Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan

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What's Chris Been Up To?

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What's Chris Been Up To?

Mar 5, 2023
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What's Chris Been Up To?

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“What’s Chris Been Up To?” is a free monthly newsletter. To gain access to bonus content including BROMAs, TOMAs, travel updates, AMAs

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, What Makes this Book Great?, and a monthly open thread where you can interact with the Tangentially Speaking community (featuring the best advice you’ve ever received this month), please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $5/month or $50/year (which is less than a buck a week!). If you’ve already subscribed, muchas gracias!

Hey now.

I’ve been dipping back into old episodes of The Larry Sanders Show. If you’ve never seen it, imagine a brilliant, unique show about the people who work at producing a talk show. The egos, disappointment, resentment, brilliance, comedy, drama. Like 30 Rock or The Office, it’s more about the people than the show being made or the paper being sold. It really broke the mold when it came out, and stands still as a testament to Gary Shandling’s open-hearted genius.

I just made last month’s open thread open to anyone, so even those of you who aren’t paying subscribers can dip in and read people’s favorite quotations. They’re all pretty awesome. I’m sure this month’s open thread (“What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?”) will also bear juicy fruit.

Anya and I took a quick trip to LA in February, to see some friends at a party in the desert and to visit my mom, sister, and other friends in the city. Over the decades I lived in Europe, it became something of a family tradition for me to fly over to see my family around the time of my birthday in mid-February. I’d say the motivation is 1/3 I’m not a fan of Christmas and the obligatory nonsense that’s inescapable if you’re in town, 1/3 it’s far less expense/hassle to travel in February, and 1/3 it seems like “my birthday” is really about my mom more than it is about me. Getting born is easy. Giving birth, not so much.

I think death is kinda similar. The dead don’t grieve. Lucky bastards!

I hope this finds you in fine fettle. As for me, I’m prancing around in my new Carhartt overalls and tool belt, thinking I look manly, but probably coming off as more of a Village People character than an actual construction dude. Them nails need a-hammerin!

CPR


In keeping with the meta- meta- meta- nature of the Larry Sanders Show, the last episode of the show was the last episode of the show within the show. Jim Carrey was one of the guests. A lot of the show was about how people act on-stage vs. off-stage. Toward the end of this clip, you can watch Jim Carrey pretending to be on while actually on, and then pretending to be off while actually on. What’s real?

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3 months ago · 27 likes · 4 comments · Chris Ryan

Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan is a reader-supported publication. To get access to bonus content and to support my work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber for only $5/month.

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ROMA (“Ranting Out My Ass” — essentially rants about whatever’s on my mind at the moment), BROMA (Bonus ROMA); TOMA (“Talking Out My Ass” — autobiographical stories from back in the day, ranging from travel stuff to an upcoming series about what it was like to shift from teaching English in Spain to bestselling author in a few weeks); AMA (Ask Me Anything).

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What's Chris Been Up To?

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7 Comments
Joe Van Deren
Writes The Walking Gringo
Mar 11

Heya Chris, I am watching a ton of “Not Just Bikes” on YouTube and I think you would love the channel for your next occasional YouTube binge. He does a great job of talking about how city design is hugely important for our well-being. Since you’re building a community, I thought you would like to get the ideas in your head as you plan more of the lifeboat project. https://m.youtube.com/@NotJustBikes

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John Stevens
Writes John’s Substack
Mar 6

When i worked on a job at the Tanana Valley fairgrounds, outside Fairbanks, helping to install a second floor mezzanine in the poultry show building, I got schooled by a guy from Montana on how to swing my hammer.

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