Friday, June 26, 2009

More Nerd News in Brief

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen: is it racist tripe or a groundbreaking assault on the senses?

Honestly, I find it hard to give a shit either way. Shia makes a good enough loserly everyman and Megan Fox is hot in that sort of sweaty, truckstop hooker way, but I don't need no ham-fisted human drama or squishy hyper-sexuality in my robot movies. I need robots.

Big robots I can actually see during the fight scenes. (Although my pal LogicOne assures me that the on-screen carnage is better framed this go-round.)

I rarely hit up the theater, and I'm not sure I'm willing to blow my cinematic wad on RotF when we have another Potter movie just around the bend. Not after the disaster that was… well, pretty much everything else Michael Bay has ever directed.
  • He Would Eat Candy: The Wizrocklopedia is presently promoting the What Would Dumbledore Do? campaign of the HP Alliance. The easiest way to participate is to share the lessons learned from the wizened old wizard via Twitter using the accompanying #Dumbledore hashtag. Spread the magic.
  • Who Now?: And thanks to my buddy tk4257, I am now wholly preoccupied with thoughts of the forthcoming multiple Doctor one-shot. That's a bunch of Time Lords!
  • Sonic Screwdriver +1: Nigh simultaneously, Seattle Geekly mentioned this piece about a new Doctor Who RPG. Having never played its predecessors, I don't exactly know what to expect, but I know I need my own TARDIS. Desperately.
  • An Awful Lot of Vlogging: Chameleon Circuit, who are currently celebrating the triumphant release of their debut album, have posted a new YouTube video talking a bit more about the band and Trock in general. And by "a bit," I mean quite literally a small piece. But the important thing is it shines a light on the new album which is available both physically and electronically.
  • The Lineup: Am I the only person having trouble with Nerdapalooza's official site? Sometimes it seems the old gal just ain't there. Thankfully, Ant has mirrored their handy-dandy event schedule at GM4A. Do you see? Can you feel its awesomeness? Let it envelope you like a warm blanket. Or maybe just an envelope.
  • Get Your Vote On: My boys from Rivercrest Yacht Club are up for a Fort Worth Weekly Music Award. (In the best hip-hop/r&b category, naturally). If you feel so inclined, drop by and cast a vote for your fellow nerds.
  • Call Him Michael eBay: mc chris is eBaying a veritable shit ton of robots for his CF charity. Some are Transformers. Some are Gundam. Some are robo-dogs. If you like robots and helping sick kids (and maybe dogs), you oughta bid.
  • Complementary Perspectives: Three of my favorite things – podcasts, hip-hop and Canadians – have finally come together under a single banner. Of course I'm talking about the new show from Backburner. What, you didn't know?
  • Both Brilliant and Gamey: And on the subject of podcasts, my friends the Brilliant Gameologists have just released a teaser for the forthcoming third season of their regular offering. What wonders will this new season hold? Will Meg talk about dogs? Will Josh be snarky? Will Zeke sing? There's only one way to find out.
  • All Grown Up: This April, the Nintendo Gameboy turned 20. To celebrate this blessed achievement, Zen Albatross has posted a fitting tribute at RacketBoy. Read on to learn everything you ever wanted to know about the Gameboy line, but were simply too intimidated by its 2-bit color palette to ask.
  • What the Ftagn?: Church sent me a link to this vid last week. I was both fascinated and appalled. You will be too.
  • Laughing on the Inside: Also courtesy of Church comes this piece from Slate. It's about nerdcore. Well, it thinks it's about nerdcore. Really it seems to be more about lumping all rap artists that are A) white, B) nerdy or C) both of the above in together as all parties to a single bad joke. And yet it concludes by celebrating the rapping prowess of Andy Sandberg… a comedian. Go figure.
  • "Just Another name for Autism:" And one final nugget from Mr. Church concerns the perceived link between nerdery and autism. It's an interesting read to say the least.
  • Doin' his Own Little Thang: And on a lighter note, everyone knows I love weird covers. Why, here comes one now! It's Matt Ryd celebrating all the single ladies. Now get your hands up!

10 comments:

Jimi said...

re: that thing on slate:
Wtf? It's ridiculous to suggest that the only appeal of nerdcore is the joke of mixing white people with rap. I could go on and on but I know I'm preaching to the converted here. I wish they'd at least done proper research - it says a lot that everyone assumes that MC Hawking is a white guy - a quick google of 'mc hawking white' gives a link to a page on his own site on which he says "as a person of mixed race, I find the "white rap" angle to be rather annoying and off-target"

Church said...

@Jimi

I think they've heard "White and Nerdy" and think that they get Nerdcore. It's about SOP for journalists.

Z. said...

True enough, Jimi. Poor Ken becomes whiter and whiter with each poorly researched fluff piece. ;)

And I hear you, Church! Those damn journalists and their... heywaitaminute!

Anthony said...

I think it is interesting that Nerdcore is about being white and nerdy so says this dude when we just had us a little nerdcore show in Cali on the 20th. The line up consisted of a black guy (Nameless), a Mexican (Dr Awkward), a Samoan (ZeaLouS1), and half Native American (IllGill).

Church said...

@Anthony

It's interesting that the pertinent criticism--that Nerdcore is overwhelmingly male--goes overlooked.

Z. said...

Too true, Ant. Nerdcore features artists that are not only black, but also Asian, Latino, Polynesian, Persian and a half-dozen other ethnicities. And those are just the guys we know about.

And you make another fine point, Church. I now find myself wondering what styles of music are *not* dominated by men. I reckon some research is in order.

Anthony said...

@Church I do tend to try and make a priority of getting female artists on my compilations I work on like Nicole Adams, injury (both from OCReMix), Zombies Organize, etc. There seems to be a lack of female musicians and rappers across genres though, not just nerdcore like Z said. would be interesting to talk about and learn why that is though.

And what about Wrock? I am not too familiar with it but seems to be a large female musician base in that genre actually

Z. said...

I'll have to confer with Freya to get a better picture of the artistic makeup, Ant, but I know that Potter fandom (and thus Wizard Rock) is very female-oriented. Not sure how that stacks up on the other side of the stage, though.

Brenden Jay said...

on an intelligence free note, I completely agree with : "Megan Fox is hot in that sort of sweaty, truckstop hooker way"
I haven't been able to put my finger on why she doesn't appeal to me as much as she does to other *cough* individuals. *cough*
But I think that that sums it up perfectly for me.

Z. said...

Glad to know I'm not alone, Brenden. It's not that she's unattractive; it's just that she appears unclean.