The Midnight Citizen

Join me on another trip to Quincy, IL, where I walk along the waterfront of the Mississippi River and loiter in the parking lot of the posh local boating club. Later, I sit on the back porch of a shuttered bar close to my hotel and reflect on anything and whatever. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released August 2026 on The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike in the midwest -- first in a vacant lot overlooking the Mississippi River at dusk, and later on a walk around the famous arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

Join Mike on whiskey alley.

Join Mike outside for some thoughts about (and inspired by) the 1970s revenge classic.

Join Mike on the hot southern porch for a chat about the '96 classic...and some other new business...

On a humid Christmas night in Birmingham, AL, join me for a drink as I mull over Kubrick's last movie "Eyes Wide Shut" -- the weirdo plot, theories old and new, and why nobody liked it when it came out...even though I processed countless late fees for the VHS when I worked at Blockbuster back in the day.

Join Mike in the studio for the last time…maybe?After 15 years and 300 shows, it all ends tonight. Bring out your drink of choice and make a toast with me as I say goodbye to this weird, wonderful podcast that’s been, altogether, not a bad way to document all the ups and downs of a random guy’s life in this world.Hear all about the show’s origins, the various stops-and-starts along the way, and, in the true spirit of randomness that The Midnight Citizen’s all about, take some hard digressions with me into an exploration of a wide variety of topics, including the surprising thing Filmmaker Kevin Smith and OC Bomber Timothy McVeigh have in common, pre-Star Wars George Lucas movies, fertility clinic waiting rooms, and a lot more!This is a jam-packed final episode that I prepared for very little and recorded LIVE, so anything could…and did…happen, like the cat unplugging the mic and camera for a little minute, and two surprise, special guests who dropped in like I was doing a 70’s Television Special!Music Break: “Carry Your Own Weight” by Forget the Whale (CC-BY-NC-ND) | “Hung Over” by The Crevulators (CC-BY-NC)Video Street Video Store: “Acting Class for Commercials” (1988) -- Watch Fight Back [Youtube] | “A Seductive Hollywood Scam” (1991) -- Watch Fight Back [Youtube]Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast.. You can also watch over on Youtube!…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! “I was one of the authors of the Port Huron Statement. The original Port Huron Statement. Not the compromised second draft.”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released November 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

After seeing "THE FRENCH CONNECTION" at the Sidewalk Cinema, I take a walk in downtown Birmingham, AL. Join me as I give some thoughts on the movie (eventually), and stumble into a basement bar that's all done-up to look like Edgar Allan Poe.Remember that the FINAL EPISODE of The Midnight Citizen is this Saturday, November 22. Join me LIVE in the studio @ 11 CST at youtube.com/@the_midnightcitizenpodcast.

While waiting for the store to open, I sit in my car and talk about the movie I saw last night, "Eddington". (No spoilers)Join me in the studio this Saturday, November 22 for the FINAL EPISODE of The Midnight Citizen -- LIVE @ 11 CST at youtube.com/@the_midnightcitizenpodcast.

After a long day of grading papers and driving for dollars, I crashed out on Saturday night and slept right through my scheduled live show. But no worries, join me in the car on Sunday morning as I deliver food to the good, hung-over people of Birmingham, AL.Later that night, sit with me outside to celebrate the milestone of what I'm choosing to believe those thousands of screaming, cigar-puffing folks were cheering on in Tuscaloosa on Saturday Night. That's right, I finally finished “Gravity's Rainbow”! — a book it took me 12 years - and just as many tries - to finish. I give you (what I'm sure won't be) my final thoughts on the novel.Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! “Smoke em’ if you got em’!”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released October 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike in the studio late on a Saturday night.Tonight, we continue the countdown to Episode 300 — the series finale of The Midnight Citizen. Although, after tonight’s show, I’m not sure I’ll make it that long — this after a FREAK SCARE about an hour into it, when my whiskey toast to Diane Keaton was cut short by a ghoulish face outside the studio, staring in at me. Can Halloween be over? Please?Music Break: “Get Me a Job” by The Riptones (CC-BY-NC-ND) | “Debris” by Greg Cartwright (CC-BY-NC)Video Street Video Store: “What’s Happening, Mr. Silver?” (1967) — David Hoffman (Youtube) | “The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t” (1979) — The Museum of Classic Chicago Television (Youtube)🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🎥 You can also watch over on Spotify and on the Youtube page | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! “I am a Christmas Adventurer! I have a higher purpose!”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released October 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike in the studio late on a Saturday night.Tonight, we begin the countdown to the series finale of The Midnight Citizen show. It’s been a long, strange trip, but after 15 years, I’ve decided to close the curtains and throw up the “Closed” sign for good at episode 300. So, sit back, crack open your tasty beverage of choice, and enjoy these final four late-night rambles!Music Break: “Promised Paradise” by Emma Acs (CC-BY-NC-ND) | “How Good Can It Be” by XL Kings (CC-BY-NC)Video Street Video Store: “Dick Tracy: Behind the Badge” (segment) — Intermission Society (Youtube) | “Brady Bunch 1977 — Mike Douglas — Part 1” — BradyNut (Youtube)🎥Also, you can check out the video for this show below!⬇️⬇️⬇️ You can also watch over on Spotify and on the Youtube page | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! “Life, baby. LIFE!”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released October 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

After teaching class, I give you some quick thoughts on the new film, "One Battle After Another," and also discuss the final four episodes of The Midnight Citizen podcast, which begin this Saturday, October 4th -- LIVE @ 11 CST at youtube.com/@the_midnightcitizenpodcast.

