Okay, we're back already with the second half of Tam Lin! Actually because we were a little long-winded in the first episode, this is most of our movie recap!
Wanted to link to this documentary I mentioned, which has a good bit where David Vorhaus shows off his Kaleidophon.
Happy Halloween, and welcome back! Sort of a Halloween episode here, although we had been planning to do Tam Lin for some time. But the original Tam Lin story IS a Halloween story, as shown in Robert Burns' famous version here.
You can see the full movie on YouTube here though both Mike and I were much happier with the film once we got our hands on blu-rays of the movie.
In order the streamline the whole editing process, Mike is my cohost from the beginning. We talk about the Evolution of Horror Podcast and their 17-part Folk Horror series, some Halloween suggestions, and some background on the film -- we even manage to talk scene by scene . . . . through the first few scenes of the movie at least.
We also feature audio from the difficult to locate introduction to the 1997 VHS release of Tam Lin from Roddy McDowall himself. Thanks to Zoe at Not Just Yesterday: The Roddy McDowall Podcast! Some great stills from the set of the movie on her site here as well as her take on the movie.
Also wanted to mention the incredible http://www.tam-lin.org which is a rich and wonderful site. There are plenty of screen captures there.
And now the audio! Though by now everyone's using a podcast reader, right?
Here's episode 9. But y'know if you listen on your phone via Apple Podcasts or some other source, then you can walk around outside on a Fall day and listen!
Mike did most of the heavy lifting for this episode, but I thought I'd provide some movie photos so you can see what films he discusses.
"Hagazussa: a Heathen's Curse," Lukas Feigelfeld dir.
"Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil," Paul Urkijo dir.
"Beast," Michael Pearce dir.
"Valley of Shadows," Jonas Gulbrandsen dir.
"The Field Guide to Evil," various dir.
"Good Manners," Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra dir.
"The Most Unknown," Ian Cheney dir.
"Mountain," Jennifer Peedom dir.
"Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda," Stephen Nomura Schible, dir.
I hope that you have a place nearby you that you can visit —
as a little quest. The idea with a quest is that first you decide a purpose,
and then you seek that purpose. For my purpose this evening, my wife had
pointed out that the reading material in the bathroom was months old, being
just World Cup magazines and a Mojo from March (it had Nick
Drake on the cover).
But not everyone
lives near someplace they can have a quest. I used to live in Park Township,
Michigan which is near Holland. There were no stores or anything I could walk
to, though I could walk to the beach of Lake Michigan which was wonderful. But I
think having a corner store or a community area that you can walk to is really
important and really great to have.
So I was like, okay I’ll go downtown and buy some magazines —
my wife wanted “fluffy comics” like Over the Garden Wall, which I’m just going
to go ahead and recommend,
for everyone, the comics and the TV show. I live near downtown Royal Oak – at
least a half mile away, but it’s a great walk for me and it’s my favorite sort
of exercise — just walking somewhere.
Anyway, I found a Little Library with one of Carl Oxley’s Bunnies stuck to
it. It had a bunch of comics in it. Here is what I found and took:
It's funny when you find something that ties in neatly to other things you've been into. I haven't had a chance to read this yet but it seems to be about old stories from The First Nation? Or a tie into a broader older religion? I don't know! But it involves topics that I've been thinking about especially after I found about this Michigan folklorist who wrote on Birch Bark.
Anyway I continued downtown and visited Paper Trail books. People said they didn't think the place was going to last what it appeared, but it is so full of good stuff now that you cant help but stop by and pick something. There was a lady who had dared to stop by the cart outside the store and then couldn't stop herself from buying books. You have to love real books. And . . . comics! They have those too, and board games and music. Here are some comics I found:
And others! To be honest some of them might have been found at UHF Records, because they have cool stuff too (read below).
Then I went to SCOUT which is a beautiful store that you should go to. I love all the gift items that they have. I bought this awesome Hippie Modernism book here which was the book from a touring art exhibit that was at the Cranbrook Art Museum. You should just come in here and look around. It and Saffron are my favorite "vibe" stores in Royal Oak (okay and Rail and Anchor), and I don't generally buy women's clothing!
So yes, then I went to UHF, which is so great. I can't reiterate this enough -- if you are lucky enough to be near a downton where you can go buy cool things, do it! UHF has cool VINYL ALBUMS for $1 each. I bought this.
Patrick Sky, "A Harvest of Gentle Clang." This was was only $6 as you can see. It's great. I think I've found my own, personal, singer song-writer. I was just thinking about Buffy St. Marie today, and Sky dedicated the album to her. Both UHF and Papertrail helped me with the spare change I was lacking which is a nice gesture — I paid it back by giving my change later to the gas station. That's a good way to go through a day I think.
Then I went to find the Speakeasy in Royal Oak. It's part of Mr. B's. Well, I think I went too early, because they are only open between 7-1 in the morning. If you want more information you'll have to find it.
So instead I went to Hopcat. Why? Because the view is the best up at the top. I sat up there and drank a wonderful MICHIGAN Blake's Hard Cider RAINBOW SEEKER:
Then I just came home. This was all fun for me, and while the kind of things you might quest for might be different from mine — I hope you can find a quest near your house and have a good walk too.
Yes I am derelict in my duties to part two of Red Shift — but I'm half way done. I think!
Done! We talk about the 1978 Play for Today "Red Shift" by Alan Garner. And the book! We talk a lot of background but we do have about 20 minutes of synopsis before the end.
Here's the audio, but surely you would rather download this from apple podcasts or your podcast reader of choice?
The red red robin comes bob bob bobbin' along, and so does The Folk Horror Podcast! Listen below.
I has some audio problems in the second half, but the good news is that I've set up my studio so that all audio going forward should sound A LOT better.
Audio snippets were from The Carice Singers (performing Peter Warlock) and Lisa Knapp.
Go to work on an egg.
Almost as brutal as Watership Down.
Rob considers one last Karate chop.
Don't look back.
The Village Green Preservation Society.
Interesting detail -- blood on Wellbeloved?
Something we didn't mention is that, if the characters do represent mystical beings at the end that instead of Herne the Hunter, Fisher could be Cernunnos, the celtic god. Though there are possible connections between Herne and Cernunnos anyway.