Long live The King.

Elvis Died Today

(click to download, right-click then “Save As…” or however you do it on your particular machine; you should know how to do this by now!)

We’re pleased to announce that we’re bringing our travelling circus back to the nest, with w00tstocks 2.5 and 2.5.1 coming to the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, CA, on Thursday & Friday , September 16 & 17, 2010. Guest acts and other mayhem TBA, but it’s guaranteed to be just as epic as w00tstocks past. TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE.

For those of you not in the Bay Area or unable to get there, don’t start pissin’ and moanin’ just yet—we’ve nailed down a number of possible dates in October-November, and are now actively working to book venues in various cities across the U.S.—particularly that whole Eastern part we’ve been neglecting—and possibly Canada. (Sorry, UK; we love you, and you’re definitely in our hearts and long-term plans; but it’s probably just not feasible this year.) Unfortunately, no dates are confirmed enough to announce yet; but we promise you all will be the first to know as soon as we do!

Hot on the heels of Storm’s #wookieeleaks juggernaut, Paul’s insomnia and subsequent Twitter exchange with Josh Cagan led him to launch #newyorkerkanyetweets, a mashup of New Yorker cartoons and Twitter n00b Kanye West’s tweets. An e-mail interview with Paul about the meme’s appeal can be found at Urlesque.com, and already it’s been picked up by  The Onion A/V Club,  Paste Magazine the Huffington Post, and, yes, The New Yorker.

UPDATE: Also on Mashable, BuzzFeed, Comics Alliance, and an interview on The Pulse Network.

Check ‘em out on Twitter, or in this handy gallery of mashups by Paul, Josh, and Storm…

http://twitpic.com/tag/kanyenewyorkertweets

UPDATE: All the original New Yorker cartoons (with their original, Kanye-less captions) can be found at cartoonbank.com. (We’re working on linking the individual Kanye cartoons with the specific originals. Eventually)

• Wired.com e-mail interview with Storm from Wednesday about how he thought of it and spread it, with the help of @shanenickerson
• NPR article and interview with Michele Norris, as heard on All Things Considered
• Time.com
• MSNBC article
• AOL News article
• Washingtonian
• New York Daily News
• TheForce.net
• The Atlantic says “Perhaps the best hashtag ever” (guess who’s gonna get a Sugarberry canned ham from us this Thanksgiving)

So special thanks to Shane Nickerson (@shanenickerson) for helping get the ball rolling early on. And, of course, to Chewbacca. What a Wookiee!

Now where’s our sitcom deal?

Sometimes you order a large barrel of Awesome and they accidentally send you the DELUXE MEGA-ECONOMY SIZE. That is precisely what happened at w00tstock 2.4 SDCC. An SRO sellout crowd of around 800 was utterly rocked by each and every performer, as well as a handful of  surprise guests. And we know that this comment is becoming as common as v1agr@ spam, but as much fun as it was for the audience, it was just as exciting for the performers, both on stage and off.

You’ll find plenty of pictures and videos out there, and Wil wrote a terrific first-hand account, so we’ll just hit the highlights and do a bit of well-deserved ass-kissing, more or less in chronological order:

BEFORE THE SHOW EVEN STARTED

Our friends at ThinkGeek kindly offered to coordinate with Ice Cream Man to give out free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to the people waiting in line to get into the show. Let’s say those words again: FREE BEN & JERRY’S ICE CREAM. If that doesn’t illustrate just how much we love you, then nothing will.

(Seriously, we had little to do with it other than saying “hell, yes, you should do that!” to the ThinkGeek folks; many thanks to them for putting that treat together!)

FREE MOLLY!

If you follow us on Twitter you already know that things went haywire well before showtime, with under-21 Molly Lewis being told that she wasn’t allowed to even set foot in the venue because of the terms of the their liquor license (not their fault–allowing an except could more or less shut them down.) She was allowed to perform, but had to be escorted between the side door and the stage, lest the demon alcohol get close enough to sully her soul. But she handled it like a grizzled veteran, and the first Mollystock was held during intermission, during which she took requests from the 200 or so who gathered around her like the world’s most polite, attentive zombie horde. As Wil Wheaton said, this is just another reason why Molly Lewis is a national treasure.

WIL LAUNCHES, THE FIRST SURPRISE, and GENERAL FIRST HALF KICK-ASSITUDE!

Continuing the tradition, Wil pumped up the already excited crowd with his opening remarks. He then talked about how a certain Mythbuster would be coming out earlier than some might expect, priming the audience for Adam. But much to the audience’s delight (judging by their sustained high-decibel output), out walked Jamie Hyneman to introduce Yours Trulies. “Opening Band” was sung, designer panties were flung, and Len Peralta set up shop to begin the night’s custom poster.

photo by vissago

The escorted Molly charmed and rocked the audience with the help of Real Rock Star Jason Finn, including a song appropriate to the 21+ incident (Save Ferris’ “Under 21″) that she learned with Jason JUST BEFORE THE SHOW BEGAN.

Then Rifftrax (Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, and Mike Nelson) ripped up the crowd with a live-riff of the highly instructional “Lunchroom Manners”. Surprise the 2nd was Foxtrot writer/creator Bill Amend, who came on to introduce Matt Fraction, whose presentation on his writing inspirations and experiences is an amazing window into how creativity works at its best.

The Nerdist, Chris Hardwick, then demonstrated why he’s become one of the foremost voices of geekdom, absolutely killing during his set and handling the first appearance of Chewbacca (Adam) like a champ. Also appearing with Chewie was Surprise the 3th, Grant Imahara (more on him later).

Next came Wil’s recounting of his first Rocky Horror experience, “When You Dressed Up Sharp and You Felt Alright”, accompanied by Yours Trulies. It’s been inspirational to see how Wil continues to tinker and adjust the telling, bringing out more audience reaction each time with his narrative that demonstrates how even those who think of themselves as outsiders or awkward outcasts realize can, if they choose, find a place to belong.

photo by vissago

During Wil’s set came Surprise the 4th: AARON FRAKKING DOUGLAS, otherwise recognized as Chief Tyrol from Battlestar Galactica, dressed in complete flight deck regalia. Predictably and delightfully, it was a show-stopping moment—one that would have been difficult for most to recover from. But because Wil and the w00tstock crowd’s minds were already thoroughly melded (and because Wil was as geeked out as anyone within ten square miles), we managed to compose ourselves and complete the set.

SECOND HALF: NO STOP TO THE ROCKIN’!

After the Mollystock intermission, things jumped right back to life with Bad Astronomer Phil Plait showing the audience the firmament in a surprising new light, followed by Surprise the 5th: the delightful Veronica Belmont, introducing Marian Call. Mark our words: much like Molly Lewis, Marian is a performer we’re all likely be saying “I remember when she was only…” in the not-too-distant future. She was accompanied during her intense and engaging performance by her guitarist Scott Barkan (amazing in his own right) and a manual typewriter, and we and Molly had the privilege of sitting in during her nerd anthem. It was a true pleasure.

Special thanks to our Dungeon Master (stage manager) “Dammit” Liz Smith for putting out dozens of metaphorical little fires*, to Aleks Barbour for stepping up to the sound board helm and safely guiding us through the asteroid field, and to all of our unstoppable volunteers. Together, they helped make the night as hassle-free and enjoyable as possible for audience and performers alike.

photo by vissago

And of course, thank you to everyone who came to w00tstock 2.4, whose energy and unrestrained joy at celebrating every aspect of nerdery really is what make it into a phenomenon. For those who couldn’t make it (that would be the vast majority of you), we hope we’ll be able to bring w00tstock somewhere close in the near future. And when we do, we promise to bring plenty of Awesome with us.

* Dozens of Metaphorical Little Fires is the name of our Elvis Costello tribute act

Booking starts now for JoCo Cruise Crazy, a 6-day Eastern Caribbean cruise on Holland America’s ms Eurodam, with music and comedy performances from Jonathan Coulton and friends, featuring John Hodgman, Wil Wheaton, Paul and Storm (that’s us!), Bill Corbett & Kevin Murphy from Rifftrax, Molly Lewis, and Mike Phirman. It departs from Ft. Lauderdale, FL on January 2, 2011 and returns January 8, with ports of call at Half Moon Cay, Bahamas; Falmouth, Jamaica; and Georgetown, Cayman Islands.

Did we mention that BOOKING STARTS NOW?

Well, now, thanks to our good friend Len Peralta, we’ve got a logo. (see right) — which is now available as a t-shirt on Zazzle.

And you, our lucky readers, can say that you were there at the beginning. Franchise opportunities will be opening up soon, so don’t miss out! Here are just a few of the exciting features of this high-impact, pie-impact goldmine:

• Award-winning pie recipes
• Themed Splatoriums (Old West; 1918 Bakery; 1922 Bakery; and more!)
• All Splatoriums feature a patented, automated self-cleaning system*
• Expansion opportunities with the rollout of Paul & Storm’s Original Goodtime Piefightery Greatland
• Animatronic Paul and Storm show. You know; for kids!

So act fast, or when there’s a P&S Piefightery in every town, you’ll be lamenting: “I could have been in on the ground floor, but I merely laughed.” Who’s laughing now?

*patent pending

UPDATE: T-SHIRTS NOW AVAILABLE!!!

Take your first step into a larger world, with the Official Paul and Storm Original Goodtime Piefightery t-shirt! Order now!

Have a safe and happy 4th!

Ten-Finger Johnny

(click to download, right-click then “Save As…” or however you do it on your particular machine; you should know how to do this by now!)

Some highlights from the shows:

• Peter Sagal’s (host of NPR’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me) amazing “I, Henchman” monologue in Chicago. We can only imagine its next stop is “This American Life”
• Working with MST3K vets Bill Corbett & Kevin Murphy (Rifftrax) and Trace Beaulieu (Cinematic Titanic), enjoying and participating in the brand new songs by the former, and laughing hysterically at the later’s readings from his upcoming children’s book (illustrated by our good friend Len Peralta)
• Watching the aforementioned Len draw custom posters, live and on stage, in both cities
• John Scalzi’s monologue as an inter-species high school’s Vice Principle
• Seeing the audiences embrace the comedy of our longtime friends Tim Cavanagh and Tim Bedore
• Watching the crowds (predictably) fall in love with Molly Lewis and her ukule-ling
• Real Rock Star Drummer Jason Finn amping things up throughout the night
• Bill Amend’s utterly hysterical comic page parodies—where “Love Is” and Pedobear collide
• Witnessing as Professor James Kakalios brought the worlds of physics and superheroes together, to thunderous applause
• 36 minute version of “The Captain’s Wife’s Lament” in Chicago (thx to Dan Coulter for the vid), halted only by the rational cursing of Peter Sagal. Epic—and never to be repeated
• Wil’s childlike glee when he saw the custom TARDIS cake
• A successful marriage proposal in Minneapolis, complete with Wil Wheaton video setup. We seriously got teared up. Also never to be repeated, so DO NOT ASK US TO PULL THAT KIND OF STUNT AGAIN!
• Wil setting the tone for the night, and watching him command the crowd during his Rocky Horror story (aided and abetted by yours trulies, which always brings out our inner squee)
• Adam singing “I Will Survive” as Gollum. Yes, it was just as awesome as you imagine it was.
• Neil-effing-Gaiman’s “surprise” cameo. We are ever delighted by his charm and willingness to hang out with miscreants such as ourselves.

Super-mega thanks to our Dungeon Master (stage manager) “Dammit” Liz, and  to all of the volunteers who helped everything run mega-smooth, including Mike Lombardo, Michael Cianfrani of Tinyrun and returning talent-wrangler Chris Wright, all of whom are stars in their own right.

Oh, it’s ON!

