About Michael Gerber

is Blogmom of Hey Dullblog. His novels and parodies have sold 1.25 million copies in 25 languages. He lives in Santa Monica, CA, and runs The American Bystander all-star print humor magazine.

A brief interlude…

By |2010-11-18T03:32:00-08:00November 18, 2010|Uncategorized|

I hope our Dear Leader, Mike, will excuse me for posting this...I was flipping through a recent-ish New Yorker and came across an article about parodies, written by Louis Menand. Reviewing the anglocentric new Oxford Book of Parodies, Menand cites Bret Easton Ellis and continues: "Many other Americans could receive nominations: Framk Cammuso for 'Glengarry Glen Plaid'; Michael Gerber and Jonathan Schwarz, for 'What We Talk About When We Talk about Doughnuts'..."What a great piece that was! It appeared in The New Yorker's pages; here is the "abstract" from the magazine's archives. It is pretty hilarious even in this abbreviated form—a must [...]

Prove Violence Doesn’t Work: Do Good in John Lennon’s Name This Dec. 8th!

By |2013-08-07T03:44:25-07:00November 16, 2010|1980, John Lennon|

This morning I had a great idea: "Wouldn't it be great if everybody who loved John Lennon and The Beatles did something nice in his name on December 8th? Something that he might've done, if he were still here with us...like donating to the ACLU; eating organic (or even macrobiotic) for a day; spending some extra time with a kid; making some art that showed love for people and hope for the world...Wouldn't it be wonderful to turn a tragic anniversary into something awesome? And wouldn't that show, once and for all, that violence doesn't work unless we allow it to?" Like [...]

I have an admission…

By |2014-08-14T00:08:20-07:00November 11, 2010|1967, Magical Mystery Tour|

...I love Magical Mystery Tour. Love love LOVE it. Maybe it was seeing the movie as an impressionable 12-year-old at the Tivoli Theater in St. Louis, wreathed in pot smoke and surrounded by kids from Wash U.; or maybe it's the fact that most of the LP is singalong singles; or maybe it's the shimmery quality of the production (Elliot Smith was trying to recreate the MMT sound in his home studio when he died); or maybe it's the fact that the group still seems to have the "free from touring but still interested in being Beatles" vibe going... For whatever reason(s), [...]

The new Lennon £5 coin

By |2013-09-20T21:31:02-07:00October 30, 2010|John Lennon|

Imagine no possessions…or borders. Nice our boy made it onto a coin and all, but it doesn't look like him to me. More like Queen Victoria. Somewhere, John is looking down and saying, "Couldn't they have made me a little skinnier?"

Oh my God, Beatles sketch comedy

By |2013-08-03T19:34:46-07:00October 21, 2010|comedy, Rutles|

I owe commenter Tony (aka Pismotality) a pint, a kidney or something even more important for bringing this into my life. From the British sketch show "Harry and Paul": http://youtu.be/SgnaAiAi1Pk I particularly enjoyed the banter on the bus--somewhere Alun Owen is smiling. And the bit with Lennon and the Germans..."Harry and Paul" is now more popular than Christ, at least in this household. Dullblog people, you are the greatest!

Real or fake?

By |2014-12-23T18:49:06-08:00October 13, 2010|john and yoko, John Lennon|

I've been wrong before, but the man doesn't look like Lennon to me, I've never seen any other shots from this shoot, there are no historical markers to check, and the woman's hair seems to hide her face rather too conveniently. Is this really a shot of John kneeling before Yoko? What say you, commentariat? "I'm not worthy!" But then again, I'm a big believer in the awesome power of Photoshop... You call it harassment, I call it guerilla marketing.

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