Jonathan Coulton

I tip my hat to friend and fellow traveller Francis Heaney, who in addition to being a very clever man who writes music and words and cartoons (and who knit himself a vest at least once), also understands how to work it. Francis has written a book called “Holy Tango of Literature,” a collection of poems and plays that famous poets and playwrights would have written if they had been required to use titles that were anagrams of their names. “Toilets” by T. S. Eliot, “Nice Smug Me” by e. e. cummings, you see what I’m saying. The book is quite funny, and would certainly make a nice Christmas gift for the geek in your life, especially if that geek is you.

Here’s the kicker: dude is giving that shit away! On the internets! In a recent blog posting, Francis links to a pdf and an html version of his book, in the hopes that you will like it and buy it. The eBook is Creative Commons, so you can exerpt and link and talk about it all you want, which I am about to do here. This is “I Will Alarm Islamic Owls” by William Carlos Williams:

I will be alarming
the Islamic owls
that are in
the barn

and which
you warned me
are very jittery
and susceptible to loud noises

Forgive me
they see so well in the dark
so feathery
and so dedicated to Allah

Traditionally I post these things the day of the event, which I know doesn’t help anyone, so I’m getting a bit of a head start this time. John Hodgman and I will be doing our book reading thingie at Pianos this Friday 12/16 at 7PM as part of the One-Story reading series. Martini drink specials will be in full effect starting at 6:30, so go ahead and get drunk then. It will make it easier for us to entertain you.

By request, this one comes from the book tour I’ve been doing with John Hodgman. In the book, there’s this very funny history of the lobster in America, in which John explains that what we think of as lobsters today really were not the first animal to be called “lobster.” In fact, the old kind of lobster was a sort of sea otter that was wiped out when the new lobster made its way north to Maine. Then I sing a sad song about the death of the furry old lobster, and also I wear a hat made from its fur. Hilarious. Here is the song: Furry Old Lobster

Back in town again after a fantastic tour with John Hodgman and David Rees. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us – it was a rare and beautiful thing: an unbroken series of large, appreciative audiences. And David and John of course were most excellent. Buy their books.

There’s an editorial in the NY Times today from Damien Kulash, lead singer for the delicious power poppy band OK Go, about the Sony DRM problem. More of the same, but it’s good to hear it coming from a real professional rock star instead of a hack like me. The labels would have you believe they use DRM to protect their artists, but sometimes DRM is exactly the opposite of what the artist wants.

I did an interview yesterday for Mark Forman’s Free Culture News podcast. Mark’s a good guy, and has lots of great guests and content about all this creative commons stuff. Give him a listen.

In a couple hours I’m off for Baltimore etc. on the next leg of the John Hodgman book tour. We’re traveling and performing with David Rees, author of several great comics including My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable and Get Your War On. Here’s the deets:

Thursday: University of Baltimore, 7 PM (room 003 of the Thumel Business Center – sounds swank) – also with Lizzie Skurnick

Friday: The Warehouse Theater in Washington DC, 8 PM – also with Adam Mazmanian

Saturday: Chop Suey Books in Richmond, VA, 7:30 PM

Sunday: The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC, 3:30 PM

Also, today is my birthday. Please! No gifts!