Monday, March 19, 2007

Nerd News in Brief

For those of you watching in black and white, I'll spell it out for you: we've finally broken the environment. Last week it was pushing 80. This morning? 35 degrees.

I blame the Republicans. Of course, I'll blame them for pretty much anything, so take that as you will.

But enough of my conjecture; on to this Monday edition of Nerd News in Brief.

  • Standing at the gates of the West: By all accounts, the first half of the Mediocre Tour has been a rousing success. The biggest bump in the road so far was an unscheduled trip to the ER for MC Router. Apparently she had some pretty serious inner ear trouble immediately following her plane ride to the PacNW, but, always the trooper, Router wasn't about to let the threat of deafness ruin her good time. A detailed account of the goings-on at Saturday's Saint Patty's Day gig in Seattle (the CD Launch party for the always excellent Goondocks) is forthcoming thanks to my bro BrĂ¼x.
  • Rage Against the mc: While Beefy, Router, and the Doc were feeling the love up Seattle-way, mc chris was having a ball in Texas. By his own admission, mc wowed ‘em at SXSW. Shit, he even got to jam on-stage with Tom Morello of Rage!
  • Epic Nerd: In other tour news, the MC Lars/MC Frontalot tour kicks off in less than a month. In addition to these two titans of rhyme, the list of “special guests” helping out along the way reads like an all-star nerdcore roll call, with names like Optimus Rhyme, YTCracker, and the undeniable DJ Snyder being bandied about. Peep the dates: 4/6 Cambridge, MA @ TT The Bears ( tickets ), 4/7 Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell's ( tickets ), 4/9 Columbus, OH @ The Basement ( tickets ), 4/10 Chicago, IL @ The Abbey ( tickets ), 4/11 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock ( tickets ), 4/12 Des Moines, IA @ The House of Bricks ( tickets ), 4/13 Papillion, NE @ The Rock 4/15 Denver, CO @ The Marquis Theatre ( tickets ), 4/16 Salt lake City, UT @ Kilby Court ( tickets ), 4/17 Boise, ID @ Bourbon Street ( tickets ), 4/18 Seattle, WA @ El Corazon ( tickets ), 4/20 Portland, OR @ Dante's ( tickets ), 4/21 Reno, NV @ Stony's 4/22 San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord ( tickets ), 4/24 Fullerton, CA @ The Alley ( tickets ), 4/25 San Diego, CA @ Epicentre ( tickets ), 4/26 Los Angeles, CA @ The Knitting Factory ( tickets )
  • William Fucking Shatner: Anyone seeking a brief respite from their pr0n surfing is encouraged to check out the conclusion of Wil Wheaton's two-part recollection of the time Bill Shatner took a dump on his dreams. It's over at the geek news portion of the Suicide Girls Web site, so the proximity of the article itself to naked, tattooed girly-parts is minimal at best.
  • Spelled with a “K”: I recently received a really nice email from a cat in Prague named Jeremiah Palecek . Jeremiah is a painter who has, for the better part of two years, been participating in his own painting-a-day project. What's makes the paintings of particular note is the subject matter; each day Jeremiah cranks out an oil painting centered on “nerd art, pixelated paintings, video game art, and other nerd related crafts.” In addition to creating nerdy visual arts (and his own brand of nerdcore hip hop), Jeremiah also supports the broader Nerd Arts, including Machinima, mash-ups, chiptunes, sci-fi, and all of the delicious flavor of artistic dorkiness. Y'all be sure to head over to his site, check out his wares, and give some nerd love to our brother holding it down in the Czech Republic.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, Jeremiah's page is a gold mine. My favorite so far is the guy who does pixelated images using rubik's cubes.

Z. said...

No doubt! Jeremiah is a man with a real dedication to nerd culture as an artistic and cultural movement, and his site has eaten up the bulk of my day thus far.

Anonymous said...

It's not even conjecture - those rightwing fools have been denying the facts about global climate change and stymied every effort made to actually deal with it for years.

Now, those facts aside - GREAT review by your bro. Made me wish I was there! But Thursday's show is approaching fast, and I can't wait. Got my tickets in the mail yesterday - and my free ticket, no strings attached offer stands!

(Btw, post more, damn it! I dig the blog.)

Z. said...

Thanks for the love, Luzid. Yeah, Brooks did a phenomenal job, and that’s only about 20% of his overall impressions! Dude is mad comprehensive. Have fun at the LA gig. Be sure to tell everyone that Z. says hi.

And concerning posting more, I do what I can, but between the regular features, planning for the regular features, and putting together the podcast, time sometimes grows thin and frayed at the edges. ;)

Dick said...

Damn Z, i swear man Jeremiah's page just literally made my day. beinga n artist who works in a similar field, it just, well it just blew me the fuck away!

see, THIS is why you are so awesome!

-one love

Z. said...

I thought you’d dig it, Pink!

Wait… I’m awesome? How long have you known? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?

And to think: all this time I coulda been living the awesome life.