This upcoming weekend is relatively bereft of major holidays*. In fact, it's almost as bereft of major holidays as our Friday Link Round-Ups are of a coherent theme! And while that's enough of a premise to get things started, it's not enough text for the first item on the link-list to clear the graphic we made for the link-list. Ain't that a bummer?

I mean, for you it just means reading a few extra lines of superfluous verbiage, but for us it entails coming up with some arbitrary theme that we can expand over the course of at least two para- oh, we're clear? Sweet:

• Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music uses the unveiling of the Wii U and Playstation Vita as a jumping-off-point for adiscussion of why touch screens alone do not engaging performance controllers make.
• The man known as Aen makes the pedals known as Dwarfcraft Devices. If you love fuzz, but you've not yet bowed to the majesty that is the Eau Claire Thunder, we urge you to get with it, man. Also: Aen makes the best demo videos on the internet. Period.
• Did you know that James Franco is releasing a dance music album? It's true. Was Franco granted the terrible knowledge of the exact day of his death? Is that why he's so freaking productive?(Via Perez Hilton).
• Did you see the nifty, interactive Google logo from yesterday, posted in honor of Les Paul's 96th birthday? Tim Exile did. Did you noodle on the thing? Tim Exile did. Did you then record yourself creating a song on-the-fly using samples pulled from the Google interactive guitar doodle and post it on YouTube? Tim Exile did.

*Actually, go out and celebrate Loving Day, whydontcha.