The Modernist Society

We dive into the world of Chicago pizza, the perils of small business ownership, family drama, family trauma, and what constitutes a good tip for a delivery driver with Johnny Berger, author of a zine on these very topics called Jake's Pizza: 40 Years in the Pizza Business, and Other Stories. Jake's Pizza also happens to be the name of the pizza joint that Johnny's family ran in Franklin Park, Illinois for 57 years before its unceremonious demise in November of 2023. We talk to Johnny about what happened; about his forays into comedy, filmmaking, and writing; and about what comes next. This episode is dedicated to the memory of William "Bill" Berger July 13, 1936 — May 12, 2024. Buy a copy of Jake's Pizza at heykidscomics.net! Follow Johnny Berger's never-updated social media account: Twitter ⁠⁠⁠ Follow The Modernist ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠  ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠  ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠  ⁠⁠Medium⁠⁠ Follow The Modernist Society Hosts ⁠⁠Jason Mojica⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠  ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Eric Ottens ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Instagram

In this episode, Eric goes rogue and interviews a band from WAY after the 1970s, otherwise known as "now." Noah and Reza from the Uni Boys talk about their band, plans, cleaning products, records, and other topics.  Follow Uni Boys (and co.) Uni Boys The Lemon Twigs Billy Tibbals Band ⁠ Follow The Modernist ⁠Twitter⁠  ⁠Instagram⁠  ⁠Facebook⁠  ⁠Medium⁠ Follow The Modernist Society Hosts ⁠Jason Mojica⁠ ⁠Twitter⁠  ⁠Instagram⁠ Eric Ottens ⁠Twitter⁠ ⁠ Instagram

This episode we take you to one of the most unique places on earth - Poor Cow. You may know the owner from such hit bands as Teengenerate, American Soul Spiders, The Tweezers, and Firestarter. If you’re interested, skip the shinkansen and don’t feel bad about temples. The Modernist Society Podcast validates that Poor Cow is not only a legitimate part of Japanese culture, but is The Real Temple. 4th floor in a nondescript building, walk in and you are guaranteed to see most of the following regulars: Tsune from Young Parasian Honma from Car Crash Hiroshi from The Knocks / Flashlights You just landed in Tokyo and you already have friends! Closed Mondays. Follow Fifi for day to day updates. -- Follow The Modernist Twitter  Instagram  Facebook  Medium Follow The Modernist Society Hosts Jason Mojica Twitter Instagram Eric Ottens Twitter Instagram

We chat with Robert Whiting, author of Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, Tokyo Underworld and Tokyo Junkie. Robert moved to Tokyo in 1962 as part of the U.S. Occupational Forces and has lived there on and off ever since. He believes Tokyo may current the best city on Earth, and his enthusiasm is infectious. But it wasn't always that way. Robert talks us through his early days in a city still rife with black markets and crime, using baseball as his window into the language and culture and eventually publishing his first book on the topic, a pending screen adaptation of his Tokyo Underworld book, and his latest memoir Tokyo Junkie, which looks back on his 60-year love affair with the city. Follow us! Twitter Instagram Facebook Medium

We catch up with Bayard Winthrop. He’s the founder and CEO of American Giant, a San Francisco-based clothing company that specializes in a) making stuff really well, and b) making it in the USA. American Giant has been going for about 10 years now, but before that Bayard ran Chrome, Freeboard, Atlas Snowshoe, and in the heady days of the dot com boom, was the President and CEO of WebChat, which was a big online community that was acquired by Infoseek right before AOL started dominating that space. That's all to say that in addition to producing the "the greatest hoodie ever made," he's a super interesting, super smart guy who’s been an incredible innovator not only in direct-to-consumer businesses, but in breathing new life into at least on area of American manufacturing. Follow us! Twitter Instagram Facebook Medium

We hang out with Jeff Pezzati, singer of Chicago punk legends Naked Raygun and talk about all of the things: AC/DC, UFO, Big Black, comic books, Philip Jose Farmer, HVAC, Condor, and the forthcoming Naked Raygun studio album. Follow us! Twitter Instagram Facebook Medium

We spend a delightful afternoon day drinking and playing our favorite holiday songs with founder of the OG Washinngton DC chapter of The Modernnist Society, Daryle Macoicha (AKA DJ D-Mac). Obscure tracks played and discussed! Arguments had! Digressions... digressed! This is how all Zoom meetings should be. Follow us! Twitter Instagram Facebook Medium

We talk with Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired magazine, former publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Catalogs, and co-founder of the Hackers’ Conference. Instead of talking to Kevin about AI, AR, or any of the other technological forces that are shaping our future, we take him back to 1988 to revisit one of his lesser-known books: Signal: Communications Tools for the Information Age. It’s a big, paperback, counter cultural handbook on self-empowerment, DIY education, and harnessing technology at a time when normal people did not know what the internet was. We also talk to Kevin about his first trip overseas in 1972, and how it led to him bouncing around Asia for decades, taking the photographs which are collected in his forthcoming book, Vanishing Asia. Finally, we ask Kevin–well known for being an optimist–to help us find the silver lining in the coronavirus pandemic. Follow us! Twitter Instagram Facebook Medium