We have heard the voices crying out in the darkness, and we are pleased to announce that w00tstock will indeed be coming to San Diego during Comic-Con. We’ve sent our flying monkeys out to gather the guests, and don’t know yet who they’ll catch, but rest assured that wsSDCC (w00tstock 2.4) will be epic and every bit as squee-worthy as its antecedents.

So mark your calendars for THURSDAY, JULY 22. 4th & B will be hosting the event, and we’re pleased to announce our first volley of guests:

• Ukulele-wielding favorite Molly Lewis (sweetafton23)
• The NERDIST himself, Chris Hardwick
• Comic book legend Matt Fraction (Uncanny X-Men and Invincible Iron Man)
• Real Rock Star Jason Finn (Presidents of the United States)
• Len Peralta, who will once again dream up and draw a custom poster LIVE on-stage
• Singer-songwriter Marian Call
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait
• Rifftrax–Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, and Mike Nelson

We can’t possibly fit everything into one post without boring you to tears, so here are some of the highlights (after the break)

San Francisco show: big thanks to the rabid crowd who came to the Swedish American Hall to see us do our thing, and to Adam Savage for opening up with 20 minutes of first-rate stand-up comedy. If he hadn’t told us it was only the third time he’d ever done it, we’d never had known. Dude is a natural. (We hate him for that.)

w00tstocks 2.0 and 2.1 – Seattle and Portland: holy effing crap. It feels like this thing is on track to becoming a monster of Cthulhu-like proportions, and very soon. The crowd of 1,000+ nerds, geeks, and other former outcasts was gung-ho from the very first moment, and they NEVER LET UP (even in Portland, which ran nearly 5 hours—never to be repeated!) Same went for all of the performers. If you weren’t there, you missed:

• Wil Wheaton setting the perfect tone as Secretary of Geek Affairs, and reading one of our favorite stories of his, accompanied by Yours Trulies.

• Sketch comedy group LoadingReadyRun (LRR) firing the crowd up with a combination of live performance and videos.
• Molly Lewis continuing her march of awesomeness, uke in hand. (And in Seattle, also in the hands of surprise guest Kristen Shirts!)
• When Hank Green wasn’t making the audience laugh like hell, he was charming the snot out of them. Just days afterward, he even wrote a rap about the w00tstock experience.
• We’ll never see cats the same way again after B. Frayn Masters‘ hilarious presentation about a new feline dating service.
• Mike Selinker and James Ernest of Lone Shark Games did something puzzling in Seattle, complete with world-class juggling, and continued it in Portland in video form.
• Matt Fraction brought down the house in Portland with a funny and thoughtful presentation about his history with comics and comic book writing. Amazing.
• Stephen Toulouse, the Xbox Live community’s chief enforcer (aka “Stepto”) became the most unlikely of rock starts with his dramatic reading from the Book of Enforcement (aided by two somewhat familiar-sounding monks).
• MC Frontalot and his band brought their explosive brand of nerdery to Seattle and, predictably, rocked it HARD.
• Drummer Jason Finn of the Presidents of the United States of America served as Resident Real Rock Star, lending his talent and aura throughout the night.
• And of course Adam Savage delivered big time with a mix of comedy and special narrated sneak peeks and outtakes from Mythbusters.
• We performed, too.
• A whole buncha short films, including the w00tstock-exclusive “Moments with Wil”
• Super-special thanks to Chris, “Dammit” Liz, and all of the on-loan PAX Enforcers and other awesome volunteers for helping make everything run like an android’s dream.

Extra Bonus: after the Portland show, most of us hung out at Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade, where we all regressed as we played video games and pinball from every period of our ongoing youths. Bonus element: beer!

For a more thorough inside view, Tally Heilke from the LRR machine wrote a terrific article. And of course there are pics and videos all over the internets, soon to be somewhat collected at w00tstock.net.

Nerdist Podcast / Hanging Out in L.A.

Thanks again to Chris Hardwick for having on his podcast, which was an EPIC night of comedy music at Largo. It was great hanging out with him and Mike Phirman and getting to see them perform some as Hard ‘N Phirm, plus seeing writer-actor-comedian Thomas Lennon‘s hilarious blues character.

Oh, and did we mention that one of our dreams came true? Yep, we and the other guests got to perform “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “One More Minute” onstage with him. Yeah, we know! We can’t believe it either! Al was also extremely fun and pleasant company backstage, and more than gracious when we occasionally slipped into lateral-lisp fanboy mode. Thank you!

PLUS: while we were in L.A. we got to hang out on the set of The Guild. And while you can imagine (and you’d be right) how much fun it is to hang out with with the cast, the hidden secret (SPOILER ALERT!) is that everyone on the crew is just as fun to be around. So thank you to Felicia, Kim, Sean and the gang for allowing us to bumble around, and we hope we didn’t bollox anything up too badly.

We also managed some extra hang time with Mike Phirman at his jealousy-inducing garage studio, and did quite a bit of nefarious plotting with Wil over more than a couple of beers. Mwah-ha-ha!

Down in Dixie with JoCo

As if all of that weren’t enough, we then whipped across country to meet Jonathan for a run through Richmond and Raleigh. Tired as we were, the crowds were every bit as charged up as at w00tstock, and they were appropriately rocked.

Finally, stuffed full of BBQ and love, we staggered home up I-95. We will spend the next 7-8 days in our hyperbaric chambers, recharging our electrolytes and prepping for our Great Canadian Onslaught coming up Memorial Day weekend. Stay tuned…

To all the sons and daughters: if you’re like us, you’ve forgotten to actually buy your mother a gift, or even a stupid card. Why are we such an idiot? Every year we do this! Dammit!

But don’t worry, Paul and Storm has you covered: give your Mom the gift of song! It’s just like a card—someone else has gone through all the trouble of writing and constructing it, and you get to take all the credit.

For a limited time, we are giving away our “Mother’s Day Song” ABSOLUTELY FREE!

