Suggestible - The Boston Strangler

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

Suggestible things to watch, read and listen to. Hosted by James Clement @mrsundaymovies and Claire Tonti @clairetonti.Claire Tonti LIVE at Wesley Anne on May 7th, Mother's Day - Tickets: https://wesleyanne.com.au/events/2023/5/7/claire-tontiThis week’s Suggestibles:02:17 Boston Strangler12:28 The Flatshare19:47 Party Down24:39 Lana Del Rey's New Album, Ocean Blvd37:24 The Therapy CrouchSend your recommendations to [e-mail], we’d love to hear them.You can also follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook @suggestiblepod and join our ‘Planet Broadcasting Great Mates OFFICIAL’ Facebook Group. So many things. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey folks, it's Mark Maron from WTF. I travel all over North America doing stand-up and it's always good to know Airbnb is an option when I'm away from home. But if you're away from home, why not take your own place and Airbnb it? Airbnb your whole home to make some extra cash. Or if you have a spare room that's not in use, just Airbnb that. Whether you could use extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun, your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. Bing, ba-dum, ba-da-da, bing, bing, bong, ba-da-da, bing, ba-da-da, bong, bong, ba-dum. Great stuff, Claire.

Good intro. Hello. Welcome to Suggest a Podcast, a podcast where we recommend you things to watch, read, and listen to. My name is Claire Twente. James Clement is here also. We are married and we're ready. We're ready to get fired up. I'm going to get a little fiddly thing.

I have a little coffee. It's the afternoon here. The sun is sort of semi-shining. Why are you shaking your head? I just saw these minor details that aren't interesting. People love a little tidbit. A relevant information. People come here for facts.

They say, what are the things that you did? No, they come here for my sparkling written personality and your, I don't know, why do they come to see you? For me to go, oh, I guess. Yeah, that's generally your thing. I'm going on a little regional tour and you don't want to come. No, I don't want to go anywhere. Let alone to somewhere regional.

Yuck. It's going to be really fun. I'm going to Yakondanda. I'm going to Yarrawonga. And then I'm going to the Wesleyan, which is in Northcote. That's not regional. That's not very regional at all, that last one. That's in a city.

But anyway, if you are from Melbourne or surrounds and you would like to come, I'm going to show you the Yakondanda Courthouse on the 29th of April. It lines up with your trial. Yeah, it does. I thought why not kill two birds with one stone. It's all those parking fines. And then on the 30th of April I'm going to Yarrawonga,

two o'clock in the afternoon, and that's a venue to be decided and I'm pretty sure it'll be at the Civic Hall. And then the next week I am taking my album to the lovely Wesleyan in Northcote. That's right. That'll be three o'clock in the afternoon. Tickets are on sale now. There's a little link below. Collings has done it.

How does he do it? I don't know. And at the moment, actually, no, that, yeah, no, there'll be still a day left of the code. So they're $35 tickets, but if you book a group, you get $10 off with the discount code MOTHERSDAY. Fantastic. Yay. Fantastic. And Hannah Ackfield, who's an amazing singer-songwriter from Melbourne, is playing support. We're playing the album. It's going to be real fun. That's enough

plugging for me. Good. Well, should we do the show? Have you got your first recommendation? I do. What do you want me to do? First recommendation. No, you go this time, actually, because I went first last week. Wow. That's. What do you want me to do? No, you go this time actually because I went first last week. Wow. That's very kind of you. You're welcome.

I'm nothing if not kind. That's what they say about me. You're a big fan of the Boston Strangler, yeah? Him personally? Yeah. Yeah, I heard he's quite funny. I really like his penchant for American hot dogs. Oh, does he?

Yeah, and with mustard and sauce. I didn't know about that, but this is a man. He also likes to wear a little top hat. He does tap dancing on the weekends. He was a real murderer. We like to go to watch avant-garde films together. Really? With this man from the 60s who strangled a bunch of women.

Yeah, it's really not very funny. You're a fan of this man? I'm in a real silly mood. Well, Claire, if you are a fan, you'll probably be a fan of this movie. It's directed and written by Matt Rushkin. Define fan. I don't know. You seem to like this guy who strangled women in the 60 movie. It's directed and written by Matt Rushkin. Define fan. I don't know. You seem to like this guy who strangled women in the 60s.

It stars Keira Knightley, Carrie Coon, Chris Cooper, David Dash Melchin. So here's the synopsis. Reporter Loretta McLaughlin becomes the first person to connect a series of murders and break the story of the Boston Strangler, your best friend. My best friend. She and Jean Cole challenged. Why did you say it like that?

Jean Cole challenged the sexism of the early 60s to report on the city's most notorious serial killer. So this was a real man or mans, right? Yes, all the mans. There seems to be, there was a series of strangulations and murders that happened that were very similar, but nobody realised that all these people getting strangled were being strangled by the same person,

even though it was literally the same crime again and again and again. Wowza. Until this reporter who, played by Keira Knightley, who's again a real person, she works for like the slice of life section of the newspaper where it's like, what kind of drapes do you have or whatever, you know, that kind of shit. And so she's like, no, I think these are connected or whatever. So she goes out on her own and she breaks this huge story,

which of course throws in the face of the police because they're like, we're the police. We know what we're doing. We're the police. And because the newspaper often, you know, they're in their job, not always, but often is to kind of uphold certain, you know, make sure that everything's looking good for the police, you know what I mean?

Make sure that there's a certain standard that they are meeting to make sure. You've got to set the standard. The police aren't making any kind of mistakes, like missing a big murderer who's doing big murders all the time. I don't know why I find it so funny. What's what? I don't know why you find it so funny either. I don't know why it's not funny at all today.

It's just not funny. What's wild about this, when you look at these cases, it's really just down to incompetence or people failing to see or even just believe that there are connections between all these different situations. Here's the thing about this movie. It does feel like it could have been like a more detailed series. It felt kind of rushed.

I really like the two leads, like Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon. They're great and they're great together. Remember the series we watched with It's a Good Australian, Toni Collette, and she's looking into that, like that's the serial rapist or whatever. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Oh, my goodness. It was horrifying but brilliant.

And it built on that relationship between those two and all of that. Correct. And the man came through her window and no one believed her. It was horrendous, yeah. I can't remember that. Let me look it up while you're talking. Sure. But, yeah, it kind of felt like this could have been kind

of expanded upon a little bit. I didn't dislike it. It's kind of like a David Fincher-lite-esque kind of thing, if anyone's ever seen the movie Zodiac, for example. I see. It's got that kind of vibe. Who's David Fincher? David Fincher.

He made like Fight Club and Zodiac and Social Network. Also like big fancy movies. Big fancy movies. He's a great director. Unbelievable. What is? Was the title of the series. Was the title of the series.

Sarangtonic Alert, Merritt Weaver and Caitlin Dever. Yeah. Yes. That was a really good show. It was really good. And horrendous at the same time. Onever. Yeah. Yes. That was a really good show. It was really good. And horrendous at the same time. On Netflix. Yeah.

I guess what is interesting about I think this movie as well is that it does support kind of a few theories that going around about the Boston Strangler because, as people may know, this was a real case and they thought, they're pretty confident, they got the guy who did all the Boston Stranglings. But it's also possible and he definitely did some of the murders, it would seem. Oh, so you think that he didn't do all of them?

Yeah. So there's theories posited. Like copycatting? Copycatting people just seeing an opportunity to, like, get somebody out of their life by doing this and then blaming it on the Boston Strangler. And by somebody we mean men murdering women. I mean men murdering women, yes. That's pretty much it.

I doubt there were many women murdering their husbands with strangling. I mean there are female killers and serial killers, yes. I know there are. But the numbers are skewed heavily towards men and white men specifically. You know why? Women are too tired. Too tired to be strangling? Yeah, but also I think women don't strangle, do they, don't they?

If they do kill, they like poison. Isn't that the thing? Yeah, it's poisoning mostly. Yeah, yeah. I don't know why I know that. No, it just makes sense. But I've got it in the back of my head for a rainy day. You've got to murder smart.

I'll wait until there's like a serial poisoner in the village where we live. Oh, in the village, yeah. And then you better watch out, mate. Why don't you just do the serial poisoning and then you don't have to wait? Seems like a lot of effort. It does seem like a lot of effort. And as previously discussed, I'm too tired. To do a serial poisoning.

Correct. I think it's also really hard to poison someone nowadays because there was a guy who was recently. On a poison hotline? Yeah, poison hotline. No, but there was a guy recently who was caught. He poisoned his wife. Why are you looking so. And then, because I'm just thinking about this and how

stupid you would have to be i can't remember the specifics of like who it was it was somewhere in america so that narrows it down but basically his google search history was just like what poisons are undetectable poisons that are cheap and undetectable local poisons i could use to poison someone maybe my wife maybe and then he wife maybe. And then he just went shopping for poisons and he poisoned his wife and he got found out because he's a moron. Did he not understand anything about our social media or the internet works or search histories or any of that? Well, that's how the, who was the guy?

