Tom Scharpling

Judge John Hodgman 108: A Room With a Feud

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Guests: 
Tom Scharpling

Amanda brings the case against her husband, Mike. Amanda wants to rearrange their apartment to better suit their live/work needs. Mike wants to keep things as they are. Who is right? Who is wrong? Only one man can decide.

Filling in for Jesse this week is Guest Baliff Tom Scharpling. Tom hosts The Best Show on WFMU every Tuesday from 9 PM to midnight EST. There are all sorts of different ways to listen to the show: those in the New York or New Jersey area can listen by tuning their radios to 91.1 FM or 90.1 FM respectively. Those not in the New York or New Jersey area (or those who cannot afford radios) can listen in live on WFMU.org. And for those who don't believe in live-streaming, The Best Show podcast (and its bite-sized companion, Best Show Gems), can be downloaded on iTunes.

Special thanks to Marcus Parks, who provided engineering assistance with this episode. It was recorded at The Creek and The Cave in Long Island City, home of the Cave Comedy Podcast Network.

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Special thanks to listeners Danielle Stillman-Diederich and Julie McMurry for suggesting this episode's title!

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Bullseye with Jesse Thorn: RA Dickey, Coyle and Sharpe, and Mark Frauenfelder

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Show: 
Bullseye
Guests: 
RA Dickey
Guests: 
Mark Frauenfelder
Guests: 
Coyle & Sharpe


 
Culture Recommendations from Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing

 
This week's culture recommendations come to us care of Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing and the Gweek podcast, who joins us to share a pair of his top picks: The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs, as compiled by Charles Doyle, and the music video production iPhone app Video Star.
 
(Embed or share Mark Frauenfelder’s Culture Recommendations)

 


 
New York Mets Pitcher R.A. Dickey

 
R.A. Dickey is a pitcher for the New York Mets, and the only man in the majors currently throwing a knuckleball. His new memoir, Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest For Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, is a story of perseverance more than anything. He had a difficult childhood marked by abuse and poverty, but found his gift in baseball. Early on in his career, the Texas Rangers offered Dickey a lucrative contract but retracted it when they discovered a physical abnormality that theoretically should have kept him from playing ball. Dickey then bounced back and forth between the major and minor leagues and says he floundered, personally and professionally. But he stuck with it, and worked on mastering the wildly unpredictable knuckleball pitch (and finally found stability and peace in his relationships with his family and friends). Now, at age 37 Dickey is just hitting the prime of his career while many players of his age have long since retired. If anything, the knuckleball means his best days may still be ahead of him.
 
R.A. sits down with us to discuss his search for peace from a troubled past, the art of throwing the perfect knuckleball, and exactly why he names his bats after fantasy swords. Wherever I Wind Up is now available in bookstores now.
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Comedy by Coyle & Sharpe: Robbing a Bank

 
To say Jim Coyle and Mal Sharpe were ahead of their time would be putting it mildly. The duo produced hundreds of man-on-the-street interviews in San Francisco during the mid-1960s, always claiming to be something they weren't, all in the name of comedy. Their efforts would go mostly unappreciated for decades, though the dedication of Mal's daughter Jennifer would ensure their work would eventually find an audience.
 
In this classic clip, the pair try to convince a Navy serviceman to rob a bank for them. You can hear more from Coyle & Sharpe right here on MaximumFun.org, where their archives have been converted to The Coyle & Sharpe Podcast.
 
(Embed or share Coyle & Sharpe: Robbing a Bank)
 

 
The Outshot: The Best Show on WFMU

 
On the Outshot this week, Jesse makes the rather unconventional move of recommending a radio show that isn't this one -- but you'll want to check it out all the same. It's The Best Show on WFMU, the music show turned character-based comedy call-in program whose cryptic host Tom Scharpling can satirize the role of the radio host while perfecting it in the same breath.
 
Is there a show on the radio that you consider appointment listening? We want to hear it, so let us know on the MaxFun Forum by picking your own Outshot.
 
(Embed or share this Outshot on The Best Show on WFMU)
 
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THE MOST IMPORTANT VIDEO

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This important video was directed by Tom Scharpling on behalf of our friend, Mr. John Hodgman. It concerns the lifestyle of a DERANGED MILLIONAIRE. Featured in this video are Vernon Reid of Living Colour, Brooke Shields, ?uestlove and OTHER MAJOR CELEBRITIES.

It is your duty to WATCH the video, and to VOTE FUNNY the video. It is an easy duty to fulfill, as the video is TREMENDOUS. Then, simply order Hodgman's final book in his trilogy of all world knowledge, THAT IS ALL.

Also: Dick Cavett behaves boorishly.

Wild Flag: Romance

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Wild Flag - Romance from Merge Records on Vimeo.

In my perfect world, Tom Scharpling would direct all the music videos.

This is his latest.

Alumni Newsletter: August 29, 2011

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The Classical

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Hey, Friends of Tom, listen up! Tom Scharpling (former writer for Monk and host of The Best Show on WFMU) is working with a team of terrific journalists (including Bethlehem Shoals [founder of FreeDarko] and Lang Whitaker [editor at SLAM magazine]) to create an "Awl-like" website about sports called "The Classical."

The project promises to be smart, funny, creative, passionate and refreshingly independent. But like any independent creative start-up, they need help to get up and running. Please hit their Kickstarter page and help influence the future direction of sports coverage on the web!

Tom Scharpling's New Pornographers Video

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Our good friend Mr. Tom Scharpling, from Show Business, has created this delightful video for a little band from Canada you may have heard of. It features numerous Show Business personalities, including past Sound guests like Ted Leo, Julie Klausner, Wyatt Cenac and Todd Barry.

Enjoy it, America.

Podcast: The College Years: Free-est Form Radio

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Guests: 
Tom Scharpling
Guests: 
Jon Wurster

The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.

Today's theme: Free-est Form Radio

This is the first ever piece of original programming that Jesse put onto the internet as a podcast. And, as they say, the rest is history. Now a world-famous podcaster, Jesse starts this episode by explaining the then-newfangled technology of podcasting in simple, yet brilliant terms that an idiot can understand and a genius can appreciate. Thanks Jesse, I appreciate it.


Next, Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster talk to Jesse about the age-old technology of radio (which, beyond podcasting, Jesse is also famously brilliant at).

Scharpling and Wurster show off their own radio prowess in the back half of this episode in a hilarious bit from the Best of the The Best Show on WFMU.

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Ted Leo - Bottled in Cork

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]

What's this? A new video from two-time Sound of Young America guest Ted Leo? Directed by two-time Sound of Young America guest Tom Scharpling? With special guest two-time Sound of Young America guest John Hodgman? And two-time MaxFun guest Paul F. Tompkins? And one-time Sound of Young America guest Julie Klausner?

SIGN ME UP!

Below: Ted performs "Bottle of Buckie" on The Sound a couple of years ago. Check out two more performances, plus the interview here.

Podcast: The College Years: Free Form

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Guests: 
Tom Scharpling
Guests: 
Eugene Mirman

The College Years is a look deep into the vaults of The Sound of Young America. Take a journey with us every week as we post a new program or two from our salad days.

Today's theme: Free Form


To begin the show, Jesse speaks with Tom Scharpling. Known for his writing on shows such as Tom Goes to the Mayor and Monk. Tom talks about his radio programme, The Best Show on WFMU. Why don't you become Tom's friend?


Next up on this episode, Eugene Mirman! Listen as Eugene shares memories of childhood alienation and loneliness. Meanwhile, Jesse talks about Gallagher. If you're feeling lonely and don't want to listen to another Gallagher album, pick up some of Eugene's hilarious work.

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