Long, strange day.
It began with a five-hour bus ride into New York City, which took seven hours. Then I had, for lack of a better term, afternoon tea with Craig Wedren and David Wain. David looks much as I remembered him from summer camp, except with a higher hairline. Craig, who has moved in with his girlfriend since I saw him last, is disturbingly thin (as I am disturbingly fat?) but seems very happy. Craig is playing with two bands and discussed his most recent movie soundtrack, which sounds interesting and cool. David is filming a pilot for Comedy Central next month, which I’m sure I’ll love, since I thought David’s last show (an MTV show called “The State”) was way excellent. I showed them both some Hereville art, which they oohed and aahed over satisfactorily.
It’s so odd – these two people were once so important to me, but over the years we’ve barely seen each other. When we were kids we used to wonder if someday we’d sit around a table at a cool NYC cafe talking about Craig’s music and David’s films and my comics. Did it occur to me that we might do it, but that I’d no longer really know them?
Then it was on to Air America, where I met Janeane and Sam, and debated Megan M. of Asymmetrical Information. We spent our entire half-hour discussing the wage gap, which was fine with me – we could have spent two more hours discussing it and still not run out of material. I think I did okay – I messed up a few times, but got in a few decent points, and on the whole probably didn’t sound like an idiot. However, I won’t know for sure until I can find an archived link to the show.
I told Janeane that David said “hi” (she acted in a movie he directed). Sam seems a bit put off (in a funny, self-mocking way) that David hadn’t asked me to say hi to him, too. Janeane seemed surprisingly interested in the topic of comics about hasidic girls; we end up spending most of the break time discussing books and films about hasidim. After the show, I get Janeane to sign a DVD of “Mystery Men” for my friend Aaron.
Then, dinner with Elayne Riggs and her husband Robin. I’ve met Elayne a few times before, but never Robin; he is laid back and has a british accent, which contrasts wonderfully with Elayne’s in-your-face energy and New York intonations. We eat Chinese, Robin discusses a cutting-edge inking technique he’s working on and gives me a couple of issues of his current inking assignment, Bloodhound (which certainly has nice inking, although otherwise it’s not my sort of comic). Elayne tells me about all the bookcases in their home, which makes me almost wish I had gone to Yonkers to see the comic book collection for myself. Elayne and Robin make the proper oohing and ahhing noises over the Hereville art I show them. Like everyone, the first thing they compliment is the color, which is especially nice to hear from Robin since he’s a kick-ass colorist.
Then it’s off to Brooklyn to visit my old pals (and former housemates) Paul Winkler and Scott DiBerardino. Scott and Paul are being nice enough to put me up for the night. Paul, who listened to me on Air America, assures me I didn’t sound like an idiot. I keep them up past their bedtimes talking. They ooh and ahh over Hereville art; Paul shows me a 24-hour comic he had done that I have never seen. It turns out that both of them are planning to visit me (and others) in Oregon this October, but neither of them knew that the other was making such plans.
They go to bed. I jump on Scott’s computer to answer some emails and write this post. Tomorrow it’s back to Ithaca and next-to-no internet access; regular posting from me will resume on Friday, or maybe on Monday. Meanwhile, it’s late and I must go sleep.
Yay! October!
However, I won’t know for sure until I can find an archived link to the show.
Or until you get home and listen to the tape of it we have here. :p
Unfortunately, the timing was a problem. None of us could figure out when it was supposed to be on — so I think we missed the first 5 minutes.
Hey, I’ve been listening to you on Majority Report at work this morning!
You can find stuff archived here:
http://www.airamericaplace.com/archive.php
I thought you were great. Sometimes, Janeane and Sam can overpower their guests, but I think that’s sort of a symptom of talk radio in general.
~Z
Out of curiosity.. how thin is disturbingly thin? How fat is disturbingly fat?
I think we need cartoons to show us! :-)
Thank you for the link to the archives (Majority Report page here; 08/16 show MP3 here), Zenmaster. It is actually not on the official Air America site.
Not that I give much importance to such things, but there is some interest in putting a voice on a few pictures and thousands of essays and cartoons. Unlike what usually happens in such case, I was not really surprised (and I think Barry sounded as articulated as in his written work).
Yay Janeane!!!! :) Does Sayler’s sound good for dinner when you get back?
I listened to the segment, and you did a damn good job. Very little nervousness (you managed to keep from talking too fast), even cadence – you have a good radio voice, and were well-prepared.
The only thing wrong with the segment was the poorly-timed bites of spaghetti western music in introducing the segment, which Janeane talked about…:P
Woo-hooooo !!!
I was kind of suprised at how poorly strung together “Jane’s” rhetoric was, but then again, anything Libertarian makes me break out in a rash.
Bring me back a real bagel, please. ;)
We all sat around the living room hooting and hollering for you, Barry! After we were able to figure out how to listen (we had laptops, stereo’s and gadgets galore all over trying desperately to catch the show) – 3 hours of that shit mind you, don’t you feel loved? You are. You did FANTASTIC!
Other than being blue with envy about your meeting Janeane (and Sam), and getting to see Scott and Paul (when are they coming out to visit again?), I’m thrilled to hear your vacation is going so well.
I hope your visit with Jemma and Silas is going great (and with your fam of course, but I’m baby brained these days).
Nothin’ But Love,
Kim (& Matt and Syd)
Thanks for the lovely plug, Barry! Glad you made it to Brooklyn okay. One small correction, technically we do actually live in the Bronx, but on the Bronx/Yonkers border so when I look out my back window I see Yonkers. I’ll have pictures of the bookcases on my blog once we’ve reshelved everything; meantime, I have a picture of the two of us up there now…
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