Weekly Firesign Chat Cheese Log

A Firesign Chat
01/08/2026

Archive

||||||||| Catherwood re-enters the Waiting Room and explains "This is the main discussion room which is logged each night."
||||||||| Catherwood announces, "The time is 4:32 AM - I now declare Thursday's chat log for January 08, 2026 officially open!"... and then, he retires back to the vestibule...
||||||||| A time machine materializes at 8:00 PM and RedPillTweeny waltzes out, carrying a grape from ancient Greece.
||||||||| It's 8:45 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| RedPillTweeny - dead from pneumonia
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| Tweeny tiptoes in around 8:00 PM, trying to avoid Catherwood because of last month's "unpleasant incident."
||||||||| New notice: '** WE'RE GLAD YOU MADE IT!! **
The Firesign Chat & Show starts at 7pm Eastern/6pm Central/5pm Mountain/4pm Pacific
Tonight: ** FIRESIGN’S OPENING QUADRILOGY **
A Replay of a show from January 2, 2025
Firesign's WAITING FOR THE ELECTRICIAN OR SOMEONE LIKE HIM
with a Firesign commentary on the making of the album STILL WAITING FOR THE ELECTRICIAN
and from Phil Austin’s TALES OF THE OLD DETECTIVE “The Age Of Brass”
Listen to the 256k stream at: http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd2 or the 16k stream at: http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd1
This show is archived at www.kurtericson.net/firesign | Cat’s collage archive is at www.kurtericson.net/cat'
||||||||| Catherwood says "8:00 PM, time for SOMEONE to leave!", grabs Tweeny by the collar and gives 'em the old bum's rush out the door
||||||||| Catherwood strides in with a trumpet, plays a fanfare, and proclaims "Nine PM on Thursday, January 08, 2026 - I now declare alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre's chat officially open!" -- then he looks around at the empty room, looks at his watch, and mumbles "...am I early?"
||||||||| Catherwood steals into the room, and announces "Announcing 'Deputy Dang', also known as 'Nancy' -- the time is 8:00 PM" -- then he slowly retires back into the vestibule...
||||||||| cease enters at 8:00 PM as Catherwood takes their hat and goat and rushes off to the Hat Pack Annex.
cease: the Dang man
Deputy Dang: Howdy, cease!
||||||||| With a theatrical clearing of his throat, Catherwood pipes up: "8:00 PM and late as usual, it's Beet, just back from Elmertown."
||||||||| Catherwood walks in wearing his pyjamas, yawns, and mumbles "It's midnight here in New York city"...then he falls over and starts snoring loudly..
Beet: Howdy, Folks!
Deputy Dang: I apologize to you, and everyone, for being "not" in the chat. I'm having some mental issue(s?) and I feel weird and leave or don't read. Actually I do read usually, but don't contribute.
Beet: Hey, cease and Deputy!
||||||||| Catherwood enters with Muttsky close behind, mutters something about disrupting his 8:00 PM tree-stunting plans, and dashes off to the sitting room.
Deputy Dang: Howdy, Beet! You're included in everyone, like it or not!
Deputy Dang: Howdy, Muttsky!
Beet: Thanks.
Muttsky: Grid evening everyone!
Beet: Hi Muttsky
Muttsky: Thought I’d update my chat moniker as it seems we in the US are going full soviet
cease: https://designandtime.com/
Deputy Dang: Ruskie Pow!
cease: bruce tells me he's working on firesign flilck with the still living guys recording their voices
Muttsky: I like the one for Fantastic Cigarettes
cease: they are amazing, eh?
Muttsky: Long in the leaf and short in the can!
cease: as continuing the conversatilon from last chat, re what ossman said about doing a doc
Muttsky: Lets keep Os’s private life out of this …
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "What is reality?"
cease: nothing private. he told me to discuss it on chat.
Muttsky: Was a joke - “doing a doc”
Muttsky: My brain works faster than my good sense
cease: a documentary about the group. i kind of assumed it was, but was just playing it straight.
cease: there have been 3 attempts before.
Muttsky: Natch
Muttsky: I did not know that, I think
cease: hilarious to hear austin call himself a lady of the canyon
Muttsky: Docs about comics can be tough. Define what’s funny and you’ve killed it. Joe Adamson did some great docs on the Marxes and WC. Maybe look there for inspiration?
cease: thanks. i will
cease: i was talking to snyder and he was talking to ossman about how visual it needs to be.
cease: we tlked about that on chat last week
Muttsky: I think the docs were entitled *Marx Brothers in a Nutshell” and “W.C. Fields - Straight Up.”
Muttsky: Visuals definitely help, even if only still photos
Beet: Are those documentaries "findable"?
