Nerd News in Brief

I am a Star Wars hater. I wasn’t always that way. Hell, as I child I petitioned to have my name changed to Luke. Had my mother conceded, I may’ve stayed firmly entrenched in Star Wars fandom, but that wasn’t the case.

As a result, I write this as a Lucas-ignoring shell of a nerd.

Star Wars backsliders are quite common these days, but I had actually lost most raging Force boner years before those shitty prequels ruined to saga for the rest of you. I am neither proud nor ashamed of this simple fact.

I’ve still got those misty water colored memories of the original trilogy in its original form, but (with the exception of the occasional re-watching of Empire) I’d rather not revisit it. But my secret shame, my secret hope, is that I’ve been looking for something to make Star Wars fun again for more than a decade.

Thank you, Family Guy, for doing just that.

• In Cali: This Saturday (September, 29th, for those of you who are currently calendar deficient), BOSSFIGHT’s ZeaLouS1 and IllGill will be performing at San Diego’s SDSC. The show starts at 9:00 PM and also features live House/Trance mixing by DeWitte. There’s no cover, so all 21-and-ups are encouraged to attend.
• Nerdy rock goodness: Glenn Case has posted 48 new Half Racks videos from their 9/14/07 Comet show at his Web site. Most bands can’t pull off compelling covers as diverse as Prince’s “Take Me With U” and The Who’s “Boris the Spider,” but most bands ain’t the Half Racks. Take a gander and be amazed at this eclectic collection of excellent original and cover material.
• Behold The Sinister Six!: At long last, the identities of The Sinister Six have been revealed! To get a taste of what MadHatter, YTCracker, ZeaLouS1, Benjamin Bear, Big Stephen, and ShelShocker have in store, peep the group’s site for a teaser track as well as their first single “Make Way” in both MP3 and video form.
• She's our girl: MC Router recently confirmed that she did, in fact, send in a submission for VH1's Female Rapper Show. Concerning her chances, Router remarked that she was pretty sure she wouldn’t make the cut, but that if she did she’d “let them know nerdcore is taking over” and not let us down. We’d expect no less from our First Lady! :D
• I already do: Router’s big bro and frequent collaborator Beefy has a new track up on his MySpace entitled “You Can Call Me Beef.” It boasts amazingly polished production by the other half of 1337 Geek Beat, T-byte, and a flow that’s not to be believed. It’s quite different from a lot of Beefy's earlier work in that it’s has a very fast, rocked-up feel, but he manages to work some Scrubs references in there so as to remind that he’s still the same old Beef… only better.
• Wait, we’re a minority now?: Something Awful hates you and all you stand for. I mean, of course they do – they’re Something Awful – but this time they’ve designated “Ironic Rappers and Their Fans” as the third most awful minority. The piece takes aim directly at MC Frontalot, and also manages to cast mc chris, MC Paul Barman, and the Beastie Boys in an unflattering light. The highlight has to be: “Get a microphone in front of a CS major and you can rest assured that an unintentionally racist pantomime of thug tropes will come spilling out of their mouths.” So I guess the bad news is that we’re all a bunch of bigots. The good news is that it’s totally inadvertent.
• The Bard Who Lived: The Times of India purports that a young William Shakespeare was a dead ringer for Harry Potter. Patrick Spottiswoode, director of Globe Education at Shakespeare's Globe, was quoted as saying, “We asked [a police artist] to imagine what Shakespeare may have looked like at 14 [and the] result is fascinating, but disturbingly like Harry Potter.” You Brits are weird!
• A storied past: In addition to sharing the above with me, Church also hipped me to this really odd Publishers Weekly article about… well, nerds. It touches on two nerd-related books that should make it to shelves this winter, David Anderegg’s Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them and Benjamin Nugent’s American Nerd: The Story of My People. Shit, it also includes a lit nerd timeline! It’s like Santa got my letter.
• The Kids Are Alright: I’m gonna go out today on not one but two videos, both submitted to me by my friend Matt. The first is of 8 year-old DJ Sara. I’m usually the last person to catch shit like this, but I thought I’d post it just in case you’re with me at the back of the class. The second is a live version of “Satisfaction” as performed by the band that introduced a young Z. to the concept of nerdy music, DEVO. Enjoy them with your kids.