Gary Gulman's Conversations with Inanimate Objects (2005)

This is a very funny album. It's not political and it's not metaphysical, but it will make you laugh.

Also, he's great live. I saw him while he was working out the Grapefruits of Wrath and may have never laughed harder at stand-up. He did a bit about the committee that came up for names for different kinds of fruit that, to quote the bit, "was absolute genius."

His web site.

Steve Martin's Wild and Crazy Guy (1978)

As a follow-up to Let's Get Small, I listened to Wild and Crazy Guy. Side One of this album (I still have a turntable) is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. It's smart, clever, "in," likeable, and mostly not dated.  The material about the French language is priceless, and an all-time favorite of mine.

Side two is interesting, because it's after he hit mega-stardom and audiences screamed at every word he said, even the non-punchlines. I saw him during a show like this, and it was closer to mass hysteria than anything else -- not far from the Beatles in '63 or '64, I imagine. This material is funniest when he's playing with the idea of having several thousand fans who basically do anything he says (the "crimestoppers" and "non-conformist oath" material is my favorite; the wild-and-crazy-guy stuff holds up the worst, though I loved it the most back in the day).

This is a great album to get a sense of life in 1978, and it's also really funny.

You're telling me that utopia needs cleaning?

First, you tell me that I can have dirty concepts. Now, you shatter my ideals by telling me that utopia is dirty, too? What's next -- cleanliness itself? Stay tuned.

something & something

It has been brought to my attention (by parties who know who they are) that the logo for the Target Up & Up brand:


sends a rather contrary message when seen from another angle:


And the abbreviation of "dn" for "down" even seems to make sense.

Is this just a ploy to get people like me to display their logo everywhere? Probably not.

What part of "dirty concept" don't you understand?

The very idea perhaps? Well, if you're feeling like you're filled with dirty concepts, visit Cambridge, Massachusetts to solve your woes. There, practically viewable from the tower at Mt. Auburn cemetery, is...

Concept Cleaners

In addition to cleaning your concepts, their sister organization will sanitize your premises. Oh, wait, that actually could make sense.

Steve Martin's Let's Get Small

Listened to it again recently, and laughed an awful lot. It's definitely showing its age, but there is some really funny stuff on this album. I'm laughing now just thinking about the joke for the plumbers. Plus, it's probably available on vinyl in every used record store in America.

Let's Get Small @ARTISTdirect

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The places to hear from me:
Food - josh lubarr food stuff
Geekiness - geekiness(josh lubarr)
Movies - Old Movies and New with Josh Lubarr
Places in the real world - Good Things around Boston (according to Josh Lubarr)
Politics - Progressive Politics (per Josh Lubarr)
Silliness and comedy - Le Repository du Silliness, avec Josh Lubarr

Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks

Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks put out three albums in the early 'sixties, which are fantastically funny, though not well known. Each has material with the 2000-year-old man, but has other great stuff as well. They're worth hearing because they're not well-known and deserve to be because each has some riotously funny content. Some of it hasn't aged well, but it's mostly as funny as it probably was then. I'm mentioning them because of the other material, not the 2000-year-old man, which is not well known and pretty darn swell.

The albums are:
2000 Years with Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks
2000 and One Years with Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks
Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks at the Cannes Film Festival

These and 2000 and Thirteen, which has only the 2000-year-old man on it, are all in the Complete 2000 Year Old Man.

More recently, they recorded The 2000 Year Old Man In The Year 2000, which I found far less funny.

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The places to hear from me:
Food - josh lubarr food stuff
Geekiness - geekiness(josh lubarr)
Movies - Old Movies and New with Josh Lubarr
Places in the real world - Good Things around Boston (according to Josh Lubarr)
Politics - Progressive Politics (per Josh Lubarr)
Silliness and comedy - Le Repository du Silliness, avec Josh Lubarr

Must Have Been Interesting...

What? Last night's Big Lebowski cast reunion, of course. Sounds like it was a pretty wacky evening. Coverage at Entertainment Weekly, Time, MTV, and elsewhere. Nothing on at foxnews.com, strangely enough.

The Big Lebowski at IMDB. The Lebowski Fest site, if you're that obsessed.

Cross posted at Old Movies and New with Josh Lubarr.

Work Refreshed

Here's what you do:
1. Go to Somerville Avenue in Somerville, MA, across from the Market Basket (which is very busy and has excellent values).
2. Walk towards Porter Square.
3. At the end of the block, look up and over your right should. You'll see this.



My othah schtuff:
Movies - Old Movies and New with Josh Lubarr
Politics - My page at livejournal.com
Food - My food page at wordpress
Good things around Boston - My page at thoughts.com

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the most hilarious of all?

These gentlemen.

The sign at Mayflower Poultry in Cambridge

If you live around Boston, surely you've seen this:



If you don't, perhaps you should visit so you can. It's at Mayflower Poultry at 621 Cambridge Street in Cambridge. And they know what they're doing. You can buy all kinds of interesting things with that logo on it.

Department of Redundancy Department

Yes, a stolen joke, but here's why. Long-time noted has been the Villa House of Pizza. If villa means house, then isn't this the House House of Pizza? And if pizza actually means pie, I wish this were the Villa House of Pizza Pie, because then it would be the House House of Pie Pie.

h/t to those with whom I thought of this. You know who you are.

Mrs. Stewart and Jon Stewart

Is there is a family relation between Mrs. Stewart (of Mrs. Stewart's Bluing)




and Jon Stewart (of The Daily Show)?





I believe there is. Genealogical research is left as an exercise for the reader, as is checking if bluing is a good way to make your whites look whiter.

Very early, very silly Frank Zappa song

I recently rediscovered this: Surf Along, from 1963, performed by the non-existent "Ned and Nelda" (though really, it was Zappa). I first heard this in about 1978 and always thought it was pretty hilarious.

The Hound of the Baskervilles at Shakepeare & Company

It's a three-man adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story. It's really funny. It's running through Labor Day weekend. Here's the link, which is probably only valid through the fall of 2011.