Monday 3 December 2018

Consider the Ray Gun, Episode 4 - 'Ender's Game' by Orson Scott Card (1985)

Wrong With Authority resurrects 'Consider the Ray Gun', the strand of Oi! Spaceman in which Daniel chatted with a guest about a book, usually classic SF.

HERE is the triumphant return, featuring Daniel in conversation with Kit about Orson Scott Card's seminal 1985 SF novel Ender's Game, which they manage to find fresh angles on despite it being one of the most discussed books on the internet.

Here are the previous episodes, by the way.


Monday 12 November 2018

Trumpism 3 - Drunken Trumpcast!

Daniel, Kit, James, and Jack unite for a third in their sporadic 'Trumpism' series, in which the hellish alternate reality we seem to be living in is the main point of discussion. A huge sprawling talkfest notionally focused on the recent mid-term elections.  We hope you find it as cathartic as we did.

(Kudos to Daniel for taking on the editing job on this one and getting it turned around in doublequick time.)

Here is Part One.  It's two hours long.  Kit is quite drunk.

Show notes: Introductions. Recounts. Results. Democratic Establishment. Hope a difficult word. Generational divide. Speaker Pelosi? Middle ground. Existential threat. The utility of subpoena power. Pushing against norms. The Senate will kill us all. Popular votes. Electoral reform. Constantly counting votes in Florida. Voting rights for felons. Obstructionism. Daniel the Radical Centrist. Hating Hillary Clinton for the wrong reasons. Suburban voters. Voting and yelling. Queues as voter suppression. Ronald McDonald, ballot official. A podcast dedication. Tucker Carlson terror attack. Disappearing Caravan. Tucker Carlson drinking game. Hannity versus Carlson. Wernher Von Braun. Talking points as apologetics. Beto versus Raphael. Disorienting media. Beto's name. James O'Keefe or George Soros? Gish galloping the news. Difference and continuity. Tonnage in Afghanistan. Obama and deportation. Mollie Tibbets. Polling categories. A cliffhanger on the Jim Acosta "assault."

*

And here is Part Two
.  This bit is three hours long.  Kit is very drunk.

Show notes: Institutional forces against fascism. "Violent extremism." Climate refugees. Jack Graham has radicalized Daniel. The British Empire and 9/11. The neoliberalism to fascism pipeline. Alex Jones joins the 'cast. The deep state. Dumbest online political pundit. Chrissy Tiegen dunks on Jacob Wohl. Jack's Ben Shapiro impersonation. The appeal of Jordan Peterson. Interrupted by the dog. Sargon Sargon Sargon. Right wing safe space. Nine-eleven. Gore conterfactuals. Catalysts. Neoconservatives and paleoconservatives. Libertarianism as blind alley. Hayek versus Rothbard. Precarity and capitalism and intersectionality. Ideological incoherence in voting. Hashtag Resistance Twitter and Jeff Sessions. Sarah Palin. Misogyny is fundamental. Do we have hate-listeners? The alterea Acosta video. Rescuing "doublethink." Ideologically convenient hallucination. Sarah Huckabee Sanders retweets Infowars. Conspiracy theorists. Preparing for climate change. Nationalist Trump. The alt-right and the word "racist." Bell Curve Cliff Notes. Intellectual honesty among Nazis. "Pioneer something." Ideologically acceptable propaganda. Shoving a dildo up one's ass to own the libs. "Peak Daniel achieved." Electoral minority. Ballot initiatives and direct action. "Do we want to talk about Bernie?" Doughnut theory. The need for a robust liberal press. The media doesn't understand the internet. Not real capitalism. Capitalism and environmentalism. The Luxury of Cynicism. Satire is useless. Worker's movements with long-term perspective. Adorable little Nazis. PJW and the Lee Harvey Oswald metaphor. Robert Bowers. UK versus US fascism. Reaction. The need for left theory. Jack and Kit talk British political history. The problematic Daily Show. An abrupt ending.

Christine Tiegen owns Jacob Wohl:
https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/status/1058889766861557760
https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/status/1058892394156875776
https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/status/1058894043231346689
https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/status/1058899676185817088

Vic Berger IV threatened by Proud Boy:
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5b06de68e4b07c4ea1060e92

Carter Before the Horse, Episode 1 - 'The Shining' (1980)

Yet another strand of WWA launches.  This time it's Carter Before the Horse.  It's basically just Consider the Reagan but earlier.

In this inaugural edition, James, Kit, and Jack watch Kubrick's The Shining, and say things about it.

Beware Triggers, because we talk about the film's themes, and they're not pretty.

Download here.


Wednesday 4 July 2018

Wrong With Authority, Episode 9 - Anonymous (2011)

This time, Jack indulges his unhealthy obsession with Anti-Stratfordianism, and forces James, Kit, and Daniel to watch Roland Emmerich's 2011 self-funded passion-project Anonymous.




