The world of comics and the hard fought acceptance of Nerdy Girls

Every Wednesday, for about a month now, I have been taking my little notebook over to the local comic book shop and purchasing titles that interest me from week to week.  

In the beginning of this process, I would scour the new release wall, referencing my pull list without so much as a notice from the staff on hand.  At first I assumed it was because I was a girl and girls aren't often respected in the world of comics for their interest or know how.  Being a geek is often considered a "man's hobby" along with being a sports fan or a whiskey drinker.  It's not that ladies don't like these things, it's just that it seems there is a stereotype that girls should only watch reality shows about housewives, read trashy thoughtless romance novels and drink dainty glasses of White Zinfandel.  I don't judge my fellow members of the female sorority for such interests, I just choose to follow my own path, however strange it may seem to the male masses...nerd or otherwise.

Oscars 2012 - The Movie Lover's Superbowl

This article was written exclusively for Nerdsburgh by Pop Culture expert

KIM ROGERS

At long last, Superbowl Sunday is upon us. No, not that little football game that was played a few weeks ago, but the Academy Awards. The movie lover’s Superbowl. I take Oscar Sunday very seriously. I can’t go to a party where people talk through acceptance speeches and movie montages. I’ve played in the same Oscar Pool with my college friends for the past 11 years. The prize? The greatest prize of all...bragging rights! So at the risk of giving away most of my answers, let’s take a look at the 8 major categories. Just remember to send me a cut of your winnings if you win your office pool...


BEST PICTURE

The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

After wins at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and The Producers Guild (among MANY others), you’d be a fool not to put your money on The Artist for Best Picture. The Descendants has been running a VERY aggressive campaign that I have not been a fan of, as the trio of commercials airing give away major plot points in the movie (are they just assuming that everyone has seen it by now?). Hugo is the most nominated film, and will likely pick up many technical awards, but I stand by my assessment that no one would have cared that much about this film if anyone other than Martin Scorsese had made it. The Help clearly has a good deal of support among the Actors Branch, given its ensemble win at the SAGs, but the fact it only has 4 nominations proves that it doesn’t have as much support elsewhere. I wish that my personal favorite, Moneyball, had gotten more traction. I rewatched it this past weekend and was reminded what an intelligent and elegant movie it is (and truly one of Brad Pitt’s best performances).


BEST DIRECTOR

Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Terence Malick, The Tree of Life
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

While Malick is widely regarded as a master Director, The Tree of Life is too divisive a film for him to take home gold here. Woody Allen and Alexander Payne will likely be rewarded in the screenplay categories. So it comes down to the veteran Scorsese and the newbie Hazanavicius and their love letters to old Hollywood Films. My money is on Hazanavicius, who won the DGA Award, which is a pretty strong predictor of the Oscar. His acceptance speech at the Critics Choice Awards was incredibly charming, so I am pulling for him to win here.


BEST ACTOR

Demian Bichir, A Better Life
George Clooney, The Descendants
Jean DuJardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Oh man. This race is a photo finish. In January it certainly seemed that George Clooney would be coasting to the win. He won numerous critics awards, including The Critics Choice. He won the Golden Globe for actor in a Drama, and Jean DuJardin won the Globe for comedy. And then DuJardin won the SAG and the BAFTA. Clooney, while saying in interviews he doesn’t care, clearly DOES want to win this badly which is evident in the effort he has put forth on the campaign trail, most obviously in the continuation of commercials for The Descendants. However, DuJardin, with the help of crafty Oscar wizard Harvey Weinstein, also seems to be working his own angle and when he popped up on Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago, I immediately thought, “Your move, George.” Both performances are worthy, as is Brad Pitt’s beautifully subtle work in Moneyball. I may lose my Oscar pool on this one…but I went with Jean DuJardin. Go big or go home.


BEST ACTRESS

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn

This is also a close race, but not QUITE as close as Best Actor. Viola Davis and Meryl Streep have split the major awards, with Viola winning the Critics Choice and the SAG and Meryl winning the Golden Globe and the BAFTA. I do think Viola will take home the Oscar, based on the fact that her film is more liked. I mean really…who actually liked The Iron Lady, aside from Meryl’s performance? No one.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Max Von Sydow, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Christopher Plummer. This race was over before it began.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help

Barring a last minute surge by the delightful Melissa McCarthy (who, let’s face it, owes her Emmy win more to Bridesmaids than Mike and Molly), this one belongs to Octavia Spencer.


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Annie Mumolo and Kristin Wiig, Bridesmaids
J.C. Chandor, Margin Call
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Asghar Farhadi, A Separation

After winning at the Writers Guild Awards, Woody Allen will likely pick up his third screenwriting Oscar for Midnight in Paris, which is now the highest grossing film of his career. The question is...who will accept it on his behalf, since he never attends the ceremony?


