Hodgman essay on Massachusetts

Someone asked a bunch of writers to each write an essay about one of the 50 States for a collection called State by State.
John Hodgman was one of those writers, and he wrote a really nifty essay about Massachusetts. Here is an excerpt:

Boston has much to offer any visitor. There is of course a fine symphony orchestra, world-famous universities, and the Mother Church of Christian Science, which has a truly boss reflecting pool. However, if you do not like sports, Boston does not have much to offer you. The local sports teams –– which I am told are the Baseball Red Sox, the Football Patriots, the Basketball Celtics, the Hockey Bears, and of course the famous Boston Lobsters of the World Tennis Team League –– are an obsession.

When a game is on, it will be broadcast in every bar, home, and taxi cab. I once frequented an eccentric coffeehouse in a small town in western Massachusetts. It hosted literary readings and served vegetarian food and a small selection of wines. I loved it. It had a small TV that showed only a closed circuit feed of the baby eagles that had recently been hatched at a local bird sanctuary (which seemed perfectly reasonable to me). Unless there was a Red Sox game on, in which case, sports would preempt baby eagles.

In the finest restaurant the waiter will be checking the scores and passing the news of the game between the busboy in the kitchen and the Harvard professor at the table. The professor will tell you that, in a city largely stratified by class, race, and ethnicity, sports erases all those distinctions and reminds us of our common humanity and reties, season by season, the frayed threads that hold our community together. He will probably be wearing a baseball hat as he says it, one of those good-quality, fitted jobs. And if you tell this academic that you don't happen to like sports, he will ask what is wrong with you. And then he will punch you in the face.

The essay wanders across the history of Massachusetts, weaving in personal anecdotes in true Hodgmanic style. Hodgman fans will enjoy this essay.

What Road Runner cartoons can teach us about the Hodgman Mac/PC commercials

In a brilliant explanation of why it makes sense for Hodgman's "PC" character to be so much more likable than Justin Long's "Mac" character, the Fishbowl blog points out that the PC character is analogous to Wile E. Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons. This may be seen by considering the writer's rules for all Coyote and Road Runner cartoons:

1. Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going “beep, beep”.
2. No outside force can harm the Coyote—only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products.
3. The Coyote could stop anytime—if he was not a fanatic. (Repeat: “A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.” —George Santayana).
4. No dialogue ever, except “beep, beep”.
5. Road Runner must stay on the road—for no other reason than that he's a roadrunner.
6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters—the southwest American desert.
7. All tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.
8. Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy.
9. The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.
10. The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote.
11. The Coyote is not allowed to catch the road runner.

Awesome new Hodgman THAT IS ALL video

Hodgman's new book, THAT IS ALL, comes out November 1st.

The media blitz starts today though with this tremendously fun video:

THAT IS ALL from John Hodgman

Hodgman as Steve Jobs

Back in 2007, when John Hodgman was regularly playing the PC in the "Get a Mac" ads, Apple decided to kick off the Steve Jobs keynote for a developer's conference with a little video featuring Hodgman:



That was the best camera angle on the video I could find, but it fails to capture the rest of the event. I've adjusted this next one to start toward the end of the Hodgman part and then show Jobs coming on stage and starting his talk:

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After the news of Steve Jobs' death, Hodgman posted the following on Twitter:

Thank you, Steve. Oct 06 via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply

Everything good I have done, I have done on a Mac. Oct 06 via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply

That is all.

Old Hodgman audio Interview

My great uncle once tried to give me an old copy of The People's Almanac by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace. He told me about it as I leafed through it. It was a randomly ordered collection of information and, I gradually realized, thinly veiled Communist propaganda. (The title was kind of a big hint.) My great uncle had apparently never realized this and had, in fact, used it for years to help my cousin write reports for school.

Little did I know at the time that The People's Almanac (and other books by the same crew, most chiefly The Book of Lists) were primary inspirations for John Hodgman's books. But I know it now because I listened to this interview Hodgman once did with Jesse Thorn on The Sound of Young America. In it, Hodgman talks about writing his first book, how writing his second book was a much different experience, and a few of his thoughts on his then-distant (now imminent!) third book.

Hodgman and Jesse Thorn also discuss Hodgman's emerging Judge John Hodgman routine (then just a segment on the Jordan, Jesse Go! podcast). Hodgman complains that they don't have enough cases!

I enjoyed this interview and recommend it. Again, you can find the mp3 of the interview here.

Hodgman's appearance at MakerFaire, streaming live September 17th, 2011

If my calculations are correct, Hodgman's first reading from his new book will be streamed online, TODAY (Saturday, September 17th) from 2pm-2:30pm.

The official schedule says:

Are Magic Tricks Really Magic?

JOHN HODGMAN shall present information on THE SECRETS OF FAMOUS MAGIC TRICKS from his forthcoming book of FINAL WORLD KNOWLEDGE entitled
THAT IS ALL.

Go to the Maker Faire home page and the streaming video from Fora.tv is right there!

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Pre-order THAT IS ALL from Amazon.

Book tour for Hodgman's THAT IS ALL announced

On Hodgman's blog, he recently announced the coming of his new book, titled THAT IS ALL.

Hodgman has a book tour scheduled. He announced it like this:

TO BRING YOU THE FINAL WORLD KNOWLEDGE, I will be traveling the future wasteland known as the UNITED STATES with copies of the books, words to read from it, and occasional guests of note. While some details are still emerging, here is the basic outline of THE END IS NIGH TOUR, 2011.

Here are the dates that have been announced on his blog, with updated information:

Pre-tour appearance

BETHLEHEM, PA

October 18th; 7:30pm

Zoellner Art Center
Lehigh University
$12 or free for Lehigh students

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BROOKLYN, NY

Tuesday, November 1st; 8pm-11pm

The Bell House - Buy Tickets at $30 each.

This is Coulton's only appearance!
Other guests: Paul Rudd, Wyatt Cenac, David Rees, and Cynthia Hopkins

CHICAGO, IL

Wednesday, November 2nd; time TK

Second City

Guests include Malort and Peter Sagal (cancelled)
Call 312-337-3992 for tickets ($27).

ST. LOUIS, MO

Thursday, November 3rd; 7:00 PM

Mad Art Gallery / Subterranean Books
2727 South 12th Street, St Louis MO
Buy Tickets

LOS ANGELES, CA

Friday, November 4th; 8:30 PM (doors open at 7)

Largo at the Coronet / Book Soup

366 North La Cienega Boulevard
Guests include Paul F. Tompkins, John Roderick, and Rich Sommer

Tickets = $35
PORTLAND, OR

Sunday, November 6th; 7:00 PM

Bagdad Theater / Powell’s

3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland
Guests = John Roderick + others
Tickets = $25

SEATTLE, WA

Monday, November 7th; 7:30 PM

Town Hall / Elliott Bay

119 8th Avenue
Guest = John Roderick
Tickets=$25

AUSTIN, TX

Tuesday, November 8th; 7:00 PM

Book People (in-store) details (only a few tickets available November 1st for $25 $28 or you can skulk stand in the back for $5 free!)

603 North Lamar
Guest = Neal Pollack
Entertainment = moustache contest

DURHAM, NC

Wednesday, November 9th; 7:30 PM

Durham Armory / Regulator Bookshop

220 Foster Street
Guest=David Rees
$25 tickets

ASHEVILLE, NC

Friday, November 11th; 7 PM

Asheville Community Theater / Malaprop’s

35 East Walnut Street
Guest list pending
$30 tickets

NEW YORK, NY

Monday, November 14th; 7:00 PM

Barnes & Noble – Union Square

33 East 17th St
No tickets. Just show up and voluntarily show your support for Hodgman by buying THAT IS ALL.

BOSTON, MA

Tuesday, November 15th; 6:00 PM

Coolidge Theater / Brookline Booksmith
290 Harvard Street
Tickets are $5 each (except the first one is actually $25 because it comes with a copy of THAT IS ALL) and will be available at the Booksmith (279 Harvard Street) or by calling 617.566.6660 or by clicking here

With Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

ST. PAUL, MN

Friday, November 18th; 8pm

The Fitzgerald Theater / Minnesota Public Radio “Wits Extra”

Guests: John Darnielle, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett
$23/25 tickets do not include a copy of the book

I will update this list as I get better information.

All but one of these (probably the Austin appearance) require a ticket to get in (due, no doubt, to how much Hodgman's popularity has grown since his last book tour), but in such case, the price of the ticket always includes a copy of the book (except in Minnesota, where it includes the price of admission to a public radio show).

If you have the opportunity to see him on this tour, I strongly recommend that you do so. He puts on quite a show.

But for those who can't attend one of his appearances, he has announced that he is going to hold Skype office hours over the Internet. Yes, really.

Also from his follow-up post:

please know that, due to the complexity of the Sam Pottsian design of THAT IS ALL–including charts, tables, photographs of human tongues and Cyclopses, and a TODAY IN RAGNAROK page-a-day calendar–there shall be:

NO ELECTRONIC EDITION

…until we figure out how to make one IN THE FUTURE.

And the earliest that the audio adaptation might emerge is 2012, though it's more likely to be 2013.

UPDATE: Hodgman's reupdated tour schedule

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Pre-order THAT IS ALL from Amazon.