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Archive for the ‘Digression’ Category

Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans: The Best of McSweeney’s Humor Category (2004)

Posted in A.M. Homes, Aaron Naparstek, Amy Fusselman, Ben Greenman, Books about writers, Chris Bachelder, Christopher Monks, Clay McLeod Chapman, Corporate skewering, Daniel Handler, Darin Strauss, Dave Eggers, Demons, Denis Johnson, Digression, Dip-in Books, Dreams, Ezra Pound, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Humiliation, J.M. Tyree, Jake Swearingen, Jim Stallard, John Hodgman, John Moe, Jonathan Ames, Jonathan Lethem, Kurt Luchs, Lawrence Krauser, Margaret Atwood, McSweeney's, Mike Bullard, Myla Goldberg, Neal Pollack, Negativland, Neil Gaiman, One Ring Zero, Paul Auster, Political Humor, Postmoderism, Rick Moody, Sci-fi, Sean Carman, Sex & Violence, Smarty Pants, Sports, Stephany Aulenback, Summer, Supernatural, Technology, They Might Be Giants, Tim Carvell, Todd Pruzan, Zev Borow on October 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ONE RING ZERO-As Smart as We Are (2004).
I had this CD sitting around my house for about 4 years.  I had received it as a promo disc from Soft Skull Press (along with several other books on CD) and I just never put it on.  Then one day I was going through all these [...]

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David Foster Wallace–Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999)

Posted in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Chris Knox, David Foster Wallace, Demons, Digression, Flash Fiction, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Harper's, Infinite Summer, John Krasinski, Marriage Trouble, McSweeney's, Meta, Sex, Sex & Violence, Short Story, Smarty Pants, Snapper, Straightjacket Fits, Suicide, Superette, Supernatural, The 3Ds, The Bats, The Believer, The Chills, The Clean, Topless Women Talk About Their Lives on September 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TOPLESS WOMEN TALK ABOUT THEIR LIVES soundtrack (2006).
I learned about this soundtrack from a very cool article in The Believer (the beginning of which is online here).  In the piece, the author claims to have never seen the film (he was given the soundtrack by a friend) and he doesn’t want  to change his [...]

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 6] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Andrew Womack, Big Books, Boredom, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Demons, Digression, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Holidays, Humiliation, Infinite Summer, Meta, Neurotics, Postmoderism, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Technology, Tennis, The Future, TiVo, Violence, Yuck! on July 29, 2009 | 5 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: The Best Albums of the Year
Andrew Womack, fellow Infinite Summer player and founder of The Morning News has begun retroactively listing The Best Albums of the Year for each year since 1978.  This is a project that I have often thought about doing myself, yet never had the time to sift through all the [...]

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 5] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corner Gas, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Digression, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, End of the World, Eschaton, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, Kids in the Hall, Neurotics, Postmoderism, Rick Mercer, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Technology, Tennis, The Future, The Walrus, Toilets, Tragically Hip, Violence, Work, Yuck! on July 24, 2009 | 6 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: THE TRAGICALLY HIP-We Are the Same (2009).
I first heard of The Hip when I saw their video for “Nautical Disaster.” This is back in the day when I first got Canada’s MuchMusic on my Brighton, MA cable system, and when I actually watched Music channels. Anyhow, the song was intense and very cool and [...]

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McSweeney’s #31

Posted in Anachronisms, Biji, Bill Cotter, Books about writers, Charlie Chaplin, Consuetudinary, Corporate skewering, David Thomson, Death, Digression, Douglas Coupland, Duan Chengshi, Dystopia, End of the World, Ernest Hemingway, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), George Barr McCutcheon, Graustarkian Romance, History, James Hannaham, Jessica Anthony, John Brandon, John Cusack, Joy Williams, Legendary Saga, Mary Miller, McSweeney's, Meta, Miguel de Unamuno, Minnesota, Nicolas Chorier, Nivola, Oddities, Orson Wells, Pantoum, Plato, Poetry, Religion, Replacements, Say Anything, Senryū, Sex & Violence, Shelley Jackson, Short Story, Sight & Sound, Smarty Pants, Socratic Dialogue, Supernatural, Susan Sontag, Threats, Violence, Virginia Woolf, Virginity (Loss of), War, Whore Dialogue, Will Sheff on June 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE REPLACEMENTS-Hootenanny (1983).
This is the second full length from The Replacements.  For a band that just released two punk albums (one’s an EP), naming your new one Hootenanny is pretty ballsy.  As is the fact that the first track sounds like, well, a hootenanny (even if it is making fun of hootenannies.)
However, the rest [...]

