In addition to its beauty, the Seward Highway is also one of the most dangerous roads in the country - a combination of frequent avalanches, arctic storms, and narrow curves at freeway speed mean it is often dotted with makeshift graves.

This place is the setting for "Mimi", a song I couldn't help hearing in my head as I sped along that icy road.

Not all of them; in the wrong hands a cover song can be a crutch, or an awkward homage, or a flashy attempt at credibility by co-opting someone else's.

In the right situation though, a thoughtfully chosen cover song signals the turning point in a set like few other things can. It's a chance for a performer to say "this is what inspires me" without actually saying it.

This was the ninth song in the set that night, and before this I thought that the goosebumps might have been over for the evening.

When I watch this video, and when John belts out that last "try," I still get them every time.

In spite of THE DERANGED MILLIONAIRE'S constant threats to destroy me with his vast financial resources (in addition to the already constant fear of the coming global superpocalypse), I found our working relationship quite pleasant.

You should buy the book, which is great, and also see him on tour, which is uniquely hilarious.

This was one of the very first TLW songs I ever heard, and it so perfectly encapsulates what makes John's songwriting so great. There is a grace in the restraint to these lyrics that makes their meaning universal; the plainest words ARE the finest.

Played toward the middle of the evening's performance, it was the moment when this great show in this little house started to feel like we had found something outside the real world entirely.

A few of those moments have been put together into a video collection called "More Than Shapes," named for a song and a story from that evening.

The "musician playing in the living room" isn't a new genre, but there is something special about this musician, at this particular moment in his life that made these performances feel alternately cavalier and humble.

When we asked questions John's answers were thoughtful and introspective, and he played songs with the attention of a musician who was as much reacquainting himself with his music as he was performing it for an audience. To me that relationship has always been the draw of seeing Roderick perform; the shared catharsis in the connection between a performer's desire to play and a listener's need to hear it.

So, yeah: this is another musician playing songs in a living room, but to those in attendance at a good friend's house sitting in front of the fireplace, it felt like more than that. More than shapes.

This project wouldn't have been possible without collaborating on visuals with cameraman Tyler Kalberg, and the audio recording by Zach Varnell, both of whom you should know from their excellent Notes from Home video series.

Songs from that night will be posted here every Tuesday in February.

This is the view looking west, toward Lake Union and Gas Works Park.

The video was aired on our local news the following day.

It's super heavy duty, and it can clamp to just about anything while holding cameras, lights or anything else on the other end. That's why I was so disappointed when suddenly the arm stopped locking.

I thought it would be a nightmare to fix, but it was actually really easy. Here's a video about how to do it:

Be sure to check out my other how-to video, where I discuss how to mount filmmaking peripherals to the Kessler Pocket Dolly.

Here is Jonathan Coulton performing "Nemeses" from his album Artificial Heart, accompanied by John Roderick from The Long Winters.

To meet John Hodgman before this show was like meeting "The Wolf" from Pulp Fiction. His focus was set squarely on the performance ahead, and he cut through the crap while still being polite. What followed was an incredible night of music and comedy that changed my perception of what a book tour could be.

John Hodgman is a DERANGED MILLIONAIRE and author of three books of COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE.

He has been touring the country, and read at Town Hall Seattle from his new book THAT IS ALL. At the VERY LAST SECOND Ty Kalberg and I were granted access to film some of the CREATIVE PROCESS during rehearsal time before the show.

He may still be on tour AT THIS VERY MOMENT and you SHOULD NOT HESITATE to see him and his cadre of VERY SPECIAL GUESTS.