Onion AV
The bigtime has finally found me – a couple of people have written to tell me that Baby Got Back got a nice mention in the Onion AV Club this week, under Great Cover Songs of 2005. Thanks Onion! I like the designation “humorist,” I’m going to start putting that on business cards.
Holy Tango of Literature
I tip my hat to friend and fellow traveller Francis Heaney, who in addition to being a very clever man who writes music and words and cartoons (and who knit himself a vest at least once), also understands how to work it. Francis has written a book called “Holy Tango of Literature,” a collection of poems and plays that famous poets and playwrights would have written if they had been required to use titles that were anagrams of their names. “Toilets” by T. S. Eliot, “Nice Smug Me” by e. e. cummings, you see what I’m saying. The book is quite funny, and would certainly make a nice Christmas gift for the geek in your life, especially if that geek is you.
Here’s the kicker: dude is giving that shit away! On the internets! In a recent blog posting, Francis links to a pdf and an html version of his book, in the hopes that you will like it and buy it. The eBook is Creative Commons, so you can exerpt and link and talk about it all you want, which I am about to do here. This is “I Will Alarm Islamic Owls” by William Carlos Williams:
I will be alarming
the Islamic owls
that are in
the barn
and which
you warned me
are very jittery
and susceptible to loud noises
Forgive me
they see so well in the dark
so feathery
and so dedicated to Allah
NYC Appearance
Traditionally I post these things the day of the event, which I know doesn’t help anyone, so I’m getting a bit of a head start this time. John Hodgman and I will be doing our book reading thingie at Pianos this Friday 12/16 at 7PM as part of the One-Story reading series. Martini drink specials will be in full effect starting at 6:30, so go ahead and get drunk then. It will make it easier for us to entertain you.
Thing a Week 12 – Furry Old Lobster
By request, this one comes from the book tour I’ve been doing with John Hodgman. In the book, there’s this very funny history of the lobster in America, in which John explains that what we think of as lobsters today really were not the first animal to be called “lobster.” In fact, the old kind of lobster was a sort of sea otter that was wiped out when the new lobster made its way north to Maine. Then I sing a sad song about the death of the furry old lobster, and also I wear a hat made from its fur. Hilarious. Here is the song: Furry Old Lobster
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