On Passing

This is not a personal blog. But it is a blog about nerdy culture as filtered through my own personal experience, and, as such, sometimes my real offline life intrudes. This is such an occasion.

I had originally planned to favor you today with another edition of Nerd News in Brief. There have been interesting developments of late concerning mc chris and Barack Obama, MC Lars and YTCracker, id obelus, and my pal Anthony just to name a few: things that are, at least to my reckoning, solidly newsworthy. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to write about these items at length at this time.

I was informed earlier this morning that my father has passed away. He and I weren't exactly what you call close, but he's my dad and I love him. A good bit of what I am today – both the bad and the good – is because of him. He instilled within me a love of music, a strong sense of self, and a penchant for profanity: the three pillars of projects like Hipster, please!

As I've stated, this isn't an ideal place for my personal emotional wallowings, so I'll simply leave it at that. Only to add that my planned vacation seems to've arrived prematurely and under less than ideal conditions.

Sincerest apologies to all those who have things in the works that I should rightly be promoting at present. I'll get back to the grind once I've had a chance to decompress, and you'll be at the top of the list.

That is to say I'll be back soon with more musings about geeky music, videogames, and Internet culture, and, in the meantime, don't worry too much about me. I'll get through.

Until then, stay well and be safe.

"'Cause we are not our parents, except that we are. So when you're losing what you're holding onto, you've got to let it go. You let it go. Oh, I know. And when I think about how much I didn't know before, it freaks me out to know how much I don't know now."

-- Uncle Monsterface, "Sparkle and Shine"

Wii60 and the Ways of the World

It’s been a while since I just, y’know, riffed around here, so this seems like as good a time as any. Truthfully, I’ve got a number of wholly unrelated things to talk about, so administering to these items a properly measured injection of snark sounds like the best way to tie them all together.

First, I recently acquired an Xbox 360 to keep my poor, lonely Wii company in the den. Yes, the pride of tech-heads circa 2005 – and a machine so delightfully flawed as to have an almost certain chance of revealing its catastrophic defect – is now mine. Huzzah! As such, I have also created one of those newfangled GamerTags that the kids are so crazy for. It is hipsterplease. Because I am not very creative.

Over the weekend I also had a chance to listen to one of those exclusive PAX pre-release editions of MC Frontalot’s new album Final Boss, a CD that not only possesses wicked cool back cover art by my pal Dennis but that was also declared the fucking wickedest Frontalot album to date by one Mr. J. Dangerously. (I know you’re wondering how I got my hands on a PAX release of this album when I did not, in fact attend PAX. The answer: I have covert agents in a variety of international stages of operation!) As per Jesse’s description, the album really is phenomenal. In fact, you should totally score a copy when it becomes available to the general public in the near future.

And speaking of Jesse D., after an almost laughable number of technical difficulties – centering around a primary email account that, as Church and Matt can attest, genuinely loathes humans – my interview with this lyrical titan from the Great White North is almost complete. We talk nerdcore, politics, and Alpha Flight. There also may be a bit in there about kidnapping Weird Al. I’m not at liberty to say. You’ll be able to enjoy the interview in its entirety when it hits the blog in early October.

Why October? Because your Uncle Zed needs a break.

Yes folks, Z. is going on a bit of a (well-earned) vacation next week. Unfortunately, this means there will be no second part to September’s Drunken Podcasting Month festivities. Between my real work, my writing for Wired.com, and all the stuff I do around here, I’m afraid I’m spread a little thin. And rather than rush through a bunch of stuff for the simple sake of getting it done, I’ve elected to cut back production for the next couple of weeks while I prepare for and enjoy my family holiday.

But fear not, for when I return all refreshed and whatnot it will be time for my annual October shenanigans! Yes, two spookerrific Halloween-themed podcasts plus an interview with Jesse plus Christ-only-knows-what-else! I am excited! Do you not see the indicative punctuation?!