Click here to download (do the whole “right click/”Save as…” or whatever the hell)

Some Kind of Charity (or Something)

All proceeds for the sale of this single go to Comic Relief. If you click on the link above (or this one right here), it’ll open up the Rednosenet shopping cart (entirely separate form ours), and your payment will go straight to Comic Relief.

You can find the lyrics here; and below is a complete listing of everyone in the song, in order of appearance:

Wednesday, April 28 – Barns at Wolf Trap - 8 pm
1635 Trap Road, Vienna, VA
Tickets: http://bit.ly/agzN1Y
with the Bobs

Thursday, May 6 – Swedish American Hall - 7:30 pm
2174 Market Street, San Francisco, CA
Tickets:  http://bit.ly/cuzYYv
with Adam Savage

Friday, May 7 – w00tstock 2.0 - 7 pm
Moore Theatre
1932 Second Avenue, Seattle, WA
Tickets:  http://bit.ly/w00tseattle
with Adam Savage, Wil Wheaton and guests

Saturday, May 8 – w00tstock 2.1 – 7 pm
Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukee, Portland, OR
Tickets:  http://bit.ly/w00tportland
with Adam Savage, Wil Wheaton and guests

Thursday, May 13 – Hat Factory – 8 pm
140 Virginia Street, Richmond, VA
Tickets: http://bit.ly/9DUbkg
with Jonathan Coulton

Friday, May 14 – Lincoln Theatre – 9 pm
126 E. Cabarrus Street, Raleigh, NC
Tickets: http://bit.ly/9yGzhH
with Jonathan Coulton

Thursday, May 27 – Just for Laughs Cabaret – 7:30 pm
2101 St-Laurent Blvd, Montreal, QC
Tickets: http://bit.ly/aBraSC
with Jonathan Coulton

Friday, May 28 – Gladstone Theater – 7:30 pm
910 Gladstone Avenue, Ottawa, ON
Tickets: http://bit.ly/92ShRK
with Jonathan Coulton

Sunday, May 30 – Enwave Theater – 8 pm
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
Tickets: http://bit.ly/98K68o
with Jonathan Coulton

Sunday, June 6 – w00tstock 2.2 – 7:30 pm
Park West
322 West Armitage, Chicago, IL
Tickets:  http://bit.ly/w00tchicago2
with Adam Savage, Wil Wheaton and guests

Monday, June 7 – w00tstock 2.3 – 7:30 pm
Guthrie Theatre
818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN
SOLD OUT!
with Adam Savage, Wil Wheaton and guests

$3,655.06

for the Arlington Food Assistance Center. And remember, they currently have a matching grant from the Feinstein Foundation; so we have in effect raised $7,270.12. You people ROCK!

And finally, as you may recall, every dollar donated converted to a chance to win one of two $100 ThinkGeek gift certificates. The drawing has been held, and congratulations to our two big winners, Rich Graham and Sarah K.

We’re glad that together with ThinkGeek, Arlington Carvel, GeekDad, and the Interwebs, we were able to turn a spur-of-the-moment moronic stunt into a Force for Awesome (which is the name of our Andrew W.K. tribute band)

UPDATE: FudgieThon Flickr gallery gallery and video by attendee Joshua now available for those who missed it! (original Ustream is probably lost to the ages

What started out as a cheap stunt to gain 200 Twitter followers turned into a great party at ThinkGeek, a Ustream broadcast, Storm successfully eating an entire Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake, and so far over $3,000 being raised for a food bank (donations gratefully accepted through April 11.)

So thank you to ThinkGeek for helping pull together what amounted t0 a full-blown telethon within 36 hours, Carvel and Carvel Arlington (VA) for playing along and providing ice cream, GeekDad Matt Blum for helping out and live-tweeting the event, everyone who came out to witness the spectacle, all of our cool famous friends who spread the word much, much wider, and everyone who cheered and jeered along the way.

And last but very importantly, a HUGE thank you to everyone who was able to contribute to the charitable cause. As promised, 100% of the proceeds will go to AFAC under a 2-for-1 Feinstein Foundation matching grant, which will be put to immediate use to help feed families and individuals in need. We’re completely blown by the collective and individual generosity shown in beating the arbitrary $2,000 goal–thank you.

After the break: Paul and Storm answer some of the common questions that came up about the event.

Will the Ustream broadcast be available to watch?

Unfortunately, no. We’d never really used Ustream before, and in the frenzy to just make the event happen no one realized we had to hit a “Record” button. We’re looking for anyone who might have recorded it–please e-mail us if you did–but otherwise it’ll just have to live on as legend.

Why Fudgie the Whale?

The whole thing started because Storm was bored and decided to take it out on our Twitter following. He was going to toot something about Cookie Puss (another Carvel cake), but he couldn’t think of anything that didn’t amount to “Gosh, do you remember Cookie Puss? Ha-ha! Cookie Puss is great!”

At that poing he noticed our following was only ~200 away from the magical 10,000 mark (round numbers are pretty terrific), so he decided a moronic stunt was in order. Initially he thought the stunt would be eating an entire box of Twinkies, but that just didn’t seem very impressive (I mean, he does that nearly every day.)

So he returned to Cookie Puss, but despite Storm’s considerable appetite, it seemed like a bit much to tackle. Fudgie the Whale, however, looked to be a worthy challenge that would not kill him.

Why the charitable cause?

As word spread throughout Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere about the challenge and we quickly blew past the 10,000 follower mark, we thought that with all of the attention we were getting, it was a great opportunity to do some good. Storm and his wife have been involved with their local food bank for a number of years, and it seemed like a great fit given the nature of the event. One fan likened it to a carbon exchange for competitive eaters. (sorry; we’ve lost track of the exact quote and who actually said it!)

So did Storm not eat anything all day to prepare?

There was no fasting for Storm. After reading some interviews with Adam Richman (host of “Man vs. Food” on Travel Channel) and getting a “good luck” from him, Storm decided to make sure he got a lot of exercise and stay hydrated by drinking plain ol’ water in the 24 hours leading up to the event. He ate a regular dinner the night before, a light lunch day-of, and a granola bar whenever he felt really, really hungry until zero hour arrived.

