Crazy Insight

Alright, I can admit it.

I'm tapped.

Completely spent. Long, long weekend full of stuff that had to be done, moving bleary eyed through work today, came home to another fantastic dinner my better half had (bless her heart) made before I even set foot in the door. I was washing up and realized in a panic "Oh no, no post!" So here I am, typing through the exhaustion, wondering what I could muster any love for that would propel me through this. Then I realized I knew just the thing - something I have been enjoying immensely, as of late.

WTF with Marc Maron.

Maron has been a gigging, hardworking and above all honest comic for over 20 years. His accomplishments, while too numerous to catalog in their entirety, include over 40 performances on Conan O'Brien's first talk show, hosting his own Air America radio show, three amazing albums and even a book. In short (which would no doubt irk him to be succinctly summarized) he is the definition of the long-standing stand-up, a man whose drive and work ethic has lead him to where he is today, riding high on his critical success and killing it every week in the incredible podcast he produces.

The show itself is, for comedy aficionados, a gold mine. Maron opens each installment by examining his own life a bit, maybe riffing on his travel experiences or just venting about feeling bad about things he knows he shouldn't. It's an interesting look into his headspace from one episode to the next. He can be both brutally honest and refreshingly charming when seemingly riffing on his own life. After the intro, and the obligatory plugs for a sponsor, Maron plays the segment that comprises the meat of his show - engaging, insightful interviews or discussions with other comics. Some are old friends (like the amazing 2-episode installment in which he and the prolific Louis C.K. reconnect after a falling out), some are strangers (like the hysterical Dr. Ken Jeong) while some are controversial. It seems some of his best known episodes are the ones where he starts to take the kid gloves off to really volley back and forth with the guests. His bull sessions with known joke thieves Carlos Mencia and Dane Cook are fascinating glimpses into the much maligned comics and how they justify what they do. Maron insists he wasn't meeting with them just for that reason but the notion is one that is constantly reminded, and he shouldn't shy away from it. He displays a real finesse for handling people and coaxing truth out of them. His discussion with one of my favorites, Jackie Kashian, blew me away with her frank recollection of childhood experiences and tales of parental drama. It made me appreciate the both of them so much more. His recent episode featuring Dave Foley was both cringe-inducing and revelatory, as the Newsradio and Kids In The Hall alum talked about heartbreak and divorce at great length, and how it had lead him to a new phase in his life.

I can say all this dramatic business about WTF and Maron's conversations, but it's not as though it's all doom and gloom. Quite the contrary, he actually makes it very easy and engrossing to hear. What is at times awkward or difficult is fascinating and you don't want to have to stop, like his recent interview with the notoriously temperamental Gallagher. I don't want to rehash what's been said since it happened, but its absolutely worth it to hear Maron hold the aging act storm off when confronted with the reality of his offensive material. Who knew Gallagher could be so crotchety and difficult? All right, I'll admit, it was pretty funny.

Not only is Maron working tirelessly as a regular performer, but he has an amazing relationship with his audience and fans, keeping an amazingly consistent presence online, whether it be the WTF site, his own page archiving his career, or through his as-it-happens twitter feed. To boot, he has been known to barter with fans after shows for his merchandise, accepting (until recently) homemade baked goods, knitted things and other miscellanea in lieu of payment for his content through both Android and IOS apps. The guy is up on the tech, as well.

Seriously, look at how much I just wrote about how great this podcast is, even after that miserable intro about how tired I was. That's how amazing the show is, that it pushed me right through the fatigue and off to the far end of this page. If you're still reading this, go download an episode, starting with someone you're familiar with. It's a great way to get started with this excellent podcast. I"m glad I did.

Referential Humor

Hey kids, what's shaking?


It's the weekend and I'm trying to fit this in around a busy schedule of normal get-it-done-while-there's-time kind of errands, the usual life stuff that gets done as soon as you have time. What that really means is today's post is gonna be a short, concentrated blast of love. To pack the most love possible into it, the subject is a dense, knotted ball of referential music. Mashup time, once again.


