So I was picked up by my friend Mike Z and his wife Jennifer last night in a town car and got taken to Amanda Palmer’s solo show at the Henry Fonda. She was awesome, sounded great, and was flanked by some incredible violin and cello players. Damn she’s hot. She reminded me of an ex of mine who is also a musician. I bet she would be incredibly sweet in person but damn intimidating in a relationship.

Saw David J there and chatted about lots of stuff, including the karaoke label. He told me “I love the idea Howard, but Peter is absolutely against it. He’ll never license Bela Lugosi’s Dead for karaoke. Ever. I’m still waiting to hear from Daniel Ash, who can be one way or the other about these things, but you’ll never get Bela.”

Suckage. I guess the next step is to try and reach Daniel Ash for a chat and get him to let us release a Love and Rockets/Tones on Tail karaoke disc.

Also ran into Neil Gaiman, who I’ve met on numerous occasions in the past, including Sundance, a dinner at the (now closed) Book Soup bistro and a few readings and signings. After explaining who I was and how we met, I shamelessly got on my hands and knees and begged him to write the Doctor Strange movie. He said “If Guillermo (Del Toro) is in, so am I. I would love to do it!”

Neil read the piece he wrote for Amanda’s album on stage before she began playing. The crowd really cheered for him. Guess there’s a lot of Dresden Dolls fans who like to read The Sandman. That’s not too surprising.