If you’re not a fan of Wilco, this should make you one (if it doesn’t – sorry). Recorded October 2011 at NPR’s music offices. Also, I recommend watching their recent performance on Letterman/CBS.com – online concert.
Wilco Wednesday – the only day of the week that I will post something related to Wilco.
Actor, writer, storyteller Stephen Tobolowsky has a podcast. It is not to be missed. It is, thankfully, so many things for an internet-age audience short on attention. It is smart, hilarious, serious, sappy, thoughtful, sad, thrilling, educational – all those things push things from “entertainment” to “art.” I am only in about 6 episodes but can already tell that he is an exceptional, practiced storyteller.
Three months ago, I didn’t know the name Stephen Tobolowsky. After nearly a year of listening (and enjoying) writer/director Kevin Smith’s podcast network (recommended, also), I decided to look up a few other top-ranked podcasts. I scrolled through list after list and somehow came across Tobolowsky. I saw the name, searched it online and instantly recognized the podcaster as “that guy from the film Groundhog’s Day.”
Tobolowsky’s credits go on forever – see imdb. So many I nearly forgot he was in my favorite series, Deadwood until he mentioned it in one story. He is mostly recently seen in Showtime’s Californication as a wealthy and horny film producer, Stu Baggs (great name!).
Back to the podcast. The first episode of the Tobolowsky Files that I listened to happened to be about his time on the set of Groundhog Day. He talked of getting the part, filming scene after scene in varying weather and the people he met. I won’t spoil it – listen to it. What was different in his podcast was the day-to-day details, the humor, and self-awareness of what it means to be a working actor (hard work, time, talent, etc) in a world where we think actors and actresses have got it made. There is more to be learned in this podcast than a lifetime subscription to any celebrity-filled magazine. Because acting is just part of the story in the Tobolowsky files.
Not every podcast in the Tobolowsky File is film/actor-related. This is a nice surprise. Too often we turn to podcasts to hear celebrity (small or large) bitch about other celebrities and directors. Do I want to know what it is like to work with Bill Murray? You bet. Bill is God. Who doesn’t? But is it more rewarding to hear about Tobolowsky and his time at university dealing with a professor who was hell-bent on ruining his academic career? Or the time he spent babysitting an egg with his son, waiting for it to hatch? Absolutely.
The best of Stephen Tobolowsky stories that I’ve heard involve the ‘life lesson’-type podcasts. They are not preachy and often Tobolowsky puts the lesson out there, not even sure himself of what is being learned (I’m thinking of “Man in the Closet” episode #40). There are stories of his time at school, time with his family, and time with friends during his struggling actor days in Los Angeles.
I’m not on expert on storytelling (I took one class in grad school and barely got through it – it was too ‘actorly’ for me, to out of my comfort zone to, I suppose, be that honest in a story to be presented to an audience. I prefer the jaded, sarcastic one-liners in my stand-up comedy). Some might find some episodes to be too corny or too nicely wrapped in a lesson, maybe not entirely true in every detail – like something your mom would listen to and believe every word – but I think they are perfectly measured with humor and insight and truths. Those episodes that I’ve listened to are miles ahead of the typical ‘entertainment’ podcast where the actor/actress/comedian interviews his friends and spends an hour with unprepared material talking about what was on Conan last night. That works sometimes. But with Tobolowsky, it is obvious he treats the time in the podcast as valuable time. He doesn’t waste a minute. He has something to share with his listeners. So, listen!!
Stephen Tobolowsky at Slashfilms.com, program listing. And, of course, available on iTunes.
I look forward to listening to the rest of the episodes…
I post this so that I can visit this twitter feed later and be reminded of comedian Angelo Bowers’ humor and wit. I’m afraid I’ll forget. Bowers has some very MitchHedberg-like jokes, which I always appreciate. I did not know him – just heard about his unfortunate passing last week, when he was killed by a drunk driver. I’m grateful for his friends, family, and fans for contributing to the twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/#!/angelosjokes
I lost my mom to a drunk driver 10 years ago, so I feel for the family and friends of Bowers and what they must be going through. In time, I hope they can be comforted as much as possible, by the fact that Bowers’ jokes and video clips will (or should) live online and provide everyone a chance to hear and read his unique and clever sense of humor.
hey, I haven’t posted in awhile and just thought that I’d post my thoughts on the incredibly unfunny Paul Reiser show. I wasn’t a fan of Mad About You, but a lot of people were – 20 years ago. Now one of the stars is back with a new sitcom. And, I suppose, in twenty years he can do a show about a guy who had a crappy sitcom about a guy who once had a successful sitcom. At least Helen Hunt isn’t in this one.
Whereas a Reiser contemporary, Jerry Seinfeld, had a show “about nothing,” this show is about a nobody. Not literally, but 2011 is a lot different than the early 90s. Paul Reiser in the title of the show? Really? Other than his family and friends and NBC suits, has anybody in the past 15 years wondered what Paul Reiser is doing?
The first episode was awful, primarily for its blatant rip-off/homage of the much better written (improvised, mostly) Curb Your Enthusiasm. The corny circus music and including Larry David in the premiere episode was not the way to start (maybe he should have called the show “Paul Your Enthusiam”). It’s like the show jumped the shark on the first episode. Maybe next week Paul can hang out a a community college. Or at the Tracy Jordan Show. Actually, although I’m not a fan of Reiser’s, his timing and personality would actually fit more in The Office than any other sitcom on air.
That is the end of this post. I have grown tired of this topic much sooner than I realized. Thank you for reading this post. Now go read something else that isn’t so critical about a guy who is just trying to make our evenings more enjoyable with a little sitcom humor.
3/11/11
Truther. Right here. Right now. Let’s Roll. Bring it On. Scooby Doo. You add up the numbers, 3, 11, 11, and you know what you get. 26. Or 25. Stupid calculator. Anyway, 25 is a pretty meaningful number, especially when it comes to conspiracies. You know what I’m talking about. Yes you do. So, then, why don’t you tell me what I’m talking about.
Okay, so, I was talking (facetiously to the nth degree) about how the Japan quake was probably an inside job and how I’ve become a 3/11 Truther. That’s right - boom! Just like that, you, too, can become a 3/11 Truther! Crappy, over-analyzed videos on YouTube? Check. LooseChange, Change Harder, got that on my editing board right now! Because, really, where did all that water in the tsunami come from? We don’t know the exact volume of the ocean because GW Bush and Obama don’t want us to know, so they can pull stunts like this earthquake/tsunami. Obviously it was brought in by a shadow government. Duh! Paging Julian Assange. Assange, to the front desk. Fire can’t melt steel and water can’t push cars around. If it really could push cars around how is it that so many of us are able to drive in the rain? Whatever you see on the internet is what the government wants you to see – it’s staged. A lot of people think the 1969 moon landing was a hoax. The landing was a hoax, but not the take-off from the moon, that was real – don’t ask me how I know. Go read a book, man. Back to Japan – houses floating down the street? I saw Lost in Translation. I am fairly certain that the Japanese people don’t even live in houses like those shown in the videos. They live in little tiny apartments with Hello Kitty graphics on the walls and pet rocks. This earthquake occurred to keep the “sheeple” from paying attention to the Middle East and Charlie Sheen (who we all know is being set-up with the standard ‘two-goddesses-bag-of-coke’ trap to discredit him for his own conspiracy beliefs. Winning!).
So, I was going to do a 3/11 truther website and everything and sell t-shirts and videos(prophet/profit – wow, so deep) and soon host my own satellite radio show. But I don’t have the energy. Of course I don’t – not with the contrails above my house dropping secret government brain-washing powder on my head. And the flouride in the water, and the SMART meter attached to my electricity meter. I just work and love me some PepsiMax and American Idol, like a good American!
So, then I googled “japan earthquake conspiracy” (just to see if I was first in line in critical thinking skills). Lo and behold, I was beaten to the punch, finding several discussions, like this one:
http://www.disclose.tv/forum/japan-tsunami-caused-by-haarp-t46297.html
and this jughead:
this guy looks like his head has moving plates, so maybe he does know something about earthquakes.
As we all know from Jesse Ventura’s Conspiracy Nerd-Alert College, HAARP is a high frequency thingamabob in Alaska that studies shit but of course it is really used as a giant ‘energy/plasma beam’ to wreak havoc on little countries, courtesy of a shadow government. Use HAARP on al Qaeda in the mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan? Or, say, rattle middle eastern dictators with a few little tremors? No! Instead, let’s slam Japan and Haiti. They’ve both had it coming for a long time. 3/11 Truthers believe this, because when you live in your grandma’s basement and think the X-Files series is a documentary, anything is possible. By the way, HAARP is not to be confused with AARP, which is an equally terrifying organization, whose chief objective is to get in the way of the general population, usually by driving below the speed limit and taking fifteen minutes to order a “hamburger sandwich” at McDonald’s. Please see Wilfred Brimley for more on this AARP gang.
Taking this further, of course, is the idea that this was created to bolster Big Oil’s stranglehold on the energy biz by causing the quake that would damage the nuke plants (rather than, say, just damaging only the nuclear plants, with same results). Dick Cheney himself probably flipped the switch on HAARP. Because we all KNOW that Big Oil wants to keep us dependent on oil and the way to do that is to kill thousands of potential customers via some awful SyFy-type mega-earthquake scenario. You know, if every “enemy” was as smart as we think they are, that brain power would eventually cross over for the ‘good’ of mankind, and we’d be living on Mars right now, watching So You Think You Can Dance On Mars? right now,or talking on little phones that could record videos, play games, instant message…wait a minute!
Of course, all of this is possible because if there is one thing that human beings are good at, it is keeping secrets and forming conspiracies. GW Bush did it, so of course anybody can.
The lesson here is that we need to ban the number 11. Bad Things Happy To Good People. Especially on days numbered 11.
11 bad. 25 is…well, you know what it is. Why don’t you tell me.
[disclaimer - of course this post has nothing to do with the real tragic events happening in Japan, except to point out the idiots who buy into every conspiracy theory out there and who disregard any common sense. Yes, bad people are out there with their own self-interests, but if one looks objectively at the details, you know it makes very little sense. If there is a secret government out there running the world, and they read this, please do something about the lobby wait time in Call of Duty: Black Ops. You want to keep me as a sheeple, then solve this. Otherwise, I might get bored with video games and go read a book.]
Here is a link on HuffingtonPost with some links to real people who are organized and helping people in need (of course, always be mindful when selecting a charity – know who you are giving to and what it is being used for).
and I’ll probably delete any stupid comments that come in.
