It’s definitely been long enough since the Borat overkill of 2006 that this is damn hilarious.

If you’re wondering where I’ve been, I don’t have a terribly good answer, and if you’re not wondering, well, you have your priorities straight. Actually, I’ve pretty much been preoccupied with work and promoting the podcast and the album, and also with staring at Pokemon Ranch.

I wanted to make a little shout from the mountains that Aaron’s band’s first full-length album, “And,” is finally floating around in the world–he and his collaborator Jim have been working on it for anywhere from 3-15 years, depending on how you count it. The CD was mixed and co-produced by Bryce Goggin, who has worked on albums by Phish, Pavement, the Apples in Stereo, and many others–the music itself is indie-pop-rock inspired by the likes of Brian Wilson, XTC, the aforementioned Apples and Elephant 6 bands, the Association, etc.

Anyway, if that sounds kind of like your thing, or if you’re just in a supportive mood, please consider downloading or ordering the album at CD Baby or iTunes–it will also be available at other digital music sites over the next few months, however long it takes them. You can even preview all the songs at the CD Baby site, so there’s nothing to lose but a minute or two.

Oh and if you do buy it, please leave a review on either or both sites!

Aaron’s schedule is shifted several hours late this week and next, so he has time to do things in the morning that I don’t have time for, like eat breakfast and exercise. These things are hard to do when you wake up at 8:55. Anyway, he sent me the following email yesterday after I got to work with the subject “WiiFit says…”:

Have you seen Evie? It’s been ten days since I’ve seen her. (press A)

How is Evie’s posture lately? (I say “looks the same”) That’s too bad, I think change is exciting, don’t you? (press A)

Maybe you’re not paying enough attention to Evie? (press A)

On a side note, did you know that eye contact is important in establishing owner-dog relationships? (press A)

Aaron and I have a new podcast, you can get the first episode or subscribe here or get it on iTunes here. If you don’t care about comic books or don’t care to hear anything about them, you might not love it to death, but you should at least play it through the theme song, because it’s nice.

In the past hour, my office has exploded in disbelief twice. First R. Kelly was acquitted of his child pornography. Then Tim Russert dropped dead of a heart attack. I won’t get into my feelings re: the fact that the prevailing reaction to the former was “no fucking way,” and to the latter was “who?”

You know what’s going to suck? Election night in November without Tim Russert and his white board. I am dead serious. Chris Matthews is going to slit his throat on television tonight, I’m pretty sure. Keith Olbermann will be heart breaking. Barack Obama and John McCain are probably conflicted. Dang, what a loss to the circus.

You know how sometimes you’re just rolling along, accepting the various mythologies of the society you live in, and then suddenly something iconic eats itself alive?

I didn’t need to know that CelebriDucks existed. But now that I do, because of a press release announcing this, I just can’t stop looking at them and wondering what went wrong. This one and this one are overtly racist. This one is not only preposterous, but is totally overdoing it with the crucifix. This one would be much better if it were just plain Tim Curry–that I might buy. And the text description under this one just assaulted my blood stream like so much salmonella-infested tomato.

Ernie, I am so, so sorry. This is not the legacy you deserve.

So, Reunions was just as alternate-universey as expected–the whole weekend is an astonishingly orange display of “spirit,” complete with themes and costumes and an actual fucking parade and almost no irony, but it’s tolerable if you just pretend that everyone is totally kidding. The representative scene for me was when they parked the goddamned out-of-tune calliope truck next to our courtyard for an hour and it played an endless loop of hideous-sounding Princeton songs and then the sky opened up to a biblical thunderstorm and the freaking thing just kept playing “Tiger Rag” in every wrong key under an apocalyptic sky. That stuff aside, though, it was genuinely great to see certain folks, and once you’re 10 years out, it’s a whole lot easier to just nod and smile and walk right by the people you don’t want to talk to and who don’t want to talk to you. The Soul Cats show was definitely a super highlight, everyone was just on, and I was probably less nervous and awkward than I ever have been on stage (I’m sure I still wasn’t a show-stopper, but I felt totally relaxed, and without any alcohol even, so that had to help this white girl a little).

Tonight is a different kind of backtracking–it’s Sarah Brown’s monthly Cringe reading of old teenage journals and stuff, and I’m going with my actual middle/high school friend Jorli, so we can reminisce about our 9th grade fight over a boy with no personality.

Right now, though, I’d just like a nap pls.

We’re back from a stupendous trip, and tomorrow I will be wading through the not-quite-as-idyllic wilds of central Jersey for my 10th college reunion this weekend. There will be lots of babies. If you’re going too, make sure to hang out under the 10th tent on Saturday at 8ish 10:15 p.m. because I’m filling in as a back-up vocalist for the Soul Cats, which is a way cooler concept than I have any hope of looking on stage. But the rest of them are stellar, so you can just ignore me like so much Tito or Marlon.

When I was little and would go to Disneyland, my favorite part of Pirates of the Caribbean was the part where the animatronic men chase the animatronic women around in circles at the whorehouse, and then in the last room there was a big woman chasing around a man. I laughed and laughed. Why I laughed, only scholars of subconscious early gender socialization could tell you.

Anyway, the point is, I’m actually getting the fuck out of the country for the first time in five years (I don’t think Niagara Falls counts) and will be in St. Lucia for the next week and a half. A stereotypical Caribbean honeymoon hardly fits the 15-person Iron Man wedding reception, I know, but we thought maybe the first plan of Gary, Indiana would be taking that whole motif a little too far. (I’m kidding–the first plan was not a)reachable with frequent flier miles, nor b)the location of a very generous family friend’s vacation home.)

So now instead of going seven or eight days between posts, I’ll be going more like 10 or 11. But I’m pretty sure you’re ok with that.

I’m pretty sure I had something to say about my Iron Man wedding reception and/or my encounters this week with Anthony Edwards, Sting and Mayor Bloomberg, but then Aaron sent me this and I forget everything: