Why Does It Exist?

Archive for 2012|Yearly archive page

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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