I Don't Know What To Say

I had this link forwarded to me from a Coulton fan. Seems a little weird. Maybe you can let me know what you guys think. Could this really be true?

ON EDIT: Did a little google search. Seems this guy did a little research. All I can say is "huh".

EDIT 2: People on Twitter are claiming it's a hoax. It's hard to confirm, since the site is down now. The dude also started a Twitter account to complain. Weirdness continues.

ON EDIT: All explained here.

Art On A Uke

uke back5
Originally uploaded by jadesnake.

I got an e-mail just yesterday from one jadesnake who asked if she could use my Coulton art for "Always The Moon" on the back of her new ukulele. Let me repeat that. I got the e-mail YESTERDAY. The uke is now fully painted and you can see the whole process right here. What a wonderful way to conclude my year.

Monkey Shines on ABC! Rare Promo Painting

Monkey Shines Promo Painting
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

For those of you who didn't know, Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm had a very short lived sitcom on ABC in the mid 80s called "Monkey Shines". The show was cancelled midway through the pilot and all parties involved thought that the show was erased from existence.

That was until last week, when the opening credit sequence surfaced on YouTube and renewed interest in the project.

I was a big fan of the show and tend to be a packrat with things I enjoy. So during a visit at my parents house this past weekend, I went to the basement and found this rare Monkey Shines Promo Painting that ABC had in their marketing for the show. The painting was to be used for an alternate opening credit sequence that was scrapped after Family Ties did a similar opening sequence. I've uploaded it to my Flickr account for all to see. It's great to be a part of this revival. Hopefully we'll see a reunion show soon?

Neil Gaiman + Coulton + Paul and Storm = Awesomeness

Almost missed this truly creepy Halloween treat, but thanks to Paul (of Paul and Storm) I am sharing it all with you. Fun!

Moon Art

On the heels of the announcement of my new art project, I also found some time to sneak in some new art for both Coulton AND Paul and Storm. Mike "Spiff" Booth, of WOW Machinima video fame, requested art for his iPod for the Song Fu Challenge songs "Always the Moon" and "Cruel, Cruel Moon". I hadn't planned on creating new art for the songs, mostly because I was jammed to the gills with other work. But I found some time to answer Spiff's request and you are all better for it. Here are the new images for the songs. Feel free to put these on your iPod as well.

ON EDIT: To round it all out, I added one last image...an illustration of the Rifftones song "Moon Shines".

ON EDIT 2: The Moon Shines image was blogged by Bill Corbett at the Riffttrax blog today. Check it out, I was compared (sort of) to John Kricfalusi! Also, WTBU video was linked as well!

King Of The Geeks

King Of The Geeks
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

When I was in Vegas a few weeks ago, I got to hang around with Jonathan Coulton a bit. One of things I needed to do was meet him at the TWiT booth and make sure he got to Quark's bar for a scheduled interview. As we were walking for the Expo to the bar, he was stopped a bunch of times to be interviewed or photographed. I hung back, sort of listening to the interview questions and one of the exchanges went something like this:

INTERVIEWER: You have really found a niche for your music on the internet, Jonathan.

JOCO: Yes, they really seemed to have cottoned to it.

INTERVIEWER: A lot of your fans seem to be geeks and nerds.

JOCO: That appears to be the case, yes.

INTERVIEWER: So, how does it feel to be King of The Geeks?

I kind of chuckled to myself. Being called "King of the Geeks" a few years ago would be grounds to have your face mashed onto the fresh-mown grass and not a badge of honor. So I told JoCo that I would illustrate that, since it seemed so ripe for parody. So, here is the illustration, done quickly on Vellum Bristol board on a balmy Saturday afternoon and colored quickly in Photoshop. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I first concepted it, but it seemed to come together nicely. Plus, the video of Felicia Day and Coulton playing "Still Alive" made everything feel that much more appropriate. A tip of the hat goes to Fourteen at GOTA for her inspiration on this piece.

Nerd Convergence

Things like this only happen at PAX. Jonathan Coulton and Felicia Day playing "Still Alive". Way cool, gang.

Space Doggity

Space Doggity
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

New Coulton song means new Coulton artwork. This is for the song Space Doggity, which is an homage to David Bowie's "Space Oddity". It also happens to be the song that won the Song Fu Challenge at QuickStop Entertainment.

