In Minute 78 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny look at Mandy’s statement about Maxwell Demon and Curt Wild being fictions, then we enter the recording studio to recap David Bowie’s producing Lou and Iggy, and listen in to “My Unclean,” an original song made for the movie meant to unite the grunge and glam aesthetics into a proto-punk and how the folks in the studio just don’t get it, then cover the rock movie cliché of fights in the recording studio, look at Brian and Curt mentor-mentee relationship in terms of Oscar and Bosie, the reactions of the Venus in Furs, Mandy, and Jerry to Curt’s studio indulgence, and talk a little about Abbey Road studios… and the Abbey Road webcam.
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In Minute 77 of The Whole Shebang, we finish looking at Arthur and Mandy’s confrontation about Arthur hearing the rest of the story of the fall of Brian Slade, take a brief silly detour into talking about goths’ mycological method of reproduction, Arthur’s ambivalence about his glam fandom in the 1984 period and how the movie expertly uses the two time periods to reveal details of the characters, the power of nostalgia, its inherent melancholy, and how it is the engine at the center of Velvet Goldmine, how we can’t trust Arthur’s perceptions of 1984 and how Arthur’s grim view of the world could have to do with his finally growing up, how Arthur’s attitude about the Brian Slade story has taken a complete 180 from disdain to fascination, Mandy’s complex opinion of Curt as an empty symbol and Arthur’s reaction to this, and Mandy’s apparent mood ring!
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In Minute 76 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny look at Mandy’s discovery of the empty bedroom and the very perfunctory and telegrammatic goodbye note that Brian leaves, other brief notes from pop culture (including Cabaret and a very interesting Twitter account featuring Postcards from the Past), Brian’s reference to Hammersmith, the real-life Hammersmith Odeon/Apollo, and some of the big artists who’ve performed there, including Bowie, Kate Bush, and Eddie Izzard (and the reference to it in the title of Motörhead’s classic live album No Sleep ‘Till Hammersmith), then we swing back to 1984 and judge Arthur’s skill as a journalist, how he’s changed from the vulnerable kid we’ve been seeing in the 1970s portions of the movie, the meaningful look that Mandy gives the barman, and his cornering Mandy to get the final bits of the breakup story from her.
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Minute 71: The Rock Equivalent of a Doily
Minute 72: Rubbing Our Shoulders In Unison
Minute 73: Walking Out The Door
Minute 74: Excessively, Guiltily Naked
Minute 75: It Could Be Shannon
In Minute 75 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike continue to look at Shannon and Mandy’s conversation post-orgy, Mandy’s condescending patronizing interpretation of Shannon’s feelings, the use of Jack Fairy’s music to denote Mandy’s coming loss of Brian, and Mandy discovering Brian and Curt gone after having spent the night together.
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In Minute 74 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike see Arthur leave home for London, and talk about the ‘60s and ‘70s phenomenon of teenagers striking out on their own as embodied by the Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home” and the influx of young hippie (and gay) youth heading to San Francisco, and the difference between teenage rebellion in the US and UK. And then it’s back to “the morning after the night before,” as Shannon and Mandy have a morning-after heart-to-heart about Brian, and we speculate on whether really is emotionally invested in Brian, trying to intentionally sow discord between Brian and Mandy, or some combination of the two, and then we talk about the famous discovery of Angie Bowie, when she supposedly found David Bowie and Mick Jagger in bed together.
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In Minute 73 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike continue to look at Arthur’s falling out with his parents, his dad as a non-stereotypical homophobic father figure and Arthur’s mum’s conflicted emotions as she recedes into the background, the violation of Arthur’s former sanctuary in the form of his bedroom, and the unexpectedly anti-climactic ending to the confrontation with his parents. Then we return to the orgy to find Curt leading Brian off, Pied Piper-style, to a private assignation, and how Shannon and Mandy both notice Brian walking out the door.
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In Minute 72 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike continue to look at the orgy in great, voyeuristic detail, but also look at what the orgy says about various characters’ evolutions: Shannon’s turning point in becoming powerful and ruthless, Mandy’s hedonistic exhibitionism slowly turning to jaded cynicism, Curt’s intense, almost monogamous desire for Brian, and voyeurism as it relates to this scene, and to Warhol’s legendary voyeuristic near-asexuality. Then we go back up to Manchester to watch Arthur’s heartbreaking confrontation with his parents about his sexuality and examine the ongoing problem for gay youth of being disowned and finding themselves without a home and support.
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In Minute 71 of The Whole Shebang, Jenny and Mike look at Brian turning into a scuttling wounded lizard under the sonic assault of Curt's guitar solo, Arthur's inner conflict at his gay desire for Brian and Curt, the mechanics and acoustics of having a teenage wank, and the depiction of the ambivalent sexual experiences of both Arthur and Shannon.
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Minute 66: Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young
Minute 67: Vain Sinners and Truth-Telling Masks
Minute 68: Rewriting History
Minute 69: Kurt With a K
Minute 70: An All-Caps Salon Orgy
In Minute 70 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny take the briefest of glimpses at the coming orgy, Shannon’s initiation into the decadence of the rock and roll world in that whirlwind New York City weekend, Jerry’s smug satisfaction at being the initiator, and more of Curt and Brian’s ever-circling stagecraft, the sexual poetics of the electric guitar as embodied by Jimi Hendrix’s playing the guitar with his teeth and Chuck Berry’s duck walk, and the inherent ouch factor involved in tonguing or teething electric guitar strings.
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In Minute 69 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny usher in “the ‘Baby’s on Fire’ sequence,” with a quick discussion of the song, of Brian and Curt on stage together for the very first time, and how this staging reminds us of David Bowie’s “John, I’m Only Dancing” video, Iggy Pop, and Kurt Cobain, and then we go deep into Nirvana and the iconography of Kurt Cobain, and the syncretic union of aesthetics that Nirvana’s brand of grunge embodied, and Arthur’s much more sexually-charged appreciation of glam behind the closed doors of his bedroom.
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In Minute 68 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny talk about Curt’s decision to group Brian with the Loveliest Men in Europe, the history of the concept of natural law in an effort to demonize homosexuality, the parallels between Curt and Brian’s kiss in this minute and Mandy and Brian’s kiss, the blue backdrop evoking not only Brian’s/Maxwell’s signature color but also Derek Jarman’s Blue and West Side Story, and then the dedication to a letter to Dorian Gray, the comparative chasteness of the kiss and the reasons behind that choice, and the first gay kisses in film.
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In Minute 67 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny talk about the media circus with Brian as its center, the nature of the music press and its ability to be manipulated, Oscar Wilde’s quote about wearing a mask allowing one to speak the truth, whether or not all dandies are indeed homosexual, who the absent “author” of this scene is, and the disruptive, American presence of Curt Wild to cut through the artifice.
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In Minute 66 of The Whole Shebang, Mike and Jenny talk about whether Oscar Wilde should legitimately have a co-screenwriter credit on Velvet Goldmine, whether the film sent young fans scrambling off to find where these quotes came from, the plush carpeting of the 1970s, more thoughts on the epigrammatic near-meaninglessness of Wilde’s The Critic As Artist, our constant fashion lodestone Freddi and his Versailles look and the visual call-out of Rocky Horror in Angel’s outfit, Wilde’s work being used against him at his trial and what Wilde’s works say about Victorian gender politics, aesthetics, and women’s rights. And then we talk about the circus as a paragon of queerness, the history of those who are physically different, and we finish with the metatextual quality of our characters reading off of cue cards and Curt giving the movie audience an arch look.
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