Tag Archives: tom scharpling

The Funny, Tuneage

My Annual Plea

I've used this pic four years running, and if it was good enough for 2008, dagnabbit, it's good enough for 2012

Every year around this time, I entreat you, the Scratchbomb reader, to consider donating some funds to WFMU, the Fun 91, the Freeform Station of the Nation. That time is upon us again.

WFMU does not get any money from the government (federal, state, local, what have you), nor does it get any money from corporations. It also refrains from constantly begging for money throughout the year a la PBS. WFMU has but one two-week pledge marathon that raises the bulk of their operating costs for the year. That is why it is crucial to add your support at this time.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but radio in the New York area is bad. Like, really bad. Atrocious, one might say. For a city that likes to think it’s the Center of Everything, particularly when it comes to the arts, New York’s radio stations are unlistenable, robotically programmed swill. WFMU is an island of goodness amid this raging sea of garbage.

Because they are not owned by some huge Conglomco, and because they are not beholden to any taskmasters governmental or corporate, WFMU gets to do whatever the hell it wants (within FCC confines, of course). I don’t love everything I’ve ever heard on WFMU, but I do love the fact that all of it is made by real humans who love music and radio, which definitively cannot be said for everything else on the airwaves.

I first started listening to WFMU well over a decade ago. A roommate turned me on to Terre T’s Cherry Blossom Clinic, which was exactly the kind of punk/garage/glam show I’d been searching for my entire life to that point. I made my first WFMU donation to her show when I was still powerfully, crushingly unemployed, because I believed in it that much, and if I couldn’t share what little money I had with something that made me that happy, well, what was the point of money anyway?

I still love Cherry Blossom Clinic and listen every Saturday I can; in my push to complete my novel over the last few months, I probably wrote 75 percent of it listening to Terre T. And so I feel somewhat indebted to WFMU for providing me with a soundtrack to my industry.

WFMU is also home to The Best Show, which is not only one of the funniest things humans have ever done, but which would be impossible on any other station. To do the kind of humor that Tom Scharpling does on that show–be it sparring with callers, chatting with guests, or performing comedy with Jon Wurster–requires large swaths of time that other spots on the dial would never allow in a million years. Even if you don’t listen to The Best Show, chances are you enjoy some form of comedy that has taken inspiration in some way from The Best Show. (SNL, for instance, counts many Friends Of Tom among its writers and performers; peep Bill Hader’s t-shirt in this video for visual evidence thereof.) That alone makes it, and WFMU, worthy of your attention.

I’ve volunteered for WFMU events for last few years and it is always a joyous experience. I am not blessed with a huge amount of free time, but I make time for WFMU, because being a tiny piece of what makes it happen is so rewarding. For instance, two years ago, I got witness this bit of amazingness–a Nerd-Off between John Hodgman and Patton Oswalt–live and in person.

My wife and I will be assisting in The Best Show’s first marathon program this evening. We will also be donating funds in addition to our time, and if you have any change to spare, I urge you to do the same. If you can part with 5 bucks, I assure you it is appreciated. I’ve manned the phones at the marathon and received pledges at that level, and I can promise you that every little bit helps.

However, if you care to listen during tonight’s show (which will feature special guests Ted Leo and Julie Klausner) and care to donate $75 or more, you are entitled to the Hammer of the Gods Best Show Demon Summoning Pack, which includes:

  • A Best Show magazine with contributions from such luminaries as John Hodgman, David Rees, Robert Popper, Michael Kupperman, and more, plus an interview with Michael Nesmith and many other awesome tidbits and treats.
  • A flexidisc with an exclusive song from Kurt Vile
  • A CD of brand new comedy from Scharpling and Wurster.
  • A free download of the audio from last year’s Radiovision Conference panel, featuring Tom, Marc Maron, and Ira Glass.
  • A new Best Show sticker! A Vance the Puppet stressball! Some other stuff, I bet!

If all of that ain’t worth $75, I don’t know what is.

High rollers can donate more and get premiums from other DJs, which are always fantastic; the premium CDs from Terre T, Rex, and Evan “Funk” Davies always contain some amazing vinyl finds you simply can not get anywhere else. Think you can just get anything from anywhere in our digital age? You are completely wrong, and WFMU’s DJ premiums prove it every year.

I believe I’ve made made my case. This concludes my annual plea on behalf of WFMU, one of my favorite things in the world, until next week when I bug you again during Marathon Week Two.

Tuneage

Low Times Kicks Into High Gear

There was a time when music was the be all and end all of my existence. Listening to it, playing it (see to your left), writing it, going to watch others play it. All of this consumed an enormous amount of my free time and mental energy.

Then I developed a condition called Being Old, and it faded from the front of my passions. In a way, I blame how easy music has become for The Fan. In the pre-internet age (get off my lawn), the pursuit of new music–finding out about bands, shows, scenes, etc.–required so much more perseverance and shoe leather. Albums were artifacts, not to be chopped up into playlists, but to be listened to as a whole, as documents. I’m one of those weird people who enjoys working to discover things. Coincidentally or not, my aggressive hunting of music began to wane when the web and iTunes removed an element of labor from the hunt.

I soon found myself listening to actual music less and less, and not pursuing New Stuff with my former intensity. When I listened to my iPod on my way to work, I tended to listen to podcasts, mostly of the comedy variety, with old Jean Shepherd shows thrown in. I’m not exactly sure why, but at this time, I just preferred words.

Over the last few years, I’ve been making a conscious effort to throw myself back into music. Listening to it at home, especially when I write. Keeping on top of New Stuff in my five minutes of free time. Making it out to shows when I can. (This last one is the roughest on my schedule and back; I can not stand up for hours like I used to.) It feels great to listen to an old song, or a new one, and remember how wonderful music can be.

That’s why I’m really excited about Low Times, the new podcast spearheaded by Tom Scharpling, Daniel Ralston, and Maggie Serota. If you read this site more than once, you surely know of my love for Tom’s radio program, The Best Show on WFMU. Since it started back in 2000, The Best Show has been beloved not just by comedy nerds, but also by music nerds, because it frequently delves into deep, dense detail of band lore and trivia. Tom is seemingly able to pull out album titles and band lineups for virtually any group off the top of his head. (For instance, recent shows feature a puppet named Vance who has an encyclopedic love of prog rock. Vance has some very strong opinions on Gentle Giant and Ummagumma-era Pink Floyd.)

You can’t know stuff like this and not have a deep love of music, and that love is now channeled into Low Times, which Tom describes both in the podcast and at the show’s website as a successor to a fanzine he did in pre-Best Show days, 18 Wheeler. The inaugural edition definitely has a fanzine feel to it, in the best sense: no frills and no snark, just people talking about music and the trials and tribulations of making it.

The first episode of Low Times features a great interview by Tom with Janet Weiss of Wild Flag/Sleater-Kinney fame, wherein she talks about her almost accidental path to rock stardom. You’ll also hear Daniel talk to Owen Ashworth, ex of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, about how he nearly got beat up all across Europe. (I recall seeing him play at a tiny bar in Greenpoint where the reception was not much better.) And Maggie talks to Catherine Popper about what it’s like hearing the Caddyshack theme played to you by Chevy Chase.

Hearing a trio of very different musicians talk about their craft is a fantastic refresher on why music is so amazing. Even if finding music these days is easier than ever, the act of making music and getting people to hear it remains an exhausting, sometimes gut wrenching process. I have friends who are musicians and producers and engineers (or some combo of the three), and I remain in awe of them, that in this day and age, all economic reality to the contrary, people are still writing and producing and going out on tour. Nowadays, most people willing to go through with all of this aren’t doing so for fame or money or chicks, but for art and love.

Low Times is a healthy reminder of this fact. Based on the list of upcoming guests, I’m looking forward to being reminded again and again in the weeks to come.

Interweb, Sports

Support Your Local Sporting Scene

If you read this site and/or follow me on Twitter and the like, I’m guessing there’s a very good chance you’ve heard this news already. On the off chance you haven’t, have you heard the news?

It seems that a veritable supergroup of great writerly types is teaming up to make a brand new daily sporting web site called The Classical. Like who? The first name that caught yours truly’s eye was Tom Scharpling, whose Best Show on WFMU I’ve waxed about rhapsodically on this show many times. Aside from being one of the funniest people around, he is also an NBA fan ne plus ultra (see this interview for evidence) and can speak/write on the subject with the utmost authority, and thus is an ideal catch for such an endeavor.

But when it comes to the roster of champs involved with this endeavor, that is far from all. There’s Bethlehem Shoals of Free Darko fame (read their hoops books if you haven’t, because you should). Tim Marchman, one of the best and most criminally underused baseball writers in America. Eric Nusbaum from Pitchers and Poets. David Roth, whose weekly sporting chats at The Awl (w/David Raposa) never fail to crack me up. And that is but a sampling.

Okay, great, they’re gonna do a website. Why am I writing about it? Because in order to make The Classical “a sustainable business, rather than yet another blog or Tumblr” (their words), they need dough. So they’ve set up a Kickstarter page with the goal of raising $50,000 to make this a reality. If you’re on the fence about whether you’d like to contribute to the cause, I’d suggest reading the Project Description and the full list of contributors, and above all else, watching the accompanying video, which has some hilarious visual cues.

And of course, if you do contribute, you’re in line for some valuable schwag, including (but not limited to) a chip clip. But if you can’t swing a contribution (times are tough, I know), you can always like The Classical on Facebook, or tweet about it, or mention it on the social media platform of your choice. It’s free, and it helps.

From what I can tell, the response has been pretty great thus far; as I post this, The Classical has already raised over $11K. But that’s obviously not quite their goal, so if you’ve ever complained about call-in radio shows or lamented the general meatheadedness of sports commentary, please consider doing your part to elevating said commentary on the interwebs. Future generations will thank you.