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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 7, 2014

On this episode, Sean and Tucker discuss:

  • 00:00 - 09:08 - Tucker watched a whole bunch of 30 for 30 ESPN documentaries. 

    The episodes we discuss are Two Escobars, Muhammad & Larry, The Birth of Big Air, and Hillsborough

  • 09:09 - 13:27 - Sean watched Edge of Tomorrow (2014), directed by Doug Liman, starring Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, and BILL PAXTONS. 

    Also mentioned in this section: Claire Evans from YACHT writing about this film and the idea of "the mothership", James Cameron, improvisation in Aliens, Avatar, Ian Nathan's Terminator Vault, and Columbiana

  • 13:28 - 24:51 - Sean watched The Rover (2014), directed by David Michod, starring Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson, and Scoot McNairy. 

    Also discussed in this section: Sean yelling at Nancy Reagan, Different Strokes, Mad Max, Vanishing Point, Daniel Day Lewis, Pacific Rim, Alienthis huge block of behind the scenes of Alien photographsNotorious, Pulp Fiction, Star Wars, THX-1138, and Road Games.  

  • 24:52 - 30:01 - Tucker watched Touch of Sin (2013), directed by Jia Zhangke, starring Jiang Wu, Zhao Tao, and Wang Baoquiang. 

    Also discussed in this section: AV Club featuree Joe McCulloch on Only God Forgives, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Pierrot Le Fou. 

  • 30:02 - 35:21 - Tucker watched Eating Raoul (1982), directed by Paul Bartel, starring Bartel, Mary Woronov, Robert Beltran, Ed Begley Jr., and Buck Henry. 

    Also discused in this section: Cannonball, Death Race 2000, The Secret Cinema, the Casanova issue based on The Secret Cinema, the Amazing Stories episode based on The Secret Cinema, Chopping Mall, Tim Burton, and John Waters.

  • 40:45 - 56:30 - Tucker watched 24: Live Another Day because he's a great American. 

    Also discussed in this section: Die Hard, the Punisher, Benjamin Bratt, Person of Interest, The Soup, Louie, Rolling Thunder, and the idea of cultural escalation brought on by the Horrible Bosses 2 trailer. 

  • Next Week: Screaming and gnashing of teeth. 

    Homework: A World Cinema film and Touch of Sin.

    Our outro music this week: "The Barge" by Alan Silvestri from the Richard Gere movie No Mercy, and used in at least 2 John Woo movies.