They'll never find me if i flip my initials!

The not so anonymous web clippings and musings of a Michigan ex-pat in North Carolina. This is where I am when I should be writing cover letters.

[leffjakin]

(crosspost from Facebook, because this is CLEARLY IMPORTANT)

First, Colbert is America's greatest living satirist, and his ascendancy to Late Show is just showbiz playing catch-up on that fact, as far as I'm concerned.

SECOND comedycentral. You have an opening now. You will be tempted to fill it with Tosh.0 four nights a week. RESIST.

Choose one of the good guys, one who (along with an amazing crew of genius weirdos) has a pilot for you in the can, ready for greenlighting.

Choose thechrisgethardshow. The strangest, most punk rock, DIY, anything goes and everyone's welcome show to ever grace the small screen.

For your consideration, I present this clip from their return to public access last week, featuring the entire cast, crew, and audience dancing joyously to ... Wheatus. Remember Wheatus?!? Chris Gethard does, and he brought them back. Isn't that argument enough to give TCGS the gig?

[leffjakin]

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Above is the greatest GIF of 2014. Watch, and fall under its spell.

Here is the performance that goes with that GIF. Watch, and be wowed  by its majesty.

Here is the album that goes with that performance. Listen, and discover your favorite album of 2014.

THAT IS ALL.

[splitsider]

Phil Lord and Chris Miller Reportedly in Talks to Direct 'Ghostbusters III' | Splitsider

[shoemoneytonight]

THIS IS IMPORTANT

[leffjakin]

Of all the terrible ideas these guys have turned into something kind of amazingly good, this would be their TRIUMPH. Godspeed, gentlemen.

[putthison]

I’m not one for hard and fast rules of dress etiquette, but then again I never thought “bow tie with polo and sportcoat” would happen. Via Pete Schroeder. We’ll have to assume this was an emergency, only-tie-available-in-a-pinch situation.

-Pete

[leffjakin]

Hi! Former house page here. I can confirm that its often the case that congressman arrive at the floor to give a statement, only to realize they don't have a tie, which is required for gentlemen when addressing the chamber. They often have to scramble for a tie in the cloakroom, and I can speak to at least one occasion where a page lent a congressman his hideous uniform tie (think TSA agent) so he could give a speech. I imagine there were a few laughs over this off camera.

Of course, the House abolished the Page Program in 2011, so if you really want to blame something for this sartorial disaster.... by all means, blame that :)

[leffjakin]

New Project! Merge-A-Day

I have plans for this space, which I'll get around to in time. But for now, why not have a gander at what I'm working on as a fan tribute to Merge Record's 25th anniversary?

[rollingstone]

The Both, a new duo consisting of Aimee Mann and Ted Leo, will release their debut album The Both in April. Get an exclusive first listen to “Milwaukee” from their debut.

[shoemoneytonight]

"I think the song is a pretty good representation of how our writing meshes on this project – solid melodies and tight harmonies, forward movement but not going off the rails, some busier rocking parts meeting some spookier atmospherics, etc. And it speaks specifically of our friendship and some of the things that honestly did lead us to want to begin writing together."

[leffjakin]

Leave it to two of my favorite musicians in the game to write the most beautiful, rocking song about friendship and hope based on a bronze statue of The Fonz. To quote Tom Scharpling, "I don't like it.

....I LOVE IT."

[leffjakin]

Goodnight, Sweet Kid Jersey

There are so many tributes to The Best Show on WFMU today, and all of them are amazing. Friends of Tom are a fiercely loyal bunch and are almost competitive in showing their love, and as I've scribbled out attempt after attempt at something of my own, I've long since given up on it offering any original insights or unique poignancy. On the other hand, that's not why we do it - we do it because frankly, Tom and Jon and Mike deserve it all and then some. So here are my words to toss onto the pile of accolades.

I'm going to miss the hell out of this show. I never became a terribly notable FOT during my time listening - I chatted sporadically, called twice, and made some very funny Twitter friends. I never got an FOT card, only got in on the last 3 or 4 premiums, and really only started listening more than halfway through the show's run, sometime around 2007. But on Tuesday night (or #BestShowWednesday, or whenever you were able to listen), none of that mattered. Everyone belonged, and was a part of something bigger.

The details, as I try to recall favorite moments and all-time bests, are kind of a blur. Part of that is that a good chunk of my listening was accompaniment to law school study, muddled in with unrelated cases and controversies from my textbooks (though I did manage to read Campbell v. Acuff Rose in Copyright Law at roughly the same time that Tom achieved the coup of getting plaintiff and 1st Amendment champion Luther "Uncle Luke" Campbell to call in, which was neat). But seriously- how long ago was Milo calling in? When did the feltdown occur? How long has laser whips been a thing, and when did someone last light up a batch of Emerald Nightmare? How did handmade, lisping, rambling Vance cede control to a loudmouth squirrel off the rack from Barnes and Noble? How did we arrive at any of this? And yet, all of it is unmistakably The Best Show - often imitated, but never duplicated.

Tonight, the freeflowing tap of mirth, music, and mayhem goes is shut off. I have no doubt that somewhere, sometime, it will bubble up again, and those who have gathered around it will gather once more (and in the meantime, will gather around all the great things discovered because of it). Until then, I'll just be greatful that I was here, in whatever small way, for the weird little world that grew up around this show.

[leffjakin]

Ode to Jordan Morris

(Author's note: my best stab at sonnet/iambic pentameter, composed at my desk at work. Also, please note not one but TWO uses of metomyny: Hollywood, which I swiped from the wikipedia page, and puss, which I got from JJGo itself ...and yes, rhyming with muss. So sorry.)