Was brain freeze a problem?

Surprisingly, no. The key was realizing that there was no cake.

How long did it take him to eat it?

Around 35 minutes, eating at a steady pace pretty much non-stop.

Was Storm completely wasted afterwards?

Double-surprisingly, no, but what you didn’t know is that Storm’s apetite is a registered superpower. He did experience some odd tingling sensations in his joints and extremities, but that was probably just the sugar destroying his nerve endings. And there was a considerable headache the morning after, which was dispelled by coffee and a plain omelet.

Will there be a rematch?

We’ll just have to see, won’t we?

Although the cake has been eaten, you still have time to donate (all proceeds benefit the Arlington Food Assistance Center) and enter to win one of two $100 ThinkGeek gift certificates. The drawing will be held on Monday, April 12. Click on the button to the left to donate now!

UPDATE: FudgieThon Flickr gallery gallery and video by attendee Joshua now available for those who missed it! (original Ustream is probably lost to the ages

Felicia Day, creator of The Guild web series, recently signed a deal (we’re still can’t say with whom yet until we receive official word we can do so) to create an animated spinoff, called Lil’ Guildies. She was kind enough to ask us to create an opening credits theme song for it.

We went over various ideas back and forth for a bit, and demo’d up a theme song for her. We signed a couple non-disclosure agreements, and that was actually the last we had heard about the project until this morning, when a few people started forwarding us links to the leaked opening credits video, and then we saw Felicia’s Twitter post and this article short while ago.

So to officially answer to several folks’ questions:

• Yes, that’s us singing and playing the Lil’ Guildies theme song.
• No, we don’t really know any more about the series than what is reported in the article; we were basically just hired guns on this.
• Yes, they are adorable.

I guess we’ll all be finding out more about the project soon enough…

Because we don’t want to be seen as Wasteful Americans who have so much extra food lying around that we regularly eat 12-serving desserts all by ourselves, we are turning the event into a fundraiser for an area charity we have been working with for a while, the Arlington Food Assistance Center. And not only can you take this opportunity to donate to a good cause, but you can WIN COOL STUFF!

As such, we proudly present FudgieThon 2010!

Here’s the deal: click on this button right here…UPDATE: sorry; donations no longer being accepted. You can still donate directly at the AFAC website.

…to donate and sponsor Storm in his cake-eating attempt. (You know, like a walk-a-thon, just with less exercise and lots more cake) When Storm eats the entire Fudgy the Whale (and he will), 100% of all donations will go to AFAC—which, as it happens, has a matching grant right now through the Feinstein Foundation to “Help End Hunger in America”, so every dollar donated will actually equal two.

But that’s not all: every dollar you donate will count as a single “chance” in a random drawing to win one of two $100 ThinkGeek gift certificates. We will continue to take donations, even after the event has finished, until Sunday, April 11th at 11:59 pm. Two winners will be selected on Monday, April 12th. So if you donate $5, you have five “chances” to win; $10 gets you ten chances, etc. (See how that works?)

Our goal is to raise $2,000 to help feed families and individuals in need. We also heartily encourage making a donation to a food bank in your local community. So go donate now, and often, and tell your friends!

So, funny story…late last night (Monday), Storm noticed that our Twitter feed was just a couple hundred followers shy of 10,000. So he did what any normal person would do: challenged Twitter that, if we passed the 10k follower mark before 12 noon EST today, he would attempt to eat an entire Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake.

Twitter knows a good thing when they see it, and so we passed the 10k mark before 8:30 am. And since Storm is a man of his word, he is following through with his promise, and shall attempt to eat an entire Fudgie the Whale this Thursday, April 1st. (We thought the date most appropriate.)

And now, the fine folks at ThinkGeek have agreed to host the entire event, which will be streamed live on our Ustream account. And YOU COULD WIN A TICKET TO SEE THE WHOLE THING LIVE. [UPDATE: sorry--tix have all been assigned!]

There will be a tweetup audience of 35 lucky geeks cheering Storm on at  ThinkGeek HQ in Fairfax, VA, and he’ll commence eating at 8 p.m.  EST. The event will be broadcast live on our Ustream channel, MC’d by Paul himself starting at 7:45 p.m. EST, and it will be live-tweeted by Geek Dad‘s Matt Blum on a special @FudgieThon feed.

UPDATE: follow all of the Battle Fudgie / FudgieThon Twitter feeds from one handy Twitter list!

As if watching Storm attempt to devour a 12-serving chocolate ice cream cake weren’t enough, there will be contests for viewers and live attendees alike throughout the event, with prizes provided by ThinkGeek, Carvel and Storm’s local Arlington Carvel Ice Cream & Bakery. Follow ThinkGeek’s Twitter feed during the event to participate (Ustream viewing is not required.) So EVERYBODY WINS! (Except Storm’s tummy, of course; may the spirit of Adam Richman be with him.)

Many thanks to Carrie and everyone at ThinkGeek for helping put this all together so quickly. Together we can unite to DESTROY FUDGIE THE WHALE*!

*You’ve been generous and a great sport, but sorry, Fudgie–you’re still gonna get all eated up.

DOUBLE-SECRET UPDATE: because we feel guilty about one of us gobbling up a whole cake when many of our neighbors can’t afford to feed themselves properly (especially now), we’ve decided to harness this Awesome to raise money for a food bank. Please click this link to find out more, and how to donate!

The question is, what song(s) should be there? We can’t put them all up—that would take too long, and several of them are not very good. And some songs, while fun, are not very “Rock Band”-able. (For example, “The Captain’s Wife’s Lament” and “Nun Fight“, while a blast, are mostly just vocals, making things very boring for the people playing bass and drums)

So we turn to you, dear readers: please take a minute to look at the following poll. We’ve chosen a few of what we think are our most RB-friendly songs; let us know which (if any) you’d like to see on the Rock Band Network. Or feel free to suggest other songs. (Only ones we’ve written, please)

UPDATE: Please note, “Opening Band” is already available on Rock Band.

