As we discuss, Beth was the subject of the very first interview of my journalism career. And now, until tomorrow’s show, the last as well.

On today’s show, we talked about:

• The birth of alternative comedy and the great comedians who made it.

• What it meant to find a new form of comedy that is more honest and immediate.

• Her current work with creative people, and finding your own process.

• Not to mention, how to fix the trainwreck that is my own writing process.

All this and so much more on the gala Beth Lapides episode of What’s Wrong?

Join us almost every day at 11 am PT as we talk to the most interesting people of our time on the state of everything. And subscribe to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

With the planet on the brink of Armageddon and trouble breaking out in every corner, we dove right into the most pressing issues shaping things at this moment, starting with:

• Neal’s stunning victory in the National Pub Trivia Championship

• Richard’s college turned off the lights for good this weekend.

• Stacey eating candied swordfish fin.

• Who should be in your Odyssey? (If you can’t have Burt).

And so much more! Join us for this stunning, surprising, and ultimately tear-jerking stock-taking of the state of our world!

And come back tomorrow when I will be joined by a woman who is a giant in the history of comedy as we know it, Uncabaret founder ! As ever at 11 am PT!

Today I chatted about an issue that is hugely important to Hollywood  – economically maybe more important than even film – but little to never really examined; the subject of theme parks which have become the economic engine of two of our last legacy studios.

And who better to chat about it with than the man who may well be America’s senior theme park reporter, Todd Martens of the LA Times, long-time theme park watcher and critic, as well as author of the crucial Mr. Todd’s Wild Ride newsletter.

We talked about the tidal wave of hate against so-called Disney Adults and where that springs from, whether anything can turn back the apocalyptic crowd levels at the parks, which really is the greatest of Disney rides – and which makes me contemplate the abyss – and where Ren Faire fits within the theme park firmament.

It was for me a fascinating discussion on a topic Hollywood should take much more seriously. Watch above and enjoy! And join us live every weekday at 11 for another thrilling episode of What’s Wrong? (with Richard Rushfield.)

Yesterday, I wrote about the Los Angeles Mayor’s election for my regular Ankler column. You can read it all here.

No LA native could find the coming showdown anything other than deeply depressing, dismal…a brutal crushing of any faint hope that might still survive deep in our souls.

So writing on that subject made me wonder as I occasionally do, about various entities: is it possible that this city is cursed?

Now, full disclosure, my openness to supernatural explanations might exceed your own. I think that an active relationship with the forces of the great beyond makes life more interesting. Someday, I’ll tell you all about my experiences – which include multiple witnesses – and you can be the judge.

In any event, if the supernatural explanations are not technically true, they are often metaphorically true, and I believe the universe operates on a metaphorical level much more than a literal one.

Anyway - metaphysical detours aside - I’ve worked in or covered some places I consider to be cursed. It’s not just that bad things happen, or that they have bad managers who make bad decisions, or that they have bad luck – those things happen all the time everywhere – it’s like they are physically blocked from having any good thing happen ever. Physically! Like, even when they have good managers make good decisions, somehow it still goes horribly awry.

Back when I wore a younger reporter’s clothes, I did my time at the Times of Los Angeles, where everything bad that could happen always did. But it wasn’t just that. When you got down to it it was like the insularity, the bureaucracy, the terrible owners, the habits of mediocrity weren’t the disease themselves…they were symptoms brought about by some problem so much deeper and more profound that you almost had to turn to the supernatural to comprehend what was happening there.

I remember being at one meeting  – there were so many meetings there - when all 140 departments convened about some matter, and miraculously, all agreed on a path forward. I left the meeting walking on air because finally something good was going to happen. And I turned to my boss, and asked, “Aren’t you excited?”

He nodded and thought for a moment and then said, “Yes, but you have to remember, this place is cursed.”

And so it was. Soon enough the project went spectucularly wrong in ways that no one in that meeting could have even imagined.

It was enough to make you a believer.

But now, looking at the Mayor’s race, I’m thinking – maybe it wasn’t a curse on the LA Times, but a bigger curse on LA civic life…And the LA Times just got its piece of that. We were right across the street from City Hall, so it wouldn’t have been hard for a curse to hit us, or spill over from there - not sure the specs on how curses travel.

It certainly when it comes to LA, feels like it. Just consider the fact that no LA Mayor has gone on to higher office in A HUNDRED YEARS! And that one was a fluke because he had just been acting mayor for two weeks. And despite the fact that all of them almost have run for other offices.

