Yeah, the Deranged Millionaire

[vovat]

bethje and I went to Philadelphia last night to see John Hodgman, who for some reason was speaking at the Latvian Society. Nothing in the performance had anything to do with Latvia, though. The first presenters of the evening were Patrick Borelli and Douglas Gorenstein, the authors of the book Holy Headshot!, a collection of amusing headshots of amateur and wannabe actors. The authors (especially Borelli) provided entertaining commentary on some of the pictures from their book, giving advice like, "If you own your own weapons, you should definitely feature them in your headshot." After him came David Rees, author of the Get Your War On comic. He read several of his strips, including giving a seven-minute run-down of the War on Terror. In all honesty, he's not the greatest at reading aloud, but he and the comics themselves were still funny. Hodgman read from his new book More Information Than You Require, getting volunteers to help him out. The guy reading the questions about voting machines did a good job, but the guy asking about mole men was either drunk off his ass or really good at pretending to be. The whole thing ended with an auction, with items including autographed books and the chance to have a drink with Hodgman (bottle of bourbon included). Proceeds from the auction were donated to the presidential candidate of the audience's choice (and considering that the audience was largely comprised of Philadelphian hipsters, you can probably guess who that was). I really didn't expect the show to last so long, but I did enjoy it.

Here's the latest Friday Five (and yes, I know it's not Friday):
When did you last...
1. scrounge for change (couch, ashtray, etc.) to make a purchase? I always try to find change in my cupholder when getting something at a drive-thru. I'm not sure whether or not that counts as scrounging.
2. visit a dentist? Back in April, I think. I need to make another appointment soon.
3. make a needed change to your life? Does getting married count? That would be 29 February of this year.
4. decide on a complete menu well in advance of the evening meal? It's been a long time since I've planned a meal, or at least one that didn't consist of take-out or frozen food.
5. spend part of the day (other than daily hygiene) totally/mostly naked? Well, sometimes when I'm using the computer late at night when nobody else is up, I'll just wear my underwear.

Finally, here's another meme that you can respond to if you're interested (or not, if you're not interested):

Leave a comment here, and I will:

a) Tell you why I friended you.
b) Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc.
c) Tell you something I like about you.
d) Tell you a memory I have of you.
e) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
f) Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
g) In return, you must post this on your own LJ. (Optional.)

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

I think darkrow was at that one! He saw John Hodgman real real recently and got on stage and got whiskey with him apparently! I do not know anything else!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Hodgman shared his whiskey with the first guy to get on stage with him, and the second guy asked if he could have some, too. I actually would have enjoyed reading aloud with him, but I hesitated too long to volunteer, and probably wouldn't have been chosen anyway. I like reading aloud, but I've never actually tried whiskey.

And since you DID respond, I might as well do this other thing:

a) You were a fellow TMBG and Young Fresh Fellows fan.
b) The Residents
c) You have cool taste in music. (In fact, it's quite similar to mine, which MUST mean it's good. :P)
d) The time you visited California and kicked the Klasky-Csupo building.
e) What does your job actually entail?
f) I like the Magritte ones, and the TODCRA war one.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Dang it, stupid LJ went down and ate my reply.

Anyway: I actually PUNCHED the K-C building, but not hard, since I didn't want to hurt my hand. Yeah.

As for my job, it's basically sending music logs to stations around the country. Most of my formats are more traditional-sounding country (like Classic Country and Americana/Alt. Country), but I also have some rock/pop ones and some real oddballs. I also have a lot of Beautiful Music formats, which is the industry name for what you might call Easy Listening or Standards. Lots of instrumental records by folks like the Hollyridge Strings or Henry Mancini, and vocal records by folks like Sinatra up through the Carpenters and some of the more mellow Beatles cuts. I also do a lot of work getting new client stations started up technically, getting our logs to work with their automation systems[1] and doing sort of light tech support. And I'm also the music librarian, which means I get to process all the new music that comes in, and decide what is worthy for the library. (Worthy mostly means one of three things: A record that has a lot of hits on it, A record by a band that's had a lot of hits in the past, or A record that's really good that I already bought, viz. the Apples In Stereo stuff.)

Yay!

[1] Fun Fact: Google recently bought a couple of automation systems, AND they're working on a really cool all-in-one-type of automation system that'll handle just about everything INCLUDING the station website. Neato!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

You have an awesome job.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I dig it...8)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I agree that it sounds cool, but my main point in replying is so I can do that meme thing (since you DID comment, after all):

a) Because we knew each other from college.
b) Here Comes the Sun
c) You have well-thought-out opinions on things.
d) When I went to your house for gloworm59's party, and we watched Bill Nye.
e) What was the first book you ever read?
f) The Rebecca one

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

d) Hah, I forgot we watched Bill Nye, though it would make sense that we did, since my brother/rest of the family watched it pretty much obsessively at that point in time. I just remember my brother making you watch him do a magic show.

e) That's a hard question, because reading was so big in our house that I had many books read TO me, and I know I must have PRETENDED to read books too, so it's hard to say. I think I tried "Green Eggs and Ham" very early on, but wasn't entirely sure how much I just had memorized. My dad read us "The Night Before Christmas" every year on Christmas Eve, and I remember the year I learned to read I tried reading it myself instead. I also remember, that same year, my mother presenting me with my first Nancy Drew, but that was read TO me instead-- I just remember the occasion clearly. I don't remember when I started reading them myself instead!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember the magic show. And I think the Bill Nye episode was about reptiles, and featured a parody of Foreigner's "Hot Blooded." I'm not sure why I still remember that.