Sara Goes to Hollywood

I. Record. Your. Podcast. I record it up! Join Sara and Brendan for an oil-booming deep dive into Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 masterpiece There Will Be Blood. There will be adventurous interpretations of the film’s rich symbolism. There will be diverting digressions on extraction equipment. And there will of course be another particularly petroleum-perfumed portion of poetry corner. I’ll have what she’s drilling!

Sara 95 manifesto. Rule 1. The 1998 Danish drama Festen must be discussed, paying particular attention to the film’s unconventional cinematography and dark themes. Rule 2. The film must be placed in context of the Dogma 95 movement. Rule 3. Comparisons must be drawn with other works by director Thomas Vinterberg and the film’s spiritual descendants must be mentioned. Rule 4. Poetry corner must return for a basically bacchanalian bonanza of haphazard haikus.

Read my lips: in space, no one can hear you screen 2001: A Space Odyssey, but they can sure as Hal hear you podcast. Join commander Sara and lieutenant Brendan as we voyage through a few million years of human history chatting spaceship interior design, hominid habits, and how you can tell when you’re in a vortex. Plus stratospheric haiku harmonies return in a nebulously neoclassical edition of poetry corner. Houston, we have a podcast. 

It’s not your fault that Brendan and Sara watched Good Will Hunting. It’s not your fault that they discussed the nature of genius, the parallels with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s careers, and the meaning of ‘them apples’. It’s not your fault that they found the slow motion fight scene bizarre and cheesy. It’s not your fault that there was more haiku-based hilarity in a bountifully Bostonian edition of poetry corner. It’s not your fault.

Sara and Brendan hit the slopes to glide through Ruben Östlund’s alpine romp Force Majeure (2014). An avalanche of accurate synopsis and insightful commentary descends over the pod as we chat ski infrastructure, primal screaming, and holiday childcare etiquette. Après-ski, a blizzard of beauty beckons in a suitably sublime iteration of poetry corner. Don’t look down!

Don’t worry listeners: it’s not a war film! Sara and Brendan don their hats and booties to brave the long, long winter of Groundhog Day. We discuss this seasonal classic’s manifold meanings, including the inevitability of death, the futility of forecasting, and (once again) the importance of hobbies. Plus the eternal poetry corner recurs with a flamboyantly French foray into haiku wisdom. Whatever happens tomorrow, or for the rest of my life, I'm happy now… because I love podcasting.

You can’t just tap people on the shoulder anymore - you have to hit them with a podcast. In this episode, Sara and Brendan team up to investigate the fiendish crimes of David Fincher’s slick 1995 thriller Se7en. There’s thoughtful reflection on the pleasures of counting, biblical exegesis, and le Corbusier furniture; plus of course your usual dose of haiku medicine in poetry corner. Don’t miss this episode’s conclusion, where we unveil Mansplaining Moments, a new segment devised to punish the eighth deadly sin: male pedantry. This isn’t going to have a happy ending…

Listen up, maggot! We believe in two things: discipline and podcasting. Join us as we do some hard time in New England’s finest penitentiary with the Shawshank Redemption. We chat prison design, Michel Foucault, and smoking while incarcerated. Plus there’s haiku fun as always in a radically reform-minded edition of poetry corner. Get busy listening, or get busy podcasting.