(SPOILERS) Shit Town Podcast

Discussion in 'The Thunderdome' started by Tenacious D, Jul 19, 2018.

  1. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    I mentioned this podcast amongst a list of other podcasts, in an earlier post.

    I’m now on my third listen, have some questions, would like to discuss it, and wondered if anyone else has listened to this.

    For those who have listened to it but need a recap, or who may be thinking about listening to it, here’s the very basic and bulleted gist of it:

    The podcast is lead by Brian Reed, a producer for NPR, and who worked on the Serial podcast. Brian lives and works in NYC, and is married to a black woman.

    While going through hundreds of emails sent to the generic Serial podcast inbox, Reed comes across one email that catches his eye, and with the subject line:

    “John B. McLemore Lives in Shit Town, Alabama”

    Hence, “S-Town” is just a G-rated abbreviation of “Shit Town”.

    In the email to NPR’s Serial crew, John B. McLemore claims that there is widespread corruption in his hometown of Woodstock, Alabama (Bibb County, pop. 300), but which the town / corrupt cops are covering up. He implores NPR to come down to investigate these claims.

    The email specifically mentions that one law enforcement officer who is forcing females to perform sexual acts, but even more explosively, that the son of the richest man in town had recently been overheard bragging that he had murdered a poor kid during a drunken, drug-induced fight at a party, and that the cops were refusing to investigate, ostensibly, due to his family’s wealth and influence in the small town.

    Despite not being able to find anything on the internet about the alleged murder, Reed and John B. continue a correspondence over the course of several months, and which culminates in Reed’s agreement to visit Woodstock, to look into it.

    Upon his arrival, Reed meets John B., a man in his late 40’s, who has never married and lives at home with his mother. John B. is also a closeted homosexual, a world-reknowned horologist (an expert in the study of time, and clock repair), a radically anti-establishment liberal who is fixated on climate change, and believes in an impending economic doomsday. But he’s also very much close friends with a host of characters in S Town who could only be described as military-grade racists, rednecks, and uneducated white trash - and who you’ll also meet in the podcast.

    The 300lbs+ guy with “FEED ME” tattooed on his belly.

    Tyler, the guy who John B. has taken under his wing, but who stays in trouble with the law, and has three daughters with three different women when he is only 21 years old.

    The guy who still has a bullet lodged in his head from an altercation 20+ years before, and while fully cognizant and aware, can only shout 1-2 words at a time, and from a very limited vocabulary.

    And many other interesting characters.

    And John B. may actually be a genius.

    But John B. is also a man of military-grade duplicity, hating both sexism and racism in one moment...but then saying and admitting his belief in the most sexist and racist shit imaginable.

    And John B. might actually be a millionaire, who has hidden both gold and other treasures around his property, and for years.

    Whereas Serial almost bores me to sleep, this is an excellent 7-part podcast, with each episode being a little more than an hour long.
     
  2. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    Needless to say, I have questions.

    So very, very many questions.
     
  3. volfanjo

    volfanjo Chieftain

    Alright Tenny, I too have listened to it. It was captivating.

    I don't know if you've read the many reviews of the podcast now, but critics seem divided: not that it wasn't captivating, but that it was manipulative of the people in the town, including but not limited to John B., but most certainly the Goodsons. Also, as you probably know, Brian Reed is being sued by the estate of John B. Mclemore.

    I share some of their concerns. But I also loved the podcast. And it appears if this suit can be resolved... there will also be a movie down the road.
     
  4. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    Whoa, I haven’t heard of any of this - will read up.

    After reading a bit about Serial, many claimed that they seemed to conveniently and obviously dramatize some things, and completely omitted other things, likely, when it helped the story.

    I’m curious to see what the claim from John’s estate is about, specifically.
     
  5. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    So does the podcast end up being an investigation into the alleged corruption, or just a documentary about these Alabama oddballs?
     
  6. IP

    IP Super Moderator

    The latter, I think.
     
  7. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    Yes, but new and different mysteries also appear / open up.
     
