Better Chatter

Make Em' Laugh

2009-01-14T14:16:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to clue you loyal fans in on the new PBS documentary Make Em' Laugh, which starts tonight at 8pm EST. Their website describes it as "A six-hour comedy epic showcasing the most hilarious men, women, and moments in American entertainment and why they made us laugh." Sounds good to me.

The first two episodes air tonight with two more next Wednesday and the final two a week later. It's chock full of interviews of comedians, about comedians. No analysis from snooty professors or dusty historians, just memories and explanations from those who know humor best.

TONIGHT'S EPISODE: "Would Ya Hit a Guy with Glasses?: Nerds, Jerks, & Oddballs"

Bryan's 2008 Music Picks

2009-01-04T20:00:00.015-05:00

(In case you don't visit the Post Rockist, and any music lover should, here are my favorite albums of the year 2008. And make sure to check out the other Post Rockist writers' lists for some stellar musical insights.)

Bryan's 2008 Music Picks

It bugs me when I hear people saying 2008 was a bad year for music. It didn't have the stunners last year did, but there were thirty albums that could have been on this list. Spiritualized and Portishead made rejuvenated returns, TV On The Radio and Hot Chip cemented their bigger-than-indie status, and those Vampire Weekend kids managed to sound great to anyone over 34 or under 22. There was so much good music that I lumped some albums into categories. So there you go, let's get to the good stuff.

10. AFRO-FUNK compilations: African Scream Contest; Nigeria Special series; Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump
None of this stuff was recorded anywhere near 2008, but its cool and innovative sounds had me anxiously waiting the each one's release. My love for soul and funk can never be fully satisfied, so I was ecstatic to see a slew of 1970s afro-funk tracks unearthed. The Nigeria Special series continued to give us some Disco Funk and Rock gems, building last year's fantastic collection. But if you can only buy one, African Scream Contest is the best, hands down. Below is the opening track, and in it you'll hear obvious Highlife influences and some mesmerizing guitar work that brings an energy even Sly Stone would have trouble keeping up with.
SONG: Lokonon Andre & Les Volcans – "Mi Kple Dogbekpo"

9. FUCK BUTTONS – Street Horrrsing
For me, one of the most beautiful and difficult accomplishments in music is holding someone's attention for 9 minutes and building on the sound so what started out good culminates in a stirring crescendo (see "Paranoid Android," "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal," "Think I'm In Love," et al.). Fuck Buttons' occasional fuzzed-out screams and yelps add a primal feeling to some pretty electronic melodies. It was fun getting lost in its drone as I shared a subway car with aggressive panhandlers, unapologetic blowhards, and forget-about-it guys from Queens. It was the enthralling buffer between my tired, 6pm mind and a world of chaos.
SONG: "Bright Tomorrow"

8. SUPER EPs: Crystal Stilts – Crystal Stilts; Air France – No Way Down; Simian Mobile Disco - Clock
Each of these has every right to be placed next full length LPs. Crystal Stilts ended up releasing their solid debut, but was comprised mostly of songs from the EP. It sounds like a beach rock-obsessed Ian Curtis rose from the dead to fill us in on the future of garage rock. Air France's No Way Down EP is cheesy and beautiful, like meadows and butterflies and lazy Saturdays and necking with your favorite gal. But it's just that beautiful and sunny, like an aural version of MDMA without the comedown. Simian Mobile Disco released a pair if EPs in '08, but had they expanded Clock's 4 songs into a full-length, it would have been the best dance album of the year.
SONG: Crystal Stilts – "Converging In The Quiet"

7. NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS – Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
You won't find a piano balladeer on this Cave album. It's all rock and it never stops. Some of it is cock-rock, some is Suicide meets Lou Reed, and it's all grimy and seamy and reeks of cigarettes. The end of days isn't a new subject for Cave, but he and The Seeds pump blood and guts back into a world that appears to be on life support. Common themes are dive bars, prostitutes, impending doom, drugs, vengeance, and lust. If none of that sounds intriguing, you need to hang with Nick Cave for a while.
SONG: "Albert Goes West"

