CULTURE | DIGEST
Get Riffed
T FIXING PEE PROBLEMS The first big problem I faced in Oxygen Not Included, a charmingly rendered, impossibly hard spacebasebuilding game, was pee on the floor. (That’s what happens when you wait too long to unclog the outhouse.) So I had my little space-faring adventurers mop up the urine. But that left Culligan bottles of urine sitting around. How to get rid of a dozen bottles of pee? That took setting my dudes to research technology to build a supercomputer advanced enough to research the design to create a water filtration system, and then wiring it up to my coal-powered generator. But you couldn’t just dump the water into the filter — you needed to pipe it in. So that meant building an ad-hoc swimming pool to collect urine, sticking a water pump in the mess, piping up the pee to the filtration system. And that’s all! (DANIEL WALTERS)
BY QUINN WELSCH
he original crew of the Satellite of Love is still kickin’, and with age they’ve only gotten better. Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy Mystery Science Theater 3,000 got a reboot. But no one beats legendary movie riffers Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. As you may know, after MST3K ended, the original crew continued movie riffing with RiffTrax, and this summer they’ve come up with some real winners. Their next live show is The Giant Spider Invasion on Aug. 15, broadcast around the country. Below are a few of my favorites from the OG riffers: DEADLY PREY (1987) A suburban dude is kidnapped by a mercenary company in the dense jungles of the Los Angeles metro area (I know) so he can be used as bait for training. Unbeknownst to them, he’s a deadly former mercenary himself. Spokane fans will be pleased to know that the Lilac City gets a shoutout in this riff. What gets riffed: Oily pecs, inept villains, ’80s misogyny, “DANTON!!?!!” NORMAN GIVES A SPEECH (1989) The producers of this short film want you to know that life… well… life is just goddamn miserable for one man in particular. His name is Norman Krasner. Nothing goes
THE BUZZ BIN his way and everyone hates him, and rightly so. At least that’s the main point I took from this film. What gets riffed: The utter futility of mankind.
BACK TO BUNDYVILLE I’ll admit, I was surprised that Bundyville was getting a second season. But I was hooked after the first episode, and you’ll see why once you give it a listen. Former Inlander staffer Leah Sottile is back on the militia/anti-government/ patriot beat, this time following a bombing in a small Nevada town in 2016 that is seemingly connected to the Malheur standoff. At one point, Sottile questions a conspiratorial former militia leader in Utah about racial bias and the exchange is *Italian chef kiss* bellissimo! (QUINN WELSCH)
12 Yup, 2019 marks Terrain’s last year as a pre-teen, and the call for artists working in all genres for the juried annual Spokane art extravaganza is now live. Creative types, head on over to terrainspokane.com/terrain for the lowdown on getting your work in the Oct. 3-4 showcase. (DAN NAILEN)
REPLICA (2005) I almost feel bad laughing at this movie. This movie looks like it’s comprised entirely of cutscenes from a PlayStation game. There’s a lot of bad things about Replica, but the stiff, clumsy dialogue is the worst. What gets riffed: Valley girls, endless driving, obvious green screens.
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST Some noteworthy new music arrives online and in stores Aug. 9. To wit: SLIPKNOT, We Are Not Your Kind. Thanks, guys, I kind of knew that when I saw the scary masks. RA RA RIOT, Superbloom. New record label, same tasty indie-rock from these upstate New Yorkers. THE REGRETTES, How Do You Love? If their “I Dare You” single is any indication, this power-pop crew deserves your attention for their new one. (DAN NAILEN)
RETRO PUPPET MASTER (1999) Greg Sestero of The Room fame “stars” in this Puppet Master origin story. A sorcerer bequeaths his powers to a young puppeteer. Mummies try to kill him. He must rescue a damsel in distress. What gets riffed: Greg, “mummy magic.” FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND (1981) If you enjoy movies with multiple unrelated threads, nameless protagonists and zero plot, this is a movie for you. Hot-air balloonists crash land on an island populated by beautiful women. Also, Frankenstein is somehow involved? What gets riffed: Apparitions of John Carradine, brain jars, leopard bikinis. n RiffTrax: The Giant Spider Invasion • Thu, Aug. 15 and Tue, Aug. 20 at 8 pm • $12.50 • NorthTown Mall, Spokane, and Regal Riverstone, Coeur d’Alene • fathomevents.com
STRANGE BUT TRUE Bizarre and grippingly true historical stories about the spies and scientists who sabotaged the Nazi atomic bomb make up Sam Kean’s The Bastard Brigade. The book’s principle actors include a Major League Baseball player-turned-American spy in Nazi-occupied Europe, scientists who published sensitive research leading to atomic weapons out of a commitment to free research, an American government without a civilian spy service because “gentlemen don’t read each other’s mail,” and a Kennedy dedicated to military glory at any cost, among others. Kean interweaves these stories into an exciting and complex narrative that combines the dread of the atomic bomb with the thrill of espionage. (JACKSON ELLIOTT)
AUGUST 8, 2019 INLANDER 35
