Jonathan Coulton

Birthdays

JoCo — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:12:09 +0000

When you get to be 38 like me, the birthday thing starts to feel a little bit like old news - what, this again? So it’s nice to discover that people I don’t even know are thinking of me on my SPECIAL DAY (which was yesterday December 1). I received several gifts in the mail yesterday, many birthday wishes via email, and most remarkably, a box filled with the results of a stuffed monkey’s incredible journey across the globe, through the very bowels of JoCo fandom (i.e., NASA, Ren Faires, etc.). Colleen kicked the whole thing off in the forums, and over the course of the last year said monkey was passed from fan to fan, collecting souvenirs, journal entries and photos along the way. Here is most of what came in the box (two boxes actually).

I’m still trying to process everything, but it certainly seems like JoCo fans know how to show a monkey a good time (does anyone know how to disinfect a stuffed monkey?).

You people are crazy, and I love you for it. Thank you.

JoCo Looks Back

JoCo — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:54:36 +0000

You may have heard about my new greatest hits CD “JoCo Looks Back.” 20 of your favorites! Technically it’s 20 songs chosen via a complicated algorithm involving popularity, best guess, and my own selfish desires and whims. But who’s counting! If you’ve been to a live show recently you may already own one, but it’s not available for purchase online yet because:

Right now I’m doing a special thing with the Creative Commons 2008 fundraising campaign that’s kind of exciting. Between now and the end of the year a $50 donation gets you a 1 Gb USB thumb drive with all 20 songs and the artwork, plus all the source tracks for all the songs. All the source tracks? Yes. It took me about a million hours, thank you very much. So if you’ve ever wanted to do some kind of kooky remix or mashup, or if you’ve ever just wanted to take these songs apart and see how they work, this would be just the thing for you.

This is an exclusive special super secret bonus package - donating 50 bucks to CC is the only way to get it so don’t even ask, you freeloaders. I’ve benefited immensely from Creative Commons licensing, so I’m very pleased to be able to support it in this way (with your money). Get it here.

The songs are (you may begin criticizing my selections now):

Code Monkey
Ikea
I Feel Fantastic
Mandelbrot Set
Tom Cruise Crazy
Shop Vac
Chiron Beta Prime
I’m Your Moon
My Monkey
Skullcrusher Mountain
I Crush Everything
When You Go
A Talk With George
You Ruined Everything
Creepy Doll
Mr. Fancy Pants
Baby Got Back
First of May
Re: Your Brains
The Future Soon

Bye SF

JoCo — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:58:16 +0000

On to LA today, already regretting that I will not be able to continue eating the same delicious corned beef sandwich every day for the rest of my life: The Sentinel is my friend Dennis’s new restaurant, and it is my favorite new thing about SF.

The sandwiches are very good. Also, all of them have mayonnaise, which is correct.

Planes, Trains, Hodgman

JoCo — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:14:41 +0000

Planes, Trains, Hodgman, originally uploaded by jcoulton.

It’s day 563 of the west coast leg of the Hodgman book tour and this
photo will give you some idea of the kind of luxurious pampering we
are enjoying. That’s a train, suckers.

Thanks to all the Seattle residents who came out to see us at Town
Hall, and special thanks to our pals John Roderick and Sean Nelson who
were so fun that I stopped caring whether or not the audience was
having a good time (though I think they were). John and Eric from the
Long Winters were with us again last night in Portland at the very fun
recording of the Live Wire radio show. Fun fun, all fun!

Today I bid a sad farewell to the gentle, gray northwest and fly to
beautiful San Francisco. Also, I should not have eaten that sausage I
just ate.

Seattle Night of Stars

JoCo — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:06:22 +0000

No rest for the weary: I’m on my way to Seattle to do a few west coast dates with the John Hodgman book tour. Please note that tomorrow night, Thursday November 6, John and I will be performing at Town Hall in Seattle. Joining us, local treasures and actual famous people John Roderick and Sean Nelson. IT IS GOING TO BE VERY BIG AND FUN (all caps courtesy of John Hodgman).

I can’t figure out how to put a proper link in this iPhone Wordpress app, so I’m afraid you’ll have to cut and paste (which I also cannot do from here, ha ha). Regardless, buy your tickets here:

www.brownpapertickets.com/event/47299

Also: yes we can.

Bernie Defeated

JoCo — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 11:19:40 +0000

An entire pot of tea and a few adjustments in the set list got my voice through the show last night, with much assistance from the lovely people of Birmingham. It was a short show squeezed in between other things and it was set up and announced at the last minute, but turnout was still impressive, especially considering I am from another country entirely. Thanks to everyone who came out on a cold rainy night and tolerated my raspy honking. I haven’t spoken aloud yet this morning, which is part of the plan.

