Showing posts with label Meat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meat. Show all posts

Friday, September 4, 2009

Bubjunior Commercials (1991)

While at CW Post, Joe made a couple of fake commercials for Bubjunior Productions...

NUDE AND DISMEMBERED COMMERCIAL (1991)



BEST OF BUBJUNIOR COMMERCIAL (1991)



You may have noticed Joe mention Bubjunior Productions' GUESS WHO’S COMING TO BRUNCH? during that last commercial. Well that was a short film we made in 1990...which I'm not posting. Why? Because it's downright immature and offensive and certain members of the party probably wouldn't want certain scenes out there on the world wide interweb. But I will give you the lowdown...

GUESS WHO’S COMING TO BRUNCH? concerns a group of friends (Steve Zielinski, Joe Kollar, Kevin Purcell, Andy Christou) who get a mysterious knock at the door from Death. No one knows who Death is there to see...maybe all of them? Each character then has his own flashback (a la Wayne's World) depicting the reason Death may be calling for him. The reasons are absurd; from obesity to mucus leakage. In the end, it was just me behind the door playing a practical joke on them.


Out of all the Bubjunior movies, this is the worst of them. Though, being conceived and executed in one night, it was never meant to be anything more than just something to pass the time and giggle about.

Oh...and Meat supplied the soundtrack.

©1991 Bubjunior Productions

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

A Barking Spider Christmas (1988)

December of '88 turned out to be a busy month for Barking Spiders – two shows at Diamond Lil's, playing for sick kids at North Shore Hospital, and lastly... A Barking Spider Christmas. A Barking Spider Christmas was our take on the old Andy Williams/Perry Como Christmas specials. We all wore sweaters, performed "Jingle Bells", exchanged gifts, sang Christmas carols with friends, and Santa even dropped by The Lovely Basement for a visit. It started with a loose script and was largely improvised as the camera rolled...which shows. And without access to editing equipment – this was 1988 after all – it was shot in sequence using only first-takes...which also shows. This was our first attempt at movie making...something we'd do more of in the future – which is why this blog exists.

A Barking Spider Christmas runs around 22 minutes so I had to post it to YouTube in 3 parts (due to their 10 minute rule). Here's part 1...


Part 1 details: (Barking Spider introductions, "Jingle Bells", Budweiser commercial starring Dirt from Meat, and a unique rendition of "The 12 Days Of Christmas".)


To clue you in on a couple of the inside jokes during part 1... The first is the faux Budweiser commercial starring Dirt from Meat (click here for Meat's story). The other inside joke is Kevo singing "...and a Fender amp that farts all day!" during "The 12 Days Of Christmas". Basically, Kevo's amp (actually Joe Kollar's amp...or should I now say Steve Zielinski's amp?) was on the fritz so it made farting noises...all day long...hence the line.

Here's Part 2 of A Barking Spider Christmas...


Part 2 details: (Barking Spiders exchange Christmas gifts, Kevo gets some coal, and Jim – in a solo spot – lip-syncs to Bing Crosby's "White Christmas".)


And here's Part 3 of A Barking Spider Christmas...


Part 3 details: (Friends arrive, lots of big hair, "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" is sung with some egg nog spillage, a drunk and frisky Santa arrives, "Frosty the Snowman" is sung with some confusion, and a "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" finale.)


And here's a documentary looking back on the making of A Barking Spider Christmas...some 15 years later...with the original cast, including Mr. Rice our high school teacher whose classroom the movie premiered in...




Here's some photos from A Barking Spider Christmas...


And here we are sitting down to watch A Barking Spider Christmas directly after filming it...


A Barking Spider Christmas

Starring...

Jim Burns as Jim Bones
Frank Fusco as The Lovely Frank
Kevin Purcell as Kevo
John Hoffman as Johnny Stitches
Joe Kollar as Santa
Plus a cast of thousands

Directed by Joe Kollar & Frank Fusco

©1988 Bubjunior Productions

A Barking Spider Christmas also marked the beginning of Bubjunior Productions. It was our fake production company that Joe and I would use on several future videos. The name was another inside joke, this time from a wild weekend trip we took to Watkins Glen. For more on that click here.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Meat (1988)

On the days Jim didn't show up for Barking Spiders practice the guys rented The Lovely Basement to legendary underground band Meat. Meat consisted of Ron Dirthum (a.k.a. Dirt) on vocals and bass, Franklin Yes on guitar, and Meet (with two e's) on drums. They were an improvisational concept band. The concept being the tortured soul of Dirt.

"Bruises and moss keep me warm, they love me."

Being an orphan himself, Dirt developed an unhealthy infatuation with comic strip character Little Orphan Annie. She was his muse and her presence bled into many Meat songs (ie: "Trophies", "Little Little Annie Reprise"). Cut off from the outside world, Dirt spent the whole of 3 years locked in a cabin writing and recording a 6 hour rock opera, "Life Without Warbucks", based on the perils of Little Orphan Annie. Upon it's completion Dirt left the reel to reel master tapes on the doorstep of St. Ann's Orphanage in Worcester, Massachusetts. Many consider this act to be the beginning of Meat's decline.

"Constipation takes my soul."

Against his doctor's orders, Dirt miraculously held it together for the tour of Meat's 24th studio album, A Big Mac Is A Big Mac Is A Big Mac – later to be released as a live album. The day the tour ended in Prague, a fatigued Dirt got on the 6:16 train and was never seen or heard from again.

[DOWNLOAD] Meat - A Big Mac Is A Big Mac Is A Big Mac (Big Mac Tour '88)
01- Trophies
02- Dirty Me
03- Meat
04- Beard
05- Little Little Annie (reprise)
06- Caveman Anus
07- Muck
08- Rock & Roll Crotch Rot
09- Love Me Doo
10- I Am God


Where are they now?

FRANKLIN YES: Franklin was the first to dive back into music. During his daily pilgrimage to the zoo, Franklin became obsessed with a troupe of performing seals...two in particular. He immediately formed a band around Mr. Whiskers on nose horns, and the vocal talents of Marigold – whom Franklin often compared to a young Ethel Merman. The trio released one album in 1990: Seals...In the Key of F (Franklin had shortened his name to the letter "F" to distance himself from his Meat days). Critics used the name change as writing fodder and unanimously gave the album an "F" – though it was highly celebrated amongst the local seal population. But the incessant clapping of flippers just wasn't enough. Creative differences and a bizarre love triangle finally broke the band apart. Franklin Yes was last seen busking for change in the streets of Manhattan.

MEET: After the collapse of Meat, Meet went "Hollywood". For a while he was the who's-who at all the who's-who after parties. But life in the fast lane finally caught up. His very public and lurid, on-again-off-again, love affair with Morgan Fairchild left Meet on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He threw himself back into music and in '93 recorded, You're Not So Fair, Child – a double album drum solo. At a press conference on the day it was released, Meet vowed to never play music again. He now resides in Montana and lives off the land.

DIRT: Unknown.