I'LL NEVER BE THAT OLD AND FLABBY

After the Platform Festival the previous week, my social battery wasn't sufficiently recharged for a party to say farewell to Scott McCloud and the karaoke event on Tuesday, much less the release party for Douglas Wolk's new book, Reading Comics, and Jeremy Tinder's new comic, Black Ghost Apple Factory at Floating World on Thursday, which lead into too much drinking and a very late night. I did them anyway, I just did them on fumes. This meant I was looking to the very awesome barbecue at Matt Wagner's house Friday night to be the capper to two weeks of being active, being out, being about.

Of course, silly me, what does this mean I spend a lot of Saturday and Sunday doing? Working! And not just working, but instead of writing the proposal for an original comic book series I am pitching to Ben Abernathy at Wildstorm, I go ahead and write the first issue instead and only then do I write the actual proposal. Quel backwards! I'm just a bit nuts that way, but I had fun doing it. I would tell you the title, but it's just a provisional one right now, and it's a not very good pun. Joëlle co-created it, and I don't want the lame name haunting her even more than I want it haunting me. Even so, the book could be pretty fun.

Anyway, that's gotten pretty well squared, and I've also been working on notes for the next prose novel--a very strange thing called Taking Fish Creek to Fun City, a title taken from a Texas billboard, and I can't even begin to describe the book, but the title accurately expresses just how off-base it is. We shall see.

KARAOKE WATCH!

Mason called late in the evening and invited me to an impromptu karaoke session at the Green Room, which Jacquelene Cohen, formerly of Top Shelf and now at Dark Horse, was also to be attending. I decided that despite the fact that I swore I would not go out (and my wallet begged me not to), I would pop in for this. And so I did.

For those keeping score, Jacq did Patsy Cline's "Crazy," while Mason performed an encore of "Cuban Pete" alongside "All That Jazz" from Chicago. The pub's awesome bartender, Trixie, also showed everyone how it was done, belting out Aerosmith's "Dream On," high-pitched screaming and all, while still pouring beers. Nice.

For my part, I finally did an Everlasting anthem, "Half Heaven-Half Heartache," as immortalized by Gene Pitney. I think I like crooning the Pitney tunes, and his style suits me.

Much shakier was my long dreamed-of take on "Don't Marry Her" by the Beautiful South. It was as fun to sing as I imagined--you can't go wrong with a chorus like "don't marry her, fuck me"--but the backing track made it hard. The shift in melody and key in the bridges kept messing me up, because I couldn't hear the music and so I would lose the plot completely.

Still, a few more workouts with it, and it could be a regular. I'm thinking it might be time to dig into the back catalogue, though. I haven't done any Pulp or Christina Aguilera in a while.

The whole night was worth it, though, for when the KJ twisted Jacq's name to something so wrong, it will go down in infamy. She completely freaked out at the prospect of my telling it to you here, so I will withhold this info for now. Buy me a drink, though, and this pearl of information is yours. Or I may tell Scott Morse, which is the easiest way to make sure a nickname spreads. Jacq had better be nice to me. Stop calling me creepy!

Current Soundtrack: The Indelicates, "New Art for the People/The Last Significant Statement To Be Made In Rock'n'Roll/We Hate the Kids;" Jarvis Cocker, "Don't Let Him Waste Your Time;" Ennio Morricone, "Come Giulietta e Romeo (La Cosa Buffa);" Peter, Bjorn & John, "Objects of My Affection;" Nico Fidenco, "Arabian Evasion Theme (Emanuelle In Bangkok);" Serge Gainsbourg, "Cargo Culte"

Current Mood: done

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All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich