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Stereoactive Presents

Stereoactive Presents

Written by: Stereoactive Media
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Dive into culture with interviews, discussions, stories, and other items of interest. Consider this the clubhouse (or salon) for Stereoactive Media, where we keep connected with familiar folks while also meeting new and interesting people and featuring projects relevant to our community.

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Episodes
  • USELESS/USEFUL, Vol. 5: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, ‘Adolescence,’ and ‘The Pitt’

    USELESS/USEFUL, Vol. 5: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, ‘Adolescence,’ and ‘The Pitt’
    Mar 24 2025

    Welcome to the fifth installment of USELESS/USEFUL, in which we recommend things we think you should know about. We use the term USELESS to lovingly describe topics that have to do with pop culture, music, film, etc. And USEFUL covers topics like relief efforts, charitable campaigns, social issues, and other things that we want to encourage you to consider supporting. And we’ll also share about projects going on at Stereoactive Media. Here are our topics for this episode…

    USELESS ITEM ONE: Netflix’s Adolescence is a 4 part limited series based in the UK that is really unlike anything I’ve seen on television before. It tells the story of a 13 year old boy accused of murdering a girl at his school and how the fallout of the murder and arrest affects the boy, his family, and those investigating him and the crime.

    USELESS ITEM TWO: The Pitt is a show that I was initially skeptical of. Seeing Noah Wyle do another hospital drama three decades after he shot to fame with the rest of the original ER cast just seemed like it had to be lazy casting indicative of yet another cookie-cutter hospital drama. But my good friend – shout out to Stephen, by the way – told me it was actually pretty good and that actual ER doctors thought the portrayal of The Pitt’s emergency room was more realistic than most other hospital shows… so I downloaded several episodes to watch while traveling and quickly got hooked and realized my impressions of the show before watching it were way off the mark.

    USEFUL ITEM: In case you haven’t been tuned into this, I just want to let you know that in the face of the oligarch-led dismantling of our civil society that we’ve been witnessing this year, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been on the road recently with Bernie Sanders doing what most Democrats elected to office or in the party establishment are failing to do well, if at all... So, please, if you’re not already, support AOC in whatever way you’re able. Follow her on social media – especially Bluesky – and pay attention to where she says support is needed. And obviously, please support whatever campaign she embarks on next, whether it’s reelection to the House, a primary challenge to Chuck Schumer, or to succeed Donald Trump or whatever ghoul happens to be in office by the time we hopefully have another free and fair election in which we can start to set things on a better path.

    STEREOACTIVE BULLETIN BOARD: We’ve got a couple of things to let you know about in Stereoactive World…

    1.We recently released our second Kind of a Lot with Matt Ruby episode of the year. It’s called “The Boy who cried ‘Wow!’” and features Matt discussing how a 9 year old's excited exclamation at a symphonic concert reveals truths about how we experience the world.

    2.And we also recently released our fourth episode of the relaunched When We See Each Other podcast in which, after nearly five years, R&B artist NYALLAH returns to the show!

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    EPISODE CREDITS:

    • Produced and presented by Jeremiah Lee McVay
    • Music by Hansdale Hsu and Maia Macdonald

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    LINKS & MENTIONS:

    -Adolescence (Trailer) >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk5OxqtpBR4

    -The Pitt (Trailer) >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufR_08V38sQ

    -AOC >>> https://www.ocasiocortez.com/

    -Kind of a Lot with Matt Ruby Ep 39 // The boy who cried "Wow!" >>> https://www.stereoactivemedia.com/kind-of-a-lot-with-matt-ruby-ep-39-the-boy-who-cried-wow/

    -When We See Each Other Ep 2.4 – NYALLAH >>> https://www.stereoactivemedia.com/when-we-see-each-other-ep-2-4-nyallah/
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    13 mins
  • USELESS/USEFUL, Vol. 4: Marisa Kabas & ‘The Handbasket,’ ‘I’m Still Here,’ and ‘Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

