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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 EP100: J. Edwin Buja On His Debut Novel, King of the Wood, Plus New Music from TC&I (formerly of XTC)

DoT EP100: J. Edwin Buja On His Debut Novel, King of the Wood, Plus New Music from TC&I (formerly of XTC)

Aug 1, 2019

This is episode 100 of the podcast, and I thought about doing some sort of compilation of previous interviews, as I’ve done a couple of times in the past, to commemorate that. I decided against that for a couple of reasons. First, I haven’t accomplished everything I want to with this podcast yet, so it’s not time to celebrate. Hopefully, that comes later. Second, I have so many great interviews waiting to be released, I couldn’t see delaying any of them by a week. And third, this week’s interview is representative of one of my goals with the Department of Tangents, which is helping to amplify the good works of independent artists, whether they are musicians, comedians, authors, filmmakers, or work in a visual medium. And J. Edwin Buja fits that goal perfectly.

I recorded this at the 2019 NECON conference, the same place I recorded last year’s David Wellington interview. NECON is part horror conference, part summer camp. People get to know each other there, whether they are horror writers, cover artists, publishers, or just fans. J. Edwin Buja has been a regular at NECON for years, but this year, things were a little different. Buja has written about technology for a living and released a couple of children’s books, but he has always attended NECON as a fan and friend, not a writer. This July, he released his debut novel, book one of his new series, King of the Wood, and he has a short story in the Wicked Weird collection slated for release in August. King of the Wood created a buzz at NECON, and Buja had a seat at the author’s reception, signing his own newly-printed work.

It’s an ambitious horror novel, taking place in a small town that’s about to be best by a religious cult and a malevolent nature spirit. That’s in addition to the troubles planned by a corrupt town official who is trying to create his own little fiefdom. And it all starts when the protagonist, Tom, finds someone tied to a tree outside of his picturesque home on a hill. Not a big deal, usually, since people have been doing that as a prank for years. This time, the victim is dead, and the scene is more gruesome than whimsical. You’ll hear in the conversation everything that went into writing and revising book one, and the plans for book two, as well as Buja’s experience as a first-time novelist at NECON. The new book is King of the Wood, published by Haverhill House Publishing, which you can find at <a href="http://www.haverhillhouse.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">haverhillhouse.com</a> on the Web. Watch this space for future episodes taped at NECON with authors Scott Goudsward and Matt Moore.

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TC&I is a reunion of singer/bassist Colin Moulding and drummer Terry Chambers, who released an EP called Great Aspirations in 2017. Their new album, out August 9, is Naked Flames: Live at Swindon Arts Centre. There are plenty of great XTC songs on the album, but this week’s featured track is one of the new songs from the EP, “Scatter Me.” The song is beautiful, lyrically and musically, a sort of metaphysical consideration of what happens to us after we die and those we leave behind. The CD is called Naked Flames and can be purchased exclusively through the Burning Shed Web site at burningshed.com once it’s available on August 9. Unfortunately, it looks like there are no further plans for the band to record or tour at this time, but based on the quality of this tune, I hope that changes, the sooner the better.