This month's Nerd Man describes himself as a "musician, singer-songwriter and internet superstar." That alone would have earned Jonathan Coulton at least 50 percent of the votes necessary to clinch the Nerd Man of the Month title. Couple that, though, with a personal recommendation from John Hodgman and the fact that he's a Contributing Troubadour for Popular Science and he becomes an obvious shoo-in.
If you've never heard Coulton's irresistable pop-ish, folk-ish, nerd-ish songs, have a listen at www.jonathancoulton.com. There, you can sample songs from his 52 songs in 52 weeks project or you can try something from the awesomely titled "Our Bodies, Ourselves, Our Cybernetic Arms." Peruse the song titles and you know any purchase is going to be well worth the price. You've got "Ikea." You've got "Re: Your Brains" in which a zombie plaintively asks his victim to open the door and acquiesce to a perfectly reasonable brain eating request. And you've got the popular favorite "Skullcrusher Mountain," which features these brilliant lyrics:
I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you
But I get the feeling that you don’t like it
What’s with all the screaming?
You like monkeys, you like ponies
Maybe you don’t like monsters so much
Maybe I used too many monkeys
Isn’t it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?
Seriously, who can resist that? Not the folks here at The Park Bench, that's for certain. And if you can't get enough of Jonathan "Mr. May" Coulton, don't forget to check out this very amusing interview with this "geek and postmodern digital pioneer" in Psychology Today. It's got a picture of Coulton AND his cat. Bonus!
