Filmmakers Doug Gordon and Ben Wydeven on their creation "The Zombeatles," and the phenomenon of Madison-based indie films; Dennis Graham on Launchpad

On the March 15, 2009 edition:







Filmmakers Doug Gordon and Ben Wydeven join us to discuss their new Madison-based film, The Zombeatles: All You Need Is Brains. The film had its Madison debut in January, and is soon to be released nationally on DVD.

Listen to archived show

Dennis Graham with Launchpad joins us at the top of the hour to tell us about an upcoming high school band competition at Waunakee High School. Launchpad is a statewide, alternative music competition for Wisconsin high school students who are in bands formed outside of the traditional music classroom ensembles. Launchpad and other Wisconsin School Music Association (WSMA) programs help young people discover and expand their full music potential. The program raises money for Wisconsin schools and the winners get a gig at Summerfest, record a CD and a Les Paul guitar. See launchpadwisconsin.org .

We'll also be reviewing Friday night's premier of the Broom St. Theater production of "the birds that are my hands.... how to start a fire under siege," a powerful multi-media play that evokes the daily realities of people living in the shadows of the walls that divide both Palestine and the US-Mexican border. The play continues on Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm, and Sunday matinees at 2pm. To augment your appreciation of the play, be sure to listen to Forward Forum's exclusive Jan. 4th interview with playwright/director Sol Thea Kelley-Jones and activist/Palestine traveling companion Nathan Beck.

And then we'll open the phones to our weekly review of the developments in the news. Throughout it all, we ask for your participation by calling us at 608.321.1670.

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***more about filmmakers Doug Gordon and Ben Wydeven their new film, The Zombeatles: All You Need Is Brains***

We asked Doug Gordon what makes this film different from other zombie movies. To which he replied: "This film takes zombies into a whole new direction by developing the idea of a "zomniverse" -- all zombies, all the time. Zombies started by eating the stupid people first since they're the easiest to catch. Then zombies had to track down smarter people for food. This "Smart People Diet" helped zombies evolve in a Darwinian fashion to the point that they've become intelligent, conscious creatures. They've taken over the world and now have their own arts, entertainment and popular culture scene which includes such acts as The Zombeatles and Angus MacAbre."

Ben's You Tube trailer for the film can be found here:


or through this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZIwLkRT5Ao .

See also this

insight-filled article by Kristian Knutson of Isthmus's, The Daily Page.

Ben's also made a very cool short horror film called THE MEDIUM... Ben and Doug met during the filming of The Medium.

Doug's day job is as a producer for the nationally-syndicated show, To The Best of Our Knowledge. He originally moved to Madison from his native Canada to help produce What Do You Know? with Michael Feldman. And look for the future airing of an interview the pair recently conducted for Wisconsin Public Television's DIRECTOR'S CUT with host Charles Monroe-Kane (also a What Do You Know? producer), coming soon.

One last "small world Madison connection" -- nationally-renowned Madison band The Gomers has a distinct overlap with the music and performances of the Zombeatles.

Below: This slightly retouched version of a majorly-retouched version of the now discredited aerial photo of a 150 foot long Borneo river monster is not only a hoax, but it has absolutely nothing to do with this week's show. Co-host Stephanie Woods, however--whose presence here goes unexplained--remains eternally enigmatic, and she wouldn't want it any other way.