Finally, my favorite video on the internet. Stairway to Stardom was a public access show which aired in New York from 1979 to the early 90s. Credited as a precursor to Star Search and American Idol, it served the local neighborhoods and gave anyone and everyone a platform to showcase their talent. I implore you to leave your irony at the door and consider the remarkable talent required to be brave enough to go on TV to broadcast your private passions, and playful enough to smile when you don’t get it quite right. There are superstars amongst us, and they show it in the smallest acts of kindness, the plain-sight artistry of everyday life and the humility required to be a part of a community. Let’s all try to inject a little Michael Daniel Baez into this crazy period we’re living through and love a song so much we have to sing aloud, to take pleasure in our voices and sing together in harmony (even if it’s a little off-key). Stay safe, everyone. <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRpV17JQTIk
#marvelousmoviemondays

Well, one day late but still good. Please forgive my tardiness, I was detained by a mild fever and a severe panic. As we all lockdown in our homes, we are streaming more than ever. Netflix is curbing the quality it streams videos across Europe to ease the sudden burden on the internet providers. What better time to reflect on the nature of Television than when we are fully immersed and more embedded in TV reality than our own?
Enter Jaime Davidovich, an Argentinian-American performance artist and public access television pioneer. From Wikipedia: “The Live! Show, a weekly public-access television program with a variety show format that appropriated the formal norms of television along with avant-garde performances, artwork, political satire, and social commentary. The program featured interviews and performance work by visiting artists, including Laurie Anderson, Eric Bogosian, Tony Oursler, and Michael Smith, along with musical performances, ersatz commercials, and viewer participation via live call-in segments. Presiding over the show’s disparate collaborative elements was Davidovich’s own satirical character, ‘Dr. Videovich, specialist in curing television addiction,’ whom the New York Times’ television critic John J. O’Connor described as ‘a persona somewhere between Bela Lugosi and Andy Kaufman.'” An early deconstruction of television and its role in the culture industry through the medium itself, below you will find a link to a clip from an episode, and after that a little doc about the man, the myth and the legendary show that is now pretty hard to track down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDA7ZCZ2mEw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZKURQ0sZ6o

I think today it is best to keep it light. Astrology offers many comforts to people in uncertain times, and music and dance are always a salve for the soul. I ask that you please suspend all irony and think about the human desire to be creative, and the opportunities afforded to us to express that creativity through public means. If you want to know more about how this came to be, you can read about it here: https://www.weirdomusicforever.com/…/harvey-sid-fisher-gets…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKO1t97di1I