Superstition Live On Sesame Street

I feel like absolute crap this morning (on Father's Day of all days), but this made me feel pretty good. Imagine being in studio for this recording. I would have been blown away. Thanks to Paul for this link.

I'm Sick

Summer flus/colds are the worst. Can someone kill me now?

Anyway, I was hoping to have a show this week, but it really depends on how I feel. We have lots of feedback from listeners about our weird occurances here and I hope to talk about that on the next show. But until then, I am taking a nap.

Rifftrax Rox

I know I've posted about this before, but I finally got to try Rifftrax out tonight, and they are great! If you are a fan of MST, you'll certainly enjoy these tracks. We watched Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy massacre Star Wars Episode One, and it was wonderful. It brought back a lot of memories of seeing that movie for the first time and how hard I defended it when it came out. And you know what? I thnk that may be one of the biggest disappointments of my lifetime.

Anyway, I'm going to download the Riff on Attack Of the Clones and I may even try LOTR, even though I am afraid of having them ruin that movie forever for me.

Star Trek Monty Python Mashup

Thanks Dan!

Monster Clocks by Tom Taggart

Got this link today from Dave DeVries. Check out Tom's work. He makes incredible monster clocks, including this very "Code-Monkey-ish" type clock. See the clocks and all his work here.

Weird American Idol Candy

American Idol Candy
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

I was at the drugstore this morning and came across these American Idol candies. I thought they were real people from the show, but as I inspected closer, I realized they were just generic people who looked like they should be on the show. There was the Generic Non-Threatening Black Guy. The Ultra-Cool, Ultra-White White Guy. And The Non-Offensive Bland White Chick. What I like the best is that the head are on this weird hingy PEZ mechanism that gives them this automaton look. I'll have to take more pictures when I bust one of the packages open.

My one question, where is the Sanjaya?

A Monster In Alaska

Matt in Alaska sets the bar high for Monsters in The Wild. Here is his monster "Yukon Jack, The Undead Gold Prospector of Braaains Claim" as seen somewhere near his home. Spooky! And great PS job...or is it a PS job?

Reason #72,872 Why Creative Commons Rocks

Walt Ribeiro is a musician. Walt is a Coulton fan. Walt also has access to an 80 piece orchestra. What happens when you mix the three together? You get Coulton's "Code Monkey" done in an orchestral fashion. I don't know if Joco has seen this yet, but I'm sure it will blow his mind. Another reason why CC rocks all things.

BTW, Walt is also trying his hand at filmmaking, hence the video with the song. It's cute, in a glo-wormy/monchichi-ish sort of way.

Mystery Question 6-11-07

This week's question should be fairly simple for some. For people like me, not so much:

I was going through some old family photos in the attic when I stumbled upon our family tree. I studied it for a couple minutes then went back down stairs to tell my mom about the family tree. The problem is I didn't study it long enough to remember the whole thing. I only remembered a couple things about it, and recent memories. Can you help me figure out my family tree? There are two grandparents, who had two children, who both got married and had 2 more children each. Totaling 10 people in all (Alex, David, Jamie, Jessica, John, Justin, Lincoln, Martha, Mary and Tina).

1. One of Jamie's ancestors was David.

2. John's sister gave birth to Tina.

3. Mary went bowling with her nephew last Saturday.

4. Alex is cousins with one of the girls.

5. Justin married Mary.

6. Jessica is not an ancestor, nor cousin of Tina.

7. Lincoln's brother showed Justin's son his baseball cards.

Here is the answer to last week's puzzle. Glad to see it encouraged some great answers!

