Tacoma is a weird town, to be sure, but weirdness often carries with it some unexpected benefits. Macho gearhead Nick Martens takes us on a tour of Tacoma’s awesome, ugly old cars in a misguided attempt to communicate the “Tacoma Aesthetic.”
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Nick Martens
Yesterday, Radiohead announced that they would self-distribute their upcoming album. With record labels, iTunes, and the future of music in mind, soothsayer Nick Martens analyzes the implications of this surprising but welcome attempt at subverting traditional methods of purchasing albums.
In theory, it’s great to listen to music while reading dry modernist criticism, but it rarely works so well in practice. It’s too easy to get distracted or fall asleep. Premier musicologist Nick Martens applies state-of-the-science research methods to combat this problem, and locates four albums that make studying a breeze.
The recent popularity of green tea has companies branding the word on consumables left and right. Investigating the ballyhoo, herbalist Nick Martens reviews just about every green tea product available.
Internet aficionado Nick Martens shares a few of his favorite links.
The Penny Arcade Expo is like an underground meeting of a vast secret society. Rumors, legends, and other apocrypha pass through the convention halls like plagues. Supernerd Nick Martens witnessed the most storied PAX occurrence in person, and here reveals its details for the first time.
Tacoma, where The Bygone Bureau is headquartered, is like the slightly mutated younger brother of Seattle. Everything’s a little weirder in Tacoma, even the restaurants. Kevin Nguyen and Nick Martens showcase some of the city’s finest examples of strange businesses that ostensibly serve Asian food.
The internet is packed full of comics, some great, some not. Here, the adolescent-minded Nick Martens explores an excellent webcomic that, amazingly, does not rely on tech jokes or nonsensical humor.
Most television is terrible. Great shows exist, but are few and far between. While exploring the vast, muddy mediocrity that comprises the majority of the medium, philistine Nick Martens stumbles upon the Food Network. Impressed by its mindless practicality, he ponders its place among America’s most degenerative cultural format.
Apple and Nintendo are more alike than you may realize. In the last of a three-part series, Nick Martens examines why the companies ignore their adoring fanboys and how simple touch controls outclass more elaborate control schemes.
