Category Archives: restart me up

Idiomatic Game Show

Hey! I’m doing this game show tonight at the Pack Theater. There’s a published author on every show and this month, it’s me! Tickets here! I will talk about my book Restart Me Up: The Unofficial Un-Accurate Oral History of Windows 95.

Idiomatic is a panel show about words, phrases, and why we say things the way we do. You know what it means if something is ‘in your wheelhouse,’ but what IS a wheelhouse?

Each episode contains games that the audience can play along with from their seats, from Decoding Diner Slang to thinking of Words that Don’t Rhyme to answering the eternal question, “Is It French?’, as well as the Idiomatic round in which our teams are quizzed about the origins of common phrases, like the original product to give you more “Bang for Your Buck”, finding out who uses “Ballpark Figures”, and which president we have to thank for “Booze”.

The game is hosted by Rob Schultz and played by two teams of three guest panelists, at least one of which is guaranteed to be a published author!

Idi0T Festival with The Devastator

Rare trip up to the SF Bay Area this weekend for Chris Hardwick’s Id10T Festival. I’ll be signing copies of Restart Me Up and manning the booth with The Devastator. We are in Exhibitor Village, Booth 605, next to Laser Tag, for your convenience. Bay Area friends, stop on by, watch a ton of comedy and music and look at some cool new books!

June 24-25 – 11am-midnight ( we will be there noon -8, both days)

Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA

http://id10tfest.com/

Second printing of my book

“Restart Me Up: The Un-Authorized, Un-Accurate Oral History of Windows 95” sold out its first printing. Holy crap! The second edition is now available and it makes a great holiday gift!

The best way to get a print copy right now is to order it from Devastator Press
Or you can get the ebook on Amazon

If you’ve already purchased the book on Amazon, why not leave a review? One sentence is great and helps other readers find the book.

Also, how sweet is this vintage Microsoft ad?

ebchristmas97_049-win-95-pic

New book review in the Swarthmore College Bulletin

My college alumni magazine reviewed my book in oral history format!

Swarthmore College Bulletin: Windows 95 Forever

“Clearly, she put her Swarthmore degree in theater to good use. It reads like a movie script, but with jokes about X-Files fan fiction and Comic Sans. ” – Pam Harris and Kate Carter

I’ll also be performing my solo show, Lord of the Files,  at Swarthmore next week, as part of Alumni Weekend. So, if you’re going (I realize this is a small subset of people) come see my show. I should also have some books on hand if you want one signed.

Panel at Emerald City Comic-Con

Hey – I’m doing a panel this week at Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle. There will be a live table read of sections from Restart Me Up performed by the Windows Media Players! Plus we’re showing this:

If you’re at the con, come on by!

Saturday, April 9th – 6:30-7:30 pm
Emerald City Comic-Con
Washington State Convention Center
Room T305

The Blue Screen of Celebration

Calling all Computer geeks: “Run.exe” to this funny Panel celebrating 20 years of Windows 95, the most hyped software release in history. Comedians Geoffrey Golden (Cracked, BuzzFeed, Disney Comics) and Lesley Tsina (Community, Funny or Die, UCB) will heckle Windows 95 commercials and clips from the Windows 95 instructional “Cyber Sitcom” starring Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry. Plus, hear tales from Restart Me Up – Tsina’s bestselling fake oral history of Windows 95 – explaining the origins of Comic Sans and that annoying paperclip everyone hates.

http://www.emeraldcitycomicon.com/en/Sessions/19328/Windows-95-The-Blue-Screen-of-Celebration

 

“Restart Me Up” reviewed by Razorcake

razorcake logo

Restart Me Up got an awesome review in the latest issue of the legendary punk magazine Razorcake:

“Tsina . . . boasts pitch-perfect comedic timing, and her jokes fully embrace the latent absurdity of computers and the people who to this day line up outside of stores to buy them before anyone else. . . . Restart Me Up is an absolute tour-de-force of both form and function, with nary an error message or bum note to be found. Thumbs way up.”
– Michael T. Fournier

Full review here.