Spike thought Little Miss Sunshine was a nice, cute movie, and he praised the performance of "the little girl" (Abigail Breslin) and Alan Arkin's work as her grandfather. Tom hasn't seen much of Arkin since M*A*S*H ended its run, so he was glad to see him back on the screen. Spike thinks Tom is confusing Alan Arkin with Alan Aldo from President Baseball. Spike reiterates that Alan Arkin is in the film, but Tom doesn't know who that is. Spike is surprised that Tom doesn't know Arkin from The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming. Tom adds to the confusion by asking Spike if it's Alan Narkin, so Spike spells his last name: A-R-K-I-N. Now Tom gets it -- it's the guy who's in Little Miss Sunshine! Tom agrees that he's very good. Spike points out that in addition to his acting, Arkin was once a member of The Tarriers, who did "Black Denim Trousers & Motorcycle Boots." Tom thinks this is a clothing company, but Spike says it was actually a song. Spike loses Tom with that one, so it's time to move on. Spike liked the cast across the board -- the mother, played by Toni Colette, Greg Kinnear, and the guy from The Office.

Spike: I always forget his name.
Tom: Ricky Gervais.
Spike: No, the American version of it.
Tom: Oh, okay, yeah, that guy is ...
Spike: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, that guy.
Tom: Yeah, Stephen Colbert.
Spike: No. His name is Steve, but that's not his last name.
Tom: Steve ...
Spike: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, but you know who I mean.
Tom: Ah, Steve Richards.
Spike: No.
Tom: No?
Spike: Carol? Carell?
Tom: Caroll Stevens?
Spike: No, not Cat Stevens.
Tom: I didn't say Cat Stevens. I said Carroll Stevens.
Spike: Well, I never heard of her.
Tom: Him. Like Carroll O'Connor.
Spike: I've heard of Caroll O'Connor, but I never heard of Carroll ...
Tom: He was not in Little Miss Sunshine, Spike. You are mistaken. Carroll O'Connor is in very poor health, and I'm sure could not have done that movie.
Spike: Carroll O'Connor's deceased.
Tom: Wait, hold on. What?
Spike: Carroll O'Connor has been deceased for a number of years now.
Tom: Oh, good heavens. I didn't realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O'Connor family.

{Yes, you've seen this clip linked to or embedded within 4,815 weblogs, 1,623 green-tinted Twittore feeds, 4 online pamphlets, and 2 JumboTron® televisions, but now is your chance to view it again right here!}

Part 3: New Hope For The Deaf-Eared.

Part 4: A wad of loose beer tickets.

Part 5: Soft Whippy.

CLICK the above image to crack the July 2009 issue of Modern Drummer and read 10 life nuggets from Jon Wurster (Psychotic Norman, The Right Profile, Carneys), everyone's favorite jazz-fillin' funnyman and all-around Good Guy.

Here's a transcript of the exchange I had while purchasing this periodical:

BORDERS CASHIER: You play drums, huh?

OMAR: Indeed I do.*

BORDERS CASHIER: My nephew plays. I think he's in some group.

OMAR: Nachtmystium?

BORDERS CASHIER: Um ... I can't remember the name. They have a Myspace page.

OMAR: Speaking of extreme metal, you heard that Varg Vikernes is out of jail, right?

BORDERS CASHIER: Who's THAT?

OMAR: Oh, you probably know him as Count Grishnackh! Can you believe that Thurston Moore is into this stuff?!

BORDERS CASHIER: Do you have a BORDERS Rewards card?

Omar hands the gentleman his card.

OMAR: Tell your nephew to keep at it so he can become the next Mike Portnoy or Danny Peters! Don't you think Cobain should have stuck with him instead of Foo-Boy?

BORDERS CASHIER: Receipt in the bag?

OMAR: Sure. Just slip it right in there. Do you like The Melvins? Your nephew definitely needs to have an ice bell in his kit.

BORDERS CASHIER: Okay. Have a good one.

OMAR: Thanks, you too. Keep one foot in the gutter and one fist in the gold. That's what Riki Rachtman used to say at the end of Headbanger's Ball.

BORDERS CASHIER: You're a munch.

OMAR: I changed my mind. I want my receipt out of the bag. I am going to hold it aloft as I exit this store.

*This is not true, although I did take a few lessons circa 1983 and attempted to bang along to Men At Work's Cargo and Social D's Mommy's Little Monster on my Remo practice pad.

[WARNING: Contains filthmouth (one S and a flurry of Fs near the end) and some odd behavior resulting from unbridled sonic giddiness and a seemingly ineffective mix of prescription medications.]

[Excerpt from Lauren Greenfield's Kids + Money, included in Wholphin No. 8 and also available here.]

RICK MOODY: How about the footnotes? As I recall it that innovation really first emerged in IJ. Am I remembering properly? That there were none in Girl with Curious Hair? What did you think of them then, and what did they add to the project? They must have increased the level of editorial difficulty significantly ...