Join Mike outside on a Friday night. This week, I’m sitting on the back porch of my folks’ house in suburban Birmingham, AL., gazing out into the serene channel of woods and darkness, wondering why my family chose to live here in the late summer of 1992. I guess I’ve never thought of it before, or, for that matter, why one of our neighbors, the heir to one of the state’s great Department Store fortunes, chose to build his dream house here back in the late 70’s — a dream house that was torn down a couple weeks back after Mr. Pizitz’s passing at 86.Have a drink with me while I tell you what I know of my former neighbor, a mysterious guy who was kind of like the neighborhood Howard Hughes — aloof and reclusive, but who had a lot to do with the shape and character of Birmingham in the 70’s and 80’s. Content Warning: It’s not my intention in this episode to misrepresent Merritt Pizitz; everything I say is constructed from my own memory, local myth and conjecture, and the record. You can read the Bham Wiki article on him here. Later on in the night, I give you the latest on my never-ending quest for meaning (spoiler alert: I’m still searching…), and I break some important news about the future of The Midnight Citizen podcast…Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! “Clearly, doctor, you’ve never been a 13 year old girl.”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released August 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike outside on a Friday night.Hang out on the makeshift back patio with me while I reminisce on morning TV and what happened after that on those long hot days in the summer when you had nothing to do and all day to do it. Anyway, I was feeling real nostalgic today when I took a small break to take in a double feature — something I don’t get to do much these days when I’m driving for dollars and looking for more stable work. Later on in the night, I speculate on the identify of the mystery person who left an odd trinket on my podcast patio. My own personal Boo Radley? Or just some strange coincidence, as the artifact is, indeed, the facsimile of an old-time radio microphone.Also…an encounter I had this week with a real bad sport, and reviews-of-sorts of my Al Pacino double feature: Michael Mann’s The Insider (1999) and Sidney Lumet’s Serpico from 1973.🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! “They say if you love a man’s garden, you gotta love the man.”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released July 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike in the studio late on a Saturday night. Tonight, check your commie cynicism at the door and give yourself a little permission to be a proud Ameri-CAN on this 4th of July weekend. Go on, now — call a ceasefire on the whole “Us vs. Them” thing. Just watch yourself a little “Back Up, Terry” and I promise, it’ll all feel right as rain…Now that we’re all feeling appropriately patriotic, join me as I check in on the newest branch of the armed services, the United States Space Force. Who are they and what are they doin’ with all those golf ball antennas that look like Spaceship Earth?Anyway… Once the fireworks are over, I return to bein’ a mean old man, and try to get at what the cause of all this cynical ire in me — and maybe most of us — really is. Maybe it’s, like I’ve said before on the show, all this truth you learn that has no where to go if you don’t have kids. Existential indigestion? Or maybe it’s just the textbooks they gave us when we were kids ourselves — those that taught us that history was all in the past and everything these days is mostly a-O.K. Yeah, that’s probably it.Later… After I play you some music, I talk about small town crime and the Dixie Mafia, and one shocking murder that went down in Biloxi, Miss. in the 1980s. It inspired Edward Humes’s excellent book “Mississippi Mud”, which itself maybe even kicked off that whole sick, wonderful obsession we all have with True Crime.Also… Sad Juggalos, that great date movie “Operation Dumbo Drop”, and a toast to Michael Madsen, who passed this week at 67.Music Break: “It Won’t Be Too Long” by the Cut Worms (CC-BY-NC-ND) | “Automaton” by Vampire Lezbos (CC-BY-NC)Video Street Video Store: “Police Sting Nabs The Unsuspecting!” — Caught on Tape TV | “From the Archives: 1987 Hamilton Place Mall Opening” — WDEF News 12Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...You can listen to my conversation with Bob Lament on his show STATIC RADIO here: https://www.staticradio.com/2025/07/0……and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! “Sometimes I dance around the house in my underwear. Doesn’t make me Madonna.”Additional backing music for tonight’s show by Topher Mohr and Alex Elena, Ketsa, legacyAlli, BFCMusic (“Soulmate Strings”, CC-BY, Free Music Archive), Mr. Smith (“Slingshot”, CC-BY, Free Music Archive).This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released July 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike in the studio late at night.Tonight, to kick off 4th of July week, I bring to you some quotes from a barrage of great American patriots — George Washington, Justice Potter Stewart, Missile Command Champ and former Playgirl Centerfold Roy “Mr. Awesome” Schildt. From there, we get onto the idea of “underground” postal systems, which Thomas Pynchon talks about in his Crying of Lot 49, and how the Internet was kind of a natural successor to the Trystero system…until it got infiltrated by, among other sinister agents, your mom.Music Break:“Morning, Noon, and Nite” by Daddy Long Legs (CC-BY-NC-ND)“Nature Boy” by Harpo (CC-BY-NC)🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Video Street Video Store:“Mr. Awesome — Roy Shildt”“Waffle House Training — Harassment”🎥Check out the video for this show over on Spotify and Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”True pornography is given to us by vastly patient professionals.”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released June 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike in the studio late (and LIVE!) on a stormy Saturday night…Tonight, on the eve of Fathers’ Day, and in the absence of having kids of my own, I pass onto you some sage advice handed down to me by my dad…or maybe it was the funny coach from Teen Wolf:“Never get less than 12 hours sleep…never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city……and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body.”Actually, I ignored an important “dad” rule this week that the darker the restaurant, the bigger the bill. But whatever, I was decompressing from a long 2 weeks of teaching a playwriting summer camp and, dammit, I earned the right to fork over nearly a tenth of my paycheck on a small plate and an Old Fashioned. Anyway, the second week of Camp was smashing. I taught the kids how to write plays using tried-and-true methods for creating conflict given to us by that Sylvester Stallone arm wrestling trucker movie Over the Top. It all went real well, which I know because the kids wrote a song about throwing me down a well. (Don’t ask, you just have to listen to the show and it’ll all make sense.)Later… The job hunt continues…poorly. I kind of lose it on this episode when it dawns on me that Nazi Scientists were able to get gainful employment so quickly after Nuremburg…yet I continue to go unemployed. Honestly, it’s getting real desperate these days — like posting-on-LinkedIn and attending “Networking Events” desperate. I even emailed back a podcast spammer to ask if he had any jobs going.Well, enough of that… After I play you some music, I invite you to take a toast with me to Brian Wilson, who passed this week at 82. Kick on back in the proverbial sand as we remember the great creative genius, his fraught relationship with the jolly Svengali Dr. Landy, and the woman who saved him — all depicted in the excellent, underrated film Love and Mercy (2015). Along the way, we’ll enjoy some memorable television moments with Brian and his late brothers…and, yeah, even Mike Love.And finally… We take a look at Sammy’s Gentlemen’s Club, the infamous house of ill repute in the button-down Birmingham suburbs, that closed last year after the dancer’s united over unfair tipping practices…and will soon be holding its grand reopening as something called “The Pony Lounge” …Oo-la-la… I wonder if they’re hiring.Also… “Friday the 13th”, more on how Gen X and Millennials grew up to be kids, and my pitch for a new TV Special “Kids Say The Most Racist Things”. Music Break“Belmont Jail Song” by Crete Boom (CC-BY-NC-ND) “When You’re Gone” by Bombay Laughing Club (CC-BY-NC)🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Video Street Video Store“Tom Savini on ‘Friday the 13th’ 1 & 4”The Beach Boys on ‘Good Morning America!’ (early 1980s)🎥This was one jam-packed show that was recorded live before an Internet audience. You can watch the whole thing on Spotify and also over at Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”You stick to that and everything else is cream cheese.”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released June 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

