[AGL] Re: Verita Vampirus #3: Marc Maron maybe, but not Mike Malloy!

[michelemason]

Dear Frances, is AiAM something I can really listen to? I'm lost but  
intrigued. Give me directions? mm


On Jul 16, 2006, at 10:42 AM, Frances Morey wrote:

> Oh, Mark,
> Seer of all things radio, I love your wit. You are the Mark Morford of  
> the airwaves is style and substance. Thanks for sharing--keep on  
> composin'. If Mike Malloy goes I'll have no reason at all to tune in  
> to AiAm. The breathless braying of the ads alone were enough to cause  
> me to prefer silence to broadcast.
> Best,
> Frances Morey
>
> Mark Tucker <progdawg at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> ********************************************************************** 
>> ******************************************
>> ********************************************************************** 
>> ******************************************
>>
>> VERITAS VAMPIRUS
>> News from the Undead
>> One Critic’s Journal of Fact & Opinion
>>
>> Number Three: July 15, 2006
>> by Mark S. Tucker
>> “Have pen, will poison.”
>> progdawg at hotmail.com
>>
>> -----------------
>>
>> Marc Maron’s a Comic Genius, so...Fire ‘Im!
>> Air America and the Slouch to the Center
>> by Mark S. Tucker
>>
>> INTRO
>>
>> Comedy is an art much enjoyed but little appreciated. Basically,  
>> America’s
>> in a Three Stooges / Keystone Cops mode and has been for a long long  
>> time.
>> Grossly obvious pratfall slapstick is our meat and potatoes. Turn on  
>> the
>> telly and try to prove me wrong. Go ahead, *try*. I like the Stooges  
>> and the
>> Keystoners but, more appropriately, I apotheosize Lenny Bruce, Mort  
>> Sahl,
>> Bill Hicks, and the gents who shook society until its brains fell  
>> out. Then
>> I turn to Monty Python, the Goon Show, P.G. Wodehouse, and Brit  
>> highbrow
>> guffaws for even more intelligent mindplay.
>>
>> Comedy is the result of a hell of a lot more thought and refinement  
>> than
>> most of us ever stop to ponder. As someone who used to devour  
>> stand-up on TV
>> and at the local comedy club, I was able to watch comedians do the  
>> same bits
>> over and over, appreciating the variations in delivery, the ongoing  
>> tune-ups
>> of presentation, the brilliant timing and delivery, and just about
>> everything a person listens to good music for. Yep, comedy takes the  
>> same
>> attention to detail and inflection as a song. It begins with unusual
>> perception, gains flesh in maverick thinking, and undergoes  
>> craftsmanship,
>> just as any other art. Those who stand out in their talent deserve to  
>> do so:
>> a lot of sweat went into the repertoire.
>>
>> Daily semi-impromptu radio comedy, though, is the newest beast in the
>> menagerie. It evolved from the Old School, undergoing a radical
>> transformation with guys like Stan Freberg, then led to wiseacres  
>> like the
>> Firesign Theater. The whole idea of transforming vaudeville  
>> antecedents to
>> Swiftian satire and Biercian commentary came into focus. The  
>> Firesigners, in
>> fact, had a weekly radio spot, *Dear Friends*, over and above their  
>> vinyl
>> output in the 70s, often more topical, immediate. Then, in the 80s,  
>> came the
>> concept of “drive time”.
>>
>> THE MODERN DAY
>>
>> As corporations began to strangle the music world, gaffing itself in
>> grotesquely monopolistic behaviors, music radio began to suffer. DJs  
>> were
>> going the route of the dodo and people weren’t happy with
>> computer-programmed schedules segmented by canned voice-overs. What  
>> cropped
>> up in response was unexpected: personalities doing bits well beyond  
>> the
>> usual between-platters conversation. In Los Angeles, two particularly
>> brilliant duos came to light: London & Engleman and Mark & Brian. The  
>> former
>> was an acidic pair of savagely parodic writers who took on everything  
>> in
>> sight: conservatism, liberalism, radio shows, TV shows, cultural  
>> issues,
>> themselves, and, well, anything at all, managing to deliver stunningly
>> hilarious material non-stop. That was the key: *non-stop*. The new  
>> breed of
>> host had to be on top of its game 24 - 7 - 365.
>>
>> Mark & Brian may be the most successful such team in radio history,  
>> though
>> they don’t approach Howard Stern in pure revenues...but then, Stern  
>> isn’t
>> funny, just an entertaining jackass and a damned savvy one. Brian  
>> Phelps,
>> the epicenter of the M&B team, is a comic genius and little lauded  
>> for it
>> critically, above his success and the pleasure it brings millions.  
