Well, I'm back, everyone! The Bar Exam has been taken and - hopefully - vanquished, and now I'm back home, searching for jobs, swimming in pools, rediscovering reading for enjoyment and generally being quite cool. Here are a few bits and bobs to warm you up for what I hope will be more regular posts in here from now.
- I was in severe danger of failing my exam because of PFT and Kid Jersey's discussion about the Gathering of the Juggalos. It's been a long time since I've laughed this hard. Listen to it here - it's the fresh-ass-est comedy you'll hear today.
- After the first day of my two day exam, I returned to my hotel in Tampa, feeling a little deflated, turned the telly on, and was greeted with Southland Tales on Starz. A film that I rather like despite everything. It is just insane, and I appreciate that. Once I played it for my (now-former) housemates, and one of them got up and left within six minutes.
- Saw 'In the Loop' - it's very very funny. Maybe I'll write more about it another time. Weird to see all those people from 'The Thick of It' as different characters, except for Jamie and Malcolm.
- Charlie Brooker's newest column contains the phrase "Nic Cage: My Life as John Lennon the Cow", which is very funny, but his TV show 'You Have Been Watching' is surprisingly not very funny. I blame the involvement of other people.
- Friend-of-a-friend Ross appears in this music video as Edward Cullen. It needs to be seen to be believed. The band is so earnest! None of the deliriously silly fun of Harry and the Potters.
- These STFU facebook sites are pretty funny. Some more than others.
- We got rid of Adebayor and Kolo. We'll miss one of them.
- There was a great series that just finished on UK television called Inside Nature's Giants, which enabled me to say "That woman is knee-deep in whale" for the first time and hopefully the last time. Look it up on youtube, it's amazing.
- Got rid of a bunch of old CDs through SwapaCD.com - turns out, someone wants my neglected Blue States albums.
- Congratulations to Slipknot for winning big last night.
- Guerrilla is ten years old! I still remember when Nico bought an advance copy, and we all listened to it while studying for our GCSEs. Here's my copy signed by the artist Pete Fowler. What a great, summery album.
- Last week some relatives came over, and one of my nephews asked "How OLD is this?" in reference to my Game Boy. When I told him it was from 1992, he said, and I quote, "Wow, that's three years before I was born". I felt old.
[download Super Furry Animals - The Teacher]
Can't wait to come home from school because it's a drag
Shut it, Love Actually
It's hot and muggy here, so a good time for some shorts:
Mother 13 or Sister Shiela?
OK, so you won't take my advice and listen to the Best Show. But how about if a journalist with some actual credibility tells you to? Nathan Rabin, over at the A.V. Club just wrote a "Portrait of Awesomeness" about Scharpling and Wurster, and he does a better job of introducing it.
Most comedy albums lose their pop after a single listen but there are so many levels to S&W that they hold up after a good dozen listens, though if you commute like I do, you might have to worry about the disapproving glares of strangers you’ll engender while laughing your ass off listening to classic routines like “Rock And Roll Car Dealership” (a revealing interview with the co-owner of Gene Simmons Toyota) or “Old Skull”. In “Old Skull” a cynical careerist reforms semi-infamous kiddie punk outfit as a jazz-fusion seven-piece.Just remember, new episode tonight. 8-11pm Eastern, listen at www.wfmu.org
The situation on Muffler Row
I know I talk about The Best Show on WFMU a whole lot on these pages, but even so, I really need to talk about this past week's show. For the last year or so, they've been introducing various candidates for the Newbridge Mayubinatorial Election, a once-every-decade extravaganza. The candidates all got there the same way, by amassing the requisite 37 signatures, and all made their annoucements with some sort of pancake breakfast. It's a very elaborate - and a very funny - thing.
Anyway, this week Tom Scharpling hosted the Mayubintatorial Debates, from the newly constructed Newbridge Debate Pavilion. Two thirds of the episode were taken up with Tom, Jon and Associate Producer Mike putting on a tour-de-force three-man show.
Some of the candidates:
- Hammerhead: A hardcore enthusiast who now lobbies to get more plastic into breakfast cereal and wants more violent pits at local rock shows.
- Zachary Brimstead, Esq: A 400lb barbershop singer and hates Newbridge. (You can listen to his first ever appearance, from back in 2000, here)
- Timmy von Trimble: Who is two inches tall and a white supremacist. Why?
- Marky Ramone: Drummer for the Ramones, condom salesperson, author of 'Hey Ho! Let's A Drummer's Life'. Big in Brazil.
