Custom Concern | nonpretentious

[mix tape] Martin Starr Paints You a Mix

In our world, only two types of people exist:

1) Those who take the “Which Freaks & Geeks Character Are You?” quiz and pray for Bill Haverchuck; and

2) Those who have no idea who Bill Haverchuck is.

Needless to say, we prefer to hang out with the first type. We also suggest a change of weekend plans for anyone who falls into the second.

Which is to say, we almost peed in our pants when Martin Starr agreed to make a mix tape for us. (We definitely did a victory dance or two.)

You see, Bill Haverchuck may have sparked our initial respect for Martin but we’re also fans of Adventureland (available on iTunes as of yesterday! Awesome soundtrack as well!), Knocked Up, and Party Down. It’s almost like the weirder his characters get, the deeper our admiration grows.

In fact, we’re not sure any other actor could pull off some of the scenes from Party Down and still garner our empathy. (Insert: Any scene from “Sin Say Shun Awards After Party.”)

He even manages to make us believe that pipe-smoking, Russian literature majors can be nonpretentious.

Right. So, once Martin agreed to make a mix tape for us, we promised ourselves that we’d refrain from sounding like brown-nosers or stalkers in his introduction. Obviously, we failed. Horribly.

On behalf of nonpretentious, we’ll simply point out that it’s not our fault that we respect him as an artist. Whether his talent comes from nature, nurture, or something else entirely, Martin Starr knows how to entertain. When we see his name on a project, we’re pretty certain it will be worth our while. We eagerly await all of his future endeavors, including his writing debut and his art exhibit at the Met. (Hear that, Directors? Hear that, Distributors of American Storage? Hear that, Curators of the Met?) (Also, no spoilers for Good Dick, it’s at the top of our Netflix queue.)

We know Martin had a full schedule this summer. (What? Haven’t you heard of a telescope?) We’re grateful that he took the time to compile this playlist for us. We’re even more grateful that his playlist didn’t make us lose all respect for him.