So… I haven’t updated my blog or website in quite a long while. And I haven’t written much of anything at all this year. I seem to have needed a break after several very prolific years, and as usual when one takes a hiatus from one thing other things rush in to fill the holes in the schedule. I have also missed being in print, as I have seen three worthy periodicals go Web-only since I started doing this; somehow the motivation to see my name in pixels just isn’t as strong.
So I was pleasantly surprised today when I stopped into Borders and found not one, but TWO new books in the Humor section, written by some truly funny people who are not me, but were kind enough to mention or include me in their books.
One is by Yankee Pot Roast founders Geoff Wolinetz, Nick Jezarian and Josh Abraham, who included a bunch of us who have been frequent contributors to their website in a very kind Acknowledgment at the back of their excellent, all-new pop culture survey:
The other is by writer and humorist Jake Kalish, who solicited my input as one of “The Experts” on several of the hilarious hypothetical batailles royales discussed in his new book:
(I particularly enjoyed commenting on Cap’n Crunch vs. Tony the Tiger, and Voltaire vs. Voltron.)
These guys and their books are very funny indeed. Go forth and read!
Today at Yankee Pot Roast:
MTV Books Presents: Romeo & Juliet
Just found out this recent Wittenburg Door piece from the print magazine (under the slightly longer title “Least Favorite Children’s Animal Stories from the Bible”) has become available online as of 11/10/2007:
Least Favorite Children’s Bible Stories
Yesterday, we went to the dollar store to pick up some miscellaneous household items, and I discovered a bin of very, very cheap double-feature DVDs organized by genre. They are distributed by a company called EastWestDVD and are apparently pressed and packaged in Hong Kong.
I read the descriptive copy on the back of the packaging and could not pass these up for a buck apiece, even if I never get around to watching the movies themselves. Because try as I might, I could not write movie summaries this brief and unintentionally funny:
Virus
The most expensive Japanese movie ever made about a plague that wipes out all but 858 people after a nuclear war.
Galaxy Invader
An alien is hunted by a gang of drunken hillbillies who saw him crash-land his spaceship.
Scarecrows
Five convicts parachute with their stolen loot into an abandoned graveyard ruled by deadly scarecrows.
Garden of the Dead
Zombie convicts from a chain gang rise from their graves after sniffing experimental fumes.
I want to steal these premises and write completely new stories around them.
Up today at Yankee Pot Roast, this geeky bit of pop culture insanity:
Opening tonight in Flint, Michigan!
I’m a perfomer and contributing writer on this year’s show, so please consider making the journey if you want to experience my twisted humor newly adapted for and enlivened by live performance. Scooby-Doo, Sarah Vowell… you guys know my work.
(For those who don’t get to see the show live, an original cast CD is being edited as we speak and should be available for sale very soon.)
So it appears that my old blogitall blog has been lost to the bit-bucket for some while, and can no longer be updated. It is possible I will not be able to revive it. Actually, at this point, since I have deleted and recreated it, it is pretty much certain. Which makes me feel less guilty for not updating in quite some while.
Hence, I will celebrate the ephemeral nature of the World Wide Web by linking to a recent rerun of my work I would probably not otherwise mention, in honor of Columbus Day:
Nice Things To Say To Chris Columbus After Seeing RENT
This is also an acknowledgment that I haven’t been publishing a lot of new work lately. Work has been busy and I have been lazy. But there are some interesting things in the works, one of which I will shortly describe in detail.