For just $2 a month, you can subscribe to JG2LAND PREMIUM and unlock wonderful bonus content, like this deep dive into the legal slobber knocker that derailed a big screen version of “Sprockets.” Remember “Sprockets?” Hey, who could forget it?
My new book A Convenient Parallel Dimension: How Ghostbusters Slimed Us Forever was only released in the UK eleven days ago but already it’s sold out. It may have actually sold out well before the release date, as I’ve heard from people who preordered months ago and still haven’t received their copy. What can I say but thanks, UK! More books will wash up on your shores next month. I’m sorry they can’t get there sooner. Apparently the publisher sends them on a boat. Too heavy for a plane, I guess. At any rate, I appreciate your patience and hope it’s worth whatever wait you must endure.
Would you like to hear me talk about A Convenient Parallel Dimension on yet another podcast? You’re in luck. I was recently a guest on the Ghostbusters fandom podcast Extraplasm. Click here to listen to my chat with show host Jim Maritato. We chop it up about all sorts of stuff. And unless he cut it out, you can hear me rant about how John Landis should be in prison.
In a related story, I wasn’t expecting a single mention of Ghostbusters when I started Punk Paradox, the memoir by Bad Religion singer Greg Graffin, but that’s my fault for not remembering Bad Religion’s emblem (a black cross in a red circle with a slash through it). Graffin spends a few pages in the book discussing the creation of that emblem in 1980 and how prevalent the red negation symbol became thanks in part to Ghostbusters.
“It’s likely that our fortuitous association with this friendly red circle backslash helped to pave the way for our band’s logo over the years,” he surmises. “In America at least, I’m sure that the Ghostbusters symbol and the ‘No Parking’ graphic image helped to diffuse any possible antagonism from religious groups. We were never antagonizers — we were simply the antithesis of the symbol we were slashing: you won’t find religion in this house.”
I’m halfway through Punk Paradox and it’s tough to put down. I’ve been into Bad Religion since I was a teenager in the Freaking 1990s but I never took the time to learn very much about their history as underdogs in an underdog genre. I always assumed Graffin was more or less a good egg — thoughtful, principled, compassionate. His book confirms that. And he calls out bullshit when he sees it. Case in point: he really tears into Youth Brigade for all the baloney they put in their famous documentary Another State of Mind.
Another cool memoir I read recently is Bob Odenkirk’s Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama. Nothing about Ghostbusters in there that I can remember but plenty about how miserable he was writing for “Saturday Night Live.” Has anyone ever had a good time working on “SNL?” Anyone besides Kenan Thompson and Don Pardo?
Before I sign off, let me remind you that if you enjoy my writing and want to support me in a tiny, recurring way you can sign up for JG2LAND PREMIUM, the paid tier of this blog. A mere $2 a month unlocks super elite bonus posts (and helps support all the stuff I post for free). The most recent paid content was a piece I wrote about Wolfen. Click here, lay it down, and check it out. Then check out all the other bonus stuff, like the long thing I wrote about the KISS tribute album or my review of every “Faerie Tale Theatre” episode.
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The longest episode of “Yaxzon Jackson” to date includes beer sippin’, multiple “Saturday Night Live” references, a small snit about “We Are The World,” and some wild new mailbag sound effects. Dig in:
Apologies for lapsing into the Brody Stevens impression. #positivepush
“Norm Macdonald Live” can be pretty hit or miss; this episode with David Koechner is total hit, possibly the best they’ve done. Discussion of / jokes about the Replacements, “SNL” lore you haven’t heard a squillion times, and Norm’s frighteningly accurate Nixon impression. As always there are some NSFW moments, but the toilet humor seems to be developing a deft hand. Is Norm starting to care, slightly?
Whatever the case, I give it five stars, Jim Bob says check it out.
Would a video game called Larry David Simulator merely follow the venerable comic through an average week in his life or would it be more of a “career mode” thing where you get to navigate Larry through his time at “Fridays” and “SNL?” Would it be a traditional RPG or a first person shooter (don’t ask me what Larry David would shoot, aside from venomous barbs and wild hand gestures)? Say you can’t cut a deal with Larry David to actually voice himself in the game—who do you get instead? Does Bill Hader do a passable LD impression? Would the making of the game be more interesting than the game itself?
My second book is called Brave Punk World: The Internat’l Rock Underground From Alerta Roja to Z-Off and it is now available for purchase. It’s about the development of punk rock in other countries. All the info you want / need about it is right here (click here!).
The soft cover of This Music Leaves Stains is available here. Get that sucker and learn all about New Jersey's greatest punk band! Click here to look at the corresponding photo tumblr and click here for the official F.A.Q.
For a lengthy, uncensored history of the Ghostbusters films, who ya gonna call? A Convenient Parallel Dimension: How Ghostbusters Slimed Us Forever. Available in regular, ebook, or audiobook form. Click 
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