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Alexander Payne, Jim Rash and Nate Faxon, The Descendants
John Logan, Hugo
George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon, The Ides of March
Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball
Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Had he not just won last year for The Social Network, I would say it was a slam dunk for Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian’s super smart screenplay for Moneyball (seriously...they made statistics exciting). With Best Actor coming down to the wire, this could be a good place to reward The Descendants, which also just picked up the WGA. Fun Fact: The Descendants co-writer Jim Rash plays the outrageous Dean Pelton on NBC’s Community (back on the air Thursday, March 15th at 8 PM! For the love of all things good, please watch it!!).


Billy Crystal returns as host for the first time in 8 years. I can’t wait to see what he has up his sleeve for the opening number.  I also am looking forward to the Jimmy Kimmel special after the show. After all, this is the special that gave us the brilliant “I’m F***ing Ben Affleck” and “The Handsome Men’s Club” viral videos. This year he has everyone from Tom Hanks to Helen Mirren involved in his “Movie: The Movie” spoof. It promises to be hilarious. As always, I will be live tweeting (follow me @DramaKim) starting at 5:30 EST when the red carpet coverage starts.

The Survivor Survivor Pool: Week 2

Welcome to week 2 of the Survivor Survivor Pool fantasy draft.  In typical Jeffina Probst-nerd fashion, I hosted an event of my own last night - a Survivor Survivor Pool viewing party.  While I was not donned in a blue button down and my living room definitely lacked the proper foliage of a true island themed party, other members of the Pool certainly did not disappoint. 

Despite his misleading tribe name, "Drop yr Buffs" came dressed in his own green Survivor buff which was alternately tied fashionably around his neck and/or forehead - Ralph Macchio style.  "Savai-vi," who lest we forget has popular castaway "Troyzan" on his tribe, came with an Indiana Jones style hat in support of his favorite Survivor pick of the season.

There was an assortment of chips and dips, as well as a sausage casserole made by "Josh's Tribe" that was nearly entirely devoured by all Pool members in attendance.

As you might endeavour to assume that I, also known by my tribe "The Others," did not do much to contribute.  But, you would be mistaken.  Much like Probst on actual Survivor, I organized and recapped important events throughout the evening throwing in keen observations and asking pertinent questions at the appropriate times.  In case you were wondering and/or judging. 

But that was just the party, now let's get to the episode and some results, i.e. the good stuff.  Again, for you DVR folks out there, all spoilers are after jump:

The Survivor Survivor Pool: Week 1

After all that time and all the hype, the premiere of Survivor: One World is over.  Whew!  As predicted, 18 hard-bodied women and men pranced on the beach for a Survivor style battle of the sexes.

There were a few surprises in the One World premiere however, including the shocking fact that the two tribes will be forced to share one beach which is contrary to the typical Survivor precedent where each tribe is provided with their own beach.  And by "shocked," I mean I'm not surprised at all.  The producers of one of the most popular reality shows on television have assembled the hottest looking group of cast members ever to fight for the idol, of course they have them shacking up within walking distance of each other.

Since this week was the premiere of the new season of Survivor, that also means it was the debut of Nerdsburgh's Survivor Survivor Pool experiment.

Because we are sensitive to the plight of DVR viewers, check out this week's Survivor Survivor Pool results and spoilers after the jump:

Comic Book Men and Full Metal Jousting: Reality TV takes a turn for the nerd

It would seem that everybody has a reality show these days.  Wives of mobsters, people that live in swamps and gals with big tushies that make sex tapes with celebrities have somehow all hoodwinked one network or another, shrewdly convincing them to send cameras all over creation in hopes of capturing cutesy moments from a bunch of unfamous nobodies for the undying entertainment pleasure of all the world to witness.  Excuse me, I just barfed a little in mouth.  

Don't get me wrong, some of those shows are highly entertaining in a I-had-chocolate-cake-for-breakfast guilty pleasure kind of way, but I'm certainly not going to waste valuable DVR space on watching them unless I have to.

Another unanticipated, yet equally as unfortunate, backlash of the explosive popularity of reality television programming is that most people in their "real" real lives are convinced that their work or living situation would make a great reality series.  As a self-proclaimed television expert, I would like to make a gross generalization and assume that whatever it is you, and by you I mean YOU, do on a daily basis probably isn't that interesting.  I mean, do you really want to watch pharmaceutical reps chit chat about tanning salons for half an hour a week?  Yeah, me neither.  

Fortunately for me, and all of my fellow Nerdsburghians of course, AMC and The History Channel have saved us from the mundane hell of pedestrian 15 minute fame whores and taken full nerd advantage of the reality television boom with their latest super original programming Comic Book Men and Full Metal Jousting, both of which premiered this past Sunday.

Action Figure Showdown: Liam Neeson vs. Patrick Stewart

In the ongoing battle of Star Wars vs. Star Trek, this YouTube video pits Liam Neeson's action figure of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn against Patrick Stewart's Captain Picard mini me. 

As a die-hard Next Generation Trekkie, I didn't think the action figure showdown set-up was all that fair to my favorite bald-headed Captain but it sure was fun to watch.  Thank you Graham Norton Show and BBC America!

'Chronicle' delves into the psyche of the anti-superhero

It was bound to happen sooner or later that superhero movies were going to become less about heroes and more about ordinary people becoming "super." 

