First heard of him from some fascinating fictional works on This American Life. Dry, cutting, witty, different, and kinda cute. Read one of his books, was a bit inconsistent but had its moments. Sad to hear he has passed away from cancer.
Discussions
David Rakoff
You need to be logged into Mess+Noise to contribute to the Discussions.
Go on and Log In or if you you're not a member, feel free to Sign Up.
Discussion Categories
Today On Mess+Noise
-
Premiere: Jimmy Tait ‘All My Friends’
Jimmy Tait’s Sara Retallick has lent guest vocals to such respecte…
-
Track By Track: Monnone Alone
Former Lucksmiths bassist and amateur boatman MARK MONNONE makes his f…
-
Tours In Brief: Go Violets, The Break, Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes
– After romping through last year’s single ‘Teenager’ and more recent…
-
Yes I'm Leaving
Mission Bulb
MESS+NOISE on Facebook
very sad news.
This American Life: David Rakoff demonstrates—in rhyme—how to make a wedding toast for people you never wanted to see married in the first place. (skip to 35:40)
Trying to link directly to the Comedy Central clip gets it geo-blocked, but if I point to the AV Club article, I can still see this neat interview he did promoting his most recent book.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-david-rakoff-writer-and-this-american-life-con,83687/
the current this american life has an hour dedicated to various stories by rakoff, including the excellent wedding toast captainhowdy has linked to above.
his contributions to the CBC podcast wiretap were pretty hilarious/touching.
I love his style!
I could listen to him for hours.. I sometimes find myself speaking like him.
Sad news.
his narrative technique and his actual spoken voice is so very similar to david sedaris' spoken word... i wonder if there was a cross-pollination there? because both have that listenable quality ... characters are alive in their voices, their pausing and pronunciation presicely just so. that slightly faggy croakiness. the intensely intimate content...
i agree little ted. i could listen for hours.
finally listened to the TAL special last night riding to/from the movies. tears were shed. that last recording made with ira... goodness me. he certainly had a way of making rhymeyness not-at-all annoying and definitely beautiful.
re: him vs sedaris - i think they were scene pals probably? rakoff's voice always felt so startlingly gentle. like a pillow of rhyme. there's definitely something in the delivery though. the pausing.
Yeah, I listened to the TAL special today. That wedding speech was absolutely beautiful in its cleverness and wisdom. It seems like much of his work is very sentimental, but it arouses sentiments you've never identified before, and the crux of the tortoise and scorpion story was, for me, very original and touching.
i fall in love with so many of the voices on TAL. rakoff, sedaris, vowell, kine, et al. so jelly of their pitch and tone and cadence.
i think rakoff heard sedaris on the radio, made contact with him, they became friends, then sedaris introduced rakoff to ira glass when TAL was just beginning. sedaris was kind of like a mentor, i guess.