6. MIX TAPES: Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit - The Very Best; Diplo & Santogold - Top Ranking; Girl Talk – Feed The Animals
These three albums each offer a different case for the validity of remixes. On The Very Best (still free to download), Radioclit takes the instrumentals from his favorite tracks and lets Esau Mwamwaya sing in his native Chichewa. He adds a ton of fun to "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" as he erases its original ties of college and Paul Simon. On Top Ranking, Diplo essentially re-produces Santogold's debut into an 80-minute island thumper, filling it out with Aretha Franklin, Cutty Ranks, the B52s, and others. Lastly, Girl Talk takes a scalpel to songs and sounds unforgettable to any music junkie and creates brand new tunes by laying them beneath rap vocals. At a poker game a couple months ago, someone called him the musical equivalent of The Family Guy – nothing is really new, but you can't help waiting for the next reference. This happens about every 3 seconds on Feed The Animals.
SONG: Esau Mwamwaya – "Kamphopo"

5. DREAM POP: Beach House – Devotion; Grouper – Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill
The new Beach House album feels like it's been forced to make a decision between staying with its current lover and moving on to new but uncertain things. The eerie organ gives it a haunted feeling, but Victoria Legrand's breathy, hardened voice knows exactly where her heart lies. Dragging A Dead Deer is like waking up from a dream and sifting through the hazy half-sleep phantasmagoria - you might vaguely remember where you were or what you were doing but mostly you just remember how you felt. Liz Harris's voice seems to be lurking a mile under water, giving you quick glimpses of forgotten memories.
SONG: Beach House – "Holy Dances"

4. DEPARTMENT OF EAGLES – In Ear Park
In Ear Park is Daniel Rossen's warm and beautiful ode to his late father. While many Grizzly Bear tunes leave me a little bored, here Rossen packs each song with vivid scenes of going to work, funerals, and parental advice. The album is instantly accessible and has grown on me even more throughout the year. Plus it delivers my favorite song of '08 in "No One Does It Like You." Rossen's sound is so universally enjoyable that friends, mothers, brothers, and even fathers should have no problem appreciating it.
SONG: "No One Does It Like You"

3. DEERHUNTER – Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
Bradford Cox was officially THE man of '08. After releasing a stellar solo album as Atlas Sound, the Deerhunter frontman tightened the band's sound, making it more personal in the process. Cox has openly had a complex childhood and Microcastle reflects his fragility and elegance with a confidence that should excite any Deerhunter haters. And anyone who's visited a music blog knows the album leaked 4 months too soon, so Cox and friends gave us another album. Weird Era Cont. takes any sort of mope out of shoegaze and is evidence that whatever leaking /online / personal drama Cox has gone through made him the man to watch for the next few years.
SONG: "Nothing Ever Happened"

2. CHAD VANGAALEN – Soft Airplane
This album wins the award for most diverse song collection. VanGaalen starts with a sweet banjo ditty about a Viking funeral and maneuvers his way through straightforward pop-rock, Crazy Horse-era Neil Young stompers, an electronic song involving TMNT, dark acoustic ballads, and ends with dissonant guitar feedback. And somehow it never loses steam or feels disjointed. His boyish obsession with death and loss is the unifying theme, yet this was a huge summer album for me. Maybe that makes me a little weird, but more than anything it shows this album manages to deliver an endless stream of deep subjects without taxing your emotions.
SONG: "City Of Electric Light"

1. CUT COPY – In Ghost Colours
After their first album, I expected Cut Copy to get comfortable making moody but hollow pop, but In Ghost Colours' opening track shatters that notion - it's full and warm and sugary sweet, like a post-hangover sunny day where food tastes better, the birds are chirping, and you're glad to have your wits about you. There's quite a bit of guitar, both electric and acoustic, but, as usual, their catchiest diamonds are saved for the dance floor ("Lights And Music," "Hearts On Fire," "Far Away"). The lyrics are not quite happy, but always stay positive, and the music behind them never deliver a wrong note. This is an album club kids make when they mature and decide to focus not just on the present, but also the future. See them live, you won't be disappointed.
SONG: "Far Away"

The Birds Have Landed

2008-12-17T13:39:00.004-05:00

Today is a good day.