  8. bigjintx

    bigjintx Chieftain

    I listened to it about a year ago. Very interesting. John B looked nothing like I imagined when I looked him up.
     
  9. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    Agreed.

    And for someone who hates tattoos, and only thought that “[uck fay]ing losers” had them....this pic of his back is a story unto itself:

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

  11. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    Now having read some accounts of the claims made in the suit filed by John B.’s estate, I think it’s all settlement talk.

    I don’t see how they win, but am no lawyer.

    And from what little you learn of John B., it’s hard to argue that he wouldn’t have absolutely loved the spotlight being shone on him, and his life, or parts of it, at least.
     
  12. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    Those nipples just ruined my life.
     
    IP and justingroves like this.
  13. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    He repeatedly pierced his nipples.

    Multiple times a day.

    He even tattooed his nipples with a tattoo gun, but which held no ink.

    After his death, his family believed his nipple rings were gold, and asked the mortician to remove and give them back. When the mortician couldn’t undo the nipple clamps, they asked if he couldn't just “cut off his nipples” with the rings attached, since “he’s already dead”.

    I’m telling you, listen to it.
     
    IP likes this.
  14. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    And he got those tattoos as a sly way of financially supporting the tattoo shop which was owned by his friends, each unmitigated red neck racists....and the same people whom he both loved and hated.
     
    IP likes this.
  15. kptvol

    kptvol Super Moderator

    Well despite Teny and IP’s recommendations and listened to this anyway. It was, in fact, s very good listen.

    I tend to think John B. didn’t have all that wealth we were led to believe he had. He might have been fairly well off, but I think tales of millions in gold and $100,000 posthumous donations to PETA were all just desperate attempts to maintain friendships, not unlike his misplaced lawsuit against his old friend from city hall.

    I found it interesting that he was rather concerned with how much real time we each have to pursue our real interests in a lifetime. Even went through and did the math to factor out sleeping, eating, working, and illness. That seemed to be a really important bit of time. And yet, he seemed to have all the time in the world to pursue his eclectic interests and was as miserable as you could be. Ended up cutting his life about a decade short of the lifespan he used for his calculations.

    He almost seemed like he was fearful or afraid of human interaction despite desperately needing it. His professor told about how he would come to class with a green wig on, just leaning into the oddball role so that anyone making fun of him wasn’t making fun of his real self, as if he couldn’t bear that. He had a guy over for a date and dressed in rags for the occasion. Typically had some odd job that needed to be done to be used as a pretext for spending time with his friends. Then if they did leave him, like Michael Fuller (was that his name?) did, they left to be terrible junkies that threw away their lives - at least according to John B. , even though the host’s research proved that to be untrue.

    All in all a pretty sad tale. John dies unhappy and it sounds like Tyler is going to head down the road John always feared he’d travel. John’s mom’s life might at least be looking up. Hopefully, she gets a more joyful end to her life.
     
  16. chavisut

    chavisut Dan Mullen Fan Club President

    Finished recently.


    The mad hatter theory is compelling.
     
    RockyHill likes this.
  17. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    Definitely. I’m not ruling it out, but you’d expect to see a slow downward progression into depression, but he had enormous highs, too.

    I think he was bipolar, but the mercury poisoning certainly didn’t help.
     
  18. Tenacious D

    Tenacious D The law is of supreme importance, or no importance

    They’ve now settled the lawsuit, and rumors persist that this paves the way for the movie to go forward.

    I’ve now listened to this app. 100 times. I turn on EP1 when I get in to the office, and just let it play all day in the background.

    I wish Brian Reed would go back to Woodstock for a followup series on Tyler and the rest.

    I can’t fathom who they’ll cast as John B. I have no idea.

    I think that John B was in love with Tyler’s Dad, Rodney, abs that’s why he saw Tyler and his brother as sons. Reed hints at this, but never says it.

    I’d love to hear John B’s rants on the world, and particularly, Trump. It’s probably a mercy that he missed all of this.
     

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