Nerd News in Brief

Hey, you know what's happening this weekend, right? You don't?! For shame!

Tonight, funky49, MC Wreckshin and Krondor Krew will perform live at the Hot Topic in Tampa's University Mall. Show up. Hear music. Buy ironic t-shirts.

Tomorrow night is a eastern seaboard double-header, as infernal fiend Schaffer the Darklord premieres a newly retooled set featuring his backing band the Darklords at Arlene's Grocery. Meanwhile, in my own Clemson, SC, int eighty of Dual Core will play the SouthEast|LinuxFest after party at Rockhoppers.

Suffice it to say, this weekend the east coast is bringing the noise.

• Contest of Champions: Summer means contests, and this one's a veritable beast. OverClocked ReMix in association with 8 Bit Weapon and Nokia have put together a remix challenge that can only be called epic. In short, the artist who best remixes/reinterprets the music from 8BW's Reset Generation soundtrack will win, among other wicked-awesome stuff, a brand new Nokia N81 with 8GB of memory and Reset Generation pre-installed. Hit up OCR for full details, and then get to work!
• All the Way Live: And speaking of 8 Bit Weapon, here are some pics from their recent E3 after party. It was hosted by Girl Gamer and Digital LA at The Conga Room. And it was obviously awesome.
• Sale of the Century: Harry and the Potters have a trio of WRock shows lined up in the coming weeks. On June 19th they'll be at Oldham Elementary in Norwood, MA, on the 20th they're at Brooklyn's the Bell House and on the 21st you can catch them at Philadelphia's First Unitarian Church. The band is also having a $5 CD sale through their Web store, so you'll definitely wanna check that out!
• 100% USDA Grain-fed Geek: MadHatter and our friends from the Heartland have a lot going on at the Scrub Club stronghold. New models, new music and new plans are the order of the day. See the Scrub Club hub for more details.
• He's Our Beyonce: Random has recently released a track about Halo from the (apparently) abandoned Cartridge Family project. Peep the hotness at Ran's board.
• The Power Within: For years fellow fans have been asking me what became of former Optimus Rhyme collaborator Broken English. At long last, I have an answer. If you still use the MySpace, be sure to give these guys a friend request.
• Free to Be: Thanks to Kyle of Nitro Game Injection for hipping me to this piece from GameSetWatch. It contains a translated version of the "Falcom Music Free Declaration" from the site of Japanese game developer/publisher Falcom. It essentially invites "both commercial and non-commercial groups to use songs from its remarkable catalog without any charge or prior permission for television shows, radio programs, commercials, web sites, concert performances, and more, so long as a copyright notice is included."
• Hip to be Square: Laura Klotz posted an interested piece to the Geek Girls Network blog earlier this week about the reclamation of the term geek. She also discusses several instances of lady geeks in popular culture including one Liz Lemon, who's been, as Church points out, getting ample props of late.
• You Don't Say!: Jason from Geek Studies passes on news of another geek outing. This time Energy Secretary Steven Chu admits he's a nerd. Really? You don't say, Steve!
  
• Ye Olde Sourcebook: Matt is a good friend. Knowing my love obscure manuscripts and also realizing that I don't typically follow XKCD too closely, he sent me a link to this little jewel. It all makes sense now.
• Guthurt: My (occasionally) Charleston-based brother ProjektZero is currently selling beats for $5 a pop. More specifically, he's selling said beats to try and earn a little scratch to cover some whopping medical bills. Give this a read and give some thought to picking up an instrumental from PZ for your next project.
• Firaga!: At 33, I have officially crossed that line where buying toys for myself is completely unsettling to all involved. Still, I can't help but want one of these Black Mage figures. They are made of plastic and win.
• Blockhead: funky49 knows the children are our future. Teach them well, and let them create giant robot exosuits.
• Across the Pond: Anthony points out that UK geek rocker DanPlusAdd has put a new face on his recently resurrected homepage. Give it a look-see for all pertinent information concerning the folksy Brit, and be sure to join his mailing list.
• Clothe Thyself: Also from the shores of the honky motherland comes news of sexy new Superpowerless shirts. Mommy, why is that teddy bear so sad?
• Tetrominosexual: Mike Damanskis is a sick, sick man. So much so that he elected to celebrate 25 years of Tetris by concocting the Hardcore Tetris Orgy. And I love him for it. This one's not safe for work and will likely dismantle your childhood. But it's kinda worth it.
• All My Little Handhelds: Matt also wanted to share this find by the great Neil Gaiman. It's a Magnetic Fields cover as performed via LSDJ.
• 75% Awesome: Sadly, it appears as if our friends at PBC Productions have decided they will not, in fact, favor us with another season of The New Adventures of Captain S. So take a moment and reflect on how a straight-D student became a hero to us all. Now tip the bottle.