One of my old classics is online!

[dwmckim]

In the early-mid 90's i was heavily involved with Phoenix's major underground arts theatre Planet Earth Theatre. Besides the theatre itself we also had lots of spin-off side projects like a late night cabaret, restaurant murder mystery dinner theatre, and a late nite cable access show called Earth Quakes. Earth Quakes was a major challenge since we strove to have a new episode weekly instead of monthly which most cable access shows did...WHILE doing all our other regular stuff at the theatre.

I did many stuff on/for the show, wrote, acted, directed...and also performed some of my song parodies. When Earth Quakes won The Phoenix New Times' Best of Phoenix Award for Best Cable Access Show, my parody of Gin Blossoms' "Hey Jealousy" (reimagined as a love song to Chelsea Clinton) was cited as one of the pieces that gave us the winning edge.

For a while, someone who has access to some of the old tapes had been putting various stuff online and i just discovered Hey Chelsea went up this week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyZ5c5SvGKc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Another fun thing to check out are two segments of Actor Audition sketches we did which were an improvised montage of actor audition scenarios (i do the opening music in both and appear towards the beginning of Part 1 and a few times in Part 2) It's not online (yet) but we also did a similar series of these sketches of people reacting to modern art pieces (that was another element of the theatre: it's art gallery lobby). It's a real thrill to watch these as i'm seeing all these faces of people i remember with incredible fondness! Those were the best of times!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6JaRpByc74&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIzB304-Blg&feature=related

The theme music for Earth Quakes was done by Strum and Hum which were an absolutely AMAZING local band that i became good friends with who i would consider one of my fave bands of all time - the lead singer died of a drug overdose which was a huge shame as they really deserved to gain a national following. I still listen to their album in my car frequently when i drive. One of their songs is in the second half of this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9cTJ1veIsk&feature=channel_video_title

(I remember being on the phone with them as they were finishing writing the song and them playing it over the phone to me - the first person to hear it!)

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

Those are some cool videos dwmckim, thanks for sharing.

I couldn't tease it from your post so sorry for asking this if you've already stated this, but do we see you in any of these?

 

[dwmckim]

Those are some cool videos dwmckim, thanks for sharing.

I couldn't tease it from your post so sorry for asking this if you've already stated this, but do we see you in any of these?

I'm not in the last one - i just linked to it so others could share in the wonder of Strum and Hum, but obviously i'm performing Hey Chelsea in the first one and i'm the second person to be seen in Audions pt 1 and appear about three times in Auditions Part 2.

Funny story about Strum and Hum...i'm one of the worst people with remembering people's names. The two guys were named Clark and Kirk...but i always goofed and called them Clark and Kent! (Kirk always wondered why i kept calling him that!) But at least most people just called them "Strum" and "Hum" anyway.

Another parody i did (that was Muppet related!) was a take-off of R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion...as sung by Ernie reimagined as Losing My Rubber Duckie.

 

[newsmanfan]

I don't think I've ever heard anyone use the words "Sean Penn" and "teleprompter" in the same song before. Lovely!

This is fun stuff, dwmckim. Thanks for posting it.

 

[dwmckim]

...come to think of it, i can't even think of any songs that have either "Sean Penn" or "teleprompter" in them period, for that matter.

(Well, there's Pet Shop Boys' "DJ Culture" - but it only mentions "Sean" rather than "Sean Penn")

 

[dwmckim]

Cool - i was going to see if i could embed the video for Hey Chelsea here and it was automatically done.

Yay for me - now i can be one of those annoying people who make download times longer!

Potential problem though - if url links to videos automatically embed the video itself in the forum then that might not be so good when the content's not appropriate for everyone such as the last video in this thread (the poem that appears before it gets to the Strum and Hum song)

 

[dwmckim]

Oh wow! I checked Planet Earth's Youtube account and they've since added some other pieces i've done/been in (some i forgot about til seeing them again)

Another of my song parodies...this one a take on Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over"...

A bizarre commercial where i play "Ray Charles Manson"

There's also a dark comedy skit called Suicide Salad - but you'll have to search it and find it on your own because there's language in it that's not for all ages so i'm not directly linking it here. But it's a hilarious piece that i recommend looking for.

BUT THE THING I'M MOST EXCITED ABOUT - is the one piece i've always hoped would one day surface online for ages - but since this is so special (and more directly related to Muppets) - i'm posting about it in a seperate thread... http://www.muppetcentral.com/forum/...nie-sing-r-e-m-finally-surfaces-online.53672/

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

That's great dwmckim. It must be nice seeing all this stuff. I'll definately try to watch these at some point.

 

[RedPiggy]

The best part of this is that I finally get a voice to associate with your pic.

I know I'll have that Hey Chelsea song in my head for awhile, LOL.