EMERGENCY IN LIEU OF A REGULAR ISSUE, KIDDOS! Clear all frequencies! Sound all alarms! Re-watch Spider-Man 3!Oh I am just so angry!!!

In Lieu Of

ILOARI | JUST SAY NO to Sam Raimi Directing DOCTOR STRANGE 2

Greetings, fellow mutants & gifted youngsters!Follow your telepathic guide with a heart of adamantium, Dixby Karavaggio, as he revisits one of his favorite (and frankly BEST) animated series of the 90s: the one-and-only X-Men: The Animated Series. How audacious was this show's first season? There's only one way to find out, kiddos!SNIKT! SNIKT!

ILOARI | The Audacity of X-Men: The Animated Series' First Season

Like the first light on the fifth day, In Lieu Of comes ROARING BACK into your lives, kiddos, with the conclusion to VOLUME I: CULTURED FEAR.   It has been a minute so remind me... what are we talking about today again? Could it be that little-known indie comic from the mid-80s by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird? Their series had a limited run, was marginally successful, developed a small, cult following, rihgt? It’ll come to me. Just give me a sec.............   GOD I WANTED TO BE A TURTLE!!!!!!... when this movie came out. Today’s issue features a rare example of a film adaptation of a kids’ cartoon that holds up better than the cartoon it’s adapting. We remember the pizza, the sewer lair, the fight scenes, the totally radical catchphrases. But this is In Lieu Of, which means be prepared to have one of your childhood favorites dissected for what may be not-so-pleasant, like the fears of youth gang violence and child exploitation that underlies much of the film’s plot. Bossanova! Chevy Nova?   In lieu of the growing window into the scary realities of urban life and the growing concerns over the youth of the nation in the early 90s, how did we get The Shredder’s delinquent army in 1990’s live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie?   Volume I, Issue 5. And have YOU no one to go to, kiddos?

VOL. I | Iss. 5, “This is Your Family, I am Your Father”

How goes it, kiddos!?   We’re trying something new this time. But instead of droning on and on in this description box, why don’t you just check out what we’ve put out this week.   (Listen for the part where Dix freaks out over A FOURTH THOR MOVIE. He doesn’t take the news... quietly.)  

Prestalgia News | Joker, Obi-Wan, and Four Thors

Hello, kiddos!   In lieu of a regular issue, Dixby ponders Jack Crawford's indifference towards seemingly everything and everyone in the world (his indifference being on full display in the award-winning film, The Silence of the Lambs).   Snack on this shorter audio delight whilst we prepare a fully-baked (and ALWAYS high in fiber) issue of In Lieu Of... COMING SOON!

ILOARI | The Silence of the Guru; or, Crawford's Indifference & Dixby's Ambivalence

Salutations and consolations, old chums! It’s-a-me, Dixby Karavaggio. Join me, won't you, kiddos, as we reenter the hallowed year of 1991!   In this issue we’re gonna collect as many rings and keep as many chaos emeralds away from Dr. Robotnik as we can, all while avoiding sharp objects, drowning, and Robotnik’s Badniks, those animal slaves powering fiendish, robotic exoskeletons. I’m talking about the most famous hedgehog to lace up a pair of running shoes, to enjoy his own mega-lucrative video game franchise, and to hide his shame as Hollywood tries to make him a film star.   With its 1991 release Sonic the Hedgehog changed video games forever. But in this game, as in this issue, rings and extra lives aren’t the only things at stake. What about the animals, captured and forced into serving Robotnik’s diabolical schemes? Yeah, I wanna talk about them.   The manipulation of animals in service to the advancement of human medicine, science, body transformation, and education is a long, global, fascinating history. So why am I looking to a 30-year-old 16-bit video game for context on this history? Because I think there’s more to the arguments for and against these practices ostensibly aimed at enhancing and improving human lives. And how these arguments manifested, perhaps inadvertently, in the popular, media of the 90s. You know, the usual stuff we like to talk about on this show!   In lieu of taking a hard, graphic look at the conditions of animals undergoing testing and experiments and how the rights of these animals are of lesser value than our lives, the more advanced species … why did Sonic the Hedgehog present to us a world populated by weaponized, mechanized animal slaves?   Volume I. Issue 4. Welcome to the next level!

