Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: So Bad the Quakers Riot

In the latest episode of our hyper-compressed podcast, Ken and I talk tone, Fomenko's chronology, banished phrases and John Murray Spear.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Regional Resentments of Canadian Mollusks

In the latest episode of our ENnie-winning podcast, Ken and I talk headline ripping, Igor Gouzenko, heroic surveyors and George Hunt Williamson.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Covered in Cats and Croissant Crumbs

In the latest episode of their ENnie-winning podcast, Ken and Robin talk Henry IV's head, PC believability, Gerard Encausse and Andre Breton.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Don't Read Books

In the latest episode of our ENnie-winning podcast, Ken and I talk chasing story, Chicago film fest, opening scenes and centuries of darkness.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Live from Gen Con 2014

In this week's very special episode, Ken and I talk live from Gen Con!

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Francis Peameal Bacon

In the latest episode of our ENnie-winning podcast, Ken and I talk obstacle anatomy, Dracula's castles, floppy civilization and the Oak Island Holy Grail.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: The Simpering Bridegroom

In the latest episode of our windswept podcast, Ken and I talk St. John's, spotty attendance, The Castle of Otranto and Ed & Lorraine Warren.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Those Punk Magicians Killed My Elephant

In the latest episode of our top-hatted podcast, Ken and I talk voice work, mob magicians, prehistoric drinking and Franz Anton Mesmer.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Chekov’s Squid Throwing

In the latest episode of our entangling podcast, Ken and I talk monster ability awareness, stolen passports, William S. Burroughs and the Mary Celeste.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Hunker in the Bunker

In the latest episode of our shimmering podcast, Ken and I talk character hooks, hit men, tropes vs. cliches and the djinn menace.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: You Suck as a Depicter of Matriarchies

In the latest episode of our crab-clawed podcast, Ken and I talk character build modes, abandoned ideas, fun-killing knowledge and the Pascagoula UFO abduction.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: My Feelings About Hatchets Have Completely Changed

In the latest episode of our briskly efficient podcast, Ken and I talk RPG languages, summer movies, Q&A lightning round and the Kazahkstan pentagram.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: No One Likes a Blood Frenzy

In the latest episode of our high-flying podcast, Ken and I talk true place names, fictional stakes, iconic conflicts and Nazi UFOs.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Ring-Tailed and Fructivorous

In the latest episode of our spectacularly suboceanic podast, Ken and I talk sandbox v. railroad, mini-games, lost continents and the wartime disinformation activities of thriller writer Dennis Wheatley.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Within the Eliptonic Radius

In the latest episode of our eponymous podcast, Ken and I talk setting exposition, filmland shadows, replacing Stalin, and the Martian ground squirrel.

All the Investigative Men

Rewatching Zodiac recently, I was struck by the desire to see David Fincher similarly tackle the Mothman incidents of 1966-1967. This is no swipe at Mark Pellington’s The Mothman Prophecies, which I quite like for the way it evokes the enveloping paranoia of paranormal inquiry. It does, however, impose a cinematic structure and sense of resolution on a series of bizarre incidents distinctive for their lack of either quality. Zodiac, however, stands as a masterpiece of negative capability, focusing as it does on a mystery that seems explicable but always tantalizingly out of reach.

I then happened to move onto the underrated Breach, the 2007 film about the apprehension of FBI mole Robert Hanssen. Although investigation occurs in the background, the dramatic action focuses on the relationship between Hanssen (Chris Cooper, in a brilliant performance) and the young agent assigned to get close to him by acting as his assistant.

The two movies share a stylistic touchstone: All the President’s Men, the classic recreation of the Woodward and Bernstein investigation into the Watergate break-in. Zodiac even employs its composer, David Shire. Alan J. Pakula’s brilliant direction wrings incredible suspense out of simple phone calls, in the heroes press reluctant witnesses to cough up essential scraps of information.

Throughout the film, we see Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, as the two protagonists, use a full range of GUMSHOE-esque interpersonal investigative abilities. Like Mutant City Blues or Ashen Stars characters, who must not only figure out what’s going on but be able to prove it, they have to confirm what they know by wringing confirmations from multiple sources. We see them use Flattery, Flirting, Bureaucracy, Inspiration, Reassurance, and even a touch of Intimidation. Bullshit Detector comes out as official denials are issued. They also use social discomfort to get information out of people. By simply refusing to take no for an answer, or to do the polite thing and go away, they exert a subtle pressure on their sources, one distinct from real Intimidation. A journalism-focused GUMSHOE iteration might add this as a new interpersonal ability—perhaps called something like Journalistic Chutzpah.

Link Round-Up: Repairer Reviewed, Santeria Smear, Detective Dee

The Repairer of Reputations scores a gratifying review at RPGnet.

Mirror appliques on mayoral campaign signs prompt Santeria smear.

Tsui Hark's delirious return to wuxia form, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, starts its limited US theatrical run tomorrow. One of my faves from last year's TIFF. Reindeer fu!

Link Round-Up: Alien Big Rodent, Videodrome Weaponry

‎"The capybara is not a threat, just weird-looking."

MEAT GUNS!!