Agitator

Putting y'all on game in this one. Also:  Porsche Cayenne - why?, wheres981 , loaded guns in music videos , Peter Singer and the ethics of charity (fart noise), scam ideas, rubber trees, cyberpunk infrastructure, everything is god, the yen-to-dollar conversion rate, the Publishers Marketplace game, Gus is on evil mode, Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing , ICECOLDBISHOP's Generational Curse , JPEG...

Survive Style 5+ (2004) dir. Gen Sekiguchi Toilet training our kids, abandoning desire for privacy or quiet or rest, daily check lists to gamify your life, functioning and scheduling around chaos, non-stop teething, being a good dad, how old is too old to share a bed with your kids?, create-a-school shooter, how to spot genuine diversity vs box-checking, Nigerian comedian recall, the black Dilbert...

Kelby and I continue our discussion of Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective films. Part 2 is so completely different from part 1, stylistically and artistically speaking. You see elements of proto-Kotoko in there, leading to another Tsukamoto parental nightmare. We also explore the fact that, in this movie, people who are deeply afraid are the villains and the killers. Is fear the root of all ev...

This week, we're pitting two Tsukamoto films against each other: Nightmare Detective and Nightmare Detective 2 . What was the GOAT going for here, and did he pull it off? Which attempt was better and why? Can auteurs succeed in the mainstream, or do pop sensibilities not compute in the mind of the experimental artist? We tackle the first entry on the free episode, and follow up with Tsukamoto's re...

We are a hot topic podcast, so we are covering the Oscars! We also present our own awards for the best (and worst) episodes of Agitator for 2022. Topics covered: Celeb massacre, who won the Oscars, the first time two sequels were nominated, cutting off fingers, Tampa by Alissa Nutting, the greatness of The Banshees of Inisherin, The Elephant Whisperers, what does woke mean, and Irish goodbye is a...

Versus (2000) dir. Ryuhei Kitamura Stranglehold (2007) dir. Brian Eddy On this episode we talk DIY filmmaking in the woods, with a backing soundtrack of a Youtube playthrough of Stranglehold, the video game sequel to Hard Boiled. Topics covered: Ain’t It Cool News hype, the Blade 2 wave, Matrix homage, Midnight Meat Train, philosophy puts me to sleep, wolves turning into anuses, 666 portals, punch...

This was our first time fielding your questions. Lots of great stuff here. We had fun. Let's do it again sometime. The eras of Agitator, scaring babies by showing them that they’re babies, using Royal Road, evolving ideas, holding ideas loosely, don’t put your preciousness on other people, some books don’t need editing, what do you want out of writing?, see what works, don’t use Upwork, proving yo...

Kelby and JDO talk Katsuhito Ishii's 1998 ensemble crime film SSMaPHG. Having a face for movies, proto-Kakihara, Takeo Kiuchi designer wear, becoming a 40-year-old hypebeast, defense of Shark Skin Man, Agitator boys cameo, not being able to kill people who are too cool, the cringeness of conscious rap, the texture of shark skin, a crew having fun on set, writing one book for you and one for “them,...

I did the dishes during this one, and my TASCAM seemed to love the sound of the water and the dishwasher. Good to know. Still a great episode! Burning the boats, owning a UPS store, Ichi the Killer manga recap, submissive sadism and aggressive masochism, the people who act like clowns are the actual psychopaths, Ichi as a representative of the political class, yakuza as dogs, torturing the audienc...

Ichi the Killer by Hideo Yamamoto (1998-2001) Ichi the Killer dir. Takashi Miike (2001) We go into a deep dive on the Ichi manga, which was written around the same time that Miike was adapting it into his iconic film. What does the manga do differently from the film? Which is better? In the process of analyzing the work, we discover new insights about the relationship between creator and audience,...

I'm gonna have to figure out a different title for these things, considering Kelby and I aren't on Twitter anymore. Maybe it can still be "FT" but mean something completely different. On this 30-minute episode, I do a deep dive into my oppositional relationship to writing and books. Can you love and hate books at the same time? Will you ever get the acknowledgments that you want? How deep do some...

Yellow line racing! Energy drink shortage! Salad ASMR! Tony Hawk! Yugen Junk Weekly! Rick Rubin! Disappear to find yourself! Gen Z Inferno! Narrator in a blender! Killmonger, Malcolm X, and Tyler Durden present: Methodology vs Ideology! Oh shit, it's the cops! Underwear in the dog bowl! The witch will steal your toes! Squatter house rules! Quit dragging those corpses!

