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Kurt Vonneguys

Kurt Vonneguys

Alex Schmidt & Michael Swaim
Comedy

Join reader-comedians Alex Schmidt and Michael Swaim for a fun, digressive trip through the Kurt Vonnegut canon. It’s a book club, a comedy show, and a cavalcade of smart, entertaining segments. Discover Vonnegut works you’ve never read! Rediscover your Kurt favorites! And cure the terrible disease of loneliness by going on a K.V. appreciation deep dive with a friendly karass of your fellow listeners.

29 - The Writer's Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse-Five
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  • 29 - The Writer's Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse-Five

    Alex Schmidt and Michael Swaim, the original Kurt Vonneguys, are back to break down the new nonfiction book 'The Writer's Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse-Five'! If this isn't nice, what is? The book is written by Tom Roston, and published by Abrams Books: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/writers-crusade_9781419744891/ Vonneguys news: this is our last episode of this new run. Thank you all so much for re-forming this karass for another round of Vonne-joy. Enjoy Michael's new show 'Like Razorblade Pie' at Small Beans: https://www.patreon.com/SmallBeans Enjoy Alex's show 'Secretly Incredibly Fascinating': https://linktr.ee/sifpod SEGMENTS: Franken-Time (00:02:35) Summary Time (00:13:10) The Meat (00:36:15) Tom Rosto-grades (01:07:25) Related Reading (01:10:30) Vonnegut News (01:17:35) LINKS for Related Reading: 'The Things They Carried' by Tim O'Brien: https://www.arts.gov/initiatives/nea-big-read/things-they-carried "Ahab’s gift: Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and the meaning of pain" by Xi Chen: https://hekint.org/2020/06/23/ahabs-gift-herman-melvilles-moby-dick-and-the-meaning-of-pain/ The Autobiography Of Mark Twain: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520267190/autobiography-of-mark-twain-volume-1 LINKS for background about this book: 'Kurt Vonnegut: Letters', edited by Dan Wakefield: https://bookshop.org/books/kurt-vonnegut-letters/9780385343763 Tom Roston's website: https://tomroston.com/ 'The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World: The Twin Towers, Windows on the World, and the Rebirth of New York' by Tom Roston: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/most-spectacular-restaurant-in-the-world_9781419737992/ 'I Lost it at the Video Store: A Filmmakers' Oral History of a Vanished Era' by Tom Roston: https://books.google.com/books/about/I_Lost_it_at_the_Video_Store.html?id=TpzmsgEACAAJ Review from Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/tom-roston/the-writers-crusade/ Review from Publishers Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4197-4489-1 Full spreadsheet of Alex & Michael's "Vonnegrades" plus other grades: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F2juhwV4ia1MzdQC8krE0yiV9e7rdrpkbMguGL037uo/edit?usp=sharing Homepage for the Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library: http://kvml.org/ Their next annual 'Night Of Vonnegut' is April 10th, 2022. Kurt Vonnegut's 100th birthday would've been November 11th, 2022.

    Tue, 22 Mar 2022 - 1h 22min
  • 28 - Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time

    Alex Schmidt and Michael Swaim, the original Kurt Vonneguys, are back to break down the new documentary 'Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time'! If this isn't nice, what is? The documentary is by co-directors Robert B. Weide and Don Argott. Here's its website and how to watch: https://www.vonnegutmovie.com/ Vonneguys news: we're still returning once more, in 2022, for an episode about 'The Writer's Crusade' by Tom Roston. Find out more about that book here: www.abramsbooks.com/product/writers…_9781419744891/ SEGMENTS: Franken-Time (00:02:15) Summary Time (00:26:00) Highlight Reel (00:37:57) Vonne-MEH (00:56:30) The Meat (01:03:55) Robert B. Weide-grades (01:17:15) Related Reading (01:22:45) Vonnegut News (01:35:07) LINKS for Related Reading: 'Life Itself' documentary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382298/ 'Meeting People Is Easy' documentary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195909/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 'Too Funny To Fail' documentary, streaming on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/movie/too-funny-to-fail-the-life-death-of-the-dana-carvey-show-c6c29995-0c40-4442-aed6-156bd11e2d9e 'The Brothers Vonnegut' by Ginger Strand: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374536534 'The Century Of The Self' documentary series: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432232/ LINKS for background about this documentary: Library Of America interview with Robert B. Weide: https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/1917-kurt-vonnegut-at-100-with-robert-weide transcript of the "Why a duck?" scene in 'The Cocoanuts' (1929): https://www.marx-brothers.org/whyaduck/info/movies/scenes/whyaduck.htm IMDb listings for Robert B. Weide: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004332/?ref_=tt_ov_wr IMDB listings for Don Argott: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0034531/?ref_=tt_ov_dr 'Kurt Vonnegut: Letters', edited by Dan Wakefield: https://bookshop.org/books/kurt-vonnegut-letters/9780385343763 'The Brothers Vonnegut' by Ginger Strand: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374536534 Review from RogerEbert.com: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/kurt-vonnegut-unstuck-in-time-movie-review-2021 Review from Variety: https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/kurt-vonnegut-unstuck-in-time-review-robert-b-weide-1235115093/ Review from NPR: https://www.npr.org/2021/11/17/1056477983/kurt-vonnegut-unstuck-in-time-remains-faithful-to-the-authors-spirit Review from the Los Angeles Times: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-11-18/review-kurt-vonnegut-unstuck-in-time-robert-b-weide-don-argott

