Tender Subject

Episode 032-The Cell with Rocco and Mae

Kayte, Mae and our guest Rocco are in our shiny tendon suits and, uh-oh, we're in the nightmare mind of Vincent D'Onofrio? That's right, we are talking about Tarsem Singh's surrealist psychological horrror, The Cell. We talk about the lost art of music videos, Jennifer Lopez's unique empathetic heroism and unreal animation vs AI. Where to find Rocco:The LadyKillers PodcastRead Rocco's Reviews!Mae is also a co-host on The Ladykillers Podcast and makes music at eversonpoeKayte is also a co-host on Fangs for the Memories and makes art here

032-Society with Gabe Pacheco

Then we'll all sing together, Society waits for you...This week on Tender Subject, it's finally time for the shunt! Kayte, Dave and our guest, comedian Gabe Pacheco, talk about Brian Yuzna's gooey satirical horror film Society (1989). We talk about Bodies without Organs, capitalism, Luigi Mangione and the possibilities of a Communist shunt. Media referenced:Some good podcasts to get started on Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the Body without organs:Theory & PhilosophyAcid CommunismOverthinkSplatter Capital by Mark StevensGabe is the co-host of Halal Cartels. Go see Gabe perform by following him here and here!Dave is also a co-host on Genre Reveal Party and hosts This is Your Afterlife Kayte is also a co-host on Fangs for the Memories and makes art here!

031-Tell Me I'm Worthless With Ash from Horror Vanguard

This week on Tender Subject, Kayte and Jay are joined by Ash from Horror Vanguard to talk about Alison Rumfitt’s brutal novel Tell Me I’m Worthless. We talk about haunted houses, bodies and territories plus TERFs, RadFems and looming Fascism. 
Media referenced: ”Battlefield Exctacies” by Sophie Lewis, The Point Magazine.
Capitalism: A Horror Story by Jon Greenaway, Repeater Books.
Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook by Mark Bray, Melville House Publishing
 
Jay is also a co-host on Library Punk!
Kayte is also a co-host on Fangs for the Memories and makes art here!

ANOTHER BITE: Blood Feast with LaborKyle!

Who's hungry? As you travel this week to your own Blood Feasts, we're taking another bite of an old favorite episode!
Kayte and Jay are joined by noted Herschell Gordon Lewis expert LaborKyle to talk about the film Blood Feast (1963). In doing so, we summon Ishtar (which means we talk about all sorts of stuff like treating your artistic work as work, how Victorians ate mummies, and the warm piss stream of Marxism). 
You can find LaborKyle on places like YouTube, Patreon, Twitter, and Bluesky! He also co-host the podcasts All Gamers Are Bastards (AGAB) and Horror Vanguard!
 
Media Mentioned:
Arendt, Hannah, ed. 2007. “Theses on the Philosophy of History.” In Illuminations, by Walter Benjamin, translated by Harry Zohn, 253–64. New York: Schocken Books. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/benjamin/1940/history.htm.
Chris, Jason, and Kevin. 2023. “Bathing in the Warm Stream: The Romantic and Gothic Strain of Marxism with Jon (TheLitCritGuy) of Horror Vanguard.” The Regrettable Century. https://regrettablecentury.buzzsprout.com/220523/13227904-bathing-in-the-warm-stream-the-romantic-and-gothic-strain-of-marxism-with-jon-thelitcritguy-of-horror-vanguard.
Cohen, Margaret. 1995. Profane Illumination: Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution. Weimar and Now. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Steven, Mark. 2017. Splatter Capital: The Political Economy of Gore Films. London: Repeater Books, an imprint of Watkins Media Ltd.
 
Oh, and we have a discord! https://discord.gg/RsxRZ3TA9 
Follow us on Twitter @tender_subject and on Instagram @tendersubjectpod
We're also on Bluesky @tendersubject.bsky.social
Art by Anya R. Hueing
Music by @coffin_flops

The Substance with Mae and Jo Isaacson!

This week, Kayte and Mae are joined by writer and professor Jo Isaacson to dissect the polarizing new body horror film by Coralie Fargeat, THE SUBSTANCE! We dig really deep, and discuss camp, old Hollywood and hagsploitation, Marxist alienation, unboxing videos and giving birth to a new beautiful monster. Sources mentioned:
The Monstrous Feminine and The Return to the Monstrous Feminine by Barbara Creed
”Whatever Happened to Monstro Elisasue: In Defense of Psycho-Biddies in the Substance and Beyond” Jo Isaacson, Blindfield Journal 
“The Guardian View on Female Led Horror: Time For a New Formula”, editorial, The Guardian 
Where to find Jo:
@StepfordDotter on Twitter
Stepford Daughters book
Facebook horror group
Blind Field Journal
Mae is also a co-host on The Ladykillers Podcast and makes music at eversonpoeKayte is also a co-host on Fangs for the Memories and makes art here
 