It’s heritage not hate round hurr. We’re stumbling over how to pronounce Japanese names to bring you Hiroyuki Imaishi’s 2004 crude and colorful manic anime Dead Leaves AND Takeshi Koike’s directorial debut in collaboration with Katsuhito Ishii, 2009’s Redline , perhaps the coolest movie ever made. On this episode: audiobook narration, Ren & Stimpy, stained glass animation, throat exercises, th...

Skip this one if you don't want to hear a twenty minute "why I'm quitting social media!" style rant. Just kidding, you should listen. This one has a lot of great expansions on JDO and Kelby's chat in the Ultraman episodes, which was further explored in a phone convo, which JDO then relates here. There are some serious questions: is Twitter an evil demon? Has it been holding people back this whole...

The Sadness (2022) dir. Rob Jabbaz (There’s a bad wind outside for about five minutes, but JDO goes back inside) The soundtracks of our lives, dream messages, Crossed zombies, The Last of Us, the folly of Save the Cat, the pros of video game story mode, watching shows with your spouse, stepdads, different types of wiggers, outgrowing shoes, covidiot movies, fixing the ending, everyone gets covid,...

Shin Ultraman (2022) dir. Shinji Higuchi Cum Town homage, radioactive black superheroes, the motherfuckin ass, mechanic sounds, a whole year of your life on social media, indecent proposals, Hogwarts Legacy, moderation, conservatard Ls, escaping from Twitter, organic growth, emulating Z-Ro, reaching people in real life, our new logo idea, becoming regionally hot, Shin Ultraman, inventing technique...

Damn, this got deep. GUEST STARRING: Wren Collier

We're talking Tsutomu Nihei's 15-volume manga Knights of Sidonia (2009-2015) with fan favorite returning guest star, Wren Collier. The three of us being heavily influenced by Nihei, we take a deep dive into the evolution of his storytelling and art styles and try to get inside the head of the man himself. What is Nihei horny for besides architecture? Where'd all the shadows go, Picasso? How do we...

2LDK  (2003) Aragami  (2003) On this episode, Kelby and I discuss this interesting project from 2003, in which a drunken bet found two directors making two short films in which they utilized one location, two actors, all shot in one week. Hearing your voice auto-transcribed, NAC for OCD, driving on ice, tornadoes, border security, being politically homeless, stealing ideas, it’s worthless to compl...

DFW rapper/Crown member/anime head Kawasaki reunites with the Agitator boys to discuss David Leitch's 2022 film Bullet Train , based on the novel Maria Beetle by Kotaro Isaka. Anime theme songs, Guy Ritchie, Channing Gaytum vs Beef Ledger, serendipity and miscommunication as storytelling mechanics, national identity being the white pill to the appropriation issue, does America have a culture?, bla...

Kelby's back from his adventures in baby delivery to deliver a clasico episode with JDO featuring a two-page manifesto of not giving a shit by Takashi Miike. TOPICS COVERED: Group chat recap, Kelby’s shadow banned, using your position, becoming an “online writer,” albums vs. mixtapes, arranging Napster tracks, Takashi Miike’s afterword to the comic Rakuda Laughs, having no reason, The White Lotus,...

Today we have Ryan from the Mutual Aberration Society podcast ( Patreon here ) on to talk Hiroya Oku's GANTZ. We go from its beginning up through its legendary "mass shooting" arc. We discuss: Getting canceled by aliens, old-school homophobia, Oku’s love of boobs, Larry Clark making The Matrix, the rules of Gantz, black humor, lo-fi grainy nihilism, onion aliens, the interpretation of different me...

For this episode, I invited Broken River pals David Simmons (Ghosts of East Baltimore) and Grant Wamack (Black Gypsies) to talk about David's prison time, Home-Alone style traps, learning how to disregard unimportant things, and hand selling books to anyone who will listen. This is an important episode, as we talk about strategies people can employ to hustle their wares...this is the new normal fo...

Jay texted me today wondering why the free episodes weren't on Patreon too. That is a damn good question. I'll work on getting the backlog on here, but for now I'll start crossposting. In his words, "I only want one Agitator feed in my podcatcher." Makes sense to me! Agitator Z for the week will be along in the next few days. Hope everyone is doing well! Kelby's out this week welcoming a new kid i...

Freestyle writing, being honest with ourselves, Ayashimon , the Shonen Jump app, marketing tips, Gantz , Biomega , The Peripheral , lessons we learned from Zach Langley Chi-Chi, and more.