He's not a 'code monkey' anymore
Who’s that bearded guy in the glasses and untamed auburn hair singing with thousands of fans in zombie voices?
That’s geek rock star Jonathan Coulton. You may not have heard of him, but to his fans "JoCo" is as much a household name as CoCo. Coulton got that way by writing songs about zombies, coding, gaming, math, technology and science fiction.
He’s got a new album out, “Artificial Heart,” which turns out to be a bit of a departure from his claim to nerd fame. Instead of zombies eating brains or creepy dolls that follow you, Coulton has been thinking a lot about turning 40. The result is a set of songs that are more mysterious, even to Coulton himself, than what he’s written in the past.
“It’s about the complicated nature of adult relationships and work and self-image,” he told us at Dragon*Con in September, with Paul and Storm (the opening band at many of his concerts) seated beside him. “It’s about being a grown-up. It’s about being a sad, old, not very relevant grownup.”
“Geeks can be grown-ups, too,” Storm chimed in. FULL POST
Lucy Lawless loves geeks
You may know her as Xena from "Xena: Warrior Princess" and, more recently, Lucretia from "Spartacus," but you may not expect that Lucy Lawless would fly all the way from New Zealand to California for TEDMED, a conference about great ideas in health care.
"It's like a beauty pageant for brilliant people, where you sit in the audience and all these geniuses comes out and like, parade their incredible brilliance in front of you," said the New Zealand-born actress in Coronado, California, in October.
He said/She said: 'Once Upon a Time'
Editor's note: The following is an e-mail conversation between CNN Geek Out's Elizabeth Landau and Henry Hanks. If you didn't watch Sunday night's season premiere of "Once Upon a Time," don't read any further. And for more analysis of the show check out Jordan Bienstock's recap.
Hanks: Liz, after watching one of the most anticipated new series of the fall, I was impressed by such an original idea for a TV series. In fact, it seemed like the setup for a great movie (not unlike “Terra Nova”).
Unfortunately, that is also a bit of a problem. I’m not sure where this series goes from there.
I also can’t help but get something of a “meh” feeling about this show. I really wanted to be excited about a series with such a talented cast and extraordinary special effects (and again, unique concept), but for some reason, I was only moderately interested in tuning in again.
Don’t get me wrong, I will give it a few more weeks. But I expected something more. FULL POST
'Weird Al' dazzles on Alpocalypse tour
“Weird Al” Yankovic has gone through many looks and styles over the past 30 years, and in a single performance he can appear as a dozen people. But there is a core, essential Yankovic who fuels the energy behind all of spectacle and manages to change gears constantly while remaining timeless.
I caught Yankovic on the Alpocalypse tour in Atlanta on October 1, the same night that his Comedy Central special aired for the first time. He joked with the audience that they could have just stayed home and watched that show for free instead. To thank us, he had his drummer, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, play a couple of solos, the most well-received of which was a single beat, which was met with wild applause.
Yes, panties have been thrown: Paul and Storm
You know how sometimes twins seamlessly finish each other’s sentences and sometimes just speak at the same time?
Musicians Paul Sabourin and Greg "Storm" DiCostanzo are like that, except that it’s almost always funny. And since they’ve risen to geek fame as the duo Paul and Storm, it’s hard to think of one without the other.
Whether acting out a nun fight, impersonating Bob Dylan in a well, or counting the pairs of underwear that fans throw at them, Paul and Storm know how to make audiences laugh.
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