Firehose #88: Our Kind of Town

Also: Second Sunday for paying subscribers at 11 a.m. ET!

Here at Fifdom HQ we enjoy us some Second Sundays (on which more immediately below), but nothing beats a good Old Style meet-up (see what I did there?) at a fine bar in grand town that had not previously been properly Fifthed. Shout-out to all my fellow monosyllabic male-name-havers, especially to bar suggester (and serial Manhattan-buyer) Mike R., as well as the brave ladies, plus our very own Syrian Jihadi. (No really, Jihad’s his name, he’s from Syria, and he's awesome.) Also, can personally testify that the (soon-to-be-expanding) Detroit Caruso clan is certifiably insane.

Such, such were the joys, and the large turnout, that you can go ahead and pencil in your calendar: Aug. 17, Saturday night, pre-Democratic National Convention, at a fine Chicago venue that wants to serve you drinks. Details and final confirmation to come soon.

* Is it the Second Sunday of the month already? It is tomorrow, yes. For our monthly Members Only Zoom recording we are going to unlock the floodgates of Eurotrash and other time-zone orphans by kicking off the meetup at a ghastly 11 AM ET (it’s my fault, sorry!). And, unlike the last couple, this one’s open to all paying subscribers, not just Never Fly Coachers. Look for an email with the link tomorrow, maybe even sooner!

* Before we get to more serious stuff from our universe—hey look, Greg Lukianoff (veteran of Episode #216, Members Only #183, and #427) just interviewed John Cleese!

* Speaking of Lukianoff, his was among the most anticipated (by me) civil libertarian responses to Jonathan Haidt’s new wave-making bestseller The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic in Mental Illness. Calling his former co-author’s latest an “excellent and important book,” Greg gets to his big but: “[A]s a free speech advocate and First Amendment lawyer, I believe some of Jon’s proposals that reach beyond norms and into government legislation go too far and would restrict free speech rights.”

Haidt has been getting a rockier reception than usual in libertarian venues that have long recommended his work, including Reason (Elizabeth Nolan Brown and Aaron Brown), and Marginal Revolution, where Tyler Cowen had a “contentious” conversation with the author. Nick Gillespie (Special Dispatch #72 & #379) will be interviewing Haidt at a Reason Speakeasy in Manhattan April 15; tickets are sold out, but there’s a waiting list.

* Since we started Events, let’s keep going. I see here that Moynihan is appearing as a panelist for a Tangle live event in NYC April 17, in addition to his aforementioned participation in the May 3-4 Dissident Dialogues here in Gotham. Tickets are also still available for Reason Weekend May 16-19 in Boston, which will feature a live taping of The Reason Roundtable, and a Fif’ listener or three. There will also soon be some double-dippage featuring Glenn Greenwald (#183, #197, #211) — first a SoHo Forum debate with Alan Dershowitz May 20 about bombing Iran, then a Reason Speakeasy the day after.

* Josh Szeps (#25, #80, #103, #117, #196, #328, #423) had a big week, including hashing out with known sexy-man Chris Williamson whether it’s time for Gay Pride to go away….

… then going on Sam Harris’s Making Sense with tour-mate Douglas Murray (#390) to talk Israel-Gaza:

* Did someone send up the Israel signal? Moshe Dayan-loving psycho Eli Lake (#52, #65, #141, #174, S.D. #51, #326, #368, #407, M.O. #184) went on the podcast of controversial recent former guest Andrew Sullivan (#139, #200 & #449) to talk about you-know-what, as well as Kanye.

* Comment of the Week comes from DMC:

Being today is my B-Day I find your conversation about “Saturday Night Fever “ perfect. In 1979 I was 10 years old punk rock kid, the film was so successful in 1977 that in ‘79 they released a PG version where the term “Fuck” Is replaced with “Hell” and of course all the Rapey /Sexy stuff deleted. I saw this in a packed theater in BFLO NY with mostly other kids and my mind was so blown away I decided I wanted to make movies ( I moved to LA at 22 and now work in Entertainment) and is still to this day one of my favorite films. I walked out a punk rock disco kid. I watched it just a few weeks ago and drunkingly bought the Blu-ray off Amazon while watching it. I have not seen the PG version since that day in 1979 but it always stuck with me. BTW the original version was rated X in the UK.

* Some niche Gen-Xer music content with a thin Matt Welch tie-in: My great pal and former (future?) bandmate who goes by the pen name S.W. Lauden both for his crime/punk detective novels and his Remember the Lightning Substack about power pop, is spearheading a fab new thing called The Generation Blue Project, a “Limited-Edition Vinyl LP Compilation and Oral History Book” about “the Hollywood Geek Rock scene of the '90s and early 2000s” that was galvanized by (and had several direct ties to) the band Weezer, whose iconic Blue Album came out 30 years ago. Was that a run-on sentence? Sue me.

The project highlights several bands, many forgotten to history, several featuring good friends and hi-fiving acquaintances. Almost all had terrible names: Shufflepuck, Nerf Herder, Baby Lemonade (OK that one’s good), Supersport 2000, Cockeyed Ghost, Chopper One, Ozma, Psoma, and Ridel High (in which Lauden played drums). Talking recently to the teenage daughter (!) of one of the characters in this book, I learned that bands whose records got buried by evil record companies and lost to the sands of history are now, because of this project, getting their songs played on radio, which is just a beautiful thing.

Anyway, LP & book are coming out April 28, and there’s a big (all ages!) launch party/concert in L.A. that I may just have to get to. And yes, the walkoff song here does feature maybe a half-second of Matt Welch in the crowd of a fake gameshow filmed on the famed Television City lot by a member of Devo, because why not: