Thacker Mountain Radio, Live!

Thacker Mountain Radio has been a favorite among Oxford locals since its premiere more than ten years ago. A radio show dedicated to music, literature and dry wit, Thacker Mountain Radio features both nationally known writers and musicians, and is recorded live every Thursday at Off Square Books in Oxford, Miss.

This week marked a special episode of Thacker Mountain – a fundraiser show to help fund next season’s shows. Hosted by Jim Dees, Thursday night’s show moved to the Lyric Theatre, and ended the season with a cash bar and its funniest show yet.

Writers for the evening included Roy Blount, Jr., Jack Pendarvis and John Hodgman (most well known for his appearances in Apple computer ads – and also who didn’t leave Oxford without a link to this website and the promise that he would be reading this article). And while it may not land me a gig as a TV personality like Hodgman, one can always resort to the segment “How to Become a Minor TV Personality” in his book More Information Than You Require.

An excerpt from Blount’s latest book, Alphabet Juice  was delivered, and it was everything its lengthy subtitle says: “The Energies, Gists, and Spirits of Letters, Words, and Combinations Thereof; Their Roots, Bones, Innards, Piths, Pips, and Secret Parts, Tinctures, Tonics, and Essences; with Examples of Their Usage Foul and Savory.”

While no one has ever questioned the literary skills of Jack, if anyone ever wondered if he could sing, Thursday night was karaoke in disguise, and this is what the awesome author had to say about it:

“But the craziest thing is that I sang “I Started a Joke” on the radio show tonight, and the pianist who accompanied me (along with a great band) was Jim Dickinson, who played piano on the Rolling Stones song “Wild Horses.” The world is truly a sordid and meaningless place if such a thing can happen! But it did.”
(http://www.jackpendarvis.blogspot.com/)

The aforementioned blog is equally worth an RSS feed as the New York Times (who supposedly had a journalist on hand at the event, and it wasn’t me – and don’t quote me on that, or do, but make sure you know it could be as made up as a Jayson Blair story).

Also made up are all the works of fiction, or something like it, seen here, all written by the creative geniuses that occupied the stage Thursday night.

…. all of which are affordable and may be purchased at none other than Square Books, or any other bookstore that isn’t quite as cool.

Oh yeah, and Dent May played his ukelele and I just don’t have good enough sentence form to say what that was like. It was magnificent just as he says, and the album is out Feb. 3.

Thacker Mountain is a staple in Oxford culture, where bands play and authors read and the party doesn’t stop until the next week.