The as promised report:

Although I’m definitely paying for it today with how tired I am… last night’s Nine Inch Nails concert was amazing!

I was actually a big fan of the opening band, “A Place to Bury Strangers,” they have a shoegazy, industrial, surf kind of sound. My friend called them “a really heavy Joy Division,” which isn’t too far off. It was cool to hear their rich, thick guitar tones live, but their drummer had so many time problems that their set was almost unbearable. You couldn’t find the beat to save your life because the drummer was all over the place. If they had some solid time, it would’ve been a great set, I was sad that one bad element pulled them down so far.

Nails, however, was as good as ever. Hearing some of the new songs from “Year Zero” and “The Slip” was great, and they always amp them up, adding parts, changing things up, so it doesn’t sound like you’re listening to the CD again. I was especially surprised that they played a few pieces from their experimental instrumental album “ghosts.” Halfway through the show, they brought out a wide range of percussion and other weird instruments. They had marimbas, upright basses, flutes, bells, mixing with live electronica elements — all while some amazing video was going on. The video production was by far the best I’ve ever seen of any show. The band was interacting with the video, “touching” the screen to change it, and having video elements follow them around stage, all in a way that wasn’t pre-set or timed, it was being manipulated in real time, and that was amazing. I can’t figure out how they did half the stuff they were doing. And need I say how great Josh Freese is on drums? Holy crap!

All said and done, it was a great show from one of my favorite bands ever. I love seeing musicians that are hard rockers, yet still are very skilled, professional musicians. They’re definitely a band I want to see every time they come through town.

Do any of you have bands like that, where you just have to see ‘em, no matter how many times you’ve seen ‘em before?

I can’t believe I forgot to mention it before, but this past Mondays strip was the 250th installment of Dorm Dorks. Thats halfway to 500, which would really be something, eh?

I just want to say a special word of thanks to all of you readers who keep coming back to the site, who talk on the comments boards here, or who send me encouraging emails, or who donate… man, you guys really keep me going. I hope that 250 is just the beginning. I feel like I’m just starting to get to know these characters, and I want to keep telling their stories for as long as I can. Thanks so much for all of your support!

You keep readin’, I’ll keep drawin’!

Chuck should not be ashamed! Using your hard earned cash to purchase the sanity-saving tokens of pop-culture is what America is all about! It’s just like back in the day, with the founding fathers and all those early citizens, working their jobs, not wanting to pay all their money to the King, because they wanted to be able to buy more… I don’t know, what was popular in those times, woodcarvings? Tophats? A woodcut relief of a kitten holding onto a tree branch (while industrialism sneaked in the horizon)?

In any case, spending our money on fun escapism is what defines us as Americans, and also as Dorks, which is what this strip is all about. We work, so that we can play — and what we play with is comics, movies, MMO’s, and the like. Why, when I was a small child, I measured money not in dollars, but in action figures. A person’s worth was always measured in however many Ninja Turtle action fiction could be purchased  with the money they had. My friends would always tell me how much they got for allowance, and I’d instantly convert it — “wow, dude, thats like 3 action figures a week!”

When I got my first job, as Chuck just did, I was asked by the manager how much I expected to be paid. I told him I needed to be able to get Justice League, Batman, Three X-Men books,  and Amazing Spider-Man, plus extra for special events (Marvel’s Onslaught Saga nearly bankrupted me) every month.  It was a weird hiring process…

In any case, this concludes our job storyline, but don’t worry, we’ll be revisiting Chuck and Bob at their respective places of employment every once in a while.

Happy Friday, I’ll see you guys back here Monday for more jokes! Dorks Unite! ‘Merica!

Yeah, I realize that I’m a week late to be making Olympic jokes, but I had a few, and no way am I waiting 4 more years to make Water Polo jokes.

I cracked myself up for a while on the notion that if “Marco Polo” were really an Olympic sport,  Michael Phelps would dominate it, and destroy the competition, just like everything else.

I don’t think that guy is human.