The embed function on the site is not working on my laptop for some reason so I went ahead and pasted an excerpt below.

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Comedian comes (out) clean: Todd Glass announces he’s gay on WTF with Marc Maron

BY JOE FAINA
01.19.12 | 11:45 am

Comedian Todd Glass made waves in the comedy world on Monday by using Marc Maron’s widely popular WTF podcast to publicly come out after over 20 years of silence. In doing so, he’s created one of the most memorable moments in recent comedy history.

Since premiering in late 2009, Maron has interviewed hundreds of comedians he’s met over 25 years of performing stand-up comedy. The WTF podcast is known for its frankness and honesty; while he and his guests always talk comedy, conversations tend to veer towards what’s going on underneath the surface in their lives.

The recent interview with Glass, however, is sure to go down as one of the most significant moments from the podcast’s 240+ episodes. That Glass specifically chose Maron’s show to come out is only the tip of the iceberg — Glass repeatedly mentions his decision was motivated by the increasing trend of gay teen suicides.

Stand-up comedy is an art form predicated on brutal honesty — many of the most celebrated comedians are the ones who embrace their struggles and fears for the sake of laughter.
“This is the reason that motivated me to do it. I cannot listen to stories about kids killing themselves any longer and not [think] ‘when are you going to have a little blood on your shirt for not being honest about who you are?’” Glass admits. “And if I do it in a public forum, as opposed to just doing it privately, I can then maybe do something to help kids.”

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Read the rest of the story at CultureMap Austin.

None of those people were there.

My friends said I was the brave one for going. It was certainly weird, but about what I expected. I did think more would be there but Facebook’s pretty much reconnected everyone who mattered from high school. Except for Eric Chemi. Seriously, what happened to that dude?

I split to catch a friend at a dive in Los Feliz. A few days later it was outside a Kid Cudi show in downtown when I finally discussed with a friend what it was like. I told her I was glad I went and people seemed to be doing well. She caught my diplomatic bluff:

“You’re saying it was pathetic.”

Yes. It was.

It wasn’t pathetic because many of the people still live in town. There’s nothing wrong or weird about sticking around your hometown and getting a day job. Everyone who was there was there for the same reason–a curiosity to see what was going to happen. It was weird that no one ever felt the need to go back. Unless you still lived there.

The location was all that needed to be explained about my high school. It was at the Hard Rock Cafe in Universal City Walk, the largest tourist trap in LA. Meaning it was expensive as shit. And hysterical. There wasn’t a single coherent group of friends there.

I went in knowing it was going to be ridiculous. It did not disappoint. A reunion at the Hard Rock was not the weirdest part. Neither was the fact that only 30 people showed up. What did it for me is sitting at the bar with one of the dudes who was literally bulletproof in high school because his parents were both LAPD telling me he’s about to take the bar exam in the hopes of one day prosecuting corrupt cops. I remember thinking “that’s really great…hey remember when you and your twin brother nearly beat that kid to death in a movie theater parking lot? Because you were bored on a Friday night.”

Of course he didn’t. Because as I said bye to all of them before I left he responded “Nice to meet you”.

I can never figure out what to get my dad anymore for Father’s Day.  Sports fans are usually really easy but there are only so many hats one can buy for someone constantly perplexed at the day to day operations of both the Lakers and Jay Leno.  A few years ago I thought I had a slam dunk in gifting someone who has been to a Lakers playoff Game 7 with Phil Jackson’s Kobe Bryant tell all The Last Season only to be later foiled by the fact that it was a book.  The same fatal flaw would later apply to  The War for Late Night

Instead I came up with the baller idea of taking my Dad to a ball game.  I hadn’t been to Dodger Stadium in over 5 years. It’s been a tough time being a fan as of late. A decrease in attendance on account of the worthless owner met with an increase in police presence on account of the dudes who beat a Giants fan into a coma. Not to mention a team that has struggled to compete since an epic World series win when i was 5. But Dodger Stadium remains a Marquis ballpark in the majors and definitely one of the most beautiful in all of sports.  And real fans can’t quit on the Dodgers.

The game was great.  I mean it was boring, 1-0 games can do that, but at least the Dodgers won.  And my dad seemed to really enjoy it.  None of us had been to a game there in years, and we had great seats because my little brother can afford to shell out $100 a pop to sit on the third-base line.  I sat in between them, with my Dad, who’s become more or less a real life Willy Loman in the last few years as the automotive industry continues to turn on its people, and my brother, a successful real estate salesman unaware of the irony of his ability to purchase $100 seats to a bankrupt team owned by a maniac real estate mogul.

One my Dad’s favorite things is to tell the same sports stories and trivia over and over again.  It’s something that I will probably pass down, if I haven’t already to my friends.  Granted, he’s got an impressive list.  Anyone who vividly remembers when the Dodgers moved to LA and can recount an almost encyclopedic knowledge of every major team event since then has certainly earned that right in some regard.  Seriously, no one knows more about the Dodgers than he does.

Ethier way, this was a WAY better idea than going to a Casino in Santa Barbara like we usually do.  Those places are way more depressing than the Dodgers’ record. I still got it.

But I don’t think of our department as a community.

For me it feels more like a neighborhood.

I grew up in a pretty tight-knit neighborhood that had a lot of families that partied pretty hard together. We had two kinds of parties: 4th of July, and whenever we felt like it. The first involved shutting down our street, being loud and obnoxious, and having the cops show up–to the free BBQ we gave them. The second kind usually started with the phrase “well, Ray and Tina are out in their driveway with the stereo up. What can we bring over?” Plan or no plan, both ended up with the adults in the neighborhood going long into the night.

I feel like I have somehow stumbled upon that same thing here in my graduate department.

This past weekend a bunch of my fellow graduate students, and some professors, celebrated a birthday in the form of a house party, complete with DJ and dance floor. The party was deemed “sold out” by the host, as both the smoke machine and guests repeatedly came billowing out onto the back porch, where the designated champagne sabering area was. It wasn’t anyone’s first time being at a house party where the cops made an appearance. But I’d be willing to bet it was that officer’s first time responding to a noise complaint at a party full of people with Masters’ Degrees.

Then the Superbowl, a day where no plans were needed, we all just “knew” to show up at our own designated “driveway.” Combining our “refined” tastes as graduate students (kegs and champagne) the night involved a lot of yelling, obnoxiously critiquing the power dynamics at play in various Superbowl ads, and a Rockband marathon going long into the (school)night. An actual neighbor, upon seeing the keg the birthday boy and I were unloading from my trunk, asked if we had any for her. Of course she was invited, this is how it works.

Most of the original families from the street I grew up on no longer live there. Some do, but for the most part they’ve moved on to different places. Yet from time to time they still meet up and throw the same parties. The Neighborhood is more a dynamic than a place. I feel the same thing about The Department.

For my family back home who want to know what graduate school has largely been like here in Austin, you already know.

For my new friends here, a bit of a glimpse into how we all ended up in this place.

Except here we are ALSO getting our PhDs.

With the recent release of the Mac App Store for Mac users who actually use the computers it seems as if Wired’s pronouncement of an App revolution has finally solidified itself. But I’m still not sure what the fuss is about.

Apps make a ton of sense on increasingly mobile devices, where hard drive space, much like screen space, is at a premium. But laptops seem to be getting less and less the mobile users device of choice. Though I love my Macbook and appreciate Apple’s ability to make them even lighter, my iPad and, hopefully, new iPhone (good work Verizon!) take up most of my on the go computer use. And that is fine.

This is not really a complaint about the Mac App Store. Becky, today’s MobileMe instructor, was quick to point out that it makes a lot of sense for Macbook Air users. Which is true. And it also can potentially be used to upgrade applications one already has without having to buy a completely new version. That’s also true. But I already use third party apps like Tweetdeck on my laptop and don’t really worry much about clogging up hard drive space of more than 200GB, so an entire store seems unnecessary other than it’s already available for iPhone/Pod/Pad etc. I get their utility on the iPad and my increasingly useless Blackberry (again Bravo Verizon!) I get Wired’s justification that “the Web is Dead” in favor of more app based internet use. Now that it seems to be coming toward laptops as well I am just trying to wrap my mind around how this will actually benefit and shift more stationery computer usage. Perhaps its just another step toward complete syncing of every device one owns. Seems pretty cool but also kinda creepy.

Can anyone help me out? Who is using the Mac App Store and why?

And rightfully so.

#4 on Palin’s target list is the now actually assassinated Giffords who said herself that such rhetorical visuals were dangerous.

