Yo, I’m bringing it back!

Where was I? Let’s see, the last From the Finger column was published in HOOFSIP #29 in February of. . .1997. Oh dang it’s been a minute/twenty-seven years. Well hello again! I guess I have a bit to catch y’all up on. . .

I’m writing this new FTF in honor of the birthday of 30 Minutes of Madness. The show premiered March 5th, 1992 and I’ve been celebrating that anniversary in various ways ever since — whether it was livejournal entries back in the day, or making various videos and animated GIFs, and of course there’s the feature documentary that was inspired by the twenty years that had elapsed since the show first aired. Lately I’ve been on a bit of a 30MOM.COM blog kick, so I figured, hey, let’s have a little state of the union, ‘cuz I’m nothin’ if not sentimental! That said, twenty-seven years is a lot of time to cover. In preparation for this, I re-read all my old From the Fingers for inspiration. I noticed the format of the column usually boiled down to:

I. Silly/absurd introduction.
II. Update on what’s been going on with me personally as well as creatively/professionally — especially in regards to LF Productions projects.
III. Plans for the near and far future.
IV. A wrap-up that invites the reader to send me a VHS tape so I can copy some episodes of 30MOM for them and ship it back.
+ A heavy sprinkling of goofy scatological nonsense throughout.

I’ll be deviating from that format a bit today and there’ll be considerably less potty humor, but here’s a little something to pay tribute to the canon: 💩.

In my last column, I talked about the Latin dance classes I was taking with Molly Brodak, Mike Pipper, and Lindsey Duvall and how we planned to take the intermediate class next. I was excited about having newly-acquired a used Roland R-70 drum machine which LF Productions would use in our upcoming video and music projects. I expected a new episode of 30 Minutes of Madness to be hitting stores in the spring of ’97, if not sooner. Oh, and I was about to start another show, intentionally retro, to be aired on Public Access television called Electric Mirage.

Well we didn’t end up taking that intermediate dance class. A new 30MOM did not appear in 1997. . .in fact episode 14 didn’t come out until 2008. I did shoot a little bit of footage for Electric Mirage, but I abandoned the project soon thereafter. I still have that R-70, and some beats I’ve made with it have appeared in videos and music releases over the years, so that kinda worked out, just not quite as planned.

So why did I stop writing From the Finger? Why did things go to shit at the Waterford House? What the fuck happened? Well that’s a long story and the story changes depending on who you ask. Let’s just say this: bands break up, life happens, and friends sometimes go their separate ways. Looking back all these years later, I’m thankful for the time we had together and glad that things lasted as long as they did. If you want to explore this topic cinematically, I recommend watching the documentary feature, 20 Years of Madness. In the movie, you see us reunite and explore the intervening years in a fun and moving way. It’s by no means an exhaustive history of my life or 30MOM and LF Productions post-1997, but it’s a solid doc that means a lot to me and my friends. If you haven’t seen it, go ahead and click one of these links and come back when you finish.

Welcome back! 20 Years of Madness was shot and edited over a period of several years, 2011 to 2015. The movie had a great festival run where I met some fantastic folks, aired on cable (a poetic homecoming), and now lives on in streaming.

30MOM episode 15 often screened with the movie and it was cool seeing both on the big screen with an audience. The documentary and 30MOM15 are projects I’m really proud of. I think they both illustrate that we really were onto something special back in the day and show the magic that’s possible when we work together. Ep15 also made me look back and think “Damn, we should’ve just kept making vids on VHS or Hi-8 and not chased ‘broadcast quality’ so much.” Other epiphanies include “We probably shouldn’t have moved in together,” and “We should’ve kept doing it for fun instead of trying to turn everything into a business.” Not every artistic endeavor needs to be a business and not every artist needs to become a brand!

I can list another forty-five epiphanies inspired by the doc and fifteenth show, but let’s leave it at that. So far, there’s been no episode 16, but I haven’t been idle either. And while the 30MOM gang isn’t as tight as we once were, some of us do still periodically collaborate and most of us continue to pursue creative projects as a career or passion or both.

In 2022, Joe and I had a little chat on March 5th for 30 Years of Madness. Jesus joined us on the call and so did Menko. Joe and I also recorded a commentary track for episode 1 of 30MOM that day, which we might do for other eps in the future. Later that year we screened some “best of” skits at the fifth annual Vidlings & Tapeheads Film Festival in Hamtramck, Michigan. A highlight for me was Joe fielding questions about PCP Robot on stage like a pro.

