Monday, November 2, 2009

DSC02437

Last of my tour pics are up!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The Punchbuggy Tour in Philly as experience by Matt Wiegle

Our friend and cartoonist extraordinaire, Matt Wiegle, posted some great snippets of his Punchbuggy Philly experience on his blog as part of a series of hourly comics he did that day. Check it out, won't you? Here are some of the Punchbuggy related ones.
This one is our friend Sally Bloodbath "opening" for us with a live comics drawing! Her computer died and ate her files so she couldn't do a PowerPoint thing, so I had her recreate the comic live on a big piece of butcher paper taped to the wall. It was amazing.
Afterwards we went to a bar and drank a bunch (even though we had gotten way blasted the night before and all day spoke of "just one beer" that night) and before Sally drove us back to her house, Gabby and I drunkenly performed a rendition of Last Caress on ukulele for everyone on the sidewalk. It was rad.
The next day, we were supposed to go out for brunch with Sally and Matt, but Sally had to do an errand so it ended up just being us and Matt, which was also fun as heck. Above, Matt shows me and Gabby trying to figure out a good design for our tour tattoo, followed by the massive sounds of the Grimace's departure.

For the record, our final tattoos came out like this, and we got them at Electric Tattoo in Bradley Beach, and you should go there if you need a tattoo in Bradley Beach:
Gabby changed his mind at the last minute and got "YMD" which means "Your Mom's Dick." It was okay though, because we all still got the little robots.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

PA pike

SOoooooooo Liz & Me are in San Francisco for APE, and will be out around town this weekend, and when we get back will do more back-updates, and maybe maybe MAYBE even some new dates? (maybe.) But we're catching up on links to stuff that happened back in the past, so here is Emily Flake's SPX review that mentions Gabby's book and some other cool stuff.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Last day!

Wooden Shoe jams

Last stop of the tour tonight @ Bergen St. comics. Last few days have been pretty hectic and filled with complicated internet situations, but we'll back-update during next week. Plenty of photos and whatnots to come.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Paw Paw, MI




Gabby does a really creepy/hilarious voice to go along with our new dashboard Big Boy bobblehead. I recorded a bit of it here if you would like to hear it.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Ann Arbor

Rock on Chicago!

Double fisted ukes

Check out this review from our Quimby's stop! We've added a musical element to the reading, since there is plenty of time to rehearse in the van.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Come see us tonight at Quimby's in Chicago!

Tonight we'll be reading at Quimby's in Chicago, IL at 7pm! Come out and see us if you're in the area!


Cheyenne and Jacek, the lovely folks who let us stay with them in Louisville, with Gabby.

So the last time we checked in, we were about to leave for Bloomington, IN where we had a reading scheduled at Boxcar Books on Saturday night. We rolled into Bloomington a few hours ahead of time (which I believe may have been a first for us) and were immediately swept away on an Indiana adventure by our intrepid handler, friend, and employee of both Boxcar Books and Microcosm Publishing, Steven Stothard.

Steven immediately set to work on getting us anything and everything we wanted, from coffee and cookies to a new cell charger for MK, and then led us to a local radio station (where Sparky who also works at Microcosm ALSO works) where we were scheduled for a short interview right before our reading at Boxcar. It went incredibly well and we were naturally very thankful for the opportunity. I don't think any of us have been on the radio before, especially not in Indiana.


Inside the radio station.

We hung out a bit after the interview to chat with Sparky, who is a friend of ours and is always fun to hang out with. Apparently Sparky and Gabby met in Greyhound bus station ten years ago when she was like 16 or something. Small, weird world. We talked about Dollywood and why we didn't end up going, among other things, until it was almost time for our reading and we drove back to Boxcar Books.

Since the banjo/ukulele soundtrack thing went off so well in Louisville, we decided to give it another shot in Bloomington, and I think it worked pretty well. We definitely had the biggest crowd in Bloomington of any we've had so far, the store was pretty packed!



It helped that we had a ton of local coverage for our event (including a spot in the weekend section of the local paper!) and also that nothing much else was going on that night. After the event, we hung out and signed books and chatted with people, and definitely ended up staying in the store waaaaay longer than any other event so far.


Punchbuggy in the paper!

After everyone filed out, Steven and Chris (also from Microcosm) took us to eat at a local burrito place, which was very tasty indeed. It was actually the very same burrito place I ate at the last time I visited Bloomington for a very brief time (less than a day) back in 2006. The burrito was good but I sat in some gum at the picnic table outside the restaurant and had to buy new pants at Target.



No gum on my pants this time! The burrito was tasty as heck and afterward, we collected a few more people (including Sparky and a few people whose names I forget) and were led off to a very large local bar which was sold to us as being only "semi-douchey" as opposed to most of the other local college spots. Since Bloomington is the home of Indiana University, AND there was a game going on that night, the streets were invariably filled with drunken louts dressed in the their IU finery. Living in New York, we have college kids, but nothing like this. It was incredible to behold!


