Upper Middlebrow

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October 6th Live Draft! #shorts #podcast #bookanalysis #film #bookreview #movie YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow

Live Draft coming next Monday October 6th 8pm.

October 6th: Live Draft Coming Soon! On October 6th, Dukes and Bagg invite you to join us for the Season 4 Live Draft. We will tape an episode live on a video call, and you can join as our loyal live audience. Drafts are where we choo…

Save the Date! Live draft, October 6th.

Cixin Liu's Death's End, Part I Chris and Jesse talk about the first half of Cixin Liu's sprawling masterpiece "Death's End," discussing good and evil and what it means to be human.

"Faced with so much gore and blood, many fainted. As Sophon walked forward, people hurried to back away. An invisible force field seemed to surround her, repelling the mob and keeping the space around her clear. She stopped after a few steps and the crowd froze.

'Form a line,' Sophon said.."

Episode 83: “I Made a Friend, and Now He’s Dead” or Liliana Calvani’s Ripley’s Game Chris and Jesse watched this movie together nearly 20 years ago, and it made an impression, due to John Malkovich’s memorable, creepy, and charming take on Tom Ripley. Director Calvani seems …

And here's "Ripley's Game"

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Episode 79: “A Creeping Tom,” or René Clement’s Plein Soleil Chris and Jesse charge into our next group of works, Ripley en Filmes, beginning with René Clement’s visually stunning 1960 film Plein Soleil, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The …

We love the Criterion Channel's great idea to feature all the #Ripley films. In fact, we love it so much, that we did the same thing last year.

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Episode 90: “An Egg Slicer Through a Supertanker,” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part II The lads host their first UMB Official Sports Update as Jesse manages to survive a weekend of ultimate frisbee before getting into the second half of Cixin Liu’s sprawling and ambitious The Three B…

THE TITLE OF THE EP IS KIND OF A SPOILER DON'T LOOK! If you haven't finished #TheThreeBodyProblem

Episode 90: “An Egg Slicer Through a Supertanker,” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part II The lads host their first UMB Official Sports Update as Jesse manages to survive a weekend of ultimate frisbee before getting into the second half of Cixin Liu’s sprawling and ambitious The Three B…

The UMBers espie a similarity to Neal Stephenson’s habit of "chessboard building" before letting the game unfold, examining if Liu’s narrative setups have plausible payoffs. They also identify some of the “hapless protagonist” effect they’ve seen before in The Diamond Age and The Arrest.

Da Shi is an Amusingly Manipulative Old Bastard #shorts #threebodyproblem #cixinliu #scifi YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow

For a non "character driven" novel, The Three Body Problem is full of memorable characters, with Da Shi rising above.

#FilmNoir living room...

Fred MacMurray 🎞 Double Indemnity (1944)

A gridded background with photos of birds cut out and collaged over the top. A pink text box reads, "Birds Against Borders, A bilingual bird walk fundraiser to benefit the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund. Learn about migration in nature and how bids connect us across borders. Saturday, June 28th @ 10 am @ Humboldt Park. Tix on sale now."

A gridded background mimicking the first slide, but now translated into Spanish. The text reads, "Aves contra las fronteras. Una caminata de aves bilingüe para recaudar fondos a beneficio del Midwest Immigration Bond Fund. Aprende sobre la migración. Sábado 28 de junio, 10 a.m.; Humboldt Park. Boletos a la venta ahora.

Join Skunk Cabbage Books and Chicago BIPOC Birders for a bird walk through Humboldt Park. We'll look for birds (and any other more-than-human neighbors!) while discussing the importance of migration in nature and the ways that birds connect us all across borders.

Episode 88: “Creation’s Folly,” or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Part II The boys wrap up their discussion of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and come away somewhat ambivalent: this is clearly a work of importance, imagination, and invention, but it feels…unfocused. We pos…

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Frankenstein's Creationg is Really [deleted] Ugly #shorts YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow

As far as we can tell, Frankenstein's chief complaint with his creation is ugliness.

