Y’ever seen “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ or any Rifftrax’ed movies or Cinematic Titanic?

So, my friends and I made this full-length (over 70 minutes!) alternate commentary for the 1959 travesty “Teenage Zombies”. I’ve put it online for free so anyone can stream it. It doesn’t have any TMBG references in it (that I recall), but it is extremely geeky, with plenty of obscure references.

If you enjoy it, it’s available for offline viewing here.

And because I am myself, I managed to make a Flansburgh / Ira Glass reference in the same sentence:

If you liked this, please share it with your friends.

Watch it in High Definition

I have a new web site. It’s sort of my answer to the persistent requirement to have a professional weblog. I call it Stop Being Broken, and it’s primarily a video podcast about usability.

Here’s an example episode:

I hope you subscribe and enjoy more in the future!

I’ve played the most complete recording I’ve ever encountered on the show already, but since “you asked for it,” here it is again. It’s not complete, but it is a lot more of the song than you usually hear on The Daily Show: Bob Mould, as interpreted by They Might Be Giants: “Dog on Fire”.

If you like that recording, I’ve got a lot more for you in the podcast. Take a listen and see if you might want to be a free subscriber.

While I’ve always found ways to incorporate music from other groups into the show, what if the “they” in “theynow” referred not only to They Might Be Giants, but also to the people they influence. I joked around with Jonathan Coulton on an earlier episode that he and John Hodgman and Sarah Vowell and TMBG and Jon Stewart were all part of an ultra-liberal illuminati cabal bent on world domination. Maybe “they” refers to the entire cabal.

And also, musicians whose style is at least sometimes reminiscent of TMBG like, say, Lemon Demon or songstowearpantsto.com, etc.

The thing about Theynow up to this point is that I let the content decide when the show gets released. There’s not always a lot of recent TMBG content that would make sense to play on the show, especially considering my rule of not playing recordings that are currently for sale.

That’s really as far as I’ve thought on the subject. What do you think?

Enjoy!

I want to record more shows, but we’ve been spending almost every waking moment trying to buy a house. Don’t unsubscribe me, and I won’t unsubscribe you.

I’ve received a few well-deserved questions about why I haven’t updated since around the time the TV show “Lost” took a vacation.  Long story short: I broke my equipment.

See, I had acquired this really sweet microphone, with a swing-arm and a pop filter and a sound board and everything. I got cables and fed everything into the “Microphone In” on the laptop and my sound engineer friend helped me fine-tune the sound. Then, the next time I tried to plug the cable in, the end of it snapped off inside the laptop. I have no idea how to get it out.

Additionally, I’m switching employers, so I won’t even have this computer for much longer. I didn’t really have time to send it in for repairs.

The good news is that I just ordered a USB condenser microphone, which I should have working within a week. Also, people have sent me in some great music lately, which helps.

Thanks for your continued patience.

This is your open invitation to send in suggestions for questions, praise, comments and/or conversation starters for me to present to the band.

The problem’s been fixed. For real, this time.

I recorded the audio of myself talking to the group, and then later synched it up with a movie I made of myself flipping through the screens of the presentation. It hardly gets more meta than that ;)

The original presentation screens are also available if you want to go through it at your own pace and/or get at the links embedded in the presentation.

Incidentally, does anybody want to guess what new “song” is being played in the background on the new episode?

No word yet on whether this is still the official TMBG audioblog, though ;)

Now, I have no desire to compete with the band in terms of publicity. I was just trying to fill an empty space with Theynow, and I’m a little concerned that Their content might overlap with mine.

Frankly, I’m surprised that I got my show up before They did. I guess I’ll just have to listen along with the rest of you and adapt my show to complement Theirs, instead of compete with it.

At least I’ve got this sort of comment going for me: “I found you after I received the latest official TMBG email which said they’re preparing their own official podcast. So I went to iTunes and there you were.” Future searches for “TMBG” will list me and Them together. That’s kinda sexy.

I also want to say thank you to everyone who has written to approve of the show. I’ve gotten specific comments on my voice ranging from “pleasant” and “Ira Glass-like” to “isn’t annoying.” I was worried that if anything would screw up the show, it would be my own voice. So far, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Thanks, again.

I’m continually trying to improve the sound quality, format and flow of the show. Let me know if you have any recommendations for the future. Again, thanks for listening!

Hello?