America's Biggest Loser

$habooty has the entire article about Artie Lange from the new Rolling Stone, along with a recap of the discussion of the article on the Stern show the other day, and Rolling Stone's response to the discussion of the article on the Stern show the other day. The whole thing makes for an interesting, but I thought the Rolling Stone article, in particular, was especially good, even though I felt like I'd already read most of it.

There's a few genuine revelations, like the fact that his mom decorated his apartment for him, in a style that could be described as Crate and Barrel Masculine; some discussion of the business aspect of his career in greater detail than I'd heard before (like how much he makes a year from Stern); and the fact that one of the hoo-ers he does heroin with once shot him up while he was sleeping, the result of which he describes as 12 hours of euphoria.

There's also some fascinating insight into Artie's comedy. The girl who wrote the Rolling Stone article compares Artie to David Sedaris, which struck me as interesting, in that a) there's another hidden point of confluence between This American Life and the Stern show, which I know had been a topic of discussion in the comments section either here or over at XXL (I know, how sad); and b) it makes you wonder if Artie's aware that Sedaris is a fudge. Probably not, since he bragged on the show about the comparison.

Finally, I'll point out that, the other day, while I was out dealing with the kind of issues you have to deal with when you blog for a living, I read the Artie Lange book, Too Fat to Fish. I'll spare you an in depth review, since that hasn't been my m.o. for a while now, and since the book doesn't really call for it, other than to note that it's a lot like listening to Artie tell stories on the show. If you're into that sort of thing, you might want to have a look, but it's a bit too lightweight to give the full-on recommendation.

Checkit: Rolling Stone Artie Lange Article [Shabooty.com]