Skip-Week Spectacular!

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

This week's episode will be in a different format.
1. We don't usually have a show on the "skip week" between books.
2. Our shows are usually around 90 minutes.
3. We usually discuss a section of a selected book...and that's it.

This week's show turns that on its head. I thought it would be fun to see what happened when we tried a broader show based on the show's theme (books) and kept it short and sweet. We'd love to hear feedback from folks: Do you want more 'skip-week' episodes? Did we do Canada a disservice this episode? Is Jason channeling Larry David?

And, I thoughtfully included a list of the books and authors mentioned. Hey, you're worth it.
(view spoiler)[
Works of Honore de Balzac
The Sandman by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon
Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol. 1: The Tarantula
The Big Sleep
Tumor
(and the book Matt was thinking of, Asthma: http://www.sparkplugcomicbooks.com/bo...)
1984
Lone Wolf & Cub, Vol. 1: The Assassin's Road
The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service
Bright Lights, Big City
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester (hide spoiler)]

[Jason, Walking Allergen]

All proceeds from this episode will go to Dave Foley.

[Jim]

Cool! I was intrigued by the idea when Matt and Dave were tossing it around last week. Can't wait to hear it, guys!

...



Um, you won't be discussing The Wire, will you?

[Dave Alluisi, Evolution of the Arm]

Worry not, we were spoiler free this time 'round. I really can't apologize enough about that slip-up last week. I would be angry enough to kill me.

[Jim]

Dave wrote: "Worry not, we were spoiler free this time 'round. I really can't apologize enough about that slip-up last week. I would be angry enough to kill me."
It's all good. I'm just busting your balls, Dave.

Hope you have an earthquake-and-hurricane-free week!

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

I forgot to mention the other thing I'm reading, 'cause I haven't actually started it yet. Reserved and picked up Fletch at the local library, out of the blue. No idea why. Like most guys my age, I can quote most of the movie version line-for-line (hell, I can even do patches of Fletch Lives!), but have always been curious about what the actual source material was like.

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

HERE IT IS! http://bookhouseboyspodcast.podomatic...

Holler at us!

[Jim]

Poor, poor Dave Foley. I'll pledge 20 bucks. Canadian.
That Foley interview was one of the first WTF's I heard, and Dave's right, it was brutal. Funny, but brutal.
I'm also a big KitH nut (I saw the reunion show in 2000 at Town Hall in NYC, in fact; the wife and I planned a whole trip around it). If you get the chance to see some of the guys doing their thing, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

More in a bit.

[Dave Alluisi, Evolution of the Arm]

The first chat group I ever joined, back when the internet was just a baby in 1995 (or maybe 96?), was on Scott Thompson's website. I think it was called Scottland. I used to spend hours nerding out at that place...

Also: back in high school, my best friend and I were there opening day for Brain Candy. We had early release as seniors (or maybe we skipped? It sounds much less pathetic if we skipped), and we rushed to the theater's 1:00 PM Friday showing, convinced it would be sold out in seconds. If we weren't the only people in that theater, there was maybe one other guy. Pretty sure that was the day I gave up on thinking I was ever going to be very much in tune with pop culture. :/

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

I met an old friend for lunch today and the first thing he said when I walked up to him was "There's a funicular next to my parents' beach house!"
Then he said he had to turn the show off around the birthday bit, because he was laughing at his desk and he didn't want his co-workers to think he was crazy. Thanks, Jason! ;)

[Dave Alluisi, Evolution of the Arm]

Matt wrote: "Then he said he had to turn the show off around the birthday bit, because he was laughing at his desk and he didn't want his co-workers to think he was crazy. Thanks, Jason! ;)"

That's our Larry! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAYPNF...

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Some feedback about the show from my pal Joe:
Like this one...very accessible, as you say, and funny. More like this now and then would be good; you feel like you can jump in. Speaking of 2nd person, the author's name was Jay McInerney, I believe...BLBC was his debut novel, and is the only thing besides Choose Your Own Adventure titles that comes to my mind when I think about 2nd person, which isn't often. You all hit on, in one way or another, why I think the tense is so difficult: the same reason it works in CYOA or RPG- and is in fact necessary- makes it suck for fiction. In those other examples, it is EXPLICIT that you are a character in the story; in a work of fiction, it is generally IMPLICIT that you are to identify with one or more characters or their aspects. To place a story in second person not only removes this implication as a part of the craft, thereby potentially removing a layer of magic, so to speak. It also narrows your focus of identifying with it as a reader. In other words, it's too specific. You are now asked to ally yourself solely with the narrator and to place yourself in his shoes in a very specific way. Maybe it works in BLBC because it has a self-absorbed protagonist. Come to think of it, I can't recall any of the other characters from that book.

[Jim]

Something was tickling the back of my skull... I knew I had read one second-person narrative book, and within the past several years... maybe a Chuck Palahniuk novel?

Wikipedia says: Yes it was. Specifically, Diary. Also listed, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by one Mr. Tom Robbins. Just FYI.

[Jen]

Jim wrote: "Also listed, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by one Mr. Tom Robbins. Just FYI."

For the record, my least favorite Robbins novel...and I've read almost all of them.

[Jim]

The Skip-Week show was indeed spectacular! Very enjoyable despite the excess of Canada-centric content.

*Man, I need to read Lone Wolf and Cub (I have the first volume but have never read it) and Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, especially after my recent Deathnote debacle. I'll take this opportunity, as I usually do when the subject of manga arises, to recommend the excellent 20th Century Boys .
*I caught a glimpse of Ron Jeremy at Bonnaroo this year -- he was spectating, not, um, performing. We didn't hang out or anything...
*To quote Matt: I love you, Dave. F**kin' Dumbya...
*I enjoyed the Glue Horses tune at the end; I got kind of a gypsy/Gogol Bordello vibe from that one song. Is that song fairly representative of their work, Matt?
And rarely has the placement of an adverb carried such weight:
"They were well-paid.... Well, they were paid." I had to laugh.

That was fun, guys. Hope you'll do it again sometime.

[Jason, Walking Allergen]

Thanks, Jim! Hopefully it'll become a regular thing, in between our other episodes.

I read the first volume of 20th Century Boys and liked it quite a bit. I just wasn't prepared in my current days of cutting back to embark on a 20+ volume journey. It's my second to the top manga related priority going forward, trailing only getting my hands on the last two volumes of LW&C.

[Dave Alluisi, Evolution of the Arm]

Thanks, Jim. Funny thing is, we usually chat like that for about as long before every episode, but we cut it out of the podcast. Maybe we shouldn't throw it away? Mid-week spectacular? Matt, you don't need sleep, right?

[Matt, I am the Great Went.]

Jim wrote: "*I enjoyed the Glue Horses tune at the end; I got kind of a gypsy/Gogol Bordello vibe from that one song. Is that song fairly representative of their work, Matt?
Yeah, more or less. I've been enjoying their demo/EP all week. PM me yr e-mail.


Jim wrote: That was fun, guys. Hope you'll do it again sometime."
Me, too. Thanks for your input.