Jonathan Coulton & Heather Gold: ‘Flagpole Sitta’

Part of the Heather Gold Show at Plutopia 2008 SXSWi party in Austin. “Opting Out” was the theme. After this riff on the Harvey Danger classic, Sean Nelson — who wrote the song — explained why he opted out of rock n’ roll: “Flagpole Sitta took off exactly 10 years ago at SXSW and it was the worst time of my already miserable life.” He added that the one opt-out he regretted was turning down Paul Shaffer’s offer to back Harvey Danger with his full band arrangement on their performance of the song on Letterman.

Check out my brief interview of JoCo here.

Also on the panel:
Ev Williams: “I opted out of football…. There were like 14 people in my graduating class. I basically had my own group. It was me…. and everyone else.”

Nick Douglas, opting out of Jesus: “goin to a baptist school… I didnt realize i was gonna have to retake 6th grade biology.”
Also Ben Brown, Jane McGonigal, and Cathy Brooks