{"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":"https:\/\/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&#8217;s 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 &#8211; 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&#8217;t scary in his song, he&#8217;s 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\">&#8220;Closest Thing to Prayin&#8217;.&#8221;<\/a> I&#8217;ve 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, &#8220;I was circumcised\/Not by a doctor but by some old guy&#8221; (see the <a href=\"https:\/\/j-krafty.bandcamp.com\/track\/closest-thing-to-prayin-2\">BandCamp link<\/a> for full lyrics). Can&#8217;t think of a single other song that opens with that scene, and I&#8217;ve 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. &#8220;Well I have hopes and I have dreams\/I love my friends with every molecule and follicle and gene.&#8221; It&#8217;s 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":"https:\/\/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":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1251,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/1251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}