Goodbye, Todd.
The world has lost an exceptional person with the passing of Todd Stadtman. Todd was the creator of the magical and (especially for me) super influential film blog DIE DANGER DIE DIE KILL (FOURDK), as well as the author of the necessary nonfiction book Funky Bollywood: The Wild World of 1970s Indian Action Cinema, the novels Please Don’t Be Waiting for Me and So Good It’s Bad, countless articles for equally countless outlets, to say nothing of his work as a musician and spinner of tunes for his Pop Offensive radio station.
Directly due to the conversations I had with Todd, I learned to love watching wild world cinema without the benefit of subtitles, an all-too-neglected experience that opens up opportunities to learn new ways of interpreting visual cues in the movies. The book signing for Funky Bollywood: The Wild World of 1970s Indian Action Cinema that I put together at Digital Gym Cinema for Todd was one of the most fun and proud nights that I can remember as an event organizer. Before the signing, I drove up to LA to have lunch with Todd and his wife Liza before we embarked on our mini road trip to San Diego. It will be a memory I will cherish forever.
I am linking two different episodes from our now defunct podcast here. The first is a wonderful episode where Todd took over as host for an episode. He asked me what I wanted him to record, and I told him I wanted him to just discuss what he loves and why—a sort of personal philosophy of his tastes. You can listen to that here:
The second podcast is a live recording of our discussion from the aforementioned book signing. Todd and I discuss Bollywood, particularly of the 70s action variety, and get some excellent questions from the audience. It is well worth listening to, and maybe it will inspire you to find some great films to watch.