Year / 2006

by Edward Champion

BSS #68: Tommy Chong

segundo68.jpg

Author: Tommy Chong

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Recovering from a medical mishap.

Subjects Discussed: Examining Title 21, Section 863, whether Clinton was in power in the 1980s, salsa dancing, the requirements for being an FBI special agent, plea bargaining, prison life, bodyguards, the Bush family, the advantages of celebrity status vs. a common offender being incarcerated, Michael Milken, humility, trying to remember prisoner numbers, respect for victims of disaster, looking at objects differently after prison, Cheech Marin, Up in Smoke, Chong as director, the benefits of pot, Chong as lyricist, Pipe Dreams: The Musical, Eric Idle, conflict between Cheech and Chong, Cheech’s art collection, Terence Malick, Lou Adler, Born in East L.A., Radiohead, and groups vs. individual artists.

Listen: Play in new window | Download

by Edward Champion

Psychotherapy or Darth Vader: You Make the Call

Theory of Everything: “As a child, Bo was skinny and awkward. The other kids picked on him, called him Bomosexual and Little Bo Creep. It made him mad. But he was too shy to express his anger. So he just burst into tears. Darth Vader was everything Bo wanted to be. Commanding, vengeful, even violent. Two years ago, he had a voice synthesizer surgically implanted into his trachea so that he could sound more like Darth Vader.”

Smells like a grand hoax, but funny stuff.

by Edward Champion

Echo Maker Roundtable Next Week

For those curious about Richard Powers’ The Echo Maker, this is a reminder that next week, starting on Monday, a grand gang of literary enthusiasts will be discussing the book here at this site. Aside from this trusted group, who have been tossing around a number of extremely interesting ideas about the book, a very special person may be making an appearance. More to come.

by Edward Champion

Bartender Bobby Cook Dead

Robert “Bobby” Cook, the owner of the fantastic Owl Tree bar, has passed away. The Owl Tree, if you haven’t been there, is a fantastic bar loaded with all manner of owl memorabilia. Cook was as much of a staple on the San Francisco bar scene as the late Bruno Mooshei. If you didn’t talk with him or contribute to the conversation, Bobby Cook would order you to the other end of the bar.

No doubt Bobby is up there with Bruno mixing martinis in That Great Bartending Place in the Sky and ordering sanctimonious pricks to sit elsewhere.

RIP Bobby. I, for one, dig the owls.

(Thanks, Kim!)

by Edward Champion

In Which I Offer Another Roundup

  • In which I stand defiantly against Steve Mitchelmore.
  • Howard Junker has an interesting exchange with New Yorker editor Deborah Treisman over how much fiction The New Yorker buys. Apparently, Treisman sits on an arsenal of short stories anywhere between three to ten before running them.
  • Any guy who grooves to Sorrentino can’t be mainstream.
  • I wish I could be in New York this weekend for this, if only to see how similar (or dissimilar) the array of views are.
  • Kevin Smokler complains that The Paris Review costs $12 and that this is an inflated price to pay if you’re only looking for the interview. You know, my copy of McSweeney’s #19 was $22 and all I really wanted was a Pepsi the T.C. Boyle novella (the leftover “novel” that Dana was working on in Talk Talk that wasn’t published). That I had to hunt for this in a cigar box containing ancillary illustrations was bad enough, but several of the other stories I read, particularly that mediocre pirate story, were DOA. So the argument cuts both ways. Do I bemoan McSweeney’s for charging this price or for offering a bad selection this time around? Not at all. Having once worked at a magazine and having lengthy conversations with the printing folks, I realize that printing in color is expensive. Methinks Mr. Smokler doth protest too much.
  • And while we’re on the subject of “what the New Generation wants,” since when is it “hip” to like Spiotta, Danielewski, and Powers? I’m troubled by the notion that one’s literary sensibilities are defined not so much by what one personally responds to, but by whether one is connected to some unknown inner circle or lofty organization. Should not a person read Danielewski because he is innately curious and not because it is the apparent thing to do? Further, who is anybody to determine “what the New Generation wants?” This presumes that writing, editing, and reading involves an exclusionary process based not on literary value, but on egregious market demographics. Should not great literature transcend generations? Or is it now apparently impossible for a McSweeney’s cigar box to appeal to someone outside of the 18-34 demographic? Or a Julia Glass novel to appeal to a twentysomething?
  • Tod Goldberg tries out MySpace. And Carolyn observes that this is the first year that the National Book Awards has a nominee with a MySpace page.
  • Elizabeth Crane pens a haiku for Lost. More on Lost ripoffs from the New Yorker.
  • A list of collaborative writing projects.
  • Mark Hare examines Tim O’Brien.
  • Marco Materazzi has published a book about L’Affaire Zidane, in which he offers 249 possible phrases he could have said to earn the head butt.