Recommendations: Lair of the Unwanted Script Reading of The Room

"Great Script Reading" or "The Greatest Script Reading"? YOU DECIDE!

Many moons ago, Jason Soto and I hosted a script reading of the modern cult classic The Room and while I can't say it's my greatest accomplishment, it's definitely in the top ten. We all had a blast with the reading, which definitely comes through the recording.

Jason just put the whole thing on YouTube, so if you have 90 minutes to kill and you're okay with vulgar language and minor crimes against the English language, definitely give it a listen. Be forewarned: I read for the role of "Mark," and I am (appropriately?) bad.

As it stands, this may be the best thing about 2020 so far.

Recommendation: "The Lair of the Unwanted" Podcast

I'm not the only one doing stuff out here in the wild wild web, and every so often I'll give a Recommendation of something you should read, see or do. Recommendations like this...

As I’ve mentioned here and there, before putting on my Big Boy Pants and setting myself to writing a novel, I spent a number of years reviewing bad movies. A dozen years, to be precise. Yes, that’s a lot of bad movies. 

But I didn’t just write about bad movies – I also talked about them on The Lair of the Unwanted, a podcast I co-hosted with fellow bad movie aficionado Jason Soto. Every month (and for a while, twice a month), Jason and I would tackle a bad movie or two, pontificate about the latest pop culture, subject our guest to a movie trivia game and if we were feeling extra spunky, create a fake ad or trailer. We did that for nine years, and it was a blast.

Nine seasons of a podcast! It’s hard to believe – that puts us in the ballpark of Seinfeld, The Office, Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother. But after nine years, Jason and I wanted to wrap things up before the show became a slog (not unlike the late seasons of some of the sitcoms I just named). Also, and this point can’t be emphasized enough, we sat through a lot of bad movies. Like me, Jason was ready to move on to other projects.

I’m going to miss getting together with Jason every month to discuss the movie we’d just subjected ourselves to, because in many instances, talking about the movie with him was infinitely more fun than actually watching the movie. 

But you don’t have to miss those times! You can still check out all of the episodes at www.thelairoftheunwanted.com, where you have 179 episodes to choose from. Here are a handful of choice episodes:

#7 – America Kicks Ass! (American Ninja and Undefeatable)

#31 – Trollin for Fun (Troll 2)

#51 – The Live Oscar Special

#103 – Keep Your Stupid Script Read in Your Pocket (script read of The Room)

#136 – Hammer Time! (Steel)

#142 – Top 5 Worst Movies From The 1001 List

#147 – The Tao of Sheen (The Wraith)

#163 – We’ll Do It Live!

#173 – Bruce Lee for Diet Coke (No Retreat, No Surrender)

Recommendation: Letters from the Apocalypse by Blake Pitcher

I'm not the only one doing stuff – other people have great stuff, too. That’s why every so often, I'll give a Recommendation of something you should read, see or do. Recommendations like this...

Friends, if you’re like me, you sometimes feel like your post-apocalyptic entertainment has all started to bleed together. Like, is that movie the one with the guys in leather driving around a dusty wasteland shooting at each other or the one with the ‘80s punks driving around a desert wasteland shooting at each other?

Maybe when that happens, you begin wishing for a simpler post-apocalypse… a simpler time before cannibalistic madmen and flame-throwing guitars… where characters walk across the sun-drenched country, slowly chewing whole-grain food by the side of a babbling brook, longing for the embrace of a long-lost love. 

*sigh*

Like that, and also not an absolutely soul-crushing bummer like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

If that tickles your fancy, then boy howdy, I have a book for you! You should head on over to Ye Olde Amazone and get yourself a copy of Blake Pitcher’s Letters from the Apocalypse. It’s a thoroughly engaging post-apocalyptic story that doesn’t need to rely on fetish gear or Tina Turner for excitement. It’s the story of Roger, a technical writer caught across the country when the world fell apart, trying to make his way home to his wife. It's a grounded, realistic view of life after society collapses -- and apocalypse for adults.

Letters from the Apocalypse is available in paperback and on Kindle now at Amazon (where you can also follow Blake for updates on his latest releases). You can check out the whole series, but you’re not an animal so start at the beginning.