Humor And The Abject Podcast

New York poet Peter BD is about to release a new mixtape, “Milk & Henny,” a follow-up to his 2018 book of the same name from Inpatient Press. Peter and I connected to talk about accidentally channeling Jack Handy, his broad animal care skills, the “Milk & Henny” origin story, writing in Gmail drafts, studying biology, JC Chasez, inadvertently becoming an alt-lit darling, collaborating with musicians and other writers, writing stories about people and emailing them to them, actually liking “The Corrections,” tall people, our first cars, and The Narrows. He also participated in a new game, and even let me leak a couple of his new tracks. The outro song is “Reading Rainbow” from his forthcoming mixtape. Buy the "Milk & Henny" book here: https://inpatientpress.bigcartel.com/product/milk-henny-by-peter-bd

Dena Winter, FKA May Waver, is an artist and production designer known for her audiovisual explorations of intimacy, environment, memory, and selfhood in the so-called digital age. She joins Humor and the Abject this week from the frozen tundras of her home in St. Paul, MN to talk about the advent of her online alter ego May Waver, the value of tenderness in art and life, self and ego, perceptions of authenticity, working in set design for stage and the big screen including a new movie she’s part of called “American Tender,” life in the Twin Cities, and more. Halfway through the episode, you’ll hear the Custom Sound Collage for November’s Patreon Lottery winner, Jacob W. For a chance to win your own, support Humor and the Abject on Patreon. The outro music is “Mall of America” by Desaparecidos.

Are you feeling experimental? I am. On this week’s episode, I’m trying out something that I hope to do more of in the future: writers reading their work. To break the ice, I’ve opted to offer myself up as the sacrificial lamb and read two pieces of my own. The first, “Jalipaz Kirkham: In Profile,” is something I wrote for the release event of poet Peter BD’s book “Milk & Henny” last spring. The second is a very, very stupid piece of erotic fiction about Westworld titled “Have We Met Before?” that I read at a comedy night called Into the Woods, organized by Ari Richter, this past summer. If you just want to hear one or the other in the future, these are the timestamps: 04:40 — “Jalipaz Kirkham: In Profile” 20:57 — “Have We Met Before?” The outro music is “Fiction” by Joni Mitchell. I’m currently open to requests for writers I’ve had on the podcast that you’d like to hear read their work and get the Humor and the Abject audio environment treatment.

Darcie, Sean, and Azikiwe are back for another podcast-within-the-podcast, and this time they’re talking about cheese—and animals! The outro music is “Cheese Roll Call” from Pinky and the Brain.

Photographer Matthew Leifheit’s most recent body of work, “Fire Island Night,” is on view at Deli Gallery in Brooklyn through December 2nd. He joined Humor and the Abject this week to talk about his independent photo journal MATTE, trying to maintain a practice while juggling multiple adjunct teaching gigs, the importance of building trust and allowing for coincidence in photography, his years as photo editor at VICE, a three-month stint on Fire Island in the pursuit of his latest project, looking to the future while archiving the past, still working with film, generational shifts in queer communities, and more. We’re occasionally joined by his dog, Debbie Harry. The outro music is “Raw Deal” by Judas Priest. View documentation from Matthew’s “Fire Island Night” here: https://www.matthewleifheit.com/fire-island-night/

Joshua Citarella has a phenomenal new book out, "UNTITLED (Post-Left Politigram)," that you can read an excerpt from via his website linked below. It’s a collection of his research, writing, and artwork over several years related to accelerated political identities in adolescent online culture. He joins from his efficiency living unit in New York City this week to talk about his involvement with historically notorious Tumblr art collective the Jogging, accidental audiences, the not-yet-readymades he designed with Brad Troemel for Etsy under the banner of Ultraviolet Production House, startling overlaps between rightwing doomsday preppers and rooftop gardening Pinterest libs, freelance purgatory, Deftones, not getting an MFA, the byzantine philosophies of politically-radical Instagram posters, reading “Ishmael” once, and photography. The outro music is “Hearts Frozen Solid, Thawed Once More By The Spring Of Rage, Despair And Hopelessness” by AFI. About halfway through the episode, you’ll hear the first Custom

