Wooden Rudy puppet
Today we bring you a most unusual and some might say rather pointless early episode of Radio Free Charleston. “Radio Free Charleston Shirt” is a “best of” RFC from the year 2006. Its eighteen minutes bring you highlights from every musical act and most of the animated shorts from our first year.
This was pretty easy because we had only produced eleven episodes up to this point. The production notes from December 29, 2006 explain that this was “Plan B,” and that the original idea for the show was for it to be a jam session held at LiveMix Studio, pulled together into a coherent show overnight and posted quick.
It’s the kind of thing I do in my sleep now, but at the time it was extremely ambitious since I barely knew how to edit video on the PC. I was spared the effort when hardly anyone showed up to play music, and the one person who did asked us not to use his song because it wasn’t finished yet. You will see some footage I shot wandering aimlessly around LiveMix during what turned out to be a very nice music-free gathering.
This episode is historically important because it marks the first time we immortalized the RFC Big Shots in the credits. We also have a lovely accapella rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” by our resident diva and Big Shot, Melanie Larch. That’s followed by two goofy MIDI versions by me. This is also back in the days when my host segments seemed awfully wooden and somber. I would like to think that I convey at least 17% more personality when talking to the camera now.
It’s amusing now to see how far we’ve come since our first dozen shows seven years ago. It’s also bittersweet to remember how cool LiveMix Studio was and how the people who took it away from us are destined to burn in hellfire for all eternity.
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