The BTK killer, who was another very famous serial killer and rapist, was he murdered people for years and he got away with it and then he disappeared for like maybe 15, 20 years. And so there was an article written that was like, oh, he's probably dead. Like he died in custody or he just died. Like he was an old guy and he died. Maybe he had a heart attack. Who knows? And then he started writing letters again, being like, no, I'm still out there or whatever. And they were like, oh shit, this is the guy. Like he's still

around. This was in like the mid 2000s. Do go on, have an episode on this. And there's multiple documentaries, but this is my favorite serial killer because he's a fucking idiot also. And so he said, I want to send evidence of what I've done or whatever. Can you trace the origins of like a disc? Yeah. This is like, you know, the hard discs that we used to have. Yes, yes, they're called the floppies. I know you know that.

They're called floppy discs. We had floppy discs before that. But they were always hard. Yeah. I don't understand that. I mean, obviously hard is preferable to floppy. Sure, absolutely. It depends.

I mean, it depends when you are, where you are and when you are. That is a very good point actually. It depends on the timing of said floppy or hard situation. Yeah. But I still think it's a weird, I've always thought it was a weird name for the discs. Yeah, well they used to be like, I don't know if you remember though, much bigger.

I do remember that. But then they became hard, little ones, but we still call them floppies. Hard disc is different now because it's like. It's hard drive. Internally and whatever. And USBs. Anyway, so this guy, it turns out, so he sent them a disk and he'd wiped it, but just deleting files.

But anyway, most things, if you don't wipe it properly, you'll know what you're doing. They've got like, you know, there's a whole lot of encrypted data which just kind of sits under the surface of everything. So they just found this dude and lo and behold, it was this guy who looks like a murderer. Oh, my God. His name is Dennis Rader.

He looks like, why do they all have weird glasses? I don't know. They've all got that look. They all have like that aesthetic. They're men of a certain era and he was like. Age, era, balding, beard, these kind of serial killer glasses that they never ever look like they've been cleaned. Yeah.

I don't understand. Yeah. Surely there are handsome serial killers, are there? Well, they say Ted Bundy's handsome. I don't think he is. No, I don't think so. Anyway, so they got this guy and he was just like a family man and he worked at a church and whatever.

He was just one of those dudes as they sometimes but not always are. He's often a church husband look, isn't it? Well, there's, you know, if you look at like the history of like abuse and whatever, I know people are saying like, well, if you look it's the trans community or whatever. It's like statistically very unlikely that it's that. It's like family members. It's like community leaders.

Correct. It's things like that. Correct. I mean I'm not saying it doesn't happen. Of course it happens. Like anybody is capable of this. But if you look, again, if you look at the statistics, there's a very clear distinction between what kind of people

are committing these crimes. Exactly. It's the same thing about hand-wringing about trans bathrooms or trans women using female bathrooms. Yeah, who's actually doing the assaulting of women. It's men. It's not trans women. Yes, exactly correct.

Anyway. Anyway, this movie, it's fine. It's on Hulu if you are in anywhere other than Australia, but if it's on Disney Plus Star if you like Australia. Every time I hear the word Hulu, I always hear someone going Hulu in my head. You hear someone do that? Yeah, I do. I don't know why.

That makes sense because that is the official sound of Hulu. What is this movie called again? Boston Strangler. Boston Strangler. And it has the face Keira Knightley. Why the face? She's got the face. You know the Keira Knightley face.

It's very, very representable of things. You know, the face. Also, I watched her recently in two things. One was Love Actually because I'm just watching rom-coms currently. It's so problematic, that whole storyline of her. So weird. She was like really young at the time. She was really young.

I mean she wasn't supposed to be in the movie. No, but also like clearly it was very close-up videos of her face that she didn't know about. So weird. Yeah. And then the other movie I watched with her was not Music and Lyrics. That's the one with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. Begin Again. Begin Again.

Begin Again. And I just really like that movie. I just like it. I know you like it. You'll always be watching it. Not always be, but it's just like I like the songwriting aspect of it. Always watching it. I like the songs.

