JanerBlog

Hardcovers!

Hey, everybody! Great news -- I got the first batch of new hardcovers on Wednesday night -- unfortunately too late for the Kalamazoo shows. However, I'll have a couple of each with me at the Ann Arbor and Dearborn shows, so if you're interested, come on down! The new book was more expensive to produce, so it will be $80, while book one is still $75.

I also have a limited number of key necklaces... five to be exact. First come, first served! Yay!

I'll have photos, and a full review of the Kzoo parties soon... but tonight I must bake another 8 dozen cupcakes. Zoom!

Come out and play!

Remember, Kzoo Locals -- there are not one, but TWO booksignings tomorrow! The first will be at Fanfare Comics from 2-6, and the second is at Rocket Star from 7pm until whenever they throw us out.

For those of you not-that-local to Kalamazoo, please enjoy this Most Excellent Interview over at my old stomping-grounds, Sequential Tart. Thanks for such a great interview, Rebecca!

Harvest Fest

Had a great weekend. Got in a little bit of work, some research, and a lot of high-quality loafing. Plus, it was Harvest Fest weekend, and Tish drove all the way out to share it with us. It was a whole lot of fun.

I danced my legs off, got this year's supply of horsepowered sorghum, found some piepunkins and chestnuts, said hi to a bunch of folks that I don't see often enough, and generally enjoyed the gorgeous afternoon.

Then we went home, and Tish helped us set up our fishtank so we can overwinter our pond-goldfish, which are both growing to quite a respectable size. Thanks so much, Tish! She brought us a good-n-gooey used tank filter so we could just drop the fish in and we didn't have to worry about nitrogen cycling or anything. The solid-orange fish remains elusive, but he's got a few more days before it turns really cold again.

And now, to go puree mah punkins, in prepraration for Thanksgiving pies.

Ann Arborites, here's your chance!

Feel free to copy and distribute!

Dearborn Peoples!

Feel free to copy and distribute!

Whistle Test-Drive

One of these beauties arrived today in my mailbox, as a result of my ill-gotten gains during the Ficus Gig. I'm currently test-driving it -- I made myself promise that if it wasn't actually $400 worth of whistle, I'd return it during its 30-day window.

However, it's really a fine, fine instrument. It doesn't feel like laminate at all; the only way you can tell is if you look inside one of the vertical cuts on the holes and see all the little sandwich-layers. It sounds absolutely gorgeous, and is darn near indistinguishable from a wood flute, to my ear. You can do all sorts of neat overblowing effects with it, and it takes the third-octave high-d like a champ. Low breath requirements, relatively easy fingerings, and little snap-on plastic thumbrest that's a real life-saver for my right hand.

I just played it for about an hour, and my hands ache, which unfortunately is a real negative. I'm going to play it over the next few days and see if my hands ache less as they stretch to the instrument. If not, well, it may have to go back anyway. But dang, I really hope my hands conform; it sounds like everything I ever wanted out of a low-d, or rather, out of a flute -- I've tried and tried, but my embouchure is just not up to playing Irish flute, so I'm stuck on whistle, and this is the best, most flutey low-d I've ever heard -- warm, woody without being recordery, clear sweet high end, and loud enough to stand up to a session if you push it.

Plus, it'll inspire me to practice, which is a good thing.

Sugar Sugar

Guess what these are.

No, they're not key necklaces, they're sweet sweet candy.

The last time I did a release party, I got this half-sheet cake with the cover of the book printed on it. It was really cool, and made a great impression -- but this time, I'm having *four* release parties, and frankly, I don't have $150.00 to spend on cake right now, what with having just gone through an extended period of unemployment and all. So rather than bring nothing at all, I decided to shoestring it and bake some cool cupcakes.

Now, when Paul was doing his big Moped Army signing, we bought dark-brown cookies and did his MA logo on them in red frosting. They were kind of difficult to execute well, and since my key designs are more intricate than that, I knew I'd probably need a plan B. Going through Michael's, I found some ready-made Fondant -- which is that soft white stuff you see professional cake people using on Food Network to cover cakes with perfectly smooth coatings. After thinking quite a while about my plan of attack, I took one of the key necklaces and pushed it into a square of fondant, thereby making a food-safe negative mold. I dried it out in the food dehydrator, and the next day I started cranking out the little fondant keys. Once I'd pressed them, dried them a bit, carved off the excess and dried them again, I painted them with this edible silver stuff called "luster dust" to make them look all spiffy and metallic.

