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: Lost Season Finale Party at the Bell House

Brooklyn's Bell House threw a massive party for the last Lost of 2009. Highlights included big screens, a Lostmobile cake, Dharma Beer, and a huge room full of alternately screaming and shushing fans.

The best part of the night for me was the performance by Previously On Lost, a NYC rock band who's songs are all based on episodes of Lost's 4th and 5th season. They have tons of MP3s on their site that I can't vouch for because I haven't listened to them yet, but I will tell you they f'in KILLED live on stage. Low-grade digital video won't fully express the explosive amounts of fan energy they emitted, but here is a short clip of the final lines from their song about SE04EP08, titled "The Island Won't Let You Die."



Lyrics:
Must venture to the temple on your own
will she make it safely to her friends, hey did you hear about the
PALM TREE MASSACRE
Palm Tree Massacre
You need to take my hand, he's toast, and on the count of three we'll coast let's go 123
DEAD

I'm not sure if that clip did them justice. They really were mind blowingly good.

Anyway, check this out!


Who doesn't like Geek Cakes?

Tons of the photos of all that other stuff I mentioned, after the jump....


Previously On Lost t-shirts.

Can you guess which episode they were singing about here?

These fools do it up with rainsticks. Need I say more?

More shots of the cake...



Here's an atmospheric one without the flash...

Let's hear it for the folks at nine cakes!

Filled to capacity.

I said Dharma Beer, and I meant it.


NERDS!

I don't think this was ever actually in Lost.

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.

Photos: Comic Artists in Their Larval Stage at the SVA Comic Con

Yesterday I checked out the Fresh Meet Comic Con, a showcase of student work by the Illustrating and Cartoon kids at the School of Visual Arts here in NYC. It's just like a real con where you browse tables, buy comics, and share awkward moments with the aritsts when you pass their work without taking anything.

This was my favorite comic that I picked up, and it was totally free. Slick, unique, appealing...seems like Alison Strejlau is just about ready for primetime. This is just the first half of the comic, check out the conclusion on her DeviantArt page.

More exceptional work from nextgen comic artists, after the jump...


Loved this cover. Well rendered people tearing their skin open will always get a thumbs up from me. The artist goes by *021, and her DeviantArt page has an exceptional drawing of some Umbrella Academy kids.

This print is by Heather Nunnelly, the character is the lead in her original series, Before I Sleep. I later realized I'd seen her work before on DeviantArt, this piece of Johnny The Homicidal Maniac fanart particularly stuck in my head.

This a print of a cover by Nicole Virella for a series called Eclipse by David Fernandez. This crap photograph doesn't do the art justice, which was really far and away one of the most technically impressive pieces I saw at the show. Check out her website for her two original comics, illustrated with fantastic watercolors like these:



Lots of kids were using the tried and true sales method of offering candy at their tables, but these guys took it all the way and baked Watchmen cookies. I'm not going to say I was swayed, but I did buy a comic at their table.

And here's a few panels from said comic, by Nicolas Micciola. Love that character design.


Finally, some shots of the tables. The whole experience was a lot like a small press fair, except all the vendors were like nineteen and either very on edge or aggressively nonchalant.

Zombie Hunter Zombies

Aah...so remember those Zombie Hunters we hired to cover World Zombie Day in NYC about a month ago? Well, we at Geekanerd got a little distracted by recent political events and never really sorted through the texts and photos they sent us, but we finally did, and well...


Things...things did not go so well for those guys. Here's the full, unfortunate account of the days events.

World Zombie Day 2008: Zombie Hunter Edition

The Geekanerd staff has attended past Zombie Walks in full undead regalia, but this time we wanted to cover the event from a different angle. So we hired two dashing zombie hunters to cover the event for us.

It cost us a pretty penny (those guys think they can charge anything) but I think the results were worth it.

They twittered us updates, which we'll post along with photos (some of which they took, but most of which we had to snag from the Flickr accounts of nyczombiecrawl, MissMoll, hesterk, and hellzkeeper ...geez, what did we pay these guys for again?)


zombegone here is a pic of us at clients house bout to go track n hack some zombs 1:25pm


zombegone zombs were gathering at Beauty Bar in manhattan. festive atmosphere. saw one that had walked all the way from hawaii which answers a dollar bet we had on if zombies can walk on the bottom of the ocean 2:15pm


zombegone think we recognized this one. disappeared after new york marathon. still sort of half jogging 2:30pm


zombegon done w recon, startng a sweep 2:41pm


zombegone got the jump on these guys 2:36pm


zombegone good session 2:55pm

zombegone this is something you don't like to see, but it happens 3:30pm


zombegone followed horde to union square - more than expected. price is going up 4pm

zombegon spotted non-com hunter w crowbar. whatev hav fun getting eaten lol4:13

zombegone horde on the move down broadway. definitely more than expected 4:40pm


zombegone saw some zombies wearing 80s clothing. means long-dead are rising. bad sign 5pm

zombegone at astor place now. mobbed glass facade at starbucks. zombies getting rowdier 5:15pm

zombegone zombs in car wtf getng out of hre 5:25pm

zombegone BRAAAAAIIIIJKBKBNMNNSSS 5:41pm

zombegone CCARFRRRRR BBNBRRAAAKIIIINNNSS 6:02pm

zombegoneYYUUUU PAAAY NAAO INNNN BRRRARAIINNNS!111 6:36pm

zombegone KLLL ZZOMMBBBEE HNNTTR 4 BRAISNNS 6:57pm

****

So...yeah. I guess that's just an occupational hazard when you're in that line of work. I mean...kind of unfortunate it happened on a job they were doing for our site but...I mean, I'm sure they knew the risks. And it's probably how they would have wanted to go. Or maybe not. I'm not sure what the psychology is there. Anyway.

Special thanks to Hellzkeeper for sending us a link to their pictures. If you have any shots of these semi-departed heroes, please send them in so the Zom-Be-Gone name may live on. In a tributey way, not an undead way. You know what I mean.