Mocking the Suburbs (recap)

Heard on this week's show:

• Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Monkees
• Vacation Time - The Metro Strings
• Hungry Freaks Daddy - Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention
• I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good Enough) - Thelonious Monk

BTMC Cigarettes - I heard about some celebrity who died as a result of smoking as I was lighting up. It ocurred to me a little truth in advertising might not be such a bad thing.

Ben Cohen on Enemies - This is inspired in part by good ole Daphne Abernathy who really did have a fight with her condo board about pink flamingos on the patio. The rest is just mindless drivel

Dr. Doomsday - This sketch was initially written by Laurence Simon as an ensemble piece inspired in part by Will Ross's Doomsday Cannon in Second Life. But they decided not to do the ensemble piece and I always thought it would be better as a Bob Newhart style telephone conversation so I reworked it a little bit into what it is now. I do have to say, I was SORELY tempted to play "What's He Building In There" by Tom Waits but that seemed a little on the nose.

The Perfect Murder - Was this too subtle, I can never tell. You see the funny part is, he claims to not want to murder his wife but then goes through all this work to do it and then can't be bothered to make egg salad. I originally wrote this as a 100 Word Story but couldn't help but extend it out a bit. Again, "Franks Wild Years" by Tom Waits would've been very appropriate here as it is about a guy named Frank who kills his wife but again it seemed too on the nose.

Cost of the War - I try not to be too polemical when it comes to partisan politics. I know it might not seem like that but you wouldn't believe the things I don't say on the show. I do think this is a question that needs to be raised and I'm starting to think I'm going to need to put together a special Red Meat political podcast as a mid-week special. I'm trying not too, I really am.

The Cliches - Both a tribute to the late great Don LaFontaine and a testament to the godawful movie and tv trailers I've seen in the last week or two.