Those ever-lovable Kiwis, Flight of the Conchords, have a new season starting in January. Some of us have caught glimpses of them filming in the streets and pet shops of Brooklyn. Fortunately all you lucky fans can watch the premiere a month early thanks to Funny Or Die. There isn't much I can add about the Conchords that hasn't been said already, so I'm sure you're as excited as I am. I've even embedded the episode right here on the ever-lovable Better Chatter, because nobody likes unnecessary clicking.

Enjoy.

P.S. There's a preview of HBO's new Will Ferrel / Danny McBride show East Bound and Down at the end. So you can get excited about that too.

Season 2 Online Premiere - Flight of the Conchords (US Only) - watch more funny videos

One More Time

2008-12-02T09:41:00.004-05:00

So, I was listening, via shuffle, to my ipod this morning on the subway and Daft Punk's "One More Time" came on. Though I wouldn't even really consider myself a fan of Daft Punk (anything too dance-y has got to be super weird and/or smart and funny, a la Hot Chip, for me to really like it) I've got to admit that this song has held up really well as a single over the years and features one of the all-time best uses of the much-loathed "auto-tune" feature.

More importantly (for anyone reading this), hearing this song reminded me of the supremely entertaining and bizarre video for this song, which features a weird mix of Anime and Voltron-era animation. If you've never seen it, here you go...

Your Perfect Autumn Music

2008-11-21T15:10:00.006-05:00

Like many, my introduction to the Vaselines was Nirvana's cover of Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam. Listening to Kurt Cobain on that song struck a chord with my young, sad slacker heart. Jesus didn't want ME for a sunbeam either! It's a song about sadness but also about knowing whom you are where you stand. This is exactly what autumn is to me – the cold and dark days get me down but give me a chance to reflect and take stock of myself.

The Vaselines have an oeuvre of 19 songs that blended equal parts twee and punk and paved the way for fellow Glaswegians Belle and Sebastian as well as, of course, Nirvana. Their songs of gleeful kissing and social disillusionment never sounded incongruous no matter if they were strumming or shredding. Which makes sense why Cobain, who named his daughter Frances after their co-founder, and his ear for pop song structure couldn't get enough of them.

Luckily you can get their entire body of work on the extremely pleasing The Way of the Vaselines: A Complete History, which, for $10, is worth investing in if you're looking for a delightful soundtrack to your autumn.

The Vaselines - Dying For It (mp3)

The Vaselines - Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam (mp3)

See/Saw

2008-11-20T14:59:00.003-05:00

Okay, while this is a truly awful video, it actually, in its dumbness, sort of gets at what makes Jay Reatard so great. There's something Ramones-like in the simplicity and goofy enthusiasm of his music which I find incredibly appealing. There's also just enough of a wink-wink "yeah, I get this is pretty over the top" attitude that it makes palatable the kind of sound that normally I might find a little too abrasive. Anyway, check this video out, if only because "See/Saw" really is a great song:

Super Colon Blow?

2008-11-19T10:00:00.003-05:00

I eat breakfast almost every morning these days, which makes me feel much more awake and really just generally helps to get my day going on the right note. Still, I can't imagine how productive I might be in the morning if I could just eat this cereal:

Billups

2008-11-14T10:30:00.003-05:00

With all of the election-related craziness I didn't really have time to consider how depressing it was to see Chauncey Billups, easily my favorite basketball player this decade (see this post from last year for some evidence), traded to the Denver Nuggets last week. Beyond his reputation for steadiness and excellence under pressure (and, of course, his brilliant name), Chauncey Billups just seemed like a fundamentally friendly and bright person, the sort of guy that no one had a bad thing to say about and that seemed to be "close, personal friends" with about three quarters of the league.

Michael Rosenberg, (via DBB) has a very revealing and sad story about the moments after the trade went down in the Detroit Free Press today, that serves as a great reminder of how nice it was to have a person like Billups leading the Pistons for the last six years. I'm actually not opposed to the trade taking place for lots of reasons (see TrueHoop for a nice breakdown), but as member of the sappier, "Field of Dreams" school of sports sentimentalists, it would be impossible to not feel, even two weeks later, a lot of sadness about seeing Billups go.