So I turn 40 tomorrow. (Hooray for me.) As it turns out, my devious (read: wonderful) wife planned a surprise party for me this past weekend. As part of this celebration, my life partner Storm put together this awesome birthday video for me.

While I’m never very good at sincerity, I genuinely wish to thank all our friends who took part, and the many more who couldn’t but sent their well-wishes. (Hey, Hodgman: still waiting on that pen you promised me) If a man must get a year older every 365 days (give or take), this is the way to do it.

And SUPER-THANKS to Storm, who spent a lot of time assembling this thing. Also: watch your back, Swarthy Stage-Left Man; you’re next.

So please enjoy; it’s about 19 minutes long, but well worth your time if you like funny things.

Thanks, everyone!

- P.

(P.S. Trying this new WordPress 2.9+ “auto-embed” thing; in theory, the video should appear just below this text; let us know if you can’t see it)

Friday, May 7: The Moore Theatre, Seattle, WA – http://bit.ly/w00tseattle
Saturday, May 8: The Aladdin Theater, Portland, OR – http://bit.ly/w00tportland

Sunday, June 6: Park West, Chicago, IL – http://bit.ly/w00tchicago2
Monday, June 7: Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN – http://bit.ly/w00tminneapolis

NOTE: If you wish, you can avoid Ticketmaster extortion surcharges by purchasing tickets at the venue box offices. Contact The Moore / The Aladdin / Park West / Guthrie Theater box offices directly for details.

Using three different designs from Uncle Storm’s animated children’s story, “The Five Little Pickles” (artwork by Len Peralta), range of shirt styles and colors is available, including some just…FOR THE LADIES.

Also available as a stylish mug.

You can browse the three options in our CafePress Store, cleverly labelled Option 1, Option 2 and Option 3.

See you tonight, Desert People!

Watch in native Flash (best quality*), or on YouTube (could potentially generate us some revenue).

And of course it’s released under a Creative Commons license, so share the joy!

* HOWEVER: if you have a slow monitor (like Storm does), you may experience some lag if the video window is blown up large.

Check it out below, or click right here. You can also watch the hi-larious behind-the-scenes hijinks. Show business!

The first way involves private detectives, stalking, an ambush and getting arrested. The second, much easier way is to come to one of our upcoming live performances, sit there patiently while we make some noise, and then shake our hands after the show while we sell you some CDs and shirts and crap. This latter path is far more socially acceptable, and is much preferred by us.

And exactly where are we performing during the first half of the new year? Funny you should ask; we have a list right here. As you can see, pretty much all of these dates are with Jonathan Coulton. (The compromising photos we have of him are safely locked away in a vault, until such a time as he refuses to let us perform with him anymore) And they are, as always, subject to change.

Orlando, FL – The Social
Thursday, January 14 at 7 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/3Teu0M
Note: There is no seating at this show, so bring your feet. Avoid service charges by buying at the box office M/W/F, or pay only $1 service charge when you buy at Park Avenue CDs.

St. Petersburg, FL – Nova 535
Friday, January 15 at 8 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/2Zr956

Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
Saturday, January 16 at 8:30 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/1Wfbbo
Note: Service charge only $2.25 when you buy through the venue’s ticket club, or $1 for credit at the box office, or $0 for cash at the box office.

San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Friday, January 22 at 9 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/3uE2HO
Note: Service charge only $1 at the box office.

San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Saturday, January 23 at 9 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
SOLD OUT! (NOTE: You might be able to purchase some last-minute tickets at the box office the night of the show, but no promises)

Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
Thursday, February 4 at 7 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/5xUH5E

Austin, TX – Antone’s
Friday, February 5 at 8 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/mhGdL

Houston, TX – Zilkha Hall
Saturday February 6 at 8 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets on sale Friday, January 15

Scottsdale, AZ – Martini Ranch
Thursday February 18 at 7:30 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/83BHEu
Note: Limited GA seating

San Diego, CA – Anthology
Friday February 19 at 7:30 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/8gx5KW

Los Angeles, CA – Largo
Saturday February 20 at 8 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: Call box office at 310-855-0350

Los Angeles, CA – Largo
Sunday February 21 at 8 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: Call box office at 310-855-0350

Vancouver, BC – Rio Theater
Thursday February 25 at 7:30 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/6v7It8

Seattle, WA – Moore Theater
Friday February 26 at 8 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/6q1UIw

Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater
Saturday February 27 at 8 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/6sQSkR

Alexandria, VA – The Birchmere
Friday March 12 at 7:30 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/4TgXNf

Boston, MA – PAX East
Somewhere there in 3/26-3/28
Details TBA
bit.ly/4QUIVa

New York, NY – Highline Ballroom
Friday April 2 at 7 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/83dtU0

New York, NY – Highline Ballroom
Saturday April 3 at 7 PM
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: bit.ly/7ocm6D

In the spirit of the season, please enjoy this song (from our It Might Be Xmas project):

Christmas Eve Eve

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from December 11 until Christmas (that’s the 25th), we’ll release at least one new and COMPLETELY ORIGINAL song, each written in a different TMBG style and exploring the many facets of the holiday season. Visit our special It Might Be Xmas (IMBX) page at Bandcamp.com to listen and download the tunes for FREE (though of course contributions are always welcome, at your discretion on the Bandcamp page).

As we are NOT CHARGING YOU ANY MONEY AT ALL (if you so choose) for any of these songs, we would ask that you please share the files and website with anyone and everyone you think would enjoy it. You can do it, it’s totally legal, because the songs are all written by us and released under a Creative Commons license. (Details on what that means are here; but the short version is that you can freely copy and distribute the songs as long as you’re not making any money doing so)

And because we don’t want a full-on geek riot (or if your reaction is “Huh???”), please see the FAQ after the break if your first reaction is “I hate you I hate you I hate you die die die.”