I just like cool New York vibes. It's just a fun one. Anyway, not my recommendation today though. Is it my turn? Do you have an actual recommendation? I do. So I have a new rom-com TV show, which I surprisingly really loved. So Beth O'Leary is an author and she had a debut novel called The Flat Share that came out in 2019 that became a best

seller, smash hit. Everyone loved it. Train passengers and beach loungers all reading this book, The Flat Share. It's kind of like a traditional rom-com but I think with a bit of a twist. What's the twist? So the twist is that the two flatmates share a bed. Okay. And so one of them. Yeah, well, it's interesting because actually you think the premise sounds completely absurd and it kind of is but then also it really does

make a statement about the rental crisis currently in London. So I'm set in London. You can actually see this happening. So Anthony Welsh plays Leon and he works night shifts at a hospice from 8am till 8pm. And he's also got a brother who's incarcerated and he's trying to get him out on appeal. So he needs to save some money. And so in order to do that, he puts out an ad for someone to come and use his flat between 8pm and 8am while he's working. Oh, okay. And so then he gets the flat during the day. And so that person turns out to be Tiffany who is played

by Jessica Brown, Finlay. Now she is really excellent. What's the show called again? It's called The Flat Chair and really it opens with Tiffany, Jessica's character, in tears. She's clearly just been through a breakup. She's a bit of a mess. She works in social media at, you know, a horrible online magazine that's just wanting more and more content. Nice. And so because she had to move out very quickly from her partner's flat after the breakup and she clearly has this like horrible,

creepy kind of ex-boyfriend who's played really excellently, she needs to get out of there and decides that she's going to do this. And to her friends' chagrin, my ad, everyone is loving the comedy of this. But what I actually find really lovely about it is even though so much of it is done in split screen, it's almost a little bit like Sliding Doors. Remember how they shot Sliding Doors? I remember the movie Sliding Doors. Correct.

They cut Gwyneth Paltrow's hair for that. They do. So one of the things that sells this is A, the two performances are really great. And B. Can I just? I'm helping. And B, they communicate via post-it notes And C

There's just great chemistry Can I just get through my review I tried really hard not to talk too much Yeah but go on sorry So they don't actually share a lot of screen time together No they don't It's all done through and I haven't watched the whole series yet So I'm assuming at some point

They do share the screen. They probably meet. They probably meet. But it is very much a little bit sleepless in Seattle in that way and so they're obviously very careful not to cross over. So they leave before the other one gets there, if that makes sense. Yes. And every night, the thing that gets me that is indicative of how tired I am, they have to strip the bed every time they wake

up in the morning. Right, right, right. So they set their alarm at 6.30, strip the bed, change the sheets back over. And I just, to me, the idea of changing your sheets every morning is a lot. Oh, my God. All of it, like the bedding and everything, all of that stuff. Anyway, that aside, it's adorable and fun and very addictive, weirdly.

Like it's, you know, it's not, I don't know, a masterpiece. Hey, man, there's nothing wrong with watching something that's not a masterpiece. Yeah, but it's great. And Leon's incarcerated brother, Richard, he's played by Shaq B. Grant and he's really excellent and you're immediately warm to him. He was, it says, wrongly convicted for armed robbery and so he's in jail currently.

She also has a best friend, Maya, played by Shaniqua Okwok, who's really great. She's like a lawyer. And then Mo, who's her really like adorable sort of asexual best friend, is played by Disney's future Prince Eric, Jonah Hawa King. I think that's how you say his name. Are you looking forward to New Little Mermaid because you love those remakes, those Disney remakes?

Oh, God, I know. Maybe I'll like this one. And Tiffany's boss is played by Dustin Demery Burns and he's from Strathlet's Flat, Am I Being Unreasonable? Yes. And he just yet again proves that he's great at being an insufferable, sort of like slightly lovable kind of awkward type of guy. He's great in it.

It's just quite funny and I like him a lot. So overall, if you're looking for a lovely kind of British comedy drama. What do you give it out of 10 bananas? I give it like a good solid eight bananas. Wow. Just because it's just what I feel like watching at the moment, you know, and there's some like heartfelt moments and you just, the script is actually quite fun. I was surprised. Sometimes you watch those rom-coms and you just feel like it's so clunky and the writing is so awful that you just can't, it's just, it just feels like very frothy and surreal and kind of badly shot. Whereas I think that the way they've shot this is really great. The outfits are cool. It feels quite grounded. And there's some real comedy in there. Also,

he works in a hospice, the main character, Leon, and that's kind of beautiful. There's some beautiful scenes with him with patients. That's quite sad. So the writing, Rose Lewenstein has done most of the writing with Sarah Simmons, Ryan Calle, Cameron, Alex Stracker. And also the direction is mainly by Peter Cattaneo and then three episodes by

Chloe Wicks. So what I also like about it, and you can tell in the dialogue, is that it's got like a mixed mix of genders writing the script. And I just think you can always tell because the characters actually say things that, you know, women would in real life. And the friendships are really great too. Yeah, I'm just really enjoying it. The other thing I thought was interesting is it does shed a light on the kind of difficulties being faced at the moment with this whole kind of transient work situation. It's insane. Yeah.

