Marc Maron recovers.
ADDED: At The New Yorker, Sarah Larson wonders whether Maron could get to "the heart and soul of things" as he has with other guests:
Maybe. A President’s heart and soul tend to consist of deeply reasonable sentiments, unless he’s Lyndon Johnson. Obama is by nature rational and pragmatic.... His conversation, humor, and revelations are all intelligent and uncontroversial. Part of what has become second nature to him is speaking so reasonably that it’s almost aggravating. What does he do for fun? Watch his daughters grow up; he finds them spectacular. Play basketball, but he’s not as young as he used to be. When he mentioned parental craziness and the desire to not pass your own craziness on to your kids, Maron said, “How are you crazy?” Well, he isn’t.... He may have been as real as he gets....
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55 comments:
Sounds like a hard hitting interview. Asking the tough questions in between tears. Jesus what a fucking pussy. He's a bad President. He's not God, you pathetic twat.
Does Mr. Maron react this way to everyone he interviews?
It is cool (I imagine) to be next to the President -- but that's all he should have said. The rest of it makes him seem incredibly pathetic.
"Journalist" trying to become part of the story......
But to really be in the presence of somebody who is the president and has been for eight years...
Math is hard.
Did he check to see if any of the family silver was missing?
Math is hard. It's even harder when you're taking off your knee pads. Get that man some chapstick!
Why no Obama the boyfriend tag?
"Does Mr. Maron react this way to everyone he interviews?"
I thought the interview made an excellent podcast, and it caused me to subscribe to the podcast. Going back into the old podcasts, I started listening to the one with Terry Gross. I think there is a Marc Maron style of reaction that is consistent. And he did not fawn over the President. It was a very different kind of interview that I appreciated. Did you listen to it? It begins with the men talking about the posters in Maron's garage. Obama talked about the comedians he likes, such as "Louis." Obama talked about his travails as a young man, trying to figure out, after growing up in Hawaii, how to be black, and considering, as a role model, Shaft.
Did I listen to it? I've had six years of listening to the dolt drone on. I'm not sentencing myself to that.
He isn't MY President. I'm the only enemy he opposes. So fuck him.
Did Obama reminisce about his training in economics?
Learning to do everything wrong is not simple.
I've also heard Maron's stand up. That won't make stuff better.
Both are pathetic. He is a divisive president, who has taken our country back 50 years.....and he is comfortable with it!
"I let my cats out of the bedroom .."
damikesc said...
He's not God, you pathetic twat.
The poor guy probably has toxoplasmosis.
Obama is a con man. The "con" is for confidence and convincing people to part with their money. You are always unhappy in the end, wish you'd never met the guy, and later pretty freaking angry at yourself for getting taken and really freaking angry that the con man is on the loose fleecing others.
"Ann Althouse said...
Obama talked about his travails as a young man, trying to figure out, after growing up in Hawaii, how to be black, and considering, as a role model, Shaft."
Then failing to be "black" he decided to give us the shaft.
And you are still buying his schtick ...
Obama talked about the comedians he likes, such as "Louis."
Did he call Louis C.K. "Louis"?
There's nothing important, interesting or useful in being "interviewed" by someone who adores you--the questions turn into "how do you handle being so awesome?" and "why do you suppose others don't realize how awesome you are?"
Wake me when Obama sits down for a real grilling--you know, the sort of thing a free press and accountable government could benefit from.
He's not God, you pathetic twat.
He's sort of a god.
I agree with the cats.
Obama talked about his travails as a young man, trying to figure out, after growing up in Hawaii, how to be black, and considering, as a role model, Shaft.
The rest of us were trying to be American.
When there's a crowd of people looking to see the president, the Secret Service scans for the people who aren't smiling.
Wake me when Obama sits down for a real grilling--you know, the sort of thing a free press and accountable government could benefit from.
That assumes the media is more than giggling schoolgirls around him...an assumption not bakced up by evidence.
Would the media be so blase if Bush had basically every federal employee's information hacked by China and didn't say a word about it?
I thought the interview made an excellent podcast, and it caused me to subscribe to the podcast.
Your taste is not always shared by your commentators,Professor. Meanwhile I'm still trying to figure out how you subtract January 2009 from June 2015 and get 8 years. I recollect getting problems like this back in the fifth grade (which for me was still in the 1950s) and getting 100% on the tests. But that was before teachers unions became what they are today.
