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Title: Boogers Are My Beat: More Lies, but Some Actual Journalism from Dave Barry by Dave Barry, Dick Hill ISBN: 1-59086-932-X Publisher: Brilliance Audio Pub. Date: September, 2003 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 5 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Solid collection of Barry humor
Comment: Dave Barry is the king of quirky and funny. And with a title like "Boogers Are My Beat: More Lies, But Some Actual Journalism," you know it's gotta be worth looking at. While it's not Barry's strongest collection (it feels a little fragmented), it's still the sort of stuff to split your sides.
In this book, Dave starts off with some older columns from the presidential election that will live in infamy (if the mention of dimpled chads make you twitch, these chapters will make you have a seizure). Then he proceeds to spoof, lampoon and chuckle over such things as belligerent turkeys, the Oscars, the perils of fatherhood (and having a birthday party for a two-year-old), determining what the Lone Ranger was saying to his horse (even consulting Stephen King on that), an RV in a Wal-Mart parking lot, moving to a new house (his windows have some sort of window leprosy), using the GOOD TOWELS, being subjected to post-terrorism airport security, and having a sewage station in North Dakota named after him. He finishes up with two nonhumorous columns about September 11th.
The "actual journalism" is mostly confined to A) making fun of the Republican and Democratic conventions, and B) covering a swingers' convention. Yes! They do have conventions! Not at the same place as the Dem and Rep cons, though. Sprinkled through it is the same gleeful bathroom humor, gender jokes, anagrams, and weird names for rock bands that he is famous for.The only exception is the final two columns, sensitive, serious, and more or less pinpointing what the average person feels. (These are put at the end, so they won't ruin down the burp-humor before it) One of the big changes is that for "hapless humor," he now focuses on his baby daughter rather than his dogs.
The only problem with this collection of columns is that it feels kind of patched together -- first we have election humor from a few years back, then ordinary humor on a variety of topics, then serious stuff. It's more than a little jarring, and makes the book seem shorter than it is. I was a little surprised to see at the end that it was as long (or even longer) than his other works.
"Boogers Are My Beat" is a great new serving of Barry humor, even if it has three different flavors and one of them isn't funny. So admire the tasteful cover and settle in to read. A reliable source (defined as "a source wearing business attire") told us to say so!
Rating: 4
Summary: 21st Century Satirical Humor in Barry's "Boogers"
Comment: No less a resource than Barrett "Dr. Demento" Hansen once said you could tell much about a country by its satirists. Week after week in more than 500 newspapers including the Miami Herald (motto, according to Dave, "Serving a Vibrant Community of Two Million People of whom 23 speak English"), humor columnist Dave Barry manages to be clever and funny, at times hilarious. Yet he provides running commentary on little and large American events and foibles within them.
"Boogers Are My Beat" is appropriately titled as Barry finding humor in the first, most surreal and undignified events of the new millennium. He covers (while trying to find a beer) 2000's Salt Lake City Olympics with its controversial figure skating judgement ("Don't Trust Any Judge With Two First Names"). He finds protestors and parties in that year's political conventions (featuring a cute column on sharing more than TV time with Rev. Jerry Falwell and daily scatalogical updates on that year's Gore-Leiberman ticket). That year's historic George Bush election, with its infamous focus on Barry's South Florida backyard, results in a series of funny yet prescient columns.
Barry also finds kinder humor at smaller events in smaller towns. He visits Grand Forks, ND and attends a special dedication ceremony, a trip to a different type of mountain with an author who'd climbed Everest, then does everything from park an RV at Wal-Mart to attend a Miami swingers convention (creating a funny essay without resorting to offensive humor, a neat trick.) Barry's infant daughter also inspires columns on everything from her favorite music and movies to planning extravagant birthday parties to getting her (and himself) through airport security. (His column about trying to swat a butterfly, featuring a trusted guest corroborator, is hands down the book funniest piece.)
Two Barry columns conclude the book somberly. His piece written the day after 9/11 is confused yet seethes with righteous anger, addressing what most people still feel to this day. His column from Gettysburg and Shanksville, PA (where Flight 93 crashed while its passengers bravely fought the terrorists) allows Barry to use his gifts of character observation and detail, the strength of his humor writing, to moving, dramatic effect.
Barry has his humor trademarks: rearranging letters to spell a rock band or odd phrase, chronicles of his concerts featuring a rock band made of famous authors. These are touchstones in a weekly column but a tiring in essay after essay. Nonetheless, "Boogers Are My Beat" is a fine, fresh addition to Barry's catalogue and a worthwhile timepiece for the first years of this century. For more, check out some of Barry's theme collections (Guide to Guys, Dave's Book of Bad Songs) or his Greatest Hits essay collection.
Rating: 5
Summary: narraor or executioner?
Comment: What seems to be a perfectly decent and funny book is turned into an audible nightmare by Mr. Hill. A less professional reading I could not imagine. How on earth Dave Barry let this audio version get released is beyond me. I would love to see the negatives Mr. Hill obviously must have in his possesion to get away with this. What's next, a stutterer announcing the Tonight Show?!
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Title: The Dave Barry 2004 Day-To-Day Calendar by Dave Barry ISBN: 0740736515 Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $11.99 |
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Title: Tricky Business by Dave Barry ISBN: 0425192741 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 07 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: "The Greatest Invention In The History Of Mankind Is Beer" And Other Manly Insights From Dave Barry by Dave Barry ISBN: 0740715259 Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing Pub. Date: 15 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys by Dave Barry ISBN: 0345440633 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 05 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway: A Vicious and Unprovoked Attack on Our Most Cherished Political Institutions by Dave Barry ISBN: 0345432487 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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