The Pandemics on The Checkerboard Kids in HD (2014)

the Flippants on Checkerboard Kids (2014)

Catie Vanderbilt on Checkerboard Kids (2014)

Checkerboard Kids and Free Advice (2010-2012)

There was an amusing show I used to TD for called "Moon Juice and Free Advice". I actually found two old episodes when they came onto my program and here it is. Enjoy!

2012
 

2010
 

The Duppies on Checkerboard Kids (2009)

Oscars 2011

I'm not really one for the Oscars but an impromptu appearance by Seth Shire the Unpaid Film Critic really got me thinking. I really liked Inception and Toy Story 3. In any case enjoy the episode featuring Vince Lombardi from Rolling Rhinos and Rich from DVTV.

Enjoy the episode!

Phil's Home Journal

I'm trying to do more writing now that summer is upon us so here's a little excerpt from my War Journal er Food Journal same thing as far as I'm concerned.

Friday: I didn't have time to prepare a salad for school so I went to Organic Forever (2053 Frederick Douglass Boulevard, NYC) and had a little of the sprouted brown rice, chick pea salad (w potato and spinach) and steamed veggies with a veggies black bean chipotle burger on sprouted wheat bread w/ sprouts and lettuce and tomato.

there was a baby shower for the Assistant Principal of the school and I contributed to her gift but originally didn't want to go to the party because "there's gonna be a lot of food there so I should avoid it" luckily I thought better of it and came in and hung out. It was completely decorated in a checkerboard motif, flags and tablecloths (that's always an indication to me something is approved by the universe) I had fun, spoke to people. I felt a part of. We shouted "surprise!" I had some water with ice and when the food started getting doled out it was time for me to cover a class. so I bid the guest of honor a hearty farewell and was out. and I felt good.

I was at MNN working behind the scenes on "Something To Offer" i did my best. I did audio, character generation and some camerawork. I felt good about it. Reminder to take that final cut class this summer!

Her first guests were Jeremy Taylor (Step Up!) and Richard Speziale (DVTV) who were the Director and Editor of Burma: An indictment I highly encourage everybody to check the documentary and go to the website: FreeBurmaAlliance.org

In contrast to the starving in Burma, the hallway s of MNN had every single tempting food laid out for me in mass quantities, junk food, munchies, candies I liked, even bunches of apples and bananas, grapes. The second show had as guest, Joyce White made a great salad but with big healthy slabs of chicken. I had to calm down and relax I was scheduled to eat later and i gotta stick to the plan. never deviate from the plan.

For dinner I went to my absolute favorite restaurant Empire Schezuan Kyoto, I had my normal design your own dish: steamed vegetables (broccoli, spinach and green beans) with tofu, cashews and brown rice with black bean sauce on the side. I had a nice conversation with two eighth grade boys who engaged me in conversation during dinner over the book I was reading (Napoleon Hills Laws of Success) over 1000 pages! We discussed literature summer reading plans and artistic pursuits. they were sharp and will go far in life. it gave me optimism for the future of youth.


Saturdays food:
Breakfast: 1oz shredded wheat, 1oz raisins, .5oz milled flaxseeds, 1 banana, 8oz unsweetened soymilk

Snax: Granny smith apples

Lunch: steamed vegetables and tofu with cashew nuts, brown rice and black bean sauce on the side.

Dinnr: if I go to a diner I will have a veggie burger on whole wheat bread with lettuce and tomato, pickle and baked potato (if they offer a salad or steamed vegetable, that too.) If not I will go home and have my regular home meal of salad with cucumber, 4 color peppers, tomatoes, radish, alfalfa sprouts, capers, balsamic and olive oil. Perhaps some quinoa with beans and tofu, 1 baked yam, 2 slices of wheat bread and if I'm feeling crazy a lil steamed kale.

Kofre

International ska in espanol skank meisters. Kofre did the TV show they were really great! Special shout out to my homegirl Lauren who showed up and represented. Thanx! Here is the extended episode with extra songs you wont see on the air!

Chess Now:Juliana vs. The Bishop

Heres a couple of candid behind the shots of Chess Now featuring Juliana a lovely girl from Brazil and Peter from zERO gRAVITY. It was a fun episode!



The shoes on the desk are a tribute to tragic Chess superstar from New Orleans, Paul Morphy (1837-1884) who had an arrangement of womens shoes near his bed.

My Favorite Ukes

I love Ukulele Music! Here are my personal faves. Don't hate.


