schizophrenic illness, and the years-long federal investigation into his serial mailbombing crimes.

The program represented a 'high-watermark' in Phineas' creative efforts and the IRONY of Phineas' sincere (yet arguably more than a little irrational and probably uhm... misguided) motivation in going about MAILING A PACKAGE TO THE *FUCKING UNABOMBER* containing his SHOW which was *ABOUT THE FUCKING GODDAMN UNABOMBER* was eclipsed in Phineas's semi-deranged mind by a literally a genuine and curious desire to 'find out what Ted thought about it'. 

Uhhhh... YEAH.
We *wish* we were kidding about that, but we're actually uhhm... NOT.

The package in question was summarily and promptly returned to Phineas, by Supermax prison authorities via US Mail, unopened and without comment.   Which MAKE SENSE. After all, ANY PRISON which houses the *GODDAMN FUCKING UNABOMBER* that gets... *a package* for... UH...  *HIM*... 

...is CERTAINLY... 
** NOT GONNA FUCKING OPEN IT!!! ***

And so, that... as they say... was THAT.

Around this time as well, Phineas mailed an identical tape copy of the 'Bombscare' show highlights to a very different person: the late iconic and legendary comedian George Carlin under the somewhat disingenuous guise of procuring 'permission' for using a Carlin audio sample in the show. 

However there was, like with Kaczinsky, the somewhat diffuse motivation of 'wanting to know what he thought about it'. 

The somewhat 'ruse' of offering the tape up to Carlin 'for review' to 'get permission' arose when Phineas self-consciously realized Carlin was 'in the show' he wanted to send and was offset by the perceptive comedian 'understanding' most likely that Phineas really just wanted feedback. Also, Phineas too was in fact sincere in that he would have snipped out the Carlin sample if permission was not forthcoming from George. 

With that, Phineas procured permission to send the tape to Carlin through the comedian's publicist and a voicemail message from George. The sequence in the 'Bombscare' program that includes the Carlin sample may be heard here in a track from the album/show's full listing on Bandcamp:

https://nationalcynical.bandcamp.com/track/more-fun-for-me

Some weeks after sending that tape of the show to George, Phineas discovered a message response from George in his voice mailbox.

In the voicemail message, Carlin was almost 'beyond enthusiastic' about the tape Phineas had sent to him. His praise of the work was almost uncontainable and Carlin articulately and happily lauded and sang its praises sincerely for over a minute, with all the salty facility of language and attitude he was so well known for in is in his lifetime, waxing eloquent about how great and fabulous he found it, and specifically praising the 'middle ear' range of artistic efficacy in which the sonic power of the program had 'hit'.

The uncut recording of Carlin's enthusiastic voicemail message to Phineas about the show can be heard here:

https://nationalcynical.bandcamp.com/track/carlin-voicemail-to-phineas-narco-about-bombscare-c-1997-8

Phineas' immediate reaction to hearing this message of personal endorsement from this hyper-known source there in his own personal voicemail at the time was one not so much of elation, pride and happiness but rather an almost *stunned awe* as if he had thought of one day to get an interesting looking penny assessed by a pawnbroker only to suddenly learn that the coin was in fact worth TEN MILLION DOLLARS.

It is interesting to note in regard this phone call message that George started out his performative career as a radio DJ working at WINO in New York and that his brother the late Patrick Carlin (who George tells Phineas in the message his wants to send the show tape to) also worked in radio and ran a podcast. So, both men would have had a firsthand appreciation of the program as a live-mixed radio effort.

Also, and I have been unable to definitively confirm this, although I seem to recall hearing this from somewhere at one point: Carlin's brother Patrick also kind of lived 'out in the woods' Walden Pond style far away from the mainstream infrastructure of the more developed sections of society. So, if this were in fact true, his 'lifestyle' could be said to be not all that different than that of 'The Unabomber' himself.

Minus the 'exploding' part. *Ahem* 

WELL, A MAN NEEDS A HOBBY!! When he LIVES ALONE so what are you gonna do? Sometimes it's RUNNING A PODCAST and sometimes it's BLOWING PEOPLE UP!!

Further to this: in researching Carlin's life, it became known to Phineas that prior to him becoming the legendary, well-known mainstream comedic show business talent that he turned out to be (which he was rather forced to do in order to raise a family which was expensive to do and also ultimately to pay off his massive tax bills) Carlin originally only had the ambition or 'dream' or intention of being just an obscure artist doing abstract, weird art like in an apartment somewhere on his own merely for his own enjoyment and just living his life like that.

Sort of like... how... Phineas Narco... does.
Go figure.

The phone call from Carlin ultimately motivated and accelerated Phineas' artistic career at a crucial time of growth. It gave Phineas the confidence of knowing that his work had worth and was on the right track with an appeal to an audience, who was like George in terms of sensibility and values, and he was able to rest assured that this endorsement was one HUNDRED PERCENT genuine, no bullshit and SECURE because Phineas knew that Carlin was NOT the kind of guy for Hollywood bullshit. 

So, this ringing endorsement was like a shiny gold coin of the purest stock gifted to him right into his pocket. IT WAS HIS. And he was able to use that currency for capital in the artistic journey to come.

Thanks, George.

==================

To view, stream or download (at NO required cost) Phineas Narco's mediage artwork which is freely available to everyone online, go to any of the following sites:

YouTube
Mixcloud
SoundCloud
Bandcamp
or
archive.org

...and search for "Phineas Narco" [using quotemarks] and also 'NCN' and/or "National Cynical Network" [with quotes around as well] in combination if need be:

Recent interviews with Phineas on Youtube for 'Innerviews' with former Carlin and Zappa employee Gerry Fialka:     

Part 1: https://youtu.be/AsaZK74Qqu8
Part 2: https://youtu.be/0t9Suf8490o

Phineas Narco's ENTIRE DIGITIZED BODY OF BODY OF WORK (Including much special, rare and heretofore otherwise unreleased, unfinished. upcoming and never-heard before material) termed 'THE VAULT' is now available via DROPBOX in a 1.5TB-sized comprehensive online archive and can be now accessed using THE FOLLOWING LINK:

http://bit.ly/4dllBLQ

Enjoy!g

"I have this romantic idea of the movies as a conjunction of place, people and experiences, all different for each of us, a context in which individual and separate beings try to commune, where the individual experience overlaps with the communal and where that overlapping is demarcated by how we measure the differing responses between ourselves and the rest of the audience: do they laugh when we don’t (and what does that mean?); are they moved when we feel like laughing (and what does that say about me or the others) etc. The idea behind this podcast is to satiate the urge I sometimes have when I see a movie alone – to eavesdrop on what others say. What do they think? How does their experience compare to mine? Snippets are overhead as one leaves the cinema and are often food for thought. A longer snippet of such an experience is what I hope to provide: it’s two friends chatting immediately after a movie. It’s unrehearsed, meandering, slightly convoluted, certainly enthusiastic, and well informed, if not necessarily on all aspects a particular work gives rise to, certainly in terms of knowledge of cinema in general and considerable experience of watching different types of movies and watching movies in different types of ways. It’s not a review. It’s a conversation." - José Arroyo.

"I just like the sound of my own voice." - Michael Glass.

Das "Must Listening" für alle Fans von Filmen, Serien und allem anderen Gedöns. Wir verpacken das Ganze mit einer Menge Humor. Also schaltet ein, egal ob Filmnoob oder Filmnerd!

New tracks tagged #joaquin phoenix