podcast – Page 29 – FULL CONTACT NERD

Sci-fi and archaeology – “Excavating the Future” (Liverpool University Press, 2018) – Shawn Malley interview

Shawn Malley is a Canadian professor interested in the Victorian period. We talk about his latest book that discusses the intersection between archaeology, science fiction and spectacle.

1:45 – Shawn talks about how he got into writing on science fiction. He’s a Victorianist by trade.

4:09 – Shawn talks about how he divides the book and what the three parts are about.

8:04 – We touch on steampunk and Victorian tropes.

11:00 – We discuss Superman and archaeology.

21:04 – We discuss how Shawn chose what works to research.

25:45 – Shawn talks about analyzing tv and film media.

27:45 – Shawn is also interested in the technologies used to create sci-fi film and tv and what those say about how we approach sci-fi.

45:00 – The book has about 45 stills and Shawn wanted many more.

48:29 – Shawn’s work can be found in University libraries. He has a page on Bishop’s University of Quebec.

Links of Interest

Excavating the Future https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/108267

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Shawn Malley

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, archaeology, babylon, iraq, smallville, Manticore, films, Stargate, Ancient Aliens, Indiana Jones, Crystal Skull, Superman, cyborgs, Battlestar Galactica, cylons, Star Trek, Transformers, District 9, ISIS

Disney animation history – “Drawing the Line” (University Press of Kentucky, 2006) – Tom Sito interview

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Tom Sito has been a film animator for decades and has worked on some of Disney’s biggest films. He’s written a book on Disney history based on interviews with Disney animators who were working there during the 1941 strike and we spoke about the book.

2:15 – Tom Sito talks about his animation career with Disney Studios. He explains how he ended up writing this book on the Disney strike of 1941.

4:00 – Tom talks about the layout of the book and how animation works.

7:03 – The book covers labor issues from the early days through modern day.

9:00 – The labor movement in animation caused changes in how animation was produced. UPA represents some of these changes.

15:14 – Tom talks about animators approached being in unions.

20:20 – Tom used 75 first person interviews and archives for the book research. He also knows the Disney family and they liked the book.

22:30 – The history involves the mob and communists. The Disney strike was one of the few without violence.

24:30 – The most dramatic day of the strike was the first day the picket line went up. The depression was still happneing for many people on that May 1941 day.

32:45 – The studios would use off-duty LA police to break up strikes. The mob coulnd’t make inroads into LA because the LA police would rough up mobsters who came into town.

38:00 – Tom talks about Don Bluth and how he left Disney and formed Don Bluth Studios in competition with Disney.

41:44 – Tom talks about Jakob Kirtzberg who left animation after a strike and went into comic books under the name Jack Kirby.

42:54 – Tom talks about the importance of the book among animators.

49:24 – Tom talks about the animation revival in the 1980s and 1990s.

50:35 – Tom talks about computer animation and its early development and rise. Flight simulators were a big part of this development.

57:30 – Tom talks about special effects used in 2001.

1:01:26 – He has a website at tomsito.com.

Links of interest

Tomsito.com

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Tom Sito

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: art, artist, animation, Disney, los angeles police, mobsters, mob, communists, UPA, studios, Hollywood, Snow White and the seven dwarves, Don Bluth, Don Bluth studios, marvel comics, Jack Kirby, Paramount studios, Star Trek, Genesis effect, 2001, special effects, cookbooks,

Rod Serling and his work – “Rod Serling” (University Press of Mississippi, 2018) – Nicholas Parisi interview

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Nicholas Parisi is a musician and vocalist and serves on the board of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation. He’s recently written a book analyzing almost all of Rod Serling’s work and we discuss the book and Rod Serling’s works.

1:39 – Nicholas talks about how he got into Rod Serling. He discusses many of the projects that Rod had been involved with. The book is part biography, part reference guide and part a critique of the themes that Rod explored in his work. It covers his entire writing life.

4:13 – Nicholas covers Rod’s radio work more extensively than other writers on Rod have.

5:58 – Nicholas talks about how Rod ended up in front of a screen in addition to being a writer.

6:45 – Nicholas talks about Orson Welles connection to the Twilight Zone and a myth surrounding it.

12:20 – Nicholas wants to emphasize that Rod was more than the Twilight Zone. He also mentions Rod’s attempts to put out scripts based on the Emmitt Till case.

17:16 – Rod’s daughter Anne Serling provided some support for this book.

24:43 – Nicholas’s book addresses a 1952 tv show episode that addressed racism most likely for the first time ever on television. Rod tried to push an episode addressing racism and no other researcher has talked about this episode before.

28:19 – Nicholas talks about Rod’s WWII experiences in the Philippines.

38:05 – Nicholas has a facebook for the book at facebook.com/RodSerlingDimensions

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Nicholas Parisi

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, sci-fi, rod serling, twilight zone, television, gold age, mystery, orson welles, Emmett Till, McCarthyism, racism, World War II, Philippines, US Army