April « 2022 « Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

Archive for April, 2022

Episode 494: Sidekicks to the Bear

April 29th, 2022 | Robin

In an episode dedicated to recreating for posterity the good half of an old installment that has since gone missing, the Gaming Hut looks at campaigns where most of the PCs are sidekicks to a superior hero.

In the Tradecraft Hut we examine the career of former Putin aide Vladislav Surkov, the so-called Gray Cardinal behind Russia’s foray into postmodern authoritarianism, now under house arrest for Ukraine-related failures.

The Mythology Hut rises from the waves at the behest of beloved Patreon backer Toonspew, who wants to know about the kingdom of Ys.

And back to the recreation, the Consulting Occultist provides a profile of 13th century magician Roger Bacon.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

Score a blood-drenched special bonus from Pelgrane Press when you order the print edition Night’s Black Agents Dracula Dossier Director’s Handbook or any of its associated bundles. A new 50-page Cuttings PDF of deleted scenes and horrors that didn’t fit is now available for a limited time with the voucher code VAMP2021.

The treasures of Askfageln can be found at DriveThruRPG. Get all issues of FENIX since 2013 available in special English editions. Score metric oodles of Ken Hite gaming goodness, along with equally stellar pieces by Graeme Davis and Pete Nash. Warning: in English, not in Swedish. In English, not Swedish. While you’re at it, grab DICE and Freeway Warrior!

Delta Green: Black Sites collects terrifying Delta Green operations previously published only in PDF or in standalone paperback modules. They lock bystanders and Agents alike in unlit rooms with the cosmic terrors of the unnatural. A 208 page hardback by masters of top secret mythos horror Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Shane Ivey, and Caleb Stokes.

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Northman, a 100 Year Old Celebrity Autobiography, and Every Roderick Alleyn Novel

April 26th, 2022 | Robin

Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.

The Moralist (Film, Italy, Giorgio Bianchi, 1959) The ambitious new executive of a moral pressure group (Alberto Sordi) and his patrician boss (Vittorio De Sica) separately engage in covert shenanigans. Sly comedy centered on the eternal truth that it’s the crusaders against vice who are the pervs and grifters,—RDL

My Life (Nonfiction, Emma Calvé, 1923) Celebrity autobiography of the late 19th century French opera star, whose performances of Carmen in America earned her enough money to buy a castle in her hometown, aims to delight with well-polished anecdotes in a suitably high-flown voice. Unfortunately for those of us researching her for an upcoming Yellow King RPG project, her personal life, including her long relationship with occult author Jules Bois, goes entirely unmentioned.—RDL

The Northman (Film, US, Robert Eggers, 2022) 10th-century Danish Prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) seeks revenge on his uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang) for killing his father King Aurvendil (Ethan Hawke). Under the wolfskin of a Viking Conan, Eggers illuminates a world of pagan wyrd, alternating deliberate alienation with familiar Shakespearean beats and savage action. Willem Dafoe stands out as the proto-Yorick shaman Heimir, and Bang shows menace and just a hint of pathetic pride to great effect. –KH

Good

Every Roderick Alleyn Novel (Fiction, Ngaio Marsh, 1934-1982) Roderick Alleyn, the Shakespeare-quoting, handsome, aristocratic Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard, spans the gap between Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey and P.D. James’ Adam Dalgleish. Not as inventive (in plot or dialogue) as Sayers, and not as deep (in character and psychology) as James, Marsh still easily beats Christie for human stories, and her puzzles are reliably honest legerdemain, the best kind. The early novels have a Sayers-Wodehouse sort of air, and she never approaches the psychological starkness of late Allingham, but at her best (Surfeit of Lampreys, Scales of Justice, and the near folk-horror of Off With His Head, all Recommended) she combines knowing lightness, humanity, and cruelty better than most mystery writers. Many Alleyn novels have a theatrical setting, combining two hothouse genres with general success. –KH

Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill (Film, Japan, Kan Eguchi, 2021) Ultra-competent assassin turned errand runner must again deploy his skills in a non-lethal manner when he discovers a figure from his old life in the clutches of murderous scammers. Second installment of the series repeats its mix of oddball humor, melodrama and mayhem, placing its bravura action sequences at the top and at the end of the second act, with a dramatic standoff climax the characters aren’t rich enough to support.—RDL

Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction (Nonfiction, Chris D. Thomas, 2017) Surprising survey of the ways in which human-wrought environmental change has increased species diversity—admittedly in a manner offering scant consolation to fans of large mammals and flightless island birds. Clear but somewhat repetitive, as the author understandably has to keep reassuring us that even if he wants us to reconsider attitudes toward species migration, he isn’t suggesting a wholesale abandonment of conservation measures.—RDL

Okay

The Batman (Film, US, Matthew Reeves, 2022) With loyal police lieutenant Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) by his side, an early-career Batman (Robert Pattinson) detects his way through a Riddler murder spree and romances Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz.) An overlong, overcomplicated, overpopulated storyline immures a creditable take on the Gotham mythos.—RDL

Tags: Ken and Robin Consume Media

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Episode 493: That New Cleaning Acid

April 22nd, 2022 | Robin

With the Gremlins franchise coming back, warnings are on the mind of beloved Patreon backer Bryan. He beckons us into the back room of the Gaming Hut to ask how to handle them at the roleplaying table.

In Tour de Lovecraft: the Destinations, Ken tells us what Arkham was like during the period of HPL’s stories. In the Mythos Hut, we wonder what it looks like today.

We meet estimable backer Charles Picard in the Culture Hut, to take in a production of artist Wassily Kandinsky’s synesthetic play The Yellow Sound and wonder what that might have to do with the malign monarch of the same color.

Then we don our flannels for a trip down paranoid memory lane in the Conspiracy Corner, as we look at investigative journalist Danny Casolaro, the Inslaw case, and the web of intelligence connections he called the Octopus.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

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Tags: Conspiracy Corner, Culture Hut, Gaming hut, Mythos Hut

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Everything Everywhere, The Protege, Argentinean Noir and Italian Jack London

April 19th, 2022 | Robin

The Attorney (Film, South Korea, Woo-seok Yang, 2013) Convention-busting outsider lawyer (Song Kang-ho) becomes an unlikely foe of the 80s South Korean dictatorship when he takes on the case of a student tortured into a false subversion confession. Crowd-pleasing political courtroom drama powered by Song’s movie star charisma.—RDL

The Beast Must Die (Film, Argentina, Román Viñoly Barreto, 1952) When his son is killed in a hit and run accident, an urbane mystery novelist (Narciso Ibáñez Menta) vows to identify and kill the culprit. Menta’s interiorized performance contrasts with the big acting of his cast members in this atmospheric film noir character study, the first of several adaptations of a pseudonymously written mystery novel by Cecil Day-Lewis.—RDL

Everything Everywhere All At Once (Film, US, Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, 2022) Overstressed laundromat owner Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) discovers she’s the crux of the multiverse. Merely by not squandering Yeoh this film does better than almost any other thing she’s been in for decades; by allowing her a full emotional range from the quotidian to the cosmic it justifies a lot of (let’s face it) stupid comedy and cardboard metaphysics. The supporting cast (James Hong, Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephanie Hsu) is also terrific, as is the best Wong Kar-Wai parody/tribute you’re likely to see. –KH

Martin Eden (Film, Italy, Pietro Marcello, 2019) After meeting a sweet-natured girl from a well-to-do family, a sailor and laborer resolves to educate himself and become a writer. Adaptation of the Jack London autobiographical novel, relocated to Italy and with period details scrambled, compresses time with a refreshingly staccato editing style.—RDL

Good

The Protégé (Film, US, Martin Campbell, 2021) Assassin Moody (Samuel L. Jackson) rescues an orphan in 1991 Vietnam; she (Maggie Q) seeks revenge for his killing 20 years later. Maggie Q is always magnificent, but Campbell never quite decides if he’s making a hitman rom-com (Michael Keaton as love interest is a choice) or a revenge thriller or even a Freudian journey and as a result doesn’t quite do any of those things. Q and Keaton actually kind of mesh, and the spy-combat stuff is not at all bad thanks to Campbell’s pro chops, but it never actually hits high gear. –KH

Okay

Killing Eve Season 4 (Television, BBC, Laura Neal, 2022) As Villanelle (Jodie Comer) takes an unlikely stab at redemption, Eve (Sandra Oh) adopts a more kinetic role in hunting the Twelve. Sour fizzle of a final season loses track of its characters’ core qualities, cycling them through changes to have something for them to do.—RDL

Tags: Ken and Robin Consume Media

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Episode 492: More Feck in the Bank

April 15th, 2022 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut we provide advice on working with the GM to play a mastermind character.