Also, I partially agree with damiksec -- Obama got overexposed on TV a long time ago and I'm tired of seeing him and hearing him. If you tell me that he'll admit fault on something, that I'd go listen to ... maybe better not. I might have a myocardial infarction and the ER would likely be flooded with other people who heard Obama admit he'd made a mistake and it happened to them, too.
Just another Lib dry humping Obama.
Obama likes to sit down and talk about himself. He isn't so big on drafting foreign policies, working with Congess on immigration issues, or figuring out exactly what he would do about guns, which he says are an important issue.
Oh- also not big on figuring out what to do about our government-held private information being hacked by the Chinese or released by the IRS.
He'd prefer the "P" in POTUS to stand for "Pontificator".
Obama talked about the comedians he likes, such as "Louis."
He saw him live at Cominskey Park.
Obama is proving to be a first-class dolt, a strange know-nothing who tells us he knows everything. He's ridiculously aloof and I think that's the 'cool' that these idolators like Maron confuse with actual coolness or calm.
Favorite team is the White Sox. Can't name a fucking player on the current team. I like that comedian "Louis." Of course he does.
Can't wait to be rid of this clown.
"That assumes the media is more than giggling schoolgirls around him...an assumption not bakced up by evidence."
Well, at least the media he is willing to sit down with. A while back I thought he let O'Reilly interview him, but that's a rare thing.
There's just no value in a fawning interview. I have no interest in watching Hannity "interview" Sarah Palin, either.
"Can't wait to be rid of this clown."
If he gets replaced with Hillary, I think a lot of us will be thinking back to how Obama wasn't "this bad."
"Well, he's a friend of them long haired, hippy-type, pinko fags.
I betchya he's even got a commie flag
tacked up on the wall inside of his garage!"
"He's a snake in the grass, I tell ya guys.
He may look dumb but that's just a disguise,
He's a mastermind in the ways of espionage"
If he gets replaced with Hillary, I think a lot of us will be thinking back to how Obama wasn't "this bad."
Life is full of risks.
Marc Maron isn’t a journalist, he’s a comedian. He‘s pretty entertaining, at least the two seasons I saw on Amazon Prime were pretty funny. Also, on the show, he portrays himself as a self absorbed jerk, which I take as an admission. This is who Obama chose for the interview. No president, from here on out, will ever be grilled by real journalists. Network television and print media are dead. People are moving on to Marc Maron et al and their streaming shows on no-network TV. Actually, I suspect that Obama spends a lot of time watching this type of shit. In fact, I think the Hostess should consider pitching an idea for a show to one of these new streaming services.
I don't care about Marc Maron's emotional reaction. I'm of an age where I just want to shout Get A Grip to such snowflakes. I care that NPR thinks that there's a market for and a story to be told featuring Marc Maron's emotional reaction.
I caught this interview with Terry Gross, too. (I have not since listened to his podcast and I probably won't.) The fact that he was awed and emotional was a little strange, but I'm sure there have been people that I might have reacted to in that way at some point in my life. When I was younger I think meeting Reagan might have made me emotional, not so much now (especially since he's dead.) Now it would embarrass me to react in that way.
He did say in the interview that he is aware that in interviews he can be strung along and that he is talking to a master politician and politicians are good at manipulating people (my words.) So there is that.
In the end though, the guy is a comedian so treating him like a journalist would be crazy.
For me, the hard part about the interview and any interview on that show is Terry Gross. I don't listen often, but when I do I find her style to be a little manipulative in that she puts words into people's mouths. Sometimes she'll get some pushback and she'll back pedal quickly. I'm sure most interviewers are like this, but she does some fawning which is off-putting for me. She does her homework so she is quite knowledgeable about the people and subject she is interviewing, but the being all things to all people is hard for me to stomach. It is like listening to daily shows like Oprah.
The tingling in the leg has moved north.
EDH that's an interesting lyric. Are you quoting Kinky Friedman? Looks like something he might write. After all if you've written "Asshole from El Paso" and "They're Not Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore" , it's time to go after the guys with "Commie flags in their garage".
But one thing about the Kinkster. He was an equal opportunity offender. Back in the Viet Nam days, he wrote, "We've got the right to refuse service to you." That went down well with the Billy Jeff Clinton set.
"It begins with the men talking about the posters in Maron's garage." I would have used "them" instead of "the men". They are men, technically, but it is hardly a salient feature for either of them.
At first I thought this was going to be about President Bush. I kept waiting to see the example. The actions he took. The thing he did. Because whenever I read a story about President Bush and how wonderful he is, it's always connected to a wonderful action he took that surprised people. An act of kindness. Gentleness. Good humor. Something.
