Launch date zero.

Sorry, Mitch. The batteries aren't charged yet. No, sir... still got a few more hours to go. Hey, where'd you find those used fuel tanks? Clever man. Very clever.

Oh, hi folks. Just doing a few last-minute tasks before launch. Did I say "launch?" I meant lunch. How careless of me... and me, a man of words! No, launch won't be for a few days yet. We're moving the components into place, though - no doubt about it. It's like a big, fat, dysfunctional chess board with pieces whittled from plastic explosives. A little on the touchy side, let's say. That's what we get for working with a mad scientist, especially one as mercurial as Mitch Macaphee. No matter... we'll get off the ground, possibly before the Space Shuttle does. (Oh, that launched, finally? Well.... I guess maybe not.) There are other races to be won, however. We may well be the first band on the sun. Hmmm... good idea for a song. Maybe the chorus would go something like this:

Band on the sun!
Band on the sun!
The tuber-man, and uncle sam
will be toasting hot dog buns
when we land on the sun!

Well, it needs a little work. In any case, we've got other stuff we can play when we reach the outer rings of the Jovian system. There's a little number called "Volcano Man" we can pull on the denizens of Titan. (It's a tune off of our recent album International House that features a strange interlude eerily reminiscent of an afternoon we spent once on that dry alien moon.) It happens that Marvin (my personal robot assistant) is particularly fond of that song. (I think it's because he plays the singing saw in the middle 24. Listen carefully.)

Got a little extra rehearsal time in this evening. Actually, it's kind of funny the way it worked out. We got the two Lincolns to run upstairs and bang pots and pans in the courtyard while we were playing. That's just to throw the local constabulary off - we're still behind about 28 months on the taxes and are technically squatters. Fact is, the boys in blue don't know we're in here... and so long as they don't read this blog, they probably won't catch on. I think the ruse worked, at least to the extent that it got Anti-Lincoln arrested for disturbing the peace. (While he's in jail, we should get posi-Lincoln to do outrageous things and then deny responsibility, since Lincoln is obviously in jail. Clever, eh? No? Just checking. )

Okay, so anyway... back to work with us. Everybody's got an instrument in hand, yes? Very good. And man-sized tuber.... you can use your tap root, there's a good chap.