The podcast that is just about my favorite anything these days

I don't get out to movies that much these days, and rarely it seems have two hours to consume movies on DVD. There are TV shows that I watch, and books I read, and intermanet properties that I consume.

But, and I can't believe I haven't mentioned this before, my favorite anything these days is the audio podcast Jordan, Jesse GO! featuring Jesse Thorn and Jordan Morris.



I started sometime around Episode 40 last fall (Ep 62 came out this week), and have since gone back to begin to listen to the complete archive of the show.

Thorn's flagship program is The Sound of Young America, which he distributes as both a podcast and as a public radio show to select stations via PRI. But Jordan, Jesse GO! is why I contribute to his small media empire (MaximumFun.org) every month. (He's having a pledge drive now, and I am considering upping my monthly subscription rate.)

It is difficult to describe the appeal of JJGO! At face value, the concept of two straight white guys in their twenties riffing into microphones for an hour and a half sounds horrific. But their peculiar mix of earnestness, nerdiness, fake irony, and ridiculousness keeps me entertained week after week.

I'll finally note that Ira Glass and his wife both listen to the show (he has interviewed Jesse about it, and she has called into the program).

Try episode 40 on for size. If you're not hooked after that, you're out of the wedding.

Fake Vintage Cinematic Camp: "Italian Spiderman"

This is one of those YouTube things that 1.7 million people have watched before you've heard word one about it, a trailer purportedly from a 1968 Italian exploitation movie.

Watch it now. Seriously, watch it.



In actuality it was a student film project, shot on 16mm in what Flinders University student Dario Russo claims was a single day. (Seems like that would have been an awfully long day.)

The team behind the trailers has been developing the project into something "feature-length", in reality 25 or so short bits to be posted weekly on YouTube. The first episode debuted this week, and while it doesn't quite live up to the trailer, there is still some daft genius at work (e.g. when a villain's head explodes into a clump of rubber snakes).

You can also download two original music tracks at iTunes (DRM-free). I just did.

Oops. I Did it Again.

YouTube link.
(Can't find the embed code)
Richard Thompson covers Britney Spears.

Things Younger than John McCain

via Spectacular Self-Indulgence


Senator John Sidney McCain III was born August 29, 1936.

Which means he is older than nuclear weapons.

Older than Scrabble.

Older than Area Codes.

Older than the Golden Gate Bridge.

This blog, while extremely simple, is an astonishing history lesson.

And it accepts suggestions.

Two Sunday School Teachers: Stephen and Anne

Back in the day, on West Coast Weekend, Sedge Thompson played straight man to Anne Lamott's witticisms, and Anne usually, in the parlance of standup, killed.

Odd to see her (presumably as part of a book tour) as a guest on The Colbert Report, playing straight woman to Stephen Colbert. Amazing to see how fast he can accept a straight offer and turn it into classic Colbert.

And odd that I've worked in theatres for both of these people.

NSFW: Bill O'Reilly Dance Remix

The remix of the O'Reilly off-air difficulties that have been travelling across the internets this week.

embedded ambivalently from Today's Big Thing, who never seem to credit their original sources. via my tweeps Steve Garfield / Chuck Olsen