Fresh off her solo exhibition, “Utopia Without You” at Williamson | Knight in Portland, OR, artist Tabitha Nikolai linked up with me to talk Nightcore, earnest rites of suburban occult, post-cataclysmic world-building, junk food asteroids, crust punk elves in the Pacific Northwest, a general malaise with liberalism and prescriptive visibility, isolation and the gamer's den, her fictitious corporation called Dynamic Horizons Limited, upgrade culture, planned and perceived obsolescence, cosplay and D&D, performative allyship in art institutions and gallery spaces, and growing up in Utah. The outro music is Don McClean’s “The Flight of Dragons (Nightcore Remix).” Humor and the Abject just migrated over from Drip to Patreon. Subscribe today for just $3/mo: https://www.patreon.com/humorandtheabject Check out Tabitha’s website here: https://tabithanikolai.com/ See images from “Utopia Without You” here: https://www.williamsonknight.com/tabitha-nikolai/

New York comedian and artist Alex Schmidt has a solo exhibition, “Group Fail Pony Play,” on view through October 28th at Leslie-Lohman Museum. We connected this week to talk about her Midwest roots, loving queer culture enough to satirize it, why they don’t make movies about Chicago anymore, what constitutes an actual family reunion, how breaking a horse is a metaphor for dom/sub relationships, creating IRL spaces for queer connections of all stripes from love to skillshares, her band Las Thumbelinas, pop-up dyke bars, teaching improv to diverse communities, and the upcoming event she’s co-organizing at Leslie-Lohman with Black + Pink on Thursday, October 25th. The outro music is “Willie” by Las Thumbelinas. Learn more about the October 25th event, and RSVP, here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-pink-orientation-and-pen-pal-matching-tickets-50081283467

Philly comic Kyle Harris visited Austin recently for a gig at Altercation Comedy Fest. He kindly made time to join me in the kitchen for an historic meeting of the minds that examines his dislike of not only his chosen art form, but also the city that he calls home. We chatted about sleep paralysis, Good Good Comedy (the only good thing in Philly, according to him), mayonnaise versus Miracle Whip, his sketch group Darlings, the tourism industry, honky tonks, his Boston origin story, his lady’s-man uncle, food cuckolding, The Flintstones live-action film, and hypothetical sculpture. The outro song is “Voicemails” by Yung K. Support Humor and the Abject for a chance to win an original, personalized sound collage at: http://d.rip/humorandthebject

The DSA Podcast is back and bicoastal! If you count the Gulf of Mexico as one of the two coasts, that is. Your trusted hosts—Darcie, Sean, and Azikiwe—are back after a brief hiatus to bring you all the hottest takes on things that have almost no impact on your everyday life. And it’s the introduction of a brand new game never before played on the pod. The outro music is “Jumpers” by Sleater-Kinney.

Austin writer and director Yen Tan released a powerful film this year, “1985.” It tells the story of Adrian, a young man living through the HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York who returns home for the holidays to his conservative Texas family. Yen dropped by the kitchen to talk about the development and production of the film, telling every day stories poetically, being an independent filmmaker in Austin, his previous feature projects, and his incredible graphic design work for other directors. The outro music is “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” by U2 from the “Batman Forever” soundtrack. Find out where you can see “1985” on the film’s website: http://1985thefilm.com/

It’s time for some sound art. Don’t read below unless you’ve actually listened to this entire thing. LOL. 02:00 - AFI - Miss Murder 05:15 - Gorilaz - Feel Good Inc 08:55 - Oasis - Wonderwall 13:00 - Misfits - Hybrid Moments 14:34 - At the Drive-In - One Armed Scissor 18:17 - The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps 23:03 - HIM - Right Here in My Arms 26:49 - 311 - Beautiful Disaster 30:45 - Nirvana - Lake of Fire 33:08 - Green Day - Welcome to Paradise 36:49 - NOFX - Linoleum 38:49 - Weezer - Say It Ain’t So 43:00 - Dio - Holy Diver 47:43 - Blur - Song 2 49:42 - Better Than Ezra - Good 52:47 - Black Sabbath - Paranoid 55:30 - Maroon 5 - Harder to Breathe 58:21 - Ellie Goulding - Lights 61:35 - Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal 65:00 - Fastball - The Way

Los Angeles comedian and non-fine-dining guru Danny Palumbo, a Prodigal Son of Austin, returned to town this weekend for a couple of headlining dates at the Velveeta Room. He dropped by Humor and the Abject to talk about his new food podcast Meatball Party, living in Los Angeles, cooking across a spectrum of kitchens, high concept online food pranks, that time he appeared on America’s Got Talent, his brother who I still think doesn’t exist, 9/11 in Texas, toxic masculinity in grill culture, Ratatouille, poetic ways of stealing from your boss, shucking oysters, and more. The outro song is “Le Festin” by Camille from the Ratatouille soundtrack. See Danny’s upcoming dates around the US here: http://www.palumbros.com/new-page/ Check out his fake restaurant concepts here: http://lilbuco.com/ http://www.abbrevsrestaurant.com/ http://cucinaconfusion.com/

