tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54692242008-02-26T11:37:12.029-08:00John CookBlogger356125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-79005226772585370402007-03-06T09:20:00.000-08:002007-03-06T09:25:02.794-08:00

I know, this thing has basically devolved into a self-glorifying archive of my occasional media appearances. So I was on Talk of the Nation yesterday talking about the Prisoners of YouTube. Aren't I awesome? Listen here.

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-24640006951390018652007-01-12T12:29:00.000-08:002007-01-12T12:32:41.366-08:00

Sneaky Pete Kleinow, who played pedal steel for the Flying Burrito Brothers and basically defined the band's sound, has died. Also, he was a creator of Gumby. Seriously.

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-37620286809107081642006-11-29T13:10:00.000-08:002006-11-29T17:49:57.979-08:00

The High-Pitched Tone has been getting a lot of press as of late. We will all be working for her one day.

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-40794864244286061522006-11-15T09:59:00.001-08:002006-11-15T10:08:32.663-08:00

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1162918010364914812006-11-07T08:39:00.000-08:002006-11-15T09:56:38.183-08:00

My name is all over this GOP press release on the evils of exit-polling, from a story I did for the Chicago Tribune after the '04 elections. Mom and Dad must be so proud.

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1159460381107713742006-09-28T09:12:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:37.850-08:00

Wolf Blitzer on last night's Situation Report, discussing about Bush's summit with Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf: You know, John Roberts, I was expecting, fully expecting President Bush to do what President Clinton did when he had Rabin and Arafat on the South Lawn of the White House, sort of force them to come together and shake hands, clasp hands, do a three-way, if you will.Funny thing is,

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1158344152403894232006-09-15T10:57:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:37.694-08:00

I won't call it a swan song, but it will certainly be the last Cooksie show in quite a while. I'm heading back to Chicago from New York next weekend for a special show at the Double Door on Saturday, September 23. It's special because we'll be sharing the stage with the Incredible Casuals, one of the great bar bands of all time. The Casuals have been rolling up and down the Atlantic seaboard

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1157932656940079862006-09-10T16:53:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:37.509-08:00

Katie Couric, in her "60 Minutes" debut, put the screws to Christine Todd Whitman tonight: "But with all due respect, your job as head of the EPA--the Environmental Protection Agency--is to protect people from the environment." Actually, it's more along the lines of protecting the environment from people, Katie. But we get the idea.

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1157662814927725302006-09-07T13:56:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:37.354-08:00

My first piece for the newly revived Radar, on the incomparably angry and weird Xavier Von Erck and why Dateline NBC is bankrolling him, is up.

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1156259573037713002006-08-22T08:05:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:37.161-08:00

10:23 EST: 11:00 EST: The story, as you may have guessed, makes no mention of rape.

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1156222263546569352006-08-21T21:45:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:37.004-08:00

NBC Universal honcho Jeff Zucker on "Deal or No Deal": "Look, I think the best ideas are the simplest ones. And Deal or No Deal, which Howie hosts and is a huge hit, is not complicated. It’s not hard to figure out. And it’s impossible to stop watching." Wikipedia on "Deal or No Deal": "To calculate the probability that the top prize will actually be reached, the following simplifying assumptions

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1155575581035362742006-08-14T10:02:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:36.829-08:00

Matador is releasing a Chavez box set, a kind of sad project considering they only produced two records and a handful of comp singles. But I'm going to buy it just for the tour DVD with commentary by... Gary Marshall. Also, they're going to reunite for some dates.

