John Roderick from The Long Winters & David Rees are somehow romanced by The Hodgman to come and sing and sharpen pencils at the gem of the Valley: The Montague Bookmill.
The Radio Edit: For those with a little time
The whole long Roderick in the Bathtub Conversation: For those with no life
Earlier in the Hodgsaga:
John Hodgman is a PC, is a Daily Show Contributor, is a fancy Hollywood actor, is an author, so what's he doing here in the Valley?
Hodgman inquires on purchasing advertising from our radio station.
Hodgman's meteoric rise to fame, and what it's like to be a computer.
Hodgman on Obama warming up the crowd for him at the Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner
Jeff Tweedy, Pat Sansone & John Stirratt. Live from their Solid Sound Festival at Mass MoCA. On music, the music business, CB lingo, and Rock Paper Scissors
Sounds from Solid Sound & Jo, the psycho fan, defends herself.
Rolling Stone Contributing Editor, Steve Knopper, on how Steve Jobs pulled the rug out from the music industry at the perfect time and on whether or not we'll ever see another Mick Jagger sized rock star in the business.
Zydeco, off-shore drilling and werewolfs. "Loup Garou" at the Ko Festival in Amherst. A poetry weilding werewolf, saving New Orleans from the werwolfs of Big Oil.
Hidden away in Ashfield is a virtual reality theatre experience like none other in the country. Find yourself in the middle of a living movie, complete with live soundtrack when Double Edge Theatre performs "The Firebird" (not the muscle car).
The Daily Show's John Hodgman. The drummer from They Might Be Giants. Chris Harris from ESPN. Novelty music phenom Jonathan Coulton and other fine non-famous people teach me how to play Texas Hold Them.
My Dad never actually went to jail. And this was really my first poker game. Or match. Or whatever.
Photo by Hodgman (who won in the end). Read 'em and weep, Coulton.
Enzo tells a story
Three year old Enzo tells a story. A tomato story. Or tomato joke. I'm not sure. It's kinda scary.
ACLU Attorney Bill Newman on the recent circuit court ruling that is f*cking awesome for broadcasters under the thumb of the FCC.
Valley Midwives Delivered to Haiti
With an infant/maternal mortality rate that was already shocking, how is the pregnant population faring after the earthquake? At least a little bit better, thanks to some Pioneer Valley Midwives.
Nhamo from Northampton (formerly of Zimbabwe) on what the World Cup means to the African Continent.
If you are from the U.S., maybe you don't care about the Cup. And if you do care maybe you're watching at a Mexican Restaurant before they're usually open.
First, watch this video. And then listen to me and the wine snobs fail at trying to open a bottle of wine with a shoe and then Ken from The Lady Killigrew and I succeed at opening a bottle of wine with a shoe.
Take some kale. Put it in a bowl with olive oil and lotsa salt (also try apple cider vingar sometime too). Mix it up. Make one layer on a cookie sheet or baking dish. Pop it into a hot hot oven (like 450) until the chips are almost burned.
Smoothie Verde
1 banana per person
about two large handfuls of de-stemmed and freshly frozen kale
frozen pineapple
plain (preferably homemae) yogurt
maple syrup
and peanut butter
Mix in a blender.
The National Priorities Project crunches numbers and uses them as cold, heartless and apolitical facts that we as Americans need to face about where our tax dollars go. So in the midst of local debate on whether or not we should stop spending money on the wars, just how much money has Northampton already spent?
How close is Greenfield to the Renaissacne that the community has been hoping for? And will a Big Box store on the outskirts of town kill the Downtown. Let's ask the Mayor.
Two men named in Colombia named Escobar. No relation. Two very different paths. Two Northampton directors named Zimbalist. Brothers. Discover how futbol and drogas intertwine.
Chris Smither was part of the blues Renaissance of the late 60's. Find out how Bonnie Raitt got turned onto his songs and how being a musician can help you learn Chinese.
