6.4: Christina Ward: Punk Rock Publishing, Outsider Literature & the Secret Revolutionary History of Food

I love Christina Ward. And I love the work she does.

I am lucky enough to know some really brilliant and wonderful women. Christina? She is absolutely top shelf.

As an author, she does outrageously cool writing on food and food history. Canning and food preservation? She’s got you. The relationship between food, cults and class? Read her work. It will blow your mind.

Christina also has another gig: she is one of the primary folks at a publishing company known as Feral House. Around since 1989, FH has certainly courted controversy, being one of the very first publishers to release texts on such taboo subjects as black metal, punk, death culture, conspiracies and cults. But FH does not center itself on shock; it works on examining outsider perspectives and the work that Christina and the team there do is vital to our thorough understanding of the world.

I invite you to listen to my conversation with Christina Ward in which we discuss all these things and more. The books and writing that they platform place them solidly against misogyny, colonialism, capitalism and classism, making them an incredibly valuable publisher in this day and age.

As usual, bio is below the podcast link. Links to various subjects from our conversation are embedded in the bio so be sure to click on those and check’em out!!

Christina Ward is an author, editor, and seeker. She had the distinct pleasure of riding around town in the Wienermobile with Padma Lakshmi on the hottest day in July of 2019 for “Taste the Nation.” Her newest book, Holy Food: Recipes and Foodways from Cults, Communes, and New Religious Movements, will be published in early spring of 2023. Her previous book, American Advertising Cookbooks-How Corporations Taught Us To Love Spam, Bananas, and Jell-O, earned positive notice from Florence Fabricant in the New York Times, Christopher Kimball of Milk Street Radio, and numerous other journalists and readers.

Christina makes regular guest expert on Milwaukee television programs and public radio stations across the United States, delighting in ‘working blue’ before 8 am. She is also the Vice President of Feral House, a publisher noted for their books on outré topics. She contributed to and edited the 2021 book Bawdy Tales & Trifles of Devilries for Ladies and Gentlemen of Experience under her nom d’amour, Lady Fanny Woodcock. She has guided, edited, contributed to, and in a few (unnamed) instances, rewritten, over fifty books.

She has an interest in the lives of forgotten “difficult women” and bringing their stories to readers. Christina regularly contributes to academic and educational conferences on the topic of transgressive art. In her spare time, she is the certified Master Food Preserver for South East Wisconsin and always picks up the phone to answer pressing questions about jelly that won’t set and soft pickles.

Christina’s book on food preservation: Preservation The Art and Science of Canning, Fermentation and Dehydration

Book on Maila Nurmi aka Vampyra!

As mentioned, Four White Horses and a Brass Band – the story of Violet McNeal!!!

Definitely check out Dirty Helen Cromwell in Good Time Party Girl

Great book- You Can’t Win by Jack Black (no, not THAT Jack Black)

As mentioned, Roving Bill Aspinwall

Also- for those punks out there like me who are interested in punk crime lore and thorough about their history…I think this looks interesting and it’s got Raymond Pettibon art… Disco’s Out…Murder’s in!

S4.7: Ferrin Evans : Queer Loss, Marginalized Experiences and Demanding a Seat at the Table

Once again, I must apologize for the long period it has been between recording this and it going live.
I fear that the entirety of Season 4 is going to have some…bumps…in it because there were many moments in the last 6 months where I did not feel comfortable posting a new episode and having any attention taken away from a) what was going on in the news (the protests, etc) or b) lessen the wonderful words of my guests. So you’ll have to just sorta deal with the fact that some of the topics on here are a little dated but it’s interesting to consider them in light of what then occurred AFTER this conversation, for better or worse.
Whatever life is, it is far from boring….

I will also apologize for myself. I got far too excited during this podcast episode and I think I spoke over Ferrin too much and I regret that because while editing it, I realized that there was so much more I wanted to know about and wanted to ask him but I was having such a good time with the kind of energy that he exudes, even over a vocal virtual communication system that I almost forgot what we were there for.
I will have him on again and I promise to be a much better listener next time. Wow am I embarrassed! But it just goes to show Ferrin’s charisma and brilliance. What an incredible human being. I hope you all can get a feel for the groundbreaking work he is doing, the passion he has for life and living and the way he conquers his (and the) world. It’s stunning. Like him.

As usual, bio and links under the podcast!

Ferrin Evans is a Master of Information candidate at the University of Toronto.  He currently has two media archiving contracts at the university: at the Media Commons Archive and at the Sexual Representation Collection.  In the past, he has worked with the Gay Archives of Quebec, Inside Out Toronto, Toronto Queer Film Festival, Cinema Politica, and the MIX New York Queer Experimental Film Festival, where he served on the Board of Directors.  He is currently completing an oral history-centered thesis about risk, desire, and loss on Fire Island during COVID-19.

