Comments

1. Ben Z says:

   January 5, 2012 at 1:00 pm

   I hope you check your comments here, Tom. I know I’ve said it before, but you are one of three podcasts I stay up on. You’re just so relatable and you have a soothing voice (no homo), that I love listening to your podcast. If you’re going to be in Iowa performing, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know (probably best through your podcast). I would love to see your stand-up and you sound like the kind of performer that would stick around to greet fans (and yes, I would becoming for Tom Wilson, not Biff, which is something I wouldn’t have said 7 podcasts ago).

2. Wonderfully Disguised says:

   December 26, 2011 at 10:25 pm

   For Tom Wilson

   I wanted to thank you for putting out these podcasts because I really find them engrossing!

   I’ve wanted to pay you a compliment on every podcast but it wasn’t until I heard a song for the first few times this week that I found a lens to focus the thought in a way that I could hope to convey it wholly. That song was “Wonderful Disguise” by Mike Scott.

   I’m ambivalent about whether you would know this song and yet I feel like I need to do my best to convince you to find it and listen to it before I can continue so I hope you’ll forgive a few moments of sales pitch.

   His musical sensibilities seem very close to your own but he was born in Scotland and seems to have mostly been famous in the UK wasn’t a name I’d heard before.

   From http://geoffolson.com/page5/page8/page38/page38.html
   . . .
   Attempts to combine rock and reverence often result in musical Hallmark moments, or Spinal Tap-like gibberish about spirits and standing stones. Not Scott’s efforts. The mythic references in his stunningly melodic pieces are often literary — bits of W.B. Yeats and C.S. Lewis in particular. Yet the Scottish-born singer hews to no denominational or doctrinal line. This is truly world music. You may be able to identity fragments of religious or mystical imagery in his lyrics, but the inclusion is to serve the music, not hammer home a message.
   . . .
   In his songs, Scott the rejects the cynic’s perception of the world as something you deal with by hardening yourself. This point of view, and his rejection of it, was summed up in the apocalyptically sublime track Let It Happen.

   Behold the lights of London,
   The Skipper said as his hands shook,
   His aura eaten by his jealousy
   And all the drugs he took.
   “This is the real world, buddy,
   Toughen up your ass or it’ll break.”
   I said “I’m not your buddy, buddy
   And your real world is a fake.”
   . . .

   Sadly, I don’t think I can (productively) say anymore to encourage you to actually visit this ad free 6:43 YouTube clip before reading anymore and spoiling the interesting insight the song; song begins at 3:10 if you want to skip the monologue.

   Dear Muslims: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqljUI2xK34.

   So I hope by the time you’ve made it here you will have had the space to look around at others and yourself and see all the wonderful /disguises/ everywhere.

   I recall your Nerdist interview began with a non-aggressive nerd-off. On reflection, I realized that nerdy is currently fashionable in LA and you seem to have been worried that nobody would believe you if you (who are still indelibly famous to most listeners for an anti-nerd character) just stumbled into the nerdy kid story and so you decided the best defense for that outcome would be to attack that issue head on and make your case explicitly from the very start. It helped that you were clever and weren’t aggressive but mostly what sold it was my belief that you were stressed a bit for the interview and overthought it that seemed to really make your point for you.

   I’ve seen /that/ movie and I can understand why it might be very important to many people but I actually had a hard time even recalling your face but I really enjoyed your that interview and I’m really happy you’re podcasting. I was listening to your Solo Christmas Special when another layer of that song gelled for me as a way to express a genuine compliment that will hopefully encourage you to continue podcasting:

   Tom Wilson is a /wonderful/ disguise!

3. Ronald says:

   December 24, 2011 at 8:42 pm

   this was a Christmas treat! Thanks!!!