Atomic TV talked to Red Light District 19-year-old porn ingenue RANDI WRIGHT at the 2004 Home Entertainment Retail Convention held in Baltimore’s Convention Center‚ where California gal Randi revealed her love of BUM FIGHTS and said one of her sex scenes was added to the Paris Hilton Sex Tape to make an otherwise lame tape “masturbation-friendly” and give it more bang-for-the-buck. Now that’s a tape we call “hands-on instructional”!
Atomic TV covered the East Coast Video Show when it moved from Atlantic City and came to Baltimore’s Convention Center – rebranded as the Home Entertainment Retail Expo – in 2004‚ before disappearing completely for a number of years (we think it resurfaced recently as Exxxotic Expo in Edison‚ NJ). Whatever. This is a clip of some of the talent on display‚ from a long abandoned episode that vanished all too quickly. (Kinda like the ECVS! Um‚ and kinda like Atomic TV!)
We certainly liked the newcomers we met in the above clip‚ like Red Light District’s Keri Sable (age 18 at the time) and Randi Wright (age 19). You can also see randy Randi in this bizarre promo clip (for erotic furniture?) we found on the Internets.
“What the Hey?”
“Good morning‚ Mrs. Lady. I’m selling Scout cookies – would you be interested in purchasing a box?”
Discovered by Scott Huffines during his Atomic Books tape-trading days‚ this is easily the strangest stop-motion animation clip we’ve ever seen – or aired. Yes‚ it was originally included as an extra on Atomic TV’s “1997 East Coast Video Show” episode.
Tom loves the disembodied Indian head doll the best; he can’t watch Will Sampson (Chief Bromden in “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest”) now without seeing this bizarro image!
Mark Linthicum (aka “Mark Harp” or “Harpo”) was born today‚ October 1’‚ in 1947 and passed away Christmas Eve of 2004 at age 47. This is one of the last remaining clips of him playing with The Tralalas at the 2004 Hampden HonFest. Had he lived‚ he would have been 5’ today. His music remains timeless. R.I.P. Harpo!
Atomic TV interviewed one of the notorious Bum Fights guys at the 2004 Home Entertainment Retail Expo (9-21-04) at the Baltimore Convention Center. Bum Fights liked Baltimore’s bums‚ seeing real star potential in Charm City’s street beat. Later‚ Tom and Scott tried out for the Bum Fights Fellini‚ but they weren’t classy enough.
Atomic TV covered Atlantic City’s East Coast Video Show religiously until they got regular jobs and setteled down to a lives of quiet desperation. A look back at the days of hardcore yore…
DEAD AIR Video Exhibition (Feb 17’– Mar 2’‚ 2009)
Metro Gallery‚ 1700 N. Charles Street
www.themetrogallery.net
www.mypspace.com/metrogallery
Exhibit Opening: THE END of Analog Party (Feb 17‚ 2009)
Metro Gallery‚ 1700 N Charles St
Doors 8pm‚ Show 9pm; $6‚ Light snacks‚ Cash bar
Bands: Lo Moda‚ Plans Plans‚ and Edie Sedgwick
VJs: Joe Reinsel‚ Chris LaMartina‚ and Guy Werner
Exhibiting Video Artists: Vin Grabill‚ Atomic TV‚ Phil Davis‚ Kristen Anchor‚ and Preston Poe
What a fitting event for an Atomic TV retrospective: a farewell party for the archaic medium of analog video featuring a long dormant TV show that’s been pretty much dead and decomposing for the past 4 years (Atomic TV‚ b. June 1997’– d. February 2005)! Atomic TV’s heyday was roughly 1997 to 2000. In the New Millenium‚ Scott Huffines and I only turned in a few sporadic “holiday” and “special” episodes (“The Thanksgiving Episode” “The Black History Month Episode” “Atomic TV Shorts‚” “The Mark Harp Memorial Episode‚” and the “2004 Election Political Episode”)‚ a result of various factors including unemployment‚ new employment‚ spending too much time at the racetrack‚ and The Rape of the Tapes Incident (when some feckless and unapologetic city cable employees tossed out about 30 Atomic TV episodes that were stored in their offices). Plus‚ the rise of Internet video streaming technology‚ viral video sites like YouTube‚ and the whole conversion from analog to digital technology took its aesthetic and financial toll and made us kind of redundant(Atomic TV was mostly shot on S-VHS video and edited on “cuts-only” S-VHS VCRs). Whatever. Atomic TV got derailed and only through this event have we gotten back on track to put together a “gallery background video clips” reel. This event has given us the opportunity to go back and dig through the hundreds of hours of video muck we created and find the best slices of the mud pie we hurled at Baltimore’s late-night cable TV audience back in the day. It’s been fun and we hope you think so too.
–Tom Warner‚ Accelerated Decrepitude
Atomic TV’s 1999 Holiday Special: ”Underdog Battles Satan Claus”
Atomic TV’s “Tribute to Natty Boh” plus ”The Atomic Cocktail Hours”
Atomic TV 2009’“Dead Air” Retrospective
Atomic TV’s Tribute to Black History
Atomic TV’s Thanksgiving Special
Atomic TV’s “East Coast Video Show” Porn Convention Episode
Atomic TV’s 1998 Holiday Special: ”The Year Underdog Saved Christmas”
Atomic TV’s 1997 Holiday Special: The “Holiday at Ground Zero” Episode
Atomic TV #1: The “Grape Ape” Episode
Atomic TV #2: The “Jim Rose Sideshow Circus” Episode
Atomic TV #3: The “Viewer Discretion is Strongly Advised” Episode
Atomic TV #4: The “Videoscrambled” Episode
Atomic TV #5: The “Freaks!” Episode
Atomic TV #6: The “Appropriated Image is Everything” Episode
Atomic TV #7: The “Masks‚ Monsters & Mexican Mayhem” Episode
Atomic TV #8: The “Dating Do’s & Don’ts” Episode
Atomic TV #9: The “Atomic TV Leftovers” Episode
Atomic TV #10: The “It’s Wonderful To Be a Girl” Episode
Atomic TV #11: The “Tom’s Obsessions” Episode
Atomic TV #1’: The “Scott’s Obsessions” Episode
Atomic TV #1’: The “Turning Japanese Part 1̸’; Episode
Atomic TV #14: The “Turning Japanese Part 2̸’; Episode
Atomic TV #15: The “Kooky Kult Klassix” Episode
Atomic TV #16: The “Microcinefest Film Festival” Episode
Atomic TV #17: The “Baltimore Local Music” Episode
Atomic TV #18: The “Berzerk Reunion” Episode
Atomic TV #19: The “Atomic TV Cones & Rods Art Party” Episode
Atomic TV #20: The “Artscape 1998̸’; Episode
Atomic TV #21: The “Ultimate J-Pop” Episode
Atomic TV #2’: The “Turning Cantonese” Episode
Atomic TV #2’: The “Atomic TV Labor Day Cookout” Episode
Atomic TV #24: The “Atomic TV ’200th’ Episode
Atomic TV #25: The “Hopkins 1999 Filmfest Faves” Episode
Atomic TV #26: The “Spring Cleaning” Episode Part 1
Atomic TV #27: The “Spring Cleaning” Episode Part 2
Atomic TV #28: The “Mental Hygiene” Episode
Atomic TV’s “1999 Maryland Film Festival” Episode
Atomic TV’s “You Asked For It!” Part 1
Atomic TV’s “You Asked For It!” Part 2
Atomic TV’s “You Asked For It!” Part 3
Short Answer:
Atomic TV is “A Media Maxi-Pad absorbing the continual flow of Pop Culture.” It is bio-degradable and thus May be flushed down any toilet.
Long Answer:
ATOMIC TV is the red-haired‚ freckle-faced stepchild of Baltimore Public Access TV’s programming family‚ a breech baby painfully squeezed out of the birthing canal of that negligent mother we call City Cable. Cloven-hoofed and horn-rimmed‚ this Hell-spawned birth defect had its butt cheeks dutifully slapped by the attending programming authorities upon its debut in 1997 before the bloody mess was handed back to its deadbeat biological fathers‚ TOM WARNER & SCOTT HUFFINES‚ its dangling umbilical cord quickly hooked up to coaxial cable for instant reception into the cable community. Often imitated (see LOST AND FOUND VIDEO)‚ rarely surpassed in ineptitude‚ it remains another chapter in Baltimore’s cultural Hall of Shame‚ alongside our Holy Trinity heritage of Homicide‚ Heroin and STDs. An archaic medium in these fast-paced days of High Tech Vodcasting and Broadband Video Streaming‚ it still has its appeal to our peers in the Great American Economic Underclass. In other words…it’s free! It airs on Baltimore City Cable Channel 75. Despite Freedom of Information requests by the public‚ its exact broadcast time has not yet been declassified by the authorities. Stay tuned and stay the course. If you don’t have TiVo‚ we suggest staying up 24/7 to insure you don’t miss a thing.
—Tom Warner
"Underdog Battles Satan Claus," $4.95, available from Atomic Books.
"Tribute to Natty Boh" and "Atomic Cocktail Hours," $4.95, available from Atomic Books.
