Category Archives: 1990’s

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.

Robert Stark interviews Indian Bronson

Robert Stark talks to Indian Bronson about  decentralization, Post-Americanism, and future political systems. Subscribe to Indian Bronson’s Substack and follow him on Twitter.

Topics:

Indian Bronson’s Hindu background and his thoughts on the culture and politics of the Hindu-diaspora in the West
Critical Race Theory and its Discontents: the ineptitude of the IDW
The rise in alternative institutions and questions of loyalty to normal patterns of living
Post-Americanism and Rightwing Multiculturalism
The future of caste and emergent tribal identities in America
The wane of US geopolitical soft power
Millennials as a lost generation
The economics of human relations

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

Robert Stark interviews artist Gio Pennacchietti

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas talk to Gio Pennacchietti about aesthetic, cultural, and social trends. Gio Pennacchietti is a social impressionist painter and writer from the “first post-national country” (Canada), Gonzo Philosopher, and failed academic. Check out his YouTube channel GiantArt Productions, Instagram, writings at Substack and WordPress, and Twitter.

Topics:

Gio’s review of Robert Stark’s Art: The Fauvist Vaporwave Interiors
20th Century aesthetic genres, retrofuturism, post-modernism, late 20th century pop art, trends in nostalgia, and the psychology of hauntology
Political symbolism in aesthetics: 2010s minimalism, Neoliberal Kitsch, Sanford Biggers’ statue in Rockefeller Plaza, the de-evolution of Trump’s aesthetics, and the lack of a cohesive aesthetic trend for the future
Robert’s article on Pan-Enclavism and how it relates to Canada as a post-national nation
A critique of the Intellectual Dark Web
The need for a new bohemian/creative movement comparable to the Vienna Secession
Gio’s interest in the after prison Youtubers
Gio’s artistic background, influences, and art as a spiritual endeavor

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

Robert Stark talks to Jay Dyer about Jacob’s Ladder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matt Pegan talk to author and TV presenter Jay Dyer about the psychological horror film Jacob’s Ladder (1990). Jay Dyer is the author of Esoteric Hollywood:: Sex, Cults and Symbols in Film and you can watch his show on YouTube. Also check out Robert’s interview with Jay on Stark Truth TV at the Paramount Movie Ranch which was damaged in a wildfire shortly after filming.

Topics:

Jacob’s Ladder’s cult following and its director Adrian Lyne
The film’s plot, layers revealed, and symbolism
The Phoenix Program and Project MKUltra
Pseudo Christian themes in the film with references to the Bible, Christian mystic Meister Eckhart, and Dante’s Purgatorio
The concept of the soul journey in Orthodox Christianity and Gnosticism
The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary
Studies on Near Death Experiences
Comparisons to other films including Flatliners, Silent Hill: Revelation, Hellraiser: Inferno, Southbound, Insidious, The Triangle, U Turn, Enter the Void, and The Void
The British electronic band The KLF
Jay’s upcoming lecture series on the history of the mafia

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and in production documentary The Gospel of Gibson.

Robert Stark interviews BLAUERGEIST! about Aesthetics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matt Pegan talk to Portland based blogger BLAUERGEIST! about architecture, interior design, art, and cinema. Check out BLAUERGEIST! on Twitter, his podcast Ellroy Boys, and new web magazine Apocalypse Confidential.

Topics:

The #BathistGang: love of 80s bathroom aesthetics
20th Century interior design genres
80s malls, Robert and Matt’s LA N O S T A L G I A  Mall series, the Breezewood meme, The Canal Walk Mall in Cape Town, and value of Interior Urbanism
Retrofuturism, trends in nostalgia, and Theme Park Urbanism
Eco Brutalism and the Interior Garden Aesthetic
Artists Patrick Nagel, Jim Buckels, and Daniel Merriam, and various sci-fi illustrators
Political symbolism in aesthetics
Aesthetics in cinema: directors Dario Argento and Peter Greenaway, and 80s films Year of the Dragon and Scarface
Horror films 3615 code Père Noël, Child’s PlayThe Serpent and the Rainbow, Jacob’s Ladder, Hellraiser: Inferno, Southbound, and Silent Hill: Revelation
The work of David Lynch and the Lynchian Aesthetic
Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and in production documentary The Gospel of Gibson.

Robert Stark & Matt Pegan discuss the work of Michel Houellebecq

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matt Pegan discuss the significance of French author Michel Houellebecq to our current zeitgeist and his novels Atomised, Whatever, Platform, Submission, and Serotonin.

