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In this, the second episode recorded before a live audience in Missoula, Montana, Ed and John chat with Seattle writer, teacher, and baker Kate Lebo, author of A Commonplace Book of Pie, and fiction writer and essayist Robert Stubblefield. Ed wonders what it would be like to have money, John recalls writing entire novels during other people's smoke breaks, and Robert finally did bring us the pears the following day.
In the first of two episodes taped before a live audience in Missoula, Montana, Ed and John are joined by novelist Andrew Sean Greer, then discuss the precursor of internet pornography, what money should look like, the greatest natural line break ever spoken, field roast, and a variety of simultaneously metaphysical and scatalogical topics.
This week, Ed and John express amused dismay at Canadian novelist David Gilmour's awful interview on the Random House blog. They also discuss the effect a single ten-minute saxophone note has on a poetry reading, the brutal murder of the Chipwich, the soysage deception, and their respective weekend trips to Seattle and New York. Follow links to the Gilmour piece, circular breathing, the It's-It, the Chipwich, Wegmans Don't Be Piggy Meatless Sausage Style Crumbles, and the lady who plays a goat.
Ed and John are back from Seattle with a plan to spread the good news about YouTube's viral non-hit "What Kind of Eggs You Like?" They also talk about the relationship, if any, among pop Oceans, whether "Christian" and "Out-and-Proud" are moods, angry Quakers, and the perils of defending poetry. Follow links to the world's greatest YouTube video, Kevin Young's essay "Deadism", Donald Barthleme's "The first thing the baby did wrong…", Marc Maron's WTF podcast, and the new Starry Mountain Sweetheart Band album.
This week, Ed and John do it live in front of a double-digit crowd at Seattle's Bumbershoot music festival. Guests include pedal steel guitarist Abilene Slim, poet Matthew Dickman, and poet and food writer Sarah Galvin. Featuring many dirty jokes, reviews of festival food, funny and disturbing poems, English lords, and musical excursions. We apologize for the massively overloaded recording here—the talking sounds good but the music, sadly, is distorted. We'll try to get it right in Missoula next month.
John's mad because some guy is exhibiting excessive fussiness about something John sold him over the internet. Ed is having a lovely time writing poems that make sense. Both are very, very clear on what they intend to wear during their live podcast in Seattle this weekend. Follow links to hot pixels, Fifty Shades of Greyhound, and the official uniform of Lunch Box Live.
This week, Ed and John come clean about their impending live-on-stage recording of Lunch Box at Bumbershoot, Seattle's annual arts festival. They also discuss the USPS plot to divest themselves of unwanted obsolete packaging, the New Orleans real estate system, the poetry of Larry King, and the eating of goat. Follow links to the USPS rebranding, Larry King's Two Cents, the Downieville, CA Mountain Messenger, a lost Shakespeare play, the lost ficiton of Shirley Jackson, Chicago's Girl and the Goat, and some books by Ruth Salvaggio, Dave Gilbert, and Andy Greer.
John's feeling frisky and Ed is totally over his fire evacuation. So they liken John's career to a stationary train of cabooses, discuss humiliating themselves in order to sell books, recontextualize fleeting experience as a work of art, and read some poems out loud. Follow links to the horrors cats are put through for the creation of inspirational posters, Anakana Schofield's article on the media's view of writers, what a palimpsest actually is, Patricia Lockwood's "Rape Joke", and Richard Siken's "Boot Theory".
Ed tries and fails to curb the goofy as john tries and fails to stop sweating. They talk about the horrors of Las Vegas (which means "The Ladies"), the difference between a flaneur and a frotteur, stupid hashtags, and babyproofing, and they come up with not one but two million-dollar ideas. Follow links to Aimee Mann's "I've Had It,"Ebbets Field Flannels, and The House of David.
After a month-long breather, Ed and John are back with tales of the brats of Yellowstone, the anthill of shame, missing shoestrings, near-drownings, kitchenware that has lived outdoors, and birthday cake. Follow links to piecaken, Johnny Campbell and the Bluegrass Drifters, David Gilbert's & Sons, and Rebecca Hoogs's Self-Storage.
