I Bought a Brownie From Al Franken

It’s true! On April 17, I headed on down to Rivington Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to go to a bake sale at Teany, a café created by electronica artist Moby. The sale was the brainchild of political action group MoveOn.org, which sought volunteers all around the country to raise funds to help defeat Bush in November, and they ended up raising $750,000 in one day, nationwide. And all of this was mobilized with a single email to their distribution list.

At this particular bake sale, Moby stood with comedians Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, and the cast of Tim Robbins’ off-Broadway play Embedded, and sold brownies, cookies, cupcakes, and registered people to vote.

I stood in line, rehearsing what I might say during what was probably my one chance to meet the great Garofalo and Franken, with phrases like “Love your show, you’re great people and I love the work that you’re doing, and pretty much most of the work you’ve ever done” running through my head. And finally, after twenty minutes, I meekly buy a cup of iced tea from Janeane, and then I’m standing in front of Franken, and all I can bring out of myself is, “Hi, Al!”

“Hello…” he responds, slowly, after I say nothing further.

I look down at the table of goods and say, “Can I have a brownie?!” He graciously serves up a brownie. And then I extend my hand for a handshake. Good handshake. Good eye contact. He’s got a very Dad-like personality. Unfortunately, that’s my whole story.

But the shows of theirs that I love, which are what I really want to talk about, are new radio shows. Garofalo has a new show called The Majority Report, and Franken’s is called The O’Franken Factor, the name of which is a lampoon of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor (Franken is in a war of wills with Bill O’Reilly after devoting an entire chapter to him in his satirical political bestseller Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.)

Franken and Garofalo both air on the fledgling syndicated network Air America Radio, launched on March 30. It is a brand new venue finally giving a powerful voice to the left in the arena of AM talk, of which the national syndication aspect has been dominated by conservative personalities for over a decade. (Though it is not exclusively AM -- it is also heard on XM and Sirius satellite networks.) Despite the extensive media coverage about the new liberal network from the get-go, it was a modest startup, with just three AM stations. Since then, Air America has continued to crowbar its way a little further into the talk radio market, and at the time of this writing can now be heard on 11 stations nationwide, with 15 more signing on in the future. It can also be streamed on the Internet.

Joining the two comedic luminaries on AAR is a stellar lineup featuring comedian Marc Maron, who fronts the Morning Sedition show during A.M. drive time, comedian and former Daily Show head writer Lizz Winstead, who along with Public Enemy’s Chuck D do the midmorning show Unfiltered, and veteran broadcaster Randi Rhodes, who made the move from South Florida to her native New York to spearhead AAR’s afternoon show.

When I first heard about Air America, I was a bit worried. Would they have enough to talk about? Would they get enough listeners? Would they be funny and interesting? Would they be the clueless, issueless zombies that conservative talk makes the left out to be on a daily basis?

The listeners aspect remains unanswered, for there is no way to immediately tell just how much Air America is capturing the ears of the America it has set out to save. The Arbitron ratings for Spring 2004 don’t come out until mid-July. But after giving the network a solid listen, I have found that this ballsy, timely experiment in political radio is highly intelligent, extremely relevant, and hilariously fun. It was wise for Air America to employ people whose foundations are in writing some of the most brilliant political comedy of our time. They offer substantive, powerful insights into the political meanderings of the day, and at the same time are wholly down-to-earth in their delivery of them.

I’ve also learned just how hopping, hopping mad the left is at the actions of the Bush administration. One could have easily postulated that there would be at least a few fundamentalists on the left that are highly outraged by the events of our times. But if these new radio personalities are at all representative of the moderate left’s sentiment, then the anger is teeming within the populace, and this new brand of AM talk is filling a huge void in the radio landscape. Air America is unique in that it is a nationally syndicated radio network that is not afraid to attack the reprehensible misuse of government power; something the media is unwilling or unable to do. Heaven knows that large political soapboxes rife with controversy and anti-establishment discourse can have just a little bit of difficulty securing advertising revenue to stay afloat, especially in an insane post-9/11 world. And Air America has had its share of woes right out of the box. They have been pulled off the air in Los Angeles and Chicago due to strange financial disputes with their broadcast partners. They have been maligned for displacing radio stations that were serving ethnic communities, such as their flagship 1190 WLIB in New York, which was a struggling Black/Caribbean music and talk station before March 30.

But AAR is trying to do the right thing, bless their hearts. A team of seasoned radio entrepreneurs manages the network, and I can only pray that they have the foresight, the savvy, and the willingness to see this little engine that could over the hill and into permanent residence in radio history. Someone in America had to arise to challenge our hypocritical, decadent culture and to call us out on the embarrassing position to which this country has sunk in recent years. Someone had to grab the awful truth by the balls and throw it out into the spotlight, come hell or high water, for all who wish to hear it.

Corruption and greed are hijacking the American empire now more than ever, choking the working class to death, and executing a heinous foreign policy in our name. I praise these brave souls for staking their careers on what is most likely a quixotic venture against the 800-pound gorilla of right-wing dominance, and to give us a few laughs on the side.

And we laugh, because we’ll cry if we don’t.

