Hi. My name's Rob Schamberger. I'm that guy who paints rasslers. And other stuff. 20/20 visions and murals with metaphors.

Spartacus (1960)

Watercolor on 12” x 9” paper

#12 in the 40 movies I haven’t seen from the AFI 100!

This movie is nothing short of incredible on pretty much every level. I went into Spartacus expecting it to be a similar experience to Ben-Hur and it couldn’t be further away if possible. There’s a lot of the same trappings with the swords-and-sandals setting and the slavery aspect but everything Ben-Hur got wrong Spartacus not only got right but excelled at. I couldn’t believe it’s over three hours long and I never once got bored. This movie sings, baby.

Practically shot with a cast of thousands, it’s based on the true story of the Third Serville War where an encampment of gladiators led by Spartacus break free and launch a slave revolt against Rome. There’s massive, truly epic shots throughout that took my breath away over and over again, all in service of the story being told.

The stories about the making of the movie and its impact on society are just as fascinating at the movie itself, too. There’s the aspect that director Stanley Kubrick, himself the second director on the film after star Kirk Douglas got the first one fired, ended up having his name taken off the film as he didn’t have control over post-production and final edit. But this is still very much a Kubrick movie in look and feel.

Most importantly to me, the screenwriter was the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, a victim of the American Red Scare in the 50’s. He had ghostwritten for other movies but this was his first time getting screen credit again, effectively ending the Hollywood black list after then-president John F Kennedy watched it and gave the two word review, “Good movie.” There’s this undercurrent throughout of Spartacus and the rest of the slave revolt being analogs for Trumbo himself and the others affected by such a shameful moment in US history. One line in particular near the end spoke to me, when Spartacus was asked if the revolution was worth it even though it failed:

A story that’s echoed through thousands of years, and words that have echoed for decades and remain as true now as when they were written over 65 years ago.

For the painting I wanted to not only capture the epic scale of Spartacus, but also its heart. There’s this moment before the final battle where various parts of the rebel army are shown that hit me hard, where first the gladiators are shown, then some infantry, and then…women and children and the elderly. It so clearly said what this story was truly about, not about these great armies doing battle, but about average people saying they would no longer be enslaved. It makes the aftermath of the battle so much more powerful too, as (spoilers for an event that happened over two thousand years ago) they’re wiped out. You know that it’s not ‘just’ soldiers, but people like you and me who chose to make a stand. They’re remembered millenia later for doing just that and there’s great power in that idea.

The painting itself was tough to actually execute. I wanted to keep the scale but also factor in the atmospheric distortion to give it a sense of depth. It’s something I haven’t much done at this small of a size (12×9) and I couldn’t be happier with how it came together.

Next week: The riotous Marx Brothers classic A Night at the Opera!

Here’s a preview of Thursday’s new Marina Shafir painting.

Card subject to change.

Real quick, I realize that the changes in the ShopAEW site are a tad confusing and it’s harder to find my work at the moment. I’ll still give you the links here in my newsletters in the meantime while things get sorted out. Feel free to help get the word out if you’re on social media, too. I appreciate you.

Rob’s Art on ShopAEW
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Rob and Jason Arnett's novella Rudow Can't Fail!
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Rob’s prints and shirts at Pro Wrestling Tees
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Bluesky
Cara
YouTube
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Katy’s book Oldest Kansas City

What a joy the first season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy turned out to be! I admit to not being the biggest fan of the first couple episodes but once the format of the show started revealing itself with different tones and featured characters for each episode I really got sucked in. There’s notably one of the best Klingon stories since Deep Space 9 and another episode that’s the best depiction of PTSD, C-PTSD and overall trauma processing I’ve seen. Nuanced, never-boring stories that have ties to classic Trek but are never beholden to it. It’s more like Lower Decks than the other ‘new’ shows and I think that’s a very good thing.

London Rules by Mick Herron is another fantastic book in the Slow Horses series. A series of tragic events happen in London and the usual gang of idiots at Slough House find themselves in the midst of all of it, sometimes solving things and ofttimes making everything far worse. Brilliant, brilliant writing. There’s been differences between the books and the show and this one is the biggest and is very different from season five. Notably, the foreign power at the middle of things is changed and the reasons behind that I’ve heard are murky at best. That said, I like the books better than the show and I LOVE the show.

Here’s an entire episode of MTV 120 Minutes from 1993 that’s all live performances from the likes of The Smashing Pumpkins, They Might Be Giants, Violent Femmes, Bad Religion, X, Bjork and more. Plus the original commercials! Fellow Gen-Xers and Elder Millennials rejoice!

ROBOT RAMPAGE! A week of having fun with flat, geometric shapes and different color combinations.

The weather here in Kansas City has been pretty extreme. There was a day earlier in the week where it was in the mid-80’s and then dropped down below freezing. Yesterday it was in the 30’s when I woke up in the morning and climbed up to around 70, and today we’re expecting blizzard conditions and tomorrow morning may get below zero with the wind chill. And 70 again on Wednesday!

It’s hard to even decide what clothes to wear each day at this point. Still, I take advantage of the nicer temperatures when the rise up and open up the windows. The cats are especially happy when the fresh air hits.

Love you more,
Rob

PS: Trans rights are human rights. Abolish and prosecute ICE.