Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 18th-century France with Perfume: The Story of a Murderer! Join us as we learn about tanneries, the town of Grasse, infanticide, perfumers' guilds, and more! Sources: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/perfume-the-story-of-a-murderer-2007 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/perfume_the_story_of_a_murderer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume:_The_Story_of_a_Murderer_%28film%29 A.O. Scott, https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/27/movies/27perf.html Tracey Rizzo (2004) Between dishonor and death: infanticides in the causes célèbres of eighteenth-century...
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Walker
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to a weird, weird version of 19th-century Nicaragua with Walker! Join us as we learn about William Walker's ill-fated efforts in Sonora, the Filibuster War, the El Nicaraguense newspaper, and more! Sources: Monty Python's Flying Circus Sketch: "Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad Days'": https://youtu.be/XL54pji1nfA?si=o0UbrhVH1ewe3p3J Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_(film) Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/walker Roger Ebert's Review: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/walker-1987 Craig J Clark, "Alex Cox Says Goodbye--and Good Riddance--To...
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Freaky Tales
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1987 Oakland with Freaky Tales! Join us as we learn about punk v. skinhead battles, Sleepy Floyd, Operation Ivy, and more! Sources: Southern Poverty Law Center, Timeline of the Racist Skinhead Movement: https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/timeline-racist-skinhead-movement/ Christopher Phelps, "Skinheads: The New Nazism," Marxists.org: https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/atc/10048.html Steve Knopper, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off: How Black Flag, Bad Brains, and More Took Back Their Scene from White Supremacists,"...
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Citizen X
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the Soviet Union of the 1980s with Citizen X! Join us as we learn about the people who hunted Andrei Chikatilo, the myth of eyes retaining the last image they see before they die, blood typing tests, leather jackets, and more! Sources: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_X Monday Morning Critic Interview with Chris Gerolmo: https://youtu.be/OTgt3qA8bE4?si=KPSXouQ0xBQoTONS Rare Historical Photos: 1980s Soviet Fashion: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/soviet-fashion-from-1980s/ Ebay, Vintage NKVD Coat:...
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Catherine Called Birdy
Did That Really Happen?
NOTE: Due to a technical mishap, there are some issues with Jamie's audio quality in this episode. We apologize and promise the issue will be fixed in our next episode. This week we're traveling back to the Middle Ages with Catherine Called Birdy! Join us as we talk about medieval birthing practices, book ownership, citrus, farts, why "butt trumpet" should become a widely used phrase, and more! Sources: Butt trumpet marginalia in the Rothschild Canticles, c. 1300, MS 404, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University,...
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Nickel Boys
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the 1960s with Nickel Boys! Join us as we learn about the horrific excavations of the Dozier School, the circulation of MLK speeches, Mexican-American identity in the South, and more! Sources: David Canfield Interview with RaMell Ross and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Vanity Fair: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/nickel-boys-telluride-exclusive-awards-insider?srsltid=AfmBOor0GmWj9WdElwUsFDSFjin9iJFcXiJGYeKF1ZkLFVGHvogkPHAI How Nickel Boys Was Filmed in First-Person POV:...
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Marie Antoinette
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to 18th century France with Marie Antoinette! Join us as we learn about Marie' and Louis' not great sex life, giving birth in public, Marie's journey to France, scandalous pamphlets, and more! Sources: Cara Mia DiMassa, "That Austrian Woman," Los Angeles Times (2001). https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-oct-21-bk-59630-story.html Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: The Journey (audiobook) John Hardman, Marie-Antoinette: The Making of a French Queen (Yale University Press, 2019) https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvnwbx1c Charlotte Hodgman, "16 things...
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Joy
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to 1970s Britain with Joy! Join us as we learn about the real people who invented IVF, including Patrick Steptoe, Jean Purdy, and Matron Muriel, as well as how papers like the Daily Mirror covered the whole thing. Sources https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/nov/10/screenwriter-jack-thorne-ivf-joy-film-netflix https://deadline.com/2024/10/joy-movie-thomasin-mckenzie-shines-as-test-tube-baby-pioneer-in-joy-1236115393/ https://time.com/7178799/joy-true-story-jean-purdy-netflix/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_(2024_film) Litynski GS. Patrick C. Steptoe:...
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Sinners
Did That Really Happen?
