An elderly veteran + a simple message of decency = can't get a hold of my emotions. Happy Ally Week, friends.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Jordan, Jesse, GO CHANGE YOUR SYNTAX
Sometime in early 2009, I became a full-blown Twitter user. While this is not something that any sane person would ever be proud of, these are the facts and I lay them at your mercy.*
Despite what you might believe, Twitter CAN be useful. It can help you track news event in real time, you get a liiiittle too close to the inner workings of politicians mind and, most importantly, it's a comedy one-liner's dream come true. Most of my favorite semi-famous comedy folks are on Twitter and are excellent aggregates of the work of other people in comedy.
One of my favorite living semi-lebrity/comedy mastermind is Mr. John Hodgman, who sadly most of you only know as "PC" from the Mac ads or possibly from the occasional Daily Show appearance. (There is more, and it would behoove you to check it out.) Being a big Hodgman fan, I always follow his recommendations and have been greatly reward.
One such reward has been the discovery has been the works of Jesse Thorn at www.maximumfun.org. Jesse is the host of the interview program The Sound of Young America, which is taped in his home and then syndicated to various NPR stations around the country. His interview style is relate-able, thoughtful and focused on the things that interest him: hip-hop, rap, comedy and design.
My favorite MaxFun program, however, is Jordan, Jesse, GO! a "freewheeling comedy podcast" co-hosted with Jesse's longtime friend Jordan Morris. It's hard to describe other than to say it's full of anecdotes and general nonsense. It's been so fun to listen through the show's archives (available for free on iTunes) and to look forward to a new installment every week or so.
One of the things that is difficult about being a fan of comedy while not actually being a creative person is that you can remember and repeat jokes without actually being funny. So many of the laughs that I get come from repeating jokes from a TV show, wherein the reference itself is funny but the line isn't. The same goes for my listening of JJGo. It has totally changed the way I speak in an attempt to get laughs out of people, espeically in a "networking"-ish social setting.
Being silly isn't en vouge anymore, which is probably why I love JJGo so much. A recurring joke between Jordan and Jesse is to discuss a topic, then totally derail the conversation by saying words that are related or even just sound like the topic at hand.
A good example of how much this has influced my day-to-day sentence structure is this conversation I had with my pal and fellow JJGo convert Erin via g-chat during lunch today. To wit:
(Context: we were talking about writing a screenplay around the character Bionic Brother, because my brother had a pin put in his pinky finger today)
Erin: I see a blockbuster in your future
Pretty ridiculous, right? And yet, it's almost verbatim what you would hear in a typical conversation between Jordan and Jesse during a podcast.
This leaves me conflicted, because on one hand I like to expand my comedy horizons and keep changin' it up. On the other hand, it points out how none of my humor is original and is a mediocre copy of another man's genius (remember that line from the 1994 Little Women?!). All it all, it leads me to being the "funny guy at the office" rather than "that amazingly funny person who we all know and love."
*I've been watching Showtime's The Tudors lately, and it has also affected the general style and rhythm of my speech.
Despite what you might believe, Twitter CAN be useful. It can help you track news event in real time, you get a liiiittle too close to the inner workings of politicians mind and, most importantly, it's a comedy one-liner's dream come true. Most of my favorite semi-famous comedy folks are on Twitter and are excellent aggregates of the work of other people in comedy.
One of my favorite living semi-lebrity/comedy mastermind is Mr. John Hodgman, who sadly most of you only know as "PC" from the Mac ads or possibly from the occasional Daily Show appearance. (There is more, and it would behoove you to check it out.) Being a big Hodgman fan, I always follow his recommendations and have been greatly reward.
One such reward has been the discovery has been the works of Jesse Thorn at www.maximumfun.org. Jesse is the host of the interview program The Sound of Young America, which is taped in his home and then syndicated to various NPR stations around the country. His interview style is relate-able, thoughtful and focused on the things that interest him: hip-hop, rap, comedy and design.
My favorite MaxFun program, however, is Jordan, Jesse, GO! a "freewheeling comedy podcast" co-hosted with Jesse's longtime friend Jordan Morris. It's hard to describe other than to say it's full of anecdotes and general nonsense. It's been so fun to listen through the show's archives (available for free on iTunes) and to look forward to a new installment every week or so.
One of the things that is difficult about being a fan of comedy while not actually being a creative person is that you can remember and repeat jokes without actually being funny. So many of the laughs that I get come from repeating jokes from a TV show, wherein the reference itself is funny but the line isn't. The same goes for my listening of JJGo. It has totally changed the way I speak in an attempt to get laughs out of people, espeically in a "networking"-ish social setting.
Being silly isn't en vouge anymore, which is probably why I love JJGo so much. A recurring joke between Jordan and Jesse is to discuss a topic, then totally derail the conversation by saying words that are related or even just sound like the topic at hand.
A good example of how much this has influced my day-to-day sentence structure is this conversation I had with my pal and fellow JJGo convert Erin via g-chat during lunch today. To wit:
(Context: we were talking about writing a screenplay around the character Bionic Brother, because my brother had a pin put in his pinky finger today)
Erin: I see a blockbuster in your future
me: well, there you go
Erin: you could make tens of dollars!!
me: pennies and pennies!
Erin: tuppence?
Erin: tuppence?
me: ha'penny? a guinea?
Erin: chocolate coin
me: oh, that's right. that's what I was thinking.
Pretty ridiculous, right? And yet, it's almost verbatim what you would hear in a typical conversation between Jordan and Jesse during a podcast.
This leaves me conflicted, because on one hand I like to expand my comedy horizons and keep changin' it up. On the other hand, it points out how none of my humor is original and is a mediocre copy of another man's genius (remember that line from the 1994 Little Women?!). All it all, it leads me to being the "funny guy at the office" rather than "that amazingly funny person who we all know and love."
*I've been watching Showtime's The Tudors lately, and it has also affected the general style and rhythm of my speech.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
My Favorite Things
Post it Note Stories has teamed up with my beloved Chicago Public Radio and animated a review from Sound Opinions. I've had the recent revelation that I'll never have good or cool taste in music, so I can admit I get about 1 in 10 references they make in this review. I don't even know the band they're reviewing, but I still can't resist the awesome:
Sound Opinions reviews The Fiery Furnaces new album I'M GOING AWAY from WBEZ on Vimeo.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
I give up!
This is the earliest known painting by Michelangelo. It's called the Torment of St. Anthony and he painted it when he was THIRTEEN YEARS OLD!Just another reason to feel like I'll never accomplish anything. Happy Thursday!
via BoingBoing
Oh, heeeey...
It's been a huge long time. I have been contributing to another "project" (which makes me sound like a pretentious a-hole. totally intentional) and just haven't made the time.
That being said, I recieved an amazing haiku from a friend about Rick Bayless that just needed to be shared with the three of you:
Rick Bayless, a haiku:
petite nerdy man
likes to wear pink and purple
i can support that
I can also support that he's a fellow anthropology nerd. Even the fact that he wears chokers doesn't phase me!
That being said, I recieved an amazing haiku from a friend about Rick Bayless that just needed to be shared with the three of you:
Rick Bayless, a haiku:
petite nerdy man
likes to wear pink and purple
i can support that
I can also support that he's a fellow anthropology nerd. Even the fact that he wears chokers doesn't phase me!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Watch What Happens
It has often been said that the people of Iran are different from the hardline government that represents them. The events of the past few days have been heart wrenching and Americans should be paying attention to the struggles of people fighting for their right to be fairly represented. Andrew Sullivan's blog is a great resource for up-to-the minute news. You can also view recent tweets from people on the ground in Iran.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Earworm
From the people/geniuses that brought you Auto-Tune the News is this video they made earlier this year from Winston Churchill's Great Declaration.
Lift up your hearts people, because defying totalitarianism and hatred has never been so danceable!
I can't stop listening to this or singing this to myself. Clearly, the weekend was not long enough...
Lift up your hearts people, because defying totalitarianism and hatred has never been so danceable!
I can't stop listening to this or singing this to myself. Clearly, the weekend was not long enough...
Saturday, May 16, 2009
One degree of seperation
This is my closest brush with fame yet! This is an old TV segment filmed in the park right by my apartment where Droopy and I walk every day. See if you can spot the famous person featured in the video. You realize that this means that we're best friends now, as he would be able to know exactly where my apartment is if I referenced it.
No autographs, please!
Via Chicagoist
No autographs, please!
Via Chicagoist
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Play 'em off, Keyboard Cat
I can't pretend that I'm hip to all of the internet memes. I have no earthly idea why LOL Cats exist or why they're thought to be so funny. That being said, I do love this new soon-to-be-really-old internet fad: Play 'em off, Keyboard Cat!
Looking at this objectively, I have an incredibly immature sense of humor. A man passing out does make me giggle in its own right. The fact that it's on Glenn Beck's show makes it even more hilarious to me. But we've all been situations where we'd love this little fella to show up and play you out of a crazy situation.
And also: I'm five years old.
Looking at this objectively, I have an incredibly immature sense of humor. A man passing out does make me giggle in its own right. The fact that it's on Glenn Beck's show makes it even more hilarious to me. But we've all been situations where we'd love this little fella to show up and play you out of a crazy situation.
And also: I'm five years old.
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