The first guy to guess (guy #10) will be the only one to assume the following value for the words "white" and "black": The answer "black" will mean that there are an odd number of black hats that he sees. The answer "white" will mean that there are an odd number of white hats that he sees. This way one by one all the other 9 people will know the color of their hats.
Let us say that guy #10 (first to speak, and sees the hats of the remaining 9) says "white". That should mean to everybody else that he sees an odd number of white hats. At this time guy #9 will either be wearing a white or a black hat. If he is wearing a white hat he will only see an even number of white hats, and since guy #10 said that there is and odd number of white hats, guy #9 will know that he is wearing white and will say it. But if guy #9 is wearing a black hat, he will see an odd number of white hats (just like #10 did), and thus will know that he is wearing a black hat and will say it. No matter what #9 answers, guy #8 (who heard guy #10 and guy #9) can now easily incorporate the color of hat on guy #9 into the original answer of guy #10. This will allow #8 to know if he should see an odd or even number of white hats in front of him to determine his own hat color. The same thing repeats with #7-1. And they all get it right except of course #10, though he may get lucky.

Caption This: 6-11-07

This week's Caption This is inspired by the game Bubble Brain. I horked an image off the web, added a word balloon and the rest is magic.

BTW, last week's LOLCaption winner (as decided by me) is Anony-mouse! Mr. (or Mrs. Mouse), come out of anonymity and e-mail yourr mailing address for a four pack of signed monster buttons, and maybe another surprise!

Have fun with this week's submission.

"I'm Happy. I'm Relaxed."

Experience the magic of laughing yoga.

Jawbone #162: Burglars, Ghosts and Octopi

Tonight, Nora and I try to figure out what the hell happened in our house this week. We were burgled? Do we have a ghost? We let you decide. Please give us your feedback. Also, new Coulton music!

RUNNING TIME: 42:55
Music:
Octopus | Jonathan Coulton

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Real Time Creative Response

Just as I promised, here if the video I created for the new Jonathan Coulton song "Octopus". For the past week, Coulton has been writing, editing and recording his first original song since he ended Thing A Week in September 2006. He had the entire process online via UStream for the whole world to see -- including myself, the guy who drew visual responses to all 52 Things A Week. This allowed me to do something I was never actually able to do before, but was hinted at in the forward for the Visual Thing A Week book. That is, installing a tiny spy camera in Joco's studio and draw a visual response as he created the song. Well, as it turns out, he was the one who installed the camera for me. I simply took advantage of it.

The video was done in an afternoon as he put the finishing touches on the song. I don't know for sure, but I think this may be the fastest visual created for a yet to be publically released song. Enjoy!

BTW, you can buy the song from Coulton here. Yes, you can download it for free, but buy a copy too for crying out loud.

UPDATE: You can now buy this image as a print at my Zazzle store. Check it.

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Jawbone Addict

Jawbone Addict
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

Thank you Justin for allowing me to be completely self-indulgent.

Chef to the Undead

Chef to the Undead
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

I drew a chef zombie last night. I suppose I could have gone a lot more gory with the subject matter, using brains, limbs, etc. But the request called for a Chef TO the Undead, which to me means that the chef wouldn't necessarily be a crazed zombie, but would be feeding crazed zombies.

Regardless, those details are neither here nor there. What cracks me up is this blog post from the monster requestee that outlines what a Chef to The Undead would prepare for a meal. High-larious. And very creative. I'd like to attend that meal. I'd have to wear a hazmat suit though, I imagine.

Octopus

Octopus
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

For the past week, Jonathan Coulton has been recording a new song called "Octopus". He has been broadcasting the entire process via Ustream and showcasing the video on his site. This is the first time I was able to draw a visual response to his music while he was in the process of recording and editing it. It was a pretty cool experiment to say the least.

There is a video that I recorded as I drew this image. I will edit it down and put it to music as soon as I can get the song.

I added an unphotoshopped version of the image for your perusal.

More Monster Sightings

More monster sightings are rolling in everyday and tehy are at once fascinating and frightening all at once. This photo is from Daryl at Atomic Suburbia. He took advantage of my offer to purchase my monster prints a while back. His creature is now walking amongst his stereo equipment.





And here are two photos from Bonnie who purchased Crypto beasts based off her two dogs. This is Hermione...








And this is Monty. If you have any photos of your Monsters In the Wild, send em along and I'll post em!

And as an added bonus, here is one of my favorite recent monsters, our first president, George Washington!