What in the heck is a They Might Be Giants?
They Might Be Giants (or TMBG, as the kids call them) is an alternative rock band formed by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. They are extremely popular among geeks, nerds and Internet types for their smart, quirky music. For more information, read their Wikipedia page, their website, and/or their own wiki, This Might Be a Wiki.

Why TMBG?
Like Randy Newman, TMBG have been a big influence on us, so they were a natural choice. That, and we’ve always felt that the holidays are made for TMBG.

But I wanted to hear more Randy Newman theme songs
Tuff nuts.

[Song x, some part of song y, or the entire project which we'll designate as z] sounds nothing like TMBG! Charlatans! Frauds!
While we believe these songs will evoke TMBG, we are not The Johns. As such, and even with the possible help of special guests to play instruments that are well beyond our musical capabilities, of course they’re not exactly (or in some cases at all) what The Johns would do.

What do you mean, “at least” one new song?
Depending on how many we can finish between now and December 25th, we may release two (or more!) songs on any given day. It’s like a little mystery! Jinkies, gang!

We humbly present our contribution to the holiday song œuvre: “Grandma’s Christmas Dinner“. (Full disclosure: we’ve had this song written for over a year, and have performed it occasionally live, but never got around to recording it until now. Sue us.) Prepare your cockles for warming and your nose for Jack Frost-nippage, as we evoke a wintry land of wonder and family…

This song is kinda NSFW. (Depending on where you work, of course) But if you enjoy it, and don’t get fired, feel free to purchase the song here.

Grandma’s Christmas Dinner

But on the chance that they’re here to stay, we should be making money from them, too. And so we present Part 1 of “Emily and the Really Sexy Vampyre“, and operators are standing by to receive bids for the movie rights.

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

UPDATE: Part 7 now available

The Way-Too-Early Christmas Song (Right-click and choose “Save file as…” or however the heck you do it on your computer)

Way-Too-Early Christmas Monster art by Len Peralta.

Get five spooky songs—Cruel, Cruel Moon; Live; Lame Monster Party; Here Come the Dinosaurs; and The Way-Too-Early Christmas Song—for the low, low price of $2. (NOTE: Yes, The Way-Too-Early Christmas Song isn’t really “spooky,” per se; but it’s Halloween-themed, so shut up)

Be the envy of all your Halloween Super-Fun Pack-less friends, and get more than a rock this All Hallow’s Eve!

Wed., December 9 – 7 pm
Music Hall of Williamsburg – Brooklyn, NY
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/4EoGwL

Next: as we recently announced on Twitter, our show in Chicago next week (October 10 @ Park West) will now also be a Flood show. What is a “Flood” show, you ask? You can read Jonathan’s announcement for full details, but the quick version is this: geek icon band They Might Be Giants is performing in Chicago the same night we are, and they are performing their album Flood in its entirety. And now, we’re going to do the same thing. Why? Because it’s there. So now, we’ll be performing somewhat truncated sets of our own music, we’ll take a break, and then do all 19 tracks from Flood. Heck, we’ve got a whole week to learn them all, and we already know one; no sweat, right?

Finally, here’s a few other cool things we’ve been meaning to mention for a while:

• “Opening Band” is now available for Rock Band as an officially-released downloadable, playable song for XBox 360 and PS3. (Sorry, Wii-ers!) Now you can be us, right down to the 34-second last note!
• Our friend Spiff‘s video for “Cruel Cruel Moon” took second place in Blizzcon’s Machinima contest. Good on you, Spiff!
• Here’s a video for “Live” made in Little Big Planet (via fan Nikolas)

We’re sure there’s other stuff we’re forgetting, but that’ll do for now.

Also, in honor of our friends across the pond, we shall list these dates in the backward European style, with the day before the month. Glasnost!

Fri, 6 Nov: Dublin
Mon, 9 Nov: Edinburgh
Tue, 10 Nov: Glasgow
Thu, 12 Nov: Manchester – Manchester Academy 3
Fri, 13 Nov: London – Union Chapel
Sun, 15 Nov: Bristol

In honor of the one day each year when geeks of every stripe lift their voices together and assault their families, co-workers, barristas, and other landlubbers with a hail of “arrrrr”s, we’re offering our pirate anthem “The Captain’s Wife’s Lament” as a FREE DOWNLOAD.

Or, if you’d prefer, we can tell ye that YE MUST PAY FOR ALL OUR MUSIC, OR ELSE, and then go ahead and do what ye must.

The Captain’s Wife’s Lament (Right-click and choose “Save file as…” or however the heck you do it on your computer)

UPDATE: You can also enjoy the excellent WoW-animated video for the song, courtesy of Spiff…

Thurs.-Fri., September 17-18 – Thurs. 8 pm, Fri. 9 pm
Soiled Dove Underground – Denver, CO
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: Thurs. – http://bit.ly/r3dm7
Fri. – http://bit.ly/6nkNU

Sat., September 19 – 8 pm
Off Broadway – St. Louis, MO
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/vFfhr

Thurs., September 24 – 7 pm
Iron Horse Music Hall – Northampton, MA
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/m6sLe

Fri., September 25 – 7 pm
Toad’s Place – New Haven, CT
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/dMqhX

Sat., September 26 – 9 pm
The Paradise – Boston, MA
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/4FptU3

Thurs. October 8 – 8 pm
The Ark – Ann Arbor, MI
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/e0wMl

Sat., October 10 – 8 pm
Park West – Chicago, IL
with Jonathan Coulton
Tickets: http://bit.ly/G6Dbz

Fri. October 16 – 8 pm
Nightcat – Easton, MD
Tickets: http://bit.ly/mFEWZ

JoCoPaStoMania! It’s totally gear. Spread the word; with your support, we could get wider than Jesus!

w00tstock: three hours of geeks and music

v1.0:  Monday, October 19 – Swedish American Hall, San Francisco, CA SOLD OUT!!!
2nd SF show added! v1.0.1:  Tuesday, October 20 – Swedish American Hall, San Francisco, CA
v1.1:  Wednesday, October 21 – Largo, Los Angeles, CA

Click here for complete details

We actually started writing this one over a year ago, but apparently it needed to age like a good cheese or whiskey before we could finally finish it off, and give it the full treatment it deserves. As a side note, Coldplay can suck it.