We tune in Tokyo and talk to Mike Rogers, lead singer of 1970s LA punk band The Rotters and host of the aptly named Mike Rogers Show. Mike is also running JIFF–the Japan Indies Film Festival Online–which is the first online film festival in Japanese history and takes place Nov. 16 and 17, 2020. It’s The Modernist Society trifecta of Japan, punk, and expat living. Enjoy! Follow us! Twitter Instagram Facebook Medium

We talk to The Phantom Creeper and Dom Nation of legendary masked Chicago rock band, The Goblins. Will their secret identities finally be revealed? To be honest... no. But you'll want to tune in for this short but sweet chat with these American icons. Follow us! Twitter Instagram Facebook Medium

We talk to a couple of Chicago countercultural heroes: Jake Austen and Joe Losurdo. Jake is best known for his long-running Roctober zine and Chic-a-gogo public access program. Joe is a hardcore legend, having sung and played bass for Life Sentence in the late 80s and with his frankly his wife Cristina runs Regressive Films, which brought us the wonderful documentary on the first wave of Chicago punk titled “You Weren’t There.” Follow us! Twitter Instagram Facebook Medium

We talk with Michael Bradley of The Undertones about what it's like being in ONE OF THE BEST BANDS EVER, what Bono did for Ireland, and that time they covered a Skrewdriver song. Michael is also the host of The Mickey Bradley Record Show on BBC Radio Ulster, and the author of Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone. Follow us! Twitter Instagram Facebook Medium

In episode ATE of The Modernist Society, we talk about cooking with puns, punk rock, and post coronavirus food culture with recipe zinester Frank Davis of Bushwick Grill Club. Follow us! Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_modernist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themodernistsociety Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themodernistdotcom/ Medium: https://medium.com/themodernist/

It's an all-star cast in this special episode in which we ring up past Modernist Society guests and other folks around the world to talk about how the coronavirus pandemic is shaking out where they live and what lies ahead. Also... they help us pick songs for an accompanying playlist. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll kiss five bucks goodbye. GUESTS: Tim Kinsella and Jenny Pulse of Good Fuck (Chicago) Trace Crutchfield of IXNAY PAC (NYC) Charlie LeDuff of the No BS News Hour (Detroit) Thomas Morton (Upstate New York) Christian Misuro (Tokyo) Ariel Bardi (Rome) Alessandro Rampietti of Al Jazeera English (Bogota) James Kelly of Covenant House (New Orleans) Joshua Wong of Demosisto (Hong Kong) Richard Gizbert of The Listening Post (London) Jason Leopold of Buzzfeed News (Los Angeles) Jake Adelstein of Tokyo Vice (Tokyo) Follow us! Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_modernist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themodernistsociety Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themodernistdotcom/ Medium: https://medium.com/themodernist/

Our guest this time is Shane Bugbee: artist, writer, publisher, provocateur, and all-around hustler. Shane is one of the most prolific makers of things we know and he drops by Eric's place to talk about The Joys of Satanism, Bill Ayers' quinoa collection, getting "jumped in" to underground culture in Chicago, publishing Mike Diana, watching Ministry do drugs, and making art to stay alive. Follow us! Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_modernist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themodernistsociety Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themodernistdotcom/ Medium: https://medium.com/themodernist/

We talk about records that sound like they're broken, hangover cures, booking your own fuckin' life, the creative wellspring that is the desert, and musical firsts with Tim Kinsella and Jenny Pulse of the totally accessible electronic rock duo, GOOD FUCK. Follow us! Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_modernist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themodernistsociety Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themodernistdotcom/ Medium: https://medium.com/themodernist/

We talk zines and DIY everything with Steven Svymbersky, founder of the OG Quimby's Queer Store in Chicago and current proprietor of Quimby's Bookstore NYC. Follow us! Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_modernist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themodernistsociety Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themodernistdotcom/ Medium: https://medium.com/themodernist/

We talk about Anna's adventures in China, North Korea, Japan and beyond. Oh, and of course... juggalos. Follow us! Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_modernist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themodernistsociety Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themodernistdotcom/ Medium: https://medium.com/themodernist/

We talk rock biographies, spy planes, the pros and cons of waking up Rip Van Winkle, with Thomas "Baby Balls" Morton. Follow us! Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_modernist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themodernistsociety Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themodernistdotcom/ Medium: https://medium.com/themodernist/

Jason and Eric talk journalism, the yakuza, and international living with investigative reporter and "Tokyo Vice" author, Jake Adelstein.