cease: hi beet
Muttsky: Yes. Probably both on youtube. I have vhs versions and might have a digitalfile somewhere
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "The future ain't here yet, man!"
Beet: hi, mr cease.
||||||||| A time machine materializes at 8:00 PM and llanwydd steps out, carrying a grape from ancient Greece.
llanwydd: good evening
Muttsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IpouD-wv1Y Is the marx doc
cease: hey llan
Muttsky: https://www.duckprods.com/store.html Old site for production company for both
Muttsky: Howdy Llan!
Beet: Thanks, Muttsky, for links.
Beet: Hi, llan.
Muttsky: Beet: You can also find copies on eBay forcheap
Beet: OK
Muttsky: Both date from the 1980s, so they’ve been around for a while
cease: will check em out
cease: a you listening to bergman here?
Beet: Cultural Velcro. I like that.
cease: this whole production is exactly what a bio of them would be. unfortunately it's audio
Muttsky: Then supply video/photos to flesh it out?
Muttsky: A good editor could take stills and make them work
cease: yeah. snyder is already at work on EAT. he has a lot of stuff in his archives
Muttsky: There are folks who have created what theycall “telesnap reconstructions” of lost tv shows where they use original audio along with photos taken during production in lieu of the original video (which has been lost).
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Shoes for Industry! Shoes for the Dead!"
cease: i want to start riffing on art ideas mixed with firesign on my new substack soon.
Beet: mr snyder is quite the genius artist.
cease: remember student fare?
Muttsky: Yup :)
cease: i flew from ottawa to LA on student fare in 69. one of the most memorable flights of my life
Muttsky: Sweet!
cease: just discovered cannabis and shared a joint before geting on the plane.
Muttsky: XD
cease: was put in first class! sat next to an off duty stew who pointed stuff as we flew over north america.
cease: all he christmas lights over american suburbs against a blue snow.
Muttsky: That’s a STORY
Beet: Twas a magical discovery.
cease: one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
cease: a few days later, shared a joint with the 2 phils before thier performance at the ash grove on ny eve.
Muttsky: It’s still the same story!
cease: ithought they were a bit off. the high light of the show was john simon's piano playing with Taj Mahal.
cease: Ossman and family still working with him. proc was with him on a recent cruise.
cease: HIs Elves song is a great tune.
Beet: What a radical work of art this was.
cease: indeed, beet. and they knew it.
Muttsky: The seeds of what was to come
cease: i was already in awe of them cuz of the mushroom plays, but the auido world this brings you into was amazing for its time
Muttsky: It was like nothing that Ihad ever heard
cease: indeed. you too, beet?
cease: llan?dang? avatar of tween?
Muttsky: A friend’s parents had a quad stereo set up. We used it to listen to the quad release of Bozos
Beet: I have often tried to imagine what it must have been like to be inside the head of one of these guys during their creative process.
cease: i woulod love to hear that.
Muttsky: We knew it from the regular version but wuad was incredible
Muttsky: Quad
cease: and they did eykiw in quadc too, i belileve
Muttsky: All I remember is the voices coming from everywhere
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Ha ha ha - that's very logical."
Muttsky: That jet take off at the beginning really blew us away
Beet: I had the quad version on 4-track and played often in my car quad setup. Often with the aid of some substance or other.
Muttsky: Wow.
cease: wow squared
Beet: Unbelievbly great.
cease: i will never have that experience.
Muttsky: Now I want to hear that again
cease: but that is true for everybody.
llanwydd: jet takeoff? what was that?
Muttsky: That roaring sound after Barney and Clem are buckled in for take off. Maybe a rocket but I always hear jet engines
llanwydd: aha
llanwydd: when you said jet takeoff at the beginningt I thought of the White Album
Muttsky: Sure! Absolutely!
Beet: This is still so enjoyable a listen if for no other reason but the superior engineering of the recording.
cease: well spotted
cease: indeed, beet
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "May I take your hat and goat?"
cease: trump bombing nigeria now
cease: in proc's autobi, he talks about playing with his toy soldiers as a young boy.
cease: it seem trump is doing it with real soldiers
Beet: Wasn't he supposed to be the "Peace President"?
llanwydd: we too want piece of nigeria
cease: lol