    Tue, 08 Feb 2022 - 1h 37min
  • 27 - Slaughterhouse-Five (graphic novel)

    Alex Schmidt and Michael Swaim, the original Kurt Vonneguys, are back to break down the new 'Slaughterhouse-Five' graphic novel! If this isn't nice, what is? The graphic novel is by writer Ryan North and artist Albert Monteys. Publisher page: https://shop.boom-studios.com/collections/slaughterhouse-five Also here's a link to a *VIDEO VERSION* of this podcast episode (it's the same audio, plus some photos of what we're talking about): https://youtu.be/5BghQzkY0iE Vonneguys news: we're returning once more, in 2022, for a new episode about 'The Writer's Crusade' by Tom Roston. Find out more about that book here: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/writers-crusade_9781419744891/ SEGMENTS: Franken-Time (00:03:55) Plot Time (00:24:55) Kurt Blurt Redux (00:43:45) Recurring Characters Redux (00:51:45) Kurt Cameo Redux (00:58:05) VonneWHAT Redux (01:00:30) The Meat (01:04:20) Ryan North and Albert Monteys-grades (01:17:25) Related Reading (01:21:25) Vonnegut News (01:26:00) LINKS for Related Reading: 'Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth' by Chris Ware: https://bookshop.org/books/jimmy-corrigan-the-smartest-kid-on-earth/9780375714542 'Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards' by Jim Ottaviani and Big Time Attic: https://bookshop.org/books/bone-sharps-cowboys-and-thunder-lizards/9780966010664 Quote from Tennessee Williams: https://www.themarginalian.org/2018/07/30/tennessee-williams-love/ 'Synedcoche, New York' (2008 movie): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383028/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 LINKS for background about this graphic novel: ComicsBeat.com interview with Ryan North: https://www.comicsbeat.com/interview-adapting-slaughterhouse-five-with-ryan-north/ Publisher interview with Ryan North and Albert Monteys: https://youtu.be/BU5xv4AhoCc Article about Albert Monteys leaving 'El Jueves' over censorship: https://www.thelocal.es/20140606/spanish-comic-censored-jueves-king-joke/ Image Comics page for the 'Solid State' graphic novel by Jonathan Coulton, Matt Fraction, and Albert Monteys: https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/solid-state Vox.com article citing new Dresden statistics: https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/3/31/18287062/slaughterhouse-five-50th-anniversary-kurt-vonnegut January 2018 'Dinosaur Comics' strip that quotes 'Slaughterhouse-Five': https://qwantz.com/index.php?comic=3236 August 2021 news from Deadline.com on Noah Hawley's adaptation of 'Cat's Cradle': https://deadline.com/2021/08/noah-hawley-cats-cradle-not-moving-forward-at-fx-tca-1234814354/ Review from The AV Club: https://www.avclub.com/slaughterhouse-five-is-a-near-flawless-adaptation-that-1845419158 Review from Polygon: https://www.polygon.com/comics/2020/9/15/21438090/slaughterhouse-five-comic-graphic-novel-kurt-vonnegut-ryan-north-albert-monteys Review from MonkeysFightingRobots.co: https://monkeysfightingrobots.co/review-slaughterhouse-five-is-a-perfect-graphic-novel-adaptation/ LINK to a Google Sheet with all of Alex and Michael's past Vonnegrades: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F2juhwV4ia1MzdQC8krE0yiV9e7rdrpkbMguGL037uo/edit?usp=sharing

    Thu, 11 Nov 2021 - 1h 33min
  • 26 - A Man Without A Country

    Franken-Time (00:01:20) Essay Time (00:04:25) VonneART (00:05:10) Ad Time (00:40:25) Kurt Blurt (00:54:05) Recurring Characters Update (01:09:40) Kurt Cameo (01:09:55) VonneWHAT (01:10:15) The Meat (01:13:25) VonneGRADES (01:18:45) Related Reading (01:21:25) Vonnegut News (01:26:25)

    Tue, 23 Jan 2018 - 1h 30min
  • 25 - God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

    Cosmologut (0:00:50) Vonne-Interviews (0:07:00) Kurt Vonnegut reading Mary Ainsworth interview (0:14:45) Vognettes (0:26:05) Kurt Blurt (0:59:50) Recurring Characters Update (1:05:50) Kurt Cameo (1:06:00) VonneWHAT (1:06:45) The Meat (1:09:00) VonneGRADES (1:15:45) Related Reading (1:17:20)

    Tue, 02 Jan 2018 - 1h 25min
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