"Previously On" Parodies I Made: Twin Peaks, Battlestar Galactica & Glee

So there's part of me that thinks that all I'm really capable of doing creatively is either a) making fun of things and/or b) making parodies of things. In some ways, I'm like a shitty critic who can't actually write original material but can totally make fun of other people's material. Shame on me! But then there's another part of me (perhaps a part of me that rationalizes things) that feels in making fun of a thing, or parodying it, I'm synergystically creating something new. Sometimes also, the parody comes from a place of appreciation for the source material. This push and pull negotiates territorial control in my brain and sometimes the "make fun of" wins over the "synergystically creating something new" or vice-versa.

On the entertainment podcast Ray of Blight I do with my friend Sacha, we do a segment called *NSYNC Fan Fiction, which is basically us reading aloud from a binder full of some anonymous girl's *NSYNC fan fiction that our friend found at a thrift store here in Chicago. Before we start the reading though, there's a recap of what's happened previously on *NSYNC Fan Fiction. At some point I started making these recap segments into parodies of "previously on" segments from television shows I enjoy. It amuses me that I could take these unrelated things like a boy band from the early aughts and shows like Twin Peaks or Battlestar Galactica and tie them in together. That stimulates the part of my pop culture psychic third eye consciousness that thrives on a good mash up. Edited lunacy, the best kind, especially when there's a poetry that evolves from the pairing of two opposites. Sometimes a hilarious poetry evolves from pairing two things, like when you're reading multiple books at one time and they start to fuse in your head, and then you start drawing awesome connections.

But I flatter myself that my edited lunacy is in any way poetic; sometimes the Weird Al part of my brain wins over the Greil Marcus part of my brain. Occasionally however, I can't separate the two, and those are my favorite moments.

So here are the recaps, in descending starting with the most recent.  I hope you like them!

MC Escher D2P2 Mix Tape July 2012

So my most recent scientifically-tested super special July mix tape is up, which is the perfect upbeat mix for dancing or working out to (if I don't say so myself) Dance Dance Party Party (more info about that dance party style exercise class) mix is up on Soundcloud, where I DJ under the name MC Escher. (Apple killed Mobile Me which was my web host for my own website where I normally upload my sound-related stuff up like mixes, performances and so on). So in the mean time, until I have that up and running, you can download one long mp3 of the mix to listen to/dance/work out to. It starts with a slow warm up part, ends with a last fast song and then there's a cool down song. And for that last fast song, there's a voice that announces it's the last fast song so you know to really work that shit out. I edited them together with cross fades, and some of the songs I just took the money shot, you know, the best part of the song.  click here to go to Soundcloud (or on the image above) to download the mix (or just stream it), and there's a track listing there if you really like something and want to seek it out elsewhere. I usually announce in advance on Facebook when I know I'm going to be DJ-ing so you can come to class and hear it.

Unrelated sidenote: Why did I not think of this perfect DJ name to describe me? Britney Van Halen. Doh!

And final sidenote, even less related: my bike is parked outside the window and people keep dinging my bell on it, which is a little hamburger, and I want to go outside and shout "Paws off the hamburger!" But I would just sound like a crazy person. But really! Paws off the fucking hamburger!!!