DESERT BUS 7 kicked off with an amazing opening video! Then chat crashed, but we won’t!  (Right, James?) Our goal for this year is to reach 15 points, beating the previous world record of 14 set back all the way in Desert Bus 2.

It wouldn’t be Desert bus without a few technical, um, hiccups? Unique celebrations of non-operational processes?  Nonetheless we are thrilled to introduce our new MEGAVISION video, sponsored this year by Megacynics , as well as our awesome new Desert Bus App designed by our very own Jeremy Petter.

We quickly initiated our first donation drive: for $14, viewers entered for the chance to win a sheet of uncut Magic: The Gathering M14 foils. The drive ended at 11am and the lucky winner was…Invariel!! Congratulations!! Another fantastic development announced this year is that every prize will come with a Desert Bus 7 collectible patch!

The first silent auction was for Gavin Card’s truly impressive Desert Bus for Hope Chainmail Inlay. Bidding will close at 6pm local time, so get in your bids! Speaking of which, if you don’t have a donor account, go and get one now by going to http://desertbus.org/donate–or create an account through the app!

We got a preview of the official Desert Bus 7 shirts, which are available for pre-order NOW and will ship to you in January.

Ian was issued our first challenge of the year: to sing Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” as Skeletor. While he twerked in preparation, amazingly talented Andy Cownden  ran a live improv version of Papers, Please, and then led the room in a rousing rendition of the Desert Bus theme song, ‘Tucson or Bust’.

The first live auction of a super-rare Ducktales lunchbox and NES cartridge began at noon. Don’t forget that you can bid in the chat by typing /bid [$$$$.$$]. The second bid shot right up to $2000 right away–amazing!! A fierce amount of bidding ensued, and the lunchbox went to asty for the amazing sum of $3500!! Setting the bar high for this year.

Our first giveaway contest of the year challenged viewers to tell a 50-word story of James’ adventures with James Bond and Brimley the Pig, with the winner getting Brimley himself as a prize. The giveaway ended at 1; congratulations to winner Will Goodwin!

A $7.77 donation drive ran from 1 until 2, with a Desert Bus claptrap plush as the prize. Winner still to be announced at time of publishing.

So that’s the story. Have fun with Mike for the next few hours, readers! – Mia

We had 7 amazing finalists for our “James and James Bond and Brimley 50 word story” contest, and it was SO tough to choose a winner (we got something like 110 entries!), but Will Goodwin will be taking home the pig for his story:

“Bond, this is your new car!”
“A Bus?”
“Indeed, but no ordinary Bus.”
“Missiles, lasers, the usual?”
“Not quite. Brimley?” Brimley turned the key, starting the bus. “It lists to the right.”
“And I’ll drive it?”
“That’s right.”
“For England, James?”
“No, for the children.”

Congratulations, Will, your dastardly pig is in the mail.

The rest of the shortlist is below!

(more…)

That’s right, it’s our amazing patented revitalizing restorifying reinvigorating, guaranteed to restore your health and sweeten your pots $7.77 DONATION DRIVE! Donate $7.77 (or a multiple) for a chance to win this amazing Desert Bus-themed claptrap plushie. Seriously, look at this thing! http://desertbus.org/giveaway/186

Remember: each $7.77 you donate counts as one entry, so $15.54 will get you 2 entries, and so on! The drive ends at 2pm.

We have our first giveaway contest of the year! Submit a 50-word story of James’ adventures with James Bond and Brimley the crocheted pig to [email protected].

The contest runs until 1pm local time, and the winner will get Brimley the Pig!! Check out the sweet, sweet piggy swag at http://desertbus.org/giveaway/24. Go forth and tell us 50 words of fantastical fiction!

Just like James Bond at a high-stakes poker game, Desert Bus upped the ante with our first live auction of the year: an amazing DuckTales lunchbox and ultra-rare gold NES cartridge of DuckTales Remastered (drool at it here).

After a fierce bidding war, I am pleased to announce that the winner is ASTY for $3500! Congratulations, asty!!

Desert Bus is excited to welcome back Kris Straub who will be joining us at 2pm PST on Saturday, November 16.

Kris Straub is a writer, webcartoonist, podcaster, and a generally busy guy. He is the creator of chainsawsuit, Checkerboard Nightmare, Starslip, and F Cords, and BroodHollow. Kris is the co-founder of the webcomics collectives Blank Label Comics and Halfpixel.

Kris launched his first comic, the self-aware metacomedy Checkerboard Nightmare, in 2000. The strip was originally a satirical look at the world of webcomics, but quickly branched out when the strip moved to Keenspot (it would later move to Blank Label Comics after its founding and then, finally, to Comixpedia in 2006). In 2005, Kris created the daily science fiction comedy Starslip, which ran until its conclusion in 2012. His currently running series are chainsawsuit, a fantastic daily comedy strip, and BroodHollow, a sister piece to the horror site Ichor Falls.