The only downside is that they don't taste all that good. Well, they taste better than they did, because storebought, premade fondant tastes like modelling clay. I'm not kidding. It's disgusting. So I mixed about half a bottle of mint extract in, and now they taste minty with just a hint of modelling clay as an aftertaste. Still, better than it was. Next time (If I am crazy enough to do this again) I'll either buy fondant from a local cakemaker, or make it myself.

So. If you're one of the lucky first three-dozen people to come by each signing (that's a full gross of cupcakes, if you're doing the math at home) you'll get a tasty, freshly-baked cupcake with a not-so-tasty-but-really-cool-looking-and-still-quite-edible silvered sugar Vögelein key on top. Depending on which day you show up, you may get chocolate with vanilla frosting, vanilla with chocolate frosting, chocolate with chocolate frosting or vanilla with vanilla frosting.

Hey, Kzoo Locals!

Feel free to copy and distribute!

Latest Vogelein Newsletter

Hello, everyone!

In a dramatic change from last newsletter, I have nothing but good news to report this time around.

THING ONE: THE BOOKS ARE DONE.

They're done, they're done, they're done. Thanks to the wonderful folks down at Malloy, Inc in Ann Arbor, I finally have books. Unfortunately, since Diamond had to re-cut the PO due to the prior delay, the books should ship to comics stores around the end of September. But they're done, and they look good, and if you've ordered one through your Local Comics Store, your order *will* be fulfilled. YAY!

THING TWO: LET THE PARTY BEGIN.

Or, rather, parties. At the moment I have four signings lined up. If you're in the area, please come on down and visit -- I'd love to see you guys. Your kind words have kept me going through the last few years, and now it's time to celebrate! Here's the schedule:

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 26th
FANFARE COMICS
2-6 pm
4415 S.Westnedge Ave.
Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Phone: (269) 349-8866
Email: info@fanfare-se.com
www.fanfare-se.com

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 26th
ROCKET STAR CAFE
6pm till they throw me out
1504 W. Michigan
Kalamazoo, MI 49006
269-553-5555
www.rocketstarcafe.com/

***

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 29th
VAULT OF MIDNIGHT
12-3pm
219 S. Main St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-998-1413
www.vaultofmidnight.com
AIM: VaultOfMidnite

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 29th
GREEN BRAIN COMICS
6pm till they throw me out
13210 Michigan Ave
Dearborn, MI
313-582-9444
greenbrain@greenbrain.biz
www.greenbrain.biz

THING THREE: I GOTS THE KEYS!

I have key necklaces. Most of them sold before I could get them home (seriously -- they were that popular), but I might have one or two left by the first signing. If you really really REALLY want one of the first batch, email me ASAP; first come, first served. I'll hold the rest of the names in the order I received them. Don't send money until I can confirm that I have an actual key to sell you.

That's all the news for the moment; the hardcovers are being bound, and with a little luck I may have a few of each title with me on some of the speaking engagements. Get 'em while they're hot!

Ficus Gig

So today I played my first gig with Whiskey Before Breakfast, as their second-string bodhranista. They have a new full-time bodhrani, but he couldn't make this gig, so I got to play in, and we had a terrific three sets together over four hours. The guitarist and I really got into the groove with each other, synching up and getting that great kind of unspoken flow that comes from intuition and friendship and respect. Good stuff. I really enjoy the prospect of playing with a band, as opposed to playing in a band.

The gig itself, on the other hand, left a bit to be desired. It was a big huge party for a large (and apparently affluent!) local company. In addition to really good food and beer, they had two (!) inflatable fun houses, a bungee-cord thingy that you strapped yourself into and slingshotted yourself up into the air, pony rides, horse carts, a driving range, this weird bola-toss game, face painting, popcorn machine, frisbee, basketball, horseshoes, and of course, us.