I’m sitting here in the hotel room enjoying my last opportunity for a little tea and biscuits, a lovely tradition that I wish was in my life always. I still can’t believe I just did six shows here on this side of the Atlantic. I’ve been thinking a lot on this trip about, guess what, the internet. All these crowds here in all these new places. It’s yet another example of this increasingly important global internet culture that’s happening - it no longer matters much where you live, you can still find your way to LOLCats or Numa Numa or Skullcrusher Mountain, or any of a thousand million trillion other dumb, funny, important ideas. There’s a group of people who are literally spread out all over the planet, and they’re all talking and thinking about the same stuff, and that has never ever happened before. And that group of people is just going to keep growing until it’s all of us, and what happens then?

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: the internet is going to be big. You may want to buy some stocks or something.

Thank you, accented strangers. I’ll be back soon…

Nottingham

JoCo — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:07:55 +0000

I met the Sheriff of Nottingham. I didn’t know there was an actual sheriff, but there is. He’s a nice old man, I don’t see why anyone would want to give him any trouble. I was able to meet him because I played “Re: Your Brains” at the Guiness record-setting zombie gathering event outside in a square filled with zombies (he counted the zombies, I guess that’s one of his many duties). This is unquestionably the weirdest moment of the trip: me there in the green room tent next to the stage saying hi to the sheriff and seeing zombie faces everywhere. How did this happen?

And then of course we played the GameCity Halloween party that night - the standard semi-crappy sound of a large hotel conference room, made even more crappy by my then even larger throat frog. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get through the set. But an audience of zombies doesn’t care about this sort of thing, really all they want is brains. And of course Paul and Storm kicked ass as usual, so I figure even if I was terrible there was still some decent entertainment on stage.

I can only hope that they’re as forgiving here in Birmingham, because the frog is still with me (I have named him Bernie).

London, The Return

JoCo — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:58:03 +0000

What can I possibly say about London? There were over 500 people in the audience, and though the beautiful Shepherds Bush Empire holds many more, it felt nice and full and fun. The sound and the lighting were both exceptional and seemingly effortless, and the incredibly warm crowd was just what I needed to re-energize me in the middle of this long trip. We did “Always the Moon” for the second time (the first was in Manchester, and a little rough for it) and it actually sounded pretty good I think. Got a few compliments about it afterwards, which means I’ll probably keep putting it into the show when I can.

The one drawback was the very beginning of a little frogginess in my throat, which I think went mostly unnoticed by everyone but me, but returned the next morning with a vengeance. The Nottingham attendees will agree with me…

Thank You Mancunians

JoCo — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:46:43 +0000

Another fantastic show, this time with the Paul and Storm bonus. Not to mention a little cross cameo business with our famous friend Neil Gaiman, who was doing a reading from his new book about 150 meters away (that’s in metric). Neil was nice enough to let us do a couple of songs at the beginning of his reading, and then when he finished up he came over to our show and read the second verse of Creepy Doll. Almost too creepy really, but an incredible thrill as I am a huge fan. Thank you Neil, and thank you Manchester.

And yes, for some reason I have been unable or unwilling to post this for several days - blogging ends up last on the list of stuff I gotta do when I’m on the road, which is kind of dumb because that’s when all the awesome stuff happens. It is now Saturday, and I have some breathing room in the hotel in Birmingham and am trying to catch up. Stay tuned…

Oy Loyk Oyrland

JoCo — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 23:34:50 +0000

I’m currently in a hotel in Glasgow counting CDs and half-listening to the television. I can’t tell if it’s the jet lag or all the Irn Bru I drank during my set at Oran Mor tonight, but I’m not so sleepy even though it’s past midnight. It doesn’t help that there’s some kind of wedding in this hotel and a bunch of kids in suits are running up and down the halls randomly banging on doors (not as relaxing as it sounds).

Both shows have been amazing - the crowd in Dublin sang everything all the way through very loudly, which was great. I played Danny Boy, which is such a beautiful song I couldn’t resist even though I knew it was going to make the audience groan. And groan they did, but they sang anyway. I wish I could have spent more time in Dublin - I was staying with friends of friends who are actual Irish people, and they were very nice and fun.

Today I had a frenetic day of traveling and a second great show here in Glasgow. The crowd was less sing-y to be sure, but no less kind and enthusiastic. Also there was steak pie and Irn Bru and Tablet. I had no set list because the only pen I had in the green room was broken (I wish I made this excuse up but it’s true), so I kind of made it up as I went along, took a few requests, played some songs I probably should have practiced before playing in public.

Manchester on Wednesday!

