Category Archives: Art and Culture

Help me pick the movie that I will fall asleep in front of tonight!

By Mark | May 10, 2012

Two movies came in from Netflix today. Which should I choose?

Also posted in Mark's Life | Tagged A Face in the Crowd, Andy Griffith, Elia Kazan, Miranda July, The Future | 9 Comments

Stanford student radio interviews the Monkey Power Trio

By Mark | May 10, 2012

A few nights ago, four out of five members of the band, The Monkey Power Trio, were interviewed by a fellow named Diego Aguilar on Stanford University’s student radio station, KZSU. The interview is, by all accounts, unremarkable. I have heard, however, that some young people on the Stanford campus have turned it into a [...]

Also posted in Monkey Power Trio | Tagged Chiasmus, Dick Panthers, Diego Aguilar, Don't Excarnate Your Kids, drinking games, interviews with Mark, KZSU, Tom Waits | 5 Comments

Manhole member Stevo “Doc” Doccerson demands to be interviewed, have mangy, glistening pelt of chest hair acknowledged

By Mark | May 1, 2012

Remember that band, Manhole, that got run out of Ypsi after they illegally appropriated my face for an ill-fated line of leisurewear? Well, all the guys came back to town this last weekend, in hopes of acquiring stacks of free pancakes and selling poorly photocopied trading cards of themselves at Totally Awesome Fest 8. I [...]

Also posted in Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Tagged chest hair, Daniel Peron, Hob the Troll, Hollis, Hollis Knight Coats, interviews, interviews with Mark, Manhole, Stevo Doccerson, Totally Awesome Fest, trading cards | 6 Comments

Bob Zmuda on securing Andy Kaufman’s penis with gaffer’s tape prior to his wrestling matches, the origins of Tony Clifton, Andy’s plans to fake his death, and a million other things

By Mark | April 28, 2012

Last night, I listened to Marc Maron’s interview with Andy Kaufman’s old writing partner, Bob Zmuda. My sense is that Maron… who has a brilliant podcast, by the way… found the experience somewhat frustrating, as Zmuda insisted on being evasive about a few things, like the circumstances surrounding Andy’s death, and the question as to [...]

Also posted in Crimewave USA, Uncategorized | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Andy Kaufman, Andy Kaufman Revealed, Andy Warhol, Ben Franklin, Bessie Smith, Billy Wilder, Bob Zmuda, brilliant comedy, Buckminster Fuller, Carl Sagan, Charles Darwin, Charlie Chaplin, comedy, FDR, gaffer's tape, George Harrison, Gregory Peck, Harriet Tubman, Houdini, J.D. Salinger, Jack Benny, Joey Ramone, Katherine Hepburn, Kurt Vonnegut, Leonardo Da Vinci, Malcolm X, Marc Maron, Mark Twain, Martin Luther King Jr., Myrna Loy, Nicola Tesla, Norman Wexler, Patrick McGoohan, Peter Falk, Robert Kennedy, Stanley Kubrick, tape, taping down penises, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Pynchon, Tim Carey, Tony Clifton, Woody Allen, Woody Guthrie, wrestling, wrestling women | 11 Comments

The totally confrontational Totally Awesome Fest press conference

By Mark | April 25, 2012

Ypsilanti’s more densely bearded, somewhat less murderous, and considerably less black version of Don King, Patrick Elkins, called a press conference yesterday to announce the lineup of the 8th annual Totally Awesome Fest, which begins this Friday evening at 5:00, in the field behind VG Kids. I suppose, in retrospect, that it should have been [...]