Photographer Oliver Leach, notorious as BAKOON on Twitter, joins Humor and the Abject over Skype this week all the way from San Francisco. We talked about his love of horror, rent-controlled apartments, his weird photographic processes, teratoma twins, Texas beef, circumventing the gallery system and selling directly to his audience on Twitter, prank phone calls, a bunch of comic books and movies I’ve never heard of, bullying the bullies on the alt-right, and even more photography. Make sure to follow Oliver on Twitter, and check out his reasonably-priced artwork at http://oliverleach.com/. The outro song is “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” by Fantômas.

Happy Art and Labor Day! On this week’s episode, I connected with artists and art workers OK Fox and Lucia Love, hosts of the excellent podcast Art and Labor out of New York. We talked about shitty jobs in the art world, what led them to launch the podcast, the value of art in revolutionary thinking, not being an authority but still participating, why Kandinsky might be kind of neat, the paradoxes of the MFA, trying to live below your means as a practical economic safety measure, the difficulty of labor organizing in art world jobs, and so much more. Special thanks to their producer, Joey, for running the boards on their end. The outro music is the Art and Labor theme song, “Man! Let’s Have Fun” by Icy Spicy Leoncie. Support Art and Labor on Drip here: https://d.rip/art-and-labor

Seven is God’s number, and the seventh episode of the DSA Podcasts is positively divine. This time around, Darcie, Sean, and Azikiwe have another pointless conversation, this time regarding Hawaii’s Big Island, bogs, the Hamptons, wedding DJs, people who get fired from their jobs because of social media, Bernard Sanders, The Wing, regional museums, container vendor Storables, the Vietnam War, how House ripped off Becker, and Tinder. The outro song is “Harrison Bergeron” by Snapcase.

Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly is gearing up to celebrate the band’s 20th (!!!) anniversary. He joined me in the kitchen this week to talk about Thursday’s origin story, some of his fondest memories from their two-decade career, the anonymous supergroup United Nations, a year of drama involving Lostprophets and Martin Shkreli, approaching age 40, and a whole lot more. The outro music is “No Sympathy for a Sinking Ship” by United Nations. Also, I’m moving to Austin this week. LOL.

Mothmen! Yetis! Chupacabras! Oh My! Artist Laura Bernstein drops by this week to talk about alternative genetics, cryptids, imagined future beings, circus aesthetics, the paradox of zoos, growing up in the Bronx, materiality and texture, funky wool, recent exhibitions at the Anytime Dept. in Cincinnati and NURTUREart in Brooklyn, and what’s gonna happen when the plumbing infrastructure eventually collapses. The outro song is “The Legend” by Tim Cook.

Recorded inside of one of Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipses at Dia:Beacon, comedian Ana Fabrega is back in her second appearance on Humor and the Abject. Earlier on the day this was recorded, Ana was a visiting artist for the teens I teach at the museum, performing a live comedy set for them and then helping them workshop one-act plays they’ve been writing. Ana and I talked about the big news that HBO has ordered a season of her new show, "Los Espookys," co-created with Fred Armisen and Julio Torres. We also discussed her season writing for "The Chris Gethard Show," why she’s been more selective in where she performs live, and surf music’s obsession with being spooky. Also on this episode, it’s the return of audio food review series The Savage Table with Alex Savage (@focra), wherein he reviews a ham sandwich that he ate over a year ago in Italy. The background music in my speaking intro is “Conquistador” by Guantanamo Baywatch, and the outro song is “Barbacoa,” also by Guantanamo Baywatch.

Journalist Adrian Chen has covered the darkest corners of internet culture for years. He’s been a staff writer at the New Yorker and Gawker, and has bylines in practically every publication and on every platform you’ve ever heard of. On this week’s episode, he stops by to discuss his early writing on the Silk Road and the dark web, his sociological research into trolling and its complicated relationship to comedy, the depths of Reddit and 4chan, getting doxxed, the great Gawker Hack of 2010, his upcoming book project, moving to Los Angeles, and his recent lengthy profile of controversial IRL streamer Ice Poseidon for the New Yorker. The outro music is “Scuffed Walk” by Tracksuit Andy, Ice Poseidon, Ebz, Sam Pepper and Kiedom.