Domino, Brett Domino

Do you enjoy unusual musical instruments?  How about nerds who exaggerate their awkwardness?  If so, then Brett Domino and the Brett Domino Trio may be right up your alley.

Domino, twentysomething years old, from Leeds, is the alter ego of Rob J. Madin.  Domino is a musician who, alone or with trio performs covers, medleys, orignal compositions, and semi-original songs using unusual, mostly electronic, instruments, such as the stylophone, keytar, monotron, kaossilator, kazoo, and theremin.  The Domino performance persona is extremely awkward and stilted, sometimes almost lacking in affect.  I suspect this stage persona is an amplified version of Madin's own personality, but my only evidence is that the other members of the group act the same way.  I should point out that the band is now down to two members, but they've kept the Brett Domino Trio name.  Most of Domino's and the band's performances are YouTube videos, but they have also performed live.  Indeed, they appeared on Britain's Got Talent a few years ago and just completed an eBay auction of a live performance in the winner's home.

If you find Brett Domino and company amusing, you might want to subscribe to his YouTube channel.

The Knights of Badassdom

It appears that LARPers are getting their own movie, courtesy of Summer Glau.

22/7

for i=1:lenght(geek)

geek(i)

disp('Happy Pi Day!')

end

Hella Big

In a move that is either geekily awful or awfully geeky, UC Davis Physics student Austin Sendek has petitioned the powers that be behind the Systeme International d'Unites to make the prefix for 10²⁷ officially "hella." What do I have to say about that? Noice!

Whedon Geeks it Up with Spurlock

According to E!, Joss Whedon and Supersize Me director Morgan Spurlock are looking for three geeks---I mean, people---to follow at Comic-Con and during the the months leading up to the convention as part of a Comic-Con documentary they are preparing. This "news" naturally provokes a few questions:

• Is this true?
• Could this be the next project that Whedon recently mentioned he would announce before Dollhouse finished its run?
• What's not to love about the idea of combining the documentary-making talents of Spurlock with the geeky awesomeness of Whedon?
• How can I be one of the lucky three?

WoW. Just WoW.

World of Warcraft is headed to the big screen, and the adaption will be directed by Sam Raimi. Gaming geeks everywhere will be thrilled by the news, I'm sure. I just hope Guild mistress Felicia Day can wrangle herself a role.

Hodgman: Is Obama the Kwisatz Haderach?

Last Friday, at the Radio and TV Correspondents' Dinner, both President Barack Obama and author, comedian, actor, and personal computer John Hodgman addressed the audience. In Hodgman's address, he spoke of his hope that Obama would be the nerd President that many geeks have been dreaming of, and he quizzed the President on his geek credentials. This speech is must-see viewing for nerds everywhere.

Apocalypse

This is the most geektastically funny xkcd in recent memory.

Reguild'd

Microsoft has agreed to sponsor another season of Felicia Day's internet series, The Guild. Cool.

The Final Frontier?

I guess I must be more optimistic than I usually give myself credit for, because I am planning to go see Star Trek sometime during its opening weekend, the weekend of May 8.  I'm holding out hope that this will be the first good Trek film since First Contact.*  Anyway, I don't think Alison is very excited about seeing this flick, so I'm wondering if there are any trekkies** in the readership who might be interested in going with me.

Update:  I just saw that right now, with 15 reviews counted, Star Trek's Tomatometer rating stands at 100% positive.  That's good news. (Meanwhile, Metacritic doesn't have enough reviews to produce a score.)

*  For those of you keeping score at home, this franchise's record stands at something like 4 good, 7 bad, depending on whom you ask. 

** Don't give me any of that trekkie/trekker nonsense.  "Trekkies" sounds less self-serious, so it's the one I use.

Urgent Mission

As a person with three degrees in electrical engineering, I found that the latest xkcd hit home.

Let's Just Call it 3, OK?

Happy (approximate) Pi Day, everyone!

Internet Series Review: The Guild, Season 1

(This review contains no significant spoilers.)

Alison and recently discovered the internet series The Guild, and we promptly watched its entire run.  Here's my review:

The Setup

The series was created by Felicia Day* based on her own experiences playing MMORPGs, and it follows addicted gamer Codex (Day) as her online life crosses over into her real life.  Season 1 consists of 10 episodes of about 3 to 6 minutes each.  Season 2 was supposed to hit the intertubes in September or October, so I'm unsure what its status is. 

What I Liked

• All the characters are distinct, with unique personalities.  I particularly enjoyed Codex, Zaboo, and Vork.
• The acting is sometimes pretty strong, and I especially enjoyed the actors filling the 3 roles I just mentioned.
• The script is fairly amusing, most of the time.

What I Disliked

• The acting is sometimes fairly weak, giving me the impression that I was watching actors reading lines, rather than characters saying what they felt.
• The dialog can be a little stilted and artificial-sounding at times.

Conclusion

Overall, I give the first season of The Guild 7.0 out of 10.  If I were a MMORPGer, I'd probably give it a full point more.  I'm looking forward to seeing the second season, if it ever materializes.

* Day may be familiar to the Whedonites in the audience as Vi, a potential slayer from Buffy's final season, and as Penny, the laundromat girl, from Dr. Horrible.

In Popular Culture

xkcd is great, if for no other reason than because it allows me to put up a one-sentence, one-link entry with eleven* tags.

* Well, it would have been eleven, but I reached Blogger's 200-character limit at ten. Can you guess which one is missing?

What's Your Erdos Number?

I'm sure any mathematicians in the readership frequently enjoy the webcomic xkcd, but I'm confident that today's comic will be a special treat for them. (As always, be sure to hover over the image for the caption.)

3.141592653589793238462643382...

Happy Pi Day everyone! Why not celebrate by eating a pie? Be careful to pick one with the right ratio of circumference to diameter.

How is She Still Alive?

I've just learned that my lovely and intelligent bride is entirely incapable of flipping a coin. She had to do it repeatedly today as part of her TA gig, and it apparently went rather poorly. She gave me a demonstration of her "technique" this evening, and she nearly had to administer oxygen to me after the laughing fit that ensued. Please, the next time you see her, ask her to repeat the demonstration for you. Just be sure that you aren't eating at the time. I only hope the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration doesn't see her attempting this "feat," or they'll surely revoke her license to drive.

Apparently, in the same class, she needed to open a Venetian blind to let some light in. When she pulled the cord, the entire blind came right off the wall. Maybe she should lay off the CrossFit for a bit.

She told me, "I'm sure [my adviser] thought I was a spaz, but I really wasn't doing it on purpose." When I explained to her that a klutz wouldn't do it purposefully either, she replied, "So Elizabeth correctly thought I was a spaz." Yes, correctly.

I realize that I'm not the most athletic person in the world, but for crying out loud! I think this could be a deal-breaker.

Like a Record, Baby

Here's an unutterably hilarious xkcd comic from the archives. Once again, be sure to hover over for the long caption.

Lisa Bonet Ate No Basil

I consider myself an avid student of language and grammar as well as a fan of "Weird" Al Yankovic, so it's no surprise that I heartily enjoyed this video of his entirely palindromic song, "Bob." Enjoy.

Update: Here's some more Weird Al fun. I haven't seen this one before.

3.14159265358979323846264338...

Happy Pi Day, everyone! I'm sure Weird Al is partying hard.