January | 2012 | Why Does It Exist?

Archive for January, 2012|Monthly archive page

bottle of wine, dubious honor, romp, tim daly

Podcast #9: Year of the Comet (1992)

In Podcasts on January 31, 2012 at 9:41 am

Here, have a grainy VHS capture of Tim Daly getting a suitcase in the nuts. Because we care about you guys, and you deserve the best.

Year of the Comet currently holds the dubious honor of not only being the film that prompted the longest episode, but also of the one that features the most amount of mournful sighs per minute (MSPM). This unholy concoction written by semi-senile malcontent William ‘Billy’ Goldman wants to be a delightful and charming Charade-like romp about a fabled bottle of wine but it unfortunately stars Tim Daly, who is not exactly delightful and charming. To this day, Goldman cannot talk about the ordeal of making this movie; thankfully, we can’t seem to stop talking about it ourselves.

Music this week provided by HONHEEHONHEE. You can find them on the Internet here, view their music video for this track here and find their music at their Bandcamp page. HONHEEHONHEE will be performing at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto on February 3^rd; more info here.

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thuggin, vinnie jones, vocal stylings

Podcast #8: Blood Out (2011)

In Podcasts on January 22, 2012 at 9:27 pm

What I like about 50 Cent's acting is his ability to never inhabit roles in any way.

It was bound to happen again. After their dynamite-ish pairing in the first-ever Why Does It Exist? text review, 50 Cent an Val Kilmer once again renew their fated, symbiotic relationship in Blood Out. Except that they don’t actually appear together in this movie, and their combined screen time is roughly eight minutes. Instead, Blood Out is a surprisingly not-terrible movie about a dude from a boy band running around Shreveport ‘thuggin’ and punching other dudes in the head. WDIE fan favorite Vinnie Jones is a British guy that’s so scary, he’s hardly anywhere to be found (as usual) and Annalyne McCord from the 90210 reboot gets naked. A good time was had by all. Blood out.

This episode features a dangerous amount of vocal stylings by Alex but no construction of bike racks. Some would say this is in fact worse.

Music this week is provided by bluegrass wunderkinds Bum Tickins. You can find them here and download their album here and here.

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gene hackman, liza minelli, love triangles, stanley donen

Podcast #7: Lucky Lady (1975)

In Podcasts on January 15, 2012 at 3:29 pm

The good, the bad, the ugly.

The history of cinema is littered with memorable love triangles: Jules, Jim and Catherine. Bella, Edward and Jacob. Benjamin, Elaine and Mrs. Robinson. Nowhere on any list of that type will you find the weirdo triangle/polyamorous team of Gene Hackman, Burt Reynolds and Liza Minelli in Lucky Lady. The unfortunate collision of 1970s libertine spirit and 1930s screwball nonsense, Stanley Donen’s much-maligned 1975 flop Lucky Lady finds no fans in Dan and Alex.

This episode includes but is not limited to:

– Actual semi-coherent discussion of film history

– Actual semi-disturbing discussion of threesomes involving Dan and Alex

– Why we hate organizing things and being in charge of things

– Juliette Lewis

– Dan’s roommates building a bike rack for several hours

Music this week provided by Reversing Falls. The song ‘Is This Thing On?’ off their upcoming LP can be found here. Reversing Falls will be opening for Real Estate on January 18^th at La Sala Rossa in Montreal – info here.

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breast implants, decline of the west, rod steiger, throwing lots of grenades

Podcast #6: Catch the Heat (1987)

In Podcasts on January 8, 2012 at 7:38 pm

This is simultaneously an extremely accurate and extremely misleading image to encapsulate Catch the Heat.

This came very close to being the best episode you’ve never heard. Ostensibly humbled by the academic tone of our discussion, Dan’s computer decided to commit seppuku soon after we recorded the episode. Thankfully, we were able to salvage the files and bring you an enlightening discussion of Catch the Heat, a 1987 actioner that reunites Stirling Siliphant (Village of the Damned, Poseidon Adventure) with his fellow In the Heat of the Night Oscar winner, Rod Steiger.

Steiger lethargically shuffles through his role as a talent agent/drug dealer who has found a rather unique way of smuggling Argentinian heroin into the United States. Unfortunately for him (and us), supervixen cop Checkers Goldberg (!) is on the case.

Music for this week’s episode is provided by the City Streets. Their new EP, Decline of the West, is available for free download HERE. The City Streets will be performing Neil Young’s ‘Tonight’s the Night’ in its entirety on January 10^th at Casa del Popolo – more info HERE.

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