Laughter is Contagious

This is seriously one of the funniest videos I have seen in a long time. Let it build a little and you'll see why. Hilarious. Thanks to Erin for the video.

LOLCaption This: 6-4-07

This week's Caption This is a little different this week. Inspired by LOLCoultons, LOLCats and a suggestion by poster anony-mouse, I decided to do a LOL Caption This contest.

Use the image at the left to create a LOLCaption. (For an example of what this, may I suggest this wonderful resource or for more in-depth resource try this). You can write the LOLCaption in the comments, or you can hork the image and be true to the art form and photoshop your caption on the photo. Winner - decided by me - will get a four pack of signed Monster by Mail buttons.

Have fun and good luck!

Mystery Question 6-4-07

This week's question has to do with -- what else -- monsters.

There is an island with 10 inhabitants. One day a monster comes and says that he intends to eat every one of them but will give them a chance to survive in the following way:
In the morning, the monster will line up all the people - single file so that the last person sees the remaining 9, the next person sees the remaining 8, and so on until the first person that obviously sees no one in front of himself. The monster will then place black or white hats on their heads randomly (they can be all white, all black or any combination thereof).
The monster will offer each person starting with the last one (who sees everyone else's hats) to guess the color of his/her own hat. The answer can only be one word: "white" or "black". The monster will eat him on the spot if he guessed wrong, and will leave him alive if he guessed right. All the remaining people will hear both the guess and the outcome of the guess. The monster will then go on to the next to last person (who only sees 8 people), and so on until the end.
The monster gives them the whole night to think.

The Task:
Devise the optimal strategy that these poor natives could use to maximize their survival rate.

Assumptions:
1) All the 10 people can easily understand your strategy, and will execute it with perfect precision.
2) If the monster suspects that any of the people are giving away information to any of the remaining team members by intonation of words when answering, or any other signs, or by touch, he will eat everyone.
3) The only allowed response is a short, unemotional "white" or "black".
4) Having said that, I will add that you can put any value you like into each of these words. For example, "white" can mean "my mother did my laundry" and "black" can mean the guy in front of me is wearing a black hat.

Last week's question was correctly answered by Bill, although it looks like a cut and paste job. I may have to find another resource for my questions. Hmmm....

Hyperactive Via Drums and Piano

About a year I posted a link to this guy who does a super bang up job of editing his videos to create a totally new song. Well, he's back, this time with drums and a piano. Check it. Thanks to Scott for the link.

The Zombie Tees Have Arrived

Zombie T-Shirts - Dark
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

As you may or may not have noticed on this round of Monster By Mail, I am offering a Zombie T-shirt along with the Mondo Monster Package. Well, I got to see the shirts yesterday and they look THE AWSUM! (Sorry, LOLCats on the brain.)

Anyway, thanks much to my sister and brother-in-law for getting this together for me. They do good work those two. They also did the monster buttons for me as well. And here's something else pretty cool. If you sign up for the Monster By Mail mailing list (see the site for details), you are automatically entered into a drawing for Zombie T-shirts!

So you see, when I say it is the Summer of the Undead, I don't lie, folks.

You Never Forget Your First Zombie...

I started drawing the zombies tonight. And as you know, the first zombie is always the one you remember.

Anywho, to kick off the first zombie of the summer, I merged Coulton with zombies and art and this is what was churned out. On another note, I have to admit...I love the new bloody opening credits. I had fun making that. Anyway, enjoy the first zombie of the summer.

How I Did It - The Cartoon Version

How I Did It
Originally uploaded by jawboneradio.

A few weeks ago, Jonathan Coulton wrote a fairly lengthy post on his blog answering the question of how he achieved his fame on the internets. I was thinking about it today and I thought it would make a great comic. So here it is, in all it's glory, very paraphrased.

Jawbone #161: Nora's Advanced Age Rant

Rant! Rant! Rant! Yes our new podcast is a good old-fashioned rant show. We talk about the baby, The Rock Hall, Monster By Mail, Zombies, Basketball and some other stuff I"m sure. Listen in and enjoy the rant! KTHXBAI!

RUNNING TIME: 46:17

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