Flipping channels last night I ended up on Chicago Access Network Television (CANTV) channel 19. What caught my attention was the bowling scene from the Big Lebowski. It was pretty grainy and the cutting of the swear words was a bit… amateur. As I watching, it suddenly cut to some other movie. This continued for almost 30 minutes, and I couldn’t stop watching. It was a bizarre selection of movies, news bits, cartoons and TV shows. Some of them hilarious, many bizzare, and some outright spooky. At about the time they showed Angela Landsbury’s incredible scene in the Manchurian Candidate (a movie I have yet to see, but somehow recognized it immediately) I wondered about the legality of showing so many movie/tv/media clips. The juxtaposition of the Simpson’s Planet of the Apes musical bit with the actual movie was quite entertaining! Katty had no idea why I kept on watching it - but was just as fascinated as myself! Has anybody seen The Loved One?! (this was the scene we saw last night - gotta love google)
Shortly thereafter, color bars filled the screen and only the audio could be heard. This was just the icing on the cake! Was it a broadcast signal intrusion? I had first heard about this while talking to somebody about Max Headroom and finding out about an incident in 1987 on Chicago’s WGN and WTTW stations. The hijackers were never found - could this be a new incident?? I immediately checked CANTV’s Thursday listings to find out that Flabby Hoffman was scheduled to air. Googling got me to Flabby Hoffman’s home page
Flabby Hoffman uses his unique powers of hyper-sensitivity, super cognizance and fanatical devotion to an objective truth to help those in need of an empowering spiritual enema.
…not quite what I expected, but almost equally bizarre. The two don’t really match up. There was also a link to a local bar Uncommon Ground - where, apparently, Flabby Hoffman used to perform. This whole thing seemed so surreal to me. So, I just e-mailed CANTV to see what they have to say about the color bars last night. Most likely its all just a coincidence… but I had to ask!
I just noticed that Flabby has MP3s on his website! I’m afraid to listen!
(This got me thinking about Wesley Willis all over again)
Tags: bizzare, cantv, Chicago, flabby hoffman, show, tv
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July 25th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Fascinating indeed… but i just didnt believe that the color bars meant anything, it was past midnight so i assumed that community access channels dont have enough money to have programs all night. I guess we’ll find out if CANTV actually replies to Pablo’s email.
July 25th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
You really must record this next time. Oh, how I wish I had the tapes that Mikey made of Malia on CANTV. Her fashion shows/dance routine/music videos were TO DIE FOR.
July 26th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
“The Loved One” was one of your grandmother’s very favorite movies. I guess we should rent it out for a family viewing sometime! The scene was hilarious!
July 26th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
My band participated in a couple of flabby hoffman shows. The shows were usually OK, and occasionally would end up on can-tv. Kind of weird guy, though!