While I do love the idealism of a Christopher Reeve Superman, I much prefer the acknowledgement of the inevitable flaws of human nature that exist in Michael Keaton's brooding Batman and even the turbulent inner conflict in Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark.  But take away the polish of production and the red robotic suit of armor and at the end of the day we might ask ourselves...what if being a superhero wasn't about a virtuous strong-man saving the world by fighting bad guys?  What if a regular person, with regular person problematic idiosyncrasies, suddenly had "super human" powers thrust upon them?

Peter Parker was faced with this dilemma, as were most of the X-Men mutants, but each of whom had an influential figure in their lives to guide them along that rocky road of becoming responsible members of the society of heroes, i.e.  "with great power comes great responsibility."

But not all of us have an Uncle Ben or a Charles Xavier to help us survive the puberty of super power acquisition.  Some of us, if bitten by a radioactive spider, just have to muscle through in a world full of skeptics, scientists and publicists that would probably fear, scorn and exploit such abilities.  Enter Chronicle, the latest in the craze of non-heroic superheroes.

Shot in the "found footage" style, made famous by the fake-umentary horror classic The Blair Witch Project, Chronicle "chronicles" the lives of three teenage boys who gain their superpowers after snooping around a suspicious hole in the ground one afternoon.

Although I find the first person camera technique a little tired this late in the game, I am intrigued by the anti-hero aspect of the story.  I like the idea that just because a person has a superhuman power, doesn't mean they intend to use it for the good of mankind.  Humanity is constantly tempted and to ignore such struggles is to ignore the gift and the burden to live our lives with the free will to do as we please.  Humanity by nature is fickle and often swayed like a metronome between the equally strong pulls of both good and evil. 

Can a person be inherently good?  Isn't every human at the mercy of evil's occasional temptation?

Chronicle also made waves recently in the YouTube world by filming and posting a test flight of human-like robots over the New York City skyline.  The stunt was both innovative and totally entertaining to watch.  I don't know much about the future of humanity in the event of a super power epidemic, but I do know one thing...if I ever got the power to fly, checking out the view from the clouds above the Big Apple is top on my list. 

Star Trek: The Next Generation cast to reunite at Calgary Expo

Star Trek: The Next Generation is celebrating its 25th anniversary and the whole gang is getting back together.  The only problem is...the party is in Canada.  Wah-wah.

Don't get me wrong, the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo seems like a wonderful place for our favorite Starfleet retirees to reunite.  It just so happens that Calgary is suuuuuperrrr far away from me...and the rest of my east coast nerd fans, of course.

However, with a guest list like this one, it looks like I might have to start saving now for a little trip up north.  It is no small feat to acquire the round-up of popular TNG stars, especially the elusive Patrick Stewart.  Without further ado, here is sneak peak at who is attending the Calgary Expo this spring:

The Calgary Entertainment & Comic Expo

April 27-29, 2012

Featuring Special Guests - Sir Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Wil Wheaton and Denise Crosby

GASP!!!

And that's not all!  The Calgary Expo is also presenting an event called Star Trek® TNG EXPOsed which will feature "a full-cast reunion of Star Trek: The Next Generation® to be held at the Calgary Stampede Corral on the evening of Saturday, April 28, 2012."  Although this is a separate ticketed event, it will be the only time that all 9 cast members will be together in one amazing, can't miss panel. 

I have nothing else to say except I will find a way to get there, Canada or no Canada, I will be there.  Stay tuned. 

The ultimate Trek-partment gets lost in divorce

I love Star Trek just as much as the next nerd but I'm not sure even I would want to sleep in the transporter room. 

A British Trekkie-super fan with a talent for interior design named Tony Alleyne spent 10 years and over $150,000 transforming his apartment into an exact replica of the USS Voyager.  Why did he choose Voyager and not the Enterprise?  Alleyne claims in an article by the Daily Contributor that "of all the Starfleet ships, Voyager is, in terms of interior, the luxury liner of the galaxy.”

The apartment is dazzling and seems to be the ultimate living space for the die-hard Trekkie yet, it is missing one important feature...a bed.  I don't know about Janeway, but Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise always slept on a comfy Queen-size mattress underneath a skylight of stars snuggling up night after night in reflective, glittery Starfleet issue sheets.  Claiming he didn't have enough room for everything, Alleyne explains that he decided to build a transporter in lieu of a bedroom because he often just sleeps on the floor.

The Star Trek apartment recently made headlines when Tony's wife Georgina filed for divorce, which wouldn't be such a surpise if she didn't actually own the apartment in which Alleyne has constructed his life's work.  Since Georgina is the rightful owner, and wanted to kick him where it would hurt the most...right in the nerd balls, she has opted to sell the Trek-partment as a conventional property says The Sun. 

A little advice to my scorned nerd brother - next time you spend ten years building an exact replica of a Starship in your house, make sure you include a bed so your wife/landlord doesn't divorce/evict you.  Live long and prosper Tony Alleyne, live long and prosper.

The first video is a series of images displaying the interior of the apartment, the second is an actual walkthrough by Alleyne himself.