Have Mandolin Will Travel

A tour of the Predator films. (Well, 4 of them, plus the B-movie bonus "Without Warning.") I had never seen any of these and honestly? They're pretty good with several even being *really* good.

A look at the Ugandan epics "Song of Lawino" and "Song of Ocol" written by Okot p'BItek in the 1960s.

A look at the mostly forgotten 1894 American epic poem "Twasinta's Seminoles," written by former enslaved poet Albery Allson Whitman.

A deep dive into Maria Dahvana Headley's fantastic 2018 novel "The Mere Wife" which is a modern retelling of the epic poem "Beowulf"

A look at the epic poem "Beowulf" and its 2007 animated film adaptation.

A review and analysis of Opera Orlando's 2026 production of Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" where I repeated call the leading man character a douchebag.

A look at the zany but extremely fun comic "Justice League vs Godzilla vs Kong" which is exactly what it sounds like.

A look at Opera Orlando's 2026 production of the Pulitzer Prize winning "Silent Night," a 2011 opera about the Christmas Truce of 1914.

A deep dive into the fantastic Iranian vampire fairy tale Western film "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night," written and directed by Iranian-American filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour. You should watch this movie.

A look at the 2011 film adaptation of Shakepeare's "Coriolanus," directed by and starring Ralph Fiennes. It's staged with a late 90s Balkan War aesthetic and is pretty awesome, both as a film and as an adaptation. "Coriolanus" is relatively obscure for a Shakespearean tragedy and is rarely performed. (A quick straw poll of my friends revealed most of them had never hear...

A deep dive into the obscure 1983 horror film "The Keep," directed by Michael Mann and the slightly less obscure 1981 F. Paul Wilson novel it's based on. The premise is great: German soldiers occupying a keep in Romania during World War 2 get slaughtered by a supernatural force. While the book is enjoyable and interesting (though it doesn't stick the landing). the film is a wreck...

A deep dive into the classic 1971 blaxploitation film "Shaft" and the 1970 novel it is based on. The film is good and very important to both film and pop-culture. The book is *really* good and it's interesting to see how different it is than the movie despite the events being largely the same.

Inspired by Opera Orlando's production of the tragic opera "Lucia di Lammermoor." I read the book it was adapted from: Sir Walter Scott's novel "The Bride of Lammermoor." The book is pretty good and, weirdly, often quite funny which is *very* different than the opera. It was an interesting read, especially after having seen the opera.

A look at Opera Orlando's 2024 production of "Lucia di Lammermoor," an 1835 opera by Gaetano Donizetti. The opera is based on Sir Walter's Scott's 1819 novel "The Bride of Lammermoor." This production was put in a Game of Thrones setting and was really good. I also read the book, which I will look at in the next episode.

Part 2 of my series on "The White Buffalo." This one both takes an even deeper dive into the novel which, spoilers, is actually pretty good, and revisits the film adaptation with some enlightenment after having read the source. (I recant some of my theories from the previous episode on why the film is the way it is.) It makes me sad that this book is out of print. Again: it's pretty...

A deep dive into the 1974 Western "The White Buffalo," a film adaptation of Richard Sale's 1975 pulp novel of the same name starring Charles Bronson. This film is kind of a train wreck, but a really interesting one to do an autopsy on. This ended up being the first entry in a two part series about "The White Buffalo". I was so fascinated by this film that my friend James bo...

The last in a three part series about Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" and its adaptations. This episode talks about Christophe Chaboute's 2017 black and white graphic novel. Spoiler: It's a really good read and is a good adaptation..

The second in a three part series about Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" and its adaptations. This episode looks at the surprisingly great 1956 film starring Gregory Peck.

The first in a three part series about Herman Melville's novel "Moby Dick" and its adaptations. This episode is a deep dive into the novel itself, looking at its structure, its writing, and its themes. I *really* like this book.

A deep dive into Orlando Ballet's May 2026 production of "The Great Gatsby" where I talk about the performance and the ballet as an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald classic novel. Spoiler: Ballet is quite good.

A deep dive into the Spaghetti Western "A Fistful of Dollars (1964)" and the film it is a direct remake of, Akira Kurosawa's samurai film "Yojimbo (1961)." (Like "got sued" direct remake.) Spoilers: Both are good, but I think "Yojimbo" is better.

An exploration of Opera Orlando's 2025 production of "Werther" and the book it's adapted from: Goethe's 1774 novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther." Spoilers: Both versions are quite good, but I want to punch Werther in the face. "Horrible incel sh*t, Mason"

A dive into two fantastic comic books set in the Alien universe (i.e. the same franchise as the Sigourney Weaver film Alien ), Dead Orbit (2017) and Sacrifice (1993) . The two stories are standalone tales that very different from each other and mine a lot of the things I love about Alien.

The last in a series looking at Dracula and its adaptations. This episode is about Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula and the classic 1931 Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. Both really interesting adaptations, but #wheresMina

The second of three in a series looking at Dracula and its adaptations. This episode is about the 2023 horror film The Last Voyage of the Demeter, an under-seen gem. This movie flopped pretty hard in theaters but really is quite good.