Back to Back! Better than Ever!

What the hell happened? What year is it? I feel like time has been press ganged by some sort of run-away naval commander and I just get to sit and remember all the time I used to have before it got all muscly and covered in rude tattoos. "Too many years at sea," says time shaking its head. (Sorry folks that simile got away from me!) But luckily there is an answer! I think.

You heard it here first, all the dozens of people who find themselves on this page because they miss-clicked something! We are going to create a new and improved Jeremy Stuff webpage!

Huzzah!

How are we going to do that you may ask? Well, for one, I'm going to do more writing. Wait a sec, you may ask, haven't you been writing this blog all along? This thing better not be ghost written, you are probably saying, I'm scared of ghosts!

Fear not, those of you that are afraid of ghosts! I promise to keep the ghosts at a minimum (except for the one in the picture above and the ones that I can't help but let visit and tell spooky stories from time to time). But other than that no ghosts! Also I do my own writing, so all of the great ideas you have read here are my own. (Incidentally all of the spelling errors and mistakes were done by someone else who we had to fire. He no longer works here.)

Anyway, on top of sharing neat things I find on the internet, I am going to try to make this blog work for me, and you the reader, and anyone else that clicks here accidentally. And I'll also post at least once a week too.

But Jeremy, you are probably yelling at the screen, how on earth can you manage to do all of the things you listed somewhat incoherently? Well, my friends, I have a secret weapon. Ladies and gentlemen with a great deal of applause and fanfare, I'd like to introduce my favorite reason to go to work, the fairy god mother that can make all of your reasonable dreams come mostly true, the one (of two I have pieces for), the incomparable, the speaks with a really gravelly voice, GRENDA the fairy god-witch of mediocrity!

TA-DA!

How will she be able to do this? Who knows? But tune in next week to find out. Otherwise I'll just be sitting here, speaking to myself. Ciao!

Raptor Wednesday Sneak Attack!

I have nothing really interesting to report today. So for no reason, here's a couple of LEGO Raptor pictures. Why, you ask? I think the real question is "Why not?"

Actually, I think I do have something to report. In homefront LEGO news I finally got the Superhero set 6857 The Dynamic Duo Funhouse Escape or as normal humans know it Joker's Funhouse. I'm so glad that this highly-sought-after set finally arrived at my place. In the United States this set has been impossible to find. So that is exciting!

As you can see this set comes with a number of the most sought-after minifigs from the new DC Superheroes genre. Batman, (new, red) Robin, (new, purple tux) Joker, Harley Quinn, and the Riddler with a new hat. Critics have said that this set, though simplistic, is a really fun build with a lot of built-in traps and action. So, maybe I'll share a review soon. But for those who cannot wait you can see an excellent review of this set here.

But perhaps most importantly, here is a LEGO Raptor in a fighter jet.

Yes that's right this is a Raptor flying a F-22 Raptor. (Christina this picture is for you.) And it is probably the greatest picture I have ever seen. 

Anyway with that, enjoy the great March weather we are currently having.
"Jeremy AWAY!"

Ahhhh! Moving!

Sorry for the scanty posts this week; I am moving. I hope to catch up on cool geekery soon but in the mean time please enjoy the fact that Captain America came out yesterday and it is an awesome movie!  I hope to be up an writing in a week or so!

Oh boxes of my stuff! You are too heavy and currently in the wrong place!

Banks! Banks! Banks! Banks!

Gentle readers, if you have an hour of time (and frankly even if you do not have an hour of time) watch this video!  It stars Steven Banks and is the greatest one man, one act play I have ever seen!  Seriously, the best.

My old roommate Kevin introduced me to the glorious Steven Banks and I am forever indebted.  I am so pleased to see a decent quality version of this up on Youtube.  Honestly I use this as a friend barometer. If you enjoy this show, we will probably get along fine! If not, we may run out of things to talk about very quickly. (This isn't to say that liking this show guarantees success, it doesn't. After all, total douche bags may also end up liking this show too--it's that good!)  Also any women interested in being a future Mrs. Jeremy-Stuff ought to like Steven Banks as well. After all, he is incredible. I usually try to line it up third or fourth date. . . . if anyone was curious or something. Thank you. That is all.

 
Banks! Banks! Banks! Banks!

LEGO Project Two Improved

Many months ago I created LEGO minifigs that modeled all of the members of my dear quartet, Tall Order. Given the limitations of the time I had to paint our soprano Bonnie's hair and opt for an incorrectly parted hairstyle for our alto Debbie. I also didn't originally have any equipment which made sense because our quartet didn't actually have any sound equipment anyway.

Now that has all changed!

We now have (somewhat) correctly parted hair, equipment, and Steve our photographer (who is also a loving husband to Ruth)! So I took pictures of our LEGO avatars (and loaded them on Brickshelf) doing all of the things we do best. 

