Guestblogger: Richard Metzger

(Tara McGinley, Richard Metzger September 2008. Photo: Coop)

Meet our next guestblogger, Richard Metzger. Shortly after I met Richard in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, he launched an amazing web directory of unusual information called disinfo.com. He later went on to produce a television show, a conference, and a book and DVD publishing company under the Disinformation brand.

Richard is one of the smartest people I know, and has introduced me to so many obscure but mind-blowing books, movies, and musicians I don't know where to start.

He's also directed videos for different bands, including Ann Magnuson's Bongwater.

We're thrilled to have him guestblogging on Boing Boing for the next two weeks. Please give a warm welcome to Richard!

Greetings Boing Boing readers, it's an honor to be your guest blogger for the next few weeks and it will be fun to share my latest pop culture enthusiasms with everyone!

Since leaving The Disinformation Company Ltd., I moved back to Los Angeles and co-wrote a graphic novel about homicidal mail men. (Stay away from mail men, they are very, very bad people). I am currently working to launch "Dangerous Minds," a new multi-platform talk show. We shot a pilot recently with Jackass ringleader Johnny Knoxville at Coop's studio. I'll have a proper posting about the project here later in the week.

Richard Metzger

• [pahool]

  I would give my left nut for all the old Infinity Factory shows wrapped up in a nice little torrent or somethin’. I would buy them in a second if they were available. I liked Infinity Factory more than Disinformation, but I’m a sucker for lower production values. The shows with Genesis P-Orridge were excellent. Please please please…

• [Steven Stwalley]

  I am very much enjoying Mr. Metzger as a guest blogger (much as I have enjoyed his work for Disinformation)… he fits right in here. If you guys are ever looking for a permanent blogger to add to the site for some reason & can talk him into it, I think he’s your mutant.

• [grange85]

  As a Galaxie 500 (and by extension a Bongwater) fan I feel obliged to be outraged (ok maybe just peeved) that describing Bongwater as “Ann Magnuson’s Bongwater” might seem a little disrespectful to Kramer.

• [clenchner]

  Disinfo was great – welcome! Please help bring the rain that will wash this nightmare away….

• [SeeChao]

  Wow… Welcome to BoingBoing, I’ve been an avid reader ever since I accidentally purchased the wrong book of lies from a book store. I’m really looking forward to your posts, since I’ve been reading the ones on disinfo for years. Good to have you here.

• [Rona]

  Richard and Tara – this pic to 2 cute.

  Dug the interview as well. Very nice. In fact, impressive….

  :)

  let me know if you’re doing any more interviews or need a place to shoot downtown anytime.

  ~rona

• [Anonymous]

  Brett Smiley is alive and well and living in NYC in the East Village. I run into him from time to time. I became aware of him from one of the junk shop Glam compilations, and I had actually known him before I knew him as THAT Brett Smiley. Anyway, he’s doing ok.

• [A New Challenger]

  Welcome, Richard!

  I’d almost forgotten about the guestblogger program until this recent revival. It’s a wonderful thing.

• [minTphresh]

  wow! richard, welcome to bong bing! the first time i ever logged on to tha interwebz back in the early ’90′s, disinfo was one of the first sites i visited, and the only one i still visit, almost every day! rock on homie! looking forward to seeing how you deal with some of our more “special” posters.

• [yer_maw]

  excellent, i can put my tinfoil hat on now.

  lookin’ good.

• [mdh]

  Aw sweeeeeeet! I was a disinfo junkie back when.

• [Beanolini]

  Stay away from mail men, they are very, very bad people

  Why the downer on postal workers? I was a postman for a while, and I’m not a particularly bad person, nor were most of my co-workers. They were, however, in the main, outstandingly lazy.

  Neil Palmer’s short story about Cambridge postmen corresponds well with my experience.

• [Tom Hale]

  Welcome, Richard.
  Quick question, were you channeling Mr Bean when this photo was taken? Kidding! – seriously, no offense meant.

  I look forward to reading your posts.

• [Bruce Arthurs]

  Beanolini, obviously Metzger has confused “mailmen” (letter carriers like you and I) with “postal supervisors” (those socio/psychopathic SOBs who treated us workers like crap).

  Actually, I retired from the Postal Service a few months ago.

  Not because I was tired of busting my ass every day at work. I loved the job; it was pretty much ideal for someone like me: detail-oriented, involving a constant amount of attention and mental activity, and provided a useful service to my customers. The pay and benefits, impressive as they were, were actually secondary.

  No, I retired because I finally got too damn tired of feeling under attack by the management mentality at the Postal Service.

  Two specific things that finally convinced me to take retirement:

  The first was when management tried to fire one of the other letter carriers because… and I am NOT making this up!… he did NOT park in a fire lane. (If he’d parked in a fire lane, he would have been about ten steps closer to a cluster of mailboxes. By parking farther away, he was “stealing” from the Postal Service.) The firing was fought by the union, and the carrier reinstated, but that took several months, while the carrier and his family had to try and cope with the sudden loss of income. After getting reinstated, the carrier ended up burning off his accumulated sick leave, taking the money in his retirement fund, and quitting.

  The second was at the beginning of this year, when I was called into the supervisor’s office and threatened with disciplinary action… because I had gone to see my doctor ON MY DAY OFF. (I’m not making that one up, either.)

  Apparently, the only thing I was supposed to do on my days off was to sit by the phone, in uniform, on the off-chance that management MIGHT want to call me in to work. That isn’t “employment”; that’s slavery.

  I finally got tired of feeling like I was going into a war zone EVERY morning. I got tired of being accused of being slow and lazy EVERY day. (This wasn’t just me, or a few others; this was across the board, and EVERYONE got the same treatment.) I got tired of being angry and upset EVERY damn day.

  If it was just about the work, I’d have stayed another four or five years before taking retirement. But you know what? I haven’t had to take a single anti-depressant or anti-anxiety pill since retiring, and that was literally something I HAD to do to get thru the workdays before then.

  The retirement check doesn’t quite make ends meet, so I’ve been working as a security guard to supplement my income.

  In just over a month working for that security guard company, I’ve been shown more respect and appreciation for my work than I was shown in my last DECADE working for the Postal Service. And, no, I don’t think I’m exaggerating with that statement.

  (Pardon my venting.)

• [FoetusNail]

  Looking forward to your posts. We love Bongwater.
  The Power of Pussy
  Remember Exit by George Petros?

• [FoetusNail]

  Speaking only for myself Bruce, no problem, hope it helped.