Somewhat Manly Nerd

- John Calapari is not going to make any jokes about making his players practice free throws by telling them to just visualize shooting them before going to bed. Should’ve learned after this:

Memphis has been great to watch for schadenfreude.

- Yahoo! fighting Microsoft’s acquisition is the ultimate example of delaying the inevitable.

- Ticketmaster is worse than the Third Reich.

- If you haven’t seen There Will Be Blood, you should rent/blind-buy it RIGHT NOW.

- Carlos Delgado needs to be brutally murdered — preferably by a multitude of ground balls hit into the shift.

- I’m getting sick of people just discovering Arrested Development now. Assholes. All of you.

- Busted Tees has cool shirts, but they are not worth 18 bucks each, especially a shirt that just says 18-1.

- Microsoft developing a “Wiimote” is one of the worst decisions I’ve ever heard.

The best is everyone else in the picture. Hahaha

I guess since I hadn’t made many music posts for a while, I’m making a bunch now. But I really want to go to this festival. Looking at the Bonnaroo lineup again, there weren’t as many bands I want to see as I remembered. Pearl Jam, Metallica, and My Morning Jacket are pretty much the extent. Plus, the ticket price, with all the extra fees they tack on, comes close to $275. No thanks.

If we get Lollapalooza tickets soon, they’re $190. 30% cheaper. Not to mention Bonnaroo is almost 200 miles further away. That comes out to like $50 in gas round-trip.

Anyway, without further ado, the lineup:

Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West, Wilco, the Raconteurs, Love and Rockets, Gnarls Barkley, Lupe Fiasco, Bloc Party, the Black Keys, Broken Social Scene, Flogging Molly, Mark Ronson, Cat Power, the National, G. Love & Special Sauce, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Explosions in the Sky, Brand New, Gogol Bordello, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks.

Dierks Bentley, Okkervil River, Amadou & Mariam, Blues Traveler, John Butler Trio, Girl Talk, CSS, Battles, Jamie Lidell, Butch Walker, Mates of State, Spank Rock, Brazilian Girls, Chromeo, Duffy, the Kills, Rogue Wave, the Go! Team, Mason Jennings, the Gutter Twins, Yeasayer, Grizzly Bear, MGMT.

The Weakerthans, Booka Shade, Santogold, Black Kids, Black Lips, Louis XIV, Dr. Dog, Nicole Atkins & the Sea, the Ting Tings, Kid Sister, Office, the Cool Kids, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Does it Offend You, Yeah?, the Whigs, Manchester Orchestra, Foals, Uffie, the Octopus Project, Cadence Weapon, Ferras, De Novo Dahl, Noah and the Whale, Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s, K’Naan, Serena Ryder, Newton Faulkner, Your Vegas.

Eli “Paperboy” Reed & the True Loves, Steel Train, Bang Camaro, the Blakes, Tally Hall, White Lies, Magic Wands, Electric Touch, Innerpartysystem, the Postelles, the Parlor Mob, Bald Eagle, Krista, Ha Ha Tonka, Witchcraft, We Go to 11, Sofia Talyik.

In bold, bands I NEED to see, while bands I might want to see are in initials.

Those three headliners are holy fuck awesome. Not many places I rather be sweating my nuts off in the summer heat than in a crowd moshing to Rage or NIN, grooving to The Black Keys, or zoning out to Radiohead or EITS.

This Tuesday, Muse released their third concert DVD, and of course, I immediately bought it. On June 16th and 17th in 2007, Muse was the first act to sellout new Wembley Stadium with a pair of concerts. The capacity crowd of Wembley was 134, 457. Even though they’ve supposedly made it in America, they couldn’t quite sellout Madison Square Garden, and that’s probably 1/5 the size. Their popularity in England is absolutely insane.

I do find it somewhat fitting that they were the first huge band to play in the new Wembley, as the band most connected with the old Wembley is Queen, and Muse has been described by many — including myself — as a mix of Queen and Radiohead (maybe with some Rage mixed in there, especially during their concerts).

Yes, that is an awesome performance of New Born with some filthy awesome riff added on. I could just keep posting videos of every goddamn song. But I’ll stop my Muse knob-slobbering now, for everyone’s benefit.

But not before I post this:

After ripping through the last 4 episodes of Battlestar Galactica Season 3 to get caught up — and skipping a few filler episodes in the process — I decided to check out I-CON tonight, if only to see the Season 4 Premiere on a massive projection screen. On the way, I realized I had forgotten my camera. Oh well, there would be ample time tomorrow for pics of the hornet’s nest of nerddom.

Just walking from the parking lot to the Javits building where BSG would be shown, the average attractiveness of girls walking by was easily the lowest I had ever seen in my life. My decision was not looking like a good one. But I was prepared for that. Then I got to the building, and it was filled with overweight, middle-aged nerds, of both sexes. There was still at least 20 minutes until the show, but the line was already massive, and the lobby was abuzz with heavy breathing and sweaty manchildren. Oh God, what had I done. I just wanted to watch BSG on a huge screen. I thought I knew what I was getting into, but like the Matrix, you must experience it for yourself.

Then I noticed EVERYONE had badges hanging around their necks. Well, not quite badges, more like pieces of paper in a laminated holder. But they were apparently called badges, possibly to make these people feel like they deserved an award for wasting their lives watching various Star Trek captains embark on a new, ludicrous adventure — preferably one with hot aliens — every week. I quickly realized THESE were the tickets. I would undoubtedly need one to get in. I asked one of the overweight, middle-aged guys where I could find one, and he said registration was at the Sports Complex ON THE OTHER SIDE OF CAMPUS.

I started walking, but looking at my watch, I realized I wouldn’t get back in time. And even if I did, I had seen the entire nerd nation of Long Island converging on the Javits Building, anxious to see Starbuck in action again, Gaius Baltar be Pimp Jesus, and Admiral Adama’s face continue to do its best impression of the moon. There was no way I was getting in.

Sigh. Well, my car was closer than the registration. There was not much more I would want to check out in the late-night festivities. The Guitar Hero 3 tournament was already over. Fuck it, I was gone.

Maybe I’ll try to sneak into some panels tomorrow, but there’s no way I’m slapping down $48 for a one-day pass. So instead, $10 of that just went to the COD4 Variety Map Pack.

Oh, and BSG was still pretty cool, even if I was just laying in my bed watching it on my 27″ SDTV.

In case you don’t know:

Attended by over 6,000 people each year, I-CON is a three day festival, designed to encourage literacy, creativity and interest in science and technology through science fiction and its related genres. Programming at I-CON spans a wide range of topics and interests, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, Japanese animation (otherwise known as Anime), science and technology, comic books, and medieval reenactment.

The only featured guests this year that I know are Ray Bradbury, Billy West (voice of Fry), the dude who was Darth Maul, and the black guy from Ghostbusters.

Even with my student discount, it’s $48 for the three-day pass. One day ranges from $31-48 depending on the day.

Anyway, I’m looking at the schedule, and there’s some potential gold here.

ANIMU PREVIEW
Early Morning Furry Get Together
Group Cosplay
A Brief History of Awesome
Your Furry Alter-Ego: The Why & How
Anime 101: The Road to Being an Otaku!
Smash Brothers Brawl Tournament
Creating Anthropomorphic Web Comics
Harry Potter Wand Making / Creature Battle
Gamer Sex 101 “R” Rated
Cosplay Competition
Hentai (18+)

On the flip side, there’s actually some legitimately interesting stuff:

Michio Kaku presentations (don’t know why he isn’t a featured guest)
Doctor Who screenings
Why People Suck: The Search For Suck (my professor’s panel)
Texas Hold’em tourney
Introduction to Podcasting
Space 2008, What’s New?
South Park Trivia Contest
Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Premiere screening (too bad I’m not caught up)
Guitar Hero 3 tourney

But really, none of these compare to the previous list.

I think I’m leaning towards checking out this spectacle. THIS is why I finally bought a digital camera.

muxtape.com

Countdown until shut down starting NOW.

The beauty of Muxtape is the total simplicity.

1. Make an account
2. Upload up to 12 songs (with a 10 MB limit)
3. Organize/tag songs
4. Profit?

Well, the fourth one isn’t true, but your friends can stream your mixtapes with ease.

I decided to nerd it up and upload game music. But awesome game music. I’m not quite done, but I’ll continue updating, and probably with different themes in the future.

cajolejuice.muxtape.com

Make some and post them in the comments section, people.

After Opening Day, Mets fans were understandably excited about the season, after watching Johan Santana pitch a great game to start his Mets career. David Wright picked up right where he left off, the new guys contributed, and Carlos Delgado didn’t look like a worthless piece of shit. Not to mention the Braves were 0-2 by the end of Monday. The Mets looked like a team driven by their total epic failure last season.

Skip ahead 24 hours, and Delgado is swinging at ball four again, the rest of the offense doesn’t score nearly as much as it should against the Marlins, and Pedro is out for however long the fuck knows. There’s no way that’s grammatically correct. Maybe it was a good thing Pedro got hurt, since he was getting demolished by the MARLINS. He heard a pop, which means he probably won’t be back for a while. Unless that was all an April Fools’ joke. I haven’t watched or listened to any sports today, so maybe they announced it on Mike and Mad Dog today.

. . .

goddamn it.

At least my fantasy team is doing well, even if Pedro did suck it up.

Well, uk.youtube.com is Rickrolling people right now. Over 63,000 people have already been Rickrolled.

I’m guessing www.youtube.com isn’t too far behind. Two minutes left until April Fools’ Day in America.

Just to let you all know, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia was ahead of the curve on this.

Edit: It seems that they don’t go by EST. Losers.