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 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.

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?

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.

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)