Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 58 minutes ago
The Beautiful Puffin
|
fame ELECTRICITY s2e17
🔇 TAP TO UNMUTE
![The Drum Buddy Show (1999) [Quintron, Miss Pussycat, Ernie K-Doe]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qyB716dDU7I/mqdefault.jpg "The Drum Buddy Show (1999) [Quintron, Miss Pussycat, Ernie K-Doe]
NOTES FROM THE ORIGINAL VHS PACKAGING – 1999, RHINESTONE RECORDS:
“Mr. Quintron, the dance club organist and inventor from New Orleans, Louisiana, introduces you to his latest patented invention, The Drum Buddy! This amazing new instrument is a five oscillator, light-activated, mechanically-rotating drum machine that took five years to develop and design. The multitude of sounds it produces are a result of a direct link between the human hand and sheer electronic voltage! Taped live in front of a studio audience at the Spellcaster Lodge in the 9th Ward, this classic TV infomercial takes you from the classroom of a local high school to the stage of a late-night rave. The Drum Buddy Show includes performances by Quintron, Miss Pussycat (and her puppets), MC Tracheotomy, the Drum Buddy Dancers, and legendary R&B recording artist Ernie K-Doe.”
Released in early 1999, The Drum Buddy show – half spoof, half real infomercial – captures a special time in the New Orleans underground / weirdo scene. Ernie K-Doe, who scored a #1 hit in 1961 with the song “Mother In Law”, was at the beginning of an epic comeback, and the bohemian fantasy world of New Orleans’ 9th Ward was reaching creative Zenith. That scene was anchored around several “speakeasy” clubs, including The Spellcaster Lodge where the show was filmed. Quintron has been at the front end of a DIY analog synth revival since his days in Chicago in the mid-1990s. Add in Jay Poggi (aka MC Tracheotomy) and surrealist performers Bebe McPherson and Eric “E.P.” Pierson, who portray the hosts, and you’ve got one crazy show! Drum Buddy Show director, Rick Delaup is a native New Orleanian who has devoted his life to documenting, preserving, and participating in “eccentric” New Orleans culture. He is perhaps best known for his documentary about Ruthie the Duck Lady, a French Quarter character who can be seen here in the studio audience, and his work towards a New Orleans Burlesque revival in the 1990s.")
![Chill Lofi Hooking and Humming [51m]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tQO6YkmAAuA/mqdefault.jpg "Chill Lofi Hooking and Humming [51m]
Chill Lofi Hooking and Humming [51m]")
![Funkadelic - I Got A Thing [on Upbeat!]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uNXfss7YdNM/mqdefault.jpg "Funkadelic - I Got A Thing [on Upbeat!]
Funkadelic - I Got A Thing [on Upbeat!]")
![Büsi AKA Kitty (Fischli & Weiss) [USA/Switzerland] [2001]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v1isixMFq-U/mqdefault.jpg "Büsi AKA Kitty (Fischli & Weiss) [USA/Switzerland] [2001]
One of the most enduring and endearing aspects of the work of Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss is how it exhibits their fondness for everyday things.
The video Büsi (Kitty) features a close-up of a cat lapping milk in a domestic environment. It was originally exhibited on an oversized video screen in New Yorks Times Square as part of a public art program, The 59th Minute: Video Art on the Times Square Astrovision. Given that this public space is usually reserved for slick commercials and news programming, it was an incongruous setting for a video of a cat deciding to pause for something to drink.
While the lush, high-definition quality of the Büsi video suggests a commercial for a pet product, the lack of a soundtrack, deliberate overexposure, and slapdash framing give the work the look of an amateur video of a family pet. By simply changing the frame of reference, by restaging the commonplace within the landscape of art and/or commerce, Fischli and Weiss make the ordinary seem extraordinary.
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art")
![Borghesia - Cindy Sherman (1985) [from their Tako Mladi VHS]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/v2JcfMB7rR0/mqdefault.jpg "Borghesia - Cindy Sherman (1985) [from their Tako Mladi VHS]
Borghesia - Cindy Sherman (1985) [from their Tako Mladi VHS]")