---

Oh who shall I compare with dearest J A man so great, 'tis hard to find a peer The type of guy who oft will make my day Just chatting while he quaffs a Bud Lime beer But lest you think this fellow's prone to sloth In Hollywood, his work ethic is rare From cable to YouTube he's cut a swath Nary a week you'll find his CV bare Perhaps James Brown, the hardest working man Since both doth sport a coif unique, no muss And though but legend, spread from fan to fan Both sex machines, out crushing all the puss So liken him to JB or Fugazi But please don't ask him if his dad is Ozzy.

[jordanmorris-deactivated2016120]

Jordan, Jesse, Go! - 1,000 Cones

With the help of our listeners and Kickstarter me and Jesse gave away 1,000 free ice cream cones at Sweet Action Ice Cream in Denver.

[leffjakin]

This is just delightful, and I paid for one of them there ice cream cones!

[trms]

[leffjakin]

Love RBG in this sketch. Mere side eye was not enough for this crap- she went full on laser death stare at the Chief Justice.

[hodgman]

In case you did not know, the amazing Ms. Emily Heller plays Nicole Winters in CODEFELLAS by David Rees and Brian Spinks. 

I play the voice of the animated body of Lewis Lapham.

That is all. 

[leffjakin]

LOVE IT. Love this animation style, love everyone involved. Like something from a parallel universe version of Adult Swim for intellectual dorks instead of stoners.

[mkupperman-blog]

McArf!

[leffjakin]

If you aren't following Michael Kupperman on Twitter, you're doing it all wrong. Simple as that.

[cameronesposito]

Seems like every 6 months or so - maybe once a year - there is a debate about rape jokes. Here’s how it goes:

A dude tells jokes about rape or deals with hecklers in way that includes rape. A woman hears these jokes or is the heckler. She publicly states that she is upset or didn’t like the joke...

[leffjakin]

This is pretty much the best. Cameron Esposito is pretty much the best. If you aren't tuning into her great stand-up showcase podcast or her great action and sci-fi films podcast, you are missing out, my friends.

[putthison]

Our Rudiments segment host Dave Hill’s internationally famous rock band Valley Lodge has a new smash single, “Go.” It’s the first track from their new album, due this summer.

[leffjakin]

AWW YEAH. Sweet sweet power pop heat from The Pride of Cleveland, Mr. Dave Hill.

[leffjakin]

When McKenna goes home for a few days, I resort to posing and photographing my record collection #troubling #butniceshots

[daveholmes]

Red.

Changing a Facebook profile picture for a cause is the kind of thing I never do, but I went all red today. Here’s why: 

We are near a cultural tipping point, but we’re not quite at it yet. There are still plenty of kids (and plenty of adults) who still have to put up with plenty of bullshit about their sexual orientation, who still have to spend some of the short time they get in their one life wondering whether they are abominations before nature. Anyone who follows me probably knows where I stand on this issue, but so what. I don’t mind being just another drop in this glorious red river of love today.

I’m aware I’m not affecting the actual Supreme Court decision. I know that the Justices are not checking their walls and ruling accordingly. (I do wish Clarence Thomas would stop asking me to play ChefVille. Not gonna happen.) 

If something like this had happened when I was a kid, it would have made my day. If one person I knew had expressed the opinion that I was a human being who deserved respect- whether it was by wearing a shirt, or hanging a sign, or using the word gay even one time in a way that was neither derogatory nor pitying- the teenaged me would have been overwhelmed. 

I know this because a lot of people are doing this simple, corny thing today, and the 42-year-old me is. 

[leffjakin]

Likewise, as much as I hate indicating agreement by replying/reblogging with “THIS”… well, THIS.

My own tipping point on gay rights came between middle and high school, when we walked out of the church I’d just been confirmed in that spring, never to return, after the pastor condemned gay marriage from the pulpit.

The position in and of itself wasn’t surprising. The United Methodist Church is notoriously live and let live on the culture wars, had just finished their every four years squabbling over it (a tradition that continues to this day), and we’d always kind of suspected this was the way the pastor and the congregation were trending. What’s more, this being a dozen-plus years ago, plenty of very nice, reasonable, progressive people were still hedging on the issue.

What was so shocking, offensive, and sad, I remember my mom explaining later, was the openly callous act of condemnation, the public affirmation of the impulse to shun and push away a group of people. You didn’t, and couldn’t, know who might have been listening, who might have been struggling in the pews that day, with their own sexuality, with acceptance of a child or grandchild or any other loved one. To just blindly fill people with guilt and shame like that wasn’t something my family wanted any part of.

So when there’s some meme going around that asks for open and visible support for gay rights, I’m liable to join in for the very same reason— you don’t know who might be listening, or watching. The classmate you forgot you were Facebook friends with, the person ringing you up at the grocery store, the coworker you walk past but have never talked to— as corny as it sounds, any one of those people might just need to be affirmed by that small act, to know that one more person in the world is open and accepting and supportive. That’s reason enough for me to do one small thing these next two days.

[leffjakin]

The opening riff of this song is somewhere exactly between Party in the USA and Steal My Sunshine, and it proceeds in a similarly earworm-y fashion.

Also, if this is your introduction to Dave Hill, pride of Cleveland, welcome to a magical rabbit hole of silliness, wit, and straight up bringin' the heat.

Valley Lodge "All of My Loving" (by Valley Lodge)