in The Routledge Handbook of Remix Studies and Digital Humanities.
Remix Hero #2 is Mark Suall of SLTV.
(Sorry if you read this set-up in my other “Remix Heroes” post.) After a long hiatus on this blog I’m back at it because I’ve just been published (for the first time) on a related topic. My chapter in the Routledge book is entitled “Curating, Remixing, And Migrating Archived “Muse Files.”
As my chapter grew in length I felt there were tangents that needed trimming. One tangent was about remixers I admired, I mentioned three but there were two I left out. Those two remixers came out of the NYC Public Access world or at least that was their outlet. I originally was going to write about both in a single blog post but decided that it would be too long and the second show would get short shrift. Instead I’ll start here with my homage to “L-Ray’s Starlite Lounge TV” (SLTV).
Compared to “Junktape” the other public access program I want to praise, SLTV was probably less “remix” in that the video selections were longer, less intercut.. The show went by different names, “Mad Cow” as well as “L-Ray’s Starlite Lounge TV” (SLTV) and ran all through the 90s. In my book chapter I state you can’t remix what you don’t have, so I always thought that collecting was foundational to video remix. SLTV had a brilliant mix of fun, weird, low-brow stuff. I managed to track down the host/creator and we’re from the same generation with similar video sensibilities. His name is Mark Suall and he was kind enough to answer some questions I put to him. Apparently only the later incarnation of the show (SLTV) featured Mark as an on-camera host. On one of the shows I recorded he introduces himself (maybe for the first time) as “Lucky Ray Tatters” and promises in this introduction… “all kinds of things you’re not gonna see on any other public access show. Video from all over the world, cult videos from the past, all kinds of girly stuff from the 50s and 60s, whacked out stuff, country & western footage, crank calls set to video…”
(As time went by Mark would get more into character as “Lucky Ray” a gravely voiced, kinda truck-stop character.)
Q. There were a lot of elements in your show and it would be corny to try to box you in, but I saw some of these themes or sensibilities… Punk rock, swamp rock, John Waters, Mondo Cane, vintage nudie-cutie, hillbilly, rat-pack, blaxploitation to name a few.
A. Emphasis on “to name a few”. I’d run with any video or audio bit that was hip, weird or funny enough.
I then asked him about his audience which he described as “A diverse mix of very groovy people, druggies, alcoholics and schizophrenics watch late night public access tv shows.”
For me a signature show aspect was an on-going Americana red-neck vibe. And here I use “red-neck” with affection. The opening music set the tone.
Q. What is the radio country music that opens the program from the “Cotton Club”?
A. You got sharp ears good buddy! Ain’t that beautiful! It’s from the famous Cotton Club in Lubbock ,Texas early 1950’s . Countless country music and early rock and roll stars performed at the Cotton Club.
Before I go any further I have to cite some narration in a trailer the show featured for a 1968 sex-sploitation film that in one sentence conveys a lot of flavor. Narrator – “It is called A Sweet Sickness” it has also been called eight reels of sewage.” Can’t beat that.
I learned from Mark he didn’t have a proper editing set up, Mark says “I relied on an “audio-video overdub” feature on my sVHS machine to pair differing a/v/ sources. Not exactly pro quality equipment but it served the purpose.” So a typical remix on this show was combining audio from one source with video from another. They would often run recordings of strange phone call-in’s over already strange videos. They gave out their own dedicated phone number as a “confession line” to harvest the call-in stories.
The other type of remix that I recall were music videos Mark made for his band “The Valentine Six” such as one the featured early 60s professional dancers doing the twist backed up by a lounge guitar band. This footage was set to a building rhythm and searing sax of the band’s instrumental. Paired with this track we see the extremely vigorous exertions of the twisters, the total effect is surreal and a little apocalyptic. Another music video that was extensively edited features all manner of vintage carnival, amusement park, side-show scenes. The song is “Motel Girl” which is dirge-like, on Youtube the song is labeled “doom jazz.” So you can guess that paired with frivolous-freaky old carnival footage where everyone in it is dead… it creates some dislocation for the viewer or good ol’ “derangement of the senses.”
I’ve only skimmed the surface of the great variety of clips or “content” in this Access series. To paraphrase Mark I’ve only “named a few.” To better appreciate the scope of the series; Mark produced this VJ mix for the better part of 10 years. It was wonderful and quite an accomplishment. Before the web offered video (on demand) and social media, Public Access was one of the few outlets for this kind of remix and video curation (Mark will probably hate that word:). He has started to post installments of Starlite Lounge TV on YouTube in an account with that name.
I’ll button this post with a nod to Kim’s Video in East Village. It closed in 2008 but was the likely source of many of the wonderful fringe and schlocky clips featured in these Public Access programs. (btw I have Access roots, I started in NYC Public Access, working there for the summer of 1974 & 75.) The distributor of many of the cited vintage films and trailers is Something Weird Video. Looking at their web page I could easily fall into their rabbit hole and never climb out:)
As a bonus, I’ll add in a description of The Valentine Six, that was effectively the “house band” for SLTV.
AllMusic Review by Dean Carlson – Valentine Six’s world is one of silk-lined nightclubs, trachea-puncturing cigarettes, and smack-addled East Berlin poverty, and as such they have atmosphere to spare. Songs generally try to keep the listener off-balanced with grumbling bass and driven and deranged sax, led by the black baroque larynx of Parker Valentine.
Video Culture 