Lost Video Archive: PSA/Instructional

Showing posts with label PSA/Instructional. Show all posts

11 July 2013

Dinosaurs!

United States - 1994

Diamond Entertainment, 1994, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour, 38 minutes

08 July 2013

Master Yamashita Bo Techniques

Tape # 5 of a continuing series

United States - 198?

Panther Home Video, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour

01 March 2013

Amazing Trick Shots

United States - 1989

Key Media, 1989, VHS

27 February 2013

Behind the Wall

The Toughest Beat in California

United States - 1996

Run Time - 18 minutes

26 February 2013

Learn Gun Safety

Learn Gun Safety with Eddie Eagle

United States - 1998

NRA, 1998, VHS

Run Time - 7 minutes

25 February 2013

Practical Self Defense

How Ordinary People can Protect Themselves Against Stronger Attackers

United States - 2000

Artistic Video, 2000, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour 30 minutes

20 November 2012

The New Complete Pointing Dog

The New Complete Pointing Dog With Harold Adams

United States - 1998

Stover Publishing Co., 1998, VHS

Run Time - 43 minutes

19 November 2012

Puppy Puzzle

The Hastings Approach to Evaluating the Structural Quality of Puppies

United States - 1998

Dogfolk Enterprises, 1998, VHS

Run Time - 55 minutes

14 September 2012

Worm Fishing Techniques

with Ken Cook

United States - 1985

Concord Video, 1985, VHS

Run Time - 30 minutes

This receipt was folded up and stuffed in the box, pushed to the top by the cassette. It's dated 1991. Ahhh, the golden ages, how I miss them.

05 September 2012

Learning American Sign Language

United States - 19??

Prentice Hall, VHS

Run Time - Approx 2 hours, 30 minutes

18 July 2012

Facial Flex

Facial Care is More Than Skin Deep

United States - 1996

Facial Concepts Inc., 1996, VHS

Run Time - Ten minutes

Comparing itself to the Greek pursuit of physical perfection of the human form, Facial Flex takes exercise to a whole new level of intensity. A level so intense that intensity cannot quite capture the stomach turning intensity that is watching repetitive puckering. It has never been more clear to me that the mouth is simply the opposite end of the same tube that terminates with an anus. Just different names for a sphincter muscle.

Thanks to VideoArchaeology for the full fuggin' video.

18 June 2012

Speed & Accuracy

Speed & Accuracy: Cowboy Action Style

United States - 1995

Director - Lenny Magill

Mail Order Video, VHS, 1997

Run Time - 1 hour, 20 minutes

04 June 2012

Alyssa Milano's Teen Steam

Teen Steam

United States - 1988

Director - Rick Elgood, Howard Woffinden

J2 Communications, 1988, VHS

Run Time -45 minutes

About a month ago as I was crudely pounding out the Preliminary Taxonomy of Exercise VHS a creepy memory came back to me. Who's The Boss was prime-time television at about the time that my parents got rid of the TV, so my only awareness of that show and its cultural significance came in retrospect. Nor did I have much awareness of Alyssa Milano who starred primarily in relationship drama shows as an adult. Yet somehow I knew that this existed. As I was compiling a list of oddball exercise videos with some friends this thing popped into my head and it took us almost two days to remember which 80's teen star was the host, and thence track down the tape.

That's when all those creepy recollections washed over me. To tell the truth though, by the time it finally arrived I had already sit through six other exercise videos and lost a great deal of my initial enthusiasm for the whole project. In the end though Teen Steam, if not a personal favorite, definitely anchors the genre at one end. Consisting of about 30 minutes of Alyssa and a couple of other girls doing some aerobics followed by a music video, there's not much to get excited about, unless you really try. The whole thing was after all attended closely by her parents (they appear several times in the credits) and I find it somewhat difficult to believe that they would intentionally capitalize on the pedophilia market.

Fortunately, even if they had, they did a pretty bad job. Judging by the reviews over at Amazon one would expect some sleaze, but it is not so. It may be an amusing time capsule (which needs to be reburied for a good 20 years to fully ferment) Teen Steam is pretty boring fare.

Check out the Taxonomy of Exercise VHS at Paracinema

02 June 2012

David Carradine's Tai Chi Workout

United States - 1993

Director - David Nakaharaa

Goldhil Video, 1993, VHS

Run Time - 58 minutes

Not long ago a friend of mine came over with a new cache of VHS tapes he had recently acquired. Among them was something that I hadn’t seen before; David Carradine’s Tai Chi Workout. As my friend and I were watching the tape I began wondering what Carradine’s uniformly leotarded extras were thinking. They seemed unenthusiastic, distracted and uncharacteristically deadpan for an exercise video (I’ve seen more than I wish to admit.) Were they silently lamenting the hideous color scheme of their outfits, or irritated by the tinny fake “Asian” music in the background? Perhaps they were trying to keep from laughing at Carradine’s thinning bowlcut and twig-like arms. Frankly, they looked storied, unstimulated, as if they’ve seen it all before. Just like any other job, I can picture them bitching about work and talking behind the boss’s back. Were they just going through the motions to collect a check, did they exchange war stories, sabotage each-other’s work?

Read more of my analysis and breakdown of the exercise home video boom, including a handy diagramatic family tree at Paracinema.net.

13 February 2012

A Long Month

Wow, it's been a long and trying month.

I just moved from my house of seven years into a new apartment here in Seattle. In the process I had to disinter all of the VHS tapes and DVDs that had gradually encrusted the place and re-organize them all in a new unfamiliar space. It took almost 2 weeks to get everything set up and operating so that I could draw and watch movies again. Without those two activities I quickly become a neurotic misanthrope as my partner will attest.

Now we're back in action, although the boxes are sort of still acting as furniture. With luck there are a lot of new things coming at Lost Video Archive. If you've been following lately you'll have noticed some extra reviews over at Paracinema, more to come. I'm working on a larger project similar to that. More stuff over at Illogical Contraption, and for those of you who remember Blair Week and Kotto Week, it's soon time for a new installment!

And so thanks for (unwittingly) bearing with me as I reorganized my life. And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

14 December 2011

A Great Score!

Wow, it's been a long ass time since I started raising a stink about movies.
I wanted to use the opportunity of my 200th follower and my 500th post (almost perfect; 201-498) to take a few minutes to thank those of you who read Lost Video Archive and especially those who, on occasion, actually think it's kinda neat and tell me so! I love and strive for dialogue!

What I have primarily tried to do here over the past 4 years at LVA is to hone my writing ability on something I love, namely genre film. As the rest of my brain has grown and I've pursued other areas of interest the whole thing has become what you see now; a multi discipline interaction with the world of culture and cinema.

I really appreciate those of you that follow and actually read Lost Video Archive, you are the 200! And those of you who carry links to LVA on your own amazing sites and/or blogs, I extend my humble gratitude; a recommendation is among the highest of compliments. Now, for those of you who follow LVA and have a site/blog to which you would like me to post a link, let me know! A true community is reciprocal, and despite my best intentions and a confirmation bias, I sometimes miss things that are right in front of my face.

I realize that what Lost Video Archive does is something a little unusual when it comes to film "reviews", and as such your appreciation is very much noted and dear to me. Thanks for making LVA a great score so far!