In a recent post on CBC Radio 3’s blog, host Lana Gay asked whether her listeners consider themselves “music nerds.” Their responses provide some examples of people wrestling with what nerd means today, and how it relates to other terms like geek, aficionado, snob, or—dare I say?—hipster:* AlexofAnders writes, “I don’t really think I...
Let’s cover some ground quickly, shall we? *** My friend and colleague Rebecca J. Scott (I think the J stands for Jay?) has just completed the fieldwork for her dissertation and is thinking back on the process—and especially the process of recruiting study participants. This is something I’m thinking about quite a lot at the...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fRZJpX4AdAM “Winter is coming,” and so is HBO’s adaptation of the first novel in George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, A Game of Thrones. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, A Song of Ice and Fire is about the Realpolitik of a fantasy kingdom called Westeros. Its inspiration is...
So this is a thing that I learned about recently. People posting pictures of the stuff that they carry with them every day. The community seems to trend towards security contractors and mercenaries, so there’s a lot of guns, knives, and tactical pens. Stuff that, for the most part, I don’t really care about....
A few years ago, I started trying to dress like a grown-up. I’d always had an interest in the accoutrements of traditional masculinity–in things I saw men wearing in old movies, in felt hats and sleeve garters and suspenders–but I’d always felt constrained by budget and lack of knowledge and the relentless casualness of...