Category Archives: Travel

A Rainy Weekend in Vegas

Photos were taken over labor day weekend, during a tropical rain storm, in Las Vegas. Album include the Rio hotel and casino, the El Cortez, the Fremont Street ExperienceFremont East, the Gateway Arch, Bonanza Gift Shop, Gold Coast Casino, Paris, Bellagio including the conservatory/botanical garden, Flamingo, Caesars Palace, The Mirage, The Venetian, Whiskey Pete’s and Buffalo Bill’s in Primm Nevada, Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner in Yermo, and bonus photos of Heaps Peak Arboretum near Lake Arrowhead.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

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Big Bear & Lake Arrowhead Photo Album (Summer 2023)

Photos were taken over July 4th weekend in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California. Album includes, Big Bear VillageBear Mountain Ski area, Garstin/China Island and Stanfield Marsh at Big Bear Lake,  Baldwin Summit Vista view to Mojave Desert, Snow Valley Mountain resort in Running Springs, and Lake Arrowhead.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

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Robert Stark interviews Montgomery Markland about his movie Malibu Road

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas speak with filmmaker, Montgomery Markland, about his film Malibu Road, which he both directed and starred in. Malibu Road is available to watch for free on Tubi, and for purchase on Apple TV and Amazon. While the pandemic delayed Malibu Road’s theatrical release, Montgomery has further plans for multipicture deals.

“Fast living Los Angelenos are targeted by the Central Intelligence Agency during Operation Midnight Climax, part of MKUltra. The experience takes a turn for the deadly during New Year’s Eve 1960 and now a professor, a starlet and the workers at a hotel with a questionable reputation must rediscover reality or be trapped in an endless cycle of sex, drugs and murder in ‘paradise.'”

Malibu Road (2021) IMDb 

Montgomery Markland has an idiosyncratic resume. Originally from Dallas, Montgomery was a state and local reporter in Austin, worked in the Texas state legislature on policy, was  then a producer, president, and CCO at a number of video game companies, before working in Hollywood. Follow Montgomery on Twitter.

Topics:

Applying videogame design principles to Cinema
The Meisner acting technique
MKUltra connections to university professors and Hollywood (eg. Irvin Keshner)
Timothy Leary’s prediction that video games had the potential to recreate psychedelic trips
The History of the Albatross Hotel in Malibu and connections to Old Hollywood
Cinemaphotographic techniques used to capture the psychedelic aesthetic
Distorting reality in stories as representations of dreams (eg. traumnovelle), and influences from David Lynch
Influence from soap operas, telenovelas, and 90s Cinemax
The set design, recreating the aesthetics of the 60s and 70s
Influences from Jungian archetypes, as well as Ancient Greek, Hindu, and Buddhist mythology (eg. Timothy Leary on the Tibetan Book of the Dead)
Hunter S. Thompson
Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo
Malibu Road’s filming locations, including Malibu State Park and Will Rogers State Historic Park
The politicization of entertainment, and why overtly political conservative media fails
Reasons to be optimistic about opportunities in entertainment via niche markets
The Banking crisis, Economic Death Spiral, and narratives of collapse

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Eastern Sierras Photo Album (Mammoth, June Lake, & Whitney Portal)

Album includes the town of Bishop in Owens Valley, June Lake, Minaret Vista, Mammoth Mountain, Horseshoe Lake, McLeod Lake, Lake George, Ski Lodge Urbanism at The Village at Mammoth, Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery, and Whitney Portal, the gateway to Mount Whitney. Photos taken on Labor Day Weekend 2022.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

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Karlsruhe Germany Photo Album

Photo album of Karlsruhe in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Photos taken on trip to Europe in May of  2018 (Part I: Robert Stark talks about his Trip to EuropePart II: Robert Stark talks about his Trip to Europe). Album includes photos of Karlsruhe City Center, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, Hotel Burghof, Karlsruhe Schloss (Palace),  Schlossgarten, and forest on the outskirts of the City.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

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San Diego Backcountry Photo Album

Album of Eastern San Diego County, includes Borrego Springs, The Slot in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, Julian townsite, Lake Henshaw, Pauma Valley, and Palomar Mountain.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

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Robert Stark discusses his novel Vaporfornia

Robert Stark is joined with Matt Pegas and Dan Baltic to discuss his new novel, Vaporfornia. Vaporfornia is a surreal dark comedy, a coming of age story set in California, and is the sequel to Robert’s first novel, Journey to Vapor Island. This show is a simulcast with Matt and Dan’s dissident, counter-culture, literary podcast, New WriteVaporfornia is available for purchase on Lulu publishing. Also check out Matt’s review of Vaporfornia.

Topics:

Contrasting Vaporfornia with Journey to Vapor Island, and how both novels capture the zeitgeists of their respective eras
The niche genre of the satirical moving adventure story
Literary comparisons to a Confederacy of Dunces, William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, Lucky Jim, Voltaire’s Candide, and Gulliver’s Travels
The situational humor and dramatic irony
Vaporfornia as a satire of the themes in Robert’s Substack that delve into California’s social, political, class, and demographic dynamics
Vaporfornia as a travelogue for California
Allegories and symbolism in the book
Saudade, a longing for what could have been or nostalgia for lost futures
Gio Pennacchietti’s video about how Robert’s literary fiction and visual art complement each other
The protagonist’s personal and political journey
The politics of the “Chad Centrist” presidential candidate Roger Blackstone
Whether Robert Stark will run for California Governor or have a Vaporfornia tour some day

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and in production documentary The Gospel of Gibson, and subscribe to his Substack.

Yosemite High Country Photo Album

Album of the High Country of  Yosemite National Park  includes Olmsted Point with view to Half Dome, Tenaya Lake, and Tuolumne Meadows. Photos were taken over Labor Day Weekend.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and subscribe to his Substack Newsletter.

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Yosemite Valley Photo Album

Album of Yosemite National Park includes the Wawona Hotel, Glacier Point, Tunnel View, and the Yosemite Valley including the Merced River,  Vernal Fall and Emerald Pool above the falls, the Ahwahnee Hotel, the view to Half Dome, and Curry Village. Photos taken over Labor Day Weekend.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and subscribe to his Substack Newsletter.

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Central Contra Costa Photo Album (Summer 2021)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Central Contra Costa County Album includes the Caldecott Tunnel, Lafayette, Briones Reservoir, Briones Regional Park, view to Mount Diablo, Danville, and California State Route 24 through Lafayette and Orinda, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and subscribe to his Substack Newsletter.

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