If you're in the Washington, DC area, you should come to the Crafty Bastards show on Sunday. There's going to be entertainment, demonstrations, and 100 awesome craft vendors (including me!). 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., at the Marie Reed Learning Center at 18th & Wyoming.

Ooh, and look! The Washington City Paper posted a Q&A with me on their Crafty Bastards blog!

There is a new TV show coming out called "Dirty Sexy Money." The billboards look like this (thank you to Nat for the photo):

Now please tell me, have you noticed what I've noticed? That EINSTEIN is in the show?

I mean, look at that guy. White beard, messy white hair. How is he not Einstein? Ladies and gentleman, what I believe we have here is a show about a Nobel-prize winning physicist getting caught up in the hot world of sex and crime. I imagine the first scene of the first episode goes something like this:

Fade in.

Einstein lies in his underwear on an unmade hotel bed. In front of him stands a woman in black lingerie and thigh-high boots. She has her back to the camera.

WOMAN (yelling): You want it? You want it, Albert? Fine, take it!

She throws a fistful of money at Einstein. It flutters down on him.

WOMAN: But Albert, dear Albert. As brilliant as you are, you didn't figure it out. E doesn't equal MC squared. E equals MC dead.

She levels a gun at his head. Einstein gulps.

Cut to black.

EINSTIEN (voice over): It wasn't always this way. It wasn't always this way…for Einstein.
Opening credits.

Easily the best TV show ever.

I grew up in a small town in Northern New Hampshire, in an area that was once sustained by the paper mill industry. My father worked at one of the mills for a number of years, as did my uncle and many of my friends' parents. But with overseas competition being what it is, the last twenty years have been poor for the American wood products industry. As long as I can remember the mills existing, I can also remember them slowly closing down.

I saw the decline out of my peripheral vision. Mills changed hands; new signs went up. My friends' parents started losing their jobs. Mike's family moved to Texas, the Arsenaults moved to New York. My father had stopped working at the paper mill before I was born, but he was running the wooden-furniture-parts mill my grandfather had started, and they were also feeling the squeeze. A couple of years ago, my father made the decision to close down my family’s mill. And at the same time, the paper mills were sighing their last, sulphury breaths.

When I visit my parents in New Hampshire now, there's a feeling like everyone is holding their breath for fear that if they exhale, the area will collapse. I always struggle when I try to describe this feeling, because I don't want to give the impression that where I grew up is hopeless and decrepit. It's not. It's beautiful, but it's scared. The paper industry, the beast that built the area up, is now gray in the muzzle and trembling.

Perhaps it's needless to say, but it's not an area that many people pay attention to. That's why I was surprised to hear about it on NPR this morning. Amy Quinton from New Hampshire Public Radio did a piece about the demolition of smokestacks at one of the pulp mills in Berlin, which is two towns over from my hometown. In her short piece, Amy manages to capture the feeling of the area, its relationship with the mills, and its unsurety about how to move forward.

Listen here.

Okay, it's not really a review. But the Sketch Book Reporter came to our Friday show and drew furiously throughout the entire thing. Take a look at the results! Here's my favorite one, of Rob as the presidential candidate:

Yay! "Dinner with Mischa," the sketch I made with Rob and Jeff, was one of 11 shorts to make it into the film portion of the Boston Comedy Festival! If you live in the Boston area or are heading to the festival, check it out during the Movie Contest Night at the Improv Asylum, 8 p.m. on October 7th.

Look:

In this hollow, maladapted age, celebrity — like consent — is manufactured; Meg Favreau and Rob Baniewicz turn up the satire-o-stat swiftly to a toasty "Wet and Wilde" intensity in their new show, Reviving the Lecture Circuit, and through absurdist alchemy reanimate the esteemed institution of cynosure disquisition. Meg and Rob portray caricatures of various celebrity archetypes, including politicians, lifestyle coaches, and television personalities, with relatable and hilarious execution. The duo's comedy finds good purchase on its target, and the shallow self-importance of the inexplicably famous shines in every moment, right through the relentless, pancake-saturated climax. —Will Dean

If you've seen the show, you can also add your comments on the City Paper's website.

Well. After a number of months of writing and practicing, my dear friend Rob and I are premiering our comedy show Reviving the Lecture Circuit as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival tomorrow. Tomorrow! Oh, shit.

The show consists of six modern celebrities telling their stories, from a motivational fitness expert to the presidential candidate who believes that all of America's problems would be solved by having a wolf in every back yard. It's really quite excellent. I'm not just saying that. Heck, I'm proud.

If you live in the Philadelphia area, we would love to see you at the show. Here are the details:

When
Thursday, September 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, September 7 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 15 at 7:00 p.m.

Where
The Walking Fish Theatre 2509 Frankford Ave Philadelphia, PA 19125

How Much
Just $5! That's the cheapest you can make a Fringe show without it being free!

You can get tickets online through the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. A couple of people have reported problems with the online ordering system, so if it's mean to you, you can also call the box office at 215-413-1318. We'll also be selling tickets at the door.

And if you want to make an evening of it, I highly suggest the show that's before ours on Thursday and Friday, Religion is Retarded. I saw it Tuesday and did some good laughing.