In 2006, Kris became co-writer and co-producer of PvP: The Series, alongside Scott Kurtz. From there, he and Scott went on to create two more shows: Blamimation and Kris and Scott’s Scott and Kris Show. Both shows air on Penny Arcade’s PATV web video site. A third series, Mappy: The Beat, is in production. Kris is also hosts chainsawsuit the podcast with Mikey Neumann. He is also the creator of the awesome creepypasta Candle Cove, which you should really check out if you’re into spooky stuff.

Post your questions for Kris in the comments on this post.

At just over an hour in (out of 100 total!), we’ve already had an amazing donation drive of an uncut sheet of M14 rares, won by Invariel.

Our first silent auction began at 10: Gavin Card’s Desert Bus for Hope Chainmail Inlay. The auction closes at 6pm, so get your bids in!

The first live auction is AMAZING, you guys, and I’m so jealous of the eventual winner I can’t even believe it. It’s a DuckTales Remastered Lunchbox and a golden NES cartridge that is so rare, it’s not even available on Ebay. Bidding starts at 12pm: go admire it here: https://desertbus.org/live-auction/166

“It smells a lot better at the start than at the end.” – Andy

Andrew Cownden is an actor, playwright, song writer, and all around awesome guy working out of Vancouver, BC. He got involved with LoadingReadyRun the old-fashioned way: high school. He’s been tagging along since 2003, when Graham said “Hey, Andy, can you be in my video?” and Andy said “Um…you can put video on the internet without exploding the computer?”

After attending the Canadian College of Performing Arts, Andy has traveled around the province doing professional theater (or Proh-feh-sional THEATAH *sniff sniff*) for about eight years. He has appeared on TV shows like Eureka and Exes and Ohs (he even has an IMDB profile), and a positively intimidating amount of plays and musical theater performances. Andy also wrote the official Desert Bus theme song, “Tucson or Bust”, which came out of a live improv he originally did on Desert Bus 1. You could say that he makes making stuff up look easy; and he definitely always makes it look good (or at least funny).

Andy will be here until Wednesday, taking challenge requests from viewers (so get creative!), and then he will be going back to Vancouver for an audition. Keep an eye out for him in the early morning and afternoon (PST).

Hello, beautiful Desert Bus fans! I am Doctor Mia, Professional Neon Redhead, and I’m one of your official Desert Bus 7 bloggers! It is a bright and slightly freezing morning here in Victoria and the Moonbase is buzzing with excitement because DESERT BUS IS HERE!!

I am so thrilled to be the blogger for the opening hours of this incredible week. We’ve got some absolutely awesome, awe-inspiring, outrageous, and [insert adjective meaning ‘good’] stuff planned for you guys and the blogging team will be here to document it along the way. My fellow bloggers are Matthew and Mike, and I’m sure they’ll introduce themselves when the time comes. Hang on to your butts; in 24 minutes, we ride.

Hello Desert Bus bidders! We have a very important announcement that concerns some of this year’s auction lots. Ken Steacy has asked that something a little different be done with his auctions.

A personal note from Ken Steacy:

“It is a privilege for me to again participate in Desert Bus For Hope, which is fuelled by the tireless efforts of the Desert Bus crew. For their commitment and good hearts I can offer only my deepest gratitude, but for their efforts above and beyond the call of duty I have always wanted to offer something more tangible.

Therefore, starting this year (and with the blessing of Child’s Play), 50% of the auction proceeds for all my donations to Desert Bus For Hope will fund operations for the Desert Bus organizational crew, without whom the bus would never leave the station. Thanx to them, and to everyone who contributes for keeping the wheels spinning – let’s roll!”

– Ken “Value Added” Steacy B^)

So to recap, half of the auction proceeds from all of the items donated by Ken Steacy – whether giveaway, live auction or silent auction – will go to the Desert Bus organizational team – the folks who plan Desert Bus throughout the year and are in charge of putting it on. The other 50% will go to Child’s Play. Ken has made it clear to us that he would like this money to go to the team in recognition of their efforts and the hours they put in. Administrative costs (eg: office supplies, shipping costs, etc.) are privately sponsored from other quarters.

The entire auction amount will continue to go towards the total number of hours we will bus for.

As Ken mentioned, this has been discussed and given the ok by Child’s Play themselves – neither we nor Ken would ever proceed with this without their permission.

We love putting on Desert Bus, and we will continue doing it as long as we can, regardless of any sort of compensation. That said, we are deeply touched by Ken’s gesture, as well as by his continual support of Desert Bus for Hope.

We want all of you to be fully aware of exactly where your money is going should you choose to bid on any of the items that Ken has donated this year.

Thank you all for your wonderful support of Desert Bus for Hope!

~The Desert Bus team