The Signal Boost of the Week goes to Dan Kastner, founder of 1977 Mopeds and co-founder of the Moped Army, who has recently started a small-business incubator here in Kalamazoo:

“Right now we’re in absolute renovation mode, the building was ruined,” Kastner said. “We’re doing it all ourselves. Our office upstairs is wrapped up and the rest of the renovations should be finished in two months. We’ll have two buildings, and the field behind will eventually be set up for community events.”

The first floor of the building will be a machine shop for each business to utilize for prototype models, small-scale manufacturing and repairs. The second story of the building is multi-use office space with hardwood floors, couches and computer tables.

A screen printing station is sectioned off in one corner of the office space, which is made distinct by flooring made of recycled and plastered real estate signs. A full-use kitchen will eventually be installed to be used for Emily’s food blog.

Connected to the building is the shell of what will be a finished warehouse, intended to store some 3,100 retail parts sold at 1977 Mopeds and possibly as a moped showroom, that will be accessible through a garage door.

The crew decided to call the incubator "The Reality Factory," Kastner said, after finding another site perfect for the incubating business environment they envisioned, which they coined "The Fantasy Factory." However, the site was entirely out of their financial reach.

“We had to settle for reality,” said Kastner, with a laugh.

You may remember me mentioning Dan's equally-talented wife Emily here in a previous signal boost. I'm so lucky to have such amazing neighbors.

I also got a sweet postcard in the mail the other week that touched my heart. It's on the fridge now.

The series has such a small readership that I'm always really touched when I see evidence that people are still reading. Thanks, kind fans! It means a lot.

The Signal Boost of the Week goes to Bar Scrawl, Bill Roundy's Cartoon Guide to New York's Drinking Establishments. I wish I'd known about this when I went to NYC last year!

The Signal Boost of the Week goes to local singer Michelle Chamuel, of bands Ella Riot and s/he, who is now appearing as a contestant on NBC's The Voice!

Check out her performance of Cyndi Lauper's True Colors:

If you've got a spare minute, please go vote for this super-talented Michigan singer!

The Signal Boost of the Week goes to Larime Taylor, for his Kickstarter, A Voice in the Dark:

From his website:

Larime Taylor is a disabled artist and writer living in California. He’s an award winning playwright and director of the stage, a graphic novelist (he draws with his mouth) and now, serial fiction novelist. Most of what he writes falls somewhere between urban fantasy and horror, or dark urban fairytale, as he likes to call it. While his stories do not focus solely or specifically on matters of disability, disabled characters do feature in many of them. He basically writes the kinds of things that he would like to read, but with characters that he can relate to as a disabled person.

The Signal Boost of the Week goes to Melanie Gillman, for her already-complete comic, Smbitten, and her beautiful, ongoing comic, As the Crow Flies. She also has some really nice tutorials, including this one explaining how she gets her prismacolors looking so nice, and this one on improving your coloring.

The Signal Boost of the Week goes to Record Store Day! April 20th is a national holiday to celebrate independent music shops. Go on out and support your local record store -- if you're in Kalamazoo, you can swing by Green Light Music -- they have a great selection, and Paul did their RSD poster for the second year in a row!

The Signal Boost of the Week goes to Lucy Knisley, who has a gorgeous-looking new book, Relish, coming out from First Second Comics!

And speaking of First Second, Jim Ottaviani has just announced the tour dates for his new book, Primates. If you're nearby any of Jim's stops, you should really think about dropping in to see him (and maybe Maris Wicks, too!). Despite what he'll tell you himself, he's a really smart guy, and quite a good speaker.