Sparky, me and Gabby admiring a street full of drunk college kids in Bloomington.

We hung out at the bar for a long while and drank a few pitchers and somewhere along the way I coined the phrase "Infinite Mental Testicles" or "IMT" which Gabby wrote on his wrist so we would not forget. Basically it is another way of saying you have balls but bigger in some way. You have to actually summon your Infinite Mental Testicles whenever you get shy or whatnot. I summoned them a lot in the van when I was trying to sing without my voice cracking (I've been battling some kind of laryngitis/bronchitis combo for a while which has basically decimated any type of vibrato I was previously able to summon, though with IMT at least I can belt stuff out enough that maybe no one cares).




A note left by Gabby for the person we stayed with in Bloomington, who we never actually met for more than a few seconds.


Really cute dog in the yard next door.

After the bar, we made our way back to the home of whoever we were staying with (we didn't actually meet her for more than two seconds, it was very nice of her to let us stay with her without even really knowing us at all!) and went right to bed.


Two really cute dogs in the house we stayed at in Bloomington.

The next day, we went over to the Microcosm headquarters (which is also actually Sparky's house, not far from where we were staying) and checked the place out. Who should be parked out front but Gabby's old house truck, which he sold to Microcosm as their touring vehicle some while back.







After taking a look around, we made our way over to a great restaurant in town where we ate yet another delightful breakfast. It took forever to get made but it was totally delicious and inexpensive (by New York standards, anyway). We spent most of breakfast trying to convince Sparky to move to New York, which seemed to be relatively convincing, haha.


After breakfast.

We headed back to Microcosm headquarters to check our email a bit and catch up on the internet slightly before heading off to Chicago, IL where we are slated to read at Quimby's this evening.


Flying J truck stop, filling up the tank


"Singing Lying Frog" at Flying J truck stop sings "Don't Worry, Be Happy"



Driving through Indiana there were a LOT of cornfields. We traveled through this one terrifying area where there was a ton of roadkill and MK even saw a hawk fly straight into a car two vehicles ahead of us. Terrifying.

Thankfully we gained an hour in Illinois so we didn't get in too late, and we were able to learn a few songs on the ukulele while riding in the van. Once Gabby and I can learn them a bit better and get MK a tambourine to accompany us, we'll probably put some audio files up or maybe a video.



Anyway, if you are in the Chicago area, come see us at Quimby's tonight!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Bloomington, IN tomorrow at Boxcar Books!

If you were wondering what it's like to ride in the backseat of the Grimace, this is exactly what it's like:



Tomorrow (Saturday) we will be reading at Boxcar Books in Bloomington, IN at 7pm! Be there!

So I haven't updated in a few days but a lot has happened so I should write about that.

Asheville, NC

As you may have seen in the post that MK put up, we did a reading in Asheville, NC and read from each other's comics to spice things up a bit. Since each of our readings has two parts, each of us read a part. It was really fun. Only about 4 or 5 people showed up but we had some beers and it was actually an incredibly fun time. Thanks to Downtown Books & News in Asheville, NC for hooking us up!

This is what their bathroom looks like (with excellent Punchbuggy Tour flier placement):



One of the few audience members actually worked at a local anarchist bookstore/coffeehouse called Firestorm Books and he invited us to stop by there later on to sell them some of our stuff, which we did. We also hit up a great record store called Static Age which I promptly dropped almost $40 in on a few sweet records (which will probably get broken in the back of the van) and we ate at a great restaurant called Rosetta's, which had an amazing $5 menu from which I got my dinner of vegan chorizo tacos with salsa.

That night we stayed with Hope Larson and Bryan Lee O'Malley and their AWESOME DOG Midge, who is the cutest puppy you will ever meet. Seriously.


Midge, sleeping on my feet in the car. So cute.

On the way to their house I spotted a Krispy Kreme with a "HOT NOW" sign on so we had to go pick up some donuts. Gabby ordered, and when the lady didn't understand him he decided to talk in a fake Southern accent so she'd understand. When she countered his order for a measly two donuts with a terse "IS THAT ALL?" he freaked out and ordered a half dozen! And then I had to pay for it! It was okay though because I'm always willing to do what it takes for donuts.

Right as we were pulling out, a cop pulled us over (it was only a matter of time till we got pulled over in this death trap that is the Grimace) but she let us off with a warning when she found out we were "just passing through."

Here is some audio from right after Gabby ordered the donuts right up until the cop pulled us over.





The next day Hope took us hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains (with Midge of course) and after getting some sandwiches we headed off to Pigeon Forge, TN.



