DVD wha? I have the Video Tapes
Reviewer: gjy-orxe (gjyorxe) from Sioux Falls, South Dakota United
States. (I'm still here)
So, I exaggerated. I have not seen the All Day Matinee as a DVD, but
don't shoot me just yet, because I HAVE seen both of these video
productions, Martian Space Party and The Case of the Missing Yolks, on
VHS. They are extremely humorous and differ from the video Everything
You Know Is Wrong, because these are more than lip synced videos dubbed
to the album soundtrack. Not that the alien invasion epic aforementioned
is ruined because of it, it is just that here, in Martian Space Party,
the video version of Not Insane Not Responsible, we get a real sense of
live performance right before our very eyes and pointy ears. Nick Danger
and the Yolks of Oxnard, the Case of the Missing Yolks, IS an actual
Firesign Theatre situation comedy movie, not feature length, but album
length, with in drag performances by Proctor as the matronly yet out of
this world Ma Yolk who gets a dream home of the future as a reward in a
sweepstakes and finds out that being a simple American may be the life
for her after all because well to do people always have evil villains
like Rocky Rococo, also Proctor, in a Fez and goatee, trying to steal
their hoity toity lives from them. And most of it, except for a few
artsy craftsy visits to Nick Danger and his world of detective story
telling is in technicolor. Martian Space Party may seem amateurish at
first especially after years of listening to the audio version Not
Insane, but that is because of the use of shoulder mounted camera work
and the filming of the album as a live experience as if you are
attending a beatnik happening that was the result of hiding out in a
fail safe bomb shelter after world war three and just as you are about
to go totally nuts with claustrophobia and radiation poisoning someone
yells, "Hey you freaks, let's put on a show until the all clear lets us
out of here". No one ever escapes from Monster Island or the wrath of
Glutamoto except for President George Pappoon who blasts off for Mars
with the ugly lizard, ****trayed as a Craker Jack toy in a sandbox filled
with doll houses and train set filling stations, clinging tightly to the
President's rocket as he escapes the world of the doomed, the Spider
Caucus, the Pets For Pappoon, the Friends of the Martian Space Party and
all who entered the hole in the ever widening pyramid to the center of
the earth in later albums dug by the big comet. Here's what happened,
The Firesign Theatre gathered for a recording one day and found that
their producer, who had scheduled open auditions for a cast of hundreds
to take part in the album, couldn't be there due to Hurricane Camille or
some storm delaying his air travel to the gig, but he did say over the
phone, "This is Cyrus, your friend, nothing has happened to my nose, but
I do have some dandy grapes. If you record anything out there today or
night, you better have some video of the event, the recording, to prove
it is you, and your writer, Walter, where ever he is. I'll be there in a
couple of days, or I'll see you in Woodstock New York, at the usual
studio. Bring proof of your comedy effort there. Keep the crowd of
auditioners entertained. I'm sorry I can't be there, but just inform
them that I am not responsible for the postponement and not insane
enough to fly through a hurricane to get there." So they did. The
Firesign Theatre quickly set up cameras and the National Surrealist
Party Convention became a beatnik happening. Good thing they had
teleprompters, because it is a difficult show to memorise, almost a cult
show, rather than an occult show, although a Martian might recognise the
magic that was hullabalooing along the San Andreas fault line. You will
too. The album was vinyl and finally released in 1972. The videos had to
wait until VCRs were perfected, but there could be a rare laser disc,
out there, or down there in the hole big whole the comet dug some where
on a later album, if you know maybe you don't, but, until you search,
Everything You Know Is Wrong. I guess that album will be available on
DVD some day too. What ever happened to eight track, Walter? The lizard
is licking for that tooo darlin.
(mebbe find it at http://community.webtv.net/gjyorxe/prmds
c that's
/prmdsc short for prime disclaimer)
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