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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.

  1. All Episodes
  2. Department of Tangents Minicast: Interview Flashback with Television guitarist Richard Lloyd

Department of Tangents Minicast: Interview Flashback with Television guitarist Richard Lloyd

Apr 28, 2016

Some of my most enjoyable interviews have happened when I don't ask too many questions. The subject has so much to say, it just pours out and I have to time the pauses like an American Ninja Warrior leaping across an obstacle course to ask a question. It was such with guitarist Richard Lloyd, best known for his pioneering work with the band Television and as an occasional  sideman for Matthew Sweet. This interview from November 2008 was a wonderful learning experience. I admitted right off that I was new to Television and playing catch up, and Lloyd was delighted to hear it. We started off talking a bit about his days in Boston, and quickly moved to addiction, moderation, and then eventually, some great stuff on the beginnings of Television, how they were almost managed by Sex Pistols empresario Malcolm McClaren, and how Colonel Tom Park used to get sideshow chickens to dance. This is about twenty minutes of a conversation that spanned an hour and a half. Post in the comments if you're interested in hearing the rest.