>> That’s
>> not surprising: again, few understand what composes Art, the intense  
>> labor
>> and years-acquired finesse. Yet, guys like Phelps pull it off with  
>> daunting
>> precision day after day after day after year after year.
>>
>> Then there’s radio political humor. MUCH harder. The focus is narrow  
>> and
>> requires a hellish backlog of data, constantly updated. Many hosts  
>> have
>> historically tried their hand, succeeding to varying degree.  
>> Certainly, Phil
>> Hendry attempted it and failed miserably but Stephanie Miller was much
>> earlier the pick of the lot. Unfortunately, she experienced a  
>> seemingly
>> extended nervous breakdown while jocking at KFI and was yanked. Back  
>> now,
>> she’s better than ever and not alone, not by a long shot. Many are
>> constantly shaping their hand at it and one guy stands way above all  
>> others,
>> Miller included: Marc Maron.
>>
>> MARC MARON: THE NEW HIGH
>>
>> He commenced his next-most-recent incarnation in Air America’s  
>> *Morning
>> Sedition*, with Mark Reilly (whose new show is borrrring) as straight  
>> man.
>> In too-short order, though, Maron was mysteriously shitcanned. The  
>> station
>> exec who is always negatively mentioned on the devious end of things,  
>> Danny
>> Goldberg, was somehow implicated. A letter writing campaign  
>> eventuated (I
>> tossed in two cents during my AirAm series in OpEdNews) and Maron was
>> suddenly back on, with a new show and co-host, top drawer comedy  
>> writer Jim
>> Earle. The two are perfect dynamite and represent the coalescing of a  
>> number
>> of elder and modern duo approaches: emo boys, playing the dozens,  
>> guilt
>> trippin’, backstabbing, dogpiling, etc.
>>
>> Maron is thoroughly uncompromising in his approach, unambiguously and
>> fervently anti-NeoCon, prolixly unafraid to let everyone and his  
>> mother know
>> about it. This is what makes the station’s controllers so damn  
>> nervous: the
>> wild card, the iconoclast, the individual. Maron & Earle have created  
>> a
>> whole slew of uncanny characters to carry their conceptualizing, some  
>> of the
>> best in radio. One in particular, “Laughton Smalls”, is a glib,
>> cliche-spouting, Christer nimrod who embodies *everything* wrong with
>> conservatism, Christianity, and the Right. It’s unclear who portrays  
>> the
>> character but the delivery is riveting, photographically accurate,  
>> gutbucket
>> hilarious, and witheringly dead-on. We all know a Laughton Smalls,  
>> and his
>> true-believer mentality is disturbing even at the best of times.
>>
>> Another stroke of genius is the importation of a comedienne (Maria  
>> Bamford,
>> if I’m guessing correctly) who appears intermittantly and goes by the  
>> name
>> of Svetlana Somethingrussianlyunpronounceable (whatever it is, it has  
>> 17
>> syllables), a transplanted Hollywood prostitute who reviews movies in  
>> a
>> thick accent, with devastating gibes both political and blue on  
>> whatever
>> comes to mind. She’s stunning in character and too-knowingly sexy, an
>> erudite wordly whore with a wearied cynical heart of frosty gold,
>> verisimilitude that laughs at itself.
>>
>> Add to that the pontificating Cardinal Milfington, a local Monsignor
>> Boozehound gone semi-secular; Marc The Shark, a nail-spitting Rightie  
>> music
>> DJ broadcasting from Radio Halliburton, a Marine D.I. type Maron  
>> turns into
>> in the face of overwhelming conservo agitprop; Mort Mortenson, Jim  
>> Earle’s
>> alter-ego chokingly reading riffs on peculiar cases amongst the  
>> recently
>> departed; and whatever else strikes their demented fancy, and you  
>> have a
>> boiling cauldron of sheer creativity.
>>
>> TROUBLE IN RIVER CITY
>>
>> Maron and Earle represent the current pinnacle of political humor and
>> post-drivetime format, constantly fresh and ingenious. They also have
>> high-profile guests (Greg Palast, etc.) who are given not just the  
>> usual pat
>> questions but some quite edgy ones as well, even a neurotic inquiry  
>> or two,
>> perhaps a few bizarre warps, whatever the flying blue blazes strikes  
>> the
>> pair, making for interludes no one can guess at beforehand.
>>
>> In other words, Maron’s just too prescient, too unpredictable, and  
>> too free.
>> That’s dangerous, especially in a radio station whose hosts inveigh  
>> against
>> corporatism and then, when the commercial slots come up, shill for  
>> same,
>> encouraging people to incorporate...because, hey!, *they’re*  
>> incorporated
>> too - ta-da!!! And, uh, what about Air America’s distinctly  
>> Center-Right
>> news slots? Not quite what’s found in Limbaugh’s stew but it sure as  
>> fuck
>> ain’t progressive either, Bertram.
