About Face

As explained previously, I deactivated my Facebook account due to a slew of offensive spam ads in my newsfeed. When Prue suggested watching a video on Facebook, I went back in to take a look. (I originally joined Facebook at Prue’s request.)

To my surprise, I was able to log in as if I hadn’t deactivated the account, which I don’t think is how it’s supposed to work. But at least I didn’t see any of those really stupid ads.

Scrolling down the newsfeed I spotted a happy accident, like the one I posted last year, where two items, presented one on top of the other, made a visual joke. Both examples also happen to have comic book connections. In this one the Marvel Comics X-Men character Storm, as drawn by the late Dave Cockrum, comes to life in the face of Mindy Kaling.

Cartoonist Under Fire Fired

In the age of declining newspaper readership, there aren’t many American papers left that have their own in-house political cartoonist. So it’s distressing when an established cartoonist is fired, especially when the reason isn’t economic, but political.

A few years ago the radical cartoonist Ted Rall was pushed out of The Los Angeles Times under very strange and confusing circumstances. Until a couple of days ago The Pittsburg Post-Gazette had Rob Rogers, and there is nothing confusing about the reason for his firing.

Let Sanity Prevail

It’s time for a mental health break with the utterly unique and yet commonplace Joe Pera.

I can’t embed the video, so click here instead. There’s no need to go to the URL that’s given below for Joe’s free video, because that’s what is on the link in the sentence before this one. You should, however, click on the “Joe Pera Shirt” link and buy one. I did.

Who needs Transcendental Meditation, when we have Joe?

Hello,

I hope you’re doing well and that you can get out of work a few hours early today to mow the lawn. It’s a long shot but if things work out, that’ll be an extra hour on Saturday you’ll have to yourself.

I probably should have written much sooner but in case you didn’t know, I made a show that is now airing on Adult Swim called ‘Joe Pera Talks With You’. If you haven’t seen it, it’s basically just me walking around and bumbling to camera about stuff I find interesting. They put one of my favorites online for free:

http://www.adultswim.com/videos/joe-pera-talks-with-you/joe-pera-takes-you-to-breakfast/

There’s 9 episodes total and I’m writing to let you know that the big season finale airs this Sunday, June 17th at midnight. To keep expectations reasonable, there will not be a graphic lovemaking scene but I do think it’s one of the best ones and that you’ll like it. Feel free to let me know if you don’t though.

Also – as a special thing, Adult Swim just put all of the music that Ryan Dann composed for the show online today too: http://www.adultswim.com/music/joe-pera/

I’ve got a small tour planned for August and some other stuff coming up but I know you’re busy and those other things are enough to bother you with so that’s all for now.

If you ever want to say hello, I am still doing my weekly show with Dan – ‘Dan Joe Charles Show’ – every Tuesday night at 8:30pm at the NY Distilling Company (79 Richardson Street, Brooklyn). Charles moved to LA but we kept his name on the show cause maybe he’ll come back? Who knows. It’s still free.

Anyhow, thanks for reading. TGIF and I hope you like how things end,

Joe

PS – This is very dumb but I didn’t have any merchandise so I put a photo from my phone on a t-shirt. It’s kind of fun though and could be a good purchase if you don’t own any other shirts:

https://joe-pera-store.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/joe-pera-shirt

PS – If you guessed my age, I’m sorry I haven’t gotten back yet. I’m 17.

Selling My Soul

Speaking of the Korean Peninsula, after my father died I had the title and registration of his 2014 Kia Soul transfered in my name. Tomorrow I will be selling the car to a Phoenix area dealership that, according to Kelly Blue Book, is offering me a fair price for a cash deal. I make tremendous deals. The very best deals. 😉

After my father bought the car four years ago, he called me to say how pleased he was with his purchase, and now I know why. Being a Honda-Toyota guy, I had my doubts about Kia, but with the Korean brands Samsung and LG taking over the HDTV market from Sony and Panasonic, I was interested in driving the Soul myself; which I started doing 18 months ago, sad to say only after my father had a stroke. But I was, and continue to be, very impressed with this little car that’s part subcompact, part hatchback, and part mini-SUV.

Dad bought the base model, and that seems to me as the way to go. A more expensive, full-featured trim would make the Soul less of a bargain than it is. I’m surprised that it has Bluetooth integration and voice recognition, but it does and they work well. Seating comfort and the action of the various controls are, if anything, superior to my 2017 Toyota Camry XLE.

There isn’t much cargo space in the back, but that’s actually a good thing because the height is excellent, and perfectly suited for someone who has trouble bending forward and/or down to get bags of groceries loaded and unloaded.

With the many Souls I see here in Sun City West, I’m wondering if this is another example of a car that was originally intended for young buyers and instead found its market with Boomers and retirees. That’s what happened with the Honda Element, and unfortunately it killed that particular model, but the Kia Soul seems to be selling very well.

The bottom line is that I like this little car so much that if I needed a car myself I’d keep it and make a road trip out of driving it back home to Massachusetts.