FREE FANCY CONDOMS!

FREE FANCY CUPCAKES!

Oh man alive, what a big day! We’re gonna have photographers and videographers (well, one) all over this thing tonight, to record that magic that is what is certainly the final Family Hour with Auntie Sara of the summer and MIGHT BE (but hopefully isn’t!) the last Family Hour with Auntie Sara EVER! (Dudes, I’m totally bringing it back as a monthly or as a weekly in the fall, but I’m hoping my EXTREME SENSE OF URGENCY will frighten/seduce you into showing up tonight!)

Here’s what Hy Bender of HyReviews.com has to say about us:

“In this unique weekly comedy show, everyone tells jokes and/or stories related to their family. It’s hosted by comic/actress Sara Benincasa, whose many credits include correspondent for MTV’s Choose or Lose Campaign and host of Tub Talk with Sara B. on Nerve.com.

Tonight is the season finale of this show. If you haven’t experienced it yet, this evening is a great time to do so. The superb guests are:

Kambri Crews (luminous performer, stellar publicist and producer, and one of the most sharp, charming, and heartfelt comedic storytellers working in NYC; for Kambri’s correspondence with her deaf dad, who’s in a Texas prison for trying to stab his wife to death, please visit Web site LoveDaddy.org)

Peter Grosz (staff writer for The Colbert Report; star of over 100 Sonic fast-food commercials; member of Chicago’s Second City acclaimed improv troupe 4 Square, and half of the current UCBT improv show 2 Square)

John Morrison (host of NYC monthly comedy showcase Morrison’s Motel and co-producer of weekly open-mic show Ochi’s Motel)

David Cope (comedic storyteller, and member of Sweet Haven sketch troupe that runs a hot new Tuesday night comedy show at Rififi)

Leslie Goshko (exceptionally sharp comedic actress/writer, and 2008 Manhattan Monologue Slam Champion)

Ross Hyzer (host of NYC live extravaganza County Fair Comedy Show)

Diana Saez (DC Comedy Festival; XM Radio; created/produced Washington DC’s first all-female comedy showcase)

Greg Barris (MTV2’s All That Rocks, Carolines),

and Pat O’Shea and Charlie Kasov (Drunken Focus Group).”

7:30 pm at Ochi’s Lounge at Comix
353 West 14th Street (just east of 9th Avenue)
no cover, 1 drink or food item minimum (e.g., draft beer for $4-$5)

Recently, I said the wrong thing.

It happens.

I apologized to the folks who I may have (inadvertantly) offended, and they at least seemed to understand where I was coming from and to accept my apology as sincere

What’s more interesting than what I said is how the reaction to having said it made me feel. I wasn’t addressed with disrespect or nastiness; on the contrary, I got a levelheaded talking-to that highlighted an area in which I have something to learn. A “talking-to” may sound like something that a parent gives a child. It’s also often how a teacher addresses a student. And sometimes folks turn out to be teachers when we’re nowhere near a classroom and are years past doodling in the back row. Sometimes grown-ups get talking-tos, too.

But my guilt at the idea of doing something wrong, of being “the bad one,” flared up, as it always does. And while it was perhaps warranted in this case, in other cases, it isn’t. Oftentimes, instead of standing up for myself in the face of unjust criticism, I’ve folded into myself and nodded mutely in order to “make nice.”

This isn’t because I am a lady, although we are generally raised to make pretty eyes at folks when we should be raising our fists in the air, protest-style. I know plenty of girlfriends who won’t take some of the shit I have, in the past, meekly taken. It’s because, oftentimes, my motivation has been to keep things pleasant rather than deal with what’s real. Sometimes it’s safer to pretend you’re in the wrong than to declare yourself an independent voice.

Now again, that wasn’t what happened in this most recent case. I said something dumb, and I apologized because an apology was warranted.

But it’s not always that cut and dry. And having seen Moe and Tracie from Jezebel pummeled on the blogs over the past few weeks, and reading in particular Tracie’s responses on her blog, and the alternately horribly mean and sickeningly worshipful comments on both Jezebel and Tracie’s blog, I’ve been wondering about words, and guilt, and responsibility, and the easy path of finger-pointing and blame.

