Obama With A Lightsaber

Jeez, Obama. Why are you such a nerd all the time? You're talking to Spider-Man, you give DVD Box sets to visiting world leaders, you're hanging out with John Hodgman....and now you're waving a lightsabre around on the White House lawn?!

For the first time in my life as an American, I truly believe one day I could be President.

Boring Context: Chicago wants to host the 2016 Olympic Games, so Chi-Guy Obama did some photo ops with a few Olympians, including some fencers. But where did he get a lightsaber? Did some Olympic PR intern bring it along for LOLs, or does Obama carry one at all times for his own personal protection? I need an answer.

Photos: Lightsaber Battle in Washington Square Park

Newmindspace, the nutty funsters behind the recent Wall Street Pillow Fight, were the brains behind Saturday's free-for-all cardboard lightsaber battle. They provided 3,000 florescent tubes to the crowd, plus a bunch of black lights to get the glow action started.

The effect was...okay. The blacklights didn't cover much of the crowd, so you really had to use the unlimited powers of your imagination to believe the cardboard tubes were elegant Jedi weapons. I didn't hear many people making "VMM VMM KSS" sounds effects, so I'm not sure if the whole lightsaber theme really held up.

Still, it's not every day you get to hit strangers with cardboard tubes. More pix after the jump.


Some masochistic individuals (probably siths) got into cardboard boxes and allowed people to go totally apeshit on them. Good times!

Discarded lightsabers.

More pics at Geekanerd's Flickr page.

Geekanerd Spotter: Can You Help a Jedi Out?

Spotted a guy with this sign on the corner of Waverly Place and Broadway. He said the idea for the sign just came to him one day. I don't know what the street price is on those little crystal things, but I hope he gets it together soon, he let me take this picture and seemed like a nice guy. Though I guess he'd have to be, what with the no fear/anger/hate code.

Past Editions of Geekanerd Spotter

LucasArts Bastards Holding Out On Us With Wii-Saber Game

From the moment the Wiimote was revealed every Geekanerd that wasn't too busy learning Klingon thought the same thing: "Vroooom, zhooom, crackle crackle!" Now LucasArts claims they've already got the damn thing going! Jim Ward, president of LucasArts, says "We’re all over that, and internally we have already played a lightsaber game on the Wii. It’s a lot of fun, and we’ll get there."

Translation: "Hell yeah we've got it! Shit is FUUUUNNN, too! Don't expect to get your grubby little Cheeto hands on it, though, cause we're having such a blast playing it I don't expect we'll have enough free time to actually release the thing. But hey... Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things... ::snicker::"

Read the full story at Gamasutra.