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Drew, the History Hut goes all the way back to 2004 for the tale of the missing Sri Lankan handball team.

We venture into the Food Hut to provide estimable backer Derrick Yates with the Mythos truth behind the mysterious McRib.

Finally, we point Ken’s Time Machine at the 1822 Greek War of Independence to see what improvements he can make in the timeline.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tags: Food Hut, Gaming hut, History Hut, Ken's Time Machine

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Pulp Tarot, All the Old Knives, RRR, and a Tale of Two Hunts

April 12th, 2022 | Robin

The Pinnacle

The Pulp Tarot (Tarot deck, Todd Alcott, 2021) This full 78-card tarot deck translates the Rider-Waite-Smith deck of 1910 from its medieval mythology to the modern mythology of 20th-century pulp cover art. Alcott montages together several hundred source images to build a visually exciting, surprisingly deep set of arcana that genuinely honor and update the masterpieces of Pamela Colman Smith (and A.E. Waite) while sparking the imagination of the postmodern querent. Absolutely one of the three or four best Tarots I own. –KH [Note: The deck sells out fast. Follow Todd on Twitter @toddalcott to find out when a new print run goes on sale.]

All the Old Knives (Film, US, Janus Metz, 2022) When new information indicates a mole in the Vienna CIA station fed intel to terrorists during a 2012 hijacking, CIA agent Henry Pelham (Chris Pine) meets his former colleague (and ex) Celia Harrison (Thandiwe Newton) to uncover the truth. Very old-school spy film takes advantage of spartan COVID filming constraints to focus on Pine and Newton, their chemistry, and their enormous acting-as-lying skills: it’s essentially a two-hander dinner scene with flashbacks. Truth be told, it could probably have used one more twist, but it’s beautiful and unsettling enough as is. –KH

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (Film, US, Richard Linklater, 2022) Young Stan (Milo Coy) either has a very active imagination or gets recruited for a secret Apollo mission in early summer of 1969. At times, this delightful animated reminiscence threatens to just become a list of late-60s childhood signifiers, which might drop the film down to Good for those not blessed with a late-60s childhood. The narrative through-line, such as it is, works more by impression than progression, but did I want to see about four hours more of Stan’s family? Yes indeed, so something besides my own Space Age childhood and my love for Linklater may be at work here. –KH

House of Hummingbird (Film, South Korea, Bora Kim, 2019) Teenager looks for emotional connection outside of life cooped up with her alienated, abusive family. Beautifully rendered drama sets aside coming-of-age cliches through a character who starts out understanding life’s hard lessons.—RDL

The Hunt (Film, Denmark, Thomas Vinterberg, 2012) Community turns against a kindergarten teacher (Mads Mikkelsen) after he is mistakenly accused of abusing a student. Incisive, impeccably scripted drama revolves around the extraordinary special effect we know as Mads Mikkelsen.—RDL

RRR (Film, India, S.S. Rajamouli, 2022) When the hated British steal a Gond girl in 1920, Gond tribal protector Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao, Jr.) goes after her and only Indian Army officer Rama Raju (Ram Charan) can stop him. Spoiler: They team up and fight the hated British together. High-octane, literally super-patriotic action extravaganza presents a fictional team-up of two historical anti-British freedom fighters: much as if Michael Bay made a movie about Paul Revere and Francis Marion teaming up in 1765. Never a dull moment, and the CGI animals look better than most MCU fights. The human fights, meanwhile, hit a new high for Tollywood. –KH

Good

Aimless Bullet (Film, South Korea, Yu Hyun-mok, 1961) Two brothers, embittered veterans discarded by the society they saved, suffer in the slums of Seoul. Neorealist drama goes from bleak to brutal.—RDL