Pigeon Forge, TN

Our original plan was to hit up Dollywood when we passed through Pigeon Forge, but apparently it's closed on Thursdays, which was our one day off to go. We had to leave early the next day so we knew it just wouldn't be possible. Luckily, MK had a $100 credit on Orbitz because she talked shit about them on the internet one time and they wanted to give her some hush money. So she used the credit to get us a SWEET ASS hotel room in Pigeon Forge at a hotel with an INDOOR WATER PARK.


Laundry in the hotel room??? YES!!!


A full kitchen in the hotel room??? YES!!!


An awesome personal balcony with a beautiful view??? YES!!! PIGEON FORGE!!!

Here's a view from the parking lot of the fancy hotel and surrounding mountains (and our crappy van):



We got crazy lost in the Appalachian mountains trying to find Pigeon Forge and passed through some crazy country territory, complete with small children staring mouth agape at the sun and men standing in the middle of a river for no reason. Broken down shacks and front yard sermons aplenty! The one bright spot was watching the pink sunset over the mountains as the sun went down, it was pretty beautiful.

Eventually we found the hotel and still had an hour before the water park closed, so we basically dropped our shit off and ran right over. We were like a bunch of little kids, there were two waterslides, a 20 person hot tub, a sauna, and all that junk. It was amazing!

Afterward we walked over to a pub in a strip mall called the Roaming Gnome and got super drunk on Yuenglings and whiskey shots. Then MK and I peed in between two buses in a parking lot and convinced Gabby to roll down a wet hill. Then we did drunken laundry in our hotel room because did I mention the hotel room had a washer and dryer in it? Yeah. Pigeon Forge rules.

The next day we all stumbled out of bed just in time to make the 11am checkout and roll on out to Louisville.

Louisville, KY



Despite my friend Jason Saint's best efforts, the reading at Ray's Monkey House in Louisville was still pretty sparsely attended, and mostly by Gabby's friends who live here in Louisville. When we got there, we found out the projector they had was completely the wrong kind of projector and wouldn't work with our laptops, so we decided to just have everyone pull up their chairs to a table and put the laptop on the table and read from it that way. Somehow we also decided it might make up for the lack of projector if Gabby and I accompanied MK's reading with a soundtrack of live banjo and ukulele.

Surprisingly, even though Gabby and I have never played music together, it went incredibly smoothly and dare I say... really well! I'm hoping we can do the live musical soundtrack accompaniment thing for the rest of the tour because it was really fun.

Here is audio of the entire reading with musical accompaniment.

After the reading, we sold a few books to the people who showed up and I chatted with Jason a bit until he had to go back to work. All in all, I think it went really really well considering all the things that could have killed it. We went out to dinner and walked around Louisville for a while and got some tea before making our way back to Gabby's friend's house, where we are staying tonight.


A comic book store in Louisville, KY.

Tomorrow - Boxcar Books in Bloomington, IN!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Asheville, NC tonight at Downtown Books & News

Tonight we'll be reading at Downtown Books & News in Asheville, NC (67 North Lexington Avenue) at 5:30pm!

Last night we stayed with comics' own Dustin Harbin in Charlotte, NC and his adorable dog Buddy. The alternate name of this tour is, by the way, the "Petting Dogs Across America" tour.



Dustin has been a great host and even cooked us grits this morning! Yesterday we gave a talk at Duke in Durham, NC and upon arriving at the grand campus of Duke University we stumbled across the rare books room, which was amazing.



The talk at Duke went decently, we had maybe 12 people in the audience because the room was kind of hard for people to find (including us, haha) but there was a bunch of free food and we even sold a couple of books to new readers, which is always cool. The staff at Duke were amazingly helpful and kind and we truly appreciated their generosity in trying to help us out on our tour.

In addition to reading from our books, we took part in a panel discussion moderated by Rob Clough on the topic of gender in relation to our work. After the event, we milled around signing books and talking to people and then drove Rob in the Grimace to a Mexican joint in town called Chubby's, where I ate a burrito the size of Gabby's head.



We had a great time hanging out with Rob and his wife at Chubby's until it was time to head to Dustin's house for the night.

Tonight: Asheville!

Last night at the gas station

5 days of photos up



MK's Flickr album

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Punchbuggy Tour off to a great start!




























We had a great adventure in a store called Outdoor World where we went looking for a camping stove and walked out with no stove, but the experience of a lifetime. Most of all, the three of us enjoyed the laser shooting range enough that we didn't want to leave.






















Only a few days in, and this is what the van looks like:




Eventually we escaped Virginia and after driving down some desolate roads we arrived in Durham, NC where our next event is scheduled at Duke University tomorrow. If you're in the Durham, NC area, come check us out!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Audio Road Journal #1

Listen to it online by clicking here. I believe you may also be able to download it. Roughly 15 minutes of me rambling about the tour, my husband Zane, and failing to find a suitable white jacket for the Ignatzes. The quality is crappy because it was my first time using the digital recorder so I put it on the "long play" setting, which makes it as crappy sounding as possible. Also I am an idiot and was playing records in the background, which makes it hard to hear.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009