Here's my single favorite Billups-related moment, the buzzer-beater against the Nets in the 2004 NBA playoffs:

"Just Give Me the Ball"

2008-11-13T11:15:00.003-05:00

I was just starting to come off my post-election high when I read this amazing paragraph from Ryan Lizza's profile of the Obama campaign in this week's New Yorker:

Obama, who is not without an ego, regarded himself as just as gifted as his top strategists in the art and practice of politics. Patrick Gaspard, the campaign’s political director, said that when, in early 2007, he interviewed for a job with Obama and Plouffe, Obama said that he liked being surrounded by people who expressed strong opinions, but he also said, “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” After Obama’s first debate with McCain, on September 26th, Gaspard sent him an e-mail. “You are more clutch than Michael Jordan,” he wrote. Obama replied, “Just give me the ball.”

The Rest of the Story

2008-11-11T10:58:00.006-05:00

The postmodern reality-creation site Wikipedia has, for better or worse, eliminated the need for encyclopedias. Having instant access to information on virtually every movie, album, insect, philosophy, etc helps break down the limits of education. However, the fact that anyone can contribute occasionally makes the content little more than entertainment. But this is the beauty of the internet - anyone can write fiction. Josh shared a vandalized page about Count Chocula with me the other day that was way more interesting than any real information could've been. It reminded me of something I wrote a few years ago, my own constructed reality of a beloved childhood character. So instead of boring you with an argument for or against plentiful, but distorted knowledge, I'll leave you with my story. Because as a writer with a mischievous heart, sometimes I don't like to get my facts straight.

-------

As a child, young Charles couldn't stay focused long enough to tie his shoes. He failed every class in elementary school except gym. He was the kid who pulled the fire alarm. The kid the entire class had to wait for as he finished his subtraction problems. The kid who threw spit balls. His father was a traveling cummerbund salesman and his mother seemed to hop on the back of any motorcycle driven by a mustachioed man with 'Shut Up Bitch' tattooed on his arm. By the time Charles was in high school, he wasn't running with a bad crowd - he was the bad crowd. If he decided to show up to school, he was usually on some sort of hallucinogen, barbiturate, or combination of the two. Escaping through drugs became an obsession for Charles. He would sit in his bedroom, trip or shroom, and imagine that his stuffed animals were playing the music he heard on his stereo. He even believed his pet rat led the dancing. The only things that occupied his time were video games, personal puppet shows, and pinball. What most would see as an unsatisfying, depressing existence for young Charles, he found to be a lot of fun. After a while, neighbor kids heard about all the fun he was having and began joining him in his bedroom. They played games all day and watched him put on his puppet shows to music, but, fortunately, they were not allowed to touch the drugs. It became the hot spot for neighborhood kids ages 2-12. Charles started charging admission and even saved enough money to move into a loft across town. His operation became so big a businessman approached him and offered to help him start franchising his business out. He went on to make millions, owning hundreds of 'funspots' across America. That young drug-crazed visionary was none other than Charles Edgar Cheese, or Chuck E. Cheese as you might know him.

Obama, I kid you not, won!

2008-11-06T10:11:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to let you know that, in case you hadn't heard. I feel like I'm still in shock right now, and I expect to keep feeling that way for a while. Check out this really cool 3-d map from the Washington Post if you'd like to see the actual counties that carried Obama to the nomination.

Five Thirty Eight Updates!

2008-11-03T10:12:00.006-05:00

Do you check Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight election site as much as I do? If so, here is a handy widget they just developed that you can use to keep track of all of their updates:

FiveThirtyEight.com (which stands for the total number of electors in the electoral college) is a fantastic website that presents giant and unwieldy chunks of data in ways that pretty much anyone can understand. More importantly, however, FiveThirtyEight is great because it allows you to talk like a genius. You can explain why improper party weighting makes Zogby polls unrealiable, or that Rasmussen polls should always be assumed to have a 1-2 point Republican lean, though their large sample sizes still make them the most reliable benchmark. Fun, right? If you have any sort of interest in statistics, give this site and shot. You'll never look at elections the same way again...

Walter Sharpe wants to steal Amir Johnson's Shoes

2008-10-30T09:50:00.004-04:00

Via Detroit Bad Boys, here's a funny little breakdown of the Piston's roster this season. Learn such exciting things as:

Jason Maxiell plays the trumpet!
If Cheik Samb were not playing basketball he'd be working with his father and brother in "export-import fishing businesses."
Rodney Stuckey is good at "dancing, eating and sleeping"

I'm really trying to get myself excited again about basketball, but I don't know how many times I can take the Pistons' recurring Eastern Conference Finals losses before I decide I need a year off from the team or something. It's pretty hard to believe that this team, as constructed, will be able to win the championship, but there are two things that have me optimistic:

There's a very good chance that Joe D. will finally pull the trigger on a trade before the trade deadline this year. I don't blame him for not doing a "fifty cents on the dollar" trade this offseason, but it seems clear that the team as it doesn't quite have what it takes. There is, however, very good reason to believe that this winter they'll be some disgruntled star on a bad team that will pretty much force them to trade him. It happens almost every year, and the last time Dumars capitalized on it, it netted the team Rasheed Wallace.
There really is a lot of good, young talent on the team. Jason Maxiell, Rodney Stuckey, and Amir Johnson in particular make the season worth watching even if you don't think the Pistons have what it takes this year. Stuckey in particular (i.e. "the poor man's Dwyane Wade) seems ready for a great second year as the go-to 3rd guard off the bench.
Although the top-half of the roster may be aging, there really does seem to be a good foundation forming that can begin to take their place. The fact that Amir Johnson is now in the starting lineup gives me hope that Michael Curry is actually willing to play these young guys, too.

That Bizarre HSBC Ad

2008-10-27T10:30:00.002-04:00

There's an interesting article in Slate this morning that breaks down this bizarre, and unusually compelling, commercial for HSBC bank. It's been running a lot lately and if you can't recall seeing it, I suspect you'll recognize it once you hear Joanna Newsom's memorable voice pop up:

This new trend of financial industry ads that present the virtues of their product in such an unusually oblique way seems to be catching on. I'm not exactly proud to admit that this sprightly ad from Traveler's Insurance was probably the one that I liked the most from the summer:

I guess it's kind of unusual to be charmed by an ad in general, but when in comes to the banking industry it seems especially dirty, right? Anyone have any ads of late that they've particularly liked or disliked? I was arguing late night about whether those "realistic" ads for match.com are cute or cloying. I still lean towards cute, but that new one in the sushi restaurant is, I admit, pretty hard to watch.

The Great Mid to Late Twenties Dilemma

2008-10-23T11:44:00.002-04:00

I had to break from my convalescence in order to share with all my fellow mid-to-late twentysomethings "Happy Birthday, You Bastard," John Swansburg's excellent and hilarious article about going to birthday parties in that weird period between post-collegiate life and true adulthood (ie mortgages, kids, etc). I can't even articulate how great it was for a cheap bastard like me to read an article like this. This passage in particular killed me:

Early in the evening, I noticed Simon's friend Justin, a legendarily frugal graduate student, engage our waiter in an extended colloquy. After dinner, I sidled up to Justin to complain about the exorbitant bill, knowing my outrage would fall on sympathetic ears. Instead, he flashed a wicked grin and revealed that he had "seceded from the check, Jefferson Davis-style." That is, having realized things were getting out of hand, he had worked out an understanding with the waiter whereby he would order on a separate tab that would include only his appetizer, entrée, and beverages. It was a brilliant stroke, though it required Justin's unabashed cheapskatedness, which, like his taste in metaphor, is rare indeed.

Also, don't forget than another NBA season is sneaking up on us in it's typically under-the-radar fashion. I know it's pretty much only the diehards that even follow the season until January or so, but this is nevertheless big news for me. Would be bigger, I guess, were I not still bearing the scars of their defeat to the Celtics last June and kind of despondent over the fact that the team that failed to win the title last year is back basically entirely unchanged.

That being said, how can I not be excited about Amir Johnson and Rodney Stuckey. They're the future, peeps!

Questions I See Being Asked By Moderator Gwen Ifill At Some Point in Tonight's VP Debate

2008-10-02T12:21:00.004-04:00

To Gov. Palin
Q: Are you serious?

To Sen. Biden
Q: Is she serious?

Just a friendly reminder to make sure you watch history unfold tonight at 9pm EST

UNRELATED UPDATE: I'm very proud of my home state right now.

Letterman Attacks!

2008-09-25T09:32:00.003-04:00

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the "fair and balanced" coverage of political events on television, particularly cable, is that the commentators and talking heads generally filter everything through such a partisan microscope that analysis almost always loses out to the party line.

Thus, when the McCain campaign performs such a blatantly political, desperate, and completely symbolic move like "suspending his campaign," there just aren't enough Chuck Todd's left out there to call shenanigans on him. Thank God for David Letterman...

The Wit and Wisdom of the NRA

2008-09-10T15:54:00.007-04:00

Okay, I will gladly go on record as unequivocably not being a fan of the NRA. That being said, the picture below (taken from this predicatably over-the-top NRA brochure) has got to be the single most comically unflattering picture of Obama I've ever seen:

Everything from the way he's holding the microphone to the bizarre expression on his face seems to expose every "snobby," "snooty," "prissy" cliche you might have heard about Obama. It's so absurdly, devilishly brilliant, what can you say but: well done, NRA.

3 Things

2008-09-09T13:48:00.005-04:00

Yeah, I know it's shameful how infrequently I have, as Jim Anchower would say, rapped at ya. Alas, I've been busy and kind of stressed, what can I say? How about 3 quick links?

1. "In the Wheelhouse," the podcast that Brandon and I have been talking about for the last 6 months or so, is finally up and running! Head over to the In the Wheelhouse website to ch-ch-check it out! We're definitely still finding our voice, but if you're a fan of extremely low-key discussions of music, claymation, and my personal gambling woes, this is the place for you!

2. If you're feeling confused by the relentless polling and looking for a place to figure out where things are actually trending in the presidential race, I'd suggest (via my friend Mike's excellent recommendation) that you head over to FiveThirtyEight, the excellent political blog started by PECOTA inventor and former East Lansing debator Nate Silver. Every time I start freaking out about, say, the Republican post-convention bounce, I head over there their reasoned analysis is like putting a warm towel on my forehead.

3. Finally, if you're looking for something a little lighthearted this afternoon, here's the Spider-Man theme song, broken down by the incomparable Joe Posnanski . I'd be remiss if I didn't include the iconic opening sequence here in full:

Fleet Foxes

2008-08-22T13:16:00.002-04:00

Although I'm a latecomer to the Fleet Foxes' much ballyhooed new album, I did want to take a second to share the song and really interesting video for their song "White Winter Hymnal." I'm not the only one that gets a little freaked out by claymation, right? I'd rather pay you 100 bucks than watch that terrifying Tool video from a few years back.

The album itself is really worth listening to: it' a really confident and polished version of that sort of soft, rustic sound that I'm normally a little more "eh" about. Anyway, here's the video (thanks go to BK for the heads-up):

Attack!

2008-08-20T13:52:00.006-04:00

Oh, it's been a long and winding road to the Presidential Election, but one of our unalienable rights is now only a month and a half away. So break out your bunting, pop some Orville Redenbacher, and plant yourself in front of the old HDTV – it's political attack ad season.

The primary elections were already historic, but the many differences between the presidential candidates make their ads all the more interesting. We have Change vs The Same, Multiracial vs Uniracial, Hip vs Hip-replacement. A couple months ago it seemed like the election might be a formality, but polling shows McCain essentially even with Obama. When things get tight, the feces flinging begins.

McCain was first to make waves with his claim that Obama is a bigger celeb than Britney or Paris and is apparently unfit to run a country because of this. Obama, a universally liked and respected black man running for president of the United States of America, is definitely a celebrity. But, obviously, so is McCain. Weak stuff if you ask me, especially when Obama has been adamant about running a positive campaign.

"Celebrity" ad

Obama is now responding with negative ads in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Florida which air simultaneously with national ads that are much less biting. It's always fun to see what the public (though it's mostly the media) responds to and whether it affects their voting.

Luckily for us, there's a website that has collected every presidential ad since the very first was created for Dwight Eisenhower’s campaign in 1952. The Living Room Candidate lets us compare Reagan to Mondale, Nixon to McGovern, and Clinton to Bush to Perot. It's a great reminder that political mudslinging has been around as long as politics itself.

Make sure to check out the site to get yourself in the mood. Since I can't find out how to embed their videos, I'm leaving you a YouTube clip of George H.W. Bush's famous "Willie Horton" ad. Feel the hate.

Feeling Perturbed?

2008-08-07T16:34:00.002-04:00

Like old Muggs here? Well, I promise that actual posts will be coming soon!

In the meantime, have you ever read James Thurber's "The Owl Who Was God"?

School House Rock! Rocks, Rocks

2008-07-21T16:45:00.006-04:00

Last night at a barbecue I had a chance to rediscover School House Rock! Rocks, one of the great tribute albums of my childhood. Much like The Crash Test Dummies' God Shuffled His Feet, I probably played this slightly jokey record about 39 times more than anyone reasonably should have.

That being said, this collection, composed of 90's artists putting their own take on the entertaining, if slightly dippy, School House Rock videos from the 70's, is a legitimately entertaining collection of songs. Plus, it's practically a "who's who" of mid-nineties rock & roll. I'm pretty sure that my introduction to Pavement came via their version of "No More Kings," and a pre-lame Moby has an awesome thrashing, menacing version of "Verbs." The Lemonheads, for that matter, never sounded more pleasantly stoned than during their cover of "My Hero, Zero."

My two favorites are placed right at the beginning of the record. Deluxx Folk Implosion's "I'm Just a Bill" is almost too tongue in cheek but, listening to it last night, I couldn't help but think that it still held up pretty well as both a funny, if still respectful, tribute to the song and a prefect send-up on the earnestness of the original narration (though The Simpsons' "Amendment to Be" remains the all-time classic send-up). In case you've never seen it, here's the original song:

The real gem remains Blind Melon's "Three is a Magic Number," a song that seems so up their silly hippie alley that it's almost hard to believe their version is a cover. Shannon Hoon was born to sing that song, and it's likely the best thing they did after "No Rain." Here's the video (with their cover in place of the original):

In the Wheelhouse

2008-07-16T17:24:00.003-04:00

Ladies and germs, the long-discussed Brandon and Josh podcast is almost here! There are wheels within wheels, fingers in pies, cogs in the machine, all conspiring to make it one of the 20 greatest podcast experiences of your life! What's that you say? You haven't had one, let alone 20, great podcast experiences? Even better for us!

What can I tell you about it so far?

We have a name: In the Wheelhouse. Please refer to this for a little more info on this sadly underused expression.

We have a website: www.wheelhouseshow.com. Which, while empty for now, will soon be a veritable treasure trove of fantastical, heart-stopping information!

We have a producer: our good buddy Steve, who knows more about matters technical (and websites, and organization, and planning...) than I ever will.

We have a theme song which, when finished, will sound a little bit like the slice of genius below:

Catching Up

2008-07-15T15:57:00.003-04:00

Sorry, you faithful 3-7 readers out there, for my lack of posting of late. I'm currently finishing the final two weeks of my current job before I switch over to my new one (a job in publishing very similar to the one that I have now, but better) and things have thus been a little crazy of late.

Here are a few things you almost certainly don't need to know:

1. I went to Atlantic City and actually came back to New York with more money than I left with! Thanks go to all the terrible players at my poker table at the Taj!

2. I think that the new Walkmen record, You and Me, might end up being the best album of the year. Extremely, extremely strong from top to bottom. I actually saw them play a few years ago and I still don't understand how Hamilton Leithauser's vocal cords are still working. Head over to the Black T-Shirt to listen to "In the New Year," one of the standout tracks from the album.

3. I'm on a massive John McPhee kick right now. Anyone read any of his stuff? I'm not much of a geology buff (or haven't been in the past) so I'd avoided him for quite a while, incorrectly thinking that nature writing was predominant area of focus. It turns out that he's actually all ove the place as an essayist, covering everything from sports to Farmer's Markets. I'm currently reading the extremely interesting Looking for a Ship, about a trip he takes on the US Merchant Marine. Any other fans out there with books of his to recommend?

4. If I hadn't been so distracted with job-related matters, I probably could have written 7,000 words about that amazing, day-gobbling Wimbledon final. It's certainly the highest-quality tennis match I can remember seeing, and rivals the Sampras-Alex Corretja US Open quarterfinal that I watched with my mom way back in 1996 for sheer drama. And, because I like you all so much, here's a clip from that riveting quarterfinal:

Better (Chatter) posts to come!