Welcome to I LIVE AT THE MUSIC BOX, a podcast series dedicated to essays & discussions on our favorite venerable movie palace and the state of filmgoing as our shared national pastime.
This episode, my last episode, we wrap up the series with a few of the Music Box’s world-famous weeks of programming: the 70mm Festival and the Christmas Double Feature & Alternative Xmas series, all a testament to the lasting power of celluloid, and to the filmmakers who still shoot on film and then send their work straight to Southport. I also take a dive into the film that takes me full-circle to the Music Box, the first I ever saw here – 2001: A Space Odyssey, the gem of their 70mm crown. I talk with Organ Maestro Extraordinaire Dennis Scott, Assistant Technical Director & Programmer Rebecca Lyon, General Manager Ryan Oestreich, film projectionist & historian Tim O'Neill, and my friend Nick Currie for this supersized final episode.
6 Jan 2024
Episode 11: Difficult Films
I’ve long felt the Music Box is the premier environment for films that are harrowing, challenging, gross, abstract, or just plain lengthy - you’ve bought your ticket and there’s an audience with a shared stubbornness to see it through. This episode is dedicated to Difficult Films, movies I personally felt exhausted by, that poked and prodded me into submission, including a look at the auteurs oft endured: Lars Von Trier, Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis, and Gaspar Noé; as well as a look at the Music Box’s new “Who Gives an F” series. I speak with Ryan Oestreich and Rebecca Lyon from the Music Box, as well as Tim O’Neill and my friend James Conley, who I cajoled into rewatching that notorious centerpiece of Difficult Films with me: Irréversible.
19 Sept 2023
Episode 10: ArtFlop Era
On this episode, we enter our ArtFlop Era. I speak again with my friends Michael Elias and Nick Currie about the newest iteration of our film club: ArtFlop, a series dedicated to visiting movies that reached for the moon but were not a financial or critical hit at the time, from BOOM! to CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC, from POPEYE to THE PAPERBOY. I also dedicate some space to my personal patron saints of ArtFlop & two of my all-time favorite maverick filmmakers: the Wachowski Sisters.
13 Jul 2023
Episode 9: The Disney Dilemma
The overgrown kid in me still likes Marvel & Star Wars, I just can’t help it. But as Admiral Ackbar warns us, it’s a trap! On this episode, we dive into the discussion du jour, what I like to call The Disney Dilemma. I rope in my friends over at A Piece of Pie: The Queer Film Podcast for a crossover episode – I speak with creator & host Brian Rowe and my fellow contributors Lauren Emily Whalen, Rob Cameron, and Matthew Jackson. We have the Music Box in Chicago, but what happens if everything else becomes content IP oatmeal boosted by brainless online listicles, when everything gets sent straight to streaming in our living rooms all owned by the same company? That’s the heart of the Disney Dilemma.
10 Apr 2023
Episode 8: Church of the Sunday Matinee
On this episode, I discuss with friends and family the films that feel spiritual to them - everything from MAGNOLIA to CONTACT, to ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM: COMPANY to BABE: PIG IN THE CITY - and the Music Box’s legendary weekend matinees series, including months dedicated to the icons Marlene Dietrich and Bette Davis. And I speak with Steve Prokopy, film critic & PR Manager for the Music Box and curator of the wildly popular Billy Wilder 'Nobody's Perfect' matinee series, with Part 2 to come later this year.
23 Dec 2022
Episode 7: Rated Q for Queer Content
Let's talk about films that are Rated Q for Queer Content. The Music Box plays host to showings of new queer cult classics of all kinds, from LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS to MEAN GIRLS. I’ll discuss the wonderful drag show/film hybrid series Rated Q with its outrageous & indispensable host, Ramona Slick, Chicago’s top movie-loving bad girl. I’m also joined by a bevy of my friends to discuss their favorite films that were formative at a young queer age, including REBECCA, IN & OUT, VELVET GOLDMINE, ALL ABOUT EVE, and MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO.
20 Oct 2022
Episode 6: Music Box of Horrors
On this episode, we dive into the spectacular Music Box of Horrors, the legendary 24-hour horror movie festival which I’ve attended seven times, soon to be eight, and at most survived only nine films in one sitting. I speak with Will Morris, curator of the Music Box of Horrors, as well as film critic & writer Katie Rife, who helped program this year’s month-long Scared Stupid Festival. I also have a quick chat with Matt Kasin (DJ Gaudy God) on his favorite scary movie. We’ll look at the marathon’s evolution, how the Music Box remains the premiere venue to experience horror films, and how watching scary stuff together – no matter good, bad, gory, or boring – is much better with a sold-out crowd.
5 Sept 2022
Episode 5: Kind Hearts & Criterion Clubs
This episode, we discuss the formation and curation of friendships through film. The Music Box has long provided for many a home base for these kinds of friendships steeped in film, a comfy cozy place to meet up and enjoy an engaging chat with a drink in the lounge afterwards. It also serves as inspiration, a place that curates its picks for engaged and excited crowds - it’s hard to not want to play projectionist and replicate this experience with your own friends. I talk with Michael Elias, my frequent companion to the Music Box and the co-creator of our Criterion Club, now seven years running, about how we mimicked our own art house theater model at home, showing everything from BELLE DU JOUR to EYES WITHOUT A FACE, from FREEWAY to PARIS, TEXAS, or BIRTH to KABOOM.
17 Jun 2022
Episode 4: A Lynchian Playground
On this episode, I’m excited to return to 'A Lynchian Playground,' as we discuss the Music Box Theatre's David Lynch: A Complete Retrospective, the single most passionate act of film fandom I have ever witnessed. A Black Lodge makeover, super special guests, and a festival pass that let me introduce friends to the madness that is All Things Lynch in both 2017 and 2022. I speak with musician and visual artist Daniel Knox, the festival’s curator and creator of its masterful pre-shows and archival clips, as well as my friend Derek Van Barham on some favorites in this grand legacy of weirdo opuses.
15 Apr 2022
Episode 3: Midnight Movies & Cult Classics
If you’re a film fan in Chicago, it’s likely you have been invited to do the pelvic thrust in public or throw plastic spoons by the fistful. The Music Box is home to the leading lineup of midnight movies and cult classics, complete with worshipful routines, shadowcasts, and audible callbacks. This episode interviews Ryan Oestreich, General Manager at the Music Box, and a bevy of my friends about their favorite cult films, including The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Room, Clue, The Thing, They Live, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, MST3K: The Movie, and much more.
15 Mar 2022
Episode 2: Silver Screens on Southport
This episode takes a quick flip through the Music Box’s long and winding history over the last nine decades - - its origins and evolution, its brief time as a porno theater, its gradual transition into the art-house world leader it is today, its 90th birthday, and even a little on its fabled ghost. I chat with my old college friend Claire Alden, Membership and Group Sales Manager, about some fun new screenings like their recent Highs & Lows series, and the Music Box’s current empire: the patio, the lounge, the drive-ins, and more.
19 Feb 2022
Episode 1: Back on the Big Screen
This episode explores the importance of film as a shared experience and filmgoing's continued fragility coming out of a pandemic. We can be lucky in major cities, where enough film fanatics can create a community around places like the Music Box, but many towns are losing their experience entirely to streaming and the crush of the corporate content model. I wonder if losing in-person films means we start to lose our shared empathy, patience, and curiosity with cinema. In Chicago, the Music Box’s ‘Back on the Big Screen’ series in mid-2021 was a bridge back to brotherhood - I discuss with my friends films ranging from Days of Heaven, Ran, Goodbye Dragon Inn, Touch of Evil, Matinee, The Tingler, Cinema Paradiso, and many more.
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