Nerd News in Brief

I received a copy of Guitar Hero III for my beloved Nintendo Wii just a couple of days after launch. (I, like all the other good CAGs, pre-ordered directly from Red Octane.) I’ve played previous titles, but this is the first time I’ve actually purchased the game myself. There really is something to be said for being able to get your GH on at the drop of a hat; it’s simply liberating!

It seems like whenever I pick up that controller I learn something about myself. The first day I realized that I never feel more at peace than when I’m rocking out to Social Distortion’s “Story of My Life” in my underwear. True story. And last weekend I suddenly became aware that I remember “Welcome to the Jungle” almost note for note after not hearing in its entirety for well over a decade.

Weird.

I’m not what you might call a “serious” Guitar Hero player, but they’re out there. Hell, Church even found this blog that an ethnomusicologist named Kiri Miller uses to research the title’s place within the echelons of videogame music. It’s a damn fine read, so check it out.

• Rock out with your Hawk out: MC Hawking got some well deserved love in a recent Boston Globe article about nerdcore hip-hop. MC Frontalot, YTCracker, and Monzy also got the nod, and the piece ends with an odd juxtaposition of mc chris’s fear of being lumped into the group and MC Lars’s fervent defense of the intrinsic importance of just “picking up a mike and rhyming over a break beat.” Personally, I was always under the impression that the shortened form of the word microphone was mic. Thanks for setting me straight, Boston Globe!
• So it’s that kinda thing: According to, well, damn-near everybody, Ron Paul is down for the nerd vote. I came upon this Time magazine piece last week, and when I mentioned it to Church and Matt, they pointed me toward this vid posted over at Nerd Arts. And then there was this post from YTCracker about the Paulnomenon. So apparently Ron is one of us. And all this time I just thought he was some old guy with two first names!
• Probably a much better idea: We talk a lot around Hipster, please! about nerd ink, so imagine my surprise when Church found these fake geek tattoos. If your nerd pride has a definite shelf-life, these are much simpler to remove than the real thing.
• Arkansas Traveler: Last month, southern gamer rockers The One-Ups got some sizable press from MSNBC. The piece doesn’t touch so much on VGM as a movement as the band themselves, but The One-Ups definitely deserve the pop. Unfortunately, it seems they don’t do bat mitzvahs. :(
• Peeing in the sink: MC Lars has recently graced the world with a poetry book. Bukowski in Love and Other Poems is available through Lars’s own merch store, and he even provides a few excerpts for the discriminating buyer.
• Westway to the world: While MC Lars in embarking on a tour of the UK this month, mc chris is spending his November in the southeastern and Great Lakes regions of these United States. Info for both should be available at your one-stop shop for nerdy gigs Stop Standing Still.
• His name is Mark, so it’s actually quite clever: Also on the gig front, there are still a few dates left in the MC Frontalot/Schaffer the Darklord tour. If you’re planning to attend, be sure to pick up a copy of STD’s newest disk Mark of the Beast. Once again, let me refer you to SSS for more details on venues and times.
• To the Top: ZeaLouS1’s newest release The Living Epitaph has finally arrived! Peep Z1’s site for further info and previews of this album’s offerings. Or just wait for tracks to start popping up on Radio Free Hipster, which you can be damn sure will happen soon.
• Dissecting the geek: Jason over at Geek Studies really gets around. Last weekend he went to an open casting call for Beauty and the Geek and the (somewhat regular event) Nerd Nite at Boston’s Midway Café. What nuggets of nerdy ephemera did he glean from these disparate journeys? Read for yourself.
• Are you man enough?: I have heard hushed whispers and received furtively encoded messages that lead me to believe that Doctor Popular is planning something big. As near as I can figure it’s what they call a “12 Hour Music Project,” a musical ironman competition that challenges Djs and producers to create a set number of tracks within a very stringent set of mechanical and thematic constraints. I’ll be sure to pass on more info as it becomes available.
• Steampunk laptop: Sometimes my ramshackle wit just fails to create a headline as interesting or ridiculous as the actual item to which I am referring. This is such an occasion.
• I iz dead AND dreaming: A clockwork laptop is a tough act to follow, so let me close this long overdue edition of NNIB with my favorite new literary-centered Internet meme the lolthulhu. Cultists: he haz em.