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.

The Incredibly Strange Filmmaker Who Stopped Living

Pardon the juvenile headline, but I think it’s what Ray would’ve wanted.

The infamous director of The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, Ray Dennis Steckler, passed away last Wednesday. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. He was 70. Steckler had just finished post-production on the sequel to Strange Creatures, subtitled One More Time. The original film is one of the most loved and hated Mystery Science Theater episodes.

Say what you will about Steckler’s films and his approach to filmmaking — he may have acted somewhat self-importantly at times, he may have lacked talent in areas — but the man appeared to truly love film. He was never especially fond of MST3K’s use and treatment of Strange Creatures, particularly taking issue with the riffs centered around his wife, who portrayed the somewhat masculine dancer.

Ray was also good friends with Arch Hall, Jr., the protagonist of Eegah, a film in which Steckler’s acting persona, “Cash Flagg,” also appeared briefly. Wikipedia has a good summary of Ray’s career. One More Time releases direct-to-DVD in June 2009.

R.I.P. Beverly Garland

This is a little late, but I need to post about it. Last week, actress Beverly Garland passed away at the age of 81. Beverly was beloved amongst the cast of MST3K for her ballsy characters in such films as Gunslinger and It Conquered The World. She also proved to be a good sport, appearing at the first official MST3K convention. She seemed like a real treasure, and it’s an absolute shame to see her go.

Monkeyshines: No Kosugi like Sho Kosugi

Sunday irrelevance: ninja movie flowchart [Boing Boing Gadgets]

Martha Stewart drinks MST3K’s milkshake

The intertubes are all abuzz about Whatever, Martha!, so you’ve probably heard about this already.  Apparently, Martha Stewart has given the thumbs-up to this show, which will involve two women — Alexis Stewart (Martha’s daughter) and Jennifer Koppelman Hutt (daughter of the chairman of Martha’s empire, and no relation to Jabba The) — poking fun at clips of Martha’s 1990s TV show. Sound familiar?

Evidently, Martha herself came up with the concept, after watching some late-night reruns of Mystery Science Theater. So, either this idea has been stewing in Martha’s well-kept brain for almost ten years, or she has created her own private TV network that still shows MST3K episodes. The latter would be less surprising.

Whatever, Martha! debuts on September 16th, and will air on the Fine Living network, which apparently exists. Frankly, I hold no hope for it. Sure, Martha’s ripe for riffing, but when the riffers are her daughter and her top employee’s daughter? Despite Fine Living’s claims of the commentary being “candid and often acerbic,” I’m voting guilty until proven innocent.

Monkeyshines: Vampira works the crowd

Came across this fantastic picture of Vampira recently, presumably mugging it up for some young fans. I just felt like sharing it. And I feel like this sort of post should have a title. Like “Deep Photos” or “Apetography,” or… Okay, I’ll stop.

Also, I know I’m really behind in posting. I’ll try to catch up!

Late-Night Thoughts

So, it’s 4AM over here, and I’m looking through the blog’s visitor statistics, before I head to bed. And I notice something. Something that leads me to a question that is sure to puzzle me through ’til the morning: Why is there a sudden influx of people coming to this site via searches for Beowulf and naked pictures of Angelina Jolie?

True enough, my post about Beowulf‘s Rifftrax did mention Angelina Jolie’s CGI nakedness from the film, but why now? Am I missing something? I mean, granted, a naked Angelina Jolie is never something to be scoffed at, but I’m just perplexed as to why the planets having seemingly aligned and driven everyone to search for epic poems and topless adoption fanatics. Is it the work of one sad man, or of many? What happened over the course of the past two days to create this surge?

Shrug. Honestly, this isn’t even one of the weirder ones.

Pain don’t hurt, but this Swayze tattoo does

See that picture up there? You can probably tell me what it depicts, right? If you said that it’s a tattoo of Patrick Swayze, you’d be right. And if you said that a tattoo of Patrick Swayze sounds both horrifying and completely amazing, you’d also be right. I mean, just look at it. However, though it may go unnoticed in this particular image, there is… something more to this tattoo. Much, much more.

Is it the criss-crossing rainbows behind Patrick? The mystical purple sky? His Chippendales outfit? Not quite. You may have noticed what appears to be a black tail of some kind, in the right-hand corner. Could he be riding a mighty stallion, or a pretty pony? Oh, you’re not far off. And yet, you’re so very far off.

The full picture is after the jump, and I’ll remind you that it cannot be unseen. Thank you, Patrick Keller and EW.com, for the nightmare fuel.

Twitter: A place for geeks

As you know, four fifths of Cinematic Titanic are currently at Super-Con in San Jose. Wil Wheaton also has a table there, and I couldn’t help but laugh giddily at a couple of his recent Twitter updates:

Dude. I’m across the aisle from the MST3K guys. Jorge Garcia just snuck past the table for a picture with Tom Servo and Crow. Surreal.

As a Lost fanatic, I squee’d. And even better:

OMFG Joel Hodgson just hollered at me, “Oh my god, Wil! You’re a man!” I shouted back, “I know! It’s so weird!” Totally chuffed right now.

It’s like an orgy of geeky awesomeness. I swear, if I ever move out to the West Coast, I will be a convention fiend. Anyone want to set me up with plane tickets, a place to stay, and an awesome job? Because I’ll let you, you know.

