With this freshly remastered edition of “DVD Is the New Vinyl,” another format war has been fought and won. But rather than the skirmish between Blu-ray and HD DVD (remember that one?) or VHS and Betamax (now we’re really dating ourselves), the podcast has trumped the listicle, two words that weren’t even around a decade ago. Beginning now and once a month, your somewhat humble video-store proprietor will be chatting with a trio of renowned guests about the grooviest new DVD and Blu-ray releases. Listen up!
Podcast Intro Music: VHS or Beta, “Bring on the Comets”
SPECIAL GUEST #1: Kathleen Hanna on “Night of the Comet”
Intro Music: The Julie Ruin, “Cookie Road”
Kathleen Hanna is a feminist activist, punk icon (best known as the singer/songwriter of Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, and the Julie Ruin), and the subject of Sini Anderson‘s terrific new documentary “The Punk Singer,” releasing theatrically on November 29th from IFC Films. On the podcast, we riff on Thom Eberhardt‘s femme-centric, post-apocalyptic 1984 sci-fi/horror/comedy “Night of the Comet” (Shout! Factory, BD/DVD combo, available now). If you’re curious about the 1979 BBC doc “Who Is Poly Styrene?” that Hanna praises, that can be found here.
SPECIAL GUEST #2: Mike Birbiglia on “My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend”
Intro Music: Deerhunter, “Sleepwalking”
Mike Birbiglia is an actor, comedian, and the writer-director of last year’s Sundance Audience Award winning comedy “Sleepwalk With Me.” On the podcast we discuss “My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend” (New Wave Dynamics, DVD, available November 26th), a filmed performance of Birbiglia’s poignantly funny one-man show about his lifetime of romantic mishaps. As one of Video Free Brooklyn’s customers, you better believe he’s getting a free rental out of this, as soon as he’s off his 2014 tour.
SPECIAL GUEST #3: Joshua Rothkopf on “City Lights”
Intro Music: Charlie Chaplin, “City Lights: Overture”
Joshua Rothkopf is a senior film critic for Time Out New York and the chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle. On the podcast, we delve into what many—including Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick and Robert Bresson—have considered to be Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece, 1931’s “City Lights” (Criterion, BD/DVD combo, available now), fittingly titled onscreen as “a comic romance in pantomime.”
Podcast Outro Music: Lou Reed, “City Lights”
10 WORTH A SPIN (November 2013, as mentioned on the podcast):
“Animals” (2012, dir. Marçal Forés, Artsploitation, DVD)
“Blackfish” (2013, dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Magnolia, BD, DVD)
“Broken” (2012, dir. Rufus Norris, Film Movement, DVD)
“Computer Chess” (2013, dir. Andrew Bujalski, Kino Lorber, DVD)
“Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay” (2012, dir. Molly Bernstein, Kino Lorber, DVD)
“I Declare War” (2012, dir. Jason Lapeyre & Robert Wilson, Drafthouse Films, BD, DVD)
“Hannah Arendt” (2012, dir. Margarethe von Trotta, Zeitgeist Films, BD, DVD)
“Le Joli Mai” (1963, dir. Chris Marker, Icarus Films, DVD)
“The Vivien Leigh Anniversary Collection” (1937 – 1938, various directors, Cohen Media Group, BD, DVD)
“The Way We Were” (1973, dir. Sydney Pollack, Twilight Time, BD)
“DVD Is the New Vinyl” is co-presented by Video Free Brooklyn, three-time “Best Video Store in NYC.” For more info, please visit the VFB website.
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