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The Desert Panther, Tony Consiglio, joins us once again for a super-sized hour-long episode. Topics include guns and gun control, getting autographs, and backyard Fourth-of-July barbecues. Comments welcome!
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Alex Robinson lives in New York City with his wife, a cat, and a dog. His books include Box Office Poison, Tricked and his latest book Too Cool to Be Forgotten, all of which are available from Top Shelf Productions. He has won and lost several industry awards. 
Mike Dawson lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter. His books include the epic graphic-memoir Freddie & Me, the action-packed book of short stories Ace-Face: The Mod With the Metal Arms, and the forthcoming Troop 142. 
Where in Jersey City did you go shooting? Downtown or in Greenville? Just wondering as the guys who owned the Downtown store got in trouble a while back for having an unregistered gun in his car, the cops finding this out after he pulled out a gun to threaten some people who had parked too close to his car.
I’m not great at Jersey City geography, but it was very north, up near Union City? It wasn’t like a store-front, it was a space at the back of a hall, where some gun-organization meets.
By the way, great episode. You, Alex, and Tony are the a excellent three-piece (no offense to John.)
Thanks Kenny!
btw: Since I know you had a bit of an opinion about the novelty songs thing, I have been thinking about my own dubious definition of novelty song vs. regular song. My new thinking is along the lines of “If a song is about a specific character and a specific story, then it is closer to a novelty song. If a song is about a more universal “character”, where the listener applies the lyrics and sentiments to his/her own life, then it’s closer to a regular song.” I have to work on this a little more though, before I’m ready to argue about it “on the air”.
By the way I agree that “Thriller” is a novelty song, it was more your loose definition that I disagreed with. But honestly I can’t get a hold of what makes a song a novelty song myself no matter how many criteria I define.
If a song has ever been played on the Dr Demento show, it’s a novelty song.
If a song is explicitly designed as part of a comedy act, it’s a novelty song (even if it’s a really good song, like Flight of the Conchords’ material).
I also don’t think novelty/non-novelty is a binary relationship. I think there are rock songs that have some novelty aspects about them (like Thriller, or things like Far Away Eyes by the Rolling Stones).
A song that’s funny isn’t necessarily a novelty song.
No offense taken, Kenny. In fact, I concur! Another fun show, guys!
After some debate on the Facebook page I have updated my definitio on novelty songs. The following are characteristics of a novelty song:
1) the author intended it to be funny (the catalog of “Weird” Al Yankovic)
2) the author did not intend a song to be funny but the song is so over the top that no one takes it seriously (William Shatner doing “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”)
The trick with this, of course, is that it depends on knowing the author’s intent. Also, the following characterstics are worth one point each; if a song has more than three points it becomes a novelty song just by attrition:
–having a story that resolves in a twist ending (“Lola”
or “Escape! (the Pina Colada Song)”).
–Unusual subject matter (Yellow submarines, distopian futures in which robots are thanked)
–spoken word(“Thriller” “Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen”)
–a musical “gimmick” (children’s choir, strings, employing an odd vocal style like opera).
There are many popular songs which use one of even two of these features which are not novelty songs. For instance, “Fool in the Rain” by Led Zeppelin has both a twist ending and a musical gimmick (spanish flavored interlude) but a lack of a third item just makes it unique, not a novelty.
Also, videos do not count. It is hard when you have a video like “Thriller” which is virtually inseparable from the song but we must draw the line somewhere.