Cultural Futures Exchange

  Proud Mary! Lodi! Bayous! Prince Valiant Hairdos! Flannel! Lawsuits! Self-plagiarism! That’s right, this week, there’s a whole lotta chooglin’ goin’ on as CFX takes on Creedence Clearwater Revival, the short-lived, but critically and popularly acclaimed rock band helmed by American icon, John Fogerty. Is this band really all that great and does their music stand the test of time? Can we even cal...

Do you want to play a game? Let’s play… Global… Thermonuclear… War. That’s right, this week CFX takes on the classic 1983 technological thriller, WarGames, the film that introduced most of the world to a new kind of hero/villain, the “hacker”. But we put kind of a different spin on things as we also include quite a bit of discussion of a real life case of hacking as described in Cliff Stoll’s 1989...

This week CFX takes on Out of the Cellar, the 1984 debut of hair metal icons Ratt. We do our usual dive into band history, influences, our personal histories, but then we take on this would be classic track by track and decide whether you should come “back for more” or flee the “scene of the crime”. Does the album stand the test of time or the band as a whole or neither or both? And, of course, as...

He is known by many names: Don, Slip’s dad, Uncle Donnie, Brother, Papa Don, HB Ol’ Dude and Mr. Bitchin’ to name a few, but to all who knew him he was known as one of the smartest, funniest and friendliest guys ever. He passed away this year and instantly the world became a less awesome place. We couldn’t NOT do a show on Don, so this week CFX pays tribute to this great man by going over his life...

Imagine if you would, a podcast—one of style and taste, and intellectual insight…Instead, however, you’re here with us! On this episode of CFX we’re going into a dimension not of sight or sound, but of mind to examine one of the most iconic TV shows in history: The Twilight Zone. We go over the history of the show, the one-of-a-kind, iconic TV genius who created it, and we pick some of our favorit...

E-O 11!!!! For this episode we head back in time to 1960, to a Technicolor Las Vegas where we catch up with the Rat Pack who are trying to pull off an amazing (and yes, far-fetched) casino heist. We tag along with Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra), Sam Harmon (Dean Martin), Josh Howard (Sammy Davis Jr), and the other 11 former members of the 82nd airborne doing crimes (and rocking charming yet casual mi...

This week CFX presents our second album war. This time we try to decide between Joe Jackson’s classic 1979 debut album, Look Sharp!, and his 1982 blend of Latin jazz and pop, Night and Day. Jeff presents the case for Look Sharp!, while Slip backs Night and Day. As with our AC/DC album war, this was another tough one as both of these albums are great. But the real question is do either or both of t...

This week on CFX, we put the super popular, landmark TV show, Beverly Hills 90210, under the CFX-o-scope and let’s just say it gets ugly. We talk about the hackneyed, repetitive plots, the often terrible acting, the dubious social commentary, the futile attempts at hipster credibility and just how sleazy this show and really everything got during the ‘90s. We might get too mean, but we don’t care!...

We’ve done a lot of good episodes, but this might be “A #1”! That’s right, this week takes on John Carpenter’s (not Ritchie Blackmore’s!) post apocalyptic 1981 film Escape From New York.  We dive into the details on the making of and do a complete walk-through of the film, extolling the virtues of practical effects, “economical” storytelling, first-rate film-making and a brilliant cast. Does this...

On what may be the best episode we have ever recorded, we try to do the impossible by trying to decide which of these two classic AC/DC albums is better. Jeff thinks Highway to Hell is better and Slip thinks Back in Black wins. But talk about a “Sophie’s Choice”! Really we both still go back and forth on this. In fact, we even tried to use artificial intelligence to solve this conundrum, but the t...

“What would you pay?...while supplies last…four easy payments…but wait there’s more! Has this ever happened to you? There’s got to be a better way”. That’s right, this week, on Episode 33: As Seen on TV, CFX delves into the world where television entertainment and marketing meet. It’s a world of infomercials, ridiculous inventions, scammers, 900 numbers, get rich quick schemes and televangelists....

This episode of CFX is action packed (literally!) since we discuss the 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger action film, Commando.  While the film is not one of the mega Schwarzenegger box office blockbusters, Commando, with its explosion filled action sequences, overt homo-eroticism and clever one-liners, has had an outsized influence on the genre. But does it still hold up? We not only evaluate the film,...

