Friday, April 29, 2011

LAFF time!

Next week I'm going to Austin for the always-amazing Ladies Are Funny Festival. Look at my lovely mug on their homepage! Check it here, pussycats.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Tomorrow night!


Pussycats!
CONNOTATION is back at LUCA LOUNGE (our old Kentucky home!) tomorrow night at 7:00pm. We have killer stand-up from

Victor Varnado (Tell Your Friends Movie)
Becky Yamamoto (Supercream Supreme)
Jon Fisch (Comedy Central, VH1)
Jess Wood (Def Comedy Jam)

and the CONNOTATION team,
Selena Coppock (McSweeney’s)
Emily Epstein (Rooftop Comedy)
Dan Cartwright (The Check Spot)
Yes, the Connotation team is JUST LIKE Three's Company! Heeeyo!

See you at Luca Lounge (Ave B between 13/14) at 7:00!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Review of Hamilton Show

Hamilton's campus newspaper, The Spectator, wrote up a review of our alumni comedy show. The review is called "Who Knew That Alumni Were Funny?" which is a fantastically back-handed title. Proving yet again that college students seem to think the world revolves around them, and I've officially become old and crotchety.

You can read the article here.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Back From the Dead

I received an email from a good friend this morning informing me of some HUGE concert news. On Friday 4/8 (as in, mere days from today), there is going to be a concert at Irving Plaza in NYC and that concert will showcase the melodic voices of 1990s Irish bad boys House of Pain.

We all know that my music taste is “special” (awful or amazing, depending on who you are), but we can all agree that back in 1992-1993, “Jump Around” was a huge hit. They ragged on cops for eating donuts! They featured tennis enfant terrible John McEnroe in a rap song! The referenced a story from the New Testament! (That story is the Prodigal Son from the book of Luke. I gotta give props to the book of Luke—as religious texts go, it’s a real page-turner. Good enough to be source material for the musical “Godspell.”) “Jump Around” was crazy catchy, all over the airwaves, and a favorite song of my older sister’s then-boyfriend, which made it the coolest song ever. He would come pick her up for dates and I would eagerly answer the door. The brim of his baseball hat was so thoroughly bent that I couldn’t even see his eyes. During the year of 1993 and in my eight-grade girl brain, a brim so bent that it nearly obscured your entire face was the mark of coolness.

House of Pain was all about Irish pride, which appealed to me and many of my Boston-based friends. Plus, many of us mistakenly thought DJ Lethal, Danny Boy, and Everlast were from Boston. Put a dude in a Celtics jersey for a few promotional photos and stupid kids will automatically think he’s a Boston-bred white rapper. Turns out they’re all from Orange County, CA and DJ Lethal is Latvian, not Irish. No matter—I bought all three of their albums. Yes, there were three. No, they didn’t simply hang it up after that first album. They kept plugging for far too long and I was probably the only loser buying their albums. Let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?


House of Pain (1992)

The album everybody knows. Includes hit single “Jump Around” and underrated song “Put On Your Shit Kickers,” which was played on a loop at my house in 1993, much to the dismay of my sweet parents. The lyrics of “Put On Your Shit Kickers” include a laundry-list of Irish-American iconography (corned beef & cabbage, claddagh rings, Celtic crosses). I quoted this song in a paper for my college Irish history class. The professor loved it. House of Pain is an important voice in academia!

Same As It Ever Was (1994)

This was “popular” (that is, my friend Katie and I listened to it) during the summer after my freshman year in high school. “On Point” and “Word is Bond” are strong tracks from this one. And everybody loves an album cover that is an action-shot of a dude getting punched in the face! (Just me?)

Truth Crushed to Earth Shall Rise Again (1996)

Now THIS album was a travesty. Not even the family friendly cover image could make up for the overall spookiness of the music. The HOP boys used creepy sound-effects all over this album in an effort to sound tough that backfired and seemed oddly like a 1930s radio show. I’m fairly sure that I was the ONLY person who (1) bought this album, and (2) had a poster of this album’s cover in my bedroom as a teen. It’s a sad state of affairs when you are actively TRYING to enjoy awful music because you believe in the band. It was during this era that my high school friend Connor (C Note!) bought me a House of Pain bumper sticker for by beloved Nissan Altima. It was the “Shamrocks & Shenanigans” crest from House of Pain’s glory days. I put it on the back bumper of my car with pride, just down from the “Beastie Boys” bumper sticker. Sadly, the House of Pain bumper sticker was killed in a tragic rear-ending accident in Cochituate. Bizarrely enough, that three inch square was somehow the ONLY spot on my entire back bumper that was dinged up in that accident. You were gone too soon, sweet Shamrocks & Shenanigans sticker. Gone too soon.

