The plot thickens

Shael. Beefy. Robots. Sweatshop labor. Acres of cardboard. A special cameo by MC Frontalot. And I don't notice until after I post today's MNNIB. Shit!

What am I talking about? The Grammar Club, of course!

Click and be amazed.

More Nerd News in Brief

Okay, so I only promised you one NNIB this week, but I’m about to serve you a second helping.

Are people really crying for more?

Probably not, but there’ve been some pretty interesting occurrences over the last few days and more than a couple of events on the horizon toward which I think you should turn your attention. Plus I had a little free time this morning so I figured what the hell.

Some stuff won’t wait til Monday.

• Word To Your Photoshop Skillz: Tired of lolcats? Sick to death of “Chocolate Rain?” Then welcome to the world of Word To Your. Surely it will wax a chump like a candle.
• Stone Fists: If you, like me, play guitar and love game rock but are just too damn lazy to figure out how to shred the shit out of "River City Ransom" on your own, Year 200x has answered your prayers. UltimateGuiatar.Com currently plays host to the only officially sanctioned and metalhead approved tab from Lansing’s favorite sons. You’ll need Power Tab software for the trick to work, but that is easy enough to procure.
• Noncommittal mc: A recent blog post from mc chris indicates that he’s once again struck geeky hip-hop gold. The coy mc stated that he’d been asked “to play a private party in three weeks for a game company that is about to release the game of the year!” Hmmmm. So said company is about to release the game of the year, and, as mc goes on to say, said gig will be in Seattle. You do the math!
• Vague mCRT: During last week’s marathon edition of The Takeover, Florida nerdcore artist and all around dirty wordsmith mCRT called in during one of the brief instances where an exhausted ZeaLouS1 et al were at a loss for words. In addition to acquainting the FCC with the proper use of the word “cock,” Rob also let slip that he’s already started laying the groundwork to secure some very special guests for next year’s Nerdapaloza SE. This act was described as a three member outfit with two members in the east and one out west. There are, conceivably, a couple of different outfits who fit the bill, but I’ve got my own (wholly unconfirmed) suspicions.
• Charming: This weekend Baltimore makes its move to steal the geek culture crown by playing host to two events you’d be a fool to miss. (A fool, I say!) Of course Saturday and Sunday will boast Charm City’s famous Baltimore Comic-Con at the Baltimore Convention Center. Frank Cho will be there, and I have it on good authority that he will be drawing buxom young ladies. Seriously. Also, this Saturday The Talking Head Club will play host to the 8-Bit Meltdown Marathon featuring BIT SHIFTER, NULLSLEEP, and the Power Gloved hands of Shawn Phase. There’s no better way to spend 7 bucks. I already checked.
• “I feel like it’s on fire.”: Church, Matt, and I are all fairly certain that this cat is taking this piss out of nerd musicians, but, in case you’ve missed him on Boing Boing and Digg, here’s some Ronald Jenkees to kick off your weekend.

Nerd News in Brief

As a member of the ever-growing legion of nerd parents, I found this item to be of particular interest.

The gist of it, for those of you who didn’t follow the link, is as follows: a new book entitled Sci-Fi Baby Names has 500 suggestions for ways to embarrass and alienate your child for years to come. It’s that simple.

Those of you in my age bracket probably remember growing up with a kid whose parents were diehard hippies and had favored her with some abysmal name like Rainbow. Well, the next generation may have to contend with a preschool class full of Sephiroths.

These aren’t hamsters you’re naming here, people; these are tiny human beings that you’re saddling with names unfathomable to folks who didn’t watch Babylon 5. Be creative, be geeky, but keep it within the bounds of reason. I’m just sayin’.

…

And before anyone starts talking about stones and glass houses let me say that my son was not named after Nicholas Brendon’s character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That would’ve been silly. He was named after the lead singer of Cheap Trick.

…

Don’t you fuckin’ judge me!

• Calling all street teams: Dan Lamoureux of Nerdcore For Life is presently looking for images of nerdcore gig flyers from the past year. If you’ve got a nerdy handbill you’d like to donate to the project, hit Dan up over at MySpace or via his Gmail (Shlomoism@).
• Fun and offensive… I’d call it Ofunsive: mCRT, the one-man hype machine behind Nerdapalooza SE, has just released his new album Bandwagon Jumper. It’s… um… profane. Really, it’s just nasty. Rob is my bro and all, but this one ain’t for the kids, the elderly, or those with weak constitutions. You’ve been warned. Those who like a good dick joke, however, are encouraged to play.
  
• Ginny is Punk Rocker: On the more family friendly end of things, The Whomping Willows recently announced plans for a new album due out sometime this fall. Whompy also dropped a few tentative track titles, which are actually pretty amusing on their own.
• The continuing saga: Everyone’s a winner at Nixon Peabody. Especially my pal Church. Hell, his [sarcasm] loving tribute [/sarcasm] to the world’s favorite self-congratulatory anthem even got him a little love from ABC. It’s all about the team.
• Snort, snort: Newsday is touting this new fall TV season as the proving ground for “the next wave of TV geeks.” No shit. It looks like NBC’s Chuck is their chief frame of reference, so I’m a little iffy. As much as the nerd-meets-secret-agent shtick appeals to me, I’m not sure I’m willing to bite yet. Time will tell.
• Nerd Ink TNG: Church has found yet another cache of nerdy tattoos. Damn… I'm starting to think this should become its own regular feature!
• Feel the power: To wrap up this belated edition of NNIB, here’s a clip of Powerglove performing "Storm Eagle" at the 16 Bit Genocide gamer festival. Church was nice enough to share his experience with those of us unable to attend, and once he described the band’s entrance – “they appeared onstage with foam-rubber Super Mario-esque accessories” – I knew I had missed something special.

Nothing to see here, folks...

As you have all certainly surmised by now, yesterday I took the day off… to celebrate labor… which is ironic. At any rate, this has thrown off the normal weekly schedule a bit.

That being said, you can expect at least one edition of Nerd News in Brief before week’s end. Aside from that, who knows! Some quick sever-fu by my man Antisocial made it possible to make my newest episode of Radio Free Hipster available over the weekend, so if you’re looking for something to do – and you’re not particularly picky with your entertainment options – you can check that out.

And while you do that, I’m gonna spend a bit of my day taking care of some housekeeping here-abouts. The “Features,” “Sites,” and “Sounds” sections of the navbar could use a good once-over!

Radio Free Hipster Ep. 29: About a Girl

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that the bulk of the best songs written in the history of human language have been about women.

Is that so farfetched?

This episode of RFH presents a (baker’s) dozen of my favorite dorky tracks about the ladies. Some are sweet. Some are angsty. Some are fuckin’ filthy.

I’ll leave it up to you to determine which are which.

Download Radio Free Hipster Ep. 29: About a Girl [hosting provided by Antisocial] Size: 42.6 MB Running Time: 46:36

Show Notes:

Intro: Baddd Spellah – “Radio Free Hipster Theme (feat. Beefy)”
Okay, so maybe this track isn’t exactly about the ladies, but it does put you in a lovin’ mood, right? No? Just me? Okay.

Track 1: mc chris – “First Date”
“First Date” is both one of those classic album-less mc songs and one of the few floating around out there that isn’t exactly a rap track. You can check out a lot of mc rarities over at MDT’s place.

Z’s first interlude: “The soothing sounds of The Fine Print.”
This episode starts a little different than most in that I use the lengthy instrumental intro from “Strawberry Jam” as background music bed for my first voiceover.

Track 2: The Fine Print – “Strawberry Jam”
Does anyone out there have an in with Tycho? I seriously love all The Fine Print material that I have, but unfortunately that ain’t a lot. I really need more of their stuff.

Track 3: Quagmire / The Four Eyes – “Dylan McKay”
The Quagmire bit just seemed to fit perfectly between The Fine Print and The Four Eyes. Speaking of, buy Five Songs. It’s wonderful, even if the title is slightly misleading.

Track 4: Random – “Aqua Soul (Robot Love)”
Random is one smooth cat. Case in point.

Track 5: DJ Earworm – “Promiscuous Lola”
The last couple eps have skimped on the mash-ups. I really felt it was time to work those back in.

Track 6: Grandmaster Pink and Diabolik – “Interplanetary Girls”
Pinky and D always deliver. I hear rumblings from down under suggesting there is a new album in the works. I await it with baited breath.

Track 7: Long Duk Dong / Hidari – “Girl Girl Girl”
Wow. In retrospect, that intro bit could be construed as a little culturally insensitive. Hidari are gonna kick my honky ass!

Z’s 2nd interlude: “For all the women who are independent and all the men who are… co-dependent.”
Wow. That was pretty damn lame. Even for me.

Track 8: Party Ben – “Independent Room”
This is another mash that I’ve been sitting on for ages. I hope y’all dig it as much as I do.

Track 9: The Princess Bride / The Goondocks – “Sneak A Peak”
Every time I hear the delightful sounds of the Goons I am reminded of how very far away I am from the epicenter of geek culture, Seattle, WA, and I weep like an abandoned child.

Track 10: TYT & PCK – “Drunk Chicks (feat. YTCracker)”
Nerdy South forever!

Track 11: Shael Riley – “Bits and Pieces”
Shael is another cat with a new album in the works. I am working to get some exclusive tracks from said project. And by “working” I mean awkwardly shuffling my feet and stuffing my hands in my pockets in hopes that Shael will notice my subtle charms.

Track 12: Tenacious D – “Fuck Her Gently”
“That’s fuckin’ team work!”

Z’s final interlude – “We seldom limit ourselves to what is proper.”
I take a perverse sort of pride in the fact that I routinely include extremely offensive materials in this podcast. It's how I get in touch with my inner 12 year-old.

Track 13: Pigeon John – “Money Back Guarantee”
This is another track that Pinky turned me on to. Suffice it to say that he and I have very similar tastes in music.

Let me take a moment here to explicitly state that this podcast (along with damn near every other project in which I am involved) comes courtesy of my pal Antisocial. Soc provides me with the storage and bandwidth to make stuff like RFH and Nerdcore Undercover.

So, if you dig the podcast and other projects, thank Soc.

And if you hate the podcast and other projects, curse his name!