I am! I am bad at blogging.
It’s not even that I’m bad at the actual writing of the blogs, it’s just the committing myself to do so.
I know I’ve been away from the blog for a while – It isn’t for lack of things to talk about, and it certainly isn’t because I’m “too busy” with this college thing. (I’m never too busy for you, internet, WINKY FACE)
I’ve been envying Wil Wheaton lately (who hasn’t?) for being able to crank out such interesting and meaty blog entries on a regular basis. But I’ve gotten so into Twitter as of late that to blog feels sort of self-indulgent. There’s such a luxurious lack of character limits, and there’s so much time that goes into both writing and reading it. It feels sort of lavish, you know?
A month or so ago on The Late Late Show, Stephen Fry said that Twitter nicely lends itself to a sort of art, in the way you have to cherry-pick your words in order to condense your attitudes into 140 characters.
Because you have to stop and think “Oh, I’ve only got 140 characters with this,” you can compress, and people are, in that sense, poetic. There’s a concretization of what they’re saying, which is often very elegant and delightful.
I don’t exactly disagree with him, but this week I had to write a draft of a short story for my fiction class, and I found myself struggling with descriptions, and keeping up variety in the syntax, and all the other skills you don’t have to really worry about with tweets. It sort of hurt, because I used to be really good at that stuff. (I’ve never had the longest attention span to begin with, so I can’t really tell if there’s much of a change there.)
Four large important things that stand to be mentioned before we get back to your regularly scheduled blog:
NUMBA ONE: I’m going to gloss over some stuff. Sorry, some stuff.
mid-January — Got to chill in Dr. Horrible’s house.
day after mid-January — Played a show with the lovely and talented Mike Lombardo. It was pretty sweet, other than all his stuff getting stolen from the post office.
2/13 — Opened for The Presidents Of The United States Of America. I would say my performance was STRONG.
NUMBA TWO: Vancouver-Seattle-Portland shows!
I’ve been putting this weird pressure on myself to write a long and detailed entry about the three Jonathan Coulton / Paul and Storm shows (or JoCoPaStoShows, as they are called) I recently did, probably because I wrote such a narrative about PAX. But PAX was 14 hours, and this was 3 days. It’s a little daunting, and honestly, I’ve been avoiding it.
Onstage in Portland I tried to express some amount of gratitude to them while they left me alone to do my own songs; instead of saying anything substantial I clammed up and said maybe 1/4 of what I’d intended to say (and maybe that’s for the best). According to the Notes in my phone, this is what I meant to say:
This is the third show I’ve done in a row with these guys, and I just wanted to express my gratitude here because I’m not sure if they know how truly, immensely thankful I am that they still invite me to perform with them as I do. In my head it’s really “job shadowing.” I essentially want to be them when I grow up, and I’m honored that they allow me to share a stage with them, and I feel terribly lucky to know them.
I think that’s the most I need to say about it. You, as a blog reader and a fellow nerd, already understand how stoked I am to go to fantasy camp a few times a year. I’m pretty sure that they already understand it too. No amount of fangirling or paraphrasing conversation will tell you more than you already know. I had fun, and I always do. Period.
April 26th will be 2 years after the first show I did with JoCoPaSto. That’s CRAZY.
This time I sold CDs and t-shirts, and walked away with a reasonable amount of cash.
That was the weirdest part. This could be my job. I could figure out a way to make this my job.
I would love that.
(Oh PS we did Fingertips and it was craptastic.)
NUMBA THREE: W00tstock 2.0
So I’m definitely definitely slated for 2.0 (Seattle) and 2.1 (Portland). Beyond that, I know about as much as you do. I’ll be selling CDs, and limited-edition Peep Fight shirts, so get excited.
Oh, I guess that’s another point to make.
NUMBA THREE POINT FIVE: Do you like t-shirts?.
So, I printed 50 of these aforementioned Peep Fight shirts. I like them a lot and I like the print shop from whence they came and I think I will print more. Thing is, I’ve only sold them at live shows so far, but I’ve been thinking about expanding my twee little enterprise to the internet.
So here’s your audience participation question: If I opened up these shirts to the internet and charged a little shipping+handling, would you buy one? Bear in mind, I would personally ship it to you. I would [probably] write out your address in Sharpie and lick the envelope with my own spit and everything. I’ve been toying with the idea of selling custom drawings too, or tying them to the donation button or something. More on that when I’ve figured the mechanisms out. Also, I would need to open a PO box for that to make any sense.
Speaking of drawings this ties in beautifully with
NUMBA FOUR: Yes I do, in fact, like Star Wars.
Paul and Storm asked me to do the album artwork and related graphic design for their newest album, titled “Do You Like Star Wars?” They asked me to do my most minimalistic portraits of them, and I asked if they wanted to be Star Wars’d up. Paul wanted to be Luke Skywalker somehow, Storm wanted to be Chewbacca. I did my level best.
I know I did the graphic design and lettering for my own album, but it’s somehow surreal as all get out to see it on someone else’s album — particularly, you know, someone I like.