No moral here. Just thinking out loud, or something like it, very late on a Wednesday night.

It’s time to get some rest.

In synergistic Viacom-funded bloggery news, Dennis DiClaudio of Comedy Central’s “Indecision 2008″ blog met me recently at Trailer Park Lounge and we spoke of many things. Learn of our Pabsty dalliance here (to be honest, I dorkily just drank water with lemon. But I did eat veggie chili with Fritos on top!)

Alice’s Tea Cup has three locations in Manhattan and each and every one is special in its own way, although it must be stated that the West 73rd St. and Columbus Avenue location is the very best. And it is in close proximity to the Upper West Side Betsey Johnson boutique, which is itself right next door to an Olive and Bette’s, meaning that we can all feel so many different kinds of joy at once on that particular block. Oh, and it’s a block away from my therapist’s office! So there’s that.)

This place fucking rules.

My dear friends Diana and Sam lived in D.C. for four years, and they are highly entertaining, fascinating human beings, as is my new pal Hillary. And my friend Baratunde. These are genius people, here: wildly talented, driven, one of a kind types. I want to make clear that my assessment of that city has nothing to do with them, just as some friends will explain to me that they don’t mean to hurt my feelings when they tell me New Jersey is a shithole.

With that disclaimer, hear me out when I say…

D.C. fucking sucks.

How goddamned boring can one town be? D.C. has an answer for you, and it involves monuments, monochromatic block-like eyesore Soviet-style architecture as far as the eye can see, and anorexic white bitches in identical Ann Taylor Loft dresses with pearls and Nine West heels marching in lockstep down a featureless, ramrod-straight highway to the nearest single lawyer they can get to knock them up.

And I was there with a cool organization that does good work, and I got to hang out in fancy hotels. And the people at the organization are by and large rad. But every time I hit the street and saw the wonkity wonkity wonks and wonkettes (and I love the website Wonkette, so I don’t mean to disparage the name), I wanted to curl up into the tiniest of balls and magically wish myself back to my beloved New York.

It’s like a giant outdoor strip mall of bureaucracy and boredom. Nothing glamorous happens there. It is not like the movie “Dave,” the movie “The American President,” or the TV show “The West Wing.” Allison Janney is not bringing us the talking points of the day. No. You know who is? DANA FUCKING PERINO, that’s who. And all these little Stepford Goes to Washington bitches are tottering around, and so are these fucking automaton douchebag men, the frat brothers who decided to be “different” and not jump right into an MBA program.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

You know what it’s like? It’s exactly like Midtown Manhattan, except the focus is on politics rather than general business. And the buildings are shorter and not caked in soot.

So proud of this man I want to fucking spank him in the face.

My manpartner Francesco Marciuliano, writer of syndicated comic strip “Sally Forth” and Emmy-winning kids’ show “Seemore’s Playhouse,” is filling in for the awesome Dan Piraro for a week’s worth of the comic strip “Bizarro.” It’s gonna be the motherfucking balls.

Here’s what Dan told Daily Cartoonist about this magical turn of events:

This is the first time I’ve had a guest cartoonist and I’m really excited about it. I’ve long admired Ces’s cartoons online and am excited to see what my readers think of them. He is a prolific writer of all sorts of humor – essays, stand-up comedy, cartoons, blogs – and I’m of the opinion that he’s long overdue for some of this kind of exposure.

Here, here! WHEEEEEEEEEE!

Proud in D.C.,
Sara

Learn more about it here.

So I’m going to D.C. for a few days because someone has to lobby the Hill on behalf of ladyflowers everywhere, and it may as well be me. As always, your pussies and uteri are in good hands with me, kittens. I’ll also be doing things bloggy, albeit not for this blog, and video-y, albeit not for my usual gig at the MTV, although I will have to do a Choose or Lose vlog this week from the comfort of my hopefully-not-gross hotel room. Thus must I tote my laptop and camera and tripod down there along with my clothes and notebooks and the such.

Is there anything you’d like for me to yell in the general direction of George W. Bush when I’m down there with my sistren-at-arms agitating for the vote? I’ll find time to smooth my petticoats and scream in his general direction.

xoxo
General Benincasa