029-Sweeney Todd with Jay and Dave

This week on Tender Subject, Kayte, Jay and Dave have cooked up a feast of an episode on the demon barber himself, Sweeney Todd! Join us as we sink our teeth into the movie, the play, the sets, the songs and lots and lots of blood.
Media referenced:
“Is That Just Disgusting?" Mapping the Social Geographies of Filth and Madness in "Sweeney Todd" by Aleksei Grinenko link here 
Six by Sondheim
Jay is also a co-host on Library Punk!
Dave is also a co-host on Genre Reveal Party and hosts This is Your Afterlife Kayte is also a co-host on Fangs for the Memories and makes art here!

ANOTHER BITE: Texas Chainsaw Massacre with Jo Isaacson

In honor of Texas Chainsaw's 50th anniversary and Jo's Post45 cluster (Kayte's collage is in it!) we are re-publishing our TCM episode. Enjoy!
Did somebody order head cheese? If you did, you're in luck! This week, we're joined by Johanna Isaacson, author of Stepford Daughters: Weapons for Feminists in Contemporary Horror, to talk about the one, the only, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre! We ask the important questions, such as, "does Leatherface represent feminized labor?" and "is Leatherface trapped in an MLM?"
(We worry about Leatherface's wellbeing a lot.)
 
Readings:
“Blood for Oil,” Chuck Jackson
Men, Women, and Chain Saws, Carol Clover
Splatter Capital, Mark Steven
“The American Nightmare,” Robin Wood
“Cannibalism, Class, and Power: A foodways analysis of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” Mark Bernard
“Horrible Form,” Evan Calder Williams
“Headcheese and a Side of Benjamin,” Jerry D Metz
“Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess,” Linda Williams
 
Jo’s links: 
Twitter handle @StepfordDotter
Stepford Daughters link 
Facebook horror group
Blind Field Journal
Precarious Souls (a super DIY movie they're making with friends)
 
Follow us on Twitter @tender_subject and on Instagram @tendersubjectpod
We're also on Bluesky @tendersubject.bsky.social
Art by Anya R. Hueing
Music by @coffin_flops

028-Titus with Carlee from Hit Factory Pod

Jay and Kayte are joined by Carlee from Hit Factory podcast to talk about a movie near and dear to all of our hearts, Julie Taymor's brutal and gorgeous Shakespeare adaptation, Titus (1999). We discuss intentional anachronisms, faithfulness to texts, how Victorians tried to re-brand Shakespeare (and the Classical Era!) and heroes and villains. This is an incredible movie that we all love so much but it's hard to find so please enlist your tech-savvy friends! (big wink)Media referenced: David Sterling Brown talks about Aaron and Black Lives MatterDr. Mia Escott discusses Aaron and Race on Shakespeare Anyone?The making of Titus on YoutubeWhere to find Carlee:Co-hosting Hit Factory podcastWriting essays about sex in film
Jay is also a co-host on Library Punk!Kayte is also a co-host on Fangs for the Memories and makes art here!

027-Top 10 Alien Body Horror with Tina Horn!

Facehuggers, Xenomorphs, Offspring, oh my! This week Kayte and Mae are joined by writer/educatrix Tina Horn (@tinahornsass) to talk about our favorite body horror scenes in the Alien Franchise! We're talking about guts, gore, psychosexual horror and more in our longest, rowdiest episode yet! But hey, we watched SEVEN alien movies in a week for you! Where you can find Tina: Buy Tina's new book, Why Are People Into That?Listen to Tina's podcast, Why Are People Into That?!Check out Tina's comix and other writing
Mae is also a co-host on The Ladykillers Podcast and makes music at eversonpoeKayte is also a co-host on Fangs for the Memories and makes art here.

026-Moeties (Elytron Frass) with R.E. Parrish!

Kayte and Jay and guest R.E. Parrish are zipping up our wyrm-skin jumpsuits and plunging into the gnostic fantasy that is Elytron Frass' Moieties. We talk about Ergodic literature, Ero Guru nansensu, the history of gnosticism, the book as tactile object and all sorts of other esoteric weirdness.
Media referenced: "The Erotic Japanese Art Movement Born Out of Decadence" by Evelyn Wang, Dazed Magazine."George Bataille Book Club Bonus", Girls, Guts, Giallo, S3, Ep6."On Eleytron Frass' Moieties" by Germán Sierra, Apocalypse Confidential.
You can find R.E. here: ComicsEtsy
Jay is also a co-host on Library Punk!Kayte is also a co-host on Fangs for the Memories and makes art here!