Joel Keller Freelance Writer

Some new stuff for your viewing pleasure

I know... I haven't blogged for a while.

Oh, well. I'm a person who really doesn't feel like he should be a slave to his blog. I think it might be that I don't have enough interesting things to say to post that often. But mostly it's because I need to make money and the damned skinflints that run this place don't pay me at all.

Speaking of work, here are some new clips for you to peruse:

Just out: A story I did for New Jersey Monthly on Cash Cab host Ben Bailey.

Also just out: An interview with comedian Lewis Black that I did for TV Squad.

Also also just out: I wrote two blurbs in the Feb/Mar. issue of Amtrak's magazine, Arrive. My stories on March Madness and the musical of "Cry-Baby" are on pages 16 and 18, respectively.

From about a week ago: A TV Squad interview I did with the guys from MTV's Human Giant.

From last month: An essay for New Jersey Monthly about the near future of my town, good ol' Morristown, NJ.

I think that's it. More goodness to come, including an interview I did with Barry Williams (yes, *the* Greg Brady), which should be posted on TV Squad next week.

OK, everyone get back to work!

The writers' strike is over. Most of my favorite shows will be back next month (except for Pushing Daisies, which has been renewed but won't be back until fall). And the late night talk show hosts actually have good jokes to tell rather than their scattershot attempts to come up with jokes on their own (or, in Jay Leno's case, attempts to make it look like he came up with the jokes on his own). By the way: Stephen Colbert and Conan O'Brien, you navigated well without your writers. Jon Stewart? Well, as you used to say all the time... "not so much."

Now I wonder what this means for TV writers -- and those who want to be TV writers -- in the long term. Will there be less opportunities for young up-and-comers to get in the business, because networks are going to go with more reality TV, or will things eventually get back to pre-strike levels? Will the internet be best way to start your TV writing career? It's all going to be interesting to watch, and some of it is going to be for very personal reasons...

An Interview with Jackie “The Jokeman” Martling

For the new year, I decided to start a new feature called "Dead Article Theater." This is where I'll put essays and articles that never saw the light of day. These could be essays or ideas that were shopped around forever and ever and given the thumbs down at every turn. Alternately, they could be assigned articles that, for some reason, got killed and I was unable to place it elsewhere, either because of indifference or laziness.

This first article is in the latter category. In April 2007, I pitched Radar Online the idea of doing an interview with Jackie Martling, formerly of the Howard Stern Show. They agreed. I could have easily done the interview over the phone, but when Jackie offered to take me to the Friars Club, I couldn't turn it down. So I traveled into the city, met Jackie at his midtown Manhattan apartment (he lives in the same building as Colin Quinn, whom I saw on the way in) and did the interview, then went to the Friars Club for lunch.

(Photo: Oglio Records)

Amtrak, a new feature, and comment pork products

A few quick items:

• I have a blurb about NJ Devils' owner Jeff Vanderbeek in the January / February issue of Arrive, Amtrak's in-train magazine. You can read a digital copy of the magazine here; my contribution is on Page 12.
• On Monday, I'm rolling out a new feature on this blog; for now I'm calling it "Dead Article Theater". It will consist of articles that were killed by the publications I wrote them for, or essays that never found a home after years of submissions. The first piece is an interview I did last April with a very funny comedian that anyone who listened to a certain radio show would know pretty well. Stay tuned.
• Finally... I'm getting a lot of comment sp*m. Since I moderate comments, I delete them before they ever get published on the blog. But they seem to be coming in at a more rapid pace than ever. Any of you veteran bloggers figure out a way to stop the sp*m? The only way I've seen is to use HaloScan, which of course takes the comments off my server. Any ideas? Let me know in the comments (I'll make sure I approve them if you're not already approved. Honest).

Remember that letter from DiNizio? Never mind.

In my last note, I mentioned that Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens had put a letter on his website regarding his bands' absence from New Jersey Monthly's music issue. Well, it looks like he's taken that letter down. Maybe he felt he said his piece and didn't want to belabor the point. Dunno. So, if you follow the link below and see nothing there, don't fret for my sanity. There was a letter there at some point. I swear.

Yo La Tengo does Hanukkah, and a Smithereens snub

One of my articles that got cut from the New Jersey Monthly music issue was a short one I did on the Hanukkah concerts mounted by the indie band Yo La Tengo. It was cut because we couldn't confirm that the shows were going to take place in time to make the print publication. But, since they are going to happen, the folks at NJM were nice enough to put the article on their web site. Here it is.

Meanwhile, Pat DiNizio is (correctly) upset that The Smithereens were left off of NJM's NJ music history timeline in that issue. I tried to tell him that it was likely an oversight, but still... there are few acts outside of Springsteen and Bon Jovi that are more closely identified with New Jersey than are The Smithereens. They should have been included. What do you folks think?