If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m right here. Because I’m so fascinating.

Weekend Internets: John Philip Law Edition

Well, now’s as good a time as any to keep tabs on what the internet’s saying about MST3K and its offspring. I’ll probably start making these posts more often, whenever I have a small surplus of links building up. So, onward.

[+] Dude, the drugs on this planet are, like… whoa…
Gawker’s new, shamefully enjoyable sci-fi blog, io9, recently highlighted the film Phantom Planet. There’s a couple of videos and, naturally, an MST mention.

[+] Super-Con article on MetroActive
California site MetroActive has a good article up on the Cinematic Titanic crew’s appearance at Super-Con, this weekend. It’s a surprisingly beefy article, even touching on Frank’s Cartoon Dump project.

[+] Movie reviews: a big one and a small one
With the rerelease of MST3K: The Movie on DVD comes a batch of new DVD reviews. OhmyNews International wrote a lengthy review, while CanMag posted a short one. Both reviews are typical: The Movie is good, though not the series’ high point; and the DVD is anemic, but welcome.

[+] It’s a John Philip Lawlapalooza!
This morning, I stumbled across a rather impressive video of an intro to what is apparently a documentary about the recently deceased John Philip Law, titled The Swinging Lust World of John Philip Law. I’ve embedded it after the break, along with even more John Philip Law than you can shake a stick at. Did you know he was in a movie called “Doctor Justice”? Oh hell yeah.

John Philip Law, R.I.P.

It seems that, sadly, Kalgan has been taken away from us. John Philip Law, the actor responsible for the notable MST3K-movie roles of the sneaky Diabolik and Space Mutiny‘s evil Kalgan, has passed away at the age of 70. Law is probably more commonly known for his role as the blind angel in Barbarella. I quite enjoyed his memorable work in Diabolik, Space Mutiny, and Barbarella and I’m sorry to see him go. His cause of death is currently unknown.

The LA Times has a pretty interesting obituary here.

Veronica Belmont Supports Her Local Rifftrax

[“Real-life” commitments have been occupying me this week, so I apologize for the lack of updates. I’ll be playing catch-up for a few days. Thank you, all, for your patience and/or your apathy.]

Host of Mahalo Daily, and one of my beloved geek crushes, Veronica Belmont recently gave a shout-out to Mike N Tha Gang at Rifftrax, on her personal blog. This isn’t really huge news, but I think it’s pretty sweet when a notable person (and yes, ye ignorant masses, she is “internet famous,” which sounds sad but it’s really not) acknowledges MST3K and its riff-children. It helps me feel less alone in my MSTieness. Now, someone should really inform her about Cinematic Titanic.

Kevin also noticed this endorsement. Also, apparently Veronica was voted Sexiest Geek of the Year, recently. I’m not sure how this happened, as I haven’t once seen her pose for pictures in a state of undress, or sensually licking a new tech gadget of some sort. Must be a mistake or something. (She’s also only a year older than me. Man, I feel past my prime, sometimes.)

Ladies of MST3K #2: Allison Hayes

Way back when I started this blog — darn, missed the anniversary! — one of the first posts I made was about the birthday of Ms. Kathy Ireland. After I made the post, I realized there were a number of women from MST3K movies that I was quite fond of, for one reason or another. And so, the Ladies of MST3K feature was born. I managed one more post but, sadly, it mostly died on the spot.

This past Thursday, however, was the birthday of one of my favorite MST3K dreamgirls, Allison Hayes. So, it’s time for me to break out the defibrillator and pump some life back into this feature. If you click past the cut break, you’ll find some info on Ms. Hayes, as well as my fanboyish droolings. And pictures. Saucy, saucy pictures.

Patrick Swayze: Five Weeks To Live? [UPDATED]

Some considerably somber news, here. It seems that Patrick Swayze may only have five weeks to live. The star of Mike Nelson’s favorite movie, Road House, has had pancreatic cancer for a while, and it looks as though the treatments may be going nowhere. Now, this news comes from The National Enquirer, so take it with a grain of salt. However, pancreatic cancer is a tough cancer to beat, so it doesn’t sound too unlikely. If true, then this is sad news for MSTies and fans of such classics as Road House and Point Break. God be with you, Mr. Swayze.

UPDATE: As one might’ve expected coming from The National Enquirer, it seems the “five weeks” allegations are untrue. The only reason I posted about The Enquirer’s story is because legitimate news sources were also doing so. Should’ve known better. Either way, Patrick’s clearly going through a rough time, something which I wasn’t previously aware of. I still wish him the best.

Rifftrax Releases Even More Political Ads

Even though I live in a dark, dank hole in the ground and I’ve never known the touch of a woman, even I have to admit to quite thoroughly enjoying the last batch of political ad parodies from Mike Nelson and the Rifftrax crew. Thankfully, it seems that they’ve just pulled another fresh batch out of the oven, and this bunch is — dare I say it — even better than the first. This time around, there are seven clips and maybe — just maybe — they’ll warm your empty, malodorous heart too.

I’ve embedded them all after the cut, including a long PSA from Hillary that I must’ve missed from the first batch. It’s also worth noting that Kevin and Bridget join Mike on some of these videos. (Kevin’s hilarious video is at the top of the post.)