People not getting proper. Proper pay and also the stress. So she works in this social media company and the stress of not being able to keep her job and the idea that you have to just create more and more content that grabs people, that's salacious and disturbing and whatever cost. And if you don't do that, then you lose your job. It's really real.

It reminded me yet again and just the crushing cost of rent when you're living in that kind of way. Yeah, it's getting worse and worse. So there is some little bit of kind of real commentary in there too about that. But mostly it's like real fun. Would you say the rent is too damn high? Yes, correct. Exactly.

And I do, it just reminded me again that like when I was in my 20s, I at least felt like I would definitely be able to get a job and pay my rent. Yeah, well, that was also being teachers there's like there was. There was job security. I think it's less now but there's less security now because there are now less contracts, ongoing contracts. Yeah. So you're like, well, my contract's up at the end of the year.

I hope I'm going to come back next year. Yeah. I hope somebody doesn't come back from leave and take my job. Correct. Exactly. But, yeah, that also is not a recommendation to go into teaching if you're thinking about doing it. Oh, God, it's not that.

No, it's such a beautiful job in so many ways but it is also really tricky. Anyway, that's The Flat Share. It's on Paramount Plus or I watched it through Prime and it's very charming and tightly written and I loved it. Great. Cool. Introducing Uber Teen Accounts, an Uber account for your teen with enhanced safety features. Your teen can request a ride with top-rated drivers Party down, Claire.

Party down. That's a show I've been watching. Hey, party on down. I don't know. I've been watching. Hey, party on down. I don't know. I don't party. Go on. How would you party down? With a nice strong cup of tea and a book in bed.

Wow. Probably also just like playing music because that's what I've been doing. You have a stack of books on your nightstand. I don't know how many of them you've read. I suspect none. No, I've read most of them. I have actually read most of them. They're friends of mine. Ten that I've read that are beside my bed. Everything I Know About Love. What else have

I got on there? Untamed by Glennon Doyle. I've got, do you want me to list all of them? Yeah, I don't want ten. All right. I have got Useless Magic by Florence Welch, all of which I have read. That's three. I have also got on there, what else are some other books that I've just started reading? Oh, yeah, I'm reading Night Bitch by Rachel Yoder. I've read that one actually.

That's sitting on my nightstand. I've read that one. And there's also Amy Tunig's new book that I've just started, which is really amazing, Tell Me Again. Yeah, there you go. That's five. That's three. No, there you go. That's five. That's three. No, that's five.

Anyway. I'll give you two at the end of the week. It's my bad memory. Okay. Party Down. This is a show. Party Down. Here's what it's about.

It's a synopsis. While chasing dreams of stardom, six Hollywood wannabe actors and writers make ends meet by working for a posh Los Angeles catering company which tackles a different event, senior singles, mixes, prom, awards, after parties, a Sweet 16 bash in each episode. Right. So this stars Adam Scott who you might know from many things including Parks and Rec.

He's the one who marries Leslie Knope. You're saying that but you don't know. I know who Adam Scott is. Ken Marino. I love him. Okay, you love him. I love him and love him. He's the one that was also in that one where they, like,

worked and then they went home and they didn't know that they were at work or at home. He was in Severance. You're correct. Thank you. It was called Go to Work, Are We at Work? I'm at Home. Can we work?

I don't know. I'm at work. I should be a professional synopsis writer. No, that's how I name movies and shows. So Ken Marino, Jane Lynch. Do you know Jane Lynch? She's from Glee. Jane Lynch. Hang on, I'll just She's from Glee. Jane Lynch.

Hang on, I'll just show you. Google it. Is this really interesting? It's probably not interesting to anyone every time. This is Jane Lynch. Oh, yes, I love her. She's so funny. Oh, my God, she's so funny.

She's hilarious. She's also in, what is she in, 10 Things I Hate About You? Maybe. She's in one of those. She's a principal in something and she's hilarious. Yeah, she's the principal in Glee or something. Yeah, or maybe that's who I'm thinking of. It's got Martin Starr, Ryan Hansen, Lizzie Kaplan

for the first two series at least. Now what's interesting about this show, Claire? The 40-year-old virgin she's really funny in too. What's interesting about this show, Claire? Are you ready for this? Yes, I'm listening now. This show started in 2009 and it had two seasons and then it was cancelled.

And off the back of that, Jane Lynch went to Glee, Adam Scott went to Parks and Rec. He, I think, and her also at the time were like kind of blamed for it being cancelled. But apparently it was going to get cancelled anyway. And he got word that like they're going to cancel this. Yeah, I'll say he jumped ship. So it went for two seasons.