Torch Singer (Film, US, George Somnes & Alexander Hall, 1933) Notorious club singer (Claudette Colbert) becomes the host of a radio program for kiddies, enabling her to search for the daughter she put up for adoption. Colbert’s star power carries this rather easily resolved melodrama, aided by the swelegant dresses of costume designer Travis Banton.—RDL

Okay

The Hunt (Film, US, Craig Zobel, 2020) One stoic woman (Betty Gilpin) shows that she’s the wrong person to mess with when an assortment of red state Americans wake up in a forest to find they are being hunted for sport. Variant on The Most Dangerous Game makes mysteries both of its situation, and the screenplay’s satirical point. Spoiler: it’s fatuous.—RDL

Tags: Ken and Robin Consume Media

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Episode 491: Stormy Petrels of Crime

April 8th, 2022 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut, we look at the elements that ought to go into an introductory scenario.

Beloved Patreon backer Todd W. Olson has not left the building, but has rather entered the Culture Hut, as he asks how Elvis Presley’s 1968 Comeback Special might reverberate in Fall of DELTA GREEN.

In Ask Ken and Robin, esteemed backer Neil Barnes wonders what kind of superhero universe might be shifted into existence by the dread machinations of the King in Yellow.

Finally a Mother Jones piece by Rene Ebersole inspires an Eliptony Hut inquiry into the crank forensic science of corpse witching.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tags: Ask Ken and Robin, Culture Hut, Eliptony Hut, Gaming hut

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Ken and Robin Consume Media: Archive 81, Apollo 10½, and a Conspiracy-Riddled High Finance Scam

April 5th, 2022 | Robin

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood (Film, US, Richard Linklater, 2022) A tall tale about his covert moon landing prior to the official one frames a man’s reminiscences of growing up in a big family in 1969 Houston, an idyllic time when Baskin-Robbins and Astro-Turf were new, corporal punishment was dished out like breakfast, and you ran through DDT clouds and liked it. The trailer focuses on the fantasy sequence to make this look like a kid’s adventure movie, but don’t let that fool you. This animated memoir joins Dazed and Confused and Everybody Wants Some!!, as part of what is now a thematic trilogy.—RDL

Archive 81 (Television, US, Netflix, Rebecca Sonnenshine, 2022) Video archivist Dan (Mamoudou Athie) takes a job restoring footage taken by oral historian Melody (Dina Shihabi) from just before the 1994 fire that destroyed a haunted NYC apartment building and uncovers wouldn’t you know it a conspiracy. The two leads’ performances (withdrawn and outgoing) complement each other superbly despite almost no scenes together, a sign of the directorial talent that keeps this supernatural mystery from disappearing up its own mythology. Its own mythology is pretty cool, which helps. A somewhat weak ending was meant to set up the Season 2 that won’t happen now, so show-runners should maybe rethink this instinct. –KH

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (Film, US, Stanley Nelson Jr., 2019) It could be argued that a documentary about Miles should be as boundary-shattering as the jazz styles he continually adopted and discarded, but the story of those shifts is already complicated enough. This straightahead American Masters biography does the right thing by adding interviews and archival footage to extensive passages from his autobiography.—RDL

Octopus (Nonfiction, Guy Lawson, 2012) Desperate to save his hedge fund after hidden losses turn it into a de facto Ponzi scheme, eccentric trader Sam Israel falls into the orbit of a notorious conspiracy theory figure who salts his promises of an unbeatable high-stakes investment with tales of CIA hit teams, Yamashita’s gold, alien autopsies, and the real Zapruder film. The dictum that there’s no better mark than a scammer achieves its ultimate Ouroboros form in a gobsmacking high finance crime story where everyone seems to have fallen for the con.—RDL

Only Murders in the Building Season 1 (Television, US, Hulu, Steve Martin & John Hoffman, 2022) A washed-up TV actor (Steve Martin), a failed Broadway producer (Martin Short), and a young decorator (Selena Gomez) bond over true-crime podcasts and then start one of their own when one of their neighbors turns up murdered. With less delightful stars, this comedy-mystery might be accused of meandering for the sake of meandering, but no time spent with our characters feels wasted or forced, not least because of the superb comic timing they share. The result could almost be a minor-key city symphony, maybe a building sonata? –KH

