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The Department of Tangents Podcast

Years ago, playing a sort of improv game with friends in which we all picked super powers based on our personalities, I dubbed myself “Tangent Lad.” I was not a very strong superhero, and I could not defeat a super villain on my own, but I could distract them with Monty Python quotes and football trivia. I have many times since apologized to an interview subject in my capacity as a journalist by saying, “I am either very good or very bad at tangents, depending on how you feel about tangents.”

I had a rough time coming up with the concept and naming this blog/podcast. I knew I wanted to create a place where I could address things I’m passionate about – comedy, music, and horror. Finding a name that communicated all three of those things proved a bit impossible. I bugged my friends, and they all tried to help. To no avail. Then I thought, maybe I’m approaching this from the wrong angle. Maybe my lack of focus should be the focus.

As a journalist, I have written for The Boston Globe since 2000, starting out writing CD reviews and then writing a regular column on comedy for seven and a half years. I still contribute there, and to Kirkus Reviews, and other publications. I’m also a musician, and released my debut full-length album, Blue Skies and Broken Arrows, in March of 2015. And I’ve been publishing short horror fiction for a couple of years.

I like to climb into things I love and see how they operate. That’s what the Department of Tangents is for. The main thing here is love. To talk about the things that make I’ve loved forever, and some new things that might stand the test and be around, at least for me, for decades to come. I’ve had to be critical in my writing at times, and it might not all be nonstop roses here, but in the end, what I really want to talk about is the good stuff. That’s why I will regularly write about things I think are “Perfect,” even if someone can demonstrate empirically that they are flawed. Still perfect to me.

Also, fish.

I hope you, dear anonymous surfer person, will come to expect only the highest-quality, free-range, grass-fed tangents. And I hope some of you love the same things I do and find it useful. Or at least a welcome distraction until the others get here.

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  2. DoT Ep10 Tom Snyder with New Comedy from Joe List

DoT Ep10 Tom Snyder with New Comedy from Joe List

Jul 15, 2016

My guest for Episode Ten is Tom Snyder, co-creator along with Jonathan Katz of Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, musician, producer, and comedy writer. His latest project is a fully-produced musical on audiobook called Is Anyone All Right? which is available now on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. It's a throwback to radio plays, a love story about five twenty-somethings who aren't particularly good at romance. They get better, eventually, or the story would be a bit one-note. It's charming and witty, and hopefully Snyder will do more in this format. I sat down with him in his home outside of Boston, his piano behind him. We talked a lot about musicals, including the Broadway sensation Hamilton, which is the last one he saw, cheesy rock musicals, and what the format has become. We also talked his work with the fantastic Jonathan Katz and the creation of Squigglevision.

At then end of the conversation, keep listening for a track from comedian Joe List's new album, Are You Mad At Me? He's got a great riff on meditation and anxiety.