But what about Y.P.R. Radio? Glad you asked!

Y.P.R. will have a guest appearance TONIGHT (!) on the Joey Reynolds Show on WOR-710 in the New York area, a most underrated radio program if there ever was one.

What's that you say? You don't live in New York? No problem! They offer live streaming on the InterWeb here.

We'll be taping around 10:40pm. His show begins at midnight, so I should have a sense of when we'll air presently.

Labels: books, radio, Underrated, YPR

Our "Five Most Underrated Simpsons Characters" article is up on Cracked.com. Pay special attention to the comments. We're getting hammered by Cracked's 15 year-old readership. When you read at a 4th grade level, I guess it's difficult to understand a decently crafted argument for something.

Also, we had a brief review/shout-out in the Orgeonian yesterday:

The waggish satirists from the Web site Yankee Pot Roast have cobbled together a book -- "Underrated: The Yankee Pot Roast Book of Awesome Underappreciated Stuff" (Citadel Press, $12.95, 204 pages). Authors Geoff Wolinetz, Nick Jezarian and Josh Abraham throw down their opinions on the rate-worthiness of everything from George Harrison (underrated) to Paul McCartney (not underrated).

Among the underrated are movies such as "Grosse Pointe Blank" (hear, hear!) and "Gung Ho!"; the TV shows "Good Times," "Futurama" and "Deadwood"; Diet Dr. Pepper; singer Donovan; and our own state, Oregon. Why are we underrated? The authors' examples of our awesomeness include: no sales tax; vote-by-mail; Matt Groening (of both "Simpsons" and "Futurama" fame); Steve Prefontaine; Nike; Wieden + Kennedy; bountiful brewpubs; and designating the hazelnut the state nut ("Who has a state nut? Nobody else. Oregon makes its own rules"). On behalf of the entire state, let me just say, gee thanks, Yankee Pot Roast!

That's not the first time that I've been called waggish, and since I'm slightly aroused, hopefully not the last.

[Update 1:54pm: the Cracked article has made the Digg homepage.]

Labels: books, Cracked, The Oregonian, Underrated, YPR

That has nothing to do with the content of the post here. I just thought of that old Chris Rock routine and started laughing. And there you go.

I'm trying my damnedest to work on another project right now that I'm trying to get out the door by the end of the month, so posting my get sparse around these parts over the next couple of weeks. I really wish that I was the kind of writer that could churn out 1500 words on this blog, and then turn around and knock out a chapter or two, but I can't seem to do that these days. Either my fingers don't work or my brain is broken, but both of those options leaves me out of luck.

In any event, the reading/signing on Monday went swimmingly. We had a nice turnout, and a good bit of banter in front of a mildly entertained audience. This far exceeded my expectations, which had us engaged in a stony, awkward silence with three or four disinterested observers.

Upcoming events/appearances include:

a guest spot on the Joey Reynolds Show

a guest appearance at Cracked Online

a guest appearance at Comedy Central's Indecision 2008

I'll be sure to post links as they become available.

Labels: books, Chris Rock, Underrated, writing

Don't forget everyone: the Y.P.R. authors three will be at the Time Warner Center Border's signing copies of our runaway smash, "Underrated: The Yankee Pot Roast Book of Awesome Underappreciated Stuff." The information is below. Hope to see you all there:


Monday, August 11, 2008 at 7 p.m.
Borders
Time Warner Center
10 Columbus Circle
New York, N.Y.

Labels: books, Underrated, YPR

Dear god, there's so much to catch up on.

- I saw Hair at Shakespeare in the Park on Sunday night. I know what you're thinking: When did Shakespeare write an anti-establishment, anti-Vietnam musical? The answer: around 1967. I could spend some time here, railing all over the Baby Boomers (again) and discuss how those greedy, selfish fucks basically pissed away the last chance this country had at true change, because their parents stopped paying for their pot and they needed to get jobs to support themselves, so they just sold out to the highest bidder, got fat and became the people they swore they never would when they were in charge. But I won't do that.

Instead, I'll just tell you that the production is outstanding, even if it does come off a little dated. And if you're inclined, wake up early, get your ass on line, and get some tickets for this bad boy. You won't be sorry.

- They finally shut down Scrabulous. That'll make people buy the board game. Thanks for ruining Christmas, Milton Bradley.

- In a horrific turn of events, the external hard drive that contained 90% of my music was completely erased. Now I'm in the unenviable position of having to rebuild the entire collection from scratch. To be fair, I'm not entirely free of blame in this situation, I am looking forward to getting reacquainted with Frampton Comes Alive and Jerry Vale's Greatest Hits by re-stealing them.

- In case you forgot, I've got a book on the shelves. You should consider purchasing this book. I believe that you would enjoy it very much. If you don't like the book, I'll personally come to your home and tell you the story about the time I asked Sally Field if I would write her biography.

