Allusionist 217. Feminist coffee houses
In their heyday of the 1970s and 1980s, there were more than 200 - possibly more than 400 - feminist restaurants and coffee shops in the USA and Canada. These…
Cautionary Tales – Stalling for Survival: A Lonely Fight Against a Deadly Medicine
In 1960, FDA scientist Frances Oldham Kelsey is tasked with approving an application for a mild sedative to be sold in America. The drug is popular across Europe and is…
Cautionary Tales – Lights, Camera, Tax Break
When Ernest Borgnine gets his big break in Hollywood, he can hardly believe his luck. But soon he discovers his supposed star vehicle, Marty, is not the dream gig he thought it was. …
Cautionary Tales – The Shark That Ate Hollywood
Steven Spielberg thought his career was finished. He was behind schedule, his actors were fighting, the crew were mutinous and worst of all, his shark was broken. It looked like…
The Pied Piper (1986)
The Pied Piper is a 1986 Czechoslovakian animated dark fantasy film directed by Jiří Barta. Its original Czech title is Krysař, which means "The rat catcher". The story is an…
Faerie Tale Theatre – The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Faerie Tale Theatre - S4 E3 - The Pied Piper Of Hamelin In a small German village, a mysterious flute-playing piper offers to rid the village of the rodent infestation…
Second Glance: Kenneth Branagh’s Twisty, Giddy ‘Dead Again’
All of which is to say, Branagh is having a very good time showing off. So is Frank, whose bonkers narrative takes a giant, surprise turn around the 75-minute mark,…
The Atlas Obscura Podcast Why Is There a Statue of Columbo in Budapest?
The TV show Columbo, about a loveable schlub detective, is internationally beloved. But Hungary has an extra special relationship with the show, dating all the way back to the 1970s…
Key Change: Shirley Manson “Drop Dead/Celebration” by Siouxsie and the Banshees
My guest today is Shirley Manson. Since 1994, she’s been the lead singer of the band Garbage, and she is a bona fide rock icon. The two of us worked…
The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions
Described by Artforum as a "fairytale-cum-manifesto", The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions is a series of allegorical vignettes set in the declining empire of Ramrod, ruled by "the men"…