Me and Underdog: The Brilliance of Suzanne Muldowney

In the late 80s/early 90s a mysterious Underdog roamed the streets of New York. I would see this lady dressed in full on costume here and there and wonder, and I knew her from her appearances on the brilliant late night public access show Beyond Vaudeville, probably the craziest talk show ever to air. Were they putting us on? You just never knew...the host Frank Hope was so deadpan and so obviously enraptured by his guest, themselves an eccentric collection of semi-b list celebrities (Soupy Sales, Joe Franklin) and work-a-day oddballs. Underdog fit right in. (I bought a DVD best of Beyond Vaudeville and it's even better than I remembered. No rose colored glasses here). Later on I heard her on the Howard Stern show, but in recent years I've lost track of Underdog. A quick search shows that her legend lives on and she's still active, though, sadly, recovering from a serious cat bite. And when I found this old photo of me and Underdog (Suzanne Muldowney) taken at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade many years ago, I was reminded of how thrilled I was to meet her at the time. Scroll down below too for a youtube clip of Underdog's greatest hits as well as a clip from just last month.

Another Talented Satlof, Now Out of Retirement

The TV directing and producing credits of Ron Satlof - my uncle - run as long as your arm. Mentioning 70s and 80s classics like the A-Team, Battlestar Galactica, Hawaii Five-0, Perry Mason, Quincy ME, Charlie's Angels, The Dukes of Hazzard, McLoud, The Six Million Dollar Man and my favorite Get Christy Love barely scratch the surface of Ron's TV work, while in the film world it's hard to beat an Assistant Director credit on Mean Streets plus a cameo in the classic Scorcese film (as a bartender). Ron retired several years ago, to Florida, but he came out of retirement over the last couple of years to write, produce and direct the new film Misconceptions, a funny and poignant dramedy about a southern fundamentalist woman carrying a baby for a two gay men from Boston. I caught up with Ron at the opening of the film in New York City on Friday. The theater was packed and the crowd appreciative. Ron and his co-writer Ira Pearlstein stayed afterward to answer audience questions. It's playing in NYC at the Quad Theater through Thursday, so this is a chance to run on down and see the film on the big screen.

Running on empty

I'm not one for self aggrandizement, but Diana suggested i post about this, so here it is. I ran a half-marathon 10 days ago, which was quite fun. It was, by 5 miles, the longest distance i'd ever run, and i somehow managed to hit my target time to the exact second: 2 hours, 11 minutes.

The race was in Vancouver, a city whose natural beauty just blew me away. So it was a beautiful run. Still, by the time one of the official race photographers snapped this shot of me, 1 mile from the finish line and after the longest uphill of the race, i was pretty gassed.

To add a musical dimension to this post, here are my three favorite heads-down, pound-it-out running songs of all time, which i listened to nonstop in training for the race:

1. The Private Psychadelic Reel by the Chemical Brothers as heard on disc 1 of Fatboy Slim and Paul Oakenfold: Essential Selection Vol. 1

2. Hey Jack by Howie B. (Metamorphosis Mix) as heard on Fabriclive Vol. 1: James Lavelle

3. Coast to Coast by Matrix + Futurebound, as heard on their own album Universal Truth

Also, if you're into the podcasts, as i hear the kids are these days, pretty much every one of the streetlife DJs mixes on itunes are pure gold for running.