The just-out issue of Tikkun magazine has a lovely mini-review of the Red Diaper Baby DVD — available exclusively on my website’s online store (isn’t it cool how a child of Communists can evolve into a perpetual hawker of his own commodities?) — in their “Tikkun Recommends” section (you have to scroll down a bit):

Red Diaper Baby (available at joshkornbluth.com) is Josh Kornbluth’s hilarious rendition of his own process of freeing himself from the pathologies of his communist parents. It is obsessed with sex, politics, and neuroses. You can’t help but love Kornbluth by the time it is over, and you can’t help but learn a lot about growing up in America in the 1960s.

I’m guessing my still-Communist mom will enjoy the last sentence somewhat more than the first — but I love the whole thing, perhaps even pathologically so.

Posted: July 2nd, 2009 under DVD, Red Diaper Baby.
Comments: none

My on-stage interview with former U.S. Labor Secretary, current Berkeley professor, and noted mensch Robert B. Reich (who will be appearing in our upcoming Love & Taxes movie) can now be seen — in all its undedited glory — on my website.

Please let me know what you think of it!

Posted: June 29th, 2009 under Interviews, Love & Taxes, Robert Reich.
Comments: none

Here my “second” video podcast, taken at the Maker Faire in San Mateo on May 31. I use the quote marks because I’ve already posted my “third” podcast. I am not doing this to make the point that our notions of time and space need to be more malleable — actually, wait, I am!

Posted: June 24th, 2009 under Maker Faire, Snail Car, Video Podcasts.
Comments: none

… assuming, that is, that a free-admission event can be described as sold out.  I mean that all the seats have been accounted for.  Though if you want to take a chance, you can show up at the Ashby Stage on Monday evening: we’re going to release all the seats that haven’t been claimed at 7:15.  (The event starts at 7:30.)  If you’d like to be added to the waiting list (you’d still have to show up), just drop me an email.  Also, if you have a burning question you’d like to suggest for me to ask, you can put it in the “comments” section for this blog item.

One question you might have is, “What event are you talking about, anyhow?”  Well, it’s the first in a planned series of free get-togethers to celebrate the continuing progress of Love & Taxes, the new feature film I’m making with my brother Jake.  On Monday morning and afternoon, we’ll be filming a scene with Robert B. Reich in which he plays former I.R.S. Commissioner Sheldon S. Cohen.  (Perhaps not-so-surprisingly, these two wonderful men are well-acquainted with each other in real life.)  Then, in the evening, at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley, after Jake and I introduce a clip from our previous Love & Taxes shoot, I’ll interview Prof. Reich about pressing issues of our day — as well as love and taxes.

Jake has enlisted a terrific crew to videotape the show, and we’ll be posting that video on my website — and perhaps elsewhere as well.  Keep watching this space for more details.  (And by the way, mad props to our great friends at Shotgun Players, for making the Ashby Stage available and helping us out in their typically generous fashion!)

Posted: June 21st, 2009 under Berkeley, Interviews, Love & Taxes, Robert Reich.
Comments: none

Just wanted to let you know that you can subscribe to my videos on YouTube by going here and then clicking on the yellow “Subscribe” button.

This action will release endorphins (in both of us) — and will also make it easy for you to follow my video podcasts, new clips from Love & Taxes, etc.

Thanks!!

Posted: June 8th, 2009 under I, Love & Taxes, Thou, Video Podcasts, YouTube.
Comments: none

On Monday I attended a candlelight vigil for Dr. George Tiller, the slain physician from Wichita, Kansas, who had performed late-term abortions (among other vital services).  Taking place on the steps of San Francisco City Hall only a day after the murder, the event was tremendously emotional.  My friend Lisa Geduldig, a comedienne, had taken on the very serious task of organizing the vigil — and she did a terrific job.  This podcast contains excerpts from the proceedings — including, in its entirety, an extraordinary speech by author and mother Ayelet Waldman.  For reasons of timeliness — and out of respect for Dr. Tiller — I have posted this “third” podcast before my “second” one (taped a day earlier), which I will post later this week.