And this, like it kind of went under the radar. This has some of like the funniest people and performances and writing you will see in a sitcom. So there's two seasons where there's ten episodes. And then this year, 13 years after the last season, they brought it back with most of the old cast. The only one who's not back yet, because I think there's one or two episodes left this season, is Lizzie Kaplan,

which is a shame because she's terrific. But she's doing well. It's not like she's dead. So that's great. But there's a few people that come in, new cast members. She's not dead. She's not dead. Don't worry about it.

Like Jennifer Garner's in this season, for example. Oh, I love her. She's great. Her Instagram account, so good. I know you love Jennifer Garner's Instagram account. So it's really awkward and hilarious and depressing and it also speaks to like minimum wage work and trying to make rent and trying to run a business and trying to keep your head above water

and also trying to make it in the creative field and how everything is like and you need to know somebody. If you don't know somebody, well, too bad or whatever, you know. And the thing about this is everybody, every single person in this show could headline like their own comedy show. Like it's that good. Everybody is that good and the writing is that good in it as well. It's only come back for six episodes.

I'm hoping it – hello, Ollie, who's come into the room. I'm hoping it does go for more because it's been like consistently good for nearly 15 years now, Claire, 14 years. Wow, that. Even though it's only been on the air for three of those. 2009 it started. That's crazy. Unbelievable.

So around the world you'll find it on Starz, but in Australia it's on Stan. I cannot believe they brought this back. I really want to check this out now. You should start. Also, if you're thinking like, oh, I'll watch the newer ones, you can, but you should watch all of them. It's all good.

It would be interesting just watching them age like that. Yeah, they don't really age that much. Oh, yeah, they're famous people. Obviously we don't age like regular human beings. That's the secret to eternal youth. Yeah, actually, and that segues into my recommendation. Can I talk about mine? Is it Staying Young Forever?

No. Well, so my recommendation is Lana Del Rey's new album. Oh. And talking about people that haven't aged. So I thought that I wasn't actually, I've listened to her music for a long time, so I knew that she had to be around for a long time, but she looks exactly the same. And I realised we were born in the same year, in 1985.

Oh, my God. But she just doesn't, she looks ageless. Obviously, probably for, like, many interventional reasons. And power to her, whatever you choose to do, cool, cool. Anyway, it was just amusing to me because we're the same age but I do not look like that. Anyway, Lana Del Rey, actually known as Elizabeth, her real name is Elizabeth Woolridge Grant.

And so I kind of went in a deep dark because I always enjoyed a lot of her music. You might remember Young and Beautiful as one of her big hits. You might remember Young and Beautiful as one of her big hits. You might also remember her from the song that I did at our friend's wedding that had a lyric in it, I wish I was dead or you want me dead or something like that. And it turned out our friend had given us the wrong title for the song. And so at their wedding I sang the wrong song about her being dead, about just death in general. You didn't have that conversation?

Well, no, because it was an international wedding. They sent me the song titles they wanted and I learnt three of them, one of which was Songbird, one was my song All Kinds of Lovely and this third one by Lana Del Rey. And there was like a whole personal joke to go with it. And so I learnt the song but I thought it was like a personal joke or something. And because it was international and I was pregnant at the time,

I just, I don't know, I probably should have double checked when I read the lyrics but I was like, cool, it must be some kind of running joke. Sure, let's go. And so I learnt it and I sung it very sincerely at their wedding and I only found out a few years ago that it was the wrong song. But did they realise that you didn't do that? I don't know.

Like that you didn't, you have receipts that say like do this song. Yeah, yeah, it's in the email. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's in the email chain so it wasn't my fault. So anyway, funny. That's very funny. And also probably quite embarrassing for me. Anyway, that's and also at the time when I was singing it

because I did say during it, this is a funny song that like, you know, there's a personal joke but neither of them, so polite, said anything to me after that. I would have stopped. I would have said, stop. Stop what you are doing. Anyway, I really enjoy her music. She's slightly a controversial figure as well as I'm discovering.

She's a racist? Yeah, potentially. Well, actually I don't know if she is. I think it's more she's seen as like this anti-feminist because she has been writing about music that kind of paints her in quite a passive role in her sexual exploits basically and in her relationships with men. And so for a while she said she wouldn't describe herself

as a feminist altogether. But then after the Me Too movement she has. Yeah. But then recently she did make some controversial tweets, which I read and I understand why people thought they were controversial, about saying, you know, she's copped flack for years for being this kind of submissive, passive, you know, person in her relationships and all this commentary about her also being like quite overt with her sexuality. Like her songs

often have quite sexualized kind of lyrics and how she's copped flack for years. But then she named a whole lot of artists, like women of color, and then said, now that all these people are, you know, creating content like that, it's seen as empowering and why is it not okay for me to be a fragile sort of submissive woman and, you know, in that way and isn't it okay that women should be able to have all different types of marriage? Yeah, I guess that.

