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

[Frances Morey]

There is an internet access to the AM radio feed of Air America. I like it at times, resent the quantity of advertising but agree with the hosts, particularly Mike Malloy across the board.
  Google up Air America and follow their directions to have it come through your computer speakers. I liked to put it on and then go to other windows while listening to it, a really neat possibility. 
  We do have a local radio station that carries Air America in syndication but I don't remember the call letters and really never listen to AM radio anyway with all the great FM stations on the air here.
  Best,
  Frances

michelemason <coltrane at ev1.net> wrote:
  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 
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.
>>
>> ********************************************************************** 
>> ******************************************
>> ********************************************************************** 
>> ******************************************
>>
>>
>
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