Est. Read (and Watch) Time: 12 minutes. Read Time brought to you once again by the Ashburton Energy + Hair Logistics Group, in association with the Bradley Hills Bureau of Corrections + Housing.
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SHOWS:
Glazer’s After Party @ Comedy Store Belly Room (LA). March 28th.
Bergamot Comedy Festival (LA). Tuesday April 2nd + Thursday April 4th
Comedy Loft (DC). May 28th. featuring for the great Sam Salem.
The Hollywood Comedy. April 20th at 7:30pm. Tickets to come!
Hiya Sternal Journalists,
It’s a busy week and a late night, so I’m pulling an emergency lever and sharing an EXCLUSIVE clip from a recent show, the great “Undiscovered Genius” at the Hollywood Improv (run by Josh Edelman, he would be sure to make sure I told you). I was lucky enough to do a couple of my old standby bits and songs from “Julian Stern Keeps Trying” in front of an absolutely crackling audience.
If you’ve never seen them, they’re a hoot. If you have, this is still a very fun performance imo. Feedback welcome.
I’ve been planning to put this on YouTube and TikTok and all that jazz, but I am bad at editing workflow. So without further ado, here it is!
Alright! That was fun! Now RECS!
Brass: Birmingham. Boardgame. Out of curiosity last weekend, I looked up what was the highest rated game on BoardGameGeek, sort of the RottenTomatoes of boardgames, but with even more snobbery. It was this game set in 1700/1800s England. You are an industrialist trying to optimize and capitalize on things like iron, beer, coal, cotton, and good ol’ manufactured goods. If you told me I would be into this stuff ten years ago, I would have called you a nerd who doesn’t know the future, but I bought it and enjoyed it so people can change and you should check out this game. \
The Three Body Problem. THE BOOK. There’s a Netflix adaptation of this book that’s out right now, but they CW-hotified it and changed it in other ways that I don’t like, so I’m just recommending the book. I will keep watching the show and report back if my opinion changes.
Among the A.I. Doomsayers. Article. I was reading this on a flight to the Bay area (Bay area friends, it was a very short trip and I had literally zero non-family time), and the guy next to me asked how it was. I was like, “Do you live here?” And he said, “Yeah.” And I was like, “Well, you probably know more about it than I do, but it’s… a lotta… people just have a lot of opinions about it here, I guess,” and he said, “Well, everywhere I go, it seems like people are talking about it. Not just in the Bay.” And I said, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” And it was one of the worst performances I’ve ever given in a conversation. I apologize, sir.
Signing Up For An Event. Activity?. I have written a few times this year about my running journey and how I was back into running and then fell off and then got back, and well, I fell off again so decided to bite the bullet and sign up for a half marathon (I will be in Brooklyn the last week of April for it!) and I just put down my best weekly mileage in over a year. Once again, you can hate running and think running is dumb (I do sometimes and it is sometimes) and still apply this advice to something else in your life. A lot of people think runners think they’re better than people. On the contrary, I am sharing this because I am so disorganized about so many things and this is one of the only measurable successes I can share right now (more to come I hope, I fucking hope so).
Anyway! Much love, hope you all have a stupendous week and thank you for reading if I haven’t thanked you recently!
Julian!
P.S. I spend anywhere between two and twelve hours a week on the Sternal Journal. If you enjoy receiving it (and are RICH) consider becoming a paying subscriber. For just a few bucks a month, you can provide me with a bit more time to come up with fun topics, poems, and interviews; and you with probably fewer typos (Update: I have gained some paid subscribers since originally writing this bumper and I don’t think it’s had a meaningful impact on typos. Workin’ on it!)