I mean I've known literally nothing about this but it's not the idea. You can just, the idea with feminism is that you can do whatever you want. Yeah, and it's all about choice. Correct. Yeah, it's just people had said, and look, I don't want to get too much into this because I actually am just more interested in her as an artist and a musician. Sure.

So there's a lot of different opinions. One of the opinions, and I kind of understand this, is the historical issues, A, with women's equality. Sure. And B, particularly with intersectional feminism and with women of colour and the fight that they've had to have their voices heard at all. Yeah.

And their music actually given the credit it deserves. Absolutely. Which is actually people of colour all over. So there's kind of this idea that she was, I guess, this kind of white fragile fragility stuff happening. Right. Anyway, I don't really want to go into too much of this. You want to talk about the album.

I actually find it fascinating because she's a singer, songwriter and a producer. She has made so many amazing albums. She has won so many. Oh, yeah, name 10. Oh, you're so annoying. So she's the recipient of two Brit Awards, two MTV Europe Music Awards, a Satellite Award, six Grammy Awards and a Golden

Globe Award. She's also made her own music videos, like self-published. The one that went viral was in 2011 and it was a single video called Video Games that she made herself which then got her a recording contract. Okay. She's really progressive in her music which is interesting because obviously there's this controversy about her political beliefs or, you know, things that she said. But her music is so interesting and varied in each of her albums and she has this really interesting kind of aesthetic.

It's kind of like old Hollywood glamour but kind of dark and broken at the same time. She uses a lot of kind of interesting vocal range. Her vocal range is over three octaves and very breathy, very like an interesting kind of style. She has had an album, so the one before this one that was just released in March is called Did You Know There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard? And it's very much that kind of aesthetic of like broken Hollywood kind

of glamour and very fragile vocals but then very bold lyrics. Right, yeah. And it's quite, yeah, there's like kind of open things about sexuality in there. She has lyrics about, you know, being an American whore and that kind of style of writing, plus interesting storytelling as well. It's very lyrically dense. She's also a poet. So she's published poetry books as well. And interestingly, when she first started writing music, she was studying like metaphysics and philosophy, religion and science. And you can kind of sense that she's incredibly intelligent. So yeah, it's just interesting that she's been quite controversial.

Also on this, there's quite a few big names like John Baptiste, who I really love, who's done. You love him. I do love him. Real John, what's his name, Real John Misty also does a cameo as well and a whole lot of others. She also did a duet or she was on a Taylor Swift track on her most recent album, Midnight, that went great guns as well. Norman fucking Rockwell was her stick studio album and that came out in 2019.

I know. And it was primarily produced by Del Rey and Jack Antonoff. And it's so interesting because it's more like a soft rock sounding album with like psych rock influences and big piano ballads and there's references to like various classic rock artists, whereas this one, yeah, is really different again. And she almost has this really deadpan way of singing where she also represents like contemporary pop culture and 1950s to 1960s Americana.

And it's very kind of melancholy and cinematic. So it's almost, yeah, the lyrics are so dense. It's so interesting to me. And I just find someone like this who's had such a long career in music, you compare her to someone like Taylor Swift, and even though if people hear her name, there's sort of this narrative that she's not a very good singer, that she's just got the looks and then she got a recording contract.

Is that true though? It's not true. I know there was that thing about like. She had one bad performance. She watched like one performance, but who cares? I know. So many people just mime anyway. Yeah, exactly. But it is kind of interesting. She says because of her type of vocal quality and also for a while

she was singing very high and she felt like because of the way she looks, she's kind of like a bombshell. She felt like people didn't take her seriously as an artist because of how high her vocals were. So she lowered her voice particularly on purpose. I don't know if anyone else finds this interesting because I find this fascinating but obviously that's just also I love talking about vocal quality.

But it does say something about what we think about women who are incredibly good looking and also our voices in general. Yeah. So to have a high-pitched voice, and I have quite a high-pitched voice though as I get older that's changed. But sometimes people do equate that with being ditzy. And often there are, I know like newsreaders do it all the time and women in radio often, the ones that do get the gigs

have lowered voices. They either do lower their voices on purpose, like radio and media training will do that. Hello. Yeah. Or they generally have like lower voices anyway. And it's something to do with men not liking to listen to women at that high pitch.

