Photos: Wiimbledon 2009 Look Book

The first annual Wiimbledon Wii Tennis championship was one of the very first NYC geek events Geekanerd ever covered; you may remember how co-editor Albo famously placed second in the inaugural tournament. It seems like only yesterday!

Wiimbledon is now in it's third year, and while Team Geekanerd was sadly absent in the field of play, I swung by anyway (get it, swung?) to grab some pictures of the competitors. True to it's Brooklyn Hipster-Nerd roots, Wiimbledon has always been as much an excuse to put together an awesome Tennis outfit as it is about playing imaginary wrist-tennis.





Check out our full gallery Geekanerd's Flickr.

Video: The Ballad Of Hollis Wadsworth Mason Junior at the Bushwick Bookclub

Every month, a bunch of Brooklyn hipsters/book nerds get together at a bar for a program of local artists performing songs inspired by a selected book. It's called the Bushwick Bookclub, though it's less a bookclub and more an open mic night meets school book reports meet Iron Chef. This month the musician's not so secret ingredient was Watchmen, so Geekanerd was on the scene.

The evening saw a full hour and a half of music, and while as with any open-mic night there will be varying degrees of quality, it was definitely a good time. There was also at least one truly great song that got right to the heart and soul of one of Watchmen's most endearing characters.

Here is that song, The Ballad of Hollis Wadsworth Mason Junior by Franz Nicolay, who you may recognize as the keyboardist for The Hold Steady (among other things). In his introduction to the song, Nicolay explained he was drawn to Hollis both because of his verbose name and because he considers him "the book's most sympathetic character."

This is of course but a low-fi excerpt from the full song, but hopefully the Bookclub will post a classier full version on their MySpace before long.

More video highlights and photos, after the jump...

Here's my second favorite song of the night, which was by the host of the evening, who made many salient observations about how all the lady characters in this book are, how shall I put this, literal or figurative whores? Preoccupied by sex to an extent that is not likely healthy, let's leave it at that. I'll transcribe the lyrics because they're just so spot on.

Laura I don't believe you when you say that you're upset
By those folks who died for take-out tandoori
One minute you're crying, the next you're undressed
Which could be kind of deep or kind of whore-y

Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh
You never liked the life
Uh huh, uh huh
What is that in your pipe?
Uh huh, uh huh
She was raised to fight
Uh huh, uh huh
What IS that in your pipe?

Some dude in the audience explained later that it's some sort of super tabacc that Doctor Manhattan invented, which actually makes a lot of sense...but still. Look at this crap. It's clearly a meatball:



These girls came in awesome pseudo-costume to sing their musicalization of John and Laurie's heavy metaphysical conversation on Mars. Their introduction also contained the best line of the night; "I'm John and this is Laurie. You can visit us on Facebook, under relationship it says 'It's Complicated'."

The crowd.

This all happened at a Bushwick bar called Goodbye Blue Monday, by the way.

Photos: The Zombies of Summer

It's summer in New York, and that means one thing: zombie invasion! But don't let that stop you from doing all the fun summer things you love....

Kick it with your BFFs! Woo! SCHOOL'S OUT! Let's eat some BRAINS you guys!

(to the tune of that Supergrass song from Clueless)

we are YOUNG
we eat BRAINS
we're unDEAD
we're inSANE
eat our FRIENDS
in the NIGHT
and feel ALLLLLLRIIIIIGHT!

Best friends forever! Literally!

Frisbee! Remember guys, use your pointer finger as a guide for where you want the Frisbee to go...ah, they'll get the hang of it!

More of this joke after the jump....

Rollerblading! Be sure to wear appropriate helmet and pads, though if you're already dead do whatever the hell you want.

Or just people-watch in the park! New York is one of the most diverse cities in the world, you're such to see plenty of interesting people who may or may not want to eat your brains.

More pictures on Geekanerd's Flickr, or check out BackSeatConceptions (the NYC Zombie Crawl Organizers).

Photos: Bergen Street's Free Comic Book Day and Act-i-Vate Party

Did everyone have a happy Free Comic Book Day? I did! Being Brooklynites, Degan and I picked up our freebies at Bergen Street Comics and Rocketship bright and early on Saturday. But come the evening, I headed back to Bergen Street for their Act-i-Vate party and presentation.

I'm a fan of the Act-i-Vate Comix Collective from back when I produced a segment on the site for a now defunct web series. For those not familiar with Act-i-Vate, the short version is they're a group of working artists who produce professional-grade serialized comics for free online. The presentation at Bergen Street showcased examples of the great work being done for the site, and I was surprised to see how much more sleek and functional the interface has gotten since I last checked in.

