In Minute 29 of The Whole Shebang, Mike, Jenny, and Amy talk about the undebatable genius of Toni Collette and the debatable genius of Muriel’s Wedding, Angie Bowie and how she inspired Jenny’s “Maiden-Mother-Crone” theory of rock-adjacent women, Angie Bowie’s visionary genius in steering David’s career, and how Amy came to first watch Velvet Goldmine!
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In Minute 28 of The Whole Shebang, Mike, Jenny and guest host Amy tackle the quite uncomfortable predatory undertones (and overtones) of Brian and a younger schoolboy, the discomfiting presence of sexual abuse in British public schools, among the gay jetset, and among 1960s and ‘70s British entertainers and rock and rollers, the cosmopolitan genderbending clientele (and dodgy supper menu) of the Sombrero Club, the changing drag aesthetic over the past half-century, the authenticity of the costumes, hair, and set decoration in Velvet Goldmine’s Sombrero Club, and our first look at Mandy Slade and the complicated cultural interchange between the UK and the US.
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In Minute 27 of The Whole Shebang, Mike, Jenny and special guest Amy look at the mod/rocker scene of the 1960s, ask each other whether we’re a mod or a rocker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers’s questionable Brummie accent and Christian Bale’s chameleonic accent, and the rather unfortunate (or perhaps deliberate?) use of Gary Glitter’s music in Velvet Goldmine.
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In Minute 26 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny are joined by old friend and English grad student Amy Mugglestone who helps them make sense of: Lindsay Kemp’s character’s fluid gender identity, the aesthetics of sleazy gay sexual awakenings, the history of male impersonation on the British stage as revealed by pantomime posters, the origins and etymology of “luvvie,” Brian’s parents’ postwar British middle-class decorating style, the unconvincing performance of “Tutti Frutti” by young Brian, the secret gay origins of “Tutti Frutti” and of Little Richard, white appropriation of black music from Pat Boone to David Bowie, the period in the 1950s where music hall and rock and roll shared bills, and the undeniable dramaturgical genius of putative Doctor Who Mr. Pastry.
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Every week, The Whole Shebang will collect and present Amazon links to the movies, music, and books we've talked about in each episode. Buy these or other Amazon items through these links to help support the podcast!
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Minute 21: Poor Arthur
Minute 22: Such A Genius
Minute 23: Unspeakably Beautiful Mugshots
Minute 24: Like The Pendulum Of A Grandfather Clock
Minute 25: A Little Of What You Fancy Does You Good
David Bowie performing "The Bewlay Brothers" live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhseae93RDg
Bowie Nudibranchs:
http://bowiebranchia.tumblr.com/
Thanks so much, everyone, for your support and love so far.
In Minute 25 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny, Mike, and Brant go deep into Brian Slade’s origins, beginning with his ostensible formative years in Birmingham, the cheeky travelogues of Jonathan Meades, the importance of the legacy of British music hall and its decline and fall in the 1950s, the queer coding and possible stereotyping within music hall, British entertainment in general and queer actors’ complicity in it, the history of cross-dressing on the British stage, Lindsay Kemp and his influence on young (and old) Bowie, the importance of David Bowie’s half-brother Terry Burns to his formative years, and we have our very first ChallengeBowie segment, where listener Laura Darby Singh takes on Bowie in her specialty skill of… saving apes!
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In Minute 24 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny, Mike, and Brant talk about the character of Cecil, Brian Slade’s manager, the meaning of Cecil’s hospital stay in the context of the 1980s, AIDS, conversion therapy, and gay-bashing, Cecil’s real-life inspirations in the forms of Noel Coward and Ken Pitt, gay mentorship, young David Bowie’s propensity for walking around naked, Bobby Beausoleil and Joe Orton, and Velvet Goldmine’s desire to show us its characters’ origins and whether or not they’re truly important.
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In Minute 23 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny, Mike, and Brant cover the rest of the Curt Wild/Jack Fairy Berlin interview and their possible secret agendas, the questionably believable post-hoax career of Brian Slade, David Bowie’s own arrest for drug possession and the sometimes obscure corners of the world covered by the 1976 Isolar Tour, the difficulties of doing research pre-Google, a look at Melody Maker magazine, a quick introduction to Brian’s first manager Cecil, Brant takes us through how he found Velvet Goldmine through role-playing games, and we seek Alien Rocker Zero.
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In Minute 22 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny, Mike, and special guest Brant Casavant cover Arthur’s formative music journalism experiences, David Bowie’s precocious/pretentious genius in his early interviews, the immersively retro experience of microfiche research, hoax celebrity deaths, fake celebrity deaths, and whether the fan reaction to Brian Slade’s hoax makes sense in the real world, our first look at Eddie Izzard as Jerry Devine and his real-life inspirations, yet more Eno and his deck of Oblique Strategies, our first look at Curt Wild and Jack Fairy in West Berlin, and a Fight Club-esque theory from Jenny.
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In Minute 21 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike are joined by special guest and Bowie superfan Brant Casavant to discuss: music journalists who go into music and vice versa, stories of our personalizing our teenage bedroom walls, Velvet Goldmine’s care in reproducing the look of Bowie’s early album covers, the history of the New Musical Express, escaping your disapproving parents and dressing the way you want to, and the inherent contradictions in trying to fitting in with a rebellious movement.
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In Minute 20 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny marvel at Jonathan Rhys Meyers’s saucy come-hither stare on the cover of The Ballad of Maxwell Demon, Arthur’s private bedroom sanctum full of LPs, posters, clippings, and chips (crisps), the absolute domination of the early 1970s pop landscape by various Osmonds, take a peek into the Music Star Annual ‘75 to see what mid-’70s astrologers had to say about Jimmy Osmond and Gary Glitter, and yes, Mike takes the “Could You Be Donny Osmond’s Bride” quiz.
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In Minute 19 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny talk about the rock vs. glam rivalry, dealing with musically-disapproving older siblings, the etymology of “bloody Nora,” Elton John’s first soundtrack album, and go very deep into our own record-buying experiences in the 1990s.
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In Minute 18 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny talk about surviving boring high school classes through fantasy, the quintessential perfection of Velvet Goldmine’s depiction of the 1970s record-buying experience and Jenny’s assertion that shopping montages will improve any film, a deep look at the records on the shelf at Arthur’s record shop, some talk about Slade (no relation to Brian) and both the very British phenomena of Christmas singles… and boyfriend-girlfriend team serial killers.
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In Minute 17 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny look at the poem “Antigonish” by William Hughes Mearns, haunted houses, the inherent humor value of creepy celebrity masks, the New York subway and subway graffiti in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Christian Bale giving good sad face, the vital importance of The Picture of Dorian Gray to Velvet Goldmine, Dorian Gray’s own contemporary controversy over its decadent and gay content, British kitchen-sink drama, and the aesthetic hermeneutics of Itchy & Scratchy.
Find us on the web at thewholeshebangpodcast.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon at wholeshebangpod.