Many thanks to the super-talented Brendan Milburn for his considerable help on keyboard, bass, strings and drum programming.

This song is probably NSFW. (Depending on where you work, of course) But if you enjoy it, and don’t get fired, feel free to purchase the song here.

I Will Sing a Lullabye

O RLY???

Maybe it’s what not to wear if you still think having a little alligator on your chest is spiffy-keen, or you’re the type who dons a tuxedo before motoring off in your Stutz Bearcat to catch the polo match on a breezy Sunday afternoon, tra-la, tra-la!

But should we meekly bend to the will of Big Fashion? We should say NOT! More importantly, are YOU going to allow this aggression to stand? NO! It’s time to take the Original Famous Fromage t-shirt into the streets! To arms!

What? You don’t HAVE an Original Famous Fromage t-shirt? Procede directly to our CafePress store, where you can suit up in style (also available specially-tailored for the ladies.) Also available at our live performances.

Because the emperor needs new clothes, baby; and naked don’t cut it anymore.

Fromage.

Friday, August 7 – Milkboy Coffee (Ardmore, PA)
9:30 pm
with The Arrogant Worms
tix: http://bit.ly/gMSfF

Friday, August 28 – Jammin’ Java (Vienna, VA)
7 pm
tix: http://bit.ly/aue1L

To celebrate, and to test our how robust their “cloud hosting” is, we’ve asked a bunch of our popular Twitter friends to have their followers come visit our site all at once at 3 pm (EST). If you’re seeing this post, then we’re still up and running, and hooray for our side.

If not, then some servers in DFW somewhere are smoking and/or on fire.

Thanks, everyone!

As you were…

We started things off in Dallas on Wednesday, May 13, with the first of a three-show stint with Beardy McInternet. Easy enough: good crowd, nice venue, and Mai Tais. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary. (Except for the ASL interpretation, which was quite cool)

Then we did the thing that always guarantees strangeness: we went to California. First stop was San Diego on Thursday (technically, Solana Beach; but we’re not very technical), and a show at the Belly Up Tavern. The crowd was drunker than usual for a Coulton crowd, and especially punchy (but in a good way). Luckily, fan Gl3nn recorded the whole show, and posted it to the youtubes. Also, fans Colleenky and Jade showed their true dedication to their Minionhood with custom Minion sashes and buttons.

The next morning, we gathered in a secret underground bunker recording studio to record a Rifftrax for the movie TRON. (See our previous post for details) While it was somewhat unsettling to be recording snarky comments about a movie right in front of three of the guys who perfected the art form, we muddled through and celebrated with a lunch of staggering proportions, and a “standing around in the office lobby” picture (see right).

Working our way north (and further up the weirdness scale) we found ourselves in L.A. and right in the heart of a geek-cred vortex. Several vortices, actually, the first of which occurred when we met up with Adam “@lonelysandwich” Lisagor (“You Look Nice Today” podcast) and Jesse Thorn (host of “The Sound of Young America” and noted hater of shorts) and their significant others for the Friday night concert by Jon Brion at Largo. (He plays there pretty much every Friday) We were not adequately prepared for the degree of awesomeness and talent displayed, and all left the show despondent and filled with feelings of inadequacy; in other words, we had a great time.

Then, on Saturday, Kim Evey (co-producer of “The Guild” and star of “Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show“) hosted a house party with us, Jonathan, Adam, and half the cast of “The Guild”, including Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh and Jeff Lewis, plus new media mega-agent George Ruiz. And what happened at the party? Rock Band, of course, courtesy of Ms. Day.

But wait, there’s more! Did we mention we did a show while in L.A.? And that it was at fabled venue Largo? (The place we talked about two paragraphs back?) And that Wil Wheaton introduced the show in his capacity as the Obama Administration’s Secretary of Geek Affairs (pending Senate confirmation)? And that the talented and adorable @Molly23 Lewis (sweetafton23) sat in with us during Jonathan’s set? And that five minutes into our own set there was a FRICKIN’ EARTHQUAKE that we didn’t even notice because we were rocking so hard?

It doesn’t get any better than that, does it? Well, yes, actually. It does. “Weird Al” Yankovic and his wife came for the show, and they were gracious enough to come and say “hi” afterwards (see pic at beginning of post), even though the risk of being trampled by an entire theater’s worth of adoring fans increased with every minute he stayed on the premises. Add to that an after-show hang that included (in addition to most of the previous night’s revelers) Jordan Morris (“Jordan Jesse Go!” podcast), Austin Tichenor (from the Reduced Shakespeare Company), and our good (and super-twisted-funny) friend Eric Schwartz, and you have a mighty overwhelming evening that pretty much shut down the internets for a few hours.

So we went home for half a week to reboot, then went right back out again, this time to the wilds of Illinois for two shows with our longtime friend comedian Dan St. Paul. Our first stop, on Thursday, May 21, was at the Jukebox Comedy Club in Peoria. While there, we had a nice interview with Adam Harris for the Stand-Up Chronicles podcast.

After a day off on Friday (during which we went to see the diverting but aggressively mediocre Terminator Salvation), we finished up with a show in Galesburg, Il at the lovely (and historic!) Orpheum Theatre. To get us in the proper historic mood, we spent some time during the day visiting the Carl Sandburg Historic Site. Finally, we staggered home (undoubtedly on little cat feet), road-weary but pound-foolish. (Or something; kinda lost the handle on that saying halfway through)

In summary: wow. And thanks.

(“What is Rifftrax?” you ask? Well, it’s where some folks—us in this case, but usually “Mystery Science Theater 3000” alums Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett—record snarky comments about a movie as an alternate audio track, which you then sync up while watching the movie; and hilarity ensues)