The latest episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast has arrived! In this show Dino Drac and I talk about CREEPY COMMERCIALS! It’s surprising to think that something we as a society tried to avoid like the plague by either running to the kitchen for a snack or fast forwarding the breaks during a show we taped, can be so chock full of nostalgia. As much as we tried to tune out commercials we couldn’t escape them and that’s why they’re so embedded in our brains. Whether the terrifying imagery was burned into our eyes or the jingle was memorable, commercials and public service announcements deserve their own episode on The Purple Stuff Podcast. Specifically, we’re discussing ads that were either subtly horrifying for us when we were young or traditionally spooky in some way. The ads we bring up include everything from Elvira partying it up in Norman Bate’s house, Vincent Price and luxurious red velvet bound books, and a haunted forest of fruit snacks, so you can’t go wrong here! Here’s a playlist of the commercials we talk about it if you would like to listen and watch at the same time, but be careful your brain doesn’t explode! Thank you for listening to the show and if you would like to support The Purple Stuff Podcast you can visit www.Patreon.com/PurpleStuff
You may have a photograph or a home video taken with the gargantuan family camcorder that really takes you back to a moment in time. For the Purple Stuff Podcast, we were bestowed with a tape, a recording of a WPIX Shocktober broadcast from October 1992. Specifically, Friday the 13th IV: The Final Chapter was on tap for that night. It couldn’t have been a more perfect pairing. Words simply cannot describe how important horror movies on WPIX during Halloween were to both Matt and I. Obviously, Matt has written on the Internet about them for a million years, but I have also worked this angle into many of my Halloween specials as well. You’ve probably heard us on The Purple Stuff Podcast do the whole “Shhhhhhhhocktober” stinger many times, but in our latest episode we give it the proper tribute treatment it deserves.
We have a super fun and nostalgic episode for you in this time of quarantine. Hopefully you’ll join us and take your mind off of all the craziness going on in the world right now. It’s the perfect getaway for your mind. Not only will you hear us capture what WPIX and their Halloween inspired marathon meant to us, but we also dig in to one of our favorite installments in the Friday the 13th franchise! Friday the 13th IV The Final Chapter was always my favorite for so many reasons which I delve into on the show. I can’t forget to mention that one of the coolest aspects of this tape we received had all of the commercial breaks in tact. This means we get a chance to look back on Shocktober promos, commercials, and public service announcements!
We really had a blast on this trip back to that night. An evening where we were both in our respective homes settled in anticipating the big day, Halloween, and watching horror movies on the channel that had it all. Listen to us attempt to capture just how important this all was to us! Below you can watch a video Matt compiled that includes footage and clips from the video we are discussing if you would like to watch for reference during the pod!
*If you enjoy the show and would like to support it, you can visit us on Patreon where we release exclusive monthly bonus shows. Thank you for reading and listening and I hope you all stay safe in a blanket fort with all your favorite snacks and movies.
Matt and I are getting into the Christmas spirit on a new episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast with our look at some of our favorite Christmas Commercials of all time! Check it out wherever you prefer to listen to podcasts! Also, we are on Patreon where we bring you a monthly bonus exclusively for our Patronies!
In many ways, I’ve spent my life prepping for the crap that Dino Drac and I discuss on the Purple Stuff Podcast. Who knew that all those hours as a couch potato on those summer days that were too sweltering to even swim under the sun would actually prove to be useful someday. Well, useful is a stretch, but all those memories certainly fuels our Mr. Fusion of inconsequential nostalgia. For a little trip back in time to when TV sitcoms ruled our world and they were only available through that giant box in your living room, dial up our first TV Theme Songs show from May 2016!
If you don’t need the refresher, well, as Freddy said, WELCOME TO PRIME TIME BITCH! We’ve got 10 TV Themes to discuss and dissect. We don’t only talk about the music, we also get into the details of the actual intros themselves in some cases. No matter what, these are some oddball choices as always. You’ll hear everything from Harry and The Hendersons to Jem! Things are about to get weird so take a listen on your favorite podcast app. Thank you for listening and feel free to add your favorite TV Themes in the comments!
If you dig the show and would like to support the show you can share the show on social media, or recommend The Purple Stuff Podcast to one of your friend IRL! So many people I know are through with social media altogether that you may want to have an actual convo with them and say “Hey, this is a show I enjoy listening to and you may like it as well!” If you aren’t into that option, we would love it if you could give us a 5 star rating on iTunes. And last but not least, you can support us on Patreon for an exclusive monthly bonus show! www.Patreon.com/PurpleStuff Thanks again for listening and reading!
Shit is crazy, yo. That’s about the best I could come up with for an opening line.
During previous Halloween seasons, I’ve been able to ramp up the lead-up to my Halloween Specials. I loved posting a production journal on here for at least one or two of them, but it wasn’t in the cards this time. This year, even though free time is basically non-existent, I still magically whipped up a special, with the help of my friends of course! I ran into a bunch of speed bumps on the way.
A whole script basically went into the trash. I wrote this pretty epic script that, once it was too late, I realized would be entirely too much to film. Not so much about the length, but even the logistics, locations, and money. Although I love the script and it had absolutely everything in it, I came to terms with the fact that I just couldn’t pull it off so late in the game. I swore I would write the script early in the year that way it would give us extra time to film, storyboard, and even block everything out like actual filmmakers. Wrote it early I did. Threw it away late I did as well. To say I was pissed off at myself for wasting so much time and effort was an understatement. Continue reading THE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2017
It’s officially summertime, so let’s make the best of it. For those of us yearning for those gloomy Autumn days spent watching horror movies and crisp moonlit nights waiting on line for a really bad haunted hayride, we do have minimal opportunities to capitalize on certain scares that summer actually provides. One of the most terrifying aspects of the summer is the possibility of a shark attack if you happen to go in the ocean. I easily dodge that risk by skipping the middleman and just watch JAWS and call it a day.
Aside from the most famous onscreen appearance of a shark in history, there’s so many more instances of Sharks in pop culture. On the latest episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast, Matt and I bring up all of that whacked out shark stuff! Our mutual fondness for sharks lead us to talk about their pop culture counterparts for a whole hour. As always, we’ve got some outstanding nostalgic choices as well as a few modern ones! It will fill the void as we approach the best time of the year.
We’ve been away for a bit, but we’re excited to be back! If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so through iTunes, Stitcher, and Podbean. Please leave us some stars and tell your like-minded friends that you listen to a podcast that they will dig! We can’t thank you enough for all the amazing feedback you’ve given us…it’s truly appreciated.
*You’ll definitely be familiar with the majority of our selections , but feel free to leave us some of your shark picks in the comments that didn’t get mentioned on the show! I’m sure I’ll get threats for not mentioning King Shark, but there’s always a sequel.
You can also SUBSCRIBE to The Purple Stuff Podcast on iTunes, Podbean, and Stitcher!
Matt and I have a new Purple Stuff Podcast to help kick off your weekend! Many of you have a 3-day weekend so this means you have an extra day to listen to the show twice!
As you can clearly see from the picture that I made above, we’re going to be sitting around a fire at Camp Crystal Lake and discussing some of our favorite aspects of one of the greatest horror franchises of all time, Friday the 13th! We have a lot to say so this resulted in a slightly longer episode than usual.
Personally, Friday the 13th was one of the earliest horror franchises I got into. Admittedly, I probably shouldn’t have been watching them at 5 years old, but I wasn’t a bad kid, so with that came some perks. Staying up late and watching Friday the 13th marathons on channel 11 was one of my favorite things to do. Since the F13 franchise has had such a long life, it’s essentially grown up right along with me (and you too, I’m sure).
Whether you’re more of Jason Takes Manhattan mark or a Friday IV fanatic, you’re in the right place. We all have soft spots for particular installments, songs, scenes, moments, and other instances of Jason in pop culture, so we bring to the table all kinds of nonsense that we dig so much about these films. Everything from Jason without his mask on to Jason on MTV is covered.
Do you see a familiar face hidden in the poster above?
We had a lot of fun delving into what is collectively one of our favorite horror franchises. It’s even more special for me because of the film’s New Jersey roots. I can’t wait for you to hear this one and if you are in the mood to share, leave us some of your favorite moments in Friday the 13th lore in the comments below!
Thank you for reading and listening! Please share the show or tell a friend!
I’m sitting at my desk with the window cracked open. I’m literally being blasted with cool fall wind and it feels awesome. There’s apparently a hurricane developing, so that’s added to the ambience of the last few days. I also cleaned my disaster of a desk to get me prepped for the season. A pumpkin candle is blazing and I just ate a bag of Japanese Frito-Lay Halloween Pack bat-shaped thingies and I’m now primed to provide you with an official Sexy Armpit Halloween Special update: You can join us if you tune in at 8pm ET on October 7th, 2016!
Tell us about The Sexy Armpit Halloween Special this year.
As many of you know, each year I produce a Halloween special for our YouTube page. This year, I’m proud to tell you that this will be our 5th installment. I pour pretty much every bit of life I have into these annual videos. During production, everything and everyone in my life gets pretty much ignored from start to finish usually. My bills stack up. I neglect the gym. All I think about is the special. Ultimately, my main inspiration, aside from the desire to make it the best special it can be, is Halloween.
