David Cross

I interviewed him today at some radio station where I work. Nice fella.

A Conversation with Charlie (Age 5) About, well, uh, Religion (?)



(for this to make sense you must know that Zordon, pictured here, is the disembodied leader of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, whom Charlie loves)

HIM: Dad, you know the potato guy?
ME: Zordon, you mean?
HIM: Yeah. Zordon. Well, he made this dragon monster in one episode I saw. And why would Zordon make a monster that could kill the Power Rangers when he's a friend of the Power Rangers?
ME: You mean why would a kind and loving Zordon allow evil dragons to exist in the Power Rangers universe?
HIM: Yeah.
ME: That's a hard one. People have wondered that for a long time. I guess it's a way of letting the Power Rangers know that the struggle against dragons is a daily one and that there will always be supervillains out to get you. So you need to be good whenever and however you can.
HIM: Yeah. It just seems wrong that he would make a dragon.

A Conversation with Charlie (Age 5) About Love

(we're driving in the car and listening to the Cake Song "Short Skirt/Long Jacket")

HIM: What kind of girl does he want?
ME: One with a short skirt and a long jacket. One who's sharp as a tack, one who tours the facilities and picks up slack. One who changes her name from Kitty to Karen.
HIM: But what does that mean?
ME: Like a girl who's really serious and is very focused and who concentrates on things.
HIM: Oh. (30 second pause) Well, finding a girl like that is going to be tricky.

Centipede Eats Bat!

Musings on the meaning of friendship offered on NPR

I had a commentary on All Things Considered yesterday all about the relativity of friendship in a MySpace world and how our band, the most important rock band in the world, is now friends with the Dixie Chicks, Elvis Costello, and Willie Nelson. Hear it here.

We Like You, John, But Where Do We Go To Read Essentially Meaningless Quotes By You?

Well, this blog for one.

Or here.

What Would You Ask Douglas Coupland?

I'm interviewing him tonight on stage at something called the Seesound Lounge which is apparently in Seattle. That's provided I find it, of course.

Perhaps this is becoming a series.

Update: The interview was last night. No radio, unfortunately. It was a great time and he was a swell fellow. The club had only one microphone so we had to pass it back and forth, Beastie Boys style. Talked about how we're now in the golden innocent age of Google, the Texaco Star Theater era, and how it's just going to get so much darker from here. Coupland kept getting feedback on the mic while I never did, which is curious because it's the same mic.

Well, this will haunt you...

Be forewarned, the Japanese are getting in shape and learning defensive, vaguely hostile rebuttals in English.



"It's your fault that this happened" is my favorite.

via Boing Boing

What Would You Ask Mark Mothersbaugh?

As you may know, I work at some public radio station. On Friday, I'm interviewing Mr. Devo, Mr. Film Scores From All Wes Anderson Movies, Mark Mothersbaugh. I have some ideas what to ask him but thought I'd throw it out there to y'all as well.

Generally in interviews, you pick a focus question and then build it around that. The focus won't be the flower pot hats but that will come up. What else?

How Is Your Book Going?

Thanks for asking. Well, there's lots to say. I'll try not to make it tedious.

1. Last week, I went to the post office with a large heavy pile of papers. It was the copyedited version of the book that had been gone through with colored pencil by a copy editor who was savvy enough to notice that apparently I've been mixing up "each other" and "one another" forever because I got it wrong every time. Anyway, then I had to go through the copy editor's notes and make corrections of my own in a different color of pencil and then mail the stack of 310 pages back to them. By mail. There is nothing electronic left in the process. So for $25 I express mailed it all back to NYC where it will now be turned into a "galley", the almost final version that is mailed to reviewers, blurbers, bookstores, and hopefully me. Then I get one last chance to tinker before it becomes a book.

2. I think the book might be very good. Or crap. But I feel better about the former than ever before.

3. Part of it might be appearing in a national publication but I don't know fer sure yet.

4. There will apparently be a website where I have been asked to blog. Not sure if it will be a permanent site where I'll migrate all this or if I'll double blog for a while. Will let you know.

5. We don't know what the cover is to look like. We think we know the subtitle but there may yet be tinkering.

6. I got to write the acknowledgements recently. An amazingly gratifying experience, actually.

7. It's available for pre-order on what is, for the moment, a very lackluster Amazon page.

It Doesn't Make Sense...

but it's a scene from Lord of the Rings with all the dialogue replaced by moronic groans and moanings. And you will laugh.



via Boing Boing

A Debate with Charlie (Age 5) About Monsters

HIM: Dad, which island had the crazier monsters? King Kong's island or Godzilla's island?
ME: I don't think Godzilla had an island. Didn't he live under the sea?
HIM: I'm pretty sure he had an island. I saw it at my friend's house. So who had crazier monsters?
ME: Well, I think King Kong. I mean, giant apes and t-rex on the same island? Can't get much crazier than that.
HIM: I think it's Godzilla. He has serpents. They're bigger than snakes and they breathe fire. That's the craziest.
ME: Crazier than t-rex?
HIM: They live in the water and they breathe fire, Dad. That is CRAZY!

I Love Charlie (Age 5) Anyway

HIM: Dad, we played Star Wars today at school. (A) was Princess Leia!
ME: Cool. Did you play?
HIM: Yeah! And (B) was Luke because he says he's always Luke.
ME: Oh. Who was Darth Vader?
HIM: (C) was.
ME: And so what were you?
HIM: I was Jar-Jar Binks!

Because Maybe You Do Want to Know What I Thought of Raymond Carver in College

So the brilliant Kevin Guilfoile has managed to be a successful humor writer and thriller novelist. I like to think that if I pitched away this whole Seattle thing and moved to Chicago, he'd be my friend. He invited me to be part of this cool Field Tested Books series where writers talk about books read in specific places and how place has an impact on the book. Some of my other fave-rave authors are there too. Here's what I wrote.

It's about what we talk about when we talk about What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

Are You Happy Enough? No? Here:

Jam On It