Friday, December 03, 2010

Eep-a-Ma-Moo-Kah-Hee-Ha To Our Jewish Friends!

Here's a YouTube "video" I've uploaded of Jeff G. and me, a short clip of an audiotape we made when he slept over my house the weekend of December 18th, 1980. We were eleven, almost twelve, and in the sixth grade. I had found the cassette on the floor of the bus, and it occurred to me that my Uncle Richie, who was staying at our house, had a little boombox on which I could record over the tape. (I think it was a recording of an Antioch youth meeting, all droning discussion and monotonous strumming.) Hopefully, one o' those days I'll get the whole thing digitized, before it crumbles to dust. It's hilarious in its own way, me with my lispy voice and sniggering, stuffy-nosed laugh, and Jeff's Tourette's-like habit of emitting a strange, crescendo squeak every so often.

We mostly used the tape to record off the TV, which seemed quite an innovation to us, and then we'd parody whatever we taped in that inimitable preteen way. Here we recorded a Hanukkah-themed station ID for WNEW, which showed a family lighting a menorah to an unseen singer. Jeff then sings his approximation of the Hebrew, not too badly I might add. Then I join in way too enthusiastically, but then realizing my over-zealousness I take it down a notch. Then Jeff sings some more and I start yelling at him that I was singing first, I guess pretending as if I was the original singer of the commercial. Jeff wisely ignores me, and gets in his "Kosher hot dog" joke once more, which cracks me up. It's really awful and embarrassing, but I just have to remind myself that I did a lot of stupid shit then. I really had no choice.




That's me with the bear puppet and combover, and Jeff as a Santa who appears to have been rolled in an alleyway. This pic may or may not be from the year of the recording.