Inconspicuous Consumption Is Going on the Radio

Plus I appear in a newly released movie.

Today I have two media appearances to tell you about, starting with this: I was contacted a few days go by a Sirius XM radio programmer, who said she liked Inconspicuous Consumption so much that she wanted me to come on the radio to talk about it. Cool, right?

Now here’s the odd part: The programmer works for Sirius Channel 146, which is called Road Dog Trucking. As that name suggests, the channel is geared toward long-haul truck drivers. Now, I have nothing against truckers (in fact, I’m a longtime fan of trucker-themed country songs), but I wouldn’t necessarily expect them to be into IC.

Then again, I’ve written about a fair number of driving-, travel-, and vehicle-related topics during IC’s first few weeks, including what counts as “being in” a U.S. state, state-border welcome signs, car-inspection signs, and of course speed bumps, humps, lumps, and bomps. Plus truckers probably eat plenty of pretzels, right? So maybe this could be a good fit after all.

In any case, the producer said that the radio host whose show she wants me to appear on, Jimmy Mac, would totally be into IC. She also explained that Jimmy hosts a weekend show, which tends to be a bit less trucker-centric, with lots of coverage of books, movies, and cultural ephemera. Jimmy’s bio says he’s been to 49 states, so that’s definitely something we can talk about. (If anyone is familiar with Jimmy Mac and/or Channel 146, feel free to share your knowledge in the comments.)

Anyway: If you’re a Sirius XM subscriber, you can hear me on Jimmy Mac’s show by cueing up Channel 146 next Saturday, Aug. 17, at 9am Eastern. Sirius subscribers will also be able to access the segment on demand for several days after that. I’m told that the interview will run half an hour.

Until then, here’s a really swell trucker song:

Hey, I’m in a Movie!

If everything goes according to plan, the time span from when the Sirius programmer contacted me to when I appear on Jimmy Mac’s show will be 11 days. But sometimes things take a bit longer to gestate.

Case in point: In February of 2010, I was contacted by some filmmakers who wanted to interview me for a documentary they were making about the great cartoonist Tony Millionaire. That was very exciting, because I was (and still am) basically a Tony Millionaire fanboy. I’d loved his weekly comic strip, Maakies, since its inception in the early 1990s and even had a signed piece of original Maakies artwork, so I was more than happy to talk about Tony’s work.

Two months later, a small film crew appeared at my home and interviewed me as I sat at my dining room table. They were super-nice and said they’d be back in touch when the film was getting closer to completion. A few months went by, and then a few years, and then I forgot about the whole thing.

In July of 2019 — more than nine years after the interview in my dining room — I heard back from the film’s producer, who said they were racing to finish the final edit and hoped to be inviting me to a screening the following year.

Another five years later — a gap that I’m sure is at least partly attributable to the pandemic — The Tony Millionaire Show is finally done and is now available for streaming. And sure enough, it includes some footage of a rather young-looking me (well, if 46 counts as young):

That’s Tucker (R.I.P.) in the background.

The movie is fun, with lots of clever editing. Here’s the trailer:

The full movie is available for streaming here. If you know Tony, you’ll definitely want to see it you’re probably in the film already. If you don’t know him but are a fan of his work, it’s definitely worth seeing. If you’re not familiar with his work but are curious about all of this, I’d recommended starting with some of Tony’s books, or just checking out a bunch of the old Maakies stripes on his website. Once you get a feel for his work, you can check out the movie if you want to know more.

Speaking of Maakies, here’s that signed original I have, which I purchased from Tony back around 2007 because it nicely encapsulates the life of a freelance writer:

Drinky Crow’s underwear in the final panel is the crowning touch.

So there you go: An upcoming radio appearance in a somewhat surprising venue, and a movie appearance that took more than 14 years to come to fruition! The media world works in mysterious ways.

Paul Lukas has been obsessing over the inconspicuous for most of his life, and has been writing about those obsessions for more than 30 years. You can contact him here.