2023 saw a flurry of activity on 30MOM.COM and I want to talk about this in more detail. I think the first nudge and inspiration came from Josh Schafer of Lunchmeat when he reached out to ask if I wanted to collaborate on a special edition 20 Years of Madness VHS tape. My answer was an unequivocal YES. While the doc is already on multiple streaming sites and promotional DVDs were made, I’d long daydreamed about a proper VHS release and I’m really thankful for Josh and Lunchmeat for putting it out! I reformatted the film so it’d fit the 4×3 aspect ratio of CRT TVs — if you’re gonna do it, do it right! The tape came out great and it’s an absolute must-have for collectors of documentaries about midwestern outsider artist communities united under the banner of a 90s public access television show. Plus it’s a VHS tape that has a burning VHS tape on its cover, so you could set your copy on fire if you wanted to recreate that image! In preparation for the VHS launch, I wanted to update some elements on the 30MOM website as well as news/press that 20 Years of Madness had received. That’s when I discovered just how bad the link rot had gotten.

Link rot (also called link death, link breaking, or reference rot) is the phenomenon of hyperlinks tending over time to cease to point to their originally targeted file, web page, or server due to that resource being relocated to a new address or becoming permanently unavailable. –Wikipedia

A lot of the sites that reviewed 20 Years of Madness, or did interviews or podcasts about it, were no longer online or had redesigned their sites and deleted older articles. Other sites were still live, but their formatting was wonky and many of the images were gone. It was kind of a mess. This spurred me on to create a BLOG section on 30MOM.COM, re-posting some of the articles that were offline (thanks to archive.org’s Wayback Machine), then gathering some other choice coverage so it’s all under one roof. Once that was done, I found myself looking at a blog section that was almost exclusively related to the documentary which felt a bit too one-note, so I started looking into ways to expand the variety. I added some legacy posts I’d been wanting to do for some time, but never had the motivation or excuse. I made a thorough post for the Vidlings & Tapeheads Art Show from 2012 and went way back in time to write about when Joe and I were suspected by the police of prank calling 911. It was a like a dam burst — all these other ideas flooded in for articles and essays (some of which will be coming out quite soon). I reached out to Joe Hornacek to write a Top Ten list of his favorite 30MOM skits and that kicked off a series of lists from yours truly, John Ryan, Danton, Jesus Rivera, and Shane Oesterling. There’s a soon-to-be published retrospective on our old serialized comic Pezz Wurld including a collection of all the installments. The 30MOM blog is off to a solid start!

In the past few months I’ve added a MERCH section, uploaded some more images in the GALLERY to the 1990s Photos and Artwork plus added an album for 20 Years of Madness pics that include stills from the film, behind the scenes stuff, and photos from the festival run. I’ve added some tapes to the MUSIC section, created a 30MOM Site Trailer, and finally edited and uploaded a long-gestating Christmas Show (not a full half-hour show, but a fun vid nonetheless). I flirted with making a mobile-friendly redesign of the site, but that’s still too daunting.

But what about new videos and new episodes of the show? Are there gonna be new zines? Are you getting the band back together? Is it true there’s a pending Adult Swim deal!?

Who said that? Shhh, patience! All will be revealed in good time.

I’ve been adding videos to the VAULT as well, there are currently 94 vids there. What happens when we hit 100? Um, I dunno know. . .more scrolling? But there is a dearth of brand new video content which is something I plan to remedy eventually.

Let’s take a little fun fact break!

While 30MOM #1 premiered 32 years ago today, there are some other cool milestones being celebrated this year too! For instance, 2024 marks the twenty-year anniversary of this website! 30MOM.COM was first registered in 2004. I’d wanted the domain since the 90s, but I didn’t make it happen until I was living in Germany in 2004. Danke schön!

This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Lethal Finger Productions zine HOOFSIP! Issue #1 of HOOFSIP came out in September of 1994. Maybe Danton would be down to revisit that for a post later this year.

Now here’s a non-anniversary related fun fact: Lethal Finger Films will be premiering its first feature this year! I directed a movie called Heartstorm that’s currently wrapping up post-production and awaiting our festival premiere later this year. While it’s not directly connected to 30MOM or the other Michigan crew, it is spiritually-aligned. Heartstorm is about a niche creative community who come together to put on an eclectic variety show and the effects it has on a member of the audience. Sounds like something I’d be interested in, right? In this case, the show is not on television, it’s live: an open mic. Heartstorm follows the character of Lucia who is attending the mic for the first time and takes us on a journey through her imagination and emotions as she is transformed by the performances on stage. This is the first full-length movie I’ve directed and I’m very proud of it and can’t wait to share it with the world! Starting in the early 90s, I was a regular of open mics (Gotham City Cafe in Ferndale!), where I’d play guitar and sing or read poetry. Some of the guys would go with me and perform too (Danton, Jesus, and Pipper come to mind). Throughout the years on our various shows, music and poetry would find their way on screen. In fact, when I met Danton, we initially bonded through poetry and episode 6 of Bizarre Brick Walls From Outer Space featured him and his friend reading poetry throughout. So while Heartstorm isn’t a zany gonzo comedy, it does connect to many of the things I’ve been interested in for most of my life.