- "Philly Boy" Roy Ziegler: Screenwriter, sandwich artist, Pencil salesman, Philadelphia Enthusiast
- Tor Halversom: Nefarious chocolatier who seems to strike fear into the heart of all the other candidates. Has a fat son.
- Bishop Pablo Fontana: The Pop Culture Pontiff. Is more likely to talk about David Gordon Green than religion.
What I'm saying is: If you haven't picked up on my many hints, you really need to start listening to the Best Show. Catch the latest archive here. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. Just listen to it already, you jerks.
Here's the Newbridge National Anthem, sung by Barry Dworkin, singer in America's Beatles, the Gas Station Dogs. If you've never heard their song, you need to click this at once.
[download Barry Dworkin - Newbridge is Just What You Needed] zshare link
Some things for a Wednesday
List!
- Isn't this sort of tacky? Not just the "WIN A THREESOME!" gaudiness, but the typeface, the layout, the use of "dude(ette)" and the use of a pair of lips as an O. It'd still be kind of boss to win, mind. [ScarlettJohansson.com]
- As you know, R. Kelly fascinates me. So, I sincerely enjoyed and heartily recommend Josh Levin's full, ninety-minute commentary, of K's recent trial. [Slate]
- If you haven't already, have a look at some of the crap in Roland Emmerich's house. (And no, I don't mean the 10,000BC screenplay. Zing!) [NYT]
- See how good you are with film posters. Me? I got 28. [Empire]
- If there's a better news headline that this, I haven't heard it. [Guardian]
- Are you Tom's friend yet? Why not? Do it now! Get him to 5000. [Myspace]
- It's almost here! [Premier League]
We spraypaint honky-lips on their garage door
As you probably know, I talk about The Best Show on WFMU a lot on these pages. So, it was very nice to see that sites far more popular than mine gave the WFMU marathon some coverage today. I asked you to pledge a few days ago, and there's still time, people!
The show had Ted Leo, Patton Oswalt and Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Postal Service) in the house, and they brought the noise. Patton's "Famous Flamer from Fresno" had me laughing so hard, I almost woke up a housemate.
There were cover versions. Watch videos here.
I made an mp3. It's below. Enjoy. And pledge, you creeps!
[download Ted Leo, Ben Gibbard, Tom Scharpling and Patton Oswalt - Take A Chance on Me]
[download Ted Leo - Chain Fight Tonight] - BONUS COVER OF THE GORCH. HOW'S ABOUT IT!
Tom vs. Everyone
Home of, amongst others the Best Show on WFMU, WFMU needs your help. Give them some money if you can. Support freeform radio! Be cool!
Try and catch the marathon show on Tuesday at 8pm eastern; 1am UK, at wfmu.org
Good guys always win.
 How This Works... | Support Freeform Radio! |
Your computer was out of oil
Comedy Album of the Year: Scharpling & Wurster - The Art of the Slap
As a (literally) card-carrying member of the Friends of Tom, I can't be entirely objective about 'Art of the Slap', but suffice to say, it's S&W's most expansive and best compilation yet. Although 'Andy from Newbridge' is a little too gimmicky, the rest of it is genius, including a very angry postal worker/James Blunt fan; extreme cinema's Trent L. Strauss (who you may remember for directing 'You're Soaking in Her'); Horse from Jock Squad, and culminating in an epic, two part installment of "Mother 13: First band to play Mount Everest". Buy it now, youse creeps.
Elsewhere, it was a strong year for comedy albums. I enjoyed Patton Oswalt's 'Werewolves and Lollipops' for his combination of political disgust, pop cultural disgust, nerdiness, and his handling of a heckler during an otherwise sweet story about abortion. Maria Bamford, the only Comedienne of Comedy who came off respectably when I saw the documentary, put out a solid album called 'How to Win!' where her insecurities and different voices came to the fore. Despite his presence on 'Best Week Ever', a show I can't stand, I really liked 'Impersonal' by Paul F. Tomkins. There's no intro or outro, and a great story about goths. What's not to love? Meanwhile, all three of the above, plus others were featured on the compilation, which was ace, particularly Andy Daly's bit where he doesn't really tell any jokes, and Mindy Kaling's story about retarded people. Comedy Death Ray. Finally, Michael Ian Black's album 'I Am A Wonderful Man' was funny, too, although he was involved in the weirdest part of 'The Ten', so he gets a slight scowl from me.
