Django Nudo and the Smut Peddler indulge in Cava and some gratuitous back slapping in Barcelona on the occasion of Cultpix having operated for six months without any major screw-ups and quite a few achievements.
We cover being global, 20+ distributor partners, newsletters, podcast, social media and the cinema bit. We are not just streaming our films, but we are doing five double-bill screenings in Stockholm and four films with Everyman, with "She Freak" (1967) that is showing on 19 October in London, Bristol, Glasgow and York. Next week are off to a conference in Lyon where we hope to sign more deals.
This week's theme is very special. Just remember to consult your doctor before undertaking any of the exercises featured in this podcast and please put on your headband and leg warmers. We go way back into the video vault of early VHS. Back in the early 1980s couldn't get the Hollywood blockbusters on VHS, so it was porn or Jane Fonda. Often watched for not dissimilar reasons.
Ron Harris, erotic photographer helped launch the craze with "Aerobicise" (1981). You had to be an aerobics instructor to keep up judging by the pace. We then have two videos from bad girl porn star Traci Lords, "Jazz Warm Up With Traci Lords" (1990) and "Advanced Jazzthetics" (1993). The second is a re-edit with improved music and less naff rhyming voiceover. In fact, it has weird echoes of Art of Noise.
The highlight is "Do It With Debbie" (1993) when America's Sweetheart rounded up her female Hollywood star friends and hit the mat. The highlight is Shelley Winters who is 'only doing this for Debbie' and few up with the leg lifts shouts out "Who here has slept with Howard Hughes?" to which Debbie raises her hand. Very different from Jane Fonda.
"Jane Powell's Fight Back With Fitness" (1986) is not for getting ripped but helps people with arthritis with a singing and moving that harks back to her 1950s MGM musical days. She passed away just a month ago. R.I.P. Good Time's "29 Minutes Workout" manages to assemble all the 1980s workout cliches in one place: cheap synths, leg warmers and sweat bands and bright lycra outfits paired with American tan pantyhose. Finally there is "Dancin' Grannies" (1989) that is like an extended episode of Golden Girls go to the gym.
[Not mentioned in the podcast, but we threw in a bonus with Kitten Natividad's "Eroticise".]
In case you are not a retro fitness freak, fear not, Something Weird this way comes for next week's films.