Once you leave the family homestead and head out into the world of shared flats and apartments, there's an excellent chance you'll live with slobs or psychopaths of various stripes. This week on the Nest of Vipers, our fundits share stories of sketchy housemates and sketchier neighborhoods. We'll hear tales of colorful characters like Laotian Mafia members, speakeasy proprietors, and thieving hoods from the mean streets of West Philadelphia, as well as wife beaters, drug dealers and bottle throwers from San Francisco's Western Addition. We'll also hear about college co-eds trying to have sex in crowded dorm rooms, and a touching tale of a loveable roommate with an ungodly singing voice and Aspergers Syndrome. Hosted by filmmaker Danny Plotnick.

This episode also features live musical accompaniment by Alison Faith Levy and an unreleased spoken word/musical track from Bucky Sinister, Chris Xefos and Ray Wilcox.

Our guests include:

Scott Beiben founded the Lost Film Festival in 1999 and has been traveling the world ever since, showcasing alternative films of the truly d.i.y. variety. In addition to founding Lost Film, he runs Evil Twin booking for which he books showcases for the likes of the Yes Men and members of the Weather Underground. For the past few years he's been running a project called The ReDefinery which manages the national grassroots campaigns for indie films (The Corporation, Future Of Food, Wassup Rockers, Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars) and organic & fair-trade products (Steaz Organic Beverages).

Alison Faith Levy is a musician currently playing in kid-rock favorites The Sippy Cups. She also sings for the experimental group Mushroom who have a brand new record out fronted by Levy called Yesterday I Saw You Kissing Tiny Flowers. She recently has been performing live with Victor Krummenacher.

Bucky Sinister is the author of three acclaimed books of poetry—King of the Roadkills, Whiskey and Robots, and the brand new All Blacked Out & Nowhere To Go. He has also recently released a spoken word/comedy cd called What Happens in Narnia, Stays in Narnia. Bucky honed his writing skills and performing chops as emcee of the outrageous poetry brawl scene at the Chameleon in San Francisco's Mission District during the mid 90's. His poems have been included in the Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.