VOL. I | Iss. 4, “Welcome to the Next Level"

Good day, all you professors of psychology specializing in phobias!   In lieu of a regular issue, your humble savant, Dixby Karavaggio, brings you a thoughtful (and quite needless) meditation on the Batman: The Animated Series episode: “Dreams in Darkness.”   It’s a (nearly) perfect episode, and Dixby is a (nearly) tolerable nitpicker.   Enjoy, kiddos! And rest assured that a fresh, NEW (regular) ISSUE is COMING SOON!!!

ILOARI | Sweating the Details in “Dreams in Darkness”

Salutations and consolations, my fellow paranormal investigators and eliminators! It’s hard to believe we’re back here… not “here” as in In Lieu Of but “here” as in the summer of 1989!  Feels like we were just here, like, two issues ago. OK... how about New Years Eve, 1989? That’s not when this particular movie came out but it does take place around that time of year, so we’ll go with that.   Am I ever ready to slide down a fireman’s pole, hop into Ecto-1, and bust some ghosts! But first we ought to tediously review the intersection of emerging scientific consensus on global climate change with wider public awareness in the late 1980’s. But then... GHOSTS!   From the point where decades-long study collides with lay expectations of the planet and its resources, I’m interested to see where this debate bubbles to the surface in a less-well-regarded sequel to another global phenomenon: one not as concerned with the climate as it is with focused, non-terminal, repeating phantasms and class-five full-roaming vapors. The real nasty ones.   In lieu of an honest dialogue about the cause of a changing climate and why its cause is so contentious, why did Ghostbusters II present us with… a river of pink slime?   Volume I. Issue 3. Who ya gonna call?

VOL. I | Iss. 3, “We Made a Toaster Dance With It”

Welcome, Fiends and Friends, to... something different this time.   Your old companion, Dixby Karavaggio, would like to share his thoughts (his mostly negative thoughts) on 2004's Spider-Man 2... ya know... in lieu of presenting a regular issue.   Regular issues, like our two previous releases, are longer pieces, researched, edited mercilessly and with thoughtful music.   This ain't that. Listeners can expect shorter (but probably still a bit too long) works, usually focused on one thing, one movie, one character. Simpler music, less editing, DIXBY IN THE WILD!   Enjoy, kiddos! And rest assured that a fresh, NEW (regular) ISSUE is COMING SOON!!!

ILOARI | Challenging the Greatness of Spider-Man 2

Salutations & consolations, kiddos! In this issue Dixby deep-dives into the history of so-called social parasites in the former Soviet Union and the 1960's law passed to staunch their growth. And how a mutated monstrosity from one of the 1990's most iconic science fiction TV series brought to life the fears of what lies beyond what we chose to see, beyond the periphery of the subversive and the submerged.   In lieu of conceptualizing labor as a right or as a duty and this argument’s legacy after the Cold War, why did The X-Files give us a Flukeman?

VOL. I | Iss. 2, “His Murder Suspect is a Giant, Blood-Sucking Worm”

Salutations and consolations, kiddos! Welcome to the VERY FIRST issue of In Lieu Of!   I’m Dixby Karavaggio, your humble nostalgia podcaster, broadcasting from a dilapidated ranch outside of Home, Pennsylvania, here to serve you a heaping helping of my favorite things from the 1980s and 90s (and maybe some stuff from this century, too). We call these musings issues, audio serials, half-comic book and half-news article.   I’m interested to see how some of my favorite movies, TV shows, and video games fit in to, inform, or maybe clash with the larger history. These issues may end up being exhaustive or super-focused or some combination of the two. Whether or not you agree with my takes on the material, I definitively want to hear from you, kiddos, in the comments, in the reviews, and in my inbox: dixby@inlieuofpod.com.   In today’s issue I look at the US’s culture of cosmetics, beauty, and body transformation in the 1980s. And how Jack Nicholson’s Joker—a psychopath from the 1989 summer blockbuster, Batman—exploited the concerns over what we do to our bodies and the consequences of what we apply to our faces.   In lieu of a critical look at our country’s obsession with makeup and plastic surgery at the turn of the 90s… how did we get Tim Burton’s Batman?

VOL. I | Iss. 1, “Takin’ ‘Em Out a Whole New Door”

Half-comic book, half-news article, In Lieu Of brings 80s & 90s movies, TV shows, and video games together with the times, events, and histories that spawned them.

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In Lieu Of

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