We're traveling back to the 1930s Mississippi Delta with Sinners! Join us as we learn about fake plantation money, "Rocky Road to Dublin", Chinese-American communities in Mississippi, hoodoo, and more! Sources: John Jung, "Chinese for the South: Mississippi Delta Chinese Migration Chains," in Zhang, Wenxian, et al. Far East, Down South: Asians in the American South. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2016. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/49183. "Shaolu Yu, ""Placing Racial Triangulation, Triangulating Place and Race: Chinese Grocery Stores in the Mississippi Delta during the Jim Crow...
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Strange Way of Life
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're going back to the 19th century American West with Strange Way of Life (Our first episode on a short film)! Join us as we learn about facial hair, wineskins, and plenty of other cowboy stuff! Sources: https://lastreszzz.com/en/history/?srsltid=AfmBOoojnNidxyQUlHy6ROfjs2IvEFdIFplsf640inYm1hGcpgOSP9teChristopher Oldstone-Moore, "Mustaches and Masculine Codes in Early Twentieth-Century America," Journal of Social History 45:1 (2011): 47-60. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41678816 F. Gercher, Man with mustache and goatee, facing left, half-length portrait, platinum print,...
info_outlineIt's a new year, so it's once again time for our annual special episode on depictions of the future! Join us as we take a look at 2019-as-imagined-in-1981's Blade Runner, with discussions of gas flares, Japanese influence on American culture, the resurgence of 1940s fashion, and more!
Sources:
Ryan Britt, "Blade Runner: How Its Problems Made It a Better Movie," Den of Geek, available at https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/blade-runner-making-of-history/
Roger Ebert Review: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blade-runner-directors-cut-1992
Ben Sherlock, "Like Tears in Rain," Screen Rant, available at https://screenrant.com/blade-runner-behind-scenes-facts-ridley-scott-harrison-ford-sci-fi-movie/
Daniel Gillespie, "Blade Runner Star Says He Ad-libbed the Movie's Most Iconic Line," Screen Rant, available at https://screenrant.com/blade-runner-edward-james-olmos-ad-lib-details/
Rachel Leishman, "The Blade Runner Discourse is Never-ending," Mary Sue, available at https://www.themarysue.com/blade-runner-discourse/
Hannah Huber, "The 2019 Fashion Trends You’ll Still Be Wearing in 2020," Glamour https://www.glamour.com/gallery/best-fashion-trends-2019
Sarah Siegal, "These Were the Makeup Trends We Saw Everywhere This Year," PopSugar https://www.popsugar.com/beauty/makeup-trends-2019-45624809
https://poetryincostume.com/2018/03/15/how-blade-runners-rachael-encapsulated-a-moment-of-fashion-zeitgeist/
Avery Matera, "9 2019 Fashion Trends You'll See Everywhere," Teen Vogue (2019) https://www.teenvogue.com/gallery/popular-fashion-trends-2019
https://www.sitelinesb.com/what-happened-to-the-gas-flame-on-highway-101/
https://youtu.be/mt-4ttjYSzg?si=TKwBXRWXJeiSSe3h
"Gas flaring: What is it and why is it a problem?" BBC (2022) https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63051458
https://lamag.com/news/ask-chris-orange-hydrocarbon-fairy
https://www.aqmd.gov/home/rules-compliance/compliance/r1118/flare-operators
https://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/air-quality/historical-data-by-year/2019-air-quality-data-tables.pdf?sfvrsn=8
https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/memory-manipulated
Satan Wants You https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/this-book-plunged-the-world-into-a-terrifying-obsession-with-satanic-cults-in-the-1980s-1.7031992
"The Phenomenon of 'Japan Bashing' in US-Japanese Relations," Journal of American Studies, available at https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/225129904.pdf
Lessons for Today from the US-Japan Trade War of the 1980s, NPR, available at https://www.npr.org/2019/05/20/725139664/lessons-for-today-from-the-u-s-japan-trade-war-of-the-1980s
US Census Quick Facts, Demographics of Los Angeles: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/losangelescitycalifornia/PST045222
Terry Gross, "Hollywood Relies on China to Stay Afloat. What Does That Mean for Movies?" NPR, available at https://www.npr.org/2022/02/21/1081435029/china-hollywood-movies-censorship-erich-schwartzel
James Tager, "Made in Hollywood, Censored by Beijing," PEN America, available at https://pen.org/report/made-in-hollywood-censored-by-beijing/#heading-14
Drew Dietsch, "The History of Anime's Journey to America," Fandom, available at https://www.fandom.com/articles/anime-history-america