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Video: The Decemberists take tennis nuclear

If you are one of those literary hard-cores who spent the time and energy to absorb David Foster Wallace's 1996 post-modern dystopian epic, "Infinite Jest,"
Courtney Nguyen|

If you are one of those literary hard-cores who spent the time and energy to absorb David Foster Wallace's 1996 post-modern dystopian epic, "Infinite Jest," then you probably recall DFW's tennis-based game, Eschaton. It was a lot like J.K. Rowling's Quidditch, but with 1000 percent less brooms, wizards, and snitches and slightly more nuclear warfare. Which is of course to say that the only connection between Eschaton and Quidditch is that they're fictional games and they sound cool.

So leave it to the DFW-obsessed Michael Schur, co-creator of NBC's beloved Parks and Recreation, to join forces with Colin Meloy, the hyper-literate frontman for indie-darlings The Decemberists, and direct a DFW-inspired video for "Calamity Song".  It's fantastic.

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Courtney Nguyen
COURTNEY NGUYEN

Contributor, SI.com Nguyen is a freelance writer for SI.com, providing full coverage of professional tennis both on and off the court. Her content has become a must-read for fans and insiders to stay up-to-date with a sport that rarely rests. She has appeared on radio and TV talk shows all over the world and is one of the co-hosts of No Challenges Remaining, a weekly podcast available on iTunes. Nguyen graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1999 and received a law degree from the University of California, Davis in 2002. She lives in the Bay Area.

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