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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.

Apr 17, 2019

If you are a fan of music or comedy, you should already know Geoff Edgers. He was a longtime arts writer with <em>The Boston Globe</em> before moving to <em>The Washington Post</em>, where he has written some extraordinary pieces on Roseanne Barr, Chevy Chase, Norm Macdonald, and the article that his new book, Walk This Way, is based on. He makes it clear he is a reporter, not an analyst. So what you get from his writing is the facts about fascinating subjects. You hear from both Chase and his detractors. You see text exchanges between him and Macdonald. You see Roseanne speaking publicly in Israel. He doesn’t have to dress up a story because he knows how to show you the most interesting and relevant parts.

There are some who say the subtitle to Edgers’s book, <em>Walk This Way: Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song That Changed American Music Forever</em>, is hyperbole. I can attest that it is not. I was in seventh grade when the Run-DMC/Aerosmith version of “Walk This Way” came out, and I could see the impact firsthand, starting with myself. We discuss this in the conversation, but I can tell you I was a kid who didn’t think rap was music because it didn’t have guitars or “real instruments.” That made me a prime target producer Rick Rubin wanted to reach, and it worked. Not just on me, but others I knew as a kid who reacted to that song the way I did. It opened up my world a bit, and if that didn’t happen knowingly for everyone, it did make them shake their ass, which is a damn fine start.

The conversation picks up with Edgers in his home office talking about a Clash podcast narrated by Chuck D, and how the timeline for how music changed from the 60s to the 80s moves so briskly. You can find him on Facebook and Twitter, read his work in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/geoff-edgers/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><em>The Washington Post</em></a> and <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/queryResult/search?q=geoff+edgers" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><em>The Boston Globe</em></a>, and find <em>Walk This Way</em> at <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/walk-this-way-geoff-edgers/1128863598" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DH82B7R/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.powells.com/book/-9780735212237" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Powell’s Books</a>, and all the hippest booksellers.

This week’s featured track, “Something Good About Love” by <a href="https://natfreedberg.bandcamp.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Nat Freedberg</a>. Some of you might know Nat better as Lord Bendover from <a href="https://www.theuppercrust.org/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Upper Crust</a>, <a href="http://nickzaino.com/departmentoftangents/2017/06/09/dot-podcast-ep32-frippery-and-foppery-with-the-upper-crust-aunty-donna-invades-america-and-comedy-from-ali-wong/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">guest on EP32 of the Department of Tangents Podcast</a> and hard-hitting purveyors of rocque n’ roll who performed for years in their powdered wigs and finery. Freedberg has taken off the golden coat, but he still wields his Gibson SG, and he has put out an incredibly tasty solo album called <a href="https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/better-late-than-never" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><em>Better Late Than Never</em></a>. I don’t want to give too much away before next week’s episode, when you can hear about the Crust and this, Freedberg’s first solo album in nearly forty years of recording music. But your homework is to listen to it in full, with all of its wonderful surprises, so you can full enjoy the episode.