If you're not familiar with The Hood Internet you really oughta be. Remix/mashup artists from Chicago, they are best known for taking commercial rap and throwing it on top of indie music. The resulting mix either elates or infuriates hipsters - I can't tell because I honestly haven't had a chance to ask a genuine hipster about it, but then again this is focusing entirely too much on labels. I digress. Point is, The Hood Internet make these great, indulgent mix tapes and put them on their blog totally for free. I've written many times about the wonders of free things on the internet and this is another classic example. So these guys are mixing all this great stuff together, I'm sorting through and downloading it while thinking "This is great stuff for party music, having people over" and I notice one of the smaller or shorter releases they did:

Looks like the duo took the acapella tracks from Felt and put them over the awesome and strange electro music of Tobacco, specifically his album Maniac Meat. It is phenomenal and weird at the same time. Felt, in case you don't know, is the project of local deity Slug from Atmosphere and Oakland's Murs from Living Legends. The two have been making a series of albums together for the last few years as tongue in cheek tributes to celebrities they wanna bed, like Lisa Bonet, Christina Ricci and Rosie Perez. They're both incredibly talented, insightful rappers who have had both critical and commercial careers that establish them as legends in their respective stomping grounds so hearing them together is always great. So when a mashup team who I also love take their vocals and lay them on top of another musician's work we then spiral into a deeper level of Inception-like referential awareness. It's like an ouroboros at this point. The meta-context of the EP is so thick it approaches impenetrability, which amuses me to no end, and yet listening to it, it's just electro-hip-hop. 


This awesome(and free!) EP is a mutli-leveled beast of dance music the could be deconstructed by much smarter minds. I've wondered in the past about how music evolves and how our collective minds influence the direction of culture - I think this is another sign of where we're headed. Like Girl Talk's endless, segueing jams or Kids & Explosion's more ground-up approach, we have artists whose work becomes so causality-focused that the listener's personal history and ability to place context with the presented material becomes wholly ingrained to the experience. It's not just listening to the music anymore, now there is a level of awareness that goes along with it. One could relate it to the rise of cultural memes and how they spread and become jokes about the jokes themselves, like LOLCats, the self-aware schlock-fest Snakes On A Plane or the resurgence of Family Guy after its premature cancellation. Pop culture is eating it's own tail at this point. Good or bad, we're so connected to our own hive mind that ideas reference themselves in ironic or winking ways so fast that a generation gap appears after a point. However, this gap is not strictly based on age but on the effort put forth by the participant. If you don't want to care about it, your experience is much more surface level and straight forward, while connectedness and awareness of the in-joke makes it an endless spiral into meta-context. 


Holy Hannah, looking at all that text, you know what's really apparent? I need to abstain from espresso before I write these pieces. Looks like my mind is speeding up to the point of humming bird status. Instead of making my keyboard burst into flames from furious typing, I'll let the music speak for itself. Head to their blog to download this EP as well as the rest of their awesome mix tapes. Play it while you entertain this weekend.

Vague Recollections

Hey, cats.


Really, really busy day.


Doing an intense, once in a long time home project and haven't been able to sit down and type all day. I haven't been able to do a proper column so to distract you I'll give a little Saturday night entertainment.


What you need to do if you're reading this is head over to Thatguywiththeglasses.com and check out The Nostalgia Critic. The entire site is a sprawling monument to the movies of the last twenty years, be they good or bad. The Nostalgia Critic is a ridiculously funny guy who basically riffs on these old movies and deconstructs them in a biting and absurd manner. While the site actually has numerous contributers and styles of video critiques, ranging from surly pirates to video game breakdowns of all sorts, it is the original flavor, the Nostalgia Critic, who really makes me howl. His bewildered and beleagured takes on many of the movies from my youth make me both wince and cock my head in the wistful manner utilized on so many TV shows. Just check out a list of the movies of which he alone has done segments:


Blank Check
Last Action Hero
Sidekicks
Ferngully
North
Moonwalker
Pagemaster
The Good Son
Twister
Space Jam
Howard The Duck
Surf Ninjas
3 Ninjas
The Wizard
Cartoon All Stars To The Rescue


Come on, look at that list. I'm sure you winced at one title at the very least. There are some awesomely bad movies in there. The Good Son! McCauly Culkin plays an evil kids! Do you remember that? It was amazingly bad! Blank Check - kid gets a million dollars, no one blinks at the occurance.  Seriously, if you're reading this you've got some time on available to watch him skewer some of these incredibly dated and weird movies. If you need entertainment tonight, or any night for that matter, check it out. Painfully funny.


Until tomorrow, I'll bid you adieu. I promise I will get a decent column up soon, I'm overdue now. See you Sunday!

