"Freak Power Ticket" Fund Drive Edition with Guests Danny Boyle, Michael Franti, & Ted Mills

"The Freak Power Ticket" Special Fund-Drive Edition

(First Aired: Monday, February 2nd, 2009):

1) Oscar-nominee Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “Trainspotting,” “28 Days Later”) Discusses Zombie Films and the Punk Subculture in the UK (Recorded Monday, January 26th, Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara International Film Festival);

2) Writer/Filmmaker Ted Mills Introduces the Work of Media Critic Charlie Brooker (“Screen Wipe”/The Guardian) and his Acclaimed UK Zombie TV Series, “Dead Set”;

3) Excerpt of Interview with Michael Franti (of Michael Franti & Spearhead), Co-Anchored by KCSB Host Nat Pyle (Recorded Friday, January 30th, Ventura Theater, Ventura).

Producer/Host: Ted Coe. Donate to KCSB! Call 805.893.2424 to pledge, or go to kcsb.org.

To Listen to the Program, Click Here!

(Photo: Danny Boyle & Roger Durling at the SBIFF)

My Interview with "Gonzo" Director Alex Gibney Airs Nov. 24th on KCSB-FM

On this week’s edition of "The Freak Power Ticket" (Monday, 11am-noon PST, on KCSB 91.9 FM [kcsb.org]): my interview with Alex Gibney, the Academy Award-winning director of Taxi to the Dark Side -- about the US’s post-9/11 torture policies -- and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. We discuss the 2008 documentary, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Gibney's biography of the celebrated journalist (and patron saint of my blogs and radio show). Gonzo was just released on DVD by Magnolia Home Entertainment. (To access my conversation with Gibney, click here.)

Monday’s complete broadcast also features further excerpts from a recorded dramatization of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” snippets from “The Gonzo Tapes” CD box set, readings from Thompson’s works, selections of music, and more in the way of audio séance magic.

My CHICAGO 10 "Freak Power Ticket" Radio Special

Brett Morgen’s Chicago 10 is an unique cinematic mashup: one part deadly-serious political documentary, another part trippy and iconoclastic animated docudrama. Throw in an anachronistic soundtrack -- ranging from symphonic movie music to Rage Against the Machine, Billy Preston to Eminem, Black Sabbath to the Beastie Boys -- and you’d think the filmmakers would have had a hit on their hands on the college/midnight movie circuit. But for various reasons an Opening-Night Premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival didn’t translate into theatrical success: the film largely came and went upon its release in the spring of 2008.

The DVD market gives some quality movies a second life, however. Perhaps the late-August release of Chicago 10 on video will help it find new audiences around the country. What’s more, Chicago 10 is scheduled for a free-TV debut on PBS’s Independent Lens documentary series this October 22nd. Its story revisits the events surrounding the Democratic National Convention of 1968 in Chicago -- a site of mass demonstrations against the Vietnam War and violence caused by police and state officials -- and the subsequent trial of 8 dissident organizers on charges of conspiracy to incite riot across state lines and violations of the 1968 anti-riot act. (The 10 of the title references those 8 defendents and their 2 defense attorneys who ended up facing serious contempt of court charges.)

This past Monday, I cast a spotlight on the story of Chicago 10 during the entire 2 hours of my weekly radio program, "The Freak Power Ticket." The first segment of the program blended a lengthy interview I and guest-host Harry Lawton conducted with Chicago 10 writer/director/producer Brett Morgen (pictured above), audio from the soundtrack, and music included in the film. The second hour also drew alarming parallels between that historic case and recent events at the Republican National Convention (RNC) with similar charges against members of the RNC Welcoming Committee, now called the RNC8.

Finally, I also re-aired the opening segment of Chicago 8 attorney William Kunstler’s historic February 26, 1970 address before an audience of 7,000 at UCSB’s Harder Stadium, hours before Isla Vista’s Bank of America was torched by anti-war demonstrators (the entire segment, from KCSB's archives, will air on a future broadcast of my program). This was preceded by a reading of a context-building excerpt from Beyond the Barricades: The Sixties Generation Grows Up, by Jack Whalen and UCSB Professor Emeritus (and KCSB programmer) Richard Flacks. (The included Kunstler photo is from islavistahistory.com).

To hear the entire program, select the 2 links below: "Freak Power Ticket" on Chicago 10 (Pt. 1)

"Freak Power Ticket" on Chicago 10 (Pt. 2)

George A. Romero and Me

Back in mid-February, I conducted an interview with legendary horror-film creator George A. Romero, on my KCSB 91.9 FM radio show, "The Freak Power Ticket," discussing the 40 years of zombie cinema that he pioneered. This year, Romero's movie, "Diary of the Dead" (his fifth "Living Dead" work), received a select theatrical release, and it is now available as part of The Weinstein Company's Dimension Extreme line of DVDs. 2008 also marks the 40th anniversary of Romero's first feature, the all-time classic, "Night of the Living Dead." Our conversation focuses on the topicality and impact of Romero's works. Tune in here.