🗨️Listen and rate the show on Spotify! 🟢ᯤJoin Mike in the studio late on a Saturday night. Tonight, I’m wondering why my generation has gotten such a bad rap for so long. Is it really just our love for Avocado toast, or something much deeper? Maybe we’re all looked down on because all the 80s and 90s pop culture we’re so nostalgic for was kind of vapid and banal, or it’s simply the fact that we never claimed to not wanna sell out? Whatever it is, we’re tired of taking it, and I dedicate a large portion of this episode to my kid sister, born in ‘84, who went viral recently for turning her middle school history classroom into a “Museum of the Millennial”, making the case that we did have a unique culture that, like so many generations before us, is totally antiquated and wholly mysterious to the kids of today.You can check out my sister’s “Museum of the Millennial” on Instagram (@hipsterhistorywithmrsn)… Also, here’s the article that Fast Company did on Malinda’s amazing lesson! Later on… I play some music before I tell you about the new movie I saw — Friendship, starring I Think You Should Leave's Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd (who has a mustache in this one, which means it's kind of artsy — but not really; it's just darkly funny and demented in a very non-mainstream way). Anyway, I give a sort of review with no spoilers, but mostly talk about what the movie has to say about adult men, loneliness, and also the whole “A24” thing…And lastly… I relate the particulars of my latest existential crisis — this one happening over paying too much for a donut at the Circle K. Kind of dramatic, I know. But really… Why are we all so cool to live in a world where a day old donut costs the same as a gallon of gas? The answer, I guess, lies in the work of post-war Critical Theory and that ultimate Debbie Downer, Michel Foucault.Music Break: “The 80s” by Sean Ferree (CC-NY-NC-ND) | “Hey Lowdown” by Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys (CC-BY-NC)🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🎥Watch Video of this episode over at Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”I buy all my clothes from the Oceanview Dining Club. They also make food.”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released June 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

🗨️Be sure to rate the show and leave a comment if you can! It really helps the show!🟢ᯤJoin Mike in the studio late at night.Tonight, a real experimental episode as we cross over into June, and I do my first live show in over 2 years! Of course, you’re downloading it, but still… Witness the drama as I attempt to engineer a livestream while clumsily monologuing about bullies, 90s self-help videos for kids hosted by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Teddy Roosevelt, and memes from World War II featuring Kilroy, the perpetual schlemiel of late 20th century pop culture. You know the drawing — I didn’t until yesterday, but everybody else I talk to seems to...Later, I drink a toast to Loretta Swit, “Hot Lips” Houlihan on “M*A*S*H”, who died this week at 87… and two more toasts to other recently passed folks George Wendt and Simpsons composer Alf Clausen leaves me a little too flighty to talk about Thomas Pynchon’s first novel V…but I do it anyway. Also... 📻🎵🎧We’re bringing MUSIC BREAKS back to the show! Tonight, enjoy a back-to-back serving of music by Caühaüs and our favorite band from New Jersey, Forget the Whale!“Rednecks with White Faces” by Caühaüs (CC-BY) Slow Dancing with Your Ghost” (CC-BY-NC)But Wait! There's More! 📼🎥📺I’m excited to take you back down to the Video Street Video Store, where we’ll check out a double feature of tapes on how to get a date in the 90’s!“Looking for Love: Dating in the 90’s!” (1995) “Computer Chronicles: Cyber Dating” (1997)🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🎥Watch Video of this episode over at Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”Kiss my Hot Lips!”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released June 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

🗨️Don’t be shy! Leave a comment, tell me what you think! Listen and rate the show on Spotify! 🟢ᯤJoin Mike in the studio late at night. After fighting a long, drawn-out battle to some stubborn window blinds, I give in and just get on with the show. Starting with listener comments about their absolute worst job interviews. Then an update on my continuing job hunt gets me thinking about how my lifestyle lately is fitting for these palindrome days of May — the same forwards and backwards: ☕Drinking coffee, job hunting, delivering food, job hunting, drinking coffee. ☕Also: thoughts on the new “Mission: Impossible” (Spoiler-free because the plot’s too complicated to spoil)…and how my dad and I came close to being pariahs in the theater for ratting out a lady and her granddaughter.Then we wrap up the show by watching an instructional video telling us all how to talk cool in the 90’s, and read some more listener comments about Tetraphobia. A true palindrome experience. Sit back and listen with your favorite after dark drink — but be careful not to get bucked, y’all! 🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🎥Watch Video of this episode over at Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”Kittridge, you’ve never seen me very upset…”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released May 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike back in the studio on a Saturday night. This week: some audience participation! What was your worst job interview ever? For me, it was that time I got detained for peddling coupon books in a federal building. I should’ve done more to heed the number 4, a bad sign for good fortune. The interviews lately haven’t been that bad on my most recent run of unemployment. I mean, there’s no job yet, but at least no police have been called. Meanwhile, I keep on yo-yoing around town, delivering food for food, and doing the best at it I can, despite, well… Let’s just say that when you make house calls, ordinary customers are not ordinary people.Also, thanks to audience participation, I find a likely answer to why there’s no 4th floor at the university hospital. In true click bait fashion, it’s not what you think!🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🎥Watch Video of this episode over at Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”Night, Day? Don’t mean shit…”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released May 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike on a rainy night in the suburbs of Birmingham, AL, as he sits in his parents’ garage, freshly unemployed, and ponders the next big move.Really, instead of making any definite decisions, I get hung up on spotting “The Club” security bar on the steering wheel of somebody’s late model POS in a Walgreens parking lot — probably the first time I’ve seen one since the 90’s. Gets me thinking about why they stopped making them, or why they apparently still do, given their inherent security flaws — like, for instance, being ridiculously visible. Also, didn’t Heather Graham have a Club in that movie Swingers? I investigate. 🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🎥Watch Video of this episode over at Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”Breakfast anytime? I’ll have the pancakes in the Age of Enlightenment, then…”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released May 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike in the studio for another late night ramble. Tonight, we explore life after the rat race in Margaritaville, FLA, where a flock of 55-and-up Parrot Heads and coastal grandmothers are wastin’ away in an oasis by the sea. Also, Katy Perry and Gayle King go to space, and to all our chagrin, come back; meanwhile, back on Earth, I pay my taxes and cause a car accident, consider taking a job teaching homeschool for a Christian company that sounds like a soap opera, and check out the upcoming Thomas Pynchon novel, “Shadow Ticket”, which sends me further into the bottomless pit of trying to understand postmodernism. 🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🎥Watch Video of this episode over at Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! … "You got your Tony Lama's on/your jeans pressed tight/You take a few tokes make you feel alright/Rockin' and a rollin' on a Livingston Saturday Night”...This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released April 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike in the studio for another late night ramble. Tonight, it’s all about looking for a new business to get into, like maybe buyin’ a drone and selling my services as a “droneprenuer”. It seems to work for all those folks on Youtube infomercials, and as far as shady enterprise goes, it’s really no more sketchy than any other classified ad on LinkedIn.Later, I have a religious epiphany over a box of frozen ravioli, give my final thoughts on “The White Lotus”, and play you a clip of a white nationalist who sounds like Ned Flanders. It’s boss-diddly-oss! Check out my interview with Bob on StaticRadio.com!🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🎥Watch Video of this episode over at Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”I don’t wanna take a test…”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released April 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.

