• Interview with Oliver Wang in the LA Times about the nostalgic leanings of Rock the Bells.
• The Boston Globe disputes Simon Pegg's etymology for the word "nerd" while quoting his most recent appearance on TSOYA
• Yesterday was the birthday of the late great Michael Jackson. In celebration, you should listen to this awesome compilation of all the tracks that feature Jackson collaborating with rappers.
• Did Kanye and Jay-Z illegally sample Syl Johnson on "Watch The Throne"? (You can listen to the Syl Johnson track in question, "Different Strokes", below)
• An interesting reflection on how The Help plays into some of our society's stranger (and possibly more insidious) assumptions about racism.
• And, of course, don't miss this odd piece from Collectors Weekly titled simply "The Inside Scoop on the Fake Bark Industry". (Full disclosure: just looking at the photo that accompanies the article made me a tad nauseous)

• Our good friend Jonathon Coulton will be releasing his much anticipated CD “Artificial Heart” in early September. Lucky for us, he has already posted the first track! Coulton sings supporting harmony on the song, leaving the lead vocal work to Long Winters front man (and this year's MaxFunCon writing instructor) John Roderick. Coulton is currently touring the country with fellow TSOYA alums They Might Be Giants.


• Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's latest movie "Paul" is due out on DVD on Monday, August 9th. It features the talents of several MaxFun favorites, including Jane Lynch, Bill Hader, and Jeffrey Tambor.


• Hey, did you catch Brian Posehn on Conan? He is out on the road to promote his latest release, "Fart and Wiener Jokes". If you want to catch those weiner jokes live, you can find his schedule here.


• Set your DVRs: Michael Ian Black will premiere his new one-hour special Very Famous on Comedy Central tomorrow, Saturday August 6th, at 11pm/10c. If the anticipation is too much for you, check out the network's teaser clips.


• Tig Notaro just released a terrific new CD, Good One. If you want to fill your weekend with joy, and be the envy of all your friends, then you should download it immediately. For you old school purists, it's also available on vinyl.


• Can you believe that our beloved MaxFunCon pals Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy have been producing their terrific Rifftrax films and commentaries for more than five years? To celebrate, on August 17th the trio will be skewering the flick "Jack the Giant Killer" and broadcasting the performance live to movie theaters around the country. Go here to find more info on the big event and locate a participating theater near you.

Simon Pegg joins us to talk about nerd rants, his philosophy on zombies, and his close-knit relationship with collaborator and friend Nick Frost.

He's best known as the actor, writer, and director whose guiding hands have been involved in British TV comedy Spaced and films Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Paul.

His new memoir follows his own journey as the nerdy everyman; Nerd Do Well: A Small Boy’s Journey to Becoming a Big Kid is out now.

JESSE THORN: It's The Sound of Young America, I'm Jesse Thorn. My guest is Simon Pegg; actor, writer, memoirist, geek. His new book is called Nerd Do Well. It's the story of how, well, let's be honest, a nerd did well. And a nerd did well through nerdiness. Almost all of Pegg's work has drawn on his identity as not just creator, but also fan. He co-created and starred in the British sitcom Spaced, which saw the world of the sitcom, or the romantic sitcom, through a pop culture lens. He made his reputation here in the United States with the hit zom-com, Shaun of the Dead; that's zom-com, half romantic comedy, half zombie film. He was co-writer and star of Hot Fuzz, which was again, a tribute/satire of the action-comedy, and he recently co-wrote and starred in Paul, which was, again, a sort of half-parody, half-tribute to, in this case, the extraterrestrial films of one Mr. Steven Spielberg.
And how's this for geek credit: he was Scotty in the reboot of Star Trek.

What binds all of these projects together, of course, is a deep appreciation for popular storytelling, including the kind of genre stories that, let's just say don't have the mainstream artistic credibility of 18th century period drama; in other words, they're geeky.

Simon Pegg, welcome to The Sound of Young America.

SIMON PEGG: Thank you very much. It's nice to be here.

Click here for a full transcript of this interview, or click here to stream or download the audio.

Looking good, Simon. Looking good.

(Simon Pegg, by the way, will be on The Sound of Young America in July - and if you want your own awesome shirt, visit The MaxFunStore!.)

• According to linguist Geoff Nunberg, the word that most represents 2010 is “No”.
  
  
• A new trailer for Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's upcoming alien movie "Paul" to be released in March 2011 -- featuring starring roles and cameos from The Sound former guests Jane Lynch, Bill Hader, and Jeffrey Tambor.
  
  
• From Henry Rollins' new column for LA Weekly, a musing on how to talk to right wing radio callers.
  
  
• It's a good bet that Randy Newman will make the cutoff for nominees for the Oscars' "Best Original Song" for his song from Toy Story 3, "We Belong Together".
  
  
• A conversation with a selected few comedians about Twitter. They included several of our former guests, all worth following: Doug Benson, Todd Barry, and Rob Huebel.