Hey gang...

The second Maximum Fun Drive is six weeks or so away, and I want to have a special thank-you gift for people who support the show. Since our regular TSOYA t-shirts, while awesome, have been available for some time, I thought I'd put together a contest to find a design for a special, one-print-run shirt specifically for the drive.

To do this, I'll be using a neat site called Pixish. Here's how it works...

If you're a designer, well, make a design. Then post it to Pixish.

If you're not a designer, visit the Pixish page and give a thumbs up or down to the shirts that have been submitted.

The top five vote-getters will get iTunes giftcards. The overall winner, chosen by myself and a CELEBRITY JURY, will get two shirts of their design, a pair of super-high-quality headphones for their iPod or home stereo (either in-ear or over-the-head), and my voice (or Jordan's, or me and Jordan's) on their home answering machine. Plus the satisfaction of contributing to your favorite shows/blog/community/website/etc!

If you'd like to share ideas, but don't do much design yourself, or you want to talk about designs as they're submitted, there's a special forum thread for the contest here.

Details for designers:

* Please use no more than three colors, and use a basic American Apparel tee color as your background.
* Entries must be submitted by the end of April, and the sooner the better!
* No more than five entries per person.
* Entries must be uploaded as an image to Pixish, and you must also be able to provide the graphic in a format that satisfies the printing requirements of BroPrints.
* I reserve the right to appoint psuedo- and semi-celebrities to the celebrity jury.
* Shirts can but need not have text, and should be of significance to anyone who downloads The Sound of Young America, Jordan Jesse Go, or reads this blog.

The following entries have been chosen as winners in the TSOYA Holiday Awesome competition.
Congratulations to all the winners, your prizes are in the mail. The standard of the entries was really high – I had a tough job judging them. Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter – they were all great - you’re all winners in my eyes!
That’s it from me as intern with TSOYA I’m afraid – I’m heading off back to Ireland.  I really enjoyed my time here. Thanks to Jesse and Theresa for being so awesome! And thanks to all you guys who I’ve been in contact with during my time here.
Happy Holidays!

Prize: Dr. Katz DVD Collection.
Dave Shumka gave us this amazing JJGo Montage! I love this!

Prize: Dr. Katz DVD Collection.
Check out Ramsey Ess’s Christmas cartoon..

Prize: The Chapelle Show Collection.
Emily Tilles showed us her baking and decorating skills with this fabulous and original Darth Vader Christmas cookie.

Prize: The Chapelle Show Collection.
Carol Martucci make some fantastic origami Christmas decorations – which now have pride of place on Jesse, Theresa and Cocoa’s Christmas tree. Sorry I haven't got any pics of the decorations!

Prize: The Chapelle Show Collection.
Justin Zell gave us this awesome Santa Con video.

Prize: The Dangerous Book For Dogs.
Tom Deja gave us this super Holiday Mix – he also did the illustrations and jewel case design! Have a listen on iTunes or any other music player you might prefer.

Prize: The Dangerous Book For Dogs.
This is Ben Watt’s John Hodgman Christmas tree – I’m pretty sure he super-imposed a pic of John’s head onto a photo of a Christmas tree and hasn’t actually chopped off John’s head and stuck it on his real live Christmas tree at home.

Prize: TSYOA Poster.

Sid Miller put pen to paper and composed this poetic gem:

A Jew Sets Out Walking Christmas Morning Through Orange County

Leaving the cul-de-sac of my home

I set out walking.

A T-shirt, shorts, Chuck Taylor's

without socks -

The seventy-eight degrees

heats manure from the horse stables -

I take in the scent.

The sidewalks are wide and clean,

the streets empty.

Ten miles to the ocean.

I walk in steps that I've seen before,

like Moses through this disguised desert

past palm trees and mirages of smiling faces.

I don't have a staff,

only a pocketful of joints,

a disposable lighter

and the image of waves breaking

in my head.

I walk past black cars shining,

giving off my reflection every ten feet -

past sprinklers making

rainbows in the winter, color on top of color-

past ghosts of old friends

and enemies that bark

like dogs behind metal gates,

past rows of shaped hedges

and brown wrapped packages on doorsteps.

Eight miles to go.

This road is like Las Vegas Boulevard -

the end always in sight,

but hours to come

Every strip mall, every McDonalds,

is an oasis -

veering into empty parking lots,

I slap my shoes and sing

to the geometric beauty

of white lines.

Lying on grassy islands,

watching heat rise,

I fill my nostrils

with the warm scent of asphalt.

But being too restless

I leave comfort for blisters -

take to the sidewalk.

With five miles to go

El Toro Road ends,

sidewalk ends.

My shoes land on real earth,

this land too rugged,

too jagged to bulldoze.

I remember these hills -

wandering with the thoughts

that there might be more

to this world.

Hiding in caves of rocks round

and drinking whiskey,

covering myself in cattails -

now I walk through the center of it,

sweat under my arms

and in the well of my chest.

Salt begins to fill the air.

I crawl under barbed wire,

walk through long grass,

over classified ads, potato chip bags

and shards of glass.

Three miles pass in a minute,

as I retrace the steps

that have brought me back.

With two miles to go

my feet feel lighter,

back onto sidewalk,

passing art galleries -

pictures of whales,

sculptures of dolphins

and dark little bistros

with signs hanging from doors

that read:

"CLOSED FOR XMAS."

With one mile to go

people emerge, tourists from places

where Christmas doesn't exist.

With the stores closed

we are forced to look

into one another's eyes -

a silent feeling of comradery,

all of us on our own walks

with our own staffs in our hands -

nobody saying a word,

not even coughing.

And at last the beach comes,

the sun beginning to set.

I take off my shoes

and walk in the sand,

my footprints

my only gift.

I sit and watch the sun fall,

the smog creating colors more beautiful

than God could ever imagine.

Prize: Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of The Planet Earth
Resa Latour’s “Holiday Awesome” collage is pretty neat, don’t ya think?

Prize: Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of The Planet Earth
Chad Johnson sent a beautiful Christmas bookmark – apologies that I don’t have a copy to show you on the site, but trust me it’s awesome!

Gather round the yule log, for it is time for The Sound of Young America Holiday Extravaganza.

Two complete series sets of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.

Two complete series sets of Chappelle's Show.

Two copies of The Onion's all-new, all-original atlas, Our Dumb World.

Two copies of The Dangerous Book for Dogs, a parody of the Dangerous Book for Boys by more Onion folks.

And two of our new Sound of Young America posters.

In order to enter this contest, you have to be a Sound of Young America monthly donor. If you're not one already -- don't worry! You can become one easily. Just visit our donation page, and start giving. You can give as little as a few dollars a month, and the impact of your donation will be huge. It's the holiday season, why not support something you love?

Here's what you have to do: create an expression of the spirit of awesome in the holidays. It can take (almost) any form. Here are some suggestions:

* Haiku
* Visual art or photoshopping
* Short video
* 50-word essay
* Lanyard
* Rube Goldberg contraption
* New animal (invent your own!)
* Discover new country, name it Maximum Funistan

When you make your piece, send it (in some internettable form) to our intern Emma with the subject Holiday Extravaganza. Her email is her name @maximumfun.org. Please also include your prize preferences in order and your mailing address.

You can make up to three entries, but the contest will be judged on merit, not by random drawing. Of course, there's a lot of merit in anyone who donates to The Sound, so we'll send a small prize to any TSOYA donor who enters the contest.

All entries must be received by the end of the day on Thursday, December 20th. We'll pick winners on Friday!

Hey everyone... another giveaway up for grabs. Season 1 of the hit tv show Dexter is now on sale but you can get a copy right here for free! Not only that, there's also a music cd from the series plus a poster you can hang on your wall, or ceiling or wherever!

To get your hands on the loot: just email our intern Emma (emma@maximumfun dot org) with your name, address and tell us the name of Dexter's boat in the series. Please note that this contest is open to Maximum Fun donors only. You have until 5PM Pacific this Thursday 8th November! Good luck!

