Akira
Did That Really Happen?
It's a new year, so it's time for our New Year's tradition of taking a look at movies that tried to predict the future. This year, we're traveling to the year 2019 with Akira! Join us as we learn about the Tokyo Olympics, biker gangs, technical schools, riots, and more! Sources: 2020 Host City Election Announcement: https://www.olympics.com/ioc/2020-host-city-election Image of the Stadium: https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1087204/olympic-stadium-for-tokyo-2020-completed' January 2019 image, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kokuritsu_Kasumigaoka_Rikujo_Kyogijo-23a.jpg...
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Frankenstein (2025)
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to the 19th century with Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein! Join us as we learn about syphilis, big-ass blunderbusses, the Evelyn Tables, Arctic expeditions, and more! Sources: An account of divers schemes of arteries and veins, dissected from adult human bodies, and given to the repository of the Royal Society by John Evelyn, Esq; F. R. S. To which are subjoyn'd a description of the extremities of those vessels, and the manner the blood is seen, by the microscope, to pass from the arteries to the veins in quadrupeds when living: with some chirurgical...
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The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Did That Really Happen?
This week we're traveling back to a full century of American history with The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman! Join us as we learn about naming of enslaved people, "paddy rollers", Black communities in East Texas, and more! Sources: Sparks, Elmer E, and Celia Black. Interview with Celia Black, Tyler, Texas. Tyler, Texas, November , 10, 1974. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1975009_afs17476/. Sparks, Elmer E, and Charlie Smith. Interview with Charlie Smith, Bartow, Florida. Bartow, Florida, None , 3, 1975. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc1975023_afs17510/. Jennifer Davis, "A Voice from the...
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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...
info_outlineIt's a new year, so it's time for our New Year's tradition of taking a look at movies that tried to predict the future. This year, we're traveling to the year 2019 with Akira! Join us as we learn about the Tokyo Olympics, biker gangs, technical schools, riots, and more!
Sources:
2020 Host City Election Announcement: https://www.olympics.com/ioc/2020-host-city-election
Image of the Stadium: https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1087204/olympic-stadium-for-tokyo-2020-completed'
January 2019 image, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kokuritsu_Kasumigaoka_Rikujo_Kyogijo-23a.jpg
Education Senmon Gakko: Japanese Vocational Education. Available at https://cordmagazine.com/education/education-senmon-gakko-japanese-vocational-education/
A Complete Guide to Senmon Gakkou in Japan: https://studyinjapan.org/a-complete-guide-to-senmon-gakkou-in-japan/
Rikkyo University Institute of Peace and Community Studies, "Local Responses to Prime Minister Abe's Attack on Article Nine and the Constitution," translated by Saito Yuriko,The Asia-Pacific Journal Vol. 14, issue 3, no. 5 (2016).
David Slater, Robin O'Day, Satsuki Uno, Love Kindstrand and Chiharu Takano, "SEALDs (Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy): Research Note on Contemporary Youth Politics in Japan," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue 37, No. 1, September 14, 2015.
Obe Mitsuro, "World News: Students Protest Japan Military Shift," The Wall Street Journal (2015).
Simon Denyer, "Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka speaks out for Black Lives Matter, faces backlash: Protests in Japan have reignited a debate over racism and policing. Osaka has also won support for speaking out," Washington Post (June 8, 2020).
Motoko Rich and Hikari Hida, "In Japan, the Message of Anti-Racism Protests Fails to Hit Home," New York Times (July 1, 2020).
Anna Fifield, "Fierce opponent of U.S. military bases in Okinawa detained for three months: A protest leader's continued detention without trial has triggered accusations that Japanese authorities are trying to silence him." Washington Post (2017).
"1969: Student Protestors Paralyze Tokyo in Anti-War Demonstrations," New York Times (reprinted October 22, 2019)
Alastair Gale, "Japan Pushes Ahead with Antiterrorism Bill; Government says legislation is needed as part of counterterrorism preparations for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo," Wall Street Journal (May 23, 2017).
Mariko Tamura, "Flower Demo: Fighting Sexual Violence in Japan," https://english.kyodonews.net/articles/-/16387
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_(1988_film)
Tom Usher, "How Akira has Influenced All of Your Favorite Film, TV, and Music," Vice, available at https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-akira-has-influenced-modern-culture/
https://akira.fandom.com/wiki/Akira_(anime)
https://www.yokogaomag.com/editorial/bosozoku-biker-gangs-of-japan
https://medium.com/@essie.angelica/the-rise-and-fall-of-japans-notorious-motorcycle-gang-ee31464c2406
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20251017/p2a/00m/0na/053000c
https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/30-years-akira-teenage-kicks-anime-style
Christopher Gerteis, "Cold War Warriors," in Mobilizing Japanese Youth: The Cold War and the Making of the Sixties Generation (Cornell University Press, 2021), 100-120.