Peter Falk's Columbo is the subject this week and Steven A. Michalkow returns. Steven is an editor at Former People and a podcaster in his own right as the Former People film podcast continues.

On the subject of Columbo and psychoanalysis Slavoj Zizek wrote: In the TV-series Columbo, the crime (the act of murder) is shown in detail in advance, so that the enigma to be resolved is not that of "whodunit?", but of how the detective will establish the link between the deceitful surface (the "manifest content" of the crime scene) and the truth about the crime (its "latent thought"), how he will prove to the culprit his or her guilt. The success of Columbo thus attests to the fact that the true source of interest in the detective's work, is the process of deciphering itself, not its result (the triumphant final revelation "And the murderer is…" is completely lacking here, since we know this from the very outset).

It's Saturday, July 12th, 2014, and I'm Douglas Lain the host of this podcast.

I'd like to urge regular listeners to the Diet Soap podcast to find the paypal buttons at dietsoap.podomatic.com. Also, the podcast is also available via iTunes and I urge people who enjoy this show to consider leaving a review at iTunes in lieu of a donation.

Joseph Heller's screenplay Sex and the Single Girl and the movie version of his novel Catch 22 are put under the microscope in this episode of the Double Feature Review. Jim Farris and Douglas Lain are the hosts of what is sure to become the most important film review podcast of all time.

Back in 1964 AH Weiler, writing for the New York Times, declared that Sex and the Single Girl was "not the worst picture ever made, girls and boys. No kidding." While in 1970 Roger Ebert wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times that "Mike Nichols' "Catch-22" is a disappointment, and not simply because it fails to do justice to the Heller novel."

Jim and Doug appreciated these movies considerably more than Weiler or Ebert appreciated the films originally. As a Double Feature the films highlight Heller's vision despite the differences in style, mood, theme and intent.

Coming in July: The Wild Women of Wongo and Colossus and the Amazon Queen. Both are available on youtube.

Robert N Lee is the guest this week as we discuss his 666ties series of independent novellas. Robert N. Lee is an author, an editor, and a graphic designer, his website is Awesomedome.com and the cover art for this week's episode is his work and I urge you all to take a look at the image with this week's show notes.

I should also point out that the final collage is taken from youtube. The youtube star FarOff created the mashup you hear at the end. Here's a link to The Bealtes vs LCD Soundsystem vs The Kinks.

This week I want to thank Daniel W for his generous donation to the podcast and urge all of you who are listening to find the paypal buttons at dietsoap.podomatic.com. You can also follow me on Facebook, twitter, and send me an email through my blog which is douglaslain.com.

In upcoming episodes of Diet Soap I'll be discussing Lacan and Melanie Klein with a psychoanalyst, analyzing Columbo, discussing Feminism, Marxism, and twitter character assassinations, and, as always talking about Star Trek and Value theory.

Margaret Kimberley discusses imperialism on this week's episode. A regular columnist for the Black Agenda Report, Margaret Kimberley is also a regular guest on the podcast, and we discuss Imperialism, the Ukraine, and the game of Risk that is Capitalism.

It's Friday, June 6th, 2014, and I'm Douglas Lain the host of this podcast.

I want to thank my regular donors. This week Andy Marshall, Jacob L, John Spillane, Ted F, and John L paid for the hosting of Diet Soap on podomatic and bluebrry.com. In addition I want to thank Felix B for his one time donation. Thanks, Felix!

Those regular listeners who have yet to donate to Diet Soap, this summer would be a good time. My hours have been cut at the Symphony because this our slow season, so any extra donations would be much appreciated. This reduction in my work hours also means I'll have more time to dedicate to this podcast as well as to the new Double Feature Review podcast and to Zero Time, a podcast that I'm putting together for Zero Books. If you like the sound of my voice for some strange reason you'll have three places to hear it.

Again I want to thank Margaret Kimberley for coming on the show again. While it's true that even after this episode I am still wrestling with the idea of Imperialism (I don't know how well what I think of as Imperialism fits with my wannabe Marxism and my dogged focus on exploitation, the means of production, Value, and all the rest) talking to Kimberley is always a joy.

Red Dawn 2012 and Dredd are the two films for this month's Double Feature Review podcast with Jim Farris and Douglas Lain. It's landing here, on the Diet Soap podcast feed, but will also be getting its own RSS feed this week. Again, Jim Farris is a grumpy old man with a history in Hollywood whose knowledge of movies and movie history is extensive and Douglas Lain is this guy Jim knows.

A quick Synopsis: Doug enjoyed Dredd a bit more than Jim did while both lamented the existence of Red Dawn. Some topics discussed include Gilles Deleuze's notion of affective filmmaking and the noble history of product placement in cinema.

From Red Dawn:

Matt Eckert: We're not doing too bad for a bunch of kids. We're gonna fight, and we're gonna keep fighting, because it's easier now. And we're used to it. The rest of you are going to have a tougher choice. Because we're not going to sell it to you. It's too ugly for that. But when you're fighting in your own backyard, when you're fighting for your family, it all hurts a little less, and makes a little more sense. Because for them, this is just a place. But for us, this is our home.
Prisoners: [repeatedly chanting in open rebellion against guards before liberation] Wolverines!

Modernity and Star Trek is the subject this week as my son Benjamin joins me on the podcast. I'm making slow progress on "How to Watch Star Trek (a geek's guide to modern life)" for Zero Books and I thought, as motivation, I'd start recording these conversational summaries as I go along. This week we talked, for a short while, about what modernity is, the death of God, Descartes, and the pilot episode of Star Trek entitled "The Cage."

"Meta" is the topic this week as Daniel Coffeen and I discuss his essay Meta Shmeta: Postmodernity, & the False Metaphor of the Fourth Wall. Coffeen is a regular guest on Diet Soap.

Per the Urban Dictionary "Meta" is a term, especially in art, used to characterize something that is characteristically self-referential.

I want to thank John L for donating and to encourage you, the person who is listening, who has listened for years, but who has yet to donate, to find the paypal buttons at dietsoap.podomatic.com and help out. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, or find my dead myspace page and listen some groovy Midis I uploaded in 2002.

Upcoming episodes of Diet Soap will include conversations with Jason Horsley, Margaret Kimberley, Robert Lee, and more. The second Double Feature Review podcast with Jim Farris is coming and I'll be doing a Zero Books Podcast with David blacker. That one is tentatively titled Zero Time and should be out in June.

Slavoj Žižek is the subject of conversation this week with guest George Elerick. Elerick is a faculty fellow at the Global Center for Advanced Studies and a writer on Critical Theory at the Huffington Post. We speak about his visit to The International Zizek Studies Conference in Cincinnati last month, and about his chance to interview Žižek. Elerick made an effort to find out about the personal side of the Marxoid Lacanian, but his questions met what a psychoanalyst might call resistance.

Of course in Astra Taylor's film Žižek! the philosopher made his position on personal questions clear: "I am not human, I am a monster, I claim. It's not that I have a mask of a theoretician and beneath I am a more human person; I like chocolate cake, I like this, I like that, and so on which makes me human. I rather prefer myself as somebody who not to offend others, pretends, plays that he is human."

Thanks goes out to my subscribers and one time donors. If you'd like to donate you can find the paypal button at dietsoap.oprodomatic.com.

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