#alivefromoffcenter — Public Fediverse posts

You might remember “Alive! From Off Center” from our #LaEsoterica tribute to the 80s/90s PBS arts show from last August (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2Zslnc5XTfsoSF_qUHvLp1ESXq0NUMLI&si=y1wLILdi00WGxTGi)
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter

The “Words in Your Face” episode of “Alive! From Off Center” features some famous faces like rapper & 90s reality TV star Heather B., actor & activist John Leguizamo, rapper & artist KRO-One and Deaf artist Peter Cook
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter

Next we have a 1991 episode of “Alive! From Off Center” featuring poetry and spoken-word performances (https://youtu.be/HY7pKQ-Imco?si=enJ0h9KvkNyVN4rs)
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter

Nowadays you can literally buy a greenscreen kit for kids!
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter

Yes. It’s based around the infamous scene from Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Soviet masterpiece “Battleship Potemkin”
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter #Steps #ZbigniewRybczynski

“Steps” directed by Polish experimental filmmaker and writer Zbigniew Rybczynski (https://youtu.be/EB5fzxvY0Ps?si=VvHcxtu_yzDoZniK) is one of the series most famous episodes.
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter #Steps #ZbigniewRybczynski

Recently Ann Magnusson had a role on “Star Trek: Picard” as Admiral Clancy and we saw her in Tom Rubnitz’s “Made for TV” on last year’s #LaEsoterica “Pride” episode (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2Zslnc5XTfsRv3A4tHwu1CNKjXZBg6ou&si=9MDvKjKcv6JfHkY5)
#AliveFromOffCenter #AnnMagnusson

I took a course on making video art at the Glassell School and to think that this (likely the Quantel PaintBox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantel_Paintbox) was the cutting edge of computer graphics in the 80s and that now you could make this on your phone just blows my mind
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter

Another episode from 1986: “Young Video Artists” (https://youtu.be/K-rsNIzk6uE?si=7iLIS9AjoXq5Fz3S) features video art by Teddy Dibble, Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Max Almy, and Ben Bergery.
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter

Sorry if the picture quality is lacking (especially if you’re casting this to your tv). Unfortunately, these episodes have some of the best quality I could find b/c neither the series nor most of the films and performances have ever been remastered
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter

“Alive! From Off Center” AKA “Alive TV” was an anthology series on PBS produced by Minnesota’s Twin Cities PBS that aired from 1985-1996. It featured experimental short films and performances. It featured various hosts over the years like NPR’s Susan Stamberg and later artists Laurie Anderson (with her clone Fenway Bergamot, of course), Anna Magnusson and Bill Wegman.
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter

First up we have an episode from 1986 which debuted Laurie Anderson’s famous short film “What You Mean We?” (https://youtu.be/6i5Ja_p70ss?si=JUtiAzVNs-xOQClt)
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter #WhatYouMeanWe

@analgesicsleep
Watched that religiously as a kid. Pre-MTV, I think.

#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter

Yeah, sorry for this being potato-quality… Unfortunately, no one has cared to preserve or remaster episodes of “Alive! From Off-Center” although a few segments by famous artists have seen some love those are few and far between💔
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter #AsSeenOnTV

You know you’re in trouble at an audition when there’s folx there with animal acts
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter #AsSeenOnTV

So, yeah… we’ll see the origin of Laurie Anderson’s clone Fenway Bergamot when we watch “What You Mean We?” at the end of August as part of our “Tribute to ‘Alive! From Off-Center’”
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter

Our next piece is an episode of PBS’s series “Alive! From Off Center” from 1987 featuring the Charles Atlas directed “As Seen on TV” (https://youtu.be/xGhFx9xUqyQ?si=pJVpT3xGZm3K6SXo) a modern vaudevillian adventure starring Bill Irwin
#LaEsoterica #AliveFromOffCenter #AsSeenOnTV #CharlesAtlas #BillIrwin