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Travis Bickle On The Riviera


Hi there! I'm Tucker Stone, one of the three guys who hosts a podcast called Travis Bickle on the Rivieria. I've written for places like Flavorwire, The Comics Journal, Comixology and The Factual Opinion, and am currently punching the clock at Nobrow, a publisher of comics, graphic novels and children's books. Back in 2012, my friend Sean Witzke, a movie critic whose most recent work can be read at Grantland, started this podcast as a way to continue the conversations (and arguments) we had been having about movies amongst our mutual blogs.

Although neither one of us had listened to a lot of podcasts, we felt that our cantankerous, expletive laden diatribes might be of interest to others, and in the years since, we have been extremely lucky to be proven right: people, for whatever reason, like to listen to a couple of miserable depressives wax nostalgic over action movies from the 80's. (It probably didn't hurt that the hugely talented Michel Fiffe drew our logo image!)

When I became a father in 2013, longtime friend of the show and frequent guest host Morgan Jeske came on board to keep Sean from going stir crazy with backed-up opinions. Jeske--the talented cartoonist behind books for Image Comics like Change and Zero--rapidly made himself indispensable, and after my return to the show, it only made sense to welcome him on as an official host, turning this gruesome twosome into the trio it had always been destined to be. As the episodes have piled up (you can check out our episode guide, with every movie, director and special episode listed here), the show was continually graced with a murderers row of guests from the world of comics and film--you can see all of those amazing people at that link as well.

All of that brings us right up to right now, a cold day in October: the day where we ask for help. Simply put, the increased interest in the show has meant that we've had to put a bit more into the nuts and bolts of paying for it than we used to, and we thought 133 episodes (at most recent count) was enough to try passing the hat to help meet the costs. The show isn't in danger of going anyway anytime soon--Sean, Morgan and I like hurting each others feelings just a little too much for that to be a real concern--but we would appreciate the breathing room that financial support will allow.  Below you'll see the various levels of pledge options and the rewards they provide--we're pretty excited about them, especially the one where we send you surprises you can't return--but even if you come away thinking that we don't deserve one thin dime, it still means a lot that you stopped by in the first place. Thank you for reading, but most of all thank you for listening!

Jul 2, 2014

  • 00:00 - 01:25 - INTROS, Morgan Jeske and Sean Witzke join you today with our first podcast ever recorded in the AM, and therefore we recorded it as NPR hosts. Of course, Sean only knows parodies of NPR shows, because his idea of culture is a cookbook writen by a celebrity.

  • 01:26 - 10:05 - First up, Morgan watched A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985), directed by Jack Sholder, starring Robert Englund, Mark Patton, Kim Meyers, & Robert Rusier. 

    Before you read the show notes in this section, check out Sarah Horrocks' essay on Nightmare 2 over on her site. Chuck Russell directed part 3 Dream Warriors, which was co-written by Frank Darabont & Wes Craven. Russell also did The Blob, Eraser, and produced Michael Mann's Collateral. Jack Sholder, on the other hand, directed the almost forgotten classic 1982 slasher Alone in the Dark, which has one of the scariest killer reveals in movie history. He also directed the Generation X tv movie. 

    Also mentioned in this section: Cruising, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Dream Warriors, Dream Child, Hausu, Evil Dead, and Body Double

  • 10:06 - 20:08 - Sean watched Judge Dredd (1995), directed by Danny Cannon, starring Cobra, Diane Lane, Max Von Sydow, Rob Schnieder, Armand Assante, Joan Chen, and Jurgen Pronchow. He also read the official making of pre-release book (which is currently $0.69 on amazon), which is awesome in how unaware they were that they were making one of the most massive failures of the decade, and even more than that a really bad movie. The thing ping pongs between great ideas and seeing those ideas replaced by incredibly stupid ideas as the result of ego, cost-cutting, or directorial stupidity. It also shows that awesome pre-production goes a long way, with Kev Walker and Chris Cunningham (then as Chris Halls), both graduating from drawing the comic to working on the film. 

    Also mentioned in this section: the second Dredd movie, Robocop (whose script was written by Ed Neumeier & Michael Miner, who were fired from Judge Dredd), Will Wisher and Terminator 2, The Animal, The Hot Chick, Rob Schneider being the only Asian cast member in SNL history, Demolition Man, and the MAKING COPIES guy. 

  • 20:09 - 34:54 - Finally Morgan watched Under The Skin (2014), directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Scarlett Johansson. We've discussed this on the show before, so less show notes for this one. Sarah also wrote about this one since we've recorded, check that out too. Also discussed in this section: Xtro, Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, Species, Species 2, Sightseers, Upstream Color, the score from Alien, and the notes Scarlett took on Arnold in the beginning of Terminator

    Next Week: We will be joined by activist and author Gwyneth Paltrow to discuss her latest book. 

    Homwork: Westerns.

    Our outro music this week: "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)" by Grace Jones as heard in Frantic. 

  • YOU ARE ALL MY CHILDREN NOW.