Diminished Returns

Evening, all.

Once again it's Friday night and I am rushing out the door to see local artists cutting up the scene. I have grand designs of a massive, loving write up on them. In the meantime I'll offer another quick rundown of artists whose work you should take a look at. Hopefully I'll be back early enough to do a proper column but if not, we can cover our bases.

First of is the work of Philippe Ramette, hosted here. Ramette does an amazing job twisting your sense of perspective by playing with orientation and expected positioning. His shots are disorienting and serene, with work that displays common and known things like people and doors put into odd or disorienting spaces. Thoroughly impressive, deceptive stuff. I love the way he can create visual tricks of the eye.

Next up is Jim Kazanjian. His work is astounding and beautiful, almost to the point that it's difficult to put into words. His  prints and visual work is the kind of mind-bending stuff that takes your brain a few moments to properly process. I honestly feel like I lack the proper training to accurately describe what is presented. Fantastic deconstructions of the familiar interspersed with elements of the uncanny. Shoot, maybe that's close? I don't know. All I do know is that it's gorgeous and moving. Take a look.

While I can attest that both of these artists have long and successful careers, I give these simple and meager props only in the hopes that one more person can be exposed to their unreal and astonishing creations. I obviously lack the proper tools and training to do a decent breakdown on their talents, so I can only let the work speak for itself. Like I wrote above, this post will only serve as a place holder, a stop gap if you will, for a better, more loving post. Let's see where the night goes. 

Freebies

Afternoon, kids.

The snow continues to fall here in Minneapolis, seemingly with no end in sight. So it goes.

Rather than pound flesh against the keys for simple yardage in a misguided effort towards productive writing, I'll save us all the trouble and offer a shorter, more digestible article today. If nothing else it will remind me that volume is not always the requisite for quality.

One of my favorite things about the world we live in now is the wealth of absolutely free entertainment. While this could be something so simple as watching the sunset or having a friend over for dinner, I'm speaking more in the vein of free media content. I've already extolled the virtues of some of my favorite webcomics and albums that are available at no cost. Hulu is another excellent service that's totally free and even more rewarding if you sign up for membership - doing so allows you to set up queues and subscribe to shows, essentially becoming a remote version of DVR if the conditions are lining up with your viewing habits. While I could certainly drone on and on about how wonderful Hulu is, it's the idea of quality, free stuff out there on the web that I love. I'm not towing the typical line about information wanting to be free (artists should be able to eat, after all) some kind souls impart their work simply to put it out there and hope that allowing direct access will benefit their work. I adore that optimistic endeavor. Like I said, I've certainly written about the idea before and intend to do so at future points as well. Today, of course, is another such example. 

Sin Titulo is a fantastic, online and totally free comic written by Eisener Award winning author/artist Cameron Stewart. Stewart, who has done titles for Marvel, DC and Dark Horse Comics among others, has worked with heavy hitters like Ed Brubaker and Grant Morrison on their respective Catwoman and Batman & Robin, as well as critically acclaimed titles like Hellblazer and B.P.R.D. Hailing from Canada, Stewart has been a longstanding member of the comic industry. Housed online by the amazing comic site Transmission X, Sin Titulo is an ongoing comic about a man whose dreams and visions start to break into his daily life as the world he knows crumbles around him. It's a bizarre and eerie tale of uncertain realities and questioned humanity that twists and turns with every installment. Alex Mackay's grandfather passes away mysteriously and without any notice. As he sets about putting the pieces of his grandfather's passing in order things get stranger, with shadowy figures observing him and peculiar buildings that may or may not be facilitating unusual...things. To go into the details much further would either scare potential readers off or spoil perfectly good and disturbing surprises. 

What Stewart is doing here is absolutely awesome. He's an established and well respected comic artist who feels compelled to offer excellent free content despite already making a living as a professional artist. I can't tell you just how much I've enjoyed following this comic unfold, knowing that I just have to check back on the site every few days to see the latest update, like a surreal and morose soap opera via web comic. The fact that this awesome saga is entirely free to see is just an added bonus.

If you take any enjoyment at all from comics (or graphic novels, if you wanna class it up) please head on over to Transmission X and see what the have to offer, there's some amazing work on display. If you don't really read comics just give it a try or check out any of the other amazing comics they have going at the moment. It's some amazing stuff, all for free. Indulge! Enjoy! But most of all don't pass up great, free opportunities like this!