>>
>> Listen, o wary scions of the True Left, as hosts hop and skip around  
>> such
>> things as Air America’s bungling management, the grotesque perpetual
>> screw-ups of the affiliates (in L.A., KTLK is grimly laughable), the
>> innumerable bizarre deals cut (friggin’ women’s basketball  
>> pre-empting Randi
>> Rhodes and the Majority Report - what the fresh hell?), commercially
>> unacceptable nonsense (advertising f’Chrissakes GLENN BECK?!?!?!),  
>> and God
>> only knows what dozen other irritations. Does anyone fool themselves  
>> that
>> the invisible hand, management, isn’t aware of all this, guiding it?  
>> You,
>> dear reader, can throw in with Ed Schultz and his old school  
>> “anything for a
>> buck” pitch, but I want progression, not to sleep with the enemy.
>>
>> Maron’s ousting is obvious: he’s Far Left and that’s just not  
>> acceptable in
>> the continually Center-gravitating Air America. Probably, too, he  
>> refuses to
>> kiss management’s ass...and you know management! Kings. Nabobs. Gods.
>> Worship or die. So, let’s not fool ourselves that Maron’s getting “low
>> ratings” or any other such nonsense. He’s dangerous to the true  
>> intent of
>> Err America and must be shown the door. “Bye-bye, Marc, don’t let the  
>> knob
>> insert itself on the way out! Love ya, babes! Kiss kiss!”
>>
>> WELCOME TO MEDIOCRITY
>>
>> In L.A., the slowly mounting purge has been rather obvious. Johnny  
>> Wendell,
>> who talks about little but Johnny Wendell, has been inserted to  
>> lo-ball the
>> pay scale on the weekends and imitate Far Left rhetoric...sans  
>> substance.
>> His history’s bizarre, chiefly of chameleonry to whomever will cut a  
>> check.
>> Mario Soliz Marich [sp] was planted much more recently, to hold the  
>> Left to
>> a pro-illegal immigration position, and the rest of the weekend’s  
>> basically
>> a welter of mostly second-rate talent (except for Kennedy Jr. &  
>> Papantonio,
>> Firpo Carr, Peter Greenberg).
>>
>> Air America’s embrasure of the Center and of the Right is nowhere more
>> evident than in their new sloganeering and tone: “Corporately owned,
>> independently operated!”...as though that’s something to be proud of.  
>> I
>> never thought I’d see the day when a reputedly Left forum, inferredly  
>> a
>> *Far* Left forum, would spout such bull-mezz. Lefties are supposed to  
>> be a
>> bit more intelligent than Righties, no? Well then, in that  
>> ‘’corporate /
>> independent” equation, who holds the whiphand?
>>
>> Need I say more?
>>
>> Relax, America, you’ve had your liberal 15 minutes. Now it’s time to  
>> get
>> back to making the boss obscenely wealthy. By the way, we’re slashing  
>> your
>> pay, cutting your benefits, and liquidating all pensions into the  
>> Management
>> Golden Parachute Fund. Get cracking or we’ll offshore the entire  
>> shebang, ya
>> bastids.
>>
>> Oh, and Maron’s been only the most obvious to be 86’ed. Who d’ya  
>> s’pose will
>> be next? My bet’s on Mike Malloy, another scathingly uncompromising
>> non-Centrist Leftie and someone equally unlikely to snuffle up  
>> management’s
>> sphincter. Yep, all things considered, he’s Public Enemy #2...just  
>> watch and
>> see.
>>
>> Call me Nostramarcus.
>>
>> -----------------
>>
>> NEXT: A lengthy review of Mark Crispin Miller’s *Fooled Again*.
>>
>> =================
>>
>> VERITAS VAMPIRUS #3 is copyright 2006 by Mark S. Tucker but  
>> permission is
>> hereby granted for reproduction in any format to any degree so long  
>> as the
>> title (VERITAS VAMPIRUS), author (Mark S. Tucker), e-address
>> (progdawg at hotmail.com) and issue date are quoted in close proximity  
>> to the
>> article. People are encouraged to distribute V.V. as widely as they  
>> desire,
>> except to OpEdNews.com, which is forbidden the above in full.
>>
>> VERITAS VAMPIRUS is not available on any site, but solely as text  
>> message
>> e-mail.
>>
>> ********************************************************************** 
>> ******************************************
>> ********************************************************************** 
>> ******************************************
>>
>>
>
> Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls.  Great  
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