Hey gang... neat giveaway today. There's a new Borat book coming out shortly, called "Borat: Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of US and Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." To celebrate its release, I've got a copy to give away.

Here's how you can get a copy: just email our intern Emma (emma@maximumfun dot org) with your name, address and the name of the traditional Kazakh song which Borat teaches to a group of country & western fans in da Ali G Show. Please note that this contest is open to Maximum Fun donors only. You have until 5PM Pacific.

Ready... steady... go!

We've been talking a lot about Jordan's clothes on Jordan, Jesse GO! lately, and on last week's show, Carl from Detroit suggested something truly brilliant. Specifically: The Jordan Morris Paper Doll Project.

Here's how it works. We've uploaded three photos of Jordan in his underwear to our Flickr group. #1, #2, #3. Your job is to add clothes. Draw them on, use photoship skills, cut-and-paste. Make Jordan look nice.

Then, upload your pictures to our Flickr group with the tag "jordandoll." We'll highlight favorites on the forum, and probably give out some prizes if we can think of some good ones.

THIS IS THE GREATEST CONTEST EVER.

Hey NYC area max-funsters/Galifianakers/Indie rock lovers/bad art hounds - this contest's for you! July 10th, at the Hiro Ballroom in New York, Zach will be hosting a charity event for New York Cares in which "really bad, really funny" art will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. And if that doesn't already sound like a blast and a half, the auction will be followed by a full set from reverb-rockers Band of Horses - who's Everything All The Time was, to this Intern's mind, one of the better debut albums OF THE MILLENIUM. I've also seen them live, and they are indeed top notch. IN ADDITION, it's their only show scheduled in NYC the whole summer.

So now you're wondering, "Hey Tim the Intern, how can I win free tickets to this hip shindig for a good cause?" Well that's simple. Just be the first person to e-mail me (tim@maximumfun.org) the answer to the following intern related question, along with your name and phone number:

In a classic episode of Seinfeld, Kramer takes on an NYU Intern to assist him at Kramerica Industries. WHAT IS THAT INTERN'S NAME?

Well, I just held the virtual drawing for our pledge drive prizes (it involves a random number generator, a Cray Supercomputer and a copy of Microsoft Excel 2000), and I'm proud to
announce our drawing winners!

Congratulations to Matt Hill, Patricia Reed, Josh Arcurio, Andrew Batten and Laura Gastel! You won a custom hobo illustration from Ape Lad (aka Adam Koford). Adam's now doing monkey illustrations, so you're getting his historic FINAL HOBOES.

Congratulations to David Shumka, who won a copy of Kasper Hauser's brilliant book.

Congratulations to Troy Coll, who wins an inscribed copy of Hodgman's hilarious compendium of knowledge.

Congratulations to Margaret Cross, who won our GRAND PRIZE, a complete DVD box set of Get Smart!

And thanks to everyone who gave during the pledge drive. I've got a brand new field recorder and a much-needed hard drive to show for it already.

The Flight of the Conchords contest continues apace... simply upload to Flickr a picture of yourself rocking out -- it needn't be a photo, and you needn't interpret it literally. At the end of the day tommorow, I'll pick two winners who'll get sweet prize packs from HBO including a t-shirt, a poster, a "robot stress reliever" and a DVD. Be sure to tag your photos "maxfunflight" so I can find them.

Also! The first episode of F of the C is now up on the HBO website. So far I've spotted past TSOYA guests Eugene Mirman and Arj Barker in prominent roles, and I'm barely halfway through!

I know, I know, I'm not supposed to be blogging. But it's a cool contest!

We're giving away two of the ever-popular "prize packs" including a DVD, poster, t-shirt and postcard, PLUS A ROBOT STRESS RELIEVER.

If you have one of these relievers and Old Glory Insurance, there's really no reason for Robot Stress.

HOW DO YOU WIN?

Upload a picture of you rocking out to our Flickr group, and tag it maxfunflight. I will pick my two favorites next week when I return from the Yay Area!

Below: from the Conchords' HBO special, "Issues (Think About It)"