Walk Down Amnesia Lane

I first heard of the band They Might Be Giants on a road trip to the midwinter youth conference from a friend I really looked up to named Rob. I was thirteen at the time and They Might Be Giants smacked of something cool, and grown-up, and somewhat forbidden. This isn't to say that music was forbidden in my house or anything, far from it. But this was something that high school and college kids listened to and TMBG was closely associated with what was still a totally radical MTV. Oh days of the early nineties, when neon was still exciting and Clarissa was still able to explain everything. Even though TMBG existed before and will continue to exist after my childhood, a reasonable facsimile of the group will always reside in that place.

Years later I still have a very strong love of They Might Be Giants. Currently they are among the groups that I have a coveted signed album from thanks to a show in Ann Arbor. They were promoting their new album Mink Car. The band has moved on to children's music as well as continuing their own geeky, subcultural, musical ambling. And it is a world that I still crave and appreciate. So thank you! To the band made up of John and John: I salute you!

They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople) from They Might Be Giants on Vimeo.

Happy Holidays to all of the World!

This essay, written by yours truly, was posted on the Baha'i National website about halfway down the page. I don't feel bad copying myself so here it is in its entirety after the jump:

As a child, the oncoming Winter Holiday season always filled me with joy. The garland and greenery on street poles, the colored lights that appeared in the windows of houses around the neighborhood, and the threat, and often appearance, of snow dusting the yards and empty branches of the town always meant one thing to me. It meant that my birthday had nearly arrived.


I was born just before midnight at the very beginning of December. When my parents arrived at the hospital, the day was cold and dry and a gray pallor overshadowed the dark browns, sepias, and tans that colored the streets of my home town. However, the following day my father was amazed to find that he had to brush more than a foot of snow off his car in the hospital parking lot. It was almost as if snow had arrived to usher in my birth, though in truth, the snow could also have been for any of the other babies born within that twenty four hour period. Regardless, I have always had a very congenial relationship with snow.

LEGO Project # 2

Greetings LEGO fans! Last weekend I spent an awesome time on Washington Island with my vocal quartet Tall Order. And one of the things we've used as marketing for the group is LEGO minifigs that closely resemble our quartet. You will of course see my LEGO avatar in the group shots, but included too are LEGO Bonnie, Debbie, Bill, and Ruth. (Though to be fair, the LEGO Ruth looks much older than she actually is.)

Here is the link to my the Brickshelf page. Check us out! Also soon enough I'll make a LEGO Steve to help our LEGO quartet with logistics and video! Stay tuned! More LEGO projects to come!

Finest MST3K Episode of all Time!

Mystery Science Theatre 3000 is an awesome show. It premiered on the CW channel affiliate KTMA serving Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN in 1988. The show's original host was Joel Hodgson as Joel Robinson. In 1993 the head writer Micheal J Nelson took over. It was pretty much a set up for Joel (then Mike) and his robot pals (Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo) to do what we all do when an awful movie is on. We make fun of the movie. It is hard to believe the show is now twenty-two years old. Currently Joel Hodgson and Mike Nelson are are working on MST3K-like projects entitled Cinematc Titanic and RiffTrax respectively.

This episode is my favorite episode of all time. Follow the next show piece in the suggested videos. I'll leave you with a call out to Big McLarge-Huge! Have fun!

4th Annual Choral Festival

Happy Choral Festival everyone! This is what I have been really busy helping with for the last few months. I hope you enjoy watching the whole concert!

I'm really easy to see for a significant portion of "Cause Me to Taste" and so is my sweetheart, Lee!

LEGO Project #1

Greetings geekasaurus rexes and nerdlings! Ta da! I am happy to show some pictures of one of my current projects.

That's right fans! I am making the Fellowship of the Ring out of Lego. Yes, yes before I get inundated with emails and notices I know that Boromir doesn't have a goatee yet and no one seems to be wearing shirts and Frodo has yet to be holding the precious. I'm still working on all of that along with Gollum and a number of other characters. But hey, here they all are.


If you would like to see more pictures visit my Bricklink page here. I'm the first that comes up when you search for Fellowship so that's really cool. I hope you enjoy!

Well friends, it's that time of year again!

Time to eat loads of cheese? No. Time to wear rubber chickens on your feet? Never. Time to develop and name a geek convention after a Mongolian warlord and call it "Genghis Con?" I wish!

No, it is the Fourth Annual Baha'i Choral Music Festival in northern Chicago! If you happen to live within driving distance of Wilmette, IL please come hear the result of our festival. There will be around 175 singers singing songs from varied composers such as Handel, Dett, Mozart, and Gilmer. We will be premiering a piece to the Baha'i community written by a young composer named Stanford Scriven. The performances at the Baha'i House of Worship (100 Linden Ave, Wilmette, IL 60091) are at 9:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

The festival will be attended by such noted groups as Ladder for the Soul, The Washington DC Metropolitan Choir, Tall Order, and the Baha'i House of Worship Choir. Saturday night come meet the choir at seven-thirty in Foundation Hall. We hope to see you there!

Coming soon! Pictures of some of the projects I've been working on. So stay tuned.

And Somehow I was Beaten to the Punch!

So, have you ever seen one of your plans realized by someone much cuter than you are? I think I just did. Part of you feels destroyed because that was something you were going to do and it is done far better than you imagine you could even do it in the first place. Part of you feels relieved because honestly seeing it done here is going to save a lot of hassle. And part of you is kind of proud because it really is a fantastic idea, no matter who puts it together. Man I'm de-lieve-proud!