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McSweeney’s #4 [Timothy McSweeney's Trying, Trying, Trying, Trying, Trying] (Late Winter, 2000)

Posted in 19th Century, Amy Fusselman, Ben Miller, Christopher P. Riley-Zaleniev, Colin Meloy, Corporate skewering, Decemberists, Dee Dee Myers, Denis Johnson, Digression, Dreams, Edgar Allen Poe, Essays, Fables, Flash Fiction, Franz Kafka, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gay/Lesbian, George Saunders, Haruki Murakami, J. Robert Lennon, Jonathan Lethem, Joshua Bearman, Joshuah Bearman, Jules Verne, Katherine Anne Porter, Lawrence Weschler, Lydia Davis, Marcy Dermansky, Margaret Keane, McSweeney's, Meta, Orson Wells, Paul Collins, Paul Debraski, Paul Maliszewski, Pink Floyd, Postmoderism, Rachel Cohen, Rick Moody, Sarah Vowell, Sean Wilsey, Sheila Heti, Sherwood Anderson, Short Story, The Smiths, Vladimir Nabokov, Wikipedia, William Keane, Wislawa Szymborska on May 29, 2009 | 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: COLIN MELOY-Colin Meloy Sings Live! (2008).
Colin Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter for the Decemberists.  This is a recording of Meloy’s solo acoustic tour from 2006.  The recording is from several venues on the tour, although it is mixed as if it were one concert.
Meloy is a great frontman, and this translates perfectly [...]

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Roy Blount Jr.–Alphabet Juice: The Energies, Gists and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof: Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics and Essences; With Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory

Posted in 180-G's, Books about writers, Carl Kasell, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Digression, Dip-in Books, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Les Claypool, Negativland, Peter Sagal, Poetry, Political Humor, Primus, Roberto Bolaño, Roy Blount Jr, Set at School, Set in New Jersey!, Smarty Pants, WRSU 88.7 FM, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me on May 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WRSU 89.7 FM.

Coming straight out of Rutgers University in New Brunswick (my grad school alma mater), this was the first station that I happened upon while I was scanning the lower numbers on the radio station.
The brief set that I heard was amazing.
I heard the end of a song that I didn’t know, but [...]

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Laurence Sterne–The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1769)

Posted in 18th Century, A Cock and Bull Story, Digression, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gillian Anderson, Humiliation, Irish Writer, Laurence Sterne, Meta, Pearl Jam, Pregnancy, Smarty Pants, Steve Coogan, Unreliable narrator on May 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Binaural (2000).
Binaural bursts forth with the rampaging “Breakerfall” and “God’s Dice.”  The latter pauses only briefly for a chorus break.  They are followed by “Evacuation,” a song that sounds a bit off kilter in this studio version but which blasts off on the live version. It’s got a great shouty chorus too.
“Light Years” [...]

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My Wikipedia Entry

Posted in Digression, McSweeney's, Paul Debraski, The Collins Library, Wikipedia on February 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

I finally decided I had something worthwhile to add to Wikipedia.  Since I have been writing so extensively about McSweeney’s Books, I decided to create a more or less comprehensive list of all of the books that they have published.  (I once asked a McSweeney’s rep if he had a list and he said he [...]

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What I learned (26)… Eartha Kitt

Posted in Digression, Eartha Kitt, Funny (strange), Harold Pinter, Paul Debraski, Supernatural on December 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Eartha Kitt died yesterday.  And, yes, I trashed her song “Santa Baby” just days ago.  Andrew pointed out in a comment to that post that, no doubt, it was the last thing she read, and it was the end for her.  And for that I am truly sorry.  It also explains why I have had [...]

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