Topics:

Houellebecq’s early “loser” status, achieving success later in life, and auto-biographical themes in his work
French archetypes and cultural themes
Houellebecq’s Incel Prophecy: The Alienated and Intimacy-Starved
Houellebecq’s comparison of the sexual marketplace to free-market economics
Houellebecq as a social commentator and satirist but offers no explicit political solutions
Transhumanism and Geomaxxing presented as non-conventional escapes from the post-modern predicament
The infamous night club scene from the film rendition of Whatever dealing with the Age Pill and Black Pill
The normie script for life and Houellebecq as an example of someone who broke the script and succeeded
Houellebecq’s commentary that the World Will Be Same But Worse After ‘Banal’ Virus and Study on long term impacts of pandemic on relationships                                                               
Houellebecq’s literary style and dry witty dark humor
Robert and Matt plug their upcoming novels which deal with similar themes to Houellebecq’s work
Submission, the vulnerability of atomized liberal societies to cohesive outside forces, and why France is the most politically significant European country

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Journey to Vapor Island, and in production documentary The Gospel of Gibson.

Robert Stark interviews Jack from The Perfume Nationalist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matt Pegan talk to Jack from The Perfume Nationalist podcast. Check out Jack on Twitter.

Topics:

Nationalism as an aesthetic brand, selling perfume and soap opera visions to the right
Re-appropriating “queer culture”
Camille Paglia
Trump as a performance art aesthetic brand despite his standard neoliberal policies
Beauty equality vs. an upward value of aesthetic excellence
The aspirational quality of 80s aesthetics
How 2010s neoliberal minimalism conceals wealth and power while erasing history
The elite charade of fake bohemianism
How to time travel with perfume
Las Vegas as the last frontier of scented opulent public spaces
Jack’s affinity for 80s pop icon Madonna
Jack’s defense of the artistic integrity of Lena Dunham
David Lynch’s success at synthesizing surrealist art, perfume adds, and nighttime soap
Jack’s Perfume recommendations
TFW NO GF

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark talks to Brandon Adamson about Birthday Boy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark talks to Brandon Adamson about his EP Birthday Boy. Available on  iTunes.

Topics:

Intro: Throw Your Love
Birthday Boy 22nd Anniversary Edition re-released on Captain Crook Records
Inspiration from an isolated lifestyle and lack of personal relationships
Writing songs about characters on TV shows such as Melrose Place
Brandon’s obsession with the E! Channel in the 90s
Musical influences from 70s light rock to 90s Indie
Infamous rejection letters from major record labels
Aspiring to be an indie version of a Seventeen Magazine popstar
Squandered opportunities and big breaks
How for years Brandon was embarrassed by old recordings but eventually came to embrace them

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s PaintingsStark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark talks to Joshua Zeidner about Bobos in Paradise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk to Joshua Zeider about the cultural phenomenon and book by David Brooks Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There.

Topics:

Bobos as Bourgeois Bohemians or Capitalist Hippies
Concepts that emerged after the French Revolution
How all three of us overlap with this group(interconnected yet outside)
Those who know the inner workings of the privileged class yet not quite in it
David Brooks, his political ideology, and Mid Atlantic old wealth culture
The Boomers’ transition in values
How the elites reinvented their cultural image
The blurring of cultural class as a mask for growing economic inequality
How Bobo culture coincided with the Neoliberal restructuring of our economy
Silicon Valley’s “socially conscious” cutthroat capitalism
Fake social climbing, virtual signaling, and self appointed moral leadership
Historic parallels to using Christianity to justify slavery and imperialism
Paying high prices for cheap looking merchandise
Hipsters as the Millennial offshoot of the Bobos
Political dissidents and cultural outsiders’ fascination with the culture of past elites
Alt-Subcultures and Alt-Urbanism as positive alternatives to Bobo culture

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s PaintingsStark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark talks to David Cole about LA Malls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk with David Cole about the history, culture, and aesthetics of LA ‘s Malls. David Cole writes for Takimag and is the author of Republican Party Animal.

Topics:

David and Robert’s background growing up on the Westside of LA
The Open Air Century City Shopping Center, the original 60’s retro futuristic aesthetics, and the film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
The recent $1-billion makeover of the Mall and plans to make Century City more urban and pedestrian friendly
The “Westfield Aesthetic”
The old underground 70’s retro futuristic ABC Entertainment Center
The first major indoor mall Fox Hills in Culver City
The Westside PavilionJon Jerde’s 80’s Post Modernist aesthetics(original featured in Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’), and plans to turn it into office space
The 80’s Rodeo Collection, an archeo-futuristic urban oasis model for self contained cities, and the film Body Double
The Beverly Center, the amusement park “Kiddyland” before the mall , the original 80’s aesthetics with futuristic external escalators, and latter renovations
The lack of interest in preserving 80’s architecture
Young people’s interest in 80’s aesthetics and the magical dream like memories from early childhood(Hypnagogia)
The 70’s retro high-rise Mr. C Hotel(formerly the Renaissance) near Beverly Hills
The Third Street Promenade, the first major outdoor mall
The rise of outdoor malls such as Rick Caruso’s The Grove and Americana at Brand and how those are now becoming dated
Future trends, the under construction high-rise shopping complex, the Oceanwide Plaza in Downtown LA
The Jon Jerde designed neon lit Universal CityWalk
David’s joke about the City Walk’s old Rain Forest Cafe and the Museum of Tolerance’s Tunnel of Hate
Westwood Village as the center of Westside nightlife and it’s decline in the late 80’s

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s PaintingsStark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island