The funny thing about words is, they persuade people to do things. Whether you actually wanted them to or not. On Sunday, Salon Re-Tweeted this post from a person named Digby. Writing on “Rhetorical Excess” Digby compares statements made Saturday by Arizona Representative Trent Franks with ones he himself made about Obama. Here’s a sampling of his interview over the weekend with CNN’s Candy Crowley:

Franks: Even in these circumstance, first of all I think our focus should be upon the tragedy that occurred here and I think it’s unfortunate to inject the comments that the Sheriff did in this case because he has been heavily involved in the whole immigration issue and he found himself in this case at ends even different than Miss Giffords. And I think that he’s carrying on that debate even in this tragic moment and I think it’s unfortunate.

Crowley: Probably should say that you all have been personally affected by this and that sometimes you say things you might not want to. The point being that there is now going to be this conversation about “why?” And right now we are seeing “the political conversation is terrible, it is heated rhetoric, we are seeing unhinged people to do things.” Do you see a link between increased sharp rhetoric, sometimes aggressive rhetoric, violent rhetoric, whatever you want to call it, in the political forum and this type of heinous activity.

Frank: Sometimes in any human dynamic there are so many factors that it becomes difficult to really analyze it. But sometimes you can see a central element, and that central element is this unhinged lunatic that had no respect for human life was willing to make some grand statement, I don’t know if he even knows what grand statement he was willing to make to take the lives of his fellow human lives to do it. And there is the problem, a lack of respect for innocent human life. It’s a lack of respect for the constitution, for freedom.

Frank is right, there are a myriad of factors that go into determining motive behind heinous actions like this. He is also right that “sometimes you can see a central element.” Only his element doesn’t seem to explain it as well rhetorically as does Frank’s own statement at last year’s unfortunately named How To Take Back America Conference:

Obama’s first act as president of any consequence, in the middle of a financial meltdown, was to send taxpayers’ money overseas to pay for the killing of unborn children in other countries…there’s almost nothing that you should be surprised at after that. We shouldn’t be shocked that he does all these other insane things. A president that has lost his way that badly, that has no ability to see the image of God in these little fellow human beings, if he can’t do that right, then he has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity

Not necessarily a direct correlation between words and actions. Yet. Look one more time to comments made by classmates of Jared Loughner highlighting some troubling parallels:

Don Coorough, 58, who sat two desks in front of Mr. Loughner in a poetry class last semester, described him as a “troubled young man” and “emotionally underdeveloped.” After another student read a poem about getting an abortion, Mr. Loughner compared the young woman to a “terrorist for killing the baby.”

So on one hand we have words from a reputable elected official, and on the other we have almost the exact same words used by a “crazed madman” who shot 20 people in a supermarket parking lot in Tucson. The former takes no responsibility for any potential consequences of his language while the latter is a lunatic acting alone. This is straight up what Kenneth Burke would have called “scapegoating” and “language as symbolic action.” And as Saturday’s events have indicated, the symbolic sometimes translates into the material.

Did Palin’s rhetoric, and those that align themselves with it (*cough* Tea Party*cough*) cause Congresswoman Giffords to be shot through the head or Judge Roll to lose his life? No. There is not a direct relationship to those, nor could one probably ever be asserted. But neither could a direct linkage ever be made between the rhetorical choices of Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban and those 19 individuals who flew airliners into two New York City skyscrapers nearly 10 years ago. Only with them the peculiar similarities in language choices were more than enough to declare a war on almost anyone who remotely looked like them.

If dangerous rhetoric does not have unintended consequences then why else would Palin’s camp work so hard to remove Giffords from the list? Well, other than one her “Targets” has been hit.

Dead on.

I like the first term because it gives satire its due credence that is often discounted as non-serious or not to be taken as such. Much of this blog is reflective of my academic interests, most of which have sought to figure humor and satire’s current place in our culture. In the last few months I finally feel like im getting close. I recently received my first revise and resubmit notice from the journal of Journalism: Theory and Practice on an essay I wrote last spring on Stewart and Colbert as public journalists that tried to tackle this idea. They want me to go further.

Which is what Stewart and Colbert are doing. A major component to public journalism as outlined by Jay Rosen and Davis “Buzz” Merritt is that taking matters of public importance into account is a much needed journalistic practice. But they are also quick to warn that it is not the same as journalists advocating for specific positions, a consideration I went to great lengths to illustrate Stewart and Colbert were taking.

All of that seems to have been thrown out the window in the past few months. The much hyped and misunderstood, rallies to restore both sanity and/or fear were met with much criticism in the mainstream press for the two comedians overstepping their bounds and creating their own spectacle. Colbert’s testimony in front of Congress on the plight of migrant workers in light of a recent farm bill was soundly discarded.

