Episodes
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In the final minute of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny thank their generous Patreon supporters, their lovely, talented and glam guest hosts, and talk a little bit about Velvet Goldmine, watching it for the podcast, and how their opinions of the film may have changed over the 24 weeks of the podcast. Thank you, everyone!
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 119 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny talk more about the soundtrack and about buying it back in the early ‘00s, about what vinyl we want for Christmas, and then talk about what Bowie songs could have possibly been used if he’d allowed permission and how it is definitely better that the film couldn’t use Bowie, and we talk about the real musicians behind the music in the movie, then we move into the Special Thanks, talk about Todd Haynes’s awesome grandparents, and then talk a little about those boilerplate warnings about films being based on real people and how ridiculous it is that Velvet Goldmine has this disclaimer.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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Episodes manquant?
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In Minute 118 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny finish up the technical credits, talking about film locations, why they shot the Manchester scenes in Manchester, the psychogeographical history of London, a total diversion into forbidding candy factories, and then go into the music credits, talk about Andy Pratt and “Avenging Angel,” which we missed during the movie, and talk about our favorite songs from the film. Then we deliver our long-promised (divergent) thoughts on a Velvet Goldmine sequel, and what happened to the characters after the frame of the movie.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 117 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny continue their look into the closing credits, encountering the progeny of Nicolas Roeg in an unexpected place and we go into Hollywood nepotism, talking a little about Duncan Jones, then Mike realizes he shouldn’t mock the job title of “clapper loader,” because it actually when you think about it is probably way complex, how they decide who gets their funny nicknames listed in the credits, Jenny talks about machines named after her, and we talk about Action Vehicles, which gets Jenny thinking of her neighbors during childhood and their electric kid-sized jeep, then we finish looking at the technical credits and talk about what the main cast members have done since Velvet Goldmine. And Mike and Jenny settle all pop culture grudges gleefully, heaping derision on Richard Curtis, new Doctor Who, and The Princess Bride.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 116 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny begin their journey into Velvet Goldmine’s closing credits by talking about Steve Harley and some of the other social realist films of the 1990s that used 1970s-heavy soundtracks, then closing credits in general, how much Mike hates the Marvel movies, closing credits cuteness and all, and how it all started back in the ‘70s with Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise, then we begin with Velvet Goldmine’s actual credits, starting with the top-billed cast. We rank the performances of the top-billed cast and we compare Jonathan Rhys Meyers to Malcolm McDowell, look at some of the workaday actors “below the fold” in the credits, and then spend some time projecting Whatever Happened To The Fripperies, then talk about the stunts and whether or not there were stunt butts. Then it’s onto the cast members who were parts of bands, and a discussion of the producers and the people behind the titles, Bureau.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 115 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike say goodbye to the actual action of the film with a thought about a Victorian and English Gothic aesthetic as captured by Americans like Todd Haynes and Terry Gilliam, Jenny talks about being a “third culture kid” and Mike talks about British creators who aren’t able to go the other way, how this film is ultimately just a snapshot of a very rarefied pantheon and how an entire story is happening outside the narrow frame of the film, and as we look at a montage of schoolkids looking up, a bunch of umbrellas in motion on the London pavement, and a candlelit pub during the miners’ strikes in 1974, we take a moment to do a last-minute Marxist analysis of the film as a whole and a look at the social, political, and cultural impact of the transistor radio.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 114 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike talk about our final looks at Mandy and the Flaming Creatures watching Jack onstage, the honor given to Brian, Curt, and Malcolm in the silkscreen projections on the curtain at the end of the concert, and our final return to Arthur and Curt on the roof in a misty snow of nostalgia.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 113 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at Arthur’s dopey joyful grin, at Arthur’s closing narration and the idea of allowing oneself personal and sexual freedom, how Brian got to have it both ways and how that interacts with the Tommy Stone persona, how all that interacts with the final incontrovertible proof of Jenny’s Theory we’re shown at our final flashback to the Death of Glitter concert, and again, the unbearable poignancy of “2HB” as delivered in this final sequence.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 112 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike talk about Arthur’s Great Refusal of the Oscar Wilde pin, the beauty of old-style vinyl-playing jukeboxes and Mike’s childhood jukebox-and-pizza memories, the masterful nostalgic reprise of “2HB” in this final montage of the movie, the awkward, longing goodbye between Arthur and Curt, how badly we want them to be together, Jenny reveals the secret of the fanfic term “pepperjack cheese,” and the sleight-of-hand involved in dropping a choking hazard into a bottle of beer.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 111 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at the history of the legendary green pin (and our awesome pins available on Patreon), take a side trip to Mike’s intimidating leather jacket-wearing college years, talk about the problems of provenance in Mike’s Museum Corner, especially when it comes to alien artifacts, our return to the beginning of the film through the pin, memories of the fairytale narrator who’s never appeared again, and how that fits Velvet Goldmine’s postmodern aesthetic, how Mike doesn’t like The Neverending Story, how cute Ewan McGregor is as 1984 Curt, how Curt’s dual flashbacks to his lovers Brian and Arthur use the same film stock and how that signifies nostalgia, Curt’s peeing off the side of the Rainbow Theater and the role of urine in gay and in transgressive art from Warhol to Mapplethorpe to Serrano, how the pin represents something Arthur still cannot access within himself, and how the pin represents handing on an artistic, musical, and cultural legacy.