Month: January 2009

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Silver Jews: Brought Down by The Man? And a Look Back at my Interview With David Berman

Earlier this week, David Berman, primary tentacle of Silver Jews, posted what amounted to a disturbing (if true) revelation to his many fans and admirers: His “…gravest secret. Worse than suicide, worse than crack addiction — his father, Robert Berman, aka Dr. Evil. This followed a post announcing the end of Silver Jews and Berman’s career as a songwriter… moving on to other means, perhaps screenwriting, as he also alluded to in our interview.

“This winter I decided that the SJ’s were too small of a force to ever come close to undoing a millionth of all the harm he [Richard Berman] has caused,” Berman wrote. A Jan. 31 show at Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, Tenn., will be the last of the Joos. Either way, the records left behind are nothing short of legendary and I feel fortunate to have seen the Silver Jews on each of their two tours. Read the thread at Drag City and see some other reactions here and here.

Republished below is an e-mail interview I conducted with David Berman last September, for LAist.

david berman of silver jews. the joos perform at echoplex tonight

Continue reading “Silver Jews: Brought Down by The Man? And a Look Back at my Interview With David Berman”

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Inauguration dot tv

San Jose Mercury News made a funny about how new tech and lifestreaming will make this inauguration different from any before. It is amazing to see how fast things are changing. Let’s hope this is a budding trend for the better.

Check out the column: http://m.mercurynews.com/sanjosemercury/db_12121/contentdetail.htm

“I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear (Facebook status update here) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, (Twitter tweet here) and will to the best of my ability, (CNN blog and live streaming video) preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States (with the help of MySpace, Hulu, Yahoo Messenger, Jaiku and Plurk).

“So help me God.”

And on and on. Very funny LOL09.

(This post written as a test of the BOLT browser on my Blackberry Bold. Hope it doesn’t break the cages).

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…And This is Why I Live In Los Angeles

the temperature in Chicago versus Los Angeles in Winter
Screenshots via weather.com
 

It only feels about 104 degrees warmer in Los Angeles than in Chicago when you factor in the wind chill. Yes I feel like an asshole pointing this out but at least I’m not being as blunt about it as my buddy Adam Rose, who posted a sun-drenched photo essay titled, “28 Things to do in Los Angeles in the Dead of Winter” this afternoon.

So to all of you back in the Chi, once you spend a “winter” in Los Angeles, you’ll never understand how or why many people withstand the endless bitter chill by choice. I always say there are 3 seasons here and 3 in chicago. LA has no winter, only a loooong fall. Chicago’s winter tends to skip spring.

I feel for you all — I remember what it’s like. but I am boiling right now in my office with the A/C on and the fan on high with the setting sun beating on my face. Apparently we topped out at 86 today, but hey — I’ve been in the office all day. You know those 75 and sunny with no humidity days that are so rare in Chicago? Yeah, that happens about 300 days a year here.

OK you can punch me now.