Ep. 207: Steve Zuckerman (Sesame Street "I in the Sky," "Lowercase n," & "Imagination Rain.")

Steve Zuckerman is a composer for television and movies, a songwriter, and a singer who wrote songs for at least three animated Sesame Street inserts: "I in the Sky," "Lowercase n," and "Imagination Rain."

Steve Zuckerman Biography

I was legally deaf until a series of operations restored my hearing. I was seven at the time. I knew from that moment on that my future lay in making “noise.” I created my first composition for orchestra at age ten. There was no mystery throughout my formative years as to which path I would follow.

Before my twentieth birthday, I was fortunate to begin my professional career writing for the Children’s Television Workshop for many animated letter commercials (some are still on the air). Later that same year, I was tasked with creating the theme music for the ABC network’s Saturday Superstar Movie and commissioned to score three one-hour specials for that time slot.

I found a niche in creating music for commercials. Later, I was privileged to be a composer and copywriter for the successful launches of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers toylines. From then on, I have focused on youthful audiences and their associated products.

Most would agree that music is a powerful tool for conveying emotional content and an essential part of supporting visuals and the spoken word. My experience has shown me that “getting it right” is a subjective task that requires much more than good communication between client and composer. It’s about service. It’s about turn-around, and it’s about attitude. These are the hallmarks of professionalism that, when supported by craftsmanship and discipline, result in extraordinary outcomes regardless of how challenging the circumstance. It’s about commitment to excellence. That has always been my focus.

https://www.musicz.tv

Co -host

Erica Erica Johnson: Vocals, bass, spoons, percussion of The Dead Hensons.

The Dead Hensons were an eight-piece San Francisco Bay Area Jim Henson tribute band that played music from various Henson projects, but primarily Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and The Muppet Movie. The band has also covered songs from The Electric Company.

The band name is a play on the Dead Kennedys, a San Francisco Bay Area punk band that formed in the late 1970s.

The band released a 7-inch record with professionally recorded versions of "Pinball Number Count," "Riverbottom Nightmare Band," "The Lonely N," and "The First Day of School."

They have also recorded bootleg and live versions of other Muppet-related songs including "Between," "Can You Picture That?" "Candy Man," "Eleven," "Exit," "Ladybugs' Picnic," "Movin' Right Along," "Rainbow Connection," and "Subway."

Due to changes of address among members, the band gave its farewell performance at the Bottom of the Hill on December 4, 2009. The special double setlist included "Mr. Bassman," "Jellyman Kelly," "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday," and "A Bear Eats Bear Food."

https://web.archive.org/web/20210506041204/http://www.deadhensons.com/

Credits

Stephen Bluhm - Sound Engineer and episode editor

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.stephenbluhm.fun⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Rich Wexler

Producer/Interviewer

⁠⁠⁠http://www.vintageannalsarchive.com

Episode Editors

Otter Castro

https://www.instagram.com/ottercastro

Podcast Episode Page

www.vintageannalsarchive.com/vintage-annals-archive-podcast.html

Please join our Patreon

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Weekend At The End of The World is an independent Horror/Comedy which I describe as The Hangover meets Army of Darkness.

It’s Streaming now on all platforms!

The Interview is with Gille Klabin (director), Clay Elliott (Actor/co-script writer), and Cameron Fife (Actor/producer). Part two of this podcast will include individual interviews with Gill, Clay, and Cameron. Coming Soon!

When Karl's girlfriend rejects his proposal and shatters his dreams of happily ever after, his childhood friend Miles takes him away to his Meemaw's cabin to regroup, come together and help flip it before the property bubble bursts. The cabin and the once deceased Meemaw have different plans however, and Miles and Karl are forced to face both their metaphorical and very real demons. After opening a portal to The Allness (the realm between realities), a weakened Meemaw guides our heroes through various trials as they help her gain the strength she needs to close the portal forever, and save our world. Stream it today! The film also stars Thomas Lennon, Troian Bellisario, Adam Ray and Sujata Day.

https://www.weekendattheendoftheworld.com

https://www.instagram.com/weekendattheendoftheworld

Credits

Stephen Bluhm - Sound Engineer and episode editor

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.stephenbluhm.fun⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Rich Wexler

Producer/Interviewer

⁠⁠⁠http://www.vintageannalsarchive.com

Episode Editors

Otter Castro

https://www.instagram.com/ottercastro

Ep. 205: Nichole Sakura (Micro Budget/Superstore)

About Nichole Sakura

Nichole Sakura originally hails from the San Francisco Bay area where she was born to a Japanese mother and an Irish Catholic father. Her love of movies and stories about outsiders drew her to pursue acting and comedy, where she has gone on to become most recognized for her role as ‘Cheyenne’ on NBC's SUPERSTORE. Her other work includes voicing of the titular role of ‘Suzume’ in Makoto Shinkai’s Sony animated feature of the same name, roles in the Universal feature PLEASE DON'T DESTROY, Hulu’s MAGGIE, and the Showtime series, SHAMELESS. She has just completed writing, directing and acting in her first short film, titled DAUGHTER IN A BOX.

https://www.instagram.com/nicholesakura

THE STORY

When Terry (Patrick Noth) discovers he's about to be a father, he does what any other sane person would do. He moves himself and his nine-months-pregnant wife from Iowa to Los Angeles to shoot a low-budget indie movie and sell it to a streamer for a “fuck-ton of money.”

Documented by his cousin Devin’s behind-the-scenes camera crew, Terry suddenly finds that his beliefs about diversity, the #MeToo movement, and what technically qualifies as a properly financed film production put him at odds with, well, every single person who meets him.

Featuring a cast of comedy MVPs, the uproarious Micro Budget follows Terry’s disastrous attempts to make a disaster movie, and his inability to serve a decent lunch.

THE CAST

Brandon Micheal Hall (Poker Face), Patrick Noth (The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show), Emilea Wilson (Alternatino With Arturo Castro), Nichole Sakura (Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain), Jordan Rock (Bupkis), Jon Gabrus (101 Places to Party Before You Die), Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live), Hal Linden (Barney Miller), Neil Casey (Ghostbusters), Maria Bamford (Lady Dynamite), Mike Mitchell (Twisted Metal), Don Fanelli (A League of Their Own), Nate Fernald (The Late Late Show with James Corden), Morgan Evans (Teen Wolf After Show), Kate Flannery (The Office), Matt McCoy (Seinfeld), with Chris Parnell (30 Rock) and Carla Jimenez (Nacho Libre).

https://www.microbudgetmovie.com

https://www.instagram.com/microbudgetmovie

Ep. 204: Mike Kuchar (Kuchar Brothers) filmmaker/painter/comic artist/cinematographer

I’ve been a fan of The Kuchar Brothers for almost twenty years and they are among my top 5 directors. They are known as heroes to filmmaker John Waters and were part of the underground film scene in New York City in the late 1950’s and 1960’s as championed by film curator Jonas Mekas.

This was one of my favorite interviews and one of the biggest honors I’ve ever had in doing this podcast. Mike is one of the funniest, kindest, creative, and most thoughtful filmmakers of the past 50 years. The way he speaks about making films is truly magical. The care he puts into the work and the reverence he has for the actors in his films are a true rarity. We talked about a lot of topics, but my favorite thing was when Mike spoke about remembering his birth. That’s the kind of magical and wonderful things he can do with his brain. I’m pretty sure he spoke about that ability as a way of time traveling through his own memories. He is operating at genius level.

If you don’t know his films, Mike directed a film called “Sins of the Fleshapoids” which is one of my favorite of his films. It features his brother George in a lead role.

https://tubitv.com/movies/100027431/sins-of-the-fleshapoids

Many of the Kuchar Brothers films can be found here to watch for free below at Penn Sound. It says it’s George’s films but it has Mike’s films as well.

PennSound: George Kuchar

Mike Kuchar has been a majorly influential figure in the underground film and comics scenes since the 1960s, first in his hometown of the Bronx and, from the 1970s on, in the creative hotbed of San Francisco. Together with his twin brother George, the Kuchars gained cult recognition for their over-the-top, no-budget films that sent up Hollywood epics, weepy romances, and sci-fi B movies. In iconic films like Sins of the Fleshapoids (1965), The Craven Sluck (1967), and Death Quest of the Ju-Ju Cults(1976), Mike developed his distinctive style that jettisoned traditional narrative structure and acting professionalism in favor of extravagant, tender sagas that would have a significant impact on emerging theorizations and expressions of camp as an artistic sensibility.

John Waters, Guy Maddin, and Wayne Wang all cite the Kuchars as an important influence. (In It Came From Kuchar Waters calls them “true underground filmmakers,” says they should be knighted, and points to George’s cinematic use of turds as a precursor to his own Pink Flamingos; Maddin, discussing their aesthetic, recalls the actors’ “aggressively stylized voices” and remembers feeling as though “chocolate bars had been applied to the eyebrows,” which are like no other eyebrows in the history of film.)

At a time when Andy Warhol was making movies in which nothing happened, and non-narrative filmmakers like Stan Brakhage were making experimental, formalist films, the Kuchar brothers pumped out one mutant Hollywood melodrama after another—works that, in a climate of hip, affectless filmmaking, were “all affect.” Jonas Mekas, film critic for the Village Voice at the time, speculated that the makers of Barbarella had stolen ideas directly from the Kuchar film Sins of the Fleshapoids.

- Evan James (from an article in Mother Jones) 4-13-2010

https://www.kucharbrothers.org/mike-kuchar

https://www.kucharbrothers.org

https://www.instagram.com/kucharbrothers

Credits

This episode was produced, researched, and (barely) edited by Rich Wexler

https://www.vintageannalsarchive.com/vintage-annals-archive-podcast.html

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Please support our Patreon

Please consider becoming a member of our Patreon as it goes to paying out editors well and to being able to start to afford paying out guests for their time that are more working class artists and musicians.

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About Carla Jimenez

She has had roles in series such as Lincoln Heights, My Name Is Earl and Little Britain USA, and has appeared in films including Miss March(2009) and Phat Girlz (2006).

Jimenez has appeared in Nacho Libre, Lady in the Water, and Accepted. In 2003, Jimenez appeared as a character named Virginia, in the independent cult film My Life with Morrisseyby Andrew Overtoom. She was a recurring character on the ABC TV shows Desperate Housewives, Better Off Ted and Last Man Standing. She also played the recurring role of Rosa on Raising Hope.

Jimenez has also appeared in the Netflix sitcom Fuller House, playing an adoption agent for Jesse and Becky. She played Alba, the Pembertons' maid, on FOX's The Mick and most recently in the film “Micro Budget”.

She also originated the role of Pancha in her first Broadway production “Real Women Have Curves” that opened 4-27-2025 and has a long history of performing in plays and musicals.

https://www.instagram.com/thisiscarlajimenez

THE STORY

When Terry (Patrick Noth) discovers he's about to be a father, he does what any other sane person would do. He moves himself and his nine-months-pregnant wife from Iowa to Los Angeles to shoot a low-budget indie movie and sell it to a streamer for a “fuck-ton of money.”

Documented by his cousin Devin’s behind-the-scenes camera crew, Terry suddenly finds that his beliefs about diversity, the #MeToo movement, and what technically qualifies as a properly financed film production put him at odds with, well, every single person who meets him.

Featuring a cast of comedy MVPs, the uproarious Micro Budget follows Terry’s disastrous attempts to make a disaster movie, and his inability to serve a decent lunch.

THE CAST

Brandon Micheal Hall (Poker Face), Patrick Noth (The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show), Emilea Wilson (Alternatino With Arturo Castro), Nichole Sakura (Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain), Jordan Rock (Bupkis), Jon Gabrus (101 Places to Party Before You Die), Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live), Hal Linden (Barney Miller), Neil Casey (Ghostbusters), Maria Bamford (Lady Dynamite), Mike Mitchell (Twisted Metal), Don Fanelli (A League of Their Own), Nate Fernald (The Late Late Show with James Corden), Morgan Evans (Teen Wolf After Show), Kate Flannery (The Office), Matt McCoy (Seinfeld), with Chris Parnell (30 Rock) and Carla Jimenez (Nacho Libre).

https://www.instagram.com/microbudgetmovie

https://www.microbudgetmovie.com/

I had a great chat with Morgan Evans and Patrick Noth who were the team behind the smart and hilarious comedy “Micro Budget” now out on VOD! We had a fun chat about independent filmmaking, improvisation, and stories from their early days at UCB.

THE STORY

When Terry (Patrick Noth) discovers he's about to be a father, he does what any other sane person would do. He moves himself and his nine-months-pregnant wife from Iowa to Los Angeles to shoot a low-budget indie movie and sell it to a streamer for a “fuck-ton of money.”

Documented by his cousin Devin’s behind-the-scenes camera crew, Terry suddenly finds that his beliefs about diversity, the #MeToo movement, and what technically qualifies as a properly financed film production put him at odds with, well, every single person who meets him.

Featuring a cast of comedy MVPs, the uproarious Micro Budget follows Terry’s disastrous attempts to make a disaster movie, and his inability to serve a decent lunch.

