I have to take a break from the White Stripes/ Jack White/ The Strokes posting marathon to talk about this link that birthday girl Fotini sent me. If you weren’t aware, I LOVE comedian Demetri Martin. I have never laughed harder than when I saw him do his “These Are Jokes” show in Greenwich Village in 2005.

Now you too can experience the super-funniness from the comfort of your very own home because Demetri has released a CD/DVD of that show. If it ever stops raining, I plan on running out to the shops and purchasing it.

Demetri has also been hard at work as the new “face” of Microsoft Vista. (Demetri and “Mac guy” Justin Long can have a fight to the death of the hottie comedian electronics (double) hawker.)

When I first saw the Clearification website, I just thought it was Demetri’s new project. But I did wonder why the videos were of such high production value. Turns out that Microsoft is footing the bill to not only this site, but are also underwritting his current tour.

At first I was kinda pissed off that many people writing about the Clearification site think that the content was specifically created for Microsoft. I had seen the same material performed by Demetri at a workshop show this year at the Upright Citizens Brigade, “Dr. Earnest Parrot presents…” But after reading this interview, Demetri fesses that the Vista Clearification campaign was created in March of LAST YEAR. Hmmm… so which came first, the jokes or the Microsoft campaign?

The site and material is pretty funny, and it’s crazy to see Demetri’s shows come to life in real, live action movies, and it’s great that Demetri’s getting some super-funding for his comedy, but I’m not sure how I feel about browsing a Microsoft marketing tool.

The Chicago Tribune recently interviewed Demetri, asking questions about his Mac/PC preference, why Dave Letterman is a jerk, and his feelings about the term “hipsters”. Some samplings from the article:

Q. Be honest. Before the Microsoft deal, were you a Mac guy or a Windows guy?

A. Actually, way back, I was a Tandy guy. I started as a Commodore guy, then I was a Tandy guy, then I was a Mac guy, and then in all my day jobs I was always a non-Mac guy. So now I’m a Windows Vista guy. I’ve covered the whole landscape.

Oh yes. The Nano has reached the Pope. I hear he downloads illegally ripped German death metal.

A group of Vatican Radio employees gave Pope Benedict XVI a brand new iPod nano loaded with special Vatican Radio programming and classical music.

To honor the pope’s first visit to the radio’s broadcasting headquarters, the radio’s technical staff decided the pencil-thin, state-of-the-art audio player would make the perfect gift.

So many times I’ve found myself sitting at home, looking longingly at my mp3 player saying, “Why, why can’t you be more like Franz Ferdinand?” Finally someone has made something to answer my deepest, darkest wishes. Sony Japan has created a limited edition NW-A1000 mp3 player in honor of Franz Ferdinand’s latest album. They’ve only made 100 of them and it goes onsale Jan 26th only in Japan, so this is going to be even harder to get than a Raconteurs record.

The front mimics the cover of “You Could Have It So Much Better” and the back features headshots of the band members placed right above the Sony Walkman logo. The player is 6GB and features a special message from the band pre-loaded on the hard drive. I think the message goes something like this:

Thanks for buying our limited edition mp3 player…you crazy Japanese schoolgirl.