- I wanted to say something about the election: since I already know who I'm going to vote for, is it possible for me to vote now and then stop paying attention? I consider myself a news guy. I watch the cable news channels. I read the Times. I just can't take anymore of this. People actually said, out loud, that it's a bad thing that people outside of the U.S. (in addition to 54% of the U.S. electorate, as polled by Quinnipiac University) like Barack Obama. This is the attack? People abroad like him, so we shouldn't vote for him? Someone's going to have to clean my brains off of the wall, because my head just exploded.

** Update: It should be noted that I don't *actually* hate my parents. They're lovely people who raised me very nicely. I just have an unfocused hatred of their whole selfish generation.**

Labels: books, Hair, iTunes, music, politics, Scrabulous, Shakespeare, Underrated

Who the hell's been keeping me away from Chicago for this long? Sweet Jewish god, this place is really friggin' great.

It's a cleaner, more compact version of New York with nicer people. Even though I'm on the record saying that New Yorkers don't get enough credit for being nice, if not a little gruff, the people here are so friendly. And not in an uncomfortable or sexual way either. Just regular nice.

Last night, I had a great meal at a local steakhouse. Tonight, I'm off to US Cellular Field (which I understand is surround mostly by crack houses) to watch the White Sox of Chicago take on the Rangers of Texas. The Cubs of Chicago are out of town or I would have headed up to Wrigley Field (which I understand is surrounded by yuppies).

Hey, why not buy my book? It would make a great gift for your graduate or perhaps your best friend who really likes pop culture or maybe even that girl from the mini-mart that you clumsily flirt with when you purchase cat food. All of those people would enjoy it.

Labels: baseball, books, Chicago, Underrated, White Sox

We've got a couple more events surrounding the book, so if you were unable to join us for the launch party on Tuesday, definitely head down to one of these events. Also, if you were able to join us and feel like seeing us again, please come on by as well. And to sweeten the deal, I'll open mouth kiss anyone that buys ten books.

August 11
Borders
Time Warner Center
10 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019

September 25
Barnes and Noble
The Palisades Center
4416 Palisades Center Drive
West Nyack, NY 10994

These events have both been posted in "Where's Wolinetz" in the right rail as well.

Labels: books, events, Underrated

To all the people that showed last night to support our book and party with us, thank you so much.

For those of you that did not, make up for it by buying our book.

Labels: books, Underrated

We've set up a blog for the Underrated website. We'll be blogging on the fly, on a reasonably daily basis, about stuff that doesn't appear in the book.

Check the blog here.

Labels: Underrated, YPR

Friends, it's been a busy few weeks around the parts. Let's run it all down, and then we'll resume our regularly scheduled programming.

Since the last posting on this site, my work life has been consumed with the ad server migration of NASCAR.com. That's right: during the daytime hours, your humble working boy spends his time making sure the paid advertisers of a major media company are functioning properly and getting their just due.

From there, it was to majestic Rockland County, where I went to my brother's high school graduation. In classic Wolinetz fashion, he made it out of there in just 12 short years, not the 13 or 14 minimum that I assumed it would take him. He's off to Boston in the Fall.

How about those New York Rangers? It's going to be a completely different team next year. Good-bye to Sean Avery and Jaromir Jagr. Hello, Nikolai Zheredev, Wade Redden, Markus Naslund and Dmitri Kalinin. I think the jury's out on how these moves will work out, but the did get younger and faster, and that's the way the NHL is going.

That brings us to today, the Fourth of July. The wife and I did a little shopping, took the dog out for a walk. She's on her way to Jersey to hang with her granddad, and tonight I'm going to see The Wackness, a Sundance selection that I talked about in this post here.

Finally, the Underrated launch party is Tuesday. Come on down, and bring the kiddies, why dontcha?

Labels: Fourth of July, NASCAR.com, New York Rangers, Underrated

You know what's underrated? This site.

Labels: books, Underrated, YPR

Did you miss me? I assume no.

I was in Marco Island for a few days for a vendor conference. It was a fun, yet informative time. And really, what's better than fun and information all rolled into one? Sexual intercourse? Perhaps. But nothing else.

I'll be getting on a more regular publishing schedule as the book release date approaches and we have events scheduled around that. There will be a launch party. We're finalizing the date, but mark your calendar as July 8 for now. I'll let you know if this changes.

Labels: books, Underrated, YPR

The cover of the book has been finalized! Hooray! Three sentences in a row that end in exclamation points! Now, four! OK, I'm finished. Anyway, the book is also available for pre-order at Amazon.com. In fact if you act now, in addition to the Amazon savings, you can get an additional 5% off.

The book's blurbs are on this page, as well as the back cover copy. It's really cool. It's being edited to add my name at the top, which is an odd omission, but that should be taken care of reasonably soon.

Labels: books, Underrated