Author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong offers a nice inside view into Seinfeld’s origins and impact, taking the series from Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David getting to know one another in New York City’s comedy scene all the way through minor-league baseball “Seinfeld” nights and “Soup Nazi” publicity tours.

The book is at its strongest at the series’ genesis, highlighting the co-creators’ ambivalence toward sitcom tropes and traditional measures of success as well as the series’ unusual creative freedom and climb to success. It’s fun to see the cast fall into place and meet the writers who shaped some of Seinfeld’s most memorable episodes.

Structurally, the book feels a little scattered–the chronology seems to double over itself a few times, and not enough time is spend exploring the series at its peak. Armstrong does a good job not just compiling plots and top lines from the series. Still, it would have been nice to focus more on the core of “Seinfeld’s” success and less on cultural phenomenon/career launchpad it became.

FLYMF alum Laura Callier, aka Gel Set, is playing at the Empty Bottle tonight to celebrate the release of her first full-length record, “Human Salad!” You can pick up the record here.

Laura’s story My Washington Romance was published in FLYMF’s Greatest Hits. She also contributed Old Food, Seeing Other People, Nobody Likes My Pink Shiny Miniskirt Except Me, Prematurely Pruned and Holidaze.

FLYMF alum Bobby D. Lux’s dog noir novel, Dog Duty, is now out in paperback. It’s sharp and tough and clever—buy it now!

Want to know more about “Dog Duty”? Read my review.

Bobby was a longtime FLYMF contributor; he has a number of stories in FLYMF’s Greatest Hits. Bobby’s FLYMF work includes When The Camera Stopped Rolling, Mike Tyson Movie Reviews, O’Neill ‘Scopes’ An Early Career, Monkey Dance, Outrageous Claims, In Memorium, Adventures In Time Travel, The Worst Story Ever, Batman Begins By Superman, The Coreys, Tonto’s Shocking Discovery, Vegas Wedding, The Solution To America’s Problems, Superman Returns, The Pirates Of Swenxof, and “Sly” Nostalgia.

Happy to announce that I have a new weird humor piece published in Splitsider! See how rats and pigeons will rule our post-apocalyptic futures with “A Post-Melt Guide to Local Wildlife.”