Bob Calhoun
As seen in:
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Medium,
SFGate,
Salon,
RogerEbert.com,
ComicsBeat,
Leafly,
San Francisco Weekly,
The Colorado Sun,
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and
Co-host of Old Movies for Young Stoners (@OM4YStoners). Author of The Murders That Made Us (@ECWPress). Former SFWeekly, Incredibly Strange Wrestling. He/him
Articles by Bob Calhoun
Was that the Zodiac Speaking?
bob calhoun · Follow 11 min read · -- A new Netflix documentary series finds even more compelling evidence that Vallejo pedophile Arthur Leigh Allen was the Zodiac Killer, but does it bring us closure? A police sketch of the Zodiac killer, and suspect Arthur Leigh Allen, who is the focus of the new Netflix series, This is the Zodiac Speaking.
S3E11 Blaxploitation Feat. Odie Henderson w/ Blacula (1972) & Darktown Strutters (75) on Apple Podcasts
Boston Globe movie critic ODIE HENDERSON joins us to talk about his new book, BLACK CAESARS AND FOXY CLEOPATRAS: A HISTORY OF BLAXPLOITATION. For this, Odie has programmed two equally stony but very different examples of the film movement that further funkified the 1970s. First, Shakespearean actor William Marshall brings dignity and pathos to the title character of the horror classic, BLACULA from American International Pictures in 1972.
S3E8 Criterion Crackup feat. Ngaio Bealum w/ Point Blank (1967) & Pressure Point (62) on Apple Podcasts
The Dank Diplomat Ngaio Bealum is back on OMFYS and he's picked a pair of movies to get high to from Criterion Channel's current series HOLLYWOOD CRACK-UP: THE DECADE AMERICAN CINEMA LOST ITS MIND. First, LEE MARVIN is punching dudes in the nuts and throwing them out of high-rise windows all to get his $93,000 back in POINT BLANK (1967).
S3E7 The Bret Berg Made for TV Museum w/ Gargoyles (1972) & Death of a Cheerleader (94) on Apple Podcasts
Bret Berg from the Museum of Home Video and the American Genre Film Archive joins us and he has chosen a pair of made for TV movies ranging from 70s horror to 1990s ripped-from-the-headlines true crime. Our first feature is GARGOYLES (1972) one of the many TV terrors that scarred Gen-Xer childhoods. Cornel Wilde and Jennifer Salt are a father-daughter team of occult researchers who discover a race of living gargoyles in the caves of New Mexico.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S3E5
The PhilenApocalypse has been postponed! While Philena ain't too thrilled with this development, we were able to keep our already inconsistent schedule with this Howard Hawks double feature, which is like a PhilenApocalypse prequel because her contrarian take on Howard Hawks' screwball classic BRINGING UP BABY (1938) is what landed her on OMFYS. In short, she hates it--AFI Top 100 or no.
S3E4 Kaiju Unite w/ Son of Godzilla (1967) and Destroy All Monsters (1968) on Apple Podcasts
S3E4 Kaiju Unite w/ Son of Godzilla (1967) and Destroy All Monsters (1968) With GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE upon us, we salute the Big G himself, GODZILLA, with a pair of his movies made a year apart from each other, that show his tremendous range. First, the radioactive mutant dinosaur tackles family comedy in SON OF GODZILLA (1967), the "Courtship of Eddie's Father" of kaiju movies.
Another Octopus Murder: American Conspiracies and True Crime Stories
It was jarring seeing Phillip Arthur Thompson staring back at me from my flatscreen TV; his 1970s mugshot rendered in high def so I could count every strand of hair in his eyebrows were I into that sort of thing. I wasn’t expecting to see him when I started watching the new Netflix true crime documentary series American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders, but I probably should have.
