- Bookery Reading
Werewolves and lollipops are the two classifications of people that Patton Oswalt – the voice of Remy, the rat from Pixar’s “Ratatouille,” and a damn fine gentleman who can’t help but condemn and lust after Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Famous Bowls – differentiates between. They represent polar opposites – the good and the bad. The portly comedian falls right in the middle – a werewolf with a lollipop stuck all sticky and unfortunate in a clump of its hair that probably has to be worked out with an ice cube or peanut butter or cut out with a pair of scissors, leaving a bald spot. It’s what gives him his ire, otherwise you could see him just being a teddy bear with lollipops, eternally loveable.
The lollipop represents the jolliness and the werewolf represents the slobbery teeth and bloody claws (animalistic attack mechanisms) in his comedy and on the new, aptly titled Werewolves and Lollipops album and DVD (Sub Pop). Neither of the figures – the mythical nor the confection – represent his cunning, brains or hatred for a god awful president that he mocks (or maybe he’s mocking everyone who voted for and sticks up for the dickweed) with Dukes of Hazzard references. The disc is Patton at his best and the DVD rules just a little bit more thanks to an audience member pissing on another audience member during the middle of the show. One-of-a-kind, thankfully the cameras were rolling there in Athens, Ga., that night.
For his Bookery reading, Oswalt employed the help of a pair of voices to provide a take on a John Collier piece entitled “The Chaser.” It’s a great way to think about love and more proof that those with the puppy love aren’t thinking right, but they’d argue up and down the wall that they’ve never felt better. Oswalt explains the text, “I chose John Collier’s ‘The Chaser’ because, like all of his stories, it suggests a deeper, more horrifying, more fascinating and tragic novel about to begin. It’s the wheels of fate grinding together, and you’re overhearing it as it happens.” (Recorded specially for Daytrotter at Disney Studios) – Sean Moeller