Jonathan Coulton, A Talk with George

Recommended by jmd

in response to Lida Richardson

Not to be needy, but can you guys send me Something Nice (any category)? Chronic illness is GETTING to me. Okay ily bye

Jonathan Coulton's lovely, delicate, inspiring ode to George Plimpton.

(This is the live version from his Best. Concert. Ever. live show, and honestly the whole thing is great and frequently hilarious. On either the video version or audio album, can also highly recommend The Future Soon, I'm Your Moon (about Pluto and Charon), Baby Got Back (amazing cover of the Sir Mix-a-Lot classic that I've already posted separately here), Code Monkey, I Crush Everything (about a giant squid), Skullcrusher Mountain (another of his lovelorn villains), Re: Your Brains (office zombies), and First of May (NSFW but so, so funny).)

4 months ago

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Lida Richardson

@lidarichardsonJun 24, 2026

Would you believe I once worked on something called the JoCo Cruise?

jmd

@jmduncanJun 24, 2026

OK wait now I need to hear more? (I went and saw Coulton when he came through Madison almost 20 years ago purely on the basis of having seen YouTube video of him doing Re: Your Brains, announced to my wife afterward that I was now going to go ahead and become obsessed, and then bought and downloaded most of his Thing a Week songs. I've also had my kids reading John Scalzi books recently, who I know has been on those cruises, although I don't know a whole lot about them otherwise.)

Lida Richardson

@lidarichardsonJun 24, 2026

I don’t really know him much at all, but I used to work in theatre and a producer hired me to work the cruise. But it was March 2020 so um kind of bad timing (state of emergency was declared when I was on the boat). But yes they were generally these big nerd cruises? Like d&d and cosplay and podcasters and sff authors and a robot and also randomly Liz Phair and Aimee Mann? Idk I was taking a lot of Dramamine so I was mostly tired

jmd

@jmduncanJun 24, 2026

Hehe, yeah, that was generally my vague impression of what they were (TBH I don't entirely understand the appeal of cruises in general). Aimee Mann I'm not surprised about (I recall he was touring with her at some point), but that's amazing that Liz Phair was on it.

Lida Richardson

@lidarichardsonJun 24, 2026

Ya my major takeaway was that I don’t like cruises. Being in an enclosed space with the same people for too long gives me a kind of Moby Dick style madness

Jonathan Coulton, A Talk with George

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