or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
•
"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
May 14, 2010
Late Nite Five Dollar Friday
Explanation of Five Dollar Friday here. Follow who else is giving on twitter. As promised last week, there would either be a website and tumblr ready by now, or someone in my organization would be fired. Someone has been fired (although later rehired and given a final one week extension after a bunch of crying and begging.)
Today's $5 Friday goes to Black Agenda Report, but not because I'm a big copier and am copying Ethan. I thought of it on my own, especially after listening to this Doug Henwood interview with Bruce Dixon, one of the editors there.
If you're familiar with them, you know how good they are. Send them some money, because they need it and deserve it. If not, check them out, find out how good they are, and then send them money.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at May 14, 2010 10:39 PMI just picked up a copy of "Our Kampf". Of course, I was probably supposed to do this years ago but better late than never.
Posted by: cemmcs at May 15, 2010 09:28 AMI finally picked it up last spring.
Posted by: Save the Oocytes at May 15, 2010 11:38 AMI only thought of giving to them because, uh, they told me to. So even if you copied me you'd really be copying them.
And I bought "Our Kampf" so long ago that I don't even REMEMBER when it was.
Posted by: ethan at May 15, 2010 01:08 PM1)I'm glad you kept your promise to fire that associate of yours - and yet, somehow, I'm also glad you were merciful to them. I hope it works out well - either that they do their assignments, now that they understand how important it is to you; or that they find another, more suitable venue for their talents; or you may keep them in your organization but restructure your expectations of them when taking this experience into account. Whatever happens, I'm behind you, and the future's ahead.
And speaking of the future, didn't these Black Agenda guys have Obama's number way back when?
And speaking of Our Kampf - I haven't yet gotten my copy, but I did praise it years ago at Amazon's "Amapedia", a no-longer available wiki they experimented with. Here's a slightly updated version I tried to post today on their review page:
By & for smart people who love humanity
Schwarz has a blog, A Tiny Revolution, which will give you some idea of his worldview. The blog deals with our current struggle in the real, as well as the satirical sense, so the blog is sometimes less funny than the book, but also more informative. Schwarz has written that the comments there are funnier and more informative than the original entries. I resemble that remark - I comment there myself, under a pseudonym, of course. On February 5, 2007 Schwarz stated that readers of the blog are obligated to buy Our Kampf. Hardly a day has gone by since then without my thinking of this issue. In psychology we call this "unfinished business" phenomenon the Zeigarnik Effect.
Posted by: mistah charley, ph.d. at May 17, 2010 08:10 AMAnd speaking of the future, didn't these Black Agenda guys have Obama's number way back when?
Yep...they did.
Their critique of Obama has been as sharp and accurate as you can find...they also regularly publish Paul Street.
I received a personal email from Glen Ford at BAR regarding a donation I made and directed him to ATR to see that BAR was listed on 5 dollar Friday's..he was quite surprised and knew nothing of it.-Tony
Posted by: tony at May 18, 2010 01:30 PMTony: Its that old revolutionary standby---secret funding over the internet.
Posted by: Mke Meyer at May 18, 2010 04:31 PM