I've been obsessed with Romero since, ...oh, I don't know, I was about 14 or so. I remember hearing about "Dawn of the Dead" during the long nighttime drive back from a "field" trip that my Babe Ruth League baseball team (the Cardinals of East Sacramento) took to Marriott's Great America in Santa Clara, California: an older kid in the van described that crazy movie in some detail, and I was from that very moment dying to see it. I finally got a chance a year or 2 later with my brother and his then-girlfriend at a packed & rowdy midnight screening at Sacramento's now-defunct Capitol Theater. It definitely changed my life. Have seen it dozens of times since, and I also went on to watch all of his Dead flicks repeatedly. I even got to meet the man in person at an industry preview screening of "Land of the Dead" in 2005 in Los Angeles (for more on that encounter, read this and this). His studio handlers wouldn't let him do any interviews at that point, though, so I guess you can say I've been chasing this one for a few years (25+ years, perhaps?). Romero's a big fish, clearly. My white whale, maybe?

It was a real pleasure being such a big fanboy with him (off mic) and getting to gush appreciatively about his influence on me, at the end of the interview. Sorry I didn't share that moment with you in the recording I posted online. But the rest is worth it too, I believe. Here's hoping you enjoy listening to it half as much as I loved the chance to do it!

coming soon: "the world/inferno friendship society" (a documentary)

hallowmas is our time.

the punk/soul cabaret orchestra, world/inferno friendship society, released a great new album over the summer -- a rock opera about the character actor originally from austria, peter lorre: "addicted to bad ideas: peter lorre's 20th century." it's really a brilliant project.

anyways, i'm supa-busy right now. but my thoughts now take me to new york city in the autumn. dreaming of the infernos around us...

(this clip is from a documentary work in progress courtesy of someone named anniesays over on youtube.)

david cronenberg is the new alfred hitchcock

i had the pleasure of seeing the brilliant canadian director david cronenberg in person just this weekend.



roger durling, creative director of the santa barbara international film festival (sbiff), interviews cronenberg after a screening at u.c. santa barbara of his excellent new crime drama, eastern promises, with viggo mortensen, a special joint presentation of the ucsb arts & lectures' film series, the student-oriented magic lantern film program, and the sbiff's cinema society. (above)

here's what j. hoberman, of the village voice, wrote of cronenberg in his review of eastern promises:

"I've said it before and hope to again: David Cronenberg is the most provocative, original, and consistently excellent North American director of his generation... neither Scorsese nor Spielberg, and not even David Lynch, has enjoyed a comparable run."

i happen personally to agree with hoberman. & in honor of cronenberg's newfound "acceptability" (which includes 2 oscar nominations for his previous film, the history of violence), i went back to scrutinize his unforgettable debut,

shivers (aka, they came from within) (1975).

brrrrr...

i had a few words to say about shivers, 'round about this time of year a couple of years ago; and this other segment, below, is from filmfour in the uk, with cronenberg himself talking about his nightmarish plague tale.



all hail the new king of suspense! long live the new flesh!!!

"rainin' in paradize"

manu chao and the radio bemba sound system in the prospect park bandshell, in park slope, brooklyn, nyc: tuesday, june 26th, 2007. (photo by yours truly.)

"rainin' in paradize" by manu chao

Welcome to paradise (2x)
Today it's raining (4x) (Welcome to paradise)
Today It's raining (Welcome to paradise) (4x)

In Zaire, Was no good place to be
Free world go crazy, it’s an atrocity

In Congo, Still no good place to be
They killed Mibali, it’s a calamity

Go Maasai go Maasai be mellow, Go Maasai go Maasai be sharp (2x)

In Monrovia, this no good place to be
Weapon go crazy, it’s an atrocity

In Palestina, too much hypocrisy
This world go crazy, it's no fatality

Go Maasai go Maasai be mellow, Go Maasai go Maasai be sharp (2x)

Today it’s raining (4x), in paradise
Today it’s raining (4x)

In Baghdad, it's no democracy
That’s just because, it’s a US Country

In Fallujah, too much calamity
This world go crazy, it's no fatality

Go Maasai go Maasai be mellow, Go Maasai go Maasai be sharp (2x)

Today it’s raining (4x)

In Jerusalem, in Monrovia, Guinea-Bissau, today it's raining (3x)

Welcome to paradise, Come to the fairy lies
Welcome to paradise
Today it's raining (4x)