Nerd News in Brief

This delayed edition of Nerd News in Brief was sponsored by nerdcore superfan Lance. Y'all remember Lance, right? He was the subject of an awesomely surreal piece of fan art a couple months back.

Well, Lance further demonstrated his nerd love by tossing me some money to help pay for a new router after my old one went tits-up last week. So essentially, Lance pulled Hipster, please! back from the brink by resurrecting my home network!

As I've said before, I pretty much have the bestest fans of all time.

• Battle of the Sexes: I make no effort to hide my affection for the Wizrocklopedia, so let me just say that their recent Question Tuesday segment "He Said/She Said" is nothing short of inspired. Read on as Snidget and Whompy tackle the subject of sexism in the Wrock community.
• So Many People on the Internet: And speaking of amazing things on the interwebz, Church sent me a link to this Brentalfloss music video about notable web celebs. My only complaint? The proximity of "Two Girls, One Cup" and "Will it Blend?" It conjures up unsettling images.
• Us vs. Them: Also from Church comes news of an iPhone app that took home the gold at the Microsoft-sponsored Startup Weekend. While some would see this as an inroad to Mac/PC understanding and a rare glimpse of good sportsmanship, it really just turned into another catalyst of cross-platform douche baggery. This is the internet, after all.
• Light Up the Night: This Tuesday marks the triumphant return of freedom fighting rock opera The Protomen. Yes, their Act II: The Father Of Death LP will at last be available, but you can put your money down on a copy early. Pre-ordering, I believe they call it. What will they think of next?
• Remember When?: This Wednesday also marks an auspicious occasion: the one-year anniversary of the Mega Ran message board! In celebration of this event, the community is giving away prizes for the best Ran-related stories. Get full details and enter here.
• As in Beer: Even if you don't win any fabulous prizes in the above contest, all members of the board can download the Random Mixtape Vol. 2 absolutely free. It's just another token of appreciation from the Blue Bomber.
• Armor Man: Speaking of Mega Man, from Topless Robot (by way of Matt) comes word of a Mega Man II tribute done in chain mail. What. The. Fuck?
• How High?: And another Topless Robot piece – which likewise arrived in my inbox thanks to Matt – concerns drugs and comic books. Which, not to get too confessional here, immediately made me start thinking of my high school days.
• Cold Fusion: Congrats to Static Grooves, an electronic outfit that includes nerdcore MC/producer Redvoid, for being profiled as artist of the day in the Tampa Bay Times. Read the piece and give the guys some love at the TBT blog.
• Changing of the Guard: I Fight Dragons had a big news week last week. First, a handful of fall tour dates supporting mc chris were made public, which is awesome. And second, we learned that drummer Dave Midell has elected to quite the band so as not to have to abandon his position as a special ed teacher. Somehow that one both sucks and is still awesome at the same time.
• Two Great Tastes: Being friends with Shael Riley means two things: I am usually among the lucky first few to hear his latest creations, and he likewise exposes me to various other musical oddities from outside his sphere. One such example of the latter is Advantage: proGrammar. It's essentially a collab that involves proGrammar singing/rapping over tracks from game rock superstars The Advantage. It sounds strange, but it's well worth a listen. Trust me.
• Dance, Motherfuckers!: Though I, sadly, didn’t get to attend PAX again this year, I've been keeping on top of shit via Twitter. Many of my favorite event tweets have come from Zen Albatross. He's been paying particular attention to a series of chiptune street performances going on outside the event. This week we'll close with a clip of Circles getting his chip on guerrilla-style. Enjoy.

Circles @ PAX 2009 Lo-Tek Resistance from Zen Albatross on Vimeo.