Join Mike in the studio late at night for a free-flowing ramble. On this episode, he recounts the Friday night scramble of his first job — racing to close down the dollar theater lobby in time to make it to the video store before they locked the gates. Thankfully, Christy, the night manager, would keep the lights on just a little longer, giving rise to their own unofficial after hours film society.Also: Irishing up my coffee to make a toast to Val Kilmer, browsing the classifieds again in my ongoing job search saga, and just when you thought Pulp Fiction had given up all its secrets... new theories emerge…Thanks for Listening to The Midnight Citizen! 🎧A New Podcast Every Saturday Night🎧🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🎥Watch Video of this episode over at Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”…my little black medical book!…”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released April 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! I’m all free and prolific ‘round these parts. So please share with your friends…and enemies if you wanna! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike in the studio late at night, where he recounts how he visited a place from his distant childhood this week — the atrium lobby of his dad’s old office building from the 80’s. Not having been there in nearly 40 years, he was prepared to receive nothing but warm, nostalgic vibes, but instead suffered the wrath of a hangry woman in scrubs. Later, I spend some time looking for a job in the jungle scam market of LinkedIn, check out the new trailer for “One Battle After Another,” ostensibly based on the Thomas Pynchon novel, “Vineland”, and consider buying Signal stock…now that it’s the official texting app of political perverts. Thanks for Listening to The Midnight Citizen! 🎧A New Podcast Every Saturday Night🎧🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🎥Watch Video this episode over at Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”These are the real people of the world.”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released March 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! I’m all free and prolific ‘round these parts. So please share with your friends…and enemies if you wanna! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike back in the studio late at night, where he goes for a long memory jog trying to remember what that Disney movie “The Shaggy DA” was about. He could just Google it, but doesn’t want to farm out his memory to the phone. It’s something we should all resist. Later, I ask if there’s a statute of limitations on synchronicity. I wonder this as I drink a toast to George Foreman, who died Friday at 76, a few hours after my mom asked me if I wanted a Lean, Mean Fat Grilling Machine she had lying around. Also: should I change the name of this show? I talk about why I picked THE MIDNIGHT CITIZEN as a title 15 years ago, standing in line at a Spirit of Halloween store after a car accident. And let’s talk about “The White Lotus”. Why are people dumping on Season 3? Thanks for Listening to The Midnight Citizen! 🎧A New Podcast Every Saturday Night🎧🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...🎥Watch Video this episode over at Youtube | @the_themidnightcitizenpodcast📼 Watch The Midnight Citizen Vlog every Monday here on the Substack. 📼 Also on Youtube | @the_midnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”Let’s go get sushi…and no pay!”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released March 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! I’m all free and prolific ‘round these parts. So please share with your friends…and enemies if you wanna! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike outside late at night, where he’s stunned to discover that they finally caught Jack the Ripper…like, a month ago. Isn’t anyone on the same news cycle anymore? Anyway, he’s devastated to learn that the truth of Saucy Jack’s real identity is much dumber than any theory has ever suggested, which reinforces his Rule for Life #2: Never Solve Your Mysteries. Also, other rules for life, like Never Meet Your Heroes and Never Do Again What You Did Well 40 Years Ago, as demonstrated by Lucille Ball in her last sitcom “Life With Lucy”, but hopefully, will perhaps not be shown in “Spinal Tap 2”. Thanks for Listening to The Midnight Citizen! 🎧A New Podcast Every Saturday Night🎧Sorry, folks, no video for this week’s show, but doesn’t Audio-Only make it more mysterious?🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...📼 Watch The Midnight Citizen Vlog every Monday here on the Substack. 📼 Also on Youtube | @the_midnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”People should be envying us…”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released March 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! I’m all free and prolific ‘round these parts. So please share with your friends…and enemies if you wanna! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike in the studio late at night, where he asks why he was such an a-hole to a nice young Mormon on his own turf. This snark-by-default has deep roots, perhaps, in growing up in the Southern Baptist MLM groove, where every interaction was a sales pitch, a chance to earn posthumous perks.Hear about what it was like growing up a Jesus Brat; how it was so hard to sell salvation in the South — a territory that had already been covered long before you got there. Also, why “cool” Jesus was another reason it was terrible to grow up in the 90’s, and how prayer protocol — or a lack thereof — continues to inflame my OCD to this very day, long after I stopped doing it.Thanks for Listening to The Midnight Citizen! 🎧A New Podcast Every Saturday Night🎧🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...📼 Watch The Midnight Citizen Vlog every Monday here on the Substack. 📼 Also on Youtube | @the_midnightcitizenpodcast…and be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”Ain’t nobody gonna call Jesus ‘Jean’…”Check out The Birmingham Pizza Review with me and Chad Bowers | Also all the other great hosts I know at The Overnightscape Underground | onsug.comMusic for Tonight's Episode: "The Stevie Shuffle" by Mr. Smith; "Beer Blues" by Koi Discovery | These two tracks were played under a Creative Commons License (Attribution, noncommercial, no derivatives) and are available at the Freemusicarchive.org. | All other backing tracks copy-freeThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released March 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! I’m all free and prolific ‘round these parts. So please share with your friends…and enemies if you wanna! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike in the studio on a Saturday night, recalling the combo-pigment of “caution” orange and “piss” yellow that made the school bus so special. Also, how do I know where JD Vance got his approach to foreign diplomacy? Because he grew up in my era, attending the same public schools that valued wrestling over civics. Speaking of bad education, we gotta get our kids out of this bad area — especially as the new SecEd Linda McMahon is invited to use the department as her own personal RAGE room.🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Watch The Midnight Citizen Vlog every Monday on YouTube and Substack! And be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”It’s come to my attention that you’re not paying attention to the way you space the cans…”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released March 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike in the studio late at night as he mulls over the optics of our new, modern chaos. Not to get too political, but if Satan wants to really torture us for all eternity, he’ll need to do some redecorating in hell. Also, why the movie Eyes Wide Shut (1999) is becoming more of a documentary; the secret currency of the rich explains why we all hate Valentine’s Day; and how AI has made us that old man at Wendy’s training his 16-year-old replacement.But some good news: The White Lotus is back on HBO, and Alabama has some of the best coffee in the world? Thanks for listening! I’m completely free here, so there’s no harm in, ya know…🎴Listen on Spotify and Apple Music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Watch The Midnight Citizen Vlog every Monday on YouTube and Substack! And be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”But I know that I do love you. And I know there’s one thing we should do very, very soon…”Please feel free to tell your friends and enemies! A new podcast drops here every Saturday night!This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released February 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike in the studio late on a Friday night, where he screams all his innermost thoughts, desires, and shame into the void of a social media platform…and no, it’s not Substack. Also, what is it with Substack? Why do they only show people what you do when you say nice things about them? More paranoia linked to the tech industrial complex. Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Watch The Midnight Citizen Vlog every Monday on YouTube and Substack! And be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”I’m building a birdhouse, g—dammit.”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released February 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike in the studio, where he recounts a tense haircut he recently had. Everything was fine until he suggested to the salon’s owner he install a barber pole out front to drum up new business. There was a deafening silence, and things went down hill from there. Also, petty tyrants go global, the U.S. hopes to establish a homeland for tourism, and Moe’s rebrands itself an “outlaw” in the Burrito space. Now go out there and get a little queso on your chin! “The Midnight Citizen” podcast drops every Saturday night, so be sure to, ya know…Watch The Midnight Citizen Vlog every Monday on YouTube and Substack! And be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”You’re a Meme Man? Speak English, boy!”***Listener Note: In this episode, I refer multiple times to Apple’s “Think Different” campaign of the 1990’s and early 2000’s as “Crash Different”. I don’t know why; I guess because it was so heavily satirized, most notably by my friend Hunter Cressell, who went viral for this video he made pre-YouTube.***This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released February 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike in the studio on a Friday night, just in from seeing “The Brutalist”, a 4-hour long movie about a guy who builds a community center. Hear his thoughts, and stick around for more thoughts on his favorite movie of the year, “Saturday Night”. Also, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” goes to Washington, and Birmingham’s citizens get invited to join a cult.Be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”Is there no better description of a cube than that of its construction?”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released January 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