Digression, From the North Woods with Justin Reich We reach Upper Middlebrow education expert Justin Reich on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, at the edge of mobile phone reception. He gives us a dispatch, mid journey, from a rather literary settin…

Friend of the Show Justin Reich called us from the North Woods, to give us an update on his 700 mile canoe trip. Bald eagles, river otters, and rustic hotels.

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Wanna hang out with us and Jeph from @bigcampaignpodcast.bsky.social tonight? Join us for a live watch party of the Talented Mr. Ripley.

4pm PT
7pm ET

On our Discord: discord.gg/h734EZ3hBU

Episode 86: “A Study in Structure,” or Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet The lads go bananas over Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes mystery, “A Study in Scarlet,” published in 1887. We meet the mercurial Sherlock Holmes and his by turns skepti…

OG cinematic universe continues, with a story about a wounded soldier getting a new roommate.

Edward Hopper's sketchbook.

Ep 85, “Science vs. Evil” or Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, Part II Bram Stoker arrays his crew of brave companions against what they’ve finally realized is an ancient un-dead evil. And the author seems to be elling us something about the nature of the human …

The fellowship of the stake travels to the Carpathians armed with science, Catholicism, and friendship.

Save the Date: The Talented Mr. Ripley, Live Taping, with Jeph Wilkinson. Join us Thursday, May 19th at 4pm PDT / 7 PM EDT for a live viewing and taping of Anthony Minghella’s 1999 masterpiece, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Dukes and Bagg think of this as the BEST of th…

Save the date!

Ripley watch party, May 19th.

#Dracula is great, but Victorians could get a bit whingey.

Horrified by the Horrific Horrorness of Dracula #shorts #podcast #dracula #bramstoker #Gothic YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow

"I'm so overwhelmed by the horrific horror of the horrorness of the horriciness"

Dukes' exxagerated take on 19th century Gothic horror melodramatic prose.

Episode 84: “Unnatural Intimacy,” or Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Part I Neither of the lads had read Stoker’s classic gothic novel, published in 1897, and they suspect that many readers are in the same boat. Over 100 years of vampiric pop culture have made Stoker’s mas…

Now playing, Dracula. Not a movie, the 1897 book.

Actor Joseph Cotten in a hat and over coat with a ferris wheel behind him.

📽 Joseph Cotten in #FilmNoir The Third Man 🎡

New ep: I Made a Friend and Now He's Dead

Liliana Calvani's Ripley's Game

Coming soon:

Ripley's Game (2002).

We don't think Breaking Bad would exist without this film.

Episode 82: “Cocaine was Invented for Times Like These,” or Roger Spotiswoode’s Ripley, Underground The lads get all aughty with Roger Spotiswoode’s charming and unthreatening Ripley, Underground, where Tom Ripley is a glib opportunist instead of the darker, unpredictable Ripleys. The result is a…

Ripley Underground (2005) might be only the 5th best Tom Ripley Film, but that doesn't mean it's bad. We enjoy the early oughties crime romp with art forgeries, impersonation, and Willem Dafoe defending the honor of Dayton.

LA Light, LA Darkness.

bit.ly/4hKgYgP

Denis Hopper "Hoppering it up" in The American Friend #shorts YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow

Dennis Hopper's Tom Ripley is... memorable. We think he'd be a good choice for the long lost comedic Ripley movie "Weekend at Ripleys".

www.youtube.com/shorts/eC1Lz...

Digression: Underdogs, Comebacks, and Seafood Substitutes, or Baseball Movies with Jason Herbert Jason Herbert, from the Historians at the Movies community and podcast, joins us to talk about favorite baseball films. We share an uncomfortable moment when Chris learns who Jason’s favorite team …

Bagg, @curiousdukes.bsky.social and @herberthistory.bsky.social each recommend a baseball film, and a couple honorable mentions, and Justin recommends his favorite seafood substitute.

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