Anonymous; 2011; d. Roland Emmerich; w. John Orloff; starring Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, David Thewlis, Rafe Spall, Jamie Campbell Bower, Mark Rylance, and Derek Jacobi; distributed by Columbia Pictures.

It lost about 15 million dollars.

Based on the wackiest version of the longstanding conspiracy theory that the plays of Shakespeare were secretly written by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Anonymous is both less entertaining and less plausible than the rest of Emmerich's films, including the ones about aliens and giant lizards.

It was 'controversial' at the time, in the sense that everyone who knew anything about Shakespeare both ridiculed and denounced it, especially its attempts to market itself via 'information packs' provided to schools.

In the process of telling his dreary, plotless, and confusing shaggy dog story, Emmerich encourages some of the finest Shakespearean actors of our time to make utter fools of themselves.  Not that some of them need all that much encouragement.  The whole thing manages to be simultaneously totally insane, quasi-fascistic, and profoundly dull... which is quite a feat, in its way.

None of us were terribly impressed, it's fair to say.  But, in between Jack galloping off on his hobby horse for uncomfortably long stretches of time, we also delve into some of the interesting history and politics concerning Shakespeare, Anti-Statfordianism, and conspiracy theories generally.

Downloadeth here.

*

LINKS:

Jack has written a lot about Shakespeare in general here.

Here are some books which are either about, or touch on, this issue:

The Genius of Shakespeare by Jonathan Bate.  Has an entire fascinating chapter on the 'Authorship Controversy'.  The rest of the book is periodically excellent too.

Contested Will by James Shapiro.  Brilliantly discusses the 'Authorship Question', not so much in terms of its actual claims (though Shapiro does address them) but rather as a phenomenon in itself, populated by fascinating people and deserving of study in its own right.  Shapiro develops many insights about scholarship, history, literature, and politics.

Shakespeare, In Fact by Irvin Leigh Matus.  A legendary work of factual analysis.  Forensic, witty, and merciless.

Here's the Bill Bryson book James refers too.  Boasts an amusingly irritated final chapter on the 'Authorship Question'.

Shakespeare Beyond Doubt, Eds. Stanley Wells and Paul Edmondson.  A compendium of essays commissioned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust as part of their assertive response to Anonymous.  Scholar after scholar examines every aspect of the issue.  The definitive single-volume demolition.

The SBT also created this bite-size pamphlet - Shakespeare Bites Back: Not So Anymous - summarizing the main issues at stake.  Free to download here.

Speaking of online resources, here's the Shakespeare Authorship Page.  Lots of links to lots of articles and essays.

The lecture excerpted in the podcast is part of a series by eloquent Shakespeare scholar and former actor Peter Saccio.  Here's the full section from which the excerpt is taken

Leaving sanity behind, here's the infamous Frontline documentary to which Daniel refers.

(Be aware, anything and everything about Shakespeare on YouTube is infested with Anti-Strats peddling their bile and bibble.)  

Sunday 3 June 2018

Consider the Reagan, Episode 5 - Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

The top men of Wrong With Authority (James, Kit, and Daniel) consider the classic Spielberg/Lucas/Ford Reagan-era pastiche/adventurefest which introduced the iconic, failure-prone, whip-wielding, treasure-hunting, snake-hating, Nazi-slaughtering, ambivalent-about-Arabs, and possibly-guilty-of-statutary-rape Dr Indiana Jones, rollicking around in a universe in which all myths seem to be simultaneously true.  Get yourself and your Nepalese drinking buddies set up, close your eyes, and let the wrath of Yahweh engulf your enemies as you...  and I'm bored now.  But you won't be if you listen to this episode.  It's so good it'll melt your face off.

Download here.


Monday 28 May 2018

Consider the Reagan, Episode 4 - Die Hard (1988)

Daniel the barefoot American must battle a team of eurotrash terrorists (i.e. Jack and Kit) in order to restore proper US values (but definitely no Japanese ones) in this, the latest in our series of commentaries on the Reganite cinema that shaped a generation or two.

Also, we're joined (briefly) by a very special guest.

Download here.