More Helps

JoCo — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:54:57 +0000

As you know, this Ireland/UK trip is coming up fast. I’m looking for a few folks to help out at the merch table at all these shows - mostly this means coming to the venue sometime in the hour or so before doors open so that I can show you how everything works and get everything set up. Then you sell things before and after the show (you don’t have to sit there during the show, I’m not a monster). Then you give me all the money. In exchange, I’ll put you on the guest list (and hopefully a second person who is also at the merch table with you, because it’s always easier with two people).

READ THIS: If you’re interested, please email my horribly disfigured assistant Scarface at scarface@jonathancoulton.com.

Paul and Storm are also looking to leverage the power of the JoCo overseas forces. And I quote:

Paul would like to (humbly) ask if there’s anyone coming to the Manchester and/or London shows that might have access to a decent keyboard/digital piano. We could rent one, but the fees are excessive, so we thought we’d check with the Coulton Army. It does not need to be fancy–in fact, an 88-key weighted-key piano with just a good piano sound is far preferable to, say, a 61-key synthesizer with 963,842 different samples. That said, beggars can’t, and won’t, be choosers. We will be happy to reward any generous soul(s) with 2 comps to the particular show; or, if you’re already attending, a full Paul and Storm Merchandise Super-Duper Prize Pack. Or, barring that, the eternal gratitude of a struggling musician wandering a strange land.

If you might be interested in helping a poor Yank out, please contact Paul at “info at paulandstorm dot com” and we can discuss specifics. And thank you. A lot.

Thank you in advance, foreign people.

Hodgman Coulton Debut Tonight

JoCo — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:52:53 +0000

Barnes and Noble at Union Square NYC tonight (Tuesday) at 7 PM, be there if you want to see the two of us stumble through our first joint appearance in support of John Hodgman’s new book, More Information Than You Require.

Funny Story

JoCo — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:07:41 +0000

A couple of times since I put out those Thing a Week CDs I’ve gotten emails from people asking me why Code Monkey is in mono. Usually I was all “Huh?” and then sometime later would kind of forget about it. It’s not in mono, it can’t be in mono, why would it be in mono?

Well guess what? Code Monkey is in mono. I just noticed that the track I delivered to the CD production place way back when is about half as big as it should be BECAUSE IT IS IN MONO.

Nevermind that I didn’t notice at the time, nevermind that I didn’t even bother to check when people told me over these last couple of years. What’s amazing to me is that it hasn’t really mattered in any significant way. I’m sure I sweated like crazy over the stereo placement of this or that element during the mixing process, and then I just plastered over all those details with stucco, and turns out nobody really cares. Not even me, apparently. This is a lesson that I learned (or rather, failed to learn) many times over the course of Thing a Week: that thing you’ve been working on forever, buffing and polishing to get to that last 2% of excellence? It’s done. Finish it and move on. Hey, at least it’s not in mono, right? Because that would be a huge disaster with serious consequences.

And so you know, this error will be corrected in the forthcoming greatest hits CD “JoCo Looks Back” that’s being manufactured even as we speak.

The Mistake

JoCo — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:04:33 +0000

I knew there would be at least one - forgot this (no Paul and Storm on this one):

Saturday November 22 at 8 PM
Nyack, NY
Riverspace Arts
Tickets: xrl.us/osy8c

Show Schedule Update

JoCo — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:17:26 +0000

If you subscribe to the mailing list you already know all of this. Still:

It’s been a while since I sent one of these updates, and there’s a lot
coming up. Still working on the DVD (I know! How do you think I feel?)
but we’re getting there. And looming in front of me is this obviously
awesome UK/Ireland tour - you may have heard the Oxford show got
cancelled and replaced with a show in Birmingham, so all of you in
Oxford waiting for tickets to go on sale, erm, sorry? I’ll catch you
next time. Here we go:

Friday October 24 at 7:30 PM
Dublin Ireland
Whelan’s Pub
Tickets: xrl.us/ossgd

Saturday October 25 at 7:30 PM
Glasgow UK
Oran Mor
Tickets: xrl.us/ossgh

Wednesday October 29 at 7:30 PM
Manchester UK
Manchester Academy (Club Academy)
With Paul and Storm
Tickets: xrl.us/ossgq

Thursday October 30 at 7 PM
London UK
Shepherd’s Bush Empire
With Paul and Storm
Tickets: xrl.us/onpr2

Friday October 31
Nottingham UK
Performance at Game City
More details TBD
With Paul and Storm

Saturday November 1 at 7:15 PM
Birmingham UK
The Glee Club
With Paul and Storm
Tickets: xrl.us/ossg8

Sometime shortly after this trip there will be a bit of traveling
with John Hodgman on his book tour, more details coming soon.

