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I noticed that in the credits, they mentioned Jason Cohen and Forbidden Videos
I had only passed his shop before, so I called his shop and asked him about the show
"Yeah, we have copies of his show for rent"
I immediately went there the next day and rented a couple of episodes
This leads me to the other giant discovery
FORBIDDEN VIDEOS
This was a shop filled with all kinds of odd and underground books, merchandise and, most importantly, a video rental area
This is where I really sunk my teeth into obscure video
I would spend an hour just trying to pick out a couple of videos to rent
There was so much to consume but I had to do it a few at a time
Jason was extremely helpful in advising me what I wanted, and what wasn't worth my time
I quickly started to expand my video collection, having purchased a 2nd VCR to dub copies with
In 98/99, I moved into a warehouse community called "Moon Tunes"
It recognised it as a DIY venue called "Dune Buggy Headquarters" that I had visited before (It used to be a parts warehouse for off road vehicles)
It had since turned into a residence for artists and musicians
I was looking for a place to live and was offered a space there
Well, that space turned out to be an old bathroom that was no longer in use
It was about 8' X 8' room but it was 20' high
I cleaned it up, built a loft on top of the bathroom stall and lived vertically
One of the guys who ran the place was Named Mike Ortiz
He He had a very erratic video style that incorporated lots of cut up pieces of footage mixed with sampled and effects drenched sounds
Later on, a girlfriend who was watching some of his work said "This looks like something someone on speed would do (she would know)"
When I look back at it, they were alway up at all hors of the night doing things over and over and over again
This style combined with the influence that The Hypnotic Eye had on me led to me wanting to produce my own show
The name just came to me one day and I decided to call it "Countrockula's Theater For The Insane!"
I started piecing the show together on VCRs and an old Radio Shack fader/switcher
I managed to do an entire show and it was very low-tech
The titles were written on pieces of paper with the light from a TV reflecting on them to make the color changes
After I moved to Minneapolis, I decided to continue the show at MTN, the local cable access station
I didn't even know how to operate the dubbing decks but the guy watched my original show and saw where I was heading
He showed me how to use the title maker and I caught on with the dubbing decks after watching him work it once
It was pretty fun although it was quite frustrating to only be allowed a 4 hour slot
It seems like I would just be getting warmed up and someone was knocking on the door for their session
It was especially frustrating when I was doing segments that I called "barrage edits"
They were highly erratic edits that were fragments of intense moments cut together in a very rhythmic sense juxtaposed with more serene and laid back scenes to add balance and flow
It was the barrage edits that brought attention to my show when a viewer called in to comment that her daughter started having a seizure whilst watching my show
Although I did not think giving someone a seizure was amusing, I did see an opportunity to exploit it by posting a warning before the show
WARNING, THIS SHOW CONTAINS ERRATIC IMAGES THAT MAY CAUSE EPILEPTIC SEIZURES AND TRIGGER PSYCHOTIC EPISODES
aLSO, THERE ARE INTENSE SCENES THAT MAY OFFEND MORE SENSITIVE VIEWERS SO, IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED THEN TURN THE CHANNEL NOW OR IT IS YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT!