FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Show Discussion => Topic started by: erika on August 13, 2007, 08:40:41 AM
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If this topic has already been addressed, lemme know...
When/How/Why did you first start tuning into the Best Show? When did it become a necessary part of your week?
I had seen posts about the BS on AST for almost a year and never tuned in, although Tom clearly had a strong following over there... When he had Zach Galifianakis on, I tuned in and made my first call. Then I listened to the Seth show, called again, and was hooked from that point forward. (I think I listened and participated in the pledge drive as well)
It wasn't until I started listening weekly that I even knew about Wursters calls. Somehow I just hadn't paid close attention to the show, and I hadn't listened to the CDs before.
Now I'm hooked on all of it.
I listened to the 9/18/01 show on Friday and heard Tom come up with the name "Friends of Tom" and, to say the least, it gave me the warm and fuzzies :-*
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I heard about the Best Show through Fluxblog. He had the series of Bruce Willis calls edited out of the show. I was pretty much hooked from then on.
http://bestshowvault.blogspot.com/2007/02/i-have-wolf-eyes.html
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I started listening to WFMU after seeing it mentioned in Uncut magazine, and eventually gravitated to the shows that had podcasts. It was mostly 7 Second Delay for the first year, but then I got interested in Tom when I heard him more or less co-host a show with Andy from the streets outside the studio.
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The podcast, basically. I was aware of Tom's WFMU show, and before that his zine and record label, but only when the show went to podcast did I begin to listen. It took me a few weeks to figure out what was going on, but I became hooked within a month.
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A fellow who has all of the fruits and also the pretzel from Pac-Man tattooed on his arm told me all about WFMU. I just happened to be listening to the internet radio one Tuesday evening, and I was hooked.
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I think it was when Matthew Fluxblog sent me some Best Show .mp3s, ca. '03 or so. Because I think I totally glossed over the stuff he posted on Fluxblog. He later intuited correctly that it was "my thing" and gave me a couple of CD-Rs worth of classic Wurster and Earles calls. And the addiction began...
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I was using wireless internet in a restaurant in France last August and I read a Danielson interview on Pitchfork...
I quickly figured out how to do the podcast thing because it sounded like fun and I wanted something to listen to.
THANKS BRO DAN!
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My former college roommate (who was in a Chapel Hill band and got the first CD through the band connections, as did many people early on) said "you should listen to this" and handed me a CD of "Rock, Rot and Rule."
I thought it was hilarious - especially the dog being named Kenneth and when RTC answers one of Tom's questions with "He just blocks him!" in his consternation about the Cavs-Magic game.
Later, I was reading Mark Prindle's site (a good friend of that same college roommate while we were in college) and read his review of "Chain Fights." I ordered it and the Gorch and Jeff Cooper were even funnier.
TS: "I was under the impression that stealing was kind of always a big deal."
RG: "Not York in the 50s, that was paradise, baby!"
A few weeks later I idly looked up S&W online and thought "hey! These guys do a weekly radio show on the Internet?" and started listening to the archives.
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on the radio. driving home from rutgers after my tuesday night class in 2005.
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I feel like the Best Show and I have been ships in the night for years and I'm kind of embarrassed that it took me so long to notice, but ultimately I came to it via my beloved Superchunk. I honestly can't remember the order of events, but someone told me a long time ago that the drummer from Superchunk also did comedy in some context and I thought that was the greatest thing I'd ever heard. I think I was already vaguely aware of the Rock, Rot & Rule premise when I saw Jon do a micro-interview as RTC at SXSW. Eventually I found out that Jon's comedy was somehow related to "that half-hour Smirnoff Ice thing with Jon Benjamin" that my then-boyfriend had played for me a year prior (I remember Googling it later, coming up with the Best Show archive page and being very, very confused). But the tipping point was when a friend of mine made me listen to two straight hours of Scharpling & Wurster calls on a bus ride to Philly, namely Gas Station Dogs, the first Mother 13, the first Philly Boy Roy, and at my request, the Smirnoff Ice call (and maybe something else that I'm forgetting). I immediately started listening on Tuesdays and devouring podcasts and archives and have been a hopeless wreck ever since.
On the upside, playing catch-up is really, really fun.
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Talking to a guy at a wedding in New Mexico; he and his wife were the only people from New York or New Jersey there and we spent a long time talking about how we could never live in this one horse town because of the things we'd miss. He told me about The Best Show and his explanation was about as bad as mine is now to people: "It's like a call-in show, but a lot of the calls are fake, and this guy gets really mad about stuff, and also there's music, and, uh, never mind." My brother also blathered on about it, and once I got another office job that would let me wear headphones I was trolling around finding podcasts, and booyah. Now my girlfriend has to listen to me daily saying, "today, I was listening and there was this funny thing, and then, and then" like Rain Man and Judge Wapner.