But lo did Stewart bounce back with an actual legislative win! The 9/11 First responders bill special marked a significant point where Stewart was rightly credited and praised for raising a significant issue, in his own way, while acknowledging that he was right in skewering those he thought were responsible for its blockage. Republicans. Allowing NY firefighters and police to come on the show and state their case, while hearing their voices shaken by the ravages of cancer from Ground Zero, became un-debatable. And as the NY Times pointed out Stewart may be actually moving into the role of satire advocate journalist with this episode, comparing him to Edward R. Murrow in the process. Take that Keith Olbermann!

In light of this, I do not feel that Stewart and Colbert have wholly abandoned the notion of public journalism in the sense laid out by either Rosen or Merritt. In order to understand the influence of Stewart and Colbert I think it is helpful to create an ironic understanding of their intellectual and journalistic posturing. That is, they are “Ironic Intellectuals”: their authority stems from the very disavowal of any serious authority. Their humor and absurdity are precisely what give them a sobering sincerity so badly needed.

It is also what enables us to understand their straddling of journalist/comedian. They can be both and we can understand them as both. I’ll be playing with this idea more in the coming months as comprehensive exams and dissertations loom on the horizon. In the meantime watch Stewart’s speech and offer some thoughts on the matter.

I’ve been getting a lot of giftcards as Christmas presents. Not that I mind, beats the awkwardness of telling family members they really have no idea anymore. iTunes has become a recent favorite as I am more prone to buying full albums this way. Channelling my inner ( or outer) Austin hipster/music snob I bought the latest LCD Soundsystem album This is Happening. That’s when I came across this video.

In case you can’t tell, that robot is me. Holiday Traditions are weird and hard to come by in my family. Usually they involve a lot of me driving around LA to visit the few good friends who still live there.

In the past few years I’ve grown accustomed to having a Christmas experience that is almost completely different from the previous years, save for the driving. I’ve come to realize that perhaps my best Christmas tradition is the interesting and random places I find myself.

Because it’s everything, though everything was never the deal.

One constant the last few years is my friend Max’s Christmas night party in West Hollywood. He has been throwing it the last few years precisely for this kind of thing. Feeling displaced and visiting old friends from junior college at a party designed for the diaspora of friend families that is major cities is a nice tradition to have. And I hope to continue it.

This is the trick, forget a terrible year.

I remember having this conversation two years ago at a similar Christmas gathering in Morristown Tennessee. After much young people party partaking (use your imagination) I remarked that I always seemed to find myself in these situations. At the time I was sincere in saying that I kind of liked how it worked out that way, that Christmas need not be this “traditional” thing. As my Twitter feed indicated over the last few days, the “traditional” thing is bullshit anyway. People who not only have, but thoroughly enjoy, annoyance free family time at Christmas I generally avoid. Or have something even more wrong with them. Either way.

Forget your past, this is your last chance now
And we can break the rules like nothing will last

For me Christmas time is usually an occasion for self-reflection not only of the year, but of life choices I’ve made. Usually those life choices are placed in stark contrast with the families I have come “home” to visit. So while I may not be able to talk to them about anything that I “do” at all with any sense of them getting it, I am reminded of exactly why I like doing what I do and how I have probably made a lot more right choices than not since leaving home.

Because night has such a local ring, and love and rock are bigger things
And you know it

As I returned home to Austin, and to prepare for an epic New Year’s Eve party at my house a new family member had given me the unexpected gift of LCD Soundsystem and this song. And while corks were sabered off of numerous champagne bottles that night with some of the greatest people I’ve ever met, I thought of a band that I was introduced to, here, at Austin City Limits.

And remembered that
A few make sure that you get home, and you stay home.

Happy New Year everyone. I think 2011 is going to be good to a lot of us.

Yes, I know that is THE Toby Keith looking all bored and Toby Keith-y. But that is also Willie Nelson in there which I think balances out. Even if they did do this video . There is a certain ironic distance viewers can take in enjoying the video while still recognizing the douchiness of Toby Keith, even at Christmas. For now, get out your ugly sweaters and brandy snifters and throw hubris to the wind.

I’ll probably have some more fun tales in the coming days of crazy family times, drunken neighbors, and Angry Birds high scores as I sit around on this “vacation”.

I mean after all it IS Christmas.