Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Violate Yer Mania

As I putter away on dialogue, exposition, and plot turns that'll sear your incredulous psyches, here's some fine visual filler to amuse and relax you before rejoining our collective living hell.

Ron Rocheleau's "Concrete TV" remains one of my favorite shows. Indeed, much of Manhattan Cable's public access programming from the mid-80s/early-90s was some of the best television I've ever seen. Groove on this pop-cult freak out and see if you feel the same. (I particularly like the Nazis marching to Smash Mouth.) Then I want emails of 100 words or less about why you liked it or despised it.



Speaking of Manhattan Cable classics, here's a brief clip of Sid and Nancy taking viewer calls, alongside Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys (looking very Phil Spectorish) and his girlfriend Cynthia Ross of The B Girls. This is from September 1978, about a month before Nancy was found dead in the Hotel Chelsea. It's easy to mock her strained attempts to sound English, but Nancy suffered various mental maladies, and you can see just how lost she and Sid clearly were.



And no review of Manhattan Cable would be complete without Al Goldstein's "Midnight Blue." I can't find the clip where Goldstein rants that "intellectual Jews" are trying to shut him down, yelling at his viewers to not walk passively "to the gas chambers," but rally to big Al's defense. "For once in your fucking life, get off your ass and do something!" Yes, I still remember that bit. Made me laugh for hours. Instead, here's Goldstein employing his signature language to attack Howard Stern (with a big hair sex ad -- remember that style, kids?), followed by a few "Midnight Blue" bumpers. Friday nights will never again be as crude or brash.