I'll be taking partial credit for this bit of awesomeness!
From Neil Gaiman's latest blog post:
Manchester was great. I got to be the first author up on that stage to have an opening band -- two of them, in fact, as Paul & Storm and Jonathan Coulton played a very short concert -- one song each -- for the people there. And I finished signing some hours later, and walked to the Jonathan Coulton gig in time for the final encore, "Creepy Doll" where I recited the second voice, overacted as requested, and played tambourine.
What is it with the tambourine thing anyway? I manage to spend an entire life, joyfully tambourineless, and now I have played it on stage in front of people twice in a month. Do I look like someone who would be happier holding a tambourine?
I'm TOTALLY taking partial credit for this Manchester geekly awesomeness, based on these posts I made after the December 2007 JoCo concert:
At the last Birds & Beer gathering I had mentioned to the other Sharon that I was going to the Jonathan Coulton concert, and that I would be working his merchandise table for him. She immediately asked if he needed any more volunteers and I said I'd check. Well, he did recommend that I bring someone else to help out, so I informed him that he would be getting the dangerous combination of TWO Sharons!
Then, last Tuesday, in his blog entry Neil Gaiman said, "...the dog romps and vanishes and reappears and romps again (being the same colour as the snow he vanishes easily) and you simply tromp after him, or ahead of him, or at least somewhere on the same continent as him, singing Jonathan Coulton's "Skullcrusher Mountain" to yourself while the snow settles on your hair and your face..."
After seeing that I dropped Neil a line through the questions page of his blog telling him that Jonathan was going to be in Mpls in two days and that the other Sharon was going to be at the concert.
Then on Wednesday Coulton's blog post had this in it: "Wil Wheaton drops a “Brains” reference in his review of Datalore, an old TNG episode.
Not to be outdone, Neil Gaiman claims to actually SING “Skullcrusher Mountain” while walking through the snow."
It was about that time that I got an email reply from Neil saying that weather permitting, he'd be there.
Thursday came, I got to the theater to set stuff up. While i was putting it out the other Sharon showed up. She confirmed that Neil was indeed coming to the show. Jonathan showed us the merchandise basics, and then ran off to the back stage to get ready.
The doors opened at 7:00 and people started filtering in. At about this time the other Sharon told me that Mr. Neil had arrived and needed to get tickets. I did have one unused ticket that I hadn't needed to get in so she ran that out to him.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In my last post I had mentioned that Neil Gaiman came to the concert. Neil is a fan of Coulton. Coulton is a fan of Neil. So after the concert the other Sharon made sure that they got introduced to each other. Then, once everyone was out of the theater but the musicians, Neil and his friend, and us, we were chatting for a while and then got pictures.
This shot is of Paul, Neil, Storm, and Jonathan.
Paul and Storm posted it and wrote about it here, in their blog.
So yeah, folks in Manchester at both shows got an extra bonus, but *I* took the first ever picture of all four of them together. *grin*
Yes, I am a total geek. But y'all already knew that!
Manchester was great. I got to be the first author up on that stage to have an opening band -- two of them, in fact, as Paul & Storm and Jonathan Coulton played a very short concert -- one song each -- for the people there. And I finished signing some hours later, and walked to the Jonathan Coulton gig in time for the final encore, "Creepy Doll" where I recited the second voice, overacted as requested, and played tambourine.
What is it with the tambourine thing anyway? I manage to spend an entire life, joyfully tambourineless, and now I have played it on stage in front of people twice in a month. Do I look like someone who would be happier holding a tambourine?
I'm TOTALLY taking partial credit for this Manchester geekly awesomeness, based on these posts I made after the December 2007 JoCo concert:
At the last Birds & Beer gathering I had mentioned to the other Sharon that I was going to the Jonathan Coulton concert, and that I would be working his merchandise table for him. She immediately asked if he needed any more volunteers and I said I'd check. Well, he did recommend that I bring someone else to help out, so I informed him that he would be getting the dangerous combination of TWO Sharons!
Then, last Tuesday, in his blog entry Neil Gaiman said, "...the dog romps and vanishes and reappears and romps again (being the same colour as the snow he vanishes easily) and you simply tromp after him, or ahead of him, or at least somewhere on the same continent as him, singing Jonathan Coulton's "Skullcrusher Mountain" to yourself while the snow settles on your hair and your face..."
After seeing that I dropped Neil a line through the questions page of his blog telling him that Jonathan was going to be in Mpls in two days and that the other Sharon was going to be at the concert.
Then on Wednesday Coulton's blog post had this in it: "Wil Wheaton drops a “Brains” reference in his review of Datalore, an old TNG episode.
Not to be outdone, Neil Gaiman claims to actually SING “Skullcrusher Mountain” while walking through the snow."
It was about that time that I got an email reply from Neil saying that weather permitting, he'd be there.
Thursday came, I got to the theater to set stuff up. While i was putting it out the other Sharon showed up. She confirmed that Neil was indeed coming to the show. Jonathan showed us the merchandise basics, and then ran off to the back stage to get ready.
The doors opened at 7:00 and people started filtering in. At about this time the other Sharon told me that Mr. Neil had arrived and needed to get tickets. I did have one unused ticket that I hadn't needed to get in so she ran that out to him.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In my last post I had mentioned that Neil Gaiman came to the concert. Neil is a fan of Coulton. Coulton is a fan of Neil. So after the concert the other Sharon made sure that they got introduced to each other. Then, once everyone was out of the theater but the musicians, Neil and his friend, and us, we were chatting for a while and then got pictures.
This shot is of Paul, Neil, Storm, and Jonathan.
Paul and Storm posted it and wrote about it here, in their blog.
So yeah, folks in Manchester at both shows got an extra bonus, but *I* took the first ever picture of all four of them together. *grin*
Yes, I am a total geek. But y'all already knew that!