Joe #1

When I drive to GR in the morning, I like to listen to Joe Escalante's radio show on Indie 103.1 (except for commercial breaks, when I switch to NPR). I think Joe is great. I interviewed him way back in GR21, and he's one of the kindest, smartest, and funniest guys I've ever met. I remember he told me that he got into bullfighting because there isn't tons of cool Mexican stuff like there is Asian stuff in Giant Robot. That's the type of self-deprecating, nice dude he is--unless you're a bull, of course. He and his wife Sandra have even attended art shows at GR2!

Joe's personality totally shows in his morning gig. Unlike most drive-time DJs who are out-of-control obnoxious and try way too hard to make you laugh, his humor is understated. Somehow the topic of Lindsay Lohan being dropped from her label came up, and he deadpanned that he had "two words for her": Kung Fu Records. Funny because that's his label and also because it's three words.

A better example: When the news lady brought up a story about a Chinese Web site being censored and then tied in the slaughter of thousands of dogs, the program's engineer played some ridiculous gong sounds. Joe pointed out that the sound effects were indeed racist and then actually stated that the animals weren't being eaten--as was suggested by another show contributor. I'm not saying that news from Asia isn't fucked up or funny, but let's not forget that buffalo get shot down on Catalina Island every few years and the Bush administration does have a pretty good grip on news about the war... I appreciate that he rejects the easy, stupid laughs but doesn't need to make a big deal about people being dumb, either.

Blah blah blah. I also like waking up to the Buzzcocks, Jawbreaker, and Bad Religion.

Joe and Warren 4-eva