Friday, March 27, 2009

Nerd News in Brief

For the record, I have nothing of consequence to add to the recent "SyFy" debate. But that won't stop me from speaking my piece.

I mean, we all realize that this is a shitty idea, right? In a world where being a nerd is slowly but surely becoming an asset, the Sci Fi Channel wants to distance itself from the hard-line geeks that have kept the ship afloat for some 17 years. Whatever. That's a little insulting, but not so much as the network's complete and total misunderstanding of our culture as a whole.

I dunno, it just seems to be an odd approach even considering that disconnect. If SyFy wants to reach a broader audience, perhaps it should realize that nobody watches those awful goddamn original movies. That would be a nice start.
  • How Does He Breath?: My pal Beefy has a brand new EP free for the taking. It is entitled The Adventures of Beef Thompson: IN SPACE, and it's a collection of fun freebie tracks from the past year.
  • Like Darryl Hannah: In case there was ever any doubt, Jarod is the fucking man! He has made his amazing recording of Optimus Rhyme's farewell show available at Archive.org. Listen and cry like a baby as an era comes to a close.
  • MinMaxed: Also on the free music tip comes the debut solo album from Aussie MC The Ranger. 12-tracks strong and featuring the additional talents of T.y.T., Super Dragon X, DJ Snyder, Random, and Jesse Dangerously, The Cook-Up is an easy recommendation. Trust me; you want this shit!
  • Game On: There's also been a pair of interesting game-related releases getting some press in recent weeks. Antisoc hipped me to the Ocarina of Rhyme mash-up, and the great Larry Legend to Jesse Tugbout's 8-bit hip-hop medley.
  • Color me Depressed: On a related note, the latter of those two albums was recently profiled by a blog called ChristWire. Okay, maybe "profiled" isn't exactly the word I'm looking for. Defamed, maybe? Mischaracterized? Suffice to say that, as a native of the rural south, it takes a fairly impressive level of racially insensitive bullshit to phase me. This is it.
  • We Don't Serve Their Kind Here: Church was kind enough to turn me on to yet another free music find. It's a digitized version of a promo sampler from a funky post-grunge Star Wars rock outfit called Twin Sister. Cop it from Other Poison Devils.
  • He' s very Superstitious: Also from Church comes this little jewel: The Top 5 Geek Rock Stars. Frontalot and The Protomen made the list, as did some interesting selections from the mainstream.
  • In the Dork of the Night: Dorkgasm has a really nice review of the Nerdcore For Life documentary that is both even-handed and insightful. Give it a read.
  • Girls Gone Wild: Jason, of Geek Studies, found this chart that shows the virginity rates among students at Wellesley College. It is sorted by major, with the more studious seemingly tending to hold onto their v-cards longer. Let me spell it out for you, guys; if you're in Massachusetts, try and find a Wellesley studio art major. That seems like what we call a sure thing.
  • More Punk Than You: MC Lars was recently interviewed by the UK rockers at Trash Pit Magazine. Give it a look, and admire Lars's excellent Wesley Willis t-shirt.
  • The Last Two Are Lies: What can we expect from the new album from the lovely Marian Call? Weird instrumentation. Quirk. World music influence. Better production. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria.
  • On the Free: Gugger Fane alerted me to the fact that the We Are Wizards documentary is now available for free viewing from Hulu. This is easily six kinds of awesome, and I all but demand that you check it out.
  • Game Music 4 Most: Reader Drystan Knight would like for you to turn your attention to Games Radar's list of 23 Amazing Game Soundtracks You Don't Remember. I'll be damned… I really don't remember some of those.
  • All Science, No Fiction: funky49 got some press for his recently released Rapbassador EP from his native Tampa Bay Times. Just follow the link, choose the March 20th edition and hit up page 42. There he be.
  • Maybe, Baby: funk also let me know that his previous release Starblazer will be featured alongside other geeky masterpieces in cdbaby's Nerdcore Hip-Hop collection beginning April 6th. From the forwarded message from cdbaby central: "The geek shall inherit the earth. Or at least invent his/her own brand of hip hop, reliant on clever wordplay and bitingly esoteric themes. You're about to get schooled." Get excited!
  • Insert Coin: If you are already excited about the second installment of Game Music 4 All's Here Comes a New Challenger series – and I truly believe you are – check out the GM4A MySpace for a sneak preview of the track "Untitled." It's so fuckin' cool it doesn't even need a title.
  • Coming to Your Ci-tay!: Random needs your help. The big man wants to tour the country this summer, and he's looking for venue suggestions. Give it some thought and then holler atcha boy.
  • OMC: mc chris has announced his tour dates for April and May of this year. He will be playing all over the goddamn place. You should go see him.
  • Chip-tastic: To wrap up this week, I present this great vid from our new friends I Fight Dragons (who will, I am told, be opening for DragonForce in Milwaukee next month!). It's a bit of a primer that explains how the band uses various controllers and videogame peripherals to perform their unique blend of electronic pop-rock live on-stage. Get enlightened.