(When I think about it, no Mayor of New York as far back as I remember has gone on to anything despite at least four of them running for President (Lindsay, Guliani, Bloomberg and De Blasio) and at least one (Ed Koch) for Governor. And no Mayor of Chicago either – we’ll see if Rahm Emmanuel changes that.

But at least Mayors of San Francisco (Gavin Newsom, Dianne Feinstein).have gone on to things And a Mayor of San Diego (Pete Wilson) of all places became a Senator and Governor. So go figure. Curse not disproven.

Anyway, go figure. Here’s an excerpt from my piece which attempts to explain why the Pratt insurgency should be a warning for the leaders of Hollywood, who live in an adjacent, if slightly better-furnished bubble to LA politicians.

But when people are telling you, I am worried that my city is falling apart — and you want to put homeless encampments in front of my children’s schools, if you answer their fears with talk of “comprehensive plans” or, as Councilmember Raman did in the debate, quibbles about how a law is structured, you sound either outright insane or so deeply complacent, that you might as well walk around inside of a giant soap bubble.

If you’ve been in government and you can’t start by expressing deep regret about how things have gone lately, you are signaling to voters that their concerns aren’t your priority.

In normal times, a character like Spencer Pratt would struggle to break out of the low single digits in a citywide election. But when the other candidates respond to uproar with complacency, the uproar goes looking for someone who actually acknowledges it.

Is Hollywood cursed too? Or is it that the Civic Center curse has spread down the 101?

I’m open to scientific explanations here, but I think we have to recognize that this level of f-ed uppery is beyond the understanding of political analysis.

Also in this piece: read about my youth as a high school intern for Mayor Bradley! The secrets of my past!

Also! Thursday, I will be doing my first-ever, all-advice column episode of What’s Wrong? (with Richard Rushfield). I am here and on call to tell you how to live your lives, or just give you insight into the world around you. No subject too obscure – romantic advice, US military entanglements, home decor, what to watch on TV, meeting etiquette. Leave your questions in the comments and we’ll tackle them on Thursday’s episode. (Or if you want to stay anonymous, send your questions to abby@theankler.com) Whatever is troubling you, I can fix it!

Today I was joined by my old friend, and one of the most compelling, powerful writers I know, of The Braid. Rebecca is a hero of mine on and off the page, who writes as fearlessly and brazenly as she lives. We talked about how she has blazed her own trail in writing, through multiple disruptions and re-orgs of the internet, our lives back in the blogging days – and even in the ‘zine days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, about how women have given in to “patriarchal pedophiliac” standards of beauty, and how somehow no one is allowed to say anything about it, and whether the millennials are to blame for everything.

It’s a great conversation. Her rant about beauty standards starts at about 23:01 and is not to be missed.

Thursday, I will be doing my first-ever, all-advice column episode of What’s Wrong? (with Richard Rushfield). I am here and on call to tell you how to live your lives, or just give you insight into the world around you. No subject too obscure – romantic advice, US military entanglements, home decor, what to watch on TV, meeting etiquette. Leave your questions in the comments and we’ll tackle them on Thursday’s episode. (Or if you want to stay anonymous, send your questions to abby@theankler.com) Whatever is troubling you, I can fix it!

On Monday, I was joined by a very special guest, writer/influencer/social media guru and Young Hollywood genius – star of Substack, TikTok, Instagram and platforms beyond.

We talked about the slightly terrifying state of Young Hollywood, why she is advising people not to come here until they have a project underway, and how she and many of her world are taking their destiny into their own hands. While the landscape is bleak, hearing ’s ingenuity and commitment, one can’t help but feel that it will all work out in the end. Talent will find a way!

Watch and listen to it all. And join me tomorrow at 11 AM PT when my guest will be writer and essayist, the great and brilliant of Substack’s The Braid newsletter.

And also! There’s more!

Thursday I will be doing my first-ever, all-advice column episode of What’s Wrong? (with Richard Rushfield). I am here and on call to tell you how to live your lives, or just give you insight into the world around you. No subject too obscure – romantic advice, US military entanglements, home decor, what to watch on TV, meeting etiquette. Leave your questions in the comments and we’ll tackle them on Thursday’s episode. (Or if you want to stay anonymous, send your questions to abby@theankler.com) Whatever is troubling you, I can fix it!

Today my guest was my old friend Meghan Daum, author, essayist, retreat-guide, who stopped by to make the case for her stunning endorsement of Spencer Pratt in the LA Mayors race while I shared the truth about my high school internship in the seat of power of this city.

