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CONTACT: jeff@jeffvrabel.com
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First and foremost, with a score of 20, I am the current Guinness World Record holder for Most Bruce Springsteen Songs Identified by Their Lyrics in One Minute.
Less significantly, I am a writer whose work has appeared in GQ, Men’s Health (including cover stories on Zac Efron and Kenny Chesney), the Washington Post, Garden & Gun, Indianapolis Monthly, Golf Digest, the official BruceSpringsteen.net, the official Indy 500 program, Vice, Fatherly, Billboard, Time, Modern Bride, Family Fun, Success, The South Magazine, IU Alumni Magazine, NCAA Champion, Paste, Playboy, Live Nation, RollingStone.com, Scary Mommy, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Indianapolis Star, the New York Post, the preeminent Springsteen magazine Backstreets, No Depression, All About Jazz and others. I’m a current contributing editor to my hometown Indianapolis Monthly, a former senior editor with Nickelodeon and a former editor-in-chief of Hilton Head Monthly magazine.
I’ve written official media material for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, including official site bios for Springsteen, Stevie Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren and Soozie Tyrell and a number of the site’s album and tour content. I’ve also written media materials for Social Distortion, the Respect Sextet and Jo Lawry.
I penned weekly humor columns for GateHouse Media and the McClatchy-Tribune News Service in what history textbooks will one day refer to as “newspapers.”
I’ve profiled such folks as Jimmy Buffett, Ed Helms, “Bizarre Foods” host Andrew Zimmern, the Beastie Boys, Billy Joel, John Mellencamp, Gnarls Barkley, four members of the E Street Band, the Avett Brothers, the Drive-By Truckers, John Prine, Tom Jones, “Weird Al” Yankovic, photographer Dan Winters, HGTV’s “Two Chicks and a Hammer” and the late pro wrestler-turned-hairstylist Sean Haire and many others. I wrote about Kentucky’s legendary Ark Encounter and the world’s hottest pepper for GQ. I also covered Bonnaroo for Billboard, as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, SXSW and Austin City Limits.
I was part of Father’s Day week at GQ, interviewed several very cool people for cover stories for Savannah-based South Magazine and told GQ about putting my dog to sleep in a piece that’s hopefully funnier than it sounds. I tracked down a massive pipe organ for Indianapolis Monthly. Also, I once asked Bruce Springsteen if we should have a second baby, and he said yes, so we did.
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Jeff Vrabel 
December 26th, 2011 at 11:41 am
Regarding your Christmas Day declaration of McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” as the worst all-time Christmas song, well – clearly you have never heard Barbra Streisand’s rendition of “Jingle Bells.”
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December 26th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Marilyn, I stand fully corrected. Thanks for the hideous tip
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April 22nd, 2012 at 1:36 am
64 times my dear friend Terri has seen Bruce, # 65 will be in San Jose on her 30th wedding anniversary. We will be up front, if the lottery allows, with black bruce hats. She is a great friend and your # 1 quiet fan.
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April 23rd, 2012 at 8:56 am
65 times! Well thanks to both of you for reading, and best of luck getting up front in San Jose! I got tickets for Wrigley, but they’re definitely not up front. 🙂
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March 5th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
I nominated you for the Beautiful Blogger Award. Feel beautiful! 🙂
http://factorymaid.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/beautiful-blogger-award-aka-holy-shit/
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March 19th, 2013 at 10:39 am
Love your blog, Jeff. Your irreverant, topical humour speaks to the heartless sardonic in me. I look forward to pawing through its pages, in between looking at 5 second movie-trailer-teasers and exotic nautical-themed pornography. 🙂
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March 20th, 2013 at 9:37 am
Thanks for stopping by, Ryan. I am glad to reach heartless sardonics everywhere. And don’t worry, I usually write dumb enough stuff that you can basically get the point *while* simultaneously enjoying porn! Thanks again for reading – J.
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September 15th, 2014 at 1:23 am
[…] creature of the night) experiences. In the meantime, go follow your new second favorite writer, Jeff Vrabel, on his blog and Twitter. He’s the editor at NickMom who makes me look like I can spell, and is […]
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October 1st, 2014 at 2:21 pm
Jeff,
Thanks for following my blog… I’m new to this crazy blogging world and your follow meant a lot.
