Difference between revisions of "Little Gray Books"

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(Cleaning up references)
m (Over There for LGB #11, according to JoCo interview)
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*9 Mystery Cults of North America ([[I'm a Mason Now]])
 
*9 Mystery Cults of North America ([[I'm a Mason Now]])
 
*10 How and When to Tell a Lie
 
*10 How and When to Tell a Lie
*11 Europe vs. America
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*11 Europe vs. America ([[Over There]])
 
*12 Great Rivalries in American Spelling
 
*12 Great Rivalries in American Spelling
 
*13 How to Seek Your Fortune
 
*13 How to Seek Your Fortune

Revision as of 10:33, 15 July 2008

A series of lectures, hosted by John Hodgman, from 2001 to 2006. Jonathan Coulton served as the musical director for these lectures, performing many originals that would later be released as Other Experiments or reproduced for Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow or during Thing a Week.

The notion of the lecture series was based on a series of useful How-To booklets issued in the early 20th Century with charmingly archaic titles. [1] Each Little Gray Book lecture had a theme and featured a selection of guests. These lectures included readings by authors, novelty demonstrations, comedy and music. Most of the Little Gray Book lectures took place at the Galapagos Art Space, in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn NY.

The only nearly-complete recording of a Little Gray Book lecture is the one made of Lecture 29, on the topic of radio. [2] The lecture took place in Philadelphia, in order to take advantage of radio-quality sound recording at the Indre Studio. [3] However, a total of seven of the lectures were at least partially recorded and released as podcasts. These podcasts were compiled by Jonathan Coulton and John Hodgman and bookmarked with inventive fictional settings and events as described by the two of them. Each podcast reprised readings, songs, or amusing happenings from seven specific past lectures.

Several of Jonathan's songs were written for the lectures or the podcasts, including Skullcrusher Mountain, The Future Soon, Furry Old Lobster, The Presidents, and Brookline, the last of which was prompted by the lecture about Hodgman's hometown of Brookline, Massachusetts.

These lectures included (songs from the lecture in parenthesis):

  • 1 How to Begin an Important Project [4]
  • 2 Hints on Public Singing (Rainbow Connection)
  • 3 How to Spell Several Common Words
  • 4 How Can We Possibly Go On? (post- 9/11)
  • 5 How to Win a Fight
  • 6 How to Choose (or Make) the Perfect Gift
  • 7 Secrets of Self-Improvement
  • 8 How to Throw a Curveball
  • 9 Mystery Cults of North America (I'm a Mason Now)
  • 10 How and When to Tell a Lie
  • 11 Europe vs. America (Over There)
  • 12 Great Rivalries in American Spelling
  • 13 How to Seek Your Fortune
  • 14 How to Speak with Strangers
  • 15 How to ReDistribute Wealth and Joy
  • 16 How to Pour the Perfect Werthmann [5] (Mandelbrot Set)
  • 17 How to Generate a Winning Character
  • 18 What Will Happen in the Future? (Full mp3) (The Future Soon)
  • 19 Exiles of Chicago
  • 20 How to Negotiate All Kinds of Deals and Contracts (Screwed (demo))
  • 21 How to Measure Misunderstood Genius (Skullcrusher Mountain)
  • 22 How to Gamble and Win (Full mp3) (Gambler's Prayer (demo))
  • 23 Brookline: the Town that Has Everything Yet at the Same Time Has Nothing [6] (Brookline (demo))
  • 24 Strange Gifts from Far-Off Lands [7]
  • 25 The Animals: Are They Our Enemies? (I Crush Everything)
  • 26 Secrets of the Secret Agents
  • 27 How to Lead a Double Life (or Death)
  • 28
  • 29 How to Communicate Without the Aid of Wires
  • 30 How to Observe President's Day, Observed (The Presidents)
  • 31 How to Commit the Perfect Crime (One More Score)
  • 32 How to Prepare Manuscripts for Publication [8]
  • 33 How to Rest Quietly (technically not a lecture, but the title of the Hiatus announcement found currently on the Little Gray Book Lectures website.)

References