February 2012
3 posts
Improv Poems!
Hello Improv Nerds: I need your help! This is a project I’ve been dreaming of for a long time, I’m calling it Improv Forms in Poetry because that’s exactly what it is. My idea is to take improv forms (Harold, Evente, Monoscene, Le Ronde, possibly a Macroscene and Close Quarters/Vantage Point) and translate those forms to poetic forms. Then I will write a poem in that form!
My...
Nothing says adulthood
quite like ordering “the tuna Nicoise salad, a glass of Cabernet oh and…umm, the pasta with butter and cheese. Right, but can you put it in an adult-size bowl? Thanks.”
January 2012
11 posts
Reason 1,998,092 why my dad is hilarious
An email exchange. (Context: I am flying from NY to LA and Morristown is roughly 15 minutes from my home in NJ.)
MY EMAIL
Hello! I am in the sky, eating cheese and drinking coffee. Isn’t this world amazing?
Love,
Jackie
HIS REPLY
I am thinking of going to Morristown.
Dad
I have been trying to make healthier choices.
justinericgrace:
The last five times I ate burgers, I got singles instead of doubles.
All of them were in this calendar week.
Just ate a whole box of Ellios and frozen lasagna. Feeling good.
Teaching Interviews: Chris Gethard, Part 1 of 2
improvnonsense:
This is a series in which I ask great improv teachers to write down their thoughts on teaching improv. We start with Chris Gethard, who was the second person to ever run the UCBT-NY school after Kevin Mullaney.
Gethard wrote the first full curriculum for the school, taught dozens and dozens of very popular classes at all levels and also coached some of the best teams to ever...
the world's greatest
i wish i had something incisive and insightful about what this child and family’s existence means for america but i don’t. no one does. no one could. that’s not what this is about.
if george bush was the signal of the end of the american empire, this child is like if a rabid elephant got loose on the appian way. you’d be like, holy fucking shit and watch it forever until...
December 2011
12 posts
devil's advocate
when someone’s like “just gonna play devil’s advocate” i’m like “that’s ok.” and stop listening.
fun drinking game
watch fox business channel in the morning with your dad. every time an anchor makes a joke that isn’t funny, just incredibly snide, throw up on yourself.
at no point do you drink.
Outbrain Raises $35 Million in Funding!!! →
kateheffernan:
Now a total of $64 Million raised. Everyday I am more and more impressed with our little company (not so little anymore…) and more excited to be here. We’ve built an incredible product by staying focused and learning from our mistakes. On top of that, we have an awesome team and a great work environment. Feeling very fortunate for taking a job at a little star ratings company with...
“The stage is my church and long form improvisational comedy is my religion and I...”
– Amy Poehler. (via healywu)
Yes.
We lost Outsourced but gained Work It!
Maybe the nation is too busy still mourning the loss of Outsourced, the most outstandingly offensive piece of shit on television since the last time Khloe Kardashian opened her mouth, but we should be mad about this new show Work It premiering in January.
Granted, the show isn’t on TV yet so hey, maybe it won’t be the gloriously backward, unfunny turd bomb it seems. But I’m...
Robyn on SNL
I am very excited to be listening to and falling in love with Robyn after seeing her ridiculous, amazing performance on SNL. Rag on it all you want, but after almost 40 years, SNL is still making stars like Kristen Wiig and turning 25 year old nerds on to cool music.
There’s nothing like it! I love it so much! I hope my kids get to watch it. Actually no, do your homework, kids. But mom,...
Dear Coke Talk: On teenage body issues. →
dearcoketalk:
I literally hate my body. I’m eighteen and I’ve been overweight (not seriously, but just slightly) since childhood. The last year or so I lost about twenty pounds but I just can never be happy with where I am. I am a totally average weight now and eat healthy, work out regularly, etc. but I just…
Yes.
November 2011
8 posts
sal gentile: Evicting protesters from Zuccotti... →
salgentile:
Can the government just evict people from a public park?
I asked myself this question yesterday after the protesters were evicted from Zuccotti Park, and noticed some other people asking the same question. The answer, apparently, is yes. The Supreme Court has established what are called “time,…
Read this.
Some More Poetry
davebluvband:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind,
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
-John Donne
Meditation 17
This is a great poem - it’s where Hemingway got the title of For Whom the Bell Tolls. I love poetry a lot, Dave you just made me so excited to see this on my dashboard.
October 2011
7 posts
A brief rumination on the value of a liberal arts... →
salgentile:
Mostly this is just a plea to my parents to not be mad at me for switching my major from pre-med to writing/philosophy and then getting a job in public broadcasting and spending all my time doing improv comedy.
When I clicked this link it went to a 404 page which feels about right.
justinericgrace:
Yeah, America sucks in a lot of ways. But, on the other hand, fixin’s.
I can only assume Justin is referring to free fixin’s bars at rest stops, Roy Rogers and Citifield. Auto-reblog.
7 tags
September 2011
10 posts
Team Chemistry
kevhines:
“Ultimately, you don’t need to have a team that wants to go out to dinner together, but you need to have a team that wants to protect each other on the field, and be fiercely loyal to each other on the field. That’s what ultimately is really important”
-Terry Francona on Team Chemistry (via the Boston Globe)
He’s talking about baseball teams, but I think this applies to all teams,...
6 tags
Troy Davis, the death penalty and the toll... →
salgentile:
A brief reflection on the Troy Davis case and the death penalty in America. Last year I wrote about the execution of Utah death row inmate Ronnie Lee Gardner, who was only the third person executed by firing squad in the U.S. since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1977. I spoke to lawyers involved in the case and jurors who had since come to regret their vote for the death...
3 tags
Two awesome shows in one block tonight at UCB!... →
thatssojackson:
salgentile:
You are if you don’t make reservations NOW. Two fresh and funny dudes, Jon Bershad and Phil Jackson, have written shows that premier tonight at 6:30 pm at UCB. A third fresh and funny lady, Jackie Jennings, stars in Phil’s show. And a bunch of other fresh and funny people comprise the rest of the casts of both shows.
What’s especially cool about tonight’s Spanks is...
3 tags
“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world...”
– FDR’s 4 Freedoms Speech, quoted at the 9/11 memorial ceremony today. Full speech here: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrthefourfreedoms.htm
Not-So-Live Blogging the MTV VMAs
I submitted this not-so-live blog of the VMAs to the Atlantic, never heard back. A not-so-live blog means I wrote and submitted it four days after the fact but it’s not any better than if I wrote it that night. For your enjoyment.
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9:05am: Justin Beiber arrived with a tiny penis wrappead around his wrist, presumably from a fan. That’s sweet.
9:10am:...