The presentation also included an announcement of the Act-i-Vate Primer, a hardback collection of new comics by Act-i-Vators, available exclusively in print (well, at least until two years go by, at which point they'll be put online. These guys just can't stop themselves from giving their work away!). Considering the Act-i-Vate stable includes such indie luminaries as Dean Haspiel, Roger Landridge and Dan Goldman, I imagine this collection will get a lot of attention when it hits the shelves this fall.

More pictures after the jump...


Bergen Street always has some great original art up on the walls. For the Act-i-Vate party, they hung up original inks, pencils and prints of the Act-i-Vators work.

Graphic novels by the Act-i-Vators were laid out on the center table. I ended up buying 08, illustrated by Dan Goldman, who is responsible for my favorite Act-i-Vate comic, the insane and extremely NSFW Kelly.



Everyone likes balloons.

A slide from the presentation of some of the pre-launch teaser material.

So if after all this, you're thinking about going to check out the site, here are few notes from the presentation about some of the comics on Act-i-Vate, if you need a place to start:

Panorama: "Nauseating, in a good way."
Ultra Boy: "Grusome, macabre, and fun."
Underwire: "It's for chicks!"
Fut Miso: The mini-comic at the bottom of this page was described as "The best thing on the site".
The End is Here: "I started with a daily strip about penguins way before all those movies came out." Described as the saddest comic ever. I just read it, and yeah, it goes from cute to soul-crushingly bleak in about one page. Hardcore anti-war sentiment.
Pecan Sandy: "It's Nick's reaction to Drawn & Quarterly."

Fun Fact:
Warren Ellis paid the $25 activation fee for the original Act-i-Vate domain name. "The Act-i-Vators could only come up with nineteen."

For yet more FCBD and Act-i-Vate party photos, check out our Flickr.

Bergen Street Comics Opens In Brooklyn's Park Slope

We at Geekanerd have been so consumed with WATCHMOCOLYPSE that we missed an even more important event this Friday; the opening of a new comic shop in our very neighborhood! And not just any old comic shop, but one with leather seats, exposed brick, and original art on the walls. Rocketship may finally have some competition for all those Best Comic Store in Brooklyn awards.

I had a chance to speak to Tom Adams, the owner of the shop and "comic evangelist" who NY comic nerds may recognize from his previous job at Midtown Comics. He said the store will offer $20 back for every $100 you spend, they'll be doing Free Comic Book day in May and Dollar Comic Book Day in April, and they'll be having a grand opening party on March 13th. You can get updates on the store via Twitter, Facebook, a in-progress website.

More photos of this newly minted store, after the jump...


The new releases are at the back of the store...I picked up the new Buffy, but didn't have time to check for any of my favorite smaller titles. Next Wednesday will be the real test.

Come on, how many comic stores actually INVITE you to sit down and read the merch, much less in a nice leather chair? For those who don't want to zoom in, that's Scott Pilgrim #1 on display, coupled with the Annotated Pilgrim. Genuine class.

The pages on the wall are original inks of Brahm Revel's Guerrillas, which is currently being put out by Image Comics.

Here's Tom The Owner, racking up the Marvel Section. From the store's Twitter: "All day and night genre-racking our books = Heaven."

Hey, where's the storefront and awning? Well, I was so looking forward to reading my Buffy comic*...I kinda forgot to take a picture of the outside. But as of Saturday 3/7, the awning just said "COMICS" in big gold off-center letters, so presumably there's more to come.



*And it wasn't even a very good issue >:(

Geekanerd Spotter: Stormtroopers Take Keyspan Park

Hey did you see The Clone Wars when it opened yesterday? I didn't, making it the first Star Wars movie I haven't seen on opening day since I was born. Ooh, it just looks so bad. But I can't help feeling like I skipped an old friend's birthday party, even if that friend has turned into an infantile cash-monger. Sad.

But on a lighter note, yesterday at the Brooklyn Cyclones game at Keyspan Park, a troupe of Stormtroopers showed up to pass out posters. I love this picture, because the guy on the left looks very self-conscious about being photographed in a nerdy context, the girl in the middle is being a good sport, and the girl on the right is somehow pulling off a "Yeah, I'm holding a Clone Wars mini-poster, you jealous?" look.
Foaming Geek Analysis Moment: I do have to question exactly what sort of troopers these are supposed to be. Given that they're promoting Clone Wars, you'd think they're supposed to be Clone Troopers from the era between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The red guy is clearly a Clone Captain in Phase II armor, you can see the model here. So that checks out. But those other guys are just classic Stormtroopers, who weren't around until after (or at least the very end of) Revenge of the Sith. C'mon Lucasfilm, you couldn't spring for a few more Clone Trooper uniforms, you have to pull those old Halloween costumes out of storage? It never ends.

Thanks to loyal Gnerd reader Lena for sending these pictures in; here's her sister Alison in a classic photo op post with a trooper.