The Midnight Citizen in the morning! Join Mike for a Cup and lots of topics, including a shallow dive into why the Virtual Boy failed in 1995. Was it’s release on January 6th the worst thing to happen on that day in America? Also, reviews of some recent movies “A Complete Unknown” and “Flight Risk”. Be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”That’s not an MP, it’s a YP.”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released January 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike for his first show of 2025. On a cold, dark night in the suburbs of Birmingham, AL, he sits under a broken heater, blowing breath into the lonesome abyss, those thoughts preserved for eternity, or as long as Substack and the Internet Archive exist…Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”You wanna shake hands with the devil? That’s fine with me — I just want to make sure that you do it in hell!”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released January 2025 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! This post is public so feel free to share it.Episode 273: Show Log/Behind-the-Scenes This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike on a sleepless night in Birmingham, AL, drinking coffee and talking into the early hours. “The Midnight Citizen” drops every Saturday night, so be sure to, ya know…Be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”You know why they made the sky so high? So the little birdies wouldn’t hit their heads…”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released August 2024 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground. Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Hey folks — I recorded a show in studio this week, and when I was listening back, I had a crazy weird tech difficulty that I’m still trying to figure out. While I do that, enjoy this ENCORE from 10 years ago — a visit to Nashville, Indiana to see Joe Bob Briggs, years before his triumphant comeback on Shudder. No way he would do an event so small in such an obscure place these days!!Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Show Notes: Mike is back from his Midwest trip! Topics include: Coca-cola “Mike” bottles urban legend; shark week; comedy central in the 90s; the secret to warding off sharks; field audio from Indiana including notes about the town of Nashville and the B Movie Festival; meeting MonsterVision host Joe Bob Briggs; thinking of moving some place else sometime soon; audio from Joe Bob’s introduction of midnight movie at festival, “Silent Night, Deadly Night”, and more!Music for this episode by Wade from the album “Midnight Soundz” (CC license, BY, NC, SA) and The Black Parrot (available on Jamendo.com; CC license, BY, NC).This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike United States License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released August 2014, on The Overnightscape Underground and The Midnight Citizen.Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike for coffee at night in the studio, and later for a cocktail outside on the patio.Topics this week include a lament on the university building where I had my first college class some years ago being demolished this week in a spectacular Las Vegas-style kind of violence; thoughts on why it’s important to temper our nostalgia, because nostalgia has led us down some uncertain and shady paths lately; reviews of two druggy movies I watched recently — “Requiem for a Dream” and “Trainspotting”; what is a drug?; heroine chic; the wild spirit of 90’s indie-filmmaking; drug trafficking in modern America and a book review of “Among the Bros” by Max Marshall, which is about that very thing, and much more!“The Midnight Citizen” drops every Saturday night, so be sure to, ya know…Be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”Well, I got a meeting out West!”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released August 2024 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.Thanks for reading Mike's Bonfire! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike for a morning cup o’ joe on the back patio, and later for a night drive and after-work drink. Topics this week include Alabama’s dumb education laws and how a recent one could hold back as many as 4,500+ 3rd graders in the state; a kind-of “Deadpool and Wolverine” review; the “Miami Vice” soundtrack makes you feel comfortably depressed; sketchy elevators and “LA Law”; the built-in exploitation of delivering for gig companies, and how you just accept it; the “hot” medium of radio and podcasting, and more! “The Midnight Citizen” is a free, non-commercial podcast. So be sure to, ya know…Be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”And where is the Batman? He’s at home — washin’ his tights!”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released August 2024 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground.Thank you for reading Mike's Bonfire. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike for a drink outside on a Friday night, as he recalls the legendary crime fighting ex-wrestler-turned-cop of Corinth, Mississippi Buford Pusser, and the long-standing rumor that he ran out of town one of Alabama’s longest-serving and most-revered mayors. Is it true or bull-scat? Also, who else is opting out of watching the Olympics in favor of spectating its ugly-but-more-entertaining stepsister, The World Games? Later, I discuss odd rainbow myths, Thomas Pynchon and Elmore Leonard, and yeah…ughhhh…politics. “The Midnight Citizen” is a free, non-commercial podcast. So be sure to, ya know…A new show drops every Saturday night!Be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”Leonard is the filet of the crime genre, you know…”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released July 2024 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