As you might suspect, we were definitely not the stars of the show. I think probably a dozen people applauded during the four hours, usually one or two at a time. Dour-faced kids watched us without dancing or smiling. The kicker was when a guy and his son (grandson?) started playing horseshoes right next to us. In and of itself, that might not have been too bad, but one of the posts was less than ten feet from my mikestand. As the guitarist and I were joking that -- given my predilection towards spectacular and humorous injury -- I should probably go and get a bike helmet out of his car ("Just make sure I have clean underwear on if I have to go to the emergency room," I said) the older man chucked a horseshoe that bounced off the stake and rolled into our midst, clanging off our monitors.

Now as an aside, the title of this post comes from a term the Ann Arbor-area Irish players used to refer to a gig where the musicians are so completely ignored that they might as well be a ficus plant, just there for set dressing. Proving that this was indeed a Ficus Gig, the older man walked in front of us while we were still playing our set, retrieved the errant horseshoe, and said "It just rolled there. I didn't throw it hard."

Needless to say, as soon as we finished that set, I got up and confiscated the horseshoes. "They can have them back when we're on break," I told my bandmates, who thoroughly approved.

Yeesh.

Still, good food, good beer, nice day, great tunes, fantastic bandmates, and cash in my pocket. The equation balanced out well, I think.

Life is good.

Tonight Paul and I went and ate our bodyweights in Bi Bim Bop and sushi, respectively, to celebrate the release of the new book, and my new job. Life is good.

One for the Ladies...

Attention Hoverpissers:

I hate you all.

You know who you are. Knock it off.

Weddings and Weddings and Friends and Friends

This was a long, wild weekend. We went to two weddings in two different states, slept in three different people's houses, logged about a thousand miles in the car, and had an absolutely wonderful time hanging out with friends.

First up was the wedding of Dirk Tiede and Emily Peterson, in Chicago. We drove down Friday Night for festivities at a local Chinese Restaurant (aptly named "Tasty Cuisine", 'cuz it was!) and then goofy drinks, some of them even on fire, at a Tiki Bar. A Tiki bar, for crying out loud, how awesome is that? Then we crashed with friends Brigid and Nesko and Gerry, got up the next morning, and helped set up in the Forest Preserve for the wedding. It was a lot of fun, and Dirk and Emily really knocked themselves out with all the beautiful decorations: flags, hearts, long ribbons with hand-painted pennants -- and combined with stunning early-autumn weather, it was simply gorgeous, and a real wedding to be envied. The bride and groom were lovely and dapper, respectively, and made for a picture-perfect day. The dinner was potluck (and quite delicious!) and there was cake and lots of good booze and tons of super people.

Then after the dinner and cake and dancing, we all packed up and headed out to an art Gallery for more snacks and booze and tunes of the Irish and Old-Timey variety. An outstanding time was had by all, and I enjoy spending time with Emily's family so much that I'd probably make a side-trip to Chicago just to spend time with them when they're in town next time.

Then we got up bright and early the next morning to help prep brunch for Dirk and Emily, but we had to hit the road for our next destination even before the bride and groom arrived. Alas, twas all for naught, because despite Googlemaps' insistence that the drive should only have taken five hours, it took us nearly eight ... and we missed the ceremony of E and A's wedding. Sad, sad, sad. It was an equally beautiful and heartfelt ceremony (I got to see the video replay later that night) on an equally gorgeous summer afternoon, with pine trees and the Au Sable river flowing in the background. Fortunately we arrived in time for some belated photos of the bride and groom.

Then we made our way up to the infamous Jarvis Compound in Gaylord for an overnight stay with lots and lots of friends and more cake and more good food and dear God above, the booze. There were card games and hot tubbings and backrubs and gifts and SOCIAAAAAL DRINKS and missing drinks and lots and lots of overdue catchings-up. It was grand.

We drove home the next morning, after brunch (This time we got to eat with the newlyweds -- the groom even cooked me corned beef hash!) and a rowboat excursion around Opal Lake with the bride's mother and sister.

A wonderful weekend, and a wonderful end to a long and happy (and mostly productive!) vacation. Tomorrow I start my job. Wish me luck!