MICHAEL PIETSCH [EDITOR]: My recollection about the notes is that I suggested all kind of in retrospect completely lame and shortsighted ways of dealing with them. Make them available in a separate volume for people who really wanted them. Incorporate as many as possible into the text and cut the rest completely. (I know! Heresy!) At first I was having so much trouble keeping just the main body of the story in my head that this extra layer of complexity felt overwhelming. David made it completely clear that the notes were there to stay and that they should be endnotes, not footnotes, so readers could find it easy not to read them if they didn't want to, and so the main body of the text wouldn't look intimidatingly multilevel and complex. I took a freer hand in suggesting cuts to the footnotes than to the body of the story.

Did I already say what we'd agreed early on? That our job together was to subject every section of the book to the brutal question: can the book live without this? Knowing how much this book would demand of readers, and how easy it would be to put it down or never pick it up simply because of its daunting size, we agreed that many passages should come out, no matter how beautiful, funny, brilliant or fascinating they were of themselves, simply because the novel did not absolutely require them. Given that the notes were almost by definition secondary, I invited a lot of them to leave. Of course to David they were not secondary. They were further evidence of the many separate levels of life and thought we're all carrying on at all times. And he insisted that many of them stay that I thought could well have come out.

Every decision was David's. I made suggestions and recommendations and tried to make the reasons for them as clear as possible. But every change was his. He accepted many cuts -- my recollection is around 250 manuscript pages, though in an interview he said he thought it was 400. But he said no to many more. There's a math proof there in one of the footnotes that I said would be understood by only maybe three readers in the world. And he said it was important to him that those three readers saw that the math in the book was real, and that the character actually had the capabilities he said he had. It stayed.

[Excerpt from Sonora Review 55/56, featuring a 100-page tribute to David Foster Wallace, including the uncollected DFW short story, "Solomon Silverfish."]

"Anyone who knows the Famous Flamer knows that you can't hustle a Famous Flamer at air hockey." -- Famous Flamin' Floyd from Fresno, suffering no punks in the hotel game room

"They lock the bathrooms at noight!" -- PBR, lamenting the security measures at the Manyunk Public Libary

"I missed Torque. I remember wanting to see Torque one night, and I didn't get to see it 'cause I was here doing my show." -- Tom, noting one of the many cinematic sacrifices he makes for weekly radio broadcasting

"I'm making it a race. I don't want it to be family. I want it to be a vicious competition where people gotta step up or GO HOME." -- Paul F. Tompkins, testing out his Big Dogs/No Fear spec packet to stir up a DJ pledge battle

"If you are a giant, you are afraid of very little." -- Paul F. Tompkins, downplaying concerns about Shaquille O'Neal's open-diner Tweet policy

"Sounded like you were doing a weird Scottish accent like it was a Raisins Rice & Rye commercial." -- Tom, questioning the authenticity of Therese's attempt at a Yardley, PA accent

"So high." -- Paul F. Tompkins, speculating on the condition of Rob in the Netherlands

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" - Listener Darth Vader, displaying rare emotion after not winning the King Khan and the Shrines CD

"This money was originally going to buy Harry Knowles a new wheelchair bib, but now: Best Show." -- Mac in Austin, depriving a local legend of barbecue-free clothing

"It's gotta come from the people. There's no government bailout of WFMU from B. Hussein Obama." -- Paul F. Tompkins, replacing Blob Limbaugh, Esq. as the new face of the Republican Party

"Hey-o!" -- Ted Leo, reacting (ironically) to an overheated Aimee Mann shedding one of her winter layers after her first music set

"Every week is Fleet Week with my new look!" -- Tom, anchoring the SS Best Show for a permanent docking

"It's a little strawberry milk, yeah. Yeah, it doesn't matter to me the brand. I make no endorsements. You know how I loathe advertising." -- John Hodgman, enjoying an unspecified refreshment with his integrity intact

"Why don't you just step up to the plate and knock out a home run into relationship stadium." -- Paul F. Tompkins, doling out an apt sports metaphor to a Mouse-pledging commitment-phobe

"I can't strictly read. I don't know if that's weird to admit right now, but I can't read as such. But I'm very good at memorizing shapes. And I feel like I've seen a lot of these before." -- Paul F. Tompkins, preparing to grapple with the geometry of the "Wise Up" lyric sheet

"We'll take pledges from racists*." -- Paul F. Tompkins, accepting a donation from Dog the Bounty Hunter *allegedly

"Sounds like Therese is gonna get thrown into the Sarlacc's pit!" -- Tom, fearing for his co-host during a Star Wars trivia takedown

"We're talented! All of us!" -- Tom, praising his steroidal bandmates after a triumphant Eleanor John finale

[TBSOWFMU - 03/10/09 / Full Podmirth / Best Show Gems / Myspace / Fotpedia [RIP?] / Newbridgctionary / Headquarters / S&W / Twitter]

Jawbox - "Jackpot Plus!"

( Click here to buy For Your Own Very Special Scharpling)

Unrest - "When It All Comes Down" (Miaow cover)

( Click here to buy Afternoon Delight - Love Songs from Sub Pop)

Tommy Keene - "A Secret Life of Stories"

( Click here to buy In The Late Brights)

Boston Spaceships - "Heavy Crown"

( Click here to buy Planets Are Blasted)

Millionaire At Midnight - "Drink A Toast"

( Click here to buy Titan: It's All Pop!)

Now is the time for us to gather together and celebrate those things that we like and pledge:

[Full sidebar-marred post.]

[via kottke]

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