Pedantry, Pedantry, Whimsy, Self-Deprication

What a difference a shift makes.

I’m not really sure how I underwent such an about face in the space of four hours. Actually I am fairly sure, and I am about to provide you with a meandering and long-winded account of the occurrences that led up to my fall from contentment.

I was pleased this morning to receive two items of correspondence that were of worth, rather than the vapid, unwanted spam that usually peppers the entrance portal of my domain. They were both related to money, specifically the aspect of money pertaining to my ownership of some. This is good news, as there is a particularly spiffing hat I wish to make purchase of. According to Mr Bill Gates ‘spiffing’ is not an actual word, and I feel it is my duty to redirect you here in order to substantiate my rather antiquated choice of adjective.

Since now I am, as they say in The Hollywood, in the money, I hastily made purchase of an album I had had my sights on for awhile, No Torso’s Several Brains. I originally picked up a few of their tracks when they allowed them to be downloaded for free on MySpace, back when it wasn’t a grievous faux pas to have such an address in your browser. The tracks were Fight the Blue Horizon and Fatal Fraud, and appear on the album, though Fatal Fraud has undergone radical sonic surgery since I originally heard it. For me Fight the Blue Horizon is by far the best track on the album, though this choice is likely slightly biased, as it is the track I was the most familiar with from beforehand, even serving a brief stint as my ringtone. Not many of the other tracks instantly endear themselves, though they seem considered and nuanced enough to warrant proper and repeated listens, rather than a snap write-off, especially considering I only bought the album today.

On the way into work I listened to the Precious Little Podcast, a spanking new baby making its way into the podcasting world. It features comedian and all-round angry man Michael Legge and also James Hingley, who from what I can glean with my far-from-Holmesian abilities is a good-comedy enthusiast. A trend I’ve noticed in my preferred podcasts of late, notably including The Collings and Herrin Podcast and also The Trap Sodcasts, is the habit of the podcasteers to declare “No one will have made it this far”, suggesting that due to the perceived awfulness of the recording everyone will have stopped listening. This isn’t the case, as at the absolute least, I am still listening. So I would suggest that either this line is dropped or is amended with “except for Adam Gilder, who is such a tenacious listener he will most definitely be listening”. They’ve nothing to lose, as at the point that that is uttered, it’ll only be me listening. I am hoping that it will catch on in a “Who Is John Galt?” style, where people will utter “It’s like speaking to Adam Gilder”.

Actually, thinking about this, I have been found to be ‘Best Listener’ through a consensus of my peers, as proven here:


I am also voted the ‘Best Sense of Humor’, and I am equally pleased and displeased with this vote: pleased to have my good humour acknowledged, displeased to have it misspelled. I’m also uncertain with the ‘Best Sense of Humour’ as this isn’t the same as ‘Funniest’, it seems to suggest that I cannot write a joke, but I can bloody appreciate the fuck out of one. So perhaps the gentlemen of Precious Little will be heartened to know that their podcast was received with enjoyment from this comedy nerd. Like a rabid Gremlin fed after midnight, I eagerly await more. That analogy doesn’t really work as Gremlins aren’t famed for waiting patiently.

I do find it quite sinister that the other aspect that is considered most notable of me is that I am ‘useful’. I am unsure what use these people believe they have for me, and it is almost certain that I will not enjoy their nefarious plans.

Since there were no news stories that sparked my curiosity, I spent roughly three hours reading entries in the Chortle forums, which I wrongly believed would not suffer from the forum-based-idiocy of every other forum. I believe it was Elis James who first alerted me to the process called a ‘Brain-Wrong’, and this extensive reading of forum entries certainly fits this category. Apart from the very occasional sensible and engaging entries (usually from Steve Bennett, Bethany Black, Paul Sinha or Wil Hodgson) there is such a huge mountain of idiocy, all the colours of the cuntbow. Whichever your bigotry of choice, you are provided for. There is a strong counter-current of rational entries fighting the tide, but some people refuse to understand. It was this slew of what I will tentatively call ‘bad vibes’ that put me into such a sour mood, alongside a child of 11 asking me how to spell ‘changer’. Like change, but with an R on the end. How do you spell change? D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-N-G.

The ignorant forum entries highlighted such a huge difference of world view between myself and the posters, I had to wonder whether it was actually the same world that we inhabit. This topic is dealt far more wonderfully by Daniel Kitson, whose podcasting techniques I cannot fathom but utterly adore. Mr Kitson must be possessed by some strange madness, as he has opted to release some of his old Edinburgh shows for free in podcast form. I’m unsure as to why he opts not to get in touch with gofasterstripe, as this tag team of comedy production and distribution would cap the decade off wonderfully, in my opinion. Regardless, I am overjoyed to partake of these shows for free, and I will be intellectually self-medicating with deconstruction, deconstruction, deconstruction, whimsy and callback in order to cure myself of the forum-induced brain haemorrhage I have suffered. Kitson is the antithesis of internet posters, which makes this blog entry so very bittersweet, as I aim to poorly pay homage to his work, using the medium of idiocy.

Bum.