popular thinking

A brief journey in the not-so-wayback machine to some of the things on my mind, and in the press, as a gentle reminder to click on the Boston Herald tag above (I have tags? I have tags!) and read my regular print musings -- or better yet, to go pick up a copy of the newsprint, and for a couple of quarters, see how pretty it all looks.

Jim Norton is just as nutty on the phone and onstage as he is as the comic sidekick/foil to Opie and Anthony (locally mornings on WBCN-FM 104.1 or everywhere on XM satellites), and it's something that I managed to get as many printable quotes as I got.

Then again, Jim Florentine's mind may be sicker.

My interview with guitarist Mike McCready of Pearl Jam was one of the most popular online reads for our paper, even weeks afterward. That's due, in part, to the band's newfound resurgence with the rest of the mainstream media (disclosure: I've been a fan since a college friend turned me onto them in 1991), in part due to Pearl Jam's two sold-out shows at the new Boston Garden, and in part due to my use of a Doonesbury reference (thanks, Larry!). And, of course, my stellar writing!

I wanted Katharine McPhee to win American Idol. On the other hand, it's probably for the best that she didn't. And did you see the look on Taylor's face when he realized he really was the next American Idol? Which reminds me, I need to update my Big Show Blog to reflect all of that.

Lots of TV characters didn't make it through May sweeps, although really, that's not as much because the networks felt more violent than usual -- just that offing the cast sometimes is an easy dramatic screenwriting device, 1) saving the show some money, and also 2) buying them new plot developments.

Dan Sally is one of Boston's funniest, quirkiest stand-up comedians, and I finally got to give him some much deserved press. Go here to see his Web site. Or check him out on Comedy Central.

I recently spent a Saturday night with a bachelorette party out of Somerville. And no, I wasn't the hired dancer. Although they did drag me out on the dance floor. Get a flavor for the experience here. RELATED: Hitch your own ride on the Bustonian.

Not quite as recently, I sat down at a table across from Al Gore. Yes, that Al Gore. Here is some of what transpired. As for his movie, An Inconvenient Truth, Gore makes a solid case that we've been (and by we, he means George W. Bush and Co.) have been neglecting the environment, and woe be unto all of us if we don't start cleaning up our act. Part of the reason Gore "lost" in 2000 was because he came across as a guy who knew he was smarter than the rest of us and showed it with smug. On film, he comes across like a college professor. Warm. Still a bit boring. But warm. In person, he's easier to like. And knowing I could make him laugh early and often over the course of a half-hour convinced me that the guy is human, and humorous. If only he could figure out how to present that guy to the rest of the country.

Amazon.com is in the TV talk show bidness? Who knew? RELATED: Watch the first episode of "Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher"

Greg Giraldo should be a lot more famous than he is. Of all of the stand-up comedians working the circuit and talking topical, few know how to tell it like it is like Giraldo can. My interview with him ran on Friday, and I went to see his show Saturday at the Comedy Connection. He had me rolling throughout his set, taking on everything from the just concluded national spelling bee to the immigration debate and practically anything else that our society should be worried about. RELATED: Greg Giraldo's Web site (which has audio and video clips). Or watch other video clips of Giraldo on Comedy Central.

I wasn't terribly impressed with the sixth-season "finale" of The Sopranos. It was one of the episodes in which you kept thinking the other shoe was going to drop, and it never did. More ho-hum than Bada Bing! Then again, my friend Christian pointed out that creator David Chase always has had a knack to keep the audience guessing, resisting the easy ways out of an intricate plotline. Even so. The last eight episodes, due in 2007, better be better. A whole lot better.