Michael Cera as tweeted about by Jason Bateman

Do you remember what your musical life was like before MP3′s? I do. It sucked. Record companies chose what was popular. Then they, along with radio stations, chose how often those songs got played. If you didn’t like what everyone else liked, you were out of luck. If you did like a song, you had to buy the artist’s whole album to get it.

It was as though the entire popular musical spectrum was made of primary colors.

Now, on the other hand, there is not only a band to suit every possible musical taste, but often times an entire genre, and you can get nearly any song at any time for very little money.

That change happened because someone figured out how to make money selling content directly from the content producers (musicians) to the content consumers (you and me). Sure, record companies and radio stations still exist, but they’re not the titans they once were.

This is the best situation for everyone, when the consumer is allowed to purchase content directly from the content producer. When there is any kind of middleman, that middleman is going to do everything they can to maximize profits at the expense of user experience. That’s why a 30 minute TV show is 22 minutes long, is stuffed full of every possible product placement allowable, and even has network advertisements played over top of it around the edges.

Advertisements pay for television, which means that the corporations who place those advertisements play a big role in what gets said on TV. That conflicting interest disappears when the content producer is supported directly by the content consumer.

This is why everyone in the world should be watching Arrested Development on Netflix. I pay a few bucks a month subscription fee and I get commercial free content directly from the creators. This is a good thing. It is an unbelievably good thing.

If you ever want to watch what your favorite comedian, reporter, politician, musician — anyone! — really thinks, or really can do, you should support every effort to cut out the middleman.

Check out my review of this great pack by Osprey!

I read a lot of short stories and I often don’t understand why the ones that get published and awarded do so. They often seem like long poems to me with no discernable thread. They seem like dreams. Snapshots of interesting shit, to be sure, but, hey, what was this all about?

Point is, reading this will probably kill you, so don’t download it by clicking here: The Meaning of Life

Check out my entry on their site!

Check out my article on standup here.

I implore you, owners of the Jimi Hendrix estate and guardians of his legacy, please let Jimi die. Please stop releasing compilations, previously unreleased tracks, all of it. Just stop it.

PHOTO: A. Vente

You lost Jimi in 1970. I know that must be hard. I know it breaks your heart because I also have lost people I loved. I remember them and celebrate their lives as you must Jimi’s.

But his catalog was a love letter to all of us — for all of us — and you are chipping away at it with each new release.

Jimi released just three studio albums during his life; three rockets to Venus so amazing, so complex, so subtle. You have released over fifty studio albums and compilations since that time. Fifty! Five Zero! Please stop it!

I say this now as you are releasing People, Hell and Angels. I have listened to “Somewhere,” the first single. Naturally, it is amazing, because it’s Jimi on guitar and Stephen Stills, of all people, on bass. But these tracks are unreleased because they aren’t finished.

How long are we meant to go on hearing “previously unreleased” tracks? Until we’re just listening to Jimi tune his guitars? Do you have any recordings of him walking through a studio? I don’t want to hear them. Keep them to yourself.

Granted: raw, unpolished Jimi Hendrix is still light years better than the polished releases of a myriad of other folks, but that doesn’t mean it should be released. It shouldn’t. You should stop putting out Jimi’s music.

Now, you may say “But people love Jimi and they are hungry for more.” Of course they are hungry for more. I am hungry for more pie, but eating more will do nothing except mark me as a glutton.

Jimi was the greatest who ever lived. But giving people more doesn’t make him any greater. He is already the pinnacle. Releasing more music just earns you money and makes his colors fade.

Please stop it. Let Jimi go. Seal up the “vault” and stop releasing tracks and let us enjoy Jimi’s work the way he released it.

Sincerely, beseechingly,
James C. Hodgson, Jr
Guitar player and Jimi Hendrix Fan

We were very pleased to be tweeted about by Rooftop Comedy, and we got a nice note from 5 Second Films as well.

And we got a very nice mention from our friends at The Laughing Skull, a local Atlanta comedy club where I have been known to say jokes.

Thanks to everyone who watched. We worked very hard on it, and are quite proud.

Not only that, but the article was “Most Popular” on the site!

It is my unhappy duty to announce tonight that Rock 100.5 has flipped formats and is now a power pop station. Hold on, I’m getting a text… Nope, they just flipped again. Sports talk. [wrote this joke at the event, so I did it first since I was least rehearsed on it. It went so-so.]

I am delighted to be here, I don’t really get outside the city too much. When I’m crossing 285 I feel like a vampire at sunup. I was going to say here that you guys are making me reconsider, but you’re not.

When I look out over this crowd, it is with a sense of awe, that a big budget Atlanta media outlet manages to appeal to so few black people.

54% of the city’s population just says no thanks. That is amazing, guys.

I was a huge fan of the Regular Guys back in 04 when they got caught saying some naughty words and got kicked off the air. It ruined my mornings when that happened. So glad you’re back, guys.

Unfortunately, that summer I moved into a town called the present, where there was a thing called the iPod, so I have no idea what they’ve been up to since.

Of course I remember the roles these guys each play on the show, having been such a fan.

They’re like the Three Stooges, but instead of Larry, Moe, and Curly, it’s Smarty, Neck, and Whiny.

The person with whom I’m least familiar is Tim Andrews, although I gather that he, like me, lost a lot of weight. Congrats to you, Tim.

Speaking as a former 325 pound person, I can tell you it’s not easy. Overeating is like an addiction, but it’s worse, because you can never really quit. I’m gonna say that again. It’s like an addiction, but you can never really quit.

Heroine addicts bitch about how hard it is to kick, but it’d be a lot harder if they had to do a tiny bit of heroin three times a day for the rest of their lives. Pussies.

I probably identify most with Eric, because he’s able to read. He’s a little bit socially awkward, though, I hear.

He runs from interacting with listeners almost as fast as single women are running from Wachs. [abandoned this joke and didn't tell it because I decided before show time that it was weak]

Now, I’m a southern boy, so I might have been raised differently to some, but I received a few pearls of wisdom from my father, a Vietnam veteran.

For instance: how do you know if there’s a pilot in the bar? He’ll come right up and tell you. [abandoned and not said due to being not my joke]

How do you know if there’s an asshole in the bar? He’ll be wearing a hat or sunglasses inside.

I don’t know that much about Larry Wachs’ personal life. Does anyone happen to know what religion this man is?

It’s not like he mentions it. Seriously, only Jesus is more Jewish. Sorry, Christians, I know that stings.

Probably the guy I’d most like to have a beer with is Southside Steve. He’s the rill dill.

People love to talk shit about a guy who gets laid, Steve, I know you don’t listen. Any grown man with a ponytail that long in this day and age clearly doesn’t give two shits what people think about him.

Even ponies think that thing needs a trim. [I didn't actually say this because Marshall Chiles said this exact joke earlier in the show. Dangit.]

I hear you have a girlfriend now, Steve, which is great. I hear she’s just almost enough to remember when radio was relevant.

I watched last year’s roast videos on YouTube. Seemed like a long series of gay jokes to me. Even gays don’t talk about being gay that much.

I think it’s in poor taste to make fun of a man for his sexual orientation, something he cannot control, rather than something he can easily choose not to do, such as opening an enormous bar in a town just south of nowhere.

Truth is I’m jealous of these guys. Sure, they have to wake up really early, but all they have to do is sit around and talk shit for a couple of hours.

The only thing you guys have in common with real working people is you still think radio means something.

Some people say terrestrial radio has gone down like the Titanic. I say you’re only just now getting your feet wet.

Thanks to my friends at Rock 100.5 for inviting me to participate!

If you like bikes, jokes, or breathing air, you’ll love it.