Cinematic Titanic visits MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann

I kind of missed the boat on this one (BIG SURPRISE!) but Trace, Joel, and Josh appeared on MSNBC last week, on long-time MSTie Keith Olbermann’s show. You can see it above and, yes, it’s about as charmingly Midwest-Awkward as you might expect. With exposure like this, I expect to see not just a ton more live shows, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of them heading into the studio sometime this year.

Not that I want to start a stupid Rifftrax vs. Cinematic Titanic discussion, but has Rifftrax ever received this level of promotion? Or is this the most mainstream exposure a Brains project has gotten since MST3K?

Josh Weinstein chats with Ken Plume

J. Elvis Weinstein just sat down for a chat with friend to all MSTies Ken Plume for what Josh describes as “a long, long time.” I haven’t listened to it yet, but I’m going to go ahead and say that it is probably “entertaining,” possibly “incredible,” and most likely not “ghetto fly.” Give a listen here.

Bill and Kevin celebrate Paul (of Paul and Storm)’s birthday

You might recall the names Paul and Storm from the Tron Rifftrax entry, which they performed with Jonathan Coulton. You might recall it, and hopefully you do, as their names have resurfaced once again in MSTdom. See, it was Paul’s birthday recently, and Storm sought out recorded messages from their friends for a special video birthday present. Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy, among others, answered the call.

Bill went for a somewhat more straightforward message than most of the other participants, and you can find him around the 7-minute mark. Kevin, on the other hand, decided to go any which way but straightforward, dusting off the United Servo Academy Men’s Chorus name (or in this case, the academy’s “Liturgical Ensemble”) and serenading Paul in (I believe) Latin. It’s at the end of the video, around the 13-minute mark, and well worth a listen.

The rest of the video is pretty funny and, assuming you like funny (you do), you would probably do well to watch it as well. If you’re as big of a fan of the United Servo Academy as I am, this is a really nice surprise.

Mike Nelson racing an RC car at Rifftrax HQ

Yep, you won’t find a more descriptive post title this side of the Internet, let me tell you what. I’m not really sure why posting this is at all relevant, but since when has being relevant ever been relevant? The Internet is for internetting!

(via TorgosPizza’s twitter)

So, Comic-Con happened — and I got to go!

Well, Comic-Con 2009 is officially over, and what a great time it was! There’s something very special about seeing so many geeks in one place, and this year was no exception. The convention hall was filled to the brim with various nerd treasures, from comic books to elaborate figurines, and even Star Trek perfume!

But of course, the real draw for me  (and Deep Ape!) were the various Rifftrax events that were going on over the weekend. Click past the break to read about it!

Hey. So, Comic-Con is happening…

Heh. Once again, it looks like I’m the slowpoke. I was preparing to type up some sort of Comic-Con post, and the good folks at Satellite News beat me to it, as usual. Instead of rehashing the specifics, I’ll just give you a general rundown of what MST3K-related shenanigans are going down this weekend, and then point you over to the Satellite News post for more details.

Friday, July 24th @ 2:30pm: Mike Salva’s Max The Hero animated short will be shown in room 26AB. The well-received short features the vocal talents of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett. (Here’s my original post about the short.)

Friday, July 24th @ 3pm: Immediately following that, Mike, Bill, and Kevin will be in Sails Pavilion AA8 signing autographs. There’s something about there being a “line ticket drawing” at 10:30am, so you may have to do that first. On Saturday, July 25th at 12pm, there will be a second autograph session in Sails Pavilion AA6. Both sessions will last a couple of hours.

Friday, July 24th @ 7:15pm: It’s a Rifftrax Live show! The usual trio of riffers will be mocking an unnamed short in-person, in Ballroom 6D/E. Presumably, there will also be a Q&A session of some kind, as The Internet’s Veronica Belmont is listed as hosting the panel.

Sunday, July 26th @ 10:30am: You can catch the sole official Comic-Con appearance by a Cinematic Titanic crew member by attending this live performance of The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd podcast, in room 8. TV’s/DVD’s Frank Conniff will be performing one of the show’s characters, as he’s done before.

And throughout the weekend, Rifftrax/Legend Films will be at booth #3251 in the Exhibit Hall. They’ll be peddling plenty of merchandise, and you may even see Mike, Bill, or Kevin lingering around like the unemployed bums they are. Furthermore, if any of this information is still relevant to you, you’re probably at Comic-Con right now and I’m jealous and I hate you.

(Image taken from Amanda Palmer’s Twitter.)

Deep Reviewing: Cinematic Titanic, live in Philly!

I had a brief, 30-second conversation with MST3K creator Joel Hodgson. I had a brief conversation with Joel Hodgson. I talked with Joel Hodgson. I came into contact with Joel Hodgson. Joel… Hodgson.

