Monday, July 23, 2007

Nerd News in Brief

I’m getting slow. Age is taking its toll. That’s the only reason I can think of to explain why both Matt and Church essentially lapped me reading Deathly Hallows. They’re both finished, and I’m still hanging around the half-way mark.

Sure, I didn’t actually start reading until late Saturday night. And, yeah, I did tear through 450-some-odd pages in a day and a half, and that’s not too shabby. But those fragile excuses are cold comfort at best; saving face simply isn’t an option.

So all I have is the age thing…

Even though technically both those cats are older than me…

You build with the bricks you’re given, people!

  • Don’t Curse: The genius that brought us the Mega Ran project, Random himself, was just interviewed by the fine folks at Capcom. Ran talked about his music, his love of video games, and the plight of the American educator. Personally, I dig how he didn’t play down the lack of violence and profanity in his tracks… thus the Heavy D reference.
  • Because I don’t bother artists enough on my on: Speaking of interviews, my brothers from GM4A have asked me to help them write a series of profiles of the artists on the finalized Nerdapalooza roster. Of course, I couldn’t think of anything more fun/nerdy to do than to tag team with my boys Anthony and Hex Warrior, so I was, as the kids are saying, “all up ins” this offer. What? The kids aren’t saying that? Shit.
  • Better late than never: My girl MC Router has just dropped a new pair of cover songs, and, honestly, the only thing bad I have to say about them is that I’m a little bummed they didn’t surface early enough to be on Nerdcore Undercover. Check out her take on Uffie’s Pop the Glock” and Retard-O-Bot’sI Don’t Think You Really Mean It.” Good stuff.
  • Ain’t too proud to beg: Okay, so here’s the deal: I’m currently looking for some kindhearted individual to do me a solid. John Allison, creator of my all-time favorite Web comic Scary Go Round, is gonna be at the Dumbrella booth at this year’s COMIC-CON, and I’m looking for someone to pick me up a t-shirt. I’ll totally give you the cash for the shirt and shipping – I ain’t tryin’ to screw you into lavishing me with free shit or nuthin’ – I’m just looking for someone to take a few minutes out of their con schedule to pick it up for me. Any takers?
  • What it’s all aboot: Let me wrap up today’s news with a couple of pieces of footage from last week’s nerdcore debut on MTV Canada. They feature some Q&A with Dan, YT, and ‘Hella, as I’m sure you were expecting, as well as a brief history of nerdy rhymes by the great Jesse Dangerously. In verse, no less.




8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not sure that he's going to do it this year (since he'll be in San Diego), but Allison has shown up at the Small Press Expo outside DC (with the rest of the Dumbrella folks) in the past. If he does show (this year or future years) you've got crash space.

Or even if he doesn't show and you feel like spending a day or two surrounded by indie comic folks (the expo is creator/publisher only. No stores. Folks like Fantagraphics and Top Shelf are the bigger people involved, with most of the space being taken up by people who see 100 issues as a large print run.)

The web comic presence has been decent in the past. Dumbrella always has a table and there are ussually a couple of other people around somewhere. Its a great place to pick up a ton of books quick. The year I went, I was in the hall for about an hour or two and walked out with as many books as I could carry.

Anonymous said...

I'd blame it on the kid, Z.

On that second vid: WTF is that subtitle at 1:15? "CORE: CENTRE OF AN APPLE (USUALLY HAS SEEDS)"

I may try to get down to SPX this year, Matt.

Geof said...

Damn, that was something to see. Slightly irritated that the hosts couldn't seem to get past the whole "No, really, you're kidding, right? It's all a big joke, yes?" idea, but it's all about baby steps, and YT & Hella did the ambassador thing admirably.

And Z., I'm definitely trying to work toward that Great Mullets of East Asia series. Thank God for camera phones.

Z. said...

I’ll keep that in mind, Matt. Thanks for the offer!

I think they were trying to be clever, Church. Quite unsuccessfully, I might add.

I always find it odd that folks get so weirded out by the concept of nerdy hip-hop, Geof. I reckon if they’d been talking about nerdy punk rock, no one would’ve batted an eye. Keep me up to speed on the hunt for the Great Eastern Mullet, and godspeed!

Geof said...

As undoubtedly racist as it sounds, I think the core difference is that people associate hip-hop with black culture, and black culture with gangsters. Intelligent hip-hop has all but vanished from the mainstream, so people are increasingly less aware of its existence. If it were otherwise, perhaps they'd have less trouble getting it, 'cause it's a much smaller leap from "intelligent, articulate black man/woman rapping" to "intelligent, articulate white man/woman rapping". Ah well, once again, it's all about the baby steps, and just getting on MTV at all is a hell of a start to changing perceptions.

Anonymous said...

First they ridicule you.
Then they attack you.
Then they become you.

funky49 said...

I'm hear to brag that I saved myself $20 and a buncha hours reading by just reading the Wikipedia summary of the book :)

of course.. I don't remember it saying what was particular about Petunia... hmmm...

Anonymous said...

Oh funky that was a major point in the book. I can't believe no one posted about that!

I still can't get over the news.