S3E3 WTF Criterion? w/ The Devils (1971) and The Unknown (1927) on Apple Podcasts
There are lots of bonkers classics on Criterion Channel right now and we wanted to pair pot with them before they show up on that "Leaving Criterion Channel" list in an episode we call "WHAT THE FUCK CRITERION." First up is THE DEVILS (1971), Ken Russell's masterpiece of blasphemy, demonic possession and religious persecution in 17th Century France.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E8
S2E8 - The Lost Barbie Episode w/ Muscle Beach Party (1964) & Back to the Beach (1987) In our #Noivember Rain episode, we promised that you'd have a Barbie under your tree for Christmas and here she is! Now that the SAG AFTRA strike is finally over, we can finally post THE LOST BARBIE EPISODE without getting Philena in trouble as Warner Bros' BARBIE was definitely a struck work back when.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E14
The Czar of Noir Eddie Muller joins us for our epic SEASON 2 FINALE. Eddie takes time out of his busy #Noirvember to chat about his new book NOIR BAR: COCKTAILS INSPIRED BY THE WORLD OF FILM NOIR and his even newer hardboiled kid's book, KITTY FERAL AND THE CASE OF THE MARSHMALLOW MONKEY.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E13
Halloween is only a few days away so we've got horror romps from a pair of carnival hucksters. First, William Castle--the King of the Gimmicks--is back on OMFYS with his ghostly masterpiece HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL from 1959. Vincent Price is back in this one as an eccentric millionaire (please tell me there's no other kind) who offers $10 thousand to a handpicked group of desperate people. What can go wrong???
13 best horror films to watch high
Halloween is coming up and all the streamers are pushing their scariest flicks at you, but which ones should you vape to? Sure, you want to be scared, but you don't want to end up catatonic, either. Not surprisingly, comedy horror was a big favorite in Leafly's X (Twitter) poll, so we've definitely included a couple of films that mix laughs with the jump scares. But there are some just-plain scary movies here too that'll have you hittin' that indica.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E12
Philena Franklin is back but she's still on strike with SAG AFTRA so we've got some PUBLIC DOMAIN ZOMBIES for our first of two special HALLOWEEN episodes! First, we have rights-free ghouls invading a Ralph's in Burbank in MESSIAH OF EVIL (1974) from Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the forgotten Lucasfilm power couple who later brought you HOWARD THE DUCK (1986).
S2E11 Go West Young Stoner w/ Zachariah (1971) & Pursued (1947) on Apple Podcasts
San Francisco movie and media critic Pam Grady joins us and she finally brings Westerns into OMFYS with ZACHARIAH (1971), a homoerotic oater starring John Rubenstein and a very young Don Johnson as star-crossed gunslingers who just can't quit each other on their road to hippy-dippy enlightenment.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: OMFYS S2E10
S2E10 - The Music Business w/ All Night Long (1962) & King Creole (1958) Independent filmmaker Floyd Webb joins us once again for a pair of classic near-noirs that show that the music business was scammy and sleazy long before Spotify, but it was maybe a little cooler when you had Walter Matthau in a smoke-filled backroom plotting how to screw the talent.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E9
Podcaster, pop-culture writer and three-time and reigning Ms. Noir City AUDRA WOLFMANN joins us to talk about defending her Ms. Noir City crown, and one of her favorite sub-genres: Beatsploitation. We kick things off with Seijun Suzuki's psychedelic yakuza noir, TOKYO DRIFTER (1966). This isn't Beatsploitation per se, but there are plenty of dudes in mod suits and the film is so incomprehensible that it's gotta be poetry man.
The Murders That Made Us: How Vigilantes, Hoodlums, Mob Bosses, Serial Killers and Cult Leaders Built the San Francisco Bay Area
The 170-year history of the San Francisco Bay Area told through its crimes and how they intertwine with the city's art, music, and politics. In The Murders That Made Us, the story of the San Francisco Bay Area unfolds through its most violent and depraved acts.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E8
Former TCM Underground chief programmer Millie De Chirico joins us to talk about her book, "TCM Underground: 50 Must-See Films from the World of Classic Cult and Late-Night Cinema." She also helps us get through our TCM Underground withdrawals that we've all been going through since Turner Classic Movies cancelled the Friday night cult movie cavalcade in February.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E7
Former TCM Underground chief programmer Millie De Chirico joins us to talk about her book, "TCM Underground: 50 Must-See Films from the World of Classic Cult and Late-Night Cinema." She also helps us get through our TCM Underground withdrawals that we've all been going through since Turner Classic Movies cancelled the Friday night cult movie cavalcade in February.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E7 - The Millie De Chirico Underground w/ Kenneth Anger short films & Night Tide (1961) on Apple Podcasts
Former TCM Underground chief programmer Millie De Chirico joins us to talk about her book, "TCM Underground: 50 Must-See Films from the World of Classic Cult and Late-Night Cinema." She also helps us get through our TCM Underground withdrawals that we've all been going through since Turner Classic Movies cancelled the Friday night cult movie cavalcade in February.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E6
The PhilenApocalypse as foretold by prophecy is finally upon us! Philena Franklin has taken over OLD MOVIES FOR YOUNG STONERS and has transformed it in NEW MOVIES FOR OLD STONERS! Both movies are in color and both have synchronized sound! No silents! No subtitles! One of these movies is even from THIS CENTURY!!! Can OMFYS survive this brush with modernity???