10 comments:

Justin said...

Is Christwire being serious? Some of those articles just seem so over the top it seems like it's a parody site, like Landover Baptist.

Z. said...

Y'know, Justin, the more I read the more I begin to agree with you. That shit *can't* be real.

Joshua Ballard said...

I've done computer work for the AFA back when they had a constitutional law group attempting to make a national religion, rebuild slavery, and send most of us to concentration camps. The things said in those offices were frightening, and the worse bit was they believed it.

BG Josh said...

Re: SyFy: First off, those movies are awesome. Manskeeto and SS Doomtrooper were incredible works of science fiction. I am seeking funding for my thriller “Big Pig” (practically writes itself) and a friend of mine wants to make “Clam.”

Second, I am glad for this reaction from SyFy. It is completely stupid in terms of marketing. You never turn away your core audience. You always maintain your core and expand your audience. Marketing research is very clear that retention is far more valuable than new audience.

So why am I happy? This is part of the television death spiral. In a death spiral inappropriate overreaction is a late stage development.

Recently I gave up TV or rather I gave up paying $75 bucks a month for nothing. The 4 shows I actually watch I get on hulu or another medium. Movies I get from Netflix and if I just want to throw something on it is netflix streamed on xbox. Television is dead to geeks.

The problem is that the Internet cannot currently sustain the making of origional content. Here is where SyFy fits in. The movies are relatively cheap and one shot productions. And a large percentage of the audience is on line. And now, disgruntled.

Time for some clever entrepreneur to step up and gruntle them.

So anyone looking for a script, I can finish up “Big Pig” pretty quick. Also I have a line in on a script about a giant killer clam.

Re: Girls Gone Wild: If you are a freshmen kid trolling for tail, girls in your age group at college are the wrong mark. First off, they are all looking at older members of the student body. So of course you could take the same tact and go after high school girls. The issue is that this is seen as immoral and illegal. Besides they all suffer from inexperience. And do you really want to have to train them up?

No, your prime target for sex should be grad students. They love NSA sex and they usually are quite skilled at the act. Hot, extremely caffeinated, older women who have ex boyfriend issues and need a quick lay before they finish up their thesis at 3 am.

Your other chance is targets of opportunity. No matter how geeky and/or obese and/or bizarre and/or socially maladjusted you are sooner or later you will run into a chick who is into you. Oblige this interest by banging the flaps off her.

And if you are looking for love? That's cute.

freya said...

"If SyFy wants to reach a broader audience, perhaps it should realize that nobody watches those awful goddamn original movies. That would be a nice start."

I love this sentiment. =)

Z. said...

You worked with the AFA, Drystan? I bet you have crazy asshole stories that could shock and amaze even me. ;)

I think I can help secure funding for Big Pig, Josh, but only if you do a rewrite and make it a musical.

We think alike, Freya!

krys.brezinski said...

I'm pretty sure ChristWire is an attempt at satire--I mean, one of their front page articles is about the "new" video by MC Hammer.

Z. said...

Really, krys?! I've *got* to see that. :)

Meg said...

first of all, zomg! We Are Wizards for free on Hulu is the best thing ever. Fact.

second of all, I'm pretty sure ChristWire was also the host of the most hilariously awful Coraline movie review ever. Interesting site, that.

third, as someone at a women's college myself, that wellesley survey kind of ticked me off- I'm hoping it was originally just about sexual health on campus or something, but the out-of-context responses to it have just been varying levels of misogyny. just cause a college girl's not a virgin doesn't mean she's easy, and also, regardless of major, you have to be studious to make it somewhere like Wellesley. I don't mean to be overly critical or anything, it just rubbed me the wrong way- the comments on the linked-to page itself were way worse. though I don't know where to start with Josh up there. Anyways. rant over.

Z. said...

Feel free to rant away, Meg. It's what we do. :)

Jason brought up an interesting point in his original message about the survey concerning how feasible such findings could be in the first place. The survey itself seems a little unscientific to begin with.