Not sure where I stand on things yet, but Meghan is a serious person with serious thoughts here, so let’s hear her out.

And join us on Monday for another fantastic guest on What’s Wrong (with Richard Rushfield)

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And they do this even as non-techie studio Disney has found its backbone and isn’t blinking in the face of the latest demands that Jimmy Kimmel be thrown to the wolves.

I wrote:

It’s now, officially, inevitable: At every big Trump event, it’s the same cluster of them sitting right by his side. Do they still have to go to every single one of these? At what point does the rationale that “we have no choice” wear out, and we have to admit that maybe, just maybe, they like hanging out with this crowd?

Ellison, Cook, Bezos, et al. seem absolutely determined to claim this administration as their own. You’d think they’d see how horribly this is all going and wonder why they aren’t trying to avoid going down with the ship, but again, that’s from our perspective.

For all their wealth and power, this group hasn’t distinguished itself in recent years by showing any aptitude for public opinion, as they’ve seen themselves transformed from Utopia’s visionaries to the most hated cadre of irresponsible and sociopathic vultures this country has produced in over a century.

Read it all.

On a roll, I ranted more on this topic on my new daily chat show here on the Rushfield Jamboree, What Is Wrong, with Richard Rushfield. The show’s still in beta, getting a feel for it all, so view with care. But you can take a look in the video above. Enjoy!

Who are the gods and who are the monsters? Sometimes its easy to tell, but in Hollywood, it’s rarely that cut and dry. (Except in some cases, see below.

And that’s all for now… Part two coming.

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Over at the all new Ankler, I’ve got my column today. It’s a response to the 1000 people who have said to me, since I started shooting my mouth off about this: Well, the merger is a done deal. You’re never going to stop it, so why do you keep going on about it?

Here’s an excerpt from my answer to that?

Let’s imagine that we all looked at the odds and said, “Yeah, this is hopeless. Eff it. Let’s focus on complaining about the price of Olympics tickets.”

Imagine a world where the Penske Media guiding light of “nothing to see here” was taken as gospel, and no one considered making a peep of protest.

If no one pushes back — if the industry shrugs and accepts every consolidation as inevitable — then the message to executives, investors and politicians is clear: There’s no downside. No resistance. No scrutiny.

That’s how you get more of the same. Faster.

With this mentality, politicians now raising hell about this would see that there’s nothing to be gained here. The Trumpists would see that there is zero price to be paid for racing this through. The oligarchs would know no one was even going to try to stand in their way as they undertake their next Black Mirror plotline.

We have to make the price of winning as expensive as possible. We have to make them understand that they might win, but it’s going to hurt.

Even in defeat, you shape the terrain.

Also, I think we can actually win. I won’t say, We will win. But those who say it’s impossible lack imagination of the possible. (That actually is the reporters’ diseases. A reporters’ job is documenting the status quo, so in doing that they come to see today’s status quo as the immutable, fixed law of the universe and humanity. Reporters are conservative in outlook at their first reaction is always horror at anything that is different than what there is today, excepting extreme circumstances.)

Anyway, read it all as they say at the new and very glossy Ankler. I’m going to try and do a video talking about this later in the day, time permitting.

And also reminder that today is The Rushfield Lunch, coming up at 11 am PT. Today I am joined by the fascinating CEO of Women in Film Kristen Schaffer with whom we’ll break it all down on the question: why are we still talking about the plight of women in film??? Join us right here on The Jamboree!

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It’s On!

Welcome everyone to The Rushfield Jamboree. For 10 years now, I’ve been writing The Ankler, first as a solo project, and then as the columnist of a much larger project. My column there will continue, just as is - so if you want the full-length odyssey of my thoughts on the state of Hollywood, head over to The Ankler and subscribe.

But in doing it for a decade now, there’s a lot of odds and ends, a lot of other ideas, other projects and other voices that don’t quite fit into the formal column and this will be the place for them.

It’s a Jamboree because we’re going to let the music take us where ever it needs to, and invite all our friends to join in. Conversations, videos, book reviews, recipes, travel photos…Exploring the great cultural canvas of our day and I hope you’ll be a part of it.

This project remains an arm of Ankler Media, so I’ll keep you posted here of everything that’s happening, but it’s a place for us to explore all that’s happening in new and informal ways.

And we’re charging for this new project a price that you can afford. All this fun and excitement for the low, low price of zero dollars. Just sign up and you’re part of the house band and you’ll get it all.

So welcome to the Jamboree! Sign up below and let me know what you think.