It sort of reminds me of seventh grade when I finally screwed up enough courage to ask the girl that I was totally in love with to dance in our middle school gymnasium. And Gresh, the popular, funny, good-looking, junior youth Robert Redford of our school, asked to cut in. What was I supposed to say? No? Was I supposed to tell him I was in love with the girl and yes I minded very much that he cut in? No, instead it seems as though I was supposed to write about it on my blog nearly two decades later.

So, no hard feelings Gresh! I hope that time has not ravaged your rugged good-looks and you are still popular and funny and good-looking and Robert Redford-like. Veronica, we will always have the first half of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" in a sweaty gym so . . . uhm, enjoy that memory? And I now have . . . a blog.

Anyway, in a similar manner here is a video of something I had planned on doing one day. It may not be my seventh grade crush, but what on earth did I know then? I certainly never thought that I would one day have nearly two minutes of Lego Star Wars stop motion to drool over. And perhaps one day I'll still complete the trilogy in Lego myself.

Until then, enjoy this:

Nathon Fillion is a Geek like me!

We have seen a lot of Nathan Fillion in the Geek-o-sphere. He was on Joss Whedon's Firefly, stars in the current TV show Castle, and he won my everlasting respect for participating as Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog. But this Jimmy Kimmel clip shows that he is also unrepentantly nerdy. And that Means that he has now become my hero!

So draw your lightsaber from your nose and stand behind Nathan Fillion. A hero we can argue Star Wars facts with during our lightsaber fights.

Happy Valentine's Day Sweethheart!

I hope that you all have a loved one to give flowers.

I hope that you all have a sweetheart to have lightsabre battles with.


I hope that you all have a darling to run with . . .


And make friends with . . .


And have tea with!

Happy Valentine's Day, Lee!

Fare the well, me boys, as you ponder this night,
Be not feared of the darkness, my heart is your light.
As you go brave folk of Erin, drink and love be by your side,
I will dream of your peace in the night!

Where's Jeremy Now?

Greetings Jeremy fans! I've recently traveled back through my Waldo picture books, where many Waldos had been before, and I came across memories of many hours spent gleefully searching for Waldo, Wilma or Wenda, Woof, Wizard Whitebeard, Odlaw and all of the things that these characters drop along the way. I can remember religiously carrying these books to grade school everyday and eventually having to repair the bindings with scotch tape. Finally I can remember the day in fourth grade when my teacher outlawed Waldo books from sustained silent reading because very little reading took place when looking at these complicated pictures. (I also felt this was quite unfair because even at that time I was an avid reader having read the entire Lord of the Rings saga earlier that year. It seemed stupid that I was forced to read during that time when I already was doing so much of it anyway. But Mrs. Nichols and I didn't get along very well in other ways as well.) Regardless, it is nice to take them down from the shelf and peruse them like an old well loved yearbook.

I was originally reminded of Waldo (or Wally as he is called in England) because of a great list that appeared on Topless Robot. It was written by ADrian Beiting and it is one of my favorite lists of all time though he marked it as the weirdest list yet. The title of the post is "9 Strange Things Found While Searching for Waldo." The weird part is that most of the time when I was looking for Waldo, I focused on finding strange things. So this list is right up my alley.

PS: Two years ago my friend Mendon dressed as Waldo for Halloween and came to my party in that costume. This is something I have always dreamed of doing so kudos to Mendon for following through on my dream. It turned every picture taken into a Great Waldo Search picture. One day Mendon, one day . . .

Lego Minifig Sets!

Greetings Lego fans! It appears as though lego minifig blind box sets are on their way. And that is representative of all things awesome. I mean look at the Lego minifigs available. A Lego robot?! Awesome. A Lego caveman? Pretty cool. A Lego emo kid? Look, I can just put them standing around being unimpressed by things. Lego cheerleaders, and Mexican wrestlers and ninjas oh my! I'm really quite excited by this idea. I know I'm sort of stealing this quote from the guy over at Topless Robot but I'd put up with a pile of Lego clowns for just one Lego zombie.

Happy Lego News Day!

Oh and it's also my birthday too. So uh, yay!

Make Me Mighty

Behold I am verily

Praetor Jeremy Badi Panegon
the Vanquisher!
Pinnacle Presider of Cordillera Court, Mover of Mountains!

This is a lot of fun! Have your tag be funneled by mammoth laced chariots! Or whatever goes about making your mighty moniker!

Check it out here:

Make Me Mighty

Lift Up Your Heads Oh Ye Gates!

I should have put a link to this a long time ago, but nonetheless here it is! Somehow I made it on to this picture and also the CD that is being released within the next month. Neato! Singing in this concert was awesome and I look forward to every chance I get to work with the conductor Van Gilmer. If you are ever in northern Chicago on one of the first three Sundays of the month come to the House of Worship for 12:30 devotionals and hear us sing. Also if you are in town on Memorial day weekend come hear the Choral Festival. It's Awesome. Here is the 2009 festival. Enjoy!