Halloween is everything. There are memes that always say Halloween is year round, and obviously Ministry sang about it being everyday, but realistically, the season happens once a year. It’s fleeting. Capturing the essence is vital to appreciating it in the moment. Once it’s November, it seems like the non-Hallo-freaks have moved on. If you breezed through the season, without truly memorializing it, all you can do at that point is be bummed and pissed at yourself for not soaking up as much horror and pumpkin guts as you could. Of course, I watch Horror all year long, and am obsessed with Halloween throughout the year, but that’s what makes this time of year special. All the stuff I love is magnified x1000. That’s why I tried my damnedest to get the special done fairly early this year.
Would it be possible for me to actually enjoy the season without killing myself making a short film AND trying to put together Halloween costume? I figured if I got a little bit of a jump on things, I wouldn’t have to be feverishly editing until the witching hour. While I’m still putting the finishing touches on it currently, it’s nearly ready for public consumption. The head start actually granted me some extra time to put a teaser trailer together too, something I didn’t have the time to do previously for any of my videos. You can watch the teaser above if you haven’t already!
This year, the Halloween Special is quite different than anything you’ve seen from us before.
As I rewind several months, I recall a hot June afternoon in downtown New York City. I had set up a meeting with Louie Cortes, a New York filmmaker (his company is New Needle Productions), and a fellow Halloween and horror freak. Louie and I had been following each other on social media for a long time and not only did we have a lot of friends in common, but we’ve traveled in the same circles, attended the same conventions, and plain and simple, share a ton of the same obsessions.
There was a two-fold reason for me reaching out to Louie. First, I just couldn’t keep looking at his Instagram and watching his short films on his YouTube without finally shooting the shit with him over a beer. Secondly, I wanted to pick his brain about his filmmaking process. In my constant pursuit of trying to improve my output, I figured I could probe Louie’s brain to see if he could shed some light on a few questions I had regarding how the pros do things.
Aside from some advice, and a few laughs, I honestly didn’t expect much to come of our meeting. When it comes to my own creative endeavors, I like to do things my way. That’s pretty common amongst creative people from what I’ve seen, but I’d never really thought of the possibility of collaborating before. Sure, I have friends who help with the show in many ways, but ultimately, it’s always my baby. I like to see it through. I’d never entertained the idea of a collaboration because I hadn’t spoken to anyone who wound up being serious or followed through on their claims. I’ve been asked many times by people if they could appear in or help out with the show, but often, they wind up flaking out when they find out how much work is involved. Fortunately, a legit collaboration was actually on the horizon.
Louie and I met at this punk bar downtown and had a few drinks. It was one of those meetings that, if we ever did hit it big and became famous one day in some kind of insane fantasy world, this is the type of story that we’d be able to share when being interviewed. It’s like those legendary stories you hear about how Madonna gave her demo tape to a DJ at a club in NYC. It was just a simple meeting that has already kicked into high gear. When we met up that day I seriously had no clue that by the end of the summer we’d be much closer friends and have basically all the footage for my Halloween special filmed. Needless to say, I’m glad we met up! Louie is on point with his work and also an exceptional dude. We’ve already discussed more possible projects on the horizon, but for now, I’ll concentrate on the present.
So, what exactly makes this year’s Halloween Special so different than previous years?
First and foremost, Louie’s production company New Needle Productions handled the filming of the majority of the special. The shot composition, lighting, and high quality of the video stemmed from Louie’s expertise and all added a completely fresh take on what The Sexy Armpit Show really is all about. It looks so damn good! Louie did a kick ass job and he’s a total pro. A huge thanks goes out to him.
The vastly improved visual aspect helps bring the horror/thriller storyline to life. Of course, it’s still complete nonsense and an all out horror-comedy, but there’s a pretty intriguing story in there…one that hasn’t yet been explored in our videos. In fact, not to spoil anything, but in this one you’ll witness a major shakeup at Sexy Armpit HQ that could have repercussions on the future of the show!
What I’m most proud of is the fact that we keep improving each year. To me, there’s no point in doing the same thing every year because that’s boring. This time around, the special is pretty batshit and just the right kind of whacked out that you need to enhance your Halloween season. You’ll see some awesome cameos and familiar faces as you’ve seen in previous installments, but, trust me, this is a whole different ball game. With all that said, I don’t want to give up any spoilers, so you can watch for yourself on 10/7!
As always, I want to send out another giant thank you to the cast Miss Sexy Armpit @MissSexyArmpit, Mike Wirth a.k.a @IdiotAtPlay, Holly Knapp @Frankenholly, Jeff Somogyi @Sommerjam, Dari Mehl, Frank Campisi, and Lauren Wirth @TheNerdyPumpkin. Everyone did a bang up job again this year and each cast member brings so much to the table. By understanding my bizarre mind, they make it easy for me to bring the stories to life. It might sound like I’m making these specials sound more monumental than they actually are, but that’s how important they are to me.
Make The Sexy Armpit Halloween Specials a part of your Halloween Viewing!
Even though I make these videos, I still have fun watching them too. They become these warped video yearbooks to look back on. Each year, I usually suggest trying to incorporate a viewing of any or all of The Sexy Armpit Halloween Specials into your seasonal viewing. For example, if you plan on watching Poltergeist or Halloween, use our Hallowen special as a funny lead-in. Maybe throw in a Halloween cartoon as well! I know you all can pull YouTube up on your TVs and the best way to enjoy these videos is on your big TV with all your Halloween lights and decorations in full effect. Get some candy corn and pumpkin beer and really feel the season. If you do this, take a pic and post it somewhere on social media, that will help us get the word out! If you want to thank us or support us in any way, the best way is to get more eyes on it and for that we thank you!
I’m proud of what my crew and New Needle accomplished together. These Hallowen Specials are truly comprised of passion and hard work. The only compensation we receive from these videos is you, our friends, fans, readers, viewers and social media companions, getting a kick out of watching them. Sure, it would be nice to be funded one day, but there’s nothing that satisfies me more knowing that a good portion of you were able to sit back and have some laughs for a brief spell during your Halloween celebrations. That is what makes me want to continue, otherwise, I’d be laying around like a lump watching mediocre horror movies on Amazon Prime.
As I was saying at the start, it’s October. It’s officially here! It’s time to start working on your costume, decorating, and planning your Halloween viewing for the month and hopefully The Sexy Armpit Halloween Special can be a part of it!
The Purple Stuff Podcast returns with more audible Halloween goodness!
In this episode, we continue with a theme that we had fun with on a previous episode, Not Your Average Scares! These are things that might freak you out, but it’s not necessarily something blatantly or traditionally scary. This is not us stating “Michael Myers scared us a kids,” no way, these are the types of things that you may not even remember creeping you out, but at one point they did, and they may even still creep you out today.
We came up with a whole new set of these offbeat scares and you’ll probably be able to relate to a good amount of them. Included in this episode: scary drug PSAs, a whacked out music video, a creepy ass doll, and a scary Snow White book. All that and we also taste test the Garlic Doritos from Japan! Please join us and feel free to drop any of your offbeat scares in the comments!
Thank you for listening and sharing the podcast, it’s very much appreciated!
To arrive at their optimum relaxation zone, some people listen to the soothing sprinkle of a rainstorm or the natural sounds of a tropical rain-forest. But, for my ears, there’s something about TV theme songs that I find strangely comforting. Maybe it’s little details like the “sha-la-la-la” at the end of the Family Ties theme or the hum at the end of the Diff’rent Strokes intro that make me have that extra fondness for them. If you consider yourself the same kind of wacko, then you’re reading the right website! This week, the Purple Stuff Podcast brings you a show entirely dedicated to a select bunch of TV theme songs.
To say that my iTunes is quite a hodgepodge of various types of music is an understatement. If you listened to one of my playlists while driving around with me, you’d likely hear one of hundreds of TV theme songs. Chances are, you’d know the lyrics to the majority of them. That’s what makes it fun. You don’t even need to be an avid viewer of a show to have the theme song stuck in your head, which makes the genre that much more incredible. This is one of the reasons why I felt so compelled to convince Matt that we should do a whole show about some of the TV themes that stand out most to us.
After an arm bar into an Irish whip, followed up by a flying forearm, Matt agreed that it was a good idea. I’m kidding of course, but it did take a little bit of convincing since it is so difficult to do a show like this and not be accused of leaving all the important themes out. Everyone has their favorites, but these are just a handful that we felt compelled to talk about. Some of your favorites are ours too, but we’d need 8 episodes to touch on ALL the good ones.
Personally, I think some of the best TV theme songs are the ones that work on different levels. Some TV themes are great for what they are and work splendidly as a theme for a show, yet other TV themes soar beyond that. There are TV themes that are so catchy that you wonder how the hell they haven’t been deemed required curriculum in music classes in schools. Others are so versatile that they could be covered by metal and punk bands. Most of all, the best TV themes are the ones that pop into your brain the minute you hear someone mention the name of the show that it’s from.
I demand equality for TV theme songs. Even though a show’s theme usually undergoes subtle changes between seasons, a TV theme has the power to bring to mind the full reel of scenes in the opening credits. I loved when the opening credits of a show were so ridiculous. You can sit there and pick out the episode that each scene was from. The theme will also make you reminisce and sing along. Some themes are cheerful or quirky while others are arena-ready and triumphant. In all cases, there’s a lot to discuss so check out The Purple Stuff Podcast Episode 27 and share some of your favorite theme songs in the comments!