And then, a couple things to round out the end of the year, hopefully
New York City sometime in early December, but first:

Friday November 21 at 8 PM
Boston, MA
The Paradise
With Paul and Storm
Tickets: xrl.us/osshv

Saturday November 22 at 8 PM
Nyack, NY
Riverspace Arts
Tickets: xrl.us/osy8c

And then after a brief resting period in which gifts will be
exchanged, I am back on the West Coast and in Denver for the very
first time:

Friday January 16 at 9 PM
Denver, CO
The Soiled Dove Underground
With Paul and Storm
Tickets: tinyurl.com/3gvv53

Saturday January 17 at 9 PM
San Francisco, CA
Great American Music Hall
With Paul and Storm
Tickets: xrl.us/ossrf

Sunday January 18 at 8 PM
San Francisco, CA
Great American Music Hall
With Paul and Storm
Tickets: xrl.us/ossro

Thursday January 22
Vancouver, BC
I hope anyway - details to come
With Paul and Storm

Friday January 23 at 8 PM
Seattle, WA
Moore Theater
With Paul and Storm
Tickets: xrl.us/ossru

Saturday January 24 at 8 PM
Portland, OR
The Aladdin Theater
With Paul and Storm
Tickets: xrl.us/ossr4

Am I too tired to keep going? No, I am not:

Friday February 20 at 7:30 PM
Alexandria, VA
The Birchmere
With Paul and Storm
Tickets: xrl.us/ossse

Saturday February 21 at 8 PM
Annapolis, MD
Ram’s Head Tavern
With Paul and Storm
Tickets: xrl.us/osssg

As always, you should suspect that I have made some errors here and
there - please double check my dates and times before you buy tickets
and make plans. Thanks for reading this far - see you soon I hope!

Oxford Cancelled, Birmingham Saves The Day

JoCo — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:37:45 +0000

As I twittered a bit ago, the show we were hoping to set up in Oxford did not work out. My fairy godmother (whose name is David) has found us a fine replacement though, and while tickets are not on sale yet, it looks like this is going to happen on Saturday November 1:

Glee Club - The Arcadian
15 pounds
7 PM (or “19 of the clock, innit?” as you would say in the UK)

I will of course post a link to tickets as soon as they go on sale. Hopefully this is close enough to Oxford that many of you will still be able to catch a little bit of the old Coulton.

Song Fu Round 3

JoCo — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:36:32 +0000

The song writing contest continues despite my absence. I am frankly relieved not to be competing because I think everybody’s doing some high quality stuff. I choose not to run!

www.quickstopentertainment.com/2008/09/26/masters-of-song-fu-2-round-3-challenge-voting-begins/

A Plug for My Friends

JoCo — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:15:03 +0000

If you are in the Washington DC area, I hope you are planning on heading out to see Paul and Storm this Friday at Jammin Java. I will not be with them, alas, but if you have seen them play with me you’ll know that they put on a funtastic show of their own. Also, the chili is good there.

UK Press Blitz!

JoCo — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:42:49 +0000

Apparently they have newspapers, radio and podcasts over there as well - I’ve been doing a bunch of interviews with people who talk funny, as if they were British characters on a television show. It’s hilarious!

Today there will be a little chat with Matt Dillon (no, I’m pretty sure it’s a different Matt Dillon) from The Sci-Fi Guys on Geek Planet. You can catch the live broadcast stream at 8 PM GMT which is 3 PM here in New York - click on one of those streamy icons on the right to listen - and the interview should be available for download sometime later.

Photos, Names, Mixed Messages

JoCo — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:34:04 +0000

I know the internet wants names and photos. Here’s the thing: being a semi-famous person, I know a teeny-tiny bit about fame, and I can tell you that while it’s awesome most of the time, it’s also a little weird every now and then. My kids aren’t really old enough to make a decision about whether or not they’d like to be part of this particular circus, and while on some level I’m dying to share all the personal details with you, this is one place where I’d like to draw the line. I’m not so naive as to think that I’m going to keep this information totally secret forever, and it’s not so much about not wanting anyone to know what they are called and what they look like. Nor do I think I’m so famous that their pictures are going to end up in tabloids and that they’re going to start getting recognized on the street or anything. I just want this part of my life to be as separate as possible from the rest of it - non-public, all rights reserved. The kids are not licensed with Creative Commons, they should not have their heads photoshopped onto robot bodies, they should not have their baby pictures blasted out to thousands of people without having the opportunity to choose privacy. And they may yet end up in my Flickr photostream, just not here in this place of business (which is also kind of a weird gray area that contains a good bit of my personal life - see next paragraph).