 


*

Show Notes

Main Topic: Die Hard (1988), with special guest Sharon, Kit's wife. Introductions. Dogme 95. Oscar talk. Has Sharon seen Robocop? Logos. Aspect ratio talk. Daniel gets things wrong. Establishments. White dudes talkin' about race awkwardly. John McTiernan is a creep? Touchscreen technology. Not Bruce Willis and the sequel to Commando. Cocaine. Trumpism metaphor. Sartorial talk. Passage of time. Recommending Wikipedia. Alan Rickman. Heist movie. Character development through action. Kit laughs at Preacher Rickman. Mitt Romney. "I read the article in Forbes." Sympathy for the capitalist. The threat of Japan. Filthy Jack. Playback settings. Genghis Khan tortures Mel Gibson. United Colors of Terrorism. Glasses and handball. Bruce Willis's Voyage of Pain. Manliness and Personal Protective Equipment. No PTSD. Not ripped. Everything is a satire. Rae Dawn Chong reference. Not by the book. Property rights. Miserable. Escalation, literally and figuratively. The black characters live. Doctor Who and Tango and Cash. Confined spaces. Just impossible enough. Air vents. Peter Weir tangent. Official shitkickers. Arnie's not funny. McClaine would have the best Twitter ever. Meeting. Media. Spousal abuse and fashion. McClaine needs a friend. Ready for prime time. Chicken Run reference. "I think we've found Donald Trump in this story." Vast audience. Not a cop, but a Man. Glib Theo, murderer. Is that Viggo the Carpathian? Opening an elevator with a fire axe. Terminator 2 reference. Howie Mandel reference. More cocaine. "I can handle this Eurotrash." Hans Gruber is not the greatest villain. "You know they'll kill you, right?" Ticking all the boxes. Galactica reference, Bane reference. Tucker. Bill O'Reilly hair. Johnson and Johnson, no relation. Robert Davi. Bill Clay and hypercompetence. Pre-VHS editing. Male bondage. Brokeback Mountain reference. Physically versus socially possible. "No, the other one." Sam Harris reference. "You mercilessly accept your wife's career!" Vietnam. Collateral damage. Mythbusters. Aesthetic shift. Cellophane. Al Powell's viagra. Worldbuilding. Lost Daniel. Wrapping Up.

Sunday 11 March 2018

WWA Episode 8: Braveheart

It's Kit's turn again and, being a man of extremes, and having already given us the longest ever episode of Wrong With Authority, he now rocks up with the shortest.  Of course, to us, 'shortest' still means 2hrs 20.  They may take our wives (actually they most certainly may not), but they'll never take our ridiculously long running times.  We have that much in common with Mel Gibson at least.

Yes, it's Braveheart... Mel Gibson's punishingly long, actual national politics-affecting(!?), and inexplicably Oscar-festooned 1995 Hollywood "historical" "epic" about a fictional Scottish peasant/superhero/christ who, rather oddly, shares a name with a well-loved figure from Scotland's real history.


Mr Gibson, um, "acting".

So, my bonnie lads and lassies, get your kilts on, eat your haggis-flavoured shortbread, and paint your faces blue.  Because it's time to listen to the wee Wrong With Authority bairns get medieval on Braveheart's ass.  (Actually one of us rather likes it and another of us is "meh".)

McDownload here.

CREAG AN TUIRE!!!!!!*



Braveheart (1995), directed by Mel Gibson; produced by Mel Gibson, Alan Ladd Jnr., Bruce Davey; written by Randall Wallace.  Starring: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Catherine McCormack, Patrick McGoohan, Brian Cox, Brendan Gleeson, David O'Hara, Angus Macfadyen, Ian Bannen.  Music by James Horner.  Cinematography by John Toll.  Edited by Steven Rosenblum.  Distributed by Paramount and 20th Century Fox.

Winner of FIVE FUCKING OSCARS, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Apparently they're doing a sequel.











* No, that's the right one.  Don't @ me.

Tuesday 27 February 2018

Consider the Reagan, Episode 3 - Ghostbusters (1984)

Continuing our series of commentaries on movies that came out during the Reagan administration, Daniel, Kit, and Jack sit down to watch the original Ghostbusters from 1984.

Download here.


Wednesday 14 February 2018

WWA Episode 7: Gangs of New York

Wrong With Authority returns, hosted by James this time, with an episode about Scorsese's epic historical crime drama Gangs of New York (2002).

This is a good one.

Download here.

Daniel Day Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio, who isn't Liam Neeson.

Gangs of New York, 2002, d. Martin Scorsese.  Produced by Alberto Grimaldi and a rapist.  Screenplay by Jack Cocks, Stephen Zaillian, and Kennerth Lonergan.  Starring Daniel Day Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Liam Neeson, Jim Broadbent, Brendan Gleeson.  Based on the 1928 book by Herbert Asbury.



Monday 12 February 2018

Consider the Reagan, Episode 2 - Blade Runner (1982)

Continuing our series of commentaries on movies that came out during the Reagan administration, Daniel and Jack sit down to watch original Blade Runner (and then chat a bit about the sequel).

Download here.


