{"id":132,"date":"2016-03-21T00:01:42","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T00:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/departmentoftangents.wordpress.com\/?p=132"},"modified":"2016-11-09T06:02:10","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T11:02:10","slug":"close-personal-friends-joe-kowan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2016\/03\/21\/close-personal-friends-joe-kowan\/","title":{"rendered":"Close Personal Friends: Joe Kowan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am lucky to have many talented friends. From time to time on DoT, I will feature some of them I would like you to meet. Like this charming fellow. This is Joe Kowan, a.k.a. Joe Krafty, or J-Krafty for short. He\u2019s a talented graphic designer by trade (he designed my album cover), and also an incredibly talented songwriter. His work often covers at least two of the main DoT topics \u2013 music and humor. He even has one <a href=\"https:\/\/j-krafty.bandcamp.com\/track\/bigfoot-likes-the-ladies-2\">song about bigfoot<\/a> that covers all three (although bigfoot isn\u2019t scary in his song, he\u2019s just a cool guy looking for love).<\/p>\n<p>I have a favorite song of his, <a href=\"https:\/\/j-krafty.bandcamp.com\/track\/closest-thing-to-prayin-2\">\u201cClosest Thing to Prayin\u2019.\u201d<\/a> I\u2019ve seen him play it dozens of times, and always look forward to hearing it again. This is the official studio version.<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=4039700446\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/track=1311817575\/transparent=true\/\" seamless><a href=\"http:\/\/j-krafty.bandcamp.com\/album\/homie-on-the-mountain\">Homie on the Mountain by J-Krafty<\/a><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Joe catches you off-guard. He can be scatological or poignant, often from couplet to couplet, as he is here. He starts off with the lines, \u201cI was circumcised\/Not by a doctor but by some old guy\u201d (see the <a href=\"https:\/\/j-krafty.bandcamp.com\/track\/closest-thing-to-prayin-2\">BandCamp link<\/a> for full lyrics). Can\u2019t think of a single other song that opens with that scene, and I\u2019ve heard a lot of songs. A guy with a shaky hand and a glass of wine performing a circumcision sounds like scene from a slapstick comedy.<\/p>\n<p>There are comic moments sprinkled throughout the song (check the Moses line), but this is where Joe is at his best. They are juxtaposed with solemn, resonant moments. \u201cWell I have hopes and I have dreams\/I love my friends with every molecule and follicle and gene.\u201d It\u2019s earnest, heartfelt. And if you ever have the privilege to hear Joe sing it in person, you can feel it.<\/p>\n<p>Check out his <a href=\"https:\/\/j-krafty.bandcamp.com\/releases\">BandCamp site<\/a> for more of his stuff, or pick up his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.craftygangsta.com\/project\/discohog-the-album\/\">full-length CD, <em>Discohog<\/em>, on CDBaby<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and if you think you might recognize Joe, it might be because you saw his popular TED talk no stage fright. If not, enjoy.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embed-ssl.ted.com\/talks\/joe_kowan_how_i_beat_stage_fright.html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\namzn_assoc_enable_interest_ads = \"true\";\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"thedepaoftang-20\";\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"auto\";\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\namzn_assoc_linkid = \"f2cbe1aa3ba1a6957aab0125ca18b05c\";\namzn_assoc_emphasize_categories = \"130,5088769011,195209011,301668,16261631\";\namzn_assoc_fallback_mode = {\"type\":\"search\",\"value\":\"joe kowan\"};\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\namzn_assoc_rows = \"1\";\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am lucky to have many talented friends. From time to time on DoT, I will feature some of them I would like&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3,7,1],"tags":[13,798,39],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-close-personal-friends","category-comedy","category-music","category-uncategorized","tag-boston","tag-close-personal-friends","tag-joe-kowan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/dot_joekowanpic.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lGwW-28","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1251,"href":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/1251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}