Long time, no speak pals! So much has happened but if the last few weeks have
taught us anything, it is better to be not-famous than famous because famous
people keep dying. Sure, Robert McNamara and Karl Malden were ancient but they
were famous and they are dead and I think the correlation matters.

Today's note has four purposes.

1) Tell you where to get Carrie's new book, Ad Nauseam, WHICH IS CURRENTLY
AVAILABLE IN FINE BOOKSTORES AND ONLINE VENDORS.

2) Give you the heads-up about tomorrow's Adult Ed, which is also serving as the
book party for Carrie's book and will be a lot of fun.

3) Let you know that I'm starting to book shows again - probably on the order of
two a month until I can manage to start sneaking out more.

4) Dump all of my Sarah Palin jokes in a Ramble because I don't otherwise have a
timely place to perform them.

So, in order, book news, Ramble, show dates INCLUDING tomorrow's Adult Education
at Union Hall.

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AD NAUSEAM IS HERE!
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Carrie's book, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to Comsumer Culture, is
part-updated compilation of excellent stuff from the best of Stay Free!
magazine, part-excellent new stuff written just for the book. The book website
is http://adnauseam.info.

Any way that you buy the book is great and to prove it I will suggest two
options:

(1) Amazon is selling the book for about $12, which is about 1/3 off of the
cover price. Here is the listing on Amazon, via the Stay Free referral code:
http://is.gd/1oZDJ

(2) Stay Free! (http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/order.html) is selling the book
for $18, including shipping, which is not as good a deal for you but a much
better deal for us. I'm just sayin'.

Obviously it is in many other places and available from many more booksellers,
online and off.

If you are interested, there is a reading on July 19 at 5PM at Vox Pop in Ditmas
Park (1022 Cortelyou Rd., just East of Coney Island Ave.) and there will be more
local readings.

You can also hear Carrie and her co-author Jason Torchinsky, discuss the book
with a guest host on the Brian Lehrer show here: http://is.gd/1oZYo

It is, I am happy to say, a great book. If you're interested, please buy a copy
and encourage your friends to do so. For even more information, highly regarded
book blog Bookslut reviewed Ad Nauseam here: http://bit.ly/74zrB

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THE RAMBLE
----------------
Holy crap, in a blizzard of words that don't quite form coherent sentences,
Sarah Palin has decided to step down as governor of Alaska! This is pretty
amazing stuff; even expert Palinologists didn't see this coming. (Palinologists
are distinct from paleontologists. The latter are liberals who generally believe
- on account of "science" - that dinosaurs were neither on Noah's Ark nor that
their failure to get on board before the Noachian flood drowned them and churned
the ground so as to create the illusion that they are "millions" of years old.)

If you haven't heard the departure speech, please Google it. It is seven solid
minutes of crazypants in which each sentence has the following structure:
"[First half of prepared thought][awkward hesitation][cliche / conservative
talking point]."

Honestly, it is a mess of inverted logic "I am not a quitter so I am resigning";
"I am a pit bull who can't take the carping from the liberal media and so-called
elites"; "I am resigning because I have to spend so much time and money
responding to frivolous ethics complaints that I apparently can't easily
disprove". Also, there was a basketball analogy that made no sense at all. If I
read between the lines correctly, it meant "I really screwed up the negotiations
over my only "achievement" - getting a natural gas pipeline in Alaska - so I
need to step aside and let the adults actually get it built."

On the upside, there is no way that she is positioned to run for President, in
2012 or ever. The only way her Presidential chances are revived is if her son
Track is killed in Iraq because Obama signed an Executive Order revoking his
body armor. What would she do if she won, anyway? Quit during her first term or
wait so that her fans could chant "Three more years!" at the second Republican
convention?

To end on a serious note, I think that what she will do next is switch from
being a camera-hogging halfwit governor to a camera-hogging halfwit fundraiser.
It is what she is best suited for because there is a not-insignificant number of
people who love her, her retrograde social policy and her familiarity with
superficial Conservative bromides. She will never run for elective office again
and her behind the scenes work will drag the Republican party back to the
1950's, an era of anti-woman, kinda-racist, paranoid Republicanism that is no
longer tenable in America.

So, thanks in advance, Sarah.

---------------
LINKS
---------------
Schedule - http://charlesstar.com (also, video)
Stay Free - http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org
My Neighborhood - http://hawthornestreet.com
Facebook - http://facebook.com/cdstar
Blogging - http://popehat.com (a group blog that I've joined)

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SCHEDULE
----------------

***TOMORROW, JULY 7 @ 7:30PM***
Adult Education: AD NAUSEAM
Union Hall
702 Union St. at 5th Ave. (Park Slope)
8PM (Doors at 7:30)
$5

This month's show is doing double-duty as a book release party for Ad Nauseam: A
Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture (Faber and Faber, Out NOW!),
edited by Adult Ed founder Carrie McLaren and her longtime writing partner,
Jason Torchinsky.

CARRIE McLAREN
"The Strange and Curious History of Subliminal Advertising"
Ms. McLaren discusses the little-known origins of "subthreshold" persuasion —
and the businesses that, against all apparent odds, made a mint off of
subliminal advertising.

JASON TORCHINSKY
"On the Purity of Car Insurance Advertising and the Many and Diverse Ways it
Sucks Profoundly"
Due to the alarmingly insubstantial nature of their product, car insurance
commercials have evolved to become the purest sort of advertising, spawning
mascots and spokescharacters. Mr. Torchinsky surveys their tactics in this brief
lecture. As exciting as it sounds!

DAVID ANGELO
"Advertising and the Celebration of Deferred Responsibility"
Mr. Angelo uses contemporary examples in advertising to illustrate his point
that all marketing campaigns require their intended targets to abandon the basic
concept of personal responsibility.

HEIDI CODY
"It Ain't Easy Bein' Cheesy"
Ms. Cody will present a retrospective of her artistic work which, with a deft
touch and a sense of humor, comments on our relationships with and to brand
icons and the commerce that surrounds us.

Hosted by CHARLES STAR, discussing the marketing of pharmaceuticals and how
AstraZeneca ruined a year of my life that I will never get back in "The Real War
on Drugs."

More info at http://adult-ed.com and in the New Yorker at http://is.gd/1p3tx

This is going to be a great show so please join us in celebration of
publication. Books will be available for sale and signing by both authors, so
there's that too.

--------------
THURSDAY, JULY 30 @ 8:30PM
Gnarly Simon Comedy Hour at Jazz on the Park Hostel
36 W. 106th St. off of CPW
FREE

Claudia Cogan hosts, Jiwon Lee and Ray DeVito are the regulars at this uptown
show. Please join us and speak better English than the many European travelers
that make up the bulk of hostel-show audiences. They also have video games to
play after the show.

---------------
FRIDAY, AUGUST 28 @ 7PM
Third Friday @ Ochi's Lounge (downstairs at Comix)
353 W. 14th St. at 9th Avenue
FREE

New father Ritch Duncan hosts this show. Ritch has many funny friends so this is
always a good show. I hope to see you there.

Have a good day and I hope to see you soon.

Sincerely,
Charles

P.S. Sidney turns 1 in two weeks! Way to go, little guy!!!