WHEW.
I’ve decided that I would like to write one song a month, at least until next year. Don’t hold me to that, but it’s a goal, anyway.
HELLS YES! i would buy that tee shirt. Ever since i saw storm wearing it at PAX east i’ve been yearning for one. I’d even be willing to “pre-order” aka pay for it ahead of time, let you know how many you need to print and then print the run based how many orders you had if you were worried about over ordering.
Buy a shirt from molly, get a chance to clone her!
Hi! So, the shirts aren’t really “me”, so I’m not going to say I would purchase online. I do, however, love purchasing art and having lots of fun drawings around my place, especially done by people who I think are awesome (you’re in that list). So, yeah, if you offered one-off art, I would be totally into that. Not to be all specific or anything, but I have quite the collection of random food art, so if you do anything having to do with dining or food, I would totally snap those up. ^_^
Thx for updating, btw. Excited to see you in PDX again next month!
I will buy your Peep Fight shirt via Internet! I was hoping they’d be printed in time for #candyclub, but alas.
I’ll be flying to Seattle for w00tstock 2.0, can’t wait to see you there!
I don’t think I’m likely to buy the T-shirt just yet (money’s tight) but would LOVE for more T-shirts to be offered, particularly girl-shirt styles and based on all sorts of your awesome songs!
Also I would love it if you wrote one song a month!
Awesome!
I can’t say I’d buy a shirt. I have too many of them. Then again, I might have to buy four so the kids won’t over the best night shirt ever!
I do tend to buy your music though so absolutely looking forward to your new songs.
I would totally buy a Peep Fight shirt, and so would my mother. They look wonderful.
I’d probably get one. It always depends on the price, but I’ve continously tried to be a good Molly fan and probably wouldn’t want to miss out on one of these.
Or actually, I kind of like the idea of artwork for donations. I’d definitely be down for that.
I think the Song A Month idea is great. JoCo set an insane bar when he did TaW and not even trying to come near that is a wise thing (note his sad-making songwriting burnout since – 9 new songs.
)
I would love it if you got more out there… I’m also very glad life is so chock-full of awesome. I’m sure there are less-faboo parts, but there’s a lot of great in there, it seems.
Peeps aren’t a thing in this part of the world (UK), so I might skip the shirt. Custom drawings sound very appealing, though. Would you do portraits, or is that a bit too much to ask?
Whence means: from where. Saying, “from whence,” is redundant.
I have been calling it the JoCoPaSto(&Mo)Show in my head for months.
not only would i BUY a T-shirt, i’d go door to door showing it off…
I’d consider buying a t-shirt, I don’t buy many but a peep fight shirt may be worth it.
You don’t know me, but you follow me on Twitter, (presumably because of the numerical family resemblence).
Nevertheless, I would SO buy a peep fight t-shirt.
T-shirts? Yes please.
That said, when I’m referring to the JoCoPaSto(&Mo) shows, I’ve been calling y’all the Usual Suspects–it’s less of a mouthful. Really, between the four of you and the Vlogbrothers, that’s about 90% of my YouTube viewing, hence the name. The other 10% is video game footage.
This is LOADED with stuff that I love. @_@
I love the idea of t-shirts, I love the idea of attempting to write songs more often, I love the idea of you being able to make a living out of your music, and I love the idea of contributing to that by buying t-shirts and music.
Molly, I would buy a t-shirt.
Sincerely,
Rob
I would buy a shirt that referenced one of your songs but I don’t like the peep one very much.
Also I saw you in Seattle and you were excellent. Keep doing shows!
Lastly have you seen Kate Micucci of the Duo Garfunkel and Oates? She has a solo album with a couple ukelele heavy comedy songs that remind me of you a lot. Check it out.
I would buy a tee from thee, but since I am not as twee I would need an X of 3! Could that be? If so, then whee!
… On my birfday
And to think, I didn’t even check. It would have made for a pretty awesome b-day surprise.
As for the whole t-shirt thing: consider this message my pre-order. You best get that P.O. Box!
Sounds like you’re doing well. Good to hear :B
I sure would buy you a shirt, but you’ll have to send it to France. Would it be possible ?
Weird, I’ve been the same way recently.
On top of that (contained within this comment is a proposition for you) I just decided to write a song a week like Jonathan Coulton of ’05–as in, I’m starting tomorrow. I think you should step up your challenge and do it too (mostly because I’d bee more motivated if someone I look up to musically was doing it along with me and if I dropped to a song a month, I’d me more likely to forget I was doing it.) Also, why challenge yourself to do something you actually think you can, Molly? Where’s the fin in that?
Would love a Peer Fight shirt if you have them is jumbo sizes.
I wear XXXL usually, cause you know, I’m “big boned”. At least that what my mom tells me!
Love your music and loved seeing you at the JoCoPaSto concert in Portland. Also saw you at PAX09! Looking forward to seeing you at W00tstock as well. Keep pluckin’ and singin’!