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E6 - The PhilenApocalypse w/ Midnight Madness (1980) & Warm Bodies (2013) on Apple Podcasts
The PhilenApocalypse as foretold by prophecy is finally upon us! Philena Franklin has taken over OLD MOVIES FOR YOUNG STONERS and has transformed it in NEW MOVIES FOR OLD STONERS! Both movies are in color and both have synchronized sound! No silents! No subtitles! One of these movies is even from THIS CENTURY!!! Can OMFYS survive this brush with modernity???
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E5
Matt Zoller Seitz, the hardest working man in movie criticism, joins us for the long-awaited GORILLA EPISODE! In addition to covering film and TV for New York Magazine, serving as editor-at-large for RogerEbert.com, and running a bookstore and publishing company out of his house with MZS.press, Matt is a bit of a gorilla movie enthusiast going back to the 1976 KING KONG and an episode of WONDER WOMAN with a sci-fi Nazi gorilla.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E5
Matt Zoller Seitz, the hardest working man in movie criticism, joins us for the long-awaited GORILLA EPISODE! In addition to covering film and TV for New York Magazine, serving as editor-at-large for RogerEbert.com, and running a bookstore and publishing company out of his house with MZS.press, Matt is a bit of a gorilla movie enthusiast going back to the 1976 KING KONG and an episode of WONDER WOMAN with a sci-fi Nazi gorilla.
10 best science fiction films to watch high
If 4/20 is the day to go to Hippy Hill or Washington Square Park and blaze away in public, then May the 4th is the day to melt into the couch, hit the Puffco and trip out to sci-fi movies. While you could go with the Star Wars spirit of the day by firing up Disney+ and binging any number of trilogies-or all of them-Leafly's list goes beyond George Lucas' galaxy far, far away. The best sci-fi to watch high should expand your mind, but not be too long, complex, or heavy (sorry, Alien). Humor helps.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E4
Bob, Cory, Philena and Greg are back for the first time this season! Yes. This is only S2 episode with all the OMFYS co-hosts. Greg hasn't been here since our season premiere, but Cory wasn't around for that one, and the Psychedelic Kaiju ep had no Franklins whatsoever. We did get a little chatty with the joyous reunion and all, and our movies this time gave us a lot of psychological baggage to unpack, so this ep is, um, expansive.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S2E4 - In Cold Bud w/ Touch of Evil (1958) & Lost Highway (97) on Apple Podcasts
Bob, Cory, Philena and Greg are back for the first time this season! Yes. This is only S2 episode with all the OMFYS co-hosts. Greg hasn't been here since our season premiere, but Cory wasn't around for that one, and the Psychedelic Kaiju ep had no Franklins whatsoever. We did get a little chatty with the joyous reunion and all, and our movies this time gave us a lot of psychological baggage to unpack, so this ep is, um, expansive.
S2E3 Women's History Month w/ Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) & The Hitch-Hiker (53) on Apple Podcasts
Philena Franklin returns for our National Women's History Month episode. Yes, Old Movies for Young Stoners has been a real sausage fest with nothing but films directed by MEN, so, like much of corporate America, we decided to rectify that for at least one episode with our salute to the work of women directors. First, we go to France for CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (1962), a masterpiece from Agnès Varda, the mother--or grandmother--of the French New Wave.
Roger Franklin, Ukiah music and entertainment photographer, dies at 75 - The Ukiah Daily Journal
By Bob Calhoun Roger Franklin had a long career with the Ukiah Unified School District, but became known throughout Mendocino County for his photos of concerts, auto shows, and other events. He died at his home on Friday January 27. He was 75 years old. Roger called Rog by his close friends and family was not in a band, but he was nonetheless a mainstay in the local music and arts scene.