1)King Benny Nawahi he was mad old school. I think he died in a car crash when he went blind as a result of drinking too much bathtub gin. That might just be a rumor. Please don't take my word for it, I'm a jackass.

2)Israel Kamakawiwo'ole aka Iz. This gentle giant iz a legend. Rest in peace brudda!


3)The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain http://www.ukuleleorchestra.com
They are a a pretty tight outfit who do cool covers of Smells Like Teen Spirit and Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights. Here they are covering Bowies "Life On Mars" with a couple of other stuck in for fun! Enjoy!


4) Sonic Uke http://ukuleledisco.com Jason Tagg and the Ukulele Disco bunch are long time freinds of the show! Look up their movie online Ukulele Freaks

5) Julia Nunes http://www.junumusic.com Original tunes and covers, a great voice, cute and a overwhelming enthusiasm for all things uke! Subscribe to here youtube channel.


6) Hi'ilawe Ohta-San is the Django Reinhardt of Classical Uke. He is indisputably a master. When I went to Hawaii I bought a cool how to play uke book by him!

7) Rachel Trachtenburg http://lookattfsp.blogspot.com Whether Rachel is fighting City Hall or playing drums with her Family Band the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players I was pleased to see she was rocking out on the uke for her new show Rachel Trachtenburgs Homemade World what is with this Family and the OD long titles?

8) I met Tiny Tim at a Beyond Vaudeville Live show he was very gracious and friendly. We spoke mostly about cleaning products. He was a very charming, polite friendly and clean person.
He did a lot of cool uke tunes my favorite being "She left Me With The Herpes"

9) Beatle George Harrison after years of Guitar towards his demise he switched to ukulele.

10) Stubborn Records head and Ska musician King Django brought ukulele to the ska music scene.

Lili Roquelin on Chess Now

Me, Lili and Chess Now producer Lester Vecsey aka The Vex, behind the scenes at Manhattan Neighborhood Network







Check out French songstress, Lili Roquelin performing live on NYCs ONLY chess show "Chess Now"! Feel free to subscribe, comment and rate stuff up!

Brave New Girl Returns

I was pleased to have Brave New Girl perform on Checkerboard Kids. I don't have time for the jibber jabber heres the episode! Enjoy!

Why Checkerboards and Chess?

My homegirls checkered socks and laces. What is it about those things? I'm reffering to the checks, silly!

I was taking calls on the set of Chess Now and a caller asked what came first for me, ska music or chess? Wow. I hadn't thought of why I like what I like but let me reflect. As a child I was a little on the obsessive compulsive side. When I like something I get way overboard with it. From trading cards to comic books to music, movies, anything. It makes me feel safe in a life of chaos. When I was in high school I started going to Rocky Horror and listening to WLIR the big New Wave station. In College I liked Ska but I didnt get od into until this girl I fooled around with turned me onto this comic called Pirate Corp$ by Evan Dorkin a funny comic about some futuristic universe where people hung with aliens partied fought laughed and cried to a cool ska soundtrack. It made me get my player weight up in the ska world listening to more 2 Tone and even reaching back to the roots. Mad Planet was a cool Zine by Action Girl, Sarah Dyer that helped. I met Evan and Sarah several times at ska shows and some comic cons. They were always were mad cool. They went on to do several cool comics, tv shows, website and more recently created a child! Great for them. They rule and deserve mad success. In any case between them and Hewlett & Martins "Tank Girl" they always rocked a Checkered theme. I like patterns. Black and White work perfect for me. On or Off, Zero or One, Yin and Yang, Good and Evil. At this time I started begging my freind Zack to teach me Chess. He would play chess every day all day against his computer not a million quick games either, ONE LONG GAME. the Chess computer would sit there blinking and blinking for hours then make a decision then Zack would sit there pensive pondering all possible strategies. He showed me a little but I was very intimidated and scared to play. Sal Piro from the Rocky Horror Picture Show was another great chess player who would play people every weekend at the 8th Street Playhouse. His main Opponent was this guy Solomon who never seemed too interested in the movie but the games were big draws. Upstairs people crowded round gawking, trying to figure out what was going to happen next. Sal used to play me without a Queen and ask me what square do I wish to be mated on. I think he grew bored of chess and left it for tournament Scrabble of which he is totally gangster. As for me chesswise I took my lumps and learnt more in the process eventually marrying Cinnamon who was a pretty good chess player herself. Actress and Chess expert, Eva Veronika Klein took a liking to us and was at our wedding and even brought me an autographed copy of her husbands book (FIDE Master, Asa Hoffman) "Chess Gladiator" I was sad to learn Eva passed away on her birthday Dec 3rd 2007. She was cool people. We met on the set of MTV Oddville while I was taking care of Suzanne Muldowney who was performing as Vlad the Impaler. Eva liked my Checkerboard Creepers. The conversation quickly turned to Chess. Cinni said she liked Nimzowitsch or Capablanca whilst I liked Paul Morphy. After that she challenged me and I admit I was way too P word to play her. I was intimidated. Ah well coulda shoulda woulda. In any case (boy I say that a lot) here is the episode of Chess Now enjoy. Rate it up and subscribe!