And hellooooooo, everybody! Time to go back down again to the VIDEO STREET VIDEO STORE — return some old tapes, check out some new ones. For the newbies — or, just as a reminder — this is a weekly anthology of all the random awesomeness that is our analog tradition. Enjoy, and if something moves you to, please leave a comment — or suggest a video for future shows! For these future episodes, as well as the big show I do on Saturday night, THE MIDNIGHT CITIZEN podcast, be sure to, ya know…Here’s what’s up this week…VIDEO #1 📼 “John Stossel Gets the Open-Hand Slap”After the assassination attempt on Donald Trump last week, and the outpouring of conspiratorial gossip that followed, I thought it’d be a good idea to revisit this notorious 20/20 segment from 1984. Here, wrestler Dr. David Schultz assures correspondent John Stossel — and the skeptical public at large — that there is no fakery in “professional” wrestling, demonstrating his truth by open-hand slapping Stossel across the face so hard that the reporter falls to the floor.Of course, it’s not that Shultz was proving himself; he was just tired of weenie elitists asking him the “standard” question, and he just lost his temper. Most of this segment focuses on demonstrations of wrestling stunts by Shultz’s former wrestling partner Eddie Mansfield. Mansfield, who had recently been blackballed by Vince McMahon and the WWF, shows Stossel a number of the tried-and-trued wrestling moves of the stars, and pretty much exposes the sport, which was having a golden age in 1984, as a high-end stunt show. One notable move Mansfield reveals is the concealed razorblade technique, the old trick that many conspiracy theorists believe Trump, 2013 WWE Hall of Fame Inductee, pulled last week when he held his hand up to his nicked ear and brought back a gushing amount of blood. Whether or not Trump actually incited this “secret” wrestling trick, he certainly proved that the old wrestling promoter’s mantra that “red turns to green” is as true now as it was back in ‘84. I mean, how much money did he raise last week?(Side note: While Stossel did, as he does now, have a very slap-able face, I do not condone violence in any form!)VIDEO #2 📼 “Fast Times at the Fantastic Food Factory”As Barry Levinson’s Diner (1982), Tin Men (1987) and pretty much any sitcom post-Happy Days and Alice will have you believe, the diner is a primo-American institution, a home base where we meet, eat, and scheme before going out into the chaotic world. Still, the goings-on behind-the-scenes of the typical American diner are rarely documented — unless you count all those Food Network shows where the hungry hipster storms through the kitchen like Kong and demands they feed him! In any case, I’ve been a fan of this short doc about the Fantastic Food Factory since I first saw it some 15 years ago. Because it’s made by amateur college students, it’s pretty rough and bare bones, but there’s also a charm factor here — a slice of late 70s Bostonian-life. The filmmakers, three college students at Boston U., are clearly fans of Direct Cinema, and therefore scrap any narrative devices that provide context. So it’s not clear why they were drawn to document the Triple-F for their senior thesis. But I have to think there were probably two main reasons:One. The wacky restauranteur stylings of David Greenstein, sort of a cross between an Old Towne soda fountain jerk and late night radio DJ, with the look and personality of Gene Shalit after he’s had too much ice cream.…and Two. The all-together normalcy of the diner, with a standard greasy spoon menu of burgers and sweets, but with the odd gimmick of porno on the side. As Greenstein proudly proclaims, “This is the only ice cream shop in town where you can get Penthouse, Hustler, and Gallery, and good food at the same time!” VIDEO #3 📼 “Can’t Stop the Madness”And finally, on the last episode of the VSVS, I featured a stalwart of the 80s video variety — a Satanic Panic short, one that was pure exploitation masked as “information,” chock-full of graphic images, bogus statistics, and a lot of finger-pointing in the wrong direction. This week, I give you another brother from the same video-mother, the anti-drug PSA — that b*****d stepchild of 80s neo-McCarthyism that emerged from the Reagan White House, thanks to first lady Nancy, who appears (briefly) at the end of “Stop the Madness”, bopping and dipping to the hip beat. (After Kid Rock performed at last week’s RNC, it’s fun to see that whitie Republicans can still get down after all these years!) Just like the Satanic Panic trend, this video and its endless spawn misinformed and misdirected, placing the blame on the black and ethnic street-pushers who sold the drugs rather on those who were supplying them in the first place. Of course, as we now know — and have known for a long-time — the drugs filtering into the U.S. since the mid-60s were made possible by the U.S.’s laissez-faire foreign policy toward drug-rich countries fighting communism. You’ve probably seen “Stop the Madness” before, but, if you’re like me, every time you go back to it you notice something new. This time watching it, for instance, I noticed that the teenage girl who buys drugs off the leisure-suit Larry living in her closet is none other than Claudia Wells, Marty’s girlfriend from Back to the Future. Also, Stacy Keech, who would be busted for cocaine possession shortly after filming his celebrity cameo in “Stop the Madness,” does a Hollywood first — community service before you actually commit a crime. Well, that’s it for this week’s VIDEO STREET VIDEO STORE! Again, be sure to, ya know…A new episode of the VSVS drops every Wednesday throughout the summer, and, of course, be sure to check out THE MIDNIGHT CITIZEN, your late night broadcast from Birmingham, AL, hosted by me, Mike Boody, every Saturday night. Keep your eyes open!Thank you for reading Mike's Bonfire. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

“The Midnight Citizen” is a free, non-commercial podcast. So be sure to, ya know…A new show drops every Saturday night!Be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”…”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released July 2024 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Hey folks — I wasn’t able to record a show this week. I’ll be back next Saturday night with an all-new studio show, but until then, enjoy this encore from April of 2017!Show Notes: Join Mike in the studio late at night, where he ponders the question: if a tree falls in a forest and no one takes a picture of it, does it make a sound? Also, a look at the new “It” trailer.“The Midnight Citizen” is a free, non-commercial podcast. So be sure to, ya know…Also: I got an idea for a movie; existential dilemmas of our times; if no one’s listening to my show, is it worth doing?; Disney World; “All That Jazz” (1979); bad finances; lighting a Midnight Citizen Tobacco Coffee candle; playing “Jeopardy” with Alexa; “Highlights for Children” magazine; a follow-up on favorite movies poll from last week’s show; Music Break; the new trailer for Stephen King’s “It” annoying “Can You Hear Me Now” guy switching teams; we need to stop the whole “mic drop” thing; a trip to the Video Street Video Store; Books-A-Million in 2003.*Music Break: “Subway Cameo” by Pete Lund; “Could It Be So Hard” by The Degs.**Video Street Video Store: “Apple in 1985” (1985).Backing music for tonight’s episode is the Midnight Cassette System (CCO 1.0 Universal, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike).Check out my buddy Josh’s web comic over at RGBros.com.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released April 2017 on The Midnight Citizen and The Overnightscape Underground.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released July 2024 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and April 2017 The Overnightscape Underground. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike on his latest mini-vacation, housesitting for his folks and throwing a steak on the grill. Hear about his latest run-afoul with his unfriendly neighborhood crime ring, and Watch some bits n’ pieces of “RoboCop” from ‘87, including the part where Kenny gets eviscerated by ED-209. Also, why is the crime boss Boddicker WAY scarier than that AI killing machine. Is it his glasses?Later, I review the latest book I’ve been reading — “Fletch” by Gregory Macdonald, and discuss — at length — the fraught reality show, “Project Greenlight”. “The Midnight Citizen” is a free, non-commercial podcast. So be sure to, ya know…Oh, and, also, pleaseA new show drops every Saturday night!Be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”Can somebody please call a paramedic!”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released July 2024 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

