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Hardwick makes "nerd" culture BEYOND cool.

For those of you who think that "geek culture" isn't hip or cool, Chris Hardwick over at Nerdist.com is making his mark by taking what some label as "nerdy" and parlaying it into super stardom. In-between bringing in some of the most notable guests in podcasting history on the Nerdist Podcast along with his boys Jonah Ray and Matt Mira, Hardwick splits his time holding down a successful career doing stand-up, writing, acting, hosting "Talking Dead" on AMC, and traveling around to conventions to immerse himself in the culture that he truly loves whether you think it is "cool" or not. This Friday March 29th the boys from Nerdist are heading to the City National Grove of Anaheim to record a live podcast and before it all goes down, we talked to Chris about the ins and outs of convention life, why Bill Murray is so awesome, and why his podcast stands apart from the rest.

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While many of musicians, studio types, instrument and accessory vendors from across the globe descend upon Anaheim for NAMM, there's another music expo that's taking place as well. Deke Dickerson is presenting his 10th annual Guitar Geek Festival in Anaheim this weekend, which will be the last time that it is presented in conjunction with NAMM. Though the festival is a passion project at this point (Dickerson told the LA Times that he's been losing money every year since it's inception, but he would be open to doing a smaller one in L.A. in the future), it's always served as one of the cooler offshoots from NAMM that showcases some of the best axemen and women of the past and present. More »

Last year I introduced you to the wonderful delight that is Jawbreaker Day (if you forgot, click here). More »

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Lou Reed in 1973. If this was fat in the '70s, it's no wonder we're all considered obese now.

​The online music-journalism archive Rock's Backpages is 10 years old this month. If you've never heard of the site, it's probably because a) you're not a music geek or b) you don't want to have to pay to read interviews online--even awesome, historical ones, such as Bob Dylan's first interview with Columbia Records from 1961, Lester Bang's incredible interview with Lou Reed (in which he says Reed has a "nursing-home pallor and fat girdles at his sides") or Rush's 1978 interview with NME.

But this month, the site is giving away 30 exclusive features for free: 10 definitive interviews, 10 previously unpublished exclusives and 10 audio interviews from its vaults. All you have to do is enter your email address. Check out the list of what's available after the jump.

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​Another year, another BlizzCon, another slew of hot babes in seriously killer costumes with tons of painstaking detail. This year's BlizzCon took place at the Anaheim Convention Center on Oct. 21-22.

Click here to see our entire slideshow of the happenings at BlizzCon 2011. But in the meantime, here are our picks for the top 15 hottest babes of BlizzCon 2011 after the jump.  More »

Courtesy of LoTR in Concert

​Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring in Concert
October 15, 2011
The Honda Center

Click here to see a slideshow of the show and fans.

I watched the Fellowship of the Ring for the first time on Saturday night.

Okay, no, that's a blatant fucking lie (the first time might have been at midnight on the night of December 19, 2001 in a theater somewhere in a suburb of Los Angeles, but then again, I'm not sure if that's something I should admit), but it sure felt like it was the first time again.

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​UPDATE: July 29, 2011, 7:50 p.m.: In a phone conversation today, Mindy Abel, the Senior Vice President of Convention Sales at the Anaheim Convention Center, clarified that nothing was confirmed regarding the change of venue for WonderCon. "We have been in discussion with Comic-Con International about the opportunity of moving to Anaheim ever since the inception of WonderCon," stated Abel. "Despite the rumors and blog posts however, nothing has been confirmed."

Original post: July 29, 2011, 10:40 a.m.: Get ready for an invasion of comic junkies dressed in Star Trek paraphernalia because WonderCon, an annual comic book, science fiction and motion picture convention under the umbrella of Comic Con International, is moving to the Anaheim Convention Center this April.

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​Pitchfork's interview with Björk regarding her forthcoming album Biophilia reveals that it's an album that is also "an iPad app suite featuring interactive programs for each of its 10 songs."

At the same time, it's a "treatise on the natural world that involves everything from immense planets to tiny atoms... and a traveling exhibition that showcases one-of-a-kind instruments including a 30-foot bass-playing pendulum... and it's also an educational tool that aims to offer a modern take on music education, replacing notation and by-the-book theory with instinct and creativity."

All that sounds well and good (actually, most of it sounds amazing) but I don't own an iPad.

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