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I read somewheres that Zach Galfianakis was on the 5/30/06 show, so I downloaded the podcast when it came out. I thought it was too long for me to get into so I didn't listen for a few weeks. And the podcasts built up in my iTunes, until one day I decided to listened to the Zach one and then another. I think i listened to three podcasts in one day. Then I went back and got every old podcast I could and started listening live.
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I had downloaded the 2004 Yo La Tengo request-a-thon and Tom provided the vocals on a Rod Stewart song and I really liked it. Those songs also introduced me to wfmu, but I never listened to the best show because I was just a casual listener to the station and talk radio didn't really interest me.
Then that radio free yo la tengo podcast came out, and I recognized Tom's voice and thought the show was hilarious. Anyways, that brought me back to the show, and it was only a little time before I was hooked.
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I was actually turned onto it by those pottymouths Rick and Rose from the Poster Children. I tuned in for the argument between Rick and Tom, but stayed after hearing the saga of the Albany Soaker.
Yo La Tengo - Really Not into it
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I had an architecture professor who had gone to Columbia. In 1998, he was playing WFMU in his office at Halloween and it was something like 24 hours of scary sounds. So I started listening intermittently.
Skip ahead to 2003. I was finally out of school and had more free time than I knew what to do with, so I got into remote control airplanes. My wife hated when I worked on them, but she just happened to have class on Tuesday nights. I don't remember why I remembered the station, but I would put on WFMU while working on my planes. At first I would just have it on in the background and for a while I just thought it was a funny show with funny callers.
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While I was vaguely aware of the S&W comedy duo (and I knew of W from Superchunk) as far back as 1997 after reading a blurb about "Rock, Rot, & Rule" in Flagpole (http://flagpole.com/), it was this February 2004 Fluxblog post (http://www.fluxblog.org/2004/02/my-mommy-made-me-boots-timmy-von.html) that led to my The Best Show fandom. I immediately started going through the archives and began listening live every week sometime in mid-2005.
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I had an insanely boring job and I listened to realaudio archives of radio shows non-stop. I had been listening to WFMU since I was like 12 or 13 thanks to my older brother, but now it was about ten years later and I was revisiting stuff I knew then just to get through the day. I listened to like every Joe Frank archive KCRW had to offer (when they offered them) and after awhile I wanted to commit suicide. I then rediscovered Seven Second Delay, which I used to listen to as a young, TMBG & R.E.M. obsessed New Jersey teenager. After exhausting their archives and actually re-listening to a lot of them a few times, I finally got around to discovering TBSOWFMU because of an interview with Jimmy McDonaugh, the author of Shakeythe Neil Young biography. I must have heard snippets of the show before, encouraged by cross-promos from Terre T. and the like, but I didn't really "get it" yet. The interview was the right bait for me to sit through a Kevin call that I thought was 100% for real. I admired the way Tom handled himself. So awkward! So kinda take-charge all the same. I followed up the next week to see if Kevin would call back and just what was going on here,... and I was hooked. I think TBSOWFMU, The Cherry Blossom Clinic, and Seven Second Delay are the Holy Trinity of WFMU.
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The first time I ever heard the best show while watching tv in my bedroom. My brother in the next room was laughing so loud I had to see what the commotion was about. That is when I heard Phillyboy Roy talking about his job at the pencil factory and the way he said yeah made me laugh when Tom would ask him a question.
My brother he had all these different sound clips on his computer. I asked for more and Bryce was what he played me.
I haven't stopped listening ever since.
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I stumbled upon this electronic music-maker named PROTMAN and found a link to one of his sets on OCDJ's show a while back.. thought the station was pretty cool and the next time i came to listen i tuned in early and caught Toms show. Hooked
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I was out riding my bike and lopping the heads off parking meters and I get arrested. The officer just happens to be listening to TBSOWFMU. The rest is history.
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Like little Johnnie Junk it was the interview with Jimmy McDonaugh which got me hooked. Not knowing the true scope of the Kevin character and just thinking holy shit that is one strange dude.
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The Sound of Young America.
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I first heard the show sometime in 2001. I had been listening to a few of the WFMU Real Audio archives for a while, while languishing in rural Maryland, when I stumbled across the Best Show. It was the lead-in to Nickel & Dime Radio, one of my favorite shows at the time. Eventually I checked out the "Tom gets royally screwed by Perry Ferrell show." I was stunned when a guy called up complaining about all his Jane's Addiction-related disappointments - starting with their album Rich Hall Will Hit Y'all - and I assumed Tom was just humouring some random wiseass. I think the notion of brilliant, elaborate comedy routines built around obscure music trivia seemed too good to be true at first. After a while I got wind of the show's real premise and would check it out here and there, until a year later when I got broadband instead of dial-up and started listening regularly.
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June 10, 2003 Tom learns to play drums and duets with Officer Tom.
I had taken to listening to WFMU in my studio in grad school and suddenly Tom playing the drums came on, and it was so utterly funny and out of control that night I was hooked.
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I read the article with the Danielson famile in Pitchfork and was intrigued.
The first episode I heard was on July 25 when Philly Boy Roy called in about the death of Harry Oliveri. That is still my favorite Philly Boy Roy call to this date.
Its fun learning about Jersey and Eastern seaboard area, I am going to go to Vinnie Tendinos, and then go hit the Grease Trucks at Rutgers and finally go to a Wawa some day.
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i was just wondering - i know some of you are also 7SD fans. any old fans of Aerial View with Chris T?
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I did love lady talk, particularly when they picked fights with Tom.
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I got turned on to FMU because of Yo La Tengo's connections- sometime in 2004. I would randomly listen to the live internet streams whenever I had time. I got into 7SD right away. I also listened to Bronwyn C, Ken and Michael Goodstein on and off.
I had heard the name of the show but I didn't know what it was about and had never bothered to listen. Then on April 19, 2005 I just happened to be listening live and it was Tom interviewing Bishop Pablo Fontana! It was the funniest interview I'd ever heard. I was very puzzled that there was a Bishop out there with such encyclopedic pop-culture knowledge. I was immediately hooked. It took a little bit of browsing the archives and lurking on the message board the next day before I figured out what exactly was going on.
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Then on April 19, 2005 I just happened to be listening live and it was Tom interviewing Bishop Pablo Fontana! It was the funniest interview I'd ever heard. I was very puzzled that there was a Bishop out there with such encyclopedic pop-culture knowledge. I was immediately hooked. It took a little bit of browsing the archives and lurking on the message board the next before I figured out what exactly was going on.
That's the show that got me hooked as well! I found TBSOWFMU by flipping through the radio dial that night. I've listened to every show ever since. No other radio show comes close!
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I used to love Aerial View and actually I remember getting hooked on that show as a teenager. Eventually Aerial View lost its appeal for me. A little too much bitter punk-rocker for my tastes I guess. I haven't heard what Chris T is doing on the web-only content. Is it good? is he still doing it?
I was a big fan of Lady Talk also. They usually gave pretty good advice. They would get a lot of sad hippies calling that show. I thought Kelly Jones was pretty damn funny. I kinda stopped listening after awhile, but my suspicion was that that show fell victim to a post-boobgate windfall. Am I right?
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Great thread, P.O.B!
I found the show through the internets, like this:
Mr.Show ---> bobanddavid.com ---> pattonoswalt.com ---> aspecialthing.com ---> AST chat --->
I met Tom in that chat - he was using his real name so I assumed he was a big shot, like Jack Szwergold. He was!
If I recall, I was depressed and drunk and posted angrily about Sarah Silverman, so I'm sure I gave a bad first impression. I assume he doesn't remember any of that, though it was around that time he abandoned the AST chat. I blame Jack Szwergold.
The bit that got me addicted wasn't a Wurster call - it was Tom contemplating the death of CBGB. Over the course of that half-hour rant, I came to realize that Tom was the greatest radio personality of all time. I ordered all of the discs, started plowing through the archives, and am now a near-completist.
I'd never heard of WFMU before the Best Show, though now I'm obviously indebted to them. (Literally - I haven't paid my marathon pledge yet but I will. I swear. I have to make like Zach G. and wait 'til I get my money right.)
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I read an extremely positive review online somewhere of Chain Fights, Beer Busts,... I'm not sure where, listened to sound clips as well. Shortly thereafter I googled the show and delved into the archives.
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Through fluxblog. I heard "Timmy Von Trimble" and "Judge Davies", then late last year I finally realized it was a whole three-hour show that had a podcast. And now I'm hopelessly addicted.
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My cousin Henry, who had unsuccessfully tried to turn me on to the Jonesy and X-Ray show or whatever it's called (I tried and I tried but I just don't get it), managed to convince me to check it out a couple of years ago. I was a fan of the Cherry Blossom Clinic for a few years prior to that, but never had made the connection.
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Tom Scharpling is sort of like the antithesis of Glenn Jones.
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I like both, although sometimes the music on Sunday afternoons is a little dreary.
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A comedian I am a fan of generously sent me the CD's as a gift a couple of years ago, when I was really sick and depressed about life in general. I started listening and I haven't stopped since. I finally got to the podcast about a year ago exactly, and nothing cheers me up like it does. I know I always sound like a pile of sadness, but I really do spend a lot of time at home. I am extremely sensitive to the Sun and to fluorescent lights, so it's hard for me to go anywhere without feeling sick to my stomach. After awhile, staying at home that much starts to really get to you. Nothing seems too important, because since you can't do anything most of the time, you don't seem too important.
The Best Show always helps me to just get the f over it. Laughing makes the constant pain and anxiety worth it. :)
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moved to new brunswick summer of '02 to go to rutgers. found out that i could get wfmu on my boombox, which was great cause i'd been addicted to Greasy Kid Stuff for a year or 2 and now i could listen to it without the internet (which was great cause i didnt have the internet at the time). so i listened to WFMU a lot, and pretty much immediately after that i became addicted to both AD&D With Donna Summer and TBSOWFMU.... and i think both shows contributed greatly into turning me into the messed up freak i am now!
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I like both, although sometimes the music on Sunday afternoons is a little dreary.
I like Glenn Jones and X-Ray to a point. I guess what I mean is that they do sorta similar things, but tom and jon's stuff is almost like a meta-comment on the kind of stuff Glenn and X-Ray do. ....maybe?
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JONE-z's cool.
I used to love Aerial View and actually I remember getting hooked on that show as a teenager. Eventually Aerial View lost its appeal for me. A little too much bitter punk-rocker for my tastes I guess. I haven't heard what Chris T is doing on the web-only content. Is it good? is he still doing it?
i didnt follow it to the web. it was just the perfect friday show to catch after work.
I was a big fan of Lady Talk also. They usually gave pretty good advice. They would get a lot of sad hippies calling that show. I thought Kelly Jones was pretty damn funny. I kinda stopped listening after awhile, but my suspicion was that that show fell victim to a post-boobgate windfall. Am I right?
i dont know what a post-boobgate windfall is, ... but i also enjoyed the show & think kelly jones is a very funny lady.
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Post-boobgate refers to that period of time immediately following Janet Jackson's nipple being exposed during the Super Bowl when the FCC had a hairy canary and clamped down on anything remotely approaching toilet talk by using crazy-ass fines that would effectively ruin WFMU if any of them were incurred by the station, thus necessitating a less-than-zero-tolerance policy that Tom has been quite good at maintaining, but that maybe Lady Talk wasn't so good at (just a theory!!).
I'll never forget Jonesy's record-breaking broadcast. I can't believe some FWD took the title from him.
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I guess what I mean is that they do sorta similar things, but tom and jon's stuff is almost like a meta-comment on the kind of stuff Glenn and X-Ray do. ....maybe?
I rarely bother to think that hard about anything that entertains me; I'm just pathetically grateful for it.
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My older brother got me in the habit of trying to constantly deconstruct fun stuff by dissecting Guns 'n' Roses, Public Enemy, De La Soul, and The Cure lyrics for my "benefit".
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Oh, you poor baby. I'm lucky enough always to have been able to bully my older sisters.
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I had listened to WFMU for a while where I was TV-less and looking for entertainment in other media. I got hooked via Greasy Kids Stuff, and heard Best Show resulting in confusion. Then I looked into S&W and fell in love, especially when I saw an interview with them in The Onion.
In all seriousness, that Onion article changed the course of my life completely. Good guys win.
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I'm from NJ and always wanted to be able to get in WFMU - that, This American Life, and Democracy Now, but either I could never find them on the dial or I could never have the right schedule. The closest I ever got was when I worked at the Montclair Book Center in 1990, and they would play FMU all the time - I mostly remember JM in the AM. I also don't listen to the radio much because I hardly ever drive a car, even though I teach at Rutgers (hi to all the Rutgers FOTs out there - take my screenwriting class if you're still undergrads).
Anyway, podcasting changed everything - I subscribed to a raft of WFMU shows, mostly not knowing what they were. Some of them were unlistenable, of course, and others I totally fell in love with. Based on the enthusiasm of the iTunes reviewers, I downloaded TBS, but didn't quite get it - it seemed too long and I just didn't get it. Then I read "Ronald Thomas Clontle's" hilarious article on eMusic and decided to take a chance on Rock, Rot & Rule - just a single download - and I was hooked. Jon Wuster's calls are still the highlight of the show for me, but I love it all - Tom's rants, the call-in community, even most of the trolls. I kinda like Spike.
When I listen to FMU, I feel like i'm coming home - it's all the things I love about NJ with none of the things I hate. Even when I went to Slovenia, I would listen to it on streaming audio whenever I checked email from internet cafes. I don't call in to TBS or any of the other shows I listen to because I'm always listening to the podcasts, but this semester I'll have Tuesday nights off while my wife is in grad school, so I might become a full-fledged FOT. I'm looking forward to actually hearing the music...
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OT: Rutgers FOT here! Livingston College '89, and former DJ on the maligned-on-TBS* station WRSU. I discovered WFMU in college (my high school years were occupied by WRSU and WPRB), and have been listening ever since, wherever life has taken me.
* I have not listened to WRSU in years, but the schedule always had a few truly excellent DJs at any given time. I'm sure that's true today. WRSU is not and never has been in WFMU's league, but you could say that about any other station.
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OT: Rutgers FOT here! Livingston College '89, and former DJ on the maligned-on-TBS* station WRSU. I discovered WFMU in college (my high school years were occupied by WRSU and WPRB), and have been listening ever since, wherever life has taken me.
Cool! I actually went to Montclair undergrad, but got an MFA from NYU, after which I started teaching there... I like it. Any other Rutgers FOTs out there? If any current students want to form some sort of organization and need a faculty advisor, I'm your man. Maybe we can take over that humor magazine The Medium and make it funnier (though in all fairness it has gotten a lot better in the last year or two - I just wish they would leave out the porn so I could read it on the shuttle bus without looking like Professor Creepy).
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It is interesting to me that many FOTs were not already converted WFMU listeners, or even necessarily fans of the rest of WFMU's programming. Rather, they became aware of Scharpling & Wurster through other channels - usually the CDs - and started listening to the Best Show as a result.
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I'm a Rutgers FOT. Class of 2011.
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I'm a Rutgers FOT. Class of 2011.
Right on. I teach screenwriting through the English department if you ever want to take my class.
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I'm a Rutgers FOT. Class of 2011.
Right on. I teach screenwriting through the English department if you ever want to take my class.
I think that jasongrotes credentials speak for themselves, just check out the resume:
(http://kickthebobo.com//grotes.jpg)
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I'd hire someone on the power of their FOT membership.
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I'm a Rutgers FOT. Class of 2011.
Right on. I teach screenwriting through the English department if you ever want to take my class.
I think that jasongrotes credentials speak for themselves, just check out the resume:
Hey, thanks KTB. Though that made me feel a little strange. I'm not going to get any monkfish sent to me, am I? I probably also have an entry on RateYourProfessor.com but I can't bear to read it - I went once and it was a disgruntled Expository Writing student who missed a third of the semester and was angry that he failed.
I think I might actually add FOT to my resume, though.
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I'm a Rutgers FOT. Class of 2011.
Right on. I teach screenwriting through the English department if you ever want to take my class.
I think that jasongrotes credentials speak for themselves, just check out the resume:
Hey, thanks KTB. Though that made me feel a little strange. I'm not going to get any monkfish sent to me, am I? I probably also have an entry on RateYourProfessor.com but I can't bear to read it - I went once and it was a disgruntled Expository Writing student who missed a third of the semester and was angry that he failed.
I think I might actually add FOT to my resume, though.
naw, I'm relatively harmless. a quiet day at the office and rudimentary html skills are the Devil's Playground, though.
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RU FOT here too! Dan B and jasongrotes, if both of you are attending the New Brunswick campus, we should start up our own FOT chapter. Tuesday nights anyone!?
Also, what's the course number for that screenwriting class? I wonder if my department would let me take the class as a humanities elective.
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OK, I feel safe. Even though you are the brilliant mad scientist creator of the Lovelump. Heavens to Murgatroyd!
http://www.kickthebobo.com/erotech/Products.html
I'm not savvy enough to insert the photo.
Matt, it's English 358 something, I think, through the creative writing program. There's only one section. I think it's full but I'm pretty liberal with the special permission numbers. You have to write a lot (everyone brings work in on a schedule) but it's just the first act of a screenplay and I'm a pretty easy grader (for that and my playwriting class, anyway - I also teach expos 2 and technical writing, and I have to be tougher for those).
I'd probably attend a New Brunswick listening party, like the Iron Monkey shindig, but Tuesdays are usually my days off. Plus I need my weekly TBSOWFMU podcast to endure my commute. I will be on campus on Tuesday October the 16th, though, to talk to my friend's playwriting class.
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Jason Grote! I'm a former P73 Intern. But I don't think we met, I was out of commission during your fellowship. Still, I feel like we're family.
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Well it took me awhile to get in to The Best Show, because I started listening to WFMU because of a single bump on Adult Swim (of course after Tom's appearance on ATHF) in either late 04 or early 05, so I looked at the site and saw it was in Jersey City, NJ. So I instantly ran in to my room and turned to the station and it came in crystal clear. (since I live in central, NJ) I periodically tuned in for a while (and discovered They Might Be Giants through Greasy Kid Stuff) until the 2005 marathon when I listened to most shows online and The Best Show was definitely my favorite one, besides 7 second delay. Since then I've been on and off, but since this years marathon I've only missed a couple shows. So cheers to Adult Swim which without I probably would of never found this brilliant show without.
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Jason Grote! I'm a former P73 Intern. But I don't think we met, I was out of commission during your fellowship. Still, I feel like we're family.
Aw, no way! The world shrinks yet again. See, that's why I use my real name everywhere, cause ya never know. Although I feel like I'm crusing for a GOMPing or some online equivalent thereof - this is the FOT board, not the FOGrote board. But I guess you were there during Quiara's fellowship? Anyway, they're producing 1001 Off-Broadway and I'm going to try and see if I can get some sort of FOT discount when the time comes. We're trying to pull in people who don't go to theater much, and I would imagine that would describe this bunch (believe me, FOTS, I don't mean it as an insult).
But anyway, ughwhy, did we meet? Feel free to email me if the boards are inappropriate for this sort of thing.
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Matt, it's English 358 something, I think, through the creative writing program. There's only one section. I think it's full but I'm pretty liberal with the special permission numbers. You have to write a lot (everyone brings work in on a schedule) but it's just the first act of a screenplay and I'm a pretty easy grader (for that and my playwriting class, anyway - I also teach expos 2 and technical writing, and I have to be tougher for those).
I'd probably attend a New Brunswick listening party, like the Iron Monkey shindig, but Tuesdays are usually my days off. Plus I need my weekly TBSOWFMU podcast to endure my commute. I will be on campus on Tuesday October the 16th, though, to talk to my friend's playwriting class.
Aw snap! I already took the technical writing course that you are teaching (355:302). I should have waited!
Expos 2 will not fulfill any of my curriculum requirements. I will leave room in your screenwriting class for those who have a passion for creative writing (I am but a lowly civil engineer.) I may reconsider if your section opens.
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Aw snap! I already took the technical writing course that you are teaching (355:302). I should have waited!
Expos 2 will not fulfill any of my curriculum requirements. I will leave room in your screenwriting class for those who have a passion for creative writing (I am but a lowly civil engineer.) I may reconsider if your section opens.
Honestly, Matt, it's the same no matter who teaches it, except I tell more jokes. Except one time, before the Powerpoint presentations, I made a crack about how fun they were - something like "it's a Powerpoint presentation - get ready for the ride of your life" - and the poor kid thought I was making fun of him. I felt really awful and spent the rest of the semester apologizing to him. He got an A, which he earned, but I still felt bad.
We actually get a lot of students from other majors in the screenwriting class - everyone in America is writing a screenplay, or a book, or in a band, or doing improv comedy, or some combination of those, after all. Sometimes the best students are the Engineering or History majors.
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Honestly, Matt, it's the same no matter who teaches it, except I tell more jokes. Except one time, before the Powerpoint presentations, I made a crack about how fun they were - something like "it's a Powerpoint presentation - get ready for the ride of your life" - and the poor kid thought I was making fun of him. I felt really awful and spent the rest of the semester apologizing to him. He got an A, which he earned, but I still felt bad.
We actually get a lot of students from other majors in the screenwriting class - everyone in America is writing a screenplay, or a book, or in a band, or doing improv comedy, or some combination of those, after all. Sometimes the best students are the Engineering or History majors.
Well, all the other sections are closed. I am not surprised that these classes are in high demand. I will keep an eye out for an open section. Thanks!
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Well, all the other sections are closed. I am not surprised that these classes are in high demand. I will keep an eye out for an open section. Thanks!
OK. But I really do let anyone in who wants in - it's always the passionate kids who hover outside my office begging for a special permission number because they never got it together during registration who stick around and write the best stuff - about 20% of the class bails once they actually have to start writing. It's the sort of thing where, if you're into it, it's a breeze and kind of fun, but if you're not it can be incredibly burdensome.
But in any case, a special permission number is yours if you want it - not just because you're a FOT, though that certainly doesn't hurt.
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But in any case, a special permission number is yours if you want it - not just because you're a FOT, though that certainly doesn't hurt.
Sounds to me like ectoplasm.
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topic topic topic topic topic topic topic topic
(start a new thread, you guys... pwease?)
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topic topic topic topic topic topic topic topic
(start a new thread, you guys... pwease?)
