Category Archives: Nerd Bait

Heigh Ho!

Back in January, I wrote briefly of Moritz Erhardt. He’s rarely far from my mind, if I’m honest.

Moritz was a 21-year-old intern at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London who, ten-and-a-half months after my haemorrhagic stroke, died after working three nights in a row. Early each morning, he would pop home for a quick shower while his taxi waited outside, before returning to the office. As a news report at the time wrote, “this procedure is so commonplace that it has a name: the magic roundabout.”

But let’s ruin a different childhood memory this time….

Just call me Grumpy. Or Strokey
What are you looking so happy about, you silly sods?

[Want a beautiful memory? Check out Nerd Bait‘s retelling of The Tale of The Little Mermaid with a bunch of talented people in attendance at Illicit Ink‘s Happily Never After as part of the Jura Unbound strand at the Edinburgh International Book Festival tomorrow.]

Continue reading Heigh Ho!

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Gone Fishin’

A quick flick through my Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations reveals that no one has ever said anything funning about fishing.

What, I'm a clown? I'm supposed to make you laugh?
“That’s true!”

So, I’ve not gone fishing, but apoplectic.me is taking the week off – things are busy around here. In the meantime, why not check out Nerd Bait’s site in preparation for the première of their new short-form concept album, The Tail of The Wee Mermannie, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 25th August?

Alternatively, please take a minute sign up for the weekly Apoplexy Tiny Letter.

apoplectic.me will be back on 17th August. Till then, have a great week!

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Stroke Bloke – Year Three

The band of which I’m a member, Nerd Bait, has been working on its latest big-banding, Scottish-rapping, disco-jiving long-form concept single. For ease of use, let’s refer to it by the codename I’ve just made up, Aquaman – The Musical.

Hey! That’s *not* what I wrote! (Monica Ras for the A.V. Club’s Loser Superhero Week)

Actually, Aquaman only came to mind in this relation a few minutes ago. But  Nerd Bait’s Prof Paul also sent along some comic-related material as we were discussing the new material. Quite unrelated to the stuff we were writing, you understand. But he had identified a certain apoplectic flavour. Probably partly because of the level of apoplexy evident in Batman is a Corny Dingus. And maybe also because comics are one of the many areas of popular culture in which I regularly display the butterfly-worthy shallowness of my interests on the blog.

[Yeah, like a Tiny Letter distribution – get more whimsy here!] Continue reading Stroke Bloke – Year Three

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Mermaids

Sometime this week, Longsufferinggirlfriendoftheblogbeth and I are going to see Amy, Asif Kapadia’s five-star-reviewed documentary of Amy Winehouse’s life. I saw Senna, his similar movie about the late Brazilian Formula 1, last year and thought it was very powerful. Given the interest in death often expressed on the blog, that’s maybe not surprising. Even if that interest itself is. To me at least.

Stroke Bloke and L-SGotBB prepare next week’s blog

[“A particularly apposite week to sign up for the Apoplexy Tiny Letter.” – Stroke Bloke.]

Continue reading Mermaids

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Apoplocalypse! 2 – Der Zeitgeist

Thanks to last week’s commentators for all their input on apocalyptic fiction after the last post. There certainly seems to be something about the genre that appeals to people. It might be that, as J.G. Ballard said, it’s no longer possible – in the long lunar shadow of the moon landings – to create serious fiction without reference to science fiction. And as stroke blokes all over the world will know, you don’t get much more serious than the issue of continued existence.

1m 36s on continued existence in a long lunar shadow right here, buddy.

Continue reading Apoplocalypse! 2 – Der Zeitgeist

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Free Fries Here!

Nerd Bait’s Prof Paul pointed me to an interesting article the other day. But before we get to that, here’s a track he wrote that has apparently been generating a lot of hits in Japan:

We’re not entirely sure whether this is because we’re getting hits from real people, or a Japanese robot. Nor are we quite sure which which would be cooler. (Spoiler: the answer’s at the bottom of the page….)

Anyway, about that article from The Atlantic Continue reading Free Fries Here!

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The Prof Pulls Back the Curtain

Hi, everyone. The Prof is back to pull back the curtain on genius once again. Here he is on the soundtrack for Illicit Ink‘s Apollo 21 at the Edinburgh International Science Festival – but being too modest to mention his star turn as Ground Control….

Hey Friends,
New music news! We have a chunk of somewhat more modern stuff from Nerd Bait!

Continue reading The Prof Pulls Back the Curtain

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Moon Hop

Phew! What a week!

16 April was the deadline for turning in my Spring semester portfolio. And of course Illicit Ink’s Apollo 21, co-starring Stroke Bloke, premièred the prior night at Edinburgh’s Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill. I’d like to think that Apollo 21 wouldn’t have been possible in its final, polished form without – in addition to great performances and writing by the whole team – the contributions of my super-talented Nerd Bait bandmates Steph the Brain and Professor Paul, who soundtracked the whole thing.

When I say it’s difficult to listen to this without crying, that’s a good thing. But don’t just take my word for it – thanks to 1 Proton 1 Electron for this lovely review.

[You can check out the rest of the soundtrack on Nerd Bait’s Soundcloud page.]

Continue reading Moon Hop

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Dead Air

I’m really excited about performing over some awesome new Nerd Bait music later this week. My super-talented bandies have made an OST for the Illicit Ink – Skyground production at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, including a branch into the ambient for my particular segment of Apollo 21: Into the Stars.

Hey, that’s my imaginary girlfriend!

[Be my imaginary gf, even if you’re a 500lb hirsute trucker –
Sign up for the apoplectic tiny letter here.
] Continue reading Dead Air

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Burns Night

Address to a Haggis
(extract)

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Robert Burns

Get tae Falkirk, Rabbie, ya bass!

I’ve been writing a wee bit in Scots, or Scots forms (Lowland Scots, to differentiate from Scots Gaelic), a lot in recent weeks. Firstly, for a short story that I’ve submitted for workshop tomorrow, and secondly for the Nerd Bait Liederbuch. Continue reading Burns Night

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