And hellooooooo, everybody! Time to go back down again to the VIDEO STREET VIDEO STORE. I’m a day late this week, but ya know what, the way my schedule’s working out lately, Wednesday may be a pretty good home for this show.For future episodes, as well as the big show I do, THE MIDNIGHT CITIZEN podcast, be sure to, ya know…A new podcast drops every Saturday night!Here’s what’s up this week…VIDEO 1 📼 SATAN IN MY VHS SOUPI’ve been wanting to include a Satanic Panic video on the VSVS for a while now, but just never could seem to find the perfect tape to sum up all the essential elements of that very strange time in American culture. Until now.“Satanic Cults and Ritual Crime” has everything you want in one of these tapes made for paranoid, suburban helicopter parents — or, what we just call today, “parents”: ✔️ A blame game of alleged “satanic” influences such as Dungeons & Dragons and heavy metal pushers like AC/DC and Slayer. ✔️ Homosexuality as a tell-tale sign your kid is a satanist, and that he’s lumped in with other practitioners of sinister perversions like beastliest and necrophiliacs. ✔️ Completely false and arbitrary statistics.This last checkmark is my favorite, as some of these numbers the video’s producers manage to pull out of their watertight plugholes are truly laughable. I mean, “There may be as many as 60,000 human sacrifices per year in this country.” Really. I guess it’s nice that they at least used the “may” modal…in the same way I might say, “There may be as many as 60,000 dogs with two ding-dongs walking among us at any given time.” By the way, Professor Al Carlyle of the Utah State Prison System and, later, Brigham Young University, who supplied this statistic and also told them that “Most lawbreakers engage in the occult” (he didn’t even bother with a stat there), died in 2018 after a long career studying serial killers like Ted Bundy. I typed into Google “professor al carlyle + utah + b******t” and nothing came up, so it seems like he and his reputation escaped the Satanic Panic unscathed, just as many so-called experts always do whenever neo-McCarthyism rears its ugly head in our culture. VIDEO 2 📼 THE MILLION DOLLAR VOICE OF DON LaFONTAINEMaybe it’s just me, but with each passing year, as mass media continues to devolve into a fractured jig-saw puzzle of micro-niche, it becomes more difficult to remember a time when only a few voice-over artists commanded our attention during television commercials. Even though many of us were out of the room between segments of Friends, Seinfeld, or whatever else, we could still hear these voices thunder through our living rooms and bounce around all corners of the house. Sure, they were annoying at times, but in a lot of ways, they also defined an era. I think back now and remember how these unseen actors were our gateway to the newest movies and TV shows. Before the Internet, and even later, when Internet advertising still came in a distant third behind television, radio, and movie trailers, they were the first people to tell us about something we oughta watch. The bulk of this Fox 11 spot from 2004 focuses on Don LaFontaine, who had risen to the top of the VO game with his ubiquitous and much-parodied “In a World” pitch. Ironically, the segment could actually be called an early eulogy to LaFontaine and the Movie Trailer VO industry. When LaFontaine died a few years later, in 2008, the job kind of went with him. A major reason for this is that LaFontaine kind of had a monopoly on the dramatic voice-over, and when he died, advertising was changing en masse. This is not to say, that we don’t still hear Voice-Over all over the place; we just hear less artists who have dedicated their lives to the craft. When we watch commercials now, for instance, we’re likely to hear celebrities with unmistakable voices, like Brian Cox as the current spokesman for McDonalds. VIDEO 3 📼 SAM PECKINPAH AT THE WORLD SERIES OF POKERAfter recently revisiting the 1971 fortress-defense classic Straw Dogs starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George, I’ve been looking up some old interviews with its director, Sam Peckinpah. Peckinpah, who made Dogs on the heels of his ultraviolent western The Wild Bunch (1969), became (and still remains) one of cinema’s most controversial directors with his depiction of unflinching violence. With such overt statements on violence and its inextricable connection to sex that these two films made, as well as his subsequent post-Hayes code bloodbaths like Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1975), Peckinpah was understandably restrained and stoic during the few interviews he gave. …Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to find this long, uncut sit-down with the director and a local TV host in Las Vegas, Nevada.The host, Dennis Hunt, comes across as an avid and curious fan of Peckinpah’s. Though Peckinpah appears reluctant to answer questions at first, Hunt smartly resists the temptation to fill much of the dead air that comes after he asks his questions, practically forcing his subject to expand on his initial stock answers. When Hunt queries him about Straw Dogs, for instance, and how he was able to create such an entertainment that gave the audience their money’s worth, Peckinpah goes from simply praising his producer to suddenly laying out his opinion of the “auteur theory,” which he calls nonsense, and that, to make a great picture, “I beg, borrow, and steal any kind of talent I can get.” Peckinpah also becomes quite uncensored about the cheap “former used car dealers” who had recently produced his last film The Osterman Weekend (1983), and how he is considering litigation against them for mangling the final cut of what would come to be regarded as his last, worst, and most forgotten film.This interview is probably Peckinpah’s last meeting with the press. A short while later, in December 1984, Peckinpah succumbed to the downward spiral into alcoholism and substance addiction that had consumed him in the last decade-or-so of his life. It’s also sad that Peckinpah is plugging in this interview the production of a film that would never be made, with or without him. Taping at the World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe Casino, Peckinpah appears here with Nick Behnan, son-in-law to the casino’s owner Benny Binion, to discuss a movie about Binion’s life, one that was fraught with greed, violence, and intrigue as he went from being a mob associate in Texas to suspected murderer to one of the young Las Vegas’s pioneering entrepreneurs. To date, this movie has never been made, but I can recommend to you the book that tells the whole story — one that, when the film hopefully does get made, they can base it on: Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion, the Texas Gangster Who Created Las Vegas Poker by Doug Swanson.Well, that’s it for this week’s VIDEO STREET VIDEO STORE! Again, be sure to, ya know…A new episode of the VSVS drops every Tuesday Wednesday throughout the summer, and, of course, be sure to check out THE MIDNIGHT CITIZEN, your late night broadcast from Birmingham, AL, hosted by me, Mike Boody, every Saturday night. Keep your eyes open!Thank you for reading Mike's Bonfire. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

