Thursday, July 21, 2011

Tiny excerpts from Hodgman's THAT IS ALL

On Twitter, Hodgman has been posting quotes from his future best-selling book, That Is All.

Here are some:

HOUDINI HIMSELF taps him on the shoulder. “Is this what you’re looking for?” he says, holding aloft the key to the sardine tin. #thatisallMay 31 via web Favorite Retweet Reply



"Prominent Ragnarok denier Dr. Elliot Kalan writes: “OK, I admit it. A giant squid with a human mouth just crushed my house." #thatissomeMay 31 via web Favorite Retweet Reply



"Several “typical American families” would be drugged, frozen, and stored in the geodesic freeze-sphere at EPCOT's center" #thatissome@hodgman May 31 via web Favorite Retweet Reply



"The Washington Monument is finally found, hiding behind the moon." #thatissome@hodgman May 31 via web Favorite Retweet Reply



"There is a local legend that teenagers used to break into the cabin at night for nausea parties" #thatissome@hodgman May 31 via web Favorite Retweet Reply



"I know it's complex so let me explain. The helicopter is a vehicle that achieves flight by rapidly twisting gravity" #thatissomeMay 31 via web Favorite Retweet Reply

Friday, July 1, 2011

New Hodgman interview plus moustache update

John Hodgman has done an interview with The Onion's A.V. Club for its "Random Roles" column. He answers questions about his roles as an actor (in Coraline, The Invention Of Lying, the 2011 remake of Arthur, and the television shows Battlestar Galactica and Bored to Death) and the making of his new movie The Best and the Brightest.

More importantly, he sheds new light on what the deal is with his 'stache in his answer to questions about working with the Bored to Death crew:
They give me everything I need to work with comedically, and from a writerly point of view, it's fun to connect the dots and say, "Who is the person behind all of these wild emotional swings?" And it kind of wasn't until I grew a mustache that I figured it out. I think that's true for a lot of men who grow mustaches, about a lot of things. The mustache is an affectation that I grew as a joke, and then just sort of enjoyed, and it allows me to really embrace wholeheartedly the idea of affectedness, and affectations in one's personality. [...] I really think it fits with the kind of derangement that you have to go through when you are confronting your mortality at the age of 40. So I will keep it as long as America will allow me to keep it. [...] So far, people have been very tolerant of it. But I'm not going to get tied down. Maybe I'll shave it off tomorrow, I don't know.


Further reading: