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I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: bikes • buskers • Copyfight • fashion • Funny • happy mutants • music • portland • star wars • video • Weird • youtube

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Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

http://twitter.com/mtmole Mr. Mole

The dream of the 90′s is alive in Portland.
- niktemadur
  
  What, do you mean something like 2012 in an alternate universe where Gore won instead of Bush?
  - http://www.facebook.com/camille.dubose Camille DuBose
    
    I believe he’s referencing Portlandia.
    - http://www.facebook.com/people/Katie-Lyon/578805361 Katie Lyon
      
      I believe they are both referencing Portlandia :)
Brainspore

It’s a shame there wasn’t video from another angle because I’m really curious how someone in a Vader mask could play a bagpipe.
- karrock
  
  I’m gonna take a wild guess and say this is the same guy… :D
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdjY6oy4Y2c
  - Brainspore
    
    Cool. Follow-up question: why would a guy with such a serious asthma problem choose a wind instrument?
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QSMU2QG2ITLRJXLKOL6IQPXP3M Paige
    
    As a native, I can assure you there are many of these guys here.
- http://www.tumbleweed.net/ tyger11
  
  Well duh, he uses the Force.
  
  He’s also likely finds your lack of faith … disturbing.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I’m really curious how someone in a Vader mask could play a bagpipe.
  
  Maybe that explains why he’s wearing a kilt.
David Wyatt

That is one pretty talented individual, most cant talk and walk at the same time these days. This guy is on a unicycle which is tricky enough, then playing bagpipes which involves both arms and breathing properly, while wearing a skirt/kilt and a helmet that is probably obscuring his view.
http://twitter.com/james4765 Jim Nelson

My brother has apparently seen this guy commuting to work on his unicycle – a Portland celebrity, apparently…
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

In many ways, this is the least surprising video.
http://twitter.com/chrisjimson chris jimson

Meh, it’s been done (as you can see from the video.)
- Brainspore
  
  Frankly it feels a little… forced.
Mister44

Let your freak flag fly, laddie.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  How do you know that’s a laddie?
  - Mister44
    
    Easy. Girls don’t wear kilts.
    - Brainspore
      
      So a Vader-costumed bagpiper on a unicycle is no big thing, but the idea of a girl in a kilt is just too wacky to be plausible?
      - Mister44
        
        If your telling me a girl can where a kilt – then I could no longer trust anything else I know about reality. It would literally shatter and I would go mad.
        
        So no – too wacky to be plausible.
      - IronEdithKidd
        
        Mr.44: In order to avoid shattering the last vestige of your worldview, I suggest you never attend your local Ren Fest.
deeznuts

Or as I like to call it…Thursday.
irksome

If i’ innae Scots, i’s CRAP.
http://thecooponline.com/ Christopher Van Buskirk

The Unipiper.

http://www.facebook.com/theunipiper
http://instantaneousinstances.com/ Spieguh

I just visited Portland for the first time a couple weeks ago, and even went into Tibet Spirit there on Hawthorne. Must have been too rainy for UniVaderBag to be out, but that would have made my day!
wysinwyg

I don’t think I mention often enough just how much BoingBoing increases my quality of life. Quite a bit.
texcat

i must be jaded from living in austin too long…this didn’t seem the least bit strange to me
Rev.Veggie.Spam

I admire his skill but I’d be failing my hometown if I didn’t mention our long-standing local celeb Darth Fiddler:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Darth-Fiddler/85488324124

I can’t say that he’s doing it better but he’s certainly no newcomer to the musical Vader game.

He’s even the mascot of Victoria BC’s sub-reddit.
HahTse

At least he did it before it was mainstream…
- HahTse
  
  (But yeah: massive kudos for the sheer coordinational skill it takes to pull that off)
Scruff

Imagine the noise when he face-plants :)
Donald Petersen

Weird. This dude has simultaneously realized a dream I had at seven, one I had at twelve, and a third I had at sixteen years of age. I never accomplished the latter two (and to be honest my homemade Vader costume looked quite a bit too homemade to satisfy even seven-year-old me), though I did acquire a unicycle at 12 and spent some time falling off it before giving up, and I still have the chanter I bought in hopes of eventually learning to play the bagpipes. Never did it occur to me to attempt two of these things simultaneously, let alone all three.

But really, it saddens me a bit that if this guy had done this in, say, Pocatello, or Atlanta, or Fresno, we’d be talking about it for, like, months. But since he did it in Portland we’ll forget about it before suppertime.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Julia-Dianne-Marshall/501518949 Julia Dianne Marshall

PUT A BIRD ON IT!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=644701201 Tom Pazen

I find your lack of pants disturbing
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001184797462 Robert Jonson

We’ve reached the point where hipsters have genuine talent. As a society we are either doomed or have a glorious golden age to look forward to.

Here is a video of a person in a Darth Vader mask and cape, and a Utilikilt, riding a unicycle, playing Star Wars music on a bagpipe, in Portland, OR

Read more in Music at Boing Boing

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