Holy Smokes
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
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
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!
UK (And Ireland!) Promo Mashuppy Things
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.
Previously, on Twitter
On Instagram
Follow Jonathan
