RR-regular Abahachi picks the playlist from last week's thread on nerd/geek-related songs
We are the outsiders – but not your cool, edgy outsiders whose only real grudge with the world is that they have to do homework and be in by half-ten. No, we are the real outcasts and misfits, the despised and the scapegoats, whose only defence against rugby players and cool kids is superior intellect and knowledge. Is *Mis-Shapes* our greatest anthem? Does an unexpected encounter with the Mi-go cost 10% sanity?
We own your future. Maybe for the moment *Code Monkey* is your downtrodden servitor, wondering why the hell you don't just read the manual rather than clicking things randomly, but we have the brains. Some day we'll seize our *Opportunities*, and then we'll own you, and be playing Subbuteo with real players, and Hollywood will devote itself to recreating our favourite comic books – though of course the films never match the original…
It's not just a male thing, either – there's another of your shallow preconceptions. *Anorak Girls* can be just as obsessive about listening to proper music rather than your lowest common denominator landfill, and *Geek the Girl* is just as shy and alienated and uncool. Actually we've read enough feminism to know that she probably has it worse than we do, suffocated by patriarchal expectations of simpering conformity and sexual availability. You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?
You have your crude physical pleasures like beer and football; we live the life of the mind, whether that's *DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake* – look, some things will always be great, even if you're 28, and at least we have the courage to admit it – or the world of the imagination enjoyed by *The Book Lovers*. Yes, the library. Where the books live. You should try it some time.
I will concede that we can somethings have an issue with relationships; we're all too used to the old "you're a great friend and you know all about stuff but I just don't see you that way" *ABC* routine. But comparing the relative luminosity of Sol and Betelgeuse is a matter of *Science*, not emotional unavailability, and if you want to compare love to ocean depth you need to define in advance where you're making the measurement. Anyway, I have my books, my poetry and a complete run of early Grant Morrisson to protect me.
I don't expect you've heard of *Shaka Ponk*, but they're French, and they were fronted by a cartoon monkey years before Gorillaz took it mainstream. And I just like talking about Farscape.
Lists of Great Things should always be limited to 10, or you can't correlate them properly.
Pulp – Mis-Shapes
Jonathan Coulton – Code Monkey
Pet Shop Boys – Opportunities
Anorak Girl – Anorak Girls
Lisa Germano – Geek the Girl
Art Brut – DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake
Broadcast – The Book Lovers
The Pipettes – ABC
Frida Hyvönen – Science
Shaka Ponk – Just a Nerd
• Listen to these songs as a YouTube playlist
• Spotify playlist
• See all the readers' recommendations on last wek's blog, from which Abahachi selected the songs above. Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 hours ago.
We are the outsiders – but not your cool, edgy outsiders whose only real grudge with the world is that they have to do homework and be in by half-ten. No, we are the real outcasts and misfits, the despised and the scapegoats, whose only defence against rugby players and cool kids is superior intellect and knowledge. Is *Mis-Shapes* our greatest anthem? Does an unexpected encounter with the Mi-go cost 10% sanity?
We own your future. Maybe for the moment *Code Monkey* is your downtrodden servitor, wondering why the hell you don't just read the manual rather than clicking things randomly, but we have the brains. Some day we'll seize our *Opportunities*, and then we'll own you, and be playing Subbuteo with real players, and Hollywood will devote itself to recreating our favourite comic books – though of course the films never match the original…
It's not just a male thing, either – there's another of your shallow preconceptions. *Anorak Girls* can be just as obsessive about listening to proper music rather than your lowest common denominator landfill, and *Geek the Girl* is just as shy and alienated and uncool. Actually we've read enough feminism to know that she probably has it worse than we do, suffocated by patriarchal expectations of simpering conformity and sexual availability. You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?
You have your crude physical pleasures like beer and football; we live the life of the mind, whether that's *DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake* – look, some things will always be great, even if you're 28, and at least we have the courage to admit it – or the world of the imagination enjoyed by *The Book Lovers*. Yes, the library. Where the books live. You should try it some time.
I will concede that we can somethings have an issue with relationships; we're all too used to the old "you're a great friend and you know all about stuff but I just don't see you that way" *ABC* routine. But comparing the relative luminosity of Sol and Betelgeuse is a matter of *Science*, not emotional unavailability, and if you want to compare love to ocean depth you need to define in advance where you're making the measurement. Anyway, I have my books, my poetry and a complete run of early Grant Morrisson to protect me.
I don't expect you've heard of *Shaka Ponk*, but they're French, and they were fronted by a cartoon monkey years before Gorillaz took it mainstream. And I just like talking about Farscape.
Lists of Great Things should always be limited to 10, or you can't correlate them properly.
Pulp – Mis-Shapes
Jonathan Coulton – Code Monkey
Pet Shop Boys – Opportunities
Anorak Girl – Anorak Girls
Lisa Germano – Geek the Girl
Art Brut – DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake
Broadcast – The Book Lovers
The Pipettes – ABC
Frida Hyvönen – Science
Shaka Ponk – Just a Nerd
• Listen to these songs as a YouTube playlist
• Spotify playlist
• See all the readers' recommendations on last wek's blog, from which Abahachi selected the songs above. Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 hours ago.