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 110 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny talk about what kind of swear words English people can’t say authentically, Curt’s use of an Oscar Wilde quote in talking to Arthur and his possible tacit support for Brian’s artistic change, what Curt is up to artistically in the ‘80s and what his real-life analogues, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, were up to in our ‘80s, what the kids are listening to in the Velvet Goldmine universe, how the kids in our ‘80s were helped by the second wave of American hardcore punk, Curt’s comment on how the glam scene didn’t change the world, just themselves, how Dorian Gray hovers over this set of questions, and how Tommy Stone hovers over the grim music fans of the 1980s.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 109 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny look at Arthur and Curt’s long-promised reunion ten years after their rooftop tryst, Arthur’s flabbergasted approach and Curt’s 1984 look with a ponytail, and the fact that Curt doesn’t remember Arthur (or does he?), Curt’s attending the Tommy Stone show (or does he?), and the beginning of Arthur and Curt dancing around the secret identity of Tommy Stone.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 108 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny break down the scene where Arthur gives his Tommy Stone press pass to a young Tommy Stone fan, who just happens to be Whole Shebang friend of the podcast Nadia Williams! In this episode, all is revealed about Christian Bale’s on-set preparation methods and what happened at the Velvet Goldmine afterparty thanks to a listener mail sent in by Nadia! We also talk about what it’s like to briefly touch the band by getting a press pass or a set list at a gig, checking out the wall decorations and jukebox at what we assume is Curt’s bar, and, after finding out the name of Tommy Stone’s tour, “Juke Box Jive,” the blight of jukebox musicals.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 107 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny sit through the rest of Tommy Stone’s presser, talk about massive stadium tours of yesteryear, including Bowie’s Glass Spider Tour in 1987 and U2’s Zoo TV Tour in 1992, the spectacle involved in these tours, on ‘80s Broadway, and on ‘80s digital compact discs, Mike’s first gig: a pompous Zoo TV U2 and a fractious about-to-break-up Pixies opening for them, Jenny’s desperate hatred of U2, and then it’s back to Tommy Stone’s press conference, Arthur’s reaction to both his fellow “journalists” and Tommy Stone’s showmanship, Arthur’s “outing” of Tommy in Reynolds’s America and what it means for the metaphors of the 1980s gay experience, Tommy’s backstage arrangements and how they differ from 1970s decadence, Tommy’s resemblance to a televangelist, the moment where Tommy sees Brian in his own Dorian Gray cathode-ray image, the grim bar where Arthur ends up after the gig, and Mike waxes rhapsodic on the genius of Arkanoid.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 106 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny finish up their time with Maxwell Demon’s goodbye number, the sprinkling of flower petals gets us talking about the secret origin of confetti and the fragility of avians, we look at Arthur in the crowd at the Tommy Stone show, Tommy Stone’s sorta-fascist logo, rock and roll logos throughout history, and rock and rollers who use symbols instead of words for their albums and own names. And then we talk about the personal dimension of Arthur in 1984, and how the world of music changed around him, and how Velvet Goldmine might be more about the personal rather than the political, going to gigs as a 40-something, and Tommy Stone’s impromptu stage door press conference, the egoistic impulse to market a mask of your own face, and Tommy’s weird mid-Atlantic accent.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 105 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike take dueling interpretations of the grand chandelier that appears at the end of this minute and use it as an excuse to talk about two of their favorite movies, Jenny gets into why she hates Close Encounters’s characters, then we get back to the set decoration and the statuary figures, and then we use the excuse of Maxwell Demon’s downfall and the UFO’s presence to talk about Oscar Wilde’s downfall, disgraced artists, and the continuing appeal of disgraced artists’ art and how some people will still work with disgraced artists despite the ignominy.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 104 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike begin their look at Maxwell Demon’s swan song, “Tumbling Down” by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, Alan Parsons’s involvement as producer, Maxwell Demon’s visual presentation in this sequence as an amalgamation of Maxwell and Brian Slade himself, the broken theater setting of this sequence, how the scenery reminds us of the dichotomy of Maxwell Demon as fusion and Apollonian and Dionysian, how Steve Harley reacted to the use of “Tumbling Down,” and how Todd Haynes as an American had to actively seek out British culture in the form of glam, and how American culture doesn’t require that kind of work from British fans.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 103 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at Arthur’s very sexful way of taking off his shirt and how difficult the “crossed-arm” method is to pull off smoothly, Curt’s brief flashback (or flashforward) as Arthur and Curt come together, and Arthur’s taking mescaline before the evening’s events and how many hallucinogens, like DMT, simulate alien contact, and how Jenny is a true believer in the UFO and its glitterdust sprinkling down over Arthur and Curt, Arthur and Curt’s lovemaking and how Curt compares it to being onstage, how this sequence breaks down the boundary in a quite literal sense between audience and artist, how the groupie experience allowed a girl in the 1970s to touch the feeling of being onstage, how we as the audience are watching Arthur, and how the identities of our protagonists are being melded and boundaries are breaking down.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 102 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike take a look at Arthur’s continued approach to Curt on the rooftop, Curt’s continued asking of personal questions of Arthur, Arthur’s engaging in dropping mescaline and how far he’s come since his days in his bedroom, a brief history of the Rainbow Theater, on which roof Curt and Arthur are hanging out right now, Curt’s cracking open an anachronistic pull-tab beer, their spotting of a shooting star, Arthur’s joy in having this time with Curt, and how this minute encapsulates the fan’s prototypical fantasy of hanging out with the band… among other things.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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In Minute 101 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at the aftermath of Brian’s incognito visit to the Death of Glitter show, Mandy and Curt’s continued definition of themselves in terms of Brian, Arthur’s reticence about Brian and paralysis in the face of Mandy and Curt and the tantalizing possibility that 1984 is Arthur’s fault, Curt and Arthur cruising each other, Arthur’s fashion, hair, and makeup and how they stick with the amateurishness of the fans throughout Velvet Goldmine, the various relationship mashup names from the movie, Curt’s questions for Arthur and how they betray his need for a human connection, and Arthur’s imminent experience with Curt and the profound fear, pressure, and intensity involved.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.
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