Well, we know that Nerd Nite 26 ended (for us) at Burger Stand, where we joined a newspaperman, a local activist, and a honkytonker on stage for a rousing karaoke rendition of "I Wanna Be Sedated."
But how did the evening "evolve" into this moment? Let's retrace our steps.
The first presentation of this death-centric Nerd Nite evening was a surprisingly optimistic take on the notion of extinction. The takeaway: "Extinction is not forever" (since other species evolve to fill that niche). Hopefully the lesser prairie chickens of Kansas are reassured by all of this. For those lost by the science of the lecture (such as Chip), there were plenty of animal photos to enjoy. Bandicoots are funny.
Next up, PBR Book Club's delightful Lindsey offered a clear and concise and altogether terrifying glimpse into a parasite called Toxoplasma Gondii, whose goal is to "get a cat to eat it" so it can "bang" inside the cat and reproduce. Lindsey informed us that 1 in 4 nerds at the gathering were likely hosts to this parasite. Gross. But at least this presentation also had some nice kitty pictures, and even a pic of the Simpsons' crazy cat lady.
And, speaking of PBR Book Club, those crafty kids used the break after Lindsey's presentation to promote and distribute flyers for their first-ever reading, coming up on Good Friday at the Roost and featuring two esteemed small-press authors: Chicago's Sam Pink and West Virginia's Scott McClanahan.
Then: a presentation on burial practices in 7000 BCE Çatalhöyük, with imagery of a lot of buried babies (drinking game: take a drink every time the presenter uses the word "neonates").
After all this, wouldn't you end up at the Burger Stand singing about sedation too?
Let's end with a sense of the evening as pieced together through the tweets of @punnilingus, who was the officially-endorsed guest live-tweeter of the Nite, a position that sounds prestigious but doesn't really offer any benefits and forces the person to tweet maniacally in an effort to keep up with the info.
Four tweets from @punnilingus:
"The aye-aye and I! Beatles, beetles, and humping AT-AT Walkers"
"1/3 of the world has this parasite. Thanks cats! Toxo"
"It's difficult to whack off a dead body ... you have to wait until it's skeletal"
"This crowd would be great at charades, but terrible at Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity"
Drink special of the evening: the Corpse Reviver.
The next Nerd Nite is May 14. Theme: Earth, Wind, and Fire. (please tell us that the music of that band will be played exclusively during the breaks).
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We already gave a shout out to Your Friend's sure-to-be-killer opening set at tonight's SUA/KJHK-sponsored Real Estate show at Liberty Hall, but let's check in with Pitchfork to make sure that Real Estate is still suitably cool.
Boy, are they!!
Their new album Atlas scores a very high 8.8 (full review here, and let it be noted that this is a stone classic of a Pitchfork review: simultaneously pompous and incisive). An excerpt:
"The once-ideal pool party band, in other words, has turned to soundtracking the cleanup: Everyone's gone, the sky's threatening rain, there are cigarette butts floating in the pool, and we've all gotta work tomorrow."
Chip: "So, this show is gonna rock!! Or, wait...is it??"
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