On June 13th, my 26th birthday, I traveled to the city of Philadelphia to see the Cinematic Titanic crew do a live riffing of Danger on Tiki Island. Let me go ahead and spoil the article for you: It was amazing and you need to go see them live. Seriously. Now. Sell the kids, break out the rollerblades, do whatever it takes to get to a live show. Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic, it doesn’t matter — the Brains and their work were meant to be experienced live. Click past the break for the full report.

(Please note: Due to my lack of a working camera, the header image came from Katy Beaulieu’s cell phone, hence the low quality. [That’s a comment on cell phone cameras, not Katy’s abilities as a photographer.] In case you can’t tell, that’s Trace on the left and me on the right. I look awful, but I photoshopped in a close approximation of how I felt at the time.)

Happy Birthday, Bill Corbett!

Today is Bill Corbett’s 89th* birthday! Looks good for his age, doesn’t he? Why not shoot him a birthday tweet on Twitter and tell him that you don’t hate Crow’s new voice? Deep Ape salutes you, sir.

* Give or take 40 years.

Mike Nelson’s bacon diet makes the local news

Vodpod videos no longer available.

If you’ve been keeping up with Brain-related news — and hopefully you have, despite my prolonged, shameful absence — then you know that Michael J. Nelson has been eating nothing but bacon, for the entire month of February. Why? Because the internet kids love the dead-pig product, and Mike Nelson loves the internet kids.

Evidently, the stunt caught the attention of the local news, and San Diego’s NBC affiliate did a story on Mike’s pork-fest. It now seems that what, to the naked eye, would appear to be suicidal madness, is actually turning out to be kind of beneficial: Mike’s lost some weight, and his blood pressure’s even gone down.

So, assuming that Mike survives the month, what should the Rifftrax crew tackle next? Should March be Bill’s month of chicken? Or maybe Kevin should spend April supping on Slim Jims? Will Cinematic Titanic counter with a month of veggies?

Rifftrax Live! For free! Everywhere!

Are you as fed-up as I am about living in a part of the country devoid of Rifftrax or Cinematic Titanic live shows? Well, now we can complain slightly less, as Mike, Bill, and Kevin will be performing a live riffing of the short Self Conscious Guy via the interwebs, 100% free-of-charge!

The performance is tonight (Thursday, January 15th, for the inattentive) at 9pm EST, and will be broadcast here. There will also be a Q&A session with the guys afterward, utilizing the Ustream chat interface here. So, uh, be there. Or don’t. But you should.

Happy birthday, Kevin Wagner Murphy!

Yes. Wagner.

Our very own Tom Servo No. 2 was born 52 years ago, today. Kevin’s been a favorite of mine, ever since I read his delightful (yes, delightful) A Year At The Movies. Seems like a really awesome guy with a tremendous passion for cinema. So, fellow MiSTies, please join me in saying I HATE TOM SERVO’S NEW VOICE happy birthday to Kevin!

Enjoy some random Kevin-filled videos, after the break.

Rifftrax Live recap: Good news and bad news

Fresh from the Rifftrax crew’s pair of live performances out in Santa Monica last night, Mike Nelson has made a short post on the Rifftrax blog reporting “mission accomplished.” Uh, with some casualties. Oops.

(I mention this only because it strikes me as ridiculously amusing.)

Expanding…

Weekend Backloggery: Hodgson Overdrive edition

Yep, it’s time to bust out the Joel Hodgson stock image. Over this past week, the Cinematic Titanic hype machine has continued to churn away, and Joel has been the one throwing coal on the fire, this time. He has three fairly decent interviews up, which you can check out here:

• UGO TV Blog
• The Toledo Blade
• NewsOK.com Blogging Community

And closing out this short edition of the backloggery, the NewsOK Blogging Community also has a long interview with Trace Beaulieu. Okay, now I’m off to do some writing that doesn’t want to be done.

Monkeyshines: Torgo fondles Mike at Comic-Con ’08

[In case it isn’t clear, “Monkeyshines” posts are simply short, lighthearted posts with no other purpose than to amuse, distract, and allow me to post stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else… like this awesomely disturbing video I stumbled upon.]

The RiffTones take home the Song Fu championship!

In what some would probably say was an inevitable outcome, the über-group consisting of Bill Corbett, Mike Nelson, and Kevin Murphy — aka The RiffTones — has been crowned the champion of Quick Stop’s “Masters of Song Fu” tournament. Despite a vocal minority who will undoubtedly continue to cry foul, The RiffTones defeated talented challenger Jason Morris, 222 votes to 135.

Some might say this was a little unfair, pitting a relatively unknown amateur songwriter up against a mighty triumvirate of geek gods — and they’d be right to say so. But ultimately, Jason’s the one coming out on top, with the nice juicy prize of exposure. Still, the boys at Rifftrax do manage to take home a trophy that is surely made from the finest plastic unicorn-horn ivory. So congrats, everyone.

As usual, hit Quick Stop to download all The Rifftones’ songs.