Posted: June 4th, 2009 under Dr. George Tiller, Video Podcasts.
Comments: 1

With a lot of help from my brother Jacob and my son, Guthrie, I have somehow managed to post my first video podcast.  Be forewarned that it’s very, very, very low-tech.  Anyhow, here it is:

A few annotations: After recording the podcast, I checked out the Freedy Johnston video I mentioned — for “Bad Reputation” — and the framing issues weren’t nearly as egregious as I remembered. … Many, many thanks to my friend Anthony Sandberg, the folks at OCSC Sailing, and all those nice people on my boat. … Also, I would like to note that iMovie should not be used by people with high blood pressure or with any plans to sleep.

My tentative goal is to try to use my new Flip HD camera (which I love) to shoot a second video podcast tomorrow, commemorating Memorial Day.  I welcome — nay, crave — your comments on this one … but as noted, it’s my first time, so please try to be gentle.

Posted: May 24th, 2009 under Gentleness, Sailing, Video Podcasts.
Comments: 9

I’m thrilled to announce that my website has been treated to a fabulous makeover, through the genius of designer Joe Pignati. Please check it out — and give me your feedback, pro and con, by clicking on the “comments” link below this blog entry. We’ll keep amending and tinkering the site based on what we hear back from visitors.

And please also check out my brand-new online store — which you can reach through my website, or by clicking here. You will find there — available for the first time — the fantastic concert-film DVD of my monologue Red Diaper Baby, along with the Red Diaper Baby book (which contains the text of that piece plus two others, Haiku Tunnel and The Mathematics of Change).  If you buy both the DVD and the book, we’ll throw in a complimentary mini-canister of baby powder (a product that features prominently in Red Diaper Baby).

Again, your feedback on the website and store would be vastly appreciated!!

Posted: May 22nd, 2009 under Baby Powder, Book, DVD, Red Diaper Baby, Store, Website.
Comments: 5

We’re going to be having kind of a release party for the brand-spanking-new Red Diaper Baby DVD — a concert film directed by the great Doug Pray.  It’ll be at Saul’s Deli in Berkeley on June 2 at 8 p.m.  You can call in advance (510-848-DELI) and make dinner reservations, or just show up for the screening.  (There will be free popcorn — not sure whether kosher or not, depends on whether they’ll be using cloven kernels.)  I’ll introduce the film, then take questions afterwards.  I think it will be fun!!

Posted: May 21st, 2009 under DVD, Red Diaper Baby, Saul's Deli.
Comments: 4

My brother Jacob and I — who only a few short years ago collaborated on the movie Haiku Tunnel — are now working on another film, titled Love & Taxes.  It’s a sequel, of sorts, to Haiku, since it also stars me and will have many of the wonderful people working on it who were in our first film (along with a bunch of new wonderful people).  And, like Haiku, it is based on a theatrical monologue of mine — this one done in collaboration with my theatrical director, David Dower.

Working with producer Raub Shapiro, Jake and I have already done a “test shoot” of a short sequence from the film — and if my blogging skills are up to it, you can see the resulting clip (still in “rough cut”) right here:

We’re planning to shoot this film (at least to start with) as a sequence of these “test shoots” — with our hope being that they will be of good-enough quality to make up the actual movie.  And we’re trying out a new technique of raising money and awareness for our projects — by making use of a cool new website called IndieGoGo.

It would be hecksa-fantastic if you would take a few moments to click here and go to the Love & Taxes IndieGoGo page.  There (starting in the left column) you can (if you wish) donate to the production (and get a cool “perk”!), and/or sign up as our “Friend” (which, besides helping us greatly, entitles you to see the “private” documents on our page), “endorse” us, rate our project — any way that you’d like to become part of our process.

This is an exciting (and somewhat scary) experiment to see if we can make use of the power of the Internet (and of our friends) to grow a feature film entirely from the grassroots.  If we can raise $15,000 this way, we can go ahead and do another “test shoot” — an action sequence involving tax law!  (Bet you haven’t seen that before, either!)

So if you can, please do check out our IndieGoGo page — and become an integral part of creating a cool new independent film!

Thanks!!

Posted: May 4th, 2009 under Love, Love & Taxes, Taxes.
Comments: 13