Thanks everyone for your congratulations. Having an excellent time - the wife is honing her Zuma skills, the elder child is very excited to be a big sister, and I need more coffee most of the time. But in short: whee!

Ruined Again

JoCo — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:57:16 +0000

The rumors and the gossip: all true. On Friday I became a father for a second time, and since then have been living in a haze of fragmented sleep, visits from extended family, and teeny tiny diapers. It’s a boy - he’s very small, put together like a wrinkly old man, and looks extremely concerned about something most of the time. Everybody’s happy and healthy. He’s really good at Rockband.

I’m not exactly sure what kind of paternity leave is going to happen, it’s always hard to really create time off when you don’t go anywhere for work. But for the next few weeks at least I’m going to do my best to take it easy and spend time with the family. No shows are scheduled till the end of October and it’s likely to stay that way. I will probably still twitter and blog because neither of those things really feels like work anymore, but if I’m a little slow getting back to you about stuff I hope you’ll understand.

The exception to all this is the Obama benefit comedy night I’m playing this very evening, The Audacity of Jokes, which was scheduled before this baby was supposed to arrive. This either makes me a dedicated professional or an irresponsible father. But hey, three days was good enough for Sarah Palin, right?

UK Tour Shirt?

JoCo — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:05:08 +0000

As you may have noticed, Paul and Storm have been posting a series of excellent possible UK (and Ireland!) tour T-shirt graphics. The plan is to actually print and sell these suckers to help pay for the extraordinarily large travel expenses that come with a trip across the ocean to another country where dollars are pounds and pounds are two dollars. So that we may take your money as efficiently as possible, there is a poll. We’re all curious to know which one you would be most likely to buy - and yes, I understand that if you are not in the UK, you might not want to buy ANY of them, a preference you can indicate by not voting.

The poll is here.

Earth Destruction Status

JoCo — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:51:01 +0000

Question of the day:

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the Earth yet? (via Paul Tough)

Brad Sucks’ss’s New Record

JoCo — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:24:15 +0000

It’s called “Out of It” and it’s out now. Brad is a musician from whom I have stolen many ideas on how to run a single person music guy empire, from Creative Commons to remix contests to Wordpress. He’s also a talented writer of hooky electropop goodness, so I’m pleased to see he’s got something new out there (also I contributed vocals to the title track, so that’s fun too). Listen to the whole thing on his site, choose your own price, get the mp3s free if you want and pay him later. Also he is from Canada.

MaxFunCon

JoCo — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:09:33 +0000

You may know I am a fan and friend of Jesse Thorn, the radio talent behind “The Sound of Young America” podcast and radio show. Jesse has audaciously decided to throw a Con. I guess one can just DO that. It’s called MaxFunCon, it happens June 2009 in Lake Arrowhead, CA, and guests include me, Hodgman (doing the keynote), Maria Bamford, Julia Crookston, Mark Frauenfelder, Hard & Phirm, Xeni Jardin, Jordan, Jesse Go! (that being Jesse and Jordan of course), Merlin Mann, Never Not Funny, Jimmy Pardo and the cast (?) of the fabulous “You Look Nice Today” podcast. There will be hot tubbing, comedy, music and “sports” I bet.

Early registration is better, as evidenced by this discount code that gets you $20 off if you purchase tickets this week: mandelbrotset. Buy tickets! Sports!

The Audacity of Jokes

JoCo — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:25:13 +0000

Just decided to do this Obama fundraising event on September 15 at 8 PM at Comix in NYC. Also there being funny comedians: Fred Armisen, Kristen Schaal, Kyle Grooms and Amy Schumer. Regular tickets are $45 and special VIP tickets are $100 (not sure what VIP status is - maybe you get to touch my beard?).

Details and tickets: my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gplrdq

I Literally Love Robots

JoCo — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:01:10 +0000

One more thing about Penny Arcade: how awesome is this comic?

Len’s Been Busy

JoCo — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:08:16 +0000

Maybe I’m the only one who wants an action figure of me (just look at those accessories), but I’d sure buy this product:

And then there is this image for “Always the Moon,” my sad little unloved entry in the latest round of Song Fu:

Thanks Len, but shouldn’t you be drawing monsters?

Skullcrusher Mountain on Rock Band

JoCo — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:47:41 +0000

As announced at my show and then later and more officially at PAX, “Skullcrusher Mountain” is now available on Rock Band as part of the PAX Pack (both PS3 and 360). Three songs, three bucks: me, MC Frontalot’s “Livin’ at the Corner of Dude & Catastrophe” (co-written by Brad Sucks), and “Shh…” from Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. From now until Festivus 2008, Harmonix will donate all the proceeds from this song pack to the Child’s Play charity. I will most likely spend my proceeds on styrofoam cups, which I will arrange into a pile and set on fire.