This week, John confesses that he has given up writing in favor of flower gardening, and explains why he is too lazy to get the lawnmower fixed, but not so lazy that he won't dig up 300 square feet of sod over four days. Ed explains the origins of Steely Dan's name and shares some favorite rock and roll movies, and the story of the drunken Christian intruder is told, as well as the tale of the zombie car. Follow links to Jackyl's "The Lumberjack", a documentary about the making of Aja, the trailer for Howdy, Montana, something about the movie Via Okinawa, and something about the movie Lovedolls Superstar, which has a good soundtrack, but is not an especially good movie.
In the wake of a podcast so grim that they didn't even bother to air it, Ed and John are back to discuss Amazon customer comments, dancing babies, the proper pronunciation of "GIF", why all songs should ask questions, why Syria is turning Ed into a vegetarian, and some new book recommendations. Follow links to Amazon's new triboob HQ, the terrible arrogance of Steve Wilhite, Ask a Midlist Author, Elisa Gabbert on Twitter, and Adam Hines's Duncan the Wonder Dog.
Ed and John settle in for a nice long chat about John's tendency to enter into interpersonal conflicts and the quirks of his teenage children. Ed explains why you get mad when you bump your head, and then shares a little country wisdom. He also performs a dramatic reading of the Hibbards' Corner Community Center summer music schedule. Follow links to Ernst Jünger's The Glass Bees,Hibbards' Corner Newsletter, and Frank Clark, the Country Parson.
Alice Bolin returns to the show to talk with Ed and John about nail art and other handicrafts, the dangers of flirting with nerdy boys, when not to help a girl who has fallen on the sidewalk, having librarians for parents, pressure cooking, and how to properly dislike things. Follow links to John's detractor at the Chicago Tribune, the nail polish of Pretty Little Liars, James Wood's review of the Rachel Kushner book, Good Eats with Alton Brown, and the new novel from Urban Waite. We apologize for the crackling on John's track, no idea how that happened. It didn't sound that way at the time.
Ed and John crumple newspaper whilst discussing situations made just for you, the Mikado, the difficulty in killing a man, horsey money, and the difference between Flannery O'Connor and Bil Keane. Then they analyze the comics and Ed changes a diaper. Follow links to the Logo programming language, the lyrics to "Flea Brain" and "Chicken Payback", and Jonny Hart's religiosity.
Ed and John are back after a travel hiatus and get back into the swing of things with a conversation about dinner parties good and bad, cheeselike shreds, pipe smoking, the Phelps family of Topeka, KS, literary sanctimony, and more. Follow links to the Dickens Character Name Generator, magnetic putty, the rainbow house, the Korean monster movie The Host, Daiya Cheddar Shredzzzz, and books by Rachel Kushner, Alice Notley, and Karl Knausgaard.
This week Ed takes John on a tour of the latchhook art in his house; then they discuss John's recent essay on Salon.com suggesting that contemporary literature is boring, and that young writers should read less of it, and watch more TV instead. Also, John talks about feeling sentimental after a rock show, and Ed describes his dream wherein a statue is erected in honor of his failure and he is called an "untalented blimp." Follow links to John's essay, Walter de Maria's "Meaningless Work", The Comedy, Bennett Sims'sA Questionable Shape, and NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names.
This week Ed and John are joined by Jeremy Holt, guru of knife care, pressure cooking, and seventies soft rock. Follow links, lots of them, to La Caja China, Topeka's Top of the Tower, Punk Rawk Labs, Delonghi toaster ovens, Ambrosi Brothers Cutlery, menudo, Fagor pressure cookers, Donny and Joe Emerson's "Baby", Blondie Chaplin's 1977 solo album, Barbara Keith's "Detroit or Buffalo", and KISS on the Jerry Lewis telethon.
Ed and John hit an important kiriban with episode 25 and celebrate by talking about books on tape, wide shoes, gala dining, brunch, brupper, and the proper ingredients for the Tardy Leprechaun (sloe gin and pickle juice). Follow links to Northlake Tavern & Pizza, Voula's Offshore Café, Wide Shoes Only, Split Lip Rayfield, and Maw.
On this Very Special Episode of the podcast, Ed and John steal an abandoned booth at the 2013 AWP Conference in Boston, MA and converse live and in person before an unwitting audience of thousands. Many unexpected guests happen by. Hilarity ensues. (AWP photo by Robb Cohen stolen off the internet.)