This fun fact break has been brought to you by Amiga!

So what about 30 MINUTES OF MADNESS itself? Is a new episode happening? When?? Here’s the thing, in going back and rereading all the From The Fingers from 1994–1997, I was disappointed seeing all these ideas for projects that never came to fruition. Or, if they did, it took way longer to finish than I’d planned/hoped. As an example, if you’ll indulge me, here’s a partial list of projects I came across in old FTFs that never came to light:

“Underground #5 will be out shortly.” Never happened.

“If I can pull everyone involved together, two short movies, one written by Dan Augustine called ‘Tracey Takes The Couch’ and the other by John Ryan, not yet titled, will be filmed sometime soon.” Also no.

“Plans to make a music video for Inside Out are in the works.” Nope.

“We plan on filming an action film, kind of a groovy karate movie.” I don’t even remember this idea. I did make an unrelated German martial arts short film years later though.

“Plan for first feature film in spring of 1995: ‘Poop, The Movie.’” I vaguely remember this one. We brainstormed it, but never wrote a script. I have no recollection of the story, but it was a comedy.

“A 7-inch record with John Ryan’s ‘I Want To Bite Into You’ and ‘I Want To Fuck You In The Sunshine.’” Those songs exist, but we didn’t put them out on vinyl.

“We will be doing live shows this fall and winter- next spring, summer.” Aaaaand no.

Of course there were even more things I talked about or dreamed of doing throughout my life that didn’t end up happening — I’ve come to appreciate that the idea is the easy part. Following through, the doing, that’s the tough bit. Such is life! Anyway, having said all that, I will talk about some future hopes/plans/dreams, but take it with a heaping tablespoon of salt and a teaspoon of sugar for good measure.

Editing is underway for 30MOM episodes 16, 17, and 18. There will be some brand new shit and some brand old shit on these shows. I’d like to have a live screening party with a proper audience for each episode when they come out. And do a livestream web premiere as well. Joe and I have been sharing a lot of ideas for the show and sending each other music and videos. I doubt any of the episodes will be finished in 2024, but I might surprise myself.

Having directed my first movie, a second one seems way more plausible! Right now, and this is very much subject to change, I want to make the next film in Michigan. I’d like to involve some of the old 30MOM crew too — as actors or contributing to the score or soundtrack. I hope to have a solid draft of a micro-budget shootable script by the end of 2024.

I have some music and writing projects that I hope to release later this year or in 2025. The songs are mostly recorded and just need percussion, a few more overdubs, and a solid mix. I have no plans for vinyl pressings, but I think a limited tape release would be cool. The writing projects are earmarked for self-publication, but I’m also submitting some genre stories to certain magazines. So far this year I’ve received only rejections, but I’ll keep trying.

At the end of 20 Years of Madness (spoiler alert if you haven’t watched it yet), Joe and I talk about still making movies when we’re old men. We’re middle-aged now and still doing it, so we’re on track! Sure, not as often as we’d like, but we find/make time here and there. Joe has been busy with his Apple Kid and PCP Robot YouTube Channels — his original Artistic Alphabet vid has over 1.5 million views! I think the fact that we’re still making cool/weird/interesting shit all these years later is pretty fucking rad. Unlike the 90s though, I no longer dream of a media empire. I don’t plan or expect to ever make millions, or even thousands, selling future 30MOM episodes (whether it’s on streaming, VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, VR, Holovid, Nano-injection, or whatever-else) and I’m totally cool with that. I think we were better off emotionally and creatively (and spiritually?) when we did this purely for fun. Trying to turn it into a commercial venture kinda spoils the secret sauce, or at least runs a very real risk of tainting it.

30MOM and 30MOM.COM is a passion project and I’m thankful for the people who still give a shit, still hang out, still read super long columns, and still want to make things and share and enjoy collaborations. I don’t know if I’ll write another From the Finger next year, but thanks for reading this one! And you know what? If you’ve read this far and want a VHS tape with episodes of 30 Minutes of Madness, I’d be down to dust off the VCR if you have a blank tape you want to send me, along with some stamps for the return postage. Email me at jerry@30mom.com for more details (and yes, I’m serious).