Video: NYC Zombie Crawl 2008

Photos are one thing, but in order to really understand the mood of the Zombie Crawl, you need to hear the groans of the undead, observe their lurching gait, and hear the the plaintive shouts of the organizer; "Don't break the windows!" Enjoy Gnerd Johnny's 2 minute highlight reel of zombies on the move through Williamsburg.

Photos: Zombie Crawl 2008

I walked in the 2008 Zombie Crawl in Williamsburg, and it was everything I had hoped it would be. And what I hoped it would be was an excuse to walk around slowly with my arms outstretched and move threateningly towards cars and people. Fun! While I enjoyed the experience from a zombie-eye view, Gnerd operatives Bishop and Johnny covered the event as humans; check out some of our photo coverage after the jump, and check out our video highlights!

Photos and write-up after the jump...


This being a 21 and over event, participants met up at Duff's, a bar which I was assured was the heavy metal bar in Brooklyn. Those shadowy figures on the roof are probably FBI agents making sure there's nothing actually supernatural going on.


A couple hours before the walk began, the event organizers had set up a make-up area on the bar's front porch where walkers could get bloodied up and rotted for the low low cost of nothing.

The woman who did my make-up had worked on the awesome ThrillerFest zombies a few months ago. I went with traditional grey, though other people were getting a more colorful dark green look, and some went with a more ghoulish white. Zombies come in a beautiful rainbow of colors, just like you and me.

A close up of my "killer" neck scar (stop me).

Me in full zombie documentarian regalia. I was going for a film student who decided it would be a good idea to get footage of the zombie invasion. Wap wap waaa! You can't see it here but there's fake blood on my camera and lanyard/shooting permit as well.

At about six o'clock, Organizer Zombie announced it was time to get moving through the streets of Williamsburg.

Just before we left Duff's, a photographer got in his car and asked the zombies to attack him while he shot from the inside. The zombies were all to eager to oblige, and I swear that bumper damage was there before we started.

Our hunting instincts now fully charged, the walk began west through the warehouse lined streets North 3rd towards the main artery of Brooklyn hipsterdom, Bedford Ave. Our final destination was Passout Records, where zomb-friendly rap artist MC Chris would perform a free set.

Some zombies declined to get into character, but a good chunk really went for it, groaning, stumbling, and most importantly, walking towards any sign of fresh brains. This improvisatory aspect of the walk (the RPG aspect, if you will) was the real draw for me; being given an excuse to act out all the horror conventions you've ever seen on screen in real life, and on unsuspecting bystanders, is a very surreal and engrossing experience.

The mob's first big civilian encounters was this SUV as it drove down North 3rd, alone and helpless.


My favorite moment of the whole day was when we passed Radegast Hall & Biergarten, a huge restaurant with rusty iron bars on the window. The mob got one look at those gothic, presumably sturdy bars and attacked the facade in what must have seemed like a scene from Night of the Living Dead to the diners inside. Most of those inside looked amused at this impromptu attack, some slightly less so (hipster hate, or more likely hipster self-hate sometimes provokes extreme eye-rolling towards these kind of goofy events).

After about 20 seconds of mobbing the exterior and doorway, Redegast's black-aproned host ran out with a menu in hand and beat the zombies back, obviously willing to sacrifice his life for his customers. He even closed the wrought iron front gates in order to keep the undead out, and the horde moved on, defeated. I'd expect he got some serious tips.

Zombies continued to gravitate towards cars all the way to Passout Records. Since zombies move slowly and don't pay attention to cross walks any more than other New Yorkers, we clogged up traffic a bit and at least one humorless and hurried citizen lay on his horn, to little avail. That was actually the only person I saw all day that seemed to be genuinely annoyed with the display, pretty much everyone else we passed in a car or on the street responded with positive or at least passive attention, and usually with cell-phone camera in hand.


Walking through Brooklyn brownstones...

It took less than ten minutes to make it to Passout Records, where a band was wrapping up their set. There a grill setup outside with free hotdogs and burgers, which made for a lot of freeform eating by the zombies. At that point some of the mob went back to Duff's to drink and get ready for the spooky cabaret/burlesque show later that night, and some elected to stay for the MC Chris show.

The Gnerd crew had to cut out at that point, but we got a few more pics of the horde outside Passout. One of my favorite things about photo coverage of these events is seeing the different spins on the "zombie look" that people come up with. As with my own costume, I love it when people create outfits that indicate where they were and what they were doing when they got zombified. With that in mind, here is our Zombie Look Book.

Satan Worshipper Zombie.

Armless Cowboy Zombie. Rodeo accident, maybe?

Doctor Zombie, aka Jay, who's an actual medical professional who made his outfit with actual scrubs. Zombie doctors are great; as anyone who read the first issue of The Walking Dead knows, hospitals are zombie hot zones; people come in who've been bit, then they turn into zombies and bite the doctors...let's just say it goes from bad to worse.

Wedding Party Zombies. Poster Tagline: Till Death DON'T They Part!

A literal take on the iPod Zombie stereotype.

Geek cred alert! "Trogdor's the man! Actually he's the dragon-man!"

Milkman Zombie out of character on Bedford Ave.

And finally, because Star Wars cosplayers will use literally any event as an excuse to break out the costume, and who can blame them, we got to see some awesome Jango Fett on Zombie action.

After posing for the picture, I asked her (it's a girl in there if you can't tell) if she was there to hunt zombies, and she responded by shooting me. I really walked into that one.

Even zombie teeth can't penetrate Mandalorian armor.

Jango says something cool before blasting the zombie horde.

That does it for our photo coverage of the Zombie con. There's a little bonus material Geekanerd's Flickr account, if you absolutely cannot get enough of this stuff.

Welcome...To Jurassic Park!

Raptors in the vents!

Last night, Baltimore comedy troupe Wham City performed their theatrical interpretation of Jurassic Park (supertitled Shoot Her! here in New York, but apparently called the more appropriate They Should All Be Destroyed elsewhere on their Eastern Seaboard tour). The show took place at The Market Hotel, a loft space in Bushwick, before a packed audience of over a hundred nerds, hipsters, and nerd-hipsters, most of whom were seated cross legged on the floor in front of the stage area, giving the proceedings the informal feel of a summer camp production (nerd-hipsters love pretending to be children). In a recent article in the Baltimore Sun, the production's director insisted Shoot Her was not a parody of Spielberg's masterpiece, but a homage. After seeing it, I'd say it's about equal parts of both. Notes on the show and more pictures* after the jump...

*All pictures are from ThePirateHat's Flickr page and the Baltimore Sun - both sites have more than what's available here, so check 'em out.

The play condensed the movie by focusing on about 15 key scenes, and cutting everything else. Gone is the opening scene where they actually say "Shoot her!" as well as the scene in which Dr. Grant threatens to disembowel a small child. That second one may have been removed because it's already funny and absurd, and much of the play's humor comes from infusing the film's most intense and serious scenes with manic energy and new pedantic, overstated dialouge. Also sex jokes. The stand-out performance was Ed Schrader's interpretation of John Hammond as an aggressively insane old coot, alternately muttering and roaring in the grand tradition of mad scientists, at one point bellowing out, "I flew too close to the sun, and I'm burning alive!".*

Of course the real draw is seeing how the scenes from the movie translate to a low-budget DIY aesthetic, and there were some real triumphs on this front. The "Mister DNA" multimedia presentation was one of the most faithfully recreated sequences, with all of the "on-screen" action taking place within a white rectangle of piping representing a movie screen. As you can see from the still, the Mr. DNA puppet was spot on. Another achievement in screen-to-stage fluidity was the scene where Grant and the kids climb over a de-electrified fence, which somehow managed to be almost as unironically nerve-wracking as the actual movie.

Robby Rackleff gave an impressive performance as the only human villain of Jurassic Park, Denis Nedry, and was able to elevate the character to an almost Richard III level of grostequery and evil. The play's opening image is Nedry stuffing his face with an unidentifiable blue mass of food, just before he bellows the opening line of the night; "GLUTTONY PERSONIFIED!", before launching into the infamous "We've got Dodgson here!" scene.

The dinosaurs were achieved in two ways; colorful jumpsuits and paper-mache heads, with impressively functional jaws. Above is the show's Dilophosaurus, or "Spitter", if you want to be crude about it. Adooorable!

The Raptors In The Kitchen scene (the film's absolute height of teeth-gritting suspense) was staged by having the raptors chase Tim through the audience, to excellent effect. As you can see from this shot, the audience is just about 100% white, which I found kind of surprising this being New York and all, where most hipster/nerd events have at least a minor contingent of racial minorities. I watched people coming through the door for a good eight minutes, scanned the crowd and counted heads, and I didn't see one black or asian person all night (I'll admit I may have missed some biracials and latinos, because even though I am those they can be hard to make out in the dark). What gives, doesn't everyone love Jurassic Park? I mean the movie's cast is completely white (with the exception of Samuel L. Jackson and a cameo by B.D Wong), but still....dinosaurs!

Kind of an obscured shot here, but this is the climactic ending sequence when T-Rex saves the day...that's the evil raptor there in blue, about to get eated.

The show was bookended by performances of John Williams' stirring theme music, accompanied by the cast singing the following lyrics, helpfully transcribed on the back of the program. I'd say download the score and try singing along at home, but even the cast seemed a bit thwarted by the meter of the lyrics.



*Apparently this is Ed's catch phrase, because he also says it here on his talk show, at 3:00 minutes in.