When it's Obama, it's all vapid and empty. There's no there there. He is the most awesome guy ever because he is.
Couldn't be a typical talk by President Obama. Not enough room in a garage for all those straw men.
Maron seems like the type not to be enamored with anyone. (He's the self-absorbed jerk character) That's what's really weird to me.
I really wonder how Obama can even manage to walk without all those heads up his ass.
I've been a longtime listener to Maron, but I'm really reluctant to listen to this one. For a cranky self-absorbed self-loathing failure as a comedian for a long time (he burned a lot of bridges with his assholish behavior), he turned it around through his podcast interviews. He shows an ability to talk to the person and get them to reveal parts of themselves they wouldn't necessarily show otherwise. And when they have a story to tell (such as the Onion writer who discussed in detail his suicide attempt), it's fantastic.
Lately, Maron's been getting enough media attention that he's starting to be used by those higher up on the food chain. When Mick Jaggar wanted to call in for a few minutes to promote his California Stones shows, Maron admitted turning him down because that wasn't what he wanted his show to become. Then, as a friend told him, he was turning down Mick Fuckin' Jaggar, and he gave in.
The interview went as expected. Mick promoted his show, Maron got high off the attention (and later scored free tix to the Stones show).
Now, the president calls. How can he handle that? Maron's a leftist (he was an Air America host), so he must have been melting down at the prospect. And unless you already hate Obama, you'd probably feel the same way, because it's still the fuckin' president, man.
Then I see on his Twitter feed photos of him with Obama, and that he replaced his usual WTF icon (with him looking like he came off a week-long coke bender) with a dignified logo in Obama's colors with Obama's name on it. It makes me want to say, "Marc, really? Did you really have to redecorate just for him?"
I don't expect Maron to be a journalist. I don't expect him to ask political questions. I just hope he got a good conversation out of Obama and not waste my time listening to his pontifications.
I presume Sarah Larson finds him intelligent, pragmatic, rational, uncontroversial, and speaking so reasonably because his opponents really deserve every one of the strawmen and trash talking he's sent their way for the last 6+ years.
At least it wasn't Lena Dunham's podcast.
"I cried a little bit, right in front of Brendan. It was a weird moment for us, he handled it pretty well.
Breathing Unicorn Farts in an enclosed space like a garage can make one lightheaded.
Why Maron? Was the bathtub lady out of Froot Loops?... Obama- so presidential! You were right, 52%!
I do think it is becoming more important to elect people as president who seem normal. Characters like LBJ and RN could not cut it any more. Starting with Reagan, the successful ones have needed to seem at ease in their own skin in a way that wasn't as necessary before media saturation started with the rise of cable tv and am talk radio in the late seventies.
"Did he call Louis C.K. "Louis"?"
Yes.
I thought that was weird, that it showed he didn't really know hom but had only read about him. Or maybe it was a way to show respect...
"I've been a longtime listener to Maron, but I'm really reluctant to listen to this one."
I sometimes as well.. Afraid I would be exchanging one of his vowels...based on bits I heard with his "yeah, yeah" regarding racism.
For those who listened, did either address the racist DNA that elected him twice?
Did he ask Maron if he had solar panels or discuss need to skyrocket electricity costs?
Is there a nice golf course near there?
Every day, in some way, he debases the office that he holds. The decline and fall of our great republic continues apace.
What Bill Peschel said.
I have "known" Maron from Opie and Anthony appearances from years ago. Besides being a typical self destructing comic, he was full of rage. Itt has been 5 years since I recall a bout of full out jealousy and rage (for Dane Cook's success) and screwing up. Since then he has a better handle on things. I think the success of his podcast has been a surprise and for him to get Obama? For someone to start putting interviews with his friends/comedians recorded in his garage on the internet a few short years ago to Actors/musicians writers...and now the POTUS? Yeah, I would be emotional. Come on. Those who wouldn't be bowled over by that request are just full of it.
He is an excellent interviewer (skip thru the first 10 min if you don't want to hear his monologue and commercials) and for the most part being polite to guests means not getting into his politics. That said, if people bring up church as part of their upbringing, inevitably he will come at it from the angle of, "did that screw you up?" and is always genuinely surprised when people say no. Then he harps on it because not only is he an atheist, he has never been to a church or synagogue and has no bad personal experiences himself with religion, but he just knows it's bad so are they sure? "Really??" You would think so many people telling him the opposite of his assumptions, he might consider he is wrong, but he is never Bill Maher rude about his opinions.
Obama is not pragmatic or cool.
Interesting in light of journalists' ongoing complaints about lack of access.
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