FILM/TV
Sid & Marty Krofft Shows on Tubi
A swag of Krofft shows has turned up on Tubi (US version) including some rarer titles:
Electra Woman and Dyna Girl – eight episodes of a female version of the Batman format with electric super powers, evil villains, and a significantly lower budget.
The Bay City Rollers Show (AKA The Krofft Superstar Hour) – made to capitalise on the popularity of the Scottish teen sensation of the 70s.
The Lost Saucer – Ruth Buzzi and Jim Nabors playing bumbling androids.
The shows are fascinating to watch from contemporary times, largely cheap and corny in that this-was-entertainment-in-the-70s way. If you’re in the right frame of mind though there’s a lot of fun to be had.
Also currently available is HR Pufnstuf and The Bugaloos.
Lypsinka: Toxic Femininity (2024)
The masterpiece that is Lypsinka has made a 45 minute film (directed by Chloe Sevigne) which is the closest that many of us will come to seeing her live on stage. Much of the content is lip-synched spoken word to recordings of Judy Garland and Joan Crawford (the ones I could identify at least) and a Louella Parsons comedy routine by T.C. Jones from 1961. There’s also musical numbers by Lisa Kirk, Mimi Hines and Julie Wilson. As you might expect, Lypsinka doesn’t miss a beat throughout. It’s quite incredible just how good she is at this. The direction of the musical numbers deserves to be more lavish than they are, but that’s a minor quibble in an otherwise captivating film. I understand it’s streaming free until the 16th of February .*Note from Feb 16 – the streaming has been extended to March 1st.
PRINT
Esme Young – Behind The Seams
The judge from The Great British Sewing Bee has led a fascinating life through the 60s, punk and new wave, her Swanky Modes label has dressed Toyah, Grace Jones and many others. Esme’s Instagram.
SOUND
Dusty Fingers
This week I’ve mostly listened to the Dusty Fingers compilations of breaks, library music, funk, soul and rare groove. At the time of writing I’m up to Volume 29 of the 66 (is there more, is that even possible?) I’ve managed to track down via the internet. There is a lot of great music included across this vast and diverse collection put together by a DJ called Danny Dann The Beat Man. If you care to know more there’s an interview here about the series and how the weight of the records in his apartment combined with the music volume was causing the ceilings to crack in other apartments.
Goat Girl – On All Fours (2021)
A new discovery, fantastic.
ONLINE
WFMU’s Beware of the Blog
The monthly WFMU (a New York/New Jersey independent radio station) email newsletter turns up and I find myself returning to this intriguing world of obscure sounds. One of their projects was Beware Of The Blog which was compiled by the staff and volunteers at the station from 2005-2015 with an endless array of obscure audio, video, radio and the unclassifiable. How pleasing it is that this cornucopia of madness is still available, archived and waiting for (re)discovery. There’s so much contained here it’s daunting to land on, so I’d suggest the 365 Days Project as a good place to start. “365 days of cool and strange and often obscure audio selections. Some words to describe the material featured would be… Celebrity, Children, Demonstration, Indigenous, Industrial, Outsider, Song-Poem, Spoken, Ventriloquism, and on and on and on. The best thing to do is to simply listen. Unlike a blog/journal/website consisting of one or a small group of contributors, 365 Days has over 200 people sharing from their stash of aural treasures.” There’s also a list version of the posts here.
The Public Domain Review – Lost Futures: A 19th-Century Vision of the Year 2000
The PDR has a seemingly endless amount of incredible material – this is especially good. All aboard the Whale bus!
The Very Now 