I hope to connect with you more and I look forward to reading more awesome things like… eating babies (I guess that’s more disturbing than awesome)
-Sarah
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October 1st, 2014 at 2:58 pm
Wait, it’s disturbing to write about eating babies?
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October 1st, 2014 at 3:17 pm
Well… if you prefer chicken it is!
If you’re a bear or a large bird… maybe not!!
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August 20th, 2015 at 3:37 pm
Nice column! Just fyi, please check usage of “disinterested” and “uninterested”! Often misused. The lovely singer’s child is not “disinterested”, but is “uninterested”.
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December 22nd, 2015 at 6:49 am
My mom and I just got tickets for The River tour-which just sounds ridiculous-:D and I look forward to following your blog!!
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December 22nd, 2015 at 8:54 am
Thanks, Memory! Jealous about your tickets.
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February 6th, 2017 at 12:32 pm
[…] of my favorite people to write with is Jeff Vrabel (we worked together forever at Nickelodeon), because he makes me laugh. A lot. Lucky for me, I […]
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January 15th, 2018 at 1:46 pm
[…] Vrabel | Freelance contributor, Washington […]
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May 2nd, 2018 at 9:18 pm
Jeff –
Where do I know you from? I’m from Indy and your name sounds really familiar.
Bill Chambers
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May 3rd, 2018 at 9:28 am
Hey Bill, there are lots of us Vrabels around here and northwest Indiana. Maybe from there?
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February 8th, 2020 at 9:45 pm
Hi Jeff,
We just read your article about The Polar Express. It was so hilarious we laughed like crazy eight hours ago and just read it again and laughed even more with two of our sons. The 14 y/o was as a baby fascinated with Nemo, but obsessed when he found The Polar Express, which we first watched in the theater.
I even wrote a FB post with a link to your article.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10221602877763705&id=1306102443&sfnsn=mo
Post…
Paul and I were discussing our cat Chip. Paul: “Chip is a sweet little baby.”
Me: He’s better than any ‘baby’.”
Paul: “Hey now! Benjamin was a perfect baby.”
Me: “What?!? Babies are like 24/7 total (365×18+/-) care. Chip is better than any baby…even Benjamin.”
Paul: “Well, those first two weeks of no sleep were rough.”
Me: (To myself) Two weeks? Ha! (Paul went back to work, so Mama was on the clock zombiefied, pish-posh.
Paul: “I remember watching finding Nemo on loop.”
Me: ” ‘Finding Nemo’?” I snorted. “That was a dream. It was THE POLAR EXPRESS that I hated! The creepy elves, the scary hobo ghost, the waiters pouring scalding hot chocolate and throwing dishes around, the hellish gingers: the engineer and the fireman, the engineer pulling the fireman’s beard making him yowl ‘like a water buffalo in heat, sinking in quicksand, covered in fire ants, impaled on a punji stick’, the record playing Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ in a too slow creepy menacing way, the horrifying ‘not quite there yet’ computer animation of people…their ‘relaxed faces’ baring their teeth like growling dogs… total HORROR SHOW!”
Me: “How many characters did Tom Hanks play in The Polar Express anyway? I googled?
ME: “The answer is 3. Hero Boy 1, Conductor, Ebenezer scrooge…”
Paul and Me together: “Ebenezer Scrooge was in the Polar Express?”
Tired, I googled “Why was the Polar Express so nightmarish?”…
The rest compliments your article and reccomend everyone read it. We can relate to everything you wrote.
Just wanted to say “Thanks for the laughs!”
P.S. We read over and over, voice breaking with laughter, and unable to breathe the article part where the DVD player spit out the DVD and asked for a drink. We laughed even more pondering if it wanted an alcoholic drink or water? Cause it’s funny either way. Cheers!
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February 10th, 2020 at 1:40 pm
Thanks so much for reading! I am happy to report that though it’s been years, we still watch this every Christmas season, though I have to say we spend much more time MST3K-ing it now. (It’s much better that way.) Thanks for stopping by!
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