The Cure For Sadness is MORE CHESS NOW!

Since I started this blog I've had these foster cats, Kat Kong and Pretty Pretty Princess On Thursday they finally returned to their rightful owners. I tell ya I really got attached to those guys. I guess I'll Cheer myself by watching Chess Now

Checkerphil Returns to Chess Now

Bobby Fischer is barely in the box but I'm sure he'll be turning in his grave after catching this crazy episode of Chess Now I was asked to fill in last minute. There are a lot of good points. It's funny, informative and the hostess, Agathe is more than pleasing on the eye. Bad point's crazy callers and the phone number keeps obscuring my quiff! Richard Hudnick from IAGO: (International Abstract Games Organization) (who really kept reminding me of Socrates Poole (Christian Clemenson) from the 1993 TV show, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.) In any case he says we are the only current Chess show on TV. If that's the case, Aye Caramba! Bah! mayhaps I'm too close to it since I'm on it. Judge for yourself and don't forget to rate it! What's chess without a rating?

¿Quién es TigerWall Flip?

To explain what TigerWall Flip is about would be OD just peep out this clip of this surf taxi garage rock n roll lucha libre style nastiness on the Checkerboard Kids Program! Enjoy!



Update: Watch the full Checkerboard Kids episode featuring TigerWall Flip HERE! Don't forget to rate it willya? Don't make me send Mitch after you!

Checkerphil appears on Chess Now!

click on photo to watch the episode

AS SEEN ON MNN: I appeared on this weeks episode of Chess Now when the chess computer couldn't get online so I jumped out from the CG computer and played some callers! You mostly see my hand but I make a cameo. Thanx to the whole MNN crew including the producer Vex, the director Yael and the host Agathe for being so kind and letting me represent! CHESS NOWs website

The MNN Street Festival

Saturday Sept 15th from 1-6pm was the Manhattan Neighborhood Network Street Festival; It was a great way for MNN to celebrate the groundbreaking of their new uptown facility as well as excite the community and destigmatize the mystique of creating television.

Photo: Look! It's Pretty Princess sleeping atop my cool MNN swag!

Everything was being filmed as is usual with us Public Access TV types.. The crowd was a veritable who’s who of cable TV producers and MNN staff old and new! Even my Sister and her family dropped by after the Mets/ Phillies game! (Phillies took it but at this point NY is still in first place.)

It was a great meet and greet with the community, producers from many boroughs and producers to be. Vex from Chess Now and I held down a chess area where I proceeded to get my butt kicked by everyone I faced including little kids (embarrassing!) Bah! Puny Humans I was distracted by the going ons! Luckily Vex was on hand to Challenge the Public and even beat Corey who is mad nice at chess! Let’s see him face Eddie! "Little Man, What Now?"

There were lots to do raffles, NoriVision had an Art section, There were lots of performer including Brazillian busker Don Juarez. who sang one of my Favorite songs "No More Procrastination",

Chuck did a rousing rendition of the "I love MNN" song. I joined the revels as one of his backup dancers with Harold Channer and others. It seemed pretty free form with no choreography so I fell back on the standard Robot/ Running man combo A little bit of River dance fast stepping to prove my versatility It seemed like an extended version of the song so I embodied the spirit of Isadora Duncan and did a little interpretive dance. I exited the stage completely spent... In any case I'm sure the footage of that performance is pure video gold. ~;^)

Roberto’s Band… Fetal Syndrome… OMG! Although their name eludes me, their performance will haunt me for days to come! I totally dug their version of "Stand By Me" It's not for the faint of heart!

But seriously folks I really do love MNN! The path of my life has been forever altered in a positive way thanks to them! To MNN go the mad props and kudos one and all!

Tired! must sleep!