THE CAST

Brandon Micheal Hall (Poker Face), Patrick Noth (The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show), Emilea Wilson (Alternatino With Arturo Castro), Nichole Sakura (Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain), Jordan Rock (Bupkis), Jon Gabrus (101 Places to Party Before You Die), Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live), Hal Linden (Barney Miller), Neil Casey (Ghostbusters), Maria Bamford (Lady Dynamite), Mike Mitchell (Twisted Metal), Don Fanelli (A League of Their Own), Nate Fernald (The Late Late Show with James Corden), Morgan Evans (Teen Wolf After Show), Kate Flannery (The Office), Matt McCoy (Seinfeld), with Chris Parnell (30 Rock) and Carla Jimenez (Nacho Libre).

THE DIRECTOR

Morgan Evans is WGA-award nominated writer and director known for writing the animated Batman feature film Merry Little Batman for Warner Bros. Micro Budget is his first feature film as a writer/director. In addition to feature film writing, he has also written for Teen Titans Go! (Cartoon Network), Liza on Demand (YouTube Premium), The Onion, and various Netflix late night comedy programs. As a director, his work can be seen on shows like Earth To Ned (Jim Henson/Disney+), The Legendary Dudas (Nickelodeon), The Fix (Netflix), and The Teen Wolf After Show (MTV).

THE PRODUCERS

Patrick Noth is an Emmy-nominated comedian who plays Terry in Micro Budget and wrote the film’s script with director Morgan Evans. He began his career studying at the Upright Citizen's Brigade, and his credits include writing for and appearances on IFC, TV Land, NBC, MTV, Nickelodeon, Netflix's The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show, and digital platforms like College Humor and Above Average. Patrick has also worked as a director for Comedy Central, and made many independent projects like his comedy rap song and music video "My Posse" and the award-winning festival short Babysitting.

Emilea Wilson is an award-winning actor and producer who plays Terry’s wife Erica in Micro Budget and is married to Patrick Noth (Terry) in real life. Her film acting credits include Time Freak (Academy Award Nominee for Best Live Action Short Film) and What I See When I Look (Sun Valley Film Festival, SV Shorty Award Winner). Other acting credits include The Blacklist, Alternatino, Two Sentence Horror Stories, Happyish, Sneaky Pete, The Jim Gaffigan Show, and Orange is the New Black. Her voiceover work includes Rockstar Games' Red Dead Online, and Hamster & Gretel for The Disney Channel.

Rob Hatch-Miller and Puloma Basu directed the documentary feature Other Music (Tribeca Film Festival), about the final days of a beloved independent record store. They've also been the producers of numerous music videos and other projects for artists including MGMT, the Postal Service, Kurt Vile, Aimee Mann, Real Estate, and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, as well as Funny Or Die videos, independent short films, and the Adult Swim infomercial The Newbridge Tourism Board Presents "We're Newbridge: We're Comin' To Get Ya!" with The Best Show's Tom Scharpling & Jon Wurster.

About Bonnie “Prince” Billy

The man who sings and composes under the name Bonnie "Prince" Billy and acts under the name Will Oldham has, over the past three-plus decades, made an idiosyncratic journey through, and an indelible mark on, the worlds of indie rock and independent cinema.

About “We Are Together Again” Out Now!

In 2019 we started in to exploring a process of making Louisville, KY records again, in Louisville studios with Louisville musicians. We did I Made a Place this way, then Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You. Things were going well, and then they started going better. The Purple Bird alit on our shoulders and sung its mating call into the ears of listeners all over the world, thanks primarily to the guidance of friend and producer David Ferguson. That bird is out flying around still, leaving abundances of smiling faces in its mighty wake. Having learned thus to fly, Bonny got back to work on the Louisville-first mandate, digging back into songs left open on the table during the Purple process. Bonny went into End of an Ear studio with Jim Marlowe engineering and co-producing; together they assembled a platoon of brilliant singers, blowers and pickers, including especially Bonny’s current tour mates Jacob Duncan (flute and saxophone) and Thomas Deakin (clarinet, whistle, baritone electric guitar, accordion, cornet). Chris Bush applied his modular synth skills to Duncan’s sax for “Davey Dead”. And harpist Erin Hill, who Oldham first met back in the 1980s when he was a wee lad, sings and plays all over “Davey Dead”. Oldham’s cousin Ryder McNair took a break from assistant-scoring Ridley Scott productions to write string quartet arrangements for these songs, and Will’s brother Ned returns after two decades to sing and play bass. This record was made closer to the Ohio River than any Oldham’s been involved with since 1993’s Palace Brothers There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You. Louisville’s current-and-past vital musical community is hi-lighted on every song. Catherine Irwin, who sang on the BPB release Ease Down the Road, is back here on “Hey Little” and “Vietnam Sunshine”. Lacey Guthrie, Tory Fisher and Katie Peabody, the three front women of the band Duchess, sing together on the opening and closing songs, parallel odes to the beast that is fear. The door was swung ajar by the Purple Bird, with its new take on homespun country bombast, and Bonny has stuck his gorgeous foot into that door to whisper his “I love you”s to all who need them (which we kind of all do). We start small, continue small, like oak tree seeds or the sperm-and-egg concoctions mixologized by the parents of movers-and-shakers since the dawn of time. Plant these songs into your soul’s brain, into your existence’s heart and the trees will grow and fruit and flourish and nourish. We thank you.

