Geek Stuff

Revisiting the X-Men flick: 7-film marathon time!

I grew up a comic book geek (among other things). Growing up a geek has shaped and molded me in ways I’m still discovering today, some of them good, some of them not so much. As an adult, I remain unashamed of my geekdom, and that is likely to be the case until I die of old age at 53. All of this means I’m about to take something silly way too seriously. And I am. You’d better bet your damn life on it. This is a long-winded, pointless, unnecessary way to say that over the next seven days I’m going to watch and review/comment on/post about the X movies. For the uninitiated, that translates to “movies in which Hugh Jackman disrobes and shows off…
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Spielberg Knows What He’s Doing. You Don’t.

Okay, first off, that headline is needless antagonistic. I acknowledge it. Forgive me. I’m listening to punk as I write this. It just seems to fit my mood. Anyway, prompted by Steven Soderbergh’s interesting recasting of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the other day I was daydreaming and my mind wandered to action scenes in films, specifically why some sprawling action set pieces work and some don’t. The Star Wars prequels were at the forefront of my mind at the time, but it led to a train of thought that is relevant to action movies in general. Now keep in mind, I’m a big Star Wars fan, but not one of THOSE Star Wars fans. Saw the original in a shitty little theater as a…
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Win a FREE signed copy of GEEK WISDOM!

Geek Wisdom

Here’s a super easy way to win a signed copy of Geek Wisdom: The Sacred Teachings of Nerd Culture (Quirk Books 2011), a book the Florida Times Union said had a premise that was “nothing short of brilliant.” This book has been a huge hit among fans of all things science-fiction, comic book, fantasy, and just plain cool. So obviously you want to win one. And it’s easy. Do nothing more than surf over to Your Awesome Editor on Facebook and click “like” in the upper right to like the page. That’s it. It’s that easy. If you are not on Facebook and don’t want to be, instead share this link on Twitter and post a link in the comments of this post (and let…
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A very Wise interview on Geekdom

When Stephen Segal tapped me to take part in writing Geek Wisdom with his team of geeks, there really wasn’t any other answer but, “Yes.” After all, Stephen isn’t just a guy who was my editor on a previous book (Stuff Every Husband Should Know), he’s also a friend. Philosophically we come from very similar places, especially with regard to creativity, the human spirit, and our inner geekness. But better to let Stephen himself explain. In this interview with Wired, he lays out the spark that became the book, the philosophy we plunged into it with, and the great geekdom we left on the cutting room floor. I especially like this bit of insight: Whether in a religious or a scientific framework, knowledge and wisdom…
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Do Golden Age sci-fi authors still matter?

Science fiction is great, a genre associated with lasers and spaceships by the general populace but which historically has done a remarkable job of exploring big questions about who we are, why we’re here, and what we can accomplish as a species. The “science” part of the equation can be pesky, though. As our scientific understanding of the universe advances, stories that once seemed rooted in a potential reality — say, the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in our solar system — can now seem dated, quaint, or downright silly. So with that in mind, this blog post poses an interesting question: Are ‘Golden Age’ stories too dated and is it worth it to recommend Heinlein, Asimov, etc. to the new SF reader? The answer…
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