This week on CFX we explore the career of singer, guitarist, songwriter and “fancy dancer” Billy Squier. Most importantly, we try to find out whether what seemed destined to be a successful career was prematurely ended by what many claim is the most notoriously bad music video of all time, or if his style of keyboard heavy album oriented rock had just run its course. We decide if Squier’s music wi...

Well, if you’ve ever had any doubt that we’re a couple of old chaps, then I think this episode will put that to rest. We are! That’s right, this week, on CFX, we are talking about the favorite television show of not only the late Queen Elizabeth II but every British pensioner, Midsomer Murders! Unlike most of what we have covered in the past, this show is still on the air and shows no sign of slow...

Hello podcast listeners, our old friends, it’s time for CFX again! This week we take on that dynamic duo, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. We know what you’re thinking… How boring! Well, nothing could be further from the truth. We take you through the ups and downs of what has been a sometimes tense and rancorous musical marriage in a way that has seldom been done before. We decide if this music stan...

This week CFX heads back into the world of ‘70s AM radio, heading up and down the dial, to tackle one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time: WKRP in Cincinnati. We go into the backstory, cast, and characters of this groundbreaking show and then we try to decide if its ability to stand the test of time is really meant to be or if we’ll only think of it once in a while. Along the way we learn… Whi...

Thank God it’s our 27th Episode and this week we talk about the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer. We decide if she’s an under-appreciated diva who broke new musical ground or if, well, Disco sucks! We take you through not only through the very interesting and unexpected twists and turns of her career, but also delve into the origins, downfall and rebirth of the disco genre itself and, along the way, w...

This week CFX heads back to Camp Northstar to evaluate Bill Murray’s 1979 big screen debut, Meatballs. While this film was very influential on teen movies of the ‘80s and made Murray a star, does its story of a camp full of loser underdogs pitted against the snobby rich kids of Camp Mohawk, stand the test of time? We attempt to find out and along the way, we learn… How the real kids of Camp White...

Being that this is our 25th Episode, we decided to cover a major blockbuster album, Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumours. Now, while it might seem a little pointless to ask whether this album will stand the test of time given that it’s more popular now, nearly fifty years after the fact, than it has ever been, we figured what the hell, let’s do it anyway. Besides, this drops pretty close to Valentin...

This week CFX examines one of the strangest children’s films of all time, renowned filmmaker Alan Parker’s debut, Bugsy Malone. Does this eccentric and artful alternate universe gangster film, with its whip cream-powered “splurge” guns, sarsaparilla-serving speakeasies and Flintstone-like pedal cars, stand the test of time? We attempt to find out and along the way, we learn… How the actor who play...

“De Plane! De Plane”, “Smiles, everyone smiles”… welcome to Fantasy Island, episode 23 of the CFX podcast. This week we take on one of the bat-shit craziest shows ever made. A show that featured everything from ESP-powered sasquatches to psychedelic ventriloquist dummies while churning through a seemingly endless supply of D and E rate Hollywood “celebrities”, putting them through the most bizarre...

On this special holiday episode of CFX (Ok, it just happens to come out on Xmas Day…) we take on ‘70s AM hit radio, also known as ‘70s AM Gold. Like we did on our Game Show episode (Episode 18: https://apple.co/3WebSzL), we explore the hits and misses, the long and short of this classic era. We celebrate the one-hit wonders that have stood the test of time and bemoan the songs we hated (and still...

In this episode we face evil, magic, wizards, witches, kings, TIGERS and even Ritchie Blackmore to cover one of the most seminal albums of the heavy metal genre: Holy Diver by Dio. Even though we aren’t even close to being worthy to judge such an obvious hard rock deity, we do our best to answer the question of whether this album is still hard as steel or is it all just velvet lies? Along the way...

This week we take on what may be the ultimate high school film ever made, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. This 1982 film is a comedy-drama that addresses such serious topics as abortion and masturbation and still somehow manages to be funny. We do a deep dive on this film to see whether it stands the test of time and along the way we learn… Why the tracking on every VHS tape of this film is really b...

On Episode 19 we talk about the great Pat Benatar (aka Pat Andrzejewski Giraldo), who not only was a groundbreaking female rock star but who also has one of the greatest rock and roll voices in history. We review her entire career with a particular focus on her early albums to decide whether she stands the test of time. Is her fiery brand of ‘80s album oriented rock invincible or is it all just br...