Sorry - I think we're done.
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topic topic topic topic topic topic topic topic
(start a new thread, you guys... pwease?)
Actually, I'd like to talk about how I was rejected by Rutgers College back in 1991 (although Livingston College did give me the green light). Oh, how I yearned to be a Scarlet Knight!
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Actually, I'd like to talk about how I was rejected by Rutgers College back in 1991 (although Livingston College did give me the green light). Oh, how I yearned to be a Scarlet Knight!
OK, new thread, new thread, let's be good citizens. Sorry, Erika. (Bobo, the same thing happened to me in 1989 - check the general discussion board).
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I prefer threads to go off topic. It makes the odd, artificial discourse that is messageboardspeak more closely resemble actual conversation.
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I prefer threads to go off topic. It makes the odd, artificial discourse that is messageboardspeak more closely resemble actual conversation.
same here. I like watching the evolution of some of these threads. In 25 posts, we went from Fido asking Tom advice on hooking up his new surround-sound to Dave from Knoxville sheepishly admitting that he has collected souvenir spoons from each of the lower 48 states. I always wondered who bought those.
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I prefer threads to go off topic. It makes the odd, artificial discourse that is messageboardspeak more closely resemble actual conversation.
That's fine then. But I thought this thread would be a nice place to read stories about how people heard about the best show. It turned into a two page conversation between a few people on a topic that not many can relate to.
No one's ruling with an iron fist here. I asked nicely. Just thought that when people clicked on this thread they might want to see something related to the topic that was listed instead of a two-way conversation. I think that's reasonable.
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ah, fuck it. i'm just grouchy. talk about whatever you want. but i still like to hear how people heard of the best show.
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ah, fuck it. i'm just grouchy. talk about whatever you want. but i still like to hear how people heard of the best show.
Yeah, it's a good topic, which is one of the reasons I agreed to move all the RU talk. Frankly I'd like to read about it more than my freaking job.
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I had heard about the show through aspecialthing for a while, but finally checked it out once I started looking for new podcasts in early '06. I'm constantly trying to get people into the show, but it's not the easiest thing to justify with a simple description.
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A few years ago a friend played for me a few cuts from the first compilation. Jarrett the weight loss kid and Chocolageddon cracked me up...I was instantly sold. Same friend, probably later that day, then showed me the Mets v. Yankees show from the archive (which I now realize is Glaser and Benjamin). "I love my wife... I love my kids... and I love the Mets-GO METS!"
Been a FOT ever since. Got the card to prove it.
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I think it's Walsh and Benjamin, right?
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I started listening to WFMU via Pat Duncan when I was thirteen or fourteen. I discovered the station when I was flipping through the radio channels late one Thursday night and heard an Adverts song.
WFMU changed my small-minded musical tastes and I eventually became a big fan of the station. I first heard The Best Show sometime in 2004, but I didn't start listening religiously until 2005.
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Joe Walsh? Richard Benjamin?
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Joe Walsh? Richard Benjamin?
Matt Walsh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Walsh)
H. Jon Benjamin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Jon_Benjamin)
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I was just looking for something else on the old board and came across my long post about this (in a thread I started, in fact--I was you, erika!). Rather than repeat it, I offer a link (http://www.friendsoftom.com/newboard/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=01;action=display;num=1126466119;start=). Many others' stories are to be found here as well.
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I wonder how many more times we'll repeat and fine-tune these stories.
One?
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I caught on to the show the summer of 2006 after stumbling around looking for new comedy podcasts to get into. The Best Show was linked off a comedy site. At the time I had heard of WFMU, but never heard of this show and had no idea what it was. I think the first episode I tried was the one with Philly Boy Roy's track on Art of the Slap. I didn't pay full attention so I didn't exactly dawn on me what the show really was. It seemed like another call in show but with some very weird callers and host who'd humor them. Probably because I saw that picture from Hippy Justice, I pictured Tom was an old beardy radio vetran who looked like the late folk singer Burl Ives. In hindsight that's hilarious to me.
(http://www.akh.se/ives/dl4433.jpg)
A couple of months passed, I got bored again and once again came across the Best Show. This time something clicked and I've been a loyal listener since. It's definitely a show that rewards you for your patience once you get used to its rhythm.
Compelling story right? In a nutshell; I listened, stopped, listened again and became a fan. The end.
I feel like I've written this before.
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OT: Rutgers FOT here! Livingston College '89, and former DJ on the maligned-on-TBS* station WRSU. I discovered WFMU in college (my high school years were occupied by WRSU and WPRB), and have been listening ever since, wherever life has taken me.
* I have not listened to WRSU in years, but the schedule always had a few truly excellent DJs at any given time. I'm sure that's true today. WRSU is not and never has been in WFMU's league, but you could say that about any other station.
haha. i guess its my fault that tom makes fun of wrsu, since i dj here and every time i call in tom makes fun of me and my station.
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I've listened to WFMU since the late 90's.
A friend's brother always had the station on in his dingy basement bedroom.
I never caught a Best Show until the Tuesday night around the 04'
Presidential election. Tom said something like he had jury duty the next
day and would release a serial killer on society if Bush won again.
That pretty much did it for me.
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The "Al Green" show, probably the week after it was originally broadcast, alone in the office one night. Wurster talking about "calling a special lady friend" and his gym shorts and that Al Green album cover, "you know, the one that looks like he's getting ready to make love."
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Rainer!
Where ya been?
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Where ya been?
Getting my Baltimore rowhouse sold (check), de-molding my apartment (check) and visiting my eldest son (check), who came out to the PNW to see me in all my lonesome. I'm also working on my entry to the video/art contest, which I hope to have done before the contest ends.
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I discovered WFMU through a Bob Dylan message board a few years ago. Someone posted that Yo La Tengo were playing requests for donations and I was intregued. So I listened to bits and pieces on and off for a while. Then I saw a link for The Best Show on Danielson's site, have been hooked ever since!
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Checked it out after Ted Leo said in some interview
that it was like a religion to him.
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My intro to The Best Show was finding a used copy of the original Rot, Rock & Rule CD in 2002 or so, after reading about it here and there. I knew folks who were clued in to the Best Show, but they were sorta secretive about it, like it was an elite club or something (or something that went without saying). Not being net-savvy, it was a year or so before I figured out I could listen every Tuesday on my computer AND survive various office jobs by earphoning the archives, maybe coming off like a goof trying not to laugh too hard, I probably looked like I was always trying to stop a sneeze. I had no idea something could be so funny these days. My girlfriend refers to it as "that weird show you're obsessed with". After finding out Tom and Jon sorta bonded over Chris Elliott I knew it was written on the stars. The big time laffs, that is. Also the Peter Cook appreciation. When Tom dropped out for a bit with what turned out to be kidneystones, I was genuinely concerned! I've never felt that way over somone (who I didn't personally know) who was a radio/TV/band personality what-have-you. My girlfriend said I didn't want to lose a friend, pointing at my FOT card in my office. Watch the fizzy drinks Tom! I hope to make it to a post-show party soon!
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I started listening to WFMU after seeing it mentioned in Uncut magazine, and eventually gravitated to the shows that had podcasts. It was mostly 7 Second Delay for the first year, but then I got interested in Tom when I heard him more or less co-host a show with Andy from the streets outside the studio.
do you know which episode of seven second delay this was?
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Sad as it sounds, Pitchfork (via this randomly stumbled-upon review (http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/22243-rock-rot-rule)) actually turned me on to The Best Show.
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I started listening to WFMU after seeing it mentioned in Uncut magazine, and eventually gravitated to the shows that had podcasts. It was mostly 7 Second Delay for the first year, but then I got interested in Tom when I heard him more or less co-host a show with Andy from the streets outside the studio.
do you know which episode of seven second delay this was?
October 1, 2003: The Make You Say "No" Game with Tom Scharpling and Scott (from July 2001). (http://wfmu.org/playlists/SD)
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2005 - My roommate and another friend would always talk about it, but I never really knew what they were discussing. My roommate would say really funny stuff that always had me rolling. Eventually, after coaxing (and the advent of the podcast) I started listening and soon realized that all the funny stuff my roommate said was lifted from the Best Show. Regardless, I really enjoyed the show and have been a devout fan since.
m welch
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I started listening to WFMU after seeing it mentioned in Uncut magazine, and eventually gravitated to the shows that had podcasts. It was mostly 7 Second Delay for the first year, but then I got interested in Tom when I heard him more or less co-host a show with Andy from the streets outside the studio.
do you know which episode of seven second delay this was?
October 1, 2003: The Make You Say "No" Game with Tom Scharpling and Scott (from July 2001). (http://wfmu.org/playlists/SD)
Thank ye!
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I was using wireless internet in a restaurant in France last August and I read a Danielson interview on Pitchfork...
I quickly figured out how to do the podcast thing because it sounded like fun and I wanted something to listen to.
THANKS BRO DAN!
I personally thanked this hero last night.
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My buddy who has been a long time fan of TBSoWFMU recommended it to me, and after 6 months of defiance, he let me hear The Jock Squad skit on The Art of the Slap, and I've been hooked ever since.