Out of high school, Rocky Roberts drove cross country with Nils Lofgren to CA and has had a behind the scenes rock & roll dream life pretty much ever since. He's a guitar tech extraordinare from Holyoke. So is being friends with Neil and Patti Smith indimidating when he sits down to write his own songs? And what is his most embarassing guitar teching moment?
The Local Hero, Emmy-award winning, Caldecott Honoree Children's Book author/illustrator and animator, Mo Willems, on why animation is boring and awesome, and why getting a gig at Sesame Street may be the best gig for indie-filmakers.
What would happen if you took kids with Special Needs and those whose special needs are less easy to detect and built a chorus? Then throw in kids music god, Dan Zanes, for good measure.
Why is Arizona forcing local Law Enforcement officials to make that call? What does an illegal look like? Can you tell? Is this woman illegal? ACLU Attorney Bill Newman weighs in on why he thinks this law will not stand.
A swanky lounge? Booze? New movie screens? A giant safe? Get a glimpse (with you ear) of what is going on inside the Bank on Bank Row. And what is it's ETA of awesomeness.
And the bank is looking more favorably on the developers of the infamous downtown Greenfield street thanks to a little help from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Iron Horse founder and Greenfield Renaissance usherer Jordi Herold weighs in.
Some of our most bodacious and craptastic words are actually blends of two older words. What words are on the cusp of being the next "crapulous"? Ask Emily Brewster, resident wordster from Merriam-Webster.
And if you like swear words:
Jesse Sheidlower is an Editor-At-Large of the Oxford English Dictionary. And he loves him some F-Bomb. Enough to write a book about it. A serious, scholarly, book. Get your mind out of the gutter!
And for more love of words...
Emily Brewster: Resident Wordster from Merriam-Webster elucidates the juxtaposition of the quixotic word of the year.
For a video clarification of the "affect effect" with Emily, click here. She will b e thrilled to know you watched this video.
Ah the good ol' days when Rachel roamed the halls of the River. Her ol' River buddy Bill Dwight, the one who took over her show when she left, helped to start the Facebook page heard 'round the world. Or at least heard by Senator Scott Brown. So will she run against him in 2012? And why won't he return her phone calls?
And what did our intrepid reporter catch at Scott Brown's Greenfield Veterans Center dedication? This non-statement statement.
Zoom in very slowly, in and out on the New Englander who is arguably the world's best known documentarian, Ken Burns.
Baseball, socialism, National Parks and how Hampshire College converted this Michigan boy into a Red Sox fan.
Just how well is the Obama administration doing with the closing of Gimto? And how much different is the new administration than the one that opened the prison?
Jon Haeftz from the ACLU has a new book: "The Guantanamo Lawyers: Inside a Prison Outside The Law"
Sitting down with Tracy Kidder in his Valley home, the author gives us a glimpse into Haiti both before and after the earthquake.
When Tracy Kidder's not writing about his hometown, his focus is on Haiti. He's worked long and hard with Partners in Health, an organization on the ground in Haiti. I caught up with him at Hope & Olive in Greenfield at Free Soup & Games Night.
Photo of the Constitution of the United States of America. A feather quill is included in the photo.The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America and is the oldest codified written national constitution still in
Kids these days. With the new fangled Chicken Pox vaccine, kids hardly get the chicken pox. But with measured skepticism, my wife and I intentionally exposed the kids rather than take the vaccine. Turns out everyone in the neighborhood and people who live two hours a way wanted chicken pox the old fashioned way too.
A Northampton doctor, his association with the Nobel Prize, how even a teeny nuclear war in Pakistan might kill a billion people, and what he thinks of Obama as the next winner.
Jimmy Olsen. The musical spirit and inspiration for the River for the last quarter century. What are the highs and lows of WRSI's storied past? His fondest musical memories...and did he sleep with Dar Williams?
I've got some trash on Northampton At-Large City Councilor, David Narkewicz. I also have his recycling and compostables. D-Nark volunteered to get a trash audit from Green Northampton. How did he do and if we all "audit" what impact could that have on the City's landfill?
Monte took the family to Yankee Candle to hear the Von Trapp Children in concert. Now if Julie Andrews was really their mom his kids would want to join their band.
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