Climbing The Stairway To Stardom!

Joining the likes of wacky comedian and Ramones fan Uncle Floyd and cranky Jewish pornographer Al Goldstein, I finished my first session at MNN, the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. That's right, PUBLIC ACCESS TELEVISION! The credit goes to Edwin, who started DVD Maniacs years ago, for coming up with the idea and doing most of the work. He's the one with the connections there and the one with the technomological know-how. Regardless, we'd been talking about doing something together for a while and finally got some studio time to make it happen. The ultimate goal is to broadcast it on MNN once it's finished in post production (we have to edit out some flubs and add opening/closing credits) and then on the newly revamped website, which will be found here.

Essentially what we did was sit in front of three cameras and talk about movies. We shot an hour's worth of footage, so that's two episodes worth, and covered Bronson's Death Wish movies and Romero's zombie films and we were joined by our friend Todd for the second show. It was a good experience, I haven't really done anything on camera since my college days, over a decade ago, and my first shot definitely left some room for improvement but I didn't completely embarass myself either. Alison and I watched the very rouch cut that came out of the control room last night, and it wasn't that bad. It's got some personality and some nerd appeal. This was a solid first shot and in theory it shold only get better from here on out. Whether or not we'll ever make anything out of this aside from public access broadcast and some webcasts remains to be seen but at some point soon we'll probably host some live call in shows, which should be fun.

I'm excited about the idea of getting this off of the ground and about pitching in with some of the editing duties. My skills are rusty and out of use but the basic principals haven't changed even if the software has (if anything it's gotten easier). So we'll see. Even if I just end up being the remarkably handsome guy on camera, I can live with that. But even if the odds are against us getting rich and famous from this endeavor, it's a foot in the door and a step in the right direction and whatever other enthusiastic cliche you'd care to throw in. It's also me using skills I went to school to gain and then, based on life and circumstance, promptly wound up doing very little with.

Public Access. Who knew? But then again, where else are you going to see a couple of grown men argue about old low budget zombie movies on TV? I like to think once we get this off of the ground we'll be filling a niche. A weird, obsessive compulsive, nerdy niche but a niche never the less.

Tomorrow Alison and I leave for New Jersey to attend the Monster Mania Convention. Corey Feldman is going to be there, and Malcolm McDowell, but more importantly so is John Morghan, aka Giovanni Lombardo Radicci - the whipping boy of 80s Italian horror films. That's right, the guy who had his weenie chopped off in Cannibal Ferox and had his head drileld in Fulci's City Of The Living Dead is going to be in Jersey of all places. Should be a fun weekend. Saturday night we're going to drive back to NYC to catch the Pogues show (Billy Bragg is supposed to be opening!!!) and then head back to NJ (we got a hotel for the weekend) which'll put a few miles under our belts but I'm looking forward to hobknobbing with a few friends I haven't seen in a while and pursuing my nerdly interests with my equally nerdy but much prettier female partner in crime.