In other news, I will be at the New Media Expo attending the Coverville 500 show on Friday night. And yes, Coulton will be playing. I think I may be the only person who went to Coulton's last show in Cleveland and his show in Vegas. I think I should win something for that.

I Must Issue A Retraction

Five Neat Guys
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

Over the past week, and on our latest podcast, I was a bit harsh on the city of Cleveland. I may have used words that could be construed as offensive to those Clevelanders with a more sensitive constitution. The words "lame" and "loser" -- maybe even "homosexual" -- could have been used to describe the denizens of this fine city.

But I must issue a retraction due to the overwhelming support that the city of Cleveland showed last night at the Jonathan Coulton/Paul and Storm concert at the Beachland Ballroom. Over two hundred thousand Clevelanders packed the small, over air-conditioned venue making it the most lucrative and sweaty Coulton concert to date. Apparently, the crowd could be seen from space with the naked eye.

All kidding aside, the show was great last night. Lots of people came. Merch was sold and more importantly, it demonstrated that Clevelanders can be cool and support cool things, with or without my berating.

I love you, Cleveland. Stay gold. And accept my apologies.

NOTE: Photo evidence of above stated good time can be viewed at this Internet Slideshow Creator.

And adding more proof of a great show, here is my video version of Paul and Storm's song "Live" in the style of Jonathan Coulton:

The Coulton/Mumy Connection

Dave Devries of The Monster Engine brought this up in the comments. There seems to be a connection between Internet rock star, Jonathan Coulton and Lost in Space alum, Billy Mumy. He also submits some photographic evidence. What say you? And do you think Coulton should be tapped to play Mumy in the upcoming Mumography. (not really happening.) More importantly, did Coulton really write Fishheads?

A Message For Cleveland Readers and Listeners...

Public Service Announcement for Clevelanders only: You know how people in this town are always saying that Cleveland is a hole and nothing is good here and all the good stuff is somewhere else in the world and we're all going die fire-y horrible deaths at the hands of our inept city management? Maybe that's just me, but I hear stuff like that a lot. So, in order to combat this general malaise with our fine city, I would encourage all of you in the Cleveland area to go and buy your tickets now to the Paul and Storm/Jonathan Coulton show this Friday, July 11th at the Beachland Ballroom. This is only the second time Coulton has been to our city. I was at the last show, and the attendance was weak at best. If no one shows at this performance, we have no one else to blame but ourselves for this city's lameness. Here's your chance to be at the kind of show that years from now, you'll look back and say "Man! I remember seeing these guys when they are the Beachland Ballroom." You get what I'm saying?

While, I'm on the subject of supporting cool things in Cleveland, you may also want to check out the Mercury Project this summer when they play out at the Ingenuity Festival. Editor's comment: I think the Ingenuity Festival is a great showcase and has a lot of potential to push Cleveland's tech scene into the forefront. But I personally feel a little bit better organization would do that event a world of good.

Anyway, end of rant. See you at the show. If not, you fail. Big time.

Song Fu Challenge VTAW's

So, there are some perks to being friends with Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm. One of the perks is that I sometimes get to hear songs before the general public does. As is the case with the Song Fu Challenge that is happening over at Quick Stop Entertainment. These guys are the Masters in the challenge and for Round 2, they upped the ante for the creative. Each Master was to write a song in the style of their competitor. So, essentially, Coulton would cover P and S and vice versa.

I was a bit afraid that that the competition would turn ugly. It's a very thin line between paying homage via parody and mocking someone's creative style. I, for one, didn't want to see my friends come to fisticuffs over a silly little contest. However, I felt torn to honor both their songs without favoring either.

So, I've heard both songs ( and you can too!) and I have to say, they are both brilliant in their own ways. Earlier this week, I posted the image I created for the "Super Secret Song" by Paul and Storm. The song is called ""Live" and it is a syrupy-sweet take on a Dr. Frankenstein type who builds his girlfriend/monster out of spare parts. Out of all the Visual Things A Week I have ever done, this has to be one of my faves. It comes pretty darn close to exactly what I saw in my head while concepting. That's a rare thing for me. So I'm especially proud of this one.

