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?

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)

MST3K: Vol. XVI is out now

Hey, guess what came out today? Mystery Science Theater came out today. Specifically, the sixteenth volume of four-DVD box sets, released by Shout Factory. The set includes episodes Night of the Blood Beast, The Corpse Vanishes, Santa Claus, and Warrior of the Lost World. There are also a few substantial movie-related extras included and, if you act fast, a small Tom Servo figurine to accompany Shout Factory’s previous Crow figurine. All in all, a pretty solid set.

Once again, if you plan on picking this up from Amazon, I would ask that you use this link to help support this site, or more to the point, support me. One of the reasons for my absence has been a slew of ridiculous health problems. Currently, I’m barely functional and on painkillers, though I should hopefully be up and running before Christmas. So, if you prefer Amazon for your Christmas shopping, please head there via this link, if you’d be so kind. Thank you.

Like video games? Like MST3K? You might like this

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Gaming Today recently highlighted a video series from the excellent video gaming site The Escapist called Unskippable. In it, two guys watch video game trailers and cut-scenes and attempt to provide witty commentary over it. It’s essentially Rifftrax Presents for the gamer crowd. And judging from the few episodes I watched, it has the same hit-or-miss ratio as a Mike-, Bill-, or Kevin-less Rifftrax Presents episode.

Of course, that isn’t to say it’s bad. It’s just not amazing. The clip I embedded above has them taking on a trio of trailers. The first and third are actually pretty funny and reasonably smart. Definitely worth checking out, if your hunger for riffs is insatiable.

Oh hi, Deep Ape — I’m back!

Did I ever tell you guys (that is, if anyone is still reading) that I was going to be Internetless for a while? Well, I was, and now I’m back! Try not to get too excited! I managed to make it out to a Cinematic Titanic live show in Philly, so you can expect a recap over the next couple of days. I’m in the process of moving, so bear with me, but I hope to return to normal operations soon.

In the meantime, the guys from Rifftrax recently released a commentary for The Room, a movie that I (somehow) didn’t even know existed. It looks glorious, as you can see in the above preview clip. Enjoy!

Mike Nelson’s bacon diet makes the local news

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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.

New Cinematic Titanic: “Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks”

A new Cinematic Titanic episode has been confirmed for January. The tastefully titled Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks will be released on DVD and digital download-to-burn on the 8th of the month. You can see the just-released trailer above.

A quick note and apology: I’ve been having some health concerns over the holidays, so posting will probably continue to be lackluster for a while. When things pick up again, I’ll have a couple of Cinematic Titanic reviews going up, and hopefully some Rifftrax, too. My apologies to anyone who cares about this.

Cinematic Titanic releases new “Santa Claus” trailer

Josh just sent out this hilarious trailer for the November 20th release of Cinematic Titanic’s take on the old MST3K classic, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Judging from the riffs included in the trailer, this episode is looking like a good one. (Especially the last line. Ell-oh-ell, indeed.) I can’t wait to see their take on it.

Introducing the Deep Ape TV beta, streaming MST3K 24/7!

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Ladies and gentlemen, I’m very pleased to announce a brand-spanking new feature on Deep Ape: a streaming video channel! I hope to provide a regular place to view MST3K-related videos all day, all week, all month, and all year long. Try it out by clicking the black box at the top of this post a couple of times, and the channel should kick in. (Hopefully.)

Surely, this must look like witchery to your eyes, but nay! The channel is hosted on a site called Mogulus, which allows anyone to create their own streaming video channel. Most of the clips are taken from YouTube, which means that I am but a DJ making playlists. Basically, don’t give me too much credit, here. I just thought this would be a nice service to provide.

Mogulus is still in beta, so there may be some glitches and the occasional downtime. Sadly, I have very little control over everything and, frankly, this is all new to me anyway, so anything could go wrong on my end. Just bear with me and let me know if anything goes a little too wrong. I also encourage you to visit the channel’s page and chat with others while you watch. You can also embed it on your own site.

I have yet to finalize the schedule, but first up will be a week or two of Halloween-related episodes and clips, some of which are running now. The schedule will play in a continuous loop, and I’ll be adding and subtracting clips over time. Any major updates will be posted on the blog. So, enjoy!

Free Lou Ferrigno/Bill Bixby Rifftrax for everyone!

In case you missed it, Rifftrax has continued its dabbling in the field of combining Rifftrax with video and passing the savings on to you. They’ve now partnered with Overcast Media for a test-run of a new (old) style of riffing, taking free-and-legal video from Hulu.com, and using Overcast to automatically sync in the Rifftrax commentary.

Their first attempt can be found here, a riffing of an episode of the classic Incredible Hulk TV series, starring Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby. And best of all, the cost is absolutely free. In all honesty, I wasn’t that enthused by the riffing, but if this means more free riffs, then I’m all for it. (Word of caution, though: The Hulu servers are getting smashed, so the video may not work is temporarily down. Also, there may be syncing problems. If so, check the forums for assistance.)

The KTMA pilot exists — and here it is!

You might have heard that the Cinematic Titanic cast was on-hand for the recent 32nd Archon convention in St. Louis. And you know, that’s just wonderful. Always good to see ’em. But the real news to come out of the convention? The original, never-before-seen KTMA pilot for Mystery Science Theater was shown in its entirety at the panel, with an introduction and some commentary by the Cinematics.

Someone was smart enough to video-tape the event, and the Digital Archive Project was kind enough to get a digital copy out to the interwebs. You can torrent it through this locale (registration required).  I also uploaded the 18-minute video to Google Video, and you can watch it above. The quality isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot better than what we had a month ago — which was nothing.

Watching it, you can easily see why the cast and crew never wanted anyone to watch these early episodes, once they got their riff-groove. Really, the pilot is just a proof-of-concept video, with almost nothing in the way of riffing. Still, the skits (which we’ve seen in clips before) are charming, and the event is definitely a huge moment in MST history. This also means that Jim Mallon must be softening up…

(Thanks to P. Keller, who finally got me off my ass to post this.)

New trailer for Trace Beaulieu’s “Triptosane”

A proper trailer has shown up for the independent film Triptosane, which features Trace Beaulieu as the voice of a nutty computer. The trailer isn’t too Trace-heavy, but it’s got enough to satisfy your “Trace Beaulieu doing the voice of a snarky machine” needs. I honestly have no idea what the premise of the film is, but it looks Overdrawn At The Memory Bank goofy. And in my book, that’s a good thing.

Language is a little NSFW, so don’t turn the volume up if you’re in a place of worship.

SDCC: Film School Rejects interviews Jim and Joel

As you can see, I’ve been away for a while. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been in the process of moving to a new house, and Comic-Con couldn’t have come at a worse time. So, pardon me if I post a late Comic-Con article or two. (Though, fortunately, Queen Shadowrama was kind enough to do a little bit of the heavy lifting with her two excellent posts.)

Film School Rejects found time to sit down with Joel Hodgson and Jim Mallon during the con. It’s a pleasant little interview, and there’s no visible Midwestern rage or awkwardness between the two papa Brains. That is, no awkwardness apart from the awkwardness you get when you interview two quiet, unassuming Midwestern gentlemen. And Joel has some comforting words for us, re: a reunion show.