Nerd News in Brief

So I’m back. In a manner of speaking.

The good news is that the offending teeth have been dealt with. Dental retribution was both swift and, of course, bloody.

The bad news is that between the frequent antibiotics and the potent painkillers I am hazy at best and incoherent at worst. So please excuse me if this Nerd News in Brief is structurally confusing and verbally meandering.

• Homage vs. parody: Last week Monzy was once again called on to spread the good word of nerdcore, and Church was quick to find the piece and pass it on to me. As usual, Monzy manages to keep his expectations regarding the genre reasonable while at the same time letting his geek flag fly.
• The great racism debate, part XVII: Church was also kind enough to direct me to this piece about MC Frontalot in Northwestern University’s Medill's Journalism mag Medill Reports. It’s a pretty interesting read, but I especially like the authors’ simple summation that “Nerdcore was not created in a vacuum,” which plays oddly against the included criticisms of the Village Voice’s Tom Breihan. Take a gander and lemme know what you think.
• Long live Wrock: My pal Matt also recently passed on word that the Wrock EP of the Month Club is about to become an exclusive affair. With somewhere in the neighborhood of only 50 subscriptions left, if you’d like to snag 12 exclusive CDs featuring new music from Wizard Rock bands for the low-low price of 50 bones, you best act now.
• Ultra Magus: Matt also hipped me to the finalized dates for Wrock festival Magus 2008. Next June 20th through 22nd, Morgantown, WV will literally explode with Potter-related merriment. Be there or suffer the wrath of hundreds of rabid Wrockers!
• Why must you destroy all we hold dear?: WIRED magazine has a small feature – a featurette, if you will – on nerd culture Web comic xkcd. Just because I couldn’t find any glaring inaccuracies doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Consider the source.
• Note to self: Shoes not nerdy enough. Must buy these custom Reeboks.
• Geeky even by band nerd standards: In case you missed this when Jason blogged about it earlier, Kotaku has some crazy clips of the UC Berkley band’s videogame themed halftime show. The Tetris bit alone deserves your utmost attention.
• The WB: The gamer community known simply as Plat4mer recently posted an interview with geeky Canadian wordsmith the Wordburglar. The fake street lingo interview style is a bit grating, but Burg comes off as smooth as always. Plus, he admits to loving the DS, proving once and for all Wordburglar is the shit.
• I bet the icing is sharp and acrid: MC Router just announced the forthcoming release of her first full-length album. The First Lady of Nerdcore will be dropping 8-BIT CUPCAKE on us December 15th. How many references will Router make to PBR in the first track alone? I’m gonna guess a bunch.
• Straight Outta Winamac: On the subject of new music, last week, while in the aforementioned drug-addled haze, I was fortunate to make the acquaintance of Id Obelus via MySpace. Check out his profile for a taste of his clean, arty, challenging, and imminently nerdy rhymes, and for info on his new release flyourfavorite. I think you’ll dig it.
• I haven’t the words to describe it: And just to let you know the kind of stuff my friends have been funneling me in my altered state, let me wrap up today’s post with this vid. It’s both seasonal and surreal.