Well, kind of.

"I tend to be more in the truth-telling business, and more in the revealing hypocrisy or trying to be real, with despairing elements and angering elements about what it is to be alive," Maron said. "As I get older, I've softened up a bit, but I'm definitely that brand of comic. It's less about jokes and more about, 'What the fuck is this about?' and 'This is how crazy I am, how about you?'"

For years, that's been Maron's thing. A passionately satiric comic known for his programs on the now-shuttered Air America radio network and his numerous appearances on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," Maron has blazed a trail with his blatantly upfront personality. He's not afraid to spar with anyone or complain about anything, and chances are you'll find yourself agreeing with his ideologies, which he'll espouse March 22 during a seated show at the Black Cat.

And if you don't nod along the whole time, at least you'll leave having something to talk about later, Maron said.

NELL IRVIN PAINTER has spent the past 10 years of her life working on her latest book, "The History of White People." To say releasing it is a weight off her shoulders would probably be an understatement.

"Of course, it's a great relief," Painter said. "Also, I like the book really very much — I did two other books between, and it wasn't like the only book I worked on, but nonetheless, it was a heck of a lot of work. ... But just to sit in 2010 with a book and be able to look back and see a narrative over the long stretch, that's satisfying."

And Painter, who will discuss the book March 23 at Politics and Prose, knows about narratives. In fact, she has been researching various cultures for decades: First, she earned an undergraduate degree in anthropology from University of California, Berkeley; then, she tackled post-graduate work on French medieval studies at the University of Bordeaux, France, and on African studies at the University of Ghana; then, she received a master's degree in African history from UCLA and a Ph.D. in American history from Harvard University. That's a lot of accomplishment and knowledge in one woman, and it all started with an aversion to field work.

IF GOLDFRAPP'S LATEST ALBUM, "Head First," had parents, the likely culprits would probably be the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 2009 album "It's Blitz!" and the soundtrack to "Saturday Night Fever."

Somehow, Karen O. and the Bee Gees bred creatively, and Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory got all the knowledge. Those lucky kids.

But even if this make-believe tale of faux parental units is just that, the influences of disco and electropop on "Head First" are hard to deny.

Goldfrapp's fifth album comes two years after their acoustic-inspired "Seventh Tree," and though some songs on this album are slower and similar to that previous release, more here is euphoric and thrilling, lyrics full of first-love longing and with optimistic, synth-heavy instrumentation to match. Over the course of the album, Alison Goldfrapp's lyrics deal with finding that guy, losing that guy, getting that guy back and then realizing maybe he wasn't that perfect anyway, a sequence of events that leave her pondering whether "damaged goods can be refunded" and if "too much, too little, too late" can ever be enough.

She's conflicted, yes. But what girl isn't?

» RELATED: "Diablo's Daughters: 'United States of Tara' & 'Jennifer's Body'" [Express, Dec. 2009]

DIABLO CODY, you make it hard to quit you.

Yes, it's easy to resent the woman for the overdone slop that was "Jennifer's Body," and also for the grating quality "Juno" takes on after it's watched more than once. But with "The United States of Tara," the program Cody dreamed up for Showtime, she's totally hit gold.

In the show's first season, viewers were introduced to Tara Gregson (Toni Collette), a wife and mother living in Overland, Kan., who juggles multiple personalities as a result of a traumatic event in her past. Some days she's Tara, and other days she transitions into Buck, a male trucker; Alice, a strict '50s housewife; or T, a skanky teenager, all of whom run amok and inevitably screw things up for the Gregson family.

But what Tara thought had triggered her alters — an unwanted sexual encounter while she was in boarding school — was disproved at the end of the last season, and viewers were thrust into the great abyss: If it wasn't that situation with Tripp (James McCauley) that triggered her split personalities, what did? How would she and her husband Max (John Corbett) keep their relationship together through another endless quest to find the cause of Tara's disorder? And would their kids, Marshall (Keir Gilchrist) and Kate (Brie Larson), be able to survive the same thing?

The premiere episode of the second season of the show, which airs March 22 at at 10:30 p.m. on Showtime, at least aims to tackle some of those questions. Though each episode is only 30 minutes long, the first two of the season — the second will air March 29 — introduce viewers to a plethora of new characters and plotlines that will certainly carry us through the next 10 episodes of the season.

(By the way, Fox says next week's "Idol" theme will be "Teen Idols." Get ready for some Aaron Kelly singing Frankie Avalon.)

The standings according to ...

JACKIE TOHN
Top 36, season eight

1. Siobhan Magnus
2. Andrew Garcia
3. Crystal Bowersox
4. Big Mike Lynche
5. Casey James
6. Lee Dewyze
7. Aaron Kelly
8. Katie Stevens
9. Didi Benami
10. Tim Urban
11. Paige Miles

» Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW; through April 4, $29; 202-467-4600. (Foggy Bottom)

» Flashpoint, 916 G St. NW; Tue., March 23 through Sun., March 28, $20; 202-315-1317. (Gallery Place)

» AFI Silver, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring; through April 1; 301-495-6720. (Silver Spring)

Photo courtesy AFI

» 223 23rd St., Arlington; through March 30, free; Artwhino.com. (Crystal City)

Photo courtesy Tom Pipkin

» Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW; Mon., March 22, 7:30 p.m., $15; 202-467-4600. (Foggy Bottom)

Photo by Michael Wilson