Show notes: Main Topic: Blade Runner. With Jack Graham and Daniel Harper. Introductions and the obligatory Trump reference. Our histories with the film. Commentary begins at 10:23. Distinctive logo. Ridley Scott: complete bastard. Odd names. Daniel makes an Asimov reference. The plusses and minuses of opening crawls. Industrial sublime. Skipping the Voight-Kampf. Not the brightest Nexus-6, not the brightest Blade Runner. Dick joke. William Gibson. Japanification. 80s special effects. Racial slur. Noir voiceover. The Six Deadly Words. Tortured fan. Non-developed characters. Replicant personalities. Chemistry. A no-Deckard Blade Runner. Novel vs film and ethical philosophy vs cardboard characterization. Visually influential. Retro-futurism. Kipple. Freezing. Delicate Rutger. Frank Lloyd Wright? Impenetrable apartment. "These must be people!" Leaning into cliches. Daryl Hannah. Pris and JF. Deckard's photos. Huge in university. Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick. Ethnic stereotypes. Phone booths and phone calls. Implied sex show. Biblical metaphor. An actual detective. Diana Cassidy's performance. Streetwear. Outmatched in combat. Quiet. Used future in Our World. Jupiter orbit. Fashion choices. Gaff. Limp-wristed slap. Booze and relationships. Ford's star power turned on low. Assault. Reverse Mirror. Broken biology. Another more interesting story. Human images. Oversignified chess. Owls. Tyrell the CEO. Father fucker. Science is real. Gore. Bradbury. Pointless sequences. Ineffective police. Clever Pris. Shoe leather. Worse ways to die. Life force leaving the body. Twenty-three minutes of climax. Why is Deckard doing this? Psychopathic Roy. Human or boogeyman? Growth at the end. Leonine. Sky. Watch him die. Is Gaff a replicant? What are the stakes? Critical. Broken aesthetics. Happy endings. Wrapping Up, and moving on to 2049 at 2:07:50. Some ambition. Clever Force Awakens. Describing the plot. Evil Blind Genius Things. Relations between replicants and holograms. Interrupted by a dog. Narrative. Joi/K/Mariette love scene. Sexualized subservient images. Heuristic. Open relationship problems. Iron Man moment. Bond villain Jared Leto. Old Deckard. Lived history. Off-topic onto JJ Abrams. Underwhelming. A second Asimov reference. Wrapping Up.






Wednesday 3 January 2018

WWA Episode 6: Inherit the Wind

We're back, with a proper WWA episode.  Daniel's choice this time: Inherit the Wind, Stanley Kramer's 1960 drama loosely based on the Scopes Monkey Trial.  (Details here.)

Download WWA6 here

A really good episode, this one (IMHO).  Lots of laughs and silliness but also some meaty discussion about history and politics.  

*

Show Notes: Main Topic: Inherit the Wind. Vague plot summary. Fictionalized. Quality female characters. Familiarity breeds contempt? Chimpanzee casting. Didn't fall in love. Connected to Mississippi Burning. Cartoonish Brady. Brady's wife. Sexism of 1925. Pronouncement dialogue. Golden Age acting. Comic relief. Unforgiving role. The One Man Who Can Think. Educating the rubes. McCarthyism. Flouting conformity and Great-Man-ism. Village Atheist. Blacklisted screenwriter and HUAC. Slavish attachment to the USSR. At last, a Trump reference. And Nixon. Fans sponspored by the funeral home. Perspiration necessary for a proper courtroom drama. Bigwig motives. Old Time Religion Uber Alles. Lynching sequences. Black actors. Talking about civil rights without talking about civil rights. Mencken. Brady's hypocrisy. Not William Jennings Bryan. Classism and the American South. Ditto for British regional accents. Legitimate resentment. Not even Hollywood Poverty. The "respectable poor." Scopes and eugenics. Scientism and Social Darwinism. Nasty Nietzsche. Sociobiological implications in Darwin's followers. Kit brings us back to the film for a moment. Rachel Brown's impossible choice. "Just fucking listen." Western heroine thing. Darrow calls Bryan. Interlude. Facts not feels. "If you're explaining, you're losing." Williams Jennings Bryan and his place in history. Bryan's presidential runs and the gold standard. No left in American history. Radicalism of the gospels. New Atheists revised history. Defending Dawkins? Arguing against the book. The history of the religious right. Aftereffects of the trial. Inherit the Raging Bull. Two colonels? Eugenics and evolution. Moral systems. Christianity is revolutionary. Origins of creationism vis a vis fundamentalism. Luther and divisions in the WWA crew. The Klan. Hitchens on King. "White With Authority." Evolution in American schools. Using theology for political purposes. Non-binary thinking. Bill Nye. The Universal lot. Good American monkeys. Adapting the play. H.L. Mencken the Nazi sympathizer. Wrapping Up. Next time: Gangs of New York.

*
*

Daniel's book recommendations:


The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design by Ronald L. Numbers