Aaand my resolution to post daily lasted... 0 days. I will try to ramp up to that schedule, but immediately after that last post the following this happened:
1) I was Technical Director for a regional Science Fiction convention, which...
2) I had to leave 24 hours early because my girlfriend was in a car accident, though that didn't stop us from
3) Going to the inauguration, spending several hours in the Purple Tunnel of Doom andn ot actually making it through security, before
4) Going to the Youth Ball (for certain definitions of "Youth" that includes Demi Moore), and then
5) Coming home to Boston to find that 2/3 of my office had been laid off. (Not me, fortunately, but it's caused an increase in workload and anxiety levels that I just haven't been able to think about posting.)
Anyway... as I said, daily posts will be forthcoming soon. But really, right now I'm strapped as to what to write about that's interesting. The proposed stimulus package? The role of the GOP as "loyal opposition"? The fact that I can't talk about Rod Blagojavich without making his last name sound like a Jerry Lewis exclamation? So yeah, the political world, not so much.
What I WOULD like to talk about today is one of my favorite musical groups, but first, a digression about geekery.
You see, I am an unabashed geek. I do not try to hide the fact that I adore science fiction, roleplaying games, music that isn't Top 40, NPR, Da Vinci's Notebook, Moxy Fruvous, Buffy, politics, House, Doctor Who, Jonathan Coulton, Lost, Stephen Fry, Broadway musicals, or comic books. What I may possibly have going for me is that while many geeks have depth, I have breadth. I can't, for the most part, quote Doctor Who serials by title. I can't necessarily tell you who sings lead on "Internet Porn", and I certainly can't tell you what page the Saving Throw tables were on in the 2nd edition AD&D Player's Handbook. What I CAN do is have an engaging conversation that ranges across more than one topic. I did not realize that this qualifies as a "skill" until I watched a young man's attempt at chatting up a woman based on the book she was reading on the train. This attempt went well... for about 10 minutes, until the conversation veered off from his area of geekdom, and he completely lost interest.
Anyway... where was I going with this? Oh yes... multi-geeking, which segues into Paul and Storm.
This line of thought stems from a weird confluence of my various geeketypes that occurred last night. I was listening to the latest episode of "Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (on Average)". Not only were they discussing the vast variety of geeks (the “panoply of geeks”, as they put it) who were attending their shows, but they then digressed into a brief discussion of Stephen Fry and his podcasts (sorry, “podgrams”), and the fact that the man can do amazing things with the English language. This is only a few weeks after they made reference to the musical “1776” and the song “But, Mr. Adams” in their podcast, triggering my inner Broadway geek. (I say “inner Broadway geek” only the thick shell of “outer Broadway geek” is more concerned with shows written this decade.)
The reason for this whole digression, therefore, was the confluence of various facets of my geekiness coming together in one place, with my favorite geek musicians making reference to my favorite British television/literary personality AND to a musical that is very near to my heart… And then this led me to a rare moment of self-knowledge. I realized that I have been buying into the geek stereotype just as much as anyone else. By assuming that the range of topics I’m able to “geek out” on makes me special (code, of course, for “better”), I assume that the majority of geeks are people with one laser-focused area of interest and non-existent social skills outside of like-minded folks. This stereotype is the reason media coverage of Star Trek conventions only ever shows the people in uniforms/make-up. Having spent last week an a fairly huge fan convention, I should be able to recognize that this is not true, and that the vast majority of people I have encountered in these situations are, to put it as briefly as I can, intellectually voracious. We take in vast amounts of information about the things that interest us, and the things that interest us tend to coincide because they’re the things that tend to provide the level of intellectual stimulation that we require from the things that we are passionate about.
Wow... that was longer than I intended it to be.
Anyway… Paul and Storm. They are the two still-performing members of a group called Da Vinci’s Notebook. DVN was the group that brought us some of my favorite comedy songs, like “Enormous Penis”, “Internet Porn”, “Another Irish Drinking Song”, and “Title of the Song”. I was first exposed to them in 2003 at the Phi Mu Alpha national convention. While waiting for a midnight event to start, a group of guys started singing the songs I mentioned above (and, it being a music fraternity, did so by ear and with as close to spot-on harmonies as possible). I was hooked. I went home and got my hands on as many of their songs as I could.
A few years later, I was working one night while my girlfriend went to a Jonathan Coulton show in Somerville, MA. When I came home, she rushed to play a song for me that she had bought from iTunes. That song, “Your Love Is”, had been played that night by JoCo’s opening act, Paul and Storm. This song, for those who have not heard it, includes such metaphors as “Your love is smallpox”, “Your love is a giant redwood falling on a family of deer”, and my personal favorite, “Your love is Christopher Walken.” At that point, I did what any self-respecting geek would: I turned to the font of all human knowledge, Wikipedia. I found out the band’s connection to DVN, and immediately went to their website to check out if they had any music available. Fortunately, they had ALL their songs available to stream from the site. I spent several hours laughing before going on iTunes and buying all of the albums they then had available. Some good stuff, a very low percentage of songs I don’t care for, and a VERY high percentage of really great comedy.
Ever since then (and this was over a year ago now), the most common playlist on my iPod is a shuffle of about 3 dozen of their songs. I highly recommend anyone go to their site and check them out. Their podcast is well worth listening to, as well. Their live shows are amazing (though occasionally long on banter, a fact that is as much the audience’s fault as it is the band’s) and if you can catch the double bill of them with Jonathan Coulton, you’re in for a major treat.
What is it that I like about Paul and Storm? Well, partly it’s their wit, partly it’s the fact that they can cover just about any genre or specific artist (and Storm’s Randy Newman impression is absolutely dead-on). They hit all the major geek touchstones (Pirates? Check.) Mostly, it’s the fact that they play songs that are what I would write if I had any talent at writing music, and the kind of songs that I love to perform.
I was all set to list my favorite songs by them, but they seem to have already done so. Check out this post for their "greatest hits". I will add five songs to that list, however, that you should listen to (I actually prefer them to, for example, "Hip Shop" or "Strip Club Daddy")
- The Captain's Wife's Lament (or, as Paul puts it live, one shitty pun for a minute and ten seconds.)
- Me Make Fire, a Song Fu entry that I adore
- Nugget Man, which is proof that they can take ANY CONCEPT and make it amusing
- Tonight I'm A Parrothead, which demonstrates their ability to absolutely nail whatever genre or artist they're going for. (Well, over and above the Randy Newman parodies.)
- The Ballad of Eddie Praeger. (See note on Tonight I'm A Parrothead, and add on that it's also REALLY IMPRESSIVE from a musical standpoint.)
One final note: if you haven’t, check out Masters of Song Fu. It’s like Iron Chef for song-writing (mostly comedy song-writing) and features some fantastic artists, including Paul and Storm, Jonathan Coulton, and the RiffTones (the guys behind MST3K). Some really brilliant stuff, including a bunch of the songs by the amateur “Challengers”.
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