rimbaudwasademonchild:TV Party, “the TV show that’s a party, but could be a political
rimbaudwasademonchild: TV Party, “the TV show that’s a party, but could be a political party” Conceived by Glenn O’Brien, a former writer of High Times magazine, TV Party was a weekly circus of the absurd broadcasted via public access cable to late night New York, that ran from 1978 to 1982. The shows sometimes comprised a loose theme, with little production or organization, but somehow came together with O’Brien and friends cavorting around a downtown TV studio in slapdash costumes under the auspices of marijuana—most of which was rolled, packed and used on live TV. TV Party friends are now legends. New York personalities such as Deborah Harry, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Byrne, Fab Five Freddy and Klaus Nomi, among others, were frequent guests. Basquiat often delivered glib poem text-projections scrolled onto the live TV broadcast. Byrne and Freddy jammed alongside the freeform TV orchestra, a collection of musicians (including Blondie’s Chris Stein) working with everything from a Quaker oats box and magazine—stack drum kit to kazoos and harmoniums. Rolled into the TV Party foolery were topical issues. The show’s subtle urgency was more than the question of how the participants were going to score their next hit, it was a celebration of television’s democratized expression in the face of large media corporation – polluted programming. O’Brien delivered jibes at media coverage of President Jimmy Carter as well as post-Iran hostage crisis terrorist fear, a fanaticism that is not unlike the pro-American fallout following recent terrorist activities. (x) -- source link