Air America Radio: http://www.airamericaradio.com/

MoveOn.org: http://www.moveon.org/




	<< Back to Main Page December 2004 I Bought a Brownie From Al Franken I Bought a Brownie From Al Franken It’s true! On April 17, I headed on down to Rivington Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to go to a bake sale at Teany, a café created by electronica artist Moby. The sale was the brainchild of political action group MoveOn.org, which sought volunteers all around the country to raise funds to help defeat Bush in November, and they ended up raising $750,000 in one day, nationwide. And all of this was mobilized with a single email to their distribution list. At this particular bake sale, Moby stood with comedians Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, and the cast of Tim Robbins’ off-Broadway play Embedded, and sold brownies, cookies, cupcakes, and registered people to vote. I stood in line, rehearsing what I might say during what was probably my one chance to meet the great Garofalo and Franken, with phrases like “Love your show, you’re great people and I love the work that you’re doing, and pretty much most of the work you’ve ever done” running through my head. And finally, after twenty minutes, I meekly buy a cup of iced tea from Janeane, and then I’m standing in front of Franken, and all I can bring out of myself is, “Hi, Al!” “Hello…” he responds, slowly, after I say nothing further. I look down at the table of goods and say, “Can I have a brownie?!” He graciously serves up a brownie. And then I extend my hand for a handshake. Good handshake. Good eye contact. He’s got a very Dad-like personality. Unfortunately, that’s my whole story. But the shows of theirs that I love, which are what I really want to talk about, are new radio shows. Garofalo has a new show called The Majority Report, and Franken’s is called The O’Franken Factor, the name of which is a lampoon of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor (Franken is in a war of wills with Bill O’Reilly after devoting an entire chapter to him in his satirical political bestseller Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.) Franken and Garofalo both air on the fledgling syndicated network Air America Radio, launched on March 30. It is a brand new venue finally giving a powerful voice to the left in the arena of AM talk, of which the national syndication aspect has been dominated by conservative personalities for over a decade. (Though it is not exclusively AM -- it is also heard on XM and Sirius satellite networks.) Despite the extensive media coverage about the new liberal network from the get-go, it was a modest startup, with just three AM stations. Since then, Air America has continued to crowbar its way a little further into the talk radio market, and at the time of this writing can now be heard on 11 stations nationwide, with 15 more signing on in the future. It can also be streamed on the Internet. Joining the two comedic luminaries on AAR is a stellar lineup featuring comedian Marc Maron, who fronts the Morning Sedition show during A.M. drive time, comedian and former Daily Show head writer Lizz Winstead, who along with Public Enemy’s Chuck D do the midmorning show Unfiltered, and veteran broadcaster Randi Rhodes, who made the move from South Florida to her native New York to spearhead AAR’s afternoon show. When I first heard about Air America, I was a bit worried. Would they have enough to talk about? Would they get enough listeners? Would they be funny and interesting? Would they be the clueless, issueless zombies that conservative talk makes the left out to be on a daily basis? The listeners aspect remains unanswered, for there is no way to immediately tell just how much Air America is capturing the ears of the America it has set out to save. The Arbitron ratings for Spring 2004 don’t come out until mid-July. But after giving the network a solid listen, I have found that this ballsy, timely experiment in political radio is highly intelligent, extremely relevant, and hilariously fun. It was wise for Air America to employ people whose foundations are in writing some of the most brilliant political comedy of our time. They offer substantive, powerful insights into the political meanderings of the day, and at the same time are wholly down-to-earth in their delivery of them. I’ve also learned just how hopping, hopping mad the left is at the actions of the Bush administration. One could have easily postulated that there would be at least a few fundamentalists on the left that are highly outraged by the events of our times. But if these new radio personalities are at all representative of the moderate left’s sentiment, then the anger is teeming within the populace, and this new brand of AM talk is filling a huge void in the radio landscape. Air America is unique in that it is a nationally syndicated radio network that is not afraid to attack the reprehensible misuse of government power; something the media is unwilling or unable to do. Heaven knows that large political soapboxes rife with controversy and anti-establishment discourse can have just a little bit of difficulty securing advertising revenue to stay afloat, especially in an insane post-9/11 world. And Air America has had its share of woes right out of the box. They have been pulled off the air in Los Angeles and Chicago due to strange financial disputes with their broadcast partners. They have been maligned for displacing radio stations that were serving ethnic communities, such as their flagship 1190 WLIB in New York, which was a struggling Black/Caribbean music and talk station before March 30. But AAR is trying to do the right thing, bless their hearts. A team of seasoned radio entrepreneurs manages the network, and I can only pray that they have the foresight, the savvy, and the willingness to see this little engine that could over the hill and into permanent residence in radio history. Someone in America had to arise to challenge our hypocritical, decadent culture and to call us out on the embarrassing position to which this country has sunk in recent years. Someone had to grab the awful truth by the balls and throw it out into the spotlight, come hell or high water, for all who wish to hear it. Corruption and greed are hijacking the American empire now more than ever, choking the working class to death, and executing a heinous foreign policy in our name. I praise these brave souls for staking their careers on what is most likely a quixotic venture against the 800-pound gorilla of right-wing dominance, and to give us a few laughs on the side. And we laugh, because we’ll cry if we don’t. Air America Radio: http://www.airamericaradio.com/ MoveOn.org: http://www.moveon.org/ << Back to Main Page