LINKS:

Article related to my most current media archival work at University of Toronto:http://sds.utoronto.ca/news/new-acquisitions-at-the-sexual-representation-collection/
SAA Community Reflection on Black Lives and Archives (June 2020):https://www.pathlms.com/saa/events/1996/video_presentations/162192
“Treat Them with the Reverence of Archivists”: Records Work, Grief Work, and Relationship Work in the Archiveshttps://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13699

S4.3: Stephany Kim: Filmmakers of Color, Daily Activism and Pushing Boundaries to Work For a Better Future

I could fill this page and 50 more with words of praise for Stephany Kim.

I miss our lunches at Musso & Frank’s. I miss our laughs and inside baseball talks about archiving, Hollywood and Korean culture.
I never thought she would come on the podcast but finally it happened and more importantly, she came on to discuss the current situation in the US with the protests and #BlackLivesMatter and systemic oppression.
This episode is a little longer than normal (please forgive us) but I think you’ll agree that we had a lot of ground to cover.

I also want to point out that since the time of our recording, three more Black men have been lynched. 5 Black men hung from trees in just a little over a week. The police want to call them suicides.
No Black person looks at a tree and thinks: yeah, that’s how I’m gonna off myself. Just like how all the white folks used to kill my ancestors way back when.
NOT A SINGLE BLACK PERSON IN EVER.
While people protest for BLM, there are calculated publicly visible murders being carried out. Yeah.

And less and less white people are paying attention to the people who are protesting because they have the added distraction of having the US opening up again for business which (inevitably) will only lead to a lot more COVID cases.

That said…Stephany and I had an amazing conversation about what education had missed in the way of POC in film, our varied local experiences of the recent BLM protests, Karen Eruptions and what the archives world is(n’t) doing.
Check it out!
And don’t miss the bio below as well as the mad amounts of links!

Stephany Kim is a Coordinator, Restoration and Preservation at The Walt Disney Studios. She received a BA in Film Studies from Smith College and a MA in English (Media Preservation) from the University of Rochester. Her film-related interests are in the history of silent film intertitles and modern day approaches to intertitle recreation, preservation of home movies and family histories of people of color in the United States, and the celebrity image and its relation to parasocial interactions during the silent film era.

Her free time is usually dedicated to Polaroid portraitures, staring at pie designs (one of her favorite Instagram accounts is @crumbcrush), and daydreaming about fluffy animals and carne asada tacos. She is overly invested in THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF even though she doesn’t bake.
Stephany was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley and is unapologetic for her Valley Girl accent and usage of Valspeak.

Links and references from the ‘cast

The racist history of tipping: https://afropunk.com/2018/04/the-racist-history-of-tipping/

Black crime fiction writers

Chester Himes: https://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2017/fall/chester-himes-lonely-crusader-african-american-fiction-writer/

Walter Mosley: http://www.waltermosley.com/

Iceberg Slim: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/books/review-street-poison-the-biography-of-iceberg-slim-studies-the-life-of-a-pimp.html

Barbara Neely: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/11/814603243/remembering-barbara-neely-a-pioneer-in-crime-fiction

Here’s a full list of Black-owned bookstores to support right now:

HTTPS://WWW.TOWNANDCOUNTRYMAG.COM/LEISURE/ARTS-AND-CULTURE/G32782756/BLACK-OWNED-BOOKSTORES/

Some ways you can show up for Black Trans Folks: http://www.tgijp.org/from-words-to-action-showing-up-for-black-trans-women.html

A collection of Black-led Queer and Trans orgs to support: https://www.bustle.com/p/32-black-led-queer-trans-organizations-to-support-22959025


And finally…for those wondering about James Wong Howe…
there actually are a few books about him! Check ’em out here:

James Wong Howe, Cinematographer
by Todd Rainsberger

James Wong Howe The Camera Eye: A Career Interview
by Alain Silver

Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez: the Minority Majority, Community Involvement & Our Plea to Stop Being a Jerk!

I am so glad that I am able to come back to the Podcast-waves with this episode.

Some things are a *little* out of date since we recorded this episode waaaaaaaaay back in April but most everything is still incredibly relevant and very very real.

I am so thrilled to have been able to have Elvia on this show. What she is doing in Irvine is so important and her drive to make sure that the future is a better place is so clear. I am incredibly impressed by this University archive and they are quite lucky to have Elvia. She is an incredible person who respects and values the voices that ask to be heard.

This is the rarest thing. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed having this conversation. ELVIA IS AWESOME!!!!!

As usual, bio is below the podcast link!

Elvia is the Assistant University Archivist at UC Irvine where she is responsible for providing physical and intellectual access to University Archives and Faculty Papers. She was previously the Processing Archivist for Latin American Collections at Princeton University. She earned her Master’s in Library and Information Science (MLIS) at the University of Pittsburgh, and holds a Bachelor’s of Art in art history from UCLA. 

Lynne Kirste- Home Movies at the Academy and the Brilliant Power of Representation

Welcome to Season 2! I am so excited to begin this season with my friend and colleague Lynne Kirste of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. While many of you may only know the Academy for That Awards Show, this institution does way more. Lynne is only one of many other wonderful humans that I know and treasure there. But what she does is (to me) particularly special and unique which is why I was so excited when I was able to welcome her to the program and why she is the first guest on this new season!

Last season we spoke about the topic of home movies with the illustrious Snowden Becker and the fabulous Erica Lopez, these women are critical engineers of the home movie world and introduced major discussions that I invite you to revisit if you have not listened to those episodes. The home movie/amateur film genre is one of the most critical areas of our profession.

Here we go a step further into our classical film past. What Lynne Kirste does at the Academy as the Special Collections Curator is truly mindblowing. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed spending time with a woman who I consider to be a true mentor and, like Snowden and Erica, is one of the great talents of our moving image archive world. Below the podcast link you will find her very rich bio and some great links! Please check them out!


Lynne Kirste Bio:

Lynne Kirste is Special Collections Curator at the Academy Film Archive, where she cares for materials that include the Archive’s extensive collection of home movies. She joined the Archive staff in 1997 after earning her MFA in Film Production from UCLA. Lynne believes it is crucial for archives to collect, preserve, share and provide access to moving images by and about people who are not well represented in mainstream media. Lynne has spoken about this topic at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, the Outfest Fusion Festival, the Stan Brakhage Symposium, the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, the Society of
Cinema and Media Scholars conference and many other forums. Lynne is passionate about sharing material from the Academy’s collection. She has curated over twenty home movie programs and presented them with live commentary to audiences at a wide range of venues, including the Academy’s Linwood Dunn theater, the Turner Classic Film Festival, Walt Disney Imagineering, the historic Old Town Music Hall, the British Film Institute and the Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia in Bologna, Italy.
Lynne’s publications include articles in Mining the Home Movie, edited by Karen Ishizuka and Patricia Zimmermann, and the Cinema Journal. She provides commentary for a home movie selection on the DVD set Treasures V: The West, produced by the National Film Preservation Foundation, and talks about LGBTQ home movies in the documentary Reel in the Closet.
Lynne is proud to be a member of the Outfest Legacy Advisory Council and of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, where she chaired the LGBT Committee for several years.

Links mentioned in the show & other recommendations to check out!!!!

Japanese American National Museum Home Movie Collection

JANM’s main website

http://www.janm.org/

Home Movie Clips from JANM’s Collections

http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/nikkeialbum/albums/270/

This link takes you a page featuring the Dave Tatsuno Collection Album (plus a list of other JANM home movie collections on the right side of the screen under the heading “More albums by HNRC.”) You can’t click yet on the large image in the player. There is a text description below that image. Below the text you will see the “Slides in this album” thumbnail photos. Click on any thumbnail photo and it will link you to the actual home movie clip that you can now play in the viewer. After you’ve loaded one clip, you can click on the numbers above the screen to see the next clips.

You can click on any of the other collection albums to view their clips.

It’s easy and totally worth it!

Latinos and Latinas in Hollywood

Hollywood Home Movies: LA/LA Special Edition (2017 Academy program)

This review discusses the program’s content and points about Latinas and Latinos in Hollywood.

http://www.thevintagecameo.com/2017/10/hollywood-home-movies-lala-special-edition/

Negro Leagues Baseball

Kansas City Monarchs vs. Indianapolis Clowns, featuring Reese “Goose” Tatum

https://www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-films/screening-room/t1-negro-leagues-baseball-1946

Complete footage and information from the National Film Preservation Foundation site.

Satchel Paige pitching for a team of Negro League ballplayers in an exhibition game against Major League players in 1948.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyjLJ96iFBM

Click “read more” on the YouTube page for an excellent description of the footage.

LGBTQ Home Movies

Trailer for Reel in the Closet, a documentary about the historic value of LGBTQ home movies with some amazing clips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9yiA-SRjgw

Outfest Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation

https://www.outfest.org/about-the-legacy-project/

Mona’s Candle Light Bar – a “bohemian” bar in San Francisco, circa 1950 – preservation of home movie with sound (very rare to find an early sound home movie) that features drag king Jimmy Reynard and singer Jan Jensen.

https://archive.org/details/monasCandleLightCa1950s

People with Disabilities in Film

Interview with Marlee Matlin (2017)

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-marlee-matlin-oscars-20170202-story.html

Think of Me First as a Person

This wonderful home movie/documentary by a father about his son who has Down Syndrome is on the National Film Registry.

http://www.thinkofmefirstasaperson.com/film.html

https://amateurism.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/preserving-think-of-me-first-as-a-person/