Avast ye land lubbers!

29. Double Eye-Patch, the Blind
Originally uploaded by halcyonsnow.

Ahoy me hearties! It be International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Grab yer ropes and bails and make fer the horizon like the good salty dogs ye arrrrr!

I'm sure in hip joints that serve coffee, ice cream and burritos, there will be eye patches and hooked hands and perhaps a few parrots, but I have to tell ya that in a corporate environment, ITLAPD is about as popular as Arbor Day. And if I actually talked like a pirate all day, I might be asked to go home.

Which was why it was such a treat to see Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm last night. At a point that colored the rest of the evening, P&S mentioned that since we were a geek crowd, we all should know what tomorrow was. We did and a series of multiemotional ARRRS! were offered to accompany a song about Seamen. Yes it was that kind of show.

I'd post a picture of my own, but out of all the 700 Things groups, I've yet to draw a pirate. I've also not drawn a dragon, unicorn, bunny, clown, knight or super hero. I need to rectify that. No, this drawing you see came from long time hobo buddy Halcyonsnow. Hal, a.k.a. Mike Peterson, is also involved in the 100 Artists Project and was the subject of last week's interview.

So no, I don't have a pirate drawing to celebrate this day. Like I said, I spent last night at the JoCo, P&S show, which was a monumental delight. If you haven't heard of either of those guys, I suggest you first find a solid piece of wood and hit yourself over the head, and then go to their sites and listen to some wonderfully creative, absurd and hilarious music. I don't know if it's a mark of age or level of cool, but I can't imagine that any music other than the type these guys perform is as fan rewarding.

The show itself was a blast as well. I kept hemming and hawing over whether or not to approach the performers. It was in a venue that was small (The Cactus Cafe on the UT campus, I think maybe 60-80 people were there) and there were ample opportunities to just walk up and say hello. At one point near the end of the show, JoCo actually said they'd be outside so come by, buy a CD, get an autograph or at least say hello.

Well, I could barely do that.

I said thanks for the fine show to both JoCo and Storm, but for some reason when I got to Paul I actually said that I bring greetings from Len Peralta (of Jawbone Radio.) It was all I had. I know Len knows the duo and has done some work with JoCo on his Thing a Week and other projects. Len and I have not necessarily worked together, but we've been involved in similar projects since the 700 Hoboes and we talk every once in a while about art and business. I didn't think it was that big of a deal at first. It's almost like being at a party and chatting someone up and you find out that their poker buddy is your coworker. You have that in common and it opens doors.

Well, the difference in this case is these guys are famous and I'm not and after a few seconds I realized my error and it became sort of awkward. When I told JoCo that I was a fan ever since Thing a Week and reading Areas of My Expertise, that was ok. Saying I'm glad that he was back after the stop at Book People last year, that was ok. I mentioned I was one of the 700 Hobo artists and he seemed to think that was cool, but in the same way George Takei might react to a Trekkie who happened to be a gopher in one of the movies.

So yeah, after I said my 5 sentences to Paul, thanked him for coming to Texas, said I was sorry they had to drive to Houston, then Dallas (which is 7 hours total driving) I left as fast as I could. The people I was with stayed to get autographs and CDs and stuff, but I felt as though I'd breached some etiquette boundary and I left as quickly as I could.

I hate that feeling. I don't want to feel have an "in" with these guys, and I don't. At most I have a passing brush with their greatness. They write songs and perform for a living and they are very good at it. I draw cartoons, much like millions of other people. Ah well.

One of the cooler parts for me was between sets I was outside having a smoke. There was one other girl out there and she commented that it was surprising there were only two smokers. I said I wasn't surprised. Most of the geeks I know aren't smokers and this show was full of geeks. She agreed and then asked if I was a fan of P&S and JoCo and I said yes. We agreed they were great and she asked if I'd been a fan a long time and I said that I'd been one every since Hodgman's book came out and I found out who Coulton was and what his music was like. I said I was such a fan of the 700 Hoboes reading and the book that a bunch of like minded fans started drawing the hoboes and putting them up on Flickr.

She said she loved those and when I told her my screen handle she actually said she knew which ones I'd done. So, I guess that evens out the horrible feeling I had after the show by being a name dropper.

Carry on, me hearties!