Coulton's take on Paul and Storm is so very over the top, I felt that it needed a equally over-the-top image to go along with it. I'll let you hear the song on your own, suffice the say, it's pretty sophomoric and full of intestinal distress humor. The art was inspired by Mad Maddest Artist, Don Martin, (whose treasury I just read through a few weeks ago and which I highly recommend) and the original Ren and Stimpy Art by John Kricfalusi. I had a lot of fun drawing this one and this too came pretty close to my vision - minus some female fans who were to be placed near BDF's rear end. I think it's better without them.

Overall, the songs are wonderful, completely different and fun. And I think it's pretty neat that I was able to create two distinctly different visual images that match each song pretty well. I feel that fans will have a hard time deciding who they will be voting for in the Master Round of this challenge. In any event, I want - scratch that - I NEED to hear both artists do their own versions of the songs. That would rock.

Washy Ad Jeffy

I haven't drawn anything for Coulton for a while. Luckily, he released a new catchy song called "Washy Ad Jeffy" that is a mnemonic device to remember all the US presidents. You can read the whole story at his blog which incidentally is also the place where you can purchase the song. BTW, I should have done a visual like this for his song "The Presidents" but I was young and stupid back then. I'm much smarter now.

PS: You can buy a print of this image here, if one would like.

As Seen On Rifftrax

Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm are living the geek dream. Not only do they get to travel around in a magical bus playing musics for people in buildings all over the country, sometimes cool people are among the people in the building. Take for example this past weekend in San Diego, when Bill Corbett of MST3K fame joined in on a sing-along. Afterwards, the group (which included former Jawbone guest, Mike Nelson and his wife, Bridget) hung out and imbibed spirits at a local pub.

What does this have to do with me? My artwork for Paul and Storm's "Dejected Arrr" tee (available here) ends up at the Rifftrax blog. Unfortunately, it's not credited. But I'll take what I can get. Thanks to Dan for heads up.

UPDATE: I have been credited! Thanks Conor!

Failing At Rock Band

I love this video. I guess it's because I'm waiting patiently for my chance to play this particular song with these guys on Rock Band. The funny thing is these guys play real music in front of real people for a living. I can only live vicariously through my friends via a video game. But I'm okay with that. At the very least, it saves me money on gas.

I'm On Yahoo! (Oh, And Coulton, Too)

Internet Rock Sensation and Design Slave Master, Jonathan Coulton, has a pretty keen piece about his ride to superstardom on Yahoo today. And, lo-and-behold, my Code Monkey artwork shows up about midway though the piece. I even have a credit at the bottom of the article! Yippee! I think I even spy my friends Paul and Storm in the Yahoo piece as well, the handsome devils.

I think this may be a good time to remind everyone that I predicted a year of the Coulton was coming soon when we first interviewed Joco back in January 2006. As the Yahoo piece proves, I think that the Year of the Coulton is upon us, folks. As we enjoy this extended celebration, may we all gain the power to be as shaggily handsome as JoCo himself. Ah yes. Good times. Good times.

Lady Aberlin’s Muumuu

Lady Aberlin’s Muumuu
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

New song by Coulton. New art by Len. This might be my favorite one yet.

BTW, Prints of this image can now be purchased on the internets here.

My Beige Bear

My Beige Bear
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

I like Jonathan Coulton, for the only reason, that he allows me to draw things other than monsters. This is a visual response to his new song, "My Beige Bear". Incidentally, I really like the comic styling of these guys. I want to see more of Indigo and how he interacts with Beige. If you've heard the song, there is a host of other built-in characters in the song. Maybe I'll take a stab at a webcomic using these guys. I guess we'll see.

The Internet Is Eating Itself

Man, I wish I was able to be at this Coulton show. Paul, Storm, Joco and internet Code Monkey dancer Emily appeared live at Shuba's in Chicago for the first time. Long story short, Coulton writes a song. Emily dances to it. People start doing the dance at Coulton shows. Emily becomes an internet superstar. Voila! It's that easy! It was a rare treat to see internet fame spill out into real life. Luckily, through the magic of the internets once again, we get to watch this momentous moment. Enjoy!

Re: Vos Cerveaux

Re: Vos Cerveaux
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

Back doing some work for THE MAN. And by THE MAN I mean internet superstar and friend Jonathan Coulton. This past week, he recorded a French version of his zombie hit "Re: Your Brains" called "Re: Vos Cerveaux". As I am never one to miss an opportunity to draw visual responses to his music, I give you this: a perfect meld of my monster/zombie art and THE MAN's music. And if you haven't heard the song yet, go here now and make THE MAN happy.