Holy Smokes

JoCo — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:15:53 +0000

Thanks to everyone at PAX for another awesome weekend. I really can’t overstate how well-run and damned-fun this event is - from Mike and Jerry and Rob on down to the tiniest, most adorable little enforcer, everyone associated with PAX is just so pleasant and helpful. You guys rule.

And what a crowd! I’m sorry about the Rickroll, but were you really that surprised? Felicia Day was kind enough to sing “Still Alive” with me, which is hard to dismiss as anything but the best. thing. ever. And I got to rock the mic with MC Frontalot (whose new record is fantastic) on the song I wrote the chorus for, “Diseases of Yore.” And also I Rickrolled you. Ha! Thanks to everyone who came to the show and bought stuff and said hi and in general made me feel like a rock star. My only regret is that I was too busy to really do or see anything other than my own merch booth. As always, if anyone has any bits of media they’d like to share, please feel free to add to the wiki page.

I have some catch-up posting to do - more news as it happens.

This Weekend

JoCo — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:40:02 +0000

Yes: PAX. I’ll be there. I’m slated to play at around midnight on Friday night, and I bet it will be great fun. I’ll also be hanging around my special merchandise booth to say hello and sign boobs (i.e., manboobs) and whatnot, most likely for a chunk on Friday afternoon, certainly after the show on Friday, and then again for a bit on Saturday morning. I’ve got two new shirt designs that I will first unveil and then sell.

Then Saturday afternoon I’ll make a quick trip over to the Bumbershoot, where I’ll be the musical guest (a song, or maybe half a song) on Jesse Thorn’s “The Sound of Young America.” The other “actual guests” are Tig Notaro and Janeane Garofalo, both of whom I’ve met before in my travels through show business. Funny ladies! And Jonathan Coulton!

It will be a busy weekend of music and gaming and manboobs. Rock!

Song Fu Episode Two

JoCo — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:20:01 +0000

The first transport is away!

Song Fu has started up again, this time with the addition of the venerable RiffTones (Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett, oh my). The challenge this time was to write a song about the moon.

Simple enough, in fact I’ve sort of done it at least once or twice. So why then was it so hard? I had a few bad ideas mumbled into my voice recorder, but was pretty stumped until about Tuesday night. Not that I found any new idea, but I had turned one of the bad ones over in my head enough that it started to seem like a possibility. So yesterday was just like the old days of Thing a Week - powered on the gear at 9 AM without knowing too much about where I was headed, except that I had to be finished by the time I turned into a pumpkin (father) at 4. Kept it simple, just uke, guitar and bass.

This is something like creation myth meets breakup song with moon frosting. Not sure all the dots are connected right, but I dig impressionistic lyrics like these where I don’t quite know what I’m talking about (giant oyster - WTF?). I like the third verse very much in particular, and you can’t beat double tracked vocals. Voting has begun, song is free below and for sale in the store. Rock!

Always the Moon

UK (And Ireland!) Promo Mashuppy Things

JoCo — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:30:57 +0000

As if the entire continent of Europe wasn’t already buzzing with excitement about my (and Paul and Storm’s) trip to the UK in October, Storm is hard at work Photoshopping a bunch of celebratory/promotional images to whip you all into an even frothier frenzy. Below is the first, with many more to follow over the coming weeks.

Len’s Space Doggity Image

JoCo — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:33:24 +0000

Sad. But cute! Thanks Len…

My Vacation is Over

JoCo — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:52:12 +0000

It was like a death march to the coffee shop this morning - there’s not even any beach here! Or lobster rolls! I guess technically I can still have a rum drink at noon, but it won’t be the same. They were playing the Traveling Wilbury’s album when I walked in though, and now we’re in the middle of “The Bends” so that helps a little.

I’ve got a few days at home and then this weekend I’ll be playing the Coverville500 show at Bally’s Casino in Vegas along with a bunch of other folks (hint: not Cher). Till then, email catch-up and pushing this concert DVD a couple inches closer to completion. Wish me luck…

I Am On Vacation

JoCo — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 11:34:30 +0000

Which seems odd, considering I don’t have an actual job. But that hasn’t stopped me from going to the beach and eating about 100 lobster rolls as if I am actually vacationing. I will be back on the clock 8/11ish. In the meantime, please don’t do anything fun without me.

Speaking of which, I see that in my choice to disconnect a bit, I have missed two important things: NetShare tethering app for iPhone was removed from the app store before I got it, and I won Song Fu. The Internet giveth and the Internet taketh away.

UK/Ireland Update

JoCo — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:01:37 +0000

I’ve recently posted a couple of links as tickets have begun to go on sale for these late October shows - it’s coming together nicely I think. Dublin, Glasgow, London and Manchester are all on sale, Oxford should be soon, and then there will be something (?) in Nottingham. Check the shows page for details.

And in an example of blind luck/awesome planning, the London Games Festival is going on the same week I’ll be there, as is Game City in Nottingham. I am a genius.

Plus, it looks like Paul and Storm will definitely be joining me for the post Glasgow portion of the tour, so I will not have to eat fish and chips alone in my hotel room after all. Hurrah!

Song Fu Final Challenge

JoCo — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:03:20 +0000

Song Fu Challenge #3 was to do an homage to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” that hit the main plot points and referenced the original song subtly at least once. Yes you’re right, I almost went with the first monkey in space, but I didn’t want to be accused of going overboard with the monkeys. So I went with the first dog in space instead.

Her name was Laika and she went up in Sputnik 2. In doing my “research” I discovered that Russian scientists recently released the truth about what happened to her during the launch, which is that she died just a few hours into it, and not after a week as they originally claimed. She died from stress and overheating (the cooling system malfunctioned and it was 104F in there) but mostly she died from being LAUNCHED INTO SPACE IN A FUCKING ROCKET.

I thought it would be much nicer if instead Laika gave scientists the finger, stepped out in a spacesuit and then disappeared. Whereabouts unknown…

You’ll catch the “Space Oddity” melody at the beginning of the guitar solo (and if you’re sharp and you listen to the same music I do, you may catch a reference to another thematically appropriate song in the phrase right after it).

This song is up against Jeff MacDougal’s catchy entry “High,” also sad and wistful and about space. I’m pretty happy with how my song turned out, but I think Jeff’s is pretty great too - please vote how you like, but certainly do not vote for me just because you think you’re supposed to. But here is mine:

Space Doggity

This and my other two Song Fu entries are now available in my store. I’m just saying.

Gamer Symphony Orchestra

JoCo — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:12:57 +0000

Another fantastic cover of “Still Alive,” this time with an orchestra and a chorus (it’s song #16 in the Spring Concert 2008). There’s even a little section that features the latin-flavored version of the song that plays on of the radio in the game.

Don’t you people have work to do?

Master Plans and Invincibility

JoCo — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:44:10 +0000

If you like “Skullcrusher Mountain,” you may also enjoy these things:

As evidenced by your many emails, most of you probably know about this already. But in case you don’t: Joss Whedon and his many minions are currently posting free episodes of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” a supervillain love story musical starring Neil Patrick Harris. It’s pretty great. I just read the manifesto over there and it turns out the motivation for doing such a thing was the writers strike. I always wondered why some folks didn’t take advantage of the Big Pause in Hollywood to just get together and create something for the internet, just make an end run around sleepy old media. Well someone did, and once you’ve seen it you’ll wonder how they ever could have convinced anyone to put it on television. Did I mention it’s a musical? And no, they didn’t contact me to see if maybe I had a good supervillain love song (hint: I do). Thanks for nothing Joss Whedon. Episodes are only free until July 20th, so get watching.

And speaking of supervillains and love, I was reminded recently of a book by Austin Grossman called “Soon I Will Be Invincible.” I met Austin in the car from the airport to Bumbershoot last year and he gave me the first couple of chapters in a little promotional pamphlet thingie. I read them and loved them and then forgot to read the rest of the book. This error has now been corrected, and I can confirm that it’s an extremely clever and darkly funny novel about superheroes and supervillains. Imagine the world of comic books is actually real, not real like a movie about comic books, but real like all the heroes and villains have to go to work every day. Plus, Austin rocks the chrome dome - respect.

A Talk with JoCo

JoCo — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:23:28 +0000

Bry and Jinx from the forums (and also from the real world) did a little interview with me a while back, and have posted the audio and transcripts in the forums. This is more than you ever wanted to know about me, so feel free to stop reading when you’re satisfied.

Part 1 (Early Years)
Part 2 (Undocumented Songs)
Part 3 (Thing a Week)
Part 4 (The Present)
Part 5 (The Future)

Cleveland - Home

JoCo — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 11:33:33 +0000

I am out of interesting ways to thank an audience for being great, so I will just say “Hello Cleveland!” and leave it at that. Oh also, Scrat says hi.

It’s the end of this three-day, three-city, two-country odyssey and I’m packing up and heading for the airport shuttle. I’ll be taking a little break from shows over the next month or so, but I will return rested and ready.