And Lana Del Rey has also expressed this idea that people often have said that she's hysterical or overly emotional or, you know, that kind of tone in a woman's voice makes her be taken less seriously, which I know Taylor Swift has talked into as well. Obviously, both women come from incredible privilege. So I'm not like playing a violin for them. but it is interesting that both of those women, I think, have had incredibly long careers in the industry, incredibly successful careers, are incredible songwriters in their own right, but still somehow,

which I think happens to people like Dolly Parton as well, get shelved into a particular category because they're beautiful and they don't get given the kind of weight of, say, other songwriters of our generation, male songwriters I will say. Yes. And I think that happens a lot with female writers as well, like, oh, that's women's writing or it's chick lit or something, as opposed to just they are in their own right really incredible artists and songwriters. So just a really interesting, slightly kind of controversial figure.

Yeah, and I just, it's a really cool album. I'm just really enjoying it. So it's called Did You Know There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard and it's just out now on Spotify. Great. You know what else is just out now? What is just out now? It's podcast and you can review it in-app.

Ooh, yes. Just like Levi Guts. Levi Guts. It's given us a five-star review and you can do it in-app. You can do it in any app that you're listening to. He said, fine, here's your review. Look, I did it in-app. Great podcast with recommendations from two hosts that enjoy very different media,

great banter, chemistry, et cetera, et cetera. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. My family loves it every time I make glass potatoes. Oh, yes, they're so good. I know. I need to get back to doing some more cooking to give you some more recommendations. Agreed. Glass potatoes are brilliant.

And this is where I got the recipe. Give them a listen. Do it. We have to pick up our son soon. Do you have a letter? We certainly do. I absolutely do. All righty.

So forcing everyone at work to listen to Claire's album. Hells yes. What a legend. Mark, when you are. Hi, you two. Long-time listener of the Weekly Planet at least. First-time writer. What up, dog?

I just wanted to tell a quick story about my experience with Claire's album. I feel like as a male in my early 20s, I may not be the target audience. That's all right. But Claire's constant plugs had me eventually give it a try. I found it very enjoyable and have even added cold and fear to feel to my regular playlist. may not be the target audience. That's all right. But Claire's constant plugs had me eventually give it a try. I found it very enjoyable and have even added cold and fear to feel to my regular playlist. I am an exploration geologist in Canada and work in some very remote camps. I was on one such project when some of my co-workers caught me listening

to it and asked what it was. I tried to explain that I was pretty sure it's supposed to symbolise the changing of a woman's body and mind after pregnancy. Exploration camps are historically male-dominated spaces and therefore this concept was entirely foreign to all of us. Now it's a little bit of a running joke that I spend my days getting in touch with deeply feminist topics. Nevertheless, I made them all listen to it in the core shack with me

and whether they like it or not, they will be forced to understand the female experience. It must feel strange as an artist to reach so many different types of people all over the world. Did you ever think that a group of geologists and drillers in the mountains of Northern Canada would listen to your voices for hours? Yes. Anyways, love the pod and the dynamic between you two. My suggestion is the podcast, The Therapy Crouch. It's another delightful married couple, Peter Crouch and Abby Clancy. Much like yourselves, their different interests really complement each other and they have many laugh out loud moments of banter.

Hopefully I can make it over to Aussie for a live show someday. Keep up the fantastic work, Mark. That's wonderful, Mark. Thank you so much for the kind words and email. Do you know what I find interesting about this too? No. My music, I call it matrescence, which you would think, well, that's just for women who are mothers or something, but it's absolutely not. And I think I really appreciate Mark listening

and also sharing it because actually it's just about the human condition, which is all of us. So like grief, loss, fear, love, desire, all of that stuff that we all feel is bundled up into the experience of having kids, shame, worry about what people think of us, all of that stuff. And so I think if you're a bloke, it's not just for women is what I would try to say. And I think we shouldn't be thinking about feminist issues as purely just for women to be listening to and thinking about because as I've discovered too, men are parents as well. And whenever I talk about matrescence as that word about a woman's body changing after pregnancy

and their mind being different, partners of women who have dads have all said the same, like my Uber driver was like, yeah, my wife's completely different. And I'm like, exactly. It's a little worse. Yeah, no, but I just genuinely do think that, you know, anyway, the album itself is not just for women. It's not for boys. It's for humans.

Oh, it's not for boys. Whoever kind of human you are out there, it is for everyone. I'm binary. You could be cool. You could be uncool. You could be old. You could be young. But you can't be in between.

All right, Claire, let's go. Okay, we've been to just a podcast. Thank you as always for calling for editing this week's episode. And, yeah, see you next week. Bye. Thanks, guys. We can wait for clean water solutions. Or we can engineer access to clean water.

We can acknowledge Indigenous cultures. Or we can learn from Indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth voices, we can demand more from the earth, or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future.