Released March 6, 2026

Thomas Deakin: accordion, whistle, electric guitar, cornet, tuba, clarinet and singing

Jacob Duncan: saxophone, flute, piano and singing

All percussion by Caleb Vasquez

All string arrangements by Ryder McNair

Violin: Charlie Bisharat, Camille Miller, Sara Callaway Cello: Jake Braun

Viola: Zach Dellinger

Singing: Tory Fisher, Lacey Guthrie, Katie Peabody, Maggie Halfman, Catherine Irwin

Flute and singing: Nuala Kennedy, Bouzouki and singing: Eamon O'Leary Harp and singing: Erin Hill

Bass: Ned Oldham, Chris Cupp

Piano: Ryder McNair

Moog and piano: Jim MarloweTapes and electronics:

Christopher Bush

Recorded and mixed by Jim Marlowe at End of an Ear in the Portland neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky in the Spring of '25

Mastered by Seth Manchester

Suala was recorded by Martin O'Malley at Malbay Studios, County Clare, Ireland. Eamon was recorded by Jefferson Hamer at Epiphany in New York City

All songs by Will Oldham/Royal Stable Music (ASCAP)

Album Available at Bandcamp

https://bonnieprincebilly.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-together-again

Credits

Stephen Bluhm - Engineer

Rich Wexler - Interviewer

Otter Castro - Editor

Ep. 200: Guy Maddin (Filmmaker)

Guy Maddin has directed thirteen feature-length movies, most recently Rumours (2024), starring Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander; as well as The Forbidden Room (2015), My Winnipeg (2007), and The Saddest Music in the World (2003). He has also mounted over seventy performances of his films around the world featuring live elements – orchestra, sound effects, singing and narration — most recently, The Green Fog (2016), which was accompanied live by the Kronos Quartet. His screenplay collaborators include Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro and poet John Ashbery. His movies Archangel (1990) & The Heart of the World (2000) both won National Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Experimental Film. For the past 15 years he has partnered with co-directors Evan and Galen Johnson.

"No one makes films like fabulist Guy Maddin. From his home in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Maddin is isolated from the facile preoccupations and coarse trends which plague the majority of Hollywood films nowadays. It could be argued, though, that he is also estranged from what passes for independent cinema. Truly a stranger in a strange land. But what a strange land indeed! His films are black comedic excursions into the netherworlds of silent film, but he also has an uncanny feel for replicating images and sounds from painting, classical music, and literature. They could easily become a pretentious mess in less-skilled hands, yet Maddin’s melodramatic films are anything but. They’re playful, complex, hilarious, and exquisite; a perfect melange of high art and camp. Cinematic images that can only be described as post-modern phantasms. Perhaps the only other filmmaker today who is so comfortable reworking such melodramatic terrain is - Lars von Trier

His films include

1988 - Tales from the Gimli Hospital

1990 - Archangel

1992 - Careful

1995 - Sissy-Boy Slap-Party

2002 - Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary

2003 - Cowards Bend the Knee

2003 - The Saddest Music in the World

2006 - Brand Upon the Brain!

2007 - My Winnipeg

2017 - The Green Fog

2024 - Rumours

Guy is currently busy colour-correcting the 4K restoration of his film CAREFUL (1992) so please keep an eye out on his Instagram guy.maddin for updates.

https://www.instagram.com/guy.maddin

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Credits

Stephen Bluhm - Sound Engineer and episode editor

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.stephenbluhm.fun⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Rich Wexler

Producer/Interviewer

https://www.instagram.com/vintageannalsarchiveandpodcast

⁠⁠⁠http://www.vintageannalsarchive.com

Episode Editors

Otter Castro

https://www.instagram.com/ottercastro