Thanks for another great trip everyone…

Pontiac - Cleveland

JoCo — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:14:29 +0000

Apparently nobody actually lives in Pontiac. Paul and Storm said something like “Hello Pontiac!” and the audience was all, “We don’t live in Pontiac!” Regardless, thanks for a great show everyone, despite it being a little hot and kind of late on a school night.

Today we drive to Cleveland. Word is that the famous Len will be in attendance - see if you can spot him, and if you do, give him an enormous, terrifying bear hug without any warning (he loves that!). Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to post a link to this for a long time: Len’s image for my Paul and Storm ripoff song, Big Dick Farts a Polka. (This is pretty much what Len looks like actually.)

Toronto - Pontiac

JoCo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:19:06 +0000

My thanks to everyone here in Canada, or at least the people who came to the show last night - it was my first time playing in Toronto and it was a really fun show, I’ll definitely be back. It’s really amazing to me that I keep going to new cities only to find a bunch of fans there waiting for me. Seriously, where do you people come from?

Heading out of Toronto in a bit on our way to the show in Pontiac tonight. And in case you were thinking of giving a giant stuffed lobster at the show: I actually got one last night so don’t bother.

The Grammar Club - Code Monkey

JoCo — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:34:05 +0000

Ah, so this is how it feels to know you’ve finally made it: The Grammar Club has covered Code Monkey and put it up on thesixtyone. Their skills are such that it now sounds to me like it might be a real song or something. How did they do it!?

Song Fu Round 2

JoCo — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:38:07 +0000

Voting has begun for round 2 of Quickstop Entertainment’s Song Fu Challenge. As you may recall, Paul and Storm and I were each asked to write a song in the style of the other.

Some will say that I went too far. In fact, I will say it right now: I went too far. But the first thing I knew about my Paul and Storm song was how it would end. And then what choice did I have really? The thing writes itself.

The song is called Big Dick Farts a Polka, and I apologize to everyone in advance.

Machinima.com Contest

JoCo — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:48:38 +0000

Machinima.com UK are holding a machinima contest - submit a video for “Bacteria” or “Todd the T1000″ and possibly you will win a laptop, some type of Sony camera thing (I’m too lazy to look it up), or a Thing a Week Box. How can you not enter?

Rules and prizes and such can be found here.

This Evening

JoCo — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:12:01 +0000

Big old Darin Strauss book party happening tonight (Monday) - Darin will read from his new book More than it Hurts You, Hodgman will read from his new book More Information than You Require, and I will trot out a few of the same old songs because I have no new book or anything. But there will be free wine.

Monday, June 23
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

58 W. 10th St.
Lillian Vernon Writers House
58 W 10th St, New York, NY, 10011
(Between 5th and 6th Avenues)

Still Alive on Carillon

JoCo — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:57:26 +0000

OK, you win:

Big Big Show

JoCo — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:06:58 +0000

New York: I take back everything I ever said about you. Saturday night was the best show in recent memory, and while it certainly has something to do with the Kristen Shirts Ukulele Army, it is hard to ignore how amazing the crowd was. I haven’t played in NY for some time, so I was a little hopped up to begin with, and some kind of crazy rock juice feedback loop made me feel all crazy and rock juicy. Many thanks, I promise I won’t stay away as long this time.

Random Rules

JoCo — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:10:45 +0000

For those of you who are wondering what’s on my iPod, I’m the subject of today’s Random Rules in the Onion AV club. I like this interview format very much: I put my iPod on shuffle and we talk about what happens. Kind of terrifying because I’ve always felt a little subconscious (blarg: I mean self-conscious) about sharing my taste in music, ever since 1982 when a neighbor kid asked me what bands I liked and I panicked and said “Um, Air Supply?” Fortunately nothing really embarrassing came up. Though I fear that I may have said too much about Billy Joel and Paul McCartney and how they’re not as good as they used to be - what if I meet them in person and they hate me because they read this interview?

Please do not forward this link to Billy Joel or Paul McCartney.

A Great Book

JoCo — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:33:37 +0000

I don’t often pimp things here on this blog, but I will make an exception this time - mark it well. I do it not only because Darin Strauss is a good friend and a former member of the fantastic (not really) proto-JoCo band Supergroup, but because he is an exceptionally talented writer of fiction that you should read. Perhaps you have already enjoyed his previous novels: Chang and Eng which was about the original Siamese Twins, or The Real McCoy which was about con men. His new book, More Than it Hurts You, is 1) out today, 2) about Munchausen syndrome by proxy and a family in Long Island, and 3) awesome. I am not so eloquent when it comes to “describing books with words,” so I will not bother to string together a series of alliterative and superlative adjectives - other people smarter than me have already done that. So you know it’s good. Buy it today, won’t you?