Bistro Californium

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 9 THE HODOLOGICAL NARRATIVE OF BLIND JOE DEATH w/ Lisa Feb 22, 2023

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Topic: John Fahey Guest: Lisa (@lisatomic) Long-term friend Lisa joins yeerk to discuss American primitivist and volk guitar virtuoso John Fahey in this most hodological episode of BISTRO CALIFORNIUM, in which the combined Fahey discography + liner notes is revealed as a John Crowleyian narrative achievment of American surrealist mythmaking. N.B. This episode introduces the term 'hodology', taken from Fahey's para-academic liner notes. It refers to 'the study of pathways', whether they be two roads diverged in a yellow wood, or the many thousands of roads one may find along the fretted neck of the guitar. "All I have ever done with music has been to depict various emotions in an organised and coherent musical language. Sometimes very dark emotions, but also happiness, health, certain types of ecstasy." "[Fahey's music] seems to speak of real reserves of self-control inside the American psyche" Intro theme by Laz Harding (The Upest Fukist)

Ep. 8 I'M NOT SICK BUT I'M NOT WELL w/ Anna Khachiyan Feb 15, 2023

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Topics: Peep Show (2003 - 2015) + Keeping Up Appearances (1990 - 1995) Guest: Anna Khachiyan yeerk is joined by one of his all-time culture heroes, Anna Khachiyan of Red Scare podcast infamy, for a discussion of one of the great English comic novels that happens to be a tv sitcom + Anna introduces yeerk to the eternal Firbankian heroine/ social striver Hyacinth Bucket. "So what if I don't really love her. Charles didn't really love Diana and they were alright. Sort of." "This is a private, slimline white telephone with no connection to any business or trade." Listen to Red Scare Follow Anna on twitter Intro music by Laz Harding (The Upest Fukist)

Ep. 7 ODE TO A PURPLE DRAGON w/ Matt & Will Feb 08, 2023

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Topics: The Spyro the Dragon trilogy + John Keats' 1819 Odes Guests: Matt (@afieldoflight) & Will (@_Will_Samson_) BISTRO CALIFORNIUM episode 7 takes us on a Pspyrogeographical Odyssey through the Romantic geometric landscapes of Keats' 1819 Odes in the imaginative vehicle of a "purple dragon lost in time". The classic early Spyro games are reimagined as a 4D Grecian Urn, a cold pastoral taking us from the Young Marble Giants Country of the Artisans homeworld, through countless portals, and onwards to the very top of Midnight Mountain. Our most ambitious (and possibly indulgent episode) yet. 'Ode to a Grecian Urn' read by yeerk 'To Autumn' read by Laz Harding 'Ode to Psyche' read by Matt 'Ode to a Nightingale' read by Will "When holy were the haunted forest boughs, Holy the air, the water, and the fire" "Watch the dragonfly, Spyro. His colour indicates his power. When he eats butterflies, he stays strong." Intro theme by Laz Harding (The Upest Fukist)

Ep. 6 SWING YOU SINNERS! w/ Faustina Feb 01, 2023

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Topics: Max Fleischer + Raymond Scott Guest: Faustina yeerk is joined by dear friend Faustina to discuss two titans of American technological vision, Max Fleischer and Raymond Scott. The conversation ranges from the origins of Betty Boop, the hidden links between ANimation and ANimism, Fleischer's Superman as the spirit of American invention, jazz as a form of industrial music, and Raymond Scott's status as the prophet of MIDI. A bustling Art Deco Metropolis of the Imagination arises around them, while in the infernal subterranean caverns beneath, demons of dice and liquor prowl on ribbon-like legs and grin. "It was, and still is, my opinion that a cartoon should represent, in simple form, the cartoonist's mental expression" "Perhaps within the next hundred years, science will perfect a process of thought transference from composer to listener. The composer will sit alone on the concert stage and merely 'think' his idealized conception of his music" Faustina's substack Intro theme by Laz Harding (The Upest Fukist)

Ep. 5 AMIMATED VIOLENCE w/ petty bourgeois protestant Feb 01, 2023

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Topics: Thee Oh Sees + Ralph Bakshi's Wizards (1977) + Gerald Potterton's Heavy Metal (1981) Guest: petty bourgeois protestant yeerk is joined by one of the most pleasant posters in the world, the ever-affable petty bourgeois protestant, to discuss the dungeons and dragons of John Dwyer's musical slimefactory Thee Oh Sees/Oh Sees/Osees. yeerk advances his theory that the project exists at least partially as a means of viral tinnitus transmission. Subsequently, they discuss two classics of ANIMATED VIOLENCE, Ralph Bakshi's WIZARDS and Gerald Potterton's HEAVY METAL, two of the scuzziest, nastiest, most psychedelically brain damaged toons ever put on screen. Along the way, they meditate on Power Fantasy, nerd body-horror, muscle men, and the archetypal B.T.W.w.B. (Big Titted Woman with Bush). "I'm a little bit concerned with that compost on your breath" "Those lousy, stinking yellow fairies! Those horrible, atrocity-filled vermin!" "From one war to another, my influence is always present. The paltry armies of the universe are but play-things to me" Intro theme by Laz Harding (The Upest Fukist)

Ep. 4 MY DINNER WITH OWEN w/ Owen Briggs Jan 25, 2023

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Topic: Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre (1981) Guest: Owen Briggs yeerk is joined by infamous austrological Astralian (and old friend) Owen Briggs (of Apis Astrology), who puts his extraordinary powers of planetary perception to the task of interpreting Louis Malle's 1981 cult movie MY DINNER WITH ANDRE, starring Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn. Two friends discuss a movie about a discussion between two friends, covering everything from the Andre/ Wally dialectic to the limitations of free-form magickal theater, and why exactly Andre asks the waiter to get rid of that little flower when they first sit down. "Thirsting for a way to name the unnameable, to express the inexpressible...."

Apis Astrology Follow Owen on twitter

Ep. 3 QUITTING TIME, or Feminist Women Love Eminem w/ Grace Jan 25, 2023

Show notes

Topic: The Roches + Eminem Guest: Grace yeerk is joined by fellow Haribo Enthusiast and Roches Fan, Grace, to explore one of his great musical loves, followed by a meditation on Eminem as the forgotten demon-child of the American Carnival. Along the way they touch on the nature of sisterhood, emotional distances, politics in music, LiMiNaL SpAcEs and Standrogyny "We are are Maggie and Terre and Suzzie" "Hi kids! Do you like violence?" Grace's Substack Intro theme by Laz Harding (The Upest Fukist)

Ep. 2 THE RIFF-FILLED LAND w/ Logo Daedalus (part two) Jan 20, 2023

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Topics: Sleep's Dopesmoker + Om + William Blake's Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion Guest: Logo Daedalus In part two of BISTRO CALIFORNIUM's inaugural episode, William Blake's prophetic denunciation of the antihuman Cult of Deism explodes out of a volcano of molten riffage, engulfing everybody in a veritable Pompeii of visionary fire that does not burn but only ENLIVENS. Subsequently, yeerk & @Logo_Daedalus manage to ward off the demons of electricity attempting to sabotage the progress of their conversation, dust themselves off, and turn their hodological gaze to the dense myth-cycle of William Blake's JERUSALEM. "Cam is a little stream" "Far within the oaken tower Exists the one with evil power Magic channeler of Earth's frustration The Druid sleeps in meditation" Follow Logo on twitter ReadBooksVlt. Patreon Selfie Suicide ampersand Reading of Jerusalem by Tim Bruce Intro theme by Laz Harding

Ep. 1 THE RIFF-FILLED LAND w/ Logo Daedalus (part one) Jan 20, 2023

Show notes

Topics: Sleep's Dopesmoker + Om + William Blake's Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion Guest: Logo Daedalus Part one of the inaugural episode of BISTRO CALIFORNIUM sees yeerk joined by poet and 25th century Rosicrucian @Logo_Daedalus to discuss 'two Jerusalems that might be one', Sleep's stoner opus DOPESMOKER and William Blake's JERUSALEM: THE EMANATION OF THE GIANT ALBION Towards the end they are interrupted by electrical gremlins, and the weedian riff-caravan of Dopesmoker takes the resulting astral portal as an opportunity to gatecrash, crushing everything in its wake beneath a dense sediment of hashishan sludge "The Primeval State of Man, was Wisdom, Art, and Science." "Drop out of life with a bong in hand Follow the smoke..." For more Logo: Follow Logo on twitter ReadBooksVlt Patreon

Selfie Suicide ampersand Reading of Jerusalem by Tim Bruce Intro theme by Laz Harding

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