Blatant snobbery

I am a conceited person.

I'm taking this class about publishing, and we just have different guest lectures. This week our guest was Brandon Mull, who wrote Fablehaven and other books. I think they invite people who aren't in the class to attend some lectures, and this week I found myself surrounded by a lot of nerds.

Now, this class is a little nerdy in itself. A bunch of the people in the class want to be editors, like me, but a lot of them want to be writers. Writing in itself is noble enough, but writing novels is nerdy, especially writing fantasy novels. And I feel that people who aspire to be writers live in this Candy Land where the only thing they have to worry about is Lord Licorice.

But this week's visitors were especially nerdy. There was one guy who was wearing a 1940s-style hat with pins/buttons on it, and these weird glove things that looked like Scandinavian Christmas socks. I thought, "Maybe he's not a nerd, but just an innovative hipster." But then I looked at his shoes. Nope, definitely a nerd. He had a friend sitting by him who looked normal, but he had an obnoxious nerd laugh that gave him away.

See, I try to pretend I'm not a nerd, but I really am one. But I'm not sure why, because most nerdy things don't interest me:
Fantasy: I read Harry Potter like everyone else, but I'm not going to pick up a book that has a dragon on the cover. In fact, I rarely read (except for what I'm editing), and when I do, it's usually classics.
Video games: I'll pick up a Super Nintendo controller once in a while, but I'm not a gamer at all. Things like World of Warcraft just don't sound enjoyable to me. (I once had a roommate who hated everyone and loved to play WoW in place of interacting with real people. I pretend I hate everyone, but I really don't.)
Science fiction: I have never seen Dr. Who, and for all intents and purposes, I've never seen Star Wars or Star Trek. I watched a few movies as a kid and have seen a few scenes here and there, but not enough to remember anything.
Computers: I know how to use one, but I don't know how they work or how to fix them.
Chess: Despite an inexplicable fascination with the game as a kid, I don't like chess, and I have probably only won one or two games in my entire life.
Dinosaurs:  Well, actually, dinosaurs are pretty cool.

I guess I'm mostly just a word nerd. (I'm a poet, and I wasn't even aware of it!)

My brother and my cousin Peter have said I look like a hipster because of my glasses and my pants. That is definitely not the case. But I do like my indie folk.

First up is Mideau. I went to their CD release back in September, and I love their album. This week they released a free EP in anticipation of a wide release of their album. Three of the songs I already had, but they had a cool remix of "Hejduk" (although I like the original better). They are really good, and I think that a lot of people have the potential to like them; they don't really fit into just one genre. You should go get their free EP. It's great.

On Friday night I went to see Cherie Call and Peter Breinholt. I went with my equine friend Carissa. It was my seventh time seeing Cherie Call live, and she sang a bunch of her standbys like "One Good Woman" and "Already a Butterfly," but she also sang "Lasagna," which I've never heard her sing live. She sang two songs from her upcoming album Homeless Songs, to be released in March. I'm really excited, because she hasn't released a new album since 2009. I love her style so much. She has a completely one-of-a-kind voice, and her story-telling lyrics are clever and poignant.

Peter Breinholt was next up. He has good music, but I'm not a big fan of his voice. However, I liked him a lot more live than I like his recordings. Maybe I'm just more tolerant of live voices. It was overall a really fun concert.

I think that banjos can fix all of life's problems. If we sent a banjo to North Korea, they would say sorry and start playing nice.