Another Stall

Evening, readers. 


Life is getting in the way at the moment. I had hoped to have a column done by this time but I am finding myself stymied by both a mental block and a tight schedule. There are a few things I'm working on but right now they're not fit to publish. As penance tomorrow's column will either be extended or doubled, so look for a mega post or another installment of Warm Fuzzy Viewings. 


I appreciate your patience with my lack of productivity. As a small but heartfelt thank you I offer these awesome shots I took of the city this summer while attending a friend's wedding. Forgive the quality, as they were taken with an iPhone 3GS (Boo!) and I may have been celebrating too much.

They were taken from a viewing room in the Guthrie and the glass afforded a crazy hue that I would've stood in front of all night had I not been at a wonderful party. While you're at it, looking at photos and all, take a look at an actual photographer's site and head over to Kate Engelmann's excellent blog. Her work is amazing and deserves a bigger audience. Check her out, I'll be back tomorrow!

For Love Of The Game

Happy snowstorm, everyone! I am beginning to think I should consider a move to Alaska, as I seem to be the only person I know who genuinely gets excited by blizzards. In the interest of fighting community-wide cabin fever and the cooped-up-crazies I want to share a treasure trove of entertainment with you. 

I speak of Gamespite, a blog I follow devotedly yet of which I have never formally become a member. Bear in mind, though, my reluctance is based only on my personal reticence at being a 'joiner', or a fear of being rejected. I probably sound more neurotic and weird than I intend to here, but I digress. It's thoroughly awesome and you should check it out.

Obvious personal nerdery aside, I love the site for both its content and tone. I first became acquainted with it from listening to the (now sadly defunct) Retronauts podcast from 1UP.com/. The host for the show, Jeremy Parish, has been maintaining the Gamespite domain for the last decade, on and off, as a place to write and host honest, heartfelt critiques about games both new and old. It certainly doesn't need an endorsement from me to keep it's momentum rolling; it's a thriving community that chugs along, creating some of the most interesting breakdowns on video games and culture I've read anywhere. Honestly, the driving factor behind my writing this article evangelizing the site is simply that I think Gamespite deserves the accolade and attention. 

The site has become a repository for insightful and detailed articles on everything from psychological profiles on the background players in Nintendo games, to a forum full of some of the most intelligent, kind, and above all witty members, on the internet. Additionally there is the fantastic 'Let's Play!' section, where you can vicariously experience a game, either to relive it or experience it for the first time, most often with incredibly funny commentary that makes the experience akin to a modern MST3K. All of this and more, gathered and maintained by the persistent and prolific Parish. 

While Parish has made no bones about his own passions, among them Klonoa and Mega Man Legends, he has been a well-rounded editor and publishes a broad cross section of the  world of electronic gaming. The lion's share of the posts come from Parish himself, with contributor's columns being collected into themed issues he's dubbed Gamespite Quarterly, available for purchase in both soft and hardcover. Themes for issues go in suites, such as one for Heroes and another for Villains. The varying authors show their love for the overlooked and unsung, writing on sidekicks and bitplayers that they hold dear to their hearts. Other times its heavy, analytical critiques on the nature of choice in the medium, like Bioshock or Maniac Mansion. If all of this sounds way to intricately involved in the culture, try looking for something as familiar and famous as Mario and the impact its had on society.

What I find to be most enjoyable about the collective writings as a whole is the tone of the work - it's approached with both a reverence and light-hearted sense of humor, with little of the typical snark endemic of video game communities. Of course, this is not to say there is a dearth of knowing winks and elbows in the ribs, but the mood is one of appreciation and contemplative study that shows a genuine love of the subject matter. Take, for example, this massive list of articles, freely available for perusing.

If it seems like I'm rambling on in a disjointed matter, it's probably an accurate assessment,. It's most likely due to the over abundance of material that's been gathering over the years. For my non-gaming brethren it may seem like a shot in the dark into a niche community, but to a large part of the internet it's a well known haven, a group of friends and family that just seem to get each other. It's a place for kindred spirits to find people to play online with (Who Don't Suck, according to the thread title, in an inspired stroke of  social networking) or to share their appreciation for heavy metal. It's a massive community that just exudes positivity.


Check Gamespite out, and if you have any interest in ye olden days of gaming, the Retronauts podcast is still available at the site linked above as well as iTunes. Take a look and see what you find.