Total Blackout: The Tamborine Extended Cut (Standup, Netflix, Chris Rock, 2021) Rock re-cut his 2018 special from Bo Burnham’s original version, and that should almost be ‘nuff said right there. The new version focuses on race, sex, and Rock’s own failings as a husband, adding both grit and truth and leaving the Trump material behind as yesterday’s news. –KH

Good

Dickinson Season 2 (Television, US, Apple+, Alena Smith, 2021) As her inamorata (Ella Hunt) keeps her distance, Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) flirts with publication of her poems and experiences an omen of the coming Civil War. Anachronistic comedy bio loses a touch of momentum in season two, hitting the shoals of the old “let’s separate the lovers” move.—RDL

The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure (Film, South Korea, Kim Jeong-Hoon, 2022) Virtuous pirate queen (Han Hyo-joo) teams with a bombastic yet annoyingly attractive bandit (Kang Ha-neul) to chase the looted treasure of the fallen Goryeo regime. Initially choppy storytelling redeemed by a fun final swashbuckling act.—RDL

Okay

International House (Film US, A. Edward Sutherland, 1931) Beer-guzzling gyrocopter pilot (W. C. Fields) crashes into a hotel in China where industrialists from around the world seek the patent on television, attracting the murderous ire of a Franco-Russian agent (Bela Lugosi.) That description leaves out much of the chaos of this nutty kitchen sink comedy, in which Jazz Age Kardashian precursor Peggy Hopkins Joyce is top-billed as herself and the McGuffin allows the dropping in of primordial music videos from Cab Calloway and Rudy Vallee.—RDL

Willy’s Wonderland (Film, US, Kevin Lewis, 2021) Murderous animatronic kid’s restaurant mascots get more than they bargained for when their human accomplices try to feed them an obsessively diligent traveler (Nicolas Cage.) Execution fails to live up to the premise, except when Cage is onscreen, giving it 110% in a wordless, self-referential role as every robot weasel’s worst nightmare..—RDL

Tags: Ken and Robin Consume Media

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Episode 490: They Left the Irony Bridge Intact

April 1st, 2022 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut we lay out goals the GM should set for convention games and other one-shots.

The Command Hut looks at an invasion of a smaller power by a larger one that has somewhat fallen down the memory hole: the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979.

Beloved Patreon backers such as Gabriel Rossman demanded that we address the escape of evil fox spirit Tamomo-n0-mae from the rock that imprisons her, occasioning a segment we call Ripped From the Headlines.

Finally the Consulting Occultist examines the esoteric influence on, and of, Swami Vivekananda, founder of yoga as we know it.

Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!

Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.

Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.

Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.

Human problems are out of hand, so thank goodness, and Atlas Games, for Magical Kitties Save the Day, a fresh, fun roleplaying game for players of all ages, and for GMs from age 6 and up!

Tell your friends, loved ones and deniable assets that The Esoterrorists Bundle has returned to the Bundle of Holding. Get Robin’s game of special agents against occult conspirators and a capacious dossier of support material in PDF until April 6th.

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Tags: Command Hut, Consulting Occultist, Gaming hut, Ripped from the Headlines

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Archive for April, 2022

Episode 494: Sidekicks to the Bear

Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Northman, a 100 Year Old Celebrity Autobiography, and Every Roderick Alleyn Novel

Recommended

Good

Okay

Episode 493: That New Cleaning Acid

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Everything Everywhere, The Protege, Argentinean Noir and Italian Jack London

Recommended

Good

Okay

Episode 492: More Feck in the Bank

Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Pulp Tarot, All the Old Knives, RRR, and a Tale of Two Hunts

The Pinnacle

Recommended

Good

Okay

Episode 491: Stormy Petrels of Crime

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Archive 81, Apollo 10½, and a Conspiracy-Riddled High Finance Scam

Recommended

Good

Okay

Episode 490: They Left the Irony Bridge Intact

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