Dawn re-caps the rum-fueled whirlwind that blew through the last show. It sets a tone for the rest of this episode – a show about putting things into your body that probably shouldn’t go in your body, even when they make you feel really, realllly good. Except for when they don’t, and they make everyone else around you feel uncomfortable and skeeved-out. Watching movies while tipsy, attending parties while buzzed, playing poker while blitzed; it’s been awhile since we’ve had a show that visited Dawn’s Drug Corner, but as always, it’s equal parts funny and illuminating. Before we visit the corner, however, we stop at YouTube to throw a quick birthday celebration for twitter-sniper, film-critic, musician, and man-about-town Eric D. Snider, and Dawn reviews maybe one of the oddest horror films in the last five years.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Watching trippy movies while tripping seems like an attempt to multiply the effects. ” If this movie blows my mind when I’m straight then I have to experience it when I’m not” seems to be the logic used. That might work for a movie like “Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas” but it turns a movie like “Memento” into “fifty vignettes about some guy.”
I don’t think the heavy drinking is indicative of “nerd culture” or even “Portland nerd culture.” It seems like that’s a narrow niche revolving around the thirty-somethings Dawn and Bobby know. The people I know building RC drones or the ones making homemade rockets rarely mix booze with their hobbies. Even the gamers (where the consequences of impairment aren’t expensive or fatal) are too competitive to lose their edge to alcohol.
Do you go to a lot of nerd-themed events here in PDX, Foible? Considering you acknowledge we were speaking more about a certain aspect of Portland nerd gatherings specifically, it seems weird that you’d write it off completely. Especially when the activities you cite are legitimately dangerous activities (Hey, lets get blitzed and mix rocket fuel, no, wait, lets get stoned and try to solder and weld things!) as opposed to the stuff we were talking about, which is largely entertainment/performance based.
Wow, after years of semi-frequently posting opinions here I get a reply from Bobby himself. I’m flattered, thank you.
Time to defend my nerd cred? I’ll give it a shot. I visited both Wonder Northwest conventions (thanks to you, I might add) and three out of four Trek in the Parks. I hit Where Camp and various other unconferences and during the glorious time we had a TechShop in town I almost lived there.
I don’t think I was writing off nerd drinking completely, at least that wasn’t my intent. I’m saying that the Nerd Tribe is bigger than what you cover and that drinking isn’t as widespread as you might think from your slice of the culture. You put forth the premise that since nerds weren’t invited to the cool parties in their youth they are correcting for it now. My examples are other areas of nerd culture that aren’t trying to compensate for anything. Even non-dangerous nerd events, like gaming at the local game store, has only moderate alcohol consumption by a few participants.
I’d even go so far as to say that the heavy drinking is more connected to the artist/performer/entertainer culture than the nerd culture, you just know the artistic nerds.
What? who said anything about defending your nerd cred? I’m not trying to make you justify your self-classification as nerd, I’m asking if you go to the gatherings/parties/shows we’re discussing.
And I’ve responded here before.
Basically, the ‘narrow niche” is not as narrow as you think. I guess I mostly bristled at the notion you were describing the myriad examples I’ve personally seen at multiple events as “just a handful of people only Dawn and I know” as really dismissive and presumptious. There’s a way to say “I haven’t seen as much of that in my corner of the nerd world, thankfully,” without all that. I mean, when we were talking about Portland nerd gatherings, I wasn’t implying the people who don’t do that AREN’T nerds, so I guess I’m confused as to where the entire concept of further defining/undefining/defending nerd cred is even entering into the discussion.
I took the following line as the nerd cred challenge:
“Do you go to a lot of nerd-themed events here in PDX, Foible? ”
And yes, you’ve responded here before, but I don’t remember it being to me. Maybe I touched a nerve, maybe I’m just reading these posts as slightly more heated then intended. In any case I don’t think there is anything in this discussion worth fighting about so I’ll just raise a toast to hard drinking nerds everywhere and not worry about the size of that demographic.
I just wanted to know if you a) live here b) go out to nerd-themed events. That’s it. It was a response to your initial post, which would have been weird if in fact you didn’t actually live here, or didn’t go out to these events. It was clarification, not challenge. I still don’t really see why you’d take it as such.
To be fair to Foible, I felt it had a challenging tone to it when I read it, too. I think that, perhaps, you forget that the persona you portray on your various podcasts will carry over into comment sections and social media sites. People hear you arguing with your friends on these podcasts and it is entertaining, and we know you are just joking with friends when you rant “because i’m right!” to make your point in one of these discussions. However, when you hear that all the time on the podcasts, it’s easy to hear that same tone when reading a reply in the comment section. It’s very easy to hear the voice of Bobby Roberts from Nerdfight, or Bobby Roberts the Editor of Hollywood when reading the comments section. And, since both of those tend to be big, blustering “i’m right, listen to what I say” personas, it’s easy to read in a challenging tone to a simple “do you go to a lot of nerd themed events” question.
Just my thoughts on how someone might see your reply as having a challenging tone. I don’t know either of you personally, so i’m just stating how I see it from a 3rd party perspective.
How about “Bobby, the guy from the show he’s commenting on?” or “Bobby, the person asking a question”
I probably just shouldn’t comment, period. This is your space.
Nobody is saying that you shouldn’t comment. In fact, i’m sure most listeners who care enough to comment enjoy when the people on the podcast join in the conversation. I think you just need to be aware that as an on-air personality, you come to the discussion with baggage that the rest of us do not. People have already formed opinions of you and interpretations of your words will be biased by this.
And, as much as you might not want to admit it, by virtue of being on multiple podcasts, you have a minor celebrity to you. This will cause some to be overly polite and others to be confrontational. Some will not want to do anything that might piss you off and some will want to “prove you wrong” or “win” a fight to make themselves feel better. (“I won in an argument against Fatboy!”) Although, we all know that nobody really wins a fight on the internet…
As I mentioned, the people involved enough to comment on the show probably enjoy it when you comment. I think most people would see it as being more invested in the show if you can talk with the people on the show instead of just talk about the show.
Once again, just my two cents…
“Nobody is saying that you shouldn’t comment.”
No, I am. I’m saying I shouldn’t comment. I got to talk for a goodish amount of the 75 minutes you just listened to. I talked plenty. Maybe if I hadn’t commented, this thread wouldn’t be 9 comments long, 7 of which ended up being about me, instead of being about ANYTHING ELSE in the 75 minutes of show Dawn produced.
So yeah. Maybe I should just let the 75 minutes of discussion stand on its own, and let the comments section be a place where listeners get to talk without worrying about whether me and the 13 different personas from the 57 other podcasts I do will to come down on them.
Because trust me – I’m pretty aware of what people think of me. Good and bad.
Well, I personally enjoy it when the personalities on the things I watch and/or listen to join in the conversation. As I mentioned above, it makes me feel a part of the show (as a whole) and less of just a passive observer. However, the choice is entirely yours. If you feel your presence in the comments section is detrimental, I doubt I am going to change your mind.