Hey, I’m in a book! 
My hangover remedy from this interview more than a year ago made the cut for Stuart’s new guide to living on the cheap worldwide. I think this is my frist book appearance (which is not to be confused at all with this book, which is not me). Read more about it here. And pick up that book!
Posted in Inverted Soapbox heartily endorses
Tagged broke ass stuart, self-promotion
If modern comedy has a movement against the oppression of staid and soul-crushing pop comedy, CDR is its Radio Free Europe.
If you aren’t listening to it, your life is probably more unpleasant and unfunny than you realize. The free-wheeling improv conversations and character bits are whimsical catnip for the brain, and the guest stars (from Weird Al and Patton Oswalt to Garfunkle & Oates and Aziz Ansari) all sound like old friends just making funny in someone’s living room. But the real highlight is the characters: keep your ears out for Bill Cosby Bukowski (creator of jello-etry), El Chupacabra and Dame Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
For more, check out splitsiders Seriously Comprehensive Guide to Comedy Podcasts.
(thx to Conal for turning me on to this last year)
Posted in Inverted Soapbox heartily endorses, Uncategorized
Tagged comedy death ray, heartily endorses, podcast
I have to say, though I don’t read Maureen Dowd as much as I used to, I can’t help but be a huge fan of this:
Yes: that’s Maureen Dowd, the comic book hero, in The Incredibly Fantastic Adventures of Maureen Dowd ( A Work of Satire and Fiction), by Benjamin Marra, available through Traditional Comics, which follows the exploits of the Pulitzer-Prize winning Times opinion columnist as she comes “in possession of information that could topple the American government, destroy the White House and bring the Free World to its knees.” She goes on to face Hezbollah commandos while still trying to meet her deadline and be on time for a date with George Clooney.
Real-life MoDo delves a lot into pop culture inspired political snark these with her columns, but throughout it all I think she’s stayed a knife-sharp writer.
Hey, I’ve heard worse ideas for comics. And the last comic I read based on a famous journalist was pretty damn good (and eerily prescient).
Posted in Inverted Soapbox heartily endorses
Tagged comic books, maureen dowd comic, New York Times
distilled into three signs:
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it
The event was perfectly ridiculous.
And in honor of election day, here’s another favorite:
at another rally, this would just be a misspelled sign
Posted in Inverted Soapbox heartily endorses
Tagged national mall, rally to restore sanity, signs
taking a long bike ride through your local park on a hot summer Sunday soundtracked the entire way by a Michael Jackson concert.
sh'amon, via Found in Brooklyn
If I had to guess, I’d say this was probably the opposite of the Glenn Beck rally the day before.
But don’t be like me and miss this:
Via Daily News and Village Voice.
SHAMELESS RELATED CROSS PROMOTION: On not interviewing Who’s Bad, the Ultimate Michael Jackson Tribute Band
Daniel Schorr in 1972 (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty)
I know we spend a lot of time here memorializing the vestiges of the golden days of print journalism, be they real or a collective wistful fiction. It would be remiss, however, to not take a second to note the parting of Daniel Schorr, one of this blog’s most respected journos, who kept his integrity and dedication to principles right up until the end. The key Schorr story is his appearance on Nixon’s enemies, of which he was unaware until he read the list live on the air. His NPR commentaries were useful and not polemical, as Senate historian Donald Ritchie said in this NPR obit:
“What passes for commentary today is almost all opinion, but Schorr was part of that breed of commentators who dug up information before they pontificated about it.”
So, in that spirt, some recommended reading of the week: Continue reading
Posted in Inverted Soapbox heartily endorses
Tagged bk recessionist, daniel Schorr, generation y, jolie o'dell, links, mashable, npr, summer rules
… these new bands that immediately entered the download queue after this weekend’s sweat-stained beardstock Northside Festival. Thanks to the good people at the L Magazine for putting on the fest and providing a dollar-per-music value vastly greater than any other fest I’ve seen. Seriously, there was about a week where I was considering oing to SXSW this year to see what the fuss was about. Until I saw what the badges cost, which start at $130 for wristbands and go up to $750 DOLLARS for the all-access music pass (not counting film and interactive badges too). The Northside Festival, while less all-encompassing, cost $50, or just $40 if you had a discount code. I can suffer through a crowd of stinky flannel for that.
The Grates
And, after seeing some live performances, continuing to endorse:
Posted in Inverted Soapbox heartily endorses, music
Tagged ava luna, l magazine, music, north highlands, northside festival, slow club, the grates, twin sister
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