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1154470503727331112006-08-01T15:04:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:36.656-08:00

"The implication ... that American Jews put the interests of Israel before those of America, raises the ugly specter of 'dual loyalty,' a canard that has haunted Diaspora Jews from time immemorial." --Alan Dershowitz, April 2006 "One cannot discuss at any respectable dinner table what many respectable people are thinking themselves. This is the matter of where do Arab Americans really stand on

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1154457315711603612006-08-01T11:24:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:36.492-08:00

We're tooling around the eastern seaboard, waiting for the movers to catch up with us and meet us in Brooklyn. But two developments compel me to post: 1) My father has started a blog. If anyone is interested in starting a "When Dads Blog" support group, shoot me an e-mail. I can't do this alone. And 2) Avocet bass player Erik Trojner took the above Rock God photograph of Avocet guitar player

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1151633923546510252006-06-29T19:16:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:36.177-08:00

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1150303001183638182006-06-14T09:31:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:35.987-08:00

"You know, the ultimate judge about whether this government is making a difference is going to be the Iraqi people, and these elected officials know that. That's the great thing about being elected; you get a sense if people don't kind of like what you're doing, or not. And democracy causes you to respond to the people's needs. Tyrants don't have to.... This elected government is going to

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1150292315093183672006-06-14T06:33:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:35.804-08:00

Well, it's nice to know they're still stabbing tourists on the subways in Ol' New York. This one is from Texas. He is a nerd. A geek. A dork. A dweeb. How badly does the New York Times want you to know this, short of coming out and saying, "The victim was a pasty, doughy, frightened nerd"? This bad: "He's a smart, very bright kid," his aunt said. "He's not violent. He's pretty passive." The

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1150132704441647972006-06-12T10:15:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:35.666-08:00

As has been noted elsewhere--we're gossip-fodder!--the High-Pitched Tone and I are lighting out for greener pastures. If you're curious as to why, this pretty much sums it up: Neal Zucker, CEO of Corporate Cleaning Services, a Chicago-based window-washing company that specializes in high-rise buildings, also pops up frequently in Chicago's gossip pages. His 40th birthday bash, Mr. Zwecker wrote

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1149800296639002952006-06-08T13:42:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:35.526-08:00

"Let me -- I want to be careful. This is not PR. PR is selling soap. This is trying to build a basis for democracy." --White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, June 8, 2006, in answer to a question about the public relations implications of the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." --Former White House chief of staff Andrew

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1149368779036672772006-06-03T14:04:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:35.361-08:00

If you know of any 2BR dog-friendly apartments opening up in Brooklyn, N.Y., on or around August 1, be a mensch and shoot me an e-mail.

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1149368620227865482006-06-03T14:02:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:35.217-08:00

I have no rational explanation, but that's how it makes me feel to learn that Bob Mould and Andrew Sullivan are friends.

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1149177890453164682006-06-01T08:40:00.001-07:002006-11-15T09:56:35.062-08:00

Anderson Cooper spent some time in something called a "mancage" on last night's broadcast of "Anderson Cooper 360." He seemed very excited about it. I think he really likes to say "mancage." I wonder which he likes better, the mancage or the manbus? Here are the quotes: Literally, this is what they call the mancage. It's attached to a giant crane. I'm actually going to get inside it and go

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1149104603676720742006-05-31T12:31:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:34.706-08:00

Brighter lights than me have weighed in on Today's Festival of Couric. But I couldn't let it pass without noting that Ann Curry is as close is it comes to a real-world Brick Tamland, Steve Carell's functionally retarded weatherman. And Couric hates her. Click on the screengrab above to watch Katie kiss Matt Lauer, then kiss Al Roker, and then icily turn her back to Curry, whose underdeveloped

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1149008397150077582006-05-30T09:43:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:34.528-08:00

Something has been lost in the furor over new White House adviser Karl Zinsmeister's Stalin-esque revisions of his own quotes when he republished a Syracuse New Times profile on his web site. As Ana points out, here's what Zinsmeister--ironically, that was Howard Zinn's nickname back in his Delta Chi days--said: "People in Washington are morally repugnant, cheating, shifty human beings."And

John Cooktag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5469224.post-1149007374363511102006-05-30T09:22:00.000-07:002006-11-15T09:56:34.328-08:00

For the record, it's not gay if your lips accidentally touch when you're sharing a mic. I don't have anything to add to what Daniel Radosh and others have written on the National Review's top 50 conservative rock songs. But I will say I was taken back a few years by the selection of the Rainmakers' "Government Cheese" as the 36th greatest conservative rock song of all time. NR's John J. Miller

John Cook