||||||||| Catherwood enters the room, strikes a gong, and bellows "THE TIME IN NEW YORK IS 1 O'CLOCK", then silently exits.
llanwydd: catherwood is a little off
||||||||| Catherwood strides alongside llanwydd and says "oh, fuck off llanwydd!"
Beet: He hasn't gotten the time right for years now.
cease: is there ever a right time?
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "It goes in - it must come out."
Beet: Who really knows what time it is?
cease: it's 7:09 in Chicago
cease: do you know that town?
Beet: Love Chicago the town and the group.
llanwydd: I've been there
llanwydd: went to a wonderfull resturant called Hackney's
llanwydd: I have seen it on television since then
Beet: Went to a White Sox game in Comiskey Park.
llanwydd: cool
cease: there is a scene in Neal Amid in Comiskey Park. Neal and Al Capone catch a White Sox game.
Beet: I sat there thinking about Babe Ruth playing in that stadium.
llanwydd: I remember that, cat. you played cpaone, didn't you?
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "...And no Buddhist writers either!"
cease: my last trip to Chicago was in 2008. spent 4 days digging it food and and art. wondrful time.
cease: no, that was my producer, peter stenshoel
llanwydd: I have listened to neal amid many times
cease: thank you
Beet: There's so much to take in in that fabulous town.
cease: i am filled with love for that play, but must create new plays so can't get stuck in past work
llanwydd: I was just a kid when I went there
cease: i have a photo of me playing a toy piano when i was 8 months old in chicago. weird
llanwydd: cool
cease: proping myself up on the toy piano as opposed to playing it.
||||||||| Catherwood interjects: "Direct readout - Doctor Memory."
Beet: Were you living there or visiting?
cease: visitng. my dad's sister lived there. we often visited from sask.
cease: the idea of neal amid, of neal smuggling boozs from sask to al capone is relevant to my family
llanwydd: I was visiting some cousins in Deerfield, a suburb
Muttsky: I agree with Phil on electrician. He’s spot on.
Muttsky: This is fascinating
Beet: It was the groundbreaker.
Muttsky: Yeah. You can’t take that away from it. And I think Phil’s take is pretty much mine as well.
cease: a privildge granted to few
Beet: cool
Muttsky: Chat is acting weird again. I didn’t get anything after a certain point until now
cease: bummer
Muttsky: Very strange
Beet: A friend of mine called this the "paranoid side".
Muttsky: Good label
cease: lenny bruce said a paranoid really has enemires.
cease: anyone still here?
Beet: Me
cease: Hi
cease: Beet
cease: People existed back then
cease: My grandfather was born in 1855.That's long ago.
Beet: I was able to stay the whole time tonight. Very enjoyable.
cease: My dad was Avacado King of Yorkton, Sask. in 1955
cease: I still loathe them
cease: north hollywood library was my fave
Beet: You really don't like avocados?
cease: i would prefer to be in a universe without them
cease: ok folks, see you here next week
Beet: This was fun. See everyone next week.
||||||||| Catherwood enters the room, strikes a gong, and bellows "THE TIME IN NEW YORK IS 2 O'CLOCK", then silently exits.
||||||||| It's 2:00 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| llanwydd - dead from the fiddlers
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| It's 2:15 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| Deputy Dang - dead from Covid 19
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| It's 2:30 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| Muttsky - dead from dengue fever
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| It's 2:45 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| cease - dead from pneumonia
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| Catherwood enters the room, strikes a gong, and bellows "THE TIME IN NEW YORK IS 3 O'CLOCK", then silently exits.
||||||||| It's 3:00 AM, and that means it's time to play BEAT THE REAPER! And here's how our contestants did:
||||||||| Beet - dead from the common cold
||||||||| Better luck next time! And now, back to our chatroom, which is already in progress...
||||||||| Catherwood enters, and announces to all and sundry "It's 4:31 AM, time to change the log file and clean out unused rooms; please exit the chat room for a minute or two. Thank you for your patience."

The Evening's Participants:
Beet
cease
Deputy Dang
llanwydd
Muttsky

URL References:
http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd1
http://listen.ehhh.us:8000/rfd2
www.kurtericson.net/cat
www.kurtericson.net/firesign
https://designandtime.com/
https://www.duckprods.com/store.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IpouD-wv1Y