[download Scharpling & Wurster - Philly Boy Roy (excerpt)]
[download Maria Bamford - Alicia Keys]
[download Michael Ian Black - Gay?]
[The Best Show on WFMU myspace / official site]
[Patton Oswalt myspace / official site]
[Maria Bamford myspace / official site]
[Paul F. Tomkins myspace / official site]
[Comedy Death Ray myspace / official site]
[Michael Ian Black myspace / official site]
More like "Dr. No Thanks"
I've got exams coming up very soon, so I'll either post a lot more in here, or even less than I already have been. In lieu of real content, here are some links that you should click, open, and subsequently read.
- The Kid begins his quest to review every Bond film. [Scharpling and Wurster]
- Bradley's Almanac offers two really great (new) live sets - The National(s) in a pub, and even better, Spiritualized in a museum. [Bradley's Almanac]
- Oh, so that's why we lost to Croatia. [BBC News]
- Last.fm is trying to make Lucky Soul the Christmas number one. Good luck with that. [Last.fm]
- Crispin Glover gets some props. Not mentioned: His eyeball collection. [Guardian Unlimited]
Bye!
Burn your hands on the stupidity machine
- Fluxblog put up another snippet from The Best Show on WFMU, my latest obsession. When you're done listening to that, here's another - Tom's review of recent thriller Mr Brooks. It's both spoiler-heavy, and hilarious-heavy.
[download The Best Show on WFMU - Tom Reviews Mr. Brooks] - Jamie's doing his comprehensive-discography thing again, this time the focus is on Mansun. They're ok, I suppose, but even he acknowledges that sometimes their lyrics were "so bad that they're actually sublimely awful", so enjoy that.
- Hey Venus! made it into the album charts at #11 today, which isn't that bad, but Show Your Hand didn't even make the top 40? That's disappointing, innit? I know people don't really care about the charts much anymore, but still.
- Alex James has been writing a column for the Observer about cheese. I can't tell if this is more or less interesting than his recent autobiography, but it's probably more smug.
- There is a new series of The I.T. Crowd, and the first couple of episodes thereof have been funnier than most of the first series. Still running with Noel Fielding's "goth dude that hangs out in the office", though. Check out eps (if they're working) on tv-links.
- I saw Superbad recently. It was funny enough - always appreciate a good Orson Welles joke - but it didn't really have any heart. Jonah Hill's character was really unlikeable, and the whole "If we don't have sex before the end of high school, we will DIE" idea a) has been done before, and b) doesn't really resonate with me, maybe it's an American thing. There were plenty of funny moments, which I suppose is all you can ask for, but I've mostly forgotten about it already.
- Also caught The Bourne Ultimatum and it was every bit as bad-ass as you'd expect. I've talked about this summer's blockbusters already, so the fact that this one had a cohesive plot and wasn't just made for the money, and had Paddy Considine and David Strathairn makes it ace. Plus Paul Greengrass directs the shit out of it (This is praise).
- Candie Payne's new album is dead good, and I'm playing it quite a bit at the moment. Somewhere between good-period Concretes and Dusty Springfield, she's well worth a listen. Read an interview here, and watch her new video below.
- That's all! Enjoy the holiday tomorrow, Americans, and enjoy working tomorrow, rest of world.
Wherever I lay my phone that's my home
Hello. What's new? Just a quick post this evening. Mostly just links to other sites, to be honest. They can't all be "The first time I saw Super Furry Animals" you know.
First up, The Times' Entertainment section may well be following this very website. First up, there's an interview with Louis Theroux, ahead of his brand new Weird Weekend in Las Vegas, airing in the UK in early February. And the same site's music podcast is great. Not only is it great, but the last two editions focus on Gruff Rhys and The Hours. The latter is especially fun - listen out for Antony Genn's story about jumping off a bridge in Sheffield.
Sticking with the 30-minute-plus downloads, go over to Fluxblog and check out the clip from the Best Show on WFMU, which is fantastically funny, in a demented caller kind of way. There's a description of Shakespeare which is best described as inaccurate.
The latest edition of Observer Music Monthly is up - there's a feature about the best gigs that various people have seen. Maybe I'll do a post in here soon about mine. And Akira the Don, who's written a few interesting articles for the Guardian Blogs, has a new one about drugs in music.
And last for tonight, cos I want to go to sleep, Status Ain't Hood does well to articulate all I love about the new Bloc Party record.
Today's embed: Super Furry Animals, from their 1999 peak, with two songs live. Enjoy!
