Please Don’t Spoil The Movie By Adding Your Own Soundtrack: An Interview With Mike Nelson

Mike Nelson was a writer/host for the cult classic TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000. In it, Mike (and in earlier years, Joel Hodgson) and their robot pals onboard the Satellite of Love were subjected to watching b-movies while their fictitious employers at the Gizmonics Institute observed the crew’s reactions. These reactions ranged from goofy commentary during the films to sketches between the film and they were, for the most part, very funny.
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No Shame In Flamboyance: An Interview With Gere Fennelly

Interviewed by Less Lee Moore

One of the coolest live performances I ever saw was in Dallas TX in 1993. Redd Kross was playing with a bunch of other bands (including pre-indie-cred Nick Heyward from Haircut 100) for the Live 105 Acoustic Christmas.

For their cover of PJ Harvey’s “Oh My Lover,” keyboard player and pianist extraordinaire Gere Fennelly performed the song on a baby grand, with singer Jeff McDonald dramatically sprawled on top of it.

Although she left Redd Kross soon after to concentrate on other pursuits, that amazing flair for theatricality and humor still infuses everything she does.
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A Funny-Animal Comic Book: Cerebus

By Christian Lipski

I am reading a funny-animal comic book called Cerebus.

That’s what I imagine people say when I try to explain what Cerebus is all about. There are so many questions to get past before you can really get down to why the epic is worth reading, but here are a few answers to those questions. . .
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Looking For A Visionary: Redd Kross on YouTube

By Less Lee Moore

Although Redd Kross recently reformed with its finest line-up to date (Jeff McDonald, Steve McDonald, Roy “No Relation” McDonald, Robert Hecker) and although they have been playing shows all over the world for the past few years (UK, Spain, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago. . . to name a few) I’ve chosen to focus on ten older videos (plus one honorable mention).
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The Geeks Shall Inherit The Jokes: Cinematic Titanic

“If they could give him plastic surgery,
you think they could’ve fixed the scar on his hand?”

For those of us who were Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans, the new riffing-over-bad-movies venture of Joel Hodgson (and original cast members Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Mary Jo Pehl, and J. Elvis Weinstein) is like the second coming of Crow T. Robot.
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Crushing the Mold: An Interview with JG Thirlwell

Interviewed by Julie Finley

Manorexia (JG Thirlwell) at Bang On A Can
Photo © 2007 Julie Finley

JG Thirlwell is a man of many different talents. You may know him as one—or possibly all—of his many guises (i.e., Jim Foetus, Foetus, Inc., or many different variations utilizing the word Foetus; Clint Ruin; Frank Want; Wiseblood; Steroid Maximus; Manorexia; Baby Zizanie;, DJ Otesfu; that guy who does the music for The Venture Bros., the remix-dude; the gruff voiceover on MTV Sports; the swank, svelte red-haired guy you’ve seen on the NYC subway who wears white shoes and big sunglasses; etc). He seems to be omnipresent whether you realize it or not, and yet he also often seems to slip under the radar. (Some of you may already keep abreast of what he’s up to; he does have a fervid and endearing fan-base, present company included.)
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Just Getting It Out There: An Interview with Filmmaker David Markey

Interviewed by Hanna

For Hanna’s review of The Reinactors, click here.

Cult filmmaker Dave Markey’s new movie The Reinactors premiered at the 37th Rotterdam International Film Festival in January. Detailing the complicated lives of the character impersonators that work on Hollywood Boulevard as tourist attractions, it was one of the greatest successes of the festival, with all showings sold out. It was also one of the highest rated movies in the audience polls.
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Hotel California Radio Show: Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford, and Buster Crabbe

. . .

TRANSMISSION #3574927656234689

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TUESDAY / JANUARY / 28 / 2005

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8:00 A.M.

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HOTEL CALIFORNIA RADIO SHOW—TITLE: CROISSANTS AND COFFEE

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RETRIEVED RADIO BROADCAST

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ALIEN A-1 RADIO SATELLITE

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5 MINUTES RUN-TIME

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TERRI
I am Terri Titwell, your gracious host. We are here daily at 8 a.m. in the Grand Dining Hall of the Hotel California to bring you interviews with your favorite celebrities, both living and dead, for your listening pleasure.

From Dracula to Diva—my guests today are Cult Classics. Some of the most interesting individuals, both on and off the screen, that Hollywood has to offer. All of my guests today are Stars of Cult Film.
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No Sense Makes Sense: Peter Bogdanovich’s Targets

By Less Lee Moore

“My father is the jailhouse. My father is your system. . . I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you.”
From the testimony of Charles Manson in the Tate-LaBianca murder trial, November 20, 1970
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Holiday Horrors: They’ll SLEIGH You!

By Eric Weber

“Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, a creature was stirring. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, but it was hard to say that St. Nick would be there. A Christmas of another color brings a killer on the loose.”
Tagline for 1974’s classic chiller, Black Christmas
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