    USELESS/USEFUL, Vol. 4: Marisa Kabas & ‘The Handbasket,’ ‘I’m Still Here,’ and ‘Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow
    Feb 14 2025
    Welcome to the fourth installment of USELESS/USEFUL, in which we discuss topics of interest, broken into two categories. USELESS covers topics that have to do with pop culture, music, film, etc. – and the term “useless” is used lovingly, hearkening back to the DIY Brooklyn venue Fort Useless and the community around that. USEFUL covers topics like relief efforts, charitable campaigns, social issues, and other things that we want to encourage you to consider supporting. And we’ll also share about projects going on at Stereoactive Media. Here are our topics for this episode… ===USELESS ITEM ONE: I’m Still Here is the new film by Brazilian director Walter Salles. If you’re unsure of who Salles is or what the film is, here are a couple of things to know:Salles is a director who’s filmography stretches back nearly 4 decades and this is not the first time one of his feature films has broken through in some way to an American audience. He’s probably best known for his 1998 film, Central Station, as well as his 2004 adaptation of Che Guevera’s memoir, The Motorcycle Diaries, which starred Gael García Bernal as Guevera. Both films received international acclaim and won or were nominated for several awards – including at the Oscars.I’m Still Here has itself been nominated for three Oscars at the upcoming Academy Awards. It’s nomination for Best International Feature was not all that surprising. And after her win at the Golden Globes last month, star Fernanda Torres’ nomination for Best Actress was also not all that surprising. But the film’s nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars was pretty surprising. By the way, Torres is the daughter of Fernanda Montenegro, who herself was nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars in Salles’ Central Station 26 years ago.Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if the movie would open here in Tallahassee, but it did and I was glad to not have to wait on it hitting streaming services before I could see it. It stars Torres as a Brazilian family woman in 1970, six years into the nation’s military dictatorship. She is married to a former congressman and raising 5 kids in what appears to be a near perfect life – as we see play out in a rather extended sequence that does a great job of setting up the family dynamics and making sure we know what’s at stake.But it’s clear from the beginning that no matter how great their shared life may be, the world around them is becoming more overtly hostile and, eventually, Torres’ character (Eunice) as well as her husband and one of their eldest daughters are taken by members of the army for questioning about potential ties to left-leaning revolutionaries.I’ll refrain from explaining the plot or premise more than that, but ultimately, for those of us living through the current Trump-Musk political takeover of the United States, the film serves as an unfortunately apt reminder that just because your life may be idyllic, that doesn't mean the destructive gears of an authoritarian regime aren't just waiting to start grinding in your direction, too. And no matter how aware you may be of their general state of looming around the edges of life, once they take an interest in you, they can come on quick and change everything forever.===USELESS ITEM TWO: I first became a fan of comic book writer Tom King’s work after reading his 12-issue Mister Miracle limited series sometime during the pandemic. At this point, I’ve re-read the series at least twice and I’ve also read his run on Omega Men and a lot of his work on Batman. But what I’m recommending now is his 8-issue miniseries, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which I recently got around to reading and really enjoyed a lot. It’s a mix of sci-fi and fantasy that does a great job of really planting the character on her own two feet, separate from Superman. And the structure of it, all told in flashback by an old woman from another planet who traveled with Supergirl across the galaxy when she was young, does a great job of layering in a narrative distance that makes it all seem like the story of a legendary hero. As good as the story was, though, I have to admit the thing that put the experience of reading it over the top had nothing to do with anything on the page, but instead had to do with sharing it with my three year old daughter, who I read much of it too. It’s the first time I’ve read a comic book story to her and I had no idea if she’d enjoy it or not, but she listened, looked at the pictures, and has started pretending to be Supergirl, calling our dog Krypto, and pretending she has a flying horse named Comet. She even asked me if Supergirl has a pet bear because she wanted to name my in-laws’ dog, who we jokingly refer to as “Slow Bear” after it, so I told her that she has a bear called Argo.Also FYI, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is being adapted into a movie by the new regime heading up the DC cinematic universe.And now to our…===USEFUL ...
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    14 mins
  • David Lynch: Fix Your Hearts Or Die – a discussion with Mike Miley

    David Lynch: Fix Your Hearts Or Die – a discussion with Mike Miley
    Jan 28 2025

    David Lynch is a generational talent whose work has come to symbolize – well, so many things to so many people. It's simultaneously almost immediately recognizable while somehow remaining largely undefinable. To very loosely paraphrase one of the contributing voices in this episode, it's as if he leaves room for his audience to collaborate in an ongoing moment of creation that is open-ended and truly never finished, but perhaps the clearest thing about his work is that the open-ended undefinable nature of the work is largely the point.

    In this episode, Jeremiah is joined by Mike Miley, author of the new book, 'David Lynch's American Dreamscape: Music, Literature, Cinema,' set for release on February 6th by Bloomsbury Academic. The book asks the question:

    How are David Lynch's films as much in dialogue with literary and musical traditions as they are cinematic ones?

    Mike answers the question by "calling for a new approach to Lynch's films that goes beyond cinema and visual art to explore how Lynch's work engages with literary and musical works that have shaped the American imagination.As much as Lynch stands as a singular artistic voice, his work arises from and taps into the cultural zeitgeist in a way that illuminates not only his approach to creativity but also the way works interact with each other in an age of mass media."

    Together, Jeremiah and Mike discuss Lynch's tremendous legacy and impact on cinema, television, and art, and the ways in which his work has touched each of them personally. Along the way, we also hear messages from friends of the show: Matt Tyson, Andréa DeFelice, and Michelle Brundige, who share their own thoughts and experiences of Lynch's work.

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    Episode Credits:

    Producer/Host - Jeremiah Lee McVay

    Guest - Mike Miley

    Contributors - Matt Tyson, Andréa DeFelice, Michelle Brundige

    Produced by Stereoactive Media

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    https://www.mikemiley.com/

    https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/david-lynchs-american-dreamscape-9798765102893/

    https://www.tysonfilm.com/

    https://www.andreadefelice.com/
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    1 hr and 26 mins
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