The Birdmonster Blog: now with all new Free Goodness, Live Music, Self-Congratulatory Linking

So I was writing a missive about our Sundance experiences which was maybe the most hilarious piece of prose since Ben Greenman's "Blurbs" when my life devolved into a decidedly unfunny, splintered mess. My sulking time has been filled with the ever soothing Al Swearengen and Fionna Apple and, now that I'm feeling more human, I'll have that up next week. It's got chuckles in it, ya heard? I need 'em as much as anybody. I'd also like a mulligan on 2009. Let me know if you can make that happen.

In the meantime (which, if I remember right, was a Spacehog song that I thought was better than it actually is, though, still: nice bass line), there's some serious fancypants Birdmonster stuff going on this week and that's what I'm here to report.

Lastly, I'd like to note that I'm one of those people who emails columnists. Sometimes, this is to stroke their tender egos while, other times, it's to crap all over everything they said. I'm that guy. But a funny thing happens when you write these people something thoughtful---even if it is the aforesaid "your suckiness has melted my brain" email---they write back. For these people actually employed as scribblers, the comment section is like the pit at the Old Globe: it's for the rabble and, while it's nice that they're there, they aren't exactly going to join them in the cheap seats. Birdmonster? We like the comments. Debra Saunders? Doubtful. She's too busy eating poor people and prank calling Chris Daly. To get back to the lecture at hand, I was innordinately happy that harrassing Jon Carroll (a not-that-sercet favorite of mine---see links to the right there) landed me in Monday's column. I read it and popped my collar thusly. The moral? Harrass the ones you read. They like it.

Now that I'm done decrying how totally fucking awesome and famouser than you I am, we've got a trifecta of good Birdmonster news. Let's do it like a list:

Goodness the First: We done made a video all by our damn selves. As I noted in the email some of you may have received, the production quality can be best described as "cheap if not free," but we like it. And "Cheap if not free" is going to be my 2009 mantra, after "Thanks for the karate chop to the groin, aught nine." View below.



Goodness the Second: We're playing a show at the always lovely Bottom of the Hill to celebrate BAGeL radio's splendiferousnessocity. It's this Saturday and though we're headlining, the other bands are quite fantastic as well. Ted's got good taste. Mostly. His hatred of Dr. Dog and Hall & Oates has become a point of contention between us, but I suppose it's possible he just hates Philly. I demand answers. At any rate: come out, drink, dance, and commiserate about the dickpunchingest year in recent memory. It'll be fun.

Goodness the Third: A few years back, we recorded a CD called "No Midnight." It's in fact the reason the blog began and its one of the highlights of my life. Seriously. It was a total ground-up effort, using our own money, producing it in a cat dander filled home with a singer who's allergic to cat dander, and generally just having the experience of doing what we love for weeks on end. I count myself lucky for that. Since it's ours and since we're still so proud of it---not unlike our firstborn child, though the EP's kind of our first born child, but he was short and walked with a limp so we forget from time to time---since it's ours and since we can, here it is for free. Or you can give us a couple bucks. Or a couple thousand. Hey: not picky over here. Also: would prefer the thousands. Keep that in mind.