It took exactly one day for me to not post something holiday related. Are you surprised? I'm not.

Thing is, you have to remember, I am a VERY BUSY Man of Infirmity. For example, I worked on a puzzle over the weekend. 1,000 pieces. For some reason, I thought I could finish it over the course of watching a movie. Nope.

Also, I went to see Misled on Monday night, as well as my friend Chris do a short stand up set. Chris and I were talking inside the theater, when HIS friend Jack walked by and said hello, quickly apologizing for interrupting, which I assured him "You can interrupt as much as you want!" to which he continued to interrupt (in a friendly nature, not to mention quite funny way). The three of us ended up sitting together to watch Misled (which was excellent, and I highly recommend seeing - I'm hoping to see it again, since they're planning on switching out some material every show), and afterward Jack complimented my cell phone as I checked the time. I assured him it was a very cheap, pre-paid phone that I bought at a drug store, and we continued to joke around some more. Then after THAT, at Chris's stand up show, John from The Mountain Goats came out as a surprise guest, playing three songs (with plenty of funny banter). Chris went on directly after him (John coming out after Janeane Garofalo might I add), and completely killed it. I'm somehow even more excited to be part of The Chris Gethard show now. A night well worth having to sit in Penn Station, and then a transfer station for almost two hours.

Anywhoozle - Here is an entertaining Christmas related, "vintage" Saturday Night Live short;



I was actually just reading the Andy Kaufman biography, and while I'm not positive, I THINK this may actually have been cut from the original episode, on account that Andy's bit went over time. Fun, possibly correct trivia!

I'm chipping away at record reviews and other miscellaneous things, so that I can keep working on other miscellaneous things. I'm exciting!

In the meantime, it's officially the "holiday season", and lets face it - this time of year is pretty awful aside from the holidays (in that it's cold, gloomy, and dark for like, twenty hours a day), so I'm usually ok in dealing with all the holiday stuff. In fact, lets see how many days I can post something holiday related?



(I will do my best to not make them all Hulu videos, for my Canadian friends)

Amongst all the stuff I've currently got going on - Yesterday I submitted a packet-type deal, and edited this video, fairly last minute to go along with it. Unfortunately for me, after spending roughly a solid day dedicated to editing it all, every time I tried to burn it to a DVD, it never worked. So, I figured I would at least put it online, as to not have that be a complete waste of my time;




This was originally shot for a video editing class I took, as my final project. We were allowed to use a green screen, so I wanted to use one. Also, I'm clearly four years old and like video games way too much. ALSO, I'm clearly insane.

Now the NEXT few days are going to revolve around Razorcake business, ANOTHER video shoot, and my next feature in Go Metric. I am a hard working man.

Updates;

1) It looks like The Chris Gethard Show has earned itself a monthly residency, KFM included. This is probably the thing I'm happiest about lately, by far.

2) While I've got a few other assorted projects on my plate right now, I've started compiling things I've written over the years, in an effort to put out a sort of personal anthology zine sometime next next - heck, maybe even earlier at the rate I've been going at it - though there's still a lot to do, and I've quit projects after being even further along than I am with this.

Anyway - it'll include a number of interviews I've done, including some non-Razorcake ones, or that just never ended up published for whatever reason, some tour journals, as well as a few other funny articles/essays. Plus, I'll throw in some nerdy liner-note type info on things, and some personal anecdotes about my writing experiences to top it all off. AND, if it doesn't turn out to be too ambitious, I may even do some totally new interviews and essays for it as well. From the layouts I've done so far, it's already passed the seventy page mark, and I could see it being at least one hundred, so it could very well be quite the hefty read.

Is it ridiculous for me to be doing something like this? As if I've done that much, let alone anything, that's really important enough to be published once, let alone again (even if this time, "publishing" means "Printing out a ton of stuff at home on the computer"). But, I DID just spend my Saturday night playing music in the basement of a grocery store in Manhattan while dressed like a sailor, so this may just be the perfect thing to do.

I'm now officially a Kung Fu Monkey - by which I mean I've actually played in the band in a public setting, at the first edition of The Chris Gethard Show.

It went great! Especially considering how nervous I was getting; Between learning another sets worth of songs on relatively short period, the fact that I was using my smaller (and not nearly as nice as the Ampeg that I've been borrowing for Lost Locker Combo) practice amp, and hearing that the show had completely sold out of advance reservations days in advance. Plus, we weren't even playing a "traditional" set, and none of us had ever really done anything like this before. But it was great - a handful of really, REALLY funny New York City comedians, mostly doing bits that weren't really "bits" so much as interesting presentations, that happen to also be pretty funny (including a demonstration on the two halves of the brain).

The show also started out with a "Get to know each other" segment, where Chris asked each member of the show to share something that's been on their mind - I'd mentioned how I'd been excitedly looking forward to the show all week, and then just before going on stage, I accidentally inhaled and swallowed part of the fake mustache I'd been wearing, causing me to cough uncontrollably during our opening mini-set - and how that felt somewhat metaphorical. Also, while coughing up a chunk of fake facial hair was painful, it could not have been as bad as the Brazilian jiu-jitsu demonstration.

All in all, the whole thing was a fantastic experience, and Chris is definitely one of the funniest people I know. Here's hoping there's another show next month!

Admittedly, I was pretty grouchy at first on Saturday at The Fest; By the time I was out and about, it looked like every club had mile long lines full of people waiting to get in, and even trying to get a sandwich for lunch was marred by long, unexplainable delays. But, as luck would have it, I met up with my friends, and the rest of the lines mysteriously vanished - allowing me to see Toys That Kill, Dillinger Four, Vena Cava, and a Todd C. "solo" set all with no problem. Not a bad way to spend Halloween at all.


I was finishing out the night watching Shark Pants, Panthro (from a distance at least - not to mention while being mistaken for people in bands a lot bigger than any I'm in), and the Textbook Committee (who for the unfamiliar, are Dave from The Arrivals' Guided By Voices tribute band - who I thought were fantastic, even despite not being familiar with any of their music). By the time everything finished up, I was actually in a really pleasant, and surprisingly social mood. I was all ready to hang out and goof around with the dozens of people from around the country I don't see often enough. And so I quick ran back to our hotel to drop off some things and rushed back out, ready to live it up in Gainesville!


Only - I could not, for the life of me, find a single person I knew.


Calls and texts did me know good. And after wandering around amongst the assortment of punks, locals, and horse cops to no avail, I finally said "Ok - one walk, up and down the main drag of University Ave. If I don't see a single person I know, it's time to call it a night." Fair enough.


Heading west, no luck - I did see actual frat members trying to pick a fight with some people, which was amazing in its own right, but no one I actually knew. I made it all the way to 13th Street, outside of the Holiday Inn, practically the border for any activity, when I gave up and turned around. But it was a few blocks later on my way back when I passed by Paddy, with two girls.


I'd already admitted my night was a bust, not to mention that he was with other people, AND on the phone, so I just gave him the quick "Pssst - Hey buddy" when he quickly stopped me. He wanted to know if I had someones phone number, who was missing, and potentially in some trouble. Unfortunately I didn't, but I stopped, offering to help out however possible. After a few quick phone calls, one of the two young ladies said "Ok, we think we know where he is - we're going to run over and see, and let you know" and quickly took off, leaving just Paddy and myself. He turns to me, and says "Man of Imfirmity - do you like CHEESEBURGERS?"


I said "I do."


"Well I'm rich and famous, so I'm going to buy us some goddamn CHEESE BURGERS."


So we started walking over to a Checkers just a few blocks away. "Man of Infirmity, let me tell you - I've come to The Fest every year for a long time now, and this is what it's all about - when it gets late, and shit gets WEIRD," he confided in me. "Also, I'm drunk as a motherfucker."

The lines from earlier that day had returned, with a number of characters waiting before us. A young woman came up to us and started berating us, with what sounded like "You people just come here for your stupid fest, I'm here for..." and proceeded to list some technical sounding college degree. Admittedly, I was a bit distracted by the fact that she was in some sort of unidentifiable, green, fairy-esque costume, and probably just as drunk as Paddy, if not more so.

No bother though. We were more concerned with what we would order, at this point I'm informed "I'm going to order for you."

As we get closer, another person wanders up to us, asking us to "Check out his song" and starts beat boxing, causing Paddy to dance, until he reaches his first verse, introducing it as being for Michael Jackson. Paddy stops; "No, fuck that, I can't listen to that." They argue for a minute, the points being "But he's Michael Jackson" and "He fucked kids." Again, the whole thing dissipates shortly after, leaving us to figure out what to get.

Finally, we get to put in our order. "Give me two Baconzilla's, and two boxes of twenty hot wings," to be split between the two of us. (If you're not familiar, or have somehow forgotten, I am a bit smaller than Paddy. Just a bit.) Not only do we get our food, but the good news that the person in question from earlier has been found, in no trouble at all.

"What do you say we eat this at my hotel room and watch Full House?"

Though, it was running incredibly late at that point, and we split up, each with our own Baconzilla and box of hot wings.

Before any Fest stories;

When I was younger (like when I really was as old as I look now) I watched a lot of television - particularly The Late Show With David Letterman and Saturday Night Live. I started with odd nights I was able to stay up late enough in elementary school, and then regularly throughout my teenage years. Even more so in college, when I realized that there were something like five hours of SNL reruns on cable every day - and one afternoon I was laying down in bed and watching the third hour or so while noodling around on my guitar, and thought "It would probably be a pretty sweet gig to play in the backing band on a show like that." But, like my other childhood dream of being a Ghostbuster, I pretty much assumed it would never happen*.

But - after getting home from The Fest, I've ended up joining the long running (and dare I say legendary) Kung Fu Monkeys. And for my first show, we'll be performing as the backing band for the premier of the Chris Gethard Show at the UCB Theatre, this Saturday at midnight. Life goal: ACCOMPLISHED. Time to invest in a Proton Pack**.

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about the whole thing for a number of reasons - particularly since Chris is one of the funniest people I know, and I can't wait to see just what he's got planned. I can honestly say that I'd be going anyway, and I hope it goes well enough that we get to do some more.

More info, including where to make reservations, can be found here;
http://newyork.ucbtheatre.com/shows/2204

*After reading this paragraph, I am literally shocked that I have even managed to kiss a girl in my life.

** And I digress.