On America’s birthday, Mike takes a few minutes to remember another historical milestone — the 20th anniversary of “Fred’s Oasis,” the low-budget, low-class exploitation film he made with some friends in college. Listen along as I recount its conception, production and aftermath, which lingers with me to this day, and forces me to ask that eternal question: am I right to be overwhelmed with shame?Watch “Fred’s Oasis” and you tell me!Also, I recount my disastrous history with fireworks, which may be the result of a genetic disorder, and review the new trash can from Target I bought my wife for her birthday.Music for this episode: “You Shake Me” by Stompin’ Riff Raffs; “Toxic Revenge” by Shannon and the Clams ***Backing Music: “The Stevie Shuffle Remix” and “Be Cool” by Mr. Smith; “Beer Blues” by Koi Discovery.Video Street Video Store: “Satanic Cults and Ritual Crime” (1990); “The Making of The Monster Plantation” (1981)Remember to check out bigger, longer episodes of the VIDEO STREET VIDEO STORE every Tuesday over at mikesbonfire.substack.com.…And be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”Base Up You Blockheads!.”Watch video of this week’s show over at the Youtube channel. Watch the pre-show below — an extra 15 minutes that includes my thoughts after watching Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F — This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released July 2024 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

And hellooooooo, everybody! Time to go back down again to the VIDEO STREET VIDEO STORE — return some old tapes and pick up some new ones. This week, we’re doing something a little new. To celebrate the 4th of July, we’re showing a whole television movie, which I think, will really get you in the mood to shoot off some fireworks and scare some shell-shocked vets. So sit back and enjoy! And if you’re new to this here Substack, feel free to go back and check out previous episodes of the VIDEO STREET VIDEO STORE, a regular feature that drops every Tuesday here at Mike’s Bonfire. For future episodes, as well as the big show I do, THE MIDNIGHT CITIZEN podcast, be sure to, ya know…A new podcast drops every Saturday night!Here’s what’s up this week…VIDEO 1 — DON’T GET CONNED BY THE MILE BUSTERSWith the 4th of July coming up, and all the sales that are going on its honor, it’s important to stay up-to-date on all the latest flims and flams of the used car salesman variety. That’s why we’re kicking it off this week with a 60 Minutes report from September 1991 about “mile busters,” the shifty folks who crack odometers and roll back the miles to inflate a car’s value. It’s funny that such mile busters were played for laughs in movies like Used Cars and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but correspondent Steve Croft is not laughing here at all! Croft’s main target in this piece is Bill Whitlow, “the heavy-set fellow in the Boss Hog hat,” an auto wholesaler who Croft says is “the granddaddy of the Houston Mile Busters.” After rolling back miles on cars he buys from trade-in lots, he’ll turn right around and flip that car to a different dealer. Theoretically, I guess he can then re-buy that same car he just sold, and do the same thing all over again until the car’s value is totally depleted. Not a bad racket.Of course, with the onset of digital odometers, it’s become ostensibly harder for Whitlow to mile-bust in the 21st century. Also, he’s most certainly dead by now, which makes it all the more difficult for him. Still, the grift goes on, and these days with much less hand shaking between the con and the mark. It’s odd that this piece makes me nostalgic for another time, when conmen still had to look you in the eye while they were screwing you. VIDEO 2 — JEAN SHEPHERD’S “THE GREAT AMERICAN 4th OF JULY…AND OTHER DISASTERS”A year before MGM released the film A Christmas Story, a blockbuster flop that would go onto become a pop culture phenomenon perhaps unlike any the world has ever known, writer and former radio host Jean Shepherd put together this small television movie based on some more of his humorous works he published in Playboy throughout the 60s and 70s.Now, if you’re a long-time listener to THE MIDNIGHT CITIZEN podcast, you’ll know that Jean Shepherd is pretty much the whole reason I began doing the show. I’ve admired the guy since before I even knew who he was, and my mom and I would watch another TV movie he did in the mid-80’s, Ollie Hopnoodle’s Haven of Bliss. I just loved the way he was able hone in on the timeless minutia of suburban life. As most of us go through our lives with no grand adventures to relate to fellow conquistadors down at the Explorer’s Club, Jean Shepherd was our fellow traveler in the mundane. And in “The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters,” which aired on public television in 1982 and is hosted, in-person, by Shep himself, we see that with just a little bit of creative writing, anyone — even the town drunk — can be immortalized as Gods of a Forgotten World. With his trademark hyperbole, Shep elevated the nondescript block of Cleveland Street in Depression-era Holman Indiana into something akin to the Roman Empire, and the “Old Man” into a Caesarian figurehead.For folks who have become cozy over the years with the pitch-perfect cast of Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story, it may be hard at first to get used to a whole different Parker family in this film — especially with the rosy-cheeked 10-year old Peter Billingsley swapped out for a teenage Matt Dillon. But I’d encourage you to put the classic Christmas flick outta your mind, just as the holiday itself is a distant memory when you’re lighting off cherry bombs and throwing them in the street. With this understood, a stand-out in this film is James Broderick — Matthew’s dad — as the Old Man. Like Darren McGavin in the 1983 classic, Broderick brings a similar sympathetic grumpiness to the role, but a different interpretation that is far more childlike, especially as he is raiding his brother’s fireworks stand.As a final note, see if you recognize that music that runs through this film. Can you put it together with another 4th of July summer classic? Well, that’s it for this week’s VIDEO STREET VIDEO STORE! Again, be sure to, ya know…A new episode of the VSVS drops every Tuesday throughout the summer, and, of course, be sure to check out THE MIDNIGHT CITIZEN, your late night broadcast from Birmingham, AL, hosted by me, Mike Boody, every Saturday night. Keep your eyes open!Thank you for reading Mike's Bonfire. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com

Join Mike on an epic excursion of summer slacking. After returning from a long delivery trip for Amazon that took him deep into the country and the town where he grew up, he sits out back and reflects on growing up in small town Alabama, and wonders what might have happened if he’d stayed there. Prison maybe? The next day, I venture out into the world to work, but end up at the mall drinking coffee and playing pinball, then go hunting for discounted movies from the Criterion Collection. Be sure to join the Facebook page and find me on Instagram! …”My little black medical book!”This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike US License. Attribution by Mike Boody. Released June 2024 on mikesbonfire.substack.com and The Overnightscape Underground. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikesbonfire.substack.com