Roger Franklin, Ukiah music and entertainment photographer, dies at 75 Original
By Bob Calhoun Roger Franklin enjoyed a long career with the Ukiah Unified School District, but he became known throughout Mendocino County for his photos of concerts, car shows and other events. He died in his home on Friday, Jan. 27. He was 75. Roger – called Rog by his close friends and family – wasn’t in a band, but he was a pillar of the local music and arts scene nonetheless.
S2E2 Psychedelic Kaiju w/ War of the Gargantuas (1966) & Matango (1963) on Apple Podcasts
S2E2 Psychedelic Kaiju w/ War of the Gargantuas (1966) & Matango (1963) Kevin Moss from the Junk Food Dinner podcast joins Cory and Bob for the most wigged-out Japanese monster movies ever to come out of Toho Studios. First, it's the good Brown Gargantua vs.
S2E1 Gateway Drugs w/ The Killing (1956) & Wages of Fear (53) on Apple Podcasts
Cannabis comic and activist Ngaio Bealum joins us for our SEASON TWO PREMIERE, and he's selected two movies that are real gateway drugs to classic cinema. Both films are tense AF depictions of desperate men trying to pull off that one last score. Both movies were also made by domineering filmmakers, so, as Ngaio says, this could have been our a*****e director episode. First up, is THE KILLING (1956), a cutting-edge noir from a young Stanley Kubrick making his first Hollywood studio film.
S2E1 Gateway Drugs w/ The Killing (1956) & Wages of Fear (53) on Apple Podcasts
Cannabis comic and activist Ngaio Bealum joins us for our SEASON TWO PREMIERE, and he's selected two movies that are real gateway drugs to classic cinema. Both films are tense AF depictions of desperate men trying to pull off that one last score. Both movies were also made by domineering filmmakers, so, as Ngaio says, this could have been our a*****e director episode. First up, is THE KILLING (1956), a cutting-edge noir from a young Stanley Kubrick making his first Hollywood studio film.
OMFYS Holiday Special 2022 w/ A Carol for Another Christmas (64) + Horror Express (72) on Apple Podcasts
It's the first ever Old Movies for Young Stoners Holiday Special! Bob, Cory, Philena and Greg are back to spread some holiday cheer, or maybe just baffle and amuse you. First, we discuss the new "Sight and Sound" 100 Greatest Films of All Time list that just dropped last week. Does "Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles" deserve the top spot? Should "Citizen Kane" reign in perpetuity?
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E13
It's our Halloween episode AND our season one finale which begins with a visit to the Old Witch's lair where every bong rip could be your last. Big thanks to Tigger Franklin for her witchy cackle. It's a family affair here on OMFYS--a Franklin family affair. Our two films come from the 1930s, possibly the greatest decade for horror, but is it? We get into that before we get into our movies and weed recs.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E13
It's our Halloween episode AND our season one finale which begins with a visit to the Old Witch's lair where every bong rip could be your last. Big thanks to Tigger Franklin for her witchy cackle. It's a family affair here on OMFYS--a Franklin family affair. Our two films come from the 1930s, possibly the greatest decade for horror, but is it? We get into that before we get into our movies and weed recs.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E11
With superheroes dominating today's multiplexes and streaming channels, we look back at the 1960s, when people got way into superheroes for two years and then got the hell over it. First, we've got the superhero as a metaphor for American imperialism, racism and police brutality in MR. FREEDOM (1968), a savage satire produced in France and directed by American expat William Klein.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E10
In our terrific tenth episode, we delve into the hallucinogenic possibilities of the most surreal movie genre of them all -- the musical! And as strange as the musical is, it was the most normie form of entertainment for a good chunk of the 20th Century, and is still capable of giving us the utter batshit weirdness of CATS from time to time.
Guest column: What was it like writing Gene LeBell’s book? Squirrely
It was 3 a.m., and I couldn’t get to sleep. The Killer Elite (1975) was on some basic cable movie channel. It had been on for a while already but it was just getting to the good part where James Caan battles a gang of ninjas at the Suisun Bay Ghost Fleet, a graveyard of World War II era warships rusting away in a sleepy pocket of the San Francisco Bay. The Killer Elite was a Sam Peckinpah film, so swords and bullets soon flew from all angles in dramatic slow motion.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E9
Floyd Webb of the Blacknuss Network joins us as we blast off to the stars for two wildly and weirdly different cinematic visions of space travel in a sprawling but mellow talk that goes from usual movie and weed convo into the mysterious deaths of NASA's Black astronauts, Floyd's experiences with Melvin Van Peebles, and so much more.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E8
Baz Luhrmann's ELVIS is upon us, so it is now time for OMFYS' ELVIS EPISODE! First, Elvis Presley himself is a karate-chopping, motorcycle-riding, rock and roll rebel with a big chip on his shoulder who falls in with a traveling carnival in ROUSTABOUT (1964).
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E7
Special guest Justin Wiese of Torn Light Records and the Esquire Theatre in Cincinnati joins us as we go DARK AF. We begin with the inescapable fatalism of director Edgar Ulmer's film noir classic DETOUR from 1945 where Tom Neal as sadsack Al Roberts is thrust into a tragedy of errors as he thumbs a ride across the country. Just when things couldn't get any worse, they do when he hooks up with Ann Savage as Vera, the venom-spitting queen cobra of all film noir.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E6
Godzilla and Ray Harryhausen! We've got dudes in rubber suits AND stop-motion animation going on. We're taking a break from the trippy Euro art films we've been featuring on OMFYS lately and going back to basics with some goddamned MONSTER MOVIES! First up, we have 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957) from special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E5
Sex vampires! Demonic possession! The burning of heretics! Sexual awakenings! Polecats! They're all right here in a pair of full color fantasias from Europe. First, young Valerie (Jaroslava Schallerová) finds her journey into womanhood fraught with grotesque vampires, pervy priests and vicious polecats in the Czech new wave weirdness of Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970).
OMFYS S1E4 Georges Melies and The Red Shoes (1948) on Apple Podcasts
OMFYS goes back to the beginning of cinema itself for The Infernal Cauldron (1903) and The Old Hag AKA The Witch (1906), a pair of trippy AF shorts directed by Georges Méliès, the French who invented special effects and directed the first sci-fi film. We follow this up with a deep discussion of the equally hallucinatory technicolor madness of The Red Shoes from the esteemed filmmaking duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in 1948.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: Episode 2
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Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E2
Horror icon Vincent Price getting wigged out on heavy narcotics was once a thing--at least in a few of his movies--and we have two of them here in our second episode of Old Movies for Young Stoners. First, there's Dragonwyck--a haunting gothic romance from 1946 where Price hides in an attic and tokes opium to escape from the sounds of a ghostly harpsichord that plays in his family estate.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E1 - Mid-20th Century Bummers with The Misfits (61) & The Intruder (62) on Apple Podcasts
For episode one, Bob, Cory and Greg recommend what kind of weed to smoke with The Misfits (1961)--the tragic last film for Hollywood legends Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe--and The Intruder (1962), a jarring film from Roger Corman with a young William Shatner spouting horrible, racist bile that even the Mirror Universe Kirk wouldn't dare say. If you're following at home, The Misfits is streaming on Prime and Kanopy and The Intruder is streaming on Kanopy.
Old Movies For Young Stoners: S1E1
For episode one, Bob, Cory and Greg recommend what kind of weed to smoke with The Misfits (1961)--the tragic last film for Hollywood legends Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe--and The Intruder (1962), a jarring film from Roger Corman with a young William Shatner spouting horrible, racist bile that even the Mirror Universe Kirk wouldn't dare say. If you're following at home, The Misfits is streaming on Prime and Kanopy and The Intruder is streaming on Kanopy.
Bulldog's Bookshelf: Beer, Blood & Cornmeal
There's an old comedy adage that cancer is never funny. ISW did nothing to change that. The match began with N.A.M.B.L.A. groping The Chemo Kid. Chemo stood there and cried like a lost little child. The crowd around the ring stood slack jawed. I heard people in the audience say "Somebody help that kid - please!" I turned to the fans to taunt them. I was going to shout something really tasteful like "I'm gonna f*ck you 'til your bones crack!" But then I saw them.
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