Hey! Check out the new Wiretap trailer. With never before seen footage of Josh Karpati (looks exactly how I imagined him) and Buzz Goldstein (looks different from how I imagined him). Also see Sam Shalabi, Howard Chackowicz, Jon Tucker and ….. The Barber!

Oh, and by the way, I would’ve owned in the Wiretap quiz he gives. Missed opportunity.

While I’m posting videos, check out this Nutsak (Sam Shalabi on guitar, Howard Chackowicz on drums) video. I think I probably posted this before, but I may not have known how to embed them on wordpress.

And on an unrelated note, John Hodgman was on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me last month.

I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t make episode summaries anymore. I’ve done so many – I’ll keep doing them but I need your help! The goal? Make summaries for every episode for easy reference, just like at the This American Life Web site.  The This American Life Web site is so useful – you can just type in a search term like “Jorge Just” and find all the episodes with Jorge Just in them, such as this Wiretap-tastic episode from March 31, 2006:

Episode 233: Starting from Scratch

The episode kicks off with Ira talking to Jorge about his brief brush with the show “The Bachelorette”:

Host Ira Glass talks to Jorge Just, who thought he’d started over successfully. He’d moved to New York, found an apartment that everyone told him was a great deal, things were looking good. Then a reality television show visited his building. (8 minutes)

And then there’s a Jonathan Goldstein Bible story. The original!

Act Three. The First Starting from Scratch.

Jonathan Goldstein reads a story about the first people to ever start from scratch, a couple named Adam and Eve. Jonathan Goldstein is the author of the novel Lenny Bruce is Dead. (14 minutes)

See, wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that with Wiretap? If you wanted to know every episode that had Sam Shalabi in it? Or which episodes mentioned melba toast?

Also, while we’re on the topic of This American Life/Wiretap, This American Life’s myspace has some tracks from their compilation “Stories of Hope and Fear,” one of which features our friend’s Starlee Kine and Jonathan Goldstein. My favorite part of this piece is that he keeps referring to “the office where Starlee and I used to work at” which, I’m assuming, is This American Life? Ch-ch-check it. Then buy it! Or don’t.

Nice day – have one. Bye.

Note, if you are opposed to Myspace, the above piece originally appeared on episode 238, Lost in Translation.

Operation Add Wiretap References Throughout Wikipedia Phase #1:

Add this to the Charleston (dance) page.

On the CBC One radio show, Wiretap, Sam Shalabi tells Jonathan Goldstein that, if called upon to dance upon his grave, he would do the Charleston.

That’s in the episode, Carpe Diem, origin of the oft-heard on the playground catch phrase “Time to Make the Donuts!” followed by a solid punch to the face.

it hasn’t been removed by the wiki-nazis yet.

Stay tuned.

Good day.

In this rerun from April 15, 2007, the theme is “Which animal would you be?” Mireille Silcoff reveals her “talent” for identifying which animal a person most resembles, which leads Jonathan to prompt the question to others.

In a monologue, he determines he’d be a leopard, but a mostly vegetarian one who preferred coriander tofu. Jonathan’s monologue continues, musing upon “learned incompetence,” and what our furniture says about us (if anything) while trying to find a hypothetical situation in which Sam Shalabi would agree to be Jonathan’s cuddly kitten.

The episode finishes off with an eavesdropped conversation amongst the regulars at Damico’s Coffee Shop in Brooklyn (home of NYC’s #1 coffee) regarding which animal they’d be.

You may remember Mireille Silcoff from other Wiretap episodes (i.e. Private Life; Public Performance) and as editor of Guilt and Pleasure Magazine. Sam Shalabi is also a regular guest, and an accomplished Oud player, as demonstrated in “Old Scores,” broadcast on November 6, 2004.

We also hear “Swinging on a Star” by Bing Crosby:

Would you like to swing on a star

Carry moonbeams home in a jar

And be better off than you are

Or would you rather be a mule?

A mule is an animal with long funny ears

Kicks up at anything he hears

His back is brawny but his brain is weak

He’s just plain stupid with a stubborn streak

And by the way, if you hate to go to school

You may grow up to be a mule

Or would you like to swing on a star

Carry moonbeams home in a jar

And be better off than you are

Or would you rather be a pig?

A pig is an animal with dirt on his face

His shoes are a terrible disgrace

He has no manners when he eats his food

He’s fat and lazy and extremely rude

But if you don’t care a feather or a fig

You may grow up to be a pig

Or would you like to swing on a star

Carry moonbeams home in a jar

And be better off than you are

Or would you rather be a fish?

A fish won’t do anything, but swim in a brook

He can’t write his name or read a book

To fool the people is his only thought

And though he’s slippery, he still gets caught

But then if that sort of life is what you wish

You may grow up to be a fish

A new kind of jumped-up slippery fish

And all the monkeys aren’t in the zoo

Every day you meet quite a few

So you see it’s all up to you

You can be better than you are

You could be swingin’ on a star

Howard Chackowicz plays drums for the American Devices.

Proof?

Here’s him jamming in March 2008 with Electric Vomit.

Here’s another from the same set. This time Howard rocks the toms a bit in the intro.

I think this video is from their pre-Howie days. They had a dancer

Here’s their myspace.

OH!

What’s this?

Howard and Sam Shalabi in a band? Nutsak ! Howard sings in “I Hate Everything.” Lyrics:

I hate, I hate, I hate everything. I hate this whole life

I oughta paint it ?green?
I hate the joy and love with its bitter sting

I hate, I hate everything.

I hate, I hate this whole earth.
Every tree every rock every man woman boy and girl

Big ol' moon
the shining sun the billions of stars as well
I hate the lord above and the devil down in hell

Didn't always be this way

I used to enjoy life

dance in the streets sing a lot

'til i finally understood

that society just ain't no good

It ain't who you are baby
but what kinda job you done

I hate, I hate, I hate everything

I hate me myself and I

I hate the way I am

The way that I doubt
The way that I sing

I hate, I hate, everything

Howard’s distinctive comics are featured on the myspace site too.

Howard and Desmond. Sam Shalabi in the hat.