Tickets for the House of Pain show on Friday are $42 apiece. Yikes. I think I’ll save some money and instead, just replay these three albums in my apartment while wearing a Celtics jersey. Irish #1!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Hamilton Alumni Show Recap

This past weekend I went back to The Hill with Justin Tyler ’01 (and his group Sidecar), Katey Healy-Wurzburg ’05, Chris Sessa ’06, and Liza Rothschild ’08 for an alumni comedy show. Good times were had by all and the show was fantastic. The Campus Activities Board (CAB) and the office of Student Activities generously sponsored and produced the show. Highlights of the weekend included:

-Dinner at Commons! Heyo! $8.25 for all-you-can-eat whatever you want! We even walked the runway in Commons, which gave me flashbacks.

-Giving Jack (the owner of the beloved Village Tavern) a hug and catching up.

-Playing “Night Moves” on the juke box at the Village Tavern. It used to be song #8413 on the old juke box and it was Ginny Berg’s and my anthem.

-Late night eats at McDonalds. You can never go wrong with a 20 chicken mcnuggets, my friends.

-Fantastic show in the barn that was really well-attended.

It was a great weekend, save for one weird exchange went down and disappointed me.

After the comedy show, my sorority was throwing a house party downtown and invited me. I was like, "I'm a little too old for a sorority house party, but I'll pop in to say hello and be polite.” I had been told that the party was in honor of alums who were back on campus-- there were a few. So I go there, said some hellos, whatever. Then a RANDOM guy comes up to me (he looked young and lame-- probably a sophomore or junior) and says, "I was sent here on behalf of my friends to ask you a question, but I think it might be kinda rude..." and I was like, "Huh?"

He then, despite the fact that he thinks it’s rude and has said as much, asks me, "Do you have kids?" I was just so stunned that I said, "What?" and "Excuse me?" about three times. In case you don't know me, I do not have kids. I'm 30 and plenty of my friends have kids, but I don't and I think it's a wholly weird and inappropriate question to be asked by a stranger. Especially with the tone he was using--his tone communicated, "We're making fun of you with this question."

Once I recovered from how blindsided I was, I simply flipped him the bird and told him to get lost. He walked away, back to his equally lame friends. I only knew about 2 people at the party and felt really uncomfortable at that point. So a few minutes later I went to leave because I would prefer to be at the VT (my home away from home in college), where a few other alums were hanging out. As was walking out of the house party, I walked by that twerp and his LOSER friends and they sarcastically said, "Goodnight, MA’AM.” I responded with some choice words to defend myself, and they go, "Enjoy menopause."

Enjoy menopause! I'm frigging 30 years old! I haven't encountered such bizarre sexism & ageism in my LIFE. I was FLOORED by the exchange. I had been just standing at a party with other alum comedians, not bothering ANYONE, when this RANDOM STRANGER came over and, apropos of nothing, asked me an inappropriate question, then harshly insulted me as I walked out.

Later he tried to get into the bar (the VT) and I was with a crew of other alums standing by the door. He walked into the bar and I go, "That's the guy!" and the dudes stared at him and he just walked out. It was nice to have those guys as back-up and have that loser not feel comfortable at the bar, but the whole thing was just upsetting. When I was at Hamilton, there was a small contingent of white, wealthy, entitled males who would engage in that type of behavior, but were widely reviled for it. Just sucks when you bump into it as an alumna who loves her alma mater.

In short, that kid’s a twerp and I hope that someday his idiocy lands him in the middle